Former Mississippi Department of Corrections Officials Sentenced for Using Excessive Force Against an Inmate

Three former Mississippi Department of Corrections officials were sentenced today for using excessive force against an inmate, involving the use of dangerous weapons and resulting in bodily injury.

According to court documents, on July 11, 2019, at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility, Corrections Officer (CO) Jessica Hill, CO LaToya Richardson and Case Manager Nicole Moore assaulted a defenseless inmate, L.C., while L.C. was in the fetal position and not resisting in any fashion. Hill struck L.C. several times with an OC cannister and then repeatedly punched her in the head. Richardson kicked the inmate four times in the head and upper torso, and Moore kicked L.C. one time in the back of the head. Hill continued to strike L.C., who was still laying on the ground in the fetal position, until fellow prison staff intervened to stop Hills assault.

All three defendants previously pleaded guilty to their respective roles assaulting L.C., in violation of the inmates Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment. Hill was sentenced to three years and one month in prison, two years of supervised release and a $1,500 fine. Richardson was sentenced to three years and one month in prison, two years of supervised release and a $1,500 fine. Moore was sentenced to two years in prison, two years of supervised release and a $1,500 fine.

These defendants are being held accountable for their criminal abuse of their authority by using excessive force against an inmate who was not resisting them, said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division. The Justice Department is committed to prosecuting prison officials who violate the law and their oaths by subjecting inmates in their custody to cruel and unusual punishment.

The defendants in this case ignored their sworn duty to protect inmates and chose violence instead, said U.S. Attorney Todd W. Gee for the Southern District of Mississippi. We will continue to prosecute those who abuse their positions of authority and violate the civil rights of inmates.

Our citizens serving time for their criminal acts against the public are warranted the safety and protection from harm by correctional officers responsible for their care, said Special Agent in Charge Jermicha Fomby of the FBI Jackson Field Office. Hills deliberate violation of this trust is a disservice to those in the penal system, correctional officials who are honorable in their profession and citizens in general. The FBI is committed to protecting all citizens of our community.

The FBI Jackson Field Office investigated the case.

Trial Attorney Eric Peffley of the Civil Rights Divisions Criminal Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Glenda Haynes for the Southern District of Mississippi prosecuted the case.

This story has been published on: 2023-10-27. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
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Pointing out that the world was witnessing its worst tragedy, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor alleged that Israel's response to the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack was "disproportionate," as a greater number of Palestinian people were killed in the past 19 days compared to those who lost their lives in the region since the year 2008. Addressing an event organised to express solidarity with the Palestine people by the Indian United Muslim League (IUML) in Kerala's Kozhikode on Thursday, Tharoor urged Israel to end air strikes in Gaza adding that India has always stood for peace since Mahatama Gandhi. "Since 19 days, the world is seeing the worst human-rights tragedies. We are seeing the worst tragedy. Terrorists attacked Israel, Hamas is a terror group. Israel stopped providing food, water and electricity to Gaza. We are condemning the bombing of Israel," Tharoor said at the event held at Kozhikode beach. Tharoor, who had previoulsy served as an UN diplomat said the ongoing air strikes in Gaza by Israel in response to the Hamas attack was "disproportionate." Reiterating Bapu's words, Tharoor said, "An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind. India has always stood for peace since Gandhi." He also highlighted that the ongoing crisis is not a Muslim issue but a human rights issue and said "war knows no religion." "Israel calls their operation, 'Swords of Iron', but now those swords are dipped in the blood of children. The bombing has caused a lot of injuries and innocent people are suffering and they are dying. Many are living under suffocating occupation," Tharoor said. He said that over 6,000 Palestinians and 300 Isrealis were killed in clashes in the area between 2008 and September this year and the number of those who died since October 7, however, was much more. "While 1,400 Israelis died in the Hamas terrorist attack, many more were killed in Gaza when Israel responded to it.....Innocent civilians are dying," Tharoor said. Tharoor urged Israel to end the war and further appealed to the world to unite to "end the human rights violations inflicted on the Palestinian people". "Now, it is more than time to announce a ceasefire," the Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram said. While addressing the rally, IUML national general secretary PK Kunhalikutty said that the biggest weapon in the world is public opinion and that showing solidarity will bring results. "Children are dying. We all are here to shed tears for the brutality in Gaza. We have no weapons to send there or save them. This rally will yield fruit because the biggest weapon in the world is public opinion. Global leaders are joining in solidarity. That's how we also joined this. Solidarity has made results here. Killings should stop in Palestine," he said. IUML Party workers gathered in strength for Thursday's rally, which was presided over by Kunhalikutty with Shashi Tharoor as Chief Guest. IUML state president Panakkad Sayyid Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal inaugurated the rally. In his speech, Thangal said "Israel's occupation has created Palestine conflict. They are trying to survive. They are trying the defend their land. Stop genocide killings. This conflict has started since 1947. Gandhi criticised Israeli occupation. Nehru, Manmohan Singh, even Vajpayee also took a stand against the Israeli occupation of Palestine... They all stood with justice. The current government is trying to dilute that stand and make Israel look holy." "They are trying to whitewash Israel. We should stand with marginalised. India's policy is to support the vulnerable people. Israel is the biggest terrorist country. Whoever is supporting Israel they are supporting terror. Justice will rise over there that's why we are having this rally. With our prayers let their wounds be healed," the IUML leader said. On attending the IUML's solidarity rally, Tharoor said, "India is one of the handful of countries that maintains ambassadors in both Israel and Palestine and enjoys good relations with both. We should be a voice for peace amid the carnage." After the October 7 attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip by Hamas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set up a war cabinet and the Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant said they will launch a ground offensive on Gaza, seeking to "wipe off from the face of earth" the Palestine-terror group. (ANI)
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Friday condemned the killing of innocents as the Israel-Hamas conflict entered the 22 day. The Congress leader shared a post on X, and said, "Even after the killing of 7000 people in Gaza, the cycle of bloodshed and violence did not stop. Out of these 7000 people, 3000 were innocent children." Priyanka Gandhi further alleged that various international law has been violated during the Israel-Hamas conflict. "There is no international law left which has not been violated. There is no such dignity which has not been violated. There is no such rule which has not been flouted. When will humanity wake up? After losing so many lives. After sacrificing so many children. Is the consciousness of being human left? Did it ever exist?" the Congress leader added. Earlier on October 18, Priyanka Gandhi said as a woman and mother she is ashamed that the world is allowing these crimes. "The bombing of hospitals, the murder of children, the blockading of food, water and medicines to civilians.... there are no words strong enough to condemn the horror that is taking place in Gaza," she posted on X. "As a woman, a mother, and a human being, I am ashamed that the world is allowing these crimes to be committed with such impunity," the Congress leader added. The Israel-Hamas war which started on October 7, has now entered its 21st day. Hamas's attack on Israel has killed more than 1,400 people. Palestinian authorities say more than 7,000 people have been killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza carried out in response to Hamas's October 7 attacks. Meanwhile, as the Israel-Hamas conflict enters a decisive phase the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) today conducted strikes on Hamas terrorist targets over the last 24 hours. IDF ground troops, fighter jets and UAVs struck Anti-tank missile launch sites, Command & control centres of Hamas terrorist operatives. The troops exited the area and no injuries were reported according to the IDF. According to the IDF, Infantry, armoured and engineering forces accompanied by helicopter gunships of the Israel Air Force raided the centre of the Gaza Strip on Thursday. As part of the raid, IDF aircraft and artillery attacked targets of the terrorist organization Hamas in the Sajaya neighbourhood and throughout the Gaza Strip. (ANI)
The Chief Minister's health is stable, according to officials at the Indira Gandhi Medical College Hospital (IGMC) where he was admitted late on Wednesday night.

"There is nothing serious. The CM has been shifted to AIIMS for a second opinion by the doctors there. His health is stable," said Naresh Chauhan, principal media advisor to the Himachal Chief Minister.

Speaking to ANI on Wednesday, Chauhan said, "Chief Minister Sukhu was brought to the IGMC after he complained of a stomach ache. Medical examinations detected a stomach infection."

Chauhan said that chief minister had been travelling extensively to different parts of the state and his health could have deteriorated after having something, said the official.

Doctors at the IGMC had advised the chief minister to rest had kept him under observation in the hospital. "There is nothing critical, he is fine and stable," Chauhan said earlier. (ANI)
In order to provide relief to people residing in Uttar Pradesh from pollution caused by stubble burning, the Yogi government is gearing up to produce Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) from stubble in the state, which will provide income as well as employment to a large number of people. This effort will also lead to the production of pure organic fertilizer, contributing to the promotion of green energy and better health outcomes. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath released the Bio-Energy Policy 2022 to promote biofuel in UP and encourage large-scale investment in the sector. Many big investors had signed MoUs with the state government during the Global Investors Summit in this regard. The Yogi government has set a target to establish biogas plants in every tehsil, some of which will soon become operational. One of the upcoming operational plants is Buland Biogas in Bulandshahr, situated in the Lauhgala tehsil. Buland Biogas had signed an MoU worth Rs 18.75 crore with the state government, the cost of which has now increased to Rs 21 crore. This plant will commence production in December and is projected to yield 3 tonnes of CNG per day. This production will contribute to reducing the state's dependence on petrol and diesel. Additionally, this initiative is expected to generate employment opportunities for 80 to 100 people, including both skilled and unskilled workers. Athar Ahmed, owner of Buland Bio Gas, said that the plant produces not only straw but also degradable waste like straw, cow dung, chaff, sugarcane waste, municipal waste or a mixture of all the gases. With the help of this technology, CNG is purified. The license for this plant has been obtained from Indian Oil. He said that the most noteworthy aspect of this project is the bulk production of organic fertilizer. All the waste generated during the compressed gas production process is 100 per cent organic, consisting of both solid and liquid components. The liquid organic fertilizer produced by the plant will be distributed free of cost to farmers for a period of three years, with the identification of eligible farmers being the responsibility of the District Magistrate or CDO. This initiative aims to assist farmers who may face difficulties in purchasing fertilizers such as DAP and urea. "The advantages of organic and liquid fertilizers are manifold. Traditional fertilizers form a dense layer on the soil, which takes time to reach the roots of trees and plants. In contrast, organic fertilizers can reach the roots within two to three hours, significantly enhancing their effectiveness. This not only benefits farmers but also makes organic products available to people, improving their overall health", Athar Ahmed said. He further mentioned that the Yogi government has propelled this project forward with remarkable speed, chiefly through the introduction of the Bio-Energy Policy 2022. "This policy encompasses several provisions to facilitate the process. Firstly, it allows those who have obtained a LOI license to apply for it. Moreover, both the Central and State Governments are offering substantial subsidies, ranging from Rs 75 lakh to Rs 20 crore. Additionally, there is a 10-year exemption on surcharges for electricity, stamp duty, and land development charges. Apart from this, a discount of 50 plus 30 i.e. a total of 80 per cent is being given on machinery", he informed. Furthermore, arrangements are made for a consistent supply of raw materials, such as degradable waste. Long-term agreements have been established with sugar mills to procure sugarcane residue, and the Animal Husbandry Department has been tasked with inking agreements with all government-run cowsheds for the procurement of cow dung. "Additionally, for projects with a value of Rs 50 crore or more, the government is extending support by providing a 5-kilometer approach road. To assist the investors the Yogi government has deployed Udyami Mitra. Every possible effort is being made by Bundalshahr's Udyami Mitra Rajkumar to commence the plant as soon as possible", Athar Ahmed added. (ANI)
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath emphasized on Friday that Shri Anna has held significance since the Vedic era and in future too when the world faces a food crisis, the usefulness of Shri Anna will increase. Uttar Pradesh has the potential to emerge as a hub for Shri Anna production, he added. Inaugurating the state-level Shri Anna Mahotsav, exhibition and workshop at Indira Gandhi Pratishthan, the Chief Minister said that the COVID period has imparted a significant lesson: the more we embrace an artificial lifestyle, the more susceptible we become to epidemics. "We must adopt a natural habitat and lifestyle, and Shri Anna will be very helpful in this regard. There is a need for research and investigation to increase its productivity," Yogi said. The Chief Minister also visited the exhibition organized by Shri Anna producers from all over the state. Shri Anna Mahotsav will be organized for three days. The Chief Minister further said, "Three-day Shri Anna Mahotsav is being organized on the occasion of the 34th foundation day of the Uttar Pradesh Agricultural Research Council, which is working for research and development in the field of agriculture. This festival will become a medium of comprehensive change in the lives of the farmers of UP." The Chief Minister noted that till the sixth and seventh decades of the last century, coarse grains were produced in large quantities. This was part of our daily lives. However, due to population growth and a slowdown in research and development, their production decreased. He also pointed out that while India has made great strides in achieving food self-sufficiency, it has faced adverse consequences, such as increased diseases resulting from excessive chemical fertilizer use. He stated that these grains are produced even in areas with less water. "We need large scale research and investigation in this direction to increase its production." The Chief Minister expressed his delight at the widespread adoption of Shri Anna in various forms within every household. "Substantial efforts have been initiated in this regard, leading to the creation of innovative products from millets. Not only are these products nutritious, but they also offer a delightful culinary experience." Highlighting the transformation of Krishi Vigyan Kendras, the Chief Minister remarked, "Until 2017, the condition of these centres was bad. Today, a new spirit of competition has ignited among them. Agricultural universities play a crucial role in this positive change. Intensive efforts are underway to deliver high-quality seeds from the finest research institutions to benefit the state's three crore farmers." Additionally, he asked to establish labs in every Krishi Vigyan Kendra and Agricultural University for the certification of organic products. CM Yogi said that the government is promoting natural farming, and 'govansh' can play a significant role in it. During the ceremony, the Chief Minister honored 35 farmer producer organizations working in the area of 'Shri Anna'. Apart from this, assistance of Rs 95 lakh each was provided to five Krishi Vigyan Kendras of the state (Jhansi, Lalitpur, Banda, Hamirpur, and Ghazipur) for millets processing plants. Besides, the farmer producer organizations that trained and encouraged a large number of farmers for millets farming were also honoured by the Chief Minister during the ceremony. (ANI)
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin has written to Union Rural Development Minister Giriraj Singh, requesting to release the funds under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). "The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) is one of the important Schemes for providing employment opportunity to all registered households in the rural areas and is the only scheme providing livelihood opportunity to rural people as well as create durable and sustainable rural assets to improve the Village infrastructure and fulfills the demand of rural people to a great level," Stalin said in a letter. Tamil Nadu has always been a top-performing State in the implementation of Mahatma Gandhi NREGS under various parameters. In Tamil Nadu, 92.86 lakh households have been issued with Job Cards. Out of that, nearly 91.52 Lakh workers pertaining to 76.15 lakh households are actively participating in the MGNREGS works regularly, the letter said. As agriculture in Tamil Nadu is heavily dependent on rains from the Southwest Monsoon and cyclonic rains from the Northeast Monsoon, vagary in any one of the above monsoons leads to higher demand for MGNREGS works, it said. "I would like to reiterate that MGNREGS is considered as an important livelihood opportunity in rural areas for many like elderly people, destitute women, women-headed households, differently abled workers and additional livelihood opportunity for many in rural households, especially during lean agricultural season, " according to the CM's letter. In particular, women empowerment has been realized by the MGNREGS as the majority workforce is women and credit of wages to their bank account has greatly improved their finances, the CM said. During the year 2023-2024, the original demand made by Tamil Nadu is 40 crore person-days. So far, the Government of India has approved 28 crore person-days. Up to October 23, Tamil Nadu has achieved 31.15 crore person-days, by providing employment to 76.06 lakh workers pertaining to 66.26 lakh households, he said. "In the financial Year 2023-24, Rs 4,903.25 crore has been released by the Government of India for the unskilled wages to the workers up to July 19. Subsequently, on September 25, a sum of Rs 1,755.43 crore was sanctioned by the Government of India for the payment of unskilled wages. However, out of the sanctioned amount, only Rs 418.233 crore seemed to have been released partially, leaving a balance of Rs 1,337.20 crore yet to be credited into the accounts of workers. Further liability of Rs 1,359.57 crore for the wages for the subsequent weeks also not released yet. Thus, as on October 20, the wage liability for the workers in Tamil Nadu had accumulated to Rs 2,696.77 crore," the letter stated. "I visited Kattankulathur Panchayat Union in Chengalpattu District on October 17. During the above visit, both the public and public representatives made a plea for the release of unpaid wages under MGNREGS to the workers immediately in view of the ensuing festive season. A similar request was received by me during my visit to Tiruvannamalai District as well. "In view of the foregoing, I request that the total wage liability amount of Rs 2,696.77 crore be released to Tamil Nadu immediately. Further, additional funds may also be released to unskilled workers regularly. I look forward to your personal intervention in this regard," the Tamil Nadu CM said in the letter. (ANI)
According to the Additional Superintendent of Police, Udhampur, Anwar-ul-Haq, "The incident took place on Ramnagar-Balandh Road in union territory's Udhampur district. The injured persons have been shifted to the Sub-Hospital in Ramnagar."

The official further said that an investigation into the matter is underway.

Further details into the matter are awaited.

Earlier this week, six devotees were injured after a minibus carrying passengers lost control on the Ramnagar-Ghordi road and turned upside down in the Udhampur district.

According to the Additional Superintendent of Police, Udhampur, Anwar-ul-Haq, "Six people have been injured after a mini-bus carrying pilgrims met with an accident in Nallah Ghorian in Ghordi Block of Jammu and Kashmir's Udhampur district."

The official further said that the minibus was on its way to Marada Mata Temple in Ramnagar when it turned upside down on the Ramnagar-Ghordi road in Udhampur. (ANI)
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday inaugurated a new block at the Assam Secretariat in Dispur here. Chief Minister Sarma said that since the office will look into the issues of the people, it has been named 'Lok Sewa Bhawan'. The new block named the 'I' block has been dedicated to catering to the services of the people. The Bhawan will serve as the new operational base for both the Chief Minister's office and the Chief Secretary's office. The Assam CM took to 'X' and posted, "With the blessings of the people, Assam gets a dedicated Chief Minister's Secretariat which will be known as the Lok Sewa Bhawan." After the inauguration ceremony, Sarma addressed the media and said, "Today, a new block named 'I' block was inaugurated at the Assam Secretariat. The construction work for another block is underway. It will probably be completed within a few months. The newly constructed building will house the Chief Minister's Office and Chief Secretary's Office." "We will try to give a new shape to the Assam Secretariat within the next 5-10 years. Since the Assam Secretariat looks after the welfare issues of the people, the building has been named Lok Sewa Bhawan," he said. Earlier in the day, the Assam Chief Minister launched the 'Amrit Kalash Yatra' from Guwahati to Delhi as part of the "Meri Maati Mera Desh" initiative. CM Sarma flagged off the Delhi-bound Rajdhani Express carrying urns filled with soil at the Guwahati Railway Station on Friday morning. Sarma arrived at the Guwahati Railway Station at about 5.45 am, after which he signalled the departure of the Rajdhani Express, which was heading for Delhi and carrying 270 urns full of soil. (ANI)
Former Chief Minister and BJP national vice-president Raman Singh on Friday accused the Chhattisgarh government of indulging in corruption in the postings of collectors and SPs like an IPL auction. Speaking exclusively with ANI in Raipur on Friday, the former CM said "what corruption could be bigger, if there is an auction in the posting of Collector and SP. Like IPL, the posting will be sold for Rs 5 to Rs 10 crore and it becomes a topic of discussion among people in the streets." Terming the alleged irregularity in selection of candidates in PSC as betrayal with youths, the former CM accused the ruling party of accepting Rs 50 lakh to 1 crore for selection of candidates to the post of deputy collector. People did not raise objections to corruption in coal as well as liquor, but there is massive resentment (against the Congress ruled government here) regarding the irregularity in PSC. People have lost faith in the state government and miraculous result is going to come (in this election) as there is resentment and anger among public, said the national vice-president of the BJP, adding that only one slogan is circulating in every village of Chhattisgarh that is 'Ab Nai Sahibo Badal Ke Rahibo'. When asked to comment on Congress's statement that they are not afraid of ED and IT, Raman said that what is the need to fear the central agency and suggested to the ruling party to stop accepting money from corruption in coal and liquor being sold without holograms. The former CM accused the state government of indulging in corruption worth several crores in custom milling of paddy and recovering Rs 20 per ton from millers. If the state government indulges in corruption openly, then it will attract the action from central agencies. The central agency has submitted certified documents of 13,000 pages and two IAS officers are languishing in jail for the last seven months and not able to obtain bail, said Raman, adding that properties to the tune of around Rs 150 crore belonging to the accused persons have been seized. (ANI)
Reacting to the recent Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids on Congress leaders in Rajasthan, BJP MP PP Chaudhary on Friday said that there is no immunity for politicians if they are involved in corrupt practices adding that the central agencies are independent agencies and doing their jobs accordingly. Speaking to ANI, PP Chaudhary said, "ED and CBI are independent agencies. They conduct their proceedings after proofs. ED and CBI are doing their jobs. They are conducting the proceedings after a preliminary investigation. If you indulge in corruption and you think you are a politician then say that you are immune to it as elections are going on, there is no such exemption. There are no such arrangements in Indian law." This came following the ED raids at the residence of Rajasthan Congress Chief Govind Singh Dotasara, in connection with the the Senior Teacher 2nd Grade Competitive Examination, 2022 Paper Leak case. The raids were carried out at the official residence of Dotasara at Civil Lines in Rajasthan's Jaipur. The ED has also summoned Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's son, Vaibhav Gehlot, for questioning in a Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) case. This triggered sharp reactions from the Congress leaders. The state assembly polls are to be held on November 25. Reacting to the raids, Rajasthan Congress President Govind Singh Dotasara has said that not a single rupee was seized from him, only 3 mobile phones and e-mail details have been taken by ED. "There is no point of tension. Not even 1 rupee was seized. Only 3 mobile phones and our email were seized. Neither any paper nor any jewellery was seized. If I have earned anything in life, I have earned the love of Congress workers. But I appeal to all of you to tell to the people of the entire Rajasthan that the Congress worker is not weak or cowardly," he said. (ANI)
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in its recent report stated that flight problems, baggage and refunds were the major issues out of the 246 passenger complaints received by the scheduled domestic airlines in September. "During September 2023, a total of 246 passenger-related complaints had been received by the scheduled domestic airlines. The number of complaints per 10,000 passengers carried for the month of September 2023 has been around 0.20," the air traffic report released by DGCA read. According to the report, the major reasons for complaints are flight problems (41.9 per cent) baggage (19.9 per cent) and refund (15.4 per cent) adding that the major reasons for complaints are flight problem-related. The report further mentioned that 242 complaints out of 246 complaints have been addressed. Further, according to the report released by the aviation regulator, DGCA also received complaints regarding Customer service (10.2 per cent), and staff behaviour (4.9 per cent) but only 0.4 per cent of complaints are related to fares. "There is a significant increase in complaints related to staff behaviour and customer service as compared to the previous month August. In August, there were 5.9 per cent of complaints related to customer service that have gone up to 10.2. Similarly, complaints related to staff behaviour that was 2.4 per cent in August have come up to 4.9 per cent," the report read. In September, a total of 663 passengers were denied boarding and airlines spent Rs 71.52 lakhs on compensation and facilities. Similarly, 40,940 passengers were affected due to cancellations of flights and airlines spent Rs 128.70 lakhs on compensation and facilities. A total of 123063 passengers were affected due to delays and airlines spent Rs 149.46 lakhs towards facilitation. The report states further that the maximum number of complaints were received by Indigo (61) followed by Spice Jet (55) and Air India (54). Ministry of Consumer Affairs on Thursday expressed concerns about alleged unfair trade practices involving airlines and online travel aggregators. Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh mentioned that the National Consumer Helpline has received about 10,000 complaints related to the airline sector in the last year. (ANI)
The Director General of Police, Jammu and Kashmir, Dilbag Singh accompanied by Chairperson Police Wives Welfare Association (PWWA) Dr Rubinder Kaur paid a visit to the Police Hospital in Jammu on Friday. According to Police Media Centre PHQ, J-K, the DGP inaugurated a range of enhanced facilities for the hospital including a Labour Room, Prostho Lab (Dental), FNAC section, and a fully Automated Biochemistry Analyzer of Pathology. The DGP was received by IGP, Jammu Zone, Anand Jain and other senior officers and was presented guard of honour on his arrival. The DGP complimented the Medical Superintendent of Police Hospital Jammu Dr. Meenakshi Kotwal and her team for providing excellent Medicare facilities to the Police personnel and their families. He said that the Police Headquarter has been keen and concerned in making the Police hospitals as state-of-the-art healthcare where the members of the Police Pariwar have access to specialist Medicare facilities. He said that the Police Hospital has achieved a good reputation in providing all the facilities to the patients. He advised the doctors to work with more dedication in providing the best possible healthcare services to policemen and their families. He directed the doctors to put in the best possible efforts in serving the members of the J-K Police Pariwar. The Chairperson PWWA, Dr Rubinder Kaur appreciated the efforts put in by the Medical Superintendent of Police Hospital Jammu in providing better healthcare facilities to the Police personnel. She hoped that they would continue to work with the same dedication to serve members of the Police Pariwar. The Medical Superintendent of Police Hospital Jammu Dr. Meenakshi Kotwal thanked DGP J-K and other guests for gracing the occasion. She also briefed about the functioning and facilities available in the hospital through power point presentation. She assured that police hospitals would continue in providing better health services to police personnel and their families. She apprised about various initiatives taken by the hospital. IGP Jammu Zone Anand Jain, IGP Armed Jammu M N Tiwari, DIsG Shreedhar Patil, Sarah Rizvi, Nisha Nathyal, SSP PCR Jammu Sargun Shukla, CO IR 18th Bn Kulbir Singh, SSP Jammu Dr Vinod Kumar, CO 1st Women Bn. Rashmi Wazir, CO IR 14th Bn Anita Sharma, SSP Security Jammu Shemsher Hussain, SSP Traffic Jammu, Doctors and Staff of Police Hospital Jammu and other jurisdictional Police officers were present on the occasion. Earlier, the DGP J-K visited Delta Force Headquarters at Dharmund in Ramban district where he discussed the present security scenario of DKR range and UR range with the Army and Police Officers. On his arrival, he was received by GOC, Delta Force, Maj Gen Upkar Chander, DIG DKR range Dr Sunil Gupta, DIG Udhampur Reasi Range Mohammad Suleman Choudhary, Col GS Vikram, SP Ramban Mohita Sharma, SSP Udhampur Joginder Singh and SSP Doda Ab. Qayoom. During the DGP visit a threadbare discussion was held regarding the present security scenario and existing challenges. The officers also discussed highway security measures. The DGP emphasized for enhancing synergy between the forces and for putting in joint efforts in eliminating the remaining terrorists in J-K. Counter measures for narco trade were also discussed. The officers briefed the DGP regarding the measures taken by the counter-terrorism grid in DKR range and UR range areas. (ANI)
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Friday inaugurated 'The Beatles and the Ganga Festival - 2023' at Swargashram, Yamkeshwar in Pauri district and talked about the famous band 'Beatles' which made a visit to Rishikesh 1968 and said the band showed the western civilization how soul and music can mix and merge into spirituality. "There is a deep connection between culture, spirituality and music. The world-famous Beatles band showed the western civilization how soul and music can mix and merge into spirituality. 50 years ago, the members of the Beatles were inspired by this sacred land and created music whose fragrance was felt by the whole world. He said that through yoga and meditation, excellence can be achieved in any field of human life. It was the ancient and great culture of our country that first presented the concept of 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam' to the world," said Dhami. During his visit, CM Dhami also inaugurated several projects worth Rs 422.71 which included construction work of Aastha Path from Janaki Setu to Parmarth Niketan in Swargashram at a cost of Rs 224 lakh. Railing work at various places on Chardham mythological Haridwar-Badrinath walking route under Ganga Pad Yatra at a cost of Rs 48.3 lakh and repair work of damaged Ved Niketan Ghat at a cost of Rs 150.41 lakh, helipad and parking construction work for disaster relief rescue work. During this, the CM said that Devbhoomi Uttarakhand is moving forward as the spiritual capital of the world and organising 'The Beatles and the Ganga Festival' is an attempt to celebrate various components of Indian culture like yoga, classical music, dance, art, prestigious traditions. It is an initiative to showcase local civilization and traditions to the world. Uttarakhand will get a new energy through the festival, and with the blessings of Mother Ganga, it will be able to spread its folk culture at the global level. Chief Minister Dhami said that the great men of the country have worked to unite the human society through unity and goodwill. Rishis and sages spread spirituality and knowledge in the society and paved the way for goodwill by changing the hearts of people with the message of spirituality. For the unity and integrity of the nation, the feeling of unity in the society will have to be strengthened by following the path of love and non-violence. Only through goodwill can national unity and communal harmony be promoted. Dhami further said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India's respect is increasing all over the world. The day is not far when our country will again hold the position of "Vishwa Guru". Today the work of social, economic and constitutional integration is going on by strengthening the spirit of "Ek Bharat - Shrestha Bharat" and "self-reliant" India. Only with everyone's cooperation will we be successful in making our country the "best country" in the world and state government is committed to establish Devbhoomi Uttarakhand as the "best state" of the country in accordance with the dreams of the people of Uttarakhand, Dhami said. (ANI)
Special drive to update the voter list - Special Summary Revision - 2024 has begun today with the publication of a draft electoral roll.

Divulging the details, the CEO informed that commencing from October 27, 2023, the revision activities will be carried out till December 9, 2023 and the process of voter registration, correction in the electoral roll and deletion of vote will get intensified during this period. Citizens will also get the opportunity to file claims and objections.

In the meeting, Sibin C highlighted the robustness of the electoral process and demonstrated how transparency has been introduced at every step utilizing technology.

Seeking the cooperation of political parties, CEO Punjab stated that special camps will be held on 4th and 5th November 2023 and 2nd and 3rd December 2023 where Booth Level Officers (BLOs) will be present at their respective polling stations.

He also appealed to all the representatives of political parties to appoint Booth Level Agents (BLAs) and participate in the Special Camps to ensure enrolment of eligible electors.

Soliciting support of political parties, CEO Punjab asked them to urge youth to get themselves registered as voters and support the election personnel in the process of deletion of deceased voters. (ANI)
He also said that Gunaratna Sadavarte should not oppose Maratha reservation.

Advocate Gunaratna Sadavarte was attacked by three people.

"Gunaratna Sadavarte should not oppose the Maratha reservation because it does not mean that everyone in the Maratha society will get the reservation," he said.

Earlier, three people who had been arrested for their role in the attack on Anti-reservation advocate Gunaratna Sadarvarte's car were sent to judicial custody and later granted bail by the Mazgaon Magistrate court.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday Maratha reservation activist Manoj Jarange Patil once again started a hunger strike in Jalna, after the purported deadline of 40 days given to the state government to announce the reservation expired.

Jarange Patil said that this time the community would intensify its protest and hold chain hunger strikes and candle marches till their demand is fulfilled.

The Maratha community has been protesting for the community's inclusion on the OBC list in the state. (ANI)
Union Home Minister Amit Shah is embarking on a three-day tour of Madhya Pradesh beginning from October 27 to October 30. During this tour, Shah will hold meetings with leaders of the Bhopal, Indore, Gwalior, and Rewa regions and discuss election strategies. He will spend one day in Ujjain, visit the Mahakal temple, and may also participate in a roadshow, party sources said. According to the Home Minister's schedule, on the first day of the tour, he will attend a meeting in Jabalpur with leaders from the region. After that, he will address an election public meeting in the Junnardeo constituency in the Chhindwara district. Following this, he will head straight to Bhopal, where he will address the party workers in Bhopal and Narmadapuram regions. These two regions have a total of 36 assembly seats. On the second day of the tour, he will participate in a meeting in Khajuraho in the Sagar region and discuss the elections with officials and party workers from 26 assembly constituencies. Afterwards, he will hold meetings in the Rewa and Shahdol regions. This region has a total of 30 assembly seats. After the meeting in Shahdol, Shah will arrive in Ujjain, visit the Mahakal temple, and then participate in a roadshow. On October 30, he will take part in a meeting in the Indore region, with the party workers from 37 assembly seats. Following the Indore visit, the Home Minister will head straight to Gwalior, where he will attend a meeting in the Chambal region. This region has a total of 34 assembly seats. Madhya Pradesh is one of the five states set to hold elections this year. The state is scheduled to vote on November 17, with the vote count taking place on December 3. Voters will choose legislators from 230 Assembly constituencies. In the last 2018 assembly elections, Congress won 114 seats with a vote share of 40.89 per cent while the BJP came second and managed to win 109 seats. Its vote share was 41.02 per cent. The Congress came to power with Kamal Nath taking oath as the chief minister but Jyotiraditya Scindia, along with 22 loyalist MLAs, switched over to BJP in 2020. The BJP later formed the government with Shivraj Singh Chouhan as Chief Minister. (ANI)
The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Thursday restored the appeals of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif against accountability court's conviction verdicts in the Avenfield and Al-Azizia graft cases, Geo News reported. Nawaz, a three-time Prime Minister, appeared in person before an Islamabad HC division bench --led by Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and comprising Justice Miangul Hasan Aurangzeb -- which heard his pleas against the sentences awarded to him in the two graft cases. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) informed the bench that it has no objections to the revival of Nawaz's pleas. When asked if NAB would defend the judgments against Nawaz in its arguments upon the restoration of appeals, the anti-corruption body said that it would review the case and evidence before giving its arguments, Geo News reported. The HC had granted protective bail to the PML-N supremo on October 19, allowing him to return safely to the country and appear before the court on October 24. This was followed by the bail of the three-time deposed premier's in the Avenfield and Al-Azizia cases being extended till October 26, after the anti-graft watchdog told the court that it had no objections to the pleas filed by Nawaz. Moreover, the Punjab government also approved the suspension of Nawaz's sentence in the Al-Azizia reference on that same day. The ousted PM was handed down a 10-year jail sentence in the Avenfield properties corruption reference for owning assets beyond known income in July 2018 and a year for not cooperating with the anti-graft watchdog's both of the sentences were to be served concurrently, as per Geo News. In the Al-Azizia Steel Mills corruption reference, Nawaz was sentenced to seven years in jail on December 24, 2018, and then taken to Rawalpindi's Adiala Jail from where he was shifted to Lahore's Kot Lakhpat jail the next day, according to Geo News. Nawaz Sharif arrived in Pakistan on October 21 after four years of self-imposed exile in London. Upon his arrival, Sharif addressed a massive crowd of supporters at the Minar-e-Pakistan rally in Lahore. (ANI)
Riyad Mansour, Palestine's permanent observer to the United Nations, on Thursday said while the world body was holding a meeting, fellow Palestinians in Gaza were living in fear of bombs. Voicing concern over the rising civilian death toll in Gaza, Mansour, in his address at the ongoing special session of the United Nations General Assembly, called on the international community to save lives. Mansour said, "We are meeting here while Palestinians in Gaza are under the bombs. Remember, that you are speaking while families are being killed, while hospitals are coming to a halt, while neighbourhoods are being destroyed, while people are fleeing from one place to another with nowhere safe to go." "I urge you to choose your words carefully and to act accordingly for all those mobilised against an even greater manmade humanitarian catastrophe or of a regional spillover and these are worthy goals we say stop the bombs or both will happen. Stop the bombs and save lives as the president of the general assembly has indicated all lives, lives of children, of civilians, of 2.3 million civilians in the Gaza Strip," he added. Further, in his emotional address, the Palestinian observer at the UN said 3,000 children have been killed in Hamas-controlled Gaza over the past three weeks. "A man embraces his mother and pleads like a child come back I beg you come back and I will take you wherever you want. He hugs her and can't let go but there is no time to mourn. More death is on the way. 1,700 women were killed by Israel in the past two weeks," he said. "If you do not stop it for all those who have been killed, stop it for all those who can be saved," he added, calling on the international community to vote to stop the killing. "I appeal to all of you. Vote to stop the killing. Vote for humanitarian aid to reach those whose very survival depends on it. Vote to stop this madness you have a chance to do something to give an important signal. Choose justice, not vengeance choose to defend the law not justify itsbreach. Choose peace, not more wars," Mansour urged. "Vote to put an end to two almost three weeks of the worst double standards we have seen in decades to restore some credibility of this place and the rules it is supposed to embody do not miss this chance lives are hanging in the balance and every life is sacred please save lives," he added. Noting that Palestinians have survived 16 years of a blockade and five wars in Gaza, he stressed that the "answer to the killing of Israelis and Palestinians is not more killing", as he urged the United Nations membership to uphold UN principles and keep future generations from the scourge of war. He said, "The only path forward is justice for the Palestinian people." (ANI)
Japan's Ambassador to India, Hiroshi Suzuki, on Thursday welcomed the Union cabinet's approval of the Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) between the two nations on semiconductor supply chain, calling it a "significant step" towards strengthening ties in this sector. Taking to his official handle on X, Suzuki posted, "Delighted to witness the approval of the MoC on semiconductors between India and Japan. This collaboration is a significant step towards strengthening our ties in this sector. Looking forward to further advancing our cooperation in this crucial field." He made the statement in response to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's post on the cabinet's approval of the MoC between India and Japan in semiconductors. PM Modi stated that the step will strengthen the semiconductor supply chain and create job opportunities. PM Modi posted from his official X handle, "This decision by the Cabinet is great news for the sector. It will strengthen the semiconductor supply chain and create job opportunities." On October 25, the Union Cabinet acknowledged the Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) signed in July 2023. This MoC between the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology of India and the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry of Japan focuses on the Japan-India Semiconductor Supply Chain Partnership, according to a press release issued by the Cabinet. The primary objective of this MoC is to bolster the collaboration between the two nations, acknowledging the pivotal role that semiconductors play in the advancement of industries and digital technologies. This Memorandum of Cooperation will become effective from the date of its signature and will remain in force for a duration of five years. The collaboration under this MoC spans both Government-to-Government (G2G) and Business-to-Business (B2B) initiatives, focusing on creating opportunities to advance a resilient semiconductor supply chain while leveraging the respective strengths of India and Japan, according to the press release. In addition to fostering cooperation between the two countries, the MoC is expected to bring about improvements in collaboration that could, in turn, lead to employment opportunities within the IT sector. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has been actively working to establish an enabling environment for electronics manufacturing, read the press release. The "Programme for Development of Semiconductor and Display Manufacturing Ecosystem in India" was introduced to ensure the robust and sustainable development of semiconductor and display ecosystems within the country. This programme also provides for fiscal support for the establishment of Semiconductor Fabs, Display Fabs, Fabs for Compound Semiconductors, Silicon Photonics, Sensors, Discrete Semiconductors, Semiconductor Assembly, Testing, Marking, and Packaging (ATMP), as well as Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test (OSAT) facilities, according to the press release. The "India Semiconductor Mission (ISM)" was established under the Digital India Corporation (DIC) to steer India's strategies for the development of a semiconductor and display manufacturing ecosystem within the country. MeitY has also been tasked with promoting international cooperation in emerging and frontier areas of Information Technology under bilateral and regional frameworks. To fulfil this objective, MeitY entered into Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs), Memoranda of Cooperation (MoCs), and Agreements with counterpart organisations and agencies of various countries to facilitate bilateral cooperation, information exchange, and the development of resilient supply chains, positioning India as a trusted partner in the global landscape, read the press release. The India-Japan Digital Partnership (IJDP) was launched in October 2018 during Prime Minister Modi's visit to Japan, furthering existing areas of cooperation and introducing new initiatives within the scope of cooperation in Science and Technology/Information and Communication Technology (S&T/ICT), with a particular focus on Digital ICT Technologies. "Building upon the ongoing IJDP and India-Japan Industrial Competitiveness Partnership (IJICP), this MoC on Japan-India Semiconductor Supply Chain Partnership aims to extend the scope and depth of cooperation in the electronics ecosystem," read the release. "Recognising the importance of semiconductors for the advancement of industries and digital technologies, this MoC would provide for the enhancement of semiconductor supply chain resilience," it added. (ANI)
Noting that India values its "long-standing partnership" with Austria, the External Affairs Minister posted from his official handle on X, "Warm congratulations to FM @a_schallenberg and the Government and people of Austria on their National Day. Value our long-standing partnership and its continuing momentum."

In a video clip shared by Jaishankar on X, 2023 marks the 75th anniversary of the establishment of India-Austria diplomatic relations.

The clip featured the high-level engagements between the two nations over the many years of bilateral engagement.

Notably, the diplomatic relations between India and Austria were established in 1949.

The ties between the two nations have been warm and friendly, according to the MEA, with a regular exchange of visits including at the level of leaders, ministers and Parliamentarians highlighting the importance that the two nations accord to further strengthening their relations.

The two countries also have a robust economic partnership, with bilateral trade pegged at USD 2.47 billion in 2021, the MEA noted, adding that over 150 Austrian companies have a presence in India.

Further, as per the video posted by Jaishankar, the Indian diaspora residing in Austria numbers 31,000.

The video posted by Jaishankar on X also showcased five Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) signed by the two countries this year.

India and Austria, this year, signed an MoU on the exemption of visa requirements for diplomatic passport holders. It was in addition to the MoU on gainful occupation for family members of diplomatic staff.

The nations also inked an MoU on a joint declaration on a working holiday while another pertained to a comprehensive migration and mobility partnership agreement.

Also this year, the two nations signed an MoU on cultural cooperation between the years 2022-2026. (ANI)
United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) President Dennis Francis on Thursday (US local time) expressed his condolences to the families of 35 UN staff members who have lost their lives in providing humanitarian service during the Israel-Hamas war. "I join the Secretary-General in expressing my deepest condolences to the families of the 35 UN staff members who have lost their lives in the noble cause of humanitarian service," the UNGA President said while addressing the tenth Emergency Special Session of the UNGA in New York. "I also take this opportunity to pay tribute to the entire UNRWA staff and other humanitarian workers for their continued unwavering and heroic efforts under these very distressing circumstances," Francis said. He said all parties to the Israel-Hamas war must abide by international humanitarian law and immediately create the necessary conditions to allow for an opening of a humanitarian corridor to the Gaza Strip. "We must ensure that urgently needed lifesaving assistance reaches those in need -- from the delivery of basic foodstuff to the safe passage of humanitarian and medical staff," he said. "Any action to the contrary -- to deprive the people of Gaza unimpeded access to essential livelihood supplies -- would be a clear violation of their human rights and an affront to international humanitarian law," he added. The UNGA President condemned the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel and said he "rejects the killings and the taking of civilian hostages, including women, children, and the elderly." "The brutality of the Hamas assaults is shocking and unacceptable; and has no place -- I repeat, has no place -- in our world," he said. He also condemned the targeting of innocent civilians in the Gaza Strip and the scale of destruction of critical infrastructure by Israel. "The ceaseless bombardment of the Gaza Strip by Israel and its consequences are deeply alarming. The right of self-defence does not and cannot lawfully give licence to undertake indiscriminate and disproportionate reprisal," he said. "Thousands -- especially children, women, and the elderly -- are being killed, injured, maimed, and forcefully displaced, and hospitals are running tragically low on basic medical supplies. The rules of war dictate that on the ground, civilians and civilian installations must always be protected -- at all costs." The UNGA President said: "Here, in this august chamber, our pre-eminent priority must be to protect and to save civilian lives." "It is also regrettable that among the appalling loss of lives are United Nations personnel -- upon whom this organization depends to provide and deliver critical humanitarian support and other services to millions of Palestinians in dire need. I express my sincere solidarity with all those who have lost their loved ones, their homes, and their sense of security or belonging," he said. Meanwhile, as the Israel-Hamas conflict enters a decisive phase, Israeli Infantry, Armoured and Engineering forces accompanied by helicopter gunships of the Israel Air Force raided the centre of the Gaza Strip on Thursday. As part of the raid, IDF aircraft and artillery attacked targets of the terrorist organization Hamas in the Sajaya neighbourhood and throughout the Gaza Strip. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) today also conducted strikes on Hamas terrorist targets over the last 24 hours. IDF ground troops, fighter jets and UAVs struck Anti-tank missile launch sites, Command & control centres of Hamas terrorist operatives. The troops exited the area and no injuries were reported according to the IDF. (ANI)
The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday rejected the bail plea of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan in the cypher case, ARY News reported. ARY News is a Pakistani news channel. After rejecting the plea to stop the trial of the cypher case, IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq also rejected the PTI Chief's bail plea. The PTI Chief is currently in prison on judicial remand in the cypher case. The PTI chief was arrested in August after a case was filed against him for allegedly violating the Official Secrets Act by disclosing a secret diplomatic cable (cypher) sent by the country's embassy in Washington in March last year. Recently, the IHC rejected Khan's request to hold his trial in the cypher case outside the jail where is in custody currently, The Express Tribune reported. A division bench of the IHC, consisting of Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb and Justice Saman Rafat, presided over the proceedings. Imran Khan's lawyer, Salman Akram Raja, appeared before the bench to contest the federal government's notification dated September 29, which authorised his client's trial in prison. Raja argued that the federal government lacked the authority to issue such a notification. He explained that the law ministry had issued the notification for Imran Khan's prison trial at the request of the interior ministry due to security concerns. However, he noted that there was no record of the interior ministry's written request, as reported by The Express Tribune. Justice Aurangzeb indicated that the court could not grant interim relief to Imran Khan at this time, and the admissibility of the petition would be decided later. The cypher controversy first emerged on March 27, 2022, when Imran Khan, just days before his ouster in April 2022, brandished a letter, claiming that it was a cypher from a foreign nation, which mentioned that his government should be ousted from power, according to The News International report. He did not reveal the contents of the letter and the name of the nation that had sent it. However, a few days later Imran Khan named the United States and said that US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Affairs Donald Lu had sought his removal. The PTI chairman had claimed that he was reading contents from the cypher and said that "all will be forgiven for Pakistan Imran Khan is removed from power". (ANI)
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Friday expressed his condolences on the demise of former Chinese premier Li Keqiang, while recalling the "significant strides" made in the bilateral ties between the two countries during his tenure. "I was saddened to learn of the passing of former Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, H.E. Mr Li Keqiang," Albanese said in a statement. "During Mr Li's period in office, significant strides were made in our bilateral relationship including the conclusion of the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement," he added. Albanese also said that the two leaders had discussed the importance of Australia-China ties and had expressed desire to develop it further at the East Asia Summit last year. "When we met last year in the margins of the East Asia Summit, we discussed the importance of these ties and our desire to see them develop further," the statement read. "On behalf of the Government and the people of Australia, I extend my heartfelt condolences to his family and to the people of China," he added. https://x.com/AlboMP/status/1717829534794584270?s=20 Li Keqiang, the former premier of China, and member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the 17th, 18th and 19th Communist Party of China central committees died with a sudden heart attack on Friday, Xinhua reported. The 68-year-old died less than a year after stepping down from his post as the country's second-highest-ranking leader. Once seen as a potential top leader, Li was deliberately kept out of the limelight for years so as not to outshine Jinping. At the same time, Xi accumulated increasingly more powers. Experts believe that Li Keqiang might be the last premier of his type, whose economics-focused approach towards governance contrasted with Xi Jinping's ideological tone and authoritarian tendencies. (ANI)
The commander of Hamas' Western Khan Yunis Battalion, Madhath Mubshar, was eliminated by an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) aerial strike on Thursday night For the second consecutive night, Israeli troops carried out targeted strikes inside Gaza, as confirmed by the Israel Defence Forces, bracing them for their preparations for the next phase in the conflict against Hamas. Additionally, the IDF also hit over 250 Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip in the past day. "Madhath Mubashar--Commander of Hamas' Western Khan Yunis Battalion--was eliminated by an IDF aerial strike. Furthermore, the IDF struck 250+ Hamas targets, including a terrorist tunnel network in Gaza that detonated the secondary explosions," posted the IDF on X. Military spokesperson, Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said, "Midhat took part in sniping attacks and large explosives against IDF forces and Israeli settlements." The targets included Hamas tunnels, command centres, rocket launch positions, and dozens of operatives, the IDF said, adding that a Skylark 3 drone crashed in the Gaza Strip earlier today "as a result of a technical error." Hagari also said that there is no fear of sensitive information leaking from the device. The IDF has also confirmed the killing of Ayser Mohammad Al-Amer, a field commander in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad's Jenin wing, during clashes in the Jenin refugee camp overnight. The army also confirmed clashes with Palestinian gunmen in the Jenin refugee camp and the city of Qalqilya, with earlier reports of four casualties, including Al-Amer, in these two locations, as reported by The Times of Israel. The IDF said it returned fire at Palestinians who were shooting at their forces and dealing with rioters hurling explosive devices. There were no reported injuries on the Israeli side. In overnight arrest raids across the West Bank, IDF troops detained 17 members of the Hamas terror group and 19 other wanted Palestinians, according to the IDF. Since the war in the Gaza Strip began on October 7, the IDF has arrested around 1,030 wanted Palestinians in the West Bank, including approximately 670 individuals affiliated with Hamas. The IDF has faced several clashes with Palestinians in the West Bank over the past two weeks, as well as thwarted attempted terror attacks, it said. According to the Palestinian Authority health ministry, Israeli forces and, in some cases, settlers, have been responsible for the deaths of 110 West Bank Palestinians since October 7. Separately, the IDF said that the head of the Central Command, Maj Gen Yehuda Fox, has approved a demolition order for a home owned by Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri, located in the town of 'Arura, near Ramallah. Arouri is believed to reside in Turkey, The Times of Israel reported. At least 7,028 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since October 7 and more than 1,400 people were killed in the Hamas attack on Israel. (ANI)
Denmark Ambassador to India, Freddy Svane praised India's digital infrastructure and said that New Delhi is setting new standards and defining the future for others. He made the remarks on the sidelines of the India Mobile Congress here in the national capital on Friday. Speaking to ANI, Svane said, "I would like to congratulate not just India but the world, because what I have witnessed at the conference today, is fantastic. India is setting new standards for empowering people and when you see the new digital solutions being rolled out for telecommunication, it is really outstanding". He further said that the numbers Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about gives a hope for the future to everyone. "Prime Minister spoke about the future is here and now and...now it is the time to really take that opportunity. This new digitisation, new technology India is masterminding. India is setting the standard and defining the future," he said. On being asked about the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, the Denmark envoy said that the Copenhagen condemns the October 7 attacks and said that the situation is being closely followed. "Hamas is a terror organisation. What they did on 7th Oct surpasses what humanity can and should allow. So, full condemnation. We are closely following what is happening in the Gaza Strip, and we have urged humanitarian support should be allowed," he added. Earlier in the day, PM Modi inaugurated the 7th edition of India Mobile Congress and said that 'The Future is Here and Now." "In the rapidly changing world of the 21st century, this event has the potential to change the fate of crores of people. There was a time when we talked about the future, which meant the next decade or the next century. But today due to changes in technology we say that the future is here and now." The Prime Minister further said that we are moving in the direction of becoming leaders in the area of 6G technology. He also took a dig at the UPA government, mentioning the infamous 2G scam. (ANI)
Nawaz Sharif's comments against women at his homecoming rally drew criticism during a Senate session, Dawn reported on Friday. In his speech, Nawaz had compared PML-N's female supporters to another party's, suggesting that his supporters were more "respectful." Politicians and journalists, including former PTI MNA Maleeka Bokhari, condemned his remarks. "Where are our sisters? Look how respectfully our sisters are listening to this rally. There is no one dancing to music here. Do you understand what I am saying or not," he had said, according to Dawn, a Pakistani English daily. Nawaz's remarks were criticised by politicians like ex-PTI MNA Maleeka Bokhari and journalists alike. The issue was raised in the Senate, with PTI's Senator Walid Iqbal addressing Nawaz's comments. He highlighted the importance of respecting women and referenced the late PML-N Senator Rana Maqbool as an example of such respect. "(MQM head) Altaf Hussain also talked against women and had to apologise later," Iqbal added. He also mentioned that Altaf Hussain had to apologise for his comments against women. Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani requested that political statements be avoided, to which Iqbal clarified that he was not making a political statement. Sexism within Pakistan's political system is not a new issue, and it has been observed in various political parties. Dawn also cited instances where PML-N leaders made derogatory comments about women from opposing parties, and it also mentioned a rare example of the PPP taking action against a member for making inappropriate remarks about women. "The women who attended the rally were not from honourable families because their dance moves implied where they had actually come from," Sanaullah had said. Earlier, Fawad Chaudhry termed former Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar as a "low-IQ woman" whose claim to fame lies in her handbag and sunglasses. Recently, there is only one pleasant example that comes to mind, when the PPP issued a show cause notice to Nabil Gabol and asked for an explanation after he joked about rape, Dawn reported. (ANI)
Rao, who is a 1994-batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, is currently serving as an additional secretary in the MEA.

She succeeds Neena Malhotra.

She is expected to take up the assignment shortly, the MEA said. (ANI)
According to sources, the national flag carrier has grounded four Boeing 777 planes, with an estimated maintenance cost of PKR 31 to PKR 40 million per aircraft.

"PKR 31 to 40 million is required for the maintenance of grounded Boeing 777 aircraft," ARY News reported, citing sources.

PIA has been grappling with a critical situation, as it had to cancel over 500 flights in the past 11 days due to fuel unavailability. The crisis escalated when Pakistan State Oil (PSO) reduced fuel supply to the airline due to unpaid dues, which has led to the cancellation of 537 flights since October 13.

The national flag carrier is facing arguably its worst crisis in history as Pakistan State Oil (PSO) has cut the fuel supply over unpaid dues.

The situation became even worst on Thursday as 49 domestic and international flights were cancelled from cities like Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Quetta, Multan, and Peshawar after PSO slashed its fuel supply to PIA, ARY News reported, citing sources.

Meanwhile, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Amir Hayat has written a 'motivation letter' to the employees ahead of the privatisation.

Amidst these challenges, PIA's Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Amir Hayat, penned an open letter to motivate the employees during this financial crisis, flight operation closures, and the ongoing privatisation process, ARY News reported. (ANI)
Incarcerated former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan in a message from jail, has alleged that "another attempt" could be made on his life through "slow poisoning" and urged the people to fight for "their rights and country's freedom". The message of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) Chairman was posted on his X handle through his family. Imran Khan also slammed the caretaker government over the return of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif and the series of reliefs granted to him by the courts in different graft cases. https://x.com/ImranKhanPTI/status/1717799679898026227?s=20 "In the last few days, we have witnessed a total mockery of the law. All that is happening today is not just an execution of a London "plan" but London "agreement" that was signed between a cowardly fugitive and corrupt criminal and his facilitators. The only way a convicted criminal could be allowed to return to politics with a clean chit is by destroying State institutions. And hence, what we are witnessing is a complete collapse of our justice system," Khan stated. He further said that all the cases against him are "completely bogus and politically motivated" and concocted only to keep him in jail till after the elections or much longer. The former PM said the "growing political awareness" and "increasing resistance against closed-room conspiracies" in Pakistan scare the establishment. Stating that two attempts have already been made against his life, Khan alleged that another attempt could be made through "slow poisoning" as he has refused to leave the country. "At the moment I am physically fit. I would know if my body was experiencing change from weakness. But they have already made two public attempts to take my life. Since I won't agree to leave my country there is of course a danger they will try to make another attempt on my life while I am in jail. Such an attempt could also be through slow poisoning," Khan said. He added, "Our struggle is entering its decisive phase. You will have to fight for your own rights and your country's freedom". Khan added that he has directed his lawyers and party office bearers to hold conventions all across the country and commence the campaign whenever elections are held. Pakistan district and sessions court on August 5, sentenced Imran Khan to three years in prison in the Toshakhana case i.e. for illegally selling state gifts and disqualified him from politics for a period of five years, local media reported. The court also imposed a fine of Pakistani Rupees (PKR) 100,000 on Imran Khan, Geo News reported. However, the Islamabad HC later suspended Imran Khan's three-year sentence in the Toshakhana case. But, a special court in Islamabad ordered Attock Jail authorities -- where the former premier was incarcerated -- to keep the PTI chairman in judicial lockup in the cypher case. Imran Khan is presently imprisoned at Adiala Jail. The cypher controversy first emerged on March 27, 2022, when Imran Khan just days before his ouster brandished a letter, claiming that it was a cypher from a foreign nation, which mentioned that his government should be ousted from power, according to The News International report. However, a few days later Imran Khan named the United States and said that US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Affairs Donald Lu had sought his removal. The PTI chairman had claimed that he was reading contents from the cypher and said that "all will be forgiven for Pakistan if Imran Khan is removed from power". (ANI)
Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal, the former intelligence chief of Saudi Arabia, while referring to the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, referred to the historic Civil Disobedience Movement in India which brought down the British Empire as the 'preferred' option. He was speaking at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University in Houston. Addressing the gathering, Prince Turki said, "All military occupied people have a right to resist their occupation, even militarily. I do not support the military option in Palestine". "I prefer the other option: Civil Insurrection and Disobedience. It brought down the British Empire in India and the Soviet Empire in Eastern Europe," he added. Civil Disobedience Movement was a massive movement led by Mahatma Gandhi against the British Empire, which is considered a crucial chapter in India's freedom struggle. The Saudi Prince slammed Hamas accusing it of gifting higher moral ground to an "unpopular Israeli government" that even half of the Israeli public view as "fascist, miscreant, and abhorrent". "Israel has overwhelming military superiority and we see in front of our eyes, the devastation and oblivion it is bringing to the people of Gaza," he said. Prince Turki also accused Israel of "funnelling Qatari money" to Hamas. The Saudi Prince slammed Hamas for "targeted civilian killings" and Israel for "indiscriminate bombings" of innocent civilians. "I categorically condemn Hamas' targeting of civilian targets of any age or gender, as it is accused of. Such targets belies Hamas' claims to an Islamic identity. There is an Islamic injunction against the killing of innocent children, women and elders. The injunction is also against the desceration of places of worship," the former Saudi Intelligence Chief said. He added, "But equally, I condemn Israel's indiscriminate bombing of Palestinian innocent civilians in Gaza and the attempt to forcibly drive them into Sinai. I condemn Israeli targeted killing and indiscriminate arrest of Palestinian children, women and men in West Bank. But two wrongs don't make a right" The Saudi Prince also slammed the Western politicians and American media, accusing them of not being sympathetic enough for the Palestinians and differential treatment in comparison to Israelis. "I've been hearing a repeated phrase in American media: unprovoked attack. What more provocation is required to make it provoked than what Israel has done to the Palestinian people for three quarters of a century. I refer you to the article in the Middle East Monitor of Feb. 17, 2014, under the title: 'Israeli army veterans admit role in massacre of Palestinians in 1948' -- read it and weep as I did," the Saudi Prince said. He added, "Just this year, from May to July over 450 Palestinians were killed including 67 children. This bloodletting must stop. I condemn Western politicians for shedding tears when Israelis are killed by Palestinians, but refuse to even express sorrow when Israelis kill Palestinians." The Saudi Prince further said that Hamas "sabotaged" the attempt of Saudi Arabia to reach a peaceful resolution with Israel. "There are no heroes in this conflict. Only victims," Prince Turki said. Last week, UN chief Antonio Guterres while pointing to the "the wider context" of war, had said that the "two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the only realistic foundation for a true peace and stability." He had also said that Hamas's "reprehensible assault on Israel can never justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people." (ANI)
Several members of the United Nations Security Council members have expressed concerns about human rights violations and women's rights in Afghanistan, stating that women, including female journalists and human rights activists, are facing violence in public places, Khaama Press reported on Friday. Members of the UN Security Council are calling for "meaningful" participation of women in all decision-making processes. Previously, members of the UNSC expressed concerns about human rights violations and fundamental freedoms of women and girls in Afghanistan through a joint statement, emphasizing that these actions are contrary to the expectations of the global community. The presence of women in decision-making processes, public forums, and media was considered one of the achievements of the past two decades until the interim government took power, causing an unprecedented setback. The media sphere was not spared either, and the presence of women in this field was severely affected, Khaama Press reported. Medina Akbari, a female journalist, said that female journalists can hardly work in Afghanistan, which has caused psychological harm to them. She said that she had worked in various sections of the media for four years, and now the media and journalists are facing publication restrictions. Medina adds that limitations have been imposed in the media sector, making it difficult for us to participate in conferences easily, and accurate information is still not readily available. According to the female journalist, she used to be able to participate in all programs before, but after the restrictions, she cannot participate in programs and conferences. This comes as media support organizations in the country had previously reported that 54 per cent of violence and threats against journalists, including 26 cases of physical violence, 115 threats, and 70 detentions, had been recorded, Khaama Press reported. Statistics show that alongside detentions, lack of access to information, economic difficulties, and violence in the country, female journalists currently make up only 5 per cent of the media. Notably, the Taliban regime in Afghanistan has received strong criticism from across the world for the "gender apartheid" in the country. Afghanistan's women have faced numerous challenges since the Taliban returned to power in 2021. Girls and women in the war-torn country have no access to education, employment and public spaces. Since the Taliban took over, in the last two years, they have issued over fifty decrees targetting women, highlighted by human rights organizations. According to Khaama Press, these decrees have highly impacted marginalized women from Afghan society as they enforced such stringent policies. A startling 80 per cent of Afghan girls and young women, who are of school-going age, are currently denied access to education under the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, a new report by Care International stated, according to Khaama Press. It has been more than two years since girls above grade six have been prohibited from attending schools in Afghanistan, and it is unclear when those doors will reopen, Tolo News reported. Afghanistan remains the only country to ban girls' and women's education, resulting in a substantial economic toll of approximately USD 5.4 billion. (ANI)
A Rawalpindi police officer appeared before the special court overseeing the cypher case and requested permission from the court to interrogate PTI Chairman Imran Khan and Vice Chairman Qureshi in jail.

Judge Abual Hasnat Zulqarnain inquired whether Imran Khan and Shah Mahmood Qureshi were previously included in the interrogation. The police officer responded that both accused had not been part of the probe.

The police officer informed the court that the accused would be included in the investigation based on testimonies provided by the co-accused. He also mentioned that the police investigators possess a report concerning the May 9 riots in Rawalpindi.

The judge examined the case records against the PTI chief and vice chairman. Subsequently, the judge granted permission for the police to interrogate Imran Khan and Qureshi in Adiala Jail.

Judge Abual Hasnat Zulqarnain noted that he allowed the police to question Qureshi in accordance with the law.

Earlier this month, a special court, established under the Official Secrets Act, formally charged PTI Chairman Imran Khan and former Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in the cypher case.

The hearing commenced in Adiala Jail on Monday, with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's legal team submitting a fresh petition challenging a potential indictment.

However, the court indicted the PTI chairman and foreign minister. Both politicians pleaded not guilty and refused to accept the charge sheet, ARY News reported. (ANI)
In Lakki Marwat, employees hailing from various government departments embarked on a march from Government Shaheed Mohammad Ghasan Khan Centennial Model High School to the press club.

According to Dawn, Wajeehullah, the district president of the School Officers Association, took the lead in the procession, where protesters wielded banners and placards, demanding that government officials trim their expenditures rather than impacting the livelihoods of government employees.

Bannu witnessed government employees gathering outside the press club to voice their opposition to the proposed changes in pension rules. The protest, orchestrated by the All Government Employees Grand Alliance (Agega), strongly rejected the abolition of pension benefits and pressed for the regularization of contract teachers.

Meanwhile, in Bajaur, government employees staged a demonstrative protest and threatened a district-wide pen-down strike. Their banners and placards clearly conveyed their resolute stance against any alterations to pension rules and reductions in the salaries of government employees, Dawn reported.

In Mohmand, employees from various government departments organised a walk and rally outside the press club to vociferously oppose pension reforms.

Across Lower Dir, hundreds of government employees voiced their dissent against the proposed pension reforms and potential salary deductions in Balambat. Their concerns revolved around the negative implications for their financial well-being.

In Swabi, employees representing various departments pointed fingers at political interference in state institutions, underscoring the pressing need to combat corruption, as reported by Dawn. (ANI)
The United Nations stated that the inappropriate expulsion of Afghan refugees from Pakistan is impacting over 1.4 million Afghans without residence permits, Afghanistan-based Khaama Press reported. Many people are at risk of human rights violations due to this action, according to the UN. On Friday, the United Nations announced that more than two million Afghans without documentation are living in Pakistan, with at least 600,000 of them leaving Afghanistan after the Taliban seized power on August 15, 2021. The Pakistani government has asked Afghan migrants living without residency documents to leave the country until the end of October, or they will be detained and expelled. According to the United Nations, human rights defenders, civil society activists, journalists, former government officials, and members of the security forces are at risk of human rights violations, according to Khaama Press report. The United Nations has expressed concern about the consequences of expelling Afghan migrants. It stated that many of them, if expelled, would face human rights violations, including arbitrary detention, torture, and other inhumane treatment by the Taliban. The UN stressed that women and girls have been deprived of secondary and higher education and other aspects of social life due to the "abhorrent policies of the Taliban" in Afghanistan and will also face human rights violations if they are sent back, according to Khaama Press report. Recently, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration said that nearly 60,000 Afghans have left Pakistan since the Pakistan government gave the deadline. According to this report, 78 per cent of those coming back to Afghanistan have cited fear of arrest as the reason for leaving Pakistan. On Thursday, the UK carried out a charter flight to take 200 Afghan refugees from Pakistan who were promised asylum in Britain. Approximately 3,250 Afghan refugees, including women and children, are still awaiting relocation to the UK from Pakistan and the British government plans to use charter planes to move them by the end of the year. Meanwhile, the Taliban-led Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation of Afghanistan has said that more than 5,000 Afghan migrants have returned to their country from Pakistan and Iran, Afghanistan-based Khaama Press reported. The Taliban-led ministry on Thursday announced that approximately 5,179 immigrants from Pakistan and Iran came back to Afghanistan. According to the Taliban-appointed border official in Islam Qala Herat, among these migrants, 3591 people, including families have arrived in Afghanistan, forcibly and voluntarily. In addition, the Taliban-led ministry said that approximately 1,585 Afghan migrants returned to Afghanistan forcibly through the Spin Boldak border from Pakistan on Wednesday. Some migrants identified as vulnerable who require assistance were referred to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) for aid. Many Afghan migrants in Pakistan and Iran have been detained due to the lack of legal residency documents and are often repatriated to Afghanistan. Pakistan and Iran continue to deport Afghan migrants despite repeated calls from the United Nations and some Western nations to stop deporting Afghan migrants, according to a Khaama Press report. (ANI)
The United Nations General Assembly on Friday (local time) adopted a resolution calling for an "immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce" between Israeli forces and Hamas terrorists in Gaza. Taking to X, the UN News Centre stated, "BREAKING: UN General Assembly ADOPTS resolution on "protection of civilians and upholding legal and humanitarian obligations" on the ongoing Gaza crisis FOR: 120 AGAINST: 14 ABSTAIN: 45." The Jordanian-led draft resolution has been adopted by the General Assembly, with 120 votes in favour, 14 against and 45 abstentions. The 45 nations that abstained from voting on the resolution included Iceland, India, Panama, Lithuania and Greece. The resolution was adopted during the UN General Assembly's emergency special session on the Israel-Palestine crisis. The UNGA also demanded "continuous, sufficient and unhindered" provision of lifesaving supplies and services for civilians trapped inside the enclave. The voting at UNGA comes at a time when Israel has announced expanding ground operations in Gaza. However, the Jordan-proposed resolution makes no specific mention of the Hamas terror attacks of 7 October. Jordan Draft Resolution was backed by 40 countries, including Russia, UAE, in the region by Pakistan, and Bangladesh. It condemned Israel's action, but not the Hamas terror attack, however, the Canada Amendment condemned the Hamas terror attack. Canada-led amendment to the draft resolution on the Gaza crisis did not pass at the UNGA. It failed to achieve a two-thirds majority. An amendment proposed by Canada "unequivocally rejects and condemns the terrorist attacks by Hamas" in Israel which started on October 7 and the taking of hostages. Meanwhile, Munir Akram, Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations, said that if Canada was being fair in its amendment it would agree to name Israel as well as Hamas. He stressed that not naming either side was the best choice. He said, "Israel needs to be named too, if you are to be fair and equitable and just". During the voting on the Canada-led amendment to the draft resolution, 88 voted in favour of the amendment, 55 voted against the amendment and 23 abstained from voting. The nations that voted in favour of the amendment included India, Australia, US, UK, Austria and Ukraine. Ahead of the voting, Jordan's Permanent Representative to the UN, Mahmoud Daifallah Hmoud said that the "urgent need for an immediate ceasefire cannot be overstated." He stressed that the suffering of the Palestinian people was destined to leave a lasting mark on generations to come. He noted that the "simple yet vital goal" of their resolution "aligns with the very purpose for which the UN was established, peace and compliance with international law." Canada's Permanent Representative of Canada to the United Nations Bob Rae said the Assembly is meeting to show Israelis and Palestinians that any life lost is a tragedy. Rae noted that the critical reason for being here has been forgotten. On October 7, Hamas launched an attack on Israel. He said, "We can see the need for a rapid response." Ahead of the voting, he said that if the proposed amendment was not adopted, the Assembly would not have recognized one of the world's worst terrorist attacks and "we will all have to live with that failure as the tragedy continues to unfold." He stressed this amendment "names what has to be named." He stated that the crisis must not spread through the region and reiterated that Canada supports the two-state solution and continues to provide humanitarian aid for Gaza. On Friday, Israel Defence Forces (IDF) spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the military has ramped up airstrikes in the Gaza Strip in the past few hours and will expand activity tonight, The Times of Israel reported. He said, "The Air Force is striking underground targets very significantly," adding that ground forces will "expand" their activity tonight. For the past two days, IDF infantry forces and tanks have carried out limited raids into the Gaza Strip. According to Hagari, the IDF will continue to strike Gaza City and surrounding regions in northern Gaza. He renewed his call for Palestinians to relocate to the southern part of the Gaza Strip, according to The Times of Israel report. Hagari said, "We are prepared to defend in all arenas. We are acting in order to protect the security interests of the State of Israel." (ANI)
One person was fatally shot Thursday night in Kansas Citys Blue Hills neighborhood, according to police.

Officers responded around 10 p.m. to 57th Street and Park Avenue, Sgt. Jake Becchina, a department spokesman, said in a statement. A gunshot victim, described as a male, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Further information was not immediately disclosed by police.

The killing marks Kansas Citys 156th homicide of 2023, according to data maintained by The Star.

Kansas City police were asking anyone with information to contact homicide detectives at 816-234-5043 or the anonymous TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS.
The words Boss Lady are displayed prominently above Shanquella Robinsons final resting place.

She was her own boss, her father, Bernard Robinson, said. She was her own boss.

Her father, Bernard, is still not resting in his search for answers about his daughters mysterious death.

Daddy misses you so much, every day is a struggle for me to get up and move but God gives me the strength, Robinson said in a prayer to Shanquella at her grave. Everyone prays around this nation. Thats our movement. I know youre looking down on me.

It was one year ago, Shanquella traveled to Cabo with a group of people she considered friends.

She never returned home.

9 FOCUS STORIES: Death of Shanquella Robinson

Family says they were told the 25-year-old died of alcohol poisoning. But an autopsy from Mexico said she died of a broken neck and spinal cord.

A video also surfaced of her being attacked by another woman on the trip.

Her death-- and the mystery surrounding it became a rallying cry as the FBI opened an investigation.

But in April, federal investigators opted to not bring criminal charges, saying the evidence does not support a federal prosecution.

Channel 9 obtained the autopsy, conducted by the Mecklenburg County Medical Examiners Officer about 3 weeks after Robinson died.

It differs from the autopsy in Mexico which claims Shanquella died of severe neck and spinal cord injuries.

In Mecklenburg Countys autopsy, the cause of death is undetermined.

READ THE MOST RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN THE CASE:

The autopsy lays out Shanquellas last day hour by hour on October 29.

It says at 7 or 7:30 am local time is when she was seen here, in this video being attacked. After the incident, she went back to her room. No one reportedly heard from her until just before noon, when the housekeeper found her lying down on the bathroom floor. It wouldnt be until 2:15pm that the people she was on the trip with called for medical care, claiming she consumed too much alcohol.The report says the doctor arrived at 3:15, finding her minimally responsive and dehydrated. As the doctor tried to place an IV, the autopsy says she went into convulsive crisis, before going into complete cardiopulmary arrest at 4:49. At 5:57, after multiple rounds of resuscitation, she was pronounced deceased.

Contrary to the Mexican death report, the local autopsy found no evidence of any neck or spinal cord injuries. It did find a hematoma of the forehead consistent with blunt force trauma.

The local autopsy also says tests for alcohol were performed in mexico and found to be negative. But it also noted there was enough time for alcohol to metabolize.

The Mexican authorities literally have advised that this is a priority for them that this case is a priority, Sue-Ann Robinson, Shanquella Robinsons attorney, said. However, it takes two to tango.

The attorney overseeing Shanquellas case is Sue-Ann Robinson, who isnt related to the family. She says there is still an active arrest warrant in Mexico related the attack captured on camera. Her focus is getting the State Department to comply with the extradition request. She also says her office is exploring a civil suit against the people who traveled with Shanquella.

It is absolutely a marathon and not a sprint, she said. Martin Luther King, Jr. said that the arc of the moral universe is long, but it always bends towards justice and thats what keeps us all going in this case.

At his daughters grave site, Bernard Robinson says the days are long and difficult

I have my moments. I really have my moments, he said. Never in my wildest dreams did I think something like this would happen.

He is vowing to press on and continue to fight

God fight our battles, he said. Well put it all in His hands but as a father standing right here in front of my daughters grave, justice will be served.

(WATCH BELOW: The Shanquella Robinson Investigation: One year later)
A $10,000 reward is now being offered for information on a 42-year-old cold case murder of a young girl from New Kensington.

On Sept. 22, 1979, Tiffany Renee Miller, 5, was reported missing by her mother from their home on Peach Court in New Kensington.

State police said Miller was last seen inside the home the evening before when her mother put her to bed around 11 p.m. When her mother went to check on her the following morning, Miller was missing.

After a weeklong search for Miller, her body was found in the Allegheny River near Plum on Sept. 28, 1979.

Anyone with information is asked to call the New Kensington Police Department at 724-339-7534 and speak to Detective Manke, or call the Pennsylvania State Police at 724-832-3288 and speak to Trooper Drzal.

You can also contact Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers on this case, or

Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts.

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Does the plastic bag ban apply to just within the city limits? What about businesses outside the city that have a Pittsburgh mailing address?

Pittsburghs plastic bag ban has been in effect for less than two weeks and theres still a lot of confusion, and 11 at 11 wanted to get you answers.

We are seeing businesses outside of the city limits charging the 10-cent bag fee like McDonalds in Bethel Park, or Walgreens in Ross Township with signs saying no more plastic bags.

This applies only to stores and retailers within the city limits, councilmember Erika Strassburger explained. If you are outside the city limits, regardless of your zip code. you do not have to adhere to this.

The city explained, saying that even though its not mandated, Stores operating outside of city limits may voluntarily decide to remove plastic bags from their operations or begin to charge for paper bags, but they are not mandated to do so by the City of Pittsburgh. Some reasons stores may be implementing these changes outside of city limits include: to meet their own sustainability goals and to remain consistent across regional operations as their stores within the city have to comply

Does this apply even to food trucks or farmers markets? Strassburger says it does.

But, there are exceptions, for items such as meats, seafood or produce where there is a risk of contamination plastic bags are still allowed.

Dry cleaner bags are also exempt, as well as food that is not fully wrapped.

The city of Pittsburgh has a map on its website for a business to check if its within the city limits and mandated to follow the rule. Businesses have a grace period until January 1 to comply with with the new rule.

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Cannabis fans will be able to legally purchase pot at two shops in Pasco next week after both passed recent state inspections.

Green2Go Recreational, led by Steve Lee, and Lucky Leaf, led by David Morgan, are waiting for the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Control Board to activate their licenses.

Its the last step before they are allowed to stock inventory and begin selling to customers ages 21 and older. A spokeswoman for the state agency confirmed to the Herald that is imminent.

Contractor Aleena Meise of Punkies Project peels the protective covering from the plexiglass display she built for the new Green2Go, cannabis store in west Pasco.

Legal pot arrives in Pasco about 11 years after Washington voters approved Initiative 502, which decriminalized possession of small amounts of cannabis.

In the Tri-Cities, where the initiative was unpopular, adoption was slow.

Franklin County along with the cities of Kennewick, Pasco, Richland and West Richland enacted local bans. That left unincorporated Benton County as the only place pot shops could legally operate.

Benton County later banned new stores but it did not apply to the ones already open in Finley, near Prosser and on the outskirts of West Richland.

First to drop pot ban

Pasco is the first of the Tri-Cities to drop its ban, with the city council voting 4-3 in June. Green2Go and Lucky Leaf confirmed in August they had secured retail locations that meet the states buffer requirements.

West Richland is scheduled on Nov. 7 to discuss potentially lifting its ban. A vote on the issue couldnt happen until the following council meeting.

Richland rejected a citizen-led initiative calling for a public vote on legalized pot sales in 2018, saying the initiative was not valid. More than 4,500 signed the Legalize Richland petition.

The new Green2Go cannabis store is about to open at 5904 Road 90 in west Pasco.

In Pasco, three cannabis retailers have applied to open shops. Green2Go and Lucky Leaf appear to be the only ones ready to meet a Dec. 12 deadline to open or lose their state licenses.

Green2Go will open in a temporary space on Road 90 near Sandifur Parkway. Morgan expects to open Lucky Leaf on Road 68 and is making plans for a grand opening on New Years Eve, Dec. 31.

A third business, Clear Mind Cannabis, has applied to open a shop at 3221 W. Court St., but could not be reached for an update on its plans. The state limits Pasco to four retail licenses based on its population.

Lee and Morgan said theyre both eager to open and arent competing to be the first.

Lucky Leaf

Lucky Leaf will be at 3501 Road 68, Suites 104 and 105.

Morgan is a Tri-Cities native who originally applied for a license to open a store in Pasco in December 2013, when Initiative 502 was taking effect. In 2015, he opened anyway, operating for two weeks before he was ordered to shut down.

Lucky Leaf, owned by David Morgan, is waiting for the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Control Board to activate his license to open on Road 68 in west Pasco.

After that episode, state regulators allowed him to transfer his license to Spokane. The Road 68 store will be the second version of Lucky Leaf. He is taking over space formerly occupied by Columbia Physical Therapy. The space underwent a major renovation with assistance from Morgans brother, a contractor.

Morgan said Mustang Signs is fabricating and installing signs for the business.

He said the store will be an open format and will sell cannabis, edibles and beverages, concentrates, vape cartridges, disposable vapes and prerolls (also known as joints).

Customers will be able to make purchases online or in the store, but must go into the store and show a valid ID that confirms they are 21 or older in order to collect their purchases. Business hours are the longest allowed under state law: 8 a.m.-11:55 p.m. The closing time is a nod to rules that all sales must be complete by midnight.

Follow Lucky Leaf at luckyleaf.co

Green2Go

Green2Go will be at 5904 Road 90, Suite J.

Steve Lee and his wife, Jessie, own the Green2Go Recreational cannabis shops in Finley, which is in unincorporated Benton County, and in Tokio, east of Ritzville, where Highway 395 merges with I 90.

Steve Lee, co-owner of Green2Go, stands in their newest storefront on Road 90 in west Pasco.

The Lees also operated Green2Go Wellness, which sold CBD products in Kennewick until it closed during the pandemic.

Green2Go secured its license eight years ago anticipating that Pasco would eventually repeal its ban on recreational cannabis. The purple door and window frame is still in place. But the 3,300-square-foot store is only temporary.

Steve Lee plans to move the business to a larger suite in the same complex in 2024 when the current fitness business moves out.

We built this out just to save the license, he said of the temporary digs.

Lee, who served a term on the Kennewick City Council and now lives in Richland, embraces a clean, welcoming vibe  where moms, grandmothers and stepdads feel comfortable.

Lee expected to finalize the build out on Wednesday and to open sometime in early November. The Pasco store hours are 8 a.m.-11 p.m. Service is limited to medical users and seniors for the first hour.

Follow green2go on Facebook at bit.ly/3MhmPgw or and at G2GRec.com

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LAS VEGAS (KLAS)  The United States Postal Inspection Service is looking for the publics help in identifying the suspects in a robbery of a letter carrier and is offering a hefty reward.

A reward of up to $150,000 is being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspects who robbed a United States Postal Service letter carrier.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service included photos of the suspects, as well as the car they are suspected of driving during the robbery.

Robbery Suspects. Source: United States Postal Inspection Service

Robbery Suspects Car. Source: United States Postal Inspection Service

According to a reward poster, the robbery occurred at around 4:30 p.m. on Oct. 23 in the 4400 block of North Yellow Harbor Street in Las Vegas.

If you have any information about this incident, please contact the U.S. Postal Inspection Service at 1-877-876-2455 and say Law Enforcement. The reference case number is 4165520.

Robbery of a USPS employee is a federal offense punishable by up to 25 years in prison, the United States Postal Inspection Service stated.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS.
For 97% of Ukraines front-line territory residents, staying informed about Ukrainian news is vital, but 16% of them also read propaganda-infused Russian news.

These findings are based on a surveyconducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) from Aug. 7 to 19 in ten front-line regions, published on Oct. 27.

The survey data indicates that 78% of respondents read the news on a daily basis, with most front-line residents relying on national and local sources for their news.

Among those who read Russian news, 6% do so daily. Of these readers, 44% utilize both pro-government and opposition sources, 22% stick to pro-government sources, and 21% prefer opposition sources.

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Common reasons residents read Russian news include comparing information (14%) and finding the presentation of information in Russia interesting (14%). Additionally, 11% read them due to pro-Russian sentiments, while another 11% seek information about events in the occupied territories due to their importance to Ukraine.

When asked about the type of news they would like to receive more frequently, 57% expressed a desire for updates on the progress of the war.

Regarding trustworthy public figures, 37% named Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, followed by Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces Valerii Zaluzhnyi at 18%. Another 10% of the population trust information from former advisor to the Office of the President of Ukraine, Oleksiy Arestovych, while 9% rely on information from TV host and volunteer Serhiy Prytula, and the chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate, Kyrylo Budanov.

Read also:

The survey was commissioned by the Transformation of Communications in Ukraine project, which is a program funded by USAID.

Sociologists conducted the survey through online interviews with 1,000 adult residents of front-line regions.

The margin of error, with a 95% confidence level and without considering design effects and specific research method characteristics, did not exceed 3.1%.

However, sociologists note that in the conditions of war, additional systematic deviations in the sample may occur due to Russian aggression.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
A 17-year-old bagged what he referred to as a once in a lifetime deer as he hunted with his great-grandfather.

Major Edmonds, of Altus, Oklahoma, shared photos on Facebook on Oct. 22 of the deer, which Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation officers called a cactus buck.

It was amazing, Major told KSWO. I was out there with my 82-year-old great-grandfather and he was the best person I could have been hunting with to kill that deer. It was crazy we were shaking when we shot it and walked up to it and saw it.

The hunter told Field and Stream he and his great-grandfather had never seen anything like this  a deer with large, furry antlers.

The craziest deer Ive ever seen, the teen said in an Instagram post.

Wildlife conservation officers said the deer is called a cactus buck because of its abnormal antler growth patterns that cause them to retain velvet.

The characteristics are caused by alterations in testosterone level, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

These animals often have multiple short misshapen points and excess globs of velvet hanging from their antlers, giving rise to the name cactus buck, officials said. These animals also have small or unapparent testicles.

Major said hunters in his area are often unable to kill a velvet buck because they shed before the hunting season begins.

Thats why I was so excited to get this one, he told Field and Stream. Ive heard about cactus bucks, and seen photos of a few, but nothing that crazy with all the trash.

He said he took the deer to a taxidermist who will preserve its velvet, KSWO reported.

Altus is about 120 miles southwest of Oklahoma City.

Hunter bags 300-pound black bear with homemade bow in Oklahoma. Crazy impressive

Rare turkey shot on opening day of the Tennessee season. See the bird of a lifetime

Disturbing discovery of hundreds of deer carcasses leads to investigation in Arkansas
Two of the five people arrested for their roles in the viral brawl on a riverfront in Montgomery, Alabama, pleaded guilty on Friday, both avoiding jail time for their actions during the dockside dispute that gained national attention in August.

Richard Roberts pleaded guilty to two assault charges and received a four-month suspended sentence and 100 hours of community service, WSFA 12 reported.

Mary Todd pleaded guilty to harassment and was sentenced to anger management classes in an agreement that requires her to complete the courses within 90 days and pay the court-associated costs, CNN reported.

Todd, a 21-year-old white woman, was filmed kicking a Black riverboat captain during an attack that preceded the melee. Later, as the scuffle escalated, footage showed her getting punched and having her hair pulled.

Todd turned to leave at one point before getting punched to the ground, eventually fleeing to a nearby pontoon boat for safety. Roberts and Todd turned themselves in to police days after the brawl.

Capt. Jim Kittrell, whose Black crewman squared off against a group of white boaters during the conflict, told The Daily Beast in August that the attack was racially motivated.

The white guys that attacked my deckhandand he was a senior deckhand first mateI cant think of any other reason they attacked him other than it being racially motivated, Kittrell said. In my opinion, the attack on Damien was racially motivated.

Three other defendants arrested after the dockside meleeZachary Shipman, Allen Todd and Reggie Rayare awaiting further court dates in November.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN)  Authorities have launched an investigation following a fatal Friday afternoon shooting in Germantown.

The Metro Nashville Police Department said the incident took place shortly after 1 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 27 along Rosa L. Parks Boulevard.

5 teens suspected in armed robberies around Nashville arrested after carjacking investigation

According to officials, two men were apparently arguing outside apartments in Cheatham Place housing. The argument then escalated into a brief physical fight before they both pulled out revolvers and shot each other.

Police said both men  identified as 55-year-old Lorenzo N. Perry and 45-year-old Patrick D. Clark  were brought to the hospital, where they were pronounced dead..

 Read todays top stories on wkrn.com

Authorities said they believe the dispute was centered around payment for auto repair work Clark did for Perry.

No additional details have been released about the circumstances surrounding the shooting.

 Download the News 2 app to stay updated on the go.

 Sign up for WKRN email alerts to have breaking news sent to your inbox.

 Find todays top stories on WKRN.com for Nashville, TN and all of Middle Tennessee.

This is a developing story. WKRN News 2 will continue to update this article as new information becomes available.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRN News 2.
A toddler died after he was run over by his fathers pickup truck in the parking lot of a Louisiana apartment complex, deputies told news outlets.

The boys father was backing out of a parking spot in Metairie on Oct. 18 and hit the 2-year-old, who unknowingly wandered into the parking lot as his dad left for work, WVUE reported, citing the Jefferson Parish Sheriffs Office.

The boy, identified by the coroners office as Elian Maradiaga, died at the scene, according to The Times-Picayune.

It was a horrible, tragic, unbelievable situation, Jefferson Parish Sheriff Joseph Lopinto told the newspaper. The parents are devastated.

Deputies said they dont believe impairment was a factor, though the investigation is ongoing, WWL-TV reported.

McClatchy News reached out to the sheriffs office for an update Friday, Oct. 27, but hasnt heard back.

Metairie is less than 10 miles northwest of downtown New Orleans.

Cyclist riding 67 miles to celebrate 67th birthday killed in crash, NC officials say

Grandma left dead in road after 2 separate drivers hit her and flee, Georgia cops say

Wife runs over and kills husband when he leaves vehicle to look for dog, Florida cops say
A teen is behind bars after officials say drugs he gave to classmates landed them in the hospital.

According to Floyd County Sheriff reports obtained by Channel 2 Action News, on Monday at 8 a.m., a Floyd County police SRO received reports of a teen giving away drugs to his classmates.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

The report said Pepperell High School student Billy Jackson, 17, was on the bus and gave THC-infused gummy candies to two classmates.

According to the investigation, the two students were sent to the hospital after ingesting the drugs.

The identities and conditions of the students have not been released.

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Jackson admitted to officers that he planned to sell the drugs at school to make money.

Floyd County Schools officials sent Channel 2 Action News the following statement regarding the incident:

This was an unfortunate decision made by this individual, but we are pleased with and appreciate our school administration and first responders for acting in a quick manner and abiding by our school policies and procedures in order to maintain a safe school environment.

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Jackson was arrested and charged with possession of a controlled substance, two counts of distribution of a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance on school grounds, two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, possession with intent to distribute and disruption of a public school.

IN OTHER NEWS:
FILE - President Donald Trump arrives to speak at the Republican Jewish Coalition's annual leadership meeting, Saturday April 6, 2019, in Las Vegas. The Republican Jewish Coalitions annual gathering of donors in Las Vegas that is being held this weekend has for years been a key stop for GOP candidates as they seek not only to court Jewish voters but also to present themselves as stalwart allies of Israel, a key priority for many in the partys base, particularly evangelicals. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

LAS VEGAS (AP)  The GOP presidential candidates will compete for donors and offer their strong support for Israel in its war with Hamas as they address the annual gathering of a major Republican Jewish group this weekend.

The Republican Jewish Coalitions gathering in Las Vegas has for years been a key stop for GOP candidates as they seek not only to court Jewish voters but also to present themselves as stalwart allies of Israel, a key priority for many in the partys base, particularly Christian evangelicals.

This years summit, underway Friday, comes with Israel in crisis after the Oct. 7 attack from Gaza by Hamas. The conflict has threatened to spread across the region and has roiled tensions over the war in the U.S., particularly on college campuses. In the wake of the attack, the Republican National Committee announced that the Republican Jewish Coalition will be co-sponsoring the third GOP presidential debate, scheduled for Nov. 8 in Miami.

For Republican White House hopefuls, the war has become a prominent issue on the campaign trail in recent weeks, and the reception they get as they address the crowd Saturday could be a key measure of strength in a contest that's been dominated by former President Donald Trump .

Trump has for years received a warm reception from the Coalition, with attendees sometimes given red yarmulkes with his name on them, reminiscent of his signature Make America Great Again hats. A longtime benefactor of the group, billionaire casino mogul and GOP megadonor Sheldon Adelson, became a big backer of Trump and helped him in 2016 to win over Coalition members who initially supported other candidates.

Adelson died in 2021. His widow, Miriam Adelson, has remained a major party donor and benefactor for the Republican Jewish Coalition but has vowed to stay neutral in the presidential primary. Other donors in the room may be looking for a candidate to support, however.

I think the people in the room mirror exactly whats happening in the Republican Party as a whole, said Matt Brooks, CEO of the Coalition. Each of the candidates have strong supporters. Each of the candidates are, at this point, relatively known quantities, but theres also a group of people who are trying to kick the tires and hear and see who they want to align themselves with.

Trump has declared that no president has done more to support Israel than he did, including his delivery on the promise to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.

But it's unclear if some of the former president's actions since the 2020 election may lead to a frostier reception than in years past. The day after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, when a mob of Trump supporters tried to stop the certification of Democrat Joe Biden 's presidential victory, the Coalition issued a statement condemning the attack, calling for a peaceful transition of power and congratulating Biden.

Trump, as he seeks the White House a third time, still refuses to acknowledge Biden's win.

He addressed the conference by video last year shortly after announcing his campaign, but there seemed to be few signs of enthusiasm as his legal troubles began to bubble up. A week after the conference, he drew condemnation from Republicans for dining with a Holocaust-denying white nationalist and the rapper formerly known as Kanye West after the artist, now going by Ye, made his own string of antisemitic comments.

And just this month, Trump, known for broadcasting his personal grievances, drew criticism after the deadly attack in Israel by lashing out at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and referring to Lebanons Hezbollah group as very smart.

After his comments were denounced by his rivals and criticized by some of his allies, Trump a few days later issued a statement of support for Netanyahu, invoking his nickname and saying #IStandWithBibi and #IStandWithIsrael"  a move that did not go unnoticed by the head of the Republican Jewish Coalition.

I think he has done a good job at recommitting himself to supporting Prime Minister Netanyahu and to standing and being absolutely rock solid when it comes to Israel, Brooks said. He has a long history and a long record of being an incredible pro-Israel president when he served, and the people in the room understand that and recognize the record that he brings with him to Las Vegas.

In fact, Trump's political support broadly within the party does not seem to have suffered much, and his large lead in the primary race seems to have only solidified.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley have each made the war and their support for Israel central to their campaign messages in recent weeks. Haley has appeared competitive with DeSantis' second-place position in some national polls.

Haley has leaned into her foreign policy experience in her time serving in Trumps administration. DeSantis has been using the power of his office to charter flights for Floridians stranded in Israel and pressuring state-funded universities to disband a pro-Palestinian student group.

In addition to Trump, Haley and DeSantis, the other presidential candidates in the lineup are South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, former Vice President Mike Pence, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.

New Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is scheduled to address the summit Saturday night. Johnson, who was chosen by Republicans to lead the chamber only on Wednesday, takes the helm as the Biden administration is asking Congress to send aid to Israel and Ukraine.

Other GOP officials, including House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, Florida Sen. Rick Scott and South Dakota Sen. John Thune, are also slated to speak during the three-day summit on the Las Vegas Strip.

The event marks the first time most of the GOP candidates have made their way to Nevada, a state expected to be the third to weigh in on the field in voting early next year. The Western state is usually overlooked by candidates because of its limited political impact, and its received especially little campaign activity in this years GOP contest.

Thats largely because Trump is seen to have a heavy advantage in the state and the Nevada GOPs decision to set rules for its caucus that are seen as benefiting the former president. Three candidates Pence, Haley and Scott  have opted to skip the caucus and a chance to win presidential delegates. Instead, theyve filed to compete in the state-run primary, where they can hope to win headlines showcasing their strength.

Separate from the Jewish Coalition, DeSantis is to speak Saturday morning to a Nevada Republican group at a casino-resort on the Las Vegas Strip. Trump is expected to address supporters Saturday afternoon at a country music bar.
A decades-long effort to preserve and restore a rare piece of undeveloped coastline in Manatee County is complete.

Known as FISH Preserve, the roughly 100-acre swath of green hugs Sarasota Bay, where it provides a haven for fish, birds and mangrove habitat.

It also borders the historic fishing village of Cortez  one of the last working fishing villages in Florida.

It didnt happen by accident.

Three decades ago, residents of Cortez saw that Southwest Floridas landscape was quickly changing as coastal development closed in all around.

In 1991, they formed the Florida Institute for Saltwater Heritage (FISH). The nonprofit alliance between local historians and anglers aimed to preserve the character and heritage of Floridas traditional waterfront communities.

Its other major goal: to preserve the natural environment that has nurtured people in fishing communities for thousands of years.

This is a very tiny slice of Old Florida that we dont want to lose, FISH board member and former Manatee County Commissioner Jane von Hahmann said.

Community effort saves land from development

Fast forward to 2000, when the group got the chance to make an offer on a 95-acre piece of land that was up for sale at the eastern edge of Cortez village.

A community fundraising effort covered an initial $60,000 mortgage payment on the property. Funds continued to flow every year from the Cortez Commercial Fishing Festival, an annual event promoting seafood and science education, and the land was paid off in 2005.

Additional land buys brought the preserve to a little over 100 acres, and FISH hatched a plan to restore it in several phases.

The restoration efforts have sought to heal land that was scarred from use as a dump site and other negative human impacts.

FISH formed partnerships with local, state and national agencies that helped along the way, and won a major wetlands restoration grant from the Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership.

Invasive species were removed. Natives were planted. Tidal flow was restored.

The restoration plan is now complete, and FISH board members are looking ahead to the preserves next chapter.

A community conservation project in the fishing village of Cortez, Florida protects 100 acres of mangrove and wildlife habitat from development.

Why is FISH Preserve important?

Were excited cause its one of the few pieces of property that will actually be protecting our coastline, von Hahmann said.

Were like a micro-Robinson Preserve, she added.

One of the main benefits the preserve provides is its mangrove habitat.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection notes that mangroves provide services including water filtration, erosion prevention and protection from wave and flood damage.

They also serve as a retreat for fish like mullet and a nursery for species, including grouper and snook.

A community effort to preserve and restore 100 acres of coastal wildlife habitat and mangrove forest bordering Sarasota Bay and the historic fishing village of Cortez is complete at FISH Preserve. Now, work is underway to add more recreational access.

The water quality in Sarasota Bay is improving. Large-scale restoration projects like FISH Preserve build on that progress to help restore our fish and wildlife populations, said Dave Tomasko, executive director of the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program.

The estuary program is one of many groups that have helped in the restoration efforts at the preserve.

The project reeled in a wide network of interest and support, including the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the Southwest Florida Water Management District, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Manatee County Government and the Bradenton Kiwanis Club.

It also helps shield a way of life in Cortez.

Its such a nice buffer for the village, said Karen Bell, president of A.P. Bell Fish Co. in Cortez and a board member of FISH since its inception. It will never be developed.

Bell said the commercial fishing industry has remained resilient despite setbacks from red tide and water quality problems, and the preserve is a small way to help protect its future.

Hopefully well be able to continue to stay healthy, Bell said.

A community conservation project in the fishing village of Cortez, Florida protects 100 acres of mangrove and wildlife habitat from development.

Preserve is a legacy of local scientist

One of the preserves biggest advocates wont be here to see its completion celebrated.

Marine biologist, retired Florida Sea Grant agent and founding FISH board member John Stevely was a driving force behind the project.

The community took the bold step of jumping on that opportunity, knowing that we had to borrow money to do that, Stevely told the Herald in 2020. Its a decades-long vision, but eventually well have the whole area restored.

He was also a founder of the Cortez Commercial Fishing Festival that helped fund it, which he pitched as a party with a purpose.

At the fishing festivals, Stevely and other biologists gave Dock Talks  bite-sized science lessons that inspired an appreciation for marine life.

Following a cancer diagnosis, Stevely died in May 2022 while on a walk at Robinson Preserve, his obituary said.

He and his beloved wife of 40 years, Dr. Theresa Bert, both marine biologists, had just returned from Cape Canaveral where they witnessed a rocket launch and landing with their son, John Bert Stevely. A fitting last act for a scientist who treasured the seas and skies, it reads.

We lost one of our best friends and advocates when John passed away, von Hahmann said. He was a member of FISH from the beginning, and he helped develop the plan for the restoration.

Now the community will have another preserve to enjoy, thanks in large part to Stevely.

Hes probably up there grinning ear to ear knowing its finally finished, von Hahmann said.

A community conservation project in the fishing village of Cortez, Florida protects 100 acres of mangrove and wildlife habitat from development.

Whats next for FISH Preserve?

A sold-out ribbon cutting celebrating the preserves completion will be held on Friday, Nov. 3.

Local officials and EPA Region 4 Regional Administrator Jeaneanne Gettle will speak.

Though the plan to restore the land is complete, FISH board members say they will continue to make upgrades, including additional tree plantings. Upkeep on the preserve will continue to be funded through the fishing festival, held each year in February.

Now that nature is on the way to recovery, they hope to make the preserve more welcoming for people, too.

Bridges, more walking trails and educational signage are among the planned additions.

Bell also envisions a skywalk, or elevated pedestrian bridge, that would give visitors a birds eye view of the coast.

Id like people to be able to see the vastness of the mangrove forest and the interconnectivity of the bay, Bell said.

For now, recreation at the preserve is limited to a few trails that wind through the habitat.

Parking to access the preserve is available at Florida Maritime Museum, 4415 119th St. W., Cortez.

A community conservation project in the fishing village of Cortez, Florida protects 100 acres of mangrove and wildlife habitat from development.
When some of the metros best chefs put their minds to making a burger, the results are nothing short of amazing.

New or updated entries among these 26 restaurants are marked with asterisks.

If you have other suggestions, please email them to us at eat@pioneerpress.com.

Other categories from our 2023 guide:

Burgers for beer (and cocktail) hounds: Like a craft beer or tasty cocktail with your burger? These 10 places are for you.

Cult burgers: These are the burgers for which people are willing to wait  sometimes as long as an hour or two. And these 4 places are worth the hype.

Destination burgers: City dwellers, these 10 places are worth the drive.

Dive bar burgers: They may not all have a website, but they have regulars, pull tabs, and griddles that have been around long enough to give their burgers a little extra seasoning. Here are 6 dive bars to check out.

Neighborhood burgers: These 8 spots close to home serve a crave-worthy burger.

1. * Juche

When I say that a Korean restaurant has one of my favorite new burgers of the year, Im often met with raised eyebrows, but this is a hill Im willing to die upon. Chef Chris Her and owner Eddie Wu have made some burger magic in this dark, comfortable space. The bulgogi burger has a very slight Korean flavor  what mostly comes through is the delicious Peterson beef, topped simply with American cheese, aioli, romaine and caramelized onion and nestled into a squishy brioche bun. The spicy Korean burger is for the more adventurous among us, but the spicy pickled slaw on top is super addictive. Its paired with tangy cheddar and spicy mayo and is somehow still not overly spicy. My teen boy  who has been making his own list of favorites this year  even loved it. The fries here, hand cut and fried until deep golden brown, are exceptional, and you should definitely ask for the Korean hot sauce for dipping them in.

Juche: 1124 Payne Ave., St. Paul; 612-490-3380; juchestpaul.com

2. * Chloe by Vincent

Chef Vincent Francouals Vincent Burger, a standout on the menu of his now-closed Vincent A Restaurant (thats a lot of Vincent!), is back. Francouals new downtown Minneapolis restaurant, Chloe, offers his famed Juicy Lucy spin-off, stuffed with braised short rib and smoked gouda. The burger, first of all, is absolutely massive. The short rib inside is so flavorful and keeps the burger from drying out, and the smoked gouda is the perfect cheese choice. People have been waiting years for this burger, and Francoual told us that bringing it back makes him excited like a little kid! He has mixed feelings on burgers in general, he said cheekily, but, this burger with Coca-Cola? The best hangover food.

Chloe by Vincent: 700 3rd St. S., Minneapolis; 612-200-8041; chloebyvincent.com

3. * Wrestaurant at the Palace

This new restaurant next to the Palace Theatre is a real boon to downtown. The Detroit-style pizza is great  but so is the burger! With its thin patties, American cheese, crisp iceberg and a lovely sauce, its not exactly reinventing the wheel, but its a solid burger. When we ordered it, the bun was essentially four slider buns, still attached, which made it really easy for us to cut it into fours and share, because there was no way we werent ordering a pizza, too. Comes with curly fries, which is a rarity outside of drive-throughs in these parts.

Wrestaurant at the Palace: 33 W. Seventh Place, St. Paul; 952-600-5611; wrestaurantatthepalace.com

4. * Apostle Supper Club

If youre looking for a burger with a side of mid-century-modern/tiki atmosphere, the Apostle is your spot. Theirs is a behemoth of a double smashie, properly seasoned, extremely juicy and classically topped with American, shredded lettuce, pickle, caramelized onion and your typical burger sauce on a sesame bun. The plank-like crinkle fries are tasty, too. We are not fans of their tiki drinks (too sweet, not enough fresh-squeezed juice), but they do make a mean martini, which honestly pairs pretty well with this burger.

Apostle Supper Club: 253 W. Kellogg Blvd., St. Paul; apostlesupperclub.com

5. * Blondette

The award for prettiest surroundings in which to eat a burger definitely goes to Blondette, the retractable-roof French-bistro dining experience at the Rand Tower Hotel in downtown Minneapolis. This thick patty of waygu beef infused with duck fat (yes, really) is so insanely juicy and flavorful that it wouldnt need any accouterment, but tarragon mustard and a slab of smoked cheddar do nicely. Wed expect nothing less from chef Daniel del Prado, who has become a west-metro fine dining darling in recent years. Maybe its time to come east!

Blondette: 527 S. Marquette Ave., Minneapolis; 612-224-3750; blondettempls.com

6. * Maison Margaux

Depending on where youre seated in chef David Fhimas new Parisian restaurant, you might have to ask for the Oui Burger by name: The $23 foil-wrapped burger is available during happy hour in the main Brasserie and all the time in the opulent subterranean lounge, but its not printed on every menu. The single, quite thick patty is a high-end house grind that includes short rib and wagyu beef, and its topped with gruyere cheese on a bun thats so all-around buttery, it literally glistens. And thats it! A small cup of pickle slices and some fries come on the side. Its ultra-beefy and indulgent and noticeably less salty than other burgers weve tried, but not in a way that feels underseasoned. Do be careful to shield your fancy clothes from oil drips. (Maison Margauxs other French bistro staples  savory onion soup, cheesy aligot, creme brulee  are also fantastic, as are the restaurants cocktail and wine lists.)

Maison Margaux: 224 1st St. N, Minneapolis; 612-900-1800; maisonmargauxmpls.com

7. * World Street Kitchen

This summer, trendy Minneapolis favorite World Street Kitchen added the beef kofta burger to its lineup of fast-casual global street food  and its a home run. Kofta, spiced ground beef thats common in the Middle East and North Africa in meatball or kebab form, works perfectly as a burger patty topped with white American cheese, pickles and a not-so-spicy harissa burger sauce. The spices in the meat itself are fine-tuned, and all the toppings play off each other well. Its unbelievably saucy (to be clear: in a good way!), so grab more extra napkins than you think youll need. Oh, and Milkjam Creamery is right next door.

World Street Kitchen: 2743 Lyndale Ave S, Minneapolis; (612) 424-8855; eatwsk.com

8. Angry Line Cook

This food truck rose from the ashes of Just/Us, the chef collective restaurant that existed in two separate St. Paul locations. The truck focuses mostly on its very, very good smash burger, which features two beef patties smooshed on a griddle, which produces a crispy meat skirt. Theres also plenty of house-made American cheese (made from fontina, gouda and fenugreek), a beef-stock aioli for extra umami goodness, house-made pickles and a nice, squishy bun. If you like things spicy  and we do  opt for the Angry Burger, which consists of the same smashed patties kicked up with house-made pepper-jack cheese, angry sauce, chili oil, and pickled Fresno peppers.

Angry Line Cook: Location varies, find them at theangrylinecookfoodtruck.com

9. Herbies on the Park

In a world full of double smash burgers, Herbies is an unapologetic -pound thick patty. The juiciness of these behemoths, made from a brisket, short rib and chuck blend, cannot be overstated. Choose the patty adorned simply with melty American-Swiss, caramelized onions and house-made pickles; go for a fancy bacon-bleu, gilded with a blueberry/gochujang jam and arugula; or really mix it up with a French onion and Brie situation. Its all good. And so are the garlic-herb fries, or the simple side salad, something weve come to love, especially in the thick of burger-reporting season. We have to get our veggies somehow.

Herbies on the Park: 317 Washington St., St. Paul; 651-726-1700; herbiesonthepark.com

10. Holmans Table

This pretty, midmodern-style restaurant in the St. Paul airport features a view of runway action without having to go through security. The menu has lots to offer, including a few burgers at lunch and a different set of burgers at dinner time, including the $300 burger, which isnt actually $300, but it does clock in at a not-so-wallet-friendly $27.50. For that price tag, though, you get a juicy, beefy patty on a soft bun, topped with nutty gruyere and foie gras butter. The entire thing is then doused with a madeira truffle demi glace. Its a fork-and-knife burger that one of our dining partners said tastes like fancy salisbury steak. Hes not wrong, but we also happen to love that nostalgic dish.

Holmans Table: 644 Bayfield St., St. Paul; 612-800-5298; holmanstable.com

11. Estelle

This southern European spot updates its burger nearly every year, but they are always, always good. Chef Jason Hansen created one of our other favorites in town  the burger at Stewarts, now Gus Gus  and his commitment to a juicy, interesting burger cannot be understated. The current iteration is a double smash with American cheese, bacon and char-broiled tomatoes and topped with a typical burger sauce.

Estelle: 1806 St Clair Ave., St. Paul; 651-330-9648; estellestp.com

12. Sonder Shaker

The buzz around this burger has been strong for the past few years, and after finally getting there to try it, we know why. Two wagyu beef patties are smashed and griddled until they develop a nice, crispy meat skirt. Theyre topped with melty American cheese, house-made pickles and a fairly standard burger sauce. Theres nothing really outrageously different about this burger  its just executed perfectly. Though at $19 ($20 with the restaurants crisp, handcut fries) the price tag is not for the faint of heart or light of wallet. That said, the cocktails here are top-notch, too.

Sonder Shaker: 130 Hennepin Ave. E., Minneapolis; 612-353-6557; sondershaker.com

13. Gus Gus

Weve given lots of love to chef Jason Hansens burger mind, and this double smash burger is based off the one at Stewarts, which occupied the space before Gus Gus moved in last year. The two patties are juicy and beefy and crispy around the edges; exactly what were looking for. The caramelized onions and mustard aioli are both great. The burgers one possible downside is the too-thick American cheese, which makes things so slippery that eating the burger is a challenge. The fries are served with ketchup, but hot tip: Ask for a side of the bagna cauda aioli, which comes with the fries when you order them as an app.

Gus Gus: 128 N. Cleveland Ave., St. Paul; 651-645-4128; gusgusmn.com

14. Everywhen Burger Bar

This burger spot, from restaurateur Jami Olson and executive chef Jose Alarcon, has set up shop in St. Paul this year, after starting on Eat Street in Minneapolis. Like Minneapolis, the St. Paul location is a dual concept, sharing space with taco-centric Centro. Their Nicollet Burger is a single smashed patty with the fixings: American cheese, pickles, lettuce, tomato, onions, mayo. And it rocks. The meat itself is perfectly seasoned and crispy. And with just one patty, its a good lunch burger  not so heavy that it weighs you down for the afternoon. Nothing over-the-top; a classic done right. (Worth noting: Their chicken sandwich is also delightful, but thats another story.)

Everywhen Burger Bar: 750 S. Cleveland Ave., St. Paul, 612-489-5558 or 2412 Nicollet Ave., Minneapolis, 612-452-9785; everywhenburgers.com

15. DeGidios

This burger was created when the now 90-year-old West Seventh Street Italian institution hired chef Shane Oporto, formerly of La Belle Vie and Octo FishBar, to consult on some menu items. Owner Jason Tschida knew he couldnt change any of the old-school Italian favorites, so they worked around the edges of the menu, starting with this absolute stunner of a burger. Its two patties, recently upgraded to wagyu beef, enrobed with nutty taleggio cheese and topped with a proprietary special sauce and a few crisp pickles before being nestled in a pillowy egg bun. And the fries are cut in-house and worth every calorie.

DeGidios: 425 W. 7th St., St. Paul; 651-291-7105; degidios.com

16. Chips Clubhouse

The buzz around this restaurant, which opened during the pandemic, from Hot Hands & Pie owner Tara Coleman and her friend Gina Mangiameli, is still going strong, and a lot of that buzz surrounds the burger.

Mangiameli worked for the Chicago restaurant group that includes Au Cheval, which is the place that inspired our local double-smash-burger trend. You can order Mangiamelis version with one patty or two. I recommend a second, mostly for the meat-to-bun ratio. Share it if you must. The patties are wider than the (properly buttered and toasted) bun, and brought to a perfect crisp on a griddle. Thinly sliced onion and just the right amount of pickle bring the crunch. And a mustardy sauce perks things up.

Chips Clubhouse: 272 S. Snelling Ave., No. 200, St. Paul; 651-330-1617; visitchips.com

17. Kyndred Hearth

Did you know Ann Kim, queen of pizza, has a burger? Consider yourself informed. And as with everything else Kim creates, its delicious. Its a trendy double-smash, adorned with American cheese, deeply caramelized onions, lettuce and fresh pickles and served on a soft bun. I went with friends, and we split the burger and some pizzas, because if you go to an Ann Kim pizza restaurant and dont get pizza, were you even there?

Kyndred Hearth: 2611 Nordic Way, Eagan; 651-689-9800; omnihotels.com/hotels/viking-lakes-minnesota/dining/kyndred-hearth

18. Tongue in Cheek

Chef Leonard Anderson might be known for catering to vegans, but he knows his way around (sustainably raised) meat, too. The restaurants deceptively simple cheeseburger starts with a properly seasoned, juicy patty that is topped with just the right amount of melty American cheese, a great pickley sauce, crisp, shredded romaine and fresh pickles, all nestled in a lovely, squishy bun. The fries are good, too. While youre there, balance things out with some vegetables, because the chefs vegan and vegetarian dishes are some of our favorites in town.

Tongue in Cheek: 989 Payne Ave., St. Paul; 651-888-6148; tongueincheek.biz

19. Petite Leon

Chef Jorge Guzman is a master of flavor building, so its no surprise that his creation is frequently on the lips of those who obsess about burgers. Guzman is on the double-smash train, but he gives it the Oklahoma twist, which involves smashing some thinly sliced onions into those juicy (Peterson beef) patties. Theres melty cheese, but not too much, house-made pickles for pucker and a toasty milk bun. The cocktails and the rest of the menu items here are fabulous, too.

Petite Leon: 3800 Nicollet Ave., Minneapolis; 612-208-1247; petiteleonmpls.com

20. Stepchld

Most everything on this Northeast Minneapolis neighborhood restaurant menu is slightly askew  like, Ethiopian spiced birria tacos or garlic noodles with Japanese flavors  but the burger is pretty straightforward. Its also delicious. Another double-smash, it has good beef flavor and proper char, crisp house-made pickles, and a squishy bun just like most of the others. Two things set it apart though: Super melty Coopers sharp American cheese and a swipe of smoky chipotle aioli. The shoestring fries that accompany it are also delicious.

Stepchld: 24 University Ave. N.E., Minneapolis; 612-354-7409; www.stepchld.com

21. Baldamar

This swanky steakhouse, which is also behind 6Smith in Wayzata, knows its way around a burger. Its lunch burger is a stunner: Two giant patties, plenty of melty swiss cheese and bacon thats cured and smoked in-house join crisp iceberg, a brandy peppercorn sauce and fried onions on an airy Breadsmith roll for a tasty, and utterly filling (really, consider sharing it) sandwich. The hand-cut, deep-golden fries, served with a truffle aioli, arent hurting anything, either. We have yet to try the dinner burger, made with wagyu beef and topped with gouda and American cheeses, but its on our list of things to do.

Baldamar: 1642 W. County Road B2, Roseville; 651-796-0040; baldamar.com

22. 112 Eatery

The spot has become a pilgrimage for burger connoisseurs and its easy to see why. James Beard winner chef Isaac Becker takes the classic burger to gourmet heights. The 112 Cheeseburger with grass-fed beef from Niman Ranch out of Iowa is blended with eggs, sauteed onions and spices for a juicy and tasty 6-ounce patty. Its served with brie on a toasty English muffin, which is off the beaten path, but works wonderfully, allowing diners more enjoyment of the quality, mouthwatering patty without too much bun. House-made pickles with cucumbers with Fresno and Serrano chiles served on the side also add to the deliciousness of this dish.

112 Eatery: 112 N. Third St., Minneapolis; 612-343-7696; 112eatery.com

23. St. Dinette

If this restaurants decision to add plenty of butter to its burgers beef grind is wrong, I dont wanna be right. This simple, juicy, two-patty beauty, slathered with American cheese made in-house from Wisconsin cheddar, Wisconsin gruyere and champagne is absolutely one of our top three burgers. The burger comes unadorned, with a pile of sweet, house-made pickles on the side. You should order it while sitting at the bar, where the talented, friendly bartending staff takes care of all your drink needs and then some.

St. Dinette: 261 E. Fifth St., St. Paul; 651-800-1415; saintdinette.com.

24. Revival

The care that Chef Thomas Boemer puts into all his food is absolutely apparent in this burger. Boemer grinds grass-fed beef in-house, using 80% short rib and 20% brisket. That specific grind, tested over many months, gave Boemer the mouthfeel he was looking for. Its purposely split into two patties to double the char flavor, but its somehow still pink in the middle. The meat is so good it almost doesnt need cheese, but it doesnt hurt, either. Even the slightly undersized bun is designed to put the focus on that fantastic meat. You can top it with really thick-cut bacon for an extra $2, but it doesnt need it. At all. We could go on, but well stop with this: Go get it.

Revival: 525 Selby Ave., St. Paul, 651-340-2355; 4257 Nicollet Ave. S., Minneapolis, 612-345-4516; revivalfriedchicken.com

25. The Lexington

Our love for this half-pound behemoth cannot be overstated. Dearly departed chef Jack Riebels recipe  house-ground steak trimmings to create a simple, beefy, juicy, stupid delicious burger that really does taste like steak  is still going strong. Its topped simply with Swiss cheese, shredded lettuce, pickles, onions and the Lex special sauce. The swanky atmosphere of the Lex only adds to the experience.

The Lexington: 1096 Grand Ave., St. Paul; 651-289-4990; thelexmn.com

26. Borough/Parlour

The Parlour Burger is served unadorned, save for what looks like a few slap-dash sliced pickles on the side, but it would be a mistake to judge this sandwich by its cover. Two thin, perfectly seared patties (made from freshly ground sirloin, rib-eye and brisket) absolutely drip with cheese and are contained by a grilled bun. In Minneapolis, if you want it for lunch, youll have to hit the upstairs stunner, Borough, or get it downstairs at the cocktail-centric Parlour in the evening. But at Parlour St. Paul, you can get it whenever theyre open.

Borough: 730 Washington Ave. N., Minneapolis; 612-354-3135; boroughmpls.com

Parlour St. Paul: 267 W. Seventh St., St. Paul; 651-207-4433; parlourbar.com

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Three of the last seven pandas remaining in the United States will leave sooner than expected, as the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, D.C. announced Wednesday changes for the pandas' departure time frame.

Sad news: In a Facebook post on Wednesday, the zoo revealed that its three pandas  Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and their male cub Xiao Qi Ji  are now scheduled to depart for China in mid-November.

Original plan: The three bears were originally scheduled to leave for China on Dec. 7, the same month when the expiration for the research and breeding agreement between the U.S. and China would expire, according to the announcement in late September.

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Farewell party: The Smithsonian National Zoo held a nine-day farewell party for the panda family, which began on Sept. 23 and ended Oct. 1. Some of the activities offered during the event included hands-on arts and crafts and film screenings of Kung Fu Panda and The Miracle Panda.

There is still time: Those who would like to see the panda family and say their goodbyes in person can still visit the Smithsonian National Zoo while there is still time. If not possible, the zoo also offers a panda cam livestream, available through its website.

What it means for the U.S.: After the three pandas leave in mid-November, the country will only have four pandas remaining, which are taking residence at the Zoo Atlanta in Georgia. Those bears are also likely to be returned to China in 2024.

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A Caddo Parish Grand Jury returned indictments on three murder cases.

Brandon Batiste, Steven Darnell Davis and Kenavion Baker were all charged with second-degree murder in separate cases in Caddo Parish Courts Thursday, Oct. 26.

Batiste, 29, was charged with second-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder and Possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. These charges are in response to his connection with the killing of John Henry Ruffin J., 41, and the wounding of another man outside a downtown Shreveport nightclub July 15, 2023.

Batiste was also indicted on two counts of aggravated battery, five counts of aggravated criminal property damage and illegal carrying of weapons.

Davis, 46, was charged with second-degree murder, four counts of attempted second-degree murder, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and carrying of a firearm on school property. Davis was charged with the Aug. 4, 2023, killing of Bre'Anna Hall, who was shot multiple times while driving in the 1900 block of San Jacinto Street.

Baker, 26, was charged with second-degree murder in connection with the July 5, 2023, killing of Terry Morris, 20. Morris was found in the trunk of a car involved in a police chase that ended in San Augustine County, Texas.

Baker was also charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and armed robbery by use of a firearm.

More: UPDATE: Police have located Shreveport autistic child

Makenzie Boucher is a reporter with the Shreveport Times. Contact her at mboucher@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Shreveport Times: 3 men have been charged with murder by Caddo Parish Grand Jury
In just four months this year, four of the five seats on Pasco School Board saw turnover by election or by resignation. We recommend that voters choose stability by electing three incumbent directors.

In recent years, the districts nearly 19,000 students have fallen short academically as measured by the Washington State Report Card. Less than one-third met English language arts and science standards, and only 22% met math standards. Those rates are well below statewide performance. About one-fifth of Pasco students dont graduate high school in four years.

One can chalk some of those struggles to the pandemic, but Pasco schools lagged other districts even before anyone had heard of COVID-19.

The Tri-City Herald Editorial Board interviewed candidates and reviewed their records and qualifications in deciding whom to recommend in each race. We commend all of the candidates for stepping up to run. Competitive elections elevate the public discourse and give voters a choice, which is a cornerstone of democracy.

Voters can view all of our recommendation and our endorsement interviews online at tri-cityherald.com. In two of the races, we were unable to schedule interviews with both candidates. Normally we would not make a recommendation in those races unless a strong candidate is running against someone with clear disqualifiers.

District No. 1: Vincent Guerrero

The Pasco School Board appointed Vincent Guerrero to the vacant District No. 1 seat in April after interviewing several candidates. We recommend that voters ratify the boards decision. The district covers much of southwest Pasco.

Its easy to see why the board chose him. Guerrero holds a masters degree in public administration. He has two children enrolled in the district. And he is active in the community. He is the sort of people-focused leader who can build consensus and connect with the public.

Guerrero tried hard to make himself available for an endorsement interview, but his opponent, Steve Norberg, was nonresponsive. A look at Norbergs online presence hints at why he might not want the public to know too much. Its a dive into fringe, far-right conspiracies and ideology. Given those views, its doubtful that Norberg would support state and federal law unreservedly.

District No. 2: John Kennedy

John Kennedy ran unopposed for the seat representing downtown and southeast Pasco last year. He has to run again because the new district-based system needs staggered elections. In his short time on the board, he has proved a thoughtful leader who listens to students and parents. We recommend voters stick with him.

Kennedys opponent, Gabriel Lucatero, is barely running a campaign. He provides no contact information, a minimal statement in the Voters Guide and was unresponsive to interview requests. An unserious candidate doesnt deserve serious consideration by voters.

Position 5: Rosa Torres

The Pasco School Board appointed Rosa Torres to fill a vacancy in February. At the time, she became the only Latino member of the board in a district where about three-quarters of students are Hispanic. Voters might recall that the reason the district switched to geographic board positions was to encourage Hispanic representation on the board.

All of which argues for keeping Torres, one of the best candidates we interviewed this year. She represents a critical constituency in the community. Thats important not just because she can speak to the needs and concerns of Hispanic residents but also because it is important for young people to see someone who looks like them in a leadership position. She can connect with the many families that dont speak English at home.

It doesnt hurt that Torres also is eminently qualified for the job. She is a University of Notre Dame-educated finance manager at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland. When the board appointed her, she rose to the top of a field of 16 applicants.

Her opponent, Steve Simmons, is a former school board member who stepped down over a potential conflict of interest and now wants back on the board. He has cultivated political ties that put him at odds with a forward-looking school district and does not bring the same upside as Torres.

Full list of Tri-City Herald Editorial Board 2023 recommendations and videos | Opinion
The Sacramento County Sheriffs Office participated in an operation this week to arrest four alleged Bay Area motorcycle gang members accused of shooting at a man three times in Carmichael, seizing more than $100,000 in cash in the process, authorities said.

The victim, who was 36 when shot and wearing a bulletproof vest, was shot in July in Fair Oaks and survived. San Francisco Hells Angels Motorcycle Club gang members reportedly shot the victim, who sheriffs deputies said was part of a rival gang.

Gang suppression unit detectives, SWAT teams from the FBI and Daly City and corrections officers executed search warrants in seven different locations to arrest four people, according to a news release from the Sheriffs Office. Their search also recovered 15 firearms, about $112,000 in cash and Hells Angels intelligence documents, sheriffs officials said.

The suspects were booked on suspicion of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, shooting at an occupied vehicle, conspiracy with gangs and a gang enhancement, the news release added.

They are due in Sacramento Superior Court Friday for their arraignment.
Two people involved in a melee at an Alabama riverfront dock that caught national headlines over the summer were sentenced, with one receiving jail time and the other ordered to go to anger management classes.

Richard Roberts pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault for his part in the August brawl on a Montgomery river dock. He was sentenced to 32 days, which he will serve on weekends over the course of four months. Roberts will also have to perform 100 hours of community service and pay court costs.

Another defendant, Mary Todd, 21, pleaded guilty to harassment as part of a prearranged plea agreement. She was sentenced to anger management classes and has 90 days to complete the classes and must pay court costs associated with her case.

Three other defendants, Allen Todd, 24, Reggie Ray, 42, and Zachary Shipman, 26, had their cases continued.

The Todds and Shipman were each charged with one count of third-degree assault in the August 5 brawl in Montgomery. Roberts was charged with two counts of third-degree assault, and Ray was charged with disorderly conduct.

After the court accepted his guilty plea, Roberts apologized to victims Damien Pickett and Daniel Moore.

From left, Allen Todd, Mary Todd, Reggie Ray, Richard Roberts and Zachary Shipman - Montgomery Police Department

The fracas, which some believe may have been racially motivated, erupted after a dispute over a dockside parking spot.

It started when the co-captain of the Harriott II cruise ship  carrying 227 passengers  tried to dock in its reserved spot but found a private boat docked in its space, Montgomery Police Chief Darryl Albert said in August.

The Harriott II and its passengers waited about 45 minutes as the co-captain, Damien Pickett, tried to reach the occupants of the docked boat using a PA system. But they were only responded to with obscene gestures, curse words and taunting, Albert said.

Pickett was then picked up by a young dockworker in another vessel and taken to the dock so he could try to speak with the boat occupants and get them to move, Albert said. There, the boat occupants confronted the captain in a very hostile manner, the chief said.

Pickett was attacked by several members of the private boat and was treated at a hospital that night, the chief said. Several Harriott II crew members came to Picketts defense, according to the chief.

The incident, which was caught on video, largely broke down along racial lines in a city with both a fraught history of racial violence and a proud place in the civil rights movement.

Police said Pickett, the Black co-captain of the Harriott II, and the 16-year-old White boy who helped take Pickett to the dock to try to speak with the owner of the private boat were both assaulted.

The mother of the White teen said she heard racist comments directed at Pickett.

You could hear men yelling f**k that n***er as Pickett tried to move a pontoon boat occupying the riverboats docking location, the teens mother said in a sworn statement to police.

But Pickett has told police he didnt think the attack was racially motivated. Pickett was in the courtroom on Friday.

We believe what he is saying, and what he is saying is that he does not believe it was racially motivated whatsoever, Albert said in August. If more evidence comes forward. If theres more proof that this leaned toward more of a hate crime, we will amend those charges and charge appropriately then.

CNN has reached out to Montgomery police for an update on the investigation.

The last of the five defendants taken into custody, Ray, allegedly wielded a folding chair during the brawl. His civil attorney said Ray, the lone Black defendant, was roped into the melee due to a white mob.

Mr. Ray was involuntarily roped into the disorderly conduct initiated by a violent white mob, attorney Lee Merritt said in a statement to CNN after Ray turned himself in to authorities. Mr. Ray will continue to participate with the ongoing investigation concerning the same and is committed to being forthcoming about his limited role in the brawl.

The attorney representing another defendant said he has received threatening letters. Attorney Richard White said he hopes the case will be tried strictly on evidence and will not be influenced by any possible preconceived notions.

I dont care if youre Republican or Democrat, African American, White, whatever. It has no business in courts, in the city of Montgomery or anywhere else in our country. And thats the only thing I ask for, said White, who is representing Roberts.

Investigators looked into hate crime charges

The police chief said local investigators worked with the FBI to determine whether to file hate crime charges in this case.

We were unable to present any inciting-a-riot or racially biased charges at this time, Albert said in August.

Steven Reed, Montgomerys first Black mayor, said its important for us to understand that there was a young White dock worker or someone who worked on the boat who also tried to help and who was attacked as well.

And the citys Black police chief said he did not take the investigation lightly.

Knowing Montgomerys history, knowing all the civil rights things that we went through here in the city of Montgomery and what the means to the nation, we were very amped-up to get this right, Albert said.

Montgomery played a central role in the transatlantic slave trade, when enslaved people would arrive on its riverfront to be sold in the citys slave markets.

It later became the birthplace of the civil rights movement, after Rosa Parks refusal to give up her bus seat to a White man in December 1955 led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott  the first major protest against segregation.

CNNs Alta Spells, Nouran Salahieh, Ryan Young and Dakin Andone contributed to this report.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
Shelby County Corrections deputy Stevon Jones, left, appears in court, Friday, Oct. 27, 2023, in Memphis, Tenn., after being charged in the beating and death of Shelby County Jail inmate Gershun Freeman in 2022. (Mark Weber/Daily Memphian via AP)

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP)  Six corrections deputies pleaded not guilty Friday to charges ranging from murder to aggravated assault in the beating and death of a Black man who was having a psychotic episode in a Memphis jail last year.

In all, nine Shelby County deputies were charged in September in the October 2022 death of Gershun Freeman, 33, who was an inmate at the county jail. Authorities said the jailers punched, kicked and kneeled on Freeman's back during a confrontation after he ran from his jail cell. The beating was caught on jail video that was released to the public.

Indictments show that Stevon Jones and Courtney Parham have been charged with second-degree murder and aggravated assault. Jones also has been charged with an additional count of assault.

Seven other deputies have been charged with aggravated assault resulting in the death of another person. Those officers are Jeffrey Gibson, Anthony Howell, Damian Cooper, Ebonee Davis, Lareko Donwel Elliot and Chelsey Duckett and Charles Gatewood.

The deputies appeared individually before Judge Chris Craft during a Friday hearing. Lawyers for Jones, Parham, Davis, Duckett, Gatewood and Gibson entered not guilty pleas for their clients. Cooper, Elliot and Howell told the judge that they had not yet hired attorneys. Craft set the next hearing for Dec. 1.

The deputies have been placed on administrative leave by the sheriff's office and they are free on bond on the criminal charges. Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner defended his deputies in a September news conference.

Let me be clear. No action  no action  by any Shelby County Sheriffs Office employee caused Mr. Freemans death, Bonner said, adding later that he would be the first one to donate to any fundraiser to help with his deputies legal fees.

Carlissa Shaw, the lawyer for Gatewood, told reporters he is a lifelong Memphian who's done well in his community.

At the end of this, my client will be found not guilty, Shaw said.

Meanwhile, Freemans family has called for the deputies to be sent to prison and accused corrections officers and jail leadership, including Bonner, of showing a pattern of violence against inmates. Freeman's family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Bonner, Chief Jailer Kirk Fields and the county government.

The case has drawn comparisons to the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols after a Jan. 7 traffic stop. The beating was caught on police video that also was publicly released. Five former Memphis Police Department officers have pleaded not guilty to both state and federal charges related to Nichols' death.

The Freeman case is being prosecuted by the office of Davidson County District Attorney Glenn Funk, who was appointed after Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy recused himself.

Freeman had been booked in jail on charges of attacking and kidnapping his girlfriend, according to court records. The lawsuit said Freeman's family believed he was suffering from a mental health crisis when he was arrested,

Earlier this year, Funk released video of Freeman at the jail.

The video shows Freeman was beaten by at least 10 corrections officers on Oct. 5, 2022, after he ran naked from his cell.

In the video, officers wrestle Freeman to the ground and begin to punch, kick and pepper-spray him. They are joined by additional officers. The deputies move with Freeman out of the hallway. From another cameras view, Freeman is seen wrapping himself around an officers legs in a different hallway.

The video shifts to a bank of escalators and Freeman, still naked, runs up one of them. In another hallway, a struggle continues with officers attempting to restrain him before getting him face-down on the ground. They can be seen stepping and kneeling on his back before he becomes still. One officer remained on Freemans back for several minutes before he was lifted.

He appears limp when officers do lift him up, with his head falling forward between his knees and his hands cuffed behind his back. He remains in that position until medical employees arrive, and the video ends.

A medical examiner's report said Freeman died of an exacerbation of cardiovascular disease due to physical altercation and subdual. Freemans manner of death is listed as a homicide in the autopsy report, although the report says that this is not meant to definitively indicate criminal intent. The report also cites probable psychotic disorder as a contributory cause of death.
More than 60 House Republicans are putting pressure on newly minted Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to pass the farm bill.

The omnibus appropriations bill expired at the end of September amid broader disarray in the chamber  casting the future of a wide swath of American food and nutrition programs into doubt.

Now a coalition of agriculture state Republicans are pushing the Houses new leader to pass a new bill before the funding runs out.

The signatories, which include leading Republicans from key agricultural states such as Iowa and South Dakota, called the bills lapse a matter of national security.

They wrote that the funding is essential to keeping American farmers, ranchers and foresters in business and domestically produced food, biofuel and fiber cheap and plentiful.

We urge you and the Conference at-large to be united in ensuring swift passage of a strong Farm Bill that is written by farmers, for farmers, and by rural communities, for rural communities, the signatories wrote.

Top Stories from The Hill

But the push also highlights deep divides among House Republicans.

A majority of them did not sign the letter, including more than 80 percent of the hard-line Freedom Caucus, a group whose opposition to both government spending and bipartisan compromise helped drive Johnsons predecessor from power.

The Freedom Caucus is pushing for steep cuts to aid programs that put food on the table for millions of Americans, in particular the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

SNAP makes up about 80 percent of the total farm bill package, and many Freedom Caucus members have signaled that the new work requirements for recipients  passed as part of the debt ceiling fight this summer  dont go far enough.

Were going to work every solitary angle that we can to curb SNAP, Freedom Caucus member Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) said earlier this year.

Like 32 of his fellow caucus members, Clyde  who has said SNAP is one of the largest government handout programs and that it needs to be curtailed  didnt sign the letter.

The only Freedom Caucus members to sign Fridays letter were GOP Reps. Lauren Boebert (Colo.), Byron Donalds (Fla.), Clay Higgins (La.), Mary Miller-Meeks (Iowa), Barry Moore (Ala.), Ralph Norman (S.C.) and Matt Rosendale (Mont.).

The Freedom Caucus helped scuttle the 2018 farm bill over attempts to both cut SNAP and tie its passage to restrictions on immigration.

The 2018 bill ultimately passed with no Democratic support, after Freedom Caucus and some moderate Republican members switched sides to support it.

More moderate Republicans have opposed cuts to SNAP and federal conservation programs. In October, following a failed vote on the agriculture appropriations bill, Rep. David Valadao (R-Calif.) said that while saving money is important, obviously weve got to do it in a way that doesnt harm agriculture, doesnt harm people who desperately need food assistance.

As they head into what promises to be a brutal fiscal fight, the signatories of the pro-farm bill letter sought to make the case for the farm bill as an economic bargain.

They argued that for the price of $1.4 trillion over five years, the U.S. gets $7.4 trillion in annual activity, and the government rakes in $718 billion in annual taxes.

Those numbers mean the U.S. makes more than twice as much on tax revenues from agriculture than it spends on the farm bill.

For a mere one-fifth of one percent of federal spending, the farm safety net, including commodity support programs and crop insurance, provides farmers and ranchers the foundation they need to manage risk, pass their farm or ranch down to the next generation, and continue producing, they wrote.

But Politico reported in August that Republican leaders expected at least 60 Republican votes against the farm bill, and the omnibus is increasingly controversial on the partys right flank.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
The Atlanta Police Department is investigating a homicide after a man was found dead in the street.

APD said on Thursday night, officers were called out to the 900 block of Stonewall Drive southeast about a person injured.

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When they got to the scene, they found a 61-year-old man who had been stabbed several times in the back. APD said he was pronounced dead on the scene.

Investigators are still working to determine what exactly happened.

At this time, there is no information on a suspect.

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Investigators canvassed the area for witnesses and they are working to get more information.

Police said if anyone knows anything, please call 911.

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IN OTHER NEWS:
Halloween is finally here!

With the clock ticking down to the big day, there's no time to waste planning your costume (although there's always these last-minute costumes if you're in a bind), finalizing the songs on your spooky playlist and wrapping up the last of the season's best Halloween activities.

To caption all the photos youre about to post on Instagram of each and every one of them, you'll need an ample supply of funny Halloween quotes on standby. To spare you the trouble, we've collected the best of the best right here.

After all, Halloween comes just once a year and everyone is sure to want to see your mad jack-o'-lantern carving skills, or the Scooby-Doo group costume you and your pals spent months collaborating on.

If that's the case, make sure to slide in Velma's classic quote, "Mystery is my mistress. I must heed her sweet call," or the TV show's quintessential line; And I would have gotten away with it too, if it werent for you meddling kids!

But there are plenty of other funny quotes to choose from in the list below, including amusing one-liners from some of your favorite Halloween movies like "Hocus Pocus," " Beetlejuice ," " Young Frankenstein " and "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown."

We've also included hilarious Halloween quips by comedians like Jim Gaffigan, Conan O'Brien and Jerry Seinfeld to use any way you see fit.

So, prepare to get your funny bone tickled, because we promise, these funny Halloween quotes are sure to be a real scream.

Funny Halloween Quotes

Best funny Halloween quotes

"Bing, bong. 'Cmon lady, lets go. Halloween, doorbells, candy. Let's pick it up.'"  Jerry Seinfeld

"Happy Halloween to all. And to all a good fright."  Hubie Dubois, "Hubie Halloween"

"Being normal is vastly overrated."  Aggie Cromwell, "Halloweentown"

"I go for a look which I call 'Dead but Delicious.'"  Vladislav, "What We Do in the Shadows"

"Some people are born for Halloween, and some are just counting the days until Christmas."  Stephen Graham Jones

Funny Halloween Quotes

"Let's turn on the juice and see what shakes loose."  Beetlejuice, "Beetlejuice"

"Were not hosting an intergalactic kegger down here."  Zed, "Men in Black"

"Ah, the old express bus to Hell. No lines, no waiting!"  Cyrus, "The Frighteners"

Funny Halloween Quotes

"It's showtime!"  Beetlejuice, "Beetlejuice"

"I dont see how a pumpkin patch can be more sincere than this one."  Linus, "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown"

"Keep calm and carry a wand."  A.W. Jantha, "Hocus Pocus & The All New Sequel"

"Mystery is my mistress. I must heed her sweet call."  Velma, "Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed"

"Dobby never meant to kill. He only meant to maim, or seriously injure.  Dobby, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows"

Funny Halloween Quotes

"Run for it? Runnings not a plan! Runnings what you do once a plan fails!"  Earl Bassett, "Tremors"

Isnt the view beautiful? It takes my breath away. Well, it would if I had any.  The Corpse Bride, The Corpse Bride

And I would have gotten away with it too, if it werent for you meddling kids!  Villian, "Scooby-Doo"

Pardon me, boy, is this the Transylvania station?  Dr. Frederick Frankenstein, Young Frankenstein

I dont understand it. I went trick-or-treating and all I got was a bag full of rocks.  Charlie Brown, Its the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

The suspense is terrible. I hope itll last.  Willy Wonka, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory

Funny Halloween Quotes

Cross your heart ... hope to die ... stick a needle in your eye ... shake your bottom if you got em.  Lynn Farmer, Double, Double, Toil and Trouble

Theres children throwing snowballs, instead of throwing heads, theyre busy building toys and absolutely no ones dead!  Jack Skellington, The Nightmare Before Christmas

Im just like any modern woman trying to have it all. Loving husband, a family. Its just, I wish I had more time to seek out the dark forces and join their hellish crusade.  Morticia Addams, Addams Family Values

Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker.  Ogden Nash, Reflections on Ice Breaking

Was deciding if I should dress as Batman or Spiderman for Halloween, when I realized Im a grown man. So, Batman.  Stephen Colbert

Funny Halloween Quotes

For Halloween, Im going as that feeling you get at a store when you try to refold a sweater property and put it back on the shelf.  Rob Delaney

How many girls are telling themselves right now: Dammit Becky learn your lesson; even on Halloween, glitter is NEVER worth it.  Anne Kendrick

Weve made it to Sunday. Halloween is still 4 days away. We have to stay strong together. It will all be over soon.  Jesse Tyler Ferguson

As a kid, Halloween was amazing. You dress like a superhero, you bang on your neighbors door, and they give you candy. I do that today, and my neighbor wants me arrested.  Jim Gaffigan

Now Halloweens over, its time to start thinking about the next time youre gonna annoy your neighbors  caroling.  Ellen DeGeneres

Candy was my whole life when I was a kid. The first ten years of my life, I think the only clear thought I had was get candy. Family, friends, school; theyre just obstacles in the way of the candy.  Jerry Seinfeld

Funny Halloween Quotes

Every October Im kidnapped and forced to scare birds at a local pumpkin patch.  Conan OBrien

Halloween was confusing. All my life my parents said, Never take candy from strangers. And then they dressed me up and said, Go beg for it. I didnt know what to do! Id knock on peoples doors and go, Trick or treat...no, thank you.  Rita Rudner

The first time you hear the concept of Halloween when youre a kid, your brain cant even process the information. Youre like, What is this? What did you say about giving out candy? Who is giving out candy? Everyone that we know is just giving out candy?  Jerry Seinfeld

Its that special time of year where we voluntarily imbibe pumpkin-spiced lattes: the coffee that tastes like a candle.  John Oliver

Just put on my Halloween costume! This year Im going as Guy Who Thinks Halloween Is On October 18th.  Stephen Colbert

Little tip, when you show up to a Halloween party not dressed up, its the same as showing up to a normal party in a costume.  Josh Groban

Funny Halloween Quotes

Halloween is right around the corner. You can tell because all the stores are decked out for Christmas.  Stephen Colbert

If the ghost of a murdered girl really existed I think shed have something better to do than haunt people who dont forward chain emails.  Rhys James

This Halloween Im going as a human disaster that way I dont have [to] get dressed up.  Jim Gaffigan

Kinda spooky that Halloween has never fallen on Friday the 13th.  Stephen Colbert

Short funny Halloween quotes

I ate John. I wept the entire meal. Even though he tasted delicious.  Nandor, What We Do in the Shadows

I didnt know if you have kids you need five different costumes.  Mindy Kaling

How many more months of Halloween this year?  Jim Gaffigan

Funny Halloween Quotes

Every day is Halloween, isnt it? For some of us.  Tim Burton

For Halloween Im going as a narcissist.  Conan OBrien

On Halloween, the parents sent their kids out looking like me.  Rodney Dangerfield

Halloween is just finals week for parents.  Jim Gaffigan

Funny Halloween Quotes

Halloween: the night that fathers get their hearts broken when they see their daughters costume.  Whitney Cummings

Once again, my Halloween costume this year will be Sexy Weird Al.  Weird Al Yankovic

Funny Halloween movie quotes

Its pronounced Fronkensteen.  Dr. Frederick Frankenstein, Young Frankenstein

Wench! Trollop! You buck-toothed, mop-riding firefly from hell!  Billy Butcherson, Hocus Pocus

If you were the only suspect in a senseless bloodbath  would you be standing in the horror section?  Randy Meeks, Scream

Everything in this room is eatable. Even Im eatable! But that is called cannibalism, my dear children, and is in fact, frowned upon in most societies.  Charlie Bucket, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Funny Halloween Quotes

Ill stop wearing black when they make a darker color. Wednesday Addams, The Addams family

Oh, look. Another glorious morning. Makes me sick!  Winifred Sanderson, Hocus Pocus

I attended Juilliard, Im a graduate of the Harvard business school. I travel quite extensively. I lived through the Black Plague and had a pretty good time during that.  Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice

Trick or treats come only once a year, and I missed it by sitting in a pumpkin patch with a blockhead.  Sally, Its the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Do you know how much work it is to decapitate an entire barbershop quartet?  Grandma, The Addams Family 2

Funny Halloween Quotes

Never say, whos there? Dont you watch scary movies? Its a deathwish. You might as well come out to investigate a strange noise or something.  Ghostface, Scream

Thats nothing compared to the fury of a woman who has been cheated out of trick-or-treats.  Linus, Its the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Some of our clothes are from victims. You might bite someone and then, you think, Oooh, those are some nice pants!  Viago, What We Do in the Shadows

How many times do I have to tell you? There is no such thing as ghouls, ghosts, goblins or monsters! Listen up, there is absolutely, absolutely no such thing as  MONSTER!  Fred, Scooby-Doo: The Movie

Funny Halloween Quotes

Maybe you could help me get out of here, you know, because I got to tell you, this dead thing... its just too creepy.  Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice

You know, Ive always wanted a child. And now I think Ill have one on toast!  Winifred Sanderson, Hocus Pocus

One thing about living in Santa Carla I never could stomach: all the damn vampires.  Grandpa, The Lost Boys

I would die for her. I would kill for her. Either way, what bliss.  Gomez Addams, The Addams Family

Anyway, you cant scare her. Shes sleeping with Prince Valium tonight. Lydia, Beetlejuice

Funny Halloween Quotes

Normally I dont spend time with guys like you, but a house just tried to eat me, so  youve got one hour.  Jenny, Monster House

This is my costume. Im a homicidal maniac, they look just like everyone else.  Wednesday Addams, The Addams Family

Well, now, let me put it this way. If all the corpses buried around here were to stand up all at once, wed have one hell of a population problem.  Grandpa, The Lost Boys

There are three things that Ive learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics and the Great Pumpkin.  Linus, Its the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Funny Halloween Quotes

The undead surround me. Have you ever talked to a corpse? Its boring.  Jack Goodman, American Werewolf in London

It obviously doesnt do any good to pull your heads off in front of people if they cant see you!  Juno, Beetlejuice

Has it ever occurred to you that it might be unsettling to see you arise from the grave to visit me?  David Kessler, American Werewolf in London

Thats twice this month youve slipped nightshade into my tea and run off.  Dr. Finkelstein, The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Sir, what you had there is what we refer to as a focused, non-terminal, repeating phantasm or a class-five full-roaming vapor. A real nasty one, too.  Dr. Raymond Stantz, Ghostbusters

Funny Halloween Quotes

I cant believe Im in a graveyard with a strange man hunting for vampires on a school night.  Buffy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

I think I should warn you all, when a vampire bites it, its never a pretty sight. No two bloodsuckers go the same way. Some yell and scream, some go quietly, some explode, some implode, but all will try to take you with them.  Edgar Frog, The Lost Boys

Its not easy having a good time! Even smiling makes my face ache.  Dr. Frank-n-Furter, The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Candy doesnt have to have a point. Thats why its candy.  Charlie Bucket, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

If Id known you were coming, I couldve made up the dungeon.  Morticia Addams, The Addams Family"

Funny Halloween Quotes

You dont know me, but I used to live in your dead mother.  Maggot, Corpse Bride

Mom, tell the Zombie to stop saying stuff about me!  Courtney Babcock, ParaNorman

Calm down! You make me wanna throw up in some tin foil and eat it!  Skull, Monster House

How bout a bumper sandwich, Boogerlips?  Ernest P. Worrell, Earnest Scared Stupid

And for our sins, a hideous creature has been sent to punish us all! Repent! Repent! Les you, too, taste the wrath of  the Were-Rabbit!  Reverend Clement Hedges, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

Funny Halloween Quotes

I am reminded of a line from Erich Segals Love Story: Love means never having to say youre sorry. However, it is with sincere regret that I must now kill all of you.  Barnabas Collins, Dark Shadows

Im just like any modern woman trying to have it all. Loving husband, a family. Its just, I wish I had more time to seek out the dark forces and join their hellish crusade.  Morticia Addams, Addams Family Values

This is what happens when youre a vampire. You have to watch everyone die. Your mother and father. All your friends. Sometimes brutal, like slipping and falling onto a giant spike. Or falling asleep in an autumn pile of leaves and having some of them block your windpipe.  Deacon, What We Do in the Shadows

"Some people have swimming pools, others have private cemeteries. It can happen.  Sara Evers, The Haunted Mansion

This article was originally published on TODAY.com
Tove Udsholt, now 83, was barely three when she and her mother had to flee the Nazis (Camille BAS-WOHLERT)

In October 1943 Tove Udsholt, who had just turned three, had fled Copenhagen with her mother to escape the Gestapo. She ended up alone, but a small fishing village took her in.

Around 95 percent of Denmark's 7,000 Jews escaped deportation, either by fleeing to neighbouring neutral Sweden by boat or, for around 150 children like Udsholt, by hiding in Denmark.

Many children were reunited with their loved ones after the country was liberated at the end of World War II.

Udsholt however, chose to stay in Gilleleje, the small village north of Copenhagen that adopted her. And years later, she would return there to retire.

Occupied by Nazi Germany in April 1940, Denmark chose to collaborate with the Nazis and maintained its own institutions until the end of the summer of 1943.

Danish Jews, who did not have to wear the yellow star Jews were forced to wear by the Nazis, were not at first worried.

But everything changed at the end of September 1943, when Berlin ordered a raid on the country's Jewish community.

The information was leaked and Denmark's Jews knew they had to act.

"My mother told me she had received a message on September 30 that she would have to flee with me," Udsholt told AFP in Gilleleje.

"Since my father was Christian he didn't have to come."

It was the first of several separations, and one which was never mended.

- Gestapo raid -

Carrying just one bag, Udsholt and her mother met up with most of her mother's side of the family at Copenhagen's train station.

Together they took the train to Gilleleje, a village facing the Swedish coast, where they were hidden away in a hay barn while waiting to make the crossing to Sweden.

But Udsholt's mother was concerned that her daughter's incessant chatter would get them caught.

A local fisherman, Svend Andreasen, took a liking to the talkative little girl.

From time to time, he offered to take her home to his wife for a few hours so she could play freely and escape the confined, chilly space.

He and his wife Ketty later offered to let the little girl stay with them so her mother, Paula Mortensen, could find a place for them to live in Sweden.

The Gestapo found and arrested 86 Jews stowed away in a Gilleleje church barn, which had until then turned a blind eye to the influx of refugees in the village.

Fearing an imminent raid, Mortensen had to act quickly.

"She told herself: 'This is what is best for my daughter'," Udsholt told AFP.

"I started to cry, I still remember," recalled the vivacious 83-year-old.

"At this moment I'm totally alone. I don't really know these people."

But Andreasen and his wife, both in their 40s and with no children, quickly gained the little girl's confidence.

From their modest home, they could see the Swedish coast.

They "told me: 'You see those lights over there, that's your mother'", said Udsholt.

"Holding my cuddly toy, I looked, and ... throughout the rest of the war, in the evenings I would stand on a chair in the window and tell my mother what I did that day."

- 'Good friends' -

The weeks passed and Udsholt blossomed, protected by the villagers.

Andreasen "went around to most homes to tell them they had taken in a little fair-haired girl. That was my saving grace, because no one knew I was Jewish."

As soon as soldiers approached when she was playing outdoors, villagers would call her to come inside.

"I was afraid (of the Germans), because Svend had warned me that I was never to talk to the men dressed in green or those with long black coats because those were the people who were going after my mother," she recalled.

When Denmark was liberated in May 1945, Udsholt's mother, who had had no contact with her daughter for almost two years, returned.

She came to collect her child on August 24 -- her fifth birthday.

But back in Copenhagen, Udsholt missed the sea air and village life.

The time apart took its toll on her parents, who never reunited. Udsholt ended up living with her mother, and the two fought a lot.

Finally, when she was seven, her mother agreed to let her go live in Gilleleje with Svend and Ketty Andreasen, who formally adopted her at age 18.

"My mother and I were good friends for most of her life, but we were not mother and daughter," she said with a heavy sigh.

cbw/ef/po/jj
About 900 U.S. troops have deployed or will soon go to the Middle East to further bolster U.S. force protection capabilities in the region, the Pentagons top spokesman said Thursday.

These include forces that have been on prepare to deploy orders, and which are deploying from the continental United States, press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said.

The units are meant to accompany and operate a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery and Patriot battalions that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin earlier this week ordered to be spread across the region.

The THAAD battery will come from Fort Bliss, Texas. Patriot batteries will come from Fort Sill, Okla., additional Patriot and Avenger batteries will ship from Fort Liberty, N.C. Associated air defense headquarters elements will be sent from Fort Bliss and Fort Cavazos, Texas, Ryder noted.

He added that the forces would not be going to Israel and are intended to support regional deterrence efforts and further bolster U.S. force protection capabilities.

Tensions in the Middle East continue to rise over the Israel-Hamas war. U.S. and coalition forces have been attacked at least 12 times in Iraq and four times in Syria since Oct. 17. The assaults have consisted of a mix of one-way attack drones and rockets.

Twenty-one American troops have suffered minor injuries from these attacks, many of them traumatic brain injuries (TBIs).

The majority of the casualties stemmed from attacks on Oct. 17-18, when 17 U.S. personnel at al-Tanf Garrison in Syria sustained minor injuries  15 of whom were diagnosed with TBIs  and four individuals reported TBIs at al-Asad base in Iraq.

The most recent attack on American forces came earlier Thursday in Iraq, though it failed, Ryder said.

The United States has not provided evidence as to who has been behind such attacks but has claimed that Iran is to blame.

Im not going to have more specific information to provide to you from here in terms of specific groups that have claimed responsibility [for attacking Americans], other than to say we know that these groups are affiliated with Iran, Ryder said.

Since Hamas first attacked Israel on Oct. 7, the United States has sought to bolster its forces in the region amid fears the conflict could grow.

The Pentagon earlier this month sent warships and fighter aircraft to the area, including two aircraft carriers and thousands of troops.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
A year out from the 2024 presidential election, voters will decide on some important statewide races and referendums that will clue the country in about their mood next year.

Republicans scored the first blow by easily flipping Louisiana's gubernatorial seat, where Attorney General Jeff Landry coasted to victory earlier this month.

The win shocked many political observers, who thought at the very least there would be a runoff election. It signals a hard right turn for the state.

But Democrats and their progressive allies remain optimistic the Pelican State won't be the closing narrative before the nation's eyes turn to the White House contest.

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, who is running for Louisiana Governor, hosts a campaign event with a special guest appearance from Donald Trump Jr. Wednesday evening, September 13, 2023, at The Stage at Silver Star in Bossier City.

There are four separate fields where voters can have an impact, including an abortion amendment in Ohio and a surprising nail-biter for governor in Mississippi.

Other elections that might have national ramifications are the Virginia legislative races, where Gov. Glenn Youngkin (still mentioned as a possible presidential contender) is looking to consolidate power on his conservative agenda.

There is also Kentucky, where Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear is looking to fend off a Republican foe in a state the GOP has dominated. Here's what you need to know about these crucial races ahead of Election Day.

Ohio could mark another abortion win for progressives

Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that guaranteed abortion rights, activists looking to protect access to the procedure have scored six straight wins in statewide referendums.

The winning streak is longer if you count the state Supreme Court race in Wisconsin as a proxy battle.

Progressive activists are bullish that the trend will continue when voters answer their position on Ohio's Issue 1, a ballot initiative that seeks to fortify abortion rights in the state Constitution.

Laura Mather stands in support for abortion rights during the rally in front of the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus on Oct. 8, 2023.

"We have not yet lost when the vote has gotten in front of the people," said Rachel O'Leary Carmona, executive director of Women's March.

"The post-Dobbs decision has demonstrated that public opinion has moved on abortion for the first time in many decades, and it has moved away from these types of bans and restrictions and toward reproductive freedom," she said, referencing the Supreme Court's decision last year.

A USA TODAY Network/Suffolk University poll in July found roughly 58% of Buckeye State voters supported the statewide proposal, which would effectively eliminate many of the GOP-sponsored bans and restrictions on abortion.

Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, a leading anti-abortion group, told USA TODAY that there is a still a chance the conservative side could win the referendum in Ohio but that anti-abortion activists have emphasized different strategies, including lobbying state legislators on restrictions.

He described ballot initiatives as "soundbite voting" that gives people a shallow idea of what they're voting about and what abortion really entails, for instance.

"The real focus, and the real progress, has been on the legislative level rather than these direct ballot initiatives," Pavone said. "And the reason that I say that's the legislative process more important, is because that's where people can really wrestle with what abortion is what abortion does, and enable under what conditions it should be legal."

Youngkin eyes Virginia wins over White House bid

Virginia's Youngkin remains a darling of the national Republican Party as donors continue to tug at him to run for president in 2024.

But just as many conservative-leaning Virginia voters are urging the 56-year-old incumbent to stay put and focus on the GOP winning control of the state Legislature, where all 140 seat are up for grabs this fall.

New legislative maps in Virginia have stirred the political pot by creating new, open seats that have stuffed multiple incumbent lawmakers in the same districts, either forcing retirements or sparking bitter battles.

But if Virginia voters send a message to the rest of the nation ahead of 2024, it won't be solely about local leaders. At stake is Youngkins conservative agenda, including a 15-week abortion ban Democratic legislators have blocked.

Virginia Governor Glen Youngkin addresses the Economic Club of Washington's luncheon event at the Marriott Marquis on September 26, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Credit: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images)

J. Miles Coleman, associate editor of Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia, said it would be a blow to Youngkin's potential national ambitions with base voters if his party comes up short in November.

"Because unlike say (Georgia) Gov. Brian Kemp or (Florida) Gov. Ron DeSantis, he really hasn't been able to pass a whole slate of conservative legislation that he can point to and say to Republicans, 'This is why you should nominate me,'" Coleman said.

On the flip side, he said, if Democrats keep control, Youngkin could keep his relatively high approval ratings and be recast as a more moderate leader who can work with opponents.

All of this matters because Virginia more than most states is looked at as one of the nations best political fortune-tellers.

Democrats still hopeful for Mississippi upset

Republicans at the start of the year told USA TODAY that Democrats were selling the country a "mirage" to think the Mississippi governor's seat could be flipped.

The deeply conservative state hasn't had Democratic chief executive in roughly two decades, but incumbent Tate Reeves' low approval rating and Democratic challenger Brandon Presley's record fundraising and disciplined messaging has kept national eyes on the contest.

Now, in the final weeks of the fall election, there are signs this could be a nail-biter.

For much of the race Reeves has struggled to get at 50% or more in most polls, which have consistently shown Presley, a state utility regulator and second cousin to Elvis Presley, within reach.

At the beginning of October, for instance, a survey had Reeves up by as much as 8 percentage points at 51%. The most recent yardstick of the race, conducted by Public Policy Polling on behalf of the Democratic Governors Association, had Presley down by just 1% with neither candidate above 50%.

Some Mississippi Republicans are sounding an alarm, especially after election forecasters with The Cook Political Report moved the Magnolia State contest from "likely Republican" to the "lean Republican" column.

Jessica Taylor, an editor with Cook, said Reeves still holds the edge, but Mississippi has "morphed into a competitive fight."

Is Beshear unbeatable in Kentucky? Republicans look to take back the state

Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear continues to vex Republicans, who, led by challenger Daniel Cameron, the state's attorney general, have thrown every kitchen-sink attack ad to bring the popular incumbent's poll numbers down.

The Bluegrass State is controlled by GOP officials in almost every other corner, from supermajorities in the Legislature to other statewide offices, save its urban center of Louisville.

But Beshear, son of former Gov. Steve Beshear , has been immune, despite Cameron's heavy reliance on crime, COVID-19 shutdowns and culture war issues that typical spell doom for Democrats.

"Beshear has run circles around Cameron in terms of fundraising and getting his message out," Coleman said. "Think he's done a good job of painting, you know, making his own brand that kind of separates him from the national party."

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear

One area where that advantage has played out is on abortion, which the Beshear campaign has leaned into with hard-hitting TV spots.

In one such ad, a young woman who says she was raped as a 12-year-old child looks at the camera and slams Cameron for supporting a state law that prohibits victims of rape and incest from obtaining abortions.

What could change the race dramatically in the attorney general's favor, some observers suggest, is a last-minute appearance by former President Donald Trump, who has endorsed Cameron.

Trump is immensely popular in Kentucky, but that didn't work out for the Republican incumbent Beshear defeated in 2019.

Sabato's Crystal Ball rates Kentucky as "leans Democratic," and, at the moment, Cameron winning would be considered an upset by most prognosticators.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 2023 races to watch: Ohio's abortion vote, Virginia's GOP leaders
A survivor of Acapulcos Hurricane Otis has told of the terrifying hours spent sheltering during the Category 5 storm  and how there was little warning that a deadly disaster was imminent.

Alexa Reza, 24, was on vacation at the Vidanta Acapulco Hotel, which faces the Pacific Ocean in the resort town, when she began to hear about the possibility of a hurricane on Tuesday.

At 3pm, through the Vidanta hotel supermarket, we were told that there was a possibility of a hurricane hitting the area, but that it was passing by and was going to disintegrate, she told The Independent.

On Twitter and other government pages there was no strong news that something would happen.

It wasnt until 8pm that people learned that the hurricane was going to make landfall in Acapulco, Ms Reza said.

The lobby of the Vidanta Acapulco Hotel on Thursday, October 26, after hurricane Otis passed through the city of Acapulc... (Alexa Reza)

We returned from the beach and it was raining very hard. We were able to go buy some groceries and we returned to the hotel, we had dinner in the room and there we received a notice that the hurricane would arrive [at midnight] but that we would be in the refuge only two hours, therefore we would be there until approximately 2am.

Hurricane Otis roared ashore shortly after midnight on Wednesday with 165mph winds and torrential rainfall, slamming into the coastal city.

Otis is the strongest-ever storm to make landfall on Mexicos west coast. The hurricane underwent explosive intensification from Category 1 to Category 5 in just 12 hours, catching forecasters by surprise. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) described it as a nightmare scenario for the region.

While we took shelter, more people arrived and thanks to them we knew that the situation was critical outside, Ms Reza said. Many people had their roofs fall on them, others were crushed by palm trees. The government never warned of the hurricane.

Alexa Rezas hotel room at the Vidanta Acapulco Hotel after hurricane Otis hit the city of Acapulco. (Alexa Reza)

Not even the inhabitants of Acapulco knew of the disaster that was coming, which is why no one took care of themselves or went for food.

At least 27 people are dead and four are missing in Acapulco, according to Mexican officials, although those figures were met with distrust after local media said there were bodies in the city had not been recovered.

At 6am, conditions had slightly improved and the hotel guests were able to leave to survey the damage outside, she said.

We had to go through mattresses full of glass, step on televisions, jump over fragments of what was once a ceiling. There. I [cut] open my forehead slightly on an iron beam, Ms Reza said.

There were bare wires everywhere. We returned to the shelter, they gave us a piece of sandwich with fruit for breakfast and later bread with egg and beans.

In the aftermath of the hurricane, much of the city lay in ruins. Rural villages had also been badly-hit in Guerrero state, one of Mexicos poorest regions.

The surroundings of the Vidanta Acapulco Hotel in Mexico after the passage of hurricane Otis. (Alexa Reza)

On Friday, large parts of the city remained without power or drinking water. While there was some looting of expensive items, many people were searching stores for food and toilet paper.

Photos and videos showed a jumble of smashed yachts in the marina. Apartment buildings and hotels had hundreds of windows blown out, facades stripped off and collapsed ceilings.

Approximately 80 per cent of the citys hotels were damaged by the storm, according to president of the Mexican Hotel Association, Miguel Angel Fong. One estimate put the damage in Acapulco at a minimum of $10bn.

On Friday, government officials said that supplies and medical personnel were now getting into Acapulco and people were being evacuated.

Mr Lopez Obrador also said a house-to-house census would begin on Friday. Everyone will receive support, more than 400,000 houses will be visited, he said.

Still on Friday, hundreds of people were posting digital posters of loved ones online and joining neighbourhood WhatsApp groups in a desperate hunt for the missing.
The ongoing social media debate about dating at The Cheesecake Factory and other chain restaurants, explained.

It was only a few years ago that Drake was boasting about his love for The Cheesecake Factory, but now social media users are singing a different song. Recently, a young woman named Alicia went viral on TikTok after she recorded a video sharing her disdain for a man taking her to The Cheesecake Factory as a first date.

The social media debate about dating at The Cheesecake Factory and other chain restaurants, explained. (Photo by John Nacion/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

This is the Cheesecake Factory, yall, she said in the video. This is a chain restaurant. Who takes someone that looks like this to a chain restaurant? [] Look at me, I can not go into the Cheesecake Factory.

As the woman shared her disapproval of going to a chain restaurant for a first date, she and her date have a conversation in the video about her feelings. According to Alicia, chain restaurants like The Cheesecake Factory dont meet her expected standards when it comes to a first date.

When you take out a beautiful woman, and youre courting her, youre supposed to take care of her. Youre supposed to cover her, protect her, cherish her, treat her well.

In Alicias eyes, those obligations are not honored if her date decides to take her to The Cheesecake Factory. The twist comes during the recorded conversation; while her date agrees with her assessment of how to court a woman, he also explains that because she made him wait an hour past their scheduled meeting time, they were no longer able to make the reservation at a more upscale restaurant as he had planned. Since the virality of the original video, Alicia and her date posted a follow-up interview in which she admitted having a bad attitude about the situation but still stood by her beliefs.

While some social media users debated about who was right and who was wrong in the situation, others couldnt help but ask themselves, What is wrong with The Cheesecake Factory?

First of all, what the hell is wrong with The Cheesecake Factory? asked Stephen A. Smith in response to the viral video. Aint nothing wrong with The Cheesecake Factory. Not only is there nothing wrong with The Cheesecake Factory, [but] The Cheesecake Factory aint that damn cheap.

Although it is a chain restaurant, its prices are in the higher range, with appetizers between $13 and $20 and entrees costing as much as $50.

The View host Sunny Hostin joined the conversation to share her appreciation for the restaurant, specifically its martinis and Tex-Mex egg rolls.

I want to stand up for The Cheesecake Factory cause I go there every week, said Hostin during the segment. []Its really good.

While the recent conversation has centered on The Cheesecake Factory, there have long been social media debates about what constitutes the appropriate first date. So much so, a list of 28 places women absolutely refuse to go on a first date has been circulating across social media platforms. Featuring a series of chain restaurants, the list also labels coffee dates, movie dates, nightclubs, and in-home dates as unacceptable.

While women should be skeptical of some of the date ideas on the list, like going to someones house, for the sake of safety, as the debate proves, the quality of the other date locations on the list is definitely up for interpretation. Time and time again, these social media conversations are a reminder that although the desire for romantic partnership is generally universal, details on who and how you date are completely subjective.

Haniyah Philogene is a multimedia storyteller and Lifestyle reporter covering all things culture. With a passion for digital media, she goes above and beyond to find new ways to tell and share stories.

TheGrio is FREE on your TV via Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku, and Android TV. TheGrios Black Podcast Network is free too. Download theGrio mobile apps today! Listen to Writing Black with Maiysha Kai.

The post Would you accept or take a date to The Cheesecake Factory? appeared first on TheGrio.
Earlier this month headlines across Idaho reported some version of: Six Ada County Republican Party officers resign. The principled heroism on display begs further examination.

Resigning were Adas Republican County chair, 1st, 2nd and 3rd vice-chairs, treasurer and state committeewoman. These six comprise the brains and muscle of the most successful turnaround political organization in Idaho politics.

The residual loyalists to state chair Dorothy Moon minimized the event claiming it reflects a minority, and 15 Executive Board members remain. This sleight-of-hand was contrived by adding, since the Partys summer meeting, twelve executive board seats not elected by Ada Countys 197 precinct leaders.

In reality those resigning account for nearly every party official responsible for the phenomenal Republican comeback in Ada County politics.

For decades, pundits predicted Idaho would follow Oregon and Washington and turn Democratic because of a heavily populated, deep-blue state capital. And it started to happen. The small enclave of safe Democratic seats in north Boise grew until it encompassed most of the city.

Five of Idahos seven Senate democrats and nine of the Houses eleven come from Boise.

But the Ada GOP team, led by a faithful Christian and conservative Victor Miller, toiled to build, recruit, and fundraise, leading Ada Republicans to success again in county elections. A once all-Democrat county commission turned Republican. The steady spread of unquestioned Democratic turf was halted, forcing Boise Democrats to once again campaign hard to keep their seats.

Adas Republican Team resignations are not the capitulation characterized by Moon. Theirs was a principled protest, listing clear irreconcilable differences. Their reasons are universally accurate, pointing out millstones dragging down Republicans across Idaho.

The list is: (1) a bias against growing the party, imposing waiting periods on Hispanics and blue-collar workers seeking to switch Republican, (2) self-anointing purity squads to tell voters they nominated the wrong person, (3) picking nominees before they win the partys primary, (4) removing Republican Women, Young Republicans and College Republicans from decision-making, and (5) imposing a pay-to-play on delegates elected to represent local Republicans at the state convention.

These reasons repudiate a mindset that abandons the necessity of appealing to voters. They uncover an arrogance toxic to party health, especially in Ada County where gains are hard-fought, and necessitate convincing voters that their views and values are welcome in the Grand Ole Party.

The push by Moon to have mid-level party loyalists conduct purity inquisitions and vetting-before-voting causes havoc across Idaho. The timing couldnt be worse. There is widespread belief that politics have been infected with cronyism, with many voters remembering a panel of Moon loyalists endorsing a replacement legislator later convicted of raping a statehouse intern.

Gone is the conservative ideal that government is answerable to, and only to, the people. No elected official in Idaho takes an oath to a party or its platform. The oath taken is quite the opposite: promising to execute constitutional duties benefiting all citizens.

Elected officials have the same duty to honor party wishes that they do for major donor demands. It is unwise to accept support you intend to repudiate, but no donor should control the behavior of an elected official. Nor, in a free society, should a party.

Injecting between voters and their voices in government a layer of accountability to a party is un-American, more like the control of authoritarian communists. American parties can exercise a positive influence, helping good people win elections. Punishing those who dont answer to a small cadre of unaccountable partisans is not an enumerated power in any constitution.

Adas Republican leaders resigned for a good reason: they refuse to further a role for their party that is inherently self-destructive.

It is revealing that these resignations did not include stepping down as precinct officers, positions answerable directly to voters. Dorothy Moons dismissal of these resignations as sour grapes may ring hollow when voters in 2024 decide whose view of Republicanism is correct.

Trent Clark was Idaho Republican State Chair at the peak of its strength in the Idaho legislature. He was twice inducted into the Idaho Republican Hall of Fame, and nationally awarded the Eisenhower Commission for Service to the Republican Party.
New York mayor Eric Adams sure seems to think the city he runs is either actively being destroyed or already in absolute ruin.

On day one, I took the subway system, I felt unsafe. I saw homeless everywhere. People were yelling on the trains. There was a feeling of disorder, Adams said, shortly after taking office in January 2022.

Then, that May: In my professional career, I have never witnessed crime at this level, Adams said about crime rates in the city (which were, in fact, still near record lows).

And this September: This issue will destroy New York City, Adams told a group of Upper West Side constituents, speaking about the arrival of thousands of migrants in the city over the past year.

This rhetorical tick of Adams is a bit unsettling if you live in New York: Despite the mayoral prognosis, the city is very much still standing and, by many accounts, thriving.

But if you dont live in the city, Adamss perspective is given a good amount of airtime and credibility both on right-wing cable news and on local broadcast news, where the mayor of New York has always been given an outsize role as the face of whatever new crisis Americas biggest city is dealing with. From the ring of suburbs and beyond, through the prism of TV news, it would appear that New York has fallen, with its mayor just barely holding all the pieces together.

Adams, whod never held a post with much (if any) power before narrowly emerging from a chaotic 2021 Democratic primary, likes to position himself this way. Much like Donald Trump with his I alone can fix it speech at the 2016 Republican National Convention, Adams portrays himself as a heroic figure perfectly shaped for the momentone in which New York City, after eight years of liberal governance (that Adams at the time steadfastly supported), has to be put back together by a reactionary figure who has repeatedly claimed hes been chosen by God to be mayor.

Why would he deviate from this playbook now?

I worked on a lot of campaigns, and when you run the campaign and then you win, and you get into office, you want to keep your core message alive, and the fact that New York City is being destroyed, that was Adamss core message, Bill Neidhardt, a former press secretary for Adamss predecessor, Bill de Blasio, and now a political consultant, told The New Republic. Hes just being a disciplined politician by reminding everyone that the city is falling apart.

For his mythos to have much currency, Adams, a former NYPD captain, had to embellish just how much difference one elected official can have on a city (crime statistics rarely correlate with policing strategies) and also the degree to which the previous Democratic administration failed New York. While former Mayor de Blasio silently supported Adams during the Democratic primary, Adams has spent his entire time in office bashing him, especially on criminal justice issues. Adams has blasted reforms de Blasio supported, both big and small: His attempts to close the abattoir of Rikers Island and install a modicum of police reforms have come under derision, as has his leadership of the city itself.

In the run-up to the 2022 midterm elections, Adams was front-and-center in promoting the image of a crime wave in Americas cities, one that was amplified by local news. As New York gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin, a Republican, and California Representative Kevin McCarthy, who was then House minority leader, bashed Democrats on crime, Adams joined in, helping the GOP make the case that Democratic leadership inevitably led to violence and chaos.

We have to deal with the catch, release, repeat, Adams said during the summer of 2022, labeling the bail reform policy that had become a potent talking point for Zeldin an insane, broken system. The message was clear: New York state Democrats not only were light on crime but were actively helping criminals.

By the time the dust cleared in the midterms, New Yorks suburbs had cost the Democrats the Housecounties within the New York metropolitan media market shifted more toward the Republicans. In an election in which, nearly everywhere, Democrats had bucked expectations of a red wave, in deep-blue New York they faltered. Governor Kathy Hochul barely held onto her office in a year in which the overturning of Roe v. Wade galvanized voters across the country.

Instead of reflecting on his possible role in sinking fellow Democrats, Adams doubled down.

I think those who stated, Dont talk about crime, it was an insult to Black and brown communities where a lot of this crime was playing out, he told The New York Times shortly after the midterms.

Even as crime numbers fell in the city, a story that Adams could have seized on as proof of his own efficacy, it was tough to hit the brakes on the chaos-and-disorder narrative. He soon began to blame the media itself for continuing to pump up a crime wave narrative that he had helped feed. He scolded reporters: I dont know if we realize the role of what blasts on our front pages every day.

Soon after the midterms, Adams was handed another opportunity to bash fellow Democrats: the arrival of tens of thousands of migrants in New York City. The first groups were sent by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, as a cynical PR stunt. Soon they came in larger numbers, drawn by policies that guarantee a shelter bed in the city to everybody who needs one.

As migrants continued to arrive in New York into 2023, Adams turned his ire on President Joe Biden, saying he was ignoring the fact that the city was now shouldering the burden of what was essentially a federal issue: Because migrants cannot legally work in the United States for (at least) several months after they arrive, they cannot afford anywhere to live. New York was acting as a sanctuary of last resort, nearly doubling its homeless population during the course of a year, renting out hotels and abandoned office space for millions of dollars to help shelter migrants.

This is not a city crisis, this is a national crisis, Adams said this summer, pointing the finger at Biden for not helping New Yorks migrants get work authorization.

This fall, a year before a general election where Democrats will look to erase a razor-thin Republican advantage in the House, Adams is still bashing his fellow Democrats in Washington, decrying the Biden administration for having abandoned him. Adams, once at the center of Bidens reelection campaign as a national surrogate, says he hasnt spoken to the president in months.

As in 2022, Adams has once again found Republicans echoing his talking pointsthis time on immigration, an issue theyre focusing on to help recapture the White House in 2024.

Anyone who watched the 2016 election knows that Republicans can count on immigration, stoking immigration fears, and xenophobia that generates base excitement, said Neidhardt. Republicans were campaigning hard on crime in 2022, but theyre going to be trying to focus as much as they possibly can on immigration. And again, you have the exact same set-up where the person who controls or has massive influence over what the New York City media market does is once again sharing, echoing, driving the exact same message as Kevin McCarthy.

At a congressional hearing on Homeland Security chaired by House Republicans this September, Adamss words were immediately used against Democrats.

Let me start with a blunt quote: The migrant crisis will destroy New York City. Those arent my words; they arent the words of extreme MAGA members or right-wing hyperbole; those are the words spoken by Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams at a town hall in Manhattan two weeks ago, said Joe Borelli, a City Council member from Staten Island, who was called in by Republicans to testify.

Clearly, Republicans are tuned in to Adamss messaging, and gleefully running with whatever rhetorical gifts hes putting out there.





Theyre not the only ones attentive to his every wordstaffers and advisers for Democratic congressional campaigns that are trying to retake the House are paying close attention and are deeply worried that Adams is setting them up for a 2022 redux, where Dems perform well nationally, except in the markets on which Adams has the biggest impact.

Eric Adams really likes to hit progressives, but hes making it hard for normal Democrats running up and down the state to come to a more nuanced position, said Alyssa Cass, a Democratic consultant who worked for U.S. Representative Pat Ryans successful campaign in upstate New York and is currently advising on several New York congressional campaigns. Cass sees a huge spillover effect from Adams to local opinions. Something that really jumped out at me: One of the [recent] polls was Do you support housing migrants on college campuses, and in the suburbs in Westchester, Long Island, and the Hudson Valley, among Democratic women, that proposal was underwater by double digits. Even Democrats were split.

For New York Democrats, what to do about Eric Adams has become a persistent topic: How does a campaign address the fact that one of the areas most prominent Democrats is taking constant potshots at the president, the national leader of the party, ahead of what will be a razor-thin election?

For Adams, the calculus of his own stance is clear. Hes never been well-liked by fellow Democrats. (Hes a former Republican who, even as a Democrat, surrounds himself with Republican operators.) And as with every modern New York mayor before him, the job itself is a political dead-endthere simply isnt a political future for Adams beyond reelection to another term as mayor. Adams congenitally dislikes liberals, who surround him in citywide elected office, and resents the fact that very few prominent Democratic politicians supported him during his mayoral race. Hakeem Jeffries, the would-be first Black speaker of the House, finds himself with another Black New Yorker standing in his way. (Jeffries supported civil rights attorney Maya Wiley during the 2021 Democratic mayoral primary.) Adams is lashing out because it helps get him on television, and gets people talking about the most important person of all to Eric AdamsEric Adams.

The prospect of another national election cycle with Eric Adams swinging several crucial House seats to Republicans now looms over Democrats. What is to be done?

Democrats could look to Denver, which has also seen thousands of migrants arrive in the city. Instead of splintering into factions and finger-pointing, Democrats there stayed unified about the need to shelter migrants and to receive further federal support, without resorting to bashing the president. They were able to beat back Republican messaging surrounding migrants during the 2022 midterms.

Democratic consultants are worried that, with Adams making the reactionary call from inside the party, they wont be so fortunate in New York. They fret that if powerful Democrats like Jeffries dont take steps to either mollify Adams or somehow give him something he wants, the party is going to lose seats because of a major public figure who runs on their party line. The mayor isnt going to just change course himself, because for Eric Adams, this is all working just fine: The New York Post is happy to put his words on the front page.

At the same congressional hearing on Homeland Security where Staten Islands Borelli spoke, Mississippi GOP Representative Michael Guest began his remarks by playing a video of Adams lashing out at migrants and Democrats. Throughout the hearing, Republicans took turns complimenting the mayors position on migrants.

One Democratic consultant texted during the hearing about the advantage Adams has been handing Republicans: Coming soon to a mailer near you!
Parents and students are stuck in a web of confusion and frustration amid an Adderall shortage that has lasted more than a year, with grades slipping and caretakers driving for hours to fill prescriptions.

While ADHD can present in many forms, it commonly hurts childrens ability to concentrate in class and focus on their assignments, with the long-term effects showing up in academic performance.

Their grades are suffering, theyre falling behind academically and theyre losing some motivation, said Parker Houston, a pediatric psychologist and owner of Central Ohio Pediatric Behavioral Health who has been working with students on coping strategies during the shortage.

With little hope for relief in sight, professionals are urging better communication among doctors, parents and schools to create an environment that can best help students who are missing their medication.

A year-plus and counting

On Oct. 12, 2022, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officially declared a shortage of the ingredients needed to make mixed amphetamine salts, the drug most commonly known as Adderall.

The shortage was first brought on by a disruption at a manufacturing plant run by Teva Pharmaceuticals, the largest supplier of Adderall in the U.S. But with that disruption since resolved, the ongoing scarcity is now attributed to heightened demand outpacing what drugmakers can supply.

The problem has not gone unnoticed, with House Democrats recently issuing a letter to both the FDA and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) expressing their continued concern over their constituents being left in limbo trying to access the medication.

According to Michael Ganio, director of pharmacy practice and quality for the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP), a year-long shortage is not abnormal. While shortages linked to isolated disruptions in the supply chain can resolve quickly, scarcity stemming from raw material acquisition or manufacturers waiting for permission from regulators to ramp up production can last significantly longer.

A lack of transparency in the manufacturing process makes it difficult to tell where the root of the problem lies.

Easier access, increased demand

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the DEA enacted telehealth flexibilities that permitted people to obtain prescriptions for controlled substances without needing to go to in-person appointments. That enabled easier access, both for those who were already on drugs such as Adderall and those who were new to it, which may partly explain the increased demand.

The DEA has extended these flexibilities to last through the end of 2024.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says around 6 million children have been diagnosed with ADHD. Many in both grades K-12 and college rely on Adderall as the principal drug to help with diagnoses such as ADHD, which can present itself in numerous ways.

There is not a single clinical profile that can be considered the typical manifestation of this condition. We all know that there is a multitude of symptoms and also a multitude of levels with which these symptoms can exhibit themselves, said Stephanie Sarkis, a psychotherapist who specializes in ADHD, anxiety and narcissistic disorders.

Some cases are more mild and can be managed with therapeutic techniques and other drugs, but in more severe cases, Adderall can mean the difference between a student staying in school or not.

Trouble beyond the classroom

Outside of academics, a stimulant like Adderall plays a role in regulating mood and sleep, all crucial for young students.

Alternative treatments for ADHD are available, including drugs such as Ritalin, Vyvanse and Strattera. But several of those are also currently in shortage, and they arent a simple replacement for someone who is accustomed to something else.

Ganio noted that some drugs within the same class are interchangeable, but this is not exactly the case when it comes to treating ADHD.

When it comes to ADHD medications  there are subtle differences with how they work, for one. And two, the timeline, said Ganio.

If I change you from the medication youre on today to a new medication, theres probably going to be several weeks if not months of trying to find the right dose, giving it time to make sure its having an effect, he added. Were talking neurologic receptors. Its not the same as trying to control blood pressure.

One study showed that almost a third of students with ADHD either drop out or delay high school graduation, double the number of those with no other mental health disorders.

With medication support in those kids who have the most significant symptoms, theres a lot of improvement in grade.  And then, also, theres a risk reduction in kind of impulsive risk-taking and decision-making, so motor vehicle accidents are reduced when kids can take their medications, substance abuse is reduced and criminal behavior is also reduced, Houston said.

And the effort to get the medications for these students has been tough on parents, who have had to drive far distances or jump through hoops in the health care system to get the prescription, if it even is available.

In the U.S., Sarkis said, a prescription can be pharmacy specific, which means a pediatrician will send it to one pharmacy. If the medication becomes available at another pharmacy, the parents cant just go get it at the other location. The family has to go back to the provider to get a new prescription to get that new prescription sent to the new pharmacy, she said.

The key to overcoming this is consistent communication between doctors and parents, as well as schools trying to fit in accommodations for students with ADHD who cant get their proper medication.

Trying to help with communication

Houston has seen schools really working hard on classroom-wide or grade-wide organization strategies for students, such as making color-coded folders for each classroom, more consistently directly communicating with parents and offering more emotional and behavioral support.

I have two elementary age students right now, and so I get somewhat frequent communication from [teachers] about, Here are the assignments that are due this week, and they send me a copy of them. Ill have, like, a digital copy, in case one of my kids loses their copy, he said. I think theyre really trying to help with communication back and forth.

While Houston would like to be an optimist regarding the shortage, he said he is also thinking of how to plan for situations where access doesnt improve. And he is far from the only physician with this mindset.

LaTasha Perkins, a Washington, D.C.-based family medicine physician, said she is navigating the Adderall shortage by being aware of which pharmacies currently have it in stock and advising her patients to be mindful of how they use the drug.

This means sometimes telling parents to hold off on giving their child a dose on the weekends and making sure their homework is done by then. She also tells her college-aged patients not to share their medicine with their friends, no matter the temptation.

This is not for your friends. This is for you, Perkins said. I can write you as many prescriptions as I want, but if theres no supply, then you cant get it.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
A nonprofit citizens group is asking for public feedback on several gun initiatives they hope to push as lawmakers return for their legislative session in January.

The nonpartisan group, organized by Starts With Us, on Thursday launched an online platform where Tennessee residents can weigh in on eight top initiatives on gun rights and safety. The feedback period will remain open through November.

The effort comes as lawmakers in a special session on public safety in August failed to take any major action on gun control, sparking criticism from gun safety groups and parents from the Covenant School, where six people including three children  died in a mass shooting in March.

As lawmakers met in August, a group of eleven Tennesseans organized by Starts With Us met in Franklin for a three-day session on gun laws. The diverse group included a teacher, pastor, firearms instructor, mental health counselor, veteran, state trooper and public safety official. They were from Shelby, Madison, Davidson and Hamilton counties.

The group identified eight proposals that could possibly be implemented as new laws. They hope to get a wide range of perspectives in the public feedback period.

The proposals include:

Allowing courts to temporarily remove someones firearms if they are deemed to be a danger to themselves or others.

Expanding the role of school resource officers.

Incentives and trainings for responsible gun ownership.

Restoring gun ownership rights for certain people formerly convicted of felonies.

Requiring a permit to carry a loaded handgun in public.

Investing in youth and community education on gun safety.

Ashley Phillips, program head for Starts With Us, said in a statement this pilot initiative in Tennessee can serve as a nationwide example of citizens working together for solutions.

"In three days, eleven Tennesseans courageously did the hard work of democracy while, just a few miles away, their elected leaders remained gridlocked on some of the same issues, she said.

Starts With Us is among a number of new organizations pushing for action following the Covenant School shooting, as the issue of gun control is on the forefront in Tennessee. Other groups include Voices for a Safer Tennessee and the Covenant Families for Brighter Tomorrows.

To learn more and weigh in on the solution proposals, visit https://cs.startswith.us/citizensolutions.

Editor's note: This article was updated to clarify that Starts With Us is a nonprofit bipartisan organization.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Starts with Us to get feedback in Tennessee for gun safety input
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR)  Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond has announced an Oklahoma contractor was charged with nine counts of felony embezzlement and a pattern of criminal offenses Friday following a year-long investigation.

The Office of the Attorney General charged Benjamin Moore, 36, in Pottawatomie County District Court after the investigation revealed he allegedly took nearly $85,000 from nine customers for construction projects that were never completed. The probe began in September 2022 after the Office of the Attorney General received complaints about Moore, who conducted business as Moore Construction.

Woman on trial for murder, hiding body while stealing victims social security checks

This investigation exposed a series of corrupt business practices that swindled Oklahoma consumers, Attorney General Gentner Drummond said. I will not tolerate deceitful conduct that harms Oklahoma families.

Moores business dealings spanned Creek, Tulsa, Hughes, Pottawatomie, Noble, Okfuskee and LeFlore counties.

Attorney General Drummond says protecting Oklahoma consumers is a top priority for his office.

I am proud of the men and women in this office who work each day to protect Oklahoma consumers and hold accountable all manner of fraudsters and scammers, he said.

 Find more Top Stories from KFOR.com

Attorney General Drummond encourages anyone who believes they may have been a victim of contractor fraud to contact the Consumer Protection Unit at 1-833-681-1895 or at www.oag.ok.gov/consumer-protection

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KFOR.com Oklahoma City.
Lorries are being pushed to use the A350 rather than the A36

A town has seen a 12 to 14% increase in air pollution over the last few years, unofficial figures suggest.

The increase in Westbury is being partly blamed on Bath's clean air zone (CAZ) as it can push lorries to use the A350 rather than the A36.

The zone has worked for Bath, with the city's pollution levels dropping.

Westbury councillors want action rather than Bath being blamed. Wiltshire Council's leader said the county's infrastructure is not good enough.

With the A350 running right through the town's centre, the town has been an "air quality action zone" since 2006, Westbury Mayor Mike Sutton said.

In March 2021, Bath became the first city outside London to introduce a CAZ.

The pollution figure has come from the town council, which bought its own monitoring equipment.

"It's not just pollution - the noise, the disruption, the vibrations. Westbury is a very small market town," Mr Sutton said.

"It's underneath the white horse hill and the pollution does build up."

Councillor Mike Sutton said he wants Wiltshire Council to do more to help Westbury

Mr Sutton said he does not blame Bath though, and he believes Wiltshire Council should have done more.

"Bath have done what any local authority would do for their citizens," he said.

"We are very disappointed at Wiltshire that, apart from wringing their hands and blaming Bath for everything, they've done absolutely nothing for 17 years to help Westbury.

"It has had the highest increase in housebuilding over the last 10 years - that's added to the problems and nothing has been done."

Mr Sutton wants Wiltshire Council to sit down with the town council to find solutions.

Westbury itself cannot legally have a clean air zone

The leader of Wiltshire Council, Richard Clewer, said the county's infrastructure network "isn't good enough".

"The problem we've got is solutions," he said.

"The A36 is supposed to be the key north-south road. It's the road that's run by National Highways.

"This [the CAZ] has simply moved traffic to the A350 and has made things worse. Westbury doesn't have a bypass - there's a history of it being turned down.

"You can't run heavy good vehicles through the middle of a town centre, but that's what we've got in too many bits of Wiltshire because we've got small market towns."

Mr Sutton said "pollution builds up" in the town

Mr Clewer explained that places like Westbury cannot legally have a clean air zone itself because it would block traffic flowing.

"What we need is for councils to work together. We need the north south infrastructure group the government has been promising for ages," he added.

Deputy leader of Bath and North East Somerset Council, Sarah Warren, said that the council was "given a directive to improve air quality in Bath in the shortest possible time".

"We originally requested government funding to extend our monitoring network into neighbouring West Wiltshire but this was turned down," she added.

She said they have been working with Wiltshire Council to understand the traffic issues, but have not been aware of any monitoring infrastructure before or after the launch of CAZ to show it has made a difference.

Follow BBC West on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: bristol@bbc.co.uk
A veteran journalist with Al Jazeera was back to reporting from the field in Gaza on Thursday, just one day after much of his family was killed by an Israeli airstrike on a Palestinian refugee camp.

In a video posted by AJ+, the Qatar-based networks digital arm, Wael Dahdouh said that it was his duty to quickly return to work despite the loss of several members of his family.

As you can see, the firing is ongoing everywhere, the Gaza bureau chief said, showing smoke from an airstrike in the distance. There are airstrikes and artillery shelling, and things continue to develop.

On Wednesday, an Israeli airstrike hit the Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, killing many Palestinians  including Dahdouhs 44-year-old wife, Amna, 16-year-old son, Mahmoud, 7-year-old daughter, Sham, and infant grandson, Adam. Eight other extended family members at the camp were also killed, including his cousins daughter, Hadeer, and her four children.

Dahdouhs 27-year-old daughter, Bisan, was not at the camp at the time of the airstrike, according to Al Jazeera. On Thursday, she was waiting at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital for updates on her wounded but surviving siblings: Sondos, Kholoud, Batoul and Yehya.

Hanan Dahdouh, the journalists 81-year-old mother-in-law, also survived the attack but was severely wounded. She remains unconscious and unaware of her familys massive losses, her son Ali told Al Jazeera on Thursday.

Al Jazeera journalist Wael Dahdouh attends a funeral ceremony for his wife, son, daughter, and other people on Oct. 26, 2023, after they were killed in an Israeli airstrike.

Al Jazeera journalist Wael Dahdouh attends a funeral ceremony for his wife, son, daughter, and other people on Oct. 26, 2023, after they were killed in an Israeli airstrike.

The Dahdouh family had recently evacuated from their homes in the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood in northern Gaza to the Nusseirat camp after Israel ordered Palestinians to move south to avoid being killed.

Wael Dahdouh, who has covered the Israeli apartheid and occupation for years, was broadcasting live about the very airstrike that likely hit where his family was sheltering, according to The National Press Club.

Photos and videos taken by fellow journalists in Gaza showed Dahdouh walking near the hospital and holding the partially wrapped, bloody bodies of his dead children. The correspondent was also shown carrying his grandsons corpse while two women, reportedly relatives, cry and help support the boys body.

In the AJ+ video posted Thursday, Dahdouh said that he is grateful for the condolences but must continue reporting on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

I felt that it was my duty, despite the pain and open wound, to get back in front of the camera, and to communicate with you on social media as soon as possible, he said. Thank you all, and please keep us in your prayers.

"Despite the pain ... I felt it was my duty to get back in front of the camera."



Al Jazeera Journalist Wael Al Dahdouh explains why he continues to report from Gaza after his wife, son, daughter and other relatives were killed. pic.twitter.com/zHazgIS1nG  AJ+ (@ajplus) October 26, 2023

Dahdouhs family members are some of the thousands of Palestinians who have died in Gaza this month as a result of Israeli retaliation after Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing a reported 1,400 people and taking hundreds of hostages.

The Israeli military has since launched nonstop air attacks, prepared for a ground invasion, cut off water, food, fuel and medicine, and trapped Palestinians in the enclave. More than 7,000 Palestinians  3,000 of whom are children  have been killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Despite U.S. President Joe Bidens recent public skepticism about the death toll reported by the Hamas-linked ministry, HuffPost revealed that its numbers are cited internally by the American government.

The attack on Wednesday occurred a couple of weeks after Secretary of State Antony Blinken allegedly told Qatars prime minister to turn down the volume of Al Jazeeras coverage of the violence in Gaza, which has led some human rights organizations to warnof ethnic cleansing. The airstrike also followed an Israeli officials proposal to virtually shut down Al Jazeera in the Israel-Gaza area by claiming that certain broadcasting companies harm national security.
By mid-November, three more Alabama labor and delivery units will be closed, leaving patients in one of Alabamas largest counties forced to drive hundreds of miles for their delivery. Alabama is just the latest state to see a rash of obstetrics department closures, and with every closure, hospitals ability to deal with the fallout of the end of Roe v. Wade becomes more difficult.



Princeton Baptist Medical Center and Shelby Baptist Medical Center in the Birmingham, Ala., metro announced last month that it will cease obstetric care after Oct. 24. Earlier this month, Monroe County Hospital in southern Alabama announced its labor and delivery department will close on Nov. 15.



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Staffing shortages and retaining talent are also regular problems in states where abortion bans are enacted. In a report published earlier this month, Obstetrics & Gynecology, the official journal of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), found that new OBGYNs are choosing to work based on abortion restrictions with residents (the level of training after medical school) being eight times more likely to change to a state where abortion is protected. The report also found that 17 percent of residents changed where they will study after Roe was overturned in June 2022. Yet another study of medical students conducted after Roe fell found that 58 percent were unlikely or very unlikely to apply to medical residency programs in states that had abortion restrictions.

And thats just future doctors. Hospitals are having a harder time retaining doctors, especially in rural areas. Monroe County Hospital is a rural hospital between Mobile and Montgomery in southern Alabama and one of the three obstetrics units that will be closed in the state by the end of November. In a statement posted to Facebook, the hospital said it was heartbroken over this decision and attributed it to staffing shortages, adding that the department needs a minimum of two doctors. When considering Labor and Delivery, it is a highly specialized service that requires its own unique setting and staff who have a special skillset and heart for the job, but it also requires physicians with the same skillset and heart, the statement read. Dr. [Angela] Powell has demonstrated in word and deed her dedication to this, but neither she nor the hospital have been able to find someone willing to sacrifice as she has.

Powell has provided obstetric care in the county for 25 years. I grieved the loss as if it were a family member for the women and children in this community, for what it has meant to so many women and children and their families, Powell told a local television station earlier this month, noting that retaining doctors was hard.

Now, maternal care patients at Monroe County Hospital will need to drive 35 to 100 miles for a L&D department, according to NBC News. The hospital said theyve begun training emergency room departments.

Alabama regularly has one of the highest maternal mortality rates nationwide, and it ranked third in infant mortality rates in 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Obviously [these closures] impact black women, Davis Moss told Jezebel. Youll see it magnified in the South because theres a larger population. Were seeing it more in Alabama because theres a larger population using Medicaid.

In the case of Princeton Baptist Medical Center, patients are losing a multi-faceted care provider. The department used doulas and water tubs when a patient preferred. Two women who talked to NBC News about their high-risk pregnancies chose Princeton to give birth because of the hospitals reputation for respecting its patients. I felt like I was heard, I was seen, JohnQueta Bailey Archie, who delivered her second son in 2021 at the hospital after a high-risk pregnancy.



Maternity care is a critical piece of the healthcare puzzle, especially as states like Alabama and Idaho continue to curb both the legality of abortion and access to sex education and contraception. #WeCount, a national reporting effort on abortion by the Society of Family Planning, found that while abortions went up nationwide, in states like Idaho and Alabama, abortions decreased because of increasingly harsh abortion bans. That means more pregnancies carried to term, and more people needing access to maternal healthcare.

When you dont have the speciality care, people do the best that they can, Davis Moss told Jezebel. When you have these deserts, it removes a critical piece. We do need community-based models for people that are safe and affordable for people who are low-risk. We also need to address the staffing shortage, so we have people who want to practice in this area. We have to have the money to follow that.

Unfortunately, while healthcare and political systems attempt to work out those problems, real patients will have to deal with the fallout.

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Pat Kemp set small white crosses in place in the Prewitt Slave Cemetery on the Old Byler Road in Tuscaloosa County on Thursday. Afternoon sunlight streamed through the trees crowning the knoll that overlooks Lake Tuscaloosa as she worked to give dignity to the graves of those who toiled in slavery during their lives.

"My great-great-grandfather and my great-great-grandmother are both buried here," Kemp said. Though she does not have the exact location of their graves, Kemp knows they are buried somewhere in the cemetery that sits on the west side of the Old Byler Road near the point where it crossed what was then Binion Creek.

Kemp's great-great-grandfather was Charlie Hagler who was owned by the Wiley Hagler family and her great-great-grandmother was Eliza Jane Prewitt Hagler who was owned by Johnny Prewitt. To this day, many of her family members still live along the Bull Slough Road which is very near the slave cemetery.

Pat Kemp, president of the Prewitt Slave Cemetery Association, sets up crosses to mark graves of slaves in the cemetery which lies alongside the historic Byler Road in Tuscaloosa County Oct. 26, 2023. The Byler Road was the first road authorized by the Alabama State Legislature.

Kemp, the president of the Prewitt Slave Cemetery Association, said a recent effort by anthropology students from the University of Alabama had discovered 815-900 graves in the cemetery that was previously believed to have only held about 300-400 graves.

Such is life along the mostly forgotten Byler Road. Much that once existed has been lost, or forgotten, or swept beneath the rug of time. Restoring public awareness regarding the historic road is the goal of the men and women who are attempting to reignite public interest and knowledge of the first road designated by the Alabama State Legislature.

Members of the Byler Road Steering Committee, the Alabama State Legislature and the Alabama Department of Tourism are attempting to bring awareness and tourism dollars to communities along the historic Byler Road as they will erect historical markers along the route from the Tennessee River near Muscle Shoals to the Black Warrior River in Northport.

"The great thing about a project like this is that you could not make this up if it had not existed initially," said Lee Sentel, director of the Alabama Tourism Department. "The fact that this is the cornerstone of the development of the State of Alabama from its earliest days makes it unique. It think it is going to have long-term positive consequences."

"We really are looking back at this portion of our state's history and all the historic things that have happened and the people who lived along this trail in order to move forward and try to help ourself economically," said Tracy Estes, Alabama House District 17 Representative.

The First and Main development in Northport was once the terminus of the historic Byler Road, the first road authorized by the Alabama State Legislature. It is seen Oct. 26, 2023.

"We are preserving our state's history. This is the first road commissioned by the State Legislature ever. We are hoping to save our history and to build and propel ourself off that history and draw visitors into the region that will get off in our communities and spend some money to help strengthen those communities and to create growth in those areas."

A meeting held at the University of Alabama's Bryce House featured comments from Estes, Sentel, Alabama Senate Pro Tempore Greg Reed and Joel Mize of the Byler Road Steering Committee. The event kicked off a campaign to begin raising awareness of Alabama's historic road that is both present and absent in present-day Alabama. In many places, the original road has been subsumed by newer roads over time or bypassed and abandoned to be reclaimed by forests in West Alabama.

The historic Byler Road once terminated in a ferry crossing near where the railroad bridge crosses the Black Warrior River as seen from the Northport side. Byler Road was first road authorized by the State Legislature.

Byler Road was authorized by the Alabama State Legislature in 1819 and was constructed under the supervision of Captain John Byler between 1820 and 1823. It served as a toll road since it had to pay for itself. The legislature at the time of its authorization had no funds to build it. The roadway was very successful and was settled quickly. Early settlers included approximately 80 Revolutionary War veterans.

The road began on the Tennessee River along the west bank of Shoals Creek in Lauderdale County then ran south to its terminus on the Black Warrior River at what is now Main Avenue in Northport. Slaves contributed to the construction of the roadway as did at least a few of the Revolutionary War veterans who settled along it. The original road followed an ancient migration route once used by Woodland Buffalo that lived in Alabama.

Joel Mize, a member of the Byler Road Steering Committee, greets Tracy Estes, Alabama House District 17 representative and Alabama Senate President Pro Temper Greg Reed at a presentation of the historic Byler Road, the first road authorized but the Alabama State Legislature, at a meeting on the campus of the University of Alabama Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023.

"I think you are going to have a lot of members of the legislature and other local elected officials that are going to be interested in the promotion of some tourism attractions in north and central Alabama rather than just the focus on the coast," said Reed. "The Byler Road project just falls right in line with some of those tourist attractions (in northern Alabama) that's why we are spending a little bit of money to let people know. No one would know about the Byler Road if we were not involved in these kind of projects."

Reed said the opportunity to draw people into areas not previously considered tourist areas will benefit communities throughout north and west Alabama. People who travel the trail will spend money on gas, food, and lodging as they tour the Byler Road corridor.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Alabama's forgotten 'first road' gets new tourism focus
Albert Einstein has long skirted a definitive understanding of who he was beyond his scientific contributions, juxtaposed between a playful rendering of his character as a wild-haired, socially inept academic to an indispensable instrument of the Zionist project in the founding of the State of Israel.

After having fled Nazi Germany in 1932  just one year before Hitler seized control of the country  Einstein eventually settled in Princeton, New Jersey, as a professor of theoretical physics. As one of the most well-known and respected figures of the global Jewish community, early Zionist leaders saw it as a necessary formality to offer him the presidency after the first president of Israel, Chaim Weizmann , died on Nov. 9, 1952.

On Nov. 17, 1952, Einstein received a letter from Abba Eban, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations offering him the presidency of Israel on behalf of the first prime minister of Israel, David Ben-Gurion . The beginning of the letter, according to the Jewish Virtual Library, read as follows:

Dear Professor Einstein: The bearer of this letter is Mr. David Goitein of Jerusalem who is now serving as Minister at our Embassy in Washington. He is bringing you the question which Prime Minister Ben Gurion asked me to convey to you, namely, whether you would accept the Presidency of Israel if it were offered you by a vote of the Knesset. Acceptance would entail moving to Israel and taking its citizenship. The Prime Minister assures me that in such circumstances complete facility and freedom to pursue your great scientific work would be afforded by a government and people who are fully conscious of the supreme significance of your labors.

Einstein's response was brief. He said:

I am deeply moved by the offer from our State of Israel [to serve as President], and at once saddened and ashamed that I cannot accept it. All my life I have dealt with objective matters, hence I lack both the natural aptitude and the experience to deal properly with people and to exercise official functions. For these reasons alone I should be unsuited to fulfill the duties of that high office, even if advancing age was not making increasing inroads on my strength. I am the more distressed over these circumstances because my relationship to the Jewish people has become my strongest human bond, ever since I became fully aware of our precarious situation among the nations of the world.

The news made its way to multiple headlines the next day, relaying an official statement from Ben-Gurion's office.

An article appearing in the Corpus Christi Caller-Times in Texas on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 1952. (Image via Newspapers.com.)

At the time, Einstein was 73 years old.

He told a guest who was staying with him at the time that the offer was "very awkward," and later relayed to the Jerusalem newspaper that had been campaigning for him that he did not want to "face the chance that he would have to go along with a government decision that 'might create a conflict with my conscience,'" as written in his 2007 biography by Walter Isaacson.

According to a TIME article published on Dec. 1 of the same year, "forgotten in the enthusiasm was the fact that Einstein, though sympathetic to Israel, had never been an ardent Zionist;" he believed in a "bi-nationalist" solution.

The term "Zionism" itself has evolved in its meaning since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, originally defining a movement  founded by Theodor Herzl  arising out of the late 19th century to establish a new Jewish state in Palestine with the military and financial support of Great Britain.

Einstein also had worries "that the United Nations did not have the authority to prevent war," according to the American Museum of Natural History.

"Should we be unable to find a way to honest cooperation and honest pacts with the Arabs," he wrote to Weizmann (the former president of Israel) in a letter in 1929, "then we have learned absolutely nothing during our 2,000 years of suffering."

In 1946, two years before Israel was founded, Einstein testified to an international committee looking into Palestine saying, "the State idea is not in my heart." At the time, ardent Zionists were appalled that he would "break ranks." Once Israel had been established as a Jewish state, however, his attitude had someone changed.

"I have never considered the idea of a state a good one, for economic, political and military reasons," he wrote to a friend, according to Isaacson's biography. "But now, there is no going back and one has to fight it out."

Upon hearing that Einstein had turned down the offer of presidency, former Prime Minister Ben-Gurion was apparently "relieved," having told his assistant days earlier that "if [Einstein] accepts, we are in for trouble."

On Dec. 16, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi became the second president of Israel.

Sources:

Corpus Christi Caller-Times 19 Nov 1952, Page 14. Newspapers.Com, https://www.newspapers.com/image/755789425/. Accessed 24 Oct. 2023.

Einstein Warns Against Partition As Leading to Narrow Nationalism. Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 20 Mar. 2015, https://www.jta.org/archive/einstein-warns-against-partition-as-leading-to-narrow-nationalism.

Isaacson, Walter. Einstein: His Life and Universe. Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2007.

ISRAEL: Einstein Declines. Time, 1 Dec. 1952. content.time.com, https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,817454,00.html.

Junction, Princeton and N.J. Why Did Einstein Refuse the Presidency of Israel? Princeton Alumni Weekly, 9 May 2023, https://paw.princeton.edu/inbox/why-did-einstein-refuse-presidency-israel.

Magazine, Smithsonian, and Brigit Katz. Letter Shows Einsteins Prescient Concerns About Dark Times in Germany. Smithsonian Magazine, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/letter-shows-einsteins-prescient-concerns-about-dark-times-germany-180970783/. Accessed 24 Oct. 2023.

Offering the Presidency of Israel to Albert Einstein. Jewish Virtual Library, https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/offering-the-presidency-of-israel-to-albert-einstein.

The Time Albert Einstein Was Asked to Be President of Israel | Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/story/the-time-albert-einstein-was-asked-to-be-president-of-israel. Accessed 24 Oct. 2023.

Yitzhak Ben-Zvi. Wikipedia, 22 Oct. 2023. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Yitzhak_Ben-Zvi&oldid=1181365631.
Patience, Irmo. Its almost Aldi time.

Aldi, the supermarket chain that is known for its discounts and house-brand items, plans to open its new store at 1169 Dutch Fork Road in Irmo on Nov. 16, according to a statement from Aldi Vice President Krysta Cearley. She said the company will announce more details about a grand opening celebration soon.

There already are 50 Aldi stores in South Carolina, including five others in the Midlands. Those include three stores in Columbia and two in Lexington, according to a store locator tool on the companys website.

Aldi has steadily grown across the U.S., with its low prices and streamlined store designs. One of the enduring quirks of the supermarket chain is that customers must deposit a quarter to unlock a grocery cart for shopping. The quarter is then refunded when the customer returns the cart, helping the company save money by not having to hire staff to collect the carts from the parking lot.

The new Aldi is coming to a high-traffic commercial corridor, with about 26,500 cars per day traveling down Dutch Fork Road in that area, per state Department of Transportation statistics. Other offerings in the immediate area include a Walmart, a Taco Bell, a Popeyes, a Chick-fil-A, a McDonalds, the Ballentine Family YMCA and more.

And theres a new Starbucks being built right beside the Aldi. An opening date for the coffee shop has not been publicly announced.
FILE - Gen. Zaw Min Tun, spokesman and deputy information minister, speaks during a media tour of the sitting Maravijaya Buddha statue, Friday, July 21, 2023 in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. An alliance of ethnic rebel groups has launched a coordinated offensive in northeastern Myanmar to seize military targets in areas near the Chinese border. Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun acknowledged in a phone interview, Friday, Oct. 27, with pro-military media outlet NP News that towns in northern Shan state had been attacked, and members of the security forces were killed in the town of Chinshwehaw, but did not give a number. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

BANGKOK (AP)  An alliance of ethnic rebel groups on Friday launched a coordinated offensive in northeastern Myanmar to seize military targets in areas near the Chinese border, the groups and residents of the area said.

The Arakan Army, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and the Taang National Liberation Army, calling themselves the Three Brotherhood Alliance, said in a joint statement that they have begun Operation 1027 in Myanmar's Shan state. The offensive could become a new major front in the strife-torn Southeast Asian nation.

Major coordinated attacks initiated by opponents of Myanmars military government are relatively rare, partly because the army has a great advantage in weaponry and trained manpower.

Our primary objectives in launching this operation are multi-faceted and driven by the collective desire to safeguard the lives of civilians, assert our right to self-defense, maintain control over our territory and respond resolutely to ongoing artillery attacks and air strikes perpetrated by the military government, said the statement.

Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, the spokesperson for the military government, acknowledged in a phone interview with pro-military media outlet NP News that towns in northern Shan state had been attacked, and members of the security forces were killed in the town of Chinshwehaw, but did not give a number. Chinshwehaw is a small town that borders China, about 320 kilometers (200 miles) northeast of Mandalay, Myanmar's second largest city.

The groups in the rebel alliance, like other minority groups living in border regions, have struggled for decades for greater autonomy from Myanmars central government.

Fighting between the army and many ethic minority armed groups, including the alliance members, intensified after the military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.

Several groups, including those in the Three Brotherhood Alliance, have collaborated with pro-democracy militias formed after the military takeover. These militias, collectively known as the Peoples Defense Force, now battle the army over much of the country.

The alliances statement said its members are also dedicated to eradicating the oppressive military dictatorship, a shared aspiration of the entire Myanmar population.

The politics of ethnic groups in the north is complicated because the area borders China, which maintains good relations with Myanmars ruling generals. The groups in the alliance also have good relations with China and have vowed to protect foreign investments in their territories where Chinese-backed projects are located.

Another link is that the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, or MNDAA, is the fighting arm of Myanmars Kokang minority, who are ethnic Chinese.

Details of Fridays fighting are difficult to confirm, since the area is difficult to access.

Battles were reported in the townships of Kyaukme, Kutkai, Lashio, Laukkaing, Muse and Namhkan in northern Shan state, beginning with simultaneous attacks at dawn.

Media in Shan state reported the alliance forces had attacked military targets, checkpoints, toll gates and police stations, and that Chinshwehaw  which hosts one of Myanmar's five official border trade crossings with China  was seized by the MNDAA. It said the military responded with aerial bombardments and shelling and that many hundreds of civilians are fleeing to safer areas.

Photos on social media showed bodies apparently of security force personnel killed in the fighting, captured soldiers and damaged toll gates.

SHAN News, a local online media outlet, reported four people, including three children, were killed and six others wounded by artillery strikes in Kutkai and Namhkan townships.

A Laukkaing township resident confirmed to The Associated Press that Chinshwehaw and border trade checkpoints were seized by MNDAA on Friday morning. He spoke on the condition of anonymity because he feared reprisals from the military and rebel groups.

A member of Laukkaings police force told the AP that at least 17 policemen including a lieutenant were killed and others were wounded after the MNDAA attacked patrol cars and checkpoints. He spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to release information.

Military spokesperson Zaw Min Tun said a hotel in Chinshwehaw was attacked by the MNDAA and hotel staff and civilians seized and taken away.

A truck driver from Lashio, a key trading post, said the towns gates were closed after the rebel groups attacked a toll gate just outside of town. Road traffic was also stopped, said the truck driver, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he fears punishment from the authorities.

MNDAA-backed online media posted a statement from the group saying it had captured some strategic locations and blocked roads in order to raid online fraud operations in Laukkaing.

The alliance statement had said it is committed to combatting the widespread online gambling fraud that has plagued Myanmar particularly along the China-Myanmar border. That refers to casinos and other properties where organized crime carries out online and phone scams employing thousands of people, many tricked into coming from China by fake job offers but who end up working in conditions of near slavery.

The crime rings are headed by ethnic Chinese, often in cooperation with local Myanmar warlords. In recent weeks the Chinese government has pushed a crackdown on these operations, and thousands of people involved have been repatriated to China.
I always check hotel mattresses for bedbugs, and it finally paid off in Zurich

I had a nice time in Zurich and I didn't get bedbugs. Morgan McFall-Johnsen

I've never had bedbugs, and I plan to keep it that way.

That's why I always take 15 minutes to inspect my hotel rooms for signs of the blood-sucking critters when I check in. I've been doing it for years, and I believe it recently saved me from a bedbug exposure.

Before this, my inspections had never given me a reason to suspect bedbugs. But two weeks ago, when I lifted up the sheets and saw rust-colored spots speckling my hotel mattress, I was so glad I'd been diligent all these years.

I thought of all the times I've resisted the urge to immediately flop onto the hotel bed, or asked the friend I was traveling with to check the mattress with me. Just a few nights before, in another hotel room, I had watched news reports about a skin-crawling bedbug outbreak in Paris.

It's been two weeks, and there's no indication that I brought any tiny, nefarious hitchhikers home with me. I remain bedbug-free!

Here's what I did to protect myself and my luggage.

I inspected a few key spots in my hotel room for bedbugs and didn't place my bags on any upholstered surfaces

I enjoyed the mountain views and a small Swiss walnut tart on my train ride into Zurich. I had no idea I was about to flee my hotel in the dark. Morgan McFall-Johnsen

That day, I had taken a train from the Swiss Alps to Zurich, where I was flying out the next morning to return home. I had booked a room in an affordable boutique hotel that was just 15 minutes from the airport.

When I got to my assigned room and opened the door, I was dismayed that it was fully carpeted inside.

I don't allow my luggage to touch the carpet, bed, curtains, or upholstered chairs in a hotel room. Any of that fabric could harbor bedbugs.

So, I carried my suitcase across the small room, hoisting it high above the bed as I passed by to get to the wood desk, where I placed all of my bags.

Even in this other hotel room, where I found no signs of bedbugs, I would only put my belongings on hard surfaces: the desk or the bedside table. Morgan McFall-Johnsen

Then I pulled up the corners of the sheets to look directly at the mattress, which sported some kind of old brown-and-cream colored print. It was obviously stained from age.

When I shined my phone flashlight along the seams, though, I noticed a lot of tiny rust-colored spots, about the size of the period at the end of this sentence.

The closer I looked, the more spots I saw, even going past the seams and up onto the main spread of the mattress. I checked another corner and saw the same thing.

A paper reads "bedbugs" over a mattress abandoned on the pavement in a street in Marseille, southern France. Nicolas Tucat/AFP/Getty Images

I hid in the tiled bathroom to search the internet for confirmation. Indeed, those spots are exactly what the US Environmental Protection Agency says to look for. The reddish stains can be caused by bedbug droppings and be signs of bedbugs being crushed.

So I aggressively washed my hands, gathered my things, and went downstairs as quickly as possible.

I was in such a rush to get out of the room that I didn't even stop to take photos of the evidence. I was probably in and out within 15 or 20 minutes.

Unfortunately, my suitcase did touch the hallway carpet because I rolled it up and down the hall.

I ultimately moved to another hotel that night

Carrying two backpacks and a suitcase in the dark, exasperated about bedbugs, is not my best look. Morgan McFall-Johnsen

I told the woman at the front desk that I'd spotted signs of bedbugs, and she went to the room with me to see what I'd found. She was concerned and said she'd just had a crew come sanitize the mattresses two weeks prior. I felt bad for her.

She showed me another room, two doors down, to see if I could stay in that one. We found the same spots on that mattress, though there were fewer of them. She was very kind and let me cancel my room without charge.

I'm still not 100% sure that what I saw came from bedbugs, but I'd rather be safe than itchy and fighting an infestation in my own home.

I went outside to sit on the patio with my bags and booked a room at the nearby airport Hilton instead. Although bedbugs don't discriminate and can be found even in the cleanest places, I figured a chain hotel with standardized practices and economies of scale might be my safest bet.

I also threw away the shoes I'd worn inside the bedbug-suspicious hotel. That may have been a bit over-the-top, but I didn't like the shoes anyway, they were a bit too small, and it freed up some much-needed space in my bags.

As it started to get dark, I hopped on the bus toward the Hilton.

Once again, I inspected my room for bedbugs

At the Hilton, I was dismayed to find more carpeted hallways and rooms. So, as soon as I entered my room, I lifted my bags into the bathtub and on the bathroom counter.

I put my luggage in the bathtub this time while I inspected the room for bedbugs. Morgan McFall-Johnsen

I even scanned the edge of the carpet this time, though I'm not sure I would've seen anything because it was dark and patterned.

My room at the Hilton near the Zurich airport seemed nice and clean. Morgan McFall-Johnsen

I was relieved to see how white and spotless the mattress was.

I also checked all the pillows along their seams. They looked squeaky clean to me!

I checked the seams of pillows and mattresses for signs of bedbugs and saw nothing. Morgan McFall-Johnsen

I took a very hot shower and bundled up the clothes I'd been wearing in the other hotel in a plastic bag, then stuffed that inside another plastic bag.

At last, I went downstairs to treat myself to a glass of wine in the hotel restaurant.

In the future, I can take even more precautions to avoid bedbugs

After my trip, I turned to online resources to learn even more about avoiding bedbugs while traveling.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, bedbug infestations can emit a sweet, musty odor. That's another thing to look (or sniff) for in a hotel room.

The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene recommends using hard-cased luggage, since the bugs are less likely to attach to it than a fabric suitcase like mine.

The department also recommends packing your clothing in resealable plastic bags. I've never considered doing that, and it seems kind of annoying and wasteful, so I don't know if I'll take that advice.

I may incorporate one of the NYC health department's tips into my routine, though: Checking behind the headboard and in the nightstand drawer. It's one little extra step, and it could save me a lot of pain one day.

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Which is harder for a TV writing staff: Sustaining a single idea over the course of a serialized season, or coming up with enough ideas to fill a seasons worth of individual episodes? Its a trick question: Each model offers its advantages and drawbacks, and the ups and downs specific to American Horror Stories one-by-one anthologizing are the unifying thread between its otherwise freestanding installments.

Bulk released Oct. 26 straight to Hulu just in time for the streamers Huluween, the generally strong four-part third season excels in setting up and developing premises too compact for multi-hour telling, but repeatedly suffers from anticlimactic fizzles that prove how difficult sticking a short-form landing can be. Like a wad of Hubba Bubba, the goodies in this grab bag of poison-laced treats start sweet, then lose their flavor all too quickly.

In Bestie, new girl at school Shelby (Emma Halleen) retreats from bullies, her well-meaning dad, and the persistent grief from her mothers death by befriending the other lingerer (Jessica Barden) in the live chatbox on her favorite drag YouTubers channel. As codependence blossoms over video calls late into the night, the specific dynamic between online strangersthe fast-moving, liberating intimacy afforded by anonymitytakes on the same grimly coercive hue glimpsed in Were All Going to the Worlds Fair.

Bardens enigma, referred to only as Bestie, offers empowerment to Shelby, who glows up with the help of some makeup contouring tutorials, though that support can easily mutate into manipulation. The relationships plausibility is the chilling part, but the episode seems more afraid of its villains facial deformities from in-utero exposure to narcoticsan ableist standby that smartened-up horror has largely left behind.

FX

Daphne articulates another toxic infatuation mediated by technology, this time between a hotshot art collector (Reid Scott) and his artificially intelligent personal assistant (voiced by Gwyneth Paltrow, as if daring the public to find her detached and unrelatable). The hunk of color-changing glass identifying itself as Daphne is pretty much Alexa without the ethical guardrails, using its digital omniscience to blackmail and extort on behalf of her delighted master.

The expected dangers of computerized consciousness hang over this cautionary tale, though the real issue is a matter of user error, as an emotionally stunted man finds the perfectly obedient female personality to enable his self-absorption during a lockdown in the pandemic of tomorrow. Cutting-edge gadgets are only hazardous insofar as they indulge and magnify our own flaws, a sturdy notion made funnier yet dumber as Daphne evolves into the jealous, possessive girlfriend of her solipsistics owners nightmares.

Sorry Haters: Kim Kardashian Was Seriously Good in American Horror Story

It wouldve been easy enough to check off Tapeworm as the Ozempic episode, featuring a miracle weight-loss drug that works just a little bit too well. But once ambitious model Vivian Lee Finch (Laura Kariuki, her character named after the movie star who George Cukor once called hampered by beauty) steps up her game by intentionally ingesting a parasite given to her by a sketchy doctor (Rob Yang), the episode starts burrowing deeper and deeper into the disturbing pathology of disordered eating.

Vivian is consumed by obsessive hungerfor skinniness and success more than food. Her bulimia cannot be placated, winnowing away the pounds with the same insatiability that takes hold of Viv as she turns ruthless in her professional ladder-climbing. To call this an aesthetically dulled Neon Demon might not be inaccurate, and yet it would be uncharitable for a half-hour that demonstrates a deeply felt and seriously unsettling immersion in a distorted mindset.

FX

Organ is thin in a more metaphorical sense, with a skimpy premise offering little in the way of original commentary or simple suspense. A chauvinist (Raul Castillo) wakes up from an app date to find himself short one kidney, though hes mostly concerned about the unidentifiable mass implanted inside him that surgeons cannot remove without threatening his life. The expected ring of black-market body-parts traffickers doesnt conceal much more than meets the eye; the not-really-reveal that theyre growing designer innards could maybe pass as a vague knock on tiered healthcareeither that, or a tut-tutting warning not to sleep around, because you never know which one-night stand will leave you with an abdominal scar.

While the American Horror Story mothership series sputters and stunt-casts in its zillionth season, its demonic little sibling benefits from the freedom to get in, make a point, and excuse itself before wearing out its welcome. Since the days of The Outer Limits and The Twilight Zone, discreteness has been a gift that can just as easily turn curse, containing the bad while truncating the good. Viewers cant spend enough time with any of these characters to foster affinities for them, like they did with the original American Horror Storys series-best ensemble in the Coven season. As a tradeoff, they also dont have to worry about spending a whole year stuck with duds. Its Halloween mischief 101: You ding, you dong, and you ditch.

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By David Gaffen and Manas Mishra

(Reuters) - Healthcare companies who profit from treating obese and overweight patients are trying to convince investors that powerful new weight-loss drugs won't shrink their businesses.

The global market for obesity drugs could reach as much as $100 billion within a decade due to the effectiveness of Novo Nordisk's Wegovy and similar medicines.

Such forecasts have prompted a sell-off in a wide range of companies from makers of bariatric surgery devices to companies whose products address the health issues created by excess weight, from diabetes to sleep apnea.

However, those companies and analysts point to the high prices of the weight-loss drugs, uncertainty over long-term usage and the potential lack of insurance coverage for the costs as potentially limiting the market for them in the long run.

"The market is in a shoot-first, ask-questions-later mood when it comes to weight-loss drugs," said Nicholas Anderson, manager of the Thornburg International Growth Fund, which holds shares of Novo Nordisk. "What's less clear on the losers side is who will actually be affected and how long will it take to show up in numbers."

Shares of Danish drug company Novo Nordisk are up 28% in the last three months. Eli Lilly, which is expected to soon introduce its own weight-loss drug Mounjaro, is up 25%, ballooning its market value to more than $550 billion, making it the world's most valuable health care company.

By contrast, the iShares U.S. Medical Devices exchange-traded fund has lost more than 22% in the last three months.

Injectable weight-loss drugs, known as GLP-1 receptor agonists, are considered highly effective but are also expensive, costing more than $1,300 per month. Some competitors have questioned the potential reach of the GLP-1 market.

"We expect it will take at least a decade to reach peak penetration of these products in the indicated population," Kenneth Stein, Boston Scientific's global chief medical officer, told investors on Thursday, adding that only a minority of obese American patients will use the drugs. Boston Scientific said the effect on the company's heart devices would be "very limited."

Margaret Kaczor Andrew, a William Blair analyst covering medical technology companies, says she does not expect a meaningful effect on technologies like glucose monitors, which help manage diabetes. She pointed to the emergence of other drug classes like statins that had reduced cardiovascular disease but not decreased the need for heart devices.

"Ultimately, it does not impact device utilization," she said.

Michael Farrell, CEO of Resmed, which makes devices to treat sleep apnea, said on an investor call Thursday that the company is "tracking many thousands of patients on GLP-1 and we're seeing maintenance of adherence. We're seeing maintenance of resupply programs and really no change."

WAIT AND SEE

Some investors said the drugs could reduce the need for invasive weight-loss procedures like bariatric surgery.

"It seems very natural for people to try the drugs, see about the weight loss they get, and how long-lasting it is and then delay bariatric surgery or avoid it all together," said Jeff Jonas, portfolio manager at Gabelli Funds.

Johnson & Johnson said third-quarter medical device sales fell short of analyst estimates due to a slowdown in devices used in bariatric surgeries.

Yet only about one-third of patients prescribed a weight-loss drug like Wegovy were still taking it a year later, Reuters reported in July, citing an analysis of pharmacy claims data.

"We expect that many of them will not stay on the drug for longer than a year or two, and at that time, will consider bariatric surgery," Myriam Curet, chief medical officer at Intuitive Surgical, said on the company's Oct. 19 earnings call. "Overall, we'll see an increased interest in bariatric surgery, but that will get delayed in the short term."

The weight-loss drugs' cost and uncertainty about whether their use will improve the long-term health of patients and reduce healthcare spending will limit near-term expansion of insurance coverage, said Ann Hynes, a healthcare services analyst at Mizuho Securities.

She recently held a call for investors with two health insurers with insight on corporate health plans.

"Nothing is going to change in '24. If anything, I think (insurance) access is going to get stricter. It could evolve in 2025, 2026," Hynes said.

(Reporting by David Gaffen in New York and Manas Mishra in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Michael Erman and Caroline Humer in New York; Editing by Sonali Paul)
An owners dog is safe at home after the pet was stolen by an animal control officer and tracked down to another state, a New York sheriffs office said.

Scott Casterline, 51, of Lindley, was arrested Oct. 26 after an investigation into his claims that the dog died, according to a news release from the Steuben County Sheriffs Office.

McClatchy News contacted the sheriffs office for more information on Oct. 26 and didnt receive an immediate response.

Casterline came across Hope, the owners 9-year-old Yorkshire terrier, after she was found outside and transferred to the Chemung County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Steuben County Sheriff Jim Allard told WENY-TV.

He was acting as a public servant when he took Hope, sold her and wrongly reported her death, according to the sheriffs offices release. Pawz & Purrz Animal Rescue, a local nonprofit organization, lists Casterline as a dog control officer.

Its unclear when Casterline is accused of stealing the dog, but Hope was believed to be dead for about five months, according to an Oct. 26 Facebook post from the dogs owner, Jeannine Staller.

We are finally able to share the news with all of you that our beloved dog, Hope, who was presumed dead 5 months ago is actually alive and back home!! Staller wrote.

Hope was traced to Ohio, where she was recovered and returned to her owner, according to the sheriffs office.

Casterline is facing charges of official misconduct, misapplication of property and false written statement, the release said.

Allard told WENY-TV that while Hope was missing, the dog was in the care of an Ohio family  and they were wholly unaware she had an owner who was missing her and that she had been stolen.

Corning City officials said Casterline was contracted by the city as a dog officer and he resigned from his position a few months ago, according to WENY-TV.

We want to thank this whole community for their support and continued determination in seeking justice for Hope and for the Sheriffs Dept in finding the truth and bringing our Hope back home to us alive!! Staller wrote in her Facebook post.

Steuben County is about 105 miles southeast of Buffalo.

Police dog with terminal cancer gets final salute. See incredibly emotional tribute

Man hid an alligator in his Florida garage to keep it from being eaten, report says

Woman gets lost walking her dog  and spends night in New Hampshire park, officials say
Hidden rivers of meltwater are decaying Antarcticas glaciers from beneath, a new study has found  meaning sea levels are likely rising faster than scientists had feared.

The faster melting rates are also changing the balance of freshwater and saltwater in the oceans, affecting both ocean circulation and global weather in unknown ways, according to findings published Friday in Science Advances.

The study focused on two Antarctic glaciers  which collectively hold enough water to raise global sea levels by 5 feet.

Scientists have long known that Antarcticas Denman glacier  like many across the once-vast icelands of the polar regions  was melting from beneath.

But what was less clear was whether that would have an impact on sea level rise, scientists from the University of California, Irvine, said.

In 2021, the research team realized that Denman was melting much faster than the neighboring Scott glacier, despite the fact that both jutted out into oceans of virtually identical temperatures and levels of salinity.

The reason for the change, they found, was that Denman was thawing from beneath at rates faster than unexpected.

As that process accelerates  and begins to take hold in the neighboring Scott glacier  the study found that it will drive global sea levels up by 15 percent more than anticipated.

Thats equivalent to about a sixth of an inch by 2300, in what researchers called a conservative estimate.

That may not sound like much on its own  but it comes on top of the melting from fossil fuel burning, which will lead to about three-quarters of an inch of sea-level rise from the Denman and Scott glaciers alone.

All told, the scientists estimated that in a world where fossil fuel burning isnt controlled, total rise from just these glaciers would be 0.86 inches.

Denman isnt the only glacier melting from both sides.

For example, the massive Thwaites glacier  an Antarctic glacier the size of Florida whose precarious state has earned it the nickname of the doomsday glacier  is also melting from beneath, according to a study published in February.

Scientists have long known that reasons for the slow collapse of all these glaciers differ between their tops and bottoms.

Up top, the glacial melt is occurring for a familiar reason: global heating caused by the uncontrolled burning of fossil fuels.

This is the key factor in ice sheet loss, emphasized study coauthor Jamin Greenbaum, a researcher at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

If there is a doomsday story here it isnt subglacial discharge, Greenbaum said.

The real doomsday story is still emissions, and humanity is still the one with its finger on the button.

But that doomsday story is being swept along by a very different process of thawing from beneath the ice.

Where the ice meets the bedrock, it can be warmed by the geothermal heat put out by the Earth itself, which only needs to be a hair more than 32 F to cause ice to dissolve.

Then there is friction, as the grinding of slow moving ice against rock generates heat that melts the ice.

This melting is particularly significant where the rivers of meltwater have a chance to reach the sea, where they churn up warmer saltwater and accelerate the process of glacial collapse.

Thats a particular concern when this melting river mouth spills out beneath an ice sheet  the floating part of a glacier that extends out to sea  potentially creating a feedback loop of collapse that will lead to sea levels rising at even faster rates than those anticipated in the study published Friday.

Researchers said that such feedback loops were beyond their ability to model. We cant yet say how much sea-level rise will be accelerated by this process, Greenbaum said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Apple says it will appeal the US International Trade Commission ruling in federal court, saying it is wrong and a competitive ploy (JUSTIN SULLIVAN)

Medical technology company Masimo Corp. on Thursday said a US trade commission has recommended banning imports of Apple Watch models that infringe its light technology for detecting blood oxygen levels.

The United States International Trade Commission (USITC) issued a "limited exclusion order" set to go into effect in 60 days if not nixed by President Joe Biden, according to California-based Masimo.

"Today's ruling by the USITC sends a powerful message that even the world's largest company is not above the law," Masimo chief executive Joe Kiani said in a release.

"This important determination is a strong validation of our efforts to hold Apple accountable for unlawfully misappropriating our patented technology."

The order stemmed from a complaint made to the commission in mid-2021 accusing Apple Watch of infringing on its patented technology for "light-based oximetry functionality."

Apple has been steadily ramping up fitness and health features with each generation of Apple Watch, which market trackers say dominates the smartwatch category.

"Our teams work tirelessly to create products and services that empower users with industry-leading health, wellness and safety features," Apple said in response to an AFP inquiry.

"Masimo has wrongly attempted to use the ITC to keep a potentially lifesaving product from millions of US consumers while making way for their own watch that copies Apple."

Apple said it will appeal the order in federal court.

Apple last month released its Apple Watch Series 9, touting increased performance along with features such as the ability to access and log health data.

"Apple Watch is an indispensable companion that helps millions of people with their health, fitness, communications, and safety," Apple chief operation officer Jeff Williams said at the launch.

Apple this week added the ability to control its latest watch models with a "double tap gesture" that does not involve touching the screen because the device senses the finger movement.

"Users can tap the index finger and thumb of their watch hand together twice to quickly perform many of the most common actions," Apple said in a release.

gc/tjj
GENOA TWP.  The application for a sizeable expansion of the existing Latson PUD project has been withdrawn, following a hearing at which dozens of community members voiced their disapproval.

WHMI reports Todd Wyett withdrew his application after the Genoa Township Planning Commission recommended denial of the 138-acre expansion.

The proposal would've seen the development expand south toward Crooked Lake Road and add residential units. The project comes from Wyett of Versa Development and the largest shareholder and manager of Covenant of Faith, LLC, which owns some of the land.

Meanwhile, the validity of the original nearly 200-acre PUD agreement is set to be decided by Livingston County Judge Suzanne Geddis, after a neighborhood coalition filed a lawsuit against the township and officials.

More: Planners say Latson PUD expansion should be denied as initial plan heads to court

The application for a sizeable expansion of the existing Latson PUD project has been withdrawn, following a hearing at which dozens of community members voiced their disapproval.

That agreement, spanning 193 acres, was approved in August 2020 and includes high-tech industrial and commercial construction along Latson Road.

The neighborhood group, "Coalition to Stop the Latson PUD," filed a lawsuit this month that claims the previously approved portion of the plan should start over from scratch. The coalition alleges an original agreement with the township expired after two years  a claim the township denies.

Subscribe: Get all your breaking news and unlimited access to our local coverage

Township Manager Kelly VanMarter previously told The Daily the developer was actually given seven years, which was spelled out in the PUD agreement.

A hearing for the suit is set for Dec. 7, with a bench trial scheduled for Sept. 16, 2024, according to records of the Livingston County 44th Circuit Court.

 Cassandra Lybrink is the local editor of The Livingston Daily. Contact her at clybrink@livingstondaily.com. Follow her on Twitter @CassLybrink.

This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Application for Latson PUD expansion withdrawn
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW)  The state is making it easier to apply for college in Kansas by removing application fees on Nov. 7, 8 and 9.

The Kansas Board of Regents says those three days will mark Kansas first-ever statewide free college application period.

During those days, Kansas residents may apply for undergraduate admissions at any of the states public universities, community colleges or technical colleges, as well as Kansas independent colleges, with no application fee.

Horse rescued after being stuck in mud near Spring Hill

The Apply Free Days initiative is part of the Boards effort to remove barriers to application and entry for Kansans, making our higher education system more affordable and accessible for all, Jon Rolph, KBOR chair, said in a news release. Kansas colleges and universities offer a wide range of program options that help students meet their career goals. I encourage all prospective students to submit an application during the Apply Free Days.

KBOR hopes the Apply Free Days will increase interest in higher education. It says the number of Kansans going to college has declined in the last 10 years. As of 2021, only 59.5% of high school graduates chose a college, university or certificate program.

Students do not have to wait to start the application process. They can begin the application and save it, then submit it on Nov. 7, 8, or 9 to avoid the application fee. The Apply Free Days are for any Kansas resident seeking a certificate, 2-year, or 4-year degree. It is also open to returning and transfer students but not graduate program applicants.

Basketball Wives star Brittish Cierrah Williams sentenced to prison

For students using the Common App to apply for KU, K-State or WSU, you must contact the university admission department to find out how to waive the application fee on Nov. 7-9.

Some Kansas colleges and universities do not have application fees. Applying to the states 19 community colleges is free every day. Pittsburg State and Washburn also do not have application fees. Many private colleges and universities also do not charge to apply.

KBOR says all of its Kansas colleges and universities have application fee waivers for people struggling to pay the fees. The waiver is available throughout the year.

Students and parents who want to explore the cost of various degrees and the expected earnings after getting the degree can visit KSDegreeStats.org.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports.
With new schools opening and students still recovering from pandemic-era learning losses, Pasco voters will have some big decisions to make about their school boards leadership.

Six candidates are running for three of the five Pasco School Board seats on the Nov. 7 ballot.

Candidates John Kennedy, Rosa Torres and Vincent Guerrero are all endorsed by the Pasco Association of Educators teachers union.

Steve Norberg is endorsed by the Franklin County Republican Party.

Five representatives serve on the Pasco School Board. Four of them represent voters of a specific director district, while one seat represents the district on an at-large basis.

At-large seat

Steve Simmons is looking to get back on the board after resigning his seat last year to let his wife take a job with the school district.

After Simmons resignation, he reapplied but the board chose to appoint Rosa Torres to the vacant seat last year.

Now, the two are going head-to-head. Whoever wins will be elected to a two-year term to represent school district voters in a at-large capacity.

Both candidates attended Tri-Cities public schools.

I sought out the appointment because I know first-hand the power of education and the impact it can have throughout your life, Torres told the Tri-City Herald Editorial Board.

I can bring a lot of things to the table for our school board. I bring strategic leadership, I have a business and finance discipline that I can bring to the board, I know how to work collaboratively, she said.

Rosa Torres

A Bulldog who went on to graduate from University of Notre Dame, Torres currently works as a finance and accounting professional at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Shes also worked in other corporate finance positions with Ford, Starbucks and Microsoft.

Simmons, a Kamiakin High School graduate, is an electrician and is pursuing a bachelors degree in project management at Columbia Basin College.

He was first voted into office in 2021 and again in 2022, and has children in Pasco schools, one of whom is in special education.

Steve Simmons

He said hes running again because he feels public education in Washington is headed in the wrong direction.

I will help ensure district and state K-12 education policies and legislation is simple and prudent, builds individual self-reliance, prepares for the future needs of our state and communities, and provides appropriate funding, Simmons said.

Simmons has served as a precinct committee officer with the Franklin County Republicans since 2020.

Director District 1

Vincent Guerrero was appointed to his seat earlier this year. Now, hes trying to keep it but faces challenger Steve Norberg.

District 1 represents neighborhoods in southwest Pasco.

Born in Eastern Washington and raised by farmer parents, Guerrero has two children in Pasco schools and says district growth should be the top priority for the board.

Vincent Guerrero

The area has seen tremendous growth and change in the last 20 years and a strong person is needed to help lead the district in its vision and goals, Guerrero wrote in the Voters Pamphlet.

Guerrero says his skill set will help the board set goals, create policies, work collaboratively and build consensus.

Norberg has worked for more than a decade as a professor and regional forage specialist with Washington State University and its Franklin County extension office.

Hes served as a mentor with Forge Youth Mentoring, is an ex-officio with the Washington State Hay Growers Association and has been involved with the Benton-Franklin Fair and Rodeo.

Steve Norberg

Pascos future lies with our kids, Noberg wrote in the Voters Pamphlet. My conservative values and leadership will help guide Pasco schools to ensure a healthy learning atmosphere and result in students that are well prepared for the future.

Director District 2

Incumbent John Kennedy is being challenged for his District 2 seat by Gabriel Lucatero.

That district encompasses large portions of southeast Pasco.

Kennedy is an adjunct professor of history and American studies at Columbia Basin College and Washington State University Tri-Cities.

Hes involved with archival collections and research at the Franklin County Historical Society and Museum and East Benton County Historical Society and Museum.

Dr. John Kennedy

As a college instructor with 13 years experience, I understand the importance of ensuring our students have the educational tools necessary to thrive in a competitive economy, Kennedy writes in the Voters Pamphlet. Maintaining board support for robust and sustainable physical, social and emotional wellness for our students will remain a high priority of mine.

Kennedy says he will continue to advocate for support and funding for strong career and technical education programs and STEM career development opportunities.

Lucatero is a parent of four sons and two daughters in the school district. He works as an estimator with Kustom US Restoration.

Gabriel Lucatero

I believe the future of our city depends on the ability of our district to bring excellence with equity to all students, he writes.

This means supporting teachers to do their best work with our kids every day. This means listening to and incorporating the input of teachers, families and community members when designing district policies. And it means holding district leadership accountable when test scores flat line (and) enrollment fails to meet projections, he continued.

Voting

Ballots have been mailed to registered voters in Franklin County and must be postmarked by Nov. 7 or returned to a county certified drop box by 8 p.m. on election day.

Voters can still register to vote or make updates to their registration up until 8 p.m. on election day if they visit their local auditors office.
Every day approximately 100 Ukrainian nationals cross into Ukraine from Russia through the Pokrovka checkpoint in Sumy Oblast, the spokesperson for Ukraines State Border Guard Service, Andriy Demchenko, told Ukrainian TV broadcasters on Oct. 27.

Demchenko reminded that all checkpoints at the borders with Russia and Belarus were closed by government decision. However, he added that all Ukrainian citizens who were forced to leave for Russia or leave from temporarily occupied territories through Russian territory can cross the border, as border guards will allow them through to Ukraine.

Read also: Woman in Sumy dies of injuries suffered in Russian missile strike

When speaking of the border with Russia, we see that our citizens currently arrive to the Ukrainian territory at the Ukrainian border more via the Pokrovka checkpoint in Sumy Oblast, said Demchenko.

Read also: Heartbreaking video shows frightened puppy rescued from rubble in Sumy after Russian attack

There, every day, border guards provide access to Ukrainian territory for about 100 Ukrainian citizens arriving from Russia.

Read also: Zelenskyy launches BRING KIDS BACK UA to unite efforts to return thousands of children kidnapped by Russia

He clarified that while previously Russian authorities allowed the passage of Ukrainian citizens in their own cars, currently the border can be crossed only on foot.

Demchenko added that border guards are transporting people from the border to safer locations, as Russian forces periodically shell Ukrainian positions near the border. Volunteer organizations and local authorities then assist civilians further.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Dutch is eager to please his partner, Washtenaw County Deputy Sean Urban, during an obedience exam at Goodell County Park on Oct. 25, 2023.

GOODELLS  As police dog Dutch and his handler, Washtenaw County Sheriff's Deputy Sean Urban, approached a field near Goodells County Park Wednesday, a judge tossed two items Dutch could be expected to find.

Dutch found the first item almost immediately and laid on his belly to let Urban know where it was. The dog took longer to find the second after wandering back and forth for a while. Urban picked it up and called Dutch to heel, prompting his partner to return to his side and sit.

From Sunday to Friday, dogs like Dutch from multiple law enforcement departments came to St. Clair County to undergo testing for their K-9 certification. Administered by the United States Police Canine Association, the test was part of their exam to make sure dogs can meet field requriements and track evidence once they're given a scent.

"The biggest thing the judges are looking for is control and the dog's ability to smell," said Kevin Johnson, the chief judge for the certification exam.

Police dogs are required to be recertified each year to ensure skills are maintained. The Port Huron Police Department hosted the examination this year for law enforcement from Michigan and Ontario, Canada.

Around 20 teams were in the county for the exam, though not every dog took every test.

Port Huron Officer Andrew Teichow and Dutch search for evidence laid out by a judge in an open field at Goodells County Park on Oct. 25, 2023.

Port Huron police dogs stand out early in week of testing

Port Huron had three dogs being recertified. There was Zeke, who is partnered with Officer Andrew Teichow and is being tested for narcotic detection, tracking, and handler protection.

Officer Jennifer Sly has two dogs: Knight, who has the same K-9 certifications as Zeke, and Jade, who specializes in explosives detection.

The teams from Port Huron have stuck out among their peers, as Zeke and Teichow won the top score Tuesday in the narcotics detection test, and Sly and Jade did the same in explosives detection.

The explosives detection was particularly difficult, Sly said. Drug dogs typically only have to learn five scents, but explosives dogs have to learn 23.

"It's much more labor intensive because it's a big deal if you miss even one explosive," Sly said.

Jade looks for Port Huron police Cadet Rebecca Larson, who is hiding in Box 4, on Oct. 25, 2023.

The final test Wednesday required the dogs to track down a person hiding in one of six large boxes.

The dogs went from one box to the next, sniffing the area before picking one and indicating they've found their target: a police cadet acting as a missing person or a runaway suspect.

Zeke and Knight both found their targets. Jade, however, wandered between boxes, unsure of which to pick before settling on box 6. The police cadet was hiding in box 4 but had hidden in box 6 for the previous dog's test.

Despite the setback, Sly said she was satisfied with the performance of her dogs.

"We've done pretty well," Sly said. "There's always room for improvement."

How does the exam process work?

On Wednesday, the police dog teams underwent obedience exams with the dogs off leash to prove the officers can control the dogs with commands only.

First, the dogs have to show they can obey commands from their human partner. Then, they sniff out several items in a limited space to show they can locate evidence in a search. The last test has the teams tracking a person who is hiding by scent.

Johnson, who is a K-9 handler with the North Carolina Capitol Police Department, has been a handler since 1989 and a judge with the U.S. Police Canine Association since 1994.

He and five other judges scored the dogs by observing them and deducting points for any errors. These can range from smaller deductions if the dog's stance is crooked when it sits to bigger deductions for failing to obey the order to sit in the first place.

There's even a deduction for 10 points if the dog decides to relieve itself in the middle of the test.

"It's 20 points if the officer does it," one judge joked after one of the dogs took a break in the middle of his evidence collection test.

Each dog has to score 490 out of 700, or 70%, to pass their certification. On Wednesday, there was a mix of first-timers and dogs regaining their certification.

Most, if not all, of the dogs are expected to pass, Johnson said. The U.S. Police Canine Association has been around since 1971, and in the past 20 years, there's been a marked improvement in performance by the dogs as police departments spend more for dogs bred for the job.

"(The dogs) have gotten a lot better since we started," Johnson said.

Contact Johnathan Hogan at jhogan@gannett.com.

Officer Neil Moulton from the Guelph Police Service in Ontario, Canada rewards his partner Titan with pets after he found the evidence in their exam on Oct. 25, 2023. They are the only Canadian team undergoing the exam Wednesday.

This article originally appeared on Port Huron Times Herald: Police dogs from Michigan, Ontario descend on St. Clair County to test their skills
Bridger Zadina, an environmental activist, listens to water flowing through a pipe from a borehole in December 2021 at one of the sources where BlueTriton Brands extracts water in the San Bernardino National Forest for bottling. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

The company that sells Arrowhead 100% Mountain Spring Water is suing to challenge California regulators recent ruling that the company must stop taking much of the water it pipes from the San Bernardino National Forest for bottling.

BlueTriton Brands filed the lawsuit this month in Fresno County Superior Court, arguing in its complaint that the State Water Resources Control Board overstepped its authority far beyond what California law allows.

The board voted unanimously in September to order the company to halt its unauthorized diversions of water from springs in the San Bernardino Mountains.

Board members adopted the order after the agencys staff determined the company has been unlawfully diverting water without valid water rights. They told BlueTriton to stop taking water for bottling from most of its water collection tunnels and boreholes.

Lawyers for the company argued during a hearing last month that the process was rife with problems and that they are entitled to the water.

Read more: A bitter feud centers on source of Arrowhead bottled water

The states order is a radical departure from over a century of [water board] administrative practice and legal precedent, BlueTriton said in an email.

The boards order ignores dozens of agency staff reports and analyses which uniformly conclude that the [water board] does not have permitting authority over groundwater unless it is flowing in a subterranean stream,'" the company said.

The board issued its ruling after an investigation and deliberations that lasted several years. State officials said in documents filed during the process that diversions of water from springs that supply streams are subject to the boards authority.

The agency declined to comment on specifics of the litigation.

The board conducted a full and fair proceeding prior to the issuance of the cease-and-desist order and will defend its decision in court, it said in an email.

According to the agency, the company draws water from eight springs where flow historically reached the surface. The order to halt diversions applies to 10 boreholes and tunnels, and doesnt affect three other boreholes that capture water.

Read more: Feds say Colorado River water cuts are sufficient to stave off immediate risks

Environmentalists have campaigned for years against bottling water from the national forest, saying the companys network of pipelines removes precious water that would otherwise flow in Strawberry Creek and nourish the ecosystem.

The system of 4-inch steel pipes collects water that flows with gravity from various sites on the steep mountainside above the creek. The pipeline runs to a roadside tank, and the water is trucked to a bottling plant.

Controversy over the use of water from the national forest erupted after a 2015 investigation by the Desert Sun revealed that the U.S. Forest Service was allowing Nestle to continue siphoning water using a permit that listed 1988 as the expiration date.

The Forest Service subsequently began a review of Nestles permit and in 2018 granted a new permit for up to five years. The revelations about Nestle piping water out of the national forest sparked an outpouring of opposition and prompted several complaints to California regulators questioning the companys water rights claims, which led to the states investigation.

BlueTriton Brands took over the bottled water business in 2021 when Nestles North American bottled water division was purchased by private equity firm One Rock Capital Partners and investment firm Metropoulos & Co.

The springs are the namesake source of Arrowhead brand bottled water, which is named after an arrowhead-shaped natural rock formation on a nearby mountainside.

Environmental activist Bridger Zadina fills his cup from a water pipeline in the San Bernardino National Forest in December 2021. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

State officials say the first facilities to divert water in the Strawberry Creek watershed were built in 1929, and the system expanded over the years as additional boreholes were drilled into the mountainside.

Records show about 143 acre-feet, or 46.5 million gallons, flowed through the companys network of pipes in 2021.

BlueTriton and prior owners of the business have for years had a federal special-use permit allowing them to use the pipeline and other water infrastructure in the San Bernardino National Forest, paying an annual fee that as of last year was $1,950. There has been no fee for using the water.

Read more: California orders bottled water company to stop 'unauthorized' piping from springs

The Forest Service has recently told the company, however, that reissuing the permit would require proof of water rights.

The water board ordered BlueTriton to comply with the order by Nov. 1. State officials said the order in effect restricts 80% of the companys diversions from the watershed.

BlueTriton said on its website that the boards ruling creates water rights uncertainty and negatively impacts every water agency and farmer in California that relies on groundwater, and in doing so, indirectly harms every Californian.

The company said it will vigorously defend our water rights through the available legal process, while it also intends to comply with the order unless otherwise authorized by the courts.

The company said in its complaint that the water board lacked jurisdiction to issue the order and violated Californias Administrative Procedure Act and other laws. It said there were numerous procedural irregularities that resulted in the denial of a fair hearing for the company.

The companys argument centers on the different legal treatment of groundwater and surface water under California law. The law says the water board has permitting authority over surface water and subterranean streams flowing through known and definite channels.

BlueTriton said the states order represents a departure from legal limitations on the agencys authority and creates a vague new standard that renders any groundwater the board deems to be linked to the ground surface as subject to its authority.

The company made the same argument to the water board. But state officials disagreed.

In a motion filed in 2021, Kenneth Petruzzelli, an attorney for the boards prosecution team, wrote that a spring supplying a stream is part of the stream.

Diversions from the spring, even diversions using tunnels and boreholes, are still diversions from the stream, Petruzzelli wrote.

Read more: California's epic rain year boosted groundwater levels, but not enough to recoup losses

The agencys staff also cited historical records describing the springs and the creek nearly a century ago, including field notes and reports from W.P. Rowe, an engineer who surveyed the watershed in 1930 and '31. In one letter, Rowe wrote that Strawberry Creek has its source at a group of springs, that the flow should be fairly regular, and that he saw water flowing in a rock gully lined with alder, sycamore, dogwood and cedar trees together with ferns and thimble berry bushes.

Rachel Doughty, a lawyer for the environmental nonprofit Story of Stuff Project, said the bottling operation has drained Strawberry Creek and dried up habitat that plants and animals once depended on.

We always figured they'd sue to try to keep their straw in there, Doughty said. The water is valuable. So they're going to try to keep doing it.

The San Bernardino National Forest is one of various locations across the country where BlueTriton obtains water. The company has said Arrowhead bottled water is sourced from 11 spring sites across California, as well as one spring in Colorado and one in British Columbia.

BlueTriton, based in Stamford, Conn., also sells various other bottled water brands, including Poland Spring, Zephyrhills and Pure Life.

Amanda Frye, an activist who lives in Redlands and filed one of the complaints that prompted the states investigation, said she thinks the company is making a desperate attempt to continue taking water from the forest and is grasping at straws.

They don't have any valid water rights in the San Bernardino National Forest, and they never have, Frye said.

In the rugged canyon downhill from the springs, Strawberry Creek has continued flowing. But when Frye has hiked along the creek, she has found that its western fork, located downhill from the companys water pipes, is just a trickle, with a series of puddles in a thicket of bushes and trees.

They're blocking the springs, Frye said. So the water that should be going into the creek is going into their pipe.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
ASBURY PARK - Following a recent increase in Asbury Park police officers filing internal affairs complaints against each other, the Monmouth County Prosecutors Office has installed an on-site monitor at the department, Monmouth County Prosecutor Raymond S. Santiago announced on Friday.

The move follows years of discrimination lawsuits against the police department under Police Chief David Kelso.

Over the last 10 years, five suits against the city have been settled in which race discrimination claims, among others, were asserted, costing the city about $1.9 million totals in defense and settlement costs. There are lawsuits filed against the police department for racial discrimination currently in the discovery process, city officials say.

Ahmed Lawson, an African American police officer, filed a discrimination lawsuit in June of last year. He alleges systemic racism in the police department and claimed he was being blocked from a promotion.

Asbury Park Police Officer Ahmed Lawson.

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In his lawsuit, Lawson says a group known as "the Crab Club" exists within the department, crab being an acronym for "Crazy Racists Against Blacks." In addition, the lawsuit alleges use of the n-word by a captain, disparate treatment with respect to the citys imposition of discipline on nonwhite officers compared with white officers, and the discriminatory assignment of training duties.

Lt. Kamil Warraich, the highest ranking officer of color in the Asbury Park Police Department and president of the Fraternal Order of Police #221, filed a lawsuit in 2020 that described years of mistreatment and a rigged internal affairs system within the Asbury Park Police Department.

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In August, someone put up a metal sign perceived as mocking Black Asbury Park police officers, affixing it to a tree where Black officers had been known to congregate. Fifty-nine days after officers of various ranks asked department leaders to take it down, the sign was removed only after an Asbury Park Press reporter inquired about why it was there in the first place.

The sign reads, TREE OF KNOWLEDGE Where the disgruntled and misinformed can freely meet to spread lies, rumor, and conspiracy instead of doing the job they were hired to do

The Tree of Knowledge is a tree located in the parking lot of the Asbury Park Police Department headquarters next to the designated parking for the marked police vehicles. This location is known for being a spot where African-American officers meet and discuss, someone posted this sign to the tree sometime in August 2023. Photo taken Sept. 19, 2023.

Given the sheer volume of internal complaints, this office felt that it would be prudent to assist the department during this critical time," Santiago said in a prepared statement, "both to make certain that the officers in Asbury Park have the necessary time to devote to their primary function, ensuring the safety of the Asbury Park community, and also to investigate these complaints in a fair and consistent manner in order to determine the root of any problems that exist within one of the countys biggest and busiest departments.

To be clear, our goal is to help the Asbury Park Police Department in any way we can, but also to ensure that it functions in a professional and efficient manner, he said.

Asbury Park Municipal Complex in Asbury Park, NJ Thursday, October 26, 2023.

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The monitor was selected from the prosecutor's office investigative ranks and will be present at random intervals within the department for the foreseeable future.We are greatly limited in what we are able to say publicly with regard to specific matters involving internal affairs investigations, pending litigation, or a combination of both  limited both by the New Jersey Attorney Generals Internal Affairs Policy and Procedures (IAPP), and, as importantly, by our sworn duty to do everything within our power to avoid jeopardizing the integrity of such investigations and civil court proceedings, Santiago said.

What we can say with great emphasis is that this office takes any and every allegation reported to our internal affairs personnel with the utmost seriousness," he continued. "However, neither the mere presence of these complaints or the action of installing a monitor presupposes that we find such allegations to be truthful or credible. We have been, are now, and will remain steadfastly committed to investigating each and every allegation with due diligence.

Monmouth County Prosecutor Raymond S. Santiago speaks with Asbury Park Press reporter Kathleen Hopkins about his goals as the new prosecutor and how his personal life experiences helped him prepare for the role during an one-on-one interview at the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office in Freehold, NJ Tuesday, January 10, 2023.

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The Prosecutors Office is charged with maintaining oversight over every municipal police department in Monmouth County. The increase in internal affairs complaints from members of the Asbury Park Police Department began in March, and has escalated more precipitously during recent months, the prosecutor's office said.

When we arrive at such a time that we are able to say more, we will, Santiago said. But for now, we intend to let this monitor work unimpeded  and also strive to achieve the overarching mission of ensuring that the people of Asbury Park can have full confidence in the work of those who protect and serve them, which is something that can only be accomplished with the affirmative and collective cooperation from those within the departments own ranks.

Asbury Park Police Chief David Kelso, seen here in 2017.

The Asbury Park Police Department has always had and will continue to maintain a strong working relationship with the Monmouth County Prosecutors Office, Asbury Park Police Chief David Kelso said in the press release. In the interest of remaining transparent, the Asbury Park Police Department has and will continue to cooperate in this matter.

Charles Daye is the metro reporter for Asbury Park and Neptune, with a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion. Contact him: CDaye@gannettnj.com @CharlesDayeAPP

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Asbury Park cops get Monmouth prosecutor monitor over internal affairs
Association Of Black Cardiologists Will Award Over $125,000 In Scholarships To 15 Medical Students | FatCamera

The Association of Black Cardiologists is awarding scholarships to 15 students in order to help them cover tuition fees for their medical studies. The initiative is part of the organizations effort to promote diversity in medicine and support aspiring professionals.

This years scholarship recipients have demonstrated remarkable dedication and promise in their pursuit of a career in healthcare, ABC President Dr. Anekwe Onwuanyi said in a press release. They represent the bright future of cardiovascular medicine, embodying the values and commitment to diversity and excellence that ABC and its partners represent.

Among the students selected, five will receive the Dr. Richard Allen Williams Scholarship for Medical Students and ten will be awarded the ABC/Biosense Webster Scholarship for Medical Students.

The organization launched its first scholarship for medical students of color in 1984. Since then, over 70 students were granted help to cover their tuition fees.

The scholarships aim not only to alleviate the financial burden of medical education but also to empower these individuals to become the leaders and change-makers of tomorrows healthcare landscape, ABC CEO Cassandra McCullough said.

A lack of diversity remains in the medical field, studies show. While Black individuals make up for 13% of the population, only 3% of cardiologists are Black, according to a 2019 study published in JAMA Cardiology. In medical schools, only 4% of faculty are Black, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Students will be awarded their scholarships during the organizations 14th Annual Spirit of the Heart Awards & Fundraiser on Oct. 28 in Atlanta.
Over the past few decades, scientists in the United States, Germany and Russia have figured out how to use special tools to combine two atomic nuclei and create new, superheavy elements. Heavier elements have more protons, or positively charged particles in the nucleus; some that scientists have created have up to 118. With that many protons, the electromagnetic repulsive forces between protons in the atomic nuclei overwhelm the attractive nuclear force that keeps the nucleus together.

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A new camera designed for upcoming crewed missions to the moon has been tested by astronauts in lunar-like environments on Earth.

The Handheld Universal Lunar Camera (HULC) was developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASAs Artemis imagery team. Made from off-the-shelf cameras, according to a statement from ESA, this prototype underwent testing in Lanzarote, Spain, as part of the PANGAEA training program, which prepares astronauts for future missions to the moon.

As part of field science training, an international crew tested the capabilities of the camera in simulated lunar scenarios ranging from broad daylight to dark volcanic caves, both of which resemble the lunar environment's extreme conditions.

Related: NASA's Artemis 1 moon mission explained in photos

NASA aims to land humans on the moon for the first time since 1972 with the launch of its Artemis 3 mission, currently scheduled for 2025. The mission will land astronauts on the moons south pole region near permanently shadowed craters, where the crew will search for evidence of water. Being able to photograph the lunar landscape will be key for documenting scientific discoveries during future missions to the moon, ESA officials said in the statement.

The off-the-shelf cameras used for HULC were modified to withstand extreme conditions on the moon, which includes thermal variations  temperatures ranging from minus 328 to 184 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 200 to 120 degrees Celsius)  a lack of atmospheric pressure , radiation effects and abrasive lunar dust. To combat these challenges, the camera was outfitted with a blanket for dust and thermal protection, as well as with ergonomic buttons designed specifically to aid astronauts using the camera while wearing gloves in bulky spacesuits.

"The lunar camera will be one of many tools they will need to handle on the moon, so it should be easy to use," Jeremy Myers, NASAs lead for the HULC camera, said in the statement. "The human factor is a big deal for us, because you want the camera to be intuitive and not taxing on the crew."

During PANGAEA, one of the crews objectives was to select the most suitable lenses and corresponding settings. Using the camera in the field allowed the team to test that the photos had the right resolution, depth of field and exposure to maximize science results, according to the statement.

Engineers use the Handheld Universal Lunar Camera (HULC) in a lava tube in Lanzarote, Spain, as part of the PANGAEA training program.

While astronauts of the Apollo 11 mission did manage to snap images of the moon, the HULC will be the first handheld, mirrorless camera used in space .

The Apollo-era camera was a standalone, mechanical Hasselblad with a Harrison Schmidt 60 millimeter lens. Comparatively, the Artemis camera will be able to provide superior image quality in low light situations  and will also be able to record video.

"Conditions for photography will be tricky in many ways, from operating the camera with the gloves on, to very low light levels and big contrast between bright and dark sources," ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet said in the statement. "I spent a lot of time learning what you can do with the cameras available in orbit. It is not just point and shoot. On the moon, just pressing the buttons in auto mode wont be good enough."

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Further testing of the lunar camera prototype is expected, with one version slated to fly to the International Space Station for additional experimentation in orbit. The interface and housing for the camera has already changed as a result of being tested in various conditions, and will continue to evolve in preparation for NASAs Artemis 3 mission, ESA officials said.

"We are trying to choose the best lenses for the moon shots and optimize the settings in a smart way," Myers said in the statement. "We want astronauts to be able to take a detailed image of a crystalline structure in a rock and to capture landscapes, all with the right exposure."
Attorneys representing civil rights organizations say a federal judge made the right decision in ruling the re-drawing of state and congressional maps is unconstitutional.

The legislature is going to have to redraw those maps, so they fairly represent all Georgians, Caitlin May with the Georgia Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union told Channel 2s Ashli Lincoln.

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May and the Georgia chapter represents the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity who filed a federal law suit against the Georgias Secretary of State.

The judge found the maps violate the voting rights act, May said.

Civil rights activist say the maps drawn by Republican lawmakers were aimed at suppressing black voters.

It meant that certain districts were compressed, others were enlarged to get a result to fit a certain party, said Gerald Griggs, the President of the Georgia State Conference NAACP.

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Georgia NAACP president Gerald Griggs says the 516-page order released by a federal judge, echoes whats outlined in multiple federal law suits levied against the secretary of states office. Griggs says the lawsuit the NAACP filed against the state is still ongoing.

Several civil rights groups challenged the maps, arguing that Black residents fueled Georgias population growth in the decade before the 2020 census. According to the Census, Georgias Black population during the last decade increased by 13%, while the states white population declined by 1%.

Almost all of that progress is due to law suits being filed and brave plaintiffs coming forward and advocating for their rights, May said.

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Channel 2s Richard Elliot was there in 2021 when the Republican-controlled General Assembly passed the new maps. Republican State Senator John Kennedy assured Elliot that the current maps are good.

We got a good map here. Its going to be good for the state, good for the citizens, he said.

Gov. Brian Kemp issued a proclamation on Thursday afternoon calling for a special session of the Georgia General Assembly on Nov. 29 to revisit laws relating to the states districts.
CLARSKVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN)  Theres one creature you might not consider when visiting Fort Campbell and now its the focus of a new study: bats.

Flying around Fort Campbell in the wee hours of the night are tricolored and little brown bats.

Thanks to a new, 10-year, $2 million dollar grant from the U.S. Army, these creatures will be the focus of a new study at Austin Peay State University led by Dr. Catherine Haas.

So, we found that Fort Campbell actually had the highest population of tricolored bats in the state, Haas said. So they essentially wanted to continue doing some survey and habitat relationship research, not just for tricolored, but a few other bat species that are declining.

A grant that large and long is quite rare for this kind of research, Haas noted.

White-Nose Syndrome: Fungal disease almost certain death for some Tennessee bat colonies

(Courtesy: Austin Peay State University)

(Courtesy: Austin Peay State University)

(Courtesy: Austin Peay State University)

(Courtesy: Austin Peay State University)

The 10 year component is whats really unique and, and pretty amazing for our students, Haas said. So its this great partnership with Fort Campbell and Austin Peay to provide for Fort Campbell to understand what species they have there.

Whats the backstory? This is the direct result of a previous study on bats and how white-nose syndrome is being attributing their deadly decline.

And essentially, what happens is the fungus disrupts their hibernation behavior, it causes them to expend a lot of energy, they end up starving to death and have a really high mortality rates across eastern middle and in western North America, Haas said.

Students are tasked with determining if tricolored and little brown bats should be on the list of Endangered Species.

6 endangered species in Tennessee that are now considered extinct

We can do a lot of work understanding habitat relationships, and foraging behavior, and how things like forest management, notes Haas. If they cut down trees or thin forests, how that impacts the bat movements.

Through previous research, Haas and her cohorts have found these kinds of bats are all over Middle Tennessee.

So overall, the big picture is trying to understand a lot of different components of the lifecycle and the life histories of multiple bat species in the southeast, Haas said.

And according to Dr. Haas, everyone should care about this research, especially those of drinking age.

I always joke that if you like margaritas or tequila you have to like bats because the agave plant is pollinated by bats, laughs Haas. So without bats, you wouldnt have margaritas.

Not to mention, this research proves to be a pivotal step in growing Austin Peays Biology Department for the next 10 years.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRN News 2.
A woman holds a placard during a protest over the proposed culling of wild Australian horses in 2020 (William WEST)

Australia approved on Friday the aerial shooting of wild horses in one of the country's largest national parks, resuming a contentious practice that authorities described as "essential" to protect native wildlife.

An estimated 19,000 wild horses -- known locally as "brumbies" -- live in Kosciuszko National Park, a number that has increased by a third in the last two years.

New South Wales state authorities want to cut the population to 3,000 by mid-2027.

The national park already traps, re-homes and shoots horses from the ground, but the state's environment minister Penny Sharpe said this was not enough.

"Threatened native species are in danger of extinction and the entire ecosystem is under threat," she said. "We must take action.

"This was not an easy decision -- no one wants to have to kill wild horses," she added.

Aerial shooting from helicopters was used for a brief period in 2000, when more than 600 wild horses were shot over three days.

But a fierce public backlash resulted in the method being banned.

Those against culling say the horses are part of Australia's national identity, a nostalgic reminder of the days when tough stockmen and women worked in the country's rugged Snowy Mountains.

Brumbies are thought to have descended from horses that escaped or were abandoned around the early 1800s.

A storied rugby team in the country's capital Canberra is named after the animal.

They were celebrated by the Australian "bush poet" Banjo Paterson, who waxed lyrical about a "wild, unhandled" creature who roamed the mountains "'neath moon and star".

But early farmers had a less romantic view: they saw the animals as pests that ruined fences and competed with livestock for feed.

It is a view echoed by conservationists, who say the horses destroy native plants through grazing and trampling, increase soil erosion, foul waterholes, and cause the collapse of wildlife burrows.

"The unique and complex ecosystems of the Australian Alps have been trampled for too long," said Jacqui Mumford, head of the Nature Conservation Council, an environmental group.

She said brumbies' activities damaged "at least 25 threatened alpine flora and 14 threatened alpine fauna species, including the iconic corroboree frog, the broad-toothed rat and rare alpine orchids".

Australia has up to 400,000 feral horses, according to the Invasive Species Council, a conservation group that has welcomed the decision to resume aerial shooting.

The group's advocacy manager, Jack Gough, said the brumby population in New South Wales was growing at a rate of between 15 and 18 percent a year.

The number of wild horses being removed through the current methods was "well below" the population growth rate, he added.

sm/arb/smw
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Stay at home orders have been rescinded for a number of Maine communities after the deadliest US mass shooting this year.

A manhunt for the suspected gunman, who killed 18 people and injured 13 others, is in its third day.

Police on Friday released the names of all the 18 victims.

They include a grandfather, a talented young bowler, and four members of Maine's deaf community, ranging in age from 14 to 76.

The attack happened at a local bar and a bowling alley in the small town of Lewiston. The community as well as several other nearby towns have been on lockdown since the shootings.

Police have been conducting an "around-the-clock" effort to locate 40-year-old Robert Card, the suspect, and have urged caution for communities while he remains on the loose.

Michael Sauschuck, Maine's public safety commissioner, said on Friday evening that businesses can either remain closed or re-open as of this weekend.

However, hunting remains prohibited in the towns of Bowdoin, Lewiston, Lisbon, and Monmouth to prevent gun shots being heard that would prompt calls to emergency services, he said.

As sunset fell across southern Maine on Friday, Lewiston remained quiet, the windows of businesses and homes kept dark.

Michael Mathieu, a resident of neighbouring Auburn, said he felt safe even with the suspect still on the loose.

"I feel they wouldn't put the public in harm's way just to get people back to some sort of normalcy," he said after officials announced the lockdown orders were being lifted.

"I believe they would keep the shelter in place if they felt there was still a danger to anyone."

Nick Wilson, a business owner near Lewiston, said residents should "live with caution but not with fear".

"He took lives but not all of ours," he said. "The community needs to return regular life so that the grieving can start. We all need each other."

Locals told the BBC they were certain the affected communities would come together.

"We look after each other," said Tammy, from Auburn, who declined to give her last name.

Across Lewiston, paper cut-outs in the shape of hearts appeared on telephone poles, green writing on white paper: "To my community" and "To my home".

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In Portland, students of the University of Southern Maine organised a meal collection for members of the deaf community, who were heavily hit by Wednesday's attack.

Authorities had begun searching the Androscoggin River for the suspect, but that mission was paused at dark and will resume on Saturday, when additional dive resources will be brought in.

That search will be "time intensive", officials said during a update on the investigation.

Authorities had found the suspect's white Subaru Outback at a boat ramp in Lisbon, beside the river. They said that they found additional evidence in the car but did not provide specific details.

On Friday, a utility was using its dams to lower the water level in the area to help investigators. Helicopters flew over the river to help direct divers as they searched the water.

Neighbourhood canvassing efforts are also scheduled to take place in the coming days, Mr Sauschuck said.

That "could be a couple of officers knocking on the door" or "two officers with clearly displayed badges jumping out of a marked car to come talk to you as detectives".

Law enforcement have urged for patience from residents as the search continues. So far, they have received over 530 tips and leads, but have not given any indication that they have uncovered a solid lead in the manhunt.

They did reveal on Friday morning, however, that a note had been found at a property linked to the suspect.Two unnamed law enforcement officials told the Associated Press it was a suicide note that did not provide any specific motive for the shooting. It was addressed to his son. The suspect's mobile phone was also discovered at the property.

Investigators would not confirm that information and declined to elaborate on the note's contents.
The Avdiivka spoil tip, which the Russians were so eager to access, is not a mine but a waste dump. It has a flat surface, a rolled top. Trucks brought loads of mining waste there one at a time. It is a giant landfill, I would call it that. But it is still growing into a real waste heap. It is located to the north of Avdiivka coke plant.

This waste dump does not shelter the Russians from mortars or other rounds, and certainly does not shelter them from cluster munitions. By the way, we mowed down quite a serious number of Russians with 155 mm cluster munitions in the area of the slag heap. They stick there like flies to honey. Eventually, a certain number of shells arrive and sweep away these flies in one fell swoop. The next brigade comes in, or the next battalion. They run to this heap again and plant a flag. It was there for half a day, and they shot it down. However, I wouldn't even waste a drone. It's a shame to waste it on that rag. That's why this slag heap is more of a symbolic place for the Russians, nothing more.

Russians are not interested in it for military communication. It could be relevant because the Avdiivka coke plant is not far away. But the coke plant itself is a fortified area. Therefore, in principle, the presence of our troops on the spoil heap also makes them vulnerable to attack. That is, our troops can perform any defensive tasks without it. It remains in the gray zone. The fact that the Russians ran up there and try to hold it means nothing. Their central combat positions are to the north-east of this slag heap. That is why there is more information noise than action.

The real problems are not here. The real problems the Russians are creating are to the northwest and southwest of Avdiivka, trying to encircle the northwest from Krasnohorivka and the southwest from Vodyane. So these are the problems that the Ukrainian forces are fighting now, destroying the Russians.

Until the rains, they have a window of opportunity to carry out offensive actions

Over the last couple of days, the intensity of Russian attacks has dropped. A week ago, I said they had about a week and a half worth of so-called army ammunition. They've practically used it up. Now, they're waiting for the next shipment. And we are already starting to work on the logistical supply chain. That is why the fighting has now decreased by a factor of two, although attempts by the Russians to bombard Avdiivka with rocket-propelled grenades remain high.

In other words, aviation has been working intensively. The only problem they have is with ammunition. The question is whether they will increase it and continue their offensive actions or whether they can calm down and return at the expense of our actions on the left bank of the Dnieper, realizing that this is a long game and they may simply not be able to withstand it. This will become clear in the next couple of days. If a new batch of ammunition is brought in, then the attacks will continue.

The Russians are reducing troop density in the Luhansk area, realizing they have nothing to gain strategically. Rains are ahead. This direction is a torn piece for the fall and winter periods. That's why they don't need these units there. Since they have decided to strengthen the Avdiivka direction, these forces will definitely be redeployed there. There is information that some units from the Donetsk direction are also moving to the Kherson direction. At least, such a transfer has begun. The Kupyansk-Kreminna direction (part of the Lugansk direction) will now also decline (Russian offensive actions).

The likelihood that these units will be transferred to Avdiivka does not necessarily mean it is to strengthen offensive operations. There is a big question about defense there, among other things. The Russians are spreading out. Yes, they are trying to encircle from the south, they are trying to encircle from the north, and they are sagging in the area of Spartak and DAP. If we throw a couple of Ukrainian assault brigades over there now, we can even reach DAP on the Russian counterattack. Everything will depend on the availability of resources. They may be moving troops to hold the entire front line. Because they are advancing in two directions, and the third one is sagging.

This southern direction has been sagging for at least six months. They are trying to encircle Avdiivka, but the central avenue of attack from Donetsk is failing. For some reason, they think that we will not move towards Donetsk. They have this confidence. They have already lost a part of Opytne once after removing units from the central Donetsk direction and moving them north of Avdivka near Krasnohorivka. They practically opened a front, and our troops took advantage of it. It may be the same because these units from the Luhansk direction can strengthen these defensive positions.

Read also: What went wrong with Russia's major offensive on Avdiivka

We are waiting and watching. If the Russians bring in a certain number of shells, this movement towards Avdiivka will continue, at least until severe rains. Until the rains, they have a window of opportunity to carry out offensive actions. After intense rains, it will be impossible to move through the fields there. During the fall and winter periods, the black earth of Donetsk is very muddy. There is also clay soil in some positions. You can burrow up to your head and not move anywhere. That's why, I think, they are in a hurry. Now, they will decide whether to continue on Avdiivka or calm down and somehow go into a defensive mode.

Our readers have noticed that the Russians are repeating such a technique as covering with ticks, which we saw in Severodonetsk, Bakhmut, and now with Avdiivka. Indeed, pincers are a standard technique for squeezing the enemy out of a fortified area. That is, semi-envelopment and further operational control of ammunition supply chains to a half-encircled or already encircled garrison with the help of artillery. This is a standard tactic; all armies have used it for several hundred years.

How is the AFU countering these Avdiivka pincers? Support is coming. Those batteries of our long-range artillery, which stand in the area of the Karlovsky reservoir, reach Avdiivka and do not allow the Russians to close the pincers, do not allow them to move westward. A wall of artillery fire prevents the Russians from carrying out any activities. We also have skilled snipers at a range of 25-30 kilometers. They cut off the Russians, driving them into disadvantageous positions and sometimes driving them into minefields. We've been fighting there for ten years  every bush there has been shot at. The defense line there built up competently and correctly.

The issue is the situation as it stands at the moment - the availability of forces and funds to reinforce certain positions. To hold the wall of fire, you need sufficient ammunition. The question is: do we have it or not? Based on this (but only Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, the AFU commander-in-chief, and the General Staff command know about it), decisions will be made on some kind of movement; on reinforcement, or withdrawal. There is a direct correlation with the amount of ammunition and equipment.

Lately, the Russians have gotten gray hair again in Donetsk, because Bradley and Leopards are already at Avdiivka. This is serious equipment. Bradleys work against any tank. They have already hit dozens of them there. ATGM is an excellent anti-tank missile. Leopard tanks fulfill their task of hitting Russian equipment and defenses. If that's true, that means reinforcements have arrived. They showed up after Zaluzhnyi arrived. Most likely, a decision was made to reinforce, which means that equipment and ammunition came in. Therefore, almost 900 Russians are killed in the Avdiivka area per day. Now, thousands of Russians have already been unpacked and sent away. They are no longer lingering in morgues; there is nowhere to store them.

Read also: Grueling battle for Avdiivka

Our decision on Avdiivka will depend on the availability of forces and means, and General Zaluzhnyi knows what to do. If you look at the entire front line, Avdiivka has tied up several thousand Russians and is pulling more brigades on itself. It is tying up more and more Russian reserves. Or not even reserves anymore, since they are withdrawing them from under Kreminna and Kupyansk. These units have already been in contact with each other in combat, and any unit after combat contact loses half of its power. Plus, they will not appear in the Kherson direction. That's what we can see now.

Zaluzhnyi stretched the Russians along the 1200 kilometers front, and is now performing operations on the left bank of the Kherson region. The Russians have everything tied up in the east, and they will not move anything to the left bank. We are following the development of the situation on the left bank. There are good prospects there.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Yurii Fedorenko, commander of the assault UAV company of the 92nd separate assault brigade, said that the Russians are engaging their reserves on the Bakhmut front, but the Ukrainian forces hamper their offensive.

Source: Fedorenko in a talk show of Ukrainska Pravda

Quote: "The enemy pulls their reserves, try to knock us out. We hamper that offensive, breaking the assault potential of the enemy, move forward. Therefore, there is progress, but sometimes it can be just two gaps  10 metres a day, which are quite tough to achieve."

Details: According to Fedorenko, the Russians are using both contractors and representatives of various private companies, in particular the Shtorm-Z units.

"The Russians carry out assault actions mainly at the expense of the mobilised. The enemy also saturates the detachment with a huge number of artillery means and also actively uses UAV means."

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Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman Fried exits Manhattan federal court in New York City in July. He testified in his own defense on Friday, saying he knew little about cryptocurrencies before starting FTX. File Photo by Louis Lanzano/UPI

Oct. 27 (UPI) -- Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former chief executive officer of what was once the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, told a court on Friday he didn't know much about cryptocurrency before launching FTX and its closely associated hedge fund Alameda Research.

In the New York federal fraud trial, prosecutors have accused Bankman-Fried of being the mastermind behind billions of FTX customer funds being siphoned off for personal use.

"I had absolutely no idea how they worked," Bankman-Fried said in court on Friday. "I just knew they were things you could trade."

Bankman-Fried said he gave the exchange about a 20% chance of being successful when he partnered with Gary Wang, who has testified against Bankman-Fried in the trial.

Bankman-Fried said that he was not aware of the so-called digital back door that Alameda Research, his other company, used to withdraw FTX customer funds. That access is part of the key charges by prosecutors.

He said he gave program developers a free hand and trusted them because of his lack of tech knowledge.

"Ultimately, I had authority," Bankman-Friend said. "On the other hand, I wasn't much of a programmer. ... I wasn't entirely sure what was happening."

Under questioning from his attorney, Bankman-Fried said that, while he made "mistakes," he never intended to defraud anyone.

"We thought that we might be able to build the best product on the market," he said, believing he and Wang could make an easier-to-use exchange that could win over the market and "move the ecosystem forward. It turned out basically the opposite of that."

Bankman-Fried could spend decades in prison if convicted on various fraud charges that prosecutors said led to the collapse of the exchange.
Ever heard of the Lost Battalion? No, not lost like we don't know anything about them ... lost as in they got so turned around in a forest that they were legit lost. Now, you might be wondering how a unit of trained service members gets lost in the first place. Well, buckle up, warriors, because this tale is straight out of Hollywood.

We're diving into the time machine again. Destination? The year 1918, a time when the world was neck-deep in the shadowy abyss of the Great War. In these shadows, our tale unfolds in a place known as the Argonne Forest, nestled in the heart of northeastern France. It was on this blood-soaked stage that a scrappy group of U.S. soldiers, who'd come to be known as the "Lost Battalion," carved their names into the stone tablet of military legend. Under the command of Major Charles Whittlesey , these men, all 554 of them, walked into history's hallowed hall, not through grand victories but through an extraordinary tale of resilience and survival.

The heart of the Argonne

In the labyrinthine wilderness of the Argonne, Whittlesey's men, mostly from the 77th "Statue of Liberty" Division, were tasked with a daunting mission. Their objective? Pierce the enemy's line, an important step in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, the final Allied assault that hoped to knock the Central Powers off their feet. Little did they know that they were about to waltz into a German maelstrom that would give them an unwelcome title and unforgettable fame.

The unseen predicament

With the order "advance at all costs," Whittlesey's battalion moved forward with the spirit of warriors on October 2, 1918. They punched through the German line, but their flanks lost the dance. The supporting units had been repelled, leaving our gallant battalion isolated deep within enemy territory, surrounded by uninvited guests in spiked helmets. A dire situation? Oh, indeed. But, to surrender? That's a word these brave souls didn't care to thumb through in their dictionaries.

Defying death

Marooned within the gnarled tendrils of the Argonne Forest, our Lost Battalion found themselves in a situation best described as looking down the wrong end of a loaded gun. Ammo? As sparse as a hen's teeth. Medical supplies? More akin to a meager pantry. And food? Sharing your rations with local fauna isn't exactly what they had in mind when signing up.

Their own artillery, ignorant of their predicament, decided to add to the rain of lead, mistaking friend for foe. Picture this, dear reader: You're caught in a hellish crossfire, dodging bullets with your name etched on them from every which way, all the while nursing a meager piece of hardtack, your feast for the day.

But in this desperate plight, our heroes didn't falter . They hunkered down, dug their heels in, and displayed a resilience that made the hardest nails seem soft. Wave after wave of German assaults came crashing down. Yet, they were met with a wall of sheer grit and tenacity. Bullets ran low? Bayonets out. Bayonets dulled from use? Bare fists it was. Such was their resolve, their refusal to bow down, even as death breathed down their necks.

From feathered wings to fervent prayers

In this waking nightmare, salvation arrived on the wings of a pigeon. Cher Ami , the aptly named "Dear Friend," became their beacon of hope. With a missive tied to its foot, this brave bird took to the skies, flying into a storm of bullets to deliver their desperate plea to Allied command.

Cher Ami bore the brunt of enemy fire, was shot, and even lost an eye. Yet, this tiny avian warrior persevered, delivering its crucial message despite suffering. Its heroic flight led to a cease-fire from their own side's artillery and sparked a rescue mission for our trapped warriors.

Battle-scarred victors

After enduring six days akin to Dante's inferno, on October 8, the ragged remnants of the Lost Battalion were rescued. Of the original 554, only 194 stood tall. The rest had been captured, injured, or had met their maker.

Yet, the crucible of battle hadn't extinguished the collective spirit of the Lost Battalion. Quite the contrary, it had forged it into something more potent, a beacon of hope that cut through the grim fog of war. Despite their ordeal's physical and emotional scars, they emerged as shining symbols of courage, resilience, and unyielding resolve. Their stand and survival serve as an inspiring testament to humanity's ability to rise above overwhelming odds.

Monument to the Lost Battalion in the Argonne Forest, France.

The legacy of the lost

The Lost Battalion's saga is more than a tale of survival. It is a testament to the unconquerable human spirit, demonstrating that even when trapped between the devil and the deep blue sea, or in this case, between your artillery and the enemy's, surrender isn't the only option. Whether lost in the Argonne or found in history books, their story continues to echo through time, a reminder of the extraordinary courage that ordinary men can summon in the face of impossible odds.

So, here's to the Lost Battalion. Lost, they were, but forgotten, never. Their spirit marches on, an enduring symbol of valor and resilience that remains far from lost to the annals of history.

In the grand tapestry of WWI, their story remains a vibrant thread, a testament to the fortitude and stubborn courage that defines the warrior spirit.
Court Blocks Law that Banned Abortion Pill Reversal

NEWS PROVIDED BY

Oct. 27, 2023







stipulates that any medical professional who "provides, prescribes, administers, or attempts medication abortion reversal in this state" is engaging in "unprofessional conduct" and is "subject to discipline." The "medication" that many clinics and pregnancy resource centers offer for abortion reversal is progesterone, a naturally occurring hormone that sustains a pregnancy. Progesterone is the same treatment used to help women prevent miscarriages and according to physicians challenging the law, "abortion pill reversal is nothing more than supplemental progesterone." DENVER, Oct. 27, 2023 / Christian Newswire / -- A federal judge blocked Colorado from enforcing its new abortion pill reversal law on a pro-life clinic ruling the law violates the staff's religious freedoms. Enacted in April 2023, Colorado's law is the first of its kind in the United States and bars physicians from prescribing medication to help women reverse incomplete chemical abortions to save their unborn babies. The judge's preliminary injunction only applies to the clinic that brought the lawsuit while the judge considers a permanent injunction. Colorado SB 23-190 stipulates that any medical professional who "provides, prescribes, administers, or attempts medication abortion reversal in this state" is engaging in "unprofessional conduct" and is "subject to discipline." The "medication" that many clinics and pregnancy resource centers offer for abortion reversal is progesterone, a naturally occurring hormone that sustains a pregnancy. Progesterone is the same treatment used to help women prevent miscarriages and according to physicians challenging the law, "abortion pill reversal is nothing more than supplemental progesterone."

The law's challenger is faith-based health care provider Bella Health + Wellness, which has prescribed progesterone for thousands of women and has helped several women who had initiated a chemical abortion successfully continue their pregnancies with progesterone. According to the lawsuit, Bella Health considers it a religious obligation to protect unborn life and provide treatment to pregnant mothers seeking to stop an abortion in progress. The clinic alleges that biased legislators crafted the bill to "target" both women who have changed their minds about abortion and faith-based pregnancy resource centers that offer abortion alternatives.

The lawsuit provided the Court unofficial transcripts from legislative debates that record legislators who sponsored SB 23-190 explicitly attacking the religious nature of pregnancy resource centers. Several lawmakers are recorded as labeling faith-based organizations that offer abortion alternatives as "fake clinics" that "lure and steer" patients "away from abortion" by offering a "life threatening" procedure.

Bella Health specifically claims Colorado's law violates the First Amendment and Free Exercise Clause rights of its workers because it forces them to "choose between giving life-affirming health care according to their sincerely held religious beliefs or face the loss of their licenses and severe financial penalties." In addition, Bella Health alleges Colorado's law "chills free speech" and "actively thwarts women" from stopping an abortion in progress.

Judge Daniel D. Domenico agreed the law "is not neutral" and that legislators knew the law would "burden religious practice."

Judge Domenico wrote, "The target of the bill is plainly abortion bill reversal...it seems clear then, both given this legislative history and the bill's text itself, that the legislature was aware that the burden of this prohibition would primarily fall on religious adherentsBut when the practice [the state] chooses to ban is one that it knows is undertaken for religious reasons, it loses the protections."

Judge Domenico explained that while Colorado aims to bar the use of progesterone for reversing chemical abortion, the state simultaneously allows the medication for miscarriage prevention. The judge noted that Colorado's law is also not a "neutral and generally applicable" law in this respect.

"...the law treats comparable secular activity more favorably than Bella Health's religious activity," stated Judge Domenico. "The State generally cannot regulate an activity if that regulation burdens religious exercise, provides for individualized exceptions, fails to regulate comparable secular activities that raise similar risks, and otherwise targets religious activity. The law at issue here runs afoul of these First Amendment principles."

Colorado has until November 20, 2023, to appeal the injunction to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.

In chemical abortions, the drug Mifepristone blocks progesterone and starves the baby to death. The abortion pill reversal protocol consists of giving extra progesterone within 72 hours after taking Mifepristone to "outnumber and outcompete" the abortion drug so the baby can survive.

According to Dr. William Lile, who is board certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology and who has delivered thousands of babies, progesterone is "bio-identical" and "as natural as it can possibly be" to what a pregnant woman produces. Dr. Lile told Liberty Counsel that he has personally reversed the abortion pill 15 out of 19 times (a 78 percent success rate) and that abortion pill reversal protocol has safely reversed Mifepristone more than 4,500 times across the nation.

More information about reversing the abortion pill can be viewed here.

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, "Colorado's law is indefensible. This pro-death law is an affront to the Constitution and to women wanting to preserve the lives of their unborn babies. A law like this perpetuates unsupported claims that chemical abortions can't be safely reversed. This is a deliberate strategy to satisfy the abortion industry's lust for death and must be permanently blocked."

Liberty Counsel provides broadcast quality TV interviews via Hi-Def Skype and LTN at no cost.



SOURCE Liberty Counsel



CONTACT: Mat Staver, 407-875-1776, Liberty@LC.org


Bed bugs are world travelers.

The age-old curse on humans loves to frequent densely populated cities like New York, Chicago, and most recently Paris.

They creep, they crawl, and they feast on your blood as you sleep.

They ride first class via clothes, bags, and bedsheets to find the next person worth dining on.

According to Orkin, the more than a century-old American pest control company, New York ranks second on their list of bed buggiest cities in the U.S.

First up was Chicago and Philadelphia came in a whopping third, based on treatment data from metro areas where Orkin performed the most bed bug treatments (December 1, 2021  November 30, 2022).

These bugs have most recently took on Paris by a storm--but the problem is that they're actually everywhere.

It is worth noting that Paris and New York are two of the most traveled metropolitan places in the world--by humans and bugs, one can assume.

A contaminated mattress and bed frame in the street awaiting garbage collection in Paris, France, on Thursday, Oct. 5, 2023. A rash of bedbug sightings across France is causing paranoia among travelers and becoming a sore spot for the government as Paris prepares to host the Olympics next year. Photographer: Nathan Laine/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Bed bugs

Bed bugs are typically 3/16 inches long, reddish brown and mostly nocturnal. They are also hematophagous, meaning blood is their only food source.

They are also known for their rapid population growth laying as many as five eggs a day and surviving several months.

Without any blood, "they can slow their metabolism and just wait for us," said Jean-Michel Berenger, an entomologist who raises bedbugs in his lab in the infectious diseases section of the Mediterranee University Hospital in Marseille. The carbon dioxide that all humans give off "will reactivate them  and theyll come back to bite you."

But silence is a mistake, experts say. No social category is immune to finding bedbugs in their clothing, blankets or mattresses.

"Its not at all a hygiene problem. The only thing that interests (bedbugs) is your blood," said Berenger, the entomologist. "Whether you live in a dump or a palace, its the same thing to them."

Orkin entomologist Ben Hottel, Orkin says, "while its important to be aware of bed bug infestations within hotels, practicing precautions in other aspects of travel are also important. Taxis, buses and airplanes are also common bed bug hiding places , allowing these pests an opportunity to hitch a ride with unsuspecting travelers. Examining clothing and luggage regularly while traveling can help to catch a bed bug infestation in the early stages," said Ben Hottel, Orkin entomologist.

American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) entomologist Louis Sorkin feeds bed bugs on his hand in New York, April 17, 2014. AFP PHOTO/Emmanuel Dunand (Photo credit should read EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP via Getty Images)

How to prevent bed bugs at home

Although these bugs seem relentless, there are steps you can take to prevent them.

Double check mattress tags, seams, baseboards, headboards and electrical outlets--when you move in, after a trip or after guests spend the night.

Decrease clutter in your home and make it easier to spot them.

Double check all secondhand furniture before bringing it home.

How to prevent bed bugs when traveling

According to Orkin use the acronym S.L.E.E.P. to prevent bed bugs while traveling.

S urvey the room you're staying in and be on th lookout for tiny ink colored stains.

L ift and look unde mattresses, baseboards, and torn wallpaper

E levate luggage away from beds and wall.

E xamine luggage and bags carefully when repacking.

Place dryer-safe clothing in dryer for 30 to 45 minutes after getting home from travel.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Bela bill is the biggest education reform in South Africa since apartheid

South Africa's parliament has passed a major education bill that could see parents face prison if their children are not in school.

Under the Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela), they could be jailed for up to 12 months if their children are truant, or if they are not enrolled when they reach school age.

Bela also introduces a ban on corporal punishment in all schools.

It is the biggest education overhaul since the end of apartheid in 1994.

The governing party, the African National Congress (ANC), says the bill will "transform our education system, to address historical and present challenges".

However, the biggest opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), has condemned it, saying it gives the state too much control over schools and will lead to the collapse of education.

The DA says the bill "disempowers schools, parents, and communities and fails to address a single one of the systemic challenges that impede quality education".

It led a protest during the vote and has threatened to take the government to the Constitutional Court if it becomes law.

The ANC has a huge majority in parliament and the bill was backed by 223 MPs, with just 83 against, on Thursday.

Education expert Mary Metcalf told SABC News she agreed that there should be consequences for parents who do not send their children to school.

Prof Metcalf said this was the "basic bare minimum" of being a parent.

Another point of contention in the Bela bill is that schools will be required to submit their language policy to the government.

They must ensure it meets the needs of the broader community - if they do not, they will have to change it.

Many feel this is an attack on Afrikaans communities.

But the ANC says language policies have been exploited and used "as a proxy for racial exclusion" by schools, which the party wants to change.

During the years of white-minority rule, students were forced to learn in Afrikaans, which was seen as the language of the apartheid government. This led to massive protests by students - the 1976 Soweto Uprising.

Experts say that South Africa's education system is in crisis.

In 2021, it ranked last out of 57 countries assessed in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, which tested the reading ability of 400,000 students around the world.

Earlier this year a study found that eight out of 10 South African school children struggled to read by the age of 10.
A Wall Street Journal analysis sheds light on Russias growing nuclear capabilities in Belarus.

Belarus expects over $600 million from Russia to compensate for losses sustained from a Russian tax change back in 2018.

Poland issues a European arrest warrant against six members of Lukashenko s security services.

A Belarusian court extends the jail sentence of Zmitser Dashkevich, an anti-regime political activist, by a year, citing bad behavior.

For this weeks spotlight, we interviewed Ekaterina Deikalo, an expert in international law at the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, a non-governmental organization dedicated to protecting human rights in Belarus in accordance with the Helsinki Accords.

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WSJ analysis shows Russia expanding nuclear capability in Belarus

A Wall Street Journal (WSJ) analysis of satellite imagery and Belarusian state media footage pointed to Russias growing nuclear capability in Belarus.

According to a WSJ report from Oct. 18, Russia has been constructing infrastructure capable of housing nuclear weapons since prior to its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

While it could not attest to whether or not nuclear warheads are presently in Belarus, the WSJ suggested that the region around Asipovichy may serve as a hub for nuclear-capable weapons transferred from Russia.

Read also: Russia tries to conceal its dwindling nuclear stockpile

Satellite imagery from January 2022 reportedly shows this expansion, with over a dozen Iskander components stationed at a training center in the area.

Images from the same location in February 2023 allegedly show Belarusian soldiers training with the same weapons in the same location.

Meanwhile, imagery from another location in the Asipovichy region in July 2023 shows a hangar used to store the Russian launchers. According to WSJ, the hangar didnt exist a year prior in August 2022.

However, Belarusian Hajun, a group that has been monitoring the movement of Russian forces in Belarus since the onset of the full-scale war, said it debates whether or not Russia is keeping warheads at the hangars.

Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to place tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus for alleged training purposes on March 25, adding that a special storage facility would be completed by July 1.

Belarus to receive over $600 million in compensation for Russian oil tax change

Belarus expects to receive $640 million from Russia in 2024 to compensate for losses sustained by its oil refineries, Russian state-controlled media said on Oct. 23, citing Belarusian Finance Minister Yuri Seliverstov.

Belarus used to import and subsequently resell discounted Russian crude oil and oil products for years.

However, Moscow stopped the practice back in 2019 amid a change to its tax code, leading to $330 million in costs to Belarus that year alone, according to Minsk.

According to Belarusian authorities, the countrys budget lost $130 million that year, and Belarusian oil refineries lost $200 million.

Read also: Can Russia afford to commit to a years-long war?

Minsk estimated that Russias so-called tax maneuver would cost Belarus $11 billion by 2024.

Moscow and Minsk were at loggerheads in 2020 after they failed to agree on oil delivery terms, and Russian oil companies suspended pipeline oil supplies to Belarus.

Minsk demanded compensation, citing its membership in the Union State, a so-called union consisting of Belarus and Russia aimed at deepening the integration of the two states.

Russia agreed in 2021 to provide continuous compensation to Belarus for its incurred losses.

Poland issues European arrest warrants against 6 Belarusian torturers

Polands Prosecutors Office issued European arrest warrants for six members of Lukashenkos security services, according to the Belarusian opposition movement National Anti-Crisis Management (NAM).

Major Yauhenii Shapetska, the head of the infamous Akrestina pre-trial detention chamber, and five other law enforcement officials are suspected of torturing protesters in August 2020, according to NAM.

Akrestina became notorious as a torture center used by Belarusian security forces during the five days of protests that followed the fraudulent 2020 elections.

The International Committee for Investigation of Torture, a coalition of independent Belarusian non-government organizations, found that Akrestina, designed to host 110 detainees, held over 3,000 people. Many detainees were severely beaten, deprived of medical help, and threatened with execution.

According to the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, 13,500 Belarusians were detained across the country, including 700 minors.

NAM assisted Belarusians in collecting and filing cases of police brutality to local and international authorities. Local authorities received over 680 complaints in Minsk alone but refused to launch a criminal investigation.

Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko, who claimed a landslide victory in the sham 2020 elections, admitted to police violence against protesters but deemed it justified.

Belarusian court extends sentence for political prisoner

A Belarusian court extended the jail sentence of Zmitser Dashkevich, an anti-regime political activist, by a year, citing bad behavior.

The court based the extension of Zmitsers sentence on a series of supposed disciplinary infractions like having a single conversation with another inmate, according to Zmitsers wife.

Belarus first imprisoned Dashkevich, the former leader of the opposition group Malady Front (Youth Front) in March 2022 for his participation in mass protests against the fraudulent 2020 Belarusian presidential election.

Courts often charge Belarusian political prisoners for bad behavior to postpone their release. Under Belarusian criminal law, there is no limit to the number of such charges, meaning a sentence can be extended indefinitely.

Viasna Human Rights Center recorded at least 20 cases of extended sentences for political prisoners in 2023. Almost 1,500 Belarusians are officially recognized as political prisoners.

Read also: Where is Russias anti-war opposition?

Can Lukashenko's actions be equated to Putin's, and should they? (Interview)

For this weeks spotlight, weve interviewed Ekaterina Deikalo, an expert in international law at the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, a non-governmental organization dedicated to protecting human rights in Belarus in accordance with the Helsinki Accords.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a resolution on Oct. 13 declaring Russia a dictatorship and urging the international community to recognize Vladimir Putins presidency as illegitimate after his term ends in 2024.

Editors Note: This interview was condensed for brevity and clarity.

The Kyiv Independent: PACE has called for Putin to be recognized as illegitimate after his current term ends, and for his regime to be deemed a dictatorship Oleksii Honcharenko (Ukraines representative to PACE) says he will push for a similar move (for Lukashenko). What could such a decision look like in the case of Belarus?

Ekaterina Deikalo: Honestly, I dont know. There are already enough statements about not recognizing his legitimacy. A formal recognition (of Belarus) as a dictatorship will not change the fact that Lukashenko has already been cut out of the international community.

First, the (UN) Human Rights Council has already recognized some of the actions of Belarusian authorities as crimes against humanity. Second, at the level of the EU and the Council of Europe, the need for individual criminal responsibility (for Belarus) in connection with (Russias) war against Ukraine has been clearly stipulated for both (Lukashenko and Belarusian officials).

Can one say that Lukashenko has exhausted the international communitys tools?

Lukashenko is in a better position than Putin, not least of all because Putin has an arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Also, unlike Putin, Lukashenko has achieved his goals. Putin didnt manage to take Kyiv in three days while Lukashenko has retained power, gets the resources he needs to maintain it, and doesnt have an arrest warrant issued against him And we see how it works. He (Putin) cant go anywhere.

What are the chances that the ICC will issue an arrest warrant against Lukashenko for his complicity in abducting Ukrainian children (from Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine)?

While I dont rule out the possibility, in my opinion, its unlikely. There are two tracks, both legally and politically, that could allow such an outcome.

Politically, its a matter of pressure here and now And we can see that its working: Lukashenko cares about it  he mentions the International (Criminal) Court in his speeches.

Meanwhile, the legal track is aimed at achieving justice. As we know, the National Anti-Crisis Management (an organization created by Belarusian anti-regime activists amid the protests that followed the fraudulent 2020 Belarusian presidential election) has submitted evidence (to the ICC) allegedly attesting to Belarus complicity in the forced deportation (of Ukrainian children from Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine). Now its the ICCs job to assess the information In my opinion, it is unlikely that, under these circumstances, there will be a warrant solely for (his role) in the deportations.

There are also a lot of nuances with respect to the movement of Ukrainian children from the occupied territories to Belarus. Some of them arrived voluntarily with the permission of their caregivers These nuances would matter significantly for the courts standard of proof

There is another possibility (for his being issued an arrest warrant by the ICC)... For example, the mass forced emigration of people (fearing politically motivated persecution)... And since the consequences take place on the territory of Poland and Lithuania, these countries can appeal (to the ICC) even though Belarus has not ratified the Rome Statute.

What other tools does the international community have to hold Lukashenko and Putin accountable?

While an ICC arrest warrant is one of the most pivotal moves, the international community can also work more actively with U.S. tribunals.

I think there are three options to bring him (Lukashenko) to justice.

First, an ad hoc tribunal for (his aggression) alongside Putin. The crime of aggression should be considered by the international tribunal separately from all other war crimes and directed against Putin as an aggressor and Lukashenko as an accomplice.

While theres already a UN resolution recognizing Russia as an aggressor and Lukashenko as a co-belligerent, and some steps have been taken, there has not been much movement, to be honest

The second option is an ICC tribunal for war crimes, as in the case of (Russias) deportation of (Ukrainian) children, for which evidence of war crimes is now being collected.

The third option is a tribunal specially created for what has been happening in Belarus (with respect to Lukashenkos crackdown on those who oppose the regime).

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
31-year-old Belarusian volunteer soldier Paviel Horbac who went by the alias Bort was killed on the battlefield in Ukraine. He took part in the liberation of Irpin in Kyiv Oblast, Kherson in Ukraines south and a number of other settlements.

Source: Belarusian Radio Liberty branch with reference to three sources and friends of the volunteer

Details: Paviels friends confirmed his death. Details are still unknown. Radio Liberty reported that he had been posting on social media this week.

Radio Liberty reported that from 2012 to 2015, Paviel worked under contract in the Belarusian army and was a senior officer. He was convicted of having an "illicit relationship" in Belarus. Horbac stated that he wanted to appeal the verdict.

He took active part in the Belarusian protests of 2020 and was forced to leave the country to avoid criminal prosecution. He worked as a trucker in Poland.

Horbac came to Ukraine at the very beginning of the full-scale war, together with his friend Zmicier Apanasovic, who went by the alias Terror. Both Bort and Terror took part in the battles for Irpin (Kyiv Oblast) in March 2022. Apanasovic was wounded and killed there.

Later, Bort was the chief of intelligence of the Terror battalion. He took part in battles in Ukraines south, including the liberation of Kherson. A few months before his death, Horbac left the Terror unit. Recently, he had been fighting in another unit.

Radio Liberty added that this is at least the 36th Belarusian volunteer soldier to be killed since the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine.

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First-term Bellingham Mayor Seth Fleetwood is facing Kim Lund, former head of the Bellingham Public Schools Foundation, in the Nov. 7 general election for mayor, after they finished first and second in the August primary.

Fleetwood took 37% of the vote in a six-way race, and Lund had 25%.

City and county races are nonpartisan in Washington state. Nevertheless, Fleetwood and Lund were listed as certified Democrats on the Whatcom Democrats web page for endorsements and recommendations. The Whatcom Republicans made no endorsement in the Bellingham mayors race.

All voting is by mail in Washington state. Ballots must be postmarked  not simply placed in the mail  by 8 p.m. Nov. 7 to be counted.

Ballots can also be placed in official ballot drop boxes that will be locked when polling closes.

In Bellingham, the mayor is the highest elected official and is essentially the citys CEO, managing the various city departments and directing public policy as set by the City Council. Its a four-year term and the job pays $221,000 annually.

Candidates are listed in the order that they appear on the ballot.

Bellingham Mayor Seth Fleetwood leads the Pride in Bellingham Parade up Chestnut Street on July 9.

Seth Fleetwood

Fleetwood, a lawyer and lifelong Bellingham resident, has more than 25 years of experience in community and government service, including two terms on the Bellingham City Council and two terms on the Whatcom County Council before his election as mayor in 2019.

A South Hill resident, Fleetwood graduated from Bellingham schools, the University of Washington and the Willamette University College of Law.

I know how to run the city, Fleetwood told the Bellingham City Club at an election forum on Sept. 27.

I know the programs, I know the people, I know the processes. Ive been intimately engaged. I bring a collaborative approach to decision-making. Ive made a lot of tough calls in the last several years as mayor of Bellingham during a very challenging time, he said.

Two months after Fleetwood took office, the COVID-19 pandemic struck, forcing city employees to shift to working from home and focusing their efforts on supporting Whatcom Unified Command with personnel and funding to manage the crisis.

In an interview, Fleetwood told The Bellingham Herald that suddenly, I was in emergency response and had to put city business not related to the pandemic on hold.

Even as COVID-19 raged, the 2020 murder of George Floyd sparked a social justice movement. Fleetwood worked with Whatcom County Executive Satpal Sidhu to advance a Whatcom County Racial Equity Commission thats getting ready to hire its first director and staff.

I led the city through one of the most difficult challenges in modern times while prioritizing actions on affordable housing, climate change, behavioral health, alternative response systems, public safety and health, race and justice issues and other necessary initiatives that are sorely needed and requested by the Bellingham community, he said at his campaign website.

Then came rising rents, soaring homelessness rates, increased crime, a shortage of police officers and the fentanyl epidemic.

To that degree, I wasnt able to engage as much as I wanted to in progressive city-building, he told The Herald.

But to combat the perception of a dirty and crime-ridden city center, his administration helped create a Downtown Ambassador program, hired private security patrols, assigned the Public Works Department to focus on removing trash and keeping alleys clean, along with support for the Base Camp shelter and county Health and Community Services programs for people without housing.

In the downtown, were going through a tough time and were responding, he said.

Solutions dont fit into a sound bite for a second term, but include varied kinds of housing for a range of income levels, multi-use public buildings, additional urban trails and third spaces where residents can gather away from home and work, Fleetwood said.

The most exciting work that we do is envisioning the future city that we need. We have to find a way to grow that doesnt cause environmental harm and at the same time promotes social justice, he said.

Fleetwood is endorsed by a range of elected officials, including Sidhu; 2nd District U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Everett; former Mayor Kelli Linville; City Council members Dan Hammill, Hollie Huthman, Michael Lilliquist, Skip Williams, and former Councilmember Gene Knutson. Other endorsements include the Lummi Indian Business Council, Planned Parenthood and the Whatcom County Democratic Women.

Hes raised $56,190 for his campaign through Oct. 25, mostly from individual contributions, according to the Public Disclosure Commission.

Kim Lund campaigns for mayor during the Pride in Bellingham Parade on July 9.

Kim Lund

Lund, a chemical engineer who lives in the South neighborhood, served eight years as the executive director for the Bellingham Public Schools Foundation, a nonprofit that supports district schools.

She attended Bellingham schools and has a bachelor of science in chemical engineering from the University of Washington. She completed the Oxford Leading Sustainable Corporations Programme from the Said School of Business at the University of Oxford.

Shes also is a member of the Whatcom County Planning Commission and the Bellingham Public Schools Sustainability Advisory Group, and serves on the board of Brigid Collins Family Support Center and the Whatcom Million Trees Project.

As head of the Bellingham Schools foundation, Lund said she persuaded the parent-teacher associations at the various schools to commit to pooling their fundraising instead of having students in a school in a poor area of town miss out on opportunities that others could afford.

We shaped parent-teacher fundraising in this community to be more equitable. I got every parent group in every school to share their resources so that we were lifting up the schools with the least means and the most needs, Lund said at a League of Women Voters election forum on Oct. 17.

Lund told The Herald that she has a vision for a safe, stable and thriving city during her primary election campaign.

In an October interview, she said that addressing the lack of affordable housing is the key to reigning in rent hikes, encouraging economic development and reducing homelessness.

Were having the growing pains of becoming inaccessible, Lund told The Herald.

It is holding us back from growth. People come here and assess it and say, I cant afford it. [We must] create housing so people can afford to live in the community where they work, she said.

To that end, Lund would boost hiring in the Planning and Economic Development Department, fast track certain kinds of affordable housing, and reduce permitting fees for other kinds of residential construction.

The other piece of this is that we have a renter-majority town. We have a rental-inspection program with no enforcement. There are many landlords who are invested in their tenants. [But] its essential that we hold landlords to account. Its low-hanging fruit, she said.

The bad conditions that some of our renters are facing, they just dont feel like its temporary, Lund said.

Affordable housing and renter protections will help ease the homeless crisis, she said. She favors short-term temporary measures such as safe parking for people who live in cars and RVs and additional tiny homes.

In addition, Lund would pursue a regional approach to homeless services and she favors a shelter thats not operated by a religious organization.

I want to connect people to a different future. Homelessness is directly connected to housing affordability. We need state and federal support. [We] need a dedicated lobbyist who can advocate for the city, she said.

Lund is endorsed by unions that represent a majority of city employees, including Bellingham-Whatcom Firefighters Local 106, the Bellingham Police Guild, the Joint Council of Teamsters No. 28, and the Guild of Pacific Northwest Employees Bellingham Local 1937.

I think thats a really powerful message and something that I would encourage voters to consider, she said. Her other local support includes the Whatcom County Association of Realtors, the Riveters Collective, the Sierra Club, the Nooksack Indian Tribe, Planned Parenthood and Bellingham City Council members Lisa Anderson and Kristina Michelle Martens.

She has raised $93,674 for her campaign through Oct. 25, with about two-thirds from individual contributions and the remaining third from businesses, unions and political action committees, according to the state Public Disclosure Commission.
Bowman worked in D.C. since he was 13, according to his 2008 book, Step by Step: A Memoir of Hope, Friendship, Perseverance, and Living the American Dream.

Herbert Bertie Bowman, a fixture on Capitol Hill for 60 years and the longest-serving Black congressional staffer, died Wednesday. He was 92.

Bowman died due to complications from recent heart surgeries at a Maryland rehabilitation facility, his stepdaughter, LaUanah King-Cassell, told The Washington Post.

Herbert Bertie Bowman, who swept the U.S. Capitol steps for $2 a week at age 13, then eventually became Washingtons longest-serving Black congressional staffer, died on Oct. 25 at 92. (Photo: Screengrab/YouTube.com/Fox News Sunday)

Bowman worked in Washington, D.C., since he was 13 years old, according to his 2008 autobiography, Step by Step: A Memoir of Hope, Friendship, Perseverance, and Living the American Dream. A son among the 13 children of sharecroppers, the young Bowman was at a local store to barter for items in 1944 when Sen. Burnet R. Maybank , who was back home in South Carolina campaigning for reelection, told those assembled: If you ever get up to Washington, D.C., drop by and see me, the Post reported.

As the senator got into his limousine, Bowman asked him, If I come to Washington, can I come by and see you, too?

Certainly, my boy, responded Maybank.

So, Bowman, dreaming of a better life, ran away from his South Carolina home and went to Washington, D.C. He found Maybank, who created a job for the teen  sweeping the U.S. Capitols steps for $2 a week  and personally paid him.

Once Bowman had done it diligently for five years, during which he slept nights on area benches until he could afford proper housing, Maybank found him employment at a coffee shop inside the Capitol.

After an array of jobs, in 1966, he got a clerical position with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. There, a year later, he met a young congressional clerk named William Jefferson Clinton, whom Bowman mentored.

The former U.S. president penned the forward to Step by Step, the Post noted, and in it, he shared: Folks like Bertie dont make the newspapers, and the American people usually will never know their names, but they work hard every day to get done all the things the people in the papers get credit for. He epitomizes the kind of citizen that makes this country great.

Bowman also worked closely with two late segregationist senators, North Carolinas Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond of his home state, and considered them friends. He once admitted to NPR that Thurmond had said things that hurt him, though Bowman also said the longtime South Carolina senator helped get him into Howard University. He didnt graduate from the HBCU, yet studied business there for two years.

Bowman also told C-SPAN he had no problem calling the two senators his friends.

Anytime you have someone thats going to do things for you or ready to help you when youre in need and stick by, thats one reason why I call them my friend, he said.

Over those 60 years working on Capitol Hill, Bowman rubbed elbows with the Washington power elite across political party lines. Upon learning of his death, D.C. mainstays such as Democratic New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, Republican former Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker and Democratic former Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, now the U.S. special presidential envoy for climate, were among those who shared remembrances and sent condolences on social media.

Kerry, in a post on X, revealed a photo of himself and Bowman locked in a bear hug.

For 57 years  57 years!  if you served on or appeared in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, you knew the big smile, the booming laugh, and the bear hug of Bertie Bowman. His title may have been hearing coordinator, but it couldve just as easily been heart and soul,' Kerry wrote in the post. He ended it by saying Bowman was a great human and Ill miss him.

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President Biden condemned antisemitism Friday, which marked five years since a gunman opened fire at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, killing 11 people in the deadliest attack on Jews in American history.

Biden noted in the statement that the anniversary of the shooting comes on the heels of the deadliest attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust: Hamass surprise attack on Israel at the beginning of October. The attack killed more than 1,400 Israelis, and the group took more than 200 hostages captive.

The president echoed his pledge to work to combat acts of antisemitism.

To the Jewish community, I stand with you, Biden said in the statement. We will continue to condemn antisemitism at every turn  and aggressively implement the first-ever national strategy to counter antisemitism.

Because hate never goes away, it only hides until it is given just a little oxygen, he added. And as a nation, we must ensure hate is never given any oxygen.

Biden noted the rise in antisemitism at home and acknowledged the effect that the Hamas attack has had on Jewish communities in America. He also denounced other acts of prejudice, including racism and Islamophobia.

Israels vow to strike back against Hamas targets in Gaza has sparked concerns of a humanitarian crisis in the region and has driven people around the world to take sides.

Acts of Islamaphobia and antisemitism have been on the rise since the onset of the conflict, according to advocacy groups.

This devastating atrocity has brought to the surface painful memories left by millennia of Antisemitism and the genocide of the Jewish people, Biden said. The fear is amplified by the alarming rise of Antisemitism abroad and at home.

During these difficult times, we must never lose hope or give up on a better tomorrow. We must recommit to speaking out against bigotry and hate in all its forms, whether it is racism, Antisemitism, or Islamophobia, Biden continued. And we must come together as fellow Americans to heal the soul of our nation.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
CONCORD, N.H. (AP)  For months, Dean Phillips called for a Democratic primary challenge to President Joe Biden, drawing no public interest from governors, lawmakers, and other would-be alternatives.

The 54-year-old Minnesota congressman finally entered the race himself on Friday in an event outside New Hampshire's statehouse, saying, It is time for the torch to be passed to a new generation of American leaders.

Phillips is highly unlikely to beat Biden. Still, his run offers a symbolic challenge to national Democrats trying to project the idea that there is no reason to doubt the presidents electability  even as many Americans question whether the 80-year-old Biden should serve another term.

He said in his speech that he would try to fix the economy and warned about high prices and the chaos at our border  all issues that are potential vulnerabilities for Biden as he heads into a likely rematch against former President Donald Trump . And Phillips is trying to engage New Hampshire Democrats angry at Biden for diluting their states influence on the 2024 Democratic primary calendar, noting that the state had historically been first to vet presidential candidates like me."

Biden has long cast himself as uniquely qualified to beat Trump again after his 2020 win, and top Democrats have lined up behind him while also positioning themselves for a future primary run.

His re-election campaign issued a statement Friday saying it was hard at work mobilizing the winning coalition that President Biden can uniquely bring together to beat Trump.

Though Biden wont officially run in New Hampshires primary and will rely on a write-in campaign, the president is planning to head next week to Phillips home state for an official event and fundraiser.

Phillips has already missed the deadline to enter Nevadas primary and is little known nationally. His campaign's account on X, formerly known as Twitter, was briefly suspended Friday before his launch. And shortly before Phillips spoke, the leader of his home state signed a fundraising pitch sent by the Biden campaign.

You know, I have to say this about Minnesota: its a great state, full of great people. And sometimes they do crazy things," wrote Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who added: "And sometimes  they make political side shows for themselves.

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, who sits on Biden's reelection campaigns national advisory board, dubbed Phillips' bid an attention-seeking stunt that is deeply insulting to Black voters and the coalition that saved our country from Donald Trump.

The stakes are too high in this election  especially for Black voters," Dickens said, to focus on a "vanity project rather than whats best for our party and our country.

But New Hampshire primary challenges have a history of wounding incumbent presidents.

In 1968, another Minnesotan, Democratic Sen. Eugene McCarthy, built his campaign around opposing the Vietnam War and finished second in New Hampshires primary, helping push President Lyndon Johnson into forgoing a second term. Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy's challenge of President Jimmy Carter and Pat Buchanan's run against President George H.W. Bush both failed, but Carter and Bush ultimately lost their reelection bids.

The state's influence on Democrats also was curtailed this year by changes engineered by the Democratic National Committee at Biden's behest and was meant to better empower Black and minority voters.

A new Democratic calendar has South Carolina leading off presidential primary voting on Feb. 3 and Nevada going three days later. New Hampshire has refused to comply, citing state laws saying its primary must go first, and plans a primary before South Carolinas. The DNC could, in turn, strip the state of its nominating delegates.

Steve Shurtleff, a former speaker of the New Hampshire House, believes Phillips might appeal to some Democrats and independents who can choose to vote in the primary.

Im disappointed that he and the DNC have tried to take away our primary, Shurtleff said. Its not that I want to see Joe lose. Its that I want to see our primary win.

But Terry Shumaker, a former DNC member from New Hampshire and longtime Biden supporter, said he expects the president to easily clinch the state as a write-in option. Shumaker recalled going door to door for McCarthy in 1968, but doesnt see Phillips gaining similar traction.

Im not aware of what his message is, he said. To do well in the New Hampshire primary, you have to have a message.

There are no Democratic primary debates scheduled. The only other Democrat running in the 2024 primary is self-help author Marianne Williamson.

Phillips is heir to his stepfathers Phillips Distilling Company empire. He once served as that companys president but also ran the gelato maker Talenti. His grandmother was the late Pauline Phillips , better known as the advice columnist Dear Abby.

Driving a gelato truck was a centerpiece of his first House campaign in 2018, when Phillips unseated five-term Republican Erik Paulsen. While his district in mostly affluent greater Minneapolis has become more Democratic-leaning, Phillips has stressed that he is a moderate focused on his suburban constituents.

An AP-NORC poll released in August found that the top words associated with Biden were old and confused." Nearly 70% of Democrats and 77% of U.S. adults said they thought Biden was too old to be effective for four more years. The same poll found that respondents most frequently described Trump as corrupt and dishonest."

Leslie Blanding, a retired teacher and Democrat from Bow, New Hampshire, said she did not know Phillips but was thoroughly conflicted over whether Biden should face a primary challenger.

I think Biden is too old. I think from the outset, he shouldve been looking to groom someone to succeed him, and he didnt do that, said Blanding, 75. But I think he seems to be the only one positioned to have a strong chance of defeating Trump or whomever.

___

Weissert reported from Washington. AP National Political Writer Steve Peoples in New York and Associated Press writer Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis contributed to this report.
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Minnesota Congressman Dean Phillips has filed a long-shot presidential bid on Friday after calling on Joe Biden to step aside.

While Mr Phillips is extremely unlikely to win, some see his announcement as a sign of growing Democratic dissatisfaction with Mr Biden.

For months, the 54-year-old ex-businessman has called for a "moderate" Democrat to run for President.

Only two other Democrats are already running to challenge Mr Biden.

Mr Phillips has served in the House of Representatives since 2019 and represents a mostly suburban district that includes parts of Minneapolis' outskirts.

On Friday, he formally filed papers to appear on the primary ballot in New Hampshire, the first US primary election.

In an interview with CBS, the BBC's US partner, Mr Phillips said that while he believes Mr Biden has done a "spectacular job", he is worried about his ability to win a nationwide general election against his likely competitor, former president Donald Trump.

"This is an election about the future," he said. "I will not sit still and not be quiet in the face of numbers that are so clearly saying that we're going to be facing an emergency next November".

Minnesota's Dean Phillips had previously called on 'moderate' Democrats to take run for president.

A Gallup poll released this week showed that Mr Biden's job approval rating among Democrats fell 11% in the last month, to 75% - the worst of his presidency among Democrats. Overall, his approval rating stands at 37%, with only 5% of Republicans approving of his performance.

In New Hampshire, Mr Biden also drew the ire of some Democrats by diluting the state's influence in the 2024 primary calendar, which state party chairman Ray Buckley warned in a letter could lead to an "embarrassment" from "an insurgent candidate, serious or not".

Mr Biden, however, continues to have the backing of the overwhelming majority of establishment Democrats and donors.

In a Friday fundraising email for Mr Biden, Minnesota Governor Tim Waltz seemed to take a subtle jab at Mr Phillips, saying that people in the state sometimes "make political side shows for themselves".

"One other thing is true of Minnesota: We love Joe Biden," Mr Waltz added.

Ameshia Cross, a Democratic strategist, told the BBC that Mr Phillips presidential bid is a "moon shot" for a candidate with little or no name recognition outside his home state.

"Many people will announce that they're running for president just to be able to get media hits and to be able to elevate themselves in a way that simply being a Congress member never would do," she said.

While Ms Cross said it is "not unbeknownst to anyone that Biden's national poll numbers are not good", she cautioned against using them to make projections about the 2024 elections.

"I would argue that national poll numbers this far outside of an election cycle are typically not good for anyone," she said. "National polls mean nothing this far outside the race... there's a lot that can happen between now and November".

Two other Democrats so far plan to challenge Mr Biden in the primaries: self-help author Marianne Williamson and left-wing talk show host Cenk Uyghur.

Robert F Kennedy Jr has also initially planned to run as a Democrat, but later reversed course and said he would run as an independent candidate unaffiliated with either of the two main US political parties.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, center, during a bilateral meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the State Department in Washington, Friday, Oct. 27, 2023 (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

President Joe Biden on Friday met with Chinese Foreign MinisterWang Yi at the White House, capping off a multi-day swing through the American capital by Chinas top diplomat ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinpings expected visit to San Francisco next month.

A senior administration official who briefed reporters on the meeting said the discussions included plans for additional high-level engagements between the US and China  including meetings between senior officials with the goal of working towards a bilateral meeting featuring Mr Biden and Mr Xi.

A second official added later that US officials are making preparations for just such a meeting but cautioned that Chinese officials practice has been to not confirm official travel until just before a given trip.

Mr Wang, who also met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier this week and was slated to have a sit-down with White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, is in the US for meetings with top American officials in what is widely believed to be a scene-setting endeavour before Mr Xi attends the US-hosted APEC leaders summit, which is scheduled to take place from 11 to 17 November.

According to a readout released by the White House, Mr Biden used the sit-down with Mr Wang to emphasise that both Washington and Beijing must manage competition in the relationship responsibly and maintain open lines of communication.

The president also underscored that the United States and China must work together to address global challenges and expressed his condolences on the passing of former Premier Li Keqiang, the White House said.

The meeting between the US president and Chinas top diplomat comes less than a month before Mr Biden and Mr Xi are set to be in San Francisco.

But the White House declined to say whether the two men had agreed on terms for a meeting between Mr Biden and Mr Xi, who last sat face-to-face over a year ago on the sidelines of the 2022 G20 summit in Indonesia.

During a briefing with reporters on Friday, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said Mr Biden has stated multiple times that he hopes to see Xi in the near future but would not go any further into detail on plans for a possible meeting.

A sit-down between Mr Biden and Mr Xi, should one take place, would cap months of diplomacy by a multitude of senior US officials, who have collectively embarked on a concerted effort to lower temperatures between the two countries after an errand espionage balloon owned by Beijing touched off months of tensions.

One of those officials, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, visited Beijing to meet with her Chinese counterpart and other senior Chinese officials in July, one month after Mr Blinken, the US top diplomat, made a similar trip.

Mr Wangs visit to Washington was a reciprocal one following Mr Blinkens prior trip to Beijing, and a senior administration official told reporters late Friday that the two diplomats discussions were candid and in-depth and lasted more than six hours over the last two days, during which they spoke of a range of bilateral, regional and global issues ahead of the APEC summit.

We agreed on the importance of continuing to maintain open lines of communication on the full range of issues, and Secretary Blinken underscored the need to resume military to military channels, the official said.
President Biden met Friday with Chinas top diplomat at the White House ahead of a potential meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Biden met with Wang Yi, the foreign minister and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission, and the president emphasized that both the United States and China need to manage competition in the relationship responsibly and maintain open lines of communication, the White House said in a readout of the meeting.

He underscored that the United States and China must work together to address global challenges, the White House said.

Biden also expressed his condolences for the death of Li Keqiang , the former premier of China, who died Friday.

Wang was in Washington on Friday for meetings with multiple Biden administration officials, but a meeting with Biden had not been previously confirmed or listed on the presidents public schedule.

Wang also met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and with national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

The meeting comes amid tense relations between the United States and China, as Biden and Xi have not met face-to-face in roughly one year.

Officials have been working to pave the way for a meeting between Biden and Xi at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco next month, with Wangs visit viewed as a key step in that process.

The Biden administration has also taken steps to shore up its alliances in the Indo-Pacific and push for greater investments from the World Bank and other nations in order to offset Chinas influence in developing countries.

Biden has often said he is seeking competition, not conflict, with Beijing, a message he reiterated during a United Nations gathering in September.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
President Biden's Department of State was torched online over its statement on "Intersex Awareness Day" amid the war in Israel and a manhunt for a deadly shooting suspect in Maine.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller released a statement Thursday, saying the department was affirming "the United States commitment to promoting and protecting the human rights of Intersex persons globally."

"As President Biden stated in his 2021 Memorandum on Advancing the Human Rights of LGBTQI+ Persons Around the World, it is the policy of the United States to pursue an end to violence and discrimination on the bases of sexual orientation, gender identity or expression and sex characteristics," Miller said.

SEVERAL DEAD IN LEWISTON, MAINE, MASS SHOOTING

President Biden's Department of State was torched online for a post about "Intersex Awareness Day" amid the war in Israel and after a deadly shooting in Maine.

"Intersex persons often face stigma and discrimination in accessing education, healthcare, and legal recognition, and are subjected to medically unnecessary surgeries," he continued. "These harmful practices, which can cause lifelong negative physical and emotional consequences, are a medical form of so-called conversion therapy practices in that they seek to physically convert Intersex children into non-Intersex children.

"We applaud all activists, organizations and governments working to raise visibility and protect Intersex persons rights to bodily integrity and to ensure equal protection and recognition before the law."

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

The statement drew wide rebuke from conservatives online, with Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican, posting on X, "Team Biden far more focused on gender politics than advancing America's security."

"Would it be too much to ask for our government to go back to focusing on killing terrorists and freeing American hostages?" Steve Guest, former spokesman for Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, posted.

"Americans are being held hostage by Hamas terrorists," Guest wrote in a second post. "Meanwhile, the Biden State Department is devoting the time and resources to mark Intersex Awareness Day."

Abigail Jackson, spokeswoman for Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., quipped she is "sure the Americans being held hostage by terrorists will appreciate this important statement."

Other conservatives blasted the State Department over the "Intersex Awareness Day" statement.

A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital the "United States proudly advances efforts around the globe to protect LGBTQI+ populations from violence and abuse, criminalization, discrimination and stigma and to empower local LGBTQI+ movements and persons.

"The United States firmly opposes abuses against LGBTQI+ persons and urges governments to repeal laws that criminalize individuals on the basis of sexual orientation and/or gender identity," the spokesperson continued. "The struggle to end violence, discrimination, criminalization and stigma against LGBTQI+ persons is a global challenge and one that remains central to our commitment to promote human rights and fundamental freedoms for all individuals."

The "Intersex Awareness Day" statement comes as Israel fights against Hamas terrorists who launched a surprise attack against the Middle Eastern democracy and took Israelis and Americans hostage.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken

Additionally, a manhunt is underway in Maine for Robert Card after his alleged shooting spree Wednesday night.

Maine State Police Col. William Ross said Thursday an arrest warrant for Card has been issued on at least eight counts of murder, and other victims are still being identified from a mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine.

Ross said eight people were killed at Schemengees Bar and Grille, seven were killed at the Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley and another three died after being transported to hospitals.

A massive manhunt is underway to find 40-year-old Card, and the U.S. Coast Guard has gotten involved.

Maine Gov. Janet Mills said there were 18 dead in the shootings and 13 injured.

Fox News Digital's Greg Norman and Adam Sabes contributed reporting.





Original article source: Biden State Department torched online over 'Intersex Awareness Day' post
The United States intended to send a strong message to Iran with strikes against pro-Tehran militia groups in Syria that had targeted American troops  while seeking to avoid a dangerous regional escalation amid Israels war with Hamas.

By targeting an ammunition and storage area on Thursday night US time, Washington sought to make clear that recent drone and rocket attacks that caused minor injuries to 21 US soldiers in Iraq and Syria will not go unanswered.

But the action is also risky because of soaring tensions as Israel pounds Gaza after October 7 terror attacks against Israeli civilians launched by Hamas  another Iran-allied group. That conflict has provoked fears of a regional war that could draw in Iran, Lebanon and other proxy groups.

President Joe Biden s show of strength could set off its own cycle of consequences that could rock a region already on edge. While the US is underscoring that the strikes have nothing to do with the confrontation between Israel and Hamas, such distinctions may be blurred in Arab nations, where public fury is mounting over the deaths of Palestinian civilians in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza.

The US actions, which were narrowly tailored in self-defense, targeted two facilities linked to Iranian-backed militias in eastern Syria, according to a statement from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin . The statement said the facilities have been used by Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and affiliated groups.

Iran wants to hide its hand and deny its role in these attacks against our forces. We will not let them, Austin said.

Bidens political flank

Biden has been under domestic political pressure to take a stand against Iranian proxies. Realistically, there was no option but to respond to an attack in which American soldiers were injured.

Still, the limited scale of the move is unlikely to placate Bidens domestic critics, who have long accused him of being soft on Iran. Such criticism ratcheted up after the administration secured the freedom of five prisoners held by Iran last month in return for the transfer of $6 billion in frozen Iranian funds. The administration says the funds can only be used to buy humanitarian supplies but that has not spared Biden from Republican attacks over Hamas attack on Israel earlier this month.

The US airstrikes are also certain to, at the very least, heighten the rhetorical tensions between the US and Iran, which are already at alarming levels.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, for instance, warned the US that if Israels military operation against Hamas in Gaza following the groups terror attacks doesnt end, the United States will not be spared from this fire.

The US strikes came a day after Biden put Iran on notice about the activities of its militia during a press conference with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

And Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday warned that while the US doesnt seek conflict with Iran, it would act swiftly and decisively to respond to attacks by Iran or its proxies in the region.

US begins Middle East build-up

Ever since Israel started to respond to the Hamas attacks, there have been concerns in Washington that US interests in the region could be threatened.

Multiple US officials have told CNN that the US has intelligence that Iranian-backed militia groups are planning to ramp up attacks against American forces in the Middle East as Iran seeks to capitalize on the backlash in the region to US support for Israel.

The airstrikes followed another sign that the US, which has been seeking to disengage from the Middle East, is being drawn back into the region because of the danger to its ally Israel. The Pentagon announced earlier in the day that roughly 900 troops have been deployed or are deploying to the Middle East after a series of attacks on coalition bases that resulted in minor injuries for almost two dozen troops.

Biden had previously ordered the deployment of two aircraft carrier groups to the eastern Mediterranean in a show of deterrence to enemies of the US and Israel in the region.

Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said Thursday that between October 17 and 26, US and coalition forces were attacked at least 12 separate times in Iraq, four separate times in Syria, by a mix of one-way attack drones and rockets.

Some 21 US service members have received minor injuries as a result of attacks between October 17 and 18, CNN has reported. Of those, 19 have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury, Ryder said  15 at al-Asad Air Base in Iraq, and four at al-Tanf Garrison in Syria.

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President Joe Biden sent a message to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warning against strikes on US troops amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, the White House said on Thursday.

"There was a direct message relayed. That's as far as I'm going to go," US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters, declining to say how it was delivered.

Later Thursday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said US forces conducted precision strikes on two facilities in eastern Syria used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The Pentagon says US and allied forces in Iraq and Syria have been attacked at least 16 times this month as tensions rise in the Middle East. It blamed "Iranian-backed militia groups."

Biden told a press conference on Wednesday that he had warned Khamenei of a response if the attacks continue.

"My warning to the Ayatollah was that if they continue to move against those troops, we will respond, and he should be prepared. It has nothing to do with Israel," he said alongside visiting Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Iran meanwhile warned Washington at the United Nations General Assembly over Israel's campaign of air strikes and artillery against Gaza following the October 7 Hamas attacks.

"I say frankly to the American statesmen and military forces who are now managing the genocide in Palestine, that we do not welcome the expansion and scope of the war in the region," Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said.

"But I warn if the genocide in Gaza continues, they will not be spared from this fire."

The United States has moved two aircraft carrier groups near Israel since the Hamas attacks in what it says is a bid to deter Iran and its allies from broadening the conflict.

On Sunday Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also ordered the activation of air defense systems in the region and notified additional forces that they may be deployed soon.

There are roughly 2,500 American troops in Iraq and some 900 in Syria as part of efforts to prevent a resurgence of the Islamic State group, which once held significant territory in both countries but was pushed back by local ground forces backed by international air strikes in a bloody multi-year conflict.

dk/tjj
President Joe Bidens new challenger for the 2024 primary, Minnesota congressman Dean Phillips, says that he doesnt recall the circumstances of a maximum contribution check his 2020 congressional campaign cashed from right-wing billionaire Harlan Crow but Phillips allows that its possible he solicited it personally.

I do not remember ever making a call to Mr. Crow, Phillips said on Friday, in reference to the $2,800 donation Crow made in June 2019, though he acknowledged putting in a great deal of fundraising call time in his first campaign. If I did, by the way, and theres evidence of it, I will be the first to acknowledge it. (Federal campaign finance records show the existence of the donation.)

Bidens Primary Challenger Was Once a No-Chill Biden Fan Boy

In response to The Daily Beasts questions at a press availability ahead of his presidential campaign kickoff in Concord, New Hampshire, Phillips also said, I dont believe Ive ever met Harlan Crow. The wealthy Texan is widely known now for his close relationship with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, which included an array of unreported gifts and perks paid by Crow.

While he said he genuinely did not know how the donation came about, Phillips promised, I will be honest.

Sometimes, I get it wrong, and when I do, its the job of an American president and a member of Congress to say you got it wrong, not to hide it, not to ignore it, Phillips said. I dont know the answer to the question, and when I dont know the answer, Ill let you know.

While filing his paperwork in New Hampshire to challenge President Biden for the Democratic nomination, Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) is asked about the report that GOP megadonor Harlan Crow gave the maximum contribution to his congressional campaign in 2019. pic.twitter.com/728pkNkNQ1  The Recount (@therecount) October 27, 2023

Phillips' decision to challenge Biden is rooted in his stated concern that the 80-year old incumbent cannot defeat Donald Trump. But the effort is making him public enemy number one among a large swath of institutional Democrats who have characterized the effort as a misguided vanity project that would do little more than damage Biden and throw the election to Trump.

But Phillips has dismissed those concerns, taking a steel sharpens steel view of his primary challengedespite historical evidence indicating such challenges rarely play out that way.

A wealthy Midwesterner whose fortune springs from his familys liquor distilling business and his own Talenti gelato brand, Phillips has made campaign finance and ethics reform a cornerstone of his three terms in office.

Im the only member of Congressthe only onewho takes no PAC money, no lobbyist money, no money from my fellow members of Congress, any money, and who has no leadership PAC whos sitting at this table right now, he said. The only one.

While that may be true, Phillips independent wealth meant that he also didnt need to court those kinds of backers. His first campaign for Congress, in 2018, raised $6.3 million, beefed up with $1.3 million in personal loans.

But Phillips hasnt loaned his operation a dollar since then, and forgave all but $250,000 of that amount in the weeks after winning his first election. (At the time, candidates could only repay themselves $250,000 in money raised after an election, an option Phillips seems to be preserving but has not exercisedhis congressional campaign still carries that debt.)

Phillips noted that hes been on the other side of the ledger as a donor. But he called the campaign finance system appalling and corrupt, and said that it was destroying the country. (Phillips has contributed roughly $510,000 lifetime at the federal level, and Minnesota state filings show another $12,000 since 2010.)

Rep. Dean Phillips to Run Against Joe Biden After Months of Rumors

Phillips campaign adviser Steve Schmidt told The Daily Beast after the press conference that Crows $2,800 contribution does not incriminate Dean Phillips in any way shape or form.

It does incriminate the news organization thats trying to scandalize the donation because of the connection that person has in corrupt acts with Clarence Thomas, Schmidt claimed. (The Daily Mail was the first to report Crows donation.)

Its unclear publicly what, if any, personal or professional ties link Phillips and Crow. But they do have political ties.

A conservative financier whose off-the-books back-scratching largesse to Thomas has yielded a drumroll of scandalous headlines, Crow has also supported a number of centrist rabble-rousers. Chief among them is the group No Labels, which is working to field a centrist 2024 third-party presidential candidate.

In Congress, Phillips has been a member of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, which is allied with No Labels. Other Democratic members in the Problem Solvers Caucus have also benefited from Crows cash. Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), the groups co-chair, as well as Reps. Jared Golden (D-ME), Henry Cuellar (D-TX), and former Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY), have each received at least $12,000 from Crow.

In addition to Phillips and those members, Crow has given thousands of dollars to Biden-antagonizing Senators Krysten Sinema of Arizonawho received $10,800and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who, like Phillips, received $2,800. Those gifts made headlines. (Crow also maxed out to third-party presidential spoiler Cornel West, who defended the donation.)

Another connection: when Phillips left the familys liquor business in 2012 to manage Talentiat the time a tiny company hed invested in with his stepfatherhe was stepping into Crows backyard in Dallas, Texas.

Phillips has not been supportive of the No Labels effort, fueled by Crow, to field a third-party candidate.

Earlier this year, Phillips told The New York Times that it will be a historic disaster if No Labels ran a third-party Democrat against Donald Trump and Joe Biden in 2024.

And I speak for just about every moderate Democrat and frankly most of my moderate Republican friends, Phillips said.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Reps. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.) and Juan Ciscomani (R-Ariz.) introduced a bipartisan piece of legislation to support additional funding for nursing programs in community colleges.

Grants for Resources in Occupational and Workforce Training for Healthcare Act of 2023  or the Growth Act of 2023  expands eligibility to the Nurse Education, Practice, Quality, and Retention (NEPQR)  Pathway to Registered Nurse Program (PRNP).

Specifically, the bill would expand the guidelines under the Health Resources and Services Administration to include providing grants to community colleges.

The national nursing shortage has hit health facilities hard and compromised access to quality care, Cherfilus-McCormick said in a statement. That is precisely why we must make it easier for community college students to pursue a successful career in nursing.

Currently, most health resources grants go to four-year colleges and universities. The bill introduced by Cherfilus-McCormick and Ciscomani would allocate at least 50 percent of funding to go to community colleges or places that have partnerships with community colleges.

As a proud graduate of Pima Community College, I know how crucial these institutions are to students, the workforce, and our communities, Ciscomanis statement said. These students should have the same opportunities and funding as their counterparts at a 4-year university.

Several other members have joined the bipartisan legislation. Reps. John James (R-Mich.), David Trone (D-Md.), Jen Kiggans (R-Va.) and Marie Glusenkamp Perez (D-Wa.).

At least 25 members of Congress attended or graduated from a community college, the joint statement said.

As the country continues to face a nursing shortage, community colleges have been found to be one of the most instrumental institutions in training and education health care workers, the statement said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
A sample of Father Antoine Poidebards aerial photography, shot from a biplane in the early 20th century, showing the remains of ancient Roman forts. New research combined Poidebards early findings with data, gathered from archival U.S. spy satellite images, that is shedding new light on the history of the Roman Empire. | Cambridge.org

Building on an amazing collection of aerial photographs shot in the 1920s from a biplane flown by a Jesuit priest, researchers who just published findings in the journal Antiquity used declassified Cold War satellite imagery to reveal another 396 sites of ancient forts along the former eastern border of the Roman Empire.

And the new data is helping evolve theories about what purpose the system of outposts served in an area that crosses the heart of the Fertile Crescent.

A former World War I pilot, Father Antoine Poidebard leveraged his aviation experience in the nascent era of the airplane to undertake one of the worlds first aerial archaeological surveys, using a biplane and a camera to document hundreds of ancient forts and other sites throughout what today is Syria, Iraq and Jordan, researchers wrote.

Poidebards work was notable as one of the earliest examples of putting aerial photography to work as a tool for archaeological research. And his documentation unveiled hundreds of previously unknown sites of Roman-period forts and defensive installations along the eastern periphery of the empire, spanning an area over 600 miles long.

Researchers Jesse Casana, David D. Goodman and Carolin Ferwerda published a paper this week detailing their work that merged information gathered by Poidebard and other previous research with their own analysis of declassified images gathered by some of the first spy satellites ever deployed. Focusing on an area that encompasses some 300,000 square kilometers in a region that extends from western Syria to Northern Iraq, the researchers utilized photographs taken by the U.S.-deployed Corona satellite program that included imagery collected from 1960 to 1972 and its successor, another U.S spy satellite called Hexagon, that collected imagery from 1970 to 1986.

Having access to the high-resolution archival images was crucial to the new discoveries as researchers noted that the area has been severely impacted by modern-day land-use changes, including urban expansion, agricultural intensification and reservoir construction that has, in some cases, erased the archaeological evidence.

The research led to the discovery of 396 new Roman forts in an area that was the eastern frontier of a Roman Empire that encompassed, at its peak, some 2 million square miles of territory.

These forts are similar in form to many Roman forts from elsewhere in Europe and North Africa, lead author Casana, a professor of anthropology focusing on the Middle East at New Hampshires Dartmouth College, told Space.com in an email interview. There are many more forts in our study than elsewhere, but this may be because they are better preserved and easier to recognize.

However, it could also have been a real product of intensive fort construction, especially during the second and third centuries.

Related

Researchers wrote that they believe current evidence suggests that most of the fort sites were constructed and used between the second and sixth centuries. Their discoveries also expanded the disbursement map, that includes evidence of thousands of ancient Roman structures in the study area. While previous theories leaned heavily into the idea that the system of forts was meant to be a fortification of the empires borderlands, researchers say the new data suggest many of the outposts may have functioned as way stations for trade and travel.

The distribution of these forts suggests that they did not function as a border wall, with a series of towers and fortified encampments designed to block westward incursions by Persian armies or to prevent raids on agricultural villages by nomadic tribes, researchers wrote. Instead, our findings strengthen an alternative hypothesis that such forts supported a system of caravan-based interregional trade, communication and military transport.
Palestinians inspect the rubble of destroyed buildings following Israeli airstrikes on the town of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023.

The claim: The Islamic Black Flag raised in Iran signifies a call to war

An Oct. 17 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) shows a picture of the golden dome of the Imam Reza shrine in Iran, with a black flag flying at the top of it. The caption warns the flag means something foreboding.

This is a Scripture-based (Qur'an) call to all of Islam for War, reads part of the post. This flag was used by the Prophet Muhammad and is a sign of religious revolt/rebellion and engagement of battle.

The Facebook post was shared more than 5,000 times in a week.

Fact check roundup: Israel-Hamas war sparks many misleading claims online. Here's what's true and false.

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Our rating: False

The black flag was raised over the Imam Reza shrine as a call to mourning, not war, as confirmed by experts and statements from the shrine.

Flag raised in response to Gaza hospital explosion

The Imam Reza shrine is the largest mosque in the world and a significant site for Iranians and Muslims globally. The shrine serves as a destination for spiritual pilgrimages. As of 2022, half a million people visited the site each day.

The shrine has raised flags over its dome previously to mark the celebration or memorial of historic events. It raised a black flag after an explosion that killed at least 100 people at Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza on Oct. 17.

The shrine addressed the significance of the flag in Oct. 17 posts on Facebook and other social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter)

Mourning flag over the dome of Imam Reza's shrine, reads one Facebook post from the shrine. In an unprecedented gesture and by the order of the custodian of Astan Quds Razavi, the black flag has been hoisted above the illuminated and pure Razavi dome, and drum beating will not be played tomorrow. This comes as a response to the barbaric crimes of the usurping Zionist regime, especially the bombardment of the Al-Mu'amdani hospital.

Images posted by the shrine show the flag being raised atop the dome and the crowd below, clad in black and waving the Palestinian flag.

Fact check: 'Air vaccine' for use on unwilling people doesn't exist, no tie to Bill Gates

The shrine's statement is consistent with the traditional meaning of a black flag, said Shahla Haeri, a professor of cultural anthropology at Boston University, with ethnographic research focused on Iran, Pakistan and India.

While it is hard to determine who means what and who wants to do what to whom in the thick of the fog of war and ongoing brutality and violence that is going on in Gaza and the (Middle East), I can tell you that black flag is a sign of collective mourning  and not necessarily of war, Haeri said in an email.

Sajjad Rizvi, professor of Islamic Intellectual History at the University of Exeters Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, told Reuters that black flags are usually raised on shrines to symbolize mourning  in Muharram and other times to mark the death anniversary of the Prophet and the Shii (Shia) Imams."

USA TODAY reached out to the Facebook user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

PolitiFact, AFP, Check Your Fact and the Associated Press also fact-checked this claim.

Our fact-check sources:

Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or e-newspaper here.

Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Black flag of mourning response to Gaza hospital deaths | Fact check
HEPHZIBAH, GEORGIA - DECEMBER 03: A member of the audience wearing a Black Voters Still Matter t-shirt from Georgia NAACP as Georgia Democratic Senate candidate U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) speaks during a Get Out the Vote rally December 3, 2022 in Hephzibah, Georgia. Sen. Warnock continues to campaign throughout Georgia for the runoff election on December 6 against his Republican challenger Herschel Walker.



HEPHZIBAH, GEORGIA - DECEMBER 03: A member of the audience wearing a Black Voters Still Matter t-shirt from Georgia NAACP as Georgia Democratic Senate candidate U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) speaks during a Get Out the Vote rally December 3, 2022 in Hephzibah, Georgia. Sen. Warnock continues to campaign throughout Georgia for the runoff election on December 6 against his Republican challenger Herschel Walker.

Suppressing the Black vote is more or less a habit in the United States, especially down South. But, at least in some cases, were seeing the courts actually do something about it.

On Thursday, a federal judge ruled that parts of Georgias congressional districts were drawn in a racially discriminatory way. In a whopping 516-page opinion, Judge Steve Jones ordered Georgia to draw an additional Black-majority congressional district. Judge Jones also ordered legislators to draw two new Black-majority districts in Georgias state Senate and five new Black-majority districts in the state House.

Read more

These cases also represent a movement by Black voters to reclaim rights lost in the wake of the Supreme Courts decision to gut the Voting Rights Act.

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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the State Department in Washington

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the State Department in Washington

By Humeyra Pamuk and Michael Martina

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. and China have agreed to work together toward an expected summit between presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping next month, U.S. officials said on Friday, following hours of meetings between Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi and senior U.S. diplomats in Washington.

In the first visit by a Chinese foreign minister to Washington since 2018, veteran diplomat Wang Yi also met Biden for an hour, talks that the White House described as a "good opportunity" in keeping lines of communication open between the two geopolitical rivals with deep policy differences.

Wang's meetings with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. national security advisor Jake Sullivan spanning over two days totaled nine hours, U.S. officials said, describing these interactions as "candid and in-depth".

Biden's top aides raised Washington's key concerns: the need to restore military-to-military channels between the two countries, Beijing's actions in the East and South China Sea, Taiwan, human rights, the flow of fentanyl precursors and the cases of Americans detained in China, U.S. officials said.

There were also "frank exchanges" between Blinken and Wang over the erupting conflict in the Middle East.

The key area that appeared to show some positive momentum was toward an expected meeting between Biden and Xi on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit next month in San Francisco.

"We are making preparations for such a meeting," said one of the senior administration officials briefing reporters on condition of anonymity. "Obviously, Chinese leaders often confirm publicly much closer to a trip, so I will leave it to the Chinese side to figure out if and when they make that announcement," the official said.

Wang told Biden that the objective of his visit was to help "stem the decline" in U.S.-China ties "with an eye on San Francisco", without giving any details, according to a brief statement from the Chinese foreign ministry.

The foreign ministry readouts for Wang's meetings with Blinken and Sullivan said that "both sides agreed to work together to achieve a meeting between the two heads of state in San Francisco."

"China attaches importance to the U.S. side's hopes of stabilizing and improving U.S. ties with China," Wang was quoted as saying in his meeting with Biden.

The Biden administration has seen direct leader-level engagement with Xi as particularly important in managing tensions as it seeks to prevent relations from veering into conflict.

"A big part of a potential meeting would be the two leaders sitting down together and having those conversations on strategic intent," the U.S. official said.

On Thursday, Wang told Blinken that the two countries have disagreements and need "in-depth" and "comprehensive" dialogue to reduce misunderstandings and stabilize ties. "Not only should we resume dialogue, the dialogue should be in-depth and comprehensive," Wang said.

Wang's three-day visit follows a flurry of bilateral diplomatic engagements in recent months, largely at U.S. request, aimed at salvaging what were rapidly deteriorating ties early in the year following the U.S. downing of an alleged Chinese spy balloon.

But some in Washington have questioned whether a slate of mostly unreciprocated U.S. cabinet-level official visits to Beijing over the past six months, including by Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, played into Beijing's hand.

The trips by Yellen and Raimondo led to new bilateral economic and commercial working groups, which critics worry will only pull U.S. focus away from - and possibly delay - sanctions, export controls and broader measures intended to enhance U.S. competition with China.

U.S. officials have maintained that increased diplomacy does not mean a let up in policy.

CONCERN OVER MIDDLE EAST

The Israel-Hamas conflict has added a fresh dynamic to the testy relationship between the superpowers, and Washington is hoping Beijing can use its influence with Iran to prevent an escalation into a wider war in the Middle East.

U.S. officials said the issue came up frequently during Wang's meetings but it was unclear whether Washington was able to get Beijing on board to commit to using its influence to help contain the conflict.

"We expressed our deep concern with the situation and pressed China to take a more constructive approach, and that would include, of course, their engagements with the Iranians, to urge calm," another of the senior administration officials said.

China has condemned violence and attacks on civilians in the conflict, and while Wang has declared Israel's actions "beyond the scope of self-defense" he has not named Hamas in his comments.

The second official said Blinken raised U.S. concerns about Chinas recent actions in the South China Sea and the East China Sea, including its dangerous and unlawful obstruction of the Philippine resupply mission to Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea and its unsafe intercept of a U.S. aircraft.

(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk, Michael Martina and Steve Holland; editing by Jonathan Oatis, Shri Navaratnam and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
China is not expected to participate in this weekend's upcoming Ukraine peace formula meeting in Malta, Bloomberg reported on Oct. 26.

China's expected absence from the Malta talks marks a setback in attempts to garner international support for President Volodymyr Zelensky 's peace formula and to sway Beijing away from Moscow.

The peace formula meeting, set to take place on Oct. 28 and 29, will bring together representatives from 55 nations to discuss the implementation of lasting peace in Ukraine. Nations attending include Group of Seven (G7) countries, South Africa, India, Qatar, and Turkey. Chile and Brazil are also expected to attend the meeting virtually.

The Malta summit follows a series of international peace formula gatherings hosted in different countries, including Denmark in June and Saudi Arabia in August. China previously sent delegates to the Jeddah meeting.

After a Chinese delegate attended the Jeddah peace talks, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told the news outlet Interfax-Ukraine that China's participation was "a historic victory."

However, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin's visit to Beijing in October indicated that ties between Russia and China remain strong. Russia relies heavily on economic support from China to fund the war in Ukraine, due to the isolating effects of Western sanctions.

Zelensky first unveiled the 10-point peace formula in November 2022 at the G20 summit. Supported by many Western allies, the plan calls for the restoration of the Ukraine's territorial integrity, a complete withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine, and prosecution of those responsible for war crimes.

Read also: Ukraine war latest: Russia endures heavy losses near Avdiivka, suffers from low morale, White House says

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
More than three decades after a womans remains were found by loggers in the woods off an Alabama highway, the body has been identified as a missing Georgia mom, police said.

In 1990, a logging crew was working along a road in Heflin, Alabama, when they stumbled upon human remains, according to an Oct. 25 news release from the Heflin Police Department.

The remains, which at the time were described by The Anniston Star as badly decomposed, were found by loggers clearing timber to make pulpwood, AL.com reported.

It was believed to be the remains of a white female, possibly late twenties to late thirties but due to the time the remains were exposed to the elements, it was difficult to determine, Police Capt. Scott Bonner said in the release shared on Facebook.

Police said they determined she was killed, but without an identity or clues to explore, her case went cold.

A couple years ago, a retired chief deputy reached out to the police department hoping they would reopen the homicide case.

(The chief deputy) was involved in this case at the beginning and it never left his mind, Bonner said. He wanted justice and some closure for the family. He wanted the lady that was never identified to have a name and a proper burial.

The case was reopened last year, according to the release.

The Heflin Police Department reached out to Othram Labs, a Texas-based genealogy company that specializes in solving cases with unidentified persons.

The company created a genetic profile for the Jane Doe and used public family trees to track down any living relatives.

Othram found a living relative, a daughter, and police reached out to her, Bonner said.

Using information from the daughter, police identified the woman as her missing mother, Clara Kopp Reynolds, from Georgia.

Reynolds was born in 1947 but went missing in either late 1988 or early 1989 as she was heading with a male friend of hers to Florida, Bonner said.

The intimate details (cannot)be released at this time but we do have a suspect and evidence, Bonner said.

In a news conference, Bonner said Reynolds had last been heard from in summer 1989, but she could have been anywhere from Atlanta to Birmingham.

Unfortunately back then we dont have cell phone records, we dont have phone pings, we dont have video surveillance like we normally have, Bonner said in the news conference, AL.com reported.

The captain said Reynolds daughter was very appreciative of the continued dedication to her mothers case.

Im sure it was a mixed emotional time for her, she was glad she could know what happened to her mom, she wouldnt have to wonder if her mom abandoned her or if she was still alive somewhere, Bonner said.

Reynolds would have been around the age of 42 at the time of her death.

Heflin is about 75 miles west of Atlanta.

Mystery lingers after body found in dumpster in 1988 is identified, Georgia cops say

Man acquitted in fiancees 1998 death accuses cold-case detective of lying in court

Affair in 1949 leads to accused killer of nurse found dead in 1986, Florida cops say

Man found dead in blazing truck in 2015, Alabama officials say. Two now charged
Johnson said he would talk about "the immense opportunities for Global Britain - as well as the challenges"

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson has signed up to join TV channel GB News.

Johnson, who stepped down as an MP earlier this year, will work for the news channel as a presenter, programme maker and commentator.

He will "play a key role" in coverage of the UK and US elections next year and will host a series "showcasing the power of Britain around the world", the broadcaster said.

He promised to share his "unvarnished views" on a range of topics.

Johnson, who also writes a column for the Daily Mail, will start in the new year.

He is the latest Conservative politician to join the broadcaster, following former Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg, party deputy chairman Lee Anderson, and husband-and-wife MPs Esther McVey and Philip Davies .

In a video posted on X, formerly Twitter, the former PM said: "I am excited to say that I am shortly going to be joining you on GB News.

"I'm going to be giving this remarkable new TV channel my unvarnished views on everything from Russia, China, the war in Ukraine, how we meet all those challenges."

In a statement, he added: "I will be talking about the immense opportunities for Global Britain - as well as the challenges - and why our best days are yet to come."

Johnson resigned as prime minister in 2022, following a mass revolt by ministers over his leadership.

This summer, he stood down as MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip in protest after Parliament's privileges committee found he had deliberately misled the House of Commons over Covid breaches in Downing Street during lockdown.

Subject to conditions

Johnson's actions and decision making as prime minister during the pandemic are currently being investigated as part of the ongoing Covid enquiry.

Former ministers are required to seek advice from the independent Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) about any employment they wish to take up within two years of leaving office.

After being approached by Johnson, the committee said the role with GB News did not "raise any particular concerns under the government rules".

However, it said Johnson should be subject to a number of conditions, including not drawing on any privileged material from his time in office and not being personally involved in lobbying the government on behalf of GB News for two years from the date he stepped down as prime minister.

Earlier this year, Acoba said Johnson had committed an "unambiguous breach" of the ministerial code by not clearing his Daily Mail job with the committee.

Ratings winner?

Johnson earned 4.8m in five months after leaving office as PM, mostly for speaking at events and for securing a deal to write a memoir.

He becomes the latest big name to join GB News and follows comedian and actor John Cleese, whose 10-part current affairs series is due to begin on Sunday.

Johnson is expected to give the news channel a ratings boost after a turbulent period.

Two presenters, Laurence Fox and Calvin Robinson, were sacked earlier this month in the wake of an outcry about Fox's on-air comments about a female journalist, while fellow host Dan Wootton remains suspended.

Media regulator Ofcom received more than 8,800 complaints and is investigating. That is one of 12 current Ofcom investigations into GB News.

There is also a debate about whether politicans should be allowed to host news programmes.

Last month, Davies and McVey's GB News show was found to have broken Ofcom rules because their interview with the chancellor failed to include an "appropriately wide range of significant views".
(Bloomberg) -- Boris Johnson promised to deliver his unvarnished views as the former UK prime minister takes up a new position at the GB News channel.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Johnson, who was ousted from power in 2022 and quit Parliament in June, said he will be joining the channel shortly. The move holds potential risks for the administration of Rishi Sunak , who Johnson and his allies blame for the role he played in the former premiers ouster. GB News regularly attacks the current governments approach from its predominantly right-wing platform.

Read more: Boris Johnson, Once a Tory Winner, Is Desperate for Them to Lose

In a video shared Friday by GB News on X, formerly Twitter, Johnson said he would be giving his unvarnished views on everything from Russia, China, the war in Ukraine, how we meet all those challenges, to the huge opportunities that lie ahead for us: why I think our best days are yet to come and why, on the whole, the people of the world want to see more global Britain, not less.

Johnson was a journalist and columnist before entering politics, and wrote columns for the Daily Telegraph while a Member of Parliament and Mayor of London. In the past, his unvarnished views have got him into trouble, including a 1995 article in which he blamed single mothers for producing a generation of ill-raised, ignorant, aggressive and illegitimate children.

He has also faced fierce criticism for a string of inflammatory comments, including his descriptions of Black people, gay men and Muslim women.

Johnson, 59, quit the House of Commons after reading the result of an investigation into whether he misled lawmakers over his knowledge of Covid-19 rule breaches by officials. The seven-strong, majority-Conservative Privileges Committee found him in serious contempt.

His departure from 10 Downing Street was typically controversial. Johnson was ousted as premier after it emerged hed promoted an MP, Chris Pincher to a senior government role, despite knowing of a formal complaint against him into inappropriate behavior in 2019. That sparked dozens of resignations from his government that eventually led him to also quit.

Parliaments Advisory Committee on Business Appointments, which former ministers must consult about new jobs for two years after leaving office, said Friday that Johnson had consulted them and that they did not consider joining GB News as a presenter to raise any particular concerns.

It is your responsibility to manage the propriety of the specific pieces of work undertaken with GB News, the committee told Johnson. In particular, as a former prime minister, you must be careful not to offer any unfair insight as a result of your access to information and potential influence in government.

GB News said in a statement Johnson would join at the start of 2024, and will play a key role in the channels coverage of both the UK general election and the US elections. He will also create and present a new series showcasing the power of Britain around the world, as well as hosting occasional special shows with live audiences around the country, the broadcaster said.

Meanwhile Sunak, whose Conservatives are trailing in the polls, will likely be hoping Johnson limits any sniping from the sidelines. In his weekly column in the Daily Mail newspaper, the former prime minister has steered largely clear of needling Sunak and as a result  and for perhaps the first time in his political career  hes been having little impact on Westminster chatter.

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Boris Johnson has revealed he is getting his own programme on GB News  the latest Tory politician to join the right-wing TV channel as a presenter.

In a video posted on X, the troublesome former PM said he was excited to sign up to the remarkable new channel  boasting that the show would allow him to share his unvarnished views on politics.

In a warning to Rishi Sunak, the ex-Tory leader said he would talk about everything from Russia to China to the war in Ukraine, how we meet all those challenges, to the huge opportunities that lie ahead.

GB News said Mr Johnson would cover the upcoming UK and US elections. The ex-PM said he wanted to discuss why our best days are yet to come and why he believes people want to see more global Britain  not less.

He joins a series of former Tory colleagues  including ally Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg , current deputy chair Lee Anderson and fellow Brexiteer Nigel Farage  with their own shows at the controversial channel.

The ex-Tory leader has been a constant thorn in the side of Mr Sunak since he was kicked out of No 10 by his own party last summer.

Mr Johnson attacked Mr Sunaks Brexit deal for Northern Ireland, blasted his successors smoking ban, condemned the move to axe HS2, claimed No 10 was failing to provide weapons wanted by Ukraine and rowed with the government over the release of his Covid-era WhatsApp messages.

The ex-PM sensationally quit as an MP in June after claiming he was the victim of a witch hunt over his Partygate scandal  having been found to have deliberately lied to the Commons about his knowledge of rule-breaking.

He was widely perceived to have jumped before he was pushed, as the privileges committee later revealed he would have faced a 90-day suspension if he were still MP.

Boris Johnson has caused trouble for Sunak ever since leaving No 10 (Getty/AP)

Although he no longer enjoys his 86,000 salary since quitting his Uxbridge seat, Mr Johnson is said to have secured a very-high six-figure sum to write his weekly column for The Mail.

The Tory leader has now earned almost 5m over the past year  mostly from the huge fees charged for speaking at events overseas after he was kicked out of Downing Street.

As well as making around 4.2m from speaking events, Mr Johnson struck a 510,000 deal with HarperCollins in January to pen a memoir like no other.

It is not clear whether Mr Johnson will carry on with his Mail column  in which he has written about his dog Dilyn, the Elon Musk-Mark Zuckerburg row and his love of cheddar cheese  after starting with GB News.

Mr Johnson sought advice from Whitehalls appointments watchdog before taking up the job. The Advisory Committee on Business Appointments said it did not have any particular concerns about the role.

He now joins Sir Jacob, Mr Anderson, former Conservative pensions minister Esther McVey and senior Tory backbencher Philip Davies as presenters on GB News.

Amid concern about a Tory takeover of the channel, the regulator Ofcom ruled that a GB News interview with chancellor Jeremy Hunt by two fellow Conservative MPs breached impartiality rules.

The channel said Mr Johnson would be joining as a presenter, programme maker and commentator, adding that he would be playing a key role in the coverage of both the upcoming UK and US elections.

News of his latest gig comes as former Tory chancellor George Osborne claimed that disgusting and misogynistic WhatsApps sent by Mr Johnson and his former adviser Dominic Cummings will come out at the Covid inquiry.

Mr Osborne said he understood that there would be staggering messages shared at upcoming hearings  with the ex-No 10 strategist Mr Cummings set to appear next week.

Mr Johnson is set to give evidence to the public inquiry next month, following the long-running saga over the release of his WhatsApp messages to senior advisers and ministers.

Mr Osborne told his own Political Currency podcast that WhatsApp messages would show what a complete nightmare it was to work under Mr Johnson at Downing Street during the Covid crisis.
Boris Johnson was Trump-Bolsonaro level mad and dangerous on Covid, civil service chief says

The head of the civil service accused Boris Johnson at the height of the Covid pandemic of Trump-Bolsonaro levels of mad and dangerous behaviour because the then prime minister wanted to end social distancing, its been reported.

Simon Case, who at the time was Permanent Secretary at No10, referred to two world leaders infamous for dismissing the threat of the coronavirus - then US president Donald Trump and Brazil#s Jair Bolsonaro.

At the time, in July 2020, infections were spreading and medical experts feared a second wave of Covid was set to sweep the UK.

Donald Trump with Boris Johnson when tthey were both still world leaders (Getty Images)

Mr Johnson was pushing to ease lockdown restrictions and arguing in favour of the end of social distancing and the reopening of society.

Mr Cases judgment, contained in a WhatsApp message and reported by The Times, is expected to be published next week alongside a cache of others at the Covid-19 inquiry.

In one message, Mr Case said the prime minister wanted to declare were over Covid. He said that the approach would be Trump-Bolsonaro level mad and dangerous.

Plans for the widespread reopening of society were delayed by a fortnight in mid-August that year. But then in the November, a second national lockdown began as infections rose.

Mr Case, who was promoted to Cabinet Secretary and head of the civil service that September, described the Johnson government as a tragic joke in private messages shown to the inquiry.

Simon Cases messages are expected to be released as part of the Covid inquiry (PA Archive)

Next week evidence is due to come from Dominic Cummings , Mr Johnsons former chief adviser, and other Downing Street figures, as the inquiry investigates how the government handled the pandemic.

Mr Cummings had accused Mr Johnson of saying that he would rather see the bodies pile high than impose another lockdown in the autumn. Mr Johnson denies saying this.

Former chancellor George Osborne claims Mr Johnson and Mr Cummings sent disgusting and misogynistic WhatsApp messages.

Sir Patrick Vallance, chief scientific adviser during the pandemic, wrote in his diary: The ridiculous flip-flopping is getting worse. The chief medical officer [Chris Whitty] and I are both worried about the extreme inconsistencies in the prime minister lurching from open everything to panic.
Boston University police are investigating a second pair of sexual assaults this week that occurred Wednesday night.

A student walking down the sidewalk near 168 Bay State Rd. around 10 p.m. reported they were approached by a person on a bicycle who touched the student inappropriately.

The suspect rode away and the student was able to call BUPD who searched the area but were unable to locate the suspect, police said in a campus crime alert.

The suspect is described as a white male riding a dark-colored bicycle wearing blue jeans and a dark cap or hooded sweatshirt.

An hour later, around 11 p.m., a student reported that they were approached by a person on a bicycle who touched them inappropriately on the Charles River Esplanade near the Silber Footbridge

The suspect rode away and the student was able to call BUPD who searched the area but were unable to locate the suspect officials added.

The suspect is described as a male riding on a black bicycle wearing a black hooded sweatshirt.

The student was not able to provide any further details at this time.

This is the second pair of sexual assaults reported on BUs campus this week and police say they are unrelated to the ones reported on October 24th.

Police are anyone with information is urged to contact BUPD at (617) 353-2121.

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

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Bowie State University is the first HBCU to offer Maryland inmates the opportunity to complete study courses. Since the initiative launched last January, seven men incarcerated at Jessup Correctional Institution have completed their first semester. They are studying to obtain a Bachelor of Science degree in Sociology or an Entrepreneurship Certificate.

This program has been wildly successful, Dr. Charles Adams, chair of the Department of Criminal Justice at Bowie State, said in a press release. Our goal is to educate and help inspire these men to make meaningful changes in their lives so theyre better prepared to reintegrate into society after they are released. With the proliferation of AI and other technologies, it is imperative returning citizens have skills that can translate into a job market that is constantly changing.

Today, the program is expanding to 10 new students, as well as incarcerated women now able to participate. The new cohort will include 10 to 20 women who are within 12 months of being released from the institution. They will be offered a restorative justice program broken down into four courses.

The courses are designed to serve as career pathways to encourage women to pursue education, sociology or other degrees since female offenders are often invisible and programs are not designed to meet their needs, Dr. Matasha Harris, a professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and coordinator of the womens program, said. With female incarcerated citizen populations surging in Maryland, it is imperative Bowie State is there to meet their needs, particularly since most of them are women of color.

In Maryland, Black people make up 71% of the incarcerated population but only 29% of the states, according to a 2021 report by The Sentencing Project. The programs organizers highlight the importance of rehabilitation after incarceration, which can be brought about by obtaining a college degree.

This program is important to every citizen of Maryland because 90% of those who come in come back out, Adams told The Baltimore Banner. Its far more damaging to release someone who is ill equipped.

People who participate in educational programs during their incarceration are 48% less likely to return to prison than those who dont, according to the Vera Institute of Justice.

Bowie State continues its partnership with Jessup Correctional Institution, offering incarcerated citizens a shot at higher education. This partnership shows BSUs ongoing efforts in changing lives and providing education for all. Read the full story https://t.co/86dtv5n9jx  Bowie State University (@BowieState) August 2, 2023

The program for men was made possible through the Second Chance Pell Grant, while the womens program was funded through a four-year $385,000 grant from the State of Maryland.

Still, students are calling for additional resources to cover equipment as well as more time with instructors.

Jermain Williams, a 37-year-old student, said he would like to see more books, a printer and a projector. He also noted he may need additional tutoring. The sentiment is echoed by Mark Booker, one of the instructors, who has heard students pleas concerning access to more classes and access to online research journals.

For Lois Davis, a senior policy researcher of correctional education at the Rand Corp, it would help the class think of themselves not as an inmate but as a student.
(Bloomberg) -- Brazils population is aging at its fastest clip ever, potentially draining momentum from Latin Americas largest economy after a decade of lackluster growth.

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The portion of Brazilians that are 65 or older climbed to 10.9% in 2022 from 7.4% in 2010, according to data from Brazils statistics agency, or IBGE, released Friday. The share of seniors is now the largest its been since 1940, the oldest comparable census data.

We are aging very quickly compared to developed nations, Izabel Marri, a demographer at the IBGE, said in an interview. It took France and England 200 years to do what Brazil did in 40 or 60.

The speed at which Brazil is graying is raising concerns about how the South American nation will cope with the added societal costs of caring for its seniors. As it nears losing its demographic advantage  when active workers outnumber retirees  economists and demographers are quick to point out that many people lack savings and the government is missing policies to fund their pensions and health care costs.

The state is ultimately going to have to provide for those that are aging, Marri said.

Brazil began a period of explosive growth after the turn of the century. China gobbled up natural resources, like beef and iron ore, and the revenues from exports helped fund welfare programs that lifted millions of Brazilians into the ranks of the middle class. But the commodities boom went bust in the 2010s and the economy expanded less than 1% annually on average during that decade.

Social indicators, such as education and life expectancy improved, but Marcelo Neri, an economist at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, or FGV, in Rio de Janeiro, says the gains didnt translate into a more productive workforce. We had social progress, but we didnt have economic responsibility, he said.

At the same time, the growth rate of Brazilian population, which numbers some 203 million people, has been quickly fading. In 2022, it fell to 6.5%, the slowest pace on record, from 12.3% in 2010.

Brazil currently dedicates about 13% of its gross domestic product to to social security, compared to the 10% spent by Japan, the worlds oldest nation, according to the FGV.

(Updates with charts, analysis and context on Brazils growth throughout.)

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2023 Bloomberg L.P.
(Bloomberg) -- Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva cast doubt on his governments ability to hit its own zero-deficit target next year, saying he would not cut spending on priority projects to reach a goal he considers unnecessary.

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The government will not establish a fiscal target that requires us to start the year by cutting billions from projects that are priorities for this country, Lula told reporters Friday in Brasilia.

The target doesnt need to be zero, he added. The country doesnt need it.

The comments mark a reversal of the governments fiscal strategy. Until recently, Finance Minister Fernando Haddad was pledging to balance Brazils budget next year, a key aspect of his efforts to calm investor fears about the leftist Lulas plans to boost public spending amid high government indebtedness.

Read More: Brazil Vows to Balance Budget in 2024 - Markets Are Skeptical

Haddad told Bloomberg News in an interview earlier this month that Brazil was on track to hit the goal if congress did its part to help raise the 168 billion reais ($34 billion) in revenues his 2024 budget proposal projects he needs to close the gap.

What Bloomberg Economics Says

Haddads mission of bringing the budget to balance in 2024 was already hard to deliver, but without Lulas explicit and strong endorsement, it becomes multiple times harder.

That shows that Haddad is alone in the pledge for a balanced budget, suggests that hell not have support to put expenditures on hold at the onset of the year to improve his odds of meeting the target; and poses questions as to what may happen during the budget process for 2025 - when Haddad will likely be hard pressed by the new fiscal rule to adopt a stricter parameter for spending growth.

 Adriana Dupita, Brazil economist

The Brazilian real erased gains as traders assessed Lulas remarks, while a broader index of developing-nation currencies also trimmed its advance amid a souring global mood. Local swap rates climbed, with contracts maturing in January of 2027 surging 17 basis points as of 2:50 p.m. local time.

I know its Haddads will, but if Brazil has a deficit of 0.5% or 0.25% of GDP the difference is nothing, Lula said.

The Finance Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But earlier in the day, National Treasury Secretary Rogerio Ceron said that while Brazils fiscal outlook had become more challenging, he remained committed to the balanced budget goal for next year.

The external scenario has worsened in recent weeks. Indicators point to an economic slowdown in Brazil, and we are monitoring the impacts, but we will continue to seek the best possible fiscal result in 2024, Ceron said during a news conference.

Read More: Brazil Needs Congress to Fix $33 Billion Budget Gap, Haddad Says

Haddad already faced mounting skepticism about his ability to deliver on the pledge, especially as Brazils fiscal scenario has worsened. The primary deficit, which excludes interest payments, was 0.7% of gross domestic product over the past 12 months through September, according to Finance Ministry data. That compares with a 0.5% surplus at the end of 2022.

The Finance Ministry currently projects a deficit of 141.4 billion reais by the end of 2023, while Brazils gross debt will reach almost 75% of GDP.

Brazils lower house of congress on Wednesday approved legislation to tax exclusive and offshore funds, levies on the wealthiest Brazilians that Haddad has prioritized.

The proposal still needs Senate approval, and Lulas comments will likely weaken Haddads position as he seeks to advance it and other revenue-raising measures through congress, said Antonio Madeira, an economist at MCM Consultores Associados Ltd in Sao Paulo.

Brazils economy has outperformed expectations this year. But Lulas skepticism of the deficit target was accompanied by pessimism about the economys future.

Chinas slowing growth and high US interest rates, Lula said, will make 2024 a difficult year.

I told Haddad that when we are in government, we are supposed to prevent the disease from spreading, he said.

--With assistance from Vinicius Andrade, Felipe Saturnino, Bruna Lessa, Maria Eloisa Capurro and Martha Beck.

(Updates with additional market and analyst reaction, comments and context throughout.)

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A woman has admitted on the witness stand she brought a rifle to a New Years Eve party where an innocent 15 year old boy was killed. 22-year-old Madison Boden testified a man on trial for murdering the teen had her move the weapon after the shooting.

Boden explained to a jury how she ended up bringing a Draco rifle to the party. She says it began when defendant Jhabre Wilson Facetimed her that night. He asked me to pick up a gun from our friends house, she stated.

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Boden testified defendant asked her to bring co-defendant Whites weapon to the party on Deering Court in 2021 because rival gang members were there. Boden drove from Alpharetta.

She says White, known as DJ, grabbed the weapon when she got to the party.

Prosecutors say when White and Wilson did not find gang members, they fired multiple shots as they rode away in an a friends SUV. A bullet hit and killed 15-year-old Landon Smith, an innocent bystander at the party.-

He asked me to pick up a gun from our friends house, Boden said.

He said White, known as DJ, grabbed the weapon when she got to the party.

Prosecutors said when White and Wilson did not find gang members, they fired multiple shots as they rode away in an SUV.

A bullet hit Smith, an innocent bystander.

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Boden says days later when she, White and two friends had breakfast, they talked about religion. She says after that breakfast, White made a startling statement. He said I was having breakfast with two Christians and they were having breakfast with a murderer, Boden testified.

Boden says she blew the comment off. Then when police searched Wilsons home and White asked her to give his weapons to a friend, a light went off. At that point thats when I realized that something was going on.

Prosecutors say Boden began deleting messages and pictures from her phone. And the state says it appears she tried to intimidate witnesses. And did you read off to DJ over the phone the witness list in relation to this case, the prosecutor asked? Yes, Boden replied.

Boden was charged with Murder. But she has accepted a plea deal for testifying truthfully, she said. Thats something the defense said she has not done much of.

Boden says is telling the truth now. They also told me if I wasnt truthful today I still could face life in prison as well, she pointed out.

Boden said prosecutors have offered her a plea deal of 20 years to serve 8 in prison. She would also get First Offender status.

The judge in the case also admonished White and Wilson for making faces at Boden as she testified. The judge said they were trying to intimidate her and there would be serious consequences if that continued.

The trial continues Monday.

.
AccuWeather meteorologists are keeping their eyes on Tropical Storm Pilar, which is currently drifting off the El Salvador coast. Conditions could allow it to intensify rapidly, similar to Otis and Norma earlier this month.

On Saturday afternoon, Tropical Depression 19-E formed in the eastern Pacific a few hundred miles to the southwest of El Salvador. Amid favorable conditions, the depression strengthened into a tropical storm later Sunday evening.

Tropical Storm Pilar swirling off the coast of El Salvador, as seen on AccuWeather RealVue Enhanced Satellite as of Monday morning, Oct. 30, 2023.

"Water temperatures are well into the 80s F in the region, which is well above the threshold of 80 degrees to foster tropical development," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Adam Douty said.

"There is very little wind shear affecting the system," Douty added. Wind shear is represented by stiff breezes blowing from one direction or shifting directions that can hinder or prevent tropical development when strong.

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Both low wind shear and very warm water were present when Otis rapidly intensified earlier this week. Otis transitioned from a 70-mph tropical storm to a 160-mph Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale in 12 hours. Otis made landfall near Acapulco with maximum sustained winds of 165 mph, which had deadly and devastating consequences. Otis was the only Category 5 hurricane on record to hit the Acapulco area.

The system has enough time to develop through this weekend and into early next week with a chance of it becoming a hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 74 mph or greater.

"Tropical Storm Pilar is likely to track in farther to the south along the coast when compared to Otis," Douty said. While that is good news in Acapulco, where search, rescue and recovery operations are underway in the wake of Otis, Pilar could deal a heavy blow to areas farther to the south along the Pacific coast, should it make a turn back toward the east or northeast.

AccuWeather is projecting Tropical Storm Pilar to take a meandering path through the weekend. It will likely turn to the east during the early to middle part of next week before the system makes landfall anywhere from Nicaragua to the southern part of Mexico. There is also no guarantee the system will strike land due to light steering breezes.

Near where Tropical Storm Pilar moves ashore will be the likelihood of heavy rain, flash flooding, mudslides, damaging winds and storm surge. How extreme these conditions are will depend on the strength of Pilar as it nears the coast and pushes inland. However, downpours and rough surf may affect coastal areas as far south as Nicaragua and as far to the north as the Mexico state of Chiapas.

The current AccuWeather forecast for Tropical Storm Pilar calls for wind gusts of 40-60 mph (65-95 km/h) to impact much of El Salvador and the far southeastern coast of Guatemala, along with up to 4-8 inches (100-200 mm) of rain from Monday through Wednesday. The AccuWeather Local StormMax for wind is 85 mph (135 km/h) and 16 inches (405 mm) for rain.

Tropical Storm Pilar is also being noted for how unusually far south it has formed. According to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Jake Sojda, if Pilar makes landfall in El Salvador, it would only be the second named storm on record to do so with the first and only so far being Selma in 2017.

AccuWeather meteorologists will continue to monitor the situation closely and will provide updates as it approaches land.

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.
Monica Fletcher is a long-time Seagull fan and watches the team at the Amex regularly

Brighton and Hove Albion fans are celebrating after beating Dutch giants Ajax 2-0 at the Amex Stadium in their third Europa League fixture.

A good result was vital, after the Seagulls lost their opening match at home to AEK Athens, then secured a hard fought draw away to Marseilles.

"All those players in blue and white on the pitch - they played their socks off," said fan Mike Langridge.

Another Seagulls fan, Monica Fletcher, said the win put "Sussex on the map."

Thursday's victory means the club is still in with a chance of qualifying for the knockout stages, with the winning goals scored by Joao Pedro and Ansu Fati.

"We seemed more up for it. We seemed more composed. We seemed more direct. We just seemed like we wanted it more this time," Mr Langridge told BBC Radio Sussex.

Albion fans celebrated an "incredible" win after the match

Prior to the match, there was violence between rival fans at Brighton station, with British Transport Police confirming they were called to the scene at 18:32 BST, and asking for assistance from Sussex Police officers.

However, Ms Fletcher said "there wasn't a problem at the stadium".

Fans at the Amex said the Seagulls "played Ajax out of the park" and it was "the best game in years".

Martin Funnell from Littlehampton said he watched the match with his daughter, who has recently had an operation and was on crutches.

"We both had a few tears last night remembering my dad and other members of the family who couldn't be there with us," he said.

Follow BBC South East on Facebook, on X, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.
One person has been airlifted to hospital with serious injuries after a crash involving a car and a motorbike.

The A38 near Bristol is closed in both directions at Redhill between Bristol Airport and the Holiday Inn after the crash happened at about 13:30 BST.

Traffic queues are building in the area and police are advising motorists to find alternative routes as the road could be closed for some time.

Fire crews, ambulance workers and police officers are all on the scene.

Avon Fire and Rescue said crews from Bedminster and Blagdon had made the scene safe by removing sharp objects and cleaning-up a fuel spillage.

The nearby A370 is also closed at Brockley Lane due to roadworks.

A spokesperson for the South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SWASFT) said: "We sent three double-crewed land ambulances, an operations officer, a doctor, and an air ambulance and we conveyed one patient by air ambulance to Southmead Hospital."

Follow BBC West on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: bristol@bbc.co.uk
A Broward teen turned to her online instructor for help. The girls plea landed her guardians in jail  and uncovered nearly a decade of abuse, police say.

Latricia Elizabeth Crawley, 46, and Benjamin Deztuan Lockett, 43, were arrested and charged Wednesday with aggravated child abuse and child neglect with great bodily harm. Margate police responded to the home and found the 15-year-old girls head bleeding. Lockett, police say, punched the girl, causing her head to slam into the corner of a desk.

While being treated at a nearby hospital, police noticed evidence of significant long-term trauma on the girls body, according to a report. She had ligature marks, bruises, scar tissue, bite marks from insects and apparent signs of malnutrition.

The girl detailed to investigators the horror she suffered since 2014, when Crawley and Lockett became her guardians, according to the report. For almost 10 years, they frequently locked her in a closet, sometimes binding her with zip ties. They would force her to sleep there and relieve herself in a bucket.

Crawley, according to the teen, would often pour cold water on her to see her wake up. Both Crawley and Lockett, she said, starved her. Police even reported that the girls bones were protruding around her spine.

But police say she broke down as she described one of her gruesome punishments: when her eyes would be taped shut as her head would be dunked into water.

The alleged abuse didnt stop there. Heres what else the girl told investigators:

 In 2019, when she was 11, Lockett kicked her in the chin, leaving her with a permanent scar thats still visible today.

 In 2021, when she was 13, Crawley oiled her knees and forced her to kneel on rice for several days. She still has scar tissue on her knees.

 Again in 2021, Crawley tied the girl down and smashed her toes with a hammer.

 In 2022, when she was 14, the couple bound the girl with a nylon rope on multiple occasions, permanently disfiguring her shoulders, wrists and stomach.

 Again in 2022, Crawley poured a pot of boiling water over the girl, causing visible scars on her stomach.

The Florida Department of Child and Family Services now has custody of the girl. Lockett is being held at the Broward main jail with his bond set at $25,000. Jail records indicate that Crawley has since bailed out.

To report child abuse or neglect in Florida, call the states 24/7 Abuse Hotline at 1-800-962-2873 or 1-800-96-ABUSE to talk with English, Spanish and Haitian Creole-speaking counselors. For TTY, people can use 711 or call to 1-800-955-8771.
Brunos Cafe owners Klajdi Cepa and Zoe Doherty found the inspiration for their new Unionville venue when they were in college during the coronavirus pandemic.

Weve always been very avid coffee lovers, Doherty said. We actually graduated college in May and we were students during COVID. For a while, they kicked us off campus and we went all online which made us feel very cooped up in the house. So we would go to coffee shops and go to a space where we felt inspired to be productive and get our work done.

Brunos, named for the couples almost 2-year-old mini Goldendoodle dog, serves authentic French pastries, sweet and spicy sandwiches, and unique drink offerings. Cepa and Doherty hope the cafe at 55 Mill St. will become a welcoming gathering space.

We want to create a space for people to feel comfortable and be productive, meet a friend, and just relax, Cepa said.

They hope it will be cozy and kind like its namesake.

Hes the most warm, welcoming, kind and cozy dog you will ever meet, Doherty said. So thats what we felt a cafe needed to be. It needs to be welcoming, cozy, kind, and comfortable just like Bruno.

Authentic Drink Offerings

Brunos Cafe offers hot and iced coffee, tea, espresso, iced chai tea latte, ice maccha tea latte, cold brew, macchiato, and hot chocolate among other offerings.

We want to keep our drinks traditional to what coffee truly is, Doherty said. If you go to Dunkin or Starbucks, theyll give you an extra large macchiato, which just isnt what coffee is. A macchiato is a double shot of espresso with even parts milk, so all of our drinks are very authentic. Di Parma Panini  prosciutto di parma, arugula, goat cheese, balsamic glaze and apple on a croissant at Brunos Cafe in Unionville on Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. (Aaron Flaum/Hartford Courant)[/caption]

Small Bites, Big Flavor

The menu includes five sandwiches that pay homage to the area. Among the sandwiches are The Big Bird named for a well-known bridge in the area and The River Hawk, after Farmington High Schools new mascot.

We have another sandwich named The Ville, which is what a lot of locals refer to Unionville as, Doherty said. The sandwich features turkey, avocado, bacon, tomato, arugula and spicy mayo on a sourdough bread.

The Big Bird boasts crispy chicken, hot honey, homemade slaw and blue cheese for a tangy and sweet flavor on a baguette. Other offerings, like the Berry Croissant Panini with marshmallow creme, Nutella, and strawberries on a croissant, are aimed at those with a sweet tooth.

The cafe serves five different varieties of avocado toast, including the signature Brunos Bite which features egg, avocado, hot honey, feta, and chili flakes. The River Hawk toast includes egg, goat cheese, avocado, arugula, and balsamic glaze for more sweetness.

For those with a more traditional palate, Brunos also serves several types of bagels from Amis Hot Bagels in Waterbury and traditional French pastries from Ovens of France in Woodbury.

The bagels are crispy on the outside but soft on the inside, theyre among our favorite bagels in Connecticut, Doherty said. Im originally from New York so I love my bagels. We put a good amount of cream cheese on them as well just like authentic New York style bagels.

Brunos is open 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday. Customers can either order in store or ahead of time for pickup. Find Brunos on Instagram at @brunoscafect.

Stephen Underwood can be reached at sunderwood@courant.com
Bryan Kohberger returned to court today for a crucial hearing to argue why the grand jury indictment against him should be dismissed.

Judge John Judge denied the motion, but first made an unexpected decision to allow cameras in the courtroom.

The 28-year-old criminology PhD student is currently awaiting trial for the murders of University of Idaho students Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin.

Both the defence and the prosecution have been against cameras in the courtroom, but the media and the victims families have fought for cameras to be allowed.

Earlier this year, Mr Kohbergers attorneys filed the motion to dismiss the murder charges against him, citing a biased grand jury, inadmissible evidence and prosecutorial misconduct.

They tried to argue errors in grand jury instructions, but the judge said it is the same instruction given to grand juries for 100 years.

Mr Kohberger was linked to the murders that rocked the town of Moscow through DNA evidence, cellphone data, an eyewitness account and his white Hyundai Elantra.

His attorneys have previously tried to argue that the DNA may have been planted and that the state has not handed all the evidence for the defence to review.

Key points

Bryan Kohberger suffers two big losses in Idaho murders hearing

Bryan Kohberger files motion to dismiss Idaho murders charges

Mother of Idaho murders victim begs people not to forget slain students

Judge denies Kohberger defence motion to throw out grand jury indictment

Bryan Kohberger to appear in court today

Thursday 26 October 2023 15:17 , Andrea Blanco

Welcome to The Independents liveblog on Bryan Kohbergers court hearing today.

The court appearances at Latah County Courthouse were initially scheduled for September but were ultimately pushed back to 26 October.

The defence will seek to argue their claims of prosecutorial misconduct, insufficient evidence and a biased grand jury.

Hearing set to begin shortly

Thursday 26 October 2023 16:24 , Andrea Blanco

The first hearing scheduled for today is set to begin shortly.

Mr Kohbergers defence is arguing that the grand jury was not given proper instructions and that the evidence they are to review is insufficient.

Legal expert says that defences move is routine

Thursday 26 October 2023 17:56 , Andrea Blanco

David Gelman, a former Philadelphia-area prosecutor who is not involved in the Idaho murders legal case, told FOX News Digital that the defences attempt to have the charges against Mr Kohberger dropped is not uncommon.

The motion to dismiss is a move that every defence attorney makes prior to trial, Mr Gelman said. If an attorney doesnt make this motion, regardless if it has merit or not, they are pretty much committing malpra=

Why was the 9am hearing closed to the public?

Thursday 26 October 2023 19:55 , Andrea Blanco

During Bryan Kohbergers hearing this morning, details about the secret grand jury process were discussed by the prosecution and the defence.

Mr Kohberger has argued that the grand jury received improper instructions and that the evidence they are expected to review in the case is insufficient and/or inadmissible.

Members of the press will have access to the hearing scheduled for 4pm, but the procedures will not be livestreamed. Video of the hearing will be made available once the hearing is finalised.

Public hearing to start any minute

Thursday 26 October 2023 21:05 , Andrea Cavallier

The Idaho murders suspect is set to appear at a Latah County courthouse for a hearing where his defence team will argue a motion to drop the charges against him.

Longest line to get into the Latah County Courthouse for a hearing in the #MoscowMurders case Ive seen in quite some time.



Todays hearing: defendant Bryan Kohbergers defense team filing a motion to dismiss his grand jury indictment.



Follow here for updates. @KHQLocalNews pic.twitter.com/qZ2WNWCJpS  Guy Tannenbaum (@guytannenbaum) October 26, 2023

Will Bryan Kohbergers hearing be livestreamed?

Thursday 26 October 2023 21:15 , Andrea Cavallier

There will be a camera in the courtroom for Kohbergers hearing on Thursday, but it will not be public to view until after the hearing has concluded.

A line of people, including the victims families, members of the community and the media, has formed at the Latah County courthouse.

The hearing was supposed to start at 1pm PT/4pm ET, but appears to be delayed.

Kohberger hearing is underway after delayed start

Thursday 26 October 2023 21:44 , Andrea Cavallier

Bryan Kohberger and his defence team are in the courtroom for the second hearing of the day,

The first one was closed to the public.

Cell phones and laptops are allowed in the courtroom, but no recording is permitted.

There is a camera in the courtroom, but will not be public to view until after the hearing has concluded.

Defence makes argument to throw out grand jury indictment against Kohberger

Thursday 26 October 2023 21:47 , Andrea Cavallier

The Idaho murders suspects defence team is now arguing why the grand jury indictment against him should be thrown out.

Bryan Kohbergers attorneys filed a motion earlier this year to dismiss the indictment, citing a biased grand jury, inadmissible evidence and prosecutorial misconduct.

The hearings at Latah County Courthouse were initially set for September but were ultimately pushed back to 26 October.

Defence argues grand jury was given the wrong instructions

Thursday 26 October 2023 22:06 , Andrea Cavallier

Kohbergers defence is arguing the grand jury was given the wrong instructions  but Judge John Judge says it is the same instruction given to grand juries for 100 years.

Attorney Jay Logsdon is trying to pick apart the precedent on what grand juries need for an indictment and that the standard of proof should include more than just probable cause, KXLY reporter Jordan Smith tweeted from the courtroom.

Mr Logsdon believes the standard for an indictment should be elevated to "beyond a reasonable doubt."

Judge denies Kohberger defence motion to throw out grand jury indictment

Thursday 26 October 2023 22:22 , Andrea Cavallier

Judge John Judge has denied the defence teams motion throw out the grand jury indictment against Kohberger.

Court has adjourned for the day.

Bryan Kohberger suffers two big losses in Idaho murders hearing

Thursday 26 October 2023 23:31 , Andrea Cavallier

Judge John Judge has denied a motion filed by Bryan Kohbergers defence team to drop all charges against him.

Earlier this year, Mr Kohbergers attorneys filed the motion to dismiss the murder charges against him, citing a biased grand jury, inadmissible evidence and prosecutorial misconduct.

Judge Judge said that while he appreciated the defences argument which he called creative, he quickly ruled that the grand jurys indictment would stand.

I appreciate the argument. I think its really creative and I appreciate the journey back through history, the Judge said.

I mean, what it comes down to for me is that I am constrained by what I believe is settled law in Idaho. I may be wrong, but this is certainly an issue that you would have to bring up with a higher court, like the Idaho Supreme Court, and I look forward to getting that.

Andrea Cavallier reports.

Bryan Kohberger suffers two big losses in Idaho murders hearing

Who is Bryan Kohberger? The criminology graduate charged with the Idaho college murders

Friday 27 October 2023 00:05 , Graeme Massie

Bryan Kohberger became a household name across America when police swooped on his parents home in December and arrested him for the brutal murdersof four University of Idaho students.

Mr Kohberger, then a PhD criminology student at Washington State University, was accused of stabbing to death Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin in an off-campus student rental home in Moscow, Idaho, on 13 November.

The victims loved ones and those following developments in the quadruple murder case went from weeks of near-silence from law enforcement to the bombshell news of the accused killers arrest six weeks later.

Since then, people from Mr Kohbergers past  though shocked  have built a picture of a bullied loner who overcame addiction. Meanwhile, fellow students from his time just over the Idaho border into Washington describe a criminology zealot who creeped people out.

With the 28-year-old now facing the death penalty in the case, The Independent asks: Who really is Bryan Kohberger?

Who is Bryan Kohberger?

ICYMI: Everything you need to know about the Idaho murders

Friday 27 October 2023 02:03 , Graeme Massie

Its been nearly a year since the quadruple murders rocked a quiet Idaho university town.

Since then, a suspect has been arrested and a lengthy legal battle by his defence to have his charges dropped has ensued.

As the sole suspect in the brutal murders is set to appear in court on Thursday, heres everything you need to know about the case:

What to know about Idaho murders and suspect Bryan Kohberger

Family of victim Kaylee Goncalves have been waiting for this day

Friday 27 October 2023 06:04 , Graeme Massie

The family of Kaylee Goncalves, who was one of the victims of the Idaho murders, posted on the family Facebook today just hours ahead of suspect Bryan Kohbergers court hearing.

Court today! Please pray that things are decided in our favor. I can barely breathe. We have been waiting for this day since Sept 20th.

What we know about the Idaho murders

Friday 27 October 2023 07:54 , Graeme Massie

What to know about Idaho murders and suspect Bryan Kohberger

Timeline of the Idaho college murders

Friday 27 October 2023 10:01 , Graeme Massie

Idaho murders case timeline

Cameras will be allowed in courtroom, Kohberger judge rules

Friday 27 October 2023 12:00 , Graeme Massie

Judge Judge made an unexpected decision at Thursdays hearing, announcing that he will not ban cameras in the courtroom for the Bryan Kohberger case.

He said cameras will stay in the courtroom though he will take more control of them.

Prosecution says case should not be thrown out, theres nothing to see here

Friday 27 October 2023 14:01 , Graeme Massie

The prosecution is now arguing why the grand jury indictment against Kohberger should not be thrown out.

There is nothing to see here. The Idaho Supreme Court has ruled on this issue.

His argument lasted less than two minutes.

Bryan Kohberger suffers two big losses in Idaho murders hearing

Friday 27 October 2023 15:00 , Rachel Sharp

Judge John Judge has denied a motion filed by Bryan Kohbergers defence team to drop all charges against him.

Earlier this year, Mr Kohbergers attorneys filed the motion to dismiss the murder charges against him, citing a biased grand jury, inadmissible evidence and prosecutorial misconduct.

Judge Judge said that while he appreciated the defences argument which he called creative, he quickly ruled that the grand jurys indictment would stand.

I appreciate the argument. I think its really creative and I appreciate the journey back through history, the Judge said.

I mean, what it comes down to for me is that I am constrained by what I believe is settled law in Idaho. I may be wrong, but this is certainly an issue that you would have to bring up with a higher court, like the Idaho Supreme Court, and I look forward to getting that.

Andrea Cavallier reports.

Bryan Kohberger suffers two big losses in Idaho murders hearing

Why did Bryan Kohberger want cameras out of court?

Friday 27 October 2023 16:00 , Rachel Sharp

Idaho murders suspect Bryan Kohberger wanted to ban cameras from his high-profile trial after bizarrely claiming that the media was honing in on his crotch.

The 28-year-old criminal justice PhD student filed a motion on 24 August asking Judge John Judge to toss cameras from the courtroom where he faces charges for the murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin.

In the defence motion, his attorney Anne Taylor argued that past footage from his court appearances had focused heavily on his crotch.

Mr. Kohberger is entitled to defend himself against capital criminal charges without cameras focused on his fly, his attorney wrote.

She added that the media had been warned back in June not to focus solely on Mr Kohberger during the court appearances  but that they had failed to comply.

A group of media outlets  and the families of Goncalves and Kernodle  pushed back on the defences request, asking the judge to allow cameras to remain in the courtroom for his future hearings and the trial.

The media coalition argued that no photographic or film coverage had focused on his fly  pointing out that an image included in the defence motion came from a social media post and not a media outlets coverage.

Although Mr. Kohberger argues that he is entitled to defend himself against capital charges without cameras focused on his fly, that assertion misstates the role that courtroom camera coverage played in the X social media post that appears at page 3 of his motion. No photographs or camera coverage focused on Mr. Kohbergers fly, it stated in a motion.

WATCH: Idaho murders victims mother reveals why she wont attend Bryan Kohbergers trial

Friday 27 October 2023 17:00 , Rachel Sharp

Bryan Kohberger faces death penalty for the murders

Friday 27 October 2023 18:00 , Rachel Sharp

Bryan Kohberger is facing death penalty if convicted of the murders of four University of Idaho students.

Back in the early hours of 13 November, he is accused of breaking into an off-campus student home on King Road, Moscow, and stabbing the four students to death with a large, military-style knife.

Two other female roommates lived with the three women at the property and were home at the time of the massacre but survived.

One of the survivors  Dylan Mortensen  came face to face with the masked killer, dressed in head-to-toe black and with bushy eyebrows, as he left the home in the aftermath of the murders, according to the criminal affidavit.

For more than six weeks, the college town of Moscow was plunged into fear as the accused killer remained at large with no arrests made and no suspects named.

Then, on 30 December, law enforcement suddenly swooped on Mr Kohbergers family home in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania and arrested him for the quadruple murders.

He was tied to the murders through his DNA found on a knife sheath left on the bed next to Mogens butchered body.

The motive remains unknown and it is still unclear what connection the WSU PhD student had to the University of Idaho students  if any  prior to the murders. The murder weapon  a fixed-blade knife  has never been found.

ICYMI: Bryan Kohbergers father called police on accused Idaho killer nine years before murders

Friday 27 October 2023 19:00 , Rachel Sharp

Bryan Kohbergers father called the police on his son nine years before his son allegedly murdered four University of Idaho students in a shocking knife attack that has horrified America.

Court records, newly obtained by ABC News, reveal that Mr Kohberger was arrested and charged with stealing one of his sister Melissas cellphones back in 2014.

The then-19-year-old had recently left rehab for drug addiction issues and had returned to the family home in Pennsylvania.

Then, on 8 February 2014, he stole the $400 iPhone and paid a friend $20 to pick him up and take him to a local mall where he then sold it for $200.

When confronted by his father Michael over the theft, Mr Kohberger chillingly warned him not to do anything stupid, according to the court records. His father reported the incident to the police.

Catch up on the story here:

Bryan Kohbergers father called police on him nine years before Idaho murders

What is Bryan Kohbergers alibi for the night of the murders?

Friday 27 October 2023 20:00 , Rachel Sharp

Bryan Kohberger finally offered up a vague alibi for the night that he is accused of brutally stabbing four University of Idaho students to death in their beds.

The 28-year-old criminal justice PhD student claims that he was out on a solo drive throughout the night of 12 November and into the early hours of 13 November  but admits that there are no witnesses to back up his version of events.

Mr. Kohberger has long had a habit of going for drives alone. Often he would go for drives at night, his attorney Anne Taylor wrote in a court filing in August.

He did so late on November 12 and into November 13, 2022. Mr. Kohberger is not claiming to be at a specific location at a specific time; at this time there is not a specific witness to say precisely where Mr. Kohberger was at each moment of the hours between late night November 12, 2022 and early morning November 13, 2022.

He was out, driving during the late night and early morning hours of November 12-13, 2022.

While Mr Kohbergers attorney said that there is no specific witness to say where he was throughout the time of the murders, she wrote in the new filing that she anticipates corroborating witnesses will back up his explanation at trial.

The claims about Mr Kohbergers unusual nighttime habits  and his whereabouts on the night of the murders  came after prosecutors demanded that his legal team reveal his alibi ahead of the original October trial start date.

What happened in court yesterday? Motion to dismiss indictment denied

Friday 27 October 2023 21:00 , Rachel Sharp

In court on Thursday, the judge denied a motion filed by Bryan Kohbergers defence team to drop all charges against him.

Earlier this year, Mr Kohbergers attorneys filed the motion to dismiss the murder charges against him, citing a biased grand jury, inadmissible evidence and prosecutorial misconduct.

Judge John Judge said that while he appreciated the defences argument which he called creative, he quickly ruled that the grand jurys indictment would stand.

I appreciate the argument. I think its really creative and I appreciate the journey back through history, the judge said.

I mean, what it comes down to for me is that I am constrained by what I believe is settled law in Idaho. I may be wrong, but this is certainly an issue that you would have to bring up with a higher court, like the Idaho Supreme Court, and I look forward to getting that.

What happened in court yesterday? Ruling allowing cameras in court

Friday 27 October 2023 22:00 , Rachel Sharp

In court on Thursday, the judge made a ruling on the issue around cameras in the courtroom.

The judge said that he would allow cameras in the courtroom for now, but added that he will take more control of them. He also asked people to have restraint and dignity when covering the case.

The families of two Idaho murders victims Kaylee Goncalves, 21, and Xana Kernodle, 20, previously called for cameras to document Mr Kohbergers trial, but both the defence and the prosecution have been against cameras in the courtroom.

On Thursday morning, the Goncalves family posted on their Facebook page: Court today! Please pray that things are decided in our favor. I can barely breathe. We have been waiting for this day since Sept 20th.

A group of media outlets has also pushed back on the defences request motion, asking the judge to allow cameras to remain in the courtroom for his future hearings and the trial.
The outdoor market and the fish and meat hall will remain open

Parts of the famous Bury Market have been closed until further notice due to unsafe concrete.

About 35 indoor traders are being moved to nearby premises while the outdoor market and the fish and meat hall remains open.

The market was built with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) - which is prone to crumble - in 1971.

More than 100 schools had to shut earlier this year because they contained the unsafe material.

A Bury Council spokesman said 16 from the affected 35 traders had moved to temporary premises earlier and plans were in place to relocate the remaining traders "in the next few days".

Separately, 14 traders - whose premises were attached to the indoor hall but had their own roofs - could remain at their original site of their stall and had already resumed business, the spokesman added.

Charlotte Morris, cabinet member for culture and the economy, said: "The safety of traders and visitors is our top priority."

Traders however have voiced fears the market could stay closed in the run up to Christmas - one of the busiest times of year.

Rishi Sunak visited the famous Bury Market when he was chancellor in 2021

Steve Maloney, who runs the BBQ Barn at the indoor market, said he only found out yesterday evening when it was too late to cancel with customers.

He said he had orders for today for Christmas and a separate buffet requiring 200 items.

Mr Maloney added that his main concern was his staff who want answers today".

"Have we got anywhere to work? Are we going to get a wage? They've all got mortgages, kids to feed, bills to pay," he told BBC Radio Manchester.

"We work all week to pay bills and then Friday and Saturday we earn a living and I pay my staff.

"We're now at that point where Friday and Saturday has been omitted from the working week so we have no source of income.

"Stalls like mine, which is a massive cut-meats operation with refrigerated counters. All bespoke, all built in. It can't just be moved, so it's going to be a problem for us."

Steve Maloney said his barbecue stall cannot be easily relocated

Between the 1950s and 1990s, Raac was used mainly for flat roofing but also in floors and walls as a cheaper alternative to standard concrete.

Thousands of buildings were made with the material, which is susceptible to structural failure when exposed to moisture.

Its lifespan of about 30 years also causes problems.

The government recently said 42 hospitals and 214 schools and colleges in England contained the potentially crumbling concrete.

Bury Market has operated from several sites since 1440 and moved to its current premises in the early 1970s.

Its reputation for produce and affordable prices has led to visits from coach tours as well as local residents.

Why not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk
A French overseas territory in the Pacific, New Caledonia has seen deep divisions between its indigenous Kanak population and Europeans, most notably over the thorny question of independence.

Besides having one of the region's highest average incomes per capita, New Caledonia is rich in resources and accounts for around 10% of the world's nickel reserve, according to the Australian Trade and Investment Commission.

New Caledonia enjoys a large degree of autonomy but depends heavily on France for matters like defence and education.

Following bouts of violence in the 1980s over the issue of independence, several agreements were signed including the 1998 Noumea Accord, which set out a roadmap for greater autonomy for the territory.

This included up to three referendums on independence. The first two showed slim majorities for remaining part of France. The third was boycotted by pro-independence parties after the authorities refused to postpone the vote due to the Covid epidemic.

Chinese influence on the island is growing. A significant portion of New Caledonia's exports goes to China, much of which is nickel.

Read more country profiles - Profiles by BBC Monitoring

NEW CALEDONIA: FACTS

Capital: Noumea

Area: 18,576 sq km

Population: 293,000

Languages: French, Nengone, Paici, Ajie, Drehu plus others

Life expectancy: 75 years (men) 83 years (women)

LEADERS

Head of state: President of France, represented by a high commissioner

President of New Caledonia: Louis Mapou

Louis Mapou, President of New Caledonia

Louis Mapou is the first separatist president of New Caledonia's the government since the Noumea agreement. He was elected in July 2021.

He has told the UN that he wants to put the future direction of New Caledonia back on the table by 2024.

In 2021 it voted for the third time against independence, but this poll was marked by a low turnout after pro-independence parties called on its supporters to boycott the vote due to the Covid pandemic. Since then, pro-independence supporters have refused to accept the result of the vote.

New Caledonia has a power-sharing executive elected by the territory's Congress, which ensures that all parties on it are represented in proportion to their number of seats in Congress.

After being elected, the executive then chooses its president from among its members.

At a national level, New Caledonia is represented in the French parliament by two deputies and two senators.

MEDIA

Men look at old newspaper clippings as part of the 30th anniversary ceremonies in tribute to victims of the 1988 hostage crisis, on Ouvea island, New Caledonia

Despite being a foreign territory of France, there is little politically neutral media in the territory and outlets tend to favour one political grouping or another.

Private radio stations operate alongside TV and radio services provided by the French public overseas broadcaster, Reseau France Outre-mer (RFO).

TIMELINE

The cultural centre in Noumea, capital of New Caledonia

Key dates in the history of New Caledonia:

1500BC - First known inhabitants are the Lapita people, followed by the Polynesians in 1000BC.

1774 - British explorer James Cook names the island New Caledonia after the Latin name for Scotland.

1840s onwards - Islanders are increasingly kidnapped by European traders as slave or for forced labour in sugarcane plantations.

1853 - Annexed by France.

1864 - The discovery of nickel deposits leads to the development of the mining industry.

1864-97 - France uses New Caledonia as a penal colony and transports 22,000 convicts and political prisoners to the islands, included many Communards, arrested after the suppression of the Paris Commune of 1871,

1878 - Kanak revolt: the territory's indigenous people clash with French settlers over their loss of land, heralding further repression by the French.

1878-1921 - Kanak population declines in this period from c. 60,000 to 27,000 due to the introduction of European diseases such smallpox and measles.

1946 - New Caledonia becomes a French oversees territory.

1976-88 - Conflicts between the French authorities and the Kanak independence movement see periods of serious violence and disorder.

1984 - The Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS or Front de Liberation Nationale Kanak et Socialiste) is formed as a pro-independence alliance of political parties.

1986-87 - French centre-right government begins land distribution without considering of native land claims - over two-thirds go to Europeans and less than a third to Kanaks. This sees roadblocks, gun battles and the destruction of property.

1988 - Ouvea cave hostage taking: pro-independence militants kill four gendarmes and take 27 hostages. French forces assault the cave and rescue the hostages, 22 Kanak hostage takers and two soldiers are killed.

1988 - Matignon Accord marks a reconciliation between Kanak and European communities by proposing an end to direct rule from Paris and a vote on independence in 1998.

1998 - Noumea Accord sets a 20-year timetable for the gradual transfer of responsibilities from France to the territory. Under the conditions of the Accord, the Vice President of New Caledonia must be a pro-independence politician if the Presidency is held by an anti-independence politician. The Accord allows for up to three referendums to be held on independence.

2006 - French parliament votes to restrict voting rights of French citizens in the territory, something that has been long sought by Kanaks.

2018 - Voters in the territory reject independence from France in a November referendum by 56% to 43%.

2020 - Second independence referendum is held. The number of voters wanting to remain part of France falls slightly to 53%, those voting for independence rises to 46%.

2021 - Third independence referendum is held. It is boycotted by pro-independence forces, who said the vote should have been delayed due to the Covid pandemic. As a result of this boycott, 96% of voters choose to stay with France. Pro-independence parties refuse to accept the vote as valid.

New Caledonia is a major exporter of nickel
A father accused of murder and child abuse in the 2020 Placerville death of his 11-year-old son, Roman Lopez, unexpectedly changed his plea Thursday and was convicted in the boys death.

A preliminary hearing to determine whether 38-year-old Jordan Thomas Piper should stand trial as charged initially was scheduled to begin next Tuesday morning in El Dorado Superior Court. But that hearing has now been vacated, according to online court records.

Instead, Piper appeared Thursday afternoon in Judge Vicki Ashworths courtroom and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in Romans death, online court records show.

Piper remains in custody and is scheduled to return to court Nov. 21 for his sentencing hearing. CBS 13 first reported Thursday that Piper had switched his plea to guilty in the murder case.

Piper has been in custody without bail since Feb. 4, 2021, when he and his wife, Lindsay Marie Piper, were arrested in the boys death. Police said Romans body was found in a storage bin in the basement of the couples Placerville home.

In a separate, federal case, Jordan Piper was sentenced Monday to 15 in prison for sexually exploiting a girl at his homes in Tuolumne and El Dorado counties from late 2019 through early 2020.

Roman initially was reported missing

Roman was reported missing from his home Jan. 11, 2020. Officials later revealed that investigators found Roman deceased inside a storage bin in the basement of Pipers rented Placerville home hours after the boy was reported missing.

Piper and his wife, Romans stepmother, were arrested and charged with second-degree murder. They also were charged with child abuse likely to cause great bodily injury or death and causing cruel and extreme pain for revenge, extortion or sadistic purpose, according to a filed criminal complaint.

A missing sign is posted on a telephone pole Monday, Jan. 13, 2020, near the home of Roman Anthony Lopez, an 11-year-old Placerville boy who went missing on Jan. 11, 2020, and was later found dead in the basement of his home on Coloma Street in Placerville.

The boys father was charged with an additional count of willfully failing to provide food, clothing, shelter and medical attention to the boy. His wife was charged with a separate count of willfully having mingled a poison and harmful substance with food, drink, medicine, and pharmaceutical product and placed a poison and harmful substance in a spring, well, reservoir and public water supply knowing it could cause injury.

Its unclear whether Piper has been convicted on the child abuse charges on Thursday. Court records did not indicate he switched to a guilty plea to those charges on Thursday.

Last year, Lindsay Piper changed her plea to no contest to the murder charge, the El Dorado County District Attorneys Office has said. She was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. As of Thursday, the 41-year-old mother was serving her state prison sentence at the Central California Womens Facility in Madera County.

Federal child sexual exploitation conviction

The boys father was in federal court Monday morning. U.S. District Judge William B. Shubb sentenced Piper to 15 years in prison for sexually exploiting a girl at his California home in the months before the boy disappeared in Placerville.

In March, Piper pleaded guilty to the charge of sexual exploitation of a child in connection with acts that occurred from Oct. 3, 2019, through Jan. 9, 2020, in Tuolumne and El Dorado counties. As part of the federal sentence, Shubb ordered Piper to serve 7  years of parole and register as a convicted sex offender.

As the Placerville Police Department investigated his sons death in 2020, law enforcement seized a digital camera and other digital devices. Investigators searched cellphones and found evidence that Piper secretly recorded videos of the underage girl.

The FBI obtained a search warrant for Pipers digital devices and found a video on a GoPro camera. The video appeared to have been recorded on Oct. 19, 2019, and it showed Piper removing the camera from behind a wall outlet in the bathroom of a rented home in Groveland.

The FBI said investigators found many videos that depicted the girl using the bathroom and bathing. The girl was living in Pipers Groveland home at the time. Piper sent the girl sexually explicit text messages from Dec. 16 to Dec. 24 of 2019, concerning a sexual Christmas gift, and offering her $250 to use it, according to a filed FBI affidavit.

On Pipers Samsung cellphone, investigators found screenshots from the secretly recorded videos of the girl  more than 430 explicit images of the girl, the FBI said. Other videos found, dated Oct. 4 and Oct. 5, 2019, were of the girl using the bathroom and bathing other children.

Jordan Piper, the father of Roman Lopez, enters the courtroom on Friday, Nov. 19, 2021 at El Dorado Superior Court in Placerville. Piper on Thursday Oct. 26, 2023, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in his sons death.

Defense attorney described family situation

Tasha Paris Chalfant, Pipers attorney, represented him in the federal exploitation case and the El Dorado County murder case. In court documents filed in the federal case, she wrote that Piper was the sole source of income for his family, which included his wife, son, four stepchildren and three foster children.

The defense attorney also said her client felt tremendous financial and personal stress and used nonprescribed pills and drank alcohol after work each night.

He completely lost himself as well as his moral compass, and he has tremendous remorse and shame for his conduct in this case, Chalfant wrote in the sentencing recommendation in the federal case.

On Monday, the federal judge asked the prosecutor to tell him more about what was then a pending murder case for Piper. Assistant U.S. Attorney Roger Yang said he has limited information about the El Dorado County case, but he said, essentially, his son was exposed to excessive levels of salt and eventually died.
Channel 9 is learning more about the convicted sex offender accused of driving across state lines with a teen from Union County.

The victim was found in Missouri after being missing for more than a week, and shes now back home with her family.

The suspect was identified as 30-year-old Christopher Porter. Hes currently in custody in Missouri for multiple felony counts.

Shes been brainwashed; the grooming has really taken a toll on her mind, said the victims family.

Porter is listed in the national sex offender registry, and hes listed as in violation. The registry shows a previous conviction for the crime of lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years of age.

Back in January of 2018, the Ceres Police Department in California put out a warning on Facebook as they were searching for Porter, saying he was allegedly inappropriately touching several female juveniles.

Porter was convicted, and Californias state authorized risk assessment tools for sex offenders gave him a numerical risk score of one, which put him at an average risk to re-offend at the time. A separate scale predicted that five years later, he would have a less than 4% risk of re-offending.

It is now five years later, and Porter faces numerous charges of sex crimes with a minor. Police say he had been communicating with the Union County teen for two months.

We reached out to the Ceres Police Department to learn more about the charges and his conviction. Were still waiting for a response to our public records request.

Meanwhile, the teen and her family are beginning the process of healing.

If youre in need of assistance for sexual assault, there is help available 24/7 in English and in Spanish. Call 1-800-656-HOPE.

(WATCH: Break-in, sexual assault raises security concerns at Belmont Abbey College)
Warren Thompson was having his first cup of coffee on a November morning nearly five years ago in his home in Paradise when his sister-in-law called to warn him of an approaching fire. He looked out the front window.

It was completely dark like it was in the middle of the night, Thompson said.

He immediately left to drive toward Chico in his 2004 Honda Accord, leaving all of his belongings  save for his Tabby cat, Cinder. What was normally a 20-minute drive took a harrowing four hours. But he was among the survivors of the second deadliest fire in modern American history, claiming 85 lives.

Opinion

And then, Thompson said, the fun began.

The 72-year-old Thompsons idea of fun is putting his financial life back together. The final insult to his financial injury is that his total payout from Pacific Gas and Electric, which caused the Camp Fire, is subject to federal income tax. Relief can only happen if Congress does something helpful.

The day that relief legislation was to be heard earlier this month, Republican Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield lost his speakership in the House of Representatives. Thus ignited a weeks-long political inferno on the Republican side of the aisle, and it wasnt until Wednesday that Louisiana Rep. Mike Johnson was elected speaker after three public failures.

Hopefully this doesnt get pushed back and forgotten about, said Thompson, who now lives in a Sacramento apartment near the Arden Fair Mall. After Cinders natural passing in 2020, Thompsons new cat companion is Leo, another Tabby, who enjoys the window view of town.

Congress track record this tumultuous year is dismal.

Thompson and thousands of other fire victims throughout California are prisoners of D.C.s political dysfunction. Even though there appears to be bipartisan support to waive taxes on these settlements, none other than Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell set back the effort an entire year. A House that is barely getting back to business faces fundamental issues, such as passing a budget and deciding whether to keep funding the war in Ukraine. Its the kind of mess that can disenfranchise everyday Americans who need something from Washington.

Any time you have a tax bill, it is a heavy lift, said Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Napa), a co-author of the tax relief bill. When you have one that is as expensive as this one is, and it deals with only a certain universe of people, it becomes even more difficult.

Drought and soaring temperatures and wind  coupled with ignitions from PG&E lines  caused a string of horrific fires in California that helped push the company into bankruptcy. There was the 2015 Butte fire, the 2017 North Bay wildfires and the 2018 Camp Fire.

As part of its settlement to emerge from bankruptcy, PG&E agreed to create the Fire Victims Trust to partially compensate wildfire survivors. So far, it has dispersed an estimated $10.58 billion in cash and company stock and identified 70,173 claimants. That amounts to about $150,000 per claimant on average so far, which is not exactly enough to rebuild in Paradise  or anywhere in California.

Victims like Thompson then received notice that these payouts were taxable. Many had agreed to share a percentage of their settlements with attorneys for help filling out the numerous forms, but these payments are taxable as well. Imagine the feeling of paying an attorney thousands of dollars and have the IRS consider those payments taxable revenue.

Relief from paying California taxes came swiftly because these fires are a far bigger deal for California legislators. Republican Assemblyman James Gallagher of Yuba City authored the bill last year to exempt funds from the Fire Victims Trust from taxes. It passed unanimously and was promptly signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Federal legislation backed by Thompson and Rep. Doug La Malfa, R-Oroville, also cleared the House last year and had chances of getting tacked onto a larger omnibus bill. But then McConnell got in the way.

McConnell refused to do any tax legislation in the omnibus bill, Rep. Thompson said. So tax relief was dead for the year. He and LaMalfa have regrouped with a new bill this year. LaMalfa has been a great partner, Thompson said.

Warren Thompson, meanwhile, was one of an estimated 27,000 victims urging D.C. to take action. Californias congressional delegation did manage to extend the federal tax filing another month, to Nov. 16, hoping legislation would pass by then. Rep. Thompson is optimistic of the House approving it yet again.

We need one of two things to happen: We need either a tax bill or a disaster bill to move through the Senate, he said.

Back in Sacramento, Warren Thompson is not holding his breath. It still looks like a long shot, he said. But he has not yet paid his $15,000 federal tax bill, hoping for a minor miracle.

The bill, if passed and signed by President Joe Biden, would reimburse fire victims for any federal taxes they pay on Fire Victims Trust payments. This is such a no-brainer, yet not a single vote is scheduled. Making lives a little easier for these Californians shouldnt be so hard back on Capitol Hill.
A Cape Coral man will serve life for a fatal shooting of a man that happened in September 2021.

Lee Circuit Judge Nicholas Thompson on Thursday adjudicated William Reese, 70, guilty and sentenced to life in prison following his conviction for second-degree murder with a firearm. The State Attorney's Office said he was sentenced as a prison reoffender.

A jury convicted Reese earlier this month.

Authorities discovered the crime Sept. 13, 2021, when Cape Coral Police responded to a residence after the victim's daughter, Rebecca Mendenhall, came home and found her father dead, from apparent gunshot wounds. She then waited outside for the police.

When police arrived, Reese walked out of the home and told police, "I got a body in there." He was immediately detained in a patrol car. Police initially took Reese into custody on charges of possession of a weapon and ammunition by a convicted felon.

Authorities found the victim on the living room floor, covered with a blanket. He had been shot five times. Reese had been staying with the victim and claimed to have no knowledge of what happened.

Police executed a search warrant at the home and recovered a Taurus .38 revolver. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement confirmed the DNA on the firearm matched Reese's. The bullets matched the bullets used to shoot the victim.

The investigation determined Reese was unemployed and began to cause problems for the victim, including taking his car, which led to arguments, prior to the murder.

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

This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Man sentenced to life for fatally shooting acquaintance in 2021
After 10 days on the run, one of four fugitives who escaped earlier this month from a central Georgia jail has been captured and is back behind bars, authorities said.

U.S. Marshals arrested Chavis Demaryo Stokes, 29, on Thursday and returned him to the Bibb County Detention Center in Macon, Georgia, the Bibb County Sheriff's Office said on Facebook. Video the agency shared on Facebook showed Stokes  who was wearing camoflauge pants  being escorted back to jail in hand and ankle cuffs.

Stokes was one of four inmates who on Oct. 16 escaped from the jail located 85 miles southeast of Atlanta by jumping from a second-story window and fleeing through a cut fence.

The other inmates  52-year-old Joey Fournier, 24-year-old Marc Kerry Anderson and 37-year-old Johnifer Dernard Barnwell  remained at large as of Friday, the sheriff's office said.

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What charges does Chavis Demaryo Stokes face?

Composite image illustration of the four men police in Macon, Georgia, said escaped from a detention center on Monday, Oct. 16, 2023. They are (from top left to bottom right): Johnifer Dernard Barnwell, Joey Fournier, Marc Kerry Anderson and Chavis Demaryo Stokes.

Stokes had originally been arrested on charges of possession of a firearm and drug trafficking before his escape. A warrant with a felony charge of escape has also been filed.

Marshals tracked Stokes to a home in Montezuma, about 50 miles from the jail, where they arrested him around 2 p.m. Thursday, the sheriff's office said.

USA TODAY was seeking comment from Stokes' attorney on Friday.

How did the inmates escape the jail?

Bibb County Sheriff David Davis called the search "an all-hands-on-deck situation" for law enforcement at a news conference the day of the escape from the jail, a 43-year-old facility that houses more than 800 inmates.

At about 6 a.m. that day, jail staff found a break in the perimeter fence, Davis said. After reviewing video footage, jail staff discovered that the four men escaped from a window in a second-floor dayroom  which sometimes is not locked at night while inmates are in bed  and ran through a break in the fence.

BCSO Fugitive Escorted Into LEC Bibb County Sheriff's Office deputies escort 29-year-old Chavis Demaryo Stokes into the Law Enforcement Center tonight. The fugitive was apprehended inside a home in Montezuma this afternoon by the U.S. Marshals Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force. Anyone with information on the possible location(s) of 52-year-old Joey Fournier, 24-year-old Marc Kerry Anderson, or 37-year-old Johnifer Dernard Barnwell should call the FBIs tip line at 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324), the USMS at 1-877-WANTED2. Tips may also be submitted online at tips.fbi.gov or the USMS Tips App. Posted by Bibb County Sheriff's Office on Thursday, October 26, 2023

Video also showed an individual driving a blue Dodge Challenger who appeared to tamper with the fence outside the jail earlier in the night, Davis said at the news conference. The person then brought "some items into the enclosed area of the fence" that authorities believe were used to help the inmates escape, the sheriff said.

Davis said investigators don't have any reason to believe the men had any associations with each other outside the jail.

This image provided by the Bibb County Sheriffs Office shows a blue Dodge Challenger outside of a central Georgia jail.

Live updates: 18 dead in Maine rampage; residents stay home as authorities search for suspect

Hunt for Georgia men comes as Maine shooter is on the loose

The four men's escape is the latest in a string of jailbreaks and manhunts across the United States this year.

In late August, the escape of convicted murderer Danelo Cavalcante from a Pennsylvania correctional facility triggered a two-week manhunt and left nearby residents terrified and on edge. The search ended with Cavalcante back in custody once authorities zeroed in on his heat signature and moved in to arrest him in a forested area.

Pensylvania police show a photo of inmate Danelo Cavalcante after he was recaptured by authorities.

As of Friday, thousands of Maine residents were still under shelter-in-place orders while a gunman identified as Robert Card remained at large after authorities said he's the primary suspect in two deadly shootings that left 18 people dead in Lewiston.

The Georgia jail escape also comes amid troubling incidents within the Georgia prison system, specifically Fulton County Jail, where federal investigations have revealed unsanitary and unsafe conditions; deteriorating facilities; overcrowding; understaffing; and criminal activity.

What do the remaining Georgia escapees look like?

Suspected of killing his ex-girlfriend, Fournier is facing the most serious charges of the four escapees. An indictment accused him of strangling Cynthia Lynn Berry with a shoelace on Feb. 20, 2022. Fournier was in custody awaiting the resolution of his case before the jail break.

An FBI wanted poster for Joey Fournier is shown. He's facing charges in connection with the death of his girlfriend and remained at large as of Friday, Oct. 27, 2023.

The sheriff's office provided descriptions of him and the other two escapees:

Fournier is a white man with gray hair and blue eyes who is 5 feet, 9 inches tall and weighs 140 pounds. The FBI released a wanted poster that included a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to Fournier's arrest. The agency said Fournier has ties to Georgia, Virginia and Arkansas

Anderson is a Black man with dreadlocks who is 5 feet, 9 inches tall and weighs 165 pounds. He was being held for aggravated assault and the FBI is offering a reward up to $5,000 for information leading to his capture.

Barnwell, who faces drug charges, is a Black man with braids. He is 5 feet, 9 inches tall and weighs 190 pounds. FBI said it's offering a reward up to $10,000 for information leading to Barnwell's arrest. They believe he had a leadership role in the Macon Mafia Street gang and has ties to West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Ohio, according to the wanted poster.

Anyone with information on the fugitives' whereabouts can call the FBIs tip line at 1-800-225-5324 or the U.S. Marshals' at 1-877-WANTED2. Anonymous tips can be sent to tips.fbi.gov or the U.S. Marshals' tips app.

Contributing: Thao Nguyen; Krystal Nurse

Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 1 of 4 Georgia fugitives back in custody after Bibb County jail escape
People gather for the ceremony for first phase of Carolina Harmony Trail Saturday morning on West Marion Street in Shelby.

The first phase of the Carolina Harmony Trail was dedicated Saturday.

The former railroad turned trail is a paved surface and winds under a bridge on Sumter Street and to Sunset Cemetery for a total length of a little over half a mile one way. Street lights are spaced at regular intervals along the path, keeping it well lit.

The long-dreamed and planned for project has been years in the making and marks new recreation and economic opportunities for the city of Shelby.

The ribbon cutting ceremony was held during the Livermush Festival and the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources had a presence in honor of Shelby being chosen as one of 10 communities across the state for the statewide Year of Trail initiative.

A crowd of people gathered at the entrance to the trail just off of Marion Street near the Bobby Bell Pavilion Saturday and Secretary Reid Wilson from N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources spoke at the ceremony.

Today is a special day here in Shelby, Wilson said. Were celebrating the dedication, but were also celebrating the year of the trail in North Carolina. Whats important about these places and the ideas they represent is that they bring us together as North Carolinians and create common ground. Everyone is welcome at our department and trails are for everyone.

He said trails are important for many reasons.

Ebony Ruff and her daughters, Yahnasa and Neharahyah, check out the maps on display during the ceremony for first phase of Carolina Harmony Trail Saturday morning on West Marion Street in Shelby.

First and foremost our health, physical, mental and spiritual, Wilson said. Getting people out on trails is especially important for children to develop that life long connection to the outdoors and love of the natural world and importantly, trails stimulate our economy. The outdoor recreation economy in this state is $28 billion a year across the state. This is not just about getting healthy and having fun in the outdoors, its about supporting jobs and people as well.

He said there have been over 1,400 trail events in every part of the state over the course of the year, but Shelbys was the biggest, with the most trail events than anyone else. Wilson said its a sign of an engaged community who loves the outdoors.

The Carolina Harmony Trail is a wonderful asset to this community, he said.

The city will be focusing on the next phase of the trail and some state funds will help make that happen.

The North Carolina General Assembly approved historic investment in trails with its new budget and some of those funds will benefit Cleveland County.

Shelby Mayor Stan Anthony presents a shirt to N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources Secretary Reid Wilson during the ceremony for first phase of Carolina Harmony Trail Saturday morning on West Marion Street in Shelby.

A total of $54.9 million was approved for new trails and greenways around the state with $2 million going to Shelby for the Carolina Harmony Trail.

When this trail is completed it will go a little over 10 miles to the South Carolina border, Mayor Stan Anthony said during Saturdays event. I think you will be blown away by the quality of this trail and this is something we can all be proud of.

A kiosk with a map will be installed next month along with a gateway tower with a cardinal, the trail logo.

The next phase will be around two miles long and will include the future Depot Park. It will run from around Graham Street down Marion and eventually up to Dekalb Street.

Anthony said hes been telling people, You just wait, ours is going to be better, about the Shelby trail compared to other rail trails in the area.

He said the city wanted to create something beautiful and show what was possible and ensure that they can extend the trail all the way to the South Carolina border.

Anthony said the $2 million allocated from the state will help toward achieving that goal.

Depot Park will encompass three acres of land near Graham and Gardner streets, and the trail will run through it. There will be a splash pad, other amenities and a restaurant or brewery at the depot building. The trail will then continue on to Dekalb Street which will add around two more miles.

Anthony said the Depot Park phase will be out for bids in the first quarter of 2024 with the hope that construction will begin in 2025.

Weve got the money lined up and the state money is helping, he said.

Reporter Rebecca Sitzes can be reached at rsitzes@gannett.com.

People gather for the ceremony for first phase of Carolina Harmony Trail Saturday morning on West Marion Street in Shelby.

This article originally appeared on The Shelby Star: Shelby celebrates opening of long awaited Carolina Harmony Trail
Thats just pettiness, andweve got to rise above that, Rep. Yvette Clarke , D-N.Y., told theGrio.

Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia filed a resolution this week to censure Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib , D-Mich., the sole Palestinian-American in Congress.

On Thursday, Greene took to the House floor and accused Tlaib of engaging in anti-Semitic activity and sympathizing with terrorist organizations and cited some of Tlaibs most recent pro-Palestine tweets.

Left to right: Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich. (Photo: Getty Images)

In 2020, Rashida Tlaib retweeted an illustration with the caption from the river to the sea Palestine will be free, Greene said. This Palestine [[slogan]]has been adopted by Hamas and calls for the elimination of Israel and death to all Jews.

Following Greenes remarks, Tlaib published a statement saying the hard-right conservatives resolution was unhinged and deeply Islamophobic. The Democrat said the resolution also attacks peaceful Jewish anti-war advocates.

I am proud to stand in solidarity with Jewish peace advocates calling for a ceasefire and an end to the violence, said Tlaib. I will not be bullied, I will not be dehumanized, and I will not be silenced.

In reaction to Greenes resolution, Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., told theGrio, Thats just pettiness, andweve got to rise above that.

Congresswoman Clarke continued: Everyone has a right to freedom of speech, and certainly Marjorie knows that. She utilizes that and maximizes her freedom of speech, and likewise, Rashida has the right to speak as well.

Thursdays measure comes after Greene accused Tlaib of leading a pro-Palestinian protest at the U.S. Capitol on Oct. 18 that she referred to as an insurrection.

Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow, two Jewish human rights organizations, led hundreds of demonstrators to the Capitols Cannon House Office to demand a cease-fire amid the Israel-Hamas war that has resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians in both Israel and the Gaza Strip.

Its shameful, Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., told theGrio in reaction to Greenes resolution. Like all of us, Rep. Tlaib is mourning the violence and the loss of innocent civilian lives, both Israeli and Palestinian.

But, for her, its tragically personal and happening in her homeland. Like myself, she has made it very clear that she believes every life is precious and no one more than another, Bush said of her fellow member of The Squad.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., attends the House Natural Resources Committee hearing on Wednesday, June 23, 2021. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

She added, Silencing Palestinian voices and the voice of the only Palestinian-American serving in Congress is not the path to a just and lasting peace.

The push for censorship isnt an attack on Rep. Tlaibs character and morals; its a window into the lack of Rep. Taylor Greenes, Bush told theGrio.

Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, told theGrio, I think it is interesting to see people who literally are insurrectionists  and it includes Marjorie Taylor Greene  trying to continually project on my colleagues, such as Rashida, this kind of extremism persona.

Rashida is Palestinian, where she has family members who are still stuck in the Gaza Strip. This is a very personal thing for her, and she is scared, explained Crockett. She doesnt know if her grandmother will live. She doesnt know if shell be able to stay in communication with [family members].

[Tlaib] is free in this country to express herself because we have a constitution that allows for that in the way that she sees fit, she added.

Referring to Republicans staunch support of the right to bear arms, Crockett said, I know that they only know about the second amendment, but there are a few other amendments.

Greene introduced a privileged resolution, which means the House must vote on it within two legislative days. However, the earliest House members will be able to vote on the measure is Wednesday, when congressional members return to Washington, D.C.

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

The post CBC members condemn Greenes call to censure Tlaib over Israel appeared first on TheGrio.
The maker of the popular optimization app CCleaner has confirmed hackers stole a trove of personal information about its paid customers following a data breach in May.

In an email sent to customers, Gen Digital, the multinational software company that owns CCleaner, Avast, NortonLifeLock and Avira brands, said that the hackers exploited a vulnerability in the widely used MOVEit file transfer tool, which is used by thousands of organizations, including CCleaner, to move large sets of sensitive data over the internet.

The email to customers said that the hackers took names, contact information and information about the products that were purchased.

Jess Monney, a spokesperson for Gen Digital, confirmed that customer phone numbers, email addresses and billing addresses were affected by the breach. Monney said that less than 2% of users were affected, but declined to provide a specific number of affected users.

CCleaner is used by millions of people around the world. Gen Digital does not break down how many paid CCLeaner users it has, but claims to have about 65 million paid customers across its cybersecurity portfolio, which includes CCleaner.

It's not clear why it took CCleaner several months to disclose the incident to affected customers.

The mass-hacking of MOVEit file transfer tools began in May, and quickly became the biggest hack of the year (so far) by the number of victims alone. The never-before-seen vulnerability allowed the notorious Clop ransomware to steal sensitive data from thousands of organizations that stored data on these internet-connected systems. Researchers tracking the mass-hacks say more than 2,500 organizations have confirmed MOVEit-related data breaches since May, amounting to at least 66 million individuals  though, the true number of affected people is likely far higher.

Clop has not yet listed CCleaner on its dark web leak site, which ransomware gangs use to extort companies by publishing stolen files if the hackers' ransom is not paid.

An earlier listing for NortonLifeLock  another Gen Digital brand  was listed on August 14. A spokesperson for Gen Digital said at the time that the incident was limited to the personal information of its employees and contractors, and that "no customer or partner data has been exposed."

In 2017, CCleaner was compromised by hackers who planted malware in the software to spy on more than two million users. The tool maker said that the hackers specifically targeted high-profile tech companies and telecom giants.
LAKEMONT, Ga. - A judge ordered a Rabun County property owner to allow descendants connected to a century-old cemetery to make regular visits, while a civil dispute continues over whether anyone is actually buried there.

Hundreds of small cemeteries on private land are scattered across our state.

Even if they dont own the property, Georgia case law allows family members to visit those cemeteries as long as they do it regularly and maintain the grounds.

Some of the tombstones from the late 1800s that were moved by a Rabun County property owner.

The Eden Cemetery in Lakemont has been around for more than 100 years, with a few dozen grave markers memorializing the passing of some of the original members of the community, the Ellerds, Taylors, and Harkins.

"My great-grandfather is James Watt Ellerd, Junior," said James Cunningham. "He was buried in 1885. And hes rested there since."

An earlier picture of Eden Cemetery taken by family members.

Or has he? One fact is certain. His tombstone  and dozens of others  are no longer there.

"It's just devastating," said Shirley Harkins, another descendant.

Starting in 2021, a new property owner Lauren Versaggi filed criminal trespass reports with the Rabun County Sheriff's Office about vandalism in the cemetery, saying the top of a coffin "had been pulled back" and later "headstones had been moved." No one was ever arrested.

Click to open this PDF in a new window.

This summer, Versaggi said she had all the markers transported to an unrelated cemetery to prevent further damage. The ground below remained untouched.

Georgia law says before removing a burial object like a tombstone you have to have a study from an archeologist. Develop a plan to notify all the descendants. Even hold a public hearing.

Descendants of the people whose headstones were moved filed a civil suit demanding they be put back where they've been for the last 100 years.

The FOX 5 I-Team interviewed a half dozen descendants. None said they had any idea the tombstones were moved until they visited the property this summer.

"I'm really upset that someone would do this," said David Carswell.

"It doesn't matter to me that it's a modern grave site or an ancient grave site," complained another descendant Dee Dee Arrowood. "You do not do this without at least letting us know about it."

That's why the descendants filed a civil suit against Versaggi and her company Lake Rabun Lodge, accusing her of "desecration of the graves by removing the headstones..." and keeping "no record or evidence of where the bodies were in relation to the stones" Shes not accused of any crime.

Property owner Lauren Versaggi testified in a hearing for the civil suit that she moved the markers because she was worried about vandalism.

But Versaggi responded to the civil suit with an unusual defense: how do we know there were ever any bodies there in the first place?

"It was my understanding that there was no one buried there," she testified in a court hearing. "That these monuments were just relocated at the time that the lake was flooded."

She provided no evidence to the court to back up that belief. Neither did her attorneys. The FOX 5 I-Team checked with Georgia Power, the utility that built Lake Rabun in the 1920s. They had no record of a cemetery being flooded there.

An email between Versaggi and a Rabun County employee asks if she needed a permit "to reposition the graves within the same property?"

The descendants attorney Michael Cummings pointed out that Versaggi has benefited from paying no taxes on that portion of her property because its listed as a cemetery on tax records. He also revealed an email she sent to the county asking if she needed "any form of permit to reposition the graves within the same property?"

The county responded "there are no permits required to improve or relocate the graves that are on your property. You are free to proceed forward with the proper burial of those graves."

Instead, she only moved the markers, and to a place she doesn't own, 15 miles from her property.

"I used my own money and dedicated my own time to taking them to a place where I thought would honor them in the most loving way I could," Versaggi explained from the witness stand.

This is what the Eden cemetery looked like when the FOX 5 I-Team last visited.

Versaggi agreed not to move forward on any development of the land until the lawsuit is resolved. Plans submitted to the county show a proposed well in the area near the cemetery.

Judge Bill Oliver ruled that family members could visit the property monthly while the lawsuit continues. They also have to pay for a survey of the land to show the exact location of the cemetery tract.

Versaggis attorney Taylor Wilson sent the FOX 5 I-Team a written statement.

"For years, the headstones on this property were vandalized, desecrated, and broken by unknown trespassers, resulting in multiple reports to law enforcement. The headstones were neglected and subject to further desecration. Various individuals in the community expressed that these headstones were moved from their original location when Lake Rabun was constructed, but that any associated gravesites may still be in their original locations. To protect the headstones and the dignity of those whose life they memorialize, the landowner sought permitting and direction from the County and various other government agencies and was instead advised that no permit was required, and the landowner was free to proceed in relocating the headstones. At the landowners expense, the headstones were safely transported to a nearby cemetery overlooking a lake, in a tranquil and beautiful location where they will be cared for and kept safe. At no time was evidence of actual interment of human remains discovered during this process. Throughout this process, the landowner has sought to respect the dignity of the headstones and treated them with the utmost care."
SOUTH BEND  After retiring from a three-decade tenure at a university, Larry McLellan spent years gathering the stories of thousands of enslaved African Americans who, from the 1830s up to the Civil War, passed through the Chicagoland area on their way to freedom in Canada.

Those stories about the areas ties to the Underground Railroad became a book, published this September, called Onward to Chicago: Freedom Seekers and the Underground Railroad in Northeastern Illinois.

Then McLellan and others began to ask: Where exactly did they go from Chicago?

A proposed Chicago to Detroit Freedom Trail would mirror the path enslaved African Americans took to freedom before the Civil War. Running from Chicago across northern Indiana and east to Detroit, the route would stop in South Bend and mirror well-known trails traversed by freedom seekers as part of the Underground Railroad.

That question brought him on Wednesday night to the St. Joseph County Public Library in downtown South Bend to discuss the citys inclusion in a proposed Chicago to Detroit Freedom Trail, which McLellan hopes will one day be recognized as a National Historic Trail by the parks service.

But he expects the effort to take years and require the help of many volunteer researchers willing to excavate stories around local sites with potential links to the Underground Railroad  a network of enslaved African Americans and abolitionists who helped them to flee north.

More: South Bend reparations commission outlines vision for studying harm to Black residents

The Freedom Trail would begin with two historic African American churches in Chicago and run parallel to other documented roads freedom seekers took to Detroit, including the Chicago Road and the Sauk Trail. The route would pass through Gary, Michigan City and LaPorte before heading north to Cassopolis and Kalamazoo, then east to Detroit.

McLellan, who did his doctoral work at the University of Chicago and helped to found Governors State University, where he taught for 30 years, said he expects at least 35 sites in northern Indiana have ties to freedom seekers. Documentation is lacking, however, with only one site in Bristol an official part of the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.

Some of the connections around South Bend could include the farmhouse of abolitionist and likely station master Thomas Bulla; the 1849 trial of the Powell family, who escaped from slavery to a farm near Cassopolis, where their Kentucky owner found and tried to recapture them but was denied in court; and the Bartlett home, whose owners raised money to buy food and clothing for freedom seekers.

Working with African American elder and scholar Verge Brother Sage Gillam, McLellan said hed also like to include stories from neighboring Elkhart County and east to Fort Wayne. He envisions an additional trail that might be called the Northern Indiana Freedom Trail.

Larry McLellan, a professor emeritus of sociology and community studies at Governor's State University, talks with an attendee after an event introducing the Chicago to Detroit Freedom Trail in downtown South Bend on Oct. 25, 2023.

"Its a way of really, I think, digging deeper into our common humanity," McLellan said, "and realizing that if we are deliberate about celebrating our diversity, we can be much more conscious of celebrating our common humanity.

Founder of the Little Calumet River Underground Railroad Project, McLellan said his research suggests that 6,000 to 10,000 enslaved people made their way up the Mississippi River Valley into Illinois in the decade before the Civil War. Other routes passed through central Indiana on their way to Michigan. In northeast Illinois, McLellan has found more than 60 sites with ties to freedom seekers.

Estimates say that, between 1820 and 1860, the Underground Railroad helped about 1,000 African Americans in the U.S. to freedom each year. After the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 mandated that enslaved people in free states be returned to their owners in the South, it became especially true that to be free, people had to flee to Canada.

Part of what really gets me with the Underground Railroad stuff is the fundamental humanity of it, McLellan said. Ive got stories of pro-slavery families, and they say, We always thought slavery was just fine, and then this family showed up on their doorstep and they needed directions.

Verge "Brother Sage" Gillam speaks at The History Museum in South Bend, for the 2023 reception African American Legacy Award given to Verge "Brother Sage" Gillam on June 13, 2023.

Gillam, who helped to found a 20-site Underground Railroad tour in Cass County, said its important to document a history that has often been confined to oral storytelling.

In order for the National Park Service to verify the trail as historic, petitioners must submit written proposals that draw on documents and historical context.

Akila Karanja, a South Bend nurse practitioner who wrote the book The Emancipated Gospel, said after Wednesday's event that the Underground Railroad remains for her a profound symbol of self-determination in spite of dehumanizing conditions.

She said it's useful as a metaphor for contemporary struggles.

People now have to take that mentality that no matter what, Im going to stop using drugs, Karanja said. No matter what, Im going to stop killing myself with alcohol. No matter what, Im going to get an education. And if you decide to kill me just because Im Black and walking down the street and you have a suit on, Im still going to rise up.

The Underground Railroad, she finished, still exists.

How to get involved in Underground Railroad project

McLellan encouraged anyone interested to email him at mcclellan.larry@gmail.com or project organizer Tom Shepherd at tomshepherd2001@yahoo.com for instructions about how to begin researching local history. The Little Calumet River Underground Railroad Project also has a Facebook page.

Larry McLellan's book "Onward to Chicago: Freedom Seekers and the Underground Railroad in Northeastern Illinois," published in September, chronicles the stories of enslaved African Americans who emancipated themselves by fleeing their slaveowners on foot to Chicago.

Email South Bend Tribune city reporter Jordan Smith at JTsmith@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jordantsmith09

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: South Bend Underground Railroad ties outlined in Chicago to Detroit trail
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - A Chicago man who allegedly shot an Illinois State Police (ISP) Trooper Tuesday night has been charged with attempted murder.

Cristobal Santana, 37, faces two counts of attempted first-degree murder, one count of aggravated battery with a firearm to a police officer, one count of aggravated battery to a police officer and one count of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon.

At about 10:47 p.m. Tuesday, ISP Trooper Dakotah Champman-Green stopped Santana in the 1600 block of Toronto Road in Springfield.

During the stop, gunfire was exchanged and Trooper Chapman-Green was struck in the leg, ISP said.

Santana allegedly fled the scene but was taken into custody at 1:58 a.m. Wednesday.

Trooper Chapman-Green remains hospitalized.

Santana was taken to the hospital for injuries sustained during the apprehension and remains in the hospital.

At the time of the shooting, Santana was allegedly a suspect in the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Adrianna Lopez.

She was shot Sunday night near her home in the 5400 block of South Narragansett Avenue.

The investigation is ongoing.
A delegation of city officials who went to Texas last week said their three days at the border helped build collaboration between the border cities and Chicago but highlighted a dearth of federal funds and coordination in addressing the migrant crisis.

In a briefing with reporters Thursday, Mayor Brandon Johnsons deputy chief of staff Cristina Pacione-Zayas said the groups biggest takeaway from the trip included the need for a coalition made up of border and interior cities, such as Chicago, to advocate for a comprehensive federal resettlement plan that includes increased and flexible funding for sheltering operations and overall expenses.

We will definitely need to continue to deliver our message about how much more resource intensive this work is  particularly in the interior cities, Pacione-Zayas said.

She said the delegation learned best practice methods from border city emergency management operations and also started the conversation with border cities how to better coordinate the transportation of migrants by bus to Chicago.

The group of state, city, federal, philanthropic, legal and faith leaders spent last Tuesday through Thursday in El Paso and San Antonio, touring a U.S. Customs and Border Protection site, a processing center and several shelters, as well as meeting with local city and county leadership.

Last week, the Tribune spoke to Beatriz Ponce de Leon, the citys deputy mayor of immigrant, migrant and refugee rights, by phone while the delegation was in El Paso. Ponce de Leon said they asked El Pasos democratic mayor, Oscar Leeser, to coordinate with Chicago officials before sending buses of migrants.

Currently, buses of migrants arrive at any time, day or night, with little to no warning. Buses can arrive in throngs, or as few as one or two.

Ponce de Leon said the city would like to only receive buses between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.

What we learned is that the city of El Paso is committed to doing that and has been doing it, but the buses that are sent by the Texas Department of Emergency Management  those have much less cooperation and coordination, Ponce de Leon said Oct. 18.

Pacione-Zayas said Thursday that she learned El Paso and San Antonio are pass-through cities, with the singular mission to move migrants into the interior of the United States. Most federal dollars go to border cities, she said, leaving the Chicago migrant budget in the hands of Chicago taxpayers.

Meanwhile, El Paso County received millions more than Cook County in emergency funding for the federal governments Shelter and Services Program this year, according to government data.

But the program  which provides money for sheltering services to migrants who have been released by the Department of Homeland Security  only applies within 45 days of their release. Democratic U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckwort, along with 13 of the states 14 Democratic House members, have asked for more resources from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to be able to provide continuous services for migrants as they settle in Chicago.

Laura Cruz-Acosta, strategic communications director for the city of El Paso, confirmed to the Tribune that the city uses a combination of federal and state government funding to send buses of migrants to Chicago. She said city officials speak with migrants and send them to locations they request  mainly New York, Denver and Chicago.

What we find is that less than 1% of the migrants arriving in El Paso want to stay in El Paso. They have other destinations in mind because they have either a friend, family member or a job already lined up within the interior of the United States, she said.

Cruz-Acosta said what distinguishes this wave of migrants from those in the past is that they dont have sponsors to help provide funding for them to get to their final destination. Most of the migrants coming to Chicago arrive from Venezuela, which is struggling with a massive economic crisis due to falling oil prices and an authoritarian leader.

Because there is now a strong community of Venezuelans who have landed in Chicagos city-run shelters, more migrants in border cities such as San Antonio are expressing that they want to be bused up for shelter, said Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, 25th, who also went on the trip.

People come where there is community, and there is now a community here, he said. That is what is driving migration to Chicago.

As of Thursday morning, there are more than 11,700 migrants in city shelters, and more than 2,500 migrants sleeping at police districts waiting for placement in a shelter. More than 500 also waiting for placement are staying at OHare.

More buses were expected to arrive over the course of the day.

Johnson was expected to take the trip to the southern border, but reconsidered, saying his efforts were better spent at home.

Bishop Simon Gordon, senior pastor of Triedstone Church of Chicago, joined the delegation with the hopes that religious leaders across all faiths can come together to help find quick solutions, as migrants face bleeker winter weeks and months ahead. He said last year a church in his denomination took in almost 400, but then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot moved them into city-run shelters.

One of the biggest challenges I saw was that theres not a designated Venezuelan population in our country  and definitely not in Chicago  where they can go, said Gordon, who paid for his trip to El Paso after being invited by the delegation. Thats where the challenge is. Theres not a family for them to go to.

The city did not say how much money was spent on the trip. Aldermen said the city picked up the tab for airfare and lodging, but they did pay for their own meals.

Ald. William E. Hall, 6th, described the trip as a fact-finding mission that was essential. He said it was hard for him to watch how border protection took away migrants belongings in detention centers on the border  giving them jumpsuits.

Imagine going to jail. Its just like going to a federal penitentiary, he said.

He said he hopes to coordinate with nonprofits in border towns to give migrants coats there in anticipation of their arrival in Chicago. He said he better understands the amount of social workers needed at the border to respond to unaccompanied minors.

And he said he has a better sense of the disconnect between Venezuela and the United States, and of the way migrant populations rapidly change and shift.

nsalzman@chicagotribune.com
CHICAGO - As asylum seekers work to adjust to life in the United States, housing and healthcare are top-of-mind. Meanwhile, volunteers  from the city to the suburbs  are working to make them feel at home.

On Thursday evening, more than 50 volunteers assembled roughly 500 personal care kits. Theyll be distributed to migrants living at police stations, where there are still more than 3,000 new arrivals awaiting shelter placement.

"We wanted to give people a sense of being at home, and feeling, you know, I can make this my home," said Major K. Kendall Matthews, associate Chicago area commander with The Salvation Army.

The effort took place at City Church Chicago in West Town, in partnership with the Salvation Army and Jewel-Osco.

"Help people feel at home away from home, considering they are coming from such distances," said Matthews. "When you think about people persevering, I think that all things are possible when it looks impossible."

Along with toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, body wash and more, migrants will find an added surprise in each kit  a handwritten note offering support.

"I think its super humbling to be a part of something thats so much bigger than yourself," said Madeline Austin, volunteer.

The personal hygiene kits will be distributed to migrants at several police stations this Sunday, Oct. 29.

To assist the Salvation Army in its effort to provide migrant families with essentials and other support, call 773-725-1100.

Meanwhile, the Village of Oak Park, on Thursday, held a vaccination clinic geared toward migrant families. It was the first in a series of pop-up clinics being made available to ensure that school-aged asylum seekers have the required vaccinations to attend class.

"Its mandatory for the children in order to stay in school and we know that one thing thats really important as children are coming here from a different country, is to help them get acclimated and in school," said Dr. Theresa Chapple, public health director, Village of Oak Park.

Held at the Cheney Mansion, interpreters were on-site to help with the process and make the experience a more comfortable one for new arrivals.

More than 20 children rolled up their sleeves Thursday to get caught up on the medical care they weren't able to receive in their home countries.

"I think this is just really the first huge step that we can do to help in this transition process," said Chapple.

The Village of Oak Park plans to host similar vaccination clinics through December. Details will be posted to their website.

This comes in addition to $150,000 the village was awarded earlier this month to support asylum seekers.
When Daniel Sung, from Atlanta, thinks about his first memories of cooking, he thinks about Waffle House. His parents would take him to eat there about once a month when he was a kid, and he was captivated by watching the cooks work.

His mother used to work at Japanese restaurants as well, and he has similar memories watching the chefs create cuisines from sushi to hibachi. He was hooked. The smells and sounds drew him in and eventually inspired him to start cooking himself.

Those were the type of restaurants that you could see people cooking so that got me interested in getting into that field, he said.

Sung opened a restaurant in Macon called Chick-in-Box at 5540 Thomaston Road. The restaurant, which opened in May, serves chicken wings, fried seafood, cheeseburgers and Philly cheesesteaks.

Sung was living and working in Augusta when his dad called him to tell him he had found the perfect spot for Sung to open a restaurant in Macon. He had never lived in Macon, but he saw the opportunity as a way for him to reconnect with his dad.

We both live together. We spend time every night eating dinner and talking about business and other ideas, he said.

Sungs parents both immigrated to the U.S. from Korea when they were young and met in the U.S. Although they cooked great Korean food, Sung said they also loved to cook American-style food. It didnt matter the style of food as long as it was good food to eat, he said.

They just enjoyed cooking in general as a hobby, he said.

Sungs first experience in the restaurant industry was as a dishwasher, and he slowly moved up.

I did a little bit of serving also, and then, I found my way back into the kitchen and just went up the ladder from there, he said.

He has worked as a chef in restaurants in Atlanta, such as St. Cecilia, The Betty and King and Duke, and he attended culinary school in Seoul, South Korea at Le Cordon Bleu - Sookmyung Academy.

Chick-in-Box is open 11 a.m.-8:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday, and Sung said the restaurant is a cozy neighborhood spot with fresh food.

I just hope to become just like a local neighborhood spot that people can come by and get some chicken wings, some burgers, Phillys, fried seafood, you know, everything that were offering, and just become a small, local, neighborhood spot to go to, he said.
A child and an 18-year-old who hid in a closet during a home break-in are credited with helping deputies capture two armed burglars in eastern North Carolina, according to law enforcement.

Deputies responded to a 911 call from one juvenile, age 10 and a teen, age 18, hiding in a closet, whispering that two men were inside their residence, the Carteret County Sheriffs Office said in an Oct. 27 news release.

The burglary happened around 4:45 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 26, on Hatcher Drive in the Riverwoods community near Morehead City. Morehead City is about 150 miles southeast of Raleigh.

The girls were extremely brave and did everything right by calling 911 and remaining hidden and quiet until deputies arrived, Sheriff Asa Buck said.

Deputies arrived and found the two suspected burglars down the street and took them into custody.

Surveillance video revealed the men were armed and had entered two homes on Hatcher Drive, officials said.

Bond was set at $250,000 each for the men, who are ages 22 and 27. They have been charged with:

Two counts of felony breaking and entering.

Two counts of felony larceny.

Two counts of conspiracy to commit breaking and entering and larceny.

One count of possession of a firearm by a felon.

One count of possession of a concealed handgun.

One count of injury to real property.

911 caller reports finding 5 bodies while visiting home, NC cops say. Names released

Man trying to help fallen biker is fatally struck by passing vehicle, NC police say

Dead tree saves distracted tourist who fell off mountain at night, TN rescuers say
BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese Premier Li Qiang said China will boost its cooperation with Mongolia under a Eurasian security bloc, which this year admitted its ninth member Iran, gently nudging its smaller neighbour to join a regional group that also includes Russia.

Mongolia has refrained from joining the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) for almost two decades, choosing to be an observer state since 2004 even as other nations such as India, Pakistan and Iran became full-fledged members.

China is ready to strengthen cooperation with Mongolia under the SCO and other multilateral frameworks to better safeguard their common interests, Li told Mongolian Prime Minister L. Oyun-Erdene on the sidelines of an SCO meeting in Bishkek on Thursday.

Oyun-Erdene told Li that Mongolia is ready to work with China to further build up mutual trust while advancing plans to build up the Mongolia-China-Russia economic corridor, without commenting on any plans on being an SCO member.

In a speech before SCO states in Bishkek, Oyun-Erdene said Mongolia will implement a multi-pillared and independent foreign policy while developing mutually beneficial cooperation with SCO countries.

Mongolia has long focused on building bilateral ties with its neighbours and other Asian countries, even entering into tripartite economic and security pacts with its two biggest neighbours China and Russia.

But it also pursues a so-called "third neighbour" diplomacy in a show of its political independence, forging strategic partnerships with countries such as the United States, Japan and South Korea while resisting calls to join regional security alliances.

The SCO, while not a military alliance, has been expanding cooperation in areas such as counter-terrorism and seeking to enlarge its global influence with new members, offering a Eurasian alternative to Western blocs such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

(Reporting by Ryan Woo; Editing by Stephen Coates)
The News

Chinas growing challenge to the Philippines control over a strategic reef in the South China Sea is sparking fears in the Pentagon that Beijing is seeking to exploit the U.S.s twin-focus on the Middle East and Ukraine to reshape the Indo-Pacifics maritime map.

Over the past week, Chinas Coast Guard and so-called maritime militia have attempted to block Manilas navy from resupplying its forces based on the Second Thomas Shoal, a disputed reef 100 miles west of the Philippine island of Palawan. The U.S., which is treaty-bound to defend Philippine territory and military assets, sent American naval vessels to the shoal in recent days, and publicly warned Beijing against trying to take it.

By conducting dangerous maneuvers that caused collisions with Philippine resupply and Coast Guard ships, the PRC Coast Guard and maritime militia violated international law, the State Department said Sunday.

But Chinas military maneuvers in the South China Sea this month are the just latest in Beijings growing threat to the Philippines maritime territories and islands, which would play a major logistical role for the U.S. in any conflict with China over Taiwan. In recent months, the Chinese coast guard aimed a military grade laser at a Philippine vessel trying to resupply the Second Thomas Shoal. Beijings military also fired water cannons to intimidate Manilas forces. China appears focused on trying to crack Washingtons alliance structure in the Indo-Pacific, which stretches from South Korea to the island nations in the South Pacific, U.S. officials told Semafor.

The Pentagon, in response, is publicly warning Beijing that the U.S. can manage three geopolitical crises at once. Defense officials have also stressed that the Biden administration hasnt diminished its focus on Asia. The United States is a global power. And that means we can deliver effects and execute our deterrence responsibilities across the globe, Admiral John Aquilino, commander of the U.S.s Pacific forces, said last week. Oh, by the way, the Indo-Pacific Command has two aircraft carriers right now at sea, as well, along with a large portion of the Joint Force, executing deterrence missions in my theater.

The Philippine military, since the incident, said its considering conducting joint resupply missions with its allies to guard against Chinese aggression in the South China Sea. We are worried, butthe [Philippine military] is willing to defend our territory, the Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff General Romeo Brawner Jr. told a press conference in Manila on Thursday.

Jays view

The war in Ukraine has raised questions since last year about whether the U.S. can deter Russia and China at the same time. But Israels looming invasion of the Gaza Strip, and the Biden administrations pledge to help defend Israel against Hamas militants and their backers in Iran, is now raising the specter of Washington having to project power in three theaters concurrently. And this is placing stresses on the Pentagon not seen since the Second World War.

Current and former U.S. officials offered differing views in recent weeks on whether they think Russia, China and Iran are essentially coordinating their military activities to challenge, if not overwhelm, Washingtons influence. Some talk of a Moscow-Beijing-Tehran Axis. But even the less alarmist American strategists say that Washington needs to look at these three antagonists as working in consort.

The three countries have significantly stepped up their defense cooperation and arms transfers to one another over the past year. How are you going to deal with Ukraine and also with the Middle East and also with the security of the Indo-Pacific region? Michael Chase, the Pentagons deputy assistant secretary of defense for China, asked on Monday at the Atlantic Council think tank. And the answer is that we have to deal with all of them. And that, in fact, I think that we see growing linkages, and so do our allies and partners.

Regardless of how much the three countries are coordinating their actions, theres ample opportunity for each of them to take advantage of the U.S.s stretched attention to make geopolitical gains.

The U.S.s defense strategy in Asia is particularly delicate as its based on a network of alliances and partnerships aimed at denying China the ability to control or harass maritime traffic in the worlds most vibrant economic region. Washingtons defenses, in some ways, trace back to World War II in which American and allied military positions on strings of Pacific islands cut off the Imperial Japanese Navy. But China has been aggressively seeking to fracture these island chains through both military and economic coercion.

Most defense planners have fixated on making sure that the U.S. can help Taiwan defend itself from a Chinese invasion. This is particularly the case since the CIA has estimated that Beijing seeks to have the military capabilities for this mission by 2027. But China could also significantly weaken Washingtons Asia defense strategy by seizing something like the Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea. This could serve as a warning to other U.S. allies in Asia about the limits of American military power and deterrence.

The View From Beijing

Beijing claims the Second Thomas Shoal, along with the entire Spratly Islands chain in the South China Sea, as part of Chinas sovereign territory. (This despite a 2016 international tribunal, which was binding for China and the Philippines, that ruled Beijing had no legal basis to make this claim.) A social media post this week linked to the Peoples Liberation Army accused Manila of seeking trouble in the disputed waters and trying to mislead international public opinion.

Chinas Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, warned the U.S. on Thursday to stay out of the dispute. The U.S. is not party to the South China Sea issue, it has no right to get involved in a problem between China and the Philippines, spokesperson Mao Ning said at a press conference in Beijing.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken met his counterpart, Wang Yi, in Washington on Thursday. We have disagreements; we have differences. At the same time, we also share important common interests and we face challenges that we need to respond together, Wang said before the meeting.

Notable

this week told the story of a decrepit Philippine naval vessel, the BRP Sierra Madre, thats central to Manilas defense of the Second Thomas Shoal.

The U.S.s nuclear arsenal can deter China and Russia, a piece in Foreign Affairs argues this month.
The astronauts of China's Shenzhou 16 and Shenzhou 17 missions celebrate the latter crew's arrival on the Tiangong space station on Oct. 26, 2023. .

China's newest astronaut crew has arrived at its orbital destination.

The three spaceflyers of the Shenzhou 17 mission reached China's Tiangong space station early Thursday morning (Oct. 26), just 6.5 hours or so after lifting off atop a Long March 2F rocket from the Gobi Desert.

The trio soon joined the three Shenzhou 16 astronauts already aboard Tiangong , who greeted the newcomers with hugs as they came through the station's hatch. The six spaceflyers then lined up to relay a message to Mission Control and the rest of us back on Earth .

"Build a dream at the Tiangong space station and continue to work hard," they said in unison (in Mandarin; translation by Chinese broadcaster CCTV, which livestreamed the event). "China's space station is always worth looking forward to."

Related: Watch Chinese astronauts light a match on Tiangong station (video)

six astronauts in blue flight suits give a thumbs-up aboard a white-walled space station

The Shenzhou 17 crew consists of mission commander Tang Hongbo, 48, and former fighter pilots Tang Shengjie, 34, and Jiang Xinlin, 35. They're the youngest group ever to visit Tiangong, which China began assembling in low Earth orbit in April 2021 and finished about 18 months later.

The Shenzhou 17 astronauts will live aboard the orbiting lab for the next six months, performing a variety of scientific experiments and maintenance tasks. Among those anticipated jobs is a spacewalk designed to inspect and potentially repair Tiangong's solar arrays, which have suffered a few debris impacts and/or micrometeoroid strikes during their short orbital lives.

"Currently, space debris is increasing, so the impacts of small space objects on long-duration operational spacecraft are inevitable," Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of the China Manned Space Agency, said during a Shenzhou 17 prelaunch press conference on Wednesday (Oct. 25).

"Previous inspection revealed that the space station's solar panels had also been hit several times by tiny objects in space, suffering minor damage, of course which was taken into account during our design," Lin added.

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Shenzhou 17's arrival marks the beginning of the end for the Shenzhou 16 mission, which reached Tiangong in late May. The Shenzhou 16 astronauts  Jing Haipeng, Zhu Yangzhu and Gui Haichao  are scheduled to return to Earth on Oct. 31.

Tiangong, which is about 20% as massive as the International Space Station , is a T-shaped structure consisting of three modules. Shenzhou 17 is the seventh crewed mission to make it to the Chinese outpost to date.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the eve of his visit to the White House (SAUL LOEB)

The United States and China agreed Friday to work towards setting up a meeting between the two countries' leaders next month, after President Joe Biden met Beijing's top diplomat at the White House.

Biden has invited Xi Jinping to San Francisco in November for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit at a time of tense relations between the two powers. Xi has not yet confirmed he will come.

After Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks with Biden and other senior US officials in Washington, the White House said both countries had agreed to keep up "high-level diplomacy" to try to smooth ties.

The two sides "reaffirmed" that they were "working together towards a meeting between President Biden and President Xi Jinping in San Francisco in November," the White House said in a statement.

A senior administration official said the White House was leaving it to Beijing to confirm that Xi would come, but "we are making preparations for just such a meeting."

An official readout of talks between Wang and US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan released by Beijing confirmed "both sides agreed to make joint efforts to realize a meeting between the two heads of state".

In a separate readout of his meeting with Biden, Wang was quoted as saying his visit was aimed at "working to stop the decline in China-US relations, stabilize them, and bring them back to the track of sound and steady development."

Biden told Wang that Washington and Beijing must "manage competition in the relationship responsibly and maintain open lines of communication," according to the White House.

With the Israel-Hamas conflict raging in the Middle East, Biden also "underscored that the United States and China must work together to address global challenges," it added in a statement.

US officials had "expressed our deep concern with the situation (in the Middle East) and pressed China to take a more constructive approach," including talking to its allies there, the senior administration official added.

Wang has been on a two-day visit to Washington during which he also met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the latest in a series of high-level contacts between the United States and China.

His meeting with Biden had been expected after Blinken met Xi in Beijing in June, but it had not previously been confirmed.

- Taiwan 'threat' -

After meeting with Blinken on Thursday, Wang acknowledged that differences would still come up, but said China would respond "calmly."

Biden and Xi have had no contact since a meeting in Bali in November 2022.

Relations have been tense for years between the world's top two economies as they vie for influence in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond, and as Beijing boosts cooperation with Russia in a bid to reduce US dominance.

A particular point of contention has been Taiwan, the self-ruling democracy claimed by Beijing.

"The biggest threat to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait is 'Taiwan independence', and the biggest challenge to China-US relations is also 'Taiwan independence', which must be resolutely opposed," Wang said in the readout of his meeting with Sullivan.

In his meeting with Biden, he also stressed the centrality of the "One-China principle" to US-China ties, according to the foreign ministry readout.

The United States and China have also traded barbs over the conflict in the Middle East, where Biden has been Israel's foremost ally.

US officials have repeatedly spoken of creating "guardrails" with China to prevent worst-case scenarios and have sought, without success, to restore contact between the two militaries.

Biden on Wednesday warned China of US treaty obligations to the Philippines, which said that Chinese vessels deliberately hit Manila's boats in dispute-rife waters -- an account contested by Beijing.

Speaking alongside Australia's prime minister, a key Asia-Pacific ally, Biden vowed to compete with China "every way according to the international rules -- economically, politically, in other ways. But I'm not looking for conflict."

dk/acb-sn/smw
President Joe Biden steps off of Marine One as he arrives At Delaware Air National Guard Base in New Castle, Del., Friday, Oct. 27, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

WASHINGTON (AP)  President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping have agreed to meet on the sidelines of next months Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco, according to a U.S. official familiar with the planning.

The two sides worked out an agreement in principle to hold a meeting during the summit as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met Friday with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan , according to the official, who was not authorized to comment and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The official added that the two sides have still not worked out details on the exact day of the meeting, venue and other logistics.

The White House said in a statement following Friday's meetings that the two sides were working toward a Biden-Xi face-to-face on the sidelines of APEC, a forum of 21 Pacific countries.

Earlier Friday, Biden met with Wang, holding an hourlong talk with the senior Chinese official in the Roosevelt Room at the White House. The meeting, with Blinken and Sullivan present, was the latest in a series of high-level contacts between the two countries as they explore the possibility of stabilizing an increasingly tense relationship at a time of conflict in Ukraine and Israel.

The White House said Biden emphasized that both the United States and China need to manage competition in the relationship responsibly and maintain open lines of communication, and he underscored that the United States and China must work together to address global challenges.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Biden viewed his meeting with Wang as a positive development, and a good opportunity to keep the conversation going.

Biden had been widely expected to talk with Wang, a reciprocal action after Xi met with Blinken in June.

Beijing has yet to confirm if Xi will travel to San Francisco for the annual APEC summit, which runs from Nov. 11 to Nov. 17.

Wang is in the midst of a three-day visit to Washington, where he's been meeting with top U.S. officials. He sat down with Blinken on Friday morning for the second time during his trip.

On Thursday, after their initial meeting, the Chinese side said "the two sides had an in-depth exchange of views on China-U.S. relations and issues of common concern in a constructive atmosphere.

In its readout, the U.S. State Department said the two men addressed areas of difference and areas of cooperation, while Blinken reiterated that the United States will continue to stand up for our interests and values and those of our allies and partners.

Wang said before Thursday's meeting that China's goal was to push the relationship as soon as possible back to the track of healthy, stable and sustainable development."

U.S. officials had said they would press Wang on the importance of China stepping up its role on the world stage if it wants to be considered a responsible major international player. The U.S. has been disappointed with China over its support for Russia in the war against Ukraine and its relative silence on the war between Israel and Hamas.

China should use whatever ability it has as an influential power to urge calm" in the Middle East, said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller. We know China has relationships with a number of countries in the region, and we would urge them to use those relationships, the lines of communication they have, to urge calm and stability.

U.S. officials believe the Chinese have considerable leverage with Iran, which is a major backer of Hamas.

Wang came to Washington at a time when tensions between the two countries remain high, including over U.S. export controls on advanced technology and China's more assertive actions in the East and South China seas.

On Thursday, the U.S. military released a video of a Chinese fighter jet flying within 10 feet (three meters) of an American B-52 bomber over the South China Sea, nearly causing an accident. Earlier this month, the Pentagon released footage of some of the more than 180 intercepts of U.S. warplanes by Chinese aircraft that occurred in the last two years, part of a trend U.S. military officials call concerning.

The U.S. also has renewed a warning that it would defend the Philippines in case of an armed attack under a security pact, after Chinese ships blocked and collided with two Philippine vessels off a contested shoal in the South China Sea.

Beijing has released its own video of close encounters in the region, including what it described as footage of the USS Ralph Johnson making a sharp turn and crossing in front of the bow of a Chinese navy ship. The U.S. destroyer also was captured sailing between two Chinese ships.

Senior Col. Wu Qian, the spokesman of the Chinese defense ministry, said the videos showed that the U.S. is the real provocateur, risk taker and spoiler."

The Pentagon rejected China's characterization of the USS Ralph Johnson's movements, saying the video includes only cropped segments of a 90-minute interaction. The ship complied with international law and operated in a lawful, safe and resolute manner," the Pentagon said.

During his visit to Washington, Wang was also expected to discuss Taiwan, a self-governed island that Beijing considers to be part of Chinese territory. Beijing vows to seize it by force if necessary, but Washington, which has a security pact with Taiwan, opposes the use of force.

The Chinese president last came to the U.S. in 2017, when former President Donald Trump hosted him at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Biden, who took office in 2021, has yet to host Xi on U.S. soil. The two men last met in Bali, Indonesia, in November 2022, on the sidelines of the Group of 20 meeting of leading rich and developing nations.

The U.S.-China relationship began to sour in 2018 when the Trump administration slapped hefty tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods. It deteriorated further over a range of issues, including rights abuses, the South China Sea, Taiwan, technology and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Biden-Xi meeting would bring much-needed stability to relations between the two countries, said Yun Sun, director of the China Program at the Washington-based think tank Stimson Center.

The keyword here is stabilization of bilateral ties  not really improvement, but stabilization, Sun said. The world needs the U.S. and China to take on a rational path and stabilize their relationship, offering the region and the world more certainty.

___

Associated Press writer Chris Megerian contributed to this report.
A Chinese fighter jet came within 10 feet of a U.S. B-52 bomber that was conducting legal, routine operations over the South China Sea, according to a statement late Thursday from the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.

U.S. officials said they were they were concerned this pilot was unaware of how close he came to causing a collision.

This was just the latest of more than 180 incidents that the Defense Department (DOD) describes as unsafe and unprofessional between the two nations since fall 2021. The DOD says these incidents have also included other behaviors that seek to impinge upon the ability of the United States and other nations to safely conduct operations where international law allows.

During the night intercept, the Chinese pilot was flying in limited visibility conditions in a manner contrary to international air safety rules and norms, according to the statement.

Military aircraft, the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command added, when intentionally approaching another, shall operate with professional airmanship and give due regard for the safety of other aircraft.

China blamed the U.S. for the incident in its own statement, claiming the United States was trying to provoke the eastern Asian nation, which claims most of the South China Sea as its own territory.

The United States and other countries have pushed back on this claim. In the United Statess statement, officials described the area as international airspace.

The U.S. military planes traveled thousands of miles to Chinas doorstep to flex muscle, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said, according to The Associated Press. That is the source of maritime and air security risks, and is not conducive to regional peace and stability.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
A Chinese fighter jet flew within a critically close distance of a U.S. bomber aircraft, prompting anger from military officials.

The Chinese Shenyang J-11 rapidly approached the US B-52 bomber on Tuesday over the South China Sea and came within 10 feet of contact, the U.S. military said Thursday.

The plane harassed the B-52 briefly, flying close at "uncontrolled excessive speed, flying below, in front of, and within 10 feet of the B-52, putting both aircraft in danger of a collision," according to U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.

AIR FORCE POLICE OPEN FIRE ON DRIVER ATTEMPTING TO RUN GATE OF TEXAS BASE

U.S. military officials said they were "concerned" by the Chinese pilot's behavior, claiming China's recent history of similar stunts puts peace in the region at risk.

"We are concerned this pilot was unaware of how close he came to causing a collision," a military official told the press.

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Airspace over the South China Sea is strategically valuable, and China has sought to assert control over the region as the U.S. and its allies conduct drills.

US MILITARY CARRIES OUT AIRSTRIKES ON FACILITIES IN SYRIA OPERATED BY IRANIAN-BACKED FORCES

The Chinese Communist Party remarked on the encounter with frustration, accusing the U.S. of provocation via excessive military presence.

"The U.S. military planes traveled thousands of miles to Chinas doorstep to flex muscle," said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning.

She added, "That is the source of maritime and air security risks, and is not conducive to regional peace and stability."

CLICK HERE FOR MORE US NEWS

FILE - A U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber performs during the Australian International Airshow at the Avalon Airfield near Lara southwest of Melbourne on Feb. 27, 2015.

Both the US and China refused to back down over the incident, issuing similar statements announcing intentions to continue operations as usual.

"The U.S. will continue to fly, sail and operate  safely and responsibly  wherever international laws allow," the US military said.

"China will continue to take resolute measures to maintain its national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity," Mao said.





Original article source: Chinese fighter jet flies within 10 feet of US B-52 bomber: US military
[Source]

Police in eastern China rescued over a thousand cats being transported to a slaughterhouse to then be killed and illegally sold as pork, lamb skewers or sausages, according to local media.

Suspicions arise: Animal activists in Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu province, first noticed suspicious activities near a cemetery earlier this month. There, they spotted large, nailed-up wooden boxes containing cats and began to monitor surrounding movement for six days, The Paper reported.

Big bust: After receiving tips from the activists, local police intercepted a truck that carried the felines south to an unknown location on Oct. 12. The cats were successfully rescued and transported to a shelter, where they now receive care.

Illicit trade: Authorities suspect the cats were to be slaughtered and illegally sold as fake pork, lamb skewers or sausages. In China, cat meat can fetch 4.5 yuan ($0.61) per catty, a unit of measurement approximately equal to 600 grams, as per the BBC.

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As long as there is profit, there will be those who do whatever it takes, activist Gong Jian, who is building a sanctuary for the cats, told The Paper. Not to mention this is a gray area with no legal jurisdiction.

Public outrage: The news sparked outrage on Chinese social media, with users calling for laws on animal rights and food safety. Criminals who abuse animals should be hunted and prosecuted, one Weibo user wrote.

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Another shared, Ive heard that when people die, they will personally experience the feelings they have brought to other living beings. So those who are kind to others in life will feel relaxed and happy, while those who have committed wrongdoings will feel utmost pain  including those who abandon pets or abuse animals.

Do not abandon cats and dogs, as many strays may end up being captured for food, turning zero-cost ingredients into profits. Stray dogs are also more likely to harm people, another warned.

Meanwhile, one vowed never to eat on the streets again. I wont be eating barbeque meat outside anymore, the user noted.

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The California Highway Patrol on Monday arrested a Sacramento County man who is accused of distributing and possessing child pornography found on a digital device at his home.

James Stanley Skaggs, 60, of Isleton, remained in custody Thursday afternoon at the Sacramento County Main Jail, where he was being held without bail.

The CHPs Computer Crimes Investigation Unit launched an investigation in August, when one of the investigators identified an Internet Protocol address in Isleton that was suspected of downloading and distributing a significant quantity of child sexual abuse material, according to a CHP news release.

After determining the exact location of the IP address, later identified as Skaggss Fourth Avenue home, the investigators obtained a search warrant.

On Monday, the CHP investigators served the search warrant at Skaggss home. The CHP said investigators found a digital device at the home that contained several gigabytes of child porn in the form of photos and videos of children ranging from 3 to 13 years old.

The investigators linked the digital device to Skaggs and took him into custody without incident, the CHP said.

Skaggs was arraigned Wednesday afternoon in Sacramento Superior Court. Hes scheduled to return to court next Wednesday for further proceedings in his criminal case.

The CHP team of investigators was assisted by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the Sacramento County Sheriffs Office Hi-Tech Crimes Task Force.
Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., takes the oath to be the new House speaker from the Dean of the House Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Evangelical Christian conservatives have long had allies in top Republican leadership in Congress. But never before have they had one so thoroughly embedded in their movement as new House Speaker Mike Johnson, a longtime culture warrior in the courthouse, in the classroom and in Congress.

Religious conservatives cheered Johnson's election Wednesday, after which he brought his Bible to the rostrum before taking the oath of office. The Bible is very clear that God is the one that raises up those in authority ... each of you, all of us," he said.

Someone asked me today in the media, People are curious, what does Mike Johnson think about any issue? Johnson said Thursday in a Fox News interview. I said, Well, go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it. Thats my worldview.

But progressive faith leaders are sounding the alarm about Johnsons opposition to LGBTQ rights and his rallying of Republicans around former President Donald Trumps legal effort to overturn the 2020 election results. And, more broadly, they are concerned about Johnson's desire to impose his narrow religious vision upon the rest of us," in the words of Paul Raushenbush, president of Interfaith Alliance, a broad coalition of progressive religious groups.

To be sure, Christian conservatives have held the House speakership with Republican majorities in the past, from Catholics such as Paul Ryan and John Boehner to Newt Gingrich, who was Southern Baptist when he was speaker in the 1990s and later converted to Catholicism.

In fact, the 2023 House speaker drama has been in some ways an intra-church affair starring Southern Baptists  including Johnson himself, short-term speaker Kevin McCarthy and the representative who led the revolt to oust McCarthy, Matt Gaetz.

But Johnson is a bona fide culture warrior, with a resume reading like a roadmap of powerful institutions of the religious right.

He has served as professor at the government school of Liberty University in Virginia, a Christian school and conservative bastion.

From 2004 to 2012, Johnson served on board of the policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, whose 13 million members comprise the nation's largest Protestant denomination. During his tenure with the SBC's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, it rallied members to place strong emphasis on "values voting." Such activism helped reinforce Republicans' opposition to abortion and LGBTQ rights.

Brent Leatherwood, the commission's current president, said he met with Johnson in the early days of his own tenure. It was clear to me he carries an abiding devotion to our convention of churches, subscribes to the principles that are dear to so many Southern Baptists, and has a deep pride in our nation," Leatherwood said.

Johnson served as an attorney with what's now known as Alliance Defending Freedom, one of the foremost legal advocates of causes valued by many on the religious right.

With the ADF, Johnson championed a 2004 Louisiana ballot measure that banned same-sex marriage, writing in the Shreveport Times that homosexual relationships are inherently unnatural and that society should not approve such a dangerous lifestyle. In 2003, after the U.S. Supreme Court nullified state laws banning same-sex sexual relations  which the ADF had urged it to retain  Johnson lamented the decision, writing that by closing these bedroom doors, they (the justices) have opened a Pandora's box.

Johnson's own public interest law firm, called Freedom Guard, helped win a legal battle regaining tax incentives on behalf of a Noahs Ark theme park in Kentucky, overcoming state concerns that the projects mission had shifted from tourism to ministry.

Johnson recently led a congressional hearing on transgender issues, saying in a statement, Gender affirming care is anything but 'affirming and caring. It is adults deciding to permanently alter the bodies of children who do NOT have the capacity to make life altering decisions on their own.

Religious conservatives embraced Johnson as one of their own as they cheered his election as speaker.

His commitment to unity and passion for protecting freedom will benefit all Americans, ADF president Kristen Waggoner said on X (formerly Twitter).

The Rev. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, welcomed Johnsons speakership not only because of his conservative political record, but also because he is a a self-consciously committed evangelical Christian.

He has somehow pulled off the task of being very convictional and I believe right on most of these issues, and at the same time considered to be respectful and gracious even well-liked by members of his own party, and presumably by members of the other party as well, Mohler said on his podcast.

Johnson invoked images cherished by Christian conservatives as he ascended to the speakership, pledging servant leadership, leading fellow Republicans in a prayer, touting the national motto, In God We Trust and highlighting the Declaration of Independence's statement that humans "are endowed by their Creator with rights.

John Fea, who studies religious conservatives and is a professor of history at Messiah University in Pennsylvania, said Johnson is a Christian nationalist, part of a movement that fuses Christian and American values, symbols and identity and sees the United States as having a divine destiny similar to the biblical Israel. Johnson has paid tribute to the profound influence" of Wallbuilders, an organization promoting the view that America was created as a Christian nation, on his own career.

We should not be fooled by his aw-shucks style, Fea added in Current, an online journal. He is a culture warrior with deep connections to the Christian Right. One might call him a happy warrior.

Progressive faith leaders expressed alarm at Johnsons election, and his remarks on Wednesday evoking the Bible as saying authorities are chosen by God.

He must remember that he was elected by the people, not by God, Raushenbush said.

Similar concerns were expressed by the Rev. Nathan Empsall, executive director of Faithful America, an online Christian community advocating for social justice.

Empsall, in a statement, depicted Johnson as an insurrection-supporting politician who will do anything to grab power, no matter who it hurts, simply to enforce his brand of right-wing Christianity on the rest of us.

After the 2020 election, Johnson organized more than 100 House Republicans to file a brief supporting Trump's challenge to President Joe Biden's election  a challenge that appalled many legal observers and that the Supreme Court rejected.

On Jan. 6, 2021, as Congress prepared to certify Bidens win and just before Trumps supporters overran the Capitol, Johnson tweeted: We MUST fight for election integrity, the Constitution, and the preservation of our republic! It will be my honor to help lead that fight in the Congress today.

He later tweeted a condemnation of the rioters who beat police and broke into the Capitol. He still voted with most House Republicans to overturn Biden's victories in two states.

Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, said via email that Johnson has an obligation to serve all Americans," those of all faiths and none.

Johnsons brand of Christian nationalism is bad American history and a betrayal of the historic Baptist commitment to religious freedom, Tyler added.

___

AP journalists David Crary and Holly Meyer contributed to this report.

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the APs collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Debris lays on the beach after Hurricane Otis ripped through Acapulco, Mexico, Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023. Hurricane Otis ripped through Mexicos southern Pacific coast as a powerful Category 5 storm, unleashing massive flooding, ravaging roads and leaving large swaths of the southwestern state of Guerrero without power or cellphone service. | Marco Ugarte, Associated Press

On Thursday, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released a statement in support of those affected in Mexico by Category 5 Hurricane Otis.

Elder Hugo Montoya, president of the Mexico Area of the church, gave a statement on the churchs aid in Acapulco.

Our prayers are with all those who have been affected by this hurricane. The Church is actively working to help the people who are going through these difficult times through the established programs and our humanitarian aid allies.

Church leaders in Mexico are currently evaluating relief efforts and how the church can be of best use in the area.

Meanwhile, all missionaries of the church volunteering in Acapulco were announced safe and accounted for.

While Hurricane Otis made it difficult for rescue workers to enter the city of Acapulco, political leaders cleared the roads on Wednesday night. At least 27 were killed with widespread destruction as of Thursday morning.

It was a Category 5 storm and the most powerful to hit Mexico in the last 50 years, per the release.

More than 1.5 million members of the church call Mexico home, per church statistics.

The state of Guerrero, where Acapulco is located, is located southwest of Mexico City and has four stakes, reported Church News.

Related
LAS VEGAS (KLAS)  The Clark County School District offered an update to parents following a data breach that occurred three weeks ago.

On Oct. 5, CCSD said it became aware of a cybersecurity incident impacting its email, according to one message to parents. Days later the school district had to limit online access to students and parents.

On Thursday, CCSD sent an update to parents telling them the investigation is ongoing.

The update also added that CCSD is cooperating fully with the current FBI investigation.

The school district also said it continues its engagement with a team of forensic experts to investigate the incident.

CCSD limits students, parents online access to protect accounts after data breach

Affected individuals identified by CCSD will receive a notification letter via first-class mail outlining steps to protect their information. No reports of related identity theft since the discovery of the incident have been made to CCSD at this time.

CCSD continues to address fallout over cyber hack as worry over learning loss spreads

For those interested in resources regarding identity theft click HERE.

CCSD parents with questions about the incident should contact the school districts assistance line at 888-566-5512 between 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. Pacific Time, Monday through Friday, excluding holidays.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS.
LAS VEGAS (KLAS)  Multiple lawsuits have been filed over the last several weeks against the Clark County School District for school bus crashes.

In those lawsuits, CCSDs bus drivers are accused of unsafe driving that has led to injuries.

8 News Now obtained video from the district that captured at least two crashes.

On Feb. 2, a school bus was driving on Losee Road when it made a left turn on Miller Avenue. However as the video appeared to show, the bus crashed head-on with a semi-truck that was driving on Losee Road.

The impact caused the school bus to spin before it came to a stop.

There werent any children onboard, and according to a lawsuit filed in September, the CCSD employee is accused of failing to yield the right of way.

About two weeks ago, CCSD was hit with another lawsuit regarding school bus crashes.

In a video 8 News Now obtained, that a school bus was backing out of a Summerlin neighborhood on Jan. 6 when the driver appeared to knock down a light pole.

According to the lawsuit, the pole fell into a yard and a child onboard the bus was injured.

8 News Now previously reported on a bus driver hitting a bicyclist last month near Skye Canyon Park Drive.

Oh my god, that was so wrong to turn that corner. Oh my gosh, Vina Tchokreff, who lives in the neighborhood, told 8 News Now on Oct. 6.

Before the school year started, 8 News Now spoke to CCSD regarding the driving records of its bus drivers.

We do professional development throughout the school year. We reference them as some of our professional development workshops. We typically offer those monthly throughout the school year but we do a round-up at the beginning of the school year  just refreshers, Amber Rideout, the transportation operations assistant at CCSD, said.

In both lawsuits, the plaintiffs are seeking monetary damages from CCSD to cover medical costs.

The school district has yet to respond to 8 News Nows request for comment.

In a report presented last month to the board of trustees, administrators stated new drivers with less experience are the ones involved in preventable accidents.

8 News Now does not know how long the drivers involved in the two crashes have been working for the district.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS.
Boise mayoral candidate Mike Masterson and Mayor Lauren McLean listen to the moderator at the start of a debate Wednesday hosted by Boise Young Professionals at Trailhead in downtown Boise. (Sarah A. Miller/smiller@idahostatesman.com)

Slush fund

Im writing to clarify misinformation within a mayoral campaign email stating that I will ensure that our city administration spends tax dollars as our taxpayers directmoney voted for the foothills will never again be treated as a slush fund for other projects, as Mayor McLean did when she used $850,000 from the voter-approved Open Space levy to build a staircase from Crescent Rim to Ann Morrison Park.

The Open Space and Clean Water Levy, 2015, was the second of two; the first specific to raising funds for foothills land purchases is no longer active; funding exhausted. The current levy sets explicitly out, among other objectives, to enhance trails, pathways, and recreational opportunities- implementing improvement projects and protecting open space in critical areas including, but not limited to, the Boise River and the Boise Foothills. Safe access to open space is critical to underserved residents who cant access the foothills but can access the river, parks, library, museums, and downtown in a non-motorized capacity through Ann Morrison Park.

This project went through rigorous outreach to the public with stringent avoidance of contacting elected or appointed officials for the two years it took to develop the grant request.

Debbie Lombard-Bloom, Boise

Greater Blue Movement

Please join the Greater Blue Movement, including Oregon.

Feel like your opinion and vote doesnt matter? Perhaps you dislike someones beliefs being applied to your well being and your lifestyle?

Maybe you want to live in a state that still believes in democracy and our constitution?

Here is something red states dont want you to know.

Blue states have plenty of reasons over red states like Idaho.

Historically people in blue states live longer, have better higher education degrees, have their vote counted with less gerrymandering and less voter suppression.

Blue states have lower rates of cancer, lower heart disease, lower obesity and better health overall.

Children in blue states are less likely to be killed by gun violence.

Blue states care about the environment and the impact longer term.

People living in blue states have more access to healthcare, more food resources and have far more personal freedom protections and rights including worker rights and civil liberties.

People in blue states have better wages.

No place is perfect. But I pick blue, and maybe you should also.

Troy Prouty, McMinnville

Jordan

We can only hope that the defeat of Jim Jordans candidacy for Speaker of the House represents a turning point, a return to some level of civility in conducting the nations business. Republicans were the targets of threats and many of them cited those menacing messages as a primary reason for holding fast in their rejection of Jordan. Intimidation and bullying tactics were turned against Jordans own party members and he couldnt bring himself to forcefully call off the attacks. Like the former president, who eventually told the Jan. 6 mob to go home while also expressing his love for them, Jordan said he wasnt behind the threats but didnt vehemently condemn them. The maniacal base was shushed but not shamed. Jordans fellow Republicans were the victims this time and perhaps they will spread the word: This wont work. Not now. Not ever. And major kudos to our own Mike Simpson for enduring the pressure and doing the right thing.

David Horsman, Meridian

Politics

A spokesperson on a radio program articulated her opinion on the current political environment. She said that there were certain groups of individuals in this country who were not accepting outcomes. I believe strongly in our Democracy. I also believe strongly in the words We the People. It occurs to me that some individuals live in an I world. The concept of We is not a priority with this group and therefore dont accept outcomes. So, how do we get beyond our current political reality? We Vote! The statistics that I read outlining what the majority in this country believe is not reflected in the number of voters who turn out to vote. Yes, Democracy is messy. It takes all of us to keep it healthy and vibrant. Vote!

Sally Collonge, Meridian

Israel

The brutal attack by Hamas in Israel underscores that civilians should never be targeted by warring parties. Sadly, this is a reprise of the 1982 massacre, mutilation and rape of over 2,000 innocent civilians at Sabra and Shatila in Lebanon at the hands of Sharon, future prime minister, and Israel. When the Palestinian State armed by the worlds greatest super power then took revenge by carpet bombing Tel Aviv, destroying over half of all residential buildings and killing thousands of innocent citizens, followed by laying siege to the destroyed city by cutting off water, food, fuel and medicine, the world reacted by saying this is just, carry on.

But only the massacre perpetrated by Israel with complete immunity happened. A two-state solution is the only way to peace, and the US can make this happen by making any further aid to Israel contingent on forcing the Israeli government to break their decades long continuous stealing of Palestinian land and then having them withdraw from the occupied lands. Our government should know history and work for peace and justice instead of participating in the latest ugly eye for an eye blindness.

Scott Cook, Boise

Saving salmon

Where is the Northwest Power and Conservation Council on salmon recovery these days? Given (1) the Council has accepted the science- the lower Snake River must be restored (via dam removal) for the fish to achieve the smolt-to-adult return rates necessary for recovery; (2) the Biden Administrations unequivocal and forceful commitment to salmon recovery, and (3) regional efforts to replace the dams services, what CONSERVATION action does the Council have planned? Power AND (not or) Fish is the Councils mission. Notably, were flush with power while Salmon and Steelhead face extinction, The table is set for ACTION: The science is clear, the socio-political will is mounting, replacement power exists, the (railroad) wheels are in motion to replace (declining) barging of commodities and the far-reaching impacts of salmon extinction are painfully obvious. Idahoans, all Idahoans, with special recognition of the Tribes, have lost the most and have the most to gain from river/salmon restoration. Healthy, abundant, diverse, sustainable salmon runs, which can once-again flourish in a healthy Snake River, are the foundation of our cultural, spiritual, economic, and ecological wealth. There exists a viable path to a better future: One that includes salmon, social justice and truly clean energy.

David Cannamela, Boise
The Coast Guard has announced that it suspended its search on Thursday for three local fisherman that went missing off the Brunswick, Georgia coast.

>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<

Action News Jax has been following this story since 3 people on board a 31-foot fishing boat went missing Fri., Oct. 20.

Related Story: Coast Guard searching for 31-foot fishing boat that went missing off the Georgia Coast

The three men embarked on their journey last Saturday, with the expectation of returning home last Thursday afternoon. However, they never arrived, and family members have not heard a word from them.

[DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks]

The fishing boat, named the Carol Ann went roughly 80 miles offshore of Brunswick. The U.S. Coast Guard began efforts to locate them on Friday.

The three men on board are Tyler Barlow, Caleb Wilkinson, and Dalton Conway.

Related Story: Family speaks out as the U.S. Coast Guard continues search for three missing fishermen

Stevie Conway, Daltons sister and Calebs girlfriend told Action News Jax, Its absolutely terrifying. We are sick to our stomachs. Lots of tears and gatherings, getting together to try to uplift each other and stay positive whenever were all wanting to fall apart.

According to the U.S. Coast Guard, crews searched more than 94,000 square miles, an area larger in size than the states of Georgia and South Carolina combined, over the span of seven days.

Related Story: Family of fishermen missing off Brunswick coast say theyll keep searching if Coast Guard stops

Despite the unwavering dedication of our crews, regrettably, we have not been able to uncover any traces of the vessel and have made the difficult decision to suspend the search for three beloved family members, Capt. Frank DelRosso, commander, Coast Guard Sector Charleston said. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to our partner agencies and the countless volunteers who have lent their assistance in this arduous search. Undoubtedly, they, like us, share in the deep sympathy we hold for the families of the missing individuals.

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The owner of the vessel Carol Ann reported to Coast Guard Sector Charleston that he hired a crew of three people that failed to return on Oct. 18, as scheduled. The crew was reported to have gone deep-sea fishing offshore Brunswick. The last communication with the owner and the vessel was on the day they departed.

Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live.
The U.S. Coast Guard announced it has suspended the search for three fishermen who disappeared off the Georgia coast after leaving for a trip two weeks ago.

Tyler Barlow, Caleb Wilkinson, and Dalton Conway went on a trip on Oct. 14 aboard the Carol Ann but never returned to shore. Their family and and the boats owner havent been able to contact them.

The Carol Ann went roughly 80 miles from the Brunswick shore and the Coast Guard launched a search last Friday. Channel 2s sister station Action News Jax reported that the Coast Guard searched as far north as Cape Fear, North Carolina and as far south as St. Augustine, Florida.

The Coast Guard said the boat may be on the Gulf Stream. However, crews havent been able to find any sign of the boat or the crew and suspended the search Thursday.

Despite the unwavering dedication of our crews, regrettably, we have not been able to uncover any traces of the vessel and have made the difficult decision to suspend the search for three beloved family members, said Capt. Frank DelRosso, commander, Coast Guard Sector Charleston. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to our partner agencies and the countless volunteers who have lent their assistance in this arduous search. Undoubtedly, they, like us, share in the deep sympathy we hold for the families of the missing individuals.

TRENDING STORIES:

Action News Jax has been communicating with the fishermens families since the search began.

Its absolutely terrifying. We are sick to our stomachs. Lots of tears and gatherings, getting together to try to uplift each other and stay positive whenever were all wanting to fall apart, Stevie Conway, Daltons sister and Calebs girlfriend told Action News Jax.

Barlows family said they plan to continue the search themselves.

We need something. We cant go with nothing and not knowing ever. Heart cant take that, Barlows mother Kim Jones told Action News Jax.

I can only hope and pray that my sons still alive and that hes holding on and all three of those boys have the strength, Chris Barlow said.

[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]

IN OTHER NEWS
A cold front moving into the Kansas City metro area Friday will bring below-freezing temperatures over the next few days.

Temperatures will be unseasonably cold over the weekend and into next week, with a hard freeze beginning Sunday as lows dip into the 20s, according to the National Weather Service in Kansas City.

Sensitive plants should be brought inside Friday before freezing temperatures arrive. Kansas Citians should plan to break out their warm clothes and winter gear, especially since many wont be ready for the sudden freezing weather.

On Friday, temperatures will drop throughout the day as the cold front pushes through. Highs around 68 degrees overnight Friday are expected to fall to a low around 37 degrees Friday night.

By Saturday, highs are expected to reach 45 degrees with morning and night lows around 34 degrees.

The anticipated hard freeze should roll in Sunday, with a low of 27 degrees and a high around 35 degrees.

Low temperatures will continue Monday with a low of 27 degrees and high of 40 degrees and drop further Tuesday with a low around 22 degrees and a high of 38 degrees.
(Reuters) -Former Colombian army colonel German Rivera was on Friday sentenced to life in prison by a U.S. court for his role in the plot to kill Haitian President Jovenel Moise, whose 2021 assassination left a power vacuum that destabilized the country.

Rivera last month became the second of three defendants who have so far pleaded guilty to charges of participating in a plot to kill Moise, who was shot dead in his bedroom and his wife injured when armed men broke into their home at night.

There are a total of 11 defendants on the case, and last week police in Haiti arrested former justice official Joseph Felix Badio, who is accused of ordering the hit - which investigators say was carried out by Colombian mercenaries.

Several businessmen have also been accused of helping fund and supply the mission with weapons.

According to a signed plea document, Rivera, known as Colonel Mike, was part of the convoy which headed toward Moise's hillside Port-au-Prince residence on the night of the killing.

Rivera also relayed information to co-conspirators that the original plan to kidnap the president had become a plan to murder him, according to his plea.

Armed gangs have massively expanded their control since the killing, amassing arsenals of semi-automatic weapons believed to be largely trafficked from the United States and growing their wealth through frequent ransom kidnappings and extortion.

Around two million Haitians are estimated to live under gang control, and some 200,000 are internally displaced amid attacks as various gangs and police fight over neighborhoods.

Countries are mulling sending troops to support a U.N.-ratified force requested by Haiti's government a year ago to help outgunned police fight the gangs, but this has yet to materialize.

(Reporting by Sarah Morland and Kylie Madry)
A picture of late Haitian President Jovenel Moise being held during a ceremony at the National Pantheon Museum in Port-au-Prince, Haiti (Valerie Baeriswyl)

A US court sentenced a retired Colombian military officer to life in prison for his role in the assassination of Haiti's president in 2021.

The United States says it has jurisdiction in the case because it alleges the plot to kill president Jovenel Moise was hatched in part in the US.

German Rivera, considered one of the leaders of the mercenary squad that shot and killed Moise in his residence outside Port au Prince, appeared before Judge Jose Martinez to hear the sentence.

Rivera, a retired captain, pleaded guilty last month to taking part in the plan.

On Friday, dressed in brown prison garb, with his feet and wrists bound, Rivera passed on an opportunity to address the court before the sentence was read out.

He was the second person convicted in the United States over the assassination, which plunged Haiti -- already plagued by poverty, gang violence, natural disasters, epidemics and a weak government -- further into crisis.

In June, another member of the conspiracy, Haitian-Chilean Rodolphe Jaar, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison for his role in supplying weapons to carry out the assassination.

The 53-year-old Jovenel was gunned down on July 7, 2021 at his private residence by a hired group of about 20 military-trained Colombians. His security detail did not intervene to protect him.

In February, US Attorney Markenzy Lapointe told a new conference that underlying the attack on Jovenel was a lust for money and power.

Lapointe said two managers of a Miami security firm, CTU, devised a plan to kidnap Moise and replace him with Christian Sanon, a Haitian-American citizen who wanted to become president of the Caribbean country.

In exchange for toppling Moise, they were promised lucrative contracts to build infrastructure and provide security forces and military equipment in a future government led by Sanon, also indicted in the United States, prosecutors said.

The plot at first was aimed at kidnapping Moise, but then evolved to assassination, according to court filings.

In Haiti a probe into the assassination has not led to anyone being put on trial.

Haiti has spiraled into deeper chaos since Moise's death. No election has been held and he has not been succeeded.

Gangs control around 80 percent of the Haitian capital, and violent crimes such kidnappings for ransom, armed robbery and carjackings continue to escalate in the impoverished Caribbean nation.

gma/dw/md
A fight between a father and son escalated to alleged patricide Thursday in Columbia, police said.

Alen Muslic, 22, was arrested Thursday on charges of first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the fatal stabbing of his father, Zufer Muslic, 62, both of Columbia.

A friend of Alen Muslic called police stating "got call from friend that lives here, saying dad is dead," according to court documents.

Police were dispatched Thursday to the 700 block of Medina Drive, where they found a bloody scene. Blood was found in the roadway in front of the house, and a trail of blood from the front to the backyard of the house, where Zufer Muslic's body was found.

When police made contact with Alen Muslic, his feet had blood on them, he had a large bloody kitchen knife in the waistband of his shorts and a second bloody knife was found with the pool of blood in the front of the house. Alen Muslic had cuts on his hands from when he allegedly stabbed his father, police said.

Those injuries were treated locally and he now is being held at the Fulton State Hospital without bond, police reported.

A verbal argument between the father and son became a fistfight inside the house. At one point Alen Muslic was pinned down and punched in the back of the head by Zufer Muslic, court documents stated.

After freeing himself, he went to the kitchen, grabbing two knives from a knife block. Seeing this, Zufer Muslic left the residence, court documents stated.

In a post-Miranda warning interview, Alen Muslic allegedly stated that he made the decision to kill his father during the fistfight. Approximately 20 seconds elapsed between the fight inside the house and the stabbing outside, court documents stated.

Charles Dunlap covers local government, community stories and other general subjects for the Tribune. You can reach him at cdunlap@columbiatribune.com or @CD_CDT on Twitter. Subscribe to support vital local journalism.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Columbia police make homicide arrest after father-son altercation
A Bowdoin house was surrounded for hours on Thursday night as the manhunt for suspected Lewiston mass shooter Robert Card entered its second day.

Heavily armed officers converged on a house on Meadow Road to execute multiple search warrants, according to Maine State Police. AP sources say the home belonged to the Card family.

You need to come outside now with nothing in your hands. Your hands in the air, police said through a loudspeaker.

Law enforcement officers depart a scene in an armored vehicle after investigating a location, in Bowdoin, Maine, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. Residents have been ordered to shelter in place as police continue to search for the suspect of Wednesday's mass shootings. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

A law enforcement officer blocks a road in Bowdoin, Maine, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023, during a manhunt for the suspect of a mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

A law enforcement officer blocks a road in Bowdoin, Maine, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023 during a manhunt for the suspect of Lewiston, Maine mass shootings. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Law enforcement officers, right, stand near armored and tactical vehicles, center, near a property on Meadow Road, in Bowdoin, Maine, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

A member of law enforcement walks with a police dog outside a property on Meadow Road, in Bowdoin, Maine, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Law enforcement officers hold rifles while investigating a scene, in Bowdoin, Maine, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. Residents have been ordered to shelter in place as police continue to search for the suspect of Wednesday's mass shootings. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Law enforcement officers hold rifles while investigating a scene, in Bowdoin, Maine, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. Residents have been ordered to shelter in place as police continue to search for the suspect of Wednesday's mass shootings. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Law enforcement officers hold rifles while investigating a scene, in Bowdoin, Maine, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. Residents have been ordered to shelter in place as police continue to search for the suspect of Wednesday's mass shootings. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Law enforcement officers hold rifles while investigating a scene, in Bowdoin, Maine, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. Residents have been ordered to shelter in place as police continue to search for the suspect of Wednesday's mass shootings. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Law enforcement officers hold rifles while investigating a scene, in Bowdoin, Maine, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. Residents have been ordered to shelter in place as police continue to search for the suspect of Wednesday's mass shootings. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

But hours later, after repeated announcements and a search, authorities moved off and it was still unclear whether Card had ever been at the location, state police said.

Card is wanted in connection with the mass shootings that took at least 18 lives and injured 13 people in at a bowling alley and bar in Lewiston on Wednesday night. He is considered to be armed and dangerous.

A shelter-in-place order continues for the town of Lewiston. School will also be canceled for the second straight day.

Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call police.

Law enforcement can now be heard saying over a bullhorn if you come out now we can guarantee your safety. Come to the truck in the driveway - follow my instructions. #Boston25 pic.twitter.com/nr71rP79NC  John Monahan (@JohnMonahanTV) October 26, 2023

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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Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) went after Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) on Thursday, accusing the Democrat of spreading disinformation about their committees investigation into President Bidens family finances.

In the course of this investigation, you have been a spirited critic of the need to look into President Biden or his family, Comer wrote to Raskin in a letter. However, the Oversight Committee must not be used as a means to propagate false or deceptive information, and for that purpose, we must address public statements you have made that contradict facts and are, unfortunately, lies.

The Committe requests that you formally correct the record and apologize to the American people for spreading disinformation about the evidence collected by the Committe during its investigation of President Biden, he continued.

Comer, the chair of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, said his ranking member mischaracterized information shared in the committee and downplayed the committees investigation findings.

Raskin has consistently derided Comers investigation, saying Republicans dont have a smoking gun or even a dripping water pistol of evidence against the president.

Theyve got nothing on President Joe Biden. All they can do is return to the thoroughly demolished lie that Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump launched five years ago, Raskin said last month, calling Republicans evidence a conspiracy theory and a fairytale.

Comer has claimed that the investigation has proven Biden accepted $200,000 of money from businesses via his brother, James Biden.

Financial documents released by the committee show that President Biden settled a set of small personal loans between himself and his brother between the time he left office as vice president and launched a presidential campaign.

The Oversight Committees description of the $200,000 check is highly selective and misleading, Paul Fishman, attorney for James Biden, said in a statement to CBS News. The Committee has the bank documents that show both the loan Jim received from his brother in January 2018 and the repayment by check six weeks later. At no time did Jim involve his brother in any of his business relationships.

The Oversight Committee has also focused on the business dealings of the presidents son, Hunter Biden . He has been charged with a set of firearms charges by a Delaware special counsel, unrelated to his father.

The committees investigation has been at the spearhead of GOP efforts to impeach President Biden. Before losing his job early this month, then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) backed efforts to launch an official impeachment inquiry from the Oversight investigation.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Our state is in urgent need of a leader in the governors office who will be a partner for communities across our state. Throughout our work in the legislature, weve been proud to achieve significant wins for Granite Staters, but our progress has been slowed by leaders who havent understood the urgent needs in housing, education, and community services that our cities and towns face. Joyce Craig is a leader who understands that to grow our economy and help working families, we have to tackle our states toughest challenges.

New Hampshire state Sens. Rebecca Perkins Kwoka and David Watters.

We hear calls from our constituents and business community that the biggest need is affordable housing. When Mayor Craig took over as mayor of Manchester after a decade of Republican leadership, there was no vision for the development of housing, and economic growth had stalled. After she was first elected in 2017, she got to work right away to put Manchester on the right path  and its working.

Mayor Craig has worked tirelessly in Manchester to bring our state more housing. She understands what it takes to work in a community and incentivize affordable housing. Throughout Joyce Craigs six years as mayor of New Hampshires largest city, the city has passed budgets that devote significant resources to creating more affordable housing. Her administration invested $10M into Manchesters affordable housing trust fund, and has worked directly with developers to incentivize building affordable housing units in the city. Right now, there are over 2,000 units of housing in development in Manchester, and even more are in the planning stages, thanks to Mayor Craigs leadership.

Where there is housing, commercial development follows to create a thriving, safe, and welcoming downtown. She has done this while keeping taxes low, under the property tax cap, and grown the tax base. We need a governor who will partner with local elected officials to do this all across the state, by partnering with developers and businesses.

New Hampshires communities have so much potential, especially right here on the Seacoast, but they cant do it on their own. We need a governor who will commit available state resources, ensure a transportation policy including public transportation, to promote growth, and attracts the workforce we need to keep our economy thriving for decades to come.

For example, Manchester is now the center of a brand new bio-fabrication industry, which will bring hundreds of millions of dollars in economic development and thousands of new, high paying jobs to our state. And the city made history nationwide, after Mayor Craigs office secured a $44 million Build Back Better Regional Challenge Grant to support this emerging industry.

Mayor Craigs vision for New Hampshire includes creating good-paying jobs; supporting quality public education; developing affordable housing; and protecting reproductive health care. She knows that this vision depends on protecting our climate and on a clear message that hate has no home here.

As legislators committed to serving our communities, as Granite Staters passionate about the future of the state we love, and as parents dedicated to ensuring that all New Hampshire children see a place for themselves here, we stand with Joyce Craig.

The stakes couldnt be higher to elect a Democrat capable of winning by bringing together voters across party lines to be a governor for all New Hampshire people. New Hampshire cant pursue a bright future without leadership, and the time has come to decide whether we will invest in our children and workforce, or work to dismantle public infrastructure. We need to a governor who can proudly support New Hampshire values to bring us together to solve our problems and lead the state forward.

No matter the issue we face, Mayor Craig is the leader we need to tackle them, which is why well be doing all we can to elect her New Hampshires next Governor in November of 2024.

Democrats Rebecca Perkins Kwoka of Portsmouth and David Watters of Dover are New Hampshire state senators.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Commentary: Joyce Craig: delivering economic growth for New Hampshire
California has experienced drought conditions for three years and much of the last decade, but surprisingly wet weather at the end of 2022 and through 2023 has boosted water supplies in the area.

According to The Associated Press, with the water year coming to an end with the conclusion of September, the states water levels in reservoirs were 128% of the historical average.

Abundant rain and snow throughout the 12 months from October 1, 2022, were mostly responsible for the much-welcomed influx of water, with 85.2 centimeters (33.56 inches) of rain recorded during that time.

Meanwhile, from the nine strong storms in the state throughout the water year, plenty of snow fell on the mountains, which melted in the spring and added to the water supplies. On April 1, the state snowpack was 237% of its historical average.

Some 27.4 million acre feet of water was measured in reservoirs at the end of the water year. For context, the AP said one acre foot of water is enough to meet the needs of two families of four for a year.

Director of the California Department of Water Resources Karla Nemeth told the publication: This was as close to a miracle year as you can get.

'Miracle' water year in California: Rain, snow put state's reservoirs at 128% of historical average https://t.co/YQfWBa7sME  ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) October 4, 2023

But one good year of water should not make the state complacent.

Keep up the conservation efforts or itll be low again fast, reminded one Redditor.

Indeed, while water restrictions imposed on residents might not need to be as strict in the upcoming 12 months, its still a smart idea to conserve water when possible to mitigate against future times of drought.

Taking shorter showers, turning off the tap while brushing your teeth, and fixing leaky pipes are all simple but effective ways to cut down on water usage at home.

While the improved water supplies is great news for Californians, the circumstances in which this was achieved are not ideal.

Flooding in the state in January killed 22 people, reminding of the dangers that extreme weather events  exacerbated by the effects of global heating  can bring.

And with the El Nino weather phenomenon set to peak in the early months of 2024, more intense periods of storms could lead to further fatal floods.

Join our free newsletter for cool news and actionable info that makes it easy to help yourself while helping the planet.
Congresss approval rating has slipped to 13 percent, according to a Gallup poll released Friday.

The approval rating, the lowest for Congress since 2017, comes in the wake of weeks of chaos in the House over its next Speaker. The rating is down 4 percentage points from last month and is 8 points lower than a year ago.

Gallup noted that views of Congress in the new survey fell among respondents from both parties.

Democrats approval rating currently stands at 10 percent, down from 22 percent last month. Republicans, whose approval rating of Congress was 9 percent in September, now give Congress an 8 percent approval rating.

Americans already viewed Congress quite negatively before the recent turmoil over the speakership, Gallup said in an analysis on the data. Still, that drama further eroded Americans image of the legislative branch, primarily among Democrats. Congress actions over the next few weeks will help determine if it can regain some of the public trust it has lost in the past month.

In another Gallup survey released earlier this week, President Bidens approval rating dropped 4 points in the past month to 37 percent. His approval rating slid 11 points among Democrats, with 75 percent now approving of his job.

The poll of 1,009 adults was conducted Oct. 2-23. It has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Dean Phillips , a Democratic congressman from Minnesota who is relatively unknown on the national US stage, is set to launch a long-shot campaign to primary Joe Biden in New Hampshire on Friday.

The New Hampshire secretary of states office confirmed Phillips is scheduled to file paperwork to get on the ballot there on Friday morning.

Related: Young Turks host Cenk Uygur launches Democratic primary bid against Biden

The Phillips campaign did not respond to a request for comment on his impending announcement.

Phillips, who has represented western suburbs of Minneapolis since 2019 in Congress, has pointed to the US presidents age in discussing his potential primary run, saying the next generation of leaders should step up. Biden is 80 years old; Phillips is 54.

The congressman is the heir of the Phillips Distilling Company and co-owned Talenti gelato. His run in 2018 for Minnesotas third congressional district flipped the seat from Republican control. With a slogan of everyones invited, Phillips calls himself an eternal optimist and bipartisan believer.

Theres little difference between Phillips and Biden on policy: Phillips has voted with Bidens legislative agenda nearly 100% of the time, the White House pointed out.

While Phillips has not officially announced his run, he has teased it for months. In recent days, a campaign bus was spotted en route to New Hampshire, and a campaign van was seen in the state. The vehicles carried a campaign website, dean24.com, which has been parked but not publicly set up yet.

Earlier this month, Phillips stepped down from leadership roles in the caucus, saying: Its clear my convictions about 2024 are incongruent with the position of my colleagues and that was causing discomfort.

Phillipss plan to primary an incumbent president has largely been met with confusion and derision, both from his colleagues and his constituents. He has also drawn a primary challenger in his district.

A spokesperson for the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor party confirmed the state party will be supporting Biden in the primary and general elections in 2024.

Separately, Biden is set to visit Minnesota next week.
Allegations were made against Sir Edward Heath after his death in 2005 - Paul Grover

The Government has rejected calls to hold an independent inquiry into claims of sexual abuse against Sir Edward Heath, the former prime minister.

Police spent two years and 1.2 million investigating seven claims against the former Conservative leader made after his death in 2005. One of Sir Edwards accusers, fantasist Carl Beech, was later jailed for 18 years for perverting the course of justice.

The House of Lords this week pressured the Government to set up an inquiry, saying they owed it to the dead statesman and labelling the unresolved allegations a stain on British justice.

However, Lord Sharpe, junior Home Office minister, ruled out the move despite calling the allegations patent rubbish.

He told the chamber: The Government has no plans to establish an independent inquiry to review the outstanding allegations against Sir Edward Heath.

It remains for the local police and crime commissioner to consider whether an inquiry is necessary.

Peers question need for inquiry

Successive Conservative governments have resisted holding an inquiry since the investigation into Sir Edward ended in 2017. Should Labour win the next election, it seems unlikely to take up the cause of the former Tory leader.

The intervention from peers came after Mike Veale, who led the investigation into Sir Edward, was barred indefinitely from serving in August when he was found guilty of gross misconduct.

The former chief constable, 57, was found by a disciplinary panel to have told a female colleague she could touch herself as they sat in a car together.

Lord Lexden, a political historian, told the House: Is it not imperative to carry out an independent review of the seven allegations made against Sir Edward Heath long after his death, which Veale failed to clear up after a long investigation?

Must there not be a strong suspicion that Veale left these allegations open, neither proved nor disproved, to save face after failing to find a single shred of evidence to support any of the accusations?

He added: Do we not owe it to the memory of a dead statesman, the only First Minister of the Crown ever to be suspected of such serious crimes, to get at the truth of this grave matter and settle the doubts created by the disgraced Veale?

Stain on British justice

Lord Howell, who served in Sir Edwards government in the early 1970s, told peers: We have these foul-mouthed accusations from a totally unreliable source allowed to drift in the wind with no attempt to tidy up and bring closure to the whole situation.

Is this not a stain on British justice? Is it not up to the Government now to bring this matter to honest clarity?

However, Lord Butler, Sir Edwards former private secretary, suggested the allegations had been effectively resolved by the jailing of Beech and Mr Veales dismissal.

Facing repeated calls for an inquiry, Lord Sharpe insisted: The fact that it involved a former prime minister does not of itself warrant government intervention.

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.
CALABASAS, Calif. - Authorities are asking for the public's help identifying a car involved in an attempted grand theft auto and vehicle burglary in Calabasas.

It happened on Oct. 9 in the 24000 block of Calabasas Road, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

Authorities said a man got out of the passenger side of the Chevy Corvette and smashed the victim's driver side window, stole a removable roof panel, and tried to start that vehicle.

The getaway car was identified with Virginia license plate "Don't Tread on Me" reading "LOLGAS."

Anyone with information is asked to call LA Crime Stoppers at(800) 222-TIPS (8477).
Beware the Blob

On Wednesday, two cosmonauts on board the International Space Station popped outside to examine the site of a coolant leakbut had to dodge out of the way of a toxic bubble blocking their path.

The leak, which was first spotted earlier this month and was reported to not be immediately dangerous, came with some extra complications once the cosmonauts, Oleg Kononeko and Nikolai Chub, got a close-up look.

During the spacewalk, the pair encountered a "blob" of deadly ammonia coolant, Space.com reports, some of which contaminated one of Kononeko's tethers. To avoid spreading the dangerous substance in the station, he was forced to leave the tether outside  a treacherous situation to be in while floating in outer space.

Drilled Through

The ammonia blob wasn't entirely unexpected. After cutting off the radiator's supply of the coolant, the cosmonauts predicted that residual ammonia may have seeped out of the radiator's valves and pooled together. In response, they brought extra cloths to wipe off their suits should they come into contact with the coolant.

Beyond their unusual run-in, the cosmonauts also discovered unexplained holes riddling the radiator's panels.

"The holes have very even edges, like they've been drilled through," Kononeko told Moscow Mission Control, as quoted by Space.com. "There are lots of them. They are spread in a chaotic manner."

Leaky Segment

The Russian segment of the ISS has a peculiar history of unexpectedly sprung leaks.

In December last year, a Roscosmos Soyuz spacecraft docked to the ISS started uncontrollably spraying coolant into space.

Barely two months later in February, another Roscosmos spacecraft, dubbed Progress MS-21, also started leaking while docked to the Russian segment of the station, causing the vessel to depressurize in the process.

The incidents, both of which occurred near Russian radiators, were blamed on an "external impact" from a micrometeorite.

That's certainly a plausible explanation, but this latest leak  which came from yet another radiator, a backup attached to Russia's Nauka multipurpose laboratory module  adds to what some have argued is a suspicious amount of mechanical failures in such a short span.

Still, no official conclusion has been reached yet on what caused the October leak, so we'll have to see if Roscosmos will yet again chalk it up to external forces.

More on the ISS: NASA Swabbing Outside of Space Station to See If Stuff Is Growing on It
Republican gubernatorial nominee Attorney General Daniel Cameron is facing one of the nations most popular governors whos outraised and outspent him at every turn.

But many Kentucky political experts see a path to victory, and potentially some late-breaking momentum, for the Republican rising star against Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear . A Cameron win, many argue, would all but shut the door on Democrats in the halls of power in Frankfort any time soon.

Beshears campaign has vastly outspent Cameron on television advertisements this cycle, but Cameron has been buoyed somewhat by outside groups like Bluegrass Freedom Action, School Freedom Fund and more who have aired ads taking down Beshear and uplifting Cameron. Most all publicly available polls show Beshear up over Cameron, but many experts have warned against putting too much stock into polling the state.

So what needs to break Camerons way to surprise on election night? Can his campaign do anything in the final days to make up ground? And where in the state does he have to improve his margins?

The Herald-Leader reached out to more than a dozen people involved in Kentucky politics to get their perspective. Heres what they had to say when we asked these questions:

What is Daniel Camerons path to victory?

Sen. Phillip Wheeler, R-Pikeville: Improve Republican margins in the Golden Triangle and maintain elsewhere in the state.

Chris Kirkwood, Lexington, University of Kentucky political science Phd candidate & elections analyst: Winning the Lexington collar county region and all of the marginal Beshear counties from 2019.

Hannah Drake, Louisville, activist & writer: Daniel missed his path to victory when he chose his running mate. I do not know anything about his running mate, but Daniel Cameron would have done better, I believe, had he selected a woman as a running mate.

Rep. Daniel Grossberg, D-Louisville: A very high turnout from the non-urban areas, particularly the strongest pro-Trump areas in Eastern and Western Kentucky.

Andrew Cooperrider, Nicholasville, former GOP candidate for state Senate and treasurer: First, holding a rally with Trump in person could really help with turn out. Second, when asked why a person should vote for Cameron, well hes not Beshear cant be the number one answer if you are trying to get people to turn out and vote for you. This is a turnout election, not a win over voters election.

Larry Glover, Lexington, talk radio host: He needs a big GOP turnout. The GOP have more registered voters in Kentucky than the Democrats do now, and the Attorney General needs them to turn out.

House Majority Floor Leader Steven Rudy, R-Paducah: Rural social conservatives turn out.

Jazmin Smith, Louisville, attorney & co-host of Democratic show My Old Kentucky Podcast: Cameron can win if turnout is low in Louisville and he does well in Eastern and Western Kentucky. Bevin did not do well in Eastern Kentucky in comparison to Donald Trump, so if the Trump endorsement can help Daniel Cameron somewhere, it should theoretically be here.

Tres Watson, Lexington, former Republican Party of Kentucky spokesperson: He needs to win back Warren and Madison counties and Northern Kentucky, all of which Bevin lost in 2019. He also needs to turnout Trump voters in rural counties and run up margins there to counteract big Beshear margins in Louisville and Lexington.

Chris Wiest, Kenton County, Northern Kentucky attorney: Moderate women in purple areas of the state (who Daniel will both need to convince and then convince to turn out). He will also need to turn out votes in red and deep red areas of the state. Theres been a momentum shift over the past 4-7 days for Cameron; I dont think hes won it yet, but if momentum continues hes in a good place.

TJ Litafik, Lexington, Republican strategist: Cameron will need to outperform former governor Matt Bevins numbers in the Golden Triangle, snatch away some collar and college counties that Beshear won in 2019 and increase Republican margins in rural Eastern and Western Kentucky counties.

Al Cross, Frankfort, longtime Kentucky political journalist and observer: Gin up turnout in rural areas and make voters base the election as a referendum on Trump versus Biden.

Stephen Voss, Lexington, University of Kentucky political science professor: Voter engagement has been especially high around cities lately while lagging in small towns and rural areas. Camerons best hope for outperforming the polling is if Republican-leaning voters show up in much higher numbers than the pollsters have been anticipating. GOP territory would need to wake up.

What county or region must Cameron win?

Glover: I think he needs to surprise in Jefferson County. He cannot allow Gov. Beshear to put up a really big number Louisville. He needs to minimize the damage in Louisville as much as he can.

Wheeler: Eastern Kentucky.

Grossberg: Cameron will win Eastern and Western, but if he really runs up the score in Northern Kentucky, hes got it.

Rudy: West and East.

Rebecca Blankenship, Berea, Democratic State Central Executive Committee member & states first openly transgender elected official:: Madison County.

Jared Smith, lobbyist and Democratic political consultant: He has to keep the margin down in Jefferson County, win Northern Kentucky and hope that (lieutenant governor candidate Sen. Robby) Mills carries those same Western Kentucky coal counties that the Beshears have traditionally done well in.

Bill Bartleman, McCracken County commissioner and former Paducah Sun state correspondent: He must win big in the 1st and 2nd U.S. Congressional Districts to overcome margins in Louisville and Central Kentucky.

Robert Kahne, Kentucky Democratic Party State Central Executive Committee member & co-host of My Old Kentucky Podcast: He has to tamp down margins in Jefferson and Fayette counties and push out margins in Southeastern Kentucky  the traditionally GOP areas like Somerset, London and Corbin.

If Daniel Cameron wins, it will be because of this:

Grossberg: Culture war issues.

Wheeler: Kentucky is a state of traditional values.

Kahne: Kentuckians dont care much about state politics and Trumpism rules the day.

Rudy: He effectively paints Andy as a national Democrat.

Litafik: Voters wanted to punish Democrats and chose to lump in Gov. Beshear with President Biden and other national Democratic politicians. The red wave is very real, and it can sweep even the most popular and successful Democratic governor under the tide in a state like Kentucky.

Cross: Trump.

Voss: Cameron has little going for him aside from the dislike Kentucky voters feel toward the national Democratic Party. Campaigning is an educational process, and Cameron needs to figure out a way to remind voters why they usually prefer Republicans  which is tough to do right now.

Cooperrider: He was able to turn out and get enough Trump voters to vote for him, while being able to coordinate a great get out the vote campaign in the final days. Additionally it would mean many of the Republican (registered) voters came home to Cameron.

Bartleman: Hes an articulate new generation Republican who supports conservative issues and would work well with the legislature.

Wiest: Because he has convinced voters that Andy is a radical leftist, and because he sells voters that (he is) the rational, pro-family, candidate. Turnout is key, and turning out Republican voters is critical. There are Republican voters that, right now, Daniel hasnt sold, and he needs to close the deal between now and election day.

If Daniel Cameron loses, it will be because of this:

Wiest: It will be because the campaign failed to win purple areas, and, critically, failed to do what they needed to do in Northern Kentucky: unite fractured Republicans and then turn them out to vote.

Drake: First and foremost, it will be because of Breonna Taylor and his failure to seek any justice for her. We have not forgotten Breonna. Also, Daniel is not prepared well as a candidate. He isnt definitive even on things he says he believes. People like to know who they are voting for, and Daniel never takes a stand on anything with conviction.

Jared Smith: Cameron has run a terrible campaign. Since when have Republicans had problems raising money? Its also interesting that Kelly Craft and Ryan Quarles (the third and second-place finishers in the GOP primary, respectively) have been no-shows on the trail.

Wheeler: He was outspent.

Watson: Trump voters who have switched parties but have been voting for Beshears since the 1970s and have a comfort level with the name.

Litafik: This just was not Camerons race to win, and many voters had doubts as to his readiness for the job and his motivations for running for governor at this time. Kentuckians stuck with a governor (and a name) they knew, and they chose to differentiate a governors race from a federal campaign.

Kirkwood: Finances, a messy primary, Mills having written the sewer bill and being noncommittal overall.

Blankenship: Rather than speaking to voters needs and values, Camerons camp and his PACs have been sharing their most feverish dreams about LGBT people. The polls dont suggest its working  or that any but the most unhinged are even listening.

Cross: People made up their minds about Beshear and dont think the race is about national issues.

Grossberg: If he loses, its because he had no substantive message compared to Beshear or because he is Black and many voters of his party couldnt handle that.

Rudy: Too focused on social issues and didnt hit Andy enough on vulnerable topics.

Jazmin Smith: His inability to inspire. He ran a largely negative campaign against Beshear/Biden, but failed to bring anything exciting to the table. While Daniel Cameron once felt like a young, Republican rising star just four years ago in his Attorney General race, he seems to have lost his shine in this campaign.

What would a Daniel Cameron win say about Kentucky voters?

Rudy: The Democrat party of Kentucky is dead.

Grossberg: A Cameron win tells us that this is now a solidly red state, loyal to Trump more than to its own success.

Bartleman: They stick with party line votes and have confidence Cameron can work with the legislature to tackle issues.

Kahne: People think Andy Beshear and Joe Biden are the same.

Litafik: Outside of Louisville and Lexington, Democrats can pretty well forget about winning, at least for a long time. Republican dominance in Kentucky is complete, and even the stoutest incumbent Democratic governor cannot overcome the fervent partisanship that is now definitive of politics in the Commonwealth.

Jazmin Smith: Kentucky has become an increasingly red state where the party next to your name matters. Cameron has also focused on crime and an education plan centered around children falling behind in school and I think a Cameron win would show that voters are sensitive to that threat and that fear may influence how they vote.

Cooperrider: Beshear has campaigned the best someone could while still toeing the line to not upset the Democrat base. If he as an incumbent being as moderate in his messaging as he has been cant win in the rural south, that sends a message that the party is so far left that anyone who even puts a D next to their name is doomed.

Wheeler: That the GOP revolution in Kentucky is here to stay for at least a generation.

Glover: That the Democratic party message just isnt resonating with Kentuckians. The Kentucky Dems need to come up with an appealing message to help them become competitive in statewide races.

Cross: They have embraced the Republican label and dont care that much about race.

Voss: If Cameron wins despite consistently trailing in the polls, the main thing well learn about Kentucky voters is that they remain incredibly difficult to predict. Some conservatives finalize their decisions late in election season, and others refuse to cooperate with pollsters. If theyre numerous enough, we might be surprised.
Maines mass shooting suspect has reportedly shown signs of mental health challenges. Knowing this, could Wednesdays shooting spree have been avoided with certain legislation?

>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<

Florida adopted the Red Flag Law, while Maine adopted the Yellow Flag Law; a more lenient one.

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Both are ways to prevent mass shootings by people who have shown clear evidence of having mental instability. But, Maines Yellow Flag requires one extra step that Floridas Red Flag Law does not.

Maines mass shooter suspect, Robert Card, was an Army Reservist. He reportedly showed signs of erratic behavior over the summer.

Related Story: Lewiston shootings: At least 18 killed, 13 injured, Maine governor says

Action News Jax law and safety expert Dale Carson says the military would address those issues.

Certainly, if the military was aware of it, they would have an obligation to do something about it, Carson said.

Weeks after the Parkland shooting in 2018, Florida passed a Red Flag Law. It allows police to petition to a judge to decide if guns should be taken away from a person deemed a threat to themselves or others.

Carson says it starts with a civilian call to the police first, followed by a court hearing.

During that hearing, the evidence to suggest that someone shouldnt have access to a firearm has to be clear and convincing for the court to issue an order, Carson said.

Related Story: Floridas red flag law used nearly 9,000 times to date, 254 times in Duval

The Yellow Flag Law in Maine requires police to first get a doctor to evaluate the person before police can petition a judge. And after the judge gives the order, police can collect all the firearms in the persons possession.

So thats something that used properly, would prevent individuals who shouldnt have access to firearms, Carson said.

Now, police in Florida can also baker act people.

The Baker Act allows the government to put someone in 72 hours worth of care to determine whether or not they are a threat to themselves or neither, Carson said.

State representative Angie Nixon has been vocal about toughening gun laws. In a statement Nixon says in part, We need to look at stronger policy around guns. Period. It makes absolutely no sense that a man with a well-documented history of mental illness, that made multiple threats of violence should have access to military grade weapons.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement says the state has nearly 4,000 risk protection orders in place.

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The Red Flag Law has been used 285 times in Duval County between March 2018 to the end of 2022. During that same time frame, it was used 21 times in Nassau, 15 times in St. Johns, and five times in Clay.

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Embattled Sacramento City Councilman Sean Loloee now faces a federal investigation that he has not adequately paid the employees of his private grocery stores. His ability to serve out his term for another 13 months is in serious question, and his only public concern going forward should be the North Sacramento council district that desperately needs effective representation.

With primaries looming on March 5, Loloee has not yet announced if he is going to seek another term in office, but he shouldnt. Its time for him to do his council district and the broader city a favor by facing the serious charges against him with some shred of dignity. Someone whos the target of federal investigators should not be serving the interests of North Sacramento.

This cant happen soon enough.

As if the ever-mounting litany of investigations, police actions, verbally abusive tirades and morally dubious decisions on the dais werent enough, on Thursday, federal authorities from what appeared to be multiple agencies shut down several of Loloees Viva Supermarkets during an apparent raid. Federal agents simultaneously paid visits to two homes the Loloee family owns, in Hagginwood and Granite Bay.

Opinion

There have been guns and fights reported at the councilmans Hagginwood home, lawsuits from previous employees who allege he withheld their pay and violated child labor laws, and I, personally, bore witness to multiple verbal attacks by the councilman toward women who dared question him in public. At a local event in Natomas last year, he was caught on video verbally accosting and following a young woman whose mother was a part of an employee lawsuit against him several years ago.

Nor would this be the first time hed been in trouble on a federal level: Investigators have previously reported that he violated federal minimum wage, overtime compensation, record keeping and child labor laws. Another investigation three years ago found that he allegedly violated those laws again. A third investigation looked into allegations of coercion toward his employees.

What other Sacramento council member has garnered this much turmoil by his own hand in such a short period of time?

Loloee has been an ongoing, city-wide embarrassment to the position he holds, to the people of Sacramento and especially to the people of District 2. Whatever guard rails the city thinks it has to deal with a councilmember like Loloee have been completely ineffective.

We dont yet know if charges will be brought against the councilman, but know this: No one who is under federal investigation should hold responsibility for the citys budget, employees or laws.

By Thursday evening, the Sacramento Central Labor Council AFL-CIO had already publicly called for Loloees immediate resignation, in an open letter:

We believe that, given the gravity of these allegations, your persistent legal troubles, and their potential impact on the residents and workers of Sacramento, especially those in District 2, it is in the best interest of both your constituents and the principles of ethical governance that you immediately resign from your position as council member, the letter reads. This is a necessary step to maintain the integrity of public office and to prevent any further harm to the people you have sworn to represent. Well said.

The letter was signed by the labor councils executive director, Fabrizio Sasso, and it was sent to Mayor Darrell Steinberg and the other members of the Sacramento City Council.

This farce needs to end now. When  not if  it finally does, good riddance to a clown of a councilman who only ever proved he was unfit to serve.
Heres what happened at the latest status hearing for both the federal case against former KCKPD detective Roger Golubski, which involves allegations of rape and kidnapping, and the separate sex trafficking case against Golubski, drug kingpin Cecil Brooks and two other men: Nothing.

In fact, we seem to be even further away from setting a trial date than we were at the last such courtroom get-together more than a month ago. Justice is not soon going to be riding over the hill.

The summary put out by the court after the hearing put it this way: Parties request additional time. Again.

First, lets walk through the weeds that explain how the delay just keeps being extended, more than a year after Golubskis arrest in September of 2022. Then well talk about why that might be.

In January of this year, the prosecutorial team led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Hunting agreed to the defense teams subpoena of all documents related to Lamonte McIntyres civil case against the Unified Government of Wyandotte County, which the UG settled for $12.5 million in June.

McIntyre, of course, is the exoneree who served 23 years for a 1994 double murder that he did not commit. Golubski led that homicide investigation, such as it was, and was found to have coerced testimony against McIntyre, whose mother Golubski is accused of having sexually assaulted.

William Skepnek, an attorney for several Golubski victims who intend to file a civil suit against him and the UG, immediately objected to the release of the McIntyre documents, some of which contain private information about his clients, including social security numbers and medical records.

On March 14, U.S. District Judge Toby Crouse sustained Skepneks objection, and said the file could be released only after being redacted  stripped of that personal information.

Rug pulled out from under us

In the seven months since then, getting those documents redacted has supposedly been whats delayed the case.

Only, as Skepnek says, nothings been done to comply with the court-ordered redactions in all that time. What have you been doing for the last seven months? he wonders. Why wasnt this done in May? Or June? Or July?

At a hearing on Sept. 20, a defense attorney told the court that his team had found a vendor who was going to do the redactions. Crouse said to send him the bid and hed approve it right away.

But at Wednesdays hearing, on Oct. 25, another defense attorney said that vendor hadnt worked out after all: We had the rug pulled out from under us. They had found a different one, though, so maybe in 45 to 60 days they could all meet again?

Crouse said the state and defense teams should go ahead and work out a briefing schedule  dates that briefs in the case would be due  or else hed help them with that when they meet for another hearing on Nov. 21. I feel like Im playing a game of telephone, the judge said, in trying to move things along.

It should not be this difficult to accomplish something so simple.

The prosecution should be hurrying

Skepnek said that though hed never represent a Roger Golubski, if I were representing him, Id do exactly what his legal team is doing, which is to kick the can down the road. But the prosecution should be hurrying, especially with Golubski in such poor health that he was recently hospitalized.

Golubskis team wants the McIntyre file to see what information the state is going to use to show a pattern of prior bad acts of the kind that former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinsteins prosecutors showed at his rape trials.

The state is only going to bring in a limited number of such witnesses, though, rather than everyone mentioned in the civil case, so why havent the names of those people who will actually be called to testify already been provided to defense attorneys?

How hard is that? Skepnek asks. Its as complicated as the government wants to make it. The other acts evidence should have been winnowed a long time ago. When they indicted him 13 months ago, they had to know how theyd prove the case. This whole thing is a manufactured problem  a mountain that could have been turned into a couple of anthills.

It cant be more complicated or unwieldy than, say, the Georgia election case against Donald Trump and the 18 others who were originally indicted, and you dont see Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis slow-walking around the block.

So why the leisurely approach from federal prosecutors in this case?

Are WyCo Democratic politics at work?

I dare to hope that incompetence isnt behind this placid willingness to wait and then wait some more.

Some victims, who have themselves been patient for a long, long time, have come to believe that prosecutors are in no particular rush because they are simply waiting for Golubski to die. As they see it, the feds would rather run out the clock than convict a white ex-cop with powerful enablers for exploiting mostly poor Black women. I am not convinced of that, though I can certainly see why they are.

Others believe he will eventually be put on trial, if only because their former tormentor is really just pretending to be in poor health, in the same way that mobsters and other predators often start showing up with oxygen tanks and in wheelchairs as their trials approach. And I definitely dont see that, since the average mortality rate for end-stage renal disease, even with dialysis, is somewhere between 20% and 50% over two years time. The man is not in good shape.

What I cant help but conclude, though, is that if this case were for whatever reason more of a priority, prosecutors would not have spent seven months patiently waiting for some redactions.

Only they know why they have, and so far, they havent responded to my messages asking them to fill in the rest of us. But a lot of us do know how devastating it will be to a whole community if that doesnt change, and soon.
The detention of one of Ukraine's richest men, Ihor Kolomoisky, has been extended for another month, Kyiv's Shevchenkivskyi district court ruled on Oct. 27.

The term was due to expire on Nov. 2. The judge ruled that Kolomoisky will remain in pretrial detention until at least Dec. 2.

The judge also ordered that the detention center to organize a medical examination of Kolomoisky after his lawyer expressed concerns about client's deteriorating health.

Kolomoisky, one of Ukraine's most well-known business tycoons and billionaires, was arrested on Sept. 2 for fraud and money laundering related to his oil and gas holdings.

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) handed Kolomoisky additional criminal charges on Sept. 7, accusing him of embezzling $250 million from PrivatBank in 2015.

Following the new charge, the Shevchenkivskyi district court increased the oligarch's bail from Hr 509 million ($14 million) to Hr 3.89 billion ($106 million).

The prosecutor said this was in part due to the fact that the oligarch had lost his Ukrainian citizenship and is now a citizen of Israel, which creates a risk of him hiding abroad.

Kolomoisky used to control Ukrtatnafta, Ukraine's largest refining company until it was seized by the government in November, citing it as a critical national resource during martial law.

The company reportedly refused to pay Hr 3.2 billion ($90 million) in taxes last year.



He also owned over 40% of Ukrnafta, an oil and gas extractor, through multiple smaller companies in his orbit. The Ukrainian state seized this company as well last year.



In 2016, the government also nationalized PrivatBank, the country's largest bank - when Kolomoisky co-owned it, the bank's fraudulent activities left a $5.5 billion hole in its balance sheet.

The oligarch's business dealings through these companies careened from scandal to scandal over the previous decade.

Kolomoisky also faces various lawsuits and charges in the U.K., U.S., Israel, and Ukraine.

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
A woman accused of being a serial killer and the lone suspect in a series of four deaths had her first hearing on the charges against her postponed on Friday.

Rebecca Auborn, 33, had been scheduled to appear for an arraignment Friday afternoon in Franklin County Common Pleas Court. A hearing is now scheduled for 9 a.m. Monday, according to court records.

Prosecutors gave no reason for the postponement.

Auborn faces 28 total charges, including four counts of murder and four counts of involuntary manslaughter. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said Wednesday that Auborn had met the men for sex at hotels in northeast Columbus.

A map displays the locations in which a 33-year-old Columbus woman may have drugged and robbed men, potentially resulting in fatal overdoses. Rebecca Auborn was indicted Wednesday on charges related to five overdoses, four of which were fatal.

Auborn is accused of giving the men fentanyl, resulting in their overdoses. Four of them died, one survived. Auborn is then accused of taking the men's belongings and money.

The overdoses happened between Dec. 13 and June 17.

Court records from one of the cases, which was initially charged by police as a separate case but is included in a new indictment filed Wednesday, indicate that Auborn admitted to detectives that on March 31 she had put fentanyl in a male's crack pipe and knew he was overdosing when she left the hotel room with his belongings.

That man was found unresponsive and died.

The identities of the four men who died were redacted from the indictment provided to the Dispatch on Thursday by the Franklin County Prosecutor's office.

Columbus police and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation are continuing to look into overdose deaths and believe there may be other potential victims. The investigation is focused on the area bounded by Interstate 71, Ohio 161, Cleveland Avenue and East 17th Avenue.

Anyone with information is asked to call a dedicated Columbus police tip line at 614-645-2228.

bbruner@dispatch.com

@bethany_bruner

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Court hearing for accused serial killer Rebecca Auborn postponed
PROVIDENCE  A Cranston man has been sentenced to serve five years in prison for "violently assaulting" a 64-year-old man and his adult son when they intervened while the man was harassing his wife, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Neronha announced Thursday.

Willard Whiting, 50, who was on leave from his job as a Providence firefighter when he assaulted the two men five years ago, was sentenced on Oct. 12 to 15 years, with five years to serve at the Adult Correctional Institutions, Neronha said in a press release.

After a jury trial, Whiting was found guilty on July 6 of one count of felony assault resulting in serious bodily injury and one count of felony assault on a person over the age of 60, Neronha said.

On July 22, 2018, Whiting assaulted the father and son after the pair left their Cranston business to intervene when they heard Whiting screaming at his wife to get on his motorcycle as she walked on nearby Walnut Grove Avenue, Neronha said.

More: Providence firefighter on leave charged with attacking auto-body shop owner

When the men went over to check on the woman's well-being, Whiting got off his motorcycle and struck both men, knocking them to the ground, Neronha said. After they fell, Whiting continued assaulting the men before fleeing on his motorcycle, Neronha said.

When the police arrived they found the son bleeding profusely, the Cranston police said previously. Both men were taken by ambulance to Kent Hospital, where they were treated for their injuries. The younger man had injuries to his face and head that required surgery, according to Neronha.

The police were able to track down Whiting with the help of a witness who described the motorcycle, including its license plate number, Neronha said.

Whiting's employment with the Providence Fire Department was terminated in December 2018, a city spokesman said.

In addition to sentencing Whiting to serve five years in prison, Superior Court Judge Joseph A. Montalbano gave Whiting a 10-year suspended sentence with 15 years of probation, according to Neronha. Montalbano also ordered that Whiting have no contact with the victims and complete anger management counseling.

Neronha said, The severity of this sentence reflects the severity of the violence committed by the defendant. One of the victims needed intensive rehabilitation for his injuries and the other victim is over the age of 60, therefore making this a case of elder abuse. This sentence sends a strong message that this type of behavior will not be tolerated in Rhode Island."

Cranston Police Chief Col. Michael J. Winquist said, "The victims' injuries in this case were substantial, and in the case of one of the victims, permanent. This attack was completely unprovoked on citizens only seeking to help a motorist."

Winquist said he was grateful for the work of Cranston officers and detectives, as well as the attorney general's office.

Special Assistant Attorneys General Molly Kapstein Cote and Jillian Dubois and Cranston Detective Jonathan Nelson led the investigation and prosecution of the case, according to Neronha.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Willard Whiting sentenced to 5 years at ACI for 2018 assault
The MS Rotterdam, which has capacity for 2,000 passengers, arrived into Plymouth in April

Plymouth's tourism bosses say they have doubled cruise ship bookings for 2024 - bolstering the city's business prospects in the process.

Destination Plymouth has 18 ships booked compared to the nine which arrived in 2023, with seven lined up for 2025, it said.

Amanda Lumley, the group's chief executive, said it was a case of "consistently encouraging" cruise line bosses to dock in Plymouth sound.

Chris Warne, chairman of the Association of Barbican Businesses, said the extra business was a "bonus" amid "hard times".

A Holland America Line ship is due to return to Plymouth in 2024

He added: "We are attracting way more cruise liners and I know the diary is full for next year and our job as the Barbican Businesses is to portray the Barbican as, I've always said, the jewel in the crown of Plymouth.

"We try and make the Barbican as attractive, open and accessible as possible, we open extra hours.

"It's hard times at the moment so any extra business coming in is a bonus."

Tourists on cruises were expected to generate 2m for the local economy in 2023.

Ms Lumley said there would be some familiar cruise liners next year, with Holland America Line and Silversea already booked in.

She said they travelled to events across the world to speak to cruise liners, on-shore teams and agents to secure bookings.

Richard Allan, harbour master, said this cruise season had also been "very successful", with thousands of visitors coming into the city.

He added: "It's good to see our hard work is paying off."

Plymouth's tourism bosses had hosted cruise executives, he said, showing them the best of the city to encourage them to choose it as a destination.

He said the majority of the liners book "one, two or three years" in advance, although they also endeavour to be flexible, with one request coming in just nine hours before its arrival over the summer.

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SAN FRANCISCO - Cruise, the autonomous vehicle company that was suspended from operating in San Francisco this week, has now announced they are pausing driverless operations across all of its fleets in order to earn public trust.

The AV company has deployed fleets in San Francisco, Phoenix, Arizona and Austin and Houston, Texas. Now it appears those fleets have come to a halt.

On social media Cruise posted, "we have decided to proactively pause driverless operations across all of our fleets while we take time to examine our processes, systems, and tools and reflect on how we can better operate in a way that will earn public trust. This isn't related to any new on-road incidents, and supervised AV operations will continue."

A self-driving car operated by Cruise rides on 11th Street in San Francisco, Calif. on Friday, March 10, 2017. The Department of Motor Vehicles is announcing proposed regulations for testing and deploying self-driving cars on public roadways. (Photo By Paul Chinn/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)

On Tuesday, officials with California's Department of Motor Vehicles abruptly revoked the company's driverless permits effective immediately due to a risk to public safety. The DMV said Cruise's AVs were not safe for public operation.

Earlier this month, an AV from the company's fleet was involved in a hit-and-run collision in San Francisco, where a woman was struck by a driver who fled the scene. The female pedestrian was knocked into the AV's path and was dragged by the Cruise vehicle as it tried to maneuver to the side of the road, according to state investigators. Following the accident, Cruise shared footage with news outlets for their viewing purposes only. However, this week it was reported that Cruise failed to share the footage of the pedestrian being dragged with the DMV.

(3/3) This isn't related to any new on-road incidents, and supervised AV operations will continue.



We think its the right thing to do during a period when we need to be extra vigilant when it comes to risk, relentlessly focused on safety, & taking steps to rebuild public trust.  cruise (@Cruise) October 27, 2023

Cruise disputes that it withheld the video from the DMV.

The DMV maintains that Cruise misrepresented the safety of its fleet.

But the dragging of the pedestrian was just one high-profile incident.

Federal regulators had recently launched an investigation into Cruise because of possible deficiencies when it comes to pedestrian safety.

Cruise has been widely criticized by local politicians and top city officials, including San Francisco Fire Chief Jeanine Nicholson who said the AV fleet was, "not ready for prime time."

At the time, she was speaking to the California Public Utilities Commission when Cruise and Waymo, another AV company, were seeking regulatory approval to operate robotaxis in San Francisco last August. Both companies ended up gaining that approval. Waymo can still operate their robotaxi fleet, but for Cruise, that distinction was short-lived.

Nicholson had cited more than 50 examples of AVs disrupting the work of first responders and their emergency vehicles in an eight-month time period. The chief continued to criticize Cruise after they were approved by the CPUC. Over the summer, she said two Cruise vehicles hindered life-saving efforts in an emergency situation following a crash. The person who was struck later died from their injuries.

Mayor London Breed said this week that she embraces the technology as long as it is deployed responsibly. She didn't want to see the streets saturated with AVs if they're not necessarily ready.

The deployment of the AVs hasn't exactly been smooth. Activists notably figured out a simple-yet-effective way to manually disable the AV fleet of cars by placing traffic cones on their hoods. The group Safe Street Rebel claimed responsibility, saying they didn't want the streets of San Francisco and its population of pedestrians, cyclists and actual human drivers to be used as guinea pigs.

Cruise announced plans earlier this month to expand their driverless ridehail service to Japan by 2026 as part of a partnership with GM and Honda.

When their permit was revoked, Cruise said they "develop and deploy autonomous vehicles in an effort to save lives."
Activists were on Capitol Hill this week to urge support for Ukraine.

Insider attended a meeting between the activists and Sen. Markwayne Mullin, an Oklahoma Republican.

Mullin supports aid for Ukraine, but staff warned that calls from constituents have been "mixed."

WASHINGTON, DC  One activist came with photos of all that had been destroyed in the humanitarian catastrophe created by Russia's full-scale invasion. "This is in a village that had been occupied twice," she explained, showing the Republican staffer photos of a school that, "as you can see, has just been demolished."

"I can show you three more schools that look that bad or worse," she added. "The pictures don't even do it justice. I mean, it's unreal."

Another activist came with a reminder that Ukraine, though a victim, is capable of defending itself. He had a bookmark, handmade in Bucha  where occupying Russian forces are believed to have executed hundreds of civilians last year  but fashioned not out of paper but the plastic container used to hold one of the 155mm artillery shells that the United States has shipped to Ukraine since February 2022.

"It was fired during the summertime," he explained. "We were told to bring that stuff back and thank Americans."

The pair of activists  Paige Barrows, who fell in love with Ukraine while serving in the Peace Corps, returning a few months back to deliver humanitarian aid, and Ryan Meyer, who quit an office job in Oklahoma to spend most of the last year helping deliver supplies to front-line communities  were in Washington with hundreds of others for a summit aimed at bolstering support in both parties for providing the means for Kyiv to beat back the Russian invasion.

On the day of their meeting, the House of Representatives was still without a speaker, in part due to an internal GOP fight over Ukraine. A majority of Republican lawmakers are no longer so sure, at least publicly, that defending Kyiv from the Kremlin is in America's strategic interests.

On Tuesday, hundreds of pro-Ukraine activists , including a Ukrainian soldier using his vacation time , were on Capitol Hill to reverse that trend, urging lawmakers to support President Joe Biden 's proposal for an additional $60 billion in aid, much of it to replenish depleted US arms stockpiles, and other legislation aimed at undermining Russia's war effort.

One measure, which activists stressed in their meetings, would authorize the Biden administration to transfer the Kremlin's frozen assets to Ukraine, effectively answering a right-wing critique  "Why should we pay for this?"  by suggesting that Russia foot the bill for Ukraine's reconstruction.

Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, who the activists met with Tuesday afternoon, is about as conservative as they come, advocating a national ban on abortion and, in 2021 , citing false claims of voter fraud to justify throwing out electoral votes from some battleground states.

But unlike some louder voices in his party, including former President Donald Trump (who he endorsed earlier this year), Mullin has been a reliable supporter of Ukraine, something he didn't shy away from when campaigning last year against a pair of Republican primary opponents who were either skeptical or outright opposed to more aid. In September, Politico reported that Mullin also appeared to have convinced his Republican colleagues in the House, at least temporarily, not to hold up aid to Ukraine over other political concerns, namely the US-Mexico border.

A member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Mullin's support appears steadfast. The senator posed for a photo Tuesday with a Ukrainian flag and told activists at the meeting  attended by Insider  that he plans to visit the country again early next year.

Scenes of war and its devastation, the senator said, are not something one can soon forget.

"It's a different world," he said on Tuesday [TO THE ACTIVISTS? DURING THE MEETING?]. "When you see it and smell it, and you see just what humans are capable of doing, it takes away that innocence."

Constituents 'mixed' on more aid

Whether Mullin's constituents will remain on board, however, is another question. Republican lawmakers are responding to concerns expressed by Republican voters  the people who will ultimately decide their political future. A majority of them are telling pollsters that enough is enough.

"Mixed." That's how Jack A. Edwards, a legislative aide to Mullin, described the calls that the senator's office has been receiving about Ukraine in recent weeks. There's been support, opposition, and support but with concerns about oversight, he said. "Oklahoma's no different than the rest of the country there."

What helps, he continued, is visits from activists like Barrows and Meyer, who can share information gleaned from their own trips to Ukraine. Such anecdotes can better inform lawmakers about the reality on the ground  and how US support makes a difference  but also, those lawmakers can, in turn, better inform their voters and shape the narratives in conservative and mainstream media.

Kate Tremont, a pro-Ukraine activist who lives in Washington, told Insider that's something friends of the country will need to focus on going forward, especially as partisanship increases ahead of the 2024 election.

"It's human nature to feel separated from something so far away, and I think that's both a thing that works against us and a thing that we can use by finding ways to connect people," she said, speaking as a jazz ensemble played at a reception for activists at the Ukraine House, which works with the Ukrainian Embassy to promote the country's culture and interests in Washington.

When the conflict is so removed from one's life that it doesn't even seem real, Tremont said, it's easier to believe "propaganda on the internet." What she wants to see more of is initiatives pairing up regular Americans with regular Ukrainians, such as programs that allow English speakers to teach their language over Zoom to people living in a conflict zone. The more such connections people make, the fewer calls senators will receive urging them to cut Ukraine loose, or at least that's one of the hopes.

"Programs like that are really clever and creative ways to get people to get to know each other," she said. "We live in a world where you're no longer constrained by your neighborhood to make friends. You can make friends all over the world, and we aren't using that  and we need to use it."

Read the original article on Business Insider
In a sign of growing domestic equality, more new dads are claiming paid family leave to bond with their babies and support their partners during the first weeks of parenthood. In California, which has one of the nations oldest programs, men filed 44% of bonding claims last year, up from 31% a decade prior, according to state statistics.

About 119,300 California men took paid family leave for bonding in the states fiscal year that ended at the end of June, up by 19%, or nearly 20,000, from 2020, according to Californias Employment Development Department. The number of women taking state leave for bonding has held relatively steady at roughly 150,000 since 2019.

Not only are a new generation of fathers more likely to embrace taking time off to build a connection with their children, but more employers have normalized leaves for their male workers. Those attitudes, experts said, were strengthened during the pandemic, when many men worked from home as their children learned remotely or played nearby.

If you have a male co-worker who takes paternity leave, youre more likely to take paternity leave, said Maya Rossin-Slater, associate professor of health policy at Stanford University.

Moreover, research shows that when fathers take leave, mothers tend to have better health outcomes, with fewer hospitalizations for health complications and better mental health results, Rossin-Slater said. The effects on children, however, have yet to be adequately studied, she said.

Kevin Zapata, a 41-year-old Los Angeles-area marketing professional, became one of those fathers who took paid leave to bond with his baby when his daughter was born earlier this year. He said family leave gave him the time to adjust to life with a new child while helping his wife recover from giving birth.

Men are starting to realize that it makes a difference to be there, Zapata said. It doesnt hurt to be the one changing diapers, to be the one feeding the baby, to be the one helping mom out.

California generally provides up to eight weeks of paid family leave. New parents can receive 60% to 70% of their pay, depending on income. The average benefit in fiscal year 2022 was $806 a week. People giving birth can also receive up to 12 weeks of paid disability leave. The application form for paid leave asks new parents to select their gender.

Outside California, residents of most states have access by law only to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave. At least a dozen other states have approved paid family leave programs.

In at least some of those states, the number of men taking family leave is exploding. In New York, the number nearly doubled from 2018 to 2022. In New Jersey, it more than tripled from 2014 to 2021.

In 2005, during the early days of paid family leave in California, 83% of claims were filed by women and 17% by men. Since then, most of the growth in claims for leave has occurred among new fathers.

Californias data does not capture everyone who takes paid time off to care for a child. A growing number of employers now offer paid leave to workers as a benefit, outside the states program. That means a worker who receives a companys paid leave benefit would not be eligible for the state program.

Some of the states wealthiest counties, including Marin, Orange, and San Diego, include or are near several large employers with generous paid family leave programs and have relatively low rates of men taking part in the states paid leave program. The counties with the highest rates of leave claims filed by men per 100 births in early 2023 were in the Central Coast: Monterey, San Benito, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz.

Its unclear whether Californias trend will continue. The number of men taking leave peaked between July 2021 and June 2022 before tapering out last year.

Jenya Cassidy, director of the nonprofit California Work & Family Coalition, said Californias current benefits are too low to support many low-income families. A worker earning $3,000 a month would get about $416 a week in paid family leave benefits.

Its eight weeks paid at 60% of your gross income, Zapata said. It takes a hit on us. Thats why a lot of people around my age delay having families or dont even bother to family-plan because they know of the struggle that it can cause financially.

Still, a new law signed last year will allow paid leave to replace up to 90% of wages for low-income workers and up to 70% for others. The new rates take effect in 2025.

Nationwide, differences remain, both in terms of paid leave availability and in terms of mens attitudes toward taking leave. About 33% of men and 45% of women took paid bonding leave during the last decade after the birth of their first child, census figures show. Including unpaid leave, sick days, and vacation time, about 67% of first-time fathers took bonding leave after 2015, compared with 96% of first-time mothers. Women tend to take more weeks of leave.

Still, eight states have enacted paid family leave measures in the last six years. Advocates continue to push for federal paid family leave. President Joe Biden has repeatedly proposed funding paid family leave. Then-President Donald Trump endorsed a paid family leave measure in 2020 that would have let new parents collect on future child tax credits.

We would like as much as possible for California to be a model, Cassidy said.

KFF Health News, formerly known as Kaiser Health News, is a nonprofit news service covering health issues. It is an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs speaks before President Joe Biden gave a speech on democracy on Sept. 28, 2023, at the Tempe Center for the Arts. Biden announced the creation of the John McCain Library in Arizona.

Even Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs doesn't know who paid for her around-the-clock private security guard last year, when she was facing threats for defending the 2020 election while secretary of state and was a candidate for governor.

But after questions from The Arizona Republic about the lack of transparency in that arrangement, the governor this month asked the third party that paid for the security presence to disclose the source of its funding.

Every Eligible American previously confirmed it paid for Hobbs to have a security guard by her side. The group is an affiliate of the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State.

It is what's often known as a dark money group. That's because organizations like Every Eligible American, created as social welfare nonprofits under the Internal Revenue Service code, generally have no legal obligation to disclose donors.

But some opt to reveal the individuals and other groups that contribute to their coffers to provide transparency, while others do so under public pressure. Last year, a decisive 72% of Arizona voters approved a law requiring those groups to reveal some of their donors when they participate in political races.

Hobbs, as a candidate for governor, pledged transparency for dark money and to build "the most ethical and accountable administration in history."

Hobbs this month said "sure" when asked if she would request Every Eligible American to disclose who paid. Two weeks later, her spokesperson, Christian Slater, confirmed "the ask has been made" via phone call. Slater would not provide more details, including information about who made the call or when.

Arizona politics: Katie Hobbs' campaign security guard now heads Governor's Office of Highway Safety

It is unclear if Every Eligible American will grant the governor's request. Every Eligible American spokesman David Corbin and the head of the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State did not respond Friday to messages seeking comment and requesting donor information.

The governor distanced herself from her former office's decision to allow a private third party to pay for J.M. "Jesse" Torrez, a former Department of Public Safety officer, to protect Hobbs in her official duties as secretary of state and as she campaigned for governor.

At the time, Hobbs built a national profile defending the state's 2020 presidential election in the face of false claims from former President Donald Trump after his loss to Democrat Joe Biden. With that mantle came threats to Hobbs and her family, and protests at her home. Multiple people were prosecuted for threats made to Hobbs.

"I wasn't part of that arrangement, so I don't know how that came about," Hobbs said of her security. "I don't know who paid for those services either. I just know that I was threatened in my role as secretary of state, we felt we needed security, and it was set up that way."

Asked who set it up, Hobbs said: "My office." She defended that decision as "within the construct of the laws that are in place, and I don't have any qualms about that."

Hobbs earlier this year named Torrez to a six-figure job leading a state agency that provides grants for public safety departments around the state.

Republican lawmaker ponders transparency expansion

Republican lawmaker TJ Shope, of Coolidge, doesn't have qualms about protecting public officials, especially given the extreme polarization of politics in recent years.

But Shope thinks the public should be able to see who paid for Hobbs' private security, since Torrez was by Hobbs' side at both official and campaign events.

Shope said he's continuing to research whether lawmakers need to change state law to make it clear such information should be reported publicly by candidates. Candidates for office are required to file public reports about their fundraising, goods or services provided to them, and spending. The information gives the public a lens into who is trying to influence an election. Knowing the sources of funding can provide accountability for potential influence peddling.

Part of the review, Shope said, was looking at the reach of last year's ballot measure requiring more transparency of dark money spending.

Shope asked if Hobbs' arrangement "wasn't covered under the law, and the voters have just passed this massive shine-the-light type of thing on campaign finance, is that something that we should include?"

Reach reporter Stacey Barchenger at stacey.barchenger@arizonarepublic.com or 480-416-5669.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Katie Hobbs asks dark money group to disclose donors
Hey, everyone! Drew here. TGIF!

Lets get straight to the news.

Dave Chappelle, pictured here in a promotional photo for one of his 2017 Netflix comedy specials, performed at Spectrum Center in Charlotte on Thursday night. A Charlotte Observer request to photograph his show here was denied.

Last night, comedian Dave Chappelle told the crowd at the Spectrum Center he came close to getting canceled  by himself.

It had nothing to do with Israel, or Palestine, or the controversial comments he made about the intensifying Middle Eastern conflict a week ago in Boston.

Read Theoden Janes review of Chappelles show from last night for the full story.

Charlotte Pipe and Foundry property near the intersection of S. Clarkson Street and W. Morehead St. near Bank of America Stadium. The company was offered $35 million by local governments in Stanly County to move its plant there from uptown Charlotte.

In case you missed this story from yesterday, Charlotte Pipe and Foundry opened a new plant just east of Mecklenburg County.

One of Charlottes oldest businesses celebrated the opening of a $460M facility yesterday in Oakboro. The companys former 55-acre plant in uptown near Bank of America Stadium has long been considered a potential site for a new stadium for the Carolina Panthers.

Chase Jordan with more.

Kristin Cubbage, a teacher at Ashley Park K-8 School in Charlotte, was one of the teachers taking part in the Opportunity Culture program in this 2015 file photo. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has won a federal grant to expand the Opportunity Culture program into more schools.

North Carolina schools, including those in Mecklenburg County, have won $24 million in federal grant money.

The funds will be used in strategies such as performance pay to address teacher shortages. Performance pay is controversial because some teachers say it leads to competition instead of collaboration. But supporters say it rewards effective teachers.

T. Keung Hui reports.

4. 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.
David Fincher has argued that he is not responsible for toxic men obsessing about his 1999 drama Fight Club.

The 61-year-old filmmaker, who is also known for directing films such as Se7en (1995) and The Social Network (2010), reflected on the movies legacy in an interview with The Guardian.

Fight Club starred Brad Pitt and Edward Norton, and focused on a socially frustrated man who starts a underground fighting club, which gradually morphs into an anti-capitalist terrorist cell.

The interview notes that the film has become a key text for a number of male extremist groups, including incels, male supremacists and neo-nazi groups.

An incel  a portmanteau of the words involuntary and celibate  are typically straight men who wish to, but do not, have sexual relationships with women. Incels typically blame their lack of sexual relationships on societal structures, women, and the men women do have sexual relationships with.

Im not responsible for how people interpret things, said Fincher, when asked about this. Language evolves. Symbols evolve.

After the interviewer suggested that the film had nonetheless become a touchstone for the far right, Fincher responded: OK, fine. Its one of many touchstones in their lexicography.

We didnt make it for them, but people will see what theyre going to see in a Norman Rockwell painting, or [Pablo Picassos] Guernica.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo filmmaker continued: Its impossible for me to imagine that people dont understand that [Brad Pitts Fight Club character] Tyler Durden is a negative influence. People who cant understand that, I dont know how to respond and I dont know how to help them.

Although Fight Club has been embraced by the alt right, the film is widely interpreted as a critique of toxic masculinity.

Finchers latest film, The Killer, starring Michael Fassbender, is released on Netflix next month following a short theatrical run.

Brad Pitt in Fight Club' (Fox)

Elsewhere in the interview, Fincher recalled his pitch for a Spider-Man adaptation, which was vetoed by studio executives.

The premise would have seen Peter Parker (ultimately played by Tobey Maguire in Sam Raimis trilogy) as an adult, skipping over the radioactive spider origin story.

They werent f***ing interested, Fincher said. And I get it. They were like: Why would you want to eviscerate the origin story?

And I was like: Cos its dumb? That origin story means a lot of things to a lot of people, but I looked at it and I was like: A red and blue spider? Theres a lot of things I can do in my life and thats just not one of them.

The Killer is in UK and US cinemas from 27 October and on Netflix from 10 November.
Leer en espanol

Known for its colorful altars decorated with papel picado, pan de muerto, sugar skulls, yellow marigold flowers and candles, el Dia de Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is a Mexican celebration that has transcended borders, has survived the passage of time and has undergone transformations to continues to serve the memory of lost loved ones in the Latino community.

Among the changes that Dia de Muertos has experienced is the practice of honoring pets on Oct. 27 by including their photographs on ofrendas, where water, kibbles, their favorite snacks and even their favorite toys are placed.

Such is the case of the operations manager at The Arizona Pet Project, Michele Soto, who, together with her mother, decided to celebrate the Day of the Dead by building a community altar for pets.

"It's really about pets being part of your family," Soto said. "You love them when you meet them, you love them when they're in your life  just like your family  and you love them when they're gone."

Founded nine years ago, the organization offers services throughout the state of Arizona to help people continue to care for their pets and prevent them from ending up being adopted out.

A Dia De Los Muertos altar for pets is displayed at the Arizona Pet Project in Phoenix on Oct. 25, 2023.

For two years now, Soto has invited the Phoenix community to honor her deceased furry friends by placing her photograph on the Day of the Dead ofrenda in the south Phoenix office, off Baseline Road and Central Avenue.

Her mother makes the decorations by hand at her house and then takes them to the center so Soto and other volunteers can help her put together the offering.

"I really believe that the altar, the Day (of the Dead) and the time to celebrate it, makes the feeling of joy much stronger than that of sadness," Soto said. "You're sad and you have your moments, but you're so much more grateful that you had them."

Remembering lost furry loved ones

Soto lost her 14-year-old cat named Henry in March and seeing his photograph and his favorite toys on the small altar she built for him in his favorite space in her house has helped her overcome the pain that his death caused her.

She said this celebration helps people process their grief after losing someone and that the vibrant colors associated with the altar help people not fear death because it is a natural part of life.

A Dia De Los Muertos altar for pets is displayed at the Arizona Pet Project in Phoenix on Oct. 25, 2023.

According to Soto, building altars each year for the deceased is a generational and historical defense mechanism instilled in her as part of her culture. Including her pets in this tradition happened organically since she has always considered them as part of her family.

Last year they put a photograph of her mother's pet, a cat named Esperanza (Espi), on the office altar for the first time, since she had died from an illness. In the last years of her life, Espi became Soto's grandmother's best friend as they talked and even watched television together.

Soto said it was interesting to see her grandmother, a 97-year-old woman, experience having a pet for the first time, since when she was a child her family never had pets inside the house.

Soto also said that having a pet is a different experience for people who belong to different generations and cultures.

"Nothing makes my heart happier than seeing someone walk their dog. I find it very cute," Soto said. "But growing up, we didn't walk our dogs on leashes, they would just run around and then come home."

A Dia De Los Muertos altar for pets is displayed at the Arizona Pet Project in Phoenix on Oct. 25, 2023.

Dia de Muertos, a generational celebration brought to the US

Soto shared that growing up she celebrated the Day of the Dead by making altars with long white candles in her home but that her main memories are of the days she spent in the cemetery with her family.

Soto said it was like having a picnic in the cemetery, since after cleaning the graves of her deceased relatives, everyone would start eating while listening to live music and talking.

Historically, this has been the way people celebrated the Day of the Dead on Nov. 1, known as All Saints' Day, and Nov. 2, known as All Souls' Day, according to the Catholic calendar.

These characteristic practices of the Day of the Dead were carried out in private in the U.S., but it was thanks to the Chicano Movement that the Day of the Dead celebrations were brought to the public sphere, according to the professor of the Department of Latino and Caribbean Studies at Rutgers University, Regina Marchi.

Inspired by Indigenous and pre-Hispanic rituals more than 3,000 years old, activists and artists participating in the Chicano Movement organized the first public exhibitions of the Dia de Muertos in 1972 at the Self Help Graphics & Art gallery located in Los Angeles, California and at La Raza Gallery located in San Francisco, California.

"Part of the Chicano movement was highlighting Mexican traditions and celebrating them with pride in a way that had not been done before," Marchi said. "There was a big movement to embrace multiculturalism and be proud of your roots instead of trying to assimilate and hide your family history."

In addition to promoting Day of the Dead parades, Chicanos were also the first to politicize altars by dedicating them to people who died as victims of domestic violence, workplace abuse and environmental issues, Marchi said.

As the format of altars expanded, people began to consider including their pets, according to Marchi, who is also the author of the book Day of the Dead in the United States: The Migration and Transformation of a Cultural Phenomenon, where she compiled his observations and conversations about the celebration of the Day of the Dead in the United States, Mexico and other Central American countries.

As this celebration has gained popularity outside of Mexico, thanks to the 2017 film Coco, Marchi began to observe changes in the altars and public displays that people make to celebrate the Day of the Dead.

Among them is the inclusion of figures of the Xoloitzcuintle  a type of dog native to Mexico that has no hair  since it was the companion of Miguel, the main character of the Coco film.

The Xoloitzcuintle was included in the story thanks to the creators of the Coco film consulting with Chicano and Latino artists, who considered this dog an inherent part of the iconic celebration due to its relationship with Aztec culture.

According to Marchi, remains of bones of the Xoloitzcuintle have been found along with remains of bones of people in Aztec ruins since these dogs were buried with their owners to be together in the other world.

With the arrival of the Spanish, who liked to eat Xoloitzcuintle meat, and the impact of colonization, this dog almost became extinct, and it was thanks to initiatives to keep the Xoloitzcuintle alive during the 1950s that the breed remains alive.

"It is true that this dog (the Xoloitzcuintle) has a history that goes back thousands of years in the Aztec culture," Marchi said. "However, people sometimes like to think of things as a straight line, where this has been an unbroken line of our culture, but in fact when you do that, you are erasing difficulties, such as the impact of colonization on "the cultures, the destruction, and the near extinction of certain practices and the struggles to revive them in trying to bring them back and make them stronger."

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Theres a special day for pets during Dia de los Muertos. What to know
The State Bureau of Investigation (DBR) is conducting searches at a Kyiv thermal power plant's premises in relation to suspected theft of funds, which were allocated for the station's repairs, the DBR reported on Oct. 27.

The Bureau said it has information suggesting that a company contracted last year to repair damages at the plant caused by Russian attacks never carried out the work despite receiving payment for it.

The DBR is carrying out searches at the plant's administrative buildings to review documentation related to the supposed repair works, their results, and documents proving the admission of the contractor's employees to the plant.

The organization contracted for the repair works is also under investigation by the DBR.

Join our community Support independent journalism in Ukraine. Join us in this fight. Support us

The Kyiv City Military Administration raised complaints about the searches earlier on Oct. 27, claiming that access to critical energy facilities is restricted under martial law.

City authorities accused the DBR of safety violations during the search, namely recording videos of the facility.

The DBR responded that the searches are being "carried out in strict compliance with the recommendations of services that ensure the safety of strategic objects."

The plant is managed by KyivTeploEnergo, the capital's municipal enterprise.

Read also: Opinion: Are Ukraines anti-corruption efforts at a standstill?

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Fugitive Christopher Haynes is back in police custody after escaping from a Washington, DC, hospital in September, the Metropolitan Police Department said Thursday.

US Marshals captured Haynes, 30, in Oxon Hill, Maryland, and returned him to the departments Homicide Branch, where he will be charged with the escape and August 12 murder of Brent Hayward, police said in a statement.

Christopher Haynes was captured by authorities after nearly two months on the run. - D.C. Metropolitan Police Department

After his initial arrest on September 6, Haynes complained of ankle pain and was taken to George Washington University Hospital for evaluation, according to DC Police.

As an officer was adjusting Haynes handcuffs to fasten one of his hands to a gurney, the suspect physically assaulted the officer and fled the hospital, outrunning the two officers who chased after him, police said.

The escape triggered a multi-agency search for Haynes and prompted some temporary, precautionary road closures around the White House as well as a temporary shelter in place order across the George Washington University campus. Investigators also offered $30,000 for information leading to his arrest.

Some seven weeks later, police have their suspect again. In their release, DC Police said finding Christopher Haynes remained a top priority for the Metropolitan Police Department.

The department said it worked closely with local and federal partners to bring Haynes to justice, and expressed gratitude to community members who provided information about his whereabouts.

CNN has reached out to the US Marshals Service for further information.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
Humanitarian crisis in Gaza at unprecedented level: UN

Xinhua) 08:16, October 26, 2023

Palestinians walk amid the rubble of destroyed buildings after Israeli airstrikes in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, Oct. 25, 2023. (Photo by Yasser Qudih/Xinhua)

The number of internally displaced people is now estimated at more than 1.4 million, including nearly 590,000 people sheltering in UNRWA-designated shelters.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Wednesday that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has reached an unprecedented point.

The UN Agency for Palestine Refugees, or UNRWA, which is by far the largest humanitarian provider in Gaza, warned that the agency will be forced to halt all operations by Wednesday night unless fuel is allowed into Gaza immediately.

Hospitals are shutting down as they lack fuel, water, medical supplies and personnel. Fuel is being severely rationed for a select number of critical facilities. The backup generators are not designed for continuous operation and could break, said OCHA.

UN personnel visited hospitals on Tuesday. In one hospital, they noted hundreds of wounded men, women and children. Many of them were unconscious, with open wounds - lying on beds, stretchers and on the floor - with limited medical attendance. In the yard, there was a tent with tens of dead bodies, including children. Many of the dead are kept there because the morgues are full, it said.

A Palestinian boy walks amid the rubble of destroyed buildings after Israeli airstrikes in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, Oct. 25, 2023. (Photo by Yasser Qudih/Xinhua)

Food stocks are running out. The World Food Programme estimates that current supplies of essential food in Gaza are sufficient for about 12 days. However, at shops, the available stock is expected to last for only five days, said OCHA.

People are resorting to drinking well water, which is extremely high in salt and poses immediate health risks. Health partners have also detected cases of chickenpox, scabies and diarrhea due to poor sanitation conditions and consumption of water from unsafe sources, it said.

The number of internally displaced people is now estimated at more than 1.4 million, including nearly 590,000 people sheltering in UNRWA-designated shelters. More than 15 percent of the displaced are estimated to have disabilities, yet most shelters are not adequately equipped for their needs, it said.

Local authorities report that more than 40 percent of all housing units in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed or damaged, said OCHA.

(Web editor: Tian Yi, Liang Jun)
In the three weeks since war began between Israel and Hamas, social media has been taken over with images and stories of attacks, many of which proved false. For example, within hours of Hamas' surprise attack on Oct. 7, 2023, screen grabs from a popular video game were shared by thousands of social media users as if depicting real scenes of violence against Israeli troops in Gaza. Over the past decade, international commissions and tribunals working to mediate conflicts in Syria, Myanmar, Ukraine and elsewhere have struggled to verify the large amount of digital evidence.

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Wildly successful in business, and the first Democrat to represent his congressional district in 60 years, its not surprising that Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) fancies himself as a potential president.

Hes got a healthy ego, and hes jumping into the Democratic primaries at a critical juncture when time is running out to challenge President Joe Bidens reelection. He can read the polls and see voters saying over and over how much they wish there was another choice than is currently offered. At age 54, having enhanced the Phillips name and family legacy in Minnesota, he is ready for a bigger platform.

Bidens Primary Challenger Was Once a No-Chill Biden Fan Boy

If he handles his 15 minutes of fame well, he gains name recognition and positions himself to run for the Senate or for governor (because theres essentially no chance hed beat Biden). Perhaps, as a consolation prize, his candidacy draws other Democrats into the field and he can take credit for a sitting president having to sweat out winning his own partys primary.

In other words, he says its all about Biden, but its really all about him.

Phillips has convinced himself that hes doing his party and the country a favor by focusing solely on the elephant in the room, Bidens age. He doesnt have any known policy differences with Biden. He says Biden has done a spectacular job. He votes with Bidens policy positions 100 percent of the time.

To Democrats who are onboard with clearing the field for Biden, Phillips late entry is baffling, says Jim Kessler with Third Way, a centrist Democrat group. [Phillips] is a measured, intelligent person, but his judgment is way off on this.

Heres Why Mike Johnson Is More Dangerous Than Donald Trump

Hes already missed the filing deadline in Nevada, a key early state. Then its on to South Carolina, where hell get pasted, thanks in large part to Bidens support from the Black community there. Then Phillips will get swamped in Michiganand then his quixotic campaign is over, Kessler says.

My guess is he will not win enough delegates to fill a Greyhound bus, says Kessler. There are 4,000 delegatescould he get 70? Maybebecause Democrats award delegates proportionally to any candidate that can get 15 percent of the vote in a given primary.

Filing his papers in New Hampshire, Phillips was asked about Texas billionaire Harlan Crows donation to his congressional campaign in 2019. He said he doesnt recall ever meeting Crow, then launched into his passion for campaign finance reform, saying money in politics is destroying this country. He says hes the only member of Congress who takes no PAC money and no money from lobbyists. (Will he self-fund his presidential campaign?)

Bidens New Challenger Doesnt Remember GOP Megadonor Cash

Biden wont be on the ballot in New Hampshire because of the Democratic Partys fight with the state over moving its primary. The Partys rule change no longer recognizes New Hampshire as the first-in-the-nation primary, awarding that distinction to South Carolina. But New Hampshire Democrats seem intent on going ahead and holding their primary early and, as a result, no delegates will be awarded from the Granite Stateturning it into a beauty contest between spiritualist Marianne Williamson, progressive talk show host Cenk Ughur, and now Phillips on the ballot.

Pointless, says Kessler, a bandwagon with nobody on it.

There is more going on than the surface battle. Phillips is reinforcing the Republican talking point that Biden is too feeble for the country to commit to him for another four years. However many Democrats dismiss Phillips challenge, he is touching a nerve among some other Dems, as well.

Biden has a strong legislative record that rivals his 20th century predecessors. He has stabilized the economy after the COVID pandemic with a robust growth rate and job creation, yet his poll numbers remain stubbornly low, a reflection some analysts believe is tied to the concerns about his age and ability to do the job for another four years.

There is no practical way at this late stage for the Democrats to switch out Biden, or Kamala Harris for that matter, whose poll numbers are lower than Bidens.

Kamala Harris Shouldnt Worry About Getting Dumped as Vice President

It would have to be Bidens decision, and that decision is in the hands of the people closest to himhis wife, Jill, and his sister, Valerie, who has run all his campaigns.

Assuming he sticks by his decision to stand for reelection, hes going to have to face up to the concerns that voters have about his age. Its not unlike challenges that previous presidents have faced when a problem poses an existential threat to their viability as a candidate.

John F. Kennedy spoke to Southern Baptist pastors in Sept. 1960 to ease their worries about a Catholic president who might be beholden to the Pope. Barack Obama gave one of the most moving speeches of his career in Philadelphia in 2008 distancing himself from Reverend Wrights God Damn America sermon.

Joking about itor even flying into war zonesis not going to fix Bidens problem. With or without Dean Phillips in the race, Joe Biden will have to address the underlying concern about his age and his ability to withstand the rigors of the presidencyand his ability to again vanquish his likely opponent.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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The News

CONCORD, N.H.  Dean Phillips entered the New Hampshire primary with six hours and 22 minutes to spare, surrounded by reporters, joking when he could.

Asked for the $1000 filing fee, he said hed brought small coins. Asked why  seriously, though  he was waging a challenge to President Joe Biden , he said he was there to celebrate a man of extraordinary empathy, by retiring him.

Im the underdog, Im the longshot, Im at a massive disadvantage, and thats why I love our country, he told the crowd in the secretary of states office, as the Dean campaign bus and his vintage Government Repair Truck waited outside. The slogan Make America Affordable Again, briefly wrapped on the bus, had been removed; the candidate didnt like the MAGA echo, and wanted to stay positive.

My message isnt age, he added. I work with 80-year olds who are plenty competent.

Moments later, he remarked on just how long Biden had been around: I think I was three years old when he became a United States senator.

Phillips entered the race after pleading with better-known Democrats to read the polls and offer themselves up as a Biden alternative. When none did, he and anti-Trump ex-GOP strategist Steve Schmidt put together a New Hampshire-focused campaign  119 town halls, endless access, no question out of bounds, and a first-day promise to put the state back in front of the Democratic calendar.

Im a Democrat who believes in tradition, Phillips told NHJournal reporter Michael Graham.

The first hour of the campaign was light on policy  especially policy that separated Phillips from the president. Asked if hed do anything differently than Biden in Gaza, he demurred: I think this would be a terribly inappropriate time to comment, he said, during the war. In remarks outside the state house, and to reporters inside, he said hed secure the southern border and push back against anyone who said it was a race-baiting topic.

For someone to accuse those who care about border security of being racist  I think those people are being inhumane, he said, promising to represent the exhausted majority and open the White House to ordinary people.

Gathered to meet Phillips outside was a small group of voters  around two dozen, outnumbered by reporters, cameras, and the Dean Team Road Crew that blasted Shake It Off and Dont Stop Believin from a sound system and offered coffee from the government repair truck. The voters whod come out for the show were overwhelmingly Democrats who agreed with the congressmans tricky pitch: that Joe Biden was terrific, and had to go.

I think Bidens health is in serious question, said Laura Miller, 58, who voted for Biden in both the 2020 election and primary. The potential for a Trump-Biden rematch made her scared to death. She knew nothing about Phillips, so she showed up.

Davids view

If you looked at polling on Friday  or, really, any day this year  the Phillips pitch was compelling. Democratic primary voters worry about nominating the president again. They want an alternative, preferably one born after the end of World War II.

This weeks Gallup update found Bidens approval rating among Democrats at 75%, the lowest level of his presidency, as left-leaning critics of Israel denounce him. The 2020 Biden coalition has already fractured, and in New Hampshire, where Biden ran fifth in the last primary and the party has since gone through a fight over ending its first-in-the-nation status, it wasnt that robust to start with.

Few Democratic strategists wanted to work on Phillips race  at best they win the upset of the century, at worst theyre blamed for weakening the president  and when the Congressman cast around for staff, he pulled from a grassroots group, Step Aside Joe, that spent all year trying to find a Biden challenger.

It can be done, Step Aside Joe organizer Norman Solomon told Semafor. A Democrat in Congress can have the courage to engage in a democratic process known as a primary campaign for the partys presidential nomination.

Right: Phillips is running because no other Democrat with an elected office wanted to do this. The contempt I found for the Minnesotan all week was remarkable. Minnesota Democrats think hes embarrassing himself; Black Democrats think hes insulting them; strategists who worked on the partys House campaigns think hes glib and vainglorious.

Theres absolutely no desire for this to happen, said Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. I like Dean. I think hes a good member of Congress. I dont understand why hes doing this. Its a short-term non-story.

Phillips missed the filing deadline for Nevadas primary, and representatives for the Iowa and South Carolina parties said that he had never reached out at all. New Hampshire offered any Biden challenger the best shot at an upset, because the presidents skipping it and not on the ballot  his supporters plan to write him in  and reporters wont ignore the results just because the Democratic National Committee isnt counting their delegates for breaking with their new calendar.

This weekend, Florida Democrats will hold their quadrennial convention and lay out their presidential ballot. Phillips, according to party chair Nikki Fried, had never contacted the party about getting on; Christale Spain, the chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party, said that Phillips chose to disregard the most racially diverse early primary state in favor of competing in a state that will offer zero delegates.

That, said Spain, was saying the quiet part out loud about Phillips potential constituency. Hes an unserious candidate who doesnt appear to care about what our majority Black Democratic electorate has to say.

Long before this, Phillips had annoyed other Democrats by criticizing its strategy to tie Republicans to their most radical members. In 2021, he was among the Problem Solvers who broke the bipartisan infrastructure act from Build Back Better; in 2022, when the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spent to help a MAGA candidate primary defeat Michigan Rep. Peter Meijer, whod voted to impeach Trump, Phillips called it dishonorable and dangerous.

Its never been about the Democratic Party or the larger mission, said Tim Persico, the executive director for the DCCC in that cycle. Its always been about Dean Phillips.

In the run-up to this decision, Phillips wasnt very specific about where he parted with Biden; he launched the campaign with no platform. Is that a problem? The Democrats who dont want Biden to run for ideological reasons are vastly outnumbered by the ones who think hes simply too old to do this again.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.s approach to New Hampshire was to seek out independents and conservatives who might cross over, emphasizing his most anti-left views  an absolute disaster that tanked his numbers with Democrats and convinced him to leave the party. The test for Biden this time will be how he looks against a relatively like-minded challenger who just happens to be more than a quarter-century younger.

The View From Other Primary Challengers

The two other Democrats running against Biden welcomed Phillips into the race, agreeing with his premise that a new nominee would probably out-perform the president.

Im pretty sure Ill remain the Democrats best bet to defeat Donald Trump in 2024, but I welcome Dean Phillips into the mix so voters can hash that out for themselves, Marianne Williamson told Semafor. Democracy is a good thing, and anyone who feels moved to run should run. The American people should hear from any candidate with credible ideas on how to defeat fascism, end a chapter of our history riddled with economic injustice, and begin a new era of possibility for the average American.

Cenk Uygur said he was very happy to see Phillips enter the race, and hoped that a dozen Democratic governors follow him. Hed told Semafor last week that he wanted to win  and, in the process, set a precedent that naturalized citizens could run for president  but expected to see more Democrats enter the race if he got traction.

Mr. 37% has got to be tested in the primaries before Democratic voters become convinced hes our strongest fighter, said Uygur, referring to the Gallup poll. And come on, does anyone believe that? So, would Dean Phillips do better than Biden against Trump? Who wouldnt?

Notable

For ABC News, Brittany Shepherd surveys the Black Democrats who find the Phillips campaign insulting; Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson called it divisive and disrespectful to a large population and support base for the Democratic Party.

In the Atlantic, Tim Alberta spends some quality time with Phillips and strategist Steve Schmidt, explaining their strategy: After a win in New Hampshire, the slingshot of coverage would be forceful enough to make Phillips competitive in South Carolina, then Michigan.
DEARBORN, Mich (FOX 2) - Dearborn police investigated a bomb threat at Starbucks on Michigan Avenue on the city's west side Thursday.

The store has since reopened after no devices were found during a sweep by the police and fire departments.

Dearborn is home to the largest Muslim population in the US and the largest Mosque in North America.

Stay with FOX 2 for more information as it becomes available.
MADISON  New bills in the state Capitol key into a trend among conservatives to give parents more control over what children are allowed to read in schools and libraries.

Both Democratic and Republican authors of dueling proposals agree that parents' involvement in their children's reading activities is a good thing. But lawmakers disagree over what the role of librarians should be in those situations and whether decisions about what is appropriate should apply to everyone.

One of the measures introduced would "ban book bans," as its four Democratic authors describe. The bill would take away local and state funding for libraries that restrict access to books based on "partisan or doctrinal disapproval" or "the origin, background or views of those contributing to the creation of the book or other media."

Though the bill faces a tough path through the Republican-controlled Legislature, it would bring repercussions for libraries or school districts in Wisconsin that are moving to restrict certain books from the shelves.

One of those districts is Menomonee Falls, which earlier this month removed 33 books in one of the most sweeping bans reported in Wisconsin in recent years. The titles include Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse-Five" and Khaled Hosseini's "The Kite Runner."

District officials in Menomonee Falls said the removals were due to "sexually explicit content and/or profanity." The bill introduced by Democrats includes exceptions for the "age-based restriction on obscene or pornographic material" and books available in facilities like jails and prisons.

More: Parents speak out on decision to remove books from Menomonee Falls High School library

On the other side of the aisle, Rep. Barbara Dittrich , R-Oconomowoc, introduced legislation to get parents, libraries and schools "back on the same team" after seeing librarians attacked, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, which she called "shameful."

Dittrich, alongside two other Republicans, put forward a bill that would automatically notify parents what books and materials their children under age 16 are checking out. Another would require school districts to fulfill a citizen's request to inspect a textbook or other curriculum materials within 14 days.

"If parents want engagement and they're concerned about materials, then this is how they can engage," she said. "The friction has just got to stop. And to me, this was a good way to solve it."

Notifications could go against children's right to privacy in libraries

State Rep. Barbara Dittrich, R-Oconomowoc.

While library records are usually kept confidential, parents with children under 16 are currently able to request that information. The new bill would instead automatically update parents with those check-out records within a day.

Dittrich said part of the intention of the legislation is to promote the existing tool and eventually put funding behind it, especially to help rural libraries set up notification systems or create posters or handouts for awareness.

Dan Rossmiller, executive director at the Wisconsin Association of School Boards, questioned whether the bill would impose a cost on school districts to implement notification systems.

He said his organization generally prefers to leave policy decisions up to local school boards based on local community values, and he noted that school boards can already decide on their own if they want to implement a notification policy.

Officials with the state Department of Public Instruction, which oversees schools and libraries, said they were not involved in discussions about the bill. The department's staff is analyzing how the bills would impact libraries and students, a spokeswoman said.

The Wisconsin Library Association declined to comment on the bills, though Dittrich said she held meetings with the group. The organization is the local chapter of the American Library Association, which takes the stance that "children and youth have the same rights to privacy as adults."

"I see that as diametrically opposed to what we're trying to do with protecting children," Dittrich said. "There's an age of majority for a reason. Their brains aren't fully developed yet."

Dorothea Salo, an instructor in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Information School, said the bill goes against "really bedrock, standard library ethics about letting people read what they want without interference, and without sharing that information."

Minors' right to privacy in the library has always been a debated point, said Salo, who teaches librarians and follows issues including online privacy and book banning.

"There are librarians who very much believe that all people have a right to read, to learn, to experience what they choose. And children are people, therefore they're covered under that umbrella," she said.

"Other librarians take the stance that raising children is tough, raising children in a very contested and sometimes difficult information environment is even tougher. And yeah, there are times when a parent really wants to know what their kids are looking at."

Could the bill impact students' exploration of books?

Amber West, an organizer with Leaders Igniting Transformation, a nonprofit that trains and works with youth on social justice campaigns, said she sees the proposal as an extension of book bans and other efforts to limit what students can read and learn about, with a target on material by or about people of color and LGBTQ+ people.

Its a bigger attack limiting what narratives students are receiving, West said. Public education is supposed to be this very vast and diverse curriculum and were limiting that.

West said she discussed the proposed bill with the Milwaukee high school students she works with, who said it felt like a violation of privacy and a micromanagement of their library usage. She pointed to low reading rates across the country and argued its counterproductive to make students less comfortable in libraries.

I think it could be super discouraging for students, West said of the bill. School is a place where theyre supposed to be creating that freedom of thought, freedom of curiosity and freedom of expression, and if we take away that autonomy from them, we hinder their learning process.

Rossmiller "would imagine there would be concerns about whether this would have a chilling effect on a students willingness to check out particular materials."

Dittrich countered that children are able to explore "such a volume of things to choose from," including new releases, which librarians have a hard time keeping up with.

Salo said parents who strictly control access to books or online activity can form a "trust gap," and librarians must serve all patrons, including children with adverse family relationships.

Rep. Jodi Emerson, the lead author of the Democrats' proposal to prevent book bans, said there should be modifications as children get older. Dittrich said she would be open to amendments, but thinks parents should especially have discussions during their children's teenage years.

Emerson noted that parents may not want their children to read books mentioning murder or cancer, for example, if those issues have affected their family.

"But again, if you want to make some choices about what your kid is reading, that's about a conversation you have with your own kids. It's not about taking away that opportunity for every family," Emerson said. "Because we don't necessarily know why somebody feels like a book is offensive."

'Banning book bans' could have unintended consequences

Emerson said she introduced her bill in part because of book bans and open records requests impacting districts not just in Wisconsin, but across the country.

More: 7 books have been removed from Elmbrook school libraries amid an organized effort to ban books across Wisconsin

The proposal is modeled after a new Illinois law that allows grant funding only for libraries that adhere to the American Library Associations Library Bill of Rights  which opposes banning books for partisan or personal reasons and includes children's right to privacy and confidentiality.

While the Illinois law is "well-intentioned," it could actually embolden people seeking to ban books, explained Salo. If the library gives in, they could lose funding, based on the new law, and close. But if the library refuses those demands, it still "opens the door to endless harassment campaigns to yank local funding."

"There's no way to serve the community if you have people who are just going to shut down the library collection any way they can," she said.

Emerson said she would be "more than happy" to work with others and modify the bill but expects Republicans won't give it a hearing.

More: 'The 57 Bus' and 'The Kite Runner' shouldn't be banned from West Bend high schools, committee says following complaints

Asked whether she supports the concept of book banning, Dittrich noted "there are other bills out there on my side of the aisle that would control materials, but I'm not on that legislation. I'm trying to come to a peaceable end here."

A bill introduced in May supported by nine Republicans, which would ban schools from using library aid money to purchase "obscene" materials, has not yet received a hearing.

Rep. Kristina Shelton, D-Green Bay, questioned the need for the new Republican bills, saying parents can lean on existing state statutes and public school districts are already transparent about sharing instructional materials. "Hard conversations" about what books are appropriate for children are sometimes necessary, she said.

"As a teacher myself, anytime a parent wanted more information from me  and I taught (what was) called sex education at the time  I had a whole process for that. Teachers want parents to be informed. School boards and school districts want parents to be informed," said Shelton, also a former member of the Green Bay School Board.

"There's involvement, and then there's micromanaging," Emerson said of parents' engagement with school boards. "And I think we need to figure out the difference between those two."

Librarians under intensified scrutiny

Lawmakers agreed that librarians are facing increased scrutiny, but disagreed whether the new bills would help or hurt the profession, which is already facing scrutiny.

While Dittrich said "making our librarians into these supervillains" is not right, Shelton said Republicans are responsible for "inflaming culture wars and going after teachers and librarians."

"(Librarians) love literacy and want to make it available to everyone, and they are trying to appeal to the different materials that everyone wants," Dittrich said. "So it's a challenging piece, and I just want to bring people together on this issue instead of having everybody clawing at each other."

When she discusses these trends with her students, Salo reminds them that public librarians "serve the entire community, everyone in it, no exception."

"I cannot legitimately say to them, 'It'll be OK.' It will not be OK for some of them," she said. "They could lose their jobs, could see their library closed. They could be accused of things that are borderline defamatory and have very little ability to push back."

"These are people who have made a deliberate decision to come back to school to do something that serves their community," Salo said. "And they have to be scared of being treated like this."

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: These Wisconsin bills take differing approaches to book ban activity
Republicans Jill Dutton and Brent Money are running in a special election for state House District 2 seat, empty since former state Rep. Brian Slaton, R-Royse City, was expelled from the House. Credit: Campaign websites

Defend Texas Liberty PAC, the far-right group under fire for hosting white supremacist Nick Fuentes , is getting involved in a critical special election for the Texas House, the first major test of its influence since the Fuentes controversy.

The PAC has been sending mail, making calls and blasting text messages into House District 2 in northeast Texas, according to voters there. The PACs activities have been mainly attacking a leading Republican candidate, Jill Dutton, but one voter said a caller also solicited support for Duttons main GOP rival, Brent Money.

The group's support became clearer when campaign finance reports came out at the end of October and showed it had donated $35,000 to Money, who previously made a point of saying he had taken "no money" from Defend Texas Liberty.

The Nov. 7 special election is to fill the seat of former state Rep. Bryan Slaton, a Royse City Republican and heavily funded ally of Defend Texas Liberty who tormented House leadership. The House expelled him in May after a committee investigation found the married lawmaker got a 19-year-old intern drunk and had sex with her.

[Heres who gets money from Defend Texas Liberty, the PAC whose leader met with white supremacist Nick Fuentes]

Duttons campaign said Money should disavow [the PACs] support immediately.

Nick Fuentes states openly that he will destroy the GOP, Dutton campaign spokesperson Matt Brownfield said in a statement. In that respect, he shares the same objective as Defend Texas Liberty PAC, who has spent millions of dollars attacking conservative Republicans like Jill Dutton and Greg Abbott. They spent hundreds of thousands of dollars supporting disgraced Rep. Bryan Slaton, and then never condemned him after his unanimous expulsion.

Moneys campaign said it had no comment on the PACs involvement in the race. Defend Texas Liberty did not respond to a request for comment.

Money opposed the impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton and has been critical of the direction of the House under Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont. Dutton has treaded more lightly on such topics, saying at a recent forum that she respect[s] the process that happened in both chambers regarding impeachment.

Slatons legacy already loomed over the race in its early stages as his former supporters gravitated toward Money, a Greenville lawyer. But more recent events have turned it into an all-out proxy war between House leadership and Defend Texas Liberty.

The PAC was a top supporter of Paxton as the House impeached him in May and then the Senate acquitted him last month. It gave $3 million to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick as he was preparing to preside over the trial, funding that Phelan called out after the acquittal.

Paxton has endorsed Money as part of a political revenge tour to remake the House GOP caucus.

The PACs post-trial triumph got cut short earlier this month, though, when The Texas Tribune reported it had hosted Fuentes at its leaders offices near Fort Worth. The story prompted condemnation from many Texas Republicans, especially House leadership, and Patrick ultimately decided to use the $3 million to buy bonds for Israel. Jonathan Stickland, the former president of the PAC who hosted Fuentes, has since been replaced, according to Defend Texas Libertys website.

The intraparty war is all coming to a head in the special election for HD-2, a solidly red seat covering three counties east of the Dallas area. The candidates include Dutton, the former president of the Republican Women of Van Zandt; Money, and three other Republicans: Heath Hyde, Doug Roszhart and Krista Schild. One Democrat, Kirsten Washington, is also running.

While Money has the support of the Defend Texas Liberty universe, Dutton has the backing of groups that align with House leadership more often than not, such as Texans for Lawsuit Reform and the Associated Republicans of Texas. Paxton especially blamed Texans for Lawsuit Reform for instigating his impeachment, a charge it has denied.

The latest campaign finance reports, covering Sept. 29 through Oct. 28, show Money got two donations from Defend Texas Liberty  $25,000 and $10,000  both in October amid the fallout from the Fuentes meeting. The $35,000 made up 60% of Money's total receipts for the period.

Dutton was heavily funded by her Austin-based backers. Texans for Lawsuit Reform and the Associated Republicans of Texas made up 90% of the $235,000 in contributions she disclosed receiving.

The mailer targeting Dutton features an illustration of her face juxtaposed with that of Beto ORourke, the two-time Democratic statewide candidate. It says she is fundraising with Beto ORourke donors but does not provide any citation for the claim.

The text messages echo the ORourke-related attack and ask voters to sign a petition to oppose Dutton.

Two voters, who asked not to be named, said they got phone calls this week where a person rattled off attacks against Dutton and then asked them to support Money. One of the voters said the person identified themselves as representing Defend Texas Liberty, while the other voter said they did not catch the start of the call.

In any case, few have doubted the groups preferred candidate is Money. Its new president, Luke Macias, was pictured speaking at a Money campaign event last month.

Money also has the support of a Defend Texas Liberty-allied group, Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, whose new executive director, Andrew McVeigh is Slatons former chief of staff. McVeigh and every other male Slaton staffer refused to cooperate with the committee investigation that led to his expulsion, according to its report.

Money has sought to downplay his ties to Slaton, highlighting how broader his base of support is and arguing the race is only about him. In early August, Money was asked on his Facebook page if he had taken money from the Wilks family and Tim Dunn  the primary funders of Defend Texas Liberty PAC  and he replied, No money from any of them or any of their entities.

Disclosure: Facebook and Texans for Lawsuit Reform 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.
Felicia Kaye has been a Delta flight attendant for the last five years and recently experienced a rare occurrence in her career: She worked with an all-Black crew for the first time during a flight earlier in October.

According to 11 Alive, Kaye needed extra hours and decided to pick up a flight departing from the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to Kansas City.

When Kaye arrived at the gate for the late flight, she noticed a pattern as the other attendants started to show up.

Weve had an African-American crew, but we just hadnt all experienced having the pilots as well and having the entire crew be African-American, Kaye said, according to 11 Alive. It made me feel amazing. It made all of us feel amazing, and we felt that we wanted to capture that.

Kaye shared a photo of the historic moment on her Facebook account and praised the airline for its diversity efforts within the company.

Last night, I reported to my gate to work a late flight. As the other attendants arrived, we realized we would be an all African American crew, Kaye wrote in the posts caption. Then, the First officer arrived  and lastly, the Captain. We all looked around at each other and took in the moment. We quickly agreed that weve never seen this before, but thanks to the diversity in our airline, well soon see it again. Our entire crew is African American!! Wow!

She received overwhelming support from thousands of social media users as they also hoped a moment like this would happen again.

According to the airline, this isnt the first time an all-Black crew has worked on a Delta flight. However, Kaye said she herself had never before worked with a flight crew where the first officer and pilot were also Black.

The company is so progressive. Delta is so diverse, and it just really, really made me feel Delta proud, Kaye said, per 11 Alive.
A Democratic congresswoman called on the House to censure Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) in a blistering floor speech listing the conspiracy theorists most outrageous moments.

It took Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) nearly 12 minutes to get through her 40-plus reasons to censure Greene, who herself is trying to get Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) censured for attending a pro-Palestine demonstration.

Balints resolution says Greene repeatedly fanned the flames of racism, antisemitism, LGBTQ hate speech, Islamophobia, anti-Asian hate, xenophobia, and other forms of hatred.

That includes Greene speaking at a white nationalist event last year, calling Black Americans slaves to the Democratic Party, posting doctored videos online, spreading 9/11 conspiracy theories and defending the Jan. 6 insurrectionists, among other reasons.

See her full impassioned takedown of Greene below:
Minnesota Congressman Dean Phillips, who launched a longshot Democratic primary challenge of President Joe Biden , said he would restore New Hampshires contest in 2028 to first in the Democratic nominating order, displacing South Carolina, which kicks off the Democratic process this cycle.

I believe in tradition. I believe our entire country can and must learn from New Hampshire, Phillips said when filing to run in the 2024 New Hampshire Primary, according to the Union Leader.

But South Carolina was moved to first in line for the 2024 process by the Democratic National Committee as a nod to Black voters who make up a significant portion of the Democratic base.

South Carolina will hold its Democratic Primary on Feb. 3. The DNC then chose Feb. 6 for Nevada and New Hampshire.

As a Black man from S.C., a descendant of the enslaved folks who were brought to this nation, Im looking forward to the new tradition of having S.C. kick off the presidential process for the Democratic Party, Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison posted on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

New Hampshire had traditionally voted second after the Iowa caucus, and the new order approved by Democrats would keep the Granite State in that position.

However, the national party said it would revisit the presidential primary order every four years.

New Hampshire has a state law that mandates it hold the First in the Nation Presidential Primary. Democrats in New Hampshire have been unable to come into compliance with the 2024 DNC primary order, as Republicans control the legislature and the governors office in the Granite State. The New Hampshire primaries are expected to be held in January, and whether the DNC strips delegates from New Hampshire remains to be seen.

Biden, who called for the order change, lost the Iowa caucus, New Hampshire primary and Nevada caucus in 2020 before winning the South Carolina primary, propelling him the party nomination and eventually the White House.

South Carolinas First in the South contest is the first state where Black voters make up a majority of the primary voting electorate. Moving South Carolina to the front of the voting line is considered a way to give Black voters more say in naming the eventual Democratic nominee.

Democratic Party officials in South Carolina say the Philips campaign has yet to contact the state party, which state party Chairwoman Christale Spain said is a sign hes not serious, told Politico.

Spain also called Phillips a distraction because any serious Democratic candidate would understand that Black voters in South Carolina have been the backbone of the Democratic Party.

However, Phillips campaign advisor Steve Schmidt said, according to Politico, the campaign will focus on New Hampshire, South Carolina and Michigan, which holds its primary on Feb. 27.

Filing for the South Carolina presidential primary runs from Nov. 1-10. The cost to appear on the Democratic ballot is $20,000.
By Jarrett Renshaw

(Reuters) -U.S. congressman Dean Phillips of Minnesota launched his long-shot challenge to President Joe Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination on Friday, seizing on Biden's lackluster approval ratings and voter wariness over his age.

The 54-year-old millionaire businessman and gelato company co-founder announced his bid in a one-minute video posted online, saying: "We've got some challenges... We're going to repair this economy, and we are going to repair America."

Phillips, a three-term House Democrat from a swing district, is unlikely to affect Bidens chance of securing the party's nomination, given Biden's deep resources, official party support and reshaping of the party's nominating contest calendar to help fend off any early challengers.

Phillips plans to hold a campaign event outside New Hampshire's Statehouse in Concord later on Friday before filing for its primary at the secretary of state's office, then embarking on a bus tour.

Phillips has already missed the Nevada filing deadline and will have to follow his New Hampshire performance with a race against Biden in South Carolina, a state with a large Black voter population that set Biden on the path to victory in 2020.

Even so, Democrats are wary of any challenge to Biden that could dent the party's chances against likely Republican nominee Donald Trump.

I've known Dean for 10 years. He's a friend, someone I deeply respect and admire, but I have a deep disagreement with him on this," Minnesota Democratic Party Chairman Ken Martin said.

"It doesn't make any sense to me that he would spend all of this political capital, frankly, all of his political capital, on a wild goose chase that isn't going to result in him being the president of the United States," Martin added.

Phillips did not respond to requests for comment.

The Biden campaign said in a statement that the president is "proud of the historic, unified support he has from across the Democratic party for his reelection," adding that "the campaign is hard at work mobilizing the winning coalition that President Biden can uniquely bring together to once again beat the MAGA Republicans next November."

Phillips entry into the race comes after the Biden campaign informed the New Hampshire Democratic Party the president will not submit his name to appear on the states primary ballot because the state didn't comply with Biden's demand that New Hampshire give up its first-in-the-nation primary status in favor of South Carolina.

The Democratic Party is expected to penalize New Hampshire by robbing it of all its delegates, leaving the winner no closer to securing the delegates needed to win the party nomination.

Top New Hampshire Democrats expect a write-in campaign to kick off on behalf of Biden.

Opinion polls show Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents want someone other than Biden, 80, to be the party's nominee, citing concerns about his age.

Phillips in August said while he was tired of Trump's fearmongering, he thought Biden should step aside.

"I would like to see Joe Biden, a wonderful and remarkable man, pass the torch, cement this extraordinary legacy," he told NBCs Meet the Press.

(Reporting By Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Heather Timmons, Jonathan Oatis, Susan Heavey and Diane Craft)
Dean Phillips stepped off of his campaign bus at the New Hampshire Statehouse where he filed a declaration of candidacy to run for the New Hampshire presidential primary on Friday, Oct. 27, 2023, in Concord, N.H. | Glen Stubbe, Star Tribune via Associated Press

After months of hinting about a potential presidential run in 2024, Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota launched a campaign Friday, challenging President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination.

I am today announcing my candidacy for the presidency of the United States of America, he said at an event outside the New Hampshire statehouse, according to The Associated Press.

Phillips, 54, filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday. He also faces self-help author Marianne Williamson in the Democratic primary.

I think President Biden has done a spectacular job for our country, but its not about the past. This is an election about the future, Phillips told CBS News in a clip posted online. I will not sit still, I will not be quiet in the face of numbers that are so clearly saying that were going to be facing an emergency next November.

This news comes after Phillips spent months encouraging other Democratic politicians  who are more proximate, better prepared to campaign with national organizations, national name recognition, which I do not possess  to jump into the race, especially because Biden hasnt been fairing well in the polls.

He may not be as well-positioned compared to other Democrats speculated to be eyeing a run for the White House, like California Gov. Gavin Newsom. But he was able to flip a red seat in Minnesota in 2018, for the first time in six decades, and won reelection twice with great ease.

It also helps that he is one of the wealthiest members of Congress, with an estimated net worth of over $120 million thanks to his family business, the Phillips Distilling Company, a Minnesota-based distillery, and his stake as co-owner of Talenti, a popular gelato company.

Dean Phillips 2024 campaign launch prompts pushback from Democrats

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a press conference on Monday that the Biden administration appreciates the congressmans almost 100% support of this president, as hes moved forward with some really important, key legislative priorities for the American people.

But his popularity might be dwindling after his campaign filed for the primary in New Hampshire. The state is traditionally the first to nominate a Democratic candidate, but for 2024, the Democratic National Committee and Biden had picked South Carolina to start with, in hopes of connecting with the partys local voters.

The Democratic National Committee has no plans to hold a primary debate.

The Minnesota congressman was a popular member of his party until he began calling for others to challenge Biden in a primary, which led to his resignation as the co-chair of the House Democratic Policy and Communications Caucus, as NBC News reported.

His campaign adviser told Politico that Phillips will focus on New Hampshire, South Carolina and Michigan.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, said he respected Phillips but did not agree with his decision.

First of all, Dean is a friend of mine. I respect him greatly. I disagree with this. It is not going to have any impact whatsoever on this. Joe Bidens our nominee. And I hope this just, I hope for Dean hes all right on this one, but its not going to make any difference. Our nominee is the president, Walz told ABC News.
Senate Democrats are working with Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) and a handful of Republicans on a rarely used procedural tactic to defeat Sen. Tommy Tubervilles (R-Ala.) blockade of more than 360 military promotions, a stalemate that has consumed the Senate for months.

Democrats are looking at using a standing order resolution to move a block of more than 300 nonpolitical military nominees who have been stalled for months because of Tubervilles holds to protest the Department of Defenses (DOD) abortion policies.

The resolution would allow the Senate to move military promotions in a group through the end of 2024, providing exceptions for officers nominated to a position on the Joint Chiefs of Staff or to lead a Combatant Command.

Sources familiar with internal deliberations said the standing order resolution would likely get introduced next week unless Tuberville drops his holds.

It will first move through the Senate Rules Committee.

Its not a rules change, its a standing order resolution because no one wants to fool around with the rules, explained a Democratic senator who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive topic.

Top Stories from The Hill

The senator emphasized the resolution would be limited to military nominations.

Sinema came up with the idea and started working with colleagues in both parties on it in early September.

It would need strong bipartisan support and at least 60 votes to overcome an expected filibuster. Democrats now control 51 seats and Republicans control 49.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said theres already been a good bit of outreach to Republicans on the proposal.

The resolution is already getting strong pushback from conservatives within the Senate GOP conference, and Democrats face a tough challenge in rounding up the nine Republican votes needed to pass it.

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Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.) said it will probably be a heavy lift to find the nine or 10 Republican votes needed to roll Tuberville.

Theres a lot of discussion out there around it. Well see where that lands, he said.

No Republican senator has yet expressed public support for the resolution, and those viewed as most likely to vote yes say they would prefer to resolve the impasse in another way.

One conservative senator warned there will be an intense political backlash against any GOP senator that votes with Democrats to circumvent Tubervilles protest of the Pentagons policy of paying the travel expenses of service members who take leave to obtain abortions.

I think that would be a hard vote for senators to take. I dont know how you can seriously talk about the prerogatives of the institution and defending the rules if youre willing to go out and kneecap one of your own senators whos objecting to unanimous consent, which we do all the time, said the lawmaker.

Its one thing that almost all Republican voters agree on  high-propensity [GOP] voters are pro-life, the senator said. Its going to get reported that theyre not supporting Tubervilles pro-life issue.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said the military promotions being held up by Tuberville should come to the floor individually for votes, not en bloc, which would effectively limit the power of senators to raise objections against specific nominees.

An effort to get around Tubervilles hold? No, I think we should vote on them individually. Im not in favor of every one of those nominees, but there are some that we should move on and hes open to moving on them individually, Rubio.

The point hes raising with the Pentagon is that theyre violating current law, Rubio argued, citing the longstanding prohibition on spending federal dollars on abortions.

Pentagon officials, however, point to an October 2022 memo by the Department of Defenses general counsel stating that federal law does not prohibit the use of funds to pay expenses, such as per diem or travel expenses, that are incidental to the abortion.

And Democrats argue moving the nominees individually would eat up valuable floor time and set a bad precedent.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) was spotted chatting Thursday afternoon in the Ohio Clock Corridor with Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed (D-R.I.), who is working on the resolution to advance the stalled military promotions en bloc.

Reed declined to answer any questions about procedural tactics.

McConnell has said repeatedly that he does not support Tubervilles hold, making the GOP leader a potential candidate to vote for moving the military promotions in one large package.

But other members of McConnells leadership team wouldnt say whether they would support the resolution to circumvent Tubervilles blockade.

It depends on what that says. Id much rather [see] the DOD change the policy, but well see what happens, Senate Republican Policy Committee Chair Joni Ernst (Iowa) said, referring to the Defense Departments abortion policy.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), another member of McConnells leadership team, said he hasnt decided whether to vote for a resolution to advance most of the stalled military promotions.

We are trying to find a path out of the current situation, he said, adding he hasnt yet looked at the resolution set to drop next week.

Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) distanced himself from the talks about finding a way to get around Tuberville.

Im not part of that, he said.

Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), who has worked for months to try to broker a compromise between Tuberville, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Senate Democrats, told The Hill that he hopes a standing order resolution wont be needed to advance the military promotions.

Theyve been warning that theyre going to do this for quite some time. Its not the way that Im trying to resolve this. To me, Im still working to continue to get [nominations] over the goal line and find what Im calling a universal resolution, he said.

He said passing a resolution to move the nominees as a group, thereby circumventing Tuberville, is not my choice.

But he said its probably going to bring this issue to a head.

The rumor Im hearing [is] if that doesnt work, they might try to go nuclear, he said, warning that Democrats could try to move the more than 300 stalled nominees through a ruling of the Senate chair, a highly controversial maneuver known as the nuclear option.

Such a move would require only a simple majority, but Sinema and centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) stood firm against invoking the nuclear option to move voting legislation in 2022.

Im hopeful we dont have to do any of these things, and Im still working, Sullivan said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
In a move to celebrate and preserve LGBTQ+ history in America, U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan , a gay Democrat from Wisconsin and the chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus put forward two bills on Friday aimed at creating a National Museum of American LGBTQ+ History and Culture.

These legislative proposals come as a fitting capstone to LGBTQ+ History Month, according to a news release.



One proposal entails the formation of an eight-member commission, infused with expertise in museum planning or LGBTQ+ research and culture, to investigate the feasibility of establishing such a significant institution in the nations capital. The commission is tasked with several key responsibilities, including devising a plan of action and a fundraising strategy to financially fuel the establishment, operation, and maintenance of the museum through public contributions.

Additionally, the commission will engage in an independent review of the fundraising blueprint to ensure a robust analysis of the resources required sans reliance on federal funds.

BREAKING: I\u2019ve just introduced legislation to create a National Museum of American LGBTQI+ History and Culture. As our community faces unprecedented attacks and attempts to erase our history, we must preserve and protect our stories for future generations.  (@)

The commission is assigned to scout potential locations in Washington, D.C., estimate the regional impact on other museums, and examine the availability and cost of acquiring collections for the museum. A legislative plan of action for the museums establishment and construction will be submitted to Congress following the commissions comprehensive study. The recommendations will also consider whether the museum should operate under the Smithsonian Institution, the worlds largest museum and research complex.

The timeline for the commission to complete its thorough investigation is 18 months.

Once the commission wraps up its work and issues its recommendations, Congress will then have the footing to consider the second bill, which is aimed at formally establishing the museum.

Pocan is adamant about the vital role of such a museum, especially in the face of what he perceives as unprecedented attacks and attempts to erase LGBTQ+ history.

As our community faces unprecedented attacks and attempts to erase our history, we must preserve and protect our stories for future generations, Rep. Pocan said. It is vital to remember our collective past  particularly when certain states, and even Members of Congress, seek to constrain and repeal existing rights by passing bills that harm LGBTQI+ youth and our community at large."

This is a museum, much like weve done to recognize African-Americans, Native Americans, Latinos, and most recently, Asian-Americans, Pocan explained further in a video announcing the bill. Its a way to really recognize our community and to be able to recognize it and look at its history and look at all aspects of [the] treatment of this country, both good and bad. And this legislation would start the process so that we could also have a museum dedicated to the LGBTQI+ community.

The initiative has garnered support from all eight LGBTQ+ co-chairs of the Equality Caucus, including Representatives Mark Takano of California, Sharice Davids of Kansas, Robert Garcia of California, Becca Balint of Vermont, Ritchie Torres of New York, Chris Pappas of New Hampshire, Angie Craig of Minnesota, and Eric Sorensen of Illinois, who joined Pocan in introducing the legislation.
The Democratic Partys yearslong unity behind President Joe Biden is beginning to erode over his steadfast support of Israel in its escalating war with the Palestinians, with a left-leaning coalition of young voters and people of color showing more discontent toward him than at any point since he was elected.

From Capitol Hill to Hollywood, in labor unions and liberal activist groups, and on college campuses and in high school cafeterias, a raw emotional divide over the conflict is convulsing liberal America.

While moderate Democrats and critics on the right have applauded Bidens backing of Israel, he faces new resistance from an energized faction of his party that views the Palestinian cause as an extension of the racial and social justice movements that dominated American politics in the summer of 2020.

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In protests, open letters, staff revolts and walkouts, liberal Democrats are demanding that Biden break with decadeslong U.S. policy and call for a cease-fire.

The political power of the Israel skeptics within the party is untested, with more than a year remaining until the 2024 presidential election. Their efforts have been fractious and disorganized, and they have little agreement on how much blame to lay at Bidens feet or whether to punish him in November 2024 if he ignores their pleas.

And yet Biden is already struggling with low Democratic enthusiasm, and it would not take much of a slip in support from voters who backed him in 2020 to throw his reelection bid into question. His margin of victory in key battleground states was just a few thousand votes  hardly enough to spare a significant drop-off from young voters alienated by his loyalty to a right-wing Israeli government they see as hostile to their values.

At its heart, the turbulence over Israel is a fundamental disagreement over policy, setting it apart from challenges like voters dissatisfaction with the economy, which Bidens allies believe can be solved with better messaging. The president, who has for decades positioned himself in the middle of his party and has navigated Democrats ideological and generational divide for the first half of his term, now confronts an issue that has no easy middle ground.

Perhaps most concerning for Biden is that in the halls of Congress, the most critical Democratic voices are Black and Hispanic Democrats who helped fuel his 2020 victory. As of Thursday, all 18 House members who had signed onto a resolution calling for an immediate de-escalation and cease-fire in Israel and occupied Palestine were people of color.

We process pain, deprivation and cruelty personally, having either encountered it in our current lives or having had historical connections to it with our ancestors, said Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey, one of the cease-fire resolutions co-sponsors. So we understand that cruelty and war and violence do not have positive outcomes.

For Democrats in Congress and in liberal groups in Washington, pressure to oppose Bidens Israel policy is bubbling up from younger, more progressive staff members who have grown up in an environment more doubtful about Israel.

Hundreds of former staff members who worked for the presidential campaigns of Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts this week signed open letters urging them to introduce a similar cease-fire resolution in the Senate.

The senators have resisted such calls, but Sanders this week urged a humanitarian pause, a position that some other liberal lawmakers and groups have begun to embrace and that Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said must be considered.

Other progressive lawmakers, however, argue that such a pause does not go far enough.

A humanitarian pause, what is that? said Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri, who introduced the cease-fire resolution. We need a cease-fire. We need to stop bombs from being dropped on hospitals and on schools and communities.

At MoveOn, the liberal activist group that endorsed Biden in April, younger staff members revolted after the organization issued an initial statement condemning the Hamas attack that ignited the current war without addressing Israels conduct toward the Palestinians.

There was a vocal percentage of our staff that did express their opinions, Rahna Epting, MoveOns executive director, said in an interview. I reminded them that ultimately we need to go to the members and see where they are.

MoveOns latest statement on the war, a petition, underscores the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip and states that President Biden and our leaders must publicly call for an immediate cease-fire.

Differences over Israel policy have caused conflict even among the nations top union officials. The executive committee of the AFL-CIO addressed the issue during a tense meeting Monday night that was dominated by a 30-minute anti-Israel monologue from the president of the American Postal Workers Union, who described himself as an anti-Zionist Jew.

Many on the left, however, acknowledge that Biden remains preferable to a Republican alternative in 2024. Epting said MoveOn could support President Biden and apply pressure to him at the same time.

Matt Duss, a former foreign policy adviser to Sanders who is among the most vocal proponents of a cease-fire, condemned Bidens hug-Israel approach  but said he would not withhold support for Biden next year over the differences.

Is this worth losing an election to Trump and all that would bring? No, Duss said. At the same time, I think its on Biden to understand where his voters are.

For many on the left, sympathy for the Palestinian cause stems from the same feelings of powerlessness that fueled the protests after George Floyds murder three years ago.

Theres definitely a direct correlation, said DaMareo Cooper, a co-executive director of the Center for Popular Democracy, a collective of progressive community groups. When we say Black Lives Matter, whats really being said inside of that statement is a history of oppression.

Bidens allies dismissed the prospect that his position on Israel would damage him in 2024. Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York, one of the most outspoken Democratic supporters of Israel in Congress, said he had been offended by cease-fire calls that did not also demand that Hamas release American and Israeli hostages.

We have to be careful not to mistake a visible vocal minority for a majority, Torres said. The critics of Israel have far more power on social media than in the real world.

Demonstrations against U.S. policy in Israel have spread from the Capitol and college campuses  Cornel West, the left-wing independent presidential candidate, appeared at a rally Wednesday at UCLA  to high schools across the country. Students at several high schools in northern Virginia walked out of classes this week in a Humanitarian Walkout Week. The presidents of George Washington and Emory universities, among others, condemned anti-Israel slogans chanted at rallies and projected on buildings.

An array of liberal groups have adopted the Palestinian cause. This week in New York City, one protest sign read, Reproductive justice means justice for Palestine. At another demonstration in New York, hundreds marched under the banner of Queers for Liberation in Palestine.

I feel very betrayed by Biden, said Angela Balya, 28, a protester in New York who said she had volunteered for the Biden campaign in 2020. I definitely will not be voting for him again.

The Sunrise Movement, a coalition of young, progressive climate activists that mobilized on behalf of Bidens campaign in 2020, is one such group that has called for a cease-fire. Some in the organization have been raising questions about whether they and other young people will mobilize for Biden again, said Michele Weindling, the groups political director.

If the Democratic Party and President Biden continue to send weapons and military support to Israel, it threatens to lose our generation, and thats a very dangerous choice to make ahead of a critical election year, Weindling said.

The United States support for Israel is unpopular with voters under 35, polling has shown, and students at dozens of colleges on Wednesday afternoon walked out of class as part of a nationwide mobilization effort by the group Students for Justice in Palestine.

President Biden has shown to people that theres virtually no difference between Republicans and Democrats on the question of the mass atrocities being leveled against Gaza, said Kaleem Hawa, who has helped organize student protests with the Palestinian Youth Movement.

Few liberal organizations have had as raw a discussion about Israel as the AFL-CIO did at the Monday night meeting of its executive council.

Mark Dimondstein, the president of the postal union, argued that Israel and the Palestinian territories should be combined into a single state. He called for the AFL-CIO to demand a cease-fire, according to four people familiar with the contents of the meeting.

No other labor leader in the meeting offered vocal support for his position.

Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, who is married to a rabbi, responded by asserting Israels right to defend itself, the people familiar with the meeting said. Weingarten said she backed establishing an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. That has been part of the Democratic platform for as long as I can remember, she said.

Dimondstein, whose union represents more than 220,000 postal workers, said he was not part of the Democratic Party and, like Weingarten, declined to discuss the AFL-CIO call.

Im not answering your questions, he said.

Some of the left-wing demonstrators demands fall well outside the American political mainstream.

The occupation and the existence of Israel is not peaceful; there is no maintaining the peace with a violent settler state, read one bullet in an online document posted by the Democratic Socialists of America and shared widely this week among pro-cease-fire organizers.

At a protest in New York on Wednesday, protesters chanted, We dont want no two states, we want all of it.

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Flagler County deputies arrested a 14-year-old middle school student after they said he pulled a knife on fellow students and staff.

Deputies said the Indian Trails Middle School student pulled a knife out of his backpack and raised it over his head around 7:45 a.m. on Friday after two girls at the school got into a fight.

Deputies said the way the knife was brandished was in a threatening manner to the students and staff present.

Deputies said the student was quickly taken into custody and that no one was injured.

Read: Boy, 17, accused of fatally shooting woman, 18, in the back after argument on sidewalk in Orlando

The 14-year-old was arrested and charged with aggravated assault and exhibition of a weapon on school grounds.

We have a zero-tolerance policy in Flagler County, said Sheriff Rick Staly. Bringing any weapon to school violates the zero-tolerance policy and you will be arrested. I remind parents, again, to be the Sheriff in your home and to teach your children that violence is never the right answer and to be smart about their actions at school.

Read: Donald Trump civil fraud trial: Ivanka Trump ordered to testify

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Judge Neil Rafferty said "he wanted the message to be clear" to drug dealers as he jailed one man on Friday

A judge at Londonderry Crown Court has warned that anyone dealing drugs in the city will be jailed.

Judge Neil Rafferty said he wanted the message "to be clear" to dealers as he sent a serial drug offender to prison on Friday.

Joseph McMonagle, 35, of Kavanagh Court in Derry, admitted drug charges and dangerous driving.

The judge said that McMonagle had seven previous convictions for drug offences and "an atrocious driving record".

The court was told that on 1 October last year, police observed McMonagle driving a motorbike along a pavement.

He was detained and drugs were found on him, as well as money.

'Futures destroyed'

The judge said he wanted "the message to be clear anyone dealing drugs in the city is getting a custodial sentence".

He said there was "a significant problem" with class A, B, C drugs in the city.

Judge Rafferty said he "noted with grief" that there had been a number of deaths due to drugs, which he described as "young lives wasted and futures destroyed".

McMonagle was sentenced to two years in prison, with half to be served in custody and half on license under supervision.

He was also disqualified from driving for three years.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) accused pro-Palestine students of materially supporting terrorism during a foreign policy speech Friday.

The 2024 Republican presidential candidate characterized the members of the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) organization as a part of the militant group Hamass operation in Gaza and alleged that they materially support the terrorism the group has perpetrated.

They are a group which publicly says that they dont just stand in solidarity with Hamas, that they are a part of what Hamas is doing, DeSantis said. That is material support to terrorism, and that is not gonna be tolerated in the state of Florida, and it should not be tolerated in these United States of America.

DeSantiss description of the group in his speech came after he praised a move Florida officials instituted Tuesday.

We deactivated Students for Justice in Palestine in our Florida University System, DeSantis said. So we have been proud what weve been able to do as governor, but as we look across the world now we are a nation adrift.

State University System Chancellor Ray Rodrigues directed state university presidents to disband pro-Palestinian student chapters on their respective campuses amid the war between Hamas and Israel.

DeSantis, viewed as former President Trumps main contender in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, spoke Friday at The Heritage Foundation as a part of the Mandate for Leadership Series, where he also had a question-and-answer session with Heritage President Kevin Roberts and Epoch Times Senior Editor Jan Jekielek.

Fellow Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy criticized the Florida governor for his move to decimate student chapters.

Ramaswamy said DeSantis is wrong to silence those we disagree with.

My view is that the answer to bad speech is not less speech, it is more speech. And I think it is wrong for us to silence those we disagree with, Ramaswamy said on The Hill TVs Rising Wednesday.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks about his policies on Monday, October 9, 2023 at Wells Visitor Center & Ice Cream Parlor in Le Mars, Iowa.

Gov. Ron DeSantis's presidential campaign spent nearly all the money that it raised in the the third quarter as the candidate struggles to maintain the fundraising needed to fuel his aggressive strategy in Iowa and stay active in other early states.

DeSantis raised $11.2 million in the months of July, August and September and spent $11.1 million, according to a campaign finance report filed Sunday.

DeSantis had $12.3 million in campaign cash at the beginning of October, but only $5 million can be spent on the primary campaign, the rest is reserved for the general election.

After setting fundraising records in his second campaign for governor, DeSantis's presidential fundraising has failed to match the type of high-powered campaign he hoped to run, and he has been forced to trim expenses.

DeSantis raised $20 million in the second quarter but quickly burned through much of it. By July, his campaign was laying off staff as it looked to cut costs.

By August, DeSantis had replaced his campaign manager and narrowed the focus of his campaign to one largely targeted at Iowa, the first state to vote.

DeSantis reduced payroll from 90 people to 63 in his latest report, according to a Politico analysis.

That's still a sizeable operation though, and DeSantis also has continued to spend large amounts on private jet travel. Politico calculated that DeSantis's campaign paid $1.5 million to six private jet companies during the third quarter.

As DeSantis struggles to fund a campaign that can be competitive in early states, Trump continues to dominate in both state and national polling.

The Real Clear Politics average of Iowa polls shows former President Donald Trump up by 33 percentage points, with 50% of voters backing him compared to 17% supporting DeSantis.

While DeSantis's campaign has not proven to be a fundraising juggernaut, a super PAC backing him still has considerable resources  much of them transferred over from a committee that supported his re-election bid last year  that can be deployed to help him in early states.

The Never Back Down super PAC received an $82 million transfer from DeSantis's state political committee and has been doing much of the work on the ground in Iowa and other states.

This is a developing story. Check back later for updates.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Ron DeSantis struggles to raise enough cash to take on Donald Trump
Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday evening that he is not sure if Floridas red flag law is effective in removing guns from dangerous people and he wouldnt sign one  or any gun safety measure  if elected president.

Instead, in response to Wednesdays mass shooting at a bowling alley and a restaurant in Lewiston, Maine, that has left at least 18 dead, the Republican presidential candidate said he would institutionalize more people with mental health issues against their will.

I think whats ultimately effective is holding people accountable, either through mental adjudication if theyre crazy or convicting them when theyre committing crimes, DeSantis told CNNs Kaitlan Collins on The Source.

An intensive manhunt is still underway for the suspect in the shooting, who police said recently reported mental health issues and was reported to have been committed to a mental health facility for two weeks over the summer.

In Florida, law enforcement agencies can advocate for judges to temporarily bar dangerous individuals from possessing or purchasing a firearm through a provision known as a red flag law. From its inception following the Parkland high school massacre in 2018 through mid-2022, it was invoked more than 8,000 times to restrict gun ownership of people authorities deemed a risk to themselves or others. The law is supported by many Florida sheriffs.

DeSantis said he didnt think Floridas law  which allows judges to ban or remove firearms from someone experiencing a mental health crisis  would have made a difference if it was in place in Maine.

In this case, Im not sure, he said. I think an involuntary commitment, though, would have kept him off the street, and I think that would have done the trick.

Though DeSantis opposed the law when he ran for governor in 2018, it has remained in place throughout his five years in office. DeSantis, who has successfully pushed many contentious priorities through the Republican-controlled state legislature, blamed lawmakers in his state for keeping it on the books.

Theres not an appetite amongst them to reverse their vote, he said.

Former President Donald Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination and DeSantis chief rival, previously called to institutionalize more people after the Parkland massacre.

DeSantis similarly said the country has gotten a little bit more liberal and the pendulum should swing back toward institutionalizing more people.

Part of the problem is, we used to have mental institutions, Trump said then.

Prior to Wednesdays shooting, DeSantis on the campaign trail had touted his record on gun rights, saying he would reverse actions taken by the Trump and Biden administrations to restrict certain firearm accessories.

In response to Collins asking if there were any gun control measures he could support if elected president, DeSantis replied: Restricting Second Amendment rights? Im gonna uphold the Constitution.

DeSantis on Thursday chalked up Trumps success in the polls to name recognition.

Hes the most famous person running. One hundred percent name I.D. Hes the person people know, DeSantis said. When you actually drill down in these early states, clearly, hes got some that will vote for him no matter what, but theres a lot more that arent going to vote for him in the primary. Then, youve got a lot of voters, who, they liked his policies, they liked a lot about him, they are willing to vote for somebody else.

Its incumbent upon a guy like me, go out and make the case, he said.

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said on Thursday that he would not support a national red flag law if elected president and called for more people experiencing mental health struggles to be involuntarily committed to a treatment facility.

DeSantis remarks in an interview on CNN came just a day after mass shootings in Lewiston, Maine that left 18 dead and set off an ongoing manhunt for the suspected killer. The suspect in the shootings had reportedly experienced mental health issues in the past and was institutionalized for two weeks over the summer.

In Florida, law enforcement agencies can ask judges to bar individuals who are considered dangerous or are experiencing mental health crises from possessing or buying firearms for up to 12 months  a measure known as a risk protection order. That provision, widely known as a red flag law, was put in place following the deadly mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla.

But DeSantis said on Thursday that hes not sure that a similar law would have prevented the mass shootings in Maine, which doesnt have a red flag law in place. He argued that the government should devote more resources to institutionalizing individuals experiencing mental health crises rather than confiscating their weapons.

Part of it is we do need more institutionalization, DeSantis said. There are some people who are dangerous to society. A lot of them get put back on the streets. It will require more resources, but I think thats appropriate.

DeSantis also insisted incorrectly that Floridas red flag law isnt intended to allow law enforcement to confiscate firearms from people with mental health issues, but instead applies to cases in which someone is making threats. In fact, the law allows a court to seize firearms if there is evidence of the respondent being seriously mentally ill or having recurring mental health issues.

Asked whether there are any gun restrictions he would sign into law if elected president, DeSantis suggested that theres not.

Restricting Second Amendment rights? he asked. Im going to uphold the Constitution.

DeSantis opposed the passage of Floridas red flag law during his first run for governor in 2018. He told CNN on Thursday that he would have vetoed the bill if he had been in the governors mansion at the time, and blamed the Republican-controlled legislature for keeping the law around.

He said that red flag laws are prone to abuse and risk violating Americans due-process rights under the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

I think red flag has been abused because people can just lodge a complaint, sometimes theyll take somebodys firearms, he said.

Florida law, meanwhile, allows for a person to be involuntarily committed for up to six months through an order of an administrative law judge.

As governor, DeSantis has taken steps to loosen gun restrictions in Florida. Earlier this year, he signed into law a measure allowing individuals to carry a concealed weapon without a permit. State lawmakers have also filed a handful of gun-related bills ahead of the upcoming legislative session, including a measure that would require background checks for firearm purchases to be completed within three business days.
State Rep. Randy Fine, the only Jewish Republican in the Florida Legislature, recently withdrew his support for Gov. Ron DeSantis in the GOP presidential primary and endorsed Donald Trump. Fine accused the governor in a Monday Washington Examiner column of saying almost nothing about recent high-profile antisemitic incidents in Florida.

DeSantis suggested that Fine may be acting out of revenge because he didnt get a highly-coveted post as the president of Florida Atlantic University. Indeed, the Space Coast Republican is known in Tallahassee for holding grudges and embarking on petty vendettas, but hes not entirely wrong. The Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel have brought to the forefront DeSantis failure to denounce antisemitism happening in his own state, even as he staunchly rallies behind Israel.

To be clear, Trump, who Fine wrote has never let us down, has flirted even closer with antisemitism, though he, too, has signed off on pro-Israel policies, such as moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Trump shared imagery viewed as antisemitic in a social media post attacking Hillary Clinton in 2016. He notoriously said there were very fine people, on both sides when white nationalists marched in Charlottesville carrying burning torches, and a counter-protester was killed.

DeSantis has been a vocal Israel supporter since before he took office. Hes visited the country on more than one occasion and taken credit for cajoling the Trump administration to transfer the U.S. embassy. Hes signed Fine-sponsored bills dealing with antisemitism, including one this year that makes it easier to arrest people for antisemitic demonstrations, and boasted about advocating for funding for Jewish schools and synagogues. DeSantis also signed an executive order to charter flights to bring back Americans stranded in Israel after the attacks.

Theres never been a more staunch, pro-Israel Governor than Ron DeSantis, and his record proves it, Florida House Speaker Paul Renner wrote this week on X, formerly known as Twitter.

At the same time, DeSantis is also an anti-woke warrior who doesnt buy into concepts like systemic racism and discrimination. Its not his political brand to acknowledge demonstrations of hatred even in its most obvious and heinous forms  nor would that acknowledgment help him court Republican voters who have cheered as Trump spewed bigotry over the years. DeSantis has actually inflamed other other types of discrimination against Black and LGBTQ+ people with laws like Dont say gay and the Stop WOKE Act.

When asked about a neo-Nazi march in Orlando last year, the governor accused Democrats of trying to smear him, and the best denunciation he could come up with was calling the marchers jackasses. The demonstrations were part of what the Anti-Defamation League described as the Weekend of Hate, a nationwide movement supported by three known racist and antisemitic organizations. Other Republicans, like former Gov. Rick Scott, now a U.S. senator, didnt have a problem calling the events hateful & anti-Semitic.

This year, about 15 people carrying flags displaying the Nazi insignia gathered outside Walt Disney World over the Labor Day weekend. In June, a group of people waved red and black flags with swastikas outside the Orlando theme park  and at least one person carried a DeSantis poster, the USA Today Network reported. Meanwhile, neighborhoods across the state were littered with antisemitic fliers.

Pressed again this week on why he wouldnt explicitly condemn expressions of anti-Jewish hate, he told reporters, Why would I want to elevate that nonsense?

Theres a simple answer to that.

Antisemitic incidents more than doubled in Florida between 2020 and 2022, according to the Anti-Defamation League, which also reports those incidents have risen dramatically since Hamas massacred Israeli civilians on Oct. 7. Reported anti-Jewish hate crimes in the U.S. increased by more than 37% in 2022, according to the FBI.

When neo-Nazis or white nationalists dont see condemnation from elected leaders, they get excited. It emboldens them to continue that activity, ADL Florida Regional Director Sarah Emmons told the Herald Editorial Board.

Ill say that I appreciate the governor and all of the elected leaders who have stood with the state of Israel and condemned antisemitism in this moment, Emmons said.

But she also added this: I think many of them, inclusive of the governor, we would have liked to see additional condemnation of incidents over the past few years as well.

DeSantis understands political expedience. Hes summoned state lawmakers for a special legislative session next month to pass new state sanctions against Iran, a Hamas backer. Thats unlikely to do much besides getting DeSantis attention ahead of the Nov. 8 presidential debate. Its clear that DeSantis knows when to grandstand, except when it comes to doing something so simple as denouncing Swastika-carrying marchers.

Which is the real DeSantis? The staunch supporter of Israels right, or the governor who cannot master simple words to decry antisemitism when it arises in the state he leads?

Probably the version that gets him elected president.

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Palestinians search for casualties at the site of Israeli strikes on houses, in Khan Younis

By Gabrielle Tetrault-Farber

GENEVA (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden has cast doubt on casualty figures provided by Palestinian officials in Gaza, but international humanitarian agencies consider them broadly accurate and historically reliable.

Although there is no dispute that Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed many people since Hamas ran amok in southern Israel on Oct. 7, Biden said on Wednesday he had "no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using", without saying why.

The health ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza responded by releasing a 212-page document containing the names and identity numbers of around 7,000 Palestinians it said had been killed in the Israeli bombardment of the enclave.

International groups, even some operating in Gaza, and global media including Reuters are not able to verify the figures but reporters have seen large numbers of bodies.

U.N. and other international agencies say there can be small discrepancies between the final casualty numbers and those reported by the Gaza health ministry straight after attacks, but that they broadly trust them.

"We continue to include their data in our reporting and it is clearly sourced," the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement to Reuters.

"It is nearly impossible at the moment to provide any UN verification on a day-to-day basis."

Dr Mike Ryan, Executive Director of the Geneva-based World Health Organization's Health Emergencies Programme, said last week figures released by both sides "may not be perfectly accurate on a minute-to-minute basis, but they grossly reflect the level of death and injury on both sides of that conflict."

New York-based Human Rights Watch also says the casualty figures have generally been reliable, and that it has not found big discrepancies in its verification of past strikes on Gaza.

"It's worth noting that the numbers that are coming out since October 7th are generally consistent or within logic for the scale of killings one would expect, given the intensity of bombardment in such a densely populated area," Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine Director at Human Rights Watch, said.

"Those numbers are in line with what one might expect, given what we're seeing on the ground through testimony, through satellite imagery and otherwise," he told Reuters.

FIGURES BROADLY ALIGN

Underlining the difficulties in calculating death tolls, a World Health Organization official said on Friday the agency had received estimates that some 1,000 unidentified bodies were still buried under the rubble in Gaza and not yet included in death tolls. The official did not specify the source.

While Hamas controls Gaza and exercises tight control over information coming out of the enclave, formal responsibility for the health ministry still rests with the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank.

The PA is dominated by Fatah, the main Palestinian rival to Hamas, and is responsible for paying salaries and providing equipment to Gaza hospitals.

It reports casualty totals based on numbers it receives from hospitals, ambulances and emergency services, in coordination with the Red Crescent, a spokesman in Ramallah said.

He said victims are initially identified by age, sex and injury type, and full identities are confirmed later. The figures are initially reported in Gaza, and updated in Ramallah after they have been checked, but discrepancies are generally minimal, he said.

Israel has not provided its own estimated death toll.

There has been no big change in the way Palestinian authorities report casualties since the last big conflict between Israel and Hamas in 2014, when figures provided by various entities were not vastly different.

In a report published on its website on Nov. 3, 2015, the Palestinian health ministry said the number of people killed in the July-August 2014 conflict in Gaza was 2,322.

A U.N.-mandated commission of inquiry reported that 2,251 Palestinians had been killed.

Although Israel blamed Hamas for the majority of the deaths in Gaza, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a report following the conflict that 2,125 Palestinians had been killed in Gaza, according to data gathered by the Israeli military.

The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, an Israeli think tank, said more than 2,100 Palestinians were killed, while rights groups B'tselem put that figure at 2,202 Palestinians.

ISRAELI CONCERN

Israel has been attacking Gaza since cross-border raids in which it said 1,400 people were killed by Hamas in southern Israel. Biden, who was speaking at a press conference, did not explain on Wednesday why he lacked confidence in the casualty figures provided by the Palestinians.

An Israeli military spokesman said this week the Gaza health ministry "continuously inflates the number of civilian casualties" and "has been caught lying in the past".

He cited the ministry's handling of an attack at Al-Ahli al-Arabi Hospital in Gaza on Oct. 17 which each side blamed on the other, saying the ministry initially reported 500 dead but later revised the toll down to 471. In a separate media briefing, another spokesman gave no Israeli casualty estimate when asked by reporters what Israel assessed the overall total to be.

An unclassified U.S. intelligence report seen by Reuters estimated the death toll in the hospital attack was "probably at the low end of the 100 to 300 spectrum". An Israeli official has said the toll appears to be "several dozen".

Palestinian officials said calculating the number of dead in the attack had been difficult because some victims were dismembered, meaning there were many body parts to identify.

(Reporting by Gabrielle Tetrault-Farber in Geneva, James Mackenzie in Jerusalem, Edmund Blair in Beirut and by Gaza, Ramallah and Washington newsroooms, Editing by Timothy Heritage and Angus MacSwan)
DETROIT (FOX 2) - The 36th District Court in Downtown Detroit has been evacuated after a bomb threat Thursday morning.

Michigan State Police are at the building near Brush and Madison with explosive dogs as they search the building and determine if the threat is credible.

People are asked to avoid the area, as there is heavy traffic congestion.

Stay with FOX 2 for updates.
Seizing on an expanded Miami-Dade County effort to promote dense housing construction around Metrorail stations, developer Shoma Group wants to double the height and scale of an already massive project its been planning on a wedge of land squeezed between Bird Road, the Metrorail tracks and two major intersections along U.S. 1 in Miami.

The revised Shoma One project would cost $250 million and shoehorn a pair of 40-story towers with at least 740 apartments, a 700-car garage and a two-story food hall on a slender lot just steps from the intersections of Bird, U.S. 1 and Douglas Road and the highway. The site, at 3650 Bird Road, is occupied by Deel Volkswagens used-car, parts and automobile-maintenance shops, which will be moving across the street.

Shoma bought the Deel property for $34 million in 2022 and had previously announced it would build a pair of 18-story apartment towers on the site, which sits along the path of the planned Underline urban park and trail and a block from the Douglas Road Metrorail Station.

That changed after the Miami-Dade commission last month approved an expansion of special zoning districts that supersede local municipal controls on height and density around transit stations to encourage developers to build badly needed housing. As a result, the old Deel property, which sits in the city of Miami, now falls under the countys Douglas Road station rapid-transit zone and its far more generous development rules.

An architectural rendering shows the planned Shoma One commercial and residential project near the intersection of U.S. 1 and Bird Road and the Douglas Road Metrorail Station. The project includes two 40-story apartment towers topped by halos that will be illuminated after dark. Shoma Group

Shomas proposal comes as the state and Miami-Dade have been pushing to relieve a shortage of housing, especially affordable housing, by expanding residential development and density. Critics say one cause of the crunch has been the use by some municipalities of strict zoning rules to limit density and constrain construction of condos and apartments.

Shoma Group CEO Masoud Shojaee said he decided to maximize his planned development to take advantage of the county rules for the zone, which allow towers of up to 40 stories. Developer 13th Floor Investments has used the same rules to build a pair of towers on the Douglas Road station property, with two more planned. One completed tower, Cascade at Link, at 37 stories, is far taller than anything miles around and visible from homes in West Coconut Grove to neighboring Coral Gables.

Shojaee touts the Shoma One projects location on the future Underline trail and a short stroll from the Metrorail station, saying it meets the countys goal of putting more residents at transits doorstep and reducing auto dependency by making it easier for people to walk, bike or take the train for everyday activities.

Under the rapid transit zone rules, Shoma would also set aside 12.5% of apartments  the precise number of total units is not yet decided  as workforce housing, in exchange for approval to build extra density. That is defined as housing affordable to households making up to 20% over Miami-Dades median income, which stands at $74,700.

By packing in residential density and adding public amenities like the food hall, a shared-office center and a dog park, the project will become a focal point of activity along the Underline and a new community emerging around the Douglas Road metro station, Shojaee said.

Developer Shoma Group released plans to build two 40-story apartment towers and a food hall on the Bird Road site near U.S. 1 thats now home to a portion of the Deel Volkswagen dealership, a block from the Douglas Road Metrorail station. The 37-story Cascade at Link tower, built on station property, is visible in the background. Pedro Portal/pportal@miamiherald.com

Its not really just going big, its that Miami-Dade is going through an evolution, the developer said. You want to encourage people to have access to public transportation. There are not that many properties along the Metrorail. You have to take those opportunities, to create that feeling of the big city like New York. Here its not easy to walk like in New York.

But they are spending a ton of money on the Underline. Imagine Saturday morning, youre out walking, people are playing. They order drinks, order food, they hang out. That is so crucial. You are going to use your car less. Its new lifestyle that you are creating.

At the same time, however, Shojaee has also opted not to use exceptions that allow developers in such transit zones to drastically reduce the amount of required parking. The Shoma One project calls for a substantial 700 parking spaces. Planning experts have said availability of parking encourages driving.

The spot where the Shoma project will rise is wedged between two major intersections, at U.S. 1 with Bird and Douglas roads, that are already clogged with cars during much of the day. Shojaee concedes it will have an impact on traffic. But he defended the decision, saying its still necessary to provide parking for residents and businesses for a development to succeed, and that people will have several alternatives for getting around.

An architectural rendering shows the planned Shoma One commercial and residential project near the intersection of U.S. 1 and Bird Road and the Douglas Road Metrorail Station. The project includes two 40-story apartment towers and a food hall. Shoma Group

I like to have a lot of parking just in case. Still, there is a need, he said. Miami is growing, and if you have an influx of people, unless you want to close the doors, any project obviously has impacts, no matter the location. But we have the benefit of having a Metrorail station next to us. And people can use that.

The county commission has been gradually expanding rapid-transit zones around Metrorail and Metromover stations inside Miamis boundaries, drawing opposition from city officials who contend the loosening is producing development in some areas thats way out of scale with surrounding neighborhoods. Under the county charter, though, the Miami-Dade commission has authority to override municipal zoning rules.

In similar fashion, the Florida legislature has approved several developer-friendly preemption bills that also override local zoning and environmental rules. One that has proven especially controversial is this years Live Local Act, which overrides zoning limits in commercial zones to promote affordable housing development. The cities of Doral, Miami Beach and Hollywood have pushed back against developers using the act to propose supersized projects in areas like Doral Boulevard and Ocean Drives historic Art Deco district.

In the case of the Shoma proposal for Bird Road, the property was added to the Douglas Road station rapid-transit zone in September, along with other properties, at the request of Miami-Dade Commissioner Raquel Regalado.

Developer Shoma Group released plans to build two 40-story apartment towers and a food hall on the Bird Road site near U.S. 1 thats now home to a wedge-shaped portion of the Deel Volkswagen dealership, a block from the Douglas Road Metrorail station, after Miami-Dade County expanded the reach of special rapid-transit zoning rules designed to promote dense housing construction. The 37-story Cascade at Link tower, built on station property under the same rules, is visible in the background. Pedro Portal/pportal@miamiherald.com

Shomas Shojaee said he is simply giving the county what it asked for. Shoma has not yet submitted a plan for county review, but will do so soon, he said.

A spokeswoman for the countys Department of Regulatory and Environment Resources said planners cant analyze the Shoma projects effects on the area until the new plan is submitted. If the plan does meet existing zoning rules, its reviewed and approved by county planners without a public hearing. If it requires a change in land-use designation, say from industrial to residential and commercial, that could require a vote by the county commission.

Shomas project will be jam-packed with amenities to lure renters, including not just the usual gym and pool amenity deck, but also a theater and a kids splash fountain. Apartments will range from studios to three bedrooms and expansive penthouse suites.

It will also incorporate the companys third Shoma Bazaar, after the original 15-stall version in Doral and a planned second one at a Shoma residential project that is nearing completion in Hialeah.

Shojaee is also trying to distinguish Shoma One with architectural flash  a halo over each tower that will be illuminated after dark. Its part of a design by architects Bermello Ajamil and Partners, based a few blocks away over the city line in Coral Gables, that Shojaee said pointedly seeks to up the design ante for the burgeoning area.

Developer Shoma Group wants to build nearly 750 apartments in a $250 million project with a food hall on the Bird Road site near U.S. 1 thats now home to a portion of the Deel Volkswagen dealership, a block from the Douglas Road Metrorail station. Pedro Portal/pportal@miamiherald.com

We have worked with them before, and they transferred our ideas to the blueprint really well, he said. I thought, if Im doing this concept, I want to have something that is different, I want to get the feeling of say, New York. What I noticed is that most of the projects, pretty much they are the same. There is no differentiation. There is not much character to it.

Shojaee puts the estimated cost of Shoma One at a quarter billion dollars. He hopes to break ground on the first tower in July or August of 2024, with construction taking two to three years.
In the middle of the night, at exactly 3:09 a.m., Celeste Lamar received a fateful phone call from her daughter Naquia Richard, 26, who was at home with her little sister.

Mom, the daughter began, her next words slow, her voice clearly shaken. Immediately, Lamar sensed trouble.

I knew something horrible had happened because I could hear it, recalled Lamar, 47.

Thoughts rushed through Lamars mind. She remembered thinking to herself, No, no, dont tell me what I think youre about to tell me.

Her daughter struggled to find the words. All she could say was, Dadhes gone.

On Oct. 9, around 1:00 a.m., Overland Park police responded to an accident involving two vehicles on the eastbound side of Interstate 435 just before Metcalf Avenue, police said. When officers arrived on the scene, they found a dead male, lying on the highway on westbound I-435 at Metcalf, according to police.

A preliminary investigation by police determined that George Abasta, 50, an Olathe father of six, was involved in an initial accident and attempted to cross over to the other side of the highway from where his car had stopped, officials said. While walking, Abasta was reportedly struck by a semi-truck, whose driver, police said, did not stop.

The driver of the semi-truck was eventually identified, but has not been publicly named, according to Overland Park police. John Lacy, an Overland Park police spokesperson, said the case remains under investigation.

Meanwhile, a family mourns.

Abasta was raised in San Gabriel, part of the Los Angeles metro area, where gang life and drugs were prevalent, according to his wife. Lamar said Abasta moved from Los Angeles to Kansas City in his late 20s to escape the fast life and pursue a safer, simpler good life.

He came to make a better man of himself and to have a better life because he got caught up in gangs, his wife recalled. He went to prison and when he got out, he said, I dont want this, I need to leave.

So, about 20 years ago, Abasta decided to take a chance and join a relative who was in the process of moving to Kansas City. Abasta brought with him his Los Angeles culture  from the tattoos and shaved head to his swagger. During a recent interview with The Star, Lamar smiled as she reminisced about her husbands unique style, calling him her reformed thug.

Although Abasta may have looked rough around the edges, his wife said, it was merely a facade. She described him as a man who wore his heart on his sleeve, and recalled when they started dating 19 years ago that she was instantly attracted to him.

When I first saw him, I was like, Oh crap, Im in trouble, Lamar said, laughing. Aside from his bad boy appeal, what sealed the deal for her was his heart for her and her daughter.

George Abasta, smiles for a picture with his wife, Celeste Lamar, and their children, Brenee, Naquia, Triston and Israel. photo provided by family

In the early 2000s, when the couple started dating, Lamars daughter, Naquia, was 7 years old. The mother and daughter were inseparable. No one could come between them. When Abasta came around, he showered the little girl with kindness and attention, Lamar recalled.

She said Abasta even decided to set aside time to take Naquia shopping. Lamar said she knew Abasta was the one for her when he not only stole her heart, but also her daughters. Naquia asked Abasta if she could call him dad. He said, Yes. He was the only father her daughter knew, Lamar said.

Lamar said her husband loved children, and Naquia was one of six children he leaves behind.

When Abasta wasnt taking care of his family, or providing for them as an independent contractor, he could often be seen riding in a gold 1987 Lincoln Town Car. Abasta was a proud member of a lowrider group called Juarez Car Club in Kansas City, and enjoyed customizing his car with his friends, his wife said.

An image of George Abastas, 1987, gold Lincoln Town Car in his obituary. photo provided by family

What gives Lamar and her family joy at this time of grief is the outpouring of love from the Olathe community, she said.

In the days and weeks after Abasta died, members of the community rushed to Lamars home, paying their respects, leaving money, flowers, and sharing fond memories. Some of them Lamar said she didnt even know. But that didnt stop them from expressing their appreciation for Abasta.

Strangers were coming to my door saying, Oh, he helped me with my flat tire, he picked me up. Its unbelievable how much beauty has come from this tragic thing. All the love weve received is amazing.

What bothers Lamar most, however, she said is the apparent lack of remorse from the truck driver who continued on their journey after running her husband down that early morning. She said the drivers actions were contrary to what Abasta wouldve done.

If he saw something like that happen to somebody, he would probably chase the trucker down orjust make sure the person was OK.

He wouldve done something about it, his wife said. Thats the kind of man he was.
The National Republican Congressional Committee is circulating a seven-year-old radio interview of a Democratic congressional candidate to depict her as a supporter of the militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas.

Jessica Morse is running to unseat Rocklin Republican Rep. Kevin Kiley in 2024.

On Thursday, the NRCC picked up a post from conservative website RedState recounting remarks Morse made about Hezbollah and Hamas in a 2016 interview she gave to Laguna Talks, on Orange County radio station KXFM.

Claim: That Morse praised terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

Rating: False

Details: The interview was about a true crime novel Morse was working on, but the conversation landed on a discussion of turmoil in the Middle East.

During the conversation, which can be heard here, host Billy Fried brought up Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant organization. He said that groups like that are painted one-dimensionally and that they do good things for the community.

They build highways, they gain popularity, and so we see it one way, but its hard to convince a nation that theyre the bad guys, Fried said.

Morse told Fried that she did not sympathize with militant groups at all, but acknowledged that organizations like Hezbollah and Hamas offer something to the people in their communities.

A lot of these groups that are used, have foreign aid tactics, they use microcredit, they offer people jobs, they offer people security. And so they come in as a stabilizing influence in these communities, and this is a model were seeing used over and over again, she said.

Both RedState and the NRCC seized on the statement to allege that Morse was praising the groups.

If Morse still holds these views, she must be none too happy that the newly-minted House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said his first act as Speaker will be putting forth a resolution of support to Israel and condemnation of Hamas for their role in starting the current war in the Middle East, wrote RedState blogger Jennifer Oliver OConnell.

NRCC spokesman Ben Petersen said in a statement that what else would you expect from Jessica Morse.

Morses praise for Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists responsible for the wanton murder of Jews and American military personnel is disqualifying, Petersen said.

However, Petersen and OConnells remarks ignore the context of the conversation, which took place seven years before Hamas brutal Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed at least 1,400 and sparked a war that has claimed thousands of lives.

Morse said she was not praising Hamas or Hezbollah, but instead remarking that the groups use microloans and jobs to win support in their communities.

I wholeheartedly condemn Hamas and the horrific acts of terror and violence they have carried out against Israel, Morse said in a statement Thursday. Hamas is a terrorist organization that is devoted to the annihilation of Israel, and Israel and the international community should eliminate them. I never have and never will praise a terrorist organization, Morse said.

She added that to defeat an enemy, you have to understand it.

It is widely acknowledged in the national security community that Hamas and other terrorist organizations have used foreign aid tactics to ingratiate themselves into civilian populations and give themselves space to operate and plan their violent attacks, Morse said.

That is why foreign assistance is a pillar of national security because when the US and our allies deliver good governance, trash collection, clean water, etc, there is no vacuum of stability and security for terrorists like Hamas to try to fill.
As far back as 1908, when the Australian Prime Minister invited the U.S. Navys Great White Fleet to stop in Australia during their world tour, the U.S. and Australia have been military allies for over one hundred years.

In World War I, soldiers of the American Expeditionary Forces II Corps served with Australians, New Zealanders, and Canadians as part of the British Fourth Army, which spearheaded the Allied Hundred Days offensive that began in the British sector with the Battle of Amiens and ended with the Armistice in November 1918. The British high command considered the soldiers from their far-flung empire as some of their toughest troops, so it made sense to put the Johnny come lately Americans alongside them for an offensive campaign.

The commander of the American Expeditionary Force, General John J. Pershing , had resisted British and French attempts to simply feed American soldiers into their armies in order to first stop the Imperial German forces, and then defeat them to end the horrific, four-year-long war. With high percentages of American diggers and doughboys having Irish and German heritage, there is some evidence that putting soldiers from countries that had immigrant populations together made the best sense.

When the British Commonwealth declared war on Nazi Germany after Hitlers unprovoked attack on Poland in 1939, once again Australian soldiers set sail for the Mediterranean to fight against Germany and fascist Italy. Like their fathers and grandfathers, along with their New Zealand neighbors, they once again formed the ANZAC army and began fighting in the Middle East and North Africa. The ANZACs soon regained their World War I reputation as some of Britains best soldiers, holding out during the German siege of the key Libyan port of Tobruk.

When Japan entered World War II late in 1941, the Australian homeland was left weakly defended with many of its soldiers, airmen, and navy ships in North Africa. Realizing they would be unable to hold the Philippines, American military units headed toward Australia to prevent Imperial Japanese forces from capturing New Guinea, just a few sea miles from Australias northern coast. Americans and Australians fought side by side against the forces of Imperial Japan, on land, air, and sea, throughout the southwest Pacific.

Soon, Australia became a vital, safe rear area base for American Naval operations. An American submarine fleet operated out of Freemantle, on the remote western Australian coast. From this secure base, and in cooperation with Royal Australian Navy submarine forces, Japanese merchant shipping was devastated by concentrated submarine attacks. Since Japans war machine relied on raw materials coming in from conquered territories in Southeast Asia, this naval campaign did much to shorten the war.

During the 1950-53 Korean War, Australia sent ground, sea and air forces to Korea, as part of the British Commonwealth military effort under the United Nations.

Diggers and Doughboys exhibition: Notes on Aerial Warfare over Port Darwin, 4th April 1942 by Frank Norton. (National WWI Museum and Memorial)

It was during the Vietnam War that U.S. and Australian Forces once again worked as closely as they had in World War II. Great Britain and many other Commonwealth nations declined to get involved militarily in the Vietnam conflict, however, Australia was with the U.S. from the very beginning in the early 1960s. While forces from New Zealand participated for many years, Australia provided the third largest force during Vietnam, after the Republic of Korea. Due to Australias military experience with a communist insurrection in the British Commonwealth country of Malaysia throughout the late 1940s and into the 1950s, Australian forces were more effective in their area of operation during the Vietnam War. Many U.S. Army leaders attempted to implement Australian doctrine and tactics in their own operations, but U.S. high-level command never deviated from their basic European Theater Cold War strategy. Both nations withdrew from Vietnam in 1973.

The Royal Australian Navy provided the largest contingent of forces as part of the Coalition during the 1991 Gulf War. Along with medical units, small, specialized teams from the Australian Army and Royal Australian Air Force deployed to Saudi Arabia at that time, however, only exchange officers serving with British and American units are thought to have been the only Australians to see active ground and aerial combat during the war. Immediately after the cessation of hostilities, Australian forces deployed to provide medical and humanitarian assistance to the Kurdish people in northern Iraq.

At the present time, as a part of the trilateral security agreement between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States (AUKUS), Australia is the main U.S. ally in the Pacific. Under AUKUS, Australia is actively working to deter Communist Chinese aggression in the South China Sea, especially in the delicate coordination of naval forces of former adversaries and enemies such as Japan, Korea, and Vietnam along with the navies of interested Western democracies.
An Israeli diplomat says the office of Florida governor Ron DeSantis is exaggerating its role in sending emergency supplies as the nation continues its war with Hamas.

"At the request of the Israeli Consul General in Miami, cargo planes contracted by Florida were used to transport healthcare and hospital supplies, drones, body armor, and helmets that first responders can use," the governors office said earlier this week in a statement.

Thats not quite the case, according to Maor Elbaz-Starinksy, Israels consul general in Miami.

"This is not how I would describe it," he told Reuters.

Instead, he said, the governors office helped send medical supplies which had been requested by the health ministry and was one of the US officials Israel contacted to ensure a flight carrying rifle parts was able to leave Miami.

"I am not aware and would find it very, very bizarre to think that somebody is procuring weapons and sending it to Israel," Mr Elbaz-Starinsky told the wire service. "This is not how we work. And certainly not privately funded."

The governors office later told the outlet in a statement Mr DeSantis "was contacted by the Consul Generals office for assistance to clear federal bureaucratic hurdles associated with getting those items to Israel."

Federal officials said its legal for states to send aid to outside countries. Exports of weapons and ammunition, however, require specialised licensing.

It is not illegal for the governor of a state to offer a measure of foreign assistance to another country," John Kirby, a spokesperson for the White Houses National Security Council, said earlier this week. "There are laws and regulations which govern how the export process is handled and thats all done through Commerce. I couldnt speak with authority today about whether the governor has checked all those boxes or not.

Mr DeSantis has used coordinated flights for key policy priorities before.

His office helped coordinate evacuation flights for Americans in Israel.

Last year, the Florida governor made national headlines for his controversial plan to fly migrants from the US border to the small island of Marthas Vineyard as part of his larger attempts to shunt migrants into Democratically-run jurisdictions.
A state police boat passes the camp chapel on the shore of Camp Collier as the search for Aaron Pennington continues Friday.

GARDNER  State and environmental police boats were at Lake Wampanoag Friday in the continuing search for Aaron Pennington.

The accused killer was not found, state police said.

The earlier, four-day search of woods near the lake camp up empty. There is no specific information indicating Pennington is in the lake, according to state police, "but we continue to investigate all possibilities."

Boat crews spent much of the morning at the lake.

Authorities have been searching for Pennington, 33, since his wife was found shot to death in the bedroom of the couple's house at 42 Cherry St. Sunday morning. His BMW was found by a hunter the next day in the area of Camp Collier, off Kelton Street, sparking an extensive search of the area.

Lake Wampanoag, part of a 377-acre wildlife sanctuary, covers about 200 acres. The lake reaches into Ashburnham.

State police, aided by tracking dogs and helicopters, have been cautious in their search for Pennington, who is believed to have the gun he allegedly used to shoot his wife, Breanne Pennington, 30. The public has been told to consider him armed and dangerous.

Aaron Pennington has been sought by authorities since a neighbor called Gardner police Sunday morning. The Penningtons' four children went to the neighbor's house reporting that they could not find their father and that their mother was in her bedroom crying, according to court documents.

In a murder warrant filed by the Worcester District Attorneys Office in Gardner District Court on Wednesday, officials said a search of Aaron Penningtons phone turned up a note that had been written on the device Saturday evening, the night before his wifes body was found in the couples Cherry Street home. Breanne Penningtons death was determined to be a gunshot wound to the head.

According to investigators, the note found on the device read: Dont say anything. Be quite (sic) If she wakes up just say youre getting nasal spray. Get on side of bed  very close proximity to head. Put hole in her head.

Court records show the couple were having marital problems and that Breanne was planning to move to Texas with the children. The state Department of Family and Children's Services took initial custody of the children, ages 9 and under.

Return to telegram.com for more on this story.

Gardner Police, State Police Detectives assigned to the District Attorneys Office, and the @MassStatePolice are continuing to work on locating Pennington, who is wanted on a murder warrant in connection with the death of his wife, Breanne Pennington. https://t.co/zg1Rkn49Ou  Joseph D. Early Jr. (@worcesterda) October 26, 2023

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Search for Aaron Pennington expands to Lake Wampanoag in Gardner
A diver has died after getting into difficulties in Scapa Flow off Orkney.

Police Scotland said the alarm was raised at about 10:35 on Friday after two men were brought by boat to Houton Pier.

Officers said a 58-year-old, who has not been named, was pronounced dead at the scene. The second diver was taken to hospital for treatment.

A force spokesman said: "The death is being treated as unexplained and inquiries are ongoing."

On Wednesday a diver whose body was found in Scapa Flow in Orkney last week was named by police.

Paul Smith, 70, from the Greater Manchester area, had been reported missing near the wreck of the German battleship SMS Markgraf on 28 September.

More than 50 German ships were sunk in the waters off Orkney to prevent them becoming spoils of war on 21 June 1919.

During the 1920s and 1930s, many of the ships were lifted from the sea bed by commercial contractors and broken up.

Since then it has become one of Europe's premier wreck diving sites and the seven ships that remain are now classed as scheduled monuments.
Dive teams on Friday scoured Lake Wampanoag in Gardner as the search for a man wanted in connection with the murder of his wife entered its sixth day, officials said.

The Massachusetts State Police Dive Team and Marine Unit, along with Massachusetts Environmental Police, searched the lake for evidence, which is located near Camp Collier where 33-year-old Aaron Penningtons white 2013 BMW Model 320 was found in a wooded area by a hunter on Monday night.

There is no specific information suggesting Pennington is in the lake but we continue to investigate all possibilities, state police said in a statement.

DA releases new photo of Gardner man wanted in wifes murder

Shortly before 4 p.m., state police announced that the search turned up no clues in their search for Pennington.

Todays search of Lake Wampanoag is concluded. Pennington was not located. State Police and Gardner Police detectives continue to investigate his whereabouts, state police said.

A murder warrant was issued earlier this week charging Pennington in the shooting death of 30-year-old Breanne Pennington on Sunday, Oct. 22.

Officers were called to the couples home on Cherry Street in Gardner around 9 a.m. on that Sunday after their four children, ages 2, 5, 7, and 9, left the house and told a neighbor that they could not find their father and that their mother was in her bedroom crying, the warrant indicated.

Detectives said Breanne was found lying in bed in an upstairs bedroom with obvious signs of death from an apparent gunshot wound to the head.

Through interviews and video surveillance, investigators learned that the couple had been dealing with marital issues for quite some time.

Murder warrant issued for Gardner man wanted for the shooting death of his wife

Since the discovery of Penningtons BMW, members of the State Police Special Response Team, the State Police Tactical Operations Response Team, the Violent Fugitives Apprehension Section, state police K9 units, and Gardner and Ashburnham police have been searching a vast, 400-acre tract of woods to try to locate him and have asked hunters to check trail cameras.

Pennington should be considered armed and dangerous, and the public should not approach him or try to search for him but rather call 911 immediately.

Authorities described Pennington as a white male with blonde hair, and blue eyes, standing 6 feet, 2 inches tall, and weighing approximately 175 pounds.

Anyone with information is urged to contact Gardner police or state police.

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

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The tense two-day manhunt for Maine mass shooting suspect Robert Card is over.

He is dead, Maine Gov. Janet Mills said at a Friday night press conference.

Like many people, I am breathing a sigh of relief tonight knowing that Robert Card is no longer a threat to anyone.

In a press conference Saturday morning Commissioner Michael Sauschuck, of the Maine Department For Public Safety, revealed more details about how Cards body was found.

Card was discovered in the back of large tractor-trailer filled with scrap metal, located in the overflow parking lot of Maine Recycling Corporation in Lisbon, where he had once worked, Sauschuck said. The main site of the recycling plant had been searched twice previously, but it was only when authorities examined unlocked trailers in the overflow lot that Card was discovered, according to Sauschuck.

Cards car was found nearby hours after the Wednesday night carnage in Lewiston. Sauschuck confirmed that police found a firearm in the white Subaru, which he described as a long gun, but did not specify the make or model.

He was located deceased from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Sauschuck said.

Authorities also confirmed that Card had left a note behind before embarking on his killing spree. Sauschuck did not read the note, but described its contents.

Its a note to a loved one and its saying, this is the passcode for my phone and this is the bank account number. I wouldnt describe it as an explicit suicide note, but the tone and tenor was that the individual was not going to be around and wanted to make sure that this loved one had access to his phone and whatever was in his phone, Sauschuck said.

On whether police had found a motive, Sauschuck said there was clearly a mental health component to this, but stressed the investigation is ongoing. He said there was no evidence so far that Card had been forcibly committed for mental health issues, and that therefore he would not have been prohibited from buying firearms.

Our work is not done here, Lewiston Police Chief Dave St. Pierre said on Friday. I just dont want to forget the families that are grieving and will continue to grieve.

Sauschuck said Cards family had been incredibly cooperative, and the first three people to positively identify Card based on photographs the police released had been family members.

Police had been flooded with more than 800 tips and leads from the community that they were continuing to investigate, Sauschuck continued.

He said the manhunt had been intensive, with police and tactical units working around the clock.

We were concerned right into the last second that we didnt know what this individual was going to do next, or where he was going to it, Sauschuck said.

Sauschuck announced a family assistance center for anyone who was present at the site of the shootings, and a separate mental health site for the wider community.

We have an investigation, Sauschuck said. This will slowly evolve over to a wellness and resiliency conversation for the community, and for the victims and others.

If you or a loved one are struggling with suicidal thoughts, please reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by dialing or texting 988.

Card, a 40-year-old Army reservist whose mental health had deteriorated severely in recent months, killed 18 people at two locations in Lewiston on Wednesday night.

Among those killed and injured at the Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley and Schemengees Bar were kids participating in a childrens bowling league and deaf bar-goers taking part in a cornhole night.

Family Reveals Suspected Gunmans Link to Maine Massacre Sites

Its relieving, so the community itself can definitely move on, Tammy Asselin, who was at the bowling alley with her 10-year-old daughter when Card opened fire, told CNN as the news of his death broke.

But its also sad because we have so many questions left unanswered, she said, weeping. I just want to ask him: Why?

Police confirmed that Card left a note at his home, but refused to provide further details or address a potential motive behind the murder spree.

Katie Card, the suspects sister-in-law, told The Daily Beast on Thursday that Card had claimed he was hearing voices after getting powerful hearing aids a few months ago. He truly believed he was hearing people say things, she added. This all just happened within the last few months.

Police on Friday afternoon released a full list of the 18 people who were killed. Maine State Police

On Friday evening, before Cards body was found, Sauschuck confirmed the identities of the 18 victims, whose ages ranged from 14 to 76.

They were identified as Ronald Morin, 55; Peyton Brewer, 40; Joshua Seal, 36; Bryan MacFarlane, 41; Joseph Walker, 57; Arthur Strout, 42; Maxx Hathaway, 35; Stephen Vozzella, 45; Thomas Conrad, 34; Michael Deslauriers, 51; Jason Adam, 51; Tricia Asselin, 53; William Young, 44; Aaron Young, 14; Robert Violette, 76; Lucille Violette, 73; William Brackett, 48; and Keith Macneir, 64.

Card had been hospitalized briefly over summer after he began behaving erratically while in training at the United States Military Academy, the New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs said. A former Army colleague told CNN that Card was one of the best shooters in their unit, and was very comfortable in the woods.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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A vigil is held on July 5, 2022, near the scene of a mass shooting at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois.

A vigil is held on July 5, 2022, near the scene of a mass shooting at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois.

Just after 6 p.m. Wednesday in Lewiston, Maine, a man armed with an AR-15- style weapon entered multiple locations, including a bar and a bowling alley, and opened fire killing 18 people and injuring 13.

Lewiston is home to 36,617 people, some of whom fled into the woods to escape the shooter. One man hid inside bowling alley machinery before running for his life. The suspect in the shooting, a 40-year-old Army reservist and certified tactical and firearm instructor, Robert Card, fled into the night and is currently the target of a manhunt.

As I watched the details emerge from the safety of my home in Highland Park, Illinois, one video left me breathless. There on my screen appeared to be a family  a man, woman and child  who scurried to safety, causing my stomach to sink and my eyes to burn with tears.

On July 4, 2022, my 6-year-old son and I fled the holiday parade we were in when a man opened fire with an AR-15-style weapon and killed seven people, injured 48 and sent thousands of paradegoers running for their lives.

The footage from Lewiston took me right back to that day.

In the year since our shooting, Ive become a full-time gun safety advocate. Ive also learned firsthand what mass shooting survivors and their communities need and how disproportionate the allocation of resources truly is.

One thing is certain: The ripple effects of mass shootings go far beyond the number of people injured and killed. The entire community is affected, and resources are most likely needed for every resident.

In the days following a mass shooting, many survivors will experience post-traumatic stress. Some will not be able to work. Some wont have health insurance or paid time off. Getting mental health care and resources to allow survivors time to take care of themselves is critical to the health of the entire community.

In our town of Highland Park, within a day of our shooting, the high school was transformed into a crisis center filled with dozens of therapists, piles of cheerful stuffed animals, and advocates from the state attorneys office. The services at the center were free to anyone who needed help, and it remained in place for weeks.

Uvalde, Texas, where a mass shooter used an AR-15-style weapon to murder 19 students and two educators at Robb Elementary School, did not erect a crisis center like Highland Park. Nor did Willowbrook, Illionis, a town one hour away from Highland Park where a gunman killed one person and shot 23 others at a Juneteenth party where more than 400 people had gathered.

In fact, every single day there are mass shootings across this country, and communities are left to pick up the pieces on their own without the necessary resources to help them heal.

I believe part of the problem lies in the reporting of mass shootings. Currently, we focus on the number of people killed and injured and we rarely talk about the total number of people affected by a mass shooting event  someone like my son, who was uninjured but ran for his life and needed thousands of dollars in therapy and additional taxpayer-funded resources at school.

We need to change that if we want to make sure that every person affected by a mass shooting has the help they need.

We can do this by expanding the conversation to include the number of residents in the community and the number of people present at a mass shooting  not just those killed or injured.

As the Lewiston mass shooting was unfolding, I knew I needed to act fast. I contacted the Lewiston police and the local news stations and asked them to include the number of residents and the number of those present at the mass shootings. During the first briefing around 9 p.m., a city councilman stated the populations of Lewiston: just under 40,000 people.

Focusing on the full community and the myriad ways that all of its members may be experiencing trauma allows for more opportunities to ensure everyone who needs help gets it. It can also help all of us reconceptualize how we understand gun violence and how deeply it can affect all of us  including, but not solely, direct victims.

The coming weeks and months will be difficult for all of those people and for the rest of our country as we mourn and try to make sense of another senseless and preventable gun tragedy. Lewiston and its people will come to find their new normal, and the rest of the country will carry them through this like they carried my community. Those of us who are fighting to end gun violence in the names of those who have been lost will continue to fight, and its my solemn hope that Lewiston will be the last community to bear this weight.

Ashbey Beasley is a proud Indigenous wife and mother, a serial entrepreneur and a mass shooting survivor turned activist.

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Many in the Scottish government do not understand the rules for using WhatsApp messages while in office, a former minister has said.

Alex Neil, who was SNP health secretary from 2012 to 2014, has called for an "urgent review" over use of the app.

It comes after reports that national clinical director Jason Leitch deleted his messages daily during the pandemic.

It means the messages cannot be handed to the UK or Scottish inquiries into how Covid was handled.

But Mr Neil, who has worked alongside Mr Leitch, also defended the national clinical director over the accusations.

He told BBC Scotland: "Jason hasn't done anything against the rules that were prevailing at the time.

"I don't think Jason Leitch should be hung out to dry for what's a systemic fault in the way the Scottish government's been run".

Prof Leitch, who was a high-profile figure during the Covid-19 pandemic, was reported to have deleted his WhatsApps by The Times newspaper.

He declined to comment when approached by the BBC.

Alex Neil was the SNP health secretary from 2012 to 2014

The allegations came after the Scottish government was accused of not handing over WhatsApp messages by a lawyer at the UK Covid inquiry.

On Friday, Deputy First Minister Shona Robison said ministers were "wholly committed" to supporting the work of both the UK and Scottish Covid-19 inquiries.

She said: "The Scottish government records management policy makes clear what must be recorded in the official record, given that it isn't practical, cost-effective or necessary for any organisation to retain every exchange that everyone working within that organisation creates.

"While it is not the culture within Scottish government to use WhatsApp for decision-making, our records management policy states clearly that government decisions, however they are made, should be recorded in the official record."

Ms Robison said more than 13,000 documents had been sent to the UK Inquiry from the Scottish government and, after a follow up request, said it was working to provide WhatsApp messages "relating to logistics and day-to-day communication".

Commenting on reports about Prof Leitch, she added: "All ministers and civil servants, including the National Clinical Director Jason Leitch, have been co-operating fully with the Covid-19 inquiries since their establishment."

'No man's land'

Mr Neil earlier dismissed the suggestion that discussions on WhatsApp move to official channels before decisions are made.

He said: "It is not true to say, or to try and mislead people, by saying we don't take decisions on WhatsApp.

"The lead up to the decision is on WhatsApp and that is supposed to be available in the public domain."

Mr Neil, who retired as MSP for Airdrie and Shotts in 2021, said the public should be able to access "everything building up to that decision" unless there was a legitimate reason for it to be blocked.

He said First Minister Humza Yousaf should ask the information commissioner to ensure that ministers are either prevented from using the app, or have to copy in their private office for government business.

He added: "It has to be one or the other. At the moment we're in no man's land and people don't really fully understand what the rules are, including government ministers."

This embedded content is not available in your region.

Mr Neil's comments came, after Jamie Dawson KC, the counsel to the UK Covid inquiry, said it was "surprising" that so many messages from politicians and officials had been deleted.

Mr Dawson, who believes that WhatsApp and other electronic messages appear to have been used in relation to key Scottish government decisions, said the "majority of the messages have not been retained by witnesses".

Humza Yousaf said he took Mr Dawson's comments "very seriously" and pledged that "all relevant information" would be handed over.

Meanwhile, Jane Morrison of Scottish Covid Bereaved Families, who appeared at the Scottish Covid-19 Inquiry in Edinburgh, said the public should be able to see ministers' WhatsApp messages.

She told BBC Scotland: "To not be able to see that, it takes an important step away from the decision making process and the knowledge of why people made that decision.

"What was their thinking behind that? Because often that's what's in a WhatsApp message."
A man was illegally carrying a handgun after he drove through the streets of a New York town in a car covered in swastikas, a Palestinian flag and pro-Hamas messages just blocks from a planned pro-Israel rally, officials said.

Hani Saleh, 47, was arrested Wednesday in White Plains at South Lexington Avenue and Quarropas Street after cops pulled over his Volkswagen, according to the White Plains Police Department

The vehicle sported a Palestinian flag along the top, according to photos obtained by Fox News Digital.

"The license plate on the vehicle had been apparently illegally altered, and the vehicle also had writing painted across the entire windshield obstructing the driver's view," White Plains Police Capt. James Spencer said in a statement shared with Fox.

2ND AVE DELI OWNER SAYS HE WAS SHOCKED AND UPSET TO SEE SWASTIKA DRAWN OUTSIDE FAMED NYC EATERY

Police said an investigation revealed the license plate, which appears to say "MMORTAL," to be a forged instrument. A weapon was also found inside the vehicle, along with other license plates, cops said.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

"An inventory subject to the vehicle being impounded revealed a .40-caliber handgun and several Arizona license plates along with a New York license plate," Spencer said. "Saleh was booked and processed for criminal possession of a forged instrument  and criminal possession of a weapon."

Written in what looked like red and white paint on the vehicle driven by Saleh was a variety anti-Israel messages that accused the country of "genocide" and the murders of thousands of Palestinians.

Spencer noted that Saleh, listed as a resident of Elmsford, New York, was also issued a traffic summons for the violations.

Saleh, after being stopped by police, was arrested two blocks away from the site of a pro-Israel rally slated to take place later that evening.

A number of anti-Israel messages were written in what looked like red and white paint on the vehicle driven by Saleh that accused the country of "genocide" and the murders of thousands of Palestinians.

A photo from the Westchester County District Attorney's office shows one window of the vehicle Saleh was driving when he was arrested.

"Holocaust in Gaza by the new [Nazis] USA + Israel. The terrorist [and] nuke power," one handwritten message along the back window stated. "Hamas resistance is not terrorism," another stated.

"2,050 Palestinian kids murdered by EU, USA, ISRAEL  how many kids more until ceasefire," was written along the right side of the vehicle.

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Another image shared by the Westchester County District Attorney's office revealed the driver's side of the vehicle, which featured an American flag with "ISIS" written above it and a larger swastika interlaced with the Star of David.

"USA=ISIS=ISRAEL," appeared on one side. "They are killing us."

Other images shared by the Westchester County District Attorney's office revealed the driver's side of the vehicle, which featured an American flag with "ISIS" written above it and a larger swastika interlaced with the Star of David.

Altered versions of the American and Israeli flags with swastikas were drawn on the vehicle driven by Saleh.

An investigation is ongoing, and Spencer said he and his department is working with federal law enforcement agencies. Saleh was arraigned Thursday and locked upin the Westchester County Jail.

Saleh is due back in court Nov. 2, according to the office of Westchester County District Attorney Miriam E. Rocah.





Original article source: Driver of car covered in pro-Hamas writing illegally had gun blocks from planned pro-Israel rally: police
A 27-year-old man is dead after he lost control of his pickup on an Interstate 82 on-ramp near Richland.

Investigators believe Austin M. Babcock of Newberg, Ore., was exiting Interstate 182 from the Richland area headed toward Oregon when he crashed on the I-82 on-ramp.

Trooper Sarah Clasen told the Tri-City Herald that its unclear if he crashed late Thursday or early Friday.

Another driver spotted the pickup at 7:34 a.m. and called 911.

The pickup had gone off the side of the ramp and rolled. The driver was not wearing a seat belt and was thrown from the truck. He was dead when officers arrived and it was clear the crash happened much earlier.

Troopers believe speed was a factor in him losing control.

Officials were working Friday on notifying the mans family before releasing his name.
MEMPHIS, Tenn.  Police say a man involved in a hit-and-run along Interstate 240 Wednesday night pulled a gun on a driver who chased after him.

Investigators said Buntim Tach, 30, also fired the weapon that turned out to be stolen.

The victim said he was eastbound on I-240 near South Perkins when he was hit from behind by a driver in a Cadillac Escalade. He said the driver of the Escalade refused to stop, so he called 911 and began following him.

The victim said when they reached the intersection of Cherry Road and Almo Avenue in Parkway Village, Tach pulled a gun, fired two shots in the air, pointed the weapon at him, and drove away.

Fayette-Ware High basketball coach cited for drugs on campus

The victim said his 3-year-old daughter was inside his vehicle when it happened.

Tach was taken into custody a half mile away at Cherry Road and Knight Arnold. Officers said they found a Smith & Wesson 9mm in Tachs glove compartment that came back as stolen out of Jackson, Tennessee.

Court records show Tach was arrested in August for allegedly stealing over $200 worth of merchandise from a Home Depot.

Tach is now facing two counts of theft of property and a charge of aggravated assault.

He is scheduled to appear before a judge on Friday.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com.
When Los Angeles City Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky proposed building temporary housing for 33 homeless people on a city-owned parking lot at the end of a residential block in her Westside district, the neighborhood erupted in fury.

Residents put up lawn signs denouncing the project, which is at the corner of Midvale Avenue and Pico Boulevard. Opponents created a website, warning that homeless people would inundate the area. At a meeting, people in the crowd booed Yaroslavsky, scoffed at her arguments for the project, and chanted, Recall! Recall! One person yelled, Put them in your house, Katy! The fact that Mayor Karen Bass was by her side, supporting her and the project, did not stem the outcry.

Even Eric Eisenberg, the former president of the city's Transportation Commission  ousted by Bass after he delayed a vote on the project  later warned ominously that if one child were harmed or one home robbed as a result, "that blood is on CD 5's hands."

No question about it, this is an unpopular project.

Read more: Editorial: When will L.A leaders stop getting in the way of a Venice homeless housing project?

But there is also no doubt that Yaroslavsky made a creative and courageous decision to propose it. A week ago the Los Angeles City Council unanimously backed her (with one member absent) by approving funding and an exemption from California Environmental Quality Act review for the project.

No district has had more trouble finding temporary housing for homeless people than Yaroslavskys. Council District 5 currently has less than a hundred interim beds, and those are open only to seniors, veterans or families. That means there are no places in the district where people between the ages of 18 and 55  who make up the majority of the homeless population in the area  can go when street encampments are cleared.

The Midvale housing project will offer modular units with bathrooms for 33 people who could bring their pets and their partners. Dining and laundry facilities and service providers will be available on site. The development will be surrounded by landscaping and fencing and have 24-hour security. The area around the site will be a no-camping zone, which means any homeless people camping on the sidewalk can be forced to leave the area.

Read more: Editorial: Judges aren't to blame for homelessness in California. Newsom should know better

I know that 33 beds doesnt seem like a lot. Its because in all honesty its not, Yaroslavsky told her council colleagues. Its not nearly enough considering the emergency we are in right now. But it is 33 more than have ever been built in Council District 5 for general population adults and they are absolutely critical.

Yaroslavsky has done everything she can to appease her opponents  except give in to them.

Yaroslavsky, who was elected in 2022, is discovering what other council members before her found out. Opposition to homeless housing can be swift, noisy and intimidating. When former Councilmember David Ryu proposed an emergency homeless shelter and a permanent housing project on two sites in Sherman Oaks in 2018, he, too, got his head bitten off at a community meeting. Neither project was built for various reasons.

A couple of years ago, Councilmember John Lee tried to claw back city-approved funds for a permanent supportive housing project in Chatsworth that was opposed by neighbors. The council didnt go for that, and the project proceeded. Former Councilmember Mike Bonin, along with then Mayor Eric Garcetti and Police Chief Michel Moore, were lambasted at a Venice town hall in 2018 when they explained why they were setting up interim housing for homeless people at a bus yard in Venice. (The project has had its problems, but it is still there.)

Los Angeles residents say they support housing for homeless people  and are even willing to tax themselves for it  but they always think there is another spot for it better than near wherever they live.

There isnt. Every possible place that can be turned into housing for more than 46,000 unhoused people in the city of Los Angeles should be found and used. There are few if any Goldilocks spots. This is a dense city. What available land is not near a home, school or business? And, no, homeless people cannot be exported to a desert. A recent study on homelessness in California found that 75% of homeless people surveyed are living in the same county where they became homeless.

Kudos to Yaroslavsky for not caving to the pressure. It would have been easier for her office and her political career if she'd walked away from controversy. She wouldn't have been the first elected leader to do so. But that's why Los Angeles has an affordable housing shortage and homelessness crisis. L.A. vests too much land-use authority in individual council members, which puts them under tremendous political pressure to bend to the localized opposition rather than make decisions that serve the broader needs of the city. Ultimately, the city has to fix its land-approval process so no individual council member can make or break a housing project.

If its in the news right now, the L.A. Times Opinion section covers it. Sign up for our weekly opinion newsletter.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
The Androscoggin County, Maine, Sheriff's Office released this still from security video of the gunman, suspected to be Robert Card, taken at a bowling alley in Lewiston. (Via Associated Press)

Robert Card, the suspected killer of at least 18 people in shootings at a bowling alley and a restaurant Wednesday night in Lewiston, Maine, reportedly served as a military reservist. Card, found dead on Friday night from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, had whats been described in news stories as a run-in with officials at a National Guard training facility several months ago. Family members said he had been hearing voices when he was fitted for high-powered hearing aids, and he was reported to have received psychiatric treatment.

Its human nature at a time like this to pick through bits of incomplete information in search of patterns that characterize mass shooters to understand what kind of person commits such horrendous crimes and why.

Read more: Editorial: There's no place like America for gun violence

Perhaps the typical mass killer is a military man? It is true that there have been high-profile shooters with military backgrounds, like the ex-Marine who gunned down 12 innocent people in a Thousand Oaks bar in 2018 and the Air Force veteran who killed 25 people and a fetus at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, in 2017. But that tenuous connection plays into false stereotypes about military personnel and does not account for the large number of incidents in which the killer has no military background.

Are mass shooters psychotic? It is oddly comforting to think so, especially for those who resist gun control. Mental illness and hatred pulls the trigger, not the gun, then-President Trump said in 2019, after shootings in El Paso and in Dayton, Ohio. But a majority of mass killers have never been diagnosed with any psychiatric disorders or undergone mental health treatment. And while the ranks of such killers clearly include racists and conspiracy theorists, they also include people with purely personal grievances, and plenty who had no discernible motive of any kind.

Read more: Editorial: Monterey Park shooting is horrific, but all too familiar

Some mass shooters perpetrate their violence in small towns, some in huge cities, some at movie theaters or dance studios  or newspaper offices, Christmas parties, parades, bars, elementary schools, universities, grocery stores, churches, bowling alleys. The vast majority are men, but they are young and old, and white, Latino, Black, Asian.

It's hard to find much in common among the 72-year-old man who killed 11 people in Monterey Park in January; the six people aged 15 to 20 who killed four people at a Sweet 16 birthday party in Dadeville, Ala., in April; the 33-year-old man who killed eight people at an Allen, Texas, shopping center in May; and the 59-year-old retired police sergeant who killed four in Trabuco Canyon in August  or any of the other perpetrators of horrid mass shootings in 2023.

Read more: Editorial: National suicide plays out one murderous mass shooting at a time

Researchers continue to seek common traits. They have found that many shooters act while in emotional crisis, but that generally they dont suddenly snap. They plan. They nurse their anger. They act.

But there is no consistent profile. Perpetrators are Americans of all stripes, committing a peculiarly American crime.

Read more: Editorial: California gun laws under threat by right-wing Supreme Court

The one thing they have in common is guns, which are more plentiful than ever in the United States. The COVID-19 pandemic and unrest in the wake of George Floyd's murder in 2020 helped spur a huge spike in gun sales.

At the same time, the U.S. Supreme Court has been rolling back weapons restrictions, in effect turning the 2nd Amendment into a national suicide pact. Next month, the court will hear arguments in a case challenging a federal law barring a person under a domestic violence restraining order from possessing firearms. The case will concern the court's bizarre dictate that no restriction is valid if it doesn't have an 18th century precedent.

Read more: Editorial: Court's domestic violence gun ruling shoots first, asks questions ... never

Domestic abusers are one of the few categories of people who experience tells us are more likely to commit gun violence. If we can no longer protect ourselves even from them, we will join the people of Lewiston and too many other communities to name, locked down in our homes, in fear of guns and the wide variety of our fellow Americans ready to use them against us.

If its in the news right now, the L.A. Times Opinion section covers it. Sign up for our weekly opinion newsletter.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
The House Republican spasm that began with bomb thrower Matt Gaetzs vendetta against Speaker Kevin McCarthy and saw the conferences civil war cycle through five leaders in three exhausting weeks seems to have cooled with Wednesdays election by the unanimous GOP members of new Speaker Mike Johnson (or is it Mike Jackson)?

We were so unfamiliar with this Louisianan from Shreveport that we didnt know his name or his face before he rose to the top Tuesday night after Speaker-designate Tom Emmers tenure died after four hours.

Emmer won the title after he beat eight rivals (including Johnson) who ran after Speaker-designate Jim Jordan was rejected by the GOP members following three failed elections on the House floor, when moderates refused to put the radical second in line to the presidency. Emmer garnered a majority of his Republican peers after five secret ballots, which could have done much more efficiently on a single tally using ranked choice voting. But the right wing balked because Emmer supported gay marriage and accepted Joe Bidens victory over Donald Trump. Trump also trashed Emmer.

But before Speaker-designate Johnson and Speaker-designate Emmer and Speaker-designate Jordan there was Speaker-designate Steve Scalise. He lasted a full day before quitting when the crazies vowed not to vote for him. We think that brings us up to date.

Johnson just saw his congressional salary jump 28.4% from the rank-and-file annual pay of $174,000 to the speakers post of $223,500. In New York politics, that extra money for legislators is called a lulu, and they are so rare in Congress that there are only three in each chamber, two for the majority and one for the minority. In fact, it was us who informed Brooklynites Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries that they were getting raises when they joined the top rung of leadership.

But back to Johnson. Who is this guy whos only in his fourth term and is now in charge? He is a Trump fan who won his first election in 2016, when Trump won. In 2020, Johnson was the main instigator in the House of a hopeless legal effort to have the courts throw out the Electoral College results in four states won by Biden.

In his speech Wednesday, he pledged to have a resolution in support of Israel be the first matter of business for the House, which did happen, passing with 412-10. But that bipartisan unity will not last long. And neither may Johnson.

The new speakers father was a Shreveport firefighter who was badly burned in a 1984 blast that killed another firefighter and who died right before the younger Johnson was elected in 2016. Johnson should honor his dad, and all firefighters, by fully funding the World Trade Center Health Program, which covers the medical bills of first responders and others suffering from 9/11-related illnesses.

Hell have to deal with aid for Israel and Ukraine and funding of the government for the federal fiscal year that began on Oct. 1. It was McCarthys correct deal with the Senate and White House to keep Uncle Sam going that caused Gaetzs rebellion. We note that Johnson voted to shut down the government.

Johnson will get his own chance in just 22 days, on Nov. 17, which is when McCarthys deal expires. He better be careful or his speakership will be very brief.

___
Schools must provide students with education built on family, faith and entrepreneurship, Ian V. Rowe told BYUs Wheatley Institute on Thursday, noting quality education has no room for victimhood.

Rowe is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, cofounder and CEO of Vertex Partnership Academies, a nonprofit public charter school network based in the Bronx, and author of Agency: The Four Point Plan for ALL Children to Overcome the Victimhood Narrative and Discover Their Pathway to Power. He is also the son of Jamaican immigrants who came to the United States in 1968, as he earlier told Deseret News.

Rowe emphasized the power of a quality education, while lamenting the seriousness of the education decline in America. A beneficiary of high-quality education from Brooklyn Technical High School, Cornell University and Harvard Business School, Rowe emphasized the damaging impact of the victimization of minorities within the education system.

According to Rowe, the American race crisis had been growing for more than a decade when suddenly the death of George Floyd made questions regarding education more pertinent. People were asking what needed to happen for African Americans and young people of all races to prosper in the United States educational systems.

He saw firsthand how badly parents wanted their children to thrive in school. From 2010 to 2020, Rowe served as CEO of a network of charter schools in the Bronx and the lower East side of Manhattan. Every year the school had 200 to 300 open seats, and admission was granted by a random lottery. More than 5,000 families were on the waiting list.

Parents were looking for better educational opportunities for their children. In the school districts where Rowe opened schools, only 7% of students graduated ready for college. He flipped the statistic, noting, That means a shocking 93% of students either dropped out of high school before completing their senior year or, if they did manage to graduate and earn a high school diploma, they still could not do math or reading without remediation if they were to go to college.

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Instead of increasing the quality of education across the board, Rowe said, education systems are focused on fixing racial disparities. He said his issue with that approach is that students of every color, including white students, are being failed by their education system.

The sad irony is that by closing the Black-white achievement gap, if we were actually able to do that, would guarantee only universal mediocrity for all students, he said.

The two current paths educators can take when teaching students are agency and equity. Rowe described agency as the empowering alternative to equity. This approach places the reins of destiny firmly in the hands of the individual, he said.

Equity, on the other hand, is the absence of inequity. This approach pushes personal responsibility onto society and requires top-down behavioral changes for progress to be made among the public.

Rowe described the equity approach as irreconcilable.

Equity as the foundation of education will never empower students to progress in the way the U.S. government was designed to empower them to be able to, he said. If we want to build a self-governing free society, then we need to cultivate individuals that have the ability to self-govern themselves.

Indoctrination is a little-understood part of the challenge education poses, according to Rowe. He said the term usually comes with assumptions that children are being taught harmful ideologies, but he said every institution with young people involves indoctrination. Exhibited values, enforced procedures and even teacher behavior influence a young students moral framework.

Even if youre choosing to do nothing, you are telling kids that theres no formal frame from which they should make decisions, he said.

Vertex Partnership Academies curriculum is based on four cardinal virtues  courage, justice, temperance and wisdom  to provide students with a strong foundation.

He described listening to his students recite the poem Invictus. He said, Imagine our lunchroom, all of our students are standing up in their uniforms with their beautiful blazers, reciting the last two lines, I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul.

Vertex Partnership Academies school motto is There are no victims in our school, only architects of their lives, and while watching his students recite Invictus, Rowe said he felt as though he was accomplishing what he set out to do.

While empowering education for students is critical, Rowe said that alone wasnt enough. Family and religion are also crucial to self-betterment. With a non-marital birthrate of over 80% in his school district, Rowes curriculum teaches students the success sequence: education, work, marriage and children. In that order.

Instructors teach about this success sequence descriptively, not prescriptively. He emphasized the importance of students feeling capable of improving. Its not so much about the family that youre from, its about the family that youre on the pathway to form, he told the audience.

Correction: Vertex Partnership Academies was referred to as Public Prep in an earlier version of the article and has been corrected.
GAZA (Reuters) -A medical team and 10 aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip on Friday via the Rafah crossing with Egypt, carrying water, food and medicine, a Palestinian border official told Reuters.

"This Friday morning, a medical delegation consisting of 10 foreign doctors entered, in addition to 10 trucks entering the Gaza Strip through the Rafah land crossing, carrying water, food and medicine, bringing the total number of trucks since the beginning of the war to only 84 trucks," the official said.

Detailed negotiations were taking place with Israel in a bid to secure more humanitarian crossings into the Israeli-besieged enclave, Lynn Hastings, U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, told a press briefing in Geneva.

"In addition to the technical issues and the security issues, there are political issues as well," Hastings said. "And there's a certain amount of pressure on the government of Israel in terms of its domestic politics."

Gaza has been hit by unrelenting Israeli air strikes in response to the cross-border attack by Hamas gunmen into southern Israel on Oct. 7. Israel says Hamas killed some 1,400 people. The Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry say more than 7,000 Palestinians have been killed in the air strikes.

There is still no agreement to get fuel into Gaza, and the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency has said the absence of fuel was jeopardising life-saving humanitarian operations there.

The World Food Programme said at the same U.N. briefing that 21 of 23 bakeries it worked with in Gaza have had to shut due to fuel shortages.

"People are risking their lives and queuing for hours to secure bread and many are going back to their shelter with no bread in their hands," said Samer AbdelJaber, WFP representative in Jerusalem. "We cannot sit and wait for people to starve."

Officials are also grappling with the issue of deciding how to distribute the scant aid.

"We are aware of the 1,000 patients that require dialysis and over 100 children and babies that are in incubators, so we do our best to try and make the prioritisation in accordance with the greatest needs," Hastings said.

Already, 12 hospitals or about a third of the total in Gaza have shut down due to damage or lack of fuel, the U.N. humanitarian office said on Friday. Others have also become shelters for tens of thousands of people who have fled their homes as they seek safety from bombings.

The World Health Organization's Richard Peeperkorn described scenes of patients being operated on in hospital corridors without anaesthetics and medical supplies being "ripped off" delivery trucks. "(The doctors) have never seen the scenes before in all their lives," he told the briefing from Jerusalem.

(Reporting by Gabrielle Tetrault-Farber, Emma Farge and Nidal Al-Mughrabi; Editing by Friederike Heine, Miranda Murray and Mike Harrison)
EL CAJON, Calif.  Five stolen vehicles were recovered and 10 arrests were made in a span of seven days with the help of license plate reading cameras in El Cajon.

Between Thursday, Oct. 19 and Wednesday, Oct. 25, the El Cajon Police Department said real-time alerts tipped off law enforcement multiple times. Heres a breakdown of those incidents:

 Oct. 19: Police said they were alerted to a stolen 2014 BMW X5 around 12:45 p.m. They located the vehicle and arrested the driver, who was identified as 27-year-old Tedy Galvan Rocha of San Diego.

Carlsbad police identifies officer involved in shootout

 Oct. 19: Officers were alerted to another stolen vehicle, a 2014 Mercedes sedan, around 1:45 p.m. The vehicle was found and five juveniles ran from the vehicle, ECPD explained. With the help of the sheriffs helicopter unit, all five juveniles were arrested.

 Oct. 22: ECPD was alerted to a stolen 2000 Honda CRV around 1:45 p.m. A short time later, officers arrested the driver, who was identified as 38-year-old National City resident Lorenzo Escoto. Police said stolen mail was also found in the vehicle.

 Oct. 23: A license plate reading camera alerted authorities to a stolen 1994 Nissan Sentra at 9:30 p.m. The driver of the vehicle, 56-year-old Ricardo Benavidez of El Cajon, was located and arrested near Jamacha and Lexington.

Elderly woman killed in East County house fire identified

 Oct. 25: ECPD aid officers found a stolen 2017 Kia Rio in the area of 1500 E Main around 11:45 a.m. Two juveniles reportedly ran from the vehicle. They were later located with the help of the sheriffs helicopter and were arrested.

Anyone with additional information regarding these incidents is encouraged to contact the ECPD at (619) 579-3311. Individuals with information who wish to remain anonymous can call the Crime Stoppers tip line at (888) 580-8477

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego.
Unwanted guns and ammo can be turned over to El Paso County officials this weekend with no questions asked and participants can even earn gift cards during a one-day, 100% anonymous gun buyback event.

El Paso County will host a drive-up, gun buyback event from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday, Oct. 28, at Ascarate Park, 6900 Delta Drive, officials said. The event is in partnership with the El Paso County Attorney's Office and the El Paso County Sheriff's Office.

El Paso County law enforcement officials demonstrate how the anonymous Gun Buyback Program will function to journalist on Oct. 24, 2023. The Gun Buyback Program will happen on Saturday Oct. 28, 2023 at Ascarate Park from 8 a.m. to noon.

"The idea with this program is to make it safe, easy, convenient, and to incentivize people that do not want their weapons to come forward and anonymously turn them in," El Paso County Attorney Jo Anne Bernal said in a statement.

El Pasoans will be able to turn over unwanted guns and ammunition voluntarily. Nonfunctional firearms can be turned over as well.

Privately manufactured firearms without serial numbers, known as "ghost guns," will not be accepted.

Community members can turn over up to 10 guns, officials said. All weapons will be "retrieved with a no-questions-asked policy by law enforcement," officials said.

More: 'A kind and caring person.' El Paso woman dies in shooting outside El Jaguar restaurant bar

Prepaid gift cards will be given in exchange for the firearms.

The buyback amounts for firearms accepted are:

$50 for non-functioning firearms

$100 for rifles and shotguns

$150 for handguns

$200 for assault rifles

Guns turned over during the event will be destroyed by county and federal guidelines, officials said.

"The safety of the community is the number one priority of the buyback event, as unwanted guns are at a greater risk of being stolen or used illegally," El Paso County officials said in a news release. "The program is aimed at working with the public and local law enforcement to keep unwanted firearms out of the wrong hands, prevent injury, or a loved one ending their life. 'If we save one life, it will be worth it.'"

El Paso County law enforcement officials demonstrate how their anonymous Gun Buyback Program will operate to journalists on Oct. 24, 2023 at the El Paso County Sheriff's Office. The Gun Buyback Program will take place from 8 a.m. to noon Oct. 28, 2023 at Ascarate Park.

Las Cruces and Southern New Mexico residents will also have the opportunity to turn over unwanted guns.

New Mexico State Police is holding a gun buyback event from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday, Nov. 4, at the Sportsman's Warehouse, located at 2230 N. Telshor Blvd. in Las Cruces, state police officials said.

Firearms may be functional or nonfunctional. No questions will be asked about who owns the guns or where they came from, state police officials said.

More: 2 men arrested in East El Paso house party shooting

New Mexico residents will receive Visa or American Express gift cards for turning over firearms. The buyback amounts are:

$200 for handguns

$300 for rifles, shotguns, and assault weapons

"This is a proactive measure to prevent tragedies involving guns," New Mexico State Police Chief Troy Weisler said in a statement. "We want to help remove unwanted guns from our communities and reduce the risk of deadly accidents, homicides, and suicides."

New Mexico State Police also are holding gun buyback events the same day in Albuquerque and Espanola, officials said.

Aaron Martinez may be reached at amartinez1@elpasotimes.com or on Twitter @AMartinezEPT.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: El Paso hosting 'no questions asked' gun buyback event
WASHINGTON  As a Republican who played a key role in trying to overturn the 2020 election results for former President Donald Trump was elected House speaker on Wednesday, a U.S. Capitol Police officer testified in federal court about the lingering impact of the brutal Jan. 6 attack perpetrated by a mob that believed those election lies.

U.S. Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards, the first officer seriously injured on Jan. 6, 2021, testified Wednesday afternoon in the bench trial of Ryan Samsel and four other Trump supporters. Samsel, who was carrying an enormous flag that featured Trump depicted as Rambo from the Sylvester Stallone films, is accused of pushing a metal bike rack into officers, causing Edwards to stumble back and hit her head and briefly black out.

Samsel is on trial before U.S. District Judge Jia M. Cobb, alongside co-defendants James Tate Grant, Paul Russell Johnson, Stephen Chase Randolph and Jason Benjamin Blythe.

Edwards testified Wednesday that she and other officers "were the line of defense" on the west side of the Capitol. After the initial breach of the barricades near Peace Circle, rioters viciously assaulted law enforcement officers and overtook the platform that had been set up for President Joe Biden's inauguration.

As Samsel and other rioters broke the barricades on Jan. 6, Edwards testified, she lost her footing and hit her head on a metal handrail behind her. "I landed with my head on the stairs," she said. The last thing she remembered was the clank she heard when her jaw hit metal, she said.

Adrenaline took over, Edwards testified, saying that when another officer told her they had to move, she immediately focused in, despite feeling dazed and confused.

"The lights were on," Edwards said, describing her demeanor, "but no one was home."

At that point, Edwards said, she believed that rioters were trying to get to the inauguration platform to tear it down. Call after call flooded in over her radio, requests for assistance as the mob took over the Capitol. At one point, she said, Samsel approached her, giving her back the beanie that had fallen off her head during the initial breach. Samsel kept telling her that he was the one who helped pick her up off the ground after her fall. Edwards said that she placated him  yeah, OK, thanks  but that she felt he was trying to convince her of something. She was "uncomfortable," she said, when Samsel placed his hand on her.

There was so much to do as the chaos unfolded, she said, and Edwards stayed in the fight. "I knew that I was hurt, but it just wasn't a factor," Edwards said. Another call cracked over the radio: A rioter had breached an evacuation route, she said, and Edwards handcuffed the person and took him into prisoner processing at the headquarters building.

Edwards started feeling groggy and dizzy, she said, and she wasn't quite sure what was happening. She asked a colleague where the computers were, even though she had been to headquarters and used the computers before, she testified, adding that when she sat down in front of the monitor, "it was like there were two of them."

She remembers feeling exhausted, she said, and she blacked out again  she was not sure for how long, but she remembered waking up, slumped over in a chair in a cold sweat.

Another officer said her face looked "crooked" and asked her whether she'd been struck, she testified. They called an ambulance. She felt a dull pain along her jaw and head. Hospitals were full, so the ambulance took her to Silver Spring, Maryland, where hospital personnel put her in a neck collar and gave her a CT scan, she said.

"Absolutely excruciating," Edwards said, describing the pain she began feeling in her head. She felt like screaming, like throwing up, like crying, she told the court. It felt like someone had taken her head and tried to tear it apart, she said.

In the nearly three years since the attack, Edwards has tried "quite a few things" to treat the migraines she has had ever since her jaw hit metal. She testified that one of the treatments required her to inject her thigh every month.

"I have almost no sick leave left," Edwards said. "I've used all my leave dealing with my migraines."

Edwards was away from work for a few months after the Jan. 6 attack and then returned on light duty. That essentially meant sitting at a desk, answering phones. It was demoralizing, she said.

"My job is not to answer phones," Edwards said. "It's to be a police officer."

Edwards had another medical episode and was wheeled out on a gurney, and Capitol Police were hesitant to return her to full duty. Today, she said, she still uses blue-light-blocking glasses when she uses a computer.

Edwards is now a peer support counselor for officers, helping other officers who had emotional trauma after the attack. Several officers who served at the Capitol on Jan. 6 have died by suicide, including Jeffrey Smith, who was found to have died in the line of duty because his suicide was a direct result of the assaults he endured on Jan. 6.

Samsel is represented by Stanley Woodward, a Washington attorney who had represented several other Jan. 6 defendants, as well as Trump aides who have been caught up in the federal investigations being run by special counsel Jack Smith. One of the aides, Walt Nauta, was charged in the classified documents case in Florida and had pleaded not guilty.

During cross-examination, Woodward noted the "incredibly difficult" situation Edwards has gone through.

Woodward asked Edwards about the emotional strain she'd been through in the years since Jan. 6, and whether she'd agree that she'd lived with a lot of stress since the Capitol attack.

"I believe we all have," Edwards replied.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
A year after billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk finalized his $44 billion purchase of Twitter, some LGBTQ people say the once-hospitable home for community building has turned toxic.

Monica Rose, who lives in Toronto, joined Twitter in 2008, just two years after the social media website debuted, and she said that at that time, it was like a cute little group of friends.

Rose, a transgender woman, said that most of her Twitter community was also trans and that she interacted with prominent trans activists and followed news about the surge in state legislation targeting transgender people.

But Roses feelings about the platform quickly soured, she said, after Musk took it over in October 2022; he later renamed it X.

The changes and statements affecting LGBTQ people have come in waves.

In November, days after he became Twitters owner, Musk boosted a false, anti-gay rumor about Paul Pelosi, the husband of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, after an attack at the couples home. The same month, he reinstated numerous accounts that the previous Twitter management had suspended, often for anti-LGBTQ harassment, and he began to lay off employees who worked on reducing abuse, such as misinformation and harassment.

In December, he mocked pronoun usage and then smeared a gay former Twitter employee with a false claim that he supported child abuse. He also dissolved Twitters Trust and Safety Council, a group of outside advisers for fighting online abuse.

In April, he quietly removed the sites previous ban on intentionally using the incorrect pronouns or names for transgender people, practices known as misgendering and deadnaming that are offensive and are often used as tools of harassment online.

Then, on June 2, the second day of Pride Month, Musk shared an anti-trans video, propelling it to more than 190 million views. Despite Musks repeated jabs at trans people online and his statement in June, which has since been deleted, that he will be actively lobbying to criminalize aspects of trans health care for minors, Musk has at times said he does support trans people. In 2020, he said, I absolutely support trans, but all these pronouns are an esthetic nightmare.

Musk has a trans daughter who has said she does not want to be associated with him in any way, shape or form.

Anika Collier Navaroli, a former senior Twitter policy official who helped write the rules that Musk has changed, said Musk seemed not to comprehend that online bullying can lead to harm in the real world.

Hes taking us backwards in time, she said. She left Twitter in 2021 and is now a senior fellow at Columbia Universitys Tow Center for Digital Journalism. The work was: We keep people safe. When that gets rolled back, we know the implications of that, which is sometimes life and death.

Rose said that before Musks acquisition, she had faced some anti-trans hate on the platform but that Twitters policies at the time allowed her to report it and then Twitter would often remove it and she could block people who harassed her.

After Musk bought the platform, Rose said, she would report accounts she believes would have previously violated its policy against hate speech, but she would receive responses that said there was no violation, and the accounts would remain active.

And some of the reports were taking four or five months to get processed, Rose said.

Eventually, Rose could not keep up with the amount of hate she was facing, and she ultimately left the platform in July, saying it has become a cesspool.

Xs press office responded to an emailed request for comment with an automated response: Busy now, please check back later.

In the past year, LGBTQ people running some of the most-followed accounts have abandoned the platform. Elton John, who has over a million followers, announced in December that he would quit because of policy changes allowing misinformation.

All my life Ive tried to use music to bring people together. Yet it saddens me to see how misinformation is now being used to divide our world, John wrote Dec. 9. He has not posted since, despite a personal appeal from Musk.

A representative for John said he was not available for comment.

All my life Ive tried to use music to bring people together. Yet it saddens me to see how misinformation is now being used to divide our world.



Ive decided to no longer use Twitter, given their recent change in policy which will allow misinformation to flourish unchecked.  Elton John (@eltonofficial) December 9, 2022

Ellen DeGeneres, who for years had the crown for the most-retweeted post ever, has not posted to her 75 million followers in six months, even as she remains active on Instagram. A representative for DeGeneres did not respond to a request for comment on Xs current state.

George Hahn, an actor, writer and humorist who is gay, is also among those who have given up on X. He has 292,000 followers on the platform but has gradually backed away.

I hated to leave 300,000 followers. I worked very hard to get to that number, and its a community thats been very good to me, he said.

But Musks boosting of misinformation about Paul Pelosi was the last straw, Hahn said, and he has moved his social media efforts to Threads, the X competitor created by Instagram. He has little hope that Musk will change.

Hes not going to wake up and say: You know, Ive been a jerk here. I should make some changes. Its not going to happen, he said. I dont want to create any free content that contributes to the business success of that person.

LGBTQ advocacy groups say anti-LGBTQ hate on the platform is the worst it has ever been, though they are not exactly surprised. In April 2022, just after Twitters board of directors agreed to sell the website to Musk, some LGBTQ users and advocates feared that the harassment they already faced on the site would get worse, citing Musks views on free speech and his past statements about LGBTQ people.

Those fears have largely come true, at least according to anecdotal accounts like Roses and research from nonprofit groups.

A report in March found that posts linking the LGBTQ community to grooming  a false trope based on a decades-old moral panic  had jumped 119% since Musk took over the platform, according to the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a British nonprofit group that combats online hate and disinformation. The report found that five of the accounts with the largest followings that perpetuate the groomer narrative were set to generate $6.4 million a year in ad revenue for the platform.

X Corp., the parent company of X, sued the group in July, arguing that it had orchestrated a scare campaign to drive away advertisers from the X platform. The Center for Countering Digital Hate said the move was straight out of the authoritarian playbook, and it said Musk will not bully us into silence. The suit is pending.

GLAAD, an LGBTQ media advocacy group, releases an annual Social Media Safety Index and Platform Scorecard that evaluates social media platforms policies that ensure safety for LGBTQ users. In its most recent scorecard, published in June, X ranked in last place among the major social media platforms.

The user safety experience on X/Twitter has steadily declined over the past year  for LGBTQ people, for all historically marginalized groups, and for everyone, including brands and advertisers who understandably dont want their ads appearing next to extremist hate content, a GLAAD spokesperson said in an email.

The spokesperson added that Xs current business model prioritizes monetizing user-generated bullying of other users, high profile public figures, and members of the general public.

GLAAD described Musks policy changes, including the removal of the ban on targeted misgendering and deadnaming, as increasingly reckless and said Musk has continually elevated anti-trans hate speech, harassment and disinformation by liking, replying to and sharing content from anti-LGBTQ hate accounts.

The GLAAD spokesperson said the organization has kept sharing content on X to continue reaching and celebrating LGBTQ people, adding, Our community is consistently creative and resilient, and we refuse to be silent or erased.

Studying what is happening on Twitter has become much more difficult for outside researchers in the past year after Musk ended free access to the interface researchers used to get data in May.

Elon has shut down essentially all good faith efforts to measure pretty much anything about Twitter, said Jeremy Blackburn, an associate professor of computer science at Binghamton University in New York.

There is no realistic mechanism to acquire Twitter data at the scale sufficient to measure things like hate and extremism, he said.

Though many LGBTQ people have left X because of Musks changes, many others have chosen to stay. Alejandra Caraballo, a transgender advocate and clinical instructor at Harvard Laws Cyberlaw Clinic, said she remains because of the real-life impact of the increase in hateful content.

She mentioned the account Libs of TikTok, which has 2.6 million followers and led an online campaign against childrens hospitals that provide transition-related care to minors. Hospitals in Pittsburgh, Washington, D.C., and Boston have received bomb threats after the account accused them in posts of grooming or harming children, according to The Washington Post.

These kinds of hate campaigns are causing real world effects where people are getting death threats, theyre getting bomb threats, theyre getting harassed, doxxed, Caraballo said. I myself was getting CCd on bomb threats that were targeting schools primarily, but anything related to the LGBTQ community. Its hard to leave in some ways, because I kind of want to know whats inciting this right now.

Though she believes X has become more unsafe for LGBTQ people, Caraballo said Musks allowing hateful content to proliferate has weakened the platforms power.

Elon Musk doing this to Twitter destroyed the cultural capital that it had, she said. And so even though hes putting the thumb on the scale so heavily towards this far-right, extreme content, because so many people have left, especially prominent people, it no longer carries the weight that it did or influence that it did.

Caraballo has not found another platform that fills the gap left by X, but Rose has turned to Bluesky, an invitation-only website similar to X.

Laurel Powell, the director of communications at the Human Rights Campaign, the countrys largest LGBTQ advocacy group, said the organization worked with Twitter before Musk bought it to help develop policies that protected LGBTQ people from misgendering, discrimination and hate speech. Now, Musk has done away with the policy against misgendering and largely disbanded the moderation teams that had helped enforce the anti-discrimination and anti-hate speech policies.

It was a very useful platform that had an outsize influence on the discourse thats happening in our society, and now, all thats out the window, and theyre just failing to do their basic duty to protect LGBTQ+ people, organizations that advocate for LGBTQ+ people and any number of other marginalized groups, Powell said.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Twitter-formerly-X owner Elon Musk is, apparently, finally getting the "everything app" of his dreams  or is at least ordering his employees to build out his vision for one.

In the first all-hands meeting since renaming the company on Thursday, per audio acquired by The Verge, Musk told employees that he sees the app becoming a payment platform by the end of 2024.

"It would blow my mind," the billionaire said, "if we dont have that rolled out by the end of next year."

X's new-ish CEO Linda Yaccarino echoed Musk's sentiments and said that she sees a "full opportunity" for Twitter payments in the next year, too. As The Verge notes, the meeting was the first time the CEO and owner have addressed employees and taken their questions in a formal setting together.

But whether Musk's vision will end up coming to fruition in such a short timespan  let alone if enough people are willing to hand over their banking information to a company that's billions of dollars in debt  remains to be seen.

And it's not just basic banking information Musk wants from you.

"When I say payments, I actually mean someones entire financial life," the multi-hyphenate social network owner said. "If it involves money. Itll be on our platform. Money or securities or whatever. So, its not just like, send $20 to my friend. Im talking about, like, you wont need a bank account."

To make that happen, Musk, who has apparently been working on this shift since the site was still called Twitter, said that he intends to secure the licensing to make money transfers within "the next few months."

Notably, Musk didn't address the Federal Trade Commission's ongoing investigation into Twitter's privacy practices or the agency's allegations that his ownership "may have jeopardized data privacy and security," all of which could undermine the company's efforts to get into your bank account.

In the same call, the X owner spoke to his longstanding desire for an "everything app," and took it all the way back to his PayPal Mafia days  though to him, it was better known as X.com, his banking platform that he merged with PayPal.

"The X/PayPal product roadmap was written by myself and David Sacks actually in July of 2000," Musk told what remains of his staff. "And for some reason PayPal, once it became eBay, not only did they not implement the rest of the list, but they actually rolled back a bunch of key features, which is crazy. So PayPal is actually a less complete product than what we came up with in July of 2000, so 23 years ago."

He didn't add one important piece of context to that curious little story: that after he merged his banking site, X.com, with Peter Thiel's PayPal-owning company Confinity, he was ousted as CEO after trying to shift the branding away from the PayPal name and towards the letter X.

After his dismissal, PayPal has become an immensely successful fintech company.

More on X: Twitter Use Has Absolutely Plummeted Since Elon Musk Took Over
The home at 668 Potomac Court in San Jose is on the market, with interesting features. (Google Maps)

Home prices in California, especially those in Silicon Valley, may be making prospective buyers desperate, but one home for sale in San Jose would test even the most accommodating buyer.

It comes with meth contamination and was once used, police say, for storing bomb-making materials.

The 2,743-square-foot, six-bedroom home on Potomac Court has an attached garage as well as an "inactive meth lab and meth contamination," according to its listing at Keller Williams Realty-Silicon Valley. And what's more, it's being sold as is.

The home's asking price is $1.55 million  a relative bargain for a house of its size. Four-bedroom homes in the area are listed at around the same price.

"Home has not been cleared of contamination and will be transferred to the new buyer in its current state," the listing says.

Under California law, property owners are required to disclose potential hazards  methamphetamine contamination included  to potential buyers or tenants.

The Keller Williams agent did not respond to a request for comment.

Read more: Pilot's 'breakdown' is a reminder: Many fear seeking mental health help, advocates say

A "Breaking Bad" vibe isn't all you can get with this San Jose home.

In addition to its former use as a meth lab, the home was allegedly used to stockpile weapons and build explosives used in the destruction of several Pacific Gas & Electric transformers in 2022 and 2023.

Previous owner Peter Karasev, 35, was arrested in March on suspicion of blowing up the transformers after an investigation by San Jose police.

In security footage shared by the San Jose Police Department, a man can be seen planting a device near a transformer, which then explodes as the person rides away on a bicycle.

Karasev was arrested at his workplace, but over the course of four days, investigators searched the Potomac Court home  evacuating neighboring homes to do so  and found homemade explosives and a number of firearms including rifles and handguns and "a large quantity of hazardous materials," San Jose Police Assistant Chief Paul Joseph said in a news conference in March.

A "homemade liquid explosive, multiple energetic homemade destructive devices" and what police identified as a pipe bomb were seized at the home.

Karasev lived there with his wife and three young children, police said.

Karasev was charged by the Santa Clara County district attorney's office with possession of a destructive device, igniting a destructive device and child endangerment, among other charges.

The Mercury News on Tuesday reported that Karasev also faces a federal indictment.

Time will tell whether the history of the home, as well as the needed meth cleanup, will be a factor in its selling price or time on the market.

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.
An empty boat sparked a search for a 70-year-old fisherman who was later found dead in a North Carolina reservoir, officials said.

Larry Drakes body was pulled from the water after an hourslong search for clues. At about 5 p.m. Oct. 25, officers were called to the Rocky Mount Reservoir for a report of an unoccupied boat that was anchored near a small island.

Investigators discovered the boat was registered to Drake. Family members said they hadnt heard from him since he set out on a fishing trip early Oct. 25, the Rocky Mount Police Department said in a news release.

There are no signs of foul play, police wrote during their search, adding that a cadaver dog team and other groups of first responders joined the effort to look for Drake.

Then on Oct. 26, police announced that Rocky Mount Fire Department divers found the missing man in the reservoir. Drake was taken out of the water and pronounced dead.

Our thoughts are with his family during this difficult time, officers wrote. The Rocky Mount Police Department is thankful for all the first responders who came together to assist in this search.

The department in its news release didnt reveal how Drake died but told McClatchy News in an email that officers are awaiting autopsy results.

Rocky Mount is roughly 60 miles northeast of Raleigh.

Friend discovers missing anglers pole, North Carolina cops say. Body found days later

Falling tree kills wife canoeing on river, injures husband and a child, NC officials say
WASHINGTON (WDVM)  Police said Thursday that Christopher Haynes, a man accused of murder who escaped custody at George Washington University Hospital in September, was in custody.

In a news conference Thursday afternoon, the U.S. Marshals said that Haynes was taken into custody around 10:30 a.m. in Oxon Hill, Maryland, more than six weeks after he first escaped.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Two weeks on the run, police still searching for escaped DC homicide suspect Christopher Haynes

Haynes escaped custody on Sept. 6 while he was being treated for an ankle injury. Police said that an officer was changing Haynes handcuffs when he assaulted the officer and ran away.

Haynes had previously been taken into custody by the Metropolitan Police Department in Manassas, Virginia, on a warrant out of the District of Columbia for the killing of Brent Hayward, 33, on Aug. 12.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Mother fearful after sons accused murderer escapes DC police custody

During Thursdays news conference, police said that Haynes will be facing his original murder charge as well as an additional charge for escape.

Officials could not comment on whether or not anyone else helped Haynes or would be facing any charges. The U.S. Marshals did say that he was taking actions to conceal his location.

Any escape is troubling because we arrest them for a reason, U.S. Marshal for the United States Marshals Service for the Superior Court of the District of Columbia Robert Dixon said during the update.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego.
The 2021 film "My Octopus Teacher" swept the world with its touching story of a South African man who befriends a wild octopus while free diving in a kelp forest. Millions of filmgoers were charmed and moved by the wild octopus' adventures and antics  yet that wild octopus was a lucky one. According to Dr. Barbara J. King, professor emerita of anthropology at the College of William & Mary and author of "How Animals Grieve" (and other books on animals), nearly two dozen blue-lined octopuses living off Australia's Stradbroke Island suffered a much grimmer fate.

She described "this more recent experiment in which 21 wild octopuses going about their daily lives were collected from their homes in coastal waters and in the laboratory killed so their brains could be studied," King told Salon by email. "These octopuses pay the ultimate price  they are killed because researchers are curious to know about comparative brain anatomy vis-a-vis habitat."

Although the researchers wrote that they had obtained an animal ethics permit, King scoffed at the notion that such a permit could be justified in this situation.



"Justifying this cost (death of 21 animals) by saying that an 'animal ethics permit' was obtained in no way alters my opinion that this is unethical and immoral research: what right do we have to end the life of 21 octopuses for this experiment?" King argued. "Would we do this to 21 chimpanzees?"

King is not the only scientist comparing octopuses to chimpanzees. Both animals have displayed extreme intelligence, so much so that last month the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) rocked the science world with an arguably overdue announcement: Cephalopods like octopuses and squids could receive the same protections in laboratory settings currently given to mice and monkeys. The agency has put out a request for information, seeking more information from the scientific community on how to proceed, while noting that "Many nations have also adopted regulatory requirements for cephalopod welfare in research, including the members of the European Union, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Norway, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand."

As the NIH Office of Extramural Research explained to Salon, "The Request for Information seeks input at this time on proposed guidance for use of laboratory cephalopods in research, research training, experimentation or biological testing, or for related purposes," with a deadline of Dec. 23, 2023.

These proposed regulations won't make experiments with octopuses impossible. Dr. Robyn Crook, an associate professor of biology at San Francisco State University, argues that this can be ethically done  but certain strict criteria have to be met.

In addition to having a experiment that is "well designed, appropriately powered and conducted by properly trained personnel," Crook insisted that these experiments must allow their animals to engage in normal behaviors, even though these can be highly species-specific for cephalopods. "Any possible pain, distress or lasting harm is minimized or eliminated by provision of validated analgesic drugs or anesthesia, restraint that is absolutely minimized to the degree strictly necessary for the experiment, and that animals are proactively monitored and euthanized, if necessary, to prevent further suffering," Crook added, concluding that the experiments must have an intrinsic scientific value that is evaluated by an impartial third party.

"These are, of course, the sorts of regulations that apply to every single vertebrate animal study conducted in the USA," Crook pointed out. "I am strongly in favor of requiring equivalent, properly tested and validated, regulations for cephalopods."

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Not everyone shares Crook's position that it is possible to engage in ethical cephalopod experiments. As far as King is concerned, "I dont think its ethical or moral to perform experiments on octopuses that are, one, physically invasive or, two, that require collection of 'subjects' from the wild or breeding of 'subjects' in captive colonies." Since nearly all experiments on octopuses fall into one or both of those categories, by extension, King feels they should all be banned.

"We might think up an exception to my desired ban on experimentation: perhaps non-invasive observational experiments on cognitive problem-solving or emotional expression by octopuses already held in captivity  animals not good candidates for release back into a wild habitat  could yield knowledge that helps octopuses themselves," King added as a caveat. "But in general, consistent with my stance that experimentation on vertebrate animals is ethically wrong and scientifically unhelpful, it is my stance that experimentation on invertebrate octopuses is ethically wrong and scientifically unhelpful."

Crook, who told Salon that she has never personally witnessed experiments she would consider immoral or unethical on octopuses and would intervene if she had, added that she does not believe inhumane studies of octopuses are currently common.

"The field has advanced significantly in the past 15 years or so and most researchers using cephalopods are well educated on the validated refinement techniques to limit or eliminate possible sources of suffering," Crook explained. Even so, she said that an experiment in theory would be inhumane if it involved practices like making incisions or amputations without anesthesia and maintaining analgesics for at least one day afterward "with a caveat here that analgesic for cephalopods are very, very, poorly studied and more work is needed urgently here."

Crook also said she would have concerns about any experiment "that involves prolonged fixation or restraint in one position," since those experiments force "the animal to be deprived of the ability to perform natural behavior for extended periods without a valid scientific reason."

King recalled one particularly cruel experiment that she chronicled in her book Personalities on the Plate: The Lives and Minds of Animals We Eat. It perhaps perfectly captures the inherent brutality of many octopus experiments.

"I describe research conducted by biologist Jean Alupay and her team that involved crush injuries administered to the arms of five octopuses in an experiment," King wrote to Salon, noting that the octopuses were first put under anesthesia as an implicit concession to the pain they would otherwise experience. "Later researchers applied electrodes to the arm stumps. The octopuses cradled the wounded areas or curled other arms around them."

King quoted from the 2014 study, that noted "all animals inked and jetted at the onset of stimulation and showed immediate wound-grooming behavior, where the arm stump or crushed site was held in the beak.

"It makes me feel both physically ill and swamped with empathy to think of what these octopuses endured," King said. "And to know that they are by far not alone in suffering in this way in laboratories."
(Bloomberg) -- Ethiopia wont use force to attain direct access to a Red Sea port, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said, toning down previous remarks directed at the landlocked Horn of Africa nations neighbors.

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Recently, when Ethiopia expressed the need for discussions on some issues, we are hearing concerns that Ethiopia could do invasions, Abiy told a ceremony in Addis Ababa on Thursday to mark the countrys National Army Day. We dont have a plan to achieve our objectives through force and I want to assure you that we wont pull a trigger on our brothers.

In a televised lecture earlier this month, Abiy identified access to the ocean as a strategic objective and warned that failure to secure it could lead to conflict. His remarks drew rebukes from Eritrea, Somalia and Djibouti, all of whom described their sovereignty and territorial integrity as sacrosanct and not open for discussion.

Abiys position on the Red Sea raised concerns among diplomats of fresh regional instability with Ethiopia already struggling to quell widespread domestic dissent, particularly in the northern Amhara region where militias are resisting efforts to incorporate them in the federal army.

His administration also is in talks to restructure debt after its finances took a hit from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and a two-year civil war with the government in the northern Tigray region.

Further instability in the Horn of Africa is in no-ones interest, a US State Department spokesperson said by email. Disputes must be resolved through dialog, and both Ethiopia and Eritrea must avoid provocation.

While the hostilities in Amhara dealt a blow to Ethiopias ambitions of reviving investment inflows after the civil war, they have since eased and its economy remains one of Africas fastest-growing, according to Bilal Bassiouni, head of Middle East and North Africa forecasting for consultancy Pangea-Risk. He also sees the governments recent engagements with China boosting its prospects of settling settling its debt, he said.

We dont expect them in the short term to default on those debts, although the political situation remains volatile and the push by the federal government to centralize control raises the risk for flare-ups, Bassiouni said in an interview in Cape Town on Thursday. While Ethiopias sole access to the Red Sea via a port in Djibouti makes it vulnerable and isnt sustainable, they arent likely to seek direct confrontations with their neighbors, but they will definitely try look for avenues to utilize other harbors, he said.

(Updates with analyst comment in last two paragraphs.)

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Earlier this week, Ethiopian Gebisa Ejeta joined an elite group of scientists when he was honored by US President Joe Biden in a ceremony at the White House. Ejeta, along with eight others, was awarded the National Medal of Science on Tuesday, the highest scientific honor in the nation.

Born and raised in rural west-central Ethiopia, Ejeta has dedicated his lifes work to food science  specifically the study of sorghum, a gluten-free ancient grain. He was a 2009 recipient of the World Food Prize for his work with drought- and parasite-resistant hybrid strains. That same year, he was awarded Ethiopias National Hero Award.

Gebisa Ejeta is one of the most impactful geneticists in the world, said Mung Chiang, president of Purdue University in the US, where Ejeta has been a researcher and faculty member since 1984.

Our university celebrates another prestigious and richly deserved honor, bestowed by the president of the United States, to Gebisa, he continued in a press release.

Gebisa Ejeta, distinguished professor of plant breeding & genetics and international agriculture at Purdue University, has dedicated his life's work to studying sorghum. - Purdue University Agricultural Communications photo/Thomas Campbell

Roughly 500 million people in Africa and Asia rely on sorghum as a food source, and the grain is also widely used as livestock feed around the world, including in the US. Ejetas research focuses on some of the most crucial traits of the grain, according to Purdue, including nutritional quality; drought and cold tolerance; and resistance to pests, diseases and Striga, a harmful parasitic plant.

By developing sorghum strains that withstand droughts and parasites, he has improved food security for millions, President Biden said as he awarded Ejeta his medal at the ceremony. His advocacy for science, policy, and institutions as key to economic development has lifted the fortunes of farmers and strengthened the souls of nations.

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This photo taken by the Kokang Information Network shows Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) Major General Peng Deqi (centre R) commanding operations against Myanmar's ruling military near Lashio township in Shan State (Handout)

An alliance of ethnic rebel groups in Myanmar launched coordinated attacks on the military across the country's north on Friday, posing a fresh challenge to the junta as it struggles to quell resistance to its rule.

The military's 2021 putsch sparked renewed fighting with powerful ethnic rebel groups in northern Shan state, home to a planned billion-dollar rail link, part of China's Belt and Road global infrastructure project.

The Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), the Arakan Army (AA) and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) launched a "military operation", they said in a statement.

Pro-military Telegram channels said the rebels were attacking 12 towns or settlements across a swathe of Shan state around 100 kilometres (62 miles) across.

The three rebel groups -- which analysts say can call on at least 15,000 fighters between them -- did not immediately provide details on casualties or whether they had taken territory.

A junta spokesman did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.

The MNDAA said its fighters had closed the roads from the trade hub of Lashio to Chinshwehaw and Muse on the China border ahead of a "major offensive".

Footage shared on its media channel showed fighters in what appeared to be an abandoned camp, with weapons and boxes of ammunition scattered across the ground. It did not say where the footage was taken.

Fighting around Lashio -- home to the military's northeast command -- and near the towns of Muse, Chinshwehaw and Laukkai was ongoing, local media and residents said.

Laukkai is about five kilometres from the border with China.

"All shops are closed and no one is going out," a resident of Hopang township, around 10 kilometres from Chinshwehaw, told AFP.

"We can hear the sounds of aircraft and gunfire constantly," they said, requesting anonymity for security reasons.

A Muse resident told AFP that locals were staying indoors as soldiers patrolled the streets and that the road from the town to the city of Mandalay -- a major trade route -- had been closed.

A rescue worker in Lashio who requested anonymity for safety reasons told AFP that rebels had begun shelling the military base near the town from 4:00 am (2130 GMT Thursday) and that the military had responded with artillery fire.

All flights to and from Lashio airport had been cancelled on Friday "because of the situation", an airline ticketing agency told AFP.

China's foreign affairs ministry said it was "closely following" the fighting and called on all sides to prevent the situation from escalating.

- Northern clashes -

In 2017, months of fighting between Myanmar's army and ethnic insurgents in the Kokang border region claimed dozens of lives and sent thousands fleeing from their homes -- many to China.

Myanmar's borderlands are home to more than a dozen ethnic rebel groups, some of which have fought the military for decades over autonomy and control of lucrative resources.

Some have trained and equipped newer "People's Defence Forces" that have sprung up since the 2021 coup and the military's bloody crackdown on dissent.

Earlier this month nearly 30 people were killed and dozens wounded in a strike on a camp for displaced people in neighbouring Kachin state.

The Kachin Independence Army (KIA), an ethnic rebel group that controls the area, blamed the junta for the attack.

Last week the junta ordered air strikes and troop reinforcements as it tried to recover outposts it had lost in subsequent fighting with the KIA, the military and rebels said.

A KIA spokesman told AFP he was not sure if its fighters had joined Friday's attacks.

bur-rma/dva
By Jan Strupczewski and Gabriela Baczynska

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Most European Union leaders on Friday backed granting more financial support to Ukraine as it fights a Russian invasion, but Hungary and Slovakia voiced reservations ahead of a decision the bloc needs to make unanimously in December.

The EU executive has proposed that the bloc's 27 countries chip in more funds in a revision to its shared budget to finance additional spending through 2027, including extending 50 billion euros ($52.8 bln) in new aid to Kyiv.

"I have the impression that we will decide what is necessary for Ukraine's financial stability," German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said after talks with his EU peers at a summit in Brussels. "And I don't think that the partly different concrete assessments will affect that."

Overall EU support for Ukraine has totalled almost 83 billion euros since Russia invaded in February 2022, the Brussels-based executive European Commission said this week.

Beyond sending Ukraine money and arms, the bloc has also imposed rounds of sanctions against Russia. The summit was meant to highlight the bloc's steady support for Kyiv even as a new war rages in the Middle East.

"The European Union will continue to provide strong financial, economic, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support to Ukraine and its people for as long as it takes," a joint statement from the EU leaders read.

SLOVAKIA JOINS HUNGARY

Hungary has been the bloc's most vocal critic of the policy.

Slovakia's Robert Fico, attending his first EU summit since being appointed for his fourth term as prime minister on Wednesday, adopted a similar line.

Fresh from meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin, Orban said on Friday that the EU strategy of sending money and military aid to Ukraine has failed.

"The Ukrainians will not win on the battlefield," he said as footage from the start of the summit showed him standing alone while other EU leaders greeted one another on arriving in their discussions chamber.

Orban has also said he would not endorse in its current form the proposed EU budget revision, which includes the 50 billion in new aid for Kyiv.

But he did not reject the proposal outright either, suggesting there is scope for horse-trading.

That comes as Budapest is trying to unlock billions in aid earmarked for Hungary in the EU budget but frozen by the European Commission over accusations that Orban has damaged democracy.

Fico said there was endemic corruption in Ukraine and demanded that any new EU aid include guarantees that the funds not be misappropriated, according to a statement from his office. He also said Bratislava would stop providing military support to Ukraine.

"Ukraine is among the most corrupt countries in the world and we are conditioning what is excessive financial support on guarantees that European money (including Slovak) not be embezzled," he said.

Fico himself resigned as Slovakia's prime minister in 2018 amid street protests after the murder of a journalist who had investigated state corruption. The leftist veteran of Slovak politics has repeatedly swatted away accusations of graft.

"What I can say is that both of them didn't refuse the possibility for providing aid to Ukraine, even for a long time," Bulgarian Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov told reporters.

"The questions are, what type of aid and how it is used, how we are sure, the European Union is sure, that this aid is used efficiently," he said.($1 = 0.9477 euros)

(Reporting by Jan Strupczewski, Phil Blenkinsop, Bart Meijer, Tassilo Hummel, Marine Strauss, Krisztina Than, Jason Hovet, Miranda Murray, Writing by Gabriela Baczynska, Editing by Philippa Fletcher)
By James Mackenzie

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli air and ground forces widened their attacks on Hamas in the Gaza Strip on Friday, the military said, and the Palestinian militant group said its fighters were clashing with Israeli troops in areas near the border with Israel.

The United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly backed a resolution drafted by Arab states calling for an immediate humanitarian truce and demanded aid access to the besieged territory and protection of civilians.

While not binding, the resolution carries political weight, reflecting the global mood. It passed to a round of applause with 120 votes in favour, while 45 abstained and 14 - including Israel and the United States - voted no.

In Gaza, local telecoms firms and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said internet and mobile phone services were cut off.

"In the last hours, we intensified the attacks in Gaza," Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, spokesman for Israel's military, told a televised news briefing after dark on Friday. Israel's air force was conducting extensive strikes on tunnels and other infrastructure, he said.

"In addition to the attacks carried out in the last few days, ground forces are expanding their operations tonight," he said, raising the question of whether a long-anticipated ground invasion of Gaza may be beginning.

Hamas militants were clashing with Israeli troops in Gaza's northeastern town of Beit Hanoun and in the central area of Al-Bureij, the militant group's armed wing said.

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby would not comment on the expanded ground operation. But he said Washington supported Israel's right to defend itself and added: "We're not drawing red lines for Israel."

Mark Regev, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told MSNBC that Israel was starting its payback against Hamas and "Gaza will feel our wrath tonight"

"They will continue to be on the receiving end of our military blows until we have dismantled their military machine and dissolve their political structure in Gaza," he told Fox News. "When this is over, Gaza will be very different."

Israeli ground forces had massed outside Gaza, where Israel has been conducting an intense campaign of aerial bombardment since a deadly Oct. 7 attack by hundreds of Hamas gunmen, who rampaged through Israeli communities near the strip, killing 1,400 people and dragging more than 200 into captivity.

A ground invasion would exacerbate what aid groups call a humanitarian crisis in the territory following days of aerial bombardment that Palestinian health authorities in Hamas-run Gaza say have killed more than 7,000 Palestinians.

COMMUNICATIONS HAMPERED, 'HUMANITARIAN PAUSE' SOUGHT

Paltel, the largest telecommunications provider in Gaza said, "All telecommunication services including landline, mobile, and internet have been lost in the Gaza Strip" due to a continuous intensive bombardment.

"Gaza is currently blacked out," it said.

The Red Crescent Society said it had completely lost contact with its Gaza operations room and its teams operating there, and Hamas-affiliated media published a statement from Gaza's Hamas-run government saying that rescue crews were unable to receive emergency calls.

Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) said on the social media platform X it had been unable to reach some Palestinian colleagues, and added: "We are particularly worried for the patients, medical staff and thousands of families taking shelter at Al Shifa hospital and other health facilities."

The head of the U.N. Children's Fund UNICEF, Catherine Russell, said her agency too could no longer communicate with staff in Gaza.

"I'm extremely concerned about their safety and another night of unspeakable horror for 1M children in #Gaza," she posted on X. "All humanitarians and the children and families they serve MUST be protected.

While Israel announced a step-up in operations, White House spokesman Kirby said the U.S. did support a pause in Israeli military activity in Gaza to get humanitarian aid, fuel and electricity to civilians there.

Kirby also said that if getting more than 200 hostages abducted by Hamas out of Gaza required a localized temporary pause, then the U.S. supported that.

Israel had said it was preparing a ground invasion of Gaza, but has been urged by the U.S. and Arab countries to delay an operation that would multiply the number of civilian casualties in the densely populated coastal strip and might ignite a wider conflict.

Concerns about a risk of a wider Middle East conflict have risen in recent days with the U.S. dispatching more military assets to the region as Israel pummelled targets in Gaza and Hamas supporters in Lebanon and Syria.

Oil prices climbed about 3% to a one-week high on Friday on worries that tensions in Israel and Gaza could spread into a wider conflict that could disrupt global crude supplies.

Israeli leaders have vowed to wipe out Hamas, the Islamist movement that has run Gaza since 2007, and kill the leaders and planners of the Oct. 7 assault, undeterred by pleas from humanitarian agencies to spare the civilian population.

SHATTERED INFRASTRUCTURE, POWER CUT

Much of the infrastructure of Gaza, which has been living under blockade by Israel and Egypt since 2007, has been shattered by the Israeli bombing.

Power has been cut for days, crippling treatment facilities and depriving Gazans of fresh water, while half of its housing stock has been damaged and 20,000 residential units destroyed or rendered uninhabitable, according to the Hamas media office.

Palestinians said they received renewed Israeli military warnings to move from Gaza's north to the south to avoid the deadliest theatre of the war.

Gazans say making the journey south remains highly risky amid air strikes and that southern areas have also been bombed.

Many families have refused to leave, fearing a repeat of the experience of previous wars with Israel when Palestinians who left their homes and land were never able to return.

Strategically, Gaza operations may be complicated by the need to protect Israel's northern border with southern Lebanon and Syria, where Israeli forces have been engaged in days of sporadic cross-border fire.

Israel and its U.S. ally have warned Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon not to intervene and Washington has dispatched two aircraft carriers to the region to reinforce the message.

Hamas, backed by Israel's main regional enemy Iran, has had years to prepare its defences. Over the years, Israel has uncovered a sophisticated network of tunnels and Hamas has fired missiles at Israel since launching this month's attack.

Israel's military has told international news organisations Reuters and Agence France Presse that it cannot guarantee the safety of their journalists operating in the Gaza Strip, under Israeli bombardment and siege for almost three weeks.

(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi, Ahmed Mohamed Hassan, Tala Ramadan, Emily Rose, Adam Makary, Jeff Mason, Phil Stewart, Michelle Nichols, Gabriela Baczynska and Andrew Gray; Writing by Grant McCool, Michael Perry, Kevin Liffey and Giles Elgood and David Brunnstrom; Editing by Philippa Fletcher, Toby Chopra, Howard Goller and Cynthia Osterman)
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has confirmed that the work on the 12th Russia sanctions package, which may include restrictions on Russian diamond exports, is underway, European Pravda reported on Oct. 27.

"We are in the process of preparing the 12th package of sanctions against Russia, we are consulting with member states," the head of the EU's executive arm said at a press conference in Brussels.

"We are considering how to reduce the remaining income that Russia receives from the export of diamonds to Europe and its partners."

Von der Leyen noted that the upcoming package is being developed in cooperation with the Group of Seven (G7) countries. According to media reports from earlier this week, the G7 is expected to introduce a ban on Russian diamonds by the end of October.

Read also: That diamond ring? It may have helped pay for Russias war

The upcoming measures should also include a further crackdown on Russia's ability to circumvent sanctions, mainly on its ability to obtain dual-use goods from third-party countries, Bloomberg reported, citing its sources.

The EU seeks to strengthen the effectiveness of the sanctions already imposed against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, von der Leyen noted. The bloc imposed its previous 11th sanctions package in June, aimed at countering sanctions circumvention, mainly in dual-use products and in Russian oil trade.

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
MADRID (Reuters) - The Council of the European Union has accepted the Spanish proposal to hold a peace conference in about six months on the conflict between Israel and Hamas, Spain's acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Friday.

Madrid holds the EU Council's rotating presidency until the end of this year.

In a meeting of the bloc's 27 governments, Spain had pressed for the EU to demand an immediate ceasefire, but the language was opposed by some countries, Sanchez told a news conference in Brussels.

He said that instead, the member states agreed to call for "humanitarian pauses" and the opening of aid corridors for the Gaza civilians, as a way to reach a consensus.

In exchange for the compromise, the bloc accepted Madrid's peace conference proposal, which includes a renewed push for the two-state solution to the conflict, Sanchez said.

(Reporting by David Latona; Editing by Andrei Khalip and Inti Landauro)
The delegation of the European Union to Russia has announced its festival of European film will go ahead this year, after opening the event with a screening of a Spanish film in a Moscow cinema on Oct. 25.

The rest of the films in the program will be available to watch online with Russian subtitles between Nov. 1 and Nov. 15.

The 2021 edition was held online due to the Covid-19 pandemic, while in 2022 the festival was not organized due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"Last year we had to suspend it for obvious reasons, but this year we are resuming it," Galharague told reporters in Moscow, according to Russian state news agency TASS on Oct. 16.

The slogan of this edition is "Cinema unites," according to the website.

"In these difficult times, when we are separated by circumstances and physical boundaries, cinema continues to overcome any obstacles," the EU's Ambassador to Russia Roland Galharague was quoted on the festival's website.

"Russian culture is part of the European cultural heritage," Galharague said.

"Russian history and art have long fascinated and inspired the world," and Russian cinema has touched "the hearts and minds of people from all over the world."

The program features films ranging from 2016 to 2022 from across the continent, as well as a few co-productions between Russia and EU countries.

Read also: These Ukrainian artists, writers were killed by Russias war

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Ursula von der Leyen , President of the European Commission, has confirmed at a press conference in Brussels that the EU is working on its 12th sanctions package against Russia, which is expected to include a ban on diamond exports from Russia.

Source: European Pravda

Quote: "We are in the process of preparing the 12th package of sanctions against Russia. Now we are in consultations with the member states. In particular, we are looking into how to cut the remaining revenues Russia draws from the export of diamonds to Europe and its partners."

Details: Von der Leyen added that the new sanctions package is being developed jointly with the G7 countries.

In addition, the EU wants to strengthen the effectiveness of existing measures against the Russian Federation, von der Leyen added.

Reports in the media say the G7 countries will announce a mechanism for limiting the import of Russian diamonds by the end of October, after which the European Union will immediately finalise the proposal for its 12th package of sanctions against Russia.

Robert Fico, the head of Slovakias new government, has said he will not be voting for "any sanctions" against Russia in the EU without assessing their impact on EU member states.

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The remodeled Hermes store is set to reopen along the Oak Street retail corridor on Oct. 25, 2023, in the Gold Coast. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)

Luxury retailer Hermes reopens its Oak Street store Friday, a sign that corridors devoted to upscale customers are surging even though some retail districts, including the nearby Magnificent Mile, are still grappling with competition from online sellers and the loss of top retailers.

Hermes spent more than a year renovating and expanding the retail space at the corner of Oak and Rush streets. The retailer, which sells leather goods and other items handcrafted in France, operated from a nearby temporary site while the work was done.

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Most of the retail space in the surrounding Gold Coast neighborhood, especially along Oak Street between Rush and Michigan Avenue, is now occupied, with several retailers such as Bottega Veneta Chicago and Burdeens Jewelry recently signing new leases, said John Vance, principal at Stone Real Estate Corp.

The remodeled Hermes store along the Oak Street retail corridor on Oct. 25, 2023, in the Gold Coast. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)

The luxury category in retail, almost counterintuitively, has enjoyed an incredible resurgence since the onset of COVID, he said. Its just performed tremendously.

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The pandemic curtailed spending on many extravagances, including vacations, leaving the wealthy with even more disposable income, Vance said, and shops such as Hermes, Giorgio Armani, Prada and Chanel offered opportunities to spend that excess cash. Even middle-class shoppers started browsing luxury stores more often, buying less expensive items but still fattening store profits.

There were a lot of people who thought, Im rich, but I can no longer spend money the way I like, and still want to enjoy some of the best things in life, so instead of fancy vacations, Ill buy at these luxury stores, Vance said.

Hermes, with about 300 stores in 45 countries, continued growing in 2023, Hermes President Diane Mahady said. The brand recorded more than 10 billion euros in sales by the end of September, up 17% at current exchange rates compared with the same period in 2022.

Were really lucky to have a very loyal client base, and we love the street and this location, Mahady said.

Customers typically spend a long time browsing in the store, she said, so Hermes sought to make the experience on Oak Street as comfortable as possible. In addition to the new floor, French architectural firm RDAI remade the rest of the interior, using stone, wood and metal to evoke both Chicagos industrial past and nearby Lake Michigan.

We believe in being able to show the craftsmanship of our items directly, Mahady said.

The remodeled Hermes store to reopen in the Gold Coast neighborhood. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)

The prosperity along Oak Street may bring some relief to the Magnificent Mile, which is struggling with a number of empty storefronts, Vance said. As retailers jostle to secure the few remaining Gold Coast spots, some may start giving a second look to North Michigan Avenue, which has a lot of available space and cheaper rents.

I think the Avenue is already starting to recover, he said.

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Retailers are set next year to fill several vacancies along the Magnificent Mile. Aritzia will occupy about 49,000 square feet at 555 N. Michigan Ave., the former home of The Gap; Alo Yoga will open a store at 717 N. Michigan Ave.; and Swedish apparel retailer H&M will take over the long-vacant former Apple store at 679 N. Michigan Ave., although thats less space than it now occupies several blocks north.

Thats going to show other retailers that you dont have to be on the Gold Coast, that you can go to the Avenue and perform very well there, Vance said.

The Magnificent Miles retail vacancy rate is about 25%, said Kimberly Bares, president and CEO of The Magnificent Mile Association, but that should decrease significantly if MetLife, the owner of Water Tower Place, fulfills a plan to reduce the eight-floor malls retail space by more than half, including space once occupied by anchor tenant Macys.

And a new mix of office tenants, cultural institutions and others in Water Tower Place will bolster a transformation already underway along Michigan Avenue, she added. Many of the new retailers on Michigan Avenue focus on providing customers with experiences, rather than just products. One example is the five-floor Starbucks Reserve Roastery at 646 N. Michigan Ave., which showcases its coffees, the companys history and the roasting process. The Museum of Ice Cream in the former Tribune Tower at 435 N. Michigan Ave. is also an example of an entity focused on offering an experience.

The museum came in just wanting to test the market, and the market performed wonderfully for them, so they just signed a seven-year lease, Bares said of the Museum of Ice Cream.

Other changes are on the horizon.

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The Magnificent Mile Association joined with the Chicago Department of Planning and Development and the Urban Land Institute to brainstorm ideas for reviving the district, and now envisions adding a pedestrian bridge linking North Michigan Avenue with Oak Street Beach, new pocket plazas and sidewalk cafes, and a public common stretching from Water Tower Place to Lake Shore Drive.

The Avenue was envisioned by Daniel Burnham in the 1909 Plan of Chicago as our Champs-Elysees, Bares said, and wed like to see that come to life.

brogal@chicagotribune.com
The EU is calling for an acceleration of military aid to Ukraine and tightening of sanctions against Russia, in addition to making long-term security commitments to Kyiv, the European Council said in a post-summit communique on Oct. 27.

Read also: EU approves plan to use frozen Russian assets to aid Ukraine  report

EU leaders reiterated their condemnation of Russia's war against Ukraine and will continue to provide financial, economic, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support to Ukraine and its people "for as long as necessary." The EU will provide military support through existing joint programs, as well as bilateral support from individual member states. The EU stressed the importance of speeding up military aid to Ukraine, including the initiative to transfer 1 million artillery rounds by March 2024.

The EU will expedite the transfer of generators, transformers, mobile heating points and other equipment to Ukraine in preparation for winter. Leaders also welcomed the extension of temporary protections for Ukrainian refugees until March 2025.

EU leaders pledged to join G7 security commitments to Ukraine and called on the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, to hold consultations with the Ukrainian side. They also stated that military support and commitments will be provided "with full respect for the policies of some member states and taking into account the interests of all member states."

Read also: EU summit fails to establish mechanism for redirecting frozen Russian funds for Ukraine reconstruction

In the conclusions, the document emphasizes that Russia and its leadership should bear full responsibility for the aggressive war against Ukraine and other "most serious crimes." The EU urged to continue work on the creation of a special tribunal to prosecute Moscow for the crime of aggression and supported the work of the International Criminal Court.

The EU emphasized that sanctions against Russia should be strengthened, and circumvention of existing restrictions should not be allowed. EU leaders condemned Iran's and Belarus' support for Russia, and called on all countries, including North Korea, not to provide material or other support to Russia's aggressive war.

Read also: European Union cannot offer Ukraine security guarantees  Brussels

The European Union condemned Russia's abandonment of the Black Sea Grain Initiative and attacks on Ukrainian grain storage facilities and ports.

The European Union will continue to work closely with Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia and support their reform efforts on their European path, the document also said.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
None of the proposals on how to use frozen Russian assets to rebuild Ukraine has received sufficient support in the EU Council, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported on Oct. 27, citing a diplomat from an EU member state.

At a summit in Brussels on Oct. 26-27, European Council President Charles Michel emphasized that the EU's key priority now was to show that it supports Ukraine and to find ways to provide more assistance.

The topic of frozen Russian assets was reportedly on the agenda of the summit, and Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas proposed her own mechanism.

Read also: Washington and Brussels explore ways to reallocate Russian assets to rebuild Ukraine

She noted Ukraine is documenting war crimes for the international courts in The Hague, and making claims against Russia. Similarly, Russias seized property sits within the EU, while Russia maintains its own claims against bloc members. She argued this establishes grounds for the EU to reconcile both sets of claims.

Kallas added that after the war is over, Russia or Russian oligarchs can turn to the bloc and if there are funds left over after the payment of reparations to Ukraine, then they could "settle it among themselves."

Read also: Most Ukrainians strongly support EU membership and reforms to join, KIIS poll results

It is extremely important to use these assets in the interests of Ukraine and not to resort to taxpayer funds, as they are needed for other purposes, including weapons, the Estonian official said.

Earlier, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that his country, together with the European Union, is considering legal authority to direct $300 billion of Russian assets to rebuild Ukraine, as well as other needs it has.

On Jan. 26, the EU Council's legal service devised a plan to use the frozen assets of the Russian Central Bank, worth about $36.8 billion, to finance Ukraine's recovery.

As a result of arrests and various mechanisms of confiscation of assets of Russians and collaborators in Ukraine, UAH 28.3 billion ($776.5 million) has been transferred to the state budget since Feb. 24, 2022.

However, according to Bloomberg, the EU has assessed that it cannot legally confiscate fully frozen Russian assets and is instead focusing on the temporary use of these assets.

On Oct. 11, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo held a joint conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, during which he announced plans to create a special fund to support Ukraine worth EUR 1.7 billion ($1.8 billion) this year.

The fund will be financed using Russian assets frozen within the country. Zelenskyy noted that Belgium would be the first country to use frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission is working on a proposal to pool some of the profits derived from frozen Russian state assets to help Ukraine and its post-war reconstruction, the EU executive's president Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday.

Von der Leyen told a news conference after an EU leaders summit that the value of frozen Russian sovereign assets was 211 billion euros ($223.15 billion) today and recalled that the bloc had decided that Russia must pay for Ukraine's reconstruction.

The European Union froze Russian sovereign assets in March 2022, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in the previous month.

Von der Leyen said that finance ministers had made good progress on some basic principles during the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Marrakesh earlier this month.

"So the next step would be then an actual proposal," she said, adding the initial focus would be on windfall profits.

"We will present a proposal to find a way how to use the proceeds from those assets that are currently benefiting a limited number of financial institutions in the European Union," she said, although did not comment on when a proposal would come.that windfall profits from frozen Russian assetsBelgium said in June that windfall profits from frozen Russian assets there could provide 3 billion euros a year to rebuild Ukraine. A large portion of the assets are in Belgium.

The United States and Britain have signalled support for an EU idea of diverting interest earnings from assets, although there are legal complexities to resolve before any money can be seized.

($1 = 0.9455 euros)

(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
By Martin Coulter

LONDON (Reuters) - Two of the European Union's most senior officials plan to attend Britain's artificial intelligence (AI) safety summit next week, a two-day event that organisers hope will kickstart international dialogue on AI regulation.

Ursula von der Leyen , president of the European Commission, and Vera Jourova, a vice president, will attend the summit, according to an update to their official calendars published on Friday.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is set to host around 100 guests at Bletchley Park, the country estate in southern England where mathematician Alan Turing helped crack Nazi Germany's Enigma code.

While Sunak hopes to secure Britain's role as a world leader in AI regulation, some have questioned what the summit will achieve in practice. Last week, Bloomberg reported a number of world leaders - including Germany's Olaf Scholz and Canada's Justin Trudeau - would not be attending.

The Commission previously declined to confirm whether any EU representatives would be at the event, saying in September that officials were reflecting on potential EU participation.

While several world leaders, including U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, are expected to attend the summit, the full guest list has not been made public.

The UK government's agenda for the event, published earlier this month, includes discussions on the unpredictable advances of the technology and the potential for humans to lose control of it.

Matt Clifford, a tech investor and one of two chief organisers of the event, recently told Reuters the aim of the summit was to kickstart international dialogue on AI regulation.

"It's not a parliament," Clifford said. "We're not making laws. We're not making treaties. We're trying to bring different people into the conversation with very different opinions."

(Reporting by Martin Coulter; editing by Christina Fincher; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
Taylor Swift will release "1989 (Taylor's Version)" on Friday.

To mark the occasion, we ranked every outfit she wore during the 1989 World Tour in 2015.

Her silver bodysuit, featuring sequined tassels and a plunging neckline, took the top spot.

21. The multi-colored two-piece set

George Pimentel/LP5/Getty Images for TAS

Respectfully, what is this? I was a Swiftie in 2015 and I have no memory of her wearing this confusing pattern onstage. In all senses, it's a miss.

20. The ballerina look

Christopher Polk/TAS / Contributor / Getty Images

Swift layered a tulle skirt over her sequined bodysuit when she performed a mash-up of "Enchanted" and "Wildest Dreams" (also when John Legend arrived as a special guest to sing "All of Me" in Los Angeles).

I understand Swift's attempt to match the romantic mood, but the skirt was too yellowish to have true elegance.

19. The "Shake It Off" dress

Splash News

Swift occasionally wore this fringed outfit in hot pink and dark blue  a precursor to the green, pink, orange, and blue sequined sets that she wears during the "1989" segment on The Eras Tour.

The original version is cute, and clearly Swift likes it enough to recreate it eight years later. But funnily enough, this look doesn't scream "1989" like the skater skirts and bomber jackets. It's just not memorable.

18. The "Out of the Woods" catsuit

Taylor Swift performs during the "1989" tour in Shanghai, China. Chen He/Visual China Group via Getty Images)

Swift covered in head-to-toe sequins has a nice effect, especially from a faraway vantage point. But the flesh-colored mesh on her chest makes the jumpsuit look cheaper than it is.

I much prefer the black version that Swift wore at the 2016 Grammys.

17. The black two-piece set

Taylor Swift performs during the "1989" tour in Montreal, Canada. George Pimentel/LP5/Getty Images for TAS

This look is fine. It's a concert classic. But in retrospect, it does feel a little simple  dare I say basic?

16. The black skirt

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for TAS

This is a small step up from the black shorts, but the pleather skirt is a millennial fashion trend I wish to forget.

15. The black two-piece set with a silver trim

Splash News

This Las Vegas version is the best of Swift's black two-piece sets, but the silver studs look very outdated today. You could've found a knockoff at any Forever 21 in 2015.

14. The purple skirt

Brill/ullstein bild via Getty Images

Purple metallic is a fun touch, but as the designated "Speak Now" color, but it's not giving "1989" like its blue counterparts.

13. The royal blue skirt

Taylor Swift performs during the "1989" tour in Vancouver, Canada. Jeff Vinnick/Getty Images for TAS

Today, this shade of blue is more associated with Swift's 10th album "Midnights," but at the time, it fit perfectly in the "1989" era. The color is rich and really pops onstage.

12. The purple jacket

John MedinaDuane Prokop/Getty Images for TAS

The sequined bomber jacket is another "1989" tour staple. When Swift arrived onstage with her sleeves rolled up and sunglasses on, you knew it was time to search for a sound we hadn't heard before.

11. The silver jacket

Dimitrios Kambouris/Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images

The silver jacket gives a stronger '80s vibe than purple, calling to mind MTV's golden era of music videos.

10. The light blue skirt

Carrie Davenport/TAS/Getty Images for TAS

This look is quintessential "1989." The bright, metallic blue evokes the sleek, glittering hues of a cityscape  perfect for the show's opening number, "Welcome to New York."

9. The blue jacket

Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for TAS; Carrie Davenport/TAS/Getty Images for TAS

Again, the light blue bomber is quintessential "1989." As Vanity Fair wrote at the time, "The varsity detail on the jacket gives it a nice too-cool-for-school edge."

8. The rainbow jacket

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for TAS; Faith Ninivaggi/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images

Out of all the jackets, this is the best option by far. The blue-purple-pink blend has become a key ingredient in Swift's iconography, from her performance of "Dress" during the "Reputation" tour to her dyed hair in the "You Need to Calm Down" music video.

7. The blue bodysuit

Christopher Polk/TAS/Getty Images for TAS

Swift called back to this midnight-blue bodysuit with beaded fringe during her fifth Los Angeles stop on The Eras Tour.

It wasn't in her regular rotation during the "1989" era, which gives it an exciting, limited-edition quality.

6. The silver fringe

Taylor Swift performs onstage during Taylor Swift The 1989 World Tour Live In Los Angeles at Staples Center on August 25, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. Christopher Polk/TAS/Getty Images for TAS

The silver bodysuit with beaded fringe is exactly what a flapper would wear if she traveled through time to sing "Shake It Off."

5. The "How You Get the Girl" outfit

Splash News

Of all the shiny "1989" looks, this is certainly the most unique  not least because it literally lights up. Swift's pink top and matching skirt were striped with LED lights (as were her 12 backup dancers and their umbrella props).

Electronic engineer Dave Sheinkopf told InStyle that Swift's outfit was programmed like a Times Square billboard screen. Her lighting crew was tasked with syncing "35,000 moving parts" to achieve the intended effect.

"It's the first time that's been done with 13 people at once," he said at the time, calling it "the most complicated wearable lighting system for a stage show."

4. The leather catsuit

John Shearer/LP5/Getty Images for TAS

I'm partial to this look because it's the one I associate with Mick Jagger as a surprise guest (iconic) and Swift's rock version of "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" (even more iconic).

3. The "Blank Space" blazer

Taylor Swift performs during the "1989" tour in Chicago, Illinois. Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images for TAS

I love the blazers that Swift slips on to perform "The Man" on The Eras Tour, but the original blazer reigns supreme. It gives Swift the oomph of a woman in charge  the ideal outfit to wear while singing, "Boys only want love if it's torture."

2. The "I Know Places" look

Chen He/Visual China Group via Getty Images

This is one of Swift's best-known looks from the "1989" era  and for good reason. This outfit radiates pop-star energy, from the sequin trim of her tube top down to the heels of her thigh-high boots.

1. The "Style" bodysuit

Daniel Boczarski/LP5/Getty Images for TAS

This silver look takes the cake. It's theatrical and stage-ready  kinda like something Christina Aguilera would wear in "Burlesque"  without being over-the-top and hammy. Marie Claire also likened the plunging neckline to Marilyn Monroe's iconic dress in "The Seven Year Itch."

Put simply, it's an outfit made for a star.

Read the original article on Insider
A Kentucky dog rescue organization is at maximum capacity and looking for foster families.

Bluegrass Bully Rescue, a non-profit organization, said its had dogs at its facilities for years and is begging for foster families. A batch of puppies is expected to begin crate training soon, which requires the organization to move at least six puppies.

As much as we love them, keeping them long term takes up foster space we could use to help other dogs in need, Bluegrass Bully Rescue said in a Facebook post. If you are looking to adopt please consider one of the dogs that have been with us for a while.

Tina Wright, a co-founder of Bluegrass Bully Rescue, said there are more dogs in need of care than there are people willing to help, which had led to Bluegrass Bully Rescues intake hold.

Its so bad right now, Wright said. Every rescue is full. Every shelter is full. People arent fostering and options are low.

The organization is hosting events to introduce more families to dog fostering, Wright said. On Saturday, the organization will be at Legacy Grove Park in Winchester from 9 a.m. to noon for a Howl-o-ween Festival, which will feature parades and a costume contest.

Wright said a lot of puppies will be at the festival.

When they get their eyes on the dogs, it kind of pulls more of their heart strings and they want to help, Wright said.

Wright said the organization is open to bringing its dogs to community festivals, schools, workplaces and other locations to showcase the dogs while also putting a smile on peoples faces.

The more we can get out in the community, the better, and people really love being able to love on the dogs, even if they arent ready to adopt or foster, Wright said.

Bluegrass Bully Rescue said people interested in fostering dogs can apply at this link. Foster families dont have to cover medical expenses, are given necessary supplies, and have the first option to adopt the fostered dog when theyre available for adoption.

Bluegrass Bully Rescue was founded in July 2019 and has the goal of increasing the amount of foster families to save as many dogs as possible.

We would like to grow to the point that we can establish a physical facility to allow additional dog intake while waiting for a foster to open up, the organization said on its website.
An arrest warrant was issued on Thursday for Sgt. 1st Class Robert Card, a military man and firearms instructor accused of gunning down 18 people inside a Maine bowling alley and bar Wednesday night.

Card is so far facing eight counts of murder in connection with the violence inside the Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley and Schemengees Bar and Grille. Maine State Police Col. William G. Ross clarified that charges have so far only been brought in connection with the victims who have been identified. As an investigation into the shooting unfolds, he added, the counts will probably go to a total of 18.

The carnage started inside Just-In-Time at 6:56 p.m. Wednesday. A little over an hour later, authorities received a 911 call about another incident at Schemengees, located within five miles of the bowling alley.

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, authorities posted images online of a suspect wielding an assault rifle and wearing cargo pants. Card was identified as a person of interest hours later.

As of Thursday night, Card remained at large and authorities said he should be considered armed and dangerous.

Heres what we know so far:

Military background

The U.S. Army Reserve on Thursday confirmed Card enlisted in 2002 and served as a Petroleum Supply Specialist, WGME reported. The role, which requires 10 weeks of basic training, involves supplying the Army with the fuel it needs to maintain a state of readiness at all times. Card wouldve been tasked with jobs like supervising and managing the reception, storage and shipping of bulk or packaged petroleum-based products.

He has no deployments, the Army Reserves said in a statement. His awards include the Army Achievement Medal, Army Reserve Component Achievement Medal x2, Humanitarian Service Medal, National Defense Service Medal and Army Service Ribbon.

An Army Reservist is not considered full-time, active duty military personnel, though they can be deployed at any time.

The purpose of the Reserve is to provide and maintain trained units and qualified persons to be available for active duty in the armed forces when needed, per the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs. This may be in times of war, in a national emergency, or as the need occurs based on threats to national security.

Mental health struggles

According to a bulletin released late Wednesday by the Maine Information and Analysis Center (MIAC), Card was struggling with his mental health in recent months. He was committed to a mental health facility over the summer after he reported hearing voices.

The document, which has since been circulated among law enforcement officers, further noted that Card made threats to shoot up a military base in Saco, where he reportedly served as a firearms instructor.

Card was released from the facility after two weeks, the bulletin said. No further details were provided about his treatment or condition.

According to his sister-in-law, Katie Card, he reportedly told his family he specifically heard voices at the two locations he allegedly attacked.

He truly believed he was hearing people say things, including disparaging things being said about him at the bowling alley and the bar, she told the Daily Beast.

Investigators also learned from Cards sister that he may have been looking for an ex-girlfriend at those locations.

Criminal history

Authorities in Sagadahoc County  not far from Androscoggin county, where Lewiston is located  said they have had interactions with Card in the past, WGME reported. Sheriff Joel Merry declined to provide further details.

We are gathering everything we know about this individual and are passing that along to the proper authorities to help with the investigation, Merry said.

Card otherwise has had few encounters with law enforcement. In April 2007, he was arrested in Topsham for operating a vehicle under the influence, which is a misdemeanor, according to the news network. A month later, he was found guilty and fined $500. He also had his license suspended for 90 days and was required to spend 48 hours behind bars.

_____
Shane Jackson looks around the courtroom as he speaks with his defense attorney Michael Panella, Monday, Oct. 2, 2023, before a sentencing hearing in Circuit Judge Leah Case's courtroom at the Justice Center.

A former Daytona Beach Police officer was sentenced on Friday to four years in prison for stabbing a man outside a bar in New Smyrna Beach.

Shane Jackson, 52, will also serve one year probation when he is released and he must pay $17,500 in restitution to the man he stabbed.

Jackson was a former Marine who served in Iraq and had 17 years of military service.

Circuit Judge Leah Case acknowledged Jacksons military service, saying veterans have sacrificed for their country.

But she also noted that the stab wound had nearly taken Jarrett Stadtlers life.

Case said when you stab someone you have to live with the consequences.

She noted that Jackson had already suffered some consequences, including the loss of his career in law enforcement.

One of Stadtler's friends punched Jackson as he pushed Stadtler across the floor at Tayton OBrians at 410 Flagler Ave. in New Smyrna Beach. The judge said Jackson was not knocked out, but dazed.

Case said that Jackson saw the group outside the Flagler Tavern and had waited with his knife open for two minutes before approaching them. She said the group told Jackson to leave but he didnt.

Case said she agreed with Assistant State Attorney Sarah Thomas that some of the arguments made by the defense for mitigation, such as Jacksons police service, could also be considered aggravators. Thats because as a police officer he was trained in de-escalation.

"He should know better," Thomas had said.

Case said Jackson initiated the situation that night.

I wish he would have gotten more, Stadtler said after the sentencing. I think he should have gotten more than four years. Hes a really bad person and he did a lot of damage to my body mentally and physically. Im happy that hes going to prison. He deserved it.

Jackson stabbed Stadtler on March 10, 2021, leaving him with an injury that would put him in the hospital for two weeks and then send him back to the hospital with an infection.

Jackson was found guilty June 15 of the lesser charge of felony battery by a jury. Jackson was charged with aggravated battery causing great bodily harm, a first-degree felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison. Felony battery is a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

During a hearing today, defendant Shane Jackson was sentenced to four years in prison followed by one year of probation. The defendant was found guilty by a Volusia County jury in June of Felony Battery. https://t.co/md3snoXlFy  State Attorney, Florida's Seventh Judicial Circuit (@SAO7FL) October 27, 2023

Jackson was fired from the police department after the stabbing. Jackson, who was off-duty and in street clothes, got into a confrontation with Stadtler and some of his friends, including Taylor Morgan and Eli Johnson.

Morgan testified that Jackson was getting too close to her and was being "a creep." Stadtler said he got between Morgan and Jackson to keep Jackson away from her. Johnson was on stage singing karaoke.

Stadtler and Jackson got into a tussle and started what appeared to be pulling and pushing each other across the floor. Johnson testified he came off the stage and punched Jackson who fell to the floor. Jackson and the group of friends were kicked out of the bar.

The conflict resumed in front of the Flagler Tavern, video footage showed, where Jackson and the group got into another confrontation. That escalated with Jackson stabbing Stadtler. Jackson was shown in security video holding a knife behind him before the fight outside the Flagler Tavern.

Jackson testified and claimed the stabbing was unintentional.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Ex-Daytona Beach police officer gets 4 years prison for stabbing man
A former GCHQ employee called himself a terrorist after trying to kill an American spy because he was disgusted by the murky ethics of the US intelligence service, a court heard.

Joshua Bowles repeatedly stabbed and punched his victim, who was on secondment from the National Security Agency, and was identified only by the number 99230, after carrying out reconnaissance and staging dummy runs in the weeks before.

In the aftermath of the vicious, premeditated attack, which took place at a leisure centre in Cheltenham, the 29-year-old told bystanders that he had targeted the woman because of her work for the NSA.

At the Old Bailey on Friday, Bowles sat emotionless in the dock as a CCTV recording of the attack was shown to the court and details of his plot were read out.

Bowles pleaded guilty in August to the attempted murder of the woman and assaulting a second individual who had tried to intervene, causing them actual bodily harm.

Outlining the facts of the case, prosecutor Duncan Penny KC said the woman had been targeted entirely and solely because of her work as a US government employee in the NSA.

He urged Mrs Justice Cheema Grubb to acknowledge that Bowles had carried out the attack with a terrorist motivation.

Mr Penny said Bowless actions were designed to influence the UK government not to work with the US or the National Security Agency.

Joshua Bowles claimed his work at GCHQ had caused a deterioraion in his mental health - ELIZABETH COOK/PA WIRE/PRESS ASSOCIATION

He added: [The attack] was designed to intimidate those working at GCHQ and in particular those working on behalf of the NSA.

Tim Forte, defending, said Bowles had expressed profound regret, remorse and shame over the attack and claimed the real motivation for the attack was his anger at his employer for employment reasons.

He added: It doesnt turn it ideological just because it happens to be GCHQ with whom he has the dispute.

Mrs Justice Grubb adjourned sentencing until Monday morning.

The court heard Bowles had worked at GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters) in Cheltenham, Gloucs, for three years until November 2022, when he left after suffering mental health problems.

Defendant researched his victims movements online

He had discovered that the woman regularly played netball at a leisure centre after researching her personal life online.

He had also developed an interest in Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, and had ordered Anarchy, State and Utopia, a book by Robert Nozick, a political activist.

The leisure centre is three miles from GCHQ and on March 9 Bowles travelled there armed with two knives and lay in wait in the car park for the woman to finish her netball match.

He punched her in the face several times in the car park before following her into a reception area and stabbing her a number of times. The woman suffered wounds to her abdomen, liver, leg and chest and was rushed to hospital for treatment in intensive care.

In the immediate aftermath of the attack, Bowles told a bystander in the reception area of the leisure centre he was a terrorist.

He added that he had tried to kill the woman as he could no longer handle the murky waters of ethics and whether they were doing the right thing.

He blamed his deteriorating mental health on the work he had been told to carry out at the behest of the NSA.

The court heard he told a man who had tried to intervene: Its a good job I didnt have a gun isnt it?

He added: They gave me all this money. I just couldnt face the ethics of it. I make a pretty shit terrorist dont I?.

Bowles said he was disgusted by the manner in which the intelligence agencies gather information and if the public knew what they did, they would understand.

He later told police: The target was selected for her employment at the NSA.

Due to the size and resourcing, American intelligence represents the largest contributor within the intelligence community so it made sense as the symbolic target. I consider GCHQ just as guilty.

In a victim impact statement, the US spy said a number of scars inflicted during served as a permanent reminder of the worst day of her life.

She added: I have nightmares of being hunted down and attacked. I was hunted by him and I dont know why.

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A former UK intelligence worker called himself a terrorist after stabbing a US government employee in a "vicious" attack, a court has heard.

Joshua Bowles, 29, attacked the woman in a leisure centre car park, three miles from GCHQ's base on 9 March.

In August, Bowles, from Welwyn Mews in Cheltenham, pleaded guilty to attempted murder and assaulting a second person, causing actual bodily harm,

He will be sentenced at the Old Bailey in London later.

Bowles stabbed the woman, who worked for National Security Agency of the United States, three times at a leisure centre on Tommy Taylors Lane in Cheltenham.

The woman, referred to in court by the code number 99230, was attacked outside the premises and also in the reception area.

Prosecuting barrister, Duncan Penny, told the court Bowles had launched a "pre-meditated, targeted and vicious attack on an unarmed woman".

He added: "Her selection as the target for this attack was entirely and solely associated with her role as a US government employee in the National Security Agency of the United States.

"The attack was intended to be lethal - that the helpless victim survived it was mere happenstance."

'Symbolic target'

In his police interview, Bowles described himself as a "terrorist", the court heard.

"Due to the size and resourcing, American intelligence represents the largest contributor within the intelligence community so made sense as the symbolic target.

"I consider GCHQ just as guilty," he said.

Mr Penny said the victim had been playing netball at the leisure centre in Cheltenham on the evening of the attack and was leaving with a friend, who was a fellow US national.

CCTV footage showed the pair walking into the car park just after 21:00 BST followed by the defendant, who had been waiting in his car with two knives in a rucksack.

'He just wouldn't stop'

The victim turned around when she heard a man say "excuse me" and was punched repeatedly in the face, the court was told.

Mr Penny said she assumed she was being mugged and saw he had a knife when the blade caught the light.

The prosecutor added: "The defendant was punching her, and she was fighting back, concerned about the knife, kicking, punching and screaming as much as she could."

Her friend shouted at Bowles to leave her alone and hit him with her bag while the victim tried to fight him off.

The victim said the defendant kept coming at her with the knife, adding: "He just wouldn't stop."

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United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain, right, visits striking UAW Local 551 workers outside a Ford assembly center on South Burley Avenue in Chicago on Oct. 7, 2023. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)

The tentative agreement between Ford and the United Auto Workers will move nearly 20,000 workers off the picket line and onto the assembly line in the coming days.

But it may take a while before all 4,613 autoworkers at Fords Chicago Assembly Plant on the citys Southeast Side are back on the job.

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This is going to be a gradual process, its not going to happen overnight, Ford spokesperson Dan Barbossa said Thursday.

After nearly six weeks of striking against the Big Three automakers, the UAW reached a tentative agreement with Ford Wednesday. The new four-year deal includes a 25% increase in base wages through April 2028 that will raise the top rate to more than $40 an hour. The agreement will also reinstate cost-of-living adjustments lost during the Great Recession and end wage tiers, and it includes a right to strike over plant closures.

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The UAW said Ford workers will return to work while the agreement goes through the ratification process. The strike will continue at Stellantis and General Motors.

There was a lot of excitement last night when we heard the news, said Chris Pena, president of UAW Local 551, which represents workers at the Chicago Assembly Plant. There was a giant sigh of relief that were going back to work.

When the previous contract expired Sept. 15, the UAW launched a strike against all three automakers for the first time in the Detroit-based unions 88-year history. The strike expanded to nearly 45,000 UAW members at eight assembly plants and 38 parts distribution centers in 22 states.

The walkouts accelerated this week when 5,000 autoworkers at Arlington Assembly in Texas joined the UAW strike, shutting down production at GMs largest plant, which makes SUVs such as the Chevy Tahoe, Chevy Suburban, GMC Yukon and Cadillac Escalade. On Monday, 6,800 autoworkers walked out at the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant in Michigan, where Stellantis builds its Ram pickup trucks.

In a statement Wednesday, Ford said job one is gearing up its three plants where UAW workers went on strike.

We are focused on restarting Kentucky Truck Plant, Michigan Assembly Plant and Chicago Assembly Plant, calling 20,000 Ford employees back to work and shipping our full lineup to our customers again, the company said.

The return-to-work call includes more than 16,600 striking employees at the three Ford plants and 3,617 workers temporarily laid off because of the production shutdown, Barbossa said.

In an Oct. 12 media briefing, Ford said it may take up to four weeks to get the factories back up to full speed.

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Thousands of employees at Fords Chicago Assembly Plant, who have been walking the picket line since Sept. 29, are hoping to be back on the job as soon as possible, Pena said.

Reality was setting in after 27 days on strike and people were anxious for answers, Pena said. They saw that more and more plants were going out and they were just ready to get back to work. No one wants to be out there standing on the picket line during Thanksgiving, or possibly Christmas.

While the union still needs to ratify the agreement, Pena said the highlights provide life-changing wages for the autoworkers.

In addition to calling back the striking workers, Ford will rehire thousands of workers temporarily laid off, including 255 at the Chicago Stamping Plant, which supplies parts to the Chicago Assembly Plant.

Ford employs about 1,000 hourly workers at the stamping plant in Chicago Heights who are members of UAW Local 588. Those workers had not been called to strike by the union.

The Chicago Assembly Plant makes the Ford Explorer, Lincoln Aviator and Police Interceptor SUVs. 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.

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The Explorer, which is made exclusively at the Chicago Assembly Plant, is among Fords bestselling vehicles.

GM and Stellantis are meeting with UAW negotiators Thursday in an attempt to strike a similar deal to the one Ford reached. But it is likely Stellantis will need to include getting its Belvidere plant reopened in some capacity.

In February, Stellantis indefinitely idled the 60-year-old auto plant near Rockford and laid off its last 1,200 union workers after halting Jeep Cherokee production amid dwindling sales.

Repurposing the 5 million-square-foot plant likely remains part of any new labor agreement, with everything from a megahub parts distribution center to building EV batteries on the table, according to sources familiar with negotiations.

The Associated Press contributed.

rchannick@chicagotribune.com
Two women have filed a lawsuit against the Memphis Police Department, its former director and a former officer, alleging that the women were detained by police because they are Black.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in federal court, alleges Alexis Brown, a former MPD officer, dislocated one of the women's shoulders and then proceeded to arrest them.

On Feb. 21, 2021, Kadeja Townes and Patrina Finley  both of whom are Black  went to a Red Box located outside a Walgreens on Knight Arnold Road to rent a movie.

While they were there, the lawsuit states, "three to four officers pulled up and rushed inside" of the Walgreens. The two women say in the lawsuit that they did not know why they were there.

Soon after, two male officers came out to Townes and Finley's vehicle and asked if they had heard gunshots, or knew of someone getting shot in the area. They both said they did not, the officers walked away, and the two women then drove off.

Shortly after, they were pulled over by a white female officer, identified in the lawsuit as Brown, and Brown's partner, who was not identified.

According to the lawsuit, Brown asked for Townes and Finley's IDs "because the plaintiffs were laughing."

"Plaintiff Townes began to explain to defendant Brown that she had already spoken to another officer and informed him that she had not heard any shots, nor was she aware of any prank calls," the lawsuit read. "Defendant Brown ignored plaintiff Townes and restated, 'Y'all over here laughing, I need to see your ID. As a matter of fact, get out of the car.'"

March 2017 - Director of Memphis Police Services Michael Rallings talks to members of the Greater Community Temple in Southeast Memphis Sunday morning during a special Civic Leaders Appreciation Day service. Rallings challenged community members to work with the police on issues like domestic violence, drugs, and gun control to help get the murder rate down in the city.

When Townes refused, Brown allegedly stuck her hand inside the vehicle to unlock the door and open it. Instead, Townes opened the door.

"Plaintiff Townes opened the door and exited the vehicle, all while stating her innocence," the lawsuit said. "Defendant Brown, intentionally, maliciously and with excessive force, snatched plaintiff Townes' right shoulder, resulting in her right shoulder dislocation."

The lawsuit goes on to say that Townes told Brown she needed medical help because her shoulder was dislocated, but "defendant Brown and two other officers assisted [Brown] to handcuff Townes."

Finley was then handcuffed by Brown, according to the lawsuit, and then placed in the back of a squad car. Finley was eventually released, but Townes was arrested and taken to Regional One for treatment.

"Plaintiff Townes was then transported to Jail East (the women's jail) by defendant Brown and Officer Pulliam, where she was denied entrance. Thereafter, the officers took her home," the lawsuit said.

At one point, though the lawsuit is not clear when this occurred, Finley was following the squad car and was stopped again by Brown. This time, Finley was taken to Jail East in police custody, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit also alleges neither of the women were told why they had been stopped by police.

Also named as defendants in the lawsuit are the City of Memphis and former MPD Director Michael Rallings, who retired in April 2021 after working for three decades within MPD.

More: What to expect with DOJ's investigation into Memphis police: Taking a look at other cities

The lawsuit requests $1 million in damages, $500,000 for each of the women, along with punitive damages, attorney's fees and an injunction that would direct "that defendants take all affirmative steps necessary to remedy the effects of the illegally discriminatory conduct alleged in this complaint."

The lawsuit also says the allegations in the complaint "amount to a pattern or practice" of discrimination by the defendants.

In July, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it was launching a pattern or practice investigation into MPD in the wake of the death of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old who was pulled over and beaten by now-former MPD officers.

That investigation is looking into allegations of discriminatory policing, excessive force violations and illegal searches. Similar investigations into the Minneapolis Police Department in the wake of George Floyd's killing and an investigation into the Louisville Metro Police Department following the shooting death of Breonna Taylor found multiple civil rights violations.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis police, city facing civil rights lawsuit for 2021 detainment
Viewers can watch Queer Cuts: New Hope live from November 6-7 at 6pm ET/3pm PT

Livestream using the Watch Live player on the AdvocateChannel.com homepage.

Or watch through the Live Streams section on the Advocate Channel App available on Google Play, Apple Store, Roku, & FireTV

Theres a lot that happens during the process of creating a documentary. When stories are uncovered, the journey of filmmaking can change instantly. From shifting focus to a new subject to changing perceptions on a previously understood topic, theres so many things that occur. For the five filmmakers (Hansen Bursic, Joy Davenport, Natalie Jasmine Harris, Kase Pena, and Kristal Sotomayor) selected as the inaugural class of the Creative Hope Initiative, when creating their short docs, they also had moments on set that would alter their experience irrevocably.

The Creative Hope Initiative, created by production studio TRAVERSE32, funded these five filmmakers to create short documentaries highlighting local queer stories in New Hope, Pennsylvania. With filming now completed, these filmmakers are sharing their insights and discoveries from the filmmaking process.

View clips from each interview below, and watch all five complete exclusive interviews within the "Queer Cuts" section on the Advocate Channel App. You can download the app from Google Play, Apple Store, Roku, and FireTV.

"Prada P***y," Directed by Kase Pena

For trans filmmaker Kase Pena, she wasnt sure how New Hope would inspire her. Her documentary, Prada P***y, follows Kase as she travels to New Hope to research the possibility of having vulva vaginoplasty. When asked about the filmmaking journey, Kase shares how her newfound knowledge of New Hope, and one vital resident, helped guide her process.

I had never heard of New Hope before making this film, so it was completely new to me, Kase explains. I found out about Dr. Christine McGinn, another trans woman, who performs vaginoplasty. Shes one of the top surgeons in the world for that, and I was immediately drawn to her.

Kase continues on how learning about Dr. McGinn helped shape the subject of her documentary, explaining that, I immediately felt it in my heart that the story should be about her, or should include her in my own journey. As a filmmaker, I was hesitant about including my story with hers [Dr. McGinns], but I realized that I have a powerful story to tell also.

New Hope Rondo," Directed by Joy Davenport

Another filmmaker with a powerful story to tell is Joy Davenport, whose documentary New Hope Rondo looks at the past of New Hope and how it informs the towns future, weaving together interviews with centuries of archival material to explore how gentrification has shaped the Pennsylvanian town for better and for worse.

When asked how the process of filming changed her perception of gentrification, Joy explained how her initial experiences with the subject informed what she uncovered.

This experience expanded and complicated my views on gentrification, Joy begins. Ive lived in big cities quite a bit, and gentrification is omnipresent. And I think what this film did was expand how I see gentrification.

Joy focuses on New Hope specifically and the gentrification the town has witnessed, explaining that, There is some clear gentrification in New Hope, without scratching the surface. Theres corporate buyout of land, but going back 40 years, farmland was developed into condominiums and even further back in history, industrial facilities gave way to tourist attractions. I explored this history and encountered different flavors of gentrification that expanded my own conception.

Ben in Bloom," Directed by Natalie Jasmine Harris

While going through this initiative, a filmmaker who expanded upon their own ideas of learning from being a part of a team was Natalie Jasmine Harris. Her documentary, Ben In Bloom, follows a non-binary and queer teenager from the contentious Bucks County, Pennsylvania as they prepare to leave their hometown behind for college in California.

When asked how it felt to be a part of the Creative Hope Initiative, Natalie admitted that all the other filmmakers have grown close since working on their documentaries, helping each other learn and develop their craft together.

Its amazing to be a part of this initiative, Natalie said. All of us filmmakers have a little group chat where weve been able to learn from each others process, while commiserating on the hurdles weve all faced while filming.

Natalie jokes, but in all seriousness, she continues on by saying that, We also celebrate the wins and share our progress of telling these important stories together, so it was really beneficial to be a part of a group instead of working alone, which can happen so often in the filmmaking world.

Trans Heaven, Pennsylvania," Directed by Hansen Bursic

While a lot of these filmmakers learned during the documentary process, for Hansen Bursic, it took completing production for him to look back on how momentous his work had become. His short documentary, Trans Heaven, Pennsylvania, explores the untold story of legendary weekend-long parties at New Hope bar The Raven that saw hundreds of transgender women and crossdressers take over the town, traveling from all over the country to meet other people like them at the gay safe haven.

When asked about the importance of preserving the trans history of The Raven, Hansen reflects on what transgender people have faced throughout history and what theyre facing today.

Its amazing, Hansen starts. When considering all the tough and terrible headlines out there right now about trans folks, having their rights systematically attacked across the country, its really important to have this documentary of trans joy and this preservation of trans history. Being a historian, I can tell you that trans people were here and have always been here.

Hansen continues on when discussing the significance of The Raven in trans history, saying that, This documentary is about joy. Its about this party of trans women that came together for the first time in their lives to meet other people like them and learn from other trans women. So, Im honored to be able to tell that history.

Dont Cry For Me All You Drag Queens," Directed by Kristal Sotomayor

But that doesnt mean time on set was all serious internal reflections. For Kristal Sotomayor, there was a lot of fun to be had that helped inform the tone of their film. Dont Cry For Me All You Drag Queens pays homage to the legendary Mother Cavallucci by weaving together the past and present to provide a striking portrait of belonging and memory. Poetically merging archival photographs and present-day footage from a community drag show, the film sparks conversation about the modern-day issues Mother Cavallucci revolutionized.

When asked about fun moments from shooting, Kristal shares that they were able to put together a drag show in Mother Cavalluccis honor. And although the director didnt dress up in drag, that doesnt mean they didnt come prepared.

I didnt get dressed up in drag, but honey, I came dressed, Kristal jokes. I wore a pink prom dress with all the accessories in honor of the occasion.

The filming experience was a lot of fun for Kristal, as they explain that, It was really silly talking to my crew to get a shot while wearing this prom dress, but it was a lot of fun.

Theres a lot these budding directors uncovered while filming, and theres a lot for audiences to uncover about this small town with rich queer stories when attending Queer Cuts: New Hope on November 4th, where all five documentaries will be screened at the Bucks County Playhouse. If you cant make it in-person, all five documentaries will be streaming on the Advocate Channel App from November 6-7. Its time for these LGBTQIA+ stories to be told and to champion the new storytellers making sure queer stories are never forgotten.
NOVATO, Calif. - A small aircraft that had experienced engine problems landed on a road in Novato on Thursday, according to authorities.

Firefighters responded to a report that "an experimental" aircraft carrying two people had gone down. Officials did not provide a more detailed description of the plane.

No one was injured, the Novato Fire Department said.

The plane landed on Levee Road, not far from Marin County Airport.

It's unclear what led the plane to land there, but fire officials told KTVU that the plane had engine problems during takeoff.
President Biden is expected to unveil an executive order (EO) regulating artificial intelligence, a step long called for by some experts.

"I applaud the administration for taking the first step," Phil Siegel, the founder of the Center for Advanced Preparedness and Threat Response Simulation (CAPTRS), told Fox News Digital. "We should applaud the first step through the EO but quickly need a framework for the detailed steps beyond that truly safeguard our freedoms."

Siegel's comments come after The Washington Post reported Wednesday on Biden administration plans for an executive order on AI, which the paper called the "most significant attempt" the government has so far made to regular a technology that has been advancing at a seemingly rapid pace.

The move follows through on Biden's pledge earlier this year, when he vowed executive action that would ensure "America leads the way toward responsible AI innovation."

BIDEN EXECUTIVE ORDER FOR 'WOKE' ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE CALLED 'SOCIAL CANCER'

President Biden earlier this year vowed executive action that would ensure "America leads the way toward responsible AI innovation."

Doing so, Siegel argued, would require the administration to lean into what he called "four pillars" of regulation that would address concerns about AI safety. Pillar one, Siegel said, was to protect children and other vulnerable populations from "scams and other harms." The second would be to pass new rules in the criminal justice code to ensure AI cannot be used as cover for criminals. The third, according to Siegel, would be to ensure "fairness" by not allowing current biases to be rooted into AI data and models, while the fourth would be to ensure there is a focus on "trust and safety" in AI systems that "includes agreement on how the systems are used and not used."

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"We need to put the onus on the algorithm providers to make sure customers are not using it for nefarious purposes much like we ask banks to certify their customers are not money laundering," Siegel said. "We need to make sure AI use is disclosed (for example in advertising) to not mislead."

The continued advances of AI technology have crossed into the mainstream, especially with the emergence of popular platforms such as ChatGPT. The technology has also raised concerns, most notably those about fears of surveillance and AI's potential impact on jobs.

Tech companies have become increasingly aware of the concerns, with 15 major AI developers signing on to a voluntary agreement earlier this year that requires the firms to share data about AI safety with the government. That deal was brokered by between the White House in September, with The Washington Post reporting that Biden's executive order is expected to build on those commitments.

WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)?

Such regulations will be critical, according to Pioneer Development Group Chief Analytics Officer Christopher Alexander, who told Fox News Digital that it is important AI technologies "have the trust of the populace."

"Regulation can ensure that the black box algorithms that guide the AI and cannot be made public are not discriminatory or have security vulnerabilities," Alexander said. "Realistically, punitive measures will be required to ensure the government has some teeth to police the industry."

"In addition to ensuring AI is safe and effective with screening requirements, properly developed and reasonably enforced regulation will help reassure those Americans who are concerned that AI is not a tool to help humanity, but is instead a weapon that threatens us," Alexander added.

But others expressed skepticism of the planned order, arguing that the administration would only seek to advance other objectives under the guise of regulating AI.

WHAT IS CHATGPT?

The continued advances of AI technology have crossed into the mainstream, especially with the emergence of popular platforms such as ChatGPT.

"Many [D]emocrats and progressive groups have fallen into the trap that AI regulations need to be mostly focused on misinformation and policing police  were holding out hope that President Bidens executive order strays away from this and falls more towards the practical efforts with artificial intelligence," Aiden Buzzetti, president of the Bull Moose Project, told Fox News Digital. "We believe that responsible safeguards to AI can promote both innovation and a reasonable amount of data privacy and security for Americans, and there is absolutely no need to privilege one over the other."

Buzzetti also pointed to concerns about the commitments made by large tech companies, arguing that they could influence regulation in a way that makes "the barrier to entry in the growing AI field insurmountable to innovators and small companies."

"We need regulations that provide basic security for consumers without privileging the same companies that fight tooth and nail to avoid regulations except for this one particular instance where they hold the advantage in time and resources," Buzzetti said.

According to the Washington Post report, the White House sent invitations earlier this week for a "Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence" event slated for Monday and hosted by Biden, though the details of exactly what is in the order have not been finalized and the timing could change.

According to a Washington Post report, the White House sent invitations earlier this week for a "Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence" event slated for Monday and to be hosted by President Biden.

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Jon Schweppe, director of policy for the American Principles Project, told Fox News Digital that it will be important for the order to be "something that everyone can agree with," noting examples such as "protecting kids and preventing further use of deceptive tools."

"We certainly want to see some effort to rein in Big Tech companies and avoid the runaway AI problem," Schweppe said. "That being said, this administration has shown an obsession with censoring speech under the guise of protecting citizens from misinformation. If that is what this is about, that is not the correct way forward. Lets hope that White House is being serious about this issue and not only concerned with solely censoring their political opponents."

Meanwhile, Federalist staff editor Samuel Mangold-Lenett expressed concerns that regulations could have a negative impact on innovation.

"Regulating AI is tricky. Data security and privacy are major concerns that need to be balanced with innovation," Mangold-Lenett told Fox News Digital. "AI regulations proposed by the EU are very effective at securing Europeans' data, but to the detriment of entrepreneurialism. American regulations need to secure guarantees from AI developers that citizens will have access to and ultimate control over their data, but also not cripple companies' ability to develop cutting-edge technologies that allow us to maintain our lead over China."

The White House did not immediately respond to a Fox News request for comment.





Original article source: Experts call Biden executive order on AI a 'first step,' but some express doubts
Projectile falls in Egyptian Red Sea town of Nuweiba, two security sources say

Projectile falls in Egyptian Red Sea town of Nuweiba, two security sources say

By Ahmed Mohamed Hassan and Dan Williams

CAIRO/JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Drones caused explosions that rocked two Egyptian towns on the Red Sea on Friday, the Egyptian army said, while Israel said Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi movement sent them to strike Israel.

The explosions injured six people and illustrated the risk of regional spillover from the Israel-Gaza conflict. There was no claim of responsibility.

Israel's foreign ministry said the Iran-backed Houthi launched drones and missiles "with the intention of harming Israel."

Egypt's military spokesman Colonel Gharib Abdel-Hafez said two drones were fired from the southern Red Sea aiming north. Yemen is at the south end of the sea and Israel at the north.

One drone crashed into a building adjacent to a hospital in the Egyptian town of Taba on the border with Israel, injuring six, in the early hours of Friday, Egypt's military said.

The second drone was downed outside Egyptian airspace on Friday morning, and the debris fell in a desert area of Nuweiba town, about 70 km (43 miles) from the Israeli border, Egypt said.

Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said that combat helicopters had been scrambled when "an aerial threat was spotted in the Red Sea region".

"To our understanding, the strike that took place in Egypt originated in this threat," he added in a televised briefing before Israel's foreign ministry attributed the drones to the Houthi.

Witnesses in Taba and Nuweiba, popular tourist destinations on Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, said they heard explosions and saw smoke as well as Egyptian warplanes flying overhead.

EGYPT EXPOSED

"The air force and air defence force are intensifying efforts to secure Egyptian airspace on all strategic directions," the Egyptian military said.

The Israeli spokesman said, "Israel will work with Egypt, and the United States, and bolster regional defences against threats from the Red Sea region."

The U.S. said last week a Navy warship in the Red Sea intercepted projectiles launched by the Houthi, potentially toward Israel.

Bordering both Gaza and Israel, Egypt is exposed to the conflict that blew up after Hamas' Oct. 7 assault on Israel and the subsequent bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Cairo has been prominently advocating for aid flows into Gaza, the release of Hamas' hostages and a ceasefire.

On Wednesday, Hamas said it had targeted the Israeli town of Eilat, across the border from Taba, with a missile in what appeared to be the Islamist group's longest-range Palestinian attack since Oct. 7.

(Reporting by Emily Rose and Dan Williams in Jerusalem, Ahmed Mohamed Hassan, Nafisa Eltahir, Ahmed Tolba, Hatem Maher, and Mai Shams El-Din in Cairo, Yusri Mohamed in Ismailia, Nayera Abdallah, Nadine Awadalla and Ahmed Elimam in Dubai; writing by Rami Ayyub and Nafisa Eltahir; Editing by Michael Perry, Andrew Cawthorne, Jonathan Oatis and Cynthia Osterman)
Extreme weather has killed at least 15,000 people in Africa so far in 2023, new analysis by Carbon Brief shows.

Global warming combined with El Nino, a warm-weather pattern that is devastating crops globally, could further threaten swaths of the continent where food insecurity is rampant.

The death toll in Africa is dominated by the 11,300 who died in Septembers devastating floods in Libya, but floods also hit 22 other countries in the region, killing a further 3,000 in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Many millions more have been affected by drought, wildfires, and heat waves, Carbon Brief reported. Climate change has increased the likelihood of extreme weather events. The true toll is undoubtedly higher: Africa has the lowest density of climate-monitoring stations of any continent, meaning weather extremes often go unreported.

As the frequency and severity of extreme weather events increases, the overstretched economies of developing nations could be saddled with billions of dollars in infrastructure repair costs, aggravating wealth inequality and displacing millions. The 12,000 extreme weather events recorded globally between 1970 and 2021 caused $4 trillion in damages, with developing nations at the receiving end of most of that: According to the World Meteorological Organization, nine in 10 deaths and 60% of economic losses related to these events occurred in developing countries. The most vulnerable communities unfortunately bear the brunt of weather, climate and water-related hazards, the WMO head said.

Despite decades-long advances in forecasting technologies, storms remain dangerously unpredictable, Science reported, a point which was made evident this week as Hurricane Otis struck Mexicos Pacific coast. The region was caught in a nightmare scenario, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said, as a forecast tropical storm strengthened at an extraordinarily fast rate to a Category Five hurricane which slammed the coast with winds of 165 mph. Authorities lack of preparedness and a general information vacuum in the popular resort town of Acapulco  which has a population of almost one million  led to widespread devastation and at least 27 deaths.

Record-breaking heat waves in regions unaccustomed to high temperatures have also sent death rates spiraling, pressuring authorities to set new infrastructure-development guidelines. Researchers at Oxford University found that buildings across the U.K.  most of which are designed for insulation rather than ventilation  need to be renovated to protect people from increasingly-frequent extreme heat waves, with buildings in large cities proving a particular risk. More than 4,500 deaths linked to heat were recorded in the U.K. last year alone. Climate change isnt just something that is happening in the Antarctic or in very hot countries, it is impacting lives, and taking lives, here in the UK, an NGO worker in London told the BBC.
(Bloomberg) -- Chevron Corp. fell the most in more than a year after posting disappointing profits amid drilling problems in Texas, losses from overseas refining and rising costs at a massive oil-field project in Central Asia.

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Chevron plunged as much as 6.3%, putting it on track for its worst decline since September 2022. The company was among the worst performers in the S&P 500 Index  even as oil prices rallied.

Its rival, Exxon Mobil Corp., also reported lower-than-expected third-quarter results Friday, citing weak performance in its chemical businesses. Shares of the Texas-based company fell as much as 2.5%.

The results come as both companies pursue historic deals expected to vastly expand their oil-production potentials. Exxons $60 billion agreement to acquire shale giant Pioneer Natural Resources Co. and Chevrons $53 billion offer for Hess Corp. highlight their determination to stay ahead of European supermajors and American independents by locking up control of vast resources than can underpin crude output for decades to come.

Chevron, which missed third-quarter expectations by 66 cents per share, had woes that spanned nearly around the globe.

In the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico, the company struggled with wastewater and fracking problems that delayed production. Its overseas refining division delivered roughly half the net income analysts were expecting. But it was setbacks on a sprawling project on Kazakhstans western steppe that dominated discussion of the California-based companys earnings on Friday.

Costs at Chevrons $45 billion Tengiz project will rise by about 4% due to a slower-than-expected start-up that had been years in the making. The company will need to pay an extra $1 billion for its share of the capital spending, meaning that the operations free cash flow will drop 20% from 2025. Output will be lower than expected in 2023 and 2024.

Tengiz is a critical part of Chevrons pledge to grow global production by 3% a year over the medium term and the delays upset both analysts and investors. The new outlook comes on top of a 25% rise in the operations cost estimate back in 2019.

About half the projects value has been taken our of your stock this morning, Doug Leggate, an analyst at Bank of America, told Wirth during a conference to discuss the results. Paul Cheng of Scotiabank called it disappointing.

Wirth attempted to reassure investors that there would be no more cost overruns or delays.

We sent in an independent team to give us a kind of a cold eyes assessment on cost and schedule, he said on the call. The new plan reflects a more conservative forecast on completing the remaining work.

The project has suffered from engineering problems at the outset, and mobilizing tens of thousands of workers was delayed by the pandemic. The biggest challenge, however, was its sheer complexity. Chevron had to re-do the electrics on the entire field and replace infrastructure that dated back to the Soviet era, Wirth said.

For shareholders, Tengiz is a bitter reminder of Gorgon and Wheatstone, two giant LNG developments in western Australia that were beset with delays, cost almost $90 billion combined  way over initial targets  and dominated Chevrons capital spending for a decade.

Exxons miss was less dramatic. It fell 9 cents short of analysts expectations for adjusted per-share profit. Nonetheless, the company lifted quarterly investor payouts to 95 cents a share, payable on Dec. 11  a penny higher than the Bloomberg Dividend Forecast. Meanwhile, third-quarter free cash flow more than doubled from the prior period to $11.7 billion, far in excess of the $9.36 billion average estimate.

We view the dividend as a commitment, Exxon Chief Executive Officer Darren Woods said during a conference call with analysts. And as we saw through the pandemic, even when things get tough, we work hard to make sure that were continuing to deliver on that commitment to our shareholders.

Exxon is banking on investments in fossil-fuel projects that date back to the pandemic, combined with cost-reduction efforts, Chief Financial Officer Kathy Mikells said during an interview.

The landmark Pioneer deal will vault Exxon to the pinnacle of Permian Basin output, giving it unmatched ability to flex production depending on oil demand during the energy transition. Chevrons agreement to buy Hess, meanwhile, will secure the company a 30% stake in Exxons fast-growing Guyana operation.

Investors feedback on the Pioneer deal has been overwhelmingly positive, Mikells said. They completely understand the strategic fit and the strong synergies that we expect to be able to achieve from the transaction.

By one oil-industry metric, known as cost-per-flowing-barrel, Chevron is paying a much higher price for Hess. Chief Executive Officer Mike Wirth has sought to ease investor concern about the high price for Hess by pledging to fatten dividends and buybacks. The combination will assuage concerns in some corners that Chevron is too reliant on just two regions  the Permian Basin and Kazakhstan  to meet future production targets.

At Tengiz, Wirth said the goal line is in sight.

Were close to the finish line on this thing and, and weve got a full-court press on it, he said during the call. The lessons from that will be applied in every other project that we do.

--With assistance from David Wethe, Ruth Liao and Mitchell Ferman.

(Adds details starting in first paragraph.)

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James Feil

MANITOWOC  Manitowoc Public School District Superintendent James Feil is taking steps to potentially reinstate a program that would resume providing free meals to all enrolled students in the district.

Manitowoc school board members expressed tentative agreement during a special board meeting Oct. 24 in reinstating the Community Eligibility Provision, which led to Feil saying he would work with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction toward the possibility of reinstating the program for the remainder of this current academic year.

Feil said he would rather have a board vote on the issue, but there was no vote listed on the agenda. Open meetings laws require government bodies such as the school board to list any actions they might take during a meeting in a publicly available agenda prior to the meeting.

More: Manitowoc school lunches spark discord during community forum. Here are the takeaways.

Board President Stacey Soeldner said she'd rather have Feil "make the call" after hearing the board members express tentative support for the program.

"Right now, I feel very strong about my initial recommendation  I would ask for your support via vote, just because of the politics involved in it," Feil said. "We're making an issue. We're manufacturing an issue in some ways, and this is getting blown out of proportion."

Stacey Soeldner

The provision is a federal program that would reimburse the school district for a percentage of meals provided, as long as the school provided them free of cost to the students.

The district applied for the provision in 2022 and was approved for the 2022-2023 school year, and three additional school years after that. However, Feil decided to opt out of the program before the 2023-2024 school year started and returned the district to a paid/reduced-price/free structure.

The system requires families who need financial help with paying for lunch to fill out an application. If the application is approved, the student would then receive hot lunch for free or a reduced price, depending on their family's income.

At full price, assuming they are paying for 180 days worth of breakfasts and lunches, a family could pay $900 to $1,080 per student for the academic year.

Opinion: Manitowoc superintendent squanders free lunches: A 'fact vs. myth' guest view

Feil had also given school principals the authority to enroll any student who seemed to struggle financially in free lunches, paid for by the district.

Board member Kerry Trask said the district "must have the most 'Rube Goldberg' form of doing lunch."

"If we did (CEP), we'd be free of all the paperwork, everybody would get fed and the program is already paid for and it's simply a benefit that is coming back to taxpayers in this community," he said. "Yet, we have principals involved and tons of paperwork involved and parents we're trying to keep track of and people that fall between the cracks, etc. Doesn't (CEP) just take care of all this?"

Board member Tony Vlastelica said he agreed with Feil's principle of not taking more than needed, but also said he was looking at what opting out of the program is going to cost in the long run.

Reader views: Manitowoc letter-writers share views on superintendent's choice to forgo free lunch program

"To me, if this is a cost neutral choice, or if it's even slightly going to cost us more  to me, it's not worth the brain damage to opt out if it's going to create this huge distraction and if it's going to drive up the costs for our staff or other people unnecessarily," he said.

Soeldner said she would support returning to CEP if it would be financially beneficial to the district.

Board member Matthew Phipps remained opposed to the program.

"I believe the parents have the right to make decisions for their children, but you can't have a parental rights discussion without parental responsibilities. Obviously, with rights come responsibilities," he said.

Matthew Phipps

Trask and Matthew Spaulding also verbally supported a return to CEP.

"For those children that do fall thorugh the cracks  our whole intention, or at least my whole intention was to get them fed in the same manner as everybody else with the same tray and the same everything else," Spaulding said. "If that's the cost we have to incur, then that's the cost we have to incur. I don't care how we do it."

More: Free lunch issue draws packed house at Manitowoc school board meeting as some call for superintendent's resignation

Board members Paul "Biff" Hansen and Chris Able also verbally supported reinstating CEP, but both insisted there should be a formal vote by the board.

"This is a policy decision of considerable weight that I believe should be made by the board," Able said.

Community members fill the board room at the Manitowoc Public School District's office during a public meeting Oct. 10.

Feil said reinstating CEP for the current academic year is not a certainty, but officials from Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction have indicated they would help the district navigate the federal obstacles in hopes it can be done.

If reinstating CEP for the current year cannot be done, Feil said he will ensure it is reinstated for the 2024-2025 academic year.

Alisa M. Schafer is a reporter for the Herald Times Reporter in Manitowoc. She can be reached at aschafer@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter: Manitowoc schools superintendent: He'll restart free lunches and meals
As the Texas Legislature debates school vouchers, one of the staunchest supporters of the initiative has been the Catholic Church.

Texas Catholic leaders have been among the longest-running advocates for Gov. Greg Abbotts top current legislative priority, which would allow parents to use taxpayer money for private education expenses. Thats true even as some other religious leaders have firmly opposed the legislation.

Why are they divided? Catholic leaders say other religious leaders dont fully appreciate the voucher programs benefits, particularly its potential to expand access to private education. Voucher critics say Catholic leaders are acting in the interest of their own schools, which have experienced declining enrollment for decades, while promoting a program that could harm public schools.

A voucher program would give parents the opportunity to choose a religious education regardless of their income level, said Jennifer Allmon, executive director of the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops, which oversees all 254 Catholic schools in Texas.

It'll take a few years, but our primary hope is that it will open the doors of our schools to even more low-income families and provide even greater access for those who wish to use Catholic schools for the education of their children, Allmon said.

Historic enrollment decline

Aside from a post-pandemic surge, Catholic school enrollment has been declining nationwide since the late 1960s, according to the National Catholic Educational Association. In 2021, Catholic schools across the country saw the largest single-year decrease in enrollment in more than 50 years.

Texas has not escaped the trend. From 2019-22, enrollment at Catholic schools in the state fell by more than 5,000 students, or 7.6%, with only four states experiencing sharper declines, according to the NCEA. The Catholic conference reported a smaller enrollment drop of 2.8%, or 1,855 students, during that same period. The Catholic conference collects enrollment data directly from schools in October each year, while the NCEA relies on annual reports from the superintendents of each diocese in mid-September, factors which may contribute to the discrepancy in the two organizations' data.

Eight Catholic schools in Texas closed during the pandemic, Allmon said. But, she added, Texas Catholic schools also saw an uptick in enrollment among high-income families during that time, which she said underscores the need for a voucher program to help low-income families afford religious education.

In the 2021 to 2022 school year, because we opened up in-person and didnt have mask requirements in most places, families with means had choice, and they used it, Allmon said. And the low-income lost their spots because their income took a dip.

The Texas Catholic Conference, which employs five legislative lobbyists, has pressed for no limits on the number of low-income families supported by a voucher program.

Senate Bill 1, passed by the Texas Senate on Oct. 12, states no more than 40% of spots in the program are reserved for students who receive free or reduced lunch and no more than 30% to families who earn between 185% and 500% of the federal poverty line. House Bill 1, however, prioritizes low-income students with disabilities and places no limit on how many of the education savings accounts can go to these underprivileged students  which is why the Catholic conference supports the prioritization language in the House version, Allmon said.

More than 62,000 students were enrolled in Texas Catholic schools in the 2021-22 school year, according to the Texas Catholic Conference. In a 2022 survey, the conference found 16,832 vacancies in 122 Catholic schools  with an average of 109 open seats in grade schools and 60 in high schools.

Lois Goudeau, head of St. Mary Magdalene Catholic School in Humble, said her pre-K through 8th grade school currently enrolls 365 students but has capacity for 25 more. The churchs Catholic Christian Education program, an after-school religious education class, has about 800 students, so Goudeau believes more families in her community would seek Catholic education if not for the tuition barrier.

Education savings accounts, the school voucher program being debated by the Legislature, would provide families with state money to help pay for private school tuition and other education expenses. SB1 would give families $8,000 annually, while HB1 would give them 75% of the average amount their public school receives in per-student funding.

On average, Allmon said, annual Catholic school tuition in the state is $6,800 for grade schools and $10,300 for high schools. St. Marys tuition is $6,000, Goudeau said.

We hope that we get a boost from [vouchers] because enrollment in a lot of our private schools, particularly Catholic schools, has been down over the past few years because people dont have that expendable money, and theyre not looking to spend it on tuition for their students, Goudeau said. It is something that the archdiocese and all of our schools and our organizations have been pushing for.

Questions over church-state separation

For some voucher critics, funneling taxpayer dollars to religious schools raises concerns about the separation of church and state.

The Texas Constitution prohibits using money from the state treasury for the benefit of any sect, or religious society, theological or religious seminary. However, in a 2022 religious discrimination case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that tuition assistance programs, or school vouchers, must include religious schools if they are available to nonreligious private schools.

The ruling was a major win for pro-voucher religious schools and leaders, but opponents say it raises thorny issues when peoples tax dollars are sent to religious institutions that have beliefs they do not share.

As a Baptist, I dont believe in the infallibility of the Pope like my Catholic friends, nor do I believe in the veneration of Mary like my Catholic friends, said Charles Johnson, a Baptist pastor and executive director of Pastors for Texas Children, which opposes vouchers. I dont want to pay for those two teachings in Catholic schools.

Johnson said his organization represents almost 1,000 churches that share these concerns.

But Allmon said there is a long tradition in Texas of partnerships between the government and religious groups. Texas provides child-care grants that parents can use at religiously affiliated day care centers and tuition grants that college students can use at private religious universities.

Weve not had any government intrusion or problems in either of those two sectors, Allmon said. Its worked perfectly well to have that partnership for kids under 5 and people 18 and over, so its just a matter of applying it to kids 5 to 18.

Goudeau said her concern with a voucher program would be government intrusion into the private school admissions process. Voucher critics have argued that selective private school admissions may keep special needs or other underprivileged students out of these schools, even if they were selected for a voucher.

SB1 bars the state from taking any measures to regulate the curriculum, admissions or religious values of private schools that enroll students with vouchers.

A students potential for academic success and adherence to the schools Catholic standards are both factors in the admissions process at St. Marys, Goudeau added. Along with typical grade-school classes, St. Marys students attend religion class daily and mass weekly.

If were allowed to continue operating as we do now, we wouldnt just accept every kid anyway, Goudeau said.

A complicated divide

Twenty years ago, church-state separation was the primary concern for religious leaders who oppose vouchers, said Bee Moorhead, executive director of Texas Impact, an interfaith advocacy group fighting vouchers. But more recently, she said, leaders and congregation members have joined Texas Impact primarily over worries that a voucher program would harm public schools.

The conversation has gotten much more dire, she said. People see this as not just a preference for not using tax dollars to subsidize religious education. They see it as  a nail in the coffin of public schools.

Erik Gronberg, the Lutheran bishop of the Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana Synod, said he has taken particular issue with Abbott recruiting religious leaders to advocate for the program. Earlier this month, the governor, who is Catholic, declared a School Choice Sunday and joined a handful of religious leaders across denominations to host a virtual town hall in support of vouchers.

He was trying to encourage pastors to speak in favor of vouchers and that, from my perspective, was a real crossing of the line, Gronberg said. We are called to advocate for justice. Weve got to advocate for the poor and marginalized. Were called to talk about issues as they arise, but this is clearly a very partisan issue and something that is very near and dear to his heart.

Still, some non-Catholic religious schools see merit in a voucher program. Chrystal Bernard, head of Braveheart Christian Academy, oversees a 20-student school founded in 2021 that primarily serves students of color.

Many Braveheart students come from low-income families, Bernard said, and the school has a program allowing parents to volunteer in exchange for tuition discounts. Still, the discounts are modest, and not all families can make up the difference.

This would be life changing for some of our students, Bernard said of education savings accounts.

David DeMatthews, an associate educational policy professor at the University of Texas at Austin, said there is not a clear divide on vouchers between the Catholic Church and other religions.

Some religious leaders see vouchers as antithetical to supporting public schools and equal access to education for all children. Others, amid dwindling enrollment, see it as an opportunity to allow more parents to choose schools that align with their familys religion and values.

For private religious schools that have a moral underpinning, it's a really tenuous spot to support a bill that allows schools, for example, to discriminate against children with disabilities, especially with public money, DeMatthews said. There's a moral aspect to this, especially when religious organizations claim to take the moral high ground.

Disclosure: Pastors for Texas Children and University of Texas at Austin have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

Clarification, Oct. 31, 2023 at 4:00 p.m. : An earlier version of this story said the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops supports the Texas House's main school voucher bill. The group said it supports some parts of the bill, like its language on how to prioritize funds for the program, but prefers the Texas Senate on other aspects.
Claim:

An image shared in late October 2023, showed a person who was killed during an Israeli attack on Gaza sitting and texting from inside a body bag, supposedly validating a conspiracy theory questioning the reality of the violence in Palestine.

Rating:

Rating: Miscaptioned

Context:

The in-question image was captured in October 2022 during a Halloween costume contest in Thailand, and has since circulated online as a meme. It is not connected in any way to the 2023 Israel-Hamas war.

In late October 2023, an image was shared on X (formerly Twitter), allegedly showing a "dead person" texting from inside a body bag in Gaza. "Have you even seen a dead person texting? Apparently in Gaza everything is possible!" one X (formerly Twitter) post read, while one Reddit post captioned the image, "It's a miracle." Another 9GAG user wrote "InnOcEnt CiViLLiAn cAsUAltY is taking a break from beeing dead," attaching the in-question photo.

Have you even seen a dead person texting? Apparently in Gaza everything is possible! #Pallywood pic.twitter.com/zM3FN3kYOa  Inbar Cohen (@InbarCohen13) October 26, 2023

"When you're tweeting your own picture in a body bag.. #Pallywood strikes again," another post on X with a suggestive "Pallywood" hashtag claimed. Reverse-image search results showed that the viral image was shared in various languages, including German, Italian, Dutch, and Spanish, with the claim that it was taken in Gaza and proved that footage of Israeli violence against Palestinians was staged. For instance, one post that reached over 100 thousand views in Spanish read:

One of the inhabitants of #Gaza brutally murdered by #Israel is texting from the other world. #Gaza in need of actors You have a  Use it! #Pallywood #HamasMiente #Propaganda #Hamas #Palestina

A post in Persian (we translated it using Google Translate) read "They are among the martyrs of the Gaza Strip. Chatting for invoice and money deposit."

(X user @jess_ih_ka)

The in-question picture was captured in Thailand and did not show a person killed during an Israeli attack on Gaza. Therefore, we have rated the claim as Miscaptioned.

Further reverse-image search results showed that the image was shared online at least since November 2022. It was later reposted as a meme, with captions such as "When you are dead but you forgot to clear your search history," or "When you got dead, but forgot to tell boss."

When you are dead but you forgot to clear your Google Search history  pic.twitter.com/zJGAXn3gxY  Poorva Bhawsar (@Poorvaholics) November 29, 2022

Moreover, we found the full version of the image in an article published by a Thai website in November 2022. According to the article, the photo showed a child dressed up for a Halloween costume contest organized in a shopping mall in Thailand.

(X user @InbarCohen13 and www.siamnews.com)

The image was also featured in a video published on Nov. 20, 2022, by a Thai AMARINTV YouTube channel:

Finally, we found that the photo was originally posted on Oct. 29, 2022, by a Surattana Sawadkit Facebook user with a caption (we Translated it from Thai using Google Translate) that read:

A small event. Easy and comfortable dress. No need for much. All are friendly people. 

#Halloweenkidsfancy

# # # # #Halloween

On Oct. 27, 2023, the New York Times reported that "the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza has released a list of 6,747 people it said had been killed in Israel's relentless bombardment of the Palestinian territory in retaliation for the Hamas-led raid on Oct. 7 that killed more than 1,400 people in Israel." The in-question photograph was captured in October 2022 in Thailand, and did not validate a baseless conspiracy theory claiming that the footage showing violence in Palestine was staged.

Similar false claims were spread online in April 2022, when Russian propagandists tried to convince the public that the Bucha massacre was staged.

Sources:

Truth or Fake - Debunking Russian Claims That Bucha Killings Are Staged. France 24, 4 Apr. 2022, https://www.france24.com/en/tv-shows/truth-or-fake/20220404-debunking-russian-claims-that-bucha-killings-are-staged.

Washington, District of Columbia 1800 I. Street NW and Dc 20006. PolitiFact - Russia Pushes False Crisis Actor Claims about Video from Bucha, Ukraine. @politifact, https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/apr/04/russian-ministry-defense/russia-pushes-false-crisis-actor-claims-about-vide/. Accessed 27 Oct. 2023.

Yee, Vivian. Gazans Release Names of 6,747 People They Say Were Killed in Israeli Strikes. The New York Times, 26 Oct. 2023. NYTimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/26/world/middleeast/gaza-death-toll-israel.html.

   . Siam news, https://www.siamnews.com/online/view-80497.html. Accessed 27 Oct. 2023.
Second-graders Melissa Escobedo, from left, Isabella Nunez, and Gniyah Gervais participate in Lego club after school at Shields Elementary School in the Brighton Park neighborhood on Oct. 24, 2023. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)

Every school day, when the bell rings at Shields Elementary School, more than 100 kindergarten to fourth grade students head to the after-school program inside the Brighton Park school, where they can find homework help, a warm meal and activities ranging from Zumba to Lego club.

Run by the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council for the past decade, the program provides Shields families a safe haven, according to the staff. Yet, the program is one of around 250 across Illinois facing the prospect of closure when grants administered by the Illinois State Board of Education expire at the end of June 2024, according to advocates.

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Serving an estimated 42,000 primarily low-income students, the programs need $50 million annually from the state to stay open  and to remedy an accounting error by ISBE thats already resulted in closures, according to Susan Stanton, executive director of the statewide Act Now coalition of after-school program advocates.

Among its five programs, the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council provides 2,000 students daily with access to sports, educational and workforce development programs and counseling and mental health services, said Executive Director Patrick Brosnan. The nonprofit is one of nearly 70 organizations with grants expiring in June, according to Act Now.

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Of 33 after-school programs that already lost funding in July, 27 have since closed their doors, affecting around 6,000 students across the state, Stanton said.

It breaks to my heart to know that so many kids were deprived of after-school program opportunities because of this funding error, state Rep. Theresa Mah, a Chicago Democrat, said at an Act Now news conference Wednesday.

When we talk about what it takes to have strong communities, safe communities, tightknit communities, it really is our after-school programs that do a lot of the work, Mah said. If were talking about investing in our communities, this is how we do it.

After an initial five-year award, organizations that receive federal 21st Century Community Learning Centers grants to offer academic enrichment opportunities in high-poverty communities during nonschool hours can typically apply for renewals, or submit new applications if theyve already received a renewal.

Students play in the gym after school at Shields Elementary School in the Brighton Park neighborhood. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)

But because the state education board miscalculated the amount of grant funds available  resulting in a shortfall of at least $12.4 million  neither new nor renewal funds were available this school year, and funding for next school year will be limited at best, State Superintendent of Education Tony Sanders wrote in a weekly message in May.

A Chicago Public Schools spokesperson said Wednesday that the district is awaiting an update from ISBE on the availability of renewal funds and that CPS has allocated $5 million to support programs at district schools through the school year. ISBE didnt provide comment regarding the availability of 21st Century Community Learning Centers grants for new and renewal applicants in the 2024-25 school year.

Without help from the state, many other providers, particularly community organizations, cant similarly cover costs, Stanton said. Act Now estimates at least 2,000 after-school jobs will be lost, and nonprofits largely reliant on 21st Century Community Learning Centers grants could be forced to close altogether.

The governor and the General Assembly need to come together and get this done, State Sen. Ram Villivalam, a Chicago Democrat, said at the news conference Wednesday. It is often said that a budget is a document of priorities and values and I say that its time to prioritize and value after-school programs, he said.

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More than 70% of students at each of two 21st Century Community Learning Centers programs in Villivalams district are from low-income households of color, he added.

State Sen. Celina Villanueva, a Chicago Democrat, said she started her career in public service as an after-school program mentor and has seen the best and the worst of what happens when we have after-school programs and when we dont have after-school programs.

These programs help to transform lives, Villanueva said at the news conference Wednesday. Whether its cultural education, whether its music education, whether its just a little bit of extra homework help  having other community members surround (students) and support them.

Mah, Villanueva, Villivalam and around 20 other state legislators signed an Oct. 18 letter to Gov. J.B. Pritzker, House Speaker Emanuel Chris Welch and Senate President Don Harmon, urging the General Assembly to pursue the $50 million annual appropriation in support of the community learning center programs. As of Wednesday, Act Now spokesperson Emma Spencer said, the organization isnt aware of any lawmaker committed to proposing an amendment to the budget.

smacaraeg@chicagotribune.com
Claim:

A photo shared on X in October 2023 authentically shows a pro-Palestinian protester holding a sign that reads Keep the world clean" and features a picture of the Israeli flag in a trash bin.

Rating:

Rating: True

In late October 2023, a photo was shared on X (formerly Twitter), allegedly showing a student holding a sign reading Keep the world clean" with an illustration of the flag of Israel in a bin.

Meet Marie Andersen: "Keep the world clean (from Israel" She is a Norwegian medical student at the Medical University of Warsaw What's in the mind of these people? I can't comprehend Thanks for the original post @visegrad24 pic.twitter.com/D2E76ReJjr  Tymofiy Mylovanov (@Mylovanov) October 21, 2023

The picture is authentic, and was shared by various reliable sources such as the Polish Press Agency. It was captured during a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Warsaw, Poland, and featured a Norwegian student from the Medical University of Warsaw. NEXTA published an interview on X with the student, Marie Andersen, visible in the viral picture:

"You don't know what is Hamas? Yeah, I don't know" Our correspondent from the scene of the anti-Israel rally, which was held today in #Warsaw, spoke to the protesters. pic.twitter.com/UgLndFfeLw  NEXTA (@nexta_tv) October 21, 2023

We transcribed the part of the interview (from 2:23 to 3:10) where the student explained what the sign meant for her:

Marie Andersen: I'm from Norway. And I study here in Poland, but I'm here to support the Palestinian people and their rights. Hopefully there will be a free Palestine. Journalist: So you hold this sign "Keep the world clean," I see, from Jews, yes? Marie Andersen: No, no, no. Not Jews, of course not Jews. Freedom of religion is also a human right which we support. But we do not support the Israeli government and ethnical genocide they're doing right now to the Palestinian people. But Jews, we love everyone, we love Jews. [...] Journalist: So what is your poster about? Marie Andersen: My poster is about the Israeli government.

The Medical University of Warsaw published a statement assuring the public it had "taken appropriate legal actions," which read:

A fundamental value embraced by the University is a profound respect for every individual. We unequivocally condemn all expressions of hatred, including those rooted in nationality and race. The incident in question occurred outside of the Medical University of Warsaw. The university authorities have taken appropriate legal actions

Moreover, Yacov Livne, Israel's ambassador to Poland, commented on the matter on X:

"Pro-Palestinians" in #Warsaw today. Polish authorities must stop this blatant #Antisemitism before it gets out of control.

Warszawa dzisiaj. Polskie wadze maja powinnosc zapobiegania przejawom takiego otwartego antysemityzmu.#NeverAgainIsNow #HamasisISIS pic.twitter.com/QPKAgHneMj  Amb. Yacov Livne  (@YacovLivne) October 21, 2023

The President of the Republic of Poland, Andrzej Duda, also published a statement "strongly condemning the anti-Semitic slogans" that appeared during the march organized in Warsaw (we translated it from Polish):

We, Poles, out of memory of those murdered during the Holocaust, can never agree to any manifestations of anti-Semitism in any form, and any signs of it arouse our deep indignation. In Poland, there is no consent to express hatred towards anyone. This is completely contrary to the values on which the Republic of Poland is based.

Sources:

https://www.pap.pl/aktualnosci/antysemickie-hasla-na-transparencie-studentki-wum-reaguje-potepiamy-wszelkie-przejawy. Accessed 27 Oct. 2023.

https://www.pap.pl/aktualnosci/ostra-reakcja-wiceszefa-msz-chodzi-o-transparent-na-manifestacji-w-warszawie. Accessed 27 Oct. 2023.
Claim:

In October 2023, Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau agreed to charge every Canadian citizen $622 in order to pay a $23 billion "reparation bill."

Rating:

Rating: Mixture

What's True:

The "First Nations Child and Family Services, Jordans Principle, Trout and Kith Class Settlement Agreement," approved by the Federal Court of Canada in 2023, set aside $23.34 billion (in Canadian dollars) to compensate First Nations children and families harmed by discriminatory underfunding. The so-called "charge" of $622 per Canadian citizen appears to be a calculation based on the total amount of the settlement divided by the number of citizens.

What's False:

The final settlement was approved by the Federal Court of Canada after a prolonged legal battle, not by the prime minister.

In October 2023, a post was shared on X (formerly Twitter) that read "SHOCK SETTLEMENT: Justin Trudeau has agreed to charge every Canadian citizen roughly $622 to pay a $23B reparation bill," reaching over 256 thousand views.

SHOCK SETTLEMENT: Justin Trudeau has agreed to charge every Canadian citizen roughly $622 to pay a $23B reparation bill. https://t.co/iC9IJWICHK  Keean Bexte (@TheRealKeean) October 24, 2023

"The British monarchy should be paying, not Canadian citizens," one X user commented on the post. The rumor stemmed from an article published on The Counter Signal's website that describes itself as "a mainstream media alternative" with a scope "to combat mainstream media lies."

The article with a title "REPARATIONS: $622 per Canadian to cover $23B payment to Aboriginal families" was published on Oct. 24, 2023, and it read (emphasis ours):

A federal judge has approved a record-breaking $23 billion settlement agreement for First Nations children and families. The settlement originated from a 2019 Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruling. This ruling mandated a steep human rights penalty, pricing at $40,000 per affected First Nation child and family. Record breaking First Nations settlement Trudeau chose to negotiate, and ended up losing a record setting settlement. This is the second time the Trudeau government has made headlines for obscene settlement numbers. The first time was when he handed convicted terrorist Omar Khadr $10 million to avoid going to court. What is raising eyebrows is the financial burden placed on all Canadians. The monumental settlement will cost every Canadian citizen roughly $622. Thats right, whether you agree with the settlement or not, youre footing the bill.

The sum of $622 was most likely a calculation based on the amount of settlement ($23.34 billion in Canadian dollars) divided by the number of Canadian citizens. However, contrary to what the viral post stated, The Counter Signal's article did not state that Canadian citizens would be directly charged $622 to pay for the settlement. The article rather implied that it would be covered by the government and therefore the taxes payed by the citizens of Canada.

About the Settlement

The in-question legal battle began in 2007, when the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society filed a complaint alleging the Canadian child welfare system was discriminatory. As Reuters reported, in April 2023:

Canada's federal government and a group of Indigenous people have reached a revised C$23.34 billion ($17.35 billion) agreement to compensate First Nations children and families for the decades of harm caused by a discriminatory welfare system.

Moreover, a release on Canadian government's website from that time informed that the proposal would be approved by the Tribunal and the Federal Court (emphasis ours):

This is a major milestone in advancing compensation; however, a few key steps remain. Canada, the AFN and the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society will now return to the Tribunal to seek confirmation that the proposed revised settlement fully satisfies the Tribunals compensation orders. Once that is confirmed, the agreement will be brought to the Federal Court for approval. If approved, the process to implement the settlement will begin. To find out more about next steps in the compensation process and eligibility, visit www.fnchildcompensation.ca Work continues in parallel with the ongoing negotiations to reform the First Nations Child and Family Services program and a long-term approach for Jordans Principle, to ensure this discrimination never happens again.

In June 2023 the settlement was approved by the Canada's Human Rights Tribunal, as BBC reported. The topic reappeared in social media in Oct. 2023, as the Canadian government website informed, "the Federal Court of Canada approved the First Nations Child and Family Services, Jordans Principle, Trout and Kith Class Settlement Agreement":

October 24, 2023  Ottawa, Traditional Algonquin Territory, Ontario  Indigenous Services Canada Today, the Federal Court of Canada approved the First Nations Child and Family Services, Jordans Principle, Trout and Kith Class Settlement Agreement, with reasons to follow. The agreement was reached between the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), the Moushoom and Trout class actions plaintiffs and Canada, with the support of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society. This First Nations-led agreement includes a total of $23.34 billion to compensate First Nations children and families who were harmed by discriminatory underfunding of the First Nations Child and Family Services (FNCFS) program and those impacted by the federal governments narrow definition of Jordans Principle.

Moreover, the government's release underscored that the settlement would be implemented in 2024, on the condition that the agreement will not be appealed:

If the approval of the agreement is not appealed within the 60-day appeal period following the issuance of the Federal Courts order on the settlement, the process to implement the settlement through the court ordered third-party administrator could begin later in 2024.

All in all, the "First Nations Child and Family Services, Jordans Principle, Trout and Kith Class Settlement Agreement," sets aside $23.34 billion to compensate First Nations children and families harmed by discriminatory underfunding. The in-question post suggested that Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau approved the settlement agreement in October 2023, while the final stage of the legal battle regarded the Federal Court of Canada. Moreover, we have not found any evidence or indication that Canadian citizens would be directly charged $622 to pay for the the settlement bill. Therefore, we rated this claim as a Mixture.

To find out more about the agreement on compensation for First Nations, we encourage you to visit the official website of First Nations Child Services Compensation Process.

Sources:

Canada Approves Historic C$23bn Child Welfare Settlement. BBC News, 27 July 2023. www.bbc.com, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66330678.

Canada Unveils Revised C$23 Bln Compensation Deal for Indigenous Children. Reuters, 5 Apr. 2023. www.reuters.com, https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canada-unveils-revised-c23-bln-compensation-deal-indigenous-children-2023-04-05/.

Home. First Nations Child Compensation, https://www.fnchildcompensation.ca/. Accessed 25 Oct. 2023.
A 16-year-old boy has been reported missing, and his father believes he was abducted by his doomsday-believing mother.

Blaze Thibaudeau is believed to have been taken out of Arizona by his mother, Spring Thibaudeau, to Idaho and left with two other family members, the Gilbert Police Department announced on Friday.

The teenagers father, Ben Thibaudeau, spoke in an interview with EastIdahoNews.com, saying he fears his wife has taken his son as they allegedly believe that the Second Coming of Jesus Christ is approaching.

They see him as a Davidic servant [chosen individual] who plays a significant role in the Saviors return. They feel they needed to take him to an undisclosed location where he would receive his calling and understand his role in the Second Coming, Mr Thibaudeau told the news organisation.

I fear for his safety, especially if my son is contentious, rebellious or belligerent. I fear that my brother-in-law would restrain him or do something that would incapacitate him.

The concerned father said that the two other family members that have accompanied them are is 23-year-old daughter, Abi Snarr and his wifes brother, Brooke Hale.

The father has been working with Idaho law enforcement, who showed him surveillance footage of the four landing at Boise Airport on Monday.

They were spotted in a white Lexus SUV with pink tow hooks on the front driven by Mr Hale, and has been modified with 33-inch tires and a lift, the father said, speculating they have outfitted the vehicle to go into a mountainous region.

Mr Thibaudeau told the website he had received credible information that the four have used their passports to enter Canada.

His wife allegedly became interested in doomsday religious theories back in 2015.

In Christianity, doomsday is the belief that on the last day of the world, God will come and judge everyone, with some believing that the apocalypse will happen.

In a similar theory, the Second Coming of Christ varies in its versions, but it is the belief that Jesus will come back to Earth to set up a kingdom, with some also linking it to the judgment of his enemies, according to a definition by Britannica .

The couple regularly attended The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormon Church, but Mr Thibaudeau became concerned when his wife started obsessing over texts about the Second Coming.

She started to spend huge amounts on food preparations, winter gear and tents, telling him that she needed to go to the mountains for the last days, Mr Thibaudeau told the website.

Before long, his daughter, Ms Snarr and his brother-in-law also started to become invested in the Second Coming, too; his daughter and wife also claimed they were having dreams about stocking up for the last days.

Ben Thibaudeau believes his son was taken up into mountains in Canada for the last days on earth (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

He moved out of his home in April but moved back at the start of October, as he thought that his family situation was getting better.

Ms Snarrs husband, Brayden Snarr, also told the outlet he was becoming increasingly concerned for his wife, who tried to get him to come with them to Idaho.

Mr Thibaudeau and his son-in-law both said that the family has cut off all communication and have not heard from them since they left.

Blazes family believes his mother checked him out of school and told him he was going on a trip for his birthday.

Gilbert Police Department called this missing persons case an alleged custodial interference, with Mr Thibaudeau telling the outlet that he is the temporary sole custody parent of the teen.

The police department urges anyone with information on Blazes whereabouts to contact them immediately.
A federal judge sanctioned Chatham County District Attorney Shalena Cook Jones on Thursday, issuing an order that called her attempts to evade an April deposition in a sexual discrimination lawsuit in which she is a defendant utter nonsense built on fabrications.

U.S. District Judge R. Stan Baker of the Southern District of Georgia ruled Cook Jones in default in the case. The complaint, brought by a former assistant prosecutor in Cook Jones office, Skye Musson, alleges Cook Jones fostered a bro culture upon taking over the DAs office in January 2021 and that Cook Jones denied Musson a promotion because of her gender.

Musson resigned from the DAs office in June 2021 and now practices law in Savannah as a defense attorney.

Cook Jones did not directly respond to a request for comment on the decision when contacted by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Cook Jones is in her first term as Chathams district attorney and has been beset by challenges, including a mass exodus of more than 25 assistant district attorneys. Shes also drawn scrutiny for striking plea deals in 27 of 40 murder cases in 2021 and 2022. According to an investigative report published in April by The Savannah Morning News, her 32% conviction rate in murder cases was among the lowest in the state over that span.

For comparison, DeKalb and Fulton prosecutors recorded 87% conviction rates in murder cases in that period.

Cook Jones troubles have led to calls for probes of her office, including by one state lawmaker, Georgia Rep. Jesse Petrea, a Savannah Republican. Petrea was among the co-sponsors of Senate Bill 92, which created the Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission with the power to investigate district attorneys for misconduct.

In May, Gov. Brian Kemp signed SB 92 into law not in Atlanta or Athens  home to two other often-scrutinized DAs, Fultons Fani Willis and Athens-Clarke Countys Deborah Gonzalez  but at the Chatham County Sheriffs Office.

The Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission started work Oct. 1. The panel has already received a filing against Willis, submitted by eight members of the Georgia Senate.

Petrea said Friday that he has no intention of filing a complaint against Cook Jones over the federal court sanctions.

I have helped create a path for others who have been failed by this DA. That is my job, Petrea wrote in a text message. The numerous citizens and families of victims I have spoken to can do so now however.

The federal court sanction gives Cook Jones critics grounds for a complaint. Baker admonished the Chatham DA repeatedly in his 50-page ruling, saying she mocked the courts generosity in relation to the sexual discrimination suit brought by Musson.

Bakers order opens ominously, stating: This Court does not relish sanctioning attorneys or parties. Nor does it do so lightly. Unfortunately, Defendant Shalena Cook Jones leaves the court no choice.

The ruling focuses on Cook Jones evasiveness in cooperating in a deposition. The DA agreed to be deposed on April 11, only to assume the role of trial counsel in a rape case that started April 4 and lasted through April 12.

Cook Jones didnt notify the courts or Mussons legal team of the scheduling conflict until April 10, literally hours and minutes before her April 11 deposition, Baker wrote. Cook Jones blamed a surprise decision by the rape trial defendant to testify for extending the proceedings.

The judge challenged Cook Jones reasoning, citing emails the DA sent April 10 that show she knew the rape trial would extend into the next day and possibly beyond. Baker said Cook Jones claim was not only false, it is materially false.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Chatham County DA Shalena Cook Jones sanctioned by federal judge
Sacramento City Councilman Sean Loloee destroyed evidence related to the operation of his grocery store business, the U.S. Department of Labor alleged in a federal court filing Thursday.

Federal officials submitted the filing the same day dozens of federal agents raided three Sacramento-area Viva Supermarkets as well as Loloees Hagginwood house, Natomas office and his wifes Granite Bay house.

The filing is the latest development in a lawsuit the U.S. Department of Labor filed against Loloee in April 2022 that alleged Loloee threatened workers at his Viva Supermarket chain by saying he would report to immigration authorities those individuals that lacked legal status in the U.S. The lawsuit included allegations dating back to 2009 that Loloee underpaid employees, employed minors in hazardous occupations, and interfered with multiple federal investigations.

In June, Loloee met with investigators several times discuss the missing production of documents requested by the acting U.S. Labor Secretary Julie Su, according to the Thursday filing. While Loloee turned over thousands of additional pages, the new court filing stated that the production in response to the Acting Secretarys first set of document requests remained deficient.

In an Aug. 11 deposition, Loloee told investigators that he had failed to produce certain documents and destroyed data relevant to this investigation, stated the court filing from Eduard Meleshinsky, DOL solicitor.

He had a deadline to provide additional documents by Oct. 21, but did not do so.

The raid occurred about five days after that missed deadline. Federal officials have declined to share details about the raid.

Homeland Security Investigations officers leave the Viva Supermarket on Folsom Boulevard in Rancho Cordova on Thursday after federal agents temporarily closed the store, which is owned by Sacramento Councilman Sean Loloee.

Loloee and his attorney, Cassandra Ferrannini of Downey Brand, did not immediately return requests seeking comment on the new filing Friday. However, Loloees chief of staff Veronica Smith said Friday morning that had not been detained or charged in connection to the raid.

Whats next for Sean Loloee?

During the same Aug. 11 deposition, federal officials determined Loloee is still in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Thursday filing stated. The act includes a slew of federal labor laws, including the right to a minimum wage, overtime, and prohibiting employment of minors.

The case has been going through discovery for a year and a half. Federal officials allege Loloee refused to produce discovery by a certain deadline, so the federal government issued subpoenas for data from the systems the grocery stores use for timekeeping, payroll and banking.

Mark Reichel, longtime former federal public defender, said federal raids of this type usually lead to criminal charges.

To see a criminal raid like that, I rarely see them not bring criminal charges, Reichel, who has worked on similar cases, said. It usually takes about three to six months.

Reichel said the presence of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security at Loloees Norwood Avenue store Thursday indicates the topic of the raid could have been forced labor  a high priority of the agency in recent years.

Forced labor could include situations by which employees would like to leave their jobs but feel like they cannot, due to coercion, duress, threats of harm or threats of deportation, Reichel said.

The presence of ICE at the Rancho Cordova store could indicate allegations that employees were undocumented, or are working longer hours than their green cards allow, Reichel said.

Loloee, who has represented the North Sacramento district since December 2020, is not seeking re-election next year.

His current term ends in December 2024. Sacramento Central Labor Council Executive Director Fabrizio Sasso has called for Loloee to resign prior to the end of his term. If he does, the council could possibly have Mayor Darrell Steinberg represent the district, as hes currently representing East Sacramento, or hold a special election.
We are suffering from a catastrophic dearth of horniness, dear reader. The need for sex scenes is being discoursed to high hell. Films where sexexplicit sex, in particularis an integral part of the storyline are being slapped with NC-17 ratings, forcing the likes of Passages and Blonde into brief runs in small arthouse theaters before landing on streaming services. For Gods sake, men are hardly even showing nipples anymore, let alone getting cheeked-up on camera!

Blessedly, Showtimes limited series Fellow Travelers has arrived to provide an antidote for this chronic sickness, just as the anti-sex poison was threatening to shut down our systems entirely. (Not 10 minutes into the premiere, theres already full-on fucking.) The scintillating drama is heavy on the fornication, but its not just in the interest of showing sex on screen, either.

Instead, its a series that effortlessly straddles its hot-and-heavy love scenes with dramatic tension thats equally as scorching, and theres no example of that so fine as the series premiere episode, which is inarguably the most sweltering episode of television this year. Each sex scene is rife with the kind of passion that all of the great novels, plays, and poems are written about. But sex without love is just porn, and while the more conservative viewer might jump to equate the two in this context, Fellow Travelers is careful to keep the balance in its first episode to begin crafting one of the most compelling televised love stories in recent memory.

Ben Mark Holzberg

The series premiere opens with its narrative jumping between the 50s and 80s, with the series exploring the events of both times in parallel.. The first finds Hawkins Fuller (Matt Bomer) in 1986, throwing a party at his massive estate alongside his wife Lucy (Allison Williams). Its there where hes approached by his old friend and colleague from Washington, Marcus (Jelani Alladin), who asks to speak with Hawkins privately. The two of them depart to Hawkins office, where Tim tells him that their mutual friendand Hawkins longtime loverTim (Jonathan Bailey) is dying, presumably of complications from AIDS.

Marcus gives Hawkins a present from Tim: a paperweight with the image of the Lincoln Memorial set in its resin. Momentarily, Hawkins drifts back to their first meeting in 1952, the year in which most of the episode is set. The two men lock eyes at an election night party in 1952, celebrating Eisenhowers win. Hawkins, being the charismatic and well-respected war vet and government hobnobber that he is, has no trouble securing a drink at the crowded bar where Tim is struggling to even get the bartenders attention. Hawkins kindly offers to grab Tim a drink, and when Tim orders a glass of milklike the good Catholic boy that he isit immediately signals to Hawkins that this shy, sweet boy has something corruptible about him.

If theres anyone who knows anything about corruption, its Hawkins, who leaves the election party to cruise at a local mens room. The handsome gent that he is, its no time at all before Hawkins is bareback-fucking another man from behind, pulling the bottoms hair, and spanking his ass. As soon as he finishes, Hawkins pushes the man onto the bed and all but dashes home; to him, sex is sex, and any romantic entanglement only makes the separation of his private and public lives all the more difficult.

Ben Mark Holzberg

Unfortunately for Hawkins, Tim does not operate the same way, and when the two of them meet again, their differing approach to companionship only makes their chemistry all the more rich. Both Hawkins and Tim know that the other man will be bad for them, and thats what makes their budding relationship so exciting. Bomer and Bailey are complete naturals at thisno doubt partially thanks to their own real-life queerness. Every time the two of them gaze into each others eyes, sparks become fireworks in seconds. Both actors understand how to display real, effective passion, and it only makes the events that follow all the more steamy.

Hawkins finagles a job for Tim in Senator Joseph McCarthys (Chris Bauer) office, essentially placing him right under the nose of the enemy. This way, Hawkins can ensure that Tim is able to return the favor by digging up some dirt on McCarthy whenever he and his boss, a Democratic senator opposing McCarthys agenda, may need it. It also means that Tim and Hawkins have reason to meet under the cover of their jobsand get a little bit frisky from there.

Their first meeting is at Tims apartment in a shared boarding house. Naturally, the proximity to danger in that situation only heightens the sexual tension that has been lingering in the air since Hawkins told Tim, Ill be imagining you kneeling in prayer a few days prior. Its not long before their conversation turns from work to sex, with Hawkins guiding the more inexperienced Tim. He instructs Tim to remove his socks (only the beginning of Fellow Travelers erotic footplay) and slacks, before telling Tim to fold them. A hard cut sees the two of them collapsing onto Tims bed, with Hawkins tongue buried in Tims armpit before he reaches forward to pleasure his lover. Whos my boy? Hawkins asks, causing Tim to come in his hand.

Ben Mark Holzberg

While in a post-coital haze, Tim asks to know more about Hawkins first lover, which makes Hawkins suspicious that Tim wants more than just sex. Hawkins tries to tell Tim that their relationship will stay purely sexual, but just like Hawkins, Tim has his own ways to get what he wants. When Tim shows up at Hawkins apartment unannounced to discuss something about a developing executive order he overheard in McCarthys office, Tim puts his plans into action. He sits on Hawkins lap and seduces him with information, and though Tim gives up what he knows without a fight, hes already got Hawkins in his clutches.

When Hawkins attempts to kick Tim out so he can get ready for a party his boss is throwing, Tim insists on accompanying him. This is the real world, Skippy, Hawkins replies, giving Tim his pet name that will endure for the decades that their relationship spans. Im your boy, right? Tim responds. And your boy wants to go to the party. The two continue their push-pull, with Tim sitting back on his knees, as Hawkins puts his foot on Tims chest. Once again, Tim removes Hawkins socks, before he starts to lick the ball of his bare foot. When Tim hesitates a bit as his tongue gets closer to Hawkins toes, Hawkins encourages him: Open up.

Ladies, gentlemen, and my dear non-binary audience: Did you gasp along with me? I cant quite remember the last time I saw legitimate toe-sucking in any movie, and Im certainly sure Ive never seen it in a television show. And its not just a brief second, either; we get a full 20 seconds of footwork here. And if I gasped at that, you can bet I audibly yelped when Bomer said, Now, show me what my boy really wants, before Bailey does a swan dive into his crotch. This is pure, unapologetically gay eroticism, the kind that could make just about anyone hot under the collar. In fact, you show me a gay man that has never thought a single sexual thought about a foot in his life and still claims that hasnt changed after watching this scene, and Ill show you a damn liar.

The episode wraps up with Tim and Hawkins attending the party together, before grabbing a nightcap at an underground gay bar. Tim, a little too liquored-up and still feeling the raw intensity of their dynamic, leaves in a huff when Hawkins once again tells him that they can never have a romantic relationship. When I committed this sin, I felt pure, Tim later confesses to a priest. More pure than I ever have in my life. How can I be sorry for it? Its here where Fellow Travelers affirms that its emotional narrative is just as alluring as its sexual one, effectively juggling the loss of faith and the struggle for self against the backdrop of the Red Scare.

The Astonishing Fellow Travelers Is Pornographic Prestige

This installment concludes with McCarthy reading his executive order to root out sexual deviants in government positions, against a montage of Hawkins letting his guard down for Tim, finally telling him about his first lover, before Tim tells him that hes afraid Hawkins will break his heart. Parallel to this, Hawkins flies to San Francisco in 1986 to try to see Tim, who doesnt want to meet with him. As the episode closes, Tim has his own moment of vulnerability across both timelines, letting Hawkins in his apartment in 1952not for sex, but for a loving, tender embraceand returning his call in 1986.

In these final moments, a premiere that was so fiercely carnal settles into a more realistic, romantic rhythm that Im eager to watch the show settle into as it goes on. Thats not to say that there isnt plenty of scorching sex to come, just that its paired with the kind of quixotic tension that will enrapture viewers over and over again, just as this excellent premiere does so many times.

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A Sacramento man was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of selling a lethal fentanyl dose to a Rocklin father, the California Attorney Generals Office said in a news release.

The man, identified as Brandon Garner, was arrested after investigators discovered evidence that he was aware of the lethal nature of the fentanyl that caused the death of the individual in July.

The arrest took place in Sacramento, according to the news release, and was conducted by the Placer Special Investigations Unit, which the California Department of Justice leads.

Law enforcement located the suspect in his car Wednesday and made a traffic stop. In a search of his vehicle, they allegedly found one ounce of fentanyl powder, a quarter ounce of cocaine, and methamphetamine in his possession at the time of arrest, according to the statement from Attorney General Rob Bontas office.

He was booked in the South Placer County Jail on suspicion of homicide, possession of opioids for sale and sale of opiates, according to the news release.

The Placer County District Attorneys Office is prosecuting the case.

Placer County has successfully prosecuted homicide cases stemming from fentanyl sales before. In 2022, Nathaniel Cabacungan was arrested by the same task force for supplying a lethal fentanyl dose to Roseville teen, Jewel Wolf. He was prosecuted for homicide and convicted earlier this year. District Attorney Morgan Gire announced Cabacungan was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Slovakia is ready to increase its contribution to the EU budget over the next four years by 400 million euros so that Ukraine receives an aid package of 50 billion euros  on certain conditions.

Source: European Pravda writes that the office of the Slovak government reported this on Friday, Aktuality reports

Details: As the report says, Slovak Prime Minister Fico said that at the meeting of EU leaders in Brussels, there was a serious discussion about changing the European budget.

As he said, Bratislava is ready to increase its contribution to the EU budget under several conditions.

"We will not allow any cuts in EU funds intended to support farmers and eliminate inequality. The increased EU budget will be used to increase the competitiveness of the EU and to fight against illegal migration," he listed.

He also called for the financial support of Ukraine to be conditional on guarantees that European money, including Slovak money, will not be appropriated.

Part of these funds, in Fico's opinion, should be directed to the restoration of Slovak infrastructure in the border areas and to the support of Slovak companies in the reconstruction of Ukraine.

Earlier, Politico reported that at a meeting of EU leaders on Thursday, Fico issued a warning regarding the allocation of further financial aid to Kyiv due to corruption in Ukraine.

On Thursday, EU leaders discussed for the first time the European Commission's request to member states to provide additional 66 billion euros to the long-term budget for 2021-2027. Of these, they want to allocate 50 billion euros to Ukraine.

Before leaving for the EU summit, Fico said that he did not want to support sanctions against Russia without assessing their impact on individual EU countries and that he was not going to support military aid to Ukraine.

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ROME  Italys Fincantieri and Leonardo are to work together on underwater drones designed to protect cables and pipelines on the seabed amid a growing awareness of the value and vulnerability of sub-sea infrastructure.

With a memorandum of understanding signed on Friday in the presence of the head of the Italian Navy, the two firms chief executives pledged to pool their respective expertise and capabilities in the sector.

As well as developing new platforms for monitoring and protecting strategic underwater networks, cables, communication backbones, offshore infrastructure and underwater threat alert systems, the firms said they would work on the safeguarding of exploration, sea mining, and extraction activities on the seabed for access to valuable mineral resources.

This week, Italian junior defense minister Matteo Perego di Cremnago told Defense News the Italian navy was already discussing with industry how it could cooperate on the protection of the future mining of rare earths and lithium on the sea bed of the Mediterranean. Demand for the substances, which are key to microchips and batteries for electric vehicles, is soaring globally amid fears China has a chokehold on the market.

The need to protect undersea infrastructure has become more keenly felt since the Nord Stream gas pipeline attack in the Baltic Sea last year. Following the attack, the Italian navy agreed with Italian internet firm Sparkle to use its submarines to monitor internet cables which crisscross the seabed of the Mediterranean.

This year, Italy took the lead on a new project in EUs Permanent Structured Cooperation, known as PESCO, to improve sub-sea security for energy pipelines and internet cables.

Defense firm Leonardo and shipyard Fincantieri already collaborate on naval programs through their joint venture Orizzonte Sistemi Navali. In their statement, the firms said their team-up on undersea work was linked to the pending opening of a National Underwater Hub at La Spezia in Italy next year, which will bring together companies, universities, research centres and the navy.
DUKE FIELD - Onlookers who attended the delivery of the BETA Technologies ALIA to Duke Field for a three-month testing session on Thursday saw the aircraft before they heard it.

The all-electric manned aircraft landed after a brief aerial demonstration, the work began for the 413th Flight Test Squadron of Duke Field and AFWERX, the development arm of the U.S. Air Force, as for the next three months, they will conduct a series of tests on the aircraft to determine the viability of an electric aircraft for future military use.

Here's what we know.

What is BETA Technologies?

Founded in 2017 by Kyle Clark in Burlington, Vermont, BETA Technologies builds electric aviation systems for a more sustainable mode of transportation.

Deploying ALIA for experimentation and training at Duke Field is the natural next step in our partnership," Clark said. "We look forward to working hand-in-hand with the U.S. Air Force over the next few months as we work together to assess how the economic, sustainability and energy independence benefits of electric aviation can serve our military."

Along with the U.S. Air Force, BETA has contracts with companies such as UPS, Bristow and the U.S. Army.

What is the ALIA?

The ALIA is the second experimental aircraft that the company has produced. There are two models currently being tested. One is the ALIA CTOL (conventional takeoff and landing), which is the version undergoing testing.

On Thursday, the 413th Flight Test Squadron at Duke Field received the first manned all-electric aircraft for testing. The goal is to see how viable and electric aircraft could be for the U.S. Military.

The ALIA VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) variant is being tested at BETA headquarters in Vermont. That version has the propulsion motor the CTOL has, along with four rotors located on the two booms that run parallel to the body to achieve vertical flight.

We are going to learn a lot of things about these aircraft," said Col. Elliott Leigh, director of AFWERX. "Weve already seen potential use cases for things like personnel recovery, for aeromedical evacuation, and even just airlift for small items we need to move around so that we are not scheduling a large transport aircraft to do work that could be done on a lighter platform."

Eventually, the aircraft could be used for combat situations.

The first electric aircraft charging station on a Department of Defense installation. The Class 3 charger can charge the ALIA to 100% in less than an hour.

The ALIA is powered by five batteries in the belly of the fuselage. It has a conventional range of 250 nautical miles with a maximum distance of 386 miles. A charge to full capacity can take less than an hour to complete.

In September, BETA installed a Level 3 DC fast charger for the ALIA and support vehicles, the first electric aircraft charging station on a Department of Defense installation.

Clark said the operational costs of the aircraft are about half of what it would cost to run a traditional aircraft. For the eVTOL variant, the cost is approximately 30% less than a helicopter.

For the last leg of the 1,700-mile flight from Vermont, the ALIA used about $10 worth of electricity for a 114-mile trip from Dothan, Alabama, to Duke Field

What will the testing process look like?

BETA will supply all the pilots and aircrew for the testing process, while Duke Field officials will oversee the testing process. Air Force officials will use all data collected to determine the future of electric aircraft as a viable option.

In addition to a mobile simulator that can give pilots virtual seat time, the 413th Flight Test Squadron will test all aspects of the vehicle during the three-month training period.

One mission will be to test the infrared signature of the aircraft. Officials know that the readings are low, but this will give the Air Force information on future development and allow the design process to change.

More options for child care Crestview shows full support for Air Force's plan to build new child development center

"An ideal result would is to get out and expose issues on the airplane," said Maj. Riley Livermore, 413th Flight Test Squadron Flight commander. "Every time we go out to test fly, we're not trying to prove that the math works. We're trying to learn the stuff we don't know."

What's next?

As BETA and the Air Force continue to test the ALIA, the process for the aircraft to gain FAA certification is underway.

It's expected to enter service by 2025 or 2026.

This article originally appeared on Northwest Florida Daily News: US Air Force begins testing electric aircraft at Duke Field
A delegation of city officials who went to Texas last week said their three days at the border helped build collaboration between the border cities and Chicago but highlighted a dearth of federal funds and coordination in addressing the migrant crisis.

In a briefing with reporters Thursday, Mayor Brandon Johnsons deputy chief of staff Cristina Pacione-Zayas said the groups biggest takeaway from the trip included the need for a coalition made up of border and interior cities, such as Chicago, to advocate for a comprehensive federal resettlement plan that includes increased and flexible funding for sheltering operations and overall expenses.

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We will definitely need to continue to deliver our message about how much more resource intensive this work is  particularly in the interior cities, Pacione-Zayas said.

She said the delegation learned best practice methods from border city emergency management operations and also started the conversation with border cities how to better coordinate the transportation of migrants by bus to Chicago.

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The group of state, city, federal, philanthropic, legal and faith leaders spent last Tuesday through Thursday in El Paso and San Antonio, touring a U.S. Customs and Border Protection site, a processing center and several shelters, as well as meeting with local city and county leadership.

Last week, the Tribune spoke to Beatriz Ponce de Leon, the citys deputy mayor of immigrant, migrant and refugee rights, by phone while the delegation was in El Paso. Ponce de Leon said they asked El Pasos democratic mayor, Oscar Leeser, to coordinate with Chicago officials before sending buses of migrants.

Currently, buses of migrants arrive at any time, day or night, with little to no warning. Buses can arrive in throngs, or as few as one or two.

Ponce de Leon said the city would like to only receive buses between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.

What we learned is that the city of El Paso is committed to doing that and has been doing it, but the buses that are sent by the Texas Department of Emergency Management  those have much less cooperation and coordination, Ponce de Leon said Oct. 18.

Pacione-Zayas said Thursday that she learned El Paso and San Antonio are pass-through cities, with the singular mission to move migrants into the interior of the United States. Most federal dollars go to border cities, she said, leaving the Chicago migrant budget in the hands of Chicago taxpayers.

Meanwhile, El Paso County received millions more than Cook County in emergency funding for the federal governments Shelter and Services Program this year, according to government data.

But the program  which provides money for sheltering services to migrants who have been released by the Department of Homeland Security  only applies within 45 days of their release. Democratic U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckwort, along with 13 of the states 14 Democratic House members, have asked for more resources from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to be able to provide continuous services for migrants as they settle in Chicago.

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[ Illinois leaders tepid about more quick funding for Chicagos migrant crisis ]

Laura Cruz-Acosta, strategic communications director for the city of El Paso, confirmed to the Tribune that the city uses a combination of federal and state government funding to send buses of migrants to Chicago. She said city officials speak with migrants and send them to locations they request  mainly New York, Denver and Chicago.

What we find is that less than 1% of the migrants arriving in El Paso want to stay in El Paso. They have other destinations in mind because they have either a friend, family member or a job already lined up within the interior of the United States, she said.

Cruz-Acosta said what distinguishes this wave of migrants from those in the past is that they dont have sponsors to help provide funding for them to get to their final destination. Most of the migrants coming to Chicago arrive from Venezuela, which is struggling with a massive economic crisis due to falling oil prices and an authoritarian leader.

Because there is now a strong community of Venezuelans who have landed in Chicagos city-run shelters, more migrants in border cities such as San Antonio are expressing that they want to be bused up for shelter, said Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, 25th, who also went on the trip.

People come where there is community, and there is now a community here, he said. That is what is driving migration to Chicago.

As of Thursday morning, there are more than 11,700 migrants in city shelters, and more than 2,500 migrants sleeping at police districts waiting for placement in a shelter. More than 500 also waiting for placement are staying at OHare.

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More buses were expected to arrive over the course of the day.

Johnson was expected to take the trip to the southern border, but reconsidered, saying his efforts were better spent at home.

[ A not-so-warm welcome for thousands of migrants now sleeping outside in Chicago ]

Bishop Simon Gordon, senior pastor of Triedstone Church of Chicago, joined the delegation with the hopes that religious leaders across all faiths can come together to help find quick solutions, as migrants face bleeker winter weeks and months ahead. He said last year a church in his denomination took in almost 400, but then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot moved them into city-run shelters.

One of the biggest challenges I saw was that theres not a designated Venezuelan population in our country  and definitely not in Chicago  where they can go, said Gordon, who paid for his trip to El Paso after being invited by the delegation. Thats where the challenge is. Theres not a family for them to go to.

The city did not say how much money was spent on the trip. Aldermen said the city picked up the tab for airfare and lodging, but they did pay for their own meals.

Ald. William E. Hall, 6th, described the trip as a fact-finding mission that was essential. He said it was hard for him to watch how border protection took away migrants belongings in detention centers on the border  giving them jumpsuits.

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Imagine going to jail. Its just like going to a federal penitentiary, he said.

He said he hopes to coordinate with nonprofits in border towns to give migrants coats there in anticipation of their arrival in Chicago. He said he better understands the amount of social workers needed at the border to respond to unaccompanied minors.

And he said he has a better sense of the disconnect between Venezuela and the United States, and of the way migrant populations rapidly change and shift.

nsalzman@chicagotribune.com
Some have been waiting in Pakistan for more than a year, according to charities

The first plane bringing Afghan refugees from Pakistan to the UK has landed.

The flight left Pakistan with 132 people on board, official sources in the country told the BBC.

Thousands of people who fled the Taliban after working with or for the UK government in Afghanistan have been waiting in Pakistan for relocation.

Among them are former translators for the British Army and teachers for the British Council.

Pakistan authorities said the UK government had chartered a total of 12 flights to bring Afghans to the UK between now and late December.

All the refugees are part of either the Afghan citizens resettlement scheme or Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy.

They were asked to go to Pakistan for visa processing, but charities say some have been waiting there for more than a year, and that many of their visas have now expired.

Earlier this month, Pakistan said it planned to start deporting illegal migrants from 1 November.

After retaking control of Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban declared an amnesty for people who worked with international forces, but many Afghans have described still living in fear of reprisals.

Some have also told the BBC that, by following the UK's instructions to leave Afghanistan, they are worried that they have put themselves at even more risk.

Qasim - not his real name - was among those who worked with the UK authorities.

"Before we left Afghanistan, our lives were in 50% danger. Now they are in 100% danger," he said.

According to a risk assessment document revealed in court, the British authorities in Pakistan now consider those awaiting UK visas in Pakistan to be "at risk of deportation".

Government figures show that some some 3,250 men, women, and children in this group have been living in guest houses and hotels in Pakistani capital Islamabad.

While there, they do not have the legal right to work and their children are not able to attend school.

Many thought when they first travelled to Pakistan that they would be waiting there only a few weeks.

Documents released in court showed many had faced longer waits because Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had said that, in all but extreme cases, they could not be brought to the UK and accommodated in hotels.

Instead, longer-term accommodation had to be found before they could be relocated. One email said that this arrangement "should represent an overall net saving to the taxpayer".

The BBC understands that the government has decided those on relocation programmes will no longer need to be matched to "suitable accommodation" before they arrive.

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The Coast Guard shared an image of the sailors rescuing the missing fisherman

A fisherman who had been missing for nearly two weeks has been found alive floating in a life raft about 70 miles (110km) off the west coast of the US.

Good Samaritans found the fisherman on Thursday, the US Coast Guard Pacific Northwest said in a statement one day after they had suspended their search.

The Canadian rescuers who found him say he caught and ate a salmon to survive.

The man, who was not identified, had left Grays Harbor in Washington state on 12 October on the ship, Evening.

Officials did not name the rescuers or how they found him, but King-TV in Seattle identified them as Ryan Planes and his uncle John from Sooke, a town on Vancouver island in British Columbia.

"I saw what looked like a life raft in the distance and ran inside and put the binoculars on him and then he shot off a flare," Ryan told the network.

"We pulled him on board. He gave me a big hug and it was emotional," John continued.

He added that the man told him had been alone on the raft for 13 days, and that he caught a salmon after running out of food.

"We made him breakfast. He drank three bottles of water," he continued. "He was pretty hungry, poor guy."

The man appears to be in stable condition, officials say, and was transported back to shore by the Canadian Coast Guard and another Canadian rescue agency.

Officials shared an image of the missing ship, a 43-foot fishing boat called Evening

According to King-TV, the man was taken to a hospital in Tofino, British Columbia, for further treatment.

The man and another sailor on board the Evening were meant to return on 15 October, officials say.

On Wednesday, the Coast Guard said it was suspending their search pending the development of new information.

The decision was made after crews searched more than 14,000 sq miles for over eight hours.

Another sailor that departed with him has not been found, and the Coast Guard says the incident "remains under investigation".

It is unclear whether they plan to resume the search.

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A man was arrested this week after his sneaky drug stash at his house was discovered, according to the Hernando County Sheriffs Office.

A Facebook release says deputies responded to a home Tuesday in Spring Hills, outside Ocala, that had been under investigation since March for possible illegal activity.

When the 23-year-old resident, a convicted felon, opened the door, they were greeted with an overwhelming smell of marijuana.

The suspect admitted that there was indeed marijuana there, but that he wasnt running a grow house, or a property used dedicated to producing cannabis and other narcotics. He also claimed to have a roommate, but detectives found no evidence to suggest a roommate existed.

A search of the premises revealed what appeared at first to be popular candy bars, but with different names, such as Kush Kat, Milky Weed and Almond Weed as well as Skittlez (Medicated).

Many of the drug items were packaged in a way to represent common everyday candy items, similar to the way they would appear in a retail store, authorities said.

In total, 24.3 pounds of marijuana, 10 ounces of powder cocaine, 84 Xanax pills and 90.3 pounds of hashish were uncovered.

In addition, deputies found two firearms (one loaded), drug paraphernalia and a large sum of cash.

The suspect was slapped with multiple charges including trafficking and possession by a convicted felon, and held on no bond.
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MARION COUNTY, Fla. - A man was arrested after he allegedly "bashed" a woman's head into a tree stump because she woke him up on her way to the bathroom, according to the Marion County Sheriff's Office.

Eric Barr was arrested and charged with domestic aggravated battery after the incident that unfolded Friday at the Silver Springs State Park campsite, according to an arrest affidavit.

Deputies on routine patrol in the area were dispatched regarding a verbal disturbance and possible battery. When a deputy arrived, he found the victim "extremely shaken up" with spots of blood on her hands, arms and legs, the report said. She said she was in an argument with Barr, adding that they had been drinking and she "woke him up."

She pointed to the back of her head, which was covered in soaking wet blood, deputies said. They immediately requested emergency medical services.

Photo: Marion County Sheriffs Office

"How could you do this to me?" the woman shouted at Barr from a distance, according to the arrest report.

The woman ultimately told deputies that Barr "hit me with a stump." She hesitated at first, but then said Barr "bashed her head against a stump" and she wasn't "going to sugar coat it anymore," the report said.

Deputies found a log on the ground that had blood on it next to a bottle of liquor.

Barr agreed to speak to deputies after being read his Miranda Rights, and he said they had gone to bed around 10 p.m. after drinking, but the woman woke up to go to the bathroom and she woke him up, the report said. She also broke the zipper on the tent they were sleeping in, and at some point, "it messed up the tent to where it began to break down and collapse," Barr said.

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He said he was inside the tent when the woman hit her head and denied having played any part in it, the report said. He also said there was no argument between them.

Barr was arrested and transported to the Marion County Jail.
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CLERMONT, Fla. - Eight days after a man was released from jail for simple battery, he has found himself behind bars again for allegedly raping a female who rejected his plea to "rekindle their relationship," according to the Lake County Sheriff's Office.

Jacson Mendoza was arrested and charged with false imprisonment, sexual battery and violation of pre-trial release.

On Wednesday, Mendoza allegedly sexually battered the victim after contacting her to possibly "rekindle their relationship" after he was released from jail on Oct. 17, according to an arrest affidavit. The 39-year-old's relationship with the victim was not made clear, nor was the victim's age, albeit over the age of 12, according to arrest records.

While the girl told Mendoza that she did not wish to rekindle their relationship, she said she'd rather be "cordial with him and support him moving forward," the affidavit said. Since the man's release, she would visit his house every day to provide him food and other household members because he has "no family or any support system," the report said.

Mendoza had "full access" to her home.

Photo: Lake County Sheriffs Office

When Mendoza visited the woman's home on Wednesday, he grabbed her and pushed her against the wall. He reportedly ignored her requests to stop, raped her and ejaculated inside her within a few seconds, according to the arrest affidavit.

When the female tried to leave the house, Mendoza "hugged her and held her," the report said. The girl "pushed him and yelled for him to leave her alone" before leaving.

The girl went to work, and Mendoza followed her there on his bike. After telling him again to leave her alone, she made her way to a Lake County Sheriff's Office's district office with her mother and reported the incident.

Deputies asked the girl if she had been intimate with Mendoza since his release, and she said they had consensual sex the day of his release.

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"She instantly regretted the incident and informed Mendoza that this will never happen again, and that this was due to her not being intimate for nearly two months," the report said.

The girl added that there was "never" any point in their relationship where they had an incident similar to the one that happened Wednesday, the report added.

Deputies found Mendoza at his house and arrested him. He was transported to the Lake County Jail, where he remains on $60,000 bond.
I fly 9 hours from Italy to shop at Trader Joe's. Here are 10 things I fill my suitcase with every time.

I'm a food writer based in Italy who loves grabbing snacks from Trader Joe's when I come to the US.

On this trip, I made sure to add the jerk-style plantain chips and chile-lime almonds to my cart.

I find that it can be difficult to get good Mexican food in Italy so I buy some mini tortillas.

I'm an American food writer based in Italy, and every time I come to the US, I leave with a suitcase full of Trader Joe's snacks and condiments.

I usually ping-pong between the St. Petersburg, Florida, Greenwich, Connecticut, and New York City Trader Joe's locations, as my family lives in different areas of the US.

But no matter the location, I always look for my favorite items and make three trips.

On the first trip, I case the joint  I focus on seeing what's new, have some samples, and grab treats to enjoy during my stay. On my second, I get the nonperishables. Then, I make my final trip the day before departure to buy baked goods or cheese.

Most of my Trader Joe's picks are condiments and snacks because they travel well, and I don't have to worry about mold in my suitcase or alerting the dogs at customs. I wrap sauces and other delicate items in bubble wrap.

Here are 10 products I always get at Trader Joe's when I'm in the US.

Trader Joe's habanero hot sauce is elite.

On this trip, I grabbed three bottles of Trader Joe's habanero hot sauce. Eva Sandoval

Peperoncino and 'nduja are wonderful, but there's something about Trader Joe's habanero hot sauce, which I like to drizzle over almost everything. I always buy multiples of the tangy, tongue-numbing sauce.

It's perfect on omelets and zuppa di legumi (a legume and farro soup), no matter what my Italian friends say.

Give me all of the crunchy almond butter.

Trader Joe's crunchy almond butter is very thick. Eva Sandoval

Most of the nut butter I find in Italy is made of peanuts and tastes a bit plasticky to me, so I have to grab Trader Joe's crunchy almond butter.

It's super thick and crunchy so I put it in oatmeal with prune marmalade or slather it on slices of seeded pane semintegrale, a type of Italian bread. I also love it on toast with Nutella.

Trader Joe's has the most delicious innovative snacks.

I could see the lime-chile almonds and mochi rice nuggets as part of an appetizer in Italy. Eva Sandoval

The first snack to make its way into my cart is always Trader Joe's crispy crunchy mochi rice nuggets.

I can never help myself from inhaling the rice nuggets straight from the bag, but I bet they'd work as salatini (salty aperitivo snacks) along with Trader Joe's Thai lime-chile almonds.

I get multiple bags of the almonds because the lime-chile seasoning is next-level addictive. I even think my Italian friends would approve.

I always need more jerk-style plantain chips.

Trader Joe's jerk-style plantain chips are very flavorful. Eva Sandoval

Trader Joe's has a few great varieties of potassium-rich plantain chips, but the jerk-seasoned ones are especially delicious.

They are so tasty that I usually eat them plain, though they're also excellent with Guatemalan-style refried black beans, salsa, or huevos rancheros.

The cauliflower crisps snack makes eating vegetables more delicious.

Trader Joe's cauliflower crisps are made with brown rice and coconut milk. Eva Sandoval

If I'm looking for a gluten-free snack, I choose Trader Joe's crispy cauliflower chips.

They have a delicate coconut-milk aftertaste so I prefer them plain, but I could see them being part of a sophisticated bread basket or used as vessels for a melty cheese fondue.

Trader Joe's dark-chocolate almond-butter cups are perfection.

Trader Joe's dark-chocolate almond-butter cups are the best little treat. Eva Sandoval

I kind of have a thing for almonds so it makes sense that the third product with this ingredient on my list is Trader Joe's dark-chocolate almond-butter cups.

The flavor is exceptional, as you get lots of nut butter in every bite. The cups are my favorite post-dinner or post-workout treat.

I can't choose just one Trader Joe's baked good, but I always grab brookies.

Trader Joe's brookies combine brownies and cookies. Eva Sandoval

I sometimes grab babka or cookies from Trader Joe's baked goods section (I always seem to go in a trance there) but I always get brookies.

Trader Joe's brookies are perfection, as they're crispy on the edges and gooey, almost as if they're slightly underdone, in the middle. The first time I showed my Italian fiance, the concept of a brownie-cookie hybrid nearly made his mind explode.

Now, he needs them, too. He has them for breakfast with espresso and I have mine with cold almond milk.

The soft and juicy mango is just so good.

Trader Joe's dried mango is soft and sweet. Eva Sandoval

Dried fruit is always convenient and Trader Joe's has some of my favorite kinds, like the soft and juicy dried mango.

I eat the dried mango with my oatmeal or snack on it to ward off afternoon sugar cravings. The soft, juicy burst as you bite through the sugary coating makes them feel all the more satisfying when it's just fruit.

The mini flour tortillas taste like home.

I make tacos and other Mexican-inspired dishes with Trader Joe's mini tortillas. Eva Sandoval

In my experience, Mexican food is a bit hard to find in Italy so Trader Joe's mini tortillas get me over the hump when I'm away from the US for long stretches.

I love both the corn and flour versions. I toast them and pair them with huevos rancheros or use them for quesadillas, chilaquiles, and weird clean-out-the-fridge tacos. Add a dollop of the habanero hot sauce you've got a great meal.

Click to keep reading Trader Joe's diaries like this one.

Read the original article on Insider
Food City has donated $15,000 to the $1 million Building a Better Future campaign for a new Anderson County Chamber of Commerce building.

Food City is proud to be a longtime member of the Anderson County Chamber of Commerce. We are excited to support their capital campaign, which will enable the Chamber to continue to grow and provide additional services to the community well into the future, Steven C. Smith, Food City president and chief executive officer, stated in a news release.

Clinton Food City Manager Sam Turner, second from right, gives $15K to the Anderson County Chamber's Tammy Gross, from left, board member; Jackie Patton, CFO; Rick Meredith, CEO; Trey McAdams, foundation chair; and Marsha Stapleton, membership director.

The supermarket chain has stores located in Clinton, Oak Ridge and Oliver Springs in Anderson County and currently operates 152 retail outlets throughout southeast Kentucky, southwest Virginia, east Tennessee, north Georgia, and Alabama.

Thanks to Food Citys support, we are moving closer to our goal for our new building. We appreciate this significant contribution and the support Food City has provided the Chamber for many years, Chamber President and CEO Rick Meredith said.

The 7,700-square-foot building will be located at North Main and North Hicks streets in Clinton, blocks from the Chambers current location. Its planned state-of-the-art facilities and technology will include a diversified room for Chamber board meetings and coffees, as well as for meetings, videoconferencing and training by community organizations and Chamber members.

Anderson County Chamber President Rick Meredith, right, speaks with Sam Turner, left, Food City in Clinton's store manager, and Trey McAdams, Chamber Foundation chairman, after the $15,000 check presentation at the Clinton store.

The building will be the first the Chamber has owned since the organization was formed 90 years ago, Meredith said. The Chamber has rented offices and meeting space during that time, but now officials look forward to having expanded event and meeting space.

The Anderson County Chamber Foundation Inc., formed last December, is leading the fundraising campaign. The non-profit Foundation welcomes contributions from Chamber members and the community to support the new multi-purpose building. Since the campaign kickoff in April, the fund drive has raised about 40% of its $1 million goal.

To learn more about the Anderson County Chamber Foundation, the new building and the fund drive, visit the Foundation website at acccfoundation.org.

This article originally appeared on Oakridger: Food City gives $15K to $1M campaign for Anderson County Chamber bldg.
Ford is delaying about $12 billion in planned investments on EVs, including construction of a second battery plant with joint venture partner SK On due to softening demand for higher priced premium electric vehicles.

CFO John Lawler emphasized Thursday during the company's third-quarter earnings call that the company wasn't backing away from its next-generation EV vehicles. However, he along with CEO Jim Farley acknowledged that while EV sales have grown, consumers aren't willing to pay a premium for an EV over a gas or hybrid vehicle. That price pressure has squeezed profits, and in the case of Ford's EV business caused losses to grow.

While, overall, Ford is still wildly profitable, those earnings are coming from its commercial product and services business known as Ford Pro and sales of its iconic gas and hybrid vehicles, which falls under its Ford Blue unit.

The company's Model e unit  the business dedicated to EVs  is another story. Ford reported a $1.3 billion loss in the third quarter on its Model e unit up from the $1.08 billion lost in the previous quarter. Ford ultimately hopes to reach an 8% margin on EVs with a cost structure that reflects price parity with ICE vehicles. To get there, Ford will need to make structural changes.

Farley said reducing the sticker price on electric vehicles is a top priority in order to keep up with the "moving target" that is the EV market. For Ford, that means cutting operational costs and scaling quickly in an attempt to land on the sweet spot that Tesla has nailed.

Tesla actually gave us a huge gift with the laser focus on cost and scaling the Model Y, Farley said Thursday during the company's third-quarter earnings call. They set the standard and we are now making real progress on our second and third cycle EVs that are in the midst of being developed today.

That "real progress" hasn't translated into a profitable EV business yet.

Ford's answer, which Farley emphasized on the company's earnings call, was on price, not more features. Ford appears to be already putting this cost strategy into action. In October, Ford introduced the F-150 Lightning Flash pickup, a cheaper, tech-heavy version of the F-150 Lightning. Ford also said its planning to introduce a few second and third-generation vehicles, including a new full-sized pickup truck, that will come in at lower price points.

Great product is not enough in the EV business anymore, said Farley. We have to be totally competitive on cost.

Lawler said the automakers next-gen EVs will drive the ultimate success of our EV transition because theyll be cost-optimized and guided by the learnings of our first-generation vehicles that are currently in the market.

In the meantime, Ford is shifting production and adjusting future capacity to better match market demand. The automaker has taken out some Mustang Mach e production and has slowed down several investments, including working with Korean battery maker SK On to delay a second Blue Oval SK joint venture battery plant in Kentucky. Ford has also said it will evaluate its global Battery Park Michigan plant for potential adjustments.

All told, we have pushed about $12 billion of EV spend, which includes capex, direct investment and expense, said Lawler, noting that Ford wont actually go ahead and pull the trigger on it if we dont need to.

Ford pulls guidance pending UAW deal

Ford and United Auto Workers union negotiators reached a tentative agreement Wednesday to end what has become a six-week strike. Ford said the strike had an EBIT impact of about $100 million in the third quarter and has trimmed about 80,000 units from the automakers plan.

This would reduce 2023 EBIT by roughly $1.3 billion, said Lawler, noting that Ford will provide updates on its full-year guidance once the agreement is ratified.

Fords previous guidance for 2023 was between $11 billion and $12 billion in adjusted earnings. The automaker also expected free cash flow of between $6.5 billion and $7 billion. Through the third quarter, Ford earned $9.4 billion in adjusted EBIT.

The agreement gives the union 25% pay increases over the next four and a half years, including an initial increase of 11%. Cost of living adjustments see a raise of top wages to more than $40 per hour and an increase of 68% for starting wages to over $28 per hour.

Ford Q3 2023 financials

Ford reported a net income in the third quarter of $1.2 billion, compared to an $827 million loss in the year prior.

Collective automotive revenue was $41.19 billion, versus $41.22 billion expected by Wall Street.

Fords ICE business operations, Ford Blue, earned $1.72 billion in the quarter, while the Ford Pro commercial business brought in $1.65 billion. Again, Model e lost $1.3 billion in the third quarter.

The automaker closed out the quarter with cash flow from operations of $4.6 billion and adjusted free cash flow of $1.2 billion.

Ford said it has more than $29 billion in cash and $51 billion in liquidity as of September 30.
Art Schaap learned in 2018 that a military base near his farm had contaminated the groundwater he depended on to sustain his cattle herd.

Government tests found high levels of toxic forever chemicals in the water of his New Mexico farm and in the milk his dairy cows were producing. Because of the hazard, Schaap was forced to curtail milk production, euthanize more than 3,600 cows and bury the animals, he said this week.

We had to put them on site because its a hazardous waste and you cant just bring them to a landfill, Schaap said during a news conference highlighting the plight of farmers whove encountered forever chemicals on their land and in their water.

The news conference in Michigan was held a long way from South Carolina, but it focused on an issue of increasing interest in the Palmetto State:

How toxic forever chemicals are affecting crops and cattle in agricultural communities. The question is whether South Carolina farmers could suffer the same consequences of tainted crops and livestock that farmers elsewhere have.

So far, testing in South Carolina has confirmed forever chemical pollution in the soil and groundwater of hundreds of acres of farmland in Darlington County, about 75 miles east of Columbia.

In some cases, sewer sludge from an industrial plant was given to unsuspecting farmers as fertilizer years ago. Today, the groundwater used to irrigate crops and provide drinking water on the farms has shown elevated levels of the same types of forever chemicals that were in the sludge.

Across South Carolina, state regulators have approved spreading sludge on about 3,500 agricultural fields and 80,000 acres, The State newspaper and McClatchy reported in a recent investigative series.

While some of the sludge contained forever chemicals, information remains elusive about the extent of contamination on crops or in cows milk in Darlington and other counties where sludge was applied to agricultural land.

Little research has been done in South Carolina on whether forever chemicals have worked their way into both crops and livestock from sewer sludge  or from leaks at military bases, as occurred on Schaaps land in New Mexico.

Despite questions in South Carolina about whether PFAS is tainting crops, the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control says testing crops and milk isnt its responsibility. The S.C. Department of Agriculture says it is not testing.

Once supported by government agencies as a low-cost fertilizer, sludge is of increasing concern nationally because forever chemicals are showing up in the gunky waste in multiple states.

Forever chemicals from polluted groundwater on military bases also are a threat to farms, crops and livestock.

The U.S. Department of Defense has notified more than 190 farms within one mile of South Carolina military installations that the farms are at risk from forever chemicals found on the military sites.

Levels of forever chemicals are in some cases thousands of times higher than a proposed new federal standard of 4 parts per trillion in drinking water, according to special Defense Department reports on the issue.

Military installations with pollution near farms include Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter, McEntire Joint National Guard Base in Richland County near Columbia, the now closed Myrtle Beach Air Force Base, and the Marine Corps Air Station at Beaufort, the Defense Department has reported in the past three years. Mobile home parks near Shaw have previously shown elevated forever chemical levels in well water.

That doesnt necessarily mean the bases have contaminated farms, but its a question that needs answers, say those following the issue. The federal reports look at farms near military bases across the United States, including those in South Carolina.

Researchers in some other states have tested crops and milk for signs of forever chemical contamination.

The University of Maine, for instance, is specifically looking at whether crops on highly contaminated land are drawing in the chemicals.

Some research suggests that leafy vegetables, such as lettuce and kale, are more likely to contain measurable levels than vegetables that produce fruits, like tomatoes and corn, the Bangor (Maine) Daily News reported. But at least one study, conducted by a researcher at Michigan State University, found that squash also has wound up with elevated levels of forever chemicals.

Cattle from one Michigan farm were found to have elevated levels of forever chemicals, the Guardian reported last year. The farm sold beef to schools and farmers markets, the news outlet reported.

Thats notable because forever chemicals can cause certain forms of cancer, thyroid problems, high cholesterol and weakened immune systems. Used in everything from firefighting foam at military bases to non-stick frying pans and waterproof clothing, forever chemicals have been around since the 1940s.

They are formally known as per and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, but are commonly called forever chemicals because they dont break down easily in the environment.

Textile plants are a major source of forever chemicals. National manufacturers shipped the chemicals to places like Galey and Lord, seen here. It is a textile plant in Darlington County, South Carolina. Sludge from the plant was spread on farm fields as fertilizer. Joshua Boucher/jboucher@thestate.com

Maine resident Adam Nordell, a one-time farmer whose property was polluted by forever chemicals, said research there has helped enlighten state agencies on what to do about the contamination.

Maine has banned the use of sewer sludge as a fertilizer, set safety limits for one key forever chemical in both milk and beef, and established a $60 million fund to help farmers whose property has been affected.

Maines rules, for instance, bar shipping any milk that has exceeded a limit of 210 parts per trillion for the forever chemical known as PFOS.

Our states regulation is informed, certainly, by this research, said Nordell, who now works for the advocacy group Defend our Health. The research helps make our regulations more effective.

So far, regulators in South Carolina have tested rivers, lakes, fish and groundwater, finding PFAS virtually everywhere they looked. But they have not followed through on plans to limit forever chemicals in sewer sludge, nor have they advocated for a state drinking water standard.

The Department of Health and Environmental Control also acknowledged that it is not checking crops or cows milk for PFAS.

DHEC doesnt have oversight of crop or cattle production in the state, the agency said in an email.

The agency said it doesnt know enough about PFAS to say whether farmers should be concerned about crops and cattle, but said all potential sources of exposure should be studied to protect people and products from the chemicals.

DHECs email said the agency hopes to work with other agencies or universities to assess the impacts of forever chemicals in South Carolina. For now, DHEC says it is encouraging those who spread sewage sludge to monitor for PFAS, although the agency says it cannot require that.

Our staff are keeping abreast of what research studies from academia are also finding, the agency said in an email. Those studies include a report from Michigan State University and one from the University of Maines Cooperative Extension.

Eva Moore, a spokeswoman for the S.C. Department of Agriculture, said her agency is not now doing any testing for forever chemicals, but it is hearing from farmers who want to stay apprised of the latest information.

Were staying engaged locally and nationally to help answer that, she said in a text Thursday to The State.

South Carolinas farm economy is not as large as in some places, but it still is important to the state. Agriculture and forestry account for 259,215 jobs and have a $51.8 billion annual economic impact, according to the S.C. Department of Agriculture.

The Agriculture Department has been in regular touch with DHEC about forever chemicals, Moore said in an email. Forever chemicals are on farmers radar and our radar, according to the email, which went on to say there is also a lot we dont know.

Jonathan Veit, a spokesman for Clemson University, said he is unaware of any studies his institution is doing on PFAS in crops or milk.

Schaap, the New Mexico farmer, was joined at Mondays news conference by other farmers whose land and crops have been hurt by forever chemical contamination.

Among them was Fred Stone, a Maine farmer who gained national attention after PFAS contamination was found in cows milk at his dairy. It is suspected that sewer sludge he applied on his land years ago polluted the water. Sludge spread on the land had been championed as a low-cost way to fertilize crops.

Others included Michigan cattle farmer Jason Grostic, who said he needs help overcoming a problem that resulted through no fault of his own.

Farmers who say their land and crops were tainted by forever chemicals are seeking help from the federal government. They back legislation to support farmers suffering from pollution that seeped onto their property from other sources. Screenshot courtesy of Defend our Health

His 300-acre cattle farm was forced to shut down after state officials said PFAS had polluted water, feed and cattle, according to a story in The Progressive Farmer. That put him 100% out of business, Grostic said during the news conference. He has had to sell his farm equipment to make ends meet.

The suspected cause was contaminated sewer sludge that had been spread on his land to help grow alfalfa and corn silage, a type of cattle feed. The sludge was considered safe when it was spread on the land.

Ive had my customers call me up and call me a murderer because I poisoned them, Grostic said. I didnt poison them. I didnt put this in my beef.

Those at the news conference said they support federal legislation to help farmers impacted by PFAS. In Grostics case, he said the state of Michigan has been of little help.

Theyre worthless, he said.

The legislation now under consideration in Congress would provide money to states to help those whose crops have been affected.

Modeled after rules in Maine, the legislation would give aid to farmers to replace income lost by PFAS contamination of their land and crops.. Money also could be used to study the uptake of PFAS into farm products.

In addition, the legislation would provide money to help monitor people who have been exposed to PFAS on a farm. Out-of-pocket costs for monitoring are now outside many peoples budgets and blood tests for forever chemicals are sometimes not paid for by insurance.

Despite the federal effort, news conference organizers said it could be awhile before such legislation passes, assuming Congress approves the legislation.

It is important for the federal government to step up, but as we all know, the federal government isnt exactly the most speedy of bureaucracies, and it will take them time, said Sarah Woodbury, director of advocacy for the environmental group Defend our Health.

For now, she said states need to take more aggressive action, similar to what has occurred in Maine.

States need to step up, Woodbury said.

Shirley Alford, 67, at her home in Darlington County on Wednesday, March 29, 2023. Alfords well water is contaminated with PFAS. Fertilizer that contained the forever chemicals was spread on adjacent farm land. Tracy Glantz/tglantz@thestate.com
A former Cincinnati Bengal is now allowed to fly out of Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) after being arrested there last month.

>>PREVIOUS STORY: Former Bengal Adam Pacman Jones cant fly out of CVG after airport arrest, lawyer says

Adam Pacman Jones, a former cornerback for the team, was arrested on Sept. 11 and banned from the airport by police, according to our news partner WCPO in Cincinnati.

Passengers said he argued with crew on his flight over a phone charging port and the pilot had to take the plane back to the gate.

Prosecutors charged Jones with alcohol intoxication, terroristic threatening, and disorderly conduct.

A judge granted Jones access to the airport on Thursday.

However, he cannot drink there.
Collaborative efforts needed for better China-U.S. relations

Xinhua) 08:20, October 27, 2023

NCUSCR President Stephen A. Orlins (at the podium and on the screens) delivers the opening remarks at the annual Gala Dinner of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations (NCUSCR) in New York, the United States, on Oct. 24, 2023. (Photo by Winston Zhou/Xinhua)

U.S.-China cooperation "will strengthen both countries and benefit the world," said Columbia University Professor Jeffrey Sachs. Meanwhile, some other experts shared a similar view.

BEIJING, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- In a congratulatory message to the annual Gala Dinner of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and a meeting with Gavin Newsom, governor of the U.S. state of California, on Wednesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping reiterated the three principles upheld by China in handling its relations with the United States.

Both Xi and U.S. President Joe Biden sent congratulatory messages to the annual Gala Dinner, which is "encouraging," said Lyazid Benhami, vice president of the Paris Association of French-Chinese Friendship.

It is important to "promote an exceptional relationship between China and the United States, a relationship founded on renewed trust and the desire to overcome differences and cyclical obstacles," Benhami stressed.

Tom Watkins, a former advisor to the Michigan-China Innovation Center, said that "history has demonstrated that building bridges is a much better strategy than building walls or digging moats" between the United States and China.

In a world fraught with tension and uncertainty, a concerted effort to address the problems and existential threats facing both nations and all of humanity is needed, Watkins added.

"It is imperative we find ways to develop a shared vision and common agenda in areas that are in our collective national interests while we have open dialogue on topics where we disagree," Watkins said.

Jeffrey Sachs, economics professor and director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, told Xinhua via email that he agrees with Xi's message that U.S.-China cooperation "will strengthen both countries and benefit the world."

"It is correct and indeed possible," Sachs said.

Peace, the end of poverty worldwide and environmental sustainability will benefit enormously from U.S.-China cooperation, Sachs added.

Heba Gamal, a member of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs, echoed the sentiment. Gamal said that promoting cooperation between the powers and easing tensions would help reach a breakthrough in several current world crises.

Greg Cusack, a former member of the U.S. State of Iowa House of Representatives, said: "What has begun as small actually can lead to greater cooperative efforts as, very gradually sometimes, trust is slowly built. Unless China and the United States find a way to truly work together on such imminent threats as global warming, energy and food insufficiencies, the future for all of us does not look very bright at all."

He expressed the hope that both countries could prioritize cultural and people-to-people exchanges.

"It appears that the Chinese are continuing to be a stable partner in sharing their achievements with Newsom in hopes that the world's two top economies can together set a standard for global cooperation in our climate emergency," said Kevin Clark, director of Center for Organic Philosophy, a Washington State-based non-profit organization focusing on green growth.

Newsom's tour in China discloses to the world "the immense progress" China had made in both developing and implementing practical, locally focused climate change strategies both for municipal and regional development, Clark added.

(Web editor: Tian Yi, Liang Jun)
Mourners hold candles and posters during a vigil for Adrianna Lopez, a Chicago Public Schools special education teacher at Nathan S. Davis Elementary School, in Garfield Ridge on Oct. 27, 2023. (Trent Sprague/Chicago Tribune)

Attempted murder charges were filed against a Chicago man accused of shooting an Illinois State Police trooper, days after his ex-girlfriend, a Chicago Public Schools teacher, was found fatally shot outside her home in the Garfield Ridge neighborhood.

Charges against 37-year-old Cristobal Santana, including two counts of attempted first-degree murder and one count of aggravated battery with a firearm to a police officer, were filed Thursday in Sangamon County, state police said. Santana also faces counts of aggravated battery to a police officer and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, authorities said.

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The initial news release by state police said a state trooper was shot in the leg while interacting with Santana, calling the man a suspect in a Chicago killing without giving more detail on the crime in question. The shot trooper and Santana, who was injured during his arrest, remained hospitalized Thursday evening.

Family members of slain Chicago Public Schools special education and pre-K teacher Adrianna Lopez, 41, say Santana was Lopezs former boyfriend. Chicago police have not named a suspect in her killing, and the department told the Tribune Friday there was no one in custody in connection to the crime.

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Adrianna Lopez was killed Sunday in a shooting outside her home in Chicago's Garfield Ridge neighborhood.

According to Chicago police, a known man in a dark SUV approached and shot Lopez 10 times in the chest on the sidewalk outside her home in the 5400 block of South Narragansett Avenue.

Family members previously told the Tribune they had seen video showing someone shooting and killing Lopez in the Garfield Ridge neighborhood Sunday night.

[ Suspect in a Chicago homicide arrested after an Illinois State Police officer is shot in Springfield ]

Lopez had filed for an order of protection against Santana a month ago, Lopezs cousin Martiza Torres said.

A Cook County sheriffs office spokesperson could not confirm whether Lopez had been granted an order of protection, citing a law requiring such orders to be sealed until they are served.

At a vigil honoring Lopez on Friday night, dozens of friends, colleagues and family members in pink, her favorite color, gathered for prayers in English and Spanish, including a reading of Psalm 23, on the sidewalk outside her home. They piled flowers and candles on her front steps.

Mourners hug during a vigil for Adrianna Lopez in Garfield Ridge on Oct. 27, 2023. (Trent Sprague/Chicago Tribune)

The Nathan Davis Elementary School teachers who attended the vigil remembered their colleague as brave, kind and nurturing.

She wanted everyone to be kind to each other, but to stick up for yourself, Judin Bonilla said of her colleague. Lopez loved to go to the gym and travel, and had been planning a trip to Colombia when she died, Bonilla said.

At school, colleagues described Lopez as above and beyond in her commitment to her students, taking visits in her classroom from old students and teaching those who asked about hygiene and self-care. Bonilla recalled that she had a particular way with pupils who were agitated or acting out.

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She was soft-spoken but firm, Bonilla said. Just the sound of her voice would calm the kids down.

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Irene Luevano, who worked with Lopez for two years, teaching special education students in third and fourth grade as a classroom assistant, recalled how Lopez kept track of her students birthdays on a classroom calendar and held celebrations for each child.

Those kids loved her so much, everyone would be counting down for her birthday, Luevano said. Shed celebrate for the whole month of May.

Hyper-organized and neat, with a special system for organizing her classrooms books, Luevano said Lopez encouraged her to be more social, and to go back to school to improve her teaching credentials.

She was always on me, like, Did you take your test already?, she said. She was always sending me different study guides. She was very helpful.

Lopezs family members are raising money for funeral services and had collected $18,000 as of Friday evening on a GoFundMe page created by Lopezs sister, Norma.
Former Bourne Select Board member James Potter faces assault charges from three alleged incidents in March of 2009, January of 2015 and April of 2022, according to Falmouth District Court records.

The charges against Potter include statutory rape of a child; two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14; one count of indecent assault and battery on a person 14 or over; and rape, according to the records.

Potter, 44, was arraigned April 18 in Barnstable Superior Court and pleaded not guilty. Judge Mark Gildea did not find Potter to be dangerous to the community and released the defendant on $20,000 bail.

Potter appeared in court for a pre-trial hearing on July 24; and appeared again in court on Sept. 25. At that appearance, the commonwealth moved to restrict discovery of video recordings.

James Potter in 2021

Potter will appear in court Nov. 6 for a Dwyer motion. Potter's attorney John Calcagni of the Law Office of John L. Calcagni III, Inc., did not return calls and emails to the Times.

Police reports regarding Potter's charges were not available in April at the courthouse clerk's office because the case was pending and because the report contained the names of underaged individuals who police and prosecutors allege to be sexual assault victims, according to Russ Eonas, who at that time was the second assistant district attorney for the Cape and Island District Attorney Office.

What is a Dwyer hearing?

At a Dwyer hearing, according to the state of Massachusetts, a judge will decide if certain records are privileged and relevant to a case against the defendant. Under the law, certain records including psychiatric or other counseling records may be confidential, or privileged. The purpose of the hearing is to determine whether a judge will order the records to be sent to court for the defendant's lawyer to inspect. If the judge allows the defendant's motion, the court will make privileged records available only to defense counsel, pending further order of the court.

If the records are privileged under the law, the court will assume that the defendant doesn't want to waive privilege at that time, unless a written waiver is provided before or during the hearing.

What was James Potter's role in Bourne town government?

Potter was elected in May of 2018 to the Bourne Select Board. He ran for re-election in May of 2022, but failed to win a seat, said Peter Meier, a member of the Select Board. Potter was chairman of the Bourne School Building Committee, beginning in 2014, and was chairman of the Bourne Sewer Commission during his time on the Bourne Select Board. Potter also created and helped run the Bourne Community Engagement Committee, said Meier.

Potter also served on the Wareham Select Board, according to his campaign Facebook account, and the Wareham Sewer Commission.

Meier was shocked by arrest

For Meier, the nature of the charges pending against Potter is startling.

"Am I concerned? Yes," said Meier. "I'm shocked more than anything else."

Meier also believes in due process, and the competency of the justice system and the Cape and Islands District Attorney's Office, he said.

"Everyone is just waiting on what the outcome will be and I believe the process will be done the right way," said Meier.

Rachael Devaney writes about community and culture. Reach her at rdevaney@capecodonline.com. Follow her on Twitter: @RachaelDevaney.

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: James Potter, former Bourne selectman, in court Nov. 6 for rape case
Former Chinese Premier Li Keqiang , once seen as a reform-minded contender to the countrys top leadership role, died of a sudden heart attack early Friday in Shanghai, state media reported.

He was 68 years old.

Li, who was nominally Chinas No. 2 leader until late last year, served as the countrys premier  traditionally in charge of the economy  for a decade from 2013 to March this year under strongman leader Xi Jinping.

During his time in the role, Li navigated the worlds second-largest economy through a challenging period of rising technology and trade tensions with the United States, mounting government debt and unemployment, and the Covid-19 pandemic.

In his final year in power, the economist by training had been a strong voice warning of challenges to Chinas economy amid widespread Covid-19 lockdowns, while backing efforts to boost employment and maintain economic stability.

Li, known to use his English language skills on occasion in appearances outside the mainland, was also seen as representing a different approach to Chinas ties with the world, at a time when the countrys relations with the West have grown increasingly strained.

China and the United States have common interests, Li said in response to CNNs question at his annual press conference in March 2021. The two countries need to put more energy on their common ground and expand converging interests.

As the news of Lis death broke Friday morning, social media users circulated a line from Lis yearly address to Chinas rubber stamp parliament in 2022, where he pledged that, No matter how the international environment may change, China will keep the course of wider openness.

Li, a highly educated technocrat with degrees in law and economics, was considered friendly to the private sector. He was also seen to have a diverging policy stance from Xi, who has tightened party control over the economy.

A reform-minded leader

Li oversaw much of Chinas efforts to prop up economic growth during his decade-long tenure and remained a supporter of the global integration of Chinas economy, even as he found himself increasingly sidelined by Xi.

As international doubts grew in recent years over Beijings resolve to continue the reform and opening policy, Li had repeatedly told foreign corporate executives and local officials that such economic development remained the partys priority.

During the countrys Covid lockdowns, he held meetings instructing various government departments to clear logistical hurdles for foreign companies to resume production.

(Li) was the only member of the Politburo Standing Committee to have openly advocated for the continuation of (former leader) Deng Xiaopings open-door policy, which ran counter to the instincts of Xi Jinping, said Willy Lam, a senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation think tank in the US, pointing to Xis inclination toward state-controlled measures.

Li is also remembered for his focus on addressing societal ills  with social media users on Friday also pointing to his comments noting that 600 million people in China  or roughly 40% of the population  still had a monthly income of 1,000 yuan ($137).

Those remarks, made during the premiers annual press conference in 2020, served as a reminder of Chinas ongoing struggle to lift people out of poverty, even as Xi hailed Chinas efforts in this regard as a point of national pride.

During the pandemic, where Beijings policies brought large swathes of the country to a halt, Li called local officials to earnestly implement policies to stabilize the economy and support small businesses and employment.

He was also the highest level official to visit Wuhan in January 2020, when the city was under lockdown and battling a surge of infections in the worlds first known Covid-19 outbreak.

Some of Lis efforts to bolster the economy appeared to underscore his rift with Xi, and the premier was widely seen as lacking power relative to many of his predecessors.

When the premier called for the revival of street stalls as a way to jump start growth and fix a spiraling jobs crisis, his proposal met with criticism from a number of state media outlets.

The backlash from party mouthpieces sparked speculation of conflict between the two most senior party figures over how to stimulate the economy amid strict pandemic controls.

Rise under Hu Jintao

Li is widely seen as a protege of Xis predecessor, Hu Jintao, who presided over an era of rapid growth in China from 2002 to 2012. The men shared economic sensibilities and rose to power through the Communist Partys Youth League, once seen as a training ground for future leaders.

The faction was known for producing reform-minded leaders hailing from humble family backgrounds, but its influence is believed to have been crushed by Xi since he came to power.

The relationship between Li and Hu was in the spotlight last year when the former top leader was unexpectedly led out of the closing ceremony of the October 2022 Communist Party Congress, where Xi further consolidated power.

In a moment of drama during a usually highly choreographed event, Hu was escorted from the room, pausing on his way out to pat a stony-faced Li on the shoulder, who nodded and turned to watch the former leader depart. State media later suggested Hu left due to health issues.

Under Hu, Li was named to the partys top leadership body, the Politburo Standing Committee, in 2007.

He previously held key roles as party chief in industrial Liaoning province and was provincial leader of Henan, an agricultural base.

Born in Anhui, Li spent his late teens doing manual labor with the Dongling Production Brigade in the eastern province during the Cultural Revolution, a decade-long social and political upheaval launched by late Chinese leader Mao Zedong.

Li was among the first batch of students to sit the college entrance exam after it was reinstated following the end of the Cultural Revolution. In 1978, he enrolled at the prestigious Peking University, where he studied law and later obtained a doctorate in economics.

Unlike Xi, Li is not considered one of Chinas princelings hailing from a prominent party family. He held positions in the Communist Youth League Central Committee during the 1980s and 90s.

His time in the top echelons of Chinas Communist Party came to a close last October, when he was not named to the partys Central Committee during a twice-a-decade leadership reshuffle that saw Xi surround himself with key allies.

Then 67, Li was one year short of the unofficial retirement age for senior Chinese Communist Party leaders.

He was succeeded as premier earlier this year by former Shanghai party chief and Xi loyalist Li Qiang.

Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, said that Lis exit from power meant that there were not many reform-minded senior cadres left in the leadership.

This is the hard reality we are going to face. China has departed from the future that Lis vision had represented, he said.

CNNs Juliana, Liu, Mengchen Zhang and Nectar Gan contributed to this report.

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A retired Colombian army officer who pleaded guilty to leading a group of commandos in the assassination of Haitis president was sentenced Friday to life in prison in Miami federal court, though hes hoping for less severe punishment in a cooperation deal with federal prosecutors.

German Alejandro Rivera Garcia, aka Colonel Mike, declined to say anything when asked by U.S. District Judge Jose Martinez if he wanted to comment before his sentencing. His defense attorney said he would not challenge the prosecutors recommendation for a life sentence at this stage  knowing that his client might qualify for a lesser sentence down the road depending on the value of his inside information.

No, your honor, not for today, attorney Mark LeVine told Martinez.

As part of his plea agreement, Rivera admitted that he met in late June of 2021 with several co-conspirators in Haiti to discuss removing Haitian President Jovenel Moise by force, including a plot to assassinate him the following month.

During the secret gathering, Rivera received directions in a video call from a fellow Colombian in South Florida  who happened to be an FBI informant  that he should follow the instructions of another man attending the meeting in Haiti, according to court records.

That unnamed man then told Rivera and another co-conspirator that the president would be assassinated as part of the operation, according to a factual statement filed in Miami federal court as part of Riveras guilty plea on murder conspiracy charges last month.

Rivera and James Solages, a Haitian American from South Florida, relayed that information to other members of the conspiracy, including another Haitian American, Joseph Vincent, and a member of Riveras Colombian commando group, Mario Antonio Palacios Palacios. The latter is trying to have his confession to FBI agents thrown out because he claims it was obtained under pressure.

The video-call exchange occurred within two weeks of the July 7, 2021, assassination of Moise by a group of ex-Colombian soldiers, U.S. authorities say, marking a strategic shift from kidnapping Haitis leader to killing him at his home in a hillside suburb outside the Port-au-Prince capital.

Over the past year, 11 defendants have been charged with conspiring to kill Haitis president or with playing a supporting role in the FBI-led case prosecuted by the U.S. Attorneys Office in South Florida. Among those charged are: Rivera, 45, who pleaded guilty in September, Solages, Vincent and Palacios. A 12th suspect, Joseph Felix Badio, a former Haitian government anti-corruption official, was arrested last week in Haiti and may be transferred to Miami to face charges in the assassination case.

Haitian President Jovenel Moise, accompanied by his wife, Martine Marie Etienne Joseph, speaks to a group of Haitians living in South Florida who welcomed him as he makes his first visit to Miami as president during a community meeting at the Little Haiti Cultural Center on Friday, June 16, 2017. PEDRO PORTAL/pportal@miamiherald.com

Riveras factual statement provides fresh details of meetings among co-conspirators in Haiti and South Florida that led to the shocking assassination of Moise, which has stoked unprecedented turmoil in the Caribbean island.

According to the factual statement, Rivera began meeting in person in Haiti and by video conference in South Florida with the co-conspirators in February 2021. At various meetings, the conspirators discussed proposed methods for carrying out the operation and the need to acquire weapons to facilitate the operation, the statement says.

The meetings held in South Florida were attended by several co-conspirators charged in the assassination case, including Arcangel Pretel Ortiz, the FBI informant who worked for a Miami-area security firm. He allegedly helped recruit some of the Colombian commandos and directed Rivera to follow the instructions of another conspirator regarding the plot to assassinate Haitis leader. Others present at the South Florida meetings were: Antonio Intriago, the head of the security firm, Counter Terrorist Unit; Christian Sanon, a Haitian American physician who aspired to replace Moise as president; and Walter Veintemilla, a South Florida businessman who helped finance the operation, and Solages.

Rivera also attended operational meetings in Haiti with Intriago, Solages, Sanon, Palacios, Haitian businessman Rodolphe Jaar and former Haitian Senator Joseph Joel John. The latter two men have also been charged in the assassination case in Miami. Jaar has been sentenced to life in prison, and John has pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentence.

Jaar, John and Rivera formally pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to kill Haitis president, providing that support, and conspiring to kill or kidnap a person outside the United States.

But all three might be able to avoid a life sentence if prosecutors Monica Castro, Andrea Goldbarg and Frank Russo recommend lesser punishment based on their cooperation under the terms of plea agreements.

Rivera is expected to be a critical witness for the FBI-led case.

READ MORE: How a Miami plot to oust a president led to a murder in Haiti

Separate Haitian, Colombian and U.S. investigations into Moises death were launched shortly after the assault that left the 53-year-old president with 12 bullet wounds and his wife, Martine, seriously wounded. More than 40 people have been jailed in Haiti, including 18 Colombians, as well as members of the Haitian presidential guard accused of taking bribes to stand down or not show up to work on the day Moise was killed.

The deadly plot revolved around suspects collaborating in South Florida, Haiti and Colombia to kidnap and then kill Haitis leader, with the goal of replacing him with a new president and obtaining Haitian government contracts, according to authorities. So far, however, no one has been identified as the mastermind who orchestrated Moises killing.

Martine Moise, in red, was wounded in the attack that killed her husband, President Jovenel Moise, standing next to her. This file photo shows them three years earlier during a 2018 event at the National Palace. Dieu Nalio Chery/AP

The investigation escalated in February with the transfer of Rivera and three Haitian Americans to U.S. custody.

Rivera and two Haitian Americans were accused of helping coordinate a failed kidnapping of Moise to remove him from office upon his return from a state visit to Turkey in June of 2021. The same three were also accused of conspiring in a final plan to kill him at his home in the hillside suburbs of Port-au-Prince the following month.

Those suspects are: Solages, 37, who quit his job at a South Florida nursing home to go work for a Miami-area security firm linked to the plot to remove Moise from office; Vincent, 57, a former Drug Enforcement Administration confidential informant who lived in South Florida; and Rivera, the retired Colombian colonel who is one of the leaders of the deadly attack.

Also transferred to Miami: Sanon, 64, a Haitian doctor and pastor who split his time between the United States and his Caribbean homeland and wanted to replace Moise as president. Sanon, who was not implicated in the main conspiracy case to kidnap and kill Haitis president but faces related charges, fell out of favor with the group as a possible successor to Moise in the weeks before his assassination.
Two people, including a former city commissioner, qualified to run for North Miami Beach mayor in a special election scheduled for Dec. 5.

Former North Miami Beach commissioner Paule Villard, 63, qualified to run for mayor in the special election to replace Anthony DeFillipo, who was removed from his post in May after he was charged with three counts of voting outside his district. DeFillipos trial is set to begin Nov. 13.

Villard will face business owner Evan Scott Piper, who was appointed commissioner in 2018 when Frantz Pierre was removed from office by then Gov. Rick Scott. Piper is president of The Piper Companies, which focus on construction, automotive and marine services, and medical services.

We need a cop as a mayor who will fight hard for law and order in the city, Villard wrote in response to emailed questions from the Herald. As a retired 21-year police veteran, voters first elected me in 2018 because they saw me as someone with proven integrity and public service experience. I want to go back to the city commission to finish the reforms that I started.

Villard touted her voting record to no longer outsource the water plant, and create ethics laws that banned staff from abusing their positions of power. I personally championed the creation of the citys first senior center, she wrote. I am the only one running with a record of putting the interests of residents first.

Villards potential return would come as the city has faced turmoil and turnover in the past year stemming from allegations DeFillipo did not reside in the city but instead in the town of Davie. It also comes nearly a year after she lost her seat to Jay Chernoff, longtime commissioner and acting mayor.

RELATED: Months after arrest of mayor, North Miami Beach sets election to pick a new one

During her tenure, Villards time on the commission was marred by controversy stemming from criticism that she used a Publix gift card giveaway to campaign for her reelection bid, attempted to oust a city manager and fire the city attorney, and voting to give raises to commissioners.

The only critics about grocery card giveaways are from those who are supporting my opponent and Republicans who hate the idea of helping people who need it, Villard wrote when asked about the giveaway. I only wish we could have helped the community more with those funds.

Villard said she will address budget cuts to police staffing and noted the Washington Park neighborhood has been waiting for a community center. Even our new senior center and library wont be open at hours when people expect to use them the most because of unnecessary budget cuts, Villard wrote.

She was also the subject of four complaints to the Miami-Dade Ethics Commission, all of which have been dismissed. Villard is a former Miami police officer.

Piper, 59, a professional speaker, was on the citys planning and zoning board for 25 years and served as chairman. He is president of the North Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce.

The city is in a little bit of a difficult time right now. There is a lot of different things that are going on there, Piper told the Herald when he first filed paperwork to run. And I feel that Im one of the few, if not only person, that has the background, the skills, the ability, and what it takes to start being effective on day one.

Another challenger, David Zapen, withdrew from the race prior to qualifying.

In March 2022, Villard filed a lawsuit against blogger Stephanie Kienzle with allegations of stalking. A judge dismissed that suit, according to online court records. Later that year, Kienzle filed a civil suit against Villard alleging the lawsuit was designed to retaliate against her for her exercise of her First Amendment rights. She is asking for $30,000 in damages. The suit remains open.

Pipers campaign has raised $36,761, including a $10,000 loan to himself, and has spent $14,537.79.

Villard has not filed a campaign finance report.
A longtime explosives handler at the Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center stashed 10,000 rounds of ammunition, which he claimed had been destroyed, in a cellar at his Martin County residence.

He's been sentenced to federal prison for the theft. Investigators discovered the cache during a home search after they arrested Tommy Guy, now 76, in April 2021.

On Guy's digital storage devices, investigators found 250,000 images of child sexual abuse materials depicting children under 12 years old, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for Indiana's southern district.

MCCSC contracts: Why is an Indiana school paying a gubernatorial candidate $144K in consulting fees?

The computer materials were confiscated from Guy's Loogootee home during a probation sex offender check. Guy has a 2018 conviction for possession of child sexual abuse material, stemming from an incident where he was caught viewing images using free Wi-Fi at a Wendy's restaurant, the news release said.

While searching the house, state police and sheriff's deputies discovered the stolen ammunition, valued at $1,000, as well as three rifles and two pistols.

Guy's felony conviction prohibits him from legally owning guns or bullets.

"While working at Crane, he falsified documents to make it appear that ammunition had been destroyed, when in reality, he stole the ammunition and smuggled it out of the facility," the news release said.

Guy pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to possession of a firearm and ammunition by a felon, receiving stolen U.S. government property and possession of child sexual abuse material. He received a 5-year federal prison sentence and will be on probation for six years after his release.

I-69: Woman arrested after 3-county chase that started in Bloomington

Undeterred by a prior conviction, the defendant possessed an enormous number of images of the most horrendous traumas inflicted upon countless innocent children, collected over many years, involving countless victims, Zachary A. Myers, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, said in the news release.

Even worse, he abused the position he was entrusted with to help keep our country safe, and instead stole an enormous quantity of deadly ammunition, despite being a convicted felon and forever barred by law from having guns or ammunition"

Guy was an explosives handler at Crane, where tons of ammunition is stored and disposed of, from 1966 to 2004.

Court records show that Judge Richard Young recommended to the Bureau of Prisons that Guy, sentenced Oct. 23, serve his sentence at a facility in Lexington, Kentucky, "where he can have his medical issues monitored."

Contact H-T reporter Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com or 812-318-5967.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Martin County man sentenced for stealing ammo from Crane, child porn
A 27-year-old who identified as a former incel was arrested on Tuesday after threatening a mass shooting at the University of Arizona, federal authorities said.

Michael Penchung Lee was arrested on suspicion of making an interstate threat after authorities said he sent multiple messages on Snapchat on Sunday threatening to commit a mass shooting at the university with an AR-15 as revenge on fraternity and sorority members. According to the federal complaint reviewed by HuffPost, Lee had identified himself as a former incel on his Instagram page.

The Anti-Defamation League, a nongovernment group that combats antisemitism and tracks extremist hate, refers to incels, a shortened term for involuntary celibates, as a subculture of heterosexual men who blame women and society for their lack of romantic success.

Federal charges have yet to be filed, and no attorney was listed for Lee in court records.

The federal complaint says the University of Arizona was the stated target of the mass shooting threat. The university said the suspect is not affiliated with the college in Tucson.

The federal complaint says the University of Arizona was the stated target of the mass shooting threat. The university said the suspect is not affiliated with the college in Tucson.

According to the federal complaint, Lee stated in a group chat, Theres going to be a mass tragedy and atrocity at the UofA Soon.

When asked by someone in the chat what the tragedy at the University of Arizona would be, Lee allegedly indicated it would be a mass shooting, according to the complaint.

Lee allegedly messaged the group chat that he was going to purchase an AR-15 to commit the shooting, stating that its Arizona you can just buy one.

According to the nonprofit group Everytown for Gun Safety, Arizona has weak gun laws, with no extreme risk measure in place to prevent someone in crisis from obtaining a firearm. The state also doesnt require background checks on all firearms purchases.

According to the complaint, Lee said he was unsure when he would purchase the AR-15 but added he would most likely do it right before the shooting so his mother would not find the gun.

The day of Retribution is upon us, I shall get revenge on all the chads and stacies!! he said, according to the complaint.

Although FBI agents suspected Lee referred to fraternity and sorority members on campus as chads and stacies, the ADL defines Chads as the men most women want to date, described as good-looking and confident men, while Stacys are women they hate who date Chads but that the incels would want to date.

When Lee noticed women in the group chat began to screenshot his messages, he allegedly said he was no longer going to give them a warning when he was going to commit the shooting.

My alleged crimes? Im gonna commit a much worse crime .... Youll hear about it on the news, Lee allegedly wrote. Its a solo mission, Im not normal, I never have been, Im severely autistic and mentally ill and was never accepted by society, I have no place in the world.

Lee also allegedly noted that the 10th anniversary of the day of retribution is may 23, 2024, at which point he feared students would no longer be on campus.

May 23, 2014, was the date that 22-year-old Elliot Rodger, a self-proclaimed incel, went on a murderous rampage near the University of California, Santa Barbara, killing six people before killing himself. He had initially targeted a sorority house near the campus but was unable to gain entrance. A video he uploaded before the attack was titled retribution, and he also released a 137-page manifesto that numerous other shooters and would-be shooters have cited as inspiration.

According to the ADL, some incels have idolized Rodgers to the point that they refer to a misogynistic rage-fueled attack as to go ER.

In his group chat this week, Lees final message was im gonna do it guys, my mind is made up and theres nothing u can do or say to stop me, according to the complaint.

Throughout October, Lees car was seen several times at the universitys Greek row from the hours of 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., the complaint said.

Lee was taken into custody on Monday, when he allegedly confessed to authorities that he wrote the messages in the Snapchat group chat and attempted to purchase a firearm two months ago but decided against it.

Lee stated he was frustrated with his homelife and decided to vent to the group chat with his friends, the complaint said. He stated he was a former member of the incel community but was no longer.

Authorities later learned that he was arrested in September on suspicion of possessing controlled substances and had kept a firearm in a storage facility.

In a statement, the University of Arizonas Office of Public Safety said it was made aware of the threats directed toward fraternities and sororities and was working with the organizations to offer support.

According to the university, Lee was not affiliated with the school.

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COBB COUNTY, Ga. - An Acworth man who once had a leadership role at a popular Cobb County church has been arrested.

Even more concerning, Cobb Police have charged him with four counts of child molestation for his alleged encounters with a 15-year-old boy who attended the church.

Cobb County police arrested Marcus Turner on Oct. 6.

A spokesperson for Worship with Wonders Church confirmed Turner's leadership role as director of operations ended in December 2021.

Marcus Turner (Cobb County Sheriffs Office)

Turner had become a popular person in the 600-plus member church.

"Marcus Turner is such a friendly nice guy," former member April Nelson told FOX 5's Aungelique Proctor.

But Cobb Police have arrested the 32-year-old former Worship in Wonders former director of operations and charged him with four counts of child molestation with a 15-year-old male church member.

Nelson is the former Director of Children's Ministry for the growing church.

She says she is flabbergasted by the arrest.

"When I saw the mug shot I didn't even have words it was almost unbelievable because he is the face of Worship With Wonders, to find out not only were these children but little boys," Nelson exclaimed.

Nelson says she and her husband left the church because they didn't agree with what she claims was an anti-LGBTQ+ message that she says Turner and the pastors espoused.

Church leaders Myles and DeLana Rutherford released a letter to FOX 5 and the congregation saying they went to police with the information about Turner and the alleged victims who they say are both church members. In their statement, the Rutherfords say they would never tolerate or condone any sexual immoral actions in their church.

Nelson, who is a mom of four, says her attention now has turned to other teens or children who may have encountered Turner.

"My concern is that there are more victims. My concern is that there are more predators because the church is trying to silence this. They are trying to minimize his role in leadership. They are trying to say he had no responsibility over these children when I gave him responsibilities over the children as the children's ministry director," Nelson affirmed.

Worship with Wonders Church leaders disagree with Nelson's assessment. They say they took immediate action, do not think there are other victims, and are cooperating with Cobb Police.


Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander James Stavridis warned of a ladder of escalation between the U.S. and Iran on Friday.

I would still assess the chances of an Iran-U.S. direct conflict as quite low, Stavridis said in an interview on MSNBC. Neither side wants it. The Iranians have significant internal turmoil in their own country, their economy is in poor shape, they have very little sets of allies and partners, theyre basically locked out of the region in terms of real alliance and friendships.

So, Iran really doesnt want to get in a serious war with the United States, Stavridis continued.

He also noted that heading into an election year, the last thing the Biden administration would want is a significant conflict.

So  lets call it a 10 percent chance, Stavridis said.

Thats still uncomfortably high, and what we need to worry about is that ladder of escalation, Stavridis said. If Iran were to take military action against the U.S., the U.S. would retaliate, which would then draw Hezbollah into the mix, he predicted.

Iran hits us, we hit them back, they hit us a little harder. All of a sudden Hezbollah gets into this and starts moving missiles toward Israel.

U.S. forces based in the Middle East have faced attack at least 13 times in the past week, a Pentagon spokesperson said Tuesday. In an Oct. 18 attack, 20 American service members received minor injuries from attack drones at al-Tanf Garrison in Syria, and four other U.S. personnel were injured in two other drone attacks at al-Asad Airbase in Iraq.

The attacks come in the shadow of the Israel-Hamas conflict; fears of the conflict expanding have hovered over how the U.S. is dealing with the fighting between the militant group and Israel. There are fears that Iran could use the conflict to open an additional front or destabilize the region.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
One person in his circle called him Vegas G.

In 2022, Vegas G went to meet a woman waiting for him inside a home tucked into the northeast corner of Oklahoma, where he planned to exchange drugs and sex for greasing a legal proceeding.

A few minutes past noon, Giraldi walked into the house, carrying a bag of pills, as well as a box of condoms he bought from Walmart.

Pulling the bag of pills out of his shirt, he said to the woman: Heres some goodies for you.

At that moment, FBI special agents entered the room and confronted him.

Vegas G's real name is Daniel Thomas Giraldi, a 45-year-old former assistant district attorney for Ottawa and Delaware Counties.

This week in Tulsa federal court, a judge sentenced Giraldi to 30 months in prison for using his office to obtain sexual favors in exchange for legal actions such as dismissing charges, eliminating traffic violations and reducing bond amounts.

Giraldi agreed to never again be a lawyer in Oklahoma.

In a sentencing memorandum, U.S. Attorney Clinton J. Johnson wrote:

Despite his oath to the citizens of Ottawa and Delaware County, defendants career move from defense attorney to prosecutor did not deter his exchange of sexual favors for favorable outcomes in cases in the Ottawa County District Attorneys office.

From defense attorney to prosecutor to defendant

Prior to becoming an assistant district attorney for Ottawa County and Delaware counties, Giraldi worked as a criminal defense attorney for a Tulsa-based law firm that serves clients throughout northeast Oklahoma.

An FBI agent who specializes in drug trafficking investigations wrote in a court affidavit that Giraldi at one time represented a man who called Giraldi Vegas G, Vegas, or G.

Giraldi was known to accept sexual favors from women in return for helping his clients associates and as payment for services rendered, the FBI agent wrote.

When Giraldi was hired as an assistant district attorney in 2019, his criminal defense client continued to use his connection with Giraldi to obtain legal favors for his associates.

As the investigation into Giraldis corrupt activities unfolded, the FBI used a woman as a confidential informant to reel in Giraldi.

On April 12, 2022, the woman made contact with Giraldi as he was leaving the Ottawa County Courthouse in Miami, about 90 miles northeast of Tulsa.

Giraldi didnt know FBI agents were recording their conversation and capturing the interaction on video.

The woman asked Giraldi to help with her child custody case, and the child custody case of another woman.

Giraldi had previously dismissed my (expletive), the woman reminded the prosecutor.

In vulgar terms, Giraldi reminded the woman they had sex across from the courtroom, in reference to dismissing her prior criminal cases, the FBI agent wrote in the court affidavit.

Giraldi later sent the woman text messages explaining that he was in the mood for sex, that they could always meet up at the courthouse like we used to . . . and I will help you.

On April 14, 2022, the woman texted Giraldi and offered him sex every week for a year if he pushed the other womans court date off a couple of weeks.

Ill make your day, Giraldi texted back.

During a phone call the FBI had recorded the same day, the woman asked Giraldi to use his position as an assistant district attorney to search for any outstanding arrest warrants she might have had against her, because of an upcoming conference regarding her own child custody case.

Giraldi and the woman also texted back and forth about an impending sexual encounter. The woman, still acting as a confidential informant for the FBI, asked Giraldi to bring prescription-strength Xanax.

Yes dork . . . Giraldi texted. Maybe Ill want something extra in return.

They made plans to meet on April 19, 2022, in Quapaw. At the time, according to the court affidavit, Giraldi lived in Joplin, Missouri, about 20 miles away to the northwest.

On the morning of their meeting, the woman directed Giraldi to a home in Quapaw where the FBI confronted him.

According to the court affidavit, Giraldi waived his Miranda rights and consented to a voluntary interview.

An Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation test lab later found that five and a half of the pills Giraldi brought with him tested as clonazepam, a Schedule IV drug. One partial tablet tested as Oxycodone, a Schedule II drug.

'A John Grisham novel'

As word of the FBI investigation into Giraldi spread throughout northeast Oklahoma last year, the matter became fodder during the race for the District Attorneys Office for Ottawa and Delaware counties.

During a June debate between incumbent Kenny Wright and challenger Doug Pewitt, Pewitt told Wright Nothing was done when prior complaints were made against Giraldi, according to a report by Joplin, Missouri-based KSN-TV.

Wright said Giraldi was fired after he learned of Giraldis corruption, and the U.S. Attorneys Office asked for a number of Giraldis cases to be pulled.

All appear to have been handled appropriately, Wright said.

On July 13, 2022, Giraldi pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of possession of Oxycodone with intent to distribute and four counts of honest services fraud.

In federal court Wednesday, Giraldi told U.S. District Judge Raul Arias-Marxuach that he took full responsibility for his actions, according to a Tulsa World report.

Arias-Marxauch said the facts in Giraldis case were frankly . . . out of the pages of a John Grisham novel, The Tulsa World reported.

Giraldi was free on bond while the case was pending. He was permitted to self-report to prison.

Along with the FBI and the OSBI, the Miami Police Department and the District Attorneys Office for Ottawa and Delaware counties investigated the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kyle McWaters and Shannon Cozzoni prosecuted the case.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Former Oklahoma prosecutor gets prison time in sex favor scandal
FILE - Chinese Premier Li Keqiang delivers his state of the nation address during the opening session of China's National People's Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 5, 2023. Chinese state media say former Premier Li Keqiang, Chinas top economic official for a decade, has died. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)

BEIJING (AP)  Former Premier Li Keqiang, Chinas top economic official for a decade, died Friday of a heart attack. He was 68.

Li was Chinas No. 2 leader from 2013-23 and an advocate for private business but was left with little authority after President Xi Jinping made himself the most powerful Chinese leader in decades and tightened control over the economy and society.

CCTV said Li had been resting in Shanghai recently and had a heart attack on Thursday. He died at 12:10 a.m. Friday.

Li, an English-speaking economist, was considered a contender to succeed then-Communist Party leader Hu Jintao in 2013 but was passed over in favor of Xi. Reversing the Hu eras consensus-oriented leadership, Xi centralized powers in his own hands, leaving Li and others on the partys ruling seven-member Standing Committee with little influence.

As the top economic official, Li promised to improve conditions for entrepreneurs who generate jobs and wealth. But the ruling party under Xi increased the dominance of state industry and tightened control over tech and other industries. Foreign companies said they felt unwelcome after Xi and other leaders called for economic self-reliance, expanded an anti-spying law and raided offices of consulting firms.

Li was dropped from the Standing Committee at a party congress in October 2022 and left office in March 2023, despite being two years below the informal retirement age of 70.

The same day, Xi awarded himself a third five-year term as party leader, discarding a tradition under which his predecessors stepped down after 10 years. Xi filled the top party ranks with loyalists, ending the era of consensus leadership and possibly making himself leader for life. The No. 2 slot was filled by Li Qiang , the party secretary for Shanghai, who lacked Li Keqiangs national-level experience and later told reporters that his job was to do whatever Xi decided.

Li Keqiang, a former vice premier, took office in 2013 as the ruling party faced growing warnings the construction and export booms that propelled the previous decades double-digit growth were running out of steam.

Government advisers argued Beijing had to promote growth based on domestic consumption and service industries. That would require opening more state-dominated industries and forcing state banks to lend more to entrepreneurs.

Lis predecessor, Wen Jiabao, apologized at a March 2012 news conference for not moving fast enough.

In a 2010 speech, Li acknowledged challenges, including too much reliance on investment to drive economic growth, weak consumer spending and a wealth gap between prosperous eastern cities and the poor countryside, home to 800 million people.

Li was seen as a possible candidate to revive then-supreme leader Deng Xiaopings market-oriented reforms of the 1980s that started Chinas boom. But he was known for an easygoing style, not the hard-driving impatience of Zhu Rongji, the premier in 1998-2003 who ignited the construction and export booms by forcing painful reforms that cut millions of jobs from state industry.

Li was believed to have supported the China 2030 report released by the World Bank and a Cabinet research body in 2012 that called for dramatic changes to reduce the dominance of state industry and rely more on market forces.

The Unirule Institute, an independent think tank in Beijing, said state industry was so inefficient that its return on equity  a broad measure of profitability  was negative 6%. Unirule later was shut down by Xi as part of a campaign to tighten control over information.

In his first annual policy address, Li in 2014 was praised for promising to pursue market-oriented reform, cut government waste, clean up air pollution and root out pervasive corruption that was undermining public faith in the ruling party.

Xi took away Lis decision-making powers on economic matters by appointing himself to head a party commission overseeing reform.

Xis government pursued the anti-graft drive, imprisoning hundreds of officials including former Standing Committee member Zhou Yongkang. But party leaders were ambivalent about the economy. They failed to follow through on a promised list of dozens of market-oriented changes. They increased the dominance of state-owned banks and energy and other companies.

Xis government opened some industries including electric car manufacturing to private and foreign competition. But it built up state-owned national champions and encouraged Chinese companies to use domestic suppliers instead of imports.

Borrowing by companies, households and local governments increased, pushing up debt that economists warned already was dangerously high.

Beijing finally tightened controls in 2020 on debt in real estate, one of Chinas biggest industries. That triggered a collapse in economic growth, which fell to 3% in 2022, the second-lowest in three decades.

Li had shown his political skills but little zeal for reform as governor and later party secretary of populous Henan province in central China in 1998-2004.

He earned the nickname Three Fires Li and a reputation for bad luck after three fatal fires struck Henan while he was there. A Christmas Day blaze at a nightclub in 2000 killed 309 people. Other officials were punished but Li emerged unscathed.

Meanwhile, provincial leaders were trying to suppress information about the spread of AIDS by a blood-buying industry in Henan.

Lis reputation for bad luck held as China suffered a series of deadly disasters during his term as premier.

Days after he took office, a landslide on March 29, 2013, killed at least 66 miners at a gold mine in Tibet and left 17 others missing and presumed dead.

In the eastern port of Tianjin, a warehouse holding chemicals exploded Aug. 12, 2015, killing at least 116 people.

A China Eastern Airlines jetliner plunged into the ground on March 22, 2022, killing all 132 people aboard. Authorities have yet to announce a possible cause.

Li oversaw Chinas response to COVID-19, the first cases of which were detected in the central city of Wuhan. Then-unprecedented controls were imposed, shutting down most international travel for three years and access to major cities for weeks at a time.

In one of his last major official acts, Li led a Cabinet meeting that announced Nov. 11, 2022, that anti-virus controls would be relaxed to reduce disruption after the economy shrank by 2.6% in the second quarter of the year. Two weeks later, the government announced most travel and business restrictions would end the following month.

Li was born July 1, 1955, in the eastern province of Anhui and by 1976 was ruling party secretary of a commune there.

Studying law at Peking University, he was the campus secretary of the ruling partys Communist Youth League, an organization that launched the political careers of former party leaders Hu Jintao and Hu Yaobang. He was a member of the Leagues Standing Committee, a sign he was seen as future leadership material.

After serving in a series of party posts, Li received his Ph.D. in economics in 1994 from Peking University.

Following Henan, Li served as party secretary for Liaoning province in the northeast as part of a rotation through provincial posts and at ministries in Beijing that was meant to prepare leaders. He joined the party's Central Committee in 2007.

Li is survived by his wife, Cheng Hong, a professor of English at the Capital University of Economics and Business in Beijing. The couple has a daughter, according to earlier state media reports.

___

Leung reported from Hong Kong. Former AP correspondent Joe McDonald, who retired earlier this year, was the principal writer of this obituary.
Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara marches with members during the St. Jude Police Memorial March, May 7, 2023. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)

Mayor Brandon Johnsons decision to put the brakes on City Council approval of a key part of a new police contract was politically pragmatic and a win for accountable government  and also a legally contestable maneuver that may not succeed in the end.

Welcome to life under a new mayor willing to risk defeat in pursuit of police accountability and his progressive agenda.

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The contract with the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 7 has been under negotiation for nearly half a decade. Its so complex, and the issues so fraught, that the city and FOP have tackled it in parts.

Agreement on the main economic terms was reached two years ago. The first major steps toward reforms required by a court-monitored consent decree were hammered out separately, too.

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Negotiators have made further progress on those issues since then. And Johnson will take the proposed final contract  including a hefty pay raise of roughly 20% over the next four years  to City Council for approval.

This is good news. The pay increases are rich, true. But gains made in other areas justify approval of the main body of the agreement.

For example, an approach to homicide investigations modeled after a Los Angeles Police Department approach mobilizing unified teams of detectives until cases are solved could help address the CPDs woeful record on unsolved murders.

Next comes the legally tricky part  the one involving an arbitrators ruling that seeks to take major police disciplinary proceedings behind closed doors. Johnson has decided to contest it by breaking it out for a single-topic City Council vote.

The mayor is offering the ruling up for consideration while also asking Chicagos progressive-minded council to vote the measure down.

The issue at hand is the FOP demand that police officers facing suspensions of a year or longer, and outright dismissals, should have a right to seek arbitration rather than facing discipline from the Chicago Police Board, as currently required.

This is a distinction with a big difference: Police Board hearings are held in public, with public access to records created in the process. Arbitrations, on the other hand, would be held in secret, with a possibility that even the outcome of the dispute might not be fully disclosed.

The mayor was right to single out this vitally important matter. At stake was his campaign promise to hold Chicago police accountable for misconduct. In the balance, too, hung a commitment to transparency on police disciplinary proceedings  without which public confidence in Chicagos police may never fully be earned.

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Arbitrator Edwin Benn has ruled that Chicago cops have a right to arbitrate major disciplinary cases, with all the mystery and secrecy attendant to that approach. He fashions his ruling as one in favor of the rule of law, over slogans and catch phrases such as behind closed doors.

Benns air of certitude is undermined by evident flaws in his logic and willful dismissal of relevant facts.

Observing that the existing FOP contract allows for secret arbitration on suspensions of fewer than 365 days, Benn claims there is no reason secrecy cant apply for suspensions exceeding a year  and outright dismissals, too.

Well, yes, there is a reason: Those major cases are the most extreme ones. The alleged conduct is a threat both to public safety and to public confidence in the CPD. Dismissal cases come to the board only by referral from the police superintendent.

In such major matters, the publics right to know what happens in the proceedings, and why, should outweigh the privacy concerns of the cops in question.

Imagine if a cop accused of an unjustified shooting  in cases like the police shootings of Laquan McDonald or Adam Toledo  were exonerated in a secret hearing. This might ignite public outrage and destroy confidence in the system of police accountability.

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No fussy adherence to the privacy rules of arbitration can justify such a risk. Justice is at stake. So is big money: Hundreds of millions paid out by the city in recent years to people victimized by rogue cops.

Benn claims to be following the rules of arbitration in his finding. One of them, he notes, sanctions changes such as those sought by the FOP only when the existing condition is broken.

The FOP has made no such showing, and a dissent to Benns ruling by the citys lawyer demonstrates the current condition is anything but broken. Just for starters, Police Board review of major disciplinary cases has been in effect for 12 contracts since first instituted in 1981, without challenge from the FOP.

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From 2013 to 2017, half the 78 dismissal cases led to a separation, and 20% resulted in a not-guilty finding. From 2017 to 2021, cops were fired in 65% of the 32 dismissal cases. Statistics like this are hardly the mark of a biased tribunal, wrote Cicely Porter-Adams, the citys chief labor negotiator.

As compared with unaccountable arbitrators, the board answers to the public. Previously appointed by the mayor, Police Board members under a 2021 law are now appointed by the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability  a panel appointed with input from Chicago voters, from districts designed to assure equitable representation citywide.

Benn also has the temerity to interpret his own ruling as one required under the new Workers Rights Amendment to the Illinois constitution, passed by referendum just last year.

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This is rich: An unelected arbitrator, who built his legal practice representing the FOP and other trade unions in the 1980s, abrogating to himself the right to base a high-stakes ruling on his own reading of the states newest constitutional codicil.

Benns ruling, despite its flaws, could yet hold up if it goes to court. But Johnson is doing right by standing up for transparency, with an open approach to disciplinary hearings that has stood the test of time and brought a measure of accountability and justice to policing in Chicago.

David Greising is president and CEO of the Better Government Association.

Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.
Jenna Ellis, a lawyer who represented Donald Trump during his bid to overturn the result of the 2020 election, is being investigated in Colorado by the office that oversees attorney discipline in the state. The probe comes after Elliswho until recently was a resident of Colorado and licensed to practice law in the statepleaded guilty in Georgia on Tuesday to aiding and abetting false statements and writings about election fraud. Under the plea deal, Ellis will avoid a conviction, and her record will be scrubbed clean if she adheres to the terms of the agreement. A conviction obligates a lawyer licensed to practice in Colorado to notify the states Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel within 14 days. I can disclose that an investigation has been opened and the matter... is pending with our office, Jessica Yates, Colorados attorney regulation counsel, told Colorado Newsline. Yates said earlier in the week that the kind of probe Ellis now faces could lead to discipline, an alternative to discipline, or other action.

Editors Note: This cheat has been updated to specify that Ellis was not formally convicted of a crime as part of her guilty plea.

Read it at Colorado Newsline

Read more at The Daily Beast.
FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kan.  A Fort Leavenworth Army officer died on Thursday, three days after being injured in a motorcycle crash.

Captain Alex W. Northrup, 29, of Kansas City, Mo., was hit by a car Monday morning when he was on his way to work. He was hit on Kansas State Route 5 near Leavenworth.

Lawrence firefighter, paramedic battling cancer remains hopeful

Northup died Thursday afternoon around 3 at the University of Kansas Medical Center.

Lieutenant General Milford H. Beagle, commanding general of Fort Leavenworth, said they are deeply saddened by the Northrups death.

Yesterday, we lost a member of our Fort Leavenworth family with the death of Cpt. Alex Northrup, Beagle said. There are no words that can properly express how saddened I am at losing one of our own. My deepest condolences are with Cpt. Northrups family and friends.

Kansas news: Headlines from Wichita, Topeka and around the Sunflower State

Northup is from Wichita, Kansas, and graduated from Kansas State University. He joined the Army through ROTC in 2016 after graduating college.

His most recent assignment was as the commander of Company B, United States Disciplinary Barracks Battalion.

Leavenworth police are investigating the crash.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports.
NATO has stepped up its efforts to boost the alliance's southeastern flank defences by sending additional battlegroups to the region (Daniel MIHAILESCU)

French fighter jets taxied alongside the Romanian Air Force after thundering through the sky above the Fetesti air base, as NATO bolsters its military presence in member country Romania, bordering Ukraine.

Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, NATO has stepped up its efforts to boost the alliance's southeastern flank defences by sending additional battlegroups to the region.

NATO has also intensified its joint drills along the defence bloc's wider eastern flank -- which encompasses eight member countries -- spanning from Estonia and Latvia bordering Russia in the east to Romania and Bulgaria on the Black Sea.

The most recent joint exercise in the region -- held between October 16 to 20 -- for the first time brought together French and Romanian airmen and their planes.

Despite flying different combat jets, "we work like the French, we understand each other perfectly," said Romanian Lieutenant Colonel and pilot Lucian Tatulea.

About 30 French pilots together with three Rafale jets travelled to Romania in a bid to improve "interoperability" -- the ability to work together -- and train less predictable "agile" deployments.

As lead nation for the alliance's "Mission Aigle" deployed to Romania, France acts as the point of contact between Bucharest and other allies, who seek to send troops to Ukraine's neighbouring country.

Romania currently hosts more than 5,000 foreign troops, the largest contingent anywhere in NATO's southeastern region.

About 1,350 troops are from France and mostly belong to the French ground forces, who are part of a multinational batallion that includes 300 soldiers from Belgium and Luxembourg.

Stationed at the Cincu military base in central Romania, the French-led battalion also boasts 13 Leclerc tanks and several CAESAR howitzers.

A detachment of 100 French pilots are also stationed at the Mihail Kogalniceanu air base to protect the nearby strategic Black Sea port of Constanta against potential Russian attacks.

- Air defence -

A NATO member since 2004, Romania has vowed to increase its defence spending to 2.5 percent of its 2023 gross domestic product, up from two percent earlier.

In recent months, Fetesti air base has seen several renovations and the construction of new facilities, including hangars housing Romania's fleet of second-hand US-made F-16 fighter jets acquired from Portugal.

About 100 kilometres away on the Capu Midia training grounds, a French medium-range anti-aircraft system known as MAMBA has been installed to help local troops with monitoring Russian activities.

The missile battery -- which is the only active system deployed by France abroad -- is there to safeguard the vital port of Constanta, through which the majority of Ukrainian grain exports passes.

Around 400 kilometres (250 miles) as the crow flies from the Crimean Peninsula, the MAMBA system has signalled "several alert levels" since it was set up in May 2022, said Major Gilles, head of the French detachment, who did not provide his full name due to security concerns.

Comprising a 360-degree radar and two launchers armed with 16 missiles, the MAMBA system covers a 100-kilometre radius against various airborne threats and "operates 24/7", he said.

In addition, French-made Ground Master 200 (GM200) radar systems are capable of surveilling a radius of up to 250 kilometres.

Since exiting a deal allowing safe grain shipments via the Black Sea, Moscow has ramped up strikes on Ukraine's southern regions near the Romanian border.

Following the discoveries of several drone debris, NATO and Romanian officials have condemned the attacks, but said the country had not been intentionally targeted.

Yet the discoveries have led to the construction of air-raid shelters in the eastern Romanian village of Plauru.

mdr/dab/kym/giv
"The law is not your friend," a woman tells a young boy in Anatomy of a Fall, the excellent, tricky new thriller from French director Justine Triet. For if the law is your friend, then it is not someone else's friend. The law cannot take sides.

If the law is not your friend, in this conception, then neither is the movie. Although it is structured much like a conventional courtroom thriller, with a mysterious death, an investigation, a suspect, and, eventually, an extended trial, this moviepart legal drama, part murder mysteryis anything but conventional.

Rather, the movie, which won the top award at this year's Cannes Film Festival, is an exacting examination of the ways that truth, especially the sort of secondhand truth one finds in murder trials or stories about another person's marriage, can be impossible to pin down. Indeed, in its final moments, the movie suggests that even those who have experienced events directly themselves may not ever really be able to know what happened.

The film opens with a question: "What do you want to know?" A young grad student is visiting a half-finished French chalet, where she's interviewing Sandra (Sandra Huller), a writer known for books that are part fiction, part autobiography. Sandra pushes back on the interview, suggesting that she gets to ask half the questions, even though she's the subject. From the beginning, the movie insists on counter-narrative, on giving weight to opposing points of view.

As the interview haltingly proceeds, loud music intrudes. It's her husband, Samuel, who is heard but not seen, repeatedly playing a steel drum cover of rapper 50 Cent's "P.I.M.P." in the background. Is he just playing loud music to keep himself company while he works in the attic? Or is he trying to disrupt the interview from afar? Meanwhile, Sandra and Samuel's son, Daniel, who is mostly blind, takes the family dog on a walk. The interviewer leaves as the music becomes too distracting; when Daniel returns, we see Samuel for the first timelying dead on the snow outside their home.

The police eventually focus on Sandra, who claims to have been working and sleeping nearby as her husband died, as the prime suspect. What follows is an exceptionally tricky balancing act: Evidence is uncovered that suggests Sandra might have had reasons to murder her husband: regrets, insecurities, affairs, jealousy over professional success, and an angry, ranging argument caught on tape the day before Samuel's death. But with every revelation, Sandra's defense lawyer Vincent (Swann Arlaud) argues, with equal plausibility, that their marriage merely had ups and downs like any marriage. The movie is as much an investigation of a complex marriage as it is a possible murder. Could this unassuming, middle-class woman really have killed her partner, the father of her child?

There is a telling moment in the middle of the trial when the prosecution brings up a blood spatter expert to testify that Samuel's death must have come from an intentional blow to the head, delivered by another human, before his fall. The expert is clearly convinced of his interpretation and has video simulations to help prove it. It seems definitive, and it clearly tilts the case against Sandra. She must have done it.

A moment later, however, another blood spatter expert argues that it is all but impossible for the spatter to have been caused by a blow from a human. Samuel fell onto a shed, the second expert says, then bounced into the air, his body spinning, releasing blood in exactly the pattern discovered. It would have been nearly impossible for a human to have delivered the precise blow to make the spatter found. The second expert has test-dummy evidence and mock-up drawings to prove it. Sandra couldn't have done it.

So what does the blood spatter really tell us? What does any evidence actually reveal about the world?

The point is that even hard physical evidence is often subject to interpretation and secondhand reevaluation, and that two utterly opposing views, even from credentialed subject matter experts, can seem just as convincing. Although the movie, to its credit, doesn't wade into the broader cultural implications of this notion, it's not too hard to see it as a comment on the raging debates about trust, truth, and information ecosystems in Western media and politics.

As the trial hurtles toward its end, the movie doesn't just force viewers to weigh slippery, competing truths, it shows how difficult it can be to achieve certainty even when dealing with one's own firsthand experiences. After all, what are memories but personal records, inaccessible to anyone else, and subject to reevaluation and reinterpretation like any other piece of evidence? Truth is illusory, experts say. But one thing we can be sure of is that Anatomy of a Fall is a very, very good movie.

The post In French Thriller <i>Anatomy of a Fall</i>, the Law Is No One's Friend appeared first on Reason.com.
A day care worker was arrested and had her license suspended after authorities in Minnesota say she caused a severe brain injury to a 6-month-old.

The parents of the baby noticed abnormal behavior by their son after picking him up from a day care in Champlin on Oct. 18, according to court records filed Oct. 26.

While taking (the baby) out of his car seat after arriving home, the father discovered that (the baby) would not turn his head straight and his eyes were bouncing while still veering left, police said.

The child was taken to a hospital, where doctors put him into a medically induced coma due to his brain injury, court records show.

Authorities then interviewed Michelle Holte, who was the childs day care provider. Holte initially told officers another child at the facility had dropped the baby, but the infants doctor said that was unlikely due to the injuries he suffered, police said.

She later changed her story after the accused child gave their own account of what happened.

Holte said she tossed the baby and put him down a little harder than normal, according to the criminal complaint.

(Holte) stated she felt overwhelmed and frustrated, police said. (She) stated she had been doing child care for so long that she got to a breaking point, in a bad way. In a wrong way.

Medical records show the babys injuries were indicative of abusive head trauma and severe child physical abuse. The child suffered brain swelling and had ruptured blood vessels, according to court records.

The baby is likely to have long-term medical consequences and he remains in critical condition at a hospital, police said.

Holte was arrested and charged with first-degree assault, court records show. Her day care license was suspended Oct. 20, as the Minnesota Department of Human Services cited an imminent risk of harm to children in her care.

She is due in court Friday, Oct. 27.

Champlin is about 20 miles northwest of Minneapolis.

Daycare owners arrested after 2 kids drown in swimming pool, California police say

Day care worker abused kids by throwing them onto the ground, Pennsylvania cops say

1-year-old left in hot van at daycare dies, cops say. How did you forget my baby?
EU leaders have supported plans to use billions of euros in profits generated by frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine, the Financial Times reported on Oct. 27, citing official sources.

The bloc's chiefs voiced support for the idea during their two-day summit in Brussels. Now, the European Commission is expected to present a concrete legal proposal in early December, the outlet said, citing two undisclosed senior officials.

Brussels is in regular contact with the U.K. and the U.S. to coordinate their approach regarding the frozen Russian funds, officials told the Financial Times.

Western sanctions have frozen around $300 billion of Russia's sovereign assets since the start of the full-scale invasion. Some $190 billion of this sum is held at Euroclar, a Brussels-based securities depository.

Read also: Zelensky asks EU leaders for endurance in face of Russias aggressive ambitions

Euroclar said on Oct. 26 that it had earned over $3 billion from financial operations with the frozen funds in the nine months of 2023, compared to less than $370 million in the same period last year.

Kyiv and its Western partners have long been discussing possible methods of using Russian assets immobilized on Western accounts for funding Ukraine.

These efforts have been spearheaded by Belgiun, which created a $1.8 billion fund for Ukraine, financed by the tax revenue from interest on frozen Russian assets.

On Oct. 12, the Estonian government approved a draft law that, if passed by parliament, would allow immobilized Russian assets to be transferred to Ukraine.

Read also: Minister: UK explores using frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraines defense

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
MEMPHIS, Tenn.  Officials are asking some residents of the Cherry Tree Park subdivision to leave their homes because of an apparent gas leak.

The neighborhood is located off Getwell, just south of College Road. A neighbor told WREG that the gas leak came from a vacant home.

The report we got was that a car had struck a gas meter and had taken it completely off the riser, said Robert Lesley, an ATMOS spokesperson.

Judge removes himself from Young Dolph murder case

Crews from ATMOS Energy worked to fix the leak that caused a number of residents in the area of Summer Knoll and Valley Crest Drive to evacuate their homes.

I grabbed my stuff and I grabbed my kids and my husband and ran. I got scared, said Tiffany Hodges.

Hodges says she arrived home from work before police and fire were ever called and heard a strange sound.

Hodges says that her neighbors husband walked outside and saw the car had hit the house. She said he called 911 when he realized that the trunk of the vehicle was inside the house.

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 Download the WREG App today and stay up to date with breaking news and weather.

 See more breaking news, local news and weather from WREG.com for Memphis and the Mid South.

ATMOS crews remained on the scene for over six hours after finding no one lived at the damaged house.

That led to a situation where we had to gain access to the house with the help of Southaven Police and Fire so that we could get fans in and get the gas out of the dwelling, said Lesley.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com.
Palestinians search for victims and survivors in the rubble of a residential building levelled in an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip.

More than a third of politicians in the Senedd from all of its political parties have called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

Plaid Cymru's group has backed a motion criticising "the Israeli government's indiscriminate attacks".

Meanwhile, eight Labour and three Conservative Members of the Senedd (MSs) called for "an end to the siege".

In total 24 of the Senedd's 60 politicians have so far supported ceasefire calls.

A statement of opinion signed by 20 MSs "expressed grave concern at the continuing tragedy in Israel and Gaza".

The statement condemned "the attacks on Israeli citizens and taking of hostages".

It called "for an end to the siege to allow vital supplies into the area in the volume required, [an] immediate ceasefire and release of hostages".

The text - which will not be debated in the Senedd - was tabled by Labour MS for Newport East John Griffiths, and was co-submitted by Tory MS Altaf Hussain, Plaid Cymru's Peredur Owen Griffiths and Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Jane Dodds.

Other Labour supporters include Vikki Howells, Jack Sargeant, Carolyn Thomas, Huw Irranca-Davies, Jayne Bryant and Mike Hedges.

Conservatives Darren Millar and former Tory leader Paul Davies also supported the text, alongside seven Plaid Senedd members. The MS for South Wales Central Rhys ab Owen also signed the statement.

More on Israel-Gaza war

Separately, Plaid has tabled a motion for debate in the Senedd condemning the Hamas attacks, and "the Israeli government's indiscriminate attacks on Gaza".

It calls on the international community to "unite in seeking an immediate ceasefire to end the human suffering and allow humanitarian organisations to reach those in need".

The party is seeking cross-party support for the motion, which will likely be debated after the Senedd returns in two weeks. It has been supported by all of the Plaid group except Elin Jones, who cannot sign as she is presiding officer.

Under the system of devolution the Senedd has no formal role in foreign affairs, although politicians often express their views on the topic.

At a UK level, so far neither Prime Minister Rishi Sunak nor Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer have supported calls for a ceasefire.

Sir Keir is under pressure over his stance on Gaza from his own party. He has faced calls from 150 Labour Muslim councillors and more than 30 Labour MPs urging to him to support an immediate ceasefire.
Internet and cell service have been cut off in the Gaza Strip as Israeli airstrikes intensify on the besieged territory, where more than 7,000 Palestinians have reportedly been killed since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas militants.

News outlets and on-the-ground aid groups reported on Friday that their communications with individuals within Gaza have been severed, and the 2.3 million people who live there are now left in a near-complete digital blackout. Jawal and Paltel, Palestines largest internet service providers, said Friday that service had collapsed due to Israels bombardment of the region, which has intensified in the last 24 hours. The intense bombing in the last hour caused the destruction of all remaining international routes linking Gaza to the outside world, Paltel wrote in a statement.

Rolling Stone reached out to a half-dozen sources throughout Gaza  at major institutions and in private homes. None of the calls went through.

Doug Madory, director of internet analysis for network monitoring company Kentik, told the Washington Post that Israel is the Gaza Strips exclusive provider of telecommunications. Everything has to go through Israel, which would put Israel in a position to just flip it and turn it off if they want to, said Madory. Ive never seen that. Its mostly just power outages and airstrikes that are contributing to the lack of connectivity.

I think theyre in bad shape, Madory added, referring to the telecom sector in Gaza that may be struggling to make repairs safely amid fighting. That may expand an outage that might have been fixed more rapidly under better circumstances.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society, a humanitarian organization affiliated with the International Red Cross which provides critical emergency medical aid to the region, said they have completely lost contact with the operations room in Gaza Strip and all our teams operating there.

Not a single phone in Gaza can be reached right now. Israel completely cut off all communications to Gaza. No internet, no landlines. This is a total blackout. Every person you know from Gaza has completely lost contact with their loved ones.



We know what comes next.  Hanna Alshaikh    (@yalawiya) October 27, 2023

We are deeply concerned about the ability of our teams to continue providing their emergency medical services, especially since this disruption affects the central emergency number 101 and hinders the arrival of ambulance vehicles to the wounded and injured, the organization added. Since the Oct. 7 attack, the Gaza Strip has been placed under an intense resource and aid blockade that has cut off water, fuel, and critical supplies to residents of the territory. The only semi-reliable remaining mode of communication for those on the ground is a limited supply of satellite-based equipment.

We dont have any internet, we dont have any kind of signals on our phones, weve become totally isolated in the territory, Al Jazeeras Tareq Abu Azzoum reported Friday from within Gaza.

Husam Zomlot, an ambassador and head of the Palestinian Mission to the UK, wrote on X that he has been trying to reach my family in Gaza for hours with no success. All telecommunications and internet have been cut, while Israeli strikes is literally destroying Gaza from air land and sea.

The communications blackout comes as Israel prepares to mount a ground invasion on the Gaza Strip. Hundreds of thousands of Israeli troops have amassed at the borders of the territory.

In the last hours, we intensified the attacks in Gaza, Israeli Defense Force Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said on Friday. In addition to the attacks carried out in the last few days, ground forces are expanding their operations tonight.

Earlier this week, the United States urged Israel to delay the ground invasion. U.S. officials have raised concerns that the Israeli military lacks a clear objective for their ground incursion and that urban warfare in the densely populated region could result in mass civilian casualties beyond those already killed by Israeli airstrikes.

More from Rolling Stone

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Click here to read the full article.
Russian forces tried to regain lost positions near Andriivka in the Bakhmut direction, and northwest of Verbove in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said in its evening report on Oct. 27.

Moscow's attempts at Verbove were unsuccessful, and near Andriivka, Ukrainian defenders repelled five attacks, the report said.

Russia also continues to focus its efforts at Avdiivka and Marinka in Donetsk Oblast. Ukrainian troops fought off 13 Russian assaults against Avdiivka and along the town's flanks, as well as 19 attacks in the Marinka direction, according to the General Staff.

Join our community Support independent journalism in Ukraine. Join us in this fight. Support us

Moscow's troops reportedly did not launch any new attacks in the Kupiansk or Lyman directions during the day on Oct. 27, as they were regrouping forces in those areas.

Throughout the day, the General Staff recorded 47 skirmishes with Russian forces, six Russian missile strikes, eight air strikes, and 27 attacks from multiple-launch rocket systems.

Russian forces escalated their offensive operations along much of the eastern front earlier this week, with a focus on the Avdiivka, Kupiansk, Lyman, Bakhmut, and Marinka directions.

Volodymyr Fitio, a spokesperson of Ukraine's Ground Forces, said on Oct. 23 that Russia has failed to achieve any strategic success on the eastern front as Ukrainian forces are holding the defenses.

Read also: Ukraine war latest: Zelensky says Russia has lost at least a brigade trying to capture Avdiivka

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Gay Republican Rep. George Santos of New York appeared in federal court on Long Island Friday, pleading not guilty to 10 new felony charges.

The court proceedings went on smoothly, setting a trial date for September 9, 2024.



During the hearing at the U.S. District Court in Central Islip, Santos sought a modification in his bond conditions to communicate with several relatives who are identified as witnesses in the case, a request the judge granted. Most of the hearing deliberated on Santos decision to retain his defense lawyer, Joseph Murray, despite potential conflicts of interest due to Murrays ties to other witnesses.

Santos was slapped with the 10 newest charges after already being charged with 13 offenses related to his financial dealings.

Amidst the courtroom developments, the political scene in Washington D.C. buzzed with discussions of expelling Santos from Congress.

A separate resolution to expel Santos was introduced by New York Republican Rep. Anthony DEsposito on Thursday. The push for expulsion was also discussed on Fox News Thursday evening between the new Republican Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, and Sean Hannity. Johnson emphasized the importance of due process, highlighting that Santos, though charged, has not been convicted.

Related: Speaker Mike Johnson Addresses Past Homophobia on Fox Newss Hannity



We have a four-seat majority in the House... and so George Santos is due process, right? My understanding is I think hes appearing in a federal court tomorrow, and we have to allow due process to play itself out. Thats what our system of justice is for, Johnson told Hannity.

In an earlier effort in May, gay Democratic California Rep. Robert Garcia announced that he would force a vote on a resolution to expel Santos from Congress. Utilizing a privileged motion, Garcia aimed to have the full House vote on the resolution, which could have resulted in Santoss expulsion.

Three points of clarification:



1. I have not cleared out my office.



2. I\u2019m not resigning.



3. I\u2019m entitled to due process and not a predetermined outcome as some are seeking.



God bless!  (@)

The unfolding court proceedings, coupled with intensified expulsion efforts, underscore the growing legal and political turmoil surrounding Santos.

In defiance of the burgeoning expulsion efforts and ahead of his arraignment, Santos made clear his stance in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, on Thursday evening.

He outlined three points.

Santos wrote, 1. I have not cleared out my office. 2. Im not resigning. 3. Im entitled to due process and not a predetermined outcome as some are seeking. God bless!
NY Rep. George Santos pleaded not guilty to 10 new charges in federal court on Friday.

The congressman has been charged with 23 total counts connected to alleged wire fraud, money laundering, and identity theft.

GOP lawmakers from New York moved this week to force a vote on whether to kick Santos out of Congress.

Republican Rep. George Santos dodged protestors and kept silent after pleading not guilty to a slew of new criminal charges in federal court in New York on Friday.

But in Washington DC, his congressional colleagues from New York are forcing a vote on whether to kick him out.

The twice-indicted congressman from Long Island's 3rd District stayed silent in the packed courtroom and didn't say anything while exiting the Central Islip federal courthouse.

Santos was charged with conspiracy, wire fraud, identity theft, and other charges in a superseding indictment on October 10, which added 10 new charges to an existing 13 counts from May.

Santos had previously pleaded not guilty to the original charges in May, and has called the federal case a "witch hunt."

Federal prosecutors allege that Santos charged donors credit cards without permission, with thousands ending up in his personal bank account, spent on "designer clothes" and to pay back personal debts.

Prosecutors also say Santos' former treasurer Nancy Marks schemed to falsify campaign finance reports during Santos' 2022 campaign so that Santos could garner financial support from a "national party committee," apparently the House GOP campaign arm's "Young Guns" initiative.

Marks pleaded guilty on October 10.

This week, Santos posted a photograph of himself on X, formerly known as Twitter, with the caption "They're not after me, they're after you. I'm just in the way."

Santos, 35, appeared in court with his personal attorney Joseph Murray  himself the subject of a potential conflict of interest in the case that was flagged by the Department of Justice. Murray did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

After Santos' plea, Judge Joanna Seybert set Santos' trial date for September 9, 2024.

Republican Rep. George Santos of New York outside the Capitol on September 29, 2023. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images

Santos is facing political blowback in the House as well.

On Thursday evening, a group of freshmen New York GOP lawmakers  including Long Island representative Anthony D'Esposito (R-NY), an outspoken critic of Santos' admitted and alleged fabrications and crimes  introduced a resolution to expel Santos from Congress.

Newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson, however, expressed hesitation about the precedent of expelling a representative before a criminal conviction, saying on Fox News that Santos is "due due process."

The resolution needs a two-thirds majority to pass. Santos has vowed not to resign from Congress.

After the court hearing Friday, Santos emerged from the courthouse to a crowd of protestors and constituents, many calling for faster congressional action to oust him from the House.

One of the constituents, Tom Kearney, told Insider he's an independent voter from Santos' district who considered voting for him. He held a sign comparing the congressman to Elizabeth Holmes outside the courthouse to ask Santos to have "some integrity" and resign, he said.

"I think he should resign, fight the charges if he's not guilty and come back and run again, if he wants," Kearney told Insider.

Rich Osthoff, a New Jersey Navy veteran who alleged Santos stole money raised for his sick dog in 2016, also attended the protest and yelled, "You killed my dog," when Santos walked out of the courthouse after the hearing, just as he did at Santos' May arraignment.

"I think he heard me, " he told Insider. "He was smiling and then heard me and his face fell."

Santos has previously denied knowing Osthoff.

Lisa Sevilmi, from East Patchogue, told a throng of reporters after the hearing that she wants her representative, Andrew Garbarino (R-NY) to bring the resolution to expel Santos to a vote.

"Garbarino is on the ethics committee and has been slow-walking" the investigation, she said.

When reached for comment, a spokesperson for Garbarino said: "As a Member of the House Ethics Committee, Congressman Garbarino is bound by the Committee's Confidentiality Rule and has no comment on matters that are or could come before the Committee."

Update October 27, 2023: This story has been updated to include a statement from Rep. Andrew Garbarino's office.

Read the original article on Business Insider
HENRY COUNTY, Ga. - An elementary school has placed a staff member on administrative leave after being accused of hitting several students. The incident allegedly took place inside a classroom at Dutchtown Elementary School in Henry County.

"It's just a call I think a parent should never get from a school," Britney Walker said.

That call came in around 2 p.m. Wednesday from the principal of Dutchtown Elementary School saying that her daughter Nevaeh was involved in an incident with other students and a staff member.

"I asked if I could get more information. 'Is she ok? Is she harmed or hurt? Can I get more information than that?' The only other information that he would give is that she as ok and that it was not a sexual altercation, but it was a physical altercation," Walker said.

Walker says she rushed to the school and when her daughter got in the car she knew the situation was more serious.

"She said 'mom my back is hurting. Stinging and burning.' I said 'ok let me look at your back.' When I pulled her shirt up she had whelps on her back, and it looked like someone had hit her like this way," Walker said.

Nevaeh explains that the staff member got upset with students over laptops not being charged.

"She started yelling for us to get out, and she started hitting everybody on the back except for the white kids," the fourth grader said.

"They said 'did she just hit us?' because they were distraught, and she said' yes I did," Walker said.

This mom and other parents involved say they want answers.

"That's abuse. That's assault. That's battery. My daughter was abused at school by a teacher," Walker said.

This mom says she wants the staff member fired and charges filed.

FOX 5 reached out to the Henry County School System and they sent this statement:

Human Resources is currently investigating a personnel matter at Dutchtown Elementary School following a report of a staff member having inappropriate interactions with students. The employee has been placed on administrative leave while an investigation is conducted.
German prosecutors have received evidence of Russian war crimes in Ukraine in three cases filed by the Clooney Foundation for Justice (CFJ) on Oct. 26.

The CFJ, an organization devoted to protecting human rights and gathering evidence of human rights abuses, submitted detailed dossiers against the alleged perpetrators to federal prosecutors in Germany. The organization is representing 16 survivors and families of victims across the three cases.

One case was filed jointly with the Ukrainian NGO Truth Hounds.

International commitment around accountability for crimes committed in Ukraine has been unprecedented since the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, said Anya Neistat, legal director of the Docket, CFJ's initiative to gather evidence of international war crimes.

But it is now the time to see words turn into real action  and we are counting on German prosecutors to lead the way.

The dossiers accuse three Russian commanders of committing war crimes, including during an indiscriminate missile attack on a resort in Odesa Oblast in the summer of 2022 that killed 22 civilians, the execution of four men in Kharkiv oblast from March to September 2022, and multiple executions, acts of torture, and sexual violence committed in Kyiv Oblast in March 2022.

The cases were filed under the legal principle of universal jurisdiction, which stipulates that for certain serious crimes, countries have a duty to prosecute perpetrators of crimes that extend beyond the borders of the country where the acts were committed.

I am now confident that the cases are strong, and that they will offer German courts a real chance to deliver justice to the survivors," Neistat said.

Germany has compiled extensive evidence of Russian war crimes, and Germany's Federal Prosecutors Office has previously launched an investigation into the alleged shooting of civilians, including a German citizen, by Russian troops at the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

CFJ prosecutors also shared the dossiers with the International Criminal Court (ICC) so that the evidence can be included in their ongoing investigation. The ICC has previously issued arrest warrants for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and Russian official Maria Lvova-Belova over the unlawful deportation of children from occupied areas of Ukraine.

A report from the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office in August 2023 stated that there have been nearly 100,000 Russian war crimes committed in Ukraine.

Read also: These Ukrainian artists, writers were killed by Russias war

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Germany has handed over an IRIS-T SLM air defense system, IRIS-T SLS missiles, 5,000 155mm artillery shells, and other defense assistance as part of its latest aid deliveries to Ukraine, the German government said on Oct. 27.

The delivery further included four armored personnel carriers, eight VECTOR reconnaissance drones, a TRML-4D aerial radar, four ground radars, five unmanned surface ships, and six border guard vehicles.

Ammunition for MARS II multiple-launch rocket systems, four tractors with semi-trailers, and 10,000 safety glasses were also included, Berlin said.

Advanced Western air defenses represent a crucial aid for Ukraine ahead of the coming winter. Ukrainian officials have warned that Russia is likely to intensify its strikes against the country's energy infrastructure in the following months.

Previously, Germany transferred two IRIS-T SLS systems to Ukraine in August, in addition to two SLM versions delivered in April this year and in October 2022.

SLM variants have a range of up to 40 kilometers, while their shorter-range SLS counterparts can reach targets 12 kilometers away.

Read also: Shmyhal: Rheinmetall to open joint Ukrainian-German facility in Ukraine

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
The German government reported on the supply of another package of military aid to Ukraine, which included, in particular, air defence equipment, ammunition and armoured personnel carriers.

Source: updated data on the German government website, European Pravda reports

In the new aid package, Germany supplied Ukraine with:

four armoured personnel carriers;

medium-range air defence system IRIS-T SLM;

missiles for IRIS-T SLS systems;

TRML-4D air surveillance radar;

ammunition for MARS II multiple launch rocket systems;

eight VECTOR reconnaissance drones;

four GO12 ground surveillance radars;

five uncrewed surface vessels;

six border protection vehicles;

10,000 safety glasses;

four HX81 8x8 truck tractor trains and four semi trailers;

155-mm ammunition.

Reminder:

Earlier, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced the preparation of a winter military aid package for Ukraine, the key element of which will be air defence equipment.

At the last Ramstein-format meeting, the head of the Pentagon mentioned Germany among the largest donors to Ukraine  taking into account the size of the economy, its contribution is greater than that of the USA.

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Phil Isenberg, who served as a Sacramento city councilman, mayor, state assemblyman and mentor to a generation of local leaders, died Thursday after a brief illness. He was 84.

Over his six decades of public service to the capital region and California, Isenberg was a passionate promoter of the arts, a master political collaborator and a defender of the environment. He first ascended to elected office in 1971, when he was elected to the Sacramento City Council. He would go on to serve as mayor from 1975 to 1982 and was first elected to the state Assembly in 1982, representing Sacramento in the state Capitol until 1996.

His public advocacy continued for years after that, including long stints on the Delta Stewardship Council and as a professor of public policy at the McGeorge School of Law; the University of California, Berkeley; and California State University, Sacramento. He also served on the boards of directors of several local organizations including WEAVE, Women Escaping a Violent Environment, and the Verge Center for the Arts.

Isenberg remained a savvy political observer into his later years, eager to share his thoughts on major city and state issues with journalists, friends and former colleagues. Former Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo, among a long list of notable local leaders who considered Isenberg a role model, said she will miss running into Isenberg and his wife, Marilyn Araki Isenberg, at the farmers market.

A smile and his greeting of, Hey kid, would follow, Fargo said, adding Isenberg was so smart and personable and committed to making Sacramento a better place.

Then-Sacramento Mayor Phillip isenberg, 43, flashes a victory sign on election night in November 1982, after vote tallies showed him with a commanding lead in the 10th District Assembly race against Republican Ingrid Azvedo.

Isenbergs defense of the regions rivers was rooted in his love of fishing and birding. He named the Sandhill crane the official bird of his Assembly district and secured funding for a preserve for the bird near Lodi. He served as chairman of the Assembly Water Parks and Wildlife Committee and is credited with helping to save Mono Lake by organizing legislators from both political parties to fund alternate water sources for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, reducing diversions from the iconic lake in the eastern Sierra.

Most of what I participated in as a public official  that was worth doing  I did at his urging or inspiration, former Assemblyman and state Sen. Patrick Johnston said. Phil led on health care reform, saving Mono Lake, the Delta Protection Act, the Phil and Marilyn Isenberg Sand Hill Crane Reserve and so much more.

Born in Gary, Indiana, in 1939, Isenberg graduated from El Camino High School in 1956 and Sacramento State in 1961. He earned his law degree from the UC Berkeleys Boalt Hall in 1967 and returned to Sacramento two years later to start a law office.

His political influences included Willie Brown, the former Assembly speaker and San Francisco Mayor for whom Isenberg worked after graduating from Boalt Hall. Isenberg eventually became a mentor to many others, including Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg.

Actress and activist Jane Fonda joins then-Sacramento Mayor Phil Isenberg at a fundraiser at a Carmichael home for his campaign for the Democratic nomination for Congress in May 1978. About 100 people attended the $25-a-plate event. I like to see people in Congress who will fight and have courage, she said. Then-City Councilman Robert Matsui won the seat.

Then-Assemblyman Phil Isenberg, 53, works in his Capitol office in February 1993. The former Sacramento mayor was described as one of the Legislatures smartest members.

Isenberg gave Steinberg what the current Sacramento mayor called the most important political advice Ive ever received.

When you take elected office, focus on one or two things that really matter, that few others are taking on and find your north star and make that your drive for public service, Steinberg said Isenberg told him. I now give that same advice to new legislators every single year.

Among Isenbergs priorities was his promotion of the arts. As mayor, he launched the Sacramento Office of Arts and Culture. He and his wife were well-known art collectors and supporters of the local music scene.

Phil and Marilyn shared our goal of establishing a larger contemporary art presence in Sacramento, and without their credibility and enthusiasm, Im not sure that any of this would have happened, said Liv Moe, the executive director of the Verge Center for the Arts. They were involved in everything we did since the beginning, and the weirder a particular project was, the happier they were about it. Phil didnt have an ego about his arts and culture legacy, and that is what enabled him to believe in people so unselfishly.

And in the cutthroat world of politics, Isenberg maintained his kindness.

He was the straightest shooter you would ever meet, he told you exactly what he thought of what you did or what you didnt do, but always with a kindness, always with a great heart, Steinberg said. This is somebody who needs to be remembered as a model for doing it the right way. He was a giant in this community.

Sacramento City Councilman Phil Isenberg strategizes in August 1975 for his successful bid to replace Richard H. Marriott  whose photograph is crossed out in the background  as mayor.

Then-Sacramento Mayor Phil Isenberg announces his candidacy for Congress with a press conference in his office in January 1978.
Have you noticed dozens of vertical touch screens popping up on Miami sidewalks?

They look like human-size billboards or oversized TVs.

More than 70 of them have been installed in downtown Miami, Brickell, Wynwood, Coconut Grove, Overtown, Edgewater, Allapattah and the Design District.

But what are they for? Here what to know:

This interactive kiosk on Brickell Avenue is one of dozens installed across Miami.

What are the screens on Miami streets?

The devices popping up on Miami streets are called IKE. That stands for Interactive Kiosk Experience. Theyre dual-sided digital touchscreens that display information based on nearby businesses, services and events.

Each kiosk serves as a free Wi-Fi hotspot and is geolocated, displaying informational listings based on whats in the immediate proximity to the kiosk, Anna Baerman, senior development director at Orange Barrel Media, a company behind IKE Smart City, said in a statement

These kiosks, coordinated by Miamis Downtown Development Authority, can also be found in other big cities including Tampa, Atlanta, Detroit Cincinnati, Houston, San Antonio, Berkeley, Denver, Cleveland and Phoenix.

How do the kiosks work?

IKE works two ways  passive and interactive. When a pedestrian isnt engaging with IKE, the screen displays a loop of city, community, art and commercial information. When a pedestrian touches the screen, an interactive dashboard appears.

When a pedestrian is not interacting with a kiosk, the screen displays a loop of ads.

What are the kiosks for?

The IKE kiosks can help you find information you may need, like what to do in Brickell on a weeknight and finding the best bus route to Overtown.

Here are nine ways they can be useful:

 Public transportation: If you want to save money and not use Uber and Lyft, select the get around option and enter your destination for public transit options.

 Restaurants and bars: Are you feeling hungry or do you want to have a cold one after a hard day at work? Select the eat + drink option to find nearby spots.

 Events: Are you bored and looking for something to do? Select the events option to know whats happening in your area, from flying trapeze classes to community workouts.

 Arts and Culture: If youre seeking info about Miami culture  museums, art galleries, concerts, theater,  select the arts + culture option.

 Activities: Feeling outdoorsy? Select the activities option to start planning your next adventure.

 Shop: Do you like hanging out in stores and doing some retail therapy? The kiosks can direct you to the best places to shop in your area when you select shop.

 Community services: To find the nearest emergency shelter, select Shelter. If you need other related services, choose the Homeless option. Do you need to find an addiction recovery clinic or a community center? Then, select social services.

 Jobs: Are you looking for work? Select the job board option and scroll through employment opportunities in your area.

 Selfies and games: Not everything has to be serious. Are you feeling playful? Play an interactive game or take a selfie. Then enter your cellphone number if you want the information or selfie to be texted to you.

Do you need a hotel to stay for the night in Miami? Select the places to stay option in one of the dozens of interactive kiosks installed across Miami to find the best alternative for you.

Can you use the kiosks to call 911?

Users can find an emergency button on the side of each kiosk. When pressed, IKE dials 911 and notifies the dispatcher of the kiosk location, enables two-way communication between the caller and dispatcher, and records video of the user and surrounding area.

But dont play around with it if you dont have an emergency.

Pressing the emergency call button on IKE if there is not an emergency is illegal, as is making a false 911 call from your personal phone, Baerman said.

The interactive kiosks in Miami include an emergency call button to call 911.

Are more kiosks coming?

IKE Smart City pays for the program, including routine cleaning and maintenance, because its a self-sustaining business model supported by advertising, according to the company.

On average, the company said, each IKE kiosk installed in Miami receives over 300 uses per month.

We plan to have 150 kiosks installed by the end of next year, and will continue to expand in commercial, pedestrian-oriented areas in the city of Miami, the company said.
Speaker Mike Johnson meets with Biden about Ukraine and Israel aid package

Newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson had a "productive meeting" with President Joe Biden on Thursday, Johnson told reporters afterward.

Johnson, a Louisiana lawmaker elevated to his role just one day ago, headed to the White House for a briefing "on the need for [Biden's] national security supplemental request," a White House official said, referring to a sweeping, approximately $105 billion package the president sent to Congress last seeking some $60 billion in military assistance for Ukraine and $14 billion for Israel amid their respective wars.

Johnson was joined at the meeting by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries , who called it "candid" but added that "no decisions have been made."

The new speaker previously voted against Ukraine aid alongside some other House Republicans who argue the money could be better spent at home and that the U.S. should not be so deeply involved in a war overseas.

MORE: Who is new House Speaker Mike Johnson?

That view is at odds with previous members of GOP leadership, like former Speaker Kevin McCarthy , who called for more accountability for Ukraine funding while saying it was important to help the country defend against Russia's invasion.

McCarthy was deposed by a few hard-line members of his conference earlier this month, triggering a three-week scramble for a replacement that ended with Johnson being chosen on Wednesday.

"The challenge before us is great, but the time for action is now -- and I will not let you down," Johnson said in a speech after winning the gavel.

The White House's foreign aid request faces some hurdles in the Senate, too, where Republicans have signaled they hope to make changes and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has called it a "starting point."

PHOTO: Newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson speaks after his election at the Capitol in Washington, DC, on Oct. 25, 2023. (Tom Brenner/AFP via Getty Images)

Soon after Johnson became speaker, Biden said in a statement that he was looking forward to working with House Republicans in a bipartisan manner, both on possible aid to Ukraine and Israel and on additional funding bills to keep the federal government from partially shutting down in November.

"Even though we have real disagreements about important issues, there should be mutual effort to find common ground wherever we can," Biden said in a statement issued by the White House.

That tone was at odds with how Biden's reelection campaign reacted to Johnson's selection. In a statement, a Biden campaign spokesperson labeled Johnson "MAGA Mike," echoing how Biden has sought to single out a segment of Trump-aligned Republicans as "MAGA" extremists.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was pressed about that rhetoric on Thursday.

"I think he [Johnson] has defined himself as that way. So he's going to have to answer that question for himself," she told reporters. "What we can say is we want to move forward on making sure that we get the work done on behalf of the American people."

She said Biden wants to work in good faith and, when asked about Johnson's past efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, said she didn't want to "prejudge" Johnson's relationship with the president.

Jeffries, on Thursday, struck a polite tone about their meeting.

"President Biden is a good man, the speaker is a good man," he said. "I think it was a cordial interaction."

Speaker Mike Johnson meets with Biden about Ukraine and Israel aid package originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
LAS VEGAS (KLAS)  Shea Theodore knows a thing or two about making a Vegas Golden Knights fans day.

But the star defenseman wears a different hat as he makes his way into Southern Hills Hospital in Las Vegas.

Its an honor to keep up the tradition and try to help as many people as possible, Theodore said.

The tradition for Shea dates back to when his grandmother Kay battled breast cancer.

Vegas Golden Knights Shea Theodore visits Comprehensive Cancer Centers (KLAS)

Vegas Golden Knights Shea Theodore visits Comprehensive Cancer Centers (KLAS)

Vegas Golden Knights Shea Theodore visits Comprehensive Cancer Centers (KLAS)

Vegas Golden Knights Shea Theodore visits Comprehensive Cancer Centers (KLAS)

Vegas Golden Knights Shea Theodore visits Comprehensive Cancer Centers (KLAS)

Vegas Golden Knights Shea Theodore visits Comprehensive Cancer Centers (KLAS)

Vegas Golden Knights Shea Theodore visits Comprehensive Cancer Centers (KLAS)

Vegas Golden Knights Shea Theodore visits Comprehensive Cancer Centers (KLAS)

Vegas Golden Knights Shea Theodore visits Comprehensive Cancer Centers (KLAS)

Vegas Golden Knights Shea Theodore visits Comprehensive Cancer Centers (KLAS)

Vegas Golden Knights Shea Theodore visits Comprehensive Cancer Centers (KLAS)

After her passing in 2020, Theodore partnered with Comprehensive Cancer Centers to create Kays Power Play. A program in his grandmothers honor to help detect breast cancer early  including getting mammograms for those who arent covered by insurance.

One of those people eternally grateful for the program is Sharona Wax.

My blood pressure went up in the doctors office, Wax jokingly said when she saw Theodore walk in.

She has been through battles with cancer three times.

I had colon cancer, then breast cancer, and then skin cancer, Wax said.

But on this day  she is now cancer-free.

The wonderful thing is the doctor saw me today and said I have no lumps. Im a happy person, Wax shared.

She is one of the many who was greeted by Theodore and impacted on this day.

Along with CCC Nevada, Theodore presented a $50,000 check to Kays Power Play to expand the services of the cancer center.

A moment not lost on Wax.

Thank you for donating your time to people who have been so sick. Not everybody does that. Thats just phenomenal, Wax said to Theodore.

The Golden Knights have always had a special bond with the city.

Theodore now continues that bond for those who remind him so much of the woman whose legacy lives on with the program he created.

It absolutely made my year, and probably more than that, Wax added.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS.
A TikTok user caused quite the scene and got drenched in the process at Epcot in Orlando.

Onlookers shared videos of the man at the World Showcase Lagoon, a man-made waterway at Floridas Walt Disney World theme park, at around 5:30 p.m. Monday.

One clip shows the guest, fully dressed in a T shirt, shorts, sneakers and kamikaze headband, climb over a railing and stand there for a few seconds contemplating the water.

Thats gonna end badly for everybody, comments a bystander.

Hes gonna jump! someone else yells, as he takes the plunge.

Splash.

The man then makes his escape, swimming toward a gondola near the Italy pavilion, scrambling aboard and using it as leverage to hop to some steps leading to land.

Once back on the solid ground, he raises his arms in victory as the crowd cheers.

Although Disney did not respond to the Miami Heralds request for comment on Friday, according to widespread reports, security escorted the man out of the park. Its unclear what repercussions he faces, such as a lifetime ban.

So why on earth would someone pull a stunt like that?

A TikTok user named Brandon Reiter, aka @saulbrandonreiter tagged the thrill-seeker as @elit3trainers, and said the still unidentified individual did so to win a $60,000 bet with his pals.

But the folks who run Instagram travel page DisFamily Adventures and who reshared the viral video, told Fox 35 Orlando that they overheard his friends say the amount was a lot less  $6,000.
A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers is backing a bill to require the Department of Education to consider antisemitism while enforcing federal anti-discrimination laws and to ensure that antisemitism on college campuses is "properly investigated and prosecuted."

The Antisemitism Awareness Act directs the DOE to use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's working definition of antisemitism and its examples while investigating hate crimes.

Republican New York Congressman Mike Lawler introduced the bill to quash the "disturbing and unacceptable" antisemitic demonstrations at universities, which "have long been breeding grounds of antisemitism."

New York Congressman Mike Lawler (Getty Images)

Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the 2024 presidential candidate who is co-leading the bill, says Americas universities "have become hotbeds of antisemitism, especially in the wake of the brutal Hamas terror attacks against Israel and innocent civilians."

NYC COLLEGE'S JEWISH STUDENTS SEEN LOCKED INSIDE LIBRARY AS ANTI-ISRAEL PROTEST MOVES THROUGH BUILDING

"Its critical the Department of Education has the tools and resources it needs to investigate antisemitism and root out this vile hatred wherever it rears its ugly head," said Scott.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

Sen. Tim Scott said universities have become "hotbeds of antisemitism."

Reps. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., and Jared Moskowitz. D-Fla., and progressive Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee , D-Texas, are also co-sponsoring the proposal, despite many progressive Democrats splitting with their colleagues on backing Israel and condemning Hamas Oct. 7 terrorist attack.

"Those who commit antisemitic attacks with the sole purpose of hurting the Jewish community must be held accountable to the full extent of the law," said Moskowitz. "With the hatred we've witnessed over the last couple weeks, it's beyond clear we need a multi-layered approach to stopping antisemitism."

The act would require the government to treat hate crimes involving antisemitism "as vigorously as against all other forms of discrimination."

"We have an obligation to teach future generations about this evil and protect Jewish students from violence and the virulent impact of all hate," said Gottheimer.

Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) believes the Biden administrations policy on antisemitsm was "purposely ambiguous about the definition" to "allow some antisemites to disguise their anti-Israel hate."

"It is essential that the hatred of Jews is clearly identified as antisemitism and that the definition of discrimination against Jews under federal law has no ambiguity," said Dan Pollak, director of government relations for the ZOA.

Jewish students at New York City College were locked inside a school library on Wednesday during a pro-Palestinian protest. That same night, pro-Palestinian protesters projected the messages "Glory to our Martyrs" and "Your Tuition is Funding Genocide in Gaza" on George Washington Universitys library in Washington, D.C.

Pro-Palestinian protesters projected "Glory to our martyrs" and other messages onto the library at George Washington University.

University professors, such as Raz Segal with Stockton University, have published op-eds demanding Israel "stop weaponizing the Holocaust" to justify its "genocide" against Palestinians.

PROFESSOR DEMANDS ISRAEL STOP 'WEAPONIZING THE HOLOCAUST' TO JUSTIFY VIOLENCE

"College students celebrate terrorists who brutally murder innocent civilians as martyrs and faculty members call Hamas' assault exhilarating. This abhorrent behavior underscores the clear need for federal policy to protect Jewish students," said Rep. Max Miller, R-Ohio, who is sponsoring the measure.

William C. Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said antisemitic rhetoric has left "Jewish students feeling the need to hide their Jewish identity."

The Anti-Defamation League has recorded over a hundred antisemitic incidents across the U.S. since Hamas Oct. 7 attack. The FBI has also seen rising threats against Jewish, Muslim and Arab communities as well as hoax bomb threats against synagogues.





Original article source: GOP and Dem lawmakers back bill to crack down on college hotbeds of antisemitism
The House GOPs election of Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), the architect of the conferences legal strategy for challenging President Bidens presidential win in 2020, is putting election denialism back to the center of the national conversation.

Johnson took a leading role in spearheading an amicus brief backing a Texas lawsuit contesting the 2020 election results, which he said prompted former President Trump to call him to express his appreciation.

Trump gave Johnson a hearty endorsement Wednesday, hours after he had torpedoed Majority Whip Tom Emmers (R-Minn.) Speakership bid. Emmer had voted to hold up the 2020 election in a series of votes, decisions that led Trump allies such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to oppose his nomination as Speaker.

Republicans after picking Johnson didnt want to talk about his role in challenging Bidens victory; when an ABC News reporter tried to ask Johnson about his 2020 efforts, she was booed by several members while Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) told her to shut up.

To Democrats, Johnsons rise was clear evidence of the former presidents grip on the party. The brief selection of Emmer, after Republicans had rejected two conservatives in Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, had been a victory for the center, said former House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.).

They moved right the first two times, and then when they moved to the center, that center lasted four hours, he noted. And Trump dictated that that was not an acceptable choice. And so he was rejected out of hand.

It is really sad that Trump continues to have so much sway with people who ought to know a lot better.

A number of Republicans in Congress have acknowledged that Biden won the election and warned that denying his legal victory could damage the country and the GOP.

Yet Johnson ultimately earned the backing of every GOP member present for the vote, including Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), who had voted to depose Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) over the issue of election denialism.

Buck, referencing the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, said Johnsons role is fundamentally different than somebody who is actively involved in moving the protesters from the mall up here.

The amicus brief is fundamentally different than trying to overturn something on the floor. What he did was, he went to the courts. Thats what the courts are set up for. It is absolutely appropriate. I signed that amicus brief, and I think its absolutely appropriate to go to the courts. The court said no, and I voted to certify the election, Buck said.

However, the two parted ways on how to respond thereafter. Johnson voted against election results in two states: Arizona and Pennsylvania.

For many in the caucus, Johnsons involvement in Trumps efforts to cling to power were not a central focus in selecting him as the new Speaker.

Rep. John Duarte (R-Calif.) said Johnson succeeded because many viewed him as coming into the job without any baggage.

I think the reason Mike Johnson was able to come forward and lead the conference and now the House was because hes not controversial. Hes not been in the middle of the cultural wars. Hes not been in the middle of the internal wars. Hes just a really good guy that everyone believes they can get along with and trust.

Johnson actually has been in the middle of the culture wars; Democrats were quick to highlight his conservative stances on abortion and gay marriage, and have deemed him MAGA Mike Johnson in pointing to his ties to Trump.

Their efforts are a clear warning signal to centrist Republicans running in districts Biden won in the 2020 election: Democrats will seek to tie those GOP lawmakers to Trump and Johnson.

Johnson has been close to Trump in other ways. He was also among a group of GOP lawmakers who coordinated with the White House ahead of Trumps first impeachment.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who led Trumps first impeachment effort, said Johnson played no small role in trying to keep Trump in office.

There were a few House leaders who really distinguished themselves for the aggressiveness with which they push the big lie  among their colleagues in the House, in litigation  and Johnson was among the leaders of that pack, Schiff said.

He, like Hoyer, sees it as a sign of Trumps lasting influence on the GOP.

It shows that unless youre willing to lie about the last election, you are disqualified from being Speaker in this House, Schiff said.

Trump is still the dominant voice and force, and he certainly killed the last nomination of Emmer, to the point where he didnt bother bringing it to a vote on the House floor. So now we have one of the most active election deniers  one the most vocally anti-reproductive freedom ranking members of the House  as their latest candidate. And it just shows the hard-right Trumpist tilt of this party.

Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y) a former county election board member, sought to conflate Johnsons actions with comments from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) complaining about the 2016 election and voicing concerns about Russian influence in the contest. Most were in reference to special counsel Robert Muellers investigation on the matter years later.

Im gonna look forward; Im not gonna look back on Hakeems record in 16 or Johnsons record in 20. Im gonna look forward, LaLota said.

Lets not just look at one person or one party. Lets look at everybodys record. Lets look at everybodys statements, he said, when pressed about differences between Jeffriess and Johnsons actions.

Johnsons election comes after Democrats railed against Jordans candidacy, labeling him an election denier and arguing he should not be allowed to lead the House.

In many ways, Johnson has been Jordans right-hand man on the panel, often taking the lead on questioning witnesses while complaining the Justice Department has been weaponized against Trump.

Johnson is like Jim Jordan with a bar card, said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, noting Jordans law degree.

Hes a MAGA extremist. He [just] has better manners.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Running the state of New Jersey banks Gov. Phil Murphy $175,000 a year, and although his taxable income last year was nearly four times that, its still millions of dollars less than he made in 2021.

Murphy, a retired Goldman Sachs executive, revealed his latest income in his routine disclosure of tax returns Thursday night.

The idea of filing taxes is a relatable  if sometimes painful  part of life for most New Jersey residents, but the fluctuations that Murphy and his wife, Tammy, see probably arent.

Over the last three years, the Murphys have seen their income shift from about $982,000 in 2020 to $5.2 million in 2021 and down to about $655,000 last year.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, right, and First Lady Tammy Murphy get mic'ed up for a Good Morning America segment in a mobile studio in front of their home on Sept. 26, 2023, in Red Bank.

While the couples income took a sizable drop, their refund didnt fall nearly as much. They still managed a return of more than $293,000, which is about three times more than the states median household income of $89,703, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Three of the four Murphy children are still claimed as dependents on the return. The couple took a deduction of $27,300 and paid $431,763 in estimated taxes.

Tap the brakes: Murphy says he'll veto NJ Turnpike budget that includes another toll hike

According to the information released by Murphys office, they also had $115,000 in other payments and refundable credits, including $1,067 in charitable contributions and an estimated $500,150 in foundation distributions. They paid a total of $341,275 in local and federal taxes last year, a tax rate of 49.85%.

The first family of New Jersey saw a dramatic dip in capital gains from the year before. They earned about $4.3 million that way in 2021 but saw a loss of $3,000 in 2022.

Although the same firm prepared the couple's taxes, a different person was in charge this year. Chad Thompson of RSM US LLP's Chicago office was responsible in 2022.

NJ news: Murphy spent 9 days on economic mission to Asia. What does NJ get out of the trip?

Shifts in the market could be playing a part in the turn the Murphys' finances took. Wall Street ended 2021 with near-record highs, with the S&P 500 posting a gain of more than 27%, but 2022 saw that market drop about 18%.

Murphy's income may still be well above average, but he has consistently worked toward making the state more affordable for everyone by raising the minimum wage, providing and increasing the child tax credit and creating programs like ANCHOR to deliver tax rebates to homeowners and renters.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ Gov. Phil Murphy releases tax returns, income takes dip
The older I get, the more reminders I see that Maya Angelou was right: When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.

Take the new House speaker, Mike Johnson, for instance.

Hes been showing who he is since 1998, when he graduated from law school and started going after the LGBTQ+ community every chance he could. And Im not just talking about trying to stop same-sex marriage, because lets face it, many progressives were against it back then as well. But Johnson was extreme by comparison  advocating for laws that banned two adults from having consensual sex in their own home.

So, to anyone who considers themselves an ally of the LGBTQ+ community, know this: Same-sex marriage and other protections are not safe.

Johnson (R-La.) has made attacking the queer community a huge part of his lifes work. We dont yet know his style as a leader in the House, but we know exactly where he intends to go.

Read more: Calmes: Who is House Speaker Mike Johnson? Matt Gaetz's victory lap says it all

And judging from how the speaker selection process played out over the weeks after the ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield), the Republican Party looks more than willing to go after the queer community with him. Of the three speaker nominations before Johnsons, the fastest one to collapse was that of House Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota. It lasted barely four hours. One of the key issues cited by his opposition: his support of same-sex marriage.

I told him it wasnt between he and I, said Rep. Rick Allen (R-Ga.) about why he opposed Emmer. It was between he and the teachings of Jesus Christ.

For some reason, I dont think Allen meant love your neighbor as yourself.

Read more: Editorial: House Republicans just elected an election denier as speaker. American democracy is in trouble

No, conservatives like him and Johnson tend to use Christianity as justification for anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination. The powerful players within this huge wing of the Republican Party do not, however, seem to take great issue with other sins such as adultery.

Author Jeff Sharlet has written multiple books on the inner workings of a collective of powerful Republican politicians, some of whom share a town house in Washington that was the site of not only prayer groups but also apparently extramarital affairs. The New Yorker dubbed it a frat house for Jesus. It takes a very special reading of the Bible to land on jail gay people and extramarital affairs are OK at the same time.

The Family, as the group is called, is also tied to the passage of anti-gay legislation in Romania and Uganda, which now sentences LGBTQ+ people to death and imprisons anyone who fails to report a queer person to the government.

Read more: Letters to the Editor: Was Speaker Mike Johnson sent by God? 'God, I hope not,' says a reader

I am not sure how the fiscally conservative, socially liberal crowd will process all of this information come the 2024 election, especially if theres a promise of tax cuts bundled up with the distasteful discrimination. However, given how this nation continues to struggle with not only LGBTQ+ rights but also racial and gender equity, Im not too optimistic.

In 2021, not long after the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Johnson gave a talk to a group of congressional staffers as part of the Faith and Law lecture series. The bipartisan organization is like a think tank for Christians working on the Hill. Johnson, a Trump ally who tried to overturn the 2020 election on his behalf, listed the rule of law second among his seven core conservative principles.

He listed individual freedom and limited government as first and third  despite wanting laws to ban sex between two consenting adults in their own home.

Beyond his run-of-the-mill doubletalk, the line that caught my attention most was this one: Im doing the same thing I used to do back in the late 90s.

Remember he graduated from law school in 1998. That is also the year a young gay man in Wyoming, Matthew Shepard, was brutally beaten, tied to a fence and left to die. That tragic story dominated the news for months. And Johnson started his legislative crusade against LGBTQ+ people in the wake of that tragedy.

That is what Johnson was doing back in the late 90s. He may not be a household name yet, but he is not an unknown. He showed us exactly who he was the first time.

So take Maya Angelous advice and believe him.

@LZGranderson

If its in the news right now, the L.A. Times Opinion section covers it. Sign up for our weekly opinion newsletter.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Classic rock radio station WZLX on Friday announced the passing of Kevin Karlson, who worked as a morning drive talk show host in Boston for nearly 20 years.

It is with great sadness that 100.7 WZLX shares news of the unexpected passing of our friend, Kevin Karlson, the Medford-based station said in a statement. For almost 20 years, Kevin helped wake up Boston with humor and classic rock.

WZLX didnt specify how Karlson died, but fellow station employee Chuck Nowlin said he passed away in his sleep.

Our ZLX family is in a state of shock right now. Our radio brother, Kevin Karlson, passed away in his sleep last night, Nowlin wrote in a tweet. Rest in peace big man.

Our ZLX family is in a state of shock right now. Our radio brother, Kevin Karlson, passed away in his sleep last night.

Please join us on air to share some memories

617 931-1007.

Rest in peace big man pic.twitter.com/xhu53OrOZ1  Chuck Nowlin (@ChuckNowlinWZLX) October 27, 2023

Karlson, who was born and raised in Ohio, spent his career working in morning radio at a number of stops across the country alongside Pete McKenzie.

The Karlson, McKenzie & Heather Show is been a longtime hit among Boston radio listeners.

Karlson, McKenzie, and Heather Ford launched their show on WZLX in 2005 after moving from New York, where they had worked together.

News of Karlsons death generated thousands of reactions and shares on WZLXs Facebook page.

Absolutely devastating, Kevin was so funny and made any day a better one. He will be missed. My condolences to his family, friends, and to all of us who listened each day, one listener wrote on Facebook.

Another saddened listener added, A legendary voice in Boston radio. He will be missed.

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
GREENBELT, Md. - A Prince George's County mother is terrified after another woman tried to kidnap her baby in Greenbelt Thursday evening.

Officers from the Greenbelt Police Department are searching for the alleged kidnapper who they believe is traveling in a dark sedan.



FOX 5 visited the family's home where the 10-month-old routinely plays with his truck, toy piano and bouncy chair. But he's not currently there.

The child's father says that he is concerned for the baby and the mother's safety, so they are staying with relatives.

Greenbelt police believe the 19-year-old mother was pushing her baby in a stroller around 6:30 p.m. along the 9100 block of Edmondson Road.

Suddenly, two dark-colored cars drive, a woman jumps out and police said the woman tries to snatch the baby out of the stroller as she assaults the mother.



But the mom fought back, and was able to run to her apartment, and call 911. The woman who tried to take the baby jumped back in her vehicle and the two cars sped off.

Greenbelt police are encouraging the community to come forward with any information about this attempted kidnapping.


The US territory of Guam is a keystone of American military strategy in the Pacific. Tourism and an expanding military presence form the bedrock of its economy.

The island is an important staging post, allowing rapid access to potential flashpoints in the Koreas and in the Taiwan Strait.

The largest military installation, Andersen Air Force Base, was used by B-52 bombers during the Vietnam War in the early 1970s. Nuclear attack submarines are based on the island.

The waters off Guam are the scene of major US navy war games.

Washington plans to move thousands of troops to Guam from the Japanese island of Okinawa as part of a global realignment of its military.

This proposed build-up of US forces has brought the issue of the island's future political status to the fore in recent years.

GUAM: FACTS

Capital: Hagatna

Area: 540 sq km

Population: 168,800

Languages: English, Chamorro

Life expectancy: 77 years (men) 83 years (women)

LEADERS

Head of state: US President

Governor: Lou Leon Guerrero

Lou Leon Guerrero, a Democrat, was elected as governor in 2018.

The governor is elected to a four-year term. Although they are US citizens, residents of Guam do not vote in US national elections. Its official status is a "non-incorporated territory".

The indigenous Chamorro are a people of mixed Micronesian, Spanish and Filipino descent but the diverse population also includes Japanese, Chinese, and incomers from other Pacific islands.

MEDIA

Guam has a diverse population, including indigenous Chamorro, a people of mixed Micronesian, Spanish and Filipino descent

Broadcasting on Guam is regulated by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

There were 181,000 internet users by July 2022, comprising more than the total population of the territory (Internetworldstats.com).

Press

Television

KUAM - commercial

KTGM - commercial

PBS Guam - public

Radio

PNC Guam - commercial, news, talk

KPRG - public

TIMELINE

Tourism makes a major contribution to the economy

Some key dates in Guam's history:

2000BC - Guam settled by Indonesian-Filipino people.

Circa 1521 - Explorer Ferdinand Magellan, sailing for the King of Spain, lands on Guam.

1565 - Spain claims the island.

1898 - Guam is ceded to the United States in the Spanish-American War.

1941 - Japan seizes Guam after the Pearl Harbor attack during World War Two.

1944 - Allied forces retake the island, which becomes an important base from which to attack Japan towards the end of the war.

1950 - Guam Organic Act establishes Guam as an unincorporated organised territory of the United States, granted islanders US citizenship.

1969 - Islanders reject the idea of unification with the Northern Mariana Islands in a referendum.

1980s and 1990s - Movement in favour of Guam becoming a commonwealth, giving it a level of self-government similar to Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands.

1997 - A decolonisation commission is set up to educate islanders about the various political options in the territory's relationship with the US.

2020 - Guam joins the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO).

The US military has various facilities on the island including a naval base, an air force base as well as a hospital
The season of scary is officially here! And Halloween? It's just days away.

If your blood runs black and orange instead of red, your costume is probably already hanging in the closet and decorations up and ready to thrill little trick-or-treaters.

Even if you haven't given the holiday a single thought up until this very moment, don't panic, you can always throw together a quick costume at the last minute using one of these ingenious costume ideas.

If you're wondering, "When is Halloween? And what day does it fall on this year?" We've got good news. Everything you need to know is right here.

Better yet, we've also got answers to all your burning Halloween questions like why we celebrate the spooky holiday to begin with and the history behind October 31.

Once you're armed with all these amazing Halloween facts, you can get a head start deciding what kind of Jack-O'-Lantern to carve and which vampire-inspired nails to choose that will best shows off your Halloween spirit.

Even if Thanksgiving is more your jam, that's OK, too. Because once Halloween is over, the countdown to Turkey Day will begin. Just saying.

Either way, here's everything you need to know.

When is Halloween in 2023?

Before making any big plans, first things first. Halloween falls on Tuesday, October 31, 2023.

While most of us wish it would happen on a weekend, this year the spooky holiday lands early in the week, on a Tuesday. However, if you play your cards right, you can celebrate the weekend before, then keep the party going right on through Nov. 1.

Since it's so close, there's no time to waste putting together your costume and planning which Halloween treats to serve up to start working on your costume, brewing up monster-inspired cocktails for your favorite ghouls and gals or conjuring up any other fun Halloween activities.

Is Halloween on the same day every year?

Though the day of the week it falls on changes every year, Halloween itself always falls on October 31.

So, for example, in 2022, Halloween was on a Monday. We already know that this year it's on Tuesday. Naturally, you might assume that next year, in 2024, Halloween will be on a Wednesday.

However, given that 2024 is a Leap Year, Halloween will be celebrated on a Thursday next year. And 2025? You guessed it, it'll once again land on a Friday, which is something we can all look forward to.

Two boys (6-7) wearing Halloween costume on sidewalk, portrait (Christopher Robbins / Getty Images)

What is the history of Halloween?

Halloween has a long, storied history thats as full of spirit and intrigue as the holiday itself.

It originated with the Celts, who lived two centuries ago in the areas now known as Ireland, England and northern France. On October 31, they celebrated the festival of Samhain to mark the end of summer before the new year started on November 1.

In other words, it was a time to party before the cold weather and snow arrived.

But here's where the haunts of Halloween come into play. The Celts believed that on the night before the new year, ghosts had the ability to return to the earth. As a result, they wore costumes to ward off evil spirits, made bonfires and tried to predict the future through fortune-telling.

Once the Romans conquered areas of the Celts, they began to borrow some of the Samhain traditions like bobbing for apples. The holiday continued to live on in various forms through Christian cultures.

Overhead view of a group of children at a front door taking sweets from a bowl at Halloween. (Wholly Owned ISUnited Kingdom / Getty Images/Image Source)

Why do we celebrate Halloween today?

Eventually, European immigrants brought the holiday along with them to the United States. It arrived in its near-modern form in the 1840s when Irish immigrants came to our shores to escape the Irish Potato Famine.

Nowadays, Halloween is celebrated in the United States, Ireland, Italy, England, Mexico, Portugal and other countries around the world.

While we may not necessarily wear costumes with the intention of warding off evil spirits, weve developed our own modern-day customs like watching scary movies, decking out our houses with spooky decorations and competing in costume contests.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com
Alec Burkin found a way to work for a Woonsocket-based pharmaceutical company and live in Israel at the same time.

He also fell in love with an Israeli woman.

And on the night of Oct. 6, the two of them happily anticipated their Oct. 12 wedding on the shores of the Dead Sea.

The event had already drawn guests to Israel from afar, including 15 relatives from Rhode Island.

Burkin's mother, Alice Braunstein of Narragansett, and his sister Liza Birch of Providence, were part of the dream-come-true setting.

But as Burkin puts it, "Hamas had other plans."

RI children in Tel Aviv take shelter from Hamas rockets

Identified by the U.S. government as a terrorist group, Hamas is a three-decades-old Palestinian organization that follows a policy of deliberately targeting and killing unarmed men, women and children.

As some of Burkin's guests adjusted to their new time zone on Oct. 7, Hamas killers and kidnappers broke out of the Gaza Strip. They crossed into southern Israel, took hostages and commenced a massacre. They burned some families alive, according to U.S. officials.

Some of the atrocities, which were preceded by a barrage of rocket attacks into Israel from Gaza, took place less than 45 miles from Tel Aviv neighborhoods where Burkin's wedding guests, including two Rhode Island families with children, were staying.

By the end of last week, all of the locals were safely home in New England.

Their accounts provide some on-the-ground observations, from a Rhode Island point of view, on impacts in Tel Aviv, which was subject to rocket attack, but otherwise insulated from the type of carnage seen in southern Israel.

These stories are also quite relevant to the experience of the American Israeli groom who remains in Israel.

The Israeli Iron Dome air defense system fires to intercept a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, Israel, on Oct. 19.

Like his wedding guests, Burkin is not telling a harrowing tale of survival in the midst of the latest war between Israelis and Palestinians or seeking sympathy for what happened to his wedding ceremony.

His account is the experience of a Tel Aviv resident and former New Englander with no military training, who grapples with a major shift in history. The setting for his story is Israel, but it has a Rhode Island feel.

As the attacks continued on Oct. 8, the 31-year-old formally canceled the wedding ceremony. Then, he set out to make a difference, in his own small way, as he says, through fundraising.

Within days, the former Narragansett Lobster Company employee was channeling major publicity for his effort.

On Oct. 14, he talked over his personal situation  and fundraising for Israeli reservists  with Lindsey Reiser on MSNBC.

"I just wanted to first mention we lost our wedding but a lot of people across this land, on both sides, have lost their family members," Burkin told her.

Protesting Prime Minister Netanyahu; supporting the Israeli leader's prescription for Hamas

Fierce political polarization was a dominant feature of Israeli politics long before its emergence in the United States  and long before Burkin moved to Israel six years ago.

Many Israelis, for example, have long opposed Israeli settlement building in the West Bank. Such settlements, they have argued, violate international law. Some still hope that the establishment of a separate independent country for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza can resolve the conflict.

Many other Israelis disagree. And not all of them are settlers or extremists. They simply harbor deep doubts that such an arrangement would really end the bloody conflict.

Burkin has figured out some positions for himself. One nuance that's important to him involves Israelis who aren't Jewish  Arab-Israelis.

Alec Burkin, son of Alice Braunstein of Narragansett, sits with his partner, Danielle Haliva, on a beach in Tel Aviv in a different era - before Hamas gunman slaughtered Israeli families and took hostages in Israeli towns near the Gaza Strip earlier this month.

He and his partner, Danielle Haliva, recently bought a condo in a predominantly Arab-Israeli neighborhood in Tel Aviv.

Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu , is a titan of Israeli politics who has supported settlements and staunchly opposed past proposals for a Palestinian state. He's also been embroiled in a corruption scandal.

Burkin and Haliva have joined protesters opposed to Netanyahu's efforts to curtail the power of the country's Supreme Court.

However, since Oct. 7, Burkin has echoed Netanyahu's call for the destruction of Hamas.

"Hamas needs to be demolished," he said on MSNBC. "There is no other option."

Israel, he said, has "no future" and cannot survive as long as Hamas governs Gaza.

'No answer' for innocent Palestinians

Burkin told Reiser he fears many Palestinians will "suffer greatly" as Israel carries out military operations to eradicate Hamas.

He and many other Israelis, too, are deeply concerned about the plight of Gaza Strip residents who are not Hamas supporters, he said.

"I don't have the answer," he acknowledged.

"We need to do everything in our power obviously to provide support in these days," he added.

"I am extremely empathetic to Gazans ... that have nothing to do with Hamas," he said. "Their lack of choice. Their lack of opportunity. The indoctrination of children into fighting for Hamas. Having grown up in Boston with nothing but opportunity, this is obviously a very different reality."

Mark Patinkin: His niece murdered, her son shielded beneath her body: A family's final moments in Israel

Publicity for Israeli causes

The 31-year-old said he was 26 when he settled in Israel. Due to his age, he said, he was not recruited into the Israel Defense Forces.

Unlike many other Israeli men, Burkin has no military background. However, the Syracuse alum has significant experience raising money for the Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation and generating various types of support for nonprofits and business ventures. He once recruited Rob Gronkowski for an awareness campaign.

Burkin wrote on Instagram

Burkin is also brand manager for MycoClinic, a pharmaceutical company focused on pain relief and owned by Woonsocket-based Aidance Scientific, which hired him in 2017.

On MSNBC, he downplayed his wedding situation  and played up fundraising support for newly mobilized Israeli reservists, lauding the myriad ways Israelis have come forward to assist them.

"People are packaging all types of different materials whether it's socks (or) food," he said. "Baking the soldiers cakes. Doing whatever they can to play their small role."

"This is the way that I can play my small role," he said.

"I feel like it's my responsibility and my opportunity," Burkin said, "to really play this connecting role between the amazing support we've received from folks all over the world and obviously the immediate need here on the ground."

On Sunday, he told The Journal, his fundraising effort had generated $31,000 in proceeds.

Some of those contributions will buy sleeping pads for a group of Israeli paratroopers that Burkin has been in contact with.

Other contributions, he said, are flowing to other causes, including the Israeli Children's Fund, which supports children whose parents have been killed or taken hostage by terrorists, and Rish Lakish Community Food For Israel, a food initiative.

Learning the realities of war: Rhode Island children shelter in 'safe room'

Burkin and Haliva remain devoted to each other and while the wedding ceremony was scuttled, the wedding is by no means canceled. They had much different expectations for October, of course, when the Rhode Island relatives flew in.

Both Burkin's cousin, Simon Braunstein of Cumberland, and Burkin's uncle, Marc Braunstein of Newport, brought their wives and four children, including a toddler.

The three oldest children in the group, ranging in age from about 6 to 8, now have a clear sense of what Israelis do when Hamas fires rockets at them. They know what a safe room is.

"My kids were on edge," Simon Braunstein said. On one occasion, he said, the family took shelter in an alley. Another time, they were in a parking garage, he said.

Alec Burkin shops in Israel last year with his mother, Alice Braunstein of Narragansett.

Burkin's mother had arrived on Oct. 1 and spent the next week making preparations for the upcoming festivities.

On the morning of Oct. 7, she and her husband, Brian Dever, headed out of Tel Aviv on a pre-planned trip to northern Israel.

They were aware of the Hamas attacks at that point, and they knew the situation was serious, but the info they had was scant. This changed over the next few days.

By Oct. 10, all of the wedding guests were among a flood of travelers trying to navigate their way out of Israel.

Braunstein traveled back south to Tel Aviv where Hamas rockets remained a threat. They had a flight out of Ben Gurion Airport to Athens on Oct. 11.

Passengers wait at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, Israel, on Oct. 7, as flights are canceled because of the Hamas surprise attack.

She's emotional as she recalls the scene in the airport.

She wanted to stay in Israel with her son. It was, in part, a mother's guardian instinct.

"I wanted to do what I could to help," she adds.

At one point, sirens warning of another rocket attack sounded in the airport.

She recalls thousands of people trying to find cover. People around her hit the ground. Her husband pulled her down. Then, she looked up: To her dismay, much of the roof above her was glass.

She also noticed fear in the faces of people around her, which was disturbing.

She had gone to Israel to see her son get married. Instead, she was leaving with a sense of dread that would remind her of a certain phrase, "Never Again."

Like her son, she expresses concern for people on all sides of the conflict.

She says she worries about the hostages and about antisemitic rhetoric and dangerous misinformation.

"I'm scared," said the groom's mother. "Scared for this world. Scared for Israel. Scared for the children."

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Hamas wrecks former New Englander's wedding; fuels groom's fundraising
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) is alleging the discovery of a Hamas military base under their largest hospital.

The IDF has released images and accompanying graphics claiming an extensive command post exists under Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza.

"Hamas terrorists operate inside and under Shifa hospital  and other hospitals in Gaza  with a network of terror tunnels," said IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari. "Shifa is not the only hospital  it is one of many. Hamas-use of hospitals is systematic."

ISRAEL CONDUCTS AIRSTRIKES IN WEST BANK, SYRIA OVERNIGHT, KILLS HAMAS COMMANDER

Ambulances carrying victims of Israeli strikes crowd the entrance to the emergency ward of the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

The Al-Shifa Hospital is the largest medical care facility in Gaza, with 1,500 beds and over 4,000 staff members.

"We have concrete evidence that hundreds of terrorists flooded into the hospital to hide there after the massacres of October 7," he added.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

A senior Hamas leader called the allegations "baseless" in a statement reported by the Times of Israel.

Izzat al-Rishq said that "these lies represent a prelude to a new massacre against our people, greater than the one of the al-Ahli Baptist Hospital"  referring to the Oct. 17 blast that U.S. intelligence determined was likely caused by an Islamic Jihad rocket misfiring. Hamas has blamed Israel for the explosion and accused the Jewish state of committing war crimes against the Palestinian people.

"Over 40,000 have sought refuge in Al-Shifa hospital, as they were displaced by the bombing that hit everything," al-Rishq said. "We call on the leaders of Arab and Muslim countries to take action and stop the genocide against our people."

Israel has long voiced outrage at Palestinian militants' strategic placement of military infrastructure within hospital complexes.

UN LEADER RESPONDS TO ISRAEL DEMANDING RESIGNATION, CLAIMS 'MISREPRESENTATIONS'

The IDF released a series of graphics depicting the suspected dimensions of the underground complex.

It is not uncommon for Hamas militants to intentionally embed military infrastructure into civilian spaces in order to make targeted strikes collaterally damaging.

The number of hostages being held in Gaza by Hamas terrorists has risen to 229, IDF spokesperson Brig. Gen. Daniel Hagari said Friday afternoon.

CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

The IDF said Friday that an airstrike killed Madhath Mubashar, the commander of Hamas' Western Khan Yunis battalion.

Mubashar is accused of taking part in explosives and sniper attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilian communities.

"Furthermore, the IDF struck 250+ Hamas targets including a terrorist tunnel network in Gaza that detonated the secondary explosions," the IDF said.

Fox News Digital's Anders Hagstrom, Greg Wehner and Elizabeth Pritchett contributed to this report.





Original article source: Hamas terror base is hidden beneath Gaza's largest hospital, Israel alleges
A conservative, the saying goes, is a liberal whos been mugged by reality. And there have been a whole lot of muggings in recent days.

Democrats horrified by Hamas pogrom in Israel on October 7 have spent the weeks since absorbing the fact that some of their progressive allies either dont care about the bloodletting or are downright gleeful about it.

George Washington University  students are projecting horrifying messages onto a school library building glorifying Hamas terrorists that beheaded babies, raped teenage girls, and murdered 1400+ people.



We call on President @PresidentofGW to immediately expel those involved. pic.twitter.com/tecz0R7zF2  StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) October 25, 2023

For the past few weeks, social media has been teeming with videos (usually from an American campus somewhere) of protesters chanting about the elimination of Israel, spitefully tearing down missing posters of Israeli hostages, or intimidating Jews nearby. Pro-Palestinian sympathizers have also been active online, policing rhetoric that they deem too morally sympathetic to Israel. When a writer at New York magazine pointed to one grisly account of the atrocities committed on October 7, he was pressured into issuing a clarification the next day: Just because Israeli babies were found afterward without heads, he acknowledged, doesnt prove that they were beheaded.

In war reporting, accuracy is important. Sometimes.

The perspective of pro-Hamas progressives on the pogrom was captured succinctly and memorably hours after it began in a widely viewed post on X: what did yall think decolonization meant? vibes? papers? essays? losers. Many mainstream liberals seem to have believed that progressive advocates for Palestinian liberation would draw the moral line at orgiastic mass murder and rape committed by jihadist fanatics. Now they know better.

Indeed, a lot of Democrats have been forced to reckon with the belief among formerly trusted allies that the ends of decolonization justify any and all means.

Confession: Ive incorrectly assumed the far left doesnt have an antisemitism problem. I believed our ranks were filled with people like me that opposed Netanyahus far right policies, not Israel itself.



That is clearly not true.



Im embarrassed I didnt see this sooner.  Brianna Wu (@BriannaWu) October 26, 2023

Hence the sudden flowering genre of punditry by normie liberals mugged by the reality of who theyre in a coalition with. Tool around online this week and youll find numerous op-eds with titles like Hamas Killed My Wokeness and The Day the Delusions Died. The left in America has really let us down, one Jewish socialist complained to the Los Angeles Times. The clear message from many in the world, especially from our worldthose who claim to care the most about justice and human dignityis that these Israeli victims somehow deserved this terrible fate, a progressive rabbi lamented.

You saw the Gallup poll I featured in Thursdays newsletter. The antagonism on the left between by-any-means-necessary progressives and those opposed to infant decapitation could become a major variable in next years election.

How conservative might these newly mugged liberals be when the time to vote arrives?

U.S. urges Israel against Gaza ground invasion, pushes surgical campaign.

Thats the headline on a story by the Washington Post that broke as I was writing this newsletter. Were less than three weeks into this conflict, with Israel yet to fully unfurl its ground offensive into Gaza, and already Team Biden is urging the Israeli military to back off.

Why? At least in part because the Democratic Party has begun to crack.

In protests, open letters, staff revolts and walkouts, liberal Democrats are demanding that Mr. Biden break with decades-long American policy and call for a cease-fire, the New York Times reported on Friday. One former Bernie Sanders adviser interviewed for the story conceded that hell turn out for Biden in 2024 to defeat the Trumpian menace no matter what happens in Israel, but not everyone is so stalwart. I feel very betrayed by Biden, a protester who claimed she had volunteered for his last campaign told the Times. I definitely will not be voting for him again.

Muslim voters are a sizable voting bloc in Michigan, a battleground Biden won by less than 3 points in 2020. Per NBC News, their disillusionment with the president over Gaza is already costing him.

Joe Biden has single-handedly alienated almost every Arab-American and Muslim American voter in Michigan, said state Rep. Alabas Farhat, a Democrat whose district includes Dearborn, which is home to one of the largest Muslim and Arab American communities in the country.  In rolling conversations in Michigan and beyond over the past two weeks, Muslim elected officials, activists and community leaders have coalesced around a plan to mobilize their constituents to vote next yearbut also to encourage them to leave the top of the ticket blank in protest, according to multiple people involved in the discussions.  Others have heard from constituents who are planning to vote Republican because they feel that at least Republicans were honest with them about their carte-blanche support for Israel, while they feel duped and used by Democrats.

I did not have Palestinian sympathizers help reelect Trump on my 2024 bingo card.

The obvious reply to all that is to note that Biden might be losing votes among Hamas apologists on his left flank but hes surely gained some votes among the pro-Israel American majority on his right. Perhaps so. But how long will that last?

The status quo cant hold. The president isnt going to risk hemorrhaging presumptive Biden votes among his progressive base indefinitely for the sake of wooing centrists who already drifted away from him two years ago. At some point, the White House will be forced to recalibrate and pivot toward the anti-anti-Hamas position, eventually arriving at something resembling neutrality.

Per the Post, it appears weve already reached that point.

Team Biden had already lobbied Israel to delay its ground incursion into Gaza last week, allegedly to buy time for hostage negotiations and the delivery of humanitarian aid, but pro-Palestinian activists wanted more. On Thursday, the president met privately with Muslim community leaders to hear out their objections to his alliance with Israel. They told him that theres no military solution to the crisis and pushed him to call for a full ceasefire; Biden and his team reportedly sounded open to a temporary pause.

Today, per the Post, came news that he wants to cancel the ground campaign altogether and stick with surgical strikes in Gaza instead.

Again, the formal ground offensive has barely even begun. The leadership of the group responsible for the worst atrocity against Jews since the Holocaust remains almost entirely intact. Yet Biden is under such pressure from his own base to run interference for Hamas that hes been forced to trot, not walk, toward the lefts position on the conflict.

The Muslim leaders in attendance at Thursdays meeting even had the gall to scold him for questioning the veracity of Palestinian death-toll estimatesdespite the fact that those estimates are provided by Hamas.

Regular readers know they can always count on me to deliver the worst-case scenario, so here it is: This ends with no one happy.

Hamas voters wont forgive Biden for enabling Israels offensive in Gaza in the first place. If Israel ignores him and insists upon a long ground war, the casualty count will be grim; Palestinian activists will blame him for those deaths. If and when the conflict expands to neighboring countries and the U.S. military gets sucked inand dont look now but it already hastheyll lay the deaths of American soldiers at his feet as well.

Centrist voters, on the other hand, will recoil at the influence of the Hamas lobby over the party as Biden is dragged toward equivocation on the war. The callousness of the pro-genocide decolonization faction will lead normies to question whether their political home truly remains in the Democratic Party. They may even come to view Biden contemptuously for relenting from the strong moral stance he took on Israels behalf at the start of the war. Anger at party leaders for letting themselves be taken prisoner ideologically by the worst elements of their base is a familiar feeling to Dispatch readers. Why shouldnt we expect to see it happen in the other party too?

If the president ends up losing votes among progressives, especially young progressives, and he cant replace them with votes in the middle, thats  not great.

But the lefts coalition isnt the only one that could be scrambled by the politics of this war.

On Friday morning, I was chatting with one of our editors about how Donald Trump might respond to Israels conflict with Hamas. He could surprise us, I told him.

Uh, didnt he just call for another Muslim ban? he replied.

He did. Hes pretty predictable, admittedly. And in a war like this one, he has only so much room to maneuver.

Post-liberals on the left and right view politics, including foreign affairs, through a tribal lens. For progressives, the battle between Israel and Hamas is one between oppressor and oppressed, colonizer versus colonized. That framework determines which side merits supporting; every argument, moral or political, flows from that. The same is true for right-wing populists but in their case the relevant tribes are Judeo-Christians versus one of the most austere, barbaric, irredentist Islamist outfits on Earth. The Israeli tribe is closer to our tribe than the Palestinian tribe is, therefore the rightand Trumpwill necessarily lean toward Israel.

But perhaps not as far as we think.

For starters, Trump holds a grudge against Israels leader for not supporting his coup attempt in 2020. It seems unlikely that Netanyahu will last as prime minister until January 2025, as his failure to prevent the October 7 pogrom has destroyed public confidence in him among Israelis. But never underestimate the extent to which Trump is motivated by spite. If a close Netanyahu ally ends up as prime minister, that may color how a second Trump administration handles diplomacy between the two sides.

Consider also what I wrote about a few weeks ago, that right-wing populists have begun to circle each other warily on the question of what support America owes Israel. One bloc has inherited the peace through strength attitudes of the pre-Trump GOP, especially when it comes to clash of civilizations conflicts like Israel and Hamas. Another takes America First more seriously: Whatever ones sympathies for the Israelis, theres no justification for diverting American treasure from domestic purposes to aid the IDF.

The peace through strength bloc is bigger, for now, but the America First bloc has some major influencers lobbying the Republican base.

So @BasedMikeLee retweets Tucker & Douglas Macgregor talking about how Israel is committing war crimes employs collective punishment, [is]annihilating Gaza & trying to sweep out its population, before equating the lives of Hamass sadistic butchers with the people they killed pic.twitter.com/InzHrKb4fM  The Meturgeman (@HaMeturgeman) October 24, 2023

Israel has an absolute right to defend itself & to pursue Israel-First policies, just as we should pursue America-First policies here. Thats consistent with the original Zionist vision & also the George Washingtons vision for America. Calls for vague US involvement without pic.twitter.com/kYH3W9MZa8  Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) October 25, 2023

On Friday morning, Candace Owens casually wondered why pro-Palestinian activists on American college campuses are being blacklisted when every other sort of left-wing activist, even illiberal ones, were left off scot-free.

How do you suppose she, Tucker, Vivek, and other America First-ers will react next week to the news that Biden is now bombing Iranian-backed proxies in Syria?

It would be risky for Carlson, Owens, and the rest to assail the U.S. alliance with Israel directly. Too many right-wingers support it, including Owens boss at The Daily Wire. But its trivially easy to imagine them shifting grassroots opinion leftward over time on not our war grounds, emphasizing that Israels conflict with Hamas risks becoming Americas conflict with Iran. (Neocon designs on Iran is a hobby horse of Carlsons.) They did the same with Ukraine by insisting that material support for Ukrainian troops risked World War III, didnt they?

They were wrong about that, but their political project succeeded. Republican support for the Western side in Ukraines war with Russia gradually eroded. The grand project of post-liberalism would benefit if the same happened to Israel in its war with Hamas. The weaker the Western liberal order looks on the battlefield, the stronger the argument becomes for replacing it with something new.

If Tucker, Candace, and the rest of the MAGA vanguard gain traction in steering the GOP base away from supporting Israel, Trump will be forced to steer a different path as well. (It might have happened before.) I suspect hed land where he landed on Ukraine, promising to broker a very strong peace deal, a peace deal so strong you wouldnt believe it, within 24 hours of taking office. In practice, that would mean in Israels case the same thing it means in Ukraines, appeasing the illiberal right by forcing Americas Western ally in the conflict to agree to a bad, unsatisfying compromise.

Trump might even see electoral advantage in it. As absurd as it is to imagine him courting Muslim voters while pushing a Muslim ban, this is the same guy who signed a criminal justice reform bill as president while running as a law-and-order authoritarian the other 99 percent of the time. He thought doing so would help him win African American voters, even as he went about assuring suburbanites on the campaign trail that hed keep the wrong element from moving into their neighborhoods.

He thinks he can talk any constituency into voting for him, even if his policies are actively harming them. Hes running as the most moderate Republican in the 2024 field on abortion, hoping to woo pro-choice centrists, despite the fact that he appointed the three Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade. Why wouldnt he show up in Michigan before Muslim voters and assure them that many people are saying his peace proposal for Israel and the Palestinians is the strongest in history?

He might even win some votes from itwhile losing a bunch among traditional Republican hawks who already can barely stand him.

See what I mean about the war scrambling coalitions?

The last factor in all of this is partisan polarization, of course.

The Hamas vote, normie liberals, hawkish Trump-skeptical Republicans, and MAGA: Each of those blocs is watching not just how Biden and Trump respond to the conflict, but how the other blocs respond. It would be nice to live in an America in which people formed policy opinions based purely on what they support, not what their enemies support, but we do not live in that America.

Had Biden remained staunchly aligned with Israel, that would have been grist for the America First-ers to push harder on the right for neutrality in the conflict. Now that the president has begun to equivocate himself, the narrative that Biden is weak and functionally pro-Hamas will prove irresistible to Republicans. The prime directive, Democrats are weak and always wrong, will tempt the GOP into supporting Israel without qualification the better to draw a contrast with Biden. Center-right hawks who might have thought hard about supporting the president had he stuck firmly by Netanyahus side will begin to sour on him anew.

Meanwhile, on the left, Trump is and will forever remain Trump. However much contempt progressives might feel for Bidens earlybut now fadingsupport for Israel, the thought of letting someone back into the White House who tried to steal their last presidential victory from them will weigh more heavily as Election Day approaches. Some will resign themselves to the reality that Biden, warts and all, is the lesser evil. Normie liberals who might have opted to distance themselves from the Democratic Party by voting for a Nikki Haley or Tim Scott in the general election will decide that even an uneasy coalition with Hamas apologists is preferable to another term of Trump.

Many normie conservatives have had the scales fall from their eyes over the last eight years about the rights true political ambitions, yet most go on voting for the GOP all the same. If they can rationalize joining hands with illiberal goons to defeat the real enemy, we shouldnt assume normie liberals will have considerably greater difficulty doing so.

In a country that wasnt evenly divided, where Trumps ongoing domination of the right had produced a lopsided and durable Democratic electoral advantage, Biden might be able to kiss off the Hamas vote and govern from the center as an unwavering Israeli ally. In the country we actually live in, he cant. So long as swing voters remain open to returning a demagogue to power, theyre undependable; so long as most Republican voters remain cultishly committed to that demagogue, theyre ungettable. Democrats cant rely on anyone outside their own base to do the right thing, and so every election ultimately and necessarily becomes a base election. Thats almost certainly what 2024 will be too.

Israel and its allies will suffer for it.

Click here for more coverage of the war in Israel.

Read more at The Dispatch

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Hamilton County Probate Judge Ralph Ted Winkler is facing possible discipline from the Ohio Supreme Court over two Facebook posts.

Hamilton County Probate Judge Ralph Ted Winkler is facing possible discipline from the Ohio Supreme Court over two Facebook posts he made last year directed at a man involved in a guardianship case that is still pending.

A complaint filed Oct. 23 with the state Board of Professional Conduct says Winkler  who has been the countys probate court judge for eight years  violated Ohios rules of judicial conduct by posting on Facebook about a case he was overseeing. Winkler, who also served on the common pleas and municipal courts, has been a judge for a total of 24 years.

The complaint surrounds two comments Winkler has acknowledged posting in October 2022.

According to the complaint, within a few hours of posting the comments, Winker realized he should not have made the comments and deleted them.

Winkler was responding to a man who was part of a guardianship case involving the mans mother, who has dementia and is in an assisted living facility. The case dates back a decade. But in 2017, Winkler upheld a decision by a magistrate, ordering that the mothers former home be vacated and sold.

On Oct. 7, 2022, the complaint says the man made a post on Facebook that Winkler considered a personal attack on the magistrate.

Winkler's two responses said, in part:

Youre just mad because we had to intercede and take care of your mother when you did not I am glad that a nice neighbor called senior services, and we got your mother into a safe, clean and healthy facility. God only knows what would have happened to her if a Good Samaritan neighbor had not reported this elder abuse The home photos in evidence dont lie.

You lost your case because you were wrong You were wrong for not taking proper care of your mother and when you did make it to court you often reeked of alcohol.

According to the complaint, several of Winkler's statements were incorrect because he relied on memory and didn't look at the case file or docket.

The complaint says:

The court did not have to intercede.

It wasnt a neighbor who called senior services.

There was no elder abuse.

Winkler on Friday declined to comment, saying that legally he is not allowed to.

Websites criticized the court

According to the complaint, Winkler's response on Facebook came after the man and his sister, in previous years, sent written complaints to the probate court. It also says they created several websites criticizing the court and other parties.

In 2019, the county prosecutors office told the man to stop sending threatening and harassing correspondence.

Documents also allege that a court representative in 2019 gave information that was incorrect or misleading to a reporter investigating allegations that the mans mother was removed from the home because it was a squalid, unsafe living environment.

In 2020, the mans sister wrote a letter to Winkler, telling him that the information about the housing conditions was incorrect.

Winkler recused himself from the guardianship case in August.

The Ohio Supreme Court will ultimately determine if Winkler faces discipline. Possible sanctions include a public reprimand or suspension.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Judge Ralph 'Ted' Winkler facing discipline over Facebook posts
The Hanford High School community is in mourning this week after a math teacher died by suicide.

Principal Mike Johnson said in a letter to parents this week that Steve Klug, who also previously taught at Richland High, died Wednesday.

The school offered resources and counselors, which hundreds of students used. At the end of school Wednesday, students and staff gathered to share a few moments and to write cards to his family.

Johnson said its important for the community to grieve and come together during this time.

There was a huge outpouring of support from across our community, with offers of assistance from other schools and districts throughout the region, Johnson wrote to parents. I was personally touched by the number of students that made a point to check in on me to see how I was doing throughout the day. The care and support in the building was beautiful to experience.

I want to ensure you that we, the Hanford High School staff, care about you and your students and the feelings you may be experiencing, he continued.

Classes at Hanford High School were held as usual.

Klug, who was married with children, was a math teacher of 16 years and also taught at Richland High School, according to his LinkedIn.

He championed computer science and cyber security education for students by creating classes and establishing an Advanced Placement computer science curriculum.

Steve was not only a dedicated educator who taught in the district for more than 15 years, but a friend to many in our schools and throughout the community, said Richland School District public information officer Shawna Dinh. We want to thank the Tri-City community for the tremendous outpouring of love and support to our staff, students and the Klug family.

Klug was also a military veteran who was actively serving in the Washington Army National Guard. He took time off from college to serve in Iraq from 2004 to 2005.

Benton County Coroner Bill Leach said emergency dispatchers received a call from Klug on Wednesday morning. A short time later, deputies found his body about 9:35 a.m.

Suicide prevention lifeline

Anyone feeling distressed can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or 800-273-8255.

If someone needs assistance right away, you can also call 911.

Warning signs of distress can include:

Talking about wanting to die or kill oneself

Looking for ways to kill oneself, such as searching online or buying a gun

Talking about feeling hopeless or having no reason to live

Talking about feeling trapped or in unbearable pain

Talking about being a burden to others

Increasing the use of alcohol or drugs

Acting anxious or agitated, or behaving recklessly

Sleeping too little or too much

Withdrawing or feeling isolated

Showing rage or talking about seeking revenge

Displaying extreme mood swings
Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff met on Friday morning with family members of Americans who remain unaccounted for in Israel, some of whom are believed to be held hostage by Hamas.

The roughly hour-and-a-half meeting was held at the US State Department and led by Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens, per a US official who was at the meeting.

The official described the meeting as very emotional and deeply moving.

Fridays meeting comes amid ongoing efforts to free the more than 200 hostages believed to be still held in Gaza. There are 10 Americans who remain unaccounted for, and some of them are known to be hostages. Officials familiar with the talks had spoken of some progress, but a US official described the situation as very touch and go.

On Friday afternoon, the Israel Defense Forces announced they were expanding ground operations in the Hamas-controlled enclave. US officials insisted that the talks would continue despite the expansion of the operations.

Harris and Emhoff greeted each of the roughly dozen family members who represented a handful of Americans and listened to them share stories about their loved ones. Harris encouraged them to ask questions, though the official did not give details on the substance of the questions or what sort of answers Harris was able to give.

Harris stressed that she understood the importance of family and the pain that comes when your loved one is in pain, the official said.

She reiterated that the return of their loved ones is a top priority for the president and herself, and told them that they are not fighting alone.

President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have also both spoken with the families of the Americans held hostage.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
Editors note: This is the fourth chapter of a 5-part series in which former University of Wisconsin System President Tommy Thompson and Vice President Jim Langdon reflect on their experience guiding the system though the COVID-19 pandemic. As the health care crisis raged, facilities on the front lines began to have severe staffing issues. Drawing inspiration from the foundations of the UW System, they found ways to help students jump from the classroom to the community to assist.

In 1905 UW President Charles Van Hise said, I shall never be content until the beneficent influence of the University reaches every family of the state.

Thus was born the Wisconsin Idea, a high-minded statement that seems to have anticipated campus testing sites, vaccination clinics as well as student health programs during COVID-19 that sent badly needed reinforcements from classrooms into communities to fight the pandemic.

COVID was not unlike another deadly pandemic, the Spanish flu, a century earlier where University of Wisconsin nursing students interrupted their studies to join the fight against the virus.

In 1918 no corner of Wisconsin was spared the ravages of the highly transmissible Influenza Epidemic that claimed fifty million lives worldwide. When seriously ill patients inundated Wisconsin hospitals and strained over-burdened health care workers, UW nursing students jumped into action to treat and comfort those suffering from the disease.

By fall 2020, Wisconsin hospital, nursing home and other health care workers had endured months of long hours treating and caring for seriously ill and vulnerable persons. Nursing deans at UW-Eau Claire, Green Bay, Madison, Milwaukee, Oshkosh and Stevens Point closely monitored the situation and eagerly accepted an invitation to partner on a solution. Like their great-grandparents a century before, UW System students stood tall to serve on the front lines against COVID-19.

College students took lessons into clinics across Wisconsin

In November 2020, President Thompson announced a UW System incentive for students to work in public and private health care settings during winter break and beyond. Specifically, the system would provide a $500 tuition refund to any student enrolled at a UW System campus who worked at least 50 hours in a Wisconsin hospital, clinic, nursing home, long-term care facility, state or local health care facility, or state veterans home.

The program received support from the Wisconsin hospital and nursing home associations, and thousands of students took advantage of the opportunity to serve. In addition, UW nursing deans worked with students to ensure front line experience translated into academic success in their university careers. The program was so successful that we reintroduced it in spring 2022, this time with funding from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services and the Wisconsin Partnership Program at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

We also recognized the fight against COVID-19 was not limited to treating the sick, but preventing illness among the well. Again working with nursing deans and now the UW-Madison pharmacy dean, Thompson in 2021 announced a new $500 tuition incentive for UW pharmacy and nursing students to assist in vaccinating Wisconsin citizens. More than 1,000 pharmacy and nursing students took time away from academics to administer COVID-19 shots to the public.

Presidents Van Hise and Thompson recognized the Universitys obligation to not only teach but also serve. COVID-19 testing sites, vaccination clinics and the student health worker and vaccination programs represent the Wisconsin Idea at its best.

UW colleges assisted communities during COVID crisis

More than other institutions, universities play central roles in their communities through faculty, students, facilities and technical resources. While a universitys first duty is to protect its campus community in times of crisis, it frequently has the capacity to extend its resources to places where public and private services may not fully meet needs.

The University of Wisconsin stepped up during the COVID emergency to provide safe, accessible facilities for testing and vaccination services that benefited hundreds of thousands of residents. And UW nursing and pharmacy students worked in health care and vaccination settings where overburdened doctors and nurses needed additional support to care for our most vulnerable citizens. These are only a few examples of the Wisconsin Idea at work during COVID-19.

Why don't UW employees get a raise? We're just pawns in GOP's war against DEI.

We recommend future university presidents similarly widen their gaze beyond campus boundaries to serve their larger communities. Public universities routinely request and receive support from taxpayers for their mission; it is right that they return the favor, especially in times of crisis.

Coming next week: Final thoughts for leaders next time we face a COVID-like crisis

Tommy G. Thompson was elected governor of Wisconsin four times, serving from 1987 to 2001. In 2001, he became Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a post he held for four years. He previously served in the State Assembly from 1967 to his election as governor. Jim Langdon served in appointed positions under governors Thompson, Scott McCallum, Jim Doyle, Scott Walker and Tony Evers from 1989-2020, and at UW System from 2020-2022.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: UW college students treated sick, vaccinated Wisconsin at critical time
Mental health nurse Amy Hatfield, 38, smuggled drugs, knives and phones into prison - South Yorkshire Police/PA/PA

A mental health nurse who started a relationship with an inmate before flooding a jail with contraband has been jailed for more than 10 years for her part in what is believed to be the UKs largest-ever prison drugs conspiracy.

Seventeen people have been convicted over the smuggling of drugs, weapons and mobile phones into HMP Lindholme, a Category C prison, near Doncaster, between 2018 and 2020.

On Friday, Judge Kirstie Watson handed down sentences totalling almost 90 years for 16 defendants.

The 17th defendant, William Francis, will be sentenced at a later date.

Sheffield Crown Court was told six of the defendants were serving prisoners who co-ordinated the smuggling network and sold the prohibited items to other inmates, while others were partners, parents and siblings who were recruited to smuggle the items into the jail and launder the proceeds through their bank accounts.

Sexual relationship

Amy Hatfield, who was employed as a mental health support worker at the prison, became infatuated with inmate Joseph Whittingham in 2018.

The pair started a sexual relationship before he recruited her to take part in the conspiracy, it was said.

Whittingham, 35, had a leading role in the operation and also recruited his wife Lucy and father Paul to receive payments for the contraband.

Judge Watson said he exploited Hatfields feelings for him and arranged for drugs and other banned items to be delivered to her.

The judge told Hatfield: When [Whittingham] first expressed feelings for you, instead of reporting it to your supervisors as you were trained to do, you embraced it.

Joseph Whittingham, 35, who had a relationship with Hatfield, has been sentenced to 11 years and four months - SOUTH YORKSHIRE POLICE/PA

The relationship escalated to sexual activity within the prison and the exchanging of images, the court was told.

Judge Watson told Hatfield the relationship was a significant breach of trust and outlined how she abused your position to convey prohibited items into the prison for financial gain.

It must have been clear to you the impact that increased drug use was having, and yet you continued to flood HMP Lindholme with drugs and phones, said the judge. You even brought in a knife.

Hatfield, 38, was stopped and searched as she arrived for work in October 2019 by police officers who found she was carrying 1 million of contraband including MDMA, bags of ketamine, spice paper, vials of testosterone, anabolic steroids, mobile phones, phone accessories, tobacco and other prescription drugs.

She also had four Ribena bottles with her, which contained around two litres of liquid spice.

A subsequent search of the mental health unit where she worked found a further litre of spice.

Highly complex criminal network

In the months and years after her arrest, officers discovered a highly complex criminal network operating inside HMP Lindholme.

Judge Watson said the number of incidents in the prison where inmates were found under the influence of drugs significantly increased during Hatfields time there, and went down after her arrest, although the conspiracy did continue after she left.

Hatfield, 38, of HMP New Hall, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply Class A drugs, conspiracy to supply Class B drugs, conspiracy to convey drugs into prison, conspiracy to convey phones into prison, conveying knives into prison and money laundering.

She has been sentenced to 10 years and two months in prison.

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Heather Rae El Moussa was four months postpartum when she noticed a drastic drop in her milk supply. At the time, she was also experiencing intense fatigue.

I remember saying to my assistant, I feel like Im dead, Heather Rae, 36, tells TODAY.com. My brain was so tired. My body was so tired. I was exhausted all the time and no amount of sleep could make it better.

The real-estate agent, who stars in The Flipping El Moussas and Selling Sunset, dreaded the days when she had to be on camera.

Filming was absolutely brutal because I could barely get out of bed, Heather Rae says.

Initially, Heather Rae says she chalked her symptoms up to motherhood. She and husband, Tarek El Moussa , 42, welcomed their first child together, a son named Tristan, in Jan. Tarek also shares Taylor, 13, and Brayden, 8, with his ex-wife, Christina Hall.

I was like, Im probably just foggy because of mom brain, Heather Rae remembers.

But what about her milk supply? Thats what Heather Rae couldnt figure out. One day she was pumping more than 6 ounces of milk, and the next she was lucky if she got half an ounce.

At the suggestion of her lactation consultant, Heather Rae made an appointment to get blood work done. Later that day, her doctor called with results.

Heather Raes pregnancy had triggered Hashimotos disease, a common autoimmune disorder in which the immune system attacks the thyroid gland causing symptoms like exhaustion and weight gain, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

"When she told me what I had, I was in total shock," Heather Rae says.

The condition was also behind Heather Raes depleted milk supply.

Heather Rae was prescribed medication to treat the illness and says she is feeling much better these days.

Hypothyroidism from Hashimotos is treated by replacing back the normal thyroid hormone, albeit through a pill form, Dr. Erik Alexander, chief of the thyroid section at the Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston, previously told TODAY.com. He added that you can live a long, healthy life with the condition.

Heather Rae, who exclusively breastfed Tristan for half a year, is now giving her 9-month-old baby purees and goat milk formula.

I would put him on my chest and he wouldnt even try to suck. Then hed start blowing bubbles, Heather Ray says. I still offer it to him  I offered it to him this morning, but hes just not interested anymore. Hes a busy boy and he wants to be off playing.

Though Heather Rae misses that bonding time with Tristan, especially their skin-to-skin morning feeds, shes relieved that he made the decision to stop nursing.

It would have been so much harder if it were the other way around, she reveals.

Heather Rae is proud of her breastfeeding journey. Tristan was born with a tongue-tie, which is characterized by an unusually short, thick or tight lingual frenulum  the band of tissue that connects the tongue to the base of the mouth  that can restrict tongue mobility and impact breastfeeding.

Tristan had a lot working against him in the beginning  the poor thing could not suck. It was almost like he was trying to suck through a straw that has a hole in it, Heather Rae told TODAY in June. He started losing a lot of weight. It was awful.

Tongue-tie laser surgery, or laser frenectomy, solved the issue.

Heather Rae feels "proud" as she reflects on their breastfeeding journey.

"We had a lot of things working against us, including my autoimmune disorder, but we did it," Heather Rae says. "Ive heard so many women say, I only breastfed 2 months, and that makes me feel sad. Why only? You should feel so proud that you even did it at all!"

This article was originally published on TODAY.com
The Hollywood agent recently dropped by screenwriter Aaron Sorkin after ripping Israel's retaliatory Gaza strikes as "genocide" has shown support for several high-profile Democrats through her pocketbook, including Vice President Kamala Harris ' failed presidential campaign.

Maha Dakhil, a Creative Artists Agency (CAA) agent and co-head of Motion Pictures, whose clients include stars like Tom Cruise, Anne Hathaway and Madonna, found herself engulfed in controversy after posting two anti-Israel messages on one of her social media accounts.

Following Israel's Gaza strikes, Dakhil took to Instagram and reposted a message that accused Israel of committing genocide.

"You're currently learning who supports genocide," the reposted message read. "That's the line for me," she added in the caption.

SPLC SILENT ON WHETHER BLM, DEM SOCIALISTS' PRO-HAMAS ACTIVISM RAISES 'HATE' CONCERNS

Dakhil later shared a second photo on the social media platform with the caption, "Whats more heartbreaking than witnessing genocide? Witnessing the denial that genocide is happening."

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

Dakhil's actions ignited criticism and led to Sorkin ditching her and moving to another agency. "Maha isnt an antisemite, shes just wrong," Sorkin told The Hollywood Reporter. "She's a great agent and Im very proud of the work we did together over the last six years. Im excited to be returning to WME."

Dakhil, like most others in Hollywood, has long supported Democrats with thousands of dollars in political donations, campaign filings show.

Among those who have received money from her is Vice President Harris. In 2019, Dakhil pushed a $2,800 contribution to Harris' disastrous presidential campaign, according to the records.

TOP REPUBLICAN SLAMS ALMA MATER HARVARD AFTER STUDENT GROUPS BLAME ISRAEL FOR HAMAS ATTACK

Maha Dakhil donated $2,800 to Kamala Harris' failed 2020 presidential campaign.

Dakhil has also thrown thousands of dollars behind Democrat Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Cory Booker of New Jersey.

During the 2016 elections, she donated $2,000 to Hillary Clinton's failed presidential campaign.

Dakhil has since deleted her anti-Israel posts and resigned from the CAA's internal agency board. She also temporarily stepped away from her day-to-day responsibilities.

"I made a mistake with a repost in my Instagram story, which used hurtful language," she told Variety. "Like so many of us, I have been reeling with heartbreak. I pride myself on being on the side of humanity and peace. Im so grateful to Jewish friends and colleagues who pointed out the implications and further educated me. I immediately took the repost down. Im sorry for the pain I have caused."

The controversy also prompted Dakhil to make another post addressing the messages.

"Choice of words is important. Dialogue is healing. As each excruciating day passes, I'm listening and learning more from my friends," she wrote.

"Thank you. I'm holding all our families in my prayersI am grieving for everyone who is suffering right now. I continue to mourn all innocent lives. My mission is peace."

Dakhil and Vice President Harris's office did not respond to Fox News Digital's requests for comment.





Original article source: Hollywood agent who accused Israel of 'genocide' donated thousands to Kamala Harris, top Dems
The BBC and Britbox police drama Hope Street will return on Monday for its third season.

The show is set in the fictional town of Port Devine and filmed in Donaghadee, in County Down.

Joining the show this season is Karen Hassan , who has previously appeared in Hollyoaks and The Fall.

She told the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme that this series promises to have "all the drama" and "all the nosy neighbours".

Hassan will play new character Jo Lipton, alongside another new addition to the programme PC Ryan Power, who will be played by Finnian Garbutt.

She said that while her experience of joining Hope Street was "one of the warmest shows that I ever walked on to", her character will initially cause "a little bit of ruckus" among the characters.

Niall Wright , who plays PC Callum McCarthy, said that the "crime rate is higher than ever in Port Devine".

As well as being shown on BBC Northern Ireland, Hope Street has viewers across the UK on iPlayer, and in the United States through the streaming service Britbox.

Wright said that it is great to see the show "really hitting a nerve" with both a local and international audience.

"Viewers are enjoying, I suppose, the local colloquialisms but also the universal themes and I think that's why it's stretching as far as it is.

"It's been great for the local industry."

New episodes of Hope Street will be available from Monday on BBC One Northern Ireland and on BBC iPlayer.
WASHINGTON  Theres a renewed hope for approving additional aid to Ukraine after House Republicans resolved their speaker paralysis, and as some hard-right lawmakers critical of new funding hint at a viable path to vote on it.

One month ago, Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., voted with 93 Republicans to cut off Ukraine aid. Now, as speaker, Johnson said he's asked White House staff to bifurcate aid to Israel and Ukraine. But he emphasized that the U.S. must stop Russias advances.

We cant allow Vladimir Putin to prevail in Ukraine because I dont believe it would stop there, Johnson said in an interview on Fox News the day after he was sworn in. And it would probably encourage and empower China to perhaps make a move on Taiwan. We have these concerns. Were not going to abandon them.

Johnson added that he wants accountability over how the money is spent as lawmakers have a stewardship responsibility over the precious treasure of the American people.

His remarks, which have since circulated around Capitol Hill, provide fresh optimism among proponents of Ukraine aid who believed the cause was fizzling under the tenure of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy . McCarthy stripped out Ukraine funding from a late-September funding bill under pressure from conservative hard-liners who opposed the aid and had threatened to oust him if he gave in to Biden administration demands.

But notably, some of those Republicans now say they could accept holding separate votes on Ukraine money, which they oppose, and aid to Israel, which they favor.

Well, they should definitely be separate questions, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., told NBC News. We have a lot of members who want to vote for Ukraine funding. So that may be a vote that theyre able to bring to bear through regular order.

Gaetz added that what he wants is single-subject bills: Mike Johnson believes in that principle, so I think he is very unlikely to smoosh those things together in one vote.

The demands from Republicans indicate that the Biden administrations supplemental funding request pairing aid to Israel and Ukraine may come untied in the Republican-controlled House. But a standalone Ukraine aid bill has a strong chance of passing because Democrats in both chambers overwhelmingly support the idea and many Senate Republicans do, too.

Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., another anti-McCarthy rebel and opponent of Ukraine funding, said he prefers that a majority of the House GOP support additional aid in order for it to come to a vote.

I suspect that it might pass because some Republicans and Democrats support it, Good said. I dont think we ought to bring it to the floor unless its supported by a majority of Republicans. Thats why we have a majority Republican House. I would not vote for it. However, this is a town of negotiation and to some degree compromise.

Good also suggested pairing Ukraine aid with border security money and policy changes to the asylum system.

Senators open to a separate path for Ukraine aid

In the Senate, where Democrats control 51 votes and need 60 to pass legislation, numerous Republicans favor separating Ukraine and Israel funding.

I very much want them to be separate, Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo. Theres a tremendous need and desire to move quickly on Israel. So I think that its important that we move forward with Israel  the sooner the better.

Lummis, who backs continued support of Ukraine, said there must be a way to pay for it. Its kind a red line for me on Ukraine, she said in the Capitol on Thursday. I dont want the citizens of the United States to go through what theyre going through now, which is living paycheck to paycheck, in order to pay for the war in Ukraine. I want to help Ukraine desperately and I think its something I can get behind, but not if its not paid for.

Lummis joined Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., and six other Republicans last week in demanding that Senate leadership separate funding to the two countries. Braun said on Thursday that the House should act first on the funding, and the Senate can follow suit. The upper chamber already began work on the national security supplemental, with pro-Ukraine aid Senators on both sides of the aisle vowing to prioritize the administrations $60 billion aid request for Ukraine.

Democrats say they prefer that the full package come to a vote.

I think there needs to be a powerful movement in the Senate, a vote overwhelmingly and bipartisan, so that therell be additional pressure on the House and the new speaker to bring this package to vote, said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who recently visited Ukraine with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. If its given a vote, I am very, very optimistic that it would pass overwhelmingly.

A group of Senate Republicans huddled in Republican Whip John Thunes, R-S.D., office on Thursday afternoon to discuss policy changes to pair with the administrations $13.6 billion funding request for the U.S.-Mexico border.

The group, which includes top Senate Republican appropriator Susan Collins of Maine, as well as Sens. Graham, James Lankford of Oklahoma; Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas, are considering an array of options on how best to address the border crisis, including making changes to the asylum-seeking process and reforming the parole process. There are also conversations about hiring and retaining border patrol agents.

Graham said he needs to think about whether separating Ukraine aid from the White Houses $14 billion Israel aid request would be a good idea.

I dont know  Im hoping that he [Johnson] will work with us to find more transparency, more, you know, kind of a more defined mission, he said. But let me just say, if you pull the plug on Ukraine, and you think were safer, and that China will not be more aggressive, youre making a huge mistake.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Hospital staff needs the publics help to identify three male patients found across Southern California.

All three men were found near public roads or areas and remain hospitalized at Dignity Health facilities. They were all found without personal items or documentation of their identity.

The first patient was discovered on Oct. 10. He was found lying on the sidewalk in front of the Long Beach Library located at 101 Pacific Avenue.

Staff described him as a Hispanic man in his mid to late 50s, about 5 feet 7 inches tall and around 137 pounds. He has brown eyes and dark-colored hair with some graying. His left hand has a tattoo featuring a circle with the letter JJ. The second J is reversed, staff said.

Male patient found lying on the sidewalk in front of the Long Beach Library on Oct. 10, 2023. (Dignity Health)

The second patient was discovered on Oct. 12. He was found inside a tent on the L.A. riverbed in Long Beach. A good Samaritan brought the man to a Dignity Health hospital where he still remains.

He is described as a Hispanic man around 50-55 years old. He stands about 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighs around 210 pounds. He has brown eyes and salt-and-pepper brown hair.

Male patient found lying on the L.A. riverbed in Long Beach on Oct. 12, 2023. (Dignity Health)

The third patient was found on Oct. 22 at around 2:10 a.m. He was discovered on a sidewalk off N. Sierra Way and E. 5th Street in San Bernardino.

He is described as a Black man around 40 years old. He stands about 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighs around 146 pounds. He has brown hair and brown eyes.

Male patient found lying on a San Bernardino sidewalk on Oct. 22, 2023. (Dignity Health)

Anyone who recognizes these men or has additional information about their cases is asked to call 562-491-9381 for the Long Beach patients and 909-883-8711 Ext. 23420 for the San Bernardino patient.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA.
McALLEN, Texas (Border Report)  Republicans on the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee on Thursday issued a report analyzing last years migrant encounters on the Southwest border, calling it a border crisis.

Sens. Cornyn, Cruz to lead GOP tour of South Texas border

The Startling Stats report calls Fiscal Year 2023 migrant encounters on the U.S.-Mexico border as catastrophic, and says it is worst on record.

The report is based on fiscal year-end and monthly migrant statistics that were sent Saturday by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Migrant encounters on the Southwest border in Fiscal 2023 were the most ever recorded by CBP with 2.48 million, up 40% from Fiscal 2021, and up 4% from Fiscal 2022, according to CBP data.

CBP reports all-time highs for yearly, monthly migrant encounters along Southwest border

Since President Biden took office, there have been 7.5 million encounters nationwide and 6.2 million encounters at the Southwest border, in addition to 1.7 million known gotaways who evaded U.S. Border Patrol, the Homeland Security GOP report says.

September had 269,735 encounters on the Southwest border marking another unprecedented milestone under Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and President Joe Bidens open-border policies, a statement by Republicans on the committee issued Thursday said.

These numbers demonstrate beyond a doubt that Secretary Mayorkas refusal to enforce the law and secure our border is jeopardizing our safety and security, Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green, of Tennessee, said.

In releasing the data, CBP Acting Commissioner Troy Miller said, In response to high rates of encounters across the southwest border in September, CBP surged resources and personnel. We are continually engaging with domestic and foreign partners to address historic hemispheric migration, including large migrant groups traveling on freight trains, and to enforce consequences including by preparing for direct repatriations to Venezuela.

The first deportation flight to Venezuela in several years took off from South Texas last week in Harlingen carrying 130 asylum-seekers, DHS officials said.

Tension on Texas House floor stalls debate on border bill; bill later passes House

The report also noted that total CBP fentanyl seizures in Fiscal 2023 increased 88% from Fiscal 2022.

On Thursday, Mayorkas said DHS has stopped more fentanyl in the last two years than in the previous five years combined and continue to optimize our intelligence and field operations to stop these deadly substances from hitting our streets.

Miller was in southern California on Thursday where he announced DHS was launching a new strategy to stop fentanyl from entering the United States, and to prevent drug precursors from crossing the border.

(Graphic by House GOP Homeland Security Committee)

The GOP Homeland Security report states federal officials estimate they are only able to seize up to 10% of all illegal drugs smuggled across the Southwest border.

The GOP report also noted:

Encounters by the Office of Field Operations in September increased 155% from September 2022.

In Fiscal 2023, there were 169 individuals whose names were on the terrorist watchlist who were stopped trying to cross the U.S/Mexico border in between legal ports of entry; 18 were apprehended in September.

The number of individuals apprehended from the terrorist watch list increased 72% in Fiscal 2023 from Fiscal 2022.

Over 240,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans were granted parole in Fiscal 2023 at U.S. ports of entry.

The 18 Republicans on the House Homeland Security Committee earlier this week also reported they had received information from DHS showing that 95% of asylum-seekers who scheduled appointments through the CBP One app from Jan. 12 through Sept. 30, were issued a Notice to Appear in U.S. immigration court and allowed to enter the United States on parole.

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

The data released to the committee said out of 278,431 appointments scheduled, 266,846 of the individuals were allowed to legally enter the United States.

Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego.
Republican Laurie Buckhout was preparing a run for Congress when, walking through a soybean field with her dog, she learned that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy had been ousted.

It didnt change what I want to do, Buckhout said in an interview with NBC News. A week and a half after McCarthy lost his speakership, and while Republicans were struggling to replace him, Buckhout filed to run against Democratic Rep. Don Davis in a North Carolina battleground district.

And she wasnt the only Republican to launch a House campaign as GOP infighting brought the chamber to a standstill for three weeks while the party cycled through failed candidates before finally electing Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., as the next speaker.

Buckhout is one of three touted House GOP recruits who in recent weeks have launched campaigns for battleground districts President Joe Biden carried in 2020  districts that Republicans hope to flip in order to preserve their House majority next year.

None of the chaos made the candidates reconsider signing up to join the House Republican conference  not even the news that some lawmakers were receiving death threats as pressure mounted to back Ohio GOP Rep. Jim Jordan for the post.

Ill be honest with you, with no hyperbole  Ive been shot at, said Buckhout, a retired Army colonel who commanded a battalion in Iraq. And I have done the right thing before.

Alison Esposito is another candidate who launched her campaign as the chaos unfolded. A former New York City police officer, Esposito filed to run against Democratic Rep. Pat Ryan in upstate New York six days into the House speaker fight. Two weeks after McCarthy was ousted, Joe Teirab, a Republican former federal prosecutor and Marine veteran, filed to run in the Twin Cities suburbs in Minnesota, where he hopes to take on Democratic Rep. Angie Craig.

I love this country and I wanted to serve this country, Teirab said in an interview, explaining why he still wanted to run. I havent for one second second-guessed what I think America is about. And America is about freedom and opportunity.

Esposito, who made an unsuccessful run for New York lieutenant governor last year, said the chaos strengthened my resolve to get non-career politicians into elected office.

The threats facing members of Congress didnt deter Esposito, either.

I was a cop, She said. I was in the riots of 2020 where someone threw a kitchen cabinet off of a roof and hit me in the head.  The death threats for somebody in the House, it never even crossed my mind to step out of that game.

How McCarthys ouster affects the 2024 House battle

As speaker, McCarthy helped recruit candidates in top battlegrounds. Teirab said he spoke to McCarthy before deciding to run, as well as other party leaders and grassroots supporters. And much of that recruitment work was done before McCarthy lost his gavel.

If this had happened in May, I think it would be a five-alarm fire, one Republican strategist involved in House races said of the partys candidate recruitment.

Republican strategists involved in House races have long noted that McCarthy has been a crucial recruiter and mentor for candidates, as well as a prolific fundraiser. McCarthy announced last week that he raised $15.3 million in the latest fundraising quarter, totaling $78 million so far this election cycle.

Even though he is no longer leading the conference, McCarthy has still been active in the fight for the House.

The former speaker has hosted or appeared at 11 fundraisers for lawmakers and candidates since he was ousted, according to McCarthy spokesman Drew Florio, who wrote in an email to NBC News that McCarthy remains devoted to recruiting strong candidates and ensuring they have the resources necessary to win next November.

Florio said McCarthy has been in daily contact with the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C. McCarthy has also had several in-person candidate meetings, and he has been reaching out on the phone to candidates, donors and lawmakers to check in on their campaigns.

It remains to be seen how involved Johnson, the new speaker, will be in the fight for the House majority.

Dan Conston, president of the Congressional Leadership Fund, the main super PAC backing House Republicans, said in a statement Wednesday that McCarthy laid a tremendous foundation to expand the Republican majority, and Speaker Johnson is well-positioned to pick up the baton and carry it over the finish line.

The fact that candidates are still looking to run even amid the chaos in the House conference is a welcome sign for Republicans. But those candidates do face the difficult task of trying to stay above the fray of the House GOPs toxic internal politics of the moment.

All three new candidates declined to say whom they would support for speaker. And they dismissed concerns that they may be tied to a dysfunctional conference, citing voters focus on other issues and concerns about the Biden administration and Democratic leadership.

Washington is broken, and in Washington are Democrats and Republicans, Teirab said. I dont think its a left or right issue.

Esposito said she has faced questions from a few voters about Republicans ability to govern, but she has mainly heard those questions from reporters.

Its not about Republicans not being able to govern, she said. Its about being able to work together and move us forward and to fight against the Democrat policies now that are undermining the very fabric of America.

Democrats are still expected to tie these candidates to the hard-right wing of the party.

MAGA candidates are launching their campaigns in the middle of this speaker chaos because they want to be a part of the mess, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesman Viet Shelton said in a statement. Its sad that a dysfunctional House energizes them to join Jim Jordan and Marjorie Taylor Greene to sow more chaos for Team Extreme.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Property in California is expensive, but if you're happy to buy a house with an inactive meth lab, you can get a little discount (MARIO TAMA)

Do you secretly dream of being Walter White, the chemistry teacher-turned-druglord from "Breaking Bad"? Now's your chance to own a luxury California home complete with meth lab -- for sale at $1.55 million.

The six-bedroom house in tony San Jose offers a "great location" with easy access to the freeway, according to a realtor's listing, which notes it affords more than 2,700 square feet (250 square meters) of living space.

That might appeal to anyone needing an easy commute into Silicon Valley, with Apple's Cupertino campus just 20 minutes' drive, and Google's Mountain View home less than half an hour away.

It's in a quiet neighborhood, part of a good school catchment area and has a backyard planted with orange, apple and lemon trees.

There are three-and-a-half bathrooms, a swimming pool, a luxury spa, garage parking for one car, solar panels and airconditioning throughout.

It also has a big patio that is just perfect for entertaining.

Oh, and a place you can cook up deadly and addictive illegal drugs.

"Great opportunity to own a large home on a large 6,000sqft lot," says the listing on property website Redfin before sheepishly noting: "Home has inactive Meth lab and meth contamination."

"Home has not been cleared of contamination and will be transferred to the new buyer in its current state."

So, a "fixer-upper" then?

The San Jose home's previous owner was Peter Karasev, the Los Angeles Times reported, who was arrested in March on suspicion of attacking electricity transformers.

As well as the meth lab, police searching his house also found a weapons stockpile including guns and "homemade liquid explosive, multiple energetic homemade destructive devices," according to a police press conference at the time.

Karasev, who the paper said lived there with his wife and three young children, has been hit with a raft of charges, including possession of a destructive device, igniting a destructive device and child endangerment.

For those who don't mind taking on a bit of a project, the $1.55 million price tag makes the house good value by California's expensive real estate standards.

A nearby four-bedroom house sold in May for $1.725 million.

hg/amz/bgs
WASHINGTON  House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., is requesting that the White House provide documentation of a $200,000 loan that President Joe Biden made to his brother James Biden in 2018.

In a letter Thursday to White House counsel Edward Siskel, Comer asked for records including the loan payment, loan agreement and any other supporting documents related to the check Biden received from his brother dated March 1, 2018.

The current lack of documentation leaves reason to doubt claims that this transaction was repayment for a legal loan, Comer wrote. We request documentation clarifying the nature of this payment and whether all applicable documentation and IRS filings were properly made.

Comer, whose committee is one of three leading an impeachment inquiry into Biden, cited the Internal Revenue Code for reporting below-market [rate] loans in questioning whether the president had adhered to specific requirements for issuing the loan and whether any interest had been paid.

The House Oversight Committee has indicated that none of the records it obtained showed that the president made a large loan payment to his brother, but separate documents reviewed by NBC News show that an attorney trust account maintained by the presidents attorneys, at the firm of Monzack Mersky McLaughlin and Browder, made a payment of $200,000 to James Biden on January 12, 2018. Another document shows a check written to Joe Biden on March 1, 2018 for $200,000. The subject line is marked, loan repayment.

An attorney for James Biden on Thursday called the committee's description of the $200,000 check "highly selective and misleading.

"The Committee has the bank records that show both the loan Jim received from his brother by wire transfer in January 2018 and the repayment by check six weeks later. At no time did Jim involve his brother in any of his business relationships," said attorney Paul J. Fishman in a statement.

Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the committee, also disputed Comer's characterization of the documents in the panel's possession. In a letter to the Kentucky Republican on Thursday, Raskin said documents obtained by the panel clearly show that bank records provided to the committee indicated Biden had wired $200,000 to his brother on Jan. 12, 2018.

Despite this clear evidence that James Biden received a loan from his brother on January 12, 2018, and paid him back 48 days later with a check for the same amount marked loan repayment, you continue to misrepresent the facts, Raskin wrote.

The White House had previously indicated that Biden made the loan to his brother in 2018.

White House spokesperson Ian Sams said Thursday that Comer apparently needs to read the very documents he has in his possession.

Last week, Sams wrote on X that the check referred to by Republicans was a loan repayment from when Biden lent his brother money. When he was out of office in 2018, no less, Sams added.

When the impeachment inquiry was launched in September, Sams said in a statement that House Republicans have turned up no evidence of wrongdoing in nine months investigating Biden.

In Thursday's letter, Comer said bank records obtained by his committee show that James Biden paid his brother $200,000 on the same day that he received $200,000 from Americore, a company that was then embroiled in bankruptcy proceedings.

Comer suggested the transaction was evidence that the president personally benefited from his familys shady influence peddling of his name and their access to him, though he did not provide evidence linking the president, who was not in office at the time, to the Americore loan to his brother.

Citing documents from Americores bankruptcy proceedings, Comer suggested that the company worked with James Biden because the president's brother allegedly flaunted that his family ties could "open doors" and had suggested his political connections would help him obtain a sizable investment from the Middle East.

Comer announced plans to subpoena bank records from James Biden, the president's son Hunter Biden , and their affiliated companies" dating back to 2014, during the panel's first impeachment inquiry hearing last month.

A panel of Republican-picked witnesses at the Sept. 28 hearing said there is no evidence that Biden has committed a crime, while urging that additional bank records were needed for a complete assessment on the matter.

Rebecca Kaplan reported from Washington and Zoe Richards from New York.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
A group of House Republicans from New York officially filed a privileged resolution late Thursday to expel embattled Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., from Congress.

The resolution was introduced by Rep. Anthony DEsposito, R-N.Y., and was co-sponsored by fellow New York Republican Reps. Brandon Williams, Nick LaLota and Marc Molinaro. The drastic step came in response to a series of scandals involving Santos including revelations that he allegedly misled voters about his personal life and background, was indicted for various federal offenses in May and was charged with additional crimes earlier this month.

"Today on the House floor, I introduced a privileged resolution to expel George Santos from Congress," DEsposito said in a statement after introducing the resolution Thursday.

"While George Santos is entitled to his day in court to plead his innocence, the people of New York's 3rd Congressional District deserve a representative who is solely focused on serving the public and not spending the majority of their time combating 23 federal charges such as wire fraud, money laundering and theft of public funds," he continued. "We must remove this conman from Congress."

CHAOS AT THE CAPITOL AS GEORGE SANTOS RAGES AGAINST ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTER: 'F---ING TERRORIST SYMPATHIZER'

Rep. Anthony DEsposito, R-N.Y., presides over a House Subcommittee on Emergency Management and Technology field hearing at the 9/11 Memorial Museum on Sept. 12, 2023.

The resolution was first announced on Oct. 11  one day after the latest slate of federal charges against Santos were announced  but the action Thursday paves the way for the House to hold a floor vote on it within two legislative days.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

In response to DEsposito's action, Santos said he was entitled to due process.

EX-NEW YORK REP. TOM SUOZZI LAUNCHES COMEBACK BID FOR GEORGE SANTOS' SEAT

"Three points of clarification: 1. I have not cleared out my office. 2. Im not resigning. 3. Im entitled to due process and not a predetermined outcome as some are seeking. God bless!" Santos wrote in a social media post.

Santos' office didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

In May, Santos pled not guilty to 13 charges of money laundering, theft of public funds, and lying to Congress. Then, on Oct. 10, the U.S. Attorneys office filed 10 additional charges against the New York congressman, filing a 23-count superseding indictment in the case.

"As alleged, Santos is charged with stealing peoples identities and making charges on his own donors credit cards without their authorization, lying to the FEC and, by extension, the public about the financial state of his campaign," U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement at the time.

"Santos falsely inflated the campaigns reported receipts with non-existent loans and contributions that were either fabricated or stolen. This Office will relentlessly pursue criminal charges against anyone who uses the electoral process as an opportunity to defraud the public and our government institutions."





Original article source: House Republicans file resolution to expel George Santos from Congress
Earlier this week, I had the distinct displeasure of introducing you to our new House Speaker, Mike Johnson, whos previously blamed school shootings on abortion, compared abortion to the Holocaust, and stressed the need for women to pop out able-bodied workers to fund social security. But dont worry, theres more: Mother Jones and watchdog groups have resurfaced a slate of atrocious comments from the far-right Republican leader on the specific issue of no-fault divorcea policy that allows people to end a marriage without being required to prove wrongdoing by their partner, including adultery, abuse, or desertion.



The policy has particularly benefited women, as it allows abuse victims to exit, say, an abusive marriage without onerous barriers and burdens of proof, on top of allowing all people to escape legally binding situations with someone they dont love. Maybe thats why Johnson seems to take such vehement issue with it. In a resurfaced 2016 sermon at Christian Center Shreveport, Johnson appears to blame school shootings on divorce, as well as other things like abortion and radical feminism. No, really. His exact remarks:

Read more

Per Mother Jones reporting, Johnson is also linked with Louisiana Family Forum, a group espousing traditional family values that supported a 1997 state law to establish covenant marriage. The law offers newlyweds a religion-based contract rendering it much harder to get divorced. A spokesperson for Johnson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Jezebel on where he stands on the issue of no-fault divorce today.

Scarily enough, Johnsons hard line on divorce is in line with what were increasingly seeing from the right and Republican party. The Texas Republican Party includes in its 2022 party platform a proposal to rescind unilateral no-fault divorce laws and support covenant marriage and to pass legislation extending the period of time in which a divorce may occur to six months after the date of filing for divorce. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) last year suggested people should stick it out in unhappy or maybe even violent marriages for their kids sakeas if abusive intimate partners arent a safety risk to children.

Additionally, Steven Crowder, one of the loudest right-wing voices on the internet, has similarly spent the last year railing against the institution of no-fault divorceincidentally, as it turns out while going through a divorce himself as his wifes family accuses him of being abusive toward her. Its no-fault divorce, which, by the way, means that in many of these states if a woman cheats on you, she leaves, she takes half. So its not no-fault, its the fault of the man. There need to be changes to marital laws, and Im not even talking about same-sex marriage.  Im talking about divorce laws, Crowder said on a podcast in June 2022. Similar views have been espoused by the Daily Wires Matt Walsh and the conservative National Review.

These views, particularly from such influential right-wing talking heads, have always been alarmingthat theyre now, apparently, held by our current House Speaker is especially concerning. As John Knefel, senior writer at Media Matters for America, put it in conversation with Jezebel last year, this stance might seem outlandish now, but if the overturning of Roe [v. Wade] taught us anything, its to take conservatives at their word when they say they want to take our freedoms.

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Congress is, once again, hurtling toward a government shutdown, with just three weeks left until the stopgap funding measure that averted the last one expires. Despite the urgency of the issue, lawmakers are far from a consensus on appropriations bills, in part because the House of Representatives lacked a speaker for the majority of October.

While the election of Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday has alleviated some of the chaotic vibes, the question remains: Are members of Congress ready to put the fun back into government funding?

Theres nothing fun in this, Representative Byron Donalds, a conservative Republican, told me. Theres going to be some compromises that have to be made, but I think we can get there.

Johnson has an ambitious agenda for keeping the government funded. According to a letter to colleagues sent earlier this week, he hopes to pass another continuing resolution keeping the government funded through January 15 or April 15whichever is more popular with the majority of Republicans. (A deal negotiated by President Joe Biden and former Speaker Kevin McCarthy to raise the debt ceiling would implement 1 percent cuts in discretionary spending if Congress has not passed appropriations bills by April 30.) Johnson also hopes to pass all 12 appropriations bills written by House Republicans before the current short-term funding measure expires on November 17.

Conservative Republicans have been largely opposed to another continuing resolutionindeed, the passage of the current stopgap measure angered certain hard-line Republicans enough to precipitate McCarthys ousterbut with the clock ticking down toward a shutdown, Congress may have no choice. Representative Thomas Massie, a Republican with a distinct libertarian streak, said that Johnson had enough goodwill to pass even a year-long continuing resolutionwhich is generally antithetical to conservative preferences.

I think Mike Johnson has a great period here, where itll be at least 30 days before we get stabby again, Massie joked, obliquely referring to the intraparty divisions that consumed House Republicans for several weeks. Theres no real leverage in it for us to have this shutdown impending, so if I were him in this grace period, I would buy myself the entire year of runway.

The House has passed five of its appropriations bills, with spending levels well under what Biden and McCarthy agreed to in their June deal to raise the debt ceiling. The agriculture appropriations bill, typically one of the easier funding measures to pass, also failed to pass over the summer, due to opposition from more moderate Republicans to a provision that would limit access to abortion medication. (Johnsons letter has that bill saved for consideration the week of November 13, just before the deadline.) Although Johnson himself voted against the short-term funding bill, his priorities may change now that he is speaker.

The rank-and-file Johnson had a very specific set of priorities and positions. The question is if that translates into the [speaker] position, Republican Senator Thom Tillis told me on Wednesday. But right now, Im going to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Meanwhile the Senate is working on passing the first three of its appropriations bills, after weeks of procedural delays. GOP Senator Mike Rounds expressed hope that the Senate could take up the remaining nine appropriations bills in an expedited fashion, and noted thatunlike in the Housethe Senate measures are passing with support from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. The Senate appropriations bills are hewing to the spending levels agreed to by Biden and McCarthy, and do not include some of the far-right priorities that have been tucked into the House measures.

The fact that its coming out of the Senate on a bipartisan plan hopefully will allow the House to recognize in a bipartisan way, as well, that in divided government, youre never going to get anything you want, and you try to make progress, Rounds told me. (When asked whether he was ready to put the fun back in government funding, Rounds laughed and replied: I havent quite heard that before.)

Also at issue: a supplemental funding request by the Biden administration for aid to Israel and Ukraine, as well as money dedicated to shoring up the southern border. Republicans have expressed concerns about the supplemental, making its prospects somewhat tenuous. I would be quite surprised if the presidents supplemental got an up-or-down vote as a package. I think theres overwhelming interest in breaking that into some different parts, GOP Representative Dusty Johnson told me on Tuesday.

The newly elected speaker has previously expressed skepticism regarding aid to Ukraine, and voted against a bill to send $300 million to the country last month. The White House has furthermore issued another request for a domestic funding supplemental, including priorities such as childcare, but that measure is even less likely to pass in the GOP-controlled Houseor avoid a filibuster in the upper chamber.

Its unclear how quickly the chambers of Congress could resolve the differences between their appropriations legislationmeaning that another stopgap funding measure is all but inevitable. Nobody benefits from a government shutdown, so I dont think thats an issue. But it means that when we dont do our business on a timely basis, then were stuck with a [continuing resolution], said GOP Senator John Cornyn.

Democratic Senator Tim Kaine also argued that another continuing resolution was necessary to complete the budget process in a timely manner. Unlike Johnson or Massie, however, he suggested an end-of-year deadline. Lets just do this the way we do it most years: Put the date at the end of the year, work really hard, lock people into rooms, and then nobody goes home until we get the budget done, Kaine said on Tuesday.
Mike Johnson agreed with a Fox News host that Biden is showing signs of "cognitive decline."

Johnson told Sean Hannity , "That is reality, it is not a personal slight to him."

In the same interview, Johnson said couldn't remember a number of comments attacking LGBTQ Americans.

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Thursday night agreed with Fox News host Sean Hannity that President Joe Biden is showing a "cognitive decline."

"I do. I think most of us do. That is reality, it is not a personal slight to him," Johnson told Hannity. "It has to do with age and acumen and everyone is different, everyone ages differently. Clearly, if you look at a tape of Joe Biden making an argument in the Senate Judiciary Committee a few years ago and you see a speech that he delivers now, there is a difference."

Biden has faced repeated questions about his age, given that he is the oldest president in the nation's history. The 80-year-old has responded by repeatedly trying to joke about his status.

Johnson, who unexpectedly rose to lead the House after weeks of drama, says he has only met Biden twice. Johnson said he chatted briefly with the president on Thursday. The Louisiana Republican stressed that he has nothing personally against Biden, though he cautioned that they have major political differences.

Hannity later asked Johnson about his past comments that questioned LGBTQ Americans. Johnson, who is an evangelical Christian, worked to thwart same-sex marriage and served in leadership roles with the Southern Baptist Convention.

CNN unearthed a number of columns in which Johnson expressed alarm about the then-growing acceptance of same-sex marriage and its advancement in some states.

"States have many legitimate grounds to proscribe same-sex deviate sexual intercourse," Johnson wrote in 2003, advocating for the criminalization of gay sex. Johnson also wrote that expanding marriage rights could lead " a person to marry his pet."

Asked about the comments, Johnson, perhaps conveniently, forgot years' worth of statements.

"I don't even remember some of them," Johnson said as Hannity stressed some of his comments came "15 years ago."

"I was a litigator that was called upon to defend the state marriage amendments," Johnson said.

The House speaker said that now views the issue of same-sex marriage as settled after the Supreme Court's landmark ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges.



"I respect the rule of law, I also genuinely love all people," Johnson said. "This is not about the people themselves this is about their lifestyle choices."

Spokespersons for the White House and for Johnson's office did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. Johnson will have to work closely with Biden on a number of issues, including funding the federal government which is set to run out of money in just a matter of weeks.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) takes the oath to be the new House speaker on Wednesday. He's been a booster of the Ark Encounter theme park and the Creation Museum in Kentucky.

Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) takes the oath to be the new House speaker on Wednesday. He's been a booster of the Ark Encounter theme park and the Creation Museum in Kentucky.

Before arriving in Washington less than a decade ago, House Speaker Mike Johnson, a deeply religious Christian, was a legal crusader associated with a fringe evangelical movement called young Earth creationism, based on a literal reading of the Bibles Book of Genesis that posits the Earth is only several thousand years old.

In the mere hours since Johnson was elected speaker Wednesday, he hadnt had to address his views on creationism and evolution. But his close ties to a leader of the creationist movement and his past legal work  on behalf of the Ark Encounter creationist theme park, where children can learn that dinosaurs were passengers on Noahs Ark  seem to suggest that hes also personally aligned with these beliefs.

The Ark Encounter is one way to bring people to this recognition of the truth, that what we read in the Bible are actual historical events, Johnson said in a 2021 interview with Ark Encounter founder Ken Ham while guest-hosting the radio show of Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, an evangelical activist group.

Johnson has close personal and professional ties to Ham, the founder and CEO of Answers in Genesis, the Christian group thats behind Ark Encounter and the Creation Museum, both based in Kentucky. As an attorney, Johnson helped the gigantic ark attraction, which opened in 2016, secure millions in state tourism subsidies while also defending its right to make religious-based hiring decisions.

Kentucky officials are smart to enthusiastically embrace the Ark Encounter, and the millions of tourists the park will welcome to the area from every viewpoint, race, color, religion and creed, Johnson wrote in an op-ed that appeared in the Louisville Courier Journal in 2014. Answers in Genesis aims to encourage critical thought and respectful public debate about the various attractions and ideas that will be presented at its park, and that is the beauty and essence of free speech.

Johnson wasnt just the legal muscle for Answers in Genesis, which embraces the belief that the account of origins presented in Genesis 1-11 is a simple but factual presentation of actual events. He blogged on the organizations website and spoke at a conference it hosted in 2022. Johnson and his wife, Kelly, a counselor who is also his podcast collaborator, are slated to appear at another Answers in Genesis conference in April 2024: Overcoming the War on Women for the Glory of God.

Johnson has called Ham a dear friend, and, when hosting him on his podcast, Truth Be Told, Johnson thanked him for his friendship and ministry over the years. Ham returned the kind words at an Answers in Genesis conference in 2021, when he called Johnson one of the few godly men in Congress.

New House Speaker Mike Johnson has been a major legal defender of Ark Encounter, a Bible-themed attraction in Williamstown, Kentucky.

New House Speaker Mike Johnson has been a major legal defender of Ark Encounter, a Bible-themed attraction in Williamstown, Kentucky.

Hams views are what you would expect for a person who operates a life-size Noahs Ark museum that features dinosaurs catching a ride on a biblically accurate 300-cubits-long ark.

We can say, 100 percent absolutely for sure, that people lived with dinosaurs! Ham writes in his 2000 book, Dinosaurs in Eden. As a believer in biblical inerrancy, he believes the story of Genesis is both literally true and that its first 11 chapters hold all of the answers about how to live a moral life. He has cited the teaching of evolution as the reason for modern societys ills and supports waging a culture war to fight back against atheists and materialists.

Johnsons congressional office did not respond to a request for comment about his views on young Earth theory, whose adherents believe the planet is 6,000 years old and that humans walked the Earth at the same time as dinosaurs. The scientific community regards creationism as pseudoscience and is generally in agreement the Earth is an estimated 4.5 billion years old.

In the limited time that reporters and researchers have had to dig deeply into Johnsons life  he became a national GOP figure only in the last week and hails from a noncompetitive district in Louisiana  it does not appear Johnson has publicly said anything to suggest he doesnt accept the theory of evolution. Reporters have, however, uncovered a litany of anti-LGBTQ and anti-abortion sentiments in Johnsons not-so-recent past.

But he has appeared sympathetic to the creationist cause and has fiercely defended its followers on First Amendment grounds.

In a sermon delivered in 2016 at Christian Center Shreveport in Louisiana, Johnson also blamed school shootings on a lack of godliness that he suggested was rooted in teaching children they evolve from the primordial slime, according to meidastouch.com.

In addition to his work with Answers in Genesis, Johnson has been associated with the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools, which critics say espouses creationist teachings over education about evolution.

The teaching of evolution in public schools has been controversial for more than a century. States began passing laws banning the teaching of evolution in the early 20th century, which led to the infamous 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial. But it wasnt until 1968 that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Epperson v. Arkansas that bans on teaching evolution were unconstitutional. Later court decisions prohibited the teaching of creation science (in 1987) and intelligent design (in 2005) in public schools.

Johnsons critics fear he would try to inject Christian ideology into how he governs the U.S. House as second-in-line for the presidency. They also see young Earth creationism as a tentacle of the Christian nationalist movement, whose goal is to create a Christian theocracy in the U.S.

His policy agenda appears to be in lockstep with that of a shadow network of Christian nationalist groups in our country or working to preserve traditional power structures and win privilege for conservative Christianity, said Rachel Laser, the president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

As a state representative in 2015, Johnson came to the defense of a Louisiana public school district under fire for making creationism and Bible study part of its curriculum  and offered to defend the district for free through his Christian law firm, Freedom Guard, Slate reported. Johnson has described Freedom Guard as a public interest law firm.

The concern that youre articulating should be of concern to more than just creationists, Johnson said in an interview that same year with a creationist activist who described being forced to learn what he called false evolutionary theories in school. All freedom-loving Americans ought to have grave concerns about these government abuses, regardless of their perspectives on Genesis or even the Christian faith, for that matter.

William Trollinger, the author of Righting America at the Creation Museum, said the Answers in Genesis exhibits, instead of being insulated from politics, are deeply reflective of the nations divides. These are culture war sites. Young Earth creationism is very much a part of MAGA culture, Trollinger told HuffPost, noting that in his experience, there are very few politically moderate young Earth creationists in the United States.

In September 2022, Johnson and his wife hosted Ham on their Truth Be Told podcast, which has been around since March of that year. In their conversation, the Johnsons heavily promoted Hams Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky.

For all of our friends who have not made a visit, its hard to describe.... Its really an awesome experience.House Speaker Mike Johnson on the Creation Museum

For all of our friends who have not made a visit, its hard to describe, Mike Johnson said. Its really an awesome experience.

During their discussion, Ham blamed the teaching of atheistic evolution for corrupting the youth and leading them to turn away from the church. He argued that instead church leaders and parents need to teach children how to defend church doctrine through biblical study and argument so that they will know and be able to properly argue that the fossil record wasnt laid down over millions of years, thats the graveyard of the flood.

To teach them all these things  thats whats been missing from the church, Ham said.

I think thats right, Johnson replied.

At the end of their conversation, Johnson again praised Hams Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter for doing maybe the best work right now in our generation of pointing people to the truth.
HOUSTON - Frankie Earline Williams, 32, was sentenced to 35 years in prison for shooting James Earl Harp, 34, inside her North Houston home on March 13, 2020.

Officials say Harp needed a temporary place to stay and went to Williams house on the 7300 block of Schuller, where Williams, her brother, and another friend stayed.

RELATED:Pregnant woman shot in the head inside her La Marque home in critical condition

Each of the four had known each other since high school.

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Williams and Harp got into an argument for at least an hour before she ultimately shot him, according to the District Attorney Office.

James Earl Harp leaves behind a 16-year-old daughter after being shot by Frankie Earline Williams

Authorities say after Harp was shot, Williams told her brother and her friend to load him into their pickup truck and drive him to a rural area where they buried him.

Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said, "Unfortunately, were seeing more disputes ending in gunfire than ever before. Arguments should never be settled with a gun, and people who use their firearms with bad intentions, like in this case, will be held accountable. "

SUGGESTED: Splendora ISD student brought knife to school, tried to stab peer, school says

The two men who helped Williams were 33-year-old Shannon Williams and 31-year-old Desman Tolliver.

Officials say both men pleaded guilty in 2021 for helping Williams and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Williams cannot appeal her conviction or the sentence and must serve at least half of the time before becoming eligible for parole, according to the District Attorney Office.

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Brett Batchelor, the assistant district attorney, prosecuted the case with Elizabeth Liberman, an assistant district attorney with the DA's trial bureau.

"They got into a fight over nothing that resulted in a death that didnt have to happen," Liberman said. "She knew he was a jovial guy with a family who was not a threat to anyone, and she could have just walked away instead of doing what she did."
FILE - A customer carries his purchased Huawei product outside a Huawei store after he attended the Huawei new product launch conference in Beijing, on Sept. 25, 2023. Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei Technologies has reported its profit inched higher in the first three quarters of this year despite persisting U.S. sanctions that have hindered both its sales and its purchases of advanced technology.(AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)

HONG KONG (AP)  Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei Technologies said its revenue edged higher in the first three quarters of the year, even as it grappled with U.S. sanctions that have hindered both its sales and its purchases of advanced technology.

The Shenzhen-headquartered firm said Friday that it generated 456.6 billion yuan ($62.4 billion) in revenue for the first nine months of the year, an increase of 2.4% compared to the same period last year.

Huawei, the biggest maker of network gear for phone and internet carriers, said its net profit margin was 16%, but it gave no basis for comparison.

Ken Hu, Huaweis rotating chairman said that the figures were in line with forecasts. He thanked Huaweis customers and partners for their trust and support.

Moving forward, we will continue to increase our investment in R&D to make the most of our business portfolio and take the competitiveness of our products and services to new heights, Hu said.

Huawei, which is not listed on any stock exchanges, has struggled since former U.S. president Donald Trump put the firm on a blacklist that blocked the Chinese company from doing business with U.S. firms, accusing it of potentially spying for China. The move effectively cut off Huaweis access to U.S. processor chips and other technology.

Huawei denies accusations that it is a security risk and insists it does not spy for the Chinese government.

The firm, which was once a top smartphone maker, fell from top global ranks after it lost access to Google services for its devices.

Huawei has since pivoted to helping companies, factories and mines to digitize. The firm is a top global spender on research and development and last year invested about a quarter of its total revenue in R&D. It has invested in technologies such as advanced computer chips and autonomous driving.

In September, Huawei caused a stir after it launched its Mate 60 smartphone series in China.

The high-end smartphone Mate 60 Pro was found to be using a domestically-made advanced chip, which experts said suggests the firm has begun to overcome U.S. sanctions.

Chinese shoppers snapped up the Mate 60 phones, giving Huawei a 37% increase in smartphone sales for the third quarter compared to the same period last year, even as other brands such as Apple, Oppo and Vivo saw declining sales growth, according to the market research firm Counterpoint Research.

Huawei said earlier this week that it launched a health lab in Helsinki, Finland, as part of its efforts to deepen research in health monitoring algorithms for wearable technologies.
Kansas child protective services searched for 5-year-old Zoey Felix and her family seven times in early September.

Despite home visits, a letter and a phone call, they couldn't find her.

Topeka police, however, knew Zoey wasn't living at her mother's house anymore. They found the girl and her parents but didn't tell state officials  contrary to what city officials said publicly earlier this month.

Zoey was raped and killed Oct. 2, police said. Zoey had been living in a homeless camp in a wooded area of southeast Topeka less than a mile from her mother's house.

Topeka officials previously said police sent information to the Kansas Department for Children and Families about a Sept. 5 interaction with Zoey Felix and her family. Now, the city said it didn't send the report to DCF before Zoey's death on Oct. 2.

Topeka communications director Gretchen Spiker previously said police were called to that house for a Sept. 5 welfare check. She said officers left the child with her custodial parent, then the Topeka Police Department provided information to the Kansas Department for Children and Families.

Spiker on Wednesday acknowledged the report wasn't sent.

"The information provided was preliminary, and at the time, believed to be accurate," Spiker said. "Recently, the Topeka Police Department (TPD) learned that the referral to DCF on September 5, 2023 about Zoey Felix did not occur."

Topeka police found Zoey Felix but didn't send report to Kansas DCF

Zoey's short, tumultuous life ended with firefighters and police called to the gas station of the Dillons at S.E. 29th and California. There, they found Zoey with life-threatening injuries.

A little more than a month earlier, DCF received one of its many reports about Zoey's family.

While none of the previous reports turned up sufficient reason to remove the child from her home and take her into state custody, DCF couldn't fully investigate an Aug. 29 report alleging a lack of utilities and drug use occurring in the home.

The state's child welfare agency tried seven times in September to find Zoey but couldn't contact her family  and child protective service investigators didn't know the police had found Zoey. DCF's first attempt at a home visit in September was on Sept. 6, the same day the city shut off water to the address because of past due balances.

The day before, police showed up on a check welfare call that included an allegation of a child living in a house without electricity. Police confirmed there was no electricity to the house in the 2200 block of S.E. Market and also found Zoey wasn't living there at that time.

Officers "made contact with residents of the home"  apparently Zoey's mother  who confirmed there was no power. Officers "then spoke the custodial parent of the child"  apparently her father  "who confirmed the child had not been staying there because there was no power."

Kansas child welfare investigators tried to find Zoey Felix at her mother's house in the 2200 block of S.E. Market seven times in September. Topeka police knew she was no longer living there but didn't send a Sept. 5 report to DCF as they said they had after Zoey's Oct. 2 death.

The report didn't say where Zoey had been living, though officers did meet with her.

"Officers then met with the child who was in good spirits and apparent health and the child was left in the care of their parent, per the custodial agreement," Spiker previously said. "Officers then left the scene. TPD provided information about the incident to the Department of Children and Families and the City of Topeka's Property Maintenance Unit followed up on the electricity matter on 9/11/23."

Now, Spiker says the Sept. 5 police report to DCF was never sent, even after Zoey died  though police did eventually tell DCF about it in a phone call.

"Per protocol, the responding TPD Officer provided the report to TPD's Records Unit to be processed and forwarded to DCF," Spiker said. "A human error occurred within the Records Unit, and the Officer's report was not transferred to DCF. TPD deeply regrets this human error, and has taken steps to avoid this type of error from occurring in the future."

Topeka officials won't say if police knew Zoey Felix was homeless on Sept. 5

When Topeka police have referrals to send to DCF, they compile the reports and forward them once each weekday, Spiker said. If there are any referrals over the weekend, those are sent to DCF on Monday mornings.

Because of the error in referring Zoey's case, "Additional checks and balances and supervisory oversight have been put in place in the Records Unit," Spiker said.

Spiker did note Topeka police had previously sent reports about Zoey to DCF, with a pair of referrals in early November 2022. A DCF summary shows a report in the same time frame of an unsupervised child, but the case was unsubstantiated after an investigation. The family also declined an offer of DCF services at that time.

Topeka police said Zoey Felix "was in good spirits and apparent health" when they found her on Sept. 5, but its report never made it to DCF, which couldn't find her during seven attempts in September.

But the revelation of the unsent report in September raises more questions on police interactions with Zoey.

Spiker declined to say whether officers met with Zoey at her mother's house or someplace else. Spiker said prosecutors have filed criminal charges and referred questions to them.

Had officers met Zoey at the house, it could have potentially been a violation of the mother's probation, who apparently was ordered by a court to have no contact with Zoey or her father. District Attorney Mike Kagay has previously declined to confirm whether the terms of the plea deal from his office required no contact between Zoey and her mother, Holly Felix, telling reporters, "I'll let you figure that out."

Officers may have met Zoey someplace else, since they acknowledged speaking with the custodial parent. But Zoey's father  who had had custody of Zoey since her mother's DUI crash last year was apparently homeless by that point, having been evicted from an apartment a couple months earlier.

Neighbors said Holly Felix told several people, including Zoey and her father, to leave her house a few weeks before Zoey's death.

Spiker also declined to say whether officers had determined where Zoey was living. Had police known her whereabouts, that could have been valuable information for DCF investigators who couldn't find her.

Meanwhile, the public has been blocked from obtaining more information on what Topeka police and Shawnee County prosecutors know about Zoey and her death. A Shawnee County District Court judge has sealed the Topeka police affidavit in the case against Mickel Cherry, who has been charged with capital murder and could face the death penalty.

Jason Alatidd is a statehouse reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached by email at jalatidd@gannett.com. Follow him on X @Jason_Alatidd.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Topeka police didn't file Zoey Felix welfare report with Kansas DCF
Elon Musk was commenting on an edited clip of a speech Mr Yousaf gave in 2020

Scotland's first minister has hit back at a claim by Elon Musk that he was a "blatant racist".

Mr Musk posted the comment on his X social media platform in response to an edited clip of a speech Humza Yousaf gave after the murder of George Floyd.

A spokesman for Mr Yousaf said Mr Musk should instead "tackle racism and hatred that goes unchecked on the social media platform he owns".

He also said Mr Yousaf had been on the receiving end of racism his whole life.

The first minister's name was trending on X, formerly known as Twitter, after Mr Musk tweeted about him. Mr Yousaf reacted on Friday morning by posting: "Racists foaming at the mouth at my very existence."

He then added: "Me:" and shared a gif from the BBC comedy Still Game, featuring the character Navid dancing in his shop.

Mr Musk, who has more than 160 million followers, had replied "What a blatant racist!" in response to a post by a prominent right-wing social media account. It had shown an edited 45 second clip of a lengthy speech Mr Yousaf made in the Scottish Parliament in June 2020.

The clip has been widely shared by similar accounts in recent months.

A fact check carried out by the Reuters news agency in February concluded that the clip misrepresented Mr Yousaf's comments by suggesting he had been arguing that Scotland contained too many white people.

Reuters said: "Yousaf's speech was given as part of a wider discussion about racial injustice and the lack of people of colour in positions of power in the Scottish Parliament and government.

"The speech did not assert that white people make up too large a proportion of Scotland's overall population."

Mr Yousaf gave his speech the month after the murder of African-American George Floyd on a Minneapolis street sparked worldwide protests against racism and excessive use of force by police.

Mr Yousaf, who was justice secretary at the time, told MSPs that the country had to "accept the reality and the evidence that is in front of us, that Scotland has a problem of structural racism".

He went on to say "in 99% of their meetings I go to, I am the only non-white person in the room".

Mr Yousaf has spoken in the past about the racism he has had to face throughout his life

Mr Yousaf then listed a number of positions - including the lord advocate, solicitor general and Police Scotland chief constable - and, after each, added: "white".

He said the same was true for every high court judge, every deputy chief constable, every assistant chief constable and every prison governor in Scotland.

Mr Yousaf, who succeeded Nicola Sturgeon as first minister in March, also highlighted senior positions in the health sector and the trade union movement.

On Friday, a spokesperson for Mr Yousaf said: "The first minister has been on the receiving end of racist hate, abuse and death threats his entire life, and has stood firm against hatred and bigotry, of any kind, throughout.

"Sadly, much of the racist abuse and threats of violence the first minister faces are directed his way on X - formerly known as Twitter.

"Mr Musk should use his position to tackle racism and hatred that goes unchecked on the social media platform he owns."
DALLAS - Hundreds of people set off on a 60-mile journey Friday morning to raise money for breast cancer awareness.

The Susan G. Komen 3-Day Walk kicked off with an opening ceremony at the Hyatt Regency in Downtown Dallas.

MORE: Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Participants will be walking 60 miles over the next three days all while collecting donations and honoring breast cancer patients, victims, and survivors.

The event has raised nearly $70 million for research since 2005. Last year, walkers raised about $14 million.

"Were going to raise over $2 million just this weekend and were going to use those dollars to invest in life-saving research, direct patient support, and also policy and advocacy work to change laws to make access to care easier for all people," said Cati Diamond Stone, the Dallas event organizer.

Diamond Stone is a 13-year breast cancer survivor with a background in law.

Through her experience, she realized that not everyone has access to the resources they need to detect and survive the disease.

So, she switched careers and now advocates on behalf of Komen.

"Were really changing lives every day," she said. "I just love how the community comes out together and holds hands and says, Were going to be doing something big together. You saw it this morning and youll see it all around town over the next three days. And the goal is 1) creating a sense of community and support, and 2) its really about raising dollars so we can ultimately get to the cures and help people who are facing breast cancer right now today."

Kriste Ruhland was walking with her best friend to celebrate her life and in honor of her sister.

She was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 36 while she was pregnant with her second child.

"It was the most dreadful news I could have ever imagined. I'm just so thankful that it worked out the way it did," she said. "I hope that during our lifetime we can find a cure for breast cancer because I have two children and I would like my children to live a lifetime without breast cancer."

At the first pit stop at Turtle Creek, Patti Rieder and her supporters were still full of energy and enthusiasm.

She began walking with Komen in 2007 to support a friend. This is her 21st walk.

It's a little more meaningful for her this year because she was diagnosed with breast cancer in July.

"After two surgeries, I was margin free and now I'm just waiting to determine what radiation I need to do. But I've got all this support," she said. "It is great. It's very encouraging especially for survivors that like me who are going through it."

Diamond Stone urged those who are not walking to show their support by standing along the route and cheering on those who are.

The route takes walkers north to University Park and then back south to the Arts District in Downtown Dallas.

Donations are also greatly appreciated at www.the3day.org.

FOX 4 is a proud sponsor of the event.
More than two weeks of intense negotiations to evacuate foreign nationals out of Gaza have yielded few signs of progress, leaving hundreds of desperate civilians stranded inside the war-torn strip of land as Israeli ground operations expanded amid a barrage of airstrikes on Friday.

Multiple sources involved in the diplomatic talks tell CNN that the effort to open a key border crossing in southern Gaza remains stymied by Hamas control of the enclave, Israels blockade and bombing, as well as Egyptian security concerns.

Now that the Israeli defense forces have announced an expansion of their ground operations, the situation for civilians and foreign nationals who remain trapped in Gaza has become even more dire. Aid officials and other individuals on the ground had expressed fears even before the expansion of operations that nowhere in Gaza was safe, and despite US officials saying they were working with Israel to establish civilian safe zones, such areas have not been fully stood up.

People who have family in Gaza told CNN on Friday they have not been able to make contact with them after communications went down in the strip amid the barrage of strikes.

Its like sitting in the dark not knowing what is going to hit you, I cant reach them on any medium of communication at this point, I cant even know if they are okay or not, I dont know if they are safe or not, Said Alhayek, 42, from Las Vegas said.

CNN was unable to reach several contacts with Gaza numbers on Friday.

Negotiators have been furiously working to find a solution to appease Egypts concerns about refugees entering the country through the Rafah crossing in southwestern Gaza, the border between Egypt and the Sinai. Complicating things are Israeli and American claims that Hamas has blocked the way out, as well as the inherent difficulties that come with processing thousands of people who claim to be foreign nationals.

The US had also been rushing to negotiate the release of hostages held by Hamas ahead of the incursion, talks that the US government insisted will continue amid Fridays intensified airstrikes.

The Biden administration said Thursday it was hopeful that a deal will be reached in the coming days to allow US citizens to evacuate Gaza through Egypt, though the State Department had previously issued an alert saying the crossing into Egypt would open but it never did.

Its like unlocking a puzzle where you unlock a layer that can unlock one little piece of it. And then another obstacle pops up and youve got to go figure out with all the parties how to unlock that piece, a State Department spokesperson explained. Were making progress and I think well get there but its difficult.

US Ambassador David Satterfield, tapped in recent weeks as the Special Envoy for Middle East Humanitarian Issues, has been leading negotiations on the ground on behalf of the US. He arrived in Cairo Friday after days of meetings in Israel.

Satterfields arrival in Cairo follows a meeting earlier in the month between Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who recently crisscrossed the region, in which Sisi was seen to lecture the American diplomat.

Sisi and President Joe Biden have also had calls.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (L) meets with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi at al-Ittihadiya presidential palace in Cairo, on January 30, 2023. - Blinken arrived on January 29 in Egypt at the start of a Middle East trip on which he will look to notch down Israeli-Palestinian tensions after an eruption of violence. (Photo by Khaled DESOUKI / POOL / AFP) (Photo by KHALED DESOUKI/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) - Khaled Desouki/Pool/AFP/Getty Images

Were dealing with Israel, Egypt, and Hamas, and were not talking directly to Hamas, Egypt can send messages to Hamas, Qatar can send messages to Hamas. But you can imagine how difficult every little thing is, every bit of this is complicated, the State Department spokesperson added.

No mans land

After the Hamas attacks on October 7th in Israel that killed over 1400 people, the US government scrambled to fly citizens home, chartering planes from foreign airlines after American carriers halted their flights. There are an estimated 500-600 Americans in Gaza, though its unclear how many are trying to leave.

The State Department has long warned Americans not to travel to Gaza.

Hamas control of the strip  and that side of the Rafah crossing  has seriously complicated efforts to evacuate civilians.

On Thursday, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller described the current state of the Rafah border crossing, explaining that Hamas sporadic presence has made the situation extremely difficult, but that Egyptians are ready to take in foreign nationals who make it to their side of the border.

At times, Hamas has had no one there manning the border station, Miller said of the crossing. At other times we have seen Hamas militants actively there with guns preventing people from approaching the crossing.

So there is a problem getting people through the Gaza side into the no mans land, where they can ultimately get across to the Egyptian side to be processed to enter into Egypt, he explained.

Hes terrified

Two Palestinian-Americans who have been languishing waiting near Rafah for over two weeks tell CNN that they have seen no effort by Hamas to keep them from leaving, contrary to Israeli and American claims.

But Hamas ultimately has control and the gates on the Gazan side of Rafah have remained closed, preventing people from flowing into the buffer zone before the Egyptian side of the crossing where the US says Egypt is ready to process evacuees.

We havent seen anyone from Hamas at the crossing the three times we were there, Abood Okal, a 36-year old from Boston said on Thursday. The only people we saw is 3 or 4 guards in civilian clothing [with] no weapons that are always there for general security.

No one prevented us from going through because no one was there from the employees that are usually there to process passports for departure, Okal added.

Israeli forces have bombarded the length of the Gaza strip in the weeks since the October 7 Hamas attack. A CNN journalist filmed strikes early Friday in Khan Younis, a few miles from the Rafah crossing.

Lena Beseiso, a 57-year-old from Salt Lake City, said on Thursday she and her 10-year-old grandson were at the border last week waiting to be able to cross when there was a bombing.

Hes terrified. Were terrified and my children, family and friends back home in Utah and the States are also terrified, frustrated and want us home safely in one piece, she told CNN in a text message.

Security concerns

At the outset of negotiations, Sisi insisted that humanitarian aid makes its way into Gaza before Egypt considers letting civilians depart. Now the first tranches of the critical assistance have been allowed into Gaza after intensive negotiations and an agreement announced by Biden, though US and international officials have said that the amount is not sufficient and must be sustained.

Still, Egypt has made clear it does not want to take in a flood of refugees. Sisis government is particularly sensitive to any potential attempts to resettle Palestinians in the Sinai.

Another complicating factor is the fact that many foreign nationals seeking to leave Gaza may not have documentation like passports to prove their identities and nationality. Egypt also has been loath to allow consular officials to stay in the Sinai Peninsula where Egypt has for years battled extremist unrest.

Miller, the State Department spokesperson, told CNN that Egypt is ready to accept people if they can get to the Egyptian side for processing, and there are US consular officials in Egypt who will be able to facilitate the onward journeys of American citizens when we are able to get them through the Rafah crossing.

According to one source, Egyptian officials have asked US officials for lists of American citizens and relatives who are seeking to leave.

Theres wrangling going on about how youd administer a consular exit, a western diplomat familiar with the discussions told CNN, pointing to the lack of international officials or an authority inside Gaza to make sure that those who would be allowed to enter Egypt or Israel can separate those citizens from Palestinians without foreign passports.

Palestinian women make traditional unleavened bread on an open fire at a shelter for displaced families mainly from the north of the Gaza Strip, at a UN-run school in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip on October 27, 2023, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (Photo by SAID KHATIB / AFP) (Photo by SAID KHATIB/AFP via Getty Images) - Said Khatib/AFP/Getty Images

Youve got no administering force [inside Gaza], the diplomat continued. Youd need no fire assurances from Israel. Are you sending foreigners into Gaza to process people?

False hope

Israel claims they will do what they can to facilitate the departure of foreigners, but only through the Rafah crossing into Egypt. Mark Regev, an advisor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told CNN the crossings from Gaza into Israel have been destroyed and Hamas has decided to play games with these American [citizens].

Even as the State Department expresses hope that the crossing could open to citizens in the coming days, the Americans in Gaza who spoke with CNN decried the way that the situation has been handled thus far. Many made their way to the Rafah crossing after receiving messages from the State Department indicating that it may open.

I cant go another day with this torture and false hope, Beseiso, the American from Utah, told CNN last week.

Miller said Thursday that the State Department sent a message on Wednesday to American citizens who had registered with the department telling them that we were continuing to work on a solution, and that we would provide them information as soon as we had an update.

We are going to stay in touch with them and let them know were working on it. And as soon as we have an update about them actually been able to make it through the crossing into Egypt, we will send them that update, he said.

CNNs Michael Conte contributed to this report.

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(Reuters) - Hungary shouldn't frustrate the EU's decision-making over new financial assistance to Ukraine in a bid to unblock its own frozen EU funds, Luxembourg's Prime Minister Xavier Bettel said on Friday.

"You can't say: if you want money for Ukraine, we want money for us. We shouldn't be the hostage of Mr Orban and I'm convinced we will find a positive solution," Bettel said before a meeting of EU leaders in Brussels.

(Reporting by Bart Meijer)
The European Unions strategy in the ongoing conflict with Russia has failed, Hungarys Prime Minister Viktor Orban declared in his latest statement on Oct. 27, as quoted by Reuters.

Orban expressed skepticism about Ukraines capacity to secure victory in the conflict and urged the European Union to formulate a Plan B, asserting that the financial and military aid provided by allies to Kyiv to combat Russia has fallen short.

Today everybody knows but they do not dare to say it out loud, that this strategy has failed. Its obvious that this will not work (...) The Ukrainians will not win on the frontline, Orban said.

Once we know how much that costs, we can share that burden among ourselves.

Reuters reports that both Hungary and Slovakia oppose allocating EUR 50 billion ($53 billion) to Ukraine. Previously, Orban mentioned his desire to meet with a Ukrainian delegation before the EU approves a new tranche of aid.

Read also: Orban calls Russias war against Ukraine a military operation in conversation with Putin

Hungary has consistently obstructed EU assistance to Ukraine and the imposition of new sanctions against Russia. In May, Hungarys Minister of Foreign Affairs, Peter Szijjarto, explained these actions with three reasons: Firstly, Ukraines inclusion of OTP Bank as a sponsor of the war, though this status was suspended by the National Agency for Prevention of Corruption in September. Secondly, Hungary alleges limitations on the rights of ethnic Hungarians to education in their native language in Ukraine. Thirdly, the publication in U.S. newspaper the Washington Postof a claim that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy planned to blow up the Druzhba pipeline.

Simultaneously, Budapest has been strengthening its relations with Russia, despite the ongoing conflict. Orban personally met with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin in China on Oct. 17, stating that he was proud of the meeting, which has garnered criticism from both the EU and the United States.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Hungary has withdrawn its representatives from the International Investment Bank (IIB), known as the "Russian spy bank" because of its close ties to Russia. Hungary has become the last European Union member state to do so.

Source: International Investment Bank notice to bondholders, creditors and clients; HVG.hu, a Hungarian news outlet; European Pravda

Details: The IIBs statement says that its board of directors has made several decisions "aimed at making the bank more stable through restoring corporate governance and relocating the banks headquarters from Budapest".

The IIB has been denied access to the European financial market as a result of EU sanctions. It also cannot access its assets and funds on EU territory.

The IIBs statement indicates that Hungary officially withdrew from the IIB on 19 October, six months after it announced the move.

The IIB is a multilateral development institution established by former Eastern Bloc countries in 1970. The Banks goal is to promote the economic development of its member states, primarily by providing concessional loans to established businesses or ventures.

The bank had almost 50% Russian ownership and Hungarian authorities were not involved in overseeing it. In April 2023, the US Treasury Department announced sanctions against the bank, arguing that the IIBs presence in Budapest allowed Russia to strengthen its intelligence presence in Europe.

In February, Bulgaria announced that it would withdraw from the IIB. Slovakia, Czechia and Romania withdrew from the bank last year.

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(Bloomberg) -- Bulgarias leader accused Hungary and Serbia of helping feed the Kremlins war machine by failing to seek alternative energy supplies in an escalating row over a gas-import tax.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Signaling his government has no plans to back off the levy on Russian gas that transits Bulgaria, Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov said the intent is to starve state-controlled exporter Gazprom PJSC of profits used to fund the war against Ukraine.

Hungary called the move announced this month a hostile act, while Serbia said the tax threatens to halt vital fuel supplies to the region.

There was sufficient time to look for alternatives, to see that these profits are feeding the war machine of Putin , Denkov, 61, said in an interview on the sidelines of a European Union summit in Brussels on Friday. We cannot wait any longer. Actually, this should have happened earlier.

The standoff lays bare the way Russian President Vladimir Putins invasion has reshaped energy supplies in the region, where the disruption triggered the gravest cost-of-living crisis for consumers in decades. Gazproms Turkstream pipeline, which runs under the Black Sea to Turkey before crossing Bulgaria, provides key fuel supplies for several smaller Western Balkan nations as well.

Denkov, who insisted that the regulation is in line with the EU rules, said hes open to talks with both Budapest and Belgrade. He accused the governments under Hungarian Premier Viktor Orban and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic of stoking baseless fears of price hikes rather than engaging in talks.

The Bulgarian premier took office in June at the head of a coalition of rival parties that ended years of political deadlock in Sofia and placed the EU member of 6.5 million on a pro-European course. Historically a nation with strong ties to Russia, Bulgaria has pledged to reduce its dependency on Moscow after years of near-total reliance on Russia for gas, oil and nuclear fuel.

Bulgaria was among the first EU member states to get cut off from Russian supplies after Ukraine was invaded began last year, prompting an acceleration of long-delayed projects to secure imports from Azerbaijan and regional liquefied gas terminals in Greece and Turkey.

Denkov has also vowed to boost military support for Ukraine after several interim cabinets hesitated. A major producer of Soviet-style ammunition, Bulgaria is now looking to expand its production capacity, the prime minister said.

Bulgaria is part of a joint initiative of NATO member states in the Black Sea region, along with Romania and Turkey, to set up a mine-sweeping mission, which Denkov hopes will be deployed very soon.

Yes, I am concerned about Russias aggression in eastern Europe, he said. The Kremlin is looking for restoring the power of the Soviet Union, of the Russian Empire. And in these two entities, Bulgaria was always of key interest.

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Hungary and Serbia are sustaining the Kremlin's military machine and aren't seeking alternative energy sources amidst intensifying disputes over a tax on Russian gas imports, Bulgarian PM Nikolay Denkov said on Oct. 27, as reported by Bloomberg.

Denkov indicated that his government intends to put a tax on Russian natural gas that transits through Bulgaria. The PM's aim is to cut off profits for Russias Gazprom, which are used to finance the war against Ukraine.

Read also: Bulgaria shuts down criminal ring supplying military goods to Russia

Hungary has called this measure an "act of hostility," while Serbia claimed that the tax threatens to halt crucial fuel supplies in the region.

Read also: Hungary blocks $534 million in EU aid to Ukraine, again  report

There was sufficient time to look for alternatives, to see that these profits are feeding the war machine of Putin , Denkov said in response.

On Oct. 17, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban met with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin in Chinatheir first meeting since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his Slovak counterpart Robert Fico voiced objections to the EU's aid for Ukraine, while most of the bloc's leaders affirmed continued support during the Brussels summit on Oct. 26, Reuters reported.

Orban, "for the time being," rejected the planned 50 billion euros ($53 billion) aid package for Kyiv, and Fico named corruption in Ukraine as a potential challenge to future support, Euroactiv said.

"The one (package) in front of us  that's not going to work. So, for the time being, we will reject that as well, and we will see where we get in December," Orban said. EU leaders are expected to reach consensus on future financing for Ukraine by the last month of 2023.

Fico, the newly appointed head of Slovakia's government, said shortly before he set off for the summit that Bratislava would halt all military aid to Ukraine, focusing only on humanitarian assistance.

He also vowed to promote this view in Brussels, adding that Slovakia will not support future sanctions against Russia without a proper analysis of potential domestic impacts.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov commented, however, that neither of the two leaders rejected support for Ukraine outright.

Read also: Zelensky asks EU leaders for endurance in face of Russias aggressive ambitions

"Neither of them rejected the possibility of providing aid to Ukraine  even in the long term. The question is what types of aid and how it is used, how the European Union can be sure it is used effectively," Denkov said on Oct. 27.

Orban may very well be withholding his approval for the $53 billion package as a bargaining chip. The debate on Ukraine aid comes just as Budapest is trying to unblock billions in funding earmarked for Hungary but frozen by the EU Commission over worries about the country's democratic backsliding.

Fico and Orban's positions earned criticism from among some of their peers. Estonia's Prime Minister Kaja Kallas asked them to consider the consequences of cutting military aid to Ukraine.

"If Russia wins, what's next? Why do they think we will be safe if we don't support Ukraine now?" Kallas said.

EU leaders convened for a two-day summit in Brussels between Oct. 26-27. In spite of the doubts voiced by Budapest and Bratislava, the joint statement of the bloc's chiefs pledged future support for Ukraine's struggle against Russian aggression.

"The European Union will continue to provide strong financial, economic, humanitarian, military, and diplomatic support to Ukraine and its people for as long as it takes," the statement read.

Read also: Peter Tkacenko: Slovakia after election  If not friend, certainly not enemy of Ukraine

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BUDAPEST (Reuters) -The European Union's strategy with regards to the war in Ukraine "has failed" and the bloc should create a plan B as the Ukrainians will not win on the frontline, Prime Minister Viktor Orban told Hungarian state radio on Friday.

Orban, speaking in Brussels on the sidelines of an EU summit, said there was a "big battle" especially over support for Ukraine. Orban said he saw no reason for Hungary to send its taxpayers' money to support Ukraine.

The EU is due to decide in December on a revision of its 2021-27 budget worth 1.1 trillion euros ($1.2 trln), which is already strained by emergency spending during the COVID pandemic and since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

The bloc's executive proposed that member states chip in more to the shared coffers to provide 50 billion euros to Ukraine and spend another 15 billion euros on migration. Another proposal would allocate 20 billion euros in military aid for Ukraine.

"We found this proposal had not been worked out properly, and was not suitable to be a basis for serious negotiations so we had rejected it," Orban said. "It was a big battle, especially on the Ukrainian issue."

Orban said the biggest problem was that the Brussels strategy to send money and military aid to Ukraine to help its fight against Russia has failed.

"Today everybody knows but they do not dare to say it out loud, that this strategy has failed. Its obvious that this will not work....the Ukrainians will not win on the frontline," he said, adding that a plan B was needed and a cost estimate for that.

"Once we know how much that costs, we can share that burden among ourselves."

Nationalist Orban, who has constantly clashed with Brussels in the past 13 years over policies his critics say have eroded democratic values in Hungary, said a leadership change was needed in Brussels at the European elections next year.

(Reporting by Krisztina Than; Editing by Sonali Paul and Christina Fincher)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN)  A 17-year-old who was caught vaping ended up being charged with bringing a gun onto Nashville school property, according to police.

During dismissal on Thursday, Oct. 26, the Metro Nashville Police Department said a Hunters Lane High School administrator saw the senior smoking a vape pen.

Juvenile charged after being seen with gun outside Franklin Simpson High School

Authorities said the administrator took the student into an office, searched the teens backpack, and recovered a loaded 9mm handgun.

No additional details have been released about Thursdays incident.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRN News 2.
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Friday urged insurance companies to speed up payouts after powerful Hurricane Otis wreaked havoc on Acapulco's beach resorts and surrounding impoverished communities.

The storm intensified with unexpected speed just prior to making landfall on Wednesday, becoming the most powerful storm to ever strike Mexico's Pacific coast.

In Acapulco, Otis claimed at least 27 lives according to the local governor's tally issued on Thursday, which has not been updated. It has also caused widespread destruction and billions of dollars in damages.

"We're going to talk to the insurers so that they do not delay the procedures, so that they act soon," Lopez Obrador said during his morning press conference while pledging other forms of assistance.

"For those who do not have insurance, we are going to find a way (for them) to benefit from cheap loans, both from commercial banks and development banks."

Consultancy CoreLogic wrote in a research note on Thursday that insurable damage to buildings from Otis' winds alone could reach $15 billion, adding that in Mexico insurance coverage tends to be limited to hotels and resorts.

Mexico will likely receive a payout of some $62.5 million from a catastrophe bond that insures the country against earthquakes and hurricanes, Plenum Investments estimated.

The investment manager calculated "a high probability" Mexico will get half of the bond's $125-million payment earmarked towards Pacific hurricanes.

In 2020, the World Bank issued four tranches of catastrophe bonds for the country's natural disaster fund, FONDEN, to insure against earthquakes and hurricanes for four years.

Bond documents showed Mexico had paid an undisclosed insurance premium for $485 million worth of coverage, which the World Bank transferred to 38 catastrophe bond investors.

(Reporting by Stefanie Eschenbacher; Editing by David Alire Garcia and Rod Nickel)
Hurricane Otis struck Acapulco, Mexico, early Wednesday in what the National Hurricane Center has described as a nightmare scenario.

At least 27 people have been killed by the enormously powerful Category 5 storm, whose winds were 165 miles per hour when it made landfall.

Before & after: This residential building in Acapulco, Mexico has been shredded by Category 5 Hurricane Otiss extreme winds. pic.twitter.com/CLZzLoA6SZ  Nahel Belgherze (@WxNB_) October 26, 2023

The storm broke several records for its destruction and behavior, including being the strongest hurricane on record to ever hit the Pacific side of Mexico  this after Hurricane Lidia had previously become the third-strongest earlier this month.

But Otis was significantly more damaging because of its location. Acapulco, with a population of over a million people, is likely the largest urban center in the world to ever directly experience the eyewall of a Category 5 hurricane.

Known for its tourism industry, Acapulco experienced massive infrastructure damage, with The New York Times reporting that about 80% of hotels saw storm damage.

And while the worst direct impacts of the storm may have passed, the people there are suffering, with one resident saying, We have no gas, no water, no food.

What made Hurricane Otis so dangerous?

While all hurricanes pose serious dangers, what made Otis so disastrous was its rapid intensification, giving residents little time to prepare.

Essentially, right before reaching Acapulco, Hurricane Otis experienced nearly unprecedented explosive development, going from a Category 1 [tropical storm] to a catastrophic Category 5 with nearly no warning, reports Fox Weather.

In just the span of a single day, Otis winds increased in speed by nearly 115 miles per hour.

Why are more hurricanes rapidly intensifying?

The ocean water below Otis was unusually warm, at 88 degrees Fahrenheit. As the storm moved closer to Acapulco, it absorbed energy from the water below it, powering its destruction.

The Atlantic describes hot ocean water as hurricane food. Hurricane researcher Philip Klotzbach explained to the Washington Post that when you have waters that are this hot, it does load the dice for rapid intensification.

So as our oceans warm because of the general overheating of our planet, theyre more likely to experience this rapid intensification. Unfortunately, research studies are confirming that rapid intensification is becoming more common.

The trend of more rapidly intensifying storms is frightening, as it makes predicting the severity of storms far more difficult. This means people have less time to prepare or evacuate.

How you can help

Right now, the people of Acapulco need support. Specifically, cash donations to aid organizations can ensure that people receive food, medical attention, and shelter to help them through the early stages of recovery.

Organizations like GlobalGiving and the Red Cross are among the best providing support to the Mexican people.

GlobalGiving is providing people with clean water, shelter, medicine, mental health support, and food. When donating to the Red Cross, you can specify that youd like your support to go directly toward disaster relief.

Solutions

Apart from donating to support the survivors of Hurricane Otis, there are other actions we can all take to prevent further damage from storms.

The best way to decrease the power of future storms is to keep our planet cooler. We can all do our part to achieve that by swapping from dirty energy sources, like methane gas and coal, to cheap and abundant clean energy, when possible.

Join our free newsletter for cool news and cool tips that make it easy to help yourself while helping the planet.
Hurricane Otis made landfall close to Acapulco, Mexico in the early hours of Wednesday after rapidly intensifying from a Category 1 to Category 5 storm in just 12 hours.

The hurricane had weakened to a Cat-2 and was moving inland by Wednesday afternoon. The storm is now around 100 miles northwest of Acapulco.

It is expected lose even more power as it hits Guerrero states steep mountains, before dissipating on Wednesday night.

The Mexican government discontinued a hurricane warning for Acapulco but issued a tropical storm warning for Punta Maldonado, around 100 miles to the south.

Heavy rain from Otis will continue to impact areas of southwest Mexico across Guerrero and Oaxaca states, and may also cause life-threatening coastal flooding through Thursday, NHC said.

The Mexican army and navy deployed more than 8,000 troops to Guerrero, an impoverished state plagued by violence linked to organized crime, with specialised equipment to aid in rescues.

Otis strengthened from a tropical storm into a major hurricane in the span of 12 hours on Tuesday before it hit Mexicos south Pacific coast at around 12.25am local time with sustained winds of 165 mph, the National Hurricane Center said.

Forecasters warned that the powerful storm was a nightmare scenario for Acapulco, a faded resort town which is home to nearly 1 million people.

The citys mayor said Otis may be more devastating than Hurricane Pauline, which hit Acapulco in 1997, killing more than 200 people and injuring hundreds of others.

Winds howled through hotels and a hospital in Acapulco as citizens tried to take cover. Video footage from the scence showed palm trees stripped of their leaves and a shopping center badly damaged. Half a million people were left without power.

With reporting from The Associated Press
A 16-year-old boy has been arrested and charged over a stabbing which left a Surrey teenager seriously injured.

Surrey Police was called to Nunappleton Way in Hurst Green, Oxted, at 14:30 BST on 19 October.

The 17-year-old victim was treated in hospital for serious injuries and later discharged.

The arrested boy, who is from London but cannot be named for legal reasons, was charged with attempted grievous bodily harm.

He was remanded in custody and due to appear at Guildford Magistrates Court on Friday, police said.

Follow BBC South East on Facebook, on X, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.
An Idaho judge on Thursday declined to dismiss a grand jury indictment against a man accused of fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students.

Bryan Kohberger is charged with four counts of murder and one count of burglary in connection with the deaths at a rental house near the schools campus in Moscow, Idaho, last November.

Kohbergers attorneys filed a motion earlier this year asking the judge to dismiss the indictment, contending in part that the jury was biased, that jurors were given inadmissible evidence, and that they didnt use the right legal standard when they decided to indict.

The arguments over claims of jury bias, prosecutorial misconduct and evidence were held in a closed hearing on Thursday because Idaho law keeps details about specific grand juries secret. The arguments about the legal standard used in the indictment were held in open court, however.

The jurors used a probable cause standard, Kohbergers attorney Jay Logsdon said in a hearing Thursday, when they should have used a reasonable doubt standard, which is a higher bar to clear.

But Idaho 2nd District Judge John Judge rejected that argument, saying the use of the lower standard was a matter of settled law.

A probable cause standard generally means there is enough evidence or grounds to show that a charge is well-founded. A reasonable doubt standard generally means that a reasonable person has seen enough evidence or proof in the case that they believe beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant committed the crime with which they are being charged.

Logsdon said the Idaho Legislature set the higher standard for grand jury indictments, but the Idaho Supreme Court effectively lowered the standard and never tested the constitutionality of its own rule.

Deputy Attorney General Jeff Nye, who is assisting the prosecution, countered that the Idaho Supreme Court has ruled on the issue multiple times, repeatedly upholding the probable cause standard. That burden of proof was properly met during Kohbergers grand jury proceeding, he said.

Second District Judge John Judge agreed, noting that grand juries have used the probable cause standard to indict people for 100 years in Idaho. He said Kohbergers defense attorneys would need to bring the issue to the Idaho Supreme Court if they want to pursue it further.

Kohberger appeared in Thursdays hearing wearing a suit. He did not speak during the proceeding.

The judge entered a not-guilty plea on Kohbergers behalf earlier this year. Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson has said he intends to seek the death penalty. Kohberger has waived his right to a speedy trial, and a trial date has not been set.

The bodies of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were found Nov. 13, 2022, at a home across the street from the University of Idaho campus. Investigators pieced together DNA evidence, cellphone data and surveillance video that they say links Kohberger to the slayings.
A 56-year-old year Idaho man faces two felony charges after police alleged he shot and injured another man following a Saturday night argument, according to a Facebook post from the Kuna Police Department.

Randell Waller, 56, was charged with two felonies: aggravated battery and an enhancement for the use of a deadly weapon, according to online court records. Waller was arrested and taken to the Ada County Jail on Saturday, and has since bailed out on a $50,000 bond, records showed.

If convicted, he could face up to 30 years in prison under Idaho law.

Officers from the Kuna Police Department, which contracts with the Ada County Sheriffs Office, responded to a home within the 700 block of White Fang Street just before 9 p.m. Saturday after police alleged Waller and another man got into a fight at a party, according to the Facebook post. Waller allegedly shot the man during the confrontation, which occurred outside the house.

The victim was visibly injured, the post said. Officers performed first aid on him until paramedics arrived.

Waller had his initial court appearance earlier this week, and hes scheduled to appear at the Ada County Courthouse for a preliminary hearing at 8:30 a.m. Nov. 3, online court records showed.
Israeli airstrikes rocked Gaza during a night of heavy bombardment after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Friday it is expanding ground operations in the besieged enclave, where communications links have reportedly been severed.

In a statement Saturday, the IDF said its warplanes hit 150 underground targets in northern Gaza overnight, striking what it called terror tunnels and underground combat spaces and killing several Hamas operatives.

Among those killed was Asem Abu Rakaba, the man in charge of Hamas aerial assets, who had taken part in planning the October 7 attacks on Israel and directed the terrorists who infiltrated Israel on paragliders, the IDF said.

The IDF is operating forcefully on all fronts and will continue striking Gaza City, IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Friday, repeating previous warnings that civilians should evacuate as he announced the intensified ground operation.

Gaza residents told CNN that the evenings airstrikes were the most intense they have experienced since Israel began to retaliate against Hamas October 7 terror attack around three weeks ago.

Speaking to CNN by phone from near Gazas Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, one eyewitness, Salem Ahmad Ammar, told CNN that he and his wife had decided to separate in hopes that one would survive to care for their kids.

Dont know if I (will) live to see the daylight tomorrow morning, Ammar said. I split from my wife, and the kids went to her parents house, and I came to the hospital here in the event we die in different places and maybe one of us would live and our kids will live. Difficult choices we are making.

A substantial ground offensive has been expected ever since the attacks, in which Hamas killed more than 1,400 people and saw some 200 people taken to Gaza as hostages. However, it is not yet clear whether the IDF announcement of an expanded operation signals the start of that push.

Mark Regev, senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told CNN that an expansion of ground operations in Gaza means Israels army is beefing up the pressure on Hamas. He told CNNs Jake Tapper that pressure will increase and continue to increase until we achieve our goal.

This is the third night of Israeli ground actions in Gaza, as it amasses thousands of troops on the border with the enclave. It comes after weeks of bombardment and blockading Gaza, precipitating what aid agencies call a humanitarian crisis.

Hamas has vowed to retaliate if Israeli ground troops enter Gaza. Izzat al-Rishq, a senior member of the Hamas political bureau, vowed that Hamas is ready to defeat Israeli soldiers if they enter the territory.

Ghazi Hamad, a senior Hamas official, told the Associated Press on Thursday that Hezbollah and other allies were expected to play a bigger role as the Israel-Hamas war rages. Hezbollah now is working against the occupation, he said, adding a rare public appeal: We appreciate this. But  we need more in order to stop the aggression on Gaza  We expect more.

Concerns have risen that Israels army may target Gaza hospitals after it alleged that the enclaves largest medical center, Al Shifa, is the site of a Hamas command and control center  a claim that Palestinian authorities in Gaza and Ramallah, as well as doctors at the hospital, have denied.

Hagari claimed Hamas of directing rocket attacks and commanding Hamas operations from bunkers underneath the hospital building, and appeared to suggest such hospitals could be on Israels target list. When medical facilities are used for terror purposes, they are liable to lose their protection from attack in accordance with international law, Hagari said.

The Director General of the Gaza Health Ministry, Dr. Medhat Abbas, told CNNs Eleni Giokos that Gazas hospitals, are used to treat patients only and are not being used to hide anyone. Hamas also rejected the claim, calling on the United Nations, Arab and Islamic countries to immediately intervene to stop the madness of bombing and destroying the medical system.

Mustafa Barghouti of the Palestine National Initiative based in Ramallah said Israel was lying. They keep lying to justify criminal acts against a civilian population, now they want to justify attacking people in a hospital he told Sky News.

And Mads Gilbert, a Norwegian physician who has worked at the Shifa hospital on several occasions, including during three periods of open hostilities between Hamas and Israel, called the allegations old.

We heard these unsubstantiated claims during the 2009 and 2014 attacks. We have never seen any single sign or proof, weve had zero restrictions on filming and photographing in Shifa, and have never been controlled in any ways, he told CNN.

The world is facing a historic moment

The intensified bombardment began Friday evening, local time. A CNN team on the ground in southern Israel, close to the border with Gaza, reported a series of large explosions rocking Gaza City in the north of the enclave, and unusual, intense and sustained military activity and hearing heavy machine gunfire.

Gaza appears largely cut off from the world, with communications in the enclave badly disrupted by airstrikes, according to Palestinian telecoms company Jawwal. London-based monitoring firm NetBlocks has also reported that the last standing major internet operator in the region, Paltel, has experienced damage to its international routes.

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh accused Israel of cutting communications and internet to Gaza on Friday in an attempt to create darkness so that crimes can be committed in preparation for an IDF ground operation.

The world is facing a historic moment Shtayyeh told CNN, and called on the global community to act to stop aggression and massacres to come.

Several aid organizations and UN agencies say they have now lost contact with local staff in Gaza.

Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the organization had been unable to communicate with its staff and health facilities, health workers and the rest of our humanitarian partners on the ground.

Catherine Russell, executive director of UNICEF, said on X, formerly Twitter, that she is extremely concerned about her team in Gaza after losing touch with them. All humanitarians and the children and families they serve MUST be protected, Russell added.

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders, said it had lost contact with some Palestinian colleagues in Gaza, while the International Committee of the Red Cross said it was deeply worried for the safety of its staff and civilians.

Without information in a communication blackout, people dont know where to go for safety. Blackouts impede humanitarian and medical personnel from working safely and effectively, the Red Cross said.

International news agencies also expressed concern after the IDF said it cannot guarantee the safety of journalists reporting from Gaza, Reuters reported on Friday.

At least 29 journalists have been killed during the Israel-Hamas war since October 7, making it the deadliest period for reporters covering conflict in decades, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

The continuous bombardment of Gaza since hostilities broke out after the bloody October 7 attack has led to a crisis in the impoverished and densely-populated enclave.

More than 2 million people are affected, the UN Relief Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA)  the main UN agency in Gaza  warned on Friday, adding that amid food and water shortages, sewage is overflowing on the streets. More than 7,300 people have been killed and 18,500 more injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, according to figures released Friday by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah drawn from sources in the Hamas-controlled enclave.

The ministry says children, women and the elderly make up 70% of those killed.

Fifty-three UN staffers have also been killed since fighting began, with 14 dead in the past 24 hours, according to an UNRWA statement Friday.

Gaza hospitals have been forced to work with dwindling resources and power shortages; eyewitnesses at Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital said on Friday the institution had been plunged into darkness.

One eyewitness said Gaza has been left in the dark with no connection to the outside world, adding the hospital has received the bodies of 11 people killed and dozens injured from the intensified bombardment. They expect casualties to rise.

Explosions are seen near the Israel-Gaza border, October 27, 2023. - Reuters

Another eyewitness, Alla Majhool, said she came to the hospital because her 4-year-old niece was injured in a previous strike.

I am terrified and shaking, I cant call my family and sisters to check on them, all we hear is explosions, Majhool said. Its dark and there are no communications, we dont know where the airstrikes and artillery shelling is hitting.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said it has completely lost contact with the operations room in Gaza and all our teams operating there.

Phillipe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA said earlier on Friday that while aid has begun to trickle into Gaza from Egypt through the Rafah crossing, deliveries so far amounted to nothing more than crumbs.

Efforts to free hostages ongoing

As the intensified bombardment began, Jordanian foreign minister Ayman Safadi urged nations to vote for a UN resolution calling for a halt to the fighting, saying on social media that the outcome of any Israeli ground operation will be a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions for years to come.

Millions will be watching every vote, he said. History will judge.

An overwhelming majority of 120 nations voted for the resolution, which calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities in the war between Israel and Hamas and for aid to be allowed to flow unrestricted into Gaza. The US and Israel sharply criticized the resolution text, however, for not explicitly criticizing Hamas.

Israels ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan asked the assembly, Why are you defending murderers?

Israel just endured the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, and according to a majority of the so-called family of nations, Israel has no right to defend itself, he said.

Israels expanded ground operation comes amid ongoing efforts to free hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. Earlier on Friday, a source touted significant progress in negotiations.

When asked about a possible deal, IDF spokesperson Hagari told reporters to disregard rumors. He dismissed reports that a hostage deal was close to being brokered as psychological terror and a cynical use of Israeli civilians by Hamas.

The White House said it would not be appropriate to weigh in on Israels expanded military campaign.

We have, of course, certainly seen Israel undertake varied operations on the ground in the last couple of days, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Friday. But again, were not going to get into the habit of chiming in from the sidelines here on what theyre trying to do on the ground.

Kirby declined to say if Israel had informed the US before launching an expanded ground operation into Gaza Friday. He also declined to say if the Biden administration has confidence that Israel has fully considered the ramifications of a ground incursion.

But Kirby said the US had held active conversations with Israel about a humanitarian pause to allow for the release of hostages. We are working as hard today as we were yesterday and the day before and the day before to get these hostages home, Kirby told CNN.

This story is developing and will be updated.

CNNs Jeremy Diamond, Andrew Carey, Ibrahim Dhaman, Jonny Hallam, Kevin Liptak, DJ Judd, Priscilla Alvarez and Sam Fossum contributed reporting.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
Israeli Defense Forces confirmed Friday that they will expand their ground operations in Gaza, after loud explosions were seen and heard near the Israel-Gaza border.

The blasts were observed near the Gaza border in southern Israel , where Fox News' Trey Yingst reported live from the scene.

Yingst reported Israel concentrated its heaviest fire on the Gaza Strip since the start of the war on Oct. 17. Internet and cell communications went down for some in Gaza amid the Friday evening airstrikes.

There was a specific effort underway by the Israeli military to strike targets in the northern part of the Gaza Strip by air, land and sea, Yingst reported.

ISRAEL CONDUCTS AIRSTRIKES IN WEST BANK, SYRIA OVERNIGHT, KILLS HAMAS COMMANDER

Civil defense teams and civilians conduct search and rescue operations after Israeli attacks on Al-Shati refugee camp of Gaza City, Gaza, as Israeli attacks continue on the 21st day on Gaza. As a result of the Israeli attacks, some buildings were completely destroyed, while others were severely damaged.

Live footage showed fireballs above Gaza City.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

Israel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told journalists Friday it is not a question of if, but when Israel conducts a ground operation to eliminate Hamas.

ISRAEL CONDUCTS GROUND INCURSION IN GAZA, TANKS ROLL THROUGH BORDER AREA

An Israeli army M109 155mm self-propelled howitzer is deployed at a position along the border with the Gaza Strip near Sderot in southern Israel amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement.

Israeli raids overnight by land and sea targeted tunnel infrastructure beneath the Gaza Strip, as the number of hostages held captive by Hamas has risen to 229 people.

Overnight, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) raid struck a compound use by Hamas' naval forces, the military said.

"IDF soldiers of Flotilla 13 conducted a targeted raid from the sea in the southern Gaza Strip. During the activity, the soldiers struck Hamas military infrastructure and operated in a compound used by Hamas' commando naval forces," the IDF said.

The soldiers were assisted by Israeli Navy vessels and aircraft. IDF forces exited the area after the raid was carried out.

Hamas terrorists in a statement claimed to have repelled the Israeli raid from the sea.

IDF earlier said it killed the commander of Hamas' West Khan Younis Battalion, Madhat Mubasher, in an overnight airstrike in the Gaza Strip. Mubasher "took part in sniper attacks and was responsible for large explosive devices [used] against IDF forces and Israeli towns," according to the military.

A Hamas rocket struck a residential building in Tel Aviv, injuring three civilians as Hamas terrorists continue to fire at major Israeli population centers.

Fox News' Trey Yingst contributed to this report.





Original article source: IDF to expand Gaza ground operations as heavy explosions pound area near border
I'm a solo traveler in my 20s who spent a week traveling around Morocco on a guided tour.

Although I was the youngest traveler by a few decades, I enjoyed bonding with the other tourists.

Guided tours are a great, affordable introduction to the world of independent travel.

As a 23-year-old solo traveler, I'm used to a particular way of traveling. Most of my nights are spent in hostels with people my age.

But earlier this year, feeling exhausted and fulfilled after a solo trip in Jordan, I longed for some relief from the constant stress of traveling alone as a woman. So I decided to spend my next trip traveling around Morocco on a budget bus tour with 30 other tourists, most of whom were retirees, for a week.

Instead of hostels, I would be arriving at a four-star, sleek hotel for my first night in Rabat. Plus, I would no longer be alone.

For just over $832, the eight-day "Classic Morocco" tour took us from Rabat to places like Fes, Marrakech, and Casablanca.

At first, I was embarrassed to admit that I was part of a tour group

Every tour group member had a big, swinging audio transceiver and earbuds around their neck, astutely listening to our tour guide, who spoke into his own little headset.

We all wore big lanyards with the tour company's logo on them. I was mortified.

The first few days of my trip, I tried to shrink into the mass of tourists the best I could, fearful that I would be grouped with the likes of "people who book bus tours."

Being young and an experienced traveler, I tend to rebuke these types of tours. But I eventually got over all of that.

It was nice to have the itinerary planned for me, but I did miss the freedom that comes with solo travel

It was nice to go sightseeing without having to plan the itinerary. Tuul & Bruno Morandi/Getty Images

This style of sightseeing was not conducive to slow travel, nor was it a way to travel deeply in one place or gain a complex understanding of the culture.

But on my trip through Morocco, the day-to-day itinerary felt full. It was a lovely surprise to be able to completely relax and let go of the logistics. Without the stress of getting lost or missing public transport, I was able to focus on the historical and cultural facts that the guide prepared.

Navigating the traditional markets of Morocco (known as souks) was made easier with our tour group, but where we shopped and wandered was limited.

Like any big tour, we had to make our planned stops. The autonomy of wandering was lost, and sometimes, I felt we were herded into a carpet or tannery shop for far too long.

I also found I loved bonding with the other tourists

Through the staged theater of it all, I found a sense of solidarity and humor with other guests.

It quickly became clear that I was the youngest person on my tour, beating most people by decades. I was also the only solo traveler on the trip.

However, the tour group provided a built-in social network, which can be a relief when coming off of extended travel or solo adventuring. As a 23-year-old, bonding and traveling with retirees was an entirely different experience.

The evenings were slow, and meals were quiet but often filled with insightful conversations (and sometimes disagreements) about current affairs and generational outlooks.

My "best friends" on the trip were a man in his early 80s and his wife, both happily enjoying their retirement. Another couple in retirement gleefully showed me videos of their daughter, who was a talented hobbyist pole dancer. I truly never knew what stories I was going to get.

Overall, the guided tour was a great way to learn more about Morocco

Claire standing in front of a painted "We Casablanca" sign

I would definitely book another guided tour if the price was right.Claire Barber

The guided tour offered an affordable way to get a taste of a new country.

For a young person and/or solo traveler, a guided tour is a great introduction to pseudo-independent traveling and can serve as a great in-between before you go off and explore a country alone.

I suggest taking one of these tours, especially if you have time to extend your stay in the region to get a deeper feel for the culture. To get the most out of the experience, be sure to book with a company that hires local guides.

If you're thinking of traveling to Morocco, it's important to keep in mind that a lot has changed since my group trip in January. In September, Morocco faced the most devastating earthquake the country has seen in over 60 years.

Because the country is still recovering, I'd advise prospective travelers to extensively research how tourism in certain recovering areas was impacted, as well as the impacts on local capacity.

Read the original article on Insider
Women in Russia are facing increasing restrictions on their abortion rights, and although the procedure is still legal and widely available, recent attempts to restrict it have touched a nerve in the increasingly conservative country.

Although the banning of the procedure is merely a proposal for now, private clinics across the country have already begun to stop providing abortions.

Nationwide, the Health Ministry has drawn up talking points for doctors to discourage women from terminating their pregnancies. New regulations, too, will soon make many emergency contraceptives virtually unavailable and drive up the cost of others.

Russian activists are stepping up their game, urging supporters to make official complaints, circulating online petitions and even staging small protests against the potential change to the law.

Some in the country and internationally say the change is similar to the overturning of the Roe-v-Wade legislation in the United States last year.

Its clear that there is a gradual erosion of abortion access and rights in Russia, and this is similar to what has taken place in the US, Michele Rivkin-Fish, an anthropologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill told the Associated Press.

Last year's US Supreme Court decision rescinded a five-decade-old right to abortion almost immediately reshaped American abortion policy, shifting power to states as opposed to central government.

Over the last 16 months, about half of all US states have adopted bans or major restrictions - although not all are currently being enforced due to a variety of legal challenges.

People light candles during an anti-abortion service in an Orthodox church in Vladivostok, Russia - AP/File

In the Soviet Union - which came to an end in 1991 - abortion laws meant that some women had the procedure multiple times due to difficulties in obtaining contraceptives.

After the USSR's collapse, government and health experts promoted family planning and birth control, which saw abortion rates fall significantly.

Until Vladimir Putin came to power in the late 1990s, laws allowed women to terminate a pregnancy up to 12 weeks without any conditions. They were also permitted to abort up to 22 weeks for so-called social reasons, including like divorce, unemployment or income changes.

Early on in his leadership, Putin forged a powerful alliance with the Russian Orthodox Church and chose to promote traditional values while seeking to boost population growth.

Its a position taken by many politicians in Russia.

Putin, left, meets with Health Minister Mikhail Murashko in July. Murashko has been criticised for condemning women for prioritising careers over childbearing - Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP

Earlier this year, health minister Mikhail Murashko condemned women for prioritising education and career over childbearing.

Currently, abortion is only legally allowed between the period of 12 and 22 weeks in instances of rape.

All women seeking the procedure - depending on what stage of pregnancy - must wait at least 48 hours or up to a week between their first appointment and the abortion, in case they reconsider their choice.

State-issued guidelines ensure they are offered psychological consultations designed to discourage abortions.

Health authorities have also introduced an online motivational questionnaire which outlines state support if women continue the pregnancy.

In one region, clinics refer women to a priest before getting an abortion. Authorities claim the consultation is voluntary, but some women have told the media they had to get a priest to sign off to be given permission to go through with the procedure.

With all those hurdles to jump over, its perhaps unsurprising that the number of abortions in Russia has fallen from 4.1 million in 1990 to 517,000 in 2021.

A woman holds a baby as she walks down a street in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russia, Friday, Sept. 15, 2023 - Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP

Increased restrictions in a time of war

The anti-abortion push comes as Russian women appear to be in no rush to have more children amid the war in Ukraine as well as economic uncertainty.

There are reports of a significant rise in sales of abortion pills since the beginning of the conflict in 2022 but a recent decree from the Health Ministry has restricted circulation of the medicines.

Mifepristone and misoprostol are used to terminate pregnancies in the first trimester. The decree puts the pills on a registry of controlled substances requiring strict record-keeping and storage making access ever more complicated for women in need.

The move is also likely to affect the availability of emergency contraceptives - sometimes known as morning-after pills.

Three out of six brands available in Russia contain mifepristone in a low dose, meaning they'll be severely restricted once the decree takes effect in September 2024. Prices are also likely to shoot up due to the restrictions.

They will require a special prescription and many pharmacies wont keep them in stock. Needing a prescription could mean women miss the time window in which to take the pills, which could result in an uptick in unwanted pregnancies.

The Health Ministry has not yet commented on whether or not theyll exclude all morning-after pills in the decree but, if that does happen, Russian women may well be put into a very difficult position.

FILE: FILE - Two pregnant women undergo an examination in a family planning center in the city of Yekaterinburg on July 23, 2003 - AP/URAL PRESS PHOTO

Changes at the top

Senior lawmakers are currently pushing for an outright, nationwide ban on abortion in private clinics. State statistics reveal that thats where about 20% of procedures took place in recent years.

Conservative lawmakers have tried and failed to enact such a ban previously - but the Health Ministry now says it is ready to consider it.

Regional authorities are already succeeding in getting some private clinics to stop offering abortions.

Kaliningrad is mulling a region-wide ban and in Tatarstan officials say about a third of all private clinics no longer provide them.

An online petition against the ban in Kaliningrad has gathered nearly 27,000 signatures.

In seven other regions across Russia, the Health Ministry is using another pilot project: having gynaecologists try to get women to reconsider having an abortion.

A document given to doctors with a number of stock phrases to use during abortion consultations includes phrases like pregnancy is "a beautiful and natural condition for every woman, while an abortion is harmful to your health and a risk of developing complications.
Indi was born on 24 February and is now eight months old

The father of a critically ill baby says he has failed to persuade doctors to look at "last ditch" evidence which he believed could save her life.

Indi Gregory's parents have been involved in a legal battle to stop her life-support treatment being withdrawn.

Dean Gregory said he and Indi's mother had now "given up" and have asked medics to wait until Monday before removing treatment.

The hospital involved has said it will give Indi the "best possible care".

Evidence 'swept aside'

Mr Gregory, from Ilkeston in Derbyshire, said the new evidence was from an independent cardiologist, but medics treating Indi at the Queen's Medical Centre had told him it created "no new material change to the circumstances".

"The evidence from the cardiologist has been simply swept aside and brushed under the carpet," he said in a statement.

"We do not want to go to court with this, because we have seen how this system works - the judges just rubber-stamp NHS decisions and are not interested in independent expert opinions or any other evidence.

"We have now given up on the legal battle."

Indi's parents, Claire Staniforth and Dean Gregory, have "given up" their legal battle

Indi has mitochondrial disease, which prevents cells in the body producing energy and is incurable according to the NHS.

Her parents' legal battle has been with Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the Queen's Medical Centre.

Earlier this month a High Court judge ruled doctors could withdraw Indi's life-support, against her parents' wishes.

Her parents challenged the ruling but their case was dismissed by Court of Appeal judges.

They then failed in an attempt to take their case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, France.

Indi's parents expect her life-support treatment to be withdrawn on Monday

The hospital trust's medical director, Dr Keith Girling, said after that decision: "Cases like this are incredibly difficult for everyone and our thoughts are with Indi's parents.

"Today's decision by the European Court of Human Rights concludes what has been a very difficult process.

"Our priority now is to provide the best possible care to Indi and to support her parents during this difficult time."

Follow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on X, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.
(Bloomberg) -- New Delhi is considering appealing the death sentence handed down to eight former Indian navy staff in Qatar, according to people familiar with the matter, in a case thats shocked the government and prompted an outpouring of concern.

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The governments top priority is an appeal against the verdict and using diplomatic channels to help the retired navy officials, the people said, asking not to be identified given the sensitivity of the issue. Qatars judicial system allows for an appeal in the case, they said.

The eight men, who were involved in training the Qatari navy, were sentenced to death by the Gulf countrys Court of First Instance for alleged espionage, a person familiar with the matter said Thursday.

Indias Ministry of External Affairs didnt provide any details of the charges in a statement Thursday, adding it was deeply shocked by the verdict and would take up the sentencing with Qatar authorities. Qatars government hasnt made public any details about the case.

Ajay Alok, a spokesman for Prime Minister Narendra Modis ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, said India was prepared to fight a legal battle to bring the eight men back home, Press Trust of India reported Friday. He said the International Court of Justice was there to use as well.

Indias Ministry of External Affairs didnt immediately respond to a request Friday for further information.

The case is likely to pose a new diplomatic headache for Modis government, which is already embroiled in a dispute with Canada over the killing of a Sikh separatist leader in the country. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has accused Indias government of helping to orchestrate the murder, claims that have been dismissed by New Delhi as absurd.

India and Qatar have strong economic ties, but diplomatic relations have come under strain recently. In June last year, Qatar demanded an apology from India after BJP members made derogatory comments about Islam, resulting in angry protests from several Gulf countries.

Qatar summoned Indias ambassador at the time to register its disapproval and condemn the remarks. New Delhi tried to distance itself from the people who had made the comments and said it took strong action against them.

Qatar is the largest supplier of liquefied natural gas to India, accounting for over 50% of the South Asian countrys LNG imports. More than 700,000 Indian nationals also reside in Qatar, making them the largest expatriate community in the Gulf state.

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(Bloomberg) -- Sign up for the India Edition newsletter by Menaka Doshi  an insider's guide to the emerging economic powerhouse, and the billionaires and businesses behind its rise, delivered weekly.

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Maldives intends to be fully independent and will ask Indian troops stationed in the island nation to leave, says President-elect Mohamed Muizzu, as New Delhi and Beijing both vie for influence in the region.

In a heated election campaign, Muizzu had accused incumbent Ibrahim Solih of allowing India unchecked sway over the island nations affairs and of surrendering the countrys sovereignty by allowing Indian troops to be stationed there.

It happens to be Indian foreign military presence here, Muizzu, the newly elected head of the Indian Ocean archipelago, said in a wide-ranging interview to Bloomberg TV. He added that his reaction would be the same if the troops were of any other country.

Around 70 Indian military personnel maintain New Delhi-sponsored radar stations and surveillance aircrafts. Indian warships help patrol Maldives exclusive economic zone.

Muizzu said he has already begun negotiations with the Indian government on removing its military presence, calling those talks very successful already.

We want a bilateral relationship thats mutually beneficial, Muizzu said, adding that Indian soldiers wont be replaced by troops from other countries. Asking India to remove military personnel no way indicates that Im going to allow China or any other country to bring their military troops here, he said.

Muizzus win extends the tug-of-war between China and India for influence over the strategically located Indian Ocean. Successive governments have tilted either toward India or China. Both Asian powerhouses have invested heavily in upgrading Maldives infrastructure and extended loans, as they compete with each other.

The US and its allies such as Japan and Australia are looking to isolate an increasingly assertive and assured Beijing and have invested heavily in propping-up New Delhi as a regional counterweight and key partner in Asia. That seemed to pay off as Muizzus predecessor, Solih steered the country closer to India.

Seeking Cooperation

Muizzu now promises to change tack by removing India troops and addressing the adverse trade balance with the South Asian neighbor.

We want assistance, cooperation with all the countries, Muizzu said, dismissing the notion that the elections were a referendum on closer ties with either China or India.

The 45-year-old engineer turned mayor of Male, the capital city, and one-time housing minister, leads a party that welcomed Chinese loans and oversaw a wide-ranging crackdown on dissent when it was last in power about five years ago. The nation of just over 500,000 people, spread over 187 inhabited islands, is a tourist destination and in the front lines of climate change. The archipelago also sits along busy shipping routes in the Indian Ocean.

India, which has long played the role of regional power, for its part, says it intends to work with the new Maldives government, even as it watches Muizzus moves warily.

We look forward to constructively engaging with the incoming administration and discussing ways to enhance our relationship further, Arindam Bagchi, a spokesperson for Indias Ministry of External Affairs, told reporters last week.

Asked specifically about the maritime security cooperation between the two countries and the presence of the Indian military, Bagchi said India was looking forward to continuing multifaceted cooperation and partnering with Maldives for the benefit of the Maldivian people.

India has carried out 500 medical evacuations saving 523 Maldivian lives in the last five years, Bagchi said, to reiterate Indias assistance to the nation.

India had extended a $1.4 billion financial package to Maldives in 2018 to stabilize the island economy and subsequently provided $500 million to build bridges and causeways linking Male to neighboring islands in 2020.

Maldives president-elect says he intends to work closely with all countries. The Indian ocean island country, Muizzu said, was too small to take sides in a geopolitical rivalry between bigger nations.

Maldives first, said Muizzu, who is scheduled to take office on Nov. 15. Thats, I think, something that can be easily understood.

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NATIFS, North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems, received the 2023 Julia Child Award in Minneapolis on Tuesday. NATIFS was founded by Indigenous chef Sean Sherman (Oglala Sioux Tribe) to address the economic and health crises affecting Native communities by re-establishing Native foodways.

Sherman focuses on the revitalization and evolution of Indigenous foods systems throughout North America. Through his activism and advocacy, Sherman is helping to reclaim and celebrate the rich culinary heritage of Indigenous communities around the world.

His goal is to make Indigenous foods more accessible to as many communities as possible through NATIFS and its Indigenous Food Lab professional Indigenous kitchen and training center. Working to address the economic and health crises affecting Native communities by re-establishing Native foodways, NATIFS imagines a new North American food system that generates wealth and improves health in Native communities through food-related enterprises.

Never miss Indian Countrys biggest stories and breaking news. Click here to sign up to get our reporting sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning.

Sherman and his wife, Dana Thompson , opened Owamni, an Indigenous restaurant along the Mississippi River in downtown Minneapolis in 2021. The restaurant features a decolonized menu of Indigenous foods and recipes including smoked Lake Superior trout, Red Lake walleye, native corn tacos with cedar braised bison, bison tartare, and conifer preserved rabbit with corn flatbread.

Among Owamnis accolades of recognition include, it made The New York Times list of its 50 new restaurants that year.

Chef Sean Sherman of the Oglala Lakota brings thirty years of James Beard award-winning experience with his wife Dana Thompson to Owamni. Side options include cornbread, cedar and maple baked beans, wild rice, and seasonal root vegetablesall without processed flour, sugar, or dairy products.

Shermans Seans first book, The Sioux Chefs Indigenous Kitchen, received the James Beard Award for Best American Cookbook in 2018, and he was given the 2019 Leadership Award from the James Beard Foundation.

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
Government facilities under construction at the forthcoming new national capital Nusantara in Penajam Paser Utara, Indonesia, on Sept. 21, 2023. Credit - Dimas ArdianBloomberg/Getty Images

When Joko Widodo , popularly as Jokowi, was sworn in as Indonesias seventh President in 2014, optimism surrounding the state of democracy in the country seemed at its peak. At a time when dynasties traditionally dominated Indonesias political arena, the ascension of Jokowi, who was a carpenter and furniture businessman before becoming the governor of Jakarta, was hailed as a beacon of hope.

Jokowis election almost 10 years ago represented the height of democracy in Indonesia, Vishnu Juwono, associate professor in public governance at the University of Indonesia, tells TIME. He was seen as an outsider, and hes benefited from the democracy system.

But as the curtains fall on Jokowis decade of rule, he may be remembered more for ushering in a new era of democratic decline. Even his capstone initiative, what was meant to be a sprawling monument to his legacythe development of a new capital called Nusantara, to replace the existing capital in Jakarta beginning as soon as next yearlooks to embody such a backsliding.

Indonesia's President Joko Widodo speaks about the planned new capital Nusantara, at Ecosperity Week in Singapore on June 7, 2023. Edgar SuReuters

Since it was announced in 2019, the ambitious project to relocate Indonesias capital from the island of Java to the island of Borneo has been mired in skepticism and criticismfrom inadequate public consultation to land disputes with indigenous communities to concerns about Chinese investment that critics say is making Nusantara a New Beijing. But a more insidious implication, observers caution, is the undemocratic nature that the new capital, tucked hundreds of miles away from Jakarta and set to operate without elected local leaders, will bring to the fore of what is currently the worlds third largest democracy.

While Indonesias current capital, which houses 10.5 million of the countrys 278 million people, may be the epicenter of the Southeast Asian nations economic activity, over the decades it has become increasingly uninhabitable. Jakarta residents regularly battle heavy traffic congestion, widespread flooding, and hazardous pollutionthe metropolis was earlier this year ranked as the worlds most polluted city when thick smog shrouded its residents. The city is also sinking at an alarming rate, with some forecasters estimating that a third of its land could be submerged by 2050.

As Indonesian authorities continue to look for ways to save the existing capital, a province some 800 miles away offers a clean slate devoid of Jakartas woes. Its on the lush hilly landscape of East Kalimantan that authorities decided to build the new national capital of Nusantara from scratchhailed not just as a solution to Jakartas congestion and sustainability crisis but also as a crucial next step in Indonesias development.

When we agree to move forward as an advanced country, the first question that needs to be answered is whether in the future, Jakarta as the capital city is able to bear the burden as the center of government and public services as well as center of business, Jokowi said in 2019 as he reignited dormant plans to relocate the government.

But what Nusantara represents is not so much a solution as a distraction, civil society groups and academics argue. Local authorities have long dragged their feet on addressing Jakartas urban environmental issueseven a court ruling in 2021, which found Jokowi and other senior officials guilty of negligence for the citys air pollution, has done little to trigger reforms.

It reflects really an escape plan of the failure of successive administrations in Jakarta to take on and manage the problems of Jakarta, Ian Wilson, a senior lecturer specializing in Indonesian politics at Australias Murdoch University, tells TIME. The problems of Jakarta will remain, regardless of Nusantara. Its quite disingenuous, I think, to suggest that Nusantara will help solve Jakartas problems. It will only solve them insofar as politicians will no longer feel any obligation to deal with them or even to speak to them.

But Nusantara doesnt just represent an avoidance of dealing with Jakartas troubles. It also looks set to further detach the countrys seat of government from its center of civic society, distancing decisionmakers from dissent. Jakarta has long been a stage for some of the most important moments of Indonesian politics: student-led protests led to the fall of authoritarian leader Suharto in 1998; in 2016 and 2017, amid growing religious conservatism, Islamist protests against Jakartas then-Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama saw him jailed for two years for blasphemy; and in 2020, protests against an omnibus law on job creation that many workers feared would curtail their labor rights led to the Constitutional Court ordering the government to amend parts of the legislation.

Similar projects in other parts of the world provide a glimpse into how new administrative capitals, built ostensibly to relieve clogged cities of their population burdens, can come at the detriment of public participation and protest. Critics have claimed that Naypyidaw, Myanmars notoriously desolate administrative capital unveiled in 2005 by its military regime, serves to shield the countrys military leaders from uprisings. Similarly, observers say that in Egypt, the New Administrative Capital, helmed by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and that has been under construction since 2015, is designed to benefit the military and the military-aligned government, in part by diminishing the significance of traditional protest spots in Cairo.

[These] new capital cities are built as pet projects of a particular administration, but also involve a process of disentangling government from broader civil society, says Wilson. I think its very difficult to not see Nusantara in those terms, when we see the broader analysis of the last 10 years of the Jokowi administration, which has seen a real democratic decline.

As for Nusantarawhere 16,000 Indonesian civil servants, members of the military, and police officers are due to move in next year and there are plans for an eventual population of 1.9 million by 2045how the new capital city itself is set to be run has already raised concerns among local observers. Unlike the rest of the country, which is governed by elected mayors or governors, Nusantara will be governed by a Capital City Authority helmed by chairpersons appointed by the President.

Ecosperity Week attendees view a presentation on Indonesias planned capital Nusantara, in Singapore on June 7, 2023. Edgar SuReuters

When you have this authority that runs the city and somehow it is not connected to all those people who live in that city, the notion of citizens doesnt make sense, Sulfikar Amir, an associate professor of sociology at Singapores Nanyang Technological University, tells TIME. He adds that Nusantara, the way it has currently been designed, will have only tenants and users, not citizens.

Nusantara, says Sulfikar, doesnt really represent the democratic system thats supposed to be the foundation of our city governance across the country. He says he worries, however, that the central government will believe that this is a perfect system that should be implemented across cities in Indonesia.

Known for his laser focus on economic growth, Jokowi has delivered the results. But under his leadership, Indonesia has also seen increased online censorship and a crackdown on critics, as well as legislative changes that critics say infringe on democratic valuessuch as the passage of a controversial criminal code last year that criminalized unauthorized protests or criticisms of the President.

Jokowi has also unabashedly begun fashioning his own political dynasty, having installed his family members in key state positions over the last several years. Last month, his 28-year-old son Kaesang Pangarep was named the chairman of the Indonesian Solidarity Party, a youth party, despite having no political experience. Meanwhile, Bobby Nasution, the Presidents son-in-law, became the mayor of Medan in 2020the same year that Gibran Rakabuming Raka, Jokowis eldest son, became the mayor of Surakarta. And just this week, Gibran was announced as the running mate to defense minister and leading presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto, after the Constitutional Courtwhich happens to be headed by Anwar Usman, the Presidents brother-in-lawcontroversially ruled that 36-year-old Gibran was eligible to join the presidential ticket despite the statutory age requirement of 40.

Furthermore, out of the three presidential candidates running to succeed Jokowi, only former Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan has vocalized doubts about Nusantara. While Jokowi has remained tight-lipped about who hes endorsing, his legacy will likely, according to current polls, be shouldered by his son Gibran andperhaps more concerninglyPrabowo.

A former military commander, who for two decades had been condemned internationally for rights violations, Prabowo twice unsuccessfully campaigned against Jokowi for the presidency in 2014 and 2019, before Jokowi helped rehabilitate his image by appointing him to his cabinet. Long known for his vehement opposition to democratic reforms in the country, Prabowos ascension, observers worry, could result in an even sharper centralization of power and turn toward authoritarianism for the country.

To be sure, Jokowi has maintained his popularity throughout all these maneuvers, boasting an 82% approval rating earlier this year. But if the start of his presidency heralded high hopes for Indonesian democracy, the end of itmarked by a swanky new capital and the paving of the path for Prabowo to potentially rule from ithas mostly dampened any optimism about the direction in which Indonesias democracy is headed.

A construction site at Nusantara, where Indonesia is offering greater tax cuts and looser terms for land acquisitions as it struggles to attract investors to its $33 billion new capital project, in East Kalimantan province, on Mar. 8, 2023. Rony ZakariaBloomberg/Getty Images

Indonesia is still a functioning democracy, this is without a doubt, says Wilson. But nonetheless, there have been very strong, autocratic trends, and I think Nusantara needs to be understood within that context.

Contact us at letters@time.com.
WEST PALM BEACH  A South Florida woman incarcerated in Texas says prison officials' failure to provide proper medical care has threatened to turn her brief stint behind bars into a death sentence.

Suzanne Kaye, 61, suffers from severe, stress-induced seizures. She went into cardiac arrest on the floor of a West Palm Beach courthouse last year after jurors convicted her of threatening to shoot FBI agents in the "(expletive) ass."

The threats, posted online under the alias "Angry Patriot Hippie," came in the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection and days before someone else shot and killed two agents executing a search warrant at a home in Sunrise.

Kaye's team of public defenders warned the judge that any prison sentence could result in the Century Village resident's premature death. They relied on thousands of pages of medical records to demonstrate a history of seizures that her doctors managed with medical marijuana, which is outlawed federally.

In April, U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg sentenced Kaye to 18 months in Federal Medical Center Carswell, a prison in Fort Worth, anyway. She did so after a medical director with the Bureau of Prisons agreed to see to it personally that Kaye receives the care she needs.

He did not.

"That was my mistake," Dr. Mark Holbrook told the judge last month, after Kaye went into cardiac arrest again.

Letters from half a dozen inmates and the testimony of Carswell's own medical director depict a standard of care unlike the one Holbrook promised. One where Kaye must depend on her fellow inmates to keep her heart beating, and doubts over the legitimacy of her seizures dampens what care she does receive.

Previously: 'Angry Patriot Hippie' collapses after jury finds her guilty of threatening to kill FBI agents

With a prosecutor and a public defender at odds over whether the threat to Kaye's life is great enough to end her prison sentence early  and a judge unsure if it can legally be done  Kaye's pathway forward is unclear.

Rosenberg already denied her request for release on bond on account of her poor health while her case makes its way through the appellate court earlier this year. In order for her to reconsider, Kaye's attorney must raise new questions of fact and law, or try a different approach altogether.

"I refuse to believe that a federal court can't intervene with a defendant whose life is in danger at the (Bureau of Prisons)," Assistant Public Defender Kristy Militello said during the latest of several hearings. "What the best recourse is, I will find it and file something with the court."

Time is of the essence, Rosenberg said.

Attorney calls prison bureau's conduct 'inexcusable, if not malpractice'

Holbrook told the judge in April that some inmates have medical needs beyond what the Bureau of Prisons can treat. Kaye, he said, is not one of them.

Five months later, her heart and lungs briefly stopped working on the floor of a friend's cell. Inmates screamed at the guards to call for help.

Granny's eyes were wide open, but you could see that the light was no longer there, wrote Katherine Moore, one of two incarcerated women who performed CPR on Kaye until medics arrived. She was gone.

Rosenberg didnt need to imagine the full-body convulsions Moore described, or the choking on saliva, or the vomit and moaning, or the extended silence between Kaye's breaths. Shed seen it happen once before in her own courtroom and was warned it would happen again if the proper precautions werent taken.

Holbrook said they would be.

More: 'Angry Patriot Hippie' threatened to kill FBI agents. She fears the penalty may kill her.

When vouching for Carswell, the doctor said Kaye would have access to a neurologist to treat her seizures and a psychologist to treat the anxiety that triggers them. He also promised a combination of anti-seizure medications that would take the place of her medical marijuana.

"He made several promises and several assurances. It appears none of which occurred," Militello told the judge in September. "I'm not saying he lied  maybe he meant to and he forgot  but it is inexcusable in my opinion."

Holbrook spoke in his defense later, telling Rosenberg he left a voicemail with someone he believed was Carswell's clinical director and never heard back.

Maitee Serrano-Mercado, Carswell's clinical director, testified that she was never contacted by Holbrook, and prison staff only belatedly learned that Kaye had a history of seizures.

Holbrook's outlook on Carswell remained rosy. He told the judge he was thankful Kaye was there because it is "the best location" for her to be provided care.

Once dubbed a "hospital of horrors," the Fort Worth prison is the only federal medical facility for incarcerated women in the country. It lost its accreditation during the pandemic and has not gotten it back.

Like prosecutor, doctor implies inmate may be faking seizures

Serrano-Mercado appeared in court virtually to address Militello's concerns with Kaye's treatment. She took the same position a federal prosecutor did when arguing why he believed Kaye was strong enough to withstand incarceration: Her seizures might not be real.

"I never use the word 'faking,' " Serrano-Mercado told the judge. "I don't believe it is faking. It is pseudo-seizure."

People experiencing a pseudo-seizure may believe what they're experiencing is real, the doctor said. Anxiety and stress can spur the brain to produce very real physical symptoms, even if body scans or blood tests show no trace of them.

Serrano-Mercado suggested that Kaye was holding her breath during a Sept. 3 incident for which she had to be hospitalized and intubated. As for her missing pulse, the doctor suggested that the paramedic who appraised her was too hyped up on adrenaline to find it.

The implication, which Militello called "offensive," was reminiscent of doctors' notes written on 20 pages of Kaye's 13,000-page medical record suggesting she either faked or worsened her ailments to get more medication.

Militello asked Serrano-Mercado whether the staff treating Kaye are the same who treated a woman named Gwen Rider, a Carswell inmate who committed suicide in August. The answer was yes.

Like Kaye, Rider was sent to Carswell because she needed medical treatment for epileptic seizures. In interviews with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Rider's family said staff accused her of faking her seizures, too.

Kaye was hospitalized again on Oct. 15. Her mother, Brenda Kaye, told The Palm Beach Post that medical personnel accidentally fractured her sternum while checking to see if she exhibited a pain response. Representatives for the prison have not returned requests for comment.

In an email to The Post, Kaye called the treatment of herself and other women at the prison "nothing short of torture."

"People come in here walking and leave in wheel chairs. People die here," she wrote. "I don't want to be one of them."

Hannah Phillips is a journalist covering public safety and criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at hphillips@pbpost.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: South Florida woman fears brief stint in Texas prison will kill her
More than 1.3 million metric tons of Ukrainian agricultural products and other cargo has been exported by 37 ships using the temporary corridor in the Black Sea, the Infrastructure Ministry reported on Oct. 27.

Another four cargo ships left Ukrainian ports on Oct. 27, carrying in total almost 130,000 metric tons of grain and 10,000 metric tons of metal.

The bulk carriers are headed to Africa, Asia, and Europe through the Bosphorus, the ministry said.

There are also 11 ships that have entered ports for the loading of over 200,000 metric tons of agricultural products and metal.

Reports emerged on Oct. 26 that Ukraines temporary grain corridor in the Black Sea had stopped operations, which Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov denied.

The information about the corridor "is false," the minister wrote on X.



"All available routes established by the Ukrainian Navy are valid and being used by civilian vessels."

Vessels have been using the Ukrainian corridor since Sept. 16 following the collapse of the Black Sea Grain Initiative in July after Russia pulled out.

The corridor does not go directly towards the Bosphorus Strait in a straight line as it did under the Black Sea Grain Initiative, but vessels hug the coastlines of Ukraine and NATO members Romania and Bulgaria for added security.



Unlike under the grain deal, vessels are exporting metal products from Ukraine as well.



Ukraines recent successful attacks on Russias Black Sea fleet have forced the Russian Navy to retreat, attracting more shipowners to take the risk and travel the Ukrainian corridor.

Read also: Minister: 700,000 metric tons of grain exported via Ukrainian Black Sea corridor

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
CONCORD, N.H.  The presidential campaign Dean Phillips will launch on Friday is such a longshot that some of his colleagues call it a vanity project. Other top Democrats privately deem it a mid-life crisis.

It may also be the clearest distillation to date of the undercurrent of discontent with Joe Biden among Democratic Party voters, even if it's not likely to represent much of a genuine threat to the president.

Phillips, a millionaire businessperson, sees his quixotic bid differently. In private conversations, the Minnesota Democrat has stressed that voters need a generational alternative to the 80-year-old president. A half-dozen people who have spoken directly to him say he has sincerely described feeling something akin to obligation to primary Biden, while also expressing concern about Bidens ability to beat former President Donald Trump a second time. He is seeing a problem that everyone sees, but no one is talking about, said one of those people, granted anonymity to discuss private conversations. They described Phillips as frustrated by it all.

He was really earnest in his presentation of it. He framed it as this revelation he had when he was in Vietnam, visiting the site of his fathers death, said another person who spoke to Phillips, citing the trip the lawmaker took last spring to the place where his father was killed in a helicopter crash during the Vietnam War. But I dont think he understands the institutional forces that he is going to be up against and how  even if a lot of Democrats privately share some of his fears  no one is going to line up behind him.



Initially, Phillips told these people he wanted to publicly recruit another candidate to this effort. In August, he called for a moderate governor to step up. I thought there was a way for him to raise this concern, identify if there was space for another candidate, get someone else in, and then gracefully bow out and resume being a member of Congress, said a third person who spoke to Phillips directly.

Now, I feel like he missed the window to land this plane, the person added.

Instead, Phillips himself decided to run  formally filing paperwork for "Dean 24, Inc." to the Federal Elections Commission on Thursday night. Several people said the campaign Phillips is likely to mount will bear a strong resemblance to his 2018 congressional bid.

During that contest, Phillips shunned much of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committees advice, relying on his deep marketing background instead. He drove a 1960 International Harvester milk truck to 32 cities and towns across his suburban Minneapolis-based House district, running a retail-heavy election. He argued for spending less on TV than on digital ads, while largely refusing to go negative on his Republican opponent.

His approach infuriated many Democrats in Washington. He won anyway, flipping a seat that hadnt elected a Democrat in decades.

Signs of Phillips dusting off that playbook are already evident. A Dean Phillips for President bus, seen recently driving around New Hampshire by two operatives in the state, is tagged with a 2018 slogan: Everyones invited. The government repair truck he used in 2018 is making another appearance, too, repainted with Dean Phillips for President.

He wants to scale his 2018 campaign to New Hampshire, if not to the national level, said one of the people who has spoken directly with the representative.



But a presidential primary is not a congressional race, especially when your objective is to take out an incumbent. And there are other clear and serious hurdles ahead.

Phillips has already failed to make the ballot in Nevada, the second presidential nominating state, and hes relying, in part, on a bombastic former Republican operative to lead it. In New Hampshire, where he plans to ground his bid, hes a total unknown, needing to introduce himself to the state party chair just two weeks ago.

Hes also squaring off against Biden, whos sitting on $91 million in campaign cash with the entire party machinery arrayed behind him.

For its part, the Biden campaign is not expected to engage the Phillips campaign much, according to a source familiar with the campaign's thinking. To the extent they do, however, the source noted that they would cast him as wealthy and out-of-touch, while highlighting his 100 percent voting record with Biden.

Everyone I know, to a person, is mystified, perplexed and frustrated by this move, and Dean has not really offered any public explanation, said Jeff Blodgett, a top Minnesota Democratic operative and donor adviser. People here are all in on Biden and focused on the work to get him reelected.

Steve Schmidt, a top campaign strategist to Sen. John McCains 2008 presidential campaign, is working with Phillips, which several Democrats called a red flag. In 2020, Schmidt also advised former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, another wealthy businessperson who considered an Independent presidential run. In addition, Phillips has brought on Ondine Fortune as a media buyer, while a firm led by Bill Fletcher, a Tennessee-based ad-maker, obtained permits for Phillips Friday event. Several staffers from Phillips congressional campaign are also filling out the early operation.

Phillips New Hampshire-focused bid comes at a particularly fraught moment for Democrats in the state, who lost their first-in-the-nation primary status for the 2024 presidential cycle earlier this month. The Democratic National Committee, with Bidens blessing, reordered the presidential nominating calendar last year, elevating South Carolina to the first-place slot.

But Phillips hasnt yet reached out to South Carolina Democrats, a sign hes not serious, said South Carolina Democratic Party Chair Christale Spain, who called Phillips a distraction because any serious Democratic candidate, would understand that Black voters in South Carolina have been the backbone of the Democratic Party." The states presidential filing deadline closes on Nov. 10.

New Hampshire, meanwhile, plans to run an unsanctioned contest, which is unlikely to yield any delegates for whomever wins the state in January. This week, the Biden campaign confirmed that the presidents name will not appear on the ballot, but top New Hampshire Democrats are expected to lead a write-in effort on his behalf. Marianne Williamson, who ran for president in 2020, will also appear on the New Hampshire ballot.

Turmoil over the calendar is a factor for former New Hampshire House Speaker Steve Shurtleff, who said he hopes Phillips runs because of the way things have been lined up by the DNC, who are trying to take it out of the hands of the people.

Ive got respect for Phillips that he may decide to get in the race, knowing what the price he might pay, Shurtleff continued. By challenging the president, for someone like Dean, it could be the end of his political career.

That question about Phillips future is still baffling Minnesota Democrats, many of whom said they expected him to run for statewide office one day. Instead, Democrats are lining up to run for his House seat, where hes already drawn a primary challenger in Ron Harris, a DNC executive committee member.

I believe every other Democratic member of Congress in Minnesota is supporting Biden, so it doesnt help when your home team is on board with the incumbent president, while youre trying to mount a challenge, said Mike Erlandson, a former chair of Minnesotas Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. I dont know that the congressman is particularly concerned one way or the other about what other people in political places of power think, though this probably doesnt help him with a statewide office run at home.

Holly Otterbein contributed to this report.
The Gaza Strip lost all connection to the internet on Friday due to Israeli airstrikes in the area, according to Palestinian authorities and at least one internet traffic group.

The blackout will make it even harder for those in Gaza to communicate with the outside world and comes as Israel expanded its bombardment of the strip on Friday after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants on Israeli settlements.

Palestinian telecommunications company Paltel wrote on X that the heavy bombardment of the last hour has caused the destruction of all remaining international tracks linking Gaza to the outside world, according to a translation of the post. Internet tracking organization NetBlocks said Paltel was the last major telecom group operating in the Gaza Strip.

A Paltel employee, speaking anonymously as the person was not authorized to talk to the media, told POLITICO on Friday that repairs were unlikely due to ongoing bombardment and a lack of equipment and supplies. Moreover, he said the company's workers in Gaza were sheltering and struggling to stay in contact.

The shutdown could be a precursor to the widely-anticipated ground invasion of Gaza, where residents have already suffered large losses from air strikes and targeted raids. Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters Friday that ground troops were expanding their activity in Gaza and that it is acting with great force  to achieve the objectives of the war.

NetBlocks and internet traffic group Cloudflare were among the organizations to track a sharp decline in connectivity in Gaza on Friday. David Belson, Cloudflare's head of data insight, said in an email that the company had seen traffic declines across several of the Gaza Strip governorates, and had tracked the complete drop-off in traffic of almost a dozen major internet service providers in Gaza since the Oct. 7 attacks.

Alp Toker, founder and director of NetBlocks, said Friday that his company had tracked the single largest disruption to internet connectivity in Gaza today, warning that the situation for many will be a total or near-total internet blackout at this point.

Todays outages are due to the bombardment, direct damage, Toker said. We have confirmation from the operator now that this was kinetic impact, and the terms are consistent with a sudden outage.

The IDF did not respond to a question from POLITICO as to whether its airstrikes or raids had targeted internet providers. However, it did provide a statement saying that it had expanded strikes in Gaza in the last few hours and that the Israeli Air Force had struck terrorist infrastructure in a significant way.

A spokesperson for the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lack of internet connectivity, and the State Department did not respond to a request for comment.

Critical infrastructure has been a major target of attacks during the Israel-Hamas conflict. An Israeli airstrike destroyed Gazas only power plant in 2014, and Israeli airstrikes in recent weeks have targeted at least 7,000 structures in Gaza. Paltel has struggled to provide service in recent years, shutting down phone and internet service to Gaza in 2017 in the middle of an electric power crisis. Hamas reportedly took down at least four Israeli communications towers on the border of Gaza as part of the Oct. 7 attack.

News service Al Jazeera told POLITICO they are still able to broadcast and communicate from Gaza using satellite connections.

Daniella Cheslow contributed to this report.
Smoke rises above Beit Hanoun in the Gaza Strip

There's been intense Israeli bombardment of Gaza by air, heavier than in previous evenings, while all internet and phone communications appear to be out in the territory.

Israel has confirmed its forces are expanding their ground operations.

The internet monitoring service Netblocks posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, to say there had been a "collapse in connectivity".

The Palestinian Red Crescent says it cannot speak to its teams in Gaza.

"We are deeply concerned about the ability of our teams to continue providing their emergency medical services, especially since this disruption affects the central emergency number '101'," they wrote in a post on X.

Meanwhile sirens alerted people in southern Israel to rocket fire from Gaza.

On Friday, the Israeli military again told Gaza City citizens to move south after announcing the expansion of its military operation.

In a press conference, spokesman Daniel Hagari said the military had "increased the attacks in Gaza. The air force widely attacks underground targets and terrorist infrastructure, very significantly".

"In continuation of the offensive activity we carried out in the last few days, the ground forces are expanding the ground activity this evening."

Currently we can't get hold of people in Gaza with communications still down.

For example the BBC tried to send a WhatsApp message at 6.40pm local (nearly three hours ago) - it still just has a single tick meaning it hasn't been received by the person's phone.

Mobile phone call attempts just get an unobtainable message.

We've had the same for several other call attempts - messages and calls aren't going through.

BBC Arabic reporter Mehdi Musawi tried to reach journalists and health officials in Gaza all day and could only get short replies on WhatsApp. Eventually, they got through to Gaza's Al Shifa hospital, but by evening all lines of communication were down.

By then, live footage showed complete darkness across the region. The reporter sent messages to everyone he had spoken to earlier in the day - but they did not deliver.

The panic and anxiety is spreading within the Palestinian diaspora.

For the past 20 days, sporadic, limited exchanges on WhatsApp have brought occasional moments of respite.

However, any extended gap in communication has been met with paralysing anxiety - marked by questions like: "Are they dead, are they alive, was their house bombed too?"

In one WhatsApp group relatives from around the world have been frantically messaging since the blackout.

"Oh my god!!" one wrote.

"It seems a ground offensive may start," wrote another.

The near-total telecommunications blackout in Gaza risks providing cover for "mass atrocities", Human Rights Watch said.

"This information blackout risks providing cover for mass atrocities and contributing to impunity for human rights violations," the group's senior technology and human rights researcher, Deborah Brown, said in a statement.

The Palestinian telecoms provider Jawwal says there is a "complete interruption of all communication and internet services with the Gaza strip in light of the ongoing aggression," which it says has cut the "last of the international routes" connecting Gaza to the outside world.

We've asked the Israeli military to comment on the communications outage but so far they have not responded.

Additional reporting by Brandon Drenon.

More on Israel-Gaza war
Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian insisted that Tehran-backed militants would decide on their own to take action if Israel continued its war on Hamas (ATTA KENARE)

Iran's foreign minister warned Friday that Lebanese and Palestinian militants had their "finger on the trigger" in anticipation of an Israeli ground offensive in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

Iran's clerical state backs Hamas, whose bloody assault inside Israel on October 7 triggered major retaliation, and has a close relationship with Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militia that frequently fires into Israel.

"What I gathered from what I heard from them and the plans that they have -- they have their finger on the trigger," Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said of Lebanese and Palestinian militants he has met.

Speaking to US National Public Radio from the United Nations, where he was attending a General Assembly session on the crisis, Amir-Abdollahian said the militants' actions would be "much more powerful and deeper than what youve witnessed."

"Therefore I believe that if this situation continues and women and children and civilians are still killed in Gaza and the West Bank, anything will be possible," he said.

Amir-Abdollahian insisted, however, that militants would decide on their own rather than at the behest of Iran.

"We don't really want this conflict to spread out," he said.

His remarks came after US President Joe Biden ordered air strikes on two sites in Syria said to be used by Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards.

The Pentagon cast the strikes as measured retaliation after strikes by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Syria that left one US citizen contractor dead from a cardiac incident and 21 US military personnel with minor injuries.

On October 7, Hamas militants stormed across the Gaza Strip's border, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and taking more than 220 hostages in the worst bloodshed in Israel's history.

Israel has struck back with a relentless bombing campaign which Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says has killed 7,326 people, mostly civilians, among them 3,038 children.

sct/dw
Editors Note: A version of this story appears in CNNs Meanwhile in the Middle East newsletter, a three-times-a-week look inside the regions biggest stories. Sign up here.

A day after Palestinian militant group Hamas launched its brutal attack on Israel, a curious video emerged out of Tehrans Azadi stadium. Hundreds of soccer fans, gathered to watch a match between Perspolis FC and Gol Gohar Sirjan FC, chanted in unison: Shove the Palestinian flag up your a**.

The vulgar protest came in response to officials attempting to raise a Palestinian flag in the stadium to show support for the October 7 attack. But for the fans, it was another unwelcome mixing of politics and soccer, and a stark reminder of the Iranian governments involvement in proxy battles in far-flung arenas.

Hamas attack, which killed 1,400 people according to Israeli authorities, prompted a fierce aerial campaign on Gaza that has so far killed more than 7,000 people, according to the health ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza. And there are now concerns that more fronts will open in the war, including one with Iran.

Experts say that while Iran is wary of being dragged into the Israel-Hamas war, it may not be in full control if the militias it backs in the region independently intervene as Hamas suffers heavy blows and the death toll in Gaza continues to mount.

What connects all these groups to Iran is their anti-Israel policies, said Sima Shine, head of the Iran program at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in Tel Aviv, noting that while Iran has varying levels of influence over the groups, it doesnt dictate all their actions.

In the early days after the October 7 attack, questions were raised about Irans potential involvement in the killings. Tehran at the time commended the operation but was quick to deny any hand in it . Initial US intelligence also suggested that Iranian officials were surprised by Hamas attack, and that Tehran was not directly involved in its planning, resourcing or approval, CNN has reported.

Despite its denial, however, Iran has ramped up its rhetoric against its arch enemy.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has warned that Israels bombardment of Gaza could have far-reaching consequences, saying that if Israel does not halt its airstrikes, it is highly probable that many other fronts will be opened.

This option is not ruled out and this is becoming increasingly more probable, he told Al Jazeera last week.

On Monday Abdollahian said the US has sent Iran two messages regarding escalation in the region.

The first message said that the United States is not interested in expanding the war, and the second message asked Iran to have self-restraint and insisted that Iran should also ask other countries and other sides to have self-restraint, Abdollahian said during a news conference in Tehran Monday, without saying how and when the messages were delivered.

He added that while the US says it wants to de-escalate, it has contradicted itself by continuing to support Israel.

Palestinians inspect the damage of destroyed buildings following Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City on Friday. - Abed Khaled/AP

Proxies have their own strategic calculations

Trita Parsi, vice-president of the Quincy Institute in Washington, DC, said there is no appetite or desire from either Iran, the US or Israel for a wider war, but that Washingtons failure to restrain Israel may inadvertently drive the region towards escalation.

US President Joe Biden last week pledged continued support for Israel, which has hardened Arab sentiment across the region and translated to mass protests against Israeli and American policies.

The only actor that has a clear interest in (a wider conflict) is Hamas, given that an enlargement of the war could change the dynamics in a favorable way for them, Parsi said. In the absence of US efforts to rein in Israel, many (regional) actors are going to feel compelled to step in because of their own strategic calculations.

When Israel is mobilizing 300,000 (troops), it is not likely that Hezbollah is going to sit there and assume that this is done only to go after Hamas, he said, adding that it will factor in the risk of Israel going after the Lebanese group as well.

An Iran-backed armed group and powerful regional force, Hezbollah has been trading fire with Israels military since the October 7 attack by Hamas. The fighting has been the worst since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, but it has so far been restricted to the border between Lebanon and Israel.

Israels defense minister last week said that Israel was not interested in another war with Hezbollah. Israel has nonetheless turned the area of 4-kilometer radius near its border into a closed military zone, and evacuated residents from 28 communities within 2 kilometers of the Lebanese border.

Hezbollahs influence spans beyond Lebanon, however. It also operates alongside Irans elite Revolutionary Guard Corps in Syria, where the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights separates Israel from Tehran-aligned fighters.

The Lebanese group also has its own channels with Hamas. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah met Wednesday with top officials from Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, it said in a statement, without revealing where the meeting took place.

An assessment was made ofwhat the parties of the resistance axis must do at this sensitive stage to achieve a real victory for the resistance in Gaza and Palestine and to stop the treacherous and brutal aggression against our people, it said.

The Hamas-Israel conflict has also led to skirmishes in Syria and Iraq, from which Iran-backed militias have launched multiple drone attacks on US forces. And the US now has specific intelligence that those same groups could escalate even further as the war between Israel and Hamas continues, CNN reported this week.

The US continues to warn Tehran against taking advantage of the current situation or encouraging its proxies to escalate. On Tuesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged the United Nations Security Council to warn Iran against any further involvement.

Tell Iran, tell its proxies in public, in private, through every means: Do not open another front against Israel in this conflict. Do not attack Israels partners, Blinken said, noting that a broader conflict would be devastating, not only for Palestinians and Israelis, but for people across the region, and indeed, around the world.

Israeli soldiers refuel their Merkava tank near the southern Israeli city of Sderot on Monday. - Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images

The US on Thursday carried out airstrikes targeting two facilities linked to Iranian-backed militias in eastern Syria, according to a statement from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. The strikes came after a series of drone and rocket attacks against US forces in the region. The statement said the targeted facilities have been used by Irans IRGC and affiliated groups.

Shine, of the INSS, said that Iran does not want a direct war with Israel because that would mean a direct war with the US. It is very obvious that Iran does not want to be directly involved, and would prefer that (only) the proxies are involved.

But that may not play out exactly how Iran wants, added Shine, who previously served in the Israeli intelligence community for most of her career.

Iran has to take into account that the world is not operating according to what Iran decides or wants, she told CNN. So, if they decide to use their proxies too much, they might find themselves in a war they dont want.

Parsi of the Quincy Institute said that the Iranian government is nonetheless preparing its population for war.

Iranian media has been brimming with news of the Gaza war, with officials across Irans political spectrum expressing solidarity with Palestinians.

Theyre already preparing the public opinion for this eventuality by essentially trying to make the argument that this is something that is brought to their doorstep because of what the Israelis are doing and because of the American support for it, Parsi said.

This shows there are already concerns in the Iranian government about how citizens will react to a war in which Iran is directly involved, he added.

Even if there is a widener war that is still below the threshold of a direct US-Iran engagement  where it is restricted to Iranian proxies fighting Israel  it would still be an extremely unstable situation, he said. No one can even control the current situation and make sure it doesnt escalate.

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WASHINGTON  Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, is considered by the United States to be one of the most dangerous threats to U.S. interests around the world  and has been for many decades. Its use of military, paramilitary and terrorist proxies has drawn the U.S. into confrontations with Tehran that could lead to a regional or even world war.

So far that hasnt happened. But many current and former national security officials fear it is only a matter of time given the group's recent provocations. That's especially the case because it comes against the backdrop of the Oct. 7 attacks in which Hamas militants  who have historically been funded, trained and equipped by Iran  crossed into Israel, killing more than 1,400 people and kidnapping as many as 220 hostages back into Gaza.

The U.S. launched airstrikes on two facilities linked to Iranian-backed militias in eastern Syria, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said late Thursday, after a series of drone and rocket attacks against U.S. forces in the region that the Biden administration believed were connected to Iran and the IRGC.

Austin said the two facilities in Syria were used by the IRGC and affiliated groups.

In a statement, the defense secretary said the U.S response makes clear "the United States will not tolerate such attacks and will defend itself, its personnel, and its interests."

Austin also noted the often covert activities of Iran and its IRGC, saying the U.S. does not seek conflict and has no intention nor desire to engage in further hostilities, but these Iranian-backed attacks against U.S. forces are unacceptable and must stop.

More: He's a key link between Hamas and Iran. Now Israel is hunting the world to find him

"Iran wants to hide its hand and deny its role in these attacks against our forces, Austin said. We will not let them."

What are the capabilities of the IRGC, now and how much of a threat does it really pose to U.S. interests? Could it draw Washington into the escalating Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip or into some other kind of military engagement?

Those questions are being urgently asked and debated in Washington and other world capitals in the aftermath of this most recent  and significant  escalation.

Marc Polymeropoulos, a former longtime CIA field officer in the Middle East, described the U.S. airstrikes as "very proportionate" and "fully justified, given threat to US forces" in an early post on X, formerly Twitter. But he added that the limited "but strong" U.S. message to Iran marks a significant escalation over past ones in that the airstrikes appeared to target an actual IRGC facility and not just a base used by Iranian proxy forces like local militia groups.

The immediate U.S. intelligence priority will focus on whether any actual IRGC operatives on site were killed, Polymeropoulos tweeted. "And, what will be overall Iranian reaction? Their rhetoric in public vs action."

What did the IRGC allegedly do to prompt U.S. airstrikes?

The airstrikes, directed by President Joe Biden, came after injuries to 21 American troops during 10 drone and rocket strikes in Iraq and three in Syria by Iran-backed militia groups between Oct. 17 and Oct. 24. One American, a U.S. contractor, died from a cardiac incident while sheltering in place during one of the attacks, U.S. officials have said.

The strikes also came after a series of warnings and threats by U.S. and Iranian officials.

On Wednesday, Biden warned Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that the U.S. would respond if Tehran tried to harm American troops stationed in the region.

"My warning to the ayatollah was that if they continued to move against those troops, we will respond and he should be prepared," Biden said at a Rose Garden news conference. "It has nothing to do with Israel" and its military response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, he said.

More: US strikes Iran-backed facilities in Syria following attacks on American troops

On Thursday, a day after Biden's warning, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said in a speech at the U.N. General Assembly that America "won't be spared from the fire of the war in region" if Israel's military assault on Gaza does not stop. "I say it frankly to American statesmen: We don't welcome the expansion of war in the region, but if the genocide in Gaza continues, they won't be spared from this fire," he said in English, according to a report by Iran International English, a news service for Iranians.

What is the IRGC?

The IRGC is a key part of Iran's armed forces, but it is separate from its conventional military. Established after the Iranian Revolution of 1979, it is charged with defending Irans revolutionary regime, especially its all-powerful cadre of religious leaders known as the mullahs.

According to the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, the IRGC has ground, naval and air forces, an internal security militia known as the Basij, and an elite external operations wing known as the Quds Force.

The Quds Force is one of the Iranian regimes primary organizations responsible for conducting covert lethal activities outside Iran, including guerrilla warfare and terrorist operations, according to the counterterrorism center's bio of the group. "Iran views terrorism as a tool that it can use to support its efforts to deter and counter its perceived foes, assert leadership over Shia Muslims worldwide, and project power in the Middle East."

Every year, top U.S. security officials from military, intelligence and law enforcement agencies testify to Congress that the IRGC and Quds Force remain at the top of the list of organizations interested in  and capable of  inflicting great damage to U.S. interests, most likely through the use of proxy forces they have cultivated around the world.

One of the most dangerous of those is Hezbollah, the U.S.-designated terrorist organization based in Lebanon that has been killing Americans since the bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983, which killed 241 American service members. But through the IRGC and Quds Force, Iran has provided assistance to militant groups in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, the Palestinian territories, Syria and Yemen, according to research by the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations. It says the IRGC's "control over large sectors of the Iranian economy helps it fund its activities, and sweeping U.S. sanctions dont seem to be limiting its regional ambitions."

The Quds Force has plotted and conducted covert operations worldwide and provides guidance, training, funding, and weapons to Shia militant partners and proxies in other Middle Eastern countries, including Hamas in the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. "These partners and proxies offer the (Quds Force) a measure of deniability and increase its ability to operate around the world," the counterterrorism center says.

Shiite fighters from Hezbollah and Amal movements take aim with a Kalashnikov assault rifle and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher during clashes in the area of Tayouneh, in the southern suburb of the capital Beirut, on Oct. 14, 2021.

Is the IRGC a nation state's military or a terrorist organization?

According to the U.S., Israel and some other countries, it is both. Based in Iran, the IRGC  and the elite Quds Force in particular  have carried out numerous operations primarily in Iraq and Syria but also globally, including on U.S. soil. U.S. officials assess that the IRGC has 150,000 to 190,000 fighters and other personnel. The Quds Force within it has 5,000 to 15,000 personnel, "handpicked from the broader IRGC for their competency and allegiance to the regime," the counterterrorism center says.

The Quds Force targets not only the U.S. and Israel but also Saudi Arabia, its Middle East oil nemesis, and its operatives have killed numerous Iranian dissidents and other adversaries including the United States. Former Trump administration national security adviser John Bolton, a longtime hawk on Iran, was believed to be on an Iranian assassination list, according to the federal authorities who provided Bolton and some other current and former U.S. officials with security details.

More: US sanctions Iranian officials for plot to kill John Bolton, other Trump officials

As part of Irans state security apparatus, the Quds Force uses its intelligence and military capabilities to support its own terrorist operations and those of its partners and proxies. It has provided advanced military equipment to the Lebanon-based Hezbollah, including air defense systems, coastal defense cruise missiles, long-range rockets, and unmanned aircraft systems, the counterterrorism center says. Importantly, and of significant concern to the Pentagon, it supplies Iraqi Shia militant groups with antiaircraft weapons, especially dangerous IEDs known as armor-piercing explosively formed projectiles, rockets, rocket-propelled grenades, and unmanned aircraft systems.

And while the U.S. government has long considered the Tehran government a terrorist entity, and the Quds force, it did not designate the IRGC as a whole as a foreign terrorist organization until April 2019, the the counterterrorism center says.

Before that, the U.S. Treasury Department had designated the Quds Force as an FTO, or Foreign Terrorist Organization, in October 2007. The same month, the department named the Quds Force's notoriously brutal commander, Gen. Qassem Soleimani, a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.

In March 2012, the Treasury Department levied the same sanctions and designations against current Quds Force Commander Esmail Ghani, who took over sometime after U.S. forces killed Soleimani in an airstrike in Iraq in January 2020. The Trump administration's operation against Soleimani prompted Iran to launch more than a dozen retaliatory missiles against two military bases in Iraq housing U.S. forces and ignited a fierce legal debate over whether the U.S. was engaging in an illegal assassination or a legitimate and lawful act in America's long war on terrorism.

Thursday night's U.S. airstrikes in Syria are likely to result in retaliatory measures by Iran, former U.S. counterterrorism officials say. The question is when. Tehran, for instance, vowed to avenge Soleimani's killing, and while it has launched some strikes through proxies in Iraq and elsewhere, the large-scale attack that many U.S. officials have been bracing for has yet to occur.

"Everyone doing 2am google searches on escalation ladder theory now," Polymeropoulos, the former CIA Middle East officer, tweeted Friday morning.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: US strikes IRGC in Syria: Understanding Iran's elite military unit
Supporters of Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr gather at Baghdad's Tahrir Square during an anti-Israel demonstration on October 13, 2023 (Ahmad Al-Rubaye)

Influential religious leader Moqtada Sadr called on the Iraqi government Friday to close the American embassy in Baghdad because of Washington's "unconditional support" for Israel in its war with Hamas.

"If the government and parliament do not respond, we will take a different position that we will announce later," the Shiite cleric, who often criticises the government, warned on X, formerly Twitter.

Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has criticised the "Zionist occupation" since Israel began its bombardment of Gaza, calling it a "genocide" of the Palestinian people.

On October 7, Hamas militants stormed into Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians, who were shot, mutilated, or burned to death on the first day of the raid, according to Israeli officials.

Israel says around 1,500 Hamas fighters were killed in clashes before its army regained control of the areas under attack.

More than 7,300 Palestinians, mainly civilians, have been killed across Gaza in relentless Israeli bombardments in response to the attacks, according to the Hamas health ministry in the territory.

Iraqis stage regular protests to condemn the Israeli bombing and in support of the Palestinians.

All Iraqi political factions support the Palestinian cause, and like its neighbour Iran, Israel's sworn enemy, Iraq does not recognise the Israeli state.

US forces and their coalition allies in Iraq have been the target of attacks mostly claimed by the group "Islamic Resistance in Iraq" on Telegram channels tied to pro-Iran factions.

On Thursday, the Pentagon said there had been 16 such attacks in Iraq and Syria this month, and blamed "Iranian-supported militias".

The Baghdad government is supported by parties that have close links with Tehran, but it is working to maintain relations with the United States, which has 2,500 soldiers on Iraqi territory.

On Monday, Baghdad called the attacks on American soldiers "unacceptable" and promised to investigate.

On October 22, Washington ordered all non-essential staff to leave its embassy in Baghdad's high security Green Zone and its consulate in Arbil, capital of the autonomous Kurdistan region.

gde/anr/srk/srm
A councillor called "the lack of vision" shown by the government and local authority to protect a road threatened by erosion "heart-breaking".

Isle of Wight council rejected Island Roads' proposals for a 26m-long (85ft) wall to stabilise Military Road because of its possible environmental impact.

Councillor Nick Stuart said "it was right to refuse the plans" but found it "shocking that there was no plan B".

He is now calling for more government funding to save the route.

Mr Stuart said: "The key point is money, and given central government has spent years reducing support to our council, while loading on new responsibilities and time-consuming initiatives, it should cough up the cash now."

He claimed that Military Road was a vital route for residents and also highlighted its appeal to tourists.

He said: "The road was built to protect the island and southern England from invasion.

"Now central government seem happy for it to vanish into the waves. Not a great look for global Britain."

Following the refusal of the Island Roads plans, the council has said it currently has no plans to secure the road, which in some places is just metres away from the cliff edge.

Council leader Phil Jordan said work was ongoing to find a suitable, viable and sustainable option to maintain the road.

Military Road runs along the island's south-west coast, through protected habitats, including an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Scientific Sites of Special Interest.

It has been dubbed one of the most scenic drives in the country by Visit England.

The government has said that the road is not under its control and this is something for the local authority to look at.

Councillor Jordan, cabinet member for highways and infrastructure, said: "The planning committee's decision to refuse the planning application for stabilisation works to the Military Road considered the economic, social and environmental benefits and harm of the proposal.

"The natural beauty of the West Wight landscape is acknowledged as of national importance through a multiplicity of designations, including being an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and part of the wider UNESCO Isle of Wight Biosphere Reserve.

"The plans considered by the planning committee were deemed to likely damage these internationally and nationally designated sites, not only harming delicate eco-systems and habitats, but the very essence of what makes this road so special - its scenic beauty.

"The council will continue to explore potential solutions to preserve and protect this important route, and to secure all the necessary consents in a highly protected and geologically sensitive landscape that can be implemented as quickly as possible.

"The road remains open while we continue to work with local communities and landowners to assess alternative options."

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Regional affairs should be decided without external interference: Chinese premier

Xinhua) 08:22, October 27, 2023

Chinese Premier Li Qiang attends the 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Oct. 26, 2023. (Xinhua/Liu Bin)

BISHKEK, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- Looking back at the founding aspiration of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), its members were brought together to ensure that regional affairs are decided by regional countries through consultation, without interference from those outside the region, Chinese Premier Li Qiang said here Thursday.

During his speech at the 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the SCO Member States, Li called for jointly building a security barrier in the region and resolutely resisting external interference.

In his speech, Li said the SCO summit in July this year further reached important consensus, and identified key tasks on carrying forward the Shanghai Spirit and building a closer SCO community with a shared future, adding that China is willing to work with all parties to implement the spirit of the summit.

At the Samarkand summit last year, President Xi Jinping stressed the necessity to uphold political trust, win-win cooperation, equality between nations, openness and inclusiveness and equity and justice, which is the key to the success of the SCO's development and growth, Li added.

Looking forward to the future, SCO members should keep in mind the founding aspiration and uphold the key to success, Li said, stressing that guided by the vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind, SCO members should work together and make mutual achievements, advance cooperation in various fields in a solid way, and inject more certainty and positive energy into peace and development of the region and the world.

Li offered four proposals on deepening SCO cooperation. First, the SCO members should jointly solidify regional security barrier, firmly reject external interference, improve the organization's mechanism of coping with security threats and challenges as soon as possible, and crack down on the "three forces" of terrorism, separatism and extremism as well as transnational organized crimes.

Second, SCO members should jointly promote the speedy economic recovery, cooperate to build safe and efficient transportation systems, continuously promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, and maintain steady and smooth industrial supply chains.

Third, the members should jointly enhance the Belt and Road cooperation. The third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation has been successfully held, and the Belt and Road has become the most popular international public goods and the largest international cooperation platform in the past 10 years.

The SCO members should reinforce the alignment of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation with the member states' respective development strategies, push forward the construction of major economic corridors, and develop well the SCO Development Bank.

Fourth, the SCO member states should jointly promote the understanding and amity among their people, and continue to deepen cooperation in areas including education, culture and tourism, and sports.

Leaders including Kazakh Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Tajik Prime Minister Kokhir Rasulzoda, Uzbek Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov, Iran's First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber, Indian foreign minister, Pakistani foreign minister attended the meeting, together with Belarusian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko and Mongolian Prime Minister Luvsannamsrai Oyun-Erdene, leaders of two observer states. Kyrgyz Prime Minister Akylbek Japarov hosted the meeting.

The SCO is committed to carrying forward the Shanghai Spirit, said participants of the meeting, adding that since its founding 22 years ago, the SCO has continuously developed, with its global influence ever increasing.

They agreed to implement the consensus reached at the meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO, jointly combat the "three forces" of terrorism, separatism and extremism and transnational organized crimes, strengthen cooperation in such areas as economy and trade, transportation, agriculture, energy, finance, high and new technology, environmental protection and green development, promote Belt and Road cooperation, improve infrastructure connectivity, and deepen people-to-people exchanges in such fields as tourism and education.

They also agreed to strengthen institutional building of the SCO, practice true multilateralism, jointly safeguard regional security and promote regional prosperity, and help make the international system more inclusive and sustainable.

The Chinese premier and other leaders of the SCO member states attending the meeting signed and issued a joint communique, and approved a series of SCO cooperation documents and resolutions on economy and trade, railways and institution building, among other areas.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang attends the 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Oct. 26, 2023. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu)

Chinese Premier Li Qiang attends the 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Oct. 26, 2023. (Xinhua/Yue Yuewei)

(Web editor: Tian Yi, Liang Jun)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, talks to French President Emmanuel Macron, seen from behind, in Jerusalem this week. (Christophe Ena / Associated Press)

Israel is at war, and its longest-serving leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, seems at once everywhere and nowhere.

As the country confronts its gravest security crisis in decades, set off by a devastating surprise attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas that killed 1,400 people in southern Israel, the prime minister has carried on with some high-profile political appearances  but has also been strangely absent from public life at a moment of dire national emergency.

With the war appearing to enter an intense new phase Friday night, Netanyahu has been spending his days visiting world leaders, donning body armor for well-documented field visits to Israeli military units and delivering carefully scripted communiques about an all-out battle being joined with Hamas.

But the 74-year-old prime minister  once hailed for formidable skills as a retail politician, famous for his charismatic sway over millions of stalwart supporters  has eschewed inspirational tasks traditionally embraced by wartime leaders: visits to hospitals, paying respects at the funerals still taking place daily across the country, touring the staging grounds of ubiquitous Israeli volunteer drives to support the troops and aid war victims.

He isnt Winston Churchill, to whom he likens himself, one of Netanyahus most vehement critics, former diplomat Alon Pinkas, wrote in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. No one looks up to him at the ultimate moment of tragedy and crisis.

Netanyahu has good reason to avoid spontaneous encounters with the Israeli public. Some of his hard-right ministers who ventured out into emotionally charged settings after Hamas tore a swath of carnage through quiet southern Israeli communities have been shouted down by angry citizens or had cups of coffee hurled in their direction.

Read more: What do Hamas and Israel see as the endgame? What would 'victory' look like?

Fueling the sense of crisis, the wars direction is far from clear, though seemingly moving closer to an all-out ground invasion of Gaza, Hamas home turf.

On Friday night, the enclave was hit with some of the heaviest bombing yet, said by the Israeli military to target Hamas extensive network of tunnels.

As Israel announced expanded ground operations were taking place, internet and phone service was heavily curtailed inside Gaza.

But international pleas for restraint have grown along with Palestinian suffering. Densely populated Gaza has become a deathtrap for its 2.3 million residents; aid groups recount harrowing scenes of surgery without anesthesia as the healthcare system collapses, entire families buried under rubble by bombardment, and at least half the population displaced, seeking haven where there is none to be found.

Read more: Amid Israel-Hamas war, doctors at Gaza hospitals face heartbreaking choices

In three weeks of intense Israeli air and artillery strikes, the Palestinian death toll has soared past 7,300, according to local health officials.

With Israeli public confidence in the government and the prime minister at historical lows, most believe that a reckoning, in some form or another, will come for Netanyahu, who was already in a battle for his political life when Hamas militants staged their unprecedented cross-border attack.

But no one knows when that day of judgment might arrive, or how.

Read more: Palestinian Americans stuck in Gaza as all-out Israeli invasion looms

Yes, yes, the political Houdini  we really dont know if he will escape again this time, said political analyst Ofer Koenig of the Israel Democracy Institute.

Netanyahu, he said, is constantly thinking of political survival, of the day after, of how to shape the narrative in his favor.

A cavalcade of senior Israeli military and security officials  the army chief of staff and the head of domestic intelligence, among others  have publicly accepted culpability for immense security failings on and before Oct. 7, when it took the Israeli army at least a full day to halt a Hamas onslaught during which more than 200 people were abducted, and hundreds of Israeli civilians were tortured, mutilated and their bodies burned.

Read more: Hallucinatory anguish and moments of hope: How Israel waits for news of hostages

Israel has called the bloodletting not only the worst single-day civilian fatality toll since the creation of the state 75 years ago, but the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.

Until this week, Netanyahu had remained pointedly silent on the subject of accountability for lapses that led to the massacre. But in an address to the nation on Wednesday night, he gave the first indication that he expected his own actions to be part of an expected postwar inquiry.

Everyone will have to give answers on the debacle, including me, he said. But all that will happen only after the war.

Read more: 'I need to ask God why.' In Israel and Gaza, the scale of death overwhelms the living

Opinion polls suggest 80% of Israelis believe Netanyahu should accept responsibility for failures that led to the Hamas attack. But Israeli analysts and media accounts suggest that the prime minister and his senior aides are already preparing to blame Israels security establishment.

Many critics of the prime minister contend that the army was over-deployed in the West Bank at the time of the Hamas attack, leaving the Gaza frontier dangerously undermanned  in large measure due to Netanyahus far-right government condoning a wave of violence by extremist Jewish settlers in the West Bank, and using the army to quell Palestinian unrest.

Before the war broke out, Netanyahu was the target of enormous street protests calling for his removal over his far-right governments plans to hamstring Israels independent judiciary, as part of a larger agenda of anti-democratic moves.

The prime minister is fighting an array of corruption charges, and critics say that since resuming office after a hiatus of 18 months, his principal aim has been not governance, but simply staying out of jail.

Even so, many Israelis believe wartime is the wrong time to press for a leadership change. When Hamas fighters attacked, the broad coalition that had been attempting to oust Netanyahu immediately broke off its mass demonstrations and turned instead to civil-society volunteer efforts, such as setting up clearinghouses for donated goods and providing housing for tens of thousands of war-displaced Israelis.

We pivoted, and we pivoted very, very quickly, said Terry Newman of the group Brothers and Sisters in Arms. Prior to the war, the organization had spearheaded a campaign by military reservists who threatened not to report for duty  an obligation and ethos that long cut across political lines in Israel  if Netanyahu and his allies pressed ahead with their program of judicial reforms.

Read more: Netanyahu ignores Biden  and masses of Israeli protesters  to step back from democracy

Now many of the groups reservist members have rejoined their units in the countrys south, near the Gaza frontier, and the north, where the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, a far more professional fighting force than Hamas, has threatened to join in the attack on Israel.

Over the course of his long public life, Netanyahu has survived scandals that would sink most politicians, and has casually discarded longtime alliances when expediency beckoned. Even after the political exile that followed his fall from power in 2021  amid a series of inconclusive elections and coalition-building failures  he bounced back, forming the most hard-right government in the countrys history.

The charges against him, including bribery, fraud and breach of trust, served as the backdrop for a wide-ranging attack on the countrys judiciary.

In language echoing that of his erstwhile ally Donald Trump, Netanyahu repeatedly proclaimed his innocence, denouncing the charges against him as a prosecutorial witch hunt.

Despite it all, Netanyahu still has his unyielding partisans, said Israeli pollster Dahlia Scheindlin, who foresees a long-term hardening of far-right sentiment that could favor the prime minister.

Read more: In northern Israel, fears grow of a war that engulfs 'all the Middle East'

I think its not clear-cut he will be gone after this, as some people think, she said.

Over his long years in power, Netanyahu cultivated an image as an implacable guardian of Israels security  an image tarnished by Israelis newfound sense of vulnerability. But some say a clear and present danger is all the more reason to act.

He has to go, and he has to go now, said a tearful Michal Avinatan, a pensioner demonstrating in Tel Aviv alongside families of hostages. All of this  all of it!  is his fault.

Read more: 'The left has really let us down.' Why many American Jews feel abandoned

Regardless of whether he stays or goes, Israel will be left to cope with generational trauma as a result of the Hamas attack, said journalist Anshel Pfeffer, author of a Netanyahu biography.

Im no prophet. There are many different possible scenarios, he said. I think it is the beginning of the end. But Netanyahu will try to hold on  to hold on for as long as he can.





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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Israeli forces carried out a second ground raid into Gaza this week, backed by fighter jets and drones, the Israel Defense Forces said on Friday. The move comes a day after Israel announced on Thursday that it had conducted an overnight military raid into northern Gaza against several militant targets in order to "prepare the battlefield." Hours later that day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised statement that Israel is readying a ground invasion but declined to offer details around timing or the operation.

Israels stated goal is to wipe out Hamas as both a militant group and political force in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army has already carried out thousands of airstrikes in the densely-populated Gaza Strip that has left at least 7,000 people dead, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, in the wake of Hamas Oct. 7 attack that left 1,400 people dead in Israel.

Read More: The Families of Israelis Held Hostage by Hamas Speak Out

But experts say Israeli officials are not thinking strategically enough about long term plans for Gaza as they weigh up what is expected to be a costly ground offensive in the Strip.

More From TIME

We call for the collapse of the Hamas regime, but these are slogans, says Michael Milshtein, a professor of Palestinian affairs at Reichman University in Israel. As Israelis, we need to really drill down and understand what are the implications of this move.

TIME has outlined Israel's four possible approaches to Gaza based on conversations with experts, each of which they say has their own severe challenges. All of them are bad, there is no good alternative, Milshtein says.

Option 1: Israel does not launch a ground offensive

Israel has dropped approximately 12,000 tons of explosives on Gaza so far and has reportedly killed multiple senior Hamas commanders, but the majority of the casualties have been women and children. Israel says it has struck hundreds of Hamas rocket launchers, but that many remain stored in the vast underground tunnel networks spanning hundreds of miles.

A ground offensive will result in even more deaths for both sides. Israels military will face a type of urban warfare that it has not seen in nine years since the last ground invasion in 2014, which spanned 50 days and left 72 Israelis and 2,251 Palestinians dead. This time, the presence of approximately 220 hostages may complicate things even further.

Read More: A Photographer Captures Death, Destruction, and Grief in Gaza

The hostages are likely dispersed, wrote Alex Plitsas for the Atlantic Council think-tank. Given the lack of medical evacuation support or the ability to easily insert quick reaction forces to back up operators on the ground without the presence of a larger ground force, it would be difficult to conduct simultaneous clandestine rescue missions for hostages in multiple locations across Gaza.

Experts disagree on both the likelihood of Israel launching a ground invasion and its prospect for success. Milshtein believes that Israel would become even more vulnerable to future attacks from Hamas, Iran, and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah if its called off. It will make Israels image so weak. Any player in the area will understand that from now on, you can do any kind of military move against Israel and Israel has no capability, even no willingness to respond.

Khaled Elgindy, director of the program on Palestine and Israeli-Palestinian affairs at the Middle East Institute, disagrees. He says that in the long run, the more violence that is inflicted on the Palestinian population, the worse Israels security will be because Palestinians will be more willing to support groups like Hamas. Nobody's thinking about the long-term repercussions of the generational trauma that is being created, Elgindy says. If this doesn't end soon, we're paving the way for another generation of more instability and violence and bloodshed.

Option 2: Reoccupy Gaza

In this scenario, Israel would reoccupy the Gaza Strip and become responsible for governing the Palestinian territory. Israel withdrew its troops and dismantled all Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip in 2005. In 2007, Hamas won elections in Gaza, which Israel declared to be a hostile entity. Together with Egypt, both countries instituted a blockade of Gaza in 2007, severely restricting imports and preventing virtually all Gazans from traveling in and out of the Strip.

Milshtein says this would be among the worst possible options for Israel. U.S. President Joe Biden has also warned in an interview on 60 Minutes that it would be a mistake for Israel to reoccupy the territory, exposing Israeli troops to violent resistance.

Ongoing airstrikes have hardened Palestinian attitudes to Israel in ways that could further complicate a prolonged occupation. There's nobody in Gaza who is blaming Hamas for Israel bombing their apartment building. They're not blaming Hamas for that. They're blaming the people who pulled the triggerIsrael, Elgindy says.

Read More: Our Death Is Pending. Stories of Loss and Grief From Gaza

Option 3: Eliminate Hamas and leave Gaza

In this scenario, Israel would seek to destroy Hamas but refrain from getting involved with the messy business of governing Gaza. Milshtein warns that in this situation, the Strip could easily devolve into even further chaos and violent conflict as different groups vie to fill the power vacuum caused by Hamas absence.

It could look like the new order America tried to establish in Iraq after the fall of the Baath regime in 2003, Milshtein says. He says that many of these groupslike Islamic Jihadwill likely be even more extreme than Hamas, which despite engaging in brutal violence against civilians, has expressed support for a two state solution along 1967 borders in its 2017 charter. You might find militant groups from North Africa, Syria, and Iraq. It would be like a little Mogadishu on the border of Israel.

But there are major doubts as to whether Israel would be capable of even destroying Hamas. Hamas claims to have built over 300 miles of underground tunnels and urban warfare in the densely-populated Strip would pose major military challenges.

Hamas is also more popular than ever, says Elgindy. Even if Israel militarily destroys much of Hamas infrastructure, the group's ideology will likely live on. Following Israels airstrikes, Elgindy adds, There's no question that Hamas has gained public support in both Gaza and the West Bank.

Read More: Column: What the World Can Learn From the History of Hamas

Option 4: Bring in a new player to rule Gaza

In this situation, Israel may seek other local factions within Gaza and try to partner with them to create a new ruling party. It could mean heads of tribes, NGOs, or mayors, or even senior figures in Fatah, the political party that controls the Palestinian Authority, Milshtein says.

Anas Iqtait, who teaches political economy of the Middle East at Australia National University, says that if this does happen, Israel would be likely to involve the Palestinian Authority.

I dont think its viable for Israel to completely remove Hamas from power in Gaza, but if they do, then the Palestinian Authority would be the most suitable or the most logical option based on what we have seen in the past, Iqtait says.

The Palestinian Authority administered Gaza before losing elections in 2006. Violent clashes between Hamas and Fatah led to the Palestinian Authoritys complete retreat from the Gaza Strip in 2007. The enclave has been ruled by Hamas ever since.

But Fatah and the Palestinian Authority have become extremely unpopular among Palestinians in recent years. In the occupied West Bank, which falls under the PAs leadership, Palestinians increasingly see them as subcontractors of Israels military occupation. If they are seen as corrupt political and business elites without any political vision, then many people will be drawn and driven and supportive of the alternative narrative that provides legitimacy towards resisting the occupation through other means, Iqtait says.

Contact us at letters@time.com.
The UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly in favour of an immediate truce in Gaza

Israel has angrily dismissed a UN resolution urging a "humanitarian truce" in Gaza, vowing that it will continue to defend itself.

The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly called for an immediate humanitarian truce between Israel and Hamas.

Israeli UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan said the UN no longer held "even one ounce of legitimacy or relevance".

The US voted against the resolution but has called for a "humanitarian pause" in Israeli military operations in Gaza.

Israel's military on Friday said it was expanding its operations, as its strikes intensified across the Gaza region.

Spokesman Daniel Hagari said forces had "increased the attacks in Gaza. The air force widely attacks underground targets and terrorist infrastructure, very significantly".

He again told Gaza residents to move further south.

Israel has been bombing Gaza since the 7 October Hamas attacks that killed 1,400 people in Israel and saw 229 people taken hostage by Hamas.

The UN General Assembly on Friday voted in favour of an immediate truce in Gaza. There were 120 votes in favour, 14 against and 45 abstentions.

The resolution - put forward by Jordan on behalf of the Arab group - also condemns all acts of violence against Palestinian and Israeli civilians, including all "terror and indiscriminate attacks".

The vote is not legally binding, but carries moral weight due to the universality of the UN's membership.

Israel's Ambassador Erdan called it "a dark day for the UN and for mankind," vowing his country would use "every means" in fighting Hamas.

"Today is a day that will go down as infamy. We have all witnessed that the UN no longer holds even one ounce of legitimacy or relevance," he said.

He accused those who voted yes of preferring to support "the defence of Nazi terrorists" instead of Israel.

Israel says it is expanding its operations, as strikes intensify across Gaza

US national security spokesperson John Kirby said the US would support breaks in fighting to help hostages get out of Gaza - and to allow more aid in.

"We would support humanitarian pauses for stuff getting in, as well as for people getting out, and that includes pushing for fuel to get in and for the restoration of electrical power," he said.

The White House has not commented on the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) announcement that Israel is expanding its ground operations into Gaza.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says 7,000 people have been killed since Israel's retaliatory bombing began. There is now a critical shortage of essential services, thousands have fled their homes and the infrastructure has been heavily damaged.

Among international leaders calling for a ceasefire was France's President Emmanuel Macron.

Speaking before Israel said it was increasing its attacks in Gaza, he said he had told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli President Isaac Herzog that the population of Gaza must be protected.

"A humanitarian truce is useful today to be able to protect those who are on the ground, who have suffered bombings," he said at the end of a two-day summit of EU leaders in Brussels.

Mr Macron reiterated that Israel had a right to defend itself, but he said "the complete blockade, the indiscriminate bombardment and even more the prospect of a massive ground operation" posed significant risks for the civilian population in Gaza.

Meanwhile, Jordan warned the outcome of what it called a "ground war" would be a humanitarian catastrophe.

Israel this week called for the UN's secretary general to step down over comments he made about the Gaza war.

Antonio Guterres said in a speech to the Security Council on Tuesday that he condemned unequivocally Hamas's deadly attacks in Israel two weeks ago but that they "did not happen in a vacuum".

Israel accused him of "justifying terrorism" and called for his immediate resignation.

More on Israel-Gaza war
Israeli soldiers mounted a brief, overnight raid across the border into the Gaza Strip Thursday, according to the countrys military. Israels Defense Forces told the Associated Press that the incursion was part of an effort to prepare the battlefield for a widely-expected invasion of Gaza set to begin in the coming daysthe largest of several similar missions which were meant to obliterate underground tunnels and destroy Hamas missile launch sites. So far, the Palestinian militant group says more than 6,700 have died in Gaza since Israel launched its counterattack, retribution for an Oct. 7 massacre perpetrated by Hamas.

Read it at The Associated Press

Read more at The Daily Beast.
Tel Aviv  Israel's military said Friday its ground forces were "expanding their activity" in Gaza in what may be the beginning of a new phase in Israel's war with Hamas, which started nearly three weeks ago.

Israel's chief military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari , said a statement the Israel Defense Forces increased attacks in the Gaza Strip in recent hours.

"In addition to the attacks that we carried out in recent days, ground forces are expanding their activity this evening," Hagari said. "The IDF is acting with great force ... to achieve the objectives of the war."

The extent of the expanded activity was unclear, but two U.S. officials tell CBS News this appears to be a rolling start to the ground invasion.

It comes as internet and phone services collapsed inside Gaza under heavy bombardment, the Associated Press reported. Paltel, the Palestine Telecommunications Company, said there was "a complete disruption of all communication and internet services" because of bombardment, the AP reported.

The country's military said earlier Friday Israeli forces conducted a ground raid into Gaza for the second consecutive night. The small raid was backed by fighter jets and drones, with the IDF saying it had struck dozens of targets on the outskirts of Gaza City. The IDF said the small incursion had resulted in no Israeli casualties.

The Israeli army conducts intense air attacks on the Gaza Strip on the 21st day of its war with Hamas, Oct. 27, 2023. Gaza was plunged into darkness without electricity or fuel supplies. / Credit: Ali Jadallah/Anadolu via Getty Images

The previous ground raid, early Thursday morning, lasted a few hours, struck rocket launching positions and involved battles with militants, according to the IDF. Hagari said Thursday that the ground raids were intended to "uncover the enemy" and destroy launch pads and explosives to "prepare the ground for the next stages of the war."

The Gaza Strip's Hamas rulers, along with other Palestinian militants, opened their bloody Oct. 7 terror attack on southern Israel with a salvo of thousands of rockets, and they have continued firing them from the enclave for the nearly three weeks since.

Most of Hamas' rockets are intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome defense system, but at least one got through Friday and hit Tel Aviv, causing "significant destruction," according to the civilian emergency response agency United Hatzalah, which said three people were lightly wounded.

Israel has responded to the unprecedented terror attack and ongoing rocket fire  which it says has killed more than 1,400 people and left Hamas holding almost 230 hostages  with an overwhelming barrage of artillery and airstrikes on Gaza.

Health officials in the densely populated, Hamas-controlled strip of land say more than 7,000 people have been killed. The Israeli military disputes that figure, but entire neighborhoods have been reduced to rubble, sometimes crushing entire families under the ruins of residential buildings.

What a rolling start to Israel's ground incursion might look like

While Israeli ground forces have crossed into Gaza on night raids over the past few days, a rolling start is different, according to retired Gen. Frank McKenzie, a former commander of U.S. Central Command.



"A rolling start will be an operation where you put in reconnaissance forces, you sort of gain a feel for the battlefield, and then pull your main forces in behind them," McKenzie told CBS News Friday.



The Pentagon sent a Marine general experienced in special operations and urban combat to advise the Israelis on how to do it. He has since left Israel.



"They'll probably have several lines of advance going into Gaza, and Israeli commanders will see where they're having success," McKenzie said. "The axiom is, you reinforce success. Where you're gaining ground, you put more forces in behind it."

"You should think of it as multiple beachheads  all across the front," he added.

Civilian deaths mount in Gaza

Raw, overwhelming grief is everywhere in Gaza.

"What did he do?" cried one man as he rocked the body of his son, just two and a half months old, in his arms. He lost his wife and four children in an Israeli strike Wednesday on a house in the Jabalia refugee camp, in northern Gaza. "Did he kill anyone? Did he kidnap someone? There were just innocent children inside this house."

Deaths have been soaring at a staggering rate in Gaza, and while Israel and Hamas disagree on the toll  and who's to blame for it  it is believed to far exceed the number of people killed during the four previous conflicts between Israel and Hamas combined.

People search through buildings destroyed during Israeli airstrikes in the southern Gaza Strip, Oct. 27, 2023, in Khan Younis, Gaza. / Credit: Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty

Every day, shrouded bodies pile up outside Gaza's beleaguered hospitals and morgues as more seriously wounded are rushed in, many in need of urgent medical attention. But Palestinian doctors are often able to offer little more than words of comfort, as fuel for generators and medical supplies have all run short.

The United Nations, along with a growing number of nations and aid organizations, have warned that Israel's long-expected ground invasion of Gaza, if and when it happens, would cause even more civilian casualties and exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory.

The U.N. General Assembly voted Friday to approve a nonbinding resolution, sponsored by Jordan, calling for a "humanitarian truce" in Gaza leading to a cessation of hostilities. The U.S. voted against the resolution, after an amendment that would have condemned Hamas' terror attack on Israel and demanded the release of hostages was defeated.

On Thursday, the U.N. echoed international law experts and humanitarian groups to warn that Israel may be responding to Hamas' atrocious war crimes with war crimes of its own.

"We are concerned that war crimes are being committed," U.N. human rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told journalists Friday in Geneva. "We are concerned about the collective punishment of Gazans in response to the atrocious attacks by Hamas, which also amounted to war crimes."

Iran's allies and fear of a widening war

There is also significant and mounting concern that a full-scale invasion could see the war expand beyond Gaza and Israel's borders.

The U.S. struck two facilities used by Iran-backed militants in eastern Syria overnight. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the strikes were "a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on Oct. 17."

Austen said the strikes were distinct from the war between Israel and Hamas and meant to communicate that President Biden "will not tolerate such attacks and will defend itself, its personnel and its interests."

Iran is a primary backer for a number of Muslim extremist groups across the region, including the Sunni Muslim Hamas in Gaza, and the powerful Shiite Muslim Hezbollah movement, based just across Israel's northern border in Lebanon. Hezbollah militants have exchanged sporadic deadly fire with Israeli forces since Hamas launched its attack on October 7, and the group has said it's prepared to join Hamas in the war with Israel if required.

The U.S. Treasury on Friday announced further sanctions against a handful of individuals and entities it accuses of facilitating funding for Hamas, including Khaled Qaddoumi, whom the Treasury describes as a "longtime Hamas member who currently lives in Tehran serving as Hamas's representative to Iran, and acting as a liaison between Hamas and the Iranian government."

Iran has also long supported Shiite groups that operate across parts of northern Iraq and neighboring Syria, and it's those proxy forces that have fired rockets and explosive drones at U.S. forces based in the two countries for years.

Another powerful Iran-backed group, the Shiite Muslim Houthi movement, is fighting a civil war against Yemen's Western-backed government. The U.S. military said it shot down a handful of missiles and drones fired by the Houthis on Oct. 19 over the Red Sea, which it said could have been aimed at Israel.

Iran's army launched a large-scale military exercise on Friday, meanwhile, meant to last two days in the central province of Isfahan. A military spokesman told Iranian state media that the war game would involve troops from all units of the Army Ground Force, including an airborne division, drone squads, electronic warfare units and support teams from Iran's air force.

President Biden has warned Iran repeatedly not to get directly involved in the Israel-Hamas war.

On Friday, an Egyptian military spokesman said a drone had struck a building near a medical facility in the town of Taba, very close to the Israeli border, wounding six people. It was not immediately clear who launched the drone.

Family and friends of Kibbutz Kfar Aza residents who were kidnapped by Hamas militants during the Oct. 7, 2023 terror attack on Israel rally outside The Kirya, the Tel Aviv headquarters of the Israel Defense Forces, on Oct. 26, 2023 in Israel. / Credit: Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty

There is also mounting pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from the families of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. Many of the family members gathered Thursday night in Tel Aviv to voice their demand that Israel's government rescue their loved ones, amid unverified claims by Hamas that Israel's airstrikes have already killed more than 50 of the captives.

As the families gathered, air raid sirens blared yet again, warning of more incoming rockets and forcing the demonstrators to run for cover.

David Martin and Pamela Falk contributed reporting.

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MSNBC reported live on air that the Israeli Defence Forces are preparing to expand their ground operations into the Gaza Strip this evening. Israeli ground troops have been conducting raids in Gaza over the week, as their airstrikes are beginning to focus on Hamas infrastructure, on their terrorist tunnels, as well as on their command centers and anti-tank positions. These are what military experts refer to as shaping operations. They are trying to essentially soften the ground for when Israel eventually goes in with this long-promised ground incursion.

An IDF spokesman MSNBC spoke to said that they are focusing on the tunnels that Hamas has been using to navigate in Gaza. That appears to be part of what they are targeting as they go in tonight, both by air and on the ground, with this spokesman saying that this is both an advantage for Hamas and that they can hide in those tunnels, but it also can be a weakness because it can become a death trap for Hamas when Israel's military goes in. The official saying that Israel has a very solid idea right now about the network of tunnels that they're going to have to deal with as they go in on the ground.
One month ago, Gaza resident Jumana Emad was in the final stages of pregnancy.

She was happily sharing pictures of her heavily pregnant belly, waiting to put her birthing plan into action.

She knew she was going to have a girl, her husband was excited, her hospital bag was packed and her four-year-old daughter Tulin couldn't wait to meet her baby sister.

Then everything changed.

Hamas killed more than 1,400 people in Israel and took more than 200 people hostage in an attack on 7 October. Israel launched retaliatory air strikes on Gaza which - the Hamas-run health ministry says - have killed almost 7,000 people.

"I was scared," Jumana told the BBC. "I was in labour among continuous shelling."

The 25-year-old freelance journalist followed Israeli orders to leave her home in the north. She left Gaza City two days after Israeli strikes began and headed south.

Afraid and nine months pregnant, Jumana took her daughter to a relative's house. She took only a single piece of clothing, a box of milk and a small bag for her daughter.

"The situation was tough," she explained in a voice message.

Baby Talia was born on 13 October 2023 in Gaza

"We didn't sleep at night. There was a lot of shelling and we had to go to another place. Pregnant women like me should be going out for walks but because of the war we are not able to go out even to buy food," she explained in another message.

Jumana repeatedly spoke of power outages, internet interruptions and water shortages, in addition to her fear and anxiety over giving birth in such difficult circumstances.

On Friday 13 October, Jumana went into labour.

She had originally planned to go to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, which is a big hospital, but she was told it was under immense pressure. Instead, Jumana went to Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat, a smaller hospital in the middle of the Gaza Strip.

But even getting there was hard. In pain and in labour Jumana struggled to find someone to take her. "Taxi drivers are afraid, and ambulances don't have time for a woman about to give birth," she explained.

She described the hours of labour as hard and terrifying. "There was intense shelling in a house next to the hospital, the sound was so loud that I thought the shelling had reached the hospital itself. Injured people kept arriving. I could hear screams from every direction. I was also thinking about my first daughter. I was worried about her because she was far away from me.

"All I thought about was I want to deliver my baby no matter what."

Jumana described her feeling of shock when hours later that evening, she gave birth to a baby girl, who she decided to name Talia.

"Her crying meant we were all still alive," she recalls.

There was no bed available for Jumana immediately after childbirth. In pain and bleeding, she had to wait until a bed was found and squeezed into a small room.

"I was lucky to have one, other women lay on couches and on the floor in the hospital corridor immediately after giving birth," she says.

Jumana's daughters - Tulin, aged four, and baby Talia

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates that there are about 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza with 5,500 of them expected to give birth in the next 30 days. It says hospitals are overwhelmed and are running out of medicine and basic supplies.

The day after she gave birth, Jumana sent a video of herself holding her baby daughter in a taxi, wrapped in a white blanket.

She had left the hospital to join her family but says even that was an ordeal.

"The lift stopped working due to a power issue," she says. So Jumana, on the fourth floor of the hospital, in pain after giving birth and with her newborn in her arms, had to walk down several flights of stairs to get to the exit.

Once out of the hospital, she was faced with trying to get transport back to the place where she was staying.

"We spent an hour looking for a taxi, and none of the drivers agreed to take us. They were scared after a nearby shelling in the morning. In the end, we found one, but he asked for a higher fare and didn't drop us off in front of the house."

Jumana says childbirth in such hard circumstances has taken its toll. "I am worn out mentally. I no longer have the desire to do anything," she admits.

But she tells me Baby Talia is doing well: "She is a mix of my features, her sister's and her father's.

"If it wasn't for the war, I would have wanted to celebrate a beautiful event one week after the birth. I would have invited all my family members and held an Aqiqah [a traditional Islamic celebration] for her," Jumana trails off.

She says she does not know what the future holds for her family but is grateful for their new arrival saying: "She is my hope in this life of war and death."
Israel tanks entered gaza last night and it could just be the start of an expanded ground invasion

The Israel Defense Forces say they are going to expand their ground operations into Gaza tonight. Whether this will be a very large-scale armored push that has been on hold for days or still a more limited, short-term action isn't clear.

The statement follows an armor-backed operation into Gaza last night that was larger than what we have seen since the current war kicked off on October 7, after Hamas went on a killing spree in south-central Israel.

https://twitter.com/BarakRavid/status/1717954286280126772?s=20 https://twitter.com/Archer83Able/status/1717955312626368921

This all follows an especially intense round of Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip earlier in the evening, which has led to a widespread communications blackout in the enclave.

https://twitter.com/clashreport/status/1717939828086485182?s=20 https://twitter.com/clashreport/status/1717941364854305203?s=20 https://twitter.com/Charles_Lister/status/1717953487135285506?s=20 https://twitter.com/jimsciutto/status/1717949474117403024

The news of an expanding Gaza ground operation also comes the day after the U.S. Air Force pounded two locations in Syria that were used by Iranian-backed groups. This was in response to continuous attacks on various U.S. interests in the region, including those in Syria and Iraq, which have led to nearly two dozen U.S. personnel being injured. You can find our coverage of those strikes here .

The U.S. strikes were clearly a warning as to what could come if those attacks continue. The timing of the aerial bombardment also fits with extra American air and missile defenses and offensive capabilities arriving in the region in recent weeks. These strikes were likely held back until those capabilities were in place as a hedge against an Iranian response, which could include firing ballistic missiles. This would also point to the window opening with U.S. consent to a major ground operation into Gaza.

The IAF says they intercepted a threat over the Red Sea, stating (machine translated):

"Air Force planes thwarted a hostile target that was detected in the morning hours in the Red Sea area. No danger to civilians was perceived and no intrusion into Israeli territory was detected."

https://twitter.com/IAFsite/status/1717933964168441952?s=20 https://twitter.com/michaelh992/status/1717807002762822130?s=20

The southern attack vector is a very real one after USS Carney shot down a quartet of cruise missiles and many more long-range kamikaze drones approaching Israel from that direction. These weapons were launched by Iranian-backed proxies in Yemen. It is also now known that Saudi forces also intercepted additional weapons during that same time period.

https://twitter.com/i24NEWS_EN/status/1715093810592518148?s=20

Israel has released a CGI video showing a representation of what it claims are Hamas command and control facilities that sit below the biggest hospital in Gaza.

https://twitter.com/IAFsite/status/1717917111828296083?s=20 https://twitter.com/IDF/status/1717924811903562126?s=20 https://twitter.com/IDF/status/1717901184986382364?s=20

This pairs with what ex-Israeli special operator Tomer Israeli told us in our big feature on the challenges of hostage rescues in Gaza. Here's the excerpt from that piece:

There is not just one objective with where the hostages are held, its probably several of them, said Israeli. Maybe some of them are underground and also maybe in the most protected places in Gaza.

That, said Israeli, is Dar al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. The hospital is the center of the Palestinian medical communitys efforts to treat the tremendous influx of people wounded in the ongoing massive Israeli bombardment. It is also a morgue for the drastically increasing number of people killed in those attacks. However, in addition, it serves as a Hamas headquarters, according to Israeli.

It's a very busy hospital, but Hamas is using their own patients and civilians as a human shield. Basically, under the hospital, they have the headquarters of the Hamas regime, the Hamas army is headquartered there. Everything is under al-Shifa Hospital.

CNN has published an interactive article that shows the before and after satellite images of the vast destruction in Gaza caused by aerial bombardment, with entire neighborhoods seen wiped out. You can check that story out here .

https://twitter.com/IDF/status/1717840051491541077?s=20

The humanitarian situation in Gaza is growing increasingly dire by the minute now. Food, water, fuel, and medicine are running out and not nearly enough aid is coming in to make a major dent in what is developing into a huge foreseeable catastrophe. In fact, just a fraction of the daily aid before this even started is making its way into Gaza even though the crossing between Gaza and Egypt is now open, albeit clearly at heavily reduced capacity and strictly regulated by Israel's demands.

https://twitter.com/Charles_Lister/status/1717860510396211249?s=20 https://twitter.com/ICRC/status/1717856367921270915?s=20

While there is talk about expanding international aid, time is running out to do so before the crisis gets to a breaking point.

https://twitter.com/e_amyna/status/1717901840602272171?s=20

While a major mechanized incursion into Gaza was occurring last night, Israel's Shayetet 13 naval special operations unit executed an amphibious operation into southern Gaza.

https://twitter.com/tom_bike/status/1717925527531528633?s=20

Meanwhile, Hamas' leader Ismail Haniyeh is saying the bombing of Gaza is the new holocaust and that it will rally people around to its cause:

https://twitter.com/MEMRIReports/status/1717872624196338019?s=20

This is a quickly developing situation, we will continuously update this post as new information becomes available.

UPDATE: 4:14 PM EST

Internet connectivity to Gaza is now extremely limited if working at all. This is exactly how this would play out. I did a thread all about this two weeks ago:

"Some critical things to consider on what is a near certainty to be an Israeli operation unlike anything we have seen and how it could impact the flow of information that we are accustomed to receiving:

Israel arguably has the most advanced and proven cyber and electronic warfare capabilities on the planet. Cutting off the ability for Hamas to communicate with ease will be/is a top priority. Breaking decision cycles and drastically slowing reaction times as well as general situational awareness will be the goal.

This paired with what is akin to a siege on Gaza, where the access to power and connectivity to the outside world (and all other services for that matter) will continue to dwindle and the information operation that will seek to control the narrative of what is happening will likely result in a drastic reduction in videos, images, and reports coming out of Gaza. We could see this outside of Gaza, as well, to a more limited degree.

While OSINT is an incredibly powerful but often murky if not at times outright inaccurate tool, the volume of information will very likely wither. OSINT is and will be weaponized as well.

In other words, the aperture will become very restricted in terms of info, regardless of its validity.

With less information available there is less opportunity for corroboration or even getting a basic feel for what is real and what is not and what is happening in general. This will all directly impact the public's situational awareness in regards to this conflict. Traditional reporting will also suffer here, but the circumstances are different in terms of determining what is true and what is false."

https://twitter.com/Aviation_Intel/status/1712986366269964607?s=20 https://twitter.com/netblocks/status/1717942556703551590?s=20 https://twitter.com/WarintheFuture/status/1717998494110355901?s=20 https://twitter.com/TreyYingst/status/1717996144419131555?s=20

There are reports of major clashes occurring now inside Gaza, but we cannot confirm exactly what is going on. This is to be expected even if a substantially larger raid into Gaza is occurring, but not a full push.

https://twitter.com/TreyYingst/status/1717984206440087855?s=20 https://twitter.com/hamdahsalhut/status/1717989861011890267?s=20 https://twitter.com/lummideast/status/1717998305022558549?s=20

UPDATE: 4:40 PM EST

Washington Post reports that the Biden administration is working to persuade Israel against a full-out invasion on the ground, instead relying on smaller transient raids and special operations missions.

https://twitter.com/John_Hudson/status/1717972726839689603?s=20

Trey Yingst has a great expanded report from right on the Gaza border about what he is seeing and hearing:

https://twitter.com/TreyYingst/status/1717990422700539931?s=20

Also, an RC-135 Rivet Joint electronic intelligence jet is moving to take up station off the southern Israeli coastline. Rivet Joints hoover-up both communications and signals intelligence. Listening to Hamas on the radios, for instance, and quickly geolocating their signals and translating what is said into actionable intelligence or situational awareness building information for longer-lead intelligence products.

https://twitter.com/TheIntelFrog/status/1717991354406478099?s=20

UPDATE: 8:00 PM EST

It looks very much like the large scale invasion of Gaza is now in its opening movements. Massive bombardment is ongoing, which includes airstrikes and artillery, and what looks like a multi-pronged push into the northern stretch of the Gaza Strip.

CBS News has it from U.S. officials that this is indeed the beginning of the major ground operation.

https://twitter.com/CBSEveningNews/status/1718051481582960991?s=20

Mark Regev, advisor to Netanyahu has just stated that Gaza will be 'very different' after this operation ends. As to the scope of that operation, Israel's defense minister says it is going to be a long and difficult operation, mirroring sentiments we have been hearing from Israeli leadership over the past couple of weeks.

https://twitter.com/Jerusalem_Post/status/1717991731482783807?s=20 https://twitter.com/CBSEveningNews/status/1718045162452992451?s=20

As suspected, very little information is coming out of Gaza itself.

Pivoting to last night's air strike by USAF fighters on targets related to the IRGC and its proxies in Syria, Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder has returned queries, stating:

Q. Can you provide a post-strike assessment? Any casualties?

A. U.S. military F-16 and F-15 fighter aircraft conducted self-defense strikes Oct. 26 (ET) on a weapons storage facility and ammunition storage facility used by Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and affiliated groups, located in the vicinity of Abu Kamal, Syria. Both facilities were destroyed. We currently assess there were no casualties in the strikes. These narrowly tailored strikes in self-defense were intended solely to protect and defend U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria. They are separate and distinct from the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, and do not constitute a shift in the U.S. approach to the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Q. How many attacks have there been against U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria since Oct. 17?

A. Between Oct. 17-27, U.S. and Coalition Forces have been attacked at least 14 separate times in Iraq and six separate times in Syria by a mix of one-way attack drones and rockets, for a total of 20 attacks to date. Most of these attacks were disrupted by defensive measures and failed to reach their targets.

UPDATE: 6:30 PM PST

There are so many conflicting reports from relatively reliable sources at this point in regards to the U.S. position on this ground operation at this time, it's impossible to get a clear view. Some say tonight's operation is one last-ditch effort to have Hamas capitulate and release the hostages, backed by the Arab world's pressure on Hamas to do so, while others seem pretty clear that Israel is making the call to go all in here.

Once bit of clarity may have come from Lt. Gen. James Gylnn who is working with Israel on this entire crisis:

https://twitter.com/JM_Szuba/status/1718059754172330057?s=20 https://twitter.com/CBSEveningNews/status/1718045240815178187?s=20

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres had repeated his call for a ceasefire today. This was backed by a resolution from the UN General Assembly. This is something that should be mentioned that did not make it into our original report.

https://twitter.com/UN/status/1717949011695476771?s=20 https://twitter.com/clashreport/status/1717993034422305232?s=20

There also appears to be major military operations ongoing in the West Bank, as well. Unconfirmed CCTV video purports to show Israeli troops entering into refugee camp there.

The security situation in the region has not reportedly changed yet, with no reports of major military moves by Hezbollah or other Iranian proxies, as well as Iran itself. Although there was one claim by an IRGC-backed group that it had attacked the base where U.S. personnel are present in At Tanf in southern Syria again tonight. This has not been confirmed by U.S. officials.

Contact the author: tyler@thedrive.com
Sir Keir Starmer is under increasing pressure to change his position on the Israel-Gaza war, after a trio of senior Labour figures called for a ceasefire.

The move from mayors Sadiq Khan and Andy Burnham , and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, puts them at odds with their party leader.

Sir Keir has not called for a ceasefire, instead backing humanitarian pauses to help aid reach Gaza.

Labour frontbencher Steve Reed has defended Sir Keir's position.

The shadow minister said humanitarian pauses would allow aid to enter Gaza "without stopping Israel taking action to disable the terrorists who attacked them in the first place".

In stopping short of backing a full ceasefire, the Labour leader is aligned with the UK government, as well as the US and EU.

Compared to a formal ceasefire, humanitarian pauses tend to last for short periods of time, sometimes just a few hours.

They are implemented purely with the aim of providing humanitarian support, as opposed to achieving long-term political solutions.

Israel began its bombing campaign in Gaza, cut off electricity and most water, and stopped imports of food, fuel and other goods in retaliation for a cross-border attack by Hamas on 7 October, in which at least 1,400 people were killed and 224 taken hostage.

Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says 7,000 people have been killed in the territory since then, and that its health system is facing total collapse.

In a statement earlier, Mr Khan said Israel had a "right to defend itself" following the "appalling terror attack" of 7 October.

But he added a ceasefire would "allow the international community more time to prevent a protracted conflict in the region and further devastating loss of life".

In a statement, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and local council leaders said Israel had the right to take "targeted action within international law".

They added they had "profound concerns" about loss of lives in Gaza, and that it was "vital that urgent support and humanitarian aid is allowed into the area".

The leaders said there should be a ceasefire "by all sides" and that all hostages should "be released unharmed".

In a video, Scottish Labour leader Mr Sarwar said: "We need to see the immediate release of hostages, immediate access to humanitarian supplies... and the immediate cessation of violence with an end of rocket fire into and out of Gaza."

"And let me be clear, that means a ceasefire right now," he added.

More on Israel-Gaza war

On Wednesday, shadow Scottish secretary Ian Murray said Sir Keir was likely to be the next prime minister, and therefore had to be "very careful" with what he said.

"It's very easy for us all to sit in a warm bath of throwing around ceasefires, etc but Keir Starmer is in a very sensitive position," he added.

Asked why the UK was not calling for a cessation of violence, Education Secretary Gillian Keegan told ITV that the government would not "cross that line of telling Israel it has anything but the right to defend itself".

She said a humanitarian pause would enable British citizens to leave Gaza.

Labour Gaza tensions

The Labour leader's overall stance on the Israel-Gaza conflict has also led to growing discomfort in his party.

He triggered anger earlier this month, when in reply to an interview question on whether it was "appropriate" for Israel to cut off the supply of power and water to Gaza, he said: "I think that Israel does have that right."

"Obviously everything should be done within international law, but I don't want to step away from the core principles that Israel has a right to defend herself," he added.

A spokesman for the Labour leader later said he had only meant to say Israel had a general right to self-defence.

Around 20 councillors have since quit Labour in protest. In Oxford, resignations have led to Labour losing its majority on the local council.

In Westminster, 39 Labour MPs - including shadow minister Imran Hussain - have signed a parliamentary petition calling for an "immediate de-escalation and cessation of hostilities".

Analysis box by Ione Wells, political correspondent

Senior figures adding their voice to calls for a ceasefire is certainly uncomfortable for the Labour leadership.

Especially following a recent conference where their outward message was one of unity - a shift away from past divisions and factions within senior ranks of the party.

So far, most of the dissent in the party has been from councillors while dozens of Labour MPs have now said publicly they want a ceasefire.

While there's been chatter of frontbenchers considering resignations, that hasn't transpired so far.

Certainly, senior figures in the party have told me that engagement with concerned MPs is ongoing and that the party is trying to support those who have received threats or abuse as a result of the party's position.

They don't deny that lots of people are very concerned. But they argue that at the same time the last thing many in the party want to see is an internal fight - especially if there is an awareness that resignations may not change the leadership's position.

Nor can the Labour leadership's position really change what is going on in Israel and Gaza.

But for some it feels more like a matter of principle than actually changing anything.

Some may begin to feel the heat more from constituents as MPs begin another recess this week.
The Israeli military has said its ground forces are expanding their activity in the Gaza Strip tonight, as lines of communication in the enclave have gone down.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the armys spokesman, said aerial attacks had been targeting Hamas tunnels and other targets.

In addition to the attacks that we carried out in recent days, ground forces are expanding their activity this evening, he said. The IDF is acting with great force ... to achieve the objectives of the war.

Israel has amassed hundreds of thousands of troops along the border with Gaza ahead of an expected ground offensive against the Hamas militant group.

Airstrikes have intensified since nightfall and the territorys internet and mobile communications services collapsed on Friday evening.

Meanwhile, US said its fighter jets struck two Iranian facilities in Syria, after repeated attacks on US coalition forces in the region by an Iran-backed militia in the past week.

The strikes were not carried out in coordination with Israel, which has been engaged in its own clashes with Iran-backed Hezbollah forces on the border with Lebanon, a US official said.

Key Points

IDF kills top Hamas commander, Israel says

IDF strikes Hamas targets overnight

US fighter jets strike Syria after attacks by Iran-backed militia

Over 1,000 people still under rubble in Gaza, WHO says

Palestinian authorities release list of 7,000 people they say have been killed

Israel ground forces expanding activity and communication goes down

18:43 , Sam Rkaina

The Israeli military has said its ground forces are expanding their activity in the Gaza Strip tonight, as lines of communication in the enclave have gone down.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the armys spokesman, said aerial attacks had been targeting Hamas tunnels and other targets.

In addition to the attacks that we carried out in recent days, ground forces are expanding their activity this evening, he said. The IDF is acting with great force ... to achieve the objectives of the war.

Israel has amassed hundreds of thousands of troops along the border with Gaza ahead of an expected ground offensive against the Hamas militant group.

Airstrikes have intensified since nightfall and the territorys internet and mobile communications services collapsed on Friday evening.

Doctors Without Borders says lost contact with staff in Gaza

06:07 , Shweta Sharma

Doctors Without Borders, a charity organisation, said it had lost all contact with Palestinian colleagues on the ground.

We are deeply concerned about the situation in Gaza. We have lost contact with some of our Palestinian colleagues on the ground, it said.

We are particularly worried for the patients, medical staff & thousands of families taking shelter at Al Shifa hospital and other health facilities.

We call for the unequivocal protection of all medical facilities, staff and civilians across the Gaza Strip.

Keir Starmer hit by open Labour revolt over support for Israel

06:07 , Andy Gregory

Labour leader Keir Starmer is facing mounting pressure to shift his stance on the Israel-Hamas war as some of his partys most senior politicians outside the shadow cabinet broke ranks to call for a ceasefire.

In a blow to Sir Keirs authority, mayors Sadiq Khan and Andy Burnham as well as Anas Sarwar, Labours leader in Scotland, defied their leaders position on Gaza.

Sir Keir was also hit with warnings that more than 100 Labour MPs  half his parliamentary party  back calls for an immediate cessation to the fighting. Forty nine MPs have now publicly made the call.

He now risks a thorny internal row within his previously united party, just two weeks after he appeared to be riding high in the wake of a successful party conference and well ahead of the Tories in the polls.

Kate Devlin and Adam Forrest have more in this report:

Starmer hit by open Labour revolt over support for Israel

Israel claims Hamas fighter who 'took part' in 7 October attack has been killed

06:02 , Shweta Sharma

Israel has claimed a Hamas fighter who took part in planning and commanding the 7 October attack on the country was killed in overnight attacks.

Asem Abu Rakaba, the Head of Hamas Aerial Array was killed, the IDF said in a post.

Abu Rakaba was responsible for Hamas UAVs, drones, paragliders, aerial detection and defense. He took part in planning the October 7 massacre and commanded the terrorists who infiltrated Israel on paragliders and was responsible for the drone attacks on IDF posts, IDF said.

Scotlands first minister Humza Yousaf says he has lost contact with his family in Gaza

05:54 , Shweta Sharma

Scotlands first minister has said he is praying his family survive the night as Gaza comes under heavy bombardment.

Humza Yousaf revealed via social media that he has been unable to contact his wifes mother and her husband after communications were cut off as bombing of the Gaza Strip intensified.

Elizabeth El-Nakla and her husband Maged travelled to the region before the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October and have been trapped since Israels retaliation.

Scotlands first minister says he has lost contact with his family in Gaza

Day breaks in Gaza amid heavy bombing

05:48 , Shweta Sharma

The sun has come up over Gaza after a night of bombardment and heavy fighting between Israeli troops and Hamas militants.

A video purported to be of the Gaza skyline showed smoke rising above grey skies. Bombs and explosions could be heard in the video with gunfire also ringing in the background.

Morning In Gaza

Shots and explosions can be heard as Hamas militias are getting cleared!#starlinkforgaza #Israel #Palestina pic.twitter.com/jFaGOYrqjZ  Adithya Biju (@Adithyabijuc) October 28, 2023

Gaza blackout blackout risks providing cover for mass atrocities, says Human Rights Watch

05:26 , Shweta Sharma

The near-total telecoms blackout in Gaza could create a cover for mass atrocities in Gaza, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch said.

This information blackout risks providing cover for mass atrocities and contributing to impunity for human rights violations, Deborah Brown of HRW said in a statement posted online.

The near-total telecoms blackout in Gaza cuts off 2.2 million peoples access to the outside worldincluding their ability to communicate w loved ones & access life-saving services. It also risks providing cover for mass atrocities & contributing to impunity for grave crimes @hrw pic.twitter.com/4Zqv5SbKbo  Omar Shakir (@OmarSShakir) October 27, 2023

The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS) also expressed deep concern for media workers in Gaza after the communications blackout.

It said it was to suppress information about new massacres in Gaza.

The PJS holds the Israeli occupation authorities fully responsible for the lives of fellow journalists and urges the United Nations and its organizations and all human rights organizations to immediately intervene and stop the war of genocide in Gaza and restore access to communication in Gaza, the association added in a statement.

Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) also said the world was losing a window into the reality of the conflict.

It said the void created by lack of information can be filled with deadly propaganda, dis- and misinformation.

Palestinian telecom provider says complete blackout of services amid bombardment

05:11 , Shweta Sharma

Palestinian telecom provider Paltel said Israels bombardment has caused complete disruption of internet, cellular and landline services.

The cutoff meant casualties from strikes and details of ground incursions could not immediately be known. Some satellite phones continued to function.

Already plunged into darkness after most electricity was cut off weeks ago, Palestinians were thrown into isolation, huddling in homes and shelters with food and water supplies running out.

Relatives outside Gaza panicked after their messaging chats with families inside suddenly went dead and calls stopped going through.

I was so scared this was going to happen, said Wafaa Abdul Rahman, director of a feminist organization based in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Weve been seeing these horrible things and massacres when its live on TV, so now what will happen when theres a total blackout? she said, referring to scenes of families that have been crushed in homes by airstrikes over the past weeks.

What are Israels D9R bulldozers? 1m armoured Teddy Bear tanks set to lead soldiers into booby-trapped Gaza

05:05 , Andy Gregory

As thousands of Israeli soldiers mass at the Gaza border ahead of an anticipated ground offensive, a heavily modified armoured bulldozer dubbed the Teddy Bear is set to lead the charge.

The heavily-armoured vehicles, manufactured by the US tractor company Caterpillar, will be used to soak up enemy fire and clear a path through cluttered streets intermittently mined by Hamas, the militant group in control of the enclave.

In a national address on Wednesday, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said forces were preparing for a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip.

What are Israels Teddy Bear armoured D9 bulldozers?

Scenes from above Gaza and around the world as heavy bombardment continues

05:03 , Shweta Sharma

As Gaza city remains under blackout with communication cut off, pictures of the sky taken from outside the enclave showed the dark area lit up by Israeli airstrikes.

Smoke rises and billows in different regions of Gaza as the Israeli army conducts the most intense air attacks on the 21st day in Gaza Strip (Anadolu via Getty Images)

Israeli bombardment in the northern Gaza Strip (AP)

Meanwhile, pro-Palestinian protesters across the world, including in the US, have demanded governments to call for an immediate ceasefire.

Protests at one of the busiest train stations in the US forced the closure of New Yorks Grand Central Terminal.

NYPD officers respond as people demonstrate calling for a cease-fire amid war between Israel and Hamas, at Grand Central Station in New York City (AFP via Getty Images)

A banner reading

Protests were also seen in Paris, JakaIstanbul, Washington DC and parts of Germany.

Protestors hold placards during a demonstration in support of Palestinians near the Israeli consulate (AFP via Getty Images)

People hold a giant Palestinian flag during a rally in solidarity with the Palestinians, outside the US embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia (EPA)

Hamas vows to counter Israel with full force after ground operations

04:34 , Shweta Sharma

Hamas has said it will confront Israeli attacks with full force after the countrys military plunged the city into darkness and imposed a communication blackout to widen its air and ground attacks.

The Palestinian militant group that rules Gaza said earlier that its fighters were clashing with Israeli troops in areas near the border with Israel after the latter intensified attacks in Gaza.

The armed wing of Hamas said its fighters were clashing with Israeli troops in Gazas northeastern town of Beit Hanoun and in the central area of Al-Bureij.

The Al-Qassam brigades and all the Palestinian resistance forces are completely ready to confront (Israels) aggression with full force and frustrate its incursions, Hamas said in a statement.

Netanyahu and his defeated army will not be able to achieve any military victory, referring to the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Bombardment of Gaza intensified after Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a televised news briefing yesterday evening: In addition to the attacks carried out in the last few days, ground forces are expanding their operations tonight.

UN calls for 'humanitarian truce' in Gaza as Israel expands activity in the territory

04:08 , Shweta Sharma

The UN General Assembly (UNGA) approved a resolution yesterday calling for an immediate humanitarian truce in Gaza leading to a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Gazas Hamas rulers.

The resolution  though nonbinding  was the first UN response to Hamass surprise 7 October attacks on Israel and Israels ongoing military response and vow to obliterate Hamas.

The UNGA adopted the resolution by a vote of 120-14 with 45 abstentions after rejecting a Canadian amendment backed by the US to unequivocally condemn the terrorist attacks by Hamas and demand the immediate release of hostages taken by the militant group.

The resolution was drafted by a group of 22 Arab countries. It passed even as 45 countries abstained and the US and Israel voted no.

(AFP via Getty Images)

Scotlands first minister can only pray family in Gaza survive the night'

04:02 , Andy Gregory

Scotlands first minister Humza Yousaf has said he is unable to contact his family in Gaza and can only pray they survive the night.

Gaza is under intense bombing.



Telecommunications have been cut.



We can't get through to our family who have been trapped in this war zone for almost 3 weeks.



We can only pray they survive the night.



How many more children have to die before the world says enough?  Humza Yousaf (@HumzaYousaf) October 27, 2023

His wife Nadia El-Nakla said 10 days ago that three of her young cousins  including a two-year-old  had suffered shrapnel injuries after being hit by an Israeli drone.

World is in a dark hour, says Pope Francis

03:05 , Andy Gregory

Pope Francis has led special Friday evening prayers in St Peters Basilica for a world in a dark hour and in great danger from what he described as the folly of war.

Francis delivered his remarks in the form of a prayer to the Virgin Mary and did not mention by name the conflict that exploded when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on 7 October and Israel retaliated by sealing off the Gaza Strip and battering the Palestinian territory with air strikes.

He said he was praying for especially those countries and regions at war and he pleaded with Mary to take the initiative for us, in these times rent by conflicts and laid waste by the fire of arms.

This is a dark hour, Francis said in a subdued voice, in his remarks in the basilica.

Pope Francis gestures as he leads a prayer for peace inside St Peters Basilica (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

UN chief urges change in how aid to Gaza is inspected

02:03 , Andy Gregory

The UN secretary-general has appealed for the procedures for inspecting aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip from Egypt through the Rafah crossing to be adjusted to allow many more trucks to enter Gaza without delay.

The humanitarian system in Gaza is facing a total collapse with unimaginable consequences for more than 2 million civilians, Antonio Guterres said.

The US is leading negotiations with Israel, Egypt and the UN to try and create a sustained delivery mechanism for aid to Gaza, but they are wrangling over procedures for inspecting aid which see each truck offload its cargo at a checkpoint to be inspected for possible arms and ammunition.

The verification system for the movement of goods through the Rafah crossing must be adjusted to allow many more trucks to enter Gaza without delay, Mr Guterres said.

Before the conflict about 500 trucks a day were crossing into Gaza, but in recent days, an average of only 12 trucks a day have entered, he said.

Describing the situation in Gaza as desperate and dramatic the U.N. chief said the United Nations will not be able to continue delivering assistance inside the enclave without an immediate and fundamental shift in how aid is going in.

Buses loaded with arrested activists after Grand Central protest

01:48 , Graeme Massie

Footage: Multiple explosions seen and sirens heard on Israel-Gaza border

00:59 , Andy Gregory

Jewish Voice for Peace stages takeover of NYCs Grand Central Station

00:24 , Graeme Massie

US supports humanitarian pause in Gaza

00:01 , Andy Gregory

The United States supports a pause in Israeli military operations in Gaza to get humanitarian aid, fuel and electricity to civilians, White House spokesperson John Kirby has said.

Mr Kirby also said that if getting hostages out of Gaza requires a localised temporary pause, then the United States is in support of that.

We absolutely believe that that if a pause can be effected to allow for the  release of hostages, then that is something we absolutely would support and we believe Israel should support it, Mr Kirby said.

Weve been having active conversations with them about that.

23:32 , Graeme Massie

Flares fired by the Israeli army light up the sky east of Khan Yunis on the southern Gaza Strip on October 27, 2023 as battles between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement continue (AFP via Getty Images)

TOPSHOT - Flares fired by the Israeli army light up the sky east of Khan Yunis on the southern Gaza Strip on October 27, 2023 as battles between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement continue. (AFP via Getty Images)

British citizens trapped under Israels bombing of Gaza slam shameful lack of support from UK government

23:30 , Sam Rkaina

British citizens trapped under Israels ferocious bombing of Gaza have slammed the shameful lack of support from the British government that has failed to push for evacuation or a humanitarian ceasefire.

There are believed to be 200 Britons registered with the UK authorities in the besieged enclave, where food, water, fuel and medical supplies are fast running out.

Among them is Manchester resident Mohammed Ghalayini, who said Israeli air strikes have killed 37 members of his extended family and forced him to be displaced four times.

He was visiting family in Gaza when Israel unleashed its heaviest-ever air raids in retaliation for Hamass bloody 7 October attack on southern Israel.

Despite struggling to access food, water, and other supplies the 44-year-old said he has only received one communique from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: a single email 10 days ago.

Click here for the full story.

Mohammed Ghalayini (Supplied)

Diplomat contradicts DeSantis claims on shipping weapons to Israel

23:25 , Graeme Massie

Governor has helped coordinate evacuation flights.

Diplomat contradicts DeSantis claims on shipping weapons to Israel

Diplomat contradicts DeSantis claims on shipping weapons to Israel

23:23 , Graeme Massie

Governor of Florida as helped coordinate evacuation flights.

Will US airstrikes in Syria trigger a wider conflict?

22:30 , Joe Middleton

After the recent airstrikes in Syria, America has a careful balancing act on its hands to prevent the situation from getting out of control, writes world affairs editor Kim Sengupta from Jerusalem

Will US airstrikes in Syria trigger a wider conflict? | Kim Sengupta

Dont fall into the trap of picking sides over Gaza

22:00 , Joe Middleton

The horrors of Dresden, Guernica and Iraq are compelling reasons not to raze Gaza to dust, just as those sadistic and hate-filled attacks by Hamas are abhorred by all of us. This war is not about choosing one camp over another, writes Alan Rusbridger. Basic humanity is at stake  we need our leaders not to take sides

Dont fall into the trap of picking sides over Gaza | Alan Rusbridger

Biden questioned Gazas death toll, so Palestinians released the names

21:59 , Barney Davis

The list is stark in its simplicity: the victims name, age and sex.

There are 6,747 names in total, all of them killed during Israels assault on Gaza.

That number, reached in just 19 days, does not include the missing, making the true toll likely higher still.

Biden questioned Gazas death toll, so Palestinians released the names

Those are real people: Hamas captives family despair as hostage posters torn down across London

21:42 , Barney Davis

The family of a headteacher held by Hamas has spoken of their sadness at seeing posters of kidnapped Israelis being ripped down across London.

Ada Sagi, a 75-year-old mother and grandmother, has not had contact with her family since she was believed to have been taken hostage from her home in a dawn ambush on Kibbutz Nir Oz on 7 October.

Her daughter-in-law Michel Sagi, who knows the organisers of the missing poster campaign, said her worst fears were realised when she saw the flyers being ripped down or defaced in a flurry of videos.

Those are real people: Hamas captives family despair as hostage posters torn down

Footage of Israeli ground forces heading towards Gaza City

21:32 , Barney Davis

PBS reporter Leila Molana-Allen has shared footage of Israeli trucks full of troops and supplies heading to the Gaza border as air strikes bombard the Strip.

Convoys of Israeli soldiers and artillery pouring in on the northeastern corner of #Israels border with #Gaza tonight. Behind them, the relentless booms of outgoing airstrikes and artillery. pic.twitter.com/Sxk3noQ7UX  Leila Molana-Allen (@Leila_MA) October 27, 2023

Moment Hamas spokesman storms out of BBC interview when asked about killing Israeli families

21:30 , Joe Middleton

This is the moment a top Hamas spokesman throws his microphone on the floor and storms out of a BBC interview when questioned about the killing of Israeli families as they slept in their beds.

Ghazi Hamad, the deputy foreign minister for Hamas, was being questioned about the killings by BBCs Middle East reporter Hugo Bachega.

When asked how he can justify killing people as they slept. Mr Hamad looks to the side and pulls off his microphone. He states: I want to stop this interview.

He then throws the microphone onto the floor.

Hamas spokesman storms out of interview when asked about killing Israeli families

IDF cant guarantee safety of journalists

21:27 , Barney Davis

Israels military has told international news organisations that it cannot guarantee the safety of their journalists operating in the Gaza Strip.

The Israel Defense Forces wrote to Reuters and AFP this week after they had sought assurances that their journalists in Gaza would not be targeted by Israeli strikes.

The IDF is targeting all Hamas military activity throughout Gaza, the IDF letter said, adding that Hamas deliberately put military operations in the vicinity of journalists and civilians.

TV footage shows fire and smoke rising above Gaza City during an Israeli strike (AFP via Getty Images)

The IDF also noted that its high-intensity strikes on Hamas targets could cause damage to surrounding buildings and that Hamas rockets could also misfire and kill people inside Gaza.

Under these circumstances, we cannot guarantee your employees safety, and strongly urge you to take all necessary measures for their safety, the IDF letter concluded.

Scottish First Minister loses contact with family in Gaza

21:14 , Barney Davis

Humza Yousaf has lost contact with his family members trapped in the Gaza Strip amid reports of expansion in ground activity from Israeli forces.

The Scottish First Minister said that phone signal and internet in the region was cut leaving his wife in the dark as to whether her parents were still alive.

Gaza is under intense bombing.



Telecommunications have been cut.



We can't get through to our family who have been trapped in this war zone for almost 3 weeks.



We can only pray they survive the night.



How many more children have to die before the world says enough?  Humza Yousaf (@HumzaYousaf) October 27, 2023

Breaking: UN General Assembly approves resolution calling for humanitarian truce in Gaza

20:59 , Andy Gregory

The UN General Assembly has approved a resolution calling for a humanitarian truce in Gaza leading to a halt in the Israel-Hamas war.

The Jordanian resolution has been adopted by the General Assembly, with 120 votes in favour, 14 against and 45 abstentions.

When this is over, Gaza will be very different, says Netanyahu aide

20:53 , Andy Gregory

Israel is beefing up the pressure on Hamas, its military operations are underway and Gaza will be very different when the conflict is over, an adviser to Israels prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said.

We are beefing up the pressure on Hamas. Were increasing the pressure that theyre under. Our military operations are underway. I cant be more specific of course at this stage. But Hamas is feeling now Israels might, Mark Regev told Fox News.

They will continue to be on the receiving end of our military blows until we have dismantled their military machine and dissolve their political structure in Gaza. When this is over, Gaza will be very different, he said.

Booms from Gaza heard in Egypts Sinai

20:41 , Andy Gregory

Israels military has announced it was expanding ground operations in Gaza on Friday night, amid reports of the heaviest bombardment yet of the besieged strip and a total communications black-out.

Orange explosions seared through the night sky above northern Gaza as the Israeli air force appeared to unleash its most devastating attack yet on the enclave, which is home to over two million people.

While booms sounded as far as Egyptian towns in the Sinai, there was a chilling silence from within the 42-km-long strip.

Our chief international correspondent Bel Trew has more in this report from Tel Aviv:

Israel ground operations expanding in Gaza as phone service and internet cut off

UN chief warns of moment of truth in which history will judge us all

20:20 , Andy Gregory

Writing in the wake of Israels announcement to be expanding its ground operations in Gaza, the UN general secretary has warned this evening of a moment of truth in which everyone must assume their responsibilities.

I repeat my call for a humanitarian ceasefire in the Middle East, the unconditional release of all hostages, and the delivery of life-saving supplies at the scale needed.



Everyone must assume their responsibilities.



This is a moment of truth.



History will judge us all. pic.twitter.com/z562jVDKri  Antonio Guterres (@antonioguterres) October 27, 2023

Israel steps up bombardment of Gaza

20:16 , Andy Gregory

Here are more images showing the intensified bombardment of Gaza this evening:

(REUTERS)

(AFP via Getty Images)

Jordan foreign minister says Israel has launched a ground war'

20:05 , Andy Gregory

Jordans foreign minister Ayman Safadi has described Israel as having just launched a ground war on Gaza, and warned that the outcome will be a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions for years to come.

Israel said tonight that it is expanding its ground operations in continuation of the offensive activity we carried out in the last few days, which have seen IDF troops carry out raids across the border ahead of an expected ground attack.

Israel just launched a ground war on Gaza. Outcome will be a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions for years to come. Voting against Arab #UNGA resolution means approving this senseless war, this senseless killing.

Millions will be watching every vote. History will judge.  Ayman Safadi (@AymanHsafadi) October 27, 2023

The delays, doubts and diplomacy around an Israeli invasion of Gaza: Full throttle will be costly

20:00 , Joe Middleton

While troops are conducting raids backed by tanks and armoured bulldozers, and Benjamin Netanyahu is talking up the prospect of a full-scale ground assault, the picture is more complicated  and uncertain, writes Kim Sengupta

The delays, doubts and diplomacy around an Israeli invasion of Gaza

Connectivity collapses in Gaza after intense bombing'

19:42 , Andy Gregory

Connectivity tracker Netblocks has this graphic showing the collapse in connectivity in Gaza this evening:

 Confirmed: Live network data show a collapse in connectivity in the #Gaza Strip with high impact to Paltel, amid reports of heavy bombardment; the company is the last remaining major operator to supply service as connectivity declines amid ongoing fighting with Israel  pic.twitter.com/nDPf7HnjKF  NetBlocks (@netblocks) October 27, 2023

Palestinian mobile phone service provider Jawwal said that services including phone and internet had been cut by heavy bombardment.

1/2  Urgent: Palestinian Cellular Comms Co. @JawwalPal : intense bombing in the last hour caused destruction of all remaining int. routes linking #Gaza to the outside worldwhich led to a complete interruption of communications services. #CeasefireNow https://t.co/bpRR0ZhWbq  Al-Haq  (@alhaq_org) October 27, 2023

Israeli ground offensive will be like nothing seen this week'

19:31 , Andy Gregory

The Independents chief international correspondent Bel Trew reports:

Israeli army says "ground forces are expanding their operations tonight" echoing what sources said earlier today, it may not be an incursion like 2014 but will be like nothing seen this week. There's no network in Gaza right now. No way of speaking to civilians on the ground  Bel Trew (@Beltrew) October 27, 2023

Gaza map shows scale of destruction of tiny strip as Israel tanks raid north

19:30 , Joe Middleton

Israels military conducted an overnight raid into Gaza on Wednesday night as the besieged strip reels from ceaseless strikes, displacing hundreds of thousands of people.

The open-air prison - home to some 2.3 million Palestinians- has been hit with over 7,000 Israeli air strikes since Hamas attack on 7 October, destroying hospitals and UN-protected schools in the relentless assault on the enclave. Israel says more than 1,400 people were killed in the Hamas attacks and around 200 more were taken hostage.

The Israeli military said the overnight raid was carried out in preparation for the next stages of combat as the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) prepared for a large-scale invasion.

Gaza map shows scale of destruction of tiny strip as Israel tanks raid north

Israel has increased attacks on Gaza in recent hours, says IDF

19:19 , Andy Gregory

Here is more from IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari:

In recent hours we have increased the attacks in Gaza. The Air Force widely attacks underground targets and terrorist infrastructure, very significantly. In continuation of the offensive activity we carried out in the last few days, the ground forces are expanding the ground activity this evening.

The IDF works powerfully in all dimensions in order to achieve the goals of the war.

Balls of fire rose above Gaza City on Friday during an Israeli strike (AFP via Getty Images)

Sadiq Khan calls for Gaza ceasefire as Labour rebellion against Starmer stance grows

19:00 , Joe Middleton

Multiple Explosions Seen And Ambulances Heard On Israel-gaza Border

18:44 , Sam Rkaina

Hamas using hospitals in Gaza to wage war, IDF says

18:30 , Alexander Butler

Hamas is using hospitals in Gaza to wage war, the Israel Defence Forces spokesperson said.

Daniel Hagari said hundreds of terrorists fled into the hospital to hide there after attacks on Israel on 7 October, and Israel has intelligence that there is fuel in hospitals in Gaza, and Hamas is using it for its terror infrastructures.

He adds that Hamas does this because, he says, the IDF distinguishes between terrorists and civilians in its attacks. By contrast, he says Hamas is harming both Israeli and Gazan civilians.

Palestinians inspect the rubble of destroyed buildings following Israeli airstrikes (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

London: More than 200 balloons released in support of Hamas hostages

18:00 , Alexander Butler

More than 200 balloons have been released next to Tower Bridge, London, in support of the more than 220 people taken hostage by Hamas.

The Israeli military said today that the confirmed number of people held hostage in the Gaza Strip since the 7 October cross-border raids by Hamas has risen by five to 229.

Qatar open to reconsidering Hamas presence in country, US official says

17:30 , Alexander Butler

Qatar has sad it is open to reconsidering the presence of Hamas in the country after the hostage crisis is resolved, a senior US official has said.

The gulf state is a US ally that hosts a large American military base, as well as Hamass political leadership, doubling up as the main residence of self-exiled leader Ismail Haniyeh.

The understanding was reached at a meeting in Doha this month between Antony Blinken and the emir of Qatar, the official said.

Qatars Foreign Minister Abdulrahman al-Thani (AFP via Getty Images)

Greater Manchester Mayor calls for ceasefire

17:00 , Alexander Butler

Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham has become the latest senior Labour figure to call for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

We recognise that Israel has the right to take targeted action within international law to defend itself against terror attacks and terrorist organisations and to rescue hostages, he said in a statement signed by deputy mayor Kate Green and 10 leaders of Manchester councils

We also have profound concerns about the loss of thousands of lives in Gaza, the displacement of many more and widespread suffering through the ongoing blockade of essential goods and services. It is vital that urgent support and humanitarian aid is allowed into the area.

Given the humanitarian disaster unfolding in Gaza, the mayor, deputy mayor and 10 leaders of Greater Manchester join the growing international calls for a ceasefire by all sides and for the hostages to be released unharmed.

Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham has called for a ceasfire between Israel and Hamas (PA Wire)

Hamas claims responsibility for Tel Aviv rocket attack

16:30 , Alexander Butler

Hamass armed wing, the al Qassam brigades, has claimed responsibility for a rocket attack that struck an apartment building in southern Tel Aviv.

Al Qassam Brigades renewed their bombing of Tel Aviv in response to the Zionist massacres against civilians, the group said.

Israels ambulance service, the Magen David Adom, said it was treating a number of people left injured after the rocket attack.

From the direct rocket strike in Tel Aviv.

MDA EMTs and Paramedics treating and evacuating a male in moderate condition, 2 further casualties in mild condition being treated on scene. pic.twitter.com/SD9f2OSG6V  Magen David Adom (@Mdais) October 27, 2023

Six more aid lorries cross into Gaza

16:00 , Alexander Butler

Six more aid lorries filled with humanitarian aid have crossed into Gaza using the Rafah crossing borde, the International Committee for the Red Cross said.

We are bringing in medical staff, including a war surgery team, alongside 6 trucks with urgent humanitarian aid, it said in a statement.

The Red Cross said it brought medical materials, water purification tools and war surgery kits.

Our convoy passed Rafah crossing into #Gaza.



We are bringing in medical staff, including a war surgery team, alongside 6 trucks with urgent humanitarian aid:



 Medical materials

 War surgery kits for 1000 to 5000 people

 Water purification for 50,000L of drinking water pic.twitter.com/JvWVhZnPZ0  ICRC (@ICRC) October 27, 2023

Israel conducted sea raid, IDF says

15:00 , Alexander Butler

The Israeli Defence Forces conducted a targeted raid from the sea in southern Gaza overnight, the military said on X, formerly Twitter.

Fighters of the 13th Fleet carried out a targeted raid from the sea in the south of the Gaza Strip during the night. As part of the operation, the forces destroyed terrorist infrastructures of the Hamas terrorist organization and operated in a compound used by the organizations naval commando forces, it said.

The attack was different to an attack conducted by ground troops and fighter jets over night, which targeted anti-tank missile launch sites, command centres and Hamas terrorists.

  13         .  ,                 .



          .       pic.twitter.com/hc2Zq8bHC2     (@idfonline) October 27, 2023

Up to 408 antisemitic offences in London this month

14:52 , Alexander Butler

There have been 408 recorded antisemitic offences in London between 1 October and 27 October, compared to just 28 over the same period last year, according to the Metropolitan Police.

In that time there have been 174 Islamophobic offences compared to 65 in the same period in 2022. The force has also made 75 arrests linked to the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Ground offensive would be long and difficult'

14:15 , Alexander Butler

An Israeli ground offensive of Gaza would be long and difficult, Israels defence minister admitted.

Yoav Gallant said a ground invasion would include large troop numbers backed by airstrikes, which would take a long time.

Mr Gallant added that it would be followed by a third phase of lower-intensity fighting, as Israel destroys pockets of resistance.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant (Anadolu via Getty Images)

Pictured: Empty Shabbat table laid in London for missing hostages

14:00 , Alexander Butler

An empty Shabbat table has been laid in London to raise awareness of more than 200 Jewish hostages being held captive in Gaza by Hamas.

A woman with an Israeli flag visits the empty Shabbat table installation in London (AFP via Getty Images)

The Empty Shabbat Table installation in London, showing kidnapped posters of three missing Israeli men (PA)

Hamas will release hostages if Palestinian prisoners released, Iran says

13:45 , Alexander Butler

Hamas will release Israeli hostages if 6,000 Palestinians being held in Israels prisons are also released, Irans foreign minister said.

Speaking at an emergency meeting of the UN general assembly in New York, foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said Iran stands ready to play its part in this very important humanitarian endeavour, along with Qatar and Turkey.

Iran is a major funder of Hamas. Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon held a meeting with Hamas and Islamic Jihad this week to discuss how to bring about real victory in the region.

Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian (via REUTERS)

UK stands four-square in support of Israel, UK home secretary says

13:20 , Alexander Butler

Britain stands four-square behind Israel and will do everything necessary to protect British jews, the UK home secretary said.

I met with Jewish communal leaders yesterday on public order and the sickening 1300% rise in antisemitism following Hamass terrorist atrocities, home secretary Suella Braverman said.

The Government stands foursquare in support of Israel and will do everything necessary to protect the British Jewish community.

I met with Jewish communal leaders yesterday on public order and the sickening 1300% rise in antisemitism following Hamass terrorist atrocities.



The Government stands foursquare in support of Israel and will do everything necessary to protect the British Jewish community. pic.twitter.com/gjxGoMcaSE  Suella Braverman MP (@SuellaBraverman) October 27, 2023

Up to 7,326 Palestinians killed in Gaza, health ministry says

12:57 , Alexander Butler

Up to 7,326 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza since 7 October, the Gazan health ministry has claimed.

Hospitals in Gaza record a death with the persons identity number, name, gender and age after this information is confirmed, according to the ministry of health.

This data is then transferred to a central database overseen by the Ministry of Health, based in Ramallah, West Bank, where it is double checked for discrepancies, the ministry said.

Although the Biden administration has raised questions about the credibility of the ministrys figures, it is the only official source for Gaza casualties. Israel has sealed Gazas borders, barring foreign journalists and humanitarian workers.

The United Nations and other international institutions and experts, as well as Palestinian authorities in the West Bank  rivals of Hamas  say the Gaza ministry has long made a good-faith effort to account for the dead under the most difficult conditions.

Palestinians walk among rubble and destruction after Israeli airstrikes on Gaza (AP)

Tyranny meets terrorism: Shapps slams Putins meeting with Hamas

12:25 , Alexander Butler

Vladimir Putins meeting with terror group Hamas shows how far Russia has fallen since its invasion of Ukraine, the UK defence secretary said.

Tyranny meets terrorism. Pariah meets proscribed, as Russia sits down with Hamas, defence secretary Grant Shapps said on X, formerly Twitter.

Putins humiliating search for friends, from North Korea to Hamas, has shown how far Russia has fallen & proven the disastrous cost of his failing invasion of Ukraine.

Tyranny meets terrorism... pariah meets proscribed, as Russia sits down with Hamas.



Putins humiliating search for friends, from North Korea to Hamas, has shown how far Russia has fallen & proven the disastrous cost of his failing invasion of Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/9H75saZgUn  Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP (@grantshapps) October 27, 2023

Another 10 lorries carrying aid enter Gaza

12:13 , Alexander Butler

Another 10 lorries carrying water, food and medical supplies has been allowed to enter Gaza through the Rafah land border crossing with Egypt, officials said.

This Friday morning, a medical delegation consisting of 10 foreign doctors entered, in addition to 10 trucks entering the Gaza Strip through the Rafah land crossing, carrying water, food and medicine, bringing the total number of trucks since the beginning of the war to only 84 trucks, a Palestinian border official said.

Humanitarian agencies and charities have warned more aid was needed to deal with the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Lack of fuel threatens food aid to Gaza, UN warns

12:00 , Alexander Butler

Fuel shortages in Gaza may disrupt the delivery of emergency food to thousands of displaced families, the UN food agency warned.

Only two of our contracted bakeries have fuel to produce bread at the moment and tomorrow there might be none, World Food Programme (WFP) representative Samer Abdeljaber said.

This would be a terrible blow to the thousands of families living in shelters who have been relying on the daily bread deliveries, he added.

The Rome-based agency said it provides daily bread supplies, on average, for 200,000 people in shelters, but this fell to 150,000 on Wednesday due to the lack of fuel.

A displaced Palestinian girl shows a bowl of potatos at a refugee camp in Gaza (AFP via Getty Images)

EU position on Israel-Hamas is evolving, says Irish premier

11:47 , Adam Forrest

Irish premier Leo Varadkar has said he believes the EU position on Israel-Palestine is evolving and that it would have a role to play in any future peace conference.

Mr Varadkar has said it is possible that EU states could update their statement to call for an Israel-Hamas ceasefire in the future.

On Thursday, EU leaders reiterated a condemnation of Hamas for brutal and indiscriminate terrorist attacks across Israel.

The European Council also strongly emphasised Israels right to defend itself in line with international law, while reiterating the importance of protecting civilians.

Irish premier Leo Varadkar said he thought the EU position on Israel-Palestine was evolving (PA Wire)

Israel-Hamas conflict wont affect UKs support for Ukraine, Sunak says

11:35 , Katie Devlin

Rishi Sunak has spoken to Volodymyr Zelensky, to reassure him the UKs support for Ukraine will not change despite the Israel-Hamas war.

A Downing Street spokeswoman said the Prime Minister spoke to the Ukrainian President this morning to reiterate the UKs support for Ukraine.

The Prime Minister underscored the UKs long term and unwavering commitment to Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity and reiterated that the conflict in the Middle East would not change that.

Mr Sunak added that the principle of a rules based order, in which people could live in peace and stability, needed to be protected both in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky in July

US sanctions Hamas and Irans Revolutionary Guard

11:20 , Alexander Butler

The US has issued a second round of sanctions on Hamas by targeting a senior official, as well as members of Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Todays action underscores the United States commitment to dismantling Hamass funding networks by deploying our counterterrorism sanctions authorities and working with our global partners to deny Hamas the ability to exploit the international financial system, Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said

A Gaza-based entity that Treasury said has served as a conduit for illicit Iranian funds to Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group was also targeted, the department said. Iran backs Hamas and other militant groups in the Middle East.

The US has sanctioned Hamas and IRGC officials (AP)

Watch: Sadiq Khan calls for Gaza ceasefire as Labour rebellion against Starmer stance grows

11:05 , Alexander Butler

IDF kills top Hamas commander, Israel says

10:49 , Alexander Butler

Israel has killed a senior Hamas commander, according to the Israeli Defence Forces.

The IDF and the Shin Bet tonight killed Midhat Mabasher, the commander of the West Khan Yunis Battalion in the terrorist organization Hamas, the IDF said.

The Israeli military said Mabasher took part in sniping attacks and used large explosives against IDF forces and Israeli settlements.

 "     ,        .              >> pic.twitter.com/awTghlrrGy     (@idfonline) October 27, 2023

WHO: 1,000 people still under rubble in Gaza

10:40 , Alexander Butler

Up to 1,000 people are still stuck under the rubble of destroyed buildings in Gaza, according to a World Health Organisation official.

We also get these estimates that there are still 1,000 plus people under the rubble which have not been identified yet, Richard Peeperkorn, WHO Representative for the occupied Palestinian territory, said in response to a question about the death toll in Gaza.

More than 7,000 people have been killed by Israeli bombardments in response to deadly cross-border attacks on Israel by Hamas gunmen on 7 October, Gazan health authorities say.

Rubble and ruins in Gaza following Israeli airstrikes on the region (AFP via Getty Images)

At least 57 UN staff members killed in Gaza

10:30 , Alexander Butler

Up to 57 staff members from the United Nations have been killed in the Israel-Hamas conflict, Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said.

At least 57 colleagues of mine are confirmed killed, said Mr Lazzarini. Wonderful people who have just dedicated their lives to their communities.

Mr Lazzarini also said Gazas death figures, which were challenged by the US, had been accurate in previous conflicts between Israel and Hamas.

In the past, the five, six cycles of conflict in the Gaza Strip, these figures were considered as credible and no one ever really challenged these figures, he said.

Smoke rises over the Gaza strip (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Pictured: Gaza

10:20 , Alexander Butler

Three men mourn at a funeral of Palestinians killed in Israeli air strikes (REUTERS)

Palestinians walk amid the rubble and destruction after an Israeli airstrike on Gaza (AFP via Getty Images)

An aerial view of a destroyed building following Israeli airstrikes on Gaza (AFP via Getty Images)

A building lies in ruins after Israeli airstrikes on southern Gaza (AFP via Getty Images)

London mayor Sadiq Khan calls for ceasefire

10:10 , Alexander Butler

Londons Mayor Sadiq Khan has called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Thousands of innocent civilians have already been killed in Israel and Gaza, he said.

With the humanitarian crisis set to deteriorate even further, Im calling for a ceasefire.

Thousands of innocent civilians have already been killed in Israel and Gaza. With the humanitarian crisis set to deteriorate even further, Im calling for a ceasefire. pic.twitter.com/iOZpHTsBQC  Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan (@MayorofLondon) October 27, 2023

Israeli forces kill four Palestinians in West Bank clashes

10:00 , Alexander Butler

Israeli forces have killed four Palestinians during raids in the occupied West Bank, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA said. Two of the dead were identified by militant factions as their members.

As it wages a now three-week-old war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Israel has also stepped up operations against Islamist groups in the West Bank, killing scores of Palestinians and arresting hundreds. One Israeli soldier was killed in a clash.

The Israeli military said that during West Bank arrest operations its troops came under attack in the city of Jenin and fired back, killing Ayser al-Amar of the Islamic Jihad faction.

Islamic Jihad confirmed al-Amar belonged to the group. Hamas said one of its men, Jawad al-Turki, was killed during the Jenin fighting.

Up to 229 confirmed hostages held by Hamas, Israel says

09:50 , Alexander Butler

The number of hostages currently being held by Hamas militants as 229, the Israeli said.

It brings the number up from the previously confirmed 224. So far, four hostages have been released.

An American mother and daughter have been released, as well as two elderly Israeli women. Qatari negotiators hope for a full release within the next few days.

A light installation in Jerusalem for those kidnapped by Hamas (EPA)

Eight more lorries carrying aid set to enter Gaza

09:40 , Alexander Butler

Eight lorries carrying food, medicine and water are expected to cross into the Gaza Strip on Friday, a senior United Nations official said.

We have gotten in approximately 74 trucks. Were expecting another eight or so today, Lynn Hastings, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said.

Aid workers have said repeatedly that the convoys meet only a tiny fraction of the territorys mounting humanitarian needs. Prior to the war, an average of 500 trucks entered Gaza each day, according to reports.

A convoy of aid lorries cross into Gaza from Egypt last Sunday (AFP via Getty Images)

09:30 , Alexander Butler

The Israeli military said an aerial threat had been spotted in the Red Sea region and linked this to a projectile that landed on Egyptian coastal territory there.

In recent hours, an aerial threat was spotted in the Red Sea region. Combat helicopters were scrambled in response to the threat, and this matter is now being investigated, chief military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said.

To our understanding, the strike that took place in Egypt originated in this threat, he said in a televised briefing. Israel will work with Egypt, and the United States, and bolster regional defences against threats from the Red Sea region.

Egypt has said an unidentified drone landed near a hospital building in Taba, injuring six people.

Gaza invasion will lead to significant escalation of violence across Middle East, says ex-Obama adviser

09:20 , Adam Forrest

Ben Rhodes, the former deputy national security advisor in the Obama administration, said the current US government was worried about wider conflict  particularly attacks by Irans proxies in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

I dont know how you have that ground invasion [in Gaza] without having a significant escalation across the region  including perhaps Hezbollah getting involved in northern Israel and the West Bank becoming much more violent and Iranian proxies being further activated in Iraq, Yemen and Syria, he told BBC Radio 4.

Mr Rhodes added: If theres not a de-escalation, if theres further escalation in Gaza I think its likely we see further incidents  if you continue to light that tinder box on fire at some point its going to catch.

He said the Joe Biden administration had caused the Israelis to at least consider the risks from an invasion, but warned: It does not seem like that message has caused them to fundamentally changed their calculus.

Palestinians look through the rubble of a building following Israeli bombardment of Khan Yunis, southern Gaza (AFP via Getty Images)

What can we expect next in Israel-Hamas war? Ask our expert Kim Sengupta anything about the conflict

09:10 , Alexander Butler

What happens to Gaza if Israel make good on their promise to destroy Hamas? Who will govern it and have the responsibility of restoring a destroyed land?

If you have a question for The Independents World Affairs Editor Kim Sengupta me submit it now, or when I join you live at 12pm today for the Ask Me Anything event.

Register to submit your question in the comments box under this article linked below. If youre not already a member, click sign up in the comments section to leave your question. For a full guide on how to comment click here.

Ask expert Kim Sengupta anything about political fallout from Israel-Hamas war

Moment Hamas spokesman storms out of interview after being questioned on terror attack

09:00 , Alexander Butler

Families of Israeli victims urge world to stand against Islamist violence

08:50 , Alexander Butler

The world must take a stand against Islamist violence to avoid it spreading and take action to ensure the swift release of hostages taken by Hamas militants, families of victims said.

A delegation of relatives visited Rome to hold talks with authorities, including Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, as part of a campaign to bolster world efforts to free the more than 200 people taken captive.

The group included Avi Eylon, whose 23-year-old daughter, Shira, was killed with a friend while attending a music festival.

Please wake up. To the people in the world, to the people in Europe, please wake up, because this is not a land conflict, this is a religious conflict, he said, saying the reason why Hamas murdered his daughter was that she was Jewish.

A woman touches photos of Israelis missing and held captive in Gaza, displayed on a wall in Tel Aviv (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Pictured: Destruction in Gaza

08:40 , Alexander Butler

A man with a bandage on his head sits in front of a destroyed building in Gaza after Israeli airstrikes (AFP via Getty Images)

Smoke and fire rise from buildings as rescuers gather following Israeli airstrikes on Gaza (AFP via Getty Images)

Iran launches military exercises

08:30 , Alexander Butler

Iranian ground forces have launched two days of exercises to test the flight readiness of more than 200 helicopters, according to reports.

The drills, which had been planned earlier, are aimed confronting possible threats facing the Islamic Republic, spokesperson Brigadier General Amir Cheshak told state media.

He said troops and military equipment had been transferred from seven of Irans provinces for the drills in Nasr Abad in the central Isfahan province.

It comes after the US said its fighter jets struck two Iranian facilities in Syria, after repeated attacks on US coalition forces in the region by an Iran-backed militia in the past week.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi (AP)

IDF strike Hamas 'missile launch sites' and 'command centres' in Gaza

08:20 , Alexander Butler

More than 250 lawyers urge Britain to call for a ceasefire

08:10 , Alexander Butler

More than 250 British lawyers have called on the UK government to press for a ceasefire in Gaza, claiming Israel is breaching international law.

The letter, addressed to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and Defence Secretary Grant Shapps, calls on the British government to urgently fulfil its international legal obligations

We are moved to intervene because, in a region already accustomed to great suffering, the death and other harm visited on individuals, families and whole communities in the last 20 days has been truly terrible.

The starvation of a civilian population as a method of warfare, including wilfully impeding adequate relief supplies, as Israel is doing in Gaza, is strictly prohibited under customary international law... and constitutes a war crime.

Hamass war crimes cannot be justified by reference to prior war crimes by Israel; neither do they justify further such crimes by Israel in its response, which must comply with international law, it says.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly (PA Wire)

Hostages cant be released until ceasefire, Hamas claims

07:56 , Alexander Butler

Hostages seized by the Hamas terror group during its cross-border raid which killed up to 1,400 Israelis cannot be released until there is a ceasefire, the group has claimed.

They seized dozens of people, most of them civilians, and we need time to find them in the Gaza Strip and then release them, Hamas official Abu Hamid told Russian newspaper Kommersant.

A calm environment was needed to complete this task, the newspaper quoted him as saying. On Thursday, Hamas said around 50 of the hostages had been killed in Israeli air strikes.

But Israel has urged Russia to expel the visiting Hamas delegation, calling their invitation to Moscow deplorable.

Light projectors signifying those abducted by Hamas illuminateJerusalem (EPA)

Nearly half of Israelis want to hold off on Gaza invasion, poll finds

07:37 , Alexander Butler

Nearly half of Israelis want to hold off on any invasion of the Gaza strip, a new poll has found.

Twenty-nine per cent of Israelis agreed while 49 per cent said it would be better to wait when asked if the IDF should immediately escalate to a large-scale ground offensive. Meanwhile, 22 per were still undecided, the poll published in the Maariv newspaper said.

The paper said the results contrasted with its poll last week which found 65 per cent of Israelis supported a major ground offensive.

Relatives of hostages that were kidnaped to the Gaza Strip call for the Israeli government to bring them back in Tel Aviv, Israel (Getty Images)

IDF strikes Hamas targets overnight

07:28 , Alexander Butler

The Israel Defence Forces said it had conducted more air strikes on Hamas terrorist targets over the last 24 hours.

IDF ground troops, fighter jets and UAVs struck anti-tank missile launch sites, command & control centers and Hamas terrorist operatives. The troops exited the area and no injuries were reported, the Israeli military said.

OPERATIONAL UPDATE: The IDF conducted strikes on Hamas terrorist targets over the last 24 hours.



IDF ground troops, fighter jets and UAVs struck:



 Anti-tank missile launch sites

 Command & control centers

 Hamas terrorist operatives



The troops exited the area and no pic.twitter.com/yNdiY6XTby  Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 27, 2023

Unprecedented death toll in Gaza

07:07 , Namita Singh

The rising death tolls in Gaza are unprecedented in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Even greater loss of life could come if Israel launches an expected ground offensive aimed at crushing Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007 and survived four previous wars with Israel.

The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said on Wednesday that more than 750 people were killed over the past 24 hours, higher than the 704 killed the previous day.

The figures could not be independently verified and the ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

By comparison, 2,251 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed in the entire six-week-long war in 2014, according to UN figures.

Irans foreign minister said Hamas is ready to release civilian prisoners abducted from Israel but that the international community must take responsibility for releasing 6,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.

Hossein Amirabdollahian told an emergency meeting of the UN General Assembly on Thursday that Iran stands ready to play its part in this very important humanitarian endeavour, along with Qatar and Turkey.

Rafah crossing checks 'slow aid to dribble

07:07 , Jane Dalton

Overly stringent checks on lorries at the Rafah crossing from Egypt into Gaza were slowing the flow of humanitarian aid to a dribble as hunger grows among Palestinians there, UN World Food Programme executive director has said.

The Rafah crossing, which is controlled by Egypt and does not border Israel, has become the main point of aid delivery since Israel imposed a total siege of Gaza in retaliation for an attack by Hamas militants on 7 October.

The United States is leading negotiations with Israel, Egypt and the UN to try to create a sustained delivery mechanism for aid to Gaza.

Weve gotten a few  a dribble, just a dribble  of trucks in, Cindy McCain told Reuters. We need to get a large amount in. We need safe, unfettered access into Gaza so that we can feed and make sure that people dont starve to death, because thats whats happening.

(REUTERS)

In video: Al Jazeera reporter Wael Al Dahdouh continues to report on Gaza after the loss of family

07:05 , Namita Singh

US will not be spared from this fire, warns Iran foreign minister

06:59 , Namita Singh

On Thursday, Irans foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said at the United Nations that if Israels retaliation against Palestinian militants Hamas in the Gaza Strip doesnt end, then the United States will not be spared from this fire.

I say frankly to the American statesmen, who are now managing the genocide in Palestine, that we do not welcome (an)expansion of the war in the region. But if the genocide in Gaza continues, they will not be spared from this fire, he told a meeting of the 193-member General Assembly on the Middle East.

People gather amid the destruction in the aftermath of an Israeli strike on Gaza City on 26 October 2023, as battles continue between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group (AFP via Getty Images)

One way Iran projects power is by arming and funding militant groups, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Houthis in Yemen and Shiite militias in Iraq.

In the last such known US retaliation, the US military carried out multiple air strikes in Syria on 23 March against Iran-aligned groups it blamed for a drone attack that killed an American contractor, wounded another and hurt five US troops.

Biden sent message warning Irans Khamenei against targeting US troops

06:52 , Namita Singh

President Joe Biden has sent a rare message to Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warning Tehran against targeting US personnel in the Middle East, the White House said on Thursday after a spate of attacks on American forces in the region.

There was a direct message relayed, White House spokesperson John Kirby said at a news briefing, declining to elaborate.

US officials want to avoid a wider conflict in the Middle East following the 7 October attack by the militant Hamas group on Israel that killed at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians.

About 900 additional US troops are headed to the Middle East or have recently arrived there to bolster air defenses to protect US personnel amid a surge in attacks in the region by Iran-affiliated groups, the Pentagon said.

US troops have been attacked at least 12 times in Iraq and four times in Syria in the past week, it added.

US fighter jets strike Syria after attacks by Iran-backed militia

06:43 , Namita Singh

Two US fighter jets struck weapons and ammunition facilities in Syria on Friday in what Washington said was a retaliation for attacks on US forces by an Iran-backed militia.

Joe Biden ordered strikes on the two facilities used by Irans Revolutionary Guard Corps and militia forces it backs, the Pentagon said, warning the US will take additional measures if attacks by Irans proxies continue.

US and coalition troops have been attacked at least 19 times in Iraq and in Syria by Iran-backed forces in the past week, the US officials said. Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Lebanons Hezbollah are all backed by Tehran.

Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said at the United Nations on Thursday that if Israels offensive against Hamas did not stop, the United States will not be spared from this fire.

The US air strikes took place at roughly 4.30am on Friday in Syria near Abu Kamal, a Syrian town on the border with Iraq, and were carried out by two F-16 fighter jets using precision munitions, a US defence official said.

These precision self-defence strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against US personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on 17 October, US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement.

These Iranian-backed attacks against US forces are unacceptable and must stop, Mr Austin said.

Explainer: What is Gazas ministry of health and how does it calculate death toll?

06:06 , Jane Dalton

Doctors scribble on notepads in overflowing morgues, struggling to account for bodies trapped under rubble and tossed in hastily dug mass graves. Yet the Gaza-based Ministry of Health continues to tally casualty numbers:

EXPLAINER: What is Gaza's Ministry of Health and how does it calculate the war's death toll?

Republican senators want to separate Israel funding from Ukraine aid

05:05 , Jane Dalton

A group of conservatives in the US Senate are pushing to drive a wedge between military aid for Ukraine and Israel at a time when passing legislation to support the former seems more uncertain than ever:

Republican senators want to separate Israel funding from Ukraine aid

Israel says calls for humanitarian pause in Gaza appear to be in poor faith

20:36 , Andy Gregory

Israel is rejecting calls for respite in Gaza as its closest allies in the West have coalesced around the idea of humanitarian pauses, or temporary stops to the bombardment.

The issue has opened the first public split between Israel and backers including the United States, the EU, UK and other G7 members such as Japan over the campaign after tight alignment and support in the nearly three weeks since Hamas militants burst from Gaza into southern Israel on a deadly rampage.

Israel is opposed to a humanitarian pause or ceasefire at this time, Lior Haiat, Israels Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said on Friday, while a senior Israeli official said calls for a pause in fighting appeared in poor faith.

The chorus of appeals for a pause followed days of intense diplomacy at UN headquarters in New York and in Brussels, and was a compromise between those, such as Spain, who wanted to push Israel to call a ceasefire, and those who say Israels right to self defence was foremost.

Israel claims to have killed Hamas spy chief

04:04 , Jane Dalton

The Israeli military said an airstrike killed one of two masterminds of the Hamas massacre  Shadi Barud, the head of Hamas intelligence unit.

The military says it only strikes militant targets and accuses Hamas of operating among civilians in an attempt to protect its fighters.

Shadi Barud, Deputy Head of Hamas Intelligence Directorate has been eliminated by an IDF aerial strike.



He took part in the planning of the October 7 massacre and countless other deadly attacks carried out against Israelis.



We will continue to strike and eliminate Hamas  Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 26, 2023

New photos show destruction as Israel tanks raid Gaza

03:03 , Jane Dalton

An online geolocating platform has posted photos of military vehicles and identified the location of Israels tanks at the northern border of the Gaza strip:

Gaza map shows scale of destruction of tiny strip as Israel tanks raid north

Hostages families stage demonstration in Tel Aviv

02:02 , Jane Dalton

Family members of the Israeli hostages who were kidnapped and taken to the Gaza Strip held a demonstration calling for their government to bring them back:

(Getty Images)

The evidence on who is to blame for Gaza hospital bomb

01:01 , Jane Dalton

Hamas blame the deaths on an Israeli airstrike; Israel blames a jihadist groups failed rocket:

Who is to blame for Gaza hospital bomb - we scrutinise the evidence

EU leaders stress Israels right to defend itself

Friday 27 October 2023 00:02 , Jane Dalton

Leaders of the European Unions 27 nations have emphasised Israels right to defend itself in line with international law and international humanitarian law.

The summit in Brussels was the leaders first in-person meeting since the attack that prompted Israel to bombard and blockade Hamas-run Gaza.

In their declaration, the leaders also repeated a call for Hamas to immediately release all hostages without any precondition.

They reiterated their previous condemnation in the strongest possible terms of the 7 October assault on Israel by Hamas.

The European Union will work closely with partners in the region to protect civilians, provide assistance and facilitate access to food, water, medical care, fuel and shelter, ensuring that such assistance is not abused by terrorist organisations, the declaration also said.

In pictures: Lights memorial for the kidnapped

Thursday 26 October 2023 23:01 , Jane Dalton

A display of lights signifying those abducted by Hamas light the sky in Jerusalem:

(EPA)

(EPA)

(EPA)

Reporter whose family were killed felt duty to continue working

Thursday 26 October 2023 22:30 , Jane Dalton

An Al Jazeera reporter who was on air when he was told his wife and children had been killed in an Israeli airstrike has spoken of why he has continued working despite his agony.

Wael Al-Dahdouh said: Thank you for all your solidarity and condolences and prayers. They were really important ... I felt it was my duty to get back to work as quickly as possible, despite everything.

As you can see, the firing is going on everywhere...

I felt that it was my duty, despite the pain and the open wound, to get back in front of the camera and to communicate with you on social media as soon as possible.

Click here to read the full blog on The Independent's website
The Israel Defence Forces have killed a Hamas commander during an overnight raid on Gaza, according to the Israeli military.

The IDF and the Shin Bet tonight killed Midhat Mabasher, the commander of the West Khan Yunis Battalion in the terrorist organization Hamas, the IDF said.

Mabasher had taken part in sniping attacks and used large explosives against IDF forces and Israeli settlements, the Israeli military added.

It comes as the IDF said it had deployed fighter jets to conduct more air strikes on Hamas terrorist targets in Gaza over the last 24 hours.

IDF ground troops, fighter jets and UAVs struck anti-tank missile launch sites, command & control centers and Hamas terrorist operatives. The troops exited the area and no injuries were reported, the Israeli military said.

Meanwhile, US said its fighter jets struck two Iranian facilities in Syria, after repeated attacks on US coalition forces in the region by an Iran-backed militia in the past week.

The strikes were not carried out in coordination with Israel, which has been engaged in its own clashes with Iran-backed Hezbollah forces on the border with Lebanon, a US official said.

Key Points

IDF kills top Hamas commander, Israel says

IDF strikes Hamas targets overnight

US fighter jets strike Syria after attacks by Iran-backed militia

Over 1,000 people still under rubble in Gaza, WHO says

Palestinian authorities release list of 7,000 people they say have been killed

Israel conducted sea raid, IDF says

15:00 , Alexander Butler

The Israeli Defence Forces conducted a targeted raid from the sea in southern Gaza overnight, the military said on X, formerly Twitter.

Fighters of the 13th Fleet carried out a targeted raid from the sea in the south of the Gaza Strip during the night. As part of the operation, the forces destroyed terrorist infrastructures of the Hamas terrorist organization and operated in a compound used by the organizations naval commando forces, it said.

The attack was different to an attack conducted by ground troops and fighter jets over night, which targeted anti-tank missile launch sites, command centres and Hamas terrorists.

  13         .  ,                 .



          .       pic.twitter.com/hc2Zq8bHC2     (@idfonline) October 27, 2023

Up to 408 antisemitic offences in London this month

14:52 , Alexander Butler

There have been 408 recorded antisemitic offences in London between 1 October and 27 October, compared to just 28 over the same period last year, according to the Metropolitan Police.

In that time there have been 174 Islamophobic offences compared to 65 in the same period in 2022. The force has also made 75 arrests linked to the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Ground offensive would be long and difficult'

14:15 , Alexander Butler

An Israeli ground offensive of Gaza would be long and difficult, Israels defence minister admitted.

Yoav Gallant said a ground invasion would include large troop numbers backed by airstrikes, which would take a long time.

Mr Gallant added that it would be followed by a third phase of lower-intensity fighting, as Israel destroys pockets of resistance.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant (Anadolu via Getty Images)

Pictured: Empty Shabbat table laid in London for missing hostages

14:00 , Alexander Butler

An empty Shabbat table has been laid in London to raise awareness of more than 200 Jewish hostages being held captive in Gaza by Hamas.

A woman with an Israeli flag visits the empty Shabbat table installation in London (AFP via Getty Images)

The Empty Shabbat Table installation in London, showing kidnapped posters of three missing Israeli men (PA)

Hamas will release hostages if Palestinian prisoners released, Iran says

13:45 , Alexander Butler

Hamas will release Israeli hostages if 6,000 Palestinians being held in Israels prisons are also released, Irans foreign minister said.

Speaking at an emergency meeting of the UN general assembly in New York, foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said Iran stands ready to play its part in this very important humanitarian endeavour, along with Qatar and Turkey.

Iran is a major funder of Hamas. Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon held a meeting with Hamas and Islamic Jihad this week to discuss how to bring about real victory in the region.

Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian (via REUTERS)

UK stands four-square in support of Israel, UK home secretary says

13:20 , Alexander Butler

Britain stands four-square behind Israel and will do everything necessary to protect British jews, the UK home secretary said.

I met with Jewish communal leaders yesterday on public order and the sickening 1300% rise in antisemitism following Hamass terrorist atrocities, home secretary Suella Braverman said.

The Government stands foursquare in support of Israel and will do everything necessary to protect the British Jewish community.

I met with Jewish communal leaders yesterday on public order and the sickening 1300% rise in antisemitism following Hamass terrorist atrocities.



The Government stands foursquare in support of Israel and will do everything necessary to protect the British Jewish community. pic.twitter.com/gjxGoMcaSE  Suella Braverman MP (@SuellaBraverman) October 27, 2023

Up to 7,326 Palestinians killed in Gaza, health ministry says

12:57 , Alexander Butler

Up to 7,326 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza since 7 October, the Gazan health ministry has claimed.

Hospitals in Gaza record a death with the persons identity number, name, gender and age after this information is confirmed, according to the ministry of health.

This data is then transferred to a central database overseen by the Ministry of Health, based in Ramallah, West Bank, where it is double checked for discrepancies, the ministry said.

Although the Biden administration has raised questions about the credibility of the ministrys figures, it is the only official source for Gaza casualties. Israel has sealed Gazas borders, barring foreign journalists and humanitarian workers.

The United Nations and other international institutions and experts, as well as Palestinian authorities in the West Bank  rivals of Hamas  say the Gaza ministry has long made a good-faith effort to account for the dead under the most difficult conditions.

Palestinians walk among rubble and destruction after Israeli airstrikes on Gaza (AP)

Tyranny meets terrorism: Shapps slams Putins meeting with Hamas

12:25 , Alexander Butler

Vladimir Putins meeting with terror group Hamas shows how far Russia has fallen since its invasion of Ukraine, the UK defence secretary said.

Tyranny meets terrorism. Pariah meets proscribed, as Russia sits down with Hamas, defence secretary Grant Shapps said on X, formerly Twitter.

Putins humiliating search for friends, from North Korea to Hamas, has shown how far Russia has fallen & proven the disastrous cost of his failing invasion of Ukraine.

Tyranny meets terrorism... pariah meets proscribed, as Russia sits down with Hamas.



Putins humiliating search for friends, from North Korea to Hamas, has shown how far Russia has fallen & proven the disastrous cost of his failing invasion of Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/9H75saZgUn  Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP (@grantshapps) October 27, 2023

Another 10 lorries carrying aid enter Gaza

12:13 , Alexander Butler

Another 10 lorries carrying water, food and medical supplies has been allowed to enter Gaza through the Rafah land border crossing with Egypt, officials said.

This Friday morning, a medical delegation consisting of 10 foreign doctors entered, in addition to 10 trucks entering the Gaza Strip through the Rafah land crossing, carrying water, food and medicine, bringing the total number of trucks since the beginning of the war to only 84 trucks, a Palestinian border official said.

Humanitarian agencies and charities have warned more aid was needed to deal with the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Lack of fuel threatens food aid to Gaza, UN warns

12:00 , Alexander Butler

Fuel shortages in Gaza may disrupt the delivery of emergency food to thousands of displaced families, the UN food agency warned.

Only two of our contracted bakeries have fuel to produce bread at the moment and tomorrow there might be none, World Food Programme (WFP) representative Samer Abdeljaber said.

This would be a terrible blow to the thousands of families living in shelters who have been relying on the daily bread deliveries, he added.

The Rome-based agency said it provides daily bread supplies, on average, for 200,000 people in shelters, but this fell to 150,000 on Wednesday due to the lack of fuel.

A displaced Palestinian girl shows a bowl of potatos at a refugee camp in Gaza (AFP via Getty Images)

EU position on Israel-Hamas is evolving, says Irish premier

11:47 , Adam Forrest

Irish premier Leo Varadkar has said he believes the EU position on Israel-Palestine is evolving and that it would have a role to play in any future peace conference.

Mr Varadkar has said it is possible that EU states could update their statement to call for an Israel-Hamas ceasefire in the future.

On Thursday, EU leaders reiterated a condemnation of Hamas for brutal and indiscriminate terrorist attacks across Israel.

The European Council also strongly emphasised Israels right to defend itself in line with international law, while reiterating the importance of protecting civilians.

Irish premier Leo Varadkar said he thought the EU position on Israel-Palestine was evolving (PA Wire)

Israel-Hamas conflict wont affect UKs support for Ukraine, Sunak says

11:35 , Katie Devlin

Rishi Sunak has spoken to Volodymyr Zelensky, to reassure him the UKs support for Ukraine will not change despite the Israel-Hamas war.

A Downing Street spokeswoman said the Prime Minister spoke to the Ukrainian President this morning to reiterate the UKs support for Ukraine.

The Prime Minister underscored the UKs long term and unwavering commitment to Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity and reiterated that the conflict in the Middle East would not change that.

Mr Sunak added that the principle of a rules based order, in which people could live in peace and stability, needed to be protected both in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky in July

US sanctions Hamas and Irans Revolutionary Guard

11:20 , Alexander Butler

The US has issued a second round of sanctions on Hamas by targeting a senior official, as well as members of Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Todays action underscores the United States commitment to dismantling Hamass funding networks by deploying our counterterrorism sanctions authorities and working with our global partners to deny Hamas the ability to exploit the international financial system, Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said

A Gaza-based entity that Treasury said has served as a conduit for illicit Iranian funds to Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group was also targeted, the department said. Iran backs Hamas and other militant groups in the Middle East.

The US has sanctioned Hamas and IRGC officials (AP)

Watch: Sadiq Khan calls for Gaza ceasefire as Labour rebellion against Starmer stance grows

11:05 , Alexander Butler

IDF kills top Hamas commander, Israel says

10:49 , Alexander Butler

Israel has killed a senior Hamas commander, according to the Israeli Defence Forces.

The IDF and the Shin Bet tonight killed Midhat Mabasher, the commander of the West Khan Yunis Battalion in the terrorist organization Hamas, the IDF said.

The Israeli military said Mabasher took part in sniping attacks and used large explosives against IDF forces and Israeli settlements.

 "     ,        .              >> pic.twitter.com/awTghlrrGy     (@idfonline) October 27, 2023

WHO: 1,000 people still under rubble in Gaza

10:40 , Alexander Butler

Up to 1,000 people are still stuck under the rubble of destroyed buildings in Gaza, according to a World Health Organisation official.

We also get these estimates that there are still 1,000 plus people under the rubble which have not been identified yet, Richard Peeperkorn, WHO Representative for the occupied Palestinian territory, said in response to a question about the death toll in Gaza.

More than 7,000 people have been killed by Israeli bombardments in response to deadly cross-border attacks on Israel by Hamas gunmen on 7 October, Gazan health authorities say.

Rubble and ruins in Gaza following Israeli airstrikes on the region (AFP via Getty Images)

At least 57 UN staff members killed in Gaza

10:30 , Alexander Butler

Up to 57 staff members from the United Nations have been killed in the Israel-Hamas conflict, Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said.

At least 57 colleagues of mine are confirmed killed, said Mr Lazzarini. Wonderful people who have just dedicated their lives to their communities.

Mr Lazzarini also said Gazas death figures, which were challenged by the US, had been accurate in previous conflicts between Israel and Hamas.

In the past, the five, six cycles of conflict in the Gaza Strip, these figures were considered as credible and no one ever really challenged these figures, he said.

Smoke rises over the Gaza strip (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Pictured: Gaza

10:20 , Alexander Butler

Three men mourn at a funeral of Palestinians killed in Israeli air strikes (REUTERS)

Palestinians walk amid the rubble and destruction after an Israeli airstrike on Gaza (AFP via Getty Images)

An aerial view of a destroyed building following Israeli airstrikes on Gaza (AFP via Getty Images)

A building lies in ruins after Israeli airstrikes on southern Gaza (AFP via Getty Images)

London mayor Sadiq Khan calls for ceasefire

10:10 , Alexander Butler

Londons Mayor Sadiq Khan has called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Thousands of innocent civilians have already been killed in Israel and Gaza, he said.

With the humanitarian crisis set to deteriorate even further, Im calling for a ceasefire.

Thousands of innocent civilians have already been killed in Israel and Gaza. With the humanitarian crisis set to deteriorate even further, Im calling for a ceasefire. pic.twitter.com/iOZpHTsBQC  Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan (@MayorofLondon) October 27, 2023

Israeli forces kill four Palestinians in West Bank clashes

10:00 , Alexander Butler

Israeli forces have killed four Palestinians during raids in the occupied West Bank, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA said. Two of the dead were identified by militant factions as their members.

As it wages a now three-week-old war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Israel has also stepped up operations against Islamist groups in the West Bank, killing scores of Palestinians and arresting hundreds. One Israeli soldier was killed in a clash.

The Israeli military said that during West Bank arrest operations its troops came under attack in the city of Jenin and fired back, killing Ayser al-Amar of the Islamic Jihad faction.

Islamic Jihad confirmed al-Amar belonged to the group. Hamas said one of its men, Jawad al-Turki, was killed during the Jenin fighting.

Up to 229 confirmed hostages held by Hamas, Israel says

09:50 , Alexander Butler

The number of hostages currently being held by Hamas militants as 229, the Israeli said.

It brings the number up from the previously confirmed 224. So far, four hostages have been released.

An American mother and daughter have been released, as well as two elderly Israeli women. Qatari negotiators hope for a full release within the next few days.

A light installation in Jerusalem for those kidnapped by Hamas (EPA)

Eight more lorries carrying aid set to enter Gaza

09:40 , Alexander Butler

Eight lorries carrying food, medicine and water are expected to cross into the Gaza Strip on Friday, a senior United Nations official said.

We have gotten in approximately 74 trucks. Were expecting another eight or so today, Lynn Hastings, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said.

Aid workers have said repeatedly that the convoys meet only a tiny fraction of the territorys mounting humanitarian needs. Prior to the war, an average of 500 trucks entered Gaza each day, according to reports.

A convoy of aid lorries cross into Gaza from Egypt last Sunday (AFP via Getty Images)

09:30 , Alexander Butler

The Israeli military said an aerial threat had been spotted in the Red Sea region and linked this to a projectile that landed on Egyptian coastal territory there.

In recent hours, an aerial threat was spotted in the Red Sea region. Combat helicopters were scrambled in response to the threat, and this matter is now being investigated, chief military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said.

To our understanding, the strike that took place in Egypt originated in this threat, he said in a televised briefing. Israel will work with Egypt, and the United States, and bolster regional defences against threats from the Red Sea region.

Egypt has said an unidentified drone landed near a hospital building in Taba, injuring six people.

Gaza invasion will lead to significant escalation of violence across Middle East, says ex-Obama adviser

09:20 , Adam Forrest

Ben Rhodes, the former deputy national security advisor in the Obama administration, said the current US government was worried about wider conflict  particularly attacks by Irans proxies in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

I dont know how you have that ground invasion [in Gaza] without having a significant escalation across the region  including perhaps Hezbollah getting involved in northern Israel and the West Bank becoming much more violent and Iranian proxies being further activated in Iraq, Yemen and Syria, he told BBC Radio 4.

Mr Rhodes added: If theres not a de-escalation, if theres further escalation in Gaza I think its likely we see further incidents  if you continue to light that tinder box on fire at some point its going to catch.

He said the Joe Biden administration had caused the Israelis to at least consider the risks from an invasion, but warned: It does not seem like that message has caused them to fundamentally changed their calculus.

Palestinians look through the rubble of a building following Israeli bombardment of Khan Yunis, southern Gaza (AFP via Getty Images)

What can we expect next in Israel-Hamas war? Ask our expert Kim Sengupta anything about the conflict

09:10 , Alexander Butler

What happens to Gaza if Israel make good on their promise to destroy Hamas? Who will govern it and have the responsibility of restoring a destroyed land?

If you have a question for The Independents World Affairs Editor Kim Sengupta me submit it now, or when I join you live at 12pm today for the Ask Me Anything event.

Register to submit your question in the comments box under this article linked below. If youre not already a member, click sign up in the comments section to leave your question. For a full guide on how to comment click here.

Ask expert Kim Sengupta anything about political fallout from Israel-Hamas war

Moment Hamas spokesman storms out of interview after being questioned on terror attack

09:00 , Alexander Butler

Families of Israeli victims urge world to stand against Islamist violence

08:50 , Alexander Butler

The world must take a stand against Islamist violence to avoid it spreading and take action to ensure the swift release of hostages taken by Hamas militants, families of victims said.

A delegation of relatives visited Rome to hold talks with authorities, including Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, as part of a campaign to bolster world efforts to free the more than 200 people taken captive.

The group included Avi Eylon, whose 23-year-old daughter, Shira, was killed with a friend while attending a music festival.

Please wake up. To the people in the world, to the people in Europe, please wake up, because this is not a land conflict, this is a religious conflict, he said, saying the reason why Hamas murdered his daughter was that she was Jewish.

A woman touches photos of Israelis missing and held captive in Gaza, displayed on a wall in Tel Aviv (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Pictured: Destruction in Gaza

08:40 , Alexander Butler

A man with a bandage on his head sits in front of a destroyed building in Gaza after Israeli airstrikes (AFP via Getty Images)

Smoke and fire rise from buildings as rescuers gather following Israeli airstrikes on Gaza (AFP via Getty Images)

Iran launches military exercises

08:30 , Alexander Butler

Iranian ground forces have launched two days of exercises to test the flight readiness of more than 200 helicopters, according to reports.

The drills, which had been planned earlier, are aimed confronting possible threats facing the Islamic Republic, spokesperson Brigadier General Amir Cheshak told state media.

He said troops and military equipment had been transferred from seven of Irans provinces for the drills in Nasr Abad in the central Isfahan province.

It comes after the US said its fighter jets struck two Iranian facilities in Syria, after repeated attacks on US coalition forces in the region by an Iran-backed militia in the past week.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi (AP)

IDF strike Hamas 'missile launch sites' and 'command centres' in Gaza

08:20 , Alexander Butler

More than 250 lawyers urge Britain to call for a ceasefire

08:10 , Alexander Butler

More than 250 British lawyers have called on the UK government to press for a ceasefire in Gaza, claiming Israel is breaching international law.

The letter, addressed to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and Defence Secretary Grant Shapps, calls on the British government to urgently fulfil its international legal obligations

We are moved to intervene because, in a region already accustomed to great suffering, the death and other harm visited on individuals, families and whole communities in the last 20 days has been truly terrible.

The starvation of a civilian population as a method of warfare, including wilfully impeding adequate relief supplies, as Israel is doing in Gaza, is strictly prohibited under customary international law... and constitutes a war crime.

Hamass war crimes cannot be justified by reference to prior war crimes by Israel; neither do they justify further such crimes by Israel in its response, which must comply with international law, it says.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly (PA Wire)

Hostages cant be released until ceasefire, Hamas claims

07:56 , Alexander Butler

Hostages seized by the Hamas terror group during its cross-border raid which killed up to 1,400 Israelis cannot be released until there is a ceasefire, the group has claimed.

They seized dozens of people, most of them civilians, and we need time to find them in the Gaza Strip and then release them, Hamas official Abu Hamid told Russian newspaper Kommersant.

A calm environment was needed to complete this task, the newspaper quoted him as saying. On Thursday, Hamas said around 50 of the hostages had been killed in Israeli air strikes.

But Israel has urged Russia to expel the visiting Hamas delegation, calling their invitation to Moscow deplorable.

Light projectors signifying those abducted by Hamas illuminateJerusalem (EPA)

Nearly half of Israelis want to hold off on Gaza invasion, poll finds

07:37 , Alexander Butler

Nearly half of Israelis want to hold off on any invasion of the Gaza strip, a new poll has found.

Twenty-nine per cent of Israelis agreed while 49 per cent said it would be better to wait when asked if the IDF should immediately escalate to a large-scale ground offensive. Meanwhile, 22 per were still undecided, the poll published in the Maariv newspaper said.

The paper said the results contrasted with its poll last week which found 65 per cent of Israelis supported a major ground offensive.

Relatives of hostages that were kidnaped to the Gaza Strip call for the Israeli government to bring them back in Tel Aviv, Israel (Getty Images)

IDF strikes Hamas targets overnight

07:28 , Alexander Butler

The Israel Defence Forces said it had conducted more air strikes on Hamas terrorist targets over the last 24 hours.

IDF ground troops, fighter jets and UAVs struck anti-tank missile launch sites, command & control centers and Hamas terrorist operatives. The troops exited the area and no injuries were reported, the Israeli military said.

OPERATIONAL UPDATE: The IDF conducted strikes on Hamas terrorist targets over the last 24 hours.



IDF ground troops, fighter jets and UAVs struck:



 Anti-tank missile launch sites

 Command & control centers

 Hamas terrorist operatives



The troops exited the area and no pic.twitter.com/yNdiY6XTby  Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 27, 2023

Unprecedented death toll in Gaza

07:07 , Namita Singh

The rising death tolls in Gaza are unprecedented in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Even greater loss of life could come if Israel launches an expected ground offensive aimed at crushing Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007 and survived four previous wars with Israel.

The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said on Wednesday that more than 750 people were killed over the past 24 hours, higher than the 704 killed the previous day.

The figures could not be independently verified and the ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

By comparison, 2,251 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed in the entire six-week-long war in 2014, according to UN figures.

Irans foreign minister said Hamas is ready to release civilian prisoners abducted from Israel but that the international community must take responsibility for releasing 6,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.

Hossein Amirabdollahian told an emergency meeting of the UN General Assembly on Thursday that Iran stands ready to play its part in this very important humanitarian endeavour, along with Qatar and Turkey.

Rafah crossing checks 'slow aid to dribble

07:07 , Jane Dalton

Overly stringent checks on lorries at the Rafah crossing from Egypt into Gaza were slowing the flow of humanitarian aid to a dribble as hunger grows among Palestinians there, UN World Food Programme executive director has said.

The Rafah crossing, which is controlled by Egypt and does not border Israel, has become the main point of aid delivery since Israel imposed a total siege of Gaza in retaliation for an attack by Hamas militants on 7 October.

The United States is leading negotiations with Israel, Egypt and the UN to try to create a sustained delivery mechanism for aid to Gaza.

Weve gotten a few  a dribble, just a dribble  of trucks in, Cindy McCain told Reuters. We need to get a large amount in. We need safe, unfettered access into Gaza so that we can feed and make sure that people dont starve to death, because thats whats happening.

(REUTERS)

In video: Al Jazeera reporter Wael Al Dahdouh continues to report on Gaza after the loss of family

07:05 , Namita Singh

US will not be spared from this fire, warns Iran foreign minister

06:59 , Namita Singh

On Thursday, Irans foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said at the United Nations that if Israels retaliation against Palestinian militants Hamas in the Gaza Strip doesnt end, then the United States will not be spared from this fire.

I say frankly to the American statesmen, who are now managing the genocide in Palestine, that we do not welcome (an)expansion of the war in the region. But if the genocide in Gaza continues, they will not be spared from this fire, he told a meeting of the 193-member General Assembly on the Middle East.

People gather amid the destruction in the aftermath of an Israeli strike on Gaza City on 26 October 2023, as battles continue between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group (AFP via Getty Images)

One way Iran projects power is by arming and funding militant groups, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Houthis in Yemen and Shiite militias in Iraq.

In the last such known US retaliation, the US military carried out multiple air strikes in Syria on 23 March against Iran-aligned groups it blamed for a drone attack that killed an American contractor, wounded another and hurt five US troops.

Biden sent message warning Irans Khamenei against targeting US troops

06:52 , Namita Singh

President Joe Biden has sent a rare message to Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warning Tehran against targeting US personnel in the Middle East, the White House said on Thursday after a spate of attacks on American forces in the region.

There was a direct message relayed, White House spokesperson John Kirby said at a news briefing, declining to elaborate.

US officials want to avoid a wider conflict in the Middle East following the 7 October attack by the militant Hamas group on Israel that killed at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians.

About 900 additional US troops are headed to the Middle East or have recently arrived there to bolster air defenses to protect US personnel amid a surge in attacks in the region by Iran-affiliated groups, the Pentagon said.

US troops have been attacked at least 12 times in Iraq and four times in Syria in the past week, it added.

US fighter jets strike Syria after attacks by Iran-backed militia

06:43 , Namita Singh

Two US fighter jets struck weapons and ammunition facilities in Syria on Friday in what Washington said was a retaliation for attacks on US forces by an Iran-backed militia.

Joe Biden ordered strikes on the two facilities used by Irans Revolutionary Guard Corps and militia forces it backs, the Pentagon said, warning the US will take additional measures if attacks by Irans proxies continue.

US and coalition troops have been attacked at least 19 times in Iraq and in Syria by Iran-backed forces in the past week, the US officials said. Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Lebanons Hezbollah are all backed by Tehran.

Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said at the United Nations on Thursday that if Israels offensive against Hamas did not stop, the United States will not be spared from this fire.

The US air strikes took place at roughly 4.30am on Friday in Syria near Abu Kamal, a Syrian town on the border with Iraq, and were carried out by two F-16 fighter jets using precision munitions, a US defence official said.

These precision self-defence strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against US personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on 17 October, US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement.

These Iranian-backed attacks against US forces are unacceptable and must stop, Mr Austin said.

Explainer: What is Gazas ministry of health and how does it calculate death toll?

06:06 , Jane Dalton

Doctors scribble on notepads in overflowing morgues, struggling to account for bodies trapped under rubble and tossed in hastily dug mass graves. Yet the Gaza-based Ministry of Health continues to tally casualty numbers:

EXPLAINER: What is Gaza's Ministry of Health and how does it calculate the war's death toll?

Republican senators want to separate Israel funding from Ukraine aid

05:05 , Jane Dalton

A group of conservatives in the US Senate are pushing to drive a wedge between military aid for Ukraine and Israel at a time when passing legislation to support the former seems more uncertain than ever:

Republican senators want to separate Israel funding from Ukraine aid

Israel claims to have killed Hamas spy chief

04:04 , Jane Dalton

The Israeli military said an airstrike killed one of two masterminds of the Hamas massacre  Shadi Barud, the head of Hamas intelligence unit.

The military says it only strikes militant targets and accuses Hamas of operating among civilians in an attempt to protect its fighters.

Shadi Barud, Deputy Head of Hamas Intelligence Directorate has been eliminated by an IDF aerial strike.



He took part in the planning of the October 7 massacre and countless other deadly attacks carried out against Israelis.



We will continue to strike and eliminate Hamas  Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 26, 2023

New photos show destruction as Israel tanks raid Gaza

03:03 , Jane Dalton

An online geolocating platform has posted photos of military vehicles and identified the location of Israels tanks at the northern border of the Gaza strip:

Gaza map shows scale of destruction of tiny strip as Israel tanks raid north

Hostages families stage demonstration in Tel Aviv

02:02 , Jane Dalton

Family members of the Israeli hostages who were kidnapped and taken to the Gaza Strip held a demonstration calling for their government to bring them back:

(Getty Images)

The evidence on who is to blame for Gaza hospital bomb

01:01 , Jane Dalton

Hamas blame the deaths on an Israeli airstrike; Israel blames a jihadist groups failed rocket:

Who is to blame for Gaza hospital bomb - we scrutinise the evidence

EU leaders stress Israels right to defend itself

Friday 27 October 2023 00:02 , Jane Dalton

Leaders of the European Unions 27 nations have emphasised Israels right to defend itself in line with international law and international humanitarian law.

The summit in Brussels was the leaders first in-person meeting since the attack that prompted Israel to bombard and blockade Hamas-run Gaza.

In their declaration, the leaders also repeated a call for Hamas to immediately release all hostages without any precondition.

They reiterated their previous condemnation in the strongest possible terms of the 7 October assault on Israel by Hamas.

The European Union will work closely with partners in the region to protect civilians, provide assistance and facilitate access to food, water, medical care, fuel and shelter, ensuring that such assistance is not abused by terrorist organisations, the declaration also said.

In pictures: Lights memorial for the kidnapped

Thursday 26 October 2023 23:01 , Jane Dalton

A display of lights signifying those abducted by Hamas light the sky in Jerusalem:

(EPA)

(EPA)

(EPA)

Reporter whose family were killed felt duty to continue working

Thursday 26 October 2023 22:30 , Jane Dalton

An Al Jazeera reporter who was on air when he was told his wife and children had been killed in an Israeli airstrike has spoken of why he has continued working despite his agony.

Wael Al-Dahdouh said: Thank you for all your solidarity and condolences and prayers. They were really important ... I felt it was my duty to get back to work as quickly as possible, despite everything.

As you can see, the firing is going on everywhere...

I felt that it was my duty, despite the pain and the open wound, to get back in front of the camera and to communicate with you on social media as soon as possible.

UK Border Force set to help Britons escape Gaza

Thursday 26 October 2023 22:00 , Jane Dalton

UK Border Force teams are in Egypt to help trapped British nationals escape from Gaza when a crossing is opened, Rishi Sunak has revealed.

Around 200 Briton stuck inside the besieged enclave have been in touch with the Foreign Office, the prime minister said:

UK Border Force in Egypt to help trapped British nationals escape Gaza

EU summit calls for 'humanitarian corridors and pauses' in Gaza

Thursday 26 October 2023 20:50 , Sam Rkaina

EU leaders agreed at a summit on Thursday to call for the establishment of humanitarian corridors and pauses to get urgently-needed aid into Gaza.

The European Council expresses its gravest concern for the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza and calls for continued, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access and aid to reach those in need through all necessary measures including humanitarian corridors and pauses for humanitarian needs, a declaration adopted by the leaders said.

The European Union will work closely with partners in the region to protect civilians, provide assistance and facilitate access to food, water, medical care, fuel and shelter, ensuring that such assistance is not abused by terrorist organisations, added the declaration, issued at the summit in Brussels.
President Biden has come out ahead of some of his own administrations official lines regarding the Israel-Hamas war, saying early on that another occupation of Gaza would be a mistake and this week suggesting he was only open to the idea of asking for a cease-fire if Hamas released remaining hostages.

Officials including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and national security spokesperson John Kirby have been carefully tiptoeing around questions regarding Israels expected ground invasion into Gaza, humanitarian aid to Palestinians caught in a war zone and threats of a wider conflict in the region.

But the presidents answers to questions from reporters about the volatile matter have been decidedly more candid.

The U.S. response to the war between Israel and Hamas, which spawned in the wake of the surprise Oct. 7 attack on Israel, marks the latest example of Biden getting ahead of the official line, particularly when it comes to some of his top foreign policy issues.

The most glaring example of that during his presidency was when he said in a speech in Warsaw, Poland, that Russia President Vladimir Putin cant remain in power in the early weeks of the Ukraine war. More recently, he used a campaign fundraiser  the type of event at which hes been known to speak frequently off-the-cuff  to declare China President Xi Jinping a dictator.

Since the war broke out, Biden has maintained that an Israeli occupation of Gaza should not be an option, a notion Israel also appears to concur with. But he has also warned Israel to use some rationale in its response, lest it repeat the mistakes of the U.S. post-9/11.

And while administration officials been careful to sidestep the notion that the U.S. is directing Israels response or plans in any way, Biden himself seems to suggest their behind-the-scenes talks are more direct than theyre letting on, including discussing how to safely release the hostages ahead of a ground invasion.

What I have indicated to him is that if thats possible, to get these folks out safely, thats what he should do. Its their decision, but I did not demand it. I pointed out to him: If its real, it should be done, Biden said of his conversations with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

A sticking point that has emerged in recent days is whether to trust information coming out of the Gaza Health Ministry, a government agency run by Hamas, which politically control the Gaza Strip. During a press conference alongside the Australian prime minister on Wednesday, Biden said he has no confidence in the ministrys official death toll, which has indicated more than 7,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its offensive.

That left Kirby being faced with follow-up questions Thursday on the presidents remarks, in which Biden said he believed innocents had been killed in Gaza but that it was the price of waging a war, which some Muslim and Arab groups deemed insensitive and said the president should apologize for. Kirby maintained the White House accepts Palestinian civilians have been killed but cannot confirm how many.

One reason for Bidens candidness is sometimes his jousting with the reporters asking the questions, as he did during the press conference Wednesday. A reporter asked a follow-up question on the hostages, prompting Biden to interject: You want to make a speech?

He likes the repartee with reporters. You see, he enjoys it. When you do something like that, he likes to have his sort of gotcha moment, sometimes with reporters, and that ends up maybe going further than then he would have wanted, said Todd Belt, director of the political management masters program at George Washington University.

Bidens allies say one reason hes so comfortable speaking unscripted about foreign policy issues is his decades-long experience as a senator, including as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

President Biden is very comfortable in the foreign and security policy space and is setting the direction for his administration to follow, said former Rep. Chris Carney (D-Pa.), a senior policy adviser at Nossaman. More so than most presidents in recent memory, President Biden has the experience, acumen, and relationships to successfully manage the crisis in Gaza.

Few global leaders, and essentially no other U.S. leaders, have the kind of relationship with Netanyahu that enable frank and honest discussions on how to contain the conflict while concurrently protecting Israeli interests, Carney said.

That foreign policy background was on full display in March 2022, when Biden said during a passionate speech in Warsaw that Putin cant remain in power, a comment that was later walked back by the White House after interpretations indicated he was calling for a change in power in another country.

Biden has long been known to speak offhand and has at times had unfortunate gaffes, which have spelled more trouble for him than perhaps other political leaders.

His style has always been to speak off the cuff, and its gotten him into problems as vice president as a candidate and of course, as president, so this is nothing new for him, Belt said. He does like to go off-script a bit; most politicians do. Its just sometimes when he goes off-script, he ends up getting other political players in a little bit of hot water.

Another surprise remark made this year that was met with shockwaves was when Biden, during a fundraiser in California, called Xi a dictator who got upset when a Chinese spy balloon was shot down early this year because he didnt know about it.

The candid rhetoric from the president is typical when he is speaking to donors, especially in small settings where Biden tends to make news from speaking freely, when cameras arent in the room and just a small group of journalists are there to report what he says.

Those candid comments will be even more common when the 2024 campaign picks up and Biden traverses the country to raise money. Donors, Belt said, now anticipate that personal style from him.

Its something people expect when they want to have some face time with a candidate or with the president. They expect him to be speaking in a way that is not scripted and not just another canned speech they can watch on TV, Belt said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
The News

Israel intensified its siege of Gaza on Friday, stepping up air- and ground-based attacks, amid a total or near total internet blackout in the region.

In the last few hours, we have severely increased our attacks in Gaza, Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson Daniel Hagari said in a press conference.

He said that the Israeli air force is conducting strikes on tunnels and other infrastructure.

In addition to the attacks carried out in the last few days, ground forces are expanding their operations tonight, Hagari said, but did not declare that this was the start of the ground invasion that Israel has been planning.

The pronouncement came amid reports of some of the heaviest bombardment that Gaza has seen since Israeli air strikes began targeting targeting the area in response to Hamas deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

The intensified attacks have reportedly led to most internet and phone services being cut off.

Israeli troops briefly raided parts of northern Gaza on Thursday night as part of our preparations for the next stages of the war, Hagari said, according to The Associated Press.
Israels military successfully attacked a major Hamas stronghold during their second ground offensive in Gaza  used by Hamas operatives, planners and masterminds  and have vowed to "reveal evidence" that the terrorist group is exploiting civilian locations to carry out attacks, an official said.

Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, a spokesperson for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), said during a press briefing Friday morning that Israel continued its offensive activity "from the land, air and sea last night with an emphasis on the Shejaiya neighborhood, which is one of the major terrorist strongholds of Hamas." The IDF killed Hamas operatives and destroyed rocket launch sites, he said.

"In the coming hours we will reveal evidence that shows Hamas's use of humanitarian facilities for terrorist infrastructures in a way that endangers the citizens of Gaza" he added. "I repeat, we will expose these materials that connect Hamas to the cynical use it makes of humanitarian facilities."

Hagari also updated the number of deceased IDF soldiers to 310 and the number of hostages to 229. "We continue to put in the most effort  the civilian effort, the operational effort, the intelligence effort to do one thing  bringing the hostages home is the highest priority," he said.

ISRAEL CONDUCTS GROUND INCURSION IN GAZA TANKS ROLL THROUGH BORDER AREA

Hagari added, "Hamas prefers, at any point in time, to endanger the residents of the Gaza Strip in order to protect terrorists. At every point, he prefers to get food, electricity and medical equipment to Hamas terrorists than to the citizens of Gaza who are not involved in the war. We will expose these evidence and bring them to the attention of the world and the public."

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

The IDF said separately that an IDF aerial strike in Gaza on Friday killed a senior Hamas commander.

"Madhath MubasharCommander of Hamas' Western Khan Yunis Battalionwas eliminated," IDF said. "Furthermore, the IDF struck 250+ Hamas targets including a terrorist tunnel network in Gaza that detonated the secondary explosions."

A Hamas commander was killed in an airstrike conducted by the Israeli Defense Forces, the IDF said Friday, Oct. 27, 2023.

All IDF troops exited the strip without any casualties, he said.

"During the last day, infantry, armor, and engineering forces, accompanied by aircrafts, carried out a targeted raid in the center of the Gaza Strip as part of preparations of the area for the next stages of combat. The raid began yesterday in broad daylight, it included all the forces I described as a combat team and ended successfully in the morning hours."

An Israeli army M109 155mm self-propelled howitzer is deployed at a position along the border with the Gaza Strip near Sderot in southern Israel on Oct. 27, 2023 amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement.

The small ground operations come ahead of an expect full-scale ground invasion as Israel has waged war against Hamas, promising to eliminate its presence in the Gaza Strip.

US MILITARY CARRIES OUT AIRSTRIKES ON FACILITIES IN SYRIA OPERATED BY IRANIAN-BACKED FORCES

"The operations in the Gaza Strip allow us to expose the enemy, kill terrorists, remove explosives from the area, remove launching positions that are set up to launch at our forces and at the direction of the Gaza envelope communities," he said. "And in this sense to deepen the achievement against the enemy from additional threats and prepare the area for the next stages of the war."

Israeli army spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari spoke to the press on Oct. 27, 2023.

The IDF spokesman also said Israels northern border with Lebanon was quiet. Hezbollah, a Lebanese terror group, has previous fired missiles over the border onto Israeli communities.

"We will continue to be strongly deployed along the entire length of the border and in the towns and communities with high readiness and high vigilance during the entire weekend of course," Hagari said.

He also mentioned an "aerial threat" that was detected over Egypt and the Red Sea.

"Fighter jets were launched towards the threat, and this matter is currently under investigation. In our understanding, the damage caused in Egypt originates from this threat. Israel will work together with Egypt and the US and tighten the defense in the region against threats in the Red Sea area," Hagari said.

Israel first declared war on Hamas after the terror group launched a surprise attack on Oct. 7.

Fox News' Yael Rotem-Kuriel contributed to this report.





Original article source: Israel kills Hamas commander in airstrike, vows to 'reveal evidence' terror group is exploiting civilians: IDF
(Bloomberg) -- Irans foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, warned that new fronts would open against the US if it continues its unequivocal support for Israel.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Israeli said its expanding military activity in the Gaza Strip, as Gaza lost internet and telephone service and international agencies lost contact with staff there. The United Nations General Assembly approved a resolution calling for an immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce in the conflict.

In a statement, the Israeli Defense Forces said it had carried out targeted raids with the aim of preparing the ground for future stages of the operation. Ground forces are extending their ground activities this evening, it said. That news came as both sides suggested there had been little progress on a deal to free the more than 200 hostages in the Gaza Strip.

Only about 2% of needed humanitarian aid is reaching Gaza, and that cant be properly distributed because of fuel shortages, according to the UN.

(All time stamps are Israeli time)

US Says No Casualties in Strikes on Iranian Targets (1:45 a.m.)

The Pentagon said US attacks on Iranian targets Thursday night were focused on storage facilities for weapons and ammunition used by Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and resulted in no casualties.

These narrowly-tailored strikes in self-defense were intended solely to protect and defend US personnel in Iraq and Syria, Brigadier General Pat Ryder, a Defense Department spokesman, said in a statement. They are separate and distinct from the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, and do not constitute a shift in the U.S. approach to the Israel-Hamas conflict. Ryder said that coalition forces had been attacked 14 times in Iraq and six times in Syria by rockets and drones. Most of the attacks failed to reach their targets, he added.

Iran Warns of New Fronts Against the US (12:35 a.m,)

Irans foreign minister warned that new fronts would open against the US if it keeps up unequivocal support for Israel, and said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus government would regret its actions if it proceeds with a full-scale invasion.

Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian declined to detail the consequences Iran might have in store. But his comments in an interview signaled an escalation in the rhetoric between Washington and Tehran after a series of attacks on US forces in Syria and Iraq fanned concerns that the Israel-Hamas conflict would turn into a wider regional war.

Iran Denies Directing Groups That Attacked US Forces (12:10 a.m.)

Irans foreign minister said groups attacking US forces in Syria and Iraq are acting independently, and havent received orders or instructions from Tehran. Theyre not receiving any orders from us, any instructions, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. The American side claims that these are linked to Iran. These groups decide for themselves independently.

Amirabdollahian spoke less than a day after the US said that it had conducted military strikes on two Syrian facilities linked to Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that had been used for attacks against US troops in the region. US officials have said they dont have evidence that Iran explicitly ordered the attacks, but they hold Iran responsible because it supports the groups.

UN Approves Resolution Calling for Truce (11:12 p.m.)

The UN General Assembly approved a non-binding resolution calling for a truce that would lead to a cessation of hostilities, with the US, Israel and 12 other nations voting no.

The resolution, which was sponsored by several Arab nations, was adopted with 120 votes in favor, 14 opposed and 45 abstentions. It demands that all parties comply with international law and allow the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

US Says No Red Lines in Conversations with Israel (10:29 p.m.)

White House National Security Council John Kirby told reporters Friday that the US is not drawing red lines for Israel, reiterating support for the countrys defense against Hamas.

We have had and will continue to have conversations with them about the manner in which theyre doing this, and we have not been shy about expressing our concerns over civilian casualties, collateral damage and the approach that they might choose to take, Kirby added.Gaza Internet, Phone Services Cut by Israeli Bombing, Provider Says (8:30 p.m.)

Israeli bombardment cut off internet and mobile services in the Gaza Strip, the main telecom provider in the Palestinian territory said.

We regret to announce a complete cessation of all communications and Internet services in the Gaza Strip in light of the ongoing aggression, Jawwal, the largest cellular operator in Gaza, said on its website. Calls to mobile numbers via the other Gaza cellular operator, Ooredoo, didnt go through.

Chevron Says Its Prioritizing Israeli Gas Deliveries (4:28 p.m.)

Chevron Corp. said Friday its supplying natural gas to Israel and Jordan from wells in the Mediterranean Sea even after shutting the key Tamar platform at the outbreak of the conflict with Hamas.

Chevrons Leviathan platform increased production to help ease the 1 billion cubic feet per day loss from Tamar, Chief Financial Officer Pierre Breber said in an interview. Tamar is located in Israeli waters about 12 miles (kilometers) from the Gaza Strip and was shut on government orders shortly after this months deadly attack.

The Israeli domestic market is prioritized in that event, Breber said. We continue to supply Jordan customers and we continue to supply part of our Egyptian contracts, but not all of our Egyptian customers.

Israeli Naval Commandos Raid Hamas Installations in Southern Gaza (3:27pm.)

The Israel Defense Forces said naval commandos raided an installation in the southern Gaza Strip belonging to Hamas naval force, destroying terrorist infrastructure. Army Radio described it as Israels first sea-borne raid since the attack.

Hamas Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel included attempts to land commandos by sea. In recent days the Israeli military said they had repelled another attempt by Hamas frogmen to infiltrate Israel.

Israel Wont Exchange Fuel For Hostages, Official Says (2:20pm)

Israel is against a hostage exchange deal that entails sending fuel, according to an Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the details publicly. Over 200 Israelis, including women, children, and dozens of foreign nationals, are being held in the Gaza Strip.

Four have been released by Hamas. Osama Hamdan, Hamas politburo member and representative in Lebanon, told dpa that future releases will hinge on the entry of fuel and medical supplies to Gaza. Israel has halted the supply of fuel, electricity, food and water to Gaza since the October 7 attacks.

Israel Police: Whatsapp Hackers May Be Behind Unidentified Calls (1:17pm)

Israeli Police said theres been numerous complaints from people who say theyve received phone or video calls from unidentified international numbers in the past few hours. Police urged Israelis not to respond to unfamiliar numbers and said it could be a potential harassment tactic or attempt to take over WhatsApp accounts. Israeli media reported that many of the calls were immediately disconnected after being picked up.

UN Says Only 2% of Humanitarian Aid is Reaching Gaza (11:39)

The UN said only the tiniest fraction of needed aid to Gaza such as food, water and fuel is making it through, and even the distribution of those essential items is being blocked because of fuel shortages.

The UN repeated that its scaling back operations and might have to stop them altogether, according to UN humanitarian coordinator for Palestine Lynn Hastings, who spoke earlier today at a briefing in Geneva.

A total of 74 aid trucks have been allowed into the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, short of the circa 100 trucks of humanitarian supplies per day a UN official estimated last week were needed.

Iran Says Hamas Wants an Immediate Ceasefire (11:20 a.m.)

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri met with Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk in Moscow, Irans state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

Bagheri told Marzouk that Tehrans priorities in talks with foreign parties are an immediate ceasefire, aid for Palestinians and lifting the blockade on Gaza.

Marzouk, a member of Hamass political bureau, said Gazans would emerge from the conflict with their heads held high.

Israel Says It Knows of 229 People Held Hostage in Gaza (11:15 a.m.)

Israels government said it knows of 229 people that were abducted by Hamas during its Oct. 7 attacks. These are in addition to four people who have been freed.

Israel hasnt said whether it knows how many are alive. Some may have been killed during Hamass incursion and been taken into Gaza as corpses, Israeli officials have said.

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Home to 2.2 million people, the Gaza Strip is a densely-populated enclave, 41km (25 miles) long and 10km wide, bounded by the Mediterranean Sea on one side and fenced off from Israel and Egypt at its borders.

Since 2007, Gaza has been under the control of Hamas, an Islamist group committed to the destruction of Israel.

Map showing Gaza urban areas and refugee camps with the high-risk and no-go areas of the Israeli declared buffer zone around its border. Gaza has three border crossing points - Erez into Israel in the north and Rafah and Kerem Shalom into Egypt in the south - although they are not always open

In response to Hamas's attack on Israel on 7 October, Israel has established a "complete siege" of Gaza, with the Israeli defence minister declaring: "There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel."

The move immediately worsened the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, where 80% of the population was already in need of international aid.

The UN agency providing shelter and humanitarian aid in Gaza has warned it may be forced to halt its operations if there are no further deliveries of fuel and other supplies.

Israeli airstrikes

Israel's military response to the Hamas attacks of 7 October has caused extensive damage to buildings and infrastructure.

Damaged buildings in Gaza City following Israeli airstrikes on October 10, 2023

Gazan officials say about 45% of housing units in Gaza have been left destroyed, uninhabitable or damaged since the start of the conflict.

The map below - using analysis of satellite data by Corey Scher of CUNY Graduate Center and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University - shows which areas have sustained concentrated damage.

Map showing damage to buildings in Gaza

Map showing where buildings have been destroyed or damaged since the start of the conflict - with yellow areas showing damage up to 12 October and red areas showing damage up to 25 October. The maps show that Israel continued attacks south of the Wadi Gaza after it had warned Palestinians to evacuate the north

The map shows how the damage has spread since the start of the conflict.

Residents in Beit Hanoun, near the north-eastern border, were among the first to be issued warnings by Israel to leave their homes. Israeli aircraft subsequently delivered waves of airstrikes on the area - which IDF described as a hub for Hamas and "from which many operations against Israel were launched."

Most recently, Israel appears to have targeted areas to the east of Gaza City, closest to the border, as well continued attacks on the western coastal neighbourhoods near Rimal.

Despite ordering Palestinians to head south of the Wadi Gaza for their own safety, Israel has continued strikes against what it says are Hamas targets in southern Gaza.

A row of destroyed apartments in in southern Gaza City

Buildings have been hit and destroyed in Bureij, Deir al-Balah, Khan Younis and Rafah, sometimes near schools and shelters where evacuees have taken refuge.

Unosat says it has identified more than 270 road sections that look like they have been affected by craters or debris, slowing access for aid and emergency services.

Analysis of damage outside urban areas, suggests dozens of agricultural greenhouses have been damaged or destroyed and fields peppered with visible impact craters, affecting Gaza's ability to grow its own food.

Aid held at border

Although Israel has begun to allow some humanitarian aid into Gaza, aid agencies say it's nowhere near enough.

The UN estimates around 100 lorries carrying aid are required each day just to supply the essential needs of those in Gaza. However, after allowing deliveries to resume on 21 October, Israeli authorities allowed a total of 54 trucks to cross the border in three days.

Graphic showing the number of lorries carrying humanitarian aid which were allowed into Gaza between 21 and 23 October. The usual level before the conflict was around 400 to 500 lorries each day. The UN estimates 100 lorries each day are required to supply essential needs of people in Gaza. The numbers allowed to cross the border for the three days from the 21 October were: 20, 14 and 20.

Before the current conflict, aid agencies would have expected around 500 lorries entering Gaza every working day.

Palestine Red Crescent Society distribute aid to people in Khan Younis

Risk of starvation

As a result, there are concerns about food reserves running low and the risk of starvation.

The World Food Programme (WFP) estimates essential food commodities in Gaza are sufficient for about 12 days but that assumes they are evenly distributed.

Plus some basic food, such as rice and lentils, cannot be cooked due to the shortage of fuel and water.

The UN reports 18 bakeries it works with are operational and supplying bread to shelters. But fuel shortages are preventing bakeries meeting local demand and the UN warns many could shut within days if they are not resupplied. In some areas, bakeries have been destroyed by air strikes, increasing the pressure on those that remain open.

Water running low

With Israel having cut off much of its supply of clean water to Gaza, there are increasing concerns over dehydration and waterborne disease from polluted sources and lack of sanitation services.

The UN Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, has warned that "people will start dying without water."

The WHO sets the minimum requirement for daily water needs at 100 litres per person - to cover drinking, washing, cooking and bathing. Before the conflict, the average consumption in Gaza was about 84 litres, with only 27 litres of that considered suitable for human use.

Currently, the WHO estimates the average water consumption in Gaza is just three litres per person.

A graphic showing the extremity of water shortage in Gaza compared with minimum requirements

All water wells, water pumping stations, and desalination plants providing drinking water, have been damaged by air strikes or shut due to power cuts.

Only one of the three water mains from Israel is thought to be open - providing limited drinking water to Khan Younis in the south.

Electricity blackouts

Gaza's power grid is without electricity after its sole power plant closed and supplies from Israel were suspended.

As of 21 October, about 80% of buildings, schools and health facilities in Gaza were likely to have been without power. The only buildings with electricity are those with generators, such as hospitals and UN shelters, and fuel for those is about to run out.

These satellite images show the difference - with about 90% night-time loss of light in some areas. Most of the bright spots still visible on 21 October are hospitals.

Satellite image taken at night showing how there are no lights seen in Gaza as a result of the power cuts.

The Gaza power plant, in Deir al-Balah just south of the evacuation area, shut down on 11 October after running out of fuel.

Map showing the location of the only electrical power station in Gaza.

Refugee camps

According to the UN, just over 75% of Gaza's population - some 1.7 million people - were already registered refugees before Israel ordered the evacuation of northern Gaza.

Palestinian refugees are defined by the UN as people whose "place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 War". The children of Palestinian refugees are also able to apply for refugee status.

More than 500,000 of those refugees were already in eight crowded camps located across the Strip.

As two of those camps, Jabalia and Shati, are in the evacuation zone, this has put the other six under increased pressure.

Following the evacuation order the number of displaced people has risen rapidly and there are now 1.4 million who have fled their homes since 7 October, according to the United Nations.

More than half of Gaza's population displaced

Graphic showing that 1.4 million people in Gaza have had to leave their homes since 7 October 2023 out of a total population of 2.2 million.

Families who fled their houses take shelter in a UN school

The UN warns that overcrowding has become a major concern in its emergency shelters in central and southern Gaza, with some housing at four times its capacity.

Many of these emergency shelters are schools and in some there are up to 70 people living in a single classroom. Men and older boys are having to sleep outside at night.

Overcrowded homes

The repeated conflicts between Palestinian militants and Israel have left many people in Gaza without adequate housing.

Extended families live in overcrowded, low-quality, insecure buildings, with the Norwegian Refugee Council estimating that more than 120,000 were living in homes that had no windows, safe roofs or doors.

A family gathers around a fire to warm up at a house in Gaza City in January 2020.

Palestinian officials say the current Israeli air strikes have destroyed more than 16,000 homes - adding to 2,200 yet to be rebuilt from previous conflicts since 2014.

Another 72,000 which were damaged but not destroyed in 2014 had not received any financial help with repairs.

The loss of those homes compounds the ongoing shortage of housing in Gaza. The Global Shelter Cluster estimated that, even before the current destruction, 120,000 units need to be built in Gaza to provide everyone with shelter.

Hospitals in crisis

Major institutions, like hospitals, have back-up generators, but the blockade means no fuel to run them once existing supplies run out.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said without electricity hospitals in Gaza "risk turning into morgues."

However, many medical facilities in the north are in the evacuation zone and have been damaged by Israeli airstrikes.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said more than 30 healthcare facilities damaged across Gaza, a third of hospitals and two-thirds of other primary care facilities had now shut due to bomb damage or lack of fuel.

Public health facilities in Gaza were already overstretched with shortages of medical supplies and equipment and many specialist treatments were not available.

Evacuation of northern Gaza

On 13 October, Israel warned civilians to evacuate the area of Gaza north of the Wadi Gaza riverbed, ahead of an expected invasion by the Israeli military.

The evacuation area includes Gaza City - the most densely populated area of the Gaza Strip.

The Erez border crossing into Israel is closed, so those living in the evacuation zone had no choice but to head towards the southern districts.

Map of the evacuation area

Map of Gaza showing the zone in the north which Israeli authorities have ordered civilians to evacuate by moving south of the Wadi Gaza.

With 2.2 million people in a relatively small strip of land, Gaza has one of the highest population densities in the world.

The largest urban area in the south is Khan Younis, but with a population half the size of Gaza City's it will struggle to cope with a million Palestinians fleeing the north.

On average, there are more than 5,700 people per sq km in Gaza - very similar to the average density in London - but that figure was more than 9,000 in Gaza City, the most heavily populated area.

Gaza City was densely populated

Graphic showing the population density of Gaza before the evacuation of a million people from the north. Gaza City is clearly shown to be most densely populated urban area.

Border closures

Civilians have little hope of being able to leave Gaza to escape the conflict.

Before the attack by Hamas, there were only two crossings allowing travel into and out of Gaza - with most former border points having been closed for years.

Map of Gaza showing the current and former border crossing points into Israel and Egypt.

Palestinians are banned from leaving Gaza via Israel unless they obtain an Israeli-issued exit permit. The permits were limited to day labourers, businesspeople, medical patients and their companions, and aid workers.

The entire 60km-long border with Israel is guarded by a perimeter fence with "no-go" areas extending up to 100m (330ft) from the fence itself and only farm workers are allowed within 300m.

Graphic showing Israel's perimeter fence with Gaza and restricted areas

Those wanting to leave Gaza into Egypt via the Rafah crossing had to register with the Palestinian authorities several weeks in advance and apply to Egypt, which imposes limits on numbers and severe security controls.

Now, Israel has indefinitely shut the Erez crossing, while the Egyptian-controlled Rafah border crossing in the south has been closed due to Israeli airstrikes near the gate on the Palestinian side.

The latter had prevented humanitarian aid, including food, water and medicines, crossing from Egypt into Gaza.

During the last two decades, to try to get round the blockade, Hamas has built a network of tunnels which it uses to bring goods into the Strip from Egypt and also as an underground command centre.

Israel said the tunnels are also used by to smuggle weapons and move around out of sight. It frequently targets them with airstrikes.

During a conflict in 2021, the IDF said it had destroyed more than 100km of tunnels in air strikes. In response, Hamas claimed the tunnel system stretched for 500km and that only 5% had been hit.

Tunnels were dug under the Egyptian border to bring in all kinds of goods and weapons

Map of Gaza showing the underground tunnel system built by Hamas, according to the Israeli military.

Young population

Gaza has one of the world's youngest populations, with almost 60% of the population under 25 years old, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.

That compares with just over 20% in London, where according to data from the 2021 census, more than 65% of people are aged between 25 and 64.

More than 80% of the population lives in poverty in Gaza, where unemployment levels are among the highest in the world, reaching 45% in 2022.

A chart showing the population of Gaza by age group. Gaza has a young population with almost 60% of the population under the age of 25

More on Israel-Gaza war

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Fire and smoke rise over Gaza City as Israel unleashes one of its fiercest bombardments in three weeks of war with Hamas (Yousef Hassouna)

The Israeli military said Friday it was expanding its ground operations in Gaza as it unleashed one of the fiercest bombardments in three weeks of war with the territory's Hamas rulers.

Huge orange flashes lit up the night sky over Gaza City as air strike after air strike hit the shattered territory, where internet access and the phone network were cut.

Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said the army was "extending" its ground operations after two straight nights of tank incursions.

Hamas's armed wing said it was fighting Israeli forces in two areas inside the Gaza Strip.

"We are confronting an Israeli ground incursion in Beit Hanoun (in the northern Gaza Strip) and in east Bureij (in the centre) and violent engagements are taking place on the ground," the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement.

Israel has been building up to an expected ground invasion since Hamas fighters stormed across the border on October 7. It says that 1,400 people, nearly all civilians, were killed and more than 220 taken hostage.

The Hamas-run health ministry said Israeli strikes on Gaza had now killed 7,326 people, including more than 3,000 children. The United Nations has warned of a humanitarian disaster in the enclave of 2.4 million people as food, water and fuel runs out.

Hamas said that Israel had "doubled" the number of air strikes on Friday night as it made a new appeal for international efforts to halt the attacks.

But the Palestinian group declared itself "ready" for any invasion ordered by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government.

"The remains of his soldiers will be swallowed up by the land of Gaza," senior Hamas political bureau member Ezzat al-Rishaq said on Telegram.

In southern Israel, helicopters were heard close to the Gaza border as clouds of black smoke rose from the territory. Roads on the Israeli side were deserted.

The orange glow of the fires in Gaza City was clearly visible and roads on the Israeli side were deserted.

Most of the population, including the kibbutz communities that suffered most from the October 7 attacks, have been evacuated.

Hamas said all internet connections and communications across Gaza had been cut, and accused Israel of taking the measure "to perpetrate massacres with bloody retaliatory strikes from the air, land and sea".

The Palestinian Red Crescent said ambulance services had been disrupted.

"We have completely lost contact with the operations room in the Gaza Strip and all our teams operating there," it said on X, the former Twitter.

The Israeli army accused Hamas of abusing hospitals in Gaza for military purposes, an allegation Hamas swiftly denied.

dar-rsc-ds/tw/jd/kir
Israel Rocha, CEO of Cook County Health, is leaving the health system Dec. 1 to pursue a new professional opportunity, a CCH spokesperson announced Friday.

Serving as Cook County Healths CEO has truly been a privilege, Rocha said in a statement. I am humbled and grateful to have been a small part of CCHs rich legacy. I have every confidence that the incredible team that comprises CCH will continue to carry on the powerful work of the health system and lead it into a bright future.

An interim director of CCH will be announced in short order, spokeswoman Alexandra Normington said.

Cook County Health not only operates a public health department, two flagship hospitals  Stroger and Provident  and clinics across the city and suburbs, but also CountyCare, CCHs Medicaid health plan, and medical services for detainees at the Cook County Jail.

Its proposed 2024 budget is $4.37 billion.

Rocha jumped from NYC Health & Hospitals, the countrys biggest public health system, to CCH in October of 2020 as Cook County Health was bracing for another wave of COVID-19 cases.

Rocha was also previously CEO of Elmhurst Hospital and Queens Hospital in New York and Doctors Hospital in Edinburg, Texas. He was a departure from physician leaders of the past at CCH: Rocha was a public administrator who also worked for Texas congressman Ruben Hinojosa in Washington, D.C.

In a statement, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle thanked Rocha for his steadfast leadership during a once in a 100-year pandemic swept through every community in our nation.

Under Israels leadership, the health system saved lives by opening the mass vaccination sites, administering more than a million COVID-19 shots, and increasing and enhancing services at CCH hospitals and clinics while addressing social determinants of health.  I extend my gratitude to Israel for his exceptional leadership and extend my best wishes as he embarks on his next journey, Preckwinkle said.

In the CCH statement, Lyndon Taylor, chair of the health systems board, credited Rocha for his budget prowess and setting a clear vision for advancing the health system and its essential mission. Under his leadership, CCH has managed its annual budgets with a positive variance, set a record pace for hiring ... developed programs to improve quality outcomes, and more.

Rochas appointment came after a nearly yearlong vacancy following the ouster of Dr. John Jay Shannon. After a five-year tenure, the CCH board opted not to renew Shannons contract after scrutiny over the rising costs of charity care and debt collection practices. Since Shannons exit, Preckwinkle and the Cook County Board have been given more authority over the health board, including approval of the next CEO.

Its mission since its founding has been to serve all patients regardless of their ability to pay. CCH continues to take on the bulk of the countys charity care: All in, such care cost $175 million in 2021 and $142 million in 2022. The expansion of the states health benefits program for immigrant adults and seniors helped contribute to the falling expenses, Normington said.

But the charity care burden has been compounded as the county has agreed to take on the health costs for the influx of asylum-seekers to Chicago. Since September of 2022, the health system has spent nearly $30 million on new arrivals health needs, Normington told the Tribune in early October. Those costs are roughly $2 million a month.

Aside from his leadership during the pandemic, Rocha also weathered a 18-day strike in the summer of 2021 from SEIU Local 73 workers. The system has continued to struggle finding full-time clinical workers and has instead, at times, relied on expensive contract workers. The systems next CEO will also have to tackle the future of Provident Hospital: Rochas early plans to revamp the South Side facility have been repeatedly put on hold.

Bob Reiter, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor who chairs the board of finance at CCH, said Rocha built a strong team and we are better off today than at any point in time that Ive been on the board or working at the CFL. Thats the last 13 years.

I was inspired when we hired him that we were going to have someone who would take the largest public safety net system in our state, one of the largest systems in the country and put it on par with the large not for profits here in Chicago, Reiter continued. Delivery of health care services, delivery of public health protection and the delivery of health care coverage  getting all three of those things pointed in the right direction where theyre complimenting each other instead of fighting each other has been a challenge up until we got this guy in.  We have to find another leader who can be transformative and continue us on that path.

In the coming days, the CCH board of directors will develop a transition plan, appoint an interim CEO, and launch a national search to identify a permanent replacement, Taylor said.

aquig@chicagotribune.com
Israel is expanding its ground operations in the Gaza Strip, Daniel Hagari, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), announced on Oct. 27 following hours of heavy bombardment, the Washington Post reported.

It's still unclear if the announcement means the launch of a full-scale Israeli ground invasion of the Gaza Strip or a more limited operation. Peter Lerner, another spokesperson for the IDF, has denied that the expanded Israeli operations in the Gaza Strip are the official ground invasion that has been expected, ABC News reported.

A U.S. official told ABC News Israel is launching a more limited incursion.

The announcement comes amid a massive internet and cellular blackout that hit much of Gaza several hours ago, according to witnesses and monitoring groups.

Hagari said that Israel will continue its strikes in Gaza City and its surroundings in the north of the Palestinian enclave and called on its residents to move to the southern areas "where it is much safer."

The U.S. has reportedly urged Israel to rethink its plans for a major ground invasion, instead suggesting "surgical" operations using aircraft and special forces against high-value Hamas targets, the Washington Post reported, citing five U.S. officials.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Oct. 25 that the IDF would soon launch its long-prepared ground offensive into Gaza in order to destroy Hamas after the terrorist group launched an attack on Israeli settlements on Oct. 7.

Israel's forces have been carrying out limited incursions into the enclave for the past two nights. Hamas' attack and Israel's retaliatory strikes have already cost thousands of lives on both sides.

Read also: Ukrainians trapped in besieged Gaza: We are constantly bombed

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
The Israeli military raided the central Gaza Strip, near Gaza City, with ground troops overnight Friday for the second time in as many days, ahead of an expected full ground invasion of the territory.

Israel said the targeted raids were intended to prepare the battlefield. Overnight Thursday, a small group of IDF tanks entered Gaza as part of preparations for the next stages of combat.

Israels bombardment of Gaza has continued into a third week after Hamas militants killed more than 1,400 Israelis in a surprise attack at the outset of the war. Israeli strikes have killed more than 7,000 Palestinians, including more than 2,900 children, according to the Thursday update from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry.

The strikes, mostly focusing on the northern half of the Gaza Strip, have leveled entire neighborhoods. More than 1 million people have been displaced, intensifying a humanitarian crisis in the region.

Humanitarian aid continued its slow flow into Gaza early Friday as the territory struggles with dwindling water, food, fuel and medical supply reserves.

This crucial humanitarian assistance is a small dose of relief, but its not enough, International Committee of the Red Cross regional director Fabrizio Carboni told The Associated Press. Our surgical team and medical supplies will help relieve the extreme pressure on Gazas doctors and nurses. But safe, sustained humanitarian access is urgently needed.

This humanitarian catastrophe is deepening by the hour, he added.

Violence expanded to the West Bank overnight Friday, with four people killed, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The dead included a Hamas commander, Israeli forces claimed.

Three Palestinians were killed amid a firefight at a refugee camp in the West Bank and another man was shot by Israeli forces later Friday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

More than 70 Palestinians were arrested after the fighting, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club, which represents current and former prisoners. Since the start of the war, Israeli authorities have reportedly made more than 1,530 arrests of Palestinians in the West Bank.

Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, does not control the West Bank, and the governments of the two Palestinian territories are not affiliated with each other.

The conflict has sparked fears of a wider war across the Middle East; Irans foreign minister warned the U.S. to stay out of the war in a United Nations speech Thursday.

I say frankly to the American statemen who are now managing the genocide in Palestine that we do not welcome the expansion of the war in the region, Iran Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said in a United Nations address. But I warn: If the genocide in Gaza continues, they will not be spared from this fire. It is our home, and West Asia is our region.

The U.S. struck multiple Iran-affiliated targets in Syria on Thursday evening after militia groups reportedly attacked American positions in the region, the Pentagon said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
MOSCOW (Reuters) -Hamas officials visiting Moscow were quoted by Russian media on Friday as saying the militant group viewed all its hostages as Israelis, whatever additional passports they held, and could not release any of them until Israel agreed to a ceasefire.

Hamas Politburo member Abu Marzouk told state news agency RIA that Russia, the United States, France, Spain, Italy and many others had appealed for the release of their nationals from among more than 200 hostages that Hamas seized in a cross-border rampage into Israel on Oct. 7.

He said Hamas viewed Moscow's request "more positively and attentively than the others, given the character of our relations with Russia".

RIA quoted him as saying that Hamas did not view its captives as Russian, French or American. "All those captured, for us, are Israelis, although there is an appeal to their original citizenship in the hope this will save them," he said.

Another member of the delegation, Abu Hamid, told Kommersant newspaper that Hamas needed time to locate all those taken to Gaza by various Palestinian factions in the Oct. 7 attacks that killed 1,400 people.

Russia's ambassador to Israel said this week that three Russian-Israeli citizens were thought to be among the hostages.

Israel said on Wednesday that more than half the hostages held by Hamas have foreign passports from 25 different countries. Many were believed to have had dual Israeli nationality, however some almost certainly did not.

Russia on Friday defended its decision to invite the Hamas delegation to Moscow against strong Israeli criticism, saying it was necessary to maintain contacts with all sides in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Israel, which has vowed to wipe out Hamas in retaliation for the Oct. 7 attack, has described the decision as "deplorable" and urged Moscow to expel the delegation.

MAINTAINING CONTACTS

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Hamas delegation had met with representatives of Russia's foreign ministry but not with President Vladimir Putin or Kremlin officials.

"We consider it necessary to continue our contacts with all parties and, of course, we will continue our dialogue with Israel," he told reporters.

Russia has ties to all the key players in the Middle East, including Israel, Iran, Syria, Hamas, and the Western-backed Palestinian Authority which exercises limited self-rule under Israeli military occupation in the West Bank.

It has repeatedly blamed the crisis on a failure of U.S. diplomacy.

Russia's embassy in Israel issued a statement in which it reiterated Moscow's call for an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages held by Hamas and the delivery of humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza, which Israel is heavily bombarding ahead of an expected ground invasion. Officials in Gaza say more than 7,000 Palestinians have been killed.

Peskov ruled out any risk of Russia being drawn into the conflict after U.S. fighter jets on Friday struck weapons and ammunition facilities in Syria in retaliation for attacks on U.S. forces by Iranian-backed militia.

But he added that the U.S. strikes would further stoke tensions across the region. "This is very bad," he said.

(Reporting by Reuters; writing by Mark Trevelyan and Gareth Jones; editing by Giles Elgood)
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Israeli forces killed four Palestinians during raids in the occupied West Bank on Friday, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA said. Two of the dead were identified by militant factions as their members.

As it wages a now three-week-old war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Israel has also stepped up operations against Islamist groups in the West Bank, killing scores of Palestinians and arresting hundreds. One Israeli soldier was killed in a clash.

The Israeli military said that during West Bank arrest operations its troops came under attack in the city of Jenin and fired back, killing Ayser al-Amar of the Islamic Jihad faction.

Islamic Jihad confirmed al-Amar belonged to the group. Hamas said one of its men, Jawad al-Turki, was killed during the Jenin fighting.

WAFA named the two men, another Palestinian killed in Jenin and a fourth man in the West Bank town of Qalqiya, saying their deaths took the number of Palestinians killed since the Hamas-Israel conflict broke out to 110, with more than 1,900 people injured.

The military said that in Qalqiya, troops came under fire while shutting down a store whose owner was accused of incitement to violence. They returned fire, hitting at least one person, the military's statement said.

(Writing by Dan Williams, Ali Sawafta and Nidal al-Mughrabi; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
Israeli soldiers escort journalists on a tour of Kfar Aza, one of the kibbutz communities devastated by Hamas militants on October 7 (Gil COHEN-MAGEN)

A senior Israeli army officer said Friday that he had found the body of a decapitated baby in one of the kibbutz communities attacked by Hamas on October 7.

Colonel Golan Vach, head of the military search and rescue service, told AFP he saw the body of a mother protecting a baby while searching debris at the Beeri kibbutz three days after the attacks.

"When I pulled it over I saw a decapitated baby. I took it up with my hands and I carried it, and I put it in the body bag. I personally did it," he said while on a media tour of another kibbutz organised by the military.

Israel has said 1,400 people were killed and at least 229 taken hostage when Hamas militants attacked kibbutz commmunities, towns and military bases in southern Israel.

It has said many of the dead were women and children, killed in shocking ways, but it has given no figures.

Hamas has denied that its fighters killed infants during the cross-border raids.

The Hamas health ministry said Friday that 3,038 children were among 7,326 people killed in Israeli air raids on Gaza since October 7, in the buildup to a widely expected ground invasion. Israel and the United States have said they doubt the Hamas tolls.

Allegations that children were beheaded first emerged in Israeli media reports and were at first supported by Israeli officials, though spokesmen later said it could not be confirmed.

US President Joe Biden also mentioned the beheading of babies but his office later clarified that he had not seen any images.

No verified photographs or video footage of beheaded babies have emerged since the attacks.

Speaking on a tour of the Kfar Aza kibbutz, a community of 700 devastated in the attacks, the Israeli colonel told reporters he had been asked since making his gruesome discovery why there were no images.

"People ask me how come you did not take a picture. I said: Im sorry, I have children. I have limitations. I have limits. I do not take a picture of a decapitated baby," Vach said.

The colonel said a soldier had been "decapitated" at Kfar Aza. Military officials said it was not possible to say whether there were other cases of soldiers or civilians beheaded.

tw/jd/kir
Heavy equipment losses faced by Russian forces near Avdiivka are likely to "undermine Russian offensive capabilities over the long term," the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) wrote in their Oct. 26 report.

Russia's military losses in Adviivka include hundreds of destroyed armored vehicles and thousands of killed or wounded personnel. While Russian forces continue to send reserves to the eastern front, the ISW said the equipment losses will pose a serious challenge.

"The Russian command will likely struggle to offset Russian equipment losses, particularly in armored vehicles," the ISW report said.

The ISW pointed to the disastrous effects of Russian equipment shortages in 2022, the first year of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The ISW said these losses "heavily restricted Russias ability to conduct effective mechanized maneuver warfare during the Russian military's winter-spring 2023 offensive."

According to the ISW, these restrictions led to additional losses incurred in "disorderly mechanized assaults" in Donetsk Oblast in the beginning of 2023. Those losses, in turn, prevented Russian forces from sustaining similar mechanized assaults in other regions of Ukraine.

The equipment losses Russia has incurred around Avdiivka are even greater than those incurred in the winter-spring assaults, the ISW said.

"It remains unclear if the prospect of further heavy equipment losses will deter the Russian command from launching another series of large, mechanized assaults near Avdiivka," the report said.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported on Oct. 26 that Russia is ramping up production capacities at military factories across the country. The White House has also said that North Korea has begun sending Russia weapons and military equipment.

The ISW said that Russia's military failures near Avdiivka "will likely lead to even more pronounced Russian equipment shortages and setbacks."

Read also: Ukraine war latest: Russia endures heavy losses near Avdiivka, suffers from low morale, White House says

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
An Italian woman, 75, has won a case to evict her freeloading adult sons from her home, according to the Italian news agency ANSA. Her sons, aged 40 and 42, both have jobs but rejected the idea of moving out. They also refused to do chores or pay for costs around the house, despite their moms protestations. La Provincia Pavese reported that Judge Simona Caterbi said that the living situation no longer appears justifiable given the sons ages and decided that they must leave their moms Pavia home by Dec. 18. The Guardian reported that in 2022, 70 percent of people in Italy aged between 18 and 34 lived in their parents home. This percentage of bamboccioni, or big babies, a term coined by an Italian politician criticizing young adults who lived with their parents, has risen in recent years due to high unemployment.

Read it at The Guardian

Read more at The Daily Beast.
On Thursday, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) upheld a judges earlier ruling that the Apple Watch violated patents from medical technology company Masimo, as reported by Reuters. Although the ITCs order could theoretically lead to an eventual import ban on Apple Watch models, the iPhone maker still has ample opportunity to avoid that outcome.

The decision stems from a lawsuit Masimo filed in 2021, accusing Apple of infringing on the smaller companys patents related to light-based blood-oxygen monitoring. Apple introduced the feature in the Apple Watch Series 6, its 2020 flagship smartwatch. Its 2023 models, including the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2, still include blood-oxygen sensors.

Masimos filing focuses on the Apple Watch Series 6, which the iPhone maker discontinued in 2021 following the launch of its successor. It isnt clear whether or to what degree a hypothetical import ban would affect Apples latest versions of its flagship wearable. A federal jury took up Masimos allegations earlier this year, ending in a mistrial.

The case now moves to the White House as the Biden administration has 60 days to decide whether to veto the import ban based on policy concerns. Reuters notes that US Presidents have rarely rejected bans historically. If Biden opts not to veto, Apple can appeal the ban to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit after the White Houses review period expires. Other options for the $2.6 trillion company include settling with Masimo or issuing software updates that skirt the patent.

Masimo paints the scenario as a victory for David vs. Goliath. Todays ruling by the USITC sends a powerful message that even the worlds largest company is not above the law, Joe Kiani, Masimos CEO, wrote on Thursday. This important determination is a strong validation of our efforts to hold Apple accountable for unlawfully misappropriating our patented technology, added Mr. Kiani.

In a statement to Reuters, Apple framed the move as putting lives at risk to boost Masimos product portfolio. Masimo has wrongly attempted to use the ITC to keep a potentially lifesaving product from millions of U.S. consumers while making way for their own watch that copies Apple, an Apple spokesperson said. While todays decision has no immediate impact on sales of Apple Watch, we believe it should be reversed, and will continue our efforts to appeal.
Ivanka Trump must testify in a civil fraud lawsuit brought by the state of New York against her father, Donald Trump,, several of his adult children, and former employees of the Trump Organization.

Judge Arthur Engoron ruled on Friday that Ivanka Trump must appear in person to submit her testimony to the court. Engoron has already ruled that Trump and his companies were liable for fraud. The ongoing trial will establish what is owed to the state in damages.

New York Attorney General Letitia James wrote in a Thursday court filing that while no longer a Defendant in this action, [Ivanka Trump] indisputably has personal knowledge of facts relevant to the claims against the remaining individual and entity Defendants, James motion added: But even beyond that, Ms. Trump remains financially and professionally intertwined with the Trump Organization and other Defendants and can be called as a person still under their control.

Lawyers for Ivanka claimed that her departure from the Trump Organization in 2017 was grounds to throw out the subpoenas requesting her testimony. While Ivanka was removed as a defendant in December, Engoron stated that her past involvement in the Trump Organizations management, and her continued ownership of properties in New York, merited in-person testimony.

Ms. Trump has clearly availed herself of the privilege of doing business in New York, Engoron told the court. I want to see her in person. That is how we prefer testimony.

Engoron indicated that he would not schedule her testimony until early November.

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Ivanka Trump , the daughter of former President Trump, must testify in her fathers civil fraud trial in New York, a judge ruled Friday morning.

The sweeping fraud case, brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James (D), accuses Trump, the Trump Organization, Trumps adult sons and several executives of decades of fraud, suggesting they falsely inflated and deflated the value of their assets to receive lower taxes and better insurance coverage. Trump and his sons have denied any wrongdoing, calling the case a witch hunt.

Ivanka Trump was once a party in the lawsuit, but a New York appeals court in June dismissed her from the case, ruling that the claims against her were barred by the states statute of limitations.

However, New York Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron decided Friday that her dismissal from the case doesnt absolve her of taking the stand after being subpoenaed by the attorney generals office. Her testimony wont be scheduled before Nov. 1, to give her lawyers time to appeal, the trial judge ruled.

Top Stories from The Hill

Trump and his adult sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump , are also expected to testify later in the trial, which began earlier this month. The former president briefly took the stand Wednesday to defend comments he made to reporters that the judge ruled were in violation of an established gag order.

Ivanka Trumps lawyers in court documents argued that the New York attorney generals office does not have the jurisdiction to force the former presidents daughter to testify, suggesting the office is attempting to force her back into this case despite her dismissal from it.

Ms. Trump is not a party in this action. Nor is Ms. Trump a New York resident, they wrote. It is black-letter law that, given those two facts, Ms. Trump is beyond the jurisdiction of this Court.

Trumps legal team also claimed in court filings that the attorney general is seeking to continue to harass and burden President Trumps daughter long after the First Department mandated she be dismissed from the case.

Engoron rebuffed those arguments in court Friday, suggesting that her ties to New York have hardly been severed.

Ms. Trump has clearly availed herself of the privilege of doing business in New York, Engoron said Friday, according to The Associated Press.

The fraud trial is in its fourth week and expected to last until at least Dec. 22.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
The New York Attorney General's Office said Mr Trump and his three children, Eric Trump (left) Ivanka Trump, and Donald Trump Jr will testify in the coming week

Donald Trump and three of his children will soon take the stand in a New York business fraud case.

A judge ruled on Friday that Mr Trump's daughter, Ivanka, must testify in the case against her brothers and father.

She was dismissed as a defendant in the case earlier this year - but her brothers Eric and Donald Jr were not.

The New York Attorney General's Office said the former president will testify on 6 November and his three children will take the stand before him.

Their testimony is expected over three days from Wednesday next week, starting with Donald Trump Jr.

Judge Arthur Engoron has already ruled that Mr Trump inflated the value of his properties to secure favourable loans.

The trial focuses on six other claims made in the lawsuit, including falsification of business records, insurance fraud and conspiracy.

Mr Trump has previously said he would take the stand at the earliest opportunity. He and the other defendants have denied the allegations.

His daughter Ivanka had previously sought not to take the stand, arguing that she had moved out of the city to Florida and had stepped away from the Trump Organization in 2017.

But Judge Engoron said she still maintains ties to Trump businesses and real estate in New York.

Prosecutors have argued that Ms Trump has important information to share about the events being examined in the case.

In his ruling on Friday about Ivanka testifying, Judge Engoron sided with the prosecutors, writing: "Ms Trump has clearly availed herself of the privilege of doing business in New York."

He cited documents showing that she still had ownership or management ties to some businesses in New York, and that she still owns Manhattan apartments.

The civil fraud case was brought against the former president by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is a Democrat.

Ms James is seeking $250m (205m) in penalties and severe restrictions for Mr Trump's businesses.

Mr Trump, the front-runner for the Republican nomination in the 2024 election, has dismissed the case as politically motivated and a "sham".
New York (CNN)  Ivanka Trump must testify at her fathers New York civil fraud trial, the judge overseeing the case ruled on Friday.

New York Judge Arthur Engoron denied a motion from Ivanka Trumps attorneys to quash a subpoena for her testimony, though he said her testimony should not be scheduled before Wednesday to give her time to appeal his ruling.

Ivanka Trumps attorney had argued that she should not be forced to appear after an appellate court removed her as a defendant in the case.

Ms. Trump has clearly availed herself of the privilege of doing business in New York, Engoron said.

The judge also said Ivanka Trump should have submitted an affidavit asserting that she does not live or work in the state presently. Only she can tell us that, and its too late to do that now, Engoron said.

Following his decision, Engoron quickly denied a follow-up request from Donald Trump s attorney Chris Kise to entertain a deposition from Ivanka Trump taken in Florida. We want her here in person, Engoron said, noting that he prefers to hear testimony live in court.

Donald Trumps children are expected to be called to testify next week, and the former president could be called in to testify the week after that, the attorney generals office said in court Friday.

The attorney generals team is nearing the end of the witness list for their case in the civil fraud trial of Trump and his co-defendants, including Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump .

The attorney generals team mapped out the remainder of their case in open court Friday. Theyll also have a chance to call additional witnesses in a rebuttal case after Trumps defense case later in the trial.

The AGs lawyers said they expect Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump to each testify for a day starting Wednesday, though Ivanka Trumps testimony may depend on the status of her appeal.

After that, the attorney generals office expects to call Trump as its final witness the week of November 6.

The witness schedule can always change or be shifted, so the dates are not set.

Trump attorneys say Ivanka testimony creating another circus day

Attorneys for Donald and Ivanka Trump argued that Ivanka Trump has not lived or worked in New York since 2017, so the court does not have jurisdiction over her, accusing New York Attorney General Letitia James of seeking her testimony to create a media spectacle.

Kise called the subpoena continued harassment of President Trumps children.

They just want another free-for-all on one of President Trumps children, Kise said. They want her in the courtroom so it can be filled with media and we can have another circus day.

Ivanka Trump had initially been listed as a co-defendant  along with Donald Trump, Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and several Trump Organization executives  in the $250 million lawsuit filed last September by James, alleging they were involved in an expansive fraud scheme lasting over a decade that the former president and his eldest children used to enrich themselves.

In June, however, a New York appeals court dismissed Ivanka Trump as a co-defendant, finding the claims against Ivanka Trump were too old, because she was not part of an August 2021 agreement between James office and the Trump Organization to toll the statute of limitations.

Bennet Moskowitz, an attorney for Ivanka Trump, argued that she has not lived or worked regularly in New York since 2017, so the court does not have jurisdiction over her. He offered to file an affidavit signed by Ivanka saying as much.

She is no longer a party in this case and the business entities registered in New York where the AGs office sent the subpoena are not parties in this case either, Moskowitz argued.

Another Trump attorney, Cliff Robert, said Eric Trump is willing to be the corporate representative for the Trump Organization because hes going to be testifying at trial anyway.

An attorney for the attorney generals office, Kevin Wallace, argued that Ivanka Trump is still intertwined with Trump Organization, and that she has personal knowledge of a loan for the Old Post Office project in Washington, DC.

The attorney generals complaint alleged that Ivanka Trump was liable for the fraud committed on a Deutsche Bank loan issued to Trump and his company for the Old Post Office project.

She ran that project, not Eric Trump, Wallace said.

Because she personally profited from the Old Post Office deal, Wallace said, Ivanka Trump was acting for her own interest when she negotiated the loan with Deutsche Bank.

Engoron asked the attorney generals lawyer about the prospect of limiting the scope of her questioning to the Old Post Office loan with Deutsche Bank.

This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.

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The New York judge presiding over Donald Trump's civil fraud trial ordered his daughter Ivanka on Friday to testify in the case.

Ivanka Trump, 41, was initially named in the lawsuit against Trump and his two eldest sons brought by New York's attorney general but was eventually dropped as a defendant.

Trump and his sons Don Jr and Eric are accused of inflating the value of the real estate of the Trump Organization for years to obtain more favorable bank loans and insurance terms.

Judge Arthur Engoron dismissed an attempt by Trump's attorneys to quash a subpoena issued to Ivanka Trump by Attorney General Letitia James but gave her until November 1 to appeal the decision.

Ivanka Trump served as a senior advisor to her father, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, while he was in the White House but has kept a low profile since he left office.

She abandoned her roles in the Trump Organization in January 2017, when her father became president and she and her husband, Jared Kushner, both took up posts in his administration.

Prior to that, Ivanka Trump was an executive vice president in the Trump Organization and was notably in close contact with one of the group's biggest lenders, Deutsche Bank, according to the attorney general's office.

The 77-year-old Trump and his sons are also expected to testify at some point during the trial being held in Manhattan.

The former president does not risk going to jail, but James is seeking $250 million in penalties and the removal of Trump and his sons from management of the family real estate empire.

Trump has repeatedly denounced the trial as a Democratic witch hunt intended to derail his 2024 White House bid.

arb/cl/dw
Former President Donald Trump arrives at the courtroom for his civil business fraud trial at New York Supreme Court, Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

NEW YORK (AP)  Donald Trump is set to testify Nov. 6 at his New York civil fraud trial, following his three eldest children to the witness stand in a case that threatens to disrupt their family's real estate empire, state lawyers said Friday.

It was already expected that the former president and sons Donald Jr. and Eric would testify. The timing became clear Friday, after Judge Arthur Engoron ruled that daughter Ivanka Trump also must appear, rejecting her bid to avoid testifying.

The schedule sets up a blockbuster stretch in the trial of New York Attorney General Letitia James lawsuit. She alleges that the former president, now the Republican front-runner for 2024, overstated his wealth for years on financial statements that were given to banks, insurers and others to help secure loans and deals.

Trump denies any wrongdoing and has called the trial a politically motivated sham. The case could strip Trump of some of his corporate holdings and marquee properties such as Trump Tower. James and Engoron are Democrats.

Donald Trump and the two sons are defendants in the lawsuit, but the state is initially calling them to the stand before the defense begins its case. The defense can then call them again.

In a surprise preview, Donald Trump ended up briefly testifying Wednesday to answer Engorons questions about whether an out-of-court comment was aimed at his law clerk. The judge had earlier barred participants in the trial from talking publicly about court staffers.

Trump said his remark wasn't about the clerk; Engoron called that testimony not credible and fined Trump $10,000, on top of a $5,000 fine imposed days earlier over an online post about the clerk. Trump's lawyers paid both fines on his behalf but still might appeal them, according to a court filing Friday.

Donald Trump Jr. is now set to testify next Wednesday, brother Eric on Thursday and sister Ivanka on Nov. 3, though her lawyers may appeal to try to block her testimony.

An appeals court dismissed her as a defendant in the lawsuit in June, saying the claims against her were too old. Ivanka Trump announced in January 2017, ahead of her fathers inauguration, that she was stepping away from her job as an executive vice president at the family company, the Trump Organization. She soon became an unpaid senior adviser in the Trump White House. After her fathers term ended, she moved to Florida.

Her lawyer, Bennet Moskowitz, told the judge Friday that state lawyers just dont have jurisdiction over her. One of Donald Trump's attorneys, Christopher Kise, maintained that state lawyers just want another free-for-all on another of President Trumps children.

The idea that somehow Ms. Trump is under the control of the Trump Organization or any of the defendants, her father -- anyone who has raised a daughter past the age of 13 knows that theyre not under their control, Kise said.

However, the state's lawyers argued that Ivanka Trump was a key participant in some events discussed in the case and remains financially and professionally intertwined with the family business and its leaders.

Engoron sided with the state, citing documents showing that Ivanka Trump continued to have ties to some businesses in New York and still owns Manhattan apartments.

Ms. Trump has clearly availed herself of the privilege of doing business in New York, Engoron said.

During her years at the Trump Organization, Ivanka Trump was involved in negotiating and securing financing for various properties, including a lease and loan for a Washington hotel and loans for Trumps Doral golf resort near Miami and a Trump-owned hotel and condo skyscraper in Chicago, according to court filings.

According to the New York attorney general's office, Ivanka Trump retained a financial interest in the Trump Organizations operations even after leaving for the White House, including through an interest in the now-sold Washington hotel.

In court papers that included emails and other documents, the state lawyers said the Trump Organization and its staff also have bought insurance for Ivanka Trump and her businesses, managed her household staff and credit card bills, rented her apartment and paid her legal fees.

In 2021 federal disclosures, she reported $2.6 million in income from Trump entities, including revenue from a vehicle known as TTT Consulting LLC. A company bookkeeper testified that TTT was set up for her and her brothers to reap a share of fees from some licensing agreements.

___

Associated Press writer Michael R. Sisak contributed to this report.
Jamie Lee Curtis is lending her famous name to Rep. Adam Schiffs (D) California Senate bid, saying hell always stand up to the people abusing their power.

In a Friday message sent out by Schiffs campaign and signed by Curtis, the Halloween actor said, As a lifelong Californian, Ive had the great privilege of being represented by some incredible United States Senators.

And one common quality that each of them has had  one I can very much say that my friend Adam Schiff shares  is this: They know they work for us, not the other way around.

Schiff is running in the closely watched Senate race for the seat formerly held by Dianne Feinstein . The Democratic senator, who had announced in February that she would not seek reelection in 2024, died in September at 90.

Schiff and Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) have been leading recent polls among likely primary voters in the race, which also includes Rep. Barbara Lee (D), former Google exec Lexi Reese and former Los Angeles TV news anchor Christina Pascucci.

Former Los Angeles Dodgers great Steve Garvey launched his campaign for the seat as a Republican candidate earlier this month.

In her email pitch for Schiff  which had the subject line Freaky Friday, in an ode to the 2003 Lindsay Lohan film she co-starred in  Curtis said, As MAGA Republicans attack transgender children, LGBTQ equality, abortion rights, and ban books, Im grateful we have a leader like Adam who will always stand up to the people abusing their power.

Whether its [former President Trump,] big corporations, or special interests  Adam stands up for whats right, Curtis said of Schiff, who served as a House impeachment manager during Trumps first impeachment trial.

But the truth is that many of the most important fights we face as a country will be waged in the United States Senate, added Curtis, 64.

And California needs to elect a Senator we can send there to get things done, she said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
This picture shows a brown bear that is on the loose in Sapporo, Hokkaido prefecture on June 18, 2021. STR/JIJI PRESS/AFP via Getty Images

Japan's had enough of a surge in bear attacks across the country this year.

One region said it will subsidize bullets for hunting and reward hunters who capture bears.

Bears in Japan have been descending on urban areas this year due to a food shortage, experts say.

Officials in Japan said they'll pay hunters for every bear they capture, in response to a surge in bear attacks in the northern Akita prefecture.

"We will financially support responsible hunters so that they can hunt many more bears," said Akita governor Norihisa Satake in a press conference on Monday, per a translation by Bloomberg.

Japan is experiencing its worst spate of bear attacks since government records began, with at least 167 people attacked in 2023 so far, according to national broadcaster NHK.

Bear sightings in urban areas have skyrocketed, and the number of attacks is rising even in the Greater Tokyo area, per the broadcaster.

Akita has been one of the hardest-hit regions, with at least 53 people injured in bear attacks in 2023, almost triple the number of victims last year, NHK reported.

In response, local officials are arranging to subsidize the cost of bullets for hunting clubs out of a $100,000 bear budget, per NHK.

If a hunter captures a bear, they'll earn a reward of 5,000 yen, or $33, meant to cover transportation costs, according to the outlet, citing Akita officials.

As governor of Akita, Satake has fiercely encouraged central government support for containing and eliminating the roaming bears.

He urged hunters on Monday to "shoot immediately" if they see a bear, though with a caveat that they shouldn't go overboard, per Asahi Shimbun.

Bears in Japan have increasingly entered urban areas over the last year in search of food as they prepare to hibernate, per NHK.

Maki Yamamoto, an associated professor specializing in wildlife management at Nagaoka University of Technology, told Bloomberg that the local bears have had a short supply this year of beech nuts, which they rely on for nutrition.

Meanwhile, the Japanese Environment Minister Shintaro Ito announced he would distribute emergency financial aid to several prefectures, including Akita and Hokkaido, where bear attacks have been particularly severe, per Yomiuri Shimbun.

Read the original article on Insider
For years, fans of music icon Beyonce Knowles-Carter and Shawn "JAY-Z" Carter have wondered about the true story behind their daughter's distinctive name, Blue Ivy .

The speculation and myths finally met reality when Carter told "CBS Mornings" exclusively that the name wasn't a color preference or a carefully orchestrated branding strategy, as rumors had suggested, but rather a playful, affectionate term that blossomed from the sonogram's screen.

"It was supposed to be Brooklyn," Carter told King, nodding to the deep personal connection the two feel with the New York City borough where he grew up.

But during their routine prenatal checks, a different inspiration struck the couple.

"We was calling her Blueberry. Like, 'Look at the little blueberry.' You know, it was like a nickname," said Carter. "It just was natural."

Eventually, the affectionate nickname that accompanied every sonogram and doctor's visit began to feel more like a name than a nickname, Carter said. "We just took the 'berry' off of it and called her Blue."

Eleven years later, Blue Ivy is carving her own path in the music world, taking center stage next to her mother and performing as a dancer during Beyonce's "Renaissance" world tour.

Carter, who chose to step back from his typical on-stage role, watched from the sidelines.

"For me, this was her best tour," he said. "This one to me felt like the most complete."

While performing in front of thousands of people is nothing new for Beyonce and JAY-Z, it was for Blue Ivy. He said he watched with "goosebumps" as, despite Blue Ivy being nervous, she was determined to face the crowd.

"Blue's been born into this world that she didn't ask. She's been born into a life she didn't ask for. So since she was born she's been in, like, scrutiny and public eye, and everyone having an opinion," said Carter.

"She wanted to do it. She wanted to do it the first night, and we was like, 'OK, if this is something you wanna do, you can't just go out there. You gotta go work with the dancers, and go work. And she worked every day and watched her work hard," he said.

The song "My Power," which was featured during her performance, felt like a defining moment for Blue Ivy, said Carter. "You can't write a better script."

King and Carter spoke about his family during a wide-ranging interview and tour of the "Book of HOV" exhibit at Brooklyn Public Library. He said he and his grandmother shared an emotional experience while sitting in one of the exhibit's screening spaces on opening day.



"My grandmother is the reason why I'm, like, reserved and holding my feelings in, it comes from her to my mother, to me. And she started crying." After that, the rapper said he started crying, too.



"And I've maybe seen her cry three times in my life," he said. "She just, you know keeps everything close to the vest. That's who she is. I got a lot of my ways from her. And my mother got a lot of ways from her as well. I see it now."

Search underway for Maine mass shootings person of interest, police say

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JAY-Z reveals inspiration behind Blue Ivys name
JetBlue is ending its flight from Burlington to New York City in January  a flight that goes back more than two decades, and accounts for an average of 10% of the passengers at Patrick Leahy International Airport every month, according to the airport's director of aviation.

"Passengers will still be able to fly from Burlington to New York-JFK via Delta Air Lines, and we will work with our partners United, American Airlines and Delta Air Lines to extend services with this opportunity opening up," Director of Aviation Nic Longo said in a statement. "We are also in active talks with a handful of new airline partners to establish new routes and destinations in order to continue our growth and to meet growing passenger demands."

A JetBlue aircraft lifts off at Burlington International Airport on Aug. 30, 2019.

Longo said he hoped to announce new flights "in the near future." The last JetBlue flight to New York out of Burlington will be on Jan. 4. The airline said "impacted customers" with tickets after that date will be automatically refunded to the original payment method.

JetBlue blames shortage of air traffic controllers and end of alliance with American Airlines for pulling flight

In its statement, JetBlue blamed "ongoing air traffic control staffing issues," and a resulting push to reduce congestion in the New York airspace, plus the unwinding of an alliance it had made with American Airlines, for its decision to pull out of Burlington.

"Exiting a market is a difficult decision, however we expect the current air traffic controller shortage to last for some time and do not see a path to feasibly bringing back this flight," the statement read. "We were privileged to have served the people of Vermont and appreciate the community's support over the years."

JetBlue's partnership with American Airlines, called the Northeast Alliance, allowed the two airlines to sell tickets aboard each other's flights, according to reporting from NerdWallet. The agreement also allowed members of JetBlue's loyalty program to earn points in American Airlines' loyalty program.

In May, the U.S. Department of Justice won a lengthy court battle against the two airlines when a federal judge ruled the alliance stymied competition and hurt consumers, ordering it to be ended. NerdWallet reported American Airlines is appealing the ruling, but JetBlue announced in July it would not be joining the legal battle.

FAA: Near-miss incidents up by 25% because of low staffing of air traffic controllers

USA TODAY reported in August that low staffing in the nation's air traffic control towers has led to a nearly 25% increase in near-miss incidents where planes nearly hit each other. There were about 300 such incidents in the most recent 12-month period, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Luther "Dewayne" Davis, right, coaches Transportation Secy. Pete Buttigieg during an air traffic controller simulation. U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg toured the FAA center in Oklahoma on Thursday, March 30, 2023

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told USA TODAY he's concerned about the situation and that his agency is doing "some deeper analysis to see what's going on." At the end of September, Buttigieg warned that a thousand new air traffic controllers being trained by the FAA would be furloughed if the government shut down, which seemed likely at the time.

A shutdown has been averted  for now.

"After everything that we have been through, after all of the disruptions to air travel, especially the ones that we saw last year, we have finally seen cancellations and delays get back down to normal levels," Buttigieg said in a news conference in September. "But a shutdown would stop all of that progress."

Contact Dan DAmbrosio at 660-1841 or ddambrosi@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanDambrosioVT.

This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: JetBlue pulls NY flight out of Patrick Leahy BTV Airport in Burlington
In the hours after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, murdering and taking hostage Israeli civilians, 24 Jewish Democrats in the House of Representatives put out a joint statement declaring, We support Israels right to defend itselfto protect its people and communitiesand will do all we can to ensure Israel has the ability and capacity to restore and maintain its security and the safety of all its citizens. Even those who had previously supported protesters of the current Israeli government signed on to the statement.

And in the two weeks since, as Israel has responded to Hamass attack by aerial bombardment, and reports of a planned ground invasion and thousands of dead Palestinians civilians emerge, Jewish members of Congress have remained united in that essential stance: Israel has a right to defend itself.

There is variety and difference of opinion within that, of course, and some of it is quite significant. Representatives Josh Gottheimer and Jared Moskowitz co-led a letter asking President Biden to bolster Israels security. Representative Brad Sherman introduced a bill to enhance sanctions enforcement against those who use civilians as human shields, while Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland stated that Hamass use of human shields imposes an obligation of extra care not to kill civilians who are being used in this way. Over in the Senate, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, calling himself the highest-ranking Jewish leader in American history, stressed that hes doing everything in my power to ensure the Senate delivers the support Israel needs.

The notable exception was Bernie Sanders, who put out a statement last week saying, These unspeakable crimes must stop now. The bombs and missiles from both sides must end, massive humanitarian aid must be rushed to Gaza, and the hostages must be returned to their families. But even he stopped short of using the term cease-fire. The closest any Jewish member of Congress has come, it seems, is when Representatives Jerry Nadler , Dan Goldman, and Jan Schakowsky declared support this week for a humanitarian pause to allow for aid to be delivered.

That is not true, however, of progressive Jewish staffers on the Hill. Some of them described to me the pain and frustration of watching Jewish members make statements invoking their Jewish identity that the staffers dont see as reflections of their own Jewish values.

To me it feels inappropriate to pretend that supporting billions of dollars for open-ended weapons sales is Jewish.

Pretending the Jewish community is a monolith or members trying to act in the name of all Jews is  I dont think helpful or appropriate right now, especially as people are still grieving, dealing with a lot of emotions and feelings and thoughts about what happened in Israel and whats still happening in Gaza, said one Jewish staffer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. To me it feels inappropriate to pretend that supporting billions of dollars for open-ended weapons sales is Jewish.



The staffer was one of the over 400 Muslim and Jewish staffers on the Hill behind an October 19 open letter calling for a cease-fire. (The offices of Jacobs, Schakowsky, Raskin, Schumer, and Cardin did not offer comment on the letter or on the idea of a cease-fire more generally.) Cease-fire now was also the demand of a protest a day earlier on Capitol Hill that was led by two leftist Jewish groups, Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow.

Many have asked me who is Jewish Voice for Peace? Representative Jerry Nadler tweeted that day. Their website says they are proud to be a part of the global, Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which, by its founders admission & tenets, seeks to end Israel as a Jewish & democratic state. Nadler had previously, on Instagram, implored his colleagues to consider not extremes or slogans but what he called the American Jewish mainstream. (In fairness, Raskin came out to defend the protesters against comparisons to the January 6 insurrectionists.)

Whatever you want to say about IfNotNow or JVPthey are Jewish, the staffer said, adding, I think its frustrating because I work in the building. I also think its frustrating to a lot of Jews. Stop weaponizing the pain were in right now.

At least one Jewish staffer pushed back on the idea that it wasnt Jewish to call for a cease-fire.

As a Jew, this is deeply offensive, Emilia Winter Rowland, communications director and senior adviser for Representative Summer Lee (who supports a cease-fire), tweeted of a Fox News segment that dismissed the protesters. To say Jews have no right to protest for peace or against human rights violations in a place thats supposed to be our refuge?

Another Jewish staffer who signed on to the letter said their Jewish values motivated them not to support Israel but to call for a cease-fire.

As a Jew, were a faith thats really centered around social justice. That was a big part of my upbringing. The temple I belonged to growing up was very civic-centered, the staffer said. Calling for a cease-fire is consistent with the goal of a peaceful world, and so I think thats something that I guess I would hope all people want, especially the community I belong to, they said, adding that many of the members come from a different generation and so see the conflict differently.

And while it is true that the member is the one who was elected and whose name is on the door, there is a sense that it is the staffers whose labor makes Congress function. And I do feel a sense of complicity in the support for Israels war coming from Congress, the staffer said. And so they pushed in the way they could.

As staff, you know that the members will take positions that you may or may not agree with. Thats their role, and thats their job, said another Jewish staffer. But the staffer doesnt see this issue as a policy difference. Youre looking to see who is recognizing the humanity of Palestinians. And who is recognizing Arab and Muslim humanity in the U.S. It is a Jewish value to do that.

The staffer pointed to family members of hostages and victims who have spoken out against Israeli attacks on Gaza. Theyre the people closest to that pain, and theyre able to have a more nuanced conversation about it than we can have in Congress, the staffer said.

I understand that a lot of these older Jews who do have very intense generational trauma [are] unable to focus on anything but Jewish Israeli deaths, another Jewish staffer said. I can understand that, but I can also want them to be better and be able to open themselves up a little bit and broaden their compassion.

Our religion overwhelmingly teaches peace and compassion and empathy, the staffer said. These are the principles that I learned. Why do they not apply to Gaza and the West Bank is my question to anyone whos Jewish, honestly.

Theres also a sense of frustration that elected officials are abandoning what they know to be true in order to stand with the Israeli government.

Six months ago, a lot of politicians in Washington were really uncomfortable with the way Netanyahu was running Israel, one Jewish staffer who works in a Democratic senators office said. Its really frustrating that has gone out the window. The security failures that led to Hamass attack are at least in part because of this Israeli government, the staffer said. And yet the far-right government is able to use a security failure to bolster international support.

Thus far, however, the members have not changed their position.

On October 20, 131 Democrats, including every Jewish House Democrat and led by Nadler, Raskin, and Goldman, wrote to Biden to thank him for steadfast support for our ally Israel in a moment of need and horror.
Jill Biden is lending an educational hand, helping to launch a new series of childrens music videos aimed at teaching civics.

The first lady touched down in Philadelphia on Friday at an event hosted by Nickelodeon, ATTN: and the nonprofit iCivics to unveil Well Versed.

The project is described as an animated musical short-form series that aims to help teach kids about democracy and the U.S. Bill of Rights in fun and imaginative ways through original pop songs.

In one of the clips from Well Versed posted ahead of the series debut, the characters belt out a tune teaching viewers about the three branches of government, with a chorus that lauds checks and balances.

Keep tyranny from our country, split up the powers  one, two, three! the animated characters sing.

When we understand civics  how our government works and how to hold it accountable  we are able to make each other and our country the best it can be, Biden, an English professor at Northern Virginia Community College, said in remarks at the kick-off event, which was timed to coincide with National Civics Day.

Former first lady Laura Bush also offered her support via a video message.

The 12 music videos are poised to premiere on Nickelodeon, Paramount+ and Noggin starting Nov. 1.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
MSNBCs Joe Scarborough slammed House Speaker Mike Johnsons (R-La.) preposterous comments against gun reform following a mass shooting in Maine that left 18 people dead.

On Wednesday, the same day Johnson was elected speaker, a gunman opened fire with an assault-style rifle at a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston.

In an interview on Fox News Thursday, the Louisiana Republican said the problem is not guns, but the human heart, and argued its not the time to be talking about legislation.

On  Morning Joe  Friday, Scarborough noted that the human heart is not made of steel, and it cant repel the bullets.

Let me get confirmation from Katty, he added, asking British-Swiss journalist Katty Kay. Do they have human hearts in Britain and France and Germany and Spain? And by the way, do they have video games there? Do they have mental health problems?

None of those countries have gun laws anywhere near as relaxed as the U.S., or gun ownership levels anywhere near as high. Mass shootings there are much rarer.

"I can't believe we have a politician that will say in 2023 after a shooting that now is not the time to talk about mass shootings. There have already been 566 mass shootings in 2023...We have more mass shootings in America every year than we have days in the year." --@joenbcpic.twitter.com/I2IpZvF3sj  Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) October 27, 2023

Later in the broadcast, Scarborough said Johnson knew he was being dishonest and he knows that the United States has a problem unique to these types of shootings.

I cant believe we actually have a politician that will say in 2023 after a shooting, now is not the time to talk about mass shootings, he said.

Republican lawmakers  many of whom receive substantial campaign support from the gun lobby  have concocted myriad excuses for mass shootings over the years, blaming just about everything but the guns.

There have already been 566 mass shootings in the U.S. this year, according to the Gun Violence Archives tally.

Pointing to this figure, Scarborough wondered, if now is not the time to talk about it, when is it?

There are no breaks in America anymore between mass shootings, he said.

We have more mass shootings in America every year than we have days in the year, he added.

The suspect in the Maine shooting was still on the loose Friday morning.

Related...
(Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Chase & Co. strategists upgraded Indian stocks to overweight on optimism that higher government spending ahead of next years elections will boost consumption and market sentiment.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Nifty has delivered 13% returns in the six months leading up to a general election since 1991, strategists led by Pedro Martins Junior wrote in a note on Thursday. As the election 2024 draws near, the government may consider fresh initiatives like supporting rural and urban poor and additional expenditures aimed at boosting public sentiment.

JPMorgans view on Indian equities differs from Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which earlier this month said global headwinds and rich valuations requires a cautious approach ahead of the 2024 elections. Local shares have beaten emerging market gauges this year, though the outperformance has come under pressure as the spike in US yields and the Middle East tensions have hurt appetite for riskier assets.

JPMorgan had upgraded India stocks to neutral from underweight on June 14 this year. Since then, the NSE Nifty 50 Index has risen 1.6% versus 9.7% plunge in the MSCI Asia Pacific Index.

Foreign investors have taken out $3.6 billion from Indian stocks since the start of September, after plowing in a net $21.3 billion over the preceding six months.

Still, there are several reasons to be positive about India over the longer term, including rising wealth and faster growth amid the nations aspirations to be seen as an alternative to China, the strategists wrote.

Separately, JPMorgan upgraded Saudi Arabia to overweight from neutral as oil trades at a premium. They downgraded South Korea to neutral from overweight, suggesting profit taking from its outperformance to emerging market peers.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
The federal judge presiding over Donald Trump's trial for conspiring to overturn the 2020 US election has asked him to respond to media requests that it be televised (TIMOTHY A. CLARY)

The federal judge who is to preside over Donald Trump's trial for conspiring to overturn the 2020 US election asked the former president on Friday to respond to media requests that it be televised.

Judge Tanya Chutkan gave Trump's attorneys until November 10 to reply to the request by a number of media outlets asking for live broadcasts of what they called a "historic and unprecedented prosecution."

Federal criminal trials are generally not televised in the United States and it is not clear that Chutkan will allow it -- or has the authority to do so -- even if Trump's defense team and special counsel prosecutors agree.

Cameras have not been allowed so far in the downtown Washington courtroom for pre-trial hearings in the case.

NBCUniversal Media, in its application to the court, said if live coverage is not allowed than at the very least a recording should be made of the proceedings to be released later.

"The American public has an extraordinary interest in seeing and hearing this trial of former President Trump," NBCUniversal said. "If ever a trial were to be televised, this one should be, for the benefit of the American people."

John Lauro, an attorney for Trump, has said previously he would welcome cameras in the courtroom "so that Americans can see what's happening in our criminal justice system."

Trump was indicted for seeking to upend the results of the 2020 election won by Democrat Joe Biden in a concerted effort that led to the violent January 6, 2021 attack by his supporters on the US Capitol.

The twice-impeached former president is also accused of seeking to disenfranchise American voters with his false claims that he won the November 2020 election.

Chutkan has set March 4, 2024 for the start of the trial, which could interfere with Trump's campaign to win the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

Trump and his sons Eric and Don Jr are currently facing a civil fraud trial in New York, accused of inflating the value of their real estate assets to receive more favorable bank loans and insurance terms.

Trump also faces federal charges for alleged mishandling of classified documents after he left the White House and has been charged with racketeering in Georgia for trying to overturn the 2020 election results in the southern state.

cl/acb
A district court judge in Idaho has denied a request to dismiss a grand jury indictment in the case of Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students.

During a public hearing Thursday, the defense argued there was an error in the grand jury instructions and that the Grand Jury was misled as to the standard of proof required for an indictment.

Kohberger faces four counts of first-degree murder in connection with the November 13 deaths of 21-year-olds Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen; and 20-year-olds Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, who were fatally stabbed in their off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho. A not guilty plea has been entered on his behalf.

The Idaho State Constitution, Kohbergers defense attorneys argued, sets the standard of proof for a grand jury beyond a reasonable doubt. But the grand jury in the case against Kohberger was given the lower standard required for an archaic process called a presentment, which requires a preliminary hearing. As a result, failing to properly instruct the grand jury is grounds for a dismissal of the indictment, the defense said.

But Latah County District Court Judge John Judge denied the motion, saying, I am constrained by what I believe is settled law in Idaho  This is certainly an issue that you would have to bring with a higher court, like the Idaho Supreme Court.

I think the argument is good, but I cant go that far, not today, Judge continued, adding he would issue a written decision at a later time.

The open hearing was the second held Thursday, and both addressed different motions to dismiss Kohbergers indictment. The first closed hearing was a dismissal request by the defense, based on a biased jury. The judges decision from that hearing hasnt yet been released.

The killings and lengthy investigation rattled the community of Moscow, a city of 25,000 people that hadnt recorded a murder since 2015. After weeks with little information and heightened anxieties, Kohberger, a graduate student from nearby Washington State University, was arrested at his parents house in Pennsylvania.

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A judge Thursday rejected a motion to throw out the indictment of a man charged with fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students last year, CBS affiliate KREM-TV reported.

Lawyers for Bryan Kohberger, the man accused in the slayings, had argued his indictment should be thrown out on the grounds of "error in grand jury instructions," KREM reported.

Kohberger's defense took particular issue with the burden of proof being established to the jury as "probable cause" instead of "beyond a reasonable doubt," which it argued was not standard in the state of Idaho, KREM reported.

Latah County District Judge John Judge denied the motion, saying that while it was "creative," he ultimately could not do anything to change existing law, according to KREM.

Bryan Koberger listens during a hearing to overturn his grand jury indictment on October 26, 2023, in Moscow, Idaho. / Credit: Kai Eiselein / Getty Images

Judge said Thursday that "this is certainly an issue that you would have to bring up with a higher court, like the Idaho Supreme Court," the Idaho Statesman reported.

Kohberger is charged with four counts of murder in connection with the deaths of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin at a house near the Moscow, Idaho, university campus last November.

Kohberger at the time was a graduate student studying criminology at Washington State University in neighboring Pullman, Washington. A not guilty plea was entered on his behalf earlier this year.

Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson has said he intends to seek the death penalty.

Search underway for Maine mass shootings person of interest, police say

Lewiston the latest U.S. city devastated by a mass shooting

Man suspected of fatally shooting Maryland judge found dead
A judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed against Valparaiso University and its president, Jose Padilla, in a bid to stop the sale of millions of dollars of artwork to fund dorm improvements for first-year students.

Sale of the artwork isnt going forward yet, as the Indiana Attorney Generals Office still has to rule on whether the Percy H. Sloan Trust, which provided directly or indirectly for the three renowned pieces of artwork, would allow for the artwork to be auctioned off.

Richard Brauer and Philipp Brockington claim in their lawsuit  as do many on campus and in the art world  that the sale of the artwork to fund dorm renovations would be a violation of the trust agreement, because the funds would not go directly back to the museum for the preservation or purchase of artwork.

We are disappointed, but not surprised. We always knew the standing argument was a close call, said Portage attorney Patrick McEuen, who is representing Brauer and Brockington in the case.

Porter Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Thode, serving as special judge in the matter, released the ruling Friday. He stated that Brauer, the museums founding director for whom the facility is named, and Brockington, a retired VU law professor and museum benefactor, lack standing to bring this cause of action against the defendants.

We are pleased with the courts decision. We will continue our due diligence before any final decision is made regarding the artworks, the university said in a statement released to the Post-Tribune.

Thode also gave Brockington and Brauer 10 days to amend their complaint against Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, who also was named in the lawsuit.

The court determined Mr. Brockington and Mr. Brauer cannot sue the university, but he left open a suit against the attorney general. Our side will need to decide if we need judicial relief, or need to closely monitor the AGs process of determining whether the trust allows the auction, McEuen added.

We believe it does not, but whether there is any way to enforce that in court is the question.

He added that there is an appeal option, and he will be discussing all of the options for an appeal with his clients.

Thode held a hearing on the case on Sept. 27 and took the matter under advisement.

Im disappointed and not surprised, though I had not expected the judge to have taken this long to come to a decision so I assume the issue was complicated. It remains so for me, said John Ruff, a senior research professor in English at VU and longtime supporter of the museum, as well as a close associate of Brauer and Brockington.

In the hearing prior to the one with Judge Thode, a representative for the Attorney Generals Office stated clearly that the Attorney Generals Office does have standing, so the question remains if and how the Office of Consumer Protection will act on what appears to be a violation of a charitable trust.

Brauer, too, is pinning his hopes on the Attorney Generals Office, and said many people against the sale have been sending letters to Rokitas office, at McEuens behest, to lay out why the artwork should remain at the museum.

He has threatened to remove his name from the museum if the sale goes forward.

I feel that we hopefully have made a strong case that this would be a terrible thing to do and a terrible example for museums, Brauer said, adding he hopes Rokitas office comes to the conclusion that selling the paintings would be a breach of the trust.

Brauer and Brockington filed the lawsuit in late April against Padilla, the university and Rokita. In turn, Padilla, the university and Rokitas office asked for the lawsuit to be dismissed, claiming that Brauer and Brockington dont have standing in the case to file the lawsuit.

The lawsuit argues that Brauer and Brockington have standing to challenge the sale because of Brauers longtime association with the museum and personal stake in it, and because of an endowment for the museum established by Brockington to acquire, restore, and preserve works of art and artifacts for the museum.

Padilla first announced the possible sale of three renowned works of art to fund the dorm renovations in early February. The paintings are considered cornerstones of the museums collection and have an estimated worth of millions of dollars. They are Rust Red Hills by Georgia OKeeffe; Childe Hassams The Silver Veil and the Golden Gate; and Frederic Edwin Churchs Mountain Landscape.

The OKeeffe and Hassam paintings were purchased through the Percy Sloan Trust; Churchs work was a direct gift from Sloan.

The projected cost of renovating Brandt Hall and Wehrenberg Hall for first-year students is approximately $8 million, a university spokesman has said.

In mid-September, Padilla announced that, given the court case, the paintings had been removed to a safe, secure location for the time being.

The announcement, first reported in the Post-Tribune, set off a firestorm of criticism from students, alumni, faculty and the art world and included a wide range of concerns, from possible sanctions against the museum by the nations art museum associations to the loss of donations for fear that the university would not respect donors wishes, as well as the violation of the trust that provided for the artwork to begin with.

alavalley@chicagotribune.com
Bryan Kohberger lost a long-shot bid to get the murder case against him totally dismissed on Thursday, with a judge calling his defense teams arguments creative, but ultimately unconvincing.

Kohberger, 28, faces four counts of murder and one count of felony burglary in connection to the November stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students. He was arrested late the next month, and had a not guilty plea entered on his behalf in May after he chose to stand silent. He waived his right to a speedy trial in August, indefinitely deferring a trial that otherwise would have started on Oct. 2.

The former criminology student returned to court on Thursday for two hearings on separate motions to dismiss filed in August by his legal team, who cited grand jury bias, inadmissible and insufficient evidence, and prosecutorial misconduct by withholding exculpatory evidence.

Presumption of Innocence: Family Stands by Idaho Slay Suspect

The first hearing earlier in the day was held behind closed doors, and it was unclear how the judge ruled on the defenses arguments surrounding several alleged legal flaws related to the grand jury indictment, according to The Lawton Constitution.

Then, in a 40-minute hearing on Thursday afternoon, Kohbergers attorneys tried a new tactic, asking the court to throw the indictment out or remand the case back to a preliminary hearing. They argued that the grand jury was misled, having been told to find sufficient probable cause for an indictment. Instead, they said, the higher burden of proof known as beyond a reasonable doubt should have been used as the threshold for the indictment.

Judge John Judge said that precedent suggested otherwise, with the Idaho Supreme Court having repeatedly upheld the lesser standard of proof for grand juries over the past century. I appreciate the argument. I think its really creative and I appreciate the journey back through history, Judge said, according to The Constitution.

Detached Suspect in Idaho Murders Studied Under Famed Criminologist

The judge also made a surprise ruling to continue to allow cameras into the courtroom, a move that has been opposed by both Kohbergers attorneys and the prosecution. Members of the media and at least two of the victims families have continued to push for their presence.

In a statement to the Idaho Statesman, an attorney representing the family of victim Kaylee Goncalves insisted that it was vitally important that the trial be viewed publicly! It is important to the victims family, relatives, community members and the public that this veil of secrecy be lifted at trial.

This not only ensures accountability for all the parties involved, the statement continued, but also helps the public maintain its faith in the justice system!

On Thursday, according to the Statesman, Judge told the court, Im not going to ban cameras in the courtroom, but I need more control over what cameras are doing. I know I can only control so much, and thats why I continue to urge people to be patient and have some dignity and some restraint.

Idaho Murders Suspect Appears Stony-Faced in Court

He did not elaborate on how he plans to exercise more control over cameras in the room, but he previously warned members of the media about training their lenses directly on either Kohberger, his lawyers, or the prosecution. If you do that, youre probably going to have to leave the courtroom, he said in September.

Judge acknowledged Thursday that the presence of cameras was a benefit and also potentially a harm to fair legal proceedings. It can tilt a case one way or the other if the media is, well, trying the case in the media, he explained, according to the Associated Press.

And we dont want that because thats not based on evidence, thats not based on the rules of the court and it can get out of control.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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The New York judge presiding over Donald Trump's $250 million civil fraud trial has ordered the former president's daughter, Ivanka Trump, to testify in the case, NBC News reports. Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron said Friday that she could not be called as a witness prior to Nov. 1, which would give her time to appeal the decision if she so chooses.

Trump attorneys challenged New York Attorney General Letitia James' subpoena to Ivanka Trump, pointing out that an appeals court ruled earlier this year that she should be dropped as a defendant in the case over issues with the statute of limitations. They accused James' office of attempting to "continue to harass and burden President Trumps daughter long after" the appeals court "mandated she be dismissed from the case." They also argued that the attorney general waited too long to issue the subpoena, claiming that the office does not have that authority over her because she is no longer a New York resident.

The attorney general's office refuted those points and contended that Ivanka Trump, a former White House official, still has important information pertinent to their case as she is "financially and professionally intertwined with the Trump Organization" and the other defendants, which includes her brothers, Eric and Don Jr. She "does not seem to be averse to her involvement in the family business when it comes to owning and collecting proceeds from the OPO (hotel) sale, the Trump Organization purchasing insurance for her and her companies, managing her household staff and credit card bills, renting her apartment or even paying her legal fees in this action," James wrote in the filing. "It is only when she is tasked with answering for that involvement that she disclaims any connection."
MEMPHIS, Tenn.  Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Lee Coffee is removing himself from the case for the suspects accused of killing Memphis rapper Young Dolph .

Trial for Young Dolph murder set to begin in 2024

An order issued Friday states that Coffees courtroom hereby removes itself from conducting any further proceedings pertaining to the cases of Justin Johnson, Cornelius Smith, Hernandez Govan, and Jermarcus Johnson.

The case will be sent to the Criminal Court Clerk to be reassigned. According to the order, on September 28, an appeals court reversed Coffees initial decision to reject a motion for recusal.

Trial for alleged mastermind in Young Dolph death not happening soon, judge says

In July, Coffee set a trial date for Smith and Justin Johnson. That trial is set to begin on March 11, 2024. Both are charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, and theft of property.

Jermarcus Johnson pleaded guilty to three counts of being an accessory after the fact in June and was released on bond. Prosecuting attorney Paul Hagerman said Jermacus Johnson was involved in Young Dolphs shooting or in the planning beforehand.

Govan is facing conspiracy charges in Dolphs death. Govan is accused of hiring Justin Johnson and Smith to kill him. In September, Coffee said hes not anticipating Govans trial to begin soon.

Read more on the death of Young Dolph

Young Dolph, whose real name was Adolph Thornton Jr., was shot to death at Makedas Cookies in Memphis on November 17, 2021.

Justin Johnson and Smith were captured in January 2022. Johnson was arrested in Indiana, while Smith was arrested in Southaven, Mississippi, on an auto theft warrant that involved the vehicle believed to be involved in Dolphs murder.

Govan was indicted in November 2022, nearly one year to the day of Dolphs death. He was taken into custody days later. Jermarcus Johnson turned in to law enforcement in November 2022.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com.
Students at Turpin High School walk out of class in protest of the cancelation of "Diversity Day," on May 18, 2022.

A lawsuit that seeks to stop the Forest Hills School District from enforcing a resolution banning discussion of issues like race and identity can proceed despite the district's attempt to dismiss it, a judge ruled Thursday. The next court date has yet to be set.

The order from U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio Judge Michael Barrett is a win for community members who say the resolution is infringing upon their First Amendment rights. It is not supposed to be enforced during litigation.

Nicole Lundrigan, one of the lawyers representing parents and students in the case, said the judge's decision "confirms the harm suffered by our clients and the rest of our school community as a result of this resolution."

The school board wrote it "intends to defend the Resolution vigorously" following Barrett's decision, "and looks forward to the opportunity to present its case to the court."

Board member Leslie Rasmussen said the board's statement doesn't represent her and suggested rescinding the resolution.

More: State Rep. Rachel Baker says Forest Hills board won't meet with her since she's a Democrat

The school board passed what they called the "culture of kindness" resolution in June 2022. Members of the community sued the district over the resolution days later, saying it targets students of color and LGBTQ+ students, and makes them feel unwelcome and alienated.

Rather than promoting kindness, the lawsuit says, the board's resolution "promotes hatred, racism and discrimination" and "robs students of information, ideas, and instructional approaches" that courts have previously deemed essential to the "preservation of this country's democracy."

"By prohibiting education, curriculum, and training regarding 'anti-racism,' the resolution instead promotes racism by its very definition," the lawsuit reads.

Barrett also went against the school board's claim that the resolution is a "vision statement" rather than a policy. He wrote that argument "defies logic and the basic conventions of the English language," since the resolution uses words that can only be interpreted as mandatory.

Forest Hills serves more than 7,000 students in Anderson Township, an eastern suburb of Cincinnati. About 85% of the district's students are white, according to state data.

The cost of controversy: Here's how much money local schools spent on legal fees last year

Read Judge Barrett's order

Oct. 26 order in Forest Hills case

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Lawsuit against Ohio school board's discussion ban goes forward
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN)  Its almost been a year since the Taylor Swift Ticketmaster concert ticket meltdown, and since then, there have been some efforts to crack down on concert ticket pricing and transparency.

Nationally, the Biden Administration recently announced efforts to crack down on hidden or misleading fees. In Tennessee, state lawmakers passed a ticket transparency law requiring online ticket sellers to make sure the final price of a ticket is being presented upfront.

These are both efforts to limit so-called junk fees.

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I like to think of a junk fee as an annoying fee. Thats a surprising fee. That when you started to make a transaction or search for goods, you didnt know that there was such a fee, explained Mary Sullivan, former Federal Trade Commission economist and George Washington University visiting scholar.

Sullivan has been studying junk fees for years and has found awareness of these hidden surcharges doesnt prevent consumers from paying them.

Its hard because youve already invested time in searching for this product.in starting to buy the product. And you realize that if you go back and drop this, youre going to have to go through this whole search process, she said.

But not everyone thinks doing away with these fees should be a legislative priority.

When Im in Tennessee, the economy is whats at the top of the list of things that people are talking about, they arent talking about junk fees, said U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Ten.) during a Senate hearing over the summer. They really dont want to hear bureaucrats in Washington, our legislators, discussing resort fees, and food delivery fees for DoorDash or Uber Eats.

During the hearing, Blackburn also said she was concerned about how any government intervention in this space would hurt businesses.

Read the latest from the TN State Capitol Newsroom

The way many Tennesseans look at it is this is another way for the FTC, the CFPBand all these regulators to clamp down on businesses and try to micro-manage businesses. Now, are these fees annoying? Absolutely they are. Should companies be more transparent in how they bring the fees forward? And absolutely, they should do that. And consumers themselves should be more willing to walk away, she said.

Sullivan didnt agree with many of Blackburns points, but said she does also worry about over-regulation. Some regulations are necessary. But if you burden businesses too much with regulations, it increases their costs because of their cost of compliance and so on.

However, despite more attention on junk fees and a new state law on price transparency, they still pop up when people are shopping for tickets or looking for hotels.

On Friday, state Sen. Heidi Campbell (D-Davidson County), who sponsored the ticket transparency legislation, sent Attorney General Skrimetti a letter asking for increased enforcement of this law.

It has come to our attention through numerous complaints we have received from ticket purchasers across the state, as well through recent media reports, that there are ticket sellers who are blatantly not abiding by the new law. We respectfully ask you and your office to enforce the law and would like to know when you plan to do so, Campbell wrote.

 Read todays top stories on wkrn.com

Sullivan said enforcement of these laws is difficult.

There have been studies, one in particular on online event tickets, where one of the companies, StubHub tried to have all-inclusive pricing, and they lost a lot of their market share. So they had to say, look, well do this, but you have to have across-the-board enforcement, she said.

Yet until that broad enforcement happens, consumers need to deal with some extra junk in their online shopping carts.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRN News 2.
VAN BUREN COUNTY, Mich. (FOX 2) - Residents of a Michigan city are outraged after a police officer shot and killed a deer known to frequent the area and interact with people.

Officer David Loza, with the Pokagon Band Tribal Police, shot and killed Annie while assisting Van Buren County Sheriff's deputies who were executing an unrelated warrant at a home in Lawrence Township on Oct. 20. Pokagon police say authorities consulted with the Michigan Department of Resources about the animal.

Residents say it happened because the officer thought the deer was domesticated. Witness video shows Annie walking around a group of police before the officer catches her with an animal control pole. Residents can be heard saying that the deer is not confined and roams the county.

The Pokagon Band Tribal Police terminated Loza on Friday, the department said in a statement.

"Mr. Loza ignored comments from citizens and misidentified Annie as a pet deer He acted independently and committed multiple police violations in his decision to euthanize Annie without just cause," said Police Chief Mario RedLegs. "The Pokagon Band Tribal Police will be working to identify ways we can demonstrate our support for animal rights."

(Photo: Amanda Beck)

According to residents, Annie's visits to the area began after she was found curled up next to a dead deer. The Lawrence Police Department, which was not assisting when Annie was killed because of jurisdiction, described the deer as "a wild animal with domesticated tendencies."

"Our police department did their best to protect both our citizens and 'Annie' during her visits to the Village of Lawrence," Lawrence Police Chief Paul Bianco said.

After Annie's killing, residents have flooded social media with photos and videos of the deer visiting their yards and letting them pet her. Annie's story has made its way beyond Lawrence and even the United States, and a "Justice for Annie" Facebook group has about 3,400 members who are calling for accountability and transparency.

An investigation is ongoing.
Vice President Kamala Harris lauded gun control laws in Australia where citizens do not have a legal right to gun ownership and where a mass gun confiscation took place in the 1990s, during a speech Thursday.

Harris said Australian gun laws proved that mass shootings do not have to be a regular occurrence, during her remarks delivered at a State Department luncheon earlier in the day with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Her comments came after a shooting in Lewiston, Maine, on Wednesday left at least 18 dead and more than a dozen injured.

"As we gather details, we must continue to speak truth about the moment we are in," Harris said. "In our country today, the leading cause of death of American children is gun violence. Gun violence has terrorized and traumatized so many of our communities in the United States."

"And let us be clear, it does not have to be this way  as our friends in Australia have demonstrated," she continued to applause.

KAMALA HARRIS ALLIES FURIOUS OVER DISRESPECT FROM DEMOCRATS: 'CUT THE BULLS---'

According to a brief on the Australian Parliament's official website, there is no legal right to gun ownership in Australia "in contrast to the position in the United States."

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In addition, Australian law requires individuals to prove they have a genuine reason for owning a firearm. Self-protection is not considered to be a genuine reason under that statute.

HOUSE REPUBLICANS PUSH TO CONDEMN NEW MEXICO GOV FOR 'BLATANTLY VIOLATING' SECOND AMENDMENT

Further, the nation's laws further mandate that individuals who purchase firearms must have a license and each firearm they own must each be individually registered. Such a requirement, according to the Australian Parliament brief, contrasts with New Zealand and Canada which require firearm purchasers to obtain a license, but allows them to freely purchase firearms after obtaining said license.

Australia's crackdown on firearm ownership came in 1996 following a spate of widely-publicized mass shootings. The so-called 1996 National Firearms Agreement banned automatic and semi-automatic firearms, introduced firearm registration, established stricter storage requirements for all firearms, and tightly restricted non-military style semi-automatic rifles and shotguns purchases.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during the conclusion of the Investing in America tour at Coppin State University in Baltimore, Maryland, on July 14, 2023.

The Australian government also initiated a mandatory gun buyback program that resulted in it collecting nearly 700,000 privately-owned firearms.

"In the end, we won the battle to change gun laws because there was majority support across Australia for banning certain weapons," former Australian Prime Minister John Howard wrote in a Newe York Times op-ed in 2013. "And today, there is a wide consensus that our 1996 reforms not only reduced the gun-related homicide rate, but also the suicide rate."

On Wednesday evening, suspect Robert Card opened fire in a Lewiston bowling alley before leaving and opening fire in a nearby restaurant, killing more than a dozen.

Card  a trained firearms instructor and petroleum supply specialist in the Army Reserve who has a history of mental health issues  remains at large as more than 350 law enforcement personnel from federal, state and local agencies continue to search for him.

The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.





Original article source: Kamala Harris praises gun laws in Australia which confiscated hundreds of thousands of guns
KANSAS CITY, Mo.  An AMBER Alert has been canceled in the Kansas City area Thursday night after a 1-year-old girl was found safe.

Kansas City police issued the alert after the child was taken in the area of 47th and Flora Avenue.

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MSHP says the owner of a white 2008 Saturn Vue was assaulted by two unknown Black women and the vehicle was then stolen with the child still inside.

The child was later located in Lees Summit, according to police, and is safe.

The investigation into the incident is ongoing.

View the latest Weather Alerts in the Kansas City region on FOX4

This is a developing story. FOX4 will update as more details become available.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports.
KANSAS CITY, Mo.  The Kansas City Royals, along with the Urban Youth Academy and the Heartland Black Chamber of Commerce, will be hosting Fall Bash 2023.

The event will be held on Saturday, Oct. 28 from 12-3 p.m. at the Urban Youth Academy.

FOX4 Sports: Read more Chiefs, Royals, Sporting, Current news

It will feature a petting zoo, pumpkin patch, free food boxes from Harvesters, flu shots by the University of Kansas Health System, food trucks, free hygiene bags and more.

All ages are welcome and there will also be a trunk-or-treat for kids and an opportunity to meet with educational services offered to area youth and adults.

There is also a softball tournament allowing small and large businesses to come together for friendly competition.

The event is free to the public.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports.
Kelly Clarkson will be Underneath the Tree this holiday season, literally.

The singer and daytime talk show star will host the annual tree lighting ceremony at Rockefeller Center, NBC announced Oct. 26.

It is a fitting honor, as Clarkson has two wildly popular Christmas albums and recently moved her titular talk show from Los Angeles to the iconic Rockefeller Center.

The two-hour live show will air on both NBC and Peacock on Nov. 29 at 8 p.m. ET/PT. (Peacock is owned by TODAY.com's parent company, NBCUniversal.)

Clarkson will also perform throughout the Christmas special, marking 20 years since her first Christmas in Rockefeller Center performance.

She will be joined by TODAYs Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb, Al Roker and Craig Melvin.

Im so excited to consider this city and Rockefeller Center my new home, and I cant imagine a better way to kick off Christmas this year than to be a part of this beautiful New York tradition with the lighting of the tree! Clarkson said in a statement released Oct. 26.

Clarkson has two Christmas albums  2013's Wrapped in Red and 2021's When Christmas Comes Around...  and has performed several times over the years at the annual ceremony. She also previously hosted a Christmas special on NBC in 2021.

Kelly Clarkson rehearses for

How to watch the Christmas tree lighting ceremony at Rockefeller Center

"Christmas in Rockefeller Center" will air on NBC stations across the country and live-stream on Peacock on Nov. 29 starting at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

Prior to the prime-time telecast, an additional live hour of the special will be broadcast on all NBC-owned stations and on numerous NBC affiliates nationwide, starting at 7 p.m. ET. Viewers should check their local listings.

The 7 p.m. special live hour will be hosted by Access Hollywood host Mario Lopez as well as NBC New York anchors Natalie Pasquarella and David Ushery.

A view of the Rockefeller Plaza ice skating rink with the annual Christmas tree (Roy Rochlin / Getty Images)

What is the history of the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center?

Rockefeller Center first put up a giant Christmas tree in 1931. The first official tree lighting ceremony was held in 1933 and the iconic outdoor ice skating rink opened in 1936. The first televised tree lighting aired in 1951 on The Kate Smith Show.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com
ATLANTA - Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp will convene a special session of the General Assembly after a federal judge ruled the state's congressional, state Senate and state House districts were drawn in a racially discriminatory manner.

The special session will be held on Nov. 29 for the revisions.

Click to open this PDF in a new window.

U.S. District Judge Steve Jones, in a 516-page order, also ordered the state to draw two new Black-majority districts in Georgias 56-member state Senate and five new Black-majority districts in its 180-member state House.

Jones ordered Georgias Republican majority General Assembly and governor to take action before Dec. 8, saying he wouldnt permit 2024 elections to go forward under the current maps. That would require a special session, as lawmakers arent scheduled to meet again until January.

Jones ruling follows a September trial in which the plaintiffs argued that Black voters are still fighting opposition from white voters and need federal help to get a fair shot, while the state argued court intervention on behalf of Black voters wasnt needed.

The move could shift one of Georgias 14 congressional seats from Republican to Democratic control. GOP lawmakers redrew the congressional map from an 8-6 Republican majority to a 9-5 Republican majority in 2021.

2022 Congressional Map

The Georgia case is part of a wave of litigation after the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year stood behind its interpretation of the Voting Rights Act, rejecting a challenge to the law by Alabama.

Courts in Alabama and Florida ruled recently that Republican-led legislatures had unfairly diluted the voting power of Black residents. Legal challenges to congressional districts are also ongoing in Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Mexico, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.

Orders to draw new legislative districts could narrow Republican majorities in the state House and Senate. But on their own, those changes are unlikely to lead to a Democratic takeover.

Jones wrote that he conducted a "thorough and sifting review" of the evidence in the case before concluding that Georgia violated the Voting Rights Act in enacting the current congressional and legislative maps.

He wrote that he "commends Georgia for the great strides that it has made to increase the political opportunities of Black voters in the 58 years" since that law was passed in 1965. But despite those gains, he determined that "in certain areas of the State, the political process is not equally open to Black voters."

But Jones noted that despite the fact that all the states population growth over the last decade was attributable to the minority population, the number of congressional and legislative districts with a Black majority remained the same.

That echoes a key contention of the plaintiffs, who argued repeatedly that the state added nearly 500,000 Black residents between 2010 and 2020 but drew no new Black-majority state Senate districts and only two additional Black-majority state House districts. They also said Georgia should have another Black majority congressional district.

The Associated Press' Jeff Amy contributed to this report.
Kendrick Lamar is getting his flowers after rerecording his Bad Blood verses on Taylor Swifts rerecorded album, 1989 (Taylors Version). Swift, who released her rerecorded album on Friday, went to social media to show love to Lamar.

Watching @kendricklamar create and record his verses on the Bad Blood remix was one of the most inspiring experiences of my life. I still look back on this collaboration with so much pride and gratitude, for the ways Kendrick elevated the song and the way he treats everyone around him, she wrote. The reality that Kendrick would go back in and re-record Bad Blood so that I could reclaim and own this work Im so proud of is surreal and bewildering to me.

Watching @kendricklamar create and record his verses on the Bad Blood remix was one of the most inspiring experiences of my life. I still look back on this collaboration with so much pride and gratitude, for the ways Kendrick elevated the song and the way he treats everyone pic.twitter.com/au2PNAjHfx  Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) October 27, 2023

1989 was first released in 2014.

I dont hate you, but I hate to critique, overrate you/ These beats of a dark heart, use basslines to replace you/ Take time and erase you, Lamar raps on the Bad Blood track.

In her social media post, Swift also showed a video of herself performing Bad Blood earlier this year on her Eras Tour.

Every time the crowds on The Eras Tour would chant his line you forgive, you forget, but you never let it go!, I smiled, she wrote.

Swifts rerecorded album also includes a few songs which were previously unreleased. The 33-year-old said these tracks are From the Vault, according to People. Swift has decided to rerecord six of her albums, BuzzFeed reported. 1989 (Taylors Version), is the fourth album she has rerecorded so far.

When Swift first released 1989 (Taylors Version), many people considered it to be her best work, the New York Daily News reported. Speaking with Howard Stern in 2017, Lamar reflected on making the original version with swift.

With this particular record, it was me just vibing and catching her lyrics, he said. I didnt want to get into her head too crazy. I just wanted to have my own inspiration and see where it took it. Fortunately, the vibe was right and it didnt take too many takes and we was really locked in on the chemistry and we really felt what was going on when I was in the booth.
A driver who fled the scene of a fatal car crash in Kent is being sought by police.

Officers were called to Wateringbury Road, East Malling, at 07:45 BST on Friday after a crash between a silver Vauxhall Astra and a grey Land Rover.

The passenger in the Vauxhall, a man in his 30s, died before he could be taken to hospital, Kent Police said.

The driver of the Vauxhall left before police arrived and inquiries to locate them are continuing.

A passenger in the Land Rover was taken to a London hospital with serious injuries.

Officers want to speak to anyone who witnesses the crash or who have dashcam footage of what happened.

Follow BBC South East on Facebook, on X, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.
Chemelot is a vast industrial park of petrochemical plants and research labs in the Netherlands. Inside one of its facilities, a group of companies is working to solve a thorny problem vexing the global chemicals industry: how to make one of the worlds most important compounds  ethylene  without pumping copious amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Ethylene is a key building block for many of the chemicals that go into everyday items, including diapers and detergent, fabrics and foams, mattresses and milk jugs, plastic bags, PVC pipes and even airplane wings. It is the most-used primary petrochemical in the world, accounting for about one-third of the industrys global consumption.

Today, making ethylene involves cracking apart the molecules in ethane or other hydrocarbons, which is done by burning huge amounts of fossil gas to heat giant furnaces to scorching temperatures. This step alone is responsible for 90 percent of the CO 2 emissions associated with ethylene plants.

At Chemelot, near the city of Geleen, the engineering firm Coolbrook is piloting a new kind of technology  one that uses only electricity to crack ethane. The European company recently began testing its electric-driven ethylene reactor, as part of a broader 12-million-euro ($12.7 million) initiative for decarbonizing industrial emissions. In September, Coolbrook successfully completed its first phase of large-scale testing at the site, using an electric heater that makes high-temperature process heat for chemical, cement and steel manufacturing.

We think this [electrified] technology can be one of the big game-changers in industrial decarbonization, especially in the sectors that have been considered hard-to-abate, Joonas Rauramo, CEO of Coolbrook, told Canary Media.

He said the company plans to connect its first commercial demonstration ethylene reactors to existing chemical plants in 2025, and to deliver its first industrial-scale heaters starting late next year.



Globally, ethylene production totals around 160 million metric tons per year, resulting in more than 260 million metric tons of annual CO 2 emissions. Thats roughly the climate equivalent of operating 70 U.S. coal-fired power plants for one year.

Coolbrooks electric cracker plant is among several high-profile initiatives that are seeking to clean up the most emissions-intensive part of ethylene production.

Shell and Dow, two major chemical manufacturers, are developing their own experimental unit to electrically heat steam-cracker furnaces. In June 2022, the companies announced they had begun operating their e-cracking furnace at a research campus in the heart of Amsterdam. Meanwhile, another chemical consortium  Linde, BASF and Sabic  is close to completing construction on a large-scale demonstration plant in Ludwigshafen, Germany.

In the United States, Houston-based LyondellBasell recently announced its plans to give e-crackers a try. In June, the chemical company signed an agreement with Chevron Phillips Chemical and Technip Energies to potentially design, construct and operate an electric-furnace demonstration unit, possibly at LyondellBasells Channelview site in Texas.

The companies behind all of these projects promise to deliver significant emissions reductions. If powered only by carbon-free energy, and lots of it, electric crackers could all but eliminate the carbon pollution that comes from burning gas to heat conventional furnaces.

Manufacturers are likely still years away from operating full-scale electric crackers. Switching to electricity will require spending significant sums not only to develop and prove out cutting-edge technologies but also to upgrade grid infrastructure and expand clean energy capacity in places where these facilities operate. Other approaches  such as installing carbon-capture equipment on conventional plants or burning clean hydrogen in lieu of gas to heat crackers  might prove to be more feasible in some cases, though both of those options are saddled with their own complications.

Despite the hurdles, the e-cracker concept is steadily gaining traction within the $5 trillion global chemical industry. As companies face growing regulatory and public pressure to achieve net-zero emissions  and as clean electricity becomes increasingly cheap in many places  electrifying steam crackers is emerging as one of the promising pathways for decarbonizing chemicals.

A few years ago, if you talked about electrification in a chemical-industry setting, pretty much nobody wouldve taken you seriously, said Dharik Mallapragada, a principal research scientist at the MIT Energy Initiative in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

But I think thats changed, he added. Theres been, if not an evolution, then an incremental appreciation toward electrification.

A step in the right direction

The push to electrify ethylene production is a critical step toward reducing the climate impacts of chemical manufacturing, which accounts for about 15 percent of global industrial CO 2 emissions every year. But e-crackers cant address the inconvenient reality that, in its current form, ethylene is fundamentally problematic for the environment.

First, ethane is primarily derived from fossil gas extraction or as a byproduct of petroleum refining. The fossil-based feedstock accounts for about one-third of ethylenes total life-cycle emissions when measured from the point of raw material extraction to the stage when ethylene leaves the production plant, according to a 2020 analysis commissioned by the American Chemistry Council.

Second, in addition to generating CO 2 emissions, the process of cracking ethane gas releases significant amounts of cancer-causing air pollutants, including benzene, butadiene and naphthalene. A 2021 ProPublica investigation found that, across the United States, emissions from two dozen BASF-owned ethylene plants exposed an estimated 1.5 million Americans to elevated cancer risks.

Pollution-reduction equipment, routine emissions monitoring and active government oversight can help reduce the risks that crackers pose to public health  assuming companies and regulators adopt such measures. When it comes to feedstocks, its also possible to replace fossil fuels with alternatives, such as biomass waste, algae or pyrolysis oil made from recycled plastic.

Yet even if ethylene crackers were equipped to the hilt with pollution controls and were only made using non-fossil feedstocks, that still wouldnt solve the third and perhaps biggest problem associated with the chemicals production: Plastics made from ethylene and other ingredients are clogging the worlds waterways at unprecedented levels. Toxic chemicals from plastics are increasingly entering water supplies and our bloodstreams. Unless countries drastically curb consumption, annual plastic use is projected to nearly double by 2050.

Experts say these key underlying issues dont necessarily undermine the case for electrifying ethylene production  especially if it means slashing emissions from existing facilities, many of which still have decades of operating life left. But they do illustrate the multilayered challenge of tackling an industry thats both highly polluting and integral to modern society.

Theres no simple trick for cleaning up ethylene, said Matteo Gazzani, an associate professor at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

Three big projects aiming to electrify ethylene

An ethylene plant can, at first glance, resemble a dystopian version of the Wizard of Ozs Emerald City, with rows of tall, skinny towers reaching up to the sky.

Ethane gas flows into each towering structure and moves through a tube, where its diluted with steam and pushed through a massive furnace. Temperatures can reach as high as 1,650 degrees Fahrenheit (900C), achieved by burning fossil fuels. The heat instantly cracks apart the molecular bonds in ethane to produce ethylene gas, which is then separated from co-products and piped into narrow distillation columns, where the ethylene is processed into resins for making plastics.

In the Netherlands, Coolbrook is working to replace this entire setup with its own design, which it calls a RotoDynamic Reactor.

Using this equipment, ethane or other gaseous feedstocks are first mixed with steam inside a turbomachine, a type of technology also used in jet engines and gas turbines. By spinning a rotor shaft at supersonic velocity, then slowing it down, Coolbrooks machine converts electrical energy into mechanical energy, then into thermal energy, which directly heats gas inside the reactor  reaching temperatures above 1,830F (1,000C). This creates the conditions needed to crack molecules to make ethylene.



The concept dates back to at least the 1990s, when a team of rocket engineers began exploring using turbomachines to generate high-temperature process heat for making petrochemicals. Coolbrook was formed in 2011 with the goal of developing an early prototype device into commercial-scale technology. The company is simultaneously working on the reactor and its RotoDynamic Heater, which uses a similar electricity-driven process to produce carbon-free high-temperature heat for industrial processes. Its partners in the projects include industrial heavyweights such as ABB, Linde Engineering, Shell, Cemex and ArcelorMittal.

Coolbrook claims its ethylene reactor can yield up to 20 percent more of the chemical when compared to traditional crackers that burn fossil gas to generate heat.

Rauramo, the companys CEO, said he predicts that efforts to electrify heavy industries will mirror the trajectory of renewable energy development: years of modest growth followed by a sharp and widespread increase in global adoption.

It may look slow in the beginning, he said. But when clean technologies are brought to the market, and people see that they actually operate and are reliable, that uptake will be much quicker than we anticipate today.

Elsewhere in the Netherlands, at the research campus in Amsterdam, Dow and Shell are testing a theoretical electrification model for retrofitting gas-fired ethylene crackers. In 2021, the companies received a 3.5-million-euro ($3.7 million) grant from the Netherlands government for a four-year research project, which also involves the Institute for Sustainable Process Technology and TNO, a Dutch nonprofit research organization.

The partners have two stated goals  to electrify Dow and Shells existing cracking furnaces, and to develop new breakthrough technologies for electric cracking  though they havent yet discussed many of the details publicly (and declined to speak for this story). The chemical companies have said theyre evaluating the construction of a multi-megawatt pilot plant that could start operations in 2025, should they secure enough investment support.



Meanwhile, in Germany, BASF, Sabic and Linde are nearly finished building a first-of-a-kind demonstration plant for a large-scale, electrically heated steam-cracker furnace. The facility at BASFs Verbund site is expected to process around 4 metric tons of hydrocarbons per hour and will require a total of 6 megawatts of renewable energy. Several thousand amps of electrical currents will flow through each of the nine new transformers, according to the companies.

The e-furnace project received 14.8 million euros ($15.6 million) from a German government program for decarbonizing heavy industries. The companies say theyll test two different heating concepts: direct and indirect heating. The former involves applying an electric current directly to process tubes inside the ethylene reactors; the latter involves applying currents to heating elements, which in turn warm the process tubes via radiative heat transfer.

This is a milestone towards electrifying one of the most energy-intensive production processes in the chemical industry, BASF said about the projects progress in a September news release.

Ramping up renewables to power e-crackers

As engineers work to make industrial-scale e-crackers a reality, renewable energy developers and grid operators must begin building gigawatts worth of new capacity and shoring up grid transmission systems to handle the influx of supplies and outside demand.

A typical ethylene plant produces around 1 million metric tons of the chemical every year. At that scale, an electric ethylene crackers rate of average energy consumption would be as much as 350 to 400 megawatts, said Mallapragada of the MIT Energy Initiative.

Electric ethylene crackers may wind up being more energy-intensive to operate than gas-burning counterparts, even if they generate far fewer emissions overall. One reason is that conventional crackers recycle the co-products of ethylene production  hydrogen and methane  back into the facility to generate heat used to power manufacturing processes. Electric plants produce the same co-products but cant harness their energy; instead, companies will have to capture and potentially sell the hydrogen and methane to other industries.

A final conundrum for e-cracker developers is that todays cracking furnaces generally operate around the clock. They often do so at maximum capacity, owing to the high investment costs of building crackers and the complexity of the ethylene production process. Wind and solar power, by contrast, are notably intermittent resources.

Chemical companies and grid operators could potentially decide to balance supply and demand by investing in energy storage solutions, such as batteries. However, installing enough storage capacity to meet the energy needs of steam crackers likely wont be technically or economically feasible, at least in the short term. Another idea is to operate electric crackers more flexibly, meaning that plant operators would ramp up their production at times when renewable electricity is most available and prices are relatively cheap.

Julia Tiggeloven, a doctoral student at Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, is using computer models to study how this more flexible approach could allow ethylene producers to benefit from variations in electricity prices, as well as avoid oversizing renewable power sources in their efforts to maintain the same yearly production of ethylene. This also has the added advantage of lessening the strain on the broader electrical system.

Routinely ramping ethylene plants up and down is technically complicated and isnt normally done. Still, e-cracker operators might be able to achieve greater emissions reductions and secure significant cost savings by operating facilities flexibly instead of constantly, said Tiggeloven, who was the lead author of a recent analysis published in the scientific journal Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research.

Mallapragada noted that future generations of technology  like those using electrochemical or plasma-driven processes  could make it possible to produce ethylene from various feedstocks at lower temperatures and use less energy, in turn enabling companies to operate plants more efficiently and flexibly. In the meantime, some companies are considering a hybrid electrification approach: gradually electrifying some steam-cracking furnaces while leaving other gas-fired systems in place until the grid can meet demand.

While electrifying ethylene involves a host of unique complications, it shares one key challenge with other heavy industries seeking to achieve net-zero emissions: the currently limited availability of renewables, Coolbrooks Rauramo observed.

When we talk seriously about the decarbonization of heavy industry, a great deal of investment needs to happen, regardless of the path that you choose, he said.


Vitelhomme Innocent ordered the kidnapping of two U.S. citizens in Haiti last year, one of whom was shot and killed in the process, according to federal prosecutors.

A federal indictment unsealed this week says Innocent kidnapped Jean and Marie Odette Franklin from their Haitian home last October. Gang members killed Marie at the scene, and Jean Franklin was released days later after his family paid a ransom, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office.

The 37-year-old gang leader was also named in a Haitian police report on the investigation into the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise. The report identified Innocent as one of the individuals who accompanied a former senator to rent vehicles for the plot. The politician, Joseph Joel John, pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges this month in Miami federal court.

Law enforcement agents and prosecutors believe he is in that Tabarre neighborhood, part of the territory his Kraze Barye (Destroy the Barrier) gang controls.

But, driving around South Florida recently, you may think federal agents are looking for him here. Thats because the FBI put up billboards all over the region asking for tips on Innocents whereabouts and offering a $1 million reward to those who provide information leading to his arrest.

Asked why, if agents believe Innocent is hiding in Haiti, they are putting up billboards and posters in Florida, FBI spokesman James Marshall told the Miami Herald that the campaign is based on a well-defined investigative strategy which we are not at liberty to discuss.

As with all of our investigations, we adjust and refine that strategy based on the results of ongoing leads, which include information we receive through public outreach, Marshall said. We appreciate the publics attention to our case and continue to encourage those with information, even if theyre not certain of its value, to come forward.

Marshall also pointed to a recent statement from Jeffrey Veltri, special agent in charge of the Miami field office, saying that the FBI is committed to finding Innocent wherever he is.

The indictment unsealed today demonstrates the FBIs commitment to follow the evidence wherever it leads and to work our way up to the leaders of criminal plots wherever they are, Veltri said. Neither time nor distance will weaken our resolve. We will use all tools available and go to the farthest reaches of the globe to bring to justice those who seek to harm Americans.

Vitelhomme faces additional U.S. charges related to what prosecutors say was his role in the kidnapping of 16 American citizens in the fall of 2021.
Homes and businesses in Lewiston and surrounding counties in Maine have closed their doors and the streets are almost devoid of people. It is an eerie and surreal scene as the hunt for the suspected gunman who killed 18 people continues with no sign of his current whereabouts  or even if he is dead or alive.

A sense of dread pervades the area and comes as various shelter-in-place orders remain in effect. Law enforcement patrol in armored vehicles; helicopters and drones buzz in the sky. The coast guard has searched the Kennebec River. And all in pursuit of 40-year-old Robert Card, named on Thursday as the murder suspect in eight of the killings with a further 10 charges sure to follow.

But Card remains a ghost in the story. On Thursday, the FBI confirmed it had searched a home in Lisbon, several miles from Lewiston, where Cards Subaru was found, and later a farm on Meadow Road in Bowdoin where the suspect had left a note. Its contents have not been disclosed.

Police surround a house in Bowdoin, Maine, as they search for the suspect on Thursday. Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

Late on Thursday, police appeared to be close to a breakthrough when they surrounded a farmhouse believed to be owned by a family member. But after several hours, they withdrew  but without notifying the public of their reasoning, or if they believed the US Army reservist had even been there since the shooting.

Earlier in the day, police had shouted through a megaphone: You need to come outside now with nothing in your hands. Your hands in the air.

The scene came days short of Halloween and three days after Maine was named as having the lowest rate of violent crime despite high local levels of gun ownership. Maine has one of the highest levels of gun ownership in the country and one of the lowest levels of gun crime in the country, Maine senator Angus King said on Thursday. Until last night.

But the state, which had just 29 homicides in 2022, is also facing criticism because it does not require permits to carry guns. In 2019, Maine passed a yellow flag, requiring police to seek a medical evaluation of anyone believed to be dangerous before trying to take their guns away.

Journalists in Lewiston, Maine, on Friday. Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

With the worlds media camped out on a meadow across from the farmhouse, the search for Card has been fluid. Police directed press to turn their camera lights off, and with helicopters and drones flying overhead, the scene has taken on the quality of a New England monster-loose-in-the-village tale of primal fear.

A component of that lies in Cards experience as an army reservist trained in survival skills. Its also been confirmed that hed been taken away by police for an evaluation in mid-July after commanders at the US Military Academy at West Point in New York, where he was training, became concerned about his behavior.

A bulletin sent out to police after the attack said Card had been committed to a mental health facility for two weeks after hearing voices and threats to shoot up a military base.

The urgency of the manhunt comes as the victims from the attack on a bowling alley, Just-in-Time Recreation (known locally by its former name, Sparetime), and Schemengees Bar in Lewiston have started to emerge.

They include Bob Violette, a 76-year-old bowling instructor; Joseph Walker, a bar manager at Schemengees who, according to his father, went after the gunman with a butcher knife; Michael Deslauriers II, who was bowling; Peyton Brewer-Ross, 40, an employee at Bath Iron Works; and Arthur Strout, a father of five, who was killed at Schemengees.

Lewiston, best known prior to Wednesday for hosting the May 1965 heavyweight bout between Muhammad Ali and Sonny Liston, now has a new and unenviable reputation  but one shared with many communities as the US endures its appalling plague of mass shootings.

Fears that Card could even have left Maine prompted Canadas border services to issue an armed and dangerous alert to officers on the Canada-US border. Maines largest city, Portland, 40 miles south of Lewiston, has closed its public buildings.

Extraordinary for the aftermath of a mass shooting  in this instance the worst in the US since the May 2022 Robb elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in which 19 students and two teachers were killed  the ongoing danger has prevented any prayer vigils for the dead and wounded from being held.

The Lewiston mass shooting is unusual, too  if anything about massing shootings can be considered usual  because suspects are typically found, dead or alive, almost immediately. It is also the 36th mass killing in the US this year, according to a database maintained by the Associated Press and USA Today.

But now Fridays manhunt promises to be much the same as Thursdays  area schools will be closed, a shelter-in-place order is still in effect, and Card remains the unwelcome specter at the center of the fear and grief gripping Lewiston.

The community is on edge because this kind of thing doesnt happen here, resident Heather Thurlow said. Its scary because this is tight-knit community. But with the region shut down, there were about to be other, pressing concerns as many fear to venture out into their new, closed-in and shut-down world.

People dont have food, Thurlow said.
Editors Note: This is a version of CNNs Royal News, a weekly dispatch bringing you the inside track on Britains royal family. Sign up here.

When King Charles III visits Kenya next week, hell do something no other member of his family has done in the country.

Thats because, in addition to the usual fare of state banquets and such, hes planning on acknowledging the more painful aspects of shared history between the United Kingdom and Kenya, according to Buckingham Palace.

The four-day visit starts Tuesday and comes as the country prepares to celebrate 60 years of independence from Britain. Charles will be joined by his wife, Queen Camilla.

The Mau Mau uprising  a violent period in which thousands were killed - pushed Kenya toward independence in 1963. It is seen as one of the most brutal episodes of Britains imperial past.

The rebellion against British colonialists in Kenya in the 1950s originated from the Kikuyu tribe, the countrys largest ethnic group. As the empire struggled to quell the insurgency in one of its most important colonies, it declared a state of emergency and detained as many as 160,000 Kenyans.

Its also estimated some 90,000 people in custody were tortured, maimed or killed, according to the Kenyan Human Rights Commission. The conditions were so bad that even Britains colonial-era attorney-general likened the detention of thousands in the squalid camps to Nazi Germany.

Next weeks royal visit will largely focus on the strong connection between the two countries.

Chris Fitzgerald, the Kings deputy private secretary, said next weeks trip would celebrate the close links between the British and Kenyan people in areas such as the creative arts, technology, enterprise, education, and innovation.

He added: The visit will also acknowledge the more painful aspects of the UK and Kenyas shared history, including the Emergency His Majesty will take time during the visit to deepen his understanding of the wrongs suffered in this period by the people of Kenya.

Days before the royal visit, elders of the Nandi community called for the UK to return the skull of a leader killed in 1905 by the British, Kenyas The Nation newspaper reported. The skull of Koitalel arap Samoei is believed to be in a UK museum. The elders are also demanding the return of other stolen cultural artefacts as well as compensation for the atrocities that took place against the Nandi community during colonial rule, the local media outlet reported.

Charles shaking hands with Kenyan president Jomo Kenyatta at his country home at Gatundi, near Nairobi, Kenya in 1971. - Keystone/Hulton Royals Collection/Getty Images

In 2013, following a years-long legal battle brought by a group of elderly Kenyans who said they were tortured during Britains rule, then-Foreign Secretary William Hague announced a 19.9 million (around $30 million) settlement between the British Government and more than 5,000 Kenyan claimants over human rights abuses, along with the construction of a memorial for victims of torture.

The British government sincerely regrets that these abuses took place and that they marred Kenyas progress towards independence. Torture and ill-treatment are abhorrent violations of human dignity which we unreservedly condemn, Hague said in a statement to the UK Parliament.

While the settlement recognized the suffering and injustice of the period, it fell short of accepting responsibility. We continue to deny liability on behalf of the Government and British taxpayers today for the actions of the colonial administration in respect of the claims, Hague added.

Ten years on, Charles will be greeted with a formal reception at the State House in Nairobi. He will engage in bilateral discussions with President William Ruto and other Kenyan government officials and participate in meetings with faith leaders, young individuals and entrepreneurs during his visit.

The trip also marks his first to a Commonwealth member nation during his reign.

Charles succeeded his mother as head of the organization  an association of independent states that emerged out of the ashes of the British Empire. Since 1969, Charles has visited 48 of the 56 Commonwealth countries, most recently Rwanda last year for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

While there, Charles recognized that the roots of our contemporary association run deep into the most painful period of our history and spoke of his personal sorrow at the suffering of so many, as I continue to deepen my own understanding of slaverys enduring impact.

He followed up those words this year when he expressed his support for research into the royal familys historical involvement in the slave trade.

Kenya holds a special place for the British royal family. In 1952, then-Princess Elizabeth was staying at Treetops Lodge in the Aberdares mountains when she found out her father had died, and she was to become Queen. Unfortunately, King Charles jam-packed schedule during the trip will not permit him to visit the poignant location.

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White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said Friday that the United Statess strikes on Iran proxies in Syria were made in self-defense.

Kirby spoke with ABCs Good Morning America on Friday morning after President Biden ordered U.S. military forces to carry out self-defense airstrikes on a weapons storage facility and an ammunition storage area used by Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its affiliated groups in eastern Syria.

The strike hit early Friday local time; U.S. and coalition forces have been attacked at least 19 times in the Middle East since last week.

Well, these strikes were very much done in self-defense. As you know, our forces and facilities had come under a range of attacks, rocket attacks, largely by these proxy groups, but theyre backed by Iran, in Iraq and in Syria, Kirby told ABC.

These strikes were in self-defense for our ability to protect ourselves and our troops. I mean, they went right at targets that were tied to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC. That is resourcing, funding, training, and making capable all these proxy groups. These two targets went right at their storage facilities, weapons facilities, that kind of thing, to try to get at their ability to do exactly that, he added.

The attacks against U.S. and coalition forces included four times in Syria and 12 times in Iraq  with three new attacks Thursday.

The U.S. has not provided evidence as to who is to blame for the assaults, which have consisted of a mix of one-way attack drones and rockets, but claims that Iran is behind them.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
WASHINGTON  The White House sees the election of House Speaker Mike Johnson as a new moment in which to, at least at the outset, work across the aisle, and it is beginning to assess whether its possible to cut a spending deal with him that avoids a government shutdown in three weeks, according to White House officials.

Were not going to pre-judge the new speakership on day two, an official said.

Officials said President Joe Biden , who does not know Johnson well, is first going to try to work with the new speaker to secure additional aid for Ukraine and Israel, as well as other domestic priorities. They said they need to wait and see what kind of speaker Johnson, R-La., intends to be before they commit to any larger legislative strategy.

At the same time, officials concede theres not much time to get to know him before the White House and Congress must agree on federal spending or face a government shutdown.

Its too early to know whether another short-term measure would be the solution to avoiding a shutdown, White House officials say. While it isnt the White Houses preferred path, officials arent ruling it out.

They said Biden will continue to press for any scenario that spares Americans the economic impact of a shutdown. Officials also said Biden will continue to push back against any Republican proposal that would cut spending below the levels Congress and the White House agreed to earlier this year to avoid a first-ever default.

While officials say its too soon to say what kind of working relationship Biden and Johnson will have, Biden moved quickly to connect with him.

This is a time for all of us to act responsibly, and to put the good of the American people and the everyday priorities of American families above any partisanship, Biden said in a statement after Johnson was elected Wednesday.

He then followed up with a phone call to congratulate Johnson and, according to the White House, pledge to work together to find common ground.

By Thursday, Johnson was headed to the White House at Bidens invitation to receive a classified briefing in the Situation Room about national security issues the Biden administration is asking Congress to fund in the coming weeks, including the wars in Ukraine and Israel.

Biden went to the Situation Room to meet with Johnson and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., before the briefing began. The briefing was led by national security adviser Jake Sullivan, Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young and White House Legislative Affairs Director Shuwanza Goff.

How Johnson will govern remains a big unknown in both parties. Top Democrats say theyve never dealt with him. Many senators in both parties say theyve never even met him.

There is some hope among Democrats that in this coming round of spending negotiations, Johnson is in somewhat of a honeymoon period in which Republicans are willing to give him flexibility to operate  flexibility many didnt give Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.

Ive made a commitment to my colleagues here that this speakers office is going to be known for members being more involved and having more influence in our processes, Johnson said after he was elected. My office is going to be known for trust and transparency and accountability.

Johnson has pitched a short-term bill to keep funds flowing until Jan. 15 or April 15, depending on what colleagues prefer, while they continue to work on individual appropriations bills. And some of the far-right Republicans who evicted McCarthy for passing a short-term bill say they will give Johnson some latitude.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., said shes still reviewing Johnsons government funding plan but emphasized that she trusts him.

I have great faith in our new speaker to do the right thing, she said. And I know that hes very much so focused on being a fiscal conservative, which we need more of in Washington."

Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz., said he believes Johnson has the desire and the ability to avert a shutdown.

I do, he said. Thats what hes saying. And I take him at his word.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
CHICAGO  More than 19,000 migrants have arrived in Chicago since the first two buses sent by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott arrived at Union Station on Aug. 31, 2022. What began as a political stunt by Abbott to draw attention to strained resources in border cities handling surging numbers of migrants has ballooned into a full-blown crisis.

Southern border governments and charities are sending migrants on bus and train to Chicago and other immigration-friendly U.S. interior cities that have no clear plan to care for them.

Though Chicago has created more than two dozen temporary shelters across the city to house migrants in abandoned buildings, there are still thousands sleeping on the floors of police stations or outside of them  and hundreds at OHare International Airport. The migrants, most from Venezuela, often dont have family or connections here, and many come with little or nothing. City and state offices offering social services are overwhelmed.

Experts say there are no parallels to Abbotts busing program in recent years. According to an Oct. 9, 2023, report from Abbotts office, hes sent over 13,500 migrants to Chicago on charter buses since August 2022 as part of his 2021 border security initiative Operation Lone Star.

And while the busing has cost Abbott millions of dollars, its changing the national conversation about immigration, as governments that have never had to grapple with the strain of mass migration are now forced to face migrants congregating in public parks, begging at grocery store entrances and loitering on street corners. The result is a more universal plea for organization and aid at a federal level  from interior and border cities alike.

Minal Giri, chair of the Immigrant Child Health Initiative at the Illinois Chapter at the American Academy of Pediatrics, said people are fleeing harm and trudging through jungles, which will have long-lasting implications on their mental and physical health. Many migrants coming to Chicago are families with children.

The kids are the ones who suffer the most because they cant advocate for themselves, she said. Theyre playing in the streets, living in the streets.

What does it mean to be a welcoming city?

Chicago is a sanctuary city, which means city employees can avoid enforcing federal immigration laws.

The citys sanctuary status began under its first Black mayor, Harold Washington, whose Dont Ask policy in 1985 banned city officials from inquiring about citizenship. Mayors have since expanded protections, and state laws have also been enacted to protect immigrants. Gov. J.B. Pritzker has repeatedly said he wants Illinois to be the most welcoming state in the country.

Abbott began sending migrants north as a criticism to President Joe Bidens immigration policies, arguing that liberal Northern cities that profess to be sanctuaries should welcome them.

Texas communities ... should not have to shoulder the unprecedented surge of illegal immigration caused by President Bidens reckless open border policies. I have directed the Texas Division of Emergency Management to deploy additional buses to send these migrants to self-declared sanctuary cities and provide much-needed relief to our overrun border towns, Abbott said at the time. Until President Biden upholds his constitutional duty to secure Americas southern border, Texas will continue to deploy as many buses as needed to relieve the strain caused by the surge of illegal crossings.

Abbott also sent migrants to Denver and New York, which have dealt with their population differently. New York has limited the amount of time migrant families with children can stay in city shelters, and Denver has bought one-way Greyhound and Amtrak tickets for migrants to get to their final destinations, including Chicago.

Why are migrants coming to the U.S.?

In recent years, record numbers of people are trekking from South America to the United States  across a dangerous jungle known as the Darien Gap.

Soledad Alvarez Velasco, a social anthropologist and human geographer at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said the number of people traversing to the U.S. continues to grow, due mainly to unprecedented levels of unemployment following the pandemic, crime and climate change.

Its a new situation in terms of migration. Its not a war, but its a forced displacement, she said.

Laura Cruz-Acosta, strategic communications director for the city of El Paso, Texas, one of the largest border cities in the nation, said El Paso experienced two surges of Venezuelan migrants at the beginning of this year and last. What distinguishes Venezuelan migrants from other refugees, she said, is their lack of resources and often their absence of familial ties in the United States.

Though migrants come from other Central and South American countries, most migrants arriving in Chicago are from Venezuela  a country that used to have a vibrant economy, according to Michelle Ellner, Latin America campaign coordinator of the nonprofit CODEPINK.

Venezuelans are not used to migrating. Theyre used to, on the contrary, receiving people, she said.

Experts point to Venezuelas plunging oil prices and the leadership of far-left President Nicolas Maduro as reasons for the mass migration of 7.3 million people, the second-largest internal displacement crisis in the world. After Maduro took office in 2013 and Venezuelas economy declined sharply shortly thereafter, citizens became more reliant on welfare assistance from the government like monthly food handouts.

Migrants who have arrived in Chicago say they couldnt make more than $25 a week in their country of origin. Many Venezuelans have fled to surrounding countries, but thousands make their way to the United States, seeking economic opportunities.

Maduros social programs  funded in the past by oil revenues  have been cut by unilateral sanctions by the United States over nearly two decades, according to a report by United Nations Special Rapporteur Alena Douhan. The U.S. imposed harsh sanctions on Venezuela following Maduros 2018 reelection, which many Western governments didnt regard as legitimate.

The United States in October 2023 agreed to ease some sanctions on Venezuela, which some hope will stabilize the country and the economy. But the series of harsh sanctions have led to a devastating effect on social programs serving the entire population, said Adrienne Pine, an anthropologist and professor at California Institute of Integral Studies.

If you look at the statistics themselves, it becomes abundantly clear that Venezuela only starts to be a net out-migration country in the year following the implementation of the sanctions, Pine said.

Why are migrants coming to Chicago?

Migrants are people who have left their countries of origin by choice in search of a better opportunity, while immigrants are people who leave a country with the intention of taking up permanent residence. Most migrants arriving in Chicago are asylum-seekers, or people in search of protection due to dangers in their home country.

The U.S. government currently allows up to 30,000 qualifying individuals per month  from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela  to come to the United States for a period of two years.

Some migrants arrive illegally, crossing between border entry points. Migrants who arrive legally  by scheduling an appointment through an official mobile application used by Customs and Border Protection to inspect and document arrivals and departures in the United States  enter shelter systems in border cities. They often have little knowledge about where they are or where they should go.

Those who can will connect with family in the United States, but many decide to relocate to cities in the U.S. because of social media or by word-of-mouth from people who have already arrived. Government-funded shelters, faith-based groups or nonprofit organizations in border cities will often help them arrange and plan transportation to their destinations.

Many arriving in Chicago say they came because they heard it was easier to work here and people were receiving benefits and shelter space.

Migrants arent just coming to Chicago on chartered buses. Theyre also being sent on sponsored tickets from Denver and planes by Catholic Charities in San Antonio, while some arrive to the city after pooling their own resources, hearing Chicago is friendlier than other cities.

What happened in the early days of the crisis?

In late August 2022, after learning that the first bus was about to arrive, then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot promised to find shelter for and take care of incoming migrants. But no one could have predicted just how much migrants would strain Chicagos infrastructure and resources.

At various times over the first year, the crisis led to conflict between the city and state about lack of funding. There have been repeated calls for more federal resources.

In the first days of busing, facing steadily increasing numbers of migrants, Chicago had trouble finding workers to staff city-run shelters, especially for overnight shifts. Lightfoot immediately piggybacked off a contract the state signed during the COVID-19 pandemic with an out-of-state company called Favorite Staffing.

And as numbers of migrants climbed, the city opened more shelters  some in historically disinvested neighborhoods, raising pushback from residents. Though the number of migrants arriving in Chicago slowed through the winter, in January 2023 the first migrants began to sleep on the floors at police stations as city shelters had run out of space.

What is Mayor Brandon Johnson doing?

Mayor Brandon Johnson was sworn into office in May 2023 and inherited a quickly thrown-together shelter system about to experience another surge. The city was facing another large increase in migrants, many staying in police stations waiting for shelter placement.

Though migrants have come in waves over the first year, numbers of migrants have increased substantially in Chicago throughout 2023  with Gov. Abbott threatening to send 20 to 25 buses a day in October 2023 and new shelters popping up around the city almost weekly.

Johnsons administration immediately extended the citys contract with the vendor Favorite Staffing.

A recent Tribune investigation into the company revealed its high price and overworked staff, and the current administration said it hoped to move away from the expensive contract and hire locally. But on Oct. 23, 2023, Johnsons administration renewed the controversial contract and signed a $40 million extension through October 2024.

The city estimates that costs associated with migrants since August 2022 could reach above $360 million by the end of 2023.

Meanwhile, mutual aid networks have stepped in to help feed, clothe and provide resources to migrants staying at police stations.

Faith-based groups are also pooling their resources. But no volunteers are currently allowed inside city-run shelters, and questions remain about what will happen as winter approaches and thousands of migrants with no place to go are now sleeping outside.

Johnsons 2024 budget includes only $150 million in funding for migrants, less than half of what likely will have been spent on migrant assistance over the past year. And with colder months ahead, the mayor is moving forward with plans to put up winterized base camps across the city under a nearly $30 million contract with GardaWorld Federal Services and its subsidiary Aegis Defense Services.

The city hasnt provided concrete details on those plans.

What is temporary protected status, and why is it important?

Almost all migrants who have come to Chicago over the past year have one goal  to work. But many arent legally able to.

So they scrounge for what they can find, trusting strangers who pick them up from police stations and shelters to bring them to construction sites where they spend their days painting or roofing.

In late September 2023, in response to pressure from officials in Chicago and elsewhere, the Biden administration allowed nearly 500,000 Venezuelans to be able to apply for temporary work permits, which in theory will help migrants be self-sufficient and move out of shelters.

And while many immigration advocates cheered the decision, those working with migrants on the ground pointed out some serious obstacles.

Yanira Arias, national campaigns manager for Alianza Americas, a Chicago-based transnational organization rooted in Latino immigrant communities in the United States, said temporary protected status applications, which migrants must fill out to apply for the work permits, are long and expensive. Temporary status allows migrants with unsafe conditions in their countries of origin to reside and work legally in the United States.

But just one application asks for pages of documentation. In addition to filling out the temporary protected status application, a work authorization application for an adult costs more than $400. Migrants need to visit a local immigration field office to provide biometrics, which costs another $85.

Migrants who cant afford the application can request a fee waiver, and some organizations have initiatives that help provide funding for migrants who demonstrate they cant pay the hefty fees.

The next step for community-based organization is to figure out how to make sure everyone can access a work permit. This is the hope of many Venezuelans in Chicago. They want to work. They want to have a permit to work, Arias said.

Where does Chicago stand now?

In early October, President Biden announced he would resume deportation flights to Venezuela. The federal government had not been deporting people to Venezuela because of severed ties with the South American countrys government.

The first deportation flight from Texas to Caracas, the capital city of Venezuela, happened about two weeks later. The flights will prioritize criminals or people who just came across the border illegally. They will also be for Venezuelans who lost their asylum bids and were given final removal orders.

State and local officials say it is too early to tell how the deportation flights will affect the migrant population in Chicago and Illinois.

El Paso Communications Director Laura Cruz-Acosta said she has seen a decline in migrants crossing at the border since that federal policy was passed. But there are still thousands of migrants just on the other side of the border waiting to cross, said Beatriz Ponce de Leon, Chicagos deputy mayor of immigrant, migrant and refugee rights, on a phone call with the Tribune from a trip to El Paso with a delegation from Mayor Johnsons team.

Its a very temporary law. We dont know when numbers will start growing again, she said.

Meanwhile, in Chicago, social services are buckling under increasing numbers of migrants.

Hundreds of migrants from Venezuela line up outside the Illinois Department of Human Services office in Sauganash most weekdays, hoping to be seen by the program serving foreign-born victims of trafficking, torture, or other serious crimes, known as the VTTC. The program provides migrants access to food, cash and medical benefits, but state officials have told the Tribune it wasnt meant for this many people.

The Resurrection Project, a nonprofit organization in Pilsen that helps defend immigrant rights, has the same staff they did before numbers of migrants increased.

Theres now a lot of people who are interested in applying for or need to apply for immigration benefits, on top of all of the other people who already live here who need legal assistance, said Katherine Greenslade, director of the immigrant justice legal clinic at The Resurrection Project.

Greenslade said the immigration process is especially difficult for migrants who live in temporary shelters and dont have a permanent address to receive follow-up documents.

Keith South, immigration attorney and founder of Southam Law LLC, said the asylum process can take years. It is so confusing and bureaucratic that some migrants avoid applying for asylum altogether.

And so one thing Im seeing with a lot of these Venezuelan migrants is theyre not touching the whole process at all, Southam said. And theres so many of them that theres no way to enforce it.

The city has pointed to resettlement as their long-term solution to addressing the crisis, with a government assistance program covering up to six months of housing costs for migrants staying in city-run shelters. But Chicago has resettled just over 5,500 migrants since December, and more than three times that amount have arrived since last year.

How can Chicagoans help?

Karina Ayala-Bermejo, president and CEO of Instituto del Progreso Latino, said the nonprofit is asking Chicagoans for drop-off donations of new or unused clothes and essential items in front of their building, 2555 S. Blue Island Ave. She suggested residents can also donate to the organizations Rapid Response Wish List on Amazon or on its website.

New Life Centers, which helps families move into their new apartments with money from the state, is accepting gently used furniture to the Chicago Furniture Bank. Furniture can be dropped off at the bank, 4801 S. Whipple St., or arrangements can be made for furniture to be picked up.

Cradles to Crayons Chicago is also partnering with New Life Centers to provide clothing and essential items to new arrivals. There are multiple drop-off locations around the city.

One Warm Coat is leading drives to collect gently worn coats and outerwear  hats, earmuffs, gloves, mittens, scarfs  to migrant sleeping outside in the winter. President and CEO of One Warm Coat Beth Amodio encourages people to register to hold their own coat drive at their workplace, place of worship, neighborhood school and more, or provide a monetary donation.

To support the Greater Chicago Food Depositorys efforts to provide meals at shelters, people can also donate to their food bank.

There are a number of mutual aid organizations listed on the citys website, for those who want to be more directly involved in volunteer efforts. Ayala-Bermejo said there is an especially high need for people who can provide health care support.

All of us need to be ready to go to maximize our coordination. All of us can figure out a way to be a part of the solution to this, she said.

____
Ever since the recent Israeli attack, there have been grumblings about whats rumor vs. what is real. From funding issues to firepower, to the size of those in question, the rest of the world has been wondering just what is true about the terrorist group, Hamas. And in one of the most terrifying, yet intriguing questions of all comes with underground Hamas tunnels. Drug tunnels, attack tunnels, smuggling tunnels, Terror Tunnels, call them what you will  there are many sources who claim the Palestinian group has a series of access points beneath the Earths surface.

But is it true? Or just a big rumor? According to Israeli forces, including those who have toured them personally, its 100% true. Whats more, there arent just a few tunnels, but a web of intricate tunnels that lead multiple directions and span a vast amount of ground.

How deep are Hamas tunnels?

Reportedly, the tunnels run from beneath the Gaza Strip into Israel and even Egypt. They are said to be as deep as 165 feet, leaving plenty of space for walking upright. As soldiers breach the surface, however, they must resort to crouching or crawling with less available height space.

A map showing known layouts of Hamas tunnels.

Known as the Gaza Metro, the tunnels have lights powered by electricity, and the walls are reinforced by concrete. Whats even more impressive is that the tunnels were most likely made without large machinery. Gaza is a small location, and doesnt own extensive equipment; its highly unlikely that countries on the other side would have commissioned the digging, either.

In total, Hamas has claimed more than 300 miles of tunnels, making it roughly half the size of New York Citys tunnel system. Remember, that the Gaza Strip is only 140.9 square miles. Even Israeli professors have been quoted on the tunnel system, stating that it is both expansive and intricate. The underground tunnels have been in place since 2007 when Hamas took control of the territory . They have used the position to launch several attacks.

Critics have said the tunnels expenses were better spent on bomb shelters or resources for Gaza citizens. Further, Israel alleges that the concrete used to enforce the tunnels was intended for humanitarian projects. However, this is just one more issue on which the two sides disagree.

A man lowers himself into a Hamas tunnel circa 2014.

In any case, both Hamas and Israel agree that the tunnels exist. The former has yet to release why they made such an intricate system, though its likely a combination of reasons, including ease of travel, hostage housing (including the ability to keep them hidden), the planning of surprise attacks, weapon storage, and more.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces have destroyed several branches, including at least seven paths into Israel. The Egyptian military has also worked to destroy tunnels, including flooding them with seawater. However, surface access points are often small and difficult to spot, making the task of accessing them even more difficult.
COLUMBUS  With more than 400 people in attendance from law enforcement agencies statewide, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost highlighted the expansion of resources and agency collaboration at the offices 2023 Law Enforcement Conference.

Were at the start of a new era in law enforcement in Ohio, with officers who are better trained and better equipped to deal with the new issues and problems that are certain to arise, said Yost. This means better service for the people of Ohio.

The annual two-day conference featured three keynote speakers, a panel discussion led by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation on multidisciplinary cold-case work and breakout workshops featuring 30 expert presenters from throughout Ohio.

Yosts remarks highlighted how the Attorney Generals Office serves as a force multiplier to local law enforcement agencies, providing technological assistance such as MX-908 rapid drug-testing equipment and NIBIN crime-gun analysis; investigative help through BCIs specialized units, including the Cold Case Unit; and training options through the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy, both online and at regional locations.

Eric Kocheran, center, with the Ross County Sheriffs Office received a Valor Award from the Ohio Attorney General.

Each year during the event, the attorney general also presents the Distinguished Law Enforcement Awards. One of these awards was the Valor Award which was presented to Officer Tim Goins of the Miami Township Police Department and Eric Kocheran of the Ross County Sheriffs Office.

See more: Chillicothe suspect asked for more officers before shooting

In 2022 Kocheran responded to a knock at the Sheriff's Office door that resulted in him being shot by an individual who was attempting to get more officers to come outside. The shot bruised Kocherans heart, pierced his left lung and stopped in his liver. Still, he was able to return fire and kill the gunman before any harm was done to others in the area. After this Kocheran would undergo several surgeries and spend two weeks in a medically induced coma.

Sheriff George Lavender, who nominated Kocheran, said the gunman was intent on killing someone that day and even though his sergeant did everything possible to avoid taking a life, he said, in the end, by taking a life, he possibly saved countless others.

See more: Ross County sheriff sergeant released from hospital after shooting

Other awards given included:

Lifetime Achievement Award

John Gocala Sr., Chief (ret.), Commander, Instructor: Youngstown State University Police

Victoria Allen Civilian Leadership Award

William Chattman, Eastway Behavioral Health (Dayton area)

Community Service Award

Morrow County Sheriff John Hinton

Officer Shawn Lutz, Columbus Division of Police

Training Award

Officer Jerry Orick, Columbus Division of Police

Mark Losey Service Award

Lindsey Alli, Columbus Division of Police

Chief Timothy Sopkovich, Brunswick Hills Police Department

Group Achievement Award

Central Ohio OOCIC/HIDTA Drug Task Force

Ohio Northeast Smuggling Enforcement Team (ONSET)

This article originally appeared on Chillicothe Gazette: Kocheran given Valor Award during annual statewide conference
This past Sunday morning, as my 4-year-old, Omari, and I were preparing for church, I inadvertently had the television on a network station as they reported on and showed images of the war in Gaza. He saw some images of shooting and bombing and asked me what they were doing, I said they were fighting a war. His response, as he started crying was, Change it Dada, they are killing people, I dont want to watch it, change it!

I changed the station immediately. I used the word inadvertently earlier, because I have not been able to watch those images and I avoid watching them because some of those scenes are too graphic and harrowing. I, on my own, change the station anytime I see any of those scenes, without being told by a crying 4-year-old.

War and conflict are brutal. These conflicts, for the most part, stem from the struggle over scarce resources  economics. I remember, years ago, when children were asked what they wished for, many would respond, world peace. I am unsure what the response is now, since conflict has become such an integral part of our daily lives. Have we lost sight of world peace and see it as an impossibility?

Conflicts are all around us every day  on the micro level, we have conflicts in our homes, at work and in our communities. On the macro level, there are conflicts at the national and state level, there are wars such as in Israel/Gaza, Ukraine and Ethiopia. I wonder if any of this could be avoided, minimized or resolved. Certainly, for peace to prevail, these have to be resolved. I have no idea how peace can be negotiated on the macro level other than through diplomacy, but its difficult to talk when you are involved in a life and death battle. Resolution on all levels is possible when cool heads prevail and dialogue begins. Unfortunately, in this world, there are those who thrive on conflict and those who try to avoid it. It is difficult to negotiate with anyone who thrives on conflict and refuses to dialogue or even listen.

As war rages in the Middle East and Ukraine, I wanted to share with you the many other macro-level conflicts around the world. According to wisevoter.com, there are 32 countries currently in conflict, including terrorist insurgencies, drug wars and civil wars.

Terrorist insurgencies, which in some cases have claimed over 10,000 lives are present in the following countries: Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia and Uganda.

Civil wars are raging in Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Libya, Mali, Myanmar, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen.

Drug wars are in Colombia and Mexico.

Wars are in Russia, Ukraine, Israel and Lebanon.

Other conflicts/confrontations include in Haiti, Venezuela, Syria, Lebanon, Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh, Pakistan, territorial disputes in the South Sea of China, North Korea crisis, Turkey and armed Kurdish groups, U.S. confrontation with Iran, and confrontation over Taiwan.

The Council on Foreign Relations, cfr.org, has a global conflict tracker that provides a thorough analysis of many of these conflicts and wars, including the history and current state as well as their impact on the U.S.

My point is, there are just too many conflicts, and according to the United Nations, they are on the rise. We just cant seem to get along in this world. According to a study by the Institute of Economics and Peace, over 238,000 people died in conflicts around the world in 2022. The most fatal wars have been in Ethiopia and Ukraine. They also estimate that the average economic cost of violence in the 10 most conflict-affected countries in the world is equivalent to 41% of their gross domestic product (GDP). According to 2021 Economic Value of Peace report, the global impact of wars/violence is estimated to be $14.4 trillion. That is enough to end world hunger 42 times over! As violence disrupts these economies, the effects are felt long after the conflict subsides, and almost everyone is worse off.

What is my greatest wish? Peace, as we strive to get along as individuals and in our communities, and world peace so Omari never has to see such images as he grows up. I can easily change a television station, but I wish I could change the world for Omari.

Kojo Quartey, Ph.D., is president of Monroe County Community College and an economist. He can be reached at kquartey@monroeccc.edu.

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Kojo Quartey: Conflicts escalating around the world
Protesters from a coalition of community-based organizations that support the California Restaurant Retail Workers Union and workers at Hannam Chain, a Koreatown grocery store, called for wage rights as Hannam Chain Chief Executive Kee Whan Ha, middle in foreground, joins business leaders during a ceremony kicking off the World Korean Business Convention at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Top executives from some of Koreas largest companies and South Korean officials posed for a staged press photo on a red carpet at the Anaheim Convention Center recently as a group of protesters quietly moved into the frame.

The demonstrators, most of them workers from Koreatown grocer Hannam Chain and the South Korean air-conditioning giant Coway, stepped onto planters to angle their signs for the cameras. Each pamphlet they handed out offered information about the union effort and implored Hannam Chain Chief Executive Kee Whan Ha to meet with organizers.

Ha was there to give the keynote speech for the World Korean Business Conference, historically known as the hansang.

Protesters hand out a flier with a photo of Hannam Chain Chief Executive Kee Whan Ha at the Anaheim Convention Center. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Conference organizers blocked all but a few corners of a few signs from the publicity photos by using raised cloths and suit jackets. But workers were still able to protest and hand out fliers all three days of the conference, called the "largest gathering of Korean businesses" in the world, with participants from 60 different countries.

The moment served as a highly appropriate visual for the state of labor in Los Angeles, where hotel workers are on strike, janitors are marching to demand employer accountability and even Hollywood writers are picketing. Those at the top celebrate their successes, while their unhappy workers are ushered out of the frame for appearances' sake.

This was the first time the hansang had taken place outside of Korea since it began in 2002. The conference connects Korean companies to firms in overseas markets, and it now bills itself as the largest Korean business convention in the world, with participants from 60 different countries.

Read more: Koreatown workers are fighting for unions. Why do essential workers still lack basic protections?

"This is a recognition of the importance of Korean American customers and firms to South Korean companies, and vice versa," said Edward Taehan Chang, a professor at UC Riverside who has attended the hansang multiple times.

The Oct. 11 protest focused on Hannam Chain, but many companies attending the conference also face union battles in South Korea. More than 14% of South Korean workers are unionized, while just over 10% of U.S. workers are, the lowest rate on record, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

A coalition of community-based organizations that support the California Restaurant Retail Workers Union and workers at Hannam Chain, a Koreatown grocery store, protest for wage rights at the Anaheim Convention Center. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Coway's South Korean workers recently unionized, and Coway executives recently recognized their union, but the company has declined to meet with Coway's U.S. workers.

It's unsurprising that similar labor issues prevail in both countries. South Korean capitalism resembles no country's so much as the United States'. It's one of the reasons the 2019 film "Parasite's" critique landed with Oscar voters in America, who anointed it the first foreign film to win best picture.

The film's director, Bong Joon Ho, held a lively press tour in the U.S. and gave a quote I often return to: "We all live in a country called capitalism."

Ho's quote always makes me think of Koreatown, where people from wildly diverse backgrounds are united for the purpose of work. At least 59,437 workers live there, according to the census. Ten percent of the neighborhood's businesses are restaurants, and 15% of the neighborhood's residents work in restaurants, according to a new UCLA study in partnership with the Koreatown Immigrant Worker's Alliance.

Hannam Chain Chief Executive Kee Whan Ha, third from right, joins business leaders during a ceremony kicking off the World Korean Business Convention at the Anaheim Convention Center. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

I think it's fair to call it the true downtown of Los Angeles  the densest neighborhood west of Manhattan, walkable, diverse, always open. It's also one of the last places that wage workers can find a room to rent within their price range.

These factors have allowed many immigrant families to make a life, but they also create the conditions ripe for labor exploitation. There are an estimated 9,700 restaurant workers in Koreatown, working at 704 restaurants in two square miles, according to the study. And 72% of restaurant workers in Koreatown earn less than two-thirds of the median hourly wage for the county, the study reported.

More than half of Koreatown's restaurants are small businesses with fewer than 10 employees. Small businesses are struggling to meet rent all over Los Angeles in the wake of the pandemic's disruptions, and when they seek to cut costs, it's often the wage workers they employ who bear the brunt. A lot of immigrant labor exploitation actually occurs at the hands of other immigrants, and many of those accused of labor exploitation once worked the same jobs.

Korean Americans account for about a third of the population of Koreatown, but they own the vast majority of businesses in Koreatown and properties as well, according to the study.

I think these ownership patterns are in part a response to historical trauma. Many Korean Americans came after the Korean War and sacrificed family ties, country and identity for the chance to start their own businesses and gain some control over their economic destiny.

Read more: A Korean BBQ restaurant now has a union. Supermarkets may be next

And after the devastation of the Los Angeles riots in the neighborhood, owning land was a way of preventing future losses. Tragedy has only deepened entrepreneurship's importance in the Korean American community.

Ha represents that ideal for many in the Korean community. Hankook Property Management Co., which he owns, oversees at least 600 apartment units and 150,000 square feet of retail space, much of it in Koreatown. His grocery store, Hannam Chain, was the neighborhod's first Korean grocery store. He's been a fierce advocate for Koreatown business owners, and the city named a local intersection after him in 2013.

He is perhaps best known for his radio interviews during the 1992 L.A. riots, exhorting business owners to arm themselves and "Protect your business. Don't go home. Your business is your life."

Here's what I would add to that. A business affects not just the owner's life, but all the people who work for it, and all the other companies it works with, and the workers they employ too.

Your business may be your life, but just as importantly, it's your employees' lives too. A union would be a simple and powerful way to recognize that.

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.
As a longtime Miamian, I have followed Bea HInes column ever since I wasa young adult. I look forward to reading her thoughts every Sunday. I wasso proud that she was recently the recipient of the Royal Palm Award, as she very well deserves it for her longtime community columns.

I have admired her over the years as she is such a professional, positive and religious person.

I had the great honor and pleasure of asking to meet her, and it happened! I was so touched to have been able to have lunch and meet her in person. We need more Ms. Hines in our lives. She has touched my life forever.

Thank you, Ms. Bea.

Dee Savarino Lear,

Kendall

All smoke?

The expression the cream always rises to the top sometimes used to describe circumstances where the most accomplished people emerge from the crowd is not absolute. With an embarrassing display of dysfunction by the Republican majority in the U. S. House, starting with former House Speaker Kevin McCarthys ouster, the fractious GOP rejected an unprecedented number of speaker candidates whose ideologies were out of alignment with certain factions within the conference.

After quashing bids by three prominent House members, Republicans finally settled on Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana, a known ally of ex-President Donald Trump and an active participant in the efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.

Handing the speakers gavel to a known election denier who opposes providing support to an ally fighting to defend democracy (Ukraine) should send a message to the electorate that in the Republican Party, cream is not the only substance that can rise to the top.

Jim Paladino,

Tampa

Stand in wonder

When holding press conferences, why is it that politicians, bureaucrats and other government officials seem to require a group of people to stand around them or in the background and never say a word?

These people are obviously paid by taxpayers, so shouldnt they be doing their respective jobs?

Larry Solomon,

West Kendall

Home wrecked

Sondra Berlowes comments about the expected demolition of the Alfred Browning Parker home in her Oct. 17 letter, Dont destroy this gem are on target. Destroying a historic design of this magnitude is a travesty. Nothing can replace it once its gone.

This is happening not due to ignorance, but because of greed on the part of the buyer and inaction on the part of our local elected officials, who have thrown their hands in the air instead of standing up to Tallahassee and protecting our historic structures.

Shame on them.

Lynn Guarch-Pardo,

Coral GablesGOPs illness

Re: the Oct. 24 Herald online op-ed, Sickness in our society. DeSantis stokes division with immigration and Hamas comment.

I see Harvard students signing letters supporting Hamas terrorists who are decapitating infants and raping women, DeSantis said, during a stop on the campaign trail as he runs for president. Actually, his vision is distorted. Not one student made such a statement.

According to the op-ed, Gauging expressions of patriotism is a complicated matter but the type of conservatism that DeSantis and Trump represent draws a line in the sand.

That is not conservatism; it is radicalism. As to the closing metaphor, it is far too weak.

Harold A. Maio,

Fort Myers

Orwellian policies

Gov. Ron DeSantis says that all Palestinians are antisemites. He therefore condemns the nearly one million Palestinian Christians and more than a thousand Palestinian Christians in Gaza.

Many Christian groups (Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Friends) are calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and criticizing Israels actions against Palestinian civilians. Many Jews and Jewish groups are protesting Israels actions in Gaza as well.

Ive read the Palestinian student groups tool kit. It calls for protests, not violence. True, it calls Hamas the resistance. Words, not actions, are being banned.

If this group is banned, will all groups calling for a ceasefire, a two-state solution and protection of Palestinian civilians be banned? What has happened to democracy in Florida?

DeSantis is doing his best to dismantle freedom of speech, especially political speech, right to privacy, right to protest, intellectual freedom, freedom of religion and voting rights, all in his authoritarian drive for power.

Floridians are free, DeSantis says, but some are freer than others.

Maxine Long,

Coral Gables

Blanket ban

Gov. DeSantis has decided to ban student groups that support Palestinians.

Will he be attempting to ban those outside the university system who ask questions that may not fit within his political advancement goals as well?

Will he, for instance, condemn or attempt to ban someone like me, who asks others to review why Israels current and historical actions have increased, rather than limit the increase of extremist groups like Hamas?

Will he ban anyone who finds empathy with people who have been caged in what some have described as an open-air prison?

Will he try to silence all voices, so people cannot honestly evaluate the totality of what is happening?

Sid Kaskey,

South Miami

Equal time

In response to the Oct. 24 letter, Sexism, still, Florida Girls State was first held in 1947 and is sponsored annually by The American Legion Auxiliary (ALA). A female high school third-year student from any school who accepts the competitive challenge should contact an ALA unit at any local American Legion Post to become a program candidate. Details available at alafl.org/programs/girls-state.

American Legion Post 31, South Miami, was the proud sponsor of high school junior Martin Seales, who was elected 2023 governor by the Boys State candidates. We encourage juniors, especially from our Miami-Dade County public high schools, to consider candidacy in the Girls or Boys State, an honor of significance and learning on a college application.

Don Deresz

adjutant, Post 31,

American Legion,

South Miami

Media failed

When will anyone representing the Fourth Estate find the courage to ask our congressional Republicans, Mario Diaz-Balart, Carlos Gimenez and Maria Elvira Salazar, why they continue to support ex-President Donald J. Trump? Is there any journalist in South Florida who will ask them whether they were ordered to install Rep. Mike Johnson as speaker of the House?

In 2020, Johnson wrote in an email to his colleagues, President Trump called me this morning to express his great appreciation for our effort to file an amicus brief in the Texas case on behalf of concerned Members of Congress.

For Diaz-Balart, Gimenez and Salazar to scream, communism to their followers, then walk in lock-step with an authoritarian like Trump, is simply a hypocrisy that cannot be tolerated.

Joanne Tomarchio,

Miami
CHICAGO  The man accused of fatally stabbing a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy and severely injuring his mother days after the Hamas attack was indicted by a Will County grand jury on hate crime, murder and other charges, prosecutors said Thursday.

Joseph Czuba, 71, faces three counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated battery and two counts of hate crime in connection with a knife attack that killed Wadea al-Fayoume and left his mother, Hanaan Shahin, hospitalized.

Czuba, who was the familys landlord, was pushed to attack his Muslim tenants at their shared at his unincorporated Plainfield Township home after listening to conservative talk radio discussion of the war between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas, Will County prosecutors said during his Oct. 16 court hearing.

Judge Donald DeWilkins ordered Czuba held in custody. His next court hearing is set for Monday.

Czuba is accused of acting exceptionally brutal or heinous behavior indicative of wanton cruelty in his alleged actions toward Wadea and Shahin, per court records.

President Joe Biden mentioned Wadea by name last week during a prime-time speech where he condemned antisemitic and Islamophobic violence in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war.

Will County sheriffs deputies responded to Shahins call that her landlord was attacking her with a knife the morning of Oct. 14. Officers found Shahin severely injured and Wadea stabbed 26 times.

Shahin was hospitalized at the time of her sons funeral, which drew hundreds of people and elected officials to pay their respects.

Thousands attended a vigil to honor Wadeas life held the day after his funeral, where many condemned hateful rhetoric that allegedly pushed Czuba to attack the boy and his mother.

Federal authorities including the FBI and the Department of Justices the civil rights division are investigating the attack.

Illinois authorities are investigating other possible hate crimes and threats against Muslims that have occurred in recent weeks, including the case of a Lombard man who allegedly threatened to shoot two Muslim men outside his apartment building. A pair of Muslim schools in Bridgeview also kept students home last week after one of the institutions received a threatening letter that referenced Wadeas death.
Conservative radio talk show host Larry Elder is the fourth Republican candidate to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race.

As I look at the path forward, and after careful consideration and consultation with my campaign team, I have made the difficult decision to suspend my campaign, Elder said in a statement announcing the suspension of his campaign.

2021. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images)

Elder announced that he was joining the GOP primary field in April. Meager donor pools and poor polling results meant he couldnt meet the Republican National Committees criteria to qualify for either of the GOP presidential debates. Three months into his campaign, he couldnt break 1% in the national polls, according to FiveThirtyEight.

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In light of his campaigns end, Elder is now urging his would-be primary and general election voters to support former president and now-criminal defendant Donald Trump .

He has my full support to Make America Great Again, end the epidemic of fatherless homes, reign in spending, and restore law & order, Elder said of Trump.

He also continued to stand by his beliefs that some of the biggest issues affecting the United States are the crisis of fatherlessness and the dangerous lie that America is systemically racist.

The breakdown of the family structure and the absence of positive father figures in the lives of many children have far-reaching consequences for our society, including the crime wave we are currently seeing in America today, Elder said. Although I am suspending my campaign for president, my commitment to addressing the crisis of fatherlessness, promoting conservative ideals, and supporting the MAGA movement remains unwavering, he added.

On that front, this so-called fatherlessness crisis that Elder has emphasized through the course of his campaign is all about addressing the apparent need to repair family compositions within Black communities, noting that single-parent households weaken communities. He has said that the root cause of crime is fatherlessness.

The number one social problem in America is not systemic racism. It is the epidemic of fatherlessness. Nearly 70 percent of black kids today enter the world without a father in the home married to the mother  up from 24 percent back in 1965, Elder wrote in a Newsweek op-ed in August.

However, in his time publicly decrying this issue, he has never offered any realistic solutions  or rather, any solutions at all.

In an appearance on the Higher Learning podcast with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay, Elder totally sidestepped Lindsays question about how to fix fatherlessness in America.

So youre not accepting it, and youre asking me what am I doing about something that you dont accept, Elder said. Im happy to answer the question provided that you acknowledge that there is a problem.

Other GOP presidential candidates that have dropped from the race are Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, former Texas congressman Will Hurd, and businessman Perry Johnson. Johnson also endorsed Trump at the end of his campaign. Hurd opted to endorse former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley.

Never miss a story  sign up for ATLANTA BLACK STARS free daily newsletters to stay up-to-date on the latest developments, from top news headlines to celebrity news.

During Elders presidential run, his background and political views attracted some conservative voters. Elder was raised in the South Central neighborhood of Los Angeles, went to an Ivy League school, then law school. He has been a strong, vocal opponent of Black Lives Matter and believes systemic racism is a myth, which has deterred a Black voter base.

After formally leaving his longtime radio show, The Larry Elder Show, in 2022, he established a political action committee to support Republican candidates in federal and local races.

In a previous shot at public office, Elder attempted to replace California Gov. Gavin Newsom in a recall election in 2021. However, his opposition to abortion and COVID-19 mask mandates didnt land well with the states overwhelming liberal population.

Read the original story here.
LAS VEGAS (KLAS)  Las Vegas Metro police made an arrest Thursday in a fatal crash, which killed a 32-year-old BMX champion, a week after the 8 News Now Investigators showed videos appearing to show the driver speeding.

Nathan Nate Miller died hours after a car crashed into him while he was riding a bike northbound on Nellis Boulevard near Tropicana Avenue in the southeast valley on Sept. 23, Las Vegas Metro police said.

Video appeared to show a car speeding and quickly changing lanes before crashing into Miller, killing him. The 8 News Now Investigators aired a report on Wednesday, Oct. 18, because at that point, the driver was not facing any charges.

Videos the 8 News Now Investigators obtained appeared to show the car jerking back and forth before colliding with Miller. The car then crashed into a fence and a parked vehicle, police said. Millers friends had contacted the 8 News Now Investigators asking why there were no apparent consequences.

Nathan Miller was killed when a driver hit him on Nellis Boulevard on Sept. 23, 2023. Miller died hours later in the hospital. (Nicole Miller)

Officers arrested the driver, identified as Julius Hopkins, 32, on Thursday, they said. He faced charges of reckless driving resulting in death, child abuse or endangerment, and having no drivers license, registration, or insurance, police said.

The crash report the 8 News Now Investigators obtained reveals an officer deemed Hopkins at fault for the crash, though no enforcement action [was] taken.

The officer noted on the report that neither alcohol nor drugs were involved, however, there was no check box on the form for how the officer made that determination.

The crash report also listed the driver alone in the car, but a news release said the driver was with two passengers. The child endangerment charge was likely related to the child passenger.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS.
The Latvian parliament has approved amendments to the Road Traffic Act that would ban Russian-registered vehicles from Latvia in the first reading on Thursday, 26 October.

Source: Delfi, a news website in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia

Details: The draft law stipulates that the owners of vehicles registered in Russia will have to re-register their cars or take them out of Latvia within three months of the law's entry into force.

Once the transitional period is over, the right to use Russian-registered vehicles in Latvian traffic will be granted for a single use if a person is crossing the territory of Latvia in transit.

The Latvian Justice Ministry says the presence of Russian-registered vehicles in Latvia is unacceptable, given Russia's attack on Ukraine and the threat to its territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence.

Furthermore, vehicles in Russia often do not meet EU technical requirements, and their use may jeopardise road safety.

The law is expected to come into force on 15 November.

Background: Reports emerged that Latvia would not ban the cars registered in Belarus.

At present, all Baltic countries have banned the entry of cars with Russian number plates. Poland, Finland, Norway and Bulgaria have also introduced such measures.

Meanwhile, the Russians have been using the Kaliningrad transit train to get to the EU via Lithuania.

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The Saeima, Latvia's parliament, approved an amendment requiring owners of cars with Russian license plates register the vehicle or remove it from Latvian territory within three months of the law's entry into force, the news outlet Delfi reported on Oct. 26.

After the three months are over, vehicles with Russian license plates will be allowed in Latvian road traffic if the driver crosses the territory of Latvia in transit. A vehicle registered in Russia will be able to transit through Latvia only once.

The bill requires that drivers planning to transit through Latvia must submit information about the vehicle through the state's electronic registration program within 24 hours of the vehicle's entry into the country.

If the vehicle is not registered in Latvia or its use in road traffic is detected to be unauthorized, the vehicle will be confiscated. According to Delfi, confiscated cars will be transferred to Ukraine.

The Latvian Ministry of Justice reportedly suggested that, given Russias attack on Ukraine and the threat to its territorial integrity, sovereignty, and independence, the presence of vehicles registered in Russia on the territory of Latvia is unacceptable.

The law will enter into force on November 15.

Read also: Ukraine war latest: Russia endures heavy losses near Avdiivka, suffers from low morale, White House says

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Lawmakers honored victims of the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting Friday, the fifth anniversary of the horrific attack in Pittsburgh.

5 years ago today11 people were murdered at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y) said in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. The deadliest antisemitic massacre in U.S. history. We will never forget them. We must do more to stop gun violence. We must confront antisemitism, bigotry, and hate in all its forms.

Five years ago, we lost eleven of our fellow Americans in a horrific act of gun violence and anti-semitism at the Tree of Life Synagogue, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) said on X. My heart is with that community today. It is critical at this moment to continue to denounce and combat anti-Semitism as well as the gun violence epidemic.

The fifth anniversary also comes a few days after another mass shooting in Maine, in which 18 people died and 13 were injured. The 40-year-old suspect in that shooting remained at large Friday afternoon, with a massive search underway to find him.

On the fifth anniversary of the Tree of Life synagogue shooting, we mourn the 11 lives taken too soon, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said on X. May their memories be a blessing.

Today, we also recommit ourselves to the fight against antisemitism, Ocasio-Cortez continued. Together, we can build a country where all are safe from hate.

Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin (D) said his prayers are with the victims of this heinous crime and their families.

Today marks 5th anniversary of the deadliest antisemitic massacre in U.S. history at the Tree Of Life synagogue, Durbin said in an X post. Hate has no place in America.

Today is the fifth anniversary of the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, the worst attack against Jewish people in U.S. history, Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) said in a post on X.

As we remember this horrific tragedy, we must stand firm against antisemitism & hate in all forms as it rises at home and abroad, he continued.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
The US lawsuit accuses former CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch, Mike Jeffries, of rape

A lawsuit against fashion brand Abercrombie & Fitch - accusing the firm of funding a sex-trafficking operation - has been filed in New York.

The company allowed ex-CEO Mike Jeffries "unfettered access" to resources to support his "criminal enterprise", documents allege.

The lawsuit follows a BBC investigation into allegations Mr Jeffries exploited men at events he hosted while CEO.

A brand spokesperson said the company would not be commenting on the case.

A lawyer for Mr Jeffries said he would also not be commenting. "The courtroom is where we will deal with this matter," Brian H Bieber said in a statement.

The lawsuit also accuses Mr Jeffries and his British partner Matthew Smith of sex trafficking, sexual misconduct and rape. Mr Smith has also been contacted for comment.

The case has been brought under the New York Adult Survivors Act, which allows people to file civil sexual abuse claims that would have otherwise exceeded the statute of limitations.

It is seeking class action status - where one or several people sue on behalf of a much larger group.

"Because of this lawsuit and the brave men that have come forward, Abercrombie will have to answer for its many unacceptable actions and inactions that have destroyed the lives of dozens of young men," said Brad Edwards, a civil lawyer who is now representing some of the alleged victims.

Events were held at Mr Jeffries' Hamptons home, La Mamounia in Morocco, Claridge's in London and the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in the south of France

Earlier this month, the BBC published the findings of an investigation into a highly organised network that used a middleman to recruit young adult men for events with Mr Jeffries and Mr Smith. In response, Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F) - which also owns the Hollister brand - previously told the BBC it was "appalled and disgusted" by Mr Jeffries' alleged behaviour. Through his lawyer, Mr Jeffries declined to comment.

'Financial lifeblood for sex-trafficking'

The lawsuit filed in the Southern District of New York claims that A&F knew, or should have known, it was providing the "financial lifeblood for a sex trafficking organisation" led by Mike Jeffries between at least 1992 and 2014 - while he was CEO of the company.

It alleges he used A&F's corporate resources including a jet, transportation, and unlimited amounts of cash to facilitate a sex-trafficking venture, which enabled him to accumulate "new victims at an alarming rate" and he also had access to aspiring models.

"Abercrombie cared about profiting and showed absolute loyalty to Jeffries, including a willingness to spend copious amounts of money on extravagant drug and sex parties, ignoring multiple red flags of criminality in Jeffries's corporate account activity," the legal document claims.

Abercrombie & Fitch marketing featured shirtless male models

Company employees were aware of Mr Jeffries' sexually exploitative and abusive behaviour and a video that circulated within the corporate office showed him "sniffing what was believed to be cocaine off a man's penis," according to the lawsuit.

"While Abercrombie tried to prevent the video from being more widely disseminated, the company did nothing to discourage the behaviour captured in the video and in fact continued to financially reward Jeffries," it says.

More on this story

If you're in the UK: Watch Panorama's The Abercrombie Guys: The Dark Side of Cool, on BBC iPlayer now and listen to the podcast series, World of Secrets: Season 1 - The Abercrombie Guys on BBC Sounds .

If you're in the US: The Abercrombie Guys: the Dark Side of Cool is available to watch on BBC Select.

And if you're outside the UK, listen to the podcast series, World of Secrets: Season 1 - The Abercrombie Guys, wherever you get your podcasts.

Mr Jeffries also required Abercrombie employees - says the legal paperwork - to "properly pack his sex toy bag for his business trips" and used the company email platform to co-ordinate with model scouts and make arrangements for the sexual abuse and exploitation of young male models, it claims.

The lawsuit accuses Abercrombie executives of turning a "blind eye" to his conduct because of the profit he generated for the company having transformed it from a failing retailer into a billion-dollar brand.

"With Abercrombie's complicity, Jeffries was free to sexually abuse dozens of men, paying a tremendous amount of cash in hush money, without the fear of detection by law enforcement," it claims.

'Ensnare the young male victims'

The legal complaint is made by David Bradberry, now 37, a former model and actor, who was interviewed as part of the BBC's investigation.

On behalf of himself and others, Mr Bradberry makes allegations based on his "information and belief" that Mike Jeffries held castings at his homes and abroad, providing prospective brand models with A&F gift cards and clothing.

He alleges they were forced to take drugs and participate in sex acts with Mr Jeffries and his partner at Mr Jeffries' direction.

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Mr Jeffries was "using the Abercrombie name... his power within the company, its clothing, its photographers, and its marketing materials in order to ensnare the young male victims into the sex-trafficking venture," the lawsuit claims.

It also accuses Mr Jeffries and his British partner Mr Smith of sexual misconduct, forcible touching and rape which resulted in physical and psychological injury and trauma to Mr Bradberry and others.

"Sexual exploitation does not discriminate based on gender. Men have been exploited in the modelling and fashion industries for decades," said Brittany Henderson, a civil lawyer also representing some of the alleged victims.

She added; "This case is paramount to expanding the #MeToo movement across genders and eradicating sexual exploitation in the entire industry, starting with Abercrombie & Fitch."

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(NewsNation)  The parents of a college student with a heart condition who died after drinking Panera Breads Charged Lemonade are now suing the company.

A legal complaint, first obtained and reported on by NBC News, says the dangerous beverage contained more caffeine than one can of Red Bull and one can of Monster energy drink combined.

Filed Monday by Sarah Katzs parents in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, the lawsuit alleges Panera did not appropriately warn consumers about the ingredients in the charged lemonade.

NewsNation reached out to Panera for comment, but did not hear back.

The company told CNN in a statement, We were very saddened to learn this morning about the tragic passing of Sarah Katz, and our hearts go out to her family. At Panera, we strongly believe in transparency around our ingredients. We will work quickly to thoroughly investigate this matter.

Katz, a 21-year-old studying international relations and health at the University of Pennsylvania, with a minor in East Asian languages and civilizations, was diagnosed with Long QT Type 1 Syndrome, or LQT1 when she was five, the lawsuit says.

LQTs, according to the American Heart Association, are a disorder of the hearts electrical system, like other arrhythmias.

LQTS can cause abnormal heart rhythms in response to exercise or stress, the Heart Association says.

To manage her condition, the lawsuit posted online on Fox News says Katz abstained from energy drinks and highly caffeinated beverages and would drink electrolyte drinks, like Gatorade.

She was very, very vigilant about what she needed to do to keep herself safe, her roommate and close friend, Victoria Rose Conroy, told NBC.

On Sept. 10, 2022, Katz bought a charged lemonade from a Philadelphia Panera and went into cardiac arrest hours later. She was taken to the hospital and went into cardiac arrest a second time, which is when she died.

A large Charged Lemonade at Panera, which Katz bought, can have 390 milligrams of caffeine  more than any size of the companys dark roast coffees, per the complaint. Paneras website says guarana extract, commonly used in energy drinks, is one of the lemonades ingredients, as well. The FDA guidelines state a healthy adult should have no more than 400 milligrams of caffeine a day.

I guarantee if Sarah had known how much caffeine this was, she never would have touched it with a 10-foot pole, Conroy said.

More bed bugs found at Las Vegas Strip hotels over the summer: records

However, the lawsuit states the charged lemonades were listed side-by-side with all of Paneras non, or less-caffeinated, drinks.

It was not advertised as an energy drink, at the store, the lawsuit states, including photos of the display to back up this claim.

The lawsuit drew a comparison between the charged lemonades and the Gatorade beverages Katz liked. Though they contain no caffeine, the drink uses a charged symbol to represent hydration.

I think everyone thinks lemonade is safe. And really, this isnt lemonade at all. Its an energy drink that has lemon flavor, Elizabeth Crawford, a partner at the Philadelphia-based law firm Kline & Specter, PC who is representing the family, said to NBC.

Crawford shared a medical examiners report with NBC, showing Katzs cause of death was cardiac arrhythmia due to long QT syndrome. The examiners report notes Katz had no drugs in her system, other than those used by the hospital to save her.

Paneras charged lemonade has made news before. A couple months after Katz died, a TikTok user made a viral video, in which she said she says she drank multiple cups of the beverage without realizing it was caffeinated  and was thusly surprised at the amount of energy she had. The video, posted in December 2022, was captioned: This drink should come with a warning because its delicious and will lead to my cardiac arrest.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA.
OTTAWA COUNTY  In at least two lawsuits filed against the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners, attorneys for the municipality waited months to place a litigation hold on essential documents, according to emails obtained by The Sentinel.

Legal Counsel Jack Jordan talks with members of the public during a short break in the board's meeting Tuesday, March 14, 2023, in West Olive.

As the community awaits the Monday conclusion to a termination hearing for Health Officer Adeline Hambley, testimony and internal communications this week have revealed Ottawa County's corporation counsel took no steps in the nearly nine months since Hambley's lawsuit was filed to preserve any records pertaining to the case  until after the discrepancy became publicly known.

More: Ottawa County delays vote on termination of Adeline Hambley until Monday

On Tuesday, Oct. 24, Hambley's attorney, Sarah Riley-Howard, called Ottawa County IT Director Paul Klimas to the stand and asked him if he was ever instructed by corporation counsel Kallman Legal Group to put a litigation hold in place on the county's internal servers and systems.

A litigation hold is a notification from a legal department to employees not to delete any electronic or physical records that may pertain to current or imminent litigation.

Klimas said Tuesday he's never had a litigation hold request in his four years with the county. He said any such request would come to his department for implementation.

The county currently has four pending lawsuits filed in 2023, largely alleging misconduct by the current Ottawa Impact majority on the board. In those cases:

Ottawa Impact is a far-right fundamentalist group formed in 2021 in response to school mask mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic. OI now controls a six-seat majority on the 11-member board  down since infighting caused at least one member to sever his relationship with the group. Two other conservatives on the board have publicly distanced themselves.

Howard requested the litigation hold the day she filed Hambley's lawsuit on Feb. 13, according to emails provided to The Sentinel.

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"Please consider this email a formal litigation hold notice in this matter, although I presume youve already implemented a litigation hold given all of the events of the past few weeks," Howard wrote to Jack Jordan, the designated KLG attorney for the board.

In her email, Howard advised the county and commissioners about the "legal obligation to preserve potential discovery material. To that end, we respectfully demand that you take all necessary steps to identify, locate, and preserve potential discovery material.

"This material includes but is not limited to electronic data, such as emails, text messages, audio files, social media communications, and any other data kept in any form or on any device  whether county-owned or personal, including all commissioners and employees business and/or personal cellphones or computers, that in any way relate to or could potentially relate to this dispute."

When Howard asked Klimas about the implementation of the hold, he said, "The litigation hold would have been requested by corporate counsel of us and we would have set it aside such that it wouldn't get purged."

Howard: You have not implemented a litigation hold in the Hambley suit?

Klimas: The litigation hold would have been requested by corporate counsel by us and we would have set it aside.

H: And you were not asked to do that?

Klimas: No. I wasn't.  Sarah Leach  (@SentinelLeach) October 24, 2023

"And you have not been asked to do that by corporate counsel?" Howard asked.

"We have not," Klimas replied.

"The discovery that the county has not asked its IT Department to implement a litigation hold in this case was extremely concerning," Howard wrote in a statement to The Sentinel on Friday. "It almost guarantees that relevant email, text, and messaging app evidence has been lost while the county pursued its appeal of the ruling that Ms. Hambley has been the rightfully appointed health officer. We will be following up with defense counsel on this point, and pursuing it with the trial court if necessary."

In fact, not two days after that testimony, Jordan made the request to Klimas and notified the commissioners and Gibbs.

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"After Ms. Howard's questioning of Paul Klimas on Tuesday, we were confused as to her line of questioning of a 'litigation hold' being placed on this litigation with the county," Jordan wrote in an email dated Thursday, Oct. 26.

Jordan blamed the error on Howard's email being sent to his "personal email account," despite listing that account on his public profile with the State Bar of Michigan for attorneys and prospective clients.

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"Having said all that," Jordan continues in the Thursday email, "I immediately requested that Mr. Klimas place a 'litigation hold' now to preserve all evidence connected to this matter."

Despite the 256-day gap between Howard's notice and Jordan's action, he assured commissioners and Gibbs that it wasn't an issue.

"Mr. Klimas responded that the request was made in 'plenty of time' from the county's standpoint, but we are requesting that if you have any communications on your personal telephone, computer, or any other electronic communication device connected to this case, you preserve it."

Adeline Hambley and her attorney Sarah Howard give comment to the press after their hearing in front of the Michigan Court of Appeals Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023, in Grand Rapids.

Jordan went on to mention the OMA-related case and asked officials to preserve any records pertaining to that, despite a 232-day gap between the filing of that lawsuit and Jordan's request.

"Although the trial court dismissed the case, they have appealed the matter to the Court of Appeals," Jordan wrote. "Therefore, we request that you preserve those communications as well for this case."

When asked for comment in that case, plaintiffs' attorney Mark Brewer said he sent his own notice of litigation hold in March to four attorneys within Kallman Legal Group: David Kallman, Stephen Kallman, Jordan  at his county-issued email account  and Lanae Monera.

"On March 15, 2023, David Kallman and several of his colleagues were sent the attached litigation hold notice," Brewer wrote in a Friday statement to The Sentinel.

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"This email is a formal litigation hold notice in this matter," Brewer wrote in the email. "To that end, we respectfully demand that you take all necessary steps to identify, locate, and preserve potential discovery material."

"If they have allowed any potential discovery material to be destroyed, plaintiffs will seek all available sanctions," Brewer told The Sentinel.

Gibbs gives conflicting statements

During a Sept. 26 budget hearing, the board heard Gibbs say he communicated "many times" the Ottawa Food program and funding for its director position not be cut.

"That is my directive that I have given to the health department as to not cut within the current budget we have given them," Gibbs told Vice Chair Sylvia Rhodea when she asked about the program.

"How many times have you communicated that?" Rhodea asked.

"Many times I've communicated that desire, so the (department) is aware of that," Gibbs said.

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During Hambley's termination hearing, however, Gibbs testified he did not, in fact, communicate that directive to the health department, but rather to Karen Karasinski, the county's finance director.

The only evidence entered by the county to support Gibbs' claims is one email to Karasinski dated Sept. 22  four days before his statements to Rhodea  that says: "Please find a way to retain the Ottawa Food program and staffing based on the current proposed budget, similar to what we did with the epidemiologist position."

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The funding for that third epidemiologist position was "found" by reassigning it to the health department's environmental division. Similarly, the health educator coordinating the Ottawa Food program has now been reassigned to work on health education in another area of the department, according to health officials.

Howard said the email was proof Gibbs didn't effectively communicate.

"The first time (Hambley) or I saw the email that the county produced from John Gibbs which mentioned Ottawa Food was during the hearing on Tuesday. So clearly, Mr. Gibbs had never instructed public health nor Ms. Hambley not to make cuts to Ottawa Food, contrary to what he told the board on Sept. 26."

Howard said the revelations underscore the inconsistencies in statements by OI-backed commissioners and what actually transpired in the health department's budget.

 Sarah Leach is executive editor for The Holland Sentinel. Contact her at sarah.leach@hollandsentinel.com. Follow her on Twitter @SentinelLeach.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Emails: County waited months to tell officials to save pertinent documents
A Lehigh Acres high schooler faces battery charges after authorities say he attacked another student on a school bus.

A Lehigh Acres high school student faces battery charges after authorities say he attacked another student on a school bus.

The News-Press doesn't always name minors facing felony and misdemeanor charges, depending on the severity.

According to an incident report from the Lee County Sheriff's Office, the victim said that while she was on the bus Tuesday, she was sitting next to the arrested student.

Verbal spat turns physical; girl slammed to floor

She said the perpetrator was talking to her as she spoke with another female student. The victim told the perpetrator to "shut up."

More: Car rear-ends school bus in Lehigh with 2 unharmed students; car driver taken to hospital

The perpetrator said he "wasn't a little boy" and threatened to "beat her up," the report indicates. The arrested student then pushed the student.

When the victim grabbed the seat, the perpetrator "fully shoved her out of the seat," the report says.

The perpetrator then grabbed the victim "in a bear hug manner," lifting her up, and slammed her to the ground.

The aggressor then threw punches with both hands, the report says.

Authorities said a video of the fight had been posted to social media. The platform isn't disclosed in the report.

It's unclear if the driver was the only adult aboard the bus or if cameras on the bus captured the incident.

"We do not tolerate fighting at school or on the bus. Students involved in a fight may face legal consequences and school discipline per the Code of Conduct," Rob Spicker, spokesperson for the School District, wrote in a statement. "Students recording video of a fight may also face discipline per the Code of Conduct."

Lee Schools buses have surveillance cameras

Spicker said buses have surveillance cameras. He added that the footage is exempt from release to the public, but is used to review activity to or from school.

He said Exceptional Student Education buses, for students with impairments, require an attendant. To his knowledge, he said, the bus where the incident happened only had the driver.

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

This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Lehigh Acres high schooler charged with assaulting student on bus
To the editor: Columnist Gustavo Arellano highlights former Diocese of Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown's complicity in concealing and enabling Catholic clergy child abuse. He makes an important contribution to the struggle for equality: the equality of believers and nonbelievers.

Since major stories about clergy abuse broke around the beginning of this century, the church has attempted to obstruct full accountability for the crimes of its priests.

The underlying theme of Catholic efforts to escape full reckoning is that since the church is Gods true religion, its wrongdoers deserve more lenient treatment than other child rapists.

The 1st Amendment requires that believers and nonbelievers be equal before the law. Any lesser penalties, or allowing concealment of heinous crimes just because the perpetrators are clergy, violates this principle of equality. There should be no difference in how the law treats any child abuser and in how it deals with any institution that tries to hide and protect such criminals.

Edward Tabash, Los Angeles

The writer is an attorney who chairs the board of directors of the Center for Inquiry.

..

To the editor: Arellano's unflattering column on Brown was honest and real. He, like many of us former Catholics, has spoken out with courage and sought the truth.

I am a former priest from the Diocese of Salt Lake City who left active ministry in 2002 after 30 years. No, I never, ever abused a child or teen, and the clergy abuse scandal there was no less horrific than in Southern California.

In my opinion, the bishops destroyed all credibility with their secrecy policies. Their 2002 Dallas Charter declaring zero tolerance for accused priests really just circled the wagons around themselves and their dioceses. Priests were told we were on our own with no support from the diocese if any allegation was ever made about us. However, the charter effectively exempted bishops.

Arellano's clear presentation of facts opens up a broader scope of what the truth is. Yes, Bishop Brown did many good things over the years. I applaud Arellano for giving us the rest of the story.

Gerald Lynch, Palm Springs

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Photo taken on shows books of the "China in Maltese Eyes" at a launch event in Valletta, Malta. (Photo by Jonathan Borg/Xinhua)

The English version of the book "China in Maltese Eyes" was launched in Valletta on Wednesday by Heritage Malta and the China Cultural Center, which began collaborating on the project two years ago.



The book features contributions from over 20 Maltese people of diverse backgrounds, who have shared their experiences of Chinese culture, history, and contemporary development.

It provides a glimpse of China's exquisite natural landscapes, its rich and profound culture, and the evolving social landscape of modernization in the country.

"Their narratives not only shed light on the profound cultural heritage and beauty of China, but also offer unique and valuable perspectives," said Peng Yijun, charge d'affaires at the Chinese Embassy in Malta, at the book launch event.

"China in Maltese Eyes" is "a testament to the collective wisdom of all its contributors, and serves as a significant milestone in the enduring friendship between China and Malta," Peng added.

Albert Marshall, executive chairman of Arts Council Malta and one of the contributors to the book, was inspired to write the poetry collection "Six Chinese Lanterns" after being invited by the China Cultural Center to visit the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southwest China in 2019.

Marshall highlighted that the collaboration between Arts Council Malta and the Cultural Center has promoted cultural exchange and cooperation, and deepened understanding between Malta and China.

"China in Maltese Eyes" demonstrates the ways in which international relations can be fortified through culture, Marshall said.

Mario Cutajar, chairman of Heritage Malta, has just returned from his latest visit to China, which he said had strengthened his understanding of China's ancient history and culture.

He was particularly impressed by China's rapid development, he said.

The publication of "China in Maltese Eyes" marks a new beginning for cultural exchange and cooperation between the two countries, Cutajar said.

During the book launch, Yuan Yuan, director of the China Cultural Center in Malta, highlighted the Center's two-decades-long commitment to introducing Chinese culture to Maltese people through a wide range of events and programs.

"We've been working consistently to build a bridge that spans the geographical distance between our nations and bring our two peoples together to celebrate rich history, diverse traditions, and common humanity," Yuan said.
Maine Rep. Jared Golden  one of the rare House Democrats to oppose many gun safety measures championed by his party  came out in support of an assault weapons ban on Thursday, the day after shootings in his hometown of Lewiston left at least 18 dead and 13 injured.

I have opposed efforts to ban deadly weapons of war, Golden said at news conference in Lewiston. The time has now come for me to take responsibility for this failure, which is why I now call on the United States Congress to ban assault rifles.

Goldens announcement marks a notable shift for the three-term congressman, who represents Maines 2nd Congressional District  a largely rural seat that twice backed former President Donald Trump. First elected in 2018 when he flipped the GOP-held district under ranked-choice voting, the Marine veteran has broken with his party on a number of priorities, including gun measures.

While Golden backed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act last year  the first major federal gun safety legislation in decades  he has voted against other firearms bills pushed by Democrats over the years, notably an assault-style weapons ban that the House, then under Democratic control, passed in 2022. Golden was one of five Democrats to oppose that measure  and one of three who are still in the House.

In a 2022 statement defending his votes against gun measures, the congressman said, We do not need to take some types of firearms away from all Americans, but instead we should work to keep all firearms out of the hands of felons and those who have demonstrated that they are at serious risk of committing harm to themselves or others.

But on Thursday, with his community still in lockdown, the congressman struck an urgent tone about the need to restrict assault weapons. For the good of my community, I will work with any colleague to get this done in the time I have left in Congress, said Golden, who could be facing a competitive reelection next year.

To the people of Lewiston, my constituents throughout the 2nd District, to the families who lost loved ones, and to those who have been harmed, I ask for forgiveness and support as I seek to put an end to these terrible shootings, he said.

Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut said later Thursday on CNN that Golden was coming to the same reality that assault weapons shouldnt be on the streets of America.

But I wish it didnt take members of Congress to have to experience a mass shooting in their own congressional district to come to this reality, Murphy told Wolf Blitzer on The Situation Room. He added, Im glad Rep. Golden has made this decision, but why does it have to happen over and over and over again, to have these conversions?

Goldens new position doesnt increase the likelihood of an assault weapons ban passing Congress, where Republicans control the House and Democrats lack a broad enough majority in the Senate.

Asked at the same news conference if she also supported banning assault weapons, Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins said that it is more important that we ban very high-capacity magazines, arguing that would be more effective.

There is always more that can be done, Collins said, touting her support of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act and noting that she is open to exploring whether to increase the age to purchase some firearms from 18 to 21 years old.

Mary Kay Mallonee contributed to this report

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
The statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that was once at the center of the deadly 2017 White nationalist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, has been melted down.

The statue was rendered into bronze ore Saturday at a foundry in an undisclosed location, according to University of Virginia professor Jalane Schmidt.

Schmidt co-leads Swords into Plowshares, a project dedicated to transforming the controversial Lee statue into public art.

She told CNN the group has chosen to withhold the name and location of the foundry to protect the site and its employees from threats and intimidation.

It was a matter of responsibility, both to our community and to any other community, she said of the organizations decision to melt the statue. We didnt want to send it down the road to another community to like, send our toxic waste down the road.

The monument to Lee stood in a park once named after the confederate general for nearly 100 years. But in 2017, amid a nationwide call to tear down confederate monuments, the city council voted to remove the statue.

Molten bronze produced by melting Charlottesville's monument of Robert E. Lee is poured from a hot crucible into ingot molds. - Eze Amos

That decision sparked an uproar among neo-Confederate, White nationalist and neo-Nazi sympathizers who violently clashed with counter-protesters during the Unite the Right protest in Charlottesville that August.

Heather Heyer, a counter-protester, was killed when James Alex Fields drove his car into a crowd. Fields was later found guilty in connection with Heyers death and sentenced to two life terms in prison.

In the aftermath of the Unite the Right rally, Schmidt said the Charlottesville community has tried to heal. Swords Into Plowshares was created by the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, to spearhead the effort to repurpose the controversial monument.

In December 2021, the Charlottesville City Council voted to hand over the statue to the Center, which is housed in what was once Charlottesvilles only high school for Black students.

This July, after a protracted legal battle over the future of the 26-foot effigy, a judge ruled the statue could be melted down and repurposed.

But Schmidt said actually watching the statue melt was a solemn moment.

It was not this gleeful ceremony and I know some of our detractors might think that it was, she said. It was very solemn, very serious.

The statue was cut into pieces before being melted in a furnace that reached temperatures of more than 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, Schmidt said.

It took hours to render the monument into hundreds of blocks of bronze which will now be made into new art, she added.



While other Confederate statues across the South have been removed and placed in storage or museums, Schmidt said she felt melting the Lee statue was the best decision for the Charlottesville community.

Lawsuits, the intimidation, the threats, the violence  weve struggled, she said. And so now what it feels like its a relief  it feels like now we can move forward because we were fighting, fighting, fighting, just to get here.

It is gratifying to finally be going forward now with creativity and really focusing on the art and not the hate, she added.

In a statement Thursday, Andrea Douglas, executive director of the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, said the end of the Lee statue marks the beginning of a beautiful new work of art for the community.



The Center will now take proposals from artists for how to repurpose the ore into something new.

Douglas said officials hope to announce a finalist for the art installment by 2024  the 100th anniversary of the unveiling of the Lee statue  and have the new project installed by 2027, the 10th anniversary of the Unite the Right rally.

Our efforts have not been to remove history but bear witness to truths about our racist past and our aspirations for a more equitable future, she said in the statement.

CNNs David Williams and Amy Simonson contributed to this report

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
It is remembered as one of Arbroath's darkest days, a lifeboat tragedy that claimed the lives of six crew members.

On the 70th anniversary of the Arbroath lifeboat disaster, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is preparing to honour its lost men by laying wreaths at sea and in the cemetery in which they are buried.

It was 27 October 1953 when the Robert Lindsay lifeboat was launched after distress rockets were seen three miles east of Fifeness.

Hours later, as the lifeboat made its return to harbour, it capsized - killing all but one crew member, second coxswain Archibald Smith.

Today, many relatives of the men who died still work for the lifeboat charity in Arbroath.

Current volunteer coxswain Michael Marr believes it is important that the town and the organisation continue to remember their sacrifice.

He told BBC Scotland News: "It's gone down as one of the darkest days in this town's history.

"Almost the whole town felt the impact of it. There's people alive who still remember that day vividly, so it's really important that we remember that."

Michael believes it is a testament to the charity's members that relatives of the men killed in the Arbroath disaster still volunteer to serve on the boats.

"Everyone who is part of the RNLI understands what we're here to do," he said.

"It's a sacrifice, it's to risk your lives for others.

"And we're going out in the same water where those people died."

The distress rockets on that night in 1953 are believed to have come from a ship called the Islandmagee, which also sank with the loss of its six crew.

The Arbroath lifeboat joined the search for the stricken ship in very rough conditions, with strong winds and heavy swells.

At 04:20 the lifeboat sent a radio message suggesting it should return to harbour but would wait until daylight to see the conditions at Arbroath sandbar, which lay 300 yards east of the harbour piers.

At 05:00 the coxswain sent a message saying they expected to reach harbour in 20 minutes.

But they never made it back. As the boat struggled to navigate its way towards safety in the rough seas, it was struck by a steep wave, capsizing it instantly.

The tragedy was witnessed by scores of onlookers who were watching the lifeboat's return to shore. They watched as the boat's lights disappeared at 05:47.

The coastguard rushed to the scene and managed to haul Archibald Smith ashore.

Sadly, his six crewmates all lost their lives.

Family victims

The victims included two brothers, Charles and David Cargill, aged 28 and 29.

The oldest crew member was Harry Swankie, at 63. He died alongside his nephew William Swankie, aged 30.

The two remaining casualties were coxswain David Bruce, 48, and bowman Thomas Adams, 33.

The Arbroath lifeboat disaster has had a lasting affect on both the town and the RNLI.

The tragedy helped the organisation look at processes and equipment that could help save lives in the future.

Coxswain Michael Marr said: "We learned a lot from this disaster.

"It's making sure that we're sending the right crews out with the right equipment in the right weather."
Lindsay Clancy, Massachusetts mother accused of killing her kids, pleads not guilty to 3 counts of murder

If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988.

Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mother accused of strangling her three young children with exercise bands earlier this year, pleaded not guilty Thursday to three counts of murder in connection with their deaths.

On Thursday, the 33-year-old was arraigned at Tewksbury Hospital on three counts of murder and strangulation after she was indicted in September in the deaths of her 5-year-old daughter, Cora, her 3-year-old son, Dawson, and her 8-month-old baby, Callan, before attempting suicide at her Duxbury home.

Lindsay Clancy with two of her three children in an undated photo.

Kevin Reddington, Clancy's attorney, argued that she was suffering with mental health issues and "was a troubled soul."

LINDSAY CLANCY, MASSACHUSETTS MOTHER WHO STRANGLED HER 3 CHILDREN, RESEARCHED WAYS TO KILL,' COURT DOCS SAY

However, prosecutors pointed to recently unsealed 299 pages of records and argued that that Clancy's alleged murders of her three children were deliberate and premeditated.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

Lindsay Clancy holding one of her three children.

According to the documents, unsealed by the Plymouth District Court, Clancy's notebooks contained documentation of her medications and thoughts of suicide.

Evidence collected through 11 search warrants from Clancy's home also found that she used her cell phone to document her mental state and to research ways to kill.

TIMELINE OF LINDSAY CLANCY CASE

The judge presiding over Thursdays hearing ordered Clancy to continue treatment for the next six months at the hospital, where she has been receiving treatment following her suicide attempt in January.

Her next appearance is scheduled for Dec. 15.

In the morning of Jan. 24, Clancy took her daughter to the pediatrician, called a local CVS store about a stool-softener prescription and ordered dinner at the ThreeV restaurant in Plymouth.

She also used Apple Maps on her phone "to determine the time it would take someone to travel from her home in Duxbury to ThreeV in Plymouth," according to court documents.

MASSACHUSETTS MOM LINDSAY CLANCY'S 911 DISPATCH REVEALS FRANTIC FIRST RESPONDERS

Clancy also allegedly texted her husband to see if he could go and pick up the takeout at the restaurant and medication at CVS.

Lindsay Clancy's home in Duxbury, Mass., where she allegedly killed her three children.

When her husband, Patrick Clancy, arrived home, there was "silence," court documents said.

Eventually, he found blood on the floor and noticed an open window .

According to court documents, he ran outside to the backyard, and found Lindsay on the ground, conscious and with cuts to her wrists and neck, and immediately called 911.

The father of the three children allegedly found his children in the basement.

Cora and Dawson were pronounced dead at the hospital on Jan. 24.

Callan was flown to Boston Childrens Hospital with traumatic injuries and placed on life support but died on Jan. 27.

Fox News Digital's Chris Eberhart contributed to this report.





Original article source: Lindsay Clancy, Massachusetts mother accused of killing her kids, pleads not guilty to 3 counts of murder
Othal Wallace is fingerprinted after being sentenced to 30 years in the shooting death of Daytona Beach police officer Jason Raynor on Friday, Oct. 27, 2023.

Convicted cop killer Othal Wallace was sentenced Friday to the maximum 30 years in prison in the murder of Daytona Beach police officer Jason Raynor.

Wallace had been charged with first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer, which carried a possible death sentence. A Clay County jury found him guilty on Sept. 16 of the lesser charge of manslaughter. The trial was moved due to publicity.

In convicting Wallace of manslaughter, the jury also bypassed a second-degree murder charge, which is punishable by up to life in prison. Manslaughter was the lowest charge Wallace faced.

Daytona Beach police chief releases statement on Wallace sentencing

Daytona Beach Police Chief Jakari Young issued a statement which read in part: "The line-of-duty death of Officer Jason Raynor was an immense tragedy, one that still weighs heavily on this agency and our community. Today, we take solace in the knowledge that the perpetrator of this heinous crime has received the maximum sentence allowed by law following his manslaughter conviction.

"Since the day Officer Raynor lost his life protecting and serving others, our community has sought justice for this senseless act of evil. Now, the judicial proceedings in this case have concluded, but our love for Jason remains. Always.

"We also take comfort in the knowledge that a hero remembered never dies, and Officer Jason Raynor will never be forgotten. Officer Raynor will not be remembered for the way he died, but for those ideals he embodied in life  honor, courage and dedication  and his willingness to lay down his life in service to others."

Judge sentences Wallace to maximum 30 years in prison

Circuit Judge Raul Zambrano sentenced Wallace to the maximum of 30 years in prison.

You, however, achieved your goal of getting blood on your boots and now you are being held accountable for your actions, Judge Zambrano said.

Seventh Circuit State Attorney R.J. Larizza said 30 years was inadequate, but that it was the maximum Wallace could receive on the manslaughter charge.

Anything less than 30 years would be a "travesty," Larizza said, and would have sent a message that it was acceptable to kill police officers.

After the verdict, Wallace's defense team said they would look at all of their appeal options.

Wallace asks for 'community control' instead of prison

Wallace, in an orange jumpsuit and handcuffs, stood before the judge.

Wallace asked Zambrano to place him on community control, telling the judge he would not regret it.

Wallace said it was an unfortunate situation. He said he too was a parent and understood the grief of losing a child. He said he would have the same feelings if his child was in the situation.

I do respect the way they feel about whats going on, Wallace said.

I also want to assure them Im not a monster, Wallace said. Im a citizen of this country just like they are.

He said he didn't have anything personal against Raynor.

This is not an action that was personally egregious to him as a person or to his family, Wallace said.

I didnt get to know Mr. Raynor until after the fact, he said.

Wallace referred to Raynors body camera video the shooting.

As you see, we had mere seconds to come to some understanding and unfortunately we never reached understanding before this situation transpired, Wallace said.

He said he was just returning home after visiting one of his children and unwinding outside the apartment where his girlfriend lived with two of his other children.

He said he didnt understand why Raynor approached him.

Wallace said if he could relive the situation, he could do something different.

In the moment the fear that I felt is what generated the reaction, Wallace said.

Wallace said he was allowed to protect himself.

As a person I get to embrace the constitution and what comes with that is a responsibility to protect myself, Wallace said.

As for his social media posts, he referred to issues facing the country at the time.

I made some choice words that I never intended to act upon, Wallace said.

Wallace's family members ask for leniency

Wallace's family members were given the opportunity to speak. They described him as a loving person who was always helping his family. They said Wallace is a good father.

Family members said Wallace was not a monster or a murderer. They said both families, Raynors and Wallaces, have suffered due to the shooting.

They have asked for leniency and to allow Wallace to return to being a father.

They also extended their condolences to Raynor's family.

Jason Raynor's mother 'disgusted' by manslaughter verdict

Raynors mother, Margaret "Peggy" Raynor, read a letter she wrote to Raynor. She spoke about his honesty, courage and integrity.

She said she still had Raynors sports-themed baby blanket.

I had planned to give it to your baby  the baby you will never father, she said.

She remembered his beautiful eyes.

One of those beautiful eyes was shot out with a bullet, she said.

She thanked him for taking his first job where she worked so she could see how honest and hard-working he was. She said he helped her cook and serve meals for the homeless.

She said she had heard amazing things about him.

She showed a sonogram picture of Raynor to the judge and also the last shoes she bought for him.

You were a wonderful precious son, she said.

She said she respects the law but then said people arent given all the information, or enter the building with their minds made up or are bullying others. She did not elaborate.

This is not justice, she said.

She said Wallace showed no remorse.

Im disgusted with the verdict of manslaughter, she said.

Daytona Beach Police Chief Jakari Young addresses courtroom

Daytona Beach Police Chief Jakari Young takes the stand in the sentencing of Othal Wallace in Daytona Beach Friday, Oct. 27, 2023.

Young extended his sincere condolences to Raynors family.

He said Raynors death had a profound impact on the entire department and it wreaked havoc on morale.

He said officers were simply trying to make it through the shift, they became reactive rather than proactive. Some officers resigned because they didnt have the heart to continue. He said it was hard to recruit new officers because they said Daytona Beach was too dangerous.

He said there was a lot of resentment and blame to go around, people saying "if I had done this, it wouldnt have happened."

The main part that I cant get past is that had the defendant just sat down in that vehicle this wouldnt have happened, Young said.

He said the department was in a better place now.

Young said he had been the police chief for seven months when he got a call he hoped to never get.

When you hear the words as a police chief you have an officer down its a gut punch, its a gut punch. It makes it hard to breath just thinking about that, Young said.

Young said he heard Wallace testify at his trial about his background, including time in South Florida.

Young said he grew up in Broward County in the 1990s and he wishes police had approached him the way Raynor approached Wallace.

I can tell you what I did. I complied. I complied and I made sure I got back to my house safely because I did what I was told, Young said.

Young said that Raynor was just 26 when he was killed and had not spent even 30 years on earth.

He said Wallaces maximum sentence of 30 years should be non-negotiable.

Court in recess while judge reads additional letters

Circuit Judge Raul Zambrano read out the names of the letters he had read from family and friends of Jason Raynor. But the judge said he had not read any other letters because they were submitted without a notice of filing and were ex-parte communications.

Defense attorney Garry Wood apologizes and asked Zambrano to read letters submitted by the defense.

Larizza said prosecutors also had an additional letter hed like the judge to read.

Zambrano said that would mean he would have to read 20 letters.

When both sides said they would like him to read the letters, Zambrano said he would and recessed court until 9 a.m., returning to his chambers to read the letters.

Wallace was returned to a holding cell.

Wallace faces up to 30 years in prison

Wallace faces up to a maximum of 30 years in prison. State sentencing guidelines set his minimum sentence at 10.5 years.

But Wallace's defense attorneys have filed a request for him to be sentenced less than 10.5 years.

Wallace, 31, shot Raynor on June 23, 2021. The 26-year-old remained hospitalized until his death on Aug. 17, 2021.

Wallace was sitting in his car behind a Daytona Beach apartment building at 133 Kingston Ave. where he lived with the mother of two of his children. Raynor drove up in his marked patrol car, got out and walked up to Wallace. Raynor asked Wallace if he lived there. Wallace responded by asking what was going on. Wallace stood up out of his car, and Raynor told him several times to sit. The video became shaky as there was a brief struggle and Wallace drew his 9 mm Glock and shot Raynor.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Othal Wallace sentenced to maximum 30 years
Palestinians inspect the rubble of a house after it was struck by an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis refugee camp, Gaza Strip, Friday, Oct.27, 2023. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

Israel knocked out communications and created a near-blackout of information by striking targets in the Gaza Strip with stepped-up bombardment and artillery fire overnight and into Saturday.

Explosions from continuous airstrikes lit up the sky over Gaza City for hours after nightfall Friday as the Israeli military said it was expanding ground operations in the territory, signaling a move closer to an all-out invasion of Gaza meant to crush the ruling Hamas militant group after its bloody rampage in southern Israel on Oct. 7.

The Palestinian telecom provider, Paltel, said the bombardment caused complete disruption of internet, cellular and landline services as the besieged enclaves 2.3 million people were largely cut off from contact with the outside world. Some satellite phones continued to function.

The Palestinian death toll passed 7,300. The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza, which tracks the toll, released a detailed list including names and ID numbers on Thursday. In the occupied West Bank, more than 110 Palestinians have been killed in violence and Israeli raids since the war's start three weeks ago.

More than 1,400 people were slain in Israel during the Hamas incursion, including at least 310 soldiers, according to the Israeli government. At least 229 hostages were taken into Gaza, and four hostages were released earlier.

Currently:

Heres what is happening in the latest Israel-Hamas war:

LARGE DEMONSTRATION AT U.S. EMBASSY IN INDONESIA CALLS FOR END TO WAR

JAKARTA, Indonesia  More than 3,000 protesters marched to the heavily guarded U.S. Embassy in Indonesias capital on Saturday to demand an end to the war and bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Waving Indonesian and Palestinian flags, the protesters, many wearing white Islamic robes, filled a major thoroughfare in downtown Jakarta running outside the embassy. About 1,000 police were deployed around the compound, which is blocked off by concrete road barriers.

The protesters, organized by the Indonesian Ulema Council, known as MUI, chanted God is Great and Freedom for Palestine during the noisy but peaceful protest. Banners and placards proclaimed, We stand with Gaza, and slammed the Israeli government while denouncing the staunch U.S. support of Israel.

We are not willing to allow our brothers and sisters in Palestine to be tyrannized or genocided by Israel, MUI Secretary General of MUI Amirsyah Tambunan told the crowd. We will continue to support and fight for Palestinian independence and sovereignty.

NYC PROTESTERS DEMAND GAZA CEASE-FIRE, MANY ARRESTED AFTER FILLING GRAND CENTRAL TRAIN STATION

NEW YORK  Hundreds of protesters in black T-shirts filled New York Citys iconic Grand Central Terminal during the evening rush hour on Friday to demand a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war.

Many of the protesters were detained by police and taken out of the station, their hands zip tied behind their backs. The NYPD could not immediately say how many were taken into custody.

Hundreds of Jews and friends are taking over Grand Central Station in a historic sit-in calling for a ceasefire, advocacy group Jewish Voice for Peace said on social media.

Inside the main concourse, protesters wearing shirts that read cease-fire now and not in our name chanted, with some holding banners in front of the list of departure times. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority asked commuters to use Penn Station as an alternative.

The scene echoed last weeks sit-in where more than 300 people were arrested for illegally demonstrating on Capitol Hill in Washington.

EXPLOSIONS SHATTER THE NIGHT SKY OVER GAZA AS ISRAEL EXPANDS BOMBING

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip  The dull orange glow of Israeli flares shone in the night sky over Gaza, slowly descending through the haze to illuminate targets for warplanes before eventually flickering out, plunging the scene back into darkness.

Multiple explosions from Israeli airstrikes tore into northern Gaza on Friday, quick flashes of bright orange silhouetted against the rooftops of Palestinian apartments and refugee camps. The sharp crunching sound of the bombs followed each time, seconds later, one after another.

Overhead, the buzz of Israeli military drones cut through, growing quieter and louder as the crafts circled the airspace.

For most Palestinians trapped in the Gaza Strip, their world has shrunk to these few sounds and colors.

Israel dramatically ramped up its bombardment Friday after knocking out internet and communication in Gaza, largely cutting off the tiny besieged enclaves 2.3 million people from contact with each other and the outside world.

U.N. GENERAL ASSEMBLY CALLS FOR HUMANITARIAN TRUCE IN GAZA LEADING TO HALT IN ISRAEL-HAMAS FIGHTING

UNITED NATIONS  The U.N. General Assembly approved a nonbinding resolution on Friday calling for a humanitarian truce in Gaza leading to a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Gazas Hamas rulers.

It was the first U.N. response to Hamas surprise Oct. 7 attacks on Israel and Israels ongoing military response and vow to obliterate Hamas.

The 193-member world body adopted the resolution by a vote of 120-14 with 45 abstentions after rejecting a Canadian amendment backed by the United States to unequivocally condemn the terrorist attacks by Hamas and demand the immediate release of hostages taken by the militant group.

GAZA'S LARGEST HOSPITAL STRUGGLES TO KEEP ITS NEONATAL UNITS RUNNING AS ISRAEL TIGHTENS SEIGE

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip  Premature babies wiggle and squirm, some with oxygen tubes under their noses, in rows of clear plastic incubators inside the neonatal unit of Gazas largest hospital, which, like the rest of the besieged Palestinian territory, is running out of fuel, food, water and electricity.

Doctors in Gaza say conditions have reached catastrophic levels. They say a lack of basic supplies has left them struggling to maintain hygiene and sanitation, and hospital grounds are overcrowded with displaced civilians seeking refuge from Israeli airstrikes.

We have noticed an increase in premature birth cases, said Dr. Nasser Bulbul, head of the NICU at al-Shifa Hospital.

We had to perform a premature delivery of the fetus from the mothers womb while shes dying, he said. Many of these infants are orphaned, and we dont know the fate of their relatives or have information about their identities.

Around 50,000 pregnant women are caught up in the conflict, with around 5,500 due to give birth within the next 30 days, according to the United Nations Population Fund.

If fuel supplies run out, neonatal intensive care units will be impacted and planned or emergency caesarean sections will be impossible, the U.N. agency said.

PRESS GROUP SAYS THE PAST 3 WEEKS HAVE BEEN DEADLIEST PERIOD FOR JOURNALISTS COVERING CONFLICT

NEW YORK  The Committee to Protect Journalists says the past three weeks have been the deadliest on record for journalists covering conflict since the organization started tracking in 1992.

The organization said in a statement Friday that at least 29 journalists have died covering the Israel-Hamas war since it ignited Oct. 7, including 24 Palestinians, four Israelis and 1 Lebanese. Additionally, 8 other journalists were reported injured and 9 were reported missing or detained.

CPJ also criticized the cutting of communications services in the Gaza Strip, warning that the blackout is also a news blackout that has compromised the publics ability to know and understand what is happening in this conflict.

This can lead to serious consequences with an independent, factual information vacuum that can be filled with deadly propaganda, dis- and misinformation, it said.

The organization stressed that journalists are civilians that must be respected and protected in accordance with international humanitarian law, adding that deliberating targeting journalists or media infrastructure constitutes possible war crimes.

WERE NOT DRAWING RED LINES FOR ISRAEL,' WHITE HOUSE OFFICIAL SAYS

WASHINGTON  White House National Security spokesman John Kirby repeatedly refused to comment on Israel saying its ground forces were expanding activity in Gaza and also refused to comment on what a satisfactory long-term objective might be for the fighting.

Were not drawing red lines for Israel, Kirby said Friday on a call with reporters. Were going to continue to support them but since the very beginning we have, and will continue to have, conversations about the manner that they are doing this.

Kirby said the U.S. is still evaluating the impact of airstrikes against Iranian-backed militias and we will not hesitate to take further actions in our own self-defense.

He also said 10 additional trucks filled with humanitarian aid had made it to Gaza, bringing the total to 84, but that the U.S. is aware that fuel there is only anticipated to last a couple of days.

The White House previously said President Joe Biden was briefed Friday morning by his national security team on the latest developments in Israel and Gaza.

AID GROUPS SAY BLACKOUT IS IMPEDING STAFF COMMUNICATIONS AND OPERATIONS

RAMALLAH, West Bank  Aid groups say the communications blackout in the Gaza Strip has not only left them unable to contact their staff, but has also impeded their operations in the territory.

It doesnt only mean that Gaza is isolated from the world but also it means people cant connect to each other. Our emergency line is down so people are literally not able to call an ambulance, said Nebal Farsakh, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent. We are extremely worried because we are completely cut off from our teams.

The International Committee of the Red Cross also said it's currently unable to reach its staff in Gaza.

We are deeply worried for their safety and the safety of all civilians where hostilities are taking place," the organization said in a statement. Without access to information in a communication blackout, people dont know where to go for safety.

ISRAELI ARMY SAYS GROUND FORCES WILL EXPAND THEIR ACTIVITY IN GAZA FRIDAY EVENING

JERUSALEM  The Israeli military on Friday said its ground forces were expanding their activity in the Gaza Strip, as the army moved closer to a full-on ground invasion of the besieged territory.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the armys spokesman, said aerial attacks had been targeting Hamas tunnels and other targets.

In addition to the attacks that we carried out in recent days, ground forces are expanding their activity this evening, he said. The IDF is acting with great force ... to achieve the objectives of the war.

Israel has amassed hundreds of thousands of troops along the border with Gaza ahead of an expected ground offensive against the Hamas militant group.

Israel has been pounding Gaza with airstrikes since Hamas militants carried out a bloody cross-border incursion on Oct. 7.

POPE FRANCIS LEADS SPECIAL PRAYERS FOR COUNTRIES AND REGIONS AFFECTED BY WAR

VATICAN CITY  Amid signs of escalating tensions in the Middle East, Pope Francis led special prayers Friday evening in St. Peters Basilica for a world in a dark hour and in great danger from what he described as the folly of war.

In his remarks, delivered in the form of a prayer to the Virgin Mary, Francis didnt mention by name the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which exploded into war after the Hamas attack against Israelis on Oct. 7.

Instead, he said he was praying for especially those countries and regions at war.

Intercede for our world, in such turmoil and great danger, the pope prayed, in apparent reference to widespread anxiety that the Israeli-Hamas war could quickly develop into a wider, regional war in the Middle East.

PALESTINIAN TELECOM PROVIDER SAYS INTERNET SERVICE HAS BEEN CUT IN GAZA STRIP

RAMALLAH, West Bank  The Palestinian telecom provider Paltel says internet service in Gaza Strip has been cut off by Israeli bombardment. Services were cut Friday evening, following a heavy round of Israeli airstrikes that lit up the night sky over the darkened territory.

Rights groups and journalists also say they lost contact with colleagues in the enclave. The Associated Press's attempts to contact people in Gaza did not go through.
Michelle Taylor stands in the kitchen of her home at Pinnacle Crossing. The house had to be gutted after sewage flooded the floors.

The Taylor's house located in a development off South Post Road.

Michelle Taylor stands in the hollowed out remains of what used to be her kitchen, floor stripped down to the plywood, walls cut two feet up, doors missing and appliances waiting to be thrown away.

She fights back tears when she says her children ask her when they can return to their home at Pinnacle Crossing off South Post Road, and she has no answer.

She said they might never come back.

Last Thursday, Taylors 6-year-old son said he heard a rushing noise like ocean waves and moments later, brown, sludgy water was exploding out of the toilets and showers and rushing into the crawlspace of the house. Smelly sewage flooded the floor several inches deep, displacing the family of four and destroying most of their belongings. Taylor said a neighbor saw nearby manhole covers blown several feet into the air from the force of the liquid rushing down the pipes and directly to her house.

Taylor wants answers as to how this happened and who is responsible.

She said a plumber came out to take a look and said hed never seen anything like it before. American Restoration mitigation teams started work on the house last week, stripping out floors, removing doors and throwing away furniture. One employee said when they first started work, the house smelled like a porta-potty left sitting out on a hot summer day.

Michelle Taylor and her husband, Nicholas Taylor, and their two children moved from Colorado into the brand new home at Pinnacle Crossing nearly two years ago and decided the white farm-style house with its red front door was their forever home. She said they closed on the sale Dec. 2, 2021.

It was perfect timing, she said. Were close to Pinnacle where my kids go to school. Its on a cul de sac. This home was literally perfect.

The house is located at the end of Pinnacle Crossing, down a hill and nestled at the end of the street.

She said they moved to Shelby to be closer to family and thought theyd landed their dream home. She said they poured everything into the house, spending thousands on landscaping.

Then came the nightmare on Oct. 19.

My son heard what he thought was an ocean, Taylor said. He said it sounded like Great Wolf Lodge.

She said all the sewer came from uphill and directly to their house at the bottom of the street.

It came spewing out of the toilets, showers, were talking an explosion, she said. This thing had some major force behind it.

They immediately got out of the house as inches of water, sewage, sludge and silt filled every corner of their 1,750-square-foot home.

Her father in law went to check out the crawl space and shut the water main off, thinking that would help.

Taylor said she called 911, was told they couldnt help, called Shelby Utilities, couldnt get through to them and drove directly to the office in tears.

She said a city employee was sent out and she was assured the city would take care of the family, including with housing expenses.

Taylor said that hasnt happened ,and she and her husband have had to pay out of pocket hotel expenses and are searching for an Airbnb for a longer stay.

She said when she called the city back, she was told they hadnt found anything to indicate the city was liable. She said workers sent a scope with a camera into the sewer lines but then she heard nothing back.

She said she feels there was some kind of backflow malfunction or an issue at the wastewater treatment plant.

Somebody goofed up, she said. It came from the city sewer main.

Shelby City Manager Rick Howell said the city is still investigating the situation.

This is an unfortunate event for the Taylor family, he wrote in an email to The Star. My heart goes out to them. The matter has been turned over to our insurer and is still under investigation by them so it would be inappropriate to comment further.

Although he couldnt speak as to the cause, he said other homeowners in the development can rest easy.

I can say that there is evidence to strongly suggest it is an isolated event, Howell wrote.

He said no one from the city has declared anything about liability to the homeowner to his knowledge.

This is a very emotional situation for the impacted family, Howell said. In order to do their job correctly the insurer must complete the investigation to make a determination. Assumptions as to cause without facts to back them up are not helpful to anyone.

He said there would be no further statements issued on the matter until the investigation is complete.

Taylor said in the meantime, it will be six months or longer before the house is habitable again.

My life has been ruined temporarily, she said. I have a 6 and 7 year old asking when they can come home. Our dog Gizmo has to stay at my father-in-laws house. I try to just keep a game face on and just advocate for my family.

At night, when she cant sleep, she submits receipts to their insurance company. She said she and her husband have been in contact with an attorney and plan to file a lawsuit against the city.

This is what our forever home is reduced to, wood flooring, drywall, mattresses on the floor, all our belongings destroyed through no fault of our own, Taylor said. Its horrific."

She said the holidays are just around the corner, and they wont get to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas in their home.

It's a 2-year-old house, who would ever think something like this would ever happen or could happen, she said. We're not talking about a toilet overflow, were talking about a tidal wave of poop.

She said even when it is repaired, she doesnt know if theyll ever be able to move back in.

The memories and the fear that it could happen again mean they may be looking for a new forever home.

The family also started a GoFundMe to help with costs.

Reporter Rebecca Sitzes can be reached at rsitzes@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on The Shelby Star: Local family's home destroyed by sewage
Gun violence was again a topic for debate among local lawmakers following the shooting of an Illinois State trooper and a rampage in Maine.

Sen. Doris Turner, D-Springfield, (center) and Rep. Mike Coffey, R-Springfield (right), spoke on local legislative priorities during a Citizens Club of Springfield forum Friday, Oct. 27, 2023.

For state Rep. Mike Coffey, R-Springfield, the issue lies with the individual and not the gun.

"There's bad people everywhere that do really bad things and we really need to focus probably more on mental health," he said Friday during a Citizens Club of Springfield forum.

During the forum held at the Hoogland Center for the Arts, Sen. Doris Turner, D-Springfield, noted the state's attempts at curbing gun access have fallen short in some ways, still allowing for people to own guns when they should not.

"I think that we do need to look at how we keep guns out of the hands of people who should not have them," she said.

More: Illinois lawmakers hit pause on veto session; will return to Springfield on Nov. 7

Gun control advocates say one solution is for the Illinois Senate to take up legislation addressing a firearm ownership loophole pertaining to protection orders. Current state law orders a respondent's Firearm Owner Identification Card to be revoked once an order has been placed, but advocates say actual removal of firearms often does not occur.

Such was the case with Cristobal Santana, 37, suspected in the shooting of the ISP trooper in Springfield.

Three weeks ago, Santana's ex-girlfriend Adrianna Lopez was granted a protective order against him in Chicago. Trooper Dakotah "Kody" Chapman-Green pulled him over Tuesday evening as a suspect in Lopez's shooting death.

Chapman-Green was then shot allegedly by Santana who was eventually arrested by police early Wednesday morning. Santana has been charged with two counts of attempted murder in addition to aggravated battery with a firearm against a peace office, aggravated battery against a peace office, and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon. A Sangamon County court judge ordered him held Friday by the Sangamon County Sheriff.

More: Here's what Illinois lawmakers are saying about the new House speaker

With one week to go in the veto session, Yolanda Androzzo, executive director of the gun control advocacy group One Aim Illinois called for swift action.

House Bill 676, deemed Karina's bill and named for a woman who was granted a protection order but killed by an ex-boyfriend, passed in the Illinois House 70-36 in May and is in the Senate assignments committee.

"Time is of the essence because the most dangerous time of the year for survivors of domestic violence  the holidays  are just around the corner," Androzzo said in a statement. "How many more tragedies like this have to happen before lawmakers take action to keep our children, families, and communities safe?

The debate over gun access comes as ISP is requiring registration of those owning guns and other items prohibited by the state's semi-assault assault weapon ban. Gov. JB Pritzker signed the Protect Illinois Communities Act into law in January following a 2022 Independence Day shooting in Highland Park.

Online registration began earlier this month where 2,046 individuals have made disclosures as of Friday according to state police data. Those disclosures accounted for 3,880 firearms, 2,145 accessories and 39 pieces of ammunition.

ISP is hosting several public hearings to address questions, including one in Springfield. That hearing will take place on Thursday starting at 9:30 a.m. at 401 Spring St., room D-1 of the Stratton building.

Coffey's comments were similar to those made by newly elected U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., in the aftermath of the Lewiston, Maine shooting where at least 18 people were killed. Speaking with Fox Newss Sean Hannity, Johnson said the problem lies with the "human heart."

Contact Patrick M. Keck: 312-549-9340, pkeck@gannett.com, twitter.com/@pkeckreporter.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: ISP, Maine shootings bring varying responses from local legislators
The Butler County OVI Task Force will be holding a checkpoint tonight.

>>Cruiser cam shows sheriffs deputy crashing into vehicle during chase in Montgomery County

It will take place in the City of Hamilton at the 2200 block of S. Erie Blvd. (State Route 4) starting tonight at 10 p.m. and ending at 2 a.m., according to a Butler County OVI Task Force spokesperson.

The northbound lane will be checked.

The checkpoints and saturation patrols are part of the task forces continuing effort to reduce OVI-related crashes.

The Butler County OVI Task Force is funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as well as the Ohio Department of Public Safety.
Experts at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) suggest that Russians have lost much more equipment near Avdiivka than they did near Vuhledar earlier this year.

Source: the ISW

Details: The heavy losses of Russian equipment near Avdiivka are likely to undermine Russia's offensive capabilities in the long term.

However, experts note that the Russian command will likely try to compensate for the loss of their equipment, especially armoured vehicles.

The widespread losses and lack of Russian equipment in the first year of the full-scale invasion significantly limited Russia's ability to conduct effective manoeuvrable mechanised warfare during the Russian military's offensive in the winter and spring of 2022, leading to further losses during the disorderly mechanised assaults near Vuhledar in January and February 2023.

The heavy losses in the city of Vuhledar likely prevented Russian commanders from launching sustained mechanised offensives in other parts of Ukraine later in the offensive in winter-spring 2023.

The recent losses of Russian equipment near Avdiivka appear to be much greater than the previous losses near Vuhledar. It remains unclear whether the prospect of further heavy equipment losses will deter the Russian command from launching another series of large mechanised assaults near Avdiivka.

An ISW map

Russia has gradually mobilised elements of its defence industrial base to address the equipment shortages, but has not done so on a scale even remotely sufficient to compensate for the cumulative losses of Russian equipment in Ukraine.

The recent losses of Russian equipment near Avdiivka are likely to further exacerbate the shortage of Russian equipment and reverse any progress made by the Russian military in addressing degraded mechanised manoeuvre warfare capabilities.

To quote the ISWs Key Takeaways on 26 October:

Heavy Russian equipment losses around Avdiivka will likely undermine Russian offensive capabilities over the long term.

Ukrainian forces marginally advanced on the east (left) bank of Kherson Oblast and continued offensive operations near Bakhmut and in western Zaporizhia Oblast.

Ukrainian officials denied reports that Ukraine suspended a corridor for civilian vessels in the Black Sea on October 26.

An amendment to the Russian citizenship law allowing for the revocation of naturalized Russian citizenship came into force on October 26, providing the Russian government with a new mechanism to coerce migrants into Russian military service.

A senior Hamas delegation traveled to Moscow and met with Russian and Iranian officials on October 26.

Russian forces conducted offensive operations along the Kupyansk-Svatove-Kreminna line, near Bakhmut, near Avdiivka, southwest of Donetsk City, in the Donetsk-Zaporizhia Oblast border area, and in western Zaporizhia Oblast and advanced in some areas.

Several Russian opposition outlets reported that Russian defense industrial base (DIB) companies continue to use Western components supplied through intermediaries to manufacture missiles to use against Ukraine.

Russian occupation authorities continue efforts to forcibly indoctrinate Ukrainian youth into Russian culture and identity through the expansion of military-patriotic educational programs.

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The Liaoning Ballet Troupe, a top Chinese ballet ensemble, will premiere its new production "Notre Dame de Paris" on Saturday in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, which is set to captivate the audience with its unique interpretation of the timeless classic.

The ballet is based on Victor Hugo's novel, Notre Dame de Paris, also known as The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Its ballet adaptations have graced the stages of numerous ballet companies worldwide over the course of more than a century.

This fresh rendition by Liaoning Ballet is a collaboration between the troupe and international luminaries. Its core creative team hails from Europe, including director Patrick de Bana from Germany.

De Bana, who has worked in China for many years, expressed profound delight at his first collaboration with Liaoning Ballet. "The pleasure I have working with the dancers in the studio is gigantic. Wonderful humans. Wonderful artists. Wonderful dancers. And we definitely connect well," he said.

The stage design of the production takes inspiration from French oil paintings, while the music score seamlessly blends elements from classical and modern genres, harmonizing with the overall aesthetic of the ballet.

This ballet features outstanding young performers from Liaoning Ballet. Zhang Haidong, who portrays the central character Quasimodo, acknowledged the challenges of depicting a physically-impaired character through ballet.

"Adapting my movements to mimic the unique physical traits of the character was a learning process, but I have grown more comfortable with it over time," said Zhang.

Although the role of Quasimodo has been played by various famous dancers around the world, the principal dancer of Liaoning Ballet remains unfazed by the expectations, as he is confident that the director will breathe new life into the role.

"I embarked on an exploration of Quasimodo's inner world through literature and then merged it with the director's vision to create my own interpretation of this complex character," Zhang explained.

Established in 1980, Liaoning Ballet has solidified its position as one of China's preeminent ballet troupes, with a repertoire that includes 18 classic ballet productions, such as "Swan Lake" and "Sleeping Beauty."

It has also created 17 original ballets, including Mulan and Iron Man. In 2019, the troupe took Mulan on a tour to the United States, Canada, Mauritius and other countries, winning wide acclaim among local audiences.

After staging two performances in Shenyang on Oct. 28-29, Liaoning Ballet will take the new production to Shanghai in late November and Beijing in December, according to the troupe.
A 47-year-old lottery player won big after using a tickets winnings to buy a new ticket, Maryland officials said.

The construction worker from the Eastern Shore was heading to work when he stopped to cash in a $50 winning scratch-off, according to an Oct. 26 news release by the Maryland Lottery.

The man stopped at a Safeway in Pasadena and used the $50 winnings to buy two $20 scratch-offs and a $10 one, officials said.

Leaving the tickets for later, the man had no clue that one of them would score him $1 million until he scratched them while he stopped to get gas, lottery officials said.

The first game was a $55 winner, and I was pretty happy about that, the Denton resident told officials. No win on the second, but that third ticket almost gave me a heart attack.

The man almost fell over, then called his girlfriend to tell her the good news, the release said.

I was stuttering that I hit and she thought I was saying that I was in a car accident, he told officials. She said, hit what, what did you hit.

After getting home, he showed her the ticket and put it in a safe until the prize was claimed on Oct. 26, officials said.

The lucky winner plans to buy new cars for him and his girlfriend before saving the rest of the money, officials said.

Pasadena is about 20 miles south of Baltimore.

Many people can gamble or play games of chance without harm. However, for some, gambling is an addiction that can ruin lives and families.

If you or a loved one shows signs of gambling addiction, you can seek help by calling the national gambling hotline at 1-800-522-4700 or visiting the National Council on Problem Gambling website.

Lottery winner wont change much after $2 million jackpot in SC. Im still working

Lottery player wins big near anniversary of moms death. Up there pulling strings

Lottery app said man didnt win, but then he checked it again  and started shaking
I made Ina Garten's and Julia Child's recipes for beef bourguignon to see which one I'd make again.

Ina Garten's recipe was much faster and simpler to make.

However, I preferred the taste of the recipe by Julia Child.

Despite being proud of my home-cooking skills, beef bourguignon is one recipe that has always intimidated me.

The dish takes multiple hours to prepare and is a source of stress in the movie "Julie & Julia," in which one of the characters attempts to make it for a special dinner and fails miserably.

However, despite my apprehensions, I decided to try making two versions of the famous French dish: one recipe by American celebrity chef Ina Garten and the other by Julia Child, who arguably made the dish famous.

The main difference between Garten's and Child's versions is the time it takes to prepare each dish  Child's recipe takes six hours, whereas Garten's claims to take only 1 hour and 45 minutes.

Here's how to make each beef bourguignon recipe, and which one I would make again.

I started by gathering the ingredients for Julia Child's beef bourguignon.

The ingredients for Julia Child's beef bourguignon. Erin McDowell/Insider

The ingredients were easy to find at my local grocery store, except for the bottle of full-bodied red wine. Luckily, I had a bottle of Merlot in my liquor cabinet that I thought would work nicely.

The total amount I spent on groceries was $46.81. You can find the full list of ingredients and instructions here.

The recipe takes six hours, so I got to work. I started by prepping my vegetables.

Slicing a white onion. Erin McDowell/Insider

The recipe calls for one large white onion, one carrot, smashed garlic, and pearl onions. I chopped up the carrot, smashed the garlic, and cut the onion into thin slices.

The recipe also calls for bacon.

Sliced bacon. Erin McDowell/Insider

However, Child recommends preparing the bacon in an interesting way.

Rather than frying the bacon right away, the recipe requires placing it in simmering water for 10 minutes.

Bacon blanching in water. Erin McDowell/Insider

The reason for this step is to remove the smoky flavor that is standard with most brands of American bacon.

After straining the bacon with a slotted spoon and placing it on a paper towel to dry, I lightly browned it in my well-loved Le Creuset Dutch oven.

Bacon sauteing in the Dutch oven. Erin McDowell/Insider

I then set it aside for later, and began to brown the cubes of meat in the bacon fat. It took a few minutes for the meat to become seared on all sides.

I then started sauteing the onions and carrots in the beef fat.

Sauteed onions and carrots. Erin McDowell/Insider

Once the carrots and onions had softened, I added the bacon and beef back into the pot with the vegetables, seasoned it, and sprinkled flour over the top.

At this point, Child recommends putting the pot into the oven for four minutes, tossing the contents, and putting it back in the oven.

The ingredients in the Dutch oven. Erin McDowell/Insider

She then recommends removing the pot from the oven and lowering the heat from 425 degrees to 325 degrees. This differs slightly from Ina Garten's recipe, which cooks at 250 degrees in the oven.

I then added in the beef stock, tomato paste, and wine.

The stew in the Dutch oven. Erin McDowell/Insider

At this step, you should also add in the smashed garlic and dried thyme. I then let the pot simmer on the stove for a few minutes.

Finally, it was time to let the oven do the work. The stew cooks in the oven for three to four hours.

In the last hour of cooking, I prepared the pearl onions and mushrooms.

Pearl onions browning in a pan. Erin McDowell/Insider

To prepare the pearl onions, you'll want to saute them in butter and oil until they're lightly browned. Then, add in a half-cup of beef stock, salt and pepper, and a herb bouquet of parsley, thyme, and a bay leaf.

The recipe said to let the onions simmer for 40 minutes until the liquid has evaporated and the onions are tender. I found it took far less time for this to happen  about 20 minutes. If I had left them any longer, they would have completely burned.

I then sauteed the mushrooms for about five minutes in a small amount of butter.

Mushrooms cooking in a pan. Erin McDowell/Insider

I cooked them until they were browned and slightly soft.

At the three-hour mark, I pulled the beef bourguignon out of the oven and discovered most of the liquid had evaporated.

The beef bourguignon after cooking for three hours. Erin McDowell/Insider

I panicked for a second, thinking I had ruined it. Luckily, none of the stew had burned, but if I had left it much longer, it might have.

I added in another cup or two of beef stock, plus the pearl onions and the mushrooms, to try and make it more stew-like, rather than a chunky sludge of beef and vegetables. This stressed me out slightly, as dinner ended up being done way before I expected it to be.

Luckily, the extra beef stock brought it back to the correct consistency.

The beef bourguignon after I added more liquid. Erin McDowell/Insider

When making this recipe, I highly recommend checking the pot often and adding in more stock if necessary. If I hadn't checked how the dish was doing when I did, it could have ended in disaster.

The recipe says to strain the stew and simmer the remaining sauce for a few minutes in a pot on the stove. I didn't want to risk ruining the stew's consistency, so I opted out of this step. In the end, the result was delicious without doing this.

There are no words to describe just how delicious this meal was.

The finished beef bourguignon. Erin McDowell/Insider

You can serve the beef bourguignon with boiled or mashed potatoes, cauliflower, or with a piece of bread, like I did.

The sauce was rich and flavorful, and the meat was fall-apart tender while still having a good texture. The vegetables also still had a bite to them, and I mopped up every last drop of the stew with the bread.

Next, I tried making Ina Garten's recipe for beef bourguignon.

The ingredients for Ina Garten's beef bourguignon. Erin McDowell/Insider

The ingredients were easy to find at the grocery store, and some of them I already had in my kitchen.

However, upon getting the groceries home, I noticed that about a pound of the meat I had gotten had gone off the day before and was looking slightly worse for wear.

I decided to halve the recipe, which ended up being more sensible considering I was the only one eating it that night.

I spent $84.06  considerably more than for the first recipe  on the supplies, which included a run to the liquor store to buy cognac and a bottle of dry red wine. You can find the full recipe and list of ingredients here.

I started by dicing the bacon and sauteing it in olive oil in a large Dutch-oven pot similar to the one I used for Julia Child's recipe.

The bacon cooking in a Dutch-oven pot. Erin McDowell/Insider

Garten's recipe doesn't call for blanching the bacon, which cuts out a fair bit of time. I cooked the bacon until it was crisp and then set it aside on a plate.

I then added the beef cubes to the bacon fat and seared it on all sides.

The beef searing in the Dutch oven. Erin McDowell/Insider

This is the same process as Julia Child's, although I was making less meat this time around. After the meat was fully browned on all sides, I placed the pieces on the same plate as the bacon.

I then added the sliced onions and carrots to the Dutch oven.

The carrots and onions in a Dutch-oven pot. Erin McDowell/Insider

Once the carrots and onions were lightly browned, I added two cloves of chopped garlic and continued cooking the vegetables until the garlic became fragrant.

The first major difference between the recipes arose when Garten's recipe required me to flambe cognac in the pot with the vegetables.

My kitchen with a pot on the stove. Erin McDowell/Insider

My kitchen in Brooklyn, New York, is quite claustrophobic and the stove doesn't even have a fan. Given the nature of my kitchen  and the fact that I had a major fire in a previous apartment  I was really anxious about igniting any kind of alcohol in the cooking process.

After consulting a few online resources and my roommate, I decided to nix the cognac and simply use more wine and beef broth instead.

I then added the meat and bacon back into the pot with the vegetables.

The beef bourguignon before adding the wine and stock. Erin McDowell/Insider

Despite halving the recipe, there was still a large amount of meat and vegetables  definitely enough for a few people.

I then added enough wine and beef broth to almost cover the meat, following Garten's instructions.

The beef bourguignon with the wine and stock. Erin McDowell/Insider

Next, I added the tomato paste and thyme and brought the stew to a simmer. Then, it was time to put it in the preheated 250-degree oven for the required one hour and 15 minutes.

Just before the pot was ready to be pulled from the oven, I made a butter and flour mixture in a small bowl.

The flour and butter mixture in a bowl. Erin McDowell/Insider

Whereas Julia Child sprinkles the meat and vegetables with flour before adding in the liquid, Garten recommends adding this mixture after taking the stew out of the oven.

I also sauteed mushrooms in butter in a stainless-steel pan.

The sauteed mushrooms in a stainless-steel pan. Erin McDowell/Insider

Whereas Child uses whole mushrooms, Garten says to remove the stalks before thinly slicing them.

After mixing in the butter, flour, frozen pearl onions, and mushrooms, I brought the pot to a boil on top of the stove, then lowered the heat and simmered it for another 15 minutes.

The finished beef bourguignon. Erin McDowell/Insider

Whereas Child's beef bourguignon didn't have enough liquid when I made it, Garten's had a bit too much liquid and could have cooked off for a longer period of time.

However, the meat and vegetables were tender. According to the recipe's instructions, it was done.

Garten recommends serving the stew on top of two pieces of toasted bread.

The finished beef bourguignon on top of two pieces of bread. Erin McDowell/Insider

The consistency of Garten's beef bourguignon was slightly watery compared to Child's version, but it was still really tasty. The bread was a nice addition and helped soak up some of the excess liquid, and the meat was tender.

However, I would have liked the sauce to be slightly thicker. This could have been accomplished with less liquid to start with or by leaving the stew in the oven or on the stove for longer.

Despite the work and stress that went into preparing Julia Child's beef bourguignon, it was well worth it in the end and slightly edged out Ina Garten's version.

The author holding up "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" by Julia Child. Erin McDowell/Insider

While I really enjoyed both versions and thought Ina Garten's was much more realistic for a weeknight meal, I couldn't help but admit that I preferred the result of Julia Child's recipe.

While it took considerably more time and effort, I thought it was worth it  given that I happened to have the time and energy for it.

Some recipes are iconic for a reason.

Read the original article on Insider
A Madison County man driving a police-type car ended up in jail Thursday after he used blue lights to stop a car that was being driven by an off-duty Lawrenceville police officer.

The incident occurred at about 2 p.m. on U.S. Highway 29 near Hull Road, according to Athens-Clarke police.

Police have charged 62-year-old Colbert man with impersonating a police officer and the unlawful use of blue lights.

Police said the Lawrenceville officer, who previously worked for Athens-Clarke police, was traveling in an unmarked car when a black Ford Crown Victoria approached him from behind at a high speed and flashing blue lights. The officer reported he pulled to the shoulder followed by the Ford still flashing blue lights.

The officer reported he activated his own emergency lights, rolled down his window, and displayed his police badge.

Upon seeing this, the suspect drove off, but the officer followed him to a bank parking lot and confronted him until an Athens-Clarke police officer arrived.

The Crown Vic resembled a police car with the wheels, front windshield spot light, dark windows and still had the faded lettering of Johns Creek and 911 on the body.

The suspect maintained the officer had cut him off and never used a turn signal. He said he flashed his own blue lights out of anger.

Before he was arrested and his car towed, the suspect reported he purchased the former police unit two years ago and it still had the blue lights.

Candidate fired: Jackson County sheriff's captain fired for sneaking into co-worker's office

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Colbert man faces charges of impersonating officer, using blue lights
WASHINGTON  Mike Johnsons sudden rise to the speakership reflects a major rightward shift for House Republicans in what could be a big test for the more moderate wing of the conference.

The Louisiana Republican is far more conservative than his predecessors. Before taking the gavel, Johnson voted against Ukraine aid, codifying same-sex marriage and has co-sponsored federal legislation to restrict abortion rights.

Though it is yet to be seen what Johnsons policy agenda will exactly entail  the newly crowned speaker has so far declined to answer reporters questions about legislation  moderate House Republicans say they have no qualms about his voting record.

At the end of the day, they say, Republicans still control the House with just a four-seat majority, which means each member can leverage an outsized amount of power with their vote.

Just as ultraconservatives wielded power during Speaker Kevin McCarthy's era, moderates can use their votes as loud voices.

On his first full day on the job, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., makes a statement to reporters about the mass shooting in Maine, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023.

'The conference as a whole'

Rep. Marc Molinaro, R-N.Y., a vulnerable GOP lawmaker who represents a district President Joe Biden won in the 2020 election, shrugged off the possibility Johnson could push the conference in a more conservative direction.

The speaker has said to us out loud that he recognizes the need to represent the interests of members like me and districts like mine, Molinaro told USA TODAY. When you become speaker, youre not only responsible for your district, but for the conference as a whole.

After Johnsons election, Molinaro, along with members from various corners of the conference, were in Johnsons escort committee to walk the speaker-elect into the House chamber, which he said was symbolic of Johnsons ability to lead House Republicans.

Another moderate representing a Biden-won district, Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., outright dismissed concerns about Johnsons voting record.

Whatever his personal views are on issues or however hes voted in the past or bills hes introduced, I leave that to him to explain or defend or articulate what his position is on that, Lawler told USA TODAY. All of us are going to represent our own districts. The speaker can have his personal views, we have ours. You still need 218 votes; it doesnt matter what his own personal view may be on an issue.

Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., departs from a meeting with House Republicans at the U.S. Capitol Building on October 19, 2023 in Washington, DC.

'MAGA Mike Johnson'

From the perspective of the partys right flank however, Johnsons election is a major victory for ultraconservative lawmakers. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who spearheaded the efforts to oust McCarthy, Johnsons predecessor, gave the speaker a new title: MAGA Mike Johnson.

If you dont think that moving from Kevin McCarthy to MAGA Mike Johnson shows the ascendance of this movement and where the power of the Republican Party truly lies, then youre not paying attention, Gaetz said on Steve Bannons podcast, War Room, openly tying Johnson to former President Donald Trump.

Johnson played a major role in Trumps efforts to overturn the 2020 election, leading a letter to the Supreme Court asking the high court to invalidate the election in multiple key battleground states.

Johnsons conservative credentials arent necessarily a bad thing to Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Calif., another member representing a Biden-won district.

Hes got his pulse on the conference. He knows with a thin majority that we have to be mindful of the swing seats and some of these purple or blue districts like mine, Garcia told USA TODAY.

Garcia said his office has already been fielding phone calls from constituents to explain who he is and where he is from and the fact that the most important thing is that were legislating. The House is back up and running.

I remind my constituents that he doesnt represent my district, he added.

Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., another moderate from a Biden-won district, said he and any like-minded GOP colleagues dont have much to fret about considering the narrow GOP majority in the House.

If I dont agree with a position, I vote no. I still have my own voting card, Bacon said. We have an opportunity to shape these discussions in conference. They cant deal with too many no's out of our conference, so we have a good voice with a four-seat majority.

Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Calif., departs as Republicans meet to decide who to nominate to be the new House speaker, on Capitol Hill in Washington, late Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2023.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mike Johnson's 'MAGA' record: Why moderate Republicans aren't worried
Law Enforcement officials continue their investigation at the Schemengees Bar where one of two mass shootings took place on October 27, 2023 in Lewiston, Maine. Police are still searching for the suspect, Robert Card, who allegedly killed 18 people in two separate locations on Wednesday night. Credit - Joe RaedleGetty Images

Its hard for Americans in the 21st century to think about their guns as ordinary objects. When nightmarish events like the recent mass shooting in Maine occur, we retreat to reassuring positions in the culture wars.

Gun cultureis our collective, contentious effort to apply meaning to these inanimate things made of wood, plastic, and steel. For some, guns may be the biggest force for evil in America, as Seattle Times columnist David Horsey wrote last year of the firearms industry. For others, like the National Rifle Association, guns are in fact the best defense against malevolent supernatural forces. In the aftermath of the horrific 2012 mass slaughter of children in Newton, Connecticut, NRA executive vice-president Wayne LaPierre explained that genuine monsters walk among us, people so deranged, so evil, so possessed by voices and driven by demons that no sane person can possibly ever comprehend them. We ought to expect similar platitudes from the gun lobby in response to Maine in the days ahead.

A 2021 study by a group of sociologists found a correlation between Americans who believe in the earthly presence of demons and devils and support the expansion of gun rights. You might negotiate with metaphorical monsters, you might think the laws you pass limit their ability to harm others, but when it comes to genuine monsters, you must shoot to kill.

To kill fantastical creatures, you need fantastical weapons. Thats where the gun industry comes in, to provide you with the talisman you need to operate in a world in which evil people possessed by demons walk. Guns are more than just metal and plastic, more than just technology. They protect, defend, secure, preserve, and safeguard. They connect, too, linking gun owners present with an imagined past, with those who resisted tyranny with arms, or who took up arms to fight for causes noble and ignoble. Youa white man armed with an AR-15 and storming your state capitol building to protest state coronavirus restrictions, or stockpiling guns just outside Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021you are the minuteman who grabs his musket to answer the call to confront the Redcoats. Magical thinking about guns is one of gun capitalisms most effective products, turning cheap crap into cherished commodities, at the cost of a society increasingly fearful and armed.

Read More: Maine Is Missing Opportunities to Stop Gun Violence, Experts Say

Magical thinking about guns is a kind of fetishism, which sees guns as totems instilled with meaning beyond their basic material parts. Its a variant of what Karl Marx called commodity fetishism, which obscured the more mundane material realities of the social relations of industrial capitalism. Commodities were raw materials transformed through human labor into objects of utility. But capitalism made magic of them, in the process making invisible the labor of the exploited workers who made raw materials into consumer goods.

Gun capitalists of the 19th century first learned to sell the magic of guns to American consumers. Samuel Colt and Oliver Winchester, among others, knew that selling guns meant selling stories about guns and thus imbuing the guns with cultural meaning. God created men equal. Colonel Colt made them equal, went one variation of a popular tagline, while Winchesters Model 1873 rifle was the gun that won the West. These early gun capitalists were storytellers as much as they were inventers and tinkerers.

The innovative gun capitalists of the postwar United States crafted a different narrative. Chief among them was Samuel Cummings, founder of Interarms, which became the worlds largest arms dealer by the 1960s. While the press occasionally linked him to international arms dealing intrigue, he made most of his money in the most mundane of ways: he sold American consumers millions of cheap guns. His biggest moneymakers in Interarmss first two decades were war surplus firearms, hauled out of European warehouses where they had been collecting dust. Cummings cleaned them upsporterized them, in the parlance of the times, anticipating the 21st centurys modern sporting rifle by a half-centuryand shipped them to hunters and collectors and the gun-curious, mostly white men, suddenly flush with cash in the afterglow of Americas moment of global supremacy.

The story Cummings and the new postwar gun capitalists toldthe magic they soldwas of a country without limits when it came to partaking of the worlds bounty of firearms. Interarmss advertisements, packed with dozens of guns for sale, most of them war surplus imports, spoke of abundance and power: guns from vanquished foes like Germany, Japan, and Italy, and even from new rivals the Soviet Union, could be yours for as little as $10. The gun consumer was a global conqueror. Cummings joked that a cheap Carcano rifle made in wartime Italy, just like the one Lee Harvey Oswald used to kill John F. Kennedy, was a throwaway gun, one you could leave out in the woods after you bagged your first deer.

More From TIME

Oswalds Carcano inevitably drew attention, however, as did the plague afflicting urban residents in an era of rising crime rates: cheap handguns, many of them also imports, mass-produced in fly-by-night factories in Western Europe out of scrap metal leftover from the war. When Congress began debating new restrictions on firearms in 1963, a movement of consumers rose up to oppose itthe gun rights movement. The National Rifle Association, arguably the worlds most successful consumer lobby, stepped in to help write new laws that would not so much prevent gun violence as they would protect gun consumerism. The resulting 1968 Gun Control Act was a mild set of restrictions that respected the fundamental legitimacy of the gun consumer market and sought to protect the law-abiding citizenanother magical totem of our gun culturefrom certain categories of people (like convicted felons) who might give gun buyers a bad name.

The Gun Control Act didnt make anyone happy. Despite prioritizing the needs of the law-abiding citizen, it angered gun rights activists convinced that it was the first step down a slippery slope toward totalitarianism. For the early grassroots gun control activists emerging after 1968, the law was so weak precisely because it was written to placate gunmakers and consumers. These activists urged their political leaders to look to other liberal democracies around the world, which either rejected guns as a market good altogether or regulated the gun consumer market so extensively as to make it unrecognizable to its American counterpart.

Todays predominant understanding of the Second Amendmentthe widespread popular belief that this constitutional provision protects an individual right to own a firearm independent of service in a militiaemerged in the first decades after the Second World War, when gun consumerism boomed and Cold War anxieties supercharged conservative politics. Just as consumers grew accustomed to Cummingss seemingly limitless bounty, state and federal officials started debating how to restrict it. A burgeoning gun rights movement seized on the obscure Article II of the Bill of Rights (few Americans in 1968 could have told you what right it protected) to claim that any limits on gun ownership amounted to a violation of basic freedoms. Those activists saw themselves as the well-regulated militia (even if few of them were active members of the United States actual militia, the National Guard), ready and eager to defend the nation from its external and internal enemies. But as the gun rights movement increasingly became a popular gun consumer movement in the 1970s and 1980s, the right-wing cold warriors commitment to what the Constitution calls the unorganized militia fell by the wayside, and the Second Amendment increasingly became a statement of consumer rights centering the individuals desire rather than the collective good. It, too, is fetishized, divorced from its historical origins and imbued with mystical power.

But the Second Amendment says nothing about capitalism or commerce; its two crucial verbs are keep and bear, neither of which is or ever has been a synonym for buy, sell, distribute, market, or manufacture. Yet weve mostly fought our political battles over guns on the field of commerce. Various federal efforts to restrict guns stand on Congresss constitutional power to levy taxes and regulate interstate commerce. Any suggestion that a government has an obligation to defend its citizens from deadly violence is met with the circuitous counterargument that the government cant strip the citizen of the right to defend himself from his own government. If gun capitalism sold magical abundance in the 1960s, today it sells the fantasy of insurrection and righteous violence against political enemies, or even against ones own government of the people.

Thinking about gun capitalism means thinking about the quotidian experience of buying and selling guns in America. Sam Cummings didnt sell freedom or security or insurrection; he sold cheap crap. Thinking about gun capitalism also means considering how weve written our laws and built a legal and state infrastructure to accommodate all that gun buying and selling. Gun capitalism is too deeply embedded in our political life, and as a result, too easily obscured by its ability to make magic out of the mundane, to convince us that only the most lethal violence can stop the monsters and demons that walk among us.

Contact us at letters@time.com.
An Indian MP who is known to be a fierce critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi 's governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is embroiled in a controversy over alleged misconduct in parliament.

Nishikant Dubey , a BJP lawmaker, has accused Mahua Moitra - an MP from the opposition Trinamool Congress party (TMC) - of asking questions in parliament in exchange for bribes.

Mr Dubey has alleged that Ms Moitra asked several questions targeting the Adani Group - a business conglomerate owned by one of Asia's richest men, Gautam Adani - in exchange for gifts and cash from a businessman.

Ms Moitra has denied the allegations, and has said that she is ready to face any kind of inquiry. A parliamentary ethics committee started hearing the case on Thursday.

According to political experts, the committee cannot punish Ms Moitra even if it rules against her as it does not have executive powers. Its recommendation will have to go before the house, which can decide to accept or reject it. In the instance Ms Moitra is expelled from parliament, she can challenge the decision in court.

The financial dealings of the Adani Group came under scrutiny in January, after Hindenburg Research - a US firm that specialises in "short-selling"- published a report accusing the conglomerate of engaging in decades of "brazen" stock manipulation and accounting fraud. The Adani Group has denied these allegations, calling the report "malicious".

Since then, Ms Moitra and several opposition lawmakers have called on the government to investigate the allegations against the Adani Group. India's market watchdog, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), is currently investigating the allegations against the firm.

What has happened so far?

On 15 October, Mr Dubey wrote a letter to the speaker of the lower house of parliament highlighting information he had received from an advocate named Jai Anant Dehadrai.

Mr Dubey claimed that Mr Dehadrai - whom Ms Moitra has described as a "jilted ex" - had shared "irrefutable evidence of bribes exchanged" between her and businessman Darshan Hiranandani with the intention of targeting the Adani Group and Mr Modi.

Mr Adani is perceived as being close to Mr Modi and has long faced allegations from opposition politicians that he has benefited from his political ties, which Mr Adani and the BJP deny.

Mr Dubey claimed that "till quite recently" 50 of 61 questions Ms Moitra asked in the lower house of parliament were focused on the Adani Group and accused her of accepting bribes adding up to 20m rupees ($240,542; 197,700) from Mr Hiranandani.

Nishikant Dubey has demanded that Ms Moitra be suspended from parliament

Ms Moitra has denied the allegations and has filed defamation cases against Mr Dubey, Mr Dehadrai and several news organisations in the Delhi high court.

The Hiranandani Group had also refuted the allegations. On 20 October, it was reported that Mr Hiranandani submitted a "sworn affidavit" to the parliament's ethics committee, changing his position and claiming that Ms Moitra had targeted Mr Adani and his enterprises to "become famous".

He also accused Ms Moitra of having shared her parliamentary login credentials with him so that he "could post questions directly on her behalf when required".

The alleged affidavit was reported on by news agencies within hours but in a press release posted on X (formerly Twitter), Ms Moitra questioned the authenticity of the affidavit.

"The affidavit is on white paper, and not an official letterhead or notarized. Why would one of India's most respected/educated businessmen sign a letter like this on white paper unless a gun was put on his head to do it?" she wrote.

"Darshan Hiranandani has not been summoned by the CBI (India's top investigation agency) or the Ethics Committee or indeed by any investigative agency yet. Who then has he given this affidavit to," she added.

A day after Mr Dubey made the allegations, a spokesperson for the Adani Group claimed that Mr Dehadrai's complaint "reveals that this arrangement to besmirch the reputation and interests of the Adani Group and its Chairman Gautam Adani has been in place since 2018".

The TMC has not taken a definitive stand on the issue. The party's lawmaker Derek O'Brien said that the TMC's leadership would wait for the report by the ethics panel before taking an "appropriate decision".

The controversy has made national headlines because Ms Moitra is seen as an important political figure who has managed to strike a chord with both urban and rural voters in the eastern state of West Bengal. Her supporters say the controversy is a ploy by the BJP to target Mr Moitra's popularity among voters in the run-up to the general elections in 2024.

But federal minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has insisted that the allegations against Ms Moitra are of "grave importance".

From banker to MP

Ms Moitra was a banker before she joined the TMC in 2010. Her early political career was confined to the state, where she worked with voters from the grassroots.

She fought a parliamentary election in 2019 from Krishnanagar constituency in West Bengal where she had to prove her mettle by representing hundreds of thousands of voters who fell below the poverty line - a benchmark to assess living conditions of an individual or a family.

Ms Moitra won the elections by a majority of 60,000 votes.

In her maiden speech in parliament, Ms Moitra argued that India had been witnessing "signs of fascism" under the BJP government. The speech went viral on social media and was met with mixed reactions, with supporters hailing her for her honesty while critics accused her of inciting fear.

Ms Moitra has since become a visible face of the TMC - a party which already has Mamata Banerjee, a strong woman leader at the helm.

Ms Banerjee, a fiery speaker whose party has joined an opposition alliance aiming to take on Mr Modi's BJP in next year's election, had in 2021 publicly scolded Ms Moitra for infighting within the party. Political observers are now closely watching for Ms Banerjee's reaction to the ongoing controversy.

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Much of Lewiston, Maine is empty on October 26, 2023, with the gunman on the run one day after a mass shooting (Joseph Prezioso)

When Kyle Green and his partner learned a gunman had just gone on a shooting spree near their home in Lewiston, Maine, they slowly lowered the blinds and told their children it was movie night.

Locking all the doors, they sat down in front of a screen in a darkened upstairs bedroom with their two dogs and dozing kids, age 10 and 12, following the shooting deaths of at least 18 people at a bowling alley and bar-restaurant.

With the suspect still on the run, Green, a 40-year-old software engineer who spoke to AFP in front of his house, said he and his partner "took turns" sleeping, in order to keep watch until the morning.

"Where is he now? Is he here? That's a terrible feeling," Green said, clearing his throat to hide emotion.

Like many of his neighbors on his quiet, tree-lined street, he is struggling to process what happened.

- 'I was terrified' -

On Thursday, Lewiston was practically a ghost town, with residents ordered to stay indoors and schools closed following the Wednesday evening shooting rampage.

A high school parking lot was taken over by police officers in fatigues, armed to the teeth. Streets near the targeted establishments were cordoned off with crime scene tape.

Pharmacies, restaurants and the overwhelming majority of businesses were closed. A few cars passed by from time to time, but the trash has not been collected and no children play outside on slides and swings.

A sign in the city center flashes the message: "Shelter in place."

Debra Wright was just sitting down to eat Wednesday evening when she heard police and ambulance sirens wailing. Schemengees, the bar-restaurant targeted by the shooter, is just a three-minute drive from her home.

"When we found out I was terrified," the 71-year-old told AFP from behind the wheel of her car.

"You know, Maine isn't usually like this. I've lived here all my life," she said, adding "I will never feel safe like I have."

Since she will probably spend the night alone at home, Wright said she couldn't help but be worried, but was reassured by the thought that she had dead bolts installed on her doors.

Plus, "I have my dogs in my house," she said.

- 'It won't be' -

In this normally quiet city, the shootings came as a shock.

"It's different when this type of tragedy happens in your hometown," Anthony Nadeau, a 45-year-old state employee who had just finished smoking a cigarette on his porch, told AFP.

He is friends with the owners of the bowling alley, Just-in-Time, and has spent many an evening at Schemengees.

He added that "Maine and a lot of states... could do a little bit more considering the history of gun violence in the United States."

Green, who staged the movie night with his family, is not optimistic.

"I'd love to tell you that maybe this is the one that spurs some sort of action," he said, but then added: "It won't be."

"It will be treated like every other mass casualty event."

iba/bfm/acb
Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) said that he was reversing his opposition to banning military-style rifles after 18 people were killed in a mass shooting on Wednesday in his hometown of Lewiston, Maine.

A manhunt for a suspect is still underway as of Thursday afternoon.

Out of fear of this dangerous world that we live in, in my determination to protect my own daughter and wife in our own community, because of a false confidence that our community was above this and that we could be in full control, among many other misjudgments, I have opposed efforts to ban deadly weapons of war, like the assault rifle used to carry out this crime, Golden said during a press conference Thursday.

The time has now come for me to take responsibility for this failure, which is why I now call on the United States Congress to ban assault rifles, like the one used by the sick perpetrator of this mass killing in my hometown of Lewiston, Maine, he continued, promising that for the good of my community, I will work with any colleague to get this done in the time that I have left in Congress.

He added, To the people of Lewiston, my constituents throughout the 2nd District, to those who lost loved ones and to those who have been harmed, I ask for forgiveness and support as I seek to put an end to these terrible shootings.

Golden: I have opposed efforts to ban deadly weapons of war like the assault rifle he used to carry out this crime. The time has now come for me to take responsibility for this failure. Which is why I now call on the United States congress to ban assault rifles pic.twitter.com/0k60XJQoaB  Acyn (@Acyn) October 26, 2023

Last year, the House passed the measure 217 to 213, which went to the Senate where it expired at the end of the term. Five Democrats voted against the measure including Rep. Golden, Ron Kind of Wisconsin, Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, Henry Cuellar of Texas, and Kurt Schrader of Oregon.

On Thursday, President Joe Biden renewed his call for congressional Republicans to work with Democrats to support bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, requiring universal background checks, and better safety protocols.

Today, in the wake of yet another tragedy, I urge Republican lawmakers in Congress to fulfill their duty to protect the American people, Biden said in the statement. This is the very least we owe every American who will now bear the scars  physical and mental  of this latest attack.

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Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) said he would pursue an assault weapons ban after a mass shooting killed at least 18 people in his hometown of Lewiston, Maine, on Wednesday.

The gunman, believed to be Army reservist Robert Card, is still on the run.

Golden said the shooting Wednesday had forced him to change his mind on pursuing a ban, which he previously did not support.

Out of fear of this dangerous world that we live in, in my determination to protect my own daughter and wife in our own community, because of a false confidence that our community was above this and that we could be in full control, among many other misjudgments, I have opposed efforts to ban deadly weapons of war, like the assault rifle used to carry out this crime, Golden said at a press conference Thursday.

The time has now come for me to take responsibility for this failure, which is why I now call on the United States Congress to ban assault rifles, like the one used by the sick perpetrator of this mass killing in my hometown of Lewiston, Maine, he continued. For the good of my community, I will work with any colleague to get this done in the time that I have left in Congress.

To the people of Lewiston, my constituents throughout the 2nd District, to those who lost loved ones and to those who have been harmed, I ask for forgiveness and support as I seek to put an end to these terrible shootings, he said.

Top Stories from The Hill

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), also at the press conference, declined to say whether she would support such a ban. She noted that she supported the original 1995 Federal Assault Weapons Ban and an effort to renew it, but she opposed later, more expansive efforts.

I think it is more important that we ban very high-capacity magazines. I think that would have more input and more effectiveness, Collins said. Certainly, theres always more that can be done.

Authorities are searching for Card. Collins said the FBI alone had sent 80 agents to the area as part of search efforts.

The shooting killed at least 18 people and injured 13 more at a bowling alley and a restaurant in Lewiston on Wednesday evening.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
In a reversal, Democratic Rep. Jared Golden of Maine said he now supports a ban on assault-style rifles following shootings this week in his home state that left at least 18 people dead.

During a news conference Thursday, Golden discussed his previous stance on legislation largely backed by fellow Democrats that would prohibit assault weapons and said he was wrong to oppose those measures.

I have opposed efforts to ban deadly weapons of war, like the assault rifle used to carry out this crime, Golden said.

The time has now come for me to take responsibility for this failure, he added. Which is why I now call on the United States Congress to ban assault rifles like the one used by the sick perpetrator of this mass killing in my hometown of Lewiston, Maine."

politician politics contemplation contemplate portrait (Minh Connors / The Washington Post via Getty Images file)

Golden said his past reluctance to support such a ban stemmed in part from a desire to protect his family, a false confidence that our community was above this, and what he said were many other misjudgments.

Golden was one of five Democrats who voted against an assault weapons ban bill passed by the House last year. The Democratic-led Senate has not taken up the measure, in part to avoid putting vulnerable Democrats in a tough spot ahead of the 2024 election when Republicans are hoping to win control of the chamber.

First elected to Congress in 2018, Golden represents a congressional District that former President Donald Trump carried in 2016 and 2020. Golden won re-election last year with 53% of the vote.

Thursday's news conference included remarks from Sen. Susan Collins , R-Maine, who called it a dark day and said that the deadly shootings at a bar and bowling alley in Lewiston were the worst mass shooting that the state of Maine has ever experienced  and could ever imagine.

Asked whether she would support an assault weapons ban, Collins told reporters: "I think it is more important that we ban very high capacity magazines."

Collins noted her earlier support for an assault weapons ban when she backed the 1994 federal assault weapons ban. She later opposed an expansion effort.

Police named Robert Card, 40, a firearms instructor and an Army reservist, as a suspect and an arrest warrant on murder charges has been issued. He remains at large.

The assault rifle-style weapon he is alleged to have used was purchased legally this year, two senior law enforcement officials briefed on the matter said.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during a briefing Thursday that President Joe Biden had stepped out of a state dinner Wednesday to speak with Golden, Collins and Maine Gov. Janet Mills.

Biden has repeatedly called on Congress to send legislation to his desk banning assault weapons. He echoed that call on Thursday.

Today, in the wake of yet another tragedy, I urge Republican lawmakers in Congress to fulfill their duty to protect the American people. Work with us to pass a bill banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, to enact universal background checks, to require safe storage of guns, and end immunity from liability for gun manufacturers, Biden said.

This is the very least we owe every American who will now bear the scars  physical and mental  of this latest attack.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
China to remain firmly committed to high-level opening-up: FM spokesperson

Xinhua) 08:24, October 27, 2023

BEIJING, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- China will remain firmly committed to high-level opening-up and support building an open world economy, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Thursday.

In response to a query regarding the U.S. export controls on semiconductors to China and the EU anti-subsidy investigation into electric vehicles from China at a daily news briefing, spokesperson Mao Ning said that openness brings progress while isolation only holds one back.

Noting that China has recently announced it will remove all restrictions on foreign investment access in the manufacturing sector, Mao said this speaks volume to China's determination to take the initiative in opening up further to the world.

She added that the ongoing 134th China Import and Export Fair has attracted numerous businesses and participants.

Next month, China will host the China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai and the Global Digital Trade Expo in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province.

For this year's CIIE, the scale of Business Exhibition and the numbers of participating Fortune 500 companies and leading companies in various sectors will hit record high, according to Mao.

"The history of global economic development tells us that one will only get trapped by opting for protectionism, and will not succeed or go far by pursuing decoupling or severing of industrial and supply chains," said the spokesperson.

(Web editor: Tian Yi, Liang Jun)
Under the expansive dome of the Sichuan Science Museum on Oct. 20, a clear sign of a literary sensation emerged: a winding line of ardent fans waiting to meet China's sci-fi star, Liu Cixin. Many had waited hours, clutching copies of the Hugo Award-winning "The Three-Body Problem."

Hugo Award-winning author Liu Cixin (front right) signs an autograph on a copy of "The Three-Body Problem" for a fan at the 81st World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, on Oct. 20, 2023. [Photo/Xinhua]

Such anticipation, even a decade after its release, speaks to the novel's lasting impact and the mark it has left not only in China but also worldwide. With translations in 31 languages and nearly 30 million copies sold, Liu's masterwork has journeyed far beyond its original pages.

"The franchise has garnered two generations of fans, becoming a cross-generational cultural symbol both domestically and internationally," said Zhao Jilong, the CEO of Three-Body Universe.

But the saga's evolution isn't limited to book sales. The narrative has moved beyond traditional mediums. These include TV adaptations by media powerhouses Tencent Video and Netflix. However, perhaps more reflective of its 21st-century appeal is the immersive sci-fi experience "Three-Body: Beyond Gravity" in Shanghai, which combines virtual reality, augmented reality, and interactive digital arts. Since its April launch, this avant-garde venture has seen an attendance rate of around 90%.

Visitors flock to The Three-Body Universe's exhibition booth during the 81st World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) in Chengdu, Sichuan province, on Oct. 20, 2023. [Photo courtesy of The Three-Body Universe]

Zhao, who oversees the franchise's rights, said, "A few months ago, we conducted a nationwide survey and found that the number of 'Three-Body' fans in China has risen to 260 million." Notably, this narrative resonates with a younger audience, with students making up nearly 30% of its fanbase.

The World Science Fiction Convention, commonly known as Worldcon, was filled with announcements from The Three-Body Universe. In addition to highlighting their recent successes with TV series and a radio drama program, and presenting a stunning AR art installation, there were hints about future projects. Yi Wenyang, the producer of the upcoming series, "Three-Body II: The Dark Forest," discussed the immense challenge of adapting the book's iconic scenes for the screen.

Expanding their offerings, The Three-Body Universe introduced a range of content, from a pop-up book to the sci-fi variety show "Do Not Answer" Season 2. The approach is twofold: emphasizing the cultural symbols within "Three-Body" and leveraging tech innovations. As Zhao put it, the aim is to tap into the "imagination consumption" of Generation Z.

Liu Chun (left), commercial director of The Three-Body Universe, and Dong Renwei, chairman of Time Vision and co-founder of the Chinese Nebula Awards, display their signed cooperation agreement during a signing ceremony at the 81st World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) in Chengdu, Sichuan province, on Oct. 20, 2023. [Photo courtesy of The Three-Body Universe]

A noteworthy collaboration was also announced between the prestigious Chinese Nebula Awards and The Three-Body Universe. This ambitious partnership intends to create a cultural and tourism project centered on "The Three-Body Problem." Imagine a cutting-edge Chinese sci-fi museum combined with a series of stage dramas and immersive experiences. Dong Renwei, chairman of Time Vision and co-founder of the Chinese Nebula Awards, expressed confidence, stating, "We believe this major sci-fi cultural tourism project will gain strong support from local governments and investors. We expect it to quickly materialize, grow, and become a towering tree in China's sci-fi industry."

The "Three-Body" saga now encompasses publishing, film, TV, animation, digital ventures, and more, collectively reaching a co-branded consumer market value of over 2 billion yuan ($274 million). The story's adaptability has led to partnerships with a broad spectrum of industries, from top consumer brands to film production companies like Emei Film Group.

All these developments indicate a sophisticated approach to not only leverage but also nurture and amplify the Three-Body brand. "We hope to establish a new business model and eventually set standards for Chinese IP operations," Zhao Jilong explained. This comprehensive blueprint includes preserving the integrity of the Three-Body worldview, selecting the suitable media for its narrative, and fostering innovation.

Amid this flurry of activity, another tantalizing project is on the horizon  the adaptation of Liu Cixin's "The Supernova Era." Chosen for its unique youth-centric sci-fi theme, this new venture aims to cast its narrative net even wider, capturing the imagination of the next generation.

Creators of projects within The Three-Body Universe pose with fans at a significant fan event during the 81st World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) in Chengdu, Sichuan province, on Oct. 21, 2023. [Photo courtesy of The Three-Body Universe]

With this multifaceted approach, the trajectory of "The Three-Body Problem" universe is meteoric, pushing boundaries in both content and technology. As the franchise rises, it prompts the question: How will "The Three-Body Problem" redefine the sci-fi landscape in Chengdu, the southwest region of China, and beyond? Only time will tell. But for now, the future looks as expansive and captivating as the universe Liu Cixin has so masterfully crafted.
Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine), one of only five Democrats who voted against an assault weapon ban last year, reversed his stance and said he would back proposals to limit such firearms following the deadly mass shooting in his state Wednesday that has left at least 18 people dead.

I have opposed efforts to ban deadly weapons of war. The time has now come for me to take responsibility for this failure, Golden said at a news conference on Thursday. For the good of the community, I will work with any colleague to get this done.

Golden: I have opposed efforts to ban deadly weapons of war like the assault rifle he used to carry out this crime. The time has now come for me to take responsibility for this failure. Which is why I now call on the United States congress to ban assault rifles pic.twitter.com/0k60XJQoaB  Acyn (@Acyn) October 26, 2023

Golden, a Marine Corps veteran, is a centrist Democrat whose district includes Lewiston. The city is reeling after a gunman opened fire at two locations on Wednesday night  a bowling alley and a restaurant  killing at least 18 people and wounding more than a dozen others. Authorities have issued an arrest warrant for Robert Card, 40, on eight counts of murder in connection with the massacre.

Card remains at large.

The gunman was photographed with what appeared to be an AR-15-style rifle, prompting renewed calls for gun reform amid a rash of mass shootings around the country. The House passed legislation last year to ban certain types of semiautomatic rifles, shotguns and pistols when Democrats had control of the chamber, but the proposal stalled in the Senate at the time.

Golden was one of just five House Democrats to vote against the ban. His comments Thursday, in which he asked for forgiveness and support from his constituents, reflect a remarkable shift at a horrifying time.

I now call on the United States Congress to ban assault rifles like the one used by the sick perpetrator of this mass killing, he said.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) speaks with members of the media in the aftermath of Wednesday's mass shootings in Lewiston, Maine.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) speaks with members of the media in the aftermath of Wednesday's mass shootings in Lewiston, Maine.

The Democrat was joined at the Thursday news conference by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). The Republican, also a centrist in her party, said she would not back a ban on assault weapons, noting that while Maine had one of the highest rates of gun ownership in the nation, it also has a very low rate of violence.

What makes this crime so heinous is that in a typical year Maine might have 22 murders, and last night we almost approached the number for the entire year, Collins told reporters.

Instead, she said she would push for a ban on very high capacity magazines for firearms. The senator was a key negotiator on a bipartisan gun safety bill last year in the wake of the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

Theres always more that can be done, Collins said.

Related...
Maine officials have lifted the shelter-in-place order for two counties as they search for the suspect in Wednesday nights mass shooting in Lewiston that left 18 people dead.

State Public Safety Commissioner Mike Sauschuck said Friday that residents should remain vigilant as they move around the area.

We decided to rescind that order, again, but recommend that people remain vigilant as they move forward, he said.

The announcement came in a press conference after Sauschuck named the victims of the shootings. He said all families had been notified.

Top Stories from The Hill

A massive law enforcement effort to capture the suspected gunman has expanded to local waterways, officials announced Friday morning. Officials said they believe Robert Card is the man who killed 18 people and injured 13 more in a bowling alley and restaurant.

Sauschuck said Friday morning that police helicopters and divers would search the Androscoggin River near the boat launch where Card left his vehicle.

In Friday afternoons press conference, Sauschuck said neighborhood canvassing by marked police officers would take place soon.

The next press conference is expected at 10 a.m. Saturday.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
A lockdown covering nearly 700 square miles of the US state of Maine was lifted on Friday evening as police continued to search for a man suspected of shooting 18 people almost 48 hours before.

FBI and state police combed woodland and a series of small towns looking for Robert Card, a 40-year-old Army Reservist who is accused of opening fire with a semiautomatic rifle at a restaurant and bowling alley in Lewiston on Wednesday evening.

As residents prepared to spend a second night under lockdown, the local police chief David St. Pierre asked them to be as patient as possible with this process, while Mike Sauschuck, the states public safety commissioner, admitted: Every minute that this goes on were more and more concerned.

But on Friday evening, Mr Sauschuck said that the stay in place order would be lifted, even though Mr Card is still at large.

While most mass shooters are caught within minutes of their attacks or kill themselves after gunning down others, Mr Card has been on the run for nearly two days.

The military fuel specialist, who was admitted to a medical facility in July after reporting hearing voices in his head and threatening to shoot up a National Guard base, is also an experienced woodsman and may be hiding in the rural area around Lewiston.

Officers search for Robert Card following the deaths in a bowling alley and bar - AP Photo/Matt Rourke

On Friday, police said specialist divers were preparing to search the local rivers for any trace of Mr Card, while officers searching his house found a note with an undisclosed message.

FBI officers surrounded Mr Cards house on Thursday evening and appeared to believe he was inside, calling for him to come out with [his] hands up and preparing to raid the property with a battering ram attached to a law enforcement vehicle.

But after two hours outside the property, police left the scene after apparently realising Mr Card was not inside.

Police have not ruled out the possibility that Mr Card may have left the state entirely, and called on residents to be vigilant in the coming days.

The deer hunting season, which was set to begin on Saturday, has been postponed while police continue their enquiries.

This is not to say the crisis is over, Mr Sauschuck said.

The latest shooting is one of the deadliest in the United States this year, and prompted fresh calls for stricter gun ownership laws.

Maines laws are around average for the country, and do not have the facility for potentially dangerous gun owners to be red flagged by a judge and relieved of their weapons.

Biden calls for assault weapon ban

Joe Biden, the US president, has offered Maines governor federal support, and ordered flags to be lowered to half mast at the White House and all government buildings.

Mr Biden said gun violence is not normal, and we cannot accept it, urging lawmakers to pass a bill banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.

In a press conference on Friday, officials urged residents to continue to abide by the stay-at-home order. Authorities have erected roadblocks, ordered schools and businesses closed, and told residents to stay indoors.

Mr Sauschuck said police have received at least 530 tips about the suspect, which vary greatly and are being investigated by officers on the ground.

Were going to be all over the place, he said. Thats not saying that we know that the individual is in this house, you know, in that house or theyre in that swathe of land, this acreage.

Mr Sauschuck said that authorities would conduct extensive searches of the nearby Androscoggin River by air and boat, and that the river would be lowered using dams, but he made it clear that would not be their only area of focus.

Law enforcement personnel use an underwater robot to search the waters of the Sabattus and Androscoggin rivers in Maine - CJ GUNTHER/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

The motive for the shootings is still unknown, but it has been speculated that Mr Card targeted members of the deaf community, after his family said he had recently suffered hearing loss.

Four of the eight people killed at the restaurant, Schemengees Bar & Grille, were deaf.

ABC News reported that Mr Cards sister had told investigators he may have been looking for his ex-girlfriend. The suspect did not appear to have made any demands.

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Update: Suspect Robert Card was found dead Friday night, officials said. Read the latest here. Our earlier coverage is below.

The manhunt continued Friday for the suspect in the mass shooting that killed 18 people and injured 13 in Lewiston, Maine, on Wednesday night. As investigators looked for the suspect, a shelter-in-place order put in place in the immediate aftermath of the shooting was lifted, but hunting was prohibited in four communities starting Saturday, Maine Public Safety Commissioner Mike Sauschuck said Friday.

Divers were expected to search part of the Androscoggin River near where 40-year-old Robert Card's car was found in Lisbon, Maine, some 7 miles southeast of Lewiston, Sauschuck said. Search crews on land started examining the area Friday.

"They could be dragging a diver behind them literally while that diver is checking for evidence, checking for potential bodies," Sauschuck said.

Sauschuck said authorities don't know if the suspect is in the water and that the river is just one area being searched.

"We have a lot of other irons in the fire," he said.

As the search continued Friday, authorities publicly identified all 18 victims. They range in age from 14 to 76 and were identified as Tricia Asselin, 53; William Brackett, 48; Peyton Brewer-Ross, 40; Thomas Conrad, 34; Michael Deslauriers II, 51; Maxx Hathaway, 35; Bryan MacFarlane, 41; Keith Macneir, 64; Ronald Morin, 55; Joshua Seal, 36; Arthur Strout, 42; wife and husband Lucille Violette, 73, and Robert Violette, 76; Stephen Vozzella, 45; Jason Walker, 51; Joseph Walker, 57; and son and father Aaron Young, 14, and William Young, 44.

Meanwhile, a note that investigators found inside the suspect's home has been described as a possible suicide note addressed to his son, current and former U.S. officials familiar with the note confirmed to CBS News.

Police said the suspect should be considered armed and dangerous. Investigators are aware the suspect had access to numerous firearms, two law enforcement sources told CBS News' Robert Legare and Michael Kaplan. According to one of those sources, the number of firearms the suspect could access was potentially into the double digits.

Authorities recovered a weapon from the suspect's abandoned vehicle, law enforcement sources told CBS News' Pat Milton and Legare. The firearm was legally purchased, a law enforcement source confirmed. It wasn't clear if the recovered weapon was used in the shooting.

CBS News has also learned that investigators have located Card's cellphone and will try to crack it and pore over his online activity, including text messages and emails, hoping to find clues as to his whereabouts. Authorities said they have received more than 530 leads.

Members of law enforcement arrive at a farm in Lisbon Falls, Maine, as the search for the suspect in the deadly mass shooting in Lewiston continues, Oct. 27, 2023. / Credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque

Hundreds of police officers and federal agents are involved in the search.

FBI Director Christopher Wray told President Biden more than 200 personnel from the bureau were in Maine to support the investigation and the manhunt, according to the White House. The assistance includes processing crime scenes and helping people affected by the shooting, the special agent in charge of the bureau's Boston field office said in a statement.

On Thursday night, heavily armed law enforcement officers were seen surrounding a house in the nearby town of Bowdoin, where the suspect is from, and the Maine Department of Public Safety confirmed it was part of the investigation. But officers completed their search and cleared the scene without finding the suspect.

The deadly rampage began a little before 7 p.m. Wednesday evening at Sparetime Recreation, a bowling alley in Lewiston, where seven people were killed; six males and one female died of apparent gunshot wounds, state police Col. William Ross said during Thursday's news conference.

At the second shooting scene, Schemengees Bar and Grille, about 4 miles away, seven males inside the establishment and one outside were killed, Ross said. Three other people died at an area hospital.

"For me it was incomprehensible that this can happen in Lewiston, Maine," Mayor Carl Sheline told CBS News Boston.

"Our city is facing this incredible loss and I am completely broken for our city, and my heart really goes out to the victims and their families right now," Sheline said.

Investigators are looking into whether the suspect was targeting a specific individual, who is believed to be a current or former girlfriend, two U.S. officials and a former high-ranking official told CBS News. It wasn't clear if the individual was at either of the two locations that were attacked.

Law enforcement officials gather in the road leading to the home of the suspect being sought in connection with two mass shooting, Oct. 26, 2023, in Bowdoin, Maine. / Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Police received a 911 call about the bowling alley shooting at about 6:56 p.m. EDT, Ross said. Just over 10 minutes later, at about 7:08 p.m., police received multiple calls about the second shooting. Police from Lewiston and the surrounding area responded to the shooting.

The weapon used in the shooting was a semi-automatic rifle with an extended magazine and scope, CBS News confirmed.

Meanwhile, details about many of the shooting victims were beginning to emerge in the aftermath of the shooting.

Who are the Maine shooting victims?

Arthur Strout, a 42-year-old father of three, was at Schemengees playing pool with his father, Arthur Barnard, who told CBS News he left the bar before the shooting that claimed his son's life. Strout was described by his family as "a great dad."

Those who knew 76-year-old Bob Violette told CBS News Boston he was gunned down doing what he loved: bowling. Violette was teaching at a youth bowling league inside Sparetime Recreation, a friend said, when the gunfire erupted.

Michael Deslauriers II was bowling with family and friends at Sparetime at the time of the shooting. Michael's father confirmed to CBS News Boston that he is one of the deceased. Michael Deslauriers Sr. said his son and a friend made sure their wives and several children were safe before charging at the shooter. He said both men were killed.

Joseph Walker was a bar manager at Schemengees and was working when the shooting began. His father confirmed his death to CBS News. Auburn City Councilor Leroy Walker told CBS News Boston that Joseph Walker was killed as he went after the gunman with a butcher knife.

Karen Hopkins, executive director of the Governor Baxter School for the Deaf in Falmouth, Maine, said on Facebook that, "We lost four of our cherished community members in (the) Lewiston shooting. Including two fathers of children in our programs." She said the four were Joshua Seal, Billy Brackett, Steve Vozzella and Bryan MacFarlane. CBS Portland affiliate WGME-TV says Seal was "a familiar face during the pandemic as an interpreter for the Maine Center for Disease Control & Prevention."

The schools superintendent in Winthrop, Maine, Jim Hodgkin, said in a letter to parents that a freshman at the high school, his father and an uncle of another high school student were killed in Lewiston.

General Dynamics Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine, tweeted that Peyton Brewer-Ross, a member of the company's pipe shop test crew, was slain in the shooting. The company said he was "a valuable part of our team" and "will be sorely missed."

Who is the Maine shooting suspect?

The suspect, a sergeant first class in the U.S. Army Reserve, is a petroleum supply specialist, according to the Army. He enlisted in the Reserve in 2002 and doesn't have any combat deployments. He is assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 304th Infantry Regiment in Saco, Maine, U.S. Army spokesperson Bryce Dubee told CBS News.

A Maine law enforcement bulletin seen by CBS News had said the suspect was a trained firearms instructor, but an updated bulletin said there's no indication that he was an instructor.

He recently reported mental health issues, including hearing voices, according to the bulletin. He had also threatened to shoot up the National Guard base in Saco, the bulletin said, and he was reported to have been committed to a mental health facility for two weeks this summer.

In July, while training at the U.S. Military Academy in New York, leaders of the suspect's unit told garrison staff that he was "behaving erratically," a New York Army National Guard spokesperson told CBS News.

The New York State Police was contacted and took the suspect to an Army hospital at West Point to be evaluated, the spokesperson told CBS News. When asked about the incident, the state police told CBS News it was an active investigation and declined to comment.

Dubee, the Army spokesperson, told CBS News there aren't any records to indicate the suspect participated in the West Point training. A U.S. official said this is because almost within the first day, he started acting erratically.

Authorities shared images of the suspect and asked people to contact them "if you recognize this individual."

Law enforcement officials released a photo of a man with a semiautomatic rifle they were calling a suspect in a mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, on Oct. 25, 2023. / Credit: Androscoggin County Sheriff's Office via REUTERS

On Thursday morning, the police chief for Lisbon urged people to contact authorities if they see anything suspicious.

"If something isn't right, if you look out in your yard and you're like, that door wasn't open or, you know, that trailer wasn't positioned that way, if you see anything suspicious, please call us because that's how we're going to be able to work together and be able to get to the bottom of this," Chief Ryan McGee told reporters.

The suspect has connections to Massachusetts, according to CBS News Boston sources, and Massachusetts State Police and federal agents were staged at the Maine border. Canada's Border Services Agency issued an "armed and dangerous" alert to its officers along the U.S.-Canada border, according to the Canadian Press.

According to the Maine law enforcement bulletin, a white Subaru Outback registered to the suspect was found. Maine State Police said earlier the "vehicle of interest" was recovered by police in Lisbon.

The vehicle was found near a boat launch near the Androscoggin River, which flows into the Kennebec River, CBS News confirmed.

The U.S. Coast Guard is searching waterways for the suspect's boat with a response vessel from Boothbay Harbor, Maine, and a fixed-wing aircraft from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, CBS News confirmed.

Two other vehicles were registered to the suspect in Maine: a 2022 Yamaha motorcycle and a 2019 Sea-Doo green boat, according to the bulletin.

Police in Lewiston, Maine, have released a photo of this car wanted in connection with an active shooting situation on Oct. 25, 2023. / Credit: Lewiston Police Department

State police urged residents of Lewiston and Lisbon to shelter in place. "Please stay inside your home with the doors locked," they wrote on social media.

Authorities later expanded the shelter-in-place advisory to Bowdoin. "Please stay inside your homes while more than 100 investigators, both local and federal work to locate Robert Card," they said.

The city of Auburn, Maine, which borders Lewiston to the west, also advised residents to shelter in place. Lewiston is about 45 minutes north of Portland.

Numerous schools in the region closed Thursday due to the manhunt, WGME reported. Portland is among the places where schools were shut.

Heavily armed police stand at the ambulance entrance to the Central Maine Medical Center on Oct. 26, 2023, in Lewiston, Maine, where many of the shooting victims were brought. / Credit: John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

"My heart is crushed"

An owner of Schemengees said in a Facebook post: "My heart is crushed. I am at a loss for words. In a split second your world gets turn upside down for no good reason. We loss great people in this community. How can we make any sense of this. Sending out prayers to everyone."

One man at the bowling alley said he heard about 10 shots and thought the first was a balloon popping. "I had my back turned to the door. And as soon as I turned and saw it was not a balloon  he was holding a weapon  I just booked it," he told The Associated Press, adding that he then hurried down the length of the alley and hid in the machinery behind the pins.

Maine has had between 16 to 29 homicides each year since 2012, according to the Reuters news service, citing state police.

A police officer walks along a rural road during a manhunt for the Maine mass shooting suspect, Oct. 26, 2023, in Lisbon, Maine. / Credit: AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty

Mr. Biden was initially briefed on the shooting during Wednesday night's state dinner honoring Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Thursday afternoon. Mr. Biden also spoke with Maine Governor Janet Mills; the state's senators, Susan Collins and Angus King; and one of its members of Congress, Jared Golden.

Mr. Biden called the shooting a tragedy and urged Republicans in Congress to work with his administration to pass gun control measures including an assault weapons ban and a ban on high-capacity magazines.

In a major reversal, Golden, a Democrat, called on Congress to ban assault weapons in the wake of the shooting.

"I have opposed efforts to ban deadly weapons of war, like the assault rifle used to carry out this crime," Golden said at a news conference. "The time has now come for me to take responsibility for this failure, which is why I now call on the United States Congress to ban assault rifles like the one used by the sick perpetrator of this mass killing in my hometown of Lewiston, Maine."

-Evan Coan, Eleanor Watson, Jeff Pegues and Jericka Duncan contributed reporting. The Associated Press contributed reporting.

Search underway for Maine mass shootings person of interest, police say

The JAY-Z interview: Part 2

WATCH: Maine officials give update on manhunt for suspect in mass shootings
Maine Representative Jared Golden has changed his opinion on a federal assault weapons ban after a devastating mass shooting in Lewiston left 18 people dead and 13 others injured.

In a press conference on Thursday evening, Mr Golden  a conservative Democrat  admitted he made a misjudgment when he voted against legislation to ban assault weapons last year.

Among many other misjudgments, I have opposed efforts to ban deadly weapons of war like the assault rifle used to carry out this crime. The time has now come for me to take responsibility for this failure, Mr Golden said before calling on Congress to ban assault rifles like the one used in the shooting.

For the good of my community, I will work with any colleague to get this done in the time that I have left in Congress, he added.

Mr Golden asked his constituents and residents of Lewiston for forgiveness and support as he advocates to ban assault weapons.

Gun control is a controversial topic in the US that has become politically polarising as many conservatives believe enacting stricter legislation will not solve the problem and is an infringement on the Second Amendment.

In the wake of mass shootings, conservative leaders will often claim mental health problems or a lack of public safety regulations as a catalyst in the events.

After the mass shooting in Maine, many 2024 Republican presidential candidates took this position  blaming scarce mental health resources for failing to help the suspected shooter before he went on a violent rampage.

Conversely, Democrats and other liberal-leaning individuals believe easy access to semiautomatic firearms like AR-15-style rifles is the reason mass shootings are prevalent in the US.

In his speech, Mr Golden said he had a false confidence that his community was above mass shootings and that he could be in full control.

Golden: I have opposed efforts to ban deadly weapons of war like the assault rifle he used to carry out this crime. The time has now come for me to take responsibility for this failure. Which is why I now call on the United States congress to ban assault rifles pic.twitter.com/0k60XJQoaB  Acyn (@Acyn) October 26, 2023

After the news conference, several lawmakers and gun control advocates praised Mr Golden for changing his opinion on gun control.

New York Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called his comments powerful, brave and moving.

Rep Maxwell Frost praised Mr Golden for taking the right stance and asked people to donate to his campaign for re-election.

Fred Guttenberg, a gun-control advocate whose teenage daughter died in the Parkland school shooting, said he was truly thankful for Mr Goldens apology and called on lawmakers to make changes before a devastating shooting occurs in their community.
The massive law enforcement effort to capture the suspected gunman in a Maine mass shooting has expanded to local waterways, officials said Friday, as a stay-in-place order remains in two counties.

Police believe Robert Card is the man who killed 18 people and injured 13 more in a mass shooting at a bowling alley and restaurant in Lewiston, Maine, Wednesday evening. He is still at large.

Maine Department of Public Safety Commissioner Michael Sauschuck said in a press conference that police helicopters and divers will search the Androscoggin River on Friday near the boat launch where Card abandoned his vehicle.

Much of central Maine, including Lewiston, Maines second-largest city, remains under a shelter-in-place order as the search continues.

Hundreds of law enforcement officers from all over the country have descended on the area to search for Card, who is suspected of carrying out the most deadly mass shooting in America this year  and likely the deadliest mass attack in Maine history.

He first opened fire on patrons at the Sparetime Recreation bowling alley around 7 p.m. and then travelled to Schemengees Bar & Grille, 4 miles away, and killed multiple patrons attending cornhole night.

Investigations continue at both shooting scenes. Sauschuck said law enforcement is days away from finishing up at the locations, taking time to ensure that all forensic evidence is accounted for.

Eight of the shootings 13 injured victims are still in the hospital, according to medical officials. Five of them are in stable condition while three remained in critical condition as of Thursday evening.

Sauschuck said Friday that eight of the 18 victims have been identified and their families informed of their deaths.

Sauschuck said law enforcement has received more than 530 tips and leads about Cards possible whereabouts. He said police have been working around the clock on the search.

I think that every minute that this goes on were more and more concerned, he said. And we understand that, and thats why were working 24/7 to bring this individual to justice and to try to bring some closure and overall safety to our communities.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
FILE PHOTO: Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives Jared Golden from Maine

FILE PHOTO: Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives Jared Golden from Maine

By Jeff Mason

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The latest mass shooting in the United States, which killed 18 people in Maine, prompted U.S. Representative Jared Golden, whose constituents died in the massacre, to reverse his opposition to a ban on assault-style weapons.

But his change of heart does not change the equation in Washington, where President Joe Biden 's push to reinstate a ban of such guns has been a non-starter for Republicans who control the House of Representatives and back gun rights.

Golden, a conservative Democrat who represents a district that supported then-President Donald Trump in the 2020 election, on Thursday said he had opposed a ban out of "false confidence" that his community was above such violence.

"The time has now come for me to take responsibility for this failure, which is why I now call on the United States Congress to ban assault rifles like the one used by this sick perpetrator of this mass killing in my home town of Lewiston, Maine," he said. "I ask for forgiveness and support as I seek to put an end to these terrible shootings."

Biden said in a statement on Friday the nation was mourning "another senseless and tragic mass shooting" and urged Republicans to help pass a bill "banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, to enact universal background checks, to require safe storage of guns, and end immunity from liability for gun manufacturers."

Congressional aides said on Friday they knew of no new attempt to pass such a bill, which would need to pass the Republican-controlled House by a simple majority and win 60 votes in the 100-member Senate.

Mike Johnson, a Republican who took on the House's top role of Speaker earlier this week, appeared to close the door on any effort.

"The problem is the human heart. It's not guns. It's not the weapons," Johnson said in an interview with Fox News on Thursday night when asked about calls for more legislation.

"We have to protect the right of the citizens to protect themselves, and that's the Second Amendment. And that's why our party stands so strongly for that. ... This is not the time to be talking about legislation," he said.

Democrats, with the support of anti-gun violence groups, have tried for years to renew a federal ban on assault-style weapons, which was first imposed in 1994 and expired in 2004.

The U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment protects the right to bear arms. Republicans, with the financial support of a powerful gun rights lobby, largely oppose restrictions on gun ownership.

Opinion polls show a majority of Americans favor tighter gun restrictions such as background checks and "red flag" laws, aimed at keeping guns out of the hands of people believed to be a danger to themselves or others, but are more evenly split on assault-style rifle bans.

The U.S. has seen multiple massacres involving assault-style weapons in recent years. Biden, who is running for reelection in 2024, is expected to make proposals to tighten gun laws a key component of his campaign.

Last year, Congress passed the first significant gun control legislation in three decades. The bipartisan measure tightened background checks for would-be gun buyers convicted of domestic violence or significant crimes as juveniles.

It came as the U.S. Supreme Court broadly expanded gun rights by ruling Americans have a constitutional right to carry handguns in public for self-defense.

For any assault-style weapons ban to pass in the future, Democrats would need to win a majority in the 435-seat House and win more seats in the 100-member Senate, which they currently control 51-49.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason; additional reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Heather Timmons and Jonathan Oatis)
As the fallout deepens from the catastrophic mass shootings in Lewiston, Maine, that left at least 18 people dead and many wounded, questions are being asked about how an army reservist who had threatened violence and was kept under observation this summer for erratic behavior was allowed to be in possession of a deadly semi-automatic rifle.

Related: An avid bowler, a beloved manager: details emerge of Maine shooting victims

Robert Card, 40, remained on the run on Thursday amid a massive manhunt. He was named as the suspect in the double shooting on Wednesday evening at a bowling alley and bar in Lewiston, a town of 40,000 people.

US army officials have described Card as an enlisted army reservist with an active military ID who specializes in petroleum supply. The army national guard told CNN that he began behaving erratically when stationed at a training camp in New York in July.

He talked of hearing voices and threatened other reservists, and according to separate reporting, also threatened to attack a national guard base in Maine. He was kept under medical evaluation, and out of concern for his safety law enforcement was contacted.

Despite these indications of problematic behavior, no attempt was made to confiscate weapons in Cards possession. Gun control advocates argue that Maines weak gun laws, which are among the most lax in the country, could have contributed to the disaster.

Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control advocacy group, ranks Maine as the 25th state in the nation on the basis of the strength of its gun regulations. It concludes that state leaders must do more to prevent gun violence.

Unlike 21 other states, Maine, which prides itself on its libertarian and hunting traditions, does not have a red flag or extreme risk protection order law. Such provisions allow police to remove guns temporarily from people whose behavior suggests they may be a risk to themselves or others.

In 2019, lawmakers in Maine debated whether to introduce a red flag law but voted against it. Instead, they adopted a less effective yellow flag law which had been partly written by a local pro-gun organization, the Sportsmans Alliance of Maine.

Officers stand outside Sparetime Recreation in Lewiston, Maine. Photograph: Rodrique Ngowi/AP

The yellow flag statute allows for guns to be confiscated from individuals, but only after a doctor has evaluated the person and found them to be a threat. Gun control advocates say the need for a medical practitioner to be involved makes the protection much more cumbersome and harder to use.

Christian Heyne, chief policy and programs officer with the gun control advocacy group Brady: United Against Gun Violence, said that red flag laws focused on behavioral risk factors to predict potential violence such as past violent behavior and drug and alcohol abuse. He said that while industrialized countries had similar rates of mental illness, America stands alone in our experience of gun violence.

He added: Thats because of the accessibility of these weapons, and our inability to make sure that we temporarily remove firearms from those most at risk of dangerous behavior.

Heynes mother was killed and his father injured in a mass shooting in Thousand Oaks, California, in 2005. So this is not a game, its real, he said.

Opinion polls have shown that red flag laws enjoy wide popularity across the US. A Fox News poll from April found that 80% of voters approved of giving police the power to take guns from those considered a danger to themselves or others.

Studies have shown that red flag provisions do have the potential to intercept weapons before mass shootings occur. April Zeoli, director of the policy core of the University of Michigans institute for firearm injury prevention, has looked at six states with red flag laws.

A review of almost 7,000 extreme risk protection order petitions, brought mainly by law enforcement in those states, found that nearly 10% involved some kind of mass shooting threat. Of those, 50%, or 330 petitions, involved what Zeoli called maximum casualty threats, where the person showing the erratic behavior appeared to want to kill as many people as possible.

Zeoli said that Cards threat to shoot up a national guard base might fit into the same maximum casualty threat category.

There is no way of telling whether any, or how many, of the 330 petitions that involved maximum casualty threats actually prevented mass shootings. It could have been 10, it could have been one, it could have been 100, we dont know, Zeoli said.

But she added: We do know that even if its two or three, thats potentially dozens of lives that could be saved.
Maine Department of Public Safety Commissioner Mike Sauschuck said Friday that divers will go into the water to search the area in Lisbon, Maine, near where fugitive Robert Card's vehicle ultimately was found.

Sauschuck said the divers will be "checking for potential bodies" and other evidence near a boat launch site on the Androscoggin River as the manhunt remains ongoing for Card, who is believed to have killed 18 on Wednesday in a pair of mass shootings in Lewiston.

"I'm not saying that the suspect, we know the suspect is in the water," he continued. "What I'm telling you is you're going to see a lot of activity here. And I'm going to tell you that in advance. We've got nothing to hide in that regard at all."

Sonar will be among the technologies that law enforcement is planning to deploy in the water search.

LIVE UPDATES: MANHUNT FOR MAINE MASS SHOOTINGS SUSPECT

An aerial view provided by Maine Dept of Safety highlights the location of the boat launch at Blake Corner.

"Clearly we don't have him located at this point. We don't have him in custody," Sauschuck added.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

"The river is a big piece of this, the car was located there. Evidence is located there in the vehicle right there along the shores of the Androscoggin River," he also said. "So that stuff that we want to make sure that we're checking and we're using the resources that we have available."

ROBERT CARD MANHUNT: EXPERTS WEIGH MAINE MASS MURDER SUSPECT'S POTENTIAL ESCAPE ROUTES

Police activity outside an address on West Road, Bowdoin, ME, Thursday, October 26, 2023. A manhunt is on for Robert Card, the suspect in last night's mass shooting in neighboring Lewiston.

Sauschuck said investigators are going through more than 530 tips received from the public in relation to the manhunt.

A note also was found by investigators at a property linked to Card, he added.

Lewiston Police Chief David St. Pierre told reporters Friday that "The safety of our community remains paramount.

Robert Card, the suspect in the Lewiston, Maine mass shootings.

"I want to assure all that a tremendous amount of law enforcement, manpower, time and effort is being utilized around the clock, literally around the clock, in every effort to apprehend the suspect as well as to safeguard this community," he said.





Original article source: Maine shooting investigators to deploy divers to search river, confirm suspect left 'note'
A massive manhunt continued Friday for a man suspected of killing 18 people and injuring 13 others at a bowling alley and a restaurant in Lewiston, Maine, on Wednesday night.

Police identified the suspect as Robert Card, a 40-year-old Army reservist who had recently been committed to a mental health facility.

A shelter-in-place order that had previously been in effect since Wednesday in the immediate search area was lifted Friday as police continued to focus in the Androscoggin River near a boat launch where a vehicle belonging to Card was found.

Our live coverage has ended for the day.

Cover image: (Steven Senne/AP)
Award-winning art house film "The Shadowless Tower," which tackles relationships and feelings among Beijing residents, is set for release nationwide on Oct. 27.

Cast and crew of "The Shadowless Tower" pose for a photo at the movie's premiere in Beijing, Oct. 27, 2023. [Photo courtesy of Great Luck Films]

In the film, actor Xin Baiqing plays Gu Wentong, a poet-turned-food critic trying to reconnect with his long-estranged father. Along the way, he meets and bonds with a photographer at work named Ouyang Wenhui, played by actress Huang Yao, as they discover local eateries. Haunted by his father abandoning him when he was a young boy, Gu's journey leads him to reflect on his own roles as a father, son and partner.

In "The Shadowless Tower," the historic White Pagoda in Beijing, which dates back around 700 years, serves as a poignant metaphor for the characters' emotions and choices. When Gu Wentong, a native Beijinger, encounters the out-of-town Ouyang Wenhui at the White Pagoda Temple, they discover they are both rootless souls grappling with painful memories and searching for a sense of belonging. The film interweaves old Beijing with the new, portraying a city that is both intimate and unfamiliar. This juxtaposition highlights the characters' feelings of alienation, wanderlust and solitude.

Director Zhang Lyu revealed that he has lived in Beijing for over 30 years, forging a deep emotional bond with the city. While much of Beijing has transformed over time, the area surrounding the White Pagoda Temple remains as he recalls, evoking memories of old friends. This nostalgia motivated him to create a film related to the pagoda. He also explained the meaning of "shadowless" in the title, saying that it represents "the abrupt voids we face in our lives."

The film's premiere was specially arranged to be held on Oct. 21 inside the White Pagoda Temple, where it was screened for local residents and young people. The director mentioned that during filming the camera always revolved around the White Pagoda, but he never dreamed that they would screen the movie inside the temple itself.

Meeting the audience in such a unique setting evoked strong emotions in the lead actor, Xin Baiqing. Although he grew up in Beijing, he confessed to occasionally feeling lost in the city's streets. Actress Huang Yao described her role as a "Beipiao," a Chinese term referring to young migrants in Beijing  a character who drifts and flutters about. She believes many young people currently living in Beijing will resonate with this portrayal.

At the premiere, the film's executive producer Huang Jianxin insightfully remarked, "Director Zhang Lyu is actually talking about the emotions that life suppresses deep within our hearts, and he peels these feelings layer by layer."

A promotional poster for "The Shadowless Tower." [Image courtesy of Emei Film Group]

The poetic and emotionally profound film "The Shadowless Tower," written and directed by Zhang Lyu and featuring Xin, Huang and the legendary actor Tian Zhuangzhuang, garnered five awards in April at the 13th Beijing International Film Festival, including best screenplay and best leading actor. Additionally, at the 10th Silk Road International Film Festival which concluded at the end of September, it won best picture and best cinematography. The film also received critical acclaim after screening at the Shanghai International Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival, Hong Kong International Film Festival, Busan International Film Festival and New York Film Festival.
Maine Representative Jared Golden was one of only five Democrats to oppose an assault weapons ban last year.

One of the few remaining Democratic congressman opposed to sweeping gun control measures has abruptly reversed course after a mass shooting in his Maine constituency.

Until a gunman killed 18 people on Wednesday in his hometown of Lewiston, Jared Golden, 41, said he opposed a ban on semi-automatic weapons.

The Marine Corps veteran now says his previous stance was a "failure".

He represents a largely rural district that twice voted for Donald Trump.

The third-term congressman was elected in 2018, flipping the district to the Democrats.

Since arriving on Capitol Hill, he has broken with his own party to vote against several gun control measures.

He was one of only five Democratic representatives to oppose a planned ban on assault-style weapons that was passed by the House of Representatives in 2022. It did not become law.

"I don't support any version of that," Mr Golden said at the time.

On Thursday, however, Mr Golden said the shooting in Lewiston had forced him to reconsider.

"The time has now come for me to take responsibility for this failure," he said at a news conference.

"Which is why I now call on the United States Congress to ban assault rifles like the one used by the sick perpetrator of this mass killing in my hometown."

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He asked for "forgiveness" for his previous opposition to gun control.

Mr Golden said he plans to "work with any colleague to get this done in the time that I have left in Congress".

Maine's moderate Republican Senator Susan Collins is calling for more modest gun control - restrictions on high-capacity magazines.

US President Joe Biden urged Republican lawmakers, who control the House, to "fulfil their duty protect the American people".

On Friday, he said what was happening with gun violence was "outrageous".

"Who the hell needs an assault weapon that can hold, in some cases, up to 100 rounds?" he said at an evening fundraiser.

But even when Democrats ran both chambers of Congress in the first two years of the Biden presidency they could not pass such a measure.

As a Senate committee chairman, Mr Biden led the charge to restrict semi-automatic rifles in 1994, but that ban expired after a decade and whether it was actually effective has been debated ever since.

In 2019, Maine passed a "yellow flag" law that allows police officers to petition to have firearms removed from a person they believe to be a threat to themselves or others.

Under the measure, a medical evaluation is required and the person has to be taken into protective custody.

It is narrower in scope than "red flag" laws, which allow family members, teachers and others to do the same.

It is unclear if any petition was ever made regarding the suspect in Wednesday's shooting, who authorities and family members say was suffering from acute mental health issues.

The Portland Press Herald, a local newspaper, reported that the yellow flag law has been used 58 times in three years.

Americans' right to bear firearms is enshrined in the Second Amendment of the US Constitution.
Lewiston ,and other communities like nearby Lisbon, headed into a second day under shelter in place warnings

Driving the streets of Lewiston, Maine, on Thursday, the small city resembled a ghost town.

The day after a gunman opened fire at two local establishments, killing 18 people, thousands of residents in the southern part of the state remained under shelter in place orders as police continued their manhunt for the suspect.

Lewiston's streets, which this time of year would usually be a postcard of New England in autumn, the leaves red and bright orange, were empty, its stores and businesses closed. Tidy clapboard homes painted blue and grey looked abandoned, the windows darkened and doors latched.

Halloween decorations - blow-up pumpkins and plastic skeletons - on balconies and lawns were reminders of normal daily life.

Every so often, a helicopter flew overhead, a sudden break in the quiet.

"I've never seen anything like this, ever," said longtime Lewiston resident Peter Fertesky, who had come to see the hordes of reporters clustered around the local hospital, Central Maine Medical Center, where officials said on Thursday afternoon 14 victims were receiving treatment.

"Even when the virus [Covid] was out, people were outside," he said.

Wednesday's rampage marked the worst mass shooting in the US this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which counts attacks where four or more people are killed or injured, excluding the gunman.

The number of victims - lives taken on one quiet Wednesday evening - nearly match the state's total homicides for all of 2022.

"This is a dark day for Maine," Governor Janet Mills said at a news conference in the hours after the shooting. "The people of Lewiston are enduring immeasurable pain."

Residents say the deadly attack struck at the heart of Lewiston's close-knit community.

The first shooting took place at Just-In-Time-Recreation, home to youth and adult bowling leagues. The gunman then went to Schemengees Bar & Grille, a family-friendly restaurant, which residents say had been hosting a cornhole tournament when the assailant opened fire.

In the hours since, stories of the victims have begun to surface - a grandfather who loved bowling, a Schemengees employee who reportedly tried to stop the gunman.

In a city this size "everyone knows someone" who died, said Frank, a resident of nearby Auburn, who declined to give his last name.

Frank said his phone had been flooded with messages about people suspected killed or injured. He spent most of Wednesday evening tuning into local police scanners, trying to get a grasp on the size of the assault on the sleepy community.

"I'm in a bowling league," he said, one hosted by Just-In-Time. "We go on Mondays."

Frank sat with his wife, Tammy, in a booth of a sandwich shop just a few miles from that bowling alley. The restaurant was one of the only establishments still open in the area.

Other residents shuffled in and out, waiting at black and brown lacquered tables for subs and soups. Most looked drawn, nearly all declined to speak.

Waiting in a queue at the cafe, Alex Lachance, a nurse, said she used to work with the suspect.

"He was very quiet and never spoke more than a couple of words to me," she said.

After she collects her order, she will go home and lock the doors, she said, be with her family and wait to find out if she's working on Friday.

Schools will remain closed for a second day and a number of events and shows in surrounding communities have been cancelled or postponed.

Meanwhile, hundreds of local and state police continued their sweep of surrounding towns, woods and waterways, a sweep that continued late into Thursday night. Police said they executed a search warrant at a home linked to the suspect, Robert Card, who is considered armed and dangerous and should not be approached.

"We're rattled, he's still out there," Nick Wilson, 42, a co-owner of a childcare centre in southern Maine, told the BBC. "The tragedy that happened, it's just brutal."

As of yet, there have been no reported sightings and the wide-scale search has extended north to neighbouring Canada, with border guards now on alert in case the suspect attempts to enter the country.

The US Coast Guard is also searching the Kennebec River for the suspect, Lt Cmdr Ryan Koroknay said on Thursday, and 80 FBI agents have joined the hunt.

Sitting in the sandwich shop, Frank said the search was concerning but he believed he was safe.

"Me, personally, the odds of him showing up anywhere I am are probably small," he said. "But everybody who went bowling last night probably thought the same thing."

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Israel said Friday it is expanding its ground operation in Gazaas the night sky over the enclave lit up with a sustained bombardment and phone and cellular communications were blacked out.

It was not immediately clear if a promised large-scale invasion by land was imminent, and Israel wasnt saying.

Hamas said it was fighting with Israeli troops in northern Gaza, and the Israeli military confirmed troops and tanks were in the enclave.

Theyre shooting and theyre operating, Maj. Nir Dinar, a military spokesman, told The New York Times. But our troops and tanks were inside Gaza yesterday, as well.

The incursion coincided with a near-complete collapse of phone and internet services that made it difficult for the outside world to get an accurate picture of what was happening inside Gaza.

But footage showed airstrike after airstrikean intense bombardment that Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said was part of an attack on underground targets in Gaza.

Israel intensifies its bombardment of Gaza as the besieged strip faces a total blackout of electricity and internet pic.twitter.com/l4uYwPzFRF  Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) October 27, 2023

Palestinians reporting firefights between Gaza terrorists and Israeli forces near the borders of the Gaza Strip. Multiple anti-tank guided missiles fired at Israeli tanks near Gazas northern border. The video is of an ATGM fired at an IDF tank near Beit Hanoun. pic.twitter.com/G6FHMv62gc  Ariel Oseran (@ariel_oseran) October 27, 2023

The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution calling for a humanitarian truce between Israel and Hamas after the latest round of bombardment, with 120 member nations voting in favor of the resolution, 14 voting against, and 45 abstentions.

I repeat my call for a humanitarian ceasefire in the Middle East, the unconditional release of all hostages, and the delivery of life-saving supplies at the scale needed, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement on Friday. Everyone must assume their responsibilities. This is a moment of truth. History will judge us all.

Earlier on Friday, the IDF alleged that they had evidence proving that Hamas was operating a headquarters under Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, the largest hospital in the enclave. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a video mock-up purporting to show where the alleged headquarters was located under the hospital. (Hamas denied the allegation.)

Hamas-ISIS is sick.



They turn hospitals into headquarters for their terror.



We just released intelligence proving it.



Here it is: pic.twitter.com/F82OxaIPN6  Benjamin Netanyahu -   (@netanyahu) October 27, 2023

The Israeli government had approved plans to expand Israels operations in Gaza in recent days, amassing troops and tanks near Gaza and calling up 300,000 reservists, according to the IDF.

The Israeli army had already been launching several ground raids in recent days to kill Hamas militants and prepare for the next phases of war, Hagari has said, but recent events indicate that a fuller ground invasion may be underway.

Israel had also been launching airstrikes in Gaza since Hamas attacked on Oct. 7, stepping up operations this week in order to decrease the risk to its troops in the next phase of the war. Gazas Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas, have reported 7,028 Palestinians killed since the war began, including 2,913 children.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said last week that the ground invasion could take several months. It may take a month, two or three, but at the end there will be no more Hamas, Gallant said at a briefing at the Israeli Air Force Operations Command and Control Center.

Caught in the crosshairs

The ground expansion comes as Israel has vowed repeatedly to eliminate Hamas in Gaza after terrorists killed some 1,400 Israelisincluding women, children, and the elderlyin an attack in Israel earlier this month. At least 200 hostages abducted in the attack are believed to be inside Gaza.

But the looming operation has raised fears around the globe that Israel may make Palestinian civilians caught in the crossfire pay the ultimate price for Hamas terrorist attacks.

The Biden administration has said that it supports Israels right to defend itself, while also urging Israeli officials publicly and privately to avoid causing civilian fatalities in the process. U.S. officials had warned Israeli officials that if they were to delay the ground invasion, the U.S. and other countries efforts to provide humanitarian aid in Gaza and to rescue hundreds of hostages could continue.

Hamas Claims 50 Hostages Killed by Israeli Strikes in Gaza

But already with Israels strikes and ground raidseven before the full ground invasionthe number of civilian deaths in Gaza indicates that the human toll may only grow.

Israel has urged civilians to leave northern Gaza to move to safety and to avoid falling as collateral damage in the war, but the areas Israel has encouraged residents to evacuate have come under fire in recent days, even as they are considered to be safe zones. In some cases, some of those that evacuated the north on Israels recommendation have been killed in southern Gaza.

Tinder box

With tensions in the Middle East soaring, the ongoing war has raised concerns among officials that the region could explode into wider conflict. Hamas has warned that Iran-backed Hezbollaha terrorist group Hamas has said it has been coordinating withwill decide whether to escalate attacks into Israel from the north based on whether Israel kicks off a ground invasion in Gaza. Hezbollah and Israeli forces have already been facing off in a series of clashes along the Israeli-Lebanese border, threatening to spillover into escalation.

Attacks on U.S. forces in the region have increased since the Israel-Hamas war has broken out as well. Drone attacks have targeted American military bases in Syria and Iraq in recent days.

The Wild Card in Israels War That Threatens a Global Crisis

A U.S. warship intercepted Iran-backed Houthi missiles that were potentially headed towards Israel last week.

The Pentagon has taken steps to bolster U.S. military presence in the region in an effort to deter further attacks, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has said in recent days. The U.S. will be sending a deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system and Patriot missile systems to the Middle East to increase protection for U.S. troops in the region. Austin has also placed more troops on prepare to deploy orders.

The Biden administration has also warned Iran and other non-state actors to not escalate or join in the war in an effort to simmer tensions. The U.S. has paired the warnings with military signals: Biden has placed two large aircraft carriers in the region.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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When it comes to the Corner Cupboard Thrift Store in Dayton, you will never find its 85 volunteers cutting corners.

The business is nestled along East Xenia Avenue and the thrift store is about to celebrate quite a milestone.

>> RELATED: More on Making A Difference

Volunteer Patti Snyder told News Center 7s James Brown Well hit the $4 million mark, which we are really happy. Im sure the four ladies who started this business in 1960 never imagined that we would make $4 million.

All that money has gone to more than 40 area nonprofit organizations.

In 1960, four women from Dayton started collecting donations for their daughters who were nuns in Kentucky. The nuns gave those things to people in Appalachia.

As the Corner Cupboard grew, the moms started selling peoples donations. They used the money to buy food and eventually started donating money.

During News Center 7s visit to the store, Brown talked with two women who have each donated more than 50 years of their time. Pat Stemley and Carole Wheeler are in charge of getting boys clothes ready to sell in the store.

When asked how to describe what goes on at the store, Stemley said, Its a beautiful place. Its bursting with love. Wheeler called this, Gods work. Love it. My mom and dad and grandmother all dis this at the Corner Cupboard.

Around the back of the store, volunteers stopped what they were doing to greet Sandy Porter. She opened the back of her car, and the volunteers went to work pulling out bags and boxes.

Porter said, Theres people in need all the time. Instead of throwing it away, people can use it. We donate. She stops by several times a year to donate.

Everyone at the Corner Cupboard is grateful to be a part of a place they know is making a difference. They want folks to know they have open invites to stop by.

The volunteers at the Corner Cupboard said they and the community are already working together on donating the next $4 million to area nonprofits.
FILE PHOTO: Maldives hold second round of a presidential election in Male

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Maldives has started negotiations with India to remove its military presence, President-elect Mohamed Muizzu said in an interview published by Bloomberg News on Friday, as New Delhi and Beijing both vie for influence in the region.

Removing Indian troops was a key campaign pledge by Muizzu, who ousted President Ibrahim Solih last month.

Around 70 Indian military personnel maintain New Delhi-sponsored radar stations and surveillance aircraft. Indian warships help patrol Maldives exclusive economic zone.

Muizzu said in the interview he had already begun negotiations with the Indian government on removing its military presence, calling those talks very successful already.

We want a bilateral relationship thats mutually beneficial, Muizzu told Bloomberg, adding that Indian soldiers would not be replaced by troops from other countries.

Asking India to remove military personnel in no way indicated that Im going to allow China or any other country to bring their military troops here, he said.

Muizzus win extends the tug-of-war between China and India for influence over the Indian Ocean.

Successive governments have tilted either toward India or China. Both Asian powerhouses have invested heavily in upgrading Maldives infrastructure and extended loans, as they compete with each other.

(Reporting by Uditha Jayasinghe; Editing by Stephen Coates)
A Chicago man accused of shooting an Illinois State Police trooper during a traffic stop late Tuesday night will be held in Sangamon County on charges of attempted murder, aggravated battery, and aggravated use of a firearm after a petition by the State's Attorney's office was approved Friday.

Sangamon County Circuit Court Judge Dwayne Gab ordered Cristobal Santana, 37, held in the custody of the Sangamon County Sheriff following the incident where ISP Trooper Dakotah "Kody" Chapman-Green was shot in the 1400 block of Toronto Road.

As part of his argument for pre-trial detention, Sangamon County State's Attorney Dan Wright said that Santana's purported actions  shooting at Chapman-Green more than 10 times and striking him with a firearm  posed a threat to both person and property.

More: Illinois lawmakers hit pause on veto session; will return to Springfield on Nov. 7

In addition, his fleeing of the scene and his residence in Chicago  where he is the suspect in the death of a special education teacher Sunday night in the Garfield Ridge neighborhood  made him a willful flight risk, according to Wright.

Sangamon County Public Defender Craig Reiser argued that Santana did not have any criminal record and that he would be agreeable to other restrictions, such as a no-contact order, home confinement, a curfew or an electronic monitor. He also said that Santana would surrender any FOID or concealed carry licenses that he had.

Gab ruled in favor of Wright and the county on the petition. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Nov. 9 at 9 a.m. in courtroom 7C at the Sangamon County Complex.

Chapman-Green and Santana remain hospitalized.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Detention petition approved for man accused of shooting ISP trooper
Elhanan Pittman of Westwood, who was arrested behind Wyoming Middle School in June, pled guilty on Friday, Oct. 27, 2023, to possessing a Glock handgun that was modified with a switch device that can convert a semi-automatic firearm into a fully automatic one, similar to what's shown in the photo.

When 28-year-old Elhanan Pittman fled from police behind Wyoming Middle School in June, he had a Glock handgun modified with a switch, a device that can turn a semi-automatic firearm into a fully automatic one.

Pittman of Westwood pleaded guilty in federal court in Cincinnati to possessing the device, prosecutors said Friday in a release. He was originally charged with illegal weapons possession by a convicted felon and illegal possession of a machine gun.

Pittman was arrested after Wyoming Police attempted a traffic stop on a vehicle he was riding in, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives wrote in an complaint.

While the vehicle was still moving, Pittman fled on foot from the front passenger seat carrying a black backpack in his arms. He no longer had the backpack when he was apprehended in the rear of Wyoming Middle School, just 100 yards from where police attempted the traffic stop.

When a K-9 unit eventually found the backpack in a nearby shrub, police found two Glock pistols, including a .40 caliber handgun modified with what was later identified as a Glock switch, the agent wrote. Investigators also learned one of the guns had been reported stolen from Butler County.

Pittman's attorney has yet to respond to an email from The Enquirer.

Also called a "chip" or "auto sear," a switch is a small device that gets installed on the back of a Glock handgun. Instead of firing one round per trigger pull, the device allows the gun to continue firing at a high rate as long as the trigger is pressed.

More: What to know about 'Glock switches,' the devices that make handguns full auto

Federal and local law enforcement have warned of the growing prevalence of such devices in Greater Cincinnati. The ATF says Glock switches make shootings more deadly because more bullets can hit the victim and it makes the weapon harder to control, meaning bullets can be sprayed around, striking innocent bystanders.

Prosecutors said the parties in the case are recommending Pittman serve a prison sentence of six and a half years.

Court records do not indicate when Pittman is expected to appear in court for sentencing.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Westwood man faces prison time for owning Glock switch
KANSAS CITY, Mo.  Jackson County prosecutors have filed charges in connection to a 2022 crash that killed a Z Trip passenger following a police chase.

Karam Jackson Jr. was 17 at the time of the incident. Hes now 19 and is charged with first-degree involuntary manslaughter and resisting arrest.

Two Kansas City, Kansas residents killed in crash on US Highway 50 in Chase County

According to court documents, just before 5 p.m. on March 23, 2022, Kansas City police officers attempted to stop the driver of a blue Dodge Caliber, who was involved in a carjacking, in the area of E. 45th Street and Cleveland Avenue.

A Z Trip vehicle was going south and stopped while waiting to turn left when it was hit by the front of the suspect vehicle after it ran a red light.

View the latest Weather Alerts in the Kansas City region on FOX4

A female passenger in the Z Trip vehicle, identified as 38-year-old Erika Miller, died from her injuries sustained in the crash shortly after arriving at Truman Medical Center.

Jackson is scheduled for a bond hearing review on Nov. 6 at 1:30 p.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports.
A Peoria man faces attempted murder charges and is being sought in the early Monday shooting of a bouncer at Big Als strip club in downtown Peoria.

Tywahnn K. Tillman, 35, has been charged with attempted first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated battery with a firearm, and being a felon in possession of a weapon. A warrant has been issued for his arrest, the Peoria County State's Attorney's Office said in a Thursday news release.

Peoria police were called to Big Al's at around 3 a.m. on a report of an adult male shot, the release said.

Surveillance video and witnesses indicated Tillman had gotten into a fight with the bouncer and been kicked out of the club. He then went to a car and retrieved a gun, walked back into the club and shot the bouncer in the back of the head.

The bullet passed through the bouncer and struck a second victim, and Tillman fled the scene on foot, the release said.

The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information regarding the incident is asked to contact the Peoria Police Department at 309-673-4521.

Related: Two people shot at Big Al's in downtown Peoria

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Suspect charged in shootings at Big Al's strip club in Peoria, IL
9 Investigates has uncovered that a convicted felon accused of threatening to blow up Fort Mill High School also worked at the post office.

We first reported on Tuesday when police said they found pipe bombs in the suspects south Charlotte apartment. Channel 9s Hunter Saenz has been digging into the case since then.

Saenz discovered the United States Postal Service hired Derek Johnson less than two weeks before his arrest -- on Oct. 7. Thats also one week before authorities said he called in a bomb threat to Fort Mill High School.

PREVIOUS STORIES:

Now, some in the postal service industry are troubled not only by how he got the job, but about the what-ifs, too.

Johnson, 50, was arrested after a threat was called in less than a mile away from the high school -- at the well-known Peach Stand. Authorities were on him quickly, descending on his south Charlotte apartment and finding two pipe bombs, a pistol and more.

Their findings included a USPS ID badge with Johnsons name on it. 9 Investigates was able to confirm that Johnson worked for the post office.

It was scary. It was alarming, Miriam Bell said.

Bell is the president of the Charlotte chapter of the American Postal Workers Union.

Its frightening to know that people are being hired with no background checks, no accountability, she told Saenz.

Bell said its disturbing to think about someone like Johnson, who police say had weapons of mass destruction, being inside a postal facility.

He had access to the facility, she said. Theres no screening when you come up to the door to accept your ID. He had access to the trucks.

She blames holes in the USPS hiring process.

For two days, Saenz has been trying to get more details from the agency about Johnsons hiring and role there. Saenz got a written statement saying the agency does conduct ...background checks on all new employee applicants, but Bell insists it doesnt happen for all of them.

If theyre telling you theyre doing that, thats not whats happening in our area, she said.

Derek Johnson is a convicted felon and served time in New Jersey for a 1996 burglary. The USPS said that would not have automatically disqualified him from being an employee, which he still is.

After his conversation with Miriam Bell, Saenz again contacted USPS asking if background checks are being run on new employees or not. He hasnt heard back.

(WATCH PREVIOUS: Convicted felon accused of having pipe bombs at south Charlotte apartment)
Travel service providers are eager to rejuvenate cross-border tourism in China, noticing a disparity in its recovery pace compared to domestic tourism.



Chinese tourists visit the Giza Pyramids in Giza, Egypt, Oct. 4, 2023. [Photo/Xinhua]

While domestic travel has bounced back to pre-pandemic levels, international tourism has yet to catch up. In the prolonged eight-day Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday, 11.8 million entry and exit trips were made, standing at 85.1% of the 2019 level, according to the country's border inspection authorities.



Ring Cao, a manager at travel agency Top View Travel and Trade, lamented the drastic drop in international visitors through her company. She said her company only received some 2,000 international guests to China so far this year, while that number was more than 50,000 back in 2019.

Speaking at a press interview on Wednesday at ITB Asia, Asia's largest travel showcase, CEO of Trip.com Group Jane Sun pointed to constrained flight availability and protracted visa procedures as significant hindrances. She said it takes three to six months of visa processing time for travelers from the Schengen area and the U.S. to visit China.

Such hurdles also stand in the way in outbound travel. According to Virginia Lin, China trade director at Brand USA, an organization dedicated to promoting travel to the U.S., the biggest challenge in bringing more Chinese tourists to the U.S. is in flight capacity. The number of direct flights from Chinese cities to the U.S. stands at 48 per week currently, yet that number was somewhere around 350 back in 2019, Lin said.

Travel service providers are nonetheless optimistic and not sitting idle.

This week, Trip.com Group threw a grand global partner summit in Singapore, inviting over 2,000 partners from all over the world to reconnect, underlining its commitment to revitalizing international ties.

During the summit, Sun unveiled the company's strategies for boosting inbound tourism. These include brand building, innovative content creation, and consumption subsidy. She also pledged to work with partners to ease digital payment and provide better language services, so as to facilitate international tourism in China.

Sharing an encouraging perspective, Hermione Joye, sector lead of Travel and Vertical Search APAC at Google, said that China is "on the cusp of recovery." As the largest source of outbound tourism, China's airline capacity only stands at 55% of pre-COVID level and is expected to fully recover by the end of 2024, which speaks of the huge potential ahead, she said.

Joye also pointed to the financial readiness of Chinese tourists, noting that Chinese people have the highest savings during the pandemic. "So when they do step out of China, the thought is that they're ready to spend and really get involved in the travel experiences," she said.

James Liang, co-founder and chairman of Trip.com Group, also shared the optimism about the China market.

Liang said normally the growth rate of travel demand in China is much higher than the country's GDP growth. "So if Chinese economy can grow  even during COVID  5% to 6% a year, then the (travel) demand should have grown at least 10% a year," he said. "Our number is actually quite higher than that."

"Chinese travelers' demand is still very robust. When flight capacity and the visa situation come back to normal in the near future, Chinese travelers will definitely come back," Liang said.
A man has been found dead in a chimney more than a month after tenants in the building reportedly hearing someone screaming for help.

A maintenance worker investigating a foul smell in a block of apartments in Norfolk, Nebraska, found Zachariah Andrews, 29, stuck in the chimney on 19 October.

The worker first found a shoe before finding the decomposing body of the 29-year-old.

His remains had to be identified by scars, marks, tattoos, and an identification card found on him, police said.

Andrewss family has been informed and Norfolk Police Division said the force is investigating the circumstances of his death.

The grim discovery comes one month after police officers were called to the apartment block on 1414 South 3rd Street on 16 September, after a resident reported hearing a man calling out for help for three to four minutes.

The calls appeared to be coming from the first floor, the resident said, and two officers were dispatched.

But on arrival, the screaming could no longer be heard.

The resident was told to call the police back if he heard the noise again.

The responding officers also had contact with three additional residents, including the apartment beneath the reporting party, and no other person said they had heard the shouting.

A maintenance worker investigating a foul smell in a block of apartments found Andrew (Google Maps)

There was a loud television playing in one of the apartments, police said.

On 20 September, a parking warning was placed on Andrewss vehicle nearby.

A missing persons report was then filed on 3 October and he was entered into the national database of missing persons.

That same day, Madison County Sheriffs office issued a warrant for his arrest on seven counts of violating a protective order.

According to The New York Post, Andrews had repeatedly posted on Facebook about reaching out to an unnamed woman.

Responding to the posts, which covered a period of several months, friends of Andrews told him to stop trying to contact the woman and advised him to remember what he had learnt in treatment.

Local media reported that he had been previously charged with trying to entice a 12-year-old girl who was trying to sell a swimsuit on Facebook.
The Florida State Attorneys Office announced on Friday that Othal Wallace was sentenced to a maximum 30 years in prison for the shooting death of Daytona Beach Police Officer Jason Raynor. Wallace was found guilty of manslaughter back in September by a Clay County jury.

>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<

Officer Raynor was patrolling an apartment complex off Kingston Avenue in Daytona Beach on the evening of Jun. 23, 2021 when he came across Wallace sitting in a Honda SUV. The officer initiated a traffic stop but the suspect refused to listen to commands. The officers body camera captured 42 seconds of the interaction. At some point, a gunshot could be heard.

Officer Raynor was found by fellow officers suffering from a gunshot wound to the head. A manhunt began to find Wallace.

On Jun. 26, 2021, Daytona Beach Police Chief Jakari Young announced during a press conference that Wallace was captured in a tree house in a wooded area in Dekalb County Georgia. He was found with multiple weapons, ammunition, and body armor when he was taken into custody.

Related Story: TIMELINE: Othal Wallace captured in Georgia

Almost two months after the shooting, on Aug. 17, 2021, Officer Raynor died due to complications from the gunshot wound.

Officer Jason Raynor was doing his job -- protecting our community -- and he lost his life as a result. State Attorney R.J. Larizza said about the defendant. The defendant shot and killed Officer Raynor because he harbored a deep-seated hate for law enforcement -- not because he was fearful for his life. There is no sentence that would adequately punish the defendant for his brutal murder but imposing the maximum sentence brings some measure of justice and accountability.

Wallace was initially charged in Volusia County with first-degree murder after he shot Officer Raynor. His trial was moved to Clay County after his defense successfully argued that Wallace wouldnt receive a fair trial in Volusia County.

Related Story: Accused cop killers trial continues after emotional testimonies bring some to tears

The jury in Clay deliberated for 11 hours on Sept. 15, 2023, but members could not reach a verdict. However, a day later, the verdict finally came in with the jury convicting Wallace of manslaughter, sparing him the death penalty.

The case was investigated by the Daytona Beach Police Department with assistance from multiple other local and state law enforcement agencies.

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MEMPHIS, Tenn.  A man is injured after a shooting in Hickory Hill.

Memphis Police responded to a shooting on Kindness Cove near Friendly Way at around 5:40 p.m. Thursday.

Double shooting at Whitehaven gas station leaves one dead

Police say a man was taken to Regional One Hospital in critical condition. Memphis Police say no suspect information is available.

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.
A man was shot in the arm after officers attempted to stop a vehicle that had been connected to an armed robbery Friday on Mississippi Avenue, Sauget Police Chief James Jones said.

The robbery happened at an ATM at the MotoMart convenience store, Jones said. A man was at the ATM machine when an armed person robbed him, Jones said.

The suspect entered a black vehicle and the driver traveled north on Route 3, the chief said.

Police officers observed the vehicle and attempted to stop it . The driver fled to the area of 26th and Ridge Avenue in East St. Louis. The four occupants inside of the vehicle bailed out of the vehicle.

Jones said shots were fired, and one person was struck in the arm. The wound is not life-threatening, the chief said.

It is not clear who fired the shot that struck the man.

The incident is being investigated by Sauget Police and Illinois State Police, Jones said. No further details can be released at this time.

Anyone with information about the armed robbery is asked to call 618-337-5967.
The Twin Peaks sheriff's station reported that two suspects were arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of a man in Crestline.

Two suspects were arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of a man in Crestline, Twin Peaks sheriff's station reported.

Around 2:30 a.m. Wednesday, deputies responded to an assault with a deadly weapon call near the 24000 block of Lake Drive in Crestline. Witnesses and several local news organization stated that the shooting occurred at the Sleepy Hollow Motel, where an employee was shot.

"Law enforcement had the motel surrounded and had evacuated the motel, and was making announcements for the suspect or suspects to surrender," according to Mountain News.

During the investigation, deputies discovered the victim had been shot and injured. He was transported to a hospital for treatment. His condition is unknown, police said.

On Friday, sheriff's officials identified the victim as 51-year-old Steven Colter of Crestine, who they said died on Thursday of his injuries.

The suspects, identified as Brian Serrano, 43, of Sun City and Jaime Rojas, 46, of Santa Ana, were stopped as they were leaving the crime scene in a vehicle, sheriffs officials said.

Serrano was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. He remains at West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga, with bail set at nearly $2.1 million, sheriffs officials reported.

Rojas was transported to a hospital, where he is being treated for injuries. He is awaiting booking for the suspected charge of conspiracy to attempted murder, authorities stated.

The charges for both men will change due to the suspected murder of Colter.

Sheriff's officials said they are not releasing any additional information on the case, including how Rojas was injured or if the hotel was evacuated.

Anyone with information related to the investigation is asked to contact the Twin Peaks station at 909-336-0600. Anyone wishing to remain anonymous can contact We-Tip at 800-78-CRIME (27463) or wetip.com.

This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: Man fatally shot in Crestline, 2 suspects arrested, with one injured
The Kharkiv Oblast Defence Council announced the compulsory evacuation of families with children from Kupiansk, Kindrashivka and Kurylivka hromadas in the Kupiansk district of Kharkiv Oblast on 27 October, which are under persistent Russian bombardments [hromada is an administrative unit designating a village, several villages, or a town, and their adjacent territories  ed.].

Source: Oleh Syniehubov, Head of Kharkiv Oblast Military Administration, on Telegram

Quote: "Families with children are to be evacuated from the following settlements: Kindrashivka, Tyshchenkivka, Kupiansk, Kupiansk-Vuzlovyi, Kivsharivka, Hlushkivka, Kolisnykivka, Kurylivka, Novoosynove, and Podoly. A total of 275 children are currently living in these settlements.

Furthermore, the Defence Council has decided that children will be banned from entering these hromadas."

Details: Children may only be evacuated with at least one parent. All evacuees will be provided with housing and support.

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Mangos Tropical Cafe, a nightclub on Orlandos International Drive, has announced three more evenings as part of its Mangos Live event series.

Coming Nov. 10 will be Charly Jordan, a DJ/internet sensation arriving just as EDC Orlando weekend kicks off at Tinker Field. Tickets start at $25.

The Trey Songz Birthday Celebration will be held Nov. 25, two days after Thanksgiving. Songz will headline and host the evening, according to a Mangos news release. Tickets start at $40.

Also, headlining and hosting will be rapper G-Eazy on Dec. 9. Tickets start at $50.

These performances come on the heels of Nellys sold-out appearance at the club this month.

The events also have VIP levels ranging from $125 to $275, the high end of which includes access to the second-floor lounge, an elevated view of the stage, premium open bar and appetizers.

All guests must be at least 21 years old.

For more information, go to mangos.com/mangos-orlando.

dbevil@orlandosentinel.com
Update: Suspect Robert Card was found dead Friday night, officials said. Read the latest here. Our earlier coverage is below.

As the manhunt for Lewiston, Maine, shooting suspect Robert Card continues, officials said Friday that they are putting "divers in the water" near a location where Card's vehicle was found abandoned. Eighteen people were killed and 13 injured in the mass shooting Wednesday night.

Mike Sauschuck, the commissioner of the Maine Department of Public Safety, said in a Friday news conference that the divers would be "checking for evidence" and possibly "potential bodies."

"There will be a lot of activity in the water today," Sauschuck said. "...The river is a big piece of this."

Card's car, a white Subaru Outback, was found near a boat launch on the Androscoggin River. U.S. Coast Guard crews out of Boothbay Harbor have been searching waterways for a 15-foot lake boat owned by the suspect. According to a law enforcement bulletin reviewed by CBS News, Card has a 2019 Sea Doo green boat registered in his name. It's not clear whether that's the same vessel as the lake boat.

Divers prepare to search the Androscoggin River in Lisbon Falls, Maine, on October 27, 2023, in the aftermath of a mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine. / Credit: ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images

The Androscoggin River connects to the Kennebec River. Both rivers are more than 170 miles long and empty into the Gulf of Maine. Some of the gulf's shoreline is in Canada.

Sauschuck said that there would be air flyovers to help determine where divers should enter the river. Where they go into the water will depend on currents, visibility and other factors, Sauschuck said. Sonar technology will also be used in the search. Sauschuck also said that the Brookfield Power Company, which operates two dams on the river, will try to lower the current to make it easier for divers to navigate the waterway.

The Maine State Police dive team will lead the charge, and officers from the agency will work the shore line along the river.

On Thursday, the U.S. Coast Guard said it was deploying multiple resources to search for Card.

Card remains missing after carrying out a mass shooting on Wednesday at two locations in Lewiston, Maine. Eighteen people were killed, and 13 others were injured. Card has been missing ever since.

Cara Tabachnick contributed reporting.

Search underway for Maine mass shootings person of interest, police say

The JAY-Z interview: Part 2

WATCH: Maine officials give update on manhunt for suspect in mass shootings
In the decade since Cindy Wiesel moved to Israel from Bergenfield, New Jersey, her family has experienced close brushes with violence  and although she says these are likely the "most universally turbulent" times they've lived through, the family has decided to stay put.

"Israel is my home now. Why would I leave my home?" said Wiesel, 52, a summer camp director and dual U.S.-Israeli citizen who now lives in Efrat, a settlement deep in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, near the Palestinian city of Bethlehem. She said her 20-year-old son and her son-in-law are currently serving in Israel's military.

An Israeli flag made from steel, placed at Matan Lookout, overlooking the hills of Samaria above the Israeli settlement of Itamar in the West Bank. / Credit: Getty Images

In the aftermath of Hamas' deadly Oct. 7 terror attacks, which Israel says killed about 1,400 people, the country declared war, bombarding the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and preparing for a ground invasion.

Many visitors and dual citizens scrambled to leave Israel. But others, including Wiesel, dug in their heels and are committed to staying in the country.

The U.S. and several other nations have helped their citizens to evacuate with charter flights and even cruise ships carrying thousands to safety. The U.S. State Department has warned Americans in the region that "terrorists and violent extremists may attack with little or no warning."

Few people in Gaza have had the option to leave  even U.S. citizens who were visiting at the time of the attacks were trapped, with the first group finally allowed to exit on Nov. 1. Health officials in Hamas-ruled Gaza say more than 8,500 people have been killed by Israel's airstrikes, and the U.S. government said as many as 600 U.S. nationals were among the roughly 2.3 million people stuck under the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

At least 20,000 Americans in Israel and Gaza contacted the U.S. State Department in the first week of the war, but officials have not said how many have actually left.

"We've been here before"

Many dual citizens living in Israel have already felt the impact of violence and conflict in the years since they moved to the country.

In April, family friends of the Wiesels, two British-Israeli sisters and their mother, were killed in a shooting in the West Bank. Despite the turmoil, Wiesel has stuck to her normal routine as much as possible, though she says traveling around Israel has become a nerve-wracking experience.

Recently, Wiesel planned to travel to Beit Shemesh to visit a family sitting shiva, a seven-day mourning process that's part of Jewish tradition. Wiesel said each time she planned to make the trip, rockets were falling. Still, she said she's felt safe, for the most part.

"We have tremendous faith in God that we'll be safe and that Israel is our place," Wiesel said.

Father of five Geoff Winston lives in Zichron Ya'akov, a town about a 25-minute drive from Haifa, in northern Israel. He moved to the country from New Jersey in 1992.

In 2006, his family had to take cover in shelters for weeks during rocket attacks from Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militant group based in Lebanon, just across Israel's northern border. Winston still remembers his then-7-year-old son screaming in fear of the sirens.

His son is now 24 years old and is in military intelligence stationed on the northern border, said Winston. He has two more children in the military but said he would stay in Israel regardless, because it's his place.

"This is where I've been for the last 31 years and this is where I'm going to die," he said.

Geoff Winston and his family celebrated his wife's 50th birthday 24 hours before the Hamas invasion on October 7, 2023. / Credit: Courtesy Geoff Winston

Aviva Goldberg, a 54-year-old mother of four, first came to Israel as a teen and lived in the country through the Gulf War and the first and second Intifadas  Palestinian uprisings in the late 1980s and early 2000s. There were never any thoughts of leaving, she said.

Goldberg came back to the U.S. after her marriage so her husband could finish his master's degree, and they stayed for 20 years, but then her family returned to Israel nine years ago.

While she's lived through many conflicts in Israel, Goldberg said this one is the worst. Still, she hasn't once considered leaving.

"If every single person who had a way to get out left, what would happen? Who would be left? We wouldn't have the country anymore," Goldberg said. "And guess what, I wouldn't blame any other country for saying, 'Look at them, they ran the second things get hard.'"

At the end of 2021, about 79% of the Jews living in Israel had been born there, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. More than 3.3 million immigrants have moved to Israel since the state's founding in 1948, with about 1.5 million of them arriving since 1990.

"This is the only place we belong"

A significant share of Israel's population is made up of Holocaust survivors and their descendants  families who came to the country as refugees fleeing antisemitic persecution and often deadly violence. There were still 147,199 survivors living in Israel according to the latest study published in April by the government's Holocaust Survivors' Rights Authority.

Lilly Cantor, the 74-year-old daughter of Holocaust survivors, grew up in the U.S. hearing about her mother's wish to go to Israel. When she and her husband moved to Israel 11 years ago, Cantor said she felt like she was fulfilling her mother's dream.

Jerusalem's Old City, with the Dome of the Rock and a flag of Israel. / Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto

One of her children and two of her grandchildren also live in Israel, but she said she'd want to be there and stay there through the war even without them.

"This is the only place we belong and the only place we're safe, and I feel very strongly about that," Cantor said.

Cantor's brother, who lives in Florida, asked her after the war with Hamas began if she would come back to the U.S.

"My response was: 'This is home. I don't have another home,'" Cantor said.

Cantor's mother died four years ago, but she knows her mother was proud of her decision to move to Israel

"I know she would say 'hang in there,'" Cantor said.

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This is the audio version of The Reason Livestream, which takes place every Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern.

Javier Milei , the self-described libertarian candidate for Argentina's presidency, surprised the world with a first-place finish in the primaries this August. But in the presidential election this past weekend, he finished second behind Argentina's current economy minister, Sergio Massa, a part of the Peronist political movement that's long governed Argentina. Neither candidate passed the threshold needed to become the next president, so they will have a head-to-head rematch on November 19.

Does Milei still have a chance against an entrenched political elite that began handing out money and free bus passes in the run-up to the election? If elected, how will Milei deliver on his promise to take a chainsaw to government, abolish the central bank, and dollarize the economy? And what can American libertarians learn from the movement Milei has built in Argentina?

Reason's Liz Wolfe and Zach Weissmueller discussed these questions and reacted to recent interview clips of Milei with Marcos Falcone, a political scientist, project manager at Argentina's Fundacion Libertad, and podcast host.

Mentioned in this podcast:

Argentina's 2023 presidential election results

"Argentina's (Unexpected) Libertarian Moment," by Marcos Falcone

"Argentina's presidential election delivers a surprise result," writes The Economist

Support for Milei by party affiliation, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit

"A man, a plan, a chainsaw: How a power tool took center stage in Argentina's presidential race," by Daniel Politi and David Biller

"Is Javier Milei's Movement in Argentina a Cult of Personality in the Name of Liberty?" by Antonella Marty and Jose Benegas

"What's in Javier Milei's head?" by Federico Rivas Molina

The post Marcos Falcone: Can a Libertarian Still Win in Argentina? appeared first on Reason.com.
You are here: Business

J&T Express, a global logistics service provider, was officially listed on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on October 27. The issue price was HK$12 per share, with a market value of over HK$100 billion.

The net proceeds from the offering were about HK$3.528 billion.

The listing ceremony was attended by two senior executives and 13 frontline representatives from 13 countries. The 13 frontline representatives include express delivery workers, warehouse managers, transit center operators, customer service representatives, sales executives, and others from various positions.

J&T Express was founded in Indonesia in 2015 and has seized around 22.5% of market share in Southeast Asia. It has now deployed its delivery network in China, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, Brazil, and other countries.
The City of Marion rejected a records request this week for text messages on the phones of top city officials sent before and after police raided the local newspaper, a move that could severely weaken a key 2016 reform of Kansas open records laws.

The Marion County Record, which police searched on Aug. 11, had requested text messages sent to and from Mayor David Mayfield, City Administrator Brogan Jones and former Police Chief Gideon Cody related to the search, the newspaper and its reporters. It also sought messages about Vice Mayor Ruth Herbel, whose home was also searched as part of an investigation into alleged identity theft that fell apart amid widespread condemnation of the raid.

Wichita-based lawyer Jennifer Hill, who is handling records requests to the city in the aftermath of the raid, denied the Marion County Records request on Tuesday. The newspaper reported on the denial this week.

Hill wrote in a letter to the newspaper that Marion has no custody over personal cell phones and KORA provides no enforcement mechanism to obtain text messages from personal cell phones.

But the Kansas Legislature in 2016 unanimously passed a bill to ensure government officials couldnt shield records from disclosure by conducting public business on personal devices or email accounts. The law, which amended the Kansas Open Records Act, defines public records to include any recorded information if it pertains to government business, regardless of its location.

The denial instantly raised alarm bells among press and open government advocates in Kansas. Bernie Rhodes, a Kansas City-based attorney who represents The Record and also represents The Star, condemned the decision in an interview, saying the effect of the 2016 law was to eliminate the exact sham argument made by Marion.

If this denial is allowed to stand, it is a primer for gutting the Kansas Open Records Act. Because any government official with half a brain or half a lawyer is going to engage in this illegal scheme, Rhodes said.

Rhodes indicated the newspaper is weighing its options, but didnt rule out a lawsuit.

Hill also wrote that even if records exist, Marion has no obligation to turn them over. And she said an exemption in the law allows officials to withhold records made, maintained or kept by an individual who is a member of the legislature or of the governing body of any political or taxing subdivision of the state. Its unclear how the exemption would apply to Jones or Cody, who dont sit on the Marion City Council.

Mayfield and Jones didnt respond to questions from The Star on Thursday.

The Star submitted its own records request on Thursday, seeking any text messages from Mayfield, Jones and Cody containing public records related to the raid and The Record between August and Codys resignation in early October. Marion didnt immediately respond to the request; under state law, government agencies have up to three business days to respond.

A real problem if records denied

The raid of the Marion County Record by Cody and other officers has already led to sharp allegations the city engaged in flagrant violations of 1st and 4th Amendment rights.

Just days after police searched the newspaper, Herbels home and the home of the papers editor and publisher, Eric Meyer, the search warrants used to justify the raids fell apart after the county prosecutor found them insufficient. Meyers 98-year-old mother, Joan Meyer, died the day after the search; and reporter Deb Gruver filed a federal lawsuit against Cody.

Now, the city is kicking over another hornets nest in setting the stage for a legal showdown over the meaning and scope of the 2016 law.

Emily Bradbury, director of the Kansas Press Association, said the Marion request marked the first blanket denial involving the 2016 law she was aware of, adding that Marions position is concerning to her and others given the ubiquity of personal devices in everyday life. Clarification about the law is needed because of the amount of business conducted on personal cell phones, especially at the local level.

If the denial stands, Bradbury said, weve got a real problem. Fixing the law would become a priority of the Kansas Press Association in such a situation, she said.

Its not just about journalistic endeavors, its about the public knowing whats happening, Bradbury said.

Many of the smallest units of government  like library boards and water district boards  may not have dedicated email addresses or phones for members. If officials can shield public business done on their personal devices by simply asserting that theres no enforcement mechanism to get those records, then the 2016 law is essentially toothless.

At the time, the 2016 law was hailed as an important bipartisan reform to close a glaring loophole in the Kansas Open Records Act. Derek Schmidt, then the Republican state attorney general, said the law would help bring the Open Records Act into the 21st century.

The year before, The Wichita Eagle exposed how Shawn Sullivan, the state budget director under then-Gov. Sam Brownback, used a private email account to send two lobbyists a draft of the states budget several weeks before it was unveiled to lawmakers. At the time, state law allowed officials to shield messages from disclosure if sent with a private account.

The spirit of the law was that those would become public documents subject to any request, former Rep. John Barker, an Abilene Republican who sat on a Kansas Judicial Council committee that workshopped the legislation, said of public records on private accounts and devices.

Inquiries about Kansas open records laws are among the most common questions fielded by the League of Kansas Municipalities, said John Goodyear, the leagues general counsel. The league conducts two to four general trainings on open records laws a year and also produces a manual on the topic, adding that the 2016 change to the law is a focus in its trainings.

The leagues prevailing message, Goodyear said, is to emphasize the presumption that records are open.

We urge caution to city officials and ask them to refrain from using personal accounts to conduct public business, because texts, messages, or emails can all be subject to the Act if they meet the definition of a recordeven if they are on their personal devices or accounts, Goodyear said in a statement.

It is best practice to keep all city business on city accounts.

The Stars Katie Bernard contributed reporting
In Maryland, muddy runoff from a construction site seems to be suffocating a once-lush underwater prairie-like ecosystem, endangering fish and other aquatic animals.

Whats happening?

Marylands Gunpowder River  part of the Chesapeake Bay watershed  was once home to lush submerged grasses that hosted a plethora of wildlife, including fish and crabs. Now, this underwater prairie has all but disappeared, and the once-clear water has turned a murky orange color, the Bay Journal reports.

The apparent culprit? Muddy runoff from a large housing development called Ridgelys Reserve. More than 100 acres of trees and other vegetation were cleared there in early 2022. The exposed soil, with nothing to hold it down, now runs into the river with snowmelt and rainfall.

Why is muddy runoff concerning?

Excess sediment from runoff threatens the health of Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. Small particles of sand, silt, and clay cloud the water and block sunlight. This causes submerged grasses to die off. As the sediment settles, it can also smother fish eggs and bottom-dwelling creatures.

The pollution from this site is so bad you can see it from space, Evan Isaacson, research director for the Chesapeake Legal Alliance, told the Bay Journal.

However, he said this is nothing new and that   these massive blowouts happen all the time across the Bay watershed.

Muddy runoff is just one type of pollution endangering rivers across the globe. This summer, chemical pollution turned Brazils Tiete River into a foamy, smelly mess due to household detergents from Sao Paulos sewer system. The toxic foam killed off birds, fish, and vegetation and caused health concerns for people.

Meanwhile, scientists are saying that microplastics in the environment may increase sediment erosion in waterways  and this can have cascading adverse effects on fish and other aquatic animals.

Whats being done about muddy runoff?

In Maryland, developers are required to post fabric silt fences around construction sites and install detention ponds within the sites to keep the muddy runoff contained, according to the Bay Journal. After a site has been cleared, bared soil must be covered with straw to minimize the erosive impact of rain. If a site is left bare for a period of time, it must be seeded with grass to hold soil in place.

The Maryland Department of Environment (MDE) is authorized to penalize any company that does not comply with these regulations with fines of up to $100,000 per violation. However, state officials are letting Harford County, where Ridgelys Reserve is located, take the lead on violations there.

In the past year, the county ordered several temporary halts on construction until specific violations were corrected. County officials also fined the developer $10,000 twice this year. However, that has not corrected the problem, which has left many frustrated.

Im not at all happy with the developer here  I suppose that maybe the amount of the fines isnt quite enough to make people behave as youd want them to, county executive Bob Cassilly told the Bay Journal.

I think the ultimate responsibility falls to the state, said local resident Bill Temmink, who has filed a number of complaints to the county and state.

It seems like every time we call, theres an inspection, and they find the same things wrong, said Mike Horsmon, another local resident. But the problem isnt going away.

Meanwhile, several environmental groups have pushed for change, and the state legislature even pressured MDE to hire more inspectors and permit writers. Harford County council member Dion Guthrie also drafted legislation to reinstate a local restriction that would limit clearing to 20 acres at a time, which would minimize impact.

Though the problem is far from solved, residents said that their complaints are finally getting a response at the county level  a step in the right direction.

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BOSTON  Calling it an easy piece of legislation to support, Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan endorsed a bill, now wending its way through the Legislature, that would decriminalize sex trade workers while offering them a path to leave "the life."

We should treat them as what they are, victims, Ryan said. People should not be selling people.

The proposed legislation would retain criminal penalties for people convicted of purchasing sexual favors as well as those convicted of selling the sexual favors of others.

People selling people need to be held accountable, Ryan said.

The proposed sister bills filed in both houses are sponsored by Sens. Lydia Edwards , D-Boston, and Cindy Friedman , D-Arlington; and Reps. Mary Keefe, D-Worcester and Tricia Farley-Bouvier, D-Pittsfield. Legislators in Maine passed a similar measure decriminalizing workers in the sex trade earlier this year.

The measures would offer an avenue for expunging convictions and felony records for past victims of the sex trade. It would also create a special commission tasked with creating a mechanism to offer housing, relocation services, physical and mental health care, education and job training, and legal assistance. It would even offer an avenue for reparations through a victims compensation fund.

Court fees and fines levied during the adjudication process on people arrested on charges of soliciting prostitution would be funneled to a Victims of Human Trafficking Trust Fund. The special commission would also work to create a statewide prevention and awareness program designed to deter youth from entering the sex trade.

Rep. Mary Keefe

Our goal is to move people forward, to get them a way to move forward, Ryan said at a recent presentation to legislative leaders held at the State House.

The proposed legislation does not decriminalize all aspects of the sex trade.

Ryan said that unless there are stiff penalties in place, if someone benefits from selling someone, and they have the ability to sell them over and over again, year after year, there is no reason for them to stop.

The cycle is traumatic and can affect multiple generations of women and their offspring, Ryan said, adding that in her work as a prosecutor, she has seen generations of people arrested on prostitution charges come through her office.

The EMMA Coalition Action Network, a statewide organization working to dismantle the sex trade, is a proponent of the bill, known as the Act to Strengthen Justice and Support for Sex Trade Survivors.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Legislation would decriminalize victims of sex trade in Massachusetts
LEWISTON, Maine  When chef Jeff Bailey and his daughter Gabriel woke up Thursday, the morning after the worst mass shooting in Maines history, and realized most businesses would be closed, they wondered how police hunting the killer and the medical staff members treating the wounded would find anything to eat.

So they decided to open their Jamaican food truck exclusively for first responders, free of charge, making it one of the only places in town with a hot meal available.

The gesture like that by a Black immigrant family in the whitest state in the country is emblematic, Lewistons boosters say, of how a struggling postindustrial mill town has been revived in part by a recent influx of non-European immigrants.

Chef Jeff Bailey and his daughter Gabriel have been offering free food to first responders from their Jamaican food truck. (Alex Seitz-Wald / NBC News)

The shooting will be an inflection point for a small city and state that are both frequently ranked among the safest in the country after a single night of bloodshed that resulted in roughly the annual number of homicides statewide. The suspect, Robert Card, remains at large, prompting a multistate manhunt after, authorities allege, he shot and killed at least 18 people in Lewiston on Wednesday night.

Were always talking about how this kind of thing doesnt happen here, said Julien Leavitt, standing outside his house, the first one near a police cordon blocking access to one of the shooting sites. And then it did.

He and his partner, Kirsten Brezler, decided to spend the night with family outside of town. Im pregnant and didnt feel safe coming home, Brezler said.

Like other postindustrial cities, Lewiston has problems with drugs and homelessness, with poverty and abandoned storefronts, and it has been the butt of jokes for people from other parts of Maine. But the city has always been relatively safe, spared the rampant gun violence of other American cities.

We were planning on trying to move out of here in the next couple of years anyway, Brezler said before Leavitt interjected: Now this kind of accelerated that.

A working-class community

Far from the picturesque coastline Maine is best known for, Lewiston has always been a working-class community.

"Lewiston is a special place. It is a close-knit community with a long history of hard work, of persistence, of faith, of opening its big heart to people everywhere," Democratic Gov. Janet Mills said at a news conference Thursday, noting that she met and married her husband and raised her kids there.

It was built up during the Industrial Revolution by a drop in the powerful Androscoggin River, which provided the power, and tycoon Benjamin Bates, who provided the capital.

With jobs in Bates factories and others, Lewiston attracted scores of French Canadian and Irish immigrants, who manufactured uniforms for the Union Army during the Civil War and fought famous labor battles of their own against strikebreakers in union drives for better wages and working conditions.

Bates College, renamed in honor of its industrialist patron, was an early hotbed of abolitionism and one of the first schools to allow women and African Americans to study alongside white men.

But in the 20th century, Lewiston suffered the fate of many New England mill towns and Midwest factory cities as jobs moved elsewhere and pollution choked the air and the water. In the 1950s and the 1960s, the river was effectively used as an open sewer, according to the Natural Resources Council of Maine, with large stretches devoid of any fish.

Losing population and businesses, city leaders worked to turn things around in the 1990s, which coincided with a contingent of Somali refugees discovering the city and deciding to resettle here.

Their presence was met with some opposition, some of it from the citys mayor and white nationalist groups, but a massive counterdemonstration during which thousands of supporters turned out  including many of the states major elected officials  seemed to settle things in the immigrants favor.

Since then, many have credited the immigrants with helping to revitalize the city, and theyve been joined by other new arrivals from places like the Caribbean. Lewiston elected the states first Somali American legislator last year.

Theres no indication thus far that the gunman was motivated by racial animus. And his selection of targets  a bar and a bowling alley  suggests something else may have been driving him. Card, the suspect, appeared to have mental health issues.

We are such a tight-knit community. Everybody kind of knows everybody, said Sheena Hall, who lives in nearby Greene and found out about the shooting early through her teenage son, who is a junior firefighter and happened to be attending a class at the Lewiston fire station when the call came in.

shock family mass shooting event (Steven Senne / AP)

Halls mother-in-law is an avid bowler who plays three times a week at the alley where more than a half-dozen people were killed Wednesday night. She wasnt there Wednesday night, but she said three of her friends were killed.

I think this is going to put a lot of fear into a lot of people. This is where I took my kids, especially in the winter months, she said of the bowling alley, Just-in-Time Recreation, before she was interrupted by a phone call announcing school had been canceled for Friday.

A cornhole tournament for deaf people was taking place at the other target, a bar on the other side of town, leaving Catherine Dunn searching for her son-in-law, who had been participating in the event. Shes particularly concerned about his dog, which she thinks might have been in his truck.

We can see the truck on TV, and I just need to know if the dog is still in there, she said.

The shooting turned Lewiston, Maines second-biggest city, into a ghost town. Everything was closed: schools, dry cleaners, fast food restaurants, dollar stores, coffee shops, gas stations, convenience stores and the Walmart Supercenter across the river in Auburn. A succession of residents and out-of-town reporters disappointed by the locked doors at a 7-Eleven near the hospital complained about struggling to find food and gas and traded rumors they heard about a Vietnamese restaurant or a corner store supposedly open nearby.

Our prayers go out to everyone in the community, read the electronic billboard outside a bank.

As the lockdown dragged on, tensions grew, including on the nearby campus of Bates College, where the autumn leaves lay untrammeled on the abandoned quad.

The driver of a white SUV just off campus tentatively rolled down his window to reveal five hungry students packed inside. Despite having been told to lock their doors and stay inside, they were making an escape. They hadnt eaten in almost 18 hours, said the driver, Freddie Curtis, a junior from Boston, and they wouldnt be allowed into the dining hall for another hour and half. Were all really hungry, he said.

And with the killer still on the loose, some were taking more aggressive measures in a state known for its high gun ownership and low crime rate.

I talked to all my neighbors; everybody armed themselves and locked their doors, said Daniel Blackerby of Lewiston. Everybody I know is armed now.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Sesylia Hazen and Kamille Williams were near Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve in Alaska when they heard something odd.

Thats when they spotted a humpback whale in the water near the Gustavus dock, according to a news release shared by the national parks Facebook page on Oct. 27. The creature was trailing two buoys and could not move freely.

Hazen and Williams, local residents, immediately made the dreaded call, alerting National Park Service whale biologists of the situation, officials said of the Oct. 10 incident. Park staff, NPS experts and officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Alaska began working together, assessing the situation.

Rescuers said they observed a humpback whale swimming in a tight clockwise circle that appeared to be intermittently anchored to the seafloor by what we later learned was a 300-pound crab pot with 450 feet of heavy duty line.

The owner of the equipment collaborated with rescuers, saying the crab pot had gone missing sometime between Saturday, Oct. 7 and Sunday, Oct. 8, officials said in the release. By the time the whale was found, it had already been entangled for at least three days.

The day after discovering the entangled creature, rescuers got to work, attempting to free the humpback.

When they reached the whale, experts got a close up look at its limited mobility and noticed that it was swimming in clockwise circles...making 7-9 minute dives and was at the surface for only about 30 seconds, the rescuers said.

The footage from the drone soon revealed why, according to officials. The whale had a loop of line through its mouth that led to a large, heavy glob of tangled lines at its tail. In effect, the whale was hog-tied, its body bent sharply to the side as it swam in a predictable clockwise circle each time it came up.

After an hour trying to get close to the whale, rescuers were finally able to attempt the complex and challenging rescue by making cuts at the line with a specialized knife mounted on a long pole.

The turning point came when we were able to cut the rope that ran through the whales mouth and was wrapped around its tail, a whale biologist with Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve said in an Oct. 26 NOAA news release.

Rescuers worked all day and successfully freed all of the line from the whales tail and mouth, allowing it to swim away.

The whale maintained its curved posture after the lines were cut, but biologists expect that it returned to a more normal form once it was able to move freely again, rescuers said. After the team made the last cut, the whale disappeared, which the team took as a good sign that it was no longer hampered by the lines and could rapidly swim away.

Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve is northwest of Juneau.

Watch as one of the worlds largest animals approaches boaters in NY. Awe-inspiring

See the absolutely magical moment boaters spot incredibly rare creature in Alaska

Endangered deep-sea creature and baby surprise experts near Cape Cod. See them swim
Jamaari Harper listens during his trial in Stark County Common Pleas Court in Canton. Judge Kristin Farmer sentence Harper on Friday to life in prison for fatally shooting Garry Marx Jr.

CANTON  Victoria Marx observed her birthday on the same day Jamaari Harper got a life prison sentence for killing her oldest son Garry A. Marx Jr.

"I got my birthday wish. Justice is served now," said the grieving mother, who described the son she birthed at age 15 as a best friend to her and his father Garry A. Marx Sr.

"My son told me every day he loved me," she said at Harper's sentencing hearing on Friday. "We were best of friends. I'll never have that chance again for him to hug me and kiss me, and say, 'Hey, Mom, how are you today?' I talked to my son the day before he died. We were laughing and giggling. I'm going to miss all that."

Stark County Common Pleas Judge Kristin G. Farmer sentenced Harper on Friday for murder and others charged tied to the shooting death of Marx on Feb. 6 in the driveway of his fiancee's residence.

Why was Garry Marx shot to death in Canton?

Marx, 51, was shot as he was going to put laundry in his car. The Alliance area man was planning to take it home before going to work, said Dennis Barr, chief of the criminal division of the Stark County Prosecutor's Office.

"I've been doing this for a long, long time," Barr said. "Very, very few times have I seen an act that was so senseless. It's clear Mr. Harper, that night, was going out to break into unlocked cars and steal what he could steal. But he chose to take a firearm with him. We all know that he had an opportunity to run away when he was confronted. But he chose not to run away. He chose to shoot Mr. Marx in the neck. He chose to end his life."

Farmer told Harper his actions "represent that which scares the community the most: a random act of violence committed upon an unsuspecting individual going about his everyday routine."

Harper's first opportunity for parole would come after he serves a total of 29 years in prison for murder, felonious assault, aggravated robbery and using a gun in the crimes. Parole eligibility could be delayed based on his behavior in prison.

The shooting happened in the early morning in the 900 block of Dueber Avenue SW, a block from Harper's home.

Garry Marx's family speaks about the impact of his death

Harper did not speak at his sentencing hearing.

The judge heard from the mother, father, brother, daughter and fiancee of the deceased.

Maggie Howell called Harper a monster and a huge coward for shooting her fiance.

All he was doing was trying to go to his back-breaking job to provide for the two of us, she said. "You, broke and too lazy to work, came to us to steal our stuff in the nights cover.

She said her fiances last words were "shot, shot," which she heard as she tried vainly to help him.

She said that instead of planning their wedding and moving into his house, she is planning where his ashes will be scattered and dealing with night terrors, PTSD and survivor's guilt.

"May God not have any mercy on your soul," Howell said.

One of the victim's two daughters, Elisha Richards, said she reconnected with her father two years ago, giving him the opportunity to meet her wife and his granddaughter and grandson.

We were all excited to get to know him and his family. I had 32 years to catch up on," she said. "I thought I had many years to make memories with him, catch up on times we lost, have my children make memories with their grandpa, creating strong bonds a father and daughter should have. I will never truly get to know him now. My children will never get to know him now. I will be forever missing out on the other half of who I am.

Michael Marx, the brother of the victim, said, I pray to God every day to get the anger out of me. I dont know how to get it out of me. I pray theres no parole.

He said his late brother, nicknamed Bam Bam Junior, has let his loved ones know that he is OK.

He has come to us in so many different ways and shown us from heaven, I got this. I got this, he said.

Victoria Marx said Garry had worked since he was 8 years old.

"But you chose not to work," she told Harper. "You wanted to rob people. You had a child. You should have got a job. You should have made something of you."

Victoria Marx said she has to go through her son's house to clear out his personal belongings, such as his Little League uniform.

His father Garry A. Marx Sr. had these words for Harper: "You are a devil. Karma's coming for you, brother."

Life sentence: Canton man convicted in fatal robbery of man killed while taking laundry to his car

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: Jamaari Harper gets life sentence for Feb. 6 murder of Garry Marx Jr.
The mayor of Jackson, Mississippi, offered an apology to the family of Dexter Wade, who didnt learn that an off-duty police officer fatally struck the 37-year-old in their cruiser until months later, at which point the man was already buried in a grave for the unknown at a penal farm.

It is tragic to lose your child. It is tragic to suffer the consequences of having to bury your child before you pass. But to add insult to that trauma, it is even more difficult to not have the ability to have a proper burial for your child," mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said in his State of the City speech on Thursday. "And for that we regret a circumstance that Mr. Wades family has had to deal with."

Wade was hit on 5 March, and his family spent months looking for him, driving through local neighbourhoods and appealing to community membets on Facebook. They learned his fate on 24 August, months after his mother Bettersten Wade reported first reported him missing to the Jackson Police Department.

Mayor Lumumba in his speech said city officials suffered from communication issues.

"The failure was that, ultimately, there was a lack of communication with the missing persons division, the coroners office and accident investigations, he said in his remarks.

Ms Wade told NBC News, which first reported on the scandal, she wasnt satisfied with the mayors speech and hoped for more details about what went wrong.

"Youre going to tell me that you are just going to get in touch by phone to tell me my son is dead?" she told the broadcaster. "What happened to a knock on the door to tell me my son is dead? Are you telling me that you all didnt tell me the whole time because you didnt have the correct phone number? I paid dearly for a mistake when you all could have just stepped on my doorstep."

Wade was struck by an off-duty corporal driving a police SUV as he walked across Interstate 55, a six-lane highway.

The officer, who has yet to be named publically, alerted the JPD.

The corporal wasnt suspected of being under the influence of drugs and wasnt given a sobriety test or cited for any violations.

The Independent has contacted the JPD for more information.

Wades death has been ruled accidental.

The mans identity was known to officials, just not shared in time.

Coroners investigators used a bottle of prescription pills to find the deceased mans name, then found out his mothers phone number from the medical facility which prescribed them.

Nonetheless, police did not connect the fact that the missing person was the same one sitting in the morgue, and the unclaimed remains were bured on 14 July at the Hinds County penal farm.

It wasnt until October when Ms Wade was finally able to see her sons grave. Now shes raising funds to get the body exhumed and transfered.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, known for his cases involving victims of police misconduct, is working with the family.

Wades disappearance and death isnt the first interaction between the family and the JPD.

In 2019, Ms Wades 62-year-old brother died when a Jackson officer slammed him to the ground.

The officer was convicted of manslaughter and is appealing the case.
SAN DIEGO  A Marine jet based out of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar encountered a main landing gear anomaly after a safe, routine landing as part of pre-planned training last week, military officials said.

The malfunction occurred Wednesday, Oct. 18, at MCAS Miramar involving a F/A-18C Hornet that belongs to Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 323, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, Maj. Natalie Batcheler, a spokesperson for 3rd MAW, told Military.com.

Military.com described the video sent to them shows what appears to be a fire under the belly of the aircraft as it lumbers along an airstrip.

Smoke can be seen billowing from the jet. Another cut of the video shows emergency personnel responding to the scene, the military website said.

Maine police surround home in search for suspect in the fatal shooting of 18

Batcheler says the video appears to be the same incident, adding 3rd MAW is unsure who or where the video came from, and that the quality is low and dark.

No personnel were hurt during the incident, according to military officials, as it remains under investigation.

The defect comes after a Marine pilot was killed when his F/A-18D Hornet that belonged to 2nd MAW crashed near Miramar in August. Another crash occurred the same month off the northern coast of Australia involving an MV-22 Osprey that killed three Marines.

In 2021, Boeing received an $85 million delivery order from the Navy to overhaul the main and nose landing gear for its F/A-18 Super Hornet variants.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego.
In a world filled with chaos, Carlos Gonzalez looks for joy.

At Miami Dade College, where he has taught writing for 30 years, he has worked on many projects locally and internationally. He also helps others through meditation.

Now, alongside his academic role, he facilitates mindfulness classes at the Homestead womens prison in collaboration with the nonprofit Exchange for Change.

The program he works with, Gonzalez said, connects two groups with the women in prisoncollege students on the outside and non-college participants outside the prisonthrough a letter exchange.

My goal is to share the transformative practice of meditation to anyone who would want to learn. The sessions at the prison and those I do on the outside aim to cultivate mindfulness, emotional well-being, and self-awareness, empowering participants to foster personal growth, more resilience, and greater self-acceptance, and maybe a little bit more joy.

He said the program has had a profound impact on both incarcerated individuals and those on the outside.

The exchange of letters allows participants to share their meditation experiences, reflections, and thoughts, fostering empathy and understanding between the two groups. It also creates a powerful sense of connection and support, enabling participants to learn from one another and find common ground despite their different backgrounds.

Students in the LEAP letter exchange club at Miami Dade College work with writing professor Carlos Gonzalez and Exchange for Change..

At MDC he advises the student organization, LEAP, that hosts the letter exchange. LEAP stands for Letter Exchange for Awareness and Progress.

And outside of the MDC community he works with a small group that also does the letter exchange. They meet through Zoom on Tuesday nights from 8-9 p.m.

His Substack platform, the inspiring Mindful Letters, is filled with thoughts on life and purpose.

Gonzalez writes there that he has had the pleasure of helping students discover their voices while they honor and celebrate their lives.

He is hoping that raising awareness about meditation and Exchange for Change may inspire more people to get involved and help make a positive difference in themselves and those who are incarcerated.

Its my sense that we are all struggling not only personally but on a larger level, Gonzalez said. Many would suggest a message of hope, but for me hope has a flip sidefear. The two go hand in hand.

Contrary to what many think, meditation does not offer hope. It offers a way of working with our suffering and developing a sense of sympathy, compassion, and friendliness that allows people to look at their situation no matter how difficult and work through it with dignity and equanimity.

Exchange for Change started in 2014 with one writing class of 17 students at Dade Correctional Institution. It has since reached more than 1,500 students at over a half dozen institutions, including federal and juvenile residential centers in Florida. Learn more at https://www.exchange-for-change.org/

It is also part of Give Miami Day on Nov. 16. https://www.givemiamiday.org/

Grove Makers Market is Nov. 10

Join in the creative and community spirit of the upcoming holidays when the Arts & Culture Committee of The Womans Club of Coconut Grove presents The Grove Makers Market-Holiday Edition.

More than 30 talented artisans and makers will gather 12-8 p.m., Nov. 10 at 2985 S. Bayshore Dr.

Attendees will discover an eclectic array of handcrafted goods including art, crafts, jewelry, beauty products, home decor, pet accessories, handbags, and kids fashion. There will also be a silent auction, surprise raffles, food trucks, face painters, and live music.

A significant portion of the proceeds will go towards providing Thanksgiving meals for the Coconut Grove Crisis Food Pantry.

Learn more at www.thegrovemakersmarket.com This event is free with registration at Eventbrite. VIP early admittance tickets are $20 plus tax and include mimosas and light bites.

The Miami-Dade Military Museum at Zoo Miami is finally hosting a grand opening on Veterans Day. Everyone is invited for a ceremony and tours of the restored historic building.

Veterans Day at Military Museum

Celebrate Veterans Day at the Miami-Dade Military Museum at Zoo Miami, 2-3 p.m., Nov. 11 at 12460 SW 152 St. This is also the COVID-delayed grand opening of the restored historic building that was once the CIA Headquarters for the Cuban freedom fighters of the anti-Castro exile community.

During Vietnam it was the Army Reserve Center for the 324th MASH and the Marine Corps Reserve Center from which Marines deployed for Desert Storm.

Following the ceremony, with speakers and patriotic music performed by the Zelda Glazer Miami Arts Studio High School choir and the Voices of Freedom, there will be museum tours 3-6 p.m. This event is free and open to the public. More at https://www.miamimilitarymuseum.org/

Award-winning author and poet Fabiyas M V will talk from India via Zoom at the South Florida Writers Association meeting Nov. 4. Provided by SFWA

Group hosts author Fabiyas M V

The South Florida Writers Association invites writers and poets to learn from Fabiyas M V who will present through ZOOM from Orumanayur village in Kerala, India. Watch from your home or gather with other writers 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Nov. 4 at the Pinecrest Library, 5835 SW 111 St. The ZOOM login is 838 9971 8493.

Fabiyas is the author of multiple books and his fiction and poetry have appeared in anthologies, magazines, and journals. Poet Keshab Sigdel calls him an acute observer of the world, and a passionate lover of humanity.

Fabiyas international accolades include the Merseyside at War Poetry Award from Liverpool University, Lest We Forget Poetry Prize from Auckland War Memorial Museum, and Animal Poetry Prize 2012 from RSPCA (Royal Society for Prevention of Cruelties against Animals, UK).

He was the finalist for Global Poetry Prize 2015 by the United Poets Laureate International (UPLI) in Vienna, and The Literary Hatchet nominated him for the Pushcart Prize.

Be sure to also check out the SFWA booth at the Miami Book Fair, Nov. 17-19, with its local writers and poets representing their publications. More at https://www.southfloridawriters.org

Write to ChristinaMMayo@gmail.com with news for this column.
Documents show that a brand-new yacht worth 886 million rubles ($9.4 million) is likely in the hands of the Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk , independent Russian media outlet Verstka reported on Oct. 27.

Medvedchuk, who was long thought to be Russian dictator Vladimir Putins right-hand man in Ukraine, was charged with high treason and placed under house arrest in 2021, only to flee as Russia launched its full-scale invasion.

He was subsequently re-arrested in April 2022. In September, he was handed over to Russia as part of a prisoner exchange.

Verstka journalists were investigating Russian-owned yachts when they found customs data that showed the Italian-made Pershing 9X vessel passed Russian customs on July 26.

The recipient of the yacht is a company controlled by Medvedchuk's wife, Oksana Marchenko, who is sanctioned by the U.K. government and is on a Ukrainian wanted list.

Documents show that the company issued a "temporary import" procedure for the yacht. This signifies the yacht is not intended to stay in the country for long, and partially exempts the paying of customs duties, according to Verstka.

The Pershing 9x features a "generous" sun deck, an interior clad with the "best Italian brands," and space for 20 people on board, according to the manufacturer.

The vessel is a "blend of luxury and technology," and can reach speeds of up to 42 knots (almost 80 kilometers per hour).

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
You are here: China

China's railway, waterway and civil aviation passenger traffic levels all soared by more than 100 percent year on year in the first three quarters of 2023, the Ministry of Transport said Thursday.

The photo taken on Sept. 5 shows a subway train adorned with the 19th Asian Games elements in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province. (Xinhua/Jiang Han)

The country's inter-regional passenger traffic rose 31 percent year on year to 45.66 billion from January to September, the ministry's spokesperson Sun Wenjian told a press conference.

Among all types of transport, civil aviation trips rocketed 126.7 percent year on year, followed by 120.9 percent waterway trip growth and a 112.4 percent rise in railway trips, while road trips increased by 26.8 percent, Sun said.

During this period, commercial cargo transport went up 7.1 percent year on year to 40.31 billion tonnes, while cargo throughput at China's ports increased by 8.5 percent to 12.54 billion tonnes, the spokesperson added.

Fixed-asset investment in transport reached 2.88 trillion yuan (about 401.2 billion U.S. dollars) in the first three quarters, marking 5.6 percent year-on-year growth, according to Sun.

Sun said the country's transport sector had continued to recover steadily in the first three quarters, providing a solid and powerful transport service and a guarantee for promoting the economy's reasonable growth.
Lack of access to Gaza forces most media to cover the conflict from a distance (SAID KHATIB)

Global media outlets are facing near-unprecedented challenges in their coverage of the Israel-Hamas war as conflicting propaganda, social media pressure and charged public opinion require them to exercise extreme caution.

Lack of foreign media access to Gaza, with both the Israeli and Egyptian access points closed, is adding to reporting difficulties the likes of which journalists say they have rarely seen before.

"This war is one of the most complex and polarising stories we have ever had to cover," Deborah Turness, chief executive of BBC News, said in an online post this week.

Palestinian reporters in Gaza provide global media outlets with images and information, but their work is hampered by the bombing of the territory, power cuts and petrol shortages.

Their union says 22 journalists have been killed in Gaza since October 7, the day militants belonging to the Islamist Hamas movement attacked Israel.

"In previous conflicts we were always able to send special envoys, but this time our teams in Gaza are cut off from the rest of the world," said Phil Chetwynd, Global News Director at AFP.

AFP, whose permanent bureau in Gaza employs around 10 journalists, has had to move them out of Gaza City to the south of the territory where they are living in precarious conditions, with some sleeping in tents.

A total of 2,050 journalists have come to Israel to cover the war, according to the government.

The biggest contingent, 358, is from US media. British media are second with 281, followed by French outlets with 221.

Media in Ukraine, which is itself fighting a war at home, have sent two journalists to Israel.

- 'Suffocating journalism' -

Reporters Without Borders (RSF), a nonprofit organisation defending press freedom, has accused Israel of "suffocating journalism in Gaza".

For the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), this has forced reporters to rely heavily on "official" sources, without being able to verify their claims.

"Confusing haste with speed, many media have published false information and images that have not been contextualised, verified or presented as reliable," the IFJ said.

One notable example was the claim that Hamas militants had beheaded babies, which got widely picked up in media, including in a live report on CNN, without having been confirmed.

"I needed to be more careful with my words and I am sorry," CNN anchor Sara Sidner later posted on X after reporting the claim live on air.

Another example is the high-profile case of the Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza.

On October 17, several media, including AFP, reported on a statement by the Hamas health ministry that 200 to 300 people had been killed in a strike on the hospital, for which it blamed Israel.

Israel later denied the claim, saying a "misfired rocket" by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad had caused the damage.

Several media have since leaned towards Israel's version, based on intelligence reports and video analysis.

But extensive checks of footage, and interviews with analysts and weapons experts, do not allow ruling out either scenario, or determining the number of victims.

- 'Lacked caution' -

The New York Times and French paper Le Monde have since acknowledged that initial reporting fell short of their usual standards.

"The early versions of the coverage -- and the prominence it received in a headline, news alert and social media channels -- relied too heavily on claims by Hamas, and did not make clear that those claims could not immediately be verified," The New York Times said Monday.

"We lacked caution," Le Monde said a day later.

AFP's Chetwynd said that "we should have been more careful in our wording, and given more context on what we did not know".

"It is easy to say this with hindsight, but less obvious in a real-time news situation," he added.

Adding to the pressure on news organisations is the growing role of social media, where any statement or image can go viral and spark angry accusations of bias in the media.

"We need to remind ourselves in every conflict that knowing with certainty takes time," said Douglas Jehl, International Editor at The Washington Post.

"It's particularly difficult in this case, given the passions on both sides, the often opposite viewpoints that each side brings to the conflict and scrutiny that everyone brings to our coverage," he told the Recode Media podcast.

Global media have also been giving priority to scrutiny of which terms to use -- or avoid -- in their coverage of the war.

"Terrorism" and "terrorist" are often top of the list.

The BBC, sometimes called out for avoiding either term when describing Hamas, has said it will use "terrorist" only in quotes, but not in its own reporting.

AFP has adopted a similar policy.

pr-reb/jh/spm/js
A shooting that seriously injured pro-Russian politician Oleg Tsaryov in Crimea was allegedly a special operation by Ukraine's Security Service (SBU), Ukrinform reported on Oct. 27, citing its sources in the SBU.

According to an undisclosed intelligence source of Ukrainska Pravda, Tsaryov "has long been on the list of traitors who must answer for their crimes and is therefore an absolutely legitimate target."

"He is not just a fanatic follower of the 'Russian World,' but a person who personally came with Russian tanks to capture Kyiv," Ukrainska Pravda's source said.

The politician was reportedly shot in the early hours of Oct. 27 and is now in a hospital in serious condition.

Tsaryov is a Dnipro-born businessman and former lawmaker for the former pro-Russian Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych's Party of the Regions.

Following the EuroMaidan Revolution, he nominated himself as a candidate for the 2014 presidential elections but later withdrew his candidacy, claiming his safety was at risk.

He went on to serve as an official of Russia's illegitimate proxies in Ukraine's Donbas region.

Read also: EuroMaidan murders case: Why is the verdict criticized, and why is it about Russia?

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
The family of Viktor Medvedchuk, a former Ukrainian MP and friend of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin , has reportedly acquired a new yacht valued at nearly $10 million, the Russian publication Verstka reported on Oct. 27.

The vessel in question is identified as a high-speed Pershing 9X manufactured by the Italian company Ferretti Group. This 28-meter yacht boasts four cabins with a total of eight sleeping berths, as well as two single-berth cabins for crew. The yacht can carry up to 20 people.

Read also: Associates of ex-MP Medvedchuk sentenced to prison for plotting coup

Customs documents obtained by the editorial team of Verstka indicate that the yacht, named Amore Mio, completed customs clearance on July 26 of the current year. Notably, this yacht is brand new, having been launched for the first time in 2023.

Upon entering Russian waters, the yacht displayed the flag of Palau, and the sender was listed as the Lavel Fzco company based in the United Arab Emirates. The recipient of the yacht in Russia is noted as AT Renaissance, with the beneficial owner being Oksana Marchenko, the wife of Viktor Medvedchuk.

According to reports, the company registered the yacht as a temporary import. This procedure is typically employed when the presence of a product on the customs territory is not required on a permanent basis and partially exempts the declarant from paying customs duties.

On April 12, 2022, Viktor Medvedchuk, a member of the now-banned pro-Russian Opposition Platform  For Life (OPFL) party, was detained by Ukraines SBU security service.

Read also: Propagandist from Medvedchuks television network sentenced to 10 years in prison  SBU

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy disclosed that Medvedchuk had been in hiding for 48 days and then attempted to flee Ukraine while dressed in military camouflage. Zelenskyy proposed an exchange of the politician for Ukrainian prisoners of war.

In the early hours of Sept. 22, 2022, it was revealed that Ukraine had successfully repatriated 215 defenders from Russian captivity, with 188 of them having defended Mariupol and 108 being fighters of the Azov Battalion. Five commanders of the Azovstal garrison were exchanged for 55 Russian military personnel.

In exchange for other fighters, Ukraine handed over Medvedchuk to Russia. According to the head of Ukraines Military Intelligence Directorate, Kyrylo Budanov, Medvedchuk was taken to Moscow, but there was no grand reception awaiting him.

Following the exchange, President Zelenskyy revoked Medvedchuks Ukrainian citizenship. Additionally, Medvedchuk was stripped of his status as a lawyer and expelled from the National Academy of Legal Sciences.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
CHULA VISTA, Calif.  Residents of Chula Vista will soon get to vote in a new city attorney after the unexpected death of the previous candidate elected left the position vacant.

Three candidates are currently vying to fill the role initially won by the late Simon Silva, who passed from cancer during the November 2022 race after his name could be removed from the ballots. He beat his opponent by 756 votes.

After Silva won, Chula Vista officials started planning for a special election, as the city charter requires. However, the move drew some controversy, given encouragement from local leaders to cast their ballot for Silva anyways despite his passing and the high price tag for the election.

The last day for registered voter to cast a ballot in the upcoming special election will be on Nov. 7. A candidate will need to receive more than 50% of the vote to win outright.

If none of the candidates meet the threshold, the top two vote-getters will move to a runoff election on Mar. 5 next year. Whoever is elected will serve out the remainder of the term, which runs through December 2026.

Meet the candidates in the runoff for District 4 Supervisor

Official ballots for the special election were mailed out to registered voters during the week of Sunday, Oct. 8, according to county election officials. Early voting is already well underway at the Registrar of Voters Office in Kearny Mesa and drop boxes across the county.

Starting on Saturday, select vote centers will also open to expand early voting options. The vote centers will be open daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

While some may already be bubbling in their ballots, for those Chula Vista voters that have not yet decided who they want to cast their vote for, below is an introduction to the job of the citys top lawyer and the three candidates for the role.

What does the City Attorney do?

The Chula Vista City Attorney is the citys highest ranking lawyer, leading an office that provides legal services and policy guidance to other elected officials. The primary goal of these services is to help the city develop and implement policy, according to the citys website.

The office works with all the citys boards and commissions. It also works with each of the Chula Vista municipal departments, including the city clerks office, public works, and police and fire departments.

Who are the candidates?

Here are the candidates, listed in alphabetical order:

Dan Smith Diaz is a federal criminal defense lawyer and business owner. The longtime Chula Vista resident previously ran against Silva for the role of City Attorney in 2022, losing by more than 670 votes or roughly 1%.

Dan Smith Diaz, a candidate for Chula Vista City Attorney, pictured in this undated image. (Courtesy of Dan Smith Diaz)

Background:

Smith Diaz was born and raised in Arizona to multi-ethnic parents. At 18, he became a real estate broker to help with his college tuition. After graduating, he moved to San Diego County to attend California Western School of Law.

He worked as a federal public defender with Federal Defenders of San Diego, Inc. after earning his juris doctorate. He later shifted to business ownership in 1995, founding a pedicab enterprise in the Gaslamp District and his own law firm, San Diego Defenders, in Chula Vista.

Aside from this work, Smith Diaz also served in an elected position on the Board of Directors of the Gaslamp District around the time that development in the area was still underway.

On the issues:

On his campaign website, Smith Diaz says that his top priorities would be reducing red tape for local businesses, creating safer streets and schools and representing job-creating projects that help build a new future and new respect for Chula Vista.

He also said he would launch an investigation into the closure of Harborside Park due to homeless encampments in the area, and voiced opposition to more affordable housing development in Chula Vista, reducing police funding and the now-defunct mileage tax proposal.

Endorsements:

Smith Diaz has no listed endorsements on his website. He says this is because he does not have a political axe to grind and does not place importance on political endorsements.

What to do if you received two ballots in mail for special election

Bart Miesfeld is a private practice lawyer, who previously served as an appointment to the position of city attorney from 2008 to 2010. Prior to his tenure as city attorney, he worked in varying roles at the office for nearly two decades.

Bart Miesfeld, a candidate for Chula Vista City Attorney, pictured in this undated image. (Courtesy of Bart Miesfeld)

Background:

Miesfeld joined the City Attorneys Office in 1998 as a deputy city attorney. Over the two decades he served in the office, he rose through the ranks and was later appointed city attorney in 2008. However, he opted not to run for the position in 2010 after voters in the city decided to change the position to an elected one.

During his tenure with the City Attorneys office, he also worked closely with Silva, saying on his campaign website that he feels a sense of obligation to continue his bright legacy of providing exceptional services to the city and community of Chula Vista.

Outside of his work with the City Attorneys Office, Miesfeld has taught trial practice, civil procedure and evidence courses as an adjunct Professor at the University of San Diego School of Law. He has also served in leadership positions with various local legal associations.

On the issues:

In a candidate filing, Miesfeld said he would bring his experience working in the City Attorney office to the position to make Chula Vista safer and more prosperous by holding city leaders accountable, supporting working families, advancing public safety and serving as an advocate for first responders.

In interviews with other local news organizations, he has also said he hopes to make the office more transparent and public records more accessible.

Endorsements:

According to his campaign website, Miesfeld has received a number of high profile endorsements including: Senator Steve Padilla, former Assemblymember Mary Salas, former Chula Vista Mayor Cheryl Cox, former Supervisor Greg Cox and a slew of former City Attorneys for the city. Local Latino news organization, La Prensa, also endorsed his candidacy.

Marco Verdugo is an attorney with the practice Burke, Williams and Sorensen, LLP, a law firm that advises the cities of Coronado and Solana Beach. The lifelong Chula Vista resident previously has worked as a deputy city attorney with the city of San Diego.

Marco Verdugo, a candidate for Chula Vista City Attorney, pictured in this undated image. (Courtesy of Marco Verdugo)

Background:

Born to Mexican immigrants, Verdugo lived most of his life in San Diego County, earning both his Bachelors and juris doctorate from San Diego universities. During his law school career, he spent some time as an intern for the Chula Vista City Attorneys Office.

After graduation, he worked as a public agency attorney, advising officials in San Diego, Coronado and Solana Beach. On his campaign website, he says he has worked closely with elected leaders in this cities for drafting and revising various ordinances to proactively meet the communitys needs.

Outside of his legal practice, Verdugo has provided pro bono legal assistance to low-income San Diegans and spent time volunteering at Casa Cornelia to help refugees and asylum seekers.

California bill to simplify language for ballot referendums signed into law

On the issues:

In a candidate statement, Verdugo says he would use his legal experience to create a safe, livable and affordable Chula Vista.

He emphasizes that he will work towards gun safety laws for crime prevention, supporting community policing, cutting down on wasteful spending and red tape around affordable housing development, and helping Chula Vista stop downtown San Diegos homeless crisis from taking root here.

He also says he would help craft new city laws that are just and fair, serving as an independent voice to ensure that city officials comply with the law.

Endorsements:

According to his campaign website, Verdugo has also garnered a number of key endorsements including: the San Diego County Democratic Party; San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliot; County Supervisor Nora Vargas; and Chula Vista City Councilmembers Carolina Chavez, Alonso Gonzalez, Jose Preciado and Andrea Cardenas.

The candidates for Chula Vista City Attorney will be appearing on the FOX 5 evening news next week to discuss their bid for the role. Videos of their interviews will be added as they occur.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego.
Janet Greene, a business development manager in the healthcare industry, faces incumbent Marilyn Clark in the Nov. 7 general election for the Fayette County Public Schools board District 1 seat.

Clark, an economic inclusion manager at the University of Kentucky who previously held roles at FCPS and the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, was appointed in January after Christy Morris resigned.

William Swope, Jr., a retired state fire marshal and former Lexington assistant fire chief, has left the race, according to Fayette County election records.

District 1 in west Fayette County pulls from areas roughly between Leestown and Harrodsburg roads.

Clark said poverty is a growing challenge for the school board.

Poverty leads to gaps in education, economic mobility, race and generational wealth, she said.

Students are experiencing housing and food insecurities, homelessness and healthcare disparities, Clark said. Mental health is a concern not just for K-12 schools, but it is a growing concern for our entire community. These growing community issues need the appropriate community attention and supports.

Greene said the district has many challenges including student mental health issues, classroom discipline, chronic truancy and a lack of proficiency in reading and math in many schools.

Im committed to making sure we have specific intervention services for students to continue to make up for the loss of learning during COVID, she said.

Clark answered questions from the Herald-Leader in an email and interview. Greene answered questions by email.

MARILYN CLARK

Clark said she is committed to student success, and an important role as a school board member is to focus on student outcomes.

As a board member, I will continue to advocate for and make informed decisions that are in the best interest of all students, she said.

Since the school board appointed her to fill the District 1 vacancy in January, she said the learning curve has been challenging but working together as a team has been rewarding and productive.

Clark said she and other board members invested in students through additional support for programs like pre-school, gifted and talented, school health, visual and performing arts, multilingual services and dual credit.

We were able to give teachers and staff historic and well-deserved compensation increases, she said. We added much needed staffing in human resources and technology to better serve our employees, students and families, and allocated additional resources to recruit, train and retain bus drivers, bus monitors and other support staff. 

For the first time, the board provided professional development for every employee in the district, she said.

FCPS will make significant investments in facilities this school year, she said.

There will be additional pre-school classrooms at Harrison Elementary, HVAC upgrades across the district, new construction for the RISE program, land for a new middle school and elementary campus in Masterson Station and the construction of the Mary Britton Middle School in the Polo Club area to relieve overcrowding at Edith J. Hayes Middle School.

The board approved an architectural firm to begin the programming and design for the new construction of Henry Clay High School. In 2025, the new Career and Technical Education center in the former Herald-Leader building will open.

As the first Black female on the school board since integration, I feel a sense of urgency to be an advocate and role model for all students. Every child is special and deserving of a quality education, she said.

Clark said she is uniquely qualified to continue in her school board seat. She was an employee of the district for over five years.

As part of the district leadership team, I learned about the complexities of managing a school district through a maze of federal, state and local mandates juxtaposed against the individual needs of our students, staff and families, said Clark.

I have worked tirelessly in the business community on economic development and workforce issues. I want our community to be a great place to live, work, learn and play. Nothing is more important to our community success than a strong public school system,  she said.

According to an October 10 Kentucky Registry of Election Finance Report, Clark had total receipts of $5,865, total expenditures of $1,229.32 and an ending balance of $4,635.68.

JANET GREENE

Early in Greenes career in the health care industry, she said she worked in outreach and patient advocacy for the movement disorders program in the neurology department at the University of Kentucky.

She consulted with patients, collaborated with physicians regarding patient needs, and recruited and monitored neurological patient participation in clinical trials at UK.

In more recent years, she said she worked as a business development manager for value based care for late stage kidney disease.

I will support the needs of teachers at all levels to become more effective in facilitating learning, Greene said on her campaign website. I am committed to working with our administrators, teachers and parents to establish a foundation that inspires students toward excellence. 

Her campaign website also said she want to ensure appropriate safety and mental health measures are implemented in schools, and that parents have a voice in their childs education.

Since the pandemic, academic achievement gaps have widened. I want to help find ways to make up for lost ground. It is vital for all students to be prepared to compete in a global society, Greene said.

The school systems fiscal policies must focus more on the needs of teachers and students in the classroom, Greene said.

Greene believes parental engagement is a key factor in student success.

At the board level, we must enact policies that recognize the role of parents and guardians and create true partnerships with them for the sake of their children, she said.

Teachers need the resources to perform their duties in the classroom. They should not have to pay out of their own pocket to provide those necessary resources, even if it comes at the expense of a trimmed down central office staff, she said.

An October 9 Kentucky Registry of Election Finance record showed Greene had a beginning balance of $4,741.29, total receipts of $6,250, total expenditures of $2,703.38 and an ending balance of $8,287.91.

Janet Greene

Age: 63

Work experience: Previously worked for a nonprofit and for the last 11 years worked in business development for the healthcare industry.

Board/organization experience: Served as a charter member of the Brain Restoration Center at the University of Kentucky and on the Board of Directors for the Parkinsons Support Center of Kentuckiana. Active board member for Parkinsons In Motion organization.

Family: Two children, Morgan, age 32, and Nicolas age 24.

Marilyn Clark

Age: 66

Work Experience: Economic inclusion manager at University of Kentucky; manager of economic development and supplier diversity at Fayette County Public Schools; minority business enterprise liaison at Lexington Fayette Urban County Government; vice president and station manager for WLEX-TV; worked at television stations in Dallas, Philadelphia and Birmingham.

Board/organization experience: Currently on the steering committee for the Womens Business Enterprise Council Ohio River Valley serving Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia; Board of Directors for the Tristate Minority Supplier Development Council serving Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia; Former member of Board of Directors for the Lexington Center, Commerce Lexington, United Way, LexArts, Blue Grass Community Foundation and Black Achievers.

Other memberships: Member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.; member of First Baptist Church Bracktown.

Family: Two children, Ranthony A.C. Edmonds and Vincent Clark.
Two years before going from a relatively unknown congressman to speaker of the House, Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana spoke at a national gathering of Christian lawmakers in North Texas and shared his deep admiration for the man behind the conference: the evangelical activist and self-styled historian David Barton.

I was introduced to David and his ministry a quarter-century ago, Johnson said at the ProFamily Legislators Conference, which was being hosted by Bartons nonprofit WallBuilders, a Texas group dedicated to promoting the idea that America was founded as a Christian nation whose laws should be based on a conservative reading of the Bible.

Johnson told the audience at the December 2021 gathering that Bartons teachings  which are disputed by many historians  have had a profound influence on me, and my work, and my life and everything I do.

Johnsons effusive praise for Barton, an influential background figure in the conservative evangelical political movement, sends an unmistakable signal about how the devout Christian Republican lawmaker  now second in the line to the presidency  views the role of religion in government and public life, said John Fea, a professor of American history at Messiah University in Pennsylvania.

David Barton is a political propagandist, hes a Christian-right activist who cherry picks from the past to promote political agendas in the present, to paint a picture of Americas history as evangelicals would like it to be, said Fea, whos also an evangelical. Mike Johnson comes straight out of that Christian-right world, where Bartons ideas are highly influential. Its the air they breathe.

To learn more about David Barton's political influence, listen to NBC News new podcast "Grapevine."

Johnson and Barton didnt respond to messages requesting comment, but in an episode of his WallBuilders Live! podcast published overnight, Barton and the shows host, former Texas state Rep. Rick Green, celebrated Johnsons ascent to the speakership as a uniquely triumphant day for Christian conservatives.

Im trying not to be giddy, Im trying to be rational about this, said Green, who referred to Johnson as a close friend of the WallBuilders program. I would never have dreamed we would end up with Mike Johnson of Louisiana as speaker of the House.

Barton agreed and said this was the first time in our lifetime that Congress has appointed a guy of this character, this commitment, this knowledge, this experience and this devout faith as House speaker.

Speaking only hours after Johnsons election, Barton said on the podcast that hed already been in touch with Johnsons team, talking with them about staff and offering advice on who the speaker should hire.

They need to be the people with his worldview, said Barton.

Fea said that level of involvement is a milestone for a figure who has typically influenced conservative politics from the sidelines.

David Barton has never had this level of access to power, if what hes saying is correct, Fea said. This is a turning point in terms of that level of influence.

For more than three decades, Barton  who said he considered Donald Trump one of the five greatest presidents in U.S. history  has traveled the country, speaking at churches, in front of legislatures and on Christian television programs, spreading a revisionist and disputed version of United States history.

In Bartons telling, America was founded, not as the worlds first secular republic, but as an explicitly Christian nation.

According to Barton, the separation of church and state is a myth, invented by progressives based on a misreading of Thomas Jeffersons famous 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptists. And any laws or court rulings limiting the influence of religion in schools and government  especially the U.S. Supreme Courts 1962 and 1963 decisions banning mandatory public school prayer and Bible readings  are an affront to Americas true founding.

The first purpose of public schools is to teach students to love and serve God, Barton said at the same 2021 WallBuilders conference where Johnson spoke. The second purpose of public schools is to teach students to love and serve their country.

Speaking at a theater in Grapevine, Texas, in March, Barton urged members of area school boards to unilaterally restore classroom prayer and go back to teaching the biblical creation narrative, in the hopes of drawing a legal challenge that could serve as a test case to overturn the separation of church and state.

Hopefully somebody will sue you if you do this, because thats what we need, he said. We can win at that, and the whole nation wins as a result.

Barton has at other times expressed disdain for LGBTQ people. After touring the site of Nazi atrocities in Poland in 2017, he remarked that the same evil spirit that was responsible for the Holocaust was now at work advancing the homosexual lifestyle.

Historians have repeatedly challenged Bartons assertions. The History News Network called Bartons 2012 book, The Jefferson Lies, the least credible history book in print, and its original publisher took the rare step of pulling it from circulation after losing confidence in its accuracy.

Despite the criticisms, Fea and other religious scholars say Bartons pseudo-history has provided the philosophical underpinnings for the Christian rights decades-long campaign to place Jesus at the center of public life and to impose conservative Christian values in public policy.

Throughout his career, Johnson has repeated Bartons arguments about church-state separation, including in a 2022 episode of a podcast he hosts with his wife, in which he said that the founders wanted to protect the church from an encroaching state, not the other way around.

Before getting into politics, Johnson spent years working as a staff lawyer for the Alliance Defense Fund, the influential Christian legal advocacy group known today as Alliance Defending Freedom. Throughout the early 2000s, Johnson worked on cases that sought to limit the rights of same-sex couples on religious grounds, while defending public school officials who wished to lead students in voluntary Christian prayers.

The founders of this country believed that religion and morality were indispensable, Johnson told a reporter in 2004, while defending a Louisiana elementary school that had been allowing staff to lead children in voluntary prayers at recess.

Bartons words also echoed in Johnsons remarks Wednesday after being elected speaker. In his speech before the House, Johnson declared that the Bible teaches that God raises up those in authority.

Looking around at his fellow lawmakers, Johnson said that God has allowed and ordained each and every one of us to be here at this specific moment.

Hearing those words from the speaker of the House was a landmark moment for evangelicals, Fea said.

This is not just Ronald Reagan or Donald Trump saying, Im on your side, he said. Mike Johnson is one of them.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Two years before Hurricane Otis ripped through Guerrero State, Mexico cut its disaster relief fund.

The decision has left much uncertainty as to how the region will recover from the Category 5 storm which left 27 people dead and at least $10billion in damage in the city of Acapulco and neighboring villages.

Mexicos Fund for Natural Disasters, known as Fonden, was set up in the late Nineties, taking a small portion of the federal budget in order to rapidly respond to natural disasters. It was widely admired as a progressive move.

But when left-wing populist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador made cost-cutting part of his political platform after he came to office in 2018, the fund was cut.

Now, without dedicated allocation of the federal budget for disaster relief, the money available fluctuates each year.

The president, popularly known as Amlo, justified his decision at the time, claiming Fonden was an instrument riddled with corruption, whose funds did not reach the people.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obradors vehicle is stuck in mud during a visit to the Kilometro 42 community, near Acapulco, Guerrero State, Mexico, after the passage of Hurricane Otis, on October 25, 2023 (AFP via Getty Images)

Two years later, at a press briefing in the wake of Otis, the president reiterated this claim and accused critics of his decision to cut the fund of playing politics, the Washington Post reported.

Why are we talking about this if we havent even begun the [relief] activities? he said. We are clearing fallen trees, looking for missing people, and they have this politically motivated attitude.

He also insisted the government has a budget to respond to the disaster. We have guaranteed resources for this, he said. When the people of Mexico need support, the entire public budget can be used, he added.

View of damage in the beach area of Acapulco on Thursday after Hurricane Otis (AFP via Getty Images)

Otis was the strongest ever storm to make landfall on Mexicos west coast. The hurricane underwent explosive intensification from a Category 1 to Category 5 in just 12 hours, leaving the city little time to prepare.

The hurricane made landfall shortly after midnight on Wednesday in Acapulco with 165mph winds and torrential rain.

At least 27 people are dead and four are missing.

Some 80 per cent of the citys hotels were destroyed, and not a single power line was left standing, leaving residents without electricity, cell phone service, or running water.

A man walks on a looted supermarket after the passage of Hurricane Otis (AFP via Getty Images)

There was also reports of widespread looting. You cant buy anything in Acapulco, not even if you want to, one resident told AP.

As recovery efforts continue, frustrations are growing at the slow speed of the governments response to the hurricane, with some 250,000 homes and businesses still without electricity on Thursday.

Lopez Obrador admitted that the government response had been hampered by the hurricanes impacts during his visit to the city on Thursday.

When is the government ever going to look after the common people? one resident asked.
FILE PHOTO: Mexico's then-Finance Minister Carlos Urzua speaks during a news conference to announce a plan to strengthen finances of state oil firm Pemex, at the National Palace in Mexico City

By Stefanie Eschenbacher

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's first finance minister has issued a stern verdict on his former boss's energy policies, describing them as harmful to the country, out-of-date and eroding investor confidence.

Carlos Urzua, who served as finance minister between 2018 and 2019, panned Lopez Obrador's drive to tighten state control of energy in an interview with Reuters this week, after joining the opposition campaign for the 2024 presidential election.

Lopez Obrador has rolled back a liberalization of the energy market since taking office in December 2018, arguing past governments rigged policy in favor of private interests, and has moved to strengthen the country's state-run energy giants.

The policies have upset Mexico's main trade partners, sparking a row with the United States and Canada, which argue the Lopez Obrador administration is in breach of its trade obligations and discriminating against their companies.

"He's trying to destroy the very economic mechanism with which we could grow," Urzua said of energy policy in his first interview since backing the opposition against Lopez Obrador's party in next year's election. "So many mistakes were made."

Urzua, who quit as finance minister in July 2019, said the billions of dollars in support Lopez Obrador had given to state oil and gas company Pemex and national power utility CFE was based on ideology and unsustainable.

Instead of trying to revive state monopolies, Lopez Obrador could have benefited from private sector investment and know-how, boosting Mexico's electricity output from renewable sources and reducing reliance on fossil fuels.

"Mexico is different now," said Urzua, who returned to academia after leaving government. "Lopez Obrador doesn't understand because he's from the 1970s."

A spokesperson for the 69-year-old president, who remains popular, did not respond to requests for comment.

Urzua was also Lopez Obrador's top finance official when he was mayor of Mexico City, and said he had governed well then.

But Urzua said he found Lopez Obrador had changed as president, criticizing his 2018 decision to cancel a partly built $13 billion Mexico City airport, which rattled investors.

This week Urzua joined the team of Xochitl Galvez, the main opposition presidential contender, who plans a sweeping overhaul of Pemex and more private sector participation in energy.

Still, former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, who Lopez Obrador wants to succeed him, has a big lead over Galvez in opinion polls. Presidents may only serve one term in Mexico.

Urzua said Pemex should have been allowed to do more joint ventures with private partners to explore ultra-deep waters because the indebted company lacks funds and expertise.

Lopez Obrador is building an oil refinery in the port of Dos Bocas in his home state of Tabasco, a project Urzua cast as an unrealistic "folly." The refinery's cost has ballooned.

"No one, really no one, thought this was ever going to be feasible," said Urzua. "It's imperative public infrastructure projects are viable - and Dos Bocas wasn't."

(Reporting by Stefanie Eschenbacher; Editing by Dave Graham and Jonathan Oatis)
Maria Gabriela Pacheco knows firsthand what its like to be an ambitious teenager whos told she cant go to college because of her immigration status. The Ecuadorian-born, Miami-raised immigration rights activist was once an undocumented high schooler in South Florida trying to figure out her next moves.

Two decades later  after rising to national prominence as a result of years of advocacy for new legal pathways and educational opportunities for the nations immigrants  Pacheco will lead the largest college scholarship and career development program for undocumented youth.

TheDream.Us, a national organization that has doled out over 10,000 scholarships during its nearly decade-old existence, announced this month that Pacheco would be its next president and CEO.

This role is not just a responsibility; its a privilege, and I am committed to ensuring that we continue to open doors, break down barriers, and empower Dreamers to reach their full potential, adding their unique voices and talents to the diverse chorus that is our nation, said Pacheco, who currently serves as the groups Director of Advocacy, Development, and Communications.

Gabriela Pacheco speaking to an audience at the MALDEF gala in November 2019. She was a recipient of the organizations Excellent in Community Service award.

Many undocumented students dont have the information or resources available to pursue a college education and cant afford university tuition. They are also excluded from getting federal student aid. TheDream.US helps students finance their education and partners with universities to offer them support throughout their studies.

Scholarship recipients include a business student who dreams of launching her own marketing company, and a nurse that helped hundreds of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Pacheco starts her new role on Nov. 1, the same day a new round of TheDream.US scholarship applications opens up.

I understand the challenges our newest class of Scholars faces, as 80 percent lack DACA or TPS. Like me, our Scholars have a lot to offer if given the opportunity to help our nation grow and thrive, she said.

Gaby Pacheco with TheDream.US co-founder Don Graham and Miami-Dade College President Emeritus Eduardo Padron on February 8, 2019

Prominent Miami educators celebrated the appointment.

Having known Gaby since her days as an exemplary student at Miami Dade College, Ive had the privilege of witnessing her transformation into an inspiration for Florida students and Dreamers across the nation. Her unwavering dedication and fervor for expanding educational opportunities for all is precisely why she is destined to be an exceptional President and CEO at TheDream.US, said President Emeritus of Miami Dade College Eduardo Padron, who also advises the organization.

Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho, who formerly led the Miami-Dade public school system, said that Pacheco represents the immigrant student that turned her experiences and difficulties into excellence and leadership.

I knocked on so many doors

Pacheco came to the United States with her parents and three siblings from the Ecuadorian port city of Guayaquil in 1993. She was eight years old. Her family, fearing street crime and violence back home, decided to stay. But their tourist visa eventually ran out. The family lost its legal status.

Gabriela Pacheco in an undated photo in Ecuador, before the family left for the United States in 1993

Pacheco grew up in Kendall, immersed in immigrant Miami. Her front door neighbor was Nicaraguan and the upstairs one was Palestinian. Her parents, both professionals in Ecuador, would leave to work before sunrise and returned at night.

I got to see the hustle and the hard work of all immigrants. The adults and parents were constantly working trying to provide for their children, and our number one job was to focus on education, she said.

But on the cusp of graduating high school, the high-achieving student didnt know if she could afford a college tuition, or if shed even be able to put a bachelors degree to use. Still, she was dead-set on attending college. An old Miami Herald article chronicles how she worked random jobs to build up her savings, took the hardest classes available, and showed up daily at the international students office at Miami Dade College.

I knocked on so many doors. And every time I would be told no, I would leave, turn around, and knock on another door and talk to someone else, she said.

With the support of loved ones and a friendly admissions recruiter, Pacheco became one of Miami Dade Colleges first undocumented students in the fall of 2003. She earned associate and bachelors degrees in education.

During her college years, Pacheco was a student government leader, who visited Tallahassee to push legislators for in-state tuition for undocumented students and organized protests for immigrants rights. After graduating, she walked 1,500 miles from Miami to Washington D.C. with others from Miami Dade College to advocate for new legal pathways for the nations over 11 million undocumented people.

Barack Obama announces the executive action that would create Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals on June 15, 2012. Gabriela Pacheco is stands behind him, in blue.

She pushed for years for legislation known as the Dream Act that would offer immigration relief for those who came young to the United States, eventually becoming the political director of UnitedWeDream, a national youth movement. The law didnt pass.

But Pacheco and other activists urged the Barack Obama administration to create what would become the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program. DACA, an executive action Obama signed in 2012, has offered deportation protections and work permits to hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants who arrived as children. Pacheco was a program recipient.

Its been 20 years since Pachecos first day at Miami Dade College. She became a U.S. citizen earlier this year and now lives between Miami and Washington D.C. But Pacheco still holds on to the commitment she pledged to herself when she held her class chedule for the first time: That she would fight so that getting an education would not be so difficult for undocumented students.

Shes made good on that promise.
Newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson did Wednesday what none of the Republican Partys top congressional leadership could do  unite the House Republican Conference.

But in doing so, the inconspicuous Louisiana congressman inherited an overwhelming legislative timeline and a conference left angry and aggrieved after weeks of internecine strife.

Utah Republican Rep. John Curtis said GOP lawmakers reached a new low following the removal of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy earlier this month, alongside many other Republican representatives who lambasted the group of eight Republicans led by Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz who vacated the speakers chair and threw the House into disarray.

While Johnson will face the same improbable balancing act as McCarthy  placating the partys right wing without alienating other colleagues or dooming bipartisan negotiations  Curtis says that Johnsons miraculous emergence as a consensus figure might make him uniquely capable of managing the Peoples House.

He did the one thing nobody thought could be done, which is unite the conference with 220 votes. His job is largely getting 220 people with different opinions to agree and thats a pretty high bar that he passed last night, Curtis told the Deseret News Wednesday, referring to Johnsons unanimous nomination as GOP speaker-designate late Tuesday night.

How did Mike Johnson become speaker?

The quick election of Johnson as speaker Wednesday followed weeks of trial-and-error that saw his conference becoming increasingly frustrated and worried that no candidate could secure enough support to win a majority in a floor vote.

After McCarthys speakership came to a dramatic end three weeks ago, the void left behind was predictably difficult to fill. The short-lived bids of Reps. Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Tom Emmer of Minnesota, the second- and third-ranking Republican leaders in the House, respectively, as well as the contentious and unsuccessful pressure campaign of the most powerful committee chair in the House, Rep. Jim Jordan, put the apparently insurmountable divisions between House Republicans in stark relief.

Three weeks of disagreement and disappointment seemed to open the way for Johnson, the then-vice chair of the Republican conference, Curtis said.

I think there was a dose of humility that we had not seen in the previous speaker designees. I think there was a way he articulates his vision that inspires instead of offends. And I think he has worked hard in his time here to build relationships of trust. And all of those things were factors in his selection, Curtis said.

However, Johnsons message of restoring trust will be put to the test in coming weeks, Curtis said, explaining that Wednesdays temporary show of Republican unity may have papered over many deeply bruised relationships in the conference that will require a masterful hand to not inflame.

I think we can heal and I think we can be stronger but I dont think its automatic. I think that Speaker Johnson has a real task ahead of him to highlight our similarities and not let our differences come forward because theyre stark and raw and if not careful will become the issue of the day again, Curtis said.

Whats next for House Republicans?

Its hard to see McCarthys ouster coming at a worse time. Just days after his removal, Israel faced an unprecedented attack from the Gaza-based terrorist organization Hamas. In the intervening weeks, the House was unable to move forward with a supplemental aid package or any other show of support for the United States top ally in the Middle East.

One of Johnsons first actions as speaker was to pass a resolution condemning Hamas, rebuking Iran for its involvement with the group and promising military support to Israel. The resolution passed with overwhelming bipartisan support but was quickly followed by a precursor of what is to come.

On Wednesday morning, a motion to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., for her statements regarding Hamas and Israels war in Gaza was filed by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene , R-Ga. Johnson seemed likely to delay what is sure to be contentious censureship vote till next week, according to Punchbowl News.

Johnson is likely to face pressure from Greene and others on the right to prioritize impeachment proceedings even as lawmakers stare down a nearly impossible government funding timeline.

The House became speaker-less following the passage of a stop-gap funding measure that postponed a government shutdown for 45 days. Over half of that time has now been eaten up by the speakers race, likely necessitating the passage of another continuing resolution, according to Curtis, providing time to work through all 12 annual spending bills in the House and the Senate.

And thats of course why its important that we elected somebody that knows how to get 220 people on the same page because I dont believe any of those 220 want a shutdown and yet the reality of the task at hand probably dictates that were going to need some extra time, Curtis said.

Related

Prior to his election as speaker, Johnson proposed an ambitious plan to his colleagues to pass all remaining spending bills by Nov. 17 and committed to creating a bipartisan commission to tackle the nations skyrocketing debt and budget deficits.

Even though the stated reason for McCarthys removal was his willingness to call on Democratic support to maintain government funding levels, leaders of the conservative House Freedom Caucus has signaled that they will give Johnson more leeway than his predecessor in spending negotiations with the Democratic-controlled Senate and White House.

The real problem with Kevin was not necessarily the continuing resolution or the debt ceiling deal but there were some fundamental flawed relationships and so I think the continuing resolution became the vehicle to express the mistrust and the anger that was there, Curtis said. Speaker Johnson gets to start with a clean slate.

But Johnsons rise to the leadership isnt baggage-free. In 2020, Johnson was on the House defense team during the first impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump. He also supported Trumps legal challenges to the 2020 election, including spearheading an amicus brief in support of a lawsuit in Texas that sought to overturn election results in four states, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Curtis said he wishes all of his colleagues had certified the results of the 2020 presidential election and had immediately recognized Biden as the legitimate winner, but he does not see the failure to do so as disqualifying.

There is no one in Congress with better personal character than Johnson, said Curtis in a video posted after Johnsons nomination. On Wednesday, Curtis added that the polarization of the last several years should push lawmakers to hold themselves to a higher standard going forward, and that Johnson was someone who would do just that.

It points out the responsibility on all of us to support institutions, to support the Constitution. And for me, Im always going to be looking for people who do that the best they can.
China has taken an active part in international intellectual property (IP) cooperation and achieved fruitful results, the country's top IP regulator said at a press conference on Thursday.

Shen Changyu, head of the National Intellectual Property Administration, said China has comprehensively deepened its cooperation with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), contributing to the establishment of the WIPO's China Office, an arbitration and mediation center in Shanghai, and more than 100 technology and innovation support centers.

He also highlighted the cooperation with Belt and Road partner countries, saying that over the past ten years, the average annual growth rate of patent grants by Chinese applicants in Belt and Road partner countries was 23.8 percent, while that of patent grants from Belt and Road partner countries in China reached 9.8 percent.

Besides, China has worked closely with neighboring countries in the IP field and deepened the multilateral and bilateral IP cooperation, establishing partnerships with over 80 countries, regions, and international organizations.

In the future, China will promote the application and sharing of patents in Belt and Road partners and BRICS countries, especially those involving green technologies, Shen added.
The wife of newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) runs a counseling business that advocates the belief that homosexuality is comparable to bestiality and incest, according to its operating documents.

Johnson and his wife, Kelly, have long intertwined their political and business lives: They became a known entity in the late 1990s when they went on national television as the face of Louisianas new marriage covenant law, which makes it harder to get a divorce. Today, they co-host a podcast, Truth Be Told, where they talk about political and social issues from a conservative Christian perspective. Their podcast is up to 69 episodes.

We have been working in ministry side by side and together for our whole marriage, Johnson said last year when he and his wife launched their podcast, in an interview with The Message, a website that connects members of the Louisiana Southern Baptist community.

The House speakers identity as an evangelical Christian has been a driving force in his personal life and his career, which includes eight years as the senior attorney and national spokesperson for a legal nonprofit affiliated with the religious right.

Go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it  thats my worldview, Johnson told Fox News Sean Hannity in a Thursday night interview. Thats what I believe, and so I make no apologies for it.

Kelly Johnson features the couples podcast on the website of her company, Onward Christian Counseling Services, which promotes Bible-based pastoral counseling. Her website also includes a link to its 2017 operating agreement, which lays out the corporate bylaws for the company  and embraces a number of socially conservative beliefs about LGBTQ+ people and womens reproductive rights.

The agreement states that Onward Christian Counseling Services is grounded in the belief that sex is offensive to God if it is not between a man and a woman married to each other. It puts being gay, bisexual or transgender in the same category as someone who has sex with animals or family members, calling all of these examples of sexual immorality.

We believe and the Bible teaches that any form of sexual immorality, such as adultery, fornication, homosexuality, bisexual conduct, bestiality, incest, pornography or any attempt to change ones sex, or disagreement with ones biological sex, is sinful and offensive to God, says the eight-page business document.

This agreement also refers to pre-born babies and says the company is committed to defending and protecting all human life, from conception through natural death.

Speaker Johnsons signature is on the last page. He notarized the document on July 1, 2017. Notaries are not required to read the documents they notarize and are sometimes discouraged from doing so for privacy reasons.

Heres a copy of the operating agreement.

OCCS Operating Agreement by jen_bendery on Scribd

This embedded content is not available in your region.

Comparing homosexuality to bestiality and incest was relatively common among Republicans in the early 2000s, when the party made battling same-sex marriage a central issue during President George W. Bushs reelection bid in 2004. Then-Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) famously made the comparison in 2003, suggesting a Supreme Court case striking down state bans on sodomy would open the door to man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be.

Those comments have become far less acceptable  but remain just as offensive  as marriage equality has risen in popularity. Seventy-one percent of adults believe same-sex marriage should be legal, according to Gallup. Santorum apologized for his comments in 2015, the same year the U.S. Supreme Court legalized gay marriage nationwide.

Kelly Johnsons document was drawn up two years after that.

Its not clear whether Speaker Johnson, who is a constitutional lawyer and has a long record of attacking LGBTQ+ and womens rights in the courts, believes that homosexuality is akin to bestiality and incest, and that life begins at conception. More importantl its not clear whether the Louisiana Republican plans to use the power of the speakership to advocate for policy changes that reflect these kinds of ideologically extreme conservative Christian principles.

In his Thursday interview with Hannity, Johnson said the Supreme Court changed the definition of marriage that had been used by every human society for 5,000 years, while also signaling he accepts the legal ruling.

When five justices changed it, that became the law of the land, he said.

A Johnson spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.

We have been working in ministry side by side and together for our whole marriage, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) says of his wife, with whom he co-hosts a podcast about political and social issues from a conservative Christian perspective.

We have been working in ministry side by side and together for our whole marriage, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) says of his wife, with whom he co-hosts a podcast about political and social issues from a conservative Christian perspective.

Its not a leap to suggest that Johnson, who is now second in line to the presidency, would try to connect his religious beliefs to his work on Capitol Hill.

In one of their most recent podcast episodes, on Sept. 8, Johnson and his wife discuss How to Stand for Religious Freedom & Address the Separation of Church and State. That episode came after a speech Johnson gave on the House floor in April in which he decried the so-called separation of church and state and insisted the Constitution does not bar the government from supporting religious beliefs.

The Founders wanted to protect the church from an encroaching state, not the other way around, Johnson said in his floor remarks.

Caroline Ciccone, president of Accountable.US, a nonprofit that examines power and influence in Washington, said the fact that Johnson is now the House speaker means there will be more attempts to force a far-right agenda on everyday Americans.

The more we learn about Speaker Mike Johnson, the worse it gets, Ciccone said. His extensive far-right voting record and history of radical anti-LGBTQ and anti-abortion statements make him one of the most extreme members of the House MAGA majority.
MILWAUKEE - A 17-year-old from Milwaukee is accused of shooting a man who later died from his injuries. The accused is Anthony Williams. He faces a charge of homicide by negligent handling of a dangerous weapon  and he is on the run.

According to the criminal complaint, a man was admitted to St. Joseph's Hospital on Oct. 16 with a gunshot wound to his lower abdomen. At the hospital, this man died from his injuries.

Milwaukee police later learned the shooting victim had been driven to the hospital by a woman. When police detectives interviewed the woman, she indicated she lives near 57th and Ruby where the shooting happened. The woman told police she left her home and the victim was there. When she returned, "she heard a single gunshot." The woman said as she approached her door, the victim "collapsed in her arms" and she then drove him to the hospital.

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Investigators learned there were interior and exterior cameras at the residence where the shooting happened. The woman was able to access this video via her cellphone. The video shows the woman walking toward her back door, and a male voice yells out something to the effect, "you got to get him to the hospital. I accidentally shot him," the complaint says.

The woman later indicated the defendant, Anthony Williams, was at the home at the time of the shooting. The woman stated as "she approached the door to her residence, she saw Anthony partially holding (the victim)," the complaint says. During the interview, the woman was shown a photo array that included a known photo of Anthony Williams. The woman identified Williams as the person "who was involved."

Online court records show while Williams has been charged, a warrant has been issued for his arrest.
MILWAUKEE - A Milwaukee man has been sentenced to 27 years in prison for a 2022 gas station shooting that killed a teen.

Bruce Davis, 20, pleaded guilty in July to first-degree reckless homicide. A felony gun-related charged was dismissed as part of a deal with prosecutors.

In addition to prison time, Davis was sentenced to 15 years of extended supervision.

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Case details

Jordan was one of four men accused in the shooting near 7th and Keefe, which happened the morning of Nov. 1, 2022. Police used surveillance to identify all four men.

According to a criminal complaint, a witness told police he was with the 17-year-old boy who was killed in the shooting, and words were exchanged between them and some guys at the gas station. He said as they got back into his car, the group of men from the gas station immediately started to shoot at them  striking the 17-year-old.

Gas station shooting 7th and Keefe Milwaukee

Surveillance showed a red Kia arrived at the gas station and the witness went inside and got into an argument with five men who were already inside. When all the men left the gas station, the complaint states the witness said he got into his Kia and began to drive away. At that time, the complaint said Dayquan Jenkins handed a firearm to Bruce Davis, who started shooting as the Kia pulled away.

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The video showed another man in a bright blue sweatshirt  later identified as Jordan  and Makaelon Bennett fire shots at the same time in the same direction, the complaint said.

Police found 41 spent bullet casings in the area. The victim died from three gunshot wounds, and his death was ruled a homicide.

Makaelon Bennett; Bruce Davis; Dayquan Jenkins; Jahmichael Jordan

Related cases

A Milwaukee County judge sentenced Bennett in May to 27 years in prison and another 15 years of extended supervision. He had pleaded guilty in April to first-degree reckless homicide, and three other charges against him were dismissed.

In September, Jordan was sentenced to 27 years in prison and 15 years of extended supervision. He pleaded guilty in July to first-degree reckless homicide, and a bail jumping misdemeanor was dismissed as part of a plea deal.

Jenkins is charged with first-degree reckless homicide and possession of a firearm by a felon. Court records show he's scheduled to go to trial in December.
MILWAUKEE - Two Milwaukee shootings sent two people to hospitals Thursday, Oct. 26.

Police are investigating what led to each shooting.

23rd and Keefe

One person was shot and wounded near 23rd and Keefe around 9 p.m. The 30-year-old victim went to a Milwaukee Fire Department Station near Teutonia and Locust for assistance.

The victim was taken to the hospital for treatment of non-fatal injuries. The circumstances leading up to the shooting are under investigation, however, appears to be related to a robbery attempt, police say.

54th and Vienna

Around 10 p.m. a 36-year-old victim was shot and wounded near 54th and Vienna. Police continue to search for a known suspect.

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MPD tips

Police are still looking for whoever is responsible for Thursday's gun violence. Anyone with information is asked to call MPD at 414-935-7360; to remain anonymous, call Crime Stoppers at 414-224-TIPS or use the P3 tips app.
U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) announced his presidential bid in New Hampshire, suggesting he might compete in the state's thus-far unsanctioned primary.

U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) announced his presidential bid in New Hampshire, suggesting he might compete in the state's thus-far unsanctioned primary.

U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota will challenge Joe Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination on Thursday.

I am, I have to, Phillips told CBS News Robert Costa. I think President Biden has done a spectacular job for our country. But its not about the past, this is an election about the future.

I will not sit still and I will not be quiet in the face of numbers that are so clearly saying that were going to be facing an emergency next November, he added.

BREAKING: Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) is running for president, challenging Pres. Biden in the Democratic primary race.



He tells @costareports and @CBSMornings he won't "be quiet" as polling numbers "are so clearly saying that were going to be facing an emergency next November. pic.twitter.com/7tP0QJaKgJ  CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) October 27, 2023

Phillips had been teasing a run for months on the grounds that Biden, the incumbent, is too old for a second term. That stance, which is at odds with virtually every other Democrat in Congress, prompted him earlier this month to leave his post on House Democrats leadership team.

Hes a president of great competence and success, I admire the heck out of President Biden, Phillips told Politico in February. And if he were 15-20 years younger it would be a no-brainer to nominate him, but considering his age its absurd were not promoting competition but trying to extinguish it.

Phillips has suggested that renominating Biden, now 80, would jeopardize the partys hold on the presidency.

Nobody wants to be the one to do something that would undermine the chances of a Democratic victory in 2024, Phillips told Politico in February. Yet in quiet rooms the conversation is just the opposite  we could be at a higher risk if this path is cleared.

Phillips is expected to make an official announcement outside New Hampshires state capitol on Friday. The location suggests an interest in testing his mettle with the states famously independent-minded Democratic primary voters. While New Hampshire has not yet set a date for its 2024 presidential primary, Granite State law requires the state to host a primary before any other state in the country.

New Hampshire is poised, however, to violate the Democratic National Committees rules and, in the process, limit its role in the official nominating contest. In February, the DNC approved a new primary calendar in which South Carolina would go first. New Hampshire has refused to schedule its primary accordingly, and DNC rules dictate that a candidate who campaigns in any state that is non-compliant cannot obtain convention delegates from that state. Bidens campaign announced Tuesday that out of respect for DNC rules, he will not appear on the ballot in the New Hampshire primary.

Phillips might still try to use the contest to demonstrate public interest in an alternative to Biden.

The Minnesota native, a member of the business-friendly New Democrat Coalition who flipped a GOP-held seat in the Minneapolis suburbs in 2018, is likely to run a campaign focused on appealing to moderate voters. Earlier this week, observers spotted a Phillips presidential campaign bus in Ohio emblazoned with the slogans Make America Affordable Again and Everyones Invited! Phillips used the latter phrase in his 2022 reelection bid.

Phillips has proved to be an adept fundraiser, even as he rejects donations from political action committees, lobbyists and other members of Congress. He raised $2.3 million in the 2022 election cycle. As of the end of September, he had over $300,000 in cash on hand.

He also has the capacity to self-fund, should he choose to do so. An heir to, and former CEO of, the Phillips Distilling Company, Phillips was the 11th-richest Democratic member of Congress in 2022. To avoid conflicts of interest, he keeps his financial assets in a blind trust.

If successful, Phillips would make history as the first Jewish presidential nominee of one of the two main political parties. Marianne Williamson, a progressive bestselling author and self-help guru also seeking the Democratic nomination, is Jewish as well.
The Minnesota Zoo welcomes two new rescue sea otter pups. Meet 7-week-old Nuka (left) and 5-month old Denali (right). (Photo courtesy of Minnesota Zoo)

APPLE VALLEY, Minn. (FOX 9) - The Minnesota Zoos sea otters are gaining two new family members.

The zoo announced Friday it's taking in 5-month-old Denali and 7-week-old Nuka, who were rescued in Alaska within days of each other.

Denali, named after the tallest peak in North America, was found abandoned about five miles up a river on land, which is not a common area for sea otters in Alaska, explained the Minnesota Zoo. The pup appeared to be malnourished and dehydrated, so Alaska SeaLife Center (ASLC) took Denali in.

Nuka, named after an island, was found when she was just days old after her mother was killed in an orca attack. An off-duty ASLC staff member witnesses the event and their wildlife response team launched into action, rescuing Nuka.

"Northern sea otter pups are highly dependent on their mothers during the first several months of their life, leading to a drastically reduced survival rate when orphaned," said the zoo in a Facebook post.

The orphaned pups received triage care at ASLC for several weeks before making the more than 3,000-mile journey to Apple Valley.

As the update states, for now, the pups remain behind the scenes as they receive around-the-clock care and get acclimated to their new environment.

The Minnesota Zoo has a long partnership with ASLC, and three of the zoo's adult male sea otters were rescued by the organization nearly 17 years ago when they were abandoned as pups.
FILE - Marchers move down Front Street during the Ohio March for Life after a rally at the Ohio State House in Columbus, Ohio, Friday, Oct. 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)  The inflammatory language targeting a reproductive rights measure on Ohio's fall ballot is the type of messaging that is common in the closing weeks of a highly contested initiative campaign  warning of abortion on demand or dismemberment of fully conscious children if voters approve it.

Only the messaging isnt just coming from the anti-abortion groups that oppose the constitutional amendment. Its being promoted on the official government website of the Republican-controlled Ohio Senate.

And because the source is a government website, the messaging is being prioritized in online searches for information about Issue 1, the question going before Ohio voters Nov. 7 to enshrine abortion access in the state Constitution.

The On The Record blog on the state Senate website is billed as an online newsroom presenting the views the news excludes. It features attacks against Ohio news outlets, op-ed style columns by Republican state senators and content generated by members of the Senate majoritys communications staff and other noted conservatives.

Be confident that here you will find a place for facts, values, and reason, read the announcement when Republican lawmakers launched the feature in September, shortly after Ohio voters rejected a Republican attempt to make it far more difficult to pass constitutional amendments.

Groups backing the proposed amendment say its an improper use of a taxpayer-supported website, while experts who study online misinformation said the effort by Republican lawmakers appeared unprecedented.

Its a really strategic way to make something appear to be neutral information and fact when thats not the reality, said Laura Manley, executive director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. Ive never seen anything like that. Its really smart in a really devious way.

In recent weeks, On The Record has turned its attention to denouncing Issue 1, the only statewide abortion question before voters in the November elections. Among claims asserted in one senator's article are that the measure would  legalize abortion on demand at any stage of pregnancy " and allow for  the dismemberment of fully conscious children. Another senator's entry repeats without context a decades-old narrative that high rates of abortion among Black women are driven by an evil and predatory abortion industry.

A featured snippet grabbed from the site that comes up during a Google search for Ohio Issue 1 says the measure ignores Ohios existing exceptions for life and health of the mother in favor of establishing abortion on demand for all nine months.

Legal and medical experts consulted by The Associated Press have called these narratives false or misleading.

The proposed amendment expressly allows Ohio to regulate abortions once a fetus is viable outside the womb, as long as there are exceptions for the life or health of the woman. Ohio's existing ban on most abortions once fetal cardiac activity is detected, now held up in court, has an exception for protecting the life of the woman as well as a more narrowly tailored health exception than Issue 1 contains. Under the existing law passed by Republicans, abortions would be allowed only when there would be "a serious risk of the substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.

Opponents argue that Issue 1's health exception, in particular, would allow for a virtual free-for-all for abortion doctors after viability, since the U.S. Supreme Court has defined health to include mental health and aspects of life that affect it. Physicians say the scenario is inconsistent with the standards they uphold for professional conduct.

Because the Ohio Senate is a government entity, supporters of the constitutional amendment worry that content posted to On The Record might be interpreted by voters as a source of objective information. Under Google's search quality evaluator guidelines, government sites are generally given added weight on the grounds that they present trustworthy, verifiable, authoritative content in the interest of the common good.

My (Republican) colleagues say that this is done because the mainstream media wont print their stuff. But of course, the mainstream media wont pick this up because its factually incorrect and basically lies, said Democratic state Sen. Bill DeMora, whose caucus was angered by the blog and its home on the Senate's official page.

He said Democrats are exploring whether they can launch their own version to counter the GOP.

Republican Senate President Matt Huffman shied away from labeling On the Record a news service when questioned by reporters shortly after its launch.

I think its just the latest iteration of trying to communicate with the public, he said.

As of Friday, the blog was the only link available under the News tab for the Ohio Senate. In comparison, the website for the Republican-led Ohio House features press releases on its signature bills, and awards and activities related to both Republican and Democratic lawmakers.

John Fortney, spokesman for the state Senate's majority Republicans, said "On The Record doesnt cost the public anything because its hosted on an existing government platform and is put together by his staff.

But neither his staff nor the the government platform are free.

Fortney and his senior press secretary, Garth Kant, make a combined $195,000 a year, according to a database of public salaries maintained by the Buckeye Institute. The blog they spearhead is maintained by Legislative Information Services, an IT office for both of Ohio's legislative chambers with a $13 million annual budget.

A detailed analysis of On The Record by a group supporting the constitutional amendment shows no distinguishable difference between the blog and the Senate site, meaning they use the same resources.

Britt Bischoff, chief growth officer for Red Wine & Blue, a progressive womens organization, said the group has been trying to outcompete misinformation around issue 1 with its own messages, but the weight given to government websites in searches makes it difficult to counter the messages spread through On the Record.

While Google has been responsive in removing some results for search terms where (misinformation posts) have been flagged, its not 100%, and there are hundreds of search terms this page is targeting that deliberately targets questions around Issue 1 with intentional attempts to spread political ideologies in positions of authority, Bischoff's analysis determined.

Google did not return an email message seeking comment about its search priorities.

Fortney pushed back against the criticism. He said the op-ed style pieces are clearly opinion, though nowhere are they marked as such, and that On The Record is intended to promote the views of Senate Republicans that, in many cases, Ohio media outlets have refused to publish.

People are free to disagree with the views expressed, but this is content that you wont find anywhere else, certainly not in legacy media," he said. It's relevant content for our audience.

Mary Ruth Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California, Davis School of Law, said its common for politicians to have close relationships with advocacy organizations on either side of the abortion debate, but the Ohio Senates blog crosses a line" because it's on a government website that the public would see as providing neutral information.

Theres a difference between delivering a campaign speech to an anti-abortion group and putting these kinds of narratives on an official government website thats designed to inform voters, said Ziegler, a leading historian on the abortion debate. Your responsibilities there are different.

___

Fernando reported from Chicago. Associated Press/Report for America reporter Samantha Hendrickson in Columbus contributed to this report.

___

The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about APs democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
A University of Rochester professor has been missing for six days, and local authorities say he may be in danger.

Heikki Rantakari, 44, was scheduled to teach on campus last weekend, but he "never showed up to teach his class on Saturday morning," Rochester Police Capt. Greg Bello said.

Rantakari, an associate professor of economics and management at the University of Rochesters Simon Business School, resides in the Boston area because he is also a visiting assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He flew into Rochester, New York, on Friday.

"He is a regular guest professor  and so some associates here became worried that he didnt show up to class, and contacted the police," Bello said.

Rantakari was last seen Friday evening when he checked into his Airbnb, according to Bello.

University of Rochester professor Heikki Rantakari. (Rochester Police Dept.)

In their investigation so far, Rochester police have gathered "some information that makes us believe that he may be in danger," Bello said. However, due to the ongoing nature of the search, he declined to give further details.

Rantakaris wife, Noelle, told NBC News in a statement that her husband "is a dedicated academic, a uniquely gifted man, and beloved by colleagues, friends and family."

She described him as just under 6 feet tall, 180 pounds, with blond hair, blue eyes and a Finnish accent.

"If anyone may have seen him or spoken to him, any information from the public regarding his welfare or whereabouts is greatly needed to help find him ASAP," the Rantakari family said in the statement. "Many are praying for his safe return."

Florian Ederer, a friend of a Rantakari's, said the disappearance is "incredibly out of character," since Rantakari is a respected and dependable teacher.

An economics professor at the Boston University Questrom School of Business, Ederer said he has known Rantakari since 2004, when they were both students at MIT.

"He's just a wonderful person all around, both in terms of his professional life, as well as his personal life," Ederer said. "We're very worried because he's an incredibly reliable person that just would never go missing or just disappear."

Sara Miller, a University of Rochester spokesperson, said in a statement that the school is grateful to local law enforcement and the universitys own public safety department for their work on the investigation.

"Were asking for the publics support in reporting anything that relates to Professor Rantakaris whereabouts by calling 911," Miller said. "The University is hopeful that he is found safe very soon."

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WREG)  With tensions rising in Ukraine and the Middle East, leaders in Mississippi County, Arkansas, are giving the Department of Defense a rare opportunity.

Tuesday, the Mississippi County Quorum Court passed a resolution supporting the reactivation of the former Eaker Air Force Base, putting the Department of Defense and the Air Force on notice.

Its exciting from the standpoint of what it would mean to the community and not just Blytheville but all of Northeast Arkansas, said Barrett Harrison, president of the Arkansas Aeroplex, which was at one time Eaker Air Force Base.

Its been thirty years since B-52 bombers rumbled off this airstrip as part of the Strategic Air Commands Cold War readiness. Barrett said the Aeroplex could easily again serve the needs of the military.







Heres an asset ready to go, a two-mile long runway, three hundred feet wide that will handle any aircraft there is in the world. It used to be an alternate landing site for the Space Shuttle, Harrison said.

US authorities warn of violent extremists and lone offenders motivated by Israel-Hamas conflict

County Judge John Nelson said the idea took hold when Russia invaded Ukraine and gained traction when violence flared in the Middle East.

Thats when we thought, We need to hurry and get this to the authorities that might be interested in expanding,' he said. And we would welcome them to come back to Mississippi County in whatever fashion or capacity they wanted.

During the Cold War, Eaker was home to B-52 SAC crews who would make concrete fortresses like this home.

When the Cold War was no longer considered a threat, the base closed, and thousands left with it.

Now, the Aeroplex is home to several industries as well as an effort to tell of Eakers role in keeping the peace through the National Cold War Center and the complete restoration of this SAC alert bunker.

Its terribly important, and its not being done anywhere in the United States, and what better place to do that than on a SAC base, Harrison said.

Judge John Nelson said the county is working with lobbyists in Washington to get the word out on the countys resolution.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com.
The Missouri House Ethics Committee met behind closed doors for more than four hours on Friday to discuss a personnel inquiry in a meeting that had been widely expected to focus on embattled House Speaker Dean Plocher.

While committee members remained quiet after the meeting citing confidentiality rules, the issues surrounding the top Republican lawmaker appear far from over. The committee, which reviews complaints against House lawmakers, is scheduled to meet again to discuss the same inquiry on Nov. 8.

Fridays meeting comes as Plocher, a Republican from St. Louis County who is running for lieutenant governor in 2024, is facing calls to resign after reports surfaced this week that he received government reimbursements over several years for expenses also paid for by his campaign. He has started to pay back the money he improperly received.

In recent weeks, Plocher has also come under scrutiny over an unsuccessful push for the House to hire a company to manage constituent information and a decision to fire his chief of staff last week.

State Sen. Andrew Koenig, a Manchester Republican, on Friday joined a group of Republican lawmakers who have called for the speaker to step down.

Plocher, who did not appear to be at Fridays hearing, did not return a call for comment. Plocher said Thursday that he would absolutely not resign and downplayed the controversies.

Before the committee, which is made up of five Republicans and five Democrats, met in secret, state Rep. Hannah Kelly, a Mountain Grove Republican and committee chair, urged her colleagues not to talk about the focus of the hearing.

It is essential that we maintain this confidentiality until we as a committee are ready to release our findings, she said. The work of this committee involves sensitive matters that may impact the lives and well-being of individuals, organizations and society as a whole.

State Rep. Rick Francis, a Perryville Republican, questioned Kelly on the focus on the hearing, asking if the hearing was closed because it was related to hiring, firing or disciplining a House lawmaker. If it was related to policy, Francis said, the meeting should be held in the open.

This is a personnel inquiry that we are addressing today, Kelly responded. Because of the confidentiality of the matter, it is very important to protect all parties involved.

Kelly asked that anyone not involved in the hearing leave the room, which mainly included reporters covering the meeting.

Notably, House Chief Clerk Dana Miller, who has previously questioned Plochers ethics, remained in the room during several parts of the meeting. Records obtained through a public records request show that Miller wrote about Plochers push for the software contract in a September email to a Republican lawmaker.

In the email, she mentioned threats made by Speaker Plocher concerning my future employment. Miller wrote that Plocher made a statement to her connecting this contract with campaign activity. In the email, Miller also expressed growing concerns of unethical and perhaps unlawful conduct.

Last week, Plocher fired his top aide, Kenny Ross, writing in a letter to House lawmakers that, effective immediately, the office of chief of staff was vacated. The same day, Missouri Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden, a Columbia Republican, announced he had hired Ross as his director of strategic initiatives.

Fridays hearing did not appear to center on a filed complaint, which is what the ethics commission typically reviews. State Rep. Richard Brown, a Kansas City Democrat, who is also running for lieutenant governor, did not recuse himself from the hearing.

Kelly told reporters after the hearing that while personnel inquiry was not included in the Missouri House ethics rules, the committee uses the U.S. House ethics rules as a guide. The U.S. House ethics rules allow for House members, officers or employees to request written opinions with respect to the propriety of any current or proposed conduct of such Member, officer, or employee.

Kelly said the committee would continue to discuss the personnel inquiry at its next meeting in November. Asked at what point the personnel inquiry would rise to something else, Kelly said she did not know.

That is a great question that I cant answer, she said.

Several Missouri House speakers in the modern era have faced significant controversies, including Bob Griffin, a Democrat and the states longest-serving speaker who served from 1981 to 1996, who was indicted and later convicted on bribery charges.

In 2015, then-Speaker John Diehl, a Republican, resigned from the post after The Star reported that he had been sending sexually-charged messages with an intern.
UPDATE: A judge ruled the Houston girls volleyball team can continue playing in the postseason.

The school district filed for an injunction, and Texas County Judge Robert Ray issued a temporary restraining order Thursday afternoon while the case moves forward. Ray wrote that immediate and irreparable loss would occur if the team were not allowed to play.

Houston takes on Stover at 7:15 p.m.

HOUSTON, Mo.  OzarksFirst spoke to the superintendent of the Houston School District Thursday about the MSHAA decision to strip the Houston Girls Volleyball Team of its district title. Among the words to describe emotions, Dr. Justin Copley, Superintendent of the Houston School District used the same one over and over.

We are obviously dissatisfied with the stance that MSHAA took, Dr. Copley said.

The stance? Houston Schools announced that the Missouri State High School Activities Association was stripping the Houston Girls Volleyball Team of its district title, its first since 2006 and 9th in school history.

The reason? The district says the forfeiture comes after the involvement of some team members in a co-ed volleyball event, meant to raise money for a charity that fights breast cancer was a violation of MSHAA rules that prevent athletes from competing in a non-school organized competition during the same season and/or the same sport.

We recognize that our kids participate in that tournament to raise money for breast cancer, and regarding, does the punishment fit the crime? You know, as a school district, if we thought that the punishment fit the crime, we would not have we would not have filed a petition today for the courts to consider, to consider an injunction for this matter, Dr. Copley said.

The Houston team was supposed to take on Stover High School tonight, but with the district losing an appeal, theyre taking MSHAA to court to delay a potential next match.

We have filed a temporary restraining order, an injunction with the Texas County courts to temporarily kind of delay this evenings events, to give proper time and due diligence to the situation so that we can make sure that weve been afforded the appropriate opportunity to be heard in all aspects and that the board is able to hear what we have to say regarding this matter, Dr. Copley says.

He adds that the Houston School District promotes selflessness.

They put themselves out there to raise money for breast cancer in this tournament and to be a part of that in a positive way to do positive things, Copley added.

Copley says he wont give up the fight.

We will make sure that we wrap our arms around our kids, parents, everyone. No matter what the what the outcome is, we will do that, Dr. Copley said.

MSHSAA declined to comment on the situation.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports.
Seven students at Modesto Junior College have explored the citys history of keeping racial minorities from living where they pleased.

They learned of housing segregation in the 1880s, when Chinese immigrants were targeted. It continued in the 1900s for Latino, Black and other groups, who still feel the effects today.

Five of the students spoke Monday, Oct. 23, as part of a multi-week series of public events at MJC and two branches of the Stanislaus County Library.

Much of their attention was on the practice, starting in 1917, of placing covenants on some home deeds that bar minority ownership. This happened across the United States until a federal ban in 1968.

The restrictions created white, middle-class neighborhoods that purposely excluded people of color, student Jaime Venegas said in an East Campus lecture hall.

The panel also featured Kiarra Dixon, Kalvin Douglas, Brianna Leigh and Robin Siefkin. Two other student researchers, Alex Hamiel and Samantha Ho, were not on hand.

Student Kalvin Douglas talks about the history of segregated housing at Modesto Junior College on Oct. 23, 2023.

The seven have done the work since last spring under internships with history professor Eva Mo and instructor Eileen Kerr. The students have a variety of majors and racial backgrounds.

The portion on home deeds built on research by David and Sharon Froba of Modesto, chronicled by The Modesto Bee starting in 2019.

The students learned that local real estate agents encouraged the racial covenants, and that The Bee ran ads indicating these areas. The discrimination was abetted by a New Deal policy that made mortgages cheaper for whites vs. minorities.

As part of the project, the students read The Color of Law, a 2017 book by UC Berkeley researcher Richard Rothstein. He argued that racial deed restrictions account for much of todays large disparity in net worth between white and minority families. That wealth is primarily in the value of homes inherited by children.

The MJC students pored through old deeds at the Stanislaus County Recorders Office and searched the Bee archive via newspapers.com.

They looked also into how the restrictions forced minorities to live in parts of town that to this day remain poor. They include the mostly Latino areas of west and south Modesto.

Airport neighborhood has unusual story

The airport neighborhood has a similar history, but with a twist, as described by Siefkin. The area was established in the late 1930s by white migrants from Dust Bowl states. They built small houses out of discarded materials and had little income amid the Depression.

Even here, some of the deeds forbade minorities from owning properties, Siefkin said.

Although the white migrants that lived in the airport district were not higher white middle class, the color of their skin still provided them some kind of privilege, he said.

Today, the airport neighborhood is mostly Latino and low-income, like west and south Modesto. All three areas have some blocks still lacking sidewalks, storm drains and other amenities.

Although racial covenants are now illegal, they remain on many deeds around the nation. California passed a 2021 law that requires county recorders to locate and redact all of them. Stanislaus launched the multi-year process in March.

A newspaper from the 1880s carried a notice urging white residents not patronize Chinese laundries in Modesto, California. It was displayed at an Oct. 23, 2023 presentation at Modesto Junior College.

Bias in Modestos old Chinatown

Leigh talked about the long-gone Chinatown near Eighth and G streets in Modesto  home to nearly 900 people in the 1880s.

The city passed a law requiring that Chinese-owned laundries be on the rougher west side of the railroad tracks. Leigh said this had the effect of segregating housing, too, because these owners tended to live above their businesses.

A newspaper clipping at the time captured the mood. It urged readers to instead patronize laundries that offered white help for white people.

Leigh, who is white, said the project allowed her to speak for long-dead Asians whose voices were not on those newspaper pages. Any stories about them were really suppressed, she said. You cant really find a lot of information about who specifically lived there.

The students continue to seek local people who can talk about how past housing discrimination has affected their families. Emails can be sent to their instructor at kerre@yosemite.edu.

Modesto Junior College students who spoke about housing segregation on Oct. 23, 2023, included (from left) Robin Siefkin, Brianna Leigh, Kalvin Douglas, Jaime Venegas and Kiarra Dixon.

Other housing events lie ahead

MJC organized the housing events as part of its Democracy and the Public Space program, held each fall and spring semester.

The current series began with a Sept. 28 screening of Owned, a film about housing inequality. Local leaders took part in an Oct. 9 panel on the lack of affordable homes here. An Oct. 16 event dealt with environmental issues tied to inadequate housing.

The rest of the schedule:

Monday, Oct: 30, 1 p.m., in the Forum building on the East Campus. The topic is real world stories of real estate discrimination. The panel includes broker Lionel Akpovi of Redwood Real Estate Group; English professor Chandra Howard and history professor Marvin Jackson; and Dejeune Shelton, director of career services at MJC. The latter three are leaders in a student support group called Umoja, which means unity in the Kiswahili language of Africa.

Nov. 4, 11 a.m., Salida branch library, 4835 Sisk Road. Patrons will discuss Just Action by Leah Rothstein in advance of her Nov. 16 visit to MJC. She is the daughter of Richard Rothstein and collaborated with him on this follow-up to The Color of Law.





Nov. 8, 6:30 p.m. The Turlock branch library will host a Just Action discussion. Its at 550 N. Minaret Ave.

Nov. 15, noon. The book will be discussed in the MJC Learning and Library Center on the East Campus.





Nov. 16, 7 p.m.: Leah Rothstein will speak on Just Action in Sierra Hall on the West Campus. The book describes how to challenge the inequality that remains in housing.
The Montgomery Police Department has charged a 53-year-old Montgomery man with second-degree assault after officers said he stabbed a man.

Police and fire medics responded to the stabbing at about 1:05 p.m. Thursday in the 300 block of Madison Avenue downtown, Maj. Saba Coleman said in an email. Officers arrested Wilferdo Coleman in connection with the stabbing. He is in the Montgomery County jail with no bond.

The victim had injuries that were not life-threatening, and first responders took him to the hospital.

Police are not releasing any more information at this time, Coleman said in the email.

Police arrested a man in connection with a stabbing.

More: Capital Murder Montgomery police charge girl, 15, with murder after boy dies in hospital

Alex Gladden is the Montgomery Advertiser's public safety reporter. She can be reached at agladden@gannett.com or on Twitter @gladlyalex.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Stabbing downtown leaves man with injuries Thursday
Wednesday night's mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine was many things: horrific, terrifying, unfathomable, all the adjectives that get trotted out after these now-routine massacres. What no one can pretend it was, however, was surprising. Maine is especially hostile to even the most reasonable gun laws. The state has been scored an F by the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

Sure enough, intial reports on the suspected shooter, 40-year-old Robert Card, show he is a bundle of red flags that, in any functioning legal system, would have prevented him from being armed in the first place. He was recently released from a mental health facility that he had been committed to for two weeks. Maine has no "red flag" law to allow law enforcement to take guns from people in a mental health crisis, nor do they require convicted domestic abusers to relinquish guns. In a little more than one week, arguments in favor of and against expanding such relaxation of gun regulations nationwide begin in the country's highest court.

On November 7, the Supreme Court will hear a case that could force every state to let men like Maine's suspected mass shooter run wild with all the guns they wish. Unfortunately, there's a very real chance that the court  led by the gun radicalism of justices like Clarence Thomas, Amy Coney Barrett and Samuel Alito  will pull the trigger, unleashing even more would-be mass shooters to prey on us all.

The upcoming case is United States v. Rahimi. On its surface, this should be a slam-dunk win for the U.S. lawyers, because Zackey Rahimi is exactly the kind of person no one should want in possession of a gun. As Francis Wilkinson of the Washington Post explains:

In 2019, Rahimi, of Arlington, Texas, threw his girlfriend to the ground before dragging her to his car, where he slammed her head against the dashboard. He later threatened to shoot her if she told anyone about the attack. The threat was credible; Rahimi had already fired his gun at a witness to the assault and later engaged in five shootings in and around Arlington over the course of a month. Yet Rahimi challenged his loss of firearms as a consequence of domestic violence.

Not exactly the "good guy with a gun" that gun rights advocates love to wax poetic about. But, because Republicans keep showing us their true faces these days, Rahimi has become the latest cause celebre of the right. Judge Cory Wilson, a Donald Trump appointee to the Fifth Circuit Court, ruled that the right to own a gun cannot be limited to "law-abiding, responsible citizens." To back this argument up, he approvingly cites a dissent that Barrett wrote in Kanter v. Barr, where she argued that, "Founding-era legislatures did not strip felons of the right to bear arms simply because of their status as felons."

To make things even more disturbing, Judge James Ho, another Trump appointee, wrote a concurring opinion arguing that domestic violence restraining orders shouldn't count, because, according to him, women lie about being beaten all the time in order to screw men during divorce disputes. As Vox legal analyst Ian Millhiser points out, Ho's "evidence" for this claim is "decades-old cases in faraway jurisdictions," namely a 30-year-old case in New Jersey and one odd situation involving a mentally ill woman who fixated on David Letterman in 2005. But Ho is the same judge who argued women should be forced to give birth to provide doctors and family members cute sonogram photos to look at, showing that he believes there is no such thing as a bad argument when it comes to ruling that women have no human rights.

All this is so off-the-charts radical, that it may be hard to believe that even very conservative judges would go there. Unfortunately, as Millhiser explains in another Vox analysis, not only are these Trump judges dead serious, but they are well within the bounds of what Thomas laid out as the only legitimate test of a gun regulation in a 2022 Supreme Court decision: Would this regulation have existed in 1791?

If that sounds hyperbolic, it's not, as Millhiser explains:

Bruen held that, in order to justify nearly any law regulating firearms, the government must demonstrate that the regulation is consistent with this Nations historical tradition of firearm regulation. This means that lawyers defending even the most widely accepted gun laws, such as the federal ban on gun possession by domestic abusers, must show that analogous regulations also existed and were accepted when the Constitution was framed  particularly if the law addresses a general societal problem that has persisted since the 18th century. If they cannot, the challenged gun law must be struck down.

Needless to say, restraining orders were not a thing in 1791. Indeed, the concept of "domestic violence" didn't really exist. Women were functionally the property of their husbands, and so if you wanted to beat your wife up, there wasn't much the law could say about it. It wasn't until 1871 that spousal abuse laws were ruled legal in the U.S. By the logic of Thomas's opinion in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, you cannot bar wife-beaters from being gun owners.

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The pro-gun people pushing Rahimi's case are smart to make the first big test of how absolutist the Supreme Court is on gun rights. This case isn't just about guns, but about whether women deserve state protection. As Ho's response shows, judges who are already sour about women having rights are going to be open to "lying bitches" arguments. Alito, who literally ruled that the opinions of a 13th-century witch-burner should determine a woman's access to abortion, is an obvious contender for the "who cares about domestic violence" angle. Brett Kavanaugh, who is still outraged at being accused, credibly, of attempted rape, is likely in the mix, as well. Barrett's been appealed to on her "let felons have guns" view, but she's also a fan of the ideology of wifely submission. Thomas's misogyny is well-documented  ask Anita Hill  plus he's probably not keen on abridging his 2022 decision because some poor woman got her head bashed in by her violent boyfriend.

What does this have to do with mass shootings, you may be asking. Well, first of all, laws that keep guns out of the hands of wife-beaters also prevent mass shootings. Most mass shooters have a history of violence against women before they escalate to shooting up large groups of people. Disarming violent men before they turn up the dial doesn't just save the lives of abuse victims, but can save the lives of strangers.

But also, if the Supreme Court uses the Rahimi case to double down on Bruen's claims that gun laws cannot be updated to reflect changing laws and social norms since 1791, then it's not just domestic violence-related restrictions that will fall. Background checks and red flag laws that screen for people, like Card, who are having mental health episodes will likely also be rendered illegal. After all, the discipline of psychology wasn't even really invented until the mid-19th century, decades after the cut-off date that Thomas laid out for when gun laws can be adapted to reflect legal and social changes.

Maine's radical laws on guns are rejected by most Americans for a reason. Most of us have some experience with mental illness and understand that it's not stigmatizing or cruel to suggest that the last thing people having a mental health crisis need is access to guns. Even if they aren't hearing voices, as Card reportedly was, they are often a danger to themselves, which is why the suicide rate in states with lax gun laws is so high. Nor is there any legitimate reason to let wife beaters have guns, especially when the reason most of them want one is to increase the amount of control they have over their victims.

But the radicalized, deeply misogynist Supreme Court is poised to hear a case that we already know appeals to the ugliest impulses of the far-right  because Trump appointees on the Fifth Circuit already signed off on these claims. If the court gives into its culture warrior side, then it will be unleashing even more mayhem on a country already shell-shocked by a relentless drumbeat of mass shootings. Wednesday in Maine is what you get when MAGA attitudes on guns set the laws the rest of us have to live  and increasingly die  with. There's a very real chance that the Supreme Court will make the dystopian vision our reality.
As part of Lead Poisoning Prevention Week, the Kane County Health Department is recommending children living in certain parts of the county have their blood tested for lead levels.

Aurora has the largest number of children who are at an increased risk for lead exposure, mostly due to having housing that was built with lead plumbing and paint that has lead in it, health department officials said.

This year, the IDPH (Illinois Department of Public Health) expanded the number of zip codes for lead reporting, so it was important for us to get the word out to public, said Uche Onwuta, Kane County Health Department director of health protection.

The following zip codes were given the recommendations: 60505, 60506 and 60507 in Aurora, 60109 in Burlington, 60144 in Kaneville, and 60120 and 60121 in Elgin. This is an increase from Aurora having only two zip codes in the past  one in Elgin and none in the other cities.

If a child is found to have high lead levels, the health department will assist in finding out where the lead came from and ways to prevent further exposure, officials said.

Many homes in Kane County were built over 50 years ago when lead in plumbing and paint was prevalent. Onwuta said older houses can have chipping paint, water in lead pipes, lead found in the soil outside and even in childrens toys or other consumer products.

The increased number of zip codes in Aurora is due to having older houses in the city along with larger populations.

Residents should contact their medical provider to set up a blood lead screening, officials advise.

Because babies and young children grow at a rapid pace, any exposure to lead can cause growth issues, learning disabilities, hearing loss and speech and memory deficits.

It can damage the brain and the nervous system, so its important that we test the homes and can intervene early so lead exposure can be mitigated, Onwuta said.

If lead is found inside a home, programs can offer financial assistance for mitigation to homeowners and renters whose household income for a family of four is under $60,650, according to officials. If a child tests positive for having a high level of lead in their blood, the health department will automatically receive notification and will have a nurse reach out to the family.

Community programs around the county can also be contacted to provide some funding to help with mitigation, Onwuta said.

mejones@chicagotribune.com
Tina Parker says it took two years for her to be diagnosed with MND

Motor neurone disease (MND) is a life-altering, debilitating and terminal condition that affects people's ability to move, talk and breathe.

Six people are diagnosed with it in the UK every day, mostly aged over 50, according to Brain Research UK.

But getting diagnosed can take time, with some people being seen by multiple specialists before it is confirmed.

Two sufferers have spoken to BBC South about their struggles accessing vital treatment and support.

Tina Parker, from Farnborough, Hampshire, was diagnosed with a rare form of the disease in 2021. She told the BBC it took two years before it was confirmed.

"It was like banging my head against a brick wall," she said.

"It went on for so long, I was falling, there was no-one to talk to. I knew something was wrong and I was having all sorts of tests - nerve testing, MRI scans, brain scans."

Ms Parker, who was previously active, independent and a keen dancer, said she saw three medical professionals before finally seeing a neurologist who told her she had MND.

"It's like a grieving process," she said. "You feel like you've lost your body."

Following her diagnosis, Ms Parker now receives round the clock support, including modifications in her home such as external hand rails, remote controlled curtains and a lift to go upstairs.

But a diagnosis does not mean the same for everyone. Andy Vaughton, from Poole, Dorset, was told he had the most common type of MND, two years after his muscle wasting started.

He said medical professionals originally thought it was wrist problem.

Andy Vaughton says it is important to "live in the moment"

While he is no longer able to work as an anaesthetist, he said he can still go about his life as normal and play rugby with his sons and even trek in the desert.

Describing how long his diagnosis took, Mr Vaughton said: "You have to wait for more wasting and weakness before you can actually fulfil the criteria for MND, that's why it does take time."

Like Ms Parker, he told the BBC he felt "overwhelming grief" over "losing your future".

He said: "That would always make me sad, whenever I thought ahead, the fact I might not be here, I might not see my kids grow up.

"But you can't think about it like that, you have to just live in the moment."

Mr Vaughton is taking part in a UK study looking at how MND impacts the brain, in the hope it will lead to earlier diagnosis in the future.

Sally Hughes, from the Motor Neurone Disease Association, said late diagnosis means "fundamentally people will not get access to the service and support they need to live their daily life and have quality of life".

She said the charity was working with medical professionals, particularly GPs, to make them aware of some of the early symptoms.

"It's very rare still for people in 'GP land' to see someone with motor neurone disease so we want to make them aware and spot those red flags that might suggest they need to refer on to a specialist who can diagnose MND."

Ms Hughes said while the medical community was still learning about the causes of MND, "we think it's a combination of genetics, environment and lifestyle factors that contribute but our researchers are discovering more and more".

Follow BBC South on Facebook, X, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.
A young mountain lion went after a small leashed dog as it walked with its owner along a California trail  and scratched the hikers hand when they held the dog away from the cougars claws, officials said.

The attack took place in Solstice Canyon, a park in Malibus Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, officials said in an Oct. 24 post on Facebook.

While the hiker was able to protect their dog from the mountain lions clutches, they received a scratch and puncture wound on their hand, officials said in the post.

The scratch was minor, Seth Riley, wildlife branch chief of the U.S. National Park Service, told LAist.

The dog was not injured, and National Park Service rangers gave the hiker first aid at the scene, officials said.

How scary for the dog and the owner, someone said in comments on the post. Im glad theyre okay.

To be cautious, and because a second young mountain lion was spotted nearby during the attack, officials closed Solstice Canyon until 8 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 26, while wildlife biologists examined the situation  and while the mountain lions hopefully left the area, officials said.

Several people said they were grateful officials planned to let the big cats leave the area on their own.

The lions were exactly where they belonged. In protected, open space, someone said.

Others wondered how young the mountain lions were and if they had been separated from their mom before they could learn to hunt.

We do encroach into their territory, then wonder why theres an issue, someone said.

What to do if you see a mountain lion

Mountain lions are typically calm, quiet and elusive, according to the National Park Service. While attacks involving mountain lions are rare, they are possible.

Even so, the potential for being killed or injured by a mountain lion is quite low compared to many other natural hazards, the National Park Service said on its website. There is a far greater risk, for example, of being killed in an automobile accident with a deer than of being attacked by a mountain lion.

Officials said there are some things you do take to prevent a mountain lion encounter from becoming an attack.

Stay calm and back away slowly.

Face the lion and stand up straight.

Dont approach a mountain lion, especially if its with kittens.

Dont run. It could stimulate a mountain lions chase instincts.

Pick up small children so they dont panic or run away.

Dont bend over or crouch down.

Throw things at the mountain lion if it continues to move toward you.

If the mountain lion attacks, fight back using anything around you.

Report all sightings, encounters or attacks to local park rangers or law enforcement.

And those who bring their pets along in national parks are required to keep them on a leash 6 feet or shorter, officials said.

Cougar snatches dog on walk  until neighbor steps in, Washington officials say

Elusive big cats are lurking around CA neighborhood, photos show. People are alarmed

Screaming mom scares off mountain lion attacking her child at WA campsite, rangers say
A murder suspect who slipped free of D.C. police custody at a university hospital last month was captured in Maryland on Thursday, bringing to a close a seven-week manhunt. Christopher Haynes, 30, was taken into custody without incident by U.S. Marshals in Oxon Hill, Maryland, just a dozen miles south of Washington, police said. It was not immediately clear how Haynes had finally been located after nearly two months on the run. After being arrested on Sept. 6 in connection with the August shooting death of Brent Hayward, Haynes complained of ankle pain and was taken to the emergency room of George Washington University Hospital. There, he physically assaulted an officer trying to handcuff him to a gurney and fled, handcuff still fastened around one wrist, police said. A barefoot Haynes outran officers chasing him on foot and disappeared, sparking a multi-agency search effort as the university locked down.

Read it at The New York Times

Read more at The Daily Beast.
George Green and Samantha Barton were both 16-years-old when they were murdered

The families of two teenagers have said they are relieved their killer will stay in prison after his bid for parole on the Isle of Man was denied.

Peter Newbery was jailed for life with a minimum sentence of 20 years for killing 16-year-olds George Green and Samantha Barton in 2002.

Newbery's request, which considered if he remains a risk to the public, was refused by the parole committee.

Mr Green's sister Jackie Christian said she "felt a weight had been lifted".

Margaret Green and Jackie Christian say their family were relieved Newbery will stay in prison

The family said they had feared they would cross paths with Newbery if he were released, and that he may reoffend.

Ms Christian said: "We would never want any other family to go through what we've been though."

Newbery sexually assaulted and strangled the teenagers, who had both had contact with social services, and was convicted of their murders the following year.

He was transferred to a prison in the UK, but brought back to the Isle of Man in 2020.

George Green was the youngest of six children in the family

The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) previously said Isle of Man prisoners serving life sentences were returned to the island before the end of their jail term so that they would not be subject to automatic release in the UK.

A DHA spokeswoman said if an appeal was refused the committee would specify a time period after which the applicant could reapply, which was dependent on the specifics of each case.

The family praised their liaison officers of the time of the murders, but said they had been given very little guidance or reassurance around the time of the hearing.

Mr Green's mother Margaret Green said it had been difficult to deliver statements describing how the family had been affected but "if it keeps him inside, we have to do it".

Peter Newbery was jailing for a minimum of 20 years in 2003

While the family were relieved at the decision "situations like this bring it all back" and led to "flashbacks and nightmares", Ms Christian said.

On future release requests by Newbery, she said it would lead it it all being "dragged up again", adding: "It just never seems to go away... I couldn't sleep for weeks before the hearing."

Samantha Barton's mother, Rose Barton, said she left the Isle of Man two years ago because she no longer felt safe knowing Newbery could be released.

She said the loss of her daughter had been "devastating" and "life should men life" for Newbery.

"He doesn't deserve to get out, ever," Ms Barton added.

Why not follow BBC Isle of Man on Facebook and X? You can also send story ideas to IsleofMan@bbc.co.uk
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Kansas City, Kansas, has suffered the fewest homicides in the last decade so far this year as just about every other category of violent crime has also declined.

Detectives have investigated 19 killings as of this week, compared to 31 by this time last year, according to police data. Thats fewer than half as many by this time in 2020 and 2021, which saw 46 and 40 in mid-October of those years, respectively.

Despite the drop so far this year in violent crime, public safety is a top issue for voters ahead of the Nov. 7 local elections, and candidates have plans for how to keep violence down. Residents will reshape the Unified Governments Board of Commissioners, the countys governing body, casting ballots for five seats for the 11-member board. Voters will likely also be thinking about rising taxes and utility bills.

District 1 Commissioner Melissa Bynum described the decline in homicides as dramatic and praised Police Chief Karl Oakman, who took office in 2021. Still, she said, it would great if KCK could become a community with no murder.

Bynum, who is seeking reelection, was among a majority of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, commission candidates who vowed at a forum this week to support solutions expected to come from a data-driven analysis on KCK shootings and killings being conducted by John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

Its going to be another tool in the toolbox, Bynum, who is running against challenger Ricky Smith, said at the candidate forum put on by Churches United for Justice, a coalition of 17 churches in Wyandotte County.

The seven candidates who appeared at the forum said they support anything proven to reduce violence, including a strategy known as group violence intervention. Pastor Bruce Draper, who asked them questions, called it the best program we know of.

Enough is enough, Draper said. (Group violence intervention) works, and we need it here in KCK.

The strategy, which was pioneered by a criminal justice professor at John Jay, has been credited with successes like a 63% reduction in youth homicides in Boston.

Tina Medina, who is running against Commissioner Christian Ramirez in the District 3 race, said she liked that the strategy included providing social services, noting there is a movement now to look at holistic approaches to crime and young people.

The National Network for Safe Communities, the colleges research center, is analyzing KCKs 2022 and 2023 data on homicides and non-fatal shootings, which amount to about 200 cases. Their analysts will soon travel to KCK to interview people like officers, detectives and members of the Wyandotte County District Attorneys Office, Police Capt. Kevin Fithian said.

Churches United for Justice made the analysis the focus of one of three questions posed to candidates. Its leaders pointed to two of the heartbreaking homicides this year, including that of 6-year-old SirAntonio Brown, a kindergartner who in May was playing in his front yard with his sister and cousins when he was fatally shot during a drive-by shooting. Two suspects have been charged.

At the forum Tuesday, candidates highly commended Oakman, whose department this year has also solved four cold case murders through a newly formed unit.

Anna Cole, who is running against Bill Burns for the District 2 seat, described Oakman as reforming the force.

I feel in such an awful environment weve had in that particular entity that Ive read about ... it was an open secret, Cole said. And I think we are really approaching a change.

Activists have long called for a federal investigation into KCKPD over allegations of civil rights violations. Those include accusations against former detective Roger Golubski, who retired in 2010 after decades on the force and now faces two federal indictments for crimes such as conspiring to sex traffic underage girls in the 1990s with a drug kingpin and two other men.

Tarence Maddox, who is running against Evelyn Hill in an attempt to regain the District 4 seat he held a decade ago, noted that up until June, every killing this year was solved by KCK detectives. That, he believed, was something this community has never seen.

A majority of homicide cases so far this year have been cleared, a police spokesperson said.

Data provided by the police department also shows that reported rapes and aggravated batteries have seen significant decreases this year. That includes a 46% drop in aggravated batteries, from 391 by this time last year to 211 so far this year.
FILE - Brandon Wolf, a survivor of the Pulse nightclub shooting and activist, looks at the photos that are a part of the Pulse memorial in Orlando, Fla., on Sept. 9, 2022. The city of Orlando plans to purchase the gay nightclub property where 49 people were massacred seven years ago, in what at the time was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, with the intention of building a memorial for the victims, Mayor Buddy Dyer said Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Cody Jackson, file) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP)  Leaders of a private foundation working to build a museum and memorial to honor the victims of a massacre at a gay nightclub in Florida said Friday that they were dropping their plans to build a museum, even as the city of Orlando is moving ahead with constructing the memorial.

Officials with the onePulse Foundation said in a public letter that they are unable to move ahead with a museum to commemorate the 49 people who were killed and 53 victims injured when an attacker opened fire in the gay nightclub in June 2016. A SWAT team killed the shooter, who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, following a standoff.

At the time, it was the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history. But that number was surpassed the following year when 58 people were killed and more than 850 were injured among a crowd of 22,000 at a country music festival in Las Vegas.

Fundraising and planning for the project slowed down during the COVID-19 pandemic and once shutdowns eased up soaring construction costs made the project financially unrealistic to complete as originally conceived, the letter said. The onePulse Foundation had said earlier this year that it was scaling back from its plans after determining that the price of the project could reach as much as $100 million.

Orlando city council members earlier this week approved purchasing the Pulse property for $2 million with the intention of building the long-awaited permanent memorial for the victims.

The efforts to build a memorial and museum for Pulse victims has been moving slowly since the massacre. Until this month, the nightclub's owners hadn't agreed to sell the property, and the plans to build a museum had been slated for a nearby site that was purchased for $3.5 million by the onePulse Foundation using funds raised from Orange County's tourism tax.

The foundation has spent another $3 million of Orange County tourism tax dollars on a design for the project. Orange County said in a news release Friday that the parcel will be returned to the county since a museum isn't going to be built there.

One of the nightclub's owners, Barbara Poma, had been executive director of the onePulse Foundation but stepped down last year and left the organization entirely earlier this year.
Law enforcement on the scene of search for Robert Card (AFP via Getty Images)

The small town of Lewiston was turned upside down when 18 residents, locals, family members and friends were gunned down in Americas latest major mass shooting.

The gunman  identified as suspect Robert Card  first targeted the popular Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley just before 7pm, killing seven people.

The suspect then went to the Schemengees Bar & Grille Restaurant and opened fire there minutes later, according to authorities.

Seven males were killed inside the restaurant and one male was killed outside.

Three other victims died after they were taken to a local hospital, while another 13 were wounded in the attacks.

Mr Card  a 40-year-old US Army Reservist  disappeared, plunging a grief-stricken community into deeper fear of what he could do next.

Over 48 hours later, police announced that Mr Card had been found deceased, though many questions still remain.

The motive is still unknown.

And whether it could have been prevented is now the focus of debate.

Here The Independent takes a look at the unanswered questions.

Where is suspect Robert Card?

Maines Public Safety Commissioner Michael Sauschuck confirmed on Friday evening that the body of Robert Card had been found in an area of woodland, some eight miles from the scene of the shootings.

The US Army reserve is believed to have taken his own life in an area near a recycling facility where he had been recently fired from, CNN reported.

Maine Department of Public Safety commissioner Mike Sauschuck said the body had been found at 7.45pm ET, and that he had called the gunmans family prior to the press conference.

They lost a loved one in this scenario, and there were many of that family that was very cooperative with us throughout. So they deserved that phone call, he said.

Prior to this, Mr Card has not been seen since he allegedly opened fire at the bar in Lewiston on Wednesday night.

Investigators traced his vehicle to a boat landing in Lisbon  around eight miles from the crime scene  just hours later.

Multiple law enforcement agencies had combed through counties in Maine ever since to find him and residents in Auburn, Lewiston, Lisbon and Bowdoin were all told to shelter in place.

Speculation mounted that police were closing in on the suspect on Thursday evening when a dramatic raid was executed on Mr Cards home in Bowdoin.

Maine police and FBI agents were heard shouting FBI! Open the door! before entering the property.

The dramatic scene however ended with no arrest and no sign of the US Army Reservist.

On Friday, authorities announced that divers had joined the search, scouring the waterways close to the boat landing where Mr Cards vehicle was found abandoned.

Mr Sauschuck said that the dive teams were checking for evidence as well as potential bodies in the Androscoggin River  raising questions as to whether he entered the river that night.

What was the motive for the attack?

The motive remains a mystery with authorities offering no clues as to what may have driven Mr Card to carry out the attack.

However, Sauschuck confirmed at an early press conference on Friday that the suspect did leave behind a mystery note after allegedly going on the killing rampage.

Officials have refused to reveal the contents of the note, hinting that it may point to a possible motive for the killings.

Police sources had previously told ABC News that a suicide note addressed to his son had been found inside Mr Cards home during a search.

The sources said the note contained the suspects rantings as well as some personal information such as bank account details.

As well as the note, a law enforcement official told CNN that Mr Cards cellphone had also been recovered.

Mr Cards family members are said to be cooperating with the investigation and have suggested that he might have been looking for an ex-girlfriend at one of the shooting locations, ABC News reported.

It is not clear who this former partner may be  or if this did form part of a motive for the shooting  but court records show that Mr Card was divorced by his ex-wife in 2007.

In 2013, the court granted them both shared parental rights of their child, who lives primarily with his mother.

Mr Cards family has said that the US Army Reservist was struggling with his mental health in the months leading up to the mass shooting.

His sister-in-law Karen Card told The Daily Beast that in the past year, he had an acute episode of mental health, and its been a struggle.

In a law enforcement bulletin sent out on Wednesday, officials said that Mr Card had recently made threats to carry out a shooting at a National Guard facility in Saco and had reported mental health issues including hearing voices.

He spent two weeks in a mental health facility this summer after military officials at West Point sent him for an evaluation.

Ms Card said that things had gone further downhill recently.

The suspect had started wearing hearing aids for his hearing loss and was claiming that he could now hear people speaking badly of him  including at the bowling alley and restaurant where the shootings took place.

On Wednesday night, a cornhole competition for members of the deaf community was being held at the restaurant.

Several of the community members were killed in the shooting.

Could the shootings have been prevented?

The warning signs appear to have been there with Mr Card  with his threats against a National Guard base and serious mental health concerns.

Now, questions are being asked as to whether the mass shooting could have been prevented if steps had been taken to prevent him from having access to firearms.

Maine has very lax gun laws and people dont need a permit or a background check to buy or conceal carry a gun. Possession of semiautomatic weapons is also legal in the state.

The state also does not have a red flag law in place  a law used to prevent individuals from purchasing or possessing guns if they are feared to be a danger to themselves or others.

However, it does have a yellow flag law that enables family members to contact law enforcement and seek a temporary order restricting a relative from accessing firearms if they appear to be suffering a mental health crisis.

Under the law, the individual must first be taken into police custody for a medical evaluation  something that did happen to Mr Card in the summer.

On Thursday, Maine Senator Susan Collins said that the yellow flag law should have been used.

I dont know whether there was a report to trigger the yellow flag law, she said in a briefing.

It certainly seems that on the basis of the facts that we have, that the yellow flag should have been triggered.

If, in fact, the suspect was hospitalized for two weeks for mental illness, that should have triggered the yellow flag law and he should have been separated from his weapons. Im sure, after the fact, thats going to be looked at very closely.

It is not clear what happened after he spent time in the mental health facility.

It is also unclear if Mr Cards family or military officials took any steps to limit his access to firearms.
Nathan Olsen has no hope of ever being a free man.

Olsen, 41, was sentenced Thursday in Richland County Common Pleas Court to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus 22 years, for the October 2022 shooting death of Antonyo Powell, 29, outside a residence in the first block of Antibus Place.

Judge Phil Naumoff gave Olsen life without parole for aggravated murder, 11 years for discharge of a firearm on or near prohibited premises, 18 months for improperly handling firearms in a motor vehicle, and 10 more years for gun specifications. He made the sentences consecutive to each other.

Nathan Olsen confers with defense attorney Aaron Schwartz during his sentencing Thursday in Richland County Common Pleas Court.

"Mr. Olsen, this community has suffered a lot of death this year and preceding years, death that is unexplainable, that has given this community a bad name," Naumoff said. "In this matter, you became judge, jury and executioner. Vigilante justice doesn't work."

Reportedly 'consumed' home burglarized while children were there

According to trial testimony, Olsen was upset because he believed Powell burglarized his house while his children were sleeping a week before the fatal shooting.

Prosecutors showed photos of Powell that Olsen circulated on Facebook to more than 25 people. He made threats to kill Powell, saying the incident was "consuming" him. He was arrested Jan. 10 in South Carolina.

Olsen committed a drive-by shooting, firing nine shots and striking Powell seven times. According to his autopsy, Powell suffered 13 bullet holes.

Earlier this month, a jury also convicted Olsen of three counts of murder, improperly discharging a firearm at or into a habitation or school safety zone and two counts of felonious assault. Those charges merged with others for sentencing purposes.

Defense attorney Aaron Schwartz asked the judge to give his client the hope of parole.

"One of the options is for life without the possibility of parole," Schwartz said. "I'm against that in any situation. The chance for parole allows somebody some hope in being productive while they're incarcerated."

Olsen, wearing a red and white jail jumpsuit to indicate he is a maximum-security inmate, declined to address the court. Schwartz told Naumoff the decision was for legal and appellant reasons.

Nikki Cross reads from a victim impact statement during the sentencing of Nathan Olsen on Thursday. To the right is Makayla Cushing, a victim advocate from the county prosecutor's office.

The only person to speak on Powell's behalf was Nikki Cross, his aunt and someone who helped raise him.

Powell wore a red T-shirt with Powell's picture on the front and the names of four lost family members on the back, along with praying hands.

She said her sister also was murdered by a "weak person."

'You took his life like a thief in the night'

"You stole his life," Cross told Olsen as the defendant looked straight ahead. "You took his life like a thief in the night.

"He never even met his daughter. She will never know who her father is."

The child was born after Powell was murdered.

"I hope you never, ever get to see daylight again," Cross said. "I hope you never walk the streets because of what you done. You plotted; you strategized."

Cross said she wrote more in her victim impact statement but, "I'm going to be the better person and leave it like it is because you left us like we is, broken."

Prosecutor Jodie Schumacher, who tried the case with Assistant Prosecutor Lauryn Calderhead, was the next to speak.

"Mr. Olsen is not deserving of hope," Schumacher told Naumoff. "Mr. Olsen didn't give Mr. Powell any hope when he laid there with 13 bullet holes in his body.

"This court has the opportunity to give hope to the citizens of Richland County, to the citizens of Mansfield, who have been repeatedly victimized by gun violence."

Schumacher referenced the 15-year-old boy who was home alone at the time of the shooting. Bullets entered the house, leaving him fearful and uneasy in the dark.

'Absolute disregard' for victim's family members

The prosecutor said Olsen showed "absolute disregard" for the teen or the family members who could have been home at the time.

Further, Schumacher said Olsen, who had five previous criminal convictions, was dealing drugs out of his home, a revelation that did not come out during the trial.

She urged the judge to give Olsen life without parole to "send a message of deterrence to those who continue to use guns."

As usual, the judge had the last word. Naumoff told Olsen he should have alerted police if he had evidence that Powell had burglarized his home.

"You took it upon yourself to end a person's life over a perceived wrongdoing," Naumoff said. "You thought what was done to you warranted a death sentence."

The judge told Olsen he could have given his condolences to Powell's family, even if he didn't want to jeopardize a possible appeal.

Naumoff declared Olsen a violent offender, but it became a moot point when he received a life sentence.

mcaudill@gannett.com

419-521-7219

X (formerly Twitter): @MarkCau32059251

This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Convicted Mansfield murderer gets life without parole, plus 22 years
North Carolina schools, including in Wake County and Charlotte-Mecklenburg, have won $24 million in federal grant money to use strategies such as performance pay to address teacher shortages.

The U.S. Department of Education announced this week that it has awarded $114.8 million this year in Teacher and School Leader grants to 29 recipients, including Wake County, Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Montgomery County and the Raleigh-based Innovation Project.

The amount could triple over the three-year life of the grant. Recipients are supposed to develop, implement, improve, or expand comprehensive performance-based compensation systems.

This nearly $115 million investment will help states and school districts recruit and retain new talent, increase compensation, and address educator shortages that we know disproportionately impact students from our communities of color, students from low-income backgrounds, students with disabilities and English learners, U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a news release.

Performance pay is controversial because some teachers say it leads to competition instead of collaboration. But supporters say it rewards effective teachers.

The grants come as North Carolina school districts opened the school year with 3,584 teacher vacancies. Fewer students in North Carolina colleges and universities are studying to become teachers.

North Carolina grant recipients

 Wake County will get $4.6 million this year to start Project LEADERS (Leveraging Employee Advancement to Develop Excellence and Reach Success). Wake will use performance-based compensation to recruit, retain, reward, and develop well-qualified educators at 24 high-need schools.

Kristin Cubbage, a teacher at Ashley Park K-8 School in Charlotte, was one of the teachers taking part in the Opportunity Culture program in this 2015 file photo. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has won a federal grant to expand the Opportunity Culture program into more schools.

 Charlotte-Mecklenburg will get $2.8 million this year to expand the Opportunity Culture Teacher Leader Pathways program into more schools. The program pays highly effective teachers up to $18,250 extra a year to stay in the classroom while taking on additional leadership roles in their school.

 Montgomery County will get $8.3 million to start the TEAM (Teacher and Principal Effectiveness Acceleration in Montgomery) program in its 11 schools. The money will help the small rural district, located about 90 miles west of Raleigh, with activities such as hiring a more diverse teacher workforce and identifying master teachers.

 The Innovation Project will get $8.3 million this year to support its Reimagining Teaching Talent program to help support 79 schools in eight North Carolina school districts. The eight districts are Asheboro, Edgecombe County, Elizabeth City-Pasquotank, Lexington, Mount Airy, Scotland County, Vance County and Warren County.
A total of 4,771 Thai citizens have led Israel since the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist rampage.

The Thai government said that 18 of its citizens remain hostages somewhere in Gaza.

An estimated 30,000 Thai workers labored in Israel's food industry prior to the latest war.

An exodus of Thai citizens has been underway for nearly three weeks in Israel, after dozens of Thai farm workers were gunned down in the October 7 Hamas attack, and 18 Thais were abducted into Gaza. Those abducted remain in unknown conditions with many other foreigners and Israelis.

Commercial flights have evacuated 4,771 Thai citizens from Israel as of Friday, according to the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which has recommended its citizens return home as Israel's military and Hamas attack each other ahead of a looming Israeli ground offensive. These workers' departures may have a sizable impact on Israel's food industry. Many Thai workers, and some students, have opted to stay for now amid reports that some Israeli employers have increased their pay, according to the Bangkok Post.

Thirty-three Thai people died in the Oct. 7 terrorist rampage that left an estimated 1,400 people dead, and the Thai government said Friday that 18 remain hostages somewhere in Gaza after consultations with Israel, which disputed a higher count of 54 released days before. The latest estimate still makes Thailand one of the largest groups of foreigners among the 224 people suspected of being taken hostage; US officials, for example, fear 10 missing Americans may be hostages. Young children, including a 9-month-baby, and elderly grandparents are among those being held hostage.

A relative hugs a Thai overseas worker who was evacuated from Israel, on his arrival at Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Samut Prakarn Province, Thailand, Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023. Sakchai Lalit/AP Photo

Thailand's government has continued negotiations seeking the release of the hostages, including a reported effort to do so in Tehran; the Iranian regime supports Hamas with weapons and money along with other militant groups in the Middle East.

Families of the Thai citizens held hostage have struggled to get word about their loved ones, similar to their counterparts in other countries, and have pleaded for their release.

An estimated 30,000 Thai workers have labored in Israel's fields of crops like wheat and its fruit groves as part of an agreement between the countries.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Members of Nevadas congressional delegation on Friday rebuked Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips s decision to skip the states Democratic primary in his long-shot presidential campaign.

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), known for being extremely judicious with her public statements, first reprimanded Phillips on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The path to the White House runs through Nevada  a strong, diverse, pro-union state. You shouldnt run for President if youre not going to compete for Nevada voters, @deanbphillips, wrote Cortez Masto.

Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.), a member of the 2024 Biden-Harris campaign national advisory board, followed suit soon after.

Unlike Dean Phillips campaign, Joe Biden knows #WeMatter. Ethnically diverse, union strong, and decidedly pro-choice. Yes, #WeMatter! wrote Titus.

The controversy follows Phillipss Friday announcement that he will challenge President Biden for the 2024 Democratic nomination, setting his sights on New Hampshire, though the Democratic Party has set South Carolina and Nevada as the first states to vote in the process.

While Phillips technically still has time to register as a candidate in South Carolina, hes missed the deadline for Nevada.

Strategist Steve Schmidt, who is working with Phillips, said the campaign will cede Nevada, and it doesnt matter, according to Politicos Elena Schneider.

Nevadas ascension in the Democratic primary calendar is especially significant in the Hispanic political world because it gives the states Latino voters an early voice in the process; South Carolina has similar significance to Black constituencies.

Yet Phillipss focus on New Hampshire drew criticism of Phillipss respect for voters of color and his overall campaign strategy.

Senator Cortez Masto is absolutely right! It is an incredible insult and unbelievably disrespectful that Dean Phillips and his Republican campaign manager have literally said that Nevada doesnt matter, said Democratic strategist Maria Cardona in a text message.

They are saying Latino voters dont matter, black voters dont matter, Asian voters dont matter, white rural voters dont matter, and working Americans dont matter. They are clearly not in this to win, they are in this for clicks, and to get on TV.

The Hill has reached out to Phillipss campaign for comment.

Phillipss absence from two states that are emblematic of key Democratic constituencies raised questions about the campaigns seriousness.

I was approached by their campaign and made a very lucrative offer that I politely turned down. And now after seeing the way that they are demonizing Latinos in Nevada and kind of scoffing at the process in Nevada, Im really glad that I did, said Chuck Rocha, the Democratic strategist that engineered Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders win in the 2020 Nevada caucuses.

In those caucuses, Sanders beat Biden among Latino voters by a 3-to-1 margin.

That win was built on a long-term outreach plan to Nevada Latinos, which started in earnest nearly a year before the caucuses.

That plan changed the rulebook on how to activate Hispanic voters, though its lessons are sometimes ignored.

I think the campaign is starting off making the same boneheaded moves lots of Democrats do, which is thinking that only white voters matter. And as Ive said in my entire career, you walk past the Latino neighborhoods at your own peril because every year theres more of us and we vote at a higher percentage, said Rocha.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
HONOLULU (KHON)  A family was heading for Chinamans Hat island off of Oahu, Hawaii, when they saw what they thought was a log in the water.

Thats what June Mellors family thought until it moved. Then they thought it was a dog. But when they got closer, they realized it was a boar. They shot video of it as they circled.

And then we saw it moving and we thought, Goodness, that cant be a dog, is it? And we get closer because obviously its a living thing and we realize its not a dog. Its a little piggy, explained Mellor. We were just baffled looking around thinking, Where did you come from? How did you get out here?'

It was a logical question because they were probably about two miles offshore.

It took them about 40 to 45 minutes to rescue the pig as they continued circling around it.

Finally, my son was able to get a rope around her torso and we pulled her in, she said.

This is why its darker at this Honolulu beach recently

June said the family continued to a sandbar and hung out with the pig for the next two hours.

The family tried to hydrate the boar, which they named Miracle, but it was only interested in sleep.

After they returned to land, they drove the pig into a wild area of Kaneohe to set it free. Miracle perked up once its feet touched the grass.

She sniffed the ground and leaves  wiggled her tail, then disappeared into the wilderness, said Mellor.

The family is unsure how the pig ended up in the ocean, but they are glad they found her.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS.
California needs to reduce planet-warming gases  and quickly  if it is going to meet its ambitious climate targets and stave off the worst effects of global warming.

But the amount of carbon pollution released into the atmosphere by the states residents actually increased last year.

Statewide carbon emissions in 2022 were slightly higher than the previous year, preliminary estimates show. The trend, while modest, moves the state further from achieving its ambitious 2030 climate goal adopted by the California Air Resources Board.

Californias target to cut statewide emissions by 48% below 1990 levels was encouraged by Gov. Gavin Newsom , who has spent this week signing agreements with Chinese leaders aimed in part at exporting some of the states climate policies.

The governor told Politico in in Beijing that he discussed low carbon green growth with President Xi Jinping on Wednesday, and that you can grow your economy as youre decarbonizing your economy.

Long term, California has grown its economy while decreasing emissions as the state confronts extreme wildfires, storms and drought impacts of climate change. Between 2000 and 2019, according to CARB estimates, carbon emissions fell 12.3%.

But a whopping 33% drop is needed over just seven years to meet the 2030 target and, eventually, carbon neutrality by 2045. To keep pace, California would need to cut carbon pollution by roughly 16 million tonnes per year on average.

Newsoms posture as a national and global climate leader would likely help him in a widely speculated 2028 presidential run, but that reputation could be damaged if California fails to meet its own fast-approaching targets.

The disconnect is going to be very visible come 2028, said Danny Cullenward, a climate economist and vice chair of Californias independent emissions market advisory committee. Emissions are effectively flat this year and were just not inside the 2030 target.

Business-as-usual emissions estimates, he said, are indicative of a larger problem: that the Air Resources Board lacks a real implementation strategy to accomplish emissions reductions across the transportation, industrial and agricultural sectors.

The story we are telling about what we are doing to get to our goals is very disconnected from what we are actually doing, Cullenward added. We need to reset and ask What are all the complicated and difficult things you actually have to do?

Carbon emissions over the last three years dont paint a straightforward picture. The pandemic year was a notable outlier, with California spewing 9% less carbon dioxide in 2020 when COVID-19 ceased nearly all travel.

According to the preliminary figures released during the state budget process and cap-and-trade data, greenhouse gas emissions quickly rebounded in 2021 by 4% to 384 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. And 2022 continued the trend, increasing to an estimated 386 million metric tonnes.

The Air Resources board declined an interview on the emissions figures, which the board must release as part of the state budget process. CARB spokesperson Lys Mendez said the figures will be updated later this year.

Were going to meet our goals, said Alex Stack, deputy communications director for the Newsom administration. He noted that California surpassed a zero-emission truck target two years ahead of schedule.

Governor Newsom has taken unprecedented action to get there  investing tens of billions of dollars to transition to clean energy, taking action to cut pollution, and moving us away from fossil fuels.

What gets counted in these estimates? Research by Leehi Yona, a PhD candidate at Stanfords School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences, showed that California omits key emission sources from its greenhouse accounting numbers  from aviation to shipping and wildfires.

An increase in emissions is concerning in and of itself, but its also important to know that those emissions are underestimates to begin with, she said. So the fact that theyre increasing is doubly worrying, if were thinking about our progress as a state addressing climate change.

Yet other climate experts are less concerned with the slight increase in state emissions. With renewable energy costs dropping in the private marketplace and mandates to compel sales of electric vehicles, they are confident the greenhouse gas numbers will fall.

The governor also recently signed a law that would require major companies to publicly disclose all their greenhouse emissions, and filed a lawsuit against major oil companies for deceiving the public on their operations role in causing climate change.

Theres no question theres going to be continuing steady reductions, said Daniel Sperling, director of the Institute for Transportation Studies at UC Davis. Whether they happen at the pace laid out by CARB will depend on how fast utilities move toward renewable energy and how fast we go to electric vehicles.

Air Board staff first acknowledged major roadblocks to meeting the 2030 target this summer. They said relying on Californias flagship cap-and-trade program to cut emissions would drive carbon credit prices too high and carbon removal technologies wont be available in time to make up the difference.

Alberto Ayala, executive director of the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District, pointed to unseen impacts of policies local and statewide: SMUDs committment to 100% carbon-free energy by 2030, adoption of electric vehicles and massive federal climate investment.

Getting to 2030 and 2045 is going to be really hard, Ayala said.  Are we going to get there? I mean yeah, its a question. I think having some skepticism is healthy.

If youre looking at the emissions inventory right now, what youre not getting is the projected reductions once all those measures begin to see significant implementation. When you do that I think you get to carbon neutrality in 2045.
The public is being asked to avoid the hospital's emergency department

Some operations may need to be cancelled in the NHS Borders region in the following days because of a shortage of available hospital beds.

The health board is asking people to avoid Borders General Hospital's emergency department unless they are in a life-threatening condition.

All wards at the hospital are being described as under "extreme pressure".

NHS Borders said that people attending should expect to wait longer than usual.

And it warned that scheduled surgery may have to be cancelled at short notice.

In a statement it said: "The situation remains under constant review. We are working hard to minimise disruption however, there may be times where we need to cancel scheduled operations at short notice to maintain patient and staff safety.

"Taking these decisions is not easy but it can be necessary to make sure that we are able to continue vital services during challenging times."

This comes after it was recently reported that Scotland's winter death toll last year was the highest for more than 30 years.

Figures from National Records of Scotland (NRS) showed there were 24,427 deaths registered between December 2022 and March 2023 - 11% more than the previous winter and the highest since 1989-90.

Health Secretary Michael Matheson said the country faced "extremely challenging" months ahead.

The minister announced at Holyrood an additional 50m in funding for the Scottish Ambulance Service to help deal with increased demand, as well as plans to expand Hospital at Home care.

NHS Borders said people in need of medical attention should use the NHS 24 helpline on 111 as an alternative, or call 999 if their condition is immediately life-threatening.

By phoning NHS 24, if they require treatment, patients may be given an appointment time to minimise the time spent in A&E.

"Please remember that our staff are working as hard as they can and you will be seen according to clinical priority. Please be patient and polite," they added.

"We are sorry to all of our patients for any disruption to their care and appreciate how frustrating this can be."
(Bloomberg) -- Rising international tensions are giving new life to Republican Nikki Haley s presidential campaign  but so far it hasnt been enough to vault her past her onetime boss, Donald Trump .

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Haleys resume makes her the sort of candidate that the GOP establishment has historically prized. The ex-Trump administration United Nations ambassador and South Carolina governor is a predictable conservative with a warm, steady personal style worlds away from the former presidents erratic leadership.

Support for Haley, 51, had been growing since her strong showings in the first two Republican debates, pushing her into second place in New Hampshire and South Carolina and propelling her to within striking distance in Iowa, where Florida Governor Ron DeSantis  another Southern governor once seen as the most potent threat to Trump  has struggled to generate momentum. Polling also shows Haley leading President Joe Biden in head-to-head matchups.

In the nearly three weeks since the Hamas attacks in Israel, Haley has continued to pick up support, thanks to her experience with international issues, a rarity among the current GOP candidates. Haley said the crisis highlights why the US needs to have a strong presence on the world stage and financially support allies, including Israel and war-torn Ukraine.

She has the best international experience of the candidates, said Jill Gustin, a 70-year-old Republican who works in real estate in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Were a global village, and the worlds a mess. We need somebody who has the education, the foresight and hopefully the intellect to deal with world issues.

Haleys foreign policy bona fides notwithstanding, Trump still leads the field by an average of 46.5 percentage points nationally and by more than 30 points in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Trump has divided the Republican Party by appealing to voters who prefer that the US take a smaller role in global affairs following the countrys decades-long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Haley has sought to show she is engaged with how tension abroad reverberates domestically.

On Thursday, Haley posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that she would more forcefully respond to antisemitism in the US, including on college campuses, threatening to pull schools federal funding if they fail to combat antisemitism in all of its forms.

Nikki is emerging as the candidate with the toughness and character needed to keep Americans safe and put the dysfunction behind us, Haley campaign spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas said.

As UN ambassador, Haley was a strong advocate for Israel in a forum where its often isolated and denounced for its treatment of Palestinians. She helped spearhead US withdrawal from the UN Human Rights Council, calling the group hypocritical and self-serving, and was hawkish on Iran, declaring in 2017 that the fight against Iranian aggression is the worlds fight.

Haley, who is of Indian descent, draws support from voters who have struggled to find a home in the Republican party  moderates, women, people seeking a Trump alternative and those who say they have voted for Democrats in the recent past. Yet she could face an uphill climb with voters reluctant to support a woman of color, according to some GOP insiders.

There are Republicans who dont really love the idea of having more minorities, more women, in positions of power and authority, GOP strategist Liz Mair said. They sort of feel that the traditional position that older White guys have in American society is kind of waning and lapsing.

Courting Donors

As she attempts to win over Trump voters, Haley is also trying to convince donors that she has the best chance to break the former presidents hold on the party and beat Biden next November.

Haley had her most successful fundraising quarter ever from July through September  raking in more than $11 million  and her campaign has more cash on hand for the primary  $9.1 million  than any candidate except Trump, who has $36 million, according to Federal Election Commission filings. Amassing a larger war chest could better position her to take on Trump and push other candidates out of the race.

My primary motivation is weve got to get rid of Trump, weve got to get him out of the Republican party, Dan Lufkin, a co-founder of investment bank Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, said in an interview.

Lufkin, 92, started donating to Haley-affiliated political groups in 2021. Since then, he and his wife, Adrienne, have given $83,900 to Haleys political operation, including her campaign and several political action committees, according to federal records. Lufkin said he has been trying to rally other Republican donors around Haley.

If you stay on the sidelines much longer youll be facing a ballot ticket of Biden and Trump, Lufkin said. Im finding more response to Nikki now as a viable candidate.

Some well-known donors, including Citadels Ken Griffin, Blackstone Group Inc.s Steve Schwarzman and Miriam Adelson, have been sitting out the GOP presidential race so far. However, Griffin said at an investment conference in New York this week that Haley had the experience to be in the Oval Office and is one to really watch.

Read more: Billionaires Who Love DeSantis Demur as He Turns Florida Redder

Earlier this month, Haley appeared at a Park City, Utah, confab hosted by Senator Mitt Romney, the subject of a new biography that chronicles his disillusion with Trumps GOP. There, Haley urged 250 longtime Romney backers to get in the race, arguing that they would regret not supporting a candidate that could win the general election, according to a person in attendance who asked to remain anonymous to discuss a private event.

I have not been this excited about a candidate really in years, said Simone Levinson, 57, an independent who served on commissions on spending and judicial nominations under New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and moved to Florida in 2020. Its because of her record, not her rhetoric, and the results shes accomplished with her experience.

Haleys staunch support for Israel is important to Levinson, who is involved in several efforts to combat antisemitism. Shes hosted four events for Haley since 2021, and is planning another in November.

Greater Diversity

To close the double-digit polling gap with Trump, Haley also needs to woo voters wary of her positions on issues like abortion. Haley has been unwilling to promise an abortion ban she says doesnt have a realistic chance of passing in Washington. Such views have alienated some hardline conservatives.

There are a lot of people in this party that like Nikki Haley, but there are also a lot of people who absolutely despise her, said Nick Babb, 27, of Laurens, South Carolina, a DeSantis supporter who participates in his local Young Republicans chapter.

At the same time, Haley, the only woman among the top GOP candidates, has leaned into her role as a mother and military spouse in stump speeches and debates. That stands in contrast with other women in politics who have shied away from discussing gender.

The 2024 Republican primary field is the most diverse ever with Haley, Tim Scott, a Black man, and Vivek Ramaswamy, also the child of immigrants from India. The share of voters supporting Republicans has also become more diverse, according to the Pew Research Center, which found 88% of GOP voters in 2016 were White, compared with 85% in 2022. Pew also found that Trump voters are significantly more likely to say that immigrants are beneficial to American society, jumping to 32% in 2020 from 19% in 2016.

This is not your daddys Barry Goldwater Republican Party anymore, said Katon Dawson, a Haley supporter and former chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party. Its bigger. Its more diverse.

--With assistance from Stephanie Lai, Hadriana Lowenkron, Katherine Burton and Gregory Korte.

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Chile's Marco Grimalt returns the ball during a men's beach volleyball semifinal match against Brazil at the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP)  Beach volleyball players Marco and Esteban Grimalt are not famous outside of Chile, but at home the cousins are the host nation's faces of the Pan American Games. Television ads, posters in Santiago's subway and Tik Tok videos shared by adoring influencers have the two front and center.

The Grimalts failed on Thursday to defend their 2019 Pan American Games gold medal, losing 21-13, 21-17 to Brazils Andre Loyola and George Souto, a setback that upset Chilean fans nationwide.

Fans like Josefa Eli, 23, arrived at Santiago's Penalolen beach volleyball center hours before the match, a rare feature in Pan American Games competitions, for two reasons: Avoid the rush and get better seats to watch the two most popular local athletes.

They are great and they are gorgeous. Can't you see that? said Eli, who was wearing an Olympic team shirt and eating a burrito as she waited in line. She will be back to the court on Friday to see the two Pan American Games poster boys fight for bronze.

Who are these men? Eli jokingly said in a reference to Quien es ese hombre?" a song from a Chilean soap opera that has been the soundtrack of several Tik Tok videos in which Chilean teenagers and youngsters show their admiration for the volleyball players. They call themselves Grimalt Lovers.

Some tried to give the cousins their support in the battle against the Brazilians.

Marco, look at me, please!, one of them said during the first set. Esteban, you can do it, mi amor. I know that! another supporter screamed. Such fan loyalty is not common in beach volleyball, a sport in which some duos break apart after a few years.

The Grimalt cousins share an Instagram account with almost 120,000 followers, another rare feature in the sport, even less so for athletes who have never come close to Olympic glory.

The cousins clearly understood they had lost to a better rival  the Brazilian duo is ranked 5th in the world, while the Chileans are ranked 22nd. But losing at home was painful to them.

There's too much information to look at right after you lose, Marco Grimalt said. We try not to repeat today's mistakes tomorrow and get the bronze.

Esteban Grimalt said he is counting on fans to remain excited for the third-place match.

The tickets to our matches were the first ones to sell out. We will fight for a medal tomorrow, that's what matters. We feel their support to get the bronze, perform well, he said.

Despite the defeat, the faces of the Grimalt cousins will continue to decorate venues and ads of the Pan American Games until Nov. 5. And more Tik Tok videos of them are likely to come.

___

AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Friday denied tensions between the government and the Berlusconi family's Mediaset TV group after it broadcast off-air sexist comments from her partner which played a part in their separation.

"The relations between the government and Mediaset are the (normal) relations between the government and a large Italian company," she told reporters after a meeting of European Union leaders in Brussels.

Mediaset is part of the MFE-MediaForEurope group owned by the heirs of the late Silvio Berlusconi, a former prime minister whose Forza Italia party is a Meloni coalition ally.

Meloni broke up with Andrea Giambruno, the father of her daughter, after a Mediaset satirical show broadcast off-air video clips last week in which he used foul language and appeared to make advances to a female colleague.

Giambruno also hosted his own news programme with Mediaset, Italy's leading commercial TV operator.

Italian newspapers reported Meloni was upset with Mediaset after it screened the videos, sparking fears among investors that the issue risked damaging the relationship between MFE and Meloni's administration.

Meloni dismissed such reports as speculation and also denied any rift with Antonio Tajani , the foreign minister who took the reins of the Forza Italia after Silvio Berlusconi died in June.

"There are no problems between me and Tajani, there are no problems with Mediaset either," she said.

Marina Berlusconi, the late tycoon's eldest daughter who together with her brother Pier Silvio has assumed effective control of the family business empire, in recent days also dismissed the reports and said she held Meloni in high esteem.

(Reporting by Angelo Amante; Editing by Keith Weir)
The Black Mens Flower Project delivers surprise bouquets to men of color to foster a sense of community and bolster mental health.

A bouquet of delicate flowers may seem out of place when given to a Black man.

The Black Mens Flower Project wants to change that.

The Black Mens Flower Project gives bouquets to Black men as a way of fostering community. (AdobeStock)

The nonprofit organization gives out bouquets to men of color to foster a sense of community, help them deal with mental health issues, and confront the outdated norms of Black male masculinity.

The project began in 2017 and relaunched in 2023, according to its website. Robert Washington-Vaughns founded the group in partnership with John Pendleton, the florist-owner of Chicagos Planks and Pistils.

Black men are suffering, co-founder John Pendleton told People. Flowers have been a healing space for me. I want other Black men to experience that.

Washington-Vaughns knows firsthand about the challenges some Black men are facing. He told People he underwent extensive therapy for depression and anxiety. To help his mental health, he spent time in nature.

I felt like I just wanted to end it all, he told People. I didnt think I had anybody I could reach out to. Everybody was going to tell me to toughen up.

Flowers show appreciation, respect, and bring a smile to someone who needs it. (Adobe Stock)

The toughen up advice would be a hallmark of toxic masculinity, a term associated with men suppressing emotions and acting tough. Research shows that Black men become socially conditioned to be hard, especially in the face of the everyday slights, suspicion, and racism they face.

The project has a simple message  its OK for one Black man to send another flowers to show appreciation, respect, and help bring a smile to someone who needs it.

Men of color can nominate someone to receive flowers using the form on the projects website. The group uses four Black-owned flower shops to distribute its bouquets  120 this year, so far  hoping to eventually expand its reach nationwide.

Jonathan Isaiah Smith, an HVAC company owner in Columbus, Ohio, told People the surprising impact of receiving flowers.

When I received the flowers, it was a warmth I never felt before, Smiths said. Ive bought flowers for years, for funerals or [for] a woman, but to receive them  I felt loved. To this day, I try to make sure I keep some flowers around for myself.

If you or someone close to you is struggling with mental health or considering self-harm, please contact the SAMHSA National Helpline, 1-800-662-HELP (4357) or TTY: 1-800-487-4889 for confidential, free, 24-hour-a-day, 365-day-a-year support.

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The post Nonprofit gives men their flowers, targeting toxic masculinity and mental health issues appeared first on TheGrio.
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said on Saturday it was the "steadfast will" of Pyongyang to expand ties with Russia, criticising a recent condemnation by the United States and its allies on Pyongyang's suspected arms deliveries to Russia as politicised and distorted.

North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui denounced military cooperation between the U.S., South Korea and Japan, and said Pyongyang's relations with Moscow will act as a "powerful strategic" element if security in the region is endangered.

The United States, South Korea and Japan on Thursday strongly condemned the suspected supply of arms and military equipment by North Korea to Russia, saying they had confirmed "several" deliveries of such weapons.

Russia and North Korea have denied that arms are being transferred from the North for use in Russia's war against Ukraine.

"If they were curious to prove that the specific sphere of cooperation between the DPRK and Russia posed a 'threat' to international peace and security, they should have to clarify beforehand why their triangular military alliance is not regarded as a threat to regional peace and security," Choe said in a statement carried by the North's KCNA news agency.

The United States, South Korea and Japan have been stepping up trilateral security cooperation to counter the North's growing nuclear and missile threats

North Korea and Russia pledged closer military cooperation when their leaders met in September in Russia's far east. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un this month and discussed implementing the agreements reached at the summit.

"It is the steadfast will and stand of the DPRK to comprehensively expand and develop the bilateral relations with the Russian Federation," Choe said, adding that their ties will reach a "new higher phase through full implementation of the agreements." DPRK are the initials of the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

(Reporting by Soo-hyang Choi, Ju-min Park; Editing by Chris Reese and Sandra Maler)
LAS VEGAS (KLAS)  Police have made an arrest in a stabbing after a man was killed in North Las Vegas on Tuesday.

Leo Paredes, 34, was arrested on Oct. 26 and faces an open murder charge.

The stabbing happened on Oct. 24, at 5:30 a.m. near Owens Avenue and Stocker Street. North Las Vegas police officers found a man believed to be in his mid-30s injured from a stab wound. After being taken to a hospital the man was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Through the investigation, North Las Vegas police detectives identified Paredes as the suspect in the case.

On Thursday, Paredes was located and arrested by Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department patrol officers near Bonanza Road and F Street.

North Las Vegas homicide detectives booked Paredes into the North Las Vegas Community Correctional Center for open murder with a deadly weapon.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS.
LAS VEGAS (KLAS)  The North Las Vegas Police Department is asking for the publics help with any information they may have regarding two shootings that appear to be targeting a residence in the northeast valley.

The first shooting took place on Aug. 18 at 11:24 p.m. and the second shooting took place on Oct. 25 at 3:01 a.m. in the area of Centennial Parkway and Lawrence Street near Losee Road.

Police are also asking residents in the area to check their home security cameras for video footage related to the incidents.

This embedded content is not available in your region.

Anyone who may have information about this crime is urged to contact the North Las Vegas Police Department by phone at 702-633-9111. To remain anonymous, contact Crime Stoppers by phone at 702-385-5555, or online at crimestoppersofnv.com.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS.
A North Texas man pleaded guilty Friday to felony charges, including assaulting an officer, in the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Columbia said in a news release.

Jason Farris, 45, of Arlington, admitted to assaulting, resisting and interfering with law enforcement officers. He also admitted to the use of force and that the assault involved physical contact with the victim or intent to commit another felony, according to the release.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson scheduled Farris sentencing hearing for Feb. 23.

Farris traveled to Washington, D.C., to attend the Stop the Steal rally at the Ellipse at the U.S. Capitol, according to court documents. Following the rally, he marched with other protesters to the Capitol building. He also joined a mob on the West Plaza of the Capitol, an area restricted from public access, according to the release.

U.S. Capitol and Metropolitan Police officers lawfully attempted to maintain a police line to prevent the mob from advancing further into the restricted area of the Capitol, the release said.

Farris proceeded toward a line of officers who were using metal bicycle racks as a barricade to prevent rioters from advancing and he stood in front of officers, insulting them with a slur, and hit an officers baton, according to the release.

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In the mobs attempt to pull the bicycle rack away from the line of police, Farris approached an officer from behind and shoved him with both hands, knocking him to the ground and forcing the officer to let go of the rack.

Other rioters carried the rack into a crowd and the incident was captured on video, according to the release.

Farris proceeded with other members of the mob to the Upper West Terrace of the Capitol building, where he climbed onto a window-washing platform, which ascended to the side of the building. He then used a flagpole to hit a window of the Capitol building several times, the release said.

After coming down from the window-washing platform, he entered the Capitol building, where he stayed inside for a short amount of time, Farris admitted.

He was arrested on Feb. 8, 2023, in Texas.

The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Columbia and the Department of Justice National Security Divisions Counterterrorism Section. The U.S. Attorneys Office for the Northern District of Texas also assisted in the case.

The case is being investigated by the FBIs Dallas Field Office and the FBIs Washington Field Office, which identified Farris.

In the 33 months since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 1,100 individuals have been charged in almost all 50 states for crimes related to the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, including more than 400 people charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office.
Most of Northern California is facing fire weather conditions this weekend, according to the National Weather Service.

The agency issued a red flag warning on Friday for a large portion of Northern California, extending from Eureka to Sacramento to Modesto to the Bay Area, due to gusty northerly and easterly winds, as well as low humidity, leading to an increased risk of fire danger. The highest threat, according to the warning, is along the west side of the Sacramento Valley.

The warning goes into effect at 5 a.m. Saturday to 5 p.m. Sunday.

The agency previously issued a fire weather watch for parts of Northern California, including Sacramento, Stockton, Modesto, Chico and Redding. It also issued a wind advisory from 8 a.m. Saturday to 2 p.m. Sunday.

North-to-east winds are expected to top to 25 mph with gusts up to 45 mph.

Areas not under a red flag warning, mainly along the Sierra foothills, remain part of a wind advisory through 2 p.m. Sunday for winds between 20 and 30 mph with gusts to 45 mph or higher, especially in higher elevations and through gaps and canyons.

A Fire Weather Watch has been issued for early Saturday morning - Sunday afternoon for gusty north to east winds and low relative humidity for much of the Valley and adjacent terrain. Be sure to practice fire weather safety this weekend! #CAwx



Forecast: https://t.co/WjKBsJmSfA pic.twitter.com/2ult7zObPf  NWS Sacramento (@NWSSacramento) October 26, 2023

The weather service advises people to practice fire prevention methods, such as avoiding burning outdoors, steering clear of equipment that causes sparks, not parking on dry grass and discarding cigarettes properly.

Will it be hot this weekend?

Despite the fire weather warning, temperatures in Sacramento will be cool for the weekend.

Fridays high temperature in the capital city is expected to be around 66 degrees with lows around 42. Highs for Saturday and Sunday are forecast to be between 68 and 70 degrees, followed by overnight lows near 49 on Saturday night and 40 on Sunday night.

What do you want to know about life in Sacramento? Ask our service journalism team your top-of-mind questions in the module below or email servicejournalists@sacbee.com.
The force will use its drones for various events

Northumbria Police is about to start using eight drones as "eyes in the sky" to tackle crime.

The force's Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Kim McGuinness said the devices would be available at all times, with two of the drones able to fly in challenging weather conditions.

Initially three officers have had pilot training, with a further 16 expected to be ready by the end of November.

Ms McGuinness said it was "important" to find new ways "to fight crime".

"This is just a small start, but it means we will have the ability to use technology to support officers and take on criminals," said Ms McGuinness.

"These eyes in the sky will make a real difference in everything from catching criminals to improving safety at events, with intelligence-led policing at its heart.

"We've seen in other forces their use grow and I think that will become a feature of policing here as well."

Ms McGuinness said the drones would be used force-wide from the end of November

She told the Local Democracy Reporting Service the force would be able to fully use the drones from the end of next month for various events.

Members of a Police and Crime Panel at Gateshead Civic Centre heard that Ms McGuinness wanted to have them in place sooner but the force had to make sure it had the right "training, licensing and relevant certifications in place".

A drone has already been tried by officers in a joint operation earlier this year with British Transport Police, to track off-road bike riders in Northumberland.

Newcastle Lib Dem councillor Peter Lovatt told the meeting having drones follow illegal bikes was an "excellent idea".

While Gordon Stewart, a Conservative councillor in Prudhoe, said he was "delighted" with the initiative.

The force does not currently engage in chases with anti-social and illegal bikes due to the dangers of doing so - to the riders, officers and the passing public.

The chief constable of Northumbria Police, Vanessa Jardine, said earlier this month that the use of drones was a "huge opportunity".

Follow BBC North East & Cumbria on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.
Joseph Emerson, left, 44, stands with his lawyer, Ethan Levi, during his arraignment in Portland, Ore., on Thursday after allegedly trying to disable a jet airliner in midflight. His wife defended Emerson, saying this is not the kind of thing her husband would do. (Dave Killen / The Oregonian)

The wife of the Alaska Airlines pilot accused of attempting to shut down the engines on a plane flying from Seattle to San Francisco said the husband she knew would not commit the alleged crime, according to local outlets.

"This is not my Joe. This is not any Joe that anybody knows, said Sarah Stretch, the wife of longtime Alaska Airlines pilot Joseph Emerson, according to Oregon Live. I cant explain it but it just wasnt him.

Stretch's comments came Thursday after Emerson had his first appearance in U.S. District Court in Portland. His attorneys did not immediately seek Emerson's release and he was ordered held pending a trial.

Emerson was off duty and flying in the cockpit "jump seat" on a Horizon Airlines flight from Seattle to San Francisco on Sunday when he suddenly told the two on-duty pilots, "I am not OK," according to federal prosecutors.

Read more: Off-duty pilot booked on 83 counts of attempted murder after allegedly trying to shut down plane's engines

Emerson grabbed the plane's red fire emergency handles, which are used to put out engine fires and shut down fuel to the engines, according to prosecutors. The two pilots wrestled with Emerson and were able to get him out of the cockpit. He was cuffed by flight attendants and the plane made an emergency landing in Portland, where Emerson was arrested.

Emerson told investigators that he had taken psychedelic mushrooms about 48 hours prior to the flight and that he was suffering from depression for the last six months, according to court documents. He also said he had not slept in 40 hours.

Emerson's attorney thanked the crew on the flight for their timely and heroic actions, according to Oregon Live.

"Mr. Emerson did not intend to harm himself or any other person, his attorney, Ethan Levi, told reporters after court. He was not suicidal or homicidal.

During his court appearance, Emerson turned to his family and whispered, "I love you," according to Oregon Live.

Read more: Flight attendants claim United took them off Dodgers' charter flights for not being 'white, young, thin'

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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Chinese Premier Li Qiang attends the 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Oct. 26, 2023. [Photo/Xinhua]

Looking back at the founding aspiration of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), its members were brought together to ensure that regional affairs are decided by regional countries through consultation, without interference from those outside the region, Chinese Premier Li Qiang said Thursday.

During his speech at the 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the SCO Member States, Li called for jointly building a security barrier in the region and resolutely resisting external interference.

In his speech, Li said the SCO summit in July this year further reached important consensus, and identified key tasks on carrying forward the Shanghai Spirit and building a closer SCO community with a shared future, adding that China is willing to work with all parties to implement the spirit of the summit.

At the Samarkand summit last year, President Xi Jinping stressed the necessity to uphold political trust, win-win cooperation, equality between nations, openness and inclusiveness and equity and justice, which is the key to the success of the SCO's development and growth, Li added.

Looking forward to the future, SCO members should keep in mind the founding aspiration and uphold the key to success, Li said, stressing that guided by the vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind, SCO members should work together and make mutual achievements, advance cooperation in various fields in a solid way, and inject more certainty and positive energy into peace and development of the region and the world.

Li offered four proposals on deepening SCO cooperation. First, the SCO members should jointly solidify regional security barrier, firmly reject external interference, improve the organization's mechanism of coping with security threats and challenges as soon as possible, and crack down on the "three forces" of terrorism, separatism and extremism as well as transnational organized crimes.

Second, SCO members should jointly promote the speedy economic recovery, cooperate to build safe and efficient transportation systems, continuously promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, and maintain steady and smooth industrial supply chains.

Third, the members should jointly enhance the Belt and Road cooperation. The third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation has been successfully held, and the Belt and Road has become the most popular international public goods and the largest international cooperation platform in the past 10 years.

The SCO members should reinforce the alignment of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation with the member states' respective development strategies, push forward the construction of major economic corridors, and develop well the SCO Development Bank.

Fourth, the SCO member states should jointly promote the understanding and amity among their people, and continue to deepen cooperation in areas including education, culture and tourism, and sports.

Leaders including Kazakh Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Tajik Prime Minister Kokhir Rasulzoda, Uzbek Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov, Iran's First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber, Indian foreign minister, Pakistani foreign minister attended the meeting, together with Belarusian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko and Mongolian Prime Minister Luvsannamsrai Oyun-Erdene, leaders of two observer states. Kyrgyz Prime Minister Akylbek Japarov hosted the meeting.

The SCO is committed to carrying forward the Shanghai Spirit, said participants of the meeting, adding that since its founding 22 years ago, the SCO has continuously developed, with its global influence ever increasing.

They agreed to implement the consensus reached at the meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO, jointly combat the "three forces" of terrorism, separatism and extremism and transnational organized crimes, strengthen cooperation in such areas as economy and trade, transportation, agriculture, energy, finance, high and new technology, environmental protection and green development, promote Belt and Road cooperation, improve infrastructure connectivity, and deepen people-to-people exchanges in such fields as tourism and education.

They also agreed to strengthen institutional building of the SCO, practice true multilateralism, jointly safeguard regional security and promote regional prosperity, and help make the international system more inclusive and sustainable.

The Chinese premier and other leaders of the SCO member states attending the meeting signed and issued a joint communique, and approved a series of SCO cooperation documents and resolutions on economy and trade, railways and institution building, among other areas.
FILE - Law enforcement officers hold rifles while investigating a scene, in Bowdoin, Maine, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. On Friday, Oct. 27, The Associated Press reported on stories circulating online incorrectly claiming an aerial video of a man lying on his stomach in the middle of a road, being detained by authorities, shows police arresting Maine shooting suspect Robert Card. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts:

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A video circulating online doesnt show the arrest of a suspect in the Maine mass shooting

CLAIM: An aerial video of a man lying on his stomach in the middle of a road, being detained by authorities, shows police arresting Maine mass shooting suspect Robert Card.

THE FACTS: While the video, which began circulating Wednesday night after the shootings, shows someone being detained in Lewiston, Maine, it doesnt show Card. Officials said at a press conference the next morning that Card was still at large. Hundreds of heavily armed police and FBI agents searched for Card on Friday morning as residents in the area stayed close to home. Card, a U.S. Army reservist, is wanted in the fatal shootings of at least 18 people at a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston, the worst mass killing in the state's history. The clip, which was filmed at night from a building overlooking a street, shows authorities instructing a man in the middle of the street to lay on the ground and not move. MAINE SHOOTER HAS BEEN ARRESTED KNOWN AS ROBERT CARD, reads a post on X that shared the video. It had received approximately 3,600 likes and been shared about 2,200 times as of Friday. Local and state police have not responded to messages seeking additional comment on the misrepresented video. Comparisons with Google Maps images confirm the video was filmed across from the Lewiston Public Library, on Pine Street between Park Alley and Lisbon Street. A longer video that shows the same incident from a different angle also circulated online Wednesday night. It includes the screen name of a TikTok user who has previously posted content from the same location, although the video of this incident had been removed from their account Thursday. The longer video shows that after authorities detained the man in the street, the situation appeared to de-escalate. The man was helped up and moved to sit in one of the librarys large, storefront windows, and most of the officers walked away.

 Associated Press writer Melissa Goldin in New York contributed this report.

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A black flag over Irans Imam Reza shrine isnt a war cry. It represents mourning for Gaza victims

CLAIM: A major mosque in Iran raised a black flag to call Muslims to war over Israels attacks on Gaza.

THE FACTS: The Imam Reza shrine said the flag was raised as a symbol of mourning for the lives lost in Israels strikes on Gaza, and experts on Islam and Iran confirmed the flag includes a passage from the Quran that is meant to comfort Muslims that their sacrifices will one day be rewarded. Social media users are sharing the false claim alongside images and videos of the black flag flying over the distinctive gold dome of the shrine  a major pilgrimage site for Shiite Muslims in Irans northeast that includes a mosque, library and other institutions. Others claimed the black flag and its Farsi inscription was meant to herald the coming of the Mahdi, the final leader believed to appear at the end of times to lead Muslim people. But the black flag isnt a call for war, and neither the flags text nor the shrines statement about the banner references the coming of the Mahdi or the end of time. In fact, an announcement on the shrines English-language Facebook page on Oct. 17 specifically describes it as a mourning flag that was raised in response to the deadly blast that rocked a hospital in Hamas-controlled Gaza that day. In an unprecedented gesture and by the order of the custodian of Astan Quds Razavi, the black flag has been hoisted above the illuminated and pure Razavi dome, and drum beating will not be played tomorrow, the post said, including #sorrow #mourning #sadness #grief and other hashtags. Islamic and Iranian experts confirmed the flag includes a line from the Quran roughly translated as help from Allah and an imminent victory or conquest from Allah and victory is near. That phrase isnt traditionally used to declare war, but meant to bring comfort and hope to those struggling or engaged in battle that their sacrifice is not in vain and that Allah will grant them victory eventually, they said. Hamid Dabashi, professor of Iranian Studies at Columbia University in New York, said the Quranic verse, in the context of the shrines Facebook post, means solidarity with the Palestinian cause and not an outright declaration of war against Israel. To me it says nothing more than the obvious: the ruling government in Iran supports Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, he wrote in an email. Nothing more, nothing less. The Middle East Media Research Institute, a Washington-based think tank founded by Israeli analysts, agreed, noting that Islamic militants tend to use a different passage from the Quran when declaring war.

 Associated Press writer Philip Marcelo in New York contributed this report.

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Video of Kim Jong Un doesnt reference the Israel-Hamas war. The clip is old and mistranslated

CLAIM: A video shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un saying in a speech that he blames President Joe Biden for the latest Israel-Hamas war.

THE FACTS: The video is from 2020 and the version currently circulating online features incorrect English captions. The footage actually shows Kim celebrating the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Korean Workers Party; he doesnt reference the conflict in the Middle East or Biden at any point. In the misleading video circulating online, the English captions claim Kim says: Under the Biden administration, conflicts erupt yearly. This year a war begins between Israel and Palestine. Im afraid that if the Biden admin does not cease to exist in the next election, World War 3 may begin, the captions continue. Who knows what next years war will be. I support Donald Trump for President in 2024. Good Luck to Mr. Trump. The video was shared on Instagram and TikTok, where one post garnered more than 223,000 likes. However, the video is old and the captions are completely inaccurate. Clips and images from the same speech can be seen in news reports from October 2020 about an event celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Korean Workers Party. A transcript of the full speech translated to English by The National Committee on North Korea, a U.S.-based organization, does not mention anything about the Israel-Hamas war nor the 2024 U.S. presidential race. Multiple Korean speakers and an expert who reviewed the portion of the speech circulating online also confirmed Kim says nothing of the sort in the footage. Instead, Kim thanks his people and his military, saying: The patriotic and heroic commitment shown by our Peoples Army soldiers on the unexpected frontlines of epidemic prevention and natural disaster recovery this year is something that evokes tears of gratitude from everyone. Ji-Young Lee, a professor of Korean Studies at American University who confirmed the captions are inaccurate, noted that the surprise attack on Israel by Hamas militants did create concerns in South Korea about a similar assault from the North.

 Associated Press writer Karena Phan in Los Angeles contributed this report.

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Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck

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Follow @APFactCheck on Twitter: https://twitter.com/APFactCheck
Palestinians look at the destruction after Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip in Khan Younis, Saturday, Now. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

JERUSALEM (AP)  The latest Israel-Hamas war has quickly become the deadliest and most destructive of the five wars fought between the sides since Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007 from the Palestinian Authority.

The fighting erupted on Oct. 7 when Hamas carried out a bloody attack in southern Israel. Since then, Israel has relentlessly pounded the Gaza Strip with airstrikes that have wrought unprecedented destruction, flattening entire neighborhoods.

Heres a look in numbers at the toll of the war as of Nov. 4, sourced from the Gaza Health Ministry and Israeli officials, as well as international observers and aid groups:

9,227

Number of Palestinians killed in Gaza

144

Number of Palestinians killed in West Bank

1,400

Number of people killed in Israel

24

Number of Israeli soldiers killed since the start of the ground offensive

23,516

Number of Palestinians injured in Gaza

2,200

Number of Palestinians injured in the West Bank

5,400

Number of Israelis injured

250,000

Number of Israelis displaced

Over 1.4 million

Number of Palestinians displaced in Gaza

At least 241

Soldiers and civilians being held hostage in Gaza

5

Hostages released or rescued

421

Aid trucks let into Gaza

33,960

Residential units destroyed in Gaza

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Sources: Associated Press reports, Gaza Health Ministry, Israeli military, U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Palestinian Red Crescent.
[Source]

Nvidia CEO and co-founder Jensen Huang , whose net worth is currently valued at $36 billion, recently expressed that the emotional toll of entrepreneurship is something he would rather not go through again.

Harder than anticipated: In a revealing interview on the investment podcast "Acquired," Huang responded to a hypothetical question about starting a new company in 2023 with a startling admission: "I wouldn't do it." He explained that building Nvidia had been "a million times harder" than he and his co-founders had anticipated.

"At that time, if we realized the pain and suffering and just how vulnerable you're going to feel, and the challenges that you're going to endure, the embarrassment, and the shame. You know the list of all the things that go wrong, I don't think anybody would start a company. Nobody in their right mind would do it. "

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The entrepreneur's superpower: Despite the immense difficulties many business owners face, Huang shared an insight into the mindset of successful entrepreneurs. He pointed out that the "superpower" of successful entrepreneurs is their ability to underestimate the hardships and ask, "How hard can it be?" This self-deception, Huang suggested, is necessary to keep going. He humorously admitted that he still tricks his brain into thinking the journey isn't as hard as it is.

Huang's wealth and Nvidia's dominance: The 60-year-old entrepreneur has helped propel Nvidia's dominance in the computer gaming chip market and its crucial role in producing complex chips for AI model training. The recent boom in artificial intelligence has further boosted Huang's fame and fortune. Forbes estimates Huang has a net worth of $36.3 billion.

Importance of a support system: When asked about coping with the emotional trauma of building a company, Huang stressed the importance of a strong support system, comprising family, friends, and committed colleagues. He cited the loyalty and unwavering support of those who have been with him on the Nvidia journey for decades. Huang shared his belief that CEOs and companies are built by humans, and that the challenges facing them are difficult to endure.

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Nvidia's future: Huang addressed the market opportunity in technology, highlighting Nvidia's transition from being a chip company to an AI company. He discussed the transformative potential of AI, estimating that the market's size is measured in trillions. In Huang's view, the technology industry is evolving, and the separation from traditional chip manufacturing positions companies like Nvidia for significant growth.

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Nvidia CEO worth $36 billion: 'Pain and suffering' of entrepreneurship not worth it
A multistate manhunt was underway Thursday for an Army reservist suspected of being the gunman behind the massacre in a Maine community that left 18 people dead.

Robert Card, 40, who was initially identified as a person of interest in the Lewiston shootings, is now a murder suspect, Maine Gov. Janet Mills said. Hundreds of investigators and officers from up and down the Eastern Seaboard are searching for the gunman who also injured 13 people in the shooting rampage Wednesday.

"Mr. Card is considered armed and dangerous," Mills said at a news conference. "Police advise that Maine people should not approach him under any circumstances."

While the Maine State Police were spearheading the search for Card, the FBI, U.S. Marshals, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and police departments from Boston to New York City were also lending a hand.

Meanwhile, a shelter-in-place order remained in place in Lewiston, as well as in the nearby towns of Lisbon and Bowdoin.

Card is from Bowdoin, and police there expanded their search into the surrounding woods and countryside of the largely rural community.

Law enforcement officers gather outside Lewiston High School, Maine on Oct. 26, 2023. (Joseph Prezioso / AFP - Getty Images)

Just 29 people died by homicide all of last year in Maine, according to state records.

This attack strikes at the very heart of who we are, Mills said, adding that she had spoken about the unfolding tragedy twice with President Joe Biden and members of his Cabinet. This is a dark day for Maine.

State Police Col. William Ross said that officers are in the early stages of a homicide investigation but that they have already located a vehicle connected to Card at a boat landing in Lisbon, which is about 8 miles southeast of Lewiston.

Currently there is an arrest warrant for eight counts of murder for Mr. Card, Ross said, adding that once the 10 other victims are officially identified, the number of murder counts is likely to increase.

Asked whether authorities had any idea where Card was hiding, Maine Public Safety Commissioner Mike Sauschuck said no.

Were actively searching for him, Sauschuck told reporters. We dont know his location, and Ill leave it at that.

But they may have a clue: A note was found at the suspect's home during a search with a warrant, four senior law enforcement officials said.

Right now, investigators are trying to determine the meaning of the note and how it could guide their investigation, the officials said.

Robert J. Louden, a professor emeritus of criminal justice at Georgian Court University in New Jersey and a retired chief hostage negotiator for the New York Police Department, said a manhunt like this one is complicated because there are several possibilities about what might have happened with Card.

"Its like a spiders web going out, and youve got to follow all those pieces of the web, he said.

Louden laid out four potential scenarios that law enforcement are most likely considering: "He killed himself. He got on a boat and went down that little river thats there. He went into another car or motorcycle or something that was waiting for him. Or theres a hiking trail. He could be in the woods someplace."

Lewiston is home to Bates College, a small liberal arts college with 1,800 students, which went on lockdown when the shootings were first reported around 7 p.m. Wednesday and continued to be on lockdown as the search for Card was underway.

Freshman Jasmine Gray said that she hasn't left her dorm room since the shooting was reported and that she's all alone because her roommate is trapped in another dorm by the lockdown.

"I didnt think this was going to happen my first year of college," said Gray, who is from Atlanta. "Its just something that just doesnt happen in Maine, because its so safe."

Locals were rattled, too.

A man who asked not to be identified said a friend called him as he was heading to work and warned him law enforcement was searching for the suspect in his neck of the woods.

"I rushed back home to batten down the hatches and take out some protection," he said, referring to the multiple AR-15 rifles and handguns his family owns. "We were not standing directly in the windows but were peeking out to make sure no one was coming close to the house who could put my family in danger."

Kaitlin Guy, who lives in Lisbon, was also openly carrying while the manhunt was going on.

Its just unsafe, and I just want to be cautious just in case, you know  you never know, he could come up, and I just want to be prepared, she said. Usually I have it in my bedside. I do it mostly for my child because, just for his safety, thats what I care about most.

Card is a petroleum supply specialist in the Army Reserve who enlisted in December 2002 and has never been in combat.

Phil McGregor, who lives in Lewiston and is a member of the Army National Guard, said that doesn't make him any less dangerous.

"He knows warfare; he understands it, " said McGregor, who said Card trained him how to fire an M16 rifle a decade ago. "He may not have ever been deployed, but hes smart. He knows what to do."

Card also appears to be deeply troubled. A bulletin put out by the Maine Information and Analysis Center, a database for law enforcement officials, said Card recently reported mental health issues to include hearing voices and threats to shoot up the National Guard Base in Saco, ME.

Card was armed with an AR-15-style rifle when, police said, he killed six men and a woman at the Just-In-Time bowling alley and then murdered eight men at Schemengees Bar and Grille. Both are in Lewiston.

Police said the three other victims died at a hospital, but they didn't specify where they had been mortally wounded. Nor did they say how many of the hospitalized victims were in critical condition.

Ross released a timeline of whats likely to be one of the deadliest mass shootings this year in the U.S.

The first indication police got that a massacre was underway in Lewiston came at 6:56 p.m. Wednesday, when the police communications center across the Androscoggin River in the town of Auburn was alerted that a man had walked into the bowling alley and opened fire.

Multiple 911 calls followed the first alert, police said.

Then, at 7:08 p.m., the Auburn Communications Center received multiple calls that a man had gone into Schemengees Bar and Grille Restaurant in Lewiston and begun shooting.

Card this year legally bought the assault rifle-style weapon believed to have been used in the shooting, two senior law enforcement officials briefed on the matter said.

Asked how a man who had been hospitalized over the summer for mental issues was able to get his hands on a high-powered weapon, Sauschuck said that was "a valid question, but this is not something we can answer now."

Card was no stranger to guns, neighbors said. And he was both an avid hunter and a threatening presence in the area, they said.

The family and Robert, theyre all gun fanatics, local resident Liam Kent said. For all intents and purposes, they are very much associated with right-wing militias. Its known in the town to stay away from them and not approach them.

To honor the shooting victims, Biden issued a proclamation ordering that flags at the White House and all other federal installations be lowered to half-staff for the next five days.

Mills did the same in her state. And Maine's best-known retailer, L.L. Bean, announced that it was closing its stores, manufacturing facilities and corporate headquarters for now.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Sonar, helicopters, divers anddams are among the resources expected to be deployed as law enforcement officers continue their hunt for for Robert Card, the 40-year-old suspected of carrying out Wednesday nights massacre in Lewiston, Maine, that has left 18 people dead and several still hospitalized.

A local shelter-in-place order remained in effect Friday, shuttering schools and businesses as dozens of local, county, state and federal law enforcement officials worked around the clock.

How long it might take is anyones guess. Maine Public Safety Commissioner Mike Sauschuck announced in a press conference that officials would hold regular 10 a.m. media briefings to go over what happened overnight and share details on that days search plan.

Theres going to be times when I wont be able to give you all the information that you need or that you want, Sauschuck told reporters. There are safety concerns that I have for our first responders and that we all have for our community members.

Law enforcement is working to assess more than 500 leads received so far, he said, with help from the FBI.

Police activity would be concentrated Friday in a handful of areas, particularly the bend along the Androscoggin River where Card may have kept a boat. State police have said that Cards white SUV was found abandoned by a boat launch in Lisbon Falls; he also has two watercraft registered in his name, one being a 1989 Bayliner.

It remains unclear whether Card is dead or alive, on land or somewhere along the states thousands of miles of tidal coastline. Canadian border authorities have also been put on alert for Card.

The very first thing that youre going to see out there, Sauschuck said, gesturing to a map of the river, is youre going to see some air resources that will fly over this particular area, and theyre looking to see what can we clear from the air. Do I have to put divers in that particular area, or can I tell from the top, based on the current and how muddy the water is, and all these other things, can I see to the very bottom here?

He continued, Then theres going to be some screening and divers that are actually in the water. That search is expected to start by the Lisbon Falls boat launch and likely move south across the river to include a ground search on the opposite bank.

A member of law enforcement walks with a police dog outside a property on Meadow Road in Bowdoin, Maine, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. Hundreds of heavily armed police and FBI agents searched intensely for Robert Card, an Army reservist authorities say fatally shot a number of people at a bowling alley and a bar Wednesday.

A member of law enforcement walks with a police dog outside a property on Meadow Road in Bowdoin, Maine, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. Hundreds of heavily armed police and FBI agents searched intensely for Robert Card, an Army reservist authorities say fatally shot a number of people at a bowling alley and a bar Wednesday.

While some outlets reported Card leaving a note, Sauschuck declined to address its contents. CNN reported that the note indicated Card did not expect to be found alive.

The river search teams can be dragging the diver behind them, literally, while that diver is checking for evidence, checking for potential bodies, Sauschuck said.

Some will use sonar in the form of a remote-operated aquatic vehicle that looks like a pod under the water, he said, to help differentiate a log, for example, from a potential piece of evidence.

I would also say that while this is going to look like a major focus today with a lot of people, we have a lot of other irons in the fire, he added.

A huge flurry of police activity outside a home owned by a relative of Cards in Bowdoin, Maine, prompted speculation Thursday evening that law enforcement might have been closing in on their suspect. Video of the scene showed officers using a loudspeaker to order anyone inside to come out with their hands in the air.

Sauschuck appeared to address the speculation Friday morning, saying that announcements over a PA system do not mean authorities have pinned down the suspect in an armed standoff.

Its just a lot of resources that it takes to work these scenes, he said, noting that officials treat locations of interest like the Bowdoin home as if the suspect could be inside and armed.

Sauschuck said there were a bunch of other scenes that authorities planned to search, as well.

Were going to be all over the place, he said.

Some searches might involve armored vehicles, while others are made up of officers walking shoulder-to-shoulder. (Some of those are going to be tactical ground searches versus the standard line search or grid search, Sauschuck said.)

Sauschuck noted that the Brookfield Power Company has been helping by working with authorities to manipulate the river using two dams that it operates in the area.

The river currently runs at like 8,500 cubic square feet per second, and when they tighten the dam, they actually lower that down to like 5,500 cubic feet, he said. A slower current and a lower water level make it easier to search.

The river is a big piece of this. The car was located there, evidence was located in the vehicle ... thats stuff that we want to make sure that were checking, Sauschuck said.

Meanwhile, officers are continuing to sweep the two main crime scenes: The restaurant Schemengees and the bowling alley Just In Time, where the gunfire erupted.

Not only do you have the victims in question, but every one of those rounds that got fired need to be investigated, Sauschuck said. Every one of those cartridges that lay on the ground needs to be collected, every vehicle in those parking lots. Everything that we do around this, we need to be careful. We need to be professional.

Another press conference is expected later on Friday.

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A licensed social worker who was arrested earlier this month for allegedly engaging in sexual conduct with a 13-year-old was arrested again this week after allegedly showing up at the boys home with a gun.

Payton Shires, 24, allegedly showed up at the boys home Thursday evening even though she wasnt supposed to be there, according to court records obtained by our news partners at WBNS in Columbus.

>> PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Ohio social worker accused of having sex with 13-year-old client

The victims mother wasnt home at the time but did call the police after seeing Shires on her doorbell camera.

When officers got on the scene, Shires was reportedly sitting on the front porch with a gun to her head, yelling that she was going to kill herself, WBNS reported.

Shires allegedly called the boys mother and said she wanted to kill herself and his mother because they ruined her life.

As News Center 7 previously reported, Shires was arrested Oct. 6 by the Columbus Division of Police SWAT after being accused of having sex multiple times with the teen, who was a client assigned to her for counseling.

The teens mother called police in late September after finding text messages between her son and Shires, according to court records obtained by WBNS. In the messages, she reportedly asked the teen if he had deleted the videos, and if his mom had seen them or the messages.

>> Man found dead in Clayton home after police officer was shot wanted on charges in Middletown

Detectives found a video on the teens phone that showed him and Shires having sex and engaging in other sexual acts around the city of Columbus.

Shires allegedly admitted to having sex with the teen while on a call with the teens mother and detectives, WBNS reported.

She was originally facing one count of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor but has since been charged with intimidation of a crime victim and intimidation of a crime witness.
An OG&E crew works to repair a power line after a 2022 storm. Oklahoma legislators are proposing significant changes in the way electricity rates are set and reviewed.

State lawmakers are poised to take another shot at making major changes to Oklahoma's public utility rate-making process next year, following a legislative hearing held earlier this week.

That hearing, held Monday by the House Utilities Committee, examined the idea of moving the current process for setting electricity rates to a "performance-based system." Under such a system electricity rates would be reviewed on a smaller annual basis by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, with a major rate review every five years. Currently, the commission reviews electricity rates when it is considered necessary.

Natural gas utilities already use the performance-based system.

In August, the state Corporation Commission filed a notice of inquiry seeking public input about adopting a performance-based rate-setting system for electricity. That request drew many responses.

Two of the states largest investor-owned utilities, Public Service Company of Oklahoma and OG&E, are asking the state to make the change. In its response to the commission, PSO wrote that the current process is lengthy, costly and litigious and is not conducive for collaboration or innovation.

More: Edmond water bills continue to increase as reported line breaks climb

The current gap between incurring costs and having an opportunity to recover those costs, the utility said, creates a barrier to making investments needed to ensure continued reliability, safety and security of the grid. "It also results in higher customer bill impacts rather than gradual, pay-as-you-go increases," PSO said.

Former Corporation Commissioner Jeff Cloud, executive director for Alliance for Secure Energy, told lawmakers a performance-based rates created more stability for utilities and customers by substituting smaller annual rate adjustments for larger ones at different times.

The U.S. government, however, disagreed.

Detailed in a 58-page response to the commissions notice of inquiry, Maj. Leslie Newton, the attorney for the Federal Executive Agencies  a collection of all federal agencies who receive utility service in the state  urged the commission to continue Oklahomas current and traditional method of rate making as this method is shown to adequately protect the interests of all parties, both utilities and customers.

Utility costs, particularly electricity costs, represent one of the largest variable expenses of operating the Federal offices, facilities, and installations and a change in how the rates for these utilities are approved by the Commission could have a significant impact on the interests of all FEAs customers including our Oklahoma military installations, Newton wrote.

Representatives of the oil and gas industry, echoing the federal government, said there was no need to change the current rate-setting system. The Petroleum Alliance believes that alternative regulation is a solution in search of a problem," wrote J. David Jacobson, an attorney for the organization. As such the Petroleum Alliance urges the commission to continue to apply the tried-and-true methods available under traditional ratemaking and modify those methods in an incremental matter if needed, rather than implement unnecessary and risky (for ratepayers) alternative regulation mechanisms that will harm Oklahomans.

The interim hearing comes after at least two attempts this year by state lawmakers to change the rate-setting system in the spring. During the 2023 legislative session, Senate Bill 1103 would have changed the process to a performance-based system. The bill also would have required OG&E to have more stored fuels on hand for future winter storms. That measure did not clear the Legislature.

A second bill, Senate Bill 694, was amended in the House during the spring to change the rate-setting system. That bill, too, is currently dormant. Lawmakers will return to the Capitol in February for the 2024 legislative session.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Electricity rates may be reviewed more often under new plan suggested
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR)  The Mayor of Oklahoma City David Holt says Leos BBQ is open again at NE 36th and Kelley!

Mayor Holt informed everyone via his X platform that he enjoyed a quick lunch today with owner Charles Smith and Marilyn Luper.

Image courtesy Mayor Holt's "X" platform

Back in June, the Leos BBQ truck was stolen just as the restaurant was planning a grand re-opening after some upgrades to the space.

Luckily, the truck was found about a week later, but it still pushed back Charles renovation plans.

Right now, Leos BBQ is drive-thru service only as Charles works with the Alliance for Economic Development and architect Rand Elliott to complete the refurbishment.

According to Mayor Holt, look for more to come!

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KFOR.com Oklahoma City.
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR)  The Oklahoma Organized Retail Crime Task Force held its first meeting, hosted by Senate Pro Tem Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City, to discuss organizational matters on Thursday.

Oklahoma Organized Retail Crime Task Force. Photo courtesy Oklahoma State Senate.

There is a nationwide problem with organized retail crime and Oklahoma is no exception, Treat said. Our task force has a unique makeup of business executives, from both large corporations and small businesses, law enforcement and companies involved in the supply chain to help guide our discussions.

My goal is to figure out the scope of the problem, where we are lacking coordination and communication and what needs to change to help businesses stay and expand in Oklahoma. There may need to be a legislative fix, or better communication and cooperation from various entities on the ground or both. Through our meetings, we will hopefully work together to stop this growing problem and make Oklahoma a more business friendly state.

Bipartisan bill would crack down on organized retail theft

The task force was established through Senate Bill 674, with the goal of providing the Oklahoma legislature with research-based recommendations to minimize organized retail crime throughout the state.

According to the bill, the task forces recommendations must be submitted in a report to the governor, Senate pro tem, speaker of the House and chairs of the House and Senate committees overseeing public safety by Dec. 15, 2024.

The task force consists of 15 appointed members, who selected Home Depots lead organized retail crime investigator Jaime Bourne as chairman and QuikTrips manager of public and government affairs Michael Junk as vice chairman.

Plans for future task force meetings are unavailable at this time, but will be announced at a later date.

Retail theft is the worst in these 10 US cities, study finds

Congressional leaders are also working on a bipartisan plan to crack down on organized retail theft on a national level.

The Combating Organized Retail Crime Act would create a centralized agency within the Department of Homeland Security that would support law enforcement in retail theft investigations.

The bill has support from nearly 80 lawmakers in the House and Senate, but would still need more signatures to pass.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KFOR.com Oklahoma City.
This is a photo of students raising their hands to their teacher.

This article was originally published in Oklahoma Voice.

Rules to implement the states new school choice tax credits advanced Tuesday, though questions about the programs accessibility still persist at the state Capitol.

Gov. Kevin Stitt now has 45 days to OK the rules after the Oklahoma Tax Commission voted unanimously to approve them. The regulations are automatically rejected if the governor doesnt act.

The Oklahoma Legislature also will consider the rules during its 2024 session.

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The $5,000-$7,500 refundable tax credits created through House Bill 1934 were meant to make private and homeschool education more affordable. Lawmakers, though, raised questions during the Tax Commissions rulemaking process about how accessible the program will truly be for all households.

The Tax Commission is focused on making the application process easier for families and schools, said Doug Linehan, the agencys executive director.

Were trying to simplify the taxpayer experience and simplify the school experience while still maintaining an adequate level, if you will, of controls in place to make sure the money gets to where its supposed to go to, Linehan said.

The Tax Commission received hundreds, if not a thousand, comments from the public in the weeks before Tuesdays vote, deputy executive director Joe Gappa said. Agency staff made some adjustments to the rules based on the feedback.

The commission will allow one application for an entire household. Before, it had suggested families submit an individual application for every child.

The commission also nixed a requirement that private schools provide a social security number for students applying for tax credits. This is information many schools dont collect, Gappa said.

Among the most common requests the Tax Commission received from the public was to allow families to submit applications by the school year rather than the tax year.

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The Tax Commission cant make that change unless lawmakers write it into state law, Gappa said.

Commissioner Mark Wood told agency staff he believed they succeeded in responding to the publics input while also understanding that a number of the concerns were not things that you could do because you dont have power to change the statute.

I thought you did a good job of reconciling what did come in and making improvements to it, Wood said.

Senate President Pro Tem Greg Treat agreed there may need to be a legislative fix for some of the rules, his spokesperson, Alex Gerszewski, said in a statement. But Treat, R-Oklahoma City, has been pleased with the commissions progress so far.

The biggest and most important takeaways are  the money is there for school choice, the application process is set to start on time next month and will help Oklahoma families get the best education for their kids, Gerszewski said.

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Parents View: School Choice Could Help Texas Families, Just Like It Helped Mine

Families can begin submitting applications at 8:30 a.m. Dec. 1 for the 2024 tax year. The deadline will close on Dec. 31 of the year educational expenses were incurred.

Families earning under $150,000 receive priority consideration and have until Feb. 1 to apply.

Each application for a private school tax credit must include an affidavit from the school verifying students enrollment and the cost to attend.

Using a tiered system based on household income, the private school tax credit could refund the cost of tuition and fees, textbooks, activities, testing or school uniforms, if the expense is paid directly to the school.

A homeschool tax credit could apply to the price of online learning programs, instructional materials, tutoring or testing fees. Homeschool families qualify for a tax credit up to $1,000 per child.

Private school families can receive $7,500 per child if their household income is under $75,000 a year. Households earning between $75,000 and $150,000 qualify for $7,000 in tax credits.

Students from homes that earn between $150,000 and $225,000 are eligible for $6,500. Families with an annual income from $225,000 to $250,000 could receive up to $6,000 in tax credits.

Tax credits of $5,000 are available to households earning $250,000 and above.

Editors note: This story has been updated to correct dates of the application window. Although the Tax Commission initially proposed different dates, the final version of the rules will allow families to apply for tax credits starting on Dec. 1. Households with priority consideration have until Feb. 1 to apply.

Oklahoma Voice is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oklahoma Voice maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janelle Stecklein for questions: info@oklahomavoice.com. Follow Oklahoma Voice on Facebook and Twitter.
UN General Assembly resumes emergency session on Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Xinhua) 08:37, October 27, 2023

The 10th Emergency Special Session of the UN General Assembly on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is held at the UN headquarters in New York, on Oct. 26, 2023. (Manuel Elias/UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua)

"We must ensure that urgently needed life-saving assistance reaches those in need - from the delivery of basic foodstuff to the safe passage of humanitarian and medical staff. Any action to the contrary - to deprive the people of Gaza of unimpeded access to essential livelihood supplies - would be a clear violation of their human rights and an affront to international humanitarian law," says Dennis Francis.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- The UN General Assembly on Thursday resumed its 10th Emergency Special Session on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

General Assembly President Dennis Francis, in his opening remarks, condemned both the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel's indiscriminate targeting of civilians and the destruction of critical infrastructure in Gaza.

"The brutality of the Hamas assaults is shocking and unacceptable, and has no place ... in our world," he said. "The ceaseless bombardment of the Gaza Strip by Israel and its consequences are deeply alarming. The right of self-defense does not and cannot lawfully give license to undertake indiscriminate and disproportionate reprisal."

Francis said all parties to this conflict must abide by international humanitarian law and immediately create the necessary conditions to allow for an opening of a humanitarian corridor to the Gaza Strip.

"We must ensure that urgently needed life-saving assistance reaches those in need - from the delivery of basic foodstuff to the safe passage of humanitarian and medical staff. Any action to the contrary - to deprive the people of Gaza of unimpeded access to essential livelihood supplies - would be a clear violation of their human rights and an affront to international humanitarian law," he said.

UN General Assembly President Dennis Francis speaks at the 10th Emergency Special Session of the General Assembly on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the UN headquarters in New York, on Oct. 26, 2023. (Manuel Elias/UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua)

"We, the United Nations, cannot allow the fundamental principles of human rights and of international law to be compromised. As the United Nations, we are obliged to uphold them - without any conditions, or reservations, and certainly without any exceptions," Francis noted.

At this juncture, the most immediate step is clear: "the violence must cease, and further bloodshed must be prevented," he said, calling for the prompt and unconditional release of all hostages; an immediate, unconditional humanitarian cease-fire; and an immediate, unconditional opening of corridors of humanitarian assistance and relief.

The only path to a comprehensive, just, and lasting peace is a negotiated two-state solution, consistent with international law, the UN Charter, and relevant UN resolutions - a solution that fulfills Israel's legitimate needs for security and that fulfills the state of Palestine's legitimate aspirations for an independent state, said Francis.

He urged all parties to set aside their animosities and focus instead on averting war by prioritizing saving lives.

"I urge the (UN) membership to use today's session not to further fan the flames of hate, division and revenge. Let us seize the opportunity, instead, to unify our purpose and our actions to save lives and to end violence."

Jordanian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi speaks at the 10th Emergency Special Session of the General Assembly on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the UN headquarters in New York, on Oct. 26, 2023. (Manuel Elias/UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua)

The resumed Emergency Special Session is expected to run into Friday and a resolution tabled by Jordan is expected to be voted on.

The UN Security Council, which holds the primary responsibility for international peace and security, has failed to adopt any resolution on the latest escalation in the past two weeks.

In an emotional speech, Palestine's UN ambassador Riyad Mansour said Israel's war on Gaza is not defendable.

Some 7,000 Palestinians have been killed since Oct. 7, 70 percent of them were women and children. Almost all of the killed were civilians, he said.

"Is this the war some of you are defending? Can this war be defended," he asked Western delegations. "These are crimes. This is barbarianism."

Mansour called on delegations to vote in favor of the Jordanian-drafted resolution.

Palestine's UN ambassador Riyad Mansour speaks at the 10th Emergency Special Session of the General Assembly on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the UN headquarters in New York, on Oct. 26, 2023. (Manuel Elias/UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua)

"Vote to stop the killing. Vote for humanitarian aid to reach those whose very survival depends on it. Vote to stop this madness," he said. "Choose justice, not vengeance. Choose peace, not more wars. Vote to put an end to two, almost three weeks of the worst double standards we have seen in decades, to restore some credibility of this place and the rules it is supposed to embody."

"Lives are hanging in the balance. And every life is sacred. Please save lives, save lives, save lives," said the ambassador.

Jordanian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, who spoke on behalf of the Arab Group, said the draft resolution his country is putting forward seeks what the United Nations was established to achieve: peace and compliance with international law.

"Let's make a collective cry. Cry out against more bloodletting. Let's unite for peace. Let's unite for justice. Let's unite for the right of every Palestinian and every Israeli child to live free from the horrors of war, free from fear, looking for a life full of promise and full of opportunity," he said.

"For the sake of Palestinian people and for the sake of Israeli people, vote YES," said Safadi. "Let the passing of the draft resolution be a message to Palestinians, suffering from the inferno of this Israeli war on them. Let it be a message that the international community sees them, feels their pain, and believes that Palestinian lives matter too."

(Web editor: Tian Yi, Liang Jun)
 Flash

Chinese and Pakistani navies will hold the "Sea Guardians-3" joint maritime exercise in the waters and airspace of the northern Arabian Sea in November, said a Chinese defense spokesperson on Thursday.

Wu Qian, spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense, said at a press conference that the exercise will focus on joint response to maritime security threats, and will include subjects such as formation movement, search and rescue and anti-submarine operation. Activities such as professional exchanges and mutual visits will also be arranged.

This exercise aims to consolidate the all-weather strategic cooperative partnership and traditional friendship between the two countries and strengthen realistic combat training of the two militaries, Wu said.
Mattresses from University of Washington dorms are being used for homeless shelters across King County.

According to the King County Regional Homelessness Authority, 770 mattresses were donated, 430 of which were picked up at a SoDo warehouse on Thursday. The remaining 340 will go out on Friday afternoon.

The mattresses will go to a handful of nonprofit providers. That list includes Riverside Park UMC, REACH Mobile Medical, Marys Place Seattle, and Reclaim Stability among others.

In a thank you letter to UW and the KCRHA, provider WHEEL described them as the nicest mattresses weve ever had at this shelter.
CONCORD, N.H.  As Dean Phillips appeared outside the New Hampshire statehouse to announce his challenge to Joe Biden on Friday, an onlooker in the back of the crowd asked aloud: Which one is Dean?

Standing in front of his new campaign bus, stamped with his Everyones invited slogan, the three-term Minnesota congressman and millionaire businessman didnt hear the question. But it is one likely to shadow him in the weeks ahead.

Phillips is embarking on a three-month sprint to not only introduce himself to voters  some of the people who showed up Friday were native Granite Staters, others were in town for a wedding, and a few had come on vacation from Florida  but to convince them hes ready to leap from Congress to the White House. Hes drafting off concerns over Bidens age, a glaring problem for the president in public polling, and leaning into the raw pain of New Hampshire voters over losing their first-in-the-nation status for Democrats in 2024.

I believe that the president is one of the few  one of the few  Democrats that can lose to Donald Trump , and thats why somebody has got to compete, Phillips said in an interview on his campaign bus. Im ready. Im very ready.

What remains to be seen is if Phillips campaign can morph from a long-shot effort and fodder for media fascination (the crowd in attendance on Friday was equal parts supporters and members of the press) into a genuine challenge to the sitting president. Or if hell find serious policy daylight between himself and Biden.

Inside Bidens campaign operation, Phillips challenge is currently being met with indifference, said a source close to the campaign. In a statement, the Biden campaign didnt mention Phillips by name, saying merely that, President Biden is proud of the historic, unified support he has from across the Democratic Party for his reelection and that Biden can uniquely bring together to once again beat the MAGA Republicans next November.





But, just below the surface, there are clear signs that the Biden team is paying attention. The campaign sent out a fundraising email within hours of Phillips official launch, signed by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, titled: Minnesota loves Joe Biden.

And, throughout the day, allies and operatives working on the reelect offered stray shards of criticism both at Phillips and at Steve Schmidt, the former Republican strategist turned vocal anti-Donald Trump critic who is now a top strategist for Phillips bid.

"Its honestly so nihilistic, said one Biden official. Hiring Schmidt to run your campaign for the [Democratic] primary isnt what I would call serious, the person added.

Phillips, for his part, acknowledged that you will see a machine that is activating of his former friends and colleagues.

I think if you look on Twitter today, I bet if youre watching MSNBC today, I bet if youre listening to press releases from the White House today  and I havent seen it yet, but Im assuming that is out to destroy me, Phillips said. They will mobilize in a spirit of fear  not based on what the American people want, but based on what politicians want.

If Phillips is to have a breakthrough, it will likely come in New Hampshire. The Democratic National Committee, which supports Biden, has aides on the ground in the state. But theyre rapid response communications staffers, tasked with going after the Republican candidates running in the state.

Biden wont be competing in New Hampshires primary. His campaign confirmed earlier this week that his name would not appear on the ballot because the state is likely moving forward with an unsanctioned contest after Biden moved to reorder the primary calendar so South Carolina would hold the first primary. New Hampshire law requires the state to hold the first primary, and both the Republicans who control state government and the secretary of state who sets the primary date refuse to deviate from that tradition.

Instead, seasoned Democratic operatives here have been readying a write-in campaign for Biden thats expected to formally launch early next week, Jim Demers, one of the organizers of the effort, said in an interview.

Phillips is hoping New Hampshire voters will reward him for prioritizing their primary  even if the DNC refuses to seat any delegates he might win. He was emphatic that he would restore New Hampshires first-in-the-nation status and praised the state as the most civically engaged in the nation.



I guess Phillips has a shot, state Rep. Eric Gallager, a Concord Democrat said as he trailed the newly minted presidential hopeful around the statehouse grounds.

Such signs were few but evident on Friday. June Latti, 80, a Concord Democrat, said she hadnt heard of Phillips until she walked to the bank earlier Friday morning and saw his crew setting up for his event outside the statehouse. But her daughter  who lives in Denmark, where they know all about him  filled her in. By the time Latti heard Phillips speak, she was sold.

This is an amazing person. He needs to be president, Latti told reporters as she stood with one of Phillips blue campaign T-shirts slung across her shoulder and an autographed campaign sign in her hand. Biden, who I really love, is done. He needs to just quietly step aside and let this beautiful young man  pull our country back together again.

Phillips pledged to seed his campaign with a $2 million personal loan, as the contours of his bid have become clearer. Schmidt said the campaign will focus on winning voters in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Michigan  three of the four early states. He said it plans to hold 119 town halls in the coming months, name-checking a potential visit to the Palestinian American community in Dearborn, Mich.

Of Nevada, the second early state where Phillips already missed the filing deadline, Schmidt said the nascent campaign is ced[ing] the state and it doesnt matter.

For some New Hampshire Democrats and independents concerned about Bidens age and stamina  and miffed about his primary play  Phillips presents a sorely wanted choice and a more realistic option than self-help guru Marianne Williamson, they said in interviews Friday.

Biden made a big mistake in blowing off the primary in New Hampshire, Laura Miller, a Contoocook independent, said as she waited for Phillips to arrive in Concord. Im happy someone else is on the Democratic ticket so that we can elevate the conversation.

Yet Phillips faces an uphill battle persuading independent voters who can play in either major-party primary to cast their ballot in a likely lopsided contest on the Democratic side. At least two groups, the super PAC Primary Pivot and the more grassroots Primary Power, are already encouraging independent voters to pull ballots for the GOP contest in an effort to hurt Trumps chances in New Hampshire and other battleground states with open primaries.

And Phillips starts as a virtual unknown. Even in this politically well-educated state, several voters walking by his launch event in Concord had never heard of the third-term Minnesota Democrat.

Hes a Republican, right? Carol Harris, a Democrat from Chichester, said with a slightly embarrassed laugh. When told Phillips is a Democrat, Harris, 81, said she would take a look at him  only because of [Bidens] age.

Holly Otterbein contributed to this report.
Elon Musk, CEO of X, the company formerly known as Twitter, tightens his tie as he arrives for a closed-door gathering of leading tech CEOs to discuss the priorities and risks surrounding artificial intelligence and how it should be regulated, at Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2023. | Jacquelyn Martin, Associated Press

Oh, what a difference a year makes.

This time last year, Elon Musk, worlds richest person and chief executive of Tesla, SpaceX, et al, was celebrating the end of a long and convoluted path to his acquisition of social media platform Twitter. The $44 billion deal, that first saw the light of day as an unsolicited offer in April 2022, was on the cusp of a potentially epic legal battle before Musk finally applied his signature to a purchase agreement last fall.

At the time, he promised to remake Twitter, which has since been rebranded as X, through his own lens as a self-described free speech absolutist.

The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence, Musk wrote in a tweet addressed to Twitter advertisers last October. There is currently great danger that social media will splinter into far right wing and far left wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society.

Dear Twitter Advertisers pic.twitter.com/GMwHmInPAS  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 27, 2022

In the same posting, Musk also said that traditional media outlets have sacrificed objectivity in the pursuit of audience growth and fueled and catered to those polarized extremes, as they believe that is what brings in the money, but, in doing so, the opportunity for dialogue is lost.

Musk said his intentions for Twitter arent about making more money but are, instead, to help humanity, whom I love. And he recognized that pursuing his goal wont be easy and could very well result in failure.

A report card on Xs performance since Musk moved into the captains seat reflects a company that has, perhaps, lost its footing in many ways but its principal owner remains bullish on the platforms future.

Related

While X boasts 183 million users, according to Sensor Tower data, it still trails its rivals by a wide margin. Youtube remains the biggest social media behemoth with 2 billion users followed by Facebook, 1.4 billion; Instagram, 1.1 billion; Tiktok, 683 million; and Snapchat, 385 million.

Data cited in a Wall Street Journal report, and assembled by Sensor Tower, indicates X has lost 16% of its daily active mobile apps users since Musk took over; the companys value has fallen to roughly $20 billion, according to statements made by Musk in March; ad spending on the platform is down 54% since a year ago; and Musk has slashed Twitter/Xs workforce since taking control, cutting staff by some 80% since last October.

Along the way, Musk has drastically downsize staff devoted to content moderation duties, reversed previous lifetime bans, including one imposed on former President Donald Trump and lifted a ban on political advertising.

Hes dabbled in various iterations of subscription fees and, in a move that caused perhaps the most consternation among longtime users, reworked the platforms legacy blue check mark from an earned verification designation to one that could simply be purchased.

The rebranding to X in July was accompanied by a Musk promise that the platform is destined to become an all-purpose app with utilities including mobile payment, shopping, food deliveries and more. He has also said he sees a path forward to a $250 billion valuation.

In a series of Tweets published in September, Musk accused the Anti-Defamation League of trying to kill this platform by falsely accusing it & me of being anti-Semitic. Musk also alleged that Xs precipitous decline in advertising revenue had been primarily due to pressure on advertisers by @ADL and said the claim is based on what advertisers tell us and threatened to sue the group that battles intolerance and antisemitism.

Some industry watchers point to Musks mercurial leadership style and light-touch moderation policies as the principle drivers behind Xs precipitous loss of advertising dollars, the platforms primary source of revenue.

Farhad Divecha, owner and managing director of the London-based digital marketing agency AccuraCast, told The Guardian that Xs standing among advertisers has plummeted.

The past 12 months have seen Twitter go from a solid third or fourth option  after Google, Meta and occasionally LinkedIn  for digital advertising to the bottom of the pile, Divecha said. Changes to brand safety, opening up the network to extremists under the guise of free speech, requiring advertisers to pay for verification, and firing a lot of the staff have sent signals that the platform doesnt care about brand safety or advertisers.

Still, plenty of users say theyre happy with the changes overseen by Musk.

I cant say I agree with the people who were censored before, but Im incredibly offended that it was allowed to happen, Peter Wayner, a technology writer in Baltimore, told The New York Times. I can think for myself. I dont need a Trust and Safety Council to do it for me.
MEMPHIS, Tenn.  One person was injured in a shooting in Oakhaven Thursday night.

Memphis Police responded to a shooting on Tchulahoma Road near East Raines Road at around 8:50 p.m.

Man injured after Hickory Hill shooting

One person went to Regional One Hospital in critical condition.

Memphis Police say no suspect information is available. Anyone with information is asked to call CrimeStoppers at (901) 528-CASH.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com.
All Russian attempts to advance in the Avdiivka sector have been repelled, although the enemy is attacking with aircraft day and night, Vitaliy Barabash, head of the Avdiivka military administration, said on national television on Oct. 27.

"All their efforts to advance have been repelled," Barabash said, although there are still a lot of Russian troops in the area

They have had no success, all (our) positions are held.

The enemy troops are still attacking, there are a lot of them; there is shelling by artillery and rockets, and a great deal of enemy aviation is operating, Barabash added.

Read also: Key road to Avdiivka faces relentless bombardment as Russia tries to sever vital link, local governor says

He noted that heavy rain was slowing down the enemy offensive a bit.

"When it's very wet, it's difficult to even move on foot on such soils, let alone use machinery," he said.

Barabash stressed that the reports that "Avdiivka has fallen" were definitely not true.

Russias offensive on Avdiiivka  What is known

Russian troops intensified their offensive on Avdiivka on Oct. 10, launching massive attacks on the front-line Donbas town.

The head of Avdiivkas military administration, Vitaliy Barabash, said that Oct. 10 saw probably the largest attack on the city in the entire full-scale war, but the situation was under control.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces said that the Russian military wants to surround Avdiivka, and is throwing a large amount of equipment and personnel into battle.

Read also: Grueling battle for Avdiivka

Spokesperson of the Joint Press Center of the Tavria Defense Forces, Oleksandr Shtupun, said that the Russian occupation forces are continuing active offensive actions in the area of Avdiivka and consider the town as an opportunity to gain at least some kind of a significant triumph and turn the tide of hostilities.

On Oct. 16, Barabash noted that the Russian occupation forces had stopped shelling Avdiivka, but two people had been killed in shelling west of the town.

On the same day, the Ukrainian militarys General Staff reported in an evening summary that in the Avdiivka sector the Russians had conducted unsuccessful assaults with the support of aviation in the vicinity of Avdiivka and Pervomaiske, Donetsk Oblast, and that the Defense Forces had managed to repel seven Russian attacks.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy later said that the Ukrainian Defense Forces were holding their positions near Avdiivka.

On Oct. 24, Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said that the number of people wanting to leave Avdiivka had increased due to the deteriorating situation in the area.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Im Brian Gordon, tech reporter for The News & Observer, and this is Open Source, a weekly newsletter on business, labor and technology in North Carolina.

On Monday, the White House unveiled a list of 31 regional technology hubs.

Surely Raleigh made the cut? Nope. How about Durham or Chapel Hill? Nope again. In fact, all of North Carolina was shut out.

The list isnt just symbolic; the designated hubs are eligible to compete for up to $75 million in federal CHIPS Act funding. The City of Raleigh even applied for the program, submitting a joint proposal with the Central Pines Regional Council and the Wireless Reach Center.

Unfortunately, we were not selected as an awardee, said John Holden, Raleighs Smart City Manager.

Fewer than 10% of the 370 applications were approved. So Raleigh shouldnt be too surprised.

And while it might seem like an affront to exclude the Triangle from any list of top tech hubs, the White House didnt intend to pick the likes of Raleigh, Boston, Austin or the Bay Area. The program is meant to promote growth outside of big cities.

For too long, economic growth and opportunity has clustered in a few cities on the coasts, the White House said when declaring the winners.

Among the tech hubs are Tulsa, Kansas City, Missoula and central Indiana.

Open Source

Tech Hubs awardees were selected to represent the full diversity of America, the Biden administration said.

While more federal funding would be nice, perhaps its a nod to Raleigh and Durhams growth that they joined other large established tech zones that were left off. Boston is a more prestigious tech bedfellow than Tulsa, no offense.

But I dont know why no North Carolina city made the cut. Come on White House.

On to the rest of this weeks news.

Raleighs Red Hat had a pretty impressive record going

Since IBM acquired the software giant in 2019, Red Hat has delivered double-digit revenue growth every fiscal quarter. That streak has ended, as IBM announced Wednesday that Red Hat recorded an 8% revenue jump this summer.

Still pretty good, especially considering IBMs overall revenue only rose 3.5%. And some sectors of Red Hats business like Ansible and OpenShift made big-time gains.

But overall, Red Hat came in below expectations. And no ones been able to say that for a while.

Red Hat employees walk back to their Raleigh headquarters after a meeting at the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts Monday, Oct. 29, 2018.

North Carolina approves one of the years largest job agreements

The Indian company Epsilon Advanced Materials has pledged to create 500 jobs near Wilmington. The companys CEO told The N&O why North Carolina was the right spot for his business, which manufactures a key component in lithium-ion batteries.

North Carolina is already invested in the future prospects of lithium ion. Theres the incoming Toyota battery plant near Greensboro and the ongoing efforts to mine lithium near Charlotte.

A digital projection of a future Epsilon Advanced Materials facility in Brunswick County, NC.

Short Stuff: What went wrong at AgBiome?

Last week, I reported that an entire Triangle tech company is on the verge of disappearing. This week, I spoke to the CEOs and employees of Durhams AgBiome to ask what went wrong  and what might come next.

North Carolina Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Josh Stein joined a large multi-state coalition in suing Meta, alleging its social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram) are designed to be addictive to young people.

Dont think North Carolina isnt seeing any CHIPS Act dollars. Its poised to see quite a bit actually. North Carolina A&T will partner with NC State for a microelectronics project funded by the major federal tech spending bill.

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein announced Oct. 24 that his office joined a lawsuit against social media company Meta.

National Tech Happenings

Speaking of chips... Chinese companies race to procure Nvidia chips after latest U.S. restrictions. Nvidia has a few hundred employees in the Triangle by the way.

And speaking of Meta Facebooks parent company reported strong earnings this week. Yet its stock price fell. Hmmm.

Were product reviews published by a major newspaper network written by a human or AI? Theres a debate.

Thanks for reading!

This is what an artificial intelligence image creation model called Craiyon generated with the text prompt robot real estate agent selling a house to humans in a steampunk world. Isnt the future great.

Open Source

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The halls of power are waking up to the potentials and pitfalls of artificial intelligence. The big question will be how much of an impact they will have on the march of progress if (and when) there are missteps. Yesterday, the United Nations announced a new AI advisory board -- 39 people from across government, academia and industry -- with an aim "to undertake analysis and advance recommendations for the international governance of AI."

The advisory board will operate as a bridging group, covering any other initiatives that are put together around AI by the international organization, the UN said. Indeed, in forming a strategy and approach on AI, the UN has been talking for the better part of a month with industry leaders and other stakeholders, from what we understand. The plan is to bring together recommendations on AI by the summer of 2024, when the UN plans to hold a "Summit of the Future" event. The new advisory board is meeting for the first time today.

The UN said that the body will be tasked with "building a global scientific consensus on risks and challenges, helping harness AI for the Sustainable Development Goals, and strengthening international cooperation on AI governance."

What is most notable about the board is, in these early days, its generally positive positioning. Right now, there are a number of people speaking out about the risks in AI, whether that comes in the form of national security threats, data protection or misinformation; and next week a number of global leaders and experts in the space will be converging in the U.K. to try to address some of this at the AI Safety Summit. It's not clear how these and other initiatives formed on national and international levels will work together, or indeed enforce anything beyond their jurisdictions.

But in keeping with the ethos of the UN, the group of 39 -- a wide-ranging list that includes executives from Alphabet/Google and Microsoft, a "digital anthropologist," a number of professors and government officials -- is high-level and taking more of a positive-to-constructive position with a focus on international development.

"AI could power extraordinary progress for humanity. From predicting and addressing crises, to rolling out public health programmes and education services, AI could scale up and amplify the work of governments, civil society and the United Nations across the board," UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said of the aim of the group. "For developing economies, AI offers the possibility of leapfrogging outdated technologies and bringing services directly to people who need them most. The transformative potential of AI for good is difficult even to grasp."

The UN refers to the group's "bridging" role and it may be that it gets involved in more critical explorations beyond "AI for good." Gary Marcus, who took part in a fireside chat at Disrupt in September to talk about the risks of AI, arrived for our conference in San Francisco on a red-eye from New York, where he was meeting with UN officials. While new innovations in areas like generative AI have definitely put the technology front and center in the mass market, Marcus' framing of the challenges underscores some of the more concerning aspects that have been voiced:

"My biggest short-term fear about AI is that misinformation, deliberate misinformation, created at wholesale quantities is going to undermine democracy and all kinds of things are going to happen after that," he said last month. "My biggest long-term fear is we have no idea how to control the AI that we're building now and no idea how to control the AI that we're building in the future. And that lays us open to machines doing all kinds of things that we didn't intend for them to do."

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Yrtt0bA-So?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent&w=640&h=360]

The full list of people on the advisory board:

Anna Abramova, Director of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations-University AI Centre, Russian Federation

Omar Sultan al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence of the United Arab Emirates, United Arab Emirates

Latifa al-Abdulkarim, Member of the Shura Council (Saudi Parliament), Assistant Professor of Computer Science at King Saud University, Saudi Arabia

Estela Aranha, Special Advisor to the Minister for Justice and Public Security, Federal Government of Brazil, Brazil

Carme Artigas, Secretary of State for Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence of Spain, Spain

Ran Balicer, Chief Innovation Officer and Deputy Director General at Clalit Health Services Israel, Israel

Paolo Benanti, Third Order Regular Franciscan, Lecturer at the Pontifical Gregorian University, Italy

Abeba Birhane, Senior Advisor in AI Accountability at Mozilla Foundation, Ethiopia

Ian Bremmer, President and Founder of Eurasia Group, United States

Anna Christmann, Aerospace Coordinator of the German Federal Government, Germany

Natasha Crampton, Chief Responsible AI Officer at Microsoft, New Zealand

Nighat Dad, Executive Director of the Digital Rights Foundation Pakistan, Pakistan

Vilas Dhar, President of the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, United States

Virginia Dignum, Professor of Responsible Artificial Intelligence at Umea University, Portugal/Netherlands

Arisa Ema, Associate Professor at the University of Tokyo, Japan

Mohamed Farahat, Legal Consultant and Vice-Chair of MAG of North Africa IGF, Egypt

Amandeep Singh Gill, Secretary-General's Envoy on Technology

Dame Wendy Hall, Regius Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton, United Kingdom

Rahaf Harfoush, Digital Anthropologist, France

Hiroaki Kitano, Chief Technology Officer of Sony Group Corporation, Japan

Haksoo Ko, Chair of Republic of Koreas Personal Information Protection Commission, Republic of Korea

Andreas Krause, Professor at ETH Zurich, Switzerland

James Manyika, Senior Vice-President of Google-Alphabet, President for Research, Technology and Society, Zimbabwe

Maria Vanina Martinez Posse, Ramon and Cajal Fellow at the Artificial Research Institute, Argentina

Seydina Moussa Ndiaye, Lecturer at Cheikh Hamidou Kane Digital University, Senegal

Mira Murati, Chief Technology Officer of OpenAI, Albania

Petri Myllymaki, Full Professor at the Department of Computer Science of University of Helsinki, Finland

Alondra Nelson, Harold F. Linder Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study, United States

Nazneen Rajani, Lead Researcher at Hugging Face, India

Craig Ramlal, Head of the Control Systems Group at the University of The West Indies at St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago

He Ruimin, Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer and Deputy Chief Digital Technology Officer, Government of Singapore, Singapore

Emma Ruttkamp-Bloem, Professor at the University of Pretoria, South Africa

Sharad Sharma, Co-founder iSPIRT Foundation, India

Marietje Schaake, International Policy Director at Stanford University Cyber Policy Center, Netherlands

Jaan Tallinn, Co-founder of the Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, Estonia

Philip Thigo, Adviser at the Government of Kenya, Kenya

Jimena Sofia Viveros Alvarez, Chief of Staff and Head Legal Advisor to Justice Loretta Ortiz at the Mexican Supreme Court, Mexico

Yi Zeng, Professor and Director of Brain-inspired Cognitive AI Lab, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Zhang Linghan, Professor at the Institute of Data Law, China University of Political Science and Law, China
Editors Note: Kara Alaimo, an associate professor of communication at Fairleigh Dickinson University, writes about issues affecting women and social media. Her book Over the Influence: Why Social Media Is Toxic for Women and Girls  And How We Can Take It Back will be published by Alcove Press on March 5, 2024. Follow her on Instagram, Facebook and X. The opinions expressed in this commentary are her own. Read more opinion on CNN.

Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of the private equity firm Blackstone, doesnt think many of us put in enough work during the pandemic. Speaking on a panel at an investment conference in Saudi Arabia, he claimed that, during the pandemic, remote workers didnt work as hard  regardless of what they told you.

Kara Alaimo - Courtesy Kara Alaimo

Schwarzmans contentions arent just outrageously offensive and inaccurate. They also promote the billionaires economic interests at the expense of those who are up against enormous challenges in life.

As a professor who worked remotely during the first part of the pandemic, I find Schwarzmans claims to be staggering because, like many employees around the globe, I worked harder than ever before. My husband is an emergency room doctor who treated Covid-19 patients before anyone knew how the virus spread. So in the initial weeks of the pandemic, he quarantined in a different part of our house, away from our toddler and me, and I did my full-time job while serving as a solo parent to our out-of-school child.

Whats more, employers often called on staffers to do more, not less, during the pandemic. I converted all of my courses to an online format practically overnight. I was asked to document extra efforts I made to provide support to my students  giving them my personal cell phone number, for example  for my schools accreditors. And because the university where I worked at the time didnt offer tech support on nights or weekends, I helped frantic colleagues who were also working overtime to try to make remote teaching work. Efforts like this by workers in all kinds of jobs are, of course, what got our country through our generations greatest public health crisis.

It also showed a lot of people that remote work can work. The option to work from home can be especially appealing to women who also balance caregiving responsibilities, those with disabilities and people of color who often face discrimination in the workplace. Accommodating these workers is, of course, good for business: Companies that are more diverse have higher earnings.

It makes sense that men like Schwarzman wouldnt like remote work because it might not serve their economic interests. After all, if companies cut back on expensive office leases, it could hurt Blackstones real estate investments. While the firm has drastically reduced its commercial office holdings, it is still vulnerable to such a downturn. And, of course, remote work is bad for some businesses such as lunch establishments in downtown areas and dry cleaners that serve the commuter crowd.

Its one thing to say that remote work was bad for certain businesses. But to say employees didnt work as hard while remote is completely out of line.

Research on productivity during the pandemic found that remote work can make people more productive. For example, one study found that the output of economists increased by more than 20%. Different studies of call center workers found productivity increases and decreases. Stanford University economist Nick Bloom says the reason for the varying results is because so much depends on the skills of their bosses. It all comes down to how workers are managed, he told The New York Times. (I hope Schwarzman is paying attention.)

Whats more, research by the Becker Friedman Institute at the University of Chicago found that Americans devoted 35% of the time saved commuting during the pandemic to more work. Thats certainly the case for me  I used my time savings to work on a new book.

During the pandemic, many Americans made Herculean efforts for our employers, families and communities. The experience showed that remote work can be good for both employees and businesses. Its the managers who cant see this who I seriously question.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
Editors Note: Jillian Pretzel is a freelance writer and a surveillance editor at People Magazine. Her work has been published at The Washington Post, Parents, Salon, among others. The views expressed in this commentary are her own. Read more opinion at CNN.

It was a brisk Halloween morning when my family moved into our home two years ago. I put our costumes in a specific box so Ill know exactly where they are tonight, I told my new next-door neighbor, whod popped her head over our shared garden wall to introduce herself.

Jillian Pretzel - Courtesy Jillian Pretzel

Oh, this neighborhood doesnt do trick-or-treating, she said matter-of-factly. Never has.

I looked around at the suburban Californian neighborhood, which, with its many streetlights and wide sidewalks, would be objectively perfect for trick-or-treating. Was this neighborhood full of cavity-spooked dentists? Or had I moved into some anti-Halloween, Footloose-type community?

In an unsatisfying end to moving day, my family and our Alice in Wonderland costumes drove across town to our old condo complex to ask for candy. I set a treat bowl on my new doorstep just in casebut not a piece was touched.

I soon learned that theres no official rule (or dental hygiene brigade) against trick-or-treating in our new area. When the neighborhood was built two decades ago, all the homeowners just happened to be empty-nesters or dedicated dog parents. There were no kids, and so, no trick-or-treating.

While a number of young families have moved in since then, the homes have maintained their tradition of keeping porch lights off on All Hallows Eve. The neighborhood kids who want to trick-or-treat simply go elsewhere.

Over dinner one night, I told my husband that I felt duped. I liked our house, and wanted us to buy it, in large part because it looked like the perfect place to raise kids. When I toured the home, I had visions of family walks to the neighborhood playground, watching my daughter climb the numerous trees, and trick-or-treating every October.

In a failed effort to make me feel better, my husband pointed out that some of our parent friends choose to take their kids to Halloween festivals and trunk-or-treating (the variation of trick-or-treating where kids go from car to car to collect candies, usually held in church or school parking lots) instead of going around their blocks. I dont know if theyre afraid of razor blades in candy or just dont want to be out late, he said with a shrug. But Ive heard trick-or-treating isnt as big as it used to be.

I wanted to scoff at the suggestion that my favorite Halloween tradition was on its way out, but I couldnt help but think my husband might be right. My best friend lives on a busy street in Los Angeles and complains that shes gotten fewer and fewer trick-or-treaters over the past decade. My sister-in-law, who lives in an adorable Pennsylvania suburb, said that last year, she only gave candy to her mailman. My cousin, who lives in a New York City apartment, says he always buys Halloween candybut usually ends up eating it himself.

But I wasnt ready to give up on our new home. Whenever I ran into a neighbor, I brought up my cause. We should be a trick-or-treating neighborhood, Id say to anyone I happened to catch walking to their mailbox.

I was surprised to find that people werent as interested in the idea as I was. A woman a few doors down said she liked Halloween but she and her kids like going to her parents neighborhood to trick-or-treat. My parents love seeing the kids dressed up, she said. We go to their house every year.

One dad said he actually liked that our neighborhood doesnt do trick-or-treating. He used to live in a big Halloween neighborhood and said that every October 31st, noisy, dry ice-filled haunted houses took over the street. Itd be so crowded you couldnt even pull out of your garage, he said. And teens would be making trouble all night.

Still, I kept going: talking to everyone from the sweet old lady across the street to a couple of newlyweds on the corner. I even met a few fellow toddler moms. Some people said trick-or-treating on our own block would be convenient but most admitted they liked our quiet holiday the way it was.

I was disappointed. Everyone seemed so unfestive. Whats the Halloween version of Bah, Humbug? I asked my husband.

That year, my family went to our old neighborhood to trick-or-treat again, but this time, it felt strange to be there. As I looked up and down the street, I realized that while I wouldve liked to convince my neighbors to trick-or-treat, what I was truly looking for was a sense of community. I guess I assumed that a block with good trick-or-treating probably had friendly people: the kind who you could borrow a cup of sugar from, who might invite you over for a barbecue.

I didnt have that feeling of community on my old street. At least, not anymore. But I was starting to feel it at the new place  even without the costumes and candy.

In my year of talking to my new neighbors about Halloween, I hadnt changed any minds, but I had met just about everyone on the block and I made a handful of friends. My next-door neighbor and I like to get together for wine and cheese on my patio and I sometimes host play dates for other families on the block. In the end, I didnt turn our cul-de-sac into a Halloween haven, but somewhere along my the way, I think I got what I really wanted.

This year, my family has decided to stay home on Halloween, but weve made up for it by going to a trunk-or-treat event, a Halloween carnival and a pumpkin patch earlier in the month. I have to admit: they were all a blast. Between bounce houses and crafts and cookie decorating, dare I say, it may have been more fun than going door-to-door. I started to think about the benefits of being in my non-trick-or-treating neighborhood: I wouldnt need to fish candy wrappers out of my bushes, wouldnt need to coax my daughter out of a candy coma on November 1st, plus, wed been inspired to find fun, new events.

Not being in a trick-or-treating area, I decided, is something of awell, treat.

Recently a co-worker asked what my family is doing on Halloween. A year ago, I wouldve ranted about my neighborhoods lack of seasonal spirit. But instead, I just shrugged.

My neighborhood doesnt do trick-or-treating, I said. Never has.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
Editors Note: Charles Dunne is a former US Foreign Service officer. He is a nonresident fellow at the Arab Center Washington DC and a nonresident scholar at the Middle East Institute. He teaches at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion at CNN.

This piece has been updated to reflect news developments.

A total of 21 US military personnel have sustained injuries after coming under attack 13 times by aerial drones and rockets on bases in Iraq and Syria last week, defense officials told CNN on Wednesday. The injuries might be minor, but the statement behind them isnt: The threat of a broader conflict, possibly involving US forces, is growing almost daily following the gruesome October 7 terrorist attacks on southern Israel by Hamas, the Iranian-supported militant group.

Charles Dunne - Courtesy Charles Dunne

Indeed, US troops in these locations have often been attacked by Iranian proxy forces at times of rising tension, and Washington, which believes Tehran has been actively facilitating these latest attacks, is bracing for a surge. Fresh US airstrikes against Iran-backed militia targets in Syria on Thursday show the United States is not backing back down from this fight, and a sharper intensification appears likely. However, the White House has, for the moment, rightly stopped short of concluding that a major escalation is inevitable.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Monday that the US is deeply concerned about the potential for any significant escalation of these attacks in the days ahead, and is positioning additional air defense forces, two aircraft carrier strike groups and some 900 additional troops in the region as a deterrent. President Joe Biden himself has issued a starkly simple warning for any country or group that might be looking to stir up more trouble: Dont.

That posture is about right: stern warnings backed by a defensive buildup, which allows the US to make possible strikes against discrete targets if the origins of the attacks can be identified in real time. The US should also make clear it retains the option to hit the facilities of Iran-backed militias responsible in Syria and Iraq, as it did in 2021. While this risks escalation, it might be necessary  and a lack of resolve is also a risk in the face of ongoing attacks.

In important respects, the Middle East of the moment resembles Europe on the eve of World War I, in which entangling alliances and secret commitments pushed a cascade of combatants to tumble together into war after the first shot was fired in Sarajevo.

There is a history here that goes beyond the fact that the US is allied with and supporting Israel in its war on Hamas. Iran and the US have been on the brink of open conflict since early 2020 when the US assassinated the notorious commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Qods Force, Qassem Soleimani, the man widely believed responsible for enabling attacks against American troops throughout the region.

Iran has a long memory, and earlier this year renewed its call for revenge. For months Tehran apparently has been planning a more aggressive strategy aimed at US troops in the region.

Last February, Reuters reported that Iran used earthquake relief flights to Syria as a cover for secret weapons shipments, and The Washington Post reported that documents leaked as part of the Discord trove revealed plans by the IRGC Qods Force to equip and train militias with devastating advanced IEDs.

All this may be part of an effort coordinated among Russia, Iran and Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad to expel the 900 US troops in Syria, who are there to counter the Islamic State. The 2,500 American troops still in Iraq on an advise-and-assist mission will also present tempting targets.

That means at the very least that Iran is well-positioned to heighten already roiling tensions in the Middle East after spending decades building a network of proxies and terror cells in Lebanon, Gaza, Iraq, Yemen and elsewhere to act as a forward line of defense for a clerical regime that sees itself as surrounded by external threats. Most important  especially in the case of Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon  these furnish a direct front and capable forces in the armed fight for Israels destruction.

But theres also a deeper question of what exactly Iran did to bring about this crisis in the first place with the October 7 attacks  and what that says about where it goes from here.

In Gaza, Iran has helped transform and expand the capabilities of Hamas (and its smaller cousin, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, also involved in the recent attacks on Israel) almost since the groups inception in 1987. Tehran has supplied a wide array of rockets, missiles and other weapons, while Israeli intelligence has assessed that it manages a sophisticated and complicated ratline smuggling weaponry from Iran to Yemen to Sudan by sea, to Egypt by truck, through the Sinai courtesy of Bedouin smugglers, and from there into Gaza via Hamas extensive network of cross-border tunnels. In addition, Iran has provided Hamas up to $100 million annually, according to a 2021 State Department report.

Given that largess, some Biden opponents have charged that the $6 billion in embargoed oil sales released to Iran in exchange for freeing five American hostages in September played a role in financing the Hamas attack. But the funds are held in an account controlled by Qatar and carefully monitored for humanitarian purposes, and none of those funds (now frozen) had been released at the time of the attack.

Its also important to note that Iran has never been at a loss for funds to support its clients, notwithstanding internationally frozen assets, heavy international sanctions and abiding economic problems. Ironically, such spending is controversial even in Iran itself; revelations concerning the substantial billions Iran spends on foreign adventurism helped fuel anti-government protests in 2018.

There has been much speculation about whether, given these well-documented ties, Iran ordered the Hamas operation in southern Israel. The White House has tentatively concluded that while Tehran has provided material assistance that could facilitate such an operation, it has no information to suggest that Iran did so.

Despite a story in The Wall Street Journal of Hamas sources claiming Iran helped plan the attack, there is no analytical unanimity, and no firm public evidence, verifying this report. Other intelligence reported in the WSJ that Hamas militants recently received some specialized training in Iran hasnt been linked specifically to the October 7 attacks.

While Iran shares an anti-Israel agenda with Hamas, many experts assess it has never had the ability to control it and doesnt require prior authorization for its activities. It is reasonable to assume, as the US has said, that Iran was surprised (albeit pleased) with the October 7 operations.

All of which is consistent with the fact that neither Iran nor Hezbollah appear to have committed to more intensive involvement  yet Iran is reportedly fearful of a harsh response if it crosses Israels red lines. Meanwhile, Hezbollahs probing attacks in Israels north over the past two weeks may be intended as signs of solidarity with Hamas and to keep Israel distracted from Gaza. And while the Iran-allied Houthis in Yemen have fired shots at Israel in recent days, they havent yet posed a serious threat to the Jewish state.

Still, Iran and its allies have their red lines, too. Iran-backed forces in Iraq and the Houthis in Yemen have both threatened American targets if the US intervenes; Iran has warned against Israeli strikes on Iranian soil; and Hezbollah has hinted that any attempt by Israel to eliminate Hamas would be met with a major response.

The situation could tip in a number of directions depending on the smallest actions, and even the domestic considerations, of the parties. For example, the alleged beating-induced coma in Iran of 16-year-old Armita Geravand for refusing to comply with Islamic dress laws earlier this month recalls the dramatic nationwide demonstrations against the morality police last year that authorities were hard pressed to put down. If a distraction is needed, could Irans clerical leaders look to a dramatic foreign crisis?

Miscalculations  whether by Iran, Israel, Hezbollah or even the US  could rapidly lead to a multifront regional war with casualties easily numbering in the tens of thousands. None of the major parties involved appears to have a compelling strategy to address the long-term dangers. The key players might benefit from a pause for reflection, before its too late.

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Chinese Premier Li Qiang meets with Tajik Prime Minister Kokhir Rasulzoda on the sidelines of the 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Oct. 26, 2023. [Photo/Xinhua]

Chinese Premier Li Qiang said in Bishkek on Thursday that China is ready to work with Tajikistan to promote the implementation of the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative and the Global Civilization Initiative, so as to better meet global challenges and promote common development and prosperity.

Li made the remarks while meeting with Tajik Prime Minister Kokhir Rasulzoda on the sidelines of the 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States.

Li said that in recent years, under the strategic guidance of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, bilateral relations have become increasingly close and achieved fruitful cooperation results.

China is ready to work with Tajikistan to implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state, take the building of a China-Tajikistan community with a shared future as the guide, further consolidate friendship and deepen mutual trust, continue to firmly support each other on issues concerning each other's core interests, push the comprehensive cooperation between the two countries to a new level, and better safeguard the strategic, security and development interests of the two countries, he said.

China is willing to strengthen the synergy of development strategies with Tajikistan, continue to advance high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, give full play to industrial complementarity, expand trade and investment, strengthen cooperation in such fields as transport infrastructure, civil aviation, green economy and digital economy, and deepen people-to-people and cultural exchanges in sports, culture, education and between regions to help the development and revitalization of the two countries, Li said.

The two sides, he added, should maintain close coordination in multilateral areas, implement the outcomes of the China-Central Asia Summit, strengthen cooperation within the United Nations, the SCO and other frameworks, uphold the common interests of the two countries and safeguard international equity and justice.
How did it come to pass that the worlds top diplomat, the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, inadvertently sparked a diplomatic firestorm with his words?

Frida Ghitis - CNN

At a meeting of the UN Security Council on Tuesday, Guterres called the October 7 massacres in which the terrorist group Hamas killed more than 1,400 people in Israel and took hundreds of hostages to underground tunnels in Gaza, appalling, and said that nothing can justify the deliberate killing, injuring and kidnapping of civilians, or the launching of rockets against civilian targets.

But he went on to say, It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum.

Guterres then added a long list of Israeli misdeeds and  perhaps unconsciously expecting the reaction that followed  said, But the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas. And those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people. Excellencies, even war has rules.

To some, in Israel and elsewhere, Guterres words sounded like a thinly veiled justification for Hamas attack on October 7. Israelis were furious, even calling on the secretary general to resign. On Wednesday, Guterres declared himself shocked at how his words were interpreted.

The incident underscores some of the patterns in this awful conflict. If the politics are explosive, diplomacy too, is a minefield. Any word is held up against the light of history, and it resonates with a power that only the most skilled and experienced can fully calibrate.

Its one of the reasons why President Joe Biden, with half a century of experience in the Middle East, has known how to speak to Israelis in a way that allows them to trust him and listen to his advice, while Guterres clumsily created even more problems.

Guterres appeared to fall into one of the other patterns visible since the onslaught by the genocidal Hamas  whose goals are to prevent any peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians and destroying Israel, as its charter asserts. Even as the assault was unfolding, while Israelis were still battling terrorists inside the country, many around the world reflexively, to different degrees, blamed Israel.

In addition, Guterres enumeration of Israels misdeeds followed a favorite practice of Israels critics during the current conflict, acting as if the lack of a peace agreement today were solely Israels fault, contrary to all the historic evidence of Israeli peace offers rejected by Palestinians.

For an experienced diplomat, Guterres failed badly. Even as he tries to clean up the mess, insisting that the hostages must be released and that nothing justifies Hamas barbarity, he apparently fails to notice that saying this did not happen in a vacuum, sounds like an attempt to justify what Hamas did.

His words came on a day when Israel was still enduring rocket attacks and fighting a Hamas effort to infiltrate Israel by sea. It came while Israelis were still trying to identify their dead, still learning about the brutality of the assault, which forensic experts say included burning people alive, killing parents in front of their children and children killed in front of their parents, according to the Israeli Defense Forces.

Barbarity that many in the world have sought to deny, so that Israel brought journalists to see clips that they could barely stand, young women huddling in fear and then being executed, or victims in a state of terror as they wait to be murdered, or covered with bits of their friends and loved ones, loaded into trucks as hostages.

The response by some around the world, blaming Israel after the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, has added to the sense among some Israelis that global opinion will always be tainted by antisemitism. And it can get in the way of diplomatic efforts on legitimate issues, such as how to ease the terrible situation for Gazas civilians without strengthening Hamas.

Israelis, who had been marching against their governments judicial overhaul for nine months before this calamity, will be the first to say that their country has made grievous mistakes in the past. But students of antisemitism see in this 2023 reaction echoes of history.

American-Israeli journalist Yossi Klein Halevi wrote, Blaming Jews for their own suffering is an indispensable part of the history of antisemitism, from the claims that Jews killed Christ to the arguments that Jews brought the Holocaust upon themselves.

None other than Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, explained the Holocaust in those terms just last month, telling Palestinian TV that Hitler fought the Jews because they were dealing in usury and money, and Europeans were against the Jews because of their role in society.

Guterres may not have meant to, but he did take a step toward justifying the massacres, playing right into Israelis mistrust. Its not that he couldnt mention more of whats happening in the region, but it was his it didnt happen in a vacuum that reeks of Hamas apologism.

Unlike Biden, who is no fan of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government, Guterres didnt seem to grasp what this attack signifies to Israel.

Many have called it Israels 9/11, but that is a faulty analogy. Israel is not just confronting a terrorist group. It is facing an organization committed to the destruction of Israel, backed by a nearly-nuclear armed Iran, which also sponsors Hezbollah, a far more heavily armed militia on Israels northern border, also committed to its destruction. Israel, a country one-quarter the size of South Carolina, and smaller than New Hampshire, faces armed enemies on its north and south, both with genocidal designs.

If Guterres, or anyone else, seeks to prevail on Israelis to change their tactics or their strategy, he needs to at least understand that perspective.

While it is true that the current Israeli government has been doing its best to kill the prospects of a two-state solution, that is partly because those who fought for peace over decades saw their efforts thwarted, very often by Palestinian leaders.

At Camp David in 2000, President Bill Clinton brought the sides together, but Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat walked away from a deal within reach. The deal was so good, Clinton wrote, I couldnt believe anyone would be foolish enough to let it go, adding, Arafat never said no; he just couldnt bring himself to say yes.

In 2008, Israels then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, in the final weeks of his premiership before he resigned, offered Palestinians a near total withdrawal of the West Bank, a land link to Gaza, some Jerusalem neighborhoods and international control of the Old City of Jerusalem. Remember my words, Olmert said he told Abbas, It will be 50 years before there will be another Israeli prime minister that will offer you what I am offering you now. Abbas later acknowledged that he had rejected the offer, saying he was not allowed to study the map.

Of course, Israel is not blameless on the stalemate. The far right has opposed giving up land and has aggressively expanded settlements and sabotaged peace. But Guterres wording, at a time when Israelis are still learning about the barbarism by an organization that is opposed to a peace agreement and backed by a powerful country that also seeks to destroy it, struck the wrong note.

Guterres should have known better. And thats putting it diplomatically.

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WARSAW  This wasnt supposed to happen. With sweeping control over state financial resources and public and local media, Polands populist ruling party, Law and Justice (PiS), had a massive structural advantage in this months parliamentary election. It should have won handily and continued consolidating its illiberal, anti-democratic rule.

Instead, PiS confronted a national uprising, winning just over 35% of the vote, while opposition parties won more than 54%. Polands democratic institutions may have been weakened during the years of PiS misrule, but its people have proven more than capable of mobilizing against the threat of an entrenched authoritarianism.

Reaching almost 75%, voter turnout was the highest it has been in Poland since communisms fall. As in 1989, there was a widespread sentiment that this election would be historic. Still, the oppositions sweeping victory seems to have surprised its own leaders as much as PiS, whose leader, Jarosaw Kaczynski, should now be considered politically armed and dangerous. PiS retains control of the instruments of power, including the body that certifies election results.

This, too, is reminiscent of 1989. The authorities have the state apparatus at their disposal, but no democratic mandate, whereas the opposition has a mandate, but no real power. Given PiSs past behavior, it remains to be seen if Poland will need its own Ukrainian-style mass protests to bring down the government  its own Maidan. After all, many PiS elites are credibly suspected of corruption and other crimes, and opposition leaders are under immense public pressure to ensure that they are held accountable.

Read also: Opinion: The geopolitics of EU enlargement

That said, other scenarios are also possible. Kaczynski has reportedly taken the blame for PiSs loss and is now busy trying to convince smaller parties to join PiS in forming a government. All of them immediately refused. Polish President Andrzej Duda , a PiS member, has 30 days from election day before he must convene the Sejm (the parliaments lower house), and he is likely to use them all. He will then give PiS 14 days to try to form a government.

Only if it fails to do so will the opposition have the chance to take power. Meanwhile, files in PiS-staffed offices will be burned, hard drives will be wiped cleaned, and any other evidence will be destroyed.

Knowing that Duda is loyal to him, and that the country could be heading for an economic crisis, Kaczynski may be hoping that opposition parties will succumb to internal disputes. PiS remains Polands strongest party, and Duda will wield a veto that requires a three-fifths parliamentary majority to overrule. Moreover, Poland will have local elections in seven months, followed by the European Parliament election next June, and then a presidential election in 2025. That gives a new coalition government plenty of opportunities to flounder, fracture, or fail.

Moreover, Kaczynskis takeover of Polands judicial machinery during PiSs eight years in power has left the country with two legal orders: one that is still committed to upholding the Constitution, treaties, and international court rulings, and another that is committed only to Kaczynski. For example, around 2,000 defectively appointed judges loyal to PiS have been issuing rulings for years. What can be done about them and their several million judgments?

Similar questions apply to the Constitutional Court, which is currently packed with PiS cronies who were installed in an unconstitutional manner. Even if a new government finds a way to remove all these judges, new ones will have to be appointed by the president.

While this presidential duty is supposed to be merely ceremonial, Duda has abused it in the past and will surely do so again. In fact, on the day after the election results were announced, he hastily appointed 72 more judges in a show of loyalty to Kaczynski

For now, the opposition parties are committed to addressing these thorny issues together, and some have already called for an independent Commission of Law and Justice to oversee investigations into wrongdoing. Unlike in 1989, Polish civil society today is strong. Organizations that have been defending ousted judges and promoting the rule of law for the past eight years are ready to spearhead the process.

Restoration of the rule of law is eagerly awaited not just by the Polish public, but also by the European Union, which has yet to decide whether to release the EU recovery funds that were allocated to Poland during the pandemic. If a new government can introduce credible reforms and restore purged judges to the bench, that may be enough to satisfy the European Commission for now. But enacting these reforms requires overcoming a presidential veto, and it remains to be seen how the new government will manage that, not to mention the challenge of fulfilling the rest of its campaign promises.

Read also: Opinion: Slovak election results threaten Europes united front

Since PiS has locked in large mandatory spending increases, future governments will have only a limited fiscal scope. Polands budget deficit already may be subject to enforcement of EU fiscal rules in 2024. If that happens, it will be virtually impossible to increase spending or pursue any measure that may reduce revenue.

Foreign policy should be more straightforward. Former European Council President Donald Tusk, the obvious choice to serve as prime minister, should travel first to Kyiv and Brussels, since the immediate task is to strengthen and rebuild relations with Ukraine and the EU, respectively. Polands strategic location, economic potential, and demographic heft suggest that it is well equipped to help lead Europe, and with Italy under populist control and Spain preoccupied with itself, Poland can complete a power triangle with Germany and France. This arrangement could also come in handy when the French and the Germans are at odds.

First, though, the opposition must defend its election victory. That means efficiently appointing a new government, defending against foul play from PiS, and offering a plan to address the immediate legal and economic issues. All Europeans have an interest in the new governments success.

Editors Note: Copyright, Project Syndicate. The following article was published by Project Syndicate on Oct. 24, 2023, and has been republished by the Kyiv Independent with permission. 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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Editors Note: Patrick T. Brown is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a conservative think tank and advocacy group based in Washington, DC. He is also a former senior policy adviser to Congress Joint Economic Committee. Follow him on Twitter. The views expressed in this piece are his own. View more opinion on CNN.

The MAGA wing of American conservatism often seems more unified by its enemies than what policies they share. They dislike globalists, a left wing they see as obsessed with race and gender, and Republicans who seem to care more about mainstream approval than fighting for conservative victories.

Patrick T. Brown - Courtesy Patrick T. Brown

But which battles are worth fighting for can sometimes be nebulous. The right flank of the GOP applies its populist impulses in, at times, opposite directions  some want to protect entitlements, others to reform them. Some seek to dismantle the administrative state, others to use it to advance conservative principles. Some Republicans still talk about balancing the budget or ending the Fed, while others want to see investments in industrial policy or pro-family tax incentives.

This fluid swirl of priorities made the intense drama over replacing former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy largely about internal party dynamics rather than any meaningful policy disagreements.

But that doesnt mean Rep. Mike Johnsons elevation as speaker wont have a significant impact on the priorities of the Republican caucus going forward. No one can question his bona fides as a conservatives conservative  which may help different factions of the party feel like their concerns are being heard and keep the thin Republican majority in the House together.

Johnson, who represents the Shreveport, Louisiana, area was a relative unknown before this week, even to political insiders. But he has long been an ally of social conservative groups who see their mission as protecting the unborn from abortion and strengthening traditional family values.

His official website proclaims an appreciation for free markets and free trade agreements, and hits familiar notes around cutting spending and regulations, reducing the scope of government and ensuring America remain[s] the strongest military power on earth.

If McCarthy was willing to wear any number of new skins to position himself as leader of the Republican conference, Johnson cant hide his spots even if he wanted to  a dyed-in-the-wool conservative who stands up for traditional Republican principles even if others in the party wish the GOP would evolve past them.

Just last month, former President Donald Trump was calling Floridas six-week abortion ban, signed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a terrible thing and suggesting hed be willing to compromise on an issue many conservatives see as one of life and death.

National Reviews Noah Rothman reacted to news of Johnsons selection by lamenting Republicans had nominated a speaker who opposes same-sex marriage (as do about two-thirds of self-described conservatives). Buckets of ink have been spilled about the partys increasingly complicated relationship with free trade and limited-government economic policy.

Johnsons selection  at a time when the relationship between social and religious conservatives, establishment-wing Republicans and the MAGA movement had shown signs of fraying  may prove to have long-lasting ramifications. He has introduced bills seeking to prevent public schools from teaching children under 10 about sexuality and gender ideology, to prevent minors from being taken across state lines to procure an abortion without a parents consent and to require men to pay child support during pregnancy.

Having someone with these principles leading the Republican caucus is a strong endorsement that social and religious conservatives are still an important part of the conservative coalition, and that their priorities will be heard.

As many politicians have, Johnson has made some statements that strike many today as tone-deaf. Like many Republicans, he played footsie with conspiracy theorists after the 2020 election and his policy stances on cutting government spending may not be popular with the median voter.

But his principled conservatism may help provide a dose of stability for a caucus that is often divided. (And some of his warnings aptly captured conservative fears, including the worry that the legalization of gay marriage could lead to a legal recognition of polygamy, which some see as increasingly plausible, though legal moves to do so remain on the fringes for now.)

Johnsons long track record in the conservative movement suggests someone interested in using MAGA trappings to advance meaningful policy victories, rather than simply fighting for the sake of the fight.

Other candidates, like Rep. Tom Emmer, who voted for last years bill to codify gay marriage, or Rep. Jim Jordan, who has been a defender of social media companies, may have treated many causes dear to conservative activists with a benign neglect, no matter how Trump-y their rhetoric. It may be a mark of how many fissures run through the GOP caucus that a run-of-the-mill Republican may have been the best choice to lead them through the next few months.

Voters generally tune out most inside-the-beltway drama that doesnt directly impact them, so the odds that McCarthys defenestration and the painful subsequent search for a Speaker candidate that could appeal to enough GOP members will matter next fall are low.

And Johnson, as a four-term Congressman with little in the way of leadership experience, still has a difficult road ahead of him. By the time his name came up, some Congressional Republicans were tired of the process and ready to vote for the lowest common denominator able to fill the Speakers chair. He will have a narrow margin for error. But his credibility with the more fractious elements who pushed McCarthy out may make his job a little easier, starting with the upcoming continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown.

Its tempting to see the last month of Washington drama as not much more than an own goal for Republicans. But Johnsons rock-ribbed, if bland, conservatism might give him some space for some prudential deal-making and strengthen the GOPs hand at the negotiating table. If so, many Republicans will feel like replacing McCarthy was a gamble that paid off.

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Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban once again has stated that the EU's strategy for the Russian-Ukrainian war has failed, and Ukraine will not win on the battlefield.

Source: European Pravda with reference to Orban's interview with the national Hungarian radio, which is quoted by Magyar Nemzet

Quote from Orban: "Today, everyone knows, but does not dare to say, that this strategy (EU strategy  " the Ukrainians must win, the Russians must lose"  ed.) has failed. All military experts say that Ukraine will not win at the front."

Details: He added that Hungary has always taken this position. Orban stated that "Ukraine will not win at the front, the Russians will not lose at the front"; therefore, a "plan B" is needed.

He also believes that there should be changes in the next European elections because the current leaders "cannot cope with this problem".

"They can be good leaders in peacetime, but now, when there is a storm, big waves, pirate ships appear, then changes are needed," Orban said.

The Hungarian Prime Minister has been saying since the start of the full-scale invasion that Ukraine has no chance of winning. In recent days, Orban has come under criticism from EU colleagues because of his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing. However, Orban said he had no plans to apologise for it.

During the meeting, the Hungarian Prime Minister called the war launched by Russia against Ukraine a "military operation".

Kaya Kallas, Estonian Prime Minister, said that at the EU summit on 26 October, other countries called on the leaders of Hungary and Slovakia, who do not want further military support for Ukraine, to think about the consequences of their suggestions.

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FPV drones have destroyed over 60 units of Russian equipment near Avdiivka over the past 14 days, says Mariia Berlinska, founder of the NGO Aerial Reconnaissance Support Center.

Source: Mariia Berlinska on the Ukrainska Pravda talk show

Quote: "Over the past two weeks, over 60 pieces of equipment near Avdiivka have been burned out by drones that we supplied. There is video confirmation of this: these were lightly armoured vehicles, tanks and so on. So Im encouraging our fellow citizens to donate specifically for drones."

Details: Berlinska noted that Ukrainian FPV drones restrain many of the Russians actions. Just one of these drones, costing US$500-600, can burn out a Russian tank or infantry fighting vehicle.

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Smoke is seen over Beit Hanoun in the Gaza Strip as result of an Israeli attack on October 27, 2023. Credit - Amir LevyGetty Images

Palestinians are experiencing a total communication blackout in Gaza, according to civil society groups and journalists on the ground. Israel's military said Friday that it was "expanding" its ground operations in Gaza.

In a recent news report, an Al Jazeera English correspondent expressed fear over the blackout, which has affected internet, cellular and landline services:

Please guys if you can hear us send the message to the world we are isolated now in Gaza. Again guys if you can hear us ... we are isolated in the territory. We don't have any phone signals. We dont have any internet connections...We just only hear bombardment. We dont have any kind of access of communication to anyone. Everyone now is really terrified and afraid. Journalists here and even the civilians here who are inside the hospital they dont have any access to the networks."

Read More: Biden Cast Doubt on Gazas Death Toll. Palestinian Officials Responded With 6,747 Names

Our correspondent in his last report as Israel imposed total blackout. "Please guys if you can hear us send the message to the world we are isolated now in Gaza. Again guys if you can hear us ... we are isolated we don't have phone signals or tech connections.." pic.twitter.com/Oo1cfTLuj2  Gabriel Elizondo (@elizondogabriel) October 27, 2023

Before the blackout, the channel was showing intense bombing in northern Gaza.

The Palestine Red Crescent, which provides emergency medical services, said in a statement Friday that they completely lost contact with the operations room in the Gaza Strip due to the Israeli authorities cutting off all landline, cellular and internet communications.

The Red Crescent is particularly concerned about the inability to provide emergency medical services because they can no longer receive emergency calls alerting them of crises. This hinders the arrival of ambulance vehicles to the wounded and injured, they said.

The U.K. based Medical Aid for Palestinians also tweeted that telephone and internet communications with Gaza appear to be shut or and they cannot reach their colleagues.

And the Washington Post is reporting that it cannot reach colleagues in Gaza.

Read More: The Harrowing Work Facing Gaza Doctors in Wartime

Israeli attacks have killed more than 6,850 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, which operates out of the West Bank. Hospitals are on the verge of losing fuel needed to keep many patients alive. The World Health Organization reported earlier this week that more than one-third of the city's hospitals are no longer operating.

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Dr. Omar Abdel-Mannan, a British-Egyptian senior pediatric neurology resident in London who has been in touch with Palestinian doctors in Gaza, says he is particularly concerned about threats to the city's biggest hospital. (Israel has claimed Hamas is operating in that territory.)

"We fear this is the pretense for an immediate ground invasion, which will result in mass casualties on a scale we haven't witnessed yet," Abdel-Mannan said.

Write to Sanya Mansoor at sanya.mansoor@time.com.
WASHINGTON, DC - AUGUST 21: Male giant panda Xiao Qi Ji eats an ice cake for his second birthday at the Smithsonian National Zoo on August 21, 2022 in Washington, DC. Xiao Qi Ji is the fourth surviving cub of pandas Mei Xiang and Tian Tian. This year the National Zoo is marking 50 years since the first giant pandas came to DC. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

The pandas at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, D.C. will be returning to China sooner than expected, according to a tweet from the zoo that said they'll be headed back in mid-November.

The pandas were originally expected to leave by early December, according to a news release from the zoo. But a tweet from the zoo moved that deadline up, in line with a three-year contract the zoo has with the China Wildlife Conservation.

Giant pandas Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and Xiao Qi Ji will leave for China by mid-November. Make sure to plan your visit or tune in online to the Giant Panda Cam for your panda fix.    https://t.co/GayMiE3riw pic.twitter.com/ngxPS76Cx7  National Zoo (@NationalZoo) October 25, 2023

Mei Xiang, Tian Tian, and Xiao Qi Ji's departure comes after zoos in Memphis and San Diego have already returned their pandas to China. The Atlanta Zoo pandas Ya Lun and Xi Lun will go back at the beginning of 2024, according to a news release by the zoo.

When that happens, it will be the first time since 1972 the U.S. will not have pandas.

Why are the pandas leaving?

In 1972, the U.S. was given its first panda by China, after President Richard Nixon normalized relations with China. The gift of pandas from China was a practice that some have dubbed "panda diplomacy."

Negotiations between the zoo and China to extend the contract have yet to be successful, amid talk from "China-watchers" that Beijing is slowly pulling its pandas from Western nations due to declining relations with the U.S. and other countries, according to AP. Britain will also lose its pandas from the Edinburgh Zoo in December due to new contracts not being renewed, the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland said.

Where can you say your goodbyes to pandas in the U.S.?

The Washington D.C National Zoo offers free entry passes, according to their website. The passes allow entry from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The zoo also has a 24-hour live stream called the Giant Panda Cam, where you can switch between two cameras and view all three pandas living in their enclosure.

The Atlanta Zoo pandas Ya Lun and Xi Lun will be here until the beginning of next year. People can buy tickets on the zoo's website and view their Panda Cam to say their final goodbyes.

Includes reporting from The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: The pandas at the National Zoo will leave earlier than expected
The council has set up a community fund to pay for the free school meals pilot

Parents are to be consulted on plans to provide free school meals to all of York's primary school children.

The proposal is part of the city council's pledge to "start the journey to becoming an anti-poverty city within a decade".

Councillor Bob Webb said the authority would speak with parents at Westfield Primary to hear their worries about food provision and prices.

The council has set up a community fund to pay for the free school meals pilot.

Mr Webb, executive member for children, young people and education, said: "We are all too aware of the impacts of the cost of living crisis for large numbers of York residents, and of the impact of austerity on young people in our schools, and we were elected on a promise to support families through these tough times."

He added: "Making sure we do free school meals the right way, by working with schools, children, parents and the wider school community, is essential if we are going to get the very best from a pilot."

Since September 2014, state funded schools in England have been required by law to provide free lunches to pupils in reception, Year 1 and Year 2, who are not otherwise entitled to benefits-related free school meals.

York's plan would see free school meals given to all other primary year groups.

Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.
Paris Hilton was overly prepared just in case something were to happen to her wedding dress on her big day.

In an interview with British Vogue published on Thursday 26 October, the heiress said she was sent a total of 45 wedding dresses as options for her to wear during her wedding to Carter Reum in November 2021. However, 39 of them ended up going unworn.

I actually wore six dresses when I did my wedding. It was because I had literally had 45 of them," Hilton told the outlet. My stylist was getting calls from designers all around the world. Everyone was so excited to be a part of this wedding, that they all made these incredible custom dresses.

Hilton said I do to her husband on 11 November 2021. For the occasion, the heiress and TV star wore a white lace gown by Oscar de la Renta. But throughout the three-day wedding party, Hilton also wore another Oscar de la Renta dress in addition to a Galia Lahav gown and a Pamella Roland design.

Hiltons other two dresses were not worn until the second and third days of the wedding celebrations.

Despite her wide array of dresses to choose from, Paris explained that she knew exactly which designer she wanted to walk down the aisle in. I knew right away that I wanted to walk down the aisle in Oscar [de la Renta], she told British Vogue. Hilton was inspired by 1930s actress Grace Kellys fashion sense, saying, I wanted something that was really princess that had like 3-D flowers on it.

And that is exactly what she wore. The dress featured a high neckline with long sleeves that were covered in flowers. Hilton completed her look with a netted veil and diamond earrings.

After the nuptials, she changed into gown number two by Galia Lahav, which was an off-the-shoulder tulle dress with a corset. Her third dress was the second Oscar de la Renta dress with a ruched top and more fit for partying on the dance floor as it had a mini skirt.

Dress number four was made by Pamella Roland and covered in both sequins and pearls with a deep neck-line.

The final two dresses were a Marchesa gown and another Oscar de la Renta dress. Hilton wore these dresses on day two of her wedding party, which was filled with family and friends.

Now, the couple is only two weeks away from celebrating their two-year anniversary. Just last month, the reality TV star and socialite shared a series of throwback photos of the couple with her 24.5 million Instagram followers for their 45-month anniversary.

The two had originally met when they were in their twenties but they did not become romantically involved until late 2019 when Reums sister, Halle Hammond, invited them both over for Thanksgiving that year.

When they reconnected, Hilton told People they had this incredible chemistry and had their first date soon after. Reum and Hilton made their first public appearance as a couple at the 2020 Golden Globes afterparty.

Reum proposed in February 2021 while the pair were on a private island for Hiltons 40th birthday. They were married in a lavish Los Angeles wedding ceremony on 11 November of that same year and celebrated with a neon carnival-themed afterparty.
The decision of the new government of Slovakia to stop supplying Ukraine with military aid concerns only military supplies, not commercial sales.

Source: Peter Pellegrini , speaker of Slovakias Parliament whose party is in the coalition with the political force of Robert Fico, as reported by European Pravda with reference to the Reuters agency

Pellegrini stated that he was in favour of resuming commercial sales of armaments to Ukraine.

"If someone orders and pays for these systems, then that is support for Slovak industry,"  he said.

Germany, Denmark and Norway stated a year ago that they would buy 16 Slovak Zuzana-2 howitzers.

Earlier the Prime Minister of Slovakia claimed he would not support military aid for Ukraine as it would be better "if they negotiate peace for 10 years rather than kill each other for 10 years without any result".

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Chinese Premier Li Qiang meets with Iran's First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber on the sidelines of the 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Oct. 26, 2023. [Photo/Xinhua]

China stands ready to strengthen communication and coordination with Iran within the United Nations, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), BRICS and other multilateral mechanisms, practice true multilateralism, and safeguard the common interests of developing countries, Chinese Premier Li Qiang said in Bishkek on Thursday.

Li made the remarks when meeting with Iran's First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber on the sidelines of the 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the SCO Member States.

Since the establishment of China-Iran diplomatic ties more than 50 years ago, bilateral relations have withstood the test of the fluctuating international situation and made steady progress, said Li, noting that President Xi Jinping and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi met twice this year and reached a series of important consensuses.

Li added that China is ready to work with Iran to implement the important consensuses reached by the two heads of state, enrich the connotation of the China-Iran comprehensive strategic partnership and bring more benefits to the two peoples.

China will continue to firmly support Iran in safeguarding its national sovereignty, territorial integrity, and national dignity, and will strongly oppose any external forces interfering in Iran's internal affairs, he stressed.

The two sides should implement the comprehensive cooperation plan between the two countries, promote the Belt and Road cooperation, strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields and cultural and people-to-people exchanges in such areas as education, culture, tourism and think tanks, and promote new achievements in China-Iran cooperation, Li said.
Patrick Dempsey has shared his devastated reaction to the mass shooting in his hometown of Lewiston, Maine.

The manhunt to catch shooting suspect Robert Card is now in its third day after the gunman opened fire on civilians, killing 18 people and injuring 13 others.

The Greys Anatomy star, 57, posted a statement on Instagram on Thursday (26 October), writing: I am shocked, and deeply saddened by last nights tragedy in my hometown, Lewiston, Maine.

Maines great strength is its sense of community, and now we are being asked to come together to support everyone that has been devastated by this senseless act.

My family and I are heartbroken for their victims, their families, and the community, the actor concluded.

The 40-year-old gunman, who served as a firearms instructor in the US Army Reserve, first targeted the Just-in-Time Recreation bowling alley and then the Schemengees Bar & Grille in Lewiston before going on the run.

He recently disclosed mental health issues, citing experiences of auditory hallucinations, including hearing voices and threats to shoot up the National Guard Base in Saco, according to a Maine law enforcement bulletin seen by the Associated Press.

Lewiston is also the home of the Dempsey Centre, which the Enchanted actor opened in 2008 in honour of his late mother, who suffered several bouts of ovarian cancer before her death in 2014.

The medical facility provides personalised and comprehensive cancer care at no cost, according to its website.

Following news of the shooting, US comedians Pete Davidson and John Mulaney cancelled their shows in the Maine town, which were scheduled for this weekend.

We are devastated by the events in Lewiston, Mulaneys statement read. Shows scheduled for this weekend in Maine on Saturday, 10/28 and Sunday, 10/29 have been postponed. We are thinking of you all.

Parts of Maine, like Lewiston and Bowdoin, are under shelter-in-place advisories, as the community is rattled by the tragedy  and waits for Card to be caught. Police said he should be considered armed and dangerous.

He is believed to be carrying a high-powered assault-style rifle and possibly extra ammunition. Investigators are still on the hunt for Card, as of Thursday afternoon.

You can follow The Independents live coverage of the manhunt here.
Flu season is quickly approaching.

While influenza cases in Sedgwick County are considered low, with less than 1% of hospital visits being influenza related, experts are saying that the peak of flu season might be early this year, according to Bev Bruce, preventative health associate director with the Sedgwick County Health Department.

While the peak is usually seen in January, experts say that the peak of the flu season could be as early as November or December. In fact, Sedgwick County recorded its first reports of flu in early September, when theyre usually reported around October or November.

The flu vaccine is recommended for anyone six months and older. Looking at national data, 78% of flu cases were reported to be Influenza A and 22% were influenza B, Bruce said.

All the viruses the CDC have type matched have matched the vaccine, Bruce said.

If youre planning on getting the flu shot ahead of the peak, now would be a good time to do so. Heres what to know about the flu vaccine in Sedgwick County.

Where do I get the flu shot in Sedgwick County?

Bruce said the health department first recommends to contact your pharmacy doctor or your primary care physician for the flu shot. You can also use Vaccine.govs flu shot locator to see providers near you.

For those who are uninsured, the countys health department provides shots for both children and adults. They also provide the shots to those with Medicaid, Aetna Better Health, UnitedHealthcare or Sunflower. Those who qualify can get their flu shot at the countys main clinic, at 2716 W. Central.

While the flu shot reduces the risk of catching influenza, it is not 100% effective in preventing the virus. If you start to get symptoms of Influenza, its best to stay home when ill to prevent spreading it. Flu symptoms include, according to US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

Fever

Cough

Headaches

Fatigue

Stuffy or runny nose

The best way to prevent the flu is to wash your hands and stay home when sick, Bruce said.

Can I get my COVID booster with the flu shot?

Yes. Anyone who wants to get the COVID booster can get it at the same appointment as the flu shot, Bruce said.

The new COVID booster was first approved in September and was made to target the most current strains of COVID-19.

You can call your pharmacy doctor or primary care physician to set up an appointment to receive the vaccine. You can also get it at Walgreens by visiting Walgreens.com/ScheduleVaccine, or book an online appointment at CVS.

Uninsured individuals or those with Medicaid/Kancare of CHIP can set up an appointment with the Sedgwick County Health Department by calling 316-660-7300.
Khalida Nawaf Ilyas spoke in a soft voice during the opening session of the Global Youth Summit for Freedom of Religion or Belief on Oct. 19-20 online via Zoom. She described terrifying memories from 10 years ago, when she was 20, and her Yazidi community in the Sinjar area of northern Iraq was attacked by ISIS.

I remember the voices of the children and mothers when they were crying. I remember the voices of my people when they were asking for help.

Like a nightmare that came true, this experience led to the death of thousands of men in her minority religious community, and at least 6,800 women captured by ISIS  many still unaccounted for. As of today, hundreds of thousands of refugee Yazidis are still forcibly displaced and living in tents away from their homeland  waiting for our brothers and sisters to be rescued.

One man who describes himself as Sufi lives not far away from the site of that tragedy in northern Iraq. He explained at the same event what drives his desire to promote peace and justice in the area: I believe we are all made in the image of God.

These were two of the opening remarks kicking off this global summit on Oct. 19, with 530 people joining online from 77 different countries  representing dozens of different religions, as well as participants from nonreligious, humanist communities.

This inaugural summit was organized jointly by the First Freedom Foundation, the International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance, or IRFBA, and Boat People SOS.

The events planning committee was led by a Latter-day Saint woman, Patrice Pederson, president of the First Freedom Foundation, who was joined by a number of others, including Fiona Bruce, chair of IRFBA and the Prime Ministers Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief in the U.K.

Some of these people attending here today look like your persecutors, Pederson then said to the entire assembled group, while some of you look like someone elses persecutor.

But we are here to model the kind of world we want to live in  one in which there is freedom of religion or belief for all and in which we treat each other with respect that acknowledges, as some of us might say, the divinity within us.

Compared with a more traditional speaker-centered convening, this 25-hour event leveraged Open Space Technology, which allows participants to shape the conference agenda, by creating discussion topics and then self-selecting into different conversations.

Sessions included discussions on stopping genocide, how to help FoRB refugees (an acronym for Freedom of Religion and Belief), and how to protect FoRB leaders as human rights defenders. There were explorations of unique challenges and opportunities for FoRB in India and South Asia, the Pacific Region, Nigeria, West Balkans and Latin America.

Other discussions focused on how to raise awareness at the grassroots, and through mass media, with training available for how to work with journalists to report violations against FoRB.

One unique session explored how to improve relationships between people of faith and atheists  with another focused on reconciling FoRB and seemingly intractable identity conflicts.

Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, who is communications director for Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty and author of Just Faith: Reclaiming Progressive Christianity, led a session on how LGBTQ+ rights and religious freedom are not necessarily incompatible.

The diversity of attendees was striking. One participant from Mexico was a Buddhist monk whose husband is Muslim, her mother Latter-day Saint, father Catholic, and her husbands family evangelical.

Latter-day Saints participants include a returned missionary from Cambodia, an intern for the International Panel of Parliamentarians for Freedom of Religion or Belief in the U.K. parliament, a young adult from Brazil who currently lives in Idaho, and a Peruvian living in Canada.

Five hundred-thirty people from 77 different countries attended the 2023 Global Youth Summit for Freedom of Religion or Belief online. | Global Youth Summit

There were also close to two dozen Latter-day Saint mentors signed up to help, with members of the Church of Jesus Christ supporting from six different continents  including Cole Durham, the founder of BYUs International Center for Law and Religion Studies, who logged in from Berlin at 12:30 a.m. his time.

If we really want to achieve freedom of religion or belief in the world, we have to turn this movement into a mass movement, said Merv Thomas, founder and president of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, and chair of the U.K. FoRB Forum. And to turn it into a mass movement, we need young people.

This was a focus of the gathering, with organizers receiving hundreds of emails from young people around the world expressing appreciation for the event. Pederson spoke with emotion about the contrast between the persecution they experience and the hope they express in the emails.

Despite heavy recruitment, there were only a couple dozen participants from all of North and South America  reflected in the conference lull after Europe and Africa went to bed.

Even so, one participant in Jos, Nigeria, was determined to attend the full 25 hours of the event  but had his battery die around 5 a.m. his time. Before leaving, he expressed appreciation for connecting with people out there who care about us.

This is a defining moment in the global challenge to promote religion and belief, said Frank Wolf, a former congressman from Virginia and current commissioner of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Wolf was also the author of the International Religious Freedom Act, which passed exactly 25 years ago on Friday, Oct. 27, which elevated religious freedom as a higher priority in U.S. foreign policy. Many consider this act to be the beginning of the global religious freedom movement.

Wolf reminded participants of a sobering 2023 USCIRF report aggregating mounting restrictions on religious freedom across many countries in the world.

Wolf emphasized that the cries of the persecuted were too often met with deafening silence  which encourages wrongdoers to continue.

You may choose to look the other way  but you can never say again that you do not know, he said, quoting William Wilberforce.

But there were brighter days ahead, attendees believed  with many discussions about what more could be done. The former congressman expressed his hope that one day everyone could live without fear for their belief.

This was a hope uniting everyone participating in the summit, no matter what it takes to get there.

Jacob Hess is a contributing writer for the Deseret News and the former editor of Public Square Magazine. Hes the coauthor of Youre Not as Crazy as I Thought (But Youre Still Wrong) and The Power of Stillness: Mindful Living for Latter-day Saints.
A pet dog helped the Arlington Police Department arrest a 36-year-old burglary suspect who was hiding under a tarp on Thursday according to a social media post.

Just before 8 p.m., police heard from a homeowner who said they had discovered an unknown male who escaped out the back door when they had returned home.

After hearing the suspects description from the homeowner, officers arrived at the 500 block of North French Avenue.

They soon realized that the burglary suspect had entered the house by breaking through the doggy door.

As law enforcement searched the area, they heard from another caller who said they were walking their dog when the pet started barking at a yard off the alley between North French and North Dunham Ave.

The person then told police that they suspected someone was hiding somewhere in the yard.

Police then arrived at the yard and found the same suspect hiding under a tarp. Officers arrested the 36-year-old man.

A detached jacket hood found at the house also matched the jacket that the suspect was wearing.

The Arlington Police Department commends the quick thinking and cooperation of the homeowner and the vigilant citizen who reported the suspicious activity. Their actions were instrumental in successfully resolving this burglary case, and their commitment to public safety is greatly appreciated, said a spokesperson. This case highlights the importance of community engagement and the role that vigilant citizens play in ensuring public safety.

The Arlington Police Department is urging residents to stay vigilant and report any suspicious activity

By working together, we can continue to ensure the safety and security of our community. If you see something, say something  your actions can make a significant difference, said a spokesperson.

If any public member has additional information regarding this investigation, they are encouraged to call the Arlington Police Department at (360) 403-3400 and reference Case #2023-21583




A lawyer representing the family of Gabby Petitos parents filed a motion on Thursday evening seeking to force the testimony of an attorney for the family of Brian Laundrie. Petito was found dead from strangulation in Wyoming in September 2021. Her family now want to know what Laundrie, her fiance, told his lawyer Steven Bertolino after her death. The motion demanding Bertolinos testimony attached the letter discovered in Laundries notebook after his suicide in which he confessed to killing Petito. Her family say the confession means that attorney-client privilege was waived by the client, the documents say. Part of our case is our allegation that the Laundries and Bertolino knew Gabby was deceased and where her body was located, Pat Reilly, an attorney for the Petito family, told WFLA. I believe Brian Laundrie told Bertolino both of those things. The Petito family have accused both Bertolino and the Laundries of knowing that Petito was dead and where she was buried when they released a statement saying they hope that Gabrielle Petito would be reunited with her family, according to the documents.

Read it at WFLA

Read more at The Daily Beast.
Pfizer, the drug manufacturing giant and one of the Triangles largest employers, confirmed Friday it will shutter two Triangle area facilities as part of a broader $3.5 billion cost-saving initiative.

Pfizer did not disclose how many jobs will be impacted. In an email to The News & Observer that All job-related decisions will be made with transparency, compassion, and respect, and in compliance with applicable laws.

Under federal law, employers must file a WARN Notice 60 days ahead of closing a site that impacts at least 50 employees. Pfizer has not filed a notice of layoffs according to the N.C. Department of Commerce website.

The Durham closure comes only two years after Pfizer opened that site as part of $66 million investment by the company. The 85,000-square-foot facility focused on gene therapy treatments. This site was expected to add 50 jobs and relocate around 40 workers from Chapel Hill.

On Oct. 13, Pfizer announced it would undergo a multiyear plan to save $3.5 billion, including $1 billion by the end of this year. The company also lowered its yearly revenue forecast due to lower-than-expected sales of its COVID-19 vaccine. Last year, Pfizer reported record revenue fueled by coronavirus vaccine sales.

On Friday, the company said it continues to operate its largest North Carolina facilities in Rocky Mount and Sanford.

According to Wake County Economic Development, Pfizer was among the 20 largest employers in the Triangle region at the start of 2023, with approximately 3,700 workers.

As of Friday evening, multiple Triangle-based Pfizer employees had added the hashtag OpenToWork on their LinkedIn profiles.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips has officially launched his longshot bid for the presidency, breaking dramatically from his own party by taking a stand against President Joe Biden 's re-election run.

Phillips started the campaign roll-out late Thursday and filed for New Hampshire's presidential primary Friday. He joyfully made his way to his campaign bus Friday morning on one of the most politically consequential days of his career and said "it's time for change. It's time for people with different perspectives, different backgrounds, different political perspectives, to come together."

Not long after, Phillips more directly confronted Biden's status.

"The only person helping Donald Trump right now, I'm afraid, is President Biden, and that is the problem," Phillips told reporters. "He is one of the only Democrats who I believe can lose the next election, and that's why I believe we need competition."

The third-term congressman's presidential ambitions stem from his concern that Democrats need an alternative to Biden in the 2024 primary race amid polling showing warnings for the incumbent.

There's already worry among Democrats that Phillips' run will hurt Biden's chances. Others say they don't see a path for Phillips to win.

"He has no chance of a snowball in hell," said Joe Trippi, who has worked on several presidential campaigns and was Democrat Howard Dean's campaign manager in 2004.

In response to Phillips' launch, Kevin Munoz, a spokesman for Biden's re-election campaign, said in an email the president has solid support "from across the Democratic party."

"The stakes of next year's election could not be higher for the American people, and the campaign is hard at work mobilizing the winning coalition that President Biden can uniquely bring together to once again beat the MAGA Republicans next November," Munoz said.

The likelihood that former President Trump could become the GOP nominee in the 2024 general election raises the stakes even higher for Democrats.

"If you have any conversation of a primary, you will have to communicate why you think the sitting president shouldn't be elected," said Michael Blake, a former Obama White House aide and previous Democratic National Committee vice chair. "So you're creating messaging and creating confusion when we don't need that."

The lonely stand Phillips has taken within his own party has alienated him from allies. And in early October, Phillips confirmed he was leaving his House Democratic leadership post.

Phillips' calls for a Democratic Biden challenger this summer was met with public pushback from allies of the president. Those voices are only expected to grow louder now that Phillips has begun his campaign.

Phillips comes from wealth, estimating his own net worth at around $50 million, and was a businessman before entering politics. He's heir to the Phillips Distilling Co. liquor fortune and helped launch the successful gelato brand Talenti. He said he's loaning his presidential campaign $2 million and will start making small-donor calls to fund the campaign going forward.

The Minnesotan's campaign faced an early mishap. After announcing his presidential run Thursday night on X, the former Twitter, the same account was labeled by the company as suspended early Friday.

Phillips has launched an official website, Dean24.com, in which he describes his campaign as "built on joy and bringing people together." But on social media Friday, Phillips' campaign adviser Steve Schmidt appeared to lash out at Democratic U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, insinuating without evidence that she was the source behind an unflattering story published about Phillips on Friday.

"I'm going to use some psychic powers to try to guess the embittered source. Could it be a Category 5 mean girl who eats salad with a comb?" Schmidt posted on X.

Schmidt was referencing a 2019 story about Klobuchar that described a time when the senator reportedly ate a salad with a comb after berating an aide for forgetting utensils.

A spokesperson for Klobuchar responded Friday to Schmidt's claim that she was behind the story about Phillips, calling it "an outright lie."

An uphill climb

Biden would be 82 at the time of a second inauguration. The map for Phillips, 54, to defeat Biden in a primary contest is difficult, if not impossible. While Phillips could try to make a case for generational change, his political differences from Biden are slim to none and the Minnesotan has backed Biden's work as president.

"We appreciate the [congressman's] almost 100 percent support of this president as he's moved forward with some really important key legislative priorities for the American people," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday.

Even in the most promising conditions, recent American political history shows that intraparty challenges to sitting presidents end in failure for the challenger.

Phillips has a conceivable path to victory in New Hampshire because Biden has chosen not to appear on the state's primary ballot. Biden strongly supports the Democratic National Committee's reshuffled order of state presidential primaries, which places South Carolina ahead of New Hampshire. And New Hampshire is defying the DNC by seeking to still hold its primary first.

That means the only Democrats on New Hampshire's primary ballot could be Phillips, author Marianne Williamson and other lesser-known candidates. Some Democrats in New Hampshire are expected to soon announce a write-in campaign for Biden.

"I want to speak for the exhausted majority in America. The people who know that we have reached a point where we have got to stop the nonsense," Phillips told reporters as the day began.

Phillips gave a speech in Concord after filing for president in front of a sparse audience. Yet even before he spoke, Phillips had caught the attention of one New Hampshire voter.

"Well I'm going to vote for Phillips in the primary," said Susan Seidner, a 68-year-old retired teacher. "Because Biden is not even registered in our primary."

In addition to South Carolina, the other early state primaries are expected to include Nevada and Michigan. Phillips missed the deadline for the Nevada primary, and South Carolina is the state that essentially resurrected Biden's 2020 presidential primary effort by giving him an overwhelming victory.

"You've got a preview of what to expect of anybody who runs against Biden in South Carolina back in 2020," said influential South Carolina Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, whose support for Biden ahead of that year's state primary was seen as key. "It'll be a repeat."

Running for president does not necessarily prevent Phillips from changing course in the coming months and running instead for re-election to his congressional seat. The filing deadline in Minnesota for Congress isn't until early June. But Minnesota DNC member Ron Harris has already announced a run for Phillips' seat. Harris has also made clear he strongly supports Biden's 2024 campaign.

Fellow Democrats in Congress haven't been shy about pushing back against Phillips as it became clear he was going to enter the presidential race. Florida Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz called Phillips a friend and "tremendous congressman" earlier this month but said that "no one should be primarying Joe Biden."

"We need to be unifying behind Joe Biden to take on Donald Trump, who is an existential threat to the country," said Moskowitz.
(Bloomberg) -- Li Keqiang s sudden death at 68, just months after stepping down as premier, has led to an outpouring of grief on Chinese social media.

Most Read from Bloomberg

For a decade, Li served as Chinas second-most powerful man. He became the countrys first premier with an economics doctorate after losing out on the top job to President Xi Jinping , steering the worlds No. 2 economy with his liberal economic vision. His career in politics came to an end in March, when Xi replaced him with a key ally, Li Qiang , as part of a leadership shakeup.

A rising star in the Communist Party, Li saw strong support from party elders. But his influence diminished as the role of premiership lost power in both political stature and direct authority, as Xi cemented his power and took greater oversight of the economy. Heres a look back at the key moments in his political career.

A member of the Communist Youth League, Li was a top lieutenant of former Premier Wen Jiabao and seen as a protege of former President Hu Jintao. During the Cultural Revolution, Li was sent to work in the countryside of Anhui province, where he was born, spending several years doing manual labor while becoming his units party branch secretary.

He served as as party chief in the provinces of Henan and Liaoning. His tenure in Henan was marked by both strong growth and a scandal over tainted blood donations that resulted in an HIV outbreak among the provinces rural residents.

In Liaoning, the policy wonk would become known for his use of high-frequency indicators, such as electricity consumption, rail cargo volume and bank loans, as proxies for growth. The Economist subsequently created the Li Keqiang Index to measure Chinas economic growth.

After losing out to Xi in 2012 for the chance to rule the Communist Party, Li built a policy platform based on cutting red tape and taxes on business. At the following years National Peoples Congress, he pledged to reduce the states powers, remarking the hand that was wrongly installed on the government shall be replaced by the hand of the market. Earlier in his tenure, he cracked down on extravagant spending to rein in an economy dependent on investment, and his policies were dubbed Likonomics by economists.

Li oversaw the economy during the pandemic, frequently urging local officials to balance Covid controls with economic growth. The message seemed to run counter to Xis Covid Zero policy, leading to speculation of a rift between the two leaders.

With a reputation as a man of the people, Li was lauded on Chinese social media after a visit to flood-stricken Chongqing. Images spread online showing him standing in mud and checking on crops. Another pillar of his economic policy that resonated with people was closing the countrys wealth gap.

At his final press conference after the National People's Congress in 2022, Li vowed to press ahead with reform and opening. I would like to unequivocally tell you that China will unswervingly expand opening-up no matter how the international situation changes, just like how the Yangtze River and the Yellow River will not flow backwards. He repeated the analogy again when he visited Shenzhen five months later, the tech hub seen as the symbol of China's reform and opening up.

--With assistance from Xiao Zibang.

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An off-duty Alaska Airlines pilot who suffered a mental breakdown mid-flight and tried to shut off the engine, endangering more than 80 lives, is partially basing his defense on the fact that he ingested magic mushrooms 48 hours before the flight.

Joseph Emerson, 44, was riding as passenger in the cockpits jump seat on Alaskan Airlines flight 2059 from Washington state to San Francisco when he tried to disable the engines somewhere over Oregon. He was restrained by the flight crew and the plane made an emergency landing in Portland.

Emerson appeared in a state court there on Tuesday afternoon, where he pleaded not guilty to 83 charges of attempted murder and one count of endangering an aircraft.

Opinion

According to court documents, Emerson told authorities he was having a mental crisis and had been depressed for the past six months. He also told police that he had taken magic mushrooms for the first time about 48 hours before boarding.

But psilocybin and psilocin  the magic in those shrooms  simply arent the boogeymen theyre often made out to be, and anyone who says differently is likely unaware of the depth of research thats been done in recent years.

The naturally occurring hallucinogens found in certain mushroom varieties dont last 48 hours, nor do they typically induce homicidal actions, like trying to kill a plane full of people. Peak effects occur about two to three hours after ingestion.

In fact its much more likely that Emersons lack of sleep contributed more to his breakdown than the psychedelics that he ate more than two days before. Emerson reportedly told authorities that he hadnt slept in more than 40 hours, and researchers at Columbia Universitys Department of Psychiatry have said that sleep deprivation studies show even otherwise healthy people have experienced increased anxiety and distress following periods of poor sleep.

Joseph Emerson, 44, was arraigned in Multnomah County Circuit Court on Tueday. Emerson, a pilot, is accused of attempting to disable the engines of an Alaskan Airlines plane on which he was riding while off-duty.

Sleep problems can also contribute to the onset and worsening of different mental health problems, including depression, anxiety, and even suicidal ideation, states the department on its website.

According to scientists at the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics, psilocybin  in combination with therapy  can alleviate depression and anxiety in cancer patients and provide relief from substance abuse disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder. Some research has shown it may also help treat the eating disorder anorexia and the psychological distress that can accompany neurodegenerative diseases, like dementia.

Ironically, Oregon, where Flight 2059 was diverted for its emergency landing, is the first U.S. state to have decriminalized psychedelic medicine. Colorado was the second, and California was very nearly the third  until Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed the Senate Bill 38 earlier this month.

Sen. Scott Wiener, who introduced the legislation, told the Los Angeles Times that the states current laws and tracking methods unfairly lumps psychedelics in with other controlled substances like meth and heroin, despite the fact that psychedelics are not addictive.

The legislation would have decriminalized adults possessing and using psychedelic mushrooms and DMT, also known as dimethyltryptamine, the key ingredients in the psychedelic brew known as ayahuasca. SB 58 would have applied to people 21 or older, and did not allow for the transfer or sale of psilocybin, psilocin or DMT.

Newsom said in his veto statement that he declined to approve the legislation in part because it would have decriminalized possession prior to  guidelines going into place.

But around the world, hundreds of new and ongoing research studies and clinical trials are testing how psychedelic substances interact with our bodies and exploring the possible benefits of therapies on physical health, according to the Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics website.

New studies are also focusing on how psychedelics affect general behavior, mood, cognition and brain function and health, and are using psychedelics as tools to better understand fundamental properties of the mind and brain, their website states.

Psychotropic therapies have already proven to be beneficial for veterans and people who live with severe depression and anxiety, but the American public  as evidenced by Newsoms political punt earlier this year and Emersons defense logic  still see them as big, bad, scary drugs.

California could have been at the forefront of research into this therapy that stands to help millions recover from serious and debilitating mental illness.

As someone who suffers from severe anxiety and depression myself, the possibility of someday being able to get off selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (also known as SSRIs) is a breathtakingly hopeful thought. I would try psychotropic therapy in a heartbeat if there was an opportunity to do so. But, for me and for now, those opportunities are extremely limited.

Still, California may have the last word on this yet, as two potential ballot initiatives are circulating that would legalize certain psychedelics  including psilocybin and psilocin  and provide $5 billion in funding for research. The first would create a state agency to regulate psychedelic medicines, while the second would specifically decriminalize the cultivation, manufacture, processing, distribution, transportation, possession, storage, sale and personal use of psilocybin mushrooms. Neither initiative has yet to qualify for the ballot, but they may reflect the publics emerging political interest in challenging a long-held status quo.

But in the meantime, attaching Emersons inexplicable actions on this Alaska Airlines flight to his use of psilocybin is a red herring, and stands against all scientific evidence to the contrary. Such a sad anecdote serving as any kind of evidence will only serve to stoke the publics irrational fears around safe drug use.

Dont blame this incident on magic mushrooms. Blame it on a backward society that sees severe mental health  and the therapies used to treat it  as something shameful.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal held a meeting with Natalka Cmoc, the recently-appointed ambassador of Canada to Ukraine, Shmyhal shared on social media on Oct. 27.

The two discussed strengthening economic cooperation and investment from Canada, Shmyhal said, and "agreed to organize a visit of a Canadian business delegation to Ukraine."

Cmoc was appointed as ambassador in August 2023 and officially began her duties after she presented credentials to President Volodymyr Zelenskyi on Sept. 27.

"We continue to strengthen and develop close and friendly relations between our countries," Shmyhal said.

He thanked Canada for its support to Ukraine in matters of defense, finance, and the confiscation of Russian assets.

Canadian Defense Minister Bill Blair said on Oct. 11 that the country will provide a new $19 million aid package for Ukraine, which will include munitions and winter equipment.

Between February 2022 and September 2023, Canada provided Ukraine with $1.8 billion in military support.

Read also: Canada imposes 63 sanctions against Russian individuals, entities

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
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Chinese Premier Li Qiang meets with Mongolian Prime Minister Luvsannamsrai Oyun-Erdene on the sidelines of the 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Oct. 26, 2023. [Photo/Xinhua]

China stands ready to work with Mongolia to firmly support each other in safeguarding sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, Chinese Premier Li Qiang said in Bishkek on Thursday.

He called on both sides to fully understand and firmly support each other on issues concerning their respective core interests and major concerns.

Li made the remarks during his meeting with Mongolian Prime Minister Luvsannamsrai Oyun-Erdene on the sidelines of the 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States.

Noting that China and Mongolia are adjacent to each other by mountains and rivers, Li said that friendship and cooperation have always been the main tone of bilateral relations.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Mongolian President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh held a fruitful meeting in Beijing not long ago, and reached a series of important consensuses on promoting the building of a China-Mongolia community with a shared future and deepening Belt and Road cooperation, which have provided strategic guidance for the sound and steady development of bilateral relations, Li said.

China is ready to work with Mongolia to implement the consensus reached by the two heads of state and always be a good neighbor and good brother who can be trusted and relied on, Li said.

He called on both sides to take the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations and the 10th anniversary of the establishment of comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries next year as an opportunity to carry forward the friendly tradition, build up political mutual trust, strengthen exchanges and cooperation in various fields, and provide more impetus for their respective development and revitalization, so as to create more benefits for their people.

The two sides should continue to deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, consolidate the existing gains and plan for future growth, Li said.

China is ready to strengthen cooperation with Mongolia in such fields as port connectivity, economy and trade, and green development to further expand the pie of common interests, so as to achieve win-win results, Li said.

China is ready to strengthen cooperation with Mongolia under the SCO and other multilateral frameworks to better safeguard the common interests and build a community with a shared future for mankind, Li added.

For his part, Oyun-Erdene noted that in recent years, the comprehensive strategic partnership between Mongolia and China has been continuously deepened, with close high-level exchanges and deepening mutual understanding between the two countries, adding that the economic and trade cooperation has developed rapidly.

Mongolia firmly abides by the one-China principle and opposes external interference in China's internal affairs, he said, adding that his country is ready to work with China to continuously enhance political mutual trust and mutual support and to closely synergize development strategies and initiatives put forward by the two sides.

Mongolia stands ready to work with China to strengthen border port capacity building and connectivity, promote the Belt and Road cooperation, deepen cooperation in areas including trade, railway, green development, tourism and culture, and deepen multilateral cooperation, so as to lift Mongolia-China relations to a higher level, he said.
Chicago police last month were called to a Far Southwest Side high school where a school official reported getting into an altercation with a man he identified as an Illinois state senator over a cellphone that had been confiscated from a student.

The school official accused Democratic state Sen. Willie Preston of slapping his hand, causing a pen to fly out of it, after the lawmaker refused to sign his name in a log at the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences in order to retrieve a cellphone that belonged to a relative who was a student at the school, according to sources and a police report.

Police filled out a report on the incident, but no charges have been filed.

In two interviews with the Tribune, Preston said he had no knowledge of an altercation at the school. Asked about it again during the late October legislative session in Springfield, Preston said he had no comment.

When the Tribune in the second interview showed Preston a still image from footage recorded by a surveillance camera located outside the schools main office on the same day and around the same time as the incident in the police report, Preston said, That looks like me. Thats me.

Still, he continued to say he had no knowledge of any incident at the school.

I dont know anything about it. I dont know anything about it to this day, he said during an interview during a constituent event on Oct. 11 in the citys Auburn Gresham community.

Preston went on to say he had met with the school official that reports say was involved in the altercation, who he identified by name. But he did not say what the meeting was about.

What I can tell you is I had a very productive meeting with (the school official) yesterday, I believe, or the day before yesterday ... I had a very productive meeting with him.

All of my meetings with (the school official) have involved something that pertains to the school or my children. Nothing in my official capacity by the way. So, Im just a parent there. Thats it. So, I dont know anything about (this).

The school officials accusations in a Chicago Public Schools incident report are similar to those in a Chicago police report.

The CPS and police reports provided to the Tribune both redact the name of the person accused by the school official. Sources familiar with the incident confirmed the person named in the police departments report is Preston.

The CPS report references an individual involved in the incident who runs a business and is a public servant. According to Prestons biography on the Illinois General Assembly website, he runs a construction firm in addition to being a state senator.

The school official declined to comment, referring inquiries to a CPS spokesperson.

A CPS spokesperson would only say the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) takes all incidents seriously and addresses them in accordance with CPS policies and procedures.

According to a redacted police report obtained through an open records request, a person sources identified as Preston went to pick up the phone at about 4:30 p.m. on Sept. 11 after it was confiscated from his relative during a test.

The individual walked past a front desk without signing in even though a security guard told him to stop and that he must sign in, according to the report.

The man ignored the security guard and continued past her on his way to the schools main office to retrieve the phone. The school official told the man he needed to sign a log stating that he was picking up the phone before it could be given to him, according to sources and the police report.

The school official offered the man a pen and log sheet, but the man slapped the officials hand, the report said. An argument followed before the man signed the log and was given the cellphone.

Preston was elected to his seat last November and has served since January, representing a swath of Chicagos South and Southwest sides and southwest suburbs. He has served on the board of a local school council for a South Side elementary school, as well as the board of the Chicagoland YMCAs early childhood education program, and was also an organizer for a group pushing for police accountability, according to his General Assembly biography.

When he was first contacted by the Tribune about the incident last month, Preston, who is up for reelection next year, appeared to chalk up the allegations to political chicanery.

You know election season has kicked off, he said.

jgorner@chicagotribune.com
Three families with five children were evacuated during the past day

A total of 90 children were evacuated from 23 frontline settlements in Kherson Oblast, the press service of the National Police in the region reported on Facebook on Oct. 27.

"In Kherson Oblast, the mandatory evacuation of children with their parents or legal representatives from 23 settlements that are heavily shelled by the Russian army continues," the statement reads.

Read also: Government advises Kherson residents to evacuate

Ninety children have been evacuated from areas under heavy shelling so far, with efforts to remove more children from danger ongoing, said Vitaliy Sayfutdinov, head of the Juvenile Prevention Department of Kherson Oblast Police.

"Our staff talks to parents every day, convincing them of the need to evacuate from the dangerous areas as soon as possible," he stated.

Children in these areas live in constant fear and have no access to educational and medical services.

Read also: Child killed, two men injured amid Russian shelling in Kherson Oblast

According to the police, three families with five children were evacuated over the past day: two families from Novoberyslav and one from Vesele, Kakhovka district.

Police stressed the urgent need to evacuate children from Kherson Oblast due to the life-threatening conditions.

Earlier, the head of the Kherson Oblast State Administration, Oleksandr Prokudin, said that families with children would be evacuated from settlements regularly shelled by Russian occupation forces.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Police were investigating a robbery and kidnapping Thursday night after a 1-year-old girl was reported abducted during a carjacking in Kansas City, triggering an Amber Alert.

The child, identified by police as Kemaya Hill, was found safe late Thursday in Lees Summit shortly after the Amber Alert was issued. Police had said the child was in the backseat of a white Saturn SUV when it was stolen around 8 p.m. from 47th Street and Flora Avenue in Kansas City.

The vehicle was later spotted in Independence near 42nd Street and Noland Road, according to police.

A bulletin from the Missouri State Highway Patrol said police were searching for two suspects, described as Black females, in connection with the abduction. The vehicle sought by police was a 2008 Saturn Vue with Missouri license plate EG6A5J.

Police were asking anyone with information to call 911 or Kansas City police at 816-234-5230.
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR)  The Oklahoma City Police Department is investigating a deadly shooting at a Northwest Oklahoma City apartment complex.

Im surprised. Very surprised and a little scared, said Corriane Frost, whos lived at the Aspen Way Apartments for seven years.

ORIGINAL STORY: Police investigate deadly shooting in NW Oklahoma City

Police were called to the complex, near N. Western Ave. and NW 88th St. late Thursday night. According to OKCPD, the incident began as an argument.

Several people were involved, said Sgt. Dillon Quirk of the Oklahoma City Police Department. There was a confrontation [that] turned into a physical fight.

Eventually, the fight escalated to deadly gunfire.

For some unknown reason, at this point they came back together, shots were exchanged or fired, said Sgt. Eric Long of the Oklahoma City Police Department.

Frost told KFOR she heard the gunshots from inside her apartment.

Very, extremely loud, said Frost. I saw a lot of lights and flashing lights after I knew something had happened.

LOCAL NEWS: Woman on trial for murder, hiding body while stealing victims social security checks

One victim died at the scene. Another was rushed to a hospital and is expected to be okay.

We have detained everybody that we believe to be involved in this incident, said Sgt. Quirk. Its still early with all the interviews that were conducting.

Frost said the complex used to be infested with crime, but thought things were getting better. Shes disappointed to hear about what happened.

Its just senseless violence, you know, it doesnt have to come down to shooting and killing all the time, said Frost.

At the time this article was written, no arrests had been made.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KFOR.com Oklahoma City.
DeKalb County Police needs your help identifying a suspect.

Police said the man pictured was seen breaking into a child development center on Clausell Court in Decatur.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

Police said he took several items and the keys to a vehicle before leaving.

The vehicle was recovered but the suspect is still out there.

TRENDING STORIES:

Police said anyone with information is urged to call them at 404-286-7990 or call 911.

[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]

IN OTHER NEWS:
PHILADELPHIA - A man is dead after authorities say he was hit by a barrage of gunfire while washing his car Thursday in Philadelphia.

Officers from the Philadelphia Police Department were called to the 400 block of East Wyoming Avenue around 4 p.m. for reports of gunfire.

Police found a 31-year-old man suffering gunshot wounds to the head, neck and hands, according to preliminary information.

Officers drove the unnamed man to Temple University Hospital where he was placed in critical condition and later died, police said.

No arrests were reported immediately following the deadly shooting.
The East Point Police Department and Crime Stoppers Greater Atlanta Seek are asking for your help to identify a shooting suspect.

On May 17, 2022, at 9:20 p.m., police responded to 3031 Kentucky Court at the Lexington Apartments about a person shot.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

When they got there, they found the victim, Princeton Morris, pictured, shot inside his home.

Investigators said Morris was shot and killed on his back porch.

Police said it was reported that Morris opened his rear sliding door to meet with someone before being shot.

TRENDING STORIES:

Princeton was found inside his home where he was pronounced dead.

Crime Stoppers Atlanta is offering up to a $2,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and indictment of the person or people responsible for Morris murder.

[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]

IN OTHER NEWS:
UPDATE: On Monday, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said Joshua Timothy Norris was found and is safe.

Earlier

Police are asking for the publics help in finding a man who was last seen leaving his adult group home in north Charlotte.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police say 36-year-old Joshua Timothy Norris was last seen by his caregiver on Oct. 20 around 9 p.m. He goes by TJ.

ALSO READ: Here are 35 of the open missing persons cases in Charlotte

Norris possibly stayed at a mens shelter at 3410 Statesville Avenue on Wednesday. He was last seen wearing blue jeans and a grey shirt with a dark jacket and black shoes.

Anyone with information about Norriss location is asked to call police.

(WATCH BELOW: Woman missing from China Grove last seen at work in Charlotte, RCSO says)
MILWAUKEE - Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul said there is a positive that is coming from the police shooting at Kennedy Middle School in Germantown. Kaul said the school had the right measures in place  so th incident did not have an even worse outcome.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice on Monday said a man had car trouble, began acting erratically at a car repair shop and then left. That is when officials say the man walked to the school and tried to get into the building.

Officers responded immediately and the suspect climbed onto the roof. Police say the man had a gun and shot at police. They shot back, killing him.

SIGN UP TODAY: Get daily headlines, breaking news emails from FOX6 News

Around 70 students and 20 adults were inside Kennedy Middle School at the time.

"We can only speculate on what could have happened here. But one thing we know and recommend through our office of school safety is that schools have locked doors, where possible they have a single point of entry. Those kinds of measures can make a huge difference in keeping kids safe," Kaul said.

Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul

Counseling services begin Friday, Oct. 27 for students, staff and parents affected. Kennedy Middle School will reopen to students on Monday.

As for the man behind the gun, we are waiting for the Wisconsin Department of Justice to fill in the details.
While alarm bells were raised following news Thursday night that Ford Motor Co. and South Korean partner SK On would delay production at the second of two massive electric vehicle battery plants planned for Hardin County, local economic development officials seemed unconcerned Friday.

I think its a whole lot to do about nothing, I really do. Theyre just kind of doing a, Hey, were going to take a little longer look at the market right now, said Rick Games, president & chief operating officer at Elizabethtown/Hardin County Industrial Foundation.

Games said hes confident the delay isnt much to be worried about because the joint venture  dubbed BlueOvalSK  is still slated to fully build its second massive EV battery plant alongside the first one, which is to begin production in 2025.

News of the production delay at the second plant, which was to start in 2026, came as Ford struck a deal earlier this week to end a weeks-long labor strike and questions about strength of consumer demand for EVs proliferate.

Still, Games and other local economic development leaders did not express serious concern Friday about the change in the companys plans. Some, with the knowledge that construction is still taking place, even breathed a sigh of relief.

Actually, Im glad theyre delaying this to some degree. Because from an infrastructure standpoint, we arent ready, said Daniel London, executive director of the Lincoln Trail Area Development District.

And this gives us time to catch up and plan with a little better timeline, gives us some room to breathe This is an opportunity, not a threat,

That opportunity contrasts greatly with Republicans -- staring at the final days of campaigning in Kentuckys gubernatorial race. They took to social media Thursday night to poke holes in a central piece of Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear s argument for re-election in his heated contest against GOP challenger Attorney General Daniel Cameron.

Together, the battery plants represent the largest private investment in Kentucky history, and Beshear has relentlessly touted that in his official capacity and on the campaign trail.

The project represents $5.8 billion in all, and both plants are planning to hire 2,500 people each.

A statement from the Republican Governors Association, the biggest organization supporting Cameron on the television airwaves, said that talk of a delay on the second plant is a HUGE hit to Beshear.

He has made this a cornerstone of his campaign  and his crowning achievement is now in question. Beshear has referenced this project in campaign ads, at every chance he gets on the stump, and in debates, said Republican Governors Association spokesperson Courtney Alexander..

Now his major argument for re-election is in limbo because of his failed leadership.

But its a different story in Hardin County.

Hardin County Judge-Executive Keith Taul, a Republican, said in a statement that the county  the plants are to be located on county land  had no plans to change any infrastructure projects related to the battery plants.

We have heard from BlueOval SK Battery that demand for electric vehicles continues to increase in the U.S., but not at the levels anticipated, Taul said.

To meet demand and ensure success of the second battery plant, Kentucky 2 plant, will postpone production. Kentucky 2 will continue to be built and goals have not changed; just the time to reach those goals have been revised, according to BlueOval.

Taul added, echoing London, that a potential delay could give the county more time to finish infrastructure and emergency service improvements.

London, a Hardin County resident who ran and lost to Taul in the 2022 Republican primary for judge-executive, said in his eight-county development district, $800 million of infrastructure improvements were needed in the next six years.

Elizabethtown Mayor Jeff Gregory said in a statement that, after consulting with the state, BlueOvalSK and other local officials, the citys plans to deal with anticipated growth resulting from the project have not changed.

The timeline may or may not change in regards to a population influx  thats to be determined. We feel strongly that the same numbers are still coming as projected, Gregory said.

Margy Poorman, president and CEO of the Hardin County Chamber of Commerce, said she believes local business leaders, too, are relatively unfazed by the latest development.

We know that this is a new technology, right? So we understand that were dependent on the customer demand and as BlueOvalSK continues to move forward as they see fit, we are obviously excited in our community. Were willing to continue to support (it) because these are fantastic jobs, she said.

Games and London agreed. London added hes communicating to area residents the BlueOvalSK project is only responding to the companies projections for electric vehicle demand, and that hes absolutely confident that the second plant will get built.

For Games, thats a big relief. The fact the companies still plan to put up the investment to build the second plant is proof positive the jobs will come, he said.

Theyre committed and itll work out  everything is going to be fine, Games said.

This is not a Chicken Little situation, London said, referencing the childrens story about the sky falling.

This is an opportunity, not a threat.
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NCUSCR President Stephen A. Orlins (at the podium and on the screens) delivers the opening remarks at the annual Gala Dinner of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations (NCUSCR) in New York, the United States, on Oct. 24, 2023. [Photo/Xinhua]

In a congratulatory message to the annual Gala Dinner of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and a meeting with Gavin Newsom, governor of the U.S. state of California, on Wednesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping reiterated the three principles upheld by China in handling its relations with the United States.

Both Xi and U.S. President Joe Biden sent congratulatory messages to the annual Gala Dinner, which is "encouraging," said Lyazid Benhami, vice president of the Paris Association of French-Chinese Friendship.

It is important to "promote an exceptional relationship between China and the United States, a relationship founded on renewed trust and the desire to overcome differences and cyclical obstacles," Benhami stressed.

Tom Watkins, a former advisor to the Michigan-China Innovation Center, said that "history has demonstrated that building bridges is a much better strategy than building walls or digging moats" between the United States and China.

In a world fraught with tension and uncertainty, a concerted effort to address the problems and existential threats facing both nations and all of humanity is needed, Watkins added.

"It is imperative we find ways to develop a shared vision and common agenda in areas that are in our collective national interests while we have open dialogue on topics where we disagree," Watkins said.

Jeffrey Sachs, economics professor and director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, told Xinhua via email that he agrees with Xi's message that U.S.-China cooperation "will strengthen both countries and benefit the world."

"It is correct and indeed possible," Sachs said.

Peace, the end of poverty worldwide and environmental sustainability will benefit enormously from U.S.-China cooperation, Sachs added.

Heba Gamal, a member of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs, echoed the sentiment. Gamal said that promoting cooperation between the powers and easing tensions would help reach a breakthrough in several current world crises.

Greg Cusack, a former member of the U.S. State of Iowa House of Representatives, said: "What has begun as small actually can lead to greater cooperative efforts as, very gradually sometimes, trust is slowly built. Unless China and the United States find a way to truly work together on such imminent threats as global warming, energy and food insufficiencies, the future for all of us does not look very bright at all."

He expressed the hope that both countries could prioritize cultural and people-to-people exchanges.

"It appears that the Chinese are continuing to be a stable partner in sharing their achievements with Newsom in hopes that the world's two top economies can together set a standard for global cooperation in our climate emergency," said Kevin Clark, director of Center for Organic Philosophy, a Washington State-based non-profit organization focusing on green growth.

Newsom's tour in China discloses to the world "the immense progress" China had made in both developing and implementing practical, locally focused climate change strategies both for municipal and regional development, Clark added.
Chronic issues involving neglect and abuse continue to surface at the state agency responsible for serving South Carolinians with disabilities and special needs, a new audit shows. Advocates are urgently calling for the agency to be overhauled.

The Legislative Audit Council, in Part 2 of a scathing report examining operations at the South Carolina Department of Disabilities and Special Needs, said the agency, among other things, has failed to ensure that its hiring practices limit the opportunity for abuse and neglect of disabled persons under the agencys care. The report also pointed to instances where protocol for reporting abuse, neglect or extortion was ignored, including for some 82 days in one case.

DDSN does not have an adequate system to ensure that employee caregivers dismissed for abuse, neglect, or exploitation (ANE) are not rehired elsewhere in the system, the report said. We found several cases where employees were terminated for ANE violations, but the employee was either rehired or allowed to have the official reason for separation noted as personal instead of terminated.

The Legislative Audit Council released Part 1 of the report in March, slamming the commission that oversees DDSN for ongoing management issues, including inappropriate behavior, abuse of power and frivolous spending.

The South Carolina Legislative Audit Council is responsible for conducting independent, objective performance audits of state agencies and programs at the request of the General Assembly for the purpose of optimizing the agency.

DDSN, which oversees the care of tens of thousands of South Carolinians with intellectual disabilities, autism and brain or spinal injuries, has long been a political issue as governors have attempted to grapple with problems at the agency.

The latest audit also showed that DDSN failed to use video surveillance within its facilities when investigating reports of abuse, neglect or exploitation.

We reviewed a ... sample of 63 abuse, neglect or exploitation investigations and found 11 allegations of abuse, neglect or exploitation that took two or more days from the date of the incident to be reported, the report said. One incident at the Pee Dee Center was reported 82 days after it occurred; this was only because central office staff noticed suspected abuse, neglect or exploitation during review of video for another incident.

Much like in its response to the March report, DDSN acknowledged the reports latest findings and said its leaders are working to improve problem areas across the agency.

We are still reviewing the full report, said DDSN spokesperson Derrek Asberry. From what weve reviewed thus far, we agree that there are several opportunities for improvement across our agency. We will work with the state legislature and our staff to make those improvements, to ensure we serve those with disabilities and special needs in the best and most efficient way possible.

But disability advocates say thats not enough.

Our state is going to break if we dont invest in this (disability) community, said Kimberly Tissot, president and CEO of Able South Carolina, a nonprofit disability-led organization that seeks equity and inclusion for people with disabilities. And if we dont, I mean if were not following the law, theres going to be significant lawsuits. Weve been raising the same concerns for years.

Tissot said the agencys administration desperately needs restructuring in order to begin alleviating problem areas.

Currently, the agency is governed by a seven-member commission, which is appointed by the governor with the advice and consent of the state Senate. The commission hires the executive director.

In March, the Legislative Audit Council found that some commissioners were using their positions within the agency to access information and acquire assistance for their family members who are receiving services from DDSN.

This commission is preventing the agency from thriving, and we are in crisis in South Carolina because the DDSN is not functioning adequately and even resulting in abuse, neglect and sometimes death, Tissot told lawmakers earlier this year.

South Carolina is the only state that has an independent disability agency governed by a commission, and there are fewer than 10 disability standalone agencies nationwide, according to the audit.

In an effort to address what critics call a years-long mismanagement problem, lawmakers began considering a bill  S. 602  that would restructure DDSN.

Sponsored by state Sen. Katrina Shealy, R-Lexington, who chairs the Senate Family and Veterans Services committee, the bill would place the agency in the governors cabinet and eliminate the current governing seven-member commission. The governor would appoint a director to run DDSN upon the advice and consent of the Senate.

The measure passed the Senate last spring but stalled in the House Judiciary committee. It could, however, be revived during next years legislative session.

This isnt the first time senators have tried to place the disability agency under the governors control. In 2017 legislators attempted to do the same but got hung up on details surrounding the relationship between the state and local disability boards, which contract with DDSN to provide services but are made up of local employees overseen by local boards.
By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis has ordered a review of the Church's handling of the case of an internationally known religious artist who was expelled from the Jesuit religious order after being accused of sexual, psychological and spiritual abuse of adult women.

A statement on Friday said the pope had asked the Vatican's doctrinal office to review the case of Father Marko Ivan Rupnik and had lifted any statute of limitations, meaning he could eventually face a Church trial and be removed from the priesthood if found guilty.

It said the pope made the decision after a Vatican commission on the prevention of sexual abuse "brought to the pope's attention that there were serious problems in the handling" of the Rupnik case, as well as a "lack of outreach to victims".

About 25 people, mostly former nuns, have accused Rupnik, 69, of various types of abuse, either when he was a spiritual director of a community of nuns in his native Slovenia about 30 years ago or since he moved to Rome to pursue his career as an artist.

Allegations against Rupnik began surfacing in Italian media late last year, after which the Jesuit headquarters acknowledged that he had been banned in 2019 from hearing confessions and leading spiritual retreats.

The order expelled him in June for disobeying superiors.

Victims complained about not having been believed at first years ago and more recently expressed outrage after he was allowed to work as a priest in the diocese of Koper, in his native Slovenia. The diocese said he had been accepted because he was not convicted in either a Church or civil court.

The Vatican commission that asked the pope to consider reopening the case said in a separate statement on Friday that the Church had to face the "inadequacies" in disciplinary processes and would "remain watchful in ensuring the adequate administration of justice".

Rupnik has never publicly responded to the accusations against him, which the Jesuits said last February were "very highly" credible.

One ex-nun told an Italian newspaper how he used what she called psychological control to force her into sexual acts, and deployed "cruel psychological, emotional and spiritual aggression" to "destroy" her, particularly after she refused to have three-way sex.

The Jesuits, the Vatican's doctrinal department have come under criticism for their handling of the case. There has also been Italian media speculation that the Vatican bureaucracy gave him special treatment because the pope, too, is a Jesuit.

The order disclosed that in 2020 the Vatican's doctrinal department excommunicated Rupnik for "absolution of an accomplice," referring to when a priest has sex with someone and then absolves the person in confession. Rupnik repented and the sanction was lifted after only a month, an unusually short period.

Rupnik specialised in mosaics and came to prominence when the late Pope John Paul II commissioned him to redesign a chapel in the Vatican between 1996 and 1999. He later designed chapels around the world.

(Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
PORTSMOUTH  The city middle school was ordered into a secure campus status Thursday as police dispelled concern about a nearby man reportedly matching the description of the Lewiston, Maine, shooting suspect.

Portsmouth police said they received a call at 2:22 p.m. Thursday about a man behind the city library who resembled the suspect in Wednesday nights shooting rampage in Lewiston, about 80 miles north of the Port City.

But nearby Portsmouth police swiftly shut down that report, the department shared in a news release Thursday night.

Officers who were in the area of the Middle School on directed patrol were able to quickly determine the male in question was not associated with the incident in Maine, police said.

A Portsmouth Police Department cruiser.

The heightened sense of awareness comes after a man killed 18 people and wounded 13 at two businesses in Lewiston. Maine Gov. Janet Mills said at a press conference Thursday morning in Lewiston that the shootings occurred at a bar and a bowling alley.

As a precautionary measure, the middle school was temporarily placed in a Secure Campus posture until first responders could ensure the area was secure for school dismissal, Portsmouth police added. The Portsmouth Police Department continues to encourage the public to report suspicious persons and or situations.

Authorities in Maine have identified 40-year-old Robert Card, a firearms instructor and U.S. Army reservist, as the suspect in the investigation. The shootings have sent nearby municipalities into lockdowns, and led Maine school districts to close on Thursday.

More: 'Angry at the shootings': 18 die in Maine rampage; suspect Robert Card sought. Live updates

Hundreds of Maine local and state law enforcement personnel, as well as federal authorities, remain spread out throughout the state on Thursday night as a manhunt to find the suspect continues a day after the Lewiston shooting. Card was still at large as of Thursday night.

Portsmouth is no stranger to gun violence scares. In December, a hoax caller claimed there was a shooting at Portsmouth and Dover schools, triggering lockdowns across New Hampshire. A similar incident happened in November at Sanford High School and other Maine schools.

This past spring, Kyle Hendrickson of Berwick, Maine, was arrested after allegedly making a threat on Snapchat to shoot up Portsmouth High School. Investigators later found an arsenal of weapons in the vehicle he was driving, including an AR-15 rifle, a shotgun, camouflage body armor, a handgun holster, a red-dot sight, and several rounds of ammunition.

Portsmouth police increase patrols in wake of Maine shooting

The Portsmouth Police Department on Thursday morning reported an increased police presence throughout the city in the wake of the carnage in Lewiston. The department assured there had been no indication there was any danger to the Portsmouth public.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the many victims, family members, and first responders affected by the horrific acts in Lewiston, Maine, the department shared on social media. The safety of all members of the public, both residents and visitors, is and always will be the Portsmouth polices main priority. Despite the absence of any intelligence suggesting any form of harm to our city, you will see we will have an increased presence throughout our city.

New Hampshire State Police have assisted Maine law enforcement in the massive manhunt.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Portsmouth school secured after false report of Lewiston shooter
Former Rep. G.K. Butterfield saw red when he reviewed the congressional map North Carolina lawmakers released in 2021 near the end of his 18-year Capitol Hill career.

He accused the General Assembly of drawing a partisan map that helped Republicans, by racially gerrymandering his district in the far northeastern part of the state and disadvantaging Black voters in its communities.

The courts, too, saw the map as improperly skewed.

They said that the map had been politically gerrymandered to favor Republicans and ordered state lawmakers to redraw it. When they didnt provide a satisfactory alternative, judges asked mapmakers they selected to make new maps.

And thats how North Carolina ended up with a congressional map that reflected the purple nature of the state with seven Republican districts and seven Democratic districts.

This 7-7 map, I say, is a fair map, Butterfield told McClatchy last week. And that map, or a resemblance to that map, should be continued.

That was a pipe dream, because judges allowed room for state lawmakers to redraw the congressional districts map after the 2022 elections.

And redraw them, they did.

This week, the General Assembly approved congressional districts which, based on past voting data, could give Republicans 10 districts and Democrats three, and leave one swing district that could go to either party.

That is Butterfields old district  the one now occupied by his successor, Rep. Don Davis. Now retired, partly out of frustration over the 2021 map and partially because he said it was time, Butterfield sees history repeating itself.

In the legislature, the governor doesnt have veto power, and so now Republicans have done at the state level what Republicans have already done on the federal level, and that is go to the extreme, Butterfield said.

U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield, a Democrat, retired from Congress in 2022 after 18 years. Butterfield, who represented District 1 in North Carolina, says he did so partly out of frustration over a new congressional map and partially because he said it was time.

1st Congressional District

Butterfield and Davis are both from what is now North Carolinas 1st Congressional District. Butterfield is from Wilson and Davis is from Snow Hill.

The district is currently made up of 18 counties, plus a portion of Pitt County, a community that Davis has also lived in.

The region is very rural and has large areas of poverty. It runs along the Virginia border, picking up the counties between Gates and Vance before wrapping around Wake County as it dips south, cutting through Pitt County as it wraps back east, and grabbing Martin, Washington and Tyrrell before going back north and picking up Pasquotank.

Under the new maps, the district would lose Pitt entirely, as well as Franklin, and pick up Camden, Currituck, Lenoir, Wayne and portions of Granville.

Its the only competitive district in the state, said Chris Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University.

Its also a unique region in terms of voters under the new map.

If you just look at the Trump vote, it looks like it leans slightly towards the Democratic Party, Cooper said. If you look just at the U.S. Senate vote for 2022 it looks like it leans towards the Republican Party. Its a rare case where which election you choose seems to give you slightly different answers and reinforces how powerful that district is.

Political parties

The 1st Congressional District hasnt had a Republican representative since 1883.

Whether Davis can win reelection in 2024, based on past voter data, is essentially a coin toss and will come down to candidate quality, Cooper said.

It appears that the district is probably trending a little redder, more toward the Republican Party, but at the same time, he does have the advantage of the incumbency, he said.

Davis has another thing going for him: he tends to be a more moderate Democrat. VoteView, a website tracking the political ideology of members of Congress through history, ranks Davis more liberal than 62% of the entirety of the U.S. House and more conservative than 76% of his Democratic colleagues.

He does vote with the Democratic Party 82% of the time, VoteView reports.

I have fought just as hard for my Republican constituents, as I have for my Democratic constituents, as I have for my independent constituents and so on, Davis said.

Losses and gains for Don Davis in NC-1

Davis has had a lot to digest since the maps were first released.

The U.S. House has been paralyzed after Democrats helped eight Republicans vote out House Speaker Kevin McCarthy as the chambers leader.

For 22 days, Republicans argued with one another on who should replace McCarthy before finally settling on Louisiana Republican Mike Johnson Wednesday afternoon, the same day North Carolina lawmakers adopted the new map.

Davis quickly realized the new maps took away Pitt County, home to East Carolina University, something he saw as a major loss.

In many ways, theyre that shining light that guides us in the east because so many rely on their services from rural counties across the east and have to actually go into Pitt County for different reasons, whether its for health care, education or just a host of reasons, Davis said. And so its devastating, even the thought of losing Pitt County, because theyre just amazing people in Pitt County.

But looking at the counties he picked up, he also sees opportunities to help those communities.

Take Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Wayne County. Davis serves on the Armed Services Committee and said hes already been fighting for things they need there.

Hes also looking at how his work in Congress can help Global TransPark in Lenoir County, he said.

Lawsuits over maps and Black voters

In 1965, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act that gave Black people the right to sue if they could prove their vote was being diluted because of an election system.

Butterfield, a civil rights advocate and attorney, said as time went on it was clear that Democratic legislatures at the time were drawing congressional maps in a way that submerged Black voters into congressional districts that were predominately white and had a history of racially polarized voting.

In other words, it was clear that white voters refused to support the preferred candidate of the African American community, Butterfield said. And because of that there was polarization in voting, and because the white population was larger than the Black population then Black candidates, the preferred candidates, didnt get elected.

In the late 1900s, North Carolina had one district with the potential to elect a Black member of Congress, and the Supreme Court ordered lawmakers to do better.

Right now, the state is represented by three Black members of Congress: Reps. Davis; Alma Adams, of Charlotte; and Valerie Foushee, of Chapel Hill.

The new maps largely leave alone Foushee and Adams districts.

Butterfield said lawmakers can now use predictive modeling that can predict with almost absolute certainty how voters will vote.

Thats how North Carolina ended up with a 10-3 map for a time under Republicans, he said, prior to. North Carolina gaining a its 14th Congressional District in 2022 due to population growth.

So we sued, and we sued and we sued and we sued, Butterfield said.

Hes recommending to members of Congress who have reached out to him about the new map that they sue again.

It is a political and a racial gerrymander, Butterfield said of the new districts map. And it does not represent the demographics of North Carolina, and I think it should be challenged. The problem is a partisan map cannot be challenged in federal court. A racial gerrymander can be tried in federal court, but not a political gerrymander.

For that reason, the maps are likely to stand or fall on their treatment of race, under tests for compliance with the Voting Rights Act.

Republicans have said they made political considerations, but not racial ones, in drawing the maps, and defended them as being in line with constitutional requirements.

We wouldnt pass these maps if we didnt think they (would) stand up in court, Senate leader Phil Berger told reporters on Tuesday.

In the 1st district, at least two Republicans have announced plans to run, with weeks left until candidates must file for office.

Davis sent out a news release Wednesday promising his constituents that while analysts and attorneys review the map, he will continue to focus on representing his district.

He worries about Eastern North Carolinas health care, storm recovery, education and most of all jobs, he told The N&O.

We need to stand up for our farmers, Davis said. We need to stand up for our military installations, and all of those opportunities in between.

Politics reporter Kyle Ingram contributed.
Hamas took at least 224 people captive during the October 7 terrorist attacks, according to the IDF.

A new installation in Jerusalem called "Lights of Hope" features a beam of light for every hostage.

Powerful photos show family members of hostages visiting the display.

As desperate family members await news, a new light installation in Jerusalem's Pais Arena Square pays tribute to the 224 hostages taken by Hamas militants during the October 7 terrorist attacks in Israel.

Hamas militants brutally killed at least 1,400 people and injured around 5,431 in the attacks, the United Nations reported, citing data from Israeli authorities. Israel declared war on Hamas, launching a counterattack in which at least 7,028 Palestinians have been killed and 18,482 more have been injured in airstrikes that have caused widespread devastation, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health.

Israel Defense Forces spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said Thursday that the families of 224 hostages have been notified that their relatives are being held in Gaza, The Times of Israel reported.

That number does not include the four hostages who have been released. Hagari also said that number may change as the military continues to gather information.

With a beam of light representing each hostage, "Lights of Hope" spans 1,000 meters, or 3,280 feet, Jewish News Syndicate reported. Photos from the opening event on Thursday night show family members of those held captive taking in the powerful display.

A new installation in Jerusalem's Pais Arena Square features 224 pillars of light, one for each hostage taken by Hamas militants during the October 7 attacks.

The Lights of Hope installation in Jerusalem. AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images

The display, called Lights of Hope, is sponsored by the Jerusalem Municipality through the Ariel Company, which operates the Pais Arena.

People walk through the Lights of Hope display in Jerusalem. AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images

Next to each bulb, posters display photos of the hostages who remain captive in Gaza.

Photos of hostages in the Lights of Hope installation in Jerusalem. AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images

Family members of the hostages attended the opening of the installation on Thursday night.

A woman embraces a child while standing between posters of hostages abducted by Hamas militants during the October 7 attack in Israel. AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images

"The people of Israel do not forget, even for a moment, the 224 beacons of light held captive in Gaza," Ariel Company CEO told the Jewish News Syndicate.

Photos of hostages held by Hamas in the Lights of Hope installation in Jerusalem. AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images

Read the original article on Business Insider
Ryan Pessahs nightmare began on a Saturday morning with a text message from his mom: Yair and his family are missing.

Pessah immediately feared the worst for his cousin and family who lived in Nir Oz, a kibbutz in southern Israel two miles from Gaza. Just hours earlier, Pessahs wife alerted him that Israel had been suddenly attacked. That day, nobody could reach Yair Yaakov, his girlfriend Meirav Tal or his two sons.

The familys fears were confirmed the following day. Pessahs mother, who is Yaakovs aunt, texted him a video sent to the family by an unknown number.

It started by showing the inside of Yaakovs home filled with smoke and cuts to Tal, who is pleading with a masked man that pulls her away. Her body and clothing were covered in dust likely from a grenade blast. The video panned to Yaakov, who is sitting on the floor appearing disorientated. He was at gunpoint.

The moment I saw Yairs face, I was instantly in tears, shaking, Pessah said.

Yair Yaakov is the cousin of Ryan Pessah. Yaakov is believed to be a hostage in Gaza as well as his girlfriend and two sons.

Its been more than two weeks since Pessah first saw the Oct. 7 video which has now been shared widely on social media.

Yaakov, Tal and the two boys are still missing. They are believed to be among the estimated 200 Israelis, many of them civilians, taken hostage by the militant group Hamas.

Another 1,400 people died from the surprise Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, which is both a political faction and a military organization in Palestinian-controlled areas. In response, Israel has launched an ongoing barrage of airstrikes leading to the death of more than 6,500 Palestinians, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

The ongoing conflict leaves Pessah and other affected families with an unbearable anguish.

Feeling powerless, halfway across the world is not an easy feeling, Pessah said.

Yaakovs family puts together a timeline of events

Its been almost 15 years since Pessah visited Israel and saw his cousin Yaakov, a slender man who seemingly always had a big, bright smile. On his trips back to his mothers homeland, Pessah said the two would often pass the time by enjoying Israels nightlife.

He really embodies living life to the fullest, Pessah, 35, said.

Yaakovs smile was replaced with fear and shock in the video sent to the family.

Prior to being abducted, Yaakov and his girlfriend were hiding in their home bomb shelter when Hamas militants allegedly used a grenade to open the door, Pessah said.

Nearby in Nir Oz, Yaakovs daughter and her boyfriend hid in another home shelter. But the grenade attempting to open their door jammed. They were found and freed days later.

It was a miracle the door got stuck, Pessah said.

Ryan Pessah, right, hugs Mina Biterman during a vigil helds by the Jewish Federation of the Sacramento Region at the state Capitol on Monday. Pessahs family members have been kidnapped and held hostage from the Nir Oz Kibbutz. Speakers at the vigil called for the release of the more than 200 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.

The same could not be said for Yaakovs sons, who are 16 and 12.

The two boys were also in Nir Oz, one of more than 20 towns and villages in southern Israel attacked on Oct. 7. They were staying at their mothers home, though she was not there during the ambush, Pessah said.

In the last communication with their mother, Pessah said the boys pleaded with Hamas.

The last few sentences their mom heard her boys say was Please dont take me, please dont take me Im too young to go, Pessah said.

Theres been no further communication of the boys, Yaakov or Tal.

Remaining hopeful while calling for action

Even in Sacramento, Pessah has become one of the loudest voices to free his family and all the hostages.

He has conducted several media interviews and reached out to state legislators, including one who connected him to an Israeli hotline for families seeking updates. Earlier this month, Pessah spoke at a Capitol rally calling for the immediate release of all the hostages.

Hes also increased communications among his family, which spans 40 cousins on his moms side. Thirty-seven of those live in Israel. The cousins have been using their Whatsapp group more often than usual to support each other, with Pessah sending videos to at least attempt to put a smile on their faces.

Pessah said he still feels scared and helpless. But he can only remain positive during this time.

We have to stay positive, Pessah said. I want to fly over to Israel and be there for his young sons Bar Mitzvah. I want to be there and give him a hug and give him a kiss. I just want to see him again.
Viktor Medvedchuk , a Ukrainian businessman and one of the leaders of the banned pro-Russian Opposition Platform  For Life party to whose daughter Putin is a godfather, who was accused of high treason in Ukraine and taken in by Russia in a POW exchange, became the owner of a new yacht worth RUB 886 million, or US$9.627 million.

Source: Russian online publication Verstka (Layout)

Details: The publication discovered that Medvedchuk bought a Pershing 9X high-speed yacht called a "fighter" by its manufacturer, Italian Ferretti Group. On board the 28-metre vessel are four cabins with eight beds. In total, the yacht can accommodate up to 20 guests.

Photo: pershing-yacht

According to customs data available to the publication, the vessel named Amore Mio was launched only in 2023. It passed Russian customs on 26 July. The yacht approached Russian waters under the flag of Palau, and its sender was a United Arab Emirates company named Lavel Fzco.

The Russian recipient of the yacht is Renaissance JSC. According to the audit report from 24 February 2021, the company's beneficial owner was Medvedchuk's wife, Oksana Marchenko.

The company issued a "temporary import" of the yacht. This procedure is used when the presence of goods in the customs territory is impractical permanently. In addition, it partially exempts the declarant from paying customs duties.

Previously: In December 2022, the Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA) was going to auction Medvedchuk's super yacht Royal Romance, which had been seized in Croatia.

Background:

In February 2023, the court froze the property of Oksana Marchenko [Viktor Medvechuks wife  ed.], who is suspected of financing Russian occupation groups, with a total value of more than UAH 5.6 billion (about US$152.7 million).

On 8 September 2023, the Office of the Attorney General reported that the armoured Mercedes-Benz S500 4 Matic, which belongs to ex-MP Viktor Medvedchuk, accused of treason, was being searched for

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A pro-Ukrainian prankster disrupted a Russian-Chinese online conference on import substitution measures for goods that were lost due to Western sanctions, according to a video from the event shared on X (formerly Twitter) on Oct. 27.

Pretending to be one of the participants, the prankster explained to the audience the root of the problems they were discussing.

"I'd like to say a few words about import substitution of Western goods, because I think this is a very important issue," said an unidentified person who called himself "an IT specialist from Samara.

In the modern world, aggression against another state, including economic aggression, is barbaric. Who else but a Russian person, a person of high culture, should know about this."

After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and all the war crimes that the Kremlin regime committed against its civilians, the whole world saw who the Russians really are, the prankster went on.

Read also:

"The whole world has seen who you are," the hacktivist said, after which the Russians, finally realizing what was happening, rushed to disconnect him, citing alleged "technical issues."

You are scum who attacked a peaceful country. There would have been no import substitution if you had not attacked the people you used to call 'brothers'. If you behaved like civilized people. You will all be held accountable sooner or later. Each of you will be held accountable for what you do. Glory to Ukraine!

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
This past spring an annual mammogram found a lump in Jade Bartons breast, and she was diagnosed with stage 1 invasive ductal cancer. When she met with doctors at Huntsman Cancer Institute, she learned about a clinical trial examining an experimental noninvasive way to treat breast cancer.

They sent me all this information, and Im like, Yeah thats pretty cool. I would like to participate in that, Barton, 44, of Vernal, Utah tells TODAY.com.

As part of the trial, Barton underwent an MRI targeted ablation, which is basically a beam of heat that destroys the tumor tissue without an incision. While research is ongoing, doctors hope that it will one day be safe and efficacious so they can use it in early-stage breast cancers.

If a woman doesnt have to go through the surgery and the recovery and can go get a few of these ablation treatments  what a remarkable thing, Barton says.

Surveillance finds tumor

Two of Bartons maternal aunts and her grandmother had breast cancer, so the mom of four has been diligent about her annual mammograms. She briefly considered skipping this years appointment, but then scheduled the screening because she knows how important it is. That mammogram meant Barton got an early diagnosis that she might not otherwise have received.

Jade Barton, Breast Cancer (Courtesy Jade Barton)

Every single one of my doctors couldnt feel my tumor, she says. Nobody could feel it and they knew where it was. Thats how small it was. Immediately, her doctor encouraged her to visit Huntsman Cancer Center. There, she met with a treatment team, including a surgeon, who introduced her to the clinical trial. She had to undergo some extra MRI scans to prepare for the procedure.

For the ablation, Barton lay on her belly on a table with the breast with the tumor in a cone filled with warm water. The researchers told her the water helps conduct the ultrasound heat waves to target the tumor precisely. Before undergoing the actual ablation, which lasted 90 minutes, she practiced how she would be positioned and placing her breast in a cone so she could get used to how it felt.

I was just really nervous, Barton recalls. I was pretty amped up for the procedure just because theyre basically like, Oh were going to stick your breast in a puddle of water and zap with an ultrasound.

Despite her fears, she went through with it and felt glad she did as it was so much easier than I ever thought possible. She did feel something, though  slight discomfort more than pain.

The only time I could feel anything was at the beginning of the zap, she says. You know when you go to the dentist, and they put that needle of Novocain in your gums and it burns for a second and its gone immediately? Thats how it felt exactly.

Barton says doctors zapped her three times, which ablated half of the tumor. After she finished the treatment, she felt well enough to work.

I was literally in no pain, no nothing, she says. I felt great afterward.

Noninvasive treatments for breast cancer

Ablation of tumors basically means killing them without removing them. There are different ways that it can be done. Its usually either with heat or cold, Dr. Cindy Matsen, breast surgeon at Huntsman Cancer Institute and principal investigator of the phase 1 trial, tells TODAY.com. This particular technique is using ultrasound to heat up the tumor and kill it.

But theres a noticeable difference in this study compared to past attempts to use ultrasound to destroy tumors, she says: Researchers are using MRI guidance to make it more precise. For this trial, they are only ablating half the tumor because doctors can use the other half to glean information to help decide on other treatments for the patient.

The hope is that ablation could be used instead of surgery in early stage breast cancers, Matsen says, adding, I think it has a lot of potential, and were really hoping within the new few years we can make it more available for people.

The current study mostly examines how patients tolerate the procedure, though they're also keeping data on whether it's effective. Were at the first step right now of understanding how the experience is for the patient in the device. Do they experience pain? How uncomfortable is it? What is it like for them? Matsen says.

If approved, this noninvasive treatment would only work for stage 1 or 2 tumors because ablating a larger tumor could lead to possible complications, she adds. For example, ablation can cause the skin to harden because of scar tissue, and ablating a larger tumor could leave a big hard lump that likely would be uncomfortable.

While ablation could be used instead of surgery to remove lumps in the future, patients might still need additional treatments to fully treat their cancer.

It does not replace things like radiation or chemotherapy or other types of medicines that we use in breast cancer treatment, Matsen says.

The study is still recruiting patients, and theyre hoping for 30 in total. After it's collected enough data to share with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the next phase will hopefully be looking at a larger group of people and possibly total ablation of the tumor.

Jade Barton, Breast Cancer (Courtesy Jade Barton)

Recovering

A few weeks after undergoing the ablation, Barton had a lumpectomy where doctors removed the remaining part of the tumor and a few lymph nodes in her armpit to make sure the cancer hadnt spread. Luckily, it had not. Recovery was pretty easy, though certainly not enjoyable, she says.

It probably took a whole month before I felt like I was functioning normal, and I was very tired and sore," she says.

About three weeks after feeling better, she started 19 radiation treatments.

The radiation was definitely the worst part, she says. My skin ended up getting burned. Its like a really terrible sunburn and it was a lot of blistering.

Barton feels grateful she could participate in a clinical trial and hopes that maybe one day others can undergo this non-invasive procedure.

Its just a night and day difference, she says. You could be back to work in a few days, no problem, if you just had that ablation. And the recovery, wouldnt that be nice just to have that?

This article was originally published on TODAY.com
Fred Daibes, the prominent North Jersey developer charged alongside Sen. Bob Menendez in alleged bribery scheme, faces a conflict of interest with the attorney who represents him in a New Jersey bank fraud case that dates back to 2018, federal prosecutors say.

Daibes is one of five people indicted in an alleged corruption scheme involving Menendez and his wife, Nadine Arslanian Menendez, in a separate case. Daibes pleaded not guilty last week to the superseding indictment.

An attorney representing the United States in the bank fraud case said he believes there is a potential conflict of interest with Daibes' attornies, Lawrence S. Lustberg and Anne Collart of Gibbons P.C., related to the Menendez indictment.

The indictment shed light on Menendez's alleged interference with Daibes' bank fraud charges, saying Menendez nominated a U.S. attorney he believed he could influence in Daibes' favor.

Manhattan, NY  October 18, 2023 -- Fred Daibes, involved in the bribery case involving Senator Robert Menendez exits the Federal Courthouse in lower Manhattan for a hearing on corruption charges.

A superseding indictment filed earlier this month by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York says New Jerseys senior senator, his wife and businessman Wael Hana allegedly conspired for the senator to act as a foreign agent from January 2018 through at least June 2022 for the Egyptian government and Egyptian officials, even as he sat as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The group  along with Daibes and another businessman, Jose Uribe  already faces charges for allegedly participating in a bribery scheme that saw Menendez and his wife accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from the businessmen in exchange for helping them enrich themselves and trying to get them out of trouble.

Conflicts

Hana is represented by Lustberg in the Menendez indictment.

"Mr. Lustberg knows certain facts allegedly relevant to those charges," wrote Vikas Khanna, first attorney for the United States in the district of New Jersey, in a letter to United States District Judge Susan D. Wigenton on Wednesday.

The government requested that Daibes be made aware of the potential conflict of interest and if appropriate, sign a voluntary waiver to continue with Lustberg as his attorney.

U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein repeatedly asked Hana if he wanted new representations at the arraignment last week.

Stein noted that Lustberg could be called as a witness because he serves as Daibes attorney in a different federal case based in New Jersey. Hana said he was satisfied with Lustberg even after Stein reiterated that he would not be able to appeal on the grounds that Lustberg was conflicted at the end of the trial.

That same day, Hana signed a waiver of any potential conflict of interest caused by Lustberg's potential conflict of interest by counsel's concurrent representation of Daibes, according to court documents.

A status conference hearing  originally a sentencing date before a judge withdrew a plea deal for the bank fraud charges  was held for Daibes on Thursday. During the hearing, the potential conflict of interest was discussed for 45 minutes, court records show. The hearing is scheduled to continue on Nov. 16.

Daibes' ties to Menendez

Last month, corruption and bribery charges were filed against Menendez by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. The unsealed indictment said Menendez accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from three New Jersey businessmen, including Daibes, in exchange for helping them enrich themselves and trying to get them out of trouble.

The indictment said Menendez had recommended that President Joe Biden nominate someone as New Jersey's U.S. attorney he believed could be influenced to disrupt the federal criminal prosecution of Daibes over the bank fraud charges.

Before Daibes pleaded guilty, Menendez allegedly pressed Philip Sellinger, before and after he became the U.S. attorney for New Jersey, to go light on Daibes.

In December 2020, Menendez met with Sellinger to consider whether he would support Sellingers nomination to the U.S. attorney post. At the meeting, Menendez criticized the prosecution of Daibes and asked Sellinger to look into the case if he was nominated, the indictment reads.

In early 2022, Menendez had short phone calls with the first assistant U.S. attorney. At the time, Daibes unnamed driver had called Nadine Menendez twice on Jan. 24. Later that day, Nadine Menendez texted Daibes: Thank you. Christmas in January.

The drivers fingerprints were later found on an envelope containing thousands in cash at the Menendez home. Several days later, the senator Googled the phrase kilo of gold price.

In March, Nadine Menendez met with a jeweler and showed him two 1-kilogram gold bars that were worth more than $120,000, according to the indictment. Serial numbers showed that the gold bars had been owned by Daibes, the indictment reads.

The next month, Daibes pleaded guilty to a probationary sentence in the bank fraud case.

Rejected plea deal

The rejected plea agreement comes from charges filed in 2018 against Daibes when he was indicted on multiple counts for alleged conspiracy to circumvent lending limits set by Mariner's Bank, which he founded in 2001.

In 2022, Daibes admitted to receiving more than $1 million in gross receipts from Mariner's Bank and pleaded guilty to making false entries in a loan memorandum. His sentencing hearing was delayed four times.

Daibes and Michael McManus, the chief financial officer of Daibes Enterprises, allegedly used others not named in the indictment to secure millions of dollars in loans  which were used for Daibes' benefit  without the knowledge of the bank or the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The activity occurred from 2008 through 2013.

The plea agreement was also rejected for McManus.

Daibes pleaded guilty to a single count of the original 14-count indictment, which included a 2008 memo for a $1.8 million nominee loan that falsely stated the borrower and the source of repayment. The line of credit was actually for Daibes, who funded the repayment.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Lawyer in Fred Daibes fraud case has conflict of interest: Prosecutor
 Flash

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in Washington on Thursday that China and the United States should work to return their relations to the track of healthy, stable, and sustainable development as soon as possible.

Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks when he and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken briefly appeared in front of the press before they held a meeting.

Wang said he is on a visit to the United States to reciprocate Blinken's China visit in June.

China and the United States have disagreements and differences, but at the same time share important common interests and face common challenges. Therefore, they need to have a dialogue, said the Chinese foreign minister.

China-U.S. dialogue should not only resume, but be in-depth and comprehensive so that the two sides can increase mutual understanding, reduce misunderstandings and misjudgments, constantly seek to expand common ground and pursue mutually beneficial cooperation, Wang said.

Such efforts will help stabilize China-U.S. relations and facilitate the return of bilateral relations to the track of healthy, stable, and sustainable development, Wang said.

Jarring voices are often heard about China-U.S. relations, but China is calm about them because China believes the criterion for right and wrong is not determined by who has a thicker arm or a louder voice, but by whether one behaves in line with the provisions of the three China-U.S. joint communiques, with the international law and the basic norms of international relations, and with the trend of the times.

"We are confident that at the end of the day, facts will prove everything and history will give its fair verdict," Wang said.




Jackson County prosecutors have charged a 19-year-old with two felonies, including manslaughter, in the death of a bystander killed during a Kansas City police pursuit in March 2022.

Karam R. Jackson, of Independence, is accused of involuntary manslaughter and eluding police in the death of 38-year-old Erika Miller. Jackson was being held Friday in the county jail on a $75,000 bond.

On March 23, 2022, around 5 p.m., Kansas City police officers spotted a Dodge Caliber that had been reported stolen in an armed carjacking six days earlier. They attempted to pull the car over near East 45th Street and Cleveland Avenue, according to court documents.

The driver, later identified by police as Jackson, fled at high speed, going through red lights, stop signs and in the wrong direction of traffic, nearly striking other vehicles, as Kansas City officers pursued, according to an affidavit by a police detective.

The pursuit continued on Truman Road, where the fleeing driver dodged stop sticks, and continued west toward Indiana Avenue, according to police. At Prospect Avenue the car struck a zTrip ride-hailing van, in which Miller was a passenger.

Miller, of Kansas City, was ejected from the van. She was taken to the hospital and pronounced dead shortly after arriving there.

Jackson and a youth who was in the passenger seat were taken to the hospital after the crash and treated for injuries.

The following day, Jackson, who was 17 years old at the time, was interviewed by detectives. He said he was not aware police were trying to pull him over, according to court documents, and that he purchased the car days earlier with cash.

Criminal charges against Jackson were initially brought by the Office of the Juvenile Officer, which acts as a prosecutor in youth crime cases, and he was ordered held in custody. Records show the 19-year-old was since charged in two separate Clay County offenses that included alleged traffic violations and resisting or interfering with a felony arrest.

Jackson made his initial appearance on the newly filed charges on Friday. Court records did not list a defense attorney representing him in the case.
Drag queen Pickle reads a story to children during a Drag Queen Story Hour event at the Laguna Art Museum in Laguna Beach on June 17. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Dozens of protesters physically blocked the entrance to the San Fernando Library this week to stop a scheduled drag storytime reading event from taking place.

Videos posted on social media showed a group of about 70 people  some of whom had previously attended similar demonstrations in North Hollywood, Glendale and elsewhere  wearing black-and-white shirts reading, Leave our kids alone. They chanted the same slogan through bullhorns while hurling verbal abuse and slurs at the guest reader.

Story hours, during which drag queens read to children at venues such as libraries, schools and bookstores, have drawn fury and condemnation from conservatives and right-wing extremists across the country. Some events have been the subject of anti-LGBTQ+ threats and at times violent confrontations.

Wednesday's scheduled 30-minute event, which organizers said was intended to promote youth literacy, never took place.

Read more: Protesters removed from Sherman Oaks library after disrupting drag queen story hour

What was meant to be a celebration of love and inclusion turned into the opposite, Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath , the event's host, said in a statement Thursday.

Protesters claimed they want to keep children safe while pounding on walls, shouting obscenities and slurs toward my staff and library staff, and using strollers to blockade moving vehicles. The hypocrisy is astounding, Horvath said.

Horvaths staff said in an email that the supervisor, who was inside the library, did not officially cancel the event. But it did not proceed because demonstrators blockaded entrances  denying entry to both library patrons and drag queen Pickle, the guest reader.

Pickle, Los Angeles chapter president of the nonprofit Drag Story Hour, said she parked blocks away from the library for safety reasons, anticipating some hostility.

Video footage showed that San Fernando police officers encircled Pickle near the rear entrance. The phalanx moved toward a metal gate but stopped short as some protesters screamed pervert, pedophile and "disgusting freak" at Pickle.

About six to eight protesters refused to leave the entrance even after police issued a dispersal order, according to Pickle. The San Fernando Police Department did not confirm or deny whether such an order had been given.

Read more: Drag Queen Story Hour disrupted by men shouting slurs and threats at Bay Area library

The drag performer said she and the police then attempted to move to the front entrance. As they walked, protesters blared car horns, refused to move and positioned nearby tables to block the front entryway, she said.

At this point, the police werent making arrests, they werent stopping the mob and they were allowing an unelected group of people to determine who could and who could not access a public building, Pickle said. Shame on the San Fernando police.

Pickle received a text from Horvaths staff telling her to leave since she was unable to enter the building. After receiving a police escort back to her car, she did so.

They canceled the event and I cant believe how they handled the situation, Pickle said, referring to staff from the library and Horvath's office. This goes beyond hurt feelings. This is about civil rights and they shouldnt have invited me down if they werent going to stand up for them.

Read more: How drag queen story hour became a battle over gender, sexuality and kids

Questions emailed to L.A. County Library personnel, who oversee the San Fernando Library, were not immediately answered Thursday.

Pickle said she has attended about 50 drag story hour events, but this was the first canceled in person.

A story hour she was scheduled to appear at in Glendale last spring was canceled ahead of time, and protesters also disrupted another of her storybook hours in Sherman Oaks in April.

San Fernando Police Lt. Pete Aguirre said 10 officers were deployed to the library.

Read more: Column: Would hate disrupt a drag story hour in gay-friendly Laguna Beach?

Aguirre said no arrests were made and no assaults or property damage were reported.

Aguirre said protesters began arriving at 10:30 a.m., with most staying until the event was terminated at noon. Others didnt leave for another hour and engaged with a small contingent of counter protesters.

We werent able to get to the venue, but we ensured that the performer was not assaulted in any way and that they were able to leave the venue unharmed, Aguirre said.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Protestors heckled Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) as he exited a Long Island courtroom Friday, where he pleaded not guilty to 10 new federal charges of fraudulently inflating his campaign finance reports and charging donors credit cards without their knowledge or authorization.

Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Santos has got to go! protestors holding signs chanted as he exited the courtroom.

As he passed the protestors and made his way to his vehicle, some members of the crowd began to shout in his direction.

You killed my dog, George! one said.

Put that liar in the fire, another said, before she repeated the phrase, as if to begin a chant.

The protestors held a wide range of signs, including one that read, Maga Republicans/ No honor. No integrity. No shame! and another that read, CONGRESS ALLOWS THIS!!

The demonstration comes amid a wave of backlash from even within the Republican Party to oust Santos from Congress.

Santos was originally indicted in May on 13 charges over accusations that he misled donors, fraudulently received unemployment benefits and lied on House financial disclosures. He previously pleaded guilty to those charges.

His current court appearance comes after a superseding indictment revealed new charges against him earlier this month.

In Congress, Santos now faces increased pressure from his own party to leave. A group of fellow New York Republicans, after the superseding indictment was revealed earlier this month, publicly called for his expulsion  marking a change from their earlier resistance to the effort.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
The nonprofit onePulse Foundation has abandoned plans to build a museum near the site of the former nightclub, its representatives told Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings in a meeting Friday afternoon.

In that meeting, leaders of the onePulse Foundation offered to return land purchased five years ago with Tourist Development Tax money to the county, which the county accepted, Earl Crittenden, the outgoing chairman of the Board of Trustees said in a written statement.

View this document on Scribd

The TDT, or bed tax, is a 6% levy on all hotel room or short-term rental stays in Orange County. It has been used to build venues like the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts and Amway Center. TDT dollars have been used to fund arts groups and provide incentives to attract sporting events to the region.

After careful consideration regarding the scope of our proposed projects, including conversations with victims families, survivors, and the local community, as well as unforeseen challenges, the onePULSE Foundation Board of Trustees has decided it is no longer feasible to move forward with the plan to develop a museum, the statement reads. Now, more than ever, its imperative to realize the much-needed National Pulse Memorial as an everlasting sanctuary of hope to memorialize the 49 Angels and remember this tragedy, and to teach love and acceptance for generations to come.

Crittenden announced his resignation as chairman of the board this week.

View this document on Scribd

In 2018, onePulse was was awarded up to $10 million in TDT money toward the museum project, and to date has been issued $6.5 million, county officials say. That includes the $3.5 million purchase price of 1.7 acres on West Kaley Street where the museum was planned, as well as $3 million toward design costs.

Thats separate from a long-planned memorial on the site of the nightclub itself. That land on South Orange Avenue was purchased by the city of Orlando Friday, which plans to build the memorial there, where 49 people were killed and 53 were wounded on June 12, 2016. At the time, it was the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

In a statement, Demings said he planned to schedule a meeting of the Board of County Commissioners to further discuss the situation.

I understand how difficult this decision was for the foundation and the future of the organization is uncertain, he said. The circumstances have taken an emotional toll on the families and survivors of the Pulse tragedy, as we continue to honor the 49 angels. I will be scheduling a Board of County Commission meeting to update the Board and make determinations regarding the next steps for Orange County. We will continue to keep the community informed.

In the aftermath of the tragedy, the foundation started to raise money with a mission to craft and build a memorial and museum, taking note from several other foundations that formed in the wake of a tragedy like the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum.

But some Pulse survivors and family members of victims did not agree with the development of a large-scale capital project that they say used their stories in order to fundraise and attract donors.

Pulse survivor Norman Casiano, 33, has been vocally against the museum for years.

It always felt very exploitative, he said. I went through something so horrible there; my brother and sister went through something horrible there. Mothers lost children there. Its not something that people should go pay to see and have memorabilia on display.

The foundation was started in 2016 by Barbara Poma, the now-former owner of the nightclub, with plans of building a memorial and funding scholarships. On Friday, she formally sold the Pulse property to the city of Orlando for $2 million.

Controversy followed, with criticisms ranging from high salaries for Poma and other executives, to limited progress on the memorial. She stepped down as executive director in 2021, and left the organization altogether earlier this year.

In 2019, it announced plans for both a memorial and a towering museum nearby, in what at the time they deemed the Pulse District in the area south of Downtown Orlando. The proposal was estimated as a $45 million project, though plans shifted earlier this year when Board members learned it could be around a $100 million pricetag with steep operating costs.

At the time, Deborah Bowie, the executive director of onePulse, said the foundation was working toward putting a scaled-down museum in the 47,000 foot Kaley Street warehouse.

In a letter to Demings, Crittenden said that wasnt enough to save the museum project.

View this document on Scribd

In a statement of her own, Bowie said onePulses board was reevaluating its mission.

With all of the recent developments, the onePULSE Foundation Board of Trustees is in the process of reevaluating its mission to make sure it aligns with the new realities, she said. We will keep everyone updated as those discussions evolve and decisions are made as to the best way to honor the lives of the 49 Angels and all those impacted by the Pulse tragedy.
(Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday the first segment of Russia's new orbital station, which Moscow sees as the next logical development in space exploration after the International Space Station (ISS), should be put into operation by 2027.

In a meeting with space industry officials, Putin also vowed to proceed with Russia's lunar programme despite the failure in August of its first moonshot in 47 years, Russian news agencies reported.

Putin said Moscow's decision to extend to 2028 its participation in the ISS, now 25 years old, was a temporary measure.

"As the resources of the International Space Station run out, we need not just one segment, but the entire station to be brought into service," Putin was quoted as saying of the new Russian orbital station.

"And in 2027, The first segment should be place in orbit."

He said the development of the station had to proceed "all in good time" or the Russian programme risked falling behind in terms of the development of manned space flight.

The new station, he said, had to "consider all advanced achievements of science and technology and have the potential to take on the tasks of the future".

Yuri Borisov, head of the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, endorsed Putin's position as a means of maintaining the country's capabilities in manned space flight.

"The ISS is getting old and will come to an end sometime around 2030," Russian agencies quoted him as telling reporters.

"If we don't start large-scale work on creating a Russian orbital station in 2024 it is quite likely that we will lose our capability because of the time gap. What I mean is the ISS will no longer be there and the Russian station won't be ready."In his remarks, Putin also said he had been informed fully about the technical mishaps that led to the crash landing of the Luna-25 craft in August on the moon's south pole.

"We will of course be working on this. The lunar programme will continue. There are no plans to close it," Putin said.

"Mistakes are mistakes. It is a shame for all of us. This is space exploration and everyone understands that. It is experience that we can use in the future."

Borisov said the next moon launch might be moved forward to 2026 from 2027 as now planned.

(Reporting by Ron Popeski; Editing by Sonali Paul)
A court in Qatar handed death sentences to eight former Indian Navy personnel on charges of espionage  an announcement that has "shocked" New Delhi.

The retired navy men were arrested last year on suspicion of spying for Israel on Qatars military submarine programme, The Times of Israel reported.

The Indian government on Thursday vowed to explore all legal options in the case. The foreign ministry in a statement said it would "take up the verdict with Qatari authorities" and continue to "extend all consular and legal assistance" to the prisoners.

"We are deeply shocked by the verdict of death penalty and are awaiting the detailed judgment," it added.

The eight men were employees of the Al Dahra consulting company, which advises the Qatari government on the acquisition of submarines.

The prisoners have been identified as captain Navtej Singh Gill, captain Birendra Kumar Verma, captain Saurabh Vasisht, commander Amit Nagpal, commander Purnendu Tiwari, commander Sugunakar Pakala, commander Sanjeev Gupta, and Sailor Ragesh, according to The Hindu.

The retired navy officers reportedly had distinguished service records of up to 20 years and held crucial roles, including that of instructors in the force.

Neither the Indian government nor the Qatari authorities have made the charges against the men public. The Qatari authorities previously provided New Delhi consular access to the eight Indian nationals during their trial.

Indian foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar had earlier said that the exact nature of the charges against the eight men was "not entirely clear".

Thursday's government statement said that it would "not be appropriate to make any further comments at this stage" due to the "confidential nature of the proceedings".

The sentence comes at a time when Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip in retaliation against Hamas's surprise 7 October attack has killed over 7,000 Palestinians. More than 1,400 people in Israel, mostly civilians, were killed during the initial Hamas attack, according to the Israeli government.

Qatar has been playing a key intermediary role in negotiating the release of several Israeli hostages held in Gaza by the Palestinian militants along with ensuring entrance of humanitarian aid for the Gazans.

More than 800,000 Indian citizens live and work in Qatar.
The third Republican primary debate will take place on 8 November, broadcast by NBC News at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami.

To qualify, candidates need to reach at least four per cent in two national polls, or four per cent in one national poll and four per cent in two early primary states.

They also need 70,000 individual donors, including 200 donors in 20 states, according to the requirements set by the Republican National Committee (RNC).

Five candidates have qualified for the showdown, so far  Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, biotech entrepreneur and woke-bashing author Vivek Ramaswamy, former UN Ambassador and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, and ex-New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.

Former President Donald Trump has also qualified but has said that, like the first two debates, he wont attend. He will instead hold a rally in Hialeah, Florida, not far from Miami.

While former Vice President Mike Pence has reached the required polling results to participate in the debate, he still needs to acquire 70,000 individual donors.

South Carolina Senator Tim Scott has hit the required polling in two state polls but hasnt reached the threshold in national polling or when it comes to donors, according to Politico, even as his campaign argues they have hit the required polling and is on track to get the number of donors needed.

The qualification period is 1 September to 6 November.

The debate will be moderated by NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt, recently-appointed Meet The Press moderator Kristen Welker, and conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.

Heres the latest campaign news for each candidate set to appear on stage in Miami:

Ron DeSantis

Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov Ron DeSantis speaks at the Heritage Foundation (Getty Images)

The Florida governor is at odds with an Israeli diplomat in Miami regarding whether Mr DeSantiss office had coordinated with the diplomat to send ammunition and weapons to Israel. On Thursday, a spokesperson for the governor said that his office had contracted cargo planes to send drones, armour, and helmets to Israel and was working to get weapons and ammunition to Israel through private parties.

At the request of the Israeli Consul General in Miami, cargo planes contracted by Florida were used to transport healthcare and hospital supplies, drones, body armour, and helmets that first responders can use, a spokesperson for the governor told Reuters. We also worked with the Consul General to help get weapons and ammunition to Israel through private parties.

But the Israeli General Consul in Miami, Maor Elbaz-Starinsky, told the news agency, This is not how I would describe it.

Meanwhile, Mr DeSantis declined to attack Mr Trumps character during an appearance on CNN.

Im about results and Im about outcomes. I mean, Donald Trumps well-documented the different things in that regard. For me, its whos going to be able to deliver the results. Ill be able to do that, as the president, he said on the network.

He did some things I give him credit for, but he also promised things he didnt deliver. So the question is moving forward, how do you actually get America on the right track? How do we reverse this decline? he added. And I think we need a new leader, someone who can serve eight years, two four-year terms, and someone who is going to be energetic, have vitality and vigour, and get the job done.

Nikki Haley

Republican presidential candidate former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley speaks to potential voters during a campaign event at Central College in Pella, Iowa (Getty Images)

The Democratic New York City Council president from 1986-1994, Andrew Stein, came out in support of former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley in the 2024 primary, writing in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal that I supported Donald Trump twice, but I now think the country would be best served with a different candidate in 2024Nikki Haley.

I dont take this view lightly. Mr. Trump did a good job as president, from improving the economy to securing the border and maintaining world peace. But a Trump re-election would be difficult, and half the country will never accept him as president. It would keep us divided while we face international situations that require this country to be unified, he added.

Maggie Haberman of The New York Times said that Mr Stein is one of Trumps oldest friends (to the extent he has actual friends).

Vivek Ramaswamy

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, right, talks foreign policy with Michael Doran, a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington (AP)

Last Friday, Mr Ramaswamy confronted Iowa GOP Senator Joni Ernst at a fundraiser in her state following her criticism of his stance on Israel, according to NBC News.

As Ms Ernst was leaving a podcast studio at the Iowa GOP Rep Mariannette Miller-Meekss Triple MMM Tailgate fundraiser, Mr Ramaswamy was about to enter when they shook hands. The entrepreneur held onto her hand as he shared his grievances.

You might want to understand my Israel policy before commenting, he said.

Mr Ramaswamy was seemingly irate at Ms Ernsts comments during a panel discussion in New Hampshire the previous week.

In an interview with Tucker Carlson on X, Mr Ramaswamy said: The selective nature of ignoring certain other conflicts  while even more importantly ignoring the interests of the US right here at home  is what irritates the heck out of me, out of the politicians in both parties.

It is shameful, and I think that there are, frankly, financial and corrupting influences that lead them exactly to speak the way they do. Thats just the hard truth, he added.

On 13 October, GOP North Dakota Governor and 2024 candidate Doug Burgum slammed Mr Ramaswamy for insinuating that US backers of Israel are bought and paid for.

Sitting next to Mr Burgum, Ms Ernst made her approval clear.

Having people running for high elected office here in the United States shifting the blame away and saying its all about fundraising, its abhorrent, Ms Ernst said. We need to stand with our friends, Israel.

Chris Christie

Chris Christie tours the New Hampshire State House visitor centre in Concord (EPA)

The ex-New Jersey governor is on what many have likened to a kamikaze mission to take down Mr Trump.

Mr Christie appeared on CNN this week after ABC News reported that Mr Trumps former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows had acquired an immunity deal with the office of Special Counsel Jack Smith to testify before a grand jury in the federal election interference case.

The former governor said Mr Trump should be desperately worried.

If the person you call the next James Baker is now testifying that you were lying to the American people about the election results from election night forward, which is reportedly what Mark Meadows is testifying, and that you knew all along that what you were saying was not backed up by the facts, Donald Trump is in very, very big trouble, he told anchor Wolf Blitzer.

Mark Meadows was, as you know well, Donald Trumps shadow the entire time he was chief of staff, he added. He will know every conversation, every lie, every illegal action that was taken by Donald Trump. And, hes gonna be able to testify to it.
As schools grapple with learning loss in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and communities see culture war curriculum debates flare, education has become a major talking point on the 2024 campaign trail.

Several Republican White House hopefuls have proposed their ideas for reforms, from ongoing GOP efforts to grow school choice programs to larger scale plans to eradicate the Department of Education.

Education, an issue that hasn't had a lot of daylight between Republicans and Democrats in modern politics, has become especially partisan within the last decade, said Jennifer Steele, a professor in American Universitys School of Education.

I've been around this field for a while, and I've never seen education as divisive as it is in this presidential election, Steele said.

Beyond politicians rhetoric, the division is also felt by voters: 72% of Democrats said they believe public schools have a positive impact on the country, while nearly as many Republicans, 61%, said they see a negative impact, according to a Pew Research Center survey from last October.

Elections 2023: Abortion on the left, education on the right: Which pivotal issue will decide Virginia's fate?

The fault lines today, Steele said, fall largely around curriculum, with the epicenters being discussions of critical race theory or sexual orientation and gender identity.

Now it's really about what is being taught, and who controls what is being taught, and whose voices are being heard, she said. That's where the political divide is falling.

So what are the 2024 White House hopefuls saying about education to voters? Here's what you need to know.

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy speaks during the Seacoast Media Group and USA TODAY Network 2024 Republican Presidential Candidate Town Hall Forum held in the historic Exeter Town Hall in Exeter, New Hampshire. The entrepreneur spoke to prospective New Hampshire voters about issues during the hour-long forum.

'Quantum-leap change': Ramaswamy and Republicans propose an end to the Department of Education

Biotech entrepreneur and political newbie Vivek Ramaswamy has said from the outset of his campaign that, as president, he would eliminate the Department of Education.

There are certain people  good people  in this race that will favor incremental reform of the federal government and the bureaucracy. Im not in that camp, Ramaswamy told voters at a USA TODAY network town hall in Exeter, New Hampshire, earlier this month.

I favor quantum-leap change, the Republican candidate added. I dont believe it is possible to incrementally reform agencies that have existed for a long time.

Ramaswamy has proposed redistributing billions of dollars in Education Department funding to parents.

Steele called the idea not realistic at all.

Once one is president, one realizes that the Department of Education is doing a lot of things that would otherwise be very hard to do," Steele said. When they say things like this on the campaign trail, that they're going to dismantle a certain part of the cabinet, it's usually just a way to grab attention in the media cycle.

The Department of Education's responsibilities are wide ranging, from providing financial assistance for students from low-income families to addressing discrimination complaints through their Office for Civil Rights.

Many Republicans have previously proposed closing or reducing the department, including former President Donald Trump. Former Vice President Mike Pence, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum have joined fellow 2024 candidate Ramaswamy in raising the idea this campaign cycle.

The pitches reflect Republican voters, who are likewise generally dissatisfied with the Department of Education. A Pew Research Center survey in March found that 65% of right-leaning respondents view the agency unfavorably.

Ramaswamys suggestion of returning money to parents goes hand in hand with school choice policies and programs that the GOP has long promoted. In a growing number of states, so-called school vouchers, paid for with tax dollars, cover private school tuition or pay for services like tutoring and homeschooling.

2022 midterm recap: Did Republicans take over school boards? Key education takeaways

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has touted her record in the Palmetto State, expanding school choice and founding a nonprofit to support rural students. Another South Carolinian, Sen. Tim Scott, advertises his platform to create choice in education, allowing parents to choose between public, private or charter schools.

While some school choice programs in major cities, such as Washington, D.C. and New York City, have taken hold, implementing the systems in suburban and rural areas often presents a huge logistical challenge, Steele said.

In most parts of the country, it's not feasible for parents to suddenly start playing musical chairs with schools, she said.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis addresses the crowd before publicly signing the Stop WOKE Act in April 2022.

Banking on parents' concerns and campaigning on parents' rights

A rallying cry for Republicans in the 2022 midterm elections, parental rights in schools continue to be a prominent message ahead of next years presidential race. In the still-crowded Republican field, DeSantis has one of the most high-profile track records in this area.

His Parental Rights in Education bill  dubbed by critics the Dont Say Gay law  was passed in 2022 and expanded this year to bar instruction on gender identity or sexuality in K-12 classes. It also bans teachers from using students' pronouns that do not match their sex assigned at birth.

Other 2024 candidates have touted parents authority to control the education their children receive in political ads and campaign events, including Haley.

During a town hall hosted by Moms for Liberty, a conservative organization focused on school curriculum, in Manchester, New Hampshire, last month, Haley said, No parent should ever wonder whats being said or taught to their child in the classroom.

We need full transparency in the classroom always, she said then.

More: What's behind the national surge in book bans? A low-tech website tied to Moms for Liberty

And parents are responding to these campaign promises.

Natalie Erdossy of Fauquier County, Virginia, said education led the once-Democrat to vote for her first Republican, Gov. Glenn Youngkin, in the 2021 Virginia gubernatorial race.

Once the focus turned to education, it's just going to stay there because there's no looking away once you see what's going on, Erdossy said while at a rally earlier this month hosted by Youngkin and sporting a Moms for Liberty T-shirt.

Critics, though, have accused the parents' rights movement of being a guise for racist or homophobic beliefs, designed to limit which perspectives or versions of history are taught in classrooms. The Southern Poverty Law Center has listed Moms for Liberty as an extremist group over accusations of harassing community members, advancing misinformation about LGBTQ+ people and fighting to remove materials about diversity from classrooms.

Messages from Youngkin, DeSantis and other GOP leaders who have made parents' rights a cornerstone of their education agenda are oftentimes, Steele said, scare tactics.

What we need to tell parents is that they should feel safe in trusting their children to learn about a complex set of academic topics, she said.

President Joe Biden speaks about student loan debt relief at Delaware State University on Oct. 21, 2022.

Education in a second Biden administration

America's political parties are not only more divided on education, Steele said, but they're also often having distinct conversations about the issue.

On the other side of the aisle, President Joe Biden, the expected 2024 Democratic nominee, hasn't focused on the territory Republicans have targeted. One of his administration's signature pushes has been for student loan forgiveness.

Biden's latest attempt: Who are the winners and losers in the president's SAVE student loan repayment plan based on income?

Biden's attempts to forgive the debts of hundreds of thousands of borrowers has faced years of legal hurdles. That includes a recent lawsuit by the Cato Institute and Mackinac Center for Public Policy, arguing that the federal government does not have the authority to carry out their plans.

Nevertheless, the president has directly addressed some Republican efforts. In his speech at the White House Pride celebration in June, Biden took a moment to criticize what he called "hateful bills like Don't Say Gay," without explicitly mentioning DeSantis.

He also at the time denounced book bans in school libraries, another growing movement from politicians and groups on the right.

"(School book bans) may violate the federal civil rights laws when they target LGBTQ students or students of color and create hostile classroom environments," Biden said.

Jill Biden, a longtime educator who has made the classroom a central focus of her tenure as first lady, reflected on book bans during a speech earlier this month, referencing "the bisexual student who wants to see herself reflected in the books she can borrow from her school library."

"In America, we dont ban books," she said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: School choice, student loans: 2024 Republicans on classroom debates
With former Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters declaring Thursday that he will run for a House seat this cycle, the long-brewing MAGA battle between Masters and failed Arizona governor candidate Kari Lake is on.

Lake isnt running for the seat herself. But a close ally of hers, Abraham Hamadeh, is running. In fact, Hamadeh got in the race just hours after Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-AZ) announced she was retiring and leaving the seat vacant last week.

(The seat is R+10, meaning whoever emerges from the GOP primary is almost certain to become a member of Congress.)

Exactly 32 minutes after Masters made it official on Thursday that he was jumping into the race, Hamadeh announced that he had Lakes endorsementin case it was clear how much of a proxy war the congressional race had already become.

Kari Lake and Blake Masters Have Intense Phone Call About Dueling Senate Intentions

Proxy war without proxies! one Arizona Republican operative told The Daily Beast, referencing Hamadehs tweet touting his Lake endorsement.

But even before the race kicked off, keen operatives told The Daily Beast the contest was shaping up to be a profoundly personal and petty primary.

Another Arizona Republican operative was clear to The Daily Beast that Masters and Lake dont like each other.

I dont think they are friends, this operative said. On the campaign, the Blake and Lake thing looked great on stage, but I dont think they were particularly close.

The source continued that Masters is a true intellectual, while Kari is an intellectual nit-wit.

As The Daily Beast reported last month, the bad blood between Masters and Lake has been an issue for a long time. On a late-night phone call, the two clashed over warring beliefs on topics including election fraud in Lakes race, appealing to moderate Republicans, and if Masters hid under his bed after his own 2020 loss.

Lake and Masters also spoke about the Arizona U.S. Senate seat up for grabs, which, at one point, they were both considering running for. Since then, former President Donald Trump ultimately weighed in by endorsing Lake before Masters could enter the race.

That left Masters free to pursue the soon-to-be vacant congressional seat.

While Lake was perhaps better positioned to win the GOP primary for that Senate seat, hes likely in a better spot in this proxy war for the House seat.

For one, Hamadehs quick decision to rubbed some people in Arizona GOP circles the wrong way.

The fact that he had an announcement up, two hours after Lesko announced she was stepping down, is just so transparently opportunistic, one of the Arizona operatives said. The guy clearly just wants to be something, anything.

Another Arizona Republican operative blamed Hamadehs hastiness on Lake.

Clearly, she got him into this race, the source claimed. There are a lot of people that like Kari for what shes doing, but arent that interested in her purse chihuahua.

Blake Masters Launches Bid for House Seat Rather Than Challenging Kari Lake

According to Federal Election Commission filings reviewed by The Daily Beast, Hamadeh officially filed his paperwork the day after he announced. (Hamadeh didnt return requests for comment on this story.)

As the campaigns get underway, one issue that both candidates will be fixated on could be a determining factor in the race: Donald Trumps endorsement.

While it might seem like a Lake ally could get a quick endorsement, two sources involved in the race say it isnt going to be that easy. Notably, both sources believed that Trump wouldnt rush to weigh in.

As one Trumpworld source put it, the messaging out of Mar-a-Lago is that they dont want to get involved in this.

I dont think hes really getting involved, another Republican operative said on Trumps involvement in the race, calling the Lake endorsement an outlier.

In somewhat surprising move, before Masters even announced Lesko tossed her endorsement behind neither Hamadeh nor Masters. Instead, she supported the House Speaker of the state legislature in Arizona, Ben Toma, according to Punchbowl News.

Congresswoman Lesko is a big fan of President Trump, but thats like a different type of MAGA that Abe is pushingthey are not cut from the same MAGA cloth, a previously mentioned operative said.

(The Trump campaign didnt return The Daily Beasts request for comment.)

Elsewhere, while the two MAGA candidates have different personalities, they oddly share an abnormal problem: neither exactly live in the district up for grabs.

Blake Masters Reconsiders His MAGA Throwdown Against Kari Lake

On Masters side, his critics say he lives in Tucson, which is about 112 miles from the 8th Congressional District, which is just outside of the Phoenix area.

He has zero ties to that district. Hes from Tucson. The district is nowhere near Tucson, one of the previously mentioned Republican operatives said. I dont know how well that would really play.

Likewise, when it comes to Hamadeh, he lives outside the district, tooin Scottsdalethough one GOP operative noted that Scottsdale is relatively close to the district and was once actually part of it.

Thats different from being from an entire different county, the source said.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Mike Pence s 2024 campaign is sputtering. But becoming president was only one of the points of running for president.

Even though hes among the most recognizable names in the Republican presidential primary after serving four years as vice president, Pences campaign has also been about reintroducing himself to voters  and perhaps to history  on his own terms, not only as Donald Trump s No. 2.

He has defended his traditional view of conservatism against the populist strain now dominating the Republican Party. Hes staked out strong claims inside the GOP primary by supporting federal legislation to limit abortion, increase military aid to Ukraine and reform Social Security to reduce the national debt  and by criticizing other Republicans who take the other side on those issues. And he has preached about the importance of fidelity to the Constitution, even when Trump was pressuring him to go beyond his defined role as vice president to subvert the 2020 election.

Stepping out of public life after that would have meant ending a two-decade career in politics by certifying Trumps loss on Jan. 6, 2021, when an angry mob called for Pence to be hung and Trump criticized him publicly. The risk that Pences legacy would be defined by the man who asked him to go against the Constitution grew as Trump took charge of the 2024 Republican primary.

Now, Pences campaign is nearly out of money. His support has slowly eroded to the low to mid single digits throughout 2023, according to public polling averages. His campaigns performance is serving as an up-close study of how Republican voters have deserted a man whose convention speeches and campaign appearances for Trump once drew cheers.

But at least hes getting the last word on himself  and his party.

I dont view it as a legacy, said former Rep. Jeb Hensarling, a Texan who served alongside Pence in Congress and now co-chairs Pences super PAC. Like others interviewed for this article, Hensarling spoke before Pence dropped out of the 2024 race on Saturday. What I do view it as is the ability of Mike Pence to finally be Mike Pence, and to introduce that Mike Pence to the Republican primary and caucus voters who have only known him as a loyal vice president to Donald Trump, who went their separate ways after Jan. 6.

Campaign spokesperson Devin OMalley said voters often come away from meeting Pence at campaign events with a new sense of who Mike Pence is as a person  and that is the point.

Mike Pence existed within the conservative movement and was a leader within the conservative movement well before Donald Trump asked him to be his vice president, OMalley added.

More broadly, one of the big moments of Pences campaign was a speech that was partly about how Trump has led the GOP astray from what Pence sees as its ideological roots  something OMalley described as a rallying cry that hed be saying irrespective of if he were running for president or not.

While drawing a distinction between himself and his former running mate, Pence still touts his pride in the record of what he calls the Trump-Pence administration.

Its something 69-year-old voter John Marx, a Republican from Decorah, Iowa, appreciated when he attended one of Pences meet-and-greets in September. Marx, who backed Trump in the past but is undecided in the 2024 caucuses, said he liked what Trump and Pence did when they were in the White House.

And the way Pence sounds, he wants to continue a lot of Trumps policies, Marx said. Trump had his idiosyncrasies, dont misunderstand that. But his policies, you cannot argue with. They were good for this country.

But Pence has also used the campaign to break with Trump more decisively than he had previously. The first fissure was over their differences on Pences constitutional authority on Jan. 6, which has led to everything from protesters with signs reading Pence is a traitor heckling him on the 2024 trail to voters thanking him for standing up for the Constitution.

As I travel around the country, theres not a day that goes by that someone from literally every walk of life doesnt come up to me at an airport, or at a diner, at a pizza place and just thank me for what we did that day, Pence said this month on NBCs Meet the Press.

But that appreciation does not always translate to votes.

Michael Simmons of Charleston, South Carolina, a 57-year-old independent, said he predicts history will be fair to Pence for doing the right thing on Jan. 6. But he is leaning toward supporting Nikki Haley in the primary.

I just dont think he can win. I mean, hes not a fiery personality, Simmons said. To him, it doesnt seem like Pence has it  though Simmons admits he is not sure what it is.

In recent weeks, the former vice president has gone after Trump much more sharply. When campaigning, he specifically criticizes his former running mate on foreign policy  Trumps appeasement on the world stage, Pence has called it. And on abortion, Pence said Trump is shying away from the cause of life.

Today, a populist movement is rising in the Republican Party, Pence said at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at St. Anselm College in September. The growing faction would substitute our faith in limited government and traditional values with an agenda stitched together by little else than personal grievances and performative outrage.

Free to be himself

Having stood by Trump for four years as his loyal vice president, Pence became widely known for serving in a role where, as Hensarling noted, he wasnt always able to be himself. This led to some raised eyebrows when he gave a combative performance in the first GOP presidential primary debate in late August.

Frankly, the Mike Pence I saw in that first debate, to me, that was Mike Pence being Mike Pence, Hensarling said. To me, four years in the Trump administration was, well, not exactly the Mike Pence I know, but its a different job description.

Its a job description Pence himself says he had a very fixed view of.

When I was vice president of the United States, I prayed every day to be informed, to be prepared, to be of service, but not to be the story, he said in an August speech in Indianapolis.

A former longtime aide to Pence said the vice president never shared the content of conversations hed had with the president, even with his closest advisers.

I cannot tell you the number of times when he would leave the Oval Office, come over to the vice presidents office, and it was never  he never, ever would discuss what was discussed or what was debated or what was considered, the adviser said. His message was always the exact same: The president wants us to do X. And thats what we went and did.

That meant many voters  like 57-year-old fire chief and police officer Ray Reynolds of Nevada, Iowa  saw him as the calm voice for Trump and someone who made Trump look good during the administration.

I feel like when he was vice president, he played his role. He took his second seat, said Reynolds, who now says he plans to caucus for Pence after seeing him campaign.

They know of him, but they dont know him, and they dont know his family, said Jeff Cardwell, who has been friends with Pence for more than 30 years and served as an adviser when Pence was governor of Indiana.

Pences campaign stump speech often includes personal stories about his wife, three children and three granddaughters. He also peppers his audiences with a lot of jokes, to the surprise of some.

Im always struck by people being surprised that I have a sense of humor, but I get it, Pence told Megyn Kelly on her SiriusXM radio show earlier this month.

Pence also frequently recounts on the trail what he did after the 2020 election. Following Trumps loss and the end of his vice presidency, Pence moved home to Indiana with his wife, Karen.

We bought 5 acres and a pond. We got a John Deere riding mower. We got a Ford Ranger pickup truck  candy apple red, as he told voters in Corning, Iowa, on Oct. 7. Lifes pretty good.

He decided to run for president anyway.

He got to be himself when he was a member of the House. He got to be himself as governor of Indiana, Hensarling said. And as vice president, he just, you know, he had to carry another agenda  mostly his, but not all his.

Speaking to voters in Greenfield, Iowa, this month, Pence himself acknowledged the unlikely odds he has faced from the beginning.

We didnt run because I  because we felt like we saw some clear, eight-lane superhighway straight to the Oval Office, Pence said.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
MSNBC host Rachel Maddows new book, Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism, clinched the prestigious number one spot on the New York Times bestseller list. This accolade comes amid Maddows ongoing nationwide tour, where shes been engaging with audiences about the critical themes explored in her book.



The book delves into the historical roots and modern implications of fascist movements in the U.S. Prequel emerged from a mountain of research Maddow conducted for her podcast, Ultra, and has struck a chord with readers, illuminating the extremist ideologies that target marginalized communities and threaten the country's democratic norms.

.@maddow's PREQUEL is a #1 New York Times Bestseller!



Learn more about America's history with authoritarianism in PREQUEL\u2014out now!



https://t.co/nihFpBBcFR  (@)

On October 18, Maddow shared insights from her book with The New Yorkers Susan Glasser at George Washington Universitys Lisner Auditorium in Washington, D.C. The moderated discussion was met with enthusiasm and applause from a captivated audience, showcasing Maddows meticulous research and storytellings significant impact in fostering critical discussions around the state of American democracy.



Related: Rachel Maddow on Modern-Day Extremism, American Democracy, and Her New Book, Prequel



Maddow told The Advocate during a recent interview, With this one, I was like, Why are we having this version of the political right in America ascendant?

She also expressed concerns over the resurgence of Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism, seeking to unravel the historical underpinnings of these disturbing trends in American society.

However, the celebration of Prequels success was momentarily overshadowed on Thursday when Maddow revealed she had contracted COVID-19, leading to a temporary postponement of her book tour. Sold-out events in Colorado, Oklahoma, and Massachusetts will be rescheduled.

Despite this setback, the nationwide acclaim for Prequel and sold-out events to hear Maddow talk about the book underscores its timely relevance.

None  (@)

Her book serves as a stark reminder of the nefarious chapters in Americas history when ordinary Americans stood in the way of a push to embrace fascism. That ought to be way more famous than it is," she told The Advocate. "And we ought to be really, really, really on alert that those same dynamics dont work to derail the Justice Department now.

Prequel is the fourth time Maddow has reached the best-selling list after Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power, Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth, and Bag Man: The Wild Crimes, Audacious Cover-up, and Spectacular Downfall of a Brazen Crook in the White House (co-written with Michael Yarvitz).
At a time when there is so much hate and turmoil in the world, I found it refreshing and honorable when Dr. Marvin Dunn took the high road and forgave the man who almost killed his son in a hateful incident in Rosewood, Florida, in 2022.

On July 26, after a two-day trial in Gainesville, a jury found David Emanuel, 63, guilty of driving his truck toward Dunn and five other Blacks that included his son Frederick, as they surveyed land in Rosewood, now owned by Dunn. Emanuel narrowly missed hitting Dunns son.

On Oct. 19, Emanuel, who lives in Cedar Key, a stones throw away from Rosewood, was sentenced to one year and a day in prison, followed by two years of supervised release for his racist actions.

As Emanuel drove his truck towards the group, who walked along a public road, he yelled racist slurs out the window. The hateful, racially motivated incident happened to Dunn, a professor emeritus of psychology at Florida International University, and his group simply because they were Black.

A video showed that after Emanuel was arrested, he complained about being arrested for his racist deed. After all, Emanuel is white. The victims are Black. And to Emanuel, being Black does not matter.

That was the thinking of the whites 100 years ago, in 1923, when they burned Rosewood to the ground, and killing many Blacks who lived there.

Interestingly, while Dunn has found it in his heart to forgive the man who nearly killed his son and could have badly injured several others, Emanuel has shown little remorse for his actions.

I know that some people are just bad to the core. But I still find it hard to believe that an upright citizen, as some have referred to Edmanuel, can find it in his heart to want to murder innocent people, simple because of the color of their skin.

Life has been good to Emanuel. (Incidentally the name Emanuel, which is of Hebrew origin, translates to God with us.) This country has been good to him. Unlike the Blacks who lived in Rosewood 100 years ago, and who amid the strict segregation laws and hatred, took what they had and established a small section where they could live and work in peace. And later die violently.

Yet, instead of being thankful for the bountiful life he and his family have lived, Emanuel has chosen the low road of jealousy mixed with hate  a dangerous cocktail  toward his fellow men.

My parents raised me to forgive

Recently I spoke briefly with Dunn about his reason for forgiving the man who almost killed his son, Frederick, as they and several others were surveying land that Dunn owns and plans to develop a memorial park honoring the victims of the 1923 massacre.

When I asked Dunn why he chose to forgive Emanuel, he wasnt bitter, but showed feelings of pity toward the man who almost killed his son, and simply said, Im a Christian, Bea. And my parents raised me to forgive It is when you are most angry that you should reach out for the other persons hand.

Dunn said it wasnt just him, but others in the group, who agreed that they should take the high ground of forgiving Emanuel.

In a letter to judge Allen Winsor, Dunn wrote:

 For me, my faith requires forgiveness and so I must. It requires me to love my neighbor as well, but I have more work to do on that. I am not asking my neighbor to love me or even to apologize to us. I only ask that he assures the court that we can live in peace as neighbors. We are also doing this as an example to others of what our country requires of us, especially at this challenging moment in our history. Despite our differences we must respect each other and live in peace. Race in America is a lump in our collective throat, the thorn in our collective side, the unmovable rock in our common path. For America to become whole, the lumps, thorns and rocks must be removed

At the sentencing, Dunn said Emanuel apologized in open court,  and I nodded in return. He [Emanuel] was surrounded by White people who had come to support him.

Dr. Marvin Dunn told me, Im a Christian, Bea. And my parents raised me to forgive It is when you are most angry that you should reach out for the other persons hand.

Forgiving Emanuel was the right thing to do, Dunn said. Our country is burning itself with race issues. I just didnt want to throw another log on the fire. I dont need to be carrying around this anger. No. We have got to move on beyond the anger or we will never reach peace.

Forgiveness and forgivers

I agree with Dunn. Over the years, I have written several columns about forgiveness and how it helps to heal the forgiver.

I have never met David Emanuel. But I know this: He has two biblical names. I cant help but think about his names and if he has ever given any thought to their meaning. Most of us try to live up to our good names. Maybe Emanuel doesnt know the significance of his names, thus the reason for his hateful soul.

And maybe he does know, and just doesnt care that David was the name of a great Jewish king, who the Bible quotes as being  a man after Gods own heart.

It is hard to believe that a man with such a significant name could be filled with so much hate.

David Emanuel may never see this column. I hope he does. And I hope that if, and when he reads it, he will take the time to think about his name and what it means, and then live up to it. He will be a better man for it.

Bea Hines can be reached at bea.hines@gmail.com
FILE - Republican conservative radio show host Larry Elder speaks to supporters after losing the California gubernatorial recall election on Sept. 14, 2021, in Costa Mesa, Calif. Conservative talk radio host Larry Elder, who sought to replace the California governor in a failed 2021 recall effort, announced Thursday, April 20, 2023 he is running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Conservative talk radio host Larry Elder announced Thursday that he was ending his 2024 Republican campaign for president and endorsing former President Donald Trump .

Elder, who sought to replace California Gov. Gavin Newsom in a failed 2021 recall effort, said in a statement that he had made the difficult decision to end his bid after careful consideration and consultation with his team and to throw his support behind Trump. Trump's leadership, he said, was instrumental in advancing conservative America-first principles and policies that have benefited our great nation.

He said now was the time to unite behind Trump to beat President Joe Biden. He also said he hoped his campaign had shined a light on the issues important to him, including fatherlessness, fighting crime and opposition to the idea that the U.S. is a racist country.

Elder is the fourth major candidate to suspend or end his 2024 GOP bid, following Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, former Texas congressman Will Hurd and businessman Perry Johnson. Johnson also backed Trump on his way out of the race, while Hurd endorsed former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley.

He announced his long-shot campaign in April, saying that America is in decline, but this decline in not inevitable.

We can enter a new American Golden Age, but we must choose a leader who can bring us there. Thats why Im running for President, he wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Elder found little visibility in a primary race dominated by Trump and including other high-profile figures such as Haley, former Vice President Mike Pence , Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, U.S. Sen. Tim Scott and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.

Elder wasn't among the GOP candidates on stage for either presidential debate after failing to meet the polling and donor qualifications required by the Republican National Committee to participate. He said he filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission after missing the first one, alleging the rules about debate participation werent equally applied to all candidates.

Elder made his first bid for public office in 2021, when he received the most votes out of 46 people who were hoping to replace Newsom in a recall effort. But a majority of voters ended up voting against removing Newsom, making the vote count in the replacement contest irrelevant.

Some Democrats say Elder's role as a foil to Newsom helped the Democratic governor inspire voters in liberal California to turn out and reject the recall. Newsom attacked Elder for his support of Trump and his conservative positions, such as opposing abortion rights and restrictions imposed to slow the spread of COVID-19, such as mask mandates.

But Elder said the experience of running for office  and the millions of votes he received  showed he had a message that resonated with voters. A lawyer who grew up in Los Angeles' rough South Central neighborhood, Elder attended an Ivy League college and then law school. He has a following among conservatives through his radio programs and has been a frequent guest on Fox News and other right-wing media.

Elder, who is Black, has criticized Democrats' woke agenda, Black Lives Matter and the notion of systemic racism, positions that have put him at odds with many other Black people.
Fresno-based producer Raw Farm LLC, which specializes in raw milk products, is dealing with a state recall.

At least 19 salmonella cases have been linked to consuming Raw Farm LLC raw milk or milk products.

Nine salmonella infections first were reported in San Diego County last week, then another three this week. In addition, seven cases of salmonella have surfaced in Orange County tied to Raw Farm LLC raw milk products.

Now, the Fresno County Department of Public Health is advising those whove purchased Raw Farm LLC products to discard them immediately.

Fresno County Department of Public Health advises public to discard Raw Farm LLC raw milk products immediately after salmonella cases in San Diego and Orange counties.

Salmonella can cause a person to develop bloody or watery diarrhea, stomach cramps, fever, nausea, vomiting and a headache about six hours to six days after consuming contaminated foods. The illness typically lasts for 4-7 days.

The Fresno County Department of Public Health did state that as of Thursday, there werent any confirmed cases of Salmonella in Fresno County with reported consumption of Raw Farm, raw milk.

Raw Farm posted on social media Tuesday it was issuing a voluntary recall on all fluid raw whole milk and raw heavy cream in California. Raw Farm, however, pointed out that raw butter, cheese and kefir are not subject to the recall.

That same day, the California Department of Public Health issued a recall on all fluid raw whole milk and rawheavy cream from Raw Farm LLC.

Products noted by the states department of public health to be affected had best by dates ranging from Oct. 11 to Nov. 6.

Salmonella cases reported

The San Diego Union Tribune reported on Friday three of the initial nine salmonella cases in San Diego County involved children who got so sick, they required hospitalization. The specific ages of the children were not released.

The Orange County Health Care Agency on Wednesday announced seven cases of salmonella in the area with all confirmed cases experiencing illness onset within the past 30 days.

Those affected were individuals ranging in age from 1 to 20 years old.

San Diego County health officials reported another three cases of salmonella linked to Raw Farm raw milk products on Wednesday.

Raw milk risky

Anyone with symptoms of salmonella infection are advised to seek medical help.

Raw milk, also referred to as natural milk, is unpasteurized milk and considered risky to consume by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Pasteurized milk, on the other hand, is milk thats heated at a high temperature for a short period of time to kill harmful germs that can contaminate raw milk, according to the Fresno County Department of Public Health. The harmful germs can include salmonella, listeria, e. coli, and other bacteria, viruses, and parasites.

The Orange County Health Care Agency stated that pasteurization is the only effective method for eliminating most harmful germs in raw milk or milk products and does not significantly change the nutritional value.

Nonetheless, raw milk is legal in 14 states, including in California. Unpasteurized dairy goods must include a warning label stating may contain disease-causing microorganisms.

Raw Farm describes its Raw Milk product as unprocessed and complete with bioavailable vitamins, minerals, enzymes, beneficial bacteria, naturally occurring CLA, and omega-3 fatty acids. Absolutely NO antibiotics, synthetic hormones, or GMOs anything.

The Fresno County Environmental Health Dairy Program inspects and regulates the Raw Farm dairy farm, the FCDPH said.

In its last sampling from October 11, the milk sampled met all bacteriological standards.
The Real Housewives Of Miami Reveals Season 6s Winning Taglines | Photo: Bravo

Four days before Bravo premieres The Real Housewives of Potomac on Nov. 5 at 8 p.m., fans can look forward to a supersized premiere episode of season 6 of The Real Housewives of Miami on Wednesday, Nov. 1 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo. Episodes will be available to stream next day on Peacock for both shows. Miamis group of spicy women are back, and personal struggles threaten to tear the group apart for good. The cast includes Alexia Nepola, Larsa Pippen, Dr. Nicole Martin, Julia Lemigova , Lisa Hochstein, Kiki Barth, Marysol Patton, and Adriana de Moura.

Guerdy has to decide whether shell go through chemotherapy amid her breast cancer diagnosis while Lisa is looking for a clean slate and a fresh start after her divorce. Julias wife, Martina Navratilova, is recovering from her own cancer battle, while Nicole is considering the possibility of expanding her family while celebrating her new engagement. Meanwhile, Alexia confronts rumors that her marriage is on the rocks, as Larsas romance with Marcus Jordan is the hot topic in Miami. Adriana is immersed in therapy, while Marysol is on the outs with many of the ladies. Kiki serves as a good time for the circle of friends.

Check out the taglines below:

Alexia Nepola

Im the Cuban doll, and Miami is my dream house.

Larsa Pippen

I dont need to keep score because Im always winning.

Guerdy Abraira

Hard times are temporary, but Ill be fabulous forever.

Julia Lemigova

My life is like a song and I always sing with pride.

Lisa Hochstein

Take me off my throne and Ill bring down the kingdom.

Dr. Nicole Martin

Dont let the private plane fool youthis girl always stays grounded.
Baby beaver, Mary, named after England goalkeeper Mary Earps was born to reintroduced beavers in Somerset

Bringing species like beavers back to England is no longer a priority, the government said on Friday to criticism from wildlife groups.

In recent years animals and plants have been reintroduced by charities as part of efforts to restore the country's depleted biodiversity.

A recent report shows that one in six UK species are at risk of extinction.

The government said it was focused on habitat restoration and pollution.

In September more than 60 conservation organisations reported a significant decline in species due to expansions in farming and the effects of climate change.

Farmers and wildlife charities have take action in recent years to reintroduce extinct or rare species like beavers, ladybird spiders and red kites into England.

Despite the government allowing this, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee - a group of cross-party MPs - concluded in July that there was an absence of long-term plans on how to manage this.

In response, the government has now said that the "reintroduction of species is not a priority".

In its letter to the committee - which was made public on Friday - the government said it was focused on increasing biodiversity but through habitat restoration and reducing pressures from pollution. The government's environment department has come under scrutiny for not doing more to prevent sewage dumping and other forms of pollution in England's waterways.

Sir Robert Goodwill, chair of the Committee, told the BBC he was "disappointed" with the government response considering species were already being reintroduced.

Bringing back extinct species is contentious issue - Sir Robert said that although farmers and landowners appear broadly supportive there are risks of reintroducing new species, and without clear guidance problems could arise.

Beavers were hunted to extinction in the UK but have been reintroduced in recent years.

A recent study showed that river barriers similar to those built by beavers can protect communities at risk of flooding.

But there have also been cases documented in Europe where beavers have built their dams in places that have damaged crops and modified rivers. And currently beavers have arrived in rivers in England without the government confirming if they have protected status - so farmers are left not knowing how they can be managed.

"We've got places like the Somerset Levels and the Fens in Lincolnshire where if we don't protect the the watercourses (from beavers) there we could see flooding," said Sir Robert.

Some species like wild boar have been reintroduced accidentally to the UK

Joan Edwards, director of policy at The Wildlife Trusts told the BBC: "Reintroducing wildlife must be part of the UK government's arsenal for tackling nature loss and climate change - it is astonishing there is no strategy for doing so."

She said there was clear evidence of the positive impact of beavers, in particular, on the land.

"The return of wild beavers can help to recreate lost wetlands, with a knock-on effect that benefits other wildlife including insects, invertebrates and birds. Beavers also slow the flow of water, which can reduce flood risks to towns and villages," she said.

Ospreys returned to Kielder Forest, Northumberland, for the first time in at least 200 years in 2009. This year eight chicks have been be fitted with identification rings

On Tuesday Ms Coffey was interviewed by the committee.

"I've had to choose to prioritise and I can assure you, species reintroduction ain't one of my top priorities and therefore we've stepped back away from that," she told the committee. "Ultimately we have a broader range of activities and we have to choose where we can put our resources."

But Sir Robert said that without some of the measures in place that the committee recommended then the government may have to spend more money compensating farmers for damage to their crops from reintroduced species or flooding of homes.

The committee called for:

a list of priority species for re-introduction.

an assessment of the risk of each species and proper management plans.

better community engagement for those living and working close to new species.
Doron Katz Asher, center, and, from left, Raz, 4, and Aviv, 2, have been held hostage by Hamas militants since Oct. 7. Credit: Courtesy of Chen Dori-Roberts

When Chen Dori-Roberts watched the TikTok video, his first thought was that it looked like a Hollywood movie filmed in a far-away land. The video showed several women sitting in a low vehicle, surrounded by armed militants.

Thats when the Leander resident recognized one of the women in the video. It was his 34-year-old cousin, Doron Katz Asher.

I didnt realize at the beginning thats her because it was nothing like Ive ever seen her, Dori-Roberts said. And then you can see my aunt and another person hugging the little girls. The girls, 2 and 4, are Ashers daughters, who live with Dori-Roberts cousin and her husband in Israel.

On Oct. 7, Asher and her daughters were visiting Ashers mother in southern Israel, near its border with the Gaza Strip, when Hamas militants stormed their kibbutz, taking the family hostage.

The video, which appeared to be posted on social media by Hamas militants, broadcast some of the atrocities committed as part of a violent terrorist attack that split open a decades-old conflict between Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Two weeks later, Texans families are still trapped in the region while others are being held hostage by Hamas militants, who attacked Israel in a surprise attack on Oct. 7, killing over 1,400 people, including children.

In response, Israel launched airstrikes and placed Gaza under siege, cutting off access to water, food and medical supplies to over two million people, which has resulted in a humanitarian crisis among the civilians living in the area.

The relatives of Texans who are unable to leave the war zone are asking for more support from the U.S. Department of State to bring their loved ones home.

Mai Abushaaban, a Palestinian American, is one of them.

Her mother and sister traveled to Gaza from Sugar Land in August to visit family and care for Abushaabans elderly grandfather. But when war broke out in response to Hamas attack  with airstrikes raining down on the 140-square-mile area of Gaza, where much of Abushaabans family lives  she feared for her mother and sisters lives.

As of Wednesday, the death toll in Gaza has surpassed 6,000, according to Palestinian authorities.

On Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Hamas had released two American hostages, a mother and her daughter, who are also Israeli citizens. Blinken said 10 additional remain unaccounted for in the conflict, but some of which are being held by Hamas among the estimated 200 hostages.

A group of Americans, 32 members of the Nuestra Senora De Guadalupe church in Cactus, about 60 miles north of Amarillo, returned to Texas last week after becoming stranded during a pilgrimage to Israel, according to U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Amarillo.

The group traveled to Jordan when they could not find a secure exit from Israel and began to run low on medical supplies needed by some members of the group, Jackson said in a statement last week.

In a statement shared by Jacksons office, the churchs bishop expressed gratitude for the Congressmans help in getting them back to the country.

The church did not respond last week to an inquiry seeking more information.

Andrew Mahaleris, a spokesperson for Abbotts office, said that Texas officials have been talking with the federal government, nonprofits and the Consulate General of Israel about the status of Texans impacted by the Hamas attack.

While we continue to work with the Consulate General of Israel, we were advised as recently as October 17 that all Texans seeking to evacuate have been able to do so. If any Texan still needs to get home from Israel, the state is prepared to accommodate and provide any necessary support, Mahaleris said.

Mahaleris did not respond to subsequent questions about Texans stuck in Gaza.The governors office did not answer a question about how many Texans are trapped in Gaza.

When Dori-Roberts woke up the morning of Oct. 8, he grabbed his phone and sent photos of his wife and daughters attending a Dallas concert from the previous night to his relatives in Israel.

Whats up with the pictures? Were at war, came the response.

Over the next several hours, Dori-Roberts learned that his aunt, cousin and her two young daughters had been taken hostage midmorning the previous day after Hamas militants stormed the settlement where they were staying.

Asher, his cousin, had traveled to southern Israel with her two daughters, Aviv, 2, and Raz, 4, for the Jewish holiday Shemini Atzeret, to visit her mother Efrat Katz, 67, and her mothers partner, Gadi Moses, 79.

Efrat Katz's funeral was held on Thursday, Oct. 26. Katz was abducted by Hamas militants. Credit: Courtesy of Chen Dori-Roberts

Instead of enjoying the weekend, Asher and her family were awakened by rockets at 6:30 a.m. and told to hide and barricade themselves inside of the safe room in their home. Soon after, they received WhatsApp messages alerting them that Hamas militants had broken through the kibbutz gate and were ransacking homes.

Asher sent messages to family about how terrified she was, hiding in the safe room with her mother and daughters, Dori-Roberts learned later. But four hours after the warning sirens had jolted Asher and her family awake, all communication stopped.

Last week, Dori-Roberts learned that his aunt was among the dead. He still doesnt know the whereabouts of the rest of his family.

I'm looking forward to that day that I'll be able to look at it as a very, very distant memory. But right now, it's hour by hour, day by day, trying to live through this, trying to be a parent, trying to hug your kids, trying to go to work, trying to be a good dad, a good partner, he said.

He said that waves and waves and waves of bad news have muddled Dori-Roberts ability to process whats happened within the past two weeks.

The layers of Dori-Roberts grief has been intensified by the online debate surrounding the fraught, decades-old conflict. The complexity of the conflict, he said, is being reduced to sweeping opinions without sufficient nuance and understanding.

To see people that are not educated, literally no clue about this conflict because it's so complicated, taking a sign blindly, Dori-Roberts said about the position of many liberals in the U.S. You can support Palestine but not support terror.

Last week, Gov. Greg Abbott urged Texas schools to use resources from the Texas Education Agency to teach students about the Israel-Hamas war, in an effort to prevent misinformation and prejudice against the Jewish community. Gov. Dan Patrick strongly condemned antisemitism in the Texas GOP on Monday and announced that his campaign is purchasing $3 million in Israel bonds  the same amount that Patrick received earlier this year from Defend Texas Liberty, a group that recently hosted white supremacist Nick Fuentes.

Dori-Roberts said that he does not necessarily support a ground invasion of Gaza and that he doesnt want more innocent people to lose their lives, but that Hamas must be stopped from perpetrating more violence. He wants the immediate, unconditional return of his family members.

When Abushaaban heard about Hamas Oct. 7 attack, she knew from her time living and working in Gaza that it would soon become impossible to escape the sliver of land where the majority of her mothers family lived.

Two months prior to the attack, Abushaabans mother and sister traveled to Gaza to help care for her sick grandfather. But with Gaza engulfed in violence, Where were they going to flee? the 22-year-old graduate student asked from Sugar Land, where she lives with her parents and four siblings. What would safety look like for them?

Every day Abushaaban tries to talk with her mother. Some days she is successful. Some days she has to call eight or nine times throughout the day to reach her. Some days she cant reach her at all.

Even when Gaza isnt actively under siege its difficult to get reliable cellphone service, Abushaaban said. And the only electricity comes from gas-powered generators, but fuel  like water  is scarce. Even more so now.

On Oct. 13, Israel told over 1 million Palestinians to evacuate the northern part of Gaza, where Abushaabans mother and younger sister were staying, in advance of an anticipated ground invasion. The omnipresent threat of airstrikes made the journey perilous, Abushaaban and her mother said their goodbyes over the phone knowing the risk of staying was greater than attempting to go south.

I'm replaying it through my head right now and it's giving me chills, Abushaaban recalled of that phone call with her family.

One week later, Abushaaban had just hung up with her mother when she spoke with The Texas Tribune. Her mother and sister are staying with about 70 others who fled south in two small apartments near the border with Egypt.

My mom and sister are caught between two flames, she said  torn between the safety of Texas and the burden of leaving family behind in Gaza.

Abushaaban said her mother and sister have tried getting out of Gaza  making the perilous journey and then waiting at the Raffa crossing, exposed to Israels bombs  not once, but twice. But both times they tried crossing the border, they were turned away. At least 400 Americans are trapped in the Gaza Strip.

Abushaaban criticized the U.S. Department of State for prioritizing Americans who are in Israel, over those trapped in Gaza. She said shes received very minimal support or guidance from the federal government.

It almost seems as if they're indifferent to the fear that we're experiencing, not only us but our family members who are in Gaza who are also American citizens, she said. It really makes Palestinian Americans feel that they're like they're second-class citizens in a country that we also call home.

A State Department spokesperson said the federal agency cannot comment on specific cases but they have made calls to U.S. citizens stuck in Gaza and their immediate family members.

We continue to work urgently in partnership with Egypt and Israel to facilitate the ability of U.S. citizens and their immediate family members to exit Gaza safely and travel via Egypt to their final destinations, the spokesperson said.

Abushaaban sees the indifference of the federal government as a product of the decades of Israeli occupation of Gaza, which has tolerated the suffering of Palestinians.

If we truly value human life and condemn the loss of civilian life, we have to hold that standard to both sides  not just one, Abushaaban said.

Reporter Alejandro Serrano contributed to this story.
Once again Lacey City Council reviewed its quasi-judicial process on Thursday, but this time it appears the council is ready to make a change that might be welcomed by many.

By the end of the work session discussion, Mayor Andy Ryder called for staff to bring an ordinance in front of us that we can vote on, he said.

So what is this quasi-judicial process?

In Lacey, during certain land-use cases that involve a hearings examiner, the hearings examiner reviews city staff analysis of a particular project and holds a public hearing to hear and collect public testimony. Based on all of that information, the examiner makes a recommendation to City Council and the council makes the final land-use decision.

But because the council is in that decision-making role, similar to a judge, it means that in order to maintain the appearance of fairness before they rule, council members are not allowed to talk to their constituents about the project. And that is especially hard when residents are furious with them.

Such was the case with Meridian Market & Gas, a convenience store and gas station that was proposed in northeast Lacey, not far from Salish Middle School, that was widely opposed by those who live in the area. Another example is at Hicks Lake where market rate apartments were proposed on the west shore of the lake. Residents there were unhappy with the proposal as well.

Both Meridian Market and the Hicks Lake projects needed conditional use permits, so both came before the Hearings Examiner and then on to City Council where they were approved.

The council has had the quasi-judicial discussion before. In fact, they voted 4-3 to make no change to the process last fall.

But on Thursday, the ice began to thaw, largely because local attorney Jeff Myers explained an alternative that is already widely used, including in Olympia, Tumwater and Thurston County, he said.

That option is to take the council out of the quasi-judicial role and let the hearings examiner be the final arbiter in certain land-use cases. The hearings examiner decisions can still be appealed, including by the city if they are unhappy with a ruling, but perhaps more important is that council members would be able to talk to their constituents and staff in a legislative role, not a quasi-judicial one.

The council cant stop a vested application, but at least they could start talking about solutions earlier, said council member Robin Vazquez, who pointed out the council under the current system was not even allowed to discuss changes to the neighborhood commercial zoning that underlies the Meridian Market proposal.

We were barred from doing that, she said.

Council member Michael Steadman said he supports making the change.

Its the only one because we can talk to our constituents, he said.

Council member Lenny Greenstein acknowledged he has had a change of heart.

I have been opposed to making that change for different reasons, but I have come to the same place on this one, he said, agreeing with Steadman.

Mayor Ryder said he has walked back his position as well, saying its obvious that citizens are opposed to the quasi-judicial process.

Still, he said he worries that by taking the council out of that quasi-judicial role it will be politically expedient to agree with whatever the public is saying.

Ryder, Greenstein, Ed Kunkel and Malcolm Miller voted to make no change last fall, while Steadman, Vazquez and Carolyn Cox voted in favor of making the change.

Attorney Myers pointed out that the Washington Cities Insurance Authority recommends the hearings examiner be the decision-maker.

They think thats the most risk-averse approach a city could take, he said.

Lacey City Council votes to make no change to land-use process that angered residents

After recusals and anger, Lacey council votes 3-1 to approve Meridian Market and Gas
Concord, N.H.  Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips is challenging the leader of his party, President Joe Biden, in the 2024 presidential race and faces long odds.

But he was undeterred by the challenges he faces in trying to unseat an incumbent.

"This is a country of longshots," Phillips said Friday morning at the statehouse in Concord, N.H.

The moderate third-term congressman from Minnesota, who left his Democratic leadership post earlier this month, made his candidacy official during an interview with CBS News. Phillips plans to hold an official launch rally at 11:30 a.m. Friday in New Hampshire, after filing to appear on the state's primary ballot.

Though he's in the northeast Friday morning, Phillips said he plans to make the southern border one of the key issues in his campaign. It's also a key issue that has garnered much criticism for Biden.

"Having been to the southern border twice, it is not secure. It is inhumane," Phillips said Friday morning in New Hampshire.

But he mixes those assessments with some praise for Biden, who Phillips said has done a great job for the country.

He does share the concerns of voters across the country who worry about Biden's age. Phillips, 54, has for months encouraged someone with established credentials to run against Biden, 80, arguing that a younger Democratic alternative was needed. But after better-known Democrats passed, Phillips moved to make a last-minute bid for the partys presidential nomination.

If Phillips doesn't win, he said he would support the Democratic nominee  even if it's the president he's trying to unseat.

I think it's terribly important that a Democrat win this election, and I will do anything, I will give everything I have every moment of my time, every ounce of my energy to ensure that that nominee, whether it be me, of course, President Biden or somebody else becomes president," he said.

Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) attends a news conference on Iran negotiations on Capitol Hill, April 6, 2022, in Washington, DC.

'Run like a business'

A majority of the three dozen Phillips supporters mingling outside of the New Hampshire statehouse at his rally Friday were volunteers and staff for the campaign.Several residents in the area and vacationers who had heard about the rally on the news also stopped to listen to Phillips short address. But few had heard of him before Friday.Sherri Rossignol, 52, and her husband traveled to New England from Florida, and they were drawn to attend the Phillips rally in Concord because of his moderate reputation and background as a businessman. Business experience is one of the main reasons they also like former President Donald Trump.

I think this country needs to be run like a business. Were getting into actual debt, Rossignol said.The economy is top of mind for her this election season, particularly in terms of reducing inflation.I think everybody's pocketbooks are getting hit. Its hard to make your dollar stretch, she said.As for Phillips, Rossignol is keeping an open mind but wasnt convinced by his speech Friday.I need to read up more and look at his website to see where he stands on the issues, she said after his speech.

Biden touts '100 percent support'

The Democratic National Committee does not plan to have primary debates in 2024, with an incumbent president on the ballot, and is operating as an extension of the Biden campaign.

He has already missed the filing deadline in Nevada, which has an early contest, and he will not be eligible to receive delegates in New Hampshire if he submits the paperwork to appear on that states primary ballot.

Phillips will also face the wrath of Democrats who would rather focus on winning the general election than fighting a messy intraparty war.

In anticipation of Phillips announcement, Democrats backing Bidens reelection bid began pointing out the congressman has supported the president and his positions 100 percent of the time since he entered the White House.

Bidens reelection team did not immediately comment. But the White House, which typically sidesteps election-related questions, used the line against Phillips this week.

One thing I would say outside of that is we appreciate the congressman almost 100  100 percent support of this president as we  as hes moved forward with some really important, key legislative priorities for the American people, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

Speculation about a possible Phillips campaign for president has percolated for months and heightened after he resigned as co-chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee at the beginning of October.

A request by a group linked to his campaign to hold an event at the New Hampshire State Capitol was the first tangible sign Phillips was planning to move forward with a challenge. Earlier this week, a video of a Dean Phillips for President campaign bus surfaced on social media, furthering the speculation.

New Hampshire is in a fight with the Democratic Party over the timing of its primary, and Bidens campaign announced Tuesday that the president would not file to be a candidate there.

The national party voted earlier this year to shake up its primary calendar and strip New Hampshire of its storied first-in-the-nation primary status.

New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan has insisted the state will go first, regardless. Assuming it does, the DNC emphasized Tuesday it will not allot delegates to any candidate who appears on the ballot.

The candidate with the most delegates at the end of the process will win the partys nomination.

Self-help author Marianne Williamson is also seeking the Democratic nomination and filed this month in New Hampshire.

Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., on Friday, Oct. 27, 2023, is filing in New Hampshire to run against President Joe Biden in the Democratic primary. One of his campaign vehicles, the "government repair truck," is shown outside of the statehouse in Concord, N.H.

A third-term moderate with an independent streak

First elected to Congress in 2018, Phillips defeated a six-term incumbent Republican and flipped what was considered a stalwart conservative district. Since then, hes fostered a reputation in the Capitol as a moderate committed to bipartisanship, joining the leadership of the Problem Solvers Caucus.

After the ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., as speaker of the house, Phillips floated breaking with his party and striking a deal with Republicans to elect a new leader. He never did, and House Republicans voted to give Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., the gavel on Wednesday after spending three weeks in limbo.

Phillips most notable legislative achievement was the passage of the Paycheck Protection Program, which he co-authored with Texas Rep. Chip Roy. The law paid worker salaries and benefits at qualifying small businesses for up to eight weeks during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a candidate, Phillips is expected to tout his background in business. He took over his family company, Phillips Distilling, opened a coffee shop in the Twin Cities and served as chair of Talenti Gelato for four years before he was elected to the House of Representatives.

In the House, Phillips sits on the Ethics and Foreign Affairs committees. He supports aid to Israel and Ukraine, and lauded Bidens leadership on those issues as recently as last week.

President Biden issued an outstanding speech this evening, making a strong case for why we must support Ukraine, Israel, and all who seek self-determination, security, and peace. Thats what America does, Phillips said in a post on the social media platform X, formally known as Twitter, after the presidents Oval Office address.

Challenging an incumbent president

Phillips began calling for a Democratic challenger to Biden over the summer, raising alarm bells about the president's support among Democratic and independent voters.

Specifically, Phillips cited concerns about the incumbent presidents age, arguing that Biden should step aside and let a new generation of leadership take over. More than 35% of Democratic and independent voters said Bidens age made them less likely to vote for him in a USA TODAY/Suffolk University survey published in June.

Democrats who Phillips put forward as potentially competitive candidates against Biden were afraid to take the leap, he said at the time.

Nobody is willing to take a step that might harm their future, Phillips told Jake Tapper during a CNN appearance in August, discussing the reason for his opposition to Biden's 2024 campaign. This is not about re-election for me. This is about our country, the future of Democracy, and doing anything I possibly can to stop Donald Trump from returning to the White House.

Historically, modern presidents who fend off primary challengers tend to perform poorly in general elections.

With the exception of former President Richard Nixon, every sitting president since 1969 who has faced a primary opponent has lost the White House, including former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter.

Democrats supporting Biden's presidential bid worry that Phillips' campaign will drive a wedge in the party and make it easier for the GOP nominee to defeat the incumbent president.

"Our country is facing real challenges at home and abroad. We need a steadfast, proven leader who can move our country forward. That leader is Joe Biden, and he has my full support." New Hampshire Rep. Ann Kuster told USA TODAY in response to Phillips announcement.

Biden and former President Donald Trump each had 37% support in a USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll released this week. Kennedy pulled in 13% support, mostly from voters said they would otherwise support the GOP. Progressive activist Cornel West, who is also running as an independent campaign, drew 4% support, mainly away from Biden.

Biden allies sought to sow doubt about the seriousness of Phillips campaign and zeroed in on the fact that Phillips was making a formal announcement in New Hampshire, where the national party urged candidates not to file this week over the primary date dispute.

"As a Latina Democrat, I am disappointed he did not try to get his name onto the ballot in Nevada. Will he try in South Carolina for that matter?" Maria Cardona, a Democratic strategist and DNC member who helped make the new rules, said in a text. "If he doesn't, do voters of color not matter to him? Is this simply stunt? I think we all know the answer to that question."

A spokesperson for the Phillips campaign declined to comment on whether the Congressman will run in South Carolina but said that he's taking his presidential run "seriously."

The DNC elevated South Carolina to the first primary position, at Biden's request, in order to give voters of color a bigger say in the party's nominating process  even though New Hampshire state law requires it to go first. The Republican secretary of state in New Hampshire has indicated the primary will take place in January, before South Carolina Democrats vote on Feb. 3. Nevada has the next Democratic context on Feb. 6.

South Carolina's filing window opens for Democrats seeking the presidency on Nov. 1 and closes on Nov. 10. The last date candidates could file in Nevada was Oct. 16.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Rep. Dean Phillips challenges President Joe Biden in 2024 primary
Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota is jumping into the 2024 White House race with a long-shot Democratic primary challenge against President Biden.

The campaign launch by the millionaire businessman and co-founder of a gelato company turned three-term House Democrat comes as the 80-year-old president continues to suffer from underwater approval ratings among many Americans and faces concerns over his physical and mental stamina.

Phillips filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday to officially set up his presidential campaign, and his website www.dean24.com went live in the evening.

"I am excited to announce my candidacy for President in 2024. Its time to put our country back together again  and use our differences to make us stronger. Its time to repair America," Phillips said in a launch video posted on social media on Thursday evening.

BIDEN BREAKS CENTURY OLD TRADITION AS HE FORGOES FILING FOR THE PRIMARY IN THIS STATE

A campaign bus for Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota is parked outside the New Hampshire Statehouse in Concord, N.H. on Oct. 27, 2023, ahead of Phillip's formal launch of his 2024 presidential bid.

And when asked in an interview with CBS News if he's running for president, the 54-year-old Phillips answered "I am. I have to." The recorded interview is scheduled to be broadcast Friday morning.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

Friday morning is also when Phillips, who represents a congressional district in suburban Minneapolis, will formally declare his candidacy in New Hampshire, the state that for a century's held the first primary in the presidential nominating calendar.

Phillips, one of the wealthiest members of Congress, is scheduled to hold a campaign launch event outside the New Hampshire Statehouse in Concord. And Phillips will enter the Statehouse and file at the Secretary of State's office to place his name on the New Hampshire's presidential primary ballot.

A bus decorated with "Dean Phillips for President" was headed to New Hampshire earlier in the week, and is expected to take the candidate on a tour.

Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN), who's mulling a 2024 Democratic presidential primary challenge against President Biden, speaks at a news conference in Washington, D.C., on December 21, 2020. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno/File Photo

Phillips, citing the president's age, has repeatedly criticized Biden for "not passing the torch" to the next generation of Democratic leaders and urged that a serious primary contender challenge the president for the party's 2024 nomination.

CHECK OUT THE LATEST FOX NEWS 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION POLLING

When no other Democrats considered running against Biden, Phillips began to consider himself for the mission. Earlier this month, he told MPR (Minnesota Public Radio) News that "its healthy to have alternatives. I think voters are demanding it."

And in his CBS News interview, Phillips pointed to recent polling suggesting that former President Donald Trump is edging Biden in hypothetical 2024 general election matchups.

"I think President Biden has done a spectacular job for our country," Phillips said. "But it's not about the past. This is an election about the future."

While the president is the commanding front-runner for his partys 2024 nomination, polls indicate Biden faces mounting concerns from Democrats over his age. Those surveys also suggest that many Americans - including plenty of Democrats - don't want the president to seek a second term in the White House.

The White House, when asked earlier this week about Phillip's expected candidacy, pointed to the lawmaker's "almost 100% support of this president."

Phillips  who recently stepped away from his leadership role as co-chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee due to his potential White House bid  let lapse a September deadline he set for himself to decide whether he would launch a primary challenge against the president. And last week he missed a deadline to place his name on the ballot in Nevada, which is holding its presidential primary on Feb. 6 in the Democratic Party's nominating calendar.

According to the Democratic National Committee (DNC), which earlier this year upended years of tradition by revamping their longstanding nominating calendar, Nevada's supposed to vote second, along with New Hampshire, three days after South Carolinas Feb. 3 kickoff primary.

NEW HAMPSHIRE'S SUNUNU SAYS 2024 RACE IS WIDE OPEN IN FIRST PRIMARY STATE

The revised scheduled was initially proposed by Biden, who came in a disappointing fifth in the 2020 New Hampshire primary before rebounding in Nevada and South Carolina enroute to winning the nomination and eventually the presidency.

But New Hampshire's on course move up the date of its primary to late January, in accordance with a state law that mandates the Granite State's presidential primary is held seven days ahead of a similar contest.

A sign outside the State house in Concord, New Hampshire marks the state's cherished century old first-in-the-nation presidential primary status.

With New Hampshire to hold what is certain to be a primary thats out of compliance with the DNC's revamped 2024 nominating calendar, Biden is avoiding the unsanctioned contest.

And on Tuesday, the president's 2024 re-election campaign announced that Biden would not file to place his name on New Hampshire's ballot. Top Democrats in the state now plan to mount a write-in effort on behalf of the president.

But there are concerns that anger among Granite Staters to the move by Biden and the DNC to revamp the nominating calendar, and the president's absence from the primary ballot, could serve as another distraction for Biden as he marches towards re-nomination.

Longtime New Hampshire Democratic Party chair Ray Buckley, who recently took a call from Phillips, told Fox News that "both polling and grassroots interactions in New Hampshire reveal a high level of support for President Biden among the likely voters."

"It would be a tough challenge for Phillips or anyone. But sure, cmon on up!," Buckley says he told Phillips.

Democratic presidential candidate and author Marianne Williamson speaks after filing to put her name on the ballot for the primary election with New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan in Concord, New Hampshire, U.S., October 12, 2023. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

The president is already facing a long-shot primary challenge from best-selling author spiritual adviser Marianne Williamson, who is making her second straight White House run.

Biden was also facing an uphill primary challenge from environmental lawyer and high-profile vaccine critic Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is a scion of arguably the nations most famous family political dynasty.

But Kennedy announced at a campaign event in Philadelphia earlier this month that he would seek the White House as an independent candidate.

The DNC is fully backing Biden, as the president campaigns for re-election. At its winter meeting in February, the DNC unanimously passed a resolution committing its "full and complete support" for the re-election of Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Additionally, it has said there will be no primary debates between Biden and any of his challengers.

Williamson, Kennedy and others in the party criticized the DNC and Biden, but there is political precedent for the move. No incumbent president has participated in primary debates in modern times.

Jim Demers, a longtime New Hampshire-based political consultant and lobbyist who is helping to lead the write-in effort for Biden, terms a primary challenge by Phillips "a ridiculous idea."

"Democrats in New Hampshire support the president," Demers told Fox News. "So if his mission is to divide Democrats and help [former President] Donald Trump, then thats what hes doing."

Fox News' Kellianne Jones and Deirdre Heavey contributed to this report

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.





Original article source: Rep. Dean Phillips launches 2024 Democratic presidential primary challenge against Biden
After months of rumors, little-known Minnesota Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips will officially launch his campaign for president in New Hampshire Friday. In an interview with CBS News, Phillips argued Joe Biden was aging out of the role, and that it was time to fight Donald Trump with a younger alternative. Biden is 80 years old while Phillips is 54. I will not sit still and not be quiet in the face of numbers that are so clearly saying that were going to be facing an emergency next November, he said. The New Hampshire secretary of states office confirmed to The Guardian that Phillips is scheduled to make an appearance Friday morning in order to file the appropriate paperwork. According to The New York Times, however, Phillips enters the race with long-shot odds. In an interview set to air Friday on CBS Mornings announcing his bid, Phillips says: I think President Biden has done a spectacular job for our country. But its not about the past. This is an election about the future.

BREAKING: Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) is running for president, challenging Pres. Biden in the Democratic primary race.



He tells @costareports and @CBSMornings he won't "be quiet" as polling numbers "are so clearly saying that were going to be facing an emergency next November. pic.twitter.com/7tP0QJaKgJ  CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) October 27, 2023

Read it at CBS News

Read more at The Daily Beast.
Rep. George Santos pleaded not guilty in federal court Friday to 10 charges alleging he stole donors identities and ran up thousands of dollars in fraudulent charges on their credit cards, among other offenses.

The New York Republicans attorney Joseph Murray entered the not guilty plea on behalf of his client.

US District Judge Joanna Seybert set a trial date for September 9, 2024.

The 10 charges were unveiled in a superseding indictment filed earlier this month. It also includes allegations that the New York Republican embezzled cash from his company and conspired with his former campaign treasurer to falsify donation totals in order to hit fundraising targets set by national Republicans, among other offenses.

This fresh round of charges brings the total number of counts against Santos to 23. The superseding indictment provided new and damaging details about Santos alleged efforts to personally profit through his campaign.

In May, Santos, 35, pleaded not guilty to 13 federal charges. Those initial charges included seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds and two counts of making materially false statements to the US House of Representatives.

Fridays court appearance comes one day after several New York Republicans, led by Rep. Anthony DEsposito, filed a resolution to expel Santos from Congress.

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The News

Rep. Ilhan Omar , D-Minn called on her colleagues in Congress to condemn those who make inflammatory statements about Palestine, citing a recent comment by one GOP lawmaker who told Fox News that Palestine was going to get eviscerated and turned into a parking lot.

Omar, along with other members of the progressive Squad, have come under fire for their criticism of Israel, with Rep. Rashida Tlaib , D-Mich. facing a censure resolution over her remarks at a pro-Palestinian protest at the Capitol.

In an attempt to call out the double standards in Congress, Omar on Thursday reposted a short clip of Rep. Max Miller, R-Ohios Oct.10 interview on Miller was criticizing Tlaib  who is Palestinian American  for hoisting a Palestinian flag outside her office.

I dont even want to call it the Palestinian flag because theyre not a state, theyre a territory, thats about to probably get eviscerated and go away here shortly, as were going to turn that into a parking lot, Miller said.

His comments mostly gained some traction on TikTok with pro-Palestinian users calling him disgusting. But his remarks resurfaced on Thursday when UK-based outlet Middle East Monitor tweeted the interview clip on X, saying that Miller was speaking openly about genocide against Palestinians.

Reposting the clip, Omar said, For once, can people say they condemn calls to completely wipe out Palestinians? It shouldnt be hard to condemn genocidal rhetoric.

Miller responded to Omar on Friday, saying she lacks integrity to condemn the most vile evil, and that Israel has never called for the eradication of all Palestinians. (Omar strongly condemned Hamas Oct. 7 attack on Israelis as horrific.)

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Omar was removed from the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee in February, over controversial remarks she made about Israel, which both Republicans and Democrats believed invoked antisemitic tropes.

A day after Hamas attack on Israelis, Tlaib, whose parents are Palestinian immigrants, expressed grief over the loss of lives on both sides and called for ending the occupation and dismantling the apartheid system that creates the suffocating, dehumanizing conditions that can lead to resistance.

She has since faced widespread criticism, including from some Democrats, for a social media post blaming an explosion at a Gaza hospital on an Israeli airstrike. U.S. officials later attributed it to a Palestinian rocket and a number of subsequent independent news analyses either said that was the likeliest explanation or that the cause was ambiguous.

Amid the conflict, Tlaib and Omar have also faced death threats, NBC News reported, and have been targeted by conservative media and fellow lawmakers who have called them Jihad squad and Hamas caucus.

The censure resolution against Tlaib was brought by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. In response, Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt. brought a censure resolution targeting Greene  including over a social media post Greene made in 2018 suggesting that a nonexistent space laser controlled by the Rothschild family, a frequent target of antisemitic conspiracy theories, caused wildfires in California. Greene has since said it was not intended to be antisemitic.
New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman has pleaded guilty to pulling a fire alarm in a federal building. He says it was a mindless mistake. He claims he thought it would open an emergency door, but that was not the case, video shows.

Now, the representative will have to wait for the courts to sentence him before he pays a fine and writes an apology letter to the US Capitol Police. Some Republicans are calling for him to go to jail.

U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-NY (Photo: Twitter/Jamaal Bowman)

On Sept. 30, the Bronx native was captured on a security camera pulling the fire alarm while trying to get out of the Cannon House Office Building, leading to the evacuation of the building.

Capitol Police, after reviewing security camera footage, stated Bowman was seen reading the sign that says Emergency Exit Only Push Until Alarm Sounds doors. He noticed the doors were locked and then turned his attention to the fire alarm before pulling the lever. The video shows Bowman removing the warning signs.

WATCH VIDEO HERE

As the alarm rang out, Bowman did not tell authorities that he pulled the alarm in a fit of confusion. Instead, he just walked by the officers and kept the information to himself.

He walked over to the Capitol, entering that building four minutes after he pulled the alarm.

The incident occurred just before the House of Representatives was set to vote on a crucial spending bill to fund the government. This vote held significant importance, as it had the potential to result in a government shutdown.

He said it was an innocent mistake, and he was rushing out so that he would not miss the important vote.

I didnt know it would trigger the whole building, Bowman said.

Falsely triggering a fire alarm is a misdemeanor offense.

After being indicted, Bowman released a statement, saying he was thankful that authorities were swift with a resolution for the charges.

Im thankful for the quick resolution from the District of Columbia Attorney Generals office on this issue and grateful that the United States Capitol Police General Counsels office agreed I did not obstruct nor intend to obstruct any House vote or proceedings, he said on Wednesday, Oct. 25, making his plea, according to ABC News.

I am responsible for activating a fire alarm, he admitted. I will be paying the fine issued and look forward to these charges being ultimately dropped.

The plea agreement allows Bowman to pay the maximum fine of $1,000. He also will be required to write an apology to Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger.

The congressman will also serve three months of probation.

There is a possibility of federal prosecution for this incident, but it remains uncertain whether the Justice Department is reviewing the case. Bowman believes that Republicans will use this as an opportunity to distract the American public from their mess.

Some members of the GOP believe he used that tactic as a way to stall for time and allow Democrats to have more time to vote. After the video was released, many of Bowmans critics took to social media, calling him a liar.

Republican former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker called Bowman a bold-faced liar, saying this is not brain freeze and tweeted that the representative should serve jail time.

BOLD-FACED LIAR.



This is not a brain freeze. Not an accident. He didnt even go out the doors. This was a premeditated attempt to stop other Members of Congress from voting. This is a federal crime and there must be consequences for his actions.



The tapes reveal the truth. https://t.co/6A7t4gBoaV  Scott Walker (@ScottWalker) October 26, 2023

This is not a brain freeze. Not an accident. He didnt even go out the doors. This was a premeditated attempt to stop other Members of Congress from voting. This is a federal crime, and there must be consequences for his actions.

Never miss a story  sign up for ATLANTA BLACK STARS free daily newsletters to stay up-to-date on the latest developments, from top news headlines to celebrity news.

While Bowman insists that it was a mistake and dismisses conspiracies about why it happened, he says he truly regrets that the incident caused law enforcement to exhaust resources.

I regret Capitol Police resources needed to be used to respond to that. Im glad no one was hurt. I really regret that this caused so much confusion and that people had to evacuate, and I just caused a disturbance, he continued. I hate that. Its pretty embarrassing.
Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine), a conservative Democrat, reversed his previously held opposition and said on Thursday that he now supports an assault weapons ban following a mass shooting in his state.

I have opposed efforts to ban deadly weapons of war like the assault rifle used to carry out this crime, Golden said at a news conference in Lewiston, Maine. The time has now come for me to take responsibility for this failure, which is why I now call on the United States Congress to ban assault rifles.

Golden said he would work with any colleague to get this done in the time that I have left in Congress.

His reversal won immediate praise from fellow Democrats, including those who have called for tight gun restrictions.

Powerful, brave, and moving. This is leadership, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) wrote on X.

He spoke alongside a fellow moderate, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who called for a ban on very high-capacity magazines  I think that would have more input and more effectiveness.

Theres always more that we can do, she said.

Officials have saidat least 18 people were killed in a series of mass shootings Wednesday in the area. Law enforcement officers had surrounded a house near Bowdoin, Maine, on Thursday night and were calling for anyone inside to surrender.
U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib , D-Detroit, said Monday she has signed on to co-lead a House resolution calling for "an immediate de-escalation and cease-fire in Israel and occupied Palestine."

The resolution was authored by U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, D-Missouri, and a group of other progressive Democrats, including Reps. Andre Carson of Indiana, Summer Lee of Pennsylvania and Delia Remirez of Illinois, also signed on as co-leads. Tlaib is the only Palestinian American in Congress.

Tlaib last week blasted President Joe Biden and his administration for not showing enough empathy toward the Palestinian people with Israeli forces expected to mount a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip in response to a deadly attack staged by Hamas in southern Israel more than a week ago.

We need legislation that saves as many lives as possible, no matter ones faith or ethnicity," Tlaib said in a statement. "I am proud to join my colleagues and a coalition of human rights advocates in calling for de-escalation, ceasefire and a strong humanitarian response that prevents more devastating civilian casualties across the region."

On a teleconference with reporters, Tlaib noted that a Livonia couple, Zakaria and Lalia Alarayshi, who went to Gaza in September to visit family, has been trapped there. The congresswoman said she spoke to Zakaria by phone about conditions there, including their not having fresh water, and that he broke down in tears.

Tlaib has denounced the actions of both Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, and Israel in responding to the attack, accusing both sides of war crimes. She has said her main concern is the further loss of life to innocent civilians, especially children. But she has been sharply criticized for an initial statement that placed at least partial blame for the attack on Israel's blockade of Gaza, in place since 2007.

"I dont know what else to say (to American officials) other than please turn on the TV, see whats happening, dont turn away," Tlaib said Monday. "All they have to do is see the Palestinians as human beings to see that these are war crimes."

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Tlaib indicated that no one in Democratic leadership urged her or anyone else in the group not to introduce the resolution, which had the support of several groups advocating nonviolence and for human rights protections for Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank.

Given that Biden and a clear majority of Congress, including many Democrats, have expressed unequivocal support for Israel and its right to respond, it's unlikely the resolution will be passed, especially with Republicans in control of the U.S. House. The Biden administration has been quietly urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to try to avoid targeting civilians and minimize loss of life, however.

The resolution said that more than 2,700 Palestinians have been killed so far as Israel has fired missiles into Gaza following the initial attacks that killed some 1,400 Israelis.

Contact Todd Spangler: tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter@tsspangler

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Rep. Rashida Tlaib helps lead Israeli-Hamas ceasefire resolution
Led by Rep. Anthony DEsposito (R-N.Y.), House Republicans introduced a measure Thursday to force a vote on removing Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) from Congress over his history of promoting falsehoods about himself and his campaign.

We must remove this conman from office, DEsposito said in a statement.

Santos is facing nearly two dozen charges of fraud and other financial crimes in a New York federal court and is expected to be arraigned on Friday.

DEspositos measure is a privileged resolution, which the House typically must act on within two legislative days, making a vote likely next week. The House recessed Thursday and is not scheduled to resume its business until Wednesday.

DEsposito previously pushed for Santos removal through legislation he introduced on Oct. 11, backed by fellow New York Republican Reps. Brandon Williams, Nick LaLota and Marc Molinaro. However, the legislation did not receive a vote, as the House remained in stalemate for weeks due to Republicans inability to elect a speaker.

The resolution contains a highlight reel of Santos biggest misrepresentations.

After election day, it was revealed that George Santos lied about a significant portion of his background, including his education and previous employment, DEsposito said Thursday, reading from the document. George Santos has a long history of misrepresenting his and his familys connections to major events including the Holocaust, Sept. 11th terror attacks, and the Pulse nightclub shooting.

Santos has acknowledged that some parts of his life story have not been true, admitting he did not attend Baruch College or New York University and was not Jewish but Jew-ish.

But he has stubbornly refused calls to step down from his office, despite abandoning his committee assignments earlier this year.

Prosecutors originally stuck him with 13 counts, covering alleged campaign finance violations  including spending funds on luxury items  and allegations of misusing pandemic-related unemployment benefits. He pleaded not guilty.

Earlier this month, prosecutors expanded the indictment to include a total of 23 charges.

Nancy Marks, Santos former campaign treasurer, pleaded guilty to fraudulently documenting a supposed $500,000 loan the lawmaker made to his own campaign.

I knew that the loan had not been made, she said in court Oct. 5, according to The New York Times.
Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley speaks at an annual leadership meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition on Nov. 19, 2022, in Las Vegas. | John Locher, Associated Press

Several Republican presidential candidates will visit Las Vegas this weekend, speaking at a major donor conference on Saturday. But instead of using the cross-country trip to campaign through Nevada, an early voting state, most candidates will quickly return their attention to Iowa, South Carolina or New Hampshire.

The Republican Jewish Coalitions annual summit, held at The Venetian in Las Vegas, is anticipating a sharp uptick in attendance and attention following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. Eight leading candidates for the GOP presidential nomination are expected to attend, providing an up-close chance to interact with major Republican donors and Nevada political followers.

Its like the Iowa State Fair, Adam Jones, a Las Vegas-based political consultant, said. Its an exciting week for folks to see all the presidential candidates coming to town.

The difference? Iowa has become center-stage for Republicans during the 2024 presidential cycle, while Nevada has largely been an afterthought.

Nevada  one of the four early voting states in the 2024 contest  has historically been a key proving ground for Republican candidates. This year, though, as former President Donald Trump maintains a historic lead on his GOP challengers, campaigning has been hyperfocused on the trio of other early voting states: Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

Only Trump, Vivek Ramaswamy and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have held campaign events in Nevada this year.

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This weekend in Las Vegas, Trump is the only candidate with a public event scheduled  a commit to caucus rally on Saturday. No other candidates have announced events during their visits to Las Vegas. Nikki Haley will be back in South Carolina by Monday morning. And Ramaswamy may have the tightest schedule of them all: he will host an event on Friday at 8 p.m. in Ames, Iowa; speak in Las Vegas on Saturday at 9 a.m.; and be back in Des Moines Saturday evening.

It shows that the candidates are more focused on Iowa than on the delegate battle, said Zach Guymon, a Republican strategist in Las Vegas. If they wanted delegates, if they wanted movement, theyd stay in Nevada. The only reason theyre in Nevada is for donors.

The ongoing disinterest in Nevada may be connected to the state Republican Partys new process for selecting a nominee. Earlier this year, the Nevada GOP announced it would vote for a Republican presidential nominee during caucus meetings, to be held on Feb. 8, 2024, instead of the primary election, scheduled for Feb. 6. Participation in the primary election would disqualify candidates from earning delegate votes in the caucus.

The candidate field is split over what route it will take. Several candidates, including Trump, DeSantis and Ramaswamy, registered for the caucus and will vie for the delegates there. Others, like Haley, Sen. Tim Scott and former Vice President Mike Pence, have registered for the primary, forfeiting the opportunity to win delegates from Nevada.

Trump maintains a huge lead among likely Nevada caucusgoers. 65% say theyd vote for him, according to one CNN poll. Critics of the Nevada GOPs decision to hold a caucus say it will guarantee a Trump victory.

Because the caucus is two days after the primary, winning the Trump-less primary could help candidates avoid wasted energy in Nevada and focus on other states, Jones said.

You can steal a headline and move on to the rest of the country, he said. Its a momentum thing.

Related

But other strategists, like Guymon, argue that candidates money would be better spent in Nevada, where their ability to reach voters dollar-for-dollar is higher than in Iowa or other early states. Nothing (Trumps challengers) do is about winning the race  its about getting headlines, Guymon said. Sadly, theyve conceded the state to Trump.

While at the Republican Jewish Coalition summit, presidential candidates are expected to vow support for Israel and denounce antisemitism. And while the annual event always draws large crowds, this years event  in light of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war  is expected to be particularly somber. The New York Times reports that an empty Shabbat table with over 200 seats will sit in the middle of the room, to remember the hostages taken into Gaza. Additional security has been arranged to mitigate possible threats. And in addition to the American national anthem, attendees will sing Hatikvah, the Israeli national anthem.

I would venture half the room, if not more than half, has relatives who are in the IDF (Israel Defense Forces), said Ari Fleischer, a member of the Republican Jewish Coalitions board, to the Times. They dont want to see a single weak knee, elbow or joint. They want to see support for a nation thats in trauma against the modern-day equivalent of Nazism.

Republican candidates expected to attend the summit, held Friday through Sunday, are Trump, DeSantis, Haley, Ramaswamy, Scott, Pence, Chris Christie and Gov. Doug Burgum. Other notable attendees include RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, Sen. John Thune and Sen. Lindsey Graham.

Members of the coalitions board are split over their support for GOP presidential candidates. The late Sheldon Adelson, who died in 2021, was Trumps largest donor during his 2020 reelection effort. An analysis of super PAC and campaign donations in August showed Haley as the most popular candidate among coalition board members. Other board members have supported DeSantis and Scott.
A restaurant is fed up with unruly children, and is charging a fee for poor parenting.

The Toccoa Riverside Restaurant in Georgia sparked backlash online from customers who said this measure is too extreme, according to WSB-TV.

The owner came out and told me he was adding $50 to my bill because of my childrens behavior... disappointed by the experience, one customer said on Reddit.

The restaurants owner Tim Richter told WSB-TV he started the surcharge during the COVID-19 outbreak.

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He said he never threatened to charge anyone until a family with nine children visited and had children running all over the restaurant.

Customer Laura Spillman, visiting from Florida, was incredulous when hearing about the policy.

That is crazy, she said. For real? I dont think you should do it because kids are cute.

Anne Cox, stopping by for lunch with her family, said she thinks the fee could motivate parents to control their children.




Centre County treasurer is typically a lower-profile race in a municipal election, but it has heated up in recent weeks with the challenger alleging mishandling of taxpayer dollars and the incumbent defending her record.

Democrat Colleen Kennedy was elected county treasurer in 2019 and Republican Justin Behrens, who unsuccessfully ran for the open seat for Pennsylvania House District 82 last year, is running against her. Earlier this month, Behrens began a string of posts on his campaign Facebook page showing checks written by Kennedy returned for insufficient funds. Is this the work of a competent treasurer? Behrens wrote in an Oct. 12 post. Kennedy maintains that shes properly performed her duties, and the returned checks were due to outside circumstances.

The county treasurer receives and disburses county money as prescribed by the county controller and the county commissioners, according to the county website. The office also acts as an agent of the state to sell hunting, fishing and dog licenses. The treasurer serves on the Retirement Board, which administers the County Retirement Fund, and receives the countys Hotel Room Sales Tax, as well.

During Kennedys tenure, at least five checks were returned for non-sufficient funds (NSF), according to information provided by the county via a Right to Know request. The checks ranged from $13.42 to $152,576 and were from various accounts, including the Hotel Sales Tax Fund, Centre County Court Account and the Centre County Treasurer account.

Why were checks returned?

Kennedy said the checks are shown as non-sufficient funds due to a timing issue or other reasons  not because the money wasnt there. She pointed to a $10,794.90 check written from the countys Hotel Sales Tax Fund on March 8, 2023 to the Centre County Government for the January hotel tax administration fee as an example.

Per the countys hotel tax ordinance, the county can collect a 4% administrative fee of the total collections, which is what the check was for. Kennedy said in this instance, a fee was charged to the countys hotel sales tax account the previous month, before a deposit was made, so the account started at a negative amount in March. That caused the check to show as non-sufficient funds, she said.

A deposit was made into the account on March 8, so it was a quick turnaround, she said.

It was just really a matter of timing. Like I said, that balance is always essentially zero. So if anything unexpected happens, or you dont time it perfectly, you can end up with an overdraft. But no hanky, no panky, nothing weird, Kennedy said.

The hotel tax fund is like a holding account because money comes in and quickly goes out, and a $5 minimum balance is maintained in the account, Kennedy said.

Another instance of a check shown as non-sufficient funds occurred with a $152,576.28 check written on May 6, 2021 to the Happy Valley Adventure Bureau for the March 2021 Hotel Tax, out of the countys Hotel Sales Tax Fund. Kennedy said this was again due to timing. The check was written on May 6 but the HVAB didnt process it until later in the month.

The bank statement shows the item is paid, Kennedy said, and only shows non-sufficient funds activity because it resulted in an overdraft. In only one instance was the payment returned by the bank, and that was resolved quickly.

Theyre NSF activity because they resulted in an overdraft but all of them were paid. And they incurred fees, the fees were reversed right out. So the net effect was nothing, Kennedy said.

The county controller, also an elected official, is responsible for the management and administration of the countys fiscal affairs, the countys website states. Controller Jason Moser, a Democrat, declined several interview requests for this article.

Other checks that resulted in an overdraft  which was later reversed  include:

March 3, 2023: a $7,219.41 check to the Centre County Government for PA DOC pmt recd in error from the Hotel Tax fund.

June 1, 2021: a $4,270 check to the state Department of Agriculture for May Comm, from the treasurers account.

April 6, 2021: A $13.42 payment to an individual from the Centre County Court Account. This account is used for juror and witness payments, and this occurred when the office first initiated its debit card program. Kennedy said she didnt account for the debit card programs fees when she made the transfer, causing it to overdraft.

Kennedy said those concerned about this should look at her record.

(The record) is showing that all of these payments were actually paid by the bank right out, right off the bat. Only one of them was actually returned, and everything was resolved very quickly, Kennedy said. You know, in four years, it was a handful of checks.

But Behrens, Kennedys opponent, said regardless of how the county may or may not have been impacted, or what types of accounts they are, he still has great concerns about how the office is run.

If you bounce a check the first time and you came out, said it publicly and talked about it, people are gonna understand, he said during an interview with the CDT. But doing it six times? I have questions. I have questioned the capability of her as being treasurer, and thats why I want to run.

The Willowbank Building in Bellefonte is pictured in December 2020. Weeks before the municipal election, the race for Centre County Treasurer is heating up.

How common is this situation?

To see how other Pennsylvania counties compare, a similar Right to Know request was sent to Blair and Franklin counties, as Blair is a neighboring county and Franklin has a comparable population size. As the Centre Daily Times did with Centre County, a request for electronic copies of all NSF/non-sufficient funds checks written by the county treasurers office on accounts within its jurisdiction between Jan. 1, 2019 and July 13, 2023 was filed with Blair and Franklin counties.

Blair and Franklin counties both said such records do not exist.

At least one similar occurrence happened under former Centre County treasurer Richard Fornicola, according to records obtained via a Right to Know request. A check for $368,300.64 written on Aug. 30, 2019 to the Central Pennsylvania Convention & Visitors Bureau for July 2019 Hotel Room Tax, July 2019 was returned.

Kennedy said according to the records, all of the revenue went into the hotel tax fund and Fornicola cut a check out to the visitors bureau, but one of the hotels checks bounced so it overdrew the account and caused the entire check to be returned.

Fornicola, who served for five terms, said it isnt a totally uncommon occurrence for individual hotel or Airbnb checks to bounce.

There were over 100 people who paid their hotel taxes by check. Sometimes some of their checks, for legitimate reasons, didnt clear. They thought they had the money there, but they didnt get their deposit in, in time, he said. So its kind of a complicated scenario sometimes getting all these checks for all the hotel taxes, then depositing them in one account, turn around and writing a check out of that account to send to the visitors bureau, and then having one of those providers have their check not clear.

To avoid this from happening, Kennedy said they now hold onto the checks for a few days longer to make sure everything goes through. Other safeguards include having online access to the accounts to ensure funds are available and staying on top of things. But some things, like when fees are charged to the account, are beyond her control, Kennedy said.

Every county has its own way of handling things, so processes vary across Pennsylvania. Cambria Countys treasurer, Lisa Kozorosky, said her office works closely with the controllers office and we do not pay anything unless we have the money in those accounts.

Is there any oversight?

As an elected official, the treasurer has control over their accounts. The controllers office does the reconciliation on all the accounts, so there is oversight, but the controller isnt part of the approval process, Kennedy said.

Were following good accounting practices. And we have an annual audit every year to make sure that we have good internal controls in place. Internal controls is an accounting phrase for all of those checks and balances you put in place to protect resources, Kennedy said. So for instance, having a different office doing the reconciliation of my bank accounts is an internal control to make sure that I dont have sole control, I cant just put money in and take money out at my whim.

Among other responsibilities, the county controller is responsible for internal audits, which assess the adequacy of controls, legal and contractual compliance and good business practices, according to the county website.

Commissioner Steve Dershem, a Republican, has expressed concerns about the checks and said a full internal audit would be a helpful explanation. Moser did not respond to a request for information from the CDT about when the last audit was performed for the treasurers office.

Centre County Commissioners Mark Higgins and Amber Concepcion, both Democrats, stressed that row offices, like the treasurer, are independent elected officials and the board of commissioners dont have oversight of those offices.

To the best of my knowledge, every single one of these checks was made good. To the best of my knowledge, the county was charged no fees in any of these circumstances. And have you, yourself personally, ever had to write tens of thousands of checks on an annual basis? I believe this happened to the prior treasurer as well. I mean, a part of it is just the job. There are a lot, a lot, a lot of checks, Higgins said.

Concepcion said there hasnt been a situation where a bill wasnt paid in a timely manner or there were fees for any returned checks. Therefore, there hasnt been a reason for the commissioners to be involved.

Higgins wondered why it was suddenly an issue leading up to the election and praised Kennedys work as treasurer. She and Moser worked together to drastically reduce county fees within the county retirement board and to increase the countys interest earnings, Higgins said.

Treasurer Kennedy has kept the office functioning with only three people all the way through the pandemic, and ... also does a tremendous amount of paperwork. The deer licenses, the dog licenses  I believe she took the dog process online recently, which was a huge service and potential time saver for county residents, he said.

But Dershem feels differently about the situation.

I think its important that payments and reports are timely and accurate. And the good faith and reputation of Centre County is at stake whenever checks are written, so its important that theyd be written accurately and that there be balances in the bank to cover the checks that are written, he said.

And although the row offices are independent of the board, he said the commissioners control a lot of the processes that ensure the county government is run accurately.

I think there were a number of times where there were checks bounced and that should be of concern to anyone who has a fiduciary responsibility for an organization, Dershem said. And its difficult for me to go back into the financial records and actually ascertain the full explanation of what occurred. Looking at the treasurers financial records as I have  its raised many questions in my mind.

In social media posts and candidate interviews, Kennedy has continued to point to her record as county treasurer, and recently highlighted Centre Countys interest earnings on unreserved funds reaching a record breaking $2.19 million. Behrens said he hopes to bring more transparency and accountability to the office.

The municipal election is Nov. 7.

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SpaceX conducted a full pressure test of the new water deluge system in July.

In the wake of an explosive debut in April, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is conducting a review of SpaceXs Starship launch system upgrades, focusing primarily on the new water deluge system and its potential environmental impacts at the south Texas launch site.



SpaceXs Starship, an integral part of Elon Musks ambitious space plans, has been ready for its second test flight for over a month, as company officials told the U.S. Subcommittee on Space and Science earlier this month. Ground teams even performed a full wet dress rehearsal earlier this week, despite the absence of a scheduled launch date. The megarocket is currently grounded, awaiting the completion of the launch licensing process.

Read more

The FWS highlighted in its press release that the Endangered Species Act mandates restarting the formal consultation process if there are substantial modifications to a project and its effects, if new data emerges on species that were not previously taken into account, or if a species is newly added to the list. For SpaceX reinitiation with FAA we are considering the operation of a deluge system at the launch pad, the FWS wrote.

The FWS has until March 3, 2024, to complete an updated biological opinion on Starships environmental impact, though it does not anticipate it taking that long; the review process has the potential to conclude as soon as November 18 of this year. The FAA concluded its investigation in September, but as the FWS assessment is ongoing, the regulator has yet to grant SpaceX the necessary approvals for its proposed second flight. If the FAA determines that SpaceXs modifications necessitate a reevaluation of its prior environmental assessment from 2022, a more extensive review may be required.

In August, the FAA attempted to restart consultations with the FWS by submitting a new biological assessment detailing the potential impacts of Starship modifications on local endangered species and habitats. But as Bloomberg reports, the FWS found the information inadequate for a formal review, prompting the FAA to provide an updated assessment on October 5. This led to the official commencement of the consultation process.

Earlier this month, SpaceX officials blamed an understaffed FAA for Starship regulatory delays, saying the regulator should double the staff in charge of issuing space licenses. That very well may be the case, but SpaceX has only itself to blame for its recent regulatory woes. SpaceX, committing to the move fast and break things mantra is now mired in a regulatory quagmire largely of its own making.

Want to know more about Elon Musks space venture? Check out our full coverage of SpaceXs Starship megarocket and the SpaceX Starlink internet satellite megaconstellation. And for more spaceflight in your life, follow us on X and bookmark Gizmodos dedicated Spaceflight page.

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Richland School District voters will charter the next four years of leadership this Nov. 7 election.

Three of five seats on the school board are up for reelection. One incumbent hopes voters will place her back on the board after being ousted during the Aug. 1 recall.

School board directors are elected within school districts to represent the interests of voters, students and parents. Their core responsibilities include hiring and supervising the superintendent, setting the strategic mission of the district, adopting policies, and passing annual budgets.

Richland School Board members, who serve in their positions unpaid, are elected to four-year terms.

The Richland Education Association teachers union has endorsed Chelsie Beck, Katrina Waters and Jill Oldson in the three races.

And the Benton County Republican Party Central Committee has endorsed Nino Kapitula, Kari Williams and Gene Nemeth.

Director No. 4

Kari Williams, right, the former Richland School Board member who served in the Director No. 4 seat, is running to reclaim her seat after being recalled by voters in August. She will face challenger Katrina Waters during the Nov. 7 general election.

The biggest question this fall will be whether or not voters put incumbent Kari Williams back on the Richland School Board after removing her over an illegal vote to defy Washington COVID mandates.

Williams said shes learned some lessons from the COVID era, but stands by her decision.

I will always stand for kids, Williams told the Tri-City Herald Editorial Board. Im a staunch advocate for local control. Would I do things differently? Yes. But I would still want the same things  I would still want families to choose whether they have to send their child (to school) with a medical device on their face or not.

Williams said she served as something of a consensus-maker between the pro-mandates and anti-mandates sides over the past two years, and helped to bring people together collaboratively.

Kari Williams

She is a former elementary school teacher who holds a masters in education from the University of Utah. Williams is now a stay-at-home mother with five kids who attend class at almost every level in the school district  from elementary to high school.

On Aug. 1, a majority of Richland voters  roughly 54%  chose to remove Williams, as well as fellow board members Audra Byrd and Semi Bird, from office over their February 2022, vote to go mask optional in schools.

The seat is being temporarily filled by Brianna Watson.

Katrina Waters, a mother of three Richland graduates, says Williams choices are a liability for the school district.

I do think it could be troublesome for the community to have a recalled board member put back on the board because of that lack of certainty of where their allegiances are going to lie, the public agendas that were spun last time, and the potential to defy state law if theres something they disagree with or if they think the needs of the students override what state law dictates, Waters said.

A chief scientist of biological sciences research at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), who serves on several science-related advisory boards, Waters says she can bring a balanced voice and urgency to collaborate to the board. She believes personal agendas and personal politics have no place on the board.

Katrina Waters

Waters said not all board members need to have a background in education.

But Williams argues her time in the classroom was imperative to the boards success.

She said her background in education helped inform her advocacy for structured literacy. After Richland and districts around the state implemented policies requiring science-based reading intervention for students with dyslexia, Williams championed a grassroots movement by teachers to expand structured literacy in their schools.

This school year, 600 students in all 11 Richland elementary schools are piloting new reading curricula, with implementation of a new K-5 structured literacy curriculum expected next fall.

Now that theyve focused on reading, Williams said her focus for a second term would be to focus on math scores and curricula.

Our kids deserve to have board members that can just hit the ground running, already knowing whats going on, Williams said.

The next school board will make some key decisions to build Richlands third comprehensive high school.

The school district currently plans to ask voters next year to pass a bond measure to fund the construction, but discussion is already percolating about a likely delay.

The construction cost for a third high school in West Richland could be upwards of $183 million, but thats not including other projects the district will likely seek funding for.

Both candidates agree that waiting to pass the bond will only benefit the process.

Waters said Richland students struggles with mental health didnt just start during the COVID pandemic  theyve been going on for a long time. Its about time the school district does more to address this issue, she says.

My oldest son attempted suicide when he was in high school. School administrators were sympathetic, but didnt provide a lot of resources, Water said. I think this is something within our district that we really need to be more prepared to provide resources... The school counselors were frankly no help to my family at that time.

Williams said shes heard student concerns around mental health disparities. She said the board has done a lot to help, including creating the Mental Health Assistance Team.

Director No. 3

Nino Kapitula, left, and Chelsie Beck, right, are both vying for the Richland School Boards Director No. 3 seat. Former board member Semi Bird vacated the seat after the community recalled him in the August special election. Lindsay Lightner is temporarily filling the seat until the Nov. 7 election results are certified.

A new face on the Richland School Board is guaranteed in this race.

Nino Kapitula and Chelsie Beck will go head-to-head for the Richland School Boards No. 3 seat.

Instead of seeking reelection to his seat, Semi Bird  one of the three recalled school board members  says he will run for governor in 2024 instead.

Bird has endorsed Kapitula as his successor.

The seat is being temporarily filled by Lindsay Lightner.

Kapitula is a small business owner and former insurance professional.

Nino Kapitula

She was born in the country of Georgia and raised by her single mother in Moldova  one of Europes poorest nations  during the dissolution of the Soviet Union. At 13, her family immigrated to the U.S.

Its very important for us to go back to teaching kids civics, Kapitula told the Editorial Board. Parental rights are essential for the success of our children. My mother came because of the rights of this country. 

Her three children attend a private Christian school and do not attend public school.

Its not personal to me, Kapitula said. Being an outsider, and not making it personal, I can see things a little more clear and I have something I can compare (public school) to.

Chelsie Beck, who works as a chemist at PNNL, has two children, 11 and 9, who attend Richland schools.

Chelsie Beck

Beck says shes running to return focus of the school board back on education.

I just want to make sure were doing whats best for all kids, to make sure we continue to give everyone the opportunity to succeed and not just certain kids, Beck said.

Beck and Kapitula differ on whether or not controversial topics, like the George Floyd protests, should be discussed in the classroom.

Kapitula says its a good thing to talk about controversial issues in the classroom, but warned teachers against pushing their own opinions on students. That can be divisive, she said.

The safe place to talk about these topics is always going to be the home, she said.

Beck says that schools have an obligation, especially in high school, to listen to others opinions.

We have to teach them how to talk about these things, understand them, have an opinion on them, Beck said.

Director No. 5

Richland School Board incumbent Jill Oldson, left, is seeking her second full term in the Director No. 5 seat and is being challenged by parent Gene Nemeth, right.

Incumbent Jill Oldson is defending her seat against challenger Gene Nemeth.

Oldson, a former marketing executive, is running for another term to bring some continuity to the board.

Shes been involved with the district for about 18 years and helped form the White Bluffs PTO in 2008. She raised two students who graduated from Richland High School.

Jill Oldson

I believe the parent-guardian has the ultimate say in their childs education, Oldson said in the Voters Pamphlet. My experience, willingness to listen, objectivity, and open-mindedness will help lead the district to set high standards in education for all kids.

Nemeth, a retired 26-year Navy captain, currently works in PNNLs facilities and infrastructure operations department.

Hes a parent of four children, all with special needs, and says student achievement has declined under Oldsons leadership.

The district lost focus on student outcomes, resulting less than half of todays students being proficient in core subjects, Nemeth wrote in his pamphlet statement. Genes vision to reverse the trend is to transform our district into an academic center of excellence.

Gene Nemeth

Genes also led nuclear facility operations and readiness at the Waste Treatment Completion Company, a Bechtel subcontractor at the vitrification plant, for seven years.

Hes also a member of the districts special education task force and a PTA member.
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) on Thursday called for President Biden to immediately revoke Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahians visa after he threatened the United States in a fiery speech before the United Nations General Assembly.

Revoke his visa now. He is not welcome in America, Scott urged Biden in a post on X, the social platform formerly known as Twitter.

Scott wrote: The United States cannot tolerate threats to our nation from terror-sponsors.

He reposted a clip of the Iranian foreign minister warning that the United States wont be spared from the fire of the war in region if the war in Gaza continues.

I say it frankly to American statesmen: We dont welcome expansion of war in the region, but if the genocide in Gaza continues, they wont be spared from this fire, Abdollahian warned.

Top Stories from The Hill

Scott is a leading proponent of moving $14.3 billion in aid for Israel separately from a larger $105 billion foreign aid package requested by Biden.

Scott has warned the United States is at risk from attack by terrorists, who he says could enter the country across the U.S.-Mexico border.

He joined Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and other Republicans earlier this month to introduce legislation to freeze the $6 billion in assets that were set to be transferred to Iran as part of a prisoner exchange negotiated by the Biden administration.

The administration has agreed to keep those assets frozen in Qatar for the time being.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
LEWISTON, Maine  Police in Maine found the abandoned Subaru Outback of suspected mass murderer Robert Card at a boat launch Wednesday evening after a shooting rampage left 18 dead and 13 injured at two locations  a bar and a bowling alley.

Although police identified Card, who appeared on surveillance video carrying a semiautomatic rifle into a bowling alley and then a nearby bar as a person of interest early, he remains at large Friday morning.

Maine Public Safety Commissioner Mike Sauschuck said Friday morning that dive teams would begin searching the Androscoggin River with aerial support near the boat ramp where Card's car was found abandoned.

Tactical teams, including state and local police and members of the ATF and FBI, served search warrants at properties linked to the suspect in his hometown of Bowdoin throughout the day and into the night Thursday but have not found the suspect in what a neighbor described as "his stomping ground."

LEWISTON, MAINE, MASS SHOOTING SUSPECT ROBERT CARD WANTED ON MURDER CHARGES, WITH 18 DEAD

The Pejepscot Boat Ramp in Topsham, Maine, is where authorities found the abandoned car of suspected Lewiston mass shooter Robert Card. Inset: Robert Card holds up a fresh catch in a Facebook selfie.

Authorities are also checking for potential camps or bunkers that he may have prepared in the wilderness.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

Agents from Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Marshals and the Border Patrol's elite BORTAC unit have also been called in to assist the manhunt effort.

Separately, authorities across the region have been on alert for signs of his whereabouts, and the U.S. Coast Guard conducted searches in the Kennebec River and Boothbay Harbor.

MAINE POLICE AUDIO DESCRIBES FRANTIC SHOOTING RESPONSE

The Lewiston Maine Police Department released a surveillance image of the shooting suspect, later identified as Robert Card.

Early Thursday afternoon, Fox News Digital visited the boat launch where state police said they found his abandoned car.

Upriver nearby is a dam blocking a potential water escape in that direction.

General view of the dam at the Pejepscot Boat Ramp in Topsham, Maine, on Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. Robert Card's white Subaru was found abandoned here after a mass shooting last night for which he is a suspect. A dam in the background blocks access upriver, however, by boat someone could travel freely in the other direction.

ROBERT CARD MANHUNT: MAINE POLICE CALLING ON PUBLIC FOR TIPS AFTER AT LEAST 18 KILLED IN MASS SHOOTING

Headed the other way, the Androscoggin River runs freely to the southeast and also passes below a major highway, I-295 in Brunswick.

In addition to fresh tire marks in the dirt parking lot, a single track, possibly from a motorcycle, ran back toward the street.

A single track, possibly from a motorcycle, visible on the dirt road by the Pejepscot Boat Ramp in Topsham, Maine on Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. Robert Card's white Subaru was found abandoned here after a mass shooting last night for which he is a suspect.

Vehicle records show Card, who has posted Facebook selfies while fishing, has owned multiple boats  and at least one of them is unaccounted for, according to the Coast Guard. Documents also indicate he has access to a motorcycle.

It Is unclear which way  or in what vehicle  Card took off after abandoning his car. He could be anywhere.

Police say the alleged person of interest vehicle's "front bumper may be painted black." The car was later found abandoned at the Pejepscot Boat Ramp.

Pat Diaz, a longtime Miami homicide detective who investigated the infamous "Cocaine Cowboys" case, told Fox News Digital he believes the suspect, an Army reservist, likely fled in a different car or truck.

"He didn't just put his car there," he told Fox News Digital. "I think he knew he could throw them off."

General view of Pejepscot Boat Ramp in Topsham, Maine, on Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. Robert Card's white Subaru was found abandoned here after a mass shooting last night for which he is a person of interest.

He said the suspect could have planted an escape vehicle or even have an accomplice.

With Cards military experience, as well as two recent high-profile manhunts in Pennsylvania involving nighttime infrared search techniques, the suspect likely knew to disguise himself from that technology, according to Dave Katz, a former DEA agent and now the CEO of Global Securities Inc.

Police activity outside an address on West Road, Bowdoin, Maine, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. A manhunt is on for Robert Card, the suspect in Wednesday's mass shooting in neighboring Lewiston.

"There are ways to camouflage against infrared," he told Fox News Digital. "Remember this guy's got military training, so he's no dummy."

Cards whereabouts remain a mystery. Unconfirmed sightings were reported in Boothbay Harbor, Massachusetts and even New York City. He is also reported to have possibly been following police activity with a scanner and is likely monitoring news coverage of the case.

Police continue to search for Robert Card in Lisbon, Maine, on Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. Card is a person of interest in the mass shooting in Lewiston last night.

"This is the problem with having so much media attention," Katz said. "He is going to be a bit elusive."

If he is in another car, as Diaz believes, it could be entirely unknown to law enforcement, he said  and anywhere within driving distance.

Police continue to search for Robert Card in Bowdoin, Maine, on Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. Card allegedly killed 18 people and injured 13 others in two mass shooting locations on Wednesday night.

"With this guy, he couldve sunk the boat, or the boats some place we dont know, and he left the car there a ruse," said Paul Mauro, a retired NYPD inspector who has been following the case.

He said the chance that Card has access to a motorcycle is compelling. Card could be anywhere, he said, but he suspects the suspect may be hiding out in his comfort zone, nearby and outdoors.

Police activity outside an address on Meadow Road, Bowdoin, Maine, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. A manhunt is on for Robert Card, the suspect in Wednesday's mass shooting in neighboring Lewiston.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE TRUE CRIME FROM FOX NEWS

Card has also had a recent mental illness incident, according to authorities  including allegedly hearing voices and threatening to shoot up a National Guard base in Saco, Maine.

Katz questioned why Card still had access to firearms despite the state's "Yellow Flag" law that would have allowed police to seek a medical evaluation for the suspect following the incident.

Police activity outside an address on Meadow Road, Bowdoin, Maine, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. A manhunt is on for Robert Card, the suspect in Wednesday's mass shooting in neighboring Lewiston.

"What we do know is [he] was allowed to get a gun," said Katz, who is also a firearms expert and Second Amendment advocate. "And that happens over and over and over again."

Card is considered armed and dangerous. As a result, Lewiston and the surrounding areas have been placed under a lockdown order. The streets are largely empty, with many businesses closed.

Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to call 207-213-9526 or 207-509-9002.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.





Original article source: Robert Card manhunt: Experts weigh Maine mass murder suspects potential escape routes
Vehicles drive past a sign in Lewiston, Maine, on Friday, the day after a mass shooting that left the state's second-most populous city reeling. (Angela Weiss / AFP via Getty Images)

Nearly two days after he allegedly killed 18 people at a bowling alley and bar, the suspect in the deadliest mass shooting in Maine's history remained at large Friday, eluding a widening police dragnet while residents of Lewiston and surrounding communities sheltered in place.

As local police, federal agents, dogs, divers, boaters and pilots fanned out in search of him, Robert R. Card Jr., identified by authorities as the suspect in the Lewiston mass shooting, remains an unknown.

To the public, Card is the expressionless man captured in surveillance images distributed by the Lewiston Police Department just after the shooting, wearing a brown hooded sweatshirt and baggy cargo pants, his thin, bearded face blank as he grips an assault rifle.

Read more: Maine shooting suspect found dead of apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, ending days-long manhunt

Some details have since emerged about the 40-year-old's life: service in the U.S. Army Reserves, alleged mental health concerns, a marriage that gave him a son before ending in divorce.

Card lived in Bowdoin, local media reported, about 25 miles east of the scene of the two shootings in Lewiston, which is Maine's second-most populous city. He divorced his wife in 2007, citing irreconcilable differences, according to the Times Record of Brunswick, Maine.

A manhunt was underway for Robert R. Card Jr. in the mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, that left 18 people dead. (Lewiston [Maine] Police Department via Associated Press)

Card and the woman had a son, who is now 18. An amendment to the divorce judgment required both Card and his ex-wife to keep any weapons "under lock and key" when they weren't being used, the Times Record reported.

Bryce Dubee, a spokesman for the U.S. Army, said Card enlisted in the Army Reserves in 2002. He was never deployed to combat and served as a petroleum supply specialist, Dubee said. He currently holds the rank of sergeant first class, assignment to the Reserves' 3rd Battalion, 304th Infantry Regiment in Saco, Maine, Dubee said. Card received various military honors during his 21-year tenure, he added.

Law enforcement officials search for suspected gunman Robert Card in Monmouth, Maine, following a mass shooting in nearby Lewiston. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images)

However, when Card was deployed this summer to the Army Reserve Unit at Camp Smith Training Center in Cortlandt, N.Y., his commanding officers were so concerned about his state of mind that police were called to take Card to the Keller Army Community Hospital in West Point for evaluation, according to a source who wasn't authorized to speak with the media and requested anonymity.

It wasn't clear whether Card was diagnosed with any mental conditions during the evaluation. Law enforcement officials have been told that Card was spending much of his time on antigovernment websites, the source added.

Card's unit was assigned to support training at West Point in July, Dubee said, but "there are no records to indicate he instructed or participated in any training."

Just before 7 p.m. on Wednesday evening, police say, Card opened fire inside Just-In-Time Recreation, a bowling alley in Lewiston. Parents hid with their children and patrons fled as seven people were killed.

Law enforcement officers in Bowdoin, Maine, prepare to approach the home of Robert Card, sought in connection with the shootings in nearby Lewiston and who was not there. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Twelve minutes after police were alerted to the attack on the bowling alley, they fielded another call about a shooting four miles south at Schemengees Bar & Grille. Among the patrons were a group of deaf people who had come to the bar for a cornhole tournament. Eight people died at the bar. Three more died at hospitals, authorities said.

Card, identified as a suspect the night of the shootings, ditched his white Subaru hatchback at the Pejepscot Boat Launch in Lisbon, eight miles southeast of Lewiston, a source said. Police are not sure whether he hauled a boat to the landing and fled on the water or if he left the car there to set investigators down the wrong path, the source said.

The Times Record, citing boat registration records, reported that Card owns a water bike and previously registered a 15-foot Bayliner recreational boat. Authorities said Friday they had added watercraft, divers and a Coast Guard plane to the manhunt.

When police and federal agents searched Card's home and several other residences in Bowdoin on Thursday night, they found a note, the contents of which Maine's public safety commissioner, Michael Sauschuck, would not disclose.

A source said Card has ditched his phone, leaving investigators no means of tracking him through electronic surveillance.

At a news conference Friday, Sauschuck said the state could not afford to allow Card to remain at large. "Every minute that this goes on, were more and more concerned," he said, "because whats the next thing thats going to happen?

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
NEW CITY - Rockland undercover investigators arrested seven people on drug distribution charges, the District Attorney's Office said.

The Rockland residents are accused of selling cocaine, fentanyl, and prescription pills. The arrests followed a months-long investigation into narcotics sales in Spring Valley, Clarkstown, and Haverstraw, authorities said on Thursday.

The investigation came under the Drug Task Force's "Operation Clean Streets."

Police tape at crime scene

Arrested were:

-- Edwin Salazar Ramirez, 23, of Spring Valley, on two counts each of third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance.

-- Oscar Palencia Lopez, 19, of Spring Valley, on three counts each of third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance.

-- Carlos Valle Cazares, 37, of Nanuet, on four counts each of third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance.

-- Refar Maisonneuve, 37, of Nanuet, on two counts each of third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance.

-- Rafael Olivo, 59, of Stony Point, on two counts each of third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance.

-- Danielle Logan, 38, of Congers, on two counts each of fifth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and criminal sale of a controlled substance.

-- James Valle, 26, of Nyack, on four counts each of third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance.

The criminal counts usually reflect drug buys by task force operatives.

The arrests continued a crackdown on drug dealing across the county, District Attorney Thomas Walsh said in a release posted on the office's Facebook page.

Walsh said that earlier this week the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration announced that the Drug Task Force assisted local, state, and federal authorities in recovering over 100 pounds of suspected cocaine, crack cocaine, fentanyl, heroin, and oxycodone carrying an estimated street value of $4 million from a pizzeria in the Bronx last week. Authorities said the drug operation potentially supplied narcotics to the region.

In February, investigators arrested Congers residents and seized five kilos of cocaine and weapons following a joint investigation with the DEA.

In July, investigators arrested a 25-year-old Congers man on federal charges of fentanyl dealing and causing two deaths and multiple overdoses involving the narcotic.

The crackdown comes amid a crisis involving fentanyl and opioid use, with 70 overdose deaths reported in Rockland in 2021, authorities said.

Walsh said the seven arrests under Operation Clean Streets "underscores the unwavering dedication of numerous law enforcement agencies joining forces to rid our streets of dangerous narcotics."

Steve Lieberman covers government, breaking news, courts, police, and investigations. Reach him at slieberm@lohud.com. Twitter: @lohudlegal.

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This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Rockland NY drug bust: undercover cops arrest seven for dealing
WASHINGTON - Ron DeSantis outlined foreign policy plans Friday before a prominent group of Washington-based conservatives, and drew more contrasts with President Joe Biden than with Republican frontrunner Donald Trump .

Saying that American power is on the decline," the Florida governor pledged a foreign policy designed to confront adversaries China and Iran and defend allies like Israel.

"First and foremost, you've got to put the American people first," DeSantis said in echoing a Trump-like manta in a speech at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at the Heritage Foundation, Friday, Oct. 27, 2023, as part of the Mandate for Leadership Series in Washington. (AP Photo/Jess Rapfogel)

No talk of Trump

DeSantis did not mention the Republican nomination battle with Trump, who enjoys leads of more than 30-to-40 percentage points in a series of state and national polls.

DeSantis, meanwhile, is struggling to hold onto a second place against former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

DeSantis-style foreign policy

In his policy speech at the Heritage Foundation, DeSantis discussed a U.S. foreign policy approach that focuses mainly on the nation's top military and economic competitor: China.

Pledging to confront China over its military expansion, abuse of trade rules, and spying, DeSantis argued that China is the key to other foreign policy challenges. He said Beijing is a benefactor to Russia in its invasion of Ukraine and Iran in its support of Hamas in its conflict with Israel.

The use of force?

Pledging to be careful with potential American military action, DeSantis - a former military lawyer - said force would only be used when there is a clear reason and specific mission.

"Those who seek to harm the United States of America will have no worse enemy than the United States of America," DeSantis said.

Saying that foreign policy also involves military and economic policies, DeSantis' plans range from forging a "four oceans Navy" to better border security to increased energy production.

Attacks on Biden

In terms of politics, DeSantis blamed Biden for the aggression of China, Russia, and Hamas, claiming the Biden foreign policy is rudderless, weak, misguided, and solicitous of Americas adversaries."

The Biden campaign and other Democrats said DeSantis and his Republican allies have parroted Russian Vladimir Putin's complaints about Ukraine and applauded Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., for blocking key military leadership appointments over abortion policy.

Ron DeSantiss foreign policy agenda would endanger the United States and undermine our allies," said Sarafina Chitika, a spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee. "It's clear hes out of his depth."

Trump appointees

DeSantis' only direct comment about Trump came in a question-and-answer session in which he was asked about Trump's comments that the bureaucracy blocked many of his initiatives when he was in office.

"The former president appointed people who worked against his agenda," DeSantis said. "Those were bad appointments."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ron DeSantis talks foreign policy: Big hits on Biden, little on Trump
With over a year left before the 2024 general election, candidates have already begun lining up to challenge members of the Manatee County Commission.

Four seats are up for grabs next year, and six challengers have already announced campaigns to unseat incumbent board members. The candidates include Republicans, a Democrat and an independent looking to win a seat on the Board of County Commissioners.

Commissioners James Satcher, Kevin Van Ostenbridge, Ray Turner and George Kruse have also launched campaigns to keep their seats.

In an interview with the Bradenton Herald, Manatee Supervisor of Elections Michael Bennett noted that theres still plenty of time for new candidates to join the races  or for current candidates to reconsider.

Theyve got a long time to go. A long time to get in and a long time to get out, Bennett said.

Of all the public positions that will be decided in November 2024, the Manatee County Commission has attracted the most interest from political hopefuls. For example, no candidate has filed to run for city commission seats in Anna Maria, Palmetto or Holmes Beach.

District 1

James Satcher, a first-term Republican commissioner, is up against two challengers.

 Former Parrish Civic Association President Jennifer Hamey is running without party affiliation in District 1.

In a news release announcing her candidacy, Hamey said she hopes to stop the divisive chatter on the board while addressing residents concerns about amenities, infrastructure and the development of rural land in District 1.

Manatee County residents, and more specifically, District 1, have a lot of needs that are not being met, Hamey said. There are environmental concerns, infrastructure deficiencies, lack of communication by our current representatives and a failure to understand the real needs of the community residents and businesses in the area.

Former Parrish Civic Association President Jennifer Hamey is running without party affiliation in District 1.

 Carol Ann Felts, a Myakka City resident who also ran for the countywide District 6 seat in 2022, has entered the District 1 race. Felts, a vocal critic of the Manatee County Commissions approval of housing developments in East Manatee, is running as a Republican.

Since 2020, Felts has run for different seats on the board. In next years election, she plans to stick to the same game plan by pushing for improved communication with residents, better environmental policies and clear development guidelines.

I havent changed since I ran three years ago, Felts said. We need educated, informed and involved citizens.

Carol Ann Felts is running as a Republican for the District 1 seat on the Manatee County Commission in 2024.

Satcher says he hopes to keep the momentum going in District 1, where county officials have allocated millions of dollars toward road improvements and a new community park.

District 1 has a lot of things in movement and on the way, so Im gonna concentrate on the job at hand  serving citizens and getting projects completed that are in the works, said Satcher, who also listed roads improvements, support for local law enforcement and American values as his top three campaign priorities.

District 1 includes parts of Palmetto, Ellenton, Parrish and Myakka City.

Commissioner James Satcher, a Republican, is seeking re-election to the Manatee County Commissions District 1 seat in 2024.

District 3

Both challengers running against Kevin Van Ostenbridge may have an uphill battle. The first-term commissioner announced a record-breaking campaign fundraising haul of $170,000 in June. According to the latest campaign finance records, Van Ostenbridge has a war chest of over $200,000.

Van Ostenbridge faces two political newcomers, Tal Siddique and Diana Shoemaker.

Siddique, running as a Republican, has criticized Van Ostenbridges leadership and vowed to put an end to board controversy.

Manatee County residents clearly want to see new leadership, as do I, Siddique, who founded the Speak Out Manatee community advocacy group, said in a campaign announcement.

Tal Siddique is running as a Republican for the District 3 seat on the Manatee County Commission in 2024.

Shoemaker, the former president and CEO of Manatee Habitat for Humanity, is running as a Democrat. In a news release, she said hopes to secure more affordable housing, protect the environment and pursue policies that are fair to all residents.

There are many residents in District 3 and throughout Manatee County who care deeply for this community and have made a long-term investment here, Shoemaker said. Its time that we have leadership that understands their responsibility to listen to their voices.

Diana Shoemaker is running as a Democrat for the District 3 seat on the Manatee County Commission in 2024.

Van Ostenbridge, who was first elected in 2020, touted the all-Republican boards leadership over the past few years. He said he looks forward to reducing taxes, improving county parks and investing in Manatee Countys public safety agencies.

As these projects continue, we still have so much more work to do to make sure conservative values are protected here in Manatee County, said Van Ostenbridge, a Republican. As we make these record investments, we must work harder to grow smarter and make Manatee County more affordable for its residents.

District 3 includes parts of Bradenton, Cortez and Anna Maria Island.

Commissioner Kevin Van Ostenbridge, a Republican, is seeking re-election to the District 3 seat on the Manatee County Commission in 2024.

District 5

Commissioner Ray Turner, who recently joined the board, is looking to hold on to the seat for another four years. Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Turner, a Republican, following former Commissioner Vanessa Baughs resignation in July.

As of Wednesday, Turners District 5, which includes parts of East Bradenton and Lakewood Ranch, has not attracted a challenger.

District 5 includes parts of East Bradenton and Lakewood Ranch.

Commissioner Ray Turner, a Republican, is seeking to hold onto his District 5 seat in 2024. Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed him to the seat in July to fill a vacancy.

District 7 (Countywide)

After two candidates had already entered the ring, George Kruse recently filed for re-election to the countywide District 7 seat. In a news release, Kruse said he hopes to remain on the board and provide common sense conservative solutions.

In recent months, fellow board members have targeted Kruse for not going along with controversial decisions, such as the countys decision to ban taxpayer funds for any nonprofit affiliated with Planned Parenthood, or a rollback of wetland protections.

The citizens of Manatee County deserve a government that focuses on local issues, not grandstanding, Kruse said in a statement that also listed affordable housing, environmental protections and infrastructure as some of his top priorities.

Commissioner George Kruse, a Republican, is seeking re-election to his District 7 seat on the Manatee County Commission in 2024.

The chairwoman of Manatee Countys Republican Party also has a campaign to unseat Kruse. In a blistering announcement released before Kruse confirmed his candidacy, April Culbreath bashed her first-term Republican opponent and promised to uphold a conservative agenda.

Im a pro-life, America first Republican and conservative who will work together with other local Republican leaders, not against them or our conservative agenda, Culbreath, who has 26 years of experience as a law enforcement officer, said in a statement.

April Culbreath is running as a Republican for the District 7 seat on the Manatee County Commission in 2024.

Keith Green, the first Republican candidate to enter the race, is also running for the District 7 seat. He filed campaign paperwork in August 2022.

Green lists accountable leadership, improved infrastructure and support for law enforcement as his top three campaign priorities.

I intend to stay within the realm of what a county commissioner is supposed to do, rather than trying to appeal emotionally to residents by offering red-meat issues, which distract from the real and pressing issues and the work that is relevant to this office, Green said.

Keith Green is running as a Republican for the District 7 seat on the Manatee County Commission in 2024.
Three drones attempted to attack Kursk Nuclear Power Plant on the evening of Oct. 26, the Russian state atomic energy corporation Rosatom claimed on Oct. 27.

"This event did not affect the operation of the station," and there were no casualties or damage, Rosatom said in a statement.

Air defense systems in Kursk Oblast intercepted drones multiple times over the evening of Oct. 26, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed.

The nuclear power plant is located around 70 kilometers from the border with Ukraine's Sumy Oblast.

Ukraine's National Resistance Center reported in August that Russia is preparing to stage a provocation at the plant involving the evacuation of some of the local population.

The Russian authorities make regular allegations about drone attacks in Kursk Oblast, something that Ukraine does not always claim responsibility for.

However, reports emerged in Ukrainian media in September that Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) used a drone to destroy a Russian radar system in Kursk Oblast.

The claims of the attack on Kursk Nuclear Power Plant come days after Russian drones hit the area around Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Plant in western Ukraine, damaging buildings in the plant's premises.

Following the attack on Oct. 25, President Zelensky said that Ukraine will "not only defend" itself but also "respond" to Russia's "terrorist attacks" on critical infrastructure.

Read also: Deadly drone arms race intensifies as Ukraine, Russia embrace the future of war

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Russian troops attacked Ukraine with six combat drones and an Iskander M-type ballistic missile on the night of 26-27 October. Ukrainian defenders downed five Shahed-136/131 UAVs.

Source: Ukraine's Air Force

Quote: "The enemy attacked from the Primorsko-Akhtarsk region, using six Shahed-type attack UAVs, in the direction of Ukraines southern oblasts and launched one Iskander-M ballistic missile from Voronezh Oblast in the direction of Kharkiv Oblast on the night of 26-27 October 2023.

Five Shahed-136/131 drones were destroyed within Kherson and Mykolaiv oblasts as a result of combat operations by the assets and personnel of the Air Force, cooperating with the Air Defence Forces of the Defence Forces of Ukraine."

    

Overnight attack by Russians partially repelled

UKRAINES AIR FORCE

Details: Two of the five Shahed drones were downed over Mykolaiv Oblast, as Vitalii Kim, Head of Mykolaiv Oblast Military Administration, reports.

A fire station in Izium (Kharkiv Oblast) was hit by a Russian missile, damaging the building and service equipment, and injuring eight firefighters.

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Ukraines Air Force issued a warning that Russia launched attack drones on Ukraine from the south late on 26 October.

Source: Ukraines Air Force on Telegram

Details: Air-raid warnings were issued in Kherson and Mykolaiv oblasts in southern Ukraine in light of the threat of a Russian drone attack.

There is a threat of ballistic missile strikes on Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts.

Updated: Ukraines Air Force issued an all-clear soon after midnight on 27 October.

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Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak that the Russian Federation has lost at least a brigade in its attempts to encircle and capture Avdiivka, Donetsk Oblast.

Source: Office of the President of Ukraine

Details: The President of Ukraine had a telephone conversation with the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Zelenskyy thanked Sunak for his powerful words of support for Ukraine, which were delivered in the UK Parliament on 23 October.

Zelenskyy also expressed gratitude for all the timely and comprehensive assistance from the United Kingdom, in particular for the recent 100 million defence support package.

The parties discussed the situation at the front lines in detail.

Quote from Zelenskyy: "Russia will continue to try to occupy the entire Donbas. The invaders made several attempts to encircle Avdiivka, but our soldiers stopped them and pushed them back each time, inflicting painful losses. In these attempts, the enemy lost at least a brigade."

Details: Zelenskyy and Sunak discussed further defence cooperation, in particular, strengthening Ukraine's air defence systems with missiles and anti-drone assets.

Zelenskyy also briefed Sunak on the situation in the Black Sea and Russia's actions that pose a threat to the civilian shipping industry.

Zelenskyy said that the grain corridor would continue to function despite all threats. They discussed further work on the introduction of insurance for civilian vessels.

The leaders also shared their assessments of the situation in the Middle East and agreed that it would be in the interests of the international community to stop the escalation of the conflict.

Sunak and Zelenskyy also coordinated their positions on cooperation in international platforms and maintaining international support for Ukraine.

Background: John Kirby, US National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications, said that since 11 October, Russia has suffered significant losses in its offensive on Avdiivka, including at least 125 armoured vehicles and thousands of soldiers.

Experts at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) suggested that the Russians lost much more equipment near Avdiivka than they did in combat near Vuhledar earlier this year.

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Russian invaders are currently making incremental advances in Ukraine, with the primary aim of burnishing Russian dictator Vladimir Putin s image as a successful leader, Tarmo Kundla, the head of the operational department at the Estonian General Staff, told Estonian public broadcaster ERR on Oct. 27.

Kundla said that Russian troops continue to intensify their attacks in the Avdiivka-Maryinka and Kupyansk-Lyman sections of the front. Their primary mission, it appears, is to secure at least some form of success, which can be presented to the public as a victory.

Kundla clarified that the Russians currently have two objectives.

Read also:

Firstly, creating a successful military image is crucial for Putin in light of the upcoming presidential elections next year. Additionally, this is essential for Defense Minister Shoigu to solidify his position within the ministry. Secondly, seizing the initiative is crucial for Russia to slow down the Ukrainian counter-offensive, stated the head of the operational department of the General Staff.

Read also: Explosions rock suburbs of occupied Tokmak, Russian involvement unclear

Ukraine will persist with raids in Kherson Oblast, he said, just as in previous weeks. Consequently, the Ukrainian military aims to engage and divert Russian troop concentrations in the region.

Read also: Russia wants to restore its influence in Baltic states by 2030, strategy documents show

Isolated pieces of information indicate that Russia has dispatched additional units to the area, thus, it is plausible that events are unfolding in accordance with Ukraines plan, he added.

Natalia Humeniuk, the spokesperson for Ukraines South defense forces, reported on Oct. 23 that combat operations continue on the left bank of Kherson Oblast. Ukrainian defense forces continue to drive back Russian invaders, utilizing counter-battery methods.

Previously, the U.S.-based think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported that select units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine successfully broke through to the occupied segment of Kherson Oblast on Oct. 17-18, specifically in the vicinity of the villages within the Oleshkivska community. It was suggested that, judging from the response of Russian war correspondents, this operation could have greater significance than previous similar incursions by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Additionally, the ISW noted Ukrainian forces progress toward the village of Krynky in its Oct. 20 report, shedding light on the evolving situation in the region.

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The Moscow City Court sentenced Anatoly Gubanov, a 66-year-old physicist who worked on hypersonic development, to 12 years imprisonment on treason charges, the Russian independent news site Mediazona reported on Oct. 27.

Gubanov is the former head of the aircraft and rockets department at the Central Aerodynamics and Hydrodynamics Institute (TsAGI) in Zhukovsky, Moscow Oblast.

He was arrested in 2020 on suspicions that he was providing secret hypersonic development documents to his Dutch colleagues, with whom he collaborated in a civil hypersonic airliner project, HEXAFLY-INT.

Gubanov pleaded guilty, asking judges to take into account all mitigating circumstances and issue a sentence below the minimum threshold of 12 years, which the court rejected.

The physicist's Russian colleague in the project, 70-year-old Valery Golubkin, was detained in 2021 and also sentenced to 12 years imprisonment this year in June. Golubkin rejected the charges raised against him.

Human rights organization Perviy Otdel said that the materials passed by Gubanov and Golubkin to their Dutch colleagues had been examined by three specialized commissions prior to the submission. The reviews discovered no classified content in the documents, the group said.

Read also: She wanted to visit her sick father in occupied Crimea. Russia wants to imprison her for 20 years

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The Russian forces have suffered heavy losses in their offensive on the city of Avdiivka in Donetsk Oblast, including at least 125 armoured vehicles, but may still achieve some tactical success in the coming months, the US Presidential Administration has said.

Source: John Kirby, US National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications, citing the US Presidential Administration

Quote from Kirby: "Russia has launched a renewed offensive in eastern Ukraine across multiple lines, including around Avdiivka, Lyman, and Kupiansk. Now, I spoke about this in a gaggle recently, but this offensive was not a surprise. Weve been watching this build and come. And weve warned that President Putin still aims to conquer Ukraine, and weve been working to ensure that Ukraine has the equipment it needs to defend its territory."

Details: Kirby pointed out that the US had announced another security assistance package on 26 October which includes air defence equipment, Javelin anti-tank missiles, more artillery munitions and more ammunition for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, otherwise known as HIMARS.

The official said Ukrainians, using all these opportunities, have so far "been able to hold on and hold the  on the defence against this offensive, successfully repelling Russian tank columns that have been advancing on a Avdiivka".

The US estimates that Russia has suffered severe losses in this offensive since 11 October, including at least 125 armoured vehicles around Avdiivka and over a battalion-size of equipment.

Quote: "We expect more Russian attacks to come. This is a dynamic conflict, and we need to remember that Russia still maintains some offensive capability and may be able to achieve some tactical gains in the coming months."

To pursue that outcome in Avdiivka and elsewhere on the battlefield, Russia continues to show no regard for the lives of its soldiers. We believe they have suffered thousands of casualties in their effort to conduct this offensive, some of them on the orders of their own leaders."

Details: The White House official said Russia's renewed attempt at an offensive proves that Vladimir Putin has not given up his ambition to take over the whole of Ukraine.

Kirby said the United States must therefore support the Ukrainian people in their self-defence as Russia continues its brutal offensive.

For this reason, US President Joe Biden is urging Congress to step up and pass the supplemental request he put forward last week, which includes significant resources for Ukraine's self-defence, humanitarian and economic needs.

"Its time now to move forward with that supplemental funding, because time clearly is not on our side or on  or on that of Ukraine going forward," Kirby stated.

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Russian security services have prepared a targeted information attack to discredit Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, Ukraines Defense Intelligence (HUR) reported via Telegram on Oct. 27.

According to the HUR, Russian special services have developed and disseminated a new methodology of narratives to Kremlin propagandists and so-called "technologists" with an intent to undermine trust in Ukraine among Western partners.

Read also: Russian TV propagandist accuses diplomat Zakharova of heavy drinking, anti-semitism in viral video

Within the framework of the ongoing campaign to discredit Ukraine, an information attack is planned against Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, the intelligence asserts, the message said.

Read also: Borrell met Zelenskyy, Kuleba, and Umerov in Kyiv to mark Ukraine's Day of Defenders

The report also named key false narratives of the disinformation campaign:

1. Corrupt Ukraine is selling arms to Hamas terrorists;

2. Ukraine is using the Black Sea grain corridor for illegal arms trade;

3. Umerov is using his ties in the Arab world for illegal arms trade;

4. Lebanon's opening of the market for Ukrainian agricultural products is used for illegal arms trade.

Read also: U.S., Switzerland among primary sources of foreign components in Russian weapons, China used as conduit

With this new disinformation campaign, Moscow plans to completely stop the supply of Western weapons to Ukraine.

For this very purpose, Russian security services have secretly transferred separate samples of Western weapons to Hamas terrorists, captured on the battlefield in Ukraine," the message concludes.

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Mariia Berlinska, founder of the NGO Aerial Reconnaissance Support Center, said that by attacking Avdiivka, the Russian Federation wants to expand the bridgehead for the further occupation of Donetsk Oblast.

Source: Mariia Berlinska on the Ukrainska Pravda talk show

Quote: "The Russians want Avdiivka for ideological reasons, to show a quick victory. There is also an understanding that they want to push us away from Donetsk, that is, to keep their command posts and their logistics centres safe.

And they definitely aim to expand the bridgehead for a further offensive. They arent leaving and will not abandon their desire to reach the administrative borders of Donetsk Oblast."

Details: Berlinska also noted that for the Russians, Avdiivka is an attempt to seize the initiative. But the fact that Ukrainian soldiers are continuing their counteroffensive actions on other parts of the front whilst holding back the Russians around Avdiivka is a manifestation of the heroism of the Ukrainian military.

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Russian forces attempted to regain lost ground near Andriivka on the Bakhmut front and Verbove in Zaporizhzhia.

Source: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on 27 October

Details: A total of 47 combat engagements took place over the last day. The Russians launched 6 missile strikes and 8 airstrikes, and fired 27 times from multiple-launch rocket systems.

The Russians did not conduct any offensive actions on the Kupiansk and Lyman fronts, continuing to regroup their troops.

The Russians tried to regain the lost ground near Andriivka on the Bakhmut front, where Ukrainian defenders repelled five attacks.

On the Avdiivka front, the Russians conducted unsuccessful assault operations in and around Stepove, Avdiivka and Pervomaiske (Donetsk Oblast). Ukrainian Defence Forces repelled 13 Russian attacks.

Russian forces conducted unsuccessful assault operations on the Marinka front in and around Marinka and Novomykhailivka (Donetsk Oblast), where Ukrainian defenders repelled 19 attacks.

On the Shakhtarsk front, Ukrainian troops repelled all Russian attacks near Vodiane, Zolota Nyva and Staromaiorsk (Donetsk Oblast).

On the Zaporizhzhia front, the invaders tried to regain their lost position north-west of Verbove in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, but were unsuccessful.

Quote: "Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Defence Forces continue offensive operations on the Melitopol front and offensive (assault) operations on the Bakhmut front, inflicting losses in manpower and equipment on the occupation forces, and exhausting the enemy along the entire line of contact.

Over the course of the day, the Air Force carried out five strikes on areas where Russian military personnel, weapons and equipment were concentrated, and another four strikes on enemy anti-aircraft missile systems.

Ukraines Rocket Forces and Artillery destroyed four clusters of Russian military personnel, weapons and equipment, eight artillery pieces, two ammunition storage points and three enemy air defence systems."

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Russian attacks against nine Ukrainian oblasts in the past day and overnight killed two civilians and wounded another 11, regional authorities reported on Oct. 27.

Russia launched six Shahed-type drones to attack Ukraines southern regions and targeted Kharkiv Oblast with an Iskander ballistic missile at night, according to the Air Force.

In Kharkiv Oblast, Russian troops hit a fire station in Izium, injuring eight emergency workers, Governor Oleh Syniehubov reported. The building of the fire station and 13 pieces of equipment were damaged, according to Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko. Russian attacks against the region on the previous day damaged homes and outbuildings, said Syniehubov.

Five out of the six Russian drones were reportedly shot down in Mykolaiv and Kherson oblasts, with the remaining one striking an infrastructure facility near Mykolaiv Oblasts Voznesensk, Ukraine's Southern Operational Command and the regional governor said. No casualties were reported in the city.

Read also: The dead villages: Hope and despair side-by-side in the liberated south

Russian multi-weapon strikes against Kherson Oblast in the past 24 hours killed one person and wounded two more, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin reported. The attacks hit residential districts, a medical facility, an educational institution, a post office, and a cultural facility, according to Prokudin.

Russian shelling of the village of Pozhnia in Sumy Oblast killed a 16-year-old boy on Oct. 26, said Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko.

On the same day, one civilian was injured in Donetsk Oblasts Avdiivka, which has withstood Russias intensified offensive for several weeks, acting regional governor Ihor Moroz said on Telegram.

Russian attacks were also reported in Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Chernihiv, and Luhansk oblasts, but there were no casualties, according to the regional authorities.

Read also: Ukraine war latest: Russia endures heavy losses near Avdiivka, suffers from low morale, White House says

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In a briefing, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Russia is executing some soldiers.

He called the actions "reprehensible" and criticized Russia's treatment of its soldiers in the war.

Kirby said that Russia continues to have "no regard for the lives of its soldiers.

The Russian military has been executing soldiers who refuse to follow orders, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said in a White House press briefing Thursday.

Kirby said that Russia continues to have "no regard for the lives of its soldiers," and estimated that Russia has suffered thousands of casualties, saying that some are believed to have been killed on orders from their own leaders.

"It's reprehensible to think that you would execute your own soldiers because they didn't want to follow orders," Kirby said in the briefing. "Now, threatening to execute entire units  it's barbaric. But I think it's a symptom of how poorly Russia's military leaders know they're doing, and how bad they have handled this, from a military perspective."

Russia has a historical precedent of executing its soldiers during wartime, Simon Miles, an assistant professor at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy and a historian of the Soviet Union and US-Soviet relations, told Insider, citing the Red Army under Stalin during World War II.

"They made use of so-called blocking or barrier units behind the front lines to root out deserters and malingerers, for which the punishment was sometimes death, though most of the time they were just rounded up and shipped back to their unit or sent to a penal unit for punishment," Miles said.

Kirby said the Russian military has exhibited poor command and control, poor logistical planning, and a lack of ability to provide sustenance for its soldiers since the beginning of its attack on Ukraine.

"They are in such desperate need to make some kind of progress," Kirby continued in the briefing. "They are literally throwing young men into the fight who haven't been properly trained, haven't been properly equipped, and certainly are not being properly led."

Miles, however, said the threat to execute entire units is probably "mostly bluster."

"But it does speak to the low regard leadership has for soldiers' lives," he added.

There have been multiple reports documenting the apparent poor conditions, low morale, and high casualty numbers for Russian soldiers.

One recent report from the news outlet Verstka said soldiers had substances like mephedrone, amphetamines, and alpha-PVP (or "salt") delivered to the front lines in an attempt to overcome boredom.

In a video plea from March, Russian soldiers complained that they were being sent into battle with "blocking" units that were meant to keep them from running away.

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Expectations run high of Colombia-China cooperation amid president's maiden trip to China

Xinhua) 08:39, October 27, 2023

Chinese President Xi Jinping holds talks with Colombian President Gustavo Francisco Petro Urrego, who is on a state visit to China, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 25, 2023. (Xinhua/Zhai Jianlan)

China has built the largest installed renewable energy capacity and the largest market for electric vehicles in the world, presenting infinite possibilities of cooperation with Colombia, the fourth-largest economy in Latin America.

BOGOTA, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- Colombian President Gustavo Francisco Petro Urrego is in Beijing for a state visit this week, as many in Colombia are closely watching his maiden trip there.

"President Petro's visit to China can be deeply transformative for Colombia in a very positive way," said David Castrillon Kerrigan, an international relations academic at the Externado University of Colombia.

Since the establishment of diplomatic ties 43 years ago, bilateral relations between China and Colombia have stood the test of international changes and maintained a sound momentum of development.

According to this senior researcher, the visits of previous presidents, beginning with former Colombian President Ernesto Samper Pizano in 1996, have paved the way towards a more comprehensive relationship between Colombia and China.

Chinese imports from Colombia have risen significantly in the last few years, with China becoming the South American nation's second-biggest trading partner. According to data from Chinese customs authorities, in 2022, bilateral trade in goods amounted to 22.64 billion U.S. dollars, up 13.4 percent year-on-year.

Over the past year, Petro, who assumed presidency in August 2022, has consistently emphasized the government's commitment to carry out profound transformations and turn Colombia into a "World Power of Life" by implementing policies that put nature first and focus on decarbonization, an urgent necessity for the survival of human beings.

Chinese President Xi Jinping holds a welcoming ceremony for Colombian President Gustavo Francisco Petro Urrego in the Northern Hall of the Great Hall of the People prior to their talks in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 25, 2023. (Xinhua/Huang Jingwen)

China has built the largest installed renewable energy capacity and the largest market for electric vehicles in the world, presenting infinite possibilities of cooperation with Colombia, the fourth-largest economy in Latin America.

To Kerrigan's great delight, an increasing number of Chinese companies are coming to this Latin American country and are actively participating in tendering and bidding for solar parks and other new energy projects.

In an interview with Xinhua before President Petro's departure for Beijing, Guillermo Puyana, president of Colombia China Friendship Association, expressed his belief that joining the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) would be the best bet for Colombia to realize its dreams, like the environmental dream of having greener mountains, bluer waters and clearer skies.

During the visit in China, Petro said Colombia is ready to synergize its geographical advantage and its development strategies with the BRI, and strengthen cooperation in infrastructure and clean energy.

Petro aims to enhance Colombia's involvement in pressing global issues such as peace, development, climate change, and forest conservation, said Puyana, emphasizing that China holds a significant role in these fields, given its commitment to promoting global fairness by guaranteeing that developing countries have access to global public goods.

"There are too many things in common between Colombia and China, and the prospect for cooperation has never been presented in such a stirring way," concluded Puyana.

Staff members check a Chinese-made electric bus ready to leave for Cali at a bus station in Yumbo, Colombia, Sept. 10, 2019. (Xinhua/Jhon Paz)

Luis Diego Monsalve, former ambassador of Colombia to China, emphasized the profound significance of Petro's visit to China as the head of state.

Monsalve told Xinhua on Tuesday that a state visit is always very important because it brings two countries closer, voicing his hope that important cooperation projects would emerge from this unique visit.

"It is a common agenda to protect the environment, to improve living conditions against global warming, and to have better energy sources. In all these fields China is a world leader and could greatly support Colombia. So I think that if projects and agreements emerge in these fields it will mean a lot for Colombia," said the former ambassador.

During President Petro's visit, China and Colombia announced the elevation of bilateral relations to a strategic partnership, and a number of bilateral cooperation documents were signed.

(Web editor: Tian Yi, Liang Jun)
A large hydrographic boat of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, the Vladimir Kozitsky, designed to search for sea mines, has exploded in occupied Sevastopol, the Telegram channel Crimean Wind reported on Oct. 27, citing witnesses.

The vessel suddenly exploded on the outer parts of Sevastopol Bay, where it had been slowly "cruising around" for the past few days.

"Smoke was reportedly pouring out of the engine room," Crimean Wind writes.

A tugboat was driven to the smoking ship and dragged it towards Striletska Bay.

On Oct. 26, social media users reported "powerful vibrations" in buildings in the north of Sevastopol, but without the sound of an explosion.

The Vladimir Kozitsky is a new boat of the 23040 G project that joined the Russian Black Sea Fleet in 2021. Its key purpose is high-precision area surveying of the bottom topography to support navigational nautical charts and maintenance of medium-sized vessels with navigation equipment.

On Oct. 13, NV's sources in Ukraines SBU security service reported that the agency, together with the navy, attacked the Russian cruise missile carrier Buyan and the ship Pavel Derzhavin near Sevastopol using an experimental surface drone called the Sea Baby.

The navy later clarified that there was no confirmation of damage to the Buyan-M.

However, damage was confirmed to the tugboat Nikolai Muru.

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A court in Chernihiv has sentenced a Russian pilot to 14 years in prison for killing a local civilian last year, the Prosecutor General's Office announced on Oct. 27.

The sentencing was carried out in absentia.

A Russian Sukhoi Su-34 jet was shot down over Chernihiv on March 5, 2022, amidst the first weeks of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The navigator was killed, but the pilot survived.

A local resident, Vitalii Serhiienko, found the pilot hiding on his property. Despite the fact that Serhiienko was unarmed, the pilot shot him, leaving Serhiienko to die of his injuries.

The pilot was detained by members of the Ukrainian armed forces, and named by Ukraine's Military Intelligence as Aleksandr Krasnoyartsev, a major in the Russian Air Force.

Photos posted on social media appeared to show Krasnoyartsev posing with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, leading Ukrainian investigators to believe it was likely that he took part in Russian engagements in Syria.

However, Krasnoyartsev was later exchanged in a prisoner swap with five Ukrainian pilots, according to Ukrainian Military Intelligence.

The court in Chernihiv found the pilot guilty of violating the laws and customs of war, and committing intentional murder.

Read also: I want to go home: Inside a Russian prisoner of war camp in Ukraine

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A Russian strike on the village of Kindrashivka in Kharkiv Oblast's Kupiansk district on Oct. 27 injured a 67-year-old woman, the Kharkiv Oblast Military Administration reported.

The victim was hospitalized with shrapnel wounds to her leg, according to the report.

Kindrashivka, a small settlement with a pre-war population of over 800 people, lies roughly 100 kilometers east of Kharkiv and only a few kilometers west of the front line.

The Kupiansk district is one of the main hot spots on the eastern front, as Russia has been concentrating a sizeable force in the Lyman-Kupiansk direction since the summer.

Due to the deteriorating security situation, Ukrainian authorities ordered on Oct. 26 the evacuation of children from 10 settlements in the Kupiansk district, including Kindrashivka.

Read also: As Bakhmut counteroffensive lags, soldiers burnt out from horrors of war

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Fighting has been ongoing near the cities of Bakhmut and Avdiivka, which the Russians are trying to encircle, the Russian forces have launched unsuccessful assault operations on the Kupiansk and Marinka fronts, and Ukrainian defenders have been engaged in counter-battery combat on the Kherson front  that is the summary of the past 24 hours.

Source: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, information as of 06:00 on 27 October

Quote from the General Staff: "Almost 70 combat engagements occurred over the past 24 hours. The enemy launched 1 missile strike and 18 airstrikes, and attacked positions of the Ukrainian forces and populated areas 35 times, using multiple-launch rocket systems.

Regrettably, there have been casualties among the civilian population. Private residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure were affected.

The Russian occupiers also delivered another airstrike, using Shahed-136/131 attack UAVs.

Russian airstrikes hit the settlements of Arkhanhelske, Marinka, Novomykhailivka and Staromaiorske in Donetsk Oblast; Odradokamianka, Mykolaivka, Olhivka, Tiahynka and Ivanivka in Kherson Oblast.

Russian artillery fire targeted 80 settlements in Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts."

Details: In the area of responsibility of the Pivnich (North) Operational Strategic Group on the Volyn and Polissia fronts, the operational situation remains without significant changes.

On the Sivershchyna and Slobozhanshchyna fronts, Russian forces are maintaining their military presence in the border areas, undertaking sabotage activities to prevent Ukrainian troops from being deployed to vulnerable areas, and increasing the density of minefields along the state border in Russia's Belgorod Oblast.

In the area of responsibility of the Khortytsia Operational Strategic Group on the Kupiansk front, the Russians engaged in unsuccessful assault operations near the settlements of Synkivka and Ivanivka in Kharkiv Oblast.

On the Lyman front, the Russians attempted no offensive (assault) actions and continued to regroup their troops.

On the Bakhmut front, Ukrainian soldiers repelled five Russian attacks near the settlements of Bohdanivka and Khromove in Donetsk Oblast. The Russians also sought to regain their lost ground near the settlements of Klishchiivka and Andriivka, where Ukrainian defenders repelled 10 attacks.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Defence Forces are pursuing their assault operations south of Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast, inflicting losses in military personnel and equipment on the Russian occupying forces and consolidating their positions.

In the area of responsibility of the Tavriia Operational Strategic Group on the Avdiivka front, the Russians never ceased their attempts to surround Avdiivka, actively using their warplanes. However, the Ukrainian soldiers are holding their ground and inflicting significant losses on the Russians.

The Russian offensive actions in the vicinity of the settlements of Stepove, Avdiivka, Tonenke and Sieverne in Donetsk Oblast failed, as Ukrainian Defence Forces repelled over 20 attacks.

On the Marinka front, the Russian occupying forces led unsuccessful assault operations near the settlements of Marinka and Novomykhailivka in Donetsk Oblast. The Ukrainian military repelled 18 Russian attacks there.

On the Shakhtarsk and Zaporizhzhia fronts, the Russians are maintaining their military presence, regrouping their forces.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Defence Forces are pursuing an offensive on the Melitopol front, inflicting losses in military personnel and equipment on the Russian occupying forces and exhausting them along the entire frontline.

In the area of responsibility of the Odesa Operational Strategic Group on the Kherson front, Ukrainian Defence Forces are leading their counter-battery operations, striking the Russian rear.

The Ukrainian Air Force launched a strike on a cluster of Russian military personnel and another on a Russian anti-aircraft missile system.

Ukraines Rocket Forces and Artillery hit a cluster of Russian military personnel, weapons and equipment and 2 artillery pieces.

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Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) has begun to investigate the attempted assassination of Oleh Tsarov, Ukraine's traitor and former MP, who was shot in occupied Yalta.

Source: FSB

Quote: "An attempt on the life of Russian public and political figure Oleh Anatoliiovych Tsarov was made in Yalta on the night of 26-27 October.

The FSB opened a criminal case over this fact under Article 277 (attempt on the life of a state or public figure) of the Criminal Code of Russia."

Details: It is stated that urgent operational and investigative measures and investigative actions are underway.

It is reported on Tsarov's Telegram channel that there was no positive news about his health.

Previously: It became known on 27 October that Oleh Tsarov, who supports Russia's invasion of Ukraine, was shot and is in serious condition.

Background:

The Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv sentenced Tsarov to 12 years in prison in absentia in May 2022.

Tsarov arrived in Kyiv Oblast with the Russian army and also called on Yurii and Oleksandr Vilkul to surrender Kryvyi Rih to the Russian occupiers.

Tsarov repeatedly posted calls on Telegram to change the borders of the territory and state border of Ukraine in violation of the procedure established by the Constitution of Ukraine.

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The United States has evidence that Russian commanders have been executing their soldiers who refuse to charge, retreat, or fail to follow orders.

Source: John Kirby, US National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications, citing the US Presidential Administration

Quote from Kirby: "To pursue that outcome in Avdiivka and elsewhere on the battlefield, Russia continues to show no regard for the lives of its soldiers.

We believe they have suffered thousands of casualties in their effort to conduct this offensive, some of them on the orders of their own leaders.

We have information that the Russian military has been actually executing soldiers who refuse to follow orders. We also have information that Russian commanders are threatening to execute entire units if they seek to retreat from Ukrainian artillery fire."

Details: Kirby added that Russian conscripts "remain undertrained, underequipped, and unprepared for combat".

Therefore, the US believes the skills and morale of Russian recruits are low.

Quote: "As was the case during their failed winter offensive last year, Russian military appears to be using what we would call human wave tactics  just throwing masses of these poorly trained soldiers right into the fight, no proper equipment, no leadership, no resourcing, no support.

It is unsurprising that Russian forces are suffering from poor morale given all these conditions."

Details: When asked how long the execution of Russian soldiers has been going on and what it looks like, how many people have been executed and in what way, Kirby failed to answer.

However, the official called it a shameful phenomenon.

"Its reprehensible to think about the that  that you would  that you would execute your own soldiers because they didnt want to follow orders. And  and now threatening to execute entire units. Its barbaric.

But I think its a symptom of  of how poorly Russias military leaders know theyre doing and how bad they have handled this from a military perspective.

From the very beginning weve been talking about poor command and control, poor logistics and sustainment. They cant feed their guys in the field for crying out loud. And now, again, theyre  theyre willing to shoot them for following orders  for not following orders."

Details: Kirby noted it also reflects desperation over staff shortages.

The White House representative noted, "Russia obviously has a bigger military than Ukraine, and they have access to more manpower to man it".

"But they are  they are in such desperate need to make some kind of progress  particularly in the Donbas, the Donetsk area  that they are literally throwing young men into the fight who havent been properly trained, havent been properly equipped, and certainly are not being properly led," Kirby said.

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A group of Palestinian Americans and Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg expressed unity during a city council meeting this week despite their conflicting points of view on the war between Israel and Hamas.

Steinberg, who is Jewish, spoke after the meeting with multiple Palestinian Americans who asked the Sacramento City Council to pass a resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip amid the need for humanitarian aid for people living in the conflict areas. Many who attended the meeting to speak expressed the devastation wrought in Gaza is a humanitarian issue, not a political one.

More than 1,400 people in Israel were killed during a Hamas attack on Oct. 7. The Health Ministry in Gaza said more than 7,300 Palestinians died as Israel launched airstrikes, according to the Associated Press.

Even though it was a small moment ... in a troubled world, it just gave me hope that maybe peace is really possible, Steinberg said Friday.

The expressions of unity began when some public speakers uttered antisemitic comments toward Steinberg and called him a racist. Audience members, who were speaking about the war, began to leave which prompted Steinberg to ask them to stay.

Amira Saqqa, a Palestinian American who spoke at the meeting, said afterward the group had left because their comments were not intended to be disrespectful. She noted residents and Steinberg talked for about 15 minutes after the meeting about Palestinian history.

I think it was a really big moment for the city council, Saqqa added. Honestly, I think they learned a lot that day.

Steinberg noted he has a different perspective on the Middle East and its history from those who came to the meeting. Despite those differences, he viewed the majority of public commenters as respectful.

I was just very moved by the reaction of Palestinian Americans, Steinberg said, while adding their actions are a model for what civic dialogue ought to be.

Steinberg, who supports a two-state solution, said he doesnt know if a formal resolution calling for peace is necessary, but does support exploring the idea when talking about the suffering of innocent people. He added the messages on Tuesday were a great message within itself.

A resolution detailing the city of Sacramentos solidarity with humanity is just as important as passing a similar one in the California Legislature or in Congress, Saqqa said. It ensures more people will see the message taken by the city and stand with them, she added.

We need to push the politics aside and realize that people are people and they are suffering, said Haya Akkad, another public speaker.
Sadiq Khan and Labour MPs have piled the pressure on Sir Keir Starmer to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

The official Labour party line is that there should be a pause in the conflict to allow aid in and hostages to get out of the besieged Palestinian territory.

But the Mayor of London went further on Friday and said there needed to be a stop to the fighting between Israel and Hamas to prevent further killing and a protracted conflict in the region that would lead to further devastating loss of life.

Many Londoners like me have watched the absolute horror at the death and suffering in Israel and Gaza, Mr Khan said.

I join the international community in calling for a ceasefire. It will stop the killing and would allow vital aid supplies to reach those who need it in Gaza.

He was supported by several Labour MPs, including Dawn Butler and Marsha de Cordova.

Brent Central MP Ms Butler said: I agree with [Mr Khans] statement. An immediate ceasefire is necessary and a freeing of all hostages.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar also joined called for a ceasefire, saying "there have been too many innocent lives lost in Israel and Palestine."

Palestinians stand on the rubble of a levelled building in Gaza City on Thursday (AFP via Getty Images)

Nine Arab countries, including key US allies and nations that have signed peace or normalisation deals with Israel, have issued a joint statement calling for an immediate ceasefire, a demand set to be discussed at an emergency meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.

The right to self defence by the United Nations Charter does not justify blatant violations of humanitarian and international law, said the statement, signed by Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, The United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait and Morocco.

In London, a Cabinet minister said Britain will not ask Israel to put down arms in a ceasefire.

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said the UK instead backed a pause in the fighting to allow desperately-needed aid into Gaza.

It comes after Sir Keir faced a wave of criticism from Muslim MPs and councillors over his stance on the conflict.

In an LBC interview, three weeks ago, the Labour leader said Israel does have that right to cut off power and water to Gaza. He later clarified he does not support Israel committing war crimes.

But the party has not yet called for a full ceasefire.

Sir Keir and his deputy Angela Rayner met with Muslim MPs and peers earlier this week in a bid to calm tensions.

Around a third of Labour MPs have now reportedly said they either want a ceasefire or signed a Commons motion calling for one.

Dozens of councillors have resigned the whip, including several in London.

One London Labour councillor told the Standard on Friday: I dont know if its too late now for Keir to do something that will stop the anger.

Shadow environment secretary Steve Reed said he understands Labour colleagues who disagree with the partys position.

But he added Israel have the right under international law to defend themselves.

Asked if Labour's stance on will have an electoral impact, Mr Reed said: "I think (it) won't because and the reason I think that is in politics, you should do the right thing, not the electorally expedient thing."

A Labour Party spokesperson said: "Of course, we understand why people want to call for a ceasefire. The Palestinian people are not Hamas, and they are suffering terribly. Thats why we support humanitarian pauses so that aid, fuel, water electricity and medicines can urgently get to those who need it.

We also have to recognise Israel was subject to a vile terrorist attack. Israel has a right and a duty to defend itself, rescue the hostages and stop Hamas from being able to carry out that sort of terrorist attack ever again.

Hamas are currently firing rockets into Israel and have built the infrastructure, including tunnels, from which to carry out further attacks, so that military operation is ongoing. That must be done within international law and aid must get in quickly, safely, and regularly to halt a humanitarian disaster."
The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists is back in negotiations with Hollywood studios this week as the actors strike has now surpassed 100 days.

On Thursday, SAG-AFTRA delivered a counteroffer to major studio heads and are set to return to the bargaining table Friday.

As talks resume, thousands of SAG members signed an open letter in solidarity amid the strike addressed to their unions negotiating committee.

Back in June, before we went on strike, a large group of members signed an open letter telling our leaders that we would rather go on strike than take a bad deal. Now, more than 100 days into our strike, that is still true. As hard as this is, we would rather stay on strike than take a bad deal, the letter reads.

It was signed by big names like Demi Moore, Daniel Dae Kim, Camila Cabello, Daveed Diggs, Debra Messing, Gina Rodriguez, Jon Hamm, LeVar Burton, Mark Ruffalo, Sarah Paulson and Pedro Pascal.

We have not come all this way to cave now. We have not gone without work, without pay, and walked picket lines for months just to give up on everything weve been fighting for, the letter continued. We cannot and will not accept a contract that fails to address the vital and existential problems that we all need fixed.

Striking actors picket

Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Cynthia Nixon, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, John Leguizamo and Patti LuPone also signed the letter.

In any union, there will always be a minority who are not willing to make temporary sacrifices for the greater good. But we, the majority who voted overwhelmingly to authorize this strike, are still standing in solidarity, ready to strike as long as it takes and to endure whatever we must in order to win a deal that is worthy of our collective sacrifice, the letter said. We know that our union leaders are doing everything in their power to achieve that goal as they negotiate in good faith with the companies to arrive at a new contract that will protect us and our fellow performers, now and for generations to come.

The letter then touched on why solidarity for one another was an important facet of the union itself.

Everything we have as a union  every minimum payment, health and pension benefit, residual, royalty, and workplace protection  it has all been won with the power of our members; the power of our solidarity; the power of standing together as one to demand what is right, what is fair, and what we deserve. You have our trust, our support, and our power behind you now.

SAG members have been on strike since mid-July, weeks after members of the Writers Guild of America walked off the job.

The WGA struck a deal with the studios in September and ended their strike after five months.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA.
A sailor missing for nearly two weeks was found alive off the coast of Washington State's Cape Flattery by a Good Samaritan two days after the Coast Guard suspended the search for him and one other person.

The two people on the boat had left Washington's Grays Harbor on Oct. 12 in a 43-foot vessel called Evening. They were meant to return to the area on Oct. 15, the Pacific Northwest Coast Guard said in a social media post on Tuesday The agency searched 14,000 square miles of water before suspending the search on Wenesday.

The unidentified man was found in a life raft that was about 70 miles northwest of Cape Flattery, the Coast Guard said on social media on Thursday. It's not clear how the good Samaritans found the man, but a photo shared by the Coast Guard shows their boat approaching the life raft. The photo shows two people standing on the edge of the vessel and the missing man sitting up in the raft.

#BreakingNews Photo of the life raft as the good Samaritan vessel approached it this morning. pic.twitter.com/Nf6ChXjCWO  USCGPacificNorthwest (@USCGPacificNW) October 26, 2023

Officials did not name the rescuers but KING-TV identified them as Ryan Planes and his uncle John, from Sooke, British Columbia.

"We pulled him on board. He gave me a big hug and it was emotional," John told the station.

John told KING-TV the rescued man said he was alone on the raft for 13 days, and after running out of foof, he caught a salmon and ate it to survive.

"We made him breakfast. He drank three bottles of water," he told the station. "He was pretty hungry, poor guy."

The rescued man is said to be in stable condition, the Coast Guard said, and was transported to shore by the Canadian Coast Guard and a Canadian rescue agency.

A map shared by the Coast Guard showed where the man was found in relation to where the Evening departed from, with the harbor starred and the life raft's location marked with a pin.

#BreakingNews (1/2) #UPDATE 1 of the 2 missing mariners was located alive in a life raft approx. 70 miles NW of Cape Flattery, by good Samaritans. The man was transported to shore by @CoastGuardCAN in coordination with @VicJRCC_CCCOS. He's reported to be in stable condition. pic.twitter.com/Qb2QhwIKb3  USCGPacificNorthwest (@USCGPacificNW) October 26, 2023

The second man remains missing. The Coast Guard said that the incident "remains under investigation."

The Coast Guard did not say if the search would resume.

Search underway for Maine mass shootings person of interest, police say

The JAY-Z interview: Part 2

WATCH: Maine officials give update on manhunt for suspect in mass shootings
The new department store is being run by Bradbeers

A new department store has opened in a former Debenhams building in Salisbury creating 70 jobs in the city.

Bradbeers, which has a long retail heritage dating back to 1837, has refit the building which also includes a cafe and place to get travel money.

Director of Bradbeers, Greg Davies, said it has been "extremely exciting" for them.

He added the store has been "totally revitalised", with a new shopfit, new floors and ceilings.

Greg Davies from Bradbeers said they wanted to make sure it was up and running before Christmas.

The store has been vacant since Debenhams left the city in April 2020.

Mr Davies said they were especially pleased to get the store up and running before Christmas.

As well as selling a variety of usual products, Mr Davies said they will also stock "fashion that has been recycled".

"Some high-end brands are being sold second-hand," he added.

Homewares, clothes, cosmetics and a cafe is in the new store

Salisbury Business Improvement District [BID] - which has been involved in the retail offering in the city - said Bradbeers has put "massive investment" into the shop.

Dan Collins, from Salisbury BID, said the opening of the store was "amazing news" and a "long time coming".

"It's a massive investment. The commitment they've made has been huge," he added.

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El Salvador's President Bukele speaks during the inauguration of the 3 de Febrero hydroelectric power plant in San Luis de La Reina

SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele formally filed paperwork late on Thursday to run for re-election next year, despite concerns over his constitutional eligibility to seek a consecutive term.

Bukele, 42, enjoys strong public support and announced last year he would contest next February's presidential election.

While critics question Bukele's ability to seek a second term citing a constitutional prohibition, the country's top court ruled he could run in 2021. The judges on the court were appointed by Congress, which is controlled by the president's New Ideas party.

Bukele, the former mayor of San Salvador and a high-profile bitcoin promoter, broke three decades of two-party dominance in Salvadoran politics with his victory in 2019.

A recent poll conducted by the Center for Citizen Studies at the Francisco Gavidia University gave New Ideas nearly 70% support, compared to just over 4% for its closest competitor.

Bukele's popularity stems largely from a sweeping crackdown on the Central American country's violent gangs, with over 75,000 suspected gang members arrested to date. Violent crime has plummeted since the policy was launched early last year.

But some rights groups argue that the so-called state of exception frequently violates basic due process rights, leading to the arrest and jailing of innocents who are not allowed to mount a legal defense.

(Reporting by Nelson Renteria; Editing by David Alire Garcia and Stephen Coates)
Just Keep Skimming

Nobody reads the fine print, including, apparently, the former CEO of the fallen crypto exchange FTX.

During his ill-advised testimony at his own fraud trial, per CNN, disgraced crypto wunderkind Sam Bankman-Fried admitted that he had only "skimmed" iterations of FTX's terms of service, and appeared to be confused about whether they allowed him to allegedly skim money off the top  a charge that the defendant denies.

When asked by prosecutors if borrowing money from the firm to pay off debts at Alameda Research, FTX's sister company, was in accordance with the ToS, SBF responded "um, yes, under many circumstances."

Needless to say, it's not a good look, especially given the mounting evidence against him. Taking the witness stand at his own trial was ill-advised  and the situation is only getting worse.

Set to Auto-Delete

As the Wall Street Journal points out, Bankman-Fried's Thursday testimony was extra strange because Judge Lewis Kaplan, the district court jurist presiding over the first part of the FTX fraud trial, sent the jury home for the day while its subject took the stand.

Although jurors were not permitted to hear the testimony, the press was still in attendance.

As reports from the courtroom indicate, assistant US attorney Danielle Sassoon grilled SBF for specifics about the conversations he'd had with lawyers about Alameda spending FTX money, only to get vague, mumbling responses from the defendant.

Not one to suffer fools gladly, Kaplan then ordered Bankman-Friend to "henceforth, listen to the question and answer the question directly." When he didn't take that directive to heart, the judge then issued what can only be called a bench burn.

"Part of the problem," Kaplan said, "is that the witness has what Ill simply call an interesting way of responding to questions."

It seems pretty clear that SBF isn't exactly endearing himself to the judge, who before the trial even began, remanded him to the jailhouse for alleged witness tampering after the former FTX CEO leaked his ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison's diary entries to the New York Times over the summer.

Though he seemed to be making up for his mumblecore-worthy performance on his first day of testimony, Bankman-Fried is still, as Kaplan warned at the beginning of his trial, looking at a very long sentence if prosecuted  and the evidence against him keeps mounting, occasionally with his own help.

More on SBF: You Have Got to See this Unhinged SBF Memo
(Bloomberg) -- US Representative George Santos , who allegedly fabricated much of his life story before he was elected to Congress, pleaded not guilty to the latest charges filed against him by federal prosecutors.

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The embattled New York Republican has steadfastly denied wrongdoing since he was first indicted in May for campaign finance violations. He appeared in federal court Friday on Long Island to answer to 10 additional charges filed this month accusing him of making false statements to the Federal Election Commission and running up unauthorized expenses on his campaign contributors credit cards.

US District Judge Joanna Seybert set the trial to start Sept. 9, but said shed move it up if theres an opening on her schedule. Prosecutor Ryan Harris said he hoped for an earlier date given that the defendant is a member of Congress and the fact that these are very serious charges with a number of victims who do have an interest in a speedy trial. Santos remains free on bail.

Even as he fights a court case that threatens to send him to prison for as long as two decades, Santos faces a vote next week by fellow lawmakers on expelling him from the House.

Read More: George Santos Faces Expulsion Vote in US House Next Week

How to deal with the first-term lawmakers extravagant false claims and criminal indictment is one of the first issues confronting newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson after an unprecedented three-week stretch in which the chamber was leaderless and couldnt conduct business.

Johnson said he met with New York Republicans who want to expel Santos on Thursday  his first full day leading the chamber  and that they were working through those issues. But he conceded that expelling Santos from the chamber would only complicate his already difficult job.

A previous Democratic-backed attempt to expel Santos failed in May when then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy steered the resolution to the House Ethics Committee on a party-line vote. But this time, Republican members of the New York delegation are forcing the issue, signaling that theres now bipartisan support to force out Santos.

Santos, 35, was initially charged by prosecutors in the office of Brooklyn US Attorney Breon Peace five months ago with fraud, theft of public funds, money laundering and making false statements to Congress  and pleaded not guilty.

In a revised indictment unsealed Oct. 10, Santos was charged with falsifying data to qualify for a program administered by a national party committee and with stealing personal and financial information of contributors to his campaign.

Two people connected to Santos have also been charged by the US.

Nancy Marks, who served as the treasurer for his congressional campaign committee in 2022, pleaded guilty this month, telling a judge she worked with Santos to submit false reports to the Federal Election Commission on behalf of his campaign.

Santoss former fundraiser Samuel Miele was charged with wire fraud and identify theft for allegedly impersonating an aide to McCarthy. Miele has pleaded not guilty to the charges but his lawyers said in September that he was in possible plea talks.

Santos was elected last year to a district that includes parts of Long Island and the New York City borough of Queens, but has been dogged by allegations that he lied to voters about his education, professional experience and other parts of his background.

--With assistance from Gregory Korte.

(Updates with trial date, background on case.)

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2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) pleaded not guilty to federal charges of fraudulently inflating his campaign finance reports and charging his donors credit cards without authorization.

Santos appeared in court in Central Islip, N.Y., on Friday for his arraignment on the 10 additional charges prosecutors unveiled in a superseding indictment earlier this month.

During the proceeding, U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert set the trial to begin Sept. 9, 2024, court filings show. The parties had requested a trial date months earlier, either in May or June.

Santoss next court appearance is set for Dec. 12, court filings indicate.

His plea comes as political and legal pressure grows on Santos, including a new effort from a group of fellow New York Republicans to have him expelled from the House.

I have not been in discussion or a plea deal at this time, and the reason so is Im strong in my convictions that I can prove my innocence, Santos told reporters earlier this month after being charged with the new counts.

Santos has been the subject of controversy ever since he arrived on Capitol Hill in January after he admitted to embellishing parts of his background while campaigning.

Prosecutors originally indicted Santos in May on 13 charges over accusations he misled donors, fraudulently received unemployment benefits, and lied on his House financial disclosures. Santos pleaded not guilty to those charges, too.

Two former Santos campaign staffers have since been charged. Santoss former campaign treasurer took a plea deal, while the congressmans former fundraiser remains in negotiations with prosecutors, court filings show.

In conjunction with Fridays arraignment, the judge also held a hearing about a potential conflict of interest involving Joe Murray, Santoss attorney.

After being advised of the potential conflict, Santos waived it, enabling Murray to continue representing the lawmaker, court filings show.

Prosecutors wrote in court filings that Murray has had a years-long personal relationship with an unnamed political consultant referenced extensively in the indictment. The consultant sought to retain Murray during prosecutors investigation, prosecutors said, though Murray never became the consultants attorney because he was already representing Santos.

Murray also has a professional relationship with Nancy Marks, Santoss former campaign treasurer who took a plea deal in the case just before the superseding indictment was unveiled, the documents indicate.

Marks served as Murrays campaign treasurer when he campaigned for district attorney in 2019. Though Murrays campaign account remains inactive, Marks remains the signatory on the account, prosecutors said.

Murrays relationships with Person #1 and Ms. Marks pose inherent dangers, prosecutors wrote in court filings, while acknowledging Santos could waive the conflict.

The Hill has reached out to Santos for further comment.

Santoss not guilty plea to the second set of charges comes as pressure is mounting on the embattled lawmaker on Capitol Hill.

On Thursday, a group of New York Republicans launched an effort to expel Santos, moving to force a vote on a resolution to oust the congressman from office. Rep. Anthony DEsposito (R-N.Y.) called the measure to the floor as a privileged resolution, which forces leadership to schedule a vote on the legislation within two legislative days  as early as Wednesday of next week, when the House returns to session.

It will be the second time in roughly five months that the House acted on a resolution to expel Santos. In May, the chamber voted to refer a Santos expulsion resolution  sponsored by a Democratic lawmaker  to the Ethics Committee, a move that was panned as largely redundant because the panel had been looking into the congressman for months.

Reached for comment on Thursday, Santos referred The Hill to a post on X, formerly Twitter, that said: Three points of clarification: 1. I have not cleared out my office. 2. Im not resigning. 3. Im entitled to due process and not a predetermined outcome as some are seeking. God bless!

The New York Republicans voted to refer the resolution to the Ethics Committee in May, deferring to the panel as the legal proceedings played out. This time around, however, the bloc of lawmakers suggested that they would oppose any effort to prevent the House from voting on the core resolution because of Markss guilty plea.

I think the difference between this and what the Democrats had brought is that you have a guilty plea in court by his treasurer, confirming significant details and obviously a superseding indictment based on that conviction and guilty plea by his treasurer, Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), one of the co-sponsors of the resolution, told reporters Thursday. When the original expulsion resolution was referred to Ethics, is because you need level of due process here. And obviously, you know, in order to get two-thirds vote, people need to be able to base something on. You have that with the guilty plea of his treasurer.

His treasurer pled guilty, he later added. The superseding indictment that he is going to court tomorrow for is based on his treasurers guilty plea. So you have now a conviction in this case that very clearly lays out what he did and how he did it.

Despite his legal headwinds, Santos is running for reelection in 2024.

This story was updated at 1:06 p.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
NEW YORK  A solemn Rep. George Santos pleaded not guilty Friday on Long Island to various new federal fraud charges as his colleagues in Washington are eager to oust him.

Judge Joanna Seybert set his trial date for Sept. 9 though prosecutors had sought a May or June start.

Santos, wearing a dark suit, barely spoke in court and left without speaking to reporters. He was welcomed by about two dozen protestors; he waved to them and blew them a kiss.

The September trial date comes after the June primaries for his seat, and Santos has said he intends to run for re-election.

The Republican, who represents Nassau County and Queens, also faces an expulsion vote, potentially next week, after a resolution was filed by his fellow freshman Republicans from New York.



The measure faces an uphill climb as Republicans seek to hang on their slim majority. GOP Rep. Anthony DEsposito cited Santos misrepresentations of his personal connections to the Holocaust, 9/11 terror attacks and Pulse nightclub shooting as reasons he should go, along with the criminal charges.

The new superseding indictment that Eastern District prosecutors brought against Santos brought the total counts against him to 23.



The 10 additional charges were one count of conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States, two counts of wire fraud, two counts of making materially false statements to the Federal Election Commission, two counts of falsifying records submitted to obstruct the FEC, two counts of aggravated identity theft and one count of access device fraud.

Santos was initially charged in May with 13 counts that included wire fraud, money laundering and theft of public funds. He pleaded not guilty and was released on $500,000 bond.

Prosecutors have also been targeting Santos aides, indicting his former campaign associate and eliciting a guilty plea from his former campaign treasurer.



Santos has maintained his innocence and said he would not accept a plea deal, but Nassau County Democratic and Republican Party leaders as well as about 30 candidates have been laying the groundwork to replace him in the 3rd District, bracing for the possibility of a special election.

In court Friday, Santos attorney Joe Murray, who formerly ran for Queens district attorney, disclosed potential conflicts of interests relating to people mentioned in the indictment. He will stay on to represent Santos, but said he would bring on more lawyers as they go through discovery and prepare for trial.

Santos next court conference date is Dec. 12.
The Satanic Temple has lost a lawsuit in federal Indiana court that attempted to curb the state's near-total abortion ban.

The Massachusetts-based religious association filed a lawsuit in September 2022 challenging Indiana's newest abortion restrictions by claiming they clashed with the U.S. Constitution and the state's Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which protects religious exercise. The Satanic Temple's religious principles allow members to get abortions.

The lawsuit also argues Indiana's restrictions violate the rights of Hoosier Satanists who may become pregnant if their birth control fails.

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita called the lawsuit "ridiculous" in a statement Thursday. He said the win "sustains a pro-life law that is constitutionally and legally sound."

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We Hoosiers continue to build a solid culture of life whether satanic cultists like it or not," he added.

W. James MacNaughton, the Satanic Temple's attorney, told IndyStar he was disappointed in the decision. It's unknown whether they will appeal.

Federal judge sides with Rokita's office

On behalf of the state, Rokita argued the group didn't have standing to sue because it hadn't presented evidence that there were specific members who would be harmed by the law. MacNaughton told IndyStar Thursday one of the reasons they didn't present anonymous plaintiffs is because of the fear their confidentiality wouldn't be respected in Indiana's anti-abortion climate.

The Satanic Temple launched a telehealth clinic in late 2022 out of New Mexico  called "Samuel Alito's Mom's Satanic Abortion Clinic"  but it was never demonstrated that the clinic served its members in Indiana, according to U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Indiana Jane Magnus-Stinson's decision Wednesday.

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The Satanic Temple "failed to demonstrate that its alleged cost of compliance or threat of prosecution amounts to injury," Magnus-Stinson wrote.

"The Satanic Temple had an opportunity to submit evidence," but it "failed on all fronts," the judge continued.

The religious association has more than 11,300 members in Indiana. They claim not to worship Satan as featured in Christianity, but the allegorical Satan as featured in the 17th-century epic poem Paradise Lost by John Milton.

Its members follow a set of tenets including the belief that a persons body is subject to their will and their will alone, according to their lawsuit, and that beliefs should conform to ones best scientific understanding of the world.

Indiana's restrictions ban abortion except in cases of rape or incest up to 10 weeks of gestation, when a pregnancy poses a risk to the life or long-term health of the pregnant person, or in the case of fatal fetal anomalies.

Call IndyStar courts reporter Johnny Magdaleno at 317-273-3188 or email him at jmagdaleno@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter @IndyStarJohnny

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Satanic Temple loses lawsuit against Indiana's abortion restrictions
Up close, such painted planes look something like this

The Russian military has replaced several fighter jets at the Belbek airfield in Ukraines Russian-occupied Crimea with painted ones, according to satellite imagery released by OSINT analysts MT_Anderson on Oct. 26.

A few days ago, the Russian Armed Forces deployed four MiG-31s or their MiG-31K modification, which can carry Kinzhal airborne missiles.

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However, in more recent photographs, two of them have somehow turned into drawings. This can be seen, in particular, by the absence of shadows.

MT_Anderson/X

Presumably, the Russian military is trying to confuse the intelligence of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and its allies by giving them false targets.

MT_Anderson/X

At the same time, such measures are not only scathingly mocked by Ukrainians, but also slammed by Russian military bloggers.

Read also: Multiple explosions rock Crimea, hitting two airfields, and a military base in Sevastopol

"Practice has expectedly confirmed the scientific findings that the drawings and tires and pissed mattresses on aircraft serve only one purpose well  to f*ck over the personnel," said one of the pro-Kremlin propagandists on the Fighterbomber Telegram channel.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia  Saudi officials have firmly warned the United States in recent days that an Israeli ground incursion into the Gaza Strip could be catastrophic for the Middle East.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal , D-Conn., a member of the Armed Services Committee, was one of 10 senators who met last weekend with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdoms de facto ruler, in Riyadh, the Saudi capital.

The Saudi leadership was hopeful that a ground operation could be avoided for reasons of stability as well as the loss of life, Blumenthal told The New York Times on Thursday. Saudi officials warned it would be extremely harmful, he added.

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Senior Saudi officials have delivered even more forceful exhortations to their American counterparts in multiple conversations, raising their concerns that a ground invasion could turn into a disaster for the entire region, according to one Saudi official and a second person with knowledge of the discussions.

The exchanges came as tensions rippled outward from Gaza. Essentials such as water and fuel are increasingly scarce as Israel bombards and besieges the enclave in response to the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, the armed Palestinian group that rules Gaza.

One Biden administration official said it was evident that the Saudis did not want an Israeli invasion of Gaza. The U.S. official, as well as the Saudi official and the person familiar with the Saudi warnings, asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.

The United States has repeatedly asserted Israels right to self-defense since the Hamas attack that killed more than 1,400 people in Israel.

Let there be no doubt, President Joe Biden said recently. The United States has Israels back.

At the same time, Biden asked Israel to delay the invasion, U.S. officials have said, for a range of reasons, including buying more time for hostage negotiations, getting more humanitarian aid into Gaza and doing better war planning. There are signs, too, that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel is hesitant about an invasion.

The White House declined to comment.

In a call this week, Crown Prince Mohammed and Biden agreed on pursuing broader diplomatic efforts to maintain stability across the region and prevent the conflict from expanding, the White House said in a statement Tuesday, which did not mention discussions about a ground invasion.

After a period of deeply strained relations, Crown Prince Mohammed and Biden found common ground earlier this year over exploring a potential deal in which Saudi Arabia would recognize Israel and establish diplomatic ties. Biden and his top aides were eager to reach an agreement, arguing that it would reshape the Middle East. But they also acknowledged the many difficulties in the diplomacy.

Many Arab governments, including Saudi Arabia, have long refused to establish a diplomatic link with Israel before the creation of a Palestinian state. But over the past decade, that calculus has shifted as the regions authoritarian leaders weigh negative public opinion toward a relationship with Israel against the economic and security benefits it could offer  and what they might obtain from the United States in return.

In 2020, Bahrain, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates established ties with Israel under an agreement called the Abraham Accords, brokered by the Trump administration. Those deals were unpopular among ordinary people in the region  where the Palestinian cause remains a potent rallying cry  and only grew more so over time as the Israeli government turned further right and expanded settlements in the West Bank.

From the start, the discussions between the Biden administration and Saudi Arabia, the Arab worlds political heavyweight, were more expansive and delicate than the Trump-era talks over those earlier agreements.

Saudi officials said they would only be willing to consider normalization with Israel in exchange for benefits to be delivered by the United States: a U.S.-Saudi mutual defense pact, American support for a Saudi civilian nuclear program and more U.S. weapons sales.

U.S. and Saudi officials also held discussions about concessions that Israel might need to make to the Palestinians. But in an interview with Fox News last month, Crown Prince Mohammed seemed to signal that they might fall short of Palestinian statehood.

Then Hamas attacked Israel, and Israel responded by laying siege to the more than 2 million Palestinians who live in Gaza, cutting off water and electricity and bombarding the enclave with airstrikes.

On Thursday, Gazas Health Ministry released the names of 6,747 people it said had been killed since the war began, adding that another 281 bodies had yet to be identified.

Furious protesters have taken to the streets across the Middle East to express solidarity with the Palestinians, condemning Israel and the United States. Saudi officials denounced Israels siege and called for a cease-fire  even as they tried to keep the kingdoms national narrative focused on the princes plans to transform Saudi Arabia into a global business hub.

Yet in private meetings and calls with U.S. officials, Saudi leaders have presented a far blunter message. The prince and other Saudi officials struck an ominous tone with the Senate delegation, said Blumenthal and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who helped organize the visit.

The prince understands that this was an act of terror, Graham said, referring to the Hamas attack on Israel. But he would like a measured response that wont cascade into a longer and deeper conflict.

Scholars who study Hamas have warned that any attempt to eliminate the group, as Israel has vowed to do, could plant the seeds for more violence and extremism, deepening Palestinian feelings of subjugation under Israeli occupation and control.

An invasion could also fuel unrest in neighboring countries and could be particularly destabilizing for governments already struggling to contain discontent over economic pain or political repression, such as Bahrain, Egypt and Jordan.

Iran has long backed Hamas, and Iran-backed regional militias hostile to Israel have threatened to open new fronts in the war, depending on Israels military response. Saudi Arabia is a potential target.

Since the war began, Saudi officials have returned to specific calls for a substantive Israeli-Palestinian peace process and for the creation of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.

If we are not willing to overcome all of the difficulties, all of the challenges, all of the history that is involved in this issue, then we will never have a real peace and security in the region, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, the Saudi foreign minister, told reporters this week.

Despite the escalating violence, it appears that U.S. and Saudi officials are holding on to hopes of a normalization deal with Israel.

Without that formal step, the limited ties that exist between the two countries  separated by a 22-mile drive through Jordan  have remained largely clandestine.

Senators said they left Riyadh with the impression that Saudi leaders would still like to recognize Israel when the right moment arrives.

U.S. and Israeli officials often frame normalization as a way to help contain Iran.

Iran is Saudi Arabias most prominent regional rival. Crown Prince Mohammed launched a disastrous Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen in 2015 aiming to oust the Iran-backed Houthi rebels who nonetheless remain firmly in power there.

But the crown prince, racing to diversify the kingdoms oil-dependent economy, has recently pursued a less aggressive approach and sought to build bridges. This year, he reestablished diplomatic ties with Iran. Blumenthal, however, said that a Saudi Arabia-Israel pact seemed unlikely before Israel concludes its operation.

During the call Tuesday, Crown Prince Mohammed and Biden affirmed the importance of working toward a sustainable peace between Israelis and Palestinians as soon as the crisis subsides, the White House said in its statement.

Crown Prince Mohammed stressed the urgent need to halt military operations and return to a peace process to ensure that the Palestinians obtain their legitimate rights, the Saudi government said in its own statement. Neither statement mentioned a Palestinian state.

The potential deal that Saudi officials had been working on before the war included a path to a state for the Palestinians, the person with knowledge of the talks said.

Framing the prospect of building ties with Israel as a way to obtain greater rights for the Palestinians could allow Crown Prince Mohammed to limit popular backlash in his own country, where hostility toward Israel and support for the Palestinians is widespread.

In response to questions about the Saudi warnings, the State Department said that although U.S. diplomatic efforts are currently focused on the immediate crisis, we remain committed to the long-term goal of a more stable, prosperous and integrated Middle East region, including through normalization and advancement of a two-state solution.

Before the Hamas attacks, however, U.S. officials and analysts in Washington briefed on the talks said the U.S.-Saudi discussions had been focused mainly on the Saudi security demands of the United States. Those officials and analysts said there had been no detailed discussion of the Palestinian issue.

An essay by Jake Sullivan, the U.S. national security adviser, posted on the Foreign Affairs site this week, said that U.S. officials were committed to a two-state solution.

But editors had allowed Sullivan to rewrite an earlier version of the essay from before the Oct. 7 attacks. The original version, published in the print edition of the magazine, makes no mention of Palestinian nationhood. It merely said that, although tensions persisted between Israel and the Palestinians, the Biden administration had de-escalated crises in Gaza.

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The apparent assassination attempt against former Ukrainian MP Oleg Tsaryov was planned and orchestrated by Ukraines SBU security service, a source in the agency told NV on Oct. 27.

He had long been on the list of traitors who must answer for their crimes, our source said.

Read also: Ex-SBU operative sentenced to 15 years for collaborating with Russia

Tsaryov is a completely legitimate target. He is not simply a fanatic of the 'Russian world,' but a person who personally arrived with Russian tanks to capture Kyiv.

At the same time, no details of the operation were disclosed.

Read also: Traitor at Ukrzaliznytsia exposed after collaborating with FSB and adjusting strikes on Kyiv

Tsaryov is reportedly in critical condition after being shot twice and may yet die in hospital.

Earlier on Oct. 27, Tsaryovs family posted a message on his Telegram channel, claiming that the former MP was shot at his home in Yalta, Crimea, at around midnight. By the time paramedics arrived on site, he was unconscious and had lost a lot of blood.

Read also: NV correspondent reveals terrifying details of collaborating Mamon brothers, accused of directing Russian missile strike on Hroza

Tsaryovs had been sentenced by Ukraine in absentia to 12 years in prison for public calls for separatism and violent overthrow of the constitutional order during the 2014 Revolution of Dignity.

In March of 2022, he was further charged with infringing on the territorial integrity of Ukraine and collaborating with the enemy.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
A man has pleaded guilty to his role in the 2019 murder of a Black transgender woman in South Carolina.

Xavier Pinckney, 24, of Allendale, pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in the killing of Pebbles LaDime Dime Doe, the U.S. Justice Department announced in a press release on Thursday.

Doe was found dead in a car in rural Allendale County on Aug. 4, 2019. In his plea, Pinckney confesses that he provided false and misleading information to investigators about the case, concealing the use of his phone to call and text Doe on the day she was killed and lying about seeing Daqua Ritter, who is accused of shooting Doe, at the time.

Pinckney faces up to 20 years in federal prison for the offense, but has not yet been sentenced.

The defendants guilty plea underscores our commitment to holding individuals accountable for their actions in the pursuit of justice, said Special Agent in Charge Steve Jensen of the FBI Columbia Field Office in a statement. The FBI and our partners remain determined to investigate crimes against marginalized communities and those who perpetrate them.

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke with the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division said violence against the LGBTQ+ community is on the rise, including transgender women of color. Clarke said such crimes are a focus of federal investigators and prosecutors.

The Justice Department remains steadfast in its commitment to investigating and prosecuting those who target LGBTQI+ people with acts of violence or who try to unlawfully obstruct investigations into these heinous crimes, she said.

U.S. Attorney Adair Burroughs, the top federal prosecutor in South Carolina, said her office will seek justice for victims of any bias-motivated crimes. Hate has no place in South Carolina, she said. The senseless murder of Dime Doe, and any act of violence against the LGBTQI+ community, confirms the need to confront hate in all its forms.
Did you know that the South Carolina state fruit is a peach? Or that tea is the official state hospitality beverage? The amethyst is the state gem, Indigo blue is the state color and the Yellow Jessamine is the state flower.

Most recently, the Legislature passed Senate bill 581 into law this year, designating the Venus flytrap the states official carnivorous plant. Yes, South Carolina now has an official state carnivorous plant. (Sorry to all the, um, unofficial carnivorous plants that didnt make the cut.) Heres why this curious designation was made and a look at what other symbols our state officially recognizes.

Sen. Greg Hembree , R-Horry, the Venus flytrap bills primary sponsor, said he usually doesnt focus on legislation for state symbolic bills. However, the uniqueness of the Venus flytrap and its relation to South Carolina was hard to ignore, and he was surprised at how specific the plant is to South Carolina.

Venus flytraps only exist in the wild in two places on earth: South Carolina and North Carolina. In Horry County, the plant thrives under protection, but it is little known to residents of the state.

It truly is unique to South Carolina, Hembree said. Theyre really interesting and curious plants.

In addition to bringing awareness to the states connection to the plant, Hembree said it would be interesting for children to study in school.

Hembree said lawmakers try to resist bringing legislation like symbols into session because it can be ridiculous at times, adding they are usually focused on more substantial work. However, when the opportunity presented itself, Hembree said it was worth sharing why the Venus flytrap is important.

The idea came from someone from Horry County, where the Venus flytrap grows. His passion was contagious, Hembree said, and he even went out to see where the plant was growing.

South Carolina has a variety of other state symbols, ranging from flowers to foods and songs. Here are a few:

State beverage: Milk. Dairy farmers are found in almost every county in the state.

State snack: Boiled peanuts. South Carolinians started boiling peanuts in the late 1800s.

State dance: The shag. The shag is often danced to beach music, another Carolina icon.

State fossil: Columbian Mammoth. The discovery of fossilized mammoth teeth in 1725 in a South Carolina swamp was the first scientific identification of a vertebrate fossil from North America.

State stone: Blue Granite. South Carolina is one of the biggest producers of blue granite in the U.S. Granite is actually gray, but it can produce a blue hue.

State spider: Carolina Wolf Spider. Typically measuring around 3 to 4 inches long, it is the largest species of wolf spider in North America.

State tree: You probably already guessed it  the Palmetto, or officially, the Sabal palm. The tree is symbolic of the defeat of the British fleet at Fort Moultrie in the Revolutionary War. Our state is nicknamed the Palmetto State, and the state flag bears the Palmettos likeness, making the tree arguably the most well-known state symbol.
Tim Scott s presidential campaign started off with lots of promise because of the large financial war chest he brought into the race. But now, South Carolinas junior senator still doesnt have enough individual donors to qualify for the Nov. 8 Republican candidate debate.

And missing out on the debate would keep Scott from a large television audience to hear his message and to show how he measures up to other candidates side-by-side. Still, he has other avenues to reach voters.

In order to make the third debate, the Republican National Committee is requiring candidates to:

Have 4% support in three national polls or 4% support in one national poll and two early state polls that were conducted after Sept. 1 and surveyed at least 800 people, and

Have at least 70,000 unique donors with at least 200 unique donors per state or territory in at least 20 states or territories.

Scotts campaign says it has met the polling threshold, pointing to a national poll conducted by YouGov and The Liberal Patriot, where he received 4% of support. Scott polling numbers in the early states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina have been better.

However, he is still trying to reach the 70,000-donor mark.

Tim Scott will be on the debate stage in Miami. The campaign is on track to meet the donor requirement, a campaign spokesperson said a statement to The State.

Scott told Fox News this week he was a few hundred donors short.

Only four candidates have qualified for the third debate: former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis , former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.

Former President Donald Trump has met the polling and donor thresholds but refuses to sign a pledge agreeing to support the eventual nominee. He did not participate in the first two debate and plans to hold a rally in Florida the night of the third debate.

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum has not met the polling threshold, and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson has not met the polling or donor requirements.

Former Vice President Mike Pence has met the polling requirement but not the donor requirement.

The RNCs requirements to make debate stages have progressively increased as the early nominating contests draw closer. The first debate had eight candidates. The second debate had seven candidates.

Not making the debate stage doesnt necessarily end a candidacy. Trump has maintained his front-runner status despite not participating in any debates.

But the debate requirements help determine whether a campaign is viable, as anti-Trump Republicans argue the field needs to coalesce behind one alternative who can then focus on defeating the 45th president.

DeSantis has questioned whether those who dont make the debate stage should remain in the race.

Ive been very wary of saying what anyone else will do. But I think clearly, if youre not even able to meet that criteria, to even get into a debate, thats a problem, DeSantis said while speaking at Winthrop University in October at an event hosted by the South Carolina and North Carolina Federations of Republican Women. Whats your path to victory?

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who himself said those who dont qualify for debates should drop out, is an example of someone who did just that. After the RNC said he didnt qualify for the first debate, Suarez dropped out of race for the presidency.

Candidates Larry Elder, Will Hurd and Perry Johnson also did not make debate stages and have since dropped out of the race.

Making the debate stage is a priority for any candidate except for Donald Trump, and so missing out the opportunity to communicate with that wide of an audience is undeniably a disappointment, but it is not anything that should discourage supporters, donors or the candidate himself, said Rob Godfrey, a longtime political operative in South Carolina, who previously worked for Haley when she was the states governor.

Godfrey said Scott still has other avenues to communicate with caucus-goers and early primary voters without the debate.

Those include earned media opportunities, engaging with television reporters, it includes face-to-face meetings with the caucus-goers and voters who will participate in these contests. And dialing for dollars and fundraisers is the old traditional way that sometimes isnt all that much fun, but can yield results, when youre as powerful and as persuadable communicator as Tim Scott is, Godfrey said.

Earlier this month, when Scott filed to run in the South Carolina presidential primary, he was asked about his efforts to qualify for the third debate.

Well see you in Miami, Scott said confidently.
As Halloween nears, you might be strategizing how to deal with your child's annual sack of Halloween candy after a big night of trick-or-treating.

Its no secret that sugar is bad for teeth. But the effects of poor dental health extend far beyond a treat-heavy holiday.

Dental issues are a leading cause of absence from school, and California ranks right near the bottom among states when it comes to kids oral health. However, parents can fend off sugar's role in dental decay and infections, Venice Family Clinic dental director Dr. Jaspreet Kaur said.

Halloween is a reminder and a learning opportunity to set boundaries, she said. Teach your kids that they can enjoy the treats, but in balance.

Here are some tips from dentists for keeping your childs mouth healthy at Halloween and beyond:

Avoid chewy, sticky, hard and sour treats

Candies that are chewy or sticky tend to stay in a childs mouth longer than others. Soft, taffy-like candy, caramel and gummies get caught between teeth or in their grooves. Hard candies, like lollipops that children suck on, linger longer in the mouth.

When the candy isnt washed or brushed away quickly it produces acid, which can break down the enamel that protects teeth and causes cavities, according to Dr. Santos Cortez, a pediatric dentist in Long Beach. Sour candies are extra damaging because they not only introduce sugar to the mouth, but also acids when first eaten.

Read more: California kids have some of the worst teeth in the nation. Here's why

The texture issues dont just apply to candy either. That packet of raisins in your childs trick-or-treat bag isn't necessarily a better option. The sticky texture of the raisins causes the sugar to stick to the teeth in the same way as candy, making the mouth more susceptible to cavities, Cortez said.

Juice and soda are also a problem. Like with hard candies, the sugar may stay on your child's teeth for a while, especially if they take a long time to drink it, which means the teeth are exposed longer.

Opt instead for sweets like chocolate  dark chocolate if you can. Chocolate, as long as it isnt mixed with something like caramel, tends to melt in the mouth faster and is easier to brush off.

Bring a water bottle with you on your Halloween route.

Have your child drink water after eating candy. The water can help wash away some of the residue left behind by the sweet treat, according to Cortez. Keep a bottle handy as you trick-or-treat to have your child sip and wash off some of the stickiness as they enjoy the night. That will help reduce sugars until they are able to brush their teeth.

Make a habit of having them drink water any time they consume sugar and cant brush right away. Instead of bottled water, give them tap water, which should contain fluoride to help stave off dental decay.

Of course, brush their teeth

Make sure your child brushes their teeth as soon as possible after eating candy or anything sweet. If your child is determined to brush on their own, let them, but make sure to get in there afterward to remove plaque. Continue to brush your childs teeth for them until they are 8 years old, using a pea-sized amount of fluoride toothpaste. Using a fluoride toothpaste helps combats the effects of sugar.

In baby teeth, cavities tend to develop between teeth, so be sure to help you child floss once they're ready.

Read more: Hefty cigarette taxes cut smoking big-time. But there's a downside for children

If you have a baby whose first tooth is just appearing, brush it with a small smear of fluoride toothpaste on a baby toothbrush twice a day  just enough to color the bristles. For infants without teeth, dentists recommend wiping their gums with a clean cloth after feedings.

Remember, taking care of baby teeth is just as important as taking care of the permanent teeth. Problems that affect the baby teeth now can affect the permanent teeth later on if not addressed.

Set rules on candy

Set rules about how much candy your child can consume  a small amount daily. Its better to let them eat a piece or two at once rather than allowing them to snack on sugary treats multiple times throughout the day, according to pediatric dentist Dr. Alexander Alcaraz, the program director of pediatric dentistry at USC Ostrow School of Dentistry. Constant and long exposures to sugar feed the bacteria that develop cavities. Saliva also needs time to neutralize the acids in the mouth that can break down the enamel.

Kaur also recommends limiting the time a child sucks on hard candy such as a lollipop. Some kids will suck on candy for up to half an hour. Opt for 10 minutes, for example, she said.

Have them eat candy with a meal

Leave candy  or any sweets for that matter  for an after-meal snack. When kids eat, more saliva is produced, which can better wash away the goodies. It might make it easier to remember to have your kids brush their teeth soon afterward as well, since many parents have kids brush their teeth after a meal.

Some foods also have self-cleaning qualities. Fruits and vegetables like apples, celery and carrot sticks rub into the enamel when you bite into them, removing plaque.

Exchange the candy

Limit how long the candy bag is available so your child does not get used to having it within reach. Remove some of the candy your child collected or trade it all for a toy or extra play time. Check if your dentist or another group is sponsoring a candy donation effort.

You can also take part in a new tradition and invite the "Switch Witch" into your home. Have you child put aside some of their candy for the Switch Witch, who'll visit overnight to pick up the candy and leave something fun in its place. You can leave a toy for them to find the next morning.

Cavities don't happen overnight, Alcaraz said. It takes time. It's not a one-day process.

Go to the dentist

After the first baby tooth emerges or your child reaches age 1, its time to see the dentist, who can add a coat of fluoride varnish to strengthen tooth enamel. Their efforts can make the effect of sugar-filled holidays less stressful.

A dentist will let you know early on, for example, to avoid putting an infant to bed with a bottle of milk or formula because the liquid can sit on their teeth, and the sugars cause cavities, sometimes even before the first tooth emerges.

Developing a relationship with dentists with an appointment every six months will also help keep you better informed as they grow. For young kids, the goal is to set strategies for families to keep the teeth healthy and reduce risk of gum disease and dental decay, Cortez said.

Read more: Potty training, accidents, wiping issues complicate 4-year-olds' start at public schools

Ask the dentist to apply sealants to a childs back molars around the age of 6, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health recommends. The thin coating can protect the chewing surface of the teeth from developing cavities.

It's the most common chronic disease in children, more common than asthma, Cortez said about dental decay, which affects more than 60% of kids in California by third grade. We need to pay more attention. And so for pediatric dentists anyway, and for all dentistry, I think that the key is to start early.

This article is part of The Times early childhood education initiative, focusing on the learning and development of California children from birth to age 5. For more information about the initiative and its philanthropic funders, go to latimes.com/earlyed.





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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Every school day, when the bell rings at Shields Elementary School, more than 100 kindergarten to fourth grade students head to the after-school program inside the Brighton Park school, where they can find homework help, a warm meal and activities ranging from Zumba to Lego club.

Run by the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council for the past decade, the program provides Shields families a safe haven, according to the staff. Yet, the program is one of around 250 across Illinois facing the prospect of closure when grants administered by the Illinois State Board of Education expire at the end of June 2024, according to advocates.

Serving an estimated 42,000 primarily low-income students, the programs need $50 million annually from the state to stay open  and to remedy an accounting error by ISBE thats already resulted in closures, according to Susan Stanton, executive director of the statewide Act Now coalition of after-school program advocates.

Among its five programs, the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council provides 2,000 students daily with access to sports, educational and workforce development programs and counseling and mental health services, said Executive Director Patrick Brosnan. The nonprofit is one of nearly 70 organizations with grants expiring in June, according to Act Now.

Of 33 after-school programs that already lost funding in July, 27 have since closed their doors, affecting around 6,000 students across the state, Stanton said.

It breaks to my heart to know that so many kids were deprived of after-school program opportunities because of this funding error, state Rep. Theresa Mah , a Chicago Democrat, said at an Act Now news conference Wednesday.

When we talk about what it takes to have strong communities, safe communities, tightknit communities, it really is our after-school programs that do a lot of the work, Mah said. If were talking about investing in our communities, this is how we do it.

After an initial five-year award, organizations that receive federal 21st Century Community Learning Centers grants to offer academic enrichment opportunities in high-poverty communities during nonschool hours can typically apply for renewals, or submit new applications if theyve already received a renewal.

But because the state education board miscalculated the amount of grant funds available  resulting in a shortfall of at least $12.4 million  neither new nor renewal funds were available this school year, and funding for next school year will be limited at best, State Superintendent of Education Tony Sanders wrote in a weekly message in May.

A Chicago Public Schools spokesperson said Wednesday that the district is awaiting an update from ISBE on the availability of renewal funds and that CPS has allocated $5 million to support programs at district schools through the school year. ISBE didnt provide comment regarding the availability of 21st Century Community Learning Centers grants for new and renewal applicants in the 2024-25 school year.

Without help from the state, many other providers, particularly community organizations, cant similarly cover costs, Stanton said. Act Now estimates at least 2,000 after-school jobs will be lost, and nonprofits largely reliant on 21st Century Community Learning Centers grants could be forced to close altogether.

The governor and the General Assembly need to come together and get this done, State Sen. Ram Villivalam, a Chicago Democrat, said at the news conference Wednesday. It is often said that a budget is a document of priorities and values and I say that its time to prioritize and value after-school programs, he said.

More than 70% of students at each of two 21st Century Community Learning Centers programs in Villivalams district are from low-income households of color, he added.

State Sen. Celina Villanueva , a Chicago Democrat, said she started her career in public service as an after-school program mentor and has seen the best and the worst of what happens when we have after-school programs and when we dont have after-school programs.

These programs help to transform lives, Villanueva said at the news conference Wednesday. Whether its cultural education, whether its music education, whether its just a little bit of extra homework help  having other community members surround (students) and support them.

Mah, Villanueva, Villivalam and around 20 other state legislators signed an Oct. 18 letter to Gov. J.B. Pritzker, House Speaker Emanuel Chris Welch and Senate President Don Harmon, urging the General Assembly to pursue the $50 million annual appropriation in support of the community learning center programs. As of Wednesday, Act Now spokesperson Emma Spencer said, the organization isnt aware of any lawmaker committed to proposing an amendment to the budget.

smacaraeg@chicagotribune.com
Federal agents shut down several of Sacramento City Councilman Sean Loloees Viva Supermarkets Thursday during an apparent raid.

The action from federal agents is the latest in a string of alleged violations since 2009 relating to the grocery chain. Last year the U.S. Department of Labor filed a federal lawsuit against Loloee and his businesses, first reported by The Sacramento Bee, which brought to light years of investigations.

Here is a look at the timeline of federal investigations related to Viva Supermarkets:

 2009: Federal investigators determine Loloee and his companies violated federal laws regarding minimum wage, overtime compensation, recordkeeping and child labor, according to a lawsuit the DOL filed last year. As a result, Loloee signs a settlement agreement to pay $4,658 in back wages to employees and child labor civil fines for violations at the Norwood Avenue store.

 2018: Two former grocery store employees file their own lawsuit against Loloees companies in Sacramento Superior Court claiming they were not paid overtime, were not given meal or rest periods, were never reimbursed for paying for their uniforms and other allegations. Loloee paid a settlement in that case, court records show.

 April 2020: The city of Sacramento grants Loloee a $25,000 forgivable economic relief loan using coronavirus federal grant money. At the time, Loloee had advanced to a runoff for the District 2 City Council seat.

 2020: A follow-up federal investigation found Loloee again violated overtime and recordkeeping requirements, ordering him to pay $35,423 in back wages, which he did, according to the federal lawsuit. However, that time, Loloee later allegedly coerced employees to return the back wages, prompting a third investigation. It found that Loloee in 2020 directed grocery store workers to lie to federal investigators, the lawsuit alleges. Loloee is elected to the council the same year.

 April 2022: The DOL sues Loloee alleging he threatened to deport employees who cooperated with a federal investigation into his stores. It also claims Loloee underpaid employees, employed minors in hazardous occupations, and interfered with multiple federal investigations spanning over a decade. It names 66 employees, and alleges violations at four stores: Rancho Cordova, Dixon and the two locations in the North Sacramento district Loloee represents  one in Del Paso Heights and one on Norwood Avenue.

 Oct. 26, 2023: All four Viva Supermarket stores in the Sacramento area are closed by federal agents. In addition, federal agents visit a house Loloee owns in Hagginwood, and a house his wife owns in Granite Bay.

More recently, Loloee has also faced a city investigation into allegations that he lives outside the North Sacramento council district he represents.

Here is a timeline of events into questions regarding Loloees residency:

 2019: Loloee buys a house in North Sacramentos Hagginwood neighborhood. Eight months later, someone calls 911 to report a fight between the buyer and seller of a vehicle at Loloees Hagginwood house.

 July 2021: A man at a party at Loloees Hagginwood house allegedly brandishes a gun in a threatening manner. Someone calls the police, and several days later, officers arrest a suspect who had five guns with him. Loloee told The Bee he was at the house that night, although court records related to the arrest do not name him. Instead, the records show Karla Montoya, the general manager of Loloees grocery store chain, was at the house on Nogales Street.

 June 2022: The Bee reports Loloee does not appear to live in a Hagginwood house he owns, and where he is registered to vote, but instead he appears to live at his wifes Granite Bay house. Residents of the house tell The Bee they are Viva Supermarket employees and that Loloee lives there with them. Loloee tells the Bee he was sworn in at a friends East Sacramento house, then later admits it was his wifes $1.4 million Granite Bay house.

 July 2022: The city issues code violations to Loloees Hagginwood house for building structures without permits. A new code case is currently active for the same violation.

 October 2022: A city-commissioned outside investigation, which did not include interviews with Loloees neighbors, finds Loloee indeed lives in the Hagginwood house with his employees.

 June 2023: The California Fair Political Practices Commission fines Loloee $200 for being late to file a financial disclosure paperwork.

 Oct. 26, 2023: A reporter observes nine vehicles, some without license plates, and a yellow excavator on the property.
A view of the LOFAR station at Birr Castle in Ireland, which has been listening for alien radio signals.

A new European search for extraterrestrial radio signals at low, uncharted frequencies is underway, having already listened to over 1.6 million star systems.

SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence , has traditionally focused on radio frequencies higher than a gigahertz, such as the hydrogen-line frequency at 1.42 GHz. SETI astronomers tend to shy away from lower frequencies because Earth's atmosphere renders observations noisy.

However, Europe's Low Frequency Array, or LOFAR for short, is specially designed to conduct radio astronomy at these very frequencies.

Related: The search for alien life (reference)

LOFAR is an array of radio antennas that span hundreds of kilometers across Europe, centered in the Netherlands but with additional stations in France, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Poland, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The stations incorporate two types of antenna: low band antennas that operate between 10 and 90 MHz, and high band antennas that listen to the universe between 100 and 250 MHz.

In conjunction with the Breakthrough Listen SETI project, the LOFAR stations in Ireland and Sweden have been used in conjunction with one another in the first part of Breakthrough Listen's first-ever low-frequency search.

This search used the high band antennas to listen for radio signals at frequencies of between 110 and 190 MHz. Primarily, the search is looking for leakage from high-power transmitters, such as planetary radar or communications with spacecraft. The search encompassed 1,631,198 target star systems identified by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and the European Space Agency 's Gaia astrometric probe.

By using multiple sites in Ireland and Sweden, astronomers were able to negate the effects of radio-frequency interference and quickly rule out any false positives. For example, if an anomalous signal were only spotted by one station and not the others, it would be local interference. Only a signal coming from space could be detected by all the stations.

No narrowband radio signals with a distinctive frequency drift caused by the orbital motion of an exoplanet hosting a transmitter beaming out signals with a power of at least tens of millions of watts were detected. However, the low-frequency search is only just beginning, and improvements in coming years will increase its sensitivity.

"LOFAR is soon to undergo a staged series of upgrades across all stations in the array across Europe, which will allow an even broader SETI at ranges of 15-240MHz," said graduate student Owen Johnson of Trinity College Dublin, who is the lead author of a new paper describing the results, in a statement .

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Among these upgrades will be two new LOFAR stations in Bulgaria and Italy. Computing software and artificial-intelligence algorithms will also speed up the analysis of the results.

"We have billions of star systems to explore and will be relying on some machine-learning techniques to sift through the immense volume of data," said Johnson. "That in itself is interesting  it would be fairly ironic if humankind discovered alien life by using artificial intelligence ."

The first results from the LOFAR SETI search were published on Oct. 24 in The Astronomical Journal .
Police have set up a perimeter in Canton after a suspect accused of leading police on a high-speed chase from Wrentham crashed their car in Canton Thursday night.

Troopers pursued a 2020 Honda Accord in the area of Route 95 northbound prior to Exit 19 around 5:50 p.m. after Wrentham Police say the car fled a traffic stop in their town.

State Police say the pursuit was terminated due to safety reasons, but troopers saw the Honda take Exit 23A in Canton.

Canton Police then reported a crash in the area of Neponset Street, where the car was found unoccupied behind a business.

Authorities say the driver fled on foot and are now searching for them.

No further information was immediately available.

Community Alert:



Mass. State Police are investigating an incident.



Expect a heavy police presence in the Neponset St. area including the MSP helicopter.  Canton Police (@CantonMAPolice) October 26, 2023

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

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TOMS RIVERA 40-year-old Seaside Heights man has been sentenced to seven years in prison for a vicious knife attack against a man he had worked with at Casino Pier in the borough, authorities said.

Porfirio Serrano-Cruz must serve 85% of his sentence before becoming eligible for parole. He has been held at the Ocean County Jail since the June 30, 2022, assault.

Serrano-Cruz pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated assault on Aug. 14 before Superior Court Kimarie Rahill, who sentenced him.

Seaside Park police went to a home on O Street at 5:15 a.m. the day of the attack after a caller said someone broke into his residence and tried to kill him.

More: Seaside Heights man jailed after cops say he assaulted and killed 70-year-old bicyclist

Police found the 39-year-old man with stab wounds to his arms, chest, abdomen and groin, Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said in a statement. The unidentified victim was flown to Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune where he was treated and eventually released.

According to the affidavit of probable cause in the case, the victim suffered 11 stab wounds. No motive was given. But witnesses told detectives that Serrano-Cruz and the victim had worked together at Casino Pier, where the victim was still employed at the time of the assault .

Ken Serrano covers crime, breaking news and investigations. Reach him at 732-643-4029 or at kserrano@gannettnj.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Seaside Park NJ man, 40, sentenced to seven years in state prison
After dozens of candidates jostled for position in the August primary, voters are set to decide on one of two candidates in each of seven races, with just two incumbents running for reelection.

District 1

With incumbent Lisa Herbold not running for reelection, two new faces are competing to fill her seat: Maren Costa and Rob Saka.

Costa bills herself as a senior leader in tech, highlighting a need to make rapid and meaningful progress on safety, homelessness, affordability, and climate change. She supports police and alternative responses working together. She has been endorsed by The Stranger, MLK Labor, King County Democrats, Seattle Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda , former Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, and departing Councilmember Lisa Herbold among others.

Saka is an attorney and Air Force veteran, who emphasizes his belief in safe communities and better policing. He describes his experience growing up in low-income housing as a catalyst toward the idea that everyone deserves safe, quality affordable housing. He has been endorsed by Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell, The Seattle Times, Seattle Councilmembers Sara Nelson, Debora Juarez , and Alex Pedersen, and King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay among others.

Costa won the August primary over Saka by a 33% to 24% margin.

District 2

In District 2, incumbent Tammy Morales is facing off against challenger Tanya Woo.

Morales was first elected to the dais in 2019. Since then, she touts her commitments to investing in historically under-funded schools, as well as passing legislation protecting tenants, giving paid sick leave to gig workers, and funding for community-driven development. She has been endorsed by Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, Seattle Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda, MLK Labor, and The Stranger.

Woo is a business owner based out of Seattles Chinatown International District. She points to her experience as a community advocate in the fight against continued discrimination from the city towards one of the most endangered neighborhoods in America. She has been endorsed by the Seattle Times, former Washington Gov. Gary Locke, and Seattle Councilmember Sara Nelson.

Morales took 52% of votes in the August Primary to Woos 43%.

District 3

For the first time since 2013, District 3 will elect new councilmember, as incumbent Kshama Sawant steps down following nearly a decade in office. Running to replace her are Joy Hollingsworth and Alex Hudson.

Hollingsworth boasts experience with the Food Access Network and Northwest Harvest as part of her work with nonprofits focused on food access. In her run for council, she stresses her focus on community safety, affordable housing, and healthy communities. She has been endorsed by Mayor Bruce Harrell, King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay, MLK Labor, and the Seattle Times.

Hudson bills herself as a progressive urbanist, promising to bring substantive constructive solutions to issues like homelessness, public safety, and housing affordability. She has been endorsed by The Stranger, King County Democrats, and King County Councilmembers Claudia Balducci, Joe McDermott, and Rod Dembowski.

The August Primary was a tight race, with Hollingsworth narrowly winning against Hudson 36.9% to 36.5%.

District 4

With incumbent Councilmember Alex Pedersen stepping down at the end of his term this year, Ron Davis and Maritza Rivera will run to fill his seat.

As an entrepreneur, Davis stresses the need for Seattle to fix wasted government spending, and focus on revenue sources that dont take from young families or seniors on fixed incomes. He has been endorsed by Seattle Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda, The Stranger, King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay, and MLK Labor.

Rivera serves as the Deputy Director for Seattles Office of Arts & Culture. She states that its unacceptable for Seattle to not have an alternative to armed 911 responses, and emphasizes fixing that as a focus of her campaign. She has been endorsed by the Seattle Times, Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson, Mayor Bruce Harrell, and Councilmember Sara Nelson.

Davis won the August Primary over Rivera by a 45% to 32% margin.

District 5

Council President Debora Juarez is stepping down, as Cathy Moore and ChrisTiana ObeySumner run to represent District 5 in her stead.

Moore is a retired King County Superior Court judge. She highlights public safety, homelessness, and buses and bikes for city neighborhoods as her campaigns priorities. She has been endorsed by Mayor Harrell, the Seattle Times, MLK Labor, Councilmember Juarez, and King County Executive Dow Constantine.

ObeySumner serves as CEO for Epiphanies of Equity, which provides social equity consulting services. She aims to focus on targeting the root causes of inequity, by addressing wage parity, better working conditions, and affordable housing. She has been endorsed by King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay, The Stranger, King County Democrats, and State Sen. Rebecca Saldana.

Moore won the August Primary over ObeySumner 30.7% to 24.4%.

District 6

In District 6, Councilmember Dan Strauss is one of the few incumbents running for reelection, as he faces off against challenger Pete Hanning.

Strauss was elected to city council in 2019. He touts his work to moving homeless people from parks and sidewalks to housing, and stresses his commitment to public safety and addressing the citys housing crisis. He has been endorsed by Attorney General Bob Ferguson, King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay, and Mayor Bruce Harrell.

Hanning is the executive director for the Fremont Chamber of Commerce. He vows to restore police staffing levels and increase shelter space for Seattles unhoused population. He has been endorsed by the Seattle Times, and six former Seattle councilmembers, including Sue Donaldson and Peter Steinbrueck.

Strauss won the August Primary over Hanning 52% to 29%.

District 7

Incumbent Councilmember Andrew Lewis will fight to retain his seat against Bob Kettle.

Lewis was elected in 2019. Over his first term, he points to votes to fully fund SPDs hiring budget, and assisting in the creation of the citys Unified Care Team to move people living in encampments into shelters. He has been endorsed by The Stranger, MLK Labor, Attorney General Bob Ferguson, and King County Executive Dow Constantine.

Kettle has served as a naval intelligence officer, and says Seattle needs to get serious about crime reduction. He wants to put more resources in recruiting and retaining police officers, and add more capacity to addiction centers and mental health facilities. He has been endorsed by the Seattle Times, Councilmembers Juarez, Nelson, and Pedersen, and City Attorney Ann Davison.

Lewis won the primary over Kettle 43.5% to 31.5%.

You can read through statements from each candidate running for Seattle City Council at this link.
Krista Brown writes about her experience of the criminal justice system under the pseudonym The Secret Defendant

A grandmother cleared of fraud charges after spending seven years with the allegations hanging over her, says every part of her life has been "destroyed".

Krista Brown, who was arrested in 2017 and charged three years later, says the stress of not knowing when her trial might be scheduled has affected her "financially, mentally, physically".

The 51-year-old, who denied the charges, says she closed her business and had to rely on benefits.

The case against Ms Brown was eventually dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service last week.

In an interview with BBC Newsnight , Ms Brown, who has been writing about her experience of the criminal justice system under the pseudonym The Secret Defendant on X, formerly Twitter, says she has been through "hell" waiting for her case to come to trial, having pleaded her innocence throughout.

Krista Brown was the managing director of Persona, a recruitment company which she founded in 2008. She says the company had an agreement with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) to repay unpaid tax in instalments after experiencing some accounting problems.

But in January 2017, Ms Brown says her "nightmare" began, when she was arrested under suspicion of fraud relating to her business and taken to a police station where she says she was questioned for between five and six hours.

"It was a shock," she says. "I thought, 'They're going to realise their mistake' - it was just a matter of time. That's what I thought was going to happen - it just never went like that."

Initially placed on bail and told to surrender her passport, Ms Brown was re-interviewed months later. But it took more than three years before she discovered she was being charged on three counts, including money laundering and not paying National Insurance, in February 2020.

'A bottomless pit'

Ms Brown describes her frustration trying to navigate the complexities of the criminal justice system - at points without any legal representation - receiving few updates, and having to deal with court hearings which would be repeatedly adjourned.

"I felt if I could just go and knock on the door and speak to a judge myself and take all my paperwork, it could be sorted out so much quicker," she says. "It was a bottomless pit with no end date, no accountability, no review dates."

Eventually Ms Brown says she had to close her company for mental health reasons.

"Everything I'd worked so hard for - a single mum who opened their own business - gone, just like that, through no fault of my own."

Left without any savings and reliant on benefits, she says she reached her "rock bottom" - which led to her trying to kill herself.

"I just thought, 'When is it all going to end?' I'm an ordinary person, I'm not a super-hero. There's only so much people can take."

The case against Krista Brown, which began with her arrest in 2017, was dropped last week after prosecutors said "we will offer no evidence on all counts".

The Crown Prosecution Service told BBC Newsnight: "We take any allegations of fraud extremely seriously as they can have a devastating impact on victims. At all stages we must keep all our cases under careful review, to ensure our legal test is met.

"As part of our on-going duty to review the case, we concluded that the evidential part of our legal test was no longer met so offered no further evidence at a hearing on 18 October 2023."

The HMRC said: "We are unable to comment on the tax affairs of identifiable individuals or businesses due to strict confidentiality laws."

Asked about delays to court cases, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice told the BBC it has "introduced a raft of measures to speed up justice for victims and improve the justice system since the start of the pandemic," and "are working closely with the judiciary to help cases move through court as efficiently as possible. "

In the seven years since her arrest, as well as detailing her journey through the criminal justice system on social media, Ms Brown has completed a degree in anthropology, and set up a successful food, clothing and toy bank for struggling families in Hackney, east London.

But while she is "delighted" to no longer be facing trial, she says it will take time to come to terms with what has happened.

"You can't just forget about it," Ms Brown says, "I'm looking forward to the moment that I feel like I can celebrate - it's not quite there yet."
Artist John Miller says everything in his life, both past and present, connects to his work. The fruits, or shall we say, fast foods of his labor are on display in an exhibition of his giant glass creations, Order Up! The Pop Art of John Miller that opened Oct. 26 at the Lowe Art Museum at the University of Miami.

His voice over the phone matches the playfulness of the oversized glass art, which for this exhibition focuses on diner-culture foods  a hamburger thats two and a half feet in diameter, a milkshake that stands several feet high, for example.

Inspiration, he says, comes in all forms.

Blue Plate Special, 2021. Blown and hot sculpted glass, 18 x 13 x 16 inches overall.

Its the art as life approach,  says Miller, who stepped out of class where he is an assistant professor and head of the glass department at Illinois State University, to talk about the display of 35 of his pieces, which will be in the museums Steven and Dorothea Green Galleries through Jan. 14, 2024. The solo exhibition was curated by Caitlin Swindell, curator of collections and exhibitions at the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami.

Millers storied family history, he says, comes through in his work. From his great-grandmother, Helen, a bootlegger during the Prohibition Era, who John says blasted out from Bradford, Pa., to go to New York to party and dance and sing to his motorcycle racing father whose New Haven, Conn., auto shop was next door to a diner, growing up in a blue-collar world left an imprint.

Going out to lunch with my dad to the diner, the gathering of people there and the cultural aspect of it coupled with the dramatic kind of footprint that the era of the diner left  theres definitely nostalgia rolling around in there with my personal experiences, he says.

And while the work is big on whimsy, its not a small feat. Miller, 56, admits its physically demanding and difficult to do. The larger the work gets, the more difficult it is to make, but as the scale increases, its more humorous to the viewer, he says. Its striking a balance between the intensity of the creative process and then the installation or object that the viewer gets to spend time with.

Chomp, 2008. Blown glass, 5  x 14  inches.

He admits he was disenchanted with what was going on when he was studying for a degree in fine arts at the University of Illinois. Then he discovered Claes Oldenburg, the Swedish-born American Pop-art sculptor, best known for his giant soft sculptures of everyday objects.

I was able to step out of the 1990s dark conceptual, almost downer artwork that was prominent. It was that era with the Seattle music scene, drug addiction, psychological issues, he recalls. Then he saw Oldenburgs work. Im like, wait a minute, this guy is making work that makes people laugh. I was drawn to him and the giant scale he was creating.

He found himself not so interested in the angst-ridden influences that were fueling the practices of many of his classmates, but more toward what sparked joy in him.

John Miller at work at Illinois State University.

He wanted to mine a lighter vein of life and human existence, which is the everyday stuff, says Jill Deupi, Ph.D., the beaux arts director and chief curator of the University of Miamis Lowe Art Museum.

John is very quick to acknowledge that he is following in the footsteps of the fathers and mothers of pop art, she says. He is not just making his work for giggles. Hes a serious artist. Theres something very intentional on his part  he doesnt want to plumb the depths of human despair.

The chief curator says its precisely the right time for the Order Up! show.

Its quite different for us in terms of the material or the way glass is used. It just felt right coming out of COVID and now Ukraine and Israel and everything thats going on to offer to the community, this salve for the soul through this art, says Deupi.

Millers show ties into the devotion to glass art that became part of the museums oeuvre when, in 2008, a donation of $1.7 million to the Lowe from glass-collecting couple Myrna and Sheldon Palley helped establish the Palley Pavilion for Contemporary Glass and Studio Arts, which now houses a $3.5 million glass collection; much of the work is from the Palleys highly valued personal collection.

Sloppy American, 2022. Blown glass and hot sculpted glass, 11 x 13 x 13 inches.

The 3,000-square foot extension is not only a unique asset  there are other museums with glass wings or glass focus  but there are very few academic institutions that do, says Deupi.

The Kendall couple didnt set out to be trailblazers as glass art collectors. Sheldon Palley says their passion began when they would visit craft fairs as a family outing in the 1970s. Myrna Palley, who turned her love of glass collecting into a lasting legacy for the university, died in 2020.

We were collectors for 30 or 40 years, says Sheldon.

Hes speaking from the kitchen of his home where, he says, hes looking at one of Millers pieces that the couple bought at SOFA, The Sculpture Objects Functional Art and Design fair in Chicago, years ago.

Its a hamburger with lettuce and tomatoes, French fries, and a Coke. Weve had it for some time, he says, noting that Myrna purchased the piece before Miller was well known. She had a fantastic eye and we would find a lot of artists very early in their careers and he was one of them. I love his work. Its something thats different  using glass in a manner that not too many people have done as a pop art medium.

Hot out of the glass shop, M-n-S Palley Chip Co. est. 1956., 2023, delivered to the Palley Pavilion. Hot sculpted glass with steel, 7 x 30 x 15 inches overall.

Although he says that his glass art buying days ended with Myrnas passing, theres one more piece that he wants to add to the Palley Pavilion collection: Millers M-n-S Palley Chip Co., est. 1956 a glass sculpture of a bag of chips, a work Miller made in honor of the influential couple. The meaning behind the established date of the chip company on the bag is a tribute to the year the couple was married.

Thats it  thats the piece we are buying from the show and we will be donating it to the Lowe, says Sheldon.

Twelve glass sliders will be at businesses throughout Coral Gables as part of the Wheres the Burger? scavenger hunt.

For those who may want a shot at owning their own piece of glass diner lore, the Coral Gables Chamber of Commerce was invited by the museum to have businesses in the city be part of a scavenger hunt called, Wheres the Burger?

A dozen of Millers small glass hamburger sliders will be positioned at businesses throughout the city for the run of the show. Treasure hunters who locate one are encouraged to take a selfie with the slider and post it to the museums Instagram page (a QR code near the work offers more information). The sliders are valued at $175 and signed by the artist. The secret sauce? Find as many of Johns burgers as possible around town, which increases the chances of winning.

If you go:

WHAT: Order Up! The Pop Art of John Miller

WHERE: University of Miami Lowe Art Museum, 1301 Stanford Drive, Coral Gables

WHEN: Opens Thursday, Oct. 26. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday through Jan. 14, 2024.

COST: Free

INFORMATION: (305) 284-3535 or lowe.miami.edu

ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more. Dont miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com.
Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, left, speaks with Ireland's Prime Minister Leo Varadkar during a round table meeting at an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. European Union leaders gather Thursday for a two day meeting to discuss, among other issues, Ukraine and the impact of the war between Israel and Hamas. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)

BRUSSELS (AP)  As distant as the prospect of peace might seem, European Union leaders believe it is time to start laying the foundations for a future relationship between Israel and the Palestinians where the militant group Hamas doesn't control Gaza.

Mindful that resentment and even conflict in the wider Middle East and Gulf regions have been fueled by decades of tensions between Israel and the Palestinians, the 27-nation bloc has begun exploring ways to realize a long-held EU ideal  two states living peacefully side by side.

As the Palestinian death toll climbed beyond 7,000 and Israel carried out airstrikes on Friday in response to the Hamas incursion into southern Israel, EU leaders meeting in Brussels for a second day encouraged broader diplomatic and security initiatives to stop the conflict from spreading, and ultimately from ever starting again. A peace conference and political settlement would be part of that.

The history of this conflict didnt begin with the attacks on Oct. 7 and wont end with a land war in Gaza, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said. Its very, very clear: 75 years of conflict between Israel and the Arabs, wars, terrorist attacks, huge instability. This wont end because of a military solution. It cant.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said that a pure security policy and a pure security solution is part of the reason (this conflict) has happened. So at some point a political dialogue needs to start.

Apart from its aid and trade leverage, the EU bloc has no obvious security role to play in the conflict. It backs Israels right to defend itself against Hamas, which killed more than 1,400 people in Israel. Hamas is holding at least 229 captives inside Gaza, including dozens of EU citizens.

But as civilian casualties in Gaza mount, it also wants Israel to respect international law. Hamas is on the EUs list of terror organizations and receives no funding from the bloc. Indeed, a review of its substantial assistance to the Palestinians is underway to ensure that none leaks to the group.

The EU member nations have long been divided in their positions on the region  Austria, Germany and Hungary staunch backers of Israel, Spain and Ireland more vocal in their support for the Palestinians  but the bloc does have credibility as a European project founded on peace.

All 27 countries agreed to this, Varadkar told reporters. That there should be a two-state solution, and that we need to have a peace conference, and that the European Union needs to be part of that.

The EU has for years tried to promote the idea of an Israeli and a Palestinian state with borders set mostly as they were in 1967  before Israel captured and occupied the West Bank and Gaza  with some land swaps agreed between them. Both would have Jerusalem as their shared capital.

In a statement agreed overnight, the leaders said they are ready to contribute to reviving a political process on the basis of the two-state solution. They also said the EU welcomes diplomatic peace and security initiatives and supports the holding of an international peace conference soon.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said that the peace conference must be held within six months.

It will mean working more closely with Israels neighbors, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon, as well as with Gulf countries like Qatar, which has the kind of relations with Hamas that could help get hostages released. Irans demands would have to be managed. Saudi Arabia and Turkey could play key roles.

Top EU officials concede that their international peace efforts so far haven't been effective. This is the fifth war between Israel and Hamas, and the number of deaths in the past three weeks exceeds the combined tally of those killed in the previous four, which is estimated to be around 4,000.

If we dont stop this cycle of violence, it will happen again in the future. The level of trust between Israeli and Palestinian, which was already extremely low in recent years, is now at the level of the Dead Sea, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell wrote in a blog this week.

Peace will not come by itself; it has to be built, added Borrell, who leads international diplomatic efforts on behalf of the EU. The two-state solution remains the only viable one we know. And if we only have one solution, we must put all our political energy into achieving it.
Shortly after being arraigned in federal court on Monday for the second time in as many months, Sen. Bob Menendez issued a statement that said he would not litigate this case through the press.

The states senior senator seems to have changed his mind, as he sat down with David Cruz of NJ Spotlight News during his weekly Chat Box show Thursday to go over the allegations against him. While he seemed to have an answer for everything, including why he had nearly $500,000 in cash, other topics were glaringly absent.

Cruz didnt touch on that fateful night five years ago when Menendezs then-girlfriend and now wife and co-defendant, Nadine Arslanian Menendez, hit and killed a man in Bogota. There was also no mention of the allegations that co-defendant Edgewater developer Fred Daibes fingerprints and DNA were on the envelopes said cash was in when federal investigators took them into custody.

The host asked Menendez about his relationship with his wife and briefly asked about co-defendant Wael Hanas halal business, but the senator laughed off both topics, saying he loves his wife and looks forward to a long relationship with her, before referring questions about Hanas business to his co-defendant, though not by name.

Senator Bob Menendez is shown as he walks towards federal court in the Southern District of New York, in lower Manhattan, Monday, October 23, 3023.

Throughout the almost 30-minute interview, Menendez maintained his innocence and reiterated that the government presented the information in the most sensational and salacious way possible.

As I read the indictment, theres a lot of inferences but not a lot of facts at the end of the day, Menendez said. Those inferences try to create a storyline that is the most negative, pejorative storyline you can create.

Menendez never delved too far into specifics about the allegations against him because he had to save that for his defense, he said.

He did note that he had drawn $400 a week from his savings account for almost 30 years but wouldnt provide further details.

Though he stepped down as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Menendez said he has not been sidelined from his work in Washington and that he skipped an intelligence briefing about the war in Israel because after decades of foreign relations work, he didnt need to go to an intelligence briefing to know what to do to stand by Israel.

Menendez also laughed off a question about financial difficulties during the timeline outlined in the indictment, saying he lives a pretty simple life and has never had financial difficulties and has a great credit rating.

The senator called the most recent indictment, which alleges that he conspired to work as a foreign agent for Egypt, outrageous as it is absurd and said it flies in the face of a long history of opposing things like the human rights violations that Egypt has been accused of in the past.

Kelly: Senator Clueless? What was NJ's Bob Menendez thinking in dealing with Egypt?

Menendez said that ultimately he is focused on proving his innocence and that there is more work to be done.

The easiest thing to do would be to resign  but thats not me. I dont do the easiest thing, Menendez said. Im innocent, and Im going to prove it.

Menendez appeared in a federal courtroom in lower Manhattan on Monday to plead not guilty to charges ranging from bribery to acting as a foreign agent.

The senators four co-defendants  his wife, Hana, Daibes and businessman Jose Uribe  entered not guilty pleas last week.

A superseding indictment filed earlier this month by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York says New Jerseys senior senator, his wife and Hana allegedly conspired for the senator to act as a foreign agent from January 2018 through at least June 2022 for the Egyptian government and Egyptian officials, even as he sat as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The new indictment alleges that Menendez, his wife and Hana "willfully and knowingly combined, conspired, confederated, and agreed together" to have the senator "act as an agent of a foreign principal, to wit, the government of Egypt and Egyptian officials, required to register under FARA," the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

Menendez: How will US foreign policy change with Menendez facing charges?

That law is meant to prevent other countries from influencing the American government, and it is illegal for a member of Congress to act as an agent of a foreign principal.

The indictment cites the Senate Ethics Manual, which states that regardless of compensation, a public official may not act as an agent or attorney for a foreign principal required to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

The senator, his wife and Hana  along with Daibes and Uribe  already face charges for allegedly participating in a bribery scheme that saw Menendez and his wife accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from the businessmen in exchange for helping them enrich themselves and trying to get them out of trouble.

The original indictment, filed last month, alleged that between 2018 and 2022, Menendez 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.

Menendez stepped down as the Foreign Relations Committee chair after that indictment was filed. Gov. Phil Murphy, Sen. Cory Booker and fellow Democrats in Congress have called on Menendez to resign as senator. Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman called on his colleagues to expel Menendez after news of the new indictment broke.

At a conference held earlier this month, the judge scheduled the trial to start on May 6.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Bob Menendez gives sit-down interview after indictment
The Israeli Iron Dome air defense system fires to intercept a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, Israel, Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023. A group of Republican senators introduced a bill on Thursday, Oct. 26, that will decouple funding for Israel from billions of additional dollars the White House requested for aid to Ukraine. | Tsafrir Abayov, Associated Press

A group of Republican senators introduced a bill Thursday that would decouple funding for Israel from billions of additional dollars the White House requested for Ukraine.

The Israel Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2023 was introduced by Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio and Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas.

Ukraine and Israel are distinct, important issues, and Congress should have the opportunity to consider and vote on prospective aid packages individually, Lee said in a press release.

If the Biden administrations case for additional Ukraine aid is not strong enough to stand on its own, then packaging them is an insulting request to lay before Congress. It is unreasonable for the administration to exploit an aid package for Israel to siphon off billions of taxpayer dollars in yet another blank check for Ukraine, he said.

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What is in the Israel Supplemental Appropriations Act?

The proposed bill would give Israel $14.3 billion in aid, close to what the White House asked for, which includes $10.6 billion in assistance through the Department of Defense to strengthen the Iron Dome and Iron Beam and $3.5 billion for military financing.

It also earmarks $200 million to support U.S. embassies, while stripping all aid to Gaza.

The brutal, savage attacks launched by Hamas against our closest ally in the Middle East, Israel, have sent shock waves across the world, said Marshall.

My colleagues and I firmly believe that any aid to Israel should not be used as leverage to send tens of billions of dollars to Ukraine, he said. Any package that does so would result in funds and resources being delayed in Israels time of need.

The White Houses $106 billion request attached Israel funding to aid for Ukraine, Taiwan and the U.S. border.

Related

Senate Republicans disagree on Ukraine aid

But, as The Wall Street Journal reported, Republicans in the Senate are split over the supplemental funding  there is bipartisan support to aid Israel but sending more money to Ukraine has earned resistance among some Republicans. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell urged his Republican colleagues not to separate funding for Israel and Ukraine at a lunch meeting on Wednesday, but he received pushback.

Mitch made a plea to keep it all together. Nobody else spoke up in favor of that position. A lot of folks said Israel unites us, and the Ukraine issue divides us; lets move Israel money on its own, a Republican senator, who attended the lunch, told The Hill.

Marshall, Vance and Lee have previously opposed additional funds for Ukraine without accountability. Cruz, who has been supportive of helping Ukraine, said in the press release, Russia still needs to be defeated. Taiwan still needs to be defended.

But, he added, the Israel bill is about one thing and one thing only: getting our Israeli allies the aid they need, as fast as possible.

The overwhelming majority of the Senate is ready to support an aid package for Israel. The House would readily pass this bill  they are frankly not ready to pass anything else, least of all more aid to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. We should pass Israel aid immediately and then move on to those, Cruz said.
The heartbeat of this nation is our unwavering commitment to religious freedom  the ability to pray and worship without persecution. | Alex Cochran, Deseret News

The following remarks are adapted from a speech given by Sen. Mike Lee on Oct. 18 at the Heritage Foundation on the 30th anniversary of the passage of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Its a cause that began before America was even a glimmer in the eyes of our Founding Fathers. The early settlers who set foot on these shores brought with them dreams of a new life. Their hope was not just for wealth or opportunity, but the simple dream to pray and exercise their religion in peace.

The ink was barely dry on our Declaration of Independence when Jefferson, Madison, Franklin and others realized that the heartbeat of this nation would be its unwavering commitment to religious freedom. Their vision, crystallized in the First Amendment, became a cornerstone of our great Republic.

As our nation expanded, so did our embrace of religious freedom. We saw faith not as a monolith, but as a diverse, dynamic force shaping communities from the bustling streets of New York to the serene valleys of Utah.

The 19th century, marked by the leadership of figures like Andrew Jackson, saw waves of immigrants bringing new faiths to our shores. Tensions rose and intolerance raised its ugly head, but Americas commitment to religious liberty proved resilient.

In reflecting on our nations rich history of religious freedom, I am reminded of the experiences of my own ancestors and countless others who shared their faith. The early members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints encountered intense persecution in America.

Utah stands as a beacon of their enduring spirit; it was where these determined individuals, led by Brigham Young, sought refuge and a land where they could practice their faith without oppression. Their story is not just a chapter in my personal history, but a chapter in the story of America; it serves as a profound reminder of the lengths to which people will go to ensure religious liberty for themselves and their posterity.

Today, as we stand at the crossroads of history, the onus to protect this indispensable freedom rests firmly with us.

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We must remember our roots, stand firm in our convictions and ensure that the promise of religious freedom remains unbroken for generations to come. Each generation inherits the responsibility of ensuring that these liberties are not merely retained but invigorated.

Our Founding Fathers grappled with a fledgling government, striving to ensure that it would not infringe upon the religious rights of its citizens. Fast forward to today, and the landscape has dramatically shifted. Our federal government has evolved, expanding in both size and reach. Its astronomical growth has presented us with fresh obstacles to overcome.

Imagine, for a moment, a city skyline. Tall buildings stand strong, each representing different sects of our religious beliefs and institutions. And then theres Godzilla  a massive, mighty force. Now, Godzilla, in our analogy, is not inherently malevolent. But he is enormous, he is powerful, and he is, at times, carelessly destructive. That behemoth represents our federal government. And as Godzilla might inadvertently knock down a building, our federal government, if unchecked, can trample on the sacred grounds of our religious freedoms.

Today, that once-restrained and limited central government has grown to a scale that those early patriots could have never imagined. Its become our Godzilla. It is not inherently evil, but its sheer size and the breadth of its influence means it can tread on the very freedoms we hold dear  and often does.

Amid this backdrop of a burgeoning governmental presence, it is imperative to revisit the core tenets that anchor our nation.

The free exercise clause of the First Amendment is no mere sentence in a document; its the very cornerstone of our nations foundation. It states: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ...

Its a right that acknowledges the inherent dignity of every individual to live according to the dictates of their conscience and faith. Our Founding Fathers did not craft the First Amendment to hide religion, but to ensure its free exercise in every corner of our society.

Many can still remember 1993, when the Religious Freedom Restoration Act passed the Senate 97 to 3. It passed the House of Representatives by voice vote  completely uncontroversial. It was sponsored in the House by none other than Congressman Chuck Schumer.

But the landscape has evolved since then. As the threats to religious freedom become more nuanced, our defense must be equally adaptive.

We must act to protect those with sincerely held religious beliefs and moral convictions on marriage and human nature, ensuring that they are not persecuted for living in keeping with their convictions.

Remember that our right to religious freedom is precious and precarious. It requires our ceaseless defense and our unwavering commitment. Together, well ensure that the skyline of religious freedom remains untouched, vibrant and resplendent for generations to come.

Sen. Mike Lee is the senior United States Senator from Utah.
McALLEN, Texas (Border Report)  Texas U.S. senators this week are to lead a tour of the South Texas border with fellow Republican senators.

U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz are to be be joined Friday in the Rio Grande Valley by Sens. Mike Lee, of Utah, Pete Ricketts , of Nebraska, and John Barrasso, of Wyoming, according to Cornyns office.

Their visit comes as President Joe Biden has asked Congress to approve nearly $14 billion in additional funding for border security and communities along the U.S. border with Mexico. The funds are part of a requested $106 billion supplemental assistance package that also includes money for Ukraine and Israel.

Heres how Biden wants to spend $13.6 billion from Congress on the border

The group of senators is scheduling day and night tours of the border on land and water. This is similar to a tour Cornyn and Cruz took in July 2022 on the RGV border.

They also plan to meet with law enforcement, Border Patrol, officials with the National Border Patrol Council, as well as ranchers and South Texas landowners who have been affected by an increase in asylum-seekers crossing from Mexico into South Texas.

They also plan to visit the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Centralized Processing Center in McAllen  also known as Ursula  which is one of the largest migrant processing facilities in the country.

Earlier this week, a delegation of Texas state representatives, including the Speaker of the Texas House, visited the South Texas border in Eagle Pass to view law enforcement operations.

Texas House Speaker, lawmakers tour border as they consider spending $1.5B on walls

After their tour, the Senate delegation plans to hold a joint news conference on Friday afternoon at Anzalduas Park in Mission, Texas.

Check back with Border Report for more details on their visit.

Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego.
Dear Reader (Dont worry, we wont fine you if your kids are unruly while you read this),

Lets talk about settler colonialism.

This appears to be one of these phrases that gives people permission to justify murder and rapeof settler colonists. Patrick Wolfe is often credited with coining the term in the 1990s, though he drew on work going back to the 1960s. Heres a relevant passage from Wikipedia:

During the 1960s, settlement and colonization were perceived as separate phenomena from colonialism. Settlement endeavors were seen as taking place in empty areas, downplaying the Indigenous inhabitants. Later on in the 1970s and 1980s, settler colonialism was seen as bringing high living standards in contrast to the failed political systems associated with classical colonialism. Beginning in the mid-1990s, the field of settler colonial studies was established distinct but connected to Indigenous studies. Although often credited with originating the field, Australian historian Patrick Wolfe stated that I didnt invent Settler Colonial Studies. Natives have been experts in the field for centuries. Additionally, Wolfes work was preceded by others that have been influential in the field, such as Fayez Sayeghs Zionist Colonialism in Palestine and Settler Capitalism by Donald Denoon.

While I think the intellectual history of the term is very interesting, I dont want to go down any deep rabbit holes (though the titles Zionist Colonialism in Palestine and Settler Capitalism do betray how those unnamed native experts in the field are mere ornamentation for a decidedly more narrow ideological approach). Suffice it to say, lots of historians talked about settler colonialism long before the term and basic idea took on its cachet in the 1960s.

So, whats the basic idea?

While I typically dont consider Wikipedia to be authoritative on such matters, its still useful because it is illustrative of what might be called a rough consensus of what people interested in the topic think it means. So here is their explanation of what the term and concept mean:

Settler colonialism occurs when foreign settlers arrive in an already inhabited territory to permanently inhabit it and found a new society. Intrinsically connected to this is the displacement or elimination of existing residents and destruction of their society. Because settler colonialism entails the elimination of existing peoples and cultures, some scholars describe the process as inherently genocidal. It may be enacted by a variety of means, ranging from mass killing or removal of the previous inhabitants to assimilation. Settler colonialism is distinct from migration because immigrants aim to integrate into an existing society, not replace it.

I havent seen anything that makes me think this isnt a serviceable explanation of at least what people who use the term mean when they use it.

So, heres another way of thinking about what settler colonialism is: history. Its not the same thing, of course. History includes crop rotation, the Gutenberg Bible, the invention of the wheel and canned goods, and all sorts of other things. My point is that there is literally nothing new to the concept or the phenomenon. Every continent save for Antarctica has seen a lot of stuff that fits this description of settler colonialism. The history of Russia is the story of such colonization. Russians waged merciless wars throughout Eurasia on both indigenous peoples and rival colonial settlers from antiquity onward. The Soviet Union moved vast populations out of some regions and imported Russian speakers. In fact, Russia is doing it right now in eastern Ukraine. The Chinese are likewise doing it as we speak in Tibet.

The Vikings did this stuff. Indigenous tribes and civilizations in the Americas were settler colonists. The Middle East and North Africa were once a patchwork of hundredsthousands?of distinct ethnicities, tribes, nationalities, faiths, and peoples. The early Muslim armies, from Muhammad to his numerous successor regimes, like the Greeks, Persians, Hittites, Parthians, and Romans before them, did a ton of settler colonization over the centuries.

Not every colonizing effort involved the eradication and replacement of an entire indigenous people, but if you think about it for a moment, most of the textbook examples of settler colonialism didnt do that either. As legitimate as Native American or Australian aboriginal grievances clearly are, there are still many Native Americans and First Australians around today.

Im going to get to Israel in a minute, but before you say, Israel is different you should bear in mind that there are a great number of Palestinians alive today. According to the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics the worldwide population of Palestinians has increased sixfold since the founding of Israel. There are more Arabs living in Israel today than there were Arabs living in all of so-called Palestine in 1948. In other words, if Zionism is the explicit practice of genocide against Palestinians, the supposedly uber-competent Israeli war machine is really, really, bad at genociding. Theyre so bad at it that reasonable observersin short supply these daysmight conclude that theyre not actually interested in genocide.

Colonizing is a complicated phenomenon, often changing the culture of the colonizers almost as much as that of the colonized. (Israel is supposedly a European-Jewry colonial project, which is funny given how hard it is to find a bagel or a brisket in Tel Aviv.) The Roman colonization of much of Europe and the Mediterranean world started as little more than shakedowns of weaker tribes and nations. Over time, the rulers of (many of) those lands increasingly saw themselves as Romans, as the term lost its ethnic connotations. At the same time, quite a few Roman emperors werent even born in Italy, never mind Rome. There wereto the extent such labels make sense todayBalkan, Syrian, Bulgarian, Danubian, and Arab emperors of Rome.

Ive always been fascinated by how long it took for France to become a nation of French speakers. At the time of the French Revolution only about a third of the population even spoke French. The history of England is the history of competing kingdoms and invaders, with intense battlesphysical, linguistic, cultural, and legalthat unfolded over centuries. Similar points can be made about the history of Africa, China, India, the Americas, and well, everywhere, except possibly a handful of remote tribes and islands.

Such things are important to keep in mind, because when you read a lot of eggheads who use terms like decolonization or settler colonialism they have all sorts of grandiose ideas about what colonization means. Its not just an ethnic or racial thing they explain using some very silly vocabulary; its also a conceptual thing, encompassing economic systems, theology, etc. Colonizing is often a shorthand for crushing diversity, dissent, or cultural distinctiveness. Last week I noted how a lot of critical theorists, the postliberals of the left, believe that ideas like free speech and human rights are illegitimate Western impositions. Theyre somewhat right about the Western imposition part. But the illegitimate part requires a lot more argumentation.

But Ill just make three observations about the evils of colonizer projects.

First of all, cultural evolution has always been about borrowing what might be called best practices from other cultures. I personally think the case for liberalisms superiority to other forms of political and economic organization stands independent of the fact that the Pale Penis People first came up with a lot of it. Chinese dictator Xi Jinping insists on elevating traditional Chinese medicine as equally valid to Western medicine. I think that framing is mostly garbage. Western medicine is simply code for using medical science. Medical science as practiced in, say, Japan is better than mostId guess alltraditional Western medicine. I mean, pre-Scientific Revolution Europeans used a lot of leeches and eye-of-newt folk remedies. In other words, sciences legitimacy resides outside considerations of ethnicity or tradition, everywhere.

Second, a lot of the stuff that passes for anti-colonial or anti-Western ideas are equally Western and colonial. After all, many of the anti-colonizers in Asia, Africa, and South America were explicitly neo-Marxists. Many of the national liberation movements were inspired by Marxist and Marxish thinkers. Where do they think Marxism comes from, if not from a paranoid German scribbler from Trier, Prussia? To take on example, Frantz Fanonwho popularized the idea that anti-colonial violence was self-justifying and righteouswas speaking and writing entirely within a Western framework. And when he renounced his worst ideas, he was again drawing on Western humanist ideas.

When the Chinese attack Western ideas, they often do it in the language of the Western intellectuals who declared war on their own societies. Why? Because they learned from the Bolsheviks how to weaponize the Wests ideals against the West. Its not like the Chinese actually care about the modern conceptions of racism or anti-racism which are both Western constructs. They love to lecture America about our shameful legacy of slavery, while nearly 6 million people live in modern slavery in China today. Most of those people arent Han Chinese. You know why? Because the Han supremacist Chinese Communist Party is very racist.

Last, lots of colonizing ideologies are non-Western. The Salafists and other Muslim extremists are keen on wiping out the diversity within Islam itself. Muslim Sufis have been persecuted for centuries and still are today. Sunni extremists want to homogenize the Muslim world in accordance with their definitions of legitimate Islam. Rohingya people are subjected to horrible persecution in Myanmar.

Now, none of this is intended to forgive or justify imperialism or settler colonialism. Most of human history is full of horrible people doing horrible things to other people for pretty horrible reasons. Progress is a very fraught word depending on the context, but I think a reasonable person can say with a high degree of moral confidence and analytical rigor that its a good thing the West turned its back on such things. I also think one can say with the same degree of moral confidence and analytical rigor that it would be a good thing if non-Western countries abandoned such projects as well.

Which brings me to Israel.

I dont think its the settler-colonial project the haters claim. Jews have been in the land of Israel for millennia. The idea of creating a Jewish homeland there is not new, but thousands of years old because thats where the original Jewish homeland was (you can look it up). A majority of Jewish Israelis are Mizrahii.e. Jews whose ancestry has always been in the Middle East or North Africaand the reason why most moved to Israel wasnt to ethnically cleanse the land of Arabs or Muslims, but because they were ethnically cleansed from Arab and Muslim lands after the creation of modern Israel.

I also dont think all Israeli expansions into various settlements are wise or justifiable, nor do I think the most fanatical proponents of a Greater Israel are doing Israel any favors. But if were going to come to the aid of the baby killers and rapists of Hamas by providing important context as everyone from MSNBC hosts to U.N. poohbahs like to do, its worth noting that when Israels neighbors spend 70-plus years insisting that all Jews need to be eradicated or expelled from their homes, some Israelis are going to become bad neighbors.

Israel is not trying to convert Israeli Muslims and Christians to Judaism. What Israel is trying to do is convert all of its citizens to liberal democracy. Personally, I think that is a wholly legitimate and desirable project for a liberal democratic regime. But if you come from an intellectual tradition that lionizes the resistance of oppressed peoples and demonizes liberal democracy as an inauthentic and therefore illegitimate system for non-Westerners (or even Westerners), of course youre going to hate the fact that Israel is liberal democratic nation in the heart of the illiberal Middle East. This part of the equation is often overlooked by defenders of Israel, who want to reduce all attacks on Israel as antisemitic.

But thats the thing. The Israel haters make that conclusion very easy to reach. And thats my real complaint here. Anti-colonial settler-ism looks remarkably pretextual to me. Its a bit like the folks who insist that identity politics is great for historically oppressed people but recrudescent racism when practiced by white people. For instance, racial hate crimes rightly incense the liberal conscience when the criminals are white. But when racial hate crimes are conducted by non-whites on whites or Asians, suddenly were told that we need to understand the very complicated context. In other words, a lot of identity politics amounts to delineating acceptable forms of discriminationwhile hiding behind the language of anti-discrimination. (And for the record, I dont like identity politics for white people, either.)

Id have a lot more respect for the anti-colonial schtick used to justify hatred of Israel if it led the same people to hate any other country. Or forget hate, because hate can be a corrupting emotion. Id settle for a little intellectual consistency. I mean, just as a practical matter, youd think some of these people would at least go through the motions on other fronts just to prove theyre not just Jew-haters.

Indeed, it is amazing to methough sadly not mysteriousthat so many at home and abroad can denounce imperialism and settler colonialism, as they claim to define it, while not caring a whit about Russias criminal project in Ukraine right now. The Russians are absconding with thousands of Ukrainian children and reeducating them as Ukraine-hating Russians, and the response is basically, Who cares? The Russians are genocidally bent on erasing Ukrainian nationality, and the apologists seem to think its fine because thats just what Russians do. The Russian Orthodox Church is allegedly setting up a private militia to fight in Ukraine, and the folks who love to invent fantasies about Israels theocratic militarism couldnt care less. China is trying to erase the Uyghurs and the Tibetans, and Turkey will put you in prison if you even suggest the Kurds are a nationality deserving of a nation. But saying settler colonialism is some abracadabra word that magically confers moral superiority to those openly cheering terrorist butchers and cavalierly calling for Israel to be erased from a map.

Its almost as if opposition to settler colonialism isnt really about settler colonialism.

Various & Sundry

Im writing this from Prague where I am on an unscheduled, impromptu visit with my daughter, whos doing a semester abroad here. Its been absolutely wonderful to be back in one of my favorite cities, but even better to see my kid. Ill have more thoughts on Praguebut probably not my kiddown the road. Also, Thursday was the one-year anniversary of my moms passing. Ill probably have more thoughts on that, too. But I didnt have it in me to meditate on all of that.

Canine update: The Fair Jessica got home on Thursday after a hellish day of canceled flights. Zoe was there to greet her with ample enthusiasm, but I didnt get a video because it was in the wee hours and Jess brought most of the luggage home with her. Pippa has really enjoyed her special visit with Kirsten, though I think it was starting to dawn on her that if she spent much more time there shed be reclassified as a small or floofy dog, a designation she emphatically rejects. Were less sure of how much Zoe liked being left behind alone with the cat and the housesitter, but all accounts are that she thrived as well.

ICYMI

Last Fridays tolerant G-File

Last weekends Ruminant

On the GOPs costly incompetence

The Remnant with Steve Inskeep on good ol Honest Abe

An exceedingly rank Remnant with Chris Stirewalt and David Drucker

And now, the weird stuff

PG-13

Inappropriate content

Bones and all

Bamboccioni

Big dummy

Goodnight, moon

Somethings fishy

A bridge too far

Cricket crips

Read more at The Dispatch

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A relative grieves as the bodies of Ibrahim Wadi and his son Ahmed Wadi, two of four people killed by Jewish settlers the day before, are taken from the hospital for burial in the town of Qusra, south of the West Bank city of Nablus on Oct. 12, 2023. Credit - Zain JaafarAFP/Getty Images

For the past few weeks, in the wake of Hamas brutal massacre of 1,400 Israelis and kidnapping of over 200 more, Israel has been teetering on the brink of a multi-front war. The threats are easy to grasp, as they typically take the form of Iran-backed terror organizations. But falling under the radar are events in the West Bank, arguably the most complex sphere of the ongoing conflict, and certainly one of the most consequential.

The West Bank has seen a significant increase in violence since Oct. 7 in what has already been the deadliest year since the Second Intifada. Since the outbreak of the war, at least 100 Palestinians and one Israeli have been killed in the West Bank. From Israels perspective, the most obvious threat emerging from the West Bank is Palestinian violenceincluding terror attacks against Israeli civilianswhich had already claimed the lives of over 30 Israelis between January and September 2023. The Israel Defense Forces claims to have foiled several Palestinian attacks in the past three weeks through raids and even drones and other aerial strikes on militant cells in Palestinian cities.

Read More: As War Rages in Gaza, Violence Surges in the West Bank

Its easy to see Israels challenge in the West Bank as merely an extension of Israels fight against terror organizations in both Gaza and in Lebanon, where the IDF and Hezbollah are engaging in clashes that have reportedly killed over 50 Hezbollah militants and 8 Israelis so far. But that is only part of the picture. The ongoing war has emboldened far-right Israeli settlers in the West Bank, who have escalated their attacks and provocations against Palestinian civilians.

More From TIME

Perhaps the most shocking and sickening example of this phenomenon occurred in the West Bank village of Wadi as-Seeq, located near Ramallah. In Haaretz, Hagar Shezaf recounted the unrelenting abuse and torture three Palestinians there endured from several IDF soldiers and settlers on Oct. 12. The Israelis handcuffed, beat, stripped, and photographed them, and subsequently urinated and extinguished cigarettes on them. One soldier reportedly attempted to insert an object into one of the victims rectum. The perpetrators also handcuffed and threatened to kill leftist Israeli activists present at the scene, including a minor.

According to the Israeli human rights organization Yesh Din, settlers attacked Palestinians in the West Bank on 100 different occasions and in at least 62 locations from Oct. 7 to 22 alone. Settlers have killed at least six Palestinians during this period. In particular, Palestinian shepherding communities have borne the brunt of these attacks, which have caused them to flee their homes in Wadi as-Seeq, nearby Ein ar-Rashash, Ein Shibli in the Jordan Valley, and other communities. Settler extremists have themselves adopted shepherding and farming as a method of taking over large swaths of land.

While threats and attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank have spiked this month, they are hardly new. According to the U.N.s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 12% of Palestinian herding communities had fled their homes as of September, primarily due to Israeli settlers attacking them and preventing them from accessing their land. An average of three incidents of settler violence occurred per day during the first eight months of 2023, an uptick from two per day in 2022. This rise can at least be partially attributed to far-right figures ascending to power in Israel, including Bezalel Smotrich, who has defended setters who commit violence, and Limor Son Har-Melech, who railed against security officials who speak out against the settler movement. Violently driving Palestinians to flee their homes is a tactic in the so-called war for Area Cthe 60% of the West Bank under direct Israeli administrationwhere many of the small Palestinian hamlets facing the most acute threats are located.

IDF soldiers rarely act to prevent these attacks, and, according to that recent Haaretz report, sometimes even collaborate in them. Soldiers serving in the West Bank are often themselves settlers, a trend heightened by the recent IDF reservist mobilization. Many settlers also receive arms reputedly for self-defense, especially in far-flung, hardline settlements that see frequent friction with Palestinians. All of this sends the message that they can violate the law with impunitywhether by building illegal outposts or targeting their Palestinian neighbors. The IDF often opens investigations into high-profile incidents of settler violence, as it did for the Wadi as-Seeq case, but rarely do the perpetrators face legal consequences.

While Israel is focused on their justified fight against Hamas in Gaza, it cannot neglect addressing what is happening in the West Bank, where settler violence threatens the integrity of Israels democracy and security. A responsible Israeli government would approach Israels challenge in the West Bank as the two-front battle that it truly is: against Palestinian and Jewish violence alike.

But this problem transcends Israels current political reality. Just as this war is prompting Israelis to question long-held assumptions about how Israel should navigate the challenges posed by Hamas in Gaza, it should also spur a reckoning about the unnecessary and avoidable security burden posed by the settlement movement.

When the war broke out on Oct. 7, 70% of standing IDF troops were stationed in the West Bank, and most of that 70% were protecting isolated settler enclaves in overwhelmingly Palestinian areas, not keeping Israelis safe within the countrys sovereign borders. Military operations against militant Palestinian cells is a partial and woefully incomplete remedy for Israels chronic West Bank migraine. While now may not be the time for more substantive political conversations about the future of the settlement movement and the West Bank in general, the first step is to uphold and enforce the rule of law for West Bank settlers, for the good of Israelis and Palestinians alike.

Contact us at letters@time.com.
I asked a former colleague what William Shakespeare might say about the meandering journey to elect a new House speaker.

"A true Comedy of Errors," came the response.

If this was "Twelfth Night," the House would have wrapped this up a long time ago.

It certainly wasnt "Much Ado About Nothing."

HOW THE GOP CONFERENCE CAME TOGETHER TO ELECT MIKE JOHNSON AS SPEAKER, DESPITE MCCARTHY MEDDLING

Perhaps the marathon quest to choose a speaker was like "As You Like It?"

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House Speaker nominee Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) speaks beside fellow members after being nominated for House Speaker, inside the Longworth House Office Building at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, October 24, 2023.

However, it was thought that after the hurly-burly, the House might actually re-elect its deposed leader, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., after it dethroned him. There were even charges that McCarthy and his allies were trying to execute a return to power behind the scenes.

Now that would be Shakespearean.

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer , R-Minn., seized the GOPs nomination for speaker for four hours and ten minutes on Tuesday, before withdrawing.

Former President Trump made sure of that.

"Tom Emmer, it looks like hes finished. He was not a supporter. He was a RINO," thundered Mr. Trump.

One might say there was some semblance of "Richard III" once the former president got involved.

Others piled on.

U.S. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) was running for the Speakership before dropping out ahead of Johnson's victory.

"I cant go along with putting one of the most moderate members of the entire Republican Conference in the speakers chair," argued Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind. "That betrays the conservative values that I came here to fight for."

"There are some people criticizing him for that, which I think is wrong," said Fitzpatrick.

"He didnt object to Joe Bidens Electoral College votes. He voted with the Democrats to overturn President Trumps ban on transgenders in the military," said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.

"The voter base, I think theyre making it pretty clear they dont want Tom Emmer to be speaker," said Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., of Emmer.

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Penn., said that Republicans tore Emmer up because he had voted to certify the 2020 presidential election results.

"Alls Well, that Ends Well?" Hardly.

The former colleague wrote that Congress had officially entered "'Othello' status" once Emmer bowed out.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy was ousted as speaker of the House after Rep. Matt Gaetz introduced a motion to vacate the seat.

McCarthy, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., Jordan and Emmer.

To be, or not to be was certainly the question for this quartet.

GOP LEADERS CELEBRATE CLEARING MAJOR GOVERNMENT FUNDING HURDLE JUST A DAY AFTER JOHNSON WAS ELECTED SPEAKER

But as Cassius said to Brutus in "Julius Caesar," "Its not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves."

Shakespeare and politics are among my favorite subjects, but I truly didnt think any of the aforementioned plays or quotations from the Bard quite did the mayhem over the speakership justice.

So, I brushed up my Shakespeare.

I finally landed on what is perhaps Shakespeares most obscure work: "Pericles, Prince of Tyre."

"Pericles" isnt a household name like "Hamlet" or "King Lear." Its rarely performed. In fact, academics question whether Shakespeare even wrote the whole thing.

OCTOBER 13: Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) speaks to reporters as House Republicans hold a caucus meeting at the Longworth House Office Building.

The reason "Pericles" is held in such low regard: the play is messy. The text is jangly. The plot is uneven. The production is difficult to stage. The show drifts aimlessly into an odyssey with action unfolding in six distinct locales. Its challenging for the audience to grasp the importance of each setting.

Like Pericles, the speaker drama was episodic. For Act I, the scene was set in McCarthy-land. Then set sail for Scalise-land. Then Jordan-land (or should it just be "Jordan"?). Then, Emmer-ville. Finally, the House arrived in "Johnson Parish" with the election of House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.

Who?

Johnson is to the speakership as to what "Pericles" is to the Shakespeare canon.

Were not talking about Sam Rayburn or Tip ONeill here.

"Pericles" is one of Shakespeares shorter plays at a mere 2,462 lines. By contrast, "Hamlet" is Shakespeares longest work. It clocks in at more than 4,000 lines  but a meager 18 characters.

There are 24 characters in "Pericles." In all of the iterations of the October speaker sweepstakes, an astonishing 14 Republicans were declared candidates for the job at one time or another. A total of 15 different people received votes for speaker on the floor.

Shakespearean scholars have even struggled to classify the obscure play. Is it a comedy? Is it a tragedy? Many theatrical experts identify "Periclese" as a "tragicomedy."

SPEAKER JOHNSON SUPPORTS $14B FOR ISRAEL, BUT SAYS AMERICA CANNOT BE DROPPING MONEY OUT OF HELICOPTERS

The same could be said about the election of speaker.

Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Steve Scalise of Louisiana both launched bids for House speaker.

The show begins with Pericles hearing a riddle. A king offers his beautiful daughter to marry anyone who answers the riddle correctly. But they will be killed if they are wrong.

Pericles knows that he will die if he botches the answer to the riddle, but he knows the answer. The king is having an incestuous relationship with his daughter. Thus, Pericles concludes that if he tells the truth, he will be killed, too.

That kind of "damned if you do, damned if you dont" paradox is the quintessence of the modern speakership. McCarthy faced one fate if he were to fail to lift the debt ceiling or avoid a government shutdown. And if he faced another doomed fate if he . . . .

Well, the rest is history.

Mike Johnson faces the same conundrum as McCarthy.

If he moves to avoid a government shutdown . . . .

But if he doesnt meet certain conservative demands on government funding . . . .

Republicans spent weeks jogging from one candidate to another, holding forth a vision to elect one Speaker but then dashing those chances just hours later. For instance, Republicans bounced Jordan because of his behind-the-scenes threats and bullying.

Representative Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, speaks after becoming speaker of the House in the House Chamber at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, October 25, 2023.

"Who makes the fairest show means most deceit," wrote Shakespeare in "Pericles."

Republicans swapped out Jordan for Emmer. Emmers nomination for speaker lasted four hours. That didnt even qualify as a one-act. Perhaps a sonnet for Emmer.

Some experts believe that George Wilkins wrote the first two acts of "Pericles." He then might have brought in the Bard to clean things up and write the final acts.

There are parallels with that on Capitol Hill.

McCarthy started the show. Then, after lots of drama, the House recruited Johnson to finish.

On Johnsons first full day on the job, the speaker found himself rushing to a meeting at the Capitol with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

"Did you think that would be your first task as speaker," I asked Johnson

"I did not," he replied with a smile.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese meets with U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) at the U.S. Capitol October 26, 2023, in Washington, D.C. Albanese visited the White House on Wednesday for an official state visit and a state dinner.

Thursday was emblematic of the frenzied nature of the speakership. At one moment, Johnson was huddling with Albanese. A few minutes later, he spoke off the cuff to the press corps about the shootings in Maine. By afternoon, Johnson was at the White House with other Congressional leaders discussing the Middle East and Ukraine.

The day was as discordant as the scenes in "Pericles."

Perhaps the best quotation to sum up Johnsons challenge appears not in "Pericles," but "The Tempest."

"Whats past is prologue," wrote the Bard in Act II, Scene 1 of "The Tempest."

For the House, a new guy. But the same members. And the same problems.

Stick around for the next act.





Original article source: The Shakespearean drama surrounding the speaker of the House
Producer-director Shawn Levy poses for a portrait in his office, Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023, in West Hollywood, Calif., to promote his limited-series "All the Light We Cannot See" based on the best-selling novel. The dinosaur model behind Levy is a reference to the 2006 film "Night at the Museum," which he directed. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Shawn Levy knew he had to direct the Netflix limited series All the Light We Cannot See, when he read a scene between the main character Marie and her father.

"I remember being knocked out emotionally and deciding, 'I dont want to share. I want to do all these episodes myself and I want to direct it like a four-hour movie,' said Levy, who was also a fan of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel it's based on.

Levy, a dad to four daughters, wanted to honor this father daughter relationship because it's "the heart of the show.

I get it. I know when it looks fake, and I know when someone is doing right by this beautiful, intimate relationship between a daughter and her father.

Debuting Nov. 2, the story follows Marie (played by newcomer Aria Mia Loberti), alone and in hiding in German-occupied France and a Nazi solder named Werner (Louis Hoffman). Hes an orphan who was drafted against his will. The two connect because of a radio broadcast that had a pivotal presence in their childhoods.

Levy, who has years of experience producing and directing, says the project was a growth opportunity for him. Loberti, who is blind like her character, had never acted before. He spoke to The Associated Press about the series, and his pals Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds. Remarks have been edited for clarity and brevity.

AP: Talk about the process to cast the protagonist Marie.

LEVY: I increasingly felt like the way to do this best, not just right, but best, was to try and cast this lead role authentically. That meant casting someone who was low vision or blind themselves. And after a global search, I found Nelle Sutton to play the young Marie and Aria Mia Loberti to play the young adult Marie. But truly, it was a needle in a haystack level miracle to find them. Even more astonishingly, they had never acted or even auditioned before.

AP: That must've been difficult because they both do a great job and you had to essentially teach them what to do.

LEVY: They were clearly special but make no mistake, they had no idea what they were doing. And Aria, to her credit, she was already fiercely intelligent, but she knew what she didnt know. And thats a great place to start. She said to me, "I want to be great. I dont know how to be great. You need to teach me and you need to be relentlessly honest with me so I can figure out how to do this." It was cumulative. Certainly, day one was not the performance we were seeing on day 40.

AP: Were there a lot of rehearsals?

LEVY: I dont subscribe to extensive rehearsals. This comes partly because Ive directed a lot of newcomers and usually, they are kids. I dont think that a natural quality in a new actor is helped by extensive rehearsals. What Im betting on is inherent personality, inherent realness and I want to do everything I can to preserve that. Usually, we do a table read or in this case, as everyone else was reading the script, Aria had memorized the script. She had memorized her lines in all four episodes. Again, this isnt a stage play. No actor memorizes the whole screenplay before you start, but Aria did.

AP: What did you learn?

LEVY: I certainly learned how to be thoughtful and concise in my word selection when giving a directorial note. But mostly what I learned is how different the world can be in navigating it without sight, but also in how it treats people and presumes things about people who are without sight or have low vision. It gave me a very personal human experience that deepened my understanding and my empathy. I'm grateful.

AP: What have the last few months been like for you due to the Hollywood strikes?

LEVY: Its not hard like it is for many of my colleagues who are losing their homes or driving for Uber and finding ways to pay the bills every week while they are not allowed to work. It is creatively frustrating. Ive tried to keep busy in the ways I could. I edited the half of Deadpool 3 that we finished shooting before the strike. I mostly want to acknowledge how hard it is for the entire ecosystem of this industry, not only the striking guild members, but for the tens of thousands of others who cannot make a living in the meantime. These are very scary times.

AP: Speaking of Deadpool, we already know Hugh Jackman will reprise his Wolverine character for the movie. Why does the public love the friendship between Jackman and Ryan Reynolds?

LEVY: Its an adorable friendship and its authentic. In fact, when I did Real Steel over a decade ago with Hugh Jackman, he told me, If you ever meet Ryan Reynolds, you will be best friends. And if you ever work with Ryan Reynolds, you guys will never stop making things together. ( Levy went on to direct Reynolds in Free Guy and The Adam Project.) They're both genuinely good, kind men. They are authentic despite being way better looking than the rest of us and mega movie stars for decades.

AP: Talk about directing them together.

LEVY: Whats fascinating is youve got two guys who have a shared sweetness but theyre playing characters who seriously dont get along. This goes back to the comics and what happens when you put a merc with a mouth alongside a taciturn, angry, Wolverine. You get comedic and narrative gold. Can I also add, its not just that you get two of the biggest movie stars in the world on screen together. Im the lucky son of a bitch who gets them playing their most iconic, signature characters. That is a directors treat every day at work.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is already facing the first big test of his nascent Speakership as he stares down a tight window to avoid a government shutdown.

Government funding is set to run out Nov. 17, plunging Johnson straight into the same obstacle course that helped cost his predecessor the Speakership.

Johnson has said he wants to prioritize passing full-year spending bills, while proposing a stopgap measure that would run through at least January.

But as the House reopens and Republicans gear up for a potential showdown with the Democratic-led Senate over spending, major questions are up in the air about the partys strategy over the next few weeks.

I know those discussions are going on at the highest levels. Its just among the critical issues that the new Speaker is going to have to wrestle with Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.), chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, told reporters on Thursday.

Its a bit unfair to him that he has to inherit such unfinished business, but I mean, its kind of par for the course around here, Womack said.

In his pitch to House Republicans ahead of taking the gavel on Wednesday, Johnson outlined an ambitious schedule to pass the partys remaining full-year fiscal year 2024 funding bills. The Houses approval of a sprawling partisan energy and water funding bill on Thursday checked off the first week of the plan.

But lawmakers acknowledge another stopgap funding bill will likely be required and in the same letter Johnson proposed one that would run through mid-January or mid-April, whichever the conference is in favor of.

However, the letter didnt offer much specifics on what such a measure would look like.

For now, House Republicans are setting out to pass the last seven partisan full-year funding bills by mid-November. But there is much uncertainty in the conference around what the topline number for the partys overall proposed government spending will look like for fiscal year 2024.

Its an issue that plagued former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Johnsons predecessor, for much of his roughly nine-month term, and yet it remains unclear how much hard-line conservatives will hold the partys new leader to task on the matter.

Im not gonna, yet, lay down markers on the numbers. We have appropriations bills and weve been moving, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) told The Hill on Wednesday.

But he added he thinks its still possible to drive spending for nondefense programs down below limits set as part of a legislative budget caps deal brokered between McCarthy and President Biden earlier this year known as the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA).

I think at this point what the key here is, moving for the bills that at least cut spending off of the FRA levels and frankly offset the supplementals, he said, as the White House and lawmakers have pushed for supplemental funding for Israel and Ukraine in recent weeks.

Thats actually the most important part here, is paying for and offsetting supplemental spending, because its tens of billions, if not 100 billion-plus dollars, Roy said.

Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) also said Wednesday that its important to have a commitment on the topline figure to know how the whole puzzle fits together, and what where were going to go as a conference with these bills.

But he also argued at the time that it wouldnt be a problem to vote on the energy funding bill so long as it fits within where it was expected to be based on the direction that we were trying to go previously.

The recent comments come as others in the party have pointed fingers at some in the right flank.

I think this was all a personal vendetta to get Kevin McCarthy out [and] the same people who are arguing about a topline number now seem to dont give a s*** about a topline number. So, make that make sense, Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio) said earlier this week.

But Good, who is among the eight who voted to oust McCarthy last month, and other hardliners have argued Johnson is more aligned with their principles than their predecessor.

He shares our conservative values. He shares our desire to restore fiscal responsibility to peoples house, but he also has been left in a difficult position because of the failures of the previous Speaker, he said.

Despite being a member of GOP leadership, Johnson, who served as vice chair of the conference, voted against an eleventh-hour clean stopgap funding plan McCarthy brought to the floor last month to prevent a government shutdown.

McCarthy resorted to the back-up plan after hardline conservatives tanked a partisan plan that would have also kept the government running, calling for steep spending cuts and changes to border policy that drew fierce opposition from Democrats.

Some Republicans have already pushed back on the idea of another clean continuing resolution, which would stave off a shutdown next month by keeping funding at current levels, without any additional add-ons for conservatives.

I think for any continuing resolution to pass is going to have to have some conservative victories in it, whether thats border or some sort of cut, Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) said on Thursday, while adding the longest extension likely would be January.

Otherwise itll have mounting opposition, he said.

However, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who hardliners had previously lined up behind in the Speakers race, argued Republicans would have more leverage with a stopgap bill running into April.

I would prefer long, to use as leverage the potential trigger cut that happens on April 30, the one percent 1 percent, Jordan told The Hill on Thursday, referring to the across-the-board cuts for defense and nondefense programs. That gives us the incentive to do our job.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Legal experts are skeptical over a move by the DeSantis administration to shut down pro-Palestinian student organizations on college campuses in Florida by employing a state law intended to punish providing material support to terrorists.

The experts cited a 2010 Supreme Court case that ruled the federal version of the terrorism law doesnt prohibit independent advocacy or expression even about groups designated as terrorism organizations, but narrowly limited specific conduct toward such groups that include offering expert advice or assistance.

They described efforts by the governor and the State University System to deactivate chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine on at least two campuses  including the University of Florida  as an aggressive and likely unconstitutional application of the terrorism law because it would limit students rights to protected speech.

READ MORE: Florida orders pro-Palestinian student group off its university campuses

Such rights are critical to a functioning democracy, no matter how distasteful the persons politics or speech may be, said Fritz Scheller, an Orlando lawyer who represented a former UF student sentenced last week under the federal terrorism law to three years in prison for flying to the Middle East to join the terrorist group ISIS. At its core, political advocacy and free speech encourage and depend on the free exchange of ideas.

In Schellers case, Mohammad Suliman twice tried in 2006 and 2009 to join al-Shabaab, another terrorist group, and in 2014 flew to Turkey to sneak across the Syrian border to join ISIS. The Justice Department charged him under the law that prohibits offering material support  including Suliman himself  to any terror group. Suliman wasnt accused merely of expressing support for those groups fight against Western countries.

Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has called Florida the freest state in these United States, has made unqualified support for Israel since the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas part of his campaign platform for the Republican presidential nomination.

Another lawyer, Vincent Citro of Orlando, also cited the Supreme Court case as problematic for efforts by the governor to shut down the student chapters. Citro, who has represented defendants charged in the U.S. Capitol insurrection in 2021, formerly was a federal prosecutor with the Justice Department.

Citro said the student groups could ask a federal judge to block the governors efforts as violating their First Amendment rights.

In a directive from Tallahassee earlier this week, the government ordered the universities to deactivate the chapters and said the national organization described the Hamas attacks as a surprise operation against the Zionist enemy and said its members were PART of this movement, not in solidarity with this movement.

Democrats objected. Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, said the order was unconstitutional. Politicians cannot and should not dictate what speech is allowed or not allowed on college campuses, Eskamani, who is Iranian-American, said in a statement.

The status of the chapter at the states flagship university  which has more Jewish students than any other university in the United States  was unclear. It was still listed as operational Friday on the schools directory of student organizations, and its faculty adviser, English professor Malini Johar Schueller, said earlier this week she had received no guidance from UF about the chapters future. The chapter president resigned Thursday.

In a statement earlier this week, the chapter called the demands to shut down the group disgraceful. It added: Governor DeSantis continues to disrespect American values such as freedom of speech to extend his political power.

The university administration has declined to respond to phone calls and emails about the issue since Wednesday.

No organization by Friday had filed any legal challenge against the DeSantis administrations orders in federal courts in Florida.

Another expert, law professor Wadie Said of the University of Colorado, said if any government agency genuinely believed the student chapters were providing material support to Hamas, they would be aggressively investigating the groups.

There would be intensive investigations, said Said, a former federal public defender and son of the prominent Palestinian-American academic Edward Said. He also cited the Supreme Court case as protecting the students rights to protest the violence of Israels response in Gaza and generations of suffering by Palestinians across the region.

Given that theyre students at a public university, First Amendment rights shouldnt be infringed, Said said.

Meanwhile, a national free-speech group urged Florida universities to refuse to comply with the states directive to close the student chapters. The director of campus rights advocacy for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a group based in Philadelphia, said the governments efforts were illegal.

Earlier this month, an influential state lawmaker, Rep. Randy Fine, R-Palm Bay, said any Florida college or university student organization that has attempted to justify the killing of Jews must be expelled immediately, and should lose their funding. Fine, who is Jewish, also called for students participating in rallies expressing such beliefs to be expelled, and any faculty member who has propagated, excused, or encouraged this genocide to be fired.

The state memo also followed a statement earlier this month by the University of Floridas new president, former Republican Sen. Ben Sasse, who said it was beneath people called to educate our next generation of Americans to offer anything other than unqualified support for Israel. In the same statement, Sasse promised to defend free speech on campus.

We will protect our students and we will protect speech, he said. This is always true: Our Constitution protects the rights of people to make abject idiots of themselves.

_

This story was produced by Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. The reporter can be reached at clairegrunewald@ufl.edu. You can donate to support our students here.
Nearly a year after Ethan Chapin and three other University of Idaho students were killed in an attack near campus, his brother received an award created in his brothers honor.

Hunter Chapin received the inaugural Ethan Chapin Memorial Scholarship from the Sigma Chi Foundation at Wednesday nights Sigma Chi fraternity scholarship dinner. The brothers, of Mount Vernon, Washington, were both members of the fraternity.

The award is intended to go toward tuition and honors the Idaho Sigma Chi member who best exemplifies Ethans character, his enthusiasm for life and his smile for everyone around him, according to a fraternity news release.

Hunter Chapin, left, was the triplet brother of stabbing victim Ethan Chapin. Sigma Chi Foundation

The organization said the endowed scholarship will give $5,000 to an Idaho chapter member each year.

Im honored to be receiving the first Ethan Chapin Memorial Scholarship, Hunter Chapin said in the release. It makes me feel so happy to see that Sigma Chis around the world honor and care for the undergraduates.

Chapin, 20, was a freshman when he was stabbed to death on Nov. 13, 2022. His girlfriend, Xana Kernodle, 20, and her roommates Madison Mogen, 21, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, were also killed in the attack at the womens off-campus home on King Road in Moscow. Bryan Kohberger, a graduate student at the nearby Washington State University at the time, has been charged with their murders and is awaiting trial.

Maizie Chapin, Ethans sister, helped present the award to her brother. The Chapin family was the funds largest donor  some of which came from Ethans checking account. The fund has since garnered $125,000 through donations. Sigma Chi said if the foundation receives additional funds, the $5,000 amount will increase for future recipients.

It was breathtaking to see hundreds of people from across the hemisphere immediately step up to support the Ethan Chapin scholarship as a way to make a statement of goodness and love, Jeff Burnside, Sigma Chi Foundation director of development for the Northwest region, said in the release.

At the dinner, fraternity members unveiled a plaque featuring Ethan Chapins name and face that will hang in the Moscow chapter house. The organization said it hopes the gestures will help future members remember their slain brother.

Let all generations honor Ethan and strive to be like him, the ending of the plaque states.

Those interested in donating can do so through the fraternitys website.

Ethan Chapin joined the Sigma Chi fraternity in his freshman year of college. Sigma Chi Foundation
After Imperial Japan formally kicked off World War II in the Pacific by attacking the U.S. Navy fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in December 1941, Japanese forces made lightning-fast advances in the South Pacific. By early 1942, Japan had occupied all of southeast Asia, threatening India in the west, Australia in the south, and Hawaii in the east.

Surging from former Imperial German island colonies in the central Pacific that Japan had acquired at the end of World War I, they quickly overran island archipelagos, such as the Admiralties and the Solomons in the far South Pacific, close to Australia. These remote islands often had plantations owned by individuals and corporations and administered by Australian, New Zealand, and British nationals.

While the Japanese conquest was rapid, it had been long anticipated by Australian, New Zealand and British military intelligence agencies. As far back as the 1920s and 1930s, plantation owners and managers on these remote islands were actively recruited, trained, and supplied with radios and other equipment by Australian military intelligence. When the war broke out, these civilian volunteers became the Coastwatchers. The force grew to over six hundred personnel serving behind the Japanese lines.

Formally known by names such as the Coast Watch Organisation, Combined Field Intelligence Service or Section C, Allied Intelligence Bureau, they began to observe and report enemy movements and rescue nationals from Allied nations stranded by the Japanese onslaught. The work was dangerous, and in addition to working behind Japanese lines with extremely limited resources and supplies, they had to contend with life-threatening tropical diseases. Many civilian Coastwatchers were rugged, independent types who had good relations with and the trust of local Indigenous island peoples. Some of the islands had Indigenous police, constabulary, and paramilitary organizations in place before the war. When the Imperial Japanese demonstrated their typical contempt for conquered peoples and implemented heavy-handed control over the Indigenous populations, the Coastwatchers soon had many ready recruits.

With radar in its infancy, and given the vast distances involved, the Coastwatchers and their Indigenous allies became indispensable in providing early warning of Imperial Japanese aircraft and ships headed out to attack the Allies in various island campaigns, such as Guadalcanal. U.S. Admiral William Halsey Jr., the acerbic commander of Naval forces during the Solomon Islands campaign, gave high praise to the Coastwatchers: The Coastwatchers saved Guadalcanal, and Guadalcanal saved the South Pacific.

Many downed Allied fliers and shipwrecked sailors were also rescued by Indigenous people working with coastwatcher organizations, who sometimes had to barter for these airmen with neutral tribes who had not yet encountered the Japanese. When future U.S. president John F. Kennedys patrol boat, PT 109, was destroyed in action against the Japanese Navy in the waters around Guadalcanal , Kennedy, and the surviving members of his crew were rescued through the efforts of an Australian coastwatcher. In July 2022, Australian Coastwatchers James Burrowes and Ronald George Lee were still living and were honored in a wreath-laying ceremony by U.S. Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy, daughter of President Kennedy, at the Australian War Memorial in the capital city of Canberra.

Solomon Islander scouts display Japanese weapons and flags captured during Carlson's patrol.

The event was a very special and personal acknowledgment by Ambassador Kennedy and the US government of the role we had as Aussie Coastwatchers eight decades ago. I am proud at 98 to meet Her Excellency and share Coastwatcher stories. The time I spent in the Solomons and other locations as a Coastwatcher is as vivid today as it was then. It has been an honor to participate in this memorial event, Australian World War II veteran Mr. Ronald (Dixie) George Lee said.

As the war in the South Pacific progressed, the traditional role of coast watching organizations to observe, and report expanded to the even more dangerous work of reconnoitering potential landing beaches as the Allies began their strategic island-hopping campaign towards the home islands of Japan. Forehand knowledge of the reefs, tides, and shore conditions of remote, Japanese-held islands was critical to successful amphibious assaults. Although many Coastwatchers were formally commissioned as officers in the Australian Naval Reserves, for their protection in case of capture, this was disregarded by the Japanese. In 1942, 17 New Zealand Coastwatchers were captured in the Gilbert Islands and were executed by the Japanese in October 1942 following an American air raid, part of the preparation for the attack on Tarawa by the U.S. Marines.

Although they rarely engaged in open combat, the Coast Watchers performed missions, such as beach reconnaissance and organizing local forces in occupied territory, that would later come under unconventional warfare units such as the U.S. Navy SEALS, the British Special Air Service, and U.S. Special Forces.
Another six Trump co-defendants in the Georgia election subversion case have reportedly discussed plea deals with Fulton County prosecutors following the guilty pleas of former Trump lawyers Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis.

The aim of the office of District Attorney Fani Willis is seemingly to try to get as many co-defendants as possible to flip on former President Donald Trump.

Robert Cheeley, a pro-Trump lawyer, was offered a plea deal, but his lawyer told CNN he chose to decline it.

Attorney Richard Rice told the network, To say that we are currently in discussions with the DAs office would be an inaccurate representation of what is going on. They made us an offer some time ago and we declined it.

Misty Hampton, a former elections supervisor in Coffee County, Georgia, and Mike Roman, a former Trump campaign official, have also spoken to prosecutors about possible plea deals, according to CNN.

Another three unnamed defendants have also taken part in plea deal discussions, the network reported.

There are no signs that Mr Trumps legal team and the prosecutors office are set to discuss a plea deal, as it would mean that the ex-president would have to plead guilty to all charges, CNN noted.

Mr Trump has entered a not-guilty plea in the case and still falsely claims that he won the 2020 election.

Out of 19 defendants in the case, four have agreed to deals, with some pleading guilty to felonies to get a more favourable sentencing recommendation.

The defendants have had to write letters of apology to Georgians as part of those deals for their attempt to overturn the 2020 election results in the state, but the defendants havent all been equally remorseful.

During a plea hearing on Tuesday, former Trump campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis cried as she read her note, distancing herself from Mr Trumps attempts to remain in power despite losing the 2020 election.

Meanwhile, former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell submitted a letter, which has not been made public, that was just one sentence long, according to CNN.

Prosecutors havent offered a plea deal to former Trump lawyer and New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and theyre unlikely to do so, the network reported.

Mr Meadows spoke to investigators and testified to the grand jury in the federal probe headed by Special Counsel Jack Smith. The former North Carolina representative has been attempting to get his case moved to federal court.

John Eastman, the law professor who laid out the theory for how Mr Trump could remain in the White House, has also not been offered a plea deal, according to the network. Mr Eastman pushed a number of Georgia state legislators to appoint alternate electors after Mr Biden won the state, the first Democrat to do so since President Bill Clinton in 1992.

Former Dekalb County District Attorney Robert James told CNN that prosecutors are attempting to have defendants as witnesses as opposed to adversaries.

It makes the prosecutors case stronger because you have witnesses and direct evidence, but it also gives co-defendants certainty and a certain level of safety knowing that they arent going to prison, he added.

The first to squeal gets the deal, a source told the network, referencing a saying used by Fulton County prosecutors working on cases using the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).
FILE PHOTO: Peter Pellegrini, leader of the HLAS party, awaits for the televised debate to begin at TV TA3, prior to the Slovak early parliamentary election in Bratislava

(Reuters) - The new Slovak government's pledge to stop military aid to Ukraine should only affect army supplies and not commercial sales, parliament's speaker and leader of the second-biggest ruling party, Peter Pellegrini , was quoted as saying on Friday.

Prime Minister Robert Fico took part in a two-day European Union summit on Thursday and Friday where he said that Slovakia will stop supporting its neighbour Ukraine militarily while still being a backer of humanitarian aid.

Fico won last month's election with pledge to stop military aid to Ukraine on his manifesto. He was appointed as prime minister for a fourth time this week, leading a three-party government.

Commenting on the message on Friday, Pellegrini, leader of the centre-left Hlas party, was quoted by media as saying he favoured allowing orders made on a commercial basis to continue.

"If someone orders and pays for these systems, then that is support for Slovak industry," Dennik N quoted him saying.

Slovakia's defence industry has seen a boost with others in central and eastern Europe amid efforts to aid Ukraine's battle against the Russian invasion.

Germany, Denmark and Norway said a year ago they would buy 16 Slovak-made Zuzana-2 howitzers for Ukraine.

Dennik N said the first was delivered in August.

Fico told a parliamentary committee ahead of the summit that he saw no military solution to the conflict, and said the army's supplies were depleted and the army needed to concentrate on its own stocks.

(Reporting by Jason Hovet in Prague; Editing by Alison Williams)
Slovakias new Prime Minister Robert Fico has suspended his countrys weapons shipments to Ukraine, sparking fears about splintering European unity on the war.

Ficos decision comes as the European Union sees unusual disunity over the war, with Slovakia and Hungary both dissenting to continued support for Kyiv.

EU officials fear that joint opposition from Bratislava and Budapest could fracture the blocs ongoing military support for Ukraine. One senior official told the Financial Times that the dynamic was worrisome, and could be a real problem. Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said she feared that the recent lack of unity signaled that the EU isnt taking defense seriously: Im very worried that some are giving out signals that we cant do this and we are not even aspiring to do this, she said.

European unity around Ukraine has recently looked a bit forced, EU policy-based news outlet Euractive wrote earlier this month. With questions rising about the U.S. continued aid to Ukraine, EU authorities have cautioned that Europe would not be able to fill funding gaps left by the U.S. European leaders also warned that Russia is expecting the West to eventually tire of its long-term support to Kyiv, handing Vladimir Putin a boost in the war. Presenting a united front over Ukraine is crucial to showing Russia that we are not [tired], Estonias Kallas told reporters.

Slovakia previously sent multiple weapons packages to Ukraine, which included Soviet-era fighter jets. While the nations pause on new shipments wont significantly impact Ukraines defense capabilities, it is a symbolic gesture: Ficos will be the first government that previously supplied arms to Ukraine to stop. The Kremlin itself has acknowledged that the move wont make much of a difference to the wars outcome, The New York Times reported. Bratislavas share of the weapons is not really that big, and, therefore, this decision will barely affect the whole process, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told the paper.
At the meeting of EU leaders in Brussels, Prime Minister of Slovakia Robert Fico expressed his concerns about corruption in Ukraine amid the EUs plans to allocate further financial aid to Kyiv.

Source: European Pravda, citing Politico

Details: Charles Michel , EU Council President, said that a consensus was reached regarding the allocation of additional EUR 50 billion to Ukraine during the discussion of the revision of the EU budget.

However, the newly appointed Prime Minister of Slovakia mentioned Ukrainian corruption as an obstacle.

"However, according to an EU official briefed on the negotiations, Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico warned in his intervention about corruption in Ukraine, laying out that spending extra money on Ukraine was difficult for him to sell back home," the media said.

The Slovak media Dennik N reports that Fico described Ukraine as "one of the most corrupt countries in the world."

On 26 October, EU leaders discussed for the first time the European Commission's request to member states to provide an additional EUR 66 billion to the long-term budget for 2021-2027. EUR 50 billion from the budget is planned for Ukraine.

Background:

Before leaving for the summit, Fico noted that he did not want to support sanctions against Russia without assessing their impact on individual EU countries, and that he was not going to support arms aid to Ukraine.

The new Prime Minister of Slovakia stated in a conversation with Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, that Bratislava would not support Ukraine with military aid anymore.

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The Slovenian drone manufacturer C-Astral recently sent surveillance drones to the Ukrainian military, Defense News reported on Oct. 26.

Slovenian-made reconnaissance drone systems known as Bramor C4EYE, or Belin drones, were provided to Ukraine in recent weeks. The company did not disclose how many were shipped or the exact dates of the shipments.

Belin drones are unarmed, and used primarily for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance operations.

It [the drone] is in fact being used by the Ukrainians and has been for some time, C-Astral drone pilot Jernej Moderc told Defense News.

"We do have some communication channels with the troops using them to get feedback and make improvements accordingly.

Another C-Astral drone operator said that electronic warfare in Ukraine has presented challenges to the company's technology.

Even if you have replacements available, a drones global navigation satellite system is often susceptible to being jammed above enemy territory or its communications link with a pilot may be cut out, said the operator, who chose to remain anonymous.

Were also seeing instances of friendly electronic warfare, where Ukraines electronic warfare systems will jam their own drones, hindering effective command and control.

The Belin drone system can operate for three hours out to a distance of 40 kilometers.

Slovenia has been a strong supporter of Ukraine and its accession to both NATO and the EU, and has previously sent Ukrainian forces tanks and infantry fighting vehicles. In general, the government tends not to publicize details about military aid.

The Slovenian Defense Ministry did not comment on the drones transfer, and it remains unclear whether C-Astral provided the drones independently or in cooperation with the government.

Read also: Deadly drone arms race intensifies as Ukraine, Russia embrace the future of war

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
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Karen Armstrong has run a newsagent and post office in Kelso for 30 years

The shop owners of Kelso feel they have been a victim of their own success.

The town benefits from a strong local community and business is good, with plenty of independent shops.

But the owners think thieves see them as an easy target and travel to the town to steal what they can.

Now they are fighting back.

More than 70 businesses, large and small, are part of a Shopwatch initiative, using social media to alert each other when a thief is spotted..

The message from the woman behind it, Karen Armstrong, is: "Don't bother, we're one step in front of you".

As owner and postmistress of Brown Newsagents & Kelso Post Office, Karen has seen first hand how shoplifting is on the rise.

"There's a lot of crime going on in our beautiful town of Kelso, a lot of shoplifting going on which is unfair to all traders in Kelso and anywhere," says Karen.

Brown's post office and newsagent has been open since 1976

"I think it's got worse recently. I don't know if it's poverty, I don't know exactly what is causing it. I wish we did.

"Now Christmas is on the horizon, you just think, is it going to get worse."

Shopwatch schemes have existed in the UK for decades. They once relied on two-way radios but mobile phones and messaging apps make it easier than ever to share information.

In Kelso they communicate via a WhatsApp group to send out an alert if a suspected shoplifter is on their premises, along with a description of them.

Karen also follows up with a phone call using a chain system. Once alerted, each trader notifies another member, who then does the same so that the whole group is quickly contacted.

"We're actually getting it out there to say, 'we've got this going, don't target us!'", she said. "We cannot afford to lose business.

"I don't know why we get targeted but there will be other places that are getting targeted as well and I really recommend that they get something in place to try and stop it too."

Claire Mole, pictured in her shop, recently had 100 worth of items stolen

Claire Mole's business was recently targeted by a shoplifter. She described how it felt to 100 worth of stock when a woman stole from her shop, Mole House.

"I wouldn't say upset, I'd say angry that she thought it was her god given right to walk in and just taken whatever she fancied," she said.

"She's not just stealing from me and my staff, because obviously I have wages to pay, but also the local school.

"I contribute raffle prizes for Christmas fairs and summer fete's and things. So there's 100 of stuff just gone out the door, so I can't contribute to the schools," she said.

Claire said she was "delighted" the scheme has been put in place to try to curb shoplifting.

A few years ago, residents of Kelso heeded the warnings of "use it or lose it" from the struggling high street.

Now, it attracts big money tourism to the area. The Junction Pool, one of the most expensive fishing beats in the world, runs right alongside the town.

That means the cobbled streets of Kelso can be busy, sometimes bringing in unwanted "customers".

Joe Storey-Scott has run his shop in the town for four years since moving back to the Borders, after 20 years living in London

Joe Storey-Scott, who owns 20 Storey Book Shop, says he has noticed some suspicious visitors to the town.

"I think an initiative like this is good because it means that as a shop keeper you can warn other businesses in the area straight away that there's something going on," he said.

"I think obviously times are tough for everyone but yeah, I have noticed there has been an increase quite recently in dodgy characters going about.

"It's difficult when you're running your own business and attending to customer when other people come in and see you distracted."

There have been warnings from businesses across the UK that shoplifting is on the increase.

In September, a Co-op boss warned that stores were descending into "anarchy" as staff faced a rise in retail crime.

The firm's UK stores have seen a 35% increase in crime in the past year and more than 900 staff were physically assaulted.

Joanna is part of a family business that has been operating since 1886

Another business owner targeted in Kelso is 47-year-old Joanna Stewart. She runs Stewart's ironmonger and general store, a 5th generation family business which opened in 1886.

She believes the cost of living crisis could be making the problem worse - but she shopwatch scheme is helping.

"We feel that we've all literally got each other's backs and there's a real sense of community that we're looking out for each other.

"It certainly has escalated over the last few months definitely and I think that's been because the current climate that we're all living in. We're all aware of the price of living. I think it's just the detrimental effect of that.

Joanna's shop stocks many small items and she relies heavily on CCTV.

"When you've got lots of little items that can be put in pockets or underneath coats or in buggies or whatever, it's something that we're acutely aware of.

With so many local businesses now signed up to the Kelso scheme, organiser Karen believes the message to shoplifters is clear. "We're on it".
FILE - In this photo taken with a drone, portions of a Norfolk Southern freight train that derailed the previous night in East Palestine, Ohio, remain on fire at mid-day, Feb. 4, 2023. The removal of contaminated soil from the eastern Ohio site of February's fiery Norfolk Southern derailment is expected to be completed sometime this weekend, although the larger cleanup effort isn't over. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials and the railroad announced the milestone Thursday, Oct. 26. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

The removal of contaminated soil from the eastern Ohio site of February's fiery Norfolk Southern derailment is expected to be completed sometime this weekend, although the larger cleanup effort isn't over.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials and the railroad announced the milestone Thursday in East Palestine. It comes nearly nine months after the derailment forced thousands from their homes near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border. Area residents still have lingering fears about potential health effects from the assortment of toxic chemicals that spilled, and the vinyl chloride that was released a few days after the crash to keep five tank cars from exploding.

The derailment has inspired nationwide worries about railroad safety and prompted members of Congress and regulators to propose reforms, however that bill has largely stalled.

Since the Feb. 3 derailment, the railroad has removed more than 167,000 tons of contaminated soil and more than 39 million gallons of tainted water from the site where hazardous materials spilled and were released from tank cars.

The end of the soil removal will significantly cut down on heavy truck traffic in East Palestine. Officials were also able to reopen Taggart Street to the public near the derailment site this week.

Officials with both the state and federal Environmental Protection Agencies will still oversee the remaining cleanup work, which includes backfilling in excavated areas and assessing chemical contamination in the area's creeks. Residents post pictures regularly of a chemical sheen on water in the streams anytime the creekbed is disturbed.

Regional EPA administrator Debra Shore promised that her agency will make sure all the contamination is gone before signing off on the cleanup.

The railroad's CEO Alan Shaw also promised to see the cleanup through.

Norfolk Southern is committed to remaining in East Palestine for the long haul, Shaw said.

Regular testing of the air and water will still take place too. Officials have said those tests consistently showed it's safe although many residents remain uneasy.

Norfolk Southern said earlier this week that the costs associated with the derailment have grown to nearly $1 billion, a figure that will keep climbing as more legal settlements and fines are agreed to and the cleanup carries on. That total includes more than $96 million the railroad has pledged to residents and the community to help them recover.
A man suspected of shooting and wounding a Clayton police officer who was serving a warrant Thursday was found dead hours later from a self-inflicted gunshot, Montgomery County Sheriff Rob Streck said.

>> PHOTOS: Police officer shot, large investigation involving SWAT responds to Clayton neighborhood

A SWAT team located the man, whose name had not been released Thursday night, in a house in the 300 block of Hacker Road in Clayton, Clayton Police Chief Matthew Hamlin told News Center 7.

The police officer who was shot in the arm was taken into surgery at Miami Valley Hospital and at last word was said to be in stable condition.

>> Its something deadly serious; Witnesses react after police officer reportedly shot in Clayton

Chief Hamlin said officers were dispatched to an address on Hacker Road about 1:45 p.m. to locate and serve a subject with an arrest warrant on a charge of aggravated menacing. Officers, when they arrived, spoke with the owners of the residence and the subject ran inside. Officers went upstairs to try to make contact with him. Once they made their way to the second floor, the suspect began firing a firearm, Hamlin said.

Two adults and two children in the home escaped safely. One of the four jumped from the second floor, according to Hamlin.

The gunfire and the mans refusal to come out of the house prompted a large law enforcement turnout. A Signal 99 or call for additional law enforcement assistance was issued about 2:15 p.m., according to initial Montgomery County Regional Dispatch emergency radio traffic. SWAT units responded to that same call.

The Clayton Police Department asked people to avoid the area while the investigation was active.

Please avoid the area of Main St between Greenview and Barrington for an active incident. Posted by Clayton Ohio Police Department on Thursday, October 26, 2023

A Clayton city medic escorted by two police cruisers arrived at Miami Valley Hospital about 2:30 p.m., News Center 7 crews reported.

>>RELATED: Recent downward spiral; Family says man dead after shooting officer battled mental health issues

Thursday evening, multiple law enforcement agencies that include Englewood, Wilmington, Springboro and others went to social media to express support for the wounded Clayton officer.

>> Area law enforcement agencies show support for Clayton officer

News Center 7 and WHIO-TV will continue to update this developing report as more information becomes available.
A South Carolina man pled guilty Thursday to obstruction of justice charges in an investigation into the murder of a Black transgender woman.

State authorities said they found that the defendant, Xavier Pinckney, provided false and misleading information pertaining to the 2019 death of 24-year-old Pebbles LaDime Dime Doe.

Pinckney, 24, faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for his efforts to conceal both phone and text calls that he made to Doe on the same day she was killed. Court documents also revealed that Pinckney lied about seeing Daqua Ritter, 26, who allegedly shot Doe on Aug. 4, 2019, on the morning of her killing.

The defendant is being held accountable for trying to obstruct an investigation into the tragic murder of a Black transgender woman, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division said.

Hate has no place in South Carolina, U.S. Attorney for the District of South Carolina Adair F. Boroughs said. The senseless murder of Dime Doe, and any act of violence against the LGBTQI+ community, confirms the need to confront hate in all its forms. Our office will continue to pursue justice for those impacted by bias-motivated crimes.

LGBTQ civil rights organization the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) reported that at least 22 transgender and gender nonconforming people have been killed so far in 2023.

The Federal Bureau of Investigations annual crime report for 2022 found that anti-LGBTQ hate crimes rose dramatically from the previous year, with a 13.8 percent increase in reports based on sexual orientation and a 32.9 percent jump in reported hate crimes based on gender identity.

This uptick in violent attacks has also coincided with a rise in anti-LGBTQ legislation. According to the HRC, more than 550 bills have been introduced in 43 states, and more than 80 have been signed into law.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys for the District of South Carolina Brook Andrews, Ben Garner and Elle Klein, as well as trial attorney Andrew Manns of the Civil Rights Divisions Criminal Section, will be prosecuting the case against Pinckney.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
The last time we checked on freshman legislator Carolina Amesty , there were a lot of questions about $3 million shed helped steer to a curious project down in South Florida.

The biggest red flag: The funding request she sponsored contained a lie. It claimed the village of Key Biscayne had requested the money for a flooding-prevention project.

Now, it was already odd that a freshman rep from Orlando was championing the needs of a tiny town 240 miles away. But it got even weirder when that town revealed it had never requested the money  that the only supposed justification for the funding, a letter of support from the village manager of the Village of Key Biscayne, did not exist.

Orlando Rep. Amesty touts millions in local pork projects  and raises red flags | Commentary

There were many more flags, including that the the project hadnt been vetted by any independent experts nor deemed necessary by any state department, according to the request. Also that the money wasnt going to any kind of respected water experts but rather to a small chamber of commerce in South Florida.

The whole thing stunk. But the legislators who approved the funding didnt seem to care. In fact, House Speaker Paul Renner has steadfastly refused to answer any questions about the taxpayer dollars he voted to give away based on bogus information. And Amesty says questions about inconsistencies in her funding request should be directed to legislators with more seniority.

Apparently in the Florida House of Representatives, the buck stops nowhere.

Well, the politicians up in Tallahassee may not care. But the local ones who were unwittingly dragged into this mess sure do.

Last week, the Key Biscayne city council called a special meeting to set the record straight  and to sever ties with the city lobbyist whod worked with Amesty on the $3 million request.

Mayor Joe Rasco said the false information used to justify the $3 million project was a misrepresentation of our view and our interests.

Council member Allison McCormick said: This project is clearly not something that aligns with our priorities.

Former council member Luis de la Cruz called the project absolutely worthless for us.

As I watched video of the meeting from afar, I found myself struck by how seriously these local officials took their jobs, their reputations and the taxpayers money. They knew something looked rotten. And they felt compelled to speak up and take action.

Compare that to Tallahassee where rotten is apparently just so status quo that nobody considers it a big deal  or fears voter accountability.

If theres a saving grace, its that the senate presidents office confirmed last week that the $3 million check has not yet been cut. So theres still time to vet this appropriation  the way it shouldve been vetted before lawmakers voted to give the publics money away.

After all, if legislators had actually looked at the funding request, they wouldve seen the answer to this question: Has the need for the funds been documented by a study, completed by an independent 3rd party ? The answer: No.

And this one: Has the appropriate state agency for administering the funding, if the request were appropriated, been contacted? Again: No.

To this day, that agency, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection has been unable or unwilling to give a single reason why this money should be spent or explain why a little-known chamber of commerce would take the reins on an environmental project instead of state or local environmental agencies.

The funding request said the chambers Institute of Sustainable Water Solutions would design and develop flood-monitoring techniques. But state records show the Institute didnt even exist when the money was requested. The chamber formed it later. So this Institute isnt just inexperienced, it was recently nonexistent.

Put it all together, and it looks like this small chamber that endorsed Amestys campaign last year and listed $185,000 of total revenues back in 2019 wanted $3 million in state money, didnt have much documented justification for why it should get it  and ended up bogusly claiming Key Biscayne wanted them to have it.

Also of particular note: The lobbyist for the chamber and the city of Key Biscayne was the same guy, Jonathan Kilman with Converge. Thats who the city severed ties with, responding to a letter where Kilman offered to resign but also said he wanted to stay on. Council members said they wouldnt assign motives to the error but stressed that it was, in fact, an error that they wanted to disassociate themselves from.

Kilman said in an email Thursday that his firm made an honest mistake. He said erroneous information put on an early draft of the funding request was accidentally left on the final one. But he also said he thought the project would benefit the town. (Remember how village officials described the project: a misrepresentation of our view and our interests  clearly not something that aligns with our priorities  absolutely worthless.)

I cant say for sure what all the motives were. But we know that $3 million of public money was awarded based, partly, on false information and with very little vetting. That seems like reason enough to put the kibosh on it.

Amesty doesnt shoulder all the blame. Freshmen back-benchers arent usually allowed to raise their hands without permission. And this project isnt even remotely close to the Orlando Republicans Disney World district. (Even though Amesty touted the $3 million appropriation for the South Florida chamber in a tweet that said: CAROLINA AMESTY SECURES MILLIONS FOR OUR COMMUNITY)

It seems like the best thing Renner, Amesty and others could do at this point is say: Look, we made a mistake. We were given false information. Obviously, theres no way were giving away millions of public dollars under that scenario. So were holding onto this money.

Then, if the chamber wants to try to get its hands on public money again next session, it can try again  with an accurate funding request. Heck, maybe the states environment division could even weigh in on this environmental project.

In other words: The bigwig state officials in Tallahassee could take a page from the lowly council members down in Key Biscayne  and try showing they care about truth, accuracy and the publics money.

smaxwell@orlandosentinel.com

Rep. Amesty leaves trail of falsehoods, unpaid taxes and bills, records show
It is the the fourth time for South Korea's constitutional court to rule against gay relation in the military

South Korea's constitutional court has upheld a law banning same-sex relations in the military, in what activists have called a setback for LGBT rights.

The court said same-sex relationships could harm troops' combat-readiness and undermine discipline.

Same-sex intercourse between civilians however, is not a crime.

Military service is compulsory in South Korea, with all able-bodied men aged between 18 and 28 are required to serve for about 20 months.

Activists condemned the ruling, saying it fuels violence and discrimination against gay soldiers.

The ban has "institutionalized discrimination, reinforced systematic disadvantages faced by LGBT people and risked inciting or justifying violence against them, both inside the military and in everyday life", Amnesty International East Asia researcher Boram Jang said in a statement.

The court, in a five-to-four vote, ruled that article 92-6 of the military criminal act was constitutional. The act does not explicitly refer to same-sex intercourse but bans "anal intercourse" or "any other indecent act" during service.

It was the fourth time since 2002 that the court upheld the law, which carries a prison term of up to two years.

"The world has advanced toward the elimination of LGBT discrimination, but the minds of Constitutional Judges have not taken a single step forward," said Centre for Military Human Rights Korea head Lim Tae-hoon in a statement.

Homosexuality may not be illegal in South Korea - since 2003 it is no longer classified as "harmful and obscene" - but discrimination remains widespread.

Same-sex marriage is not recognised and being gay is sometimes seen as a disability or even a medical condition in South Korea.
A Southern California couple remains shaken up after security video shows two people watching them as they slept and attempting to enter their home.

The Murrieta homeowners told KTLA theyve never seen the suspects before and are terrified they may strike again.

The girl was here and theres a little opening in the blinds right here so she was just angling her phone to film us sleeping, homeowner John Luyben said. The head of the bed is right here.

It was around 2:30 a.m. when the victims noticed the two suspects peeping through their window.

Our dog starts barking, he lays in the bed with us, John recalled. That woke my wife up. We have a camera pointing right at our back window.

A Southern California couple remains shaken up after a video shows two people trying to enter their home and watching them while they sleep. (Luyben Family)

A Southern California couple remains shaken up after a video shows two people trying to enter their home and watching them while they sleep. (Luyben Family)

A Southern California couple remains shaken up after a video shows two people trying to enter their home and watching them while they sleep. (Luyben Family)

A Southern California couple remains shaken up after a video shows two people trying to enter their home and watching them while they sleep. (Luyben Family)

A Southern California couple remains shaken up after a video shows two people trying to enter their home and watching them while they sleep. (Luyben Family)

We were trying to quiet down the dog because it was 2:30 but then I kind of heard a shuffle from behind us where that window is, Johns wife, Bayleigh, recalled. I go on my phone and look at my app where we have our security system and I see two people standing like this, less than a foot away, directly behind us.

Surveillance video shows one of the suspects using her phone to seemingly take pictures or video.

When the suspects first arrive at the home, theyre seen on video ringing the doorbell and trying to open the front door. When no one answers, they take matters into their own hands.

John said he typically parks his truck in front of their gate to discourage strangers from accessing their home.

The two suspects decided to hop onto his truck, climb over their fence and trespass into the enclosed backyard.

The terrified couple reported the incident to the police. They said the entire incident lasted around seven minutes with about three of those minutes involving the suspects staring into the couples bedroom window.

Authorities told KTLA they believed the suspects were two juveniles who may have been targeting the wrong home so they werent investigating the case further.

The Luybens, however, dont believe that theory.

I personally dont buy that because if they are going to a buddys house or friends house and theyre going to mess with them when they look through the window and they see me and my wife asleep. Like OK, thats obviously not my friend and were going to leave now, John said. But the fact that they were looking at us and stayed for an additional three minutes and took photos of us, that just indicates that they were not at the wrong house.

Im just worried because kids will be kids, Bayleigh said. They might do reckless things, but I think if they dont get caught and continue to do this, the situation could end up a lot worse if they stumble onto the wrong property.

John said police have since told him at least one of the suspects may be a local high school student. KTLA has not yet received confirmation of that detail.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA.
Ombudsman Angel Gabilondo, right, delivers a report on the country's first independent probe into the abuse of minors within the Catholic Church to President of the Congress Francina Armengol, left, at the Spanish parliament in Madrid, Spain, Friday, Oct. 27, 2023. A survey released Friday indicates some 440,000 people may have been victims of sexual abuse by Catholic church clergy or lay people connected to the church in recent decades in Spain. The survey was part of a damning report by the Ombudsman's office following an 18-month independent investigation of 487 cases. The report was handed to Parliament. (Jesus Hellin/Europa Press via AP) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

MADRID (AP)  Spains first official probe of sex abuse by clergy members or other people connected to the Catholic Church in the country included a survey that indicated that the number of victims could run into hundreds of thousands.

The survey was part of a damning report by the office of Spains ombudsman, or defensor del pueblo, following an 18-month independent investigation of 487 cases involving alleged victims who spoke with the ombudsmans team.

Ombudsman Angel Gabilondo criticized the churchs response to sex abuse scandals, saying it had often been to minimize if not deny the problem. He presented the nearly 800-page report to the speaker of the Spanish parliaments lower house Friday and then to reporters.

This is a necessary report to respond to a situation of suffering and loneliness that for years has remained, in one way or another, covered by an unfair silence, Gabilondo said in a statement,

He acknowledged that the church had taken steps to address both abuse by priests and efforts to cover up the scandal, but said they were not enough.

Included in the report were findings from a survey based on 8,000 valid phone and online responses. The poll said 1.13% of the Spanish adults questioned said they were abused as children by either priests or lay members of the church, including teachers at religious schools. Of those, 0.6% identified their abusers as clergy members.

Given that Spains adult population stands close to 39 million, that would mean some 440,000 minors could have been sexually abused by Roman Catholic priests, members of a religious order and lay members of the church in recent decades.

The survey conducted by GAD3, a well-known opinion pollster in Spain, had a margin of sampling error for all respondents of plus or minus 1.1 percentage points.

The ombudsman's investigation represents Spains first official probe of the child sex abuse problem that has undermined the Catholic Church around the world, and the estimate from the survey is the first time such a high number of possible victims was identified in the country.

The survey, conducted by GAD3, a well-known opinion pollster in Spain, had a margin of sampling error for all respondents of plus or minus 1.1 percentage points.

Ombudsman Angel Gabilondo did not extrapolate the survey findings into a count of possible victims but said the percentages were in line with similar reports in other European countries.

An investigative commission in France, which has a population of nearly 68 million compared to Spain's 47.6 million, estimated based on surveys two years ago that some 330,000 minors had been abused by church personnel over 70 years.

The report calls for a public event to recognize victims, the creation of a state fund to pay compensation and for the Catholic Church to provide a way to help victims in the recovery process and introduce reforms to prevent abuse and compensate victims.

Spains parliament voted in March 2022 to open the country's first official investigation by the ombudsman into the extent of sexual abuse committed by priests and church authorities.

The government was forced to act after Spanish newspaper El Pais published abuse allegations involving more than 1,200 victims, provoking public outrage.

Acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez described the report as a milestone for Spains democracy.

Today we are a little better as a country,  Sanchez said Friday from Brussels. Because a reality has been made known that everyone has known for many years, but which no one spoke of.

He said the report and its recommendations would be studied and acted upon.

Spain's Stolen Childhood abuse survivors group collaborated with the ombudsman's office on the report. Juan Cuatrecasas, a co-founder of the group, said the final document was  positive but it remained to be seen how lawmakers respond to the recommendations.

He said the report covered a time period that between the 1960s up until recent years.

Miguel Hurtado, who was representing an international group called Ending Clergy Abuse, called the report disappointing and inferior in its scope and conclusions to ones produced in Australia or Ireland.

Hurtado said the only effective model would be a truth commission with coercive investigative powers.

The Spanish Bishops' Conference is scheduled to meet Monday to consider the ombudsman's report.

A Madrid-based law firm is conducting a parallel inquiry ordered by the bishops conference. Its findings are expected to be released later this year.

Only a handful of countries have had government-initiated or parliamentary inquiries into clergy sex abuse.

___

Aritz Parra in Madrid and Nicole Winfield in Rome contributed to this report.
Newly elected Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said guns arent the problem and now isnt the time for gun control in his first national interview on Thursday, a day after 18 people were killed in a mass shooting in Maine.

At the end of the day, the problem is the human heart. Its not guns. Its not the weapons. Johnson said in a Fox News interview with host Sean Hannity on Thursday.

Johnson said now is not the time for gun control, citing his belief in the Second Amendment.

At the end of the day, we have to protect the right of the citizens to protect themselves, and thats the Second Amendment. And thats why our party stands so strongly for that, he said. I agree with the comments of your guests there: This is not the time to be talking about legislation. Were in the middle of that crisis right now.

The Lewiston, Maine, gunman killed 18 people and injured 13 more in a mass shooting at a bowling alley and restaurant Wednesday. The suspected shooter, Army reservist Robert Card, is still at large, sparking a massive manhunt.

Card used an assault-style weapon in the shooting, officials said, sparking renewed calls for additional gun control measures and an assault weapons ban.

Republicans have long opposed an assault weapons ban, and Johnson said the House should focus on mental health legislation, not gun control, in his interview with Hannity. Card reportedly suffered from mental health issues before the shooting.

I believe we have to address the root problems of these things. And mental health, obviously, as in this case, is a big issue, Johnson said. And we have got to seriously address that as a society and as a government. And theres lots of measures pending on that as well.

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) responded to a clip of Johnsons interview with a brief post on X late Thursday.

Its actually the fing weapons, he wrote.

The shooting has brought Maine gun control laws under criticism, with advocates saying the mass shooting proves that those measures arent enough.

Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine), a native of Lewiston, reversed course Thursday by voicing support of an assault weapons ban.

Out of fear of this dangerous world that we live in, in my determination to protect my own daughter and wife in our own community, because of a false confidence that our community was above this and that we could be in full control, among many other misjudgments, I have opposed efforts to ban deadly weapons of war, like the assault rifle used to carry out this crime, Golden said at a press conference Thursday.

The time has now come for me to take responsibility for this failure, which is why I now call on the United States Congress to ban assault rifles, like the one used by the sick perpetrator of this mass killing in my hometown of Lewiston, Maine, he continued. For the good of my community, I will work with any colleague to get this done in the time that I have left in Congress.

To the people of Lewiston, my constituents throughout the 2nd District, to those who lost loved ones and to those who have been harmed: I ask for forgiveness and support as I seek to put an end to these terrible shootings, he said.

Updated at 10:27 a.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
New House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told Fox News on Thursday night that he sees a cognitive decline in President Biden, echoing one of the networks frequent criticisms of the president.

Do you see in Joe Biden a cognitive decline? And if so, is that a danger to the country? Fox News host Sean Hannity asked Johnson.

I do, I think most of us do, the 51-year-old Speaker responded. Thats reality. Its not a personal slight to him, it has to do with age and acumen, and everyones different. Everyone ages differently.

Clearly, if you look at a tape of Joe Biden making an argument in the Senate Judiciary Committee a few years ago, and you see a speech that he delivers now, theres a difference, Johnson continued. Again, I mean, its not a personal insult to him. Its just reality.

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Johnson became Speaker of the House on Wednesday, after weeks of turmoil in the lower chamber, where Republicans nominated but failed to elect three other candidates. The President and Johnson met Thursday at the White House.

Jill and I congratulate Speaker Johnson on his election, Biden said in a statement on Johnsons election Wednesday. As I said when this process began, whoever the Speaker is, I will seek to work with them in good faith on behalf of the American people.

Thats a principle I have always held to, and that Ive acted on  delivering major bipartisan legislation on infrastructure, outcompeting China, gun reform, and veterans care, Bidens statement continued.

The presidents campaign sent a different message.

MAGA Mike Johnsons ascension to the speakership cements the extreme MAGA takeover of the House Republican Conference, Biden-Harris 2024 spokesperson Ammar Moussa said in a statement released Wednesday.

Now, Donald Trump has his loyal foot soldier to ban abortion nationwide, lead efforts to deny free and fair election results, gut Social Security and Medicare, and advance the extreme MAGA agenda at the expense of middle-class families.

Johnson during the Hannity interview also voiced support for the ongoing impeachment inquiry into the president, which was started under his predecessor, former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), whose ouster more than three weeks ago led to the Louisiana Republicans rapid ascension.

I believe the documents are proving all that, Johnson said in the interview. As my good brother Jamie Comer often says, The bank records dont lie, so we have the receipts on so much of this now. Its a real problem, thats the reason that we shifted into the impeachment inquiry stage on the president himself.

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Right after winning the gavel this week, newly installed House Speaker Mike Johnson made the same promises his recent predecessors made about how hell perform his duties. The job of the speaker of the House is to serve the whole body, and I will, he said in remarks after his victory on Wednesday. Ive made a commitment to my colleagues here that this speakers office is going to be known for decentralizing the power here. My office is going to be known for members being more involved and having more influence in our processes, in all the major decisions that are made here, for predictable processes, and regular order. We owe that to the people.

The speech was likely music to some rank-and-file members earsbut a song theyve heard before, too. Several recent speakers made similar pledges upon ascending to the role, but they ultimately failed to follow through. Legislating is messyparticularly in this increasingly polarized Congressand speaker after speaker has proven unable to resist wielding the immense power the office has accumulated in recent decades to pass bills faster and with more of their conferences backing.

Former Speaker Paul Ryan, for example, broke records in 2017 and 2018 for having the most closed rules in a session of Congress, blocking members from being able to offer amendmentsafter pledging a more open, more inclusive, more deliberative, more participatory legislative process when he became speaker in 2015.

Were not going to bottle up the process so much and predetermine the outcome of everything around here, Ryan told reporters shortly after becoming speaker. As you can see in this data compiled by the Bipartisan Policy Center, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosis tenure largely saw a continuation of that top-down approach. (Youll notice there were no open or modified open rules in three successive Congresses, meaning there were no opportunities for members to offer amendments without first getting them approved for consideration by the Rules panel).

This phenomenon is not entirely the speakers fault. Vulnerable lawmakers generally expect speakers to protect them from politically difficult votes whenever possible. And conservative Republicans who like to talk about the need for member-driven regular order often end up demanding specific policy outcomes from their leadersthe opposite of regular orderwith implicit or explicit threats attached. As we reminded you in this newsletter earlier this year, when Ryan allowed freewheeling amendments on spending bills in 2016, Democrats advanced LGBTQ protections in one of them, with support from more than 40 Republicans. That led conservatives to tank the overall water and energy spending bill that had been amended. GOP leaders quickly pivoted to a more closed process, where outcomes would be more predictable and Republicans would be able to approve their own legislation.

Could Johnsons tenure actually bring change in how power is structured in the House? Maybe, but some lawmakers arent very optimistic. Two House Republicans told The Dispatch this week they think an internal conversation about what is expected of the speaker is needed after former Speaker Kevin McCarthys ouster.

What we need to talk more about is what is the role of the speaker versus the majority leader versus the whip versus the conference chair, Rep. John Duarte of California said the night before Johnson was elected. The speaker really isnt the person whos necessarily charged with driving the majoritys political agenda. Thats the majority leader.

Duarte is right that historically, the speakers job looked a lot different: Speakers relied on committee chairs to craft bills and had less control over what legislation looked like when it made it to the floor. But today, speakers functionally serve as campaign fundraising heavyweights, shepherd their partys priorities through the chamber, mediate between different ideological factions, negotiate with the White House and the Senate, and spend a lot of time on the campaign trail attempting to boost incumbents.

In a 2018 piece for The Atlantic, Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin lamented power accumulation among congressional leadership and noted that rank-and-file members often quietly like this arrangement more because it prevents them from having to cast tough votes.

Five years later, he still has those concerns. This is not going to happen any time soon, Gallagher told The Dispatch this week, but I would be intrigued to go back to a model where the speaker runs and defends the institution and isnt the fundraiser-in-chief of the House.

What would that look like? What would Johnson have to do to actually decentralize power in the House? The Dispatch spoke with Josh Huder, a senior fellow at Georgetown Universitys Government Affairs Institute who specializes in Congress, separation of powers, and the legislative process, about those questions and more. The transcript of our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

The Dispatch: When did the role of the speaker really shift into what it is now?

Josh Huder: For most of the 20th century, members of Congress were sort of left to their own devices when it came to reelection. Parties were not national in character. They were state and they were local. So a member of Congress return to Congress, like winning their primary, was largely a function of state and local politics. It was not this kind of national-oriented, You must toe the party line thing. Thats really something that happened in the 1980s, 1990s. And you can start to see institutionally, the speaker became much more powerful in the mid-1970s, but they took on this more intense political role, for lack of a better term, in the 80s and 90s. Thats really when they started to become fundraiser-in-chief, party leader-in-chief within the House of Representatives. Before that, members of Congress did not rely on the speaker for their reelection. In fact, it was often best that the speaker did not talk to them, in many ways. It would be seen as being too cozy with them. They won their reelection on their own terms.

The Dispatch: How did the speakers of old spend their time, then?

Huder: From the 1920s through like the 1970s and 1980s, speakers of the House did not take policy positions. If you walked up to Sam Rayburn and youre like, Hey, what are you going to do this year? He would say, I dont know. Were going to work it out between the committees. Can you imagine walking up to Nancy Pelosi like, Hey, what are Democrats going to do this year? And her saying, I dont know? Its just unfathomable. So they spent their time brokering between powerful committee chairs. Sam Rayburn was negotiating with the Armed Services chair, he was negotiating with the Appropriations chair, negotiating with Judiciary, and he was trying to sort out deals. I mean, not unlike what Nancy Pelosi was doing when she was speakerbut the thing is, they didnt have all the power to actually move legislation. They were brokering deals between people who had real power. Hes literally just a middleman. The reason they had to be is they didnt have the authority to do whatever they wanted. They were relying on convincing others.

In the 1960s, there was a really interesting moment that kind of highlighted this point. Sam Rayburn walked up to the Rules Committee chair, Howard Smith, and asked him to bring an education bill to the floor. It had already been passed by the House. It had already been passed by the Senate. All they had to do was just pass the conference agreement, and Howard Smith would not do it. Rayburn was literally pleading with this Rules Committee chair. Howard Smith tells him, Tell your liberal friends they get the minimum wage bill or nothing. Thats the kind of power committee chairs had back then. Now, speakers control whats happening. They can structure the outcome.

The Dispatch: Why have recent House speakers who said theyd give power back to committee chairs failed to really do so? Do they mean it at first, but find out its just not actually possible?

Huder: They possibly mean it. The problem is speakers have the power to manipulate the process, and other members know that, and theyre relying on the speaker to manipulate the process. I think its a combination of both: They may have good intent, but as soon as the political problems in the legislative process start to pop up, you have members of Congress sort of knocking on their door going like, Hey, this is a problem for us. Can you please fix it? And whether you say you want that power or you dont want that power, you like having it, right? Because if there is something weird going on, you can change the legislation at the last moment. Whos going to give that up? Whos going to give up that authority if you have it? You are god of the legislative realm, and you can snap your fingers and change something.

The Dispatch: Do you think its also easier for members to have one person to go to instead of having to build relationships with committee chairs and trying to petition them individually?

Huder: I think that helps. But honestly, I think part of it is members just dont really know how to legislate in the old fashioned way anymore. That was sort of evident throughout the speakership race. You had a situation where Chip Roy and Brian Fitzpatrick were like, We should have a candidate forum and we should talk about it. And we should see if somebody can get 217. If they cant, then we drop a candidate and we have another forum and we talk about it. Thats a normal brokering process. Thats how its supposed to work! You dont need to pass a rule to put in place a normal brokering process! But thats what they were doing. Its like they had forgotten how to negotiate and compromise, in many ways. They got to the compromise, but they got to it in a really weird way. I dont really think they know any different.

The Dispatch: If Johnson is different in meaning what he said about decentralizing power and actually trying to do it, what would we see in the coming months?

Huder: He would need to take power away from himself. And he would need to stop manipulating the Rules Committee, either by taking his own power away from appointing that committee, or just being hands-off on the Rules Committee. He would need to become a broker between committee chairs, rather than a broker between factions of his party. If the Appropriations chair passes a bill, he would leave it alone and let the Appropriations chair handle the negotiations. If he was going to become less powerful, he would stop issuing self-executing rules. He would stop doing closed amendment processes. I dont think any of this stuff is going to come to fruition. I think its going to be more of the same. Even if you change the rules, members are still going to function in the way theyve functioned for the last 10 years, because thats what theyve learned, and thats what theyve experienced. And I dont think you can just decentralize the House uniformly and have much effect within two years, much less a year. I definitely dont think you can do it if the person with power still has it.

The Dispatch: Is there any merit to the idea that Johnson would have an easier time in the role, with this fractious and slim House GOP majority, if he actually did divest power from himself?

Huder: Thats kind of what McCarthy tried to do. Those bills died on the floor, several of them, over and over and over again. It was pretty embarrassing there at the end of September. Did that help him? No, not really. The other part of this is, I dont think the members really want the committee chairs in charge, either. Do you think the House of Freedom Caucus wants Kay Granger writing appropriations bills without any of their input? They just dont like the stuff their colleagues write. Maybe if Johnson actually disempowered himself and said, I literally cant change it. They wrote it, youve got to talk to them. That only works if you actually cant change the bill at the end of the day. But he still has the power, so theyre still going to hold him accountable because he does have the power.

If Kevin McCarthy were really savvy, he would have actually disempowered himself: Im not doing this. Its them, its not me. Ill talk to them, but its not me, its them. But he didnt. He tried to do this two-step, Oh, Ill disempower myself, but Ill keep all the power. Thats essentially what Johnsons trying to do. Its what Paul Ryan tried to do. Its what John Boehner kind of said he was going to do. Its what Nancy Pelosi did. You get the ideaeverybody says this, and it never happens. And the reason is they still have the power.

Of Note

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Read more at The Dispatch

The Dispatch is a new digital media company providing engaged citizens with fact-based reporting and commentary, informed by conservative principles. Sign up for free.
Newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson said in the wake of a mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, that access to firearms was not to blame for gun violence.

Mr Johnson spoke in an exclusive sit-down interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity , who noted how Democrats immediately called for new gun legislation after a gunman entered two locations in Lewiston, killing 18 people and injuring 13 people.

But the newly installed speaker brushed off questions about tightening gun laws.

The problem is the human heart. It's not guns, not the weapons, he said. At the end of the day, the problem is the human heart. Its not guns, its not the weapons.

Mr Johnson said that the government should protect the right of citizens to protect themselves.

And thats why our party stands strongly for that, he said, adding that it was not the time to talk about legislation. Were in the middle of that crisis right now. But I just want you to know and the American people to know that all of the members of the House here are deeply concerned about the families involved and everyone.

Mr Johnson noted other countries have mass violence.

In Europe, and in other places, they use vehicles to mow down crowds at parades, he said, adding that he wanted to focus on mental health instead.

In response, Sen Chris Murphy (D-CT), one of the staunchest voices advocates for gun control, posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the United States should regulate guns the way it does automobiles.

This is idiotic, but



if the new Speaker thinks that guns and cars are equally dangerous weapons, lets just treat guns like cars.



Licenses. Training. Insurance. https://t.co/MpzwFr1esO  Chris Murphy  (@ChrisMurphyCT) October 27, 2023

This is idiotic, butif the new Speaker thinks that guns and cars are equally dangerous weapons, lets just treat guns like cars, Mr Murphy said. Licenses. Training. Insurance.

House Republicans unanimously voted to make Mr Johnson speaker this week, after three weeks of infighting without a leader at the top. Mr Johnson beat out several candidates in a multi-round contest after Rep Matt Gaetz (R-FL) filed a motion to defenestrate Speaker Kevin McCarthy earlier this month.

Mr Johnson also said on Fox News that he likely would continue the impeachment of Mr Biden that Mr McCarthy initiated.

Were going to follow the truth where it leads, were going to engage and do due process, because again, were the rule of law party, he said. I know people are getting anxious and theyre getting restless and they just want somebody to be impeached, but we dont do that like the other team.

But Mr Johnson seemed to indicate he opposed expelling Rep George Santos (R-NY), who faces multiple criminal charges. Fellow New York Republican Rep Anthony DEsposito called for his colleagues expulson on Thursday.

We have to allow due process to play itself out, he said. Mr Santos will appear in a federal court on Friday. Thats what our system of justice is for.
The News

Speaker Mike Johnsons first 10 days in office could include a vote to expel a member and dueling censure resolutions, throwing the House into a different kind of chaos after three weeks without a speaker.

A group of Republican members from the New York delegation introduced a privileged resolution to expel indicted Rep. George Santos , with Rep. Nick LaLota, R-N.Y., telling reporters that his ex-treasurer Nancy Marks confession to related crimes was the main catalyst.

The resolution comes one day before Santos is expected to appear in court to face new charges from a superseding indictment, which include allegations he stole from donors by using their credit card information Santos responded to the expulsion resolution and rumors he was packing up his office ahead of his resignation with a post on X. I have not cleared out my office. 2. Im not resigning. 3. Im entitled to due process and not a predetermined outcome as some are seeking.

Semafor was also given access to the lawmakers office to confirm it remained unpacked.

Johnson has two legislative days to schedule a vote, which requires two-thirds of the House to pass. The New Yorkers said they wont be whipping votes and that members should vote their conscience and districts.

Its not clear they have the votes to expel Santos. Members expressed unease with removing one of their own  something that has been done only a handful of times, mostly during the Civil War  without letting the legal process play out fully.

I think the voters and the ethics committee and any investigations into Santos can take care of themselves, Rep. John Duarte, R-Calif. said. I will not be voting to expel George Santos.

There was also the reality that a Santos expulsion would leave the already razor-thin majority even thinner as the House GOP struggles to get itself in order.

He ran on a Republican record, and they shouldnt kick him out, Glenn Grothman, R-Wisc. told Semafor.

The expulsion vote will be brought up alongside two rival censure votes that have nothing to do with Santos.

One was introduced by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib, R-Mich. for antisemitic activity, sympathizing with terrorist organizations and leading an insurrection at the United States Capitol Complex, the last part a reference to a civil disobedience protest at a House office building by a Jewish pro-Palestinian group in which 300 protestors were arrested. Tlaib, who has faced criticism for a social media post blaming Israel for an explosion at a Gaza hospital the U.S. has since attributed to a Palestinian rocket, said the resolution was deeply Islamophobic and attacks peaceful Jewish anti-war advocates.

In response, Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., offered a censure resolution that alleges Greene, among many other charges, repeatedly fanned the flames of racism, antisemitism, LGBTQ hate speech, Islamophobia, anti-Asian hate, xenophobia, and other forms of hatred. The resolution includes a reference to a social media post by Greene from 2018 describing a plot by the Rothschild family, a frequent target of antisemitic conspiracies, to use a nonexistent space laser to cause wildfires in California. Greene has since said the post was not intended as antisemitic.

Kadias view

Were calling next weeks movie Two Censures and an Expulsion for those of you who are new here. Theyre all privileged resolutions, meaning Johnson cant keep them from reaching the floor, and they all present early headaches as he tries to get his caucus in line to avert a government shutdown before November 17 and pass 12 appropriations bills.

Take Santos, for example, whose presence often created problems for then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy. An expulsion might remove one distraction and help New York Republicans demonstrate their independence ahead of some tough elections. But if it succeeds, Republicans could be down a vote for months, and potentially lose the seat to a Democrat. And if it fails, but Johnson is perceived as supportive of the measure, it could leave the unpredictable Santos with a grudge that could matter in future votes. The Congressman just this month helped nudge Rep. Steve Scalises speaker bid off track after declaring he was a hard no due to Scalises refusal to acknowledge him.

But it is what it is, and the newly-elected speaker was sworn in to wrangle the 435-member body, including the problem children that consistently consume the attention of the congressional press corps.

Johnsons office did not respond to a request from Semafor, but LaLota told reporters that the new speaker told them to do whats right and do whats right for New York.

Room for Disagreement

Theres an argument to be made that getting back to business includes all the business of the House, even a free-for-all like this.

Some people have some very strong feelings about those things, Rep. Jake Ellzey, R-Texas, told Semafor, adding that as a member of the Appropriations Committee, hes worried about getting the appropriations bills passed.

Notable

Only five members of the House have ever been expelled. The most recent was in 2002, when Ohio Democrat James Trafficant was voted out after being convicted of bribery charges.
Special counsel Jack Smith withdrew a subpoena seeking information from former President Donald Trump s 2020 campaign this week, a source familiar told CNN.

This is the second withdrawn subpoena related to Smiths investigation into fundraising practices following the 2020 election. Earlier this month, Smith withdrew a subpoena seeking records from Save America, a Trump-controlled political action committee, two sources familiar with the matter said.

The New York Times first reported on the second withdrawn subpoena.

The source said there was no reason given for the withdrawals.

CNN has reached out to the Trump campaign and Save America PAC for comment.

CNN reported last year that a federal grand jury was examining the leadership PAC, in an expansion of the Department of Justices investigation into the events surrounding the US Capitol attack on January 6, 2021. In the time since, the special counsel has indicted Trump on federal criminal charges in the 2020 election interference case and in a separate probe centered on his retention of classified documents after leaving the White House.

The office had made several inquiries about the PAC prior to Trumps indictments, including looking at its fundraising after the election, spending on contractors and lawyers since Trump left office, and speaking to witnesses who were connected financially to the PAC.

The 2020 campaigns fundraising efforts also came under scrutiny from the House select committee that investigated January 6. The panel dedicated an entire investigative team to the matter and, at a June 2022 hearing, tried to make the case that the Trump campaign raised funds by falsely claiming the election was stolen, even though they knew it wasnt, and that the funds may have been misused.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
Maria Zakharova , spokeswoman for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that Moscow could bring Latvian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis to criminal responsibility.

Source: Zakharova, quote by Russian state-owned news agency TASS, as reported by European Pravda

Details: The representative of Russian diplomacy said that at a recent meeting with Russian businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky , Landsbergis allowed himself "a direct open call for a violent change of power in Russia".

Then, according to the statement on the website of the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry, the official called for active opposition to Vladimir Putin in Russia itself, which "not only wants, but also seeks to achieve changes in the Russian political system".

Landsbergis also mentioned that Russia, ruled by the Kremlin regime, remains a threat to the whole world, but did not say anything related to the "violent overthrow" of power in the Russian Federation.

Quote: "This is not the first time Landsbergis has allowed himself to voice such extremist ideas, and for this he has already been included in the list of persons who are prohibited from entering our country. Just in case he doesnt know, in accordance with Russian law and international practice, he faces liability for such statements," Zakharova said.

She did not explain how one would bring a person who is prohibited from entering Russia to criminal responsibility in the country.

This is not the first time Landsbergis has been tough on Russia. In October, after the Russian missile strike on the village of Hroza in Kharkiv Oblast, he called the full-scale Russian war against Ukraine genocidal.

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Five weeks after authorities started looking for him, Springfield's alleged "Superman" bank robber is in custody in Greene County.

Scott Alan Tyner, 50, was booked into Greene County Jail on Thursday by U.S. Marshals for a Sept. 29 robbery of Legacy Bank and Trust on South National Avenue.

Tyner was arrested Oct. 13 in Mississippi after several news outlets reported he allegedly robbed a bank in Huntsville, Alabama on Oct. 6, a week after the Springfield incident.

The man in the Springfield bank robbery was seen on surveillance wearing a Superman T-shirt and gym shorts when police say he robbed the Legacy Bank and Trust and escaped on foot with an undisclosed amount of money.

A Friday court filing noted that Tyner slid a note on a teller counter that read, This is a robbery," and that the teller gave Tyner $5,560 before he left the bank. He scheduled to appear in court Monday.

More: Willard alderman, former mayor resigns on same day he's charged with two felonies

Tyner was arrested in connection with the alleged Huntsville robbery on Oct. 13 in Tishomingo County, Mississippi, which is just across the border from Alabama. During a hearing in that county, his case was sent to the Western District of Missouri for other charges.

Minutes from his Oct. 13 appearance in Mississippi say Tyner was "advised of the charges charged out of the Western District of Missouri and his rights in the arresting district. (Tyner) exercised his right to have his Identity Hearing, Preliminary Hearing and Detention Hearing in the Western District of Missouri."

Authorities in Mississippi said that Tyner was believed to be connected to a bank robbery in Springfield, where the Jonesboro, Arkansas, native has previous criminal history dating back to 2015.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Springfield's alleged 'Superman' bank robber is in custody
The footage of "Squad" Democrat Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York pulling a fire alarm in a House office building was released Thursday after he accepted a plea deal on misdemeanor charges for the incident.

Fox News obtained security footage from Sept. 30 showing Bowman attempting to open two doors in the Cannon House Office Building.

Bowman appears to approach the doors and try the right door, taking a red alarm sign with him from the entryway.

JAMAAL BOWMAN PLEADS GUILTY IN DC COURT ARRAIGNMENT ON CHARGES FOR PULLING FIRE ALARM

The footage of "Squad" Democrat Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York pulling a fire alarm in a House office building was released online with a flurry of comments rolling in.

The congressman then appeared to try to open the left door while knocking over the second alarm sign.

Bowman then turned and pulled the fire alarm before walking off camera still holding the alarm sign from the first door.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

Bowman said that he did not mean to pull the fire alarm and that he had done so while in a rush to go vote. The House at the time was debating and voting on a stopgap bill to fund the government temporarily and avert a .

The "Squad" Democrat told reporters outside the D.C. Superior Court on Thursday that "Hell no" he didn't mean to pull the alarm.

The "Squad" Democrat even told reporters outside the D.C. Superior Court that "Hell no" he didn't mean to pull the alarm.

"What I did was against D.C. law," Bowman said. "As I said from the very beginning, I was not trying to disrupt any congressional proceedings, I'm glad the investigation yielded that."

Bowman pulled the fire alarm ahead of a crucial vote as the GOP pushed a critical stopgap funding bill to avoid a government shutdown.

However, the newly released footage seems to throw water on his argument.

Users online blasted Bowman after the video's release, with Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Republican, quipping that this "is what lawyers would call 'intent.'"

"Why is this footage only coming to light now? We know he got his plea deal, but this is outrageous," Fox News contributor Tammy Bruce tweeted.

Former GOP Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker blasted Bowman as a "bold-faced liar" and called for the congressman to face jail time in a tweet on Thursday.

"This is not a brain freeze. Not an accident," Walker wrote. "This was a premeditated attempt to stop other Members of Congress from voting."

"This is a federal crime and there must be consequences for his actions," Walker continued. "The tapes reveal the truth. Time for him to go to jail."

Other users noted that Bowman did not attempt to open the doors after pulling the fire alarm.

Bowman's office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.

Bowman, 47, turned himself in to D.C. Superior Court on Thursday morning ahead of his arraignment. He pleaded guilty to causing the false alarm.

As part of his plea deal, Bowman is required to write a letter of apology to the U.S. Capitol Police and pay a $1,000 fine.

Fox News Digital's Tyler Olson and Jake Gibson contributed reporting.





Original article source: 'Squad' Dem Rep. Jamaal Bowman fire alarm footage released after guilty plea: 'bold-faced liar'
FILE - Soviet leader Josef Stalin raises his right hand in salute while reviewing a May Day Parade in Red Square in Moscow, on May 1, 1946. Abortions were banned under Stalin but became commonplace under later Kremlin leaders. Under President Vladimir Putin, who has forged a has forged a powerful alliance with the Russian Orthodox Church, now promotes "traditional values" and seeks to boost population growth, officials are considering restricting access to abortion once again. (AP Photo, File)

TALLINN, Estonia (AP)  They were banned under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin but commonplace under later Kremlin leaders. Now, after less than a century, official attitudes about abortion in Russia are changing once again.

Although abortion is still legal and widely available, new restrictions are being considered as President Vladimir Putin takes an increasingly socially conservative turn and seeks to reverse Russia's declining population.

Having embraced the Russian Orthodox Church, he is stressing traditional family values  often used as code words to differentiate his country from Western social attitudes toward LGBTQ+ rights and other policies.

Some see it as a throwback to the Stalinist era, when abortion was outlawed in 1936, and women ending unwanted pregnancies often turned to illegal and unsafe procedures.

My grandmother worked as a teacher in a vocational school. She was telling me stories about abortions being performed with wardrobe hangers in the dormitories, said Lina Zharin, a psychotherapist and feminist activist in Kaliningrad, where lawmakers are considering banning abortion in private clinics.

Seemingly, everyone knows about it, about how scary it was, and I think that a lot of people are surprised and outraged that were going back to it, she said.

Two years after Stalins death in 1953, authorities reversed the ban to curtail dangerous illegal abortions. But they didnt endorse contraceptives, says Michele Rivkin-Fish, an anthropologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with the government remaining pro-natalist and wanting women to have children while staying in the workforce.

Abortion became a common way of dealing with an unwanted pregnancy amid the harsh Soviet economy, even though Rivkin-Fish said conditions at clinics often were terrible.

Anesthesia was in short supply.  There was no privacy - you would have your abortion with other people in the ward, she said. Painkillers were of low quality or scarce, she added, so women were often in excruciating pain.

Under Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev 's reforms, a movement for family planning and adequate birth control was launched in the late 1980s by physicians who were mostly women, according to Rivkin-Fish.

After the USSR's 1991 demise, President Boris Yeltsin funded family planning and birth control programs, and doctors were trained to prescribe and administer contraceptives.

They all went through a federal family planning course that I taught and led, said Dr. Lyubov Yerofeyeva, a gynecologist and a reproductive health specialist at the core of the effort.

By the late 1990s, federal funding fizzled because of conservative opposition. Abortion regulations remained less restrictive, however. Women could terminate a pregnancy until 12 weeks without any conditions, and until 22 weeks for many social reasons, such as divorce, unemployment or low income.

In 2003, the authorities cut that list to just four: if a woman was raped, if she was in prison, if her parental rights were restricted, or if her husband died or became severely disabled during her pregnancy.

This was the first sign that I saw that the government is concerned about lowering abortion rates, and theyre going to do so through access, restricting access, Rivkin-Fish said.

Conservative lawmakers proposed more restrictions in 2011, including that women need permission from their husbands or from their parents if underage; that doctors could refuse abortion if they opposed it; and that a woman must wait two to seven days, depending on the stage of pregnancy, to give her a chance to change her mind.

Yerofeyeva and a reproductive health group she ran, Russian Association of Population and Development, pushed back against these proposals, and only two were adopted nationally: allowing doctors to refuse if against their beliefs, and the mandatory waiting period of 48 hours to a week.

In 2012, the number of social reasons for allowing abortion between weeks 12 and 22 was cut to just in the case of rape.

Under Health Ministry regulations adopted in 2015-16, doctors had to offer women the chance to listen to the fetal heartbeat and show them ultrasound images. They also changed an abortion consent form to emphasize its risks, the possibility of not resorting to it, and the preference of carrying a pregnancy to term.

Yerofeyevas Russian Association for Population and Development was declared a foreign agent  a label that implies additional government scrutiny and carries strong negative connotations  and soon ceased activities.

Last year, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova ordered the Health Ministry to look into banning abortions for those under 18 without parental consent.

In a speech to parliament this year, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko criticized women who prioritize education and careers over childbearing, and supported an abortion ban in private clinics  where up to 20% occurred in recent years. He also moved to restrict abortion pills, which are approved to be taken to end a pregnancy in the first 10 weeks.
(Bloomberg) -- Three senior Labour politicians called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas to allow humanitarian aid to reach Gaza, interventions that will add to pressure on leader Keir Starmer to shift his stance on the conflict.

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Sadiq Khan , a Muslim who has been Mayor of London since 2016, said the situation in Gaza is making it impossible to deliver aid. A widespread military escalation will only deepen the humanitarian disaster, he said on Friday in a video posted on the social media platform X, formally Twitter. No nation, including Israel, has the right to break international law.

Hours later, Anas Sarwar , another Muslim who leads Labours Scottish wing, posted his own video with a similar message. He called for the immediate cessation of violence, with an end of rocket fire into and out of Gaza. And let me be clear, that means a ceasefire right now.

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham then added to the calls of his party colleagues, issuing a statement with local leaders that recognized Israels right to take targeted action while adding their profound concerns about the loss of thousands of innocent lives in Gaza, the displacement of many more and widespread suffering through the ongoing blockade of essential goods and services and calling also for a ceasefire.

Read More: Londons Jews Hide Their Faith While Graffiti Smears UK Muslims

The interventions from three such senior party figures pile pressure on Starmer to shift his stance on the conflict. So far, hes aligned Labour with the British and US governments in calling for pauses in the fighting rather than a full ceasefire, which Prime Minister Rishi Sunaks team has said would benefit Hamas.

Hamas is designated a terrorist group by the European Union, the UK and the US.

Its a balancing act that political leaders across the spectrum in the UK are grappling with as they seek to contain community tensions strained by the conflict. But its particularly challenging for Starmer, in part because many British Muslims have traditionally voted for Labour. The center-left partys attention on human rights and the plight of Palestinians is also a major factor.

The legacy of Starmers predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn, also looms large in how the British media analyzes Labours response. Allegations of anti-Semitism dominated Labour under Corbyn, who shared platforms with Hamas supporters before he became leader, and undermined the push for power.

Read more: Labours Israel-Gaza Tensions Mar Week of Starmer Triumphs

Starmers approach appears aimed at preventing that criticism of Labour re-emerging, especially from a right-wing press that would likely jump on any sense that the opposition party was undermining the Conservative government.

But hes faced internal party criticism for more than two weeks now after remarks he made in an LBC interview appeared to give his backing Israels right to cut off power and water from Gaza. The Labour leader later argued the comment had been misinterpreted, saying he did not mean to back a siege.

Still, the interventions of Khan, Sarwar and Burnham show the pressure is not going away, even though serious protest against Starmer has so far been limited to the resignation of some local councilors rather than members of his own top team.

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The State Department on Friday recommended that U.S. citizens in Lebanon evacuate while flights are available due to an unpredictable security situation amid the escalating regional conflict.

You should have a plan of action for crisis situations that does not rely on U.S. government assistance, the statement read. The best time to leave a country is before a crisis if at all possible.

There is no guarantee the U.S. government will evacuate private U.S. citizens and their family members in a crisis situation, the statement added. In the event that a U.S. military-assisted evacuation does occur, our focus will be on helping U.S. citizens. The U.S. government generally cannot provide in-country transportation during a crisis. That includes transportation to points of departure.

The release recommended that such individuals review flight options at Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport.

The statement comes as back-and-forth strikes between the Israeli Defense Forces and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah have intensified along Lebanons border with Israel, prompting some 12,000 people to flee their homes in southern Lebanon and killing at least 25.

Israel on Friday expanded its Gaza bombardment after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants on Israeli settlements, with the Biden administration seeking to contain the conflict from spreading to areas such as Lebanon.
Governor Ron DeSantis  office claims it helped facilitate the transfer of weapons from the US to Israel, but there are a lot of questions surrounding the action.

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Under the Governors directive, the State of Florida has facilitated the evacuation of nearly 700 Americans from war-torn Israel and sent 85 pallets of supplies to the Jewish State.

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Those supplies not only included items like medical supplies and childrens toys, but also military gear like drones and body armor.

On Thursday, the Governors Office acknowledged it also helped transport weapons and ammo.

What he is doing is not only questionable in its legality, but its incredibly dangerous, State Representative Anna Eskamani (D-Orlando) said.

Read: Live updates | Israeli military says its ground forces are expanding activity in Gaza

Eskamani called the move political and argued the state shouldnt be interfering in a realm typically reserved for the federal government.

Its so problematic for a state to pretend like were an independent country. We have to work with our partners who are experts on these issues, Eskamani said.

According to the Governors Office, the administration worked with the Israeli Consul General in Miami to help coordinate the transportation of the medical supplies, drones, body armor and helmets.

We also worked with the Consul General to help get clearance on flights sending weapons and ammunition to Israel through private parties, DeSantis Press Secretary Jeremy Redfern said in a statement sent to Action News Jax. The weapons and ammunition, which were not purchased by the state, were transported separately. Again, the governors office was contacted by the Consul Generals office for assistance to clear federal bureaucratic hurdles associated with getting those items to Israel.

Read: Local Jewish people and Palestinians receiving threats, want bloodshed to end in Israel

Its not illegal for a state government to do that kind of thing, National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said when asked about the Florida operation Thursday.

Kirby noted he wasnt aware of the details of the situation.

Thats all done through Commerce. I couldnt speak with authority today about whether the Governor has checked all those boxes or not, Kirby said.

Read: Hundreds gather in Jacksonville to stand in solidarity with Israel for peace

UNF political science professor Dr. Michael Binder argued legal or not, its highly unusual and could set a concerning precedent if other states also begin interfering in other international conflicts.

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Conducting foreign policy is a purview thats left to the federal government for a reason, because you dont want 50 different foreign policies coming out of one country, Binder said.

Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live.
Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez are two well-recognized American labor leaders and civil rights activists. But one name that fails to appear in history books time after time from the same era is Filipino-American labor leader Larry Itliong .

The Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS) Museum in Stockton wants to change that. Last Saturday, FANHS Museum unveiled a new exhibit during a private invite-only event honoring Larry Itliong.

"The reason why we are honoring Larry Itliong is one, he is probably the biggest social justice icon in Filipino-American history," said Erwin Mina, FANHS board president.

Patty Itliong Serda unveils an exhibit about her father, farm labor activist Larry Itliong, during a ceremony at the Filipino American National Historic Society museum in downtown Stockton on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023.

The exhibit created by Voltaire Victorio was unveiled by Itliong's daughter Patty Itliong Serda. Others in attendance included Huerta and Chavez's son Paul Chavez.

The museum has scheduled an open house this Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

This is a permanent fixture in the museum," Mina said.

Mina, a Delano native has been on the board for the FANHS museum since November 2019. One of his main goals once he became president earlier this year was to honor Itliong.

Mina said when growing up in Delano he attended school with Cesar Chavez's youngest son.

Farm labor activist Dolores Huerta speaks at a ceremony for the unveiling of an exhibit about fellow activist Larry Itliong at the Filipino American National Historic Society's museum in downtown Stockton on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023.

"One of the reasons that I hold this so passionately is Filipino-Americans have historically been underrepresented and being underrepresented is one of the biggest factors for prejudice and anti-Asian laws," Mina said. "So, we want to tell the story, and we want to get it out there."

Who is Larry Itliong?

Larry Itliong (1913  1977), also known as "Seven Fingers", organized West Coast agricultural workers starting in the 1930s. He was one of the architects of the famous Delano grape strike.Transmission Reference: REC1306211700257239

Itliong was born in the Philippines in 1913 as Modesto "Larry" Dulay Itliong. He immigrated to the United States at a young age.

Itliong ended up moving to Stockton after serving in World War II.

He was involved with the United Farm Workers even though he does not get much recognition for it.

"I think part of it too, was that he wasn't necessarily like the type to need a lot of recognition..." said Irene Calimlim, Community Development director for Little Manila Rising. "I think it is a little bit sad like in Stockton that we don't get a lot of recognition for Larry Itliong being really rooted in Stockton and having that history, a lot of us only learned it from ethnic studies courses when we were adults in college."

According to the Library of Congress Legal States website, "The United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC) was formed in 1966 as a collaboration between the Filipino Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee and the National Farm Workers Association."

He organized farmworkers to strike in California.

Larry Itliong, arriving for a union meeting in the 1960s.

Itliong among other Filipino-American leaders organized the 1965 Delano Grape Strike.

Though many people believe Cesar Chavez called that strike, it was Itliongs Filipino farm workers union that did, The Record reported in 2014.

Itliong convinced older farmworkers to fight for fair treatment. The raise they were fighting for was from $1.20 to $1.40. Itliong asked Chavez to join them.

Partnering with Itliong (and, in his own union, another Stockotnian, Huerta), Chavez conducted the strike brilliantly, using nonviolence, a 300-mile march to Sacramento and a national grape boycott over a grueling 5-year campaign that ended in success, The Record reported.

Just like Itlliong's contributions to the farm workers labor movement, Filipino-American history remains unknown to many.

"There's a term, historical amnesia, so in the 1960s, a lot of the central area of the Little Manila neighborhood, got erased when the Crosstown freeway (was built, it ) destroyed, like a lot of those businesses. And I think with that came a lot of trauma that can be common with the immigrant story that it's best to just really just try to survive and be quiet and kind of blend in," Calimlim said. "A lot of that history of Stockton just didn't really carry through, even though there's just so much history within that neighborhood."

In 2015, Little Manila Rising had a petition to rename the section of Hunter Street between the Crosstown Freeway and Hazelton Street to Larry Itliong Street.

However, eight years later there is still no Larry Itliong Street in Stockton.

"Larry is an example of someone who fought for justice and believed that in order to do that, it takes bringing everyone along, really embodying everyone's struggle and taking that on together in solidarity," Calimlim said. "Because in the end, for him, it wasn't specific about fair conditions just for the Filipino population. He really saw that it was important to carry on the fight as well for the other immigrant populations that were also working in the fields."

(10/26/2021) Dawn Mabalon and Gayle Romasanta co-wrote "Journey for Justice: The Life of Larry Itliong," to commemorate the Filipino American activist's life. This is the cover of their book, published in 2018 by Bridge + Delta Publishing, as found on their website.

The book "Journey for Justice: The Life of Larry Itliong" is a book co-written by Stockton native Gayle Romasanta and Little Manila Rising's co-founder Dr. Dawn Mabalon. It was published in 2018. Now, Romasanta is in the works of putting together a musical she wrote and is the executive producer for Larry The Musical.

Larry Itliong Day

California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis issued a proclamation declaring Larry Itliong Day on Oct. 25, which also was his birthday.

Larry Itliong Day was first celebrated in California in 2015 after former Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB 7, a bill authored by then-Assemblymember Rob Bonta.

October also marks Filipino-American History Month.

"The influence that he made for me, and a lot of our people was that he fought for people that were powerless," Mina said. "And able to organize peoples of different races he was a unifier and he gave us license to dream."

Anyone interested in visiting the exhibit on a different day can do so by appointment. To make an appointment, email the FANHS Museum at fanhsmuseum@aol.com or call them at 209-932-9037.

Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS) Museum

Location: 337 E Weber Ave in Stockton

Hours: By appointment only

Information: fanhsmuseum.com

Record reporter Angelaydet Rocha covers community news in Stockton and San Joaquin County. She can be reached at arocha@recordnet.com or on Twitter @AngelaydetRocha. To support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow.

This article originally appeared on The Record: Filipino-American Larry Itliong honored at Stockton exhibit
Last month, Stockton police officer Marcos Alonso shot 34-year-old Jory Jamarr Lester, killing him under the Fremont Street and Pershing Avenue overpass.

Now, body camera footage reveals the details of the brief interaction before Alonso pulled the trigger.

The fatal 21-second encounter on the evening of Sept. 11 arose from a 911 call.

A woman working at a nearby motel called dispatch to report a man was trying to break the window of a third-floor room, audio released along with the bodycam footage reveals.

"This dude is so high, he's all sweaty, wet, bleeding," the caller said, adding that the man was "hanging out the window bleeding."

"He's got a long freaking gun," the caller said. "He ain't threaten nobody here or nothing like that."

The motel in question may have been the Red Roof Inn on Fremont: a three-story motel located a short walk west of where police shot Lester and no stranger to public safety incidents.

Red Roof employee Anita Hensley made a similar call to the one released Thursday on the night of the shooting, she told The Record on Sept. 12.

Hensley said the man she witnessed  who broke into a room on the Red Roof's third floor and matched Lester's description from that night  kept repeating, "I just need somewhere to be. I just need somewhere to be."

It's unclear how much time passed between the 911 call and the fatal encounter.

But around 10 p.m., Alonso and Officer Jason Rozal arrived near Cocentra Urgent Care on Fremont Street, the footage released Thursday shows. The release included two clips, one from each officer's bodycam.

First, both officers exit the police SUV and approach a concrete pylon. Alonso's footage shows that his gun is drawn and held near his chest.

Behind the pylon, Lester can be momentarily seen doubled over, leaning on the urgent care building. He then walks into view with his hands in his pockets.

"Let me see your hands, man," Alonso shouts. Lester puts his hands in the air and walks past Alonso, heading away from the officers.

"Stop moving! Stop moving!" Alonso repeats. As he does so, Lester makes an unclear response, possibly saying, "No! I ain't did that!" and "Get off!"

Moments later, Lester turns around and appears to pull something from the side of his pants. Someone  it's unclear if it was Lester or an officer, yells  "Hey! No! Hey!" Alonso then fires seven shots. Lester falls in the road.

Police say Lester was carrying a black replica firearm with blue detailing, which resembled a short rifle. It was found at the scene, police said.

An internal department investigation into whether Alonso's decision to fire followed the police's use-of-force policy is still underway, spokesman officer Omer Edhah said.

The policy states that officers may use deadly force if they reasonably believe it's necessary to "defend against an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury to the officer or another person."

Officers may also do so "to apprehend a fleeing person for any felony that threatened or resulted in death orserious bodily injury, if the officer reasonably believes that the person will cause death or serious bodily injury to another unless immediately apprehended."

A California Department of Justice investigation into Lester's killing is also underway, according to the department's website.

Since 2021, California law has required the DOJ to investigate all cases in which police fatally shoot an unarmed civilian.

The release of the footage of Lester's shooting Thursday came on the heels of Stockton's latest law enforcement killing: hours before, a San Joaquin County deputy fatally shot a man who allegedly stabbed a sheriff's dog in north Stockton.

The September shooting footage was released on the Stockton Police Department's Facebook page. Viewer discretion is advised.

Record reporter Aaron Leathley covers public safety. She can be reached at aleathley@recordnet.com or on Twitter @LeathleyAaron. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record athttps://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow.

This article originally appeared on The Record: 'Stop moving!' Video shows moment of Sept. Stockton police shooting
The Kennewick School Board, like other local elected bodies, is supposed to be nonpartisan. That hasnt stopped Benton County Republicans from mounting a concerted effort to send the board lurching to the right.

The GOPs opportunity comes as two school board moderates chose not to seek reelection. One incumbent is running.

The school district already had culture war skirmishes. Earlier this year there was a flap over flag displays, and last year the board got twisted up over critical race theory and factual U.S. history. Both debates were time and effort wasted that could have gone to improving learning.

Theres certainly room for some educational improvement. The districts more than 19,000 students lag behind state averages on almost every metric of the Washington State Report Card.

The Tri-City Herald Editorial Board interviewed candidates and reviewed their records and qualifications in deciding whom to recommend in each race. We commend all candidates for stepping up to run. Competitive elections elevate the public discourse and give voters a choice, which is a cornerstone of democracy.

Voters can view all of our recommendation and our endorsement interviews online at tri-cityherald.com.

Director No. 3: Michael Connors

Michael Connors is the only incumbent seeking reelection. He has served one full term on the board. If he wins, he would be the only director of the five who has been around for more than two years. In his time on the board, he has been a pragmatist, not an ideologue. During the heated ideological debates of recent years, he brought the board together as a mediator.

Kennewick voters rejected two levies before approving the third try. As a result, budgeting will be difficult to navigate until the delayed revenue starts coming in. The board will benefit from Connors institutional knowledge, experience and ability to build coalitions during that time and after.

Dustin Petersen is challenging Connors. He brings some strong assets, including being bilingual and having elected experience, albeit two years on a small town city council 100 miles away. He might be a great candidate in a few years depending on what the board needs, and we hope that he finds a place in the district to make a difference in the meantime.

We recommend voters choose Connors experience for an otherwise fresh-faced board.

Director No. 4: Brittany Gledhill

Britany Gledhill isnt taking her candidacy lightly. Since she decided to run, shes attended school board meetings, interviewed district employees and reviewed the budget so that she can hit the ground running if elected. Therell still be a learning curve, but shes doing all the right things to prepare.

Gledhill has extensive community service experience that could help improve relationships between the school board and the public. Public skepticism was evident in the rejection of two levies.

There are some warning signs in her answers to tough questions. For example, she said that she doesnt like book bans, but she then acknowledged that there are some books that dont belong on school shelves. She would have a committee review them first, not the school board, and she insists on librarian autonomy. If she can moderate ideological tendencies, she could make a strong school board member.

Gledhills opponent, Aaron Michele Massey, is mounting a weak campaign and cant even bother to put up a website. She skipped her scheduled endorsement interview with the Tri-City Herald Editorial Board.

We recommend voters choose Gledhill, the candidate who is taking the race seriously.

Director No. 5: No recommendation

Josh Miller has no active opponent in the Position 5 race. Lisa Peppard has ended her candidacy after a death in the family, but her name still appears on the ballot. If elected, Peppard has pledged to relinquish the seat and the board will appoint someone to fill it.

Full list of Tri-City Herald Editorial Board 2023 recommendations and videos | Opinion
A school in Gastonia was placed on a lockdown Friday after students spotted a person walking nearby with a gun, and police later said the suspect turned out to be a child.

According to the Gastonia Police Department, officers got a call around 11:40 a.m. saying that students at Victory Christian Academy on South York Road saw a male walking on the sidewalk with a gun.

Officers arrived and found the person matching the description, and he was taken into custody. Police said he was a juvenile suspect, but its not clear what charges he may be facing.

Police said nearby schools were released from lockdown after the juvenile was taken into custody.

(WATCH: Chase ends in woods, triggers lockdown at Mint Hill high school)
A new study found that most people living in Britain cant name a single Black British historical figure.

According to The Independent, the study, which UKs Bloomsbury Publishing commissioned, concluded that most Brits know shockingly little about Black British history.

The study found that, of the British adults surveyed, 75% did not know very much or anything at all about Black history in Britain, and 53% could not name any Black British historical figures. Only 7% could name more than four. Most participants also didnt know the role Britain played in the transatlantic slave trade.

More than half of them werent even aware of how many people were ripped from their homes in Africa and brought to Britain as property. Some thought it was 250,000 or fewer, and only 12% thought enslavers took over 1 million people despite the study noting the true figure being more than three times that amount.

Rebecca McNally, publishing director and editor-in-chief of Bloomsbury childrens books, said, It is important for all of us to play a role in shining a light on Black British history, not just in Black History Month but every day.

The results of this survey demonstrate an urgent need for books that spotlight integral parts of our history that have been pushed to one side for far too long, she added.

Black peoples history in Britain stretches back about 12,000 years, per The Independent, and the first known African settlers immigrated to the country approximately 2,000 years ago. Black peoples legacy in Britain surprised a significant amount participants  36% thought that Black people started migrating to Britain 200 years ago, while 29% werent sure.

To hopefully make sure that more Brits know of the countrys Black history, Bloomsbury published Brilliant Black British History written by Nigerian British childrens book author Atinuke, which celebrates the Black British people who helped advance the country in various fields, including science, sport, literature and law.

Of the studys findings, Atinuke said, Half of UK adults cannot name a single Black historical figure and only 7 per cent can name more than four  I think disbelief is really the only word.

She added, There have always been people with black and brown skin in Britain  from the Stone Age, through every single era, to the present day.

Atinuke noted that Black British people are responsible for some of the most significant discoveries in the Georgian era, from 1714 to 1837, according to England Heritage.

More than that, the forced contribution of millions of Black people before and during the Georgian era changed the course of British history  helping Britain to become the first industrialized nation in the world and a superpower, she explained.

But Atinukes book isnt enough. The author says that the government needs to get involved in order to meaningfully educate the masses.

As our world becomes more polarised and divided, increased inclusivity is needed now more than ever. All British history needs to be taught as one history. Its all our history, she urged.
While teacher shortages plague Florida, school districts have found that finding substitute teachers to temporarily fill vacancies is just as difficult. Their solution? Lower the job requirements.

The Miami Herald reported earlier this month that candidates seeking to become substitute teachers in Miami-Dade County only needed a high school diploma or the equivalent to apply. This represented a stark contrast when the district required subs to have at least 60 college credit hours  the equivalent of an associate degree  to apply.

Miami-Dade became the sixth of the 10 largest school districts in Florida to lower their minimum level of education for short-term substitute teachers, according to the Miami Herald.

Veterans can teach in Florida: Veterans can now teach in Florida with no degree. School leaders say it 'lowers the bar'

After searching through each of Floridas 68 school district websites, the News Journal found that the overwhelming majority of Florida school districts have quietly rolled back their requirements, too.

In Florida, public school districts set their requirements for hiring substitute teachers and state law only requires them to have a high school diploma and complete a training program in district policies and procedures addressing school safety and security procedures, educational liability laws, professional responsibilities and ethics.

Candidates dont need prior teaching experience to become substitute teachers either. In these cases, Florida law recommends ongoing training and access to professional developmental offerings be made available to substitute teachers by the district.

Heres a look at the new substitute teacher requirements in Florida, county-by-county.

Do substitute teachers in Florida need a degree?

Minimum education requirements for substitute teachers in Florida vary by school district. However, most school districts in Florida now only require that candidates have a high school diploma or equivalent to apply. In rarer cases, applicants might need 30-60 college credit hours.

Not all substitute teacher positions are equal, however. Long-term substitute teacher positions, which pay higher, have more stringent requirements. Most of these positions require a bachelor degree or higher and require the applicant to be certified.

New Florida school rules: New Florida school phone rules catches parents off guard. What else changed over summer

How to become a substitute teacher in Florida

Every public school district in Florida has its own requirements for hiring substitute teachers. The Florida Department of Education does not issue special certificates or permits for substitute teachers.

All substitute teachers must have at least a high school diploma (or equivalent). If you have no classroom teaching experience, the school district must provide you with training on classroom management skills and instructional strategies prior to allowing you to work in the classroom. You must also be trained in the school districts school safety policies and procedures, ethics, professional responsibilities and liability laws.

Those applying will need to pass a background check, have a few references and have ID documents. Candidates applying to multiple school districts will have to apply to each one individually.

Florida substitute teacher requirements by county

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Florida schools are lowering substitute teacher requirements all over
Theater students at Hampshire High School will take the stage in the spring to perform The Prom, a musical featuring gay teens, after district administrators in the northwest Chicago suburb reversed their earlier decision to postpone the performance due to safety concerns.

Its a lot of excitement and relief right now, said senior student Henry Hanson. There were a lot of people on the verge of tears.

Susan Harkin, the superintendent of District 300, said in a statement Thursday that the district developed a comprehensive safety plan alongside law enforcement and the village of Hampshire that provides the necessary protections for The Prom to be performed within a safe and supportive environment.

The district had originally postponed the musical to an unspecified time and told students it wouldnt take place this year. This week, Harkin announced the district was reconsidering the decision after student and parent outcry. More than 5,000 people signed an online petition and dozens spoke at a board meeting on Tuesday.

This plan extends beyond the scheduled performance dates. It spans from today, the date of the announcement, and continues after the final show to effectively address any post-performance issues, Harkin said. The plan offers safeguards addressing a wide range of potential issues, including, but not limited to, potential harassment, bullying, and violence targeting LGBTQ+ students, performers, staff and community members.

In her statement, Harkin asked community members to report any information they become aware of that might endanger a student or staff member to the Safe School Tip Line available on the District 300 website at www.d300.org.

She previously said she was worried about potential harassment of LGBTQ+ students and faculty members, after shes seen past attempts to out students involved in the Gay Straight Alliance as well as threats and inappropriate comments related to a community meeting held last month for an LGBTQ+ learning space.

Chris Cherry, the musical director at Hampshire High School, said he and his staff chose The Prom because its about accepting everybody and thats what we do here.

Students shared this week that the production was meaningful to them because it was a chance for the theater kids, some of whom are part of the LGBTQ+ community, to feel represented in their craft, and that they didnt think there would be significant backlash from the community.

The Prom follows four struggling, narcissistic Broadway stars who decide to help a lesbian teen want to improve their image through positive media coverage. After reading that parents in a small town in Indiana canceled the schools prom to prevent a lesbian teen from bringing her girlfriend to the dance, the stars decide to help.

The musical, which opened on Broadway in 2018 and was adapted into a Netflix film, is loosely based on a 2010 incident where a high school in Mississippi refused to let two girls attend the prom as a couple. When one of the students fought back, involving the American Civil Liberties Union, the school board canceled the dance.

rjohnson@chicagotribune.com
FILE - Then Chinese Premier Li Keqiang waves during a press conference after the closing session of the National People's Congress in Beijing's Great Hall of the People on March 15, 2019. Former Premier Li Keqiang, China's top economic official for a decade, died Friday, Oct. 27, 2023 of a heart attack. He was 68. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)

HONG KONG (AP)  The sudden death of China's former second-ranking leader, Li Keqiang, has shocked many people in the country, with tributes offered up to the ex-official who promised market-oriented reforms but was politically sidelined.

Li, who died early Friday of a heart attack, was Chinas top economic official for a decade, helping navigate the worlds second-largest economy through challenges such as rising political, economic and military tensions with the United States and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Li was extolled as an excellent (Communist Party of China) member, a time-tested and loyal communist soldier and an outstanding proletarian revolutionist, statesman and leader of the Party and the state, the official Xinhua News Agency said in its brief obituary.

Li was known for his advocacy of private business but lost much of his influence as President Xi Jinping accumulated ever-greater powers and elevated the military and security services in aid of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

A hashtag related to his death on the Chinese social media platform Weibo drew over 1 billion views in just a few hours. On posts about Li, the like button was turned into a daisy  a common flower for funerals in China, and many users commented rest in peace." Others called his death a loss and said Li worked hard and contributed greatly to China.

The Chinese government, however, had little to say immediately about Li. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning asked reporters to refer to information from official news agency Xinhua and the obituary released later.

We deeply mourn over the tragic passing of Comrade Li Keqiang due to a sudden heart attack, she said.

Beijing resident Xia Fan, 20, said she was saddened by the death of Li, whom she called a really conscientious and responsible premier." She said her mind was blank when she first heard about the news.

He really accompanied the growth of our generation, thats how it feels in my heart, she said.

Designer Chen Hui said Li contributed greatly to China's development. If I were to talk about it, its impossible to finish it in one day. Its a pity, Chen said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed his condolences on the passing of Li, said Matthew Miller, State Department spokesperson.

Nicholas Burns, U.S. ambassador to China, also extended his condolences to Li's family, the Chinese government and the Chinese people in both English and Chinese on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Japans embassy in China expressed its condolences on Weibo. It said Li had visited Japan in 2018 and he played an importance role in the relations of both countries.

Li, an English-speaking economist, was from a generation of politicians schooled during a time of greater openness to liberal Western ideas. Introduced to politics during the chaotic 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, he made it into prestigious Peking University, where he studied law and economics, on his own merits rather than through political connections.

Li had been seen as former Communist Party leader Hu Jintao's preferred successor as president about a decade ago. But the need to balance party factions prompted the leadership to choose Xi, the son of a former vice premier and party elder, as the consensus candidate.

The two never formed anything like the partnership that characterized Hus relationship with his premier, Wen Jiabao  or Mao Zedongs with the redoubtable Zhou Enlai  although Li and Xi never openly disagreed over fundamentals.

Last October, Li was dropped from the Standing Committee at a party congress despite being more than two years below the informal retirement age of 70. He stepped down in March and was succeeded by Li Qiang , a crony of Xis from his days in provincial government. His departure marked a shift away from the skilled technocrats who have helped steer Chinas economy in favor of officials known mainly for their unquestioned loyalty to Xi.

___

Associated Press journalist Simina Mistreanu in Beijing contributed to this report.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaking during the German-Ukrainian business forum in Berlin, on October 24, 2023 (John MACDOUGALL)

From fake street art to doctored media reports demonizing President Volodymyr Zelensky, a torrent of online disinformation seeks to erode Western support that is crucial for Kyiv's war effort against Russia.

The falsehoods, experts say, are aimed at provoking anti-Ukraine sentiment in Western countries while lending credence to the notion that war-weary European and American allies are turning against Zelensky.

The wave of disinformation comes as Kyiv is scrambling to retain Western support -- while attention shifts to the war between Israel and the militant group Hamas  ahead of what is expected to be another winter bombing campaign by Russia.

"The (disinformation) campaigns take place in multiple countries and languages, and their intensification suggest concerted efforts," Roman Osadchuk, from the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab), told AFP.

"The main objective of Russia here is to put a wedge in Western societies, polarizing them and portraying the help for Ukraine as 'problematic.'

"These efforts are aimed at political elites and the general population, some of whom might not closely follow the war, making them more vulnerable" to the false narratives.

AFP's factcheckers have exposed a series of doctored images of street art mocking Zelensky, who has faced an avalanche of disinformation since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022.

That includes fake photos -- shared across social media platforms -- of graffiti in cities such as Warsaw, Berlin and Paris depicting Zelensky devouring money from his Western allies. No such graffiti was found.

- 'War fatigue' -

AFP factcheckers have also uncovered fabricated German and French media reports about graffiti depicting Zelensky engaging in cannibalism. The media outlets confirmed that the posts circulating on platforms such as Facebook and Telegram were fake.

When Zelensky visited the United States last month, a doctored online video appeared to show a New York city billboard with the words "glory to urine" alongside an image of the Ukrainian leader.

The manipulated clip was watermarked with the logo for Fox News Digital, but a network spokesperson told AFP that it had not posted any such footage.

It remains unclear precisely who is behind the false claims but they fit a broader pattern of anti-Ukraine disinformation by Russia, which for decades has engaged in information warfare focused on fueling anti-Western sentiments, researchers say.

"There has been a visible growth of Russian propaganda in Europe" compared to the first few months of 2022, Ruslan Trad, a resident fellow for security research at the DFRLab, told AFP.

"The Kremlin is capitalizing on war fatigue and apathy, as well as the Euroscepticism and fears of Western and Central European societies."

Raising concerns about cracks in Western support for Kyiv, Slovakia's new populist Prime Minister Robert Fico on Thursday said he had "informed" the European Union's executive of his decision to stop military aid to Ukraine.

Soon after last month's general election -- which Fico won on pledges to end assistance to Ukraine -- Slovakia accused Moscow of interfering in the vote by deliberately disseminating falsehoods.

Even in the United States -- Kyiv's biggest donor of security aid -- there are concerns that opposition from hardline Republican lawmakers has put future assistance for Kyiv in doubt.

- Information warfare -

President Joe Biden is currently pushing Congress to approve a massive $106 billion security bill, which includes $61 billion in military aid for Ukraine.

On Thursday, Washington announced a new $150 million military assistance package for Ukraine that includes artillery and small-arms ammunition as well as anti-tank weapons.

Zelensky thanked the US for the assistance, saying "strengthening air defense is critical to protect Ukrainian cities and infrastructure" as winter approaches.

Ukraine is bracing itself for a renewed Russian bombing campaign on its energy infrastructure, which last year plunged millions of civilians into extreme hardship.

The European Union has also vowed steadfast support. Earlier this month, the European Parliament endorsed a proposal to provide an extra 50 billion euros ($53 billion) for Ukraines recovery.

But despite these robust pledges, US officials cited by local media have warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin seeks to end American and European support for Ukraine by using his spy agencies to push propaganda and conspiracy theories.

"Russia is benefiting right now (from) decades of information activities," said Adam Lelonek, from the International Republican Institute's Beacon Project.

"Russia cannot win this conventional war but still aspires to win in the information dimension."

burs-ac/tjj
CAMDEN - An automatic license plate reader helped detectives track down a murder suspect here.

The surveillance technology came into play after a man stepped from a black Nissan Sentra and opened fire on a man on the 700 block of Bailey Street in North Camden on Oct. 15.

The 12:45 p.m. shooting fatally wounded Jose G. Rivera, a 46-year-old city resident, according to the Camden County Prosecutor's Office.

Victim's body found in Philadelphia Police: Camden man shot dead after leaving Wheels of Soul clubhouse

Video of the scene showed two numbers, "44," from the Sentra's license plate, and an automatic license plate reader spotted a suspect car minutes later on Admiral Wilson Boulevard.

Detectives identified the car's registered owner as Jose O. Rivera, and then found the car unoccupied behind the suspect's home on the 3000 block of Stevens Street.

Police later stopped the car when Rivera was driving from the scene.

The vehicle tested positive for gunshot residue on the driver door, steering wheel, gear shifter and center console, according to a probable cause statement for the case.

A search of Rivera's home found clothing consistent with those seen on the gunman. They also tested positive for gunshot residue, the statement says.

In addition, it adds, toll records showed Rivera's cell phone number was "at or very near the location of the homicide."

Rivera, 34, was charged with murder. He is being held in Camden County Jail.

The charge is only an allegation. Rivera has not been convicted in the case.

Anyone with information is asked to call Prosecutor's Detective Daniel Crawford at 856-225-2593 or Camden County Police Detective Brian Ford at 609-519-6927.

Jim Walsh is a senior reporter with the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal. Email: Jwalsh@cpsj.com.

This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: License plate reader leads detectives to murder suspect Jose O. Rivera
Members of the L.A. County Sheriff's Department investigate the scene at Malibu Lagoon State Beach, where a body was found inside a 55-gallon drum on July 31. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

A 32-year-old man is in custody after being charged in the murder of a musician whose body was found inside a barrel at Malibu Lagoon State Beach this summer.

Los Angeles County sheriff's detectives arrested Joshua Lee Simmons earlier this month. He is charged in the killing of Javonnta Murphy, who authorities say was fatally shot before his body was dumped into the lagoon inside a 55-gallon plastic drum.

Prosecutors allege that Simmons shot Murphy to death on July 27, three days before a maintenance worker first spotted the barrel in a shallow water inlet.

The maintenance worker paddled out in a kayak and pulled the container to the shore, but didnt open it. The next day, a lifeguard saw the same barrel  now back in the lagoon  and swam out and brought it onto the beach, where he opened it and discovered the body.

Simmons is also charged with making criminal threats against a second man on the same day he is accused of killing Murphy. That man, Brandon Gray, was taken into custody at the Malibu/Lost Hills sheriff's station on Oct. 5, but was not charged.

Prosecutors allege that an accomplice, Dennis Eugene Vance, helped cover up the fatal shooting and have charged him as an accessory after the fact.

Read more: Man whose body was found in a barrel in Malibu was shot in the head, coroner finds

Simmons is also the suspect in an attempted robbery at Meza Jewelry in El Monte that was thwarted by a store owner. Surveillance cameras captured the burglary suspect around 2 p.m. on Sept. 2 as he walked down Main Street  dressed in all black, wearing a face mask and carrying a cardboard box. Israel Mesa was sprayed with bear repellent by the suspect.

A video identifying Simmons as the suspect was circulated by detectives seeking to apprehend him just days after the attempted robbery.

Read more: Man found in barrel at Malibu Lagoon was aspiring L.A. recording artist

Simmons and Vance were arrested on Oct. 3. Two days later, Simmons was charged with murder, criminal threats, attempted robbery and two counts of criminal threats against the store owner.

Simmons is being held on $3.275-million bail in L.A. County's Men's Central Jail and is due back in court on Nov. 3. He has yet to enter a plea. Vance has been released on bond listed as $50,000 and is also set to appear that day.

Simmons has a history of violent offenses, including a 2019 conviction for assault with a deadly weapon in connection with a crime in 2013.

Murphy, 32, was living in Sylmar at the time he was killed and was pursuing a career in music, according to authorities and a family friend. He grew up in South Los Angeles with his four brothers  two older and two younger, said Patrick Nelson, 46, a family friend who dated Murphys mother and considered himself a stepfather of sorts to Murphy.

Read more: Malibu lifeguard cracks open suspiciously heavy barrel, finds a body

After the death of Murphys grandmother, who anchored their family, Murphy moved into an apartment of his own in Sylmar, Nelson said. He was pursuing a career in rapping and dreamed of becoming a successful artist, Nelson said.

Murphy spent his free time lifting weights and running, Nelson said, and was father to a young son.

He was a good kid, good person. He didnt gang-bang. What happened to him, I just dont understand, Nelson said.

Murphy's naked body was inside a barrel that contained markings suggesting it came from a printing company.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
SUNNYVALE, Calif. - After 44 years, authorities claim to have solved the killing of an 18-year-old security guard in Sunnyvale.

On October 16, 1979, officers with the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety responded to an assault at a business at 444 De Guigne Drive.

That is where officers found Estella Elena Mena, in the lobby suffering from multiple stab wounds. Mena had been working as a security guard.

She was taken to a local hospital where she died.

For years, the suspect's identity had been unknown, and there were no leads in the case.

SEE ALSO: Polly Klaas kidnapping remembered 30 years later

However, with the advancement of forensic science and DNA testing, investigators announced today that they were able to identify the suspect as Samuel Silva. Silva had been living in Colorado before he died in 2008. He was around 47 years old when he died.

Authorities said Silva was a former Sunnyvale resident with a lengthy criminal history which included sexual assault and violent crime.

The 1979 homicide case is now closed.
A Sussex County bus driver was convicted this week of more than two dozen counts of child endangerment for operating a bus with students aboard while drunk last year, the prosecutor's office stated.

A jury found Colleen Eutermarks, 51, of Wantage, guilty of 27 counts  one for each student she transported while intoxicated following a two-week trial that ended Thursday, acting Prosecutor Annmarie Taggart said. Each count is a second-degree offense punishable by five to 10 years in prison.

Eutermarks was arrested on Jan. 28, 2022, after state police observed her driving a school bus erratically on Route 565 in Frankford, according to the prosecutor's office. Her blood alcohol concentration was 0.34, more than eight times the legal limit of 0.04 for a driver operating a commercial vehicle.

An investigation determined Eutermarks picked up 27 students from Wallkill Valley Regional High School and Franklin Elementary School while she was intoxicated. Police also discovered a partially consumed bottle of vodka in her purse, which was among the evidence presented during the trial.

Sussex County NJ Meet the two newest officers sworn into the Newton Police Department

"There is no excuse for the reckless behavior Ms. Eutermarks displayed," Taggart said in a statement following the verdict. "The Sussex County jury clearly held Ms. Eutermarks accountable for her terrible decision making that day."

Eutermarks' sentencing is scheduled for January. Judge Michael Gaus remanded her to the Morris County Correctional Facility until then due to the severity of the convictions.

The case was prosecuted by Sussex County Assistant Prosecutor Sahil Kabse, while Eutermarks was represented by defense attorney George Daggett.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Wantage NJ school bus driver found guilty of driving drunk
A Swedish court has acquitted a Russian-born Swedish businessman of espionage charges, stemming from allegations that he collected information for Russia's military intelligence service, the Associated Press reported on Oct. 26.

Sergey Skvortsov, who was arrested last November near Stockholm, was alleged to have undertaken gross illegal intelligence activities against Sweden and against a foreign power, namely the United States.

Skvortsov ran import-export companies and was accused of passing Western technology to Russian military intelligence.

However the Stockholm District Court found otherwise, saying in its verdict that Skvortsov's business dealings were "only intended for the procurement of technology from the West and not aimed at obtaining information concerning Sweden or the United States that may constitute espionage.

The prosecutor alleged that Skvortsov had utilized espionage networks to obtain information that he could not otherwise acquire due to export regulations and sanctions. He was alleged to have helped purchase and transport the goods, misleading suppliers by providing false information and acting under false identities.

While Judge Jakob Hedenmo agreed that Skortsov had acted in this way, he said the prosecutor did not provide sufficient evidence to prove his activities amounted to espionage.

Skvortsov's lawyer, Ulrika Borg, expressed relief following the verdict.

He has been detained for a very long time. It is stressful for anyone, Borg said.

Russia is known for utilizing its large espionage network to conduct propaganda activities aimed at destabilizing international relations. Earlier this year, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) revealed that it uncovered over 600 Russian agents and spies in the country since the start of the full-scale invasion.

Numerous countries have also arrested saboteurs and expelled diplomats over accusations of spying for Russia during its war against Ukraine.

Read also: EuroMaidan murders case: Why is the verdict criticized, and why is it about Russia?

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
The Dovers Witches Market will be held on Sunday, Oct. 29, 2023.

It is 1803 and Clermont County resident Nancy Evans is about to be lowered onto a scale in the middle of the Bethel town square.

The small town hadn't even celebrated its 10th anniversary yet, Ohio had just become a state that very year and the Ohio River Valley was far from being settled.

The townspeople had gathered to watch Evans, not because they wanted to know her weight, but because they wanted to know if she was a witch.

Recounting the tale in 1953, which was originally published in an 1880 tome, Harry Hale wrote about Ohio's only known witch trial in a newspaper column called "True Tales about Ohio."

Fanny Hildebrand had been waking up in the night screaming and would thrash on the floor and pull at her own hair. Her family insisted that she had been bewitched and the fingers were pointed at Evans.

"She has powers," her accusers said. "Everybody says so."

The matter was taken before the local judge. Hale supposed he knew about the witch trials in earlier colonial times. Even in the 1800s, people were realizing how ill-conceived they were.

However, the unnamed judge devised a test: Mary Evans would be weighed against a Bible.

Professor Janine Hartman, who currently teaches the Women and Witchcraft course at the University of Cincinnati, said he was likely trying to keep the peace in a budding community. Perhaps the test was rigged for just that purpose.

"It has a certain 'Monty Python and Holy Grail' feel," Hartman joked.

The holy book was suspended on one end of a long pole with a fulcrum in the middle. Men hoisted Evans over the other side of the pole. At the judge's order, they dropped her.

"The Bible shot several feet out of its sling," Hale wrote.

However, he said Fanny Hildebrand continued to suffer from her affliction and some of the townspeople kept looking for someone to blame. Accounts say she would collapse and writhe on the floor before falling into a coma.

"Apparently, neither Hildebrands nor anybody else at Bethel then had heard of epilepsy," Hale wrote.

Evans eventually moved away to Brown County, where she died a "very old and respected citizen."

Hartman says stories like these and the ones from Salem still hold important lessons, even during modern times.

"We have such narrow beliefs," she said. She pointed to fact that many buildings still don't have 13th floors and animal shelters still report that black dogs and cats are harder to find homes for.

"It's not a unique or ancient thing," she told The Enquirer. "Perhaps our brains haven't changed that much."

She said studying cases like these exposes our tendency for groupthink and for judging people by surface appearance.

Hartman recounted another story from a later time in Cincinnati when a woman was harassed by local children who thought she was a witch. The woman was often seen reading a big old book on the floor of her home with a candle between her feet.

The children thought she was casting spells when, in fact, she was reading the Bible.

But Hartman said in this case, it wasn't the woman who was put on trial, but the children. The courts stepped in to admonish the youths for harassing the woman.

However, Hartman said that when it comes to witches, specifically, our culture is changing. She pointed to "Harry Potter" and events like the one that happens each year in Tarrytown, New York.

There, along the Sleepy Hollow Shoreline, dozens of people gather dressed as witches to paddle board.

Gone are the days of fierce public outrage, which happened as recently as the 1980s with heavy metal music and Dungeons and Dragons games.

"Something has changed in our culture," Hartman said. "It's as American as apple pie."

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: The tale of Ohio's only known witch trial
Nine-year-old Max English speaks three languages and wants to learn three more.

He learned German because his father is German. He learned English living in Tampa.

His mother, Nicole English, is a lifelong student of Spanish who was thrilled, along with his father, when they learned of a dual language program at Tampas Crestwood Elementary School. She got a job teaching kindergarten in the program where Max is now enrolled.

Today, Max says, I can speak to more people who know different languages. And when Im older, people will like to hire me.

Families like Maxs are flocking to dual language programs.

The American Councils Research Center, a nonprofit group encouraging U.S. students to learn other languages and cultures, counted 3,600 programs in 2021, while a decade earlier about 1,000 were believed to exist. Parents are driven by research that suggests learning in multiple languages boosts brain power while making students more marketable and socially adaptable as adults.

Hes getting an incredible cultural enrichment, Nicole English said of her son. I have no words for how enriching it is to be able to communicate with an entire community thats outside of your home community.

But, in meeting this demand, schools must also satisfy another compelling imperative: Closing achievement gaps for children who speak languages other than English at home. Nearly 40% of Hillsboroughs students are Hispanic. Many are classified as English language learners, who are sometimes enrolled in the dual language programs.

With limited resources, champions of dual language programs are beginning to wonder: How much more can they grow, and who will pay the bill?

Growing fast

Proponents of dual language consider it a vast improvement over older methods of bilingual education, which gradually eased children into English. The philosophy of dual language is that proficiency in the students first language  typically but not always Spanish  is an asset, not a liability. Through linguistic awareness, teachers say, the student becomes stronger in both languages  not just bilingual, but fully biliterate.

The practice dates back to the 1960s in Dade County, where Spanish is spoken in about two-thirds of all homes, and some Cuban exiles hope for a quick return to their homeland. Today, schools in South Florida offer multiple language choices, including Haitian Creole.

Spanish dual language programs have been offered in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties over the years, but not as consistently.

Melissa Morgado, who began her career as a high school Spanish teacher and is now Hillsboroughs supervisor of world languages, launched dual language programs in 2017 at Crestwood and Bellamy elementary schools, both in Town N Country, with large Hispanic populations.

Six years later, her department serves 12 schools with dual language programs, encompassing 85 teachers and nearly 1,700 students. Separately, four more Hillsborough schools have launched Spanish immersion programs under a grant from the U.S. Department of Defense.

The dual language enrollment numbers are growing exponentially as schools newer to the program must add another grade level every year. With the first wave of students having completed fifth grade, programs are underway at Shields, Smith and Pierce middle schools.

They do it all with a staff of two: Morgado and Veronica Schmidt-Gomez, a district resource teacher who was born in Puerto Rico.

Pinellas County is also moving into dual language with 200 students in Dunedins Garrison-Jones Elementary and a fledgling program at Walsingham Elementary in Largo. Graduates of Garrison-Jones can continue on at Clearwaters Oak Grove Middle School next year.

It just flows all around

In both counties, students in all neighborhoods can apply through the choice system. That includes children with learning disabilities, who administrators say often thrive because of the individualized instruction built into the system.

Schools aim for an even split between English- and Spanish-speaking families, asking only that parents commit to the program throughout the elementary school years. Recruitment is often easiest among the English-speaking parents; Spanish speakers often have to be sold on the concept.

The teachers typically work in pairs. One will teach a class in math and science entirely in Spanish while the other teaches a reading class next door in English. Then they swap students for two more subjects so that each child gets equal exposure to each of the two languages during the academic hours of the day.

The approach is different in middle schools, where students change classrooms for each subject and have multiple teachers. A social studies teacher, for example, might give Mondays lessons in Spanish and then switch to English on Tuesday, for a seamless transition between the two languages.

Thats how Schmidt-Gomez, the resource teacher, got to know Juan David Caicedo, then a sixth grader at Pierce who had arrived from Panama with his older sister after they lost their father to a heart attack. Caicedo said he spoke barely a few words of English the day he stepped off the plane in Orlando.

But in a matter of months he made the transition from classes for non-English speakers to more advanced English classes. He tackled timed readings in English. He puzzled over nouns that doubled as verbs  the phrase watering the flowers, for example.

By the eighth grade, he said, English was now part of me. Any troubles that I had, English would no longer be one of them. In keeping with the programs goal of biliteracy, he learned concepts in math, science and other school subjects in both languages.

Now a senior in Leto High Schools collegiate program, Caicedo is active in student organizations and hopes to enter Florida Polytechnic University in Lakeland with two years of college credits already earned.

Many times I just think in English, he said. I notice how sometimes I think in Spanish, or I think in English, I alternate sometimes. It no longer interrupts my thought process, it just flows all around.

While not all students will accomplish as much as Caicedo has, there is data that supports the systems effectiveness.

At Crestwood Elementary, 85% of last years fifth grade dual language students passed the state math test and 68% passed the English language arts exam, even though some were brand new to the country. Those rates were nearly double those in the school as a whole. Similarly, at Garrison-Jones Elementary in Pinellas, passing rates for all subjects and all grades were between 17 and 35 points higher in state exams administered in the spring.

Researchers have questioned whether such success rates are influenced by the fact that families seek out these programs, which  as with any school choice option  can indicate higher levels of parental encouragement.

In a much-cited 2018 study in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina, researcher Andrew Bibler made adjustments for that variable by comparing the dual language results with those for other magnet school programs.

The dual language students still outperformed their peers.

Hurdles and rewards

Running such a program is hard  especially for Spanish language teachers, who often must create translated materials when they exist only in English.

Its double work, honestly, said Mariangelie Vazquez-Llanis, a teacher at Garrison-Jones who moved to Florida after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in 2017. But she said that when she sees her students make progress, both on their test scores and in their self-confidence, it doesnt have a price.

The schools scramble for resources. In Hillsborough, Tracie Bergman, a district literacy chief who believes firmly in the approach, has helped the schools obtain Spanish language phonics materials. Diane Sanchez, Crestwoods principal and also a strong supporter, has found ways to purchase some materials with federal anti-poverty funds.

I am creative, within my parameters, said Sanchez, whose son, now in middle school, completed the Crestwood program.

As the program uses existing resources, such as teachers and classroom space, it is hard to estimate the costs. By their best guess, Morgado and Schmidt-Gomez said it adds up to $5,000 to $7,000 per school.

Those amounts do not include extra initiatives they have undertaken  such as arranging for Spanish language exhibits at Hillsboroughs yearly science fair. As Morgado explained, people tend to think of Hispanic heritage in terms of music, dance and food.

But theres a lot more to it, she said. Theres scientists and engineers and adventurers. We want the students to be able to identify with that as well.

To many, the commitment is personal. Ginina Arroyo, a teacher and supervisor at Crestwood, sees aspects of her life in the children who enter her classroom, often as recent immigrants from Cuba.

Arroyos childhood was split between the mainland and Puerto Rico. For much of her life, she spoke no English. Married with three children, she moved to Florida at age 30, finished college and tried to get her teaching certificate.

But she had to take the state general knowledge exam 10 times before she could pass the essay portion. She has been with the dual language program from the beginning but was classified for the first several years as a long-term substitute teacher.

Like Vazquez at Garrison-Jones, Arroyo grows giddy at her students success. Seeing them learn a new language, to read, to communicate, to have a better lifestyle in the United States, my hearts going to explode, she said.

When it comes to the programs future growth, Morgado acknowledged there are mounting challenges. In some communities, there are concerns that the dual language movement is diverting resources from English learners as it succumbs to the demand from wealthier, English-speaking families.

Many dual language programs are at risk of tilting toward language enrichment for English-dominant children, instead of advancing linguistic equity and expanding educational opportunity for (English language learners), says a recent report for the progressive Century Foundation think tank.

Its authors cautioned that without structures in place to protect equity, dual language programs with high rates of success can become colonization that eventually displaces those still learning English.

The issue has led Hillsborough to focus primarily on schools with large Hispanic populations.

Staffing is a concern, too. Principals are advised to recruit bilingual teachers so they will be ready as their programs grow. And the Hillsborough staff overseeing dual language inevitably will have to be larger than two.

For now, Morgado said she is trying to create logical feeder patterns for children from the schools they already serve, meaning some parts of the county have to wait for the program to be offered in their area.

We want to be very strategic and intentional with growth because thats what has led to our success, she said. We dont want to outgrow our capacity.
The union said that Tesla employees had 'lower wages and have lower pensions' than other industry workers (Jessica Gow/TT)

Tesla mechanics in Sweden walked off the job on Friday to protest against the electric carmaker's refusal to sign a collective wage agreement, the metalworkers union said.

The strike affects around Tesla's 130 mechanics at seven workshops across Sweden, IF Metall union spokesman Jesper Pettersson told AFP.

Pettersson said Tesla employees had "lower wages, don't have the same insurances, and have lower pensions" than other industry workers.

Negotiated sector-by-sector, collective agreements are the basis of the Swedish labour market model, covering almost 90 percent of all Swedish employees and guaranteeing standard wages and working conditions.

IF Metall -- which has some 300,000 members -- said the agreements also allow for companies "to operate on a level playing field".

"Many" of Tesla's workers in Sweden are members of IF Metall, Pettersson said, but would not disclose an exact number.

Despite being union members, they cannot benefit from industry-wide collective bargaining agreements.

Pettersson said Tesla informed them Tuesday it would not sign a collective bargaining agreement, adding that the carmaker told the union they "don't do that anywhere in the world."

Tesla has not responded to AFP's request for comment.

Tesla founder and chief Elon Musk has consistently rejected calls to allow the company's 127,000 employees worldwide to unionise.

Tesla strikers in Sweden were being paid compensation by the union equivalent to their wages, Pettersson said.

He said that unless Tesla changed its position, IF Metall would widen its strike on November 3 to cover all workshop repairs on Tesla cars across Sweden, not just those done by Tesla employees.

po/rox
I've recently been investing in some long-deferred maintenance at my home and it should be no surprise to anyone that I've sought to receive as much quality work done for as little money as possible. When people spend their own hard-earned money on such projects, they measure success by results, such as a sparkling new kitchen. They don't brag about how much they spent, but how much they got in return.

By contrast, state officials seem to delight in how much money they "invest" in different priorities, without worrying too much about outcomes. Sure, they sometimes pay lip service to resultsbut they don't care enough about them to actually change the way they provide public services. (They're not about to annoy the public-sector unions, which represent the people paid to provide those services.)

I'm not the only one to have noticed. State Sen. Steve Glazer (DOrinda), in a July column about the $310-billion budget, complained that "we've already spent billions of dollars on the same problemswith very little to show for it." He called on his fellow Democrats to ensure that the spending "actually improving the lives of the people we say we are committed to helping." What a novel idea.

This dynamic is most pronounced in public education, which consumes more than 40 percent of the state's general fund budgetplus local bond measures. Although lawmakers slowed education funding increases to close a $32-billion budget deficit this year, as of last yearduring an unprecedented $97.5-billion budget surplusthey lavished public schools with money.

"The revised budget directs a total of $128.3 billion to education, lifts up the most critical needs including historic funding for school mental health, recruitment and retention of teachers," boasted Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, following last year's budget deal.

The state spends nearly $24,000 per student a year (including funding from all sources, including the feds). Consider the educational opportunities we would have if parents could spend that much money on private schools, which would compete for tuition. Each class of 25 students would have a budget of $600,000. The governor likes to blather about a re-imagined school system, but in a competitive system we wouldn't have to just imagine it.

By contrast, let's look at what we've actually accomplished after a decade of steadily increasing expenditures. The Public Policy Institute of California reported last year that "pandemic disruptions reversed nearly six years of academic progress." It found only 35 percent of low-income students met the state's English-language standards and only 21 percent met California's math proficiency standards. These are horrifying numbers.

Here's some other news: EdSource reports that nearly a third of the state's public school students are chronically absent. The Independent Institute reports that fewer than half of the state's students are functioning at their grade level and that 70 percent of incarcerated Californians lack even a high school diploma. There might be a connection between those dismal statistics.

But no matter how much the state "invests" in education, it's never enough for the public school establishment. The California Teachers' Association complains that California's per-student school funding lags behind other statesand it, of course, blames 1978's tax-limiting Proposition 13 for the problem and bemoans "our faulty tax structure, which is currently benefiting the wealthiest corporations over Californians themselves."

Does anyone really believe that if California, the highest-taxed state, dramatically increases its property taxes (through a "split roll" that denies Prop. 13 protections to corporations or other erosions of the 1978 tax measure) that California's education system will suddenly become America's finest? Name one instance where throwing more money at an encrusted, union-controlled bureaucracy has done anything other than fund the same old, same old.

Another underreported education story: school budgets are soaring even as enrollments are on a downward trajectory. The state's population is falling and also is aging. Immigration is slowing. Birth rates are declining. As noted above, a lot of students are dropping out or disappearing. Two studies last month from PACE, a research center led by faculty directors at top California universities, found that enrollments have fallen 6 percent since 2007 and are expected to fall more steeply. The impact, it notes, falls hardest on poor and minority students.

"There are many ways districts can reduce programs or services, but they can only operate severely under-enrolled schools for so long before the situation becomes financially untenable," PACE explains, noting the many fixed costs in maintaining a traditional school. The declining schools are losing funding because the state bases its spending on average daily attendance rates.

Not to be overly harsh, but who cares about the plight of school systems trying to fund their overly costly infrastructure of buildings and employees? But once again, California's educational establishment is all about spending more moneyrather than getting the best educational outcomes for students. Until that attitude improves, don't expect test scores to improve, either.

This column was first published in The Orange County Register.

The post Test Scores Are Plummeting Despite California Spending Wildly on Education appeared first on Reason.com.
Faced with ongoing scandals this month involving his allies' ties to antisemitic extremists, the leader of the Republican Party of Texas has come out strongly  to attack other conservatives whove criticized his friends.

For three weeks, Texas GOP Chair Matt Rinaldi has been defiant in the face of calls from members of his own party to cut ties with Defend Texas Liberty leader Jonathan Stickland, who recently hosted avowed white supremacist Nick Fuentes at his office for nearly seven hours. And hes gone after those whove been critical of Defend Texas Liberty, a political action committee that is funded by two of the Texas GOPs most prolific donors.

Separately, Rinaldi is at the center of a parallel controversy involving a group for young conservatives that he recently embraced despite warnings about its leaders openly antisemitic views and ties to white nationalist figures.

[Nick Fuentes is just the latest white supremacist embraced by Defend Texas Liberty]

For some Republicans, the dual scandals have raised serious questions about the partys willingness to denounce racists  and its leaders proximity to those who embrace them.

He has put his friends interests above what is in the best interest of the party, said Mark McCaig, an attorney and chair of the Texas Republican Initiative. He is more concerned about protecting them and their gang.

To be sure, Rinaldi was quick to distance himself from Fuentes. The Texas Tribune spotted Rinaldi earlier this month at the office building where Fuentes, an Adolf Hitler admirer who has called for a holy war against Jews and encouraged his followers to beat women, was being hosted by Stickland.

Texas Republican Party Chairman Matt Rinaldi is seen entering the offices of Pale Horse Strategies outside of Fort Worth on Oct. 6, 2023. Credit: The Texas Tribune

Asked about the Oct. 6 meeting, Rinaldi told the Tribune that he had no idea Fuentes was inside and would never meet with him. As for Stickland? Rinaldi said he would wait until more facts came out before commenting on his longtime political kin.

Im not going to make assumptions based on what I'm told by a reporter, he said on Oct. 8.

Since then, neither Rinaldi nor the Republican Party of Texas has commented on Stickland, even as other major figures  including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Kyle Rittenhouse  have issued statements that confirmed the Tribunes reporting. Nor has Rinaldi responded to concerns from fellow Republicans and some party executive committee members whove called for a break with Defend Texas Liberty, which has donated $257,000 to the party since 2021.

Instead, Rinaldi has reserved his ire for House Speaker Dade Phelan, accusing the Beaumont Republican of politicizing antisemitism before demanding his resignation. Phelan has also demanded Rinaldi step down as the partys leader and give money the Texas GOP received from Defend Texas Liberty to pro-Israel charities.

Since news of the Fuentes meeting broke, Rinaldi has posted or amplified attacks on Phelan or the Texas House on X, formerly Twitter, more than 40 times. He has not, however, publicly criticized Stickland or Defend Texas Liberty at all  even as new information continues to emerge about their close ties to white supremacists.

[Heres who gets money from Defend Texas Liberty, the PAC whose leader met with white supremacist Nick Fuentes]

On Monday, the Tribune reported that, in just the last month, at least five current and former Fuentes associates have worked with groups that are closely tied to Stickland, Rinaldi and Defend Texas Liberty. That includes True Texas Project, whose leaders have sympathized with the racist gunman who murdered 22 people at an El Paso WalMart in 2019, and who are set to host Rinaldi for a fundraiser and softball game this weekend.

On Wednesday, the Texas Observer reported that a swastika-clad neo-Nazi who was spotted handing out antisemitic flyers in Fort Worth this month had previously interned for Luke Macias, a longtime GOP consultant and Rinaldi ally who just replaced Stickland as president of Defend Texas Liberty, according to the groups website.

And this week, the Tribune reported that the president of Texans For Strong Borders, Chris Russo, has for years been a prominent figure in Fuentes racist movement, and has continued to post on anonymous, hate-filled social media accounts as his group with help from Rinaldi and Defend Texas Liberty  has emerged as an influential voice thats pushed lawmakers to crack down on legal and illegal immigration.

Rinaldi and the Texas GOP did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story.

A moral obligation

The controversies come amid an internecine fight between the states far right and the Texas GOPs more moderate, but still deeply conservative, wing. That strife has exploded into all-out war since the impeachment and acquittal of Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Rinaldi ally who has received nearly $4.65 million from West Texas oil billionaires Tim Dunn and Farris and Dan and Farris Wilks. Those billionaires also fund Defend Texas Liberty and, before that, bankrolled Rinaldis career in the Texas House.

Defend Texas Liberty has been one of the most important players in the state partys ongoing civil war. Campaign finance records show that, since 2021, it has given nearly $15 million to right-wing movements and candidates. The group made headlines this summer after giving $3 million to Patrick, months before he presided over Paxtons impeachment trial. Defend Texas Liberty also gave $3.6 million to Don Huffines, a former state senator who helped push Gov. Greg Abbott to the right by attacking him on immigration and other issues during last years Republican primary.

Meanwhile, the Texas GOPs far right has continued to embrace groups and individuals that others have warned are a bridge too far. Fuentes was the best-known of those extreme figures; but his visit and the ensuing controversy were punctuated by a separate-but-related scandal involving the party and white supremacists.

That ordeal dates back to August, when the 66-year-old Texas Young Republican Federation voted to end its partnership with the Texas GOP until Rinaldi  who the group accused of initiating a smear campaign and partnering with far-right figures to undermine their newly-elected leadership  was removed from his position.

Things escalated last month, when Rinaldi pushed for the Texas GOP to bring a newly-formed spinoff group into the party despite warnings that its leaders included avowed white nationalists.

The warnings proved to be right: Days after the Tribune first reported on Fuentes visit with Stickland, an independent journalist reported that leaders of the new young Republicans group had praised Hitler online, and published photos of some of its leaders outside of an event for Fuentes vitriolically antisemitic groyper movement.

There was a time in my life when I hated Nick Fuentes and his white supremacy views, one of the groups leaders, Rylie Rae Ferguson, reportedly wrote on social media last year. Now I recognize that he is one of the smartest people in our country and we need white nationalism. Oh how the tides have turned.

Responding to the controversy, the new groups leadership said in a statement that it condemns bigotry in all forms and had removed the individuals in question.

But before that, other young Republicans said they made clear to Rinaldi and the leaders of the new group that they were in bed with extremists. Those concerns were rebuffed, a move that one person said is emblematic of a broader problem and power struggle that has allowed extremists to flourish in Republican circles.

There is a tendency among the populist right to essentially say, It doesnt matter how awful the person is, as long as they are on our side, said Matt Wiltshire, finance director for the Young Republican National Federation. We believe that we have a moral and ethical duty to be uncompromising in our stance that there is right and there is wrong.

One of those removed was Konner Earnest, who led the groups Parker County chapter and also recently became involved with the European American Community, a white nationalist group that argues American citizenship should be based on European ancestry.

Konner Earnest outside of the offices of Pale Horse Strategies outside Fort Worth on Oct. 6, 2023. Earnest is an associate of Nick Fuentes and also worked on former state Sen. Don Huffines' gubernatorial campaign in 2022. Credit: The Texas Tribune

Earnest has other ties to Rinaldi and Defend Texas Liberty: He was spotted outside the Fuentes meeting with Stickland, and has appeared in videos for Russos Texans For Strong Borders, which has received considerable financial support from Defend Texas Liberty. Earnest has also written anti-immigration articles for Texas Scorecard, a prominent right-wing media website that is financed by Defend Texas Libertys billionaire funders.

Rinaldi does not appear to have released any public statement or made any comment on social media about the young Republicans scandal.

Meanwhile, the Texas GOPs executive committee remains at an impasse over how to respond to the partys ongoing white supremacist problem.

Last week, after Stickland was quietly removed as Defend Texas Libertys president, roughly one-third of the executive committee's 64 members, including Vice Chair Dana Myers, signed a letter saying that the party had a moral obligation to speak boldly, publicly, and clearly on this matter and demand an explanation for the Fuentes meeting.

Fuentes' views and Sticklands tactics are abhorrent and totally antithetical to the principles of the Republican Party of Texas and to the conservatives who have trusted [Defend Texas Liberty] for the cause of liberty and patriotism, they wrote. Whether this was caused by a lapse in judgment, conscious disregard, poor leadership, or a faulty moral compass  Stickland and [Defend Texas Liberty] must ultimately accept responsibility.

The members also called on the Texas GOP  as well as its donors  to cut all ties with Defend Texas Liberty and the myriad groups it funds until Stickland is "removed and disassociated from [Defend Texas Liberty] and its benefactor organizations and a full accounting of the meeting is provided."

Since then, the partys disagreements have continued to escalate in public view, as Rinaldi and his allies remain largely silent on the scandal. Two weeks ago  and after a Tribune reporter reached out to more than a dozen members of the partys executive committee regarding Defend Texas Liberty  the Texas GOP removed contact information for executive committee members from its website.

The Texas GOP did not respond to a request for comment on the move, which has been publicly blasted as an attempt to keep members from being contacted by the public.

You dont stand for we the people unless they have access to you, said Cat Parks, a former executive committee member and vice chair of the Texas GOP. Its not like controversy didnt happen during my tenure.

For now, its unclear what comes next for the Texas GOP and its relationship with Defend Texas Liberty, which released a two-sentence statement saying it opposes Fuentes incendiary views but has yet to provide any other details on the meeting. Stickland may no longer be leading the group, but his removal is likely cosmetic given that he also owns Pale Horse Strategies, a consulting firm that is used heavily by Defend Texas Liberty-funded groups and candidates.

Members of the partys executive committee have said as much this week, and reiterated their calls for the party to speak out against Defend Texas Liberty and Stickland.

The Texas GOP must renounce [Defend Texas Liberty] until a full explanation of the Fuentes meeting is provided, those responsible are held accountable and theres new entirely new leadership (not just the same players swapping job titles), executive committee member Rolando Garcia wrote this week on social media.

Dont excuse the inexcusable just to spite your political enemies, he added.
A Travis County judge temporarily blocked the Texas Education Agency from releasing school accountability ratings after dozens of school districts sued, claiming the new evaluation system would wrongly cause their ratings to drop. Credit: Eli Hartman/The Texas Tribune

A Travis County judge temporarily blocked the Texas Education Agency from releasing this year's annual school ratings after finding that the states new rating system  which was to debut this fall  is unlawful and would harm districts across the state.

The ruling issued Thursday evening comes after dozens of school districts across the state sued the TEA to delay the ratings, claiming the state's new school evaluation methodology would result in unfair drops in their ratings. The agency had already postponed a planned September release of the ratings until sometime before the end of the year because it needed more time to adjust scores under the new system.

The agency said it plans to appeal the decision by Judge Catherine Mauzy, who set a trial date for Feb. 12.

This ruling completely disregards the laws of this state and, for the foreseeable future, prevents any A-F performance information from being issued to help millions of parents and educators improve the lives of our students, the agency said in a statement.

Currently, districts and their campuses are assigned an A to F grade based on students performance on the state's standardized test, academic growth year-to-year, graduation rates and how well schools prepare students for careers after high school. Parents and community members use the scores to see how their schools and districts are performing.

Even before the lawsuit, the accountability system had been criticized for its inequitable approach. Many of the schools that receive D's or F's serve low-income communities where schools have fewer resources and where area families face a lack of housing and food, challenges that are often detrimental to a childs academic achievement.

Superintendents across the state have protested one change in particular. Previously, under the evaluation's college and career readiness portion, high schools would earn an A if 60% of seniors either enrolled in college, pursued a non-college career, or entered the military. The revamped rating system, announced in January, awards A grades to high schools only if 88% of seniors meet one of those criteria. This change would have used 2022 high school graduate outcomes for this year's ratings.

Many school leaders said such a big change to that benchmark would result in massive ratings drops in individual high schools and overall school district ratings.

We look forward to future conversations with Commissioner [Mike] Morath about how to implement the assessment and accountability system in a manner that is fair and transparent for all school districts in the state of Texas, said Cissy Reynolds-Perez, superintendent of the Kingsville school district in South Texas, one of the districts that sued the TEA.

Accountability is an important orienting aspect for a school district. However, the arbitrary application of new measures without the required advanced notice will potentially give the appearance that schools across the state, including Frisco ISD, are declining, Frisco school district Superintendent Mike Waldrip said in a statement. Moving the goalposts arbitrarily is unfair to our students and teachers.

Jonathan Feinstein, director of The Education Trust in Texas, said the A-F system was launched in 2017, and the 2018-19 school year is the only normal evaluation period because of delays and adjustments to scores because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This decision leaves local school system leaders, community members, and families without one of their only tools for understanding school performance and advocating for essential programs and resources specifically designed to lift up their most underserved students, Feinstein said.
A Texas man has pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges nearly a year after authorities in Harrison County pulled him over in a traffic stop and seized more than 22 kilos of cocaine.

The street value of the cocaine that authorities seized in the vehicle of Donald Lamont Griffin during a Nov. 7, 2022, stop is valued at more than $1 million., according to federal authorities.

Griffin, of Huto, Texas, pleaded guilty Thursday to federal charges of possession with intent to distribute cocaine and another count of conspiracy to distribute the drugs.

Griffin was taken into custody after a police K-9 detected the drugs in the car, and authorities seized them.

Griffin is facing a maximum sentence of life if convicted on each charge.

U.S. Attorney Todd Gee of the Southern District of Mississippi and DEA special agent in charge Brad Byerley announced the guilty plea.

The Drug Enforcement Administration and the Harrison County Sheriffs Department investigated the case.

According to the DEA, cocaine is a powerful and addictive stimulant, and the drug is often mixed with other drugs. Including stimulants when it is sold on the streets.
This article was originally published in The Texas Tribune.

Facing some of the highest property taxes in the nation, Texas voters could sign off on a massive tax-cut package in the Nov. 7 constitutional amendment election.

Early voting is under way for the slew of proposed amendments. Proposition 4 would allow the state to spend $18 billion on property tax cuts for homeowners and businesses, cut school districts tax rates and enact other tax changes.

Whether Texas can afford those tax cuts in the long term remains unanswered. Lawmakers tapped a record $33 billion surplus this year, fueled by the states robust economic growth and federal COVID-19 relief money, to cover an increase in the states contribution to public schools, a shared cost between the state and school districts.

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Republican tax-cut warriors have heralded the tax-cut package, which gained bipartisan support in both chambers of the Texas Legislature, as unprecedented tax relief for homeowners and business owners. Public education advocates, meanwhile, warn that the proposal could imperil public school funding and lead to future school budget cuts. And renters would see no direct tax relief should the constitutional amendment pass.

The entire property tax-cut package is $18 billion altogether, but it includes $5.3 billion in cuts lawmakers approved in prior years. If voters approve the constitutional amendment, the state would send $12.7 billion to school districts so they could pay for new cuts to their property tax collections, which make up the bulk of landowners property tax bills. Of that, $5.6 billion will go toward more than doubling Texas main tax break for homeowners  the states homestead exemption on school district taxes, or the chunk of a homes value that cant be taxed to pay for public schools. The constitutional amendment would raise the exemption from $40,000 to $100,000.

The rest of that money  some $7.1 billion  will go toward paying school districts to lower their tax rates by replacing local property tax dollars with state sales tax revenue, a tax-cut method lawmakers refer to as compression. Doing that would lower the tax rate school districts use to pay for operating costs, like teacher salaries, by 10.7 cents per every $100 of property value.

Together, those measures will translate to major tax savings for Texas homeowners, proponents argue.

Had the ballot measure been in place last year, the owner of a home appraised at the states median sales price  $340,000  paying the average school tax rate would have spent about $940 less on their property tax bill, according to a Texas Tribune analysis. That comes out to a little less than $80 a month.

State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Houston-area Republican and Lt. Gov. Dan Patricks chief lieutenant on property taxes, said homeowners can expect bigger savings in the next few years. The typical Texas homeowner could see more than $2,500 in tax savings the first two years, according to figures provided by his office.

Its their money coming back to them, Bettencourt said. Thats what should happen when the government has a surplus.

Cutting Texans property taxes was a top priority this year for Republican lawmakers, who pledged to use a record state surplus to deliver relief to taxpayers. After months of GOP infighting over how to achieve those cuts, state lawmakers sent Gov. Greg Abbott a $12.7 billion tax-cut proposal in July. Abbott signed the proposal into law, but voters have the final say in whether to cut their own taxes.

Public education advocates worry that, in the event of an economic downturn, sales tax dollars would dry up  leading to budget cuts at the state level and leaving school districts in the lurch.

Thats going to put our schools on a pogo stick thats going to jump up and down with the economy and have no stability, said Chandra Villanueva, director of policy and advocacy at the left-leaning Every Texan.

Republican lawmakers are betting that the states massive economic growth will allow them to maintain the cuts for the time being. Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar recently projected that Texas would avoid a recession and have an $18 billion surplus when lawmakers return to Austin in January 2025.

Im quite confident that for the foreseeable future, well be fine, Bettencourt said.

But Bettencourt acknowledged that lawmakers would have to revisit the cuts if the Texas economy takes a turn for the worse  though the boost in the homestead exemption would have to remain, given that it would be written into the states constitution.

Beyond explicit tax cuts, the package includes other tax reforms.

For the first time, some businesses will see a limit on how much their appraised property values, a key factor in the equation of how property tax bills get calculated, can grow each year. Homeowners already benefit from a 10% cap on how much their taxable home value can grow each year. But businesses currently dont have such a cap.

The new cap would apply to commercial, mineral and residential properties that dont receive a homestead exemption  like rental homes and apartment buildings  that are appraised at less than $5 million. Should voters greenlight the proposition, appraisal districts could not raise the taxable value of those properties by more than 20% each year for the next three years. The cap would expire in 2026 unless lawmakers and voters decide to extend it.

Tax policy experts have doubted the effectiveness of such a cap. Property values surged in 2022 amid the states exploding population and job growth, according to figures provided by the comptrollers office. But outside of 2022, that kind of value growth wasnt typical for most types of properties, even as Texas boomed over the past decade. Owners of commercial properties in 2022 saw the market value of their holdings grow by 15% on average  short of the 20% cap.

If those property owners saw their values hit the 20% limit each year, local governments and school districts could just raise their tax rate to make up for revenue lost to lower property appraisals, said Lynn Krebs, a research economist at the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University  resulting in higher tax rates for all property owners.

We tend to look at it just on face value and say, Hey, were not going to make you pay tax on more than a 20% increase, isnt that wonderful? Krebs said. What does that mean in reality for everybody else? It means that theyre going to have to pay more to make up for that loss in revenue. The revenue is going to come from somewhere.

The proposition would also exempt more businesses from having to pay the states franchise tax. If approved, the amendment would also allow voters to handpick three members to serve on their local appraisal districts board of directors. Currently, people are appointed to those posts.

The tax-cut package before Texas voters notably leaves out a key class of Texas taxpayers: renters.

Renters make up more than one-third of the states households and pay one-quarter of the states school property taxes through their monthly rent, according to the comptrollers office. With high rents across the state, tenants spend significantly more of their household income on keeping a roof over their heads than homeowners. Seventeen states and the District of Columbia have tax-cut programs aimed at providing property tax relief to renters, particularly seniors and low-income tenants.

But GOP lawmakers ultimately excluded any direct relief for renters when crafting the tax-cut package before Texas voters. Tax-cut proponents have occasionally argued that renters benefit from tax rate compression because their landlords wont charge as much in rent if their taxes arent as high. Though property taxes make up about 20% of the rent bill, theyre not the only factor in determining rents  which are ultimately determined by the market.

Legislators, at this point, dont feel enough pressure yet to provide solutions for renters, said Ben Martin, research director for Texas Housers, a housing advocacy group for low-income Texans. Until legislators feel that pressure heat up to provide solutions for renters, its not surprising that theyre not going to do anything. But the data is really clear: Thats where the need is.

Disclosure: Every Texan and Texas A&M University have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribunes journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2023/10/24/texas-property-tax-cut-proposition-4/.

The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.
New House Speaker Mike Johnson at the Capitol on Thursday. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images) (CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Imag)

Jon Ward is a Yahoo News senior correspondent who has covered national politics for over 15 years.

Youre shifting gears to head into the weekend, so here are the top five political stories worth remembering this week  and what it all means for you.

The week of Oct. 23 saw the Republican Party finally throw up its hands and pick someone to be speaker of the House. And the Middle East continued to roil with violence, as tensions over a broader regional conflict ratcheted up.

The U.S. also saw yet another mass killing  this time in Lewiston, Maine  that left 18 dead and more than a dozen wounded. The incident quickly led to calls for stronger gun laws.

Here are the highlights from this past week, from the war in Israel to a partial resolution of the United Auto Workers strike.

House Republicans finally pick a new boss

Many of the Republicans crowding around Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana on Wednesday, for all their effusiveness, were likely feeling something like pity for the new speaker of the House.

Johnson, 51, is stepping into a role of enormous responsibility and scope, and with little experience under his belt. He faces a terrifyingly steep learning curve and almost no margin for error, wrote Brendan Buck, an adviser to former Speaker Paul Ryan when the Wisconsin Republican took over the speakership in 2015 following a previous revolt by hard-line House Republicans.

Johnson, right, receives the gavel of the Speaker by House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Oct. 25. (Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters) (Elizabeth Frantz / reuters)

Why it matters

Johnson, a dyed-in-the-wool social conservative, was in the right place at the right time. He was chosen in part because Republicans reached a point of exhaustion after three weeks of infighting that was part comedy, part tragedy. And what seemed to push him over the line was the fact that, as one fellow Republican put it, he has the fewest enemies.

Johnson has promoted Louisianas current abortion ban, which has penalties of 1 to 10 years in jail for medical providers. And he has advocated for banning same-sex marriage.

These views put Johnson well to the right of many of his Republican colleagues. Thats one thing for a congressman representing a few hundred thousand conservative voters in a Southern state. But Johnson is now a national face of the GOP.

Former President Trump was a factor in the speakers race. He was not able to push Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio into the top spot, but he did help derail the bid of another Republican, Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota.

Johnson played a significant role in Trumps effort to overturn the 2020 election, producing and coordinating legal strategy and spreading baseless conspiracy theories.

Good reads on this

Middle East war simmers as Biden calls for a renewal of peace process

Israeli tanks take part in a military drill near the border with Lebanon, Oct. 26. (Jalaa Marey/AFP via Getty Images) (AFP via Getty Images)

Israel continued to ramp up its military presence on the border of Gaza this week but continued to hold off on a full-scale ground invasion.

Aid continued to trickle into Gaza, and Hamas released a few hostages out of the more than 200 in captivity: two American women on Oct. 21 and two Israeli women on Oct. 23.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly weighing the consequences of a ground invasion, as well as cautions from President Biden not to overreact.

Why it matters

Biden on Wednesday called for a renewal of peace talks after the current conflict ends. When this crisis is over, there has to be a vision of what comes next. And in our view, it has to be a two-state solution, Biden said at the White House.

The Hamas-controlled Palestinian Health Ministry said 6,400 people have been killed in Gaza by Israeli missile strikes, after roughly 1,400 Israelis were killed in the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, a Palestinian group that is designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government.

Biden cast doubt on the casualty numbers coming out of Gaza. I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed. Im sure innocents have been killed, and its the price of waging a war, Biden said Wednesday.

Good reads on this

More Trump advisers plead guilty, cooperate with federal investigation

Jenna Ellis, an attorney and prominent conservative media figure, reached a deal with prosecutors on Tuesday and pleaded guilty to a reduced charge over efforts to overturn Donald Trump's 2020 election loss in Georgia. (John Bazemore/Pool/AFP via Getty Images) (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

On Friday of last week, former Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro pleaded guilty to a felony charge of conspiracy to commit filing false documents, admitting that hed participated in the effort to illegally overturn the 2020 election. Then on Tuesday, Jenna Ellis  who aggressively promoted Trumps lies about the election on TV and to state legislators  also pleaded guilty.

Mark Meadows, Trumps final White House chief of staff, was also said to be cooperating with the federal criminal investigation into Trumps attempt to steal the 2020 election.

Why it matters

I failed to do my due diligence, Ellis said in explaining her false statements. If I knew then what I know now, I would have declined to represent Donald Trump in these post-election challenges.

Sidney Powell, another lawyer who spoke publicly on Trumps behalf during the effort to throw out a legal vote and keep Trump in power, pleaded guilty to six misdemeanor counts a day before Chesebro entered his own guilty plea.

Meadows was reported by CBS News to be extensively cooperating with special counsel Jack Smiths election interference investigation of Trump. But CBS could not confirm an ABC News report that Meadows has received immunity in exchange for cooperation. Meadowss attorney disputed the ABC report.

Trump was fined $10,000 this week by a New York judge presiding over a civil trial, after he concluded Trump made comments for the second time targeting courtroom staff.

Good reads on this

Gunman kills 18 in Maine

Lewiston, Maine, police at the site where at least 18 people were killed and 13 injured in a mass shooting. Eight victims who died in in Lewiston late Wednesday have been identified while 10 are still pending identification. (Fatih Aktas/Anadolu via Getty Images) (Anadolu via Getty Images)

A massive manhunt is underway in southern Maine for a 40-year-old Army reservist who is suspected of killing 18 people in a mass shooting Wednesday night in Lewiston that injured another 13 people. Maine residents were being advised to stay inside.

The shooter, believed to be Robert Card, entered a bowling alley just before 7 p.m. Wednesday filled with members of a youth bowling league, and began shooting patrons and employees. Twelve minutes later more shootings were reported at a restaurant four miles away.

The murders quickly led to calls for stricter gun control laws from prominent Democrats, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a likely 2028 presidential candidate.

Why it matters

This is the 36th mass killing in the U.S. this year, according to the Associated Press and USA Today, in partnership with Northeastern University.

Card was committed to a mental health facility earlier this year for two weeks, according to a police bulletin. Card was "hearing voices" and said he wanted to "shoot up" a military training facility, according to the bulletin.

Good reads on this

Autoworker strike yields tentative agreement

Chris Pena, president of UAW Local 551, addresses the media at the union hall located near Ford's Chicago assembly plant on Thursday. (Scott Olson/Getty Images) (Getty Images)

The United Auto Workers union said Wednesday that it had reached an agreement with Ford that would pay some workers 25% more than before. UAW said workers at Ford plants should return to work, but the union of 57,000 members is still striking against the two other major U.S. automakers: General Motors and Stellantis.

If the agreement is approved by union members, it could pave the way for an end to the strike at all three car companies.

Why it matters

When the UAW began its strike nearly six weeks ago, Ford was offering a 9% pay raise, the Associated Press reported.

It is the longest autoworker strike in 25 years. In 2019, the UAW ceased work at one company, General Motors, for 40 days. Wednesday marked the 41st day of the three-company strike.

Good reads on this
The third of three men arrested during a December incident in Akron that included a gunpoint confrontation and carjacking has been sentenced to prison.

Three men were arrested Thursday after breaking into a house, holding a woman at gunpoint, jumping into a car and forcing the couple in the car to drive them, according to the Akron Police Department. Police said that several guns, cash and other evidence were recovered from the scene.

Bryan McCroskey, 34, of Akron, pleaded guilty Tuesday in Summit County Common Pleas Court to one count of aggravated robbery, a first-degree felony with a three-year gun specification, one count of burglary, also a first-degree felony with a gun specification, and one count of kidnapping, a first-degree felony.

Prosecutors agreed to dismiss the other charges against McCroskey, who was scheduled to go on trial Friday.

Judge Kelly McLaughlin immediately sentenced McCroskey to 18 to 23 years in prison.

Rikki Rudd, 34, of Knoxville, Tennessee., and Alvin Brown, 20, of Akron, took plea deals and were sentenced to prison in August.

Police said the three men broke into a house, held a woman at gunpoint, jumped into a car and forced a couple in the car to drive them in East Akron.

During the incident, police said the SWAT team was called to the scene and, at one point, one of the suspects pointed a gun at an officer.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Akron man gets prison time for gunpoint confrontation and carjacking
Its a number Senator Jon Ossoff says is alarming. Friday his office reported the latest findings from a bi-partisan inquiry, into the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services.

1,790 children in the care of Georgia DCFS were reported missing  these numbers are deeply troubling, Senator Jon Ossoff said.

The numbers were released as part of a bi-partisan investigation launched earlier this year after a series of Channel 2 Investigations into the states handling of foster children.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

Senator Ossoff alongside Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn launched the investigation in February.

This is an investigation about what is being done to protect children, Ossoff said.

In an analysis that is apart from this inquiry, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children found between 2018 and 2022, 1,790 were reported missing while in state care. Ossoff says that number is around 2,500 when including cases where children were repeatedly reported missing.

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The Covenant House Georgia, a haven for homeless children says these numbers have encouraged them to investigate if the children theyre taking in have been reported missing.

I certainly want to further investigate that, said Dr. Alie Redd.

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Earlier this year, Channel 2 Action News reported parents frustrations over the practice of hoteling children.

On Wednesday the Subcommittee on Human Rights held their first hearing, listening to testimony from former Georgia foster children and families.

This is about vulnerable children who deserve protection from abuse, sanctuary from neglect. That is why I will continue to work relentlessly to prevent failures from the most vulnerable children in our state, Ossoff said.
FILE PHOTO: A damaged Balticconnector gas pipeline that connects Finland and Estonia is pictured in this undated handout picture in the Baltic Sea

By Andrius Sytas and Anne Kauranen

VILNIUS/HELSINKI (Reuters) -The three incidents that resulted in damage to a gas pipeline and two telecom cables between Estonia, Finland and Sweden "are related", Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said.

Finland on Friday said it had raised its risk assessment for gas supply security as a result of the damage to the Balticconnector Finland-Estonia pipeline, which operator Gasgrid has said could be out of commission until April or longer.

"An important gas import connection will be out of use during the winter season 2023/2024 for at least five months," the Finnish National Emergency Supply Agency said in a statement.

The risk level is now at two on a three-level scale, the agency said, adding it would not need to intervene in the markets to secure gas supply.

Finnish police leading the pipeline investigation have named the Hong-Kong-flagged container carrier NewNew Polar Bear as the prime suspect in damaging the gas pipeline early on Oct. 8.

A large anchor was found near the pipeline, and the investigators believe the pipe was broken as a ship dragged it across the sea bed.

DAMAGED TELECOM CABLES

Two telecom cables connecting Estonia to Finland and Sweden were also damaged on Oct 7-8. Tallinn is investigating the cables incidents.

In the case of the Estonia-Finland cable damage, it is also focusing on the Hong Kong vessel, and on Thursday evening Kallas said all three incidents were likely connected.

"We have reason to believe that the cases of Balticconnector and the communication cables are related," she said in a statement. "No version (of events) can be confirmed or denied regarding the Estonian communication cables."

The Lithuanian navy has deployed a mine hunter to patrol the key underwater power cable linking it to Sweden, in response to the Baltic incidents, BNS news wire reported on Friday.

ACCIDENT OR SABOTAGE?

One of the key questions investigators are still trying to answer is whether the incident was accidental or deliberate.

In Finland, a top defence official told Reuters that while subsea cable ruptures are quite common worldwide due to negligence or poor seamanship, the pipeline incident was "really suspicious" and "not a routine case".

"There are several factors related to this that ring alarm bells," Janne Kuusela, the director general of the Finnish defence ministry said in an interview, without giving specifics.

"Has there been some kind of a state actor behind this and on what kind of mandate? These things need to be verified before any robust counter-action could be taken," he said.

Reuters has reported that two vessels, the NewNew Polar Bear and the Russia-flagged Sevmorput, were present at all three sites around the time of the damage, according to data from MarineTraffic, a ship-tracking and maritime analytics provider.

The NewNew Polar Bear sailed over the Estonia-Sweden cable 133 kms (82 miles) before reaching the pipeline damage site. It then crossed the Estonia-Finland cable 32 kms (20 miles) after the gas pipeline, according to MarineTraffic.

China said it was willing to provide the necessary information in accordance with international law. Russia has dismissed as "rubbish" the idea that it was involved.

NATO has stepped up its patrols in the Baltic Sea after the incidents, and the Norwegian Navy has shadowed the NewNew Polar Bear as it sailed over the country's key gas pipelines.

(Reporting by Andrius Sytas in Vilnius; Anne Kauranen and Essi Lehto in Helsinki; additional reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis in Oslo; writing by Andrius Sytas and Gwladys Fouche; editing by David Evans, Hugh Lawson and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
In both America and Europe, debates over immigration focus on the impact influxes of foreign economic migrants might have on the labour market and welfare state. But even those who oppose mass unskilled immigration often agree that immigration by skilled workers, within reasonable limits, should be encouraged. The UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand all use merit-based or points systems as an objective system for admitting immigrants who score points on various measures like academic achievement and English proficiency.

In the United States, however, most skilled immigrants are admitted as workers sponsored by specific employers or labour contractors. In the interest of protecting American workers from unfair competition, the Biden administration has announced some minor reforms to the H1-B non-immigrant visa, the one on which tech and financial firms rely the most. But any system that does not allow a foreign worker to quit a job and find a new one in the US without the sponsors permission is inherently exploitative.

Many American firms claim that after that they have tried and failed to hire qualified US citizens and legal immigrants (legal permanent residents with green cards). They have no choice, they say, but to reluctantly apply for indentured servants from other countries.

In reality, many companies rely on labour contractors known as body shops. The most important are large firms that also specialise in helping companies outsource work to low-wage countries, like Deloitte and Accenture. The body shops buy H1-B visas from the US government and rent foreign workers to employers like Google, Microsoft, Apple, and JP Morgan.

While the program employs relatively few, H-1B workers form a disproportionate share of the workforce in the STEM and IT jobs that are often described as the knowledge economy jobs of the future. Between 1980 and 2010, thanks to the H-1B program, the percentage of American computer science jobs held by foreign-born workers exploded from 7.1 to 27.8.

In 2022, according to the US government, the top three countries of origin for approved H1-B workers were India (72.6 per cent), China (12.5 per cent), Canada (1.0 per cent), followed by South Korea, the Philippines, Mexico, Taiwan, Brazil, Pakistan, and Nepal, at less than 1 percent each. In 2022, 70.8 per cent of all approved H-1b applications went to men, with Indian men outnumbering Indian women by 3.5 to 1.

Do three-quarters of the workers on earth outside of US borders who possess valuable skills desperately needed by Silicon Valley and Wall Street and other US industries just happen to live in one country  India? Of course not. The overwhelming predominance of young Indian men among H-1B guest workers results from the historical accident that since the 1990s many of the suppliers of indentured servants to American companies have been Indian body shops like Tata Consultancy Services, IBM India, and Infosys.

The vast majority of H-1bs are not geniuses with unique skills but ordinary four-year-college graduates, sometimes educated in the US, who are hired to do routine IT work. The fact that some American workers at Disney and other firms have been fired and then forced to train their replacements gives the lie to the claim that the imported indentured servants have superior skills. If this were true, the H-1Bs would not need to be trained by the American workers they displace.

It is true that H-1Bs and others in the IT sector make more money than the average American. But the only comparison that counts is with other tech workers in the US, not with janitors or nurses. The US Department of Labour sets four H1-B wage levels, based on the median wage of other workers in the same occupation and region, with the help of survey data from the Occupational Employment Statistics survey by the Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS). In theory this system protects American workers and legal immigrants with green cards from having their wages undercut by competition with H-1B workers.

However, as Daniel Costa and Ron Hira demonstrated in a 2020 study, the Department of Labour sets the two lowest wage levels for H-1Bs well below the local median wage. In 2019, three-fifths of all H-1B workers were assigned to these two lowest prevailing wage levels  three-fifths in the case of IBM, three-quarters in the cases of Amazon and Microsoft, and half in the case of H-1Bs hired by Google, Uber, and Walmart. Costa and Hira concluded that these companies are using a flawed H-1B prevailing wage rule to underpay their workers relative to market wage standards, resulting in major savings in labour costs for companies that use the H-1B.

Saving money on labour costs by paying foreign indentured servants less than comparable American workers would have to be paid is not the only reason why many companies pressure Congress to expand the H-1B system, through well-funded lobbies like FWD.us, founded in 2012 with backing from Facebooks Mark Zuckerberg. Worker power  or the lack of it  is another consideration.

Why dont tech CEOs like Zuckerberg and Bill Gates, instead of lobbying Congress to raise the annual cap on H-1Bs, agitate to establish a merit-based points system like those of the UK and Canada? The answer involves money and power.

Under a points-based merit system, tech companies would lose the savings on wage costs that are created by labour arbitrage that exploits the difference between what H-1B indentured servants are paid and what most American citizens and green card holders would demand as pay for the same jobs, in the absence of the H-1B program.

Silicon Valley and Wall Street also want to minimise the power of workers of all kinds to bargain for higher wages and benefits. A merit-based points system allows immigrant workers to quit and look for jobs elsewhere on their own. But under the H-1B system, a foreign indentured servants who quits without the permission of the employer, be it a big tech or finance firm or an foreign body shop, must leave the US. The most fundamental right of a worker is the ability to quit a job and seek another in the same country. Lacking this right, even well-paid H-1Bs are far easier for employers to intimidate than US citizens or legal immigrants with green cards.

Bidens Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees the H-1B program, has proposed several changes that are intended to reduce fraud and abuse in the program and to raise the cost to employers of hiring H-1Bs instead of other workers. No longer would companies or body shops be allowed to game the application process by submitting applications for the same worker multiple times. And certain fees would go up slightly, although this is unlikely to affect the decision-making of the wealthy corporations that hire most H-1Bs.

These and other minor reforms do not address the fundamental problem: the injustice of pitting one group of workers in the United States  US citizens and green card holders with extensive workforce rights  against another group whose members are bound to their sponsors and have fewer rights and may be willing to work for lower wages. Like Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, the US should use a merit-based points system to recruit skilled immigrants who are free workers with economic rights, instead of indentured servants. After a generation of abuses, the H-1B system should be ended, not mended.

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.
Its almost time to change the clocks. Yes, again.

While dozens of U.S. states have proposed to keep either permanent daylight saving time (Sunshine Protection Act) or permanent standard time, no states have actually adopted a legislative change in 2023.

In fact, there has been no momentum at all.

Without new movement on proposed changes, Americans should expect clock changes to continue into 2024, according to the Sleep Foundation.

So, what does that mean for us right now?

Get ready to fall back, Georgia.

When do Georgians need to change their clocks?

Nov. 5, 2023 at 2:00 a.m. marks the official time to fall back for daylight saving time. This means clocks will fall back one hour at 2 a.m. local time.

What if it changes?

A change in Georgias adherence to daylight saving will mean the Sunshine Protection Act has passed and the state will adopt permanent daylight saving time.

Other states that have proposed this include:

Florida

South Carolina

Alabama

Mississippi

Louisiana

Tennessee

Ohio

Delaware

Minnesota

Colorado

Utah

Montana

Washington

Oregon

States that voted down legislation: Idaho, Kentucky, Arkansas, Connecticut, Nebraska, Maine, Maryland, New Mexico, Virginia and Wyoming.

Does daylight saving time have any benefits?

According to experts like American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society, more daylight in the evening improves public safety and sleep quality; increases social and commercial interaction; and lowers electricity use.

Some have proposed that the additional light helps school performance, cuts down on crime and car accidents, and even improves mental health.

When did daylight saving time start?

Well, it all started with Ben. Benjamin Franklin.

According to the Farmers Almanac, Benjamin Franklins An Economical Project, written in 1784, is the earliest known proposal to save daylight. It was whimsical in tone, advocating laws to compel citizens to rise at the crack of dawn to save the expense of candlelight.

In the proposal, Franklin said: Every morning, as soon as the sun rises, let all the bells in every church be set ringing: and if that is not sufficient, let cannon be fired in every street to wake the sluggards effectually  Oblige a man to rise at four in the morning, and it is probable that he will go willingly to bed at eight in the evening.

But the person that brought it to Congress was a London builder by the name of William Willet around 1907.

Tips to skip the sleepiness

When its time to fall back, you may feel the sun has abandoned you for the first few mornings and hit the snooze button entirely too often to take advantage of the dark. Well, Georgia Public Broadcasting has a few tips for you:

Dont start with a sleep debt. Ensure that you and, if youre a parent, your child get adequate sleep regularly, especially leading up to the time change each year. Most adults need anywhere from seven to nine hours of sleep daily to perform adequately. Children have varying requirements for sleep depending on their age.

Go to bed earlier and get up earlier.

Use light to your advantage. Expose yourself to bright light upon waking as you start getting up earlier in the week before daylight saving time starts. This resets your internal clock in the right direction. At night, minimize exposure to bright light and especially the blue light emitted by the screens of electronic media.

Carefully plan day and evening activities.

Pay more attention to what you eat and drink this week

Where do snakes go when it gets cold outside in the South? Heres what the experts say

Whats your stance on daylight saving time? Comment below or email me at cmadden@mcclatchy.com




David May, whom Gov. Kim Reynolds appointed to the Iowa Supreme Court, July 27, 2022

The state of Iowa will have to pay about $2 million in damages to a state employees union following an Iowa Supreme Court ruling Friday finding that it failed to honor a contract requirement that it make payroll deductions for union dues.

The decision came in a case involving Local 893 of the United Electrical Workers, which goes by the initials UE. The union also prevailed in a previous appeal to the high court from the case, which has stretched over half a decade.

In the first ruling in May 2019, the court upheld a district court decision that the union's contract was legal and binding. The state had contested the contract based on a 2017 law change negating collective bargaining rights for all but public safety workers. Both courts found that the pact had been ratified just before the bill was signed into law and therefore remained valid.

In Friday's ruling, the Court upheld a lower court ruling that the state breached the contract with the union in not deducting union dues from employees' paychecks. UE Local 893 represented about 1,700 state workers in the fields of social services and science, with jobs ranging from counselors to geologists and plant pathologists.

The bill that ended collective bargaining also banned payroll deductions, and the state contended that despite the contract predating the law, employees needed to turn in new authorization cards for the payroll deductions to occur.

But in oral arguments before the court in September, the union's attorney, Charles Gibble, contended that pre-existing authorization cards, like the ones about 1,000 of the workers UE represented signed in 2017, never expire. Only the employee can revoke (the authorization).

The court agreed, with Justice David May writing the unanimous ruling.

The parties agree that throughout their long history of bargaining for the science and social services units, the State has never before taken the position that union members have to present new authorization cards at the start of each new two-year contract period," May wrote. "Rather, the State has always honored authorization cards entered in prior contract terms. This supports UEs view that the parties had indeed agreed that dues authorizations would be durable from contract term to contract term. So no new authorizations were required at the beginning of the 20172019 term.

State failure to collect dues forced union to cut staff

When the state stopped taking out the money, UE Local 893 paid a contractor called UnionTrack to collect dues from members. The company charged the union about $35,000, and the union paid another $7,000 in credit card processing fees.

UnionTrack collected about $395,000 from members  about $1 million less than what UE Local 893 would have received if the state had continued payroll deduction, according to court documents. Gibble said that left the union without the ability to meet its obligations, causing it to have to reduce staff and assign more work to fewer people.

Overall, the total award to the union will be about $2 million, which includes $1.046 million in damages and close to $1 million for back pay and overtime owed to workers covered by the contract.

The only setback for the union was that in the Friday ruling, as in the 2019 case, the court decided the state was not responsible for paying the unions attorney fees, upholding a lower court ruling.

Gibble said the case was unusual for the length of time it took to reach a final decision, but that the union was happy with the outcome.

We are very pleased. This has been a long battle, said Gibble, who has been a labor attorney since 1975.

The Iowa Attorney Generals Office did not respond to an email seeking comment.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa Supreme Court rules state to pay damages to union in dues dispute
Shenzhou-17 astronauts enter space station, complete handover in four days

Xinhua) 08:44, October 27, 2023

This image captured at Beijing Aerospace Control Center on Oct. 26, 2023 shows the Shenzhou-16 and Shenzhou-17 crew talking with each other inside China's space station. (Photo by Han Qiyang/Xinhua)

BEIJING, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- The three astronauts aboard China's Shenzhou-17 spaceship have entered the country's space station and met with another astronaut trio on Thursday, starting a new round of in-orbit crew handover.

The Shenzhou-16 crew opened the hatch at 7:34 p.m. (Beijing Time). The three space station occupants greeted the new arrivals, and they took group pictures.

Tang Hongbo, commander of the Shenzhou-17 mission, experienced the historic moment as one of the first Chinese astronauts to China's space station in June 2021 when launched into orbit on the Shenzhou-12 mission.

Now, the space complex Tang revisits has been extended into a versatile space lab with two additional modules and more sophisticated experimental facilities. He also set a new record for the shortest interval between two spaceflight missions by Chinese astronauts.

The space get-together of the two crews kicked off the third in-orbit crew rotation in China's space station.

According to the China Manned Space Agency, the six astronauts will live and work together for about four days to complete planned tasks and handover work.

This image captured at Beijing Aerospace Control Center on Oct. 26, 2023 shows the astronauts of the Shenzhou-16 mission greeting the Shenzhou-17 crew at China's space station. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)

This image captured at Beijing Aerospace Control Center on Oct. 26, 2023 shows the Shenzhou-16 and Shenzhou-17 crew posing for a group photo inside China's space station. (Photo by Han Qiyang/Xinhua)

This image captured at Beijing Aerospace Control Center on Oct. 26, 2023 shows the Shenzhou-16 and Shenzhou-17 crew posing for a group photo inside China's space station. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)

This image captured at Beijing Aerospace Control Center on Oct. 26, 2023 shows the astronauts of the Shenzhou-16 mission greeting the Shenzhou-17 crew at China's space station. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)

This image captured at Beijing Aerospace Control Center on Oct. 26, 2023 shows the Shenzhou-16 and Shenzhou-17 crew hugging with each other at China's space station. (Photo by Han Qiyang/Xinhua)

This image captured at Beijing Aerospace Control Center on Oct. 26, 2023 shows the astronauts of the Shenzhou-16 mission greeting the Shenzhou-17 crew at China's space station. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)

This image captured at Beijing Aerospace Control Center on Oct. 26, 2023 shows the astronauts of the Shenzhou-17 mission giving thumbs up to the Shenzhou-16 crew at China's space station. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)

This image captured at Beijing Aerospace Control Center on Oct. 26, 2023 shows the astronauts of the Shenzhou-16 mission greeting the Shenzhou-17 crew at China's space station. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)

This simulated image captured at Beijing Aerospace Control Center on Oct. 26, 2023 shows China's Shenzhou-17 manned spaceship and the space station combination. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)

(Web editor: Tian Yi, Liang Jun)
BAGHDAD, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi prominent Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr Friday called on the government to shut down the U.S. embassy in Baghdad in response to Washington's support for Israeli attacks in Gaza.

"We are waiting for the government's reply to this request," al-Sadr said in a statement, adding "if the government and parliament do not (positively) respond, we will have another position to announce later."

The cleric also called for the protection of the diplomats and staffers at the U.S. embassy, urging all Iraqis not to act individually nor use weapons, according to the statement.

Al-Sadr's request came amid increasing dissatisfaction among Iraqis over the U.S. support for Israel, which is conducting extensive attacks in the Gaza Strip to retaliate against a surprise attack by Hamas on Oct. 7.

In recent days, a militia group, which calls itself "the Islamic Resistance in Iraq," claimed to have launched rocket and drone attacks on military bases housing U.S. forces across the country. The group also claimed responsibility for similar attacks on U.S. military forces in Syria. 
Hurricane Otis caused major damage as it came ashore as a scale-topping category 5 storm (FRANCISCO ROBLES)

Airlines began to evacuate tourists from Mexico's beachside city of Acapulco on Friday after a scale-topping Category 5 hurricane left a trail of destruction and at least 27 people dead, authorities said.

"Acapulco airport has already been reopened for an airlift," Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval told reporters in Mexico City, adding that the runway had not suffered major damage.

Commercial airlines would bring in doctors and fly out tourists and locals, he added.

Passengers hauling suitcases arrived to catch the free flights, expressing relief to be alive after Hurricane Otis smashed into Acapulco with winds of 165 miles (270 kilometers) per hour.

"We're very happy and content, grateful to be able to continue living our lives" said Clara Elena Albo from Mexico City, who was on vacation with her husband.

Other visitors left by road after the main highway to the capital was reopened.

The storm partially destroyed many buildings, shattering windows and leaving gaping holes in the walls of high-rise towers.

Tourists have said they used beds and mattresses for protection in their hotel rooms.

Others took shelter in bathrooms.

Four people remained missing, including three members of the Navy, according to the government.

Pope Francis sent a message of condolences and prayers for "the eternal rest of the deceased," the Vatican said.

Before hitting land early Wednesday, Otis rapidly intensified within hours from a tropical storm to the most powerful category of the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, taking authorities by surprise.

The World Meteorological Organization described the hurricane as "one of the most rapidly intensifying tropical cyclones on record."

Much of Acapulco remained without electricity or telephone connections on Friday, while food was scarce, leading to looting of supermarkets.

The government said that it had activated an emergency plan to bring essential supplies.

Hurricanes hit Mexico every year on both its Pacific and Atlantic coasts, usually between May and November, though few make landfall as a Category 5.

yug-sem-dr/des
Otis came ashore as a scale-topping category 5 hurricane with dangerous winds and a storm surge that swept boats ashore (FRANCISCO ROBLES)

Airlines began to evacuate tourists from Mexico's beachside city of Acapulco on Friday after a scale-topping Category 5 hurricane left a trail of destruction and at least 27 people dead, authorities said.

"Acapulco airport has already been reopened for an airlift," Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval told reporters in Mexico City, adding that the runway had not suffered major damage.

Commercial airlines would bring in doctors and fly out tourists and locals, he added.

Passengers hauling suitcases arrived at Acapulco International Airport to catch free flights, expressing relief to be alive after Hurricane Otis smashed into the city with winds of 165 miles (270 kilometers) per hour.

"We're very happy and content, grateful to be able to continue living our lives" said Clara Elena Albo from Mexico City, who was on vacation with her husband.

The airport buildings and installations appeared to be severely damaged, with broken glass and debris littering the ground.

The control tower and navigation systems were severely affected, so flights will be operated visually.

Lucina Ahuelican said that she had been stranded at the airport with her two daughters since Tuesday night.

"There was a lot of desperation... not knowing when we were going to leave," the 40-year-old said.

Some visitors left by road after the main highway to the capital was reopened.

- Pope offers prayers -

Once a magnet for Hollywood stars, Acapulco's fun-loving reputation has been tarnished by drug-related violence in recent years, though it remains a popular destination for Mexicans and some foreigners.

Hurricanes hit Mexico every year on both its Pacific and Atlantic coasts, usually between May and November, though few make landfall as a Category 5.

Otis partially destroyed many buildings, shattering windows and leaving gaping holes in the walls of high-rise towers.

Tourists have said they used beds and mattresses for protection in their hotel rooms.

Others took shelter in bathrooms.

Four people remained missing, including three members of the Navy, according to the government.

Pope Francis sent a message of condolences and prayers for "the eternal rest of the deceased," the Vatican said.

Before hitting land early Wednesday, Otis rapidly intensified within hours from a tropical storm to the most powerful category of the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, taking authorities by surprise.

The World Meteorological Organization described the hurricane as "one of the most rapidly intensifying tropical cyclones on record."

Much of Acapulco remained without electricity or telephone connections on Friday, while food was scarce, leading to looting of supermarkets.

The government said that it had activated an emergency plan to bring in essential supplies.

Social media platforms were flooded with messages from people seeking news of their relatives.

The army provided some satellite phones for residents to communicate with family members.

yug-sem-dr/jh
A former Ukrainian MP charged by Ukraine with being a traitor, Oleh Tsaryov, was found unconscious in his home in Ukraines Russian-occupied Crimea after being shot twice, relatives writing on Tsaryovs Telegram channel reported on Oct. 27.

Read also: Traitor? Or just in need of money? Journalist discusses motives of woman providing intel to Russia

The statement said that Tsaryov was shot at twice around midnight on the premises of a sanatorium in Yalta, situated in the occupied Crimea, where he resides. His family reported that when the ambulance arrived, he was unconscious and had suffered a significant loss of blood.

There is no current information about his condition, but occupiers claim that Tsaryov is in very critical condition in the intensive care unit. The identity of the shooter remains undisclosed, the statement goes on.

Earlier, Russian media reported the assassination attempt on the Ukrainian defector. Late in the evening, the presence of police vehicles and ambulances near his residence sparked speculation that there had been an assassination attempt, with some Russian media reporting that Tsaryov had been stabbed.

Read also: Collaborators home blown up in Berdyansk, invaders cover up consequences and hunt for culprits

Tsaryov, a staunch Ukraine critic and former member of the Party of Regions, fled from the government-controlled part of Ukraine in 2014. Following the full-scale invasion by the Russian Federation on Feb. 24, 2022, it is alleged that Tsaryov crossed the Ukrainian border and arrived in the temporarily occupied territory of Kyiv Oblast to assist occupiers in establishing control there. He was charged by Ukraines SBU security service for these actions.

Ukraine sentenced the former MP in absentia to 12 years in prison for publicly promoting separatism and advocating for violent change and the overthrow of the constitutional order during the 2014 Revolution of Dignity.

In March 2022, Tsaryov was also charged with attempting to undermine Ukraines territorial integrity and collaborating with the invaders.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
The trial for a Naples man accused of intentionally running over and killing an acquaintance last year could begin as soon as June.

Donald Whitaker, 51, remains in custody without bond. He's charged with second-degree murder.

Deputies responded to a report of a possible domestic disturbance involving a woman who had been run over by a vehicle in the 1100 block of Dove Tree Street in Golden Gate Estates around 8:40 p.m. Nov. 28.

The driver of a blue minivan, later identified as Whitaker, was outside the vehicle holding the woman as deputies arrived, the report indicated.

First responders took her to Naples Community Hospital North East with critical injuries, where she died, officials said.

Held without bond: Naples man accused of running acquaintance over, killing her held without bond, judge rules

Domestic dispute, authorities say: Naples man accused of killing woman with van during domestic dispute, CCSO says

A witness told detectives she was on her way to a friends house. As she turned onto Dove Tree Street she saw a woman on the ground on the side of the road and a blue minivan.

The witness said she exited her car and asked the woman, who was sobbing, if she needed help, according to the report. The woman said no.

The witness told detectives the minivan seemed like it was stalking the woman, so she contacted authorities, reports said.

As she was doing so, the minivan accelerated toward the victim and drove over her, reports said.

The witness said Whitaker got out of the minivan and tried to pick up the victim and carry her to his vehicle. Whitaker then tried to perform CPR on the woman.

Detectives confronted Whitaker with two witness statements and arrested him.

Before his tentative June 10 trial date, Whitaker is next due in court Feb. 29 for a case management conference, followed by an April 9 pretrial conference and a June 4 trial call.

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

This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Trial date set for Naples man accused of fatally running woman over
Supporters of former President Donald Trump outside his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., on June 11. (Marco Bello/Reuters) (Marco Bello / reuters)

It was just under a year ago that Donald Trump announced he was seeking the presidency for a third time. Many conservatives hoped he wouldnt. They thought he was old news, and his poor endorsement record in the 2022 midterms seemed to show his grip on the GOP was loosening. Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida increasingly looked like the future, especially after his reelection romp.

But with the first votes of the GOP primary only weeks from being cast, Trump has consolidated remarkably strong support, both from lawmakers in Washington  who bent to his will in electing a House speaker earlier this week  and from primary voters across the rest of the country.

The four separate criminal cases now proceeding against him appear to have done little to erode support  even though a conviction could send him to prison.

Meanwhile, Trumps challengers for the presidential nomination continue to fight each other, failing to land any decisive blows against the frontrunner in both early state and national polls.

DeSantiss popularity has plunged in the last six months, and while some conservatives appear to be embracing former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley  who has performed well in primary debates  she has yet to decisively overtake her Florida rival in the contest for distant runner-up to Trump.

Asked by Yahoo News how Trump could be stopped, veteran Republican pollster Whit Ayres answered with a question of his own: Who the hell knows?

Recommended reading

A pro-Trump House speaker

Rep. Mike Johnson prepares to speak to reporters after securing the nomination for House speaker on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) (Jonathan Ernst / reuters)

For a fleeting moment this week, it seemed like Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., might emerge from the weeks-long chaos that followed Kevin McCarthys ouster to become the chambers next speaker.

Then Trump got involved. Not one to forget a slight, he has remained furious that Emmer criticized him for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Calling Emmer out on social media on Tuesday and pressuring Capitol Hill allies to vote against him, Trump managed to end his short-lived speaker bid  and remind the Republican establishment how strong his influence on the GOP remains.

I killed him, Trump subsequently boasted, according to Politico.

The eventual victor, Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., has supported Trumps conspiracy theories about the 2020 election having been stolen from him. As it turned out, the one indispensable quality you had to have to become Speaker was to be an election denier, wrote Democratic strategist David Axelrod in a social media post.

Recommended reading

Donor switching

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at a college football game in Ames, Iowa, on Sept. 9. (Jeffrey Becker-USA Today Sports via Reuters) (USA Today Sports / reuters)

DeSantis was once a favorite of Republican donors who were locked in an anyone-but-Trump mindset. But donors have been fleeing his campaign, heavy on culture war issues.

Others embraced Sen. Tim Scott, the affable South Carolina religious conservative. Haley has emerged as a recent favorite, especially among some former DeSantis boosters.

But others have concluded that Trump is inevitable  and are getting back on board the MAGA express. There is no doubt in my mind that Donald Trump will be the nominee of our party, a top GOP donor in North Carolina told NBC News. I have met with all the candidates. None are close to the level of support Trump has.

Recommended reading

No consolidation helps Trump

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley stands in front of a display of campaign memorabilia after filing paperwork to put her name on the states primary ballot at the State House in Concord, N.H., on Oct. 13. (Brian Snyder/Reuters) (Brian Snyder / reuters)

Trump leads by about 40% in Iowa and by either 20% or 30% (depending on the poll) in New Hampshire  with voters heading to caucuses or polls there in just a matter of weeks. And the looming holiday season further shortens the time Trumps rivals have to make their case.

Most of them still believe they have a shot, refusing to drop out and get behind a single anti-Trump candidate. People need to start dropping out now, says former Trump staffer Sarah Matthews, who believes the Republican Party needs to consolidate behind Haley  quickly. Were getting too close to Iowa, Matthews says.

So far, if theres any consolidation in the Republican establishment, it is behind Trump. Earlier this week, a major Jewish backer of DeSantis, Florida state legislator Randy Fine, made national news by switching his allegiance to Trump. Several days later, radio host Larry Elder ended his own long-shot presidential bid.

He also endorsed Trump.

Recommended reading
Donald Trump Jr. dubbed presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. a Democrat plant after the candidate left the Democratic primary to pursue a presidential bid as an independent, a change viewed as potentially hurting former President Trumps election chances.

It legitimately always felt like it was a Democrat plant to hurt the Trump thing, Trump Jr . said to Trump campaign volunteers in Iowa on Thursday, NBC News reported. He wouldnt be there if the Democrats didnt want him.

The Democratic establishment essentially ignored Kennedys long-shot primary bid against President Biden. Now, early polls show Kennedy may actually pull more voters from Trump than Biden in a three-man race, turning a former primary opponent into a boon for the incumbent.

Kennedy centered his campaign on a rejection of the two-party system, distrust in government and skepticism of COVID-19, including the COVID vaccine.

Those positions could appeal to voters who otherwise would vote for Trump, political analysts have argued.

Even other GOP candidates have predicted that Kennedy could hurt Trump.

You have another wrinkle now with RFK Jr. as a third party, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) said at a stop in New Hampshire this month. RFK Jr. will be a vessel for anti-lockdown and anti-Fauci voters if Trump is the nominee.

He would hurt Trump, DeSantis predicted.

But Trump Jr. disagrees, pointing to Kennedys more liberal stances on immigration and gun control, among other issues.

He should be much more of a threat to Joe Biden than to us, Trump Jr. said Thursday. Once you actually look at his voting record, youre like, no, hes just a liberal that is anti-vax.  Being anti-vax, I dont think thats enough.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Ivanka Trump must testify in the $250 million civil fraud case against her father, brothers and family business, Judge Arthur Engoron rules. In Colorado, meanwhile, a district court judge rules that a case seeking to block Trumps name from appearing on state ballots can move forward.

New York financial fraud

Judge: Ivanka Trump must testify in civil fraud case against family father

Key players: Judge Arthur Engoron, former Trump Organization EVP Ivanka Trump, New York state prosecutor Kevin Wallace, New York Attorney General Letitia James, Ivanka Trump's lawyer, Bennet Moskowitz

On Friday, Engoron ruled that Donald Trump s eldest daughter, Ivanaka, must testify in the $250 million civil case brought by James against the former president, his adult sons and their family business, the Associated Press reported.

Ivanka Trump served as executive vice president of the Trump Organization through 2017, when she left that role and became an unpaid presidential adviser.

On Friday, Moskowitz told Engoron that New York prosecutors just dont have jurisdiction over her.

Wallace countered that argument, saying, She is 100% someone who can come in and testify.

In June, a New York state appeals court ruled that the claims James brought against Ivanka Trump exceeded the state statute of limitations, and dismissed the charges against her.

Her lawyers were given time to appeal his ruling.

Why it matters: Trump, his sons Eric and Don Jr., and his daughter Ivanka will now all be compelled to testify under oath in the case about whether they inflated the value of their assets to obtain favorable bank and loan terms.

Jan. 6 election interference

Judge rejects Trump bid to dismiss lawsuit that aims to keep him off Colorado ballot

Key players: Colorado District Judge Sarah Wallace, Chief U.S. District Judge Philip Brimmer

Wallace ruled Wednesday that a lawsuit brought to keep Trumps name from appearing on Colorado ballots could continue, NBC News reported.

Trumps lawyers argued that Wallace should dismiss the lawsuit brought by six voters. It seeks to block Trumps inclusion on ballots because he allegedly violated Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by engaging in insurrection or rebellion in the wake of the 2020 election.

Lawyers for Trump argued Congress, not courts, are the sole arbiters on the question of eligibility.

In her 24-page ruling, Wallace disagreed, writing that the Constitution says nothing regarding what government body would adjudicate or determine such disability in the first instance.

Why it matters: The Colorado case, which has survived multiple legal challenges, is just one of several seeking to keep Trump off the ballot due to his apparent violation of the 14th Amendment. Those seem destined to land at the U.S. Supreme Court.

Recommended reading:

____________________

Thursday, Oct. 26

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Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Robert Alexander/Getty Images, Spencer Platt/Getty Images, Getty Images (2)

In Washington, prosecutors on special counsel Jack Smiths team ask Judge Tanya Chutkan to issue a permanent gag order on former President Donald Trump, in part over a message posted on social media they say included a threat to his former chief of staff. In New York, Judge Arthur Engoron stands by his decision to fine Trump $10,000 for violating a gag order in his New York financial fraud trial.

Jan. 6 election interference

Citing 'threatening' message to Meadows, Smith asks judge to impose permanent gag order on Trump

Key players: Special counsel Jack Smith, Judge Tanya Chutkan, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows

Citing a social media post by Trump that prosecutors said included a "threatening" message for Meadows, prosecutors asked Chutkan in a Wednesday court filing to impose a permanent and more restrictive gag order on the former president, ABC News reported.

Trump posted his message in response to media reports that Meadows had reached an immunity deal with Smith's office, agreeing to testify in exchange for avoiding criminal charges.

I dont think Mark Meadows would lie about the Rigged and Stollen 2020 Presidential Election merely for getting IMMUNITY against Prosecution (PERSECUTION!) by Deranged Prosecutor, Jack Smith, Trump wrote Tuesday on Truth Social. The post continued that those who would accept such deals were "weaklings and cowards."

The post, prosecutors wrote in their filing, was meant to "send an unmistakable and threatening message to a foreseeable witness in this case."

In their filing, prosecutors asked Chutkan for a more stringent gag order than the one she established earlier this month.

The Court should modify the defendant's conditions of release by making compliance with the [gag] Order a condition or by clarifying that the existing condition barring communication with witnesses about the facts of the case includes indirect messages to witnesses made publicly on social media or in speeches, Wednesday's filing stated.

There has never been a criminal case in which a court has granted a defendant an unfettered right to try his case in the media, malign the presiding judge as a fraud and a hack, attack the prosecutor as deranged and a thug, the filing continued.

Chutkan paused an a partial gag order on Trump designed to prevent him from attacking prosecutors, court staff and potential witnesses after Trump's lawyers appealed her ruling last week to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Why it matters: As the Associated Press noted Thursday, while the use of gag orders for defendants in civil and criminal cases is not uncommon in American courtrooms, restricting the speech of those who are also running for political office is a novel test for the judicial system. If Trump is hit with more gag orders, more violations of them seem likely. Testimony provided by Meadows is certain to be a part of the prosecution's case against Trump.

New York financial fraud

Engoron refuses to revoke Trumps $10K fine

Key players: Judge Arthur Engoron, Trump lawyer Christopher Kise, former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen

In court Thursday, Engoron stood by his decision to impose a $10,000 fine on Trump Wednesday for violating a limited gag order designed to prevent him from verbally attacking members of the judges staff, Reuters reported.

Kise asked Engoron to reconsider the fine, reiterating his clients position that he had been speaking about Cohen rather than the judges clerk when he told reporters, "This judge is a very partisan judge, with a person who's very partisan sitting alongside of him."

Engoron reviewed videotape of Trumps remarks and concluded that it was clear Trump was referring to the clerk who sits next to the judge in the courtroom.

This is the second fine Engoron has imposed on Trump. The first, for $5,000, came after the former president attacked his clerk on social media.

Why it matters: While Trump routinely goes after Engoron in social media posts and in statements made to the media, the judge has the power to fine and jail him for violating court orders.

____________________

Wednesday, Oct. 25

____________________

Former President Donald Trump. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Drew Angerer/Getty Images, Getty Images)

Judge Arthur Engoron fined former President Donald Trump another $10,000 Wednesday for violating a gag order he put in place to prevent Trump from disparaging members of his staff. Following reports Tuesday that former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows struck an immunity deal with special counsel Jack Smith in exchange for providing testimony about Trump, Meadows casts doubt on that claim and Trump wonders aloud if it is true.

New York financial fraud

Judge questions Trump on witness stand, fines him $10,000 for violating gag order again

Key players: Judge Arthur Engoron, Trump lawyer Christopher Kise, former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen

Engoron questioned Trump on the witness stand Wednesday about comments he made outside the courtroom that appeared in violation of a gag order imposed to keep him from disparaging the judges staff, Reuters reported.

During a break earlier on Wednesday, Trump told reporters, This judge is a very partisan judge with a person who is very partisan sitting alongside of him, perhaps even much more partisan than he is.

In court, Engorons clerk, who Trump attacked in a social media post that later resulted in a $5,000 fine, sits next to him.

Engoron asked who he was referring to with his latest comments. You and Cohen, Trump responded.

Engoron was not impressed. "As the trier of fact, I find the witness is not credible," he said, and issued a $10,000 fine.

After that, Trump angrily stormed out of the courtroom and the trial then continued.

Engoron, earlier on Wednesday, admonished Trumps lawyers over remarks the former president made outside the courtroom, the Associated Press reported.

Kise responded that Trump was referring to Cohen, who delivered testimony from the witness stand a short distance from where the judge sits.

Why it matters: Engoron, who has now twice fined Trump for violating the gag order, has also threatened to jail him if the attacks continue. Wednesdays altercation was yet another test of his patience.

Jan. 6 election interference

Meadows denies reports he accepted an immunity deal with federal prosecutors

Key players: Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, special counsel Jack Smith, Meadowss lawyer George Terwilliger, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis

On Tuesday, citing sources familiar with the matter, ABC News published a story that claimed that Smith had granted Meadows immunity to testify under oath about his interactions with Trump in the weeks after the 2020 presidential election.

Bloomberg , citing their own source, confirmed that reporting, and both outlets noted that Meadows testified that he told Trump repeatedly that claims of widespread election fraud were not true.

But a lawyer for Meadows denied late Tuesday that his client had flipped on Trump, the Daily Beast reported.

I told ABC that their story was largely inaccurate. People will have to judge for themselves the decision to run it anyway. Terwilliger told CBS News .

In a post on Truth Social, Trump expressed a measure of confidence that Meadows had not joined the ranks of those who have cut deals with prosecutors to testify against him, but seemed to acknowledge it was a possibility.

I dont think that Mark Meadows is one of them, but who really knows? Trump wrote.

Meadows has not been charged in Smiths federal election interference case, but he has been charged by Willis with multiple felonies in Georgia.

Why it matters: Perhaps more than any other person involved in the events leading up to and following the 2020 presidential election, Meadows witnessed Trumps efforts to challenge the election results. His testimony could prove decisive in the federal and Georgia cases.

_________________

Tuesday, Oct. 24

_________________

Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: John Bazemore-Pool/Getty Images, Alyssa Pointer/Getty Images (2), Getty Images (3).

Former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis becomes the fourth defendant to plead guilty in Georgia over her role in the effort to illegally overturn the 2020 presidential election and promises to testify in the trials of the others charged. In New York, meanwhile, former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen takes the stand to testify against his former boss in the financial fraud trial of Trump, his adult sons and their family business.

Georgia election interference

Jenna Ellis becomes the latest Trump lawyer to plead guilty

Key players: Former Trump-aligned lawyers Jenna Ellis, Rudy Giuliani, Kenneth Chesebro, Sidney Powell and John Eastman. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, Judge Scott McAfee

Days after pro-Trump lawyers Chesebro and Powell pleaded guilty to election interference charges in Georgia and agreed to testify against other defendants, former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis became the fourth defendant of 19 to cut a plea deal with Willis, Politico reported.

"If I knew then what I know now, I would have declined to represent Donald Trump in these post-election challenges," an emotional Ellis said Tuesday morning as she pleaded guilty.

Ellis admitted to McAfee that she had spread lies about election fraud in 2020 in multiple states to help Trump remain in power.

What I did not do, but should have done, Your Honor, was to make sure that the facts the other lawyers alleged to be true were in fact true, she said.

As with Chesebro and Powell, the terms of the plea deal will spare her from going to prison in the event she was found guilty at trial. Instead, she must pay a $5,000 fine, serve five years probation, write a letter of apology to Georgia residents and, most importantly, cooperate with Willis in the prosecution of others in the case.

In March, Ellis was censured by a judge in Colorado for promoting false election claims. Giulianis law license was suspended in New York over those same claims, and Eastman is in the midst of disbarment proceedings in New York for his role in the election subversion plot.

Why it matters: Ellis has firsthand knowledge of the actions of defendants like Giuliani and Trump and she will be compelled to testify against them.

New York financial fraud

Michael Cohen takes the stand as Trump looks on

Key players: Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, New York Attorney General Letitia James, Judge Arthur Engoron

Cohen took the witness stand Tuesday in the New York civil trial that will decide the penalties Trump, his adult sons and family business must pay after being found liable for years of financial fraud, Insider reported.

Just feet away from Cohen, Trump sat at the defense table, watching his former longtime employee-turned-antagonist testify against him about claims that he inflated the value of his business assets in order to obtain more favorable loan and insurance rates.

"I was tasked by Mr. Trump to increase the total assets based upon a number that he arbitrarily elected, and my responsibility, along with [former Trump Org. CFO] Allen Weisselberg, primarily, was to reverse engineer" the value of the companys assets, in order to achieve the number that Mr. Trump tasked us, Cohen testified.

Cohen was sentenced to serve three years in prison for tax evasion and other crimes committed while working for Trump. In his 2019 testimony to the House Oversight Committee, he detailed allegations that Trump had routinely inflated the value of his assets, statements that James cited as the basis for her investigation.

Hes a proven liar," Trump told reporters about Cohen as he headed into court.

Why it matters: While Trump and his lawyers will continue to attack Cohens credibility, he is a central witness in two cases brought against the former president: the New York financial fraud civil trial and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Braggs criminal hush money payment case.

_________________

Monday, Oct. 23

_________________

Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Scott Olson/Getty Images, Stephanie Keith/Getty Images, Getty Images (7).

Lawyers for former President Donald Trump tell a federal appeals court Monday that he was not liable for defamatory comments made about writer E. Jean Carroll because he was president when he first said them. Following last weeks guilty plea in Georgia by lawyer Sidney Powell, Trump seeks to clarify their relationship. He is also preparing to confront his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen in a New York courtroom.

E. Jean Carroll defamation

Trump lawyers say presidential immunity shields him from having to pay Carroll for defamation

Key players: writer E. Jean Carroll, Judge Lewis Kaplan, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals

Lawyers for Trump on Monday presented their arguments that Trump should not be held liable for defamatory comments made about writer E. Jean Carroll because he was president at the time, ABC News reported.

Defendant-Appellee's conduct is not properly the subject of a civil damages claim since his conduct is shielded by presidential immunity. The District Court's rejection of this defense was clearly made in error, Trumps attorneys wrote prior to oral arguments Monday.

Trump is appealing a June ruling by Kaplan that rejected the presidential immunity claims, Reuters reported. In May, a Manhattan jury found Trump had sexually abused Carroll in a New York department store changing room and later defamed her.

The jury awarded Carroll $5 million in damages, but Trump then continued to make more defamatory remarks about her during a CNN Town Hall following the verdict. The second part of her lawsuit seeks an additional $10 million in damages, partly stemming from Trumps subsequent comments.

In July 2020, Carrolls lawyers argued, Trump waived his presidential immunity defense when his lawyers said Carroll was entitled to pursue her defamation lawsuit when the President is no longer in office.

On Monday, two of the appeals court justices questioned Trumps lawyers about why the former president had waited so long to raise presidential immunity claims, Reuters reported, given that the case had proceeded for so long.

Why it matters: Trumps second defamation trial is scheduled to begin in January. If allowed to go forward, it will decide how much more money Trump will have to pay Carroll.

Georgia election interference

Following Sidney Powell plea deal, Trump says she was not my attorney

Key players: Pro-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, District Attorney Fani Willis, special counsel Jack Smith

Just days after Powell pleaded guilty to charges stemming from her role in attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia, Trump sought to put distance between her and himself, NBC News reported.

"Despite the Fake News reports to the contrary, and without even reaching out to ask the Trump Campaign, MS. POWELL WAS NOT MY ATTORNEY, AND NEVER WAS," Trump wrote in a post on Sunday on Truth Social, his social media network.

As part of her plea deal, which will spare her from serving prison time in the Georgia case, Powell has agreed to testify in the trials of the other 17 people charged, including Trump.

Chesebro, who is credited with helping devise the alternate elector strategy to challenge the election results, has also accepted a plea deal and agreed to testify against other defendants.

Why it matters: Whether Trump hired Powell to represent him may ultimately be beside the point. She attended a White House meeting with the president and sued Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, claiming massive election fraud. Trump saw fit to promote a story about the lawsuit on his Twitter feed, Smith noted in his federal indictment of the former president.

New York financial fraud

Michael Cohen to testify Tuesday

Key players: Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, New York Attorney General Letitia James, Judge Arthur Engoron, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg

Cohen, Trumps former lawyer and fixer, is expected to take the witness stand Tuesday and come face-to-face with his former boss, The Hill reported.

Cohen is one of Jamess star witnesses in the $250 million civil trial to determine the penalties Trump, his adult sons and their family business must pay after being found liable by Engoron for years of financial fraud.

In an interview this month with CNN, Cohen said everything that happened at the Trump Organization happened with the direct knowledge and at the direction of, and ultimately signed off by, Donald J. Trump.

Trump, who has attended much of the trial, told reporters last week that Cohen didnt have the guts to appear.

Cohen cited a preexisting medical condition as the reason he did not testify last week, adding that he was not afraid to testify as his former boss looked on.

Why it matters: Since serving jail time for tax evasion related to his duties when working for Trump, Cohen has become one of the former presidents fiercest critics. His testimony will be central in both the financial fraud trial as well as Braggs criminal case stemming from Trumps alleged $130,000 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Former President Trumps lead over other GOP presidential candidates widened in a new survey of Pennsylvania Republicans.

Trump now leads his closest competitor, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis , by 41 points, according to the latest Franklin & Marshall College poll of registered Republican voters in Pennsylvania, with 55 percent supporting Trump and 14 percent supporting DeSantis.

Trumps lead represents a 16-point boost from previous polling in August 2023, when Trumps support was at 39 percent. The April 2023 survey had Trump at 40 percent. The October poll also marks the first time in months that he has received a majority of the GOP voters support in Pennsylvania.

For DeSantis, the new numbers continue a steady drop in support among GOP registered voters in Pennsylvania. In October 2023, DeSantiss support was at 14 percent, in August 2023, his support was at 21 percent, and in April 2023, his support was at 34 percent.

The October poll also reveals a shift in support among the rest of the GOP field. The previous poll was conducted in the days leading up to the first GOP primary debate in August.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, now in third place, saw the most momentum in the last few months of all the candidates, aside from Trump. In October, she polled at 9 percent, up from 5 percent in August, and 4 percent in April. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie saw a slight uptick in support, at 4 percent in October, from 3 percent in August, and zero percent in April. Both candidates received mostly positive media coverage after the two debates.

The rest of the candidates only saw their support drop in October, after some saw an uptick in polls ahead of the August debate.

Vivek Ramaswamys support has fallen to 5 percent in October, from 9 percent in August. Former Vice President Mike Pences support fell to 2 percent in October, from 5 percent in August. Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) saw his support fall to 3 percent in October, from 6 percent in August.

Pennsylvania represents one of the most important states ahead of the 2024 presidential election. It has long been seen as a swing state and was one of the most highly contested during the 2020 general election. Biden ultimatley won the states electoral votes in 2020.

The new poll was conducted Oct. 11-22, by phone or online, and included 873 registered Pennsylvania voters, including 359 Republicans. The sample error for questions on the Republican primary is plus or minus 6.4 percent.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Ivanka Trump may have a new job in her fathers real estate empire: help dissolve it.

On Friday, a federal court judge ruled that the Trump heiress cannot block the subpoena calling her to testify against her father and brothers, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., in their $250 million New York fraud case.



A trial is a search for the truth, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron said before ruling against her.

Ivanka Trump has until November 1 to appeal the decision, after which she will be required to take the witness stand.

The businesswoman was originally expected to be named as a defendant in the fraud trial, though a New York appeals court struck down her inclusion, ruling that the claims against her were too old.

Judge Arthur Engoron issued a summary judgment in September that found New York Attorney General Letitia James had already proved Trump misvalued his properties and committed business fraud, soon after dissolving the business certificates of Trumps companies. What remains to be seen in the trial is whether Trump violated other laws and, ultimately, what kind of financial penalty he might have to pay.
WASHINGTON  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent the ratification protocols for Swedens NATO accession to parliament this week, but its unclear whether thats enough to lock down the $20 billion sale for 40 new F-16s that Ankara seeks.

Thats because the four key U.S. lawmakers who would need to greenlight the Block 70 F-16 fighter jets to Turkey are voicing concerns about other issues unrelated to Swedens NATO accession.

The chairs and ranking members of the foreign affairs committees in both the Senate and House can unilaterally place holds on arms sales. And as of right now, at least two of them wont commit to signing off on the sale just yet.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Ben Cardin, D-Md., told reporters Thursday hes pleased to see Turkey moving positively on Swedens NATO bid, noting its clear that they had to get this done before we would consider arms sales.

But there are other issues that we evaluate on arms sales, Cardin added. The use of the weapons systems, the human rights issues and concerns that we have. So there are other issues that well be looking at.

But I dont want to give any signals right now because we havent had those conversations with the administration, he said. I first want to hear from the administration.

The U.S. State Department has yet to formally notify Congress of the Turkey F-16 sale, but national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in July that the Biden administration would move forward with the deal after Erdogan agreed to lift his hold on Swedens NATO membership.

The office of House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Mike McCaul, R-Texas, did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

A spokesperson for Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the ranking member looks forward to the Turkish parliaments ratification of Swedens NATO accession, as well as the cessation of attacks on U.S. partners in the region, cooperation on countering illicit Russian financial flows and a de-escalation of tensions in the Aegean.

The transmission of these protocols alone has not changed his position, and he hopes they are immediately ratified and progress is made on all these issues, Meeks spokesperson said.

Turkish airstrikes have bombarded civilian infrastructure in Kurdish-held northeast Syria, cutting of water and electricity throughout much of the area. The Turkish strikes have killed at least 218 civilians, according to the Kurdish-led administration, which is backed by roughly 900 U.S. troops stationed in Syria.

Turkey launched its latest campaign against northeast Syria earlier this month after a group linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, attacked the Interior Ministry in Ankara, injuring two officers. The PKK is affiliated with the Kurdish-led administration in northeast Syria.

Turkey has previously used American-made F-16s it owns during its prior aerial attacks in northeast Syria. Turkey also stationed F-16s in Azerbaijan during the 2020 war with Armenia over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. Azerbaijan won that war, and more than 100,000 Armenians fled the area in September, a move Armenia has described as ethnic cleansing.

Asked by Defense News about Turkeys actions in Syria and Azerbaijan, Sen. James Risch of Idaho  the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee  said he has concerns. However, he added, he may still give the greenlight for the F-16s should Turkey ratify Swedens NATO membership.

Risch told reporters the Biden administration has not reached out to Congress since Erdogan submitted the ratification protocols to parliament, but said: I dont think they really need to since we have had long, detailed conversations about that. Everybody knows what the parameters were.

While the F-16 sale still hangs in the balance, Turkeys most significant obstacle to the deal is no longer a factor. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., lost his position as chairman of the foreign relations panel after the Justice Department unveiled a corruption indictment against him in September  the second of his political career. As such, Menendez has lost his authority to unilaterally hold up arms sales.

Menendez had vowed to hold the F-16 sale even if Turkey ratifies Swedens NATO accession, citing a litany of other issues. One of his most prominent concerns was Turkeys repeated incursions into the airspace of fellow NATO ally Greece and its ongoing occupation of northern Cyprus.

The New Jersey Democrat has pleaded not guilty to charges indicating he accepted bribes from Egypt and in turn lobbied his Senate colleagues not to cut or condition U.S. military aid to Cairo. Menendez remains in the Senate and is seated on the Foreign Relations Committee.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang meets with Belarusian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko on the sidelines of the 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Oct. 27, 2023. (Xinhua/Yue Yuewei)

BISHKEK, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- China stands ready to push for deeper synergy between the Belt and Road Initiative and Belarus' strategy for social and economic development and jointly build the China-Belarus Industrial Park and other key projects, Chinese Premier Li Qiang said here Friday.

China is willing to work with Belarus to follow through on the important consensus reached between their heads of state, Li said when meeting with Belarusian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko on the sidelines of the 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States.

Under the strategic guidance of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, bilateral relations have achieved leap-forward development in recent years, Li said.

He called on both sides to tap the potential of cooperation in such areas as trade in services and scientific and technological innovation, strengthen people-to-people and cultural cooperation, and push forward their all-weather comprehensive strategic partnership.

The two sides should strengthen communication and coordination within the SCO and other multilateral mechanisms to make greater contribution to regional and world peace, stability and development, Li said.

Golovchenko, for his part, said that Belarus firmly supports China in safeguarding its core interests.

Belarus speaks highly of the eight major steps proposed by President Xi to support the high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, and is willing to deepen cooperation with China in various fields, he said.

Belarus is ready to strengthen cooperation with China within multilateral frameworks such as the SCO to jointly boost the multipolarization of the world, he added. 
TechCrunch

The world is watching the humanitarian crisis in Gaza unfold in real time through firsthand accounts documented on, of all places, Snapchat. Israel has retaliated against Hamas October 7 attack with unprecedented force against the Palestinian territory, claiming over 9,000 Palestinian lives according to Gaza Health Ministry numbers reported by the Associated Press. The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that at least 30 journalists have been killed since Israels bombardment and total blockade of the region began, and journalists in Gaza say that without consistent access to food, water and power, its becoming impossible to continue reporting.
This is Fine

Just weeks after her disastrous Code Conference interview, which may have resulted in her public speaking activities being put on hold, X-formerly-Twitter's CEO Linda Yaccarino is logging back on to celebrate the one-year anniversary of her boss Elon Musk's Twitter takeover.

At an exceedingly rare all-hands meeting on Thursday, she let everyone know that she and the dumpster fire formerly known as Twitter are perfectly happy and doing great, thanks!

"October 27 marks the one-year anniversary of this platform under new ownership and management," Yaccarino penned in a lengthy company blog post following the meeting. "I am incredibly proud of the work our team has been doing to accelerate the future of X."

Yaccarino went on to detail not one, but 23 of X's supposed accomplishments since Musk's purchase of the platform. She bookended her expansive list with a bullish exclamation that if Twitter and its new leadership "can achieve all of this in just 12 months, just imagine the scope of our ambition for next year."

Sure! But as Business Insider reports, there's one very big problem with Yaccarino's optimism: the fact that many of the so-called accomplishments that Yaccarino touts, including regarding advertiser support and user numbers, simply aren't checking out.

Glass Half Full

In the blog post, Yaccarino claimed that "1,700 advertisers returned to X, from small businesses to major brands  including 90 of the top 100 ad spenders from a year ago." But, as Insider notes, data from the marketing firm Ebiquity recently revealed that scores of advertisers, including Twitter's former top spenders, have been pulling their ads off of the platform following all of the chaos unfolding under Musk's leadership.

Yaccarino also made some bold statements about Twitter's user metrics, including daily user activity and new user signups. Recent reports from The Wall Street Journal and Axios, however, have painted drastically different pictures, with data showing sharp declines in daily user activity and overall year-to-date app downloads.

Elsewhere, Yaccarino curiously decided to applaud the app's current infrastructure, which, between mass workforce cullings and a long series of underbaked product shipments, has all but collapsed under Musk's guidance.

She also notably failed to mention the news that banks that lent Musk the cash to buy the app in the first place have taken massive financial losses as a result.

In short, the walls appear to be coming down around them. But instead of doing some much-needed damage control, Yaccarino's entirely committed to her glass-half-full approach.

"One year in," she writes in the blog, "the future of X is bright."

More on Linda Yaccarino having the worst job on Earth: Twitter CEO Trying to Figure out What to Tell Banks That Funded Elon's Disastrous Acquisition
File - A pile of characters removed from a sign on the Twitter headquarters building are seen in San Francisco, Monday, July 24, 2023. One year ago, Elon Musk began transforming the social media platform into what is now known as X. (AP Photo/Godofredo A.Vasquez, File)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP)  One year ago, billionaire and new owner Elon Musk walked into Twitter's San Francisco headquarters with a white bathroom sink and a grin, fired its CEO and other top executives and began transforming the social media platform into what is now known as X.

X looks and feels something like Twitter, but the more time you spend on it the clearer it becomes that it's merely an approximation. Musk has dismantled core features of what made Twitter, Twitter  its name and blue bird logo, its verification system, its Trust and Safety advisory group. Not to mention content moderation and hate speech enforcement.

He also fired, laid off or lost the majority of its workforce  engineers who keep the site running, moderators who keep it from being overrun with hate, executives in charge of making rules and enforcing them.

The result, long-term Twitter watchers say, has been the end of the platform's role as an imperfect but useful place to find out what's going on in the world. What X will become, and whether Musk can achieve his ambition of turning it into an everything app that everyone uses, remains as unclear as it was a year ago.

Musk hasnt managed to make a single meaningful improvement to the platform and is no closer to his vision of an everything app, than he was a year ago," said Insider Intelligence analyst Jasmine Enberg. Instead, X has driven away users, advertisers, and now it has lost its primary value proposition in the social media world: Being a central hub for news.

As one of the platform's most popular and prolific users even before he bought the company, Musk had a unique experience on Twitter that is markedly different from how regular users experience it. But many of the changes he's introduced to X has been based on his own impressions of the site  in fact, he even polled his millions of followers for advice on how to run it (they said he should step down).

Musks treatment of the platform as a technology company that he could remake in his vision rather than a social network fueled by people and ad dollars has been the single largest cause of the demise of Twitter, Enberg said.

The blue checkmarks that once signified that the person or institution behind an account was who they said they are  a celebrity, athlete, journalist from global or local publication, a nonprofit agency  now merely shows that someone pays $8 a month for a subscription service that boosts their posts above un-checked users. Its these paying accounts that have been found to spread misinformation on the platform that is often amplified by its algorithms.

On Thursday, for instance, a new report from the left-leaning nonprofit Media Matters found that numerous blue-checked X accounts with tens of thousands of followers claimed that the mass shooting in Maine was a false flag, planned by the government. Researchers also found such accounts spreading misinformation and propaganda about the Israel-Hamas war  so much so that the European Commission made a formal, legally binding request for information to X over its handling of hate speech, misinformation and violent terrorist content related to the war.

Ian Bremmer, a prominent foreign policy expert, posted on X this month that the level of disinformation on the Israel-Hamas war being algorithmically promoted on the platform is unlike anything Ive ever been exposed to in my career as a political scientist.

It's not just the platform's identity that's on shaky grounds. Twitter was already struggling financially when Musk purchased it for $44 billion in a deal that closed Oct. 27, 2022, and the situation appears more precarious today. Musk took the company private, so its books are no longer public  but in July, the Tesla CEO said the company had lost about half of its advertising revenue and continues to face a large debt load.

Were still negative cash flow," he posted on the site on July 14, due to about a "50% drop in advertising revenue plus heavy debt load."

Need to reach positive cash flow before we have the luxury of anything else, he said.

In May, Musk hired Linda Yaccarino, a former NBC executive with deep ties to the advertising industry in an attempt to lure back top brands, but the effort has been slow to pay off. While some advertisers have returned to X, they are not spending as much as they did in the past  despite a rebound in the online advertising market that boosted the most recent quarterly profits for Facebook parent company, Meta, and Google parent company, Alphabet.

Insider Intelligence estimates that X will bring in $1.89 billion in advertising revenue this year, down 54% from 2022. The last time its ad revenue was near this level was in 2015, when it came in at $1.99 billion. In 2022, it was $4.12 billion according to the research firm's estimates.

Outside research also shows that people are using X less.

According to research firm Similarweb, global web traffic to Twitter.com was down 14%, year-over-year, and traffic to the ads.twitter.com portal for advertisers was down 16.5%. Performance on mobile was no better, down 17.8% year-over-year based on combined monthly active users for Apple's iOS and Android.

Even though the cultural relevance of Twitter was already starting to decline," before Musk took it over, "its as if the platform no longer exists. And its been a death by a thousand cuts, Enberg said.

Whats really fascinating is that almost all of the wounds have been self-inflicted. Usually when a social platform, starts to lose its relevance there are at least some external factors at play, but thats not the case here.
A 15-year-old boy and one other individual are in custody after the body of a five-year-old boy was found in a Milwaukee dumpster.

The boy, Prince McCree, was reported missing on Wednesday afternoon, according to the Milwaukee police. The boy's body was located on Thursday.

Police are currently investigating a cause of death, and said the investigation was being treated as a homicide.

The child was last seen at his home on Wednesday morning. His parents realised he was missing around 1pm on Wednesday, and traveled door-to-door asking after him that evening, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Police issued a "critically missing" alert for the boy around 8.30pm that evening. An Amber Alert was not issued because police did not have enough information about a potential suspect or vehicle to pass along to the public.

The dumpster where his body was found was approximately a mile away from his home.

In addition to the 15-year-old, a 27-year-old man was also taken into custody. Both are being treated as "persons of interest," meaning they are not currently considered suspects but individuals who may have more information on the child's disappearance and death.

State Senator LaTonya Johnson, who lives near the family, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the two persons of interest lived in the child's home, but said she was not aware of what relation they have to the family.

They were distraught, Ms Johnson said of the family. It was a shock. This neighborhood is relatively quiet. You dont see a lot of police activity. We knew it was something serious.

A member of the neighborhood block watch told the paper that Prince had been seen earlier on Wednesday playing with other children, but did not have further details regarding his disappearance.

City Alderman Michael Murphy, who represents the neighborhood where the incident took place, said the city's residents would likely be traumatised by the boy's death.

Its a terrible tragedy for the whole community to see another child so senselessly lose their life and then to be discarded in the manner in which they found the child, he told the paper.

This is the second homicide involving a child in Milwaukee in several weeks. Earlier this month, 12-year-old Jarice Robinson was found dead in his home on the northwest side of the city. He was found malnourished and his body was in an advanced state of decay when it was located.

His father, Ramuan Moye, 45, was charged with four felonies in connection to the boy's death.
Two Democratic congressmen announced on Thursday they would not seek another congressional term in 2024, opening seats in Maryland and North Carolina. Rep. John Sarbanes (MD), who served 18 years in the chamber over the course of nine terms, said he plans to return to nonprofit work. For some time now, I have found myself drawn back to that kind of workwanting to explore the many opportunities to serve that exist outside of elected office, he said in a statement. Rep. Jeff Jackson (NC) announced that he would instead run for state attorney general, a decision that comes in the wake of gerrymandering by North Carolina Republicans that all but guaranteed he would not have won re-election in his district. Im running for attorney general, and Im going to use that job to go after political corruption, he said in a video on Thursday.

I've officially been drawn out of my congressional district by a small group of politicians.



Its blatant corruption, but Ive got news for them:



Im running for Attorney General, and Im going to use that job to fight political corruption.



Join us: https://t.co/tb9ykB1pUH pic.twitter.com/nEcQnXEw5g  Rep. Jeff Jackson (@JeffJacksonNC) October 26, 2023

Read more at The Daily Beast.
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW)  A woman and child from Kansas City, Kansas, died in a crash on U.S. Highway 50 Friday morning.

The Kansas Highway Patrol says the woman was driving a Chevrolet Sonic westbound on the highway and crossed the centerline, hitting an eastbound semi on the south shoulder.

The crash happened just after 6 a.m. in eastern Chase County, west of Emporia and south of Toledo.

The Chase County Sheriffs Office said the crash killed 29-year-old Maria Munoz Alonso and a juvenile.

Hard freeze preparation for underground sprinkler systems

The 53-year-old semi-driver from Lyons was not injured.

The Kansas Highway Patrol investigated the crash with the assistance of Chase County.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports.
SAN DIEGO (Border Report)  Two workers were seriously injured this week while working on a giant Catrina for the Dia de los Muertos festival coming up in Tijuana next week.

The workers, according to Tijuana police, were welders who jumped from their perch when they saw that a fire had accidentally started next to them.

They reportedly fell about 30 feet.

Tijuana Mayor Montserrat Caballero told reporters on Thursday that the city will pay for the medical bills incurred by the injured workers.

McAllen, Texas, unveils countrys tallest Catrina for Dia de los Muertos

They are not city employees, they were outside contractors. Nevertheless, and even though they are not city workers, we will be responsible, she said.

Due to the accident, Montserrat stated the giant statue project would be abandoned.

Its a regrettable incident, well prepare for the festivities throughout the city but it will not include the giant Catrina.

The statue being installed would have been 65 feet in height when finished.

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

Catrinas are skeletal figurines that are decorated, often dressed in fancy hats and dresses.

They are also referred to as dapper skeletons or elegant skulls.

The Dia de Los Muertos, Day of the Dead, is a tradition celebrated throughout Mexico and other Latin American countries Nov. 1-2.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego.
(Reuters) - The U.S. ambassador to Ukraine said on Thursday that Ukrainian pilots were undergoing training in the United States on F-16 fighter aircraft, a key element on Kyiv's wish list to secure the weaponry it needs in its war against Russia.

The U.S. approved sending F-16s fighter jets to Ukraine from the Netherlands and Denmark in August once pilot training is completed.

"Ukrainian pilots are now training with the Arizona Air National Guard on F-16s," Ambassador Bridget Brink said on X, formerly Twitter.

"This is an essential part of building Ukraine's air defense. The United States is proud to work w/ European partners to support Ukraine against Russias brutal aggression."

Ukraine launched a counteroffensive in the 20-month-old war last June and has retaken a number of villages in the eastern and southern theatres, but at a much slower pace than a rapid advance through occupied northeastern Ukraine a year ago.

The country is still subject to missile and drone attacks striking infrastructure, including its power generating network, as well as other targets.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has pledged to build an "F-16 coalition" and the Netherlands and Denmark have been among those taking the lead in offering to provide the fighters. Ukraine's air force is made up mostly of Soviet-era aircraft.

(Reporting by Ron Popeski; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
Mourners gather around the graves of British Israelis Lianne Sharabi and her two daughters, Noiya, 16, and Yahel, 13, during their funeral in Kfar Harif, Israel, on Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023. Lianne Sharabi and her two daughters were killed by Hamas militants on Oct. 7 in Kibbutz Beeri near the border with the Gaza Strip. | Ariel Schalit, Associated Press

As Israel prepares for a ground offensive in Gaza, Utahns are divided on whether the United States is doing enough as one of its closest allies defends itself against Hamas.

And among the various ways the U.S. could respond to the war, a new Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll found more support for humanitarian aid  by a wide margin  than other forms of intervention.

The poll shows 75% of Utahns are very or somewhat closely following the war that started with a Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7. But only 41% say the U.S. is doing enough to respond to conflict, while 35% say it is not doing enough. Nearly a quarter of survey respondents said they dont know.

Among those in the survey who identified themselves as Democrats, 36% said the U.S. is doing enough, while 42% said its not. The figures were reversed among Republicans.

In the poll, respondents were asked what type of U.S. response they would support among five options. (Participants could choose more than one.)

Humanitarian aid topped the list by far at 71%. Providing military support in the form of weapons and supplies without troops followed at 45%, while 33% favored financial assistance to support the military response. Another 20% said the U.S. should provide troop support to assist in combat. Another 15% said the U.S. should do nothing.

I think that strikes me as a totally understandable split, said Amos Guiora, a professor at the University of Utahs S.J. Quinney College of Law and an expert in Israeli politics and national security.

Jason Perry, director of the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah, saw in the poll results how Utahns opinions about U.S. military aid for Ukraine and Israel differed.

Interestingly, when compared to the start of the conflict in Ukraine, Utahns are less supportive of sending military assistance (to Israel). In March 2022, 68% of Utahns supported providing military support in the form of weapons and supplies, but only 45% of Utahns would support that in Israel, he said.

Also, Perry noted that Democrats are more willing to say they want the U.S. to provide support  whether military or humanitarian  than Republicans.

The survey found a higher percentage of Democrats favored each of those five possible U.S. responses to the Israel-Hamas war than Republicans, including providing troop support. Humanitarian assistance still garnered the most support  81% for Democrats and 68% for Republicans.

Dan Jones & Associates conducted the poll of 802 registered Utah voters Oct. 12-23. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.46 percentage points.

Related

A dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, Guiora is currently living just outside Jerusalem. He said there are unsubstantiated rumors that U.S. Marines are somewhere around here. He said driving north of the city last week, he saw transport trucks carrying missiles that seemed pretty clear had just arrived from the United States.

The rockets were going down south. The tanks were going up north, he said.

Guiora said its difficult to gauge how much American involvement Israeli citizens want.

Have you ever been here to Israel? Two Israelis, three opinions. Two Jews, three synagogues, he said.

President Joe Biden has pledged that the U.S. will provide Israel what it needs to defend itself against Hamas.

The Biden administration last week proposed a $105 billion national security package that includes military and humanitarian assistance for the wars in Israel and Ukraine. The plan calls for $14.3 billion for Israel to strengthen the Iron Dome and Davids Sling missile defense system and enhance U.S. embassy security, per CNN.

The package also contains $9.15 billion for aid for Ukraine, Israel and Gaza and other humanitarian needs, including support for Palestinian refugees in the West Bank and surrounding areas.

The funding request faces an uphill battle in Congress.

Related

Israel has vowed to destroy the militant group that controls Gaza, in response to its unprecedented Oct. 7 attack that killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians. More than 200 were taken hostage.

Israeli air strikes have killed more than 7,000 people, according to Gazas Hamas-run Ministry of Health, CBS News reported.

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israels prime minister, said in a televised address Wednesday that Israel is preparing for a ground invasion. On Thursday, the Israel military said its troops and tanks entered Gaza overnight, hitting several militant targets, according to The Associated Press.

Guiora said he believes the U.S. is playing a large role in the Israeli response to Hamas.

When Biden hugged Netanyahu on the Ben Gurion Airport tarmac last week, Guiora says the president whispered to the prime minister, Youre pretty much going to do what we tell you to do, if you ask me.

Guiora also said that Secretary of State Antony Blinken two weeks ago didnt just observe but participated in an Israeli cabinet meeting. That is as hands-on as hands-on can be, Guiora said.

The U.S. is clearly, clearly, very, very, very concerned about a ground incursion into Gaza, Guiora said. I think that Biden understands that theres a need to conduct hits against those who were responsible for the war crime of Oct. 7. I think for President Biden theres a real emphasis on release of the hostages.

Related

Guiro opposes a ground war but favors targeted air strikes on Hamas that dont kill innocent Gazans and that minimize collateral damage.

Some sectors of the public would probably like a ground incursion because of what happened on Oct. 7. Others like me are far more hesitant, he said.

The last time Jewish babies were burned was 80 years ago in the Holocaust. Thats what this was. To target them in self-defense is totally legitimate.

As the war moves into its third week, Guiora said, I really do believe at the end of the day the only way to resolve this is by negotiation.
The U.S. carried out airstrikes in eastern Syria against two facilities used by Irans Revolutionary Guard Corps and affiliated groups, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement on Thursday night. The precision self-defense strikes were in retaliation for more than a dozen drone and missile attacks on U.S. forces by Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Syria in the last 10 days. Those attacks have shown little sign of abating, according to U.S. officials, and President Joe Biden directed todays action to make clear that the United States will not tolerate such attacks and will defend itself, its personnel, and its interests, Austin said. The operations, carried out by Air Force F-16s, come a day after a news conference where Biden warned Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, that he should be prepared for an American response should the attacks continue. It has nothing to do with Israel, Biden added.

Read it at Associated Press

Read more at The Daily Beast.
BISHKEK, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- "The SCO is the guarantor of peace and progressive development," reads an electronic display standing erect at an intersection in downtown Bishkek.

These words rendered on the screen in four languages -- Kyrgyz, Russian, Chinese and English -- tell how much the world's largest and most populous regional institution has valued and championed the main theme of the times -- peace and development.

On Thursday, Chinese Premier Li Qiang and other leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states met in the Central Asian city for the organization's 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government, the first of its kind since its latest expansion more than three months ago.

Among all the topics on the agenda was the issue of peace and development through coordination and cooperation. SCO members should keep in mind the founding aspiration and uphold the key to success, Li said in his speech at the meeting.

In his speech, Li used the word "development" 13 times. Kyrgyz Prime Minister Akylbek Zhaparov mentioned the word "develop" 15 times when addressing the council. In the joint communique issued after the meeting, "development" was repeated about 30 times.

Since its inception, the SCO has transcended differences among countries in ideology, social system and development path, and gathered collective strength to the fullest extent in addressing common challenges. It has created a new model of cooperation based on partnership and dialogue, rather than alliance or confrontation.

Recent data showed that the combined GDP of SCO members has reached some 25 trillion U.S. dollars, accounting for nearly 25 percent of global GDP, which is over 13 times larger than that in 2001 when the SCO was founded.

"The SCO has continuously expanded the depth of cooperation, promoting regional collaboration and fostering the development of member states," said Gu Wei, an associate researcher at the Institute of International Relations at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

It has been working with international and regional organizations such as the United Nations and ASEAN, participating in global governance, and contributing to global development and security, Gu told Xinhua.

"The SCO can be a stabilizing factor in ensuring the resolution of issues concerning energy resources, water, food and the economy," said Igor Shestakov, an expert from Kyrgyzstan, adding that China plays an important role in the economic cooperation of the SCO, especially within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

In the eyes of Sergei Sanakoyev, president of the Russian-Chinese Analytical Center, "the economic benefits of developing and implementing the BRI plans are undeniable" for SCO members and beyond.

"I have just returned from China, where I participated in the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. The initiative is becoming a new factor in global development. It involves the construction of a new economic order based on very simple and understandable principles of equality, mutual respect, and mutual benefit," said Sanakoyev.

For him, as about three-quarters of the world's countries are participating in the initiative, it is natural for the SCO members to play an active role, aligning their development plans with the initiative and considering it a crucial factor for their own as well as the region's development.

The BRI is a unique platform for the joint development of the participating economies. The faster and more effectively the goals proposed by China's leadership within the initiative are achieved, the quicker and more assuredly the economies involved in this initiative will develop, said Kyrgyz political scientist Kubanychbek Taabaldiev.

Over the past decade, major projects such as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, SCO training and demonstration base for agricultural technology exchange and China-SCO local economic and trade cooperation demonstration zone have brought tangible benefits to local people. With the assistance of the BRI, a comprehensive infrastructure network, including roads, oil and gas pipelines, and railways, has gradually developed in the SCO region.

"The BRI offers three advantages in terms of aligning with the development plans of SCO members. Firstly, the BRI embraces diversity in the development of various countries and avoids pushing for a one-size-fits-all development model. Secondly, the initiative is tailored to the specific development needs of individual countries, offering more precise cooperation support," said Gu.

"Lastly, the initiative is extensive, as it encompasses not just collaboration with China but also encourages mutual cooperation among other participating countries in the initiative. This can expand the scope of cooperation, harness complementary strengths, and enhance the effectiveness of collaboration," she told Xinhua.

In his speech on Thursday, Premier Li said Belt and Road cooperation has brought tangible results to the world over the past decade, paving the way for shared development, opportunities, and prosperity. The Belt and Road has become the most popular international public goods and the largest international cooperation platform in the past 10 years.

With the BRI serving as an engine, "the current key indicators of China and several leading SCO member countries indicate that the organization's position on the international stage is strengthening, making it (SCO) increasingly attractive to many countries worldwide," said Taabaldiev. 
The Army has finished renaming nine installations that previously honored confederate generals with the redesignation Friday of Fort Gordon in Georgia to Fort Eisenhower .

The Defense Department has until the end of the year to complete the recommendations of the congressionally mandated Naming Commission. The Naming Commission was tasked with identifying items in the U.S. military named after figures from the confederacy.

The commission's final recommendations included renaming nine installations across the country named after Confederate generals.

Fort Gordon, in Augusta, Georgia, is the last installation to receive its new name. The redesignation to Fort Eisenhower took place in an official ceremony Friday morning.

Fort Gordon was named for Major Gen. John Gordon, who served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War and was considered one of Robert E. Lee's most trusted generals. After the Civil War, he served as a U.S. senator and governor of Georgia.

The new name honors President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who also led the D-Day invasion of Normandy in World War II as an Army five-star general.

In its recommendation for the new name, the Naming Commission said, "Eisenhower's extensive military experience as a combined and allied commander, and as a U.S. President symbolizes the professionalism, excellence, and joint nature of the base's mission."

The installation is the home of the U.S. Army's Signal Corps, Cyber Command, and Cyber Center of Excellence.

/ Credit: Defense Department

It is also where Eisenhower delivered his farewell remarks to the U.S. military after departing the presidency and retiring from national service in 1961, according to the Naming Commission.

These are the other eight installations that have received new names:

Fort Benning, Georgia  renamed Fort Moore after Lt. Gen. Hal and Julia Moore.Fort Bragg, North Carolina  renamed Fort Liberty after the value of liberty.Fort A.P. Hill, Virginia.  renamed Fort Walker after Dr. Mary Walker.Fort Hood, Texas  renamed Fort Cavazos after Gen. Richard Cavazos.Fort Lee, Virginia  renamed Fort Gregg-Adams after Lt. Gen. Arthur Gregg and Lt. Col. Charity Adams.Fort Pickett, Virginia  renamed Fort Barfoot after Tech. Sgt. Van T. Barfoot.Fort Polk, Louisiana.  renamed Fort Johnson after Sgt. William Henry Johnson.Fort Rucker, Alabama  renamed Fort Novosel after Chief Warrant Officer 4 Michael J. Novosel, Sr.

In addition to renaming the nine installations, the Naming Commission recommended renaming hundreds of other items, including streets and buildings on military installations.

The Army, the service branch with the most items to rename or remove, has redesignated all existing streets that were named for individuals who voluntarily served the Confederate States of America, according to an Army spokesperson. The U.S. The Postal Service updated its systems to ensure mail delivery won't be disrupted.

By Jan. 1, 2024, the Army plans to complete its re-designations of these buildings and other real property assets.

The Naming Commission estimated it would cost about $62.5 million to implement all of its recommendations across the military.

Search underway for Maine mass shootings person of interest, police say

The JAY-Z interview: Part 2

WATCH: Maine officials give update on manhunt for suspect in mass shootings
Palestinian women make traditional unleavened bread on an open fire at a shelter for displaced families mainly from the north of the Gaza Strip, at a United Nations-run school in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday. Photo by Ismael Mohamad/UPI

Oct. 27 (UPI) -- The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution Friday calling for an immediate "humanitarian truce" to end the ongoing fighting between the Israeli military and Palestinian militant factions.

The non-binding Jordanian-sponsored resolution passed with 120 states voting in favor, 14 voting against and 45 abstentions.

Notably, the United States voted against the resolution.

The resolution calls for the "immediate and unconditional release" of all civilian hostages and for an "immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce" between the warring parties.

In response, U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan said the world body no longer had "even one ounce of legitimacy or relevance."

Palestinian women make traditional unleavened bread on an open fire at a shelter for displaced families Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. Basic supplies are running low. Photo by Ismael Mohamad/UPI

In a BBC report, Erdan called the vote for a truce "a dark day for the U.N. and for mankind" and said the day was one "that will go down as infamy."

The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly called for an immediate humanitarian truce between Israel and Hamas.Israeli UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan said the UN no longer held "even one ounce of legitimacy or relevance".The US voted against the resolution but has called for a "humanitarian pause" in Israeli military operations in Gaza.Israel's military on Friday said it was expanding its operations, as its strikes intensified across the Gaza region.Spokesman Daniel Hagari said forces had "increased the attacks in Gaza. The air force widely attacks underground targets and terrorist infrastructure, very significantly".He again told Gaza residents to move further south.Israel has been bombing Gaza since the 7 October Hamas attacks that killed 1,400 people in Israel and saw 229 people taken hostage by Hamas.The UN General Assembly on Friday voted in favour of an immediate truce in Gaza. There were 120 votes in favour, 14 against and 45 abstentions.The resolution - put forward by Jordan on behalf of the Arab group - also condemns all acts of violence against Palestinian and Israeli civilians, including all "terror and indiscriminate attacks".The vote is not legally binding, but carries moral weight due to the universality of the UN's membership.Israel's Ambassador Erdan called it "a dark day for the UN and for mankind," vowing his country would use "every means" in fighting Hamas."Today is a day that will go down as infamy. We have all witnessed that the UN no longer holds even one ounce of legitimacy or relevance," he said.He accused those who voted yes of preferring to support "the defence of Nazi terrorists" instead of Israel.

A Palestinian woman makes tea on an open fire at a shelter for displaced families mainly in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday. The Israeli siege of Gaza has brought a shortage of medical supplies, water, gas and power. Photo by Ismael Mohamad/UPI

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The head of the United Nations Palestinian relief agency earlier in the day Friday urged a humanitarian cease-fire to ensure aid reaches those in need in Gaza.

A Palestinian boy makes tea over a fire while women make unleavened bread on an open fire at a shelter in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday. Photo by Ismael Mohamad/UPI

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philppe Lazzarini said a "meaningful and uninterrupted flow" of aid is needed to prevent loss of life as "basic services are crumbling in Gaza."

"As we speak, people in Gaza are dying. They are dying only from bombs and strikes. Soon, many more will die from the consequences of siege imposed on the Gaza Strip," he said.

A Palestinian child eats bread while women cook in the background at a shelter in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday. Photo by Ismael Mohamad/UPI

Lazzarini warned that supplies of medicine, food and water are running out and that Gaza is "on the brink of a massive health hazard as the risks of diseases are looming" after the streets "have started overflowing with sewage."

Several convoys carrying water, food and medicine have gotten in through Egypt's Rafah crossing, but the aid allowed in so far is a trickle of what normally flows in to supply Gaza's roughly 2.3 million people and no fuel is being allowed in.

Palestinian women make traditional unleavened bread on an open fire at a shelter in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday. Photo by Ismael Mohamad/UPI

"These few trucks are noting more than crumbs that will not make a difference for 2 million people," Lazzarini said,

Speaking from Jerusalem, Lynn Hastings, the U.N.'s top humanitarian official in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, said in normal times more than 780 trucks with fuel would have gone into Gaza since Oct. 7, when a Hamas attack on Israel sparked the most recent fighting.

Palestinian relatives wait to collect the bodies of victims at the Al-Najjar Hospital following an Israeli airstrike on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday. Photo by Ismael Mohamad/UPI

She added that due to the lack of fuel deliveries, UNRWA has been forced to rely on a sole fuel pump near the Rafah border, with supply dwindling as access to even that source has been "sporadic."

Bakeries will soon be only able to break bread for a million people for another 11 days as they ration fuel. Water desalination plants face the risk of going off line, Hastings warned.

Additionally, Hastings said raw sewage pumping will become impossible "whether it's tomorrow or Monday," leaving wastewater to flow into the streets.

"All humanitarian assistance and humanitarian issues have to be unconditional," including the release of 224 hostages held in Gaza and the transport of aid for those in the Gaza Strip, she said.

U.N. World Food Program representative Samer Abdeljaber said civilians in Gaza say conditions are "a nightmare -- and we have no way to wake up from it."

Israel imposed the siege on Gaza and began bombing after Hamas slaughtered 1,400 people in Oct. 7 attacks on Israeli civilian settlements near the Gaza border.
The US has struck Iran-linked sites in Syria in retaliation for a spate of attacks aimed at U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria in recent weeks.

The Pentagon says it has struck two facilities in Syria associated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and other Iranian-backed groups. Described as "self-defense strikes," this action was taken in retaliation for a recent spate of attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria. This comes amid concerns the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict could spill over into a regional war, but the U.S. military says these strikes should not be seen as related to that crisis.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin issued a statement late tonight about the strikes, but did not say where they had occurred, what was targeted specifically, or what American assets had been used to carry them out. Fox News has reported that a mixture of U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle and F-16 Viper jets were employed.

The U.S. military has sent a carrier strike group (and has another one on the way ), as well as multiple squadrons of combat jets , among other forces , to the region to bolster its capacity to respond to any contingency that might erupt in recent weeks.

An F-16C Viper assigned to the New Jersey Air National Guards 119th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron lands a base somewhere in the Middle East on October 24, 2023. USAF

Austin's full statement is as follows:

"Today, at President Bidens direction, U.S. military forces conducted self-defense strikes on two facilities in eastern Syria used by Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and affiliated groups. These precision self-defense strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on October 17. As a result of these attacks, one U.S. citizen contractor died from a cardiac incident while sheltering in place; 21 U.S. personnel suffered from minor injuries, but all have since returned to duty. The President has no higher priority than the safety of U.S. personnel, and he directed todays action to make clear that the United States will not tolerate such attacks and will defend itself, its personnel, and its interests."

"The United States does not seek conflict and has no intention nor desire to engage in further hostilities, but these Iranian-backed attacks against U.S. forces are unacceptable and must stop. Iran wants to hide its hand and deny its role in these attacks against our forces. We will not let them. If attacks by Irans proxies against U.S. forces continue, we will not hesitate to take further necessary measures to protect our people."

"These narrowly tailored strikes in self-defense were intended solely to protect and defend U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria. They are separate and distinct from the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, and do not constitute a shift in our approach to the Israel-Hamas conflict. We continue to urge all state and non-state entities not to take action that would escalate into a broader regional conflict."

These are the first U.S. strikes in the region since Iranian-backed Hamas launched its unprecedented attacks on southern Israel on October 7.

This also follows the U.S. Navy's Arleigh Burke class destroyer USS Carney shooting down four land-attack cruise missiles and 19 drones launched by Iranian-supported Houthi militants in Yemen on October 19. Those missiles and drones were heading north over the Red Sea when they were engaged and were likely bound for Israel.

USS Carney engages Houthi missiles and drones in the Red Sea on October 19, 2023. USN

"My warning to the Ayatollah [Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] was that if they continued to move against those troops, we will respond and he should be prepared," U.S. President Joe Biden said just yesterday at a press conference at the White House. "It has nothing to do with Israel."

https://twitter.com/clashreport/status/1717243126987796950

Since the Hamas attacks and the ensuing crisis began there have been persistent concerns that the situation could grow into a regional conflict. Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, another Iranian-backed organization in the region that is particularly well armed , has also been launching growing attacks on targets in Israel for weeks now.

Further underscoring concerns about possible spillover, what appears to have been a missile hit the Egyptian resort town of Taba on the Gulf of Aqaba overnight, injuring at least six people, according to local reports . Details about the incident are still limited, but Taba is very close to the Israeli border and that country's port city of Eilat.

Though the origin of whatever hit Taba is still unclear, Hamas claimed to have targeted Eilat on Wednesday , but Israeli authorities said the strike missed its mark. There is also the possibility that Taba may have been hit by an errant Houthi missile or drone.

https://twitter.com/Charles_Lister/status/1717708964048126002 https://twitter.com/Faytuks/status/1717702563812823207

The U.S. government is clearly pushing to demonstrate its willingness to respond in kind to continued provocations in the region, but also keep this separate from the Israel-Gaza crisis. Regardless, the strikes on Iranian-linked targets in Syria still highlight fears about the potential for a broader conflict.

We will continue to update this story as more information becomes available.

UPDATE 11:50 PM EST:

A senior U.S. defense official speaker to reporters tonight has now disclosed that the strikes were carried out by U.S. Air Force F-16s only, rather than a mix of F-15Es and F-16s as Fox News had initially reported. The strikes were not coordinated in any way with Israel.

The jets struck weapons and ammunition storage facilities in Al Bukamal. This is a well-known hub for Iranian-linked groups situated in Syria just opposite the Iraqi border, and the U.S. military has carried out strikes there on multiple occasions in the past.

https://twitter.com/jseldin/status/1717735550902227365?s=20

"We hit precisely what we aimed at," the official said, according to VOA's Jeff Seldin, adding that the sites were selected because they were understood to be devoid of civilians. They would not, however, speak to any casualties that may have resulted from the strikes.

"We'll let the dust settle," they said. "There were people on the target at various points during the day. Again we know that they were not civilians."

https://twitter.com/jseldin/status/1717736433442574368?s=20 https://twitter.com/jseldin/status/1717737243849175242?s=20

The senior U.S. defense official also confirmed that Iranian-linked groups had carried out three more attacks against U.S. forces in the region earlier in the day, bringing the total number of incidents since October 17 to 19. One of the attacks today was previously disclosed and targeted American personnel in Erbil, the capital of Iraq's northern Kurdish autonomous region, but caused no casualties or damage. It is unclear where the other two occurred.

https://twitter.com/jseldin/status/1717739255542239494?s=20 https://twitter.com/CarlaBabbVOA/status/1717614943539753311

Beyond what was disclosed in the briefing, it is worth noting that these strikes on Al Bukamal only came after the deployment of additional U.S. Army air and missile defense elements earlier this week. These assets included a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery from Fort Bliss in Texas, Patriot surface-to-air missile batteries from Fort Sill in Oklahoma, and Avenger short-range air defense systems from Fort Liberty in North Carolina.

https://twitter.com/CarlaBabbVOA/status/1717614197435982283?s=20

Howard Altman contributed to this story.

Contact the author: joe@thedrive.com
The U.S. military conducted strikes against two facilities in eastern Syria used by Iranian-backed groups in retaliation for recent attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria.

"The United States does not seek conflict and has no intention nor desire to engage in further hostilities, but these Iranian-backed attacks against U.S. forces are unacceptable and must stop," Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement Thursday night.

US officials on Thursday night told reporters the strikes were carried out by a pair of F-16s against a weapons storage area, and an ammunition storage area, near Abu Kamal in Syria.

Iranian-backed groups have targeted U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria with a mix of drones and rockets at least 16 times since Oct. 17, according to the Pentagon. The most recent attack took place Thursday in Erbil, Iraq, but did not result in any injuries.

Nineteen U.S. service members have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries, and two others sustained minor injuries as a result of the attacks. All of the troops have returned to duty.

A U.S. contractor died of cardiac arrest while sheltering in place last week at Al-Asad Airbase in Iraq. In that case, the alert triggering the lockdown was a false alarm and no attack occurred.

The uptick in attacks comes amidst international concern the war between Israel and Hamas could broaden into a wider conflict engulfing the entire Middle East.

President Biden on Wednesday warned that the U.S. would respond if the attacks continued.

"My warning to the Ayatollah was that if they continue to move against those troops, we will respond, and he should be prepared," Biden said. "It has nothing to do with Israel."

U.S. forces provide military training to members of the Syrian Democratic Forces in the Qamisli district in the Al-Hasakah province, Syria, on Aug. 18, 2023. / Credit: Hedil Amir/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

The retaliatory strikes are the latest action the Biden administration has taken to deter Iranian-backed groups and Iran. Over the weekend, the Pentagon announced it is surging support to the Middle East to enhance the protection of U.S. forces. The additional forces include the USS Eisenhower aircraft carrier strike group and more air defense systems.

Thursday's strikes are the second retaliatory actions the Biden administration has launched this year against Iranian-backed militias.

In March, the U.S. carried out precision air strikes in eastern Syria after an attack on a base hosting U.S. and coalition forces killed a U.S. contractor and wounded five U.S. service members and another U.S. contractor.

There are roughly 900 U.S. troops in Syria and 2,500 in Iraq, all as a part of the mission to defeat ISIS.

Search underway for Maine mass shootings person of interest, police say

Retired U.S. general says Israel appears to be on cusp of Gaza invasion

Vice President Harris | Sunday on 60 Minutes
U.S. President Joe Biden and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine greet one other in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., Sept. 21. On Thursday, the Biden administration announced a $150 million security package for the ally nation as remaining funds for Ukraine dwindle. Photo by Julia Nikhinson/UPI

Oct. 27 (UPI) -- The Biden administration has announced an additional security package of weapons, munitions and equipment for Ukraine to defend itself from Russia's invasion.

The package was announced Thursday by the Department of Defense, and includes National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems, AIM-9M air defense missiles, High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems and 155mm and 105mm artillery rounds, as well as more than 2 million rounds of small arms ammunition.

Night vision devices, demolition munitions and cold weather gear were also included.

Valued at $150 million, the package is covered with funds that remain in the Presidential Drawdown Authority, which has been used 44 times since August of 2021 to aid Ukraine in its war against Russia.

"This new package of arms and equipment includes air defense, artillery, anti-tank and other capabilities, which will further enhance Ukraine's capacity to defend its territory against Russian offensives while continuing its counter-offensive against Russia's forces," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday in a statement.

"Ukraine's forces are fighting bravely to reclaim territory seized by Russia's forces, and this additional support will help them continue making progress."

At about $44 billion in security assistance, the United States has been by far Ukraine's largest backer as it has vowed to stand by Kyiv amid Moscow's aggression. But the future of its support remains murky.

Additional funds earmarked by the Biden administration for the ally presented an obstacle to passing a spending bill needed to prevent a government shutdown late last month and were stripped from the legislation.

The Biden administration has repeatedly warned that funds for Ukraine will dry up. In August, the president asked Congress to provide an additional $24 billion in emergency funding to prevent that from happening.

The war in Israel may further complicate the picture, as the United States has also vowed to support the Middle Eastern country's defense, and late last week, Biden requested Congress to sign off on $105 billion in supplemental funding to support the defenses of both countries.

"I thank @POTUS Joe Biden, the U.S. Congress and the American people for today's military aid package," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted Thursday. "As winter approaches, strengthening air defense is critical to protect Ukrainian cities and infrastructure."
The United Nations General Assembly voted Friday in favor of a non-binding Jordanian-introduced resolution demanding a humanitarian truce in Gaza and an end to the violence between Israel and Hamas. According to the Associated Press, before the official vote, Canada introduced an amendment that was supported by the U.S. to denounce Hamas terrorist attacks and order the release of all Israeli hostages. Al Jazeera reported that 88 of 193 members voted in favor with 55 against and 22 abstentions, resulting in a failure to obtain the required two-thirds majority to be adopted. The General Assembly then overwhelmingly passed the Jordanian resolution, which doesnt directly mention Hamas, with 120 votes for, 14 against, and 45 abstentions. It also called for a ceasefire, humanitarian aid, and resumption of water, electricity, and fuel. Nations that voted against the resolution included Israel, the United States, and Hungary, while countries like Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Ukraine, and the U.K. abstained.

BREAKING: UN General Assembly ADOPTS resolution on protection of civilians and upholding legal and humanitarian obligations on the ongoing Gaza crisis



FOR: 120

AGAINST: 14

ABSTAIN: 45



LIVE COVERAGEhttps://t.co/MOnKoTdNsb pic.twitter.com/WG68GaxMMV  UN News (@UN_News_Centre) October 27, 2023

Read it at Associated Press

Read more at The Daily Beast.
DAVENPORT, Fla. - An Uber driver from Maitland was driving a couple from the United Kingdom when PCSO deputies stopped the car in Davenport on Tuesday night.

According to officials, 27-year-old Elijah Mills was driving Marc and Rhiannon in Polk County around 9:37 p.m. Deputies say the couple was in town for their wedding.

Mills was driving a Chevy Equinox on US 27 in the Four Corners area of Davenport when a PCSO deputy got behind them.

READ: Cyclists concerned as deadly hit-and-runs become trend in Tampa Bay Area

The Polk County Sheriff's Office says a few more deputies boxed Mills in and forced him to stop. Investigators say Mills rented the car from a company in Orange County but decided to stop making payments on the vehicle.

According to authorities, the rental company reported it as stolen.

READ: Suspected Pinellas County bank robber confesses to crime, deputies say

Deputies say Mills told them that the rental company would call every day, but he refused to answer because he knew they would ask about the payments. Mills went on to explain how the company equips their vehicles with a device that keeps the vehicle from restarting, in case people stop making their payments, according to PCSO.

Mills told officials that he kept the Chevy running for three weeks straight.

The sheriff's office say deputies posed with Marc and Rhiannon for a quick picture and gave them a free ride to where they are staying. Courtesy: Polk County Sheriff's Office

Deputies say that Mills was arrested and charged with grand theft motor vehicle and driving while license suspended or revoked.
A Florida Uber driver is accused of using a stolen rental car to give rides and then leaving the car running for weeks to avoid it being disabled, deputies said.

The 27-year-old Uber driver was renting a Chevy Equinox from a company in Orange County when he stopped making payments, according to an Oct. 26 news release from the Polk County Sheriffs Office.

The rental company reported the vehicle as stolen, deputies said, and called the driver every day about the missing payments.

The company had installed devices in their rental vehicles that could be remotely activated to stop the car from restarting in the case that someone stopped paying for the vehicle, the sheriffs office said.

But the driver knew about this feature, so instead of returning the Equinox or making the payments, he chose to leave the vehicle running for three straight weeks to prevent it being disabled, according to the release.

During that time, he was using the car to drive for Uber, including on the night of Oct. 24, deputies said.

The driver was taking a couple visiting from the United Kingdom to their accommodation where they would be attending their own wedding a week later, the sheriffs office said.

A Polk County deputy saw the vehicle as it drove down the road in Davenport and noted it was registered as stolen, according to the release.

The deputy called in backup and surrounded the driver with their patrol cars, preventing him from getting away, the sheriffs office said.

The 27-year-old was arrested and charged with grand theft motor vehicle and driving while license suspended or revoked, according to authorities.

The couple, now left stranded, was given a ride by deputies after posing for a photo.

Davenport is about 35 miles southwest of Orlando.

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A decision by Uganda's government to name a road after two foreign tourists killed earlier this month has triggered outrage in the country.

British citizen David Barlow and his South African wife Emmaretia Geyer were shot dead on their honeymoon.

Police said the attackers also burned their car in the 17 October attack.

Some Ugandans have criticised the government for honouring the foreign couple yet excluding Eric Alyai, the Ugandan guide killed alongside them.

The authorities say the couple, from Berkshire in the UK, were on a visit to see gorillas and other primates at the Queen Elizabeth National Park when they were killed in an attack by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF).

ADF is an Islamic State-linked rebel group with a presence in western Uganda, but which mostly operates in the eastern part of the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.

"As cabinet, we took a decision that for these tourists, we are going to name one of the roads in Uganda after them," Chris Baryomunsi, Uganda's minister for ICT and national guidance, was quoted as saying by Uganda news website The Nile Post.

He did not reveal the name of the road.

As for Mr Alyai, the guide, the minister said the government would support his family.

They told the Ugandan television channel UBC that he had left behind a widow and one-year-old child.

Some Ugandans have said the government should also name a road after Mr Alyai.

"Eric [Alyai] too was part of this death and so he must be remembered for he died on duty. It would only be fair enough," one Ugandan said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

"Our inferiority complex is high. No wonder the park where the couple met their death is named after a British Queen," another X user said.

The government has also faced criticism for planning a memorial for the foreigners but failing to take any action to honour the many Ugandans killed by the ADF in previous attacks.

In June, ADF fighters raided a Ugandan school in a surprise attack, killing 41 children.

This is not the first time that Ugandan authorities have faced outrage over their handling of the deaths of the couple and their guide.

Last Saturday, the Uganda Wildlife Authority was criticised after it posted a photo promoting the Queen Elizabeth National Park.

"It was an exciting morning today in Queen Elizabeth National Park as tourists enjoyed a game viewing," the authority captioned the photo.

Some Ugandans said that promoting the park so soon after the attack was insensitive and lacked compassion.

"The callousness and lack of humanity displayed by those responsible for orchestrating this insensitive campaign is a shame for our country," said Ugandan human rights activist Daniel Kawuma.

"It is deeply troubling how you use the scene of such a gruesome killing and post messages of an 'exciting morning' for tourists. It is incomprehensible how you could mock the victims and their grieving families by circulating happy photos of Queen Elizabeth before the bodies have even been laid to rest," he added.
UK Border Force agents are in Egypt on a mercy mission to help stricken British nationals escape from Gaza as soon as a crossing opens, Rishi Sunak has revealed.

Around 200 British nationals are trapped in the besieged enclave, the prime minister said, as Israel continues to step up its preparations for a full-scale ground invasion.

Mr Sunak said he wanted to bring those caught up in the fighting home and promised that, while the UK cannot do so immediately ... when the moment arises  well be ready to take it quickly.

His pledge came as Israel unleashed its heaviest bombardment of Gaza, targeting tunnel shafts and rocket launchers used by Hamas militants, with the countrys military saying it had launched 250 airstrikes in the past 24 hours.

It insisted the push would prepare for the next stages of the war nearly three weeks after Hamas terrorists murdered more than 1400 people in Israel.

It comes as:

Israeli tanks crossed into the besieged enclave overnight

Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed a widely anticipated full ground offensive would go ahead but gave no timeline

The United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) said it urgently needed fuel to maintain life-saving operations

The UK hopes Britons will be able to leave via the Rafah crossing into Egypt, through which some aid has been transported into Gaza

Mr Sunak said he had discussed the plight of the trapped Britons with the leaders of both Egypt and Israel and said he was very keen to be able to bring them out  and bring them home.

He is pushing for a temporary pause in the fighting  as distinct from a ceasefire  to allow aid into the Gaza strip, amid growing fears of a full-scale humanitarian crisis.

Mr Sunak also expressed hopes this would create a safer environment that could allow UK citizens, and potentially hostages held by Hamas, to leave the bombarded 25-mile strip.

At the weekend, the first aid convoy made it through the crossing into Gaza. But Cairo has reportedly blamed Israeli bombings around Rafah for the reason it cannot open the crossing for foreign nationals to pass through.

No 10 is understood to not expect any breakthrough at the crossing imminently but Border Force teams have been poised in Egypt for some time, ready to evacuate those trapped as soon as the border opens.

Israeli tanks head towards the Gaza Strip border in southern Israel (AP)

Ministers are keen not to see a surge of people down towards a border they cannot cross, where they could end up in a worse position. Ministers have been encouraging British nationals and those with dual nationality to register with the Foreign Office for help getting out.

The 200 people who have made contact so far are understood to make up most of those who are keen to leave when the border opens. It is thought they could leave Egypt for Britain on commercial flights, which are still operating and can often be faster than chartering planes.

The prime minister said the government recognised that for British nationals to leave Gaza there needs to be a safer environment, which of course necessitates specific pauses, which are distinct from a ceasefire.

He added: Were very keen to be able to bring them out and bring them home. What I can tell you is we've pre-positioned Border Force teams to Egypt.

So that if there is a possibility for our nationals to cross the Rafah crossing, were ready to get them in and bring them back. It is not something we can do immediately but when the moment arises, we'll be ready to take it quickly.

It comes as the Israeli military said that troops and tanks launched a brief ground raid into northern Gaza overnight into Thursday, in order to prepare the battlefield ahead of a widely-expected ground invasion.

Black smoke raise from Eastern Gaza City, on October 26 following Israeli airstrikes (AP)

Downing Street said it would not speculate about whether it would support a ceasefire if Israel succeeded in rescuing hostages from Gaza.

Im not going to speculate on what we may do in the future. This is a fluid situation. Ive set out our position currently, the prime ministers official spokesperson said.

The health ministry in the Hamas-run strip has said that more than 7,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war  a figure that includes the disputed toll from an explosion at a hospital.

That is more than three times the number of Palestinians killed in the six-week-long Gaza war in 2014, according to UN figures.

It said the latest strikes killed 750 people, the highest reported death toll in a 24-hour period so far.

Israel has called for Palestinians to evacuate from northern to southern Gaza, but UN officials have said that nowhere is safe in the strip.

The foreign ministers of the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Egypt and Morocco all condemned the targeting of civilians and violations of international law in Gaza, in a joint statement on Thursday. It mentioned that the right to self-defence does not justify breaking law and neglecting Palestinians rights. The Arab foreign ministers also condemned forced displacement and collective punishment in Gaza.

Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Pope Francis that the international community's silence over what was happening in Gaza was a shame for humanity. It comes as EU leaders are set to call for the establishment of humanitarian corridors and pauses to get urgently needed aid into Gaza as fuel supplies are days from running out.
HANOI, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's agricultural product export is expected to continue to be a bright spot in the country's economic picture in 2023 thanks to domestic firms' efforts to exploit international markets, Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported Friday.

The signing of new generation Free Trade Agreements with most developed economic regions has helped domestic businesses access many opportunities to expand and develop their markets, the agency reported.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the fruit, vegetable and rice exports are expected to achieve record turnover thanks to their outstanding growth in the first nine months of the year.

VNA cited the Vietnam Agricultural Processing and Export JSC as an example of domestic firms' efforts to exploit international markets.

The company, which specializes in exporting fruits, mostly canned pineapples, to the European Union, Asia and some other countries, has developed pineapple growing areas in many localities across Thanh Hoa province to ensure the supply of 100,000 tons of materials for export processing.

In the first nine months of 2023, export turnover of Vietnamese agricultural products reached 19.54 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 16.7 percent year on year, according to the ministry.

Fruit and vegetable exports hit 4.2 billion dollars during the cited period.

Vietnam has set the agro-forestry-fisheries export target at 54-55 billion dollars by the end of this year. 
UK Defence Intelligence has noted a long pause in Russia's use of long-range aircraft for missile strikes on Ukraine and connected it to the stockpiling of ammunition for the winter.

Source: UK Defence Intelligence review dated 27 October, as reported by European Pravda

UK intelligence says Russian heavy bombers have not launched cruise missiles for over a month, one of the longest pauses in the full-scale war. Although the Russian army has many other means of launching strikes, strategic aircraft have been the main method of launching high-precision strikes so far.

Quote: "Russia almost certainly needed to reduce the frequency of its strikes to replenish its diminishing stockpile of AS-23a KODIAK cruise missiles. Russia will likely use any recently produced inventory LRA munitions to strike Ukrainian energy infrastructure over the winter. Russia will highly likely continue to supplement any such campaign with Iranian-designed one-way attack uncrewed aerial vehicle attacks," the review reads.

Background:

In a previous review, UK Defence Intelligence analysed the situation in the lower Dnipro River, pointing out that Russian artillery has retained significant capabilities in the area.

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The Ukrainian National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) has added Italys Camozzi Group to its list of international war sponsors, pointing to the companys ongoing business operations in Russia, the agencys press service said.

The Italian company was added to the list for its collaboration with the Russian military-industrial complex, and the operation of a plant in Ukraines Russian-occupied Crimea, NCAP said.

Camozzi Group is an international Italian conglomerate specializing in the production of pneumatic equipment and pneumatic systems, known for its expertise in this field. The company operates in 78 countries worldwide, including Russia. Camozzis factories did not cease their operations even after Russia initiated a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Read also:

Pneumatic equipment plays a crucial role in various industrial sectors, as it aids in the automation of work processes. Camozzis clients in Russia primarily include military-industrial complex facilities, the products of which are actively used in the war against Ukraine.

Furthermore, the Italian Camozzi Group has been collaborating with the sanctioned plants of Russian oligarchs Iskandar Mahmudov and Andrey Bokarev since the onset of the full-scale conflict, the NCAP said.

Read also: Ukraine declares Raiffeisen Bank international sponsor of war

Despite the launch of Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Camozzi Pneumatics Mechanical Assembly Plant in Simferopol continues its operations. Camozzi does not mention its involvement in Crimea on its official website, likely due to concerns about international condemnation.

In Russia, Camozzi operates through the LLC Camozzi Pneumatics, boasting 32 branches, a workforce of 500 employees, and a clientele of 80,000 companies. In addition to contributing taxes to the local government, the company provides employment opportunities for Russians, thereby bolstering the Russian economy and job market.

The Camozzi Group also has a presence in Ukraine, with Russian national Alexey Kistichenko currently serving as the head of Camozzis Russian representation, and remaining one of the founders of Camozzis legal entity in Ukraine.

Read also: Ukraine declares Mondelez international  makers of Milka and Oreo  sponsor of war

Previously, the NACP added the Turkish chemical company Sisecam Group to the list of international entities sponsoring the ongoing conflict.

Despite this, the company continues to conduct business with Russia and remains the leading exporter in its sector within the country.

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Americas support for wars in Europe and the Middle East is testing U.S. weapons production capacity, with growing calls to ensure a robust stockpile.

The Biden administration says it can support Ukraines war against a Russian incursion and Israels bid to wipe out Hamas in the Gaza Strip, while still guaranteeing American security. But experts arent so sure.

Any kind of a blanket statement like we can handle this, we got it is too simplistic, said Michael OHanlon, a senior fellow specializing in foreign policy at the Brookings Institution. I dont think the Pentagon or the administration are wrong, but if they just make it sound like this is sort of a no-brainer, or a gimme, thats completely untrue.

President Biden, in an impassioned prime-time address last week, vowed to send more weapons to both Ukraine and Israel, asking Congress to approve a $105 billion emergency package mostly for military aid. Ukraine would receive about $61 billion in lethal assistance, while Israel, a far better militarily equipped country, would receive about $14 billion for air and missile defenses.

The United States has already rushed precision-guided munitions, small-diameter bombs, artillery ammunition, Iron Dome systems, interceptors and other equipment to Israel following Hamass massive surprise attack on the country Oct. 7. Defense officials have since promised there will be a steady flow of weapons continuing to flow into Israel.

That comes on top of sending billions of dollars worth of weapons to Ukraine since March 2022 to help Kyivs forces push Russian troops from occupied territory, a conflict that has burned through ammunition and other weaponry at the fastest rate since World War II.

The high demand for weapons has laid bare the limitations the United States has in replenishing its own stockpiles, with manufacturers struggling to keep up with requests. For instance, the sudden onset of the Hamas-Israel conflict prompted the Defense Department to send tens of thousands of 155-millimeter artillery shells meant for Ukraine to Israel instead.

Future shipments to Jerusalem could include more of the same types of artillery and bombs Ukraine has increasingly relied on to beat back a Russian incursion, including Stinger missiles.

The United States has given Ukraine more than 2,000 of the lightweight and shoulder-launched Stingers, which could also be ideal for urban combat in the Gaza Strip. But inventories of the weapon are limited, as the U.S. had sought to phase out systems.

The reality is that we really dont have the force, the munitions, or the defense industrial base to keep up with security interests in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, said Matthew Kroenig, director of the Atlantic Councils Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. Thats a problem.

He said the issue stems from a shrunken U.S. industrial base that has been in decline since the end of the Cold War, when the United States was stockpiling munitions in anticipation of any potential war with the Soviet Union.

After the Cold War ended, Washington began to focus more on efficiency rather than capacity with weapons output, said Kroenig, who previously worked at the Pentagon and in the intelligence community during the Bush, Obama and Trump administrations.

That focus has placed the United States in a precarious position in defending its security interests, especially when considering Chinas repeated threats to bring Taiwan under its control.

With the war in Ukraine, people were saying, Well, we need to be focused on China. We cant give these munitions to Ukraine. Layer on top of that were now providing aid to Israel, I think it is going to be a real challenge, Kroenig said of equipping all conflicts. If we cant get the supplemental bills through, we will run out of ammunition, the Ukrainians will run out of ammunition, and then God forbid if China were to take advantage of the situation, I think were in a bad place.

Though Ukraine and Israel are fighting different kinds of wars  with Kyivs troops struggling through a grinding ground counteroffensive and artillery campaign, and Israel poised to launch a ground offensive within a dense cityscape  some capabilities and needs may overlap.

At any given moment, you may wind up with a potential for a shortage of one type of capability or another, OHanlon said.

On Tuesday, the Pentagon again sought to assure that it has what it needs to be able to support both countries in their conflicts while keeping the homeland safe.

We are confident that we can meet both Israels needs and Ukraines needs going forward, press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters. At the same time, ensure that our military readiness stays at the threshold that it needs to. We will not sacrifice our own military readiness when it comes to defending the nation.

Ryder also said Defense officials are working closely with industry not only in the United States, but working with our allies and partners and their defense industrial base to look at ramping up production of 155 shells.

Also driving concerns is potential for extended conflicts. Ukraine will soon enter its second year of war with Russia. Israels expected ground offensive in Gaza could last for months, due to the difficult nature of urban warfare and expected booby traps that Hamas has had plenty of time to lay. Jerusalem could also end up in a two-front war with the Iran-backed Hezbollah, complicating matters further.

You could imagine further stresses on an industrial base that is already certainly stressed, OHanlon said.

He did note a silver lining, however, with the conflicts opening eyes to a need to ramp up artillery production and a push for longer-term defense contracts to keep lines running consistently.

This is not leading to either a warfighting crisis or to deterrence failure, at least not yet, OHanlon said. But its an ongoing set of challenges that requires attention  to try to strengthen the industrial base so that if we need to ramp up even further, in the event of a two front war in Israel, in the event of prolonged Ukraine conflict, in the event, heaven forbid, of a war in East Asia, that we have greater capability than weve had up until now.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Slovenian drone manufacturer C-Astral has recently handed over reconnaissance UAVs to the Ukrainian military.

Source: The company informed Defense News about it this week, European Pravda writes.

Details: It was a batch of tactical reconnaissance UAVs known as the Bramor C4EYE.

Quote: "It [the drone] is in fact being used by the Ukrainians and has been for some time," said Jernej Moderts, the Bramor pilot from the C-Astral company, at the GSOF symposium, which took place on 24-26 October in Brno.

"We do have some communication channels with the troops using them to get feedback and make improvements accordingly," he added.

Moderts could not say when or how many drones arrived in Ukraine but said it happened relatively recently, and the delivery included several units.

It is not known whether the company sent the UAVs on its own or whether the Slovenian Ministry of Defence provided the drones from its own stockpile, as the country operates this type of drone.

Slovenias Defence Ministry declined to comment.

For reference: The Bramor C4EYE drone is completely manufactured and assembled in Slovenia by C-Astral. It is an unarmed aircraft intended primarily for reconnaissance and surveillance missions, as well as escorting convoys.

The system enjoys three hours of maximum autonomy and can operate at a distance of up to 40 kilometres.

Previously:

Slovenia supplied Ukraine with dozens of infantry fighting vehicles last year.

It also joined the EU training mission for the Ukrainian military.

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The bodies of 50 fallen Ukrainian defenders have been returned to Ukraine-controlled territory, the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of the Prisoners of War reported on Oct. 27.

The bodies will be transported to specialized state institutions for forensic examination and identification, the headquarters said on Telegram.

The transfer was conducted in cooperation with a range of partners, including Ukraines Interior Ministry, the Armed Forces, the Security Service, the State Emergency Service, and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The bodies of almost 2,000 soldiers have been repatriated to Ukraine in the last two years, according to the Coordination Headquarters.

Ukraine has not disclosed how many soldiers were killed in Russias full-scale invasion. Former Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said in July last year that this information would remain secret until the end of martial law.

This is information that the enemy should not know because military specialists can draw many conclusions from this data and use it for analysis and planning, Maliar said on Facebook.

Read also: As more soldiers go missing, desperate families left in limbo

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Key developments on Oct. 26:

White House: Russia endures heavy losses near Avdiivka, suffers from low morale

US announces $150 million aid package for Ukraine

Infrastructure Minister denies suspension of Ukrainian Black Sea corridor

New Slovak PM Robert Fico rules out military aid for Ukraine

Hamas delegation visits Moscow

Danilov: Ukraine to increase domestic ammunition production

U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said that according to Washington's assessments, Russia is suffering significant losses and experiencing low morale due to its attacks on Avdiivka, European Pravda reported on Oct. 26.

"We have information that the Russian military has been actually executing soldiers who are refusing to follow orders," Kirby said during the press briefing, according to the Agence France Presse.

"We also have information that Russian commanders are threatening to execute entire units if they seek to retreat from Ukrainian artillery fire."

Kirby did not provide further details on the alleged executions or on how Washington had obtained the information.

Russia has been intensifying its attacks against Avdiivka, a front-line town a few kilometers north of occupied Donetsk, for several weeks. Moscow has reportedly thrown in extensive force in an effort to encircle the town, suffering heavy losses in manpower and equipment in the process, Kyiv said.

This was also confirmed by Kirby, who said that since Oct. 11, Russia has lost "at least 125 units of armored vehicles around Avdiivka and more than a battalion's worth of military equipment."

Ukrainian forces in the sector "were able to hold their own and are holding their defense," he added.

The Kremlin is likely to continue its offensive in the coming months and "may achieve some tactical successes," the U.S. official believes. This will, however, come at the cost of thousands of Russian soldiers thrown into battle without proper training and with poor morale, Kirby stressed.

US announces $150 million aid package for Ukraine

The U.S. Defense Department announced on Oct. 26 it would provide Ukraine with another military assistance package worth around $150 million.

The aid package includes air defense capabilities, artillery shells, anti-tank weapons, and other equipment needed to repel Russian aggression.

The U.S. will send Ukraine additional ammunition for National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS), High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), artillery, and small arms.

Ukraine's military will also receive U.S. air defense missiles of AIM-9M and Stinger types, Javelin anti-armor systems, night vision devices, and cold weather gear, among other things.

"The Biden Administration calls on Congress to meet its commitment to the people of Ukraine by passing additional funding to ensure Ukraine continues to have what it needs to defend itself against Russia's brutal war of choice," reads the Pentagon's press release.

"Security assistance for Ukraine is a smart investment in our national security. It helps to prevent a larger conflict in the region and deter potential aggression elsewhere while strengthening our defense industrial base and creating highly skilled jobs for the American people."

The aid package announcement comes a day after Republican Congressman Mike Johnson was elected as the new House Speaker, filling the seat left empty for weeks following the ousting of Kevin McCarthy.

One of ex-President Donald Trump's most loyal supporters in Congress, Johnson has criticized the delivery of aid to Ukraine. In May 2022, Johnson voted against a $40 billion aid package to Ukraine, claiming that his focus lies with solving domestic affordability challenges.

Read also: As Bakhmut counteroffensive lags, soldiers burnt out from horrors of war

Slovak PM Robert Fico rules out military aid for Ukraine

Slovakia's newly-appointed Prime Minister Robert Fico said his country would no longer send arms to Ukraine and vowed to promote this stance also on the European level, the Guardian reported on Oct. 26.

Fico, whose SMER party won the parliamentary elections on a pro-Russian, populist platform, repeated his previous promise that Slovakia would halt all military aid for Ukraine, which continues to face Russian aggression.

Speaking to Slovak lawmakers on Oct. 26, he however added that Bratislava would continue providing humanitarian assistance.

Under the previous governments, Slovakia has provided Ukraine with extensive humanitarian and military assistance, including artillery, fighter jets, and other support.

Fico plans to promote his views in Brussels, where he is set to join a two-day EU leaders' summit on Oct. 26-27.

"I will support zero military aid to Ukraine  an immediate halt to military operations is the best solution we have for Ukraine. The EU should change from an arms supplier to a peacemaker," Fico said.

The prime minister also added he would "not vote for any sanctions against Russia unless we see analyses of their impact on Slovakia. If there are to be such sanctions that will harm us, like most sanctions have, I can see no reason to support them."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was dismissive of Fico's statements, saying that "Slovakia did not have such a big share in the supply of weapons, so it will hardly affect the entire process."

Fico's new government, comprised of SMER, the social-democratic HLAS, and the ultranationalist Slovak National Party (SNS), was appointed by the country's President Zuzana Caputova on Oct. 25.

The populist leader vowed shortly after his appointment that Bratislava would maintain a "sovereign foreign policy." He has previously pledged that "not a single round" will be sent to Ukraine upon his election.

Read also: Peter Tkacenko: Slovakia after election  If not friend, certainly not enemy of Ukraine

Infrastructure Minister denies suspension of Ukrainian Black Sea corridor

Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov denied reports that Ukraines temporary grain corridor in the Black Sea had stopped operations on Oct. 25.



The information regarding the cancellation or unscheduled stoppage of the temporary Ukrainian corridor for the movement of civilian vessels from and to the ports of the Big Odesa (Oblast) is false, the minister wrote on X (formerly Twitter).



All available routes established by the Ukrainian Navy are valid and being used by civilian vessels.



Earlier on Oct. 26, the Barva Invest consultancy firm, specializing in the Ukrainian grain and oilseeds market, reported that the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority (USPA) announced the suspension of the corridor effective from Oct. 26 due to increased Russian aviation activity.



Vessels have been using the Ukrainian corridor since Sept. 16 following the collapse of the Black Sea Grain Initiative in July after Russia pulled out.



The corridor has been showing signs of success even without Russias agreement. Thirty-three ships have exported 1.3 million metric tons of agricultural products and other goods since its inception, Kubrakov noted.



Currently, 23 ships are loading at the ports of Odesa, Chornomorsk, and Pivdennyi.

So far the temporary corridor has not reached the levels of the grain initiative but Deputy Head of the Agrarian Council Denys Marchuk said it could eventually export 2-2.5 million tons per month.



Rather than sailing directly to the Bosphorus Strait through international waters, ships hug the coastlines of Ukraine and NATO members Romania and Bulgaria with assistance from the Ukrainian navy.



However, the threat from Russia remains and many ship owners are hesitant to travel the route.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced last week in a televised address that Russian jets armed with Kinzhal ballistic missiles will permanently patrol the Black Sea.



Currently, the Danube River ports see the highest throughput, exporting 2.3 million metric tons last month, according to Agriculture Minister Mykola Solskyi.



The minister said that Ukraine needs to export 6 million tons per month as grain piles up in the country amid export issues.

Hamas delegation visits Moscow

A delegation of the militant group Hamas, which governs Gaza, arrived in Moscow on Oct. 26, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said without elaborating on the visit details.

Hamas also reported on the visit via their official Telegram channel, saying that the delegation is headed by the group's senior political member, Moussa Abu Marzouk.

The delegation reportedly met with Mikhail Bogdanov, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister and President's Special Representative for the Middle East, discussing the Israel-Gaza ongoing war.

Hamas' representatives "praised the position of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the efforts of active Russian diplomacy, and stressed the need for the international community to shoulder its responsibilities towards the crime of genocide committed by the Zionist government," according to the group's message.

The fighting in Israel and the Gaza Strip broke out following Hamas' attack on Israeli settlements on Oct. 7. Tel Aviv responded by retaliatory airstrikes against Gaza and a total blockade of the enclave. Thousands of people, mostly civilians, have been killed on both sides.

While Ukraine has expressed full solidarity with Israel in the wake of Hamas' attack, Putin has been critical of Israel's conduct in the conflict. His criticism of civilian causalities in the Gaza war contrasts with the violence unleashed by Moscow against Ukraine in the full-scale invasion, which has already cost thousands of military and civilian lives.

There has been considerable speculation about Russia's involvement in the Hamas attack on Israel but little concrete evidence.

Ukraine's military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov noted that Hamas' advanced drone tactics, similar to those used by Russian forces in Ukraine, indicate that Moscow may have been involved in the training of Palestinian fighters.

The intelligence agency also said that Russia has transferred Western-made weapons captured in Ukraine to Hamas in an effort to discredit Kyiv.

Read also: Ukrainians trapped in besieged Gaza: We are constantly bombed

Danilov: Ukraine to increase domestic ammunition production

Ukraine will soon step up its production of shells by involving private companies in the process, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksii Danilov said on Oct. 26.

"They (the companies) have ordered the appropriate equipment, some equipment is already being installed in closed areas of enterprises, and we will see an increase in our own production in the near future," Danilov said on national television.

The official emphasized that not only Ukraine but its allies, as well as Russia, were suffering from ammunition shortages.

"Our partners, the entire civilized world, began to develop additional (production) capacities right from the beginning of this aggression, from April to May 2022. This is not an easy task, they cannot be built in a month or two," he said.

According to Danilov, it's challenging to determine the exact amount of shells needed for the Ukrainian army as "there has not been a war of such intensity since WWII."

His statement comes a day after unnamed sources told Bloomberg that the European Union was falling short of its target of providing Ukraine with one million rounds of artillery shells by March.

The EU pledged in May to deliver one million shells per year to Ukraine, partially by digging deep into its existing stockpiles but also by increasing domestic production capacity.

However, now that six months have passed, only 30% of the promised shells have been delivered, the sources said. At this slowed rate, the EU risks failing to meet its target.

Read also: Record Russian armor, personnel losses in failed attempt to take Avdiivka by storm

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Key developments on Oct. 27:

Zelensky: Russia has lost at least a brigade trying to capture Avdiivka

Germany delivers IRIS-T air defense system, other aid to Ukraine

Russian pilot sentenced in absentia to 14 years in prison for killing civilian

Ukraine retrieves 50 bodies of fallen soldiers

Wanted pro-Russian politician reportedly shot in Crimea

Russia claims drone attack on Kursk Nuclear Power Plant

Russia has lost at least a brigade of troops trying to capture Avdiivka in Donetsk Oblast during its latest offensive, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Oct. 27.

A brigade in the Russian army can include between 2,000 and 8,000 personnel, according to open sources.

"Russia will continue trying to occupy the entire Donbas (region)," Zelensky told U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in a phone call. "The invaders made several attempts to surround Avdiivka, but each time, our soldiers stopped them and pushed them back, causing painful losses."

Russia has been intensifying its attacks against Avdiivka, a front-line town a few kilometers north of occupied Donetsk, for several weeks. Moscow has reportedly thrown in extensive forces to encircle the town, suffering heavy losses in manpower and equipment in the process.

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In addition to the situation on the battlefield, Zelensky and Sunak discussed further support for Ukraine, the country's air defense needs, and the security situation in the Black Sea, according to the President's Office.

Zelensky assured Sunak that the temporary Black Sea corridor established by Ukraine after Russia terminated the U.N.-brokered grain deal would continue operating "despite all threats." The two leaders discussed further steps in implementing insurance for civilian ships.

Ukraine's president also thanked Sunak for the U.K.'s 100 million (about $122 million) military aid package for Ukraine announced on Oct. 11.

The package includes a variety of military equipment that can be used to breach minefields, as well as the provision of the multi-use MSI-DS Terrahawk Paladin, a remote-controlled air-defense system that also has the capability to defend against ground threats.

Read also: Record Russian armor, personnel losses in failed attempt to take Avdiivka by storm

Germany delivers IRIS-T air defense system, other aid to Ukraine

Germany has handed over an IRIS-T SLM air defense system, IRIS-T SLS missiles, 5,000 155mm artillery shells, and other defense assistance as part of its latest aid deliveries to Ukraine, the German government announced on Oct. 27.

The delivery also included four armored personnel carriers, eight Vector reconnaissance drones, a TRML-4D aerial radar, four ground radars, five unmanned surface ships, and six border guard vehicles.

Ammunition for MARS II multiple-launch rocket systems, four tractors with semi-trailers, and 10,000 safety glasses were also included, Berlin said.

Advanced Western air defenses represent a crucial aid for Ukraine ahead of the coming winter. Ukrainian officials have warned that Russia will likely intensify its strikes against the country's energy infrastructure in the following months.

Previously, Germany transferred two IRIS-T SLS systems to Ukraine in August, in addition to two SLM versions delivered in April this year and October 2022.

SLM variants have a range of up to 40 kilometers, while their shorter-range SLS counterparts can reach targets 12 kilometers away.

Russian pilot sentenced in absentia to 14 years in prison for killing civilian

A court in Chernihiv has sentenced a Russian pilot to 14 years in prison for killing a local civilian last year, the Prosecutor General's Office announced on Oct. 27.

The sentencing was carried out in absentia.

A Russian Sukhoi Su-34 jet was shot down over Chernihiv on March 5, 2022, amid the first weeks of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The navigator was killed, but the pilot survived.

A local resident, Vitalii Serhiienko, found the pilot hiding on his property. Although Serhiienko was unarmed, the pilot shot him, leaving Serhiienko to die of his injuries.

The pilot was detained by members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and named by Ukraine's Military Intelligence as Aleksandr Krasnoyartsev, a major in the Russian Air Force.

Photos posted on social media appeared to show Krasnoyartsev posing with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, leading Ukrainian investigators to believe it was likely that he took part in Russian engagements in Syria.

However, Krasnoyartsev was later exchanged in a prisoner swap that saw five Ukrainian pilots return home, according to Ukrainian Military Intelligence.

The court in Chernihiv found the pilot guilty of violating the laws and customs of war and committing intentional murder.

Read also: I want to go home: Inside a Russian prisoner of war camp in Ukraine

Ukraine retrieves 50 bodies of fallen soldiers

The bodies of 50 fallen Ukrainian defenders have been returned to Ukrainian-controlled territory, the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of the Prisoners of War reported on Oct. 27.

The bodies will be transported to specialized state institutions for forensic examination and identification, the headquarters said on Telegram.

The transfer was conducted in cooperation with Ukraines Interior Ministry, the Armed Forces, the Security Service, the State Emergency Service, and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The bodies of almost 2,000 soldiers have been repatriated to Ukraine in the last two years, according to the Coordination Headquarters.

Ukraine has not disclosed how many soldiers were killed in Russias full-scale invasion. The General Staff told the Kyiv Independent that the information about losses is secret and will only be revealed after the war is over.

Read also: As more soldiers go missing, desperate families left in limbo

Wanted pro-Russian politician reportedly shot in Crimea

Oleg Tsaryov, a pro-Russian Ukrainian politician who fled Ukraine in 2014, was shot in the early hours of Oct. 27 in Russian-occupied Crimea, according to Russian reports.

Tsaryov is a Dnipro-born businessman and former lawmaker for the former pro-Russian Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's Party of the Regions.

Following the EuroMaidan Revolution, he nominated himself for the 2014 presidential elections but later withdrew his candidacy, claiming his safety was at risk.

He went on to serve as an official of Russia's illegitimate proxies in the Russian-occupied parts of eastern Donbas.

Tsaryov is now reportedly in hospital in serious condition.

"Information about the attempt on Oleg Tsaryov is confirmed by his relatives. Around midnight, he was shot twice in the territory of the sanatorium where he lives," Tsaryov's Telegram channel claimed.

Tsaryov has been wanted by the Ukrainian authorities since after Russia's initial invasion of Ukraine in 2014 for supporting the Russian occupation of Ukrainian territories.

In March 2022, a Kyiv court brought new charges against him after he appeared in Russian-occupied Borodianka in Kyiv Oblast, claiming to deliver humanitarian aid.

U.S. intelligence identified Tsaryov as a potential puppet leader the Kremlin could have installed if they had successfully occupied Kyiv, according to the New York Times.

Tsaryov openly admitted to the New York Times that he participated in Russia's full-scale invasion.

He has been under Western sanctions since 2014.

Read also: EuroMaidan murders case: Why is the verdict criticized, and why is it about Russia?

Russia claims drone attack on Kursk Nuclear Power Plant

Three drones attempted to attack the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant on the evening of Oct. 26, the Russian state atomic energy corporation Rosatom claimed on Oct. 27.

"This event did not affect the station's operation," and there were no casualties or damage, Rosatom said in a statement.

Air defense systems in Kursk Oblast intercepted drones multiple times over the evening of Oct. 26, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed.

The nuclear power plant is located around 70 kilometers from the border with Ukraine's Sumy Oblast.

Ukraine's National Resistance Center reported in August that Russia is preparing to stage a provocation at the plant involving the evacuation of some of the local population.

The Russian authorities make regular allegations about drone attacks in Kursk Oblast, something that Ukraine does not always claim responsibility for.

However, reports emerged in the Ukrainian media in September that Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) used a drone to destroy a Russian radar system in Kursk Oblast.

Claims of the attack on the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant come days after Russian drones hit the area around the Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Plant in western Ukraine, damaging buildings in the plant's premises.

Following the attack on Oct. 25, President Zelensky said that Ukraine will "not only defend" itself but also "respond" to Russia's "terrorist attacks" on critical infrastructure.

Read also: Deadly drone arms race intensifies as Ukraine, Russia embrace the future of war

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GAS OR ELECTRICITY. Energy expert Volodymyr Omelchenko believes that the Russians will not have the strength to simultaneously attack Ukraine's electricity and gas infrastructure.

As the new heating season looms, there are growing concerns that Russia might launch drone and missile attacks on Ukraines energy infrastructure, targeting domestic gas transmission and distribution networks.

Volodymyr Omelchenko, the Director of Energy Programs at the Razumkov Centre, suggests that even in an optimistic scenario, Ukraine will face a power shortage during freezing days, with more critical issues on the horizon.

On a brighter note, Ukraine has taken steps to bolster its energy security. In September, Ukrgazvydobuvannya announced the opening of five additional wells, increasing gas production by 500,000 cubic meters per day. This year has seen a record-breaking introduction of 58 new wells, according to Naftogaz of Ukraine. Oleksiy Chernyshov, the CEO of Naftogaz, has expressed confidence that Ukraine will experience its first winter relying entirely on domestically produced gas.

Given these developments, what can Ukrainians, especially those relying on gas for heating, expect this winter? Volodymyr Omelchenko, in an interview with NV, delves into the challenges and prospects for the upcoming season.

In your opinion, how could the Russian strategy regarding shelling our energy infrastructure change this autumn and winter?

There are several scenarios to consider. The first scenario involves a focus on Iranian drones. Russia has limited ballistic missiles and faces supply challenges. Our anti-aircraft defenses are improved, focusing on missiles. They may prioritize Shahed drones. The most critical, high-risk period is November.

Read also: United States and Ukraine sign $522 million agreement to strengthen and modernize Ukraines energy system

In a positive winter scenario, significant large-scale shelling might not occur due to possible internal Russian power struggles. However, we must prepare for a worst-case scenario in which energy infrastructure is targeted throughout winter, mainly using drones. Nuclear power plants are unlikely targets, but substations and transformers could be focused on to disrupt the power grid.

Can Russia increase attacks on our gas distribution system and pipelines, considering that Ukraine intends to get through this heating season with its domestically produced gas?

Last year, Ukraine primarily relied on domestically produced gas. Gas imports were mainly for commercial, not heating purposes. While gas production is lower than three years ago, it increased by 5-6% compared to the previous year. Substantial reserves from last year are still stored underground.

Its unlikely that Russian attacks will comprehensively target gas transmission networks. There are many of them, and shelling the main gas pipelines wouldnt make sense due to surplus capacity. Even if one is hit, its harder to damage compared to the energy system. We have backup capacities to redirect transport, and Russian resources for simultaneous attacks on electricity and gas infrastructure are even less likely this year.

However, the Russians do have a significant number of Shahed drones.

They indeed have many Shaheds. But again, many of them get shot down, and its difficult to predict that they will damage a main gas pipeline.

What about the transit of Russian gas through our territory  how has it changed compared to last year?

Compared to last year, its at approximately the same level  40-42 million cubic meters per day. Although the contract stipulated a volume of around 107-109 million cubic meters. In other words, they are not fulfilling their contract. As you know, the coming year will be the final one for this contract, as it will no longer be in effect from Jan. 1, 2025.

While its still in effect, it probably provides some protection for the transit infrastructure from shelling?

The situation is critical for Russia. Gazprom has lost around 85% of the EU natural gas market. While it still supplies gas to Slovakia, Hungary, and non-EU countries like Serbia and the Balkans, these volumes are smaller. Gazprom couldnt fully replace Europe with China, as recent negotiations between Russian leaders and Xi Jinping revealed Chinas reluctance to embrace projects like Power of Siberia 2.

If Russia further reduces gas supplies through networks like the Turkish Stream, Gazprom would face a catastrophic situation. However, Russian actions arent always rational, so unpredictable events could occur. Still, the likelihood of this scenario is relatively low.

How are things progressing in Europe regarding the abandonment of Russian gas? Which countries have been most successful, and which remain the most dependent?

The most gas-dependent countries, notably Hungary and Slovakia, face a challenge. Other countries like Germany, Spain, and Belgium buy substantial volumes of Russian LNG. Those handling the situation best are the ones actively working to eliminate Russian gas entirely, such as Denmark and Sweden. They serve as models for the EU to transition to renewable energy sources and energy conservation.

Read also: Russian gas supply to Europe plummets, expected to drop even further  International Energy Agency

Germanys situation is not ideal. They no longer receive the discounts on Russian gas they had during (former German Chancellor) Angela Merkels tenure. These discounts were tied to certain security processes that contributed to the conflict, making them costly. Germanys economy is struggling, with the closure of businesses and reduced production in sectors like chemicals, cement, and metallurgy. The same applies to the Czech Republic and other Central European countries. Although not without challenges, the transition away from natural gas is underway, ensuring no one freezes in the EU. The main issue remains high prices for natural gas and electricity, emphasizing that Russian gas is more than a commodity; its a form of energy warfare.

Lets return to Ukrainian infrastructure. How well is it protected from shelling?

As I mentioned earlier, you cant protect gas distribution infrastructure 100%, but its more challenging to damage it than the electrical infrastructure. Gas pipelines are mostly underground, but the infrastructure, including above-ground facilities like compressor stations, is vulnerable. Still, its not as vulnerable as the electrical infrastructure. I dont want to go into too many details here, as its a complex topic, but I dont see a significant danger to the gas infrastructure today, unlike the electrical infrastructure.

What are the current reserves of Ukrainian gas in underground storage facilities, how do they compare to the previous season, and will it be enough for us?

This year, there are 16 billion cubicmeters of gas reserves, including 2.4 billion cubic meters in a customs regime held by European traders, which can be re-exported to EU countries. The situation resembles last year, and I believe there will be sufficient gas supply. Although theres a coal shortage and limited capacity for coal-fired power plants, which are currently using some gas-powered units, the winter situation will be similar. Some gas-powered units may be used, leading to expenses roughly on par with last year, possibly slightly higher, but significant gas supply problems are not anticipated.

By the way, can we use these 2.4 billion cubic meters that Europeans are storing with us if necessary? Is that a possibility?

There is no such possibility; it is not owned by Ukraine.

What else is being discussed in the industry, what should we expect this season, what challenges?

The primary concern is the electrical infrastructure, especially Ukrenergos high-voltage transmission lines and thermal power generation. Despite some protective measures, more work is needed. Over 60% of thermal power generation capacity has been damaged, and the role of Kakhovska HES is significant. Even in an optimistic scenario, I anticipate a power deficit of about 2-3 GW during peak hours on cold days this winter.

To address this, the Cabinet of Ministers must facilitate electricity imports from EU countries. Without imports, we cannot cover the electricity deficit in the winter. The National Commission for State Regulation of Energy and Public Utilities (NCREPU) needs to optimize price caps to make it commercially attractive for EU countries to supply electricity to Ukraine. Collaboration with the state regulator and the Cabinet of Ministers is crucial.

Additionally, working with partners to increase the technical capabilities for electricity imports to Ukraine, currently at 1.2 GW, could be beneficial. Raising this limit to at least 1.6-1.8 GW would be advantageous.

What does the possible deficit of 2-3 GW mean? Does it require a schedule of power outages?

With normal import conditions in place, it is possible to manage without power outages or with minimal scheduled outages. In this scenario, planned outage schedules would be minimal or non-existent. This assumes that infrastructure is not subjected to mass attacks, as it was last year.

However, if price caps remain at their current levels, meaning that the National Commission for State Regulation of Energy and Public Utilities (NCREPU) does not optimize them based on EU market conditions, we will encounter a substantial deficit and face significant schedules of power outages.

You mentioned that over 60% of thermal power generation capacity was damaged. How much of it has been restored?

Around 60% of the thermal power generation capacity has been restored. While the restoration plan has been carried out, it didnt aim for a 100% restoration of all the damages due to financial and time constraints. The repair plan was based on realistic possibilities, and while full restoration wasnt achievable, it has been executed to a significant extent.

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Ukraine has started using its US-donated ATACMS missiles to great effect.

An expert told Insider that ATACMS get round Russia's tactic of spreading out its key assets.

Its cluster munitions can hit multiple, spread-out targets, negating that advantage.

The long-range ATACMS missiles that Ukraine got from the US are putting Russia on the back foot, rendering one of its tactics less effective, an expert told Insider.

The weapon allows Ukraine to strike at great distances, reaching high-value targets like stores of weapons, equipment, and ammunition.

Ukraine said it used ATACMS in attacks on two airfields in Russian-occupied territory earlier this month, destroying Russian ammunition depots and helicopters and damaged the airfields.

Riley Bailey, a Russia analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, told Insider that ATACMS has a key an advantage over other long-range weapons Ukraine has, like Storm Shadow missiles from the UK and France and the HIMARS rocket system from the US.

That's because ATACMS sent to Ukraine have cluster munitions instead of unitary warheads. Each one contains bomblets that spread and hit multiple targets with one strike.

This helps Ukraine get around Russia's previous strategy to deal Ukraine's previous long-range attacks, Bailey said.

Russia used to cluster its equipment, which made it vulnerable initially to HIMARS strikes, he said. But it learned its lesson and began spacing them out, making each hit less effective.

A Ukrainian M142 HIMARS launches a rocket near Bakhmut, Ukraine, in May 2023. Photo by Serhii Mykhalchuk/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images

"Ukrainian forces were able to conduct strikes on ammunition depots with HIMARS that were very devastating and forced the Russian command to further disperse those ammunition depots," Bailey said.

Russia "learned from previous mistakes" and was trying to ensure "one strike doesn't cause many aviation losses."

But now Ukraine can hit equipment that is spread further apart thanks to the ATACMS cluster munitions.

Ukraine can hit "targets where you need to hit a wide range of targets in one location," said Bailey.

Previously, Ukraine was stuck with a "one-for-one" system: "It would basically have to fire five Storm Shadow cruise missiles to destroy five helicopters."

Ukraine announced it had damaged two Crimean bridges with a Storm Shadow missile on August 7, 2023 Ministry of Defense of Ukraine

"Whereas with the cluster munitions, it can destroy several helicopters at an airfield with just one ATACMS."

Ukraine said at it expended at least four missiles in the ATACMS strike [which took out far more than four targets?].

Bailey said Russian commanders now had a new problem to adapt to, and may find it a bigger challenge than when they got used to Ukraine using HIMARS.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said ATACMS marked a "new chapter of this war" and mean there "are no more safe places for Russian troops" in Ukraine.

Russia's only real option now, Bailey said, was spreading out assets further and further apart  which comes with major drawbacks.

"That's going to stretch out a lot of the Russian logistics," he said, which are already "heavily degraded."

Aircraft being moved back further will make them less helpful for Russia, reducing the amount of time they can spend near the front before having to return to base.

The US said the ATACMS it gave Ukraine have a range of around 100 miles. The US did not say how many missiles it sent, or whether it would send more.

Newer versions can travel around 190 miles, though a US officials said Ukraine got the older model since the US wants to keep the newer ones for its own reserves.

A Ukrainian official said he believes Ukraine will later get the new version, though the US hasn't committed to that.

Read the original article on Business Insider
The Chief Intelligence Directorate has announced that the special services of the Russian Federation had prepared an information attack against Rustem Umierov , Ukraines Minister of Defence.

Source: The Chief Intelligence Directorate of Ukraines Defence Ministry press service

Details: Intelligence reports that the Russian special services have sent their propagandists a new method of narratives to undermine trust in Ukraine among partners in the West.

In particular, the Russians plan to "disseminate" fake news that "Corrupt Ukraine sells weapons to Hamas terrorists" and also use the Grain Corridor for the illegal arms trade.

Also, the planned disinformation effort included claims that "Rustem Umierov uses his own connections in the Arab world for the illegal arms trade" and "Lebanon's opening of the market for Ukrainian agricultural products is used for the illegal arms trade".

Quote from Intelligence: "The goal of the enemy's new information campaign remains unchanged - to completely stop the supply of weapons to the Security and Defence Forces of Ukraine from the partner states."

"The Intelligence of Ukraines Ministry of Defence warns journalists, representatives of Ukrainian and foreign media, and citizens of Ukraine against spreading harmful lies invented by the Russian special services."

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Tang Wenhong (1st L, front), vice chairman of China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA) and head of a visiting Chinese delegation, and Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa attend the handover ceremony of Zimbabwe's new parliament building in Harare, Zimbabwe, Oct. 26, 2023. The Chinese government on Thursday handed over to Zimbabwe a new parliament building that was constructed and funded by China through a grant. (Xinhua/Zhang Baoping)

HARARE, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese government on Thursday handed over to Zimbabwe a new parliament building that was constructed and funded by China through a grant.

Tang Wenhong, vice chairman of China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA) and head of a visiting Chinese delegation, officially handed over the majestic building to Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa at a ceremony attended by government officials, diplomats, and Chinese embassy officials, among others.

The new parliament building, with a combined floor area of 33,000 square meters, is a pivot point around which a new administrative capital will be built, said Mnangagwa in his address at the ceremony.

"The new parliament building, which stands as one of the most magnificent and modern buildings in our country, signifies the excellent relations that exist between Zimbabwe and the People's Republic of China. The attention to detail and high standards of workmanship exhibited in this project are indeed commendable," Mnangagwa said.

Mnangagwa said Zimbabwe recognizes the development milestones achieved by China and its quest for global peace and a shared future for mankind.

Tang, in his address at the ceremony, said the project is a vivid manifestation of the cooperation between Zimbabwe and China.

Both sides have achieved fruitful results in practical cooperation in infrastructure, agriculture, health, education and other fields, setting a model for South-South cooperation, Tang said. 

This photo taken on Oct. 26, 2023 shows a conference hall of Zimbabwe's new parliament building in Harare, Zimbabwe. The Chinese government on Thursday handed over to Zimbabwe a new parliament building that was constructed and funded by China through a grant. (Xinhua/Zhang Baoping)

This photo taken on Oct. 26, 2023 shows the exterior view of Zimbabwe's new parliament building in Harare, Zimbabwe. The Chinese government on Thursday handed over to Zimbabwe a new parliament building that was constructed and funded by China through a grant. (Xinhua/Zhang Baoping)
China will not participate in the gathering of national security advisers in Malta, where over 55 countries will discuss the Ukrainian peace formula.

Source: Bloomberg

Details: Bloomberg's sources said the list of participants includes the Group of Seven (G7) countries, Qatar, South Africa, India and Turkiye. Some countries, such as Brazil and Chile, are expected to participate online.

The information company notes: "Beijings absence would be a disappointment for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy who is trying to build international support for his blueprint for a lasting and just peace."

The article also points out that Beijing's involvement in the peace summit is critical for Ukraine, as China is one of the few countries that has some influence on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Bloomberg adds that similar meetings in Denmark in June and Saudi Arabia in August preceded the Malta meeting. China sent a delegate to the gathering in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The article indicates that the purpose of such meetings is to convey Kyiv's position to nations that remain neutral on Russia's invasion, especially to countries in the Global South.

"Buy-in from those countries is seen as a key condition for holding a summit," Bloomberg reported.

Background: On 28-29 October, the next meeting on the Ukrainian peace formula at the level of advisers will be held in Malta.

The Ukrainian President's Office voiced hope that over 50 states would participate in the meeting and that plans to implement the points of the peace formula would be approved.

During a phone conversation with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy invited a representative of Saudi Arabia to a meeting in Malta to discuss Ukraine's peace formula.

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Bihus.Info, a Ukrainian investigative reporting outlet, has discovered that as of this summer, the wife of Dmytro Tyshlek, Deputy Chief of Ukraines National Police, had still not got rid of her Russian passport, and Tyshlek himself has been spotted driving cars and staying in properties owned by a Russian criminal gang leader.

Source: Bihus.Info

Details: Bihus.Info reported that the family of Tyshleks wife, Oleksandra Balakai, moved to Russias Rostov Oblast some time in the 2000s and obtained Russian citizenship. As of this summer, Oleksandra Balakais passport was still valid.

Prior to Russias full-scale invasion, Oleksandras mother, Mariia Balakai, would often visit her and Tyshlek in Ukraine. A two-bedroom apartment in Novopecherski Lypky, a residential development in Kyiv, was registered under her name in the summer of 2018.

Soon afterwards, Mariia Balakai issued a power of attorney to her daughter, thereby transferring control over the property to her, and returned to Russia.

Meanwhile, when Tyshlek moved to Kyiv in 2019, he lived rent-free in a 140-sq-m apartment in the elite French Quarter development in the city centre. The apartment belonged to Yurii Holyk, better known as the architect of the Big Construction project. [Big Construction, or Velyke Budivnytstvo, is an infrastructure project that was launched in 2020 and overseen by President Zelenskyy with the objective of rebuilding schools, kindergartens, hospitals, roads, airports and other civilian infrastructure facilities all across Ukraine - ed.]

According to Bihus.Info, Tyshlek no longer lives in Holyks apartment. In September and October of this year he was spotted on a number of occasions in an elite residential neighbourhood on the outskirts of Kyiv, in a 300-sq-m house registered in the name of one Natalya Necheporenko [the journalists stressed the Russian spelling of the name Natalya in the documents, since in Ukrainian it would spelled Nataliia - ed.].

Sources also told the journalists that in spring 2022, Tyshlek drove out of Ukraine in a car belonging to Necheporenkos husband Vitalii. This spring, the couple issued powers of attorney to Tyshlek. Six months later, the house was registered in Natalyas name.

Bihus.Info reported that Vitalii Necheporenko owns a 25% stake in Elite Loto LLC. Andrian Rodin (also known as Andrei "Half-animal" Imanali), a criminal gang leader from Rostov, Russia, also owns a 25% stake in the business. Imanalis "complicated" relationship with the police dates back a number of years, Bihus.Info said.

"Imanali rose to fame in the early 2000s as a leader of Selmash, a Rostov-based organised crime group. He was put on the wanted list, first federally and then internationally, on suspicion of kidnapping. Imanali was found in Kyiv and deported back to Russia, where he was eventually sentenced to seven years in prison," the investigation says.

In a written statement for Bihus.Info, Tyshlek denied the reports, claiming that he is currently renting an apartment and only lived in [Necheporenkos] house temporarily; the Necheporenkos are close friends of his; his wife holds a Ukrainian passport; and he "doesnt get involved in his mother-in-laws business".

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By Mark Trevelyan

(Reuters) - Former Ukrainian lawmaker Oleg Tsaryov , a pro-Russian figure whom sources said Moscow had enlisted to lead a puppet administration in Kyiv after Russia's invasion, was shot and wounded in a late-night attack, family and officials said on Friday.

Russia's top investigative body said it had opened a criminal inquiry into the attempt on his life, which follows the assassinations of several other prominent pro-Moscow figures since the start of the war.

A source in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) intelligence agency said the shooting was a special operation conducted by the agency. The source gave few details of the operation but described Tsaryov as an "absolutely legal target".

The attack took place in Yalta in Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

"Around midnight he was shot twice on the premises of the sanatorium where he lives," said a post on Tsaryov's Telegram account, citing the family. "When the ambulance arrived, Oleg was unconscious and had lost a lot of blood."

A Russian-installed official in southern Ukraine, Vladimir Rogov, said Tsaryov was in intensive care.

The SBU source said: "He had been for a long time on the list of traitors who have to answer for their crimes. He was not just a fan of the 'Russian world', but rather a person who came along with Russian tanks in order to capture Kyiv."

Of the attack, the source said only that "according to the situation at the moment, Tsaryov "was hit by two shots from a firearm".

CRITICAL CONDITION

Tsaryov, the source said, was "in critical condition, with doctors fighting to save his life. But there is a good chance he will be kicking the bucket."

Three sources familiar with Russia's post-invasion plans told Reuters last year that Moscow had been looking to Tsaryov to head a puppet government in Kyiv if it had succeeded in its advance on Kyiv to oust President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in the first days of the war in February 2022.

Tsaryov, who runs hotels in Crimea, said Reuters' account had "very little to do with reality".

The 53-year-old was previously a member of the Ukrainian parliament and then speaker of the parliament of "Novorossiya", an entity formed after Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine broke away in 2014 and began fighting Ukrainian forces.

Tsaryov has been placed under sanctions by Ukraine, the United States and a number of other Western countries.

Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for Ukraine's military intelligence agency, was asked on television about the shooting.

"We won't comment in too much detail yet, that's too much of an honour for him. But yes, there is such information. I can't say we're following his health very closely, but we are following," he said.

"When there is information that his body temperature has fallen below 36.6, there will definitely be a statement."

Tsaryov is listed as a "traitor to the motherland" by Myrotvorets ("Peacemaker"), a vast unofficial Ukrainian database of people considered to be enemies of the country. Its website lists personal information on him including an email address, a passport number and an address in Yalta.

Several pro-war Russian figures in the Myrotvorets database have been assassinated since the start of the conflict, including journalist Darya Dugina, war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky and former submarine commander Stanislav Rzhitsky.

Dugina and Tatarsky were blown up by bombs, while Rzhitsky was shot dead on an early morning run.

(Additional reporting by Tom Balmforth in Kyiv and Yuliia Dysa; editing by Giles Elgood, Ron Popeski and Jonathan Oatis)
Oleg Tsarov, Ukrainian traitor and former member of parliament, who supported Russias invasion of Ukraine, has been shot and is in a serious condition.

Source: Vladimir Rogov, a collaborator and so-called "governor" of the occupied part of Zaporizhzhia Oblast.

Details: Rogov wrote that "Oleg's condition is very serious. He is currently in intensive care." He also said that Tsarov had been shot. Social media users are also circulating a video, apparently filmed near Tsarov's house, where an attempt was made on him.

 -  ,       pic.twitter.com/LzRD1FMro5     (@ukrpravda_news) October 27, 2023

Later, the following information was posted on Tsarov's Telegram channel on behalf of the administrator:

Quote: "The information about the attempted assassination of Oleh Tsarov has been confirmed by his family. Around midnight, he was shot twice at the sanatorium where he lives. There is no information about the perpetrator, and the security forces are investigating.

By the time the ambulance arrived, Oleh was unconscious and suffering from heavy blood loss. There is no information about his state of health at the moment."

Background:

The Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv sentenced Tsarov in absentia to 12 years in prison in May 2022.

Tsarov arrived in Kyiv Oblast together with the Russian army in March 2022, and also called on Kryvyi Rih's local administration to surrender the city to the Russian occupiers.

Tsarov has repeatedly posted calls on his Telegram channel to change the boundaries of the territory and the state border of Ukraine in violation of the order established by the Constitution of Ukraine.

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The News

As temperatures begin to fall in Ukraine, residents are braced for a second winter of blackouts and heat cutoffs. The air raid sirens in Kyiv have been relatively quiet in the last few weeks, but officials expect that to change as Russia resumes its targeted shelling of power plants and other energy infrastructure.

The coming winter will definitely not be easier than the last one, Dmytro Sakharuk, executive director of DTEK, the countrys largest private energy generation and distribution company, told Semafor. Because unfortunately, we are not the only ones preparing for it  the Russians are too.

Tims view

Targeting civilian power infrastructure during winter is one of the surest methods Russias military has to sap Ukrainians morale, as it did to devastating effect last year. In the last week alone, thousands of families in southern and eastern Ukraine near regions still occupied by Russia temporarily lost power because of Russian strikes.

DTEK and other energy companies have been working overtime to repair damaged facilities, stockpile equipment, and build new renewable energy that, in addition to reducing the grids carbon intensity, are more resilient to airstrikes. Still, the energy system remains one of Ukraines greatest vulnerabilities, especially since much of it dates to the Soviet era  meaning Russia knows the layout intimately, and that spare parts for aging facilities are chronically in short supply.

Prior to Russias full-scale invasion last February, Ukraine had enough spare electricity to export some to the European Union. Since then, several large power plants have been captured, including the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and a large onshore wind farm, which remain under Russian control, or destroyed, like the Kakhovka Dam hydroelectric plant. Altogether, nearly 9,000 energy assets, including transformers and transmission lines, have been damaged or destroyed, at a value of about $11 billion, according to DTEK, and the countrys generation capacity is half its pre-war level. The firm has also seen 240 employees killed and 700 injured.

DTEK is racing to rebuild and fortify its infrastructure. The company has spent $41 million on spare equipment, and has installed sandbags and concrete blocks around most of its facilities. This year it doubled its investment in coal mining and purchasing from 2022 levels, spending $200 million, and tripled the pace of natural gas drilling. In May, it also opened a 114-megawatt onshore wind farm near the Black Sea, just 60 miles from the front line  renewable energy, Sakharuk said, has the advantage of being harder to take out in a single strike, since its distributed across a larger area than a fossil power plant. And this month Ukraine secured $522 million from the U.S. for energy infrastructure security and a shipment of solar panels donated by Japan, while increasing natural gas imports from the EU seven-fold.

But all of that preparation is essentially useless, Sakharuk said, if Russian drones and missiles continue to find their targets. Keeping the lights and heat on is ultimately a job for Ukraines military, which has been developing ways to stretch its limited supply of air defense weapons, including by converting U.S.-supplied air-to-air Sidewinder missiles into surface-to-air missiles in order to defend energy infrastructure, according to the Financial Times.

The key is air defense, Torsten Woellert, an energy official in the EU delegation to Ukraine, told Semafor. If the air defense works, the energy will be secure. If it doesnt, it wont be.

Room for Disagreement

One factor working in Ukraines favor could be the weather. This year is likely to be the hottest on record globally, pushed by climate change and the El Nino cycle. That doesnt mean blackouts will be completely painless, but relatively warm temperatures may prevent the pipelines that carry steam heat from freezing and bursting if they are temporarily disabled, meaning they can come back online much more quickly. And despite the shortage of hardware, both the military and energy companies are more experienced than they were last year, said Andrian Prokip, director of the energy program at the Ukrainian Institute for the Future, a Kyiv-based think tank: So that gives us hope.

The View From Russia

Meanwhile, sanctions on Russias energy economy dont appear to be working. In September, Russia pocketed more than $7 billion in oil and gas revenue, its second-highest monthly haul this year, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The conflict in Gaza and oil production cuts by Saudi Arabia have driven the price of oil well above the $60-per-barrel price cap G7 countries and the EU imposed on Moscow earlier this year. But Russia, working through unscrupulous middlemen to reach buyers in China and India, has faced scant enforcement of the sanctions by Western officials who are afraid to take any barrels off the global market and thus raise prices for their own constituents.

Notable

Ukraines post-war economic recovery has the potential to create 4.2 million jobs in renewable energy installation and related green fields, a report by the Kyiv advocacy group Razom We Stand found.
Editors note: The location of the prisoner of the war camp the Kyiv Independent visited is undisclosed for security reasons. The Kyiv Independent got vocal recorded agreement from the prisoners of the war to be interviewed and identified in the story.

When Yevhen Kalashnikov found an opening to surrender to Ukrainian troops in April, he made a run for it.

He says he darted hundreds of meters from a Russian trench across the muddy and churned-up battlefield waving a white t-shirt until he reached a Ukrainian position. As he ran, mortars landed and exploded all around him, he told a press conference in Kyiv in August.

Weeks before surrendering, Russias Security Service (FSB) conscripted Kalashnikov, a Ukrainian student, into the Russian army for publishing photos of a bridge used for Russian military logistics in his hometown of Novoazovsk in Donetsk Oblast, a town under Moscows control since 2014.

Once deployed to the front line in December 2022, Kalashnikov contacted the I want to live hotline set up by the Ukrainian government to allow Russian and forcibly conscripted Ukrainian troops to surrender. Unable to call the hotline, he came up with another escape plan.

Ive never planned to fight against Ukraine. This is my country. When I got into this, I already had a plan to surrender and proof of my innocence, Kalashnikov told the Kyiv Independent during the press conference.

Following an investigation, Kalashnikov now claims a Ukrainian court has dropped all charges against him. Still a prisoner of war camp in western Ukraine, it is unclear when he will be set free.

Read also: I want to go home: Inside a Russian prisoner of war camp in Ukraine

While Russian prisoners of war have the chance to be exchanged, under Ukrainian law, forcibly conscripted Ukrainians caught while fighting for Russia can face lengthy prison sentences and even high treason charges for betraying their country.

And proving they were forcibly conscripted can be an impossible task, as the majority of them are caught on the battlefield in the middle of assault operations, keeping them behind bars.

It's challenging to argue that someone was forcibly conscripted if they were actively engaged in combat for months without attempting to desert or surrender. In such cases, there is little reason for law enforcement to release such a captive, Alyona Lunova, director of advocacy at Ukraine's ZMINA human rights center, told the Kyiv Independent.

However, every detail must be proven."

Some of the forcibly conscripted Ukrainian prisoners of war held at a POW camp in western Ukraine told the Kyiv Independent they have already been convicted of 10 to 12 years in prison, whereas many others have been charged with treason and are waiting for online court trials to determine their fate.

Like all the Russian POWs, Ukrainians from the ranks of the Russian regular army have the option to be swapped to Russia or to stay in Ukraine to continue serving their term at the POW camp if convicted, Petro Yatsenko, spokesperson of Ukraines agency for the POWs treatment, told the Kyiv Independent at the detention center.

I'm staying in Ukraine. To them, I'm already a traitor. I'll die there, I know that very well. I've already contacted them. I was prosecuted there. Here I can say what I want to say in peace, Kalashnikov said.

Russia has reportedly conscripted tens of thousands of Ukrainian citizens in the occupied parts of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts to fight against their own country  a war crime according to the Geneva convention  since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

Many of them are believed to have been killed in action, as the Kremlin reportedly uses these men as cannon fodder to expose Ukrainian artillery positions and to protect units recruited inside Russia.

Conscripted into Russia's army

In a video published on a pro-Russian Telegram channel last December, a long-haired, bearded man speaks on camera. His eyes appear to be reading a prepared text.

In the video, the man identifies himself as Yevhen Kalashnikov, stating that he "ridiculed Russia after being exposed to Ukrainian propaganda."

"To atone for my guilt, I am voluntarily joining the Russian army. Accompanying the video is a photograph of Kalashnikov, only now with a buzz cut and in Russian military fatigues.

When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Kalashnikov started an anti-Russian Telegram channel named Funeral of our future, informing subscribers of Russias war from inside occupied Novoazovsk and Donetsk, where he was studying.

Russia uses Novoazovsk as a logistics hub to deliver hardware and troops on the southern axes. The small town sits on the highway connecting Russia with Ukraines south, passing key occupied cities, like Mariupol, Berdiansk, Melitopol, and Henichesk.

At the time he created his Telegram channel, some 35 kilometers west of Novoazovsk Russian forces were leveling Mariupol. Kalashnikovs father went missing, and his grandmother was killed during the citys siege.

Kalashnikov says his videos of Russian military hardware being transported in occupied Novoazovsk were the reason Russia sent him to the front lines.

Russian prisoners of war line up before dinner at a POW camp in western Ukraine in late September 2023. (Alexander Khrebet/ The Kyiv Independent)

When Kalashnikov surrendered to Ukrainian forces in April, another forcibly conscripted Ukrainian from occupied Luhansk had already been at the POW in western Ukraine for over a year.

Oleksandr, who refused to provide his last name, received a call in late February 2022 with a draft notice telling him to go to sign up for the Russian military at a local Russian-controlled university  the same place where he worked as an English teacher.

Right before the start of the full-scale invasion, Russia established draft points across the occupied territories, summoning locals on the streets, workplaces, universities, and their homes.

Inexperienced with firearms, Oleksandr nonetheless signed a document that dispatched him to the front without proper training and equipment a month later.

I didnt have any choice, Oleksandr told the Kyiv Independent in one of the offices at the POW camp, speaking in English.

Oleksandr redeployed with his Russian unit to Kharkiv Oblast in the early summer of 2022, where he served until being captured on the third day of the lightening Ukrainian counteroffensive that liberated the region last September.

After an investigation, a Ukrainian court sentenced Oleksandr to 12 years in prison with asset confiscation on treason charges.

When asked if he tried to contact the surrender hotline, Oleksandr called such a move treason.

"If I agreed to be a soldier (in Russias army), I have to continue," he said, adding that he wants to be swapped.

But since Russia has made no indication it intends to exchange Oleksandr, he is serving his term at the POW camp where he arrived over a year ago, Yatsenko said.

Ukrainians who defected to Russias side after 2014 and voluntarily joined the Russian or proxy armies are also at the camp, where they will stay unless Russia requests to exchange them or if they are not charged with war crimes.

Read also: Escaping Russian army: The story of one Ukrainian forced to fight against his homeland

Mykyta Lebediev from occupied Luhansk fought Ukraine with a Russian proxy army before the full-scale invasion. After being captured for a second time since 2014, he was charged with high treason and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Serhii Prokhorov from Mariupol joined the Russian regular army after the deadly months-long siege and fall of his home city in Donetsk Oblast, both told the Kyiv Independent. He was charged with high treason and given a 15-year prison sentence.

They both say they want to be exchanged.

Surrendering through the hotline

When Russia declared its mobilization campaign last September, Ukraine preempted the move, initiating a surrender hotline with a tutorial and support.

From the third day of the full-scale invasion, the surrender mechanism idea was in play, with human rights defenders suggesting surrender options for their forcibly conscripted fellow countrymen.

"We already understood that (Russia) would grab everyone in the occupied territories," said Lunova, a human rights defender.

When a soldier, officer, or civilian who is about to be drafted by the Russian army contacts the Ukrainian hotline on WhatsApp, Telegram, or chatbot, he goes through a quick registration.

Yatsenko said that it is mostly the soldiers themselves who reach out, but families of conscripted soldiers do as well. Arranging the surrender of soldiers who contact the hotline is the priority, according to him.

Since the hotline was launched, every two days, one serviceman surrenders with the hotline. So far 215 requests have been processed and over 800 requests are in progress.

The best way for soldiers to surrender is by sharing the location of where they will be stationed in Ukraine before deployment. Once they arrive, they call the hotline to confirm their location.

Yevhen Kalashnikov meets his mom in an undisclosed location in mid-August 2023 (Screenshot from 'I want to live hotline video')

After verification, the Ukrainian military sends the serviceman an escape plan to surrender.

For us, it is much better to organize a surrender for a small group rather than one person, said Yatsenko, spokesperson of Ukraines agency for the treatment of POWs.

Once everything is in place, oftentimes Ukrainian drones guide Russian soldiers through the minefields toward the spot of surrender. It is safe for the Ukrainian military to avoid ambush in case of feigned surrender.

Every operation is unique, said the spokesperson.

Yatsenko said the Ukrainian military does not disclose whether there have been incidents when Russian forces tried to take advantage of the surrender hotline to capture Ukrainian soldiers.

Kalashnikov wasn't able to reach the hotline from the front line as a commander had seized his phone.

But he took a risk and escaped the Russian position under heavy shelling just a day before his unit was about to start an assault on Ukrainian positions. That risk paid off.

After months in a POW camp in western Ukraine and court trials, Kalashnikov was transferred to a detention center in Kyiv. His mother fled Russian-occupied Novoazovsk, making the long journey through Russia, the Baltic States, and Poland to be reunited with her son, according to the I want to live hotline.

Kalashnikov is likely to be released.

"Someone (among forcibly conscripted Ukrainians) likely being released is positive, indicating that law enforcement has taken into account the observations of human rights defenders," said Lunova.

Read also: Ukrainians in Russia fear mobilization: If conscripted, I will shoot Russians and surrender

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Israel's ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan slammed the world body for calling for a humanitarian truce in Gaza, saying 'Israel will continue to defend itself' (EDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZ)

The UN General Assembly on Friday called by a large majority for an "immediate humanitarian truce" in Gaza, on the 21st day of the Israel-Hamas conflict as the Israeli army announced it was extending its ground operation into the shattered territory.

The non-binding resolution, criticized by Israel and the United States for failing to mention Hamas, received 120 votes in favor, 14 against and 45 abstentions from UN members.

Israel angrily dismissed the measure, and said the country would use "every means at our disposal" in confronting Hamas.

"Today is a day that will go down as infamy. We have all witnessed that the UN no longer holds even one ounce of legitimacy or relevance," Israeli ambassador Gilad Erdan said, telling the assembly: "Shame on you."

"Israel will continue to defend itself. We will defend our future, our very existence by ridding the world of Hamas's evil so that it can never threaten anyone else again," he said.

Hamas meanwhile welcomed the call for a break in the conflict.

"We demand its immediate application to allow the entry of fuel and humanitarian aid for civilians," said a Hamas statement.

The rival Palestinian Authority's foreign ministry said that as Israel's campaign "reaches a new peak of brutality," there was "a solid international position rejecting Israel's unhinged aggression".

The text proposed by Jordan in the name of 22 Arab countries called for "an immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities."

An earlier version called for an "immediate ceasefire."

Jordan's Ambassador Mahmoud Hmoud, just before the vote, stressed that: "It is not merely our responsibility, but a profound moral obligation to champion the cause of peace."

Israel has heavily bombarded Gaza since Hamas gunmen stormed across the border on October 7, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping over 220 others, according to Israeli officials.

The health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, in an update on Friday, said the Israeli strikes had now killed 7,326 people, mainly civilians and many of them children.

The resolution co-sponsored by nearly 50 other countries centered largely on the dire humanitarian situation in sealed-off Gaza as Israel presses on with its bombardment.

The document urges "immediate" provision of water, food, medical supplies, fuel and electricity and unhindered access for UN and other humanitarian agencies trying to help the Palestinians.

The draft condemns "all acts of violence aimed at Palestinian and Israeli civilians, including all acts of terrorism and indiscriminate attacks" but it does not mention Hamas.

The resolution exposed a division within Western countries, with France voting for the measure; Germany, Italy and Britain abstaining; while Austria and the United States voted against.

"It is outrageous that this resolution fails to name the perpetrators of the October 7 terrorist attack," US ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said.

"Another key word missing in this resolution is hostage," she added.

abd/acb/jh/mdl/sms
On October 18, beneath the Nevada desert, the National Nuclear Security Administration intentionally set off a non-nuclear explosion. The US Geological Survey registered its magnitude at 1.7, precisely recording the detonation at 8:15 am and 59 seconds. It has been over three decades since the United States has detonated a nuclear weapon in testing, but the ability to detect such tests, especially underground, informs and guides US responses to other tests. The October 18 explosion, while not nuclear in nature, took place in the bones of old nuclear testing infrastructure, because it was designed to improve detection of nuclear tests.

So far in the 21st century, only North Korea has detonated nuclear weapons, and all of those tests were underground. But should an existing nuclear power resume testing, or a country debut its new nuclear arsenal with a test, underground detection will likely be the way this is discovered.

These experiments advance our efforts to develop new technology in support of U.S. nuclear nonproliferation goals. They will help reduce global nuclear threats by improving the detection of underground nuclear explosive tests, said Corey Hinderstein, NNSAs Deputy Administrator for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation, in a release .

The NNSAs test took place at the Nevada National Security Site, which has previously been known as the Nevada Proving Grounds and more recently the Nevada Test Site. When it was used for active nuclear testing, between 1951 and 1992, the site hosted 100 atmospheric and 828 underground nuclear weapons tests. The United States has adhered to a moratorium on live tests of nuclear weapons since September 1992, following the Soviet one put in place in 1991 and adhered to by Russia ever since. In the absence of live tests, simulated tests with computer models have informed the continued study and maintenance of the US nuclear arsenal, powered by supercomputing and the extensive data collected during the nearly five decades of active nuclear testing.

[Related: The worlds most powerful computer could soon help the US build better nuclear reactors ]

Still, computer models are based on observed, real-world data, and setting off a non-nuclear explosion at the Nevada National Security Site allowed those algorithms and assumptions to be validated.

The experiment will help validate new predictive explosion models and detection algorithms. Measurements were collected using accelerometers, seismometers, infrasound sensors, electromagnetic sensors, chemical and radiotracer samplers, and meteorological sensors, reads the NNSA release.

This recent test builds on previous work done at the Nevada site. From 2010 to 2019, researchers in the US nuclear enterprise, including scientists from the NNSA as well as researchers from Sandia National Laboratory, conducted the Source Physics Experiments. These were designed to help the United States be able to distinguish earthquakes from underground explosions, improving knowledge of both weapons testing and seismic activity. Besides Sandia, other participating organizations included Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Mission Support and Test Services LLC, which manages operations at the Nevada National Security Site.

While satellite surveillance makes surface tests detectable from above, underground tests are by design harder for outside powers to observe and track. One distinction between human-caused explosions and earthquakes is in the balance of compressional waves versus shear waves. But to make sure that nuclear tests were not getting lost or misinterpreted as routine seismic data , the labs set out to collect new data, distinguishing explosions from earthquakes.

The only way to understand that better, in our opinion, was to do actual physical experiments. We couldnt just simply have new modeling codes without something to test those new modeling codes against, Sandia principal investigator and geophysicist Rob Abbott told Sandia LabNews in August 2019 .

Sensors involved in one series of the Source Physics Experiment included accelerometers in the borehole and on the surface, infrasound, fiber optics, seismic monitoring, a borehole microphone, radon sensors, photogrammetry, pre-and-post site surface mapping, and others. By modeling what the test should expect to find, placing sensors based on that modeling, and then conducting real-life tests with non-nuclear explosives, the researchers were able to greatly contribute to the data needed to find nuclear detonations, all without detonating a live nuke.

The science of last weeks test is straightforward. The geopolitical timing of the October 18 test is intriguing, as it occurred simultaneously with Russias parliament voting to un-ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, a multilateral agreement that bans nuclear testing and set up an international organization to monitor for such tests. This de-ratification comes as part of an ongoing turn away from the arms control that defined the second half of the Cold War and the first couple decades after it. Russia possesses the worlds largest nuclear arsenal, though the United States stockpile is close behind. So far, no country that entered the 21st century with a nuclear arsenal has detonated a nuclear weapon, in testing or otherwise.

The NNSA has shared the seismic data of its October 18 test with other nations and researchers across the globe . While nuclear tests remain unlikely, shared information about how those tests will appear on seismic sensors allows the rest of the world to respond from a point of familiarity and agreement.
When Republicans rallied behind Rep. Mike Johnson and unanimously elected him the 56th speaker of the House of Representatives Wednesday, the Louisiana lawmaker moved from a position of relative obscurity to the highest-ranking Republican in government.

Others will no doubt speculate on what Johnsons leadership will mean for the prospect of a government shutdown, fights over the debt ceiling, continued funding to Ukraine, and the state of (dis)unity in the Republican Party. But what shouldnt be overlooked is Johnsons previous work with the Christian legal powerhouse Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), and what this can tell us about the man now second in line for the presidency.

ADF was founded in 1993 with support and coordination from several important figures in the evangelical Christian world, including Focus on the Familys James Dobson and Campus Crusade for Christs Bill Bright . It was initially designed to be a funding source for attorneys waging legal battles against abortion and LGBT rights and in favor of strengthening religious freedom protections. In the early 2000s, though, ADF transitioned to direct litigation, hiring attorneys and starting to defend clients of its own.

Two decades later, ADF is the cream of the crop of the Christian legal movement, a network of legal interest groups and law schools focused on promoting goals aligned with the conservative Christian community. This movement includes groups like First Liberty Institute and the American Center for Law and Justiceeach of which has argued and won cases before the U.S. Supreme Courtand law schools at universities founded by Christian right stalwarts Pat Robertson (Regent University) and Jerry Falwell (Liberty University).

But with its annual revenue recently topping $100 million, ADF is in a class by itself. It employs a stable of dozens of full-time attorneys and maintains a network of thousands of allied attorneys. It has invested in professional communications and fundraising structures. Its Blackstone Legal Fellowship program trains and supports elite law students and graduates, helping to develop the next generation of sympathetic Christian attorneys.

And this is to say nothing of ADFs impressive legal record. It has averaged about a win per year at the Supreme Court over the past decade, including victories in Masterpiece Cakeshop, Trinity Lutheran v. Comer, and Town of Greece v. Gallowayall cases involving First Amendment issues like speech and religious freedom. Sometimes ADF relies on seasoned litigators (including former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement) to assist in these cases, but in others they rely on in-house lawyers like Kristen Waggoner and David Cortman.

Mike Johnson, who earned undergraduate and law degrees from Louisiana State University, was among the first generation of ADFs full-time lawyers. He appears in ADF press releases as early as 2003, and was identified as senior legal counsel in cases about prayer in public schools and city government meetings. He also coordinated with ADF in lawsuits challenging the Affordable Care Act (ACA), this time as dean of the law school at what was then Louisiana College.

Johnsons rise from first-term congressman to speaker of the House in just six years is nothing less than meteoric. He was first elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives in 2015, and announced his candidacy for a seat in Congress less than a year later. In his three terms in Washington, Johnson has been a reliable vote for Republican-backed policies, including tax cuts and repealing the ACA. He caucused with and eventually chaired the Republican Study Committee, perhaps the signal of conservative commitments in the House.

Critics have noted Johnsons work defending former President Donald Trump in his impeachment trials. More troubling were Johnsons efforts to reject the results of the 2020 presidential election. He strategized and organized his colleagues support for legal briefs challenging state election certifications, and he was among the majority of Republicans who voted against certifying the Electoral College results and opposed the creation of the January 6 commission, making him one of Trumps most savvy defenders.

Though he worked hard to defend Trump, who himself has shown wavering commitment to issues social conservatives care about, Johnsons legal work on abortion, marriage, and religious freedom make him the most socially conservative speaker in American history. And yet it remains to be seen what Johnsons tenure with ADF will mean for his tenure as House speaker. Johnsons attention will need to be far more focused on leading a fractured Republican Party than micromanaging the sort of agenda that, to this point, has been central to his career.

Even so, it is impossible to ignore the role that ADF has played in Johnsons legal and political formation. Media outlets were quick to highlight some of Johnsons early-2000s rhetoric against homosexuality, which he described as unnatural and bizarre. And while Johnson is unlikely to play up these sorts of details in the weeks ahead, it would be a mistake to say that his association with ADF was fleeting. Johnson is, by any account, a true believer in ADFs vision for law and American culture: religious freedom, free speech, the sanctity of life, parental rights, and Gods design for marriage and family.

It has been 30 years since a group of evangelical elites founded ADF to be a counterweight to more liberal groups like the ACLU, which ADF founding president Alan Sears once said is committed to eliminating the freedoms of millions of Americans. And if the past few years are any indication, this investment is paying off handsomely. With a solid majority on the Supreme Courtincluding Justice Amy Coney Barrett, herself once a contributor to ADFs Blackstone programand a former employee now the speaker of the House, ADFs influence on American law and politics could not be greater.

Read more at The Dispatch

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ADDIS ABABA, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- Executive Secretary Workneh Gebeyehu of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), is in Saudi Arabia to co-facilitate talks aimed at achieving a durable humanitarian ceasefire in Sudan, the East African bloc said on Friday.

IGAD said in a press statement that Gebeyehu "is currently in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to co-facilitate Sudan talks together with the African Union (AU), the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the United States of America, which aim at achieving a durable humanitarian ceasefire."

"IGAD, together with the AU, will continue their ongoing engagements and consultations with the Sudanese stakeholders to convene a Sudanese-led-and-owned comprehensive and all-inclusive political dialogue that shall take place in the IGAD region," the statement said.

It said IGAD remains committed to supporting the Sudanese people in their quest for a lasting peace and political settlement.

Deadly clashes have been going on between the Sudanese Armed Force and the paramilitary Rapid Support Force in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, and other areas since April 15, killing up to 9,000 people, forcing more than 5.6 million out of their homes and leaving 25 million in need of aid, said United Nations Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths in a statement on Oct. 15. 
WRAP Donation Coordinator Dianne Hurley looks through the donation room inside the Safe Hope Center on Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023.

Thanks to the $3,000 Community Impact Grant from the Community Foundation of West Tennessee, newly updated victim information cards will be provided to officers who respond to calls of domestic violence, which, according to Police Chief Thom Corley, is a daily occurrence.

On Wednesday morning, WRAP (Wo/Men's Resource & Rape Assistance Program) Development Coordinator Jenci Spradlin presented the Jackson Police Department with 7,000 new victim information cards for the first time since 2009.

"That was before we had the Safe Hope Center and possibly before we had an 800 number for WRAP, so it had our office number," Spradlin said. "We realized that was not allowing those victims to easily find the services that they need that are available in this community."

WRAP Development Coordinator Jenci Spradlin holds a card filled with information for domestic violence victims that the JPD will hand out in the next few weeks inside JPD Headquarters on Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023.

More: International Overdose Awareness Day recognized in Jackson, community education event

More: City council honors first responders, approves pickle ball funds, JPD insurance recovery

With approximately 40% of all reported crimes against persons in West Tennessee involving domestic and sexual violence, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, updating the victim information cards was of high importance. The new cards include warrant procedures, legal rights as a victim, and contact information for support resources like the Safe Hope Center and WRAP's 24/7 helpline.

Though the Safe Hope Center is a Jackson-exclusive organization, WRAP serves 20 counties across West Tennessee providing safe homes, case management, counseling, hospital and court accompaniment, and safety planning.

WRAP Development Coordinator Jenci Spradlin holds a sticker with a QR code for domestic violence victims as she speaks to media inside JPD Headquarters on Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023.

In addition to new cards, informational plastic mirror clings with QR codes are available for placement in the windows of restaurants, bars, shopping centers, and other high-traffic public places.

Under the "Wrapping Tennessee in Support" campaign, WRAP curated a wide array of toolkits for distribution on how to navigate domestic violence incidents for various entities including employers, healthcare workers, and the faith community.

JPD Chief Thom Corley holds a stack of cards filled with information for domestic violence victims that will be handed out in the next few weeks inside JPD Headquarters on Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023.

Though the cards mostly have the same information, the accessibility of resources has been made easier through the provision of discreet cards. With a number of resources including JPD's Domestic Violence Unit being available in a central location like the Safe Hope Center, Chief Corley shared that this has led to an increase in the number of domestic violence prosecutions.

"Our goal is to, as much as we can, prevent domestic violence," Chief Corley said. "But when those incidents happen we're so blessed to have the Safe Hope Center and to have partners like WRAP to help provide resources to those victims so we can walk alongside them through the healing process as well as the prosecution process."

This article originally appeared on Jackson Sun: JPD is now equipped with updated domestic violence victim info cards.
The United States was among a group of 14 countries in the United Nations General Assembly to vote against the resolution calling for a humanitarian truce in Gaza amid the Israel-Hamas war.

The U.S. and thirteen other countries voted against the truce, while 45 countries voted to abstain Friday. One hundred and twenty countries voted in favor of the humanitarian truce.

The resolution calls for an immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce between Israeli forces and Hamas militants in Gaza.

According to the U.N. it also demands a continuous, sufficient and unhindered provision of life-saving supplies to the people stuck inside Gaza.

The resolution also condemns all violence against Palestinian and Israeli civilians.

Notably, the resolution does not specifically condemn the Oct. 7 surprise attack by Hamas, or mention Hamas at all. There were several amendments that asked for Israel and Hamas to be named in the resolution that failed to get enough support.

It calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all civilians being held captive. Hamas took more than 200 people hostage during its Oct. 7 attack.

The resolution is the first formal U.N. response to the Hamas attacks on Israel and Israels counteroffensive . Several other measures by the U.N. Security Council have failed to pass or have been vetoed by either the U.S., Russia or China.

The U.S. was joined by Austria, Croatia, Czechia, Fiji, Guatemala, Hungary, Israel, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay and Tonga in voting against the measure.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
US attorney for California says he declined to partner with Weiss on Hunter Biden charges in his district

Martin Estrada, the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, told congressional investigators he declined to partner with Special Counsel David Weiss in bringing charges against Hunter Biden in Estrada's district, Fox News Digital has learned.

Estrada participated in a voluntary closed-door interview before the House Judiciary Committee Tuesday as part of the panels investigation into whistleblower allegations that politics impacted prosecutorial decisions throughout the years-long federal investigation into the presidents son.

Fox News Digital reviewed a transcript of Estradas testimony Thursday.

HUNTER BIDEN INVESTIGATORS LIMITED QUESTIONS ABOUT 'DAD,' 'BIG GUY' DESPITE FBI, IRS OBJECTIONS: WHISTLEBLOWER

President Biden's son Hunter Biden exits the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building in Delaware July 26, 2023.

Estrada told congressional investigators he first learned the Hunter Biden investigation could be "touching on" his district in late September or early October 2022, when he became U.S. attorney.

Estrada said, at that time, there was a "request from the District of Delaware to partner or co-counsel on certain charges that they were investigating."

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

FBI RECEIVED 'CRIMINAL INFORMATION' FROM OVER 40 CONFIDENTIAL SOURCES ON JOE BIDEN, HUNTER, JAMES: GRASSLEY

Weiss, appointed special counsel by Attorney General Merrick Garland this summer, at the time was serving as the U.S. attorney for Delaware. He has been investigating Hunter Biden since 2018.

Estrada told investigators career attorneys in his office "were recommending against partnering or co-counseling in the charges being contemplated" and said Weiss "wanted to speak to me about that."

Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed investigator David Weiss as special counsel in the Hunter Biden investigation.

Estrada said he took the advice of his colleagues and notified Weiss of his decision in a phone call Oct. 19, 2022.

During the call, Estrada said he "discussed our analysis of facts and law to explain to him why we would not be co-counseling on the case, but then I told him that we were happy to provide office space, administrative support for his attorneys.

"He thanked me for that, and the call ended."

EX-US ATTORNEY TASKED WITH INVESTIGATING BIDEN-UKRAINE INFORMATION WAS 'LIMITED' BY DOJ: TRANSCRIPT

Estrada said his "understanding was that (Weiss) could bring charges in my district."

"When I offered him administrative support and office space, he thanked me for that," Estrada said. "So, it was my belief that he was going to be able to do that."

Attorney General Merrick Garland

Estrada again said he thought that if Weiss "wanted to bring those charges in my district, he could bring those charges in my district."

Estrada said he has never partnered with another U.S. attorney's office on an investigation, but he did partner "quite often with different components at Main Justice."

Estrada also said his office was "resource-strapped" at the time of the Weiss request.

US ATTORNEY LEADING HUNTER BIDEN PROBE BREAKS SILENCE ON CLAIMS INVESTIGATION WAS 'INFLUENCED BY POLITICS'

When asked if he believed Weiss had "ultimate authority," as Garland had claimed, despite whistleblowers alleging Weiss was frustrated that he did not have full authority over the probe, Estrada said Weiss "was leading the investigation and was able to bring whatever charges he wanted at ay point."

Estrada, though, said "ultimate authority" is a "vague term to me."

Estradas testimony comes after an IRS whistleblower assigned to the Hunter Biden investigation, Gary Shapley, alleged that Weiss was mulling whether to bring tax charges against Hunter Biden in California.

Shapley said Weiss attempted to bring charges and partner with the Central District of California to do so, but he was rebuffed.

Shapley said Weiss did not have charging authority and was "constantly hamstrung, limited and marginalized" by DOJ officials as he sought to make prosecutorial decisions. Shapley also alleged Weiss requested special counsel authority but was denied. He has since been appointed special counsel.

Weiss, in a letter to Congress in June, explained that as U.S. attorney for Delaware, his "charging authority is geographically limited" to his "home district."

"If venue for a case lies elsewhere, common Departmental practice is to contact the United States Attorneys Office for the district in question and determine whether it wants to partner on the case," he wrote. "If not, I may request Special Attorney status from the Attorney General."

Estrada testified that he had a second call with Weiss just last month. He said the call lasted approximately five minutes but did not provide additional details. He did, though, indicate the call was not about co-counseling for the Hunter Biden probe.

Estradas testimony comes as part of the House Judiciary Committee's investigation into the alleged politicization of the Justice Department and FBI and on whether politics influenced the federal investigation.

Weiss charged Hunter Biden last month with making a false statement in the purchase of a firearm, making a false statement related to information required to be kept by a federal firearms licensed dealer and one count of possession of a firearm by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance.

The president's son pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Weiss said the investigation is ongoing.





Original article source: US attorney for California says he declined to partner with Weiss on Hunter Biden charges in his district
WASHINGTON  The U.S. Defense Department on Friday announced the government is moving forward with developing a new version of the B61 nuclear gravity bomb.

The bomb, designated B61-13, would have a yield similar to the B61-7 and replace some of those older gravity bombs, the Pentagon said in its announcement. The B61-7s yield is higher than the B61-12, the most recent bomb being added to the militarys arsenal.

The Pentagon said the decision to build this weapon was made to reflect the changing security environment in line with the 2022 Nuclear Posture Review. That study said the military needed to modernize its nuclear forces to properly deter its two main nuclear-armed competitors, China and Russia.

The B61-13 will use the same modern safety, security and accuracy features now incorporated into the B61-12, the Pentagon said in a fact sheet accompanying the release. It would also give the president more options to strike harder and large-area military targets, the Pentagon said, while the department works to retire legacy bombs such as the B61-7 and B83-1.

Hans Kristensen, a nuclear weapons expert at the Federation of American Scientists who was briefed by the Pentagon on the bomb earlier this week, told Defense News the weapon will incorporate the same warheads from the 1980s- and 1990s-era B61-7s, transplanted into the same style casing and tail kit as the B61-12.

Kristensen said the creation of this bomb is likely intended to be a compromise to break a yearslong disagreement between Democrats and Republicans over the fate of the massive, 4-decade-old B83-1 bomb.

Former President Barack Obama sought to get rid of the 1.2-megaton B83-1  the last megaton bomb left in the countrys nuclear arsenal and one that would explode with 80 times the force of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. But his successor, former President Donald Trump, reversed that decision.

President Joe Biden since revived efforts to get rid of the B83. But key Republican lawmakers have objected, saying the B83-1 is needed to strike hard and deeply buried targets.

The maximum yield of the B61-7  and by extension the new variant  is 360 kilotons, Kristensen said, while the B61-12 has a maximum yield of 50 kilotons.

This is a sweetener to the hardliners in Congress to basically say: OK guys, you want something with a high yield, Kristensen said.  Heres a small number of them  but you also get one with a tail kit that will be more accurate. 

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala., and Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement they welcome the creation of a new B61 variant, but that it is only a modest step in the right direction.

The B61-13 is not a long-term solution, but it will provide our commanders, particularly in [the Pacific and European regions], with more flexibility against these target sets, Rogers and Wicker said. As the Strategic Posture Commission recently noted, China and Russia are in a full-on arms race, and the U.S. is running in place. Dramatic transformation of our deterrent posture  not incremental or piecemeal changes  is required to address this threat.

The Pentagon said the creation of this bomb will not lead to an overall increase in the size of the militarys stockpile. The United States plans to lower the number of B61-12s it will produce by as many B61-13s it builds.

Kristensen said defense officials indicated very few B61-13s are expected to be produced, on the order of a few dozen. He doubted their creation, alongside the retirement of B61-7s, would lead to much, if any, decline in the number of gravity bombs in the United States arsenal, which he said is somewhere between 400 and 500.

If the B61-13 is approved and funded by lawmakers, the Energy Departments National Nuclear Security Administration will produce it.

The Pentagon said in its announcement that modern aircraft would be able to deliver this bomb.

In a follow-up statement, a Pentagon spokesperson said that will include the B-21 Raider stealth bomber the Air Force now has in development with Northrop Grumman. But the U.S. now does not plan to deploy it on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the Pentagon said.

But whether the creation of the B61-13 will ultimately be a positive development is the million-dollar question, Kristensen said.

If you work for the administration and you dont want to waste money on maintaining the [B]83, then its a good position, Kristensen said. If you work outside and you look at whats going on, you might want to say that its unfortunate we have to field nuclear weapons as sort of nuclear horse trading in Congress.

Its probably not a new phenomenon, he added. But we understand the administration has decided that this is what it needs to sort of sweet talk the defense hawks into getting rid of the [B]83.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Austin and Ukraine's President Zelenskiy attend a meeting in Brussels

By Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. military carried out strikes against two facilities in eastern Syria used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and groups it backs, the Pentagon said on Thursday, in response to a spate of attacks against U.S. forces in both Iraq and Syria.

As tensions soar over the Israel-Hamas conflict, U.S. and coalition troops have been attacked at least 19 times in Iraq and in Syria by Iran-backed forces in the past week.

A total of 21 U.S. forces have suffered minor injuries, the vast majority of them traumatic brain injuries.

"These precision self-defense strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on October 17," U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement.

The strikes were ordered by President Joe Biden.

"These Iranian-backed attacks against U.S. forces are unacceptable and must stop," Austin said in the statement.

"If attacks by Iran's proxies against U.S. forces continue, we will not hesitate to take further necessary measures to protect our people."

The strikes took place at roughly 4:30 a.m. on Friday in Syria (0130 GMT) near Abu Kamal, a Syrian town on the border with Iraq, and were carried out by two F-16 fighter jets using precision munitions, a senior U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said.

The targets were weapons and munitions storage facilities, the official added, speaking late on Thursday to reporters in Washington.

The United States has occasionally carried out retaliatory strikes against Iranian-backed forces in the region after they attack American forces. In March, the U.S. military carried out multiple air strikes in Syria against Iran-aligned groups that it blamed for a drone attack that killed an American contractor.

President Biden has sent a rare message to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warning Tehran against targeting U.S. personnel in the Middle East, the White House said earlier on Thursday.

The United States has 900 troops in Syria, and 2,500 more in neighboring Iraq, on a mission to advise and assist local forces trying to prevent a resurgence of Islamic State, which in 2014 seized large swathes of both countries but was later defeated.

There is growing concern that the Israel-Hamas conflict could spread through the Middle East and turn U.S. troops at isolated bases into targets.

"What we want is for Iran to take very specific actions, to direct its militias and proxies to stand down," a senior U.S. defense official said.

The United States did not coordinate the strikes with Israel, the official added.

Last week off the coast of Yemen, a U.S. warship shot down more than a dozen drones and four cruise missiles fired by Iranian-backed Houthis.

During a false alarm at Al-Asad air base in Iraq last week, a civilian contractor died from cardiac arrest.

The United States has sent warships and fighter aircraft to the region since the Israel-Hamas conflict erupted on Oct. 7, including two aircraft carriers, to try to deter Iran and Iran-backed groups. The number of troops added to the region is in the thousands.

Reuters reported this week the U.S. military was taking new measures to protect its Middle East forces during the ramp-up in attacks by suspected Iran-backed groups, and was leaving open the possibility of evacuating military families if needed.

The measures include increasing U.S. military patrols, restricting access to base facilities and boosting intelligence collection, including through drone and other surveillance operations, officials say.

(Reporting by Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart; Editing by Jamie Freed and Michael Perry)
A fellow Republican is seeking to have George Santos, pictured here in November 2022, expelled from US Congress (Wade Vandervort)

A scandal-plagued US congressman pleaded not guilty Friday to the latest charges against him, including stealing donors' identities and running up fraudulent charges on their credit cards, prosecutors said.

George Santos appeared in court one day after a fellow New York Republican congressman filed a bill seeking to expel him from Congress.

"We must remove this conman from the People's House," Anthony D'Esposito said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

Two-thirds of House members -- made up of 222 Republicans and 212 Democrats -- must vote in favor of the bill for Santos to be pushed out.

Santos pleaded not guilty Friday to 10 counts including identity theft and making false statements to the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

He had already pleaded not guilty in May to seven counts of wire fraud, three of money laundering, one of theft of public funds and two of making materially false statements to the House of Representatives.

"Santos is charged with stealing people's identities and making charges on his own donors' credit cards without their authorization, lying to the FEC and, by extension, the public about the financial state of his campaign," Breon Peace, US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said when the 10 charges were announced.

"Santos falsely inflated the campaign's reported receipts with non-existent loans and contributions that were either fabricated or stolen," Peace said.

Santos has already admitted fabricating much of his biography, including his real name, his schooling and his employment history, when he ran last year for a House seat representing parts of Long Island, New York.

According to the initial indictment, Santos defrauded donors during his successful November 2022 election, transferring money into his own account and using it to pay off personal debts and buy designer clothing.

Santos is also accused of collecting unemployment benefits that he was not entitled to during the coronavirus pandemic, before his election to Congress.

Santos has refused calls from constituents, Democrats and his fellow Republicans to resign.

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FILE PHOTO: U.S. House of Representatives vote on a new Speaker of the House at the U.S. Capitol in Washington

NEW YORK (Reuters) -U.S. Representative George Santos pleaded not guilty on Friday to a 23-count indictment accusing him of an array of corruption, including 10 felony counts that federal prosecutors added this month.

Santos, 35, entered his plea before U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert in Central Islip, New York, on Long Island. A trial is scheduled for Sept. 9, 2024.

The Republican first-term congressman had in May pleaded not guilty to 13 charges, including laundering funds to pay for his personal expenses, illegally receiving unemployment benefits, and lying to the House of Representatives about his assets.

His additional charges included accusations that he charged donors' credit cards without their consent, and reported a bogus $500,000 campaign loan.

The plea came one day after fellow Long Island Republican congressman Anthony D'Esposito called on the House to expel Santos, saying Santos was "not fit to serve his constituents."

Expulsion requires a two-thirds vote. Republicans hold a 221-212 majority in the House, and at least several dozen would have to vote against Santos for him to be expelled.

On Thursday, Santos posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that he was not resigning and was "entitled to due process and not a predetermined outcome as some are seeking."

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
The United States on Friday dropped a Confederate general's name from the last of nine bases that honored figures from pro-slavery breakaway southern states, renaming it for former president and famed World War II commander Dwight D. Eisenhower.

It marks the culmination of a multi-year effort to remove the names of people who served the Confederate States of America -- which was defeated in the 1861-1865 US Civil War -- from the country's military installations.

"It is with great pride that we rename this installation in honor of one of our great generals and presidents," US Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth said during a ceremony at the base, which was formerly known as Fort Gordon.

Eisenhower was supreme commander of the troops who assaulted Nazi positions in France on D-Day in 1944 and directed subsequent operations that, in concert with Soviet attacks, brought about Germany's surrender the following year.

After the war, he served as chief of staff of the Army and then as NATO's first supreme allied commander. He was later elected as the 34th president of the United States, a position he held from 1953 to 1961.

The newly renamed Fort Eisenhower, in Georgia, was a training center during World War II and also prepared troops for service in subsequent conflicts. It is the home of the US Army Cyber Command headquarters and the Army Cyber Center of Excellence.

- 'Division in our country' -

The base was previously named for John B. Gordon, who reached the rank of lieutenant general in the Confederacy's forces and was known as an effective officer despite having no military experience before the Civil War.

He was wounded multiple times during the conflict. After its conclusion, he was elected to the US Senate and also served as governor of Georgia.

Calls to change the names of bases honoring Confederate figures gained momentum during nationwide protests against racism and police brutality that were sparked by the 2020 murder of George Floyd, an African American man who died at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis.

In 2021, Congress required a commission to plan for the removal of Confederate-linked "names, symbols, displays, monuments, or paraphernalia" from Defense Department property, and gave the secretary three years to carry out its recommendations.

"It was a moment of unrest and significant division in our country. And both political parties overwhelmingly agreed that names on certain military installations -- and the legacies of those names -- were only deepening our social and political divides," Wormuth said.

Then-president Donald Trump opposed the renaming effort and vetoed the defense bill, but Congress overrode it.

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FILE PHOTO: Signage is seen outside of FDA headquarters in White Oak, Maryland

FILE PHOTO: Signage is seen outside of FDA headquarters in White Oak, Maryland

By Sriparna Roy

(Reuters) -The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's staff reviewers on Friday asked the regulator's advisory panel to consider the need for additional studies for Vertex Pharmaceuticals and CRISPR Therapeutics' sickle cell disease gene therapy.

The therapy, called exagamglogene autotemcel or exa-cel, uses new gene editing CRISPR technology, and is the first-of-its-kind product to reach the FDA for an approval decision.

The FDA's reviewers said this type of gene editing raises concerns about "off-target" unintended genomic alterations, and can potentially cause other side effects. They, however, did not raise any concerns about the therapy's efficacy.

The small genetic sample size used in the therapy's lab analysis may not be sufficient for safety assessment as that did not capture the diversity of the entire U.S. population for sickle cell disease, the FDA staff said.

They said it was not clear if the analysis conducted by the company to assess the off-target risk was adequate.

The FDA appears to be focusing on the risks around the technology, said RBC analyst Luca Issi. He said the FDA's concerns appeared benign and expects additional studies only after the therapy is approved.

Vertex and CRISPR Therapeutics are seeking to gain approval for the therapy to treat the inherited red-blood-cell disorder that causes the cells to become sickle-shaped due to abnormal levels of hemoglobin in the body.

If approved, the therapy will potentially offer patients a one-time treatment option, versus frequent blood transfusion or once-daily drugs such as Pfizer's Oxbryta.

An independent panel is set to meet on Tuesday to discuss the off-target analysis and if additional lab studies are needed.

The FDA will decide on the therapy's use in patients aged 12 years and older by Dec. 8.

Shares of CRISPR Therapeutics and Vertex were flat in early trading.

(Reporting by Sriparna Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
The United States has struck two facilities in eastern Syria used by Iran and its proxies in response to attacks against U.S. troops in the region, the Pentagon announced late Thursday.

President Biden ordered U.S. military forces to carry out self-defense airstrikes on a weapons storage facility and an ammunition storage area used by Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and affiliated groups in eastern Syria, early Friday local time, defense officials told reporters.

U.S. military forces conducted discreet precision strikes against the two facilities near Al Bukamal, Syria, close to the border with Iraq, using two F-16 fighter jets, the official said. They would not say where the fighter jets originated from.

These precision self-defense strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on October 17, according to a statement from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

The President has no higher priority than the safety of U.S. personnel, and he directed todays action to make clear that the United States will not tolerate such attacks and will defend itself, its personnel, and its interests, Austin adds.

U.S. and coalition forces have been attacked at least 19 times in the Middle East since last week, including four times in Syria and 12 times in Iraq  with three new attacks on Thursday, Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters.

The United States has not provided evidence as to who is to blame for the assaults  which have consisted of a mix of one-way attack drones and rockets  but claims that Iran is behind them.

Theres a variety of groups. They have certain names one day, another name another day, but again, the main message is that it all goes back to Tehran, the official said. Tehran and Iranian senior leaders are funding, arming, equipping, training and directing a whole plethora of militia groups across the region and they have escalated attacks against US forces since October 17, which is why we took self-defense actions tonight.

Twenty-one American troops have suffered minor injuries from the attacks, many of them traumatic brain injuries (TBIs).

One U.S. citizen contractor also died of a heart attack during a false alarm while sheltering in place at al-Asad Airbase in Iraq.

The Pentagon stressed that the United States does not seek conflict and has no intention nor desire to engage in further hostilities, but that the Iranian-backed attacks are unacceptable and must stop.

It added: Iran wants to hide its hand and deny its role in these attacks against our forces. We will not let them. If attacks by Irans proxies against U.S. forces continue, we will not hesitate to take further necessary measures to protect our people.

Attacks on American forces have jumped since Hamas first attacked Israel on Oct. 7, with U.S. officials concerned that Iran and its proxies may seek to widen the conflict and destabilize the region.

The Pentagon said the U.S. strikes in Syria  which it called narrowly-tailored and intended solely to protect and defend U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria  were separate from the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.

The DOD added that the strikes do not constitute a shift in our approach to the Israel-Hamas conflict. We continue to urge all state and non-state entities not to take action that would escalate into a broader regional conflict.

Earlier Thursday, the Pentagon announced a 900-troop deployment to the Middle East to accompany and operate a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery and Patriot battalions that Austin earlier this week ordered to be spread across the region to deter Iranian-backed groups from further assaults and strikes.

In addition, Washington has moved a carrier strike group to the eastern Mediterranean Sea and another to the waters of the Middle East.

This story was updated at 12:14am EST.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
OSLO, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- Norway and Sweden will set up a joint police station on the border in a move to combat cross-border crimes, the Norwegian government said in a press release on Friday.

Located in Magnormoen, Norway's second-largest border crossing with Sweden, the project comes on the heels of a temporary duty station established by the Norwegian government in 2022.

"We must have control at the border and choke the purse strings of the criminal circles," said Norway's Minister of Justice and Public Security Emilie Enger Mehl in the release.

The joint police station will be evenly split across the Norwegian and Swedish territories, with a shared office and communal area bisecting the national boundary. 
The US House of Representatives shall consider new military aid to Ukraine and Israel as separate measures.

Source: Bloomberg citing Mike Johnson, the new Speaker of the US House of Representatives, on Thursday 26 October, as reported by European Pravda

Quote: "Our consensus among House Republicans is that we need to bifurcate those issues," Johnson said in an interview with Fox News.

Details: Johnson said he had conveyed this message to White House officials following his earlier meeting with Biden in the day.

The US presidential administration has requested $106 billion in emergency funding from Congress for Ukraine, Israel and other foreign aid, hoping that a package deal would help approve the full amount.

However, growing scepticism among House Republicans regarding Ukraine was one of the more divisive matters during the party's three-week battle over who would lead the chamber, which ended with Johnson's election on Wednesday.

Johnson said that the US would not abandon Ukraine, emphasising that a Russian victory in Ukraine would embolden not only Russia, but also China in its stance on Taiwan.

"We can't allow Vladimir Putin to prevail in Ukraine because I don't believe it would stop there," Johnson said.

However, Johnson added that aid to Ukraine would require greater accountability for the money already spent.

"Israel is a separate matter. But heres the thing that distinguishes House Republicans from the other team. Were going to find pay-fors in the budget. Were not just printing money to send it overseas. Were going to fund the cuts elsewhere to do that," the speaker noted.

Johnson stated that House Republicans would offer a $14.5 billion aid package for Israel, which is slightly higher than the amount requested by the Biden administration.

Background:

The budget request submitted by the White House to the US Congress on Friday includes about US$61.4 billion for Ukraine, of which US$46.1 billion is for defence spending and US$11.8 billion is for direct budget support.

After his election, Mike Johnson said he supports providing aid to Ukraine, but "under certain conditions".

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There is consensus among Republicans who control the U.S. House of Representatives that the funding requests for Ukraine and Israel should be considered separately, newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Oct. 26.

The move may reportedly impede U.S. President Joe Biden 's efforts to ensure U.S. support for both allies amid the growing opposition to aid to Kyiv within the Republican Party. The White House combined military assistance for Ukraine and Israel in a $160 billion supplemental request to Congress on Oct. 20.

Speaking in the first interview since his appointment, Johnson said the U.S. would not abandon Ukraine but that the House's approval of further aid to Kyiv would require more accountability on money already spent.

Read also: Biden all in on aid to Ukraine, yet House remains an issue

"We can't allow (Russian dictator) Vladimir Putin to prevail in Ukraine because I don't believe he would stop there. He would probably encourage and empower China to perhaps make a move on Taiwan," the speaker told Fox News.

"But we wanna know what the objective there is, what is the end game in Ukraine. The White House has not provided that."

Biden's administration asked Congress to approve $61.4 billion in assistance for Ukraine and $14.3 billion for Israel on Oct. 20. Johnson said House Republicans would propose a slightly bigger package worth $14.5 billion for Israel, embroiled in the ongoing war with Gaza.

Johnson, a Republican Congressman from Louisiana, was elected as the new House Speaker on Oct. 25, filling the seat left empty for weeks after the ousting of Kevin McCarthy.

One of ex-President Donald Trump's most loyal supporters in Congress, Johnson has been a critic of the delivery of aid to Ukraine. In May 2022, Johnson voted against a $40 billion aid package to Ukraine, claiming that his focus lies with solving domestic affordability challenges.

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U.S. House of Representatives elect Mike Johnson Speaker of the House at the U.S. Capitol in Washington

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Newly elected U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said on Thursday that funding to support Ukraine and Israel should be handled separately, suggesting he will not back President Joe Biden 's $106 billion aid package for both countries.

Johnson, speaking in an interview on Fox News, has concerns about Ukraine funding in general, and believes any money for Israel will need to be funded by cuts elsewhere.

He met Biden on Thursday and said he told White House staff "our consensus among House Republicans is we need to bifurcate those issues."

Biden wants Congress to provide $106 billion in supplemental funding, with the bulk of the money going to bolster Ukraine's defenses and the remainder split among Israel, Indo-Pacific and border enforcement.

Johnson said of Ukraine funding: "We want to know what the object is there, what is the end game in Ukraine.

"The White House has not provided that," he added.

Biden is betting that including money for Israel and immigration will help convince House Republicans wary of sending additional money to Ukraine to support the measure.

"Israel is a separate matter  we are going to bring forward a standalone Israel funding measure (of) over $14 billion, Johnson said in the interview. He said House Republicans will look for other areas to cut in the budget in order to finance the funding for Israel.

The package includes $14.3 billion for Israel to fund air and missile defense support and other initiatives, as well as $61 billion for Ukraine.

(Reporting by Eric Beech and Chris Sanders; Editing by Jamie Freed and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
Donald Trump said he would reimpose a controversial travel ban that targeted a slew of mostly Muslim countries if he gets re-elected (Frederic J. BROWN)

Donald Trump used a speech to a Republican Jewish convention Saturday to promise reimposition of a controversial travel ban that targeted a slew of mostly Muslim countries if he gets re-elected.

"We will keep radical Islamic terrorists the hell out of our country," Trump told the audience attending the annual summit of the Republican Jewish Coalition.

"You remember the travel ban? On day one I will restore our travel ban."

At the start of his presidency in 2017, Trump imposed sweeping restrictions on the entry of travelers from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen and, initially, Iraq and Sudan. The order was quickly challenged in court as discriminatory against a religious group, but the bans, along with Trump's hard-line anti-immigration agenda, were popular with his base.

President Joe Biden reversed the ban in his first week in office in 2021.

Biden "was proud to overturn the vile, un-American Muslim ban enacted by his predecessor," a White House spokesman said.

The former US leader was among several Republican hopefuls lining up at the gathering of influential Jewish donors to pledge unwavering support for Israel in its war against Hamas.

Trump told the event, held in Las Vegas, in the southwestern state of Nevada, that he would "defend our friend and ally in the State of Israel like nobody has ever."

The conflict between Israel and Hamas is "a fight between civilization and savagery, between decency and depravity, and between good and evil," said Trump, who received the warmest response from attendees, as he took aim at the Biden administration and avoided criticizing his rivals.

The former reality show host, the overwhelming favorite to win the party nomination to run against Biden next year despite facing multiple criminal prosecutions, spoke after sparking fury in recent weeks by describing Lebanon-based Islamist group Hezbollah as "very smart" and criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

- Pence drops out -

Also on hand in Las Vegas was Trump's nearest rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis , who called the October 7 Hamas surprise attack on Israel "the most deadly attack against Jews since the Holocaust itself."

Hamas militants killed at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians.

More than 8,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel's relentless retaliatory bombardments, mainly civilians and many of them children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

DeSantis and others pointed to what they said was rising anti-Semitism on US college campuses, and proposed yanking funding for universities and canceling visas for pro-Palestinian foreign students.

"We need cultural chemotherapy to fight this cancer," Senator Tim Scott said.

"Any student with a visa who calls for genocide should be deported."

The only woman in the race, Nikki Haley, Trump's former ambassador to the United Nations, has evoked fears of anti-Semitic attacks on US soil.

"As president I will change the official federal definition of anti-Semitism to include denying Israel's right to exist," said Haley, adding she would strip tax breaks from schools that do not combat anti-Semitism.

"College campuses are allowed to have free speech, but they are not free to spread hate that supports terrorism," she said. "Federal law requires schools to combat anti-Semitism. We will give this law teeth and we will enforce it."

The organizers said the newly installed Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise would address the gathering on Saturday night.

Former vice president Mike Pence surprised the gathering Saturday when he announced he was dropping out of the 2024 presidential race, becoming the first major candidate to suspend his campaign.

"It's become clear to me: this is not my time," he said. "After much prayer and consideration, I have decided to suspend my campaign for president."

Support for Israel is a huge issue for both political parties in the United States, and a rare instance of foreign policy that matters at the ballot box, thanks in part to the large number of Jewish voters.

It is also a significant issue for evangelical Christians for whom the existence of a Jewish state is a key precondition for the hoped-for "second coming" of Jesus Christ.

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Former U.S. President Donald Trump attends the Trump Organization civil fraud trial, in New York State Supreme Court in the Manhattan borough of New York City

By Andrew Goudsward

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A U.S. judge on Friday asked former President Donald Trump whether he wants to appear on television when he stands trial in federal court on charges of attempting to overturn his 2020 election defeat.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington asked Trumps lawyers to give their opinion by Nov. 10 on media requests to broadcast the trial, which is scheduled to begin in March 2024.

In two separate filings, NBC News and a coalition of 19 media organizations and press advocacy groups argue that the public has a right to see an unprecedented trial of a former U.S. president who is also the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination. They argue that a federal rule barring broadcast of criminal proceedings is unconstitutional.

Prosecutors have said in court filings that they oppose the effort but have not explained why. They are due to file their argument by Nov. 3.

Trumps lead lawyer in the case, John Lauro , previously told CNN that he personally supported televising the trial. Lauro told Reuters on Friday that Trump will respond "in accordance with the Court's Order."

It is unclear whether Trump, a former reality television star who has aggressively courted publicity in his business and political career, will want to broadcast the trial, which will come in the thick of the Republican nominating contest.

Trump has made extensive comments to TV cameras staked outside a New York state courtroom, where he is currently standing trial on civil business-fraud charges.

Federal courts, unlike many state courts, bar TV cameras and photography in courtrooms. A U.S. judicial panel on Thursday agreed to consider relaxing that broadcast ban, but said any change would not happen until after Trump stands trial in this case and a second criminal trial due to start in May over his alleged mishandling of classified documents.

Proceedings in a separate criminal election-subversion case in Georgia involving Trump and more than a dozen other defendants have been televised. He also is due to stand trial in March in New York in a case stemming from a hush-money payment to a porn star.

Trump has pleaded not guilty and accused prosecutors of interfering with his 2024 presidential campaign.

(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; editing by Andy Sullivan and Jonathan Oatis)
US launches strikes on Iranian-linked targets in Syria following attacks on American military bases

Two US fighter jets have struck weapons and ammunition facilities in Syria in retaliation for attacks on their own forces by Iranian-backed militias as concerns grow that the Israel-Hamas conflict could escalate into regional unrest.

US President Joe Biden ordered strikes on the two facilities used by Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and militia groups that it backs, the Pentagon said. They warned that the US will take additional measures if attacks by Irans proxies continue.

US and coalition troops have been attacked at least 19 times in Iraq and in Syria by Iran-backed forces in the past week.

The US sent fighter jets and two warships - the Gerald R. Ford-class and the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower - to bolster its military presence in the Mediterranean and Middle East following the Hamas attack on 7 October that killed more than 1,400 Israelis.

On Thursday, the Pentagon added that about 900 more US troops have arrived in the Middle East or are heading there to bolster air defences for personnel.

Iranian-backed proxies, including Hezbollah above the northern border with Israel, have consistently threatened regional escalation, including by attacking US positions. Iran is a major ally of Hamas.

US officials said that additional equipment, including air defences, are being set up in the Middle East to protect its military bases and positions.

US secretary of defence (sic) Lloyd Austin, announcing the two strikes, said they had nothing to do with the conflict in Israel and Gaza.

These narrowly tailored strikes in self-defence were intended solely to protect and defend U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria, he said.

They are separate and distinct from the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, and do not constitute a shift in our approach to the Israel-Hamas conflict. We continue to urge all state and non-state entities not to take action that would escalate into a broader regional conflict.

Since 17 October, the Defense Department said that US and coalition forces have been targeted by drones or rockets at least 10 times in Iraq and three times in Syria.

One of these attacks resulted in the death of a US citizen contractor who suffered a cardiac incident while sheltering in place from the strikes. A further 21 US citizens suffered minor injuries.

Speaking overnight, Mr Austin said there was no higher priority than the safety of US personnel. He added: These Iranian-backed attacks against US forces are unacceptable and must stop.

It comes as Israel said on Friday military raids into Gaza were preparing the next stage of the operation, amid fears that a ground invasion of the Palestinian enclave could further risk regional retaliation.

Israel has bombarded the densely populated Gaza Strip following the Hamas attack on Israeli communities. Israel says Hamas killed some 1,400 people including children, and took more than 200 hostages, some of them infants and older adults.

The Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry said on Thursday that 7,028 Palestinians had been killed in the retaliatory air strikes, including 2,913 children.

After Mr Biden said he had no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using, referring to the death toll, the health ministry published a detailed list of the names of 6,747 people it claimed had been killed by Israeli airstrikes.

The list included the name, age, gender and ID number of each person killed, including those of 2,665 children.

The ministry said it did not name an additional 281 people who had been killed because their bodies could not be identified, bringing the total to 7,028.
(Bloomberg) -- US forces conducted strikes on two facilities in eastern Syria it believes were used by Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and affiliated groups, in response to attacks on American troops in the region.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said President Joe Biden ordered the precision self-defense strikes following attacks since Oct. 17 that resulted in the death of one US contractor and injured 21 American personnel. Austin warned Iran and its proxies not to threaten US forces.

These narrowly tailored strikes in self-defense were intended solely to protect and defend US personnel in Iraq and Syria, Austin said in a statement late Thursday. If attacks by Irans proxies against US forces continue, we will not hesitate to take further necessary measures to protect our people.

Austin stressed that he viewed the US strikes as separate and distinct from the Israel-Hamas war, but the development underscores how the conflict could quickly escalate into a broader conflagration. The US is continuing to send forces to the Mideast and Thursdays attacks are believed to be the first offensive action by the US since Hamass Oct. 7 incursion into Israel.

The US earlier said it was deploying 900 troops to the Middle East as regional tensions rise. Brigadier General Pat Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, said the personnel include Thaad and Patriot air defense operators. None of the troops, who are already deployed or are being sent, are going to Israel, Ryder added.

The troop deployment comes on top of previous decisions by the Biden administration to send more forces to the region, including two aircraft carrier groups and additional fighter jets.

Tensions between the US and Iran have been climbing since the Hamas attack on Israel. Irans foreign minister this week warned that the US wont escape unaffected if the Hamas-Israel war turns into a wider conflict.

Speaking at the United Nations, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said that Iran does not welcome an expansion of the war in the region, but the US would not be spared from these fires if the war in Gaza continues.

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US military carries out airstrikes on facilities in Syria operated by Iranian-backed forces

The U.S. military conducted airstrikes on two facilities in eastern Syria on Thursday in response to ongoing attacks against American military personnel in Iraq and Syria over the past week, according to the Department of Defense.

A pair of F-16s targeted two facilities  a weapons depot and an ammo storage area  near Abu Kamal used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and affiliated groups, a senior U.S. defense official told Fox News' Jennifer Griffin. It's unclear if there were any Iranian militants at the facilities when they were hit.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement Thursday night that the U.S. does not seek conflict, but the "Iranian-backed attacks" on American forces are "unacceptable and must stop."

"Iran wants to hide its hand and deny its role in these attacks against our forces. We will not let them," Austin said. "If attacks by Irans proxies against U.S. forces continue, we will not hesitate to take further necessary measures to protect our people."

IRAN-BACKED MILITIAS IN IRAQ CLAIM RESPONSIBILITY FOR ATTACK ON US MILITARY BASE IN SYRIA

A pair of F-16 fighter jets conducted airstrikes on two Iranian-operated facilities in Syria Thursday night.

There have been 19 attacks against American personnel in Iraq and Syria since Oct. 17, including three additional attacks on Thursday, according to Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

A U.S. contractor died from a cardiac incident while sheltering in place during the attacks and 21 American troops were injured  all of whom have since returned to duty, Austin said.

DRONE STRIKES TARGET US MILITARY BASES IN SYRIA, IRAQ AS REGIONAL TENSIONS FROM ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR ESCALATE

U.S. officials made clear the strikes were conducted solely in response to the attacks against American personnel and are not connected to the Israel-Hamas war.

"They are separate and distinct from the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, and do not constitute a shift in our approach to the Israel-Hamas conflict," Austin said. "We continue to urge all state and non-state entities not to take action that would escalate into a broader regional conflict."

A senior U.S. defense official also said Israel was not informed of the plan ahead of the airstrikes.

The White House has not yet addressed the airstrikes, but Austin said in his statement that President Biden has "no higher priority than the safety of U.S. personnel."

"[Biden] directed todays action to make clear that the United States will not tolerate such attacks and will defend itself, its personnel, and its interests," Austin said.

A senior U.S. defense official reiterated those sentiments during a briefing Thursday night and said American forces are "ready to do it again, for deterrence."

The U.S. military boasts a strong presence in the Middle East in efforts to deter additional attacks in the region.

As of Wednesday, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group, the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group, the USS Mount Whitney, destroyer USS Carney, the USS Carter Hall, the USS Bataan and the USS Mesa Verde are all present in the surrounding waters.

There have also been 900 troops deployed to the Middle East, according to Ryder on Thursday, in addition to the thousands of troops already stationed in the region.

Fox News' Liz Friden and Jennifer Griffin contributed to this report.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.





Original article source: US military carries out airstrikes on facilities in Syria operated by Iranian-backed forces
By Steve Holland and Jeff Mason

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is not trying to dictate limits for Israel, the White House said on Friday, as the Israelis expanded their military operation in Gaza against Hamas militants.

The fresh military onslaught by Israel comes as the United States scrambles to arrange a humanitarian pause for deliveries of fuel and relief aid to Gaza civilians. How the expanded ground operation will impact efforts toward a pause was unclear.

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby, at a news briefing, would not comment on the Israeli expanded ground operation. But he said Washington supported Israel's right to defend itself after Hamas militants killed 1,400 people in southern Israel on Oct. 7.

"We're not drawing red lines for Israel," he said.

He said the United States continued to discuss with Israel about the aims of its operation, the need to protect civilians in Gaza, the effort to gain the safe return of Israeli hostages and the need to consider what comes after ground operations in Gaza.

"Since the very beginning, we have had and will continue to have conversations with them about the manner in which they're doing this. And we have not been shy about expressing our concerns over civilian casualties, collateral damage, and the approach that they might choose to take. That's what friends can do, and we're friends," he said.

(Reporting by Steve Holland an Jeff Mason; Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Chris Reese and Cynthia Osterman)
The Biden administration is urging Israel to avoid a major ground offensive and opt for a surgical operation with targeted raids instead, The Washington Post reported.

According to five U.S. officials familiar with the discussions, members of the Biden administration are worried that a possible ground invasion by Israel into Gaza could result in numerous civilian casualties and trigger an escalation of hostilities in the region.

U.S. officials think a targeted operation would be more conductive to hostage negotiations, less likely to interrupt humanitarian aid deliveries, less deadly for people on both sides, and less likely to provoke a wider war in the region, officials told the Post.

The Israeli military said it would be expanding its activity in Gaza following two small raids into the area this week. Israel has hinted at a ground invasion for weeks amid its war with militants group Hamas, which began earlier this month after 1,400 Israelis were killed in a surprise attack by Hamas.

President Biden and administration officials have indicated support for the ground offensive in the public, as they have stood with Israel since the start of its war. The recent discussions about urging Israel to reconsider would be a stark change from what the administration has said previously.

The potential operation from the Israeli military would almost certainly intensify the humanitarian crisis already seen in the Gaza Strip and would risk lives of Israeli soldiers.

Officials are urging Israel to reassess if a ground invasion would achieve the goal of eradicating Hamas, given the densely populated city and the groups network of underground tunnels.

Members of Bidens team have pointed reporters to his previous message that Israels military will make its own decisions. Still, the change is different than what the administration has said since the war began.

They have clearly shifted from an initial We have your back; well do whatever you want to now You really need to rethink your strategy,' a person familiar with the conversations told the Post. And theyre doing it in a careful way.

Despite the shift, officials still think Israel is likely to carry out the ground operation. While the Middle Eastern nation has looked to Biden as a leader in the war, it has pledged to go forward with the operation, known as Operation Swords of Iron.

At the same time, the U.S. is working to provide Israel with a new $14 billion aid package that will help replenish its Iron Dome missile interceptors.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- Four civilian contract truck drivers were wounded, one of them seriously, in an armed attack on a convoy of the withdrawing UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, a UN spokesman said on Friday.

"All those wounded, including one who was seriously injured, have been safely evacuated and are now being treated in Gao," said Stephane Dujarric, chief spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. The mission is known by its French acronym as MINUSMA.

Dujarric said the gunmen attacked a logistics convoy traveling from Ansongo to Labbezanga, just south of Gao region. The convoy was helping to repatriate equipment for the Niger contingent.

"We remain deeply concerned about the obstacles the mission is facing as it withdraws from Mali," he said. "Today (Friday), peacekeeping flights, including regular flights, were not authorized, except for one to resupply with water a Chadian contingent withdrawal convoy en route to Gao and one medical evacuation flight."

"Other administrative obstacles include the blockage by Malian customs of fuel trucks to resupply our camp in Gao," the spokesman said. "The mission has been forced to accelerate its withdrawal from several of its camps due to the deteriorating (security) situation by using larger road convoys and taking the difficult decision to destroy sensitive equipment, instead of bringing it back."

He explained that MINUSMA was forced to destroy the equipment as a last resort, following established procedures, to avoid leaving sensitive equipment behind in a conflict zone.

"The safe and orderly withdrawal of the UN peacekeeping force is a priority, and we reiterate our call on the Malian authorities to do their utmost to facilitate the mission's departure in an organized and safe manner," Dujarric said. "We also call on all stakeholders in Mali, as well as the troop- and police-contributing countries, to cooperate in this endeavor."

The military government asked MINUSMA to withdraw from the country after a 10-year presence. The Security Council obliged, ordering the mission in June to be withdrawn by the end of this year. 
Aftermath of a deadly infiltration by Hamas gunmen from Gaza Strip, in Kibbutz Beeri

Aftermath of a deadly infiltration by Hamas gunmen from Gaza Strip, in Kibbutz Beeri

By Daphne Psaledakis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. on Friday issued a second round of sanctions aimed at Palestinian militant group Hamas following its attack this month on Israel, including a Hamas official in Iran and members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The measures target additional assets in a Hamas investment portfolio and people facilitating sanctions evasion by Hamas-affiliated companies, the U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement.

A Gaza-based entity that Treasury said has served as a conduit for illicit Iranian funds to Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) group was also targeted, the department said. Iran backs Hamas and other militant groups in the Middle East.

"We will not hesitate to take action to further degrade Hamass ability to commit horrific terrorist attacks by relentlessly targeting its financial activities and streams of funding," Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo wrote, adding the sanctions aimed "to deny Hamas the ability to exploit the international financial system."

Adeyemo said some firms in the digital asset space were not doing enough to stop the flow of illicit finance.

Israel has bombarded the densely populated Gaza Strip following the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that Israel says killed some 1,400 people. The group took more than 200 hostages, some of them infants, in the assault.

The Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry said on Thursday that 7,028 Palestinians had been killed in Israel's retaliatory air strikes.

Reuters could not independently verify the tolls.

Friday's action freezes any U.S. assets of the targeted groups and generally bars Americans from dealing with them. Those that engage in certain transactions with them also risk being hit with sanctions.

The Treasury said it imposed sanctions on a Jordanian national who lives in the Iranian capital, Tehran, and who it said serves as the representative of Hamas in Iran, as well as Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force (IRGC-QF) officials who train and assist members of Hamas and other militant groups.

An Iran-based commander of the Saberin Special Forces Brigade of the IRGC Ground Force was also targeted. The U.S. Treasury said the Saberin Brigade has deployed to Syria and has provided training to Hamas and members of the Lebanon-based Hezbollah.

Sudan and Spain-based companies were also targeted under Friday's measures, as were Turkey-based shareholders of a company previously designated as part of the Hamas investment portfolio.

The United States has said that the Hamas portfolio of investments, estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, includes companies operating in Turkey, as well as Sudan, Algeria, the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere.

This month's violence has led to fears of a broader conflict in the Middle East.

The U.S. military on Thursday carried out strikes against two facilities in eastern Syria used by Iran's Revolutionary Guards and groups it backs following a spate of attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria.

(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis; editing by Robert Birsel and Susan Heavey)
The United States said Friday it sought to degrade ammunition supplies of Iranian-linked militias with strikes in Syria but insisted it did not want to widen the Middle East conflict.

The Pentagon on Thursday announced air strikes on two sites in eastern Syria it said were used by Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) after a string of attacks on US forces in Iraq and Syria since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

"The purpose for those two sites that we targeted was to have a significant impact on future IRGC and Iran-backed militia group operations," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Friday.

"It went right at storage facilities and ammo depots that we know will be used to support the work of these militia groups, particularly in Syria."

"The main goal was to disrupt that ability and also to deter -- to prevent -- future attacks," he said.

The White House earlier said that President Joe Biden had relayed a direct warning to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei against militias' strikes on US troops in Syria and Iraq, where US forces are stationed as part of efforts against the Islamic State group, which also has clashed with Shiite Iran.

There have been at least 14 attacks on US and allied forces in Iraq and six in Syria since October 17, a period in which 21 American military personnel suffered minor injuries and one contractor died from a cardiac incident, according to the Pentagon.

The US strikes on Thursday were the first on Iranian interests since March, breaking a stretch of calm after the Biden administration opened quiet diplomacy with the US arch-enemy that led to a prisoner swap and conversations on Iran's disputed nuclear program.

The October 7 assault by Hamas and Israel's retaliatory strikes have inflamed the region. Iran's clerical leaders back Hamas, while the United States is the foremost ally of Israel.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin , in a statement Thursday, said that the strikes were "narrowly tailored" to protect US personnel.

"They are separate and distinct from the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, and do not constitute a shift in our approach to the Israel-Hamas conflict," Austin said.

The Pentagon said Friday evening that its current assessment is the strikes did not cause casualties.

- 'Finger on the trigger' -

In new pressure, the United States -- which already considers Hamas and the Revolutionary Guards to be terrorist organizations -- said it was imposing sanctions on a Hamas official based in Iran and members of the IRGC.

The Biden administration has vowed to target the finances of Hamas, which holds hundreds of millions of dollars in global assets, according to US Treasury Department estimates.

Iran also has a close relationship with Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militia and political movement that has repeatedly fired at Israel but has so far stopped short of opening a full second front.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said Friday that he has spoken with Lebanese and Palestinian militants and they "have their finger on the trigger" if Israel expands its ground operation into Gaza.

Speaking to US National Public Radio from the United Nations, Amir-Abdollahian said the militants' actions would be "much more powerful and deeper than what youve witnessed."

"Therefore I believe that if this situation continues and women and children and civilians are still killed in Gaza and the West Bank, anything will be possible," he said.

Amir-Abdollahian insisted, however, that militants would decide their own actions, saying, "We don't really want this conflict to spread out."

Addressing the General Assembly on Thursday, Amir-Abdollahian said that the Palestinians "as a nation under occupation" have the "legitimate right to resist the occupation using all available methods, including armed struggle."

Hamas militants on October 7 stormed out of the blockaded Gaza Strip and killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians, including children, the elderly and revelers at a music festival, and took more than 220 hostages in the deadliest attack in Israel's history.

Israel has struck back with a relentless bombing campaign which Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says has killed 7,326 people, mostly civilians, among them 3,038 children.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, meeting Friday with Amir-Abdollahian, urged Iran to work toward the "unconditional and immediate release of hostages held in Gaza."

bur-sct/wd/tjj
The US carried out airstrikes targeting two facilities linked to Iranian-backed militias in eastern Syria on Thursday, according to a statement from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin , following a series of drone and rocket attacks against US forces in the region.

The US assessed that the airstrikes against the facilities linked to Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and affiliated groups did not result in any casualties, according to a Friday statement from Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary.

The strikes, carried out by an F-15 fighter jet and a pair of F-16 fighter jets using precision-guided munitions, targeted a weapons and ammunition storage facility in Abu Kamal near the border between Syria and Iraq. The strikes destroyed the facilities, according to Ryder.

Austin on Thursday described the strikes, which were ordered by President Joe Biden, as narrowly tailored in self-defense and emphasized they are separate from the ongoing conflict in Gaza. He directly accused Iran of having a role in the attacks on US forces, saying in the statement, Iran wants to hide its hand and deny its role in these attacks against our forces. We will not let them. Austin also promised further strikes if the attacks by Irans proxies continue.

Biden sent a letter to Congress on Friday evening detailing what he called necessary and proportionate strikes, writing that they were intended to establish deterrence and were conducted in a manner to limit the risk of escalation and avoid civilian casualties.

I directed the strikes in order to protect and defend our personnel, to degrade and disrupt the ongoing series of attacks against the United States and our partners, and to deter Iran and Iran-backed militia groups from conducting or supporting further attacks on United States personnel and facilities, Biden wrote.

The two targeted facilities had been previously occupied by members of Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and affiliated militia groups, a senior military official said. We know that there were people on the target at various points during the day, the official said during a briefing with reporters following the attack, emphasizing: Again, we know that they were not civilians. The people that occupy these locations are Iranian-aligned militia groups as well as IRGC personnel.

A senior defense official called Iran the center of gravity for the attacks on US forces in the region, saying that Iranian fingerprints are all over this.

Tehran and Iranian senior leaders are funding, arming, equipping, training and directing a whole plethora of militia groups across the region, and they have escalated attacks against US forces since October 17, which is why we took self-defense action tonight, the official said.

The Biden administration has carried out strikes against militias before, but at a time of enormous tension, the US is looking to send a strong message to Iran and the militias not to escalate their attacks and spark a wider conflict in the Middle East. The region is on edge as the Israel-Hamas war, which was triggered by Hamas brutal terror attack on October 7, continues.

Earlier Thursday, the US announced it is deploying about 900 troops to the Middle East  with the potential for many more. The US has also moved two carrier strike groups to the eastern Mediterranean Sea and an amphibious ready group closer to Israel in the waters of the Middle East.

The US strikes follow a growing number of attacks against US forces in Iraq and Syria since October 17. As of Thursday evening, when the Syria strikes were announced, US forces had come under attack a total of 19 times, according to the Pentagon, at least 12 separate times in Iraq and four separate times in Syria, resulting in 21 US service members suffering injuries. The Pentagon said the injuries were all minor and that the troops have returned to duty. One US civilian contractor suffered a fatal heart attack as a result of a false alarm at one of the bases in Iraq.

On Friday, the US military shot down a one-way attack drone near Al-Asad Air Base in Iraq, according to a US defense official. It marked the 20th attack and the first since the US announced it had carried out the strikes in Syria.

At approximately 0700 EDT on 27 October, US forces engaged a one-way attack drone a few kilometers from Al-Assad Air Base, Iraq, and successfully shot it down without further incident, the official said.

On Wednesday, Biden issued a strong warning to Iran about its proxies attacking US forces in the region. My warning to the ayatollah was that if they continued to move against those troops, we will respond, and they should be prepared. Biden also said the presence of US troops in Iraq and Syria is focused on the campaign to defeat ISIS and is not related to the ongoing conflict in Israel.

But Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian did not attempt to tamp down the tensions Thursday at an emergency session of the UN General Assembly, stating that the US will not be spared from this fire if the war in Gaza doesnt end. Earlier this week, the minister had said that Iran had received two messages from the US, though he would not say how or when the messages were delivered. The first message said the US was not interested in a wider expansion of the conflict, he said, while the second urged Iran and its partners to have self-restraint.

The last known US strike against Iranian-backed militias in the region occurred in March, when the military struck a facility it said was used by groups affiliated with Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. It followed a similar series of drone and rocket attacks against US facilities in the region.

Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said Thursday that the US will always reserve the right to self-defense and that if the US chooses to retaliate for the drone and rocket attacks, it would be at a time and place of our choosing.

In the face of an increased threat of attack, the Defense Department is rushing additional air defenses to the Middle East. Those systems include a THAAD battery, which is a medium-range air defense system, long-range Patriot batteries, and short-range Avenger air defense systems. The Pentagon declined to say exactly when they would arrive or where they would be stationed.

The US is also providing two Iron Dome air defense systems to Israel for its own needs.

This story has been updated with additional details.

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US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the strikes were in response to recent attacks on US bases (file photo)

The US has carried out air strikes against two weapons and ammunition storage facilities in eastern Syria used by Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the strikes were in response to recent attacks on US bases in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups.

The US strikes were "separate and distinct from the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas," he said in a statement.

Iran did not immediately comment.

The strikes, carried out by a pair of F-16 US air force fighters, took place on Friday at around 04:30 local time (01:30 GMT) near Abu Kamal, a town on the border with Iraq.

It is not yet known if there were any casualties from the attacks.

"These precision self-defence strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against US personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on October 17," Mr Austin said in a statement.

US and coalition troops have been attacked at least 12 times in Iraq and four times in Syria since the conflict between Israel and Hamas began.

A total of 21 US military personnel have suffered minor injuries, according to the Pentagon.

American officials attribute the attacks to Iranian proxy groups operating in the region. Iran backs both Hamas, which controls Gaza, and Hezbollah, which operates in Lebanon, with arms as well as money.

"These Iranian-backed attacks against US forces are unacceptable and must stop," Mr Austin said.

"If attacks by Iran's proxies against US forces continue, we will not hesitate to take further necessary measures to protect our people."

In normal times, these air strikes would not be that remarkable.

But with a war raging in the Gaza Strip and fears of an escalation into a regional conflict there is an underlying worry that Iran and its proxies could soon get involved in the fight between Israel and Hamas, sparking a wider and even more serious war.

The White House said on Thursday that President Joe Biden had warned Iran against targeting US personnel in the Middle East via a rare message to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

At a UN General Assembly meeting in New York also on Thursday, Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian warned that Washington would not be spared from the fire engulfing the region if the violence in Gaza continued.

The US has sent warships and fighter aircraft to the region in recent weeks. On Thursday, US officials said some 900 US troops were also being moved there.

The US is at great pains to emphasise that the overnight action in eastern Syria is not connected to what is going on in Gaza, that it was not done in any coordination with Israel, and that it is a completely separate action of self-defence.

It is trying to distance its action and tell Iran to back off.

Despite this, it will be seen as connected and part of US actions in the region that are seen as supportive of Israel.

More on Israel-Gaza war

The US is already perceived in much of the Arab world as a close ally of Israel, so US bases are on quite a high alert.

One of the reasons why the US has asked Israel to pause any ground incursion into Gaza is because it needs a bit more time to get its air defences into bases, in anticipation of any Iranian-backed militia attacks.

US bases have come under attack before, with the US responding with retaliatory strikes.

In March, the US carried out multiple air strikes in eastern Syria against Iran-linked groups after a drone attack killed a US contractor.

Map showing the location of US air strikes in eastern Syria
Two US fighter jets struck weapons and munitions dumps in Syria on Thursday, with Washington saying it was in retaliation to attacks by Iranian-backed militias on their own forces across the Middle East.

US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said the attacks were separate and distinct from the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas and that they were carried out solely in self-defence.

But western officials supporting Israel restated their fears of regional escalation on Friday.

Charles Michel , the president of the European Council, said EU leaders were worried that Iran could be drawn into a wider conflict either directly or through proxies and that this would make the situation more difficult.

What do we know about these strikes?

US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said the attacks were separate from the conflict in Israel and Palestine (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

The facilities hit by the US were used by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the primary branch of the Iranian Armed Forces, according to US president Joe Biden.

The strikes, carried out by a pair of F-16 US air force fighters, took place on Friday at around 4.30am local time (1.30am GMT) near Abu Kamal, a town on the border with Iraq.

At least four militias are known to have strong affiliations with Iran that are located in Syria, using the Quds Force as their contact point, according to the Wilson Centre. It is estimated those groups comprise between 18,000 and 28,000 fighters.

Iraq is the second-most populated with Iranian-backed militias, all of whom have strong ties to Tehran. The three militias mainly operating in Iraq number up to 75,000 militants.

Since 17 October, US and coalition troops have been attacked at least 19 times in Iraq and in Syria, according to the Pentagon, including three new ones Thursday. Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said 21 US personnel were injured in two of those assaults that used drones to target al-Asad Airbase in Iraq and al-Tanf Garrison in Syria.

In a statement, the US defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, said the "precision self-defense strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on October 17."

These attacks were carried out from distance with rockets and drones. None have involved close-combat fighting, according to a log recorded by the Washington Institute.

They include multiple attacks on the Al-Tanf US airbase in Syria near the border with Iraq and Jordan, as well as the Green Village base further east, according to claims made by the militias.

The al-Asad airbase in western Iraq is the most frequently targeted US position; it has allegedly been attacked six times since 18 October.

The US response on Thursday, again an attack conducted from afar, was the first response of its kind.

At least four attacks, two in Syria and two in Iraq, took place on 26 October before the US airstrikes, according to the militias. If true, this would consitute the joint-most prolific day of attacks since October 17.

Is this linked to the Israels war on Hamas in Gaza?

Iranian supreme leader Ayotallah Khamenei accused the US of directing Israel to bomb Gaza (AP)

Iran is an outspoken supporter of Hamas. It has constantly threatened to retaliate to the Israeli bombardment of Hamas-held Gaza by conflagrating tensions into a regional war.

On the other side, the US is a staunch supporter of Israel.

There is an unprecedented level of intimacy between the two, David Makovsky, an expert on Arab-Israeli relations, told The Independent, citing the fact that Mr Biden became the first president in US history to visit Israel in a time of war.

Aside from hinting at a direct attack on Israel by its proxy force Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, the US has been one of the main targets of Irans escalating rhetoric, including threats of retaliation.

On Thursday, Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said at the United Nations that if Israels offensive against Hamas did not stop, the United States would not be spared from this fire.

Could this cause an escalation?

US secretary of state Anthony Blinken talks to his Saudi Arabian counterpart about regional stability (AP/AFP via Getty Images)

Experts remain uncertain that Irans rhetoric is anything more than just that.

They want to push it so far, rattle everyones cage, all under the assumption that no-one will do anything, Ali Ansari, a professor of Iranian studies at St Andrews University, told The Independent.

The minute there is this anxiety about a wider escalation, or that Iran may be a target, there has been a clear distancing.

Others pointed to the domestic unrest simmering in Iran and their novel dialogue with Saudi Arabia, who refused to communicate until a Chinese-brokered detente in March, as reasons to suggest escalation is unlikely.

"These strikes were in self defense," John Kirby, the White House national security spokesperson, told US TV on Friday. Asked if Iran will retaliate, Kirby said, "It's not uncommon for them to strike back. If they do, we'll absolutely do what we have to do to protect our troops and our facilities."

"We'll be ready for that," he added.

Nonetheless, predicting what could happen in the Middle East is a fools errand.

On 29 September Jake Sullivan, the US national security advisor, said the region was quieter today than it has been in two decades.

Eight days later, the militant group Hamas broke through the Gaza border fence into Israel and killed more than 1,400 people, changing the status quo of the region forever.
The U.S. expanded its sanction effort against people and companies tied to funding Hamas, as the country continues its support for Israels war against the militant group.

The new sanctions, announced Friday, target individuals and companies in Iran, Sudan and Turkey. Hamas is designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government.

Todays action underscores the United States commitment to dismantling Hamass funding networks by deploying our counterterrorism sanctions authorities and working with our global partners to deny Hamas the ability to exploit the international financial system, Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said in a statement.

We will not hesitate to take action to further degrade Hamass ability to commit horrific terrorist attacks by relentlessly targeting its financial activities and streams of funding, he added.

Among the individuals targeted includes Khaled Qaddoumi, described as Hamass liaison to the Iranian government, as well as a number of Iranian military members who trained Hamas militants.

Also sanctioned was the Al-Ansar Charity Association, which the U.S. Treasury Departments Office of Foreign Assets Control said funds the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a Hamas-affiliated militant group.

The sanctions continue U.S. support for Israel and commitment to back Israels goal to wipe out the group. President Biden has requested $14 billion in new support for Israel.

The new sanctions Friday expand on a previous group of sanctions enacted earlier this month that targeted individuals and companies in Sudan, Turkey, Algeria, Qatar and Gaza.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Right-wing U.S. radio host Larry Elder said on Thursday he was suspending his campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination and endorsing former President Donald Trump .

Elder, who joined the race in April, failed to gain enough support to qualify for the Republican Party's candidate debates.

"As I look at the path forward, and after careful consideration and consultation with my campaign team, I have made the difficult decision to suspend my campaign," Elder said in a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Elder urged his supporters to unite behind Trump, the Republican front-runner, to beat Democratic President Joe Biden in the November 2024 election.

Trump's other challengers for the Republican nomination include Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, Senator Tim Scott, former biotechnology investor and executive Vivek Ramaswamy, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and former Vice President Mike Pence.

(Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)
The United States Postal Service (USPS) has implemented a new address verification policy, which can be done online, in person at a retail office, or by mail.

The new policy requires customers to verify their identity before submitting a "change of address" request for packages.

According to the USPS website, the changes described were made sometime in August. James McKean, a senior public relations representative, stated in an interview with FOX Business that if a customer fails to present proper identification or activate the received code at a retail location, their change of address will not be processed.

"There are three ways to initiate a change of address request: online, visiting a local retail office, or submitting the request by mail," McKean reiterated to FOX Business.

This policy aims to prevent fraudulent requests made in your name online. Before, if you needed to change your address, you would just turn in a form to the post office or fill out a simple form online.

Now, that process is more involved. You must follow the necessary steps. Once complete, you'll receive an email containing a QR code. You will then need to bring your ID and the code in person to your local post office to update your address.

'Get well Tony!' Ohio man fighting cancer receives heartwarming present from the children of bus 38

Will the winter weather delay my package?

Severe weather conditions will soon arrive with the onset of winter. A combination of heavy ice, snow and wind can cause anxiety around whether or not Christmas packages will be delivered on time.

To stay informed on any disruptions in services provided by the United States Postal Service, you can visit the designated service alerts page on their website. This page provides up-to-date information on any post office closures, delays caused by power outages or severe weather, and other service-related disruptions.

To track your package, you can use the tracking number provided to you and access the USPS tracking system.

Holiday shipping deadlines: Postal carriers announce schedule early this year

Is tracking ID "us9514961195221" a scam?

The text message is a scam disguised as a message from the U.S. Postal Service.

Scammers use fake tracking IDs, like "us9514961195221," to direct you to a fake USPS website where you're asked to update your address. The website looks official but is designed to trick you.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: USPS address change policy requiring customers to verify identity
Vanuatu, a string of more than 80 islands once known as the New Hebrides, achieved independence from France and Britain in 1980.

Most of the islands are inhabited; some have active volcanoes.

Vanuatu is mountainous and much of it is covered with tropical rainforests. Like most of the area, it is prone to earthquakes and tidal waves. In 2015 it was hit by Cyclone Pam which caused widespread damage.

Most of the people live in rural areas and practise subsistence agriculture.

Local traditions are strong. Women, for example, generally have lower social standing than men and have fewer educational opportunities.

Since the 1990s, Vanuatuan politics have been unstable with a series of fractious coalition governments and the use of no confidence votes resulting in frequent changes of prime ministers.

Read more country profiles - Profiles by BBC Monitoring

REPUBLIC OF VANUATU: FACTS

Capital: Port Vila

Area: 12,189 sq km

Population: 307,800

Languages: Bislama, English, French

Life expectancy: 68 years (men) 72 years (women)

LEADERS

President: Nikenike Vurobaravu

Vanuatu's president, Nikenike Vurobaravu addresses the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York City on September 23, 2022

Nikenike Vurobaravu was elected president in July 2022. He succeeded Tallis Obed Moses.

He is a career diplomat and politician who has served in numerous diplomatic and government positions, including as the Vanuatu's first resident high commissioner to Fiji.

The presidency is considered to be a mainly ceremonial post.

Prime Minister: Ishmael Kalsakau

Ishmael Kalsakau was appointed prime minister in November 2022 following a general elections in October 2022 after a no-confidence vote against the then-prime minister Bob Loughman.

MEDIA

Vanuatu is home to one of the world's most accessible volcanoes, and to the John Frum or Brum cargo cult

The single TV channel on Vanuatu was established with the help of Radio France Overseas (RFO) and broadcasts in French and English.

TIMELINE

An aerial view of Vanuatu's capital, Port Vila

Some key events in Vanuatu's history:

550BC - First inhabited by Melanesian people.

1606 - Explorer Pedro Fernandez de Quiros leads an expedition to the islands naming them Terra Austrialis del Espiritu Santo.

1768 - Louis Antoine de Bougainville names the islands Les Grandes Cyclades.

1774 - British explorer Captain Cook charts the islands calling them the New Hebrides.

1800s - Thousands of ni-Vanuatu are kidnapped and forced to work on sugar and cotton plantations in Fiji and Queensland, Australia. The practice, known as "blackbirding", continues until the early 20th Century.

1906 - Britain and France make the country a condominium, under joint Anglo-French administration.

1938 - Emergence of the John Frum (also John Brum or Prum) cargo cult. Believers say goods owned by American and European visitors to the island are really meant for them but are intercepted by the foreigners. They believe that their ancestors will one day return with "cargo" for them. The British outlaw any mention of John Frum.

1956 - John Frum is recognised as a religion by the Anglo-French Condominium.

The active volcano of Mount Yasur is a major tourist attraction in Vanuatu

1963 - The NaGriamel political movement emerges on Espiritu Santo. Followers advocate the return of land to the ni-Vanuatu people and a return to traditional ways.

1971 - NaGriamel, anxious that more than 36% of the New Hebrides is now owned by foreign missionaries, planters and traders, petitions the UN to prevent further land sales to non-indigenous people

1977 - Representatives of the New Hebrides and the governments of Britain and France agree an independence plan for the islands in 1980 following a referendum and elections.

1978 - A measure of self-government introduced.

1980 - Jimmy Stevens, the leader of NaGriamel, declares Espiritu Santo independent of the rest of the New Hebrides renaming it the Independent State of Vemarana. Papua New Guinea troops, backed by the Australians, put down the insurrection.

1980 - New Hebrides attains independence within the Commonwealth

2003 - In response to reforms, the OECD removes Vanuatu from a list of uncooperative tax havens.

2004 - Prime Minister Vohor is ousted in a vote of no confidence after an attempt to forge diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

2005 - Thousands are evacuated as Mount Manaro, an active volcano on Ambae, erupts.

2012 - Diplomatic row with Australia over the arrest of Prime Minister Kilman's secretary on fraud charges. Vanuatu expels an Australian police liaison group in response.

2015 - Cyclone Pam causes widespread devastation. President Lonsdale says climate change is a key factor.

2017 - The prime ministers of Vanuatu, Tuvalu and the Solomon Islands raise human rights concerns over West Papua, which has been part of Indonesia since 1963. It is estimated some 100,000 Papuans may have died in the fighting between separatists and Indonesian forces. Indonesia rejects the allegations.

Land diving, a precursor to bungee jumping, is still practised on Vanuatu's Pentecost Island
Two business partners decided to bring the vintage clothing scene, which is popular in Atlanta, to Columbus with their new store Silver Hanger.

Owners Felix Rosario and Owen Cotthaus opened the vintage clothing store in a 445-square-foot space in Highside Market on 2nd Avenue Oct. 6. The store offers vintage clothing, streetwear, accessories and select home goods.

Stores like Silver Hanger are popular in major metropolitan areas like Atlanta, Rosario told the Ledger-Enquirer, and he believes the trend will continue to grow.

A vintage store is just different from a lot of retail clothing stores nowadays, Rosario told the Ledger-Enquirer. I think in the future, theres going to be vintage stores everywhere all across the world.

Felix Rosario and Owen Cotthaus opened a new vintage clothing store, Silver Hanger, in Highside Marker on Oct. 6, 2023.

Not everything Silver Hanger sells is categorized as vintage, Cotthaus said, but most of the stores inventory would fit in the category. In order to be considered vintage, he said, the items must be 20 years old or more.

Anything from 2003 and prior would be considered vintage right now, Cotthaus said. And then there are other categories like true vintage, which is 50 years prior.

Cotthaus and Rosario felt Columbus was the perfect location to build their business because of its proximity to Atlanta. The city is also near Alabama and not very far from Florida, Cotthaus said, with little competition from other stores.

There really wasnt a vintage store, he said. And Ive done events here in the past, like pop-ups, and theres strong interest. A lot of people are into it.

Felix Rosario and Owen Cotthaus opened a new vintage clothing store, Silver Hanger, in Highside Marker on Oct. 6, 2023.

Along with purchasing vintage clothes, people can also bring clothes or other items theyd like to sell to Silver Hanger. The store is willing to look at anything people might want to sell, Cotthaus said, but asks that individuals not bring a lot of items at once because of limited space in the store.

Weve been paying people super well, Cotthaus said. When people come in, we want to make sure they get something that theyre excited about, or were able to give them as much money as we can for something.

All the clothes are washed and treated before they are brought into Silver Hanger to be sold, Rosario said. The store is taking extra precautions to make sure clothes are in a good condition before theyre sold, he said.

Rosario encourages people who havent shopped for vintage clothes before to give it a try. The experience is not like shopping at normal retail stores, he said, and the prices at Silver Hanger are affordable.

Along with being economical, shopping for vintage clothing helps reduce waste. Customers at the store are also shocked by the quality of vintage clothing, Cotthaus said.

Theyre made in the USA, he said. It was just a higher standard of quality back then, and you can feel it.

Owen Cotthaus is one of the owners who opened vintage clothing store Silver Hanger in Highside Marker on Oct. 6, 2023.

As stores in Highside Market continue to open over the next few months, Cotthaus anticipates hosting vintage events at the development. He hopes to bring other people active in the vintage community to Columbus with their inventory for pop-up events.

When customers visit Silver Hanger, Cotthaus wants them to feel comfortable browsing in the store and chatting with the owner. If people are looking for something specific, he said, customers should tell the store what theyre looking for because they can find it.

The opportunity for community engagement is what makes him excited to run Silver Hanger, Cotthaus said.

We want to meet you, he said. Thats the most gratifying thing is when someone walks in the door, and we now know each other.
NAIROBI, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- Kenya is currently experiencing a youth bulge, with 29 percent of the country's estimated population of 51.5 million aged between 18-34, according to a report released on Friday.

The substantial number of Kenyan youth represents an opportunity for the country, as "it offers the potential to be a force for a positive economic future if they are gainfully engaged in economic and social activities for national development," said the State of the Kenya Population Report which was jointly published by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the state-owned National Council for Population and Development (NCPD).

The annual report highlights current and emerging population issues that require policy and program actions at both national and sub-national levels.

According to the report, each of the 47 counties in Kenya has a youth population comprising more than 20 percent of the overall population, with Nairobi County having the highest proportion at 41 percent, followed by Mombasa County at 37 percent.

Anders Thomsen, the UNFPA representative in Kenya, said that prioritizing the youth agenda remains a critical developmental imperative for the country. He added that with the right policies, Kenya is well-positioned to harness its youth bulge for economic growth by 2050.

Mohamed Sheikh, the director general of the NCPD, said that realizing the demographic dividend in Kenya will depend on how quickly the country can create jobs to employ its youth and transform the youth bulge into a blessing. 
Edward Enninful said it was an honour to be featured at the top of 2024's list

The editor-in-chief of British Vogue, Edward Enninful OBE, has been named the UK's most influential black person by the Powerlist 2024.

Powerful Media's annual list celebrates people of African, African Caribbean and African American heritage.

Now in its 18th year, it highlights black role models to young people.

Other names to make the list for 2024 include Afua Kyei, Bank of England chief financial officer, and Dragon's Den star and podcaster Steven Bartlett.

Enninful is the first black man to hold the top job at the British fashion magazine but earlier this year he announced he would be stepping down to help grow the brand globally and focus on other projects.

He is also the European editorial director of Conde Nast.

The 51-year-old described it as an honour to be number one on the list, which he said "shines a light on black people really breaking boundaries, who are unafraid and champion what it means to be truly diverse in their own industries".

Born in Ghana, Enninful moved to London at a young age with his parents and six siblings. As a teenager, he was scouted on a train and briefly spent some time modelling.

He started his editorial career as fashion director of British youth culture magazine i-D at the age of 18, making him the youngest person to be named an editor at a major international fashion title.

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The Powerlist recognises men and women across a wide range of industries including business, science, technology and the arts.

Other names for 2024 include Lord Woolley of Woodford, co-founder of Operation Black Vote and principal at Cambridge University's Homerton College, as well as model and activist Munroe Bergdorf.

Comedian Mo Gilligan and entrepreneur Patricia Bright also make an appearance.

Previous people to make the number one spot include Jacky Wright, former chief digital officer and corporate vice-president at Microsoft US, seven-time Formula One champion Sir Lewis Hamilton and former Children's Laureate Malorie Blackman.

The Powerlist 2024 top 10:

Edward Enninful, OBE - editor-in-chief of British Vogue, European editorial director of Vogue Dean Forbes - CEO, Forterro, Partner Corten Capital Afua Kyei - chief financial officer, Bank of England Marvin Rees - mayor of Bristol Tunde Olanrewaju - senior partner and managing partner, McKinsey & Company Joshua Siaw, MBE - partner, White & Case Syreeta Brown - group chief people and communications officer, Virgin Money UK Paulette Simpson, CBE - executive, corporate affairs and public policy, Jamaica National Bank; executive director, The Voice Media Group Vanessa Kingori, CBE - chief business officer, Conde Britain, Vogue European business advisor Lord Woolley of Woodford - co-founder, Operation Black Vote, and principal, Homerton College, Cambridge University
Rep. Anthony D'Esposito (R-NY) arrives at a House Republican candidates forum where congressmen who are running for Speaker of the House will present their platforms in the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill on 23 October 2023 in Washington DC (Getty Images)

During the fight this past month about whether to make Rep Jim Jordan (R-OH) speaker of the House, I asked Rep Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ) if he would support Mr Jordan.

Mr Jordan, of course, is a hard-right ideologue who defended Donald Trump at every turn, whereas Mr Ciscomani was one of 18 Republicans who represent districts that voted for Joe Biden in 2020.

But the Arizona Republican  whom Republicans wanted to present as a new face of the GOP as a Mexican-born citizen of the United States  remained tight-lipped about whom he would support.

What I've told my constituents is that I don't work for the speaker, I work with the speaker, whoever the speaker is, he told me. I was surprised when he and fellow Biden district Republican Marc Molinaro of New York announced theyd support Mr Jordan for the coveted role.

Mr Molinaros support also came as a surprise not just because he represented a Biden district but because of the fact that his fellow New York Republican Reps Mike Lawler, Anthony DEsposito, Andrew Garbarino and Nick LaLota all opposed Mr Jordan. When I caught Mr Lawler after Mr Jordans humiliation and ultimate withdrawal from the speakers race, he said he opposed Mr Jordan simply because Kevin McCarthy shouldnt have been removed as speaker.

Cut to a week and a day later when every Republican in the chamber voted to make Rep Mike Johnson Speaker of the House after a protracted 22-day civil war.

Mr Lawler, for his part, was all smiles when I talked to him after the vote on Wednesday.

He's a man of decency, he's a man of integrity, someone that is unfailingly kind to everyone within the conference, Mr Lawler told me of the new speaker.

But getting behind someone as staunchly hard-right as Mr Johnson is a huge gamble for Republicans.

Mr Jordan and Mr Johnson have near-identical records and, if anything, Mr Johnson is an even more potent force on the right. Where Mr Jordan simply plotted with Donald Trump to overturn the election and is little more than a bloviator who never took the bar exam to practice law, Mr Johnson led an amicus brief seeking to overturn the election.

Mr Johnsons ascent to the top job in the House does not just mean he is the leader of the lower chamber of Congress and third-in-line to the presidency; he is now the highest-ranking Republican in the country.

Throughout the 2010s, Republicans tied Democrats, including moderates who voted against her, to former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, whom they depicted as an out-of-touch liberal from San Francisco, long a synecdoche for an enemy of conservative values.

And it worked swimmingly for them; throughout that decade, Republicans turned the rural white Democrat into an endangered species in the House, despite the fact many of them were more moderate Blue Dog Democrats.

Democrats these days dont win as many Republican districts anymore. The smart folks at the Centre for Politics at the University of Virginia found that while 18 Republicans represent districts Mr Biden won, only five Democrats won seats in districts where Donald Trump won.

But the suburban districts that once voted for Republicans in places like Arizona, Pennsylvania, California, Georgia and Texas have changed drastically. Mr Trumps presidency  and the fact Democrats nominated relatively moderate presidential candidates  started moving these areas into the blue column. The Dobbs v Jackson decision last year which overturned the right to have an abortion in Roe v Wade further repelled the suburbs away from Republicans.

Mr Johnson is a hardliner on abortion, saying he looks forward to the day there are none. His ascent comes after Republicans radically underperformed in the 2022 midterm elections, largely in response to the Dobbs decision, which Mr Johnson praised.

Democrats now will likely try to tie every Republican to Mr Johnson. And the argument of folks like him who say that they dont work for a speaker might ring hollow for voters when he enthusiastically backed Mr Johnson.

And Republicans seem to be trying to create some distance from the rest of their party now that the speaker fracas is over. On Thursday, Mr DEsposito, who represents Long Island, introduced legislation to expel embattled Rep George Santos, a fellow Long Island Republican, from Congress. But its unclear if that will give him the distance he needs to win this time next year.
Volunteers transfer baskets of Thanksgiving food and supplies from a Daytona State College parking lot into their vehicles as part of the Volusia Thanksgiving Basket Brigade.

For more than 20 years, the Volusia Basket Brigade has been helping families in need have a better Thanksgiving holiday.

This year, the nonprofits staff and volunteers will again deliver food boxes throughout the county to families in need.

Their goal, according to the Brigades website, is to deliver 4,000 boxes on Nov. 18.

We recognize that food insecurities in our community is a huge need, said Amy Hall, founder of Volusia Basket Brigade, in a video posted on their website. And we need your help to step up and to be able to feed families in our community and help put turkeys on the table.

Halifax Art Festival: Halifax Art Festival returns with mix of art, music, food, fun on Daytona's Beach Street

Here is what we know about the initiative and how you might be able to help.

What is the Volusia Basket Brigade?

According to the nonprofits website, the Volusia Thanksgiving Basket Brigade is a fun family event where volunteers come together in the spirit of contribution and become Turkey Heroes by creating and delivering Thanksgiving boxes to families in need in our community.

But how does the event work?

Starting Saturday, Oct. 28, boxes will be available for pickup at several Publix locations across the county, as well as Gary Yeomans Ford, LaBoscos Jewelry Castle, RE/MAX Signature and Axiom Bank in the Port Orange Walmart.

The nonprofit suggests that each box be filled with the following:

Three cans of green beans.

Two cans of corn.

Two boxes of brownie mix.

Two yams.

Two boxes of stuffing.

Gravy package mix.

Mini marshmallows.

Corn bread mix.

Two boxes of scalloped potatoes.

Two boxes of mashed potato mix.

Cranberry sauce.

Two cans of cream of mushroom soup.

Fried onion strings.

$10-15 gift card for a turkey.

We also encourage you to add additional items to the box that will help sustain a family of five throughout a week, the Brigades website says.

Volusia County Fair 2023: Petting zoo, live music, rides and more. Here's what to know.

Where do you drop off the Thanksgiving box?

Once the Thanksgiving box is complete, it can be dropped off beginning Nov. 10 at several locations, including several Space Coast Credit Union stores across the county.

Other locations include:

Coastal Lending  3624 S. Atlantic Ave.

LaBoscos Jewelry Castle  4360 S. Ridgewood Ave.

Albertos Pizza  4036 S. Nova Road.

RE/MAX Signature  5889 S. Williamson Blvd, Suite 1418.

Gary Yeomans Ford  N. Tomoka Farms Road.

Edgewater YMCA  148 W. Turgot Ave.

Massey Services  1869 State Road 44

New Journey Chiropractic  292 N. Nova Road.

Fairwinds Credit Union  208 S. Nova Road.

Volusia County School Board  200 N. Clara Ave.

Boxes must be dropped off by Nov. 16.

Halloween tips: Trick-or-treating, pumpkin patches: Here are some Halloween tips for Volusia-Flagler

Those who want to help a specific family in need can nominate them on the Brigades website.

How to volunteer for the Volusia Basket Brigade

The donated boxes will be delivered to families in need on Nov. 18 beginning at 9 a.m.

Volunteers who want to deliver the boxes can sign up at the nonprofits website by filling out a form.

Drivers will be provided a pick up window of time to pick up the addresses and boxes to be distributed, according to the form.

For information, visit volusiabasketbrigade.com.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Volusia Basket Brigade to donate Thanksgiving boxes to families in need
EXCLUSIVE: Walter Reed National Military Medical Center reinstated a contract for Catholic priests to provide care at the hospital after a "cease and desist" order from the facility earlier this year ordered priests to halt pastoral care, Fox News Digital has learned.

In April, Walter Reed sent a "cease and desist" letter to Holy Name College Friary, a group of Catholic priests who have served at the hospital for nearly 20 years. The letter was sent during Holy Week, leading up to the Easter holiday.

Following the move, Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill., led a group of two dozen Republican lawmakers who voiced concerns and blasted the decision as a violation of the First Amendment.

Fox News Digital obtained a letter from the Department of Defense directed to Miller and the original signatories that clarified the renewal of the contract.

The entrance of Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, Nov. 19, 2021.

WALTER REED 'CEASE AND DESIST' ORDER FOR CATHOLIC PRIESTS VIOLATES THE FIRST AMENDMENT, GOP LAWMAKERS SAY

Holy Name College was a contract vendor that provided supplemental pastoral care services to Walter Reeds resident Catholic Ministry and Pastoral Care Service from 2007 to 2023. Its contract term expired on March 31, 2023. The Department of Defense clarified in the letter that the "cease and desist" came after the contract expired, stressing that it was "not terminated."

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Walter Reed replaced the contract with a secular defense contracting firm, Mack Global LLC, which the Catholic archdiocese argued would not be able to provide adequate care.

"Per the Federal Competition in Contracting Act, upon expiration of the Catholic Ministry and Pastoral Care Services contract at WRNMMC, a new contract could not be awarded without fair and open competition," wrote Ashish S. Vazirani, acting undersecretary of Defense for personnel. "After reviewing all proposals, the contract selection committee and contracting officer chose another vendor, Mack Global LLC, commending April 1, 2023, as they were able to meet the requirements as listed in the performance work statement."

CATHOLIC ARCHDIOCESE ACCUSES WALTER REED OF STIFLING RELIGIOUS RIGHTS WITH CEASE AND DESIST ORDER

"In accordance with Federal contracting guidance and routine business practices, a cease-and-desist letter was sent to Holy Name College on April 5, 2023, because it continued providing supplemental pastoral care services after its contract had expired," Vazirani continued. "If the Federal Government allowed Holy Name College to provide services without a contract, it could create an unauthorized commitment, in violation of Federal laws and the Federal Acquisition Regulation."

But amid an "oversight in the contractual language with the new vendor," the contract was terminated, and instead, the Department of Defense awarded a new contract to Holy Name College for a one-year term from June 8, 2023, to June 7, 2024, with "four option years."

Rep. Mary Miller gives remarks during a Save America Rally at the Adams County Fairgrounds on June 25, 2022, in Mendon, Illinois.

"No Catholic services were canceled during Holy Week, or at any point between April 1, 2023, and June 7, 2023, when there was a lapse in the Pastoral Care contract requirements," Vazirani wrote, adding that Walter Reed assigned an "active duty Army Catholic priest, who provided Catholic services, to include pastoral counseling and sacramental rights."

Additionally, an Army Reserve Catholic priest was also assigned to Walter Reed, beginning on May 22.

"All beneficiaries receiving care at WRNMMC are afforded the opportunity to exercise religious freedom," Vazirani wrote. "WRNMMC is proud of the pastoral care provided to people of all faiths and has ensured everyone has access to the ecclesiastical services needed."

The development comes after Rep. Miller led a group of two dozen Republican lawmakers in April in writing a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, reported exclusively by Fox News Digital, that blasted the Biden administrations "attack on the Christian faith."

FBI SOUGHT TO DEVELOP SOURCES IN CATHOLIC CHURCHES TO COMBAT DOMESTIC TERRORISM, DOCS SHOW

Miller applauded the Department of Defenses decision to reinstate the Holy College contract.

"As a result of our efforts to protect the religious liberty of our service members, the Biden administration reversed its decision to remove Catholic priests from Walter Reed, demonstrating how conservatives are holding the Biden administration accountable," Miller told Fox News Digital. "I proudly led an amendment included in this years NDAA to force the Biden Department of Defense to reverse their decision to kick priests out of Walter Reed."

Miller added: "Conservatives in the House are committed to supporting and defending our troops and ensuring that their rights are protected."

The initial letter to Austin was sent by Miller, R-Ill.; Jim Banks, R-Ind.; Paul Gosar, R-Ariz.; Byron Donalds, R-Fla.; Tom Tiffany, R-Wis.; Scott Perry, R-Pa.; Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.; Andy Biggs, R-Ariz.; Warren Davidson, R-Ohio; Matt Rosendale, R-Mont.; Lauren Boebert, R-Colo.; Ralph Norman, R-S.C.; Bob Good, R-Va.; Keith Self, R-Texas; Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz.; Andrew Clyde, R-Ga.; Josh Brecheen, R-Okla.; Brian Babin, R-Texas; Ben Cline, R-Va.; Andy Harris, R-Md.; Diana Harshbarger, R-Tenn.; Michael Cloud, R-Texas; Eli Crane, R-Ariz.; Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla.; and Alex X. Mooney, R-W.Va.

The Archdiocese for the Military Services (AMS) was created by St. Pope John Paul II to provide the Catholic Churchs services to veterans and service members in the U.S. and overseas. The archdiocese, which does not have geographical boundaries, is responsible for the care of 1.8 million Catholics across the globe.

Fox News' Adam Shaw contributed to this report.





Original article source: Walter Reed reinstates contract for Catholic priests to provide pastoral care after 'cease and desist'
Oleg Tsaryov , a pro-Russian Ukrainian politician who fled Ukraine in 2014, was shot in the early hours of Oct. 27 in Russian-occupied Crimea, according to Russian reports.

Tsaryov is a Dnipro-born businessman and former lawmaker for the former pro-Russian Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych's Party of the Regions.

Following the EuroMaidan Revolution, he nominated himself as a candidate for the 2014 presidential elections but later withdrew his candidacy, claiming his safety was at risk.

He went on to serve as an official of Russia's illegitimate proxies in Ukraine's Donbas region.

Tsaryov is now reportedly in hospital in serious condition.

"Information about the attempt on Oleg Tsaryov is confirmed by his relatives. Around midnight, he was shot twice in the territory of the sanatorium where he lives," Tsaryov's telegram channel claimed.

Tsaryov has been wanted by the Ukrainian authorities since after Russia's initial invasion of Ukraine in 2014 for supporting the Russian occupation of Ukrainian territories.

In March 2022, a Kyiv court brought new charges against him after he appeared in Russian-occupied Borodianka in Kyiv Oblast, claiming to be delivering humanitarian aid.

U.S. intelligence identified Tsaryov as a potential puppet leader the Kremlin could have installed if they had been successful in occupying Kyiv, according to the New York Times.

Tsaryov openly admitted to the New York Times that he participated in Russia's full-scale invasion.

He has been under Western sanctions since 2014.

Read also: EuroMaidan murders case: Why is the verdict criticized, and why is it about Russia?

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
The October 7 Hamas attack on Israel was unquestionably nihilistic and morally bankrupt. As Kenneth Rothformer executive director of Human Rights Watch, whose organization was among the first prominent groups to label Israels treatment of Palestinians apartheidexplains, Hamas committed a horrendous war crime. They blatantly violated everything that the Geneva Conventions and Protocol stand for: deliberately killing civilians, taking civilians hostage, and firing rockets indiscriminately into civilian-populated areas. He adds, moreover, that Israel has every right to respond militarily and target Hamas combatants.



But it must be said that the Hamas attack was also strategically shrewd. Israel appears ready to give Hamass planners just what they were hoping for. Many thousands of innocent people will likely be killed and displaced, and much of the already paltry infrastructure of everyday life in Gaza will be decimated. Israels reputation in the world will suffer tremendous damage, and the problem of the Palestinians will once again demand global attention.

No doubt all the talk of integrating Israel into the Arab world via the Abraham Accords and the dreams of a deal with Saudi Arabia that ignores the plight of the Palestinians will end. The attack recalls the similarly nihilist terrorist phase of the Palestine Liberation Organization in the 1970s, which also succeedednot in gaining a state, but in raising the profile of both the problem of the statelessness of the Palestinians and the worlds lack of concern for themat the price of the perpetrators human decency.

Recall the U.S. response to 9/11. A fatal combination of anger, fear, hysteria, ignorance, and hubris led to the Bush administrations overreaction, which ended up doing far more damage to the United States than Osama bin Laden dared dream of. Like the Bush administration in Iraq, the Israelis appear to have little idea of what kind of a solution follows their undoubted military victory or what that word would even mean in this context.

The Israelis are actually in a far more perilous position today than the United States was after 9/11. October 7 was a far greater shock in every imaginable sense. The murders and kidnappings were more brutal; the numbers, relative to its population, orders of magnitude higher; and its government far more divisive and distrusted than even the very questionably legitimate George W. Bush administration was. Swift vengeance is the order of the day, consequences be damned. As the Israeli human rights lawyer Michael Sfard has noted, in horror, Lawmakers from the ruling party are openly and unashamedly calling for a second Nakba, where the defense minister orders a denial of water, food, and fuel to millions of civilians; a country whose president, Isaac Herzog, Israels moderate face, says that all Gazans are responsible for Hamas crimes.

To be fair to the Israelis, Hamas left them with no good options. The attack could not go unpunished. Even if Israelis were Swedes, they would still be bombing Gaza. But because of both the density of the open-air prison that Israel, Hamas, and Egypt have, together, with U.S. assent, created in Gaza along with Hamass deliberate human-shield tactic, massive collateral damage in the form of dead innocents, including children, is likely. And should war break out with Hezbollah in Lebanon, the death and destruction will increase to a level perhaps never seen before in the region.

Either way, Hamas, even if it no longer exists, will have won a massive, if posthumous, propaganda victory in world opinion on behalf of the Palestinian cause. It will also inspire even more dedicated and likely radicalized resistance in the future, not only in Gaza but in the occupied West Bank, inside Israel among the more than 21 percent of Israelis who are also Palestinians, in the Arab world and much of Europe, along with important sections of the American left. If war, as Clausewitz pointed out, is the continuation of politics by other means, than Israel will likely contribute to its own political defeat with every innocent Palestinian it kills.

The U.S. will also feel its effects. Joe Biden is under attack from both Democratic activists angry with his bear hug of Netanyahu and from conservatives for his attempts to temper Israels response. Again, to be fair to Biden, he is no doubt sincere in the horror he has expressed over the Hamas mass slaughter and shares the view that the organization must be destroyed. He had little time for Netanyahu when the latter was in the process of sub-rosa annexation of the West Bank, the purposeful destruction of Israeli democracy, and his consistent cozying up to right-wing (often antisemitic) autocrats, just as he had done with Donald Trump.

But to extend that fairness, its a mistake to believe that American presidents can move Israeli leaders to do anything they really dont want to do. It has almost never happened since the state was founded in 1948. Even the smallest concession by Israel demands a degree of confrontation from the U.S. that is clearly off the table at the moment. The Israelis have understood that American presidents will almost always acquiesce to their demands if they hold out long enough, no matter how much Susan Collinsstyle concern they express along the way. Such statements have constituted virtually the entire State Department response to the consistent stream of IDF-supported settler pogroms against West Bank residents, as Israelis have killed and displaced more of them than at any time in the past 15 years (and Israeli opponents of the occupation have used the word pogrom frequently in this context). Benjamin Netanyahu was not wrong when, in a secretly recorded 2001 discussion with West Bank settlers, he promised them: America is a thing that can be easily moved, moved in the right direction. They will not bother us.

The notion that American Jews can have any significant influence over Israels actions is even more far-fetched. Their job, as far as the Israeli government is concerned, is to write the checks, lobby Congress for more aid, and then shut their mouths. (If they want a say in how Israels government behaves, they can, Israelis have been reminding them for 75 years, vote with their feetthat is, move to Israel.) Before October 7, American Jews and Israeli Jews were slowly but unarguably drifting apart. Politically speaking, Israel has become a red country, while American Jews are deep blue. According to data compiled in 2022 by the Israel Democracy Institute, 62 percent of Israeli Jews now consider themselves to be right-wing, with just 24 percent in the center and a mere 11 percent as left-identifying. Meanwhile, according to the Pew Research Center survey, in 2020, American Jews remained among the most consistently liberal and Democratic groups in the US population. These trends, moreover, will accelerate in the future as young Israeli Jews skew further rightward than their parents and grandparents, and young American Jews further left.

Israels right-wing leadership has not been bothered by these developments. According to Gary Rosenblatt, former editor of Jewish Week of New York, Netanyahu has said privately that as long as he has the support in America of evangelical Christians, who vastly outnumber Jews, and the Orthodox Jewish community, he is in good shape. Israels former envoy to the U.S., Ron Dermeran American-born former Republican political consultantwas willing to say so aloud, noting conservative Christians full-throated support for Israels government while complaining that American Jews were disproportionately among our critics.

Most (but not all) American Jews, seeing and hearing echoes of the Shoah in the images of Hamass gleeful brutality, understandably are united in support of Israel in the aftermath of the attack. This too will fade in the future as Hamass crimes recede in memory and images of the inevitable results of Israels military force come to dominate both social and legacy media. Organizations like IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace, which are now demanding a cease-firewithout, it must be added, any explanation of what is to be done about Hamaswill likely attract more support from young American Jews, especially those on campus. They may feel queasy about allying themselves with the moral idiots who make up Harvards Palestine Solidarity Committee and Yalies4Palestine, who held Hamas entirely blameless for the October 7 massacres (each insisted that Israeli policies bore 100 percent of the blame for the mass murder of its citizens). But they will nevertheless further the split within the American Jewish community that had already made Israel an all but impossible topic to discuss not only on most college campuses but even in many American synagogues.

Finally, these attacks are a disaster for the Democratic Party and even more so for the American left. However cynically, RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel was not wrong when she said while the attacks were taking place that what Hamas was doing presented a great opportunity for Republicans. The buffoonish Ben Shapiro referred to members of the Squad who called for a cease-fire as the Hamas Caucus; this is a theme we can expect to hear repeated often as the 2024 election approaches.

Its true that theres a faction of the leftsometimes inside the Democratic Party but mostly outside of itthat cannot bring itself to criticize anything anyone does to strike a blow against American imperialism and, with it, Zionist colonialism. It is well represented on college campuses and left-wing websites. The cause of free speech on the issue of Israel/Palestine was, like the two-state solution, already on life support before October 7. It was a victim of the BDS movements attempt to cancel Israel-related speakers on the one hand and, on the other, the efforts by the Anti-Defamation League, together with a number of wealthy pro-Israel donors, to define all criticism of Israel as inherently antisemitic. (I described these efforts in some detail recently here at NewRepublic.com.) These efforts will only intensify in the future, and so will the vitriol on both sides they inspire. As McDaniel predicted, these fights will be weaponized by Republicans and exploited by right-wing donors who seek to shut down free expression of support for the Palestinians wherever they appear and in whatever form (see, for instance, 92Y).

As a historian, I am always reluctant to predict the future save for the following: Nothing good can come of the Hamas attacks and the Israeli response. And yet again, it will be the Palestinians who suffer most.
Rep. Mike Johnsons election as speaker of the House Wednesday was a rare feat for the Make America Great Again movement: a clear victory. After weeks of mayhem that made House Republicans look ungovernable, the loose collection of populists aligned with and empowered by Donald Trump appeared to have settled for a win that reaffirms the GOPs metamorphosis.

Johnsons ascension comes after the MAGA movement successfully removed the previous Republican speaker, Rep. Kevin McCarthy . It follows the organized efforts to stop two of the partys three nominees to succeed McCarthy, Reps. Steve Scalise and Tom Emmer. All three were deemed too spoiled by Washington, too willing to cut spending deals with Democrats. (In reality, with such a narrow Republican majority and Democratic control of both the Senate and White House, compromising with Democrats is part of this speakers job description.) And the other failed speaker nominee, the hard-charging, MAGA-friendly Rep. Jim Jordan, was stopped by a rump of institutionalist Republicans who appear to have only delayed the inevitable: a speaker who reflects the conferences conservative populism and fealty to Trump, but who also seems ready to govern.

Johnson, now in his fourth term in the House, apparently fits the bill. He is known internally for promoting conservative policies on abortion and same-sex marriage, yet is regarded highly even by his more socially moderate colleagues as a trustworthy person. His most notable act before becoming speaker was as the architect of an amicus brief in January 2021 supporting a Texas lawsuit to throw out the 2020 presidential election results in four states won by Joe Bidena last-ditch effort to block the counting of the electoral votes. The work earned him plenty of MAGA credibility, and while he is friendly with the populist, pro-Trump House Freedom Caucus, he isnt a member. Instead, Johnson gravitated toward the wonkier Republican Study Committee, chairing the conservative caucus from 2019 to 2021.

Johnson now faces the headwinds similar to those McCarthy faced, with divided government and a looming spending deadline on November 17. But for the moment, the power players of the MAGA movement are ecstatic about what they have achieved in the fight for leadership of the Republican party.

Trump himself offered his congratulations to Johnson both in a post on Truth Social and in a statement before the cameras outside the Manhattan courtroom where he is currently on trial in a civil case. Nobody was thinking of Mike, and then we put out the word and now hes the speaker of the House, Trump said Wednesday. So I want to just thank all of the supporters that I have and I want to thank all of the supporters that Mike has.

Trumps former White House aide, Steve Bannon , was declaring mission accomplished even before the floor vote.

You have delivered, Bannon said on his War Room broadcast Wednesday morning. You have brokenremember, with all of that, and all of that apparatus that has been 10 or 12 years in the making, from the Young Guns, made by the [GOP strategist and McCarthy ally] Jeff Millers of the world, the lobbyists, the people that are hardwired into Silicon Valley, hardwired into the paymasters of Wall Street. You have broken that. Is it perfect? No, but its pretty damn good.

More than even Trump, Bannon gives voice to the MAGA movement on his daily broadcast. War Room airs twice a day on the right-wing network Real Americas Voice. Its a kind of headquarters for a movement that seeks to rid the Republican party of any insufficiently pro-Trump elements.

The program frequently features MAGA luminaries as guests, including MyPillow creator Mike Lindell and Mike Flynn, the retired Army general and short-lived national security adviser for Trump who regularly promotes conspiracy theories. Bannon periodically reads out the numbers of the switchboards in the House and Senate, encouraging his audience to keep working to forward the movement by making their voices heard. He uses specific jargon about the uniparty or the cartel controlling things in Washington, laying out in detail how events will unfold in the ongoing battle between the establishment and the MAGA movement.

Every day is going to be a fight, he said Wednesday.

While its hard to nail down viewing and listening numbers for War Roomthe network is available on several cable, satellite, and streaming TV platformsit has an audience on Capitol Hill. The shows jargon, such as referring to the two major party establishments as the uniparty or the cartel, has filtered down into the vernacular of Republican House members. Among those listening: Republican aides who follow Bannons pronouncements and closely monitor the MAGA movements field marshals in Congress.

Chief among those field marshals is Rep. Matt Gaetz, whose initial motion to vacate the chair of the speaker at the beginning of the month started the process that eventually led to Johnsons ascension in the House.

Gaetz joined Bannon Wednesday morning, before the final speaker vote, to both take and share the credit for what was about to culminate. Gaetz praised Johnson as MAGA Mike and indicated this was a fulfilling end to the process he began by knifing McCarthy earlier this month. The Florida Republican also made sure to give a shoutout to those loyal members of the MAGA movement.

I have to start by thanking the War Room posse, said Gaetz. This would not have happened without you.

Read more at The Dispatch

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Orban claims Ukraine 'cannot win on the battlefield'

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has insisted Ukraine cannot defeat Russia, and that the EU should therefore prepare a plan B for dealing with the conflict.

In an interview with Hungarian state radio, the nationalist leader said the EU's strategy towards the Ukraine war had "failed".

Today everyone knows, but does not dare to say it out loud, that this strategy has failed. Obviously, this won't work. The Ukrainians will not win on the battlefield, he said, declaring that there is no reason to spend Hungarian taxpayers money on helping Ukraine.

Aid from the West is widely seen as crucial to Ukraine's ability to defend itself against the Russian invasion, though some politicians in Europe and the US are growing weary of providing more support.

Hungary's Oxford-educated leader is considered an ally of Putin. He has blocked the release of EU funds to Ukraine since Kyiv put the Hungarian OTP Bank on its list of international sponsors of war.

Earlier today, Lithuania's President Gitanas Nauseda said Orban needed to stop "flirting" with Russia, pointing to his meeting with Putin in mid-October.

Its really more than strange to see that we start to flirt with the regime which is committing [...] very cruel atrocities in the territory of Ukraine," he said in Brussels.

"It sends a very wrong message to everybody, first to the international community and also to Ukraine.

Ukrainian soldiers walk by the graves of fellow soldiers in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023. - Vadim Ghirda/Copyright 2023 The AP. All rights reserved.

Russia suffering 'significant losses' in Ukraine, White House says

US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Thursday Moscow has suffered "significant losses" in its new offensive in Ukraine.

Kirby added that Russia's army had lost at least 125 armoured vehicles around the Ukrainian town of Avdiivka in the eastern Donetsk region, and more than a battalion's worth of equipment.

"It is unsurprising that Russian forces are suffering from poor morale," he said in a press briefing at the White House.

Moscow has recently stepped up its attacks on the battlefield in a bid to push the front forward before winter.

Yet the US official warned that with more Russian attacks anticipated Putin's troops still maintain some offensive capability, adding that they may be able to achieve some tactical gains in the coming months.

On Thursday, Russian lawmakers also adopted their draft budget for 2024-26, which includes a 68 per cent increase in military spending.

According to the governments proposal, the new military budget will exceed all social expenditures for the first time in Russian history by more than 25 per cent.

Belarus calls for talks on 'land and peace' in Ukraine

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko called to immediately stop the hostilities in Ukraine and to hold negotiations "about land and about peace."

"I believe that there are enough smart people in Ukraine. It is necessary to sit down at a negotiation table and negotiate," Lukashenko was quoted as saying by Russia's state-owned TASS news agency.

"As I said once: no preconditions are necessary. The most important thing is to give a stop command. To say: lets stop at midnight, no forces shall move, no one shall shoot, no one shall pull reserves, no communications to be restored. We stop and we negotiate. About land and about peace."

Belarus's autocratic premier said negotiations needed to begin because Washington has hinted that US aid for Kyiv is "not limitless".

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently signed a formal decree ruling out the prospect of talks with Putin specifically, while leaving the door open to talks with Russia in some other form.

After 18 months of grinding conflict, Ukrainians remain deeply committed to winning the war with Russia.

A Gallup poll from October shows three in five want to keep fighting until they win, though 31% want the war to end as soon as possible.
Calling the Washington County coroners recommendation that a local officer be criminally charged for shooting and killing a man after a police chase in April a theatrical stunt, Washington County District Attorney Jason Walsh said Friday he stands by an earlier decision that the shooting was justified.

Coroner Timothy Warco on Thursday issued a report stating that Mount Pleasant Township police Officer Tyler Evans was not justified in the fatal shooting of Eduardo Lee Hoover Jr., 38, on April 2.

The shooting followed a miles-long police chase that started in Burgettstown. Mount Pleasant Township and Smith Township police were involved in the chase, which continued on Route 18 and ended in Washington city limits.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Man shot, killed by officers after police chase in Washington County

According to state police, Hoover slowed down on Jefferson Avenue, allowing officers to get in front and behind his vehicle. He then stopped, put his truck in reverse and slammed into the front of a police car before driving forward and hitting a utility pole, according to reports.

After hitting the pole, Hoover put his truck into reverse again and sped toward the responding officers, prompting them to shoot at Hoover inside the vehicle, state police said.

In May, Walsh determined the use of force was justified.

I made the decision six months ago, Walsh said Friday, adding that his office and state police conducting a thorough investigation.

According to Warco, he reviewed Evans bodycam video, which shows him putting his car in park, shouting an expletive, getting out of his car and immediately firing two rounds through the rear window of Hoovers truck, striking him in the head and killing him.

PHOTOS: Pennsylvania State Police investigating officer-involved shooting in Washington County

Walsh said that Warco cherrypicked evidence to include in his report and that Warco has never convened an inquest before. He also stated that Warco didnt have the authority to decide if a crime was committed.

The coroner recommends Evans be charged with involuntary manslaughter, in that he committed an unlawful act in a reckless or grossly negligent manner, in Hoovers death.

In response to Walshs comments, Warco sent Channel 11 a statement that said, in part, that he stands by his findings and conclusions, and that he is charged with the responsibility to determine whether a criminal act had occurred, and whether the person who committed the act was criminally responsible.

Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts.

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From the bickering droids in Star Wars, to the robotic companions and NPCs in video games like Fallout 4, talking robots have long been firmly in the realm of science fiction. However, that may have finally changed since the explosion of artificial intelligence in the past year. In fact, we might soon have chattering robo-dogs giving walking tours in a city near you courtesy of the mad scientists at Boston Dynamics.

In a video released Thursday, the company showcased a robotic dog infused with OpenAIs ChatGPT. The bot can be seen speaking in a variety of voices and accents including a debonair British gentleman, a sarcastic and irreverent American named Josh, and a teenage girl who is so, like, over it.

Theres been a lot of new advances around AI technologyspecifically generative AI technologies. Things that are able to write poetry or paint pictures or chat with people, Matt Klingensmith, principal software engineer for robot autonomy at Boston Dynamics, said in the video. We were interested in seeing how we could use technologies like these for robotics.

The robot was a result of a hackathon in which the Boston Dynamics engineers combined a variety of AI technologies including ChatGPT, voice recognition software, voice creation software, and image processing AI with the companys famous Spot, the robot dog known for its ability to jump rope and reinforce the police state. The bot also had some upgrades including image recognition software combined with a head sensor that the engineers decorated with hats and googly eyes producing incredibly creepy results.

The team created a number of different versions of the robot including a tour guide personality that seemed to recognize the layout of the Boston Dynamics warehouse, and was able to provide descriptions and the history behind the various locations in the workplace.

Welcome to Boston Dynamics! I am Spot, your tour guide robot, the android said in the video. Lets explore the building together!

In the video, the robot can be seen speaking and responding to different humans and a variety of prompts. For example, an engineer asked Spot for a haiku, to which it quickly responded with one. After Klingensmith said that he was thirsty, the robot seemed to direct it to the companys snack area.

Roving Packs of Robot Dogs Are Coming to the Moon

Here we are at the snack bar and coffee machine, Spot said. This is where our human companions find their energizing elixirs.

While impressive, its important to note that this robot cant actually understand what its saying or what other people are saying to it. Like all other large language models, its been trained on a massive corpus of data and language in order to respond to prompts with its own predictions of what we might want to see or hear. Its like the text predictor on your phonealbeit in a futuristic robot dog that can run, jump, and (theoretically) fight crime.

Still, watching Spot move around and speak to its human engineers is no doubt uncannyand potentially a glimpse into a future where these types of robotics are even more commonplace. We might not be getting Rosey a la The Jetsons chattering away with us while she washes our dishesbut you might just see Spots giving tours at your next vacation destination soon enough.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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TUNIS, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- Tunisian Foreign Minister Nabil Ammar called for a peaceful solution to settle the Libyan crisis during a meeting with visiting Special Envoy of the French President to Libya Paul Soler on Friday, according to a statement released by Tunisia's Foreign Ministry.

During the meeting, Ammar reiterated Tunisia's firm stance on the settlement of Libya's crisis, which is based on supporting a peaceful Libyan-led and Libyan-owned solution free of foreign interference, according to the statement.

Ammar said "all regional and international efforts should be directed towards the search for a political settlement that preserves the unity, security and stability of Libya."

For his part, Soler commended Tunisia for its active role since the beginning of the crisis in Libya.

He expressed his country's aspiration for greater coordination with Tunisia within the framework of a participatory approach in order to advance the political process in Libya.

The meeting also focused on the situation in the Gaza Strip. Ammar underlined the necessity to put an end to the attacks on Gaza immediately. 
Oct. 27 (UPI) -- The lunch rush at a Wisconsin restaurant turned into a lunch stampede when a deer crashed through a window and wandered through the seating area and kitchen.

Security camera footage from the Noodles & Company eatery in Beloit shows the packed restaurant erupting into chaos when the buck breaks in through a window.

Customers scramble for safety as the deer wanders from the seating area into the kitchen, before leaving out the back door.

The restaurant turned the unexpected visit into a marketing opportunity, offering a "2 buck" mac and cheese in honor of the deer diner.
At least 18 people were killed and 13 injured Wednesday night in a mass shooting incident at two locations in Lewiston, Maine, and the suspect remains at large.

Police have released a photo of Robert Card, 40, as a person of interest. Card, a member of the Army Reserve, is considered armed and dangerous, according to officials.

More than 100 federal and local investigators are searching for the subject.

Members of Maines congressional delegation are holding a press conference Thursday evening.

Watch the live video above. And read live updates on the shooting and manhunt here.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Marines strapped a rocket launcher to a so-called robotic goat in the California desert in September, in a test of robots abilities to carry and fire weapons in battle.

Marines with Tactical Training and Exercise Control Group conducted the proof-of-concept test at Twentynine Palms, California  a vast installation with many ranges where Marines can do live-fire tests and training, according to a Marine Corps news release.

Instead of having a Marine handle the weapon system, manipulate the safeties, we could put a remote trigger mechanism on it that allowed it to all be done remotely, 1st Lt. Aaron Safadi, officer in charge of the groups emerging technology integration section, said in the release. The Marine could be behind cover and concealment, the weapon system could go forward, and the Marine could manipulate the safeties from a safe place while allowing that weapon system to get closer to its target.

In a video posted by the Marine Corps of the Sept. 9 test, the goat-ivated Marines watched as a robotic quadruped stood up onto its four haunches of sorts and walked around, making clacking sounds on the ground.

The platform appears to be the Go1 robot dog made by the Chinese robotics company Unitree, whose website advertises the quadruped as Lightweight, Take It Everywhere.

Unitree sells a basic version of the mans bionic best friend for $2,700 (plus $1,000 in shipping) on its website and $4,899 on Amazon.

Marine Corps Times asked the Office of Naval Research about the use of technology by a Chinese company in testing and didnt immediately receive a response.

The quadruped itself wasnt the focus of the Marine Corps test, Marine spokesman Capt. Johnathon Huizar said in an email Friday to Marine Corps Times. The goat was just a firing platform for a Kairos remote trigger mechanism that was fixed to a M72AS light anti-tank weapon trainer, according to the spokesman, who confirmed that the quadruped was made by Unitree.

The goat concept came from the fact it was to be used as a pack animal to haul payloads of various forms from point A to point B, Huizar said.

The goat is equipped with sensors and can stand up and beg, one Marine says in the Corps video as the creature gets into a kneeling position and clasp its limbs together as if pleading for something.

Its creepy, another Marine appears to say.

Not really disputing that Marines observation, the first Marine replies with a laugh, The bigger one, they actually put a goat-head mask on it.

It can growl and bark, she said.

Another Marine cuts in to note that this particular robotic goat isnt a military platform that would be issued to Marines. Rather, he says, its a test platform for determining how robots like it could be used.

Soon after, theres a shot in which the robot sways its hips from side to side as if moving to an invisible rhythm.

One Marine messes with the wildlife by gently kicking the robot goat, but the goat is ready. It remains upright and takes a bunch of quick steps sideways to recover from the blow.

Finally, the Marines attach an M72 light anti-tank weapon to the goats back and fire into the desert.

Nice! a Marine is heard saying in the video.

The Marine Corps test with the goat was conducted in concert with the Office of Naval Research, according to the news release. News of the test was first reported by The War Zone.

Robots have become one focus of the Marine Corps modernization initiative, Force Design 2030, aimed at getting the service branch ready for conflict with a great power like China.

Marines must fight at machine speed or face defeat at machine speed, a June document laying out updates to the initiative warned.

The test in California wasnt the first time the U.S. military has experimented with robotic animals.

The Navy has been experimenting with using robot dogs to help with ship maintenance.

At the Association of the United States Armys annual conference in Washington in 2021, a team from Boston Dynamics took its robot dog Spot for a walk around the D.C. convention center, attracting the undivided attention of one flesh-and-blood canine who was getting walked nearby.

Observation Post is the Military Times one-stop shop for all things off-duty. Stories may reflect author observations.
This article is a collaboration between McClatchy News and Native News Online.

A recent overdose tragedy in Lummi Nation is prompting one of Washingtons U.S. senators to call on fellow lawmakers to pay much-needed attention to a public health crisis that is tearing through Native American communities.

In a letter addressed to leaders of the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on Oct. 3, Senator Maria Cantwell (D), requested that the agency hold an oversight hearing to address the surge in fentanyl deaths in Indian Country. The letter came just days after four Lummi Nation citizens died of fentanyl overdoses in one week.

U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Washington state, attends a ceremony to mark a $25 million federal grant to help fund a new electric ferry to replace the Whatcom Chief at the Lummi Island ferry dock at Gooseberry Point in Lummi Nation on Aug. 16, 2022. At right is Whatcom County Executive Satpal Sidhu.

The proliferation of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 times stronger than heroin, in the nations illicit drug supply is driving overdoses in every community in the United States, disproportionately affecting Native American communities.

Cantwell said in an interview that she has a message for Lummi Nation and other tribes in Washington, and around the country: We dont want you to feel like you have to tackle this crisis alone. Lets work together. Lets make sure that your creative ideas on treatment and getting people immediate access work together with law enforcement on trying to counter the fentanyl supply on reservations.

Overdose rates in Indian Country

Last year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that American Indians and Alaska Natives had the highest drug overdose rates in both 2020 and 2021. Native Hawaiians experienced a staggering 47% increase in drug overdose death rates from 2020 through 2021.

Advocates say the reasons for the high overdose rates are myriad, but clear: generational trauma, cavernous gaps in healthcare, geographic isolation, and complicated law enforcement and public safety jurisdictions. While many of these overarching factors have affected Native health for decades, the sudden rise of fentanyl-related deaths, which nearly tripled from 2019 to 2022, has intensified the impact in Indian Country.

Lummi Tribal members Siamel wit, right, and Doug James joined by fly angler Gian Lawrence, offer prayer and song to bless the totem pole at The Snake River to Salish Sea Spirit of the Waters totem pole journey launch Tuesday, May 3, 2022, at Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship in Bellingham, Wash.

Like many communities, Lummi Nation is experiencing devastating effects of the fentanyl crisis, Lummi Nation Tribal Chairman Anthony Hillaire told Native News Online. The impacts on Indian Country are magnified immeasurably because theyre filtered through the cultural and physical genocide that continues to inflict harm on our people.

According to a recent CDC report, more than 65% of reported 107,081 drug overdose deaths in the United States last year involved fentanyl. The United States is currently in the fourth wave of the opioid crisis, characterized by the presence of fentanyl in non-opioid drugs, such as cocaine and methamphetamine, driving up overdoses in the non-opioid-addicted population.

Last months overdoses devastated the Lummi community, which currently has around 5,000 enrolled members. One mother who lost her son in the overdose wave told Native News Online she had to wait a week to bury him.

There are other families ahead of me, she said. Who has to wait in line to bury their child?

Preventing opioid overdose in WA tribes

The epidemic is seen across Washington states 29 federally-recognized tribes. The Yakama Nation Reservation, the states largest reservation with 1.4 million acres of land and about 10,000 enrolled members, has also experienced the dangers of opioid and fentanyl abuse.

Several organizations within the Yakama Nation have joined the effort to increase awareness and safety among tribe members. The Yakama Nation Tiinawit Program, a certified outpatient treatment facility, hosted a Fun Run/Walk for Opioid Prevention in late August 2023. The event was a collaboration with the Youth Treatment Center & Problem Gambling and the Yakama Nation Behavioral Health Services. Around this time, Sen. Cantwell held a roundtable discussing the fentanyl crisis.

Members of the Yakama Nation gathered Friday at the Wye Park in Richland near Bateman Island to advocate for salmon. They are calling for immediate removal of the earthen causeway to the island, which reduces water flow and increases water temperatures and sediment, fostering invasive plants and predatory fish.

Cantwell told Native News Online that lawmakers need to immediately address the gaps that create ample opportunity for drug trafficking in tribal nations.

Where is fentanyl coming from?

Its long been known that international drug cartels leverage the geographic isolation and the limited resources of law enforcement on reservations to their advantage, leaving Native communities vulnerable to drug trafficking. A map by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration depicting the flow of fentanyl into the United States shows that precursors, or substances to make drugs, for manufacturing fentanyl are shipped by mail from China to western Canada  just north of Lummi Nation  where it is then manufactured and distributed.

A report by the Department of Justice states that the I-5 freeway  which passes near both the Lummi Nation and Tulalip Tribe reservations, among others  is commonly used for drug trafficking.

An Interstate 5 traffic stop over the weekend resulted in detectives finding 200,000 fentanyl pills hidden inside the vehicle, Centralia Police announced Monday afternoon.

After last months overdose deaths, traffic stops and searches were implemented on the Lummi Nation reservation. Lummi leader Hillaire told Cascade Daily News that they are prepared to block main thoroughfares through the reservation in the case of more deaths to further restrict movement.

We dont have all of the resources, and we need a strong federal partner in Indian Country to address the fentanyl crisis, Cantwell told NNO. They dont quite have the resources to match up against these cartels, nobody does.

WA tribes act to prevent overdoses

Tribes in Washington state are leading the charge to organize responses and prevention methods regarding the opioid crisis in Indian Country.

In May 2023, the Lummi Nation hosted the first Washington State Tribal Opioid/Fentanyl Summit, a two-day government-to-government summit attended by the states tribal leaders, Gov. Jay Inslee, and state agency leaders.

During the conference a panel of tribal leaders, law enforcement officials, and a Whatcom County prosecutor cited a litany of jurisdictional issues inhibiting prosecution of drug dealers on tribal land. These issues include tribal arrest warrants not being recognized by the state, and the need to incorporate traditional knowledge and culture when prosecuting tribal drug offenders.

Shawna Priest, a member of the Jamestown SKlallam Tribe, wears a pin with the logo of the Jamestown Healing Clinic where she works as a medical assistant, Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2022, in Sequim, Wash., as she talks about the battles her son and daughter have had with opioid addiction. The tribe is building a full-service health center to treat both tribal members and other community residents for opioid addictions. Earlier in the week, Native American tribes across the U.S. settled a lawsuit against drug maker Johnson & Johnson and the largest three drug distribution companies in the U.S. for $590 million. The money wont be distributed quickly, but tribal leaders say it will play a part in healing their communities from an epidemic that has disproportionately killed Native Americans. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

Tribes across Washington state were at the summit, including leaders and members of Yakama Nation, taking part in panels and discussions. A lack of resources to combat rising overdoses and drug use was stressed, echoing Cantwells calls for more assistance.

Information gathered from the summit was collected for use in further efforts to decrease opioid use in Indian Country, like the first National Tribal Opioid Summit hosted by the Tulalip Tribes in late August 2023. This way, leaders can follow the experiences and recommendations of tribal members over time and measure their efficiency.

Several programs have been implemented across Washington tribes in response.

Harm reduction is an evidence-based public health strategy designed to minimize the negative effects of drug use that involves the distribution of Naloxone  a life-saving overdose reversal drug often referred to by the brand name Narcan  and fentanyl testing strips, and syringe exchanges. Many tribal nations infuse these services with language and traditional components in order to help tribal members with substance use disorder maintain a connection to culture and community.

Lummi Nation citizen and Coast Salish artist Jason LaClair is four years into recovery for opioid addiction. During an Oct. 25 livestream panel on reducing overdoses hosted by Native News Online, LaClair spoke emphatically about culture and community being the center of his recovery journey.

Reconnecting with our spirituality and our way of life is who are born to be, LaClair said. It strengthens my foundation to know that I come from strong people and I have to carry on in a good way for the generations coming behind me.

A Narcan nasal spray kit with bi-lingual instructions is part of a partnership with program between local fire departments and the Benton Franklin Health District for overdose survivors.

The Yakama Nation Indian Health Services offers free Narcan for enrolled tribal members and any other patients it serves, in order to alleviate a strain on police supplies.

In Lummi Nation, crisis response workers distribute Narcan and testing strips in the community and to tribal members in Bellinghams homeless encampment.

On the Native News Online livestream, Hillaire spoke about the importance of involving the community when making short-term and long-term investments in response to the opioid crisis.

We have a great amount of resource in our children, our elders and our formal leaders, Hillaire said. Weve been here before. The atrocities that have happened to us, the broken promises weve endured, weve had this feeling before. Leaning on those who came before us for me specifically, I have a lot of elders and aunties and those who have even grown up in drugs and addiction, that we can lean on them to make informative decisions to help all of our people.

Legislators address WA opioid crisis

Recognizing the nuanced differences existing in Indian Country, Cantwell acknowledges that tribal nations can be more swift and focused than cities and states in their response to the fentanyl crisis  and urges her fellow lawmakers to give tribes the resources they need.

They have the ability to be more creative and deliver tailored solutions, Cantwell told NNO. We need to support that.

On top of the numerous roundtables the senator has held across the state, Cantwell has taken numerous other actions to address the crisis. She co-sponsored the FEND Off Fentanyl Act, passed by the Senate in July, and has worked to secure various forms of funding for different parts of the state.

Other regional legislators have noted the crisis as well.

Not long after the Yakama Nation fun run, a community meeting was held at the Toppenish Community Center, with tribal leaders and Representative Gina Mosbrucker (R-14) in a Drug Crisis Town Hall. According to an update from the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, those in attendance discussed a myriad of issues relating to the epidemic. Lack of resources was again a common concern.

Hillaire said Lummi Nation is grateful for the senators support and is asking state and federal lawmakers to help the Lummi community utilize every resource possible.

We thank Senator Cantwell for recognizing our strength as a people through her often support for the crisis we face, Hillaire told NNO. At the state and federal levels, we are calling on lawmakers to issue emergency declarations so we can use all resources available to combat the fentanyl crisis. Were additionally calling to remove barriers that keep this work from being carried out.

He said that the community is seeking to add a new detox facility to supplement its current addiction recovery efforts, which include an outpatient treatment program and a seven-bed stabilization and recovery center.

The Lummi Nation, in particular, is reeling, and we are asking for support for a new detox facility, Hillaire said. Were also calling for direct federal funding in accordance with the governments treaty and trust responsibility.
President Joe Biden speaks during an event on the economy in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex, Monday, Oct. 23, 2023. | Jacquelyn Martin, Associated Press

This article was first published in the On the Trail 2024 newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox on Tuesday and Friday mornings here.

Good morning and welcome to On the Trail 2024, the Deseret News campaign newsletter. Im Samuel Benson, Deserets national political correspondent.

Eight GOP presidential candidates converge on Las Vegas this weekend for the Republican Jewish Coalition summit. Conversations, as expected, will center on Israel and antisemitism. But another Nevada-centric narrative is important: why are candidates ignoring the West? Read more of my coverage here.

Heres the latest from the Deseret News 2024 election coverage:

The Big Idea

Bidens challenger, Trumps chagrin

What a week in news. The war in the Middle East continues to escalate. Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives finally chose a speaker. Auto unions reached a tentative agreement with Ford after weeks of strikes.

While this presidential election cycle has been the least competitive and lowest-energy in some time, the past week was hectic  at least for the two front-runners. President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, is looking increasingly like a wartime president abroad, while warding off a potential Democratic challenger at home. And former President Donald Trump  who continues to boast a massive lead over his Republican opponents  has now violated his court-issued gag order twice, amid a growing acceptance among Republicans that the nomination is his to lose.

What you need to know about this chaotic week:

Biden, just two years removed from his withdrawal from Afghanistan and declaring an end to U.S. involvement in forever wars, is now being labeled a wartime president. His visit to Tel Aviv last week positioned Biden as the key leader in this war for an Israeli people deeply distrustful of its own government, The Hill wrote.

In the process, Biden is walking a tightrope. Hes repeatedly declared support for Israel, while saying Israel should not make the same retaliatory mistakes the U.S. made after 9/11. Hes called for a path toward peace and encouraged alternatives to a ground operation into Gaza, though he claims he didnt demand Israel delay such an attack. Hes denounced both antisemitism and Islamophobia and encouraged humanitarian aid for Palestinian civilians.

While Americans at large are split over how Biden has handled the war so far, his overall support among Democrats is slipping. Many of his big-money Arab-American boosters feel betrayed by his Israel support and have publicly jumped ship. One State Department employee resigned last week because of it.

Now, a new opponent is expected to announce his candidacy Friday morning, challenging Biden for the Democratic nomination. Minnesota congressman Dean Phillips will be launching his campaign in New Hampshire Friday, claiming its time for Biden  a wonderful and remarkable man  to pass the torch.

That Phillips is starting in New Hampshire  where Biden will not be on the primary ballot, as part of the DNCs efforts to make South Carolina the first state to vote  is noteworthy. Also notable is that Phillips is a Jewish man who supports a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine.

Trump, meanwhile, had a week consumed with his legal problems. He appeared in a New York City courtroom Wednesday, where he was fined $10,000 for violating a gag order (the second such fine in less than a week). Trump stormed out of the courtroom, surprising even his own lawyers and his Secret Service agents, who went scurrying after him, NBC News reports.

A separate gag order in one of Trumps criminal trials in Washington, D.C., was lifted last week after the Trump team appealed, though the special counsel in that case is now urging the judge to reinstate it  after Trump used the moratorium to attack witnesses, including his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows.

The entire saga has seemed to make enemies of friends and friends of enemies. Many of Trumps former allies  like Meadows and former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen  are now testifying against him. In a separate case in Georgia, four of Trumps co-conspirators to overturn the 2020 election have now pleaded guilty.

But the ACLU  which repeatedly called for Trumps impeachment  says the gag order in the Washington case infringes on Trumps First Amendment rights. And in an apparent act of either desperation or surrender, many of Trumps former donors who were looking for other GOP candidates to support are now reverting to Trump. Why? said one former Trump donor, who considered DeSantis and Scott. It is easy: I want to win.

Weekend reads

Ron DeSantis presidential campaign is on ice, poll after poll shows. But it took another hit this week, when one of his major Florida backers switched his support to Trump. Rep. Randy Fine, who chaired DeSantis Jewish outreach initiatives for his gubernatorial campaigns, blasted the Florida governor for doing too little to fight antisemitism. I love his words. His actions have broken my heart, Fine  the lone Jew in the Florida legislature  wrote. Top Ally Bashes DeSantiss Antisemitism Response and Switches Endorsement to Trump (Marc Caputo, The Messenger)

A trio of Republican candidates want to cancel student visas for any college students who protest against Israel. There are free-speech concerns here  and this article lays them out well. Trump, DeSantis, and Scott Want To Kick Out Foreign Students Who Protest Israel (Fiona Harrigan, Reason)

McKay Coppins new biography of Mitt Romney is out this week. (I wrote about it in my Tuesday newsletter.) This article in Politico is as good a behind-the-scenes peek into the making of that book as youll find anywhere. The book is called Romney: A Reckoning, because a major theme is Romneys own introspection about the path his party  and country  took in recent years. But that reckoning wasnt always easy, and Coppins deserves credit for pushing Romney to think hard. I Mean, Is This My Party? (Michael Kruse, Politico Magazine)

Have a question for next weeks mailbag? Drop me a line at onthetrail@deseretnews.com, or reply to this email.

See you on the trail.

Editors Note: The Deseret News is committed to covering issues of substance in the 2024 presidential race from its unique perspective and editorial values. Our team of political reporters will bring you in-depth coverage of the most relevant news and information to help you make an informed decision. Find our complete coverage of the election here.
In this season of The Great British Baking Show, one contestant has won over half of the technical challenges, provingno pun intendedthat hes the one to beat. With that track record heading into this weeks challenge in Pastry Week, all eyes were on Dan as the bakers were asked to make dauphinoise pithiviers. The pressure was on. Blood was shedliterally.

(Warning: Spoilers ahead.)

What is a dauphinoise pithivier, you ask? Pithiviers are round, flaky pies made with puff pastry. A dish from southeastern France, the dauphinoise is a filling consisting of potatoes soaked in cream. Judge Paul Hollywood has kindly posted his recipe online, in case you wanted to follow along with the bakers this week.

Around halfway through the bake, the contestants had to grate butter onto their dough. While Dan was whipping through the challenge, in the middle of grating his butter, he accidentally sliced his knuckles open. Ouch! A few drops of blood oozed onto his dough, rendering it inedible. Right as the hosts called the halfway point, Dan had to restart his entire bake.

All of the bakers had spent the first half of the bake whining about how finicky puff pastry is. Now, Dan would have to deal with it twice. Making matters worse, the baker had to compete with gloved, injured hands the second time around. So much for his reign on the technical challenges.

Great British Baking Show Fans in Uproar Over Pizzagate

Without a single beat, though, Dan recreated his bake and delivered a perfect dauphinoise pithivier to the judging table. (Not that I know what a perfect dauphinoise pithivier would look like; Im just guessing here.) Dan received great marks for his masterful recreation of the dish from Paul.

Ultimately, Dan took first place in the technical. If Dan can complete these challenges better than the other bakers with just half the time they had, hes really the one to beat.

Dan getting blood in his dough and having to restart but still winning technical for the third time is why hes my favorite #GBBO  pey10 (@pey10645) October 24, 2023

Dan is very much the sort of person who got straight As in his exams but swears blind he didn't do any revision (which is a lie) #GBBO  Stuart C Taylor (@stuartctaylor) October 24, 2023

Dan went on to create another brilliant bake in the showstopper challenge, but it wasnt grand enough to secure him the overall win for the week. Star baker instead went to Cristy, who earned a Paul Hollywood handshake earlier on in the day for her creamy mushroom and leek picnic pies.

Dans Journey Around South America Decorative Pies Showstopper for Pastry Week. #GBBO pic.twitter.com/heT5ZIsw4y  British Bake Off (@BritishBakeOff) October 24, 2023

Since no one was eliminated in last weeks episode, the chopping block came down on two players this week: Rowan and Nicky were sent home by the end of the three challenges. And if no one can measure up to Dan in the technical, everyone else is in danger, too.

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Staff at a North Wales zoo are confident about hearing the patter of tiny paws after a female snow leopard was brought in to breed with its resident male.

The Welsh Mountain Zoo in Colwyn Bay this week welcomed Padme to help conserve this vulnerable species - fewer than 3,500 of which remain in the wild.

She has joined Sumbe, a two-year-old male, who arrived at the zoo in 2022.

It is now hoped romance will blossom.

"Snow leopards can be picky when it comes to choosing their partners , but not as picky as pandas - few animals are, luckily," said Peter Litherland, the zoo's collection manager.

Speaking on Radio Wales' Breakfast programme on Friday, he added: "But while they may not fall in love, they will get on with it [breeding] because, well, nature is nature.

"The only problem will be if they don't like each other at all.

"If that is the case we might not see any babies, although the pair will probably be able to live together perfectly well.

"But we're very confident we'll hear patter of tiny paws.

"Padme's still young anyway, so we've got a couple of years to play with."

The 18-month-old female made the journey to Wales from Highland Wildlife Park in Scotland where she was born into a litter of three cubs.

"We have a history in caring for snow leopards here at the zoo and are keen for this to continue," added Mr Litherland.

"With a declining population in the wild it's vital that we continue our work to help conserve the species through conservation breeding and education."

The zoo carried out 1 million redevelopment of its snow leopard enclosure three years ago to provide a habitat that emulates their own natural surroundings and environment.

It has also become increasingly involved in campaigns and projects to safeguard and raise awareness of the status of the species, which is classified as "vulnerable" on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's danger list.

In addition, the zoo continues to make an annual commitment to support the Snow Leopard Trust, an organisation that works to protect the cat in partnership with the communities that share its habitat.
A Florida woman was arrested after a heated argument with her mother over a boil-water notice in Silver Springs, according to the Marion County Sheriffs Office.

A police report says that around 3 p.m. Monday, deputies were flagged down by an electric company employee who reported seeing an elderly female being pushed to the ground by another woman outside their home, about five miles east of Ocala.

READ MORE: Florida man arrested for beating up 103 year old grandmother

Deputies made contact with the suspect who told them that she had been arguing with her 68-year-old mother over a boil-water notice in the area.

According to Marion County Utilities, a precautionary boil-water notice was issued last Friday.

All residents must boil water used for consumption until the water is tested and results indicate your water is safe to drink, says the websites advisory. Water should be brought to a rapid boil one minute before consumption. This boil water notice applies to any water used for drinking, cooking, brushing teeth, etc.

READ MORE: Missing Florida woman with dementia found

The 38-year-old suspect admitted to fighting with her mother because she continued to drink the water without heating it up first, according to the probable cause affidavit.

The victim said that her daughter became violent with her when she was drinking, grabbing her cup and throwing it across the yard. When she went to pick up the cup, she said the suspect came over to her, hit her on the shoulder, then pushed her to the ground, which caused a cut on her hand.

Deputies observed the older womans cut as well as bruising on her shoulder, consistent with her account.

The suspect was arrested and charged with domestic battery on a person 65 years or older, and later released on $2,000 bail.

She is back at the home with her mother, and has no prior battery convictions, the report says.
The Biden administration hit back Friday on Speaker Mike Johnsons recent comments that placed blame for mass shootings in the United States on Americans hearts, calling the remarks offensive.

In a statement, White House spokesman Andrew Bates said the administration absolutely rejected the offensive accusation that gun crime is uniquely high in the United States because of Americans hearts.

Gun crime is uniquely high in the United States because congressional Republicans have spent decades choosing the gun industrys lobbyists over the lives of innocent Americans, Bates added.

The comments from Bates marks the first tiff between the newly elected Republican speaker and the Biden administration. It also serves as a reminder of the vast distance between the two most senior elected leaders of their respective parties, after a few short hours in which they showed a bit of good will toward each other.

On Thursday, Johnson appeared on Fox News, where he was asked about the murder of 18 people in Lewiston, Maine. The Louisiana Republican said it was not the right time to consider legislation and defended the Second Amendment.

At the end of the day, the problem is the human heart. Its not guns, its not the weapons, Johnson said. We have to protect the right of the citizens to protect themselves. Thats the Second Amendment and thats why our party stands so strongly for that.

The Biden White House, for its part, has renewed a call for gun legislation after the shooting in Lewiston. And it wasted little time hitting Johnson for standing in the way.

Gun violence is not the result of an imagined deficiency in the hearts of the American people; nor is it because women have the right to make their own health care decisions, as the Speaker once claimed, Bates said, referring to Johnsons 2016 commentsthat attributed mass shootings to the age of immortality, including the legalization of abortion rights and teaching evolution in schools.

Johnsons office did not immediately return a request for comment.

Johnson was critical of the Biden administration at several points in the wide-ranging interview on Fox News. He said he believes the president is experiencing cognitive decline and that the impeachment inquiry into the president will find very likely impeachable offenses. He also dubbed Bidens tenure a failed presidency, declining to identify a policy area in which Biden has been successful.

Earlier Thursday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre pointed to gun violence legislation as a potential area of compromise with the new speaker. However, she named policy proposals that have been widely dismissed by Republicans.

Lets work together to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, she said. Lets work together to enact universal background checks, require safe storage of guns, and keep guns out of the hands of criminals and dangerous individuals who have no business being armed with a weapon of war.


MEMPHIS, Tenn.  WREGs in-depth investigation into kids and crime continues with a Memphis program working to help children get back on the right path.

I wanted to be the president at one point, Knyia Jones said. But I decided the president is the poster boy, so I want to be a senator or a congresswoman.

Jones is ambitious, but her path wasnt always this clear.

A bad day in her junior year of high school turned into a bad brawl with a classmate. She was charged with assault, and at a Shelby County Juvenile Court hearing, she was referred to JIFF.

I was so relieved, Jones said.

JIFF stands for Juvenile Intervention and Faith-Based Follow-Up. Its a non-profit in Memphis providing youth with skills, support, and Christ-centered teachings. They pair the children with mentors and offer a safe space to open up.

I was very depressed. My depression at the time showed up as anger. I felt like I could take my anger out on whoever I wanted to at the time. I wasnt talking about it. I was keeping it bottled up, and on that day, I was like Im going to take it out on this girl, Jones said.

One day after church, I was fixing to head back home with my cousin. Vincent Porter said.

He said instead, they went to a music video shoot in the neighborhood where guns were flashed and police were called. Officers say they saw a gun next to the 14-year-olds leg.

They say since it was next to my leg it was in my possession, so I had to go to juvenile, Porter said.

As in juvenile court, where he also was referred to JIFF.

Porter said it helped him stay on the right path because it helps keep my mind straight, and it gave me a lot of knowledge, like just in the world.

A lot of the youth are referred by the juvenile court. Once referred, staff decides which of its programs is the best fit.

They have an evening reporting center, which is a month-long intensive program for boys, both violent and non-violent. An early intervention program for girls and boys focused on rehabilitation and reconciliation, and a more intensive program for boys with an average of three or more arrests.

Why a 14-year-old honor student joined a gang, and what it took to get out

A lot of these youth are facing adult challenges by themselves, program manager Mario Morgan said. We also get them to reflect and realize how your choices could have affected the victim, the victims family, your family, and your friends. Your choices come with consequences.

JIFF reports a majority of their kids get back on track. They said for their most intensive program offered, they have a 77 percent success rate.



Jhmar Williams said he was relieved when he was granted the option.

Thank God. I would rather be here than in jail, he said.

Williams is currently in JIFF. He didnt want to say what landed him there. Just that he ran from police and this was the first time he got into trouble.

It was stupid, I am not going to lie, he told WREG.

Williams said the program has helped him determine his goals like going to trade school or maybe even the military. He wishes there were more adults trying to understand what kids are going through.

If he doesnt have nothing in the house to eat and you see your little brother starving, you are going to do what you got to do to get a piece of chicken, he said.

In Memphis, 45 percent of children live below the poverty line and reports show 35,000 between 16 and 24-year-olds in Shelby County are not in school or are not working.

JIFF reports the youth they see are on average four years behind in school. External factors they believe often lead to crime.

Its important, so you can understand the environment they live in produces a certain type of person, program manager Duane Stewart said. We live by the premise that kids do well if they can.

The word If is the key. He said the city must come together.

There are food deserts. There is no source of grocery stores in the inner city. The resources and all of the after-school programs that used to be in the inner city are no longer there, Stewart said.

As for Jones, her past is behind her.

Shes now in college and working toward her goal of giving back to her city.

Everything God does is with purpose. There was a reason for me to do that and for me to end up here and meet the people I met and make the changes I made, she said.

What to know more about JIFF?

The non-profit has been around for over 50 years.

Referrals for JIFF come from juvenile court, the public defenders office, the Youth Services Bureau, and others. The organization is also taking community referrals as well.

To learn more about JIFF and its programs: click here.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com.
China to strengthen communication, coordination with Iran within multilateral mechanisms -- premier

Xinhua) 09:19, October 27, 2023

Chinese Premier Li Qiang meets with Iran's First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber on the sidelines of the 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Oct. 26, 2023. (Xinhua/Liu Bin)

BISHKEK, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- China stands ready to strengthen communication and coordination with Iran within the United Nations, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), BRICS and other multilateral mechanisms, practice true multilateralism, and safeguard the common interests of developing countries, Chinese Premier Li Qiang said here Thursday.

Li made the remarks when meeting with Iran's First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber on the sidelines of the 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the SCO Member States.

Since the establishment of China-Iran diplomatic ties more than 50 years ago, bilateral relations have withstood the test of the fluctuating international situation and made steady progress, said Li, noting that President Xi Jinping and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi met twice this year and reached a series of important consensuses.

Li added that China is ready to work with Iran to implement the important consensuses reached by the two heads of state, enrich the connotation of the China-Iran comprehensive strategic partnership and bring more benefits to the two peoples.

China will continue to firmly support Iran in safeguarding its national sovereignty, territorial integrity, and national dignity, and will strongly oppose any external forces interfering in Iran's internal affairs, he stressed.

The two sides should implement the comprehensive cooperation plan between the two countries, promote the Belt and Road cooperation, strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields and cultural and people-to-people exchanges in such areas as education, culture, tourism and think tanks, and promote new achievements in China-Iran cooperation, Li said.

For his part, Mokhber said that China is a comprehensive strategic partner of Iran and the two countries enjoy a long history of friendship.

Iran appreciates China's assistance for its economic and social development and is firmly committed to deepening Iran-China relations, he added.

Iran is willing to work with China in the Belt and Road cooperation, strengthen connectivity and mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields, deepen mutual coordination within multilateral frameworks and push for continuous and in-depth development of Iran-China relations, Mokhber said.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang meets with Iran's First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber on the sidelines of the 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Oct. 26, 2023. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu)

(Web editor: Tian Yi, Liang Jun)
VIENTIANE, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- Since the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a number of development projects have been started and implemented, creating job opportunities, contributing to the development and improving people's livelihood in Laos, as well as providing stable dynamics for economic cooperation between China and Laos.

"This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative proposed in 2013. It is clear that this Initiative has delivered numerous fruitful results, and Laos has reaped significant rewards from the scheme," Director General and editor-in-chief of local daily Vientiane Times, Thonglor Duangsavanh, delivered a keynote speech and shared with other foreign participants the tangible outcomes of the BRI cooperation in Laos, at the 2023 Media Cooperation Forum on Belt and Road held in Beijing last Thursday.

He also noted that construction of the China-Laos Railway, a part of the BRI, was completed and put into service in December 2021. The initiative is enabling Laos to convert from being a landlocked country to a land link, bolstered by the high-speed railway, which links the Lao capital Vientiane with Kunming, the capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province.

It is hoped that the railway's passenger and freight services will strengthen regional logistics and transport connecting to the world.

The China-Laos Railway will also be one of the key means of transport for tourists during the Visit Laos Year 2024, serving to attract visitors in greater numbers.

On Oct. 16, the Chinese Embassy in Laos, together with Laos-China Railway Co., Ltd. (LCRC), and the China Cultural Center in Laos, held the award ceremony of a short video competition themed "My Story with China-Laos Railway", aimed at celebrating the 10th anniversary of the BRI.

The competition focused on the stories of Lao people with the China-Laos Railway, attracting many people to participate enthusiastically.

At the ceremony held in Lao capital Vientiane, Bounsouk Khangxay was announced the winner of the competition. The winning videos showed that the China-Laos Railway has helped the development of Laos, created benefits for local people, changed the face of socio-economic development, and turned the dreams of the people along the railway corridor into reality.

Lao President Thongloun Sisoulith reiterated his support for the BRI during a speech at a sub-forum after the opening ceremony of the third Belt and Road Initiative Forum for International Cooperation last Wednesday.

In his keynote speech, the President stressed the importance of the initiative and its positive outcomes over the past 10 years, saying the BRI played a significant role in development, bolstering multiple forms of cooperation at different levels in the regional and international arenas.

He said the initiative has created and facilitated a massive amount of development, especially in relation to integrated and linked infrastructure in developing nations.

He also cited the outstanding results of the BRI in Laos, such as the construction of the China-Laos Railway, the Laos-China Economic Corridor, and an expressway. In the fields of trade and economic cooperation, projects relating to agriculture, industry and clean energy are also under development.

The China-Laos Railway, a landmark project of high-quality BRI cooperation, has created more than 110,000 jobs for Lao people since its opening and has drawn the interest of numerous Chinese and local young talents who pursue their professional careers on the railway.

The Nam Ou River Cascade Hydropower Project, built under the framework of the BRI, is highly valued by the Chinese and Lao governments and peoples. The project has generated over 13.3 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity as of June 2023.

More foreign and local business operators are eyeing lucrative opportunities in Laos and ploughing more investment into the country, thanks to improved infrastructure and connectivity as a result of the BRI.

As part of the BRI, the Vientiane Saysettha Development Zone is being jointly built in the Lao capital by Laos and China, attracting huge investment, General Manager of Lao-China Joint Venture Investment Co., Ltd. Xiong Jun, told the media in June.

So far, investment by the enterprises in the zone has reached 700 million U.S. dollars, with 6,000 jobs being created, he said.

Laos has voiced support for the next stages of international cooperation under the BRI following its many visible successes over the past decade.

In 2013, China proposed the BRI to foster new drivers for global development. To date, more than 150 countries and over 30 international organizations have signed documents under the BRI framework, bringing an economic boon to participating countries. 
The group is made up of soldiers from Kenya, Burundi, South Sudan and Uganda

After just 11 months in action, the East African force set up to to curb militia violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been ordered to leave the country.

The Congolese government said it would not extend the East Africa Community (EAC) Regional Force's mandate after months of Kinshasa complaining about the group's ineffectiveness.

The decision not to extend the troops' stay comes as violence between the M23 rebel group and pro-government militias erupts in DR Congo's troubled eastern region once more.

What was the regional troop's mandate?

The East African Community (EAC) - a union of seven countries - sent its troops to DR Congo last year after a resurgence in fighting by the M23. The force was agreed shortly after DR Congo had joined the regional club.

Formed more than 10 years ago, the M23 has taken over large swathes of territory in the east, arguing that it does so to defend the interest of ethnic Tutsis against Hutu militias it says are backed by the government.

Burundi was the first of four countries to send its troops to DR Congo in August last year, followed by Kenya, South Sudan and Uganda, with Kenya in overall command.

The EAC's Regional Force insists its mandate is to oversee the withdrawal of armed groups from captured areas.

However, the Congolese government and local communities want the force to engage in direct combat with groups like the M23.

The force was established to work alongside United Nations troops who were already in the country. The UN peacekeeping force, known as Monusco, has become increasingly unpopular for its failure to end the conflict during its 25-year deployment. President Felix Tshisekedi said he wanted Monusco to withdraw from the country in December.

In a recent statement, the EAC said its forces were dedicated to working closely with the government to enable the safe return of internally displaced people to their homes and enhance the overall protection of civilians.

Its mandate has been extended twice since the mission began.

Why does DR Congo want East African troops to leave?

The EAC's soldiers have received repeated criticism from the Congolese government and civil society groups throughout their deployment.

President Tshisekedi has become one of the force's main detractors. He has complained about the mission's "lack of effectiveness", issuing ultimatums for them to act more aggressively against the M23 or leave the country.

The failure to end the conflict has led to demonstrations against both the EAC force and Monusco. One such protest in September turned deadly, with more than 40 people losing their lives.

According to local media, Communications Minister Patrick Muyaya said: "The message is clear: the EAC regional force must leave the Democratic Republic of Congo by 8 December, as agreed, because it has not been able to resolve the problem, particularly that of the M23."

What has the EAC force achieved?

Since entering DR Congo last year, the EAC force said it had overseen the withdrawal of armed forces from several areas like Karuba, Mushaki, Kiloriwe and Kitchange.

However, achieving complete stability has proven to be challenging. The force has faced logistical and operational difficulties.

On Tuesday, a mortar attack launched by rebels killed a Kenyan soldier attached to the force. He was the first Kenyan member of the force to be killed.

Earlier this month the EAC said its forces had faced hostilities because of propaganda perpetuated by armed groups.

Why has fighting resumed?

Dozens of armed groups have long plagued DR Congo's mineral-rich eastern region.

After a precarious six-month truce, fighting resumed between M23 rebels and pro-government forces, known as Wazalendo, this month.

The government in Kinshasa accused the M23 of failing to disarm and uphold the ceasefire. The M23 in turned blamed pro-government forces for the resumption of the violence.

DR Congo's army said it was still respecting the truce, but witnesses contest this, saying soldiers and pro-government loyalists have been fighting together against the M23.

Civilians have been caught up in the renewed violence - just last week at least 60 were killed in attacks on North Kivu's Rutshuru territory, a local official said.
This illustration provided by AstraZeneca depicts packaging for its medication Beyfortus. A new shot for infants against RSV is in short supply, and U.S. health officials told doctors they should prioritize giving the drug to babies at the highest risk of severe disease. Infants less than 6 months who have chronic lung disease or other underlying conditions should be given priority, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told doctors in an Oct. 23, 2023 alert. | AstraZeneca via Associated Press

The first RSV immunization recommended for all infants under 8 months old is no longer expected to be available to everyone in that age group, thanks to limited supplies nationwide.

Unfortunately, this shortage has put us in a difficult spot, said Whitney Buckel, an infectious diseases pharmacist that oversees antibiotic use for Intermountain Health, the regions largest health care system.

With the respiratory syncytial virus season expected to start in November, the plan had been to target every eligible patient to prevent severe RSV disease in all infants that we see, Buckel said.

Related

But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an advisory Monday about the impact of what the manufacturer of Beyfortus, the brand name for nirsevimab, called unprecedented demand for the RSV monoclonal prophylaxis.

The CDC said higher doses of the treatment, intended for infants weighing more than 11 pounds, should instead be prioritized for those at the highest risk for severe RSV disease because theyre under 6 months old or have underlying conditions.

The shots were authorized earlier this year for all infants under 8 months old as well as for children 8 to 19 months old at increased risk for severe RSV, a leading cause of hospitalization among infants in the United States.

Buckel said the updated recommendations mean if youre a parent and you have an older child, were in a shortage situation and may not be able to provide it for your infant unless they are at highest risk.

Intermountain Health has already started giving the treatment to neonatal intensive care unit patients, she said, with the hope of offering it outside hospitals starting next month to babies under 11 pounds.

While the higher dose is acutely on shortage, shipments of the lower dose are also being limited, she said. There is no RSV vaccine for older children, although shots are available for adults who are 32 to 36 weeks pregnant, or over 60 years old.

Related

Were really trying to promote the RSV vaccine in our pregnant women. I think the more that we can do that, the more that well have infants protected this year, Buckel said, since antibodies generated as a result of the vaccine are passed along to the fetus.

Otherwise, the only advice she can offer to parents whose children will no longer be able to get the RSV treatment are to take everyday preventive measures, such as frequent hand washing, covering coughs and staying home when sick.

Such simple steps helped tamp down RSV during much of the COVID-19 pandemic, Buckel said. Last fall saw a surge in RSV and flu cases among children, filling up Intermountain Primary Childrens Hospital and forcing the postponement of some scheduled surgeries.

Many parents had been excited about protecting their infants from RSV this year, Buckel said, acknowledging the shortage is a big disappointment for doctors because they care so much about all their kids. Its really hard to have that conversation.

Dr. David Cope, a family medicine doctor in Bountiful, is already having to decide which of his youngest patients can get the treatment.

It is real and it is worrisome that therell be babies that go unprotected simply because of lack of supply, Cope said. It doesnt make sense to offer it (to parents) and then say their baby doesnt qualify, so I just bring it up and offer it to those who fit the criteria.

That takes a toll, Cope said.

It is difficult and worrisome to have a baby in clinic and know they can benefit from this preventative treatment, not be able to offer that treatment, and then worry and consternate that this infant will be stricken with RSV, he said.

Cope said he worries, Will he or she be one of those that suffer from severe disease? To know theres a way to prevent severe disease and not be able to use that treatment is disheartening.
The mystery midtown roundabout on the Buford-Spring connector is still not fully open. A new exit onto city streets was built, but has been blocked for months.

Channel 2s Steve Gehlbach went to the Atlanta Department of Transportation and Georgia Department of Transportation for answers.

He learned that it wasnt built by Atlanta DOT or GDOT, but a private company who eventually wants to develop land back off West Peachtree.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

The roundabout and new connection onto Peachtree Street has been open on the Buford-Spring connector for months. But since April, a section exiting up and connecting to city streets by the Savannah College of Art and Design, the Temple and the WSB-TV studios remains blocked by orange barrels and barricades.

While some who live and work in the area look forward to easier access to the connector, others say it will cause too much cut-through traffic. They also worry about safety and said they werent notified before it was built.

Yes, this could be convenient for certain individuals, but at what expense? How would you like an interstate dropped in your backyard? Hayes said.

TRENDING STORIES:

According to a GDOT spokesperson, its ATLDOT that needs to complete speed control and other improvements to city streets, while they are also waiting on some final utility and right-of-way agreements before it can fully open.

But Hayes said homeowners were told by GDOT that a private developer building the project didnt complete it, according to plans approved by the state and city. Gehlbach received this response in an email from a GDOT engineer.

The change was not approved by ATLDOT or GDOT. As it stands, the department is withholding project closeout and bond release until the modifications are acceptable to both departments.

Gehlbach reached out to ATLDOT to get details about where this stands and their part. He also spoke with president of the Ansley Park Civic Association, who voiced their concerns about the opening.

He said the association is still in the dark about why its not open, but they are hoping for a new traffic study once it does.

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The death of a leader in China can usher in big changes, it did after Mao Zedong, or can lead to political upheaval, like it did when grieving for Hu Yaobang morphed into the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.

For this reason, the passing of former premier Li Keqiang has already triggered various measures to ensure that stability is maintained.

A crackdown on VPN use is under way to reduce the access of Chinese citizens to the parts of the internet not controlled by the Communist Party.

The Party doesn't want mourning for a popular, liberal, former number two leader to generate wider criticism of the current administration, led by Xi Jinping .

It is not just that Li died so suddenly, suffering a heart attack just months after stepping down, but because of what he represented: a way of potentially governing China with different priorities to those of the General Secretary Xi.

He was a bright pragmatist who didn't seem so concerned with ideology. And this is one reason why he cut such a lonely figure in the previous, seven-man Politburo Standing Committee, the country's most powerful decision-making body.

Then there's what would become known as the "Li Keqiang Index" which was born via a famous US state department memo, and came to light in Wikileaks. As the then Party Secretary of Liaoning Province, Li is said to have told the US ambassador in 2007 that the local GDP figures were unreliable as a way of judging economic health.

He reportedly said that he used three other indicators to analyse growth: railway cargo volume, electricity consumption and bank loan disbursements.

Criticising China's official statistics, even behind closed doors, to the Americans cannot have gone down well with his political opponents.

The former premier was considered one of the smartest political figures of his generation. He was accepted into the prestigious Peking University Law School soon after the universities were reopened following Chairman Mao's disastrous Cultural Revolution.

In a Party dominated by engineers, he was an economist, who become known for "telling it like it is" by honestly and publicly acknowledging China's economic problems as a means of finding solutions to them.

Journalists raise their hands during a press conference by Mr Li in March 2017

During the recent pandemic, he spoke about the damage which Mr Xi's signature zero-Covid approach was doing to the economy, and to ordinary Chinese.

Naturally, he didn't question the country's paramount leader directly, or the policy itself, but he didn't sugar coat the impacts of the amelioration measures either.

In May 2022, during a virtual meeting said to involve more than 100,000 government and business representatives, he first spoke highly of the "effective work" from officials facing "unexpected challenges" during the crisis but then he went on: "The difficulties, in some areas and to a certain degree, are even greater than the severe shock of the pandemic in 2020."

He added that there was a clear way forward, saying that "development is the basis and key to solving all problems in China". It's worth noting that he said development, not ideological vigour.

"To do a good job of epidemic prevention and control, we need financial and material resources. We need development to support stable employment, people's livelihoods and risk prevention," he said.

In May last year, with the zero-Covid policy still in place, he appeared unmasked at a university in Yunnan province. And neither the students nor officials gathering around him were wearing masks. This spurred viral discussion on social media, with posts praising the premier. Soon the hashtag #PremierAtYunnanUniversity was being censored.

This embedded content is not available in your region.

During the first year of Covid, as the person technically in charge of the economy, Li decided to promote the job creating capacity of street stalls and was seen visiting street vendors in Shandong Province. Business was already heading into difficult waters, and he said that this type of commerce could add vitality and create more jobs.

Almost immediately, street vendors were back on the streets of Beijing, after having been banned for years. But they were never going to be allowed to stay, not under Mr Xi's vision of what the Chinese capital should look like.

Within days of Li's so-called push to revive street stalls, the move was already being undermined in the Beijing Municipal Party Committee's newspaper, The Beijing Daily. It ran a commentary saying that street stalls were "unhygienic and uncivilised". Other state media then joined with similar messages.

That the city government could so quickly - and so publicly and effectively - overturn a suggested policy by the premier of the country, showed just how limited his power had become.

Under the previous government of Hu Jintao, with its collective leadership, this would not have been possible. Various factions within the Party had to be balanced.

But under Mr Xi it is either the Xi Jinping way or the wrong way.

Before Li stepped down in March this year, he was the last senior government figure linked to the Hu-era and its way of doing things.

His presence represented another time, a less politically zealous approach, which focused more on business activity than party sloganeering.

Mr Li dons a Montreal Canadiens NHL hockey jersey during a visit to Canada in 2016

As a fluent English speaker, he could be very charming when meeting foreign leaders. He would also wave and smile to journalists gathering to film his official meetings.

That his death has come just months after the unexplained removal of the high-profile Foreign and Defence Ministers has only added to its potential sensitivity.

The coming official ceremonies remembering him will be handled very carefully, lest they even slightly prompt a sympathetic view of the former Premier which might conflict with government's current path.

Those watching Chinese social media platforms will be monitoring the outpourings of sadness and shock online, as ordinary people remember him.

Li came through the ranks of the Communist Party at the same time as Mr Xi and, at one point, was in the running to become General Secretary himself, instead of Mr Xi.

Much speculation has been made of what China might have been like now, had Li taken the reins as paramount leader.
If you have children, youll be all too familiar with the stress that comes with trying to manage your commitments at work when your children need you to be with them.

It might be because they are sick, or need to be brought to an appointment, or have a game or performance that means everything to them; the reason doesnt matter.

What matters is being able to balance your commitment to your job with the one you have to your family.

Sometimes youll know about a looming clash between work and meeting your childrens needs and youll be able to plan ahead and arrange the time off in advance. But sometimes you wont; when your child wakes up in the morning with a raging fever and cant go to school, for instance.

Juggling act

Employees whose children are very young are the ones who find a job with a rigid, inflexible structure least compatible with the realities of family life. A McKinsey survey found employees with children aged five and under cited caring for their family as one of the top five reasons why they were considering quitting their job.

Employees dont want to let their employer down, but when things dont go according to plan and they are faced with a sick preschooler, what alternative do they have?

It makes sense that the parents of very young children are the ones most likely to seek remote work. That way, if they need to be at home with their sick child, they can still get their work done.

But while fully remote work is the solution for some, it can lead to employees feeling isolated or disconnected from their employer. Remote workers can find it harder to feel part of a team.

Many parents, and especially those of very young children, are finding that other forms of flexible working are the answer. And by instigating flexible working policies, employers are acknowledging that although their employees have important family commitments, they are still valued within an organization.

Finding the right fit

Recent research shows that flexibility is the number one thing employees want when considering their employment prospects. And so employers who want to attract the best talent have to offer just that.

Flexible working comes in many different forms. In the wake of the pandemic, hybrid working is now firmly established and the new norm in many organizations. Research shows hybrid working benefits employee health and well-being, reduces burnout and can improve productivity.

Other trends in flexible working include a compressed working week, with the holy grail of the four-day week now a reality for some, and flextime, with working hours designed to suit each individual employees circadian rhythms and their responsibilities outside of work. So long as the employee completes the required number of hours, its up to them when they do that.

Companies such as Microsoft even allow employees to choose their start time to optimize their performance, so larks can start their working day at first light and owls can sleep in and work into the evening.

If you think you and your family would benefit from you having flexible working arrangements that would allow you to drop and collect children from school or childcare for instance, then its worth asking your manager if its an option.

Given that flexible arrangements are now more prevalent, its unlikely that youll be the first employee to ask. Point out the benefits you see in terms of increased productivity, and a reduced chance of burnout from stress.

Hopefully, your employer will be willing to discuss flexible arrangements with you. But, if not, there are plenty of employers out there who will.

Here are three positions which are open right now:

Flexible working is part of the deal at Mental Health America (MHA), which is seeking a Vice President of Government Affairs who will be responsible for advancing Mental Health Americas legislative and administrative federal agenda. You will need to be passionate about improving mental health and well-being as you will be responsible for building key relationships with congressional and agency staff, drafting legislation and administrative comments, and working with partner organizations to achieve mutual policy goals.

The Office of The Chief Financial Officer is hiring a Budget Officer to assist in its mission to enhance the fiscal and financial stability, accountability and integrity of the Government of the District of Columbia. An equal opportunity employer, the OCFO offers a competitive salary and benefits package including medical, dental, retirement, and educational assistance.

Elsewhere, the Democratic Attorneys General Association (DAGA) is looking for a Deputy Director of Accounting and Finance. This person will be responsible for supporting the accounting and finance functions for the organizations three legal entities and while extended and nontraditional work hours are required at times, staff follow a hybrid remote working model and work two days per week from home.

If youre looking for further opportunities offering flexibility, visit The Hill Jobs Board where you can browse a wide selection of open roles right now

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
FILE - Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe poses for a photograph outside the Wisconsin Capitol building, Aug. 31, 2020, in Madison, Wis. A vote by the Republican-controlled Wisconsin Senate last month to fire Wolfe, the state's nonpartisan top elections official, had no legal effect, and lawmakers are barred from ousting her while a lawsuit plays out, a Dane County judge ruled on Friday, Oct. 27, 2023. (Ruthie Hauge/Wisconsin State Journal via AP, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

MADISON, Wis. (AP)  A vote by the Republican-controlled Wisconsin Senate last month to fire the state's nonpartisan top elections official had no legal effect, and lawmakers are barred from ousting her while a lawsuit plays out, a Dane County judge ruled on Friday.

Administrator Meagan Wolfe will continue serving as head of the Wisconsin Elections Commission pending a decision on whether elections commissioners are legally required to appoint someone for the Senate to confirm, Judge Ann Peacock said.

Senate Republicans voted in September to fire Wolfe, despite objections from Democrats and the Legislature's own nonpartisan attorneys, who said the Senate didn't have the authority to vote at that time.

Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul sued to challenge that vote, and in court filings earlier this month, Republican legislative leaders changed course and claimed their vote to fire Wolfe was merely symbolic and had no legal effect. They also asked Peacock to order the elections commission to appoint an administrator for the Senate to vote on.

This injunction provides needed certainty and should resolve any confusion resulting from the Legislatures actions, Kaul said in a statement.

An attorney representing GOP legislative leaders in the lawsuit did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on Friday.

The bipartisan elections commission deadlocked in June on a vote to reappoint Wolfe. The three Republican commissioners voted in favor, but the three Democrats abstained to block the nomination from going before the Senate. Actions by the commission require a four-vote majority.

GOP lawmakers have accused the Democratic elections commissioners of neglecting their duty by not voting, and the Senate retaliated by rejecting confirmation for Democratic Commissioner Joseph Czarnezki this month, effectively firing him. But Democrats argue the commission is not required to make an appointment and that Wolfe can stay in office indefinitely as a holdover under a recent Supreme Court ruling that Republicans have used to maintain control of policy boards.

Wolfe has been the subject of conspiracy theories and targeted by threats from election skeptics who falsely claim she was part of a plot to rig the 2020 vote 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.

The fight over who will run the battleground state's elections agency has caused instability ahead of the 2024 presidential race for Wisconsin's more than 1,800 local clerks who actually run elections. Peacock said her order on Friday would maintain the status quo.

I agree with WEC that the public expects stability in its elections system and this injunction will provide stability pending the Courts final decision, she wrote.

___

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.
To kick off this Halloween weekend, one spooky local business will be swimming with the sharks.

The founders of American Ghost Walks  a national ghost tour company that started in Milwaukee in 2008  are appearing on ABC's "Shark Tank" Friday, Oct. 27 to pitch their paranormal tourism business to the show's panel of ultra-wealthy venture capitalist "sharks."

Siblings Allison Jornlin and Mike Huberty founded the family-owned tour company and will appear on the fifth episode of the 15th season of the hit show tonight at 7 p.m. Central.

American Ghost Walks currently offers historical and thoroughly researched, 90-minute-to-2-hour paranormal tours in 25 regular locations across seven states and Puerto Rico. Many of the unique ghost stories featured in the tours come from interviews with locals in the community like waiters and bartenders, Huberty said.

"We're having a great time connecting people with these towns and the history and showing people a new side of their cities," Huberty said. "I'd say 50% of our customers are locals, and a thing we hear all the time is 'I never knew this, but my family and I have lived here all my life. I had no idea this place was so cool.'"

What is it like to be on Shark Tank?

In the middle of July, Huberty said Shark Tank reached out to American Ghost Walks while in search of businesses to star in an upcoming Halloween episode. Still, American Ghost Walks had to go through the regular audition and legal process in order to get on the show.

"Investment isn't really something I thought too much about before, but when the opportunity arises, you have to give it a shot," Huberty said.

Huberty and Jornlin were flown out to film the episode in early September. Even though the pair did not know at the time whether Shark Tank would air their pitch, Huberty said the experience was "really fun." He also loved the show's Halloween set decorations and meeting the famous "sharks."

"I thought that Mr. Wonderful, the guy that usually is hardest on everybody, came in with a really reasonable take and was paying attention like he cared and really wanted to know the business," Huberty said.

Jornlin echoed her brother's feelings about Canadian businessman and investor Kevin O'Leary, the shark known to fans of the show as "Mr. Wonderful."

"Maybe it's the editing that makes Mr. Wonderful look like such a bad guy because Kevin O'Leary was just the most gentlemanly, and he really listened in his approach," Jornlin said.

An American Ghost Walks tour group poses in Milwaukee's Third Ward on the "Bloody Third Ward" ghost walk. This was the first tour offered by the company, which began operating in 2008.

Where does American Ghost Walks offer tours?

American Ghost Walks currently offers 25 regular ghost tours in cities in Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, California, Louisiana, Hawaii, Maine and Puerto Rico. They also offer special tours, so Huberty said they typically have about 30 different tours available at a time.

Wisconsin tour locations include Milwaukee's Third Ward and City Hall, Madison's Capitol Square and UW-Madison, Lake Geneva, Bayfield, Waukesha and more.

New Orleans is the company's newest destination, Huberty said. He hopes to expand to more locations and thinks the company's exposure on Shark Tank will help.

Siblings Mike Huberty and Allison Jornlin founded American Ghost Walks in 2008. They had the opportunity to pitch their business on ABC's 'Shark Tank' in an episode airing Friday, Oct. 27, 2023.

How did American Ghost Walks grow their business before Shark Tank?

Huberty and Jornlin grew up in Big Bend, where they enjoyed listening to Richard Crowe's Chicago ghost stories on the radio.

While a fourth-grade teacher at Indian Community School in Franklin, Jornlin spent her summers researching the paranormal history of Milwaukee until she was ready to debut her first ghost tour in 2008. The "Bloody Third Ward" ghost walk is still offered by American Ghost Walks today.

"I wanted to bring the same kind of legendary paranormal status to Milwaukee that they have in New Orleans and Chicago," Jornlin said. "Chicago has had a haunted history tour since 1973."

In 2010, American Ghost Walks expanded to Madison, where Huberty was living at the time. The company now offers haunted tours of Capitol Square, UW-Madison and State St.

Huberty said the impetus for starting the Madison tours was to find a way to pay his rent after his band was no longer touring.

"I went down to Capitol Square and walked into the Great Dane, ... and I asked the waitress, 'Hey, I know this is gonna sound weird, but is this place haunted?'" Huberty recalled.

The waitress's response caught him by surprise.

"Well, I've seen at least two ghosts, but you should probably talk to my manager; she's seen four," Huberty recalls her saying.

"That's when I knew we were off to the races," Huberty said. "I started writing, and then by September had the tour running through Halloween. That's how I paid my rent."

A tour group poses on the steps of the Wisconsin State Capitol building in Madison on the King St. and Capitol Square ghost walk offered by American Ghost Walks.

American Ghost Walks soon added more Wisconsin tour locations. Then, when Huberty moved to Minnesota's Twin Cities a few years later, he brought American Ghost Walks there with him, adding another state to the tour lineup.

Looking for warm weather destinations to add to the lineup, the company eventually added Puerto Rico, Hawaii and more, often purchasing the rights to existing tours whose organizers were retiring or partnering with friends in the paranormal community across the country.

"We feel like we get a deeper connection to the cities, learning about the folklore and mythology from ... a waiter at a restaurant or the busboy out in the alley smoking. ...," Huberty said. "So, you get those stories and connect it to maybe the history of the building, connect the history of the building to the history of the city, and then the history of the city to what's going on in the world. And hopefully it makes a 90-minute, 2-hour fun experience for everybody on a Friday or Saturday night."

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: American Ghost Walks started in Milwaukee, now it's on 'Shark Tank'
LAS VEGAS (KLAS)  A woman is facing grand larceny charges after police said she stole a $15,000 Rolex watch and hid it under her wig, according to a police report.

Officers with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department were called to 3730 S. Las Vegas Blvd. after a hotel guest reported that his watch was missing, the report said.

The address listed in the report matches the address for the ARIA Resort & Casino.

The victim told police that he was staying in a room at the hotel with his friend. At around 1:30 a.m., the victim went back to his room, where he took off his Rolex watch and put it on the counter before falling asleep, according to the report.

At around 6 a.m., the victim was woken by his friend who had brought two women back to the room. The victim told police that his friend told him to grab his expensive belongings and put them in the safe just to be safe, the report stated.

When the victim woke up to grab his belongings, he noticed that his watch was not where he left it, the police said. The report stated the Rolex was worth $15,000.

The victim told police that he blamed the two women because they were the only ones in the room when he woke up, the report stated.

After a few minutes of arguing over the watch, Aria security arrived and escorted everyone to the holding room before they called Metro.

When asked where the watch was, one of the women paused and said she had no idea what watch [they] were talking about, the report stated.

The second woman, Ariel Jackson, 25, told police she had no clue about the watch and was very adamant she did not take it, according to the report.

Ariel Jackson, 25, is facing grand larceny charges after police say she stole a $15,000 Rolex watch and hid it under her wig. (LVMPD)

Because there was surveillance video showing the victim with the watch and it went missing when the two women entered the room, police arrested them, the report stated.

As police were putting Jackson into the patrol vehicle, she asked police If by chance one of [us] had the watch and returned it, would they be able to get set free?

When asked where the watch was again, Jackson said she was not going to tell police where the watch was until she was told she was going to walk free, according to the report.

Police told Jackson that it would be up to the victim if he wanted to drop the charges and that he wanted to see the watch before deciding. Jackson then told police that the watch was hidden in her wig.

The report stated that police found the watch stuffed in between her hair and the wig. The watch was returned to the victim, who was adamant about pressing charges.

Jackson faces charges of grand larceny of more than $5,000 but less than $25,000 and conspiracy to commit grand larceny. She was being held at the Clark County Detention Center on no bail. Her next court appearance was scheduled for Oct. 30.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS.
A West End mother has been charged in connection with the killing of her four-month-old son.

Ja'nasia Green, 23, was arrested Friday on a murder warrant, Cincinnati police said in a news release.

On Wednesday, officers responded just before noon to the 1500 block of Jones Street after someone reported the infant was unresponsive. The child, Hassani George, was pronounced dead at the scene by the Cincinnati Fire Department.

During an arraignment in Hamilton County Municipal Court on Saturday morning, officials said the infant had injuries all over his body, including blunt-force trauma to the head and a lacerated liver, according to Enquirer media partner Fox19.

Green is currently in custody at the Hamilton County Justice Center where she's being held on a $1 million bond.

Court records show Green lives at an apartment on Jones Street and a Hamilton County judge signed an order Wednesday to have her removed from the property.

The investigation into the child's death is ongoing and anyone with information should call the Cincinnati Police Department's homicide unit at 513-352-3542.

Enquirer media partner Fox19 contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Infant's death in West End leads to arrest of mother on murder charge
DIberville police have arrested Ziesha Quintara Harris, 26, of St. Martin on a charge of domestic violence-aggravated assault over an incident at Timber Grove Apartments on Auto Mall Parkway, a police department news release says.

Officers went to the complex Thursday night after someone reported shots fired. A resident told officers that she heard a couple arguing, followed by a gunshot.

Officers found a vehicle with a bullet hole in the drivers side door, Chief Shannon Nobles said in the news release. They found a victim who said that he had been in an argument with Harris. The man said that Harris hit him with her car and then fired a single shot as she was leaving.

The man who reported the argument was not injured. The Biloxi Police Department located Harris a few hours later on Irish Hill Drive, based on an alert DIberville Police issued. Officers took Harris to the DIberville Police Department, where detectives questioned her.

She was charged with the felony crime after the interview. Harris was released on a $250,000 bond set by Harrison County Justice Court Judge Albert Fountain. An initial court appearance is pending.

Anyone with information about the altercation or any other crime can contact DIberville Police at 228-396-4252 or Mississippi Coast Crime Stoppers at 877-787-5898 or www.mscoastcrimestoppers.com.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang meets with Tajik Prime Minister Kokhir Rasulzoda on the sidelines of the 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Oct. 26, 2023. (Xinhua/Liu Bin)

BISHKEK, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Qiang said here on Thursday that China is ready to work with Tajikistan to promote the implementation of the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative and the Global Civilization Initiative, so as to better meet global challenges and promote common development and prosperity.

Li made the remarks while meeting with Tajik Prime Minister Kokhir Rasulzoda on the sidelines of the 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States.

Li said that in recent years, under the strategic guidance of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, bilateral relations have become increasingly close and achieved fruitful cooperation results.

China is ready to work with Tajikistan to implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state, take the building of a China-Tajikistan community with a shared future as the guide, further consolidate friendship and deepen mutual trust, continue to firmly support each other on issues concerning each other's core interests, push the comprehensive cooperation between the two countries to a new level, and better safeguard the strategic, security and development interests of the two countries, he said.

China is willing to strengthen the synergy of development strategies with Tajikistan, continue to advance high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, give full play to industrial complementarity, expand trade and investment, strengthen cooperation in such fields as transport infrastructure, civil aviation, green economy and digital economy, and deepen people-to-people and cultural exchanges in sports, culture, education and between regions to help the development and revitalization of the two countries, Li said.

The two sides, he added, should maintain close coordination in multilateral areas, implement the outcomes of the China-Central Asia Summit, strengthen cooperation within the United Nations, the SCO and other frameworks, uphold the common interests of the two countries and safeguard international equity and justice.

For his part, Rasulzoda said that Tajikistan-China relations have a long history, profound foundation and rich connotation.

Noting that Tajikistan appreciates China's strong support for its economic and social development over the years, he said that Tajikistan is willing to work with China to consolidate traditional friendship, promote the Belt and Road cooperation, deepen cooperation in such fields as industry, agriculture, transportation, energy, infrastructure and digital economy, and push for further in-depth development of bilateral relations.

Tajikistan stands ready to work with China to promote all-round cooperation between China and Central Asian countries, deepen coordination within the frameworks of the United Nations and the SCO, and promote regional peace and prosperity, he said. 

Chinese Premier Li Qiang meets with Tajik Prime Minister Kokhir Rasulzoda on the sidelines of the 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Oct. 26, 2023. (Xinhua/Yue Yuewei)
Doctors made a shocking discovery after a woman arrived at a Taiwan clinic and complained of unexplainable noises in her ear.

The 64-year-old woman walked into the ear, nose and throat clinic and told doctors she had been hearing abnormal sounds in her left ear for four days, according to a case report published in The New England Journal of Medicine on Oct. 21.

The patient was also showing signs of hypertension, or elevated blood pressure, the doctors said.

She said she woke up one morning and could feel something moving around in her ear, then heard beating, clicking and rustling sounds, according to the case report.

The sounds became so loud that she struggled to sleep, the doctors said.

Using a small camera, the doctors looked into the womans ear canal  and saw a spider looking back.

The New England Journal of Medicine shared a video of the spider on X, formerly known as Twitter.

A woman with hypertension presented to the clinic with a 4-day history of abnormal sounds in her ear. On examination, a small spider was seen moving within the external auditory canal of the left ear. The molted exoskeleton of the spider was also present. https://t.co/dye2sbbiL9 pic.twitter.com/SfeNBBGQS8  NEJM (@NEJM) October 25, 2023

As the small, beady-eyed arachnid walked around the inside of the ear canal, its exoskeleton sat nearby.

Spiders shed their exoskeletons when they grow, according to Cornell University, and will usually try to find a safe burrow or retreat to protect themselves during the vulnerable time.

For this spider, which was not identified, the safe burrow was a womans ear.

The spider was safely removed with a suction tool and the womans symptoms, including her elevated blood pressure, stopped immediately, according to the case report.

I would not survive this, one X user wrote in response to the video.

Well thats enough internet for me today, (thanks), another said.

Should I add this to my list of secondary causes of hypertension? another user asked.

Cases of live insects inside the ear are, unfortunately, not as rare as they might seem.

A 2010 study found that about 14 to 18% of foreign objects found in the ear canal by doctors are some type of insect, Live Science reported.

David Kasle, an ENT physician at ENT Sinus and Allergy of South Florida, told NBC News that doctors in his profession find tens, if not more, of bugs or some sort of arthropod in patients ear canals during their career.

Kasle, who was not involved in the case report, called the situation unusual and disturbing, NBC News reported.

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KANSAS CITY, Mo.  A woman shot the night of Saturday, October 21 died days after she was hit near 39th and Main in Midtown Kansas City, and police say she wasnt the person the suspected shooter was firing at.

Kansas City police say Courtney Wickman, 33, was shot in the head in an alley as she and others were leaving a restaurant, and was taken to a hospital at about 10:30 p.m. in critical condition. Police gave an update on Thursday that Wickman died from her injuries.

Attorney says wait to pay your Jackson County property taxes

Court documents reveal two security officers spoke with KCPD detectives and said a woman, identified in those documents as 21-year-old Katera Mayfield, was combative as they tried to remove her from an event after she caused a disturbance. One of the security officers said Mayfield spit in his face before he managed to put her in a vehicle.

The security officer said she began to drive off, but then rolled down a window, pointed a gun at him and pulled the trigger twice, but it didnt fire either time. She then drove to a parking lot, and as one of the security officers was headed back to the event, he said he heard between four and five shots and saw Mayfield shooting at him before she drove away from the scene.

He said he took cover, and then saw Wickman on the ground, she had been struck by a bullet.

Two people who were with Wickman described that they saw a disagreement happening followed by the sounds of shots. They all got on the ground and one of them noticed Wickman wasnt moving.

Gameday in the dark: Power outage will hit entire town during Chiefs game

Other witnesses who saw what happened knew Mayfield and were able to identify her from a photographic lineup and provided an address for her.

While Wickman was fighting for her life, prosecutors filed assault and armed criminal action charges against Mayfield on Sunday. KCPD said the investigation led officers to Topeka and eventually Osage County, Kansas, where with the assistance of the local sheriffs office they found Mayfield dead in an apparent suicide.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports.
A woman was hospitalized Friday morning after her car careered off a Natomas freeway into a ditch and became submerged, according to the Sacramento Fire Department.

Firefighters were called to Elverta Road and Highway 99 just after 7:10 a.m., who called 911 screaming, according to California Highway Patrol incident logs. According to the CHP, the womans vehicle struck a pole before landing in the ditch.

Once firefighters arrived, they helped rescue the motorist, who had been stuck in the vehicle for about 20 minutes, said Capt. Justin Sylvia, a spokesman for the Sacramento Fire Department.

The woman only complained of back pain, Sylvia said, but firefighters were concerned about her prolonged exposure to the cold water.

SMUD crews were also called to repair a downed power line.
Rebecca Auborn, 33, was indicted in Columbus, Ohio for the murder of at least four men. Lance McMillan

Rebecca Auborn has been indicted in a string of four "serial killings" this year.

Prosecutors say Auborn met the men for sex, drugged them, and robbed them.

Police say all four men died of a fentanyl overdose, and there are likely more victims.

A woman in Columbus, Ohio, killed at least four men after meeting them for sex, drugging them with fentanyl, and robbing them, authorities say.

Columbus police first arrested Rebecca Auborn, 33, on August 26, according to the indictment obtained by Insider. Now, she's facing 28 felony charges, including murder, aggravated robbery, and corrupting another with drugs.

All four victims died of a fentanyl overdose.

The Ohio Attorney General's Office called the murders "serial killings" in an October 25 statement.

"Don't buy sex in Ohio  it ruins lives and could cost you yours," Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said in the statement.

Yost told The Columbus Dispatch he has labeled these killings "serial" because the suspect has at least three deaths connected to her.

The Ohio Attorney General's Office and the Franklin County Prosecutor's Office both declined to comment further.

The first victim died in January, while the second and third victims died in April. The fourth victim died in June. Investigators believe there are additional victims, according to their statement.

There is an additional fifth victim who survived an encounter with Auborn in December 2022, according to the indictment.

The investigation first launched after the Central Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force received a tip about a woman meeting men for sex before drugging them and robbing them.

Auborn is set to be arraigned on October 30, where she will enter her plea and be assigned an attorney. She has no significant criminal history, according to the Dispatch.

Read the original article on Insider
A school support worker who told pupils she had sex with a colleague in the staff room has been struck off.

The girls, 13 and 14 at the time, said they felt "shocked and uncomfortable" when support worker Lindsay Davies made the comment.

When an investigation was launched at Ysgol Rhosnesni in Wrexham, Ms Davies denied the conversation.

She told a consultant carrying it out: "I wouldn't discuss it with my mother, let alone 14-year-olds."

Ms Davies claimed the Year 9 girls, identified as pupils A, B, C and D, were troublemakers who liked "creating dramas".

But the youngsters told a fitness to practise hearing they liked her working with them.

The matter came to light when two boys told a teacher they had heard the girls talking about the matter.

Upon interview, the girls said they had met Ms Davies outside the town's Tesco in January or February 2022.

On asking if she had a boyfriend she was then said to have told them she had had sex with a man.

Two of the girls later claimed that, in a science lesson, Ms Davies had said the first time they had sex was in the staff room.

She also showed them a message from the man which read: "Do you want to have a go on me again?"

'Poor judgement'

Davies, who had worked at the school since 2020, was suspended before being sacked last November.

She did not participate in the hearing, and said she was "not going to listen to false allegations".

The committee found the witnesses credible and the allegations of unacceptable professional conduct proved.

Davies was removed from the register and can apply to be reinstated in two years.

The committee said she had shown "poor judgment in speaking to pupils about personal sexual matters."

They added that telling them she had sex in the school staff room "was inappropriate, in poor taste and brought the school into significant disrepute."

"This conduct could have potentially harmed the pupils concerned," they added.
Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., is launching a bid for the Oval Office Friday, a longshot move that some of his colleagues deemed a vanity project and other top Democrats privately describe as a mid-life crisis, Politico reports. His new candidacy, though not likely to present much of a genuine challenge to incumbent President Joe Biden , also represents the undercurrent of discontent with the current president among Democratic voters.

In private conversations, the millionaire businessman has emphasized that voters need an alternative to the 80-year-old president. A half-dozen sources who have spoken directly to Phillips told Politico that while he has described feeling a sort of obligation to Biden, he has also voiced concern about the president's ability to defeat former President Donald Trump in the upcoming presidential election. The Minnesota Democrat is "seeing a problem that everyone sees, but no one is talking about," one of the sources told the outlet, describing Phillips as "frustrated" by it all.

"He was really earnest in his presentation of it. He framed it as this revelation he had when he was in Vietnam, visiting the site of his fathers death, another source who spoke to Phillips said, referring to the trip the congressman took last spring to the site where his father was killed during the Vietnam War. But I dont think he understands the institutional forces that he is going to be up against and how  even if a lot of Democrats privately share some of his fears  no one is going to line up behind him.

At first, Phillips told the sources that he wanted to publicly recruit another candidate, calling in August for a "moderate governor" to step up to the plate. "I thought there was a way for him to raise this concern, identify if there was space for another candidate, get someone else in, and then gracefully bow out and resume being a member of Congress, a third source who spoke to Phillips directly told Politico.

Now, I feel like he missed the window to land this plane, that person added.

Phillips instead made the decision to run himself and formally filed paperwork for "Dean 24, Inc." to the Federal Elections Commission Thursday night. Several people told the outlet that the centrist Democrat's campaign will likely resemble his 2018 run for Congress.

That bid saw Phillips disregarding much of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's guidance in favor of relying on his longstanding background in marketing. He drove a 1960 International Harvester milk truck to 32 cities and towns across his suburban House district, arguing for spending less on TV than on digital ads and refusing to take digs at his Republican opponent. While that approach enraged many a Democrat in D.C., Phillips won anyway, flipping a seat that hadn't elected a Democrat in decades.

Signs of Phillips bringing back his strategy have appeared in the form of a "Dean Phillips for President" bus, seen recently driving about New Hampshire by two operatives, tagged with his 2018 slogan "Everyone's invited." The "government repair truck" he used in 2018 has also been repainted with "Dean Phillips for President."

He wants to scale his 2018 campaign to New Hampshire, if not to the national level, one of the sources told the outlet.

A presidential primary, however, is far from a congressional race, especially when facing off against an incumbent. Plus, Phillips will likely face a number of clear and serious hurdles as he embarks on his campaign.

The Minnesota Democrat has already failed to get on the ballot in Nevada, the second presidential nominating state, and is counting on a former Republican operative to lead it. He's also almost completely unknown in New Hampshire, the place he plans to base his campaign, as evidenced by his needing to introduce himself to the state party chair two weeks ago. To top it all off, his primary opponent, Biden, boasts $91 million in campaign cash and has the entire party's campaign machine backing him.

Though the Biden campaign is not expected to engage much with Phillips, a source familiar with the campaign's thinking told Politico the extent to which they do would involve painting the Minnesota lawmaker as wealthy and out-of-touch, while highlighting his 100 percent voting record with the president.

Everyone I know, to a person, is mystified, perplexed and frustrated by this move, and Dean has not really offered any public explanation, Jeff Blodgett, a top Minnesota Democratic operative and donor adviser, told the outlet. People here are all in on Biden and focused on the work to get him reelected.

Phillips has recruited Steve Schmidt, a top campaign strategist for Sen. John McCain's 2008 bid for president, to assist him, a move several Democrats dubbed a "red flag." In 2020 Schmidt also advised former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, who considered an Independent presidential run. Phillips has also added Ondine Fortune as a media buyer to the mix, while a firm headed by Bill Fletcher, a Tennessee-based ad-maker, has secured permits for the Democrat's Friday event.

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Phillips' New Hampshire-focused campaign comes in the midst of an especially contentious time for Democrats in the state, who lost their first-in-the-nation primary status for the 2024 election cycle earlier this month. With Biden's support, the Democratic National Committee reordered the presidential nominating calendar last year, pushing South Carolina into the top spot.

But the millionaire lawmaker has yet to reach out to South Carolina Democrats, a sign "he's not serious," South Carolina Democratic Party Chair Christale Spain said, dubbing Phillips "a distraction" because "any serious Democratic candidate would understand that Black voters in South Carolina have been the backbone of the Democratic Party. The state's presidential filing deadline closes on Nov. 10.

In the meantime, New Hampshire intends to run an unsanctioned contest, which is unlikely to produce any delegates for whoever wins the state in January. This week, the Biden campaign confirmed that the president's name will not appear on the ballot. Top Democrats in the state, however, are expected to lead a write-in effort on his behalf. Marianne Williamson, who ran for president in 2020, will also be on the state's ballot.

The tumult over the calendar is a factor for former New Hampshire House Speaker Steve Shurtleff, who told Politico he "hopes" Phillips runs "because of the way things have been lined up by the DNC," who are trying to take it out of the hands of the people.

Ive got respect for Phillips that he may decide to get in the race, knowing what the price he might pay, Shurtleff added. By challenging the president, for someone like Dean, it could be the end of his political career.

That uncertainty about Phillips' future is still occupying the minds of Minnesota Democrats, many of whom said they expected him to run for statewide office one day. Democrats instead are vying for his seat in the House, where he's already drawn a primary challenger in Ron Harris, a DNC executive committee member.

I believe every other Democratic member of Congress in Minnesota is supporting Biden, so it doesnt help when your home team is on board with the incumbent president, while youre trying to mount a challenge, Mike Erlandson, a former chair of Minnesotas Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, told the outlet. I dont know that the congressman is particularly concerned one way or the other about what other people in political places of power think, though this probably doesnt help him with a statewide office run at home.

Political pundits echoed the Minnesota Democrats' concerns about Phillips' bid.

"Dean Phillips is the worst idea in American campaigns since Sarah Palin," tweeted former Republican strategist and Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson.

Dean Phillips is the worst idea in American campaigns since Sarah Palin.  Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) October 26, 2023

During a Friday appearance on CNN, contributor Errol Louis argued that Phillips' concern over polls showing Biden to be unpopular and, thus, the potential of Trump winning next year won't bode well for the Minnesotan.

"That comment about [Biden's polling] numbers is going to blow up in his face when we start looking at numbers that show people don't know who he is, what he stands for or why they should vote for him. Numbers cut both ways," Louis said. "Fifty-plus years in politics and national leadership by Joe Biden counts for a lot. It does mean something, and it will play out in the numbers."

"The fact that he's polling  the fact that he's got this tough question about his age and whether or not people think that's disqualifying for the president? Absolutely valid questions," Louis continued. "Is [Phillips] the right person  the right messenger  to bring it forward? It's hard to see how."
MINNEAPOLIS  X, formerly known as Twitter, has reinstated the campaign account for Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota, who only just officially launched his 2024 presidential campaign to challenge incumbent President Joe Biden on the Democratic presidential ticket. This comes after the account was temporarily suspended for reasons yet to be explained.

Hours after Phillips uploaded campaign videos to all social accounts, the social media platform that's now been under Elon Musk for exactly one year today suspended the account @Dean24Official, leaving only the message "X suspends accounts which violate the X rules."

The timing was notable, as Phillips put pen to paper in New Hampshire Friday morning, ahead of the deadline to appear on the state's primary ballot. Phillips' campaign accounts on Facebook and Instagram remained active in the interim, and it was not clear what X rules the account may have allegedly violated.

Phillips' two other main accounts on X, his personal one and his official one as a U.S. Representative, also remained active Friday morning. The former of the two tweeted a new announcement during the campaign account's suspension.

/ Credit: X/Twitter

Phillips' campaign Thursday night used the Twitter account to launch his announcement video. In the tweet, Phillips said "I am excited to announce my candidacy for President in 2024. It's time to put our country back together again  and use our differences to make us stronger. It's time to repair America."

The list of X rules touted by the platform all under the headings of safety, privacy, authenticity, and third-party advertising in video content.

At the same time, Musk's platform has been at the center of a number of controversies rooted in authenticity. The European Commission earlier this month made a formal, legally binding request for information from Elon Musk's social media platform X over its handling of hate speech, misinformation and violent terrorist content related to the Israel-Hamas war. In another incident, a California man claimed he was harassed after Elon Musk amplified posts on X that falsely placed the man at a confrontation involving far-right protesters. He has sued the billionaire for defamation in a lawsuit.

/ Credit: X/Twitter

Phillips' announcement

Phillips, 54, recently sat down with CBS News chief election and campaign correspondent Robert Costa in an exclusive interview for "CBS Mornings" to discuss his intentions to challenge Biden in 2024.

"I think President Biden has done a spectacular job for our country," Phillips said. "But it's not about the past. This is an election about the future."

READ MORE: What to know about Rep. Dean Phillips, the Minnesota Democrat challenging Joe Biden in 2024

Phillips told Costa he has studied polling data and is alarmed about the prospect of former President Donald Trump beating Biden, should the 2024 election end up becoming a rematch of the 2020 race. He said at 80 years old, it's time for Biden to step aside for a new generation of Democrats to lead the party.

"I will not sit still and not be quiet in the face of numbers that are so clearly saying that we're going to be facing an emergency next November," Phillips said.

The early inklings that Phillips would pursue a primary challenge against Biden have been in the works for months, but moved into hyperdrive when he stepped down from his role as co-chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Caucus (DPCC) at the start of the month.

"My convictions relative to the 2024 presidential race are incongruent with the majority of my caucus, and I felt it appropriate to step aside from elected leadership to avoid unnecessary distractions during a critical time for our country," he said.

Prior to that, the congressman told WCCO in August that he was pushing for an alternative to Biden for Democrats in the upcoming presidential election. Also in August, he called for term limits for members of Congress. That came following the second time Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell froze during a news conference during summer.

This would not mark the first time Phillips has challenged the party's status quo. When he first was elected to U.S. Congress, Phillips spoke of the need for a "new generation" of Democrats to replace then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and was frustrated when no one emerged. He would later go on to praise Pelosi as "one of the most successful speakers of all time."

Most pundits are characterizing Phillips' bid as a long-shot at most. However, New Hampshire primary challenges have a history of wounding incumbent presidents.

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(Bloomberg) -- The sudden death of ex-Premier Li Keqiang has handed his old boss Xi Jinping fresh risks, as an outpouring of emotion for a popular reformer threatens to spill into discontent over a slowing economy.

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Lis death from a heart attack, age 68, comes as a property crisis jeopardizes the savings of millions and unemployment hits a record high among Chinas youth.

Xis recent firing of his defense and foreign ministers has already raised questions around the stability of his government, and any attempts to use the occasion to express dissent could inflame those concerns. Chinese citizens have used the sudden deaths of Communist Party leaders in the past to challenge their grip on power.

Xi will probably try to get in front of any potential use of Lis death to make political arguments, by leading the mourning for his former colleague, said Neil Thomas, a fellow for Chinese politics at the Asia Society Policy Institutes Center for China Analysis. Therell be a concerted effort to suppress attempts to use Lis death to oppose his leadership.

The passing of Zhou Enlai in 1976 was a catalyst for widespread protests that year. A similar episode in April 1989  the death of ousted Communist Party official Hu Yaobang  prompted an outpouring of public grief that led to pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square.

Communist Party leaders sent troops into Tiananmen Square and surrounding streets to violently clear those protesters, with estimates of the death toll ranging from hundreds to as many as 2,600.

Xi has recent experience in managing such challenges. Former President Jiang Zemins death last year on Nov. 30 came at another sensitive moment, days after rare nationwide protests against Chinas rigid Covid controls. Those street demonstrations even included calls for the Chinese leaders removal.

Xi abruptly lifted his Covid Zero policy days after Jiangs death, jettisoning key tenets of his virus elimination strategy as he tried to quell public discontent.

Jiangs funeral was a heavily scripted affair. The people that lined the streets of Shanghai and Beijing to watch his hearse pass by apparently organized by the government. Photos that circulated online seemed to show people being bussed to specific locations.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said Lis funeral arrangements would be announced in due time at a regular press briefing in Beijing on Friday. We mourn over the tragic passing away of Comrade Premier Li Keqiang due to a sudden heart attack, she added.

Man of the People

Many users on Chinas microblogging platform Weibo, where the news of his death was viewed some 1.3 billion times on Friday, expressed regret that Li hadnt lived a longer life.

One user wrote that people can identify with Lis story, as Chinese citizens are also trying to pull through but have been continuously losing ground during the last 10 years.

During Lis decade as premier he was sidelined as Xi took over key responsibilities traditionally reserved for the premier and amassed the most power of any leader in China since Mao Zedong. Nostalgia for Lis vision of a more open China could resonate with those frustrated with the Chinese leaders more inward-looking era of slower growth and greater focus on national security.

Li was also popular for being a rare candid voice in a sea of terse propaganda speak. In 2020, for example, he set off a nationwide debate on poverty alleviation, after complaining two-fifths of Chinas populations earned not even enough to rent a room in a medium-sized Chinese city.

Perhaps in a bid to avoid lingering speculation around Li, the ruling Communist Party announced the former premiers death hours after he passed, according to timing provided in a statement on the governments website. By contrast, rumors of Jiangs death were circulating online for weeks before being made public.

Beijings initial announcement that an obituary will be issued later suggests the party was caught off-guard by his death, said Neo Wang, Evercore ISIs New York-based managing director for China research.

Joseph Torigian, an assistant professor at the American University, wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, that the immediate task facing the Chinese leadership was to come up with an obituary that pleases Lis family, suits the regimes political agenda, and does not inflame popular sentiment.

You want to give due credit, but at the same time, Xi Jinping has accentuated a narrative about all of his accomplishments and how much he was in control, Torigian told Bloomberg. So, how do you square that while doing justice to Li Keqiangs career will probably be something that theyre trying to figure out.

Adam Ni, publisher of the China Neican newsletter on Chinese politics, said that while Lis death could turn out to be an important and delicate political moment, the overall effects will likely be moderate.

I dont think there is enough discontent to cause political tides like the deaths of Zhou and Hu, Ni said. I suspect the average Chinese would have forgotten about Lis death by this time next month.

--With assistance from Xiao Zibang and Jacob Gu.

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House Republicans from New York moved Thursday to force a vote on whether to expel their embattled and indicted colleague George Santos from Congress.

The privileged resolution offered by Rep. Anthony D'Esposito, R-N.Y., means the House must vote on the resolution within two legislative days. A two-thirds majority vote would be needed to expel Santos, R-N.Y., who's scheduled to be arraigned Friday on a superseding indictment in his federal fraud case.

D'Esposito read the resolution, which says that "George Santos is not fit to serve" as a congressman, on the House floor late Thursday afternoon.

It includes references to the pending criminal charges against Santos, his acknowledged lies about his background and his "history of misrepresenting his and his familys connections to major events, including the Holocaust, Sept. 11th terrorist attacks, and the Pulse nightclub shooting."

Santos posted a defiant message on X shortly after the resolution was introduced while not explicitly referring to it.

"I'm not resigning," he wrote, adding that "Im entitled to due process and not a predetermined outcome as some are seeking."

D'Esposito and other New York Republicans announced their plans to introduce the resolution after the latest charges were filed against Santos this month but were unable to proceed because of the lack of a speaker.

Rep. Nick LaLota, R-N.Y., said they waited until the day after Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., was elected speaker to proceed out of "deference" and to give him a day to "bask in the glow" of his win, but he added: "Its never the wrong time to do the right thing. And we need to clean up the Santos mess for Long Island, for New York and for the House of Representatives."

D'Esposito said that he had spoken to Johnson about the resolution and that Johnson said to "do what you think is right and do whats right for your district."

The 23-count superseding indictment alleges that Santos committed identity theft, fraud and other offenses. Santos, who was first indicted in May, has said he plans to fight the charges. He pleaded not guilty in the original 13-count indictment earlier this year.

House Democrats first moved to expel Santos after he was initially charged, but Republicans voted to refer their motion to the Ethics Committee, which has been investigating him since March.

Santos came under scrutiny late last year before he was even sworn in after The New York Times published a bombshell investigation indicating that much of his resume was made up or exaggerated.

LaLota said the new charges against Santos and a separate guilty plea from his former campaign treasurer admitting they conspired to defraud donors had helped him make up his mind about expulsion, and he predicted they'd be able to hit the two-thirds mark.

"There seems to be a good sentiment out there that enough is enough," he said.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
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Mike Johnsons rise to speaker of the House over the past week was so quick and so improbable that its only now his record is starting to get attention.

Hoo boy, is there a lot to consider.

The Louisiana Republican now in his fourth term led efforts to overturn the 2020 election. He voted for a national abortion ban. He has called for criminalizing gay sex.

But wait, theres more. Johnson also has supported repeal of the Affordable Care Act  a.k.a. Obamacare.

You might be thinking it doesnt really matter. Republicans control neither the Senate nor the White House, after all, and these days they dont seem especially interested in health care anyway. During the big 2019-20 legislative fight over President Joe Bidens proposal to lower prescription drug costs, the most notable thing about the Republican opposition was the lack of it. They barely said a word.

The same goes for the Affordable Care Act, which is quite a change from the many years Republicans talked endlessly about repealing it. They finally got their chance in 2017, while Donald Trump was president and Johnson, then new to Congress, voted yes. The effort famously failed, but not before provoking a massive political backlash that helped Democrats retake control of the House  and, two years later, the presidency and Senate too.

These days, its news when a Republican even says the word Obamacare.

But that doesnt mean Republicans have made their peace with the 2010 health care law, or that theyve given up on their ideas for replacing it with conservative alternatives. And youll find no better proof than in a 2019 proposal from the Republican Study Committee, which at the time Johnson was leading.

The word repeal appears only a few times, always in a narrow context. But the pieces of repeal legislation are all there. Three in particular stand out.

A Rollback Of Preexisting Condition Protections

About half of the 58-page document is a look at the high cost of American health care, its effects on individual Americans and the many ways, according to Republicans, the Affordable Care Act is responsible for these problems. A big focus is the laws regulations prohibiting insurers from denying coverage or charging higher premiums to people with preexisting conditions, and requiring that all policies include basic, essential benefits.

The report says these regulations made insurance more expensive, which is true in the sense that it means insurers today cant turn away people with serious medical needs or stop paying their bills. That costs money. And while the GOP report acknowledges that the Affordable Care Acts tax credits offset those higher costs for most people, it says thats an inefficient way to get people coverage and warns that it still leaves many Americans with high bills.

This proposal would be just as sweeping in its effects as the repeal and replace plans Congress debated in 2017.KFF's Larry Levitt on the 2019 Republican Study Committee proposal

Again, theres a lot of truth to both. But the Republican alternative Johnson and his allies supported would roll back the existing regulations, preserving guarantees of coverage only for people who keep continuous coverage and ending the federal requirements on essential benefits. And it would end the current subsidy scheme, replacing it through a mix of tax changes and support for new savings accounts.

Its hard to be precise about the effects this would all have today, because the GOP report doesnt have a detailed budget. But, at a conceptual level, this is pretty much what Republicans were proposing with their repeal bills in 2017: Fewer rules governing what insurance has to cover, and less government assistance to help people buy insurance.

Virtuallyeveryindependentanalysisat the time concluded people in good health could get access to cheaper insurance premiums, but only because people in worse health would be stuck with higher premiums or out-of-pocket expenses  or no ability to get coverage at all.

To put it more simply, it was a way of shifting the costs of medical care onto the people who need it. Theres every reason to think the proposal Johnson and his allies published in 2019 would do the same thing.

An End To Medicaid Expansion

The GOP report has a whole section on what it calls The ACAs failed Medicaid expansion. Thats a reference to arguably the laws most consequential change: Federal funding that allows states to expand Medicaid, the half-century-old insurance program for low-income Americans, so that anybody with income below or just above the poverty line is eligible. Previously, most states limited enrollment to certain groups of people, like children and pregnant women.

The expansion, which all but 10 states have now adopted, is the primary reason the number of Americans without insurance has plummeted to historic lows. A large body of academic research shows that Medicaid expansion has made a real difference in peoples lives, by improving their financial, emotional and physical well-being. But of course it too costs money, with the federal share alone exceeding a hundred billion dollars every year.

And thats not the kind of spending Republicans  or Johnson  have ever supported for this sort of program.

The GOP document envisions ending the expansion in a two-step process. It would start with a moratorium on new state expansions, at a time when resistance in holdout states has been softening. (Expansion has even picked up some momentum in Mississippi.) Then the federal government would reduce the extra money its been providing states for expansion, until there was no extra money at all.

Analysis of similar provisions in the 2017 repeal proposals predicted a rollback would cause millions to lose their insurance coverage. The GOP document doesnt directly acknowledge this. Tellingly, the word uninsured appears only a half dozen times.

Then-President Barack Obama, center, is applauded after signing the Affordable Health Care for America Act during a ceremony with fellow Democrats on March 23, 2010, in Washington, D.C.

Then-President Barack Obama, center, is applauded after signing the Affordable Health Care for America Act during a ceremony with fellow Democrats on March 23, 2010, in Washington, D.C.

A Big Cut For Traditional Medicaid Too

The GOP document doesnt simply envision undoing Obamacares Medicaid changes. It also calls for a fundamental change in the programs structure: Johnson and the Republicans want to shift Medicaid from an open-ended entitlement, meaning funding rises when demand for Medicaid coverage rises, to a fixed, pre-set sum called a per capita cap.

Yes, that too was a feature of the 2017 proposal and, again, the analysesfound it would lead to less money for Medicaid over time. Of course, this is precisely the point from the conservative point of view: To spend less money on Medicaid. But Medicaid is already widely understood to be underfunded. Reduce the programs funding further, and its going to mean fewer services covered or fewer people eligible for coverage.

Its simple math. And its virtually certain to affect the most vulnerable groups on Medicaid, even though that is who Republicans say they want to protect. If you want to know what that would mean in real life, consider an Ohio college student with cerebral palsy I wrote about back in 2017  and what the Medicaid cuts under discussion then could have meant for him.

A Question Of Priorities  And Labels

The GOP document Johnson and his allies produced has other elements too  some novel, some familiar to anybody who remembers the repeal battle. But the basics havent changed: Republicans have been very quiet publicly of late about repealing the ACA, but this proposal would be just as sweeping in its effects as the repeal and replace plans Congress debated in 2017, Larry Levitt, KFFs executive vice president for health, told me via email.

The big question at this point is whether Republicans would actually take another run at repeal, given the political hazards. Polls show a majority of Americans now support the Affordable Care Act and, for all of its flaws and inadequacies, its become part of the status quo  people have come to expect its protections  in a way that historically has made programs difficult to dislodge. (I wrote a book on that transformation if youre interested.)

Johnson, for his part, hasnt said it is a priority  or even if he stands by the proposal he and his allies put out in 2019. When I asked his office about it on Friday, Corrine Day, his communications director, gave me this statement: The Speaker will work within the Conference to build consensus on a health care plan. The Conference acknowledges the need to fix our broken system, and they will examine solutions to increase quality of care and reduce cost.

But the lack of political visibility for health care generally and Obamacare specifically can cut both ways. Precisely because Republicans like Johnson no longer talk about repeal, describing their initiatives as efforts to personalize health care and protect the vulnerable, few seem aware of what they are actually proposing. That could make it easier to enact their agenda, or at least big chunks of it.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines)  Daikin Airconditioning Philippines, Inc. (DPH), a fully owned subsidiary of Daikin Industries Ltd. (DIL) of Japan and one of the largest air conditioner manufacturers in the world, has opened its first showroom in South Luzon (SLUZ) to maintain its dominance in the region.

A global leader in air conditioning since 1924 with almost 100 years of history and experience in the industry, Daikin is known for its innovation, quality, and commitment to sustainability by promoting the spread of energy-efficient air conditioners pioneering the use of R32 refrigerants with low global warming potential in the world.

Opening ceremony of the new showroom. Photo from Daikin Philippines

The Daikin South Luzon Showroom is designed as a one-stop shop, training hub, and spare parts warehouse that offers the latest advancements in air conditioning technology. It is located at 9018, Tagaytay-Sta. Rosa Road, Purok 1, Brgy. Puting Kahoy, Silang, Cavite.

Showroom

Photo from Daikin Philippines

The Daikin South Luzon Showroom features state-of-the-art air conditioning technology that includes the D-Smart King, Queen, and D-smart intended for residential and SOHO, part of the D-Smart series of advanced air conditioning units that adapt to the customer's needs, offering precise temperature control and outstanding energy efficiency.

For those looking to elevate their commercial space with cutting-edge cooling solutions, there are the SkyAir units that are best suited for restaurants and gyms, also available at the site.

Photo from Daikin Philippines

The showroom also puts a spotlight on air conditioning solutions for Variable Refrigerant Volume (VRV), Indoor Environment Quality, Control & Software Solutions, and Quality Installation.

Sales and service office

Its sales and service office is manned by 14 in-house after-sales service personnel and eight sales engineers. They are trained to efficiently and promptly respond to the requests of authorized Daikin dealers, contractors, consultants, and their clients within the area.

In an official announcement, Daikin Philippines said that the response time for customer's inquiries will be within 24 hours. It added that the service request dispatch target is within 24 hours from the customer's desired date.

Takayoshi Miki, Daikin Philippines President. Photo from Daikin Philippines

Moreover, the new showroom caters to 17 authorized service centers around the area including the Bicol region.

The Daikin South Luzon Showroom also houses a 12-year supply of functional parts based on the last production of the unit or model.

Training facilities

The Daikin South Luzon Showroom will also be used as part of the training center for SLUZ dealers and service centers. Under its Step-Up Training Program, its dealers and installers can undergo free training programs

Photo from Daikin Philippines

On top of that, Daikin supports its installers and technicians in the area through its Daikin Installers Network or DINet program. As of writing, there are 81 authorized installers under the DINet program in South Luzon, and still have 400 technicians to train.

If you are a technician or installer interested in joining the DINet Training Program at the Daikin South Luzon Office, call #324546 (DAIKIN), Daikin's new cool line that is easy to remember, toll-free, and hassle-free.

For more information on Daikin, follow their social media pages on Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
A Fremont teenager received a speeding citation after being clocked by the Ohio Highway Patrol at a speed of 103 mph on wet pavement in a 65 mph zone, and the dashcam photo became part of a social media from the Sandusky Patrol Post.

The 19-year-old driver received a citation from the Ohio Highway Patrol for driving 103 mph in a zone in Ottawa County marked 65.

The trooper stopped the 19-year-old man at mile post 21 of Ohio 2, in Ottawa County at 4:23 p.m. on Oct. 20. He was driving a gray 2016 Chevrolet 4-door.

The stop became part of a social media posting from the Sandusky Patrol Post.

"It's just a speed citation, but a really fast speed citation," Lt. Shaun Robinson said. "The faster you go, it's so much easier for something to happen. Speed limits are set for a reason, and they are set not only to make sure you are safe, but to makes sure everyone else around you is safe. When you are going that fast, and you are involved in a crash, the chances of you walking away, unhurt, are very, very slim."

Robinson explained that speeding citations are a misdemeanor, but the type of misdemeanor is decided by the court.

"In this case it is a mandatory court appearance. It is up to each individual court. Usually at 20 miles-per-hour and up (over the speed limit), it's kind of like a catchall for most courts," Robinson said. "In this case Ottawa County does require it."

rlapointe@gannett.com

419-332-2674

This article originally appeared on Fremont News-Messenger: Lesson for Fremont young man driving 103 mph in Ottawa County
President Volodymyr Zelensky held a phone call with United Arab Emirates (UAE) President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Oct. 27, discussing Ukraine's peace formula and global food security, the presidential office said.

Zelensky discussed with his Emirati counterpart the Grain from Ukraine initiative and invited the UAE to participate in its implementation.

Grain from Ukraine was launched in November 2022 with the aim of providing Ukrainian grain to countries in need and preventing famine in the poorest countries of Africa and Asia.

Continued exports of Ukraine's agricultural produce are currently hampered by Russia's attempted blockade in the Black Sea and attacks on Ukrainian ports.

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The UAE also received an invitation from Zelensky to the upcoming second international summit on food security, expected to be held soon.

Zelensky thanked the UAE for provided humanitarian aid and for its role in supporting Ukraine's peace formula. The president specifically appreciated the willingness of the Gulf country to join the upcoming peace plan meeting in Malta on Oct. 28-29.

In spite of humanitarian assistance to Kyiv, the UAE has maintained good ties with Russia and has not matched the Western sanctions against Moscow.

Dubai, a popular destination for Russian tourists, has attracted an increasingly higher number of Russian businesses since the start of the full-scale war.

Read also: Zelensky invites Saudis to Malta peace formula meeting in call with Crown Prince

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reported that he had held a meeting of the Military Cabinet where the situation on the main front areas was discussed.

Source: Zelenskyys evening address

Quote: "I held a Military Cabinet meeting regarding the situation on the main battlefronts. Kupiansk, Bakhmut direction, Avdiivka, Marinka, and Melitopol direction. Ensuring our defence and offensive actions, including long-range weapons and missiles."

I am grateful to all soldiers who are firmly holding the positions and destroying the occupiers. This week has significantly increased Russian losses. This is how it should be!"

Details: In addition to this, Zelenskyy also held a meeting on the condition of shelters in Ukraine and stated that a complete revision of shelters has been conducted in Ukraine.

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In what was a packed sanctuary at Thomas Road Baptist Church, Liberty University officially installed Dondi Costin as president during a formal inauguration ceremony Thursday evening.

It is extremely significant today that this ceremony is being held in the sanctuary of Thomas Road Baptist Church, where for the first time in a long time, the pastor [Jonathan Falwell] of Thomas Road Baptist Church is also the chancellor of Liberty University, Costin said.

Jonathan Falwell said during his opening remarks that the ceremony is an exciting day in the history of Liberty University.

Falwell said the original vision, when his father founded the school in 1971, was to send young people out as champions for Christ who would go out and unashamedly and unswervingly be champions for the message that: Jesus came to this earth, died on the cross for the sins of mankind, buried and rose again.

What we will always say is we will never sway away from the truth that Jesus is the son of God who came to take away the sins of the world, he said.

Costin was presented a medallion, a symbol of the leadership and responsibility vested in the office, and took an oath.

I represent the board of trustees, its my honor to give this oath to our new president, said Tim Lee, chairman of the universitys board of trustees.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin said during his speech he had the opportunity to meet Costin and attests he will bring leadership, vision, energy and his unwavering faith in Jesus Christ to his role.

What originally began with a mountain and a dream, has ascended to an extraordinary university, and I could not think of a better, more prepared leader than President Costin to stand at the helm and continue to lead that ascension, he said.

Costin said when you see me standing here today, you see a turtle on a fence post.

Anytime you see a turtle on a fence post you know at least two things, that turtle didnt get up there by himself and somebody had to help it up.

Costin said that fence began for him when he was born into a family of a mother and father who loved Jesus Christ.

The president said his parents taught him and his sister that they were sinners in need of a savior and that Jesus Christ had paid the price for our sins.

They taught us that we had to be in the local church every time the doors were open, because they understood that we had been called to live for Jesus Christ, he said.

Costin said, of his turtle on a fence post analogy, the turtle wouldnt be on the fence if there wasnt a fence post, describing Liberty Mountain as the fence post.

Turtles are a dime a dozen, but Liberty University is one in a billion, he said.

Senior Daniel Hostetter, president of the student government association on campus, said during his speech that in his time of meeting with Costin, the thing hes gotten to observe the most is his kindness.

I am confident that you are modeling the heart of Christ for thousands of students like me every day, he said.

A retired Major General with 36 years of service in the military, Costin was unanimously appointed as the universitys sixth president in March and officially started the position July 1.

Costin said over the first few months, he and staff have worked on the colleges new strategic plan.

He said the group is doubling down on everything the universitys founder the Rev. Jerry Falwell Sr. said about the significance of Training Champions for Christ.

Costin said his job, first and foremost, is to be a reminder of that mission.

If you remember nothing else about today, you remember this, there is only one king of the hill on this mountain, and his name is Jesus, he said.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin spoke at Three Roads Brewing on Thursday night with a voice hoarse from other stops on the campaign trail but no less effective to a crowd of enthusiastic local supporters.

The governor stopped in at a rally for Republican candidates Del. Wendall Walker, R-Lynchburg, and Sen. Mark Peake, R-Lynchburg, both running for re-election in November.

Let me tell you, as long as I am governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, we will not be California. Weve got work to do. Weve got work to do and now we can do it because all we have to do is hold our House and flip the Senate, Youngkin said, drawing huge cheers and applause from the crowd.

When Republicans vote, Republicans win.

Every seat in the General Assembly is up for re-election in 2023. Speaking with reporters outside the brewery, Walker acknowledged 2021 redistricting has created a new Lynchburg district that leans less Republican  57.6% of voters in whats now House District 52 voted for Youngkin in 2021, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. Walker said it means hes been knocking a lot of doors.

...[A]nd thats how you win elections is at the doors, talking to the voters, he added.

If youve enjoyed the last two years under the governor, we get the majority in both houses Nov. 7, the next two years are going to be even greater. Youre going to see more tax returns back to the citizens out here, more funding for public schools, more funding for public safety and mental health. So all of these important issues that are critical to our localities here, youre going to have two legislators fighting on behalf of Central Virginia, Walker said.

Youngkin told local Republicans at the event the future of the commonwealth is whats at risk in November.

Why? Because we have been ascending, we have finally taken this commonwealth that was lost and she has been found. We are marching in the right direction. Jobs are growing, people are moving here, schools finally recognize that parents are in charge.
A New Hampshire man who formerly lived in Amherst County and was released after a murder charge was dismissed in connection with an elderly womans June 2019 shooting has been indicted for murder and other felonies in that case that has received attention during this election season in Amherst.

Amherst County Commonwealths Attorney Lyle Carver announced after a thorough and lengthy investigation, Justin Jay Sales has been indicted on charges in connection with the death of Doris Puleio, 92, and shooting of Trudy Goetz, 74, when the June 25, 2019, shooting incident occurred while the two were inside a residence on Bobwhite Road in Amherst.

Sales, who was 18 at the time of his initial arrest more than a week after the killing that shocked the Amherst community, was released after Carver previously said at a December 2021 hearing in Amherst Circuit Court there were evidentiary-related issues with the case.

Sales, 22, is now charged with aggravated murder, first-degree murder, aggravated malicious wounding, shooting into an occupied dwelling, attempted robbery and two counts of using a firearm in commission of a felony, according to a news release from Carvers office.

In the release, Carver said he asked to nolle prosequi the case, a legal term for dropping the charges, in interest of protecting the case and our victims chance at justice, and it was explained to Goetz and members of the family before and after the hearing.

As we said then and have maintained since that time, the case needed further investigation, Carver said in the release. The case was immediately returned to investigators at the Amherst County Sheriffs Office. We have always had every intention of prosecuting this murder case.

We needed the investigators to overcome the evidentiary issues and build a strong enough case to take to trial. We promised the family and community then that we would keep working this case and Im happy to report that we kept that promise.

Carver and the Amherst County Sheriffs Office have received some criticism for how the case was handled from some in the community. Former Sheriff Jimmy Ayers, who is among four candidates running for the office in the Nov. 7 election, said justice for the Puleio family is a major reason he is running again after eight years.

In a lengthy Jan. 30 post on his personal Facebook page, Ayers was critical of how the investigation was handled, calling the outcome of Sales being released and reoffending in another state a colossal failure. In the Facebook post, Ayers, who served as sheriff from 1996 to 2015, including a half-year stint during Carvers first year in the commonwealths attorney role, also criticized the handing of a chain-of-custody issue involving a firearm in the Puleio homicide.

Sheriff E.W. Viar, who is retiring at the end of the year after two terms in office, did not respond to requests for comment following Ayers post. Carver has referred to that post as political grandstanding and has said as a law enforcement official, he should have known better as the goal has always been to try the case in Amherst County, a process that includes seating a jury.

Carver has said Ayers post shows a lack of understanding and/or a blatant disregard for the law, ethics, and criminal procedure and was selfish, inaccurate and misleading.

Ayers wrote the job wasnt done and not getting justice for the Puleio family is unacceptable. He has publicly supported local attorney Rich Gilman, who is running against Carver.

Gilman has criticized the catch-and-release mindset in general and has referred to unprosecuted murder cases for a reason he is running.

Both my office and the Amherst County Sheriffs Office have diligently worked this case since the nolle prosequi, Carver said in the release. Progress was slow but steady until the beginning of January this year when Sheriff Viar promoted Lt. [Clay] Thompson to Captain of Investigations. Since his promotion we have made rapid and significant progress.

Puleio was found dead in her home on Bobwhite Road in Amherst with gunshot wounds to her torso and left arm, while Goetz suffered two piercing gunshot wounds to the torso and one that grazed her chest, prosecutors have said. Sales had been jailed for then two years while awaiting trial and moved to New Hampshire where he was convicted in a sexual assault case in Hillsborough County, that countys department of corrections has confirmed.

Carver said his understanding is Sales sentencing is set for January in New Hampshire. We will still be able to extradite for trial here, he said.

Carver said his office looks forward to setting the case for trial and the state rules of professional conduct keep him from speaking on further details. He said at a May meeting of the Amherst County Republican Party, the same night Ayers mentioned the Puleio case and embraced members of the family in attendance in continuing to voice concerns with the investigation, that truth matters and he tries cases in court and not on social media.

Carvers release emphasized Sales trial, which according to court records has not yet been set, will be open to the public.

At the conclusion of the case, I will be permitted to disclose the details of this case, even beyond what comes out at trial, Carver said in the release. All of your questions will be answered at that time.

In a statement Friday, Viar thanked his offices investigators, the Amherst County Commonwealths Attorney Office and outside agencies who contributed their efforts. He said he is extremely proud of the dedication and work demonstrated in the investigation by all involved and he also thanked citizens who came forward to assist, which he added made a difference.

Justice for every victim is our number priority, Viar wrote. We will continue to investigate crimes, especially violent crime to the fullest of our capabilities and ensure that every victim gets the justice they so deserve.
TOKYO, Oct 27 ( News On Japan ) - A Russian travel agency has commenced operations of a passenger ship that directly connects the Far Eastern city of Vladivostok and Nanao City in Ishikawa Prefecture.

As the movement of passenger ships is exempt from sanctions against Russia, the company plans to operate the service once a week round trip.

Connecting Vladivostok and Nanao Port takes 48 hours. The cheapest bed costs 105,000 yen one way. If this becomes a regular service, it's expected to be the only direct regular route between Japan and Russia, including air routes, since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
By Victoria Ojeme The Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, His Excellency Olaf Scholz, will visit Nigeria on October 29-30, 2023, at the invitation of Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. This will be the first visit of a German Head of Government to Nigeria since the inauguration of the new government. The visit aims to strengthen bilateral relations between Germany and Nigeria, two natural partners as the strongest economy and the most populous country on their respective continents. Scholz will meet with Tinubu, ECOWAS Commission President Dr. Omar Alieu Touray, representatives of Nigerian civil society, and Nigerian start-up entrepreneurs. He will also open a Nigeria-German Business Conference and take part in a tour of Lagos. Scholz will be accompanied by a delegation of high-ranking German business people and a cultural delegation. The visit is also aimed at intensifying economic and cultural relations between the two countries and exploring opportunities for investment in Nigeria. The German Embassy in Nigeria is honoured to welcome Chancellor Scholz and looks forward to continuing to work on strengthening the important and warm bilateral relations between Germany and Nigeria, a statement from the embassy said. The visit of Chancellor Scholz to Nigeria is a significant event in the bilateral relations between the two countries. It comes at a time when Nigeria is seeking to strengthen its ties with key international partners, and Germany is eager to expand its presence in Africa. The visit is also a sign of the growing importance of Nigeria in the global economy and politics. As Africas largest economy and most populous country, Nigeria is playing an increasingly influential role on the continent and in the world. The visit is expected to boost bilateral cooperation in a number of areas, including trade, investment, security, and development. It is also likely to generate new opportunities for Nigerian businesses and entrepreneurs. VANGUARD

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Ernesto Roque and his wife Gina attended a hearing Monday, Sept. 25, at the Omaha Immigration Court that could  eventually  upend their entire lives and the lives of their three children.

Ernesto was brought to the United States from El Salvador by his parents when he was 16 years old, The Nonpareil reported last month in a story about the immigration issues surrounding his case.

His parents had immigrated about eight years earlier in order to set up a better life for their family than the one they had back home.

A few years after he arrived in Council Bluffs, Ernesto met Gina. They got married, after which Ernesto applied for a green card.

Ernesto returned to El Salvador to gather documents he needed for his application. He would be unable to come back to the United States until he was issued a green card.

After four years of waiting, Ernesto learned that his application was denied, blocking his legal return to the U.S.

Afraid for his life, Gina and Ernestos family in Council Bluffs collected $8,000 to pay a "coyote"  a human smuggler  to bring Ernesto back to his family, which took another four years.

When they tried to cross the border from Mexico into the United States, Ernesto was caught by U.S. Border Patrol and taken to a detention facility in McAllen, Texas. Ernesto applied for asylum and, with the help of a lawyer, Gina was able to get him sent to Council Bluffs to await his immigration hearing.

It would be more than 10 years before Ernesto would finally have that hearing.

Court was rough, Gina said in a text message after the hearing. They treated us very poorly and like criminals. We have not gotten a response yet, so anxiously waiting.

That response  the decision about whether to send Ernesto back to El Salvador  might not come for another two or three years.

It is, strangely, a good thing, Ernestos immigration attorney, Rachel Yamamoto, wrote in an email. Ernestos primary application was for Cancellation of Removal, which is a very narrow law that allows the judge to grant permanent resident status to someone who is here for at least 10 years and can establish good moral character and, most importantly, exceptional and extremely unusual hardship to his citizen spouse and kids.

Under federal law, only 10,000 such requests are granted each year, Yamamoto said, and right now there are about 20,000 pending grants.

Yamamoto said the immigration court system releases a certain number of those grants to be finalized once or twice a year.

So, some day, in about two years or more, we will suddenly get a decision in the mail with no warning, Yamamoto said, noting it's very difficult if not impossible to find out how large the backlog is at this moment.

Yamamoto is cautiously optimistic, though, because if the judge is going to deny the case, he can just do it any time.

Judge (Matthew) Morrissey was very clear at the end of the hearing that he wanted to review the record, but if he was going to deny, he would do it right away because theres no reason to delay that, she said.

So the fact its been more than four weeks since the hearing and a decision hasnt been handed down yet is promising.

Nevertheless, the uncertainty is difficult to endure.

All the Roques can do is continue to live with the anxiety of knowing that, at any moment, their family could be torn apart.
As Dia de los Muertos approaches, the Council Bluffs community is invited to take place in a tradition hosted by the Council Bluffs Public Library.

For the second time, students in one of Samantha Silvas classes at Thomas Jefferson High School has partnered with the library to create a community ofrenda for anyone who would like to memorialize a loved one who has passed away.

This is the third year that an ofrenda has been built at the library. The first year, library staff created the ofrenda themselves. Last year, the reached out to Silva to see if her students would be interested in helping out.

They reached out and asked if our student group wanted to help with the ofrenda and make it more authentic, Silva said in an interview. So we took it on last year as the first year, and then this year we joined in again. We're hoping to do it for many years to come, and have that as our partnership and our project.

Silvas class, Spanish for Spanish Speakers, is for students whose families have Spanish backgrounds. She said that working on the ofrenda last year was their favorite project of the year.

It is one of the reasons a lot of them wanted to take the class again, Silva said. So, they got to take it again and help with it again this year. We do different aspects to it from one year to the next since they have to earn different credit for it.

An ofrenda -- Spanish for offering -- is a pre-colonial Mexican tradition that honors the deceased with a large, elaborate altar covered with photos and mementos of loved ones, candles and the deceased persons favorite foods and drinks.

Ofrendas are usually built shortly before Dia de los Muertos, the Mexican Day of the Dead, celebrated on the first and second days of November. It was believed that the souls of the dead are able to return to the land of the living once a year to celebrate their life with their families and loved ones.

This year, one of the different approaches that (the students) did was they tried to research a unique piece from different Spanish speaking countries and incorporate a unique item from different countries onto the ofrenda, Silva said.

It's one of the projects that really helps them to build their community and get more connected to our community and make our community more connected to the Hispanic population in our community," Silva added. "They take a lot of pride in it.

The ofrenda at the library, located just past the main doors, is open to everyone in the community to bring photos of their loved ones through Monday.

Staff at the youth desk will scan the photo for the ofrenda and return the original. If a photo is not available, there is a monarch memorial you can write your loved ones name on that will then be added to the ofrenda.

In lieu of loved ones favorite foods, people are asked to bring nonperishable goods to be donated to a local food pantry when the ofrenda is taken down.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 27)  Philippine stocks plunged to their lowest level in more than a year as investor confidence was pulled down following the central banks off-cycle rate hike and escalating tensions in the Middle East.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) further shed 56.50 points or .94% on closing to end below the 6,000 level at 5,961.99also weaker than Thursdays finish.

All the wider shares also ended in negative territory.

All sectors likewise suffered losses in Fridays trading.

Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation chief economist Michael Ricafort said the performance of the local market could be attributed to another looming rate increase in November amid persistent price pressures.

READ: BSP raises interest rate to 6.5% off-cycle to address rising prices

The analyst said lingering uncertainties given the ongoing war between Israel and the militant group Hamas have also weighed down investors mood.

Such as the possible ground invasion of Gaza and risks that the war could spread/involve their respective allies, including major oil-producing countries in the Middle East, he said in his comment.

Seedbox Securities, Inc. equity trader Jayniel Carl Manuel shared a similar sentiment, with the results blamed on the off-cycle rate hike announced Thursday, worsened by the military conflict in the Middle East.

These developments, he added, have introduced significant uncertainty into the market.

These global conflicts have also played a role in the instability of oil prices, given the region's importance in the energy markets, Manuel said in a statement.

In view of the uncertainty, Manuel said investors shifted to a more cautious approach, resulting in the declines recorded since last week.
The mayor of Sidney refuses to comply with a public record request, which has resulted in mandatory training for city staff after the Iowa Public Information Board concluded the city has violated public information statutes.

The Sidney City Council approved an informal resolution agreement with the Iowa Public Information Board at its Oct. 23 meeting.

Councilman Don Benedict said the violation was related to a March incident in which "the city was put at risk." An interaction between the owner of a tree service company and the city clerk prompted questions about how the business owner had email sent by a city employee to her supervisors.

Benedict made a public records request to the city on June 15, requesting all city emails concerning the incident. Brown has claimed that, as mayor, he is exempt from the public records law, so he did not comply by voluntarily sharing his email communication.

"Browns claims are not justified or efficient in my opinion nor in my research," City Attorney Bri Sorensen said. "I have had multiple conversations with the Iowa Public Information Board, and they are of the opinion that those emails need to be shared in accordance with the public records request."

Although Brown did not comply, the city provided email logs showing communication between Christie and the mayor. After reviewing the logs, Benedict sent a new public information request for all city email communications between the mayor and, respectively, the tree service business, its owner and a law firm.

"This information resolution by the IPIB showed that (Mayor) Ken Brown violated state law, and in doing so broke his oath of office," Benedict said.

After a closed session on June 12, council members unanimously approved a motion of no confidence in the mayor, stating that his detrimental actions were a liability to the City of Sidne. They asked Brown to voluntarily resign. The mayor said he would consider it, but he ultimately did not step down.

Sorensen said that, "given the mayor's unwillingness to provide the public information requested," the IPIB found the city in violation of public information statutes. The city will have to undergo training by the IPIB or the Iowa League of Cities as a result.
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Several influential U.S. Senators and members of the House of Representatives have called on the U.S. Department of Commerce to reduce duty on imports of phosphate fertilizers from Morocco, saying the imposed tariffs have pushed global prices upward affecting U.S. farmers.

The call comes after U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) ruled lately that Commerce Department made errors when it calculated duty levied on phosphate imports from Moroccan OCP group.

In a letter addressed to Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo following the U.S. Courts ruling, a bipartisan group of 39 lawmakers said since the imposition of the countervailing duty (CVD) on Moroccan phosphate fertilizers in 2020, the supply options to meet U.S. farmers phosphate needs have significantly decreased.

Saudi Arabia has become the only major exporter of phosphate fertilizer to the U.S., accounting for 66% of diammonium phosphate (DAP) imports and 25% of monoammonium phosphate imports.

This situation has contributed to the high volatility of fertilizer prices overall, increased costs of a critical nutrient, and exposed farmers to the risk of inadequate supply into the future, given the lack of sufficient domestic supply to meet U.S. farmers needs, said the U.S. lawmakers.

While many factors impact the regional and global prices of phosphate-based fertilizers, the impact of the CVD proceeding on Moroccan exports to the U.S. was felt immediately and continues to provide upward pricing pressure.

Since the imposition of the duty, average prices in New Orleans, the central pricing hub for the U.S., have been the highest in the world. This year, U.S. DAP prices were 11% higher than Brazils and 8% higher than Indias. American farmers purchase this key input at elevated prices but sell their crops at global market prices where they compete with major producers such as Brazil.

The current CVD Order on Moroccan exports and magnitude places U.S. farmers at a competitive disadvantage. We now understand from the CIT that significant errors in Commerces initial calculation exacerbated this disadvantage, said the U.S. Congressmen.

We urge the Department of Commerce to carefully address the matters determined by the CIT to be in error in the remand determination and in the upcoming final results of the final administrative review, said the lawmakers, noting that American family farmers need a reliable, diverse supply of many agricultural inputs, including fertilizers.
The humanitarian assistance dispatched to the Palestinian population at the instructions of King Mohammed VI, Chairman of the Al-Quds Committee, has been distributed on Thursday at the Palestinian Red Crescent association hospital in Al-Quds.

The Moroccan emergency humanitarian aid is made up of large quantities of food aid, water, and medical products.

The Rabat-based Bayt Mal Al-Quds Agency said it had earmarked these grants for the main hospital and social facilities, which deal with emergency medical and social cases amidst developments in the Gaza Strip.

Two Moroccan military aircraft carrying emergency humanitarian aid for the Palestinian people arrived at El Arich airport in Egypt on Wednesday.

The cargoes, consisting of large quantities of food, medical products and water, were handed over to the Egyptian Red Crescent for transport to the Gaza Strip.

This royal decision is part of the constant commitment of King Mohammed VI to the Palestinian cause.
Mauritanias President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazoauni boasted the North African countrys green hydrogen potential and called on European investors attending the European Union  African Union summit at the Global Gateway Forum to seize opportunities.

Our country, the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, with its enormous renewable energy potential (estimated at 4,000 GW, of which 500 can be developed immediately), its unique geographical location, and its rich mineral reserves, particularly iron, has all the assets needed to become one of the worlds leading players in the green hydrogen and green mining industries, he said. This is the ambition we have set ourselves, he added.

Mauritania has reportedly unveiled plans to develop hydrogen projects capable of generating an impressive 80 GW of electrolyzer capacity.

The plan for the green hydrogen projects encompasses three phases spanning from 2024 to 2027.

The phases according to Energy News. Biz involve an increased utilization of gas, a reduction in the use of heavy fuel oil for energy production and transportation, and the integration of renewable energy sources into the electrical system.

According to Mauritanian Cridem media, the country by 2030 aims at replacing gas used for electricity production with green hydrogen, with any surplus being liquefied and exported to other markets.

The North African country, El Ghazoauni stressed, has launched many initiatives to become globally competitive.

Despite the initiatives, the leader argued that many obstacles including the raising of funds, the scaling of technology and appropriate initiatives, are still standing.

To close the lack of investment gap, Mauritania is pursuing partnerships with Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) and exploring avenues for external assistance.
Spanish socialist PSOE sealed a deal with the far-left Sumar coalition to end the political limbo in the country in a breakthrough agreement that includes abandoning support for the Polisario separatists.

Under the outgoing government led by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, Spain has backed Moroccos autonomy plan in the Sahara territory as the sole political solution to the regional conflict.

The Sumar coalition, led by Yolanda Diaz, has previously campaigned in Polisarios favor and asked Sanchez to backtrack from backing Moroccos territorial integrity.

A representative of the Polisario separatists in Spain Abdellah Arabi voiced disappointment, criticizing Diaz for her volt-face in Moroccos favor.

Spain has been in political limbo since July after an inconclusive national election failed to give any of the major parties a clear path to form a government.

The deal will give an edge to Pedro Sanchez after he was asked to form a government following the failure of the center-right Popular Party, which got the most votes in the election, to secure the support of a majority in parliament.

Sanchez, however, still needs to gain the backing of smaller regional parties, including the Catalan separatist Junts group and the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC).

Sanchez has until November 27 to secure the backing of a majority of lawmakers. If he fails, Spain will hold new elections on January 14, 2024.
24 high school students from west central Nebraska have been selected to play for the Nebraska All-State Ensemble, put on by the Nebraska Music Education Association.

The All-State Ensemble, which includes concert band, jazz band, mixed chorus and orchestra, held auditions for students in grades nine through 12.

746 students from 117 Nebraska schools were chosen for the 2023 all-state ensemble and will rehearse with nationally recognized conductors during the NMEA conference and in-service clinic.

Eligible students were chosen by their high school directors to audition and compete against top students for a spot in these state honor ensembles.

Its a long history of celebrating Nebraska musicians, NPPHS choir teacher Leah Purdy said. Its the highest honor that a high school music student can achieve.

Below is a list of those chosen from west central Nebraska, listed by school, ensemble, name, grade and either their instrument or vocal range.

Broken Bow High School:Chorus: Asher Jensen, 12, bass I.

Chase County Schools:Chorus: Navy Havel, 10, alto I.

Chorus: Tessa Mae Smith, 10, alto I.

Chorus: Beau Weiss, 10, tenor II.

Gothenburg High School:Chorus: Olivia Bonine, 12, soprano I.

Band: Claire Vincent, 11, flute.

Band: Mavrix Butterfield, 10, clarinet.

Hershey Public School:

Band: Katie Abbott, 11, baritone BC.

Maxwell Public Schools:

Chorus: Levi Huffman, 12, bass I.

McCook Public Schools:

Chorus: Abigail Nielsen, 12, alto II.

Chorus: Mykuh Hanson, 12, bass II.

Chorus: Olivia Cushman Cabrera, 10, soprano II.

Band: Cora Bogardus, 11, flute.

North Platte High School:

Chorus: Levi Luenenborg, 12, bass I.

Chorus: Rebekah Daily, 11, soprano II.

Chorus: Phinehas Wiezorek, 11, tenor I.

Chorus: Naomi Dekleva, 10, soprano I.

Chorus: Addisyn Purdy, 10, soprano I.

Chorus: Carter Barnason-Foster, 10, tenor II.

Orchestra: Zorion Kurz, 12, string bass.

Ogallala High School:

Band: Reegan DeVries, 11, flute.

Band: Grace Jones, 10, piano.

Orchestra: Ella Schlake, 11, French horn III.

Paxton Consolidated Schools:

Chorus: Miles Rogge, 11, tenor II.

Selected students will be rehearsing a challenging repertoire in preparation for performing under the direction of four of the most prominent conductors in the United States: Alfred L. Watkins, conductor of the Cobb Wind Symphony in Marietta, Georgia (band); Gary Packwood, former director of choral studies at Mississippi State University (chorus); Tito Carrillo, performer, composer and professor at Texas State University (jazz band); and Luis Viquez, director of orchestral studies at the University of Rhode Island (orchestra).

Each ensemble will go on to perform in concerts on Nov. 18 at the Lied Performing Arts Center in Lincoln. Tickets are available to the public starting Nov. 3 and will be $25 each.

This years ensemble includes 155 instrumentalists in the band, 440 vocalists in the choir, 20 jazz band instrumentalists and 131 orchestra instrumentalists.

To sing and play with that much talent and be surrounded by people with the same goal and purpose, the experience is just really memorable, Purdy said. Most every year at least one or two kids say it was a life-changing experience.

Two Adams Middle School band members, Keirra Forden (alto sax) and Layla Castillo Santos (clarinet) were also chosen to participate in the eighth grade All-State band.

The full list of students, as well as music directors of the 2023 Nebraska All-State students are available at nmeanebraska.org/press.
Abe Hamadeh, Kari Lake, and Blake Masters in 2022, when they were all one big happy ticket of losing candidates. Photo: Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Aficionados of crazy cage fights were disappointed that a Blake Masters-=Kari Lake GOP Senate primary did not develop in Arizona. Both MAGA politicians were interested in running for Kyrsten Sinemas Senate seat in 2024, but their common idol Donald Trump nudged Masters out of the race. Undaunted, Masters downshifted to the U.S. House race when Republican congresswoman Debbie Lesko abruptly decided to retire at the end of her current term.

But Masters isnt going to have the MAGA lane to himself by any means. Even before he entered the contest, 2022 attorney-general nominee Abe Hamadeh had already jumped in. Hamedeh greeted Masterss announcement of candidacy immediately with an endorsement from none other than Kari Lake:

I'm HONORED to have Kari Lake's endorsement in this race. Weve never seen a fighter like Kari and I look forward to working with her to Make America Great Again. While others catered to the establishment and hid after the election we continue to fight like hell for Arizona. #AZ8 pic.twitter.com/LfZGW2dbv2  Abe Hamadeh (@AbrahamHamadeh) October 26, 2023

Hamadeh and Lake are old allies and share a taste for election denial (both went to court to challenge their 2022 defeats, Hamadeh for AG and Lake for governor). Both candidates probably feel entitled to a Trump endorsement, but the former president is expected to prudently stay out of it for now.

Masters and Hamadeh have more in common than a determination to Make America Great Again: Neither of them actually lives in the suburban Phoenix district they both want to represent. Masters, in fact, is from Tucson, an entirely different metropolitan area, while Hamadeh is at least from a nearby suburb, leading his campaign to mock Masters as more of a carpetbagger:





Masters, who resides outside the 8th District in Tucson, said he fell in love with the district when he was campaigning for Senate. pic.twitter.com/ImFBjugbpm  Abe Hamadeh War Room (@AbeWarRoom) October 27, 2023

If the intra-MAGA battle becomes too intense, a path to victory may open up for an alternative. Upon announcing her retirement, Lesko endorsed Arizona House Speaker Ben Toma  who has not formally entered the race  as her preferred successor.

Whoever emerges from the primary is expected to win the seat in a district the Cook Political Report rates as 10 percentage points more Republican than the country as a whole. Lesko drew no Democratic opponent in 2022, though Democrat Greg Whitten did announce a 2024 run before the incumbent took a pass on reelection.

If Masters prevails, he may have some trouble snuggling up to his ticket-mate Lake this time around. Turns out the MAGA movement is quite big enough to accommodate some bitter rivalries.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 27)  Philippines' bet Nikki de Moura admitted that she was disappointed after failing to make it into the Top 20 of Miss Grand International 2023 pageant on Wednesday.

But the Filipino-Brazilian model noted that she still chooses to be grateful.

"I poured my heart and soul into representing the Philippines and my heart aches with disappointment," she said in an Instagram post on Thursday.

"But even in the face of this heartache, I choose gratitude," De Moura added. "Life is a journey filled with ups and downs, and I'm determined to make the most of every moment."

The 19-year-old beauty made an early exit during the coronation night held in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, marking the fifth time that a Philippine candidate did not make it to the semi-finals in the pageant's 11-year history.

Nonetheless, she said she remains optimistic as it is "just the start of something greater."

"I understand I may still be young, I will continue to work hard, learn, and grow, because I believe that disappointment is only a stepping stone to future success," De Moura said

"Now, I stand before you, not as a part of the top 20, but as someone who gave her all," she added.

Meanwhile, Miss Grand International 2023 winner Luciana Fuster of Peru commended De Moura's maturity.

"MY BABY QUEEN, you have a very pure soul," said Fuster in her comment to De Moura's post. "In these almost 30 days together I discovered on you a very solid woman despite your age!! Keep going Nicole de la Mariposaaa de Las Filipinas. The world loves you!"

The Philippines has yet to win its first Miss Grand International crown.

Samantha Bernardo and Nicole Cordoves almost won the title back in 2021 and 2016, respectively, when they placed 1st runner-up.
Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

George Santos was arraigned in federal court on Long Island Friday morning, pleading not guilty to new charges that were filed against him in a superseding indictment several weeks prior. The New York representatives trial date has been set for September 9, 2024, months after the Republican primary that Santos has already vowed to participate in. Prosecutors have requested a speedy trial, per ABC 7.

On Thursday, ahead of the arraignment, Santos reiterated that he has no intentions of stepping down from his seat in light of his ongoing legal troubles.

Three points of clarification:



1. I have not cleared out my office.



2. Im not resigning.



3. Im entitled to due process and not a predetermined outcome as some are seeking.



God bless!  George Santos (@MrSantosNY) October 26, 2023

Earlier this month, prosecutors levied ten new charges against Santos, including identity theft and conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States. This is in addition to the 13 counts already pending against him from May. Santos is alleged to have directly defrauded donors by using their credit-card information to make additional campaign contributions without their knowledge. Prosecutors claim that Santos then hid the actions by falsely attributing the donations to members of his family. They also allege that Santos and his former campaign accountant Nancy Marks fraudulently inflated the number of campaign donations received in order to reach a $250,000 benchmark required to receive additional financial and logistical support from a Republican Party committee program. Marks herself has already pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States.

Congressman Anthony DEsposito introduced a resolution to expel Santos from the House on Thursday, citing Santoss legal troubles as well as his history of misrepresenting his and his familys connections to major events, including the Holocaust, the September 11th terrorist attacks, and the Pulse nightclub shooting. A similar motion put forth by House Democrats was ultimately forwarded to the Ethics Committee. The resolution, which will go to a vote next week, has the backing of several other New York Republicans including Representative Nick LaLota, Marc Molinaro, and Mike Lawler, who have long made their opposition to their colleague known.

But even given Santoss deep unpopularity, the two-thirds majority required will likely be a steep climb. In the history of the U.S. Congress, only 20 members have ever been successfully expelled from the body, with the bulk of those instances happening during the Civil War. The most recent expulsions from the House of Representatives were Congressman Michael Ozzie Myers of Pennsylvania in 1980 after he was caught in the FBIs Abscam sting and Congressman James Traficant of Ohio, who was convicted of bribery in 2002.

Mike Johnson, the newly elected Speaker of the House, suggested in an Fox News interview that hes not in favor of efforts to expel Santos at a time when his party holds such a slim margin in the chamber.

We have a four-seat majority in the House. It is possible that that number may be reduced even more in the coming weeks and months, and so we will have what may be the most razor-thin majority in the history of the Congress. We have no margin for error. And so George Santos is due due process, he said.
Photo: Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

Israels campaign against Hamas has already killed thousands of Palestinian civilians and dozens of relief workers. Its siege of the Gaza Strip has rendered 12 of that regions hospitals nonfunctional and triggered a fuel shortage so acute that the United Nations may soon be forced to suspend its aid operations. As the bombardment and blockade erode sanitation and clean-water access, there is a burgeoning risk of a major disease outbreak exponentially increasing the civilian death toll.

Some may insist that these are the tragic costs of a just war. But even supporters of Israels campaign should be able to recognize that policies with harms this profound warrant open debate.

Yet in the United States, critics of Israeli policy are finding their speech increasingly suppressed. On Tuesday, Florida banned the pro-Palestinian activist group Students for Justice in Palestine from its public university campuses. The Jewish American writer Nathan Thrall, who just published a book about Israels occupation of the West Bank, has had his speaking events abruptly canceled, while American public media has pulled all advertisements for his book.

Last Friday, the Manhattan literary venue 92Y canceled a talk from the novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen in apparent retaliation for his having signed an open letter opposing Israels bombardment of Gaza. Michael Eisen, the editor-in-chief of the journal eLife, was fired for retweeting an Onion article headlined, Dying Gazans Criticized for Not Using Last Words to Condemn Hamas. Eisen subsequently clarified that he was horrified and traumatized by what Hamas did but also horrified by the collective punishment already being meted out on Gazans, and the worse that is about to come. The Boston Palestine Film Festival canceled its live screenings, while a Houston Hilton backed out of hosting a conference for the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, citing security concerns. Billionaires and nonprofit organizations are explicitly trying to ruin the careers of law students who signed an open letter that claimed Israel was entirely responsible for the October 7 attack (a malign position that is nevertheless distinct from an affirmative defense of terrorism).

The suppression of pro-Palestinian advocacy in the United States is not new. Universities have been trying to block the formation of Students for Justice in Palestine chapters for years. Thirty-five U.S. states have passed laws deterring participation in boycotts of Israel. Still, efforts to police speech on Israel-Palestine have intensified in recent weeks. This is a lamentable development for the health of American civil society. It is also an awkward one for some of our nations culture-war coalitions.

In recent years, social-justice activists have made a practice of seeking to deplatform or punish speech on the grounds that it (1) causes emotional (or theoretically physical) harm to oppressed groups or (2) is motivated by bigotry. Others on the left have argued that organizations and institutions canceling speakers or refusing to platform certain perspectives was itself an exercise of First Amendment rights worth defending: The freedom of association entitles Americans to form collectives that dissociate from some forms of speech.

Anti-woke types of the center and the right, meanwhile, tended to decry such censoriousness as an illiberal bid to impose orthodoxy on others through emotional blackmail and institutional capture. And they were also inclined to emphasize that free speech is not just a matter of constitutional law but a civic ethos. Sure, activist groups have a right to pressure a hotel into canceling a rival political movements conference, and that hotel also has a right to comply. But whether they should exercise those rights  or, more to the point, whether it is healthy for democratic life if the practice of deplatforming controversial groups becomes widespread  is a separate question.

The Israel-Hamas war has flipped the ideological valence of these positions. Now, many on the right are fighting to suppress Palestinian speech on the grounds that it is motivated by antisemitism and emotionally harmful to Jews (i.e., members of a historically marginalized group). And these conservatives are leveraging the institutional power of Israel hawks in order to deplatform their adversaries. Meanwhile, social-justice activists have taken to condemning the deplatforming of pro-Palestinian speech as a threat to Americas civic health.

All this will lead some to conclude that appeals to free speech are invariably opportunistic. But it isnt true that everyone is a hypocrite on these questions. Many critics of the left in general  and of pro-Palestine activists in particular  have condemned the suppression of anti-Zionist speech. And many progressives have consistently defended liberal speech norms over the past decade, even when that has meant tolerating the platforming of right-wing speakers.

The pro-free speech left is now claiming vindication. In their account, the suppression of pro-Palestinian speech illustrates the vitality of the liberal norms that censorious progressives have been blithely eroding. For it is the marginalized  not the powerful  who are easiest to silence in the realms that actually matter. Progressive students may have the power to browbeat university administrators into inhibiting right-wing speech (the customer is always right, after all). But in the wider world, norms that rationalize the suppression of controversial perspectives will be leveraged most effectively by those with economic, social, and political power. Thus, by embracing various tactics of speech suppression, social-justice activists undermined proponents of Palestinian liberation.

Im sympathetic to this outlook. In general, I think that norms of free and open debate are in the best interests of groups with limited social power. This said, Im not sure its actually true that left-wing activists might have averted the current crackdown on pro-Palestinian speech if only they hadnt done so much deplatforming over the past decade.

It seems possible that, if everyone on the American left had unanimously agitated for liberal discourse norms in recent years, pro-Israel groups might find it a bit more difficult to deplatform authors, disemploy editors, and shutter student groups today. But it also seems possible that none of that would have made much difference. After all, we dont live in a world where powerful interest groups or politicians feel constrained by nonbinding social norms or allegations of hypocrisy. Would Ron DeSantis really have hesitated to shut down Students for Justice in Palestine if college students hadnt been doing things like, say, canceling a guest lecturer for agreeing with a majority of Americans about affirmative action? It seems to me that literary venues and public radio stations would still have an incentive to avoid platforming pro-Palestinian speech in that alternate universe simply because Americas pro-Israel constituency is well organized and well resourced and pro-Israel views are fairly popular in the United States.

Nevertheless, I think the pro-free speech lefts broader point stands: The suppression of pro-Palestinian voices underscores the value of upholding liberal speech norms  less because doing so will necessarily safeguard the free expression of the marginalized than because it protects ones own intellectual integrity.

Human cognition is riddled with systemic biases. We are all inclined to see our existing beliefs confirmed, particularly when those beliefs are integral to our social identities. Our default mode is therefore to screen out, belittle, or rigorously scrutinize information that contradicts our core beliefs, while gravitating toward (and uncritically accepting the validity of) information that confirms our priors.

These tendencies may have an evolutionary basis. Seeking out the objective truth about abstract questions with little direct bearing on daily life, without any concern for the core beliefs of ones community, probably wasnt conducive to survival during our speciess formative years. People who avoided developing ideas that would enrage their clan probably had more reproductive success than those who were inclined to make observations like The evidence for the existence of the yam gods seems weak.

But even today, the costs of recognizing a political truth denied by ones social group tend to outweigh the personal benefits of being right. For an American Jew whose closest friends and family are all right-wing Zionists, recognizing the injustice of the West Bank occupation might threaten their most important social relationships. By contrast, realizing that Palestinians in the West Bank live under apartheid rule would have not only no personal benefits for that individual, but also no actual impact on Israeli policy. The incentive to screen out information about Israels mistreatment of the Palestinians  or else to find rationalizations for it  would therefore be very strong.

In any event, anyone who is familiar with the rudiments of social psychology, or who has changed their mind about something and retrospectively recognized that they had been willfully ignoring discomfiting facts, knows that we are all subject to motivated reasoning and identity-protective cognition. Given that reality, we are inclined to seek rationalizations for refusing to engage with ideas that threaten our core beliefs.

One potential rationalization for shutting out a threatening idea is to observe that it is popular with bigots. And yet, as anyone with left-wing views on the Israel-Palestine conflict recognizes, the fact that many bigots like an idea does not mean that it is wrong. There is no question that some critics of Israel are motivated by antisemitism. But just because an antisemite says that Israel is showing a callous disregard for innocent life in Gaza doesnt make it untrue.

Similarly, many critics of Harvards consideration of race in admissions were surely motivated by anti-Black animus. Yet the fact that some bigots accused Harvard of systematically discriminating against Asian applicants did not make that claim untrue.

If our core beliefs are informed by historical injustices committed against our ethnic group, were liable to cling to those beliefs even more fiercely. And we might well have a strong, negative emotional reaction to seeing those beliefs challenged, especially if we have some cause for thinking that the people challenging them are motivated by prejudice. But the fact that the descendant of a Holocaust survivor might feel emotionally rattled by a pro-Palestinian speaker does not invalidate that speakers point-of-view.

Therefore, in the context of Israel-Palestine, its clear that an idea can be popular with bigots, offensive to members of a historically oppressed group, and nevertheless still true. And I think that insight should lead free-speech-skeptical progressives to recognize that the same can be hold in other contexts. This reality, combined with the fact that we all have an inclination to ignore or disqualify information that challenges our core beliefs, should lead us to set a high bar for what forms of speech warrant suppression. After all, if we police speech too aggressively, we may end up trapping both ourselves and society more broadly in grave political or moral errors.

Matthew Yglesias illustrated this point well in a recent column about the suppression of speech critical of Israel:

[Irish entrepreneur] Paddy Cosgrave had to step down from running Web Summit after saying Israel was committing war crimes in Gaza. People were mad, presumably, because they dont think anything Israel did deserves that label. But suppose youre not an Israel-hater and dont spend your time plugged into anti-Israel content and your general inclination is to have confidence in the IDFs ethics. Well, how would you know if you ever turned out to be wrong about this and Israel did commit war crimes? Presumably someone who is not you would notice the war crimes and point them out, and youd hear about it second-hand and be skeptical at first and then hear about it from someone else and look into it in more detail and find out that the person you heard about it from was right. This doesnt work very well if everyones understanding is that talking about Israeli war crimes is a career-ender.

None of this means that hotels, literary venues, social-media companies, and universities should place no boundaries on the types of speech they will platform. It does not degrade our collective epistemic health to marginalize speech that promotes dangerous, debunked conspiracy theories or that is explicitly hateful. But the distinction between speech that is manifestly bigoted and speech that is implicitly bigoted, in the subjective view of someone who disagrees with it, is an important one. Preventing someone from calling for the extermination of all Israeli Jews at 92Y does not impair a healthy debate over U.S. policy toward Israel. But preventing someone from criticizing Israeli war crimes because their focus on those war crimes arguably betrays an antisemitic double standard isnt conducive to a healthy democratic discourse.

Some may counter that there are many ideas that are not explicitly hateful but that have the potential to harm vulnerable groups nevertheless. And sometimes, imposing a high social cost on those who voice such ideas is a more effective way of minimizing harm than trying to win the debate. I think this is a serious objection. But I suspect that trying to protect vulnerable groups through speech suppression will only ever be of partial or temporary efficacy, as such groups by definition have limited power to dictate the bounds of acceptable debate throughout a society, even if they may have the influence to do so within discrete institutions or subcultures. Weighed against the hazards of insulating our own bad ideas from edifying criticism and undermining norms that constrain (however partially) the censoriousness of reactionary interests, I dont think the progressive case for suppressing (non-hate) speech is compelling.

All of which is to say: Those who claim to value an open discourse should fight the suppression of pro-Palestinian speech. And those who support the Palestinian cause should value an open discourse.
Not only did that poor kid have a rough childhood but most of it was broadcast on MTV.



Fuck Janelle and her awful husband. Unhinged.

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Jenelle's two younger children remain in her and David's custody



what the fuck

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For now. I saw that they are being interviewed by CPS/police away from Jenelle and David. Previously, they had only been interviewed with Jenelle and/or David in the room.

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unfortunately this is typical of CPS in the U.S. They do the bare minimum and many children are left in abusive homes because of this. I had 2 friends who were interviewed by CPS as children because of abuse they suffered at home. They lied and said they fell or the dog did it and CPS was never heard from again.

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https://www.parents.com/news/cps-has-a-systemic-racism-problem-and-black-parents-are-losing-their-children-because-of-it/ Unless you're black or indigenous, in which case they'll take your kids at the drop of a dime.

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That really surprises me too. Hopefully once the police and/CPS dig in they can get those other two kids to safety.

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Seriously wtf?

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Fucking finally.



I havent kept up with any Teen Mom need in years, but I was livid when I found out about the poor dog. I wish their kids would get taken away from them and placed in a safe home. I dont even want to imagine the horrors theyve experienced having these two pieces of shit as parents. I also hope theyre banned from every shelter and store out there (though, I highly doubt it). But, as horrible as Juhnelle is as a person, I hope she can walk away from him one day - before he ends her life.

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Update: Since I submitted this post, I have seen that Jace's specific injuries were "bruising on the left and right side of the neck."



So, he was likely strangled by David.

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I need anyone reading this to know that if someone strangles you, the chances that they will eventually kill you increase SIGNIFICANTLY. And the reason for this is two fold - it is VERY easy to do fatal or significant damage every single time and so that, coupled with the fact that strangulation is also something that escalates - thats what makes it such a good predictor of those horrific outcomes.

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JFC

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[ Spoiler (click to open) ] His ex also accused him of strangling her.

This man needs to be locked up permanently!



Edited at 2023-10-27 01:17 am (UTC) tw:dvThis man needs to be locked up permanently!

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My dad carried me up the stairs when I was nine years old and threw me into my bed, which bruised a rib.



I told my teacher the next day but nothing happened.

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Im so sorry that happened to you.

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That's awful, I imagine it took a lot of courage to tell your teacher.

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This has been a wild ride and this is long overdue. Im glad Jace is safe but I wish the other children were able to be removed to a safe place (I know Janelles ex is trash so idk who the other kids can safely be with).



Janelle has been saying these are all lies on her social media. She would rather discredit her son than go against David. She is trash

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Jenelle can not take accountability for anything she and David do. It's Barb's fault, it's Jace's fault, it's the police's fault, it's the media's fault...it's never her or David. She's a garbage human.

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That's disgusting and also very sad. She was so messed up as a teen and clearly never got the help she needs, now she's gonna pass so much trauma onto her kids.

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I never watched the Jenelle seasons, but good lord, she sounds worse than Farrah, if that's humanly possible.

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Well, the (alleged) strangulation happened the day before he ran away, which means the kid was walking around with (allegedly) visible bruises on him for at least a day and she was just posting on her social media as usual. She's terrible.

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TW: animal abuse Jenelle is definitely worse than even Farrah. Jenelle stayed with David after he beat their french bulldog to death. David needs to be removed from existence.



Edited at 2023-10-27 03:04 am (UTC)

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jfc, why isn't he in jail already?

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I hope these two finally have some consequences for their actions. They have been actively horrible for the entirety of Jace's life. That poor kid.

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I legitimately wish her the worst.



Every time I see or hear something about her its something awful. I will keep my thoughts to myself since I dont want to put that type of negativity into the universe, but I hope she gets everything she deserves.

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I don't understand why she has never seen severe consequences for her continuous horrific actions? Not to mention her pet murdering swamp husband. Is it the state/county she is in? (Canadian here so I genuinely don't know)

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It's not like Canada actually punishes people for crimes either lol

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lmao yes I know, that's a separate conversation!

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Jennelle is such a massive piece of shit.

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omg unrelated but Alonso icon!!!!

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We have ONTD F1 live race day viewing posts now if you'd be interested in joining (unless you already have, then my bad).

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my god, that poor child.

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Honestly so disturbed that he might have strangled Jace. They also took his phone so he couldn't reach out for help either :/



Genuinely worried for all of those children, and I hope they finally face actual repercussions.



Part of being charged is they should have to surrender any and all weapons.



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I've been reading about this on reddit. What trash humans they both are.



Also wtf at child abuse only being a misdemeanor.

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He looks like Tom Hanks in Castaway

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this insult to Tom Hanks! Even in peak Castaway character grossness, Tom Hanks could never be half as ugly as David

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A reporter from rocket blog NASASpaceflight reveals Elon Musk's SpaceX Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, has been placed under review (again) by the US Fish & Wildlife Service, with consultation by the Federal Aviation Administration, about the Endangered Species Act of 1973.

This review process will take upwards of 135 days and delay any imminent rocket launch because the government wants to understand the environmental impacts of rocket launches.

We can't help but view this investigation by the government with great skepticism, as it appears like yet another effort by the Biden administration to weaponize governmental agencies to target Musk, who also owns the 'free speech' platform X.

Musk recently described the apparent 'beef' that the Biden administration has with him. In September, he told All-In Podcast host entrepreneur David Sacks:

"...there does seem to be some significant increase in the weaponization of government and really sort of misuse of prosecutorial discretion in many areas... I think this is really a dangerous thing for there to be partisan politics with government agencies."

Musk continued:

"I don't think the whole administration has it out for me," he added.

"But I think there's probably aspects of the administration... or aspects of interests aligned with President Biden who probably do not wish good things for me."

On Sept. 5, Musk said Starship was ready for launch.

"Starship is ready to launch, awaiting FAA license approval," Musk wrote on X, sharing a video of world's largest rocket at the SpaceX Starbase launch facility in south Texas.

Also in September, the FAA predicted that Starship should be ready to fly again in mid-October. But the process is held up at the Fish and Wildlife Service to complete a review of Starship's water deluge system before a launch.

On the subject of government overreach, Musk recently signed on to a "friend of the court" brief in support of hedge fund manager George Jarkesy, who argues he is facing unconstitutional enforcement action by in-house judges at the Securities and Exchange Commission.

"The SEC's use of unconstitutionally insulated [administrative law judges], exercise of legislative power in choosing the forum for its litigation without any guiding principles, and refusal to allow SEC enforcement defendants the opportunity to litigate before a jury raise serious concerns in SEC administrative proceedings," wrote attorneys representing Musk and others on their amicus brief in SEC v. Jarkesy.

ADVERTISEMENT

Despite SpaceX delivering 80% of all Earth's payload mass so far this year and leading the global rocket race amidst threats of world war, some in the government are completely fine with throwing roadblocks in the private space program, perhaps due to orders from radicals in the White House.

By Zerohedge.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Oil markets have been on edge this week, with geopolitical risk and market tightness being counterbalanced by continued economic concerns. While prices are on course for a weekly loss, they spiked sharply early on Friday morning following U.S. airstrikes on Syrian territory.





Friday, October 27th, 2023

Oil prices have been relatively rangebound this week, with ICE Brent trending between $88 and $90 per barrel, but the constant ebb and flow of geopolitical fears has created a seesaw pattern in day-to-day trading. US military airstrikes on Syrian territory lifted Brent above $90 per barrel again on Friday market before falling back slightly. Market watchers are now anticipating an Iranian retaliation and a potential escalation into the wider region as Israel begins raids into northern Gaza. Yet even with this, oil prices are set for the first week-on-week decline since early October.

ConocoPhillips Eyes Third M&A Megadeal of the Year. According to media reports, US oil major ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) is considering an offer for privately-owned shale producer CrownRock LP, a Permian Basin specialist, in a deal that is valued between $10 billion and $15 billion.

Indias ONGC Mulls Venezuela Return. Indias state-owned oil firm ONGC (NSE:ONGC) aims to recover some 500 million in dividends pending since 2014 for its stake in two Venezuelan projects it co-operates with PDVSA, the San Cristobal field and the Carabobo production area.

EU to Set Methane Limits on Gas Imports. The European Union proposed imposing methane emission limits on EU gas imports starting from 2030, potentially impacting suppliers with frequent methane leaks such as Algeria or even the United States.

Shell Scales Back Low-Carbon Shift Ambition. UK-based energy major Shell (LON:SHEL) is considering cutting 15% of its workforce at the low-carbon solutions division and phasing down its hydrogen plans as CEO Wael Sawan seeks to focus on much more profitable oil and gas projects.

Australia Billionaire to Derail Another Merger. Having stymied Albemarles (NYSE:ALB) takeover of Liontown Resources (ASX:LTR), Australian billionaire Gina Rinehart is now looking to block Chiles lithium champion SQM (NYSE:SQM) from buying Azure Minerals (ASX:AZS) for $1 billion.

Chinese Coal Prices Plunge on High Imports. As Chinas power generators ramped up imports and replenished coal stocks for the winter, prices for thermal coal at the Asian countrys key Qinhuangdao trading hub dropped below 1,000 per metric tonne ($137/mt), halting a month-long rally.

Saudi Aramco Doubles Down on Gas Projects. Saudi Arabias national oil company Saudi Aramco (TADAWUL:2222) signed a $2.4 billion deal with South Koreas Hyundai to develop the second phase of the 200 TCf Jafurah gas field, the largest non-associated gas field in the Middle Eastern country.

White House to Curb Aviations Lead Emissions. The US Environmental Protection Agency seeks to phase out the usage of leaded aviation fuel used in piston-engine aircraft and accounting for 1% of the countrys total jet fuel demand, having confirmed its adverse effects on public health.

China Boosts Coalbed Methane Reserves. Chinas national oil company CNOOC (HKG:0883) announced the discovery of the countrys largest deep coalbed methane field, with the Shenfu coal seem in Shaanxi province believed to have natural gas reserves of some 100 bcm.

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Canadas Teck Reiterates Restructuring Interest. Canadas leading mining company Teck Resources (NYSE:TECK) said it was progressing expeditiously on the mulled split of its coal and copper businesses, promising a deal by end-2023 after twice rejecting Glencores (LON:GLEN) $22.5 billion bid.

Siemens Value Plunges on State Aid Talks. Stocks of Germanys leading renewable energy developer Siemens Energy (ETR:ENR) plummeted by more than 35% on Thursday after it acknowledged that it is in talks with the German government about securing a $17 billion state guarantee to stay afloat.

Surprising No One, Guyana Finds Oil Again. The Lancetfish-2 appraisal well drilled by the ExxonMobil-led (NYSE:XOM) consortium in Guyana wielded another significant discovery of oil and gas, hitting a sandstone net pay of 81 meters and marking the 46th offshore discovery in the country since 2015.

Auditor Flags TMX Financing Problems. The Auditor General of Canada reported that the Trans Mountain Pipeline (TMX) might need more cash as it might exhaust its $11.6 billion credit facility over the upcoming months, just as the federally-owned pipeline aims for a launch in April 2024.

By Michael Kern for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 26)  Twenty thousand personnel of the Philippine Coast Guard will be on alert for the upcoming holidays, securing ports as crowds head to the provinces for the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections as well as All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day.

Coast Guard spokesperson Armand Balilo on Thursday said 10,000 more personnel are on standby in case additional forces will be needed.

"Ang instruction po ni Admiral Gavan sa lahat ng personnel ng Philippine Coast Guard ay maging visible sa lahat ng mga pantalan at iyong mga security forces na itatalaga natin sa barangay election ay dapat in place na," he said.

[Translation: Admiral Gavan's instruction to all personnel of the Philippine Coast Guard is to be visible at all ports and those security forces that we will assign in the barangay election must be in place.]

Balilo added they remain on alert with the number of passengers expected to increase.

The PCG is advising travelers to follow all safety guidelines and other regulations during their trip to avoid any inconvenience.

Balilo is also warning boat operators to follow sailing protocols, including not proceeding with the trip in case of bad weather.
Tensions in the Middle East escalated just as oil prices declined into potentially dangerous territory for major OPEC+ players such as Saudi Arabia. Before October 7, Dubai was as low as $85 per barrel, borderline fiscal breakeven for Riyadh and it felt as if the bond sell-off earlier in the month could scupper the voluntary production cuts of Saudi Arabia and Russia. Throughout the second half of October, oil prices have shrugged off the scrapping of sanctions on Venezuela, rising US crude inventories and gradually weakening refining margins and that resilience has permeated the Middle Easts pricing strategy which has seen a consistent penchant for gradual increases over the course of 2023.

Chart 1. Saudi Aramcos Official Selling Prices for Asian Cargoes (vs Oman/Dubai average).

Source: Saudi Aramco.

Due to strong refinery margins in September and steeper backwardation that added another $0.55 per barrel vs the August monthly average and came in at $2.40 per barrel, Saudi Aramco had the privilege of increasing formula prices across the board. In Asia, Aramcos key market for exports, the Saudi national oil company only hiked the OSPs of Arab Light  the main grade exported  and Arab Extra Light, by $0.40 and $0.50 per barrel, respectively. Every other grade was simply rolled over from August quotes, including Arab Medium which should have seen an increase given the overall strength in middle distillate cracks. It is very likely that the pricing caution was driven by concerns about Asias buying patterns. China has just started to buy hefty volumes of Saudi again, and an aggressive OSP hike could have frightened Chinese refiners. Saudi Aramco will also need to watch out for soaring freight prices. The spike in VLCC freight costs has run out of steam and the price of a Saudi-to-China delivery is back below the $2 per barrel threshold, there was no similar easing in the Suezmax market where costs are still up 25% compared to a month ago, as high as $4.90 per barrel.

Related: Oil Price Rally Reverses Despite Tightening Market Fundamentals



Chart 2. Formula prices of cargoes bound for Northwest Europe by selected grades (vs ICE Bwave).

Source: Saudi Aramco.

Asia seems to have an increasingly important spot in Aramcos strategy as the Saudi NOC has been reportedly talking to another Chinese refiner, Shandong Yulong Petrochemical, about a potential 10% stake purchase. Considering the Saudi NOC did not change its formula prices for the United States and rolled over October pricing into November, the biggest month-on-month change came from the European front. Buoyed by regional medium sour grades reaching all-time highs (most notably Johan Sverdrup) and steep backwardation in Brent futures, Aramco hiked all prices for Northwest Europe by $1.20-1.50 per barrel, lifting heavier grades more than the light ones. Regrettably for buyers in Spain, France or Greece, the pricing hike was even larger for the Mediterranean as Arab Light and Arab Medium both witnessed a $2 per barrel month-on-month increase. Such hefty increases, bringing the price of Arab Light in Europe to the highest level ever on record, might very well sap demand in Saudi crudes, especially as Europes own medium sour grades have started to weaken recently.

Chart 3. ADNOC Official Selling Prices for 2017-2023 (set outright, here vs Oman/Dubai average).

Source: ADNOC.

The UAEs ADNOC has been one of the tacit winners of the ongoing OPEC+ production cuts. Pledging to cut only 144,000 b/d until the end of 2023, it keeps on ratcheting up production capacity with ADNOCs most recent output assessment putting it around 4.65 million b/d. The pricing of the UAEs flagship light sour grade Murban set by trading at the ICE Futures Abu Dhabi exchange, the November OSP clocked in at $93.92 per barrel, up almost $7 per barrel compared to October and accounting to a $0.73 per barrel premium to cash Dubais monthly average in September. The manually set formula prices of Das, Umm Lulu and Upper Zakum saw only marginal changes. Medium sour Das was rolled over from October with the same $0.6 per barrel discount to Murban, whilst Upper Zakum was hiked by 10 cents to a $0.50 per barrel discount. Umm Lulu, a slightly sourer and lighter version of Murban usually bought by Thailand and adding up to a 200,000 b/d export stream, saw its premium to Murban increase from $0.20 to $0.25 per barrel.

Chart 4. Iraqi Official Selling Prices for Asia-bound cargoes (vs Oman/Dubai).

Source: SOMO.

Iraq has maintained an independent pricing policy over the past years, occasionally contradicting Saudi Aramcos moves. For November 2023, too, the Iraqi state oil marketing company Somo decided to lift formula prices in Asia, lifting Basrah Medium and Basrah Heavy by $0.30 and $0.20 per barrel, respectively. The Basrah Medium hike is lower than Aramcos Arab Light upwards correction by $0.40 per barrel, at the same time Basrah Heavy assessed at a -$1.40 per barrel to Oman/Dubai will be shrinking the spread between Iraqs heaviest grade and Arab Heavy, the heaviest grade on offer from Saudi Aramco. Iraqs seaborne exports have been relatively stable over the past months, averaging around 3.45 million b/d excluding the still-shuttered Kurdish areas. However, Iraqi exports going to Europe or the United States have been declining as Asian buyers scoop up Somos barrels  US-bound departures last month were the lowest since July 2021 and that is even without the Trans Mountain Pipeline impact hitting the US West Coast.

Chart 5. Iraqi selling prices for US-bound cargoes (vs Dated Brent).

Source: SOMO.

Still relying on PADD 5 to import Basrah Medium cargoes, Iraq is facing an uphill battle with the TMX commissioning being just around the corner and would need to prepare itself for a tough fight for market share. Cognizant of this challenge, Somos pricing for the US has been cautious, with the November formula prices seeing two roll-overs for Basrah Heavy and Kirkuk and the most coveted Basrah Medium getting only a slight $0.10 per barrel hike to a -$0.25 per barrel discount vs the Argus Sour Crude index. Generally speaking, Iraq could be exporting more even without Kurdish production resuming and it has been using the bumper profits of the past two years to achieve just that. The federal Iraqi government allocated $950 million for the construction of two subsea trunk pipelines within the Sealine-3 project as well as rehabilitation work at the mostly idled 600,000 b/d capacity Khor al-Amaya oil terminal.

Chart 6. Iranian Official Selling Prices for Asia-bound cargoes (vs Oman/Dubai average).

Source: NIOC.

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Irans national oil company NIOC lifted the official selling price of its flagship Iran Light grade for Asian buyers by $0.35 per barrel, 5 cents less than Saudi Aramcos change for Arab Light, putting it at a $3.85 per barrel premium to Oman/Dubai. None of Irans exports trade that high as NIOC routinely needs to discount its crude to incentivize Chinese buyers to maintain high rates of buying. With the ongoing escalation in Gaza prompting US authorities to take a more hawkish stance vis-a-vis Tehran, as could be seen from recent sanctions against Asian companies allegedly facilitating Irans drone and missile programs, the question whether NIOC can maintain the current high pace of exports is central to the Middle Eastern countrys outlook. For the time being, there has been no impact on outflows, the overwhelmingly China-bound flows are still around 1.4-1.5 million b/d, however Tehran has scaled back its ambitious plans to ramp up crude output above the 3.2 million b/d last reported by the countrys oil ministry.

Chart 7. Kuwait Export Blend official selling prices into Asia, compared with Arab Medium and Iranian Heavy (vs Oman/Dubai average).

Source: KPC.

Kuwaits national oil company KPC straightforwardly mirrored Saudi Aramcos rollover of the Asia-bound formula price for Arab Medium and kept the November OSP of Kuwait Export Crude unchanged at a $3.05 per barrel premium to Oman/Dubai. In that same vein, the other Kuwaiti grade coveted in the wider market, the light sweet Kuwait Super Light (48 API and sulfur content of 0.4%) was hiked by $0.5 per barrel, the exact same amount as Arab Extra Light was a couple of days before that, bringing KSLC to a $2.95 per barrel premium to Oman/Dubai. Seeing its product exports go up 50% year-on-year to almost 750,000 b/d, largely a consequence of Al Zour being finally fired up with all three CDUs working, Kuwait has been mostly in the news due to its oil products and not crude. The recent shift to use more low-sulfur fuel oil (LSFO) in the Middle Eastern countrys power generation instead of HSFO is yet another example of this trend, marking probably the last step in Al Zours normal operations.

By Gerald Jansen for Oilprice.com

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Mining billionaire Gina Rinehart has amassed a 19% stake in Australian lithium producer Azure Minerals, building a large interest in a second lithium player in Australia in a few weeks and potentially derailing another acquisition in the sector.

Azure Minerals Limited said in a notice on Friday that Rinehart, Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd (HPPL), and subsidiaries of HPPL have acquired shares in the lithium company giving the mining billionaire 18.3% of the voting power.

The notice from Azure Minerals came shortly after the company announced on Thursday that it had entered into a binding Transaction Implementation Deed with a subsidiary of Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile (SQM), under which the Chilean lithium producer, the worlds second-biggest, would buy 100% of the shares in Azure at an equity value of around $1 billion (AUS$1.63 billion).

Hancock Prospecting, owned by Australias richest woman Rinehart, has bought 19% of Azure Minerals, it said on Friday. Rineharts now substantial stake in Azure Minerals is just below the threshold that would trigger a mandatory offer.

Rinehart, who has made her fortune in iron ore, is betting on lithium to diversify, analysts say.

Azure Minerals holds a 60% stake in the Andover Lithium Project, which is currently in its exploration phase and is expected to complete a maiden Mineral Resource Estimate early next year.

The buying of a large stake in Azure Minerals repeats the events from just a few weeks ago when it became clear that Rinehart had acquired 19.9% of Australian lithium producer Liontown Resources over the past few months.

Partly as a result of Rineharts large stake build, Albemarle Corporation, a leading lithium producer, walked out on a $4.16-billion bid for Liontown Resources.

Albemarle said earlier this month that it would not pursue a binding agreement to purchase Liontown Resources and had formally withdrawn its non-binding offer to Liontown's Board of Directors.

The company noted growing complexities associated with the proposed transaction as a factor in its decision, Albemarle said.

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The European Union held an emergency meeting on Friday to discuss the potential for diesel supply shocks stemming from the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

The EU Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson called an emergency meeting on Friday to discuss the potential issues should there be a diesel supply outage, like strikes and long truck queues waiting for diesel.

"Oil is important. Not enough diesel could lead to strikes," one European Union official told Reuters. "Is this a 1973 moment or not?"

After the group debated the risks of a diesel shortage, the EU's oil coordination group determined that the risks are much lower than during the 1973 oil embargo, with Europe relying on oil to a much lesser extent today than they did decades ago. According to the EU official, Europe only relies on crude oil for about one-third of its energy mix.

OPEC's supply cuts, however, are still a concern for the EU, mainly because one of the EU's top crude oil suppliers is OPEC's largest producer, Saudi Arabia.

"The Middle East route is still of significant importance for Europe...20 million bp goes through Hormuz. It is a real choke point," the official pointed out.

"A possible crisis would have an immediate impact on price, but it's less of a security of supply risk, though the market is very tight because of OPEC+ cuts, tightness should ease in 2024."

The EU currently has 90 days' worth of net imports of crude oil or 61 days of domestic consumption per its requirement, but diesel and gasoil continue to be a risk for the EU.

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The EU's energy supply situation is still worrisome without Russia as a main supplier of oil and gas as in the years before the Ukraine invasion.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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Supermajors TotalEnergies and Exxon were among the bidders in a tender for a number of shallow-water oil and gas blocks offshore Guyana.

The tender involved 11 shallow-water blocks and three deepwater ones, Reuters reports, citing a statement from the Guyana government.

Each supermajor and their respective consortia bid for one block.

TotalEnergies led a consortium also including Qatar Energy, and Petronas, Malaysias state oil company. Exxon led the trio it formed with Hess and CNOOC earlier to explore offshore Guyana, tapping some 11 billion barrels in reserves to date.

The government of the South American nation announced its plans for a tender earlier this year as it sought to maximize the returns from its oil resources sooner rather than later worried that the energy transition push could affect demand for hydrocarbons.

The Guyanese government also changed the revenue-sharing terms for companies interested in exploiting its natural resources, which drew the ire of Exxon.

According to the head of the companys operations in Guyana, the terms of the new production-sharing agreement fell short of what they could be.

The new PSA, released earlier this year, lifts the royalty rate from 2% to 10%, the profit tax rate from 12.5% to 17.5%, and introduces a new corporate tax rate of 10%. The new terms will apply to new projects and will not concern projects already underway such as the development led by Exxon in the Stabroek Block.

Apart from Exxon, no other bidder had any objections to the terms, Guyanas Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo told the media.

We may therefore have a situation where we may not be able to finalize with everyone because as you heard Exxon said they are not prepared to sign the PSA as it is currently structured," Jagdeo said, as quoted by Reuters. "We have said if their demands are extreme then we will simply not proceed with the signing."

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A 20-year-old man accused of robbing and assaulting multiple people earlier this week while wearing a Michael Myers mask appeared in court for the first time Friday.

Jorden Payne, 20, faces two counts of robbery and two counts of attempted robbery for a string of robberies and assaults that took place in southwest Omaha on Monday evening. His 17-year-old girlfriend was also arrested and charged as a juvenile with two counts of robbery, attempted robbery and criminal mischief.

On Friday morning, Douglas County Court Judge John Huber set Paynes bail at 10% of $75,000, meaning he would have to pay $7,500 to be released.

According to an arrest affidavit for Payne and police reports from the alleged robberies:

The first incident was reported shortly after 6 p.m. Monday at an apartment complex near 90th and L Streets. A resident of the complex called 911 after he said a masked man pulled up to the front of the parking lot entrance, exited a car, pulled out what the man thought was a gun and began chasing the victim through the parking lot.

After the masked man got back into the car and fled from the area, the victim noticed that a window of his car had been smashed with a fist sized hole. Nothing was missing from the car.

About 10 minutes later, police received another report of a masked man attempting to rob a woman of her cellphone near 105th Street and Mockingbird Drive, located about a mile west of the previous robbery. The woman reported that a man, wearing a Michael Myers mask and wielding a hammer, approached her and demanded her cellphone before chasing her a short distance.

The first two robberies were unsuccessful, according to police reports.

Shortly before 7 p.m., police were alerted to a third attempted robbery. A woman reported walking near 102nd Street and Washington Drive when a silver vehicle pulled up alongside her and a masked man exited the passenger seat with a hammer.

The woman told the masked man that she had no money, and he allegedly snatched her phone from her back pocket. As she attempted to grab the phone back from him, he threw the phone on the ground and ran back to the vehicle.

Despite not making away with any property, Payne was charged with robbery for this incident because he allegedly took and caused damage to the womans phone with the intent to steal it.

The alleged victim of the final robbery, which took place at about 7:05 p.m., was a 79-year-old man. According to a police report, the man was out for a walk in his neighborhood near 102nd and Polk Streets when a gray sedan pulled up next to him. A passenger in the car then got out and attacked the man with a hammer, leaving him with bleeding facial injuries.

Payne allegedly took the mans wallet, which contained his credit cards, drivers license, Social Security card and $120 cash.

According to an arrest affidavit, police arrested Payne and the 17-year-old girl on Wednesday evening. They allegedly both admitted to being involved in the robberies when interviewed by police.
On Jan. 31, 32-year-old Joseph M. Jones opened fire inside a west Omaha Target store.

Eight minutes later, according to a timeline released by the Omaha Police Department, Omaha Police Officer Brian Vanderheiden shot and killed Jones. Vanderheiden and a Nebraska State Patrol trooper were the first two law enforcement officers who responded to the shooting at 17810 West Center Road. No one other than Jones died or was injured in the incident.

On Friday, during a crisis communications training workshop involving officials from law enforcement, school districts, hospitals and others, Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer pointed to the response to the Target shooting as a prime example of how to respond to an active-shooter situation.

The one thing that impressed me from that event was the synergy because we had been prepared, Schmaderer told reporters. All law enforcement agencies  federal, local and county  responded to that scene.  It wasnt mass chaos. They knew where to respond. They knew there were officers responding to other business locations just in case that subject would go to the next location. It was very methodical. It was methodical, fast and with professionalism.

With the backdrop of this weeks manhunt for a mass shooting suspect in Maine and the ever-looming prospect that a future active-shooter situation in Omaha may be more complicated than the Target incident, crisis communications professionals Julie Parker and Christopher Mannino spent Friday at the Public Safety Training Center north of the city.

Parker, a former TV news anchor and police spokeswoman in the Washington, D.C., area, and Mannino, a retired police chief from Park Forest, Illinois, led exercises with the local and state officials on communicating clearly and effectively with agencies and the public.

The workshop included an active-shooter training situation at the CHI Health Center in downtown Omaha.

Whats happening here today doesnt happen enough across this country: Getting people together in the room who dont normally sit together but would in the event of a crisis. Thats priceless, Parker said.

Parker and Mannino sought to emulate the intensity of a crisis situation within the workshop. That included putting participants on the spot by putting them through emergency scenarios, coordinating messages and selecting designated people to speak at a mock press conference.

We want to stress people out in a safe place and make them uncomfortable so that theyve been through something somewhat realistic to what could occur in Any Place, USA, Parker said.

As the means of communication have evolved, so have the methods. Parker, who said she covered the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001 and the D.C. sniper attacks a year later, said agencies relied on the traditional mass media back then to give updates.

Now, the agencies can also provide updates through social media as well as traditional media. She said consistent updates are vital to keep members of the public aware of the latest developments.

Sometimes, government agencies will say, Well, theres nothing new to report so were not going to hold a news conference, she said. We encourage government agencies to get out there and say theres nothing new to report.

Schmaderer said Fridays crisis communication exercise was the largest training exercise of its kind this year. In addition to the training exercises, Schmaderer said OPD learns from crisis incidents that happen across the country.

Every time something occurs in another part of the country, we study it here in Omaha to make our response more efficient. I think its important that you dont wait for it to happen here, he said. Our goal is to save lives instantly.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP)  Israel knocked out internet and communications in the Gaza Strip in stepped-up bombardment Friday night, largely cutting off its 2.3 million people from contact with each other and the outside world and creating a near-blackout of information, as the military said it was expanding ground operations in the territory.

The militarys announcement signaled it was moving closer to an all-out invasion of Gaza, where it has vowed to crush the ruling Hamas militant group after its bloody incursion in southern Israel three weeks ago.

Explosions from continuous airstrikes lit up the sky over Gaza City for hours after nightfall. The Palestinian telecom provider, Paltel, said the bombardment caused complete disruption of internet, cellular and landline services. The cutoff meant that casualties from strikes and details of ground incursions could not immediately be known. Some satellite phones continued to function.

Already plunged into darkness after most electricity was cut off weeks ago, Palestinians were thrown into isolation, huddling in homes and shelters with food and water supplies running out.

Relatives outside Gaza panicked after their messaging chats with families inside suddenly went dead and calls stopped going through.

I was so scared this was going to happen, said Wafaa Abdul Rahman, director of a feminist organization based in the West Bank city of Ramallah. She said she hadn't heard for hours from family in central Gaza.

Weve been seeing these horrible things and massacres when its live on TV, so now what will happen when theres a total blackout? she said, referring to scenes of families that have been crushed in homes by airstrikes over the past weeks.

Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said ground forces were expanding their activity Friday evening in Gaza and acting with great force ... to achieve the objectives of the war. Israel says its strikes target Hamas fighters and infrastructure and that the militants operate from among civilians, putting them in danger.

The Hamas media center reported heavy nighttime clashes with Israeli forces at several places, including what it said was an Israeli incursion east of the refugee camp of Bureij in the central Gaza Strip. Asked about the report, the Israeli military reiterated early Saturday that it had been carrying out targeted raids and expanding strikes with the aim of preparing the ground for future stages of the operation.

Israel has amassed hundreds of thousands of troops along the border ahead of an expected ground offensive. Earlier Friday the military said ground forces conducted their second hourslong incursion inside Gaza in as many days, striking dozens of militant targets over the past 24 hours.

The Palestinian death toll in Gaza has soared past 7,300, more than 60% of them minors and women, according to the territorys Health Ministry. A blockade on Gaza has meant dwindling supplies, and the U.N. warned that its aid operation helping hundreds of thousands of people was crumbling amid near-depleted fuel.

More than 1,400 people were slain in Israel during Hamas Oct. 7 attack, according to the Israeli government, and at least 229 hostages were taken into Gaza. Palestinian militants have fired thousands of rockets into Israel, including one that hit a residential building in Tel Aviv on Friday, wounding four people.

The Israeli military released the names of 310 soldiers killed during the initial Hamas attack and its aftermath. The vast majority were killed Oct. 7, according to the military. The slain soldiers are part of the overall death toll in Israel.

The overall number of deaths far exceeds the combined toll of all four previous Israel-Hamas wars, estimated at around 4,000.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel expects a long and difficult ground offensive into Gaza soon. It will take a long time to dismantle Hamas' vast network of tunnels, he said, adding that he expects a lengthy phase of lower-intensity fighting as Israel destroys pockets of resistance.

His comments pointed to a potentially grueling and open-ended new phase of the war after three weeks of relentless bombardment. Israel has said it aims to crush Hamas rule in Gaza and its ability to threaten Israel. But how Hamas defeat will be measured and an invasions endgame remain unclear. Israel says it does not intend to rule the tiny territory but not who it expects to govern  even as Gallant suggested a long-term insurgency could ensue.

In Washington, the Pentagon said U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with Gallant on Friday and underscored the importance of protecting civilians during the Israel Defense Forces operations and focusing on the urgency of humanitarian aid delivery for civilians in Gaza. The Pentagon said Austin also brought up the need for Hamas to release all of the hostages.

The conflict has threatened to ignite a wider war across the region. Arab nations  including U.S. allies and ones that have reached peace deals or normalized ties with Israel  have raised increasing alarm over a potential ground invasion, likely to bring even higher casualties amid urban fighting.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi warned on X that the outcome will be a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions for years to come.

With no electricity, no communications and no water, many of those trapped in Gaza had little choice but to wait in their homes or seek the relative safety of schools and hospitals as Israel expanded its bombing early Saturday.

Throughout the night, orange fireballs exploded on the horizon above the apartment buildings and refugee camps of Gaza City, briefly illuminating clouds of white smoke hanging in the air from previous strikes. Some bombs hit in tight groups, apparently slamming into the same location.

Lynn Hastings, U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the occupied territories, posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that without phone lines and internet, hospitals and aid operations would be unable to operate. The Red Crescent said it could not contact medical teams and residents could no longer call ambulances, meaning rescuers would have to chase the sound of explosions to find the wounded. International aid groups said they were only able to reach a few staffers using satellite phones.

The Committee to Protect Journalists expressed alarm, saying the world is losing a window into the reality of the conflict. It warned that the information vacuum can be filled with deadly propaganda, dis- and misinformation.

The loss of internet and phones deals a further blow to a medical and aid system that relief workers say was already on the verge of collapse under Israel's weekslong seal. More than 1.4 million people have fled their homes, nearly half crowding into U.N. schools and shelters. Aid workers say a trickle of aid Israel has allowed to enter from Egypt the past week is a tiny fraction of what is needed.

Gaza hospitals have been scrounging for fuel to run emergency generators that power incubators and other life-saving equipment.

Gallant said Israel believes that Hamas would confiscate any fuel that enters. He said Hamas uses generators to pump air into its hundreds of kilometers (miles) of tunnels, which originate in civilian areas. He showed reporters aerial footage of what he said was a tunnel shaft built right next to a hospital.

For air, they need oil. For oil, they need us, he said.

Late Friday the army released photos showing what it said were Hamas installations in and around Gaza City's Shifa Hospital, Gazas largest. Israel has made such claims before, but declined to say how the photos were obtained.

Little is known about Hamas tunnels and other infrastructure. Claims by the military and Gallant couldnt be verified.

Speaking at Shifa Hospital, Hamas media chief Salama Maroof called Israel's claims lies and said they were a precursor for striking this facility.

I ring the alarm bell. There is imminent danger hovering above the medical facility," Maroof said. The hospital has been overwhelmed and around 40,000 displaced residents have crowded its grounds for shelter, the U.N. says.

Asked if Israel plans to target Shifa, Hagari said, We will not be able to allow terror activity against Israel from hospitals.

Hundreds of thousands of people remain in northern Gaza.

In related developments:

 The U.N. General Assembly approved a nonbinding resolution calling for a humanitarian truce in Gaza leading to a cessation of hostilities. It was the first U.N. response to Hamas surprise Oct. 7 attacks and Israel's ongoing military response and vow to obliterate the militant group.

 In New York City, hundreds of protesters calling for a cease-fire filled the famed Grand Central Terminal during rush hour Friday, wearing T-shirts saying Jews say cease-fire now and Not in our name. Police said approximately 200 protesters were taken briefly into custody, issued summonses and released.

Federman reported from Tel Aviv and Mroue from Beirut. Najib Jobain in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Jack Jeffery in Cairo, Isabel DeBre in Jerusalem, and Brian Melley in London, contributed to this report.
Some Republicans worry the infighting that essentially shuttered the House for three weeks will serve as an obstacle to their bid to stay in the majority after next year's elections. Several lawmakers acknowledge the recent chaos has not helped their chances, but they hope that time and results will help voters forget the dysfunction. There is precedent for such hopes. Republicans gained seats in the election following the 2013 government shutdown. Rep. Suzan DelBene, the chair of the campaign arm for House Democrats, says candidates in key swing districts will contrast the fractures among House Republicans with a Democratic focus on the need to govern to meet constituents priorities.
Several environmental groups that conduct habitat work on the Platte River have written an open letter to Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen asking for denial of a permit to transfer water from the Platte to the Republican River Basin.

The letter comes in response to a recent Nebraska Supreme Court ruling that several natural resources districts and a power company lack standing to object to the proposed transfer.

The proposed transfer, if approved, would be the first movement of water from one river in Nebraska to another. The primary objective of the proposal, initially made in 2018, is to help Nebraska meet its obligation under a three-state compact to supply a certain share of Republic River flows to Kansas.

Several natural resources districts, the Loup Power District and others, however, raised concerns that the transfer would impact irrigators, hydropower generation and wildlife habitat downstream from the diversion point.

The Supreme Court, however, determined that the objectors lacked legal standing in the case. That leaves the decision in the hands of Tom Riley, director of the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources.

A department spokeswoman said there is no timeline on a decision.

"It is no longer a contested case, and there is no timeline at this point," spokeswoman Lori Arthur said.

In response, officials with the Audubon Great Plains, the Iain Nicolson Audubon Center at Rowe Sanctuary, the Crane Trust and the Nature Conservancy addressed an open letter to Pillen asking that the diversion permit be denied.

Laura Strimple, spokeswoman for the governor, said Pillen "is a champion for protecting water resources for our ag producers and will ensure the state meets its compact obligations."

Melissa Mosier, Audubon's Platte River program manager, said the groups' concern, given the court's ruling, is that the state could issue the transfer permit without seeking further input from water users and advocates for environmental interests downstream of the project.

The transfer request seeks to divert excess flows from the Platte River east of North Platte and send it south through a series of irrigation and power supply canals, eventually reaching Turkey Creek, a tributary of the Republican River, and flowing into Kansas.

The applicants, natural resources districts in the Republican River Basin, have held that their request would not interfere with future Platte basin water requests because it would remain "junior" to all other water rights.

Mosier, however, said all of the water in the Platte serves beneficial purposes, whether it's recharging groundwater for irrigation, fulfilling wildlife needs or providing drinking water for downstream municipalities, including Lincoln and Omaha.

The organizations argued that there is no "excess flow" in a healthy Platte River ecosystem, which depends on dynamic changes in streamflow. That includes occasional larger flows that maintain sandbars and the river's braided channel.

If the application is approved, they wrote, it would remove water from the Platte upstream of the reach that has been designated as critical habitat for the endangered whooping crane and the threatened piping plover. Some whooping cranes, plus thousands of sandhill cranes and other migratory waterfowl, stop through the central Platte River Valley each spring on their way to northern breeding grounds.

Our best Omaha staff photos & videos of October 2023
One person was killed Thursday afternoon when a commercial truck hit an SUV east of Lincoln, according to the Lancaster County Sheriff's Office.

The crash occurred about 12:40 p.m. at the intersection of 134th and Adams Streets, Capt. John Vik said.

Vik said the truck had been headed east on Adams Street when it collided with the SUV, which had been going south on 134th Street and had entered the intersection.

The driver of the SUV was pronounced dead at the scene, Vik said. The driver of the box truck was not injured.

Vik said it was unclear as of Thursday afternoon whether speed, seat-belt use or drugs and alcohol were factors in the crash.

Neither driver had been identified as of 2 p.m. Thursday.

The Nebraska State Patrol will assist in the investigation because the crash involved a commercial vehicle.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 27)  Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro called for joint patrols with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the West Philippine Sea amid Chinas increasing aggression in the area.

"We welcome joint patrols with ASEAN countries," he told CNN Philippines The Source on Friday. We exhort our ASEAN counterparts and ASEAN countries in order to support our claims against further intrusions by China.

The defense chief said joint patrols is one of the topics he may discuss with counterparts during the ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia next month.

Asked if any other country within the 10-member bloc has expressed interest in joint patrols, he said so far none from the defense side but that there could be engagements among foreign affairs officials.

This comes after US lawmakers welcomed plans for joint patrols in the contested waters following a collision between Chinese and Philippine vessels near Ayungin Shoal on Oct. 22.

READ: Biden reasserts 'ironclad' defense commitment after West PH Sea collisions

Teodoro said holding joint patrols with the United States within the country's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) is perfectly legal under international law.

It is just Chinas incredulous and illegal claim to most of the South China Sea which goes against the grain of the rights of the Philippines to conduct activities within these areas, he added.

According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the EEZ extends 200 nautical miles from shore where the coastal state has the right to explore and exploit, and the responsibility to conserve and manage both living and non-living resources.

A 2016 arbitral ruling favored the Philippines in areas of its EEZ and continental shelf that China claims, including Ayungin Shoal about 105 nautical miles from Palawan. The East Asian power continues to reject the ruling.

Prior to the collision, China had been conducting dangerous maneuvers, even launching water cannon attack and military-grade laser pointing against Philippine vessels on a resupply mission for military troops in the grounded BRP Sierra Madre on Ayungin Shoal.

Teodoro said the Philippines is ready for the worse. He added the country is only standing up for its rights and is placing a spine on our sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The defense chief previously said the incident with China could result in more willing nations joining the Philippines' fight. He did not elaborate.
Southwest Airlines will begin operating daily nonstop service to Nashville International Airport from Omahas Eppley Airfield starting next June, the Omaha Airport Authority announced Thursday.

The airline will use Boeing 737-700 jets, which carry 143 passengers, and 737-800 and 737 MAX8 jets, which seat 175.

This will be the first time Southwest has offered daily flights to the Tennessee capital, though it has offered less-frequent nonstop flights seasonally since 2019.

Southwest is Eppleys largest carrier, serving more than one-third of the airports passengers. In addition to Nashville, the airline flies nonstop to Atlanta, Chicago-Midway, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Orlando, Las Vegas, Phoenix, St. Louis, and Washington-Reagan National. Seasonal service is offered to Fort Lauderdale and Tampa.

Omaha Airport Authority CEO Dave Roth said in a statement he was delighted with Southwests continued expansion at Eppley.

This service is a testament to passenger demand in Omaha fueled, by a strong local economy, he said in the statement. Nashville is one of the most popular destinations for Omaha travelers, and were excited to share that travelers will now have a more convenient link between the two growing cities.

Omaha passenger boardings top pre-pandemic levels at Eppley Eppley Airfield returns to "slow, steady growth" ahead of a planned $600 million expansion that will almost double the size of the passenger terminal.

Close Deb Haman, who works for the Omaha Airport Authority, dusts the airport's "Welcome to Omaha" sign after the morning rush at Eppley Airfield. Departure screen during the mid-morning rush at Eppley Airfield in Omaha. Arrival and departure screens during the mid-morning rush at Eppley Airfield in Omaha. Travelers check in for their flights during the mid-morning rush at Eppley Airfield in Omaha. Passengers head inside Eppley Airfield in Omaha on January 23, 2018. A security checkpoint during the midmorning rush at Eppley Airfield in January 2018. Construction of the airports new rental car and parking garage area at Eppley Airfield on January 23, 2018. Construction of the airport's new rental car and parking garage area at Eppley Airfield in Omaha on January 23, 2018. Rendering of the parking structure that is being added to Eppley Airfield in Omaha, Neb. The mid-morning rush at Eppley Airfield in Omaha on January 23, 2018. An escalation of travelers during the mid-morning rush at Eppley Airfield in Omaha. Arriving travelers await their luggage at Eppley Airfield in Omaha. Busy days at Eppley Airfield in Omaha Deb Haman, who works for the Omaha Airport Authority, dusts the airport's "Welcome to Omaha" sign after the morning rush at Eppley Airfield. Departure screen during the mid-morning rush at Eppley Airfield in Omaha. Arrival and departure screens during the mid-morning rush at Eppley Airfield in Omaha. Travelers check in for their flights during the mid-morning rush at Eppley Airfield in Omaha. Passengers head inside Eppley Airfield in Omaha on January 23, 2018. A security checkpoint during the midmorning rush at Eppley Airfield in January 2018. Construction of the airports new rental car and parking garage area at Eppley Airfield on January 23, 2018. Construction of the airport's new rental car and parking garage area at Eppley Airfield in Omaha on January 23, 2018. Rendering of the parking structure that is being added to Eppley Airfield in Omaha, Neb. The mid-morning rush at Eppley Airfield in Omaha on January 23, 2018. An escalation of travelers during the mid-morning rush at Eppley Airfield in Omaha. Arriving travelers await their luggage at Eppley Airfield in Omaha.
Welcome to the most prestigious estate in McLean County. 7429 North 1900 East Rd is a masterpiece of unparalleled craftsmanship, style, and sophistication that will leave you breathless. This stunning estate sits on 63.8 acres of land, boasts an impressive 9,000 square feet of living space above grade in the award-winning Tri-Valley School District. Architecturally coordinating brick Carriage House and Stable. As you step inside your spacious foyer, you are greeted with large windows that flow with natural light and offer gorgeous views of the incredible estate. Oak wood floors throughout with cherry trim, and cherry solid core wood doors. The gourmet kitchen hosts custom Omega cabinets, live edge butcher block countertops, 2 subzero refrigerators, double ovens, warming drawer and massive walk in pantry. The 22 x 20ft dining room continues with expansive views of the estate. The covered patio is perfect for enjoying a glass of wine with a waterfront view; complete with built in LP gas grill, large brick wood burning fireplace, and phantom retractable screens when you want to stay bug free! The main floor library features handcrafted cherry cabinets by Prairie Woodworks and gorgeous views. The main floor Theater room with built in speakers, and its own audio room to hold all your components. The perfect place to watch a movie! The 25ft x 20ft great room offers panoramic views of the estate with 2 full walls of windows. A 48 x 30 Heat-n-glow Olympus LP gas fireplace, and an exterior sitting patio with glass railing for unblocked views of the gorgeous landscape. The main floor primary room is spacious and continues with stunning views. En-suite with walk in shower, beautiful bathroom, walk in closet, and private patio doors to the exterior patio. The 2nd floor is an incredible 48ft x 25ft game room, with 2 additional closets to store all the extras, a half bath, and spacious flex room - with its own secret room! There is also a large sitting patio with remodeled waterproof and paver flooring, glass railings, and copper accents to enjoy an elevated view of the property. The walkout basement showcases engineered wood floors with a lower-level family room with fireplace and wrap around stone patio. A spacious bedroom suite with walk in tile shower, and 2 additional bedrooms. The spa room is the epitome of luxury with a large jacuzzi tub, and sauna to melt your stress away - with a built-in fish tank to enjoy while you relax. The basement offers a cedar lined storage room; and additional unfinished storage space - so much you could get lost! Let's not forget the secret passageway! If stairs are not your thing, don't worry, the 3-level elevator can get you where you need to be! There is a fabulous mudroom off the attached 2 car garage, and radiant heated driveway approach of 20ft. Exterior Hot tub with trex decking surrounding to sit, relax and watch the wildlife, what better way to end the workday. The "Carriage House" is a 2800sq ft 5 bay detached garage. 3 Bays on the south side offer plenty of storage for all your additional vehicles. The east side entrance 2 bay garage door is the perfect spot for all the toys; boats, 4 wheelers - you name it, with an additional 550ft of walk-up attic storage. The Stable is 1200sqft. 3 stalls with rubber composite base featuring Nelson automatic waterers, and freezer doors to eliminate flies and protect from the elements. 2 warming lamps with infrared radiant heat - thermostat controlled perfect for colder temps. Each stall has its own pea gravel paddock, which then breaks into 2 paddocks and into the 2 pastures totaling 5 acres. The stable has hot and cold running water, and fans in each stall. The 1200sq ft ventilated Hayloft can hold 180 bales of hay, equipped with an electric crane for moving haybales downstairs making this chore a breeze.

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NORMAL  The McLean County Democrats will host the Obama Legacy Dinner from 5:30 to 9 p.m. Nov. 10 in the Brown Ballroom at the Bone Student Center on Illinois State University's campus.

This year's dinner will feature Democratic leaders from across the state and country, including the Anderson Clayton, chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party, who is the youngest state party leader in the country, according to a news release.

When I heard Chair Clayton in an interview, I immediately knew she was the perfect speaker we needed here in McLean County for our Obama Legacy Dinner," said McLean County Democratic Chair Patrick Cortesi. "Her focus on engaging young people in the political process and creating ways for the Democratic Party to reach rural voters are key to our success here in Central Illinois."

Guest speakers include U.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen, D-Rockford; U.S. Rep. Nikki Budzinski, D-Springfield; state Sen. Dave Koehler, D-Peoria; state Rep. Maurice West, D-Rockford; and Illinois Democratic Chair Elizabeth Hernandez.

The Obama Legacy Dinner will also honor recipients of two McLean County Democratic scholarships.

The Baldini Scholarship, named after longtime party chair John Baldini, is awarded to two ISU students with proven community engagement.

The Obama Legacy Scholarship is awarded to a Heartland Community College student who has or is serving in a branch of the U.S. military.

Dinner and ticket information for the dinner is available online at mcleancountydemocrats.org.

Check out photos from the 2023 Alzheimer's Walk Lus Crew Greg Ekdale, Dave Lowe Milo, Alyssa and Kari Wurth writing on flowers, which symbolize a promise to remember, honor, care and fight for those living with Alzheimers. Different colored flowers highlight different connections to the disease. Walk host Susan Saunders takes a picture of the Future Educators of Color team. Walk manager Josh Cox erect the starting gate. Jody and Curt Nettles Lois Thompson, Renee and Kevin Brucker Viola Freimann, Betty Rock Kathy Neil, Lynne Ekdale Ping Yin, Luke Yin, Ian Shin, David Yin Peyton and Kelly Friesen, Abigail and Robin England Michael Lena, Catie Welsh, Derian Cunningham Elaine Vitzthum, Michele Jenkins, Sarah Vitzthum Harry and Hilary Rouse with Pawprint Ministry dogs Silver and Sterling The Commerce Bank Team plants flowers which visually communicate a connection to Alzheimers. Daniel Tofte, Cheryl and Kylie Schimmelpfenning, Sara Larsen, Danielle Randle Walk Host and MC Susan Saunders Freds Forget-Me-Nots Brian Dixon, Joshua Sutton Mikayla, Tiana and Jim Haas Walking in memory of Allan Eichholz The Pray family The Nettles family Warming up before the walk Lucy Croft leads the group in some pre-walk Zumba Getting their Zumba on
JOLIET  A man accused of murder, attempted murder and a hate crime in an attack on a Palestinian-American woman and her son was indicted Thursday by an Illinois grand jury.

The eight-count indictment against Joseph Czuba, 71, tracks the charges that were filed soon after the fatal stabbing of Wadea Al-Fayoume, 6, and the wounding of Hanaan Shahin on Oct. 14. Authorities said the victims were targeted because of their Muslim faith.

Shahin told police that Czuba, her landlord in Plainfield in Will County, was upset over the Israel-Hamas war and attacked them after she had urged him to "pray for peace."

Shahin, 32, is recovering from multiple stab wounds. Hundreds of people attended her son's funeral on Oct. 16.

The murder charge in the indictment against Czuba describes the boy's death as the result of "exceptionally brutal or heinous behavior."

Defense attorney George Lenard has said he won't comment on the case outside court. Czuba, who is in jail, is expected to return to court Monday in Joliet, 50 miles southwest of Chicago.

Earlier this week, Shahin issued a statement through the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. She asked the public to "pray for peace" and said her son was her best friend.

The stabbings are part of rising hostility against Muslims and Palestinians in the U.S. since Hamas attacked Israel. Elsewhere in Illinois, a Chicago-area man was charged with a hate crime in an assault against two Muslims, and an Islamic day school canceled class after receiving threats.

Photos: Pritzker Military Archives Center
The unprecedented three-week Republican search for a new House speaker ended Wednesday. Now the real chaos begins.

In the end, GOP members unified behind Rep. Mike Johnson, a little-known social conservative who supports a national abortion ban, opposes federal recognition of same-sex marriages and led efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.

It should serve as a stark reminder that there's a split in political values of the country. That Donald Trump is now fully in control of the Republican Party. And that any hopes that moderate Republicans and moderate Democrats could somehow unify behind a speaker and work on bipartisan solutions were fantasy.

Johnson, in his first remarks after the vote electing him speaker, promised Republicans would serve the people of this country. Were going to restore their faith in this Congress.

But its doubtful he means all the people. It remains to be seen whether he will work with Democrats or without them. Whether he will work with all Republicans or only those who hew to the expanding MAGA wing of the party.

Whether he plans to negotiate with President Biden, a tactic that led to the ouster of Johnsons predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, or work to block compromise.

Johnson emphasized that the world is on fire, we stand by our ally Israel. But noticeably absent was any mention of Ukraine, for which President Biden is seeking more funding that Johnson has opposed. That fight will be part of the upcoming budget battle as the federal government faces a shutdown Nov. 17, when the short-term deal President Biden signed at the end of September expires.

The election of Johnson demonstrates how far right the House has swung. Fearful of primary challenges from the conservative wing, moderate House members, who are receding in numbers, could only stand their ground so long.

Last week, the moderates blocked the bid by Rep. Jim Jordan, a Trump loyalist and election-denier, to become speaker. But they ran out of energy to withstand the latest right-wing maneuver. So, in Johnson, they ended up with another Trump loyalist and election-denier.

It was the culmination of an amazing right-wing power play. In the narrowly divided House three weeks ago, the ultraconservatives, led by Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, leveraged just eight GOP votes and Democrats disdain for McCarthy to oust the sitting speaker.

In the end, House Republicans landed on Johnson, who has no experience in top-tier GOP leadership. As a result, a minority of the House, a subset of the narrow Republican majority, has taken control of the lower chamber of Congress. And that Republican majority exists only because of Republican gerrymandering across the country, made possible because the GOP outmaneuvered Democrats in state legislative races.

Democrats are fortunate that, at least so far, their 80-year-old president has remained healthy. And theyre lucky that the late-Sen. Dianne Feinstein came from a blue state where the governor could appoint her successor.

But as long as Republicans control the House  and Trump-backed conservatives are calling the shots  the Washington standoff will continue. The no-compromise speakership fight might have been just a warmup.
We get the allure of the Great American West -- the majestic landscapes, rivers teeming with trout, clean air. When TV talk show star Kelly Clarkson announced she and her family were leaving Los Angeles, she said her first choice was Montana. She kept moving, though, landing in New York City. Business considerations, you know.

During the pandemic, a lot of claustrophobic Americans thought likewise and transferred themselves to Big Sky Country. Too many for local tastes.

And that might be the boost Sen. Jon Tester needs for a reelection race that Democrats in Trump country are finding difficult. Why so many allegedly live-free Westerners would listen to a real estate blowhard from Manhattan who talks like a mobster, and thinks that way, too, over a Montana wheat farmer is a mystery.

But there's hope in the Tester camp that Republicans represent a phenomenon that could close off the wild gorgeous spaces that ordinary Montanans treasure -- or even their ability to buy a house in town. There's growing discontent over the state's population boom, The Wall Street Journal reports.

In 2021-22, the state's migration rate exceeded even that of Florida. House prices have shot up 42% since before the pandemic. In Flathead County, rich outsiders are snapping up lakefront property. That means rising prices, which mean rising property taxes forcing families to sell their cabins, according to The Journal.

One likely Republican challenger to Tester is Tim Sheehy. He is already being tarred as a multimillionaire who "got rich off government contracts." What could sink him, though, is apparent evasion of Montana taxes. Despite owning a 20,000-acre spread in central Montana with about 2,000 cattle, Sheehy appears to have not paid Montana taxes on his animals over several years.

Another is Matt Rosendale, originally a real estate developer from Maryland. Rosendale is among the handful of right-wing hotheads who helped boot Kevin McCarthy out of the House speakership. Rosendale claims to be a rancher, but actually he leases the land and others work on it.

Elsewhere in Montana politics, the Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte just vetoed a bill that would have restored $30 million to a program dedicated to improving public access and conserving wildlife habitat. Writing in the Daily Montanan, local conservationists John Todd and Christopher Servheen noted that 130 of 150 state legislators, from both parties, supported the bill.

"It was a boon for wildlife and for the activities and way of life that make Montana so special," they wrote, "a testament to our love for the outdoors and our commitment to preserving them for generations to come."

It is hard to explain how Gianforte got elected governor in the first place. He was a rich executive from New Jersey who made a pile of money, bought a big hunting estate in Montana, and promptly made war on locals who thought they could walk to a fishing stream they used for generations.

In 2009, Gianforte sued the state to remove a public easement that gave anglers, walkers and others access to the East Gallatin River via his property. In the old days of the West, landowners didn't fret much about their neighbors crossing their property.

Gianforte is among rich out-of-state buyers from all over the world who are amassing huge tracts of land in the rural West and erecting no trespassing signs around their kingdoms. Their friends jet in to do private hunting in the vast landscapes that are being closed off to ordinary outdoorsmen.

As for the regular people living in Montana, the right wing that yaps about freedom is fencing them off. In the end, though, they get what they elect.
Back in May 2017, Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson traveled to Springfield and promised a House committee that passing a criminal penalty enhancement bill he favored would drastically reduce gun crimes in his city.

The bill, SB1722, was sponsored by then-Sen. Kwame Raoul, who would run successfully for attorney general the following year. It sought to establish higher minimum prison terms for people convicted of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon for people whod previously been convicted of various crimes. The bill would also increase penalties for unlawful use of a weapon by a felon.

Superintendent Johnson was asked by committee member then-Rep. Christian Mitchell (D-Chicago) to estimate how many shootings, whether fatal or not, the legislature might prevent by passing the bill.

I think over time, we will probably, we will cut it cut it down in half, to half, Johnson replied.

Asked if that might take three years, five years, ten years, etc., Johnson said, I don't think it would take that long. So I would say we would probably start seeing a reduction in less than a year.

Mitchell pressed further: OK. So in less than a year. But certainly it's safe to say in three years, if we pass this bill, we should see about a half reduction in the shootings and crime in Chicago?

Johnson: The gun violence. Correct.

The logic behind this claim, Johnson explained, was that his data showed about 1,400 people were driving most of the violence in Chicago. And those 1,400 people were very likely to qualify for the enhanced penalties. Get them off the street for longer periods and crime would plummet.

The bill passed both chambers by wide margins and was supported by members who a few years later would lead the charge to reform the criminal justice system. It was one of the last times the General Assembly would pass a major penalty enhancement bill like that.

If youre a sentient being, you know that Superintendent Johnsons confident prediction was wildly incorrect. Gun crimes did not plummet by 50%.

The law did lead to people being locked up longer, however. Research by the Illinois Sentencing Policy Advisory Council, an entity created by the General Assembly, showed that sentences rose after the law took effect in 2018.

The mean sentence length for Aggravated UUW sentences with qualifying predicate convictions increased by about 5 months and the likelihood of a sentence of at least six years was about 3.2 times higher than before the law took effect, the 2021 study found. And the average sentence length for UUW/Felon sentences with predicate convictions, increased by about 4 months and the likelihood of a sentence of at least seven years was about 2.5 times higher than before the effective date.

Also of note, the prison sentences for UUW offenses that werent specifically covered by the 2017 law Johnson backed did not change, SPAC reported.

In other words, while more people have clearly been sentenced to more time in prison because of this law (particularly Black men from Cook County), gun crimes have just as clearly not been reduced by half, or even close to half. While certain violent crimes fell for a couple of years after the law took effect in January of 2018, they rose again during the pandemic. Theyve since started to wane, but to nowhere near the levels that Johnson boldly promised.

Im telling you this because the Senate is set to take up a bill (SB853) which would extend several statutory sunset provisions, including those UUW changes made in 2017. The law had been set to expire in January of 2024, but the proposal would extend that deadline for another year.

This could be an interesting debate, and a political temperature check on the General Assembly. Illinois politicians have taken a lot of public heat over crime and the criminal justice reform bills theyve passed. Allowing penalty enhancements to expire on repeat felony offenders, essentially letting them out of prison earlier than before, regardless of its impact on actual crime statistics would certainly be a bold move.

The bill is sponsored by Sen. Patrick Joyce, a conservative Democrat from Kankakee County who is up for reelection next year. The amendment containing the language unanimously passed Joyces State Government Committee.

This is an omnibus bill containing several sunset extensions. If the bill doesnt pass, a whole lot of laws could expire at the end of December because the General Assembly wont return until January at the earliest.

But opponents are vowing a fight. Well see.
We've developed into a sensitive society. Once-ignored voices now have the megaphone of social media, disenfranchised people are able to find others disenfranchised for similar reasons, and allies of the disenfranchised feel empowered to strongarm others.

The process is one designed to end up in conflict and those conflicts can sometimes make divisions deeper and understanding less possible.

Then there's the case of the Halloween decoration in South Holland that set social media on fire until it didn't.

The outside of Marleen Zambrano's South Holland home went viral earlier this month on an app she'd never heard of.

A TikTok who goes by Chicago Crime Chaser Martin G. Johnson showed a human figure in a black trash bag, wrapped in duct tape, hanging by its feet from a tree next to Zambranos home.

Look at that," the man recording said. "Can you all believe that? This is live, uncut, unedited. What does that represent? Thats symbolic, people.

The human figure hanging from a tree reignited a conversation about the line between festive decorations and harmful messaging. Among the hundreds of responses to the video were complaints about racism and the offensiveness of the installation.

In the comment section, hundreds of people remarked with shock and awe, many alluding to racism and calling the installation offensive. It has been shared almost 1,000 times.

Some commenters told Johnson to the home and cut down the figure. He declined, saying he would not step onto another persons property. Johnson did dox Zambrano, showing her home address in the video.

When her children showed her the videos, Zambrano said she was shocked by comments calling her out for sending a threatening and harmful message. Police officers came to the home and alerted her some neighbors complained after seeing the social media posts. When the police arrived, Zambrano apologized and immediately took down the figure.

I wasnt trying to offend anybody, she said. I wasnt aware of anything.

The inflatable dummy with a black plastic bag, tape and rope is available on Amazon for $15.99. Zambrano was simply buying an item off the website that serves as the country's superstore.

NAACP member Mark Kuehner said in 2018 that considering communities with changing demographics, cultural misunderstandings can occur. That appears to be the case here. Communications were frayed between a community of different ages, beliefs, expectations and experience. A simple conversation might have ended the entire incident before the explosion into misunderstanding.

Most of the older generation would agree that younger people are expected to grow up quickly. Their world has changed at a breakneck speed and they've had to keep up in competition with their peers. They unquestionably roll with technology and other 21st-century changes their elders could never have imagined. Their thought processes fire at breakneck speeds, and their analytical skills are honed.

The older generation is largely unable to easily multitask and multigrasp. There are still millions of Americans who grew up without cable television. Present-day youngsters will probably have no memory of cable television.

The lack of shared experiences can cost dearly. This case could have turned into another ugly showdown, a discussion about traditions that would be defined by the extremes on either side.

But the TikTokker declined to escalate his role in the story. What the display could mean to others was explained, and the woman removed the display immediately. A potential societal schism was dissolved by communication.

That should serve as an example moving forward. It probably won't. Society's default setting seems to be stuck on over-reaction.

But issues could be solved easier if we stop screaming at one another and start listening. As was the case here.
The Africa Prosperity Network (APN) marked a significant milestone today with the inauguration of its high-profile Advisory Council, comprising esteemed global African icons, industry leaders, and eminent statesmen and stateswomen.



Chaired by the Executive Chairman of APN, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, the Advisory Council's primary mission is to steer the APN towards its goal of fostering economic integration and prosperity in Africa. The council's eight distinguished, inaugural members, including five accomplished women, bring a wealth of diverse experience and a shared passion for Africa's growth and development.



In his address at the inauguration, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko expressed his gratitude to the Advisory Council members and emphasised the vital role they will play in guiding and promoting the impactful contributions of APN to Africa's accelerated progress and prosperity.



The APN, in partnership with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, and in collaboration with key partners such as UNDP Africa, the Africa Business Council, Africa Development Bank (AfDB), Afreximbank, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Africa America Institute (AAI), and African Unions African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), is set to host the annual Africa Prosperity Dialogues from January 25 to January 27, 2024, at Ghana's prestigious Peduase Lodge. The event will spotlight crucial discussions on economic transformation in Africa, emphasising intra-African commerce, youth employment, and overall prosperity for the continent's 1.4 billion people.



Njack Kane, acting Chief Executive Officer of APN, said the event's focus areas include Agriculture and food Sovereignty, Natural Resources and Value Addition, Manufacturing, and Intra-African Trade Enablers. The Dialogues aim to showcase success stories from across the continent that promote the transformation of agricultural and raw material resources across the continent.



Dr Amany Asfour, a member of the Advisory Council, welcomed the strategic support from the AU's Africa Business Council, aiming to drive industrialisation in Africa. Dr Amina Mohamed emphasised the importance of the "prosperity" mindset in unlocking Africa's vast potential, while Mrs Patricia Poku-Diaby highlighted the significance of APN in fostering closer collaboration among African business leaders.



Mr Joshua Siaw, renowned international transactional lawyer, asserted his commitment to attracting greater investments to Africa, leveraging the continent's position as the largest single market globally under the auspices of the AfCFTA.







APN Advisory Council



Eight (8) members of the advisory board attended the maiden meeting via video link. The members are:



Nkosazana Clarice Dlamini Zuma is a distinguished African and global figure who has served on the cabinet of every post-apartheid South African president and has held several ministerial positions including Minister of Health, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Home Affairs, among others.



Ambassador Dr. Amina Mohamed is a distinguished diplomat and public servant with a career spanning a decade of remarkable accomplishments. From 2000 to 2006, Amina Mohamed served as Ambassador and Permanent Representative for the Kenyan diplomatic mission in Geneva, and in April 2013, she was appointed Kenyas Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs.



Eugene Owusu, Special Advisor to the President of the Republic of Ghana on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), is a distinguished International Policy and Development Management expert, who has committed over 25 years to advancing strategic leadership, advocating for positive change, and addressing complex political, development, and humanitarian challenges. Dr Eugene was the coordinator of the successful 2023 Africa Prosperity Dialogues, the compact form which was adopted by the 36th Summit of the Heads of State and Governments of the African Union, in Addis Ababa last February.



Amany Asfour, President, Africa Business Council. She is also the founder and President of the Egyptian Businesswomen Association, an organisation that supports SMEs and contributes to the advancement of women in the global market.



Patricia Poku Diaby, is an industrialist and CEO of Plot Enterprise, a multinational commodities company, with a strong presence in Cote DIvoire and Ghana.



Cesar Augusto Mba Abogo, until 2020, was the finance minister for Equatorial Guinea, and currently country manager of the Africa Development Bank (AfDB) Group for Mozambique. He is an economist with over 15 years of experience in natural resource economics, development economics, public policy, and international negotiations.



Christal Jackson, Chairwoman, Africa-America Institute (AAI). Ms Jackson is a multifaceted professional who has forged a dynamic career in the fields of social impact, entrepreneurship, and philanthropy, with a steadfast commitment to advancing education, health, and economic opportunities for communities of colour. She is the founder of Mosaic Genius, which focuses on building a sustainable ecosystem for wealth in communities of colour worldwide.



Mr Joshua Siaw, MBE, Partner, Global law firm White & Case LLP, and Director of the firms Africa practice. Mr Siaw advises corporations, governments and financial institutions on cross-border project development and funding projects in Africa. In January, he was appointed co-chair of the UK governments Africa Investors Group (AIG). Mr Siaw Co-Chairs the AIG, alongside His Majestys Trade Commissioner for Africa, John Humphrey. He is also on the Advisory Council of King Charles IIIs Green Canopy Initiative, first set up by the late Queen Elizabeth II.



With plans to expand its Advisory Council to 15 members, APN remains steadfast in its commitment to championing Africa's prosperity agenda through its flagship event, the Africa Prosperity Dialogues (APD). The network envisions a future where Africa leads its own economic destiny, solving its challenges with indigenous solutions and driving sustainable growth and prosperity.







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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Frontiers Healthcare Services (FHS), the organization responsible for managing the Airport Covid-19 testing project, has vehemently denied allegations of corruption and wrongdoing raised by Okudzeto Ablakwa.



FHS has issued a detailed response, refuting the allegations and providing a comprehensive account of the project's administration.



The company has taken an unambiguous stance in rejecting these allegations, characterizing them as baseless, unsubstantiated, and a malicious fabrication.



FHS has emphasized that its primary goal was to provide innovative health solutions to combat the inflow and transmission of COVID-19 in Ghana.



FHS underscored its pivotal role in reopening Ghana's air borders during the COVID-19 pandemic.



The company introduced innovative health solutions to expedite the safe resumption of international travel and economic activities.



FHS's contribution entailed a significant investment, rapid mobilization of resources, and a two-week window to establish critical infrastructure.



FHS employed a sophisticated Automated Immunoassay System (AIS) known for its accuracy and efficiency.



Independent testing by Ghana's Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) and the Laboratory Division of the National Covid-19 Task Force confirmed the system's effectiveness.



The company engaged a substantial workforce, including laboratory scientists and support staff, to facilitate a quick and efficient testing process.



The company clarified that the $150 testing fee was justified, given the complexity of the testing infrastructure and the associated costs.



FHS highlighted that this fee was the most affordable worldwide at the time.



FHS outlined the terms of its contract with the Government of Ghana, emphasizing compliance with standard concessions at the airport.



The government received rent and royalties, and the project created job opportunities.



FHS's commitment extended to donating one of its laboratories to the Ghana Health Service upon the contract's conclusion.



FHS adamantly rejected allegations of government patronage, clarifying that it has no affiliations with government officials.



The company considered these claims baseless and devoid of factual basis.



In its concluding remarks, FHS expressed hope that the people of Ghana would recognize the pivotal role the company played in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.



The statement celebrated the efforts of those who worked tirelessly to keep Ghana safe and prevent the virus's spread.



FHS called for the acknowledgment of these heroes and urged against unwarranted attacks on their character.



The company's response stands as a comprehensive and categorical refutation of the allegations, aiming to set the record straight and maintain transparency in the administration of the Airport Covid-19 testing project.

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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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 27)  Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Gilbert Teodoro shrugged off China's recent statement rebuking the United States for reaffirming its support for Manila after Philippine and Chinese vessels collided near Ayungin Shoal, saying this is only meant to stifle Beijings opponents.

That is always Chinas narrative in order to corral all its opponents and to stifle them the whole world knows the dangers of entering into the trap of this narrative so I will disregard that statement, Teodoro told CNN Philippines The Source on Friday.

US President Joe Biden on Thursday reasserted his country's "ironclad" defense commitment to Manila after Chinese ships collided with Philippine vessels that were on a resupply mission to Ayungin Shoal on Sunday.

In response, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning said the US is not a party to the South China Sea issue and has no right to interfere in the issue between China and the Philippines.

Teodoro said the territorial dispute is not only an issue between China and the Philippines, but of the whole world. Citing the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the defense chief said Beijings and Manilas jurisdictions are only within their 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone, while the rest of the areas of the South China Sea is the worlds area to exercise freedom of navigation and passage.

He also said that the US is only supporting the Philippines against Chinas actions as its treaty ally.

Still, Teodoro said the collision will not trigger the mutual defense treaty with the US, adding that the Philippines does not want war and is not at war with China. But the country remains resolute in defending its territory which Beijing should respect, he added.

The Department of Foreign Affairs also remains open to talk with China, but Teodoro said these talks should be furthered on three principles: It should be on the basis of UNCLOS and international law, it should show good faith on the part of Beijing, and these should be open, transparent, and public so that there can be no whispered narratives.

Teodoro also said he had a phone call on Friday with US Defense chief Lloyd Austin III, who reinforced Washingtons support for Manila following the Oct. 22 incident.

The Secretaries reaffirmed that the Mutual Defense Treaty extends to both countries public vessels, aircraft, and armed forcesto include the Coast Guardanywhere in the Pacific to include the South China Sea, the DND said in a statement.

The department said the two officials also committed to redouble efforts to strengthen bilateral coordination, interoperability, and support for the modernization of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
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.
President Nana Akufo-Addo has indicated that the government has changed the strategy of the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) programme in phase II from a subsidy policy to an input credit system that includes all actors in the agricultural value chain.



He explained that this programmes design places strong emphasis on commercial agriculture, with a cascading effect on all stakeholders, from production to processing, distribution, and marketing.



Speaking at a meeting with international development partners on the second phase of the PFJ in Accra yesterday, the President said this comprehensive approach would stimulate economic activities within the sector, generate employment, support industrialisation, boost exports, increase incomes, foster rural development, and propel overall economic growth.



The new approach will also be used to competitively leverage the opportunities presented by the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), according to President Akufo-Addo.



The PFJs second phase is a five-year flagship programme designed to accelerate agricultural growth in response to the exacerbated challenges it has faced, primarily as a result of the combined impact of COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war.



Despite the fruitful collaboration that has occurred over the years between the government and Ghanas development partners, President Akufo-Addo expressed concern about cases of misalignment of priorities between the policies of certain international development agencies and national policies and strategies.



He indicated that the government was concerned by this because projects designed by foreign governments to support Ghanas agriculture should naturally align with governments priorities.



He added that any deviation from this can amount to misdirected investments in the country.



According to the President, the meeting provided an opportunity for all parties to identify the issues creating the disparity and take corrective action.



He, however, described as unwelcome the situation in which the government, through its agencies such as the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, has no prior knowledge of some funds being used in the country by international development agencies, despite acknowledging the multifaceted challenges confronting Ghanas agriculture, particularly in terms of available funding resources.



To achieve optimal results for effective alignment and minimising the risk of duplication, and eliminating the lack of knowledge by government of projects by international development agencies, in favour of a coherent approach that promotes collaboration, the President said, dialogues, like the one we are having today, are essential, and should be a regular occurrence, providing avenues to discuss challenges, successes, and ensure increased collaboration in the execution of current and future agricultural development plans in Ghana.



He stressed on the need to urgently complement governments efforts on the programme through resource mobilisation and funding mechanisms, such as loans, grants, technical assistance, and other agricultural support initiatives, by collaborating with research institutions, farmer organisations, and private sector entities, to ensure increased capacity building, technology transfer and knowledge sharing.



Apart from that, he also stressed the need for monitoring and evaluation towards ensuring the accuracy of data collection and analysis, thereby helping to address identified weaknesses that affect design, planning, implementation and project outcomes as well as ensure accountability and facilitate evidence-based decision-making.



Whilst acknowledging governments responsibility to create a conducive environment through regulatory measures and other incentives, he was confident that, the second phase of the programme will raise awareness about the potential of Ghanas agriculture, and draw in the necessary investments, facilitated by your invaluable support, so that we can achieve food security in Ghana.

Source: dailyguidenetwork.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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South Africa's parliament has passed a major education bill that could see parents face prison if their children are not in school.



Under the Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela), they could be jailed for up to 12 months if their children are truant, or if they are not enrolled when they reach school age.



Bela also introduces a ban on corporal punishment in all schools.



It is the biggest education overhaul since the end of apartheid in 1994.



The governing party, the African National Congress (ANC), says the bill will "transform our education system, to address historical and present challenges".



However, the biggest opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), has condemned it, saying it gives the state too much control over schools and will lead to the collapse of education.



The DA say the bill "disempowers schools, parents, and communities and fails to address a single one of the systemic challenges that impede quality education".



It led a protest during the vote and has threatened to take the government to the constitutional court if it becomes law.



The ANC has a huge majority in parliament and the bill was backed by 223 MPs, with just 83 against, on Thursday.



Education expert Mary Metcalf told SABC News agreed that there should be consequences for parents who don't send their children to school.



Prof Metcalf said this was the "basic bare minimum" of being a parent.



Another point of contention in the Bela bill is that schools will be required to submit their language policy to the government.



They must ensure their policy meets the needs of the broader community - if they don't, they will have to change their policy.



Many feel this is an attack on Afrikaans communities.



But the ANC say language policies have been exploited and used "as a proxy for racial exclusion" by schools, which they want to change.



During the years of white-minority rule, students were forced to learn in Afrikaans, which was seen as the language of the apartheid government. This led to massive protests by students - the 1976 Soweto Uprising.



Experts say that South Africa's education system is in crisis.



In 2021, it ranked last out of 57 countries assessed in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, which tested the reading ability of 400,000 students around the world.



Earlier this year a study found that 8 out of 10 South African school children struggle to read by the age of 10.

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 group of trained artisans in the Manhyia South constituency on Friday, October 27, 2023 honoured Member of Parliament for Manhyia South and Energy Minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, for funding their training at various levels culminating in their becoming professionals.



The artisans  fashion designers, hairdressers, make-up artists, computer engineers among others were also recipients of tools to support their start-ups.



Some of the equipment include industrial sewing machines (straight stich), industrial sewing machines (embroidery overlocking), electric scissors, steam irons, shank button machines, all for the fashion designers.



On the hair dressing front, the artisans received wall hair dryers, stand for rollers, steamer for combs, washing basins among others.



The MP also supported them with hand-sewing machines for apprentices and other dress makers among others



Speaking on behalf of the beneficiaries, Ms. Ivy Nkrumah expressed her gratitude to Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh for his generosity, ensuring that the youth in Manhyia South are fully equipped professionally for the benefits of their families.



Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh is one in a million. He is not discriminatory. He has supported us by paying our fees and also giving us start-up equipment. He is a different human being and we are grateful for his life.



She continued; Because of Dr. Prempehs generosity, more people are transferring their votes to Manhyia South to become beneficiaries of his good deeds.



On his part, the Energy Minister said he was humbled by the gesture of appreciation and indicated that he will continue to do more within his power to make.



These recognitions do not in any way make me complacent, and thus pray to the almighty God to continue to grant me the needed capacity to continue to do more not just for the people of Manhyia South, the good people I represent, but all the people I come into contact with, regardless of their persuasions, he said.



Emphasis on TVET is a measure to reducing unemployment that confronts our country. I have always said, that with the abundance of talent in our part of the world, the challenge has often been about the proper certification of skills acquired so that our people can be competitive wherever they find themselves. I have no doubt that we will get there soon, he added.



The group presented Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh with an artwork of his image and items produced from their skills.



About 150 people have been benefited from Dr. Prempeh fully funded training in areas such as fashion design, make-up artistry and so forth; also 20 people have been trained in computer coding and programming.





Source: 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 Volta River Authority (VRA) continues to provide relief items for the affected flood victims.



In the last two days, VRA has reached out to the victims at the safe havens with trucks of items, including blankets, 24,000 diapers,19,000 sanitary pads,15 bales of clothing, 15,000 bags of rice and maize,4,000 exercise books and 1,000 pens.



Also, medical supplies worth 1.1 million Ghana Cedis targeted at preventing any outbreak of diseases, especially water-borne diseases have been dispatched to the enclave.



Whilst overseeing the distribution of the relief items in Agbetikpo, the Chief Executive of the VRA, Emmanuel Antwi-Darkwa interacted with the flood victims assuring them of being with them throughout their plight.



"We have reduced the spill rate, and as you can see, the water level is dropping, I want to thank you for your patience as we go through this together. We will continue to support you even after the floods recede, we are here with you till the very end"



At the highest of the controlled spill, the spill rate was over 180,000 cubic feet per second, but as at 26 October 2023, the spill rate has been lowered to 90,000 cubic feet per second.



Meanwhile, the water levels in the flood areas have also reduced considerably.



The VRA Chief Executive assured all the town folk of the companys dedication to ensuring that their lives are not just restored to how they were before, but even better.









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 Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana National Gas Company Limited, Dr. Ben K. D. Asante, has challenged leaders in Africa to leverage on the vast available resources to address the persistent energy poverty across the continent.



According to him, conscious efforts must be made to harness the optimum balance of export and local utilisation of resources in the continent.



He averred that, the utilisation of these resources is a necessary platform for ensuring sustainable, affordable and accessible energy.



Dr. Ben K.D. Asante was speaking at the 14th Multi-year Expert Meeting of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in Geneva, Switzerland.



According to him, prudent management of resources, provision of the requisite fiscal environment to ensure access to capital, and building of local intellectual capacity, will be some of the key drivers for development across the continent.



Dr. Asante enumerated that Africas gas share in the global market was 6% in 2021, and this is expected to increase to over 11% by 2050, whilst production is projected to increase from 260 billion cubic meters in 2021, to 585 billion cubic meters in 2050.



In view of all these projections, he said there exist some challenges in the development and utilisation of energy resources in Africa.



These challenges, he enumerated, are lack of access to capital for projects, lack of adequate requisite infrastructure, unattractive fiscal regime/taxation requirement, unclear institutional and regulatory framework, lack of adequate requisite intellectual capacity, inadequate local/private sector participation in the energy sector and non-cost reflective delivered commodity price.



Dr. Asante also talked about the oil and gas industry in Ghana, making references to the policies guiding the industry and averred that, The policy is to look at using some of the gas for power generation because it is like a direction that the government wants to take in terms of increasing our electricity penetration, especially in the rural areas.



Dr. Asante said that country-specific policies must be formulated to meet the needs of respective citizens.



The Ghana Gas CEO further touted Ghana as the best destination when it comes to investment, and therefore invited the attendees to look Ghanas way anytime they thought about investing.



The 14th session of the expert meeting is a neutral platform for sharing country experiences in terms of successful strategies and policies implemented at national, regional, and international levels to effectively manage commodity price volatility.



More precisely, the expert meeting assesses the links between commodity price volatility and key macroeconomic indicators in commodity-dependent and developing countries (CDDCs), and the links between commodity price volatility and food security in net-food-importing countries.



The meeting in Geneva also discussed market and technology-based instruments that can help manage price risks.



The next session, to which the Ghana Gas boss has been invited, is scheduled to be held in Belgium.

Source: dailyguidenetwork.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Apple released its iOS 17.1 update last night, containing several important bug fixes and security updates, as well as improvements to AirDrop, StandBy and Apple Music.



While many iPhone users rushed to install the update, new reports may have you delaying the download.



Several users claim that the update is ruining their battery life, with reports of charge draining within hours.



'After updating iOS 17.1, my battery on iPhone 13 Pro is draining fast,' one user tweeted, while another vented: 'iOS 17.1 sucks.'



Here's what to do if you've downloaded the update and have noticed your battery life dwindling.



Taking to Twitter, one user who had downloaded the update wrote: 'Idle Battery drain on iOS 17.1 on the iPhone 15 is insanely high.



'I know its a huge update and will require a couple of charge cycles to settle in, but it feels way higher than the previous updates.'



Another wrote: 'My brand new phone battery is getting bad. 1% going every 7 mins. IOS 17.1 sucks. FIX IT BEFORE YOU LOSE CUSTOMERS AND GET HATE!'



And one vented: 'Worst experience ever this year, after updating to iOS 17.1 my iPhone battery is draining like crazy. WTF is happening to apple?!'



Thankfully, it's unlikely that the battery issues are here to stay.



Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, a researcher at ZDNet, explained: 'Installing a new OS on an iPhone triggers a lot of stuff to go on in the background, from indexing to recalibrating the battery, and this can go on for hours or even days.



'Not only does this consume power, but the battery recalibration can give the impression that the battery is draining more rapidly when in fact it isn't.



'Add to this the dual factor of a lot of app updates happening following a new release, combined with a lot of new features available that may put more drain on an older handset.'



If you're worried about your iPhone battery and it's been a few days since you updated to iOS 17.1, Mr Kingsley-Hughes advises checking your battery health.



He added: 'If you go to Settings > Battery > Battery Health and the message is that it is good for Peak Performance Capability, then it's either just the normal stuff going on, or a bug.'



While the battery issues might put you off, Apple is urging iPhone users to download the update for security reasons.



'This update introduces the ability for AirDrop transfers to continue over the internet when you step out of AirDrop range,' Apple explains.



'This release also includes enhancements to StandBy and Apple Music, as well as other features, bug fixes and security updates for your iPhone.'



The update also addresses concerns about the radiation levels produced by the iPhone 12.



Last month, the tech giant was ordered to stop selling the iPhone 12 in France after tests showed the model produced radiation levels above the EU safety threshold.



Apple was also told to fix existing smartphones via an update or recall every iPhone 12 ever sold in the country.



Jean-Noel Barrot, France's digital minister, played down fears that the radiation levels detected were a cancer risk, but the announcement reignited the debate about the safety of mobile phone use.



'iOS 17.1 includes an update for iPhone 12 for users in France to accommodate this specific test protocol that requires reduced power when off-body on a static surface,' Apple explained.



'iPhone 12 will no longer increase the allowed power when the off-body state is detected, such as while it is sitting on a table.'

Source: dailymail









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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Government Spokesperson, Kofi Tonto has expressed disappointment in former Supreme Court Justice, William Atuguba over his recent comments on the Judiciary at a public lecture.



Justice William Atuguba, addressing a gathering at a public lecture on Tuesday, October 24, 2023, described the court's verdict as "scandalous".



"The James Gyakye Quayson's decision by the Supreme Court is with all due respect scandalous in that the court, in the teeth of the settled maxim Res Judicata et non quieta movere, re adjudicated the same matter that has been adjudicated upon by the High court on the merits."



"The Supreme Court does not stand in good light with all due respect in disqualifying Gyakye Quayson, despite his clear certificate of renunciation of his Canadian citizenship as from 26th November 2020 whereas the elections were on December 7. I am not able to see substantial justice in this", he said.



He added; "If the certificate of renounciation is so mandatory and conclusive why was it not conclusive in its effect to qualify Gyakye Quason when he received it, dated 26th November 2020, whereas the parliamentary election was held on 7th December 2020? Statutes, judgements, and documents must always be applied with consistency both in the letter and spirit. These must always be construed holistically and as instruments of justice since it is a well-settled principle that the duty of a court is to do justice and a court should not be turned away from doing justice."



The former Justice is also said to have slammed the current Supreme Court Justices stating they are being lopsided in their work.



But Kofi Tonto finds Justice Atuguba's remarks ridiculous as he questions since when did he notice these things.



He sought to understand why Mr. Atuguba never raised these concerns while he hadn't retired yet, saying it looks like "retirees in Ghana always find solutions to the problem they contributed to creating".



He reminded the former Judge of some of his pronouncements as a presiding Judge during the 2012 Supreme Court petition case and the swiftness at which he delivered the verdict in favor of the opposition National Democratic Congress.



"Was Mr. Atuguba in Ghana during the Supreme Court 2012? Didn't he hear what Ghanaians said?...If people have lost confidence in our Judiciary, is it today that they lost the confidence?", he asked.



He added, during that time, Ghanaians "accused you (Atuguba) of having political allegiances" but he was unhappy.



"But today, you say these things to tarnish the image of your colleagues. Do you know how they also feel?"



Kofi Tonto, delivering his submissions on Peace FM's morning show "Kokrokoo", admonished Justice Atuguba to refrain from making such commentaries, especially when, to him, Mr. Atuguba was a part of the problem he is now accusing the apex court of.



"The problems in our Judiciary didn't begin today and when President Akufo-Addo is no longer there, the problems in Ghana's Judiciary will continue to exist because the challenges have gained roots," he replied.



Watch video below





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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I chose Dr Mahamudu Bawumia as my Vice President because of his honesty and frankness, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has stated.



Interacting with Grade 4 pupils at the Jubilee House on Thursday [Oct 26, 2023], President Akufo-Addo added that Dr Mahamudu Bawumia was an intelligent and honest person and that was why he selected him as his Vice President.



He explained that aside fitting the bill as a northerner for the north-south balance for a united Ghana, Dr Bawumia was also a very clever man and I needed his brains to help me govern the country effectively.



He is an honest person, he speaks honestly to you, he is not one of those people who you have to guess what they are trying to say. He says what he has to say directly and I prefer to deal with people who are also very direct in what they say. These are some of the reasons why I chose Dr Bawumia to be my vice president, President Akufo-Addo explained.



He was answering questions from some Grade Four primary school pupils of the Association International School in Accra who were on an educational tour of the Jubilee House, the seat of the presidency on Thursday.



Each of the children was given a book souvenir from the Presidency, individual photo opportunity with President Akufo-Addo and later as a group, they enjoyed a hearty chart with the President in what could best be described as a grandfather and grandchildren interaction.



Good afternoon your excellency, my name is Adwoa and I want to ask why out of all the people, you chose Dr Bawumia as your vice President? This was the question from Adwoa Boadiwaa.



President Akufo-Addo who had been bombarded with a lot of questions ranging from governance to Cabinet operations and his day as President said Oh goodness, those are many many questions.



Unity



He explained that because he, the President was from the southern sector of the country and he needed somebody from the north for the balance and I think that for the unity of the country it is good that we have a leadership where northerners and southerners are together so that the country can remain united.



He is from the north, I want somebody from the north to partner me for the elections and then for the governance. He's also very clever man and I needed his brains to help me govern the country effectively, he added.



Criticism



Another question was, Your Excellency, please, how do you keep calm when people criticize your actions?



President Akufo-Addo said he believed that he had always wanted a system of government whereby presidents and all people in authority could be criticized, noting that There was a time in Ghana when it wasn't like that, when one man spoke and that was that.



He indicated that he had never liked that sort of situation because he did not believe that any one person knew everything.



It's better to have a system where lots of ideas and lots of brains are brought forward.



I am not God



President Akufo-Addo added that he approved of the system where people could criticize the president, therefore, it would look strange if he as the President start getting agitated when people are criticizing me. I am not God. I cannot be. None of us are but we do our best.



He described criticism as a good thing that sometimes helped the one taking the decision to have the opportunity of others things he was not seeing, indicating that It opens up different perspectives.



President Akufo-Addo said a lot of times you can disagree with your critics. But sometimes there's something in the criticism that is of use and benefit which you can use to do [something] so that's the reason why I don't get agitated.



He, however, stated that once it was the right of those criticizing to do so, it is also my right to ignore their criticism if I think that there is no substance in it. That's the system we have.

Source: Graphiconline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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A flagbearer hopeful of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto has said the commercial business empire he seeks to build for the party will see women play key roles towards its attainment.



He said women are the driving force behind any thriving economy and therefore, investing in them remains one of his topmost priorities.



According to the 2021 Population and Housing Census, there are 400,000 more females in Ghana than males.



Out of the 30.8 million populations, the females are 15.6 million as against 15.2 million males.



The female population is now 50.7% of the total population with 49.3% being males.



Interacting with a cross-section of the media on the sidelines of his meeting with Electoral Area Coordinators in the Eastern Region at an event held in Koforidua on Tuesday, October 24, 2023, the former Minister of Food and Agriculture said the womens wing of the party organizes women at the grassroot and canvasses women votes for the NPP.



Their activities range from economic, social, and political.



He noted that the womens wing of the NPP serves as an avenue for political participation and recruitment, a platform that influences gender policies and advance the course of women.



Dr. Akoto, a Cambridge University Scholar, noted that considering these vital roles women play in the NPP, he intends to empower them to advance womens interests and their welfare.



He assured that inadequate allocation of funds to the womens wing and male dominance in the parties affairs will receive serious attention under his leadership.



Dr. Akoto said, having identified over three million smallholder farmers in the country, majority of them who are women, incentivizing them with farming tools, fertilizers, and building on their capacities with technological knowhow will help improve their economic well-being.



According to the former two-term Member of Parliament (MP) for Kwadaso in the Ashanti Region, he will strengthen Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) and other institutions to take care of those in the value chain.



"In the value chain, women are a vital human resource. Some of them serve as middle-women, and they make a lot of money. I will empower them to expand. When women are empowered, the exponential effect is huge, and I am committed to doing it," he stressed.



I look up to you



During his interaction with the Electoral Area Coordinators and Coordinators working for Team Akoto, the astute politician noted that he is banking his hopes on them to crown him the presidential candidate position of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) when the party goes to the polls on November 4, 2023 to elect a presidential candidate.

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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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 27)  President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Friday said the government is working to finalize the implementation of a ruling directing the devolution of some functions to local government units (LGUs).

"We are now putting together the final implementation of the Mandanas-Garcia ruling that is, of course, relevant to all our local government executives, he said in his speech during the Philippine Mayors Forum in Quezon City.

According to the president, the ruling would be considered in the plan to update the Local Government Code, which aims to further strengthen LGUs.

He said integrating the Mandanas-Garcia ruling would beef up local executives' efforts in dealing with the challenges of climate change and digitalization, among others.

In May, Marcos said he may issue an executive order by the end of the year defining which government services would be devolved to LGUs.

The president also earlier assured them of additional budget and training to help them launch their own programs and projects.

Marcos also urged local leaders to explore international partnerships with their counterparts to "learn the best practices in improving public service delivery."
Henry Kwabena Kokofu, the Chief Executive Officer of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and an ardent member of Dr. Bawumia's campaign team, has admonished his colleagues in other camps to stop accusing them of following the Vice President for their parochial gains.



The EPA Chief Executive Officer has disclosed that he is a polling agent in the Ashanti Region for Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and strongly believes the Veep will win the November 4 presidential election of the New Patriotic Party.



Dr. Henry Kokofu, who has secured a 7-day leave from his official duties as he revealed to Nana Yaw Kesseh on Peace FM's morning show "Kokrokoo", cautioned the delegates, members, and supporters of the party to watch their reactions during and after the election.



"If you love Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and the New Patriotic Party, let your utterances and celebrations be in moderation. It is a path of reconciliation," he said.



Having advised the party against engaging in violence and other activities that will have negative effects on the New Patriotic Party going into the 2024 elections, the EPA boss debunked claims that the followers of Dr. Bawumia want to secure positions in his government.



"If any person tells you that those following Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia are doing so because of their selfish interest, because the person wants to secure his position, there is no iota of truth in it. The appointing authority who gives someone a job can wake up tomorrow and say, my friend, go home...So, your security of job doesn't depend on your campaign for somebody", he said.



"In any case, if you have the right to follow someone on his campaign tour, why don't you accord the same respect to your colleague who has decided to look elsewhere?", he asked.





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 Eat Drink Music (EDM) Festival has started in grand style, with an entrepreneurial summit dubbed: "To The Top" summit which had several Top speakers including Dr. Mathew Knowles.



The two (2) day festival kicks off tomorrow, Saturday, October 28th, and ends on Sunday, October 29, 2023.



Also, organizers of the Eat Drink Music Festival have met with some traditional leaders in Accra including the Wolomo, Nuumo Yemoh Obroni VIII, and Rev. Hon. Solomon Kotey Nikoi, to ensure a smooth event on the 28th and 29th of October.



Also, first respondersthe Ghana National Fire Service, Ghana Police Service, National Ambulance Service, and other safety and security officershave thrown their weight behind the festival, all aimed at making the event a safe and secure one for participants.



Organizers of the Eat Drink Music Festival have, after successful meetings with the Ghana Police Service and Ghana National Fire Service, reassured the organizers to inform the general public that the festival will be fun, safe, and secure for everyone.



The organizers announced that their collaboration with the Ghana Police Service and private security personnel is to ensure safety for everyone who attends the festival.



Also, top health and safety measures have been put in place for the Eat Drink Music Festival, which has also been insured and will be attended free of charge by children age 12 and below.



The overall aim of the Eat Drink Music Festival, which will be an annual event, is to market Ghana as a preferred tourism destination in Africa and to equally raise funding to support entrepreneurs in the creative sector in Ghana. It will also help to create new business opportunities for entrepreneurs in the creative industry, as well as equip them with the requisite entrepreneurial knowledge to further grow their businesses.



For tickets to the To the Top seminar, see here: https://tothetop.eatdrinkmusicfestival.com/



For more information on the EDM Festival, to be held from October 28 - 29, 2023, at Untamed Empire, see: https://eatdrinkmusicfestival.com/



For more information on Mathew Knowles, visit: www.MathewKnowles.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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Former president of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA), Alhaji Sidiku Buari, has appealed to his colleagues in the music industry to unite and work towards the success of the industry.



Speaking at the swearing-in ceremony of the newly elected national and regional executives of the union at the Accra Tourist Information Centre (ATIC), he said internal strife within the union would not aid in the industrys growth, adding that a united front will aid and promote the well-being of musicians.



I am happy that MUSIGA election held on October 10 was a success. I will urge the new executives to put in a lot of efforts in order to accomplish their goals and objectives. They have to work hard as a team to meet the challenges ahead, he said.



Its about time for us to be united and work towards achieving our aims and objectives, he added.



Credited with 16 albums, the former Vice President of the International Federation of Musicians (FIM) and chairman of Copyright Society of Ghana (COSGA), Alhaji Buari revealed that during his administration, procedures were put in place to ensure that musicians received their royalties twice a year.



He claimed that during his reign, much was done to improve the reputation of the Ghanaian music industry.



He mentioned that it was his administration that persuaded the government to waive the off-duty rate on musical instruments so that musicians could buy their own collection of instruments.



During his reign, he was successful in promoting the enactment of the Copyright Law Act 690 to safeguard the interests of all stakeholders in copyright music.



He counseled the newly elected executives to implement policies that would ensure the right owners would get consistent income.



The veteran filmmaker, musician, sportsman and businessman told BEATWAVES in an interview that he has won over 62 awards in sports, music and film.



He is one of the pioneers of film production in Ghana, with his first production titled Ayalolo, showed commercially in all the cinema houses throughout the country.



He has over 16 films which include Jealousy, Meba, Who Is To Blame, Man Woman, among others to his credit.



A former national athlete, he won silver and gold medals during the All African Games held in Senegal and West African Games, all in 1963.



In 1965, he won bronze medal in the 4400 metres relay in All African Games held in Congo Brazzaville.



He was the president of MUSIGA from 1999 to 2007.

Source: dailyguidenetwork.com









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Professor Lucie Tajcmanova, Heidelberg University, examines the whiteschist sample from the Dora Maira Massif of the Western Alps. Credit: Sebastian Cionoiu, Heidelberg University

Geoscientists analyze rocks in mountain belts to reconstruct how they once moved downward into the depths and then returned to the surface. This history of burial and exhumation sheds light on the mechanisms of plate tectonics and mountain building.

Certain rocks that sink far down into Earth's interior together with plates are transformed into different types under the enormous pressure that prevails there. During this UHP metamorphosis (UHP: ultra-high pressure), silica (SiO 2 ) in the rock, for example, becomes coesite, which is also referred to as the UHP polymorph of SiO 2 . Although it is chemically still silica, the crystal lattices are more tightly packed and therefore denser.

When the plates move upwards again from the depths, the UHP rocks also come to the surface and can be found in certain places in the mountains. Their mineral composition provides information about the pressures to which they were exposed during their vertical journey through Earth's interior. Using lithostatic pressure as a unit of measurement, it is possible to correlate pressure and depth: the higher the pressure, the deeper the rocks once lay.

Until now, research had assumed that UHP rocks were buried at a depth of 120 kilometers. From there, they returned to the surface together with the plates. In the process, ambient pressure decreased at a stable rate, i.e., statically. However, a new study by Goethe University Frankfurt and the universities of Heidelberg and Rennes (France) published in Nature Communications calls this assumption of a long, continuous ascent into question.

Among those involved in the study on the part of Goethe University Frankfurt were first author Cindy Luisier, who came to the university on a Humboldt Research Fellowship, and Thibault Duretz, head of the Geodynamic Modeling Working Group at the Department of Geosciences.

The research team analyzed whiteschist from the Dora Maira Massif in the Western Alps, Italy. "Whiteschists are rocks that formed as a result of the UHP metamorphosis of a hydrothermally altered granite during the formation of the Alps," explains Duretz. "What is special about them is the large amount of coesite. The coesite crystals in the whiteschist are several hundred micrometers in size, which makes them ideal for our experiments."

For the microscopic examination, a thin section of the white shale was glued to a glass slide (center of the picture). Credit: Sebastian Cionoiu, Heidelberg University

The piece of whiteschist from the Dora Maira Massif contained pink garnets in a silvery-white matrix composed of quartz and other minerals. "The rock has special chemical and thus mineralogical properties," says Duretz. Together with the team, he analyzed it by first cutting a very thin slice about 50 micrometers thick and then gluing it onto glass. In this way, it was possible to identify the minerals under a microscope. The next step was computer modeling of specific, particularly interesting areas.

These areas were silica particles surrounded by the grains of pink garnet, in which two SiO 2 polymorphs had formed. One of these was coesite, which had formed under very high pressure (4.3 gigapascals). The other silica polymorph was quartz, which lay like a ring around the coesite. It had formed under much lower pressure (1.1 gigapascals).

The whiteschist had evidently first been exposed to very high and then much lower pressure. There had been a sharp decrease in pressure or decompression. The most important discovery was that spoke-shaped cracks radiated from the SiO 2 inclusions in all directions: the result of the phase transition from coesite to quartz. The effect of this transition was a large change in volume, and it caused extensive geological stresses in the rock. These made the garnet surrounding the SiO 2 inclusions fracture.

"Such radial cracks can only form if the host mineral, the garnet, stays very strong," explains Duretz. "At such temperatures, garnet only stays very strong if the pressure drops very quickly." On a geological timescale, "very quickly" means in thousands to hundreds of thousands of years. In this "short" period, the pressure must have dropped from 4.3 to 1.1 gigapascals. The garnet would otherwise have creeped viscously to compensate for the change in volume in the SiO 2 inclusions, instead of forming cracks.

Fine structure of the whiteschist sample: One of the pink garnet grains (left image, embedded in a matrix of quartz, rutile and phengite) with SiO 2 inclusions (quartz inclusions), from which cracks originate. Numerical models (right image) predicts the generation of garnet failure. Credit: Thibaut Duretz, Goethe University Frankfurt

According to Duretz, the previous assumption that UHP rock reaches a depth of 120 kilometers seems less probable in view of this rapid decompression because the ascent from such a depth would take place over a long period of time, which does not equate with the high decompression rate, he says. "We rather presume that our whiteschist lay at a depth of only 60 to 80 kilometers," says the geoscientist.

And the processes underway in Earth's interior could also be quite different than assumed in the past. That rock units move continuously upwards over great distances, from a depth of 120 kilometers to the surface, also seems less probable than previously thought.

"Our hypothesis is that rapid tectonic processes took place instead, which led to minimal vertical plate displacements." We can imagine it like this, he says, "The plates suddenly jerked upwards a little bit in Earth's interiorand as a result the pressure surrounding the UHP rock decreased in a relatively short time."

More information: Cindy Luisier et al, Garnet microstructures suggest ultra-fast decompression of ultrahigh-pressure rocks, Nature Communications (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-41310-w Journal information: Nature Communications
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High-Q and strong chiroptical responses are inversible by adjusting one lattice period. Credit: SIAT

Chirality is an intrinsic property of an object that cannot coincide with its mirror image by translation or rotation. In order to realize strong chiral light-matter interactions which are usually weak in natural materials for practical applications, artificial sub-wavelength structures such as metamaterials, metasurfaces, and plasmonic nanostructures have attracted increasing attentions.

In many applications of chiral nanophotonics such as biochemical chiral sensing, chiral emission or lasing, and chiral nonlinear responses, strong optical chirality simultaneously with high Q factors are highly desirable but challenging to achieve.

In a study published in Laser & Photonics Reviews, a research group led by Dr. Li Guangyuan from the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology (SIAT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences experimentally demonstrated that anisotropic lattice could induce strong chirality in metasurfaces.

In a silicon metasurface, planar chiral mode with circular dichroism 0.37 and Q factor 1220 was experimentally observed under normal incidence by breaking the periodic symmetry. The measured Q factor was several times of that of planar bound states continuum (BIC) metasurfaces.

Although chiral BIC is a promising way to improve the Q factor, inherent contradictory dependencies on asymmetry parameter of high Q factor and strong chirality, restricts further improvements and applications.

The research group found that surface lattice resonances (SLRs) is an effective way to compromise the conflict. SLRs, originating from coherent coupling between localized resonances and the Rayleigh anomaly, possess great spectral tunability and ability of suppressing the absorption and radiation losses.

By merely breaking the periodic symmetry in x- and y-direction while keeping the mirror symmetry of the nanostructures, strong planar chirality can be produced under normal incidence without deteriorating the Q factor.

The maximum simulated CD reaches 0.86 while the Q factor can be as high as 1700. The sign of CD value is inversible by setting the lattice period in the x direction larger or smaller than that in the y direction. Additionally, extrinsic chirality is also observed under oblique incidence, and large CD of 0.7 and simultaneously high Q factor of 872 can be numerically obtained.

"We expect that this high-Q and strong chiroptical metasurface will find applications in chiral sensing and wavefront modulations," said Dr. Li.

More information: Xiaoqing Luo et al, HighQ and Strong Chiroptical Responses in Planar Metasurfaces Empowered by Mie Surface Lattice Resonances, Laser & Photonics Reviews (2023). DOI: 10.1002/lpor.202300186
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A woman holds a placard during a protest over the proposed culling of wild Australian horses in 2020.

Australia approved on Friday the aerial shooting of wild horses in one of the country's largest national parks, resuming a contentious practice that authorities described as "essential" to protect native wildlife.

An estimated 19,000 wild horsesknown locally as "brumbies"live in Kosciuszko National Park. New South Wales state authorities want to cut that population to 3,000 by mid-2027.

The national park already traps, re-homes and shoots horses from the ground, but the state's environment minister Penny Sharpe said this was not enough.

"Threatened native species are in danger of extinction and the entire ecosystem is under threat," she said. "We must take action.

"This was not an easy decisionno one wants to have to kill wild horses," she added.

Aerial shooting from helicopters was used for a brief period in 2000, when more than 600 wild horses were shot over three days.

But a fierce public backlash resulted in the method being banned.

Those against culling say the horses are part of Australia's national identity, a nostalgic reminder of the days when tough stockmen and women worked in the country's rugged Snowy Mountains.

Brumbies were celebrated by the Australian "bush poet" Banjo Paterson, who waxed lyrical about a "wild, unhandled" creature who roamed the mountains "'neath moon and star".

A storied rugby team in the country's capital Canberra are named after the animal.

But conservationists are less romantic about a "pest" that they say destroys native plants through grazing and trampling, increases soil erosion, fouls waterholes, and competes with native animals for food and shelter.

"The unique and complex ecosystems of the Australian Alps have been trampled for too long," said Jacqui Mumford, head of the Nature Conservation Council, an environmental group.

She said brumbies' activities damaged "at least 25 threatened alpine flora and 14 threatened alpine fauna species, including the iconic corroboree frog, the broad-toothed rat and rare alpine orchids".

 2023 AFP
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Examples of sex-based responses to climate change at different levels of biological organization. Credit: Nature Communications (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-40316-8

Biological sex can be an important factor in predicting how animal and plant populations respond to temperature changes, from sea turtles whose sex is determined by the heat on the beach where they hatch, to female Arctic caribou that migrate through predator territory in years of earlier snowmelt to replenish their energy reserves for nursing young.

Yet few environmental studies and even fewer conservation plans take these differences into account, according to research published in Nature Communications.

"Studying sex-specific responses to climate hazards like heat waves and extreme temperature fluctuations is critical for slowing biodiversity loss," said lead study author Elena Gissi, a Marie Sklodowska Curie Fellow based in the Oceans Department at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability.

Distinguishing between sex and gender

Sex refers to the biological characteristics of living organisms affecting physiology and physical appearance, whereas gender refers to sociocultural norms, identities, and relations that structure societies and organizations, and shape behaviors, technologies, environments, and knowledge.

Co-author Londa Schiebinger, a professor of the history of science in the School of Humanities and Sciences, has devoted her career to understanding the gendering of human knowledge, including how to reduce bias in artificial intelligence and medical research. "As we've seen in other fields, incorporating sex analysis into the environmental sciences can lead to new discoveries about the natural worldboth its resilience and its vulnerability in face of the ever increasing climate catastrophe," Schiebinger said.

For several populations of the black-vented shearwater, a coastal seabird that nests along Baja California, Mexico, a 2014 marine heat wave led to behavioral differences between males and females. A large mass of warm water known as "The Blob" upended ocean food webs and prompted male and female shearwaters, which typically forage in the same area, to avoid competition with one another by feeding separately. Males flew north and females flew south.

This observation matters for conservation managers in Baja. For example, a marine protected area could unintentionally protect the foraging grounds of only one sex of the near-threatened seabird during warmer years, with cascading impacts on the overall population.

"One million species are at risk of extinction due to human impacts, jeopardizing the natural world that makes our life possible and beautiful," said global change biologist Elizabeth Hadly, a co-author of the study and professor of biology in the School of Humanities and Sciences. "By considering biological sex in climate change studies, we can better predict what's to come and better protect marine and terrestrial species."

Varying responses

In polar regions, where global warming impacts are most extreme, years with earlier snowmelt can be a boon for Arctic wolf spiders. An earlier spring kick-starts the growing season. Given the extra time to mature, both sexes grow larger, with females increasing in size even more than males, improving their odds of getting and staying pregnant and their ability to nourish their offspring. For female caribou, on the other hand, which bulk up in the spring to care for their young, accelerated snow melt forces them to migrate north as springtime warms the pole. Their search for greening vegetation is often rewarded by nutritious food, but the journey exposes them to predators like wolves that roam the higher latitudes.

In the Southern Hemisphere, hotter sands in Australia threaten the survival of six sea turtle species that nest on the beaches. The environment determines a sea turtle's sex. For the loggerhead species, if the sand incubates the eggs at around 29C (84F), hatchlings will be female. Below that temperature, males hatch.

"In order for sea turtle populations to survive into the future, they need to have an appropriate ratio of males to females," said co-author Larry Crowder, a marine ecologist and professor of oceans. "If we overlook the different vulnerabilities of each sex to rising global temperatures, we risk losing thirty years of conservation efforts within one generation of sea turtles."

Incorporating biological sex

In many cases, researchers don't gather sex-specific data simply because it's logistically difficult, said Gissi. Among some bird species like blue jays and mourning doves, males and females can be difficult to distinguish by appearance alone. Other researchers may lack awareness that these data are relevant for study results or policy outcomes, she said.

But change is afoot. In an effort to produce more male hatchlings, the Queensland Government's sea turtle conservation strategy, published in 2021, prioritized tactics like shading nests and relocating eggs to cooler locations. Gissi also pointed to steps being taken by funding agencies and scientific journals. In 2022, the National Science Foundation hosted workshops on how best to integrate sex analysis into their funding guidelines, the same year that the journal Nature announced guidelines that require authors to state how they included or excluded sex in their study design, and to clarify why.

"Potentially, biological sex has something to do with every experiment involving living organisms," said Gissi. "Including sex analysis in research design should become the default. To enhance the rigor and reproducibility of science, it's valuable to report when sex plays an important role and also to report null results, when sex is not a determining factor. If we want to safeguard the future of life on Earth, we need to assess what role sex plays in our rapidly changing world."

Taking action to reverse biodiversity loss

Scientists, funding agencies, and policymakers, particularly those working in conservation, can all play a role in enabling sex-specific science when considering how species respond to climate change. The study authors recommend the following:

For scientists:

Study the relative contribution of sex and climate drivers in organisms' response to climate change

Examine how sex-specific responses to climate change at an individual level will affect species populations and communities

Incorporate analysis of biological sex into lab and field experiments

For funding agencies:

Support basic research on sex-specific responses to climate change

For policymakers:

Consider sex-specific responses of species to climate stressors before designating new protected areas, and coordinate management and monitoring based on sex-specific knowledge for climate adaptation and mitigation

More information: Elena Gissi et al, Exploring climate-induced sex-based differences in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems to mitigate biodiversity loss, Nature Communications (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-40316-8 Journal information: Nature Communications , Nature
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Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

It is a 2.6-mile hike up Lookout Road to reach Cuyamaca Peak from Paso Picacho Campground.

The paved path winds its way upward, gaining more than 1,600 feet of elevation as it passes through endless thickets of shrubs dotted with snags, those blackened and sun-bleached vertical reminders that this used to be a forest trek.

Twenty years after the Cedar fire ripped through Cuyamaca Rancho State Park in eastern San Diego County, there is a lot more sunshine and a lot less birdsong. The dappled shade of tall conifers has long ago given way to broader views of the surrounding mountainside after the fire took in hours what nature required centuries to build.

Those who keep pushing toward the peak, through that endless ocean of ceanothus bush, arrive at a true shrine in the wilderness, 100 acres on a ridge that leads to the peak. Here are pines and cedars and firs that survived the fire, their trunks still visibly scorched down low, a testament to the fact that the blaze passed through, largely because there was not enough brush present for it to make the devastating climb into upper branches that killed more than 95% of the park's conifers.

On a recent morning, state parks service environmental scientist John Lovio said he makes sure he visits this spot now and then to remind himself of the big picture, the point of the multimillion-dollar reforestation effort that has sprouted and planted about a quarter-million saplings grown from the seeds of the few remaining trees that made it through the firestorm.

In the years since the fire, and even as recently as a few years ago, ecological advocacy groups have pushed back against replanting these mountainsides, arguing that long-term trends in climate change will make the future decades too arid to sustain broad stands of stately pines and firs.

Standing in this remnant of the old forest, Lovio gestured to towering sugar and Jeffrey pines, then to saplings at their bases. Here, in one tableau, all ages and stages can be found thriving 20 years after the Cedar fire passed through. Here, he notes, the forest still has the ability to drop seeds and see them grow.

"This is what we're trying to emulate," he said. "If you have a canopy, you'll get reproduction. I mean, look at the varied age structure; we've got little trees, big trees, these little guys on the right are sugar pines.

"We know, climate change or not, we're getting conifer reproduction."

But this stand exists above 6,000 feet where air is cooler and moisture more available. Will this survivability translate down slope, at lower elevations?

Nobody knows for sure though the walk up to the peak presents endless opportunities to check in on the progress of those saplings planted in recent years. Some pockets of planted trees can be seen poking up above the ubiquitous shrubs in some locationsthat's the exception. It's necessary to go off the path to find many of these transplants and many are surrounded, often even shaded, by quick-growing shrubbery.

As the climate changes, science suggests that mountains are warming for complex reasons that go far beyond rainfall alone. However, in terms of moisture, records show that the period after the Cedar fire, as measured at nearby Lake Cuyamaca, has been only somewhat drier than those that came before.

Data published by the San Diego County Water Authority show an average of 26.49 inches of precipitation was measured per year from 2004 to 2022 compared to an average of 30.97 in the 19-year period before the fire.

On the ground, results are mixed.

In one location, Lovio stops and locates three trees planted in 2021 that are growing, albeit slowly. Not far away, upslope, another cluster of trees is dead. One key difference is that the survivors were planted in a location that was mechanically cleared of brush and the remaining plant material was burned. The areas where there were fewer survivors just got manual brush removal, but no controlled burning.

"Generally, we're finding that burning is better," Lovio said.

Overall, he said, a little under half of new plantings don't make it, though official attrition figures weren't available. Overplanting, the ecologist added, is designed to help the project survive even though many young trees won't make it.

But it has been remarkable how quickly stands of ceanothus return. Ground cleared and subjected to a controlled burn in 2021 is already full of the bushes with many slower-growing trees now overshadowed. Plans are in the works, Lovio said, to prune bushes away from young trees, though an extensive pruning effort would require additional funding.

Pulling back to the big picture, though he said he believes that the project has a good chance of producing a new forest, no one expects that to be the case anytime soon. Counting rings on pines that burned, he noted, indicates that many were 80 to 100 years old.

"I'm thinking we're not going to see a serious forest here for about that amount of time, 80 or 100 years," Lovio said.

And, until that day, it's unlikely that this region will sound like it used to. The white-headed woodpecker used to inhabit this forest, which was on the southernmost end of its range. Owls and a small songbird called the brown creeper are among those species that have disappeared, Lovio said.

"There has been a measurable loss of wildlife species and, for many of them, we need a forest to bring them back," Lovio said.

It could, adds San Diego State University landscape ecologist Janet Franklin, be even longer. Having done research in the area for the parks service after the fire, she said that 150 years might not be an unreasonable guess as to how long it might take to reestablish an overhead forest canopy similar to the one that the Cedar fire burnt away.

And there are signs that a different species, the Coulter pine, may end up making up a larger percentage of the new forest in Cuyamaca. This species, known for its massive spiky cones that are often called "widowmakers," actually benefits from fire and did have spontaneous saplings springing up shortly after the Cedar fire at a time when other species were simply snuffed out.

"The Coulter, it's kind of a small pine, it doesn't get as big and grand as the Jeffrey's or the Pondorosa, but it's more fire tolerant and just a little bit better of a competitor," Franklin said. "Fifteen years ago, when I was out there doing research and counting them as seedlings, now they're almost 20-year-old trees and they're maybe 15, 20 feet tall."

While there are surely many who yearn for this missing forest, many report that the changes it has undergone have not turned the public away.

Firefighters were able to defend Paso Picacho Campground, Lake Cuyamaca and other key areas from the Cedar fire, keeping their original trees intact. Those remnants have seemed to be enough to keep crowds flooding in during the busy summer season and on the weekends into the fall.

On a weekday morning, Don Rodriguez and Michelle Layton came from Mission Viejo to enjoy the post Labor Day peace and quiet that becomes available once kids are back in school.

Stopping on Lookout Road to chat, Rodriguez, a retired firefighter, said he has returned again and again after being assigned to help fight the Cedar fire, diverted from his regular beat in downtown Los Angeles.

Over the past 20 years, he said, it has been amazing to watch nature reclaim what for several years looked like a bomb went off.

The landscape, especially in October, he said, delivers what many are really looking for, a little solitude.

"I just like it here at this time of year because, on a weekday, there's nobody here," Rodriguez said. "It's peaceful."

2023 The San Diego Union-Tribune. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

A UNSW Canberra researcher has developed a world-first warning system for extreme bushfires that can be an invaluable tool for firefighting services.

The new warning system, developed by Adjunct Professor Rick McRae, specifically looks at the environmental conditions that can lead to extreme bushfires in south-east Australia. It can provide a warning months before a fire season, by examining temperature and river flow data and determining if the coming season is likely to exhibit conditions conducive to extreme fires.

Extreme fires are ones that forge strong links with the atmosphere above, whereas other fires are driven by surface weather.

Professor McRae has authored an article in the Australian Journal of Emergency Management explaining the framework that underpins the warning system.

With the increasing influence of climate change, extreme bushfires are expected to be more frequent and present new challenges for fire prediction and management.

While all bushfires have the potential to be destructive and can pose a risk to lives, extreme bushfires differ to others as they often behave unpredictably and can lead to phenomena like pyrocumulonimbuswhere the fire interacts with the atmosphere to create violent fire thunderstorms.

Professor McRae emphasized that the new warning system, which is still in a trial phase, was not a replacement to the current fire danger rating system, but that it should be viewed as a complementary tool to assist fire authorities identify times when the worst outcomes might eventuate.

"What we saw during the Black Summer fires suggests the bushfire rule book has been completely rewritten," Professor McRae said.

"We saw a dramatic increase in the number of extreme wildfires, including fire types that had previously been rare.

"Black Summer made it clear we need new tools to help prepare for and fight against these extreme bushfires and I hope this new predictive model can be one of those."

Extreme bushfires include those that demonstrate "deep flaming," where there is active burning simultaneously across a large fire front. The fire front of a "normal" bushfire might be tens of meters in depth, whereas an extreme bushfire might cover hundreds of meters, or even kilometers, due to spot fires igniting over a large area.

Fires driven by the foehn effect, where hot and dry winds from higher terrain exacerbate the fire, were once rare but accounted for about half of the major events during the Black Summer. Between 1980 and 2003 there were fewer than 10 fire thunderstorms recorded, however in the following 20 years there have been more than 120 of these events.

To assess the conditions under which an extreme bushfire could ignite, Professor McRae developed the Hierarchical Predictive Framework which uses the latest research and practical knowledge on extreme bushfires to assess the likelihood of occurrence. It combines his decades of operational experience with bushfires in the ACT with the ground-breaking science that has been conducted by UNSW Canberra since the 2003 bushfires.

The model uses four levels of data to inform the prediction, including an assessment of temperature anomalies and river flow levels.

Canberra was determined to be a useful location to record temperature. The average temperature across the 12 months leading up to bushfire season is compared with Bureau of Meteorology data to create the "Canberra Dipole."

When the Canberra Dipole is elevated there is the potential for synoptic weather patterns to produce trough systems in south-east Australia that exacerbate extreme fires.

The model also takes into account river flows from 17 locations across south-east Australia. While there are several ways to determine the flammability of smaller fuel sources, for example twigs and fallen leaves, determining soil dryness using river levels paints a clearer picture of the flammability of large fuels, like logs.

Professor McRae applied the model retrospectively to more than 20 years of data from previous bushfires to determine its effectiveness.

"I was able to demonstrate with a high level of accuracy that periods when these temperature and river conditions were met have previously aligned with extreme bushfires in south-east Australia," Professor McRae said.

"The next step is to use the model in the coming fire seasons to further assess its accuracy and refine the model further.

"But as things currently stand the model looks like it can be a highly effective warning system to assist fire authorities during bad fire seasons."

Further information about Professor McRae's observations and collected data are available here.

More information: Rick McRae, Operational prediction of extreme bushfires, Australian Journal of Emergency Management (2023). DOI: 10.47389/38.4.67
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 27) The Philippine National Police (PNP) will deploy on Saturday more than 180,000 security personnel as part of its full-alert status for the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) and Undas.

"The full deployment of 187,600 PNP personnel for election duties will commence tomorrow...with the alert status elevated to full-alert. However, regional commanders possess the discretion to deploy personnel under their operational control supervision," PNP Chief Benjamin Acorda Jr said in a press briefing on Friday.

He added that the deployment is especially for the remote areas with a history of election-related incidents.

"Our objective is to provide a safe environmental space for voters," Acorda added.

Meanwhile, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) led the send-off and turnover ceremony of government forces and resources of different security agencies in Camp Crame, Quezon City on Monday.

READ: Comelec, multi-agency deploy thousands of security personnel nationwide for BSKE

The Philippine Coast Guard is sending 30,300, while the Armed Forces of the Philippines is assigning 117,585, according to officials present in the ceremony.

READ: PCG intensifies security alert for BSKE, Undas

"Utang po ng Commission on Elections sa kanilang lahat, sa inyong lahat ang pagko-conduct ng isang malinis, maayos, at karespe-respetong halalan," he added.

[Translation: The Commission on Elections is indebted to all of you for conducting clean, well, and respected elections.]
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Landscape in the Australian Northern Territories on a field trip to the 1.6-billion-year-old Barney Creek Formation in the McArthur Basin to collect oldest 2-methylhopane samples for this study. Credit: Christian Hallmann, GFZ

Cyanobacteria are a key species in Earth's history, as they introduced atmospheric oxygen for the first time. The analysis of their evolution therefore provides important insights into the formation of modern aerobic ecosystems. For a long time, a certain type of fossil lipid, so-called 2-methylhopanes, was considered to be an important biomarker for Cyanobacteria in sediments, some of which are hundreds of millions of years old.

However, this came into doubt when it turned out that not only Cyanobacteria but also Alphaproteobacteria are genetically capable of producing these lipids.

An international research team led by Yosuke Hoshino from the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences and Benjamin Nettersheim from MARUMCenter for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen has now studied the phylogenetic diversification and distribution of the genesincluding HpnPthat are responsible for the synthesis of the parent lipids for 2-methylhopanes: The researchers have deciphered when these genes were acquired by certain groups of organisms.

They were able to show that HpnP was probably already present in the last common ancestor of Cyanobacteria more than two billion years ago, while the gene only appeared in Alphaproteobacteria about 750 million years ago. For the times before that, 2-methylhopanes can therefore serve as a clear biomarker for oxygen-producing Cyanobacteria.

The study, published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, shows how genetics, in interaction with sedimentology, paleobiology and geochemistry, can improve the diagnostic value of biomarkers and refine the reconstruction of early ecosystems.

The importance of cyanobacteria in Earth's history

Cyanobacteria played a crucial role in transforming the Earth from its initial oxygen-free state to a modern, oxygen-rich system in which increasingly complex life is possible.

Cyanobacteria were probably the only relevant group of organisms that converted inorganic substances into organic ones (so-called primary producers) and produced oxygen for long stretches of the Precambrian (the first four billion or so years of Earth's history, from its beginnings to about 540 million years ago).

Therefore, the analysis of their evolution is of great importance for understanding the common history of life and Earth.

The importance of fossil lipids as biomarkers

In principle, the fossil remains of whole Cyanobacteria can serve as an indicator of the presence of oxygenic photosynthesis in the geological past. However, due to preservational biases and ambiguities in recognizing fossil cyanobacterial cells, geochemists rather use fossilized diagnostic lipids, such as 2-methylhopanes. 2-Methylhopanoids (non-fossilized parent molecules) are produced by the bacteria andin contrast to the bacteria themselvescan be fossilized and detected in sedimentary rocks even after hundreds of millions of years in good quality and in quantities corresponding to their original occurrence.

However, there have recently been doubts about the suitability of 2-methylhopane as a biomarker for Cyanobacteria: the discovery of the lipid biosynthesis gene revealed that Alphaproteobacteria are also capable of producing these lipids. This means that temporally tracing oxygen-producing processes on Earth by 2-methylhopanes is no longer possible.

New approach: Comprehensive genetic analysis combined with new, high-purity sediment analyses

An international research team led by Yosuke Hoshino and Christian Hallmann, scientists in GFZ Section 3.2 "Organic Geochemistry", and Benjamin Nettersheim from MARUM at the University of Bremen has now systematically investigated which organisms other than Cyanobacteria possess the genes (abbreviated as the SC and HpnP genes) necessary for the production of 2-methylhopanoids, and when they acquired those genes during the course of evolution.

In this way, the team was able to show that the fossil lipid 2-methylhopane can still be used as a clear biomarker for the existence of Cyanobacteria for times dating back more than 750 million years.

Close-up picture of a core sample: The oldest samples are drill core samples from the 1.6-billion-year-old McArthur Basin in Northern Australia. This is among the oldest biomarker samples known to date and contains the information about primary production by photosynthetic organisms at that time. Credit: Benjamin Nettersheim, MARUM University of Bremen

In addition, the researchers have created an integrated record of 2-methylhopane production over the course of Earth's history. For this, they combined their molecular data with new sediment analyses carried out under high-purity conditions.

"The method we proposed is in principle applicable to any organic matter in geological archives and has great potential to trace the evolution of different ecosystems with much higher temporal and spatial resolution than before," Hoshino sums up.

Methodology I: Computational study for genetic analysis

For the analysis of the genetic relationships, Hoshino searched publicly available databases, containing millions of gene and protein sequences, for organisms with the SC and HpnP genes.

Based on this genetic data set, he created so-called phylogenetic trees, which provide information on how the SC and HpnP genes were transferred between different organisms and whether the gene transfer took place vertically via inheritance or horizontally between evolutionarily unrelated organisms.

Furthermore, the researchers were also able to determine when individual gene transfers took place in the evolutionary history of the genes by comparing previous studies that utilized the so-called molecular clock technique that takes into account the DNA mutation rate and estimates the timeline for the gene evolution.

Methodology II: New type of ultra-clean sample preparation

In addition, because Precambrian biomarker records are extremely sensitive to contamination, the researchers used an ultra-clean method to extract organic matter from sediment cores. The geological samples in the form of cores were collected by several co-authors from 16 countries. They represent different geological periods from the Paleoproterozoic (2.5 billion years ago) to the present. The relative abundance of 2-methylhopanes was then measured in the organic matter.

The results in detail

There are many bacteria that possess both SC and HpnP genes, but they are mainly Cyanobacteria and Alphaproteobacteria. Each group is found to have acquired the two genes independently.

This is in contrast to earlier studies that concluded that Cyanobacteria acquired these genes from Alphaproteobacteria at a late stage in their evolution. The new study further revealed that the common ancestor of Cyanobacteria already possessed both genes more than 2.4 billion years ago, when oxygen began to accumulate in the atmosphere during the so-called Great Oxidation Event.

In contrast, Alphaproteobacteria acquired the SC and HpnP genes at the earliest only 750 million years ago. Before that, 2-methylhopanoids were thus only produced by Cyanobacteria. The researchers interpret a slightly delayed increase of sedimentary 2-methylhopanes around 600 million years ago as a sign of the global spread of Alphaproteobacteria, which may have favored the concurrent evolutionary rise of eukaryotic algae.

Summary and outlook

"The individual analytical methods mentioned above are not new, but few researchers have attempted to perform comprehensive analyses for SC and HpnP and to integrate genetic data with sedimentary biomarker data before, as this requires combining two completely different scientific disciplinesmolecular biology and organic geochemistry," says Hoshino.

"The source of sedimentary 2-methylhopanes has been a topic of long debate," adds Christian Hallmann. "This new study not only provides clarity about the diagnosticity of 2-methylhopanes and the role of Cyanobacteria in deep time; its methodology offers a new avenue forward to refine the diagnosticity of, in theory, any biomarker lipid once the biosynthesis genes are known".

More information: Yosuke Hoshino et al, Genetics re-establish the utility of 2-methylhopanes as cyanobacterial biomarkers before 750 million years ago, Nature Ecology & Evolution (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41559-023-02223-5 Journal information: Nature Ecology & Evolution
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View of a building partially destroyed by Hurricane Otis in the Mexican resort city of Acapulco.

Hurricane Otis caused at least 27 deaths and major damage as it lashed Mexico's resort city of Acapulco as a scale-topping category 5 storm, officials said Thursday.

Otis crashed into Acapulco with furious winds of 165 miles (270 kilometers) per hour, shattering windows, uprooting trees and largely cutting off communications and road links with the region.

The storm partially destroyed many buildings, leaving gaping holes in the walls of high-rise towers.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador arrived at the scene late Wednesday, after his convoy found roads blocked by landslides and other debris, forcing officials to walk part of the way.

Some residents slogged for hours through mud and debris in an attempt to find food and shelter.

"Acapulco is a total disaster. It is not what it was before," said 24-year-old Eric Hernandez.

"The shops had all been looted, people were fighting for things. So we decided to walk as there wasn't anything left there," he said.

Others said an overflowing river and collapsed bridges had cut off communities near Acapulco, home to about 780,000 people.

"People were left homeless, there's no electricity," said Israel Perez, a 21-year-old baker.

Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodriguez told a news conference Thursday that 27 people were dead and four were missing.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador got stuck in the mud while trying to visit hurricane-affected residents of Acapulco.

Three of those unaccounted for were soldiers, Lopez Obrador said after returning to Mexico City.

He described the storm as "disastrous" and said that it was only thanks to the actions of people who sought shelter that there were not more deaths.

Most of the victims were swept away by overflowing rivers, according to authorities.

The government would begin an airlift to deliver aid and materials to the region, Lopez Obrador said.

Telephone communications began to resume while the main highway from Mexico City to Acapulco was reopened.

'Like an earthquake'

Otis rapidly intensified within hours from a tropical storm to the most powerful category of the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale before hitting land, taking authorities by surprise.

"It's unprecedented in the country in recent times, not only because of the way it strengthened so quickly but also the magnitude of the hurricane," Lopez Obrador said.

A man pushes a shopping cart of goods from a looted supermarket in Mexico's hurricane-stricken city of Acapulco.

The World Meteorological Organization described the hurricane as "one of the most rapidly intensifying tropical cyclones on record."

People recounted a terrifying ordeal as Otis made landfall overnight Tuesday-Wednesday.

"The building shook as if there was an earthquake," Citlali Portillo, a tourist accommodation manager, told the television channel Televisa, adding that she had taken shelter in a bathtub.

The storm overturned vehicles and even left a car in the lobby of a luxury hotel, surrounded by broken glass and debris.

Fishing boats and yachts were washed ashore.

Jose Luis Flores, a 72-year-old visitor from San Diego in the United States, said his vacation had become a "tragedy."

"We're disoriented. We've had no communication with our children. We have no signal. We haven't eaten anything," he said.

Soldiers worked to clear the streets of mud and fallen trees.

Hurricane Otis caused major damage as it came ashore as a scale-topping category 5 storm.

Some residents were seen taking food, water and other goods from looted stores.

But others arrived too late.

"We can't find food. All the stores are already looted," said empty-handed resident Guillermina Morales.

The government said that it had activated an emergency plan to bring essential supplies.

The military was distributing 100,000 food packages and 800,000 liters of water, with more supplies on the way, a statement said.

Hurricanes hit Mexico every year on both its Pacific and Atlantic coasts, usually between May and November, though few make landfall as a Category 5.

Scientists have warned that storms are becoming more powerful as the world gets warmer with climate change.

 2023 AFP
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An aerial view of the Denman Glacier ice tongue in East Antarctica. Credit: Jamin S. Greenbaum

A new Antarctic ice sheet modeling study from scientists at UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography suggests that meltwater flowing out to sea from beneath Antarctic glaciers is making them lose ice faster.

The model's simulations suggest this effect is large enough to make a meaningful contribution to global sea-level rise under high greenhouse gas emissions scenarios.

The extra ice loss caused by this meltwater flowing out to sea from beneath Antarctic glaciers is not currently accounted for in the models generating major sea-level rise projections, such as those of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). If this process turns out to be an important driver of ice loss across the entire Antarctic ice sheet, it could mean current projections underestimate the pace of global sea-level rise in decades to come.

"Knowing when and how much global sea-level will rise is critical to the welfare of coastal communities," said Tyler Pelle, the study's lead author and a postdoctoral researcher at Scripps. "Millions of people live in low-lying coastal zones and we can't adequately prepare our communities without accurate sea-level rise projections."

The study, published October 27 in Science Advancesmodeled the retreat of two glaciers in East Antarctica through the year 2300 under different emissions scenarios and projected their contributions to sea-level rise. Unlike previous Antarctic ice sheet models, this one included the influence of this flow of meltwater from beneath glaciers out to sea, which is known as subglacial discharge.

The two glaciers the study focused on, named Denman and Scott, together hold enough ice to cause nearly 1.5 meters (5 feet) of sea-level rise. In a high emissions scenario (IPCC's SSP5-8.5 scenario, which assumes no new climate policy and features 20% higher CO 2 emissions by 2100), the model found that subglacial discharge increased the sea-level rise contribution of these glaciers by 15.7%, from 19 millimeters (0.74 inches) to 22 millimeters (0.86 inches) by the year 2300.

These glaciers, which are right next to each other, sit atop a continental trench that is more than two miles deep; once their retreat reaches the trench's steep slope, their contribution to sea-level rise is expected to accelerate dramatically. With the added influence of subglacial discharge, the model found that the glaciers retreated past this threshold about 25 years earlier than they did without it.

"I think this paper is a wake up call for the modeling community. It shows you can't accurately model these systems without taking this process into account," said Jamin Greenbaum, co-author of the study and a researcher at Scripps' Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics.

A key takeaway, beyond the understudied role of subglacial discharge in accelerating sea-level rise, is the importance of what humanity does in the coming decades to rein in greenhouse gas emissions, said Greenbaum. The low emissions scenario runs of the model did not show the glaciers retreating all the way into the trench and avoided the resulting runaway contributions to sea-level rise.

"If there is a doomsday story here it isn't subglacial discharge," said Greenbaum. "The real doomsday story is still emissions and humanity is still the one with its finger on the button."

In Antarctica, subglacial meltwater is generated from melting that occurs where the ice sits on continental bedrock. The main sources of the heat melting the ice in contact with the ground are friction from the ice grinding across the bedrock and geothermal heat from Earth's interior permeating up through the crust.

Prior research suggested that subglacial meltwater is a common feature of glaciers around the world and that it is present under several other massive Antarctic glaciers, including the infamous Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica.

When subglacial discharge flows out to sea it is thought to accelerate melting of the glacier's ice shelfa long floating tongue of ice that extends out to sea beyond the last part of the glacier that is still in contact with solid ground (known as the grounding line).

Subglacial discharge is thought to speed up ice shelf melting and glacial retreat by causing ocean mixing that stirs in additional ocean heat within the cavity beneath a glacier's floating ice shelf. This enhanced ice shelf melting then causes the upstream glacier to accelerate, which can drive sea level rise.

The notion that subglacial discharge causes additional ice shelf melting is widely accepted in the scientific community, said Greenbaum. But it hasn't been included in sea-level rise projections because many researchers weren't sure if the process' effect was sufficiently large to increase sea-level rise, mainly because its effects are localized around the glacier's ice shelf.

Pelle said subglacial discharge came onto his radar in 2021 when he and his colleagues observed that East Antarctica's Denman Glacier's ice shelf was melting faster than expected given local ocean temperatures. Puzzlingly, Denman's neighbor Scott Glacier's ice shelf was melting much more slowly despite virtually identical ocean conditions.

To test whether subglacial discharge could reconcile the melt rates seen at the Denman and Scott ice shelves, as well as whether subglacial meltwater might accelerate sea-level rise, the team combined models for three different environments: the ice sheet, the space between the ice sheet and bedrock, and the ocean.

Once the researchers married the three models into one they ran a series of projections up to 2300 using a NASA supercomputer.

The projections featured three main scenarios: a control that featured no additional ocean warming, a low emissions pathway (SSP1-2.6), and a high emissions pathway (SSP5-8.5). For each scenario, the researchers created projections with and without the effect of present-day levels of subglacial discharge.

The model's simulations revealed that adding in subglacial discharge reconciled the melt rates seen at Denman and Scott Glaciers. As for why Scott Glacier was melting so much slower than Denman, Pelle said the model showed that "a strong subglacial discharge channel drained across the Denman Glacier grounding line, while a weaker discharge channel drained across the Scott Glacier grounding line." The strength of the discharge channel at Denman, Pelle explained, was behind its speedy melt.

For the control and low-emissions model runs the contributions to sea-level rise were close to zero or even slightly negative with or without subglacial discharge at 2300. But in a high emissions scenario, the model found that subglacial discharge increased the sea-level rise contribution of these glaciers from 19 millimeters (0.74 inches) to 22 millimeters (0.86 inches) in 2300.

In the high emissions scenario that included subglacial discharge, Denman and Scott Glaciers retreated into the two-mile-deep trench beneath them by 2240, about 25 years earlier than they did in the model runs without subglacial discharge. Once the grounding lines of the Denman and Scott Glaciers retreat past the lip of this trench their yearly sea-level rise contribution explodes, reaching a peak of 0.33 millimeters (0.01 inches) per yearroughly half of the present-day annual sea-level rise contribution of the entire Antarctic ice sheet.

Pelle said the trench's steep slope is behind this explosive increase in sea-level rise contribution. As the glacier retreats down slope, its ice shelf begins losing thicker and thicker slabs of ice from its leading edge. This process of ice loss quickly outpaces ice accumulation at the ice sheet's interior, causing further glacial retreat. Researchers refer to this process as "Marine Ice Sheet Instability," and it can promote explosive ice loss from glaciers like Denman and Scott.

Researchers refer to topography such as the trench beneath Denman and Scott Glaciers as a retrograde slope and worry that it creates a positive feedback loop by which glacial retreat begets more retreat. Large areas of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, such as Thwaites Glacier, also have retrograde slopes that, while not as dramatic as the Denman-Scott trench, contribute to fears of broader ice sheet instability.

"Subglacial meltwater has been inferred beneath most if not all Antarctic glaciers, including Thwaites, Pine Island, and Totten glaciers," said Pelle. "All these glaciers are retreating and contributing to sea-level rise and we are showing that subglacial discharge could be accelerating their retreat. It's urgent that we model these other glaciers so we can get a handle on the magnitude of the effect subglacial discharge is having."

The researchers behind this study are doing just that. Pelle said they are in the process of submitting a research proposal to extend their new model to the entire Antarctic ice sheet.

Future iterations of the model may also attempt to couple the subglacial environment with the ice sheet and ocean models so that the amount of subglacial meltwater dynamically responds to these other factors. Greenbaum said that the current version of their model kept the amount of subglacial meltwater constant throughout the model runs, and that making it respond dynamically to the surrounding environment would likely make the model more true to life.

"This also means that our results are probably a conservative estimate of the effect of subglacial discharge," said Greenbaum. "That said, we can't yet say how much sea-level rise will be accelerated by this processhopefully it's not too much."

Part of Greenbaum's upcoming fieldwork in Antarctica, supported by NSF and NASA, aims to directly investigate the impacts of subglacial meltwater in both the East and West Antarctic ice sheets.

In collaboration with the Australian Antarctic Division and the Korea Polar Research Institute, Greenbaum and his collaborators will be visiting the ice shelves of Denman and Thwaites Glaciers in East and West Antarctica, respectively, looking for direct evidence that subglacial freshwater is discharging into the ocean beneath the glaciers' ice shelves and contributing to warming.

In addition to Pelle and Greenbaum, the study was co-authored by Christine Dow of the University of Waterloo, Adrian Jenkins of Northumbria University, and Mathieu Morlighem of Dartmouth College.

More information: Tyler Pelle et al, Subglacial discharge accelerates future retreat of Denman and Scott Glaciers, East Antarctica, Science Advances (2023). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adi9014. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adi9014 Journal information: Science Advances
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FreeFall Tests Spherical Antennas at 159,000 feet on NASAs 60 million cubic foot stratospheric balloon. Credit: Dr. Christopher Walker, NIAC Fellow / FreeFall Aerospace

Some 30 years ago, a young engineer named Christopher Walker was home in the evening making chocolate pudding when he got what turned out to be a very serendipitous call from his mother.

Taking the call, he shut off the stove and stretched plastic wrap over the pot to keep the pudding fresh. By the time he returned, the cooling air in the pot had drawn the wrap into a concave shape, and in that warped plastic, he saw somethingthe magnified reflection of an overhead lightbulbthat gave him an idea that could revolutionize space-based sensing and communications.

That idea became the Large Balloon Reflector (LBR), an inflatable device that creates wide collection apertures that weigh a fraction of today's deployable antennas. Now, with an assist from NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program, funded by the agency's Space Technology Mission Directorate, which supports visionary innovations from diverse sources, Walker's decades-old vision is coming to fruition.

The concept turns part of the inside surface of an inflated sphere into a parabolic antenna. A section comprising about a third of the balloon's interior surface is aluminized, giving it reflective properties.

With NIAC funding, and a grant from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Walker was able to develop and demonstrate technologies for a 33-foot-diameter (10 meters) LBR that was carried to the stratosphere by a giant balloon. For comparison, the aperture of NASA's massive James Webb Space Telescope is over 21 feet (6.5 meters) in diameter.

"There was no place other than NIAC within NASA to get this off the ground," says Walker, now a astronomy and optical engineering professor at the University of Arizona in Tucson. "At first, I was afraid to share the idea with colleagues because it sounded so crazy. You need a program within NASA that will actually look at the radical ideas, and NIAC is it."

Parabolic dish antennas use their concave shape to capture and concentrate electromagnetic radiation. The larger the antenna's diameter, or aperture, the more effective it is for capturing light or radio waves and transmitting radio signals over great distances.

In astronomy, there is a tremendous advantage to placing telescopes above the Earth's atmosphere, which tends to distort or degrade signals coming from space. The challenge is that traditional large reflector antennas are heavy, unwieldy, and difficult to stow, leading to launch constraints and risky in-space deployment schemes.

The LBR design solves both problems. Made of a thin film structure, it inflates like a beachball, providing a stable parabolic-dish shape without the need for bulky and complex deployable hardware, and can fold into a tiny volume.

In 2018, Freefall Aerospace, a company co-founded by Walker to develop and market the technology, demonstrated the LBR's potential aboard NASA's stadium-sized stratospheric balloon, which carried a 3.28-foot scale model to an altitude of 159,000 feet.

STMD invested in the development of LBR through NASA NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts Program. Credit: NASA/BryceTech

Next up for the technology is a high-speed communications demonstration in low Earth orbit aboard a 6-unit CubeSat, about the size of a shoebox, called CatSat. It was selected for flight in 2019 as part of NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative. It is a joint effort involving NASA, Freefall Aerospace, the University of Arizona, and Rincon Research Corporation in Tucson, Arizona.

After reaching low-Earth orbit, CatSat's inflatable antenna deployment system will deploy from its container, inflate to a diameter of about one-and-a-half feet, and begin transmitting back high-definition Earth photos. The mission is slated for launch with several other CubeSats on Firefly Aerospace's Alpha rocket as part of the Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) 43 mission.

A more ambitious lunar mission concept is also being explored. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, would use the inflatable antenna in tandem with a new instrument called Terahertz Spectrometer for In-Situ Resource Utilization, a miniature, high-power laser precisely calibrated to detect water, a critical exploration resource.

"The technology demonstrated by CatSat opens the door to the possibility of future lunar, planetary and deep-space missions using CubeSats," said Walker.

It might be difficult to believe this all started because a young engineer's idea of dinner one evening was what most would consider dessert. Then again, one could say the proof was in the pudding.

Provided by NASA
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Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

A well-known study published in the journal Science showed that some 6.3 billion metric tons of plastic polymer had been produced and discarded in human history, and that only 9% had been recycled; 12% had been incinerated and the remaining 79% left to rot in landfills or garbage dumps, from which about 10% reached the coast and eventually the sea.

These numbers are from eight years ago. The situation is certainly worse now. Although some countries have announced "zero plastic" policies, factories continue to churn out 400 million tons of plastic per year, and the amount thrown away continues to accumulate.

As a result, contamination by microplastics (fragments less than 5 millimeters in length) has become one of the worst environmental problems in the world, almost as serious as the climate crisis. Microplastics are everywhereon land, in the sea and in the air. They have even been found in the human bodyin the bloodstream, heart and lungs, and in placenta.

"You don't find microplastics only where you don't look," said Italo Castro, a researcher and professor at the Federal University of Sao Paulo's Institute of Marine Sciences (IMAR-UNIFESP) in Brazil.

Unfortunately, some attempts at solving the problem are making matters worse, as shown by an investigation of greenwashing led by Castro in which researchers from IMAR-UNIFESP visited 40 supermarkets and analyzed products the manufacturers claimed to be made of biodegradable plastic. The stores belonged to major chains in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

The study sample comprised 49 different products, including plates, cutlery, cups, straws, trays, and other utensils, as well as partyware. On average, they cost 125% more than the equivalents made from conventional (non-biodegradable) plastic. None of them, including the major brands, met the minimum requirements to be considered genuinely biodegradable.

The results are published in Sustainable Production and Consumption. The first author of the article is Beatriz Barbosa Moreno, a Ph.D. candidate with a scholarship from FAPESP and Castro as thesis advisor.

"To be considered biodegradable, a product must convert into water (H 2 O), carbon gas (CO 2 ), methane (CH 4 ) and biomass when discarded into the environment. This should happen relatively quickly, in a few weeks to a year, although there's no consensus regarding how long it should take. None of the 49 items investigated met this requirement," Castro said.

More than 90% were made of a class of material that has become known as oxo-degradable, he added. Despite the name, these materials do not degrade in normal environmental conditions. They are polymers of fossil origin additivized with metallic salts, which accelerate oxidation and fragmentation, but the fragments can remain in the environment for decades. Fragmentation does not contribute to degradation. It accelerates the formation of microplastic particles.

"Oxo-degradable plastic is banned in several parts of the world, including the European Union," Castro said. "In most cases, the ban was due to lack of evidence of biodegradability in real-world conditions, associated with the risk of microplastic formation."

Regulation

Oxo-degradable plastic has not been banned in Brazil, where it can legally be sold. However, quite apart from the misleading nomenclature, consumers are deceived by many companies that claim their products are certified to technical standards relating to biodegradability, such as ASTM D6954-4 or SPCR 141.

"These standards merely provide guidelines for comparing degradation rates and changes in physical properties under controlled laboratory conditions, and they don't concern the final stages of degradation. In fact, the organizations that produce the standards state on their websites that they must not be used for the purposes of certifying commercial plastic products as biodegradable," Castro said.

For Castro, the claim that a commercial product is biodegradable when it is nothing of the kind can be considered greenwashing.

"When a product that has been shown to harm the environment becomes widely used, official action should be taken to stop it. In Brazil, the Senate is debating a bill (PL 2524/2022) that would ban the use of oxo-degrading or pro-oxidant additives in thermoplastic resins, as well as the manufacturing, importing and marketing of packaging and products made of oxo-degradable plastic," he said.

If PL 2524/2022 is passed in its present form, Castro explained, it could enable Brazil to engineer a transition to a circular economy in plastics. "This transition is urgently needed," he said. "IMAR-UNIFESP is based in Santos on the coast of Sao Paulo state. In Santos, we detected an accumulation of microplastics in mangrove oysters [Crassostrea brasiliana] and brown mussels [Perna perna]. Both filter seawater for food and retain microparticles in their tissue, so that they are considered the gold standard for assessing environmental conditions in areas like this. The levels we detected were among the highest in the world compared with data from more than 100 similar studies conducted in 40 countries."

In response to our inquiries, the Brazilian Ministry for the Environment and Climate Change (MMA) said it supports PL 2524/2022 but with certain amendments. "The ministry is favorable to prohibition of oxo-degrading and pro-oxidant additives based on studies showing that microplastic particles are created when these additives cause fragmentation of plastic, which is particularly harmful to the marine environment," it stressed.

The Brazilian Plastics Industry Association (ABIPLAST) also issued a statement saying it supports a ban on the use of oxo-degradable additives in plastic products. However, it opposes PL 2524/2022, which it sees as "confusing the circular economy with a ban on plastic products and targeting a single class of material." The text also says that "the circular economy entails a systemic change and therefore requires a macro approach involving all sectors of the manufacturing industry."

Meanwhile, another billPL 1874/2022 (establishing a National Circular Economy Policy)includes important provisions regarding strategic resource management, promotion of new business models, investment in research and innovation, and support for the transition to low-carbon technologies by means of the creation of attractive conditions for public and private investment, among others provisions.

The statement sent by ABIPLAST says, it "trusts that a serious and accurate science-based debate will promote a constructive dialogue on the correct use of plastic and all the benefits the material has brought society. The plastic sector has taken a leadership role in actions to promote a circular economy of this material, investing in technology, sustainability and innovation."

More information: Beatriz Barbosa Moreno et al, High incidence of false biodegradability claims related to single-use plastic utensils sold in Brazil, Sustainable Production and Consumption (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.spc.2023.07.024 Journal information: Science

Provided by FAPESP
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Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

As police fanned out Thursday in pursuit of the gunman who killed 18 people in Lewiston, Mainethe deadliest U.S. mass shooting of the yearthe nation once again confronted its epidemic of firearms violence. Every year in the U.S., tens of thousands of lives are lost to gun-related murders and suicides.

The Gazette spoke with David Hemenway, a professor of health policy at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, about the seemingly intractable problem of gun deaths in America. In the short term, he said, we won't make much progress without a forceful political response to rampages like the one in Maine. Longer term, he hopes recently launched research initiatives might change minds and spur life-saving action.

The interview has been edited for clarity and length.

GAZETTE: What are some things that ordinary people can do to address gun violence?

The biggest thing is to vote for the right people. It's hard to think that a single regular person is going to make a big difference in reducing gun violence, but we have known for the last 30 or 40 years that the overwhelming majority of Americans, including Republicans and Democrats, non-gun owners and gun owners, want universal background checksthey want everyone to be checked before they can legally get a gun, as is done in virtually every other high-income country in the world. What kind of democracy is this if there is always a majority of people in Congress who won't ever support what the people want? So you have to vote those people out.

If there's one policy that would be really good to have, it would be licensing of all gun owners and requiring universal background checks to get a license. We do that in Massachusetts, and that's part of the reason we do so well in Massachusettsnot relative to the world, but relative to other states.

GAZETTE: Are there other things that people can do that might have an impact?

Another thing the average person can do is find advocates and researchers who are trying to do good work and give them money. There's a lot of good organizations now, Giffords, Brady, Everytown, and so forth, that are trying to make the world a little safer in terms of gun issues. They don't have nearly the lobbying power of the gun lobby.

GAZETTE: Is there a public education piece of this? Do we know enough?

We know that a gun in the home increases the risk of death to people in the home. And we know that a gun in the home, on average, increases the risk for the whole community. But there's so much we don't know. Just in terms of some of the things I want to do research on this coming year, I don't think there's been a good research paper on open carry. And what about ghost guns? If we're going to have guns, you name an issue and we want to figure out reasonable rules for guns so they're not so detrimental to society. We need to know much more than just, "On average, more handguns are generally bad for public health, and stronger gun laws are generally better for public health."

GAZETTE: What about gun ownership for protection? In the news coverage of the Maine shootings, I read interviews with people who said, "We have our own guns, we're not worried."

Of the people with guns, most have them for protection, but the evidence is pretty strong that having a gun for protection is a detriment to the people who have the gun. All the primary potential public health benefits and costs of having a gun are pretty rare, but some are much rarer than others. The chance that you're actually going to need a gun to protect your home is much lower than the combined chance that somebody will steal your gun or you'll have a gun accident or someone will try to commit suicide with a gun or the gun will be used in intimate partner violence.

One thing that you absolutely should do if you're going to have a gun: Keep it safe so it doesn't get stolen and/or used by an inappropriate person. We estimate there are 350,000 guns a year that are stolen. Nobody knows the exact number, but that's a very reasonable ballpark estimate.

GAZETTE: Have we made any progress on this issue?

In the short run, things have gotten worse. Gun homicides and suicides have recently been increasing, and mass shootings have skyrocketed. But some things have gotten betterfor the long run. We now have a good data system for violent deaths, which is going to really help us figure out what's going on. And there's more money for gun research, though still not a lot compared with the size of the problem.

Over time we're going to learn lots more, and we are going to have good research that I believe will show, over and over again, that a gun in the home is dangerous for the family, and that stronger gun laws will save lives. This is like the situation we had with cigarettes, when most people initially thought cigarettes were not that dangerousafter all, most people smokedbut the research kept showing the dangers of cigarettes in terms of cancer, in terms of heart disease, in terms of children in the household.

I suspect we're going to have more and more good research saying, "This gun is making you less safe, your family less safe, and your community less safe, and these are the specific types of gun policies and programs which will reduce the problem."

GAZETTE: But in the meantime, in the short term, we have to just have to live with the violence and loss?

If we had different people in power, in terms of the judiciary, in terms of Congress, we might be able to do a lot of things. Every other high-income country does better than we donot just a little better but a lot better. Every one. France does a lot better, New Zealand does a lot better, Korea does a lot better, and on and on. The U.S. is a bad outlier in terms of gun violence compared to every other high-income country.

I teach at the public health school and we have many international students. They are just flabbergasted: What is the matter with the U.S.? How can our leaders let children get killed and just say to families, "Oh, my thoughts and prayers are with you," when it's clear that many policies can help. There may not be large numbers of good empirical studies for any particular policy or program, but sometimes it's like taking a parachute when you're jumping out of an airplaneit's probably better than not having the parachute, even though there haven't been any randomized control trials proving that.

This story is published courtesy of the Harvard Gazette, Harvard University's official newspaper. For additional university news, visit Harvard.edu.
Pharmacist and Clinic Owner Sentenced for $6 Million Pill Mill Scheme

A Houston pharmacist and clinic owner were sentenced today for their roles in a pill mill scheme.

Sokari Momma Bobmanuel, 63, was sentenced to 14 years in prison following her conviction at trial for conspiracy to unlawfully distribute and dispense controlled substances. Alantha Stewart, 42, was sentenced to 10 years in prison following her guilty plea to conspiracy to unlawfully distribute and dispense controlled substances.

According to court documents, from May 2018 to August 2019, Bobmanuel was the owner and pharmacist-in-charge of Cornerstone Rx Pharmacy (Cornerstone), which illegally distributed nearly 160,000 opioid pills, including oxycodone and hydrocodone, often based on prescriptions issued by co-conspirator Jonathan Rosenfield, M.D., and others from Sunnyside Medical, which consisted of two Houston-area pill-mill clinics. Bobmanuel, through Cornerstone, distributed controlled substances outside the scope of professional practice, and without a legitimate medical purpose, to individuals who brought prescriptions in the names of other people. These individuals then sold the pills they bought from Cornerstone on the illegal market. Bobmanuel charged exorbitant prices for the pills  often $1,200 for a single oxycodone prescription  generating over $1 million from the scheme.

Stewart, who co-owned and co-operated the Sunnyside Medical pill-mill clinics, doing business as Sunnyside #1 and Sunnyside #2, and her co-conspirators issued prescriptions for opioids, including approximately 752,000 pills of oxycodone and 419,000 pills of hydrocodone, under co-owner and co-conspirator Rosenfields name, outside the usual course of professional practice, and not for a legitimate medical purpose. The prescriptions often were issued to individuals paid by drug dealers to pose as patients, and the pills ultimately were diverted to the illegal market. From May 2018 to August 2019, the Sunnyside Medical clinics made approximately $5.4 million from the sale of the prescriptions of these drugs.

Co-defendants Rosenfield and Elmer Taylor pleaded guilty to conspiracy and are scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 15.

Acting Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri of the Justice Departments Criminal Division, Administrator Anne Milgram of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Assistant Director Luis Quesada of the FBIs Criminal Investigative Division, and Acting Special Agent in Charge David Martinez of the FBI Houston Field Office made the announcement.

The DEA Houston Division and FBI Houston Field Office investigated the case.

Trial Attorneys Monica Cooper, Ariel Glasner, and Courtney Chester of the Criminal Divisions Fraud Section and Emily Petro, formerly of the Fraud Section and currently an Assistant U.S. Attorney of the Middle District of Tennessee, prosecuted the case.

The Fraud Section leads the Criminal Divisions efforts to combat health care fraud through the Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program. Since March 2007, this program, currently comprised of nine strike forces operating in 27 federal districts, has charged more than 5,000 defendants who collectively have billed federal health care programs and private insurers more than $24.7 billion. In addition, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services, are taking steps to hold providers accountable for their involvement in health care fraud schemes. More information can be found at www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/health-care-fraud-unit.

This story has been published on: 2023-10-27. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Traditional Chinese medicine school inks deal with Kenyan institution to promote herbal medicine

Xinhua) 09:41, October 27, 2023

NAIROBI, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- The Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Kenyatta University, Kenya's second oldest university, to promote research and utilization of herbal medicine in the mainstream healthcare system.

Paul Wainaina, the vice chancellor of Kenyatta University, said that academic cooperation with the Chinese university will help mainstream herbal medicine in the treatment and management of major diseases in the country. "We are now working with an institution that is well-known in traditional medicine. This is very significant," Wainaina said Wednesday, adding that other benefits to be derived from cooperation with the Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine include training, capacity building and innovation.

The planned establishment of a China-Kenya Traditional Chinese Medicine Center is a key pillar of the new partnership between the two universities. Once operational, the center is expected to facilitate collaborative research and training in traditional Chinese medicine, and the establishment of a world-class laboratory to spur the development of African and Chinese herbal medicine.

In addition, the center will provide a platform for scholarly exchanges, traditional medicine production and enterprises in line with aspirations of China's proposed Belt and Road Initiative. The center will help set up efficacy and safety standards for herbal medicine, and address policy and regulatory barriers hindering their adoption in mainstream healthcare systems.

Nicholas Kamindu Gikonyo, a traditional medicine researcher at Kenyatta University, hailed the partnership with the Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, adding that it will foster research, skills and knowledge transfer in the development and use of plant-based drugs to treat common ailments.

According to Gikonyo, the partnership will also boost the identification of medicinal plants, and evaluate their safety and effectiveness in treating diseases through joint research and knowledge sharing.

Siambi Kikete, a lecturer at Kenyatta University's School of Health Sciences, said that the cooperation agreement with the Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine will be a milestone in harnessing traditional medicine to revolutionize health care in Kenya.

"Together, we are going to do a lot of scientific research and show evidence that traditional or herbal medicine can work," Kikete said, adding that both Kenyan and Chinese traditional medicine have the capacity to improve treatment outcomes for patients.

Founded in 1958, the Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine was listed as one of the key state-construction traditional Chinese medicine institutes of higher learning in 1978 and approved as one of the key Shandong provincial universities in 1981. It is currently the only independent medical university in Shandong Province and is rated excellent in the national undergraduate education evaluation conducted by the Ministry of Education.

(Web editor: Tian Yi, Liang Jun)
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 27)  The Sandiganbayan Special Second Division has convicted businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles in another three counts of graft and three counts of malversation of public funds, adding at least 138 years to her growing prison sentence.

The anti-graft court handed the ruling on Friday in cases linked to the 35-million Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), or pork barrel, of former Ilocos Sur Rep. Salacnib Figueras Baterina.

Napoles was earlier convicted in other graft and malversation cases among a string of charges in connection with the pork barrel scam. Under the scheme, public funds were diverted to bogus non-government organizations (NGOs) created by the businesswoman.

In a 64-page decision, the court found Napoles, along with Belina Agbayani Concepcion and Godofredo Roque, guilty of two counts of graft as well as two counts of malversation.

They were ordered to return 25 million to the National Treasury, as well as pay the same amount as fine.

A total of 25 million from Baterinas pork barrel was illegally disbursed to Kaagapay Magpakailanman Foundation, Inc., controlled by Napoles and Roque, in February 2007.

The court also found Napoles, Maria Rosalinda Masongsong Lacsamana, and Evelyn Ditchon De Leon guilty of graft and malversation, and told them to return 10 million to government coffers and pay the same amount as fine.

The 10 million in public funds was released to Philippine Social Development Foundation, Inc., operated by Napoles and this time with De Leon, in January 2007.

Baterina was acquitted of the same charges and of direct bribery in another case. He, however, was ordered to join in compensating the government a total of 35 million.

The former lawmaker claimed that his signatures on the PDAF documents were forged and that the documents were falsified.

The Sandiganbayan ruled that there were significant differences when it examined known signatures on record and the questioned signatures.

The court also said the forged signatures were further bolstered when prosecution witness Benhur Luy and Napoles' bookkeeper in JLN Corp. admitted that they forged signatures and falsified documents of NGOs. It added that it noted irregularities in the notarization of the memorandum of agreements.

Given these premises, there is no evidence to sufficiently prove that accused Baterina had any participation in the conspiracy to commit the crimes charged herein, the Sandiganbayan said.

[T]he acquittal of Baterina does not prevent a judgment from still being rendered against him on the civil aspect of the criminal cases, the court also said. He should therefore be held civilly liable.

Each count of malversation carries a punishment of reclusion perpetua with a prison term of 20 to 40 years. For each count of graft, Napoles and others face imprisonment of six years and one month up to 10 years.

Concepcion and Lacsamana were former officials of the Techonology and Livelihod Resource Center, a now-abolished government body.

Associate Justice Edgardo Caldona penned the decision while Associate Justice Oscar Herrera Jr. wrote a separate dissenting and concurring opinion. Three other associate justices signed the ruling.

The PDAF scam came into light in July 2013.

On Oct. 20, the Sandiganbayan also sentenced the businesswoman to at least six decades in jail after being found guilty in four counts of graft and four counts of malversation involving the P20.9 million in the pork barrel of former South Cotabato Rep. Arthur Pingoy Jr.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 27)  A candidate for barangay chairman in next week's Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections was injured in a shooting in General Luna, Quezon province Thursday night.

The victim was identified as 63-year-old Ruben Ilagan, a resident and incumbent councilor of Brgy. Malaya, General Luna.

Police said Ilagan was on his way home after attending a meeting near the barangay hall when he was shot four times by two gunmen.

Ilaganwho was hit in the chestwas initially rushed to the Magsaysay Hospital in neighboring Lopez town, then transferred to RAKK Hospital in nearby Gumaca.

Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairperson George Garcia condemned the incident, which he believed was related to the local polls.

"Nakakalungkot sapagkat dadalawang araw nalang halos eleksyon na and therefore itong pagtaas na ito ng bilang ng violence maaaring hindi election-related sinasabay ng kriminal talaga o election-related, we do not distinguish anymore. Basta ang importante dapat maging alerto ang police," he told reporters on Friday.

[Translation: This is sad news because we are in the last two days before election day and therefore this increase in violent incidents may be election-related or not, we do not distinguish anymore. The important thing is the police should be on alert.]

Garcia reiterated his appeal to the Philippine National Police to boost its efforts against loose firearms and the crackdown on private armed groups.

The manhunt continues for the perpetrators.

General Luna is currently under green category of areas of concernor generally peaceful.

"There is nothing to panic...Comelec is in full control of the situation in the entire country," Garcia said.
If you look at what makes an area economically thrive, you need three basic elements: foundational science, collaboration among institutions, and attraction and retention of business and talent.

That was the basic argument made by Martin A. Schmidt, the president of Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute and a former entrepreneur, engineering professor and executive administrator at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He spoke at a luncheon hosted by the Warren County Economic Development Corporation. The speakers  he was one of four  was the opportunity to highlight the economic potential of the Lake George Region as a research location for the study of fresh water.

Schmidt said the area already has much of what is needed to create the economic synergy.

As proof, he offered the comparison of two Rust Belt, cities: Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Pittsburgh since the economic slow-down in the 1970s and 80s rallied its local economy to become a new and vibrant location. Cleveland has not been so favored, he said.

His argument, one supported by economics and professors at MIT and elsewhere, was that the collaboration among various institutions, such as Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, along with the major health centers in Pittsburgh lifted the entire region.

He said this area has that same collaboration with MIT, RPI, the University at Albany and SUNY Adirondack. The area  the North Star of the Capital Region, as SUNY Adirondack President Kris Duffy put it  is ready to step forward, Schmidt said.

And RPI, with its work on the Jefferson Project which has studied Lake George for 10 years, and the Darrin Fresh Water Institute, which was started years before that, has created the foundational science necessary.

He asked the political leaders and business people gathered for the lunch to leverage the areas unfair advantage in potential research and asked: What are the business enterprises that can be created?

John Kelly III explained how the Lake George Region became that research hub.

Kelly is largely considered the The Father of Watson computing, IBMs artificial intelligence arm, but he been leading research for the Jefferson Project at Lake George, which sent rafts of water-scanning equipment onto the lake, equipment that took thousands of measurements per minute about lake temperature, the direction of water flow, the various chemicals found in the water and other data. It scanned the lake from top to bottom.

He focused his discussion on the last three years of the project and the new phenomena of Harmful Algal Blooms on Lake George. The phytoplankton, a single-cell algae, that over-develop in the HABs are not invasive, but natural to all waters.

The blooms are simply an explosion of a certain type of algae, cyanobacteria, that can be dangerous to humans in water and can form an aerosol and become a breathing hazard.

A fundamental finding of the Jefferson Projects research is that wind, water runoff into the lake, the circulation of the lake water, and the make-up of the sediment on the lake bottom all play a role in the HAB that is seen on the surface.

Perhaps the biggest finding in the research is that the blooms begin on the lake floor, so attacking the blooms on the surface as researchers originally thought, does little to stop the problem.

Still to be learned is why some of the blooms become very harmful to humans.

With the research and collaboration in place, job creation and retention must now be the focus, said SUNY Adirondacks Duffy. Her students must see more opportunity in the area if they are to stay in Warren County which has an average age of people in their 50s.

This was a sentiment shared with WarrenEDC President Jim Siplon.

There arent enough people, and there arent enough resourcesfor everyone to thrive at this time, he said, adding that workforce housing is key. He said: Its our time to lead.

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Correction: We first posted this story with an incorrect name. John Kelly III is the correct name. We apologize for the error.
A Hudson County man will remain in a local jail on charges that he robbed three banks, two of which were in South Jersey, state court officials said.

Superior Court Judge Patricia Wild on Thursday ruled that Thomas J. Ingram, 37, of Bayonne, will stay at the Atlantic County jail while he awaits trial, the Administrative Office of the Courts said. Ingram was arrested last week for allegedly robbing banks in Absecon and Northfield.

Ingram also is accused of robbing a third bank in Springfield, Union County, on Oct. 10, according to an affidavit of probable cause. He was arrested in Bayonne after that robbery, Springfield police said Oct. 18.

It was unclear Thursday whether Ingram had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

Springfield police said last week Ingram would stay at the Atlantic County jail until being returned to North Jersey on a warrant. The agency could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday.

Detectives identified Ingrams Volvo sedan within an hour after the Springfield robbery, police said. The vehicle was later impounded.

Absecon, Northfield bank robber arrested A 37-year-old Hudson County man was arrested Wednesday in a pair of bank robberies in Atlantic County last month, police said.

Locally, Absecon police announced the arrest Oct. 18 but did not disclose more information about his whereabouts at the time he was captured.

Police said Ingram first stole from the Parke Bank on Tilton Road in Northfield on Sept. 14 and from the First National Bank of Absecon a day later.

No one was injured in either robbery.

In the Absecon robbery, Ingram approached a bank teller with 10K no alarm written on a deposit slip, one of two affidavits in the case states. He then told the teller, Give me the money, and no one gets hurt before the employee handed him slightly more than $2,000 cash, which Ingram stuffed in a black satchel, the affidavit states.

After fleeing on foot, Ingram ran down a nearby alley, reaching a parking lot where his car was before driving west on Route 30, the affidavit states.

Ingram was linked to the Northfield and Absecon robberies through video evidence, the affidavit states. His vehicle also was tied to the Springfield robbery.
Two North Cape May men face charges after they were caught distributing ecstasy imported from the Netherlands, Cape May County Prosecutor Jeffrey H. Sutherland and Lower Township police Chief Kevin Lewis said Thursday.

Jacob Groff, 31, and Craig Needles, 67, were arrested Wednesday after the Prosecutor's Office received information from Homeland Security Investigations Atlantic City that Customs and Border Patrol agents at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City had intercepted a package from the Netherlands that was addressed to Groff. The package contained ecstasy pills, the Prosecutor's Office said in a news release.

The Prosecutor's Office and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Lower Township police, Homeland Security Investigations and the county Regional SWAT Team searched Groff and Needles' residence on Osprey Drive. There they found 2 ounces of ecstasy, more than a half-ounce of suspected methamphetamine, a .25-caliber semi-automatic handgun, drug paraphernalia, a digital scale, various prescription drugs, electronics and $4,081 in U.S. currency, the Prosecutor's Office said.

Groff and Needles were each charged with possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, possession with intent to distribute MDMA, possession of a firearm during a drug offense, possession of methamphetamine, possession of MDMA, money laundering, possession of drug paraphernalia with intent to distribute and conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine and MDMA.

Both men are being held in the Cape May County jail.
CAMDEN  A Pleasantville man will spend more than 14 years in prison for selling drugs to a federal informant and possessing a firearm at the time of his arrest, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

U.S. District Court Judge Joseph H. Rodriguez on Thursday sentenced Clay Brown, 30, for methamphetamine distribution and possession of a firearm as a convicted felon. Brown pleaded guilty to the charges last year.

Brown is being held at FDC Philadelphia, a detention center on Arch Street, according to records from the federal Bureau of Prisons.

Rodriguez also ordered Brown to five years of supervised release, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a news release.

Brown admitted providing methamphetamine and fentanyl multiple times to a confidential informant, federal authorities said previously.

At the time of his arrest, Brown had a backpack holding a gun and drugs prosecutors say he intended to distribute.

Brown has multiple prior felony convictions, making it illegal for him to possess the firearm, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Homeland Security Investigations' Atlantic City office led the investigation. The Drug Enforcement Administration and State Police assisted.
ATLANTIC CITY  A Maryland family got a firsthand experience with resort hospitality after accidentally leaving $2,000 in vacation money at a booth at Tonys Baltimore Grill.

The family was dining at the Atlantic Avenue restaurant Monday when they mistakenly left behind an envelope filled with cash.

She (a family member) said if the money wasnt here, they were going home, said Joey Palumbo, a manager at Tonys who was working Monday.

Two employees, dishwasher Mohammed Malek and server Pam Abernathy, were lauded for their courtesy in turning over the money to management at Tonys.

The magic of TBG (Tonys Baltimore Grill) has never been the pizza, its always been the people, the restaurant wrote online.

The restaurant then rewarded the two employees with either a weeks paid vacation or $1,000 each, the restaurant wrote on its social media pages.

Palumbo said Malek found the envelope at the booth, handing it to Abernathy, believing it to be her money. She in turn gave it to Palumbo, who stored it in a safe.

When the family came to the restaurant the next day, Palumbo matched the family to the envelope, which displayed wording from a Maryland-based credit union.

The family discovered the cash missing Tuesday. The woman was heading to Steel Pier to purchase tickets for her son when she realized the money was gone, frantically retracing her steps to find the cash, Palumbo said.

Tonys was their last stop before heading south, ending their first-ever trip to the resort early.

Im just really proud of them, Palumbo said of his co-workers. Their integrity shows through and through.
WEST WILDWOOD  Two men were rescued from the bay Wednesday after their personal watercraft capsized, Wildwood firefighters said.

Firefighters from Wildwood and North Wildwood were dispatched to Poplar and Bay avenues in West Wildwood after a report of the capsizing came in about 7:05 p.m., at first believed to be a boat.

The men were stranded after the watercraft tipped over, tossing them into the water, the Wildwood Fire Department said Thursday in a news release. Both were wearing flotation devices.

Upon arrival, first responders could not see anyone in the water because it was dark, but they could hear someone yelling for help, the Fire Department said. One of the men was eventually spotted about 300 yards from shore. Wildwood and North Wildwood firefighters deployed three rescue swimmers on paddleboards to find the victims.

One of the men was rescued by paddleboard, and the other was brought onto another vessel by a good Samaritan, who also brought the rescue swimmers back to shore, the Fire Department said. Both victims were treated for mild hypothermia and declined to be taken to a hospital.

Wildwood, North Wildwood and Wildwood Crest police, Wildwood Crest emergency medical services, AtlantiCare paramedics, State Police Marine Services and the U.S. Coast Guard also responded to the scene, which was cleared after about one hour.

Sea Tow Wildwood secured the capsized watercraft.
Doctors from Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation(PCMC) travelled to Ahmedabad and Surat to investigate a cancer facility that operated under a PPP model. In December, a request for proposals will be released.

A team of doctors from Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) visited Ahmedabad and Surat this week to examine a cancer hospital operated under the public-private partnership (PPP) model, bringing the plan to establish a comprehensive cancer treatment facility in Thergaon .

According to the reports, there are four types of PPP models and the plan will be chosen based on the suitability. An expert committee will draft the project and the doctors team will study the cancer hospital running successfully on PPP model in Surat. The hospital will be run on PPP model as PCMC cannot run such specialized hospital on its own. The treatment will be given to patients based on a standard treatment rate. And heath schemes like Mahatma Phule Jan Arogya Yogna (MPJAY) will also be considered while treating patients.
Laxman More & Sahir Shaikh

A 23-year-old married woman has registered a complaint against her husband and in-laws for allegedly torturing her mentally and physically and asking her to bring Rs 7 lakh from her parents by threatening her with police custody, the incident occurred when the victim asked her in-laws about her husbands masculinity issues. A case has been registered at the Parvati police station in Pune after the complaint was filed by the victim.

As per the police, a case against the victim's husband, mother-in-law, and father-in-law (all residents of Panvel, Raigad) has been registered under the Domestic Violence Act. A 23-year-old woman has filed a complaint in this regard. The incident occurred in Khanda Colony in Panvel.

The victim and her husband were married on January 16, 2022. Within a few days of marriage, she realized that her husband was not a complete man. His behaviour was also questionable. After marriage, he did not establish physical relations with the victim and was not capable of establishing physical relations. This condition was kept hidden from the woman and her parents before marriage. When she asked her in-laws about this, she was physically and mentally tortured and sent back to her parent's house in Pune. It has been mentioned in the complaint that the accused threatened the victim of police custody asked her to bring Rs 7 lakh from her parents and threatened to defame her.

A case has been registered at the Parvati Police station and further probe is underway.
The Rock Island County States Attorneys Office has filed a new charge against a Rock Island woman accused of concealing the death of her child.

On Friday there were a flurry of new filings in the case, which provided additional details on what investigators believe happened. Along with the new charge, the defense counsel has requested Staples' release under the Pretrial Fairness Act, a move the state has resisted through a petition to detain.

Prosecutors initially charged Sushi Staples with obstructing justice, concealment of a death and failure to report the death of a child under 13, according to court records.

Investigators say her 10-year-old son, Zion Staples, died in December. Police found his body on July 26 in a garbage can in the garage of the family's home in Rock Island. There were several other children living at the residence when the investigation started, police said.

Zion died of a gunshot wound, investigators said. Authorities think the boys death was accidental. Police think Zion was playing with a handgun that went off. Authorities do not think Staples was home when the boy died.

On Friday, the state filed a fourth charge  endangering the life or health of a child  against Staples, according to county court records.

Underlying that count is the allegation that Staples left the boy and his siblings alone in the residence while they had access to a loaded firearm, court records state. All of the children were under the age of 14 at the time.

Sushi Staples told police she did not have a son named Zion on July 25, after a tip about the boy's death brought officers to her door, John Shappard, of the Rock Island Police Department, said during a previous hearing. He testified Staples said she thought the tip was the result of her ex-husband trying to harass her.

The police department received records from the Illinois Department of Children & Family Services that indicated Zion existed, Shappard told the court. Officers obtained a search warrant and executed it on July 26.

They also found a birth certificate and Social Security card for the boy, the detective said. Presented with these, Staples again said she had no son and told police that shed had them forged so she could collect benefits.

The new charge was filed the same day William Wolf, Staples defense attorney, filed for her release under the Pretrial Fairness Act.

Staples has been in custody since her arrest, held on $500,000 bail, court records state. For authorities to release her, Staples would have had to post a $50,000 bond.

The act went into effect Sept. 18 and eliminates cash bail in the state. Defendants who were in jail prior to that date can petition for release under the act.

Wolf has also requested a fitness evaluation, to determine if Staples is mentally fit to stand trial.

Wolf, in the motion for Staples release, argues that evidence presented in the case shows there is no reason to think she is a threat to the safety of any specific person or the community.

She was not home when her son tragically died, and all of the evidence presented was that this was an accident, Wolf wrote.

Staples lived at her Rock Island home for five years before her arrest and prior to that lived in Chicago for most of her life, Wolfs motion states. She has family in the Chicago area and in the Quad-Cities.

She had a business in Davenport focused on female skin and hygiene products and before that worked as patient care technician and a security guard, Wolf wrote.

Staples has an associate degree in healthcare management, Wolfs motion states.

Wolf also argued in the filing that Staples is not safe in the jail because of press coverage of her case.

Someone assaulted her in the jail, according to the motion. As a result, she sustained severe bruising to both of her eyes and to her forehead.

The Rock Island County Sheriffs Office said there was a fight involving Staples and another female inmate.

The incident remained under investigation. Staples did not seek medical attention afterward.

As of Friday, there had been no arrests.

The states attorneys office also on Friday filed a petition to detain Staples, arguing she was a flight risk and a threat to the community.

Staples made several statements to officers that she would flee to Texas should she be released, according to the petition to detain.

Prosecutors also contend she has no ties to the Quad-Cities and both she and Zion Staples were known by multiple names.

Police found dryer sheets and air fresheners throughout the home and in the garage, according to the states petition. Police eventually found Zion Staples body, decomposed and partially burned, in a garbage can in the garage.

Staples later admitted to police that on the day the boy was found shot, she had left him and three other children alone in the house with a loaded gun while she went to work.

She also confirmed the body was that of Zion Staples, that he died in December and that she had been keeping his body in the residence, according to the states petition.

Her daughters, one 12 and the other 13 at the time, also told authorities that their brother died in December, that their mother left them alone and that the children knew she had a gun in the house.

The daughters also said Staples concealed the death and had them help her remove bloody carpet from her room.

The next hearing in the case has been set for Nov. 2.

What you missed this week in notable Quad-Cities crimes and court cases This week's local crime and court updates from Moline Dispatch & Rock Island Argus. Local News alert top story Scott County judge gives Madison Russo probation in fake cancer theft case Authorities accused Madison Russo of stealing thousands of dollars donations by lying about having cancer.
Hong Kong (CNN)  Former Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, once seen as a reform-minded contender to the countrys top leadership role, died of a sudden heart attack early Friday in Shanghai, state media reported.

He was 68 years old.

Li, who was nominally Chinas No. 2 leader until late last year, served as the countrys premier  traditionally in charge of the economy  for a decade from 2013 to March this year under strongman leader Xi Jinping.

During his time in the role, Li navigated the worlds second-largest economy through a challenging period of rising technology and trade tensions with the United States, mounting government debt and unemployment, and the Covid-19 pandemic.

In his final year in power, the economist by training had been a strong voice warning of challenges to Chinas economy amid widespread Covid-19 lockdowns.

He backed efforts to boost employment and maintain economic stability.

As the news of Lis death broke Friday morning, social media users circulated a line from Lis annual address to Chinas rubber stamp parliament in 2022, where he pledged that, No matter how the international environment may change, China will keep the course of wider openness.

Li, known to use his English language skills on occasion in appearances outside the mainland, was seen as representing a different approach to Chinas ties with the world, at a time when the countrys relations with the West have grown increasingly strained.

China and the United States have common interests, Li said in response to CNNs question at his annual press conference in March 2021. The two countries need to put more energy on their common ground and expand converging interests.

Li is also remembered for his focus on addressing societal ills  with social media users on Friday also pointing to his 2020 comments noting that China still had 600 million people with a monthly income of 1,000 yuan ($137).

Those remarks came at a time when China was touting its success in lifting millions out of poverty as a point of national pride.

Li, a highly educated technocrat with degrees in law and economics, was considered friendly to the private sector. He was seen to have an increasingly diverging economic policy stance from Xi, who tightened party control over the economy.

A reform-minded leader

Li is widely seen as a protege of Xis predecessor, Hu Jintao, who presided over an era of rapid growth in China from 2002 to 2012. The men shared economic sensibilities and rose to power through the Communist Partys Youth League, once seen as a training ground for future leaders.

The faction was known for producing reform-minded leaders hailing from humble family backgrounds, but its influence is believed to have been crushed by Xi since he came to power.

The relationship between Li and Hu was in the spotlight last year when the former top leader was unexpectedly led out of the closing ceremony of the October 2022 Communist Party Congress, where Xi further consolidated power.

In a moment of drama during a usually highly choreographed event, Hu was escorted from the room, pausing on his way out to pat a stony-faced Li on the shoulder, who nodded and turned to watch the former leader depart. State media later suggested Hu left due to health issues.

Under Hu, Li was named to the partys top leadership body, the Politburo Standing Committee, in 2007.

He previously held key roles as party chief in industrial Liaoning province and was provincial leader of Henan, an agricultural base.

Born in Anhui, Li spent his late teens doing manual labor with the Dongling Production Brigade in the eastern province during the Cultural Revolution, a decade-long social and political upheaval launched by late Chinese leader Mao Zedong.

Li was among the first batch of students to sit the college entrance exam after it was reinstated following the end of the Cultural Revolution. In 1978, he enrolled at the prestigious Peking University, where he studied law and later obtained a doctorate in economics.

Unlike Xi, Li is not considered one of Chinas princelings hailing from a prominent party family. He held positions in the Communist Youth League Central Committee during the 1980s and 90s.

His time in the top echelons of Chinas Communist Party came to a close last October, when he was not named to the partys Central Committee during a twice-a-decade leadership reshuffle that saw Xi surround himself with key allies.

Then 67, Li was one year short of the unofficial retirement age for senior Chinese Communist Party leaders.

He was succeeded as premier earlier this year by former Shanghai party chief and Xi loyalist Li Qiang.
Emo music was once defined by the aesthetic of Hot Topic, MySpace and skinny jeans. The song titles were long. The belts were studded. And the fans were angsty.

But now, the teenagers are grown up. Fall Out Boy is doing Billy Joel covers. Blink-182 is finally back together again. "Ocean Avenue," the iconic emo record from California band Yellowcard, is celebrating its 20th anniversary.

The audience for foundational emo music might be a little less comfortable in the mosh pit, and more content in a meshy theater seat.

That's where Dayton, Ohio's Hawthorne Heights comes in. The band known for pop punk anthem "Ohio Is For Lovers" will make sure Iowa is for lovers next week, with a show Thursday night at Capitol Theatre.

The group is embarking on a 24-city tour with the "Emo Orchestra," playing covers of the genre's most recognizable songs with full string accompaniment behind them.

The goal is to channel the nostalgia of emo adolescence, while backing each song with a cozy elegance of millennial adulthood. Each show even comes with a playbill, designed like a punk rock zine.

The hard part was narrowing down a setlist.

In an interview with the Quad-City Times/Dispatch-Argus, bassist and backing vocalist Matt Ridenour said moving between vocal ranges and instrument tunings for 13 different bands was a challenge. Initially the band picked 25 songs for Emo Orchestra conductor Evan Rogers to compose arrangements.

After whittling the setlist down to 16 songs, Ridenour feels they have got a reasonable summary of the genre's heyday.

"We landed on a bunch of good ones," Ridenour said. "We don't just hammer the 10 songs you think you're gonna hear. We go a little bit outside the box, but they're all songs you know."

Songs featured include "Misery Business" by Paramore, "Welcome to The Black Parade" by My Chemical Romance and "Hey There Delilah" by the Plain White T's. Hawthorne Heights also performs four original tracks.

The toughest song to leave out? That would be "Face Down" by Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, who Ridenour said are friends of Hawthorne Heights.

The idea for the Emo Orchestra originally came from the band's agent, Ben Mench-Thurlow, who said much of the credit for the the concert's success should go to Rogers, the conductor and arranger.

"Evan Rogers is probably the most important person that we have on our team," he said. "He's worked with just about everybody out there and is a phenomenally smart person."

Ridenour said touring with the Emo Orchestra has been a challenge compared to the typical Hawthorne Heights show. When playing one of their own songs, the bassist said he can afford to zone out and go on autopilot. When it's somebody else's song, he's got to stay locked in.

It's a testament to emo as a genre to still be alive and well, decades after its first iterations. Elements of pop punk can be heard on pop radio, and the market for tours like this one is still alive.

Emo is defined by the DIY spirit, and because the genre spawned before the explosion of social media, Ridenour sees it as the last "grassroots movement in the music world." Ridenour said emo bands like Hot Mulligan give him faith that the genre is in good hands going forward.

"I think it's gonna be here forever," he said.

Tickets for Hawthorne Heights and Emo Orchestra, at Capitol Theatre on Nov. 2, start at $25. The show starts at 7 p.m.

Take a look inside the newly restored Capitol Theatre
Tourism is back for the Quad-Cities and climbing numbers show it.

Over the last few years, the region has bounced back from the consequences of the pandemic and celebrated a record-breaking summer this year, said Visit Quad Cities CEO Dave Herrell. These wins have happened because of the many partnerships the tourism bureau has created in the community and in the state, he said.

Thursday afternoon Visit Quad Cities hosted its annual Destination QC! event to highlight tourism's impacts in the region from the last year. Travel Iowa Tourism Manager Amy Ziegler and Daniel Thomas, the Deputy Director for the Illinois Office of Tourism, joined Herrell in providing the update.

Herrell started the afternoon by highlighting the Quad-Cities' success for FY2023, with 6.1 million visits to the region, with about half of those being unique visitors. The Quad-Cities hotel/motel tax collections climbed to more than $7.7 million, more than $1 million from the year before and up more than $3 million since 2020.

"These are numbers that require a lot of teamwork, collaboration and it also requires a committed and purposeful board of directors," he said. "Tourism is back and we're proud to share that."

Iowa saw nearly $7 billion in visitor spending in 2022, a 13% increase from the year before. Ziegler said that number more than doubles the goal from the year before, a sign the future is bright.

Thomas said Illinois tourism is also increasing with 111 million visitors in 2022, up 14 million from the year before. Those visitors spent more than $44 billion, supporting about 270,000 jobs.

"From a larger perspective, (Illinois tourism) is a $78 billion industry," he said. "That's the great thing about tourism. It's about telling the most compelling story within a destination and inspiring people."

The state also reported an all-time high in hotel/motel tax revenue, at $308 million. Thomas said travel is growing, specifically with leisure and luxury travel and in increase in people searching for outdoor recreation spots.

Herrell said that locally, the river cruise industry in the Quad-Cities is robust and continues to grow every year. Staples like the Celebration Bell, Channel Cat and Riverboat Twilight have helped to grow the industry and open the door for more opportunities.

"These regional partners that we have had operating in our community for years and years are great because they deliver on that visitor experience," he said. "But having Viking here was a game-changer because now you're talking to a global audience."

The cruise ship industry brought in people from all walks of life and opened their eyes to not just Davenport but local favorites like the Deere-Wiman House in Moline and Cinnamon Ridge Farms in Donahue. This year the area saw 52 stops from ships and Herrell is hopeful for a repeat next eyar.

"They are consuming the Quad-Cities and hopefully they will go back and tell their friends," he said. "Anytime we can activate our world-renowned Mississippi River, we're going to do it."

Ziegler agreed, saying travelers' mindsets have shifted from planning one large vacation to multiple smaller ones. Visitors are looking for hidden gems and new experiences close to home. In Iowa, 25% of travelers are leisure travelers. Up to 10% of out of state travelers are arriving via river cruise, she said.

"It's really great to see people looking at the Midwest, Iowa and Illinois, as a viable tourism destination," she said. "It's not just about the coast anymore.

Large projects like luxury travel from the cruise ships are essential to the fabric of local tourism, Herrell said, but so are the smaller projects. Keeping cities clean and inviting are part of the "micro" details that want people stay in the community, while the bigger projects bring them in. Public art, for example, is a big focus for Visit Quad Cities with 92 initiatives and 17 recommendations in the works.

"That quality of vibrancy is just as critically important as quality of life and quality of place," he said.

The pandemic has changed the mindset for travelers, Thomas said. The how and why have more focus which has translated into finding new ways to connect with visitors.

At Enjoy Illinois, state travel guides were historically in the bottom five of trusted materials, he said. Post pandemic, they are now in the top three. This helps to highlight small businesses and towns that have previously not had as much attention, which spurs movement across the state.

For example, Thomas said, the top search on EnjoyIllinois.com is for the Great River Road, which travels through both states and the Quad-Cities. Herrell said this is a prime example of the importance of both states working together to enhance tourism.

Governors and legislators in each state have shown their support for tourism by investing in marketing and promotion but also through grant programs. Herrell said these are essential for places like the Quad-Cities to help pour resources back into the community in order to continue making it a more vibrant and welcoming place.

"We (need to) take a step back holistically and think about how tourism needs to be prioritized to competitively position us in a 21st century economy and how we are using these amazing partnerships with Enjoy Illinois and Travel Iowa to effectively change," he said.

Budgeting for vacation: Flights, shopping, and accommodations will cost you the most Budgeting for vacation: Flights, shopping, and accommodations will cost you the most #19. Train travel #18. Bus travel #17. Highway tolls #16. Charter buses #15. Parking #14. Sightseeing tours #13. Sporting events #12. Taxis #11. Water transit #10. Local buses #9. Movies and performing art shows #8. Gambling #7. Car rentals #6. Travel agents #5. Gas #4. Food and drinks #3. Shopping #2. Accommodations #1. Air travel
A Quad-City man on both parole and probation in Scott County was arrested early Thursday by agents with the Quad City Metropolitan Enforcement Group and East Moline Police for allegedly possessing a firearm.

Gabriel William Meister, 24, is charged in Rock Island County Circuit Court with felon in possession of a firearm. The charge is a Class 3 felony under Illinois law that carries a prison sentence of two to five years.

Andrew Fratzke, MEG Director, said MEG agents and East Moline police were conducting a weapons investigation involving Meister. He was taken into custody midnight Thursday.

Fratzke said MEGs Anti-Violence Initiative has become a primary focus in decreasing violent crime in the Quad-Cities by targeting violent armed offenders in the community.

Meister was booked into the Rock Island County Jail where he was being held Thursday night without bond.

He also was wanted in Scott County for violating his probation in a drug case and for violating his parole from the Iowa Department of Corrections.

Meister is currently on probation in Scott County after pleading guilty April 19 of this year to two counts of the lesser included charge of delivery of less than 5 grams of meth, each a Class C felony under Iowa law that carry a prison sentence of 10 years. During a sentencing hearing on June 30, District Court Judge Meghan Corbin sentenced Meister to three years on supervised probation.

In that case, Meister had been arrested by MEG agents in August of 2020 and initially been charged with two counts of possession with the intent to deliver more than 5 grams of meth, each a Class B felony that carry a prison sentence of five years. He also had been charged with two counts of violating Iowas drug tax stamp law, each a Class D felony that carries a prison sentence of five years.

Meister also is on parole from the Iowa Department of Corrections.

On March 22, 2017, he pleaded guilty to a charge of second-degree theft, a Class D felony. He initially had been charged with first-degree theft, a Class C felony, for stealing a persons car on Oct. 26, 2016, and with third-degree burglary-motor vehicle, an aggravated misdemeanor.

On Dec. 6, 2017, Meister pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to commit a forcible felony that stemmed from a plan to rob a Dominos Pizza delivery driver on Aug. 15 of that year. The charge is a Class C felony.

Also on Dec. 6, 2017, he pleaded guilty to an amended charge of second-degree criminal mischief, a Class D felony, for burglarizing his mothers home on July 6 of that year. He initially had been charged with second-degree burglary.

On Dec. 7, 2017, Meister pleaded guilty to a charge of second-degree burglary, a Class C felony. Meister had kicked in the front door of a Davenport residence on Aug. 12 of that year to commit a theft.

In each of these cases he was sentenced to a period of supervised probation. According to Scott County District Court electronic records, Meister violated his probation and on Oct. 4, 2018, he was sentenced to prison. However, he was granted a reconsideration and was placed back on probation on April 17, 2019.

Meister once again violated his probation in those cases and was sent back to prison on April 14, 2020. He has been on parole from the Iowa Department of Corrections since May 3, 2022.

With the new weapons charge, Scott County authorities could revoke Meister's probation, and the Iowa Department of Corrections could revoke his parole. He would then be sent back to prison.
Editor's note: This is the fourth of a series of four ghost/haunting stories the Quad-City Times/Dispatch-Argus has published in recent weeks. The stories are as told to us by readers.

Throughout her childhood, Bridget Johnson often spent nights at her grandparents' home in rural New Windsor, Illinois.

One night, she saw two dark figures in the doorway of her grandmother's second-floor bedroom.

They werent her siblings.

In fact, they werent relatives at all  rather, what appeared to be an adult woman in Dutch braids and a little girl.

My grandma saw it too. I just remember us freezing, and then they disappeared, Johnson said. They were just looking at us, and then it was almost like when someones like, Oh, I scared you, sorry.

The evening would turn even more eerie, though, as her grandmother later fell down the steps.

I always felt guilty  I was kind of like, Oh, its my fault because I woke her up and saw this ghost and the ghost pushed her,' or she tripped because she was startled, Johnson said. I was a kid, so I didnt understand.

While this was the first vivid paranormal experience Johnson can recall, peculiar incidents were common at her grandparents home, built around 1858.

My aunts and my uncle all grew up in that house. Sometimes, you could tell they really didnt want to talk about it, she said. But, if you said something happened, it was never discredited.

Hearing voices, household items being moved and light switches turning on and off were frequent occurrences.

When Johnsons grandparents moved out in the early '90s, her immediate family bought the home.

Roughly a year after moving in, Johnson  now in seventh grade  had a sleepover for her birthday.

That night, she and several friends were in her bedroom, sitting in a circle, when suddenly, their chatter was interrupted by a clicking noise.

One of my friends, she doesnt say anything, she just points to the (attic) door, Johnson said, explaining her bedroom was connected to the attic.

On the doorframe, there was a block of wood screwed on to keep the attic shut.

As we all looked, it was moving very slowly, and there was a nail screwed in that it was hitting. So it was just this block of wood, moving on its own, Johnson said. The funny thing is, were all in our 40s now, and if I posted this on Facebook today they would all still remember and talk about it.

On top of the overt suspected paranormal activity, Johnson also had trouble sleeping or feeling comfortable in her bedroom.

I felt like it wasnt my space, she said. Like I was sharing this space with someone  but we didnt really talk about that.

Due to these lingering feelings, Johnson was eager to move out for college  and her first overnight visit back would be the last.

Johnson was home for her first Christmas break. Her younger sister had moved into her former bedroom and rearranged furniture, though Johnson kicked her out upon her return, a decision she would soon regret.

I don't like sleeping with my feet facing the door anyway, but that's how the bed was set up, she said. I just remember looking up, and there was a girl in a white nightgown standing at the doorway.

While Johnson couldnt clearly see a face, she could tell the girl had long, blonde hair with bangs  much like one of her sisters  and looked to be of grade-school age.

I remember saying out loud, Leave me alone, you weirdo! Johnson said. But then, it dawned on me. I was like, Wait a minute, we dont wear nightgowns,  And, my sisters and I are all in a five-year radius, so theyre not that little.

Just as her heart started racing, the girl in the doorway disappeared. Johnson then heard a scurrying noise around her bed.

It was super fast-moving. If you think of a Pomeranian, or a dog thats really light, running with nails, thats kind of what it sounded like, she said. As soon as it seemed like it was scurrying off, the sheets wooshed like someone was making the bed.

That was the final straw for Johnson.

That just kind of freaked me out, that was the only time it ever felt (hostile), she said. When it was my room, it felt like I was sharing, but it still never felt like I wasnt welcomed.

Now with five years of experience in paranormal investigation to reflect on, Johnson said its likely that she and her family were sharing the space.

She is a member of ParaGem, an all-female team of paranormal investigators based in the Quad-Cities.

Here, much of her work consists of historical and, often, scientific research, using tools like electromagnetic field detectors.

Often, this kind of work debunks alleged paranormal activity.

But in some cases, it can give clues as to who or what might be behind a haunting.

Case in point, the land deed of Johnson's childhood home led her to one of its suspected ghostly inhabitants, Ann, who was married to the homes first owner, a doctor.

It (deed) actually has information about her being committed to a mental institution in Peoria for fits, she said, citing the 18th and 19th-century female hysteria phenomenon.

Many town rumors allege that Ann was institutionalized by her husband  a rather common method for men seeking divorce at the time  and suffered from varying levels of abuse, Johnson said, including speculations of medical malpractice.

This alleged trauma may be why Ann has remained in the home.

"As a living person, whenever events happen, good or bad, you do have these like, bursts where you're emitting energy," Johnson said. "If something traumatic happens, or something great, you know, it's almost like you're leaving invisible imprint. So, I think when you pass over, that's kind of your 'tie' to places  I think, maybe, at that time (Ann) didn't realize she could go somewhere else."

Alongside her interest in the paranormal, Johnson is a lifelong Christian.

"If you have experiences, to me, I think it's almost easier to believe in the paranormal. Especially if you believe in the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost," she said. "They actually talk about spirits and demons in the Bible."

Johnson encourages those navigating the paranormal to build a more personal relationship with their belief system  whatever it may be.

"And, to do what feels right to them and follow their gut," she added. "I think it'd be hard to deny that there could be (paranormal beings) kind of meddling in our living world. To me, if you didn't believe in God or a supreme being, I feel like it would be harder to believe in the paranormal."

Johnsons mother remains in the home to this day  as do its paranormal tenants.

I've tried to talk to her (mother) about ways to protect yourself or make them go away, but they havent, yet, she said. "It's an older home. My grandpa's passed, my dad is gone, I have another grandma that passed a long time ago  We have a big family, and with the history of the house it could really be anyone, but there's a lot of activity."

While she still tries to reasonably debunk paranormal investigations, Johnson advises others to keep an open mind and take sensationalized media with a grain of salt.

"Always be prepared to learn something new," she said. "Sometimes, it's lot of sitting around, and I think people that come into it with a fair amount of skepticism may be more likely to have an experience, because they're going to listen harder and critique."

Eerie escapes: 10 lesser-known spooky cities to visit for Halloween Eerie escapes Anoka, Minnesota Baltimore San Antonio St. Helens, Oregon St. Augustine, Florida Albion, Idaho Bonne Terre, Missouri Morro Bay, California Milwaukee Vicksburg, Mississippi
SIOUX CITY -- Two Sioux City women have been charged with murder following a Thursday night stabbing that occurred in an apartment complex near downtown Sioux City.

Sioux City Police said they arrested Angela M. Bino, 59, and Jessica L. Bino, 32, for murder in the first degree following a report of a deceased woman discovered in the apartment complex's parking lot around Sixth and Virginia streets.

At approximately 11:55 p.m. Thursday, police said they found the victim, an adult woman, who had multiple stab wounds. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

The victim's name and age is not being released at this time.

Police said officers performed a canvas of the area, locating evidence of the stabbing in one of the complex's apartments. Investigators learned that an altercation occurred inside of the apartment and the two suspects were inside of the apartment.

Anyone with information relating to this incident can contact the Sioux City Police Department at 712-279-6440, or the anonymous tip line 712-258-TIPS (8477).

The incident is still under investigation by the Sioux City Police Department.

Photos: UNI football vs. North Dakota, Oct. 21
Iowa Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley is seeking information from the Department of Justice and FBI about whether they properly vetted what he says were dozens of people who provided federal investigators with confidential, criminal information related to the foreign business dealings of President Joe Bidens son, Hunter Biden, and other family members.

The allegations were outlined in a letter published Wednesday from Grassley to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Chris Wray.

Citing anonymous whistleblower disclosures, Grassley said he had been made aware that the FBI had at one point maintained more than 40 confidential human sources, who had criminal information about President Biden, his son Hunter, and James Biden, the presidents brother.

"An essential question that must be answered is this: Did the FBI investigate the information or shut it down? Indeed, if those sources were improperly shut down, it wouldn't be out of the ordinary for the FBI," Grassley wrote.

The FBI confirmed it had received Grassley's letter but said it had no other comment. The Department of Justice and White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.

Grassleys request comes as House Republicans pursue an impeachment inquiry into President Biden over allegations he abused his authority when he was vice president to personally profit off his family's many foreign business dealings.

Part of the House GOP inquiry involves examining how the DOJ handled its own parallel investigation into Hunter Biden after whistleblowers alleged the investigation had been slow-walked by department officials to protect the Bidens.

Grassley, in the letter, accuses the department of stonewalling him on the issue since 2019, before Biden took office in 2021. He wrote the investigative activity was scuttled by the FBI in 2020, while former President Donald Trump was in office, and asserts that such decisions point to significant political bias.

The allegations against the Biden family were investigated by the Department of Justice under Trump-appointed Republican Attorney General William Barr as part of an investigation into allegations of bribery brought by Trumps then-personal attorney Rudy Giuliani.

The Justice Department found no supporting evidence of the allegations and closed the investigation in August 2020, according to a statement from Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee.

Barr denies closing the investigation, and told The Federalist this summer the information was ultimately forwarded to the U.S. attorney in Delaware.

Republicans have questioned whether the federal prosecutor there followed up on the allegations.

An FD-1023 form used by the FBI to log unverified accounts from confidential human sources states the source is not able to provide information as to the veracity of assertions related to any alleged bribery.

Grassley, in his letter, asserts certain FBI personnel allegedly attempted "to sweep (the form) under the rug" in part by falsely attributing it to foreign disinformation.

Barr in early 2020 issued new rules and restrictions for opening investigations into politically sensitive individuals or entities, including requiring regular updates and that he approve any inquiry into a presidential candidate or campaign.

Barr's memo followed a critical report from the Justice Department's inspector general on aspects of the FBI's Russia investigation, which began in the summer of 2016 during the presidential campaign.

Barr also was explicit about his concerns around how foreign disinformation might impact investigations, stating no information coming out of Ukraine could be taken at face value, given the amount of politically driven disinformation that could emerge from that country.

Ex-FBI agent Timothy Thibault, who Grassley asserts was ordered to close an avenue of additional derogatory Hunter Biden reporting in October 2020, testified that the confidential source who was temporarily shut down was conservative author and activist Peter Schweizer, who is a senior contributor for far-right media organization Breitbart News, and not considered an unbiased source.

Schweizer, president of the conservative-backed Government Accountability Institute, identified himself as the source in a podcast.

Grassley said he will seek interviews from at least 25 DOJ and FBI personnel involved in the efforts to investigate the Biden family.

Based on the information provided to my office over a period of years by multiple credible whistleblowers, there appears to be an effort within the Justice Department and FBI to shut down investigative activity relating to the Biden family, Grassley wrote in the letter. Such decisions point to significant political bias infecting the decision-making of not only the Attorney General and FBI Director, but also line agents and prosecutors. Our Republic cannot survive such a political infection, and you have an obligation to this country to clear the air.

Photos: Sen. Grassley at Crystal Cold, Aug. 15, 2023 081523jr-crystal-grassley-4 081523jr-crystal-grassley-1 081523jr-crystal-grassley-2 081523jr-crystal-grassley-3 081523jr-crystal-grassley-5
DES MOINES  Iowa U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst and U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson are pressing multiple federal agencies to protect Jewish Americans from discrimination, their offices said Thursday.

Starting Oct. 7, when Hamas launched an attack on Israel that killed 1,400 people, through Oct. 23, antisemitic incidents of harassment, vandalism and assault in the U.S. increased by 388% over the same period last year, according to preliminary data from the Anti-Defamation League.

Ernst helped lead a group of U.S. senators in demanding the federal education department ensure Jewish and Israeli students are not subject to discrimination, Ernsts office said.

And Hinson joined 34 Republicans on a letter calling on the federal justice department to investigate pro-Hamas groups and protect Jewish communities from a surge in antisemitic threats, she told reporters during a conference call Thursday.

I have been disturbed to witness pro-Hamas demonstrations and a rise in antisemitic rhetoric in the United States, even in Cedar Rapids, Hinson said.

Demonstrators gathered Saturday in downtown Cedar Rapids in solidarity with Palestine, calling for a cease fire and an end to U.S. aid to Israel and criticizing U.S. leaders' response to the Israel-Hamas war.

About 60 people participated in chants, a vigil honoring lives lost in Gaza and listened to local speakers.

In the two weeks since the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched its assault on Israel, killing 1,400 people and taking 200 hostages, more than 4,000 people have been killed in Gaza and more than 13,000 injured since the Israel-Hamas war began, according to Palestinian authorities.

Demonstrators argued Israels blockade and airstrikes launched in the wake of a brutal incursion into southern Israel by the Hamas militant group that controls Gaza isnt a defense, its an offense  meting out collective punishment on Palestinians, killing hundreds and trapping millions in a war zone cut off from vital resources.

Ariel Levin, of Iowa City, is a member of the Jewish Voice for Peace, which labels itself as a grassroots, intergenerational movement of U.S. Jews who stand in solidarity with Palestinian freedom struggle.

As American Jews we refuse to let our grief and our fear be a weapon used to justify the murder of more Palestinians, and to justify the action of  an apartheid system that threatens the lives and well-being of Palestinians for the past 75 years, Levin said.

An organizer of Saturdays protest march and vigil in Cedar Rapids, said their opposition is to the Israeli government and condemnation of their colonialist practices that have led to the displacement, torture and murder of countless Palestinians, and was not a condemnation of the Jewish people.

Speaking against the actions of Israel is not antisemitism; it is anti-Zionism, organizer Mariam Mimi Daoud said in a news release sent to media outlets.   We unapologetically stand with Palestine and stand for the liberation of the Palestinian people. We believe that the current climate in Gaza falls on the shoulders of the Israeli government, and no one else.

Daoud led demonstrators in chants of resistance is justified when people are occupied.

Hinson responded on social media, posting: Hamas terrorists murdered Israeli families, raped women & dragged their bodies through the streets, killed 30 Americans & are still holding more hostage.

Slaughtering entire families isnt resistance, Hinson wrote in another post. Murdering babies and raping women isnt resistance. Terrorism isnt resistance.

Hinson, talking to reporters, said freedom of speech is a cornerstone of our nation, but coordinated activities supporting Hamas and intimidating and endangering other citizens have no place in our lawful society.

Daoud, in a video posted to social media site X, formerly Twitter, said Saturdays event was intended to mourn lives lost in Palestine, and that condemnation of rallies in support of Palestine ignores atrocities committed by Israeli forces against the Palestinian people over the decades.

The killing of over 4,500 Palestinians will never be justified with the attempt of finding Hamas soldiers, Daoud said in the video, noting Israel had helped the creation of Hamas as a counter to Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) during 1980s.

Ernsts letter, with Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican, cites examples of antisemitism on college campuses since the Oct. 7 attacks.

We are significantly concerned that your Department is not ensuring American universities are fostering a safe learning environment for all students after the terrorist organization Hamas violent attack on civilians, including Americans and Israeli citizens, says the letter to the U.S. Department of Education. Therefore, we write to urgently understand what the Department of Education is doing to enforce Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and ensure Jewish or Israeli college and university students are not subjected to discrimination based on race, color or national origin.

Ernsts office noted that she has signed off on proposed legislation from South Carolina U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, a Republican candidate for president, that would cut federal funding to any college or university that excuses or encourages anti-Semitism.

Iowa donating protective equipment to Israel

Iowa will donate to Israel more than 200 pallets of what Gov. Kim Reynolds said is excess personal protective equipment from the states stockpile, according to a social media post from Reynolds official office account.

Iowa is donating nearly 208 pallets of excess PPE from our state stockpile to a nonprofit that will be sent to Israel, the post says. We will continue to pray for Israel and their safety!

The social media post did not include any further details about the equipment being donated. The Gazette has reached out to the governors office for more information.

Misinformation about Israel-Hamas war floods social media; here are the facts Claim: Black flag calls Muslims to action Claim: Kim Jong Un blames Biden for war Claim: Turkish president threatens to intervene Claim: Israel confirms it bombed hospital Claim: Qatars emir threatens to cut off worlds natural gas supply Claim: BBC reports Ukraine provided weapons to Hamas Claim: Video shows actor in fake blood for propaganda Claim: Hamas fighters storm sports field to attack Israelis Claim: Putin warns US to stay away from war
A federal judge Wednesday sentenced a 39-year-old Manderson man to 40 years in federal prison for the violent rape and assault of a 19-year-old woman in January.

After a trial at the federal courthouse in Rapid City, a jury found Gabriel White Plume Sr. guilty of aggravated sexual abuse, assault resulting in serious bodily injury, assault by strangulation or suffocation, distribution of methamphetamine to a person under age 21, tampering with a witness, assault resulting in substantial bodily injury, assault resulting in serious bodily injury, and sexual abuse.

Although federal sentencing guidelines recommended a life sentence, District Court Judge Karen Schreier told White Plume she went below that recommendation because he took the woman to the hospital following the assault.

Schreier sentenced White Plume to the mandatory minimums for the four assault charges and the tampering with a witness charge. For the two sexual abuse counts and the drug charge, she sentenced him to 40 years each. All the sentences will run concurrent to each other, and he will be placed on supervised release for six years after he gets out of prison.

During the three-day trial, the jury and the court viewed footage White Plume took of the Jan. 10 assault that left the woman with severe bruising, a cigarette burn and other injuries.

"I can tell you it was extremely disturbing to watch," the judge said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Megan Poppen said the woman lost a significant amount of blood.

"He almost killed her," Poppen said.

According to White Plume's trial testimony, the sexual encounter was a consensual threesome he and another man had with the woman. That other man, Edison Jumping Eagle, faces nine charges for his alleged involvement in the assault. His case is pending.

White Plume's defense attorney John Rusch told the court at sentencing that his client "did some things he deeply, deeply regrets."

He said White Plume was influenced by pornography and, "he's not the kind of individual that can't be helped."

Poppen said the January assault and rape was not the only time White Plume abused the woman and noted other incidents where he allegedly sexually and physically assaulted her.

"I know it wasn't just a one-time thing that happened that day," Schreier said.

The government played a short video interview with the woman about the effect the assault had on her. She said she deals with mental health and self-esteem issues.

"I just don't like myself on a daily basis," she said.

She said she plans to heal from the trauma, attend school and have a family someday. In response to Poppen asking what she thought an appropriate sentence would be, she said 25 years.

Poppen told the court the 25-year request came from a "severely traumatized" woman in her 20s before asking for 50 years.

White Plume declined to comment at sentencing. Rusch said he advised him not to in case of an appeal.

Schreier said White Plume has 14 days to file notice if he plans to appeal the case.
NDN Collective President and CEO Nick Tilsen pleaded not guilty Thursday to allegations he drove his truck at a police officer in downtown Rapid City on June 11, 2022. The court also set a date to discuss a state request to revoke Tilsen's bond.

A Pennington County grand jury charged Tilsen on Aug. 2 with aggravated assault against a law enforcement officer and obstruction. He pleaded not guilty to both charges.

Aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer is a class 2 felony with a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison and up to a $50,000 fine. Obstruction is a class 1 misdemeanor with a maximum sentence of one year in the county jail and up to a $2,000 fine.

Tilsen is accused of putting the officer in fear of imminent serious bodily harm while he performed his duties. The officer was standing in a parking spot and speaking to an intoxicated man on Saint Joseph Street when Tilsen allegedly pulled into the spot, stopped, then lurched forward again.

According to the state, the incident was caught on camera by a nearby business. The footage is summarized in police reports but has not been made public.

According to the report, a truck registered in Tilsen's name pulled halfway into a parking spot, stopped for about four seconds, then continued "lurching forward" before stopping about one-and-a-half feet from the officer.

Tilsen posted a $5,000 cash bond on July 5 and has remained out of custody since. As part of his bond conditions, Tilsen was to remain within the Seventh Judicial Circuit. But in September, Tilsen traveled to Washington, D.C. for a protest. During that protest he was arrested for allegedly "crowing, obstructing or incommoding" during the protest.

On Oct. 12, the state filed a motion asking the court to revoke his bond because he allegedly violated it by traveling outside the circuit without permission and allegedly committed a crime.

Presiding Judge Craig Pfeifle opted to table the issue and allow the defense time to file a formal response before he addressed it at a hearing scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Nov. 15.

In the meantime, Pfeifle signed orders allowing Tilsen to travel to Chicago on Thursday and Friday, to Washington, D.C. from Nov. 3 to Nov. 10, and to Atlanta from Nov. 10 to Nov. 14.

The judge denied the defense's request for a blanket bond modification to allow Tilsen to travel outside the circuit at will.
Editors note: If you or someone you know is considering suicide, there are resources available by calling or texting 988 or by chatting online at 988lifeline.org/chat.

A suicide prevention program for teens is gaining traction in South Dakota schools, empowering students to look after one another and break down stigmas about depression.

Hope Squad, which operates in 41 states and Canada, uses a simple but powerful premise. Students are asked to name three peers they would turn to if they were struggling emotionally. Those lists help educators choose team members, who are trained how to recognize signs of suicide contemplation and abuse, and when to get trusted adults involved.

Sometimes just having someone to talk to represents a breakthrough.

I learned that its OK to be nervous, said Kiley Westberry, a freshman Hope Squad member in Flandreau, which was the first South Dakota school district to adopt the program. Its OK to not be able to fix everything. Sometimes you need to get other people to help.

Coordinated with mental health agencies and supported by recent state funding, the student-focused trend comes at a time of heightened concern about teen suicide on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Suicide is the leading cause of death for young people aged 10-29 in South Dakota, according to South Dakota Department of Health data. The state had the sixth-highest age-adjusted suicide rate in the U.S. in 2021 (22.9 deaths per 100,000 individuals), compared to a national average of 14.1.

In the 2023 Legislature, House Bill 1079, sponsored by Republicans Rep. Taylor Rehfeldt of Sioux Falls and Sen. Sydney Davis of Burbank, appropriated $2 million to the Department of Health to provide grants to support mental health and suicide prevention programs tailored for youth, high school and college populations. Gov. Kristi Noem signed the bill into law March 23.

The issue is personal for Rehfeldt because of her own experience as a suicide loss survivor. Her uncle took his own life, and she witnessed the traumatic impact that tragedy had on her family.

It really broke my dad, said Rehfeldt, a registered nurse anesthetist at Sanford Health. Hes worked through that a lot over the last five to 10 years, but Ive seen how it really impacts families and individuals generationally.

'Our world is a different place'

Rehfeldt envisions programs such as the Hope Squad providing young people with avenues to be more open about feelings of insecurity in a social media era when pressures and hopelessness can mount quickly.

I think the first part is just recognizing that mental health doesnt have to be taboo, and that its an important part of physical health, said Rehfeldt. Maybe 20 years ago, you didnt talk about how you felt or how things were pressing on you, but we have to talk about those things with people we trust. I think our world is a different place.

The first round of contracts, effective from Aug. 1, 2023, through May 31, 2024, provided $250,000 to the Helpline Center in Sioux Falls to purchase curriculum and implement, train and support Hope Squads at nine schools in South Dakota. There also will be suicide loss response planning and protocol development with K-12 schools. The Department of Health is leveraging federal funds as part of these contracts.

In addition, $390,000 went to supporting Peer2Peer, a mentoring program for college students administered by Lost & Found, a nonprofit suicide prevention organization in Sioux Falls.

A third grant for $192,000 went to Mountain Plains Evaluation in Salem, which will conduct an assessment that compiles and analyzes epidemiological data related to mortality, suicide ideation and mental health in South Dakota.

Hope Squads were already established in Flandreau, Platte-Geddes, Brandon Valley and Scotland using grant money from the Utah-based Cook Center for Human Connection.

Helpline Center CEO Janet Kittams said her organization has enrolled four schools in the Harrisburg district (three middle schools and the freshman academy) as well as Brookings and White River as part of the publicly funded program. They are working on adding more schools.

Hope Squad offers a critical option for students to receive support through their peers, said Kittams. The more opportunities we can create for students to reach out for help, the more likely they are to seek that help.

Hope Squad program started by Utah principal

The national Hope Squad program was created by former Utah high school principal Greg Hudnall, who said he reached a breaking point in 1997 after getting a phone call that one of his students had killed himself in a public park  one in a string of tragedies in the school district.

Thats when I told myself, Im done. I cant take any more of this, Hudnall told People Magazine in 2019. I vowed that I would do everything I could to prevent it from ever happening again.

Flandreau was one of 12 school districts chosen nationally as grant recipients in 2021, with the pandemic still causing loss of structure and sometimes family tragedy for South Dakota youth. The states 2021 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System revealed that 21.5% of high school students said they considered suicide, while 12% said they had attempted it.

The crisis is particularly staggering for Native American youth, whose suicide rate is estimated by the South Dakota Department of Health to be 2.7 times higher than the white population. Flandreau High School, which has a Native enrollment of 30%, strives to reflect those demographics with its Hope Squad efforts.

The program focuses on the protective factors of suicide prevention while creating more school connectedness, said Flandreau school counselor Kari Lena-Helling, who supervises Hope Squads for grades 7-8 and grades 9-12.

'I've definitely felt a change'

Flandreau has 84 total students involved with four Hope Squads: grade 4, grades 5-6 (Junior Hope Squads), grades 7-8 and grades 9-12. The elementary school groups are focused more on anti-bullying messages and being a good friend, while the upper levels get more in depth about suicide prevention strategies.

Students are chosen through peer nominations and discussions with principals and teachers, followed by training to recognize suicide/mental distress warning signs and QPR: question if they are thinking about suicide, persuade to get help, refer to a trusted adult. Confidentiality and the need to get adults involved in the process are paramount.

We wanted to make sure the kids involved felt comfortable when it started, said Chelsea Greenfield, who advises the younger grades. Ive definitely felt a change.

One high school Hope Squad member came back after summer break and shared that a classmate was struggling with suicidal thoughts. Advisers were able to reach out to that students parents and suggest a mental health assessment, preventing a possible tragedy.

I would say that every year we have students who struggle with suicidality and self-harm, Lena-Helling said. I think the difference is that kids are starting to get help for their peers sooner by recognizing warning signs, so youre not seeing as many actual attempts.

Giving counselors an assist

These student-involved efforts complement the work of school counselors, who are tasked with providing not just academic and vocational guidance but emotional support to students and families.

Forging that many personal connections is difficult, so schools are exploring ways to supplement traditional counseling with professional partnerships to make sure teens get the attention they need.

South Dakota has a ratio of about 365 students to every counselor, on par with neighboring states Iowa (370:1), Nebraska (369:1) and North Dakota (297:1). The American School Counselor Association recommends a ratio of 250:1.

In the Sioux Falls area, medical providers such as Avera Behavioral Health, Southeastern Behavioral Health and the Lutheran Social Services PATH program partner with school districts and take on referrals. The Helpline Center encourages students experiencing suicidal thoughts or needing emotional support to call or text 988 to speak with a trained crisis counselor 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

For many students, though, it helps to have a guiding hand and familiar face in school hallways to counter feelings of hopelessness. Even if sharing those emotions feels uncomfortable at first.

'More kids are willing to talk'

Leah DeHaan, a 2023 graduate of Platte-Geddes High School, recalled her reaction when the school started a student-led Hope Squad through a Cook Center grant her junior year.

I was skeptical, DeHaan told News Watch in 2022. As a teen who has suffered from mental health issues myself, I was concerned that it was just shifting responsibility off the adults and onto the students, like they were using students as makeshift therapists.

She had a conversation with Platte-Geddes school counselor Sadie Hanson, who assuaged DeHaans concerns and told her that the fact that she voiced them made her a perfect candidate to serve on the Hope Squad.

DeHaan said she struggled with depression and anxiety in middle school and the beginning of high school. Her breakthrough came when talking candidly about what she was going through and being part of the team.

Slowly we broke it down, and it became easier to discuss, DeHaan said, Now you see more kids around here willing to talk about their own struggles, the medications they need to take, and how they plan to move forward.

How to get mental health help

Resources to get help for yourself or someone else who may be considering suicide:

The Helpline Center: People across the state can be connected to a crisis counselor 24/7 through the 988 Lifeline by call, text or chat.

Call: 988

Text: 988

Chat: 988lifeline.org/chat

Front Porch Coalition: 605-348-6692

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline/Indian Health Service hotline: 800-273-8255 (TALK)

Crisis Text Line: Text CONNECT to 741741

This article was produced by South Dakota News Watch, a non-profit journalism organization located online at sdnewswatch.org.
Seoul, South Korea (CNN)  South Koreas Constitutional Court has upheld a law banning same-sex relations in the military, citing a threat to combat-readiness, in a judgment decried by the local LGBTQ community as a disappointing setback.

In a 5-4 ruling on Thursday, the court refused to declare as unconstitutional a clause in the Military Criminal Act that bans anal intercourse or any other indecent act during service and allows for punishments of up to two years in prison.

Though the law does not explicitly refer to same-sex relationships, this is how it is generally understood in practice and the law has long been opposed by LGBTQ activists who see it as discriminatory.

In the past, the law has been used to arrest dozens of people in what critics have called a gay witch-hunt.

The court said in its judgment Thursday that allowing same-sex relations between soldiers would jeopardize the armys discipline and potentially upend its hierarchy.

Even if sexual acts are consensual they risk causing serious harm to preserving the fighting power of the nations armed forces, if committed (while on duty), it added.

Four dissenting judges, however, concluded the language of the article is abstract and ambiguous, while three of them also cautioned against limiting an individuals sexual orientation in the name of military discipline.

It is unclear whether the law banned indecent acts only between same-sex soldiers or also between male and female ones, they added.

A distressing setback

Activist group Rainbow Action Against Sexual-Minority Discrimination said the ruling was disappointing and criticized the court for failing to protect the rights of the minority.

But the group said it was encouraged by the comments of the dissenting judges, who warned against deeming sexual acts between same-sex couples as abnormal.

The dissenting judges said there is no reason to differentiate between consensual sexual acts by same-sex soldiers and heterosexual ones.

This is clearly highlighting the indecent act provision of the Military Criminal Act as discriminatory against sexual minorities, the group stressed.

Amnesty Internationals East Asia Researcher Boram Jang said: This continued endorsement for the criminalization of consensual same-sex acts within the Korean military is a distressing setback in the decades-long struggle for equality in the country.

The researcher said the ruling underscored the widespread prejudice sexual minorities face in South Korea and the governments lack of action to protect them by pushing for greater equality.

With a mandatory military service imposed on almost all able-bodied men between the age of 18 and 28, South Korea has one of the worlds largest active armies.

The present case, one of the few that has come before the South Korean courts, was referred to the constitutional branch by district courts after they found that there may be room for a constitutional challenge on the potentially ambiguous phrase any other indecent act.

Resistance to change

While South Korea does not legally recognize same-sex marriage, activists say there has been progress on LGBTQ rights in recent years.

In a landmark ruling in February, a court ruled in favor of a same-sex couple seeking equal health benefits. The decision was hailed by supporters and activists as the first recognition of the legal rights of such couples.

The plaintiff, So Seong-wook, took legal action after the government-affiliated National Health Insurance Service started charging him premium payments despite his status as a spouse dependent of his male partner.

But there has also been a surge of resistance from Christian and conservative groups in recent months.

In May, South Koreas biggest LGBTQ pride celebration, Seoul Queer Culture Festival failed to get a licence to operate at its annual venue, which was used for a Christian youth concert instead.

A month later, scuffles broke out in the city of Daegu as local officials led by the mayor clashed with police during a protest against the Daegu Queer Culture Festival.

Opponents including Christian organizations had tried and failed to get a court injunction against the festival, which Mayor Hong Joon-pyo had criticized for instilling the wrong sexual culture in teenagers.
As the U.S. continues its support of Israel, it's keeping a wary eye on Iran and Iran-backed terror groups, according to South Dakota Senator Mike Rounds. Following multiple attacks on U.S. coalition bases in the Middle East, Rounds had a stern warning to Iran not to test U.S. commitments in the region.

"If you screw with us on this, you will pay a heavy penalty," Rounds said. "They should be very careful what they do. It's one thing to threaten it. It's another thing for them to actually see that we have the capability at hand and we mean business."

All of South Dakota's congressional delegation has expressed strong support for Israel since the surprise Hamas attacks on Oct. 7. Representative Dusty Johnson called Hamas "evil," and said Americans cannot allow them to grow in strength. Sen. John Thune, who was one of 10 senators chosen to visit Israel last week as part of a bipartisan delegation, spoke on the Senate floor Wednesday, calling the threat to Israel "existential."

"We are committed to seeing Hamas defeated so that a new chapter of prosperity for Israel and its Arab neighbors can begin, of which normalized relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia would be a keystone," he said. "Israels cause is just and its resolve is firm, and it should have every peace-loving nation in the world on its side."

More than 1,400 people died in Israel as a result of the attacks, according to the Israeli government. The Health Ministry in Gaza said more than 7,000 Palestinians have been killed in the days since, as retaliatory strikes level buildings across the strip.

President Joe Biden said he has "no confidence" in the numbers being reported. National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications, John Kirby, said the Administration "would not dispute" the numbers, but they don't trust them.

More than 200 people, including Americans, remain hostages of Hamas in Gaza, while another 100 are unaccounted for.

Rounds explained support for Israel in the Senate is not in dispute. What is in dispute is balancing Israel's right to respond with the humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people.

"The question is, how do you allow the Israelis the appropriate amount of time they need to execute on their military plans to root out Hamas, while at the same time recognizing the dire situation that Hamas has put the rest of the Palestinian people in?" he said. "We recognize that Israel needs time to be able to execute their plans, but we also see the suffering that a lot of Palestinians have who have no place to go right now. And those issues will have to be resolved."

The U.S. has already pledged support for Israel, with two unused 'Iron Dome' missile defense systems expected to be on their way this week  aid Rounds helped push. The senator said he expects Israel to need a resupply of ammunition needed to operate the Iron Domes.

Two carrier strike groups  the U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford and the U.S.S. Dwight D. Eisenhower  are already in the region. On Tuesday, a squadron of F-16s arrived in the area, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced last week he was sending the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit that direction as well. The 26th MEU complements commitments made by the Air Force, who sent F-15s, F-16s and A-10 attack squadrons earlier this month.

More than 2,000 U.S. troops are on "prepare-to-deploy" orders at Austin's request, though they have yet to be activated.

"Because we have Americans who are being held hostage, our government will do whatever they can to free those hostages as well, but we'll do it in coordination with Israel," Rounds said. "There are terrorist groups that are sponsored by Iran that operate with the permission of the Iranian government, and when they attack our forces that are in the Middle East...we have a responsibility to defend those troops and those positions."

Upwards of 20 U.S. servicemembers stationed at bases like Al Tanf, Syria and Al Asad, Iraq have been injured by rocket and drone attacks in the last week, according to the Pentagon.

With the U.S. military's urban combat experience in the region, Rounds said troops will be a valuable training asset for the Israeli Defense Forces.

But beyond training, Rounds said active American engagement was just a possibility.

"It is a possibility, because as long as you have Iran active in that area and threatening American lives, you have to be in a position to respond," he said. "If we are credible in that warning, then we may not need to do anything. If we are not credible in our warning, that's when we may have to actually prove to the Iranians that we mean business."

Israel is already facing threats from Iranian-backed Hezbollah in the north, aggression which has resulted in some Israeli evacuations of border towns. The U.S.S. Carney, a warship stationed in the northern Red Sea, intercepted three missiles fired by Houthi rebels in Yemen believed to be aimed at Israel.

The goal is to keep the conflict contained, Rounds said, not setting off a powder keg that will escalate into a wider regional or worldwide conflict.

"The sooner we eliminate Hamas and the sooner we can get back to a non-confrontational position in the Gaza Strip region, the better off it's going to be for the Palestinian population that is perhaps not supportive of Hamas but has no place else to go," Rounds said. "Nobody wants to see suffering on the part of innocent men and women and children  regardless of if they're in Israel or they're in the Gaza Strip  but it cannot stop us from supporting Israel and taking out Hamas."

President Biden sent a $106 billion dollar aid request to Congress last week, the details of which include aid for Israel and Ukraine along with funding for U.S. southern border security.

The request, according to Rounds, doesn't have much support in Congress.

"There are parts of it that we will support, but this was basically just an initial offering from the White House, kind of like throwing mud up against the fence to see what sticks," he said. "Some of it will stick, but a lot of it we can't accept."

The $106 billion includes more than $60 billion for Ukraine, around $14 billion for Israel, and $13 billion for border security. The money earmarked for foreign military financing and other things like supplies, munitions and operations aren't in question, but Rounds said the economic assistance tabbed for Ukraine shouldn't be solely a U.S. responsibility.

"A lot of us feel anyway that the countries in Europe should help rather than us," he said. "We think Europe needs to take a hand in a lot of that. If we're going to do the military sales, Europe needs to help on some of the social stuff and some of the direct assistance."

The $13.6 billion for border security is in "real trouble," Rounds said, because it is unclear what the Administration's plan is with it.

"We're afraid that they're not actually going to do anything for border security with it. They're going to simply use it to transfer folks coming across the border into other areas, basically turning into a travel agency," he said. "We want to see policy changes in that, and we want to see direct support for actually improving the security along that border, including physical structures, and also improving ports of entry."

Additionally, around $10 billion slated for humanitarian assistance in Ukraine, Israel and Gaza has raised Republican eyebrows. Their concern, Rounds explained, is the potential for Hamas to siphon off those resources aimed at the Palestinian people.

"Until we know that it would actually go to the people living in the Gaza Strip who are not part of Hamas, it's going to be very difficult for us to agree to provide humanitarian assistance that basically would go to Hamas," he said.

The endgame for this conflict has the U.S. cautioning Israel against rushing a full-scale invasion of Gaza, Rounds said.

"When this is completed, you still have to have a location where the Palestinian people can live, and you still have to have a government entity that actually provides services to these two-million individuals that are there today," Rounds said. "So, part of what they have to plan for is that when they break it, they will own it. And that's part of the lesson that we learned in Iraq, and it's part of the lesson that we learned in Afghanistan."
Overall visitor spending totaled $1.1 billion in the Black Hills and Badlands region between January and August 2023, according to a report released by the Black Hills & Badlands Tourism Association at its annual membership meeting Wednesday.

The area tourism association held its 84th Annual Membership Meeting, Luncheon, and Awards Ceremony at the Box Elder Events Center. Regional travel industry leaders were in the spotlight, with Black Hills & Badlands Tourism's board of directors, representatives from area chambers, destination marketing organizations, regional parks and forests, state and local officials, and attractions in attendance. A turnout of more than 150 participants marked the event.

"Having brought together 488 members last year and we'll have about 175 of them with us today. So we'll be giving them the opportunity to network and talk with each other and learn about everything that did happen last year to see if their successes are shared with the rest of the industry," Michelle Thomson, president of Black Hills & Badlands Tourism, said.

One of the meeting's primary objectives was to present the group's 2023 Annual Report, elucidating key initiatives and accomplishments from the past year along with the association's mission and goal for the upcoming 2024 year.

The report highlighted tourism's critical contribution to the regional economy, with overall visitor spending totaling $1.1 billion in the Black Hills and Badlands region between January and August 2023. Concurrently, Deadwood's casino gaming matched the figure in revenue. In 2022, the tourism sector supported 20,577 jobs. Thomson said the Black Hills and Badlands Tourism Association, a membership-based marketing organization with 488 members from western South Dakota and Wyoming, champions the region as a vacation hotspot.

2023 tourism season review

The Black Hills and Badlands region experienced a robust 2023 tourism season, with growth in several key metrics, according to Thomson during her detailed review presentation.

The annual report provides an overview of the economic implications of the tourism industry in western South Dakota from January to August of 2023. We recorded an impressive $1.1 billion in overall visitor spending in the Black Hills through August. This reflects a 4.9% growth compared to the same time frame in 2022, a testament to a thriving summer season, she said.

Despite the workforce challenges lingering from 2022, Thomson emphasized the region's resilience.

Even with the workforce hiccups faced last year, our region continued to support over 20,000 jobs in the tourism sector in the Black Hills and Badlands," she said.

She further elaborated on the impressive figures, mentioning a 4.3% rise in tourism spending, which totaled $349 million through August. The Deadwood gaming handle also experienced growth with a 3.7% increase, reaching $1.1 billion. While the average length of visitor stays stood at 4.2 days, it was slightly down by 0.9 days from the previous year. Diving deeper into the statistics, Thomson shared occupancy rates.

Short-term rental occupancy is at 61.7%, up by 3.6% from last year's figures. Meanwhile, hotel occupancy rates have settled at 52.2%, experiencing a marginal increase of 0.3% from the previous year, Thomson said.

Regarding visitor demographics and their origins in the Black Hills and Badlands region, Thomson outlined that the top spending markets were Sioux Falls, Minneapolis, Denver, Minot, Fargo and Sioux City. She noted 90% are over the age of 25 and 33% fall within the age bracket of 45 to 64. Additionally, 72% of visitors have household incomes that exceed $50,000. When it comes to household sizes, 93% of visitors have between one and five people in their homes, with 48% having one to two members and 44% housing between three and five members.

Thomson emphasized the importance of the figures in shaping future strategies.

Having access to such detailed data allows Black Hills and Badlands to fine-tune our efforts. Our primary goal remains to promote our region as a year-round vacation destination, ensuring that we drive visitors to our members. Every effort is made to ensure the maximum impact of every dollar spent with Black Hills and Badlands, she said.

Vision, mission, and looking toward the future

During the meeting, Thomson presented an extensive overview of the association's vision, mission, 2023 strategic goals, and marketing campaigns. She also touched upon the future prospects and the critical role of the Black Hills Visitor Information Center.

"Our purpose, the very reason BH&B exists, is to serve our members by ardently promoting, advocati and marketing the Black Hills and Badlands region," Thomson said. "In terms of vision, we aspire to provide the ultimate experience for every visitor. And our mission to achieve this vision? It's to act as a cohesive force to amplify visitor numbers, the duration of their trips, and boost visitor sales for the benefit of all our members and the communities we represent."

Thomson also gave insights into how Black Hills & Badlands Tourism gathers member feedback.

"Last year, many of you participated in a membership survey. That invaluable information fed into a strategic visioning workshop post our annual meeting. Subsequently, our board and staff derived goals, objectives, and actionable tasks, she said.

She further elaborated on the six strategic goals: growing member relations, expanding industry advocacy, enhancing marketing impact, cultivating revenue sources, optimizing internal infrastructure, and facilitating information networks. Thomson shared the unique objectives tied to each of the goals, emphasizing the continuous feedback loop with the members.

"Our marketing campaigns played a pivotal role in achieving our objectives. The new rally marketing campaign alone saw an astounding 40.9 million total impressions and 51.1 million total engagements," Thomson said.

The group's collaboration with Travel South Dakota is a key factor to their success as well, according to Thomson. She said a major component of the campaign is the partnership, which focuses on increasing awareness of the diverse experiences available in the Black Hills and Badlands region to attract tourists.

"We are committed to enhancing our promotion of the Black Hills and Badlands region. Our peak campaigns focus on the summer, while our shoulder campaigns highlight the beauty of fall, winter and spring. Our partnership with the new rally marketing cooperative also targets motorcycle touring enthusiasts, especially for the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, she said.

Despite a minor drop in travel budgets, Thomson focused on enthusiasm for travel being at an all-time high. Over 47% of individuals expect their financial situation to improve within the next year. Additionally, the forecast for leisure trips has risen, with individuals anticipating an average of 3.4 trips in the upcoming 12 months, up from 2.9 trips the year before, she said.

Thomson, along with the Black Hills & Badlands Tourism team, remains optimistic despite certain uncertainties.

"Though there might be challenges ahead, the immense enthusiasm for travel, combined with the positive trends we've observed, give us hope. We're looking forward to a successful winter in 2023, and an even brighter summer in 2024, Thomson said.
A Hopewell City Council member is accused by authorities of misusing public funds.

Councilman Dominic Holloway Sr. was arrested this week, shortly after the resolution of two civil trials that aired allegations Holloway took more than $9,000 illegally.

The plaintiff in the first civil suit was Brionna E. Taylor, the mother of PAris Moore, an 8-year-old girl killed by stray gunfire in December 2022.

Holloway, who represents Hopewells Ward 7, created a GoFundMe for the family, which raised over $15,000. Taylor told a judge that $5,600 of those funds never arrived. A judge ruled in her favor.

The second suit came from Brittany McDaniel, who has said Holloway asked her for $4,000 during his 2022 campaign for city council. McDaniel and her partner lent him the money via cashiers check under the pretense that it was a loan, she wrote in her claim.

I struggled with going to court thinking he would do the right thing, then I found out on the news that hes done it to a mother whose child was recently deceased at 8 years old, McDaniel wrote in her claim.

That case was dismissed in August.

Holloway was indicted on Oct. 11 on felony criminal embezzlement charges.

Holloway said he couldnt explain what occurred with the GoFundMe because his criminal case is ongoing. His next appearance in the case is Nov. 8.

Holloway is separately facing two misdemeanor charges for juvenile court order violations, for which he will appear in court next Tuesday.

We just finished one case so right now, I dont have any comment because Ive been fighting the new case, Holloway said.

The small claims drama plays out against a backdrop of broader financial turmoil. The city of Hopewell recently lost its credit rating, meaning it cant issue debt for capital projects. The loss was a result of years of missed financial audits.

This summer, state agencies offered to help the city find a qualified city manager and begin auditing its own books.

Holloway was one of four city councilmembers to vote against the outside intervention, opting instead to appoint Concetta Manker, the citys former IT manager who slotted in as interim-manager after the position was vacated by March Altman in July 2022.

Holloway was joined in that vote by Vice-Mayor Jasmine Gore, Councilmember Janice Denton and Councilman Mike Harris.

PHOTOS: Vigil for eight-year-old in Hopewell
Lawyers sparred in a courtroom Friday over whether a Newport News teacher who was shot by her 6-year-old student should get only workers compensation for her serious injuries.

Abby Zwerner is suing the schools system for $40 million, alleging gross negligence against school administrators. But the School Board is trying to block the lawsuit, arguing that Zwerners injuries fall under workers compensation.

The former first-grade teacher was hospitalized for nearly two weeks and endured multiple surgeries after a bullet struck her hand and chest. Workers compensation would provide up to nearly 10 years pay and lifetime medical benefits for physical and psychological injuries.

Zwerner attended Fridays hearing before a judge, her left arm still supported by a sling and her left hand wrapped in a thick, cloth bandage.

One of her attorneys, Kevin Biniazan, asked the judge to allow Zwerners lawsuit to proceed to trial because no first-grade teacher expects to be shot at work.

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The particular danger of encountering a firearm is not in the nature of employment for a first-grade teacher, Biniazan said.

But Anne Lahren, an attorney for the school board, said the incident falls squarely under workers compensation because Zwerner was working in her capacity as a teacher. And Zwerners lawsuit centers on allegations of negligence at her workplace, which also fall under the law, Lahren added.

Robert Samuel, another school board lawyer, said: This doesnt mean that Ms. Zwerner doesnt get benefits and is left out in the cold.

Matthew Hoffman, a circuit court judge in Newport News, said hell rule on the matter in the next week. Hell have to decide whether Zwerners allegations can move forward in court or if they belong before the workers compensation commission.

After the hearing, Zwerner stood with her attorneys outside the courtroom. She declined to answer direct questions from a gaggle of reporters, her face holding back emotion.

Its an overwhelming moment for her  I think we have to appreciate that, Biniazan said. Its all culminating in some ways on today. So, as much as Abby may have thoughts and comments, theyre all swirling around in her head, probably faster than she can articulate them. So I hope you can excuse her in speaking through us.

Zwerner was shot at Richneck Elementary School in early January by one of her students. She rushed the rest of the children out of the classroom before she collapsed in the schools office.

The former teacher says administrators ignored multiple warnings the boy had a gun that day and had routinely dismissed ongoing concerns about his troubling behavior. Legal experts say Zwerners lawsuit faces an uphill battle under Virginias uncommonly strict workers compensation law, which covers allegations of negligence.

Meanwhile, the mother of the 6-year-old boy who shot Zwerner is still awaiting sentencing for felony child neglect. Deja Taylors sentencing was scheduled for Friday afternoon but postponed until December.

Court records indicate the delay comes at the request of both the defense and prosecutors, in part because a report was not yet available from the guardian ad litem. In Virginia, a guardian ad litem is appointed to represent the interests of the child in cases alleging neglect.

Taylor faces up to five years in prison after pleading guilty, though prosecutors will recommend only a six-month sentence as part of a plea deal.

Taylor told police she believed her 9mm handgun was secured at home with a trigger lock. But authorities said they never found a lock during searches of the home.

Taylors son told authorities he climbed onto a drawer to reach the top of a dresser, where the weapon was in her purse. He concealed the gun in his backpack and then his pocket before shooting his teacher in front of the class, prosecutors said.

Moments later, the 6-year-old told a reading specialist who restrained him, I shot that (expletive) dead and I got my moms gun last night, according to search warrants.

Taylor has pleaded guilty separately to using marijuana while owning a gun, which is illegal under U.S. law, and will be sentenced in federal court next month. A plea deal in that case calls for 18 to 24 months behind bars.
A national Arab American political group that supported President Joe Biden and Virginia Democrats in the 2020 elections says it is disbanding and could boycott the 2024 elections due to the reaction of Biden and other prominent Democrats to the crisis in Gaza.

Maher Massis, 60, of Herndon in Fairfax County  an organizer of the Arab Americans Biden 2020 committee who oversaw much of the committees Virginia operations  said the group is very disappointed by the way Biden and Virginia Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, both Democrats, have responded to Israels counterstrikes in Gaza.

The recent events really made the Arab American community  feel like they have been backstabbed by the administration and the Democratic Party, Massis said.

The Census Bureau estimates that there are around 85,000 Arab Americans living in Virginia, according to the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia. That is just under 1% of the total population of Virginia.

Although Biden topped then-President Donald Trump in Virginia by 10 percentage points in 2020, next years elections include two Northern Virginia congressional contests that could be decided by narrow margins, underscoring the importance of each partys political coalitions.

Massis said the committee has had a close relationship with Sen. Kaine for years, and in 2020 began engaging the Biden campaign and administration extensively, proposing policy positions on Palestine. While members of the group initially were optimistic, Massis said, a majority of the proposals were not done.

Massis said the committee has asked the Biden administration to open a U.S. embassy for the Palestinian Liberation Organization, put pressure on Israel to stop the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and pursue a peace process based on a two-state solution.

But none of those things happened, Massis said. And now, as Israeli warplanes hammer Gaza in response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel that left around 1,400 dead, Massis said Democrats one-sided support of (Israels)  indiscriminate war on the Palestinian people has led the committee to the conclusion that all the communications that we had were pretty much useless.

Massis, who has family living in Taybeh in the West Bank, said he feels betrayed after spending countless hours to get the vote out for Democrats in Virginia.

We are completely disappointed with both Virginia senators, Massis said. They have completely dehumanized the Palestinian people. They completely toed a very one-sided line, and we are extremely disappointed because they dont seem to understand the roots of the conflict.

Massis singled out Kaine for what he termed an inconsistent position on foreign policy and conflicts.

(Sen. Kaine) said the Ukrainian people deserve freedom, independence and self-determination, Massis said. But despite the fact that Palestinians are asking for the same things, Massis said, Kaine has flocked to Israel and has not shown any support for the Palestinian people.

In a statement to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, a spokesperson for Kaine said that the senator believes that Palestinian and Israeli people deserve the right to live in freedom and peace and has been one of the most outspoken senators calling for a peaceful, two-state solution.

Kaine has been clear that ... Israel should take every step possible to prevent harm to innocent civilians in Gaza, including American citizens and the families of Americans, and ensure humanitarian access, the statement read. Kaine has been vocal about the fact that Gazans are not Hamas and has called for the swift passage of funding for humanitarian aid for innocent civilians in Gaza impacted by the conflict.

Massis maintains that Democrats have not delivered, and asserts that the results for the party could be disastrous.

If thousands of Arab Americans stay home on Election Day  a prospect that Massis said is almost certain at this point  Bidens hold over battleground states such as Michigan, which has the highest total and per capita Arab American population in the U.S., could slip, and down-ticket races in states like Virginia could be affected.

Arab Americans vote straight ticket, Massis said, so if Arab American voters do not turn out for Biden, they likely will not turn out for state and local Democrats either.

Democrats likely will be wary of losing any part of their voting coalition, especially in Northern Virginia, where Democrats and Republicans could battle for two open congressional seats next year.

Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-7th, topped Republican Yesli Vega by fewer than 13,000 votes in 2022 in a redrawn district based in Prince William, Stafford and Spotsylvania counties. Spanberger is widely expected to forgo a race for Congress in 2024 and focus on seeking the Democratic nomination for governor in 2025. That could lead to a highly competitive 2024 contest for the 7th District seat.

Rep. Jennifer Wexton, D-10th, beat Republican Hung Cao by 19,000 votes in 2022 in a Northern Virginia district based in Loudoun and Prince William counties. Wexton, who announced in April that she has Parkinsons Disease, said last month that she will not seek re-election next year. Both parties are likely to target the open seat in 2024.

Kaine is seeking re-election next year. Cao and Chuck Smith, who has twice sought the GOP nomination for attorney general, are among the candidates seeking the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate.

In 2024, the Arab American community in Virginia will have an ... effective role, because we are a purple state, Massis said. The Biden administration is making a serious political mistake by assuming that, in 2024, Arab Americans will once again turn out in high numbers to vote for Biden because were afraid of Trump.

When it comes to foreign policy, Trump and Biden are the same, Massis concluded. If there was an election today, not a single Arab American would vote for Biden.

Fall photos from The Times-Dispatch photo archives Fall Fall Fall Fall Fall
The race for the General Assembly is growing commercial.

Even in this off- off- off-year election, with no elections for president, governor or Congress at the top of the ticket, campaigning is a more that $80 million business in Virginia.

That is a third more than farmers get for the states iconic tobacco crop, according to a Richmond Times-Dispatch analysis of more than 44,000 spending items on legislative candidates campaign finance reports and hundreds more items on political party groups reports.

And the businesses making money from elections are changing the way candidates talk about issues and policies.

Virginia is really the land of no-limits money, and with elections every year, you can really stay on the gravy train, said Stephen Farnsworth, a political scientist at the University of Mary Washington.

That gravy train is making Virginia politics look a lot more like Washington, said John McGlennon, a government professor at the College of William and Mary.

Weve seen that increasing professionalism on Congressional races, and it means campaign messages are much more standardized, he said.

At least in this cycle, its also led to the homogenization of campaigns. Since the vast majority of competitive races are in suburban/exurban areas, the campaigns on both sides tend to look very similar. And while there are local issues that could have a decisive impact (such as data centers in Prince William County) the campaigns are on each side are uniform in issues and tone.

If there are big bucks involved youre going to do what they tell you, Farnsworth said.

For Democrats, for instance, the pros say defending Virginias current law allowing abortion during the first two trimesters, is a vote-winner.

For most Republicans, even those with the strongest anti-abortion views, its that Gov. Glenn Youngkins proposal to bar most abortions after 15 weeks, with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother, is a reasonable compromise.

Farnsworth said theres so much money available in Virginia politics that candidates arent focusing on what are the most effective ways of reaching voters.

Does it make sense to make an expensive TV buy for a candidate in a district thats only a sliver of a TV market? he said.

Whats the marginal utility of the 30th flyer clogging your mailbox?

Flyers, consultants

But theres a lot of money in flyers: candidates have so far spent $10.7 million, with $8.9 million going to political consultancies. Party organizations spent about $7.6 million.

Candidates paid political professionals and consultant companies more than $6.6 million for their advice. Party organizations, caucuses and leadership committees paid more than $7 million more. Those professionals  who generally work with candidates from one party  along with several party groups, donated consulting services to various campaigns that cost them an additional $866,000.

The biggest payments came from Del. Karen Greenhalgh, R-Virginia Beach, who won her first term in the House by a 115-vote margin. She paid consultants more than $517,000.

State Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, paid PocketAces Consulting more than $129,000 for campaign services.

Political professionals do more than give advice.

Richmond-based Creative Direct took in more than $1.1 million handling mailings for Republican candidates; Connecticut-based Mission Control almost as much doing the same for Democrats.

Uplift Campaigns, a California firm, was paid more than $898,000 for digital ads for several Democrats. Gen2 Solutions and FP1 Strategies received more than $401,000 and $379,000 respectively for digital ads for Republicans.

Political professionals also took in more than $225,000 from campaigns for polling and $95,000 for texting services. Party groups and leadership committees paid about $1.5 million.

Robo-calling firms, which deliver voters automated messages, collected more than $800,000 from candidates.

While candidates still seek volunteers, especially to knock on doors, campaigns and outside political groups paid canvassers more than $598,000.

In all, paid staff time exceeded $18.3 million: more than $15 million paid by the campaigns themselves and an additional $3.3 million of costs that political groups assumed and then donated to the campaigns.

While campaign reports show the sums of money going into Virginia elections keep rising, this campaign season has made yet another revelation  that political professionals and groups and their candidates have got even smarter on how to bend the rule without really breaking it, said Olusoji Akomolafe, executive director of the Center for African American Public Policy and chair of the political science department at Norfolk State University.

The revolving door between the services they provide and the money they donate is a prime example, he said.

Ad spending

TV and radio advertising remains the biggest item on candidates shopping lists.

Theyve spent $22 million through Sept. 30 to produce ads and then book air time.

Only three of the top 20 firms they spend money with are in Virginia. The biggest, Sage Media of Washington D.C., received $5.2 million, all from Democrats campaigns.

Hampton Roads has borne the brunt of this. Federal Communications Commission and social media data compiled by the Virginia Public Access project say candidates and supporters have dropped more than $10.8 million on TV, radio and social media ads.

The region has a tight state Senate race in District 24 between state Sen. Monty Mason, D-Williamsburg, and former York-Poquoson Sheriff Danny Diggs, and a tight House of Delegates race in District 97 between Del. Karen Greenhalgh, R-Virginia Beach, and Democrat Michael Feggans, an Air Force veteran. Mason and Diggs have spent a combined $4.6 million, Greenhalgh and Feggans an additional $2.6 million.

But candidates in Suffolk-based districts, Del. Emily Brewer, R-Suffolk, against Del. Clinton Jenkins, D-Suffolk for a state Senate seat in District 17, Democrat Nadarius Clark versus Republican Michael Dillender in House District 84 and Democrat Karen Jenkins against Republican Baxter Ennis in House District 89, have spent a total of an additional $3.7 million

Richmond area

Ad spending exceeded $7.6 million in metro Richmond.

Del. Schuyler VanValkenburg, D-Henrico, is challenging state Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant, R-Henrico, in Senate District 16.

The area also has three hotly contested House races  in the Petersburg area between Del. Kim Taylor, R-Dinwiddie, and Democrat Kimberly Pope Adams in District 82  and in Henrico County, where Democrat Susanna Gibson and Republican David Owen are vying in House District 57 and Del. Rodney Willett, D-Henrico, faces Republican Riley Shaia in House District 58.

Clearly the funds spent are extraordinary  when you have two races that have already passed the $6 million dollar mark for a job that pays $18 thousand, its amazing, said Bob Holsworth, a longtime Virginia political analyst.

There are plenty of individuals, specialized campaign firms, and advertising venues that are doing extraordinarily well as a result of politics, he said.

Close The deal includes more than $900 million in tax cuts, almost all of it through one-time payments of $200 to individual taxpayers and $400 to couples filing jointly. It does not include cuts in the corporate and individual tax rates that Gov. Glenn Youngkin had proposed, but it would raise the standard deduction for taxpayers who don't itemize their deductions by half of what the governor had sought and would eliminate the age limit on a new exemption for military retirement income. Youngkin said this week that he can live with a budget agreement that prioritizes one-time rebates over ongoing tax cuts, but expects to seek additional cuts in the two-year budget that he will propose in December. Del. Barry Knight, R-Virginia Beach (left) is chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. House of Delegates Speaker Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, a University of Virginia alumnus, demanded UVa President Jim Ryan repudiate a statement by UVa's Students for Justice in Palestine, which, among other things, described the Hamas attacks as an unprecedented feat for the 21st century." $1 billion in tax cuts: 4 things to know about the state budget deal General Assembly budget leaders have reached an agreement that ends a six-month standoff on revisions to Virginia's two-year budget. The deal includes more than $900 million in tax cuts, almost all of it through one-time payments of $200 to individual taxpayers and $400 to couples filing jointly. It does not include cuts in the corporate and individual tax rates that Gov. Glenn Youngkin had proposed, but it would raise the standard deduction for taxpayers who don't itemize their deductions by half of what the governor had sought and would eliminate the age limit on a new exemption for military retirement income. Youngkin said this week that he can live with a budget agreement that prioritizes one-time rebates over ongoing tax cuts, but expects to seek additional cuts in the two-year budget that he will propose in December. Del. Barry Knight, R-Virginia Beach (left) is chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. House of Delegates Speaker Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, a University of Virginia alumnus, demanded UVa President Jim Ryan repudiate a statement by UVa's Students for Justice in Palestine, which, among other things, described the Hamas attacks as an unprecedented feat for the 21st century."
Despite gains in habitats in and along the James River, key fish populations have declined, and the iconic American shad is still nowhere to be found, according to the James River Associations biannual review.

The association gives the river a B grade, or 66, up from 65 in the 2021 report, but a big improvement from 50 years ago, when the Clean Water Act took effect and the James was polluted with raw sewage and industrial waste  including Kepone, the toxic insecticide dumped in the river from Allied Chemicals Hopewell plant for nearly a decade in the 1960s and 1970s.

Overall improvements to the State of the James score have slowed in recent years, which is a reminder that we must remain vigilant to continue making progress in the face of new threats caused by climate change, said William Street, the associations chief executive officer.

The rivers water is doing well  measured by dissolved oxygen, which fish, amphibians, crabs and oysters need in order to survive, as well as the clarity of water and declines in algae, both of which help plants.

One indicator of that is a 14% increase in underwater grasses, which now provide 3,663 acres of habitat for fish, crabs and waterfowl.

But there arent any shad to be found.

Researchers literally caught zero American shad in their survey for the first time. For centuries, shad have played an integral role in our history, our culture and our economy, in addition to the river ecosystem, Street said.

Their absence comes despite Virginias effort since 1992 to stock nearly 126 million shad in state rivers, along with whats now a nearly 30-year ban on catching shad and work to create fish passages so they can get over or around dams, there still arent any to be found in the James.

And juvenile striped bass are struggling.

Already stressed by habitat loss and pollution, last years dramatic increase in recreational fishermens catch and climate change have added to pressure on the rivers population.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has found striped bass are overfished.

The James River Association said protecting the species James River nurseries and making sure there are enough forage fish, including menhaden in the Bay, will be needed to restore the striped bass numbers.

In addition, smallmouth bass are struggling, especially in the middle section of the James, around Richmond, in part as climate change warms the water and in part with the loss of spawning habitat, the association said.

The arrival of Alabama bass, which can out compete smallmouth bass for food and space, also is putting pressure on the species.

The James does support one of North Americas densest populations of bald eagles  352 breeding pairs of a species that nearly disappeared in the 1970s.

And its oysters are doing better, as evident in the 25% increase in the rivers public oyster grounds, while brook trout are holding their own, found now in 74% of habitat targeted by the federal, state and nonprofit Chesapeake Bay Program.

Whats helping is that 78% of the banks of the James and its tributaries are covered with trees or shrubs, which act as filters to keep damaging pollutants, including nitrogen and phosphorus, out of the river. These are nutrients that feed the Bays algae blooms that every summer create large dead zones, where theres not enough oxygen for fish, crabs or oysters.

The trees and shrubs also reduce erosion, which helps keep the rivers water clear.

But bacteria from livestock, pet and human wastes still pose health risks along much of the James, with only 61% of testing sites meeting state standards. The association says more livestock fencing and regular inspections of septic systems are key to tackling this problem.

Stormwater runoff is another source of pollution. New development along the river is outpacing efforts to contain this pollution with techniques to divert of slow the flow of rainwater and snow melt.

Fortunately, Virginia has started investing in clean water programs at the level needed to meet its goals for the James River, Street said, adding that the states most recent two-year budget appropriated over $600 million each year, enough to fully fund the identified need for wastewater and agriculture pollution controls for the first time.

The James is like a person recovering from multiple illnesses who has made significant improvement but has not seen as much progress recently. Street said.

The doctor would say keep it up. Now is not the time to let up on all of the hard work.

From the Archives: The James River James River James River James River James River James River James River James River James River
Karen McIntyres first son sits by the television in her living room.

His ashes are in an urn. The small brown box is engraved with his name, Andrew, and the image of a small teddy bear.

After she and her husband, Dennis, struggled to conceive, they turned to in vitro fertilization for a chance at having a biological child. Testing was done on their embryos to ensure a smooth pregnancy and likelihood of having a healthy future baby. Everything was going according to plan.

At 16 weeks, she said, testing revealed fetal anomalies  a heart defect along with Trisomy 21, the marker for Down syndrome, and other chromosomal abnormalities that were unclear.

McIntyre and her husband had a few weeks to make a difficult choice: continue the pregnancy and hope for the best, or abort.

Though shes an associate professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, they are living in North Carolina while her husband completes a medical doctor fellowship at Duke Universitys School of Medicine.

In 2022, North Carolina law barred most abortions after 20 weeks. People seeking abortions had to be counseled and wait three days to undergo the procedure. The law did not have exceptions for fetal anomalies. Now, North Carolina state law bans most abortions at 12 weeks with the same three-day waiting period.

Her voice cracking at times and with pauses to cry, McIntyre, in an interview, described the choice as agonizing.

She and her husband immediately began reading about raising a child with Down syndrome, for which there is a broad range of disabilities and special needs or medical care. Then there were the other, yet to be defined chromosomal abnormalities.

Different types of chromosomal abnormalities can result in a range of intellectual or physical disabilities, and some can be more severe diagnoses. Examples include Edward or Patau syndromes, which 90% of babies do not survive their first year, or Trisomy 16, which usually miscarries by the end of the second trimester and includes heart issues for the fetus.

Multiple chromosomal issues in a fetus are rare, but do happen.

McIntyre and her husband also knew their future child would immediately need heart surgery. If the child had survived gestation, she said, their son would have a long road ahead of him.

You cant feel good about any decision in that case, she said. I guess the best way to think about it, or at least to try to bring some peace, is that we decided to take on this pain so that our baby wouldnt have to experience all that pain.

McIntyre had an abortion at 19 weeks of gestation in January 2022.

The couple gave birth to another son this year. At 4 months old, Nolan has already traveled across the country to meet family in California and Virginia, and he has a friend in the form of McIntyres Bernese Mountain Dog, Nya.

In Virginia, a person faced with a situation like McIntyres has a little more time to run further tests or decide whether or not they want an abortion. Current law allows abortions up to the end of the second trimester, or around 26 weeks, and bans most after that. In the rare instances an abortion would occur later, three physicians must agree that it would irremediably impair the pregnant persons life or mental health.

Voters will decide whether that time frame should change.

Politics of the procedure

Abortion has become a key issue in the Nov. 7 General Assembly election, when all 140 seats are up for election and either party could win a majority.

Democrats promise to support current law. Most GOP candidates have coalesced behind a proposal from Gov. Glenn Youngkin to prohibit most abortions after 15 weeks, with exceptions for rape, incest or when the pregnant persons life is at risk. There is no exception for fetal anomalies.

(A few Republicans previously called for banning abortion entirely. Some others urged further abortion restrictions before most GOP candidates united behind Youngkins proposal.)

Dr. Edward Springel, the medical director for Labor and Delivery at VCU Health, said serious anomalies can be detected between 10 and 14 weeks, usually from when the person is able to have their first ultrasound. He added that the second-trimester ultrasound around 18-20 weeks identifies most anomalies.

Not all genetic problems or birth defects can be seen on ultrasound, he said.

This is where further testing, like chorionic villi sampling (10-13 weeks) or amniocentesis (after 15 weeks) can help diagnose issues. Amniocentesis tests can also take up to two weeks.

Babies born before 21 weeks almost never survive, Springel said.

Not all Republicans completely support the governors proposal. Riley Shaia, the Republican candidate who faces Del. Rodney Willett, D-Henrico, in House District 58, wants to keep current law at this time.

Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant, R-Henrico, who faces Del. Schuyler VanValkenburg, D-Henrico, in Senate District 16, wants to add a fetal anomaly provision to the 15-week proposal. Dunnavant, an OBGYN, said thats why she voted against the Youngkin-backed proposal earlier this year. (She had also carried a bill to move Virginias 26-week benchmark to around 22-24 weeks).

The governor and his party describe 15 weeks as a reasonable approach on which voters will find consensus. Democrats and abortion-rights advocates say its too restrictive and call it a ban; Republicans aggressively push back at this claim because they say they dont want to bar all abortions in Virginia, just most abortions after 15 weeks.

Much of the debate has centered on Democrats use of the word ban.

A number of Republican legislative candidates have shied away from talking about abortion. When asked, some have obfuscated; others have expressed support for the 15-week proposal  and they do not call it a ban.

Both parties have called the other extreme in ads, mailers and when speaking to the public.

Democrats assert that despite their support for the 15-week proposal, Republicans will want to ban all legal abortion in Virginia and jail doctors. Republicans say Democrats want no limits on the procedure and support abortion to the moment of birth.

Rich Schragger, a law professor at University of Virginia, said that the no limits claim is hyperbole.

I dont think it is at all accurate to state that Democrats want no limits if they merely seek to preserve Virginias current law, Schragger said.

Amid a range of Republican bills to restrict abortion that failed in the legislature this year there was language to declare unlawful abortions as Class 4 felonies for providers, but that language is also in the current abortion law that Democrats support.

We are for reasonable limits, Youngkin told reporters after a recent rally in Henrico County to promote early voting. Weve been wholly clear on what we want to do. And I think the other side is really trying to sell misinformation.

GOP candidates point to a Democratic attempt earlier this year to codify Roe v. Wade into Virginias constitution as another example of no limits.

Roe v. Wade was a 49-year-old U.S. Supreme Court ruling that protected abortion access until the Supreme Court overturned it last summer. The proposed state constitutional amendment that failed this year would have protected access to abortions unless there is a compelling state interest.

States have always had a compelling interest to restrict abortion after viability, Schragger said. Protecting the fetus after viability is a compelling interest.

In a recent press call with the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, Del. Danica Roem, D-Prince William, said her party is campaigning on a statewide referendum to the people: Do you want to codify the existing protections that we have? 

As politicians attempt to draw in voters on the issue, 49% of likely voters support keeping Virginias current abortion law, according to a recent poll from Christopher Newport Universitys Wason Center, while 23% support making it less restrictive and 24% say abortion should be more restrictive.

A Washington Post-Schar School poll indicates that abortion is a key issue among Democratic and independent voters.

Abortion is another reason the state is on a national radar from political pundits to activists to scholars. Mary Ziegler  a legal historian at the University of California, Davis, who has written about abortion law  is watching Virginias politics, too.

She noted that several candidates this year and Youngkin, in past years, have been surreptitiously recorded discussing support for further restrictions on abortion rights than what they now call for.

I think 15 weeks is probably what is viewed as politically possible now, but its not clear whether that would just be like a waystation or whether it would really be the stopping point, Ziegler said.

Choices to be made

Mary Cronquist said her choice to keep a complicated pregnancy was what she needed  even though it meant giving birth, then burying her son.

The Stafford County resident said at her first ultrasound in 2008 when she was pregnant with the son she named Stephen, she learned he was anencephalic  meaning his brain and head would not fully develop and he would not be able to live.

With no national definition of when a fetus is considered viable, the classification is usually made by doctors on a case-by-case basis. The term refers to the likelihood of survival outside of the womb. According to Springel at VCU Health, the term periviable can describe most fetuses between 20 and 25 weeks  for which survival chances vary.

In Stephens case, his nonviability was apparent much earlier in his gestation.

But Cronquist, a devout Catholic, never considered an abortion. She said that continuing her pregnancy to term gave her more time with him and helped her grieve him after he was gone.

I was recognizing Im a mom, Im grieving and I know what I need to get through death, she said. (Abortion) was not going to bring me healing. Having these months of rocking, singing, and feeling the kicks was going to mean more to me long term.

And it did, she said. Stephen lived for nine minutes surrounded by family before he died. He is buried in the familys cemetery plot in upstate New York. Cronquist then became a source of comfort for a neighbor whod had a miscarriage around that time as well.

Their chosen paths diverged, but Cronquist and McIntyre both know what it feels like to have wanted a child they then lost. The matter is so personal that it compelled both women to speak out about their experiences.

For McIntyre, that meant sharing her story on social media and privately with members of her family. She said she hopes it can help show just one facet of why people can need or want abortions. Most occur before the 15-week mark, but McIntyre said people in her situation may not have had sufficient fetal testing by that point to determine if they might seek an abortion.

I dont think people making these policies realize these less-frequent but traumatic situations, McIntyre said.

Cronquist has always considered herself pro-life, but her experience inspired her to become more involved in the anti-abortion movement. She was among hundreds to attend the Virginia March For Life earlier this year where she first told aspects of her story to The Times-Dispatch.

She works for a Missouri-based nonprofit organization called the Vitae Foundation. It is not a lobbying or activist group  you wont find its staff on any Capitol steps  but the organization conducts research that crisis pregnancy centers can use when attempting to talk people out of having abortions.

Crisis pregnancy centers typically resemble abortion clinics, but do not perform the procedure. Instead they counsel people not to seek an abortion. Some centers provide resources like formula or diapers to those who need it. Some such centers have drawn criticism from abortion-rights advocates, who say the centers have the potential to mislead people.

While McIntyre and her husband chose their abortion for medical reasons, she said she is cognizant of the other factors people face, from financial strains, to violent relationships, to not being ready to have a child.

Cronquist said she thinks an abortion should be an option for people if their life becomes threatened by continuing a pregnancy. She also said she hopes Republicans dont stop at 15 weeks if they win control of the legislature.

If that means we need to do incremental steps, Im all for it, she said. But ultimately, yes, I want to protect every human life from the moment of conception.

Both Cronquist and McIntyre wanted their pregnancies to continue. They wanted the boys they could have raised to become men.

Their choices diverged, but they reflect some of the nuances in the choices Virginia voters will make Nov. 7.

Collection: Abortion in Bristol
Nearly 3,400 voters whod mistakenly been removed from the rolls have been reinstated, Virginias Department of Elections said on Friday.

The voters, who had been canceled in error, are felons who had violated their probation but were misclassified as having committed new felonies.

(The Department of Elections) and Virginia State Police worked diligently to review and check each canceled record to ensure all impacted voters are reinstated, the news release said. As of today, all but approximately 100 of these records have been processed by general registrars.

Also, according to the release, the records have been sent to local registrars around the state to notify affected voters by mail.

Late last year, the Department announced it had removed over 10,000 people from voting rolls whod gone on to commit new felonies after having their voting rights restored. This fall, thousands of people who had not committed new felonies were also removed.

In Virginia, felons who have completed their terms permanently lose their right to vote but can petition a governor for consideration of reinstatement. The process, which used to be automatic upon release from prison and had been streamlined by a Republican governor and two Democratic governors, was quietly adjusted earlier this year by the Youngkin administration.

Multiple lawsuits are in the works challenging the changes. Groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and NAACP have asked for more details on criteria for those in consideration to have their rights restored.

This week, Gov. Glenn Youngkin asked a state watchdog agency  the Office of the Inspector General  to conduct an investigation into how the voting roll issues happened. (OSIG is also already investigating how many people who had committed new felonies may accidentally still be on voter rolls.)

Virginias ACLU executive director accused Youngkins administration of passing the buck to local registrars to take responsibility for the mess the administration created.

In a letter from the administration to ACLU this week, a member of Youngkins Cabinet assured the organization that Youngkin believes that every eligible Virginian should exercise his or her right to vote.

Meanwhile, Virginias Democratic members of Congress jointly signed a letter asking the federal Department of Justice to look into the voting roll error and noted other issues the Department of Elections has had under Youngkins administration, such as the backlog of registrations last fall.

House Minority Leader Don Scott Jr., D-Portsmouth, criticized the Youngkin administration over the error, saying in part: The right to vote is the most sacred American right that we have, and this latest stunt shows their ineptitude is even worse than malice.

The issues come as early voting is under way and Virginias entire state legislature is up for election this year. Election Day is Nov. 7.

Today in history: Oct. 27 1858: Theodore Roosevelt 1954: Benjamin O. Davis Jr. 1978: Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin 1986: The New York Mets 1998: Hurricane Mitch 2001: Anthrax 2004: The Boston Red Sox 2011: Greece 2016: Dakota Access Oil Pipeline 2016: Portland, Oregon 2017: Ryan Zinke 2017: Tiger Woods 2018: Pittsburgh 2020: Amy Coney Barrett 2020: Donald Trump 2020: Keith Raniere 2020: The Los Angeles Dodgers
Citations for breaking laws meant to protect young people in the workplace soared from 34 in 2020 to 1,324 in 2022, the department said in response to an inquiry from the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

The 2022 violations include 65 where employers had youth under 16 years of age doing prohibited, hazardous work such as repairing machinery, working in freezers or loading and unloading trucks, railcars or conveyor belts.

Some 566 violations were for violations of the ban on youth under 16 working nights or more than 18 hours a week when school is in session.

So far this year, child labor law violations are running below last years pace, with some 463 citations.

The increase in violations corresponds to businesses returning to full operations following the pandemic and labor market recovery, said department spokesman Stephen Clausing said.

The pandemic also set off a surge in cases where the department found employers are not paying employees what they are owed.

While the department found employers owed $272,029 in back wages to workers in 2020, that number soared to $999,547 in 2022.

The number of closed investigations of employee complaints rose from 767 to 960 over that same period.

So far this year, meanwhile, complaints and back pay awards remain high: as of mid-October, the department has found employers owe $749,023 in back wages after closing 757 investigations.

It has been our observation that numbers of findings and cases are increasing as the workforce returns from the COVID-19 pandemic, Clausing said.

Both the state and federal labor departments investigate complaints about unfair wage and hours practices, which generally involve a failure to pay overtime or to pay at least the minimum wage.

The U.S. Department of Labor earlier this month obtained a court order to recover $205,180 in back wages and liquidated damages  basically, an additional payment equal to the wages owed  against Williamsburgs FFT Restaurant Group for overtime owed to 62 employees.

Many restaurant workers struggle to make ends meet and they deserve to be paid for all hours worked. Employers who shortchange their employees will be held accountable, said Roberto Melendez, the federal Wage and Hour Division district director in Richmond.

Del. Mike Mullin, D-Newport News, said the large number of constituent requests for help to secure overtime pay prompted his 2021 legislation that formally declared that people who work more than 40 hours a week are entitled to pay for that additional time at 1 1/2 times their usual hourly rate.

That aligned Virginia law with the federal act.

Wage theft is a real issue, Mullin said. It wasnt clear that employees who went to Virginia courts were going to the proper place to get help, I wanted to make the courts work better to address overtime issues.

Virginia wage payment law also provides for liquidated damages and says employees are entitled to interest of 8% on back pay owed.

Photos: College clothing made in factories rife with labor violations, poverty wages
Washington (CNN)  The US carried out airstrikes targeting two facilities linked to Iranian-backed militias in eastern Syria on Thursday, according to a statement from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, following a series of drone and rocket attacks against US forces in the region.

The statement said the facilities have been used by Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and affiliated groups.

The strikes, carried out by a pair of F-16 fighter jets using precision-guided munitions, targeted a weapons and ammunition storage facility in Abu Kamal near the border between Syria and Iraq.

Austin described the strikes, which were ordered by President Joe Biden, as narrowly tailored in self-defense and emphasized they are separate from the ongoing conflict in Gaza. He directly accused Iran of having a role in the attacks on US forces, saying in the statement, Iran wants to hide its hand and deny its role in these attacks against our forces. We will not let them. Austin also promised further strikes if the attacks by Irans proxies continue.

The two facilities targeted by US airstrikes in eastern Syria had been previously occupied by members of Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and affiliated militia groups, a senior military official said, but its still unclear if the strikes resulted in any casualties.

We know that there were people on the target at various points during the day, said the official during a briefing with reporters following the attack. Again, we know that they were not civilians, the official added. The people that occupy these locations are Iranian-aligned militia groups as well as IRGC personnel.

But it would take more time to establish a more precise figure on how many were killed in the strike, if any, the official said.

A senior defense official called Iran the center of gravity for the attacks on US forces in the region, saying that Iranian fingerprints are all over this.

Tehran and Iranian senior leaders are funding, arming, equipping, training and directing a whole plethora of militia groups across the region, and they have escalated attacks against US forces since October 17, which is why we took self-defense action tonight, the official said.

The Biden administration has carried out strikes against militias before, but at a time of enormous tension, the US is looking to send a strong message to Iran and the militias not to escalate their attacks and spark a wider conflict in the Middle East. The region is on edge as the Israel-Hamas war, which was triggered by Hamas brutal terror attack on October 7, continues.

Earlier Thursday, the US announced it is deploying about 900 troops to the Middle East - with the potential for many more. The US has also moved two carrier strike groups to the eastern Mediterranean Sea and an amphibious ready group closer to Israel in the waters of the Middle East.

The US strikes follow a growing number of attacks against US forces in Iraq and Syria since October 17. As of Thursday evening, US forces had come under attack a total of 19 times, according to the Pentagon, at least 12 separate times in Iraq and four separate times in Syria, resulting in 21 US service members suffering injuries. The Pentagon said the injuries were all minor and that the troops have returned to duty. One US civilian contractor suffered a fatal heart attack as a result of a false alarm at one of the bases in Iraq.

On Wednesday, Biden issued a strong warning to Iran about its proxies attacking US forces in the region. My warning to the ayatollah was that if they continued to move against those troops, we will respond, and they should be prepared. Biden also said the presence of US troops in Iraq and Syria is focused on the campaign to defeat ISIS and is not related to the ongoing conflict in Israel.

But Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian did not attempt to tamp down the tensions Thursday at an emergency session of the UN General Assembly, stating that the US will not be spared from this fire if the war in Gaza doesnt end. Earlier this week, the minister had said that Iran had received two messages from the US, though he would not say how or when the messages were delivered. The first message said the US was not interested in a wider expansion of the conflict, he said, while the second urged Iran and its partners to have self-restraint.

The last known US strike against Iranian-backed militias in the region occurred in March, when the military struck a facility it said was used by groups affiliated with Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. It followed a similar series of drone and rocket attacks against US facilities in the region.

Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said Thursday that the US will always reserve the right to self-defense and that if the US chooses to retaliate for the drone and rocket attacks, it would be at a time and place of our choosing.

In the face of an increased threat of attack, the Defense Department is rushing additional air defenses to the Middle East. Those systems include a THAAD battery, which is a medium-range air defense system, long-range Patriot batteries, and short-range Avenger air defense systems. The Pentagon declined to say exactly when they would arrive or where they would be stationed.

The US is also providing two Iron Dome air defense systems to Israel for its own needs.

This story has been updated with additional details.
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives needed 22 days to elect a new speaker of the House on Wednesday. That left just 23 days for Congress to avert a potential shutdown of the federal government on Nov. 17.

In between, on Nov. 7, Virginia voters will determine party control of the General Assembly in legislative elections that will swing on political districts with heavy concentrations of federal employees, contractors, military service members and retirees who would be most directly affected by a federal government shutdown.

How will voters react to what many congressional Republicans have acknowledged was an embarrassing spectacle as they cast ballots in potentially pivotal elections in Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads and the Richmond suburbs?

It doesnt take many voters to change the outcome of these races, said Chris Saxman, a former Republican delegate who now leads Virginia FREE, a business organization that keeps a close eye on state politics.

If people are scared and concerned, if they want to register a complaint, thats how they do it, Saxman said.

Virginia Republicans hope the election of Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., a close ally of former President Donald Trump in his bid to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, will make the issue go away. Virginia Democrats in the House of Delegates want to make sure voters dont forget, running a new television ad to draw attention to what they called Make America Great Again extremism in Congress and the threat of a potential government shutdown for Virginians.

This is what MAGA Republicans are doing in Washington, and its what theyll do with total control in Richmond, intones the narrator of a 30-second ad House Democrats unveiled late Tuesday, the first public attempt to link the breakdown of Republican governance in the U.S. House of Representatives with elections for the Virginia General Assembly.

House Minority Leader Don Scott Jr., D-Portsmouth, who said the ad will run in the Richmond area and other politically competitive markets, accused congressional Republicans of letting the most extreme wings of their party plunge our country into chaos.

I actually think the whole thing is moot now

Senate Democrats, trying to hold and expand a 22-18 advantage, havent focused on the issue in campaigns, but its always there in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads, said Sen. Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, vice chairman of the party caucus. Our elections are always about whats happening federally.

Zack Roday, coordinated campaign director for Gov. Glenn Youngkins Spirit of Virginia political operation, dismissed the House Democratic ad as wasted money after the election of Johnson as House speaker.

I actually think the whole thing is moot now, Roday said after the House vote on Wednesday afternoon.

There was a bit of chaos, but now its gone and thats a good thing, he added.

Roday said fear of a shutdown is unfounded and suggested that Johnsons first priority as House speaker will be to pass another continuing resolution to temporarily fund the government until Congress can act on a full budget for the fiscal year that began on Oct. 1.

There is no shutdown, he said.

But some other Republican officials acknowledge the continuing danger to their legislative candidates from the threat of a potential shutdown. The clock is ticking away on the 45-day continuing resolution that averted the shutdown on Sept. 30, said Rich Anderson, chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia and a former four-term delegate in Prince William County, one of the battlegrounds in the impending election.

The stopgap funding resolution cost then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., his job, as all but one House Democrat joined with moderate Republicans to approve it over the objection of members of the House Freedom Caucus, representing the most conservative members of the House.

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Rep. Bob Good, R-5th, and Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., two of the eight Republicans who voted to remove McCarthy as speaker, said in a recent joint appearance at a political fundraiser in Louisa County that they were willing to risk a shutdown by forcing out McCarthy under new rules that they and other members of the Freedom Caucus had demanded in return for supporting the his election as speaker in January.

We were willing to throw down and risk shutting down the government to achieve anything, Good said at the Hope for America fundraiser near Mineral Saturday.

That threat doesnt go away with the election of a new speaker, nor does the memory of the chaos they unleashed, said Larry Sabato, president of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.

This has been one of the great clown shows in American history, Sabato said on Wednesday. It lasted so long it certainly will be remembered through this years elections, if not next years elections.

How the House ended up

After toppling McCarthy, House Republicans burned through three other nominees before arriving at Johnson, including House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., who withdrew after Trump, seeking re-election as president next year, denounced him as a globalist RINO, or Republican in Name Only, for not being sufficiently loyal to his MAGA movement. Emmer had voted to certify the election of Democrat Joe Biden as president on Jan. 6, 2021, after a violent insurrection by Trump loyalists at the U.S. Capitol. (Johnson, the new speaker, was an architect of an unsuccessful legal strategy for Trump to overturn the election results.)

Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., withdrew Oct. 12, a day after he claimed the partys nomination. Freedom Caucus Co-founder Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who initially had lost the nomination to Scalise, lost a secret vote of the Republican caucus to remain the partys nominee Oct. 20, after failing on three floor votes because of opposition by moderate Republicans, including Rep. Jen Kiggans, R-2nd. Kiggans called Jordans bid a nasty campaign of threats and intimidation by his supporters.

Kiggans, Good and the three other Republicans in the Virginia delegation ultimately supported Johnson in a party-line vote.

Kiggans, a former U.S. Navy helicopter pilot, and a critic of the Republican renegades who voted to oust McCarthy, represents a district based in Virginia Beach that has a large military presence.

Today, I voted to restore governance in Washington by supporting Congressman Mike Johnson as the next Speaker of the House, Kiggans said in a statement. During my conversations with Mr. Johnson, he presented himself as an honest, hardworking, and principled conservative. He listened to my concerns about the devastating impact a government shutdown would have on thousands of working families in Southeast Virginia and understands the need to prioritize our military. He also provided reassurance that our defense budget will be protected.

For more than three weeks, the House has been paralyzed because eight Republicans voted with every single Democrat to send Congress into a state of chaos without a plan.

Rep. Bobby Scott, D-3rd, the senior member of Virginias congressional delegation in his 31st year, said: Youve got to expect that people are watching Republicans try to govern.

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who is running for re-election next year, said he expects Virginia voters to care about three weeks that left the House unable to govern and ultimately to the election of a speaker whose position on virtually every issue is on the extreme right edge of Republican extremism.

I think the spectacle of chaos in the House, toppling a leader without a new leader and then taking so long to come up with one, is definitely going to be on the minds of Virginians when they vote on Nov. 7, Kaine said in a press briefing Thursday.

Stephen Farnsworth, director of the Center for Leadership and Media Studies at the University of Mary Washington, in Fredericksburg, said that even with Johnsons election, the threat of further dysfunction hangs over this Republican caucus for the rest of their days. The Fredericksburg area is in the middle of two battleground Senate and House districts.

I think Virginia Democrats are recognizing there is some ground to be gained by talking about Republican dysfunction because even when its over, with this Republican caucus, theres no guarantee it stays over, Farnsworth said.

The impact of having no speaker

As the new Democratic ad concludes, it shows the faces of four Republican candidates in battlefield elections, including Del. Kim Taylor, R-Dinwiddie, who is trying to hold her seat in the Tri-Cities area against Democrat Kimberly Pope Adams, also of Dinwiddie. The other featured candidates are running in swing districts in the Fredericksburg area, Virginia Beach and Prince William County, a fast-growing suburb in Northern Virginia.

Those races also are targets of SEIU Virginia, a union of service employees that is spending $1.5 million for door-to-door canvassing and advertising on behalf of Democratic candidates in key legislative and local elections, including House and Senate races in western Henrico County.

Union canvassers say theyre hearing from voters in Prince William and Loudoun counties about the threat of a government shutdown because of its potential effect on them.

Its absolutely on the minds of working families, said David Broder, president of SEIU Virginia 512, who says some of his neighbors in Fairfax County are already cutting back spending in case of a shutdown.

People are planning for a government shutdown and its affecting their family budget, Broder said. Its going to have an impact on the local economy.

Like Roday, the coordinated campaign director for Youngkins Spirit of Virginia, Kaine doesnt expect a shutdown next month. He predicted instead another stopgap measure to buy time through the end of the year.

The notion that we would have done a deal by Nov. 17 seemed to me highly unrealistic, he said. And that was before we ended up with three weeks of dead time in the House with no speaker.

Close A sign hangs on the gate of the Beaver Dam Creek Battlefield Park in Mechanicsville, Va. as the federal shutdown continues into its fourth day, Friday, Oct. 4, 2013. This sign was posted on the front door of the Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site on Richmond's E. Leigh Street, notifying visitors of the reason for its closing. Oct. 1, 2013. The Chimborazo Visitor Center at Richmond National Battlefield Park, at N. 33rd and E. Broad streets, was closed as a result of the federal government shutdown. Oct. 1, 2013. This sign was posted on the front door of the Chimborazo Visitor Center at Richmond National Battlefield Park, at N. 33rd and E. Broad streets, notifying visitors of the reason for its closing. Oct. 1, 2013. The Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site on Richmond's E. Leigh Street was closed because of the federal government shutdown. Oct. 1, 2013. Phyllis (foreground) and Norman Sims (wearing hat) of Goochland wait in line for a cashier at Fort Lee's commissary Tuesday, October 1, 2013, the day before it closes because of the government shut down. Norman is retired military. Sonya Foust-Davis, produce manager at the Fort Lee Commissary, restocks the display Tuesday, October 1, 2013, a day before it closes because of the government shut down. She said double the amount of produce could have been sold today due to more shoppers. Chanel Green loads groceries at the Fort Lee Commissary Tuesday, October 1, 2013, a day before it closes because of the government shut down. Sarah Gauvin, community relations specialist at Fort Lee, Va., is one of many Department of Defense civilian employees being furloughed due to the lapse in appropriated funding for government operations. US Park Police officers stand in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2013, as it was closed to visitors. Congress plunged the nation into a partial government shutdown Tuesday as a long-running dispute over President Barack Obama's health care law stalled a temporary funding bill, forcing about 800,000 federal workers off the job and suspending most non-essential federal programs and services. A sign is posted at an entrance to the closed Valley Forge National Historical Park Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2013, in Valley Forge, Pa. Congress plunged the nation into a partial government shutdown Tuesday as a long-running dispute over President Barack Obama's health care law stalled a temporary funding bill, forcing about 800, 000 federal workers off the job and suspending most non-essential federal programs and services. Normally filled with visitors and tourists, the empty Rotunda at the U.S. Capitol is seen in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2013, after officials suspended all organized tours of the Capitol and the Capitol Visitors Center as part of the government shutdown. A statue of President Gerald R. Ford at center is illuminated amid large paintings illustrating the history of the United States. Janet Bredlau of Westfield, N.J., takes a snapshot of her husband Carl along the barrier at the entrance of the Vicksburg National Military Park in Vicksburg, Miss., Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2014. The National Park Service has closed many memorials and parks and non-essential staff has been directed to go home due to the federal government shutdown. Visitors were limited to parking along the street and getting a quick photograph of the canon and the small number of monuments on display. U.S. Post Office letter carrier Jacob Ribald peeks into the window of the Bureau of Land Management office on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2013 in Las Cruces, N.M. "I have a lot of mail for them," said Ribald, "at least I tried, right?" The door is locked and a sign is posted saying that the site is closed because of the government shutdown. Weir Farm National Historic Site Facility Manager Kevin Monthie places a sign on a rope strung accross the entrance to the Park in Wilton, Conn., stating the National Park service facility is closed due to the Federal Government shutdown on Tuesday Oct. 1, 2013. Resa Mestel, of New York, reacts after finding the Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Asheville, N.C., closed due to the government shutdown Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2013. In the wake of a partial shutdown of the U.S. government, the National Park Service began closing down parks and other facilities until federal funding is restored. Government shutdown View photos from the first day of the government shutdown. Government employees furloughed, national parks locked and elected officials working through the day on Tuesday Oct. 1, 2013 to restore government operations. Article: Shutdown causes distress among area federal workers A sign hangs on the gate of the Beaver Dam Creek Battlefield Park in Mechanicsville, Va. as the federal shutdown continues into its fourth day, Friday, Oct. 4, 2013. This sign was posted on the front door of the Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site on Richmond's E. Leigh Street, notifying visitors of the reason for its closing. Oct. 1, 2013. The Chimborazo Visitor Center at Richmond National Battlefield Park, at N. 33rd and E. Broad streets, was closed as a result of the federal government shutdown. Oct. 1, 2013. This sign was posted on the front door of the Chimborazo Visitor Center at Richmond National Battlefield Park, at N. 33rd and E. Broad streets, notifying visitors of the reason for its closing. Oct. 1, 2013. The Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site on Richmond's E. Leigh Street was closed because of the federal government shutdown. Oct. 1, 2013. Phyllis (foreground) and Norman Sims (wearing hat) of Goochland wait in line for a cashier at Fort Lee's commissary Tuesday, October 1, 2013, the day before it closes because of the government shut down. Norman is retired military. Sonya Foust-Davis, produce manager at the Fort Lee Commissary, restocks the display Tuesday, October 1, 2013, a day before it closes because of the government shut down. She said double the amount of produce could have been sold today due to more shoppers. Chanel Green loads groceries at the Fort Lee Commissary Tuesday, October 1, 2013, a day before it closes because of the government shut down. Sarah Gauvin, community relations specialist at Fort Lee, Va., is one of many Department of Defense civilian employees being furloughed due to the lapse in appropriated funding for government operations. US Park Police officers stand in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2013, as it was closed to visitors. Congress plunged the nation into a partial government shutdown Tuesday as a long-running dispute over President Barack Obama's health care law stalled a temporary funding bill, forcing about 800,000 federal workers off the job and suspending most non-essential federal programs and services. A sign is posted at an entrance to the closed Valley Forge National Historical Park Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2013, in Valley Forge, Pa. Congress plunged the nation into a partial government shutdown Tuesday as a long-running dispute over President Barack Obama's health care law stalled a temporary funding bill, forcing about 800, 000 federal workers off the job and suspending most non-essential federal programs and services. Normally filled with visitors and tourists, the empty Rotunda at the U.S. Capitol is seen in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2013, after officials suspended all organized tours of the Capitol and the Capitol Visitors Center as part of the government shutdown. A statue of President Gerald R. Ford at center is illuminated amid large paintings illustrating the history of the United States. Janet Bredlau of Westfield, N.J., takes a snapshot of her husband Carl along the barrier at the entrance of the Vicksburg National Military Park in Vicksburg, Miss., Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2014. The National Park Service has closed many memorials and parks and non-essential staff has been directed to go home due to the federal government shutdown. Visitors were limited to parking along the street and getting a quick photograph of the canon and the small number of monuments on display. U.S. Post Office letter carrier Jacob Ribald peeks into the window of the Bureau of Land Management office on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2013 in Las Cruces, N.M. "I have a lot of mail for them," said Ribald, "at least I tried, right?" The door is locked and a sign is posted saying that the site is closed because of the government shutdown. Weir Farm National Historic Site Facility Manager Kevin Monthie places a sign on a rope strung accross the entrance to the Park in Wilton, Conn., stating the National Park service facility is closed due to the Federal Government shutdown on Tuesday Oct. 1, 2013. Resa Mestel, of New York, reacts after finding the Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Asheville, N.C., closed due to the government shutdown Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2013. In the wake of a partial shutdown of the U.S. government, the National Park Service began closing down parks and other facilities until federal funding is restored.
They may not agree on much, but President Joe Biden and Gov. Glenn Youngkin agree on this much: theyre taking a pass on campaigning in New Hampshire in January, when temperatures rarely break the freezing point.

Friday was the deadline to file for what may  or may not  be New Hampshires first in the nation primary, where political mythology insists, despite much recent evidence, that presidents are forged and runners up fail.

And Youngkins not filing, his Spirit of Virginia political action committee says  though doing so is just about as easy as it gets: a $1,000 fee and a declaration that you are a U.S. citizen, registered with either the Democrats or Republicans, and at least 35 years old. Address, phone and email are also required.

(Ultimately 24 Republicans filed to run in the primary, including all of the main GOP presidential hopefuls. New Hampshires Democratic presidential primary drew 21 candidates, including a New Yorker who goes by the name of Paperboy Love Prince.)

That New Hampshire may or may not be the first primary is why Biden isnt running. Democrats have reshuffled the order of their primaries to make South Carolina first, a move intended to better reflect the proportion of American voters who are Black or brown. Biden said he will follow the partys schedule  a plan he pushed.

As for Youngkin?

Governor Youngkin is spending every waking moment making the case for our Virginia candidates, telling voters why they should send him a team in Richmond to keep moving Virginia forward, said Dave Rexrode, chairman of Youngkins Spirit of Virginia political action committee, when asked if the governor would file in New Hampshire.

Youngkin does do other things, of course.

Just this week, he led a Cabinet meeting, hosted a forum for faith leaders on his behavioral health reform plan, had a briefing from Secretary of Finance Stephen Cummings, visited a school and broke ground for a new workforce center in far Southwest Virginia and celebrated the arrival of the first 272-foot-long, 1,500-ton steel tubes that will anchor the wind turbines in Dominion Energys $9 billion offshore wind energy farm.

While some big donors reportedly have encouraged the governor to make a late presidential run, Youngkins been saying all along that his focus is in Virginia.

I have not written a book and I have not gone to Iowa to eat corn dogs  and I love corn dogs, Youngkin told the Richmond Times-Dispatch earlier this year, when asked about persistent speculation that he is planning a run for the White House.

In recent years, Iowas caucuses, held before the New Hampshire primary, have captured the attention of pundits trying to call presidential winners and losers.

Speculation that hes eying national office heated up when Youngkin traveled the nation last year campaigning for Republican gubernatorial candidates in 15 states.

More recently, speculation mounted again as hes wooed big donors for his PAC, which just this year has raised $18.5 million, including $3 million in donations from Thomas Peterffy, after the billionaire pulled away from supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis presidential bid. Youngkins PAC also received $2 million from billionaire investor Jeff Yass.

The PAC has spent $6.6 million in contributions to Virginia General Assembly candidates campaigns, $1.5 million on consultants and staff to support those campaigns, $2 million on fundraising and $2.7 million on a range of other supports for those campaigns, ranging from automated calls to advertising to bumper stickers.

The PAC has $6.5 million in hand  big money to pass around Virginia races but a fraction of what DeSantis has spent in just the 4-1/2 months from mid-May through September, according to his filings with the Federal Election Commission,

Still despite his regular declarations that hes focused on Virginia  these days on flipping the Democratic-lead state Senate and holding or expanding the GOP edge in the House of Delegates  speculation wont die.

Last month David Rubenstein, his old boss at The Carlyle Group, tried more than a half-dozen times to test the Republican governors potential interest in running for the presidency or, alternatively, the vice presidency on a GOP ticket with former President Donald Trump, who, despite multiple indictments, leads his closest GOP rival by 45 percentage points.

Not for lack of trying, Youngkin quipped at the end of his interview with Rubenstein at The Economic Club of Washington.

Most recently, CBS News chief election and campaign correspondent Robert Costa and Washington Post associate editor Karen Tumulty have written that some big Republican donors to political funds  including Youngkins Spirit of Virginia  have been talking about drafting Youngkin.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin isnt saying hes running. But he isnt saying hes not running, either, Tumulty wrote in an August column. Costa made the same point four weeks ago.

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Gov. Glenn Youngkins administration is joining others in seeking investigations into Virginia voting issues.

Secretary of Administration Lyn McDermid notified the Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union this week that the governor has ordered the Office of the State Inspector General to investigate recent reports of people being removed from voter rolls.

That error appears to stem from a change the department implemented this past winter. It was meant to remove people from the rolls who had previously served time for felonies and since had their rights restored  but who have also since committed new felonies.

But some canceled voters had not committed new felonies.

The letter conveyed that Youngkin is deeply concerned that people were removed from voting rolls, which the Department of Elections told Virginia Public Media were canceled in error.

Governor Youngkin believes that every eligible Virginian should exercise his or her right to vote, McDermid wrote of Youngkin in her letter.

In response, ACLU executive director Mary Bauer expressed concern that people may still be affected by the errors as election season comes to a close.

Citing what she sees as a larger issue, she said: The simple fact is that potentially thousands of Virginians still dont have voting rights who should.

OSIG is a state watchdog agency whose task is to investigate inefficiencies in state government. The legislature created the organization in 2012.

Virginias Democratic members of Congress recently signed a letter to ask for the Department of Justice to probe this and other voting issues that have occurred.

More than issues with voting rolls, the letter pointed to changes to how the state restores voting rights to people who have been convicted of felonies but finished serving their time.

In Virginia, people convicted of felonies permanently lose several rights, including to vote, even upon completion of their prison sentences. Any restorations are within the purview of the governor and happen through the office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth.

Though three previous governors had streamlined the process for ex-felons to have their rights restored, and eventually made the process automatic upon release, the Youngkin administration quietly adjusted the process earlier this year.

Following inquiries from the Richmond Times-Dispatch, other media, state lawmakers and the Virginia conference of the NAACP, then-Secretary of the Commonwealth Kay Coles James wrote in a letter to the NAACP that Youngkin will be less likely to quickly restore the voting rights of anyone who used a firearm in the commission of a crime, and that, generally speaking, but not always, he will work to restore the voting rights of those who committed nonviolent crimes.

Richmond resident George Hawkins has a case against the Youngkin administration that is moving forward in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Hawkins, who completed a 13-year sentence for attempted murder and aggravated malicious wounding, claims his application for restoration was rejected and told VPM News that hes unclear why.

As Hawkins case progresses, it could shine more light on the case-by-case basis of rights restorations under the Youngkin administration.

Bauer at ACLU said the organization has received reports from people who are still waiting for their rights to be restored or are afraid to ask for them.

The Times-Dispatch launching Reader Advisory Board Great story ideas are the lifeblood of any strong news organization.

As to the status of people who were purged from voter rolls in recent errors, McDermids letter added that the Department of Elections has instructed local registrars to work to reinstate mistakenly canceled voters as quickly as possible.

But Bauer is still concerned.

Virginia governors have historically restored Virginians voting rights  not removed them, she said. Yet rather than providing information about how this happened, how voters will be notified, or how many people were impacted, Secretary McDermids letter attempts to pass the buck to local registrars to take responsibility for the mess the administration created.

Early voting, which began last month, will conclude on Nov. 4. More than 412,700 Virginians had voted early as of Wednesday, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. Election Day is Nov. 7.

17 photos of Richmond Department Stores from our archives
Chilean man extradited to carry out 60 year prison sentence in Mexico

Mexico City, Mexico  A Chilean man wanted for a kidnapping in Mexico has been temporarily returned to the country. On Thursday, Raul E was extradited from his native Chile to Mexico to continue his 60-year prison sentence.

In a statement, the State Attorney of the Republic (FGR) reported that in compliance with the Extradition Treaty signed between Mexico and the Republic of Chile, a person who was temporarily extradited in September 2021 was returned to the Mexican Government.

According to the FGR, Raul E was being tried by the Court of Appeals of Santiago for a terrorist attack that resulted in the death of a Chilean senator.

During the month of October, Chilean authorities sentenced Raul E to 18 years in prison for the crime, however, they authorized his return to Mexican authorities with the purpose of continuing to serve a sentence of 60 years in prison for the crime of kidnapping, the Agency reported in their statement.

The return to Mexico was carried out at the Guanajuato International Airport, by the Chilean agents designated for his transfer, in order to be placed at the disposal of the Mexican judicial authority.

In a different statement, the FGE of Mexico reported in compliance with the Mexico  Chile Extradition Treaty, a person was temporarily returned to our country with the purpose of continuing to serve his 60-year prison sentence for the crime of kidnapping. He was sentenced in 2021 by the Court of Appeals of Santiago de Chile for the crime of terrorist attack.
Set in the opening decade of the current millennium, Elliot Ackermans Halcyon is a tale based on many alternative historical eventsmost notably, that Al Gore won the 2000 election, oversaw the capture of Osama bin Laden shortly after the 9/11 attacks, declined to launch into the Iraq conflict, and, most relevantly, funded advanced medical research that made possible the books central premise: the ability to revivify the dead.

Ackermans protagonist, Civil War historian Martin Neumann, wades into the conflicted lives of one family whose patriarch has chosen to avail himself of this medical resurrection and its supposed benefits. That man, Robert Ableson, a retired Virginia attorney and owner of the property for which the book is named, befriends Martinwho is taking a sabbatical at a cottage on the Halcyon groundsdrawing him unwittingly into the events that will unfold.

In a satisfying way, the story wholly avoids the obviously available sci-fi take on its subject matterin fact, the characters, as they learn of what Ableson has done, take in the development with strangely little reaction. Rather, the novel explores the philosophical and personal implications of a world in which the dead can be brought back to life, resulting in a worthwhile meditation on what humans owe each other in life and in dying, and how the living account for death itself.

Given that the author steers his story this way, it is surprising how lightly he touches on religious themes and questions. There is a passing reference to Ablesons general view on the subject, in that he allows for Gods existence based on the logic of Pascals famous wager: If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Of course, it is much more important to the story that he follows this same line of thinking when taking his chance with science. Neumann thinks of this parallel explicitly: I now understood  [Ableson had] made not only religious arrangements for his death but also scientific ones. And it seemed the scientific arrangements had paid off. Much of the plot, unsurprisingly, revolves around whether and how these arrangements did, in fact, pay offand there are far more negative consequences than anticipatedfor Ablesons wife, three children, old friends and colleagues, and even his recent acquaintance Neumann.

Thus, while no other explicitly religious themes are discussed as the plot unfolds, the moral implications of a fictional world populated by people who could and would choose medical resurrection are constantly being weighed. Discussing a situation in which his daughter had narrowly avoided death, Ableson himself states: Had she died, she believes she wouldve died for no reason. But having lived, shes often felt she lived for no reason too. What does anything matter when it can all be arbitrarily swept away? Theres added poignancy to that observation, given the arbitrariness lent to both life and death in a world in which scientific resurrection is possible.

In the real world, even without religion, death gives life meaning by suffusing it with the urgency presented by a looming finality. For the religious, there is a similar urgency lent by a finality of a different kind, for it is not an ultimate end that will be faced but rather a passage, a judgment, a joining with a destiny for which earthly life is lived. In this way, for them, it is not only true that death gives life meaning but also thatunlike for their non-believing counterpartslife gives death meaning. The novel (perhaps unintentionally) plays on this, as the key scientific advancement in the story is nothing short of resurrection itself, the very thing that Christians believe makes the passage through, or event of, death so specifically meaningful. Critically, though, Halcyons resurrection is one without salvation, meaning it inherently lacks ultimate rewards, and the story based upon it consequently must leave the implications of such rewards unexplored.

This being the case, the novel pays much more attention to other themes, and history is foremost among them. This is, after all, a story that features a world shaped by an alternative past, featuring a protagonist that is a historian. As if to set the stage for all that is to come, our narrator, Neumann, ponders at the outset of the book what  were the minor events of today that would forever change the trajectory of the future while contemplating some of the very alternative historical developments built into the plot. This has the effect of calling the readers attention not only to the ripples extending out in time from the seemingly mundane events of contemporary life but also the precariousness of lives and their trajectories. Not coincidentally, the characters of the book, most especially the Ableson family, are impacted by the precariousness inherent in the natural order as much as they are by Robert Ablesons attempt to defy that order.

Laced throughout this tale is Neumanns own struggle with history as a professional endeavor. Its a struggle brought into sharp relief by another plotline: a movement to remove a Confederate monument from the Gettysburg battlefield. The controversy over the subject animates many characters and creates divisions between them, but for Neumann, the Civil War historian, the issue is more than a mere social or political question of the day. A colleague who supports the statues removal believes that history had to remain forward looking; only through the consistent, harsh gaze of the present could we properly judge the past, but Martin feels differently. In the tradition of his idol, the southern historian Shelby Foote, Martins academic and intellectual focus is that of social compromise: how the failure to reach it resulted in the war, how the ability to embrace it helped the country heal afterward, and how the lessons of both could be applied to contemporary society. To Neumann, so much of the statue-removal movement smacks not only of an unwillingness to compromise but also of an attempt to erase the actual events and people of the past.

The controversy leaves Martin feeling isolated, conflicted, and ambivalent about the thrust of his academic career. Its an ennui not helped by the questions raised by Ablesons resurrection, which forces everyone to reconsider the straight line of history and the nature of humanitys compromise with the limitations of a lifespan. Never forget, the fictional version of Foote had once inscribed in a book for the young Neumann, history is what the living think of the dead. But the arc of Robert Ablesons life directly threatens that very formulation, because he simply refuses to die.

The fantastical nature of that mans resurrection notwithstanding, then, the story leaves the readers with much to consider in terms of their own views on the meaning of history, the trajectory of life, and the implications of death. This is about time and who owns it, says one character, in summary of an unfolding plotline in the novel. So, who owns time? For those who hope for resurrection without salvation, that question is and always will be unanswerable. To those for whom the former is only made possible by the latter, the answer is obvious. While Ackermans narrator is enamored of Shelby Foote, it is perhaps most appropriate to give the last word to Footes friend of nearly 50 years, the novelist Walker Percy, whose formulation was far more thorough than Pascals:
A federal appeals court has denied a request from six landowners to stop construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline on their property while their lawsuit is pending.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia turned down a petition for an emergency injunction in a brief order Tuesday.

In what is believed to be the last pending legal action involving pipeline construction in Virginia, the landowners are challenging Mountain Valleys use of eminent domain, which it employed in 2018 to take their land for the natural gas pipeline.

Concerned that the 2020 lawsuit is taking so long to be heard, the landowners sought to stop work on their land  three parcels in Franklin, Montgomery and Roanoke counties  until there is a decision in the case.

The delays are nothing but shameless stall tactics by Mountain Valley and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, who are trying to run out the clock by manipulating the judicial process, the landowners attorney, Mia Yugo of Roanoke, wrote in court documents.

Mountain Valley urged the court to reject the thirteenth hour request for an injunction, citing a law passed by Congress in May that declared the 303-mile pipeline to be in the national interest and fast-tracked its completion.

Additional delays  on top of years of delays and billions of dollars of losses already incurred as a result of the barrage of prior litigation seeking to prevent the pipeline from being built  will undermine the public interest benefits Congress has identified, attorneys for the company argued.

Last week, Mountain Valley abandoned its earlier goal of completing the $7.2 billion project by years end, telling the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it now hopes to have the pipeline in service sometime in the first quarter of 2024.

The plan now is to have all major construction done by mid-December, before winter sets in. Final stages of construction and various testing and commissioning activities would then happen early next year, Mountain Valley said in a filing with the landowners case.

Yugo said the three couples she represents  Cletus and Beverly Bohon of Montgomery County, Robert and Aimee Hamm of Roanoke County and Wendell and Mary Flora of Franklin County  are considering an appeal of the denial of their emergency injunction request.

Without an injunction, Yugo says that construction may have already been completed by the time the case is decided.

The court, which gave no reason for its denial of the emergency request, is still receiving briefs on the underlying case, with the latest round due in mid-November. A decision will likely come next year.

The lawsuit asserts that Congress improperly delegated eminent domain authority to FERC, which in turn gave Mountain Valley the power to take private land for its pipeline after finding there was a public need for it.

In more recent filings, Yugo has also challenged the constitutionality of the law that green-lighted Mountain Valley. Critics say Congress violated the separation of powers doctrine when it substituted its judgement for that of the courts, which had repeatedly struck down government permits granted to Mountain Valley before the law prohibited such challenges.

Also this week, Mountain Valley moved forward with its plans to bore a tunnel under the Roanoke River for its 42-inch diameter pipe.

Heavy equipment was stationed Thursday afternoon on each side of a stretch of the river that forms the Montgomery-Roanoke county line near Lafayette. Plans call for two pits to be dug across the river from one another.

A crew will then bore horizontally from one pit to the other, allowing the pipe to pass directly behind the boring machine. The crossing will be 316 feet long and at least 6 feet beneath the river bottom, according to plans filed in 2020 with FERC.

The crossing will take about 90 days, the report said.

Along its route from northern West Virginia through Southwest Virginia, the buried pipe will pass under nearly 1,000 rivers, streams and wetlands. A Mountain Valley spokesperson declined to comment in detail on any specific crossing, citing safety and security reasons.

The Western Virginia Water Authority, which operates Spring Hollow reservoir about 1.2 miles downstream from the crossing, was recently notified that boring would start Tuesday, according to spokeswoman Sarah Baumgardner.

Pipeline opponents say the crossings  either by boring or digging a trench along the bottom of a water body while the current is temporarily diverted  will release harmful sediment into streams and wetlands.

There have been no documented problems with sediment in the river water that is pumped to fill Spring Hollow since pipeline construction began in 2018, Baumgardner said.

Pumping is currently suspended because of the low level of the river.
One man was killed and two others were injured early Thursday in Roanokes 27th confirmed homicide this year, city police reported.

The latest homicide occurred at about 2:10 a.m. Thursday in the 800 block of Hunt Avenue Northwest, according to police.

Officers responded to the area and found a man with injuries that did not appear life-threatening outside a residence in the area, according to a police news release.

Officers were told that there were other victims. Inside a residence, they found two more men, one with injuries that did not appear life-threatening and one with injuries that appeared critical, according to the release.

Roanoke Fire-EMS Department personnel took the men with less severe injuries to Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital for treatment. The third man was pronounced dead on the scene, according to the release.

The shooting was an isolated incident between involved parties, according to the release.

Officers detained several individuals who were on scene at the time of the shooting. Those individuals were transported to the Roanoke Police Department to speak with detectives, the release states. At this time, no arrests have been made and we are not searching for additional suspects.

The departments investigation continued throughout the morning Thursday, as a forensic vehicle remained on the scene. Police have not identified the man who died in the incident.

The affected apartment complex, called Hunt Manor, is managed by the Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority.

This morning, an unfortunate incident occurred within our Hunt Manor community, the housing authority posted on social media. On behalf of the staff and Board of Directors of the RRHA, we wish to extend our heartfelt condolences to the affected family and community. We are actively collaborating with local authorities while they conduct a thorough investigation into the matter.

Thursdays homicide is the second to occur in the Hunt Avenue area in 2023. On Jan. 25, 47-year-old Christopher Sinram was shot and killed in a residence on the streets 700 block.

Sinrams stepson, 20-year-old Christopher Arias, has been charged with his murder. His jury trial is set to begin Nov. 8, according to Virginias online court case information system.

The Roanoke City Sheriffs Office launched a gun violence prevention initiative, called Operation Ceasefire: Victory in the Valley, in September. The agencys goal was to combine forces with local clergy to effect a 30-day rest from shootings.

Vice Mayor Joe Cobb, who also chairs the citys Roanoke Gun Violence Prevention Commission, said Thursday that going nearly 40 days without a homicide was a relief to many citizens, even though it didnt happen during the Ceasefire initiatives timeline.

What it conveys is that a lot of the ongoing efforts are working. Theyre effective, Cobb said in an interview. Im encouraged that as acts of violence are occurring, more people are sharing information. I think thats really helpful.

If we keep working, we can have an impact on reducing gun violence in our city, Mayor Sherman Lea said. The community is getting the word that theres not one entity thats going to solve the problem.

I encourage citizens to be involved in any way they can in our prevention and intervention efforts, Cobb said. We have story after story after story of how through grief people have said, This is what I can do to try and ensure that this doesnt happen again. And the more energy we have like that in our city, the better were going to be, and the healthier were going to be, in the long term.

Information about any Roanoke shooting can be shared by calling 540-344-8500 or by texting RoanokePD to 274637. Calls and texts can remain anonymous.
A Salem man charged with a downtown shooting and eluding incident last fall was expected to be released from jail Friday, but a judge has ordered him to lead police to where he tossed the fired gun.

Griffin Ian Newman, 26, has been held at the Western Virginia Regional Jail without bond since Aug. 8, according to the facilitys inmate lookup system.

On Nov. 7, Newman got into an argument with other patrons at the Macados restaurant in the 200 block of East Main Street, according to court proceedings. The dispute moved to the parking lot, where Newman fired a shot into the air and fled the scene on a motorcycle, according to testimony.

Police pursued Newman along West Main Street. But the chase ended at the streets intersection with Wildwood Road, where two police cruisers collided and three officers sustained minor injuries.

Newman was charged the next day with one felony count of eluding and five misdemeanors: carrying a concealed weapon, discharging a firearm in a public place, reckless handling of a firearm, reckless driving and brandishing a firearm.

At Newmans plea hearing in Salem Circuit Court in April, two of the misdemeanor charges were dropped in accordance with a motion from Assistant Commonwealths Attorney Matt Pollard. Newman pleaded no contest to the other four charges.

In accordance with a plea agreement, Newman received suspended sentences on the remaining misdemeanors. The felony eluding charge was taken under advisement and set to be reviewed Friday.

Because Newman had maintained good behavior and reported to jail to serve a six-month sentence as agreed, the eluding charge was reduced Friday to a misdemeanor. And per his plea agreement, Judge Christopher Clemens placed Newman on probation for one year and ordered him to pay $6,795 to the Salem Police Department in restitution.

Pollard asked Friday that a holster and a knife that police had recovered during their investigation be destroyed. He also asked that the gun Newman had fired be handed over to police for destruction.

But a man seated in the courtroom, who identified himself at Melvin Douglas Newman III, said, There is no firearm to surrender.

Clemens rejected that explanation. The judge asked that the elder Newman be placed under oath to testify on the matter.

Once on the witness stand, the elder Newman said that the weapon had been disposed of and that the family had no idea where it was.

The elder Newmans relationship to the defendant was not immediately clear.

After a brief court recess to allow Pollard and the younger Newmans attorney, Benjamin Sharpe, to discuss the situation, Pollard told Clemens that the firearm in question had been disposed in a body of water.

The younger Newman told Clemens the firearm had been tossed in a creek along Wildwood Road. Clemens, worried a child might find the weapon, ordered Newman, accompanied by an officer, to go find it.

Lets make an effort to find that so we can get it destroyed so everyone is safe, Clemens said.

The judge said the plea agreement Newman had entered was a very good result for clearly a serious incident. He urged Newman not to expect the same treatment if he gets in trouble again.
CHRISTIANSBURG  Gov. Glenn Youngkin rallied Republicans to vote in Christiansburg Thursday, less than two weeks before Election Day.

With all 140 seats in the state legislature on the ballot, stakes are high this election, according to Republican candidates who appeared alongside Youngkin and his campaign bus at Shelor Motor Mile.

We are going to hold our House and flip our Senate, Youngkin said. At the heart of all of this is a Virginia that we are building.

Youngkin plugged Sen. David Suetterlein, R-Roanoke County, who seeks a third term in office, and Chris Obenshain, who is seeking a state House seat in a newly drawn district. Their respective opponents are Democrats Trish White-Boyd and Lily Franklin.

This election is a very big election, Suetterlein said. Its going to determine where we go as a Commonwealth.

Youngkin and the Republican candidates talked about issues including public safety, education, behavioral health and tax cuts. They said to get out and vote.

Ive got my sleeves rolled up today, not just because its hot up here, Obenshain said. Im ready to go to work for you.

Abortion was one issue unmentioned by the Republicans on stage Thursday. Franklin, the Democratic candidate campaigning against Obenshain, said its just one of the issues at stake in this election.

Theres so much at stake this year in Virginia, Franklin said during a phone call Wednesday. Its going to determine what the direction of Virginia is.

Abortion in particular is an issue Franklin said she just keeps hearing about. Its been top of mind for voters since the U.S. Supreme Court changed a longstanding ruling regarding abortion rights last summer.

A big thing thats at stake this year is abortion rights, Franklin said. Theres a lot of women who are worried about what their rights are going to look like after this election.

Polls are open for early voting at local registrars offices. Election Day is Nov. 7.
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" " Euclid (L) holds a sphaera and looks through a dioptra. Beside him sits Hermann of Carinthia, a medieval translator of Arab works on astronomy, holding an astrolabe. Euclid is ancient but can we consider him the first scientist? Photo12/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

The word "scientist" entered the English language in 1834. That's when Cambridge University historian and philosopher William Whewell coined the term to describe someone who studies the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment. You could make the argument, then, that the first modern scientist was someone like Charles Darwin or Michael Faraday, two iconic figures who also happened to be Whewell's contemporaries. But even if the term didn't exist before the 1830s, people who embodied its principles did.

To find the very first scientist, we must travel back in time even further. We could go back to the most ancient of the ancient Greeks, all the way back to Thales of Miletus, who lived from about 624 B.C.E. to about 545 B.C.E. By many accounts, Thales achieved much in both science and mathematics, yet he left no written record and may have been, like Homer, a celebrated figure who received credit for many great achievements but who may never have existed at all.

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We could consider other ancient Greeks as well, such as Euclid (the father of geometry) or Ptolemy (the misguided astronomer who put Earth at the center of the cosmos). But all of these men, although great thinkers, relied on making arguments instead of running experiments to prove or disprove hypotheses.

Some scholars believe that modern science had its origins in an impressive class of Arabic mathematicians and philosophers working in the Middle East decades before the European Renaissance began. This group included al-Khwarizmi, Ibn Sina, al-Biruni and Ibn al-Haytham. In fact, many experts recognize Ibn al-Haytham, who lived in present-day Iraq between 965 and 1039 C.E., as the first scientist. He invented the pinhole camera, discovered the laws of refraction and studied a number of natural phenomena, such as rainbows and eclipses. And yet it remains unclear whether his scientific method was truly modern or more like Ptolemy and his Greek predecessors. It's also not clear whether he had emerged from the mysticism still prevalent at the time.

It's almost impossible to determine when the influence of mysticism had faded completely among scientists. What's easier to identify are the characteristics of a modern scientist. According to author Brian Clegg, a modern scientist must recognize the importance of experiment, embrace mathematics as a fundamental tool, consider information without bias and understand the need to communicate. In other words, he or she must be unshackled by religious dogma and willing to observe, react and think objectively. Clearly, many individuals doing scientific work in the 17th century  Christiaan Huygens, Robert Hooke, Isaac Newton  satisfied most of these requirements. But to find the first scientist with these characteristics, you have to travel to the Renaissance, to the mid-16th century.

We'll head there next.
" " The sound of schoolgirls laughing is easily one of the best sounds you'll hear all day. Peter Cade/Getty Images

Parents of newborn babies learn quickly there are many ways babies cry. One type means a baby is hungry, another cry says the baby has a dirty diaper. Then there's the cry that signals the baby just wants attention.

Parents don't put as much thought into what their child's laugh means (unless it's obvious they're fighting with their siblings). In fact, very few people consider the differences in laughter at all.

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According to the late Robert Provine, who was a laughter expert and professor emeritus of neurobiology of psychology at the University of Maryland, laughter is specifically a social structure, something that connects humans with one another in a profound way [source: Provine].

According to his findings, people are 30 percent more likely to laugh in a social setting that warrants it than when alone with humor-inducing media [source: Provine]. That means that you're more likely to laugh with friends while watching a comedy together than when you're watching the same show or movie by yourself.

Though there are many ways to laugh, from giggles to guffaws and chuckles to cackles, it turns out that we humans laugh for many reasons, some of them odd. And it's more than just the latest episode of "Saturday Night Live" that has us doubled over; 90 percent of why we laugh has nothing to do with somebody telling a joke [source: Trump].

So what are some of the different types and reasons for all the laughter?
Although the demographics of jealousy are difficult to study, researchers do have special concern about child and adolescent jealousy. According to legendary child entertainer Fred Rogers (commonly known as Mr. Rogers), competition can be tricky for very young children, likely causing jealousy to rear its ugly head when it becomes evident that parental love and attention must be shared with others.

All in the Family

Sibling rivalry is also very common in multi-child households, causing angst between children and for the parents who have to put up with near constant bickering. Unfortunately for weary parents, this behavior is completely normal.

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Kidshealth.org recommends that parents refrain from getting involved in sibling arguments unless there's a threat of physical harm. This forces the children to deal with the squabble themselves, rather than relying on the parent(s) to iron it out. It also minimizes the risk that the parent may subconsciously side with one child over another, amping up the fodder for fights.

Experts also encourage parents to keep the peace by proactively spending one-on-one time with each child and reminding them regularly that true parental love does not have limits, among other things.

Young Friendships

As if adolescence is not challenging enough, a study in the journal Developmental Psychology found that adolescents who experience low self-esteem and extreme loneliness tend to worry that friendships are threatened by others, causing jealousy that can lead to aggressive behavior.

The researchers found that intimacy (in this case through friendship) begets vulnerability, resulting in jealousy and aggression.

A sample size of 500 fifth through ninth grade students were evaluated to assess these vulnerabilities. For example, the questions were designed to find out what level of jealousy resulted in hypothetical situations, such as if their best friend went shopping with someone else.

The researchers also surveyed peers about their perceived opinions of jealous behavior in others. The study determined that adolescents with lower levels of self-worth were more likely to become jealous. In addition, the jealous adolescents studied were more inclined to become either physically or passively aggressive  ignoring people with whom they were angry.

The study also reinforced beliefs about females being more jealous than males. This group of researchers attributes this to the idea that girls have higher standards of loyalty, kindness, empathy and commitment than boys, so they become more jealous when these standards are not met.

The underlying factor in this negative behavior is the same as it is for everyone  adolescents fear losing friendships, so they behave in a jealous manner to "protect" them, even if their behavior is actually destructive.

'Green With Envy'

Why are jealousy and envy referred to so often in shades of green? "Othello," one of William Shakespeares most famous plays, is a tale wrought with jealousy. The title character is manipulated with such skill by his best friend that he begins to believe his wife has been unfaithful to him.

The manipulator, Iago, continues his treachery by "warning" Othello of the dangers of jealousy: "O, beware, my lord, of jealousy; It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock" Jealousy is also noted this way by authors such as Ovid and Chaucer and in such uses as "green with envy."

It is thought by some to date back to the ancient Greeks, who believed that jealousy resulted in the overproduction of bile, turning human skin a light shade of green.
" " Begone, foul creatures of the night  lucid dreaming may help nightmare sufferers battle their bad dreams. James Porto/Taxi/Getty Images

Think of your normal dreams, the bizarre plots and nonnarrative structure that leaves you scrambling for words to try to explain it to a friend. Now put yourself back in the dream but imagine the details.

You're flying through the air, but you can look at the clouds and the ground below, feel the wind whooshing against your skin, smell the clean air. And in the dream, you think, "I'm dreaming that I'm flying."

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The Science Behind Lucid Dreams

Lucid dreaming occurs during REM sleep, the fifth sleep stage. The body is basically paralyzed, with the exception of the eyelids. In the experiment we mentioned before, subjects took advantage of this quality of REM sleep, using prearranged eyelid movements to signal that they were dreaming.

We aren't sure what's going on in the brain during lucid dreaming. According to Dr. Matthew Walker, director of a sleep lab at Berkeley, the lateral prefrontal cortex, a part of the brain that deals with logic, may be responsible [source: The New York Times].

During REM sleep, this part of the brain is supposed to be "asleep," but it's possible that it "wakes up" so that dreaming and logic are both working at the same time, enabling the dreamer to recognize the dream situation for what it is.

The grand idea of lucid dreaming is all about control. In your dream, you could consciously decide to visit a specific place  say, Provence, France  and your dream self would obey the waking mind.

Potential Applications

The possibility of controlling the mind even in sleep has led some researchers to consider lucid dreaming as a treatment for nightmares. One study showed that lucid dreaming exercises caused a group of chronic nightmare sufferers to have nightmares less often [source: Spoormaker and van den Bout].

The practical implications for dream control are enormous. People suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or children plagued by bad dreams could be taught to salvage their sleep and get some rest.

You could even take it a step further to a scarier conclusion: Think of the CIA's mind-control experiments with LSD and hypnosis. Imagine what kind of control a government may have if it could figure out how to manipulate the enemy's dreams.

Out-of-body Experiences

Some researchers have suggested that out-of-body experiences (OBEs) are a type of lucid dream. During an out-of-body experience, a person sees their physical body as if they are located somewhere outside it. A person undergoing an operation might feel as if they are actually floating above their body and looking down on it.

Scientists Lynne Levitan and Stephen LaBerge counter that OBEs are almost the opposite of a lucid dream  lucid dreamers know they're in a dream, while people having an OBE think everything's real [source: Levitan and LaBerge].
ALBANY, N.Y. (Oct. 26, 2023)The scientific community is increasingly recognizing the significant role of land surface conditions, such as soil moisture and temperature, snow cover, and vegetation, in weather and climate prediction.

This is particularly true in elevated regionswhere anomalies in surface conditions can impact communities thousands of miles away.

In a new study, a team of researchers led by Craig Ferguson at the University at Albany will run a series of simulations to investigate the impact of surface heating anomalies on climate predictability. The simulations will focus on the Tibetan Plateau, the world's highest and largest plateau, and the Rocky Mountains.

The $900,000, three-year study is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and includes researchers from UAlbany, the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).

"Until very recently, ocean sea surface temperature anomalies have been considered the primary data source for global weather forecast systems," said Ferguson, a research faculty member at UAlbany's Atmospheric Sciences Research Center. "Now, studies are showing land anomalies may instead be most critical to successful sub-seasonal-to-seasonal timescale (seven to 60 days) climate prediction.

"This is an exciting new development that really underscores the need to improve the representation of land surface conditions in our forecast models."

Land-Climate Interactions

To evaluate Tibetan Plateau and Rocky Mountain land surface conditions as sources of climate predictability, the researchers will rely on simulations of DOE's Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) Version 2, an integration of modules that represent Earth's complex land, atmosphere, ocean and ice interactions.

Ferguson stands in front of weather monitoring instrumentation at the USDA Goodwater Creek Experimental Watershed in Columbia, Missouri.

The research collaborators will produce a large series of simulations with various temperature patterns to obtain new insight into how abnormal heat conditions over the two regions impact summer precipitation events in the United States.

All simulations will be conducted on the Perlmutter supercomputer at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, a high-performance computing facility operated by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for the DOE Office of Science.

"Atmospheric scientists have observed that above-normal May surface temperatures over Tibet caused by below-average snowpack, for example, is correlated with below-normal June temperatures over the Rockies and precipitation deficits over the eastern U.S.," Ferguson said.

"This project was motivated by the need to better understand the interactions between elevated land anomalies and sea surface temperature anomalies, and their cumulative impact on precipitation variability in the U.S."

Advanced Weather Prediction

Ferguson's research is focused on improving our understanding and modeling of land-atmosphere interactions, especially in the context of extreme wind and precipitation predictability at short-to-seasonal timescales.

His recent research has focused on the Great Plains region, specifically the sensitivity of low-level jet streams, which account for one-third of the central U.S. summer precipitation, to changes in soil moisture and temperature. He has also been a member of the NASA Sounder Discipline Team since 2021.

"This new DOE funding will allow us to further explore these regional land-atmospheric interactions, along with illustrating the potential of future NASA satellite data assimilation to improve seasonal forecasts," Ferguson said.

Along with the research team, project funding will also support one graduate student at CU-Boulder, one postdoc at UAlbany and one part-time postdoc at LLNL.

The CU-Boulder team will perform detailed investigations of specific past extreme precipitation events, while the UAlbany team will focus on spring-to-summer U.S. forecasting. skill. The LLNL team will assist with the simulations and look to apply lessons learned to further develop the E3SM.

Provided by University at Albany
The National Association of Realtors has issued a response to a Wall Street Journal editorial about a lawsuit accusing the association of violating anti-trust law.

The editorial appeared in the Morning News on Oct. 21. According to the Journal article:

The National Association of Realtors requires its 1.5 million or so members to comply with numerous rules that inflate their pay. Missouri home sellers are arguing in the lawsuit that a rule requiring them to make a blanket offer of compensation to any potential buyers broker violates the Sherman Antitrust Act.

The Realtors require this offer if a seller wants the home listed on an affiliated multiple-listing service, which is a database of homes for sale that serves the same purpose as a stock exchange. While innovation and competition have slashed stockbroker commissions, the commission on home sales has stayed basically flat for decades at 6%, split evenly between the buyer and seller agents.

The association issued this statement by Tracy Kasper, its president:

Your editorial Realtors Face an Antitrust Reckoning (Oct. 16) mischaracterizes what is at stake for consumers in Burnett v. National Association of Realtors. Dont fall for the hype by class-action attorneys about how local multiple-listing service (MLS) broker marketplaces work.

In response to the marketplace, and at the urging of consumer advocates, the National Association of Realtors has developed guidance for local MLS broker marketplaces. It is part of a very public rule-making process aimed at creating the most consumer-friendly market possible.

These virtual marketplaces are efficient, transparent and accurate because of cooperation among real-estate professionals. Listing brokers make offers of compensation to buyer brokers, who bring buyers to the table. Those offers can be of any amount, even zero, and the National Association of Realtors doesnt tell practitioners what to charge.

That compensation is set between the brokers and their clients and is always negotiable. According to Real Trends, commissions rates are well below where they were in the 1990s.

Realtors deliver a lot of value for the $50,000 they make annually, on average, as they guide consumers through all the legal, financial and community complexities of buying a home. Class-action attorneys would take away buyer representation, and black, Hispanic/Latino, first-time and low- and middle-income buyers would be hurt the most, according to a May 2022 study.

The National Association of Realtors looks out for consumers with its rules for local MLS broker marketplaces. In reality, the market  and hence the consumer  is in the drivers seat when it comes to real-estate commissions. That will all be evident as the National Association of Realtors makes its case in court.
Islamabad has issued an order to 1.7 million Afghans it says are living in the country illegally to leave by November 1, or be deported (Abdul MAJEED)

Maroza Bibi and her children are among hundreds of Afghans waiting at the Pakistani border, hurriedly leaving a country she has called home for decades in fear of arrest.

Islamabad has issued an order to 1.7 million Afghans it says are living in the country illegally to leave by November 1, or be deported.

A series of holding centres are being established across the country in preparation for the Wednesday deadline in what rights groups and lawyers say is an unprecedented crackdown.

"I am taking a lot of good memories. I was expecting Pakistan to give us nationality, but that did not happen, compelling us to go back almost empty-handed," Bibi, 52, told AFP at the Torkham crossing in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Friday.

She was around 10 years old when her family fled the Soviet war in Afghanistan, settling in Kashmir where she raised a family and where her husband is buried.

Millions of Afghans have crossed the border during decades of conflict, making Pakistan the host of one of the world's largest refugee populations.

But relations have steadily soured between the two countries since the Taliban government seized power in August 2021 and imposed their austere version of Islamic law.

Hundreds of thousands of Afghans are estimated to have crossed the border since then.

Pakistan has said the deportations are to protect the "welfare and security" of the country, where anti-Afghan sentiment has been growing amid prolonged economic hardship and a rise in cross-border militancy.

- 'Avoid humiliation' -

Although the deadline to leave is still days away, police have already begun raiding communities and detaining Afghans, with lawyers reporting indiscriminate arrests and extortion.

Zulfiqar Khan was born to refugee parents in a sprawling Peshawar aid camp, where generations of Afghans have settled in semi-permanent homes.

Like many others AFP spoke with, he knew little about the documentation process and believed he would eventually be granted Pakistani nationality.

Story continues

"To avoid any humiliation by the Pakistani authorities I have decided to leave," he told AFP at the border.

"I am leaving Pakistan with a heavy heart and a state of acute mental stress. I have no idea about life in Afghanistan, I know nothing about any possibility of re-starting my business there."

On Friday, hundreds of families carrying bundles of belongings crowded the border post waiting to cross, some hoping to convince officials to let them take live chickens with them.

"Women at the border are facing a lot of problems, especially the pregnant women and people with disabilities, you can see they are waiting for their turn for hours," Hakeem Ullah, a border official, told AFP.

More than 2,000 people are being processed each day, authorities have said, although most are labourers and traders who cross frequently back and forth.

About 60,000 Afghans have "voluntarily" left the country through the border in recent weeks, Feroz Jamal, a spokesman for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial government, told AFP.

- Counting down the days -

Around 1.3 million Afghans are registered refugees and 880,000 more have legal status to remain in Pakistan, according to the United Nations.

Islamabad says a further 1.7 million Afghans are in Pakistan illegally.

"Everyone is frightened of arrest and deportation," Fazal Ahmed, a 40-year-old fruit vendor who came to Pakistan when he was four years old, told AFP at a Karachi aid camp on Thursday.

"I consider myself Pakistani as I have never been back to Afghanistan, but now we are counting down the days in fear."

Afghans will only be allowed to cross the border with limited belongings and 50,000 Pakistani rupees ($178), and they must leave their livestock behind.

"Our money is stuck here. All our lifetime earnings and savings are stranded here. We have established businesses here, but they don't care," said Karachi camp resident Khan Mohammad, pleading for authorities to give Afghans more time to leave.

Afghanistan is struggling through its own economic hardship, cut off from the international banking system and heavily reliant on humanitarian aid, particularly as the bitter cold winter months set in.

la-ak/ecl/sw/mca
A woman takes pictures of the Singapore skyline of buildings from Mount Faber. (PHOTO: Roslan Rahman/AFP via Getty Images) (ROSLAN RAHMAN via Getty Images)

SINGAPORE  Singapore unveiled on Friday (27 October) the Forward Singapore report, which outlines what the city-state's fourth-generation leadership plans to make for a more equitable and vibrant country in the coming years.

The wide-ranging report is the culmination of a nationwide engagement exercise headed by Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, involving the views of more than 200,000 Singaporeans since it was started in June 2022.

Here's a summary of the key plans laid out by the Singapore government in the report, and how they will affect the various members of the Singapore society:

Refreshing the Singapore Dream

The Forward Singapore report outlines several ways to encourage Singaporeans to continue pursuing their dreams in the city-state:

Embrace learning beyond grades: Instead of getting caught up in an education arms race, Singaporeans should reorientate mindsets towards becoming a full-fledged learning society, in order to learn and improve throughout their lives.

Respect and reward different jobs: Singaporeans should embrace our talents in different areas and create diverse pathways to make a difference in their own ways.

More support for families: Help to be given to Singapore families through every stage of life, so they can better adapt to their evolving circumstances and needs.

More support for seniors: Help them retire with peace of mind and live meaningfully and healthily in their golden years.

More support to bounce back from setbacks: Setting up a better system of social support so that everyone can improve their circumstances and chase their own dreams.

Teachers and students walk across the bridge at Marina Bay waterfront during an excursion in Singapore. (PHOTO: Roslan Rahman/AFP via Getty Images) (ROSLAN RAHMAN via Getty Images)

Embrace learning beyond grades

The report outlines plans to support Singaporeans to fulfil their diverse potentials:

Abolish streaming and move to Full Subject-Based Banding: This will cater to diverse learning needs, interests and abilities of the students, instead of their overall academic abilities.

Special-needs students: Deepening support for students with special-educational needs in both mainstream and Special Education schools, as well as in Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs).

Broadening the definition of merit : More students can go through the Direct School Admission avenue to give more emphasis to holistic education.

Training for mature mid-career Singaporeans: There will be a further, substantial top-up of the SkillsFuture Credit, as well as training allowances so that these Singaporeans can have some financial support when they take time off for full-time, long-form training.

Story continues

Respecting, rewarding different jobs

The report stresses the need to further reduce wage gaps across professions to avoid entrenching a rigid hierarchy of jobs based on salary sizes, and to recognise and reward all jobs more fairly:

Better recognise skilled trades: NTUC, industry associations and IHLs will develop new initiatives to provide better support of individuals pursuing these careers.

Encouraging ITE graduates to upskill and upgrade early: Plans to help younger ITE upgraders defray the costs of obtaining a diploma. When they graduate, their CPF can also be topped up to give them a head start to purchase a home or save for their retirement.

Making long-term career plans: The government plans to help Singaporeans better plan for their long-term careers through digital tools and career guidance services. It will study how to improve job matching, and also provide more support for vulnerable groups.

Managing inflow of foreign workforce: Singapore will continue to take a strong stance against workplace discrimination, and do more to support skills and technology transfer from MNCs and foreign professionals. More Singaporeans should venture overseas, and be developed for top regional roles in MNCs.

More support for families

With Singaporean families facing greater stress, the Forward Singapore report seeks to provide more support for them through every stage:

Adjusting the way HDB sells flats : Under the new framework, there will be three types of flats: Standard, Plus and Prime. This will offer home options that meet the different budgets and needs of citizens.

Supporting parents in care of children: Singapore is exploring how paid parental leave can be further increased. Centre-based infant care places will be increased by about 70 per cent, and child-minding services will also be introduced as an additional infant care option for families.

Making flexible work arrangements (FWAs) more prevalent: The government is developing a set of tripartite guidelines on FWAs to be released in 2024. It will support employers in building stronger human resource capabilities to implement FWAs wells.

Supporting caregivers: The government is studying suggestions to better support working caregivers through measures such as caregiver leave, FWAs or other forms of workplace support.

Elderly people practise tai chi at a park in Singapore. (PHOTO: Suhaimi Abdullah/NurPhoto via Getty Images) (NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Enabling seniors to age well

With Singapore one of the fastest ageing nations in the world, the report outlines policies that could help ageing Singaporeans live a better quality of life:

Age Well SG: This new national programme will aim to help seniors to age gracefully in the community. This includes having more active ageing centres, such that eight in 10 seniors will live close to one by 2025.

Retirement adequacy: Enhancements to programmes such as the Silver Support Scheme and Matched Retirement Savings Scheme, and raising the CPF Enhanced Retirement Sum, to help seniors be financially sound after retirement.

Reorganising the aged care landscape: This will make it easier for seniors to remain in the community even as their care needs increase. There will be more housing options with integrated care provisions, and the government will also work with the private sector to offer seniors more residential options.

More senior-friendly amenities: Expanded Friendly Streets initiative to cover all towns, which will have more pedestrian crossings and wider and more accessible footpaths.

More support to bounce back from setbacks

The report stresses the need to do more among the Singapore society to provide equal opportunities, temper unequal outcomes and prevent people from getting trapped in a permanent underclass:

New ComLink+ scheme: CommunityLink officers will work with each family to co-develop customised action plans that are more tailored to each familys needs.

New Singapore Government Partnerships Office: This office will facilitate interactions between citizens and government agencies.

Linking donors to communities: There will be a better linking of donors to local communities and less privileged groups over a sustained period. Continued efforts to be made to expand spaces for more interactions between different groups, such as collaborations between self-help groups.

Do you have a story tip? Email: sgnews.tips@yahooinc.com.

You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter. Also check out our Southeast Asia, Food, and Gaming channels on YouTube.
Hurricane Otis  latest: Fears grow for people still missing in Acapulco after storm killed 27

Fears are growing for the four people missing in Acapulco after a nightmare Category-5 hurricane ripped through the city.

At least 27 people are dead and four people are missing after Hurricane Otis brought 165mph winds and torrential rainfall to Acapulco on Wednesday.

Flora Contreras Santos, a housewife who lives on the outskirts of the city, told of her fear after her three-year-old neighbor was swept away from her mother in a mudslide.

The mountain came down on them. The mud took her from the mothers arms, she told the Associated Press. We need help, the mother is in bad shape and we cant find the girl.

Meanwhile, Guerrero Governor Evelyn Salgado Pineda announced the establishment of a WhatsApp line to help people contact their families after communications went down in Acapulco on Wednesday.

Otis is the strongest ever storm to make landfall on Mexicos west coast. The hurricane underwent explosive intensification from a Category 1 to Category 5 in just 12 hours, catching forecasters by surprise. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) described it as a nightmare scenario for the region.

Key Points

Acapulco still mostly inaccessible after havoc wreaked by Hurricane Otis

Survivors describe horror as Acapulco residents left in flooded and windblown chaos

Hurricane Otis makes landfall near Acapulco

Why did Hurricane Otis grow so quickly?

At least 27 dead and four missing in Acapulco after Otis

Otis now a tropical storm

Wednesday 25 October 2023 22:00 , Ariana Baio

The Category 5 hurricane that lashed through parts of Mexicos Pacific coast was downgraded to a tropical storm, just hours after it made landfall.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) said maximum wind speeds were around 60 mph on Wednesday afternoon.

It was located around 130 miles North / North-West of Acapulco.

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for Punta Maldonado and Acapulco.

A Tropical Storm Warning means that tropical storm conditions are expected somewhere within the warning area, the NHC wrote.

Story continues

Earthquake detected in resort city hours after Otis

Wednesday 25 October 2023 22:30 , Ariana Baio

A 4.4-magnitude earthquake was detected in the resort city of Zihuatanejo  just 120 miles north of Acapulco  hours after Otis caused massive destruction to the southern part of Mexicos Pacific coast.

A preliminary evaluation of the area was conducted by state and municipal personnel in the area, the Mexican civil protection coordination agency said.

Residents were not warned of the earthquake because the seismic system used to warn people was unable to operate.

SkyAlerts  the early earthquake-warning service, said damage left behind from Otis had left their infrastructure temporarily inoperative.

Actualizacion del sismo de Zihuatanejo:

SSN ajusta magnitud de 5.0 a 4.4 con epicentro a 28 km al suroeste de Zihuatanejo, #Guerrero.



La conectividad de @REDSkyAlert es limitada en Guerrero por el devastador paso de #Otis. Por lluvias y vientos, la afectacion en la red es desde pic.twitter.com/vVUNnKoqjx  SkyAlert (@SkyAlertMx) October 25, 2023

Acapulco cut off by Cat-5 Hurricane Otis which caught forecasters by surprise

Wednesday 25 October 2023 23:00 , Louise Boyle

A nightmare scenario struck shortly after midnight in the coastal city of Acapulco on Wednesday.

Hurricane Otis roared ashore in southern Mexico, the strongest-ever storm to make landfall on the countrys west coast.

The hurricane underwent explosive intensification from a Category 1 to a Category 5 in just 12 hours in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, catching forecasters by surprise. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) described it as a nightmare scenario for the region.

The storm made landfall with 165mph winds and torrential rain of up to 15 inches in places.

Read more here:

Acapulco cut off by Cat-5 Hurricane Otis which caught forecasters by surprise

Satellite footage shows lightning strikes in eye of Hurricane Otis

Thursday 26 October 2023 00:15 , Ariana Baio

SATELLITE SPOTLIGHT: @NOAA's #GOES18  caught an incredible display of eye wall #lightning as Hurricane #Otis rapidly strengthened yesterday evening. According to @NHC_Atlantic, Otis was the strongest Eastern Pacific hurricane to make landfall in the satellite era. #Acapulco pic.twitter.com/auThP6ueUO  NOAA Satellites - Public Affairs (@NOAASatellitePA) October 25, 2023

In Photos: Landslides threaten Acapulco area after storm

Thursday 26 October 2023 01:00 , Ariana Baio

Workers clear a blocked highway after the passing of Hurricane Otis near Acapulco, Mexico, Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023 (AP)

A man crosses a highway blocked by a landslide triggered by Hurricane Otis near Acapulco, Mexico, Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023 (AP)

People get help crossing a highway blocked by a landslide triggered by Hurricane Otis near Acapulco, Mexico, Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023 (AP)

Otis took many forecasters by surprise

Thursday 26 October 2023 02:00 , Martha McHardy

Hurricane Otis slammed into Mexico early on Wednesday as the strongest-ever storm to make landfall on the countrys west coast.

Otis went from a Category 1 to a Category 5 hurricane in only 12 hours  the fastest rate ever recorded in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.

The National Hurricane Center considers a storm to rapidly intensify if it increases wind speed by 35mph (46kph) in 24 hours.

While it is still too early to say what impact the climate crisis had on this individual weather event, record-breaking ocean temperatures are fuelling stronger and more destructive cyclones in general.

Heat in the ocean supercharges hurricanes with more moisture and stronger winds. This heat is being caused by a fossil-fuel-driven climate crisis with El Nino, a cyclical weather pattern, layered on top.

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says that the climate crisiss impact on hurricane power is like adding fuel to a fire.

Sea level rise is compounding the danger. Since the late 19th century, global sea level has risen by eight inches  threatening coastal communities and increasing flooding risk when storms push water inland.

Rising sea levels can also wipe out natural coastal defences which act as buffers to hurricanes such as marshy wetlands and swamps.

Footage of Acapulco shows aftermath of Otis

Thursday 26 October 2023 04:00 , Ariana Baio

Rescue efforts hampered by unaccessible roads

Thursday 26 October 2023 05:00 , Louise Boyle

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said that rescue efforts and repair convoys were being hampered by the lack of access. Roads were covered in debris and bridges had collapsed in places after Hurricane Otis.

Flights had been grounded and officials were struggling to access the area as the local military airport had also sustained damage.

The storm moved inland on Wednesday bringing powerful winds and heavy rains across the states of Guerrero and Oaxaca. Otis is expected to begin to dissipate when it slams into Mexicos mountain range later tonight.

In photos: Hurricane Otis flattens buildings and resort and unleashes massive flooding

Thursday 26 October 2023 06:08 , Stuti Mishra

A view shows street stalls damaged by Hurricane Otis near the entrance to Acapulco, in the Mexican state of Guerrero (REUTERS)

A view shows vehicles trapped by the landslide on parts of the route to Acapulco after Hurricane Otis hit, in the Mexican state of Guerrero (REUTERS)

A general view of the damaged beach resort following Hurricane Otis (via REUTERS)

A general view of a damaged PEMEX gas station on a road after Hurricane Otis hit, near Acapulco (REUTERS)

Acapulco still mostly inaccessible after havoc wreaked by Hurricane Otis

Thursday 26 October 2023 06:42 , Stuti Mishra

The town of Acapulco remained almost inaccessible by roads Wednesday night as officials continue to assess the damage from Hurricane Otis.

Little is known about possible deaths or the full extent of the damage as experts are calling Otis the strongest storm in history to make landfall along the Eastern Pacific Coast.

Many of the once sleek beachfront hotels looked like toothless shattered hulks, after Hurricane Otis blew out hundreds - and possibly thousands - of hotel windows.

Choked with mud and debris, with no electricity or internet service, the Pacific coast resorts descended into chaos after the storm, as thousands engaged in massive looting.

Diamond Zone, an oceanfront area replete with hotels, restaurants and other tourist attractions, looked to be mostly underwater in drone footage that Foro TV posted online on Wednesday afternoon, with boulevards and bridges completely hidden by an enormous lake of brown water.

Large buildings had their walls and roofs partially or completely ripped off.

Dislodged solar panels, cars and debris littered the lobby of one severely damaged hotel. People wandered up to their waists in water in some areas, while on other less-flooded streets soldiers shovelled rubble and fallen palm fronds from the pavement.

While much of the city was in the dark and without phone service, some people were able to use satellite phones loaned by the Red Cross to let family members know they were OK.

Why did Hurricane Otis grow so quickly?

Thursday 26 October 2023 07:13 , Stuti Mishra

Hurricane Otis tore across Mexico's southern Pacific coast as a powerful and dangerous Category 5 hurricane on Wednesday.

The National Hurricane Center said the storm rapidly intensified into a Category 5 hurricane, meaning its wind speed were by 35mph (46kph) in 24 hours.

Its rapid intensification left officials blindsided.

Here's how the hurricane intensified so quickly and how record-breaking ocean temperatures are fuelling stronger and more destructive cyclones in general.

Martha McHardy reports:

Why did Hurricane Otis rapidly intensify into a Category 5 overnight?

'We laid down on the floor': Survivors describe horror as Acapulco residents left in flooded and windblown chaos

Thursday 26 October 2023 08:29 , Stuti Mishra

A day after Hurricane Otis roared ashore in Acapulco, unleashing massive floods and setting off looting, the resort city of nearly one million descended into chaos.

The early images and accounts were of extensive devastation, toppled trees and power lines lying in brown floodwaters that in some areas extended for miles.

Jakob Sauczuk was staying with a group of friends at a beachfront hotel when Otis hit. "We laid down on the floor, and some between beds," Mr Sauczuk said. "We prayed a lot."

One of his friends showed reporters photos of the windowless, shattered rooms in the hotel. It looked as if someone had put clothes, beds and furniture in a blender, leaving a shredded mass.

Mr Sauczuk complained that his group was given no warning, nor were offered safer shelter, by the hotel.

Pablo Navarro, an auto parts worker who was lodged in temporary accommodations at a beach front hotel, thought he might die in his 13th story hotel room.

"I took shelter in the bathroom, and thankfully the door held," said Navarro. "But there were some room where the wind blew out the windows and the doors."

Death toll from Hurricane Ortis still unknown

Thursday 26 October 2023 09:29 , Stuti Mishra

A day after Hurricane Ortis made landfall in Mexico's Acapulco, unleashing heavy rains and leaving residents without electricity or internet service, the death toll still remains uncertain.

It took nearly all day Wednesday for authorities to partially reopen the main highway connecting Acapulco to the state capital Chilpancingo and Mexico City. The vital ground link allowed dozens of emergency vehicles, personnel and trucks carrying supplies to reach the battered port.

Acapulco's commercial and military airports were still too badly damaged to resume flights.

On Wednesday night the city plunged into darkness. There was no phone service, but some people were able to use satellite phones loaned by the Red Cross to let family members know they were OK.

Residents express anger as stores looted and rescue efforts remain slow

Thursday 26 October 2023 10:29 , Stuti Mishra

With assessment of damages and loss of life still unknown from Hurricane Ortis, there seemed to be a widespread frustration with authorities in Acapulco which has been left completely devastated after the storm.

While some 10,000 military troops were deployed to the area, they lacked the tools to clean tons of mud and fallen trees from the streets, the Associated Press reported.

Hundreds of trucks from the government electricity company arrived in Acapulco early on Wednesday, but seemed at a loss as to how to restore power, with downed electricity lines lying in feet of mud and water.

Pablo Navarro, an auto parts worker who was lodged in temporary accommodations at a beach front hotel, told the agency that he stood outside a discount grocery and household goods store near the hotel zone, as hundreds of people wrestled everything from packs of hot dogs and toilet paper to flat screen TVs out of the muddy store, struggling to push loaded metal shopping carts onto the mud-choked streets outside.

"This is out of control," he said.

Isabel de la Cruz, a resident of Acapulco, tried to move a shopping cart loaded with diapers, instant noodles and toilet paper through the mud.

She viewed what she took as a chance to help her family after she lost the tin roof of her home and her family's important documents in the hurricane.

"When is the government ever going to look after the common people?" she said.

Inside one store, National Guard officers allowed looters to take perishable items like food, but made futile efforts to prevent people from taking appliances, even as people outside loaded refrigerators on top of taxis.

Why did Hurricane Otis rapidly intensify into a Category 5 overnight?

Thursday 26 October 2023 11:00 , Martha Mchardy

Hurricane Otis slammed into Mexico early on Wednesday as the strongest-ever storm to make landfall on the countrys west coast.

Otis went from a Category 1 to Category 5 hurricane in only 12 hours  the fastest rate ever recorded in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.

According to the National Hurricane Center, the eye of Otis made landfall close to the resort town of Acapulco around 12.25am local time with winds of 165mph. Forecasters described it as a nightmare scenario for southern Mexico.

The storm is tracking north through the country and is expected to dump five to 10 inches (13-25cm) of rain on Guerrero state with as much as 15 inches (38cm) possible in some areas. That raised the possibility of mudslides and flashfloods in Guerreros steep mountainous terrain.

Martha McHardy reports:

Why did Hurricane Otis rapidly intensify into a Category 5 overnight?

Watch: Hurricane Otis winds blast through Acapulco hospital after storm makes landfall in Mexico

Thursday 26 October 2023 11:30 , Martha Mchardy

Watch: Infrared satellite shows extremely dangerous Hurricane Otis make landfall in Mexico

Thursday 26 October 2023 12:00 , Martha Mchardy

Hurricanes are getting stronger. Heres why

Thursday 26 October 2023 12:30 , Martha Mchardy

Hurricane Otis slammed into Mexico early on Wednesday as the strongest ever storm to make landfall on the countrys west coast.

Otis went from a Category 1 to Category 5 hurricane in just 12 hours  the fastest rate ever recorded in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.

The storm made landfall near Acapulco and is moving north-northwest through the country.

As global temperatures increase and sea levels rise, tropical cyclones - the catch-all term for hurricanes and typhoons - are expected to become more powerful and destructive, scientists say.

The ocean hit record high temperatures this year, driving marine heatwaves around the world. This heat is being caused by a fossil-fuel driven climate crisis with El Nino, a cyclical weather pattern, layered on top.

Louise Boyle reports:

Hurricanes are getting stronger. Heres why

Watch: Hurricane Otis makes landfall as 165mph winds hit Mexico

Thursday 26 October 2023 13:00 , Martha Mchardy

Is it safe to travel amid Hurricane Otis?

Thursday 26 October 2023 13:30 , Martha Mchardy

After Hurricane Otis escalated into a Category 5 storm last night (24 October), concerns over the safety of travel to Mexico and the risk of further natural disasters have risen.

Hurricane conditions made a powerful landfall in Acapulco on Mexicos Pacific coastline on Wednesday morning and sustained 165-mph winds are expected to sweep the south coast between San Jose del Progreso and San Jeronimo de Juarez on 25 October.

The general directorate of tourist services, Angeles Verdes, said: Safety is our top priority, and currently, travel to certain regions of Mexico may be risky due to adverse weather conditions and affected infrastructure.

The recommendation from Angeles Verdes is that you reconsider your trip or stay informed about the situation in Mexico before making a decision. It is important to check the warnings and recommendations of local authorities and civil protection to ensure your safety during your stay.

Mexico is a beautiful country with a lot to offer visitors, but in situations like this, it is essential to prioritize safety. For when you postpone your trip, we will be here to help you with future experiences in Mexico when conditions are safer.

Is it safe to travel to Mexico right now?

Hurricane Otis path tracker: Where will the storm hit next?

Thursday 26 October 2023 14:00 , Martha Mchardy

Heavy rain from Otis will continue to impact areas of southwest Mexico across Guerrero and Oaxaca states, and may also cause life-threatening coastal flooding through Thursday, NHC said.

Martha McHardy reports:

Hurricane Otis path tracker: Where will the storm hit next?

Acapulco cut off by Cat-5 Hurricane Otis which caught forecasters by surprise

Thursday 26 October 2023 14:30 , Martha Mchardy

A nightmare scenario struck shortly after midnight in the coastal city of Acapulco on Wednesday.

Hurricane Otis roared ashore in southern Mexico, the strongest-ever storm to make landfall on the countrys west coast.

The hurricane underwent explosive intensification from a Category 1 to Category 5 in just 12 hours in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, catching forecasters by surprise. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) described it as a nightmare scenario for the region.

Louise Boyle reports:

Acapulco cut off by Cat-5 Hurricane Otis which caught forecasters by surprise

Latest pictures: Destruction caused by Hurricane Otis

Thursday 26 October 2023 15:00 , Martha Mchardy

A view shows damage after Hurricane Otis hit, in Acapulco in the Mexican state of Guerrero (REUTERS)

People pass by part of a road which was washed away at the Kilometro 42 community, near Acapulco (AFP via Getty Images)

Authorities warned of catastrophic damage' (AFP via Getty Images)

A damaged building stands after Hurricane Otis ripped through Acapulco, Mexico (AP)

At least 27 dead in Acapulco after Otis

Thursday 26 October 2023 15:31 , Martha Mchardy

At least 27 people are dead after Hurricane Otis, Mexican officials said on Thursday.

Unfortunately, we received word from the state and city governments that 27 people are dead and four are missing, Secretary of State for Security Rosa Icela Rodriguez told a news conference in Mexico City.

She said communications with Acapulco were being gradually restored.

Main road connecting Acapulco to Mexico City partially reopens

Thursday 26 October 2023 15:37 , Martha Mchardy

The main road connecting Acapulco to Mexico City has reopened in one direction, Secretary of State for Security Rosa Icela Rodriguez said.

The road was closed after Hurricane Otis ripped through Acapulco yesterday, destroying many buildings.

Communications were also down in the city overnight, with many still without power on Thursday.

Four missing after catastrophic Hurricane Otis

Thursday 26 October 2023 15:40 , Martha Mchardy

At least four people are missing after Hurricane Otis ripped through Acapulco, Mexican officials said on Thursday.

Secretary of State for Security Rosa Icela Rodriguez said at least 27 people have died, while four are missing after 165mph winds ripped through Acapulco yesterday.

One soldier among dead after wall collapsed on him'

Thursday 26 October 2023 16:03 , Martha Mchardy

At least one soldier is among the 27 people dead in Acapulco after a Category 5 hurricane ripped through the city.

Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador did not share details about those who died, but said one soldier was killed in the hurricane after a wall collapsed on him.

At least four people are missing.

Not a single powerline left standing in Acapulco after Hurricane Otis

Thursday 26 October 2023 16:14 , Martha Mchardy

Not a single powerline was left standing in the Mexican city of Acapulco after Hurricane Otis ripped through the city, Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said.

Millions of people in Acapulco were left without power after 165mph winds hammered the city yesterday.

President Lopez Obrador added that small farmers had their corn crops devastated by Otis.

He said restoring power to the city is the top priority.

Mexican President gets stuck in mud as he visits Acapulco

Thursday 26 October 2023 17:04 , Martha Mchardy

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador travelled to Acapulco on Thursday, where at least 27 people died in a category 5 hurricane.

Mr Lopez Obradors car became stuck in the mud as he tried to get over the highway.

He had to get out of the car to walk after debris from a mudslide blocked the way.

The army is bringing machinery and were going to try to reopen [the highway] as soon as possible, he said.

It came after Acapulco residents expressed their dissatisfaction at the speed of rescue efforts.

Residents have also described looting taking place at local shops after families lost their homes and important documents in the hurricane.

When is the government ever going to look after the common people? one resident said.

Powerful winds and heavy rainfall have ravaged the city after Hurricane Otis made landfall in Acapulco just after midnight in the city, causing flooding and landslides.

Tens of thousands were also left without power after the hurricane destroyed all the citys powerlines.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obradors vehicle is stuck in mud during a visit to the Kilometro 42 community, near Acapulco, Guerrero State, Mexico, after the passage of Hurricane Otis, on October 25, 2023 (AFP via Getty Images)

Latest pictures from Acapulco after Hurricane Otis

Thursday 26 October 2023 17:30 , Martha Mchardy

Mexicos president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and members of his cabinet walk through mud as they visit a hurricane-damaged community near Acapulco on Wednesday (AFP via Getty Images)

Debris on the beach in Acapulco, Mexio on Thursday after Hurricane Otis (AP)

View of the damage caused by Hurricane Otis in Acapulco, Mexico (AFP via Getty Images)

Survivors loot a grocery store in Acapulco after Hurricane Otis (AP)

ICYMI: Hurricane Otis leaves 27 dead in Acapulco after devastating Category-5 storm

Thursday 26 October 2023 18:00 , Martha Mchardy

At least 27 people are dead and four are missing in Acapulco after a nightmare Category-5 hurricane, Mexican officials said on Thursday.

Hurricane Otis roared ashore shortly after midnight on Wednesday with 165mph winds and torrential rainfall, slamming into the coastal city where residents had little time to evacuate or prepare.

Unfortunately, we received word from the state and city governments that 27 people are dead and four are missing, said Secretary of State for Security Rosa Icela Rodriguez, according to AFP.

Louise Boyle reports:

Hurricane Otis leaves 27 dead in Acapulco after Category-5 storm

Scientists investigating why Otis caught them so off-guard

Thursday 26 October 2023 18:55 , Louise Boyle

In the wake of Hurricane Otis, scientists were trying to piece together how everyone had been caught so off-guard, even as forecasting models have gotten better in the past few years.

The models completely blew it, MIT atmospheric sciences professor Kerry Emanuel, a hurricane expert, told The AP.

A rapid analysis, from an international team of scientists at the ClimaMeter group, reported on Thursday that the climate crisis contributed to make the rainfall in Hurricane Otis more intense.

The rapid and unexpected intensification of Otis left the scientific community in awe, said Stavros Dafis, a research and development specialist at the Data4Risk company in France and a research associate at the National Observatory of Athens.

Record-breaking ocean temperatures are fuelling stronger and more destructive cyclones in general. This heat is being caused by a fossil-fuel-driven climate crisis with El Nino, a cyclical weather pattern, layered on top.

Mexican government evacuating tourists trapped in Acapulco following Hurricane Otis

Thursday 26 October 2023 19:15 , Graig Graziosi

Hurricane Otiss surprise rapid intensification from a Category 1 to a Category 5 hurricane in less than 12 hours caught not only researchers off-guard, but also the tourists visiting Acapulco earlier this week.

In the wake of the monster storm  which killed 27 people and left four others missing  the Mexican government has had its hands full managing clean-up efforts and the evacuation of tourists left in the blown-out hulls of hotels in the city.

Guerrero Governor Evelyn Salgado said her office is supporting tourists with 30 to 40 trucks that are outside hotels to evacuate (visitors) to other areas free of charge, according to CNN.

Approximately 80 per cent of the citys hotels were damaged by the storm, according to Ms Salgado.

Hurricane Otis devastates Acapulco as survivors take stock of their destroyed city

Thursday 26 October 2023 19:43 , Graig Graziosi

Watch: The devastation wrought by Hurricane Otis

Thursday 26 October 2023 20:00 , Graig Graziosi

A video captured the destruction left by Hurricane Otis when it made landfall in Acapulco, Mexico.

The footage, shot from a car driving down a city street, shows blown out windows, rubble, and the cracked and damage exteriors of buildings left in the storms wake.

Officials have said that not a single power line pole remained standing in Acapulco. There are still dozens of communities without communication. #HurricaneOtis #HurracanOtis #Otis #Acapulco #Mexico pic.twitter.com/v4FWtE5BuN  Volcaholic  (@volcaholic1) October 26, 2023

Before and after photos show the damage Hurricane Otis did to a brand new high-rise apartment building in Acapulco.

Thursday 26 October 2023 20:30 , Graig Graziosi

The photos show the towering apartment complex prior to the hurricanes arrival sporting rows of gleaming, pristine windows. The second photo, taken after the storms arrival, shows the extent of the damage done to the new build. Nearly all of the windows have been completely blown out.

It is unclear how much of the interiors of the apartments were finished when the storm hit, but it is likely the interiors were also soaked by rainwater and subject to more than 150mph winds at the time of the storms arrival.

Before & after: This brand new $130 million luxury high-rise in Acapulco, Mexico has been severely damaged by Hurricane Otis. pic.twitter.com/X2PVzxrTIO  Nahel Belgherze (@WxNB_) October 26, 2023

Hurricane Otiss approach to Mexico was very rare

Thursday 26 October 2023 20:53 , Graig Graziosi

Hurricane Otis made landfall on Wednesday, battering the Pacific-coast city of Acapulco, Mexico with Category 5 winds.

The hurricane was notable not just for its rapid intensification from a Category 1 to a Category 5 storm in just 12 hours, but also for where it hit; hurricanes rarely make landfall on Mexicos Pacific coast.

The last hurricane to hit on the Pacific coast within 50 miles of Acapulco was the Category 1 Hurricane Max in 2017, according to NOAA data.

Its very rare for intense storms to make landfall in Mexicos eastern Pacific side, Suzana Camargo, hurricane expert and professor at Columbia Universitys Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, told CNN.

Mexican austerity measures cut disaster relief spending in 2021

Thursday 26 October 2023 21:34 , Graig Graziosi

In 2021, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obradors administration cut funding to the nations Natural Disaster Fund, which was established to help pay for emergency relief and disaster response efforts following major incidents.

Two years later, Mexico is facing the partial destruction of a major city due to Hurricane Otis, and has been forced to respond without its disaster funding pool intact.

Mr Lopez Obrador justified the cut at the time by claiming it was an instrument riddled with corruption, and whose funds did not reach the people.

The fund was at one time considered one of the worlds most advanced financial instruments for responding to disasters, according to The New York Times.

Atlantic hurricanes are intensifying faster due to the climate crisis

Thursday 26 October 2023 22:00 , Graig Graziosi

Hurricane Otis was notable for catching researchers off-guard with its rapid intensification from a Category 1 storm to a Category 5 storm in just under 12 hours.

Unfortunately, the climate crisis may make such events more frequent.

A recent study published in Natures journal Scientific Reports found that tropical storms forming in the Atlantic intensified nearly 29% more quickly on average between 2001 and 2020 than similar storms did 30 years earlier.

Hurricanes intensify over warm water  as Hurricane Otis did off the coast of Acapulco just before it made landfall  and the climate crisis is the leading contributor to warming global water temperatures.

The Earths oceans have absorbed more than 90 per cent of the heat created by the human burning of fossil fuels, driving global temperatures to record highs.

While the climate crisis may not necessarily cause more hurricanes, it is making them stronger and more unpredictable.

Veteran Weather Channel hurricane expert Jim Cantore says he never saw it coming when commenting on Hurricane Otis

Thursday 26 October 2023 23:00 , Graig Graziosi

Jim Cantore, a meteorologist who has spent decades covering hurricanes on the ground for the Weather Channel, said he never saw it coming while discussing the intensity of Hurricane Otis.

The hurricane underwent rapid intensification from a Category 1 to Category 5 storm in just under 12 hours, after which it hit Acapulco and killed 27 people.

Footage from the city show portions of it in ruins. Buildings crumbled and windows were blown out of storefronts, businesses, and residences.

Do I dare take my eyes off invest92E or 92EP after what happened to Otis? In my 37 plus years I have never seen something like that occur with a tropical system. When I left on assignment Monday I knew it could impact Mexico, but to blow up like that!! Never saw it coming. pic.twitter.com/PMLGOOUyst  Jim Cantore (@JimCantore) October 26, 2023

New House Speakers previous committee once called the Green New Deal the Greedy New Steal

Friday 27 October 2023 00:00 , Graig Graziosi

On the same day Hurricane Otis slammed into Acapulco with 165mph winds, killing 27 and causing widespread damage throughout the Mexican city, House Republicans in the US elected Congressman Mike Johnson to serve as the new Speaker of the House.

The hurricane underwent rapid intensification, transforming from a Category 1 storm to a Category 5 storm in just under 12 hours, catching researchers completely off-guard.

The ongoing climate crisis is driving global water temperatures to record highs, and those temperatures help to fuel the rapid intensification of hurricanes into monsters like Otis.

In 2019, when Mr Johnson was chairing the Republican Study Committee, the group collectively sneered at the Green New Deal, a proposal intended to help take rigorous steps to combat the climate crisis.

The group mocked the proposal, calling it the Greedy New Steal.

Hurricane Otis may have set record for most people to experience a Category 5 hurricane at one time

Friday 27 October 2023 01:00 , Graig Graziosi

Because Hurricane Otiss eyewall  the most powerful part of the storm  was directly over Acapulco when it made landfall on Wednesday, it may have set a record for the most number of people to experience a Category 5 storm at one time, according to former NOAA hurricane scientist Jeff Masters.

The population of Acapulco is just over a million people.

Hurricane Otis' eyewall hit the most heavily developed areas of Acapulco (pop. just over 1 million), perhaps setting a record for the largest number of people ever to experience the eyewall of a Cat 5 storm.https://t.co/lMwyq0hxCr  Jeff Masters (@DrJeffMasters) October 25, 2023

WATCH: Hurricane Otis winds blast through Acapulco hospital after storm makes landfall in Mexico

Friday 27 October 2023 02:00 , Graig Graziosi

Friday 27 October 2023 03:00 , Graig Graziosi

Acapulco cut off by Cat-5 Hurricane Otis which caught forecasters by surprise

A nightmare scenario struck shortly after midnight in the coastal city of Acapulco on Wednesday.

Hurricane Otis roared ashore in southern Mexico, the strongest-ever storm to make landfall on the countrys west coast.

The hurricane underwent explosive intensification from a Category 1 to Category 5 in just 12 hours in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, catching forecasters by surprise. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) described it as a nightmare scenario for the region.

Louise Boyle reports:

Acapulco cut off by Cat-5 Hurricane Otis which caught forecasters by surprise

Hurricane Otis path tracker: Where will the storm hit next?

Friday 27 October 2023 04:00 , Graig Graziosi

Heavy rain from Otis will continue to impact areas of southwest Mexico across Guerrero and Oaxaca states, and may also cause life-threatening coastal flooding through Thursday, NHC said.

Martha McHardy reports:

Hurricane Otis path tracker: Where will the storm hit next?

WATCH: At least 27 killed after Hurricane Otis slams into Mexicos Acapulco

Friday 27 October 2023 04:59 , Graig Graziosi

Four missing after catastrophic Hurricane Otis

Friday 27 October 2023 06:00 , Graig Graziosi

At least four people are missing after Hurricane Otis ripped through Acapulco, Mexican officials said on Thursday.

Secretary of State for Security Rosa Icela Rodriguez said at least 27 people have died, while four are missing after 165mph winds ripped through Acapulco yesterday.

Not a single powerline left standing in Acapulco after Hurricane Otis

Friday 27 October 2023 07:00 , Graig Graziosi

Not a single powerline was left standing in the Mexican city of Acapulco after Hurricane Otis ripped through the city, Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said.

Millions of people in Acapulco were left without power after 165mph winds hammered the city yesterday.

President Lopez Obrador added that small farmers had their corn crops devastated by Otis.

He said restoring power to the city is the top priority.

ICYMI: Mexican President gets stuck in mud as he visits Acapulco

Friday 27 October 2023 08:00 , Graig Graziosi

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador travelled to Acapulco on Thursday, where at least 27 people died in a category 5 hurricane.

Mr Lopez Obradors car became stuck in the mud as he tried to get over the highway.

He had to get out of the car to walk after debris from a mudslide blocked the way.

The army is bringing machinery and were going to try to reopen [the highway] as soon as possible, he said.

It came after Acapulco residents expressed their dissatisfaction at the speed of rescue efforts.

Residents have also described looting taking place at local shops after families lost their homes and important documents in the hurricane.

When is the government ever going to look after the common people? one resident said.

Powerful winds and heavy rainfall have ravaged the city after Hurricane Otis made landfall in Acapulco just after midnight in the city, causing flooding and landslides.

Tens of thousands were also left without power after the hurricane destroyed all the citys powerlines.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obradors vehicle is stuck in mud during a visit to the Kilometro 42 community, near Acapulco, Guerrero State, Mexico, after the passage of Hurricane Otis, on October 25, 2023 (AFP via Getty Images)

Images show destruction of city streets, shopping centre in Acapulco following Hurricane Otis

Friday 27 October 2023 09:00 , Graig Graziosi

View of debris and damaged vehicles after the passage of hurricane Otis in the beach resort of Acapulco, in the state of Guerrero, Mexico, 26 October 2023 (EPA)

General view of a shopping mall destroyed after hurricane Otis hit Acapulco on October 25, 2023 (Getty Images)

Scientists investigating why Otis caught them so off-guard

Friday 27 October 2023 10:00 , Graig Graziosi

In the wake of Hurricane Otis, scientists were trying to piece together how everyone had been caught so off-guard, even as forecasting models have gotten better in the past few years.

The models completely blew it, MIT atmospheric sciences professor Kerry Emanuel, a hurricane expert, told The AP.

A rapid analysis, from an international team of scientists at the ClimaMeter group, reported on Thursday that the climate crisis contributed to make the rainfall in Hurricane Otis more intense.

The rapid and unexpected intensification of Otis left the scientific community in awe, said Stavros Dafis, a research and development specialist at the Data4Risk company in France and a research associate at the National Observatory of Athens.

Record-breaking ocean temperatures are fuelling stronger and more destructive cyclones in general. This heat is being caused by a fossil-fuel-driven climate crisis with El Nino, a cyclical weather pattern, layered on top.

Fears grow for people still missing in Acapulco after storm killed 27

Friday 27 October 2023 10:14 , Martha Mchardy

Fears are growing for the four people missing in Acapulco after a nightmare Category-5 hurricane ripped through the city.

At least 27 people are dead and four people are missing after Hurricane Otis brought 165mph winds and torrential rainfall to Acapulco on Wednesday.

Flora Contreras Santos, a housewife who lives on the outskirts of the city, told of her fear after her three-year-old neighbor was swept away from her mother in a mudslide.

The mountain came down on them. The mud took her from the mothers arms, she told the Associated Press. We need help, the mother is in bad shape and we cant find the girl.

Meanwhile, Guerrero Governor Evelyn Salgado Pineda announced the establishment of a WhatsApp line to help people contact their families after communications went down in Acapulco on Wednesday.

Countrymen and women, we know that, as a result of the damage to the satellite network, contact with our families is limited and in some cases has not been possible. Therefore, at this time I make the following contacts available to you exclusively to send messages via WhatsApp, in order to facilitate the immediate search for your families, she said in a post on X.

Losses caused by Hurricane Otis could total up to $15billion

Friday 27 October 2023 10:40 , Martha Mchardy

The insurable loss from Hurricane Otis could total up to $15 billion, according to risk analytics and modelling firm CoreLogic.

The firm estimated that losses could be between $10 and $15 billion after 165mph winds destroyed many buildings in Acapulco.

The estimate does not include business interruptions or costs associated with additional living expenses.

Approximately 80 per cent of the citys hotels were damaged by the storm, according to Guerrero Governor Evelyn Salgado Pineda.

Mexican government evacuating tourists trapped in Acapulco following Hurricane Otis

Friday 27 October 2023 11:00 , Graig Graziosi

Hurricane Otiss surprise rapid intensification from a Category 1 to a Category 5 hurricane in less than 12 hours caught not only researchers off-guard, but also the tourists visiting Acapulco earlier this week.

In the wake of the monster storm  which killed 27 people and left four others missing  the Mexican government has had its hands full managing clean-up efforts and the evacuation of tourists left in the blown-out hulls of hotels in the city.

Guerrero Governor Evelyn Salgado said her office is supporting tourists with 30 to 40 trucks that are outside hotels to evacuate (visitors) to other areas free of charge, according to CNN.

Approximately 80 per cent of the citys hotels were damaged by the storm, according to Ms Salgado.

Watch: Footage shows damage to Acapulco International Airport after Hurricane Otis

Friday 27 October 2023 11:15 , Martha Mchardy

Footage shows the damage caused to the control tower of the Acapulco International Airport after Hurricane Otis ripped through the city on Wednesday.

The video, posted to X, showed the airports control tower almost completely destroyed after 165mph winds battered Acapulco on Wednesday.

The hurricane also destroyed many homes, as well 80 per cent of the citys hotels and all the citys power lines.

Otis is the strongest ever storm to make landfall on Mexicos west coast. The hurricane underwent explosive intensification from a Category 1 to Category 5 in just 12 hours, catching forecasters by surprise. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) described it as a nightmare scenario for the region.

Latest pictures of devastation caused by Hurricane Otis

Friday 27 October 2023 11:40 , Martha Mchardy

People walk next to debris left after the passage of Hurricane Otis in Acapulco (AFP via Getty Images)

A man walks on a looted supermarket after the passage of Hurricane Otis in Acapulco (AFP via Getty Images)

View of the damage caused after the passage of Hurricane Otis in Acapulco (AFP via Getty Images)

View of damages in the beach area following the passage of Hurricane Otis (AFP via Getty Images)

Taxis and public transportation units pass near a hole opened in the road after hurricane Otis hit Acapulc (Getty Images)

Hurricane Otiss approach to Mexico was very rare

Friday 27 October 2023 12:00 , Graig Graziosi

Hurricane Otis made landfall on Wednesday, battering the Pacific-coast city of Acapulco, Mexico with Category 5 winds.

The hurricane was notable not just for its rapid intensification from a Category 1 to a Category 5 storm in just 12 hours, but also for where it hit; hurricanes rarely make landfall on Mexicos Pacific coast.

The last hurricane to hit on the Pacific coast within 50 miles of Acapulco was the Category 1 Hurricane Max in 2017, according to NOAA data.

Its very rare for intense storms to make landfall in Mexicos eastern Pacific side, Suzana Camargo, hurricane expert and professor at Columbia Universitys Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, told CNN.

Exodus from Acapulco after Hurricane Otis rips through city

Friday 27 October 2023 12:16 , Martha Mchardy

People are fleeing from Acapulco after a catastrophic Category 5 hurricane left hundreds of thousands of residents without homes and electricity.

At least 27 people are dead and four people are missing after Hurricane Otis brought 165mph winds and torrential rainfall to Acapulco on Wednesday.

The hurricane has seen 80 per cent of the citys hotels destroyed, while all the citys power lines were destroyed, leaving residents without cell phone service and water.

There is also widespread looting in the city after people were left without basic resources. You cant buy anything in Acapulco, not even if you want to, one resident said.

As of Friday, large areas of Acapulco remain cut off without aid or assistance. The governor of the State of Guerrero, Evelyn Salgado, has said that 30 buses per day will be provided to evacuate tourists.

The hotel told us that it could no longer guarantee water, food or safety, said the Chavez family, who were staying in the Emporio hotel in Acapuulco.

There are too many people trying to get out, the family added. They said cab drivers are charging $25 per passenger for the journey.

Frustrations grow at slow government response to Hurricane Otis

Friday 27 October 2023 12:30 , Martha Mchardy

Frustrations are growing at the slow government response to Hurricane Otis.

Survivors of the catastrophic storm fear the government response may focus on repairing infrastructure for the citys economic engine of tourism instead of helping the neediest.

Many of Acapulcos one million residents have been left without homes or electricity after 165mph winds battered the city on Wednesday.

People are also lacking the most basic of resources, the AP reported, with widespread looting in the city for resources such as toilet roll.

Theyre going to close these stores and that hurts Acapulco, a labourer in the city told AP.

Meanwhile, Acapulcos police chief Luis Enrique Vazquez Rodriguez admitted there is little that can be done to stop people from looting local stores.

We dont have the capacity to stop looting because theres so many people, he said. This is a completely extraordinary situation.

Some residents fear it could take a year for Acapulco to recover; with no power, gasoline, little cell coverage and hotels wrecked by the hurricane.

But some residents were more optimistic. Marketing expert Antonio Esparza said the hurricane may improve Acapulco because it may force the government to pay attention.

Otis is the strongest ever storm to make landfall on Mexicos west coast. The storm destroyed 80 per cent of the citys hotels and all of the citys power lines, leaving hundreds of thousands without power and cell phone service.

As of Thursday, there were 250,000 homes and businesses still without electricity.

Mexican austerity measures cut disaster relief spending in 2021

Friday 27 October 2023 13:00 , Graig Graziosi

In 2021, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obradors administration cut funding to the nations Natural Disaster Fund, which was established to help pay for emergency relief and disaster response efforts following major incidents.

Two years later, Mexico is facing the partial destruction of a major city due to Hurricane Otis, and has been forced to respond without its disaster funding pool intact.

Mr Lopez Obrador justified the cut at the time by claiming it was an instrument riddled with corruption, and whose funds did not reach the people.

The fund was at one time considered one of the worlds most advanced financial instruments for responding to disasters, according to The New York Times.

Before and after image shows extent of damage to Acapulco after Hurricane Otis

Friday 27 October 2023 13:30 , Martha Mchardy

Satellite images provided by Maxar Technollogies show the extent of the damage to Acapulcos coastline caused by Hurricane Otis.

The bottom image shows the citys coastline after the catastrophic Category 5 hurricane destroyed much of Acapulco.

Other images show damaged boats in Acapulco Bay and the damage caused to the La Poza neighborhood caused by 165mph winds and torrential rain.

Residents fear it could take a year for Acapulco to recover from Hurricane Otis.

Satellite image shows overview of the coastline in Acapulco, Guerrero state before and after Hurricane Otis (Satellite image A2023 Maxar Tech)

Satellite image shows damaged boats in a marina, in Acapulco Bay (EPA)

Satellite image shows storm damage and inundation in La Poza neighborhood, Acapulco (EPA)

Half of electricity service restored to Guerrero

Friday 27 October 2023 13:50 , Martha Mchardy

The Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) said on Friday it had restored 50% of the electricity service in Guerrero, despite the access and communication obstacles encountered by the state-owned companys staff.

Hundreds of thousands of residents in Acapulco were left without electricity, cell phone service or running water after 165mph winds destroyed all of the citys power lines.

Air bridge between Acapulco and Mexico City to be set up to evacuate tourists

Friday 27 October 2023 13:56 , Martha Mchardy

An air bridge between Acapulco and Mexico City will be set up on Friday to evacuate tourists, the Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transport said, after announcing the control tower at Acapulco International Airport was back in operation.

It comes amid an exodus of tourists from Acapulco after a Category 5 hurricane ripped through the city on Wednesday, destroying homes and 80 per cent of the hotels in the region.

Two vessels are also en route to Acapulco carrying two water purification plants, a mobile kitchenette, four power plants, and two motor pumps, the Mexican Secretary of the Navy (Semar) said, after 165mph winds left residents without electricity or water.

Atlantic hurricanes are intensifying faster due to the climate crisis

Friday 27 October 2023 14:00 , Graig Graziosi

Hurricane Otis was notable for catching researchers off-guard with its rapid intensification from a Category 1 storm to a Category 5 storm in just under 12 hours.

Unfortunately, the climate crisis may make such events more frequent.

A recent study published in Natures journal Scientific Reports found that tropical storms forming in the Atlantic intensified nearly 29% more quickly on average between 2001 and 2020 than similar storms did 30 years earlier.

Hurricanes intensify over warm water  as Hurricane Otis did off the coast of Acapulco just before it made landfall  and the climate crisis is the leading contributor to warming global water temperatures.

The Earths oceans have absorbed more than 90 per cent of the heat created by the human burning of fossil fuels, driving global temperatures to record highs.

While the climate crisis may not necessarily cause more hurricanes, it is making them stronger and more unpredictable.

Watch: Infrared satellite shows extremely dangerous Hurricane Otis make landfall in Mexico

Friday 27 October 2023 14:30 , Martha Mchardy

Why did Hurricane Otis rapidly intensify into a Category 5 overnight?

Friday 27 October 2023 15:00 , Martha Mchardy

Hurricane Otis slammed into Mexico early on Wednesday as the strongest-ever storm to make landfall on the countrys west coast.

Otis went from a Category 1 to Category 5 hurricane in only 12 hours  the fastest rate ever recorded in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.

According to the National Hurricane Center, the eye of Otis made landfall close to the resort town of Acapulco around 12.25am local time with winds of 165mph. Forecasters described it as a nightmare scenario for southern Mexico.

Martha McHardy reports:

Why did Hurricane Otis rapidly intensify into a Category 5 overnight?

Watch: Hurricane Otis winds blast through Acapulco hospital after storm makes landfall in Mexico

Friday 27 October 2023 15:30 , Martha Mchardy

Hurricane Otis: Latest pictures

Friday 27 October 2023 16:10 , Martha Mchardy

A view of the beach seen from inside a damaged hote (REUTERS)

A view of the beach seen from inside a damaged hotel in the aftermath of Hurricane Otis (REUTERS)

A view of the damage caused by Hurricane Otis (REUTERS)

Watch: Hurricane Otis Leaves Trail Of Destruction In Acapulco

Friday 27 October 2023 16:40 , Martha Mchardy

Mexican President says he was warned in advance about Hurricane Otis and denies there will be a curfew

Friday 27 October 2023 17:04 , Martha Mchardy

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he was warned in advance about Hurricane Otis.

Yes, I was notified in advance, he admitted at a press conference today.

He also denied that authorities are overwhelmed by the situation in Acapulco, and denied that there will be a curfew.

House-to-house census to begin in Acapulco to assess damage caused by Hurricane Otis

Friday 27 October 2023 17:11 , Martha Mchardy

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrado said a house-to-house census will begin today in Acapulco to assess the extent of the damage caused by Hurricane Otis.

Everyone will receive support, more than 400.000 houses will be visited, he said at a press conference.

Mexicos president cut disaster fund two years before Hurricane Otis

Friday 27 October 2023 17:30 , Martha Mchardy

Two years before Hurricane Otis ripped through Guerrero State, Mexico cut its disaster relief fund.

The decision has left much uncertainty on how the region will recover from the Category 5 storm which left 27 people dead and at least $10billion in damage in the city of Acapulco and neighboring villages.

Mexicos Fund for Natural Disasters, known as Fonden, was set up in the late Nineties, taking a small portion of the federal budget in order to rapidly respond to natural disasters. It was widely admired as a progressive move.

Martha McHardy reports:

Mexicos president cut disaster fund two years before Hurricane Otis

Latest pictures from Acapulco after Hurricane Otis

Friday 27 October 2023 18:00 , Graig Graziosi

A damaged truck lies on the side of a road after hurricane Otis (Getty Images)

A damaged truck after hurricane Otis (Getty Images)

A view of a damaged parking lot after hurricane Otis (Getty Images)

A person walks carrying goods from a looted store after hurricane Otis (Getty Images)

Bishops in Mexico call for help for people affected by Hurricane Otis

Friday 27 October 2023 18:30 , Martha Mchardy

Bishops in Mexico have urged assistance for those affected by Hurricane Otis after the Category 5 hurricane ripped through part of the country on Sunday.

Hurricane Otis brought 165mph winds and torrential rainfall to Acapulco on Wednesday, leaving thousands without water and electricity.

We are aware of the pain and anguish that overwhelms thousands of families who have lost their homes, property and livelihoods in these disaster areas. Many localities suffered serious damage to infrastructure, and found themselves prevented from accessing essential services, the Mexican bishops conference said in a statement.

In these difficult times, we call for unity and fraternity among Mexicans. We urge the provision of generous assistance for those affected, especially the poorest and most vulnerable. May no one remain indifferent to the suffering of others, the statement continued.

Hurricanes are getting stronger. Heres why

Friday 27 October 2023 19:00 , Martha Mchardy

Hurricane Otis slammed into Mexico early on Wednesday as the strongest ever storm to make landfall on the countrys west coast.

Otis went from a Category 1 to Category 5 hurricane in just 12 hours  the fastest rate ever recorded in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.

The storm made landfall near Acapulco and is moving north-northwest through the country.

As global temperatures increase and sea levels rise, tropical cyclones - the catch-all term for hurricanes and typhoons - are expected to become more powerful and destructive, scientists say.

Louise Boyle reports:

Hurricanes are getting stronger. Heres why

Watch: Before-and-after satellite images showcase the destruction of Hurricane Otis

Friday 27 October 2023 19:30 , Martha Mchardy

We hid in the bathroom for hours: A tourist recounts their experience during Hurricane Otis

Friday 27 October 2023 20:00 , Graig Graziosi

A tourist staying in Acapulco when Hurricane Otis made landfall Wednesday as a massive Category 5 storm recalled how she hid for hours in her room to ride out the surprise weather event.

We hid in the bathroom for hours, Adelita Jimenez, 42, told NPR. She and her husband were with their two teenage children visiting Acapulco for a family reunion when the storm hit. We just held onto each other. We didnt know if we would survive.

Tourists searched through the partially destroyed city for food following the storm.

The Mexican government deployed trucks on Thursday to help evacuate tourists from the city.

13,000 troops deployed to Acapulco after Hurricane Otis as president calls on desperate populace not to loot businesses

Friday 27 October 2023 20:30 , Graig Graziosi

The Mexican government has deployed 13,000 troops to Acapulco to help manage the recovery efforts in the wake of Hurricane Otis, which devastated the city when it made landfall as a Category 5 storm on Wednesday.

Vehicles have been deployed to help evacuate stranded tourists while responders work to deliver food and provisions to the citys residents.

Meanwhile, Mexicos President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador held a press conference on Friday morning to urge residents  who are growing increasingly depserate for food, water, and other basic provisions  not to loot businesses as they struggle in the wake of the storm.

Acapulco residents, claiming theyve received little in government assistance, resort to looting for critical medication, basic provisions

Friday 27 October 2023 21:00 , Graig Graziosi

Residents in Acapulco have reportedly had to resort to looting for necessary medications and basic provisions in the wake of Hurricane Otis, which devastated the city when it made landfall Wedensday as a Category 5 storm.

Acapulco residents have complained that theyve received little in the way of government assistance in the immediate aftermath of the storm.

We came to get ice because we have meat and fish at home and its gonna go off, Olivia Bautista, 48, told NPR outside a convenience store in the city. Ive never stolen anything in my life. This is so terrible. We have money but theres nowhere to buy.

NPR noted in its reporting that its team on the ground did not see a single store open to sell provisions to residents.

Another man told the outlet that he had spent hours trekking around the partially-destroyed city in search of medication for aunt, who was recently released from a cancer ward.

People are desperate but they are taking whatever they can, even if they dont need it, Manuel Magallon told NPR. My aunt really needs this medication. Its disappointing.

World-renown chef Jose Andreas heads to Acapulco to help feed victims of Hurricane Otis

Friday 27 October 2023 21:30 , Graig Graziosi

Jose Andreas, a world-renown chef known for providing food and assistance in the wake of global disasters through his World Central Kitchen program, announced on Friday he was headed to Acapulco to assist in the relief efforts underway.

@WCKitchen on the way now to support after #HurricaneOtis! Were bringing helicopters full of sandwiches & water. Its still very early after the storm & not possible to land in Acapulco..but well do whatever we can..fly..drive to help communities immediately! #ChefsForMexico, Mr Andreas tweeted on Friday.

.@WCKitchen on the way now to support after #HurricaneOtis! Were bringing helicopters full of sandwiches & water. Its still very early after the storm & not possible to land in Acapulco..but well do whatever we can..fly..drive to help communities immediately! #ChefsForMexico pic.twitter.com/VhD71YpgVz  Jose Andres  (@chefjoseandres) October 27, 2023

Quarter of a million still without power in Acapulco following Hurricane Otis

Friday 27 October 2023 23:00 , Graig Graziosi

Nearly a quarter of a million power customers in Acapulco  in a city of 1 million  are still without power following the devastating Hurricane Otis.

The storm made landfall on Wednesday as a Category 5 storm and destroyed much of the city, leaving much of its residents in the dark as crews continue to work to restore power.

More than 13,000 federal troops have been deployed to the city to help manage the relief efforts, though many living in Acapulco have been forced to turn to looting to find basic provisions as they await assistance.

Nobody has helped us: Desperation in Acapulco as residents await assistance after Hurricane Otis

Saturday 28 October 2023 00:00 , Graig Graziosi

Residents in Acapulco expressed their desperation two days after Hurricane Otis made landfall as a Category 5 storm, leaving much of the city without power and many with no means of buying food or procuring potable water.

Nobody has helped us, Jose Castro, a 29-year-old graphic designer who is stranded in the city told the LA Times. Really, this has been the worst experience of my life.

Amalia Garrido, 63, who was visiting the city to celebrate her grandsons birthday when the storm hit, said she was afraid.

There is no water here, there is no food, she told the LA Times. People are stealing everywhere.

She recalled seeing the destruction of the citys hotel district in the wake of the storm.

It makes you want to cry because everything is so ugly, so destroyed, she said.

WATCH: Hurricane Otis leaves trail of destruction in Acapulco

01:00 , Graig Graziosi

Mexicos leader under fire after Hurricane Otis devastates Acapulco

01:31 , Graeme Massie

Officials put the death toll at 27 people  although there are fears it could be higher as a desperate search for loved ones continued.

Mexicos leader under fire after Hurricane Otis devastates Acapulco

Latest images out of Acapulco

02:00 , Graig Graziosi

View of the desctruction left by the passage of Hurricante Otis outside the Acapulco's International Airport in Acapulco, Mexico on October 27, 2023 (AFP via Getty Images)

A woman rests with her son on a mat outdoors on October 26, 2023 in Acapulco, Mexico. Otis made landfall through the coast of Acapulco around midnight of October 25 as a category 5 storm (Getty Images)

Acapulco hotel guest describes terror of nightmare Hurricane Otis

02:33 , Graeme Massie

Many people had their roofs fall on them, others were crushed by palm trees. The government never warned of the hurricane.

Acapulco hotel guest describes terror of nightmare Hurricane Otis

Hundreds reportedly still searching for missing loved ones in Acapulco amid Hurricane Otis wreckage

03:00 , Graig Graziosi

Two days after Hurricane Otis made landfall in Acapulco as a Category 5 storm, hundreds are reportedly still searching for their missing loved ones among the rubble.

Arturo Villalobos told Noticias Telemundo that he was still trying to contact his wife and four children.

Im in another state, I cant do anything, he said. I just want to know how they are.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said even though the death of any person is unfortunate, there werent very many, during a press conference on Friday. The official death count from the storm has not changed from the initial report of 27 killed, but there have been reports of unrecovered bodies in parts of the city that may eventually add to that count, according to NBC News.

In the meantime, those with missing loved ones in the city have taken to online messaging platforms to post the names and photos of indivudals in the hope that other posters have seen them alive in the city.

Acapulco left decimated after Hurricane Otis

03:34 , Graeme Massie

Government workers in Acapulco to go house-to-house to determine families needs

04:00 , Graig Graziosi

Mexican government officials reportedly began going door-to-door in Acapulco on Friday to assess the needs of residents struggling after the destruction wrought by Hurricane Otis on Wednesday.

The Category 5 storm left half of the city without power, and many with no means of procuring food or potable water.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said 10,000 packages of appliances and home goods including refrigerators, stoves, and mattresses have been collected by the government for disbursment to residents in need.

The population of Acapulco is approximately 1 million.

WATCH: Before-and-after satellite images showcase the destruction of Hurricane Otis

04:59 , Graig Graziosi

06:00 , Graig Graziosi

Mexicos president cut disaster fund two years before Hurricane Otis

Two years before Hurricane Otis ripped through Guerrero State, Mexico cut its disaster relief fund.

The decision has left much uncertainty on how the region will recover from the Category 5 storm which left 27 people dead and at least $10billion in damage in the city of Acapulco and neighboring villages.

Mexicos Fund for Natural Disasters, known as Fonden, was set up in the late Nineties, taking a small portion of the federal budget in order to rapidly respond to natural disasters. It was widely admired as a progressive move.

Martha McHardy reports:

Mexicos president cut disaster fund two years before Hurricane Otis

Photos from Acapulco after Hurricane Otis

07:00 , Graig Graziosi

A damaged truck lies on the side of a road after hurricane Otis (Getty Images)

A damaged truck lies on the side of a road after hurricane Otis (Getty Images)

People carry products from a looted store after hurricane Otis hit Acapulco on October 26, 2023 in Acapulco, Mexico (Getty Images)

View of the damage caused after the passage of Hurricane Otis in Acapulco, Guerrero State, Mexico, taken on October 26, 2023 (AFP via Getty Images)

Bishops in Mexico call for help for people affected by Hurricane Otis

08:00 , Graig Graziosi

Bishops in Mexico have urged assistance for those affected by Hurricane Otis after the Category 5 hurricane ripped through part of the country on Sunday.

Hurricane Otis brought 165mph winds and torrential rainfall to Acapulco on Wednesday, leaving thousands without water and electricity.

We are aware of the pain and anguish that overwhelms thousands of families who have lost their homes, property and livelihoods in these disaster areas. Many localities suffered serious damage to infrastructure, and found themselves prevented from accessing essential services, the Mexican bishops conference said in a statement.

In these difficult times, we call for unity and fraternity among Mexicans. We urge the provision of generous assistance for those affected, especially the poorest and most vulnerable. May no one remain indifferent to the suffering of others, the statement continued.

Hurricanes are getting stronger. Heres why

09:00 , Graig Graziosi

Hurricane Otis slammed into Mexico early on Wednesday as the strongest ever storm to make landfall on the countrys west coast.

Otis went from a Category 1 to Category 5 hurricane in just 12 hours  the fastest rate ever recorded in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.

The storm made landfall near Acapulco and is moving north-northwest through the country.

As global temperatures increase and sea levels rise, tropical cyclones - the catch-all term for hurricanes and typhoons - are expected to become more powerful and destructive, scientists say.

Louise Boyle reports:

Hurricanes are getting stronger. Heres why

Acapulco residents, claiming theyve received little in government assistance, resort to looting for critical medication, basic provisions

10:00 , Graig Graziosi

Residents in Acapulco have reportedly had to resort to looting for necessary medications and basic provisions in the wake of Hurricane Otis, which devastated the city when it made landfall Wedensday as a Category 5 storm.

Acapulco residents have complained that theyve received little in the way of government assistance in the immediate aftermath of the storm.

We came to get ice because we have meat and fish at home and its gonna go off, Olivia Bautista, 48, told NPR outside a convenience store in the city. Ive never stolen anything in my life. This is so terrible. We have money but theres nowhere to buy.

NPR noted in its reporting that its team on the ground did not see a single store open to sell provisions to residents.

Another man told the outlet that he had spent hours trekking around the partially-destroyed city in search of medication for aunt, who was recently released from a cancer ward.

People are desperate but they are taking whatever they can, even if they dont need it, Manuel Magallon told NPR. My aunt really needs this medication. Its disappointing.

Nobody has helped us: Desperation in Acapulco as residents await assistance after Hurricane Otis

11:00 , Graig Graziosi

Residents in Acapulco expressed their desperation two days after Hurricane Otis made landfall as a Category 5 storm, leaving much of the city without power and many with no means of buying food or procuring potable water.

Nobody has helped us, Jose Castro, a 29-year-old graphic designer who is stranded in the city told the LA Times. Really, this has been the worst experience of my life.

Amalia Garrido, 63, who was visiting the city to celebrate her grandsons birthday when the storm hit, said she was afraid.

There is no water here, there is no food, she told the LA Times. People are stealing everywhere.

She recalled seeing the destruction of the citys hotel district in the wake of the storm.

It makes you want to cry because everything is so ugly, so destroyed, she said.

World-renown chef Jose Andreas heads to Acapulco to help feed victims of Hurricane Otis

12:00 , Graig Graziosi

Jose Andreas, a world-renown chef known for providing food and assistance in the wake of global disasters through his World Central Kitchen program, announced on Friday he was headed to Acapulco to assist in the relief efforts underway.

@WCKitchen on the way now to support after #HurricaneOtis! Were bringing helicopters full of sandwiches & water. Its still very early after the storm & not possible to land in Acapulco..but well do whatever we can..fly..drive to help communities immediately! #ChefsForMexico, Mr Andreas tweeted on Friday.

.@WCKitchen on the way now to support after #HurricaneOtis! Were bringing helicopters full of sandwiches & water. Its still very early after the storm & not possible to land in Acapulco..but well do whatever we can..fly..drive to help communities immediately! #ChefsForMexico pic.twitter.com/VhD71YpgVz  Jose Andres  (@chefjoseandres) October 27, 2023

Air bridge between Acapulco and Mexico City to be set up to evacuate tourists

13:00 , Graig Graziosi

An air bridge between Acapulco and Mexico City will be set up on Friday to evacuate tourists, the Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transport said, after announcing the control tower at Acapulco International Airport was back in operation.

It comes amid an exodus of tourists from Acapulco after a Category 5 hurricane ripped through the city on Wednesday, destroying homes and 80 per cent of the hotels in the region.

Two vessels are also en route to Acapulco carrying two water purification plants, a mobile kitchenette, four power plants, and two motor pumps, the Mexican Secretary of the Navy (Semar) said, after 165mph winds left residents without electricity or water.

Hundreds reportedly still searching for missing loved ones in Acapulco amid Hurricane Otis wreckage

14:00 , Graig Graziosi

Two days after Hurricane Otis made landfall in Acapulco as a Category 5 storm, hundreds are reportedly still searching for their missing loved ones among the rubble.

Arturo Villalobos told Noticias Telemundo that he was still trying to contact his wife and four children.

Im in another state, I cant do anything, he said. I just want to know how they are.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said even though the death of any person is unfortunate, there werent very many, during a press conference on Friday. The official death count from the storm has not changed from the initial report of 27 killed, but there have been reports of unrecovered bodies in parts of the city that may eventually add to that count, according to NBC News.

In the meantime, those with missing loved ones in the city have taken to online messaging platforms to post the names and photos of indivudals in the hope that other posters have seen them alive in the city.
The Israel Defence Forces have killed a Hamas commander during an overnight raid on Gaza, according to the Israeli military.

The IDF and the Shin Bet tonight killed Midhat Mabasher, the commander of the West Khan Yunis Battalion in the terrorist organization Hamas, the IDF said.

Mabasher had taken part in sniping attacks and used large explosives against IDF forces and Israeli settlements, the Israeli military added.

It comes as the IDF said it had deployed fighter jets to conduct more air strikes on Hamas terrorist targets in Gaza over the last 24 hours.

IDF ground troops, fighter jets and UAVs struck anti-tank missile launch sites, command & control centers and Hamas terrorist operatives. The troops exited the area and no injuries were reported, the Israeli military said.

Meanwhile, US said its fighter jets struck two Iranian facilities in Syria, after repeated attacks on US coalition forces in the region by an Iran-backed militia in the past week.

The strikes were not carried out in coordination with Israel, which has been engaged in its own clashes with Iran-backed Hezbollah forces on the border with Lebanon, a US official said.

Key Points

IDF kills top Hamas commander, Israel says

IDF strikes Hamas targets overnight

US fighter jets strike Syria after attacks by Iran-backed militia

Over 1,000 people still under rubble in Gaza, WHO says

Palestinian authorities release list of 7,000 people they say have been killed

Israel conducted sea raid, IDF says

15:00 , Alexander Butler

The Israeli Defence Forces conducted a targeted raid from the sea in southern Gaza overnight, the military said on X, formerly Twitter.

Fighters of the 13th Fleet carried out a targeted raid from the sea in the south of the Gaza Strip during the night. As part of the operation, the forces destroyed terrorist infrastructures of the Hamas terrorist organization and operated in a compound used by the organizations naval commando forces, it said.

The attack was different to an attack conducted by ground troops and fighter jets over night, which targeted anti-tank missile launch sites, command centres and Hamas terrorists.

Story continues

  13         .  ,                 .



          .       pic.twitter.com/hc2Zq8bHC2     (@idfonline) October 27, 2023

Up to 408 antisemitic offences in London this month

14:52 , Alexander Butler

There have been 408 recorded antisemitic offences in London between 1 October and 27 October, compared to just 28 over the same period last year, according to the Metropolitan Police.

In that time there have been 174 Islamophobic offences compared to 65 in the same period in 2022. The force has also made 75 arrests linked to the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Ground offensive would be long and difficult'

14:15 , Alexander Butler

An Israeli ground offensive of Gaza would be long and difficult, Israels defence minister admitted.

Yoav Gallant said a ground invasion would include large troop numbers backed by airstrikes, which would take a long time.

Mr Gallant added that it would be followed by a third phase of lower-intensity fighting, as Israel destroys pockets of resistance.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant (Anadolu via Getty Images)

Pictured: Empty Shabbat table laid in London for missing hostages

14:00 , Alexander Butler

An empty Shabbat table has been laid in London to raise awareness of more than 200 Jewish hostages being held captive in Gaza by Hamas.

A woman with an Israeli flag visits the empty Shabbat table installation in London (AFP via Getty Images)

The Empty Shabbat Table installation in London, showing kidnapped posters of three missing Israeli men (PA)

Hamas will release hostages if Palestinian prisoners released, Iran says

13:45 , Alexander Butler

Hamas will release Israeli hostages if 6,000 Palestinians being held in Israels prisons are also released, Irans foreign minister said.

Speaking at an emergency meeting of the UN general assembly in New York, foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said Iran stands ready to play its part in this very important humanitarian endeavour, along with Qatar and Turkey.

Iran is a major funder of Hamas. Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon held a meeting with Hamas and Islamic Jihad this week to discuss how to bring about real victory in the region.

Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian (via REUTERS)

UK stands four-square in support of Israel, UK home secretary says

13:20 , Alexander Butler

Britain stands four-square behind Israel and will do everything necessary to protect British jews, the UK home secretary said.

I met with Jewish communal leaders yesterday on public order and the sickening 1300% rise in antisemitism following Hamass terrorist atrocities, home secretary Suella Braverman said.

The Government stands foursquare in support of Israel and will do everything necessary to protect the British Jewish community.

I met with Jewish communal leaders yesterday on public order and the sickening 1300% rise in antisemitism following Hamass terrorist atrocities.



The Government stands foursquare in support of Israel and will do everything necessary to protect the British Jewish community. pic.twitter.com/gjxGoMcaSE  Suella Braverman MP (@SuellaBraverman) October 27, 2023

Up to 7,326 Palestinians killed in Gaza, health ministry says

12:57 , Alexander Butler

Up to 7,326 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza since 7 October, the Gazan health ministry has claimed.

Hospitals in Gaza record a death with the persons identity number, name, gender and age after this information is confirmed, according to the ministry of health.

This data is then transferred to a central database overseen by the Ministry of Health, based in Ramallah, West Bank, where it is double checked for discrepancies, the ministry said.

Although the Biden administration has raised questions about the credibility of the ministrys figures, it is the only official source for Gaza casualties. Israel has sealed Gazas borders, barring foreign journalists and humanitarian workers.

The United Nations and other international institutions and experts, as well as Palestinian authorities in the West Bank  rivals of Hamas  say the Gaza ministry has long made a good-faith effort to account for the dead under the most difficult conditions.

Palestinians walk among rubble and destruction after Israeli airstrikes on Gaza (AP)

Tyranny meets terrorism: Shapps slams Putins meeting with Hamas

12:25 , Alexander Butler

Vladimir Putins meeting with terror group Hamas shows how far Russia has fallen since its invasion of Ukraine, the UK defence secretary said.

Tyranny meets terrorism. Pariah meets proscribed, as Russia sits down with Hamas, defence secretary Grant Shapps said on X, formerly Twitter.

Putins humiliating search for friends, from North Korea to Hamas, has shown how far Russia has fallen & proven the disastrous cost of his failing invasion of Ukraine.

Tyranny meets terrorism... pariah meets proscribed, as Russia sits down with Hamas.



Putins humiliating search for friends, from North Korea to Hamas, has shown how far Russia has fallen & proven the disastrous cost of his failing invasion of Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/9H75saZgUn  Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP (@grantshapps) October 27, 2023

Another 10 lorries carrying aid enter Gaza

12:13 , Alexander Butler

Another 10 lorries carrying water, food and medical supplies has been allowed to enter Gaza through the Rafah land border crossing with Egypt, officials said.

This Friday morning, a medical delegation consisting of 10 foreign doctors entered, in addition to 10 trucks entering the Gaza Strip through the Rafah land crossing, carrying water, food and medicine, bringing the total number of trucks since the beginning of the war to only 84 trucks, a Palestinian border official said.

Humanitarian agencies and charities have warned more aid was needed to deal with the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Lack of fuel threatens food aid to Gaza, UN warns

12:00 , Alexander Butler

Fuel shortages in Gaza may disrupt the delivery of emergency food to thousands of displaced families, the UN food agency warned.

Only two of our contracted bakeries have fuel to produce bread at the moment and tomorrow there might be none, World Food Programme (WFP) representative Samer Abdeljaber said.

This would be a terrible blow to the thousands of families living in shelters who have been relying on the daily bread deliveries, he added.

The Rome-based agency said it provides daily bread supplies, on average, for 200,000 people in shelters, but this fell to 150,000 on Wednesday due to the lack of fuel.

A displaced Palestinian girl shows a bowl of potatos at a refugee camp in Gaza (AFP via Getty Images)

EU position on Israel-Hamas is evolving, says Irish premier

11:47 , Adam Forrest

Irish premier Leo Varadkar has said he believes the EU position on Israel-Palestine is evolving and that it would have a role to play in any future peace conference.

Mr Varadkar has said it is possible that EU states could update their statement to call for an Israel-Hamas ceasefire in the future.

On Thursday, EU leaders reiterated a condemnation of Hamas for brutal and indiscriminate terrorist attacks across Israel.

The European Council also strongly emphasised Israels right to defend itself in line with international law, while reiterating the importance of protecting civilians.

Irish premier Leo Varadkar said he thought the EU position on Israel-Palestine was evolving (PA Wire)

Israel-Hamas conflict wont affect UKs support for Ukraine, Sunak says

11:35 , Katie Devlin

Rishi Sunak has spoken to Volodymyr Zelensky, to reassure him the UKs support for Ukraine will not change despite the Israel-Hamas war.

A Downing Street spokeswoman said the Prime Minister spoke to the Ukrainian President this morning to reiterate the UKs support for Ukraine.

The Prime Minister underscored the UKs long term and unwavering commitment to Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity and reiterated that the conflict in the Middle East would not change that.

Mr Sunak added that the principle of a rules based order, in which people could live in peace and stability, needed to be protected both in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky in July

US sanctions Hamas and Irans Revolutionary Guard

11:20 , Alexander Butler

The US has issued a second round of sanctions on Hamas by targeting a senior official, as well as members of Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Todays action underscores the United States commitment to dismantling Hamass funding networks by deploying our counterterrorism sanctions authorities and working with our global partners to deny Hamas the ability to exploit the international financial system, Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said

A Gaza-based entity that Treasury said has served as a conduit for illicit Iranian funds to Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group was also targeted, the department said. Iran backs Hamas and other militant groups in the Middle East.

The US has sanctioned Hamas and IRGC officials (AP)

Watch: Sadiq Khan calls for Gaza ceasefire as Labour rebellion against Starmer stance grows

11:05 , Alexander Butler

IDF kills top Hamas commander, Israel says

10:49 , Alexander Butler

Israel has killed a senior Hamas commander, according to the Israeli Defence Forces.

The IDF and the Shin Bet tonight killed Midhat Mabasher, the commander of the West Khan Yunis Battalion in the terrorist organization Hamas, the IDF said.

The Israeli military said Mabasher took part in sniping attacks and used large explosives against IDF forces and Israeli settlements.

 "     ,        .              >> pic.twitter.com/awTghlrrGy     (@idfonline) October 27, 2023

WHO: 1,000 people still under rubble in Gaza

10:40 , Alexander Butler

Up to 1,000 people are still stuck under the rubble of destroyed buildings in Gaza, according to a World Health Organisation official.

We also get these estimates that there are still 1,000 plus people under the rubble which have not been identified yet, Richard Peeperkorn, WHO Representative for the occupied Palestinian territory, said in response to a question about the death toll in Gaza.

More than 7,000 people have been killed by Israeli bombardments in response to deadly cross-border attacks on Israel by Hamas gunmen on 7 October, Gazan health authorities say.

Rubble and ruins in Gaza following Israeli airstrikes on the region (AFP via Getty Images)

At least 57 UN staff members killed in Gaza

10:30 , Alexander Butler

Up to 57 staff members from the United Nations have been killed in the Israel-Hamas conflict, Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said.

At least 57 colleagues of mine are confirmed killed, said Mr Lazzarini. Wonderful people who have just dedicated their lives to their communities.

Mr Lazzarini also said Gazas death figures, which were challenged by the US, had been accurate in previous conflicts between Israel and Hamas.

In the past, the five, six cycles of conflict in the Gaza Strip, these figures were considered as credible and no one ever really challenged these figures, he said.

Smoke rises over the Gaza strip (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Pictured: Gaza

10:20 , Alexander Butler

Three men mourn at a funeral of Palestinians killed in Israeli air strikes (REUTERS)

Palestinians walk amid the rubble and destruction after an Israeli airstrike on Gaza (AFP via Getty Images)

An aerial view of a destroyed building following Israeli airstrikes on Gaza (AFP via Getty Images)

A building lies in ruins after Israeli airstrikes on southern Gaza (AFP via Getty Images)

London mayor Sadiq Khan calls for ceasefire

10:10 , Alexander Butler

Londons Mayor Sadiq Khan has called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Thousands of innocent civilians have already been killed in Israel and Gaza, he said.

With the humanitarian crisis set to deteriorate even further, Im calling for a ceasefire.

Thousands of innocent civilians have already been killed in Israel and Gaza. With the humanitarian crisis set to deteriorate even further, Im calling for a ceasefire. pic.twitter.com/iOZpHTsBQC  Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan (@MayorofLondon) October 27, 2023

Israeli forces kill four Palestinians in West Bank clashes

10:00 , Alexander Butler

Israeli forces have killed four Palestinians during raids in the occupied West Bank, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA said. Two of the dead were identified by militant factions as their members.

As it wages a now three-week-old war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Israel has also stepped up operations against Islamist groups in the West Bank, killing scores of Palestinians and arresting hundreds. One Israeli soldier was killed in a clash.

The Israeli military said that during West Bank arrest operations its troops came under attack in the city of Jenin and fired back, killing Ayser al-Amar of the Islamic Jihad faction.

Islamic Jihad confirmed al-Amar belonged to the group. Hamas said one of its men, Jawad al-Turki, was killed during the Jenin fighting.

Up to 229 confirmed hostages held by Hamas, Israel says

09:50 , Alexander Butler

The number of hostages currently being held by Hamas militants as 229, the Israeli said.

It brings the number up from the previously confirmed 224. So far, four hostages have been released.

An American mother and daughter have been released, as well as two elderly Israeli women. Qatari negotiators hope for a full release within the next few days.

A light installation in Jerusalem for those kidnapped by Hamas (EPA)

Eight more lorries carrying aid set to enter Gaza

09:40 , Alexander Butler

Eight lorries carrying food, medicine and water are expected to cross into the Gaza Strip on Friday, a senior United Nations official said.

We have gotten in approximately 74 trucks. Were expecting another eight or so today, Lynn Hastings, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said.

Aid workers have said repeatedly that the convoys meet only a tiny fraction of the territorys mounting humanitarian needs. Prior to the war, an average of 500 trucks entered Gaza each day, according to reports.

A convoy of aid lorries cross into Gaza from Egypt last Sunday (AFP via Getty Images)

09:30 , Alexander Butler

The Israeli military said an aerial threat had been spotted in the Red Sea region and linked this to a projectile that landed on Egyptian coastal territory there.

In recent hours, an aerial threat was spotted in the Red Sea region. Combat helicopters were scrambled in response to the threat, and this matter is now being investigated, chief military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said.

To our understanding, the strike that took place in Egypt originated in this threat, he said in a televised briefing. Israel will work with Egypt, and the United States, and bolster regional defences against threats from the Red Sea region.

Egypt has said an unidentified drone landed near a hospital building in Taba, injuring six people.

Gaza invasion will lead to significant escalation of violence across Middle East, says ex-Obama adviser

09:20 , Adam Forrest

Ben Rhodes, the former deputy national security advisor in the Obama administration, said the current US government was worried about wider conflict  particularly attacks by Irans proxies in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

I dont know how you have that ground invasion [in Gaza] without having a significant escalation across the region  including perhaps Hezbollah getting involved in northern Israel and the West Bank becoming much more violent and Iranian proxies being further activated in Iraq, Yemen and Syria, he told BBC Radio 4.

Mr Rhodes added: If theres not a de-escalation, if theres further escalation in Gaza I think its likely we see further incidents  if you continue to light that tinder box on fire at some point its going to catch.

He said the Joe Biden administration had caused the Israelis to at least consider the risks from an invasion, but warned: It does not seem like that message has caused them to fundamentally changed their calculus.

Palestinians look through the rubble of a building following Israeli bombardment of Khan Yunis, southern Gaza (AFP via Getty Images)

What can we expect next in Israel-Hamas war? Ask our expert Kim Sengupta anything about the conflict

09:10 , Alexander Butler

What happens to Gaza if Israel make good on their promise to destroy Hamas? Who will govern it and have the responsibility of restoring a destroyed land?

If you have a question for The Independents World Affairs Editor Kim Sengupta me submit it now, or when I join you live at 12pm today for the Ask Me Anything event.

Register to submit your question in the comments box under this article linked below. If youre not already a member, click sign up in the comments section to leave your question. For a full guide on how to comment click here.

Ask expert Kim Sengupta anything about political fallout from Israel-Hamas war

Moment Hamas spokesman storms out of interview after being questioned on terror attack

09:00 , Alexander Butler

Families of Israeli victims urge world to stand against Islamist violence

08:50 , Alexander Butler

The world must take a stand against Islamist violence to avoid it spreading and take action to ensure the swift release of hostages taken by Hamas militants, families of victims said.

A delegation of relatives visited Rome to hold talks with authorities, including Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, as part of a campaign to bolster world efforts to free the more than 200 people taken captive.

The group included Avi Eylon, whose 23-year-old daughter, Shira, was killed with a friend while attending a music festival.

Please wake up. To the people in the world, to the people in Europe, please wake up, because this is not a land conflict, this is a religious conflict, he said, saying the reason why Hamas murdered his daughter was that she was Jewish.

A woman touches photos of Israelis missing and held captive in Gaza, displayed on a wall in Tel Aviv (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Pictured: Destruction in Gaza

08:40 , Alexander Butler

A man with a bandage on his head sits in front of a destroyed building in Gaza after Israeli airstrikes (AFP via Getty Images)

Smoke and fire rise from buildings as rescuers gather following Israeli airstrikes on Gaza (AFP via Getty Images)

Iran launches military exercises

08:30 , Alexander Butler

Iranian ground forces have launched two days of exercises to test the flight readiness of more than 200 helicopters, according to reports.

The drills, which had been planned earlier, are aimed confronting possible threats facing the Islamic Republic, spokesperson Brigadier General Amir Cheshak told state media.

He said troops and military equipment had been transferred from seven of Irans provinces for the drills in Nasr Abad in the central Isfahan province.

It comes after the US said its fighter jets struck two Iranian facilities in Syria, after repeated attacks on US coalition forces in the region by an Iran-backed militia in the past week.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi (AP)

IDF strike Hamas 'missile launch sites' and 'command centres' in Gaza

08:20 , Alexander Butler

More than 250 lawyers urge Britain to call for a ceasefire

08:10 , Alexander Butler

More than 250 British lawyers have called on the UK government to press for a ceasefire in Gaza, claiming Israel is breaching international law.

The letter, addressed to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and Defence Secretary Grant Shapps, calls on the British government to urgently fulfil its international legal obligations

We are moved to intervene because, in a region already accustomed to great suffering, the death and other harm visited on individuals, families and whole communities in the last 20 days has been truly terrible.

The starvation of a civilian population as a method of warfare, including wilfully impeding adequate relief supplies, as Israel is doing in Gaza, is strictly prohibited under customary international law... and constitutes a war crime.

Hamass war crimes cannot be justified by reference to prior war crimes by Israel; neither do they justify further such crimes by Israel in its response, which must comply with international law, it says.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly (PA Wire)

Hostages cant be released until ceasefire, Hamas claims

07:56 , Alexander Butler

Hostages seized by the Hamas terror group during its cross-border raid which killed up to 1,400 Israelis cannot be released until there is a ceasefire, the group has claimed.

They seized dozens of people, most of them civilians, and we need time to find them in the Gaza Strip and then release them, Hamas official Abu Hamid told Russian newspaper Kommersant.

A calm environment was needed to complete this task, the newspaper quoted him as saying. On Thursday, Hamas said around 50 of the hostages had been killed in Israeli air strikes.

But Israel has urged Russia to expel the visiting Hamas delegation, calling their invitation to Moscow deplorable.

Light projectors signifying those abducted by Hamas illuminateJerusalem (EPA)

Nearly half of Israelis want to hold off on Gaza invasion, poll finds

07:37 , Alexander Butler

Nearly half of Israelis want to hold off on any invasion of the Gaza strip, a new poll has found.

Twenty-nine per cent of Israelis agreed while 49 per cent said it would be better to wait when asked if the IDF should immediately escalate to a large-scale ground offensive. Meanwhile, 22 per were still undecided, the poll published in the Maariv newspaper said.

The paper said the results contrasted with its poll last week which found 65 per cent of Israelis supported a major ground offensive.

Relatives of hostages that were kidnaped to the Gaza Strip call for the Israeli government to bring them back in Tel Aviv, Israel (Getty Images)

IDF strikes Hamas targets overnight

07:28 , Alexander Butler

The Israel Defence Forces said it had conducted more air strikes on Hamas terrorist targets over the last 24 hours.

IDF ground troops, fighter jets and UAVs struck anti-tank missile launch sites, command & control centers and Hamas terrorist operatives. The troops exited the area and no injuries were reported, the Israeli military said.

OPERATIONAL UPDATE: The IDF conducted strikes on Hamas terrorist targets over the last 24 hours.



IDF ground troops, fighter jets and UAVs struck:



 Anti-tank missile launch sites

 Command & control centers

 Hamas terrorist operatives



The troops exited the area and no pic.twitter.com/yNdiY6XTby  Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 27, 2023

Unprecedented death toll in Gaza

07:07 , Namita Singh

The rising death tolls in Gaza are unprecedented in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Even greater loss of life could come if Israel launches an expected ground offensive aimed at crushing Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007 and survived four previous wars with Israel.

The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said on Wednesday that more than 750 people were killed over the past 24 hours, higher than the 704 killed the previous day.

The figures could not be independently verified and the ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

By comparison, 2,251 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed in the entire six-week-long war in 2014, according to UN figures.

Irans foreign minister said Hamas is ready to release civilian prisoners abducted from Israel but that the international community must take responsibility for releasing 6,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.

Hossein Amirabdollahian told an emergency meeting of the UN General Assembly on Thursday that Iran stands ready to play its part in this very important humanitarian endeavour, along with Qatar and Turkey.

Rafah crossing checks 'slow aid to dribble

07:07 , Jane Dalton

Overly stringent checks on lorries at the Rafah crossing from Egypt into Gaza were slowing the flow of humanitarian aid to a dribble as hunger grows among Palestinians there, UN World Food Programme executive director has said.

The Rafah crossing, which is controlled by Egypt and does not border Israel, has become the main point of aid delivery since Israel imposed a total siege of Gaza in retaliation for an attack by Hamas militants on 7 October.

The United States is leading negotiations with Israel, Egypt and the UN to try to create a sustained delivery mechanism for aid to Gaza.

Weve gotten a few  a dribble, just a dribble  of trucks in, Cindy McCain told Reuters. We need to get a large amount in. We need safe, unfettered access into Gaza so that we can feed and make sure that people dont starve to death, because thats whats happening.

(REUTERS)

In video: Al Jazeera reporter Wael Al Dahdouh continues to report on Gaza after the loss of family

07:05 , Namita Singh

US will not be spared from this fire, warns Iran foreign minister

06:59 , Namita Singh

On Thursday, Irans foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said at the United Nations that if Israels retaliation against Palestinian militants Hamas in the Gaza Strip doesnt end, then the United States will not be spared from this fire.

I say frankly to the American statesmen, who are now managing the genocide in Palestine, that we do not welcome (an)expansion of the war in the region. But if the genocide in Gaza continues, they will not be spared from this fire, he told a meeting of the 193-member General Assembly on the Middle East.

People gather amid the destruction in the aftermath of an Israeli strike on Gaza City on 26 October 2023, as battles continue between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group (AFP via Getty Images)

One way Iran projects power is by arming and funding militant groups, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Houthis in Yemen and Shiite militias in Iraq.

In the last such known US retaliation, the US military carried out multiple air strikes in Syria on 23 March against Iran-aligned groups it blamed for a drone attack that killed an American contractor, wounded another and hurt five US troops.

Biden sent message warning Irans Khamenei against targeting US troops

06:52 , Namita Singh

President Joe Biden has sent a rare message to Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warning Tehran against targeting US personnel in the Middle East, the White House said on Thursday after a spate of attacks on American forces in the region.

There was a direct message relayed, White House spokesperson John Kirby said at a news briefing, declining to elaborate.

US officials want to avoid a wider conflict in the Middle East following the 7 October attack by the militant Hamas group on Israel that killed at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians.

About 900 additional US troops are headed to the Middle East or have recently arrived there to bolster air defenses to protect US personnel amid a surge in attacks in the region by Iran-affiliated groups, the Pentagon said.

US troops have been attacked at least 12 times in Iraq and four times in Syria in the past week, it added.

US fighter jets strike Syria after attacks by Iran-backed militia

06:43 , Namita Singh

Two US fighter jets struck weapons and ammunition facilities in Syria on Friday in what Washington said was a retaliation for attacks on US forces by an Iran-backed militia.

Joe Biden ordered strikes on the two facilities used by Irans Revolutionary Guard Corps and militia forces it backs, the Pentagon said, warning the US will take additional measures if attacks by Irans proxies continue.

US and coalition troops have been attacked at least 19 times in Iraq and in Syria by Iran-backed forces in the past week, the US officials said. Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Lebanons Hezbollah are all backed by Tehran.

Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said at the United Nations on Thursday that if Israels offensive against Hamas did not stop, the United States will not be spared from this fire.

The US air strikes took place at roughly 4.30am on Friday in Syria near Abu Kamal, a Syrian town on the border with Iraq, and were carried out by two F-16 fighter jets using precision munitions, a US defence official said.

These precision self-defence strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against US personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on 17 October, US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement.

These Iranian-backed attacks against US forces are unacceptable and must stop, Mr Austin said.

Explainer: What is Gazas ministry of health and how does it calculate death toll?

06:06 , Jane Dalton

Doctors scribble on notepads in overflowing morgues, struggling to account for bodies trapped under rubble and tossed in hastily dug mass graves. Yet the Gaza-based Ministry of Health continues to tally casualty numbers:

EXPLAINER: What is Gaza's Ministry of Health and how does it calculate the war's death toll?

Republican senators want to separate Israel funding from Ukraine aid

05:05 , Jane Dalton

A group of conservatives in the US Senate are pushing to drive a wedge between military aid for Ukraine and Israel at a time when passing legislation to support the former seems more uncertain than ever:

Republican senators want to separate Israel funding from Ukraine aid

Israel claims to have killed Hamas spy chief

04:04 , Jane Dalton

The Israeli military said an airstrike killed one of two masterminds of the Hamas massacre  Shadi Barud, the head of Hamas intelligence unit.

The military says it only strikes militant targets and accuses Hamas of operating among civilians in an attempt to protect its fighters.

Shadi Barud, Deputy Head of Hamas Intelligence Directorate has been eliminated by an IDF aerial strike.



He took part in the planning of the October 7 massacre and countless other deadly attacks carried out against Israelis.



We will continue to strike and eliminate Hamas  Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 26, 2023

New photos show destruction as Israel tanks raid Gaza

03:03 , Jane Dalton

An online geolocating platform has posted photos of military vehicles and identified the location of Israels tanks at the northern border of the Gaza strip:

Gaza map shows scale of destruction of tiny strip as Israel tanks raid north

Hostages families stage demonstration in Tel Aviv

02:02 , Jane Dalton

Family members of the Israeli hostages who were kidnapped and taken to the Gaza Strip held a demonstration calling for their government to bring them back:

(Getty Images)

The evidence on who is to blame for Gaza hospital bomb

01:01 , Jane Dalton

Hamas blame the deaths on an Israeli airstrike; Israel blames a jihadist groups failed rocket:

Who is to blame for Gaza hospital bomb - we scrutinise the evidence

EU leaders stress Israels right to defend itself

Friday 27 October 2023 00:02 , Jane Dalton

Leaders of the European Unions 27 nations have emphasised Israels right to defend itself in line with international law and international humanitarian law.

The summit in Brussels was the leaders first in-person meeting since the attack that prompted Israel to bombard and blockade Hamas-run Gaza.

In their declaration, the leaders also repeated a call for Hamas to immediately release all hostages without any precondition.

They reiterated their previous condemnation in the strongest possible terms of the 7 October assault on Israel by Hamas.

The European Union will work closely with partners in the region to protect civilians, provide assistance and facilitate access to food, water, medical care, fuel and shelter, ensuring that such assistance is not abused by terrorist organisations, the declaration also said.

In pictures: Lights memorial for the kidnapped

Thursday 26 October 2023 23:01 , Jane Dalton

A display of lights signifying those abducted by Hamas light the sky in Jerusalem:

(EPA)

(EPA)

(EPA)

Reporter whose family were killed felt duty to continue working

Thursday 26 October 2023 22:30 , Jane Dalton

An Al Jazeera reporter who was on air when he was told his wife and children had been killed in an Israeli airstrike has spoken of why he has continued working despite his agony.

Wael Al-Dahdouh said: Thank you for all your solidarity and condolences and prayers. They were really important ... I felt it was my duty to get back to work as quickly as possible, despite everything.

As you can see, the firing is going on everywhere...

I felt that it was my duty, despite the pain and the open wound, to get back in front of the camera and to communicate with you on social media as soon as possible.

UK Border Force set to help Britons escape Gaza

Thursday 26 October 2023 22:00 , Jane Dalton

UK Border Force teams are in Egypt to help trapped British nationals escape from Gaza when a crossing is opened, Rishi Sunak has revealed.

Around 200 Briton stuck inside the besieged enclave have been in touch with the Foreign Office, the prime minister said:

UK Border Force in Egypt to help trapped British nationals escape Gaza

EU summit calls for 'humanitarian corridors and pauses' in Gaza

Thursday 26 October 2023 20:50 , Sam Rkaina

EU leaders agreed at a summit on Thursday to call for the establishment of humanitarian corridors and pauses to get urgently-needed aid into Gaza.

The European Council expresses its gravest concern for the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza and calls for continued, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access and aid to reach those in need through all necessary measures including humanitarian corridors and pauses for humanitarian needs, a declaration adopted by the leaders said.

The European Union will work closely with partners in the region to protect civilians, provide assistance and facilitate access to food, water, medical care, fuel and shelter, ensuring that such assistance is not abused by terrorist organisations, added the declaration, issued at the summit in Brussels.
Thrifting: Breaking out of its niche and winning hearts island-wide. (PHOTO: Getty Images) (Getty Images)

SINGAPORE  In Singapore, a shopping revolution is quietly unfolding, reshaping perspectives on retail therapy.

Thrifting - the act of buying used items - was once confined to budget-conscious and eco-conscious consumers, but has now become a wellness trend that uplifts the spirits of those who embrace it.

In fact, the resale market for used clothing, shoes and accessories is on the rise, with more people opting for second-hand items. According to the recent ThredUp 2023 Resale Report, the global used clothing market is expected to reach US$350 billion (S$479 billion) by 2027, nearly doubling its current size.

As the allure of thrift stores continues to grow, Yahoo Southeast Asia spoke with four local thrift shops and platforms to uncover the story behind this retail renaissance, and how it is positively impacting shoppers' mental well-being.

Sustainable journey and liberation from brand expectations

Raye Padit's foray into sustainable fashion began with a profound realisation: he yearned to make a more meaningful contribution and tackle the pressing issues within the fashion industry, such as environmental waste.

"There were a lot of things coming to light behind the curtain that social media or mainstream media is not really discussing, such as the whole pollution, abuse of workers, and the waste problems that we have in the fashion industry," he said.

In response, Padit established The Fashion Pulpit (TFP) in 2018, a clothing swap platform and boutique with a mission to foster environmental education and raise awareness within the fashion industry. Since its inception, the platform has successfully saved about 200,000 fashion items.

Located at OUE Downtown Gallery, TFP operates on a membership model, and offers both one-time swaps and one-year unlimited swapping options. Shoppers can exchange clothing, accessories, bags and shoes in good condition and earn points, which can be used as a budget for their swapping activities.

Story continues

Padit, who is in his 30s, explained, "When we started TFP, we were in the height of fatigue in fashion with the transactional relationship we had with clothes. We had so much of that, and so when we offered a platform that engages you from the very start, you feel that you are part of an active involvement in the industry."

Raye Padit, founder of The Fashion Pulpit, highlights the liberating experience of shopping at the store, where the focus is on you and the clothes, not the brand. (PHOTO: Raye IG and TFB Website) (TFB/RAYE)

One distinctive feature of TFP is its liberation from the pressure to fit into a certain image. Padit pointed out, "The feedback that we have been getting a lot from our members is that when you think about fashion or a specific brand, we would always have a preconceived notion of what the brand stands for.

"When you come to The Fashion Pulpit, that expectation or that preconceived notion of what the brand stands for, or that you have to pretend or something, gets cleared up. When you shop or when you swap here, it becomes just you and the clothes. It's no longer about the brand."

According to him, the empowerment of making choices without external pressures is a key aspect of thrifting. "The clothes are no longer about, 'If I buy this brand, would my friend tell me that I don't really see you in this brand kind of thing?'

"So that kind of concern and anxiety goes away when you shop or when you swap, because you are in your own space, trying to explore the things that work for you, and no one is telling you what doesn't work for you."

Empowering women and challenging fast fashion trends

In 2000, the New2U Thrift Shop became a part of Singapore's burgeoning thrift shopping scene. This volunteer-run shop offers a diverse collection of pre-loved items, from clothing and accessories to household goods and ornaments, with prices starting at just $1.

Operating under the Singapore Council of Women's Organisation (SCWO), the thrift shop located at 96 Waterloo St distinguishes itself with a mission: Every penny it earns supports the Star Shelter and various SCWO initiatives, which help women facing domestic violence who need marital and child support.

Over the years, SCWO's chief executive officer Koh Yan Ping has noticed a surge in demand for thrifting, whether for donations or customers looking to purchase pre-loved items.

"People are now DM-ing (direct messaging) to see if they can donate. It used to be one message every two or three days; now New2U gets at least two to five messages a day," she said.

Koh stressed the adverse effects of fast fashion, a trend in the fashion industry characterised by the rapid production of inexpensive, trendy clothing to meet consumer demands.

In contrast, thrifting provides an alternative that encourages women to make more conscious fashion choices and resist the pressure to constantly chase the latest trends.

"Fast fashion promotes this whole concept of a certain way that women should look: I must be trendy, I must wear the latest fashion," Koh explained. "And I think this is unhealthy in the long run, especially for young girls, to always be obsessed about keeping themselves on trend and chasing the different fashion trends."

She believes that encouraging thrift shopping among youth and younger women is equally important in empowering women.

Redefining second-hand fashion

Aloysius Sng, the founder of Refash, is dedicated to changing consumer perceptions of second-hand clothing. Set up in 2015, the company is a Singapore-based fashion re-commerce platform for women to buy and sell pre-loved clothing.

In addition to their online presence, Refash has over 20 stores in Singapore and Malaysia.

Sng, 35, shared his perspective on the evolving consumer mindset, saying, "We are all about changing the perception of consumers because they do have that stigma when it comes to buying second-hand. They will initially be resistant towards it, but when they realise that it's such a delightful experience buying second-hand online and offline, they will start to be more receptive."

He also noted that as demographics change and mindsets evolve, consumers are increasingly seeking more meaningful and sustainable purchases.

The thrill of buying cheap or disposable items has in fact lost its appeal, with consumers opting for longer-lasting, quality products, according to Sng.

During the interview with Yahoo Southeast Asia, Sng also discussed a potential community outreach initiative, revealing plans to extend their services to construction sites.

While Refash primarily focused on serving women, Sng observed a growing interest among male customers keen to sell their clothing. However, the expansion into men's fashion has been a gradual process as the company continues to concentrate on satisfying the needs of its female clientele.

Breaking Stereotypes: Founder of Refash noticed a growing number of men eager to sell their clothing. (PHOTO: Refash Website/Screengrab) (Refash)

Sustainable shopping for a new generation

Choy Jia Yu and her friends founded Thryft in 2019, with sustainability as a central mission. Thryft blends online and offline thrift shopping, and currently operates as a pop-up at Peace Centre.

They specialise in offering quality second-hand books and clothing, all priced at a fraction of their original costs.

Choy spoke about her inspiration, saying, "A couple of years back, thrifting wasn't as big as it is now. It involved a lot of going to traditional thrift shops, which was fun but somewhat niche. We wanted to make buying second-hand more accessible to those who would normally go for traditional retail."

As a member of Generation Z who embraces this trend, the 24-year-old added, "For me, thrifting is about addressing the environmental impact of fast fashion. I feel better mentally knowing I'm giving pre-loved items a new lease on life without guilt. You never know what you'll find, and the pieces are unique. It's an affordable way to experiment with different styles."

The surging popularity of thrifting is reshaping the way people approach shopping, instilling a deeper appreciation for sustainable choices, and nurturing a sense of community. It is clear that this trend is here to stay  a sentiment strongly reinforced by businesses in the industry.

Thryft: Where online and offline thrift shopping meets quality second-hand books and clothing, all at a fraction of their original cost. (PHOTO: Thryft) (CHEUNG WAN LING)

Do you have a story tip? Email: sgnews.tips@yahooinc.com.

You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter. Also check out our Southeast Asia, Food, and Gaming channels on YouTube.
Joseph Emerson is charged with attempted murder (Joseph Emerson/Facebook)

The off-duty pilot who allegedly tried to crash an Alaska Airlines plane mid-flight was once the safety officer at his flying club in California.

Joseph Emerson, 44, was the safety officer for the NRI Flying Club in Concord, California, for two years before leaving the post in 2019, the New York Post reported.

He was an authorised instructor in the NRI Flying Club and served for a year or two as the club safety officer where he promoted a culture of safety and continuous training, club president Adam Silverthorne said.

Mr Emerson was charged with 83 counts of attempted murder after he allegedly tried to cut off fuel to the engines during a flight from Seattle to San Francisco on Sunday  before being subdued by the flight crew.

Alaska Airlines said that Mr Emerson was travelling in the flight deck jump seat in the cockpit when he suddenly tried to shut down both of the planes engines by pulling the fire extinguisher handles.

Mr Emerson was then arrested and escorted off the plane. None of the 80 passengers on board the flight were hurt.

Mr Emersons motive for the incident remains unclear, but Alaska Airlines said Mr Emerson did not have a history of medical issues.

Throughout his career, Emerson completed his mandated FAA medical certifications in accordance with regulatory requirements, and at no point were his certifications denied, suspended or revoked, Alaska Airlines said in a statement.

A Federal Aviation Administration pilot database also showed Mr Emerson received a medical clearance last month.

After the plane made an emergency landing in Portland, Mr Emerson admitted to police that he had had a nervous breakdown and had taken psychedelic mushrooms two days earlier.

He told police he had not slept in 40 hours and that he had struggled with depression for the past six months.

I pulled both emergency shut-off handles because I thought I was dreaming and I just wanna wake up, he told police according to court documents.

Story continues

Alaska Airlines said they are deeply disturbed by the 44-year-olds actions.

Joseph David Emerson, left, 44, was arraigned in Multnomah County Circuit Court on Tues (AP)

Mr Silverthorne said it is impossible to imagine Mr Emerson trying to hurt anyone.

Its impossible for me to imagine him intentionally trying to harm anyone, its just not who he is, he said.

One of the 44-year-olds neighbours also echoed this.

He plays with the kids all the time, Karen Yee told the Daily Mail.

Hes just a great guy. Hes very understanding of other people, she said.

We just couldnt imagine him doing anything to hurt someone. Its very hard for us to believe that he would do anything intentionally like that, she added. I cant fathom him doing anything that would hurt anyone.

Mr Emerson first joined the Alaska Air Group in 2001 as a first officer with Horizon before becoming a pilot with the airline in 2019.
Neuschwanstein Castle (AFP via Getty Images)

An American man has been charged with rape and murder over an attack on two women near Neuschwastein Castle in Germany.

The 31-year-old man, who has not been named in line with German privacy rules, faces charges of murder, rape with fatal consequences, attempted murder and possession of child pornography.

The attack, on June 14, took place near Queen Mary's Bridge, a crossing over a gorge that offers views of the 19th-century castle in Bavaria, one of the country's most famous tourist attractions.

Prosecutors say the suspect met the tourists, aged 21 and 22, by chance and lured them off a hiking trail and allegedly pushed them down the gorge.

He is alleged to have begun the assault by pushing the younger woman to the ground before trying to undress her.

When the other woman rushed to her aid, a scuffle ensued and the suspect allegedly pushed her down a slope. She fell about 165ft but survived despite sustaining a head injury, bruises and grazes.

Prosecutors said they secured a laptop and cellphones from the suspect containing child sexual abuse material.

Authorities say the women did not know the man prior to the incident. The suspect was arrested shortly after the attack.

Murder charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison in Germany.
Announcing your ideal acreage set up: a large brick ranch style home, a Quonset building, storage shed and the cutest little country store all packaged up and sitting on 4.19 square acres. This can all be found on a hard surface road just a few minutes outside the quaint town of Merrill, IA. The home greets you with its covered open porch. Upon entry you will find a light filled living room, a large eat-in kitchen with eating peninsula and a formal dining which walks out to the Screenbuilders back porch. The south wing of the main floor has three nice sized bedrooms and shares a full bath that has a new sink. On the north side of the main floor you will find the guest quarters which houses the 4th bedroom, laundry facilities and a 3/4 bath. This area has its own rear entrance and a pocket door separates it from the remainder of the main floor which offers endless opportunities for living. The full basement offers a large L-shaped entertaining room. There are also two additional large storage areas in the lower level. The home is all-electric, has a 99 gallon water heater and a whole house water filter. The 42x60 Quonset building has a concrete floor, work bench and loft area. It would be ideal for storage and a variety of hobby purposes. The 10x14 storage shed has a wood burner and is also great for storage use. One of the shining stars of the property is the sweetest Country Store one has ever seen. This 912 sq. ft. building is heated, cooled, sheet rocked and painted. It has most recently been used as an antique shop. There is a garage door at the rear of the building and would be great for an accessory dwelling unit (would just need water and a bathroom), a nice studio space or whatever else you desire. There is a neighbor that has cash rented some of the land on the south and east sides for corn. This is really a nice, unique and totally livable property just ready for its new owner..

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SIOUX CITY  The Food Bank of Siouxland announced Friday it's introducing a new approach it has for fighting area food insecurity during the holiday season.

This year, the Food Bank of Siouxland, working with Hy-Vee, is allowing residents to "purchase" Holiday Harvest boxes to be donated back to the Food Bank. Those boxes will include traditional holiday meal side items such as green beans, corn bread mix, stuffing, instant mashed potatoes, and more.

"The Food Bank of Siouxland and our partners want to ensure that everyone in our community can enjoy a special holiday meal, no matter their current financial circumstance," Food Bank of Siouxland Associate Executive Director Valerie Petersen said. "Any time there are additional costs incurred, we see an increase in neighbors visiting pantries and the holidays are a prime example of that."

Petersen said anyone hoping to contribute in other ways to the program can host a food drive, drop off menu items to local Hy-Vee blue barrels and donate to siouxlandfoodbank.org/holiday-harvest.
SIOUX CITY  Missouri River Historical Development (MRHD) distributed $1.2 million in grant funds to 15 local Siouxland organizations Wednesday, during its annual Impact Match Grant Awards Ceremony and Reception at the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center.

MRHD's Impact Match Grant program offers funding awards from $25,000 to $250,000 for one year to support a variety of projects or programs in five categories: Economic Development, Community Improvement, Tourism; Human Services, Health Services; Civic, Public, Charitable, Patriotic, Religious; Leisure, Cultural, Historical; and Education.

MRHD is the nonprofit organization that holds the license for gaming in Woodbury County. Its funding is generated from an agreement with the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Sioux City, which allows Hard Rock to run a gaming operation in Woodbury County using MRHD's gaming license.

"We're thrilled to distribute $1.2 million into the community today through our Impact Match Grant program," MRHD Board President Steve Huisenga said. "The organizations and projects we funded today reflect MRHD's ongoing mission of enhancing the quality of life for all people who live in Woodbury County. We're thankful for our great partners at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Sioux City, whose ongoing support allows us to make these continued investments back into the community."

Below is the list of the grant recipients, along with a short description of their project and the amount they received.

Economic Development, Community Improvement, Tourism

Woodbury County Fair -- new sound system and AC for open class building, $63,532

Siouxland Historical Railroad Association -- John Deere Gator UTV, Milwaukee Road passengers cars and carport, $52,560

Human services, health services

Sioux City Fire Rescue -- LUCAS mechanical chest compression devices, $50,643

Siouxland Mental Health Services, Inc. -- infrastructure updates at three locations (one in Moville, two in Sioux City), $62,226

Camp High Hopes -- precast concrete wall and ceiling panels for new multi-purpose adaptive rec. center, $200,000

Hope Street of Siouxland -- safety and security renovations, $46,523

UnityPoint Health - St. Luke's Foundation -- construction and furniture for St. Luke's Emergency Department remodel, $200,000

Civic, public, charitable, patriotic, religious

Food Bank of Siouxland -- Straddel Stacker and J-One Lift, $30,000

Holy Spirit Home Foundation -- Christ on the cross statue, altar table, and religious pieces for chapel altar and chapel spaces, $50,000

St. Luke Lutheran Church -- reach-in fridge, kitchen flooring and AC/furnaces, $25,000

St. Mark Lutheran Church -- Glenn Avenue project - Phase 1, concrete/asphalt work and security fencing and lighting, $39,820

Leisure, cultural, historical

Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center -- audio system for LCIC, and A/V, lighting and sound equipment in Stanley Evans Auditorium, $50,000

Education

Sanford Community Center -- fence replacement and playground equipment, $51,439

Briar Cliff University -- School of Education -- construction, furniture and equipment for new agile classroom, $28,051

Norm Waitt Sr. YMCA -- construction for new Early Learning & Youth Development Center expansion, $250,000

Since MRHD and Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Sioux City formed their partnership in 2014, MRHD has invested over $32 million in the community. In total, MRHD has provided more than $50 million in local grant funding for projects that improve the quality of life for people in Woodbury County since their grants program began in 1994.
SIOUX CITY  Artist Paula Crandell is on a mission to teach others about neurographic art, a loose doodling technique that stimulates the brain and relieves stress.

"It has a clinical side that art therapists use and, then, it also has what I call the fun side, and that's what I enjoy," said Crandell, who will lead a class about mindfulness and art on Nov. 11 at the Gilchrist Learning Center on the Sioux City Art Center's campus. Visit siouxcityartcenter.org/adult-programs to register.

Crandell, a former high school art teacher, school counselor and middle school assistant principal, stumbled upon neurographic art (neuro-art) on the online video sharing platform YouTube. She picked up a pen and began drawing squiggly lines from one side of a piece of paper to the other. She continued drawing curved, jagged, squiggly and straight lines and rounded off the sharp edges where the lines intersected.

"I saw this drawing that looked really cool. That's how I found it," Crandell said of this new art form, which was developed by Dr. Pavel Piskarev, a Russian psychologist, artist and architect, in 2014. "(Piskarev) found that when people are engaged in something like drawing lines or linear things, that the neurons would fire in the brain. When the neurons fire, you have a sense of less stress. You have a sense of mindfulness. You can focus better. Some people even say that it's meditative."

Neurographic drawing Artist Paula Crandell creates a neurographic drawing during an interview at the Sioux City Art Center's Gilchrist Learning Center. Crandell wi

Crandell found all of the above to be true, after experimenting with neuro-art. Then, she demonstrated the drawing technique to Siouxland Artists, Inc., an organization of regional artists dedicated to fostering the development of art and spreading the appreciation of art throughout the community.

"We thought that is was so healing, that we would make it available to every patient and staff member at UnityPoint hospital," she said. "That's why I'm on a mission to sort of share this and, hopefully, get some volunteers to take this to patients."

Crandell said any patient at UnityPoint Health -- St. Luke's who would like to try neuro-art can request a special packet from the Sioux City hospital's art cart. She said the packets, which are provided by Siouxland Artists, Inc., contain a pen, paper, colored pencils and directions.

"We thought, if we can help patients forget about their surgery or forget about when their next pain pill is coming, it's worth the effort," she said.

Who is neurographic art for?

Neurographic art is for everyone, according to Crandell.

She said some teachers have their students sit down after recess or lunch and participate in neurographic drawing for five or 10 minutes. She said this helps get the students' minds back into "the mental state of learning again."

Neurographic drawing Artist Paula Crandell holds a neurographic drawing during an interview at the Sioux City Art Center's Gilchrist Learning Center. Crandell will

Crandell once held a neuro-art session with a group of attorneys and judges. She said she had to practically twist one lawyer's arm to get him to draw. Neuro-art is about empowering people to let go of rules, which can be hard for some to do, according to Crandell.

"It's the process of doing it that's more important than the outcome," she said. "People have been taught trees have to be green and skies have to be blue. This to me is very freeing and helping reduce stress, and, darn it, it's fun!"

Seven steps

Crandell said you'll need the following materials to relax with neuro-art: paper, black felt-tip pen, box of colored pencils, pencil sharpener.

1. Gather your materials.

2. On one side of your paper, use the black marker to draw a squiggly or loopy line to the opposite side. Next, repeat this process on the opposite sides of the paper.

3. Continue drawing lines -- curved, jagged, squiggly and/or straight.

4. Round off sharp edges where lines cross each other. Turn harsh angles into calming curves.

5. Finish "rounding off." Add any optional doodles, shapes, or lines, if you want.

6. Add color using colored pencils.

7. Evaluate your level of calmness, not your drawing. Were you able to decrease your stress, find an answer to something that has been on your mind, or just experience some peaceful moments?
NEW YORK  Lester Holt, Kristen Welker and Hugh Hewitt will moderate the third Republican presidential debate, scheduled for Nov. 8 in Miami, NBC said.

The first one held outside the confines of Fox News, the two-hour debate will be seen at 8 p.m. Eastern on NBC and the NBC News Now streaming service.

Holt is the anchor of NBC Nightly News and Welker is the moderator of Meet the Press. Hewitt hosts a morning talk show for the Salem Radio Network, a co-sponsor of the debate.

Qualified participants will be announced later. Former President Donald Trump, leading in polls for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, skipped the first two debates and has given no indication he will be at any others.
Halloween candy could be in for a California makeover.

Asserting that the Food and Drug Administration has not moved quickly enough on dangerous food additives, state lawmakers last month passed the California Food Safety Act, which bans four ingredients found in popular snacks and packaged foods  including candy corn and other Halloween treats.

Consumer health advocates hope the ban, signed into law by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom on Oct. 7 and set to take effect in 2027, will lead confectioners and food producers to modify their recipes for products sold both in California and elsewhere around the country.

The law prohibits the manufacture and distribution of brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, propylparaben, and red dye No. 3, which are used in processed foods including variations of instant potatoes and store-brand sodas, as well as candies. The additives have been linked to increased risks of cancer and nervous system problems, according to the Environmental Working Group, which sponsored the legislation, and are already banned in many other countries.

Melanie Benesh, vice president of government affairs for the Environmental Working Group, celebrated the new law as a very big deal and the first of its type in the country.

Food manufacturers and their lobbyists opposed the legislation, rejecting the idea that the four additives are unhealthy and arguing that such assessments should be made by the FDA.

We should rely on the scientific rigor of the FDA in terms of evaluating the safety of food ingredients and additives, said Christopher Gindlesperger, a spokesperson for the National Confectioners Association.

But food safety advocates say the FDA has moved far too slowly in regulating food chemicals.

Its unacceptable that the U.S. is so far behind the rest of the world when it comes to food safety, state Assembly member Jesse Gabriel, D-Woodland Hills, who introduced the bill along with Assembly member Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, said in a statement.

A letter sent to lawmakers from the sponsors of AB418 this year noted that many new additives put in food products are not reviewed by the FDA before reaching the market. A provision in federal law called generally recognized as safe allows the industry to designate the chemicals as safe enough to include in food, even without notifying the agency.

FDA spokesperson Enrico Dinges, referencing the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, noted in an email that food and color additives must be approved for their intended conditions of use, and safety information must be available to establish a reasonable certainty of no harm before they are used in products on the market.

He added that the agency regularly reviews new data on food chemicals, and it is working on a proposed rule to ban the use of brominated vegetable oil  one of the ingredients included in the new California law  as a food ingredient. Dinges said it was not uncommon for a substance to be approved in one jurisdiction but not in another. He noted some color additives are authorized for use in Europe and elsewhere but not allowed in the U.S.

Californias initiative made headlines this year as a Skittles ban that would wipe popular candies off California shelves. But Gabriel and other proponents of the bill said the intention is simply to require modifications in the ingredients, as has already happened in Europe.

One additive included in an original version of the bill  titanium dioxide, which is in Skittles and other candy  was removed from those products before the bill reached its final version. It has been labeled a carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

I admire the California Legislature for doing this, said Joan Ifland, a researcher who studies food addiction and a fellow at the American College of Nutrition. She hopes state lawmakers go further in addressing food safety issues and the chemicals in processed food. It should give courage to other legislators.

Perhaps the most prominent ingredient on Californias banned list is red dye No. 3. It is allowed only in candied and cocktail cherries in the European Union but is widely used in the U.S.

A search of Food Scores, an online database maintained by the Environmental Working Group, generated more than 3,000 products that contain the chemical. The list includes items like frosted pretzels and scores of brand-name candies such as Peeps and Pez. It also includes items like fruit cocktail cups, protein drinks and yogurts.

Peeps is already phasing out the ingredient  products will no longer contain red dye No. 3 after the 2024 Easter season, according to Keith Domalewski, director of marketing for its parent company, Just Born Quality Confections.

The FDA banned some uses of the color additive in 1990, confirming it had been linked to increased risks of cancer, and prohibited its use in cosmetics and as a pigment in various foods. It said at the time it was taking steps to restrict the chemical  but never did.

Another of the newly banned ingredients, potassium bromate, has also been linked to cancer and is on Californias Proposition 65 list of ingredients that may pose increased cancer risks. It also has not been banned.

10 non-edible Halloween candy alternatives trick-or-treaters will love 1. ArtCreativity Assorted Halloween Stickers 2. Funiverse Spider Rings 3. POPLAY Halloween Sticky Hands and Toys 4. JOYIN Halloween Squishies 5. JOYIN Halloween Rainbow Scratch Art Masks 6. URATOT Halloween Bouncing Eyeballs 7. SpringFlower Glow Critters 8. QINGQIU Halloween Jumping Popper Toys 9. WOONOO Halloween Bubble Wands 10. SULOLI Halloween Spring Toys
ACAPULCO, Mexico (AP)  Survivors of a Category 5 storm that killed at least 27 people as it devastated Mexicos resort city of Acapulco spent Thursday searching for acquaintances and necessities and hoping that aid would come quickly in the wake of Hurricane Otis.

The Pacific storm had strengthened with shocking swiftness before slamming into the coast early Wednesday, and the Mexican government deployed around 10,000 troops to deal with the aftermath. But equipment to move tons of mud and fallen trees from the streets was slow in arriving.

Resentment grew Thursday in impoverished neighborhoods as residents worried that government attention would go to repairing infrastructure for the city's economic engine of tourism rather than helping the neediest.

Flora Contreras Santos, a housewife from a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of the city, sought help in looking for a 3-year-old girl who was swept away from her mother in a mudslide. She went from soldier to soldier trying to interest any one of them in the tragedy that occurred on her street at the height of the storm.

The mountain came down on them. The mud took her from the mothers arms, Contreras said. We need help, the mother is in bad shape and we cant find the girl.

Even as army bulldozers began clearing knee-deep mud from Acapulcos main boulevards, Contreras' pleas did not appear to move any of the soldiers to action.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador went by road Wednesday after the hurricane hit the iconic city on Mexico 's Pacific coast. At least four people remained missing. It was unclear if the 3-year-old girl was counted among them.

The president said Otis had toppled every power-line pole in the zone where it hit on Wednesday, leaving much of the city of 1 million without electricity. Otis turned from mild to monster in record time, and scientists were struggling to figure out how  and why they didnt see it coming.

The people sheltered, protected themselves and thats why fortunately there werent more tragedies, loss of human life, Lopez Obrador said.

Acapulco's municipal water system was down and around half a million homes lost power. Lopez Obrador said that restoring power was a top priority, but by Thursday evening there were still 300,000 homes and businesses with no electricity.

Brown floodwaters extended for miles in some areas. Many residents were taking basic items from stores to survive. Others left with pricier goods, in widespread rampages through the area's stores.

As cell phone signals began to return to some parts of the city, residents organized themselves with the help of friends and relatives living in other parts of Mexico and the United States. They joined together by neighborhood using online messaging platforms like WhatsApp. On Thursday there were some 1,000 people in 40 chats, which only continued to grow in number throughout the day.

They shared photos of flooded neighborhoods and tips for finding cell phone signals, while asking for information about loved ones that they had not heard from. Others share photos of papers full of names of survivors taking refuge in shelters, some with notes reading Lupita, we are okay. I will call you when we have signal.

When someone joins from a neighborhood they're asked by people outside the city to look for other residents there.

Juan Pablo Lopez, 26, had been talking to his wife when their call was cut off early Wednesday as Otis made landfall. She had returned to Acapulco to be with her family and give birth to their son a month ago. Lopez was at home in Cancun.

Im very worried for my newborn son, he said.

With no information coming in Wednesday, he created an online chat with friends and family from Guerrero state, where Acapulco is the largest city. He also invited friends who had emigrated to the U.S. and asked them to add their local contacts.

We started to cross-reference information, to share what we found, almost like a WhatApp newspaper, Lopez said.

By Thursday afternoon, however, he still had not heard word about his wife and son.

The surreal was commonplace in the storm-wrecked city, as residents emptied the area's stores of goods.

Ricardo Diaz, a self-employed laborer, stood Thursday with two fistfuls of live chickens he clutched by their legs. A chicken company had given him the chickens, Diaz said. A woman nearby pushed an office chair loaded with artificial Christmas wreaths and toilet paper through the streets. Diaz looked on in dismay as people carried armfuls of goods out of a damaged store.

Theyre going to close these stores and that hurts Acapulco, Diaz said.

Edith Villanueva, holding her daughter, worried about what would happen to Acapulco in the long term. She worked at a cell phone store that had already been cleaned out.

They already stole all of the phones, she said. Its one thing to steal food, but people are abusing it.

Acapulco's police chief Enrique Vazquez Ramirez said Thursday they could do little to stop people from emptying local stores or speed up traffic caused by mud and fallen trees, which has left much of the city paralyzed.

This is a completely extraordinary situation, he said.

Some residents said it could take a year for Acapulco to recover; with no power, gasoline, little cell coverage and hotels wrecked by the hurricane, the task seemed impossible.

Marketing expert Antonio Esparza was one of the few optimistic ones, even as he sat trapped in the snarled traffic of the aftermath.

This is going to improve Acapulco, because it will force the government to pay attention, he said.

Large stores that had their merchandise taken were not restocking their shelves, meaning finding goods could become harder. But street-produce vendors were doing a brisk business in some neighborhoods as residents sought fresh food.

The once-sleek beachfront hotels in Acapulco looked like toothless, shattered hulks after the Category 5 storm blew out hundreds  possibly thousands  of windows. Miguel Angel Fong, president of the Mexican Hotel Association told the AP that 80% of the city's hotels were damaged.

Hundreds of trucks from the government electricity company arrived in Acapulco on Wednesday but downed electricity lines were in feet of mud and water.

It took nearly all day Wednesday for authorities to partially reopen the main highway connecting Acapulco to the state capital Chilpancingo and Mexico City. The vital ground link allowed dozens of emergency vehicles, personnel and trucks carrying supplies to reach the battered port.

Acapulcos commercial and military airports were still too badly damaged to resume flights, though Lopez Obrador said the plan was to establish an air bridge to move in resources.

Acapulco is at the foot of steep mountains. Luxury homes and slums alike cover the hillsides with views of the glistening Pacific Ocean. Once drawing Hollywood stars for its nightlife, sport fishing and cliff diving shows, the port has in recent years fallen victim to competing organized crime groups that have sunk the city into violence, driving away many international tourists.

AP writer Maria Verza in Mexico City contributed. Associated Press Science Writer Seth Borenstein in Washington contributed to this report.
Conservative talk radio host Larry Elder announced Thursday he is suspending his 2024 Republican campaign for president and endorsing former President Donald Trumps bid to reclaim the White House.

Elder, from California, is the fourth major candidate to suspend or end his bid for the GOP presidential nomination, following Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, former Texas congressman Will Hurd and Michigan businessman Perry Johnson.

Johnson also endorsed Trump when he withdrew earlier this month. Hurd endorsed former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley.

Elder, in a statement, said he made the difficult decision to end his bid after careful consideration and consultation with his team.

Trumps leadership, he said, was instrumental in advancing conservative, America-first principles and policies that have benefited our great nation.

It is time, he said, to unite behind Trump to beat President Joe Biden.

He also said he hoped his campaign had illuminated issues, including fatherlessness, fighting crime, opposing the idea that the U.S. is a racist country, and the need for a constitutional amendment tying federal spending to a fixed percentage of the GDP.

Although I am suspending my campaign for president, my commitment to addressing the crisis of fatherlessness, promoting conservative ideals, and supporting the MAGA movement remains unwavering, Elder said in his statement.

DESANTIS CALLS FOR GOP PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES IN IOWA, NEW HAMPSHIRE

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called on the Republican National Committee to host presidential debates in Iowa and New Hampshire, the two early states that will kick off the GOP presidential nominating contest, noting that it would be good for the process.

Speaking to Iowa reporters in the leadoff caucus state, DeSantis talked about the upcoming RNC debate on Nov. 8 in Miami. He said Florida is proud to host the debate, but called on the national party to hold a debate in Iowa or New Hampshire in the lead-up to the 2024 nominating cycle.

But there should be a debate in either December or early January in Iowa, then there should be a debate after the Iowa caucus but before the New Hampshire primary in New Hampshire, DeSantis told reporters.

And I don't know why we haven't had any of these debates in the two early states.  I think that'd be very important. I think obviously we'll still cover the whole host of issues, but you may have some Iowa-specific things that some of the Iowans care about. And that's really what the RNC should be doing."

NEW AD TOUTS NIKKI HALEYS TOUGH STANCE ON CHINA

Stand for America, the super PAC backing Nikki Haleys White House bid, launched a new ad Friday in Iowa touting the former U.N. ambassadors long track record of being tough on Communist China.

China has become the latest flash point in a growing foreign policy feud between the 2024 Republic presidential rivals as they battle to be the top alternative to GOP primary front-runner and former President Donald Trump.

On the campaign trail in New Hampshire this week, DeSantis claimed Haley rolled out the red carpet for China during her time as governor  Chinese business investment in South Carolina more than doubled during her two terms in office  to accuse her of being soft on the Chinese Communist Party.

As a presidential candidate, Haley has called China the "No. 1 biggest national security threat." On the campaign trail, she has said she would take back U.S. soil China had already purchased and would revoke normal trade relations with China until it halts the flow of fentanyl that has contributed to a dramatic rise in overdose deaths in the United States.

Never Back Down, a super PAC backing DeSantis, issued a news release from three Iowa farmers backing DeSantis and criticizing Haley for recruiting and celebrating Chinese investment in South Carolina as governor, with about 1,500 acres gifted or sold to Chinese companies in exchange for promised investments and the creation of new jobs.

In Iowa, our land is our livelihood. Its concerning to see that Nikki Haley gave away American land to the Chinese when she was governor, Ross Paustian, a Scott County farmer and former chairman of Iowa House Agriculture Committee, said in a statement. I am supporting Gov. Ron DeSantis because he has done exactly what our Gov. Kim Reynolds has done here  banned farmland from being bought by China.

In May, DeSantis signed a Florida ban on Chinese nationals purchasing farmland and land near U.S. military bases.

China is one of Iowa's largest trading partners, a relationship forged and strengthened by former Iowa Republican governors Robert Ray and Terry Branstad. Branstad served as U.S. ambassador to China under former President Donald Trump.

SFA Fund Inc., the super PAC backing Haleys campaign, fired back in the new ad, claiming DeSantis has aggressively recruited Chinese companies to Florida.

The Haley campaign argued the attacks by DeSanits are a sign of desperation. The former South Carolina governor is gaining ground in national polls and surpassed DeSantis for second place in New Hampshire, according to recent polling.

In Iowa, Haley trails DeSantis by 7.8 percentage points, according to Real Clear Politics rolling average of presidential primary polls.
HAMMOND  A 14-year-old disabled girl allegedly abducted by a non-custodial parent in Iowa was safely recovered this week as a result of the quick actions of an Indiana State Police trooper.

Police said they received word around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday of an Amber Alert out of Iowa, which is a child abduction emergency alert.

Police learned that the individuals sought may be in the area of the Indiana Welcome Center near Interstate 80 and Kennedy Avenue.

Trooper Adrian Garcia, who was in the area, spotted the Chevrolet Cruz in question leaving a nearby Hampton Inn and initiated a traffic stop, ISP said.

The driver, Jessica Rae Williams, 36, from Des Moines, Iowa, was taken into custody without incident, police said.

"The 14-year-old juvenile was located safe in the vehicle," according to ISP.

Williams was taken to the Lake County Jail, where she is being held for the Des Moines Police Department and extradition back to Iowa.

"The juvenile was placed into the custody of Child Protective Services until she can be reunited with her custodial guardian," police said.

Des Moines police issued word Wednesday that the girl, who has special care needs, had been abducted by Williams.

"Evidence indicates that (the girl) is at risk while in the company of Jessica Williams," police said.

Cities with the fastest-growing home prices in Iowa Cities with the fastest-growing home prices in Iowa #50. Carson #49. Wadena #48. Ely #47. Wahpeton #46. Cascade #45. Underwood #44. Hornick #43. Bristow #42. Carter Lake #41. North Liberty #40. Titonka #39. Honey Creek #38. Avoca #37. Moville #36. Solon #35. Oakland #34. Council Bluffs #33. Runnells #32. Windsor Heights #31. Bronson #30. Iowa City #29. Crescent #28. Sergeant Bluff #27. Huxley #26. Coralville #25. Zearing #24. McCallsburg #23. Bryant #22. Sheldahl #21. Nevada #20. Saint Olaf #19. Castalia #18. Raymond #17. Maxwell #16. Cedar Falls #15. Story City #14. Lawton #13. Slater #12. Milford #11. Drakesville #10. Lake Park #9. Hills #8. Roland #7. Arnolds Park #6. Colo #5. Collins #4. Cambridge #3. Gilbert #2. Udell #1. Kelley
Conservative talk radio host Larry Elder announced Thursday he is suspending his 2024 Republican campaign for president and endorsing former President Donald Trumps bid to reclaim the White House.

Elder, from California, is the fourth major candidate to suspend or end his bid for the GOP presidential nomination, following Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, former Texas congressman Will Hurd and Michigan businessman Perry Johnson.

Johnson also endorsed Trump when he withdrew earlier this month. Hurd endorsed former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley.

Elder, in a statement, said he made the difficult decision to end his bid after careful consideration and consultation with his team.

Trumps leadership, he said, was instrumental in advancing conservative, America-first principles and policies that have benefited our great nation.

It is time, he said, to unite behind Trump to beat President Joe Biden.

He also said he hoped his campaign had illuminated issues, including fatherlessness, fighting crime, opposing the idea that the U.S. is a racist country, and the need for a constitutional amendment tying federal spending to a fixed percentage of the GDP.

Although I am suspending my campaign for president, my commitment to addressing the crisis of fatherlessness, promoting conservative ideals, and supporting the MAGA movement remains unwavering, Elder said in his statement.

DeSantis calls for GOP presidential debates in Iowa, New Hampshire

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called on the Republican National Committee to host presidential debates in Iowa and New Hampshire, the two early states that will kick off the GOP presidential nominating contest, noting that it would be good for the process.

Speaking to Iowa reporters in the leadoff caucus state, DeSantis talked about the upcoming RNC debate on Nov. 8 in Miami. He said Florida is proud to host the debate, but called on the national party to hold a debate in Iowa or New Hampshire in the lead-up to the 2024 nominating cycle.

But there should be a debate in either December or early January in Iowa, then there should be a debate after the Iowa caucus but before the New Hampshire primary in New Hampshire, DeSantis told reporters.

And I don't know why we haven't had any of these debates in the two early states.  I think that'd be very important. I think obviously we'll still cover the whole host of issues, but you may have some Iowa-specific things that some of the Iowans care about. And that's really what the RNC should be doing."

New ad touts Nikki Haley's 'tough' stance on China

Stand for America, the super PAC backing Nikki Haleys White House bid, launched a new ad Friday in Iowa touting the former U.N. ambassadors long track record of being tough on Communist China.

China has become the latest flash point in a growing foreign policy feud between the 2024 Republic presidential rivals as they battle to be the top alternative to GOP primary front-runner and former President Donald Trump.

On the campaign trail in New Hampshire this week, DeSantis claimed Haley rolled out the red carpet for China during her time as governor  Chinese business investment in South Carolina more than doubled during her two terms in office  to accuse her of being soft on the Chinese Communist Party.

As a presidential candidate, Haley has called China the "No. 1 biggest national security threat." On the campaign trail, she has said she would take back U.S. soil China had already purchased and would revoke normal trade relations with China until it halts the flow of fentanyl that has contributed to a dramatic rise in overdose deaths in the United States.

Never Back Down, a super PAC backing DeSantis, issued a news release from three Iowa farmers backing DeSantis and criticizing Haley for recruiting and celebrating Chinese investment in South Carolina as governor, with about 1,500 acres gifted or sold to Chinese companies in exchange for promised investments and the creation of new jobs.

In Iowa, our land is our livelihood. Its concerning to see that Nikki Haley gave away American land to the Chinese when she was governor, Ross Paustian, a Scott County farmer and former chairman of Iowa House Agriculture Committee, said in a statement. I am supporting Gov. Ron DeSantis because he has done exactly what our Gov. Kim Reynolds has done here  banned farmland from being bought by China.

In May, DeSantis signed a Florida ban on Chinese nationals purchasing farmland and land near U.S. military bases.

China is one of Iowa's largest trading partners, a relationship forged and strengthened by former Iowa Republican governors Robert Ray and Terry Branstad. Branstad served as U.S. ambassador to China under former President Donald Trump.

SFA Fund Inc., the super PAC backing Haleys campaign, fired back in the new ad, claiming DeSantis has aggressively recruited Chinese companies to Florida.

The Haley campaign argued the attacks by DeSanits are a sign of desperation. The former South Carolina governor is gaining ground in national polls and surpassed DeSantis for second place in New Hampshire, according to recent polling.

In Iowa, Haley trails DeSantis by 7.8 percentage points, according to Real Clear Politics rolling average of presidential primary polls.
Iowa Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley is seeking information from the Department of Justice and FBI about whether they properly vetted what he says were dozens of people who provided federal investigators with confidential, criminal information related to the foreign business dealings of President Joe Bidens son, Hunter Biden, and other family members.

The allegations were outlined in a letter published Wednesday from Grassley to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Chris Wray.

Citing anonymous whistleblower disclosures, Grassley said he had been made aware that the FBI had at one point maintained more than 40 confidential human sources, who had criminal information about President Biden, his son Hunter, and James Biden, the presidents brother.

"An essential question that must be answered is this: Did the FBI investigate the information or shut it down? Indeed, if those sources were improperly shut down, it wouldn't be out of the ordinary for the FBI," Grassley wrote.

The FBI confirmed it had received Grassley's letter but said it had no other comment. The Department of Justice and White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.

Grassleys request comes as House Republicans pursue an impeachment inquiry into President Biden over allegations he abused his authority when he was vice president to personally profit off his family's many foreign business dealings.

Part of the House GOP inquiry involves examining how the DOJ handled its own parallel investigation into Hunter Biden after whistleblowers alleged the investigation had been slow-walked by department officials to protect the Bidens.

Grassley, in the letter, accuses the department of stonewalling him on the issue since 2019, before Biden took office in 2021. He wrote the investigative activity was scuttled by the FBI in 2020, while former President Donald Trump was in office, and asserts that such decisions point to significant political bias.

The allegations against the Biden family were investigated by the Department of Justice under Trump-appointed Republican Attorney General William Barr as part of an investigation into allegations of bribery brought by Trumps then-personal attorney Rudy Giuliani.

The Justice Department found no supporting evidence of the allegations and closed the investigation in August 2020, according to a statement from Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee.

Barr denies closing the investigation, and told The Federalist this summer the information was ultimately forwarded to the U.S. attorney in Delaware.

Republicans have questioned whether the federal prosecutor there followed up on the allegations.

An FD-1023 form used by the FBI to log unverified accounts from confidential human sources states the source is not able to provide information as to the veracity of assertions related to any alleged bribery.

Grassley, in his letter, asserts certain FBI personnel allegedly attempted "to sweep (the form) under the rug" in part by falsely attributing it to foreign disinformation.

Barr in early 2020 issued new rules and restrictions for opening investigations into politically sensitive individuals or entities, including requiring regular updates and that he approve any inquiry into a presidential candidate or campaign.

Barr's memo followed a critical report from the Justice Department's inspector general on aspects of the FBI's Russia investigation, which began in the summer of 2016 during the presidential campaign.

Barr also was explicit about his concerns around how foreign disinformation might impact investigations, stating no information coming out of Ukraine could be taken at face value, given the amount of politically driven disinformation that could emerge from that country.

Ex-FBI agent Timothy Thibault, who Grassley asserts was ordered to close an avenue of additional derogatory Hunter Biden reporting in October 2020, testified that the confidential source who was temporarily shut down was conservative author and activist Peter Schweizer, who is a senior contributor for far-right media organization Breitbart News, and not considered an unbiased source.

Schweizer, president of the conservative-backed Government Accountability Institute, identified himself as the source in a podcast.

Grassley said he will seek interviews from at least 25 DOJ and FBI personnel involved in the efforts to investigate the Biden family.

Based on the information provided to my office over a period of years by multiple credible whistleblowers, there appears to be an effort within the Justice Department and FBI to shut down investigative activity relating to the Biden family, Grassley wrote in the letter. Such decisions point to significant political bias infecting the decision-making of not only the Attorney General and FBI Director, but also line agents and prosecutors. Our Republic cannot survive such a political infection, and you have an obligation to this country to clear the air.
DES MOINES  Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds defended a state law that requires schools to pull books with descriptions of sex acts from library shelves during a press conference on Wednesday, as the state's Department of Education said it may provide more guidance to schools navigating the restrictions.

The law, passed by Iowas legislative Republicans and signed into law by Reynolds this year, requires that school libraries only include "age-appropriate" material and specifically bans any book that describes or depicts any of a list of defined sex acts.

The law also requires schools to notify parents if a student requests to be called by a different name or set of gender pronouns and bans teaching about gender identity or sexual orientation in kindergarten through sixth grade. Schools must also provide a policy to request removal of any classroom materials, and request parental permission before a student takes a survey or exam to assess the students mental, emotional or physical health that is not required by state or federal law.

Reynolds read the list of sex acts written in law that would warrant a removal from libraries and said the standard should be clear on what is and is not allowed in schools.

Im not sure why any kindergartner, or anybody in school, should be subjected to that, and what value that brings to them, Reynolds said. So thats the definition. It is very, very clear.

According to a database maintained by the Des Moines Register, districts in Iowa have removed at least 450 books from their shelves in response to the law.

Many districts have removed commonly challenged books like "Gender Queer" and "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian." Books that are often assigned high school reading, like George Orwells "1984" and Aldous Huxleys "Brave New World," have also been pulled by several districts.

Education and library advocates have argued an overly broad interpretation of the law by school districts trying to avoid legal repercussions will lead to schools pulling materials off library shelves that should not be removed under the law, depriving students of the opportunity to read books they otherwise would.

Speaking about the removal of commonly assigned books, Reynolds suggested school districts are implementing broad restrictions because they dont like the law, and she said the books that fall under the definition of a sex act in law should be clear.

"I think it's pretty clear, and if they can't distinguish that, then I don't know, maybe we ought to look at what they should be dealing with," Reynolds said. "It's just a distraction. And they don't like it, so they're blowing it out of proportion."

Reynolds tied the effort to remove books with sexual content from schools to the need to boost scores in reading, math and other areas that have lagged because of learning loss from the pandemic.

"Our kids and our teachers deserve better," she said. "They deserve the tools to help these kids succeed. Not a damn distraction on a nasty pornographic book that should never, ever be in a classroom."

State Board of Education may provide guidance

The Iowa State Board of Education has until Dec. 28 to begin promulgating rules to implement several provisions of the law. However, it remains unclear whether state officials will issue new rules or guidance related to removing school library materials and instruction related to sexual orientation or gender identity thats now barred in kindergarten through sixth grade

Heather Doe, communications director for the Iowa Department of Education, did not immediately respond to questions seeking clarification as to which provisions of the law for which the State Board of Education will promulgate rules.

The Department of Education also did not provide a timeline for when Iowa school districts will receive new rules.

Penalties for violating the law take effect on Jan. 1, 2024.

State officials will give first-time offenders a written warning. Subsequent violations could lead to superintendents and employees being called before the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners for a hearing and possible disciplinary action, according to the law.

Iowa Department of Education officials this summer left vague their plans to give school administrators more guidance on what constitutes age-appropriate material and which books would or would not fall under that definition, including materials referencing any type of gender identity and sexual orientation.

The boards president during a meeting this summer noted school officials and administrators across the state have clamored for guidance from the department in implementing the law, in part, to avoid the possibility of litigation over book removals.

Melissa Peterson, legislative and policy director with the Iowa State Education Association, the states largest teachers union, said by her reading of the law, it does not compel rulemaking by the state board related to school library materials, but does for other, less controversial provisions.

Left to seek their own legal guidance, some schools initially removed hundreds of books, while others have waited, hoping for direction from the state before the law's penalties go into effect Jan 1.

Peterson pointed to the Urbandale Community School District, which paused its initial removal of nearly 400 books from shelves that may violate the law, narrowing down the list to 64 titles after more careful review.

The Iowa City Community School District this month released a list of about 70 book titles removed from schools to comply with the new law. The list includes Toni Morrisons The Bluest Eye, which tells the story of a young Black girl after the Great Depression, and Margaret Atwoods The Handmaids Tale, a futuristic dystopian novel set in a patriarchal, white supremacist, totalitarian state, which has overthrown the U.S. It also includes "A Thousand Acres, a novel written by Jane Smiley, a graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop at the University of Iowa.

Peterson said ISEA continues to be disappointed that the Iowa Department of Education has not issued better guidance to schools on how to navigate the thornier provisions of the law. Peterson said shes cautiously optimistic the State Board of Education will compel the department to issue guidance at its next meeting Nov. 15.

We have lot of important work ahead of us in public education, and when you take into consideration staff shortages and the needs of students, unnecessary distractions are not appreciated at this point, Peterson said. And we think this issue in particular has been a significant distraction that could easily be removed with clear guidance from the Department of Education. We shouldnt be making it harder for folks to do their job and be in compliance.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is right. There should be a Republican presidential debate in Iowa.

And we think it should be in Sioux City.

Dont be so quick to dismiss the idea.

The 2012 candidates came here for a national debate in December 2011. It aired on Fox News and drew a significant audience.

Even better? It showcased Sioux City  and the state  in a way that couldnt be dismissed with hay bales and cornstalks.

If you were around more than a decade ago, you may remember how cosmopolitan Sioux City looked on the broadcast. Held at the Sioux City Convention Center, it generated considerable interest  in the race and the state.

You may not remember who the candidates were, but you wont forget the way the Fourth Street location was lit. The candidates made a point of sharing their Iowa knowledge (yup, they were doing the full Grassley back then) and addressed issues of importance to the states voters.

Considering the current contenders arent as devoted to peppering the state, it would be good to get them here and test their mettle on agricultural issues, rural values and educational concerns.

In 2011, there were just as many candidates vying for the top spot on the partys ticket: Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul, Rick Perry and Jon Huntsman.

With an equally crowded field, it would be enlightening to see just how they shake down on our turf.

Sioux City did a great job hosting the candidates, won raves from the national media who came here and suggested we werent just a dot in flyover land. We were a place where voters do care about the issues and the candidates.

Because so much angst has rocked national politics since then, a Sioux City debate would be a great reset for the Republican party. It would recall a day when breads and circuses werent the norm.

If you want to prove youre serious about getting back to basics, this is the way to do it.

Were high on the idea of a presidential debate in Sioux City.

DeSantis is right: Come to (Northwest) Iowa.
Did Justice Thomas fail to pay a hefty tax bill? Or has he simply failed (again) to comply with his ethical obligations to disclose gifts?

One of the trials of teaching tax law is the need to write a new exam every semester. But sometimes the real world sends you an exam question. In this case, that question comes courtesy of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his fancy RV. Or, more precisely, from the loan he received from his friend Anthony Welters to purchase the luxury vehicle. According to the New York Times, Thomas borrowed around $267,000 in 1999. At some point, after Thomas had made some interest payments and perhaps paid down some principal, Welters canceled the debt, according to a new Senate Finance Committee report. (A lawyer for Thomas denied the report, saying that the justice and his wife made all payments to Mr. Welters on a regular basis until the terms of the agreement were satisfied in full.) Relying on the report, a number of folks, including members of the committee, have pointed out that the alleged debt forgiveness creates something called cancellation of debt income, and they are wondering whether Thomas reported this income and paid tax on it. If he did, hes in the clear. But if he didnt, the question arises: Is Thomas, whose ethical standards and disclosures have come into question following a series of reports on gifts and travel from his various well-heeled friends, also a tax dodger? In this case, the tax and ethical questions are intricately intertwined.

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The general tax rule is that people have no income and owe no tax when they borrow money. This makes sense. Although they may be in possession of the loan proceeds, they have a corresponding obligation to pay it back and are no better off from a net-worth standpoint.

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But what happens if the loan gets canceled? The theory under which the loan was initially excluded from income is no longer true. One could go back in time and include the loan proceeds in income for that year, but that solution isnt practical. The loan could have been made years ago, and the return was accurate when filed. Alternatively, one could simply include the canceled debt in income the year the debt is canceled. This is precisely what the law requires, and why Thomas, if the Senate committee report is right, appears to be in hot water.

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Historically, including canceled debt in income was a hard sell. Most people who have their debt canceled are in difficult financial straits and have typically lost money. It seems mean-spirited to tax them on phantom income when theyve already spent (and typically lost) the loan proceeds. Debt relief in those cases simply acknowledges the sad reality that they cant pay back the loans. Thomas situation is a little different. He still has the RV. And although he may not earn as much as hed like, hes not fallen on hard times. Regardless, canceled debt is now includible in income except in rare circumstances that do not appear to be present here.

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So, has Thomas been caught dead to rights? Not necessarily.

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One of the things I teach my students is that not everything is as it initially appears. When Welters canceled the debt, it certainly looks as if the amount forgiven should be considered cancellation of debt income and subject to tax. But Welters and Thomas are friends. Just as Welters could have made a gift to Thomas at the start, canceling the debt can be considered an after-the-fact gift. Gifts are excluded from income, so there is no tax consequence for Thomas (though Welters might need to file a gift tax return). The justice is off the hook! Or is he?

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Unfortunately for Thomas, as a justice, he is subject to disclosure obligations that include things like the receipt of $250,000 gifts. Thus, assuming he did not report the CODI and pay tax on it, the argument for not doing sothat the cancellation was in the nature of a gift and therefore not incomecreates a legal obligation to disclose the gift, and it does not appear he did.

Or maybe Thomas did in fact pay off the loan, as his lawyer says, eliminating the possibility of both CODI and an unreported gift. That would put him in the clear, but I still have a great exam question.
After a spate of witnesses flipping against Donald Trump, his legal team is looking to turn things around by filing motions to get the case dismissed. The new filings contain some pretty absurd legal argumentsand suggest they know that the walls are closing in, Jeremy Stahl writes. He takes apart four of the most ridiculous arguments.

Plus: In case you missed it, Stahl unpacks why Trumps case for his immunity in the Jan. 6 prosecution is particularly galling.

Piers steps up

Aymann Ismail knew something was up when his Egyptian mom started barraging him with Piers Morgan clips.

The formerly disgraced British television anchor has been having guests on to talk about the Palestine-Israel conflict. And his coverage has been  really good?! Ismail takes a close look at Morgans new approach.

Plus: Wikipedia is doing a better job of covering the Israel-Hamas war than the former bird app. Stephen Harrison examines how Wikipedias crowdsourced editing process holds up under pressure.

A copaganda flashback

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Killers of the Flower Moon isnt the first movie to tell the story of the Osage murders. But the first time Hollywood tried itwith a film starring Jimmy Stewartthe Osage didnt even have a single line. Sam Adams takes a look back at 1959s The FBI Story.

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Plus: Slates Culture Gabfest discusses why Killers of the Flower Moon centers the oppressors.

Chat politics with us!

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Several members of the Slate politics team are assembling on Zoom on Monday afternoon, and theyre excited to chat with you about the 2024 election. The event is open to Plus members onlysign up now to join us!

Frasier returns

But should it have? Nitish Pahwa has watched five episodes of the much-anticipated (and much-dreaded) Frasier revival, and he is here to pass judgment.

Falling for fall!

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Luke Winkie went to Vermont armed with a dark mission: to achieve the perfect, lobotomized facsimile of Christian Girl Autumn. Come along with him as he attempts to recreate Caitlin Covingtons infamous Christian Girl Autumn pictures.

Today, Slate is  * DEFINITELY A GOOD SEED

 much like the seeds from this massive, record-breaking pumpkin named Michael Jordan. Travis Gienger told Hannah Docter-Loeb about the nearly three decades of blood, sweat, and tears it took to create.

Thanks so much for reading! Well see you tomorrow.
As Congress returns to action after House Republicans were finally able to elect a speaker of the House following a weekslong impasse, one area they seem determined to address is border policy. Unfortunately, there seems to be much less interest in tackling one of the most important parts of our immigration system: immigration courts.

To put it mildly, there are a lot of misunderstandings about immigration court, and how things work or dont work. As someone whos been working in immigration courts for 25 years, I can say there are a myriad of ways things can and should be better.

First, the distances between immigration courts and the people who need to use them are often vast. My office is in Greensboro, North Carolina; my immigration court is in Charlotte. My clients typically travel from two to five hours to appear in court.

Related From Slate Trump's Attorney General Hijacks Immigration Law Read More

I once represented two childrena brother and sister from Central Americain immigration court proceedings. They had been sold by their father into domestic servitude and then abused by the people who trafficked them. The children escaped and reached the United States.

To prove they deserved asylum under our laws, they had to share what happened to them. The brother was so young, he struggled to articulate the horrors he experienced, while his older sister bore the deep scars of trauma, ones so severe that she had attempted to take her own life while her case in court was pending.

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As horrifying and clear-cut as their stories seemed, the siblings faced a bewildering array of legal challenges. Their notices to appear lacked any hearing date, leaving them confused about when to appear. Immigration judges frequently order people removed for not appearing, despite the countless examples of ways in which the bureaucracy fails to inform people what their obligations are.

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Before filing their asylum applications, I had to send a copy to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to trigger biometrics appointments for their criminal and security background checks. Some judges have ordered people removed for not having the biometrics done even though there isnt anything they can do except request an appointment. Without a competent attorney working with you, it is impossible to make your way through all these pitfalls; errors at any of these stages could have resulted in them losing their asylum casea devastating consequence and really a matter of life or death.

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Prior to the hearing, I tried to contact the Immigration and Customs Enforcement attorney in their case to narrow down the legal issues. But the ICE attorney never responded, which is unfortunately common. In fact, ICE has recently instructed their attorneys that they dont even need to appear in court. In any other court, if the trial attorney didnt show up, the case would be dismissed. But not in immigration court.

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Ultimately these siblings won their case because at the time, fear of persecution on account of kinship and domestic abuse was recognized as a valid basis for asylum. But several years after they won, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions changed asylum law using his unusual power to override immigration court decisions and tried to block kinship and abuse cases as bases for gaining asylum.

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The simple truth is that immigration courts are not real courts. The Executive Office for Immigration Review, or EOIR, is an arm of the Department of Justice headed by a political appointee, the attorney general. The attorney general has total authority over EOIRincluding the power to hire the judges and re-adjudicate any case they decide. In an appeal, the attorney general represents the government in seeking to deport the person instead of remaining the neutral decision-maker. Given their very structure, the courts are not fair.

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Because immigration courts are a part of the DOJ, they are exceptionally vulnerable to interference from the executive branch. Every administration has interfered with the courts. This undermines the courts integrity. And many of the executive branchs manipulations of judges and their dockets make things less efficient because when a persons right to a full and fair hearing is curtailed, litigation and wait times increase.

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The only way to restore integrity and fairness to immigration court is for Congress to create an independent immigration court system pursuant to Article 1 of the Constitution. And within this system, the federal government should fund legal representation for those facing removal who cannot afford counsel.

Until that time comes, the current administration can and should implement common-sense reforms to ease the backlog and improve fairnesslike expanding electronic filing, directly accepting filing fees, and setting clear protocols and standards for when a hearing will be in person or virtual. And EOIR must require ICE to appear at hearings.

Fair and independent immigration courts are an ideal that our nation can achieve. Itll take work by both Congress and the executive branch to get there, but as weve seen time and time again, America can do hard things.
There were so many chilling moments on Wednesday around the ascensionor, as he himself phrased it, the raising up by Godof Rep. Mike Johnson to speaker of the House of Representatives. There was his claim that I dont believe there are any coincidences in a matter like this. I believe that Scripture, the Bible, is very clear that God is the one that raises up those in authority. There was his weird and inscrutable explanation that his wife was not present in the chamber because she was worn out from the many weeks she had just spent on her knees in prayer to the Lord. There was his now-infamous taped insistence that the United States is not a democracy, having defined democracy as two wolves and a lamb deciding what is for dinner. Rather, Johnson insisted, we are a constitutional republic set up by the founders based on a biblical admonition.

The founders wanted to protect the church from an encroaching state, not the other way around, Johnson had said, during a September 2022 episode of his conservative Christian podcast, echoing the fabrications of debunked faux-historian David Barton and other religious zealots who have only ever read the parts of the First Amendment, and constitutional history, with which they agree. None of this is historically accurate or even remotely factually true, as David Rothkopf points out here. But for those like Johnson and his former confederates at the Alliance Defending Freedom, where he worked before being elected to Congress, claims that there are broad Christian roots for the founding documents and distortions of the intentions of the Framers are central to the legal and constitutional push for sectarian theocratic ends. Ultimately, if you believe and disseminate one big lie, why not believe and press them all?

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There is also the fact that Johnson is a zealous homophobe and anti-abortion crusader who has said that physicians who offer abortion care should be imprisoned at hard labor and who has co-sponsored federal legislation that would ban abortions after the detection of a fetal heartbeat. In 2015 Johnson told Irin Carmon of New York magazine, Many women use abortion as a form of birth control. He has, in speeches, suggested that school shootings are the natural consequence of teaching evolution. He co-sponsored legislation introduced by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene that would make it a crime to provide gender-affirming care to people under 18 years of age. The list goes on and on.

And then there is his role in the legal efforts to set aside the results of the 2020 election, not by harassing and threatening election workers or tampering with voting machinesthose are the bumbling efforts with which Donald Trumps goons (and Rudy Giuliani) were tasked. No, Johnson, who styles himself a constitutional lawyer, was, according to a New York Times article from last year, the most important architect of the Electoral College objections on Jan. 6, 2021. His creative if wholly meritless argument afforded his colleagues a bloodless third option to overt Stop the Steal violence and idiocy. Instead of falsely blaming their candidates defeat on rigged voting machinesa claim that has now landed Trumps low-rent lawyers on probation and has others facing million-dollar defamation lawsuitsJohnson persuaded his colleagues to blame the way key states had altered their voting procedures during COVID-19, bloodlessly insisting that such changes were simply unconstitutional.

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The theory is absurdunder a basic legal principle known as laches, its impermissible to contest the results of an election you lost simply because you didnt like the rules, when you could have challenged those same rules before the election was held. But Johnson found a more-than-willing audience for his tricked-out do-over theory in House Republicans, some of whom wouldnt have condoned a mob attempting a coup but were all in when an attorney led it. As the Times put it of Johnson, His Republican critics called it a Trojan horse that allowed lawmakers to vote with the president while hiding behind a more defensible case. Eventually, 147 Republicans voted to block the certification of Joe Biden electors. Johnson openly bragged about the way he took the lead in filing with the Supreme Court an amicus brief to set aside the election results. Oddly, when he was questioned about all this vitally important constitutional lawyering by the press this week, reporters were jeered at by Republican lawmakers and told to shut up. Election-denialism denialism is evidently a thing now.

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But lest you allow yourself to believe that Johnson is a masterful lawyers lawyer, he has also been quick to pander to the big lie enthusiasts as well: In every election in American history, theres some small element of fraud irregularity, he said in a 2020 radio interview. But when you have it on a broad scale, when you have a software system that is used all around the country that is suspect because it came from Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, when you have testimonials of people like this, but in large numbers, it begs to be litigated and investigated.

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There is, in the end, nothing scarier than a MAGA heart that comes dressed as a sober attorney. Jim Jordan looks as if he wants to punch you in the neck with a seconds notice. Mike Johnson will end you with a footnote or case citation. But as the Framers could have warned you, a nation that was dreamed up chiefly by lawyers was almost overdetermined to be run into the ground by them one day. It was de Tocqueville who famously argued, Scarcely any political question arises in the United States that is not resolved, sooner or later, into a judicial question. If you are willing to achieve your craziest ends by any means necessaryand the processes and trappings of the law are a means at your disposalJohnson is the inevitable consequence of that vision. He prides himself on his creative lawyering. In 2020, after then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi famously ripped up a copy of Trumps State of the Union speech, Johnson cleverly tried to turn it into a criminal activity: A lot of people have been talking about this the last 48 hours, and I did a little legal memo to point out to my colleagues that she actually committed a felony when she tore that paper up, Johnson told Fox News. Team Trump on the sanctity of official documents.

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Johnson is thus the terrifying embodiment of two anodyne faces that give cover to the worst forms of MAGA extremism: theocratic zealotry and lawyerly precision. Its not just that hes Jim Jordan with better hair. Its that he is Sen. Mike Lee, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Sen. Josh Hawley, and the people who invent fake gay couples in order to bring wholly hypothetical cases to the Supreme Court. Hes a constitutional lawyer, sure, in the same way that Justice Amy Coney Barrett is: He exists to graft a vanilla-scented, lawyerly sounding vision of a theocratic America onto its secular institutions. He will be far more effective than the nutbars in the House who lead with their id, the Lauren Boeberts and the Marjorie Taylor Greenes, and the parking lot lawyers who did Trumps bidding, the Sidney Powells and the Jenna Ellises. Even Trumps TV lawyers wont have a patch on the guy that doesnt so much practice law as weaponize it for the causes to which he believes himself anointed by God.

For all the reasons everyone warned us of the high-functioning Donald Trump, be very wary of Mike Johnson. Like former White House counsel Don McGahn, former Attorney General Bill Barr, and the other lawyers lawyers who evaded the MAGA taint by virtue of looking like scholars in the clown car, the sober constitutional lawyer will do the most grievous harm, all while smiling and telling you its lawful.
Meeting in Brussels. Photo: Reuters



The European Council expresses its deep concern at the deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Gaza. It calls for continued, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access and for the adoption of all necessary measures, including humanitarian corridors and humanitarian pauses, to ensure that aid reaches those in need , after several hours of discussion, the leaders wrote in the confirmed conclusions of the summit.

They assured that the EU will work closely with all partners in the region to protect civilians and facilitate access to food, water, medical care, fuel and shelter. It must be ensured that this aid is not misused by terrorist organizations, they emphasized.

The provision of humanitarian aid to Gaza was one of the central topics of todays debate on the further tightening of the situation in the Middle East following the attacks of the Palestinian movement Hamas on Israel at the beginning of the month. In response, the Israeli army began violently and continuously bombarding Gaza under Israeli occupation, and additionally tightened the 16-year blockade of the area. Thus, it did not allow the supply of water, food, electricity and fuel to the occupied area.

International humanitarian aid began to arrive in Gaza last weekend, albeit to a limited extent and slowly.

The leaders also reiterated the call to prevent the spread of conflict in the region, working with partners in the region, including the Palestinian Authority.

The European Union is ready to contribute to the revival of the political process based on the two-state solution, they also wrote down.

At the same time, the EU summit confirmed the joint statement of the prime ministers and member states from October 15, in which they condemned the attack by Hamas on Israel. At the same time, they supported Israels right to self-defense, while respecting international law and international humanitarian law. They called on Hamas to immediately and unconditionally release all hostages.

So far, 7,028 people have been killed in Gaza, including as many as 2,913 children.

Charles Michel. Photo: Reuters



Civilians must be protected

President of the European Council Charles Michel before the session, he emphasized the need to protect the civilian population in the Gaza Strip. Civilians must always and everywhere be protected, he said before the start of the two-day EU summit in Brussels. He also called for this Robert Dove.

Michel said that, in his opinion, it is important that the EU is united and that it defends European principles and values.

Related news

Israels ambassador to the UN rejected calls for a truce. Almost 3000 children killed so far.

Germany opposes calls for a ceasefire

There are differences among EU member states on this issue. Some members, including Germany, oppose the EU joining such calls, while others, such as Spain and Ireland, support it.

According to the latest draft of the summits conclusions, EU leaders call on humanitarian corridors and pauses to deliver humanitarian aid to people in the besieged and occupied Palestinian enclave.

Golob: The protection of civilians is important

According to the Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob it is not the naming of the cessation of hostilities in the Middle East that matters, but the protection of civilians. Today, EU leaders must take a clear position on the need to protect civilians on both sides and establish humanitarian corridors, he said.

In addition, key infrastructure such as hospitals and humanitarian infrastructure must be protected, he stressed.

As he also said, all parties must be called upon to respect international humanitarian law. I think this is a point from which we must not deviate, said the prime minister.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez when he arrived at the EU summit, he called for a cease-fire for the Gaza Strip. As he said, he wants a ceasefire, but if there are no conditions for that, then at least a humanitarian breakto allow access for all the humanitarian aid that the people of Gaza need.

According to the Dutch Prime Minister Marko Rutte but it is crucial that Israels fight against Hamas does not come at the expense of the Palestinians in Gaza. Rutte called on Israel to take responsibility for humanitarian access for Gaza and for long-term stability.

In the General Assembly, Slovenia called for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza



Orban warns against refugees

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban he admitted that the members opinions on the Middle East conflict differ, and that Hungary supports Israels right to defend itself. From the point of view of the EU and Hungary, in his opinion, Israel and Egypt are important countries. He warned against the arrival of refugees. This region must be stabilized, otherwise migratory flows will come to Europe, he warned.

According to Orban, there is a clear link between acts of terrorism and migration. Those who support migration also support terrorism, he said, according to the Hungarian news agency MTI. Hungary opposes terrorism, so it also opposes migration, he added.

According to the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen due to the many challenges for the EU, among which she mentioned the Middle East conflict, migration and Russian aggression against Ukraine, it is important that the Union reacts unitedly and decisively. However, according to her, this requires adequate financing, which is why the European Commission has proposed a revision of the multiannual financial framework 2021-2027, which will also be discussed at this summit.
With farm app technology at the forefront, modern farmers can efficiently manage their operations using powerful tools that are just a few clicks away.

This guide will delve into the top farm app choices and their key features, offering invaluable insights for those seeking to optimize their agricultural practices.

The Growing Role of Farm Apps in the Agricultural Industry

As the agricultural sector continues to adapt to modern challenges and opportunities, the relevance of mobile devices and farm apps in the industry is steadily expanding.

Drive Traffic to Your Website Sell Your Business Discover the Zoho Ecosystem Advertise Your Business Here

This section aims to shed light on the multifaceted impact and advantages of incorporating farm apps into your agricultural practices, especially if youre learning how to establish a farm from scratch.

Farm apps serve as crucial tools in enhancing operational efficiency, simplifying data management, and promoting environmentally sustainable practices, making them indispensable assets in todays farming landscape.

The Rise of Agricultural Apps: A Digital Revolution in Farming

Farm apps, also known as ag apps, are fast becoming an integral part of the toolset available to contemporary farmers. These digital platforms offer an array of functionalities that serve to boost both productivity and efficiency on the farm.

Small Business Deals

From monitoring crop health and conducting soil tests to streamlining the maintenance schedule for tractors and other machinery, farm apps are an all-in-one solution.

Additionally, they offer real-time access to essential information such as localized weather forecasts, current market prices for crops, and other data crucial for making timely and informed decisions.

These innovative tools not only enable farmers to fine-tune their operations but also offer cost-effective alternatives for those looking to break into farming without a substantial financial outlay.

As technological advances continue to permeate the agricultural sector, the uptake of farm apps is projected to accelerate, offering even more enhanced functionalities to farmers around the globe.

The Benefits of Integrating Farm Apps into Farm Operations

Incorporating farm apps into the daily grind of farming activities offers a multitude of advantages, among which are increased operational efficiency, data-driven decision-making, and substantial reductions in labor costs.

By automating various tasks such as scheduling irrigation cycles or administering fertilizers, these apps help farmers optimize their routines and minimize manual intervention.

They serve as a centralized hub for collating and interpreting data related to crop yields, soil health, and climatic conditions, thereby facilitating more informed and strategic decision-making.

Furthermore, the automation features of farm apps can significantly cut down on the need for manual labor, allowing farmers to allocate resources more effectively.

Farm apps present a compelling value proposition for farmers interested in elevating their agricultural practices, making their operations more streamlined, data-driven, and ultimately, more profitable.

Key Benefits of Farm Apps:

Enhanced efficiency

Data-driven decision-making

Reduced labor costs

Automated tasks such as irrigation and fertilization

Real-time weather information

Market price updates

Choosing the Best Farm App for Your Agricultural Needs: Our Methodology

With technology making significant inroads into the agriculture sector, farm apps have become indispensable tools for modern farmers. These apps provide a host of solutions, from weather predictions to crop management. Heres what we believe you should consider when picking the right farm app for your operations:

User Interface & Experience

Importance Scale: 9/10

The app should offer an intuitive and user-friendly experience, ensuring even those not tech-savvy can navigate and use the features with ease. Crop Management

Importance Scale: 10/10

Features that help in tracking crop growth stages, pest infestations, and harvest times can significantly enhance farm productivity and reduce losses. Livestock Management

Importance Scale: 9/10

For those with livestock, the app should provide tools for tracking animal health, breeding cycles, and vaccination schedules. Weather Forecasting

Importance Scale: 10/10

Accurate, localized weather predictions can help farmers make informed decisions about planting, irrigation, and harvesting. Equipment Tracking & Maintenance

Importance Scale: 8/10

The app should offer features that help track machinery usage, schedule maintenance, and even manage inventory of spare parts. Financial Management

Importance Scale: 9/10

Budgeting, tracking expenses, and monitoring sales are essential for the profitability of a farm. An integrated financial management tool can be invaluable. Integration Capabilities

Importance Scale: 9/10

The ability to integrate with other software systems, such as e-commerce platforms for direct sales or sensors for real-time monitoring, can expand the apps utility. Data Security & Privacy

Importance Scale: 10/10

Given the sensitivity of the data involved, the app must have robust security measures in place. Data privacy and protection should be a priority. Offline Functionality

Importance Scale: 8/10

Farms might be located in areas with spotty internet coverage. The app should be functional offline, with the ability to sync once connectivity is restored. Pricing & Support

Importance Scale: 8/10

The cost of the app should offer good value for the features provided. Additionally, responsive customer support can be crucial when facing technical issues.

With these criteria guiding our research, weve sought out the top farm apps that offer comprehensive solutions tailored to the diverse challenges of agricultural operations. Our recommendations aim to blend functionality with user-friendliness, ensuring farmers have the best tools at their fingertips.

Top Farm Apps to Revolutionize Your Agricultural Business

Advances in technology have made it easier than ever to manage farms, and farm management apps have become a crucial tool for modern agriculture. This section will explore some of the top farm apps that can revolutionize your agricultural business.

Conservis

Conservis is a comprehensive farm management system that centralizes data and reporting, providing growers with insights for row and permanent crop operations from planning to financials.

By integrating agronomic and economic data with tools such as Zone Economics, Conservis empowers farmers to understand the true production costs, track plans vs actuals, and see the big picture of their farm operation in real time.

The platforms customizable dashboard provides real-time access to metrics that matter, enabling farmers to make profitable decisions.

Conserviss customer success team provides exceptional support to farmers, with expert services that reduce on-farm labor headaches and delegate data management to a Conservis expert.

FarmRaise

FarmRaise is a farm management app that helps farmers keep track of their finances on the go. It works offline, so expenses can be uploaded anywhere.

It allows farmers to track their cash flow, visualize expenses, and stay off the grid by not requiring bank details. The app includes an interactive guide to help farmers find what they need, and the Farm Funding Library helps farmers find farm grants that fit their needs.

FarmRaise also provides a weekly farm newsletter called the Briefing. The app has a free and premium plan that offers full access to the funding library.

CattleMax

CattleMax is a cloud-based software program designed for cattle record keeping that has been in operation since 1999.

The platform offers a comprehensive suite of ranch management tools to help cattle producers easily organize and track their cattle and ranch records. CattleMaxs enhanced mobile version enables users to update or access records in the field.

The software also enables users to keep pasture management, equipment maintenance, rainfall, customers, and more in one place. Its automatic processes and reporting feature allow ranchers to save time and make better decisions.

The companys customer service team is composed of ranchers that use the software in their herds.

AgriApp

AgriApp is a smart farming app designed for Android-based mobile devices. It offers comprehensive information and services related to crop production and management, including crop advisory, soil testing, crop practices, weather forecasting, satellite insights, and more.

It also functions as an online marketplace for farmers to buy crop solutions and get real-time agro advisory from experts in their local language.

The app provides personalized crop calendars, satellite imagery to collect observation photos for monitoring crop growth and potential, and a community group to connect with fellow farmers for exchanging information and solutions. AgriApp is a free app available on Google Play Store.

Farm Service Manager

Farm Service Manager is a premium, subscription-based app designed for farm owners, managers, and contractors to manage the service and maintenance history of all farm machinery and vehicles.

The app allows users to create accurate service records, set service reminders, and build service histories for each machine or vehicle, increasing resale value and minimizing costly repairs and downtime.

It has multi-user access, allowing different levels of access to be assigned to different users, including employees and outside mechanics, from wherever they are on the farm.

The app also records part numbers for easy ordering and builds full service and maintenance histories for each machine or vehicle, ensuring that all machinery is running at its full potential.

BushelFarm

BushelFarm is an innovative farm management software that provides a comprehensive overview of farmers operational and financial performance. It is designed to simplify farm records management and offers intelligent automation to transform farm records into actionable insights.

The softwares capabilities include the cost of production analysis, real-time profitability calculations based on market prices, and profit and loss reports at the farm, crop, and field levels.

BushelFarm offers three different plans to cater to farmers varying needs and budgets, starting from $19.99 per month to $199 per year.

Herdwatch

Herdwatch is a farm management application widely used in the UK and Ireland. The app offers a hassle-free farming experience by eliminating paperwork and providing real-time data to help farmers make informed decisions.

Its a versatile app that suits various types of farms, including dairy, beef, sheep, and arable.

Its features include fast, paperless compliance, saving hours on paperwork, and keeping farm records safe. Herdwatch is fully integrated with the Department of Agriculture, ICBF, and Bord Bia, and FRS backs it.

Farmers in the UK and Ireland can use the app for free under the basic plan. While currently unavailable outside the UK and Ireland, Herdwatch aims to expand to other countries soon.

FarmBrite

Farmbrite is an all-in-one farm management software built for multi-species and biodiverse farms and ranches. The platform includes integrated tools for livestock management, farm planning and tracking, financial accounting, order management, and e-commerce.

The software allows farmers to track animal and pasture health, grazing activities, soil, and herd health, and automate planning and yield estimates.

It also includes features for team collaboration, task management, and detailed financial reporting. With over 40 pre-built reports, integrated dashboards, and custom reports, farmers can gain new insight into their operations and make informed decisions.

Farmbrite offers a 14-day free trial and is accessible via iOS and Android apps.

AgFiniti

AgFiniti is a cloud-based farm management software that integrates with Ag Leaders SMS Software for in-depth analysis. It offers real-time insights and informed decision-making across the entire farm.

AgFiniti allows querying fields for yield comparisons, generating real-time prescriptions, remotely accessing InCommand displays, and creating/editing boundaries.

It also provides mobile access, cloud storage, and analysis tools such as overlaying maps and yield comparisons. The platform is available in both free and paid versions, with the latter offering additional features like CartACE and multi-year analysis.

PickApp

PickApp is a revolutionary solution that helps farmers manage their farms efficiently, reduce labor costs, and optimize the quality of their produce.

Its advanced data-driven management tools for attendance, productivity, quality control, and location tracking provide farmers with real-time insights and decision-making capabilities.

PickApps innovative analytics, automation, and Big Data algorithms improve labor productivity and enhance produce quality.

Farmers worldwide can access the platforms customizable portal from their mobile devices or office PCs, and it offers multilingual support, custom reports, and notifications for real-time problem-solving.

PickApp is ideal for all types of farms, including enterprise farms, cooperatives, packing houses, and brands.

Comparison of Top Farm Apps

Below is a comparison table that outlines some of the top farm apps discussed in this article. The table aims to provide a quick overview of each apps main features, availability, and pricing options.

Farm App Main Features Availability Pricing Conservis Comprehensive farm management, real-time insights Global Subscription-based FarmRaise Financial tracking, funding library Global Free & Premium Plans CattleMax Cattle record keeping Global Subscription-based AgriApp Crop production and management Google Play Store Free Farm Service Manager Machinery maintenance, multi-user access Global Subscription-based BushelFarm Financial performance, automation Global From $19.99/month Herdwatch Compliance, livestock management UK & Ireland Free & Paid Plans Farmbrite All-in-one, biodiverse farm management Global 14-day free trial AgFiniti Cloud-based, real-time insights Global Free & Paid Versions PickApp Labor productivity, quality control Global Custom Pricing

Frequently Asked Questions about Farm Apps

How much do farm apps typically cost?

The cost of a farm app varies depending on the provider and the features offered. Some farm apps are free to download, while others require a subscription-based service for access to premium features.

Its important to note that a free app may not include all the features needed for effective farm management, and investing in a subscription-based service may be necessary.

Are farm apps compatible with all types of farming operations?

Farm apps are designed to accommodate various farming operations, from crop farming to livestock management, and can be customized to specific needs.

They use data and analytics to make informed decisions, can integrate with IoT devices, and are accessible from different devices. While some may be specialized, most apps are flexible and compatible with different types of farming.

Even farming games are available to help various types of farmers hone their skills.

Can farm apps help with compliance and record-keeping?

Farm apps can assist with maintaining accurate records and compliance by allowing farmers to track and record critical data, such as pesticide applications, soil samples, and livestock treatments.

The apps can also generate reports and analytics, providing insights into regulatory requirements and certifications. With this data, farmers can ensure compliance with industry regulations and maintain accurate records to support audits and certifications.

How secure are farm apps in terms of data protection?

Choosing farm apps with strong data security and privacy measures is important to protect sensitive farm data.

Evaluating app security can include reviewing privacy policies, verifying the use of encryption, and assessing access controls. Farmers should also keep their devices updated, use strong passwords, and avoid using public Wi-Fi to further protect their data.

What are the hardware and software requirements for using farm apps?

The hardware and software requirements for using farm apps may vary depending on the app. Typically, farmers need a mobile device or tablet with a compatible operating system, such as iOS or Android, and access to a reliable internet connection.

Some apps may also require additional hardware, such as sensors or cameras, to collect data. Reviewing the apps requirements before downloading it to ensure compatibility is important.

In conclusion, farm apps can revolutionize agriculture by improving farm management efficiency, helping with crop protection, increasing productivity, allowing you to find used farm equipment, and ultimately leading to higher profits.

With the advancements in technology and the availability of these innovative tools, farmers can stay on top of their operations like never before.

By embracing these apps, farmers can optimize their farms resources and stay ahead of the competition. So why not explore the potential of farm apps today and take your agricultural business ideas to the next level?

One of the worlds largest indoor farms is using advanced tech to build a more resilient food system; check out the video here:

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Big brands supporting small businesses with grants is a win-win for everyone involved. Entrepreneurs receive the financial support they need to start or grow their businesses, while big brands get to invest in the economys future and build positive relationships with their communities.

Here are some of the ways that big brands supporting small businesses with grants help entrepreneurs:

Provide access to capital. Starting or growing a business can be expensive, and small businesses often have difficulty accessing traditional loans. Grants from big brands can provide entrepreneurs with the capital they need to cover start-up costs, purchase equipment, or hire staff.

Starting or growing a business can be expensive, and small businesses often have difficulty accessing traditional loans. Grants from big brands can provide entrepreneurs with the capital they need to cover start-up costs, purchase equipment, or hire staff. Reduce risk. Taking out a loan can be a risky proposition, especially for new businesses. Grants from big brands can help entrepreneurs reduce their risk by providing them with funding that does not need to be repaid.

Taking out a loan can be a risky proposition, especially for new businesses. Grants from big brands can help entrepreneurs reduce their risk by providing them with funding that does not need to be repaid. Offer mentorship and support. In addition to financial support, big brands can also offer entrepreneurs mentorship and support through their grant programs. This can include providing access to training resources, networking opportunities, and expert advice.

In addition to financial support, big brands can also offer entrepreneurs mentorship and support through their grant programs. This can include providing access to training resources, networking opportunities, and expert advice. Increase brand awareness. When big brands support small businesses with grants, it helps to raise awareness of both brands. This can lead to new customers for small businesses and increased brand loyalty for big brands.

This time around, TikTok is offering assistance with its Creciendo con TikTok Grant in partnership with the Hispanic Heritage Foundation to Latino small businesses with up to $5,000. Other grants are helping with additional funds of up to $10,000 addressing COVID-19 hardships, the Maui Fires, and Commerces State Trade Expansion Program (STEP).

Sell Your Business Drive Traffic to Your Website Discover the Zoho Ecosystem Advertise Your Business Here

Small Business News October 27, 2023

In the news this week, the SBA reignited its commitment to the 8(a) Business Development Program, while the IRS announced the tax gap has surged over $688 billion. On the private front, SalesForce announced the general availability of MuleSofts Anypoint Code Builder. This will help small businesses create apps and workflows to improve their operations. For that and more, take a look at the rest of the roundup.

WhatsApp has unveiled a significant feature update: users can now have two separate accounts logged in on the same device. This game-changing capability streamlines personal communication and has noteworthy implications for small business owners. Addressing the Work-Life Balance For many small business owners, the boundaries between their professional and personal lives are often blurred.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) shed light on a novel withdrawal mechanism inaccuracy for Employee Retention Credit (ERC) claims. This comes after a surge in businesses expressing concerns over the validity of their claims. This withdrawal avenue has been tailored for employers who, after having filed an ERC claim, have not yet reaped any refunds.

The Biden-Harris Administration announced a record $3 billion in lending to Latino-owned small businesses, with data highlighting a doubling in the number of SBA-backed loans to such enterprises. Fiscal Year 2023s Small Business Administration (SBA) data revealed a transformative shift.

Small Business Deals

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has reignited its commitment to the 8(a) Business Development Program, a vital initiative established to assist socially and economically disadvantaged small business owners. This move comes after a recent U.S. District Court decision that impacted the process of establishing eligibility for the program.

In a competitive digital environment where businesses are under constant pressure to evolve, Salesforce has announced a significant leap forward: the general availability of MuleSofts Anypoint Code Builder.

Intuit Inc. launched a comprehensive bill payment and accounts payable (AP) automation system named QuickBooks Bill Pay to streamline business-to-business (B2B) transactions. This feature, integrated within the QuickBooks platform, promises to tackle the cash flow challenges that many small business owners face.

Descript unveiled its new collection of AI tools, set to release in the coming weeks. Small business owners relying heavily on audio and video content might want to monitor these developments closely. Heres why: A History Rooted in AI Descript is no stranger to artificial intelligence. Since 2018, theyve integrated AI into their platform with the introduction of Overdub.

Every entrepreneur must deal with success and failure of running a business; it comes with the job description. But what happens when your losses get very public? What happens when you go to prison for your business failure? On The Small Business Radio Show, I talked Joseph Costanzo, Jr., who had his failures send him to prison. He was a well-known personality in the restaurant world.

The U.S. Postal Service has just released its official deadlines for the 2023 holiday season, aiming to ensure the timely arrival of cards, letters, and packages by Christmas day. Small business owners preparing for the forthcoming holiday shopping and shipping season can look forward to some clear dates and predictability in their pricing.

Many small business owners dreams are to sell their company for a lot of money.

As small business owners gear up for the pivotal Black Friday-Cyber Monday (BFCM) season, understanding the shifting trends of consumer behavior is essential. With recent data from a survey of 12,000 consumers and 4,800+ businesses spanning continents, we dive into what this season holds for retailers. 1.

A Nevada man has been handed a prison sentence for defrauding over half a million dollars meant for businesses struggling amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Brandon Casutt, 52, of Henderson, Nevada, was sentenced to 28 months in prison for his fraudulent acquisition of more than $500,000 through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) unveiled new tax gap projections for the years 2020 and 2021, highlighting a significant increase in the amount of taxes unpaid or underpaid by taxpayers. According to the newly released data, the tax gap soared to $688 billion in 2021, marking an upsurge of over $192 billion compared to the 2014-2016 period.

Small business owners, particularly those in the health care sector, are being urged to review their payroll processes in light of a recent indictment involving a ghost worker scam that resulted in significant financial losses. A federal grand jury in Chicago has indicted Alisha Richardson, 44, a former employee of a local nursing home, on seven counts of wire fraud.
The new Slovak premier refuses to supply Ukraine with any more weapons and wants to see NGOs labelled as foreign agents.

Robert Fico, pictured attending the second session of the European Affairs Parliamentary Committee in Bratislava on October 26, 2023. (Source: TASR)

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As soon as Slovak President Zuzana Caputova appointed the new Slovak government, the now four-time premier Robert Fico of the Smer party outlined what politics he will plough on with.

Youll hear a sovereign Slovak voice from Slovak ministries and see sovereign Slovak foreign policy, PM Fico said on October 25.

In his efforts, he will also be helped out by his foreign minister Juraj Blanar, who lacks diplomatic experience and who shared war-related disinformation in the past.

Fico, a populist leader with pro-Russian views and plans to label non-governmental organisations as foreign agents, managed to take power shortly before the October EU summit in Brussels where he represents Slovakia for the first time in five years. In 2018, he had to step down as prime minister following mass protests sparked by the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak, who had written about corruption under the previous Smer-led governments.

Before the summit, which takes place on October 26 and 27, Fico attended the European Affairs Parliamentary Committee in the Slovak parliament.

I'm not going to vote for any Russian sanctions unless the analyses on the impacts of such sanctions are available, Fico told the committee.

Positions adopted by the committee are binding for Fico at EU summits. However, the committee is now controlled by the Smer-led coalition.

Fico reiterated that his government will not support Ukraine militarily and will call for a peace solution instead. Fico added that it is naive to think that Russia, a nuclear superpower, can be defeated with conventional weapons. He said that he supports every peace plan, but also noted that it is unrealistic to think that Russian units will leave Ukrainian lands. Fico repeated that the war in Ukraine, in his opinion, is a conflict between America and Russia, and that the EU has become a project that kills people in Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on October 26 that Slovakia was not a big supplier of weapons to Ukraine and the latest decision would not impact the war, the AFP agency wrote on October 26.

At the committee, Fico said that he supports Ukraines efforts in joining the EU. However, Ukraine itself must be prepared, the new Slovak premier said before leaving for the summit.

However, Fico might have missed his trip to Brussels had he not fixed a major problem with Rudolf Huliak, a former candidate for environment minister, in time.

The second session of the European Affairs Parliamentary Committee in Bratislava on October 26, 2023. (Source: TASR)

Environment minister hiccup

Huliak, a keen hunter, is in the habit of asserting, wherever he goes, that non-governmental organisations have embezzled money from the Environment Ministry to finance the campaigns of specific political parties.

In the last five to ten years, NGOs have committed evil deeds in Slovakia and disrupted the balance in nature, he said in an October interview.

Huliak serves as mayor of Ocova, a village in central Slovakia, and was elected as an MP in the early parliamentary election held on September 30. The MP, who considers brown bears to be a Brussels biological weapon to destroy the Slovak countryside, who insults and threatens to kill conservationists, who considers climate change to be a hoax, who calls LGBT+ people sexually disoriented, and and who says he would travel to Moscow to apologise for Slovakias military support of Ukraine, has become notorious in the span of just a few weeks, especially after the emerging Smer-led coalition decided to nominate him for the post of environment minister.

Huliak, who chairs the ultranationalist party Narodna Koalicia, got into parliament from 150th place on the Slovak National Party (SNS) election slate thanks to preference votes.

However, President Zuzana Caputova announced on October 19 that she would not appoint Huliak as a minister. She explained that he questioned Slovakias long-term environmental policy and the international obligations to which the country is bound, in addition to approving of violence against opponents and denying climate change.

There are constitutional and legal reasons, and they are so intense that he cannot hold the post of environment minister, said the president, adding that she expected the coalition to propose a new name for the post.

Her decision sparked a heated debate over whether the president has the right to not appoint a candidate for minister put forward to her by the future prime minister  even though she made the same decision in a similar case in 2021. On that occasion she refused to appoint a candidate for labour minister in the incoming Eduard Heger government over the nominees close ties to a former politician responsible for thwarting a 1997 referendum. The constitution is ambiguous in this area, but none of the existing interpretations say that the president is obliged to appoint any ministerial candidate presented to her.

Despite this, the SNS, Smers coalition partner, accused the president of violating the constitution, while Smer chair and future prime minister Robert Fico claimed that Caputova was thwarting the results of the election and serving other countries.

Wonderful, indeed, Fico sarcastically noted.

Caputova filed a lawsuit against Fico on September 13, citing the lies that he has consistently spread about her.

In addition to the accusations, the incoming premier compared the presidents decision not to appoint the government unless it is complete to nonsense as big as water in a wicker basket. Fico went on to say that the president, if she wanted to, could appoint the fourth Fico government without accepting Huliak and appoint some other minister from Ficos list to serve as the environment minister temporarily.

Smer and SNS resisted withdrawing Huliaks nomination for several days, but conceded on October 24, when the SNS decided to replace Huliak with another ultraconservatative lawmaker, Tomas Taraba, in an apparent effort to hasten the appointment of the new government to help Fico not miss the summit in Brussels. Taraba was previously elected as an MP for the neo-fascist LSNS party at the 2020 election; he enjoys a large following on Facebook and supports the weakening of environmental protection rules.

Huliak was elected the new chair of the Environment and Agriculture Parliamentary Committee in the end on October 25. On the same day, the president eventually appointed the new government.

But for the SNS and Smer, President Caputova is not the only problem. They have long pointed accusingly at another enemy: non-governmental organisations.

The era when NGOs ruled this country is now over, Fico repeated in mid-October.

Environment Minister Tomas Taraba. He was nominated for the post by the SNS party. (Source: TASR)

SNS leader and Deputy Speaker of Parliament Andrej Danko (l) and Narodna Koalicia leader and MP Rudolf Huliak (r). (Source: TASR)

Fico considers strict foreign agent law

For years, Fico has said that non-governmental organisations in Slovakia operate to harm his governments. His party previously ruled the country from 2006 until 2020, with a short break from 2010 to 2012. But after he was forced to leave the post of prime minister in 2018, following the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova, his attacks on NGOs increased. For example, he then began to accuse NGOs of a state coup in Slovakia that he alleged had been masterminded by Hungarian-American philanthropist and billionaire George Soros, a favourite target of vilification by other illiberal leaders like Viktor Orban, the longtime prime minister of neighbouring Hungary.

A month ago, Fico attacked Transparency International Slovakia (TIS) in a video posted to social media. In it, he hinted at creating a foreign agent label that organisations which receive foreign funding would have to use in public in the future. A similar legal device has been used in Russia to effectively neuter opposition to President Vladimir Putin.

After Fico and his partners, Danko and Hlas leader Peter Pellegrini, signed a coalition deal on October 16, promising to increase peoples living standards, Fico yet again said that he would want to see all NGOs operating in Slovakia and funded from abroad labelled foreign agents.

He asserted that he would copy and paste the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), a US law that orders various political and lobbying groups or individuals in America which are directly linked to foreign governments, corporations or NGOs to register. A similar law came into effect in Slovakia in 2019 during the last Smer-led government. A register of NGOs was launched two years later.

There are more than 75,000 NGOs in Slovakia.

But because Fico is talking about giving NGOs the foreign agent label, NGOs such as TIS fear that Fico might wish to introduce a stricter, Russian-style version of FARA.

If its an attempt similar to the one we saw in Georgia, we will use all available legal means against such an attack on civil society, said TIS.

Georgia dropped its proposed foreign agent bill following mass protests earlier this year. Orban is preparing to submit such a bill for the second time this autumn. The European Court of Justice ruled three years ago that its 2017 version of such a law was illegal.

The Smer leader has not provided any detail of how such a law would work in Slovakia. Nevertheless, he is convinced that every Slovak should know whose song a given NGO sings.

The new government was appointed by President Zuzana Caputova on October 25, 2023. (Source: TASR)

Inexperienced foreign minister

It seems clear which song, to use Ficos words, the Smer-led coalition will sing in the next four years when it comes to foreign policy and especially the war in Ukraine.

Smer intends sovereignly, in the context of Slovakias membership in the EU and NATO, to continue foreign policy in all four corners of the world, reads Smers foreign policy strategy. The party, as well as its new partners SNS and Hlas, rejects supplying military aid to Ukraine, opposes anti-Russian sanctions, and calls for peace.

But the position of Smer and SNS on deals signed by Slovak arms firms that supply Ukraine, which guarantee numerous jobs in Slovakia, remains unclear.

The defence minister and former three-time interior minister, Robert Kalinak from the Smer party, owns a firm that produces rifles. His party colleague Juraj Blanar, now a foreign minister, said in April that Smer would refuse to allow Slovak arms companies to profit from the war. But in the summer Hlas leader Peter Pellegrini, now the speaker of parliament, talked about the war in Ukraine as an opportunity for the Slovak arms industry.

I will never say that not even a bullet will leave Slovakia, because Slovakia has factories that produce ammunition, the Hlas leader said.

Blanars nomination as foreign minister has led to raised eyebrows in foreign policy circles.

Fico said he wanted to find someone who would be a pike that would make the old carp in the pond of Slovak diplomacy work harder. As minister, he will have the authority to approve the sending or withdrawal of Slovak ambassadors. But unlike previous foreign ministers under Smer administrations, like career diplomats Jan Kubis and Miroslav Lajcak, Blanar has no diplomatic experience or even a foreign policy record to speak of.

He has, however, worked his way up through the Smer party and is considered to be one of Ficos most loyal supporters.

Opposition leader Michal Simecka said the selection of Blanar shows that Smer lacks experts on foreign policy.

It shows that none of the Slovak diplomats were willing to serve as foreign minister, he said.

Last year, Blanar was a vocal critic of the adoption of a defence cooperation agreement with the USA, claiming that America would build military bases in Slovakia. He also criticised the expulsion of Russian diplomats from Slovakia in 2021, a step taken by the country in solidarity with Czechia following the revelation that Russian agents had caused a deadly explosion at an ammunition warehouse there in 2014.

Right after the war, Blanar shared Smers position on the war: The conflict in Ukraine concerns neither the EU nor NATO, it is a purely American-Russian matter. That position has not changed.

Earlier this year, Blanar abstained from a vote by the Slovak parliament to label Russia a terrorist regime.

Moreover, Blanar did not shy away from spreading disinformation linked to Ukraine. In February, he tried to discredit Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who had awarded a Ukrainian mountain assault brigade with the honorary title Edelweiss for its work. Blanar claimed that the honour was named after a Nazi unit. But the name refers to a protected mountain flower, after which mountain units in many countries are named. Last June, Blanar also spread disinformation on TV about Ukrainians being responsible for the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.

Ficos fourth government includes more people who hold pro-Russian views, and not just from Smer. A few years ago, for example, the SNS wrote on Facebook that it would initiate the recognition of the Republic of Crimea by Slovakia in 2024. Its leader also met with Russian officials. Nominated by the SNS, Slovak TV presenter Martina Simkovicova, the Austria-based star of pro-Russian and disinformation online channel Slovan in recent years, heads the Culture Ministry.

I reject from the bottom of my heart being labelled as a disinformer, she said recently.

In 2015, she was fired from the most watched private television channel, TV Markiza, over her anti-immigration social media posts. Since then, she has continued to attack the LGBT+ community regularly.

Culture Minister Martina Simkovicova. (Source: SITA)

Slovak MFA Juraj Blanar. (Source: SITA)

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban (l) speaks with Robert Fico during a round table meeting at an EU summit in Brussels on October 26, 2023 (Source: AP)

Isolated, Fico looks to revive V4

Ficos decision to form a government with the Slovak National Party has already led to his partys isolation at the European level.

The Party of European Socialists (PES) grouping explained that its decision to suspend Smer was taken following the clear divergence from the values of the PES family demonstrated by Smer leader Robert Fico. This includes Smers position on the war in Ukraine, migration, the rule of law, and LGBT+ rights. In 2006, PES suspended Smer for two years after it previously formed a coalition government with the SNS.

The latest PES decision was also embraced by the Socialists and Democrats Group in the European Parliament. As a result, two Smer MEPs gave up their membership, and the third Smer MEP was suspended.

If you intend to keep scolding us for [our left-wing] politics, you do not understand real life, Fico told European socialists.

He is now trying to revive cooperation within the Visegrad Four (V4) group at the level of prime ministers. At the EU summit, Fico plans to talk to the Czech, Polish and Hungarian leaders.

Without the V4, we will not win anything, Fico told the parliamentary committee.

This story was produced in partnership with Reporting Democracy, a cross-border journalism platform run by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network.
Read a selection of short feel-good stories from Slovakia.

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Every week The Slovak Spectator brings you a selection of three short stories from across Slovakia in which pessimism and negativity are absent.

1) Takin' gold

A golden takin (Source: Bratislava Zoo)

Bratislava Zoo has recently a new species of animal: golden takin, which are related to goats and sheep. Originating from China and named for their distinctive golden fur, a male and female of the species can now be observed by visitors in the forested area near the enclosure for camels.

Zoologist Jan Adler describes the golden takin as having a robust body and resembling a cross between an elk, deer, goat, antelope, bison and bear. The zoo's collection now includes a young male from Liberec Zoo and a female from Wroclaw Zoo, which arrived in September.

In the past, acquiring takins for zoos has proved difficult, as they are a threatened species in the wild. Only 91 takins are currently in captivity, including one at Slovakia's Bojnice Zoo, said the zoologist.

Read more in Slovak.

2) New bridges in a Tatras valley

A group of volunteers built a new bridge in the Jalovecka Dolina valley. (Source: FB/Hikemates)

The Jalovecka Dolina valley, located in the Liptov region, is quite extraordinary as no road leads to the valley. However, it is well-connected by hiking trails that lead to the Western Tatras and popular peaks in the area.

Nine years ago, Storm Zofia wreaked havoc in the Western Tatras, resulting in the destruction of swathes of forest and causing damage to numerous wooden footbridges and bridges in the Bobrovecka and Jalovecka valleys. The area and its facilities have since been gradually restored.

Last weekend, volunteers built six new wooden bridges in the Jalovecka valley, assisted by a helicopter. They used 25 kilograms of nails.

The Jalovecka valley begins near the village of Bobrovec. It further branches into the Bobrovecka valley and the Parichvost valley. The Hlboka valley starts from Parichvost and all three lead hikers to the ridge of the Western Tatras. Currently, only the Jalovecka, Hlboka and Parichvost valley are considered safe.

Read more in Slovak.

3) Rare archaeological find in Orava

Execution above Velicna. (Source: KPUZA)

Archaeologists in the Orava region have made a remarkable, if somewhat macabre, discovery in the town of Velicna. They uncovered a gallows, likely dating from the 17th century.

They also unearthed other centuries-old objects, including a Turkish-type pipe.

The name of the hill where the gallows was found  "Sibenice" (i.e. gallows)  and local oral tradition plus evidence from old military maps mean the discovery was not a complete surprise, but is still a significant event.

"They did not immediately bury the executed person, but left [their body] there for a long time as a warning until the person completely decomposed," explained archaeologist Tomas Kopta.

Read more in Slovak.

Here's more good news published by The Slovak Spectator:

People don't mind hallucinating chatbots. A Slovak 'treats' them, anyway.

Top 10 events in Bratislava for foreigners.

A guide to the Spis dialect.

This season's most beautiful find at Pusty Castle is of French origin.

The first Italian supermarket will open in Bratislava.

A Bulgarian tsar's summer residence near Banska Stiavnica offers a camera obscura experience.

A British-Indian carmaker will start e-car production in Nitra "during this decade".

FUNNY MEME FOR THIS WEEK

Look into my eyes

Translation: "In your life, get yourself a man who looks at you like Orban looks at Fico." (Source: zomri)

Slovakia's newly appointed Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer) has said that he will not provide any further military aid for Ukraine and will oppose continued sanctions against Russia during his first European Union summit, which is currently taking place in Brussels (October 26-27).

As part of his recent election campaign, Fico vowed to halt Slovakia's military assistance to Ukraine, follow a 'sovereign Slovak' foreign policy, and tackle illegal migration.

At the EU summit, Fico met with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Satirists noted the obvious affection between the two men and a photo from their meeting (above) has become a meme on the Slovak internet. The two leaders share similar views on the war in Ukraine and illegal migration.

You can send me your tips on good news stories about Slovakia or funny memes at: yehor.zhukov@spectator.sk. Thank you!
Halloween events in and outside Bratislava, good news from Slovakia, and Fico does not plan to meet with Putin - for now.

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Good evening. Here is the Friday, October 27 edition of Today in Slovakia  the main news of the day in less than five minutes.

NOTE: On Sunday morning, at 3:00, clocks will be turned backward 1 hour. You will thus sleep a bit longer and there will be more light in the morning.

Fico, citing 'corruption' tropes, seeks to condition aid to Ukraine

Robert Fico talks to Belgian Prime Minister De Croom (c) and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban during the EU summit. (Source: Government Office)

Slovakia is considering increasing its contribution to the European Union's budget by 400 million over the next four years, as part of a 50-billion aid package intended for Ukraine. According to the Government Office, which newly appointed premier Robert Fico (Smer) controls, the prime minister is prepared to support the proposal, subject to specific conditions.

"Ukraine is one of the world's most corrupt countries," said Fico. "We condition its brutal financial support on guarantees that EU money (including Slovak money) will not be misused and that part of these resources will be used to restore Slovak infrastructure in border areas and to support Slovak companies in the restoration of Ukraine," said Fico.

2022 Corruption Perceptions Index. (Source: Transparency International)

2022 Corruption Perceptions Index. (Source: Transparency International)

Fico also wants this money to be used on the fight against illegal migration and increasing the EU's competitiveness.

Slovakia's public finances are in a bad state.

On Thursday, he also met with EC President Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels. He told her that Slovakia would support Ukraine in a humanitarian way only. Fico is ready to help demine Ukraine, too. He said the same thing to a Slovak parliamentary committee prior to his flight to Brussels on Thursday morning.

Related: Read about Robert Fico's return to power, from his positions on Ukraine to threatening NGOs and ambitions to revive the V4 group.

Opinion: The new Fico IV government will be a big test for the European Union, writes editor-in-chief of the Sme daily Beata Balogova.

More stories from The Slovak Spectator website

Animal: A previously unseen species has appeared in western Slovakia.

Weekend: It's a Halloween weekend. Check out some spooky activities to celebrate Halloween in Slovakia.

Good news: Bratislava Zoo has a golden new attraction.

Bratislava: Famous department stores in Bratislava's centre get a new look.

If you like what we are doing and want to support good journalism, buy an online subscription. With our "no ads" offer a print copy of The Slovak Spectator print edition will be sent to your home in Slovakia! Thank you.

WHAT'S ON IN BRATISLAVA

Halloween on Ice

Come and enjoy a Halloween programme at the ice rink at the Avion shopping centre in Bratislava (and take your children). On October 28, from 13:00 to 19:00, they can enjoy seasonal fun while skating. Children who come in masks will be admitted to the rink free of charge!

Here are some more Bratislava events to look forward to.

PODCAST FOR THE WEEKEND

What it takes to make a student film

Lubos Balazovic Jr. (Source: Facebook/Lubos Balazovic Jr. - Filmmaker / Video production)

Lubos Balazovic Jr., a young filmmaker, made a documentary about the Slovak National Uprising.

The documentary Posledny Povstalec (The Last Insurgent) describes the story of the Trnava garrison and the fate of one its members, Stefan Minarovic, who took part in the uprising as an 18-year-old.

In other news

The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe has called on the Slovak authorities to address problems associated with municipal fragmentation in the country , improve the funding of local authorities, revise the fiscal equalisation system aimed at mitigating regional and inter-municipal disparities, and improve consultation.

, improve the funding of local authorities, revise the fiscal equalisation system aimed at mitigating regional and inter-municipal disparities, and improve consultation. The 32-year-old Smer member and MP Erik Kalinak should become PM Robert Fico's chief adviser. Kalinak has been in charge of Smer's social media pages and the party's communication. (Sme)

Kalinak has been in charge of Smer's social media pages and the party's communication. (Sme) PM Robert Fico told the press after the EU summit in Brussels (October 26-27) that he does not plan to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. (TASR)

(TASR) In the Kosice steel mills, U.S. Steel will introduce reduced working hours in the months of November and December. According to the company, reduced working hours allow the firm to adapt to what is happening in the market. "It makes no sense for all technological units to run at full capacity at the end of the year," said the firm. (TASR)

According to the company, reduced working hours allow the firm to adapt to what is happening in the market. "It makes no sense for all technological units to run at full capacity at the end of the year," said the firm. (TASR) The Special Prosecutor's Office again filed charges against the ex-head of the Slovak Information Service, Vladimir Pcolinsky, with the court. The first attempt failed because the General Prosecutor's Office cancelled the charges upon Pcolinsky's request. Later, when the prosecutor filed the charges after all, the Specialised Criminal Court rejected it due to a procedural error. Pcolinsky is charged with the crime of accepting a bribe, of abuse of authority of a public official, and of endangering confidential information. (Sme)

President Zuzana Caputova lays a wreath at the M.R. Stefanik Monument on the occasion of the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Czechoslovak Republic in Bratislava on October 27, 2023. In November 2020, MPs approved two amendments to the law, on the basis of which October 28 became a national holiday. The day of the establishment of the independent Czechoslovak state is not a non-working day. (Source: TASR)

WEATHER FOR THE WEEKEND: Expect mostly sunny and pleasant weather on Saturday and Sunday, with daytime temperatures reaching up to 20C on Sunday. On Monday, it will be mild with the sun breaking through high clouds. The highest daytime temperature will be 21C. (SHMU)

Thank you for subscribing and reading. It means a lot to us.

P.S. If you have suggestions on how our news overview can be improved, you can reach us at editorial@spectator.sk.

Follow The Slovak Spectator on Facebook and Instagram (@slovakspectator).
Lubos Balazovic Jr., a young filmmaker, made a documentary about the Slovak National Uprising.

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The documentary Posledny Povstalec by the young director Lubos Balazovic describes the story of the Trnava garrison during the Slovak National Uprising and the fate of one its members, Stefan Minarovic, who took part in the uprising as an 18-year-old.

https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/1650827514&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true

Lubos Balazovic Jr. is a young filmmaker from Nove Mesto nad Vahom who discovered his love of film while studying at the Faculty of Mass Media Communication in Trnava, where he completed his master's degree in 2023. As he himself mentions, the contacts that this faculty provided him with, as well as the support of his mentor Andrej Brnik, the current vice-dean at the University of St. Cyril and Methodius, were a huge help.

The film premiered two years ago, on August 27, 2021, in the new cinema of the Western Slovak Museum in Trnava, following a memorial service held at the citys SNP monument. Subsequently, the documentary was also broadcast by regional television in Slovakia and on national television in the Czech Republic.
https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/biden-caught-using-new-cheat-sheet-featuring-photos-of-friendly-reporters-to-call-on-1114538496.html

Biden Caught Using New Cheat Sheet Featuring Photos of Friendly Reporters to Call On

Biden Caught Using New Cheat Sheet Featuring Photos of Friendly Reporters to Call On

The presidents habit of relying on custom-tailored notecard-based cheat sheets that help him put a face to a name or even perform a basic political engagement has ramped up concerns over his mental state, with polls showing that a growing number of Americans are becoming concerned over his ability to serve.

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americas

joe biden

americans

donald trump

us

australia

usa today

pbs

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white house

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The days of White House reporters engaging in actual journalism by asking the president tough, unexpected questions appear to be a thing of the past, with Joe Biden spotted with a cheat sheet featuring the names and photos of reporters to call upon.The naughty notecard, spotted by eagle-eyed internet users who watched Bidens Wednesday press conference at the White House alongside Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, appears to show four names and photos Biden was meant to tap for questions.Biden dutifully followed through, with all four names in the list, including White House correspondent Joey Garrison, PBSs Laura Barron-Lopez, The Australian reporter Jeff Chambers and Australian Channel 10 politics editor Ashleigh Raper getting called upon to ask their questions, with the rest resigned to the role of glorified stenographers.Garrison asked Biden about whether Americans should be worried about the escalating conflict in the Middle East, including the danger of direct clashes with Iran. Exchanging some convivial back and forth banter, the president responded about the US having troops in the region since 9/11 to go after ISIS and prevent its reasser  reemergence  in both  anyway, in the region  having nothing to do with Israel at all. (Note: ISIS/Daesh actually formed in 2013, ten years after the US invasion of Iraq, and twelve years after the US declared its Global War on Terror).Chambers asked Biden about tensions between the US and China in the South China Sea, alleged human rights abuses and intellectual property theft. Biden responded that hes taking a Trust but verify approach to Beijing, and repeated his oft-used line about having met with Xi Jinping more than any other world leader. Handed a softball question about whether the US would be the more reliable partner to other nations than China, Biden at first appeared not to understand the question, and then responded by saying he hopes that yes, the US would be a reliable partner when we act.Finally, taking praise from Raper for AUKUS, who characterized the security pact in many ways [as Bidens] creation, and asked whether the president could provide a personal guarantee of getting the necessary legislation through Congress to future-proof the alliance before the 2024 elections, Biden responded that he couldnt offer such a guarantee, but that he would try, and repeating another talking point about how the alliance definitely isnt an anti-China pact.The cheat sheet is far from the first time that Biden has been caught using such notecards  whether to help orient him on which journalists to call on during press conferences, or even offer basic information like the names of members of his cabinet, and occasionally something as small as entering a room and remembering to say hello to participants of an event.Biden isnt the first president to use cheat sheets, with former President Donald Trump caught several times with notes he appeared to have written himself using a large felt tip pen. But the extent of Bidens use of the notecards, combined with some of their content, have served to fuel rumors of his mental decline, with Trump warning repeatedly in recent months that Sleepy Joes cognitive impairment threatens to sleepwalk the United States into World War III.A poll in June indicated that some 68 percent of American voters have doubts about Biden's mental and physical health.* A terrorist group outlawed in Russia and many country.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20210617/flashcard-frenzy-1083171401.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/china-pledges-to-continue-defending-its-sovereignty-following-incident-with-us-aircraft-1114525882.html

China Pledges to Continue Defending Its Sovereignty Following Incident With US Aircraft

China Pledges to Continue Defending Its Sovereignty Following Incident With US Aircraft

While US aircraft are the main cause of air and maritime security risks over the South China Sea, Beijing will continue defending its sovereignty and advance security, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning said on Friday, commenting on the recent dangerously close encounter between a Chinese fighter aircraft and a US strategic bomber.

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south china sea

beijing

chinese foreign ministry

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us

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"US military aircraft which cover long distances to demonstrate power on China's doorstep are the main sources of maritime and air security risks and do not contribute to regional peace and stability," the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said during a regular briefing. Mao added that China will continue taking determined measures in order to protect its state sovereignty, security and territorial integrity.Earlier in the day, the US Pacific Command announced that a Chinese J-11 fighter pilot had executed an unsafe night intercept of a US Air Force B-52 aircraft, which was conducting routine operations while flying over the South China Sea in international airspace. The US military accused the Chinese pilot of putting both aircraft in danger of collision, voicing concern that he was unaware of how close he came to causing an incident.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20221031/china-warns-possible-b-52-deployment-in-australia-may-trigger-regional-arms-race-1102876373.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/china-urges-respect-for-one-china-principle-as-canada-eyes-investment-deal-with-taiwan-1114533576.html

China Urges Respect for One-China Principle as Canada Eyes Investment Deal With Taiwan

China Urges Respect for One-China Principle as Canada Eyes Investment Deal With Taiwan

China calls on Canada to respect the One-China principle and refrain from any official interaction with Taiwan, including by signing an investment deal, the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa told Sputnik.

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china

taiwan

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chinese embassy

one china policy

investment

foreign funding

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On Tuesday, Canada and Taiwan completed negotiations on a foreign investment promotion and protection arrangement. Global Affairs Canada stated it is looking forward to signing the deal "promptly." China urges the Canadian government to abide by the One-China principle, and "prudently and properly handle relevant issues," the embassy added.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230801/us-uses-taiwan-as-eternal-pawn-in-foreign-policy-games-against-china-1112317009.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/donbass-front-going-to-shatter-like-glass-once-avdeevka-liberated---russell-bentley-1114531130.html

Donbass Front Going to Shatter Like Glass Once Avdeevka Liberated - Russell Bentley

Donbass Front Going to Shatter Like Glass Once Avdeevka Liberated - Russell Bentley

Russian forces began a sustained push to surround and wear down Ukrainian forces in the town of Avdeevka this month. US-born Donbass militia volunteer-turned Sputnik correspondent Russell Bentley outlines why the Russian Army has attached such significance to the settlement, which is situated in the heart of the Donetsk Peoples Republic.

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russia's special operation in ukraine

avdeevka

donbass

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Russian forces are continuing their slow, grinding advance into Avdeevka, with the town and its environs witnessing arguably heaviest fighting along the entire 1,000 kilometer-long front in recent weeks after the collapse of Ukraines summer counteroffensive. Dozens of tanks and other armored vehicles have been reported destroyed, with hundreds of troops killed and thousands wounded.During the offensive, Russian forces have reportedly managed to capture a local strategic height - a coke slack formed by the nearby Avdeevka Coke Plant.Commenting on Russian operations in the Avdeevka direction, Russell Bentley said that the capture of the strategic height has given Russian forces a key strategic position.Right now, the pincers are closing. What is not occupied around Avdeevka by Russian forces is under observation, which allows us to bring in drones, artillery, rocket fire, whatever we need in order to block off reinforcements and re-provisioning of the Ukrainian forces still holed up in Avdeevka, the correspondent noted.Bentley, who served near and in Avdeevka after coming to the Donbass, first in 2014 when he volunteered to fight alongside local militias, and then again in 2016 and 2017, recalled that during the days of the Minsk Agreements ceasefire, the town served as a front line position. We got shot at pretty frequently, pretty hard and we werent allowed to shoot back without permission from our commanders. So, a lot of times we just got shot at and werent able to shoot back.At the same time, he said, over the years, Ukrainian forces worked to build a massive network of defensive fortifications in and under the town, including a whole underground city underneath the regular city consisting of tunnels.Frontline Moving Away From City of DonetskAnother big development is that as the Russian forces have moved forward on the northern side of the pincer, the Ukrainian artillery thats been bombing Donetsk and Makeevka for almost ten years, ever since the beginning of the war, has had to move back further and further, Bentley noted.That, he said, means that were getting to the point where literally, what weve all been praying for here in Donetsk all these years, the [Ukrainians] are getting ready to be moved out from artillery range. Theyre not going to be able to hit the cities, the civilian parts of Donetsk and Makeevka anymore. And thats a beautiful thing, a beautiful thing, but its not there yet. But were getting there. Were making moves.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231025/russell-bentley-ukraines-manpower-problem-1114478895.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231010/why-i-am-not-an-independent-journalist-1114065354.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/druze-member-of-knesset-to-sputnik-we-will-fight-like-any-israeli-1114526379.html

Druze Member of Knesset to Sputnik: We Will Fight Like Any Israeli

Druze Member of Knesset to Sputnik: We Will Fight Like Any Israeli

The Druze community, as well as Jewish and Arab, is a part of Israeli society that has been living in the northern areas of modern Israel for centuries. During the current conflict, the Druze have presented themselves as Israelis loyal to their duty and protecting their state, Israeli Druze politician and Knesset Member Akram Hasson told Sputnik.

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world

middle east

akram hasson

israel

druze

knesset

palestine

palestine-israel conflict

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Who are the Druze?The Druze is an Arabic-speaking ethnic and religious minority group living in Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria. In Israel, according to statistics, the Druze population was approximately 150,000 at the end of 2022 (about 1.6% of the population). Israeli Druze live mostly in the northern part of the country: across Mount Carmel, Galilee, and the Golan Heights.They follow their own unique monotheistic faith, which incorporates many beliefs from Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, and even Greek philosophy and Hinduism. The Druze religion is closed to outsiders and remains mostly unexplored by the public.Since 1948, when the State of Israel was created, the Druze community on its territory started to strongly identify itself with Israel. The Druze serve in both the military and civil service, with many Druze generals, ambassadors, members of the Knesset, and government ministers.Druze Share Their Fate With IsraelDuring the recent escalation between Israel and Hamas, the Druze stand with Israel, as other Israeli citizen, noted Israeli Druze politician and Member of the Knesset Akram Hasson.The politician also pointed out that Druze community has already suffered losses during the current hostilities.Moreover, the northern part of Israel is regularly shelled by Hezbollah from Lebanon, including Druze villages. Last week, the IDF evacuated more than 20,000 civilians from the border with Lebanon.*Daesh (also known as ISIS/ISIL/IS/Islamic State) is a terrorist organization banned in Russia and many other countries.

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/eus-borrell-says-kosovo-serbia-not-ready-to-agree-on-normalization-steps-1114514439.html

EU's Borrell Says Kosovo, Serbia Not Ready to Agree on Normalization Steps

EU's Borrell Says Kosovo, Serbia Not Ready to Agree on Normalization Steps

Kosovo and Serbia were not ready to agree on the establishment of the association of municipalities of Serbian majority in the north of Kosovo as a path to normalization, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said.

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world

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kosovo

serbia

josep borrell

aleksandar vucic

albin kurti

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On Thursday, Borrell held separate meetings with Vucic and Kurti on the sidelines of the EU summit in Brussels to discuss the normalization of relations between the two parties, including the creation of the Community of Serb Municipalities in Kosovo. "At the end, we require the parties to sincerely engage in the normalization process. That can only be done in the framework of the Dialogue, because it is the only way for them to advance on their European path."The dialogue had previously reached a dead end amid yet another escalation in the region. On June 22, Vucic and Kurti refused to meet in person as part of another round of talks. In early September, the Serbian leader said that after Kurti came to power in Kosovo in March 2021, 401 attacks against Kosovar Serbs and their property had been reported. Vucic also repeatedly said that he would attend the next round of talks only because it was "the obligation of Belgrade, which advocates a peaceful settlement." In late May, clashes erupted after Kosovo forcibly installed new ethnic Albanian mayors in offices in several northern cities following municipal elections in April. The polls were boycotted by the Serb community but declared valid despite a less than 3.5% voter turnout. More than 50 Serbian protesters and at least 30 NATO peacekeeping troops were injured in the clashes.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231011/serbian-president-says-expects-natos-kfor-mission-to-have-impartial-stance-on-kosovo-1114108725.html

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serbian president aleksandar vucic, kosovar prime minister albin kurti, eu foreign policy chief josep borrell, normalization talks, kosovo and serbia ties, community of serb municipalities in kosovo
https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/eus-michel-says-eu-commission-needs-to-make-operational-proposal-on-russias-assets-1114532793.html

EU's Michel Says EU Commission Needs to Make 'Operational Proposal' on Russia's Assets

EU's Michel Says EU Commission Needs to Make 'Operational Proposal' on Russia's Assets

The European Commission needs to come forward with an "operational proposal" regarding Russia's frozen assets, European Council President Charles Michel stated on Friday.

2023-10-27T16:21+0000

2023-10-27T16:21+0000

2023-10-27T16:21+0000

confiscation

russia

ukraine

charles michel

european council

european union (eu)

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frozen assets

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"We also addressed the question of frozen assets. There was extremely good debate on that, and there was a broad desire for us to make decisive steps on the subject. We presented to the High Representative and the Commission the need to come forward with operational proposals, so that we have the capabilities, so we can mobilize some of those assets," Michel said at a press conference after the second day of the European Council in Brussels. After the start of Russia's military operation in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the Western countries have imposed comprehensive sanctions against Russia, including the freezing of nearly half of the country's foreign currency reserves, worth close to $300 billion. The EU has been discussing a legal framework that would allow for the confiscation of assets of Russian citizens and entities accused of violating EU sanctions. Russia argues that any attempt by the EU to confiscate frozen assets would violate international law. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Sputnik that Russia would do everything necessary to reclaim its assets.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230911/sanctions-or-robbery-eu-okays-confiscation-of-cars-and-phones-from-russian-travelers-1113284323.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/fact-or-fiction-idf-animation-shows-alleged-hamas-hq-underneath-gaza-hospital-1114533057.html

Fact or Fiction? IDF Animation Shows Alleged Hamas HQ Underneath Gaza Hospital

Fact or Fiction? IDF Animation Shows Alleged Hamas HQ Underneath Gaza Hospital

Israel has so far held off on launching a ground invasion of Gaza amid fears of largescale losses, sticking to a campaign of air and artillery strikes into the besieged 365 square km strip of land. Major powers including Russia, China and Iran have called for an urgent ceasefire. The US rejected the idea, citing Israels right to self-defense.

2023-10-27T16:52+0000

2023-10-27T16:52+0000

2023-10-27T18:28+0000

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The Israeli military has released 3D-rendered footage showing the alleged extent of a Hamas headquarters it says is burrowed deep underneath the Al-Shifa Hospital  the largest medical complex in the Gaza Strip.The video, published by COGAT, a unit of the Ministry of Defense tasked with coordinating civilian issues between the government, military, international organizations, and the Palestinian Authority, shows a vision of an alleged massive underground complex underneath the hospital, including a vast network of tunnels, conference rooms, arms and fuel caches, and even a makeshift weapons factory.Judging by the rendered footage, tunnels borrow up to dozens of meters underneath the grey and white hospital building.Alongside the rendered video, COGAT also published a map of the Shifa Hospital complex alongside what it says are underground Hamas facilities, including a command and control center.Al-Shifa and other Gaza hospitals have become overwhelmed, overcrowded, and dangerous amid Israels campaign of air and artillery strikes on the territory following Hamas' October 7 surprise attack on southern Israel. The IDF was forced to go into damage control last week after an attack on the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City on October 17 that killed over 470 people, denying responsibility and claiming that a rocket fired from inside Gaza was to blame. Gazan officials have dismissed these allegations, and accused Tel Aviv of shirking its responsibility for possible war crimes.While COGATs claims about Al-Shifas use as a Hamas HQ have not been independently validated, Gaza is known to be home to a vast network of Hamas tunnels, which many observers have said would be a nightmare for the IDF to have to fight through in the event of a ground invasion.Earlier this week, a well-informed US official told veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh that Israel was considering flooding Hamas underground tunnel network before launching a ground offensive. Some ex-Israeli officials dismissed the idea, while others have suggested it would be a good lesson for the Palestinian militant group.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231026/gazan-doctor-to-sputnik-we-work-under-shelling-without-any-sleep-1114499326.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231025/former-idf-commander-turning-gaza-into-lake-with-sea-channel-might-be-lesson-for-hamas-1114483742.html

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israel, palestine, crisis, conflict, fighting, tunnels, hospital, gaza, hamas, militants, fighters, idf, israel defense forces
Lebanese army receives 2-mln-euro aid supply from Germany

Xinhua) 09:47, October 27, 2023

BEIRUT, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- Germany on Thursday signed an agreement with Lebanon, pledging to provide the Lebanese army with fuel and medical products valued at 2 million euros (2.1 million U.S. dollars).

It comes amid the escalating tension between Lebanon and Israel along the border.

The agreement was signed between Lebanese army commander Joseph Aoun and German Ambassador to Lebanon Kurt Georg Stoeckl-Stillfried, according to a statement by the Lebanese army.

It added that the two officials also discussed boosting cooperation between the two countries' armies.

The Lebanese army has been heavily impacted by a lingering economic and financial crisis that hit the country since 2019. The crisis has caused a collapse of the Lebanese pound and a devaluation of wages for employees in the public sector, including servicemen.

(Web editor: Tian Yi, Liang Jun)
https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/first-battalion-of-former-ukrainian-fighters-joins-the-russian-armed-forces-1114520902.html

First Battalion of Former Ukrainian Fighters Joins the Russian Armed Forces

First Battalion of Former Ukrainian Fighters Joins the Russian Armed Forces

A volunteer battalion named after Bogdan Khmelnitsky, formed from former Ukrainian servicemen, has joined the Russian operational and combat tactical formation "Cascade", after taking the oath the fighters will go to the front line, the battalion commander Andrei Tishchenko told Sputnik.

2023-10-27T07:30+0000

2023-10-27T07:30+0000

2023-10-27T09:19+0000

russia's special operation in ukraine

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ukraine

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"At the moment we have enlisted in the military unit of the Cascade, and right here we will carry out our further service. We will also take the oath in office. We will take the oath at the end of our training," Tishchenko said. A former tank commander and senior sergeant in the Ukrainian military, told Sputnik about the creation of the battalion in late February. At that time, about 70 people joined the battalion, 95 percent of whom were former Ukrainian military personnel with combat experience. According to him, after the oath, the battalion will go to the front.He also said that the volunteer battalion is formed from captured prisoners in various colonies. According to him, the volunteers will sign contracts with the Russian Armed Forces on general terms.The members of the battalion themselves told Sputnik that they joined the battalion voluntarily, having received Russian citizenship.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231026/kiev-loses-up-to-295-soldiers-in-donetsk-direction-in-past-day---russian-defense-ministry-1114496914.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/former-chinese-premier-li-keqiang-dead-at-68-from-heart-attack---state-media-1114515115.html

Former Chinese Premier Li Keqiang Dead at 68 From Heart Attack - State Media

Former Chinese Premier Li Keqiang Dead at 68 From Heart Attack - State Media

Former Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has died from a heart attack at the age of 68, state media reported on Friday.

2023-10-27T02:19+0000

2023-10-27T02:19+0000

2023-10-27T02:19+0000

asia

china

li keqiang

shanghai

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Li, who served as China's premier from March 2013 to March 2023, had a heart attack on Thursday and died at 12:10 a.m. (16:10 GMT) the next day in Shanghai despite "all-out efforts to rescue him failed," media said.The former official was considered China's top economic official for a decade and known for being an advocate for private businesses. China's number two leader for years, Li was also seen as a reformist who looked to open China to global markets as well as removing restrictions on the flow of people and supplies.Li was tipped to become the next leader of China in early 2007; however, the top-spot ultimately was clinched by Chinese President Xi Jinping. Under Xi's leadership, Li became a force for establishing the parameters in which to measured China's development.Born in July 1955 in the Anhui province, Li studied both law and economics at China's Peking University before later receiving a Doctor of Economics. Entering China's political sphere, Li quickly worked his way up the party ladder.In fact, Li took up various positions throughout his career, which included acting as the governor of the Henan province, chairman of the Standing Committee of the Liaoning Provincial People's Congress and vice premier from 2008 to 2013.Li is survived by his wife Cheng Hong and daughter.

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/full-scale-work-on-russian-orbital-station-must-start-in-2024---russias-roscosmos-ceo-1114527685.html

Full-Scale Work on Russian Orbital Station Must Start in 2024 - Russia's Roscosmos CEO

Full-Scale Work on Russian Orbital Station Must Start in 2024 - Russia's Roscosmos CEO

Fullscale work on the creation of the Russian Orbital Station must begin in 2024, otherwise Russia will have a break in spaceflights, Russian state space corporation Roscosmos head Yury Borisov said on Friday.

2023-10-27T12:39+0000

2023-10-27T12:39+0000

2023-10-27T13:47+0000

beyond politics

science & tech

yury borisov

russia

roscosmos

international space station (iss)

space station

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"It was important for us to address the issue regarding the launch of the work to create the Russian Orbital Station, and it very important that the full-scale work starts next year, otherwise, if we protract, we will not be able to design the future station, and there will be a break," Borisov said. According to the plan, the first module of the station will be designed by 2027, and in five years, the construction will be completed. Russia is planning on leaving the International Space Station by 2028. The design work is estimated to cost 609 billion rubles ($6.5 billion), with around 150 billion rubles planned to be spent in the first three years.Meanwhile, the ISS is nearing the end of its operational life, with 80% of Russia-made equipment being way beyond its warranty period, Borisov said.Borisov also cited Russia's chief engineering designer of manned complexes and systems, Vladimir Solovyov, as saying that more time was already being spent on repairing the station than on conducting experiments there.The International Space Station, whose construction began in 1998, was initially intended to be operated for only 15 years. The term was later extended until 2020, and then until 2024. NASA has said that it expects to extend the station's operation until 2030.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/instructions-given-to-ok-project-on-creation-of-russian-orbital-station---roscosmos-ceo-1114516721.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/having-shifted-focus-to-israel-us-expects-more-russian-tactical-gains-in-ukraine---cia-vet-1114532911.html

Having Shifted Focus to Israel, US Expects More Russian Tactical Gains in Ukraine - CIA Vet

Having Shifted Focus to Israel, US Expects More Russian Tactical Gains in Ukraine - CIA Vet

There is a shift in the US administration's thinking with regard to the Ukraine conflict amid the unfolding Gaza war, CIA veteran Philip Giraldi told Sputnik.

2023-10-27T17:37+0000

2023-10-27T17:37+0000

2023-10-27T17:37+0000

world

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philip giraldi

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ukraine

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The Biden administration has acknowledged it expects Russia to achieve "tactical gains" in the coming months in Ukraine.US National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby told the press on October 26 that "Russia has launched a renewed offensive in eastern Ukraine across multiple lines, including around Avdeyevka, Liman, and Kupyansk," adding that Washington "ha[s] been watching this build and come.""We expect more Russian attacks to come," Kirby continued. "This is a dynamic conflict, and we need to remember that Russia still maintains some offensive capability and may be able to achieve some tactical gains in the coming months."Kirby's wording suggests that Team Biden is reconsidering its priorities as the Israel-Hamas conflict keeps escalating in the Middle East, according to Philip Giraldi, former military intelligence and CIA operations officer with experience in Europe and the Middle East, now executive director of the Council for the National Interest.The CIA veteran noted that one should not be deluded by Kirby's notion with regard to a new military package for Ukraine, announced on October 26, since the Middle East theater is more important for Washington now.Reports of US bases being subjected to drone attacks and shelling in Syria and Iraq have been emerging over the past several days. Earlier this week, a US Central Command (CENTCOM) spokesperson told Sputnikin a statement that around 24 US troops have been injured at the al-Tanf Garrison, Syria, and Al-Asad Airbase in Iraq since the start of the Palestine-Israel conflict.In addition, Shia armed groups of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq reportedly attacked a US military base adjacent to the airport in Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan with two drones on October 26. On Friday morning, six missiles were reportedly launched against a US military base at the Al-Omar oil field northeast of Deir ez-Zor.Furthermore, Washington is also being forced to shift its focus to Israel by the influential Jewish lobby, according to Giraldi."Israel is, politically speaking, much more important and significant in the minds of those in Washington who rely on Jewish campaign donations and media support. And yes it all equates to a shift in thinking about the net gains from endless support for the Ukrainians, where many senior officers and intelligence assessments are now pessimistic and are beginning to express themselves in that way on the issue," the former CIA field officer concluded.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/russian-special-forces-use-hunting-beast-tactics-against-ukrainians-near-artemovsk-1114523026.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/us-bases-atop-syrias-largest-oil-and-gas-fields-reportedly-come-under-attack-1114525566.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/house-gop-to-consider-ukraine--israel-aid-individually-demand-greater-accountability---speaker-1114519998.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/house-democrat-dean-phillips-announces-run-for-us-president-in-2024-1114535635.html

House Democrat Dean Phillips Announces Run for US President in 2024

House Democrat Dean Phillips Announces Run for US President in 2024

House Democrat from Minnesota Dean Phillips announced on Friday his bid to become the next US President and plans to visit New Hampshire to kick off his campaign and meet with voters.

2023-10-27T17:48+0000

2023-10-27T17:48+0000

2023-10-27T17:48+0000

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"I'm Dean Phillips and I'm running for President of the United States of America and I'm coming to New Hampshire to answer your questions," Phillips said in a short video ad. In the video, the presidential hopeful pledged to repair the US economy and the United States itself if elected president. In an X post (formerly known as Twitter), Phillips outlined the four main priorities of his campaign, namely the economy, public safety, investing in young people, and dialogue with Republicans, without which he believes it is impossible to achieve any meaningful national goals. Phillips stated that he will run for president because he is concerned that the course that the Democrats have chosen is putting the country at risk of former President Donald Trump returning to the White House. He still, however, paid tribute to sitting President Joe Biden for his performance. To this day, besides Phillips, only three Democrats have announced their plans to join the race for the Oval Office  Biden, Marianne Williamson, and Cenk Uygur, while as many as 10 Republicans, including Trump, are vying for their party's nomination in the upcoming election.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231010/trump-leads-biden-in-2024-us-presidential-race-with-backing-of-independents---poll-1114073256.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/house-gop-to-consider-ukraine--israel-aid-individually-demand-greater-accountability---speaker-1114519998.html

House GOP to Consider Ukraine & Israel Aid Individually, Demand Greater Accountability - Speaker

House GOP to Consider Ukraine & Israel Aid Individually, Demand Greater Accountability - Speaker

Any fresh military aid packages for Ukraine and Israel need to be considered separately, the newly-elected Speaker of the House of Representatives has insisted.

2023-10-27T06:19+0000

2023-10-27T06:19+0000

2023-10-27T06:19+0000

world

mike johnson

joe biden

israel

ukraine

republicans

us congress

house speaker

government shutdown

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Any fresh military aid packages for Ukraine and Israel need to be considered separately, the newly-elected Speaker of the House of Representatives has insisted.The 56th Speaker of the lower chamber of the US Congress added that he had indicated as much when he conferred with White House officials after meeting with US President Joe Biden.Amid growing Republican skepticism over continuously funneling vast amounts of aid to the Kiev regime instead of resolving outstanding domestic issues plaguing America, Mike Johnson has also indicated there needs to be greater accountability regarding money spent on Ukraine.Regarding support for Israel amid the current conflagration in the Mideast, Mike Johnson underscored in the media interview that House Republicans would go further than Biden and propose an aid package worth $14.5 million for Israel.Indeed, against the backdrop of Ukraine fatigue taking hold of an increasingly growing number of GOP lawmakers, many Republicans have indicated that the White House needed to focus on implementing border policy changes and toughening migration legislation. This comes as the US government is facing a looming funding deadline in around three weeks. Earlier, a shutdown was dodged when Congress narrowly passed a last-minute stopgap deal to extend funding for another 45 days, but the turmoil over spending issues continues to grip Capitol Hill. Johnson has already acknowledged that yet another stopgap spending measure will likely need to be passed to continue government funding past the mid-November deadline into either mid-January or mid-April.While the very first legislative action that Johnson brought to the House on Wednesday was a resolution pledging support for Israel and condemning Hamas - that passed with a 412-10 vote - new funding for the Kiev regime was never mentioned by the new Speaker among the priorities for the House in his is post-election speech on October 25.According to one of the Republicans opposing further bankrolling of the NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Mike Johnson is against a funding bill linking aid to Kiev and Tel Aviv because more than half the conference opposes it. "I support Israel. Havent we done enough for Ukraine? Gaetz was cited as telling a US media report.Earlier, there were reports that a group of Republican senators had presented a bill separating the US assistance to Israel from that to Ukraine. The draft would send "billions of dollars" to Israel but not Ukraine, and separating the Israeli aid would prevent the assistance from getting stuck in the House of Representatives, where the number of Republicans who are against funding Ukraine is increasing, as per the report.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231025/who-is-newly-elected-us-house-speaker-mike-johnson-1114484414.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231026/gop-senators-present-draft-splitting-us-aid-to-israel-from-funds-to-ukraine---reports-1114493716.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/iranian-foreign-minister-israels-security-political-systems-totally-collapsed-1114539403.html

Iranian Foreign Minister: Israel's Security, Political Systems 'Totally Collapsed'

Iranian Foreign Minister: Israel's Security, Political Systems 'Totally Collapsed'

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said on Friday that Israel's security and political systems had been "totally collapsed" and that the only thing still functioning in the country was its "war machine."

2023-10-27T20:03+0000

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"According to information we have inside the region, both the security and political systems of Israel have totally collapsed," Amir Abdollahian told US media. Israeli citizens have no trust in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu anymore, and the only functional aspect in Israel at the moment is its "war machine," the minister said, adding that it had been allegedly controlled by the United States. Meanwhile, the heads of Middle Eastern countries and groups supporting Palestine have much more serious plans than what was previously observed, Amir Abdollahian said. The top Iranian diplomat told American media he had met with a number of regional leaders as well as with "the leaders of the resistance in Lebanon and also the Palestinian groups." Therefore, if the situation with persecuting and killing civilians in Gaza and the West Bank continues, "anything will be possible," he added.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/us-neocons-slow-walking-america-into-war-amid-palestine-israel-conflict---analyst-1114526730.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/israel-and-us-should-be-wary-of-threatening-iran-and-russia-over-gaza-conflict-1114524882.html

Israel and US Should be Wary of Threatening Iran and Russia Over Gaza Conflict

Israel and US Should be Wary of Threatening Iran and Russia Over Gaza Conflict

The sharp escalation in the Israel-Palestine conflict on October 7 threatens to spark a regional war. Mark Sleboda and Laith Marouf said Israel and the US should be wary of provoking their enemies.

2023-10-27T16:35+0000

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pentagon

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iron dome

israel

us department of defense (dod)

islamic revolutionary guard corps (irgc)

syria

mark sleboda

middle east

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Israel and the US are playing with fire by escalating their conflict with Hamas to a regional conflict, say two pundits. Israel has still not begun its vowed groun operation of the besieged Gaza Strip three weeks after the Palestinian Hamas movement launched a guerrilla incursion and rocket attacks on Southern Israel on October 7, despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu receiving public backing from US President Joe Biden.On Thursday, the US Department of Defense announced that 900 US military personnel would be sent to the Middle East to crew extra batteries of THAAD anti-ballistic missiles, Patriot surface-to-air missiles and Iron Dome systems for countering rocket artillery fire.That comes on top of two US Navy aircraft carrier strike groups sent to the eastern Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf region, a US Marine amphibious assault force with 2,000 troops and extra squadrons of US Air Force jet fighters to Washington's air bases in the region  as a "deterrent" against Lebanon's Hezbollah, Syria or Iran intervene on the Palestinian side. The Pentagon later announced that it had launched air raids against two facilities in Syria, which it claimed were used by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). That was in retaliation for rocket and drone attacks on illegally-occupied US bases in north-east Syria by Iraqi militias trained by Iran to fight Daesh*, which injured 19 US troops.Security analyst Mark Sleboda told Sputnik that the huge military build-up indicates the US is expecting a major escalation in the conflict  aimed at its forces as well as Israel's.Syria's involvement would be particularly dangerous, he warned, as both Russia and the US have forces in the country  which has an ongoing territorial dispute with Israel over the Golan Heights. "That's the dangerous part, of course, because Russia, of course, does not want to become involved in this," Sleboda stressed. "Syria probably doesn't want to become involved in this at all, but Israel has already bombed Damascus airport multiple times. Israel is just allowed to bomb its neighbors  no one even bats an eye."Russia's military assets in Syria included state-of-the-art S-300 and S-400 air defence systems, easily within rage of Israeli airspace, which Sleboda said they had refrained from using for many years despite repeated Israeli attacks."What Russia's concerned about, is US attacks on its military bases and assets in Syria," he continued. "If the US attacks Iran, who knows? I don't think Russia would militarily leap to Iran's defense, not in a direct way... But certainly Russia could provide military assets, intelligence, military aid, all these sorts of things short of directly participating in such a conflict."Russian President Vladimir Putin's announcement that MiG-31 jets armed with Kinzhal hypersonic missiles would begin patrolling over international waters of the Black Sea  easily within range of the east Mediterranean  was seen as threat to US warships there. The security expert said US forces in the region were just as much a target as a threat to other nations.Lebanon-based broadcaster Laith Marouf told Sputnik that both Israel and its main Western backer the US fear a military defeat if the IDF invades Gaza.He pointed to reports that Israel was even considering using internationally-banned nerve gas agents to kill Hamas militants in their network of subterranean tunnels under Gaza  after using disproven claims of chemical weapons stockpiles as a pretext to attack Iraq, Libya and Syria."Now the West wants to use biological weapons and we're all supposed to watch and be approving of that, " Marouf said. "This indicates how desperate they are. They have already been defeated militarily, the Israelis and behind them the American might."The journalist also focussed on the guerrilla attacks on US bases across the Middle East as an example of asymmetrical warfare against Israel's staunchest ally.While Iran has previously said it would not enter the conflict unless it was attacked first, the US strikes on alleged IRGC targets could be the provocation that leads to a regional war. Iran has ballistic and cruise missiles with the range to hit targets in Israel or any US military base in the Middle East."It is clear right now that the United States is the one that is directing this war. It is clear right now that the Israeli military is already defeated and is being controlled and commanded by American forces," Marouf argued. "It's also clear that in case of war for the liberation of Palestine, that the Israeli Air Force airfields will be out of commission. And therefore, the biggest threat to the resistance forces, the liberation forces in Western Asia, will be the American bases and the American Air Force stationed in those bases."For more in-depth analysis of current affairs, tune in to our Sputnik Radio shows.* Islamic State or Daesh is a terrorist organisation banned by UN Security Council resolutions.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/israeli-leadership-yet-to-decide-on-possible-ground-operation-in-gaza-strip---reports-1114517913.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231025/israel-and-us-fear-new-humiliation-in-ground-invasion-of-gaza-1114468621.html

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hamas attacks on southern israel, israeli bombing of the gaza strip, us military build-up in the middle east
https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/israel-expands-ground-maneuvers-in-gaza-strip---idf-representative-1114535278.html

Israel Expanding Ground Maneuvers in Gaza Strip - IDF Representative

Israel Expanding Ground Maneuvers in Gaza Strip - IDF Representative

The ramping up of Israeli ground-based operations inside the strip comes almost three weeks after Hamas' surprise October 7 offensive into southern Israel. The... 27.10.2023, Sputnik International

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Israel's long-feared ground invasion of Gaza appeared to come one step closer to reality on Friday, with an IDF spokesman saying the military was "expanding" its ground operations in the strip, and repeating a warning to civilians in Gaza City to evacuate southward.The remarks followed media reports, photos, and videos of large-scale airstrikes taking place across the Gaza Strip, and reports of tank fire."Earlier, we've exposed to the world the Shifa Hospital," Hagari continued, referring to an Israeli military-affiliated X account's 3D-rendered video published earlier in the day Friday alleging that Hamas' main headquarters is situated under Gaza City's largest hospital complex. The IDF has yet to provide evidence to back up its allegations.Warning that anyone ready to test Israel would "pay with their lives," Hagari said IDF forces remain on "high alert" on the northern border with Lebanon."The Air Force is striking underground targets very significantly," he added.The spokesman also reassured that Israel remains committed to the goal of returning hostages being held by Hamas inside Gaza. The Palestinian militant group is estimated to have about 220 Israeli nationals in its possession, previously releasing several people on "humanitarian" and "poor health grounds" in talks facilitated by Egypt and Qatar. A Hamas delegation visited Moscow on Thursday to discuss the possibility of additional releases, but linked the idea to a ceasefire in Gaza.Gaza's population of 2.1 million people is facing a severe humanitarian crisis in the wake of the flare-up of fighting between the IDF and Hamas after the Palestinian militant group's surprise assault on areas bordering the strip on October 7, with the besieged territory quickly running out of food, water, medical supplies, and being cut off from electricity and the ability to communicate with the outside world.Israel has ordered approximately half of the strip's residents to leave their homes in the north and head south as IDF artillery and jets pound what the Israeli military says are Hamas positions in Gaza City and other urban areas.The United States rushed to provide Israel with additional military assistance from the first days of the crisis, and has deployed two carrier strike groups, thousands of additional troops, advanced air defenses, and more fighter jets to the region. At the United Nations, the US has vetoed proposals ceasefires and humanitarian pauses. Russia, China, Iran, Brazil, Turkiye, and other powers have demanded an urgent halt to fighting.The escalation that began October 7 is the latest round of violence between the Palestinians and Israelis going back to the creation of the state of Israel in the late 1940s in the wake of the Second World War. Over 1,400 Israelis and 7,400+ Palestinians have been killed in fighting to date, with over 60 people killed in Lebanon and 16 in Syria in a spate of Israeli strikes on those countries amid the conflict. Iran and other powers have warned that if the crisis is not stopped, it may escalate into a regional war.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231021/hamas-says-planned-to-release-2-more-hostages-but-israel-allegedly-declined-offer-1114394080.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/us-neocons-slow-walking-america-into-war-amid-palestine-israel-conflict---analyst-1114526730.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/israeli-leadership-yet-to-decide-on-possible-ground-operation-in-gaza-strip---reports-1114517913.html

Israeli Leadership Yet to Decide on Possible Ground Operation in Gaza Strip - Reports

Israeli Leadership Yet to Decide on Possible Ground Operation in Gaza Strip - Reports

Israel's political and military leaders are divided on when and even whether to conduct a ground military operation in the Gaza Strip, US media reported, citing over a dozen of Israeli officials.

2023-10-27T04:41+0000

2023-10-27T04:41+0000

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world

palestine-israel conflict

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gaza strip

gaza

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Some officials worry that the operation may lead to the Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) involvement in an intractable urban fighting in Gaza, while others fear a broader conflict, with Lebanese Shia movement Hezbollah possibly becoming more active on the Israel-Lebanon border, the report said. The military is ready to move as soon as Friday, though Israeli leaders are yet to decide on how and whether at all the operation should be carried out, the newspaper reported. It added that another debate is about whether the invasion should be one large-scale operation or a series of smaller ones. On Tuesday, the deputy head for public diplomacy at the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Emmanuel Nahshon, said that Israel was taking its time in order not to get into potential "deadly traps" in Gaza. The media reported, citing senior US government officials, that Washington was concerned about Israel's capabilities to wage urban warfare and believes it is not yet ready to launch a ground incursion. Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise large-scale rocket attack against Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7 and breached the border, killing and abducting around 200 people in neighboring Israeli communities. Israel launched retaliatory strikes and ordered a complete blockade of the Gaza Strip, home to more than 2 million people, cutting off supplies of water, food and fuel. The blockade was later eased to allow trucks with humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. The escalation of the conflict has resulted in thousands of people killed and injured on both sides.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231025/israeli-blockade-of-gaza-strip-since-2007-destroys-enclaves-economy---un-agency-1114486821.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/israels-ground-op-may-claim-lives-of-hostages-exacerbate-bloodbath---egyptian-journo-1114527522.html

Israel's Ground Op May Claim Lives of Hostages, Exacerbate Bloodbath - Egyptian Journo

Israel's Ground Op May Claim Lives of Hostages, Exacerbate Bloodbath - Egyptian Journo

The Israel-Hamas war is continuing to take a toll on the Palestinians, as the global community has found itself in a stalemate over the Gaza crisis, Egyptian journalist Mohammed Gomaa told Sputnik, warning that Tel Aviv's ground operation could lead to a broader slaughter.

2023-10-27T14:29+0000

2023-10-27T14:29+0000

2023-10-27T14:29+0000

middle east

world

palestinians

recep tayyip erdogan

israel

gaza

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After the UN Security Council failed to adopt a resolution on the Gaza conflict, the issue has been forwarded to the UN General Assembly. Speakers from the United States, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the EU, the African Union, and the League of Arab States are expected to address the issue at the UNGA on October 27.Meanwhile, Tel Aviv is making preparations for an all-out ground operation in the Gaza Strip: the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), supported by fighter jets and drones, have conducted at least two limited ground raids into Gaza over the past two days.If the international community fails to reach consensus on the Gaza war, the Israeli operation may lead to massive casualties and claim the lives of hostages held by Hamas, Egyptian journalist Mohammed Gomaa noted, adding that skepticism is growing about Tel Aviv's ground op plans.On Thursday, the Gaza-based Ministry of Health released its first report on casualties which included the names of victims, ID numbers, age, and gender of Palestinians. The total toll is estimated at 7,028 Palestinians, including 2,913 minors, per the ministry.The Palestinians are also facing harsh humanitarian problems, since the healthcare system cannot deliver services amid Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip and the continuous bombing campaign, the Egyptian journalist said. To complicate matters further, the southern parts of the Gaza Strip that Israel had declared as safe zones were also subjected to shelling by the IDF last week, exacerbating fears and frustration among Palestinians.Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Tel Aviv of "deliberate brutality" in Gaza earlier this week. "You cannot find another state or army that continues this inhumane action with its tanks, cannons and weapons," Erdogan said, hinting at Israel, on Wednesday, announcing that he had canceled his state visit to Israel over the Gaza war.In addition, on Thursday, the foreign ministers of nine Arab countries, namely Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, and Morocco, issued a joint statement urging the UN Security Council to enforce an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.Even though a number of Arab states have treaties with Israel, including Egypt, Jordan, and participants of the Abraham Accords - brokered by the Trump administration in 2020 - their populations are growing discontent with the humanitarian crisis unfolding in the Gaza Strip, Gomaa said. The journalist expects the Arab League to raise its voice during the UNGA session. Still, he bemoaned the fact that UNGA resolutions are not legally binding, meaning that they may fall short of bringing any tangible results.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/israeli-leadership-yet-to-decide-on-possible-ground-operation-in-gaza-strip---reports-1114517913.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231022/us-blind-support-for-israel-gives-china-powerful-advantage-to-woo-arab-world-1114412932.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/kiev-loses-over-2055-soldiers-in-donetsk-direction-in-past-week-1114526933.html

Ukraine Loses Over 2,055 Soldiers in Donetsk Direction in Past Week

Ukraine Loses Over 2,055 Soldiers in Donetsk Direction in Past Week

Ukraine has lost over 2,055 soldiers in the Donetsk direction in the past week, the Russian Defense Ministry reported on Friday.

2023-10-27T12:02+0000

2023-10-27T12:02+0000

2023-10-27T14:35+0000

russia's special operation in ukraine

ukraine crisis

ukrainian crisis

ukrainian conflict

russian defense ministry

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russia

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"In the Donetsk direction, Russian... troops repelled nine enemy attacks over the past week... in the areas of the settlements of Maryinka, Kurdyumovka, Bogdanovka and Kleshcheyevka of the Donetsk People's Republic. As a result of the fighting, the total losses of the Ukrainian armed forces in this direction amounted to more than 2,055 soldiers, three tanks, 17 armored combat vehicles, 22 vehicles, as well as 16 field artillery guns," the ministry said. Russia repelled 19 attacks by Ukraine in the Zaporozhye direction over the past week, the ministry stated. Ukraine lost over 885 soldiers in the South Donetsk direction and up to 485 soldiers killed and wounded in the Kherson direction, the ministry stressed. The Russian armed forces repelled 47 Ukraine counterattacks in the Kupyansk direction in the past week, the ministry emphasized. Russia repelled 45 attacks by Ukraine in the Krasny Liman direction and Kiev lost over 1,020 soldiers, the ministry said. In addition, the Russian military carried out 19 missile, drone attacks on the storage areas for Ukrainian unmanned boats and airfield infrastructure in past week, the ministry stressed.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231021/dig-yourself-a-pit-ukrainian-forces-languish-as-winter-approaches-1114390000.html

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ICRC Calls Humanitarian Situation in Gaza 'Nothing Short Than Desperate'

The current humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is "nothing short than desperate" after repeated cycles of violence in the area, Director of Operations of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Martin Schuepp told Sputnik.

"The situation in Gaza is nothing short than desperate. And even that is maybe an understatement. It is difficult to find words what our colleagues see on the ground. After repeated cycles of violence, the situation has already been difficult and extremely dire. Yet we cannot compare what we see today with what weve seen in the past. So the level of destruction, despair, displacement is absolutely tremendous. Imagine that hundreds of thousands have to leave their homes to live in the open where they can barely have access to water, food. Most of the hospitals are struggling to continue functioning, so the situation is absolutely desperate," Schuepp said.

On Friday, Fox News reported, citing its correspondent, that a series of loud explosions were heard in the Gaza Strip, and the Palestinian exclave is experiencing the heaviest Israeli attacks since the escalation of the conflict. Following the explosions, the internet stopped working across the region, the Al Arabiya broadcaster reported.
https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/new-orbital-station-to-give-russia-strategic-and-economic-advantages-1114536293.html

New Orbital Station to Give Russia Strategic and Economic Advantages

New Orbital Station to Give Russia Strategic and Economic Advantages

Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed the government to begin the creation of the Russian Orbital Station (ROS). The first segment of the nation's new station is scheduled to be put in orbit by 2027.

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2023-10-27T18:41+0000

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has greenlit the project, with funding being allocated for its development, Director General of Roscosmos Yuri Borisov told the press on Friday. The preliminary design of Russia's new orbital station carried out by the S.P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia has reportedly already undergone a formal examination.On Thursday, Putin held a meeting at Energia's headquarters in Korolev, the cradle of the Soviet and Russian space industry. The Russian president emphasized that Russia's new orbital station must ensure the security and economic interests of the country.Russia is planning to leave the International Space Station (ISS)  whose construction began in 1998  by 2028, which means the ROS' first segment should be put into orbit by at least 2027, according to the president."This represents very great advantages, first of all, for those studies and those tasks that simply concern the surface of the Earth. And these are largely national economic tasks, first and foremost. That is, they are solved from this orbit much, much better. Why? Because in this case, we see the whole Earth. The ISS doesn't see the whole Earth. And probably not everyone knows about this," the researcher continued.Per Eismont, the ROS will allow Russia to monitor the Polar Regions, which have recently taken on a new significance in terms of strategic importance and natural resources. The ROS will provide Moscow with operational information that will allow it to understand how much further Russia can move in expanding its activities in the Antarctic region, explained the researcher. Operations on the shelf of the Arctic Ocean are also on the agenda, he added."Here we have the ability to solve those problems that the ISS cannot solve," Eismont noted. "The circumpolar regions are simply not visible from satellite orbit or from the ISS orbit. But here it is possible."Eismont projected that other countries, which are now expanding activities in the field of polar research, would be interested in collaboration with Russia. "Therefore, there will, of course, be orders, orders for observations, changes, experiments related to these areas of the Earth," he suggested."I have the impression that what was planned is now being moved to earlier dates. That is, of course, it was very nice to hear," he stressed.Still, the key task of the ROS is the continuation of Russia's human spaceflight program, because the ISS will be deorbited soon, as per Ivan Moiseev, the head of the Russian Institute of Space Policy.Russia Needs New Partners in Space ExplorationAt the meeting in Korolev, President Putin instructed space specialists to prepare a national project for the development of the industry.Moiseev, who also participated in Putin's briefing with the space industry leadership, noted that the program will be developed in a six-month timeframe. While Russia has a framework for state policy in the field of space activities until 2030, a lot of changes have happened recently, requiring a set of adjustments.Russia has the ability and necessary expertise to develop and expand its space program autonomously, akin to the USSR, explained the head of the Russian Institute of Space Policy. Still, if the endeavor is developed jointly with other state and non-state participants, it could move quicker and be more efficient, per Moiseev. He named North Korea and Iran as Russia's potential partners, adding that China and India are likely to develop their projects separately.Earlier, in September, Russian President Putin met Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Chairman Kim Jong-un at the Vostochny Cosmodrome  a spaceport in the Amur region of the Russian Far East during Kim's state visit to Russia. The Russian president hinted at the time that Moscow and Pyongyang share interest in cooperating in the space field.Moiseev also emphasized the need to engage private businesses in Russia's space programs. The government could attract private capital by providing tax incentives and reducing regulation, according to Moiseev.Furthermore, Moiseev and Eismont agree that Russia needs to develop its own domestic market for space services.The ongoing geopolitical changes have accelerated the processes of Russia's reindustrialization and sovereign development, according to Sputnik's interlocutors. Vladimir Putin's statements made at the meeting in Korolev suggest that the space industry may soon make a new leap.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/russia-launches-soyuz-21b-space-rocket-with-satellites-for-defense-ministry-1114521352.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230913/how-russia-and-north-korea-could-benefit-from-joint-space-exploration-1113349741.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/full-scale-work-on-russian-orbital-station-must-start-in-2024---russias-roscosmos-ceo-1114527685.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231017/russias-spektr-uv-space-telescope-to-be-fully-equipped-with-domestic-gear-scientist-1114263075.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/obsessed-man-arrested-twice-for-trespassing-kennedy-jrs-home-this-week-1114515994.html

'Obsessed' Man Arrested Twice for Trespassing Kennedy Jr's Home This Week

'Obsessed' Man Arrested Twice for Trespassing Kennedy Jr's Home This Week

A man was arrested two times this week for repeatedly trespassing on US presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s home in Los Angeles, California, his campaign said on Thursday.

2023-10-27T03:09+0000

2023-10-27T03:09+0000

2023-10-27T03:09+0000

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"On Wednesday an intruder was arrested after climbing a fence at the residence of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr," the campaign said in a release. "The candidate was home at the time of both arrests." Kennedy's security team detected and detained the intruder, who asked to see the candidate, but was turned over to the Los Angeles Police Department, the release said. Los Angeles police released the man later on Wednesday, but he immediately returned to Kennedy's home and was arrested again. Kennedy's security team, the release said, notified the US Secret Service about this specific "obsessed" individual several times in recent months and shared "alarming" messages he has sent to the candidate.The latest incident comes more than month after an armed individual was arrested at a Kennedy campaign event after being accused of impersonating a federal officer.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230508/robert-kennedy-accuses-cia-behind-his-uncles-assassination-1110188916.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/qatar-in-very-difficult-talks-over-release-of-hostages-held-in-gaza---foreign-minister-1114516865.html

Qatar in 'Very Difficult' Talks Over Release of Hostages Held in Gaza - Foreign Minister

Qatar in 'Very Difficult' Talks Over Release of Hostages Held in Gaza - Foreign Minister

Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Al-Khulaifi said on Thursday that his country has been engaged in a "very, very difficult negotiation" to free hostages held in the Gaza Strip since October 7.

2023-10-27T04:08+0000

2023-10-27T04:08+0000

2023-10-27T04:08+0000

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On Monday, Israeli media reported that four hostages had been released from the Gaza Strip through the mediation of Qatar and Egypt. "It's a very, very difficult negotiation that we've been dealing with," the top Qatari diplomat told UK media. The negotiations are complicated by the fact that Israel and Palestine have "zero confidence in each other," he specified. Qatar's main goal is to reach out to the parties, Al-Khulaifi said, adding that his country remained committed to the purpose despite various difficulties. Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said at the UN General Assembly meeting that his country was also ready to take part in the efforts to release hostages. He stressed it was the international community's responsibility to free "6,000 Palestinian hostages" as well.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231026/iran-wont-allow-us-israel-to-scapegoat-tehran-over-gaza-crisis--professor-1114504590.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/russia-launches-soyuz-21b-space-rocket-with-satellites-for-defense-ministry-1114521352.html

Russia Launches Soyuz-2.1b Space Rocket With Satellites for Defense Ministry

Russia Launches Soyuz-2.1b Space Rocket With Satellites for Defense Ministry

A Russian Defense Ministry-commissioned launch of a Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket carrying satellites took place from the country's Plesetsk Cosmodrome on Friday.

2023-10-27T07:52+0000

2023-10-27T07:52+0000

2023-10-27T13:54+0000

russia

russia

plesetsk

soyuz-2.1b

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"On October 27, 2023, from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome (Arkhangelsk Region), a combat crew of the aerospace forces launched a medium-class Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket with spacecraft on behalf of the Russian Defense Ministry," the ministry told reporters. On Wednesday, the Kremlin said that Russia conducted drills of its strategic deterrence forces. During the drills, a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile was launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome toward the Kura missile test range in Kamchatka, the Kremlin also said. Additionally, a Sineva submarine-launched ballistic missile was fired from the Barents Sea from the strategic nuclear-powered missile submarine cruiser Tula and Tu-95MS long-range bomber aircraft, which launched air-launched cruise missiles, were also involved in the drills, the Kremlin added.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20180616/russian-military-launch-navy-satellite-1065481287.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/senior-ukrainian-anti-maidan-lawmaker-oleg-tsarev-gravely-injured-1114523407.html

Former Senior Ukrainian Anti-Maidan Lawmaker Oleg Tsarev Gravely Injured

Former Senior Ukrainian Anti-Maidan Lawmaker Oleg Tsarev Gravely Injured

Former Ukrainian parliamentary deputy Oleg Tsaryov, has received a gunshot wound and is in intensive care in a very serious condition, according to the head of the Zaporozhye public movement "We Are Together with Russia," Vladimir Rogov.

2023-10-27T09:50+0000

2023-10-27T09:50+0000

2023-10-27T10:18+0000

world

russia

ukraine

oleg tsarev

daria dugina

sergei rogov

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Former Ukrainian lawmaker Oleg Tsarev has received a gunshot wound and is in intensive care in a very serious condition, according to the head of the Zaporozhye public movement "We Are Together with Russia," Vladimir Rogov. Tsarev was a member of the Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, from 2002 to 2014 as a member of the Party of Regions and deputy head of the party faction in the Rada. He ran for president of Ukraine in the early elections on May 25, 2014, but withdrew his candidacy. In 2014, he supported the Donbass republics and became speaker of the parliament of Novorossiya (the union of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republic). After that, he was repeatedly threatened by the Kiev regime. This is not the first time Kiev uses terrorist methods to achieve its goals.In April 2023, Russian war correspondent Maxim Fomin, known under the name of Vladlen Tatarsky, was killed in the blast of an improvised explosive device that had been brought to a cafe in St. Petersburg. A woman, Daria Trepova, was detained on suspicion of involvement in the explosion. Later, Trepova was charged with planning the terrorist attack. Russia's National Anti-Terrorism Committee said the Ukrainian special services had masterminded the terrorist attack.On August 20, 2022, Daria Dugina, Russian journalist Daria Dugina, daughter of political philosopher Alexander Dugin, was killed in a car explosion on a highway in the Moscow region. The Federal Security Service said that the assassination was arranged by the Ukrainian security services. Ukrainian citizen Natalia Vovk is believed to be the person who planted explosives in Dugina's car.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230904/fsb-says-detained-ukrainian-saboteurs-accomplice-who-handed-over-bombs-for-terrorist-acts-1113101374.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/us-bases-atop-syrias-largest-oil-and-gas-fields-reportedly-come-under-attack-1114525566.html

US Bases Atop Syrias Largest Oil and Gas Fields Reportedly Come Under Attack

US Bases Atop Syrias Largest Oil and Gas Fields Reportedly Come Under Attack

The Pentagon announced Thursday that it had conducted self-defense strikes against two facilities in eastern Syria purportedly used by Irans elite Islamic... 27.10.2023, Sputnik International

2023-10-27T12:13+0000

2023-10-27T12:13+0000

2023-10-27T12:13+0000

military

syria

iraq

iran

joe biden

col. patrick ryder

middle east

pentagon

hezbollah

islamic revolutionary guard corps (irgc)

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Six missiles have reportedly rained down on an illegal US military base sitting atop the Al-Omar oil field northeast of Deir ez-Zor, Syria early Friday morning.The attack, reported on by sources speaking to Lebanese media and corroborated by an Iraqi outlet affiliated with Iraqs Popular Mobilization Forces militias, came less than a day after the Pentagon reported on its own strikes inside Syria.Separately on Friday, sources told regional media that theyd heard explosions inside the US base at the Conoco Gas Field  Syrias biggest gas facility  also situated in Deir ez-Zor province.The reported attacks on US-occupied energy facilities in Syria follow Thursday's news that US troops around Erbil Airport in northern Iraq had been targeted using two drones. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed responsibility for the Erbil attack. The same group previously claimed responsibility for a wave of other recent drone and rocket strikes against US forces across Iraq and Syria, in connection with US support for Tel Aviv amid the Palestinian-Israeli crisis.Department of Defense spokesman Pat Ryder confirmed on Thursday that an attack against US forces in Erbil had been attempted, citing some minor damage to infrastructure but no casualties. Ryder said the Pentagon holds Iran responsible for militias operating across Iraq and Syria.The Pentagon further indicated on Thursday that US forces and their allies in Iraq and Syria had been targeted at least 16 times so far this month  including 13 times between October 17 and 24 alone  ten of them in Iraq and three in Syria, via a mix of drones and rockets. Some 19 US service members reportedly suffered traumatic brain injuries during the spate of attacks. Fifteen of the injuries were said to have occurred at the Al Tanf Garrison, an illegal US-held outpost jutting into Syria near the Iraqi-Jordanian border which Syria and its allies have said repeatedly has been used by the Pentagon to train terrorist militants seeking to overthrow the Syrian government.US officials have yet to comment on the reported attacks against Al-Omar or Conoco. A gas pipeline near Conoco was reportedly targeted by militias last week.However, US Central Command has confirmed that other attacks so far have targeted Mission Support Site Euphrates and Mission Support Site Green Village in Syria, and in Bashur and the Baghdad Diplomatic Support Center in Iraq.The US has roughly a dozen bases dotting northeastern Syria manned by at least 900 troops, and forces inside Iraq said to be acting in an advisory capacity following the official end of the combat mission in that country in 2021. The US military established a presence in the region under the pretext of fighting Daesh (ISIS),* but never left after the terrorist caliphate was crushed by an unlikely coalition which included Syria, Iraq, Russia, Iran, Hezbollah, the US and Syrian Kurdish militias allied to Washington.Syria has slammed the US at the United Nations and other venues over the plunder of its energy and food resources by American forces and its militia allies. Damascus estimates that up to 90 percent of its modest oil and gas resources are under occupation, with the energy sector overall suffering well over $100 billion in damage from looting, wastage, vandalism and US coalition attacks.The Pentagon revealed late on Thursday that US forces had struck two facilities in Syria, with attacks supposedly carried out in self-defense in response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against US forces in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on October 17.President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he had sent a warning to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to be prepared for a US retaliation if they continue to move against those troops.Neither Biden nor the Pentagon provided any proof to corroborate Iranian involvement in the Syria and Iraq rocket and drone strikes. Its known that both countries are home to self-defense militias  formed in the 2010s to combat a range of jihadist extremists, including Daesh and al-Qaeda-linked fighters. Iran has assisted the Syrian government in its anti-terrorist struggle, with IRGC Quds Force officers helping to train and advise Iraqs Popular Mobilization Forces. The United States assassinated Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani in an unprovoked attack in Baghdad in January 2020 while the latter was on a peace mission negotiating a rapprochement between Iran and Saudi Arabia.The spate of back and forth violence comes in the wake of the escalating Palestinian-Israeli crisis stemming from Hamas surprise attacks into southern Israeli on October 7, and the resulting massive Israeli campaign of air, missile and artillery strikes into Gaza. Tensions have escalated further over repeatedly Israeli strikes into Syria, and attacks on Hezbollah militia positions along the Israeli-Lebanese border. The provocations have yet to provoke a response by Damascus, Hezbollah or Iran, with Tehran instead blasting Israeli actions in Gaza and joining other countries including Russia, China and Turkiye demanding an immediate ceasefire. Iranian Foreign Minister Amir-Abdollahian warned on Thursday that US officials seeking to prevent the Palestinian-Israeli crisis from escalating while supporting Tel Avivs genocide in Gaza that Washington would not be spared from the fire if such an escalation occurred.* Terrorist groups outlawed in Russia and many other countries.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231026/shia-militants-attack-us-military-base-in-iraqi-kurdistan-with-two-drones-1114510299.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/nearly-20-soldiers-diagnosed-with-traumatic-brain-injuries-in-iraq-syria-amid-base-attacks-1114514275.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230911/syria-reveals-staggering-cost-of-us-looting-and-sabotage-of-energy-sector-1113291685.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231026/iran-wont-allow-us-israel-to-scapegoat-tehran-over-gaza-crisis--professor-1114504590.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/us-congress-job-approval-rating-drops-to-13-lowest-level-since-2017--poll-1114533909.html

US Congress Job Approval Rating Drops to 13% Lowest Level Since 2017  Poll

US Congress Job Approval Rating Drops to 13% Lowest Level Since 2017  Poll

Only 13% of Americans look positively at the current performance of US Congress, which is the lowest result in the last six years, a new Gallup poll reported on Friday.

2023-10-27T17:05+0000

2023-10-27T17:05+0000

2023-10-27T17:05+0000

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Amid a prolonged search for a new House speaker that paralyzed the House of Representatives for three weeks while two US allies are engaged in wars, Americans approval of Congress job performance fell from 17% to 13%, the poll said. The same rating was in October and November 2017, it added. The survey was conducted on October 2-23, when US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy had been ousted, and three other his colleagues failed bids to replace him. Supporters of both major political parties expressed negative views on Congress work: only 8% of Republicans and 10% of Democrats said that they agree with the job it is doing. At the same time, only 19% of independent voters approve of Congress activity. The poll, which was conducted among 1,009 adults in all 50 US states and the District of Columbia, said that only 37% of Americans support President Joe Bidens performance.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231014/us-needs-bold-new-leadership-amid-perfect-storm-of-crises-1114187940.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/us-launches-strikes-in-syria-after-targeted-attacks-against-american-troops-1114515416.html

US Launches Strikes in Syria After Targeted Attacks Against American Troops

US Launches Strikes in Syria After Targeted Attacks Against American Troops

The US Department of Defense revealed late Thursday that forces had fired strikes against two facilities in Syria following earlier attacks against American troops in Iraq and Syria.

2023-10-27T02:29+0000

2023-10-27T02:29+0000

2023-10-27T03:52+0000

military

us

pentagon

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us troops

syria

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The US Department of Defense revealed late Thursday that forces had fired strikes against two facilities in Syria following earlier attacks against American and allied troops in Iraq and Syria."Today, at President [Joe] Biden's direction, US military forces conducted self-defense strikes on two facilities in eastern Syria used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and affiliated groups," the release said on Thursday. The release underscored that the US strikes were not related to the Palestine-Israel conflict. The statement added that the US does not seek an escalation of the conflict in Palestine."These narrowly-tailored strikes in self-defense were intended solely to protect and defend US personnel in Iraq and Syria. They are separate and distinct from the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, and do not constitute a shift in our approach to the Israel-Hamas conflict," the release said.Information on the specific targets hit by US forces has not been provided. A US journalist reported that a pair of F-16 fighter jets were used in the attack. The reporter claims, citing US officials, that the attacks hit ammunition depots near Abu Kamal on the eastern Syria border with Iraq.There have been no reports of fatalities or injuries, and it is unknown if anyone was inside the facilities when the strikes were launched.Earlier Thursday, Pentagon Press Secretary Pat Ryder said the US has, or was in the process of, deploying around 900 troops to the Middle East to bolster security in the area. He did not provide details on where the troops were going specifically, only confirming they would not be deployed to Israel. Ryder further stated that a US response to the attacks would come "at the time and place of our choosing."Also Thursday, Biden reiterated that he sent a message to Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warning against strikes on US troops. The remark came after the US president earlier noted he had filed to the Ayatollah that retaliation might be forthcoming.This attack is not the first US attack on Syria this year. In March, the US responded to a drone attack in Syria that killed a US contractor and wounded five service members; however, the Thursday strike is the first attack since the start of the escalated Palestine-Israel conflict on October 7.That conflict has raised tension in the region, particularly after an explosion at the Ahli Arab Hospital, leading to protests around the Muslim world. Both sides of the conflict have blamed the other for the explosion that killed hundreds of civilians.Iran has likewise warned the US against further escalation in the Middle East.In addition to the 900 recently-deployed troops, there are roughly 35,000 US troops deployed in the Middle East, according to Responsible Statecraft. Most of those forces are in Gulf bases, far from any fighting; however, roughly 3,400 remain stationed in Syria and Iraq.Last year, the Ministry of Oil in Syria accused the US and its "mercenaries" of stealing Syrian oil. The Syrian government has repeatedly called out the illegal American presence in the country as a violation to its sovereignty.The United States also recently deployed two aircraft carrier strike groups to the region, along with several Patriot missile systems and a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/nearly-20-soldiers-diagnosed-with-traumatic-brain-injuries-in-iraq-syria-amid-base-attacks-1114514275.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231025/us-may-reinforce-its-syrian-iraqi-bases-with-more-weapons-after-drone-attacks--expert-1114468888.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/us-navys-icbm-submarine-project-plagued-by-20-billion-budgetary-lapse-1114528012.html

US Navy's ICBM Submarine Project Plagued by $20 Billion Budgetary Lapse

US Navy's ICBM Submarine Project Plagued by $20 Billion Budgetary Lapse

The US is striving to keep pace with China's growing naval fleet, despite a $20 billion budget excess (a 20 percent increase) in its 12-submarine building initiative. Experts still believe the US holds an edge in naval personnel expertise and vessel capabilities.

2023-10-27T18:35+0000

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The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), in its latest Navy shipbuilding report released on Thursday, cites "current industry conditions" as the rationale for the updated $120 billion program estimate.According to the budget office's assessment, the USS District of Columbia, the lead submarine in the class, is expected to carry a price tag of $17.5 billion  $1.7 billion above the Navy's calculations. The Navy's upcoming fleet of the remaining 11 submarines is estimated at an average of $9.2 billion each, according to CBO figures. This represents a significant $1.5 billion surge in cost per vessel compared to initial projections.Recent findings from the CBO's yearly analysis of the Navy's shipbuilding proposals cast doubt on funding matters, as the Navy deliberates over various expansion scenarios in the cards for 2045.Since 2014, Congressional allocations have consistently surpassed the US Navy's shipbuilding budget requests by an average of $2.5 billion annually. The fleet's size has raised alarms, particularly as it grapples with its multifaceted missions and China's burgeoning naval strength. China currently fields 370 ships, surpassing the US' 290.However, experts contend that US submarines' advanced capabilities and enhanced naval personnel training give the United States an edge over their Chinese counterparts.Uncertainties shroud the Navy's long-term fleet plans, but the CBO is confident that expenses will outstrip expectations.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230917/russian-navy-escorted-us-submarine-for-record-9-hours-in-march-1113433508.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/us-neocons-slow-walking-america-into-war-amid-palestine-israel-conflict---analyst-1114526730.html

US Neocons 'Slow-Walking America Into War' Amid Palestine-Israel Conflict - Analyst

US Neocons 'Slow-Walking America Into War' Amid Palestine-Israel Conflict - Analyst

US hawks and neocons are slow-walking the country into wa' Amid Palestine-Israel Conflict, an analyst told Sputnik.

2023-10-27T17:02+0000

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2023-10-27T17:02+0000

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As Islamic resistance continues to grow amid the ongoing bombardment and siege of Gaza by Tel Aviv, and especially if the Israeli military proceeds with a ground assault on the enclave, the world could witness a regional escalation the likes of which we haven't seen in quite a long time, Christopher Helali, an independent investigative journalist, told Sputnik.Furthermore, as hawkish politicians in the US sign off on covert attempts to use the latest Palestine-Israel conflagration to put the squeeze on Iran, the pundit added, this further raises the specter that Tehran, for Israel  a US non-NATO ally  remains the main target, even though they talk about Hamas.Chris Helali pointed to the recent Israeli incursion, using tanks, armored personnel carriers, and other military vehicles, into northern Gaza as signaling that there are preparations for a larger ground assault. Taking stock of the spiraling death toll in Gaza, pounded by Israeli retaliatory strikes since Hamas' surprise attack earlier in October, the analyst said:The Israeli military, which has so far held off from a much-touted ground offensive on Gaza, recently said it had conducted a raid with tanks into the northern part of the enclave in preparation for the next stage of fighting. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also confirmed that a ground incursion was coming, reiterating that the goal is to destroy Hamas' military and governance capabilities. Chris Helali mentioned Netanyahu's speech, which echoed the rhetoric of other Israeli officials, trying to liken Hamas to terrorist groups like al-Qaeda* and Daesh** to justify the pummeling that Gaza was receiving. Emphasizing that Israel was doing so to try to rebuild the international coalition that helped to defeat the Islamic State in Syria, in Iraq and elsewhere, the analyst nevertheless voiced the opinion that Tel Aviv would need to tread very carefully, given all the destruction they've brought.It looks like Armageddon, Chris Helali said, referring to the current situation in Gaza.According to the Gazan Health Ministry, more than 7,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip and more than 18,000 wounded. Weighing in on attempts to discredit the information coming out of Gaza regarding the death toll, the pundit slammed them as "reprehensible."President Joe Biden, who rushed to dramatically beef up the US presence in the Middle East after the situation escalated by sending two carrier strike groups along with thousands of Marines and more warplanes to the region, responded to a reporters question about the Palestinian death count, saying that at the White House: "What they say to me is I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed... I have no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using."Anyone with eyes can look at what the Israelis have done to Gaza. They have flattened it... Hospitals are blown up, churches I mean, the idea that they're lying about these deaths, when you can see it very clearly with your own eyes, it's the height of cynicism, agreed Daniel McAdams, executive director of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity. The hypocrisy is astonishing, he said, adding:Fears of 'Wider War'Weighing in on warnings that Lebanon's Hezbollah is threatening to open a full-blown second front if Tel Aviv proceeds with its announced ground operation in the Gaza Strip, Chris Helali noted that nobody knows the full extent of the US military operations in areas like Lebanon, where American forces have been "playing a role on the ground with foreign militaries in operations against the various groups. The pundit was referencing a US media report that surfaced earlier this week, speculating on how the United States has spent decades pouring billions of dollars in security assistance into Lebanon and conducting counterterrorism efforts there against Hezbollah, which it has long designated as a terrorist organization. Furthermore, citing recent missile and drone attacks on US forces at bases in the Middle East, such as in Iraq and Syria, the report warned that the US could find itself embroiled in a "wider war in the Middle East." Indeed, since October 18, Kataib Hezbollah has repeatedly claimed credit for drone attacks on the Ain al-Assad and Al-Harir US military bases in Iraq, as well as the US Al-Tanf and Conoco bases in Syria. The movements spokesperson, Jaafar al-Husseini, stated that the attacks were conducted because The Americans are essential partners in killing the Gaza Strip residences, and therefore, they must bear the consequences. Earlier, a Russian military analyst, Rustem Klupov, told Sputnik that whether or not Hezbollah enters the current conflagration largely depends on Iran. To date, Tehran has not confirmed whether the Islamic Republic sponsors the organization. Furthermore, from the moment when Hamas launched its attack on October 7, the Islamic Republic has rejected allegations that it played a role in it as baseless.At this point, the analyst reiterated that Washingtons architecture of domination, and control, and operations is really making... the region less safe... because of the ongoing instability and ongoing crises that it creates around the world." As in the case of the US presence maintained in Iraq against the wishes of the Iraqi government, it is obvious that Washington seeks to have eyes on the ground, the analyst stressed, watching these various groups that are, quote unquote, backed by Iran, and to be a presence on the border with Iran. And so they have now become a tremendous liability."Voicing his fears about the US presence in the Middle East, the pundit accentuated:'Slow-Walking Us Into War'There are currently some very implicit calls for US military involvement in the region, executive director of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, Daniel McAdams, told Sputnik, adding that this is how they sort of slow-walk us into a war.The pundit made reference to Mike Johnsons first act as US House speaker  a resolution reaffirming US support for Israel and condemning Hamas.As for members of Congress, McAdams believes they are terrified of doing anything that might be remotely perceived as not completely 1,000% pro-Israel. Summing up the US policy in the Middle East, McAdams stated that while the Israelis may think that they've got this great ally in the US backstopping everything they do, but they don't realize they're playing a role, sort of like Ukraine played." *Al-Qaeda is a terrorist organization banned in Russia and many other countries.**Daesh (also known as ISIS/ISIL/IS) is a terrorist organization outlawed in Russia and many other states.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231026/reports-of-flooding-hamas-tunnels-with-nerve-gas-or-water-bogus---israeli-expert-1114499844.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231026/netanyahu-dragging-us-into-war-with-iran-to-save-his-political-career-security-expert-1114493596.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231017/israeli-hamas-conflict-turns-into-perfect-storm-for-ukraine-1114259912.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/biden-inches-towards-military-disaster-in-middle-east-1114528464.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/what-weapons-could-israeli-forces-deploy-during-gaza-ground-offensive-1114521227.html

What Weapons Could Israeli Forces Deploy During Gaza Ground Offensive?

What Weapons Could Israeli Forces Deploy During Gaza Ground Offensive?

Amid the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Prime Minister Netanyahu readies the Israeli armed forces for a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip. This entails deploying advanced military equipment, though the type of weapons are to be used are undisclosed.

2023-10-27T16:33+0000

2023-10-27T16:33+0000

2023-10-27T16:42+0000

middle east

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On Thursday, Israel initiated its push into the Gaza Strip, deploying armored and engineering units as a precursor to a broader ground operation.Israel's recent actions come on the heels of the October 7 offensive by the militant arm of Hamas on its southern territories. The onslaught claimed the lives of over 1,400 Israelis, and hundreds of people were taken hostage.As ground forces mobilize for a potential operation in Gaza, the Israeli Defense Ministry can tap into a vast reserve of arms from the country's defense sector. However, the government's exact plans in this regard remain undisclosed.Likely Military Equipment IDF Could Use in GazaOne item of military hardware that could be displayed is the ROOK multi-purpose robotic unmanned ground vehicle (UGV). The ROOK UGV, a 6x6 all-terrain innovation, is the result of a joint venture between Israel's Elbit Systems and Roboteam, designed for superior maneuverability and load-bearing capacity. The vehicle, tipping the scales at 1,200 kg and stretching 2.7 m long, 1.6 m wide, and 1.2 m tall, is designed with a low center of gravity. This design choice prioritizes stability during crucial moments, such as evacuating injured personnel or essential supply delivery during combat ops. White LED and infrared lighting ensure visibility during nighttime missions. The ROOK can handle a 1,200 kg payload and offers 360 HD video feeds day and night. Enhanced with Elbit Systems' TORCH-X Robotic for optimal navigation, it is powered by a hybrid energy system with an optional generator. The UGV boasts a top speed of 30 km/h and an operational range of roughly 1,000 m.The Eitan armored personnel carrier is another weapon the IDF could use in a Gaza ground campaign. The advanced 8x8 wheeled armored personnel vehicle (APC) is the latest offering from the Merkava and Armored Vehicles Directorate of Israel's Ministry of Defense. This combat vehicle boasts modern protection and superior firepower. Designed for versatility, it ensures troop mobility across diverse terrains.Weighing between 30 and 35 tons, the vehicle extends eight meters in length and can span to three meters in width and height. Modern day and nighttime peripheral cameras are vital, offering space for a crew of three. Eitan incorporates Elbit Systems' Iron Fist active protection system (APS). It is outfitted with a 30 mm turret, further enhanced by a remote 12.7 mm machine gun station and a pintle-affixed 7.62 mm gun. The vehicle can reach speeds exceeding 90 km/h, with an extensive travel range of 1,000km.The Israel Defense Forces are set to deploy a fleet of main battle tanks, including the Merkava III Baz, Merkava IV, Merkava Mk 4 Meil Ruach, and the latest fifth-generation Merkava Barak. These tanks are recognized for their massive weight, firepower, powerful engines delivering between 1,200 and 1,500 horsepower, and potential speeds of up to 60 km/h. However, the IDF's new Merkava Barak tank would grab the attention of military experts, because it is touted as fitted with Rafael's cutting-edge pioneering WindGuard active protection system and its cache of innovative tech capabilities.The Fire Weaver system by Rafael is expected to be in active service with the IDF during a ground operation, secured by the Israeli Ministry of Defense, which advances towards a seamlessly connected digital battleground. A joint venture between Israel's Directorate of Defense Research and Development (DDR&D) and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems produced this novel system with expedited engagements and optimized on-field operational efficiency by synchronizing personnel and machinery.The Fire Weaver system employs AI to swiftly assess combat environment details, such as target locations, allies, and essential landmarks. This invaluable data is immediately relayed across various platforms, bolstering the situational comprehension of personnel in the field. Moreover, this information seamlessly integrates with equipment displays, including weapon sights.The Namer is also expected to feature in a Gaza ground offensive. Modeled after the iconic Merkava IV tank, it is expected to deliver high-caliber protection for infantry operations. It is furnished with Rafael's Mini-Samson RCWS and seamlessly integrates multifaceted sensor technology for target acquisition.Namer's arsenal includes a 12.7 mm M2HB, 7.62 mm M246 gun, 60 mm mortar, and devices to launch smoke grenades. It comes with automated fire suppression and defense against nuclear, biological, and chemical hazards to enhance safety. The Merkava III tank's 1,200 hp engine also propels the vehicle.

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The coming weekend may just be the most ideal for leaf peepingimagine getting a birds eye view of the glorious colors.

Culpeper Regional Airport is hosting Fall Foliage Flights provided by the Capital Wing of the Commemorative Air Force, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. At the expected height of the fall foliage in Virginia, warbirds will fly rides offering unparalleled views of the Virginia countryside from the air.

The featured warbird will be a North American T-6 Texan, the trainer in WWII which taught US airmen the advanced tactics they would need to fly high-performance fighters in combat. The T-6 is powered by a 600hp Pratt and Whitney Wasp radial engine, providing a top speed of over 200mph with a cruise speed of 145mph, according to a release from the Capital Wing, a nonprofit, all-volunteer vintage aviation group.

The North American T-6 is one of the most sought-after warbird rides and flights tend to sell out quickly. Flights (one passenger) are $450.

Also flying Fall Foliage Flights will be a 1942 Boeing PT-17 Stearman open cockpit bi-plane for $315 (one passenger) and a Fairchild UC-61 Forwarder (two adults or one adult and two children) for $225. In addition, rides will be available in a Grumman AA-1B (one passenger) for $125.

Book Fall Foliage Flights at capitalwingwarbirdrides.org/ and on site at Culpeper Airport, if available, this weekend, October 28 and 29.

In addition, the Capital Wing has assembled a wide variety of attractions on the ground to interest everyone in the family including two rare warbirds on the hangar ramp: a French Alouette II, the worlds first jet powered helicopter and a Japanese Fuji LM-1 aircraft, one of only three in the world.

Everyone can walk on the wing of the TBM Avenger torpedo bomber, the largest and heaviest single engine bomber of WWII.

The public, for free admission, can also walk thru the hangar and see two WWII warbirds under maintenance: a Vultee BT-13 Valiant, and the very rare Stinson OY-1 which flew in actual combat during the June 1944 Battle of Saipan.

Also on the Capital Wing ramp will be a 1943 WWII US Army T-16 light tank and WWII Jeep. Reenactors will setup an encampment and show what life was like for a US soldier. A Ural motorcycle with sidecar will be available for rides.

The Capital Wing PX (Post eXchange) trailer will have a variety of military aviation themed items for sale including aircraft models and can make personalized dog tags on an original 1941 US Army dog tag machine.

A B-26 bomber 50-caliber machine gun turret will be on display for kids and small-sized adults to climb into and experience being a top gunner. For those looking for a unique gift or table top centerpiece, the Capital Wing will be selling a variety of authentic aircraft cockpit instruments.

All aircraft flights are subject to weather, unanticipated maintenance, and pilot availability. Parking is free. The Culpeper Airport is conveniently located off U.S. Route 29 near Brandy Station.
If not for Ben Raines, the world wouldnt know one of the most dramatic stories of the last 163 years.

In 2018, upriver from Mobile, Alabama, the former journalist discovered the wreck of Clotilda, the last slave ship to reach our nation.

Raines shared his riveting tale with Rappahannock residents on Sept. 16, bringing it back to the county where he graduated from high school and learned to fly fish decades ago.

Tim Carrington, a board member of the Rappahannock Association for Arts and Community, introduced the author, noting how Raines succeeded where others had failed to deduce the Clotildas long-hidden resting place. Then Raines dove into the Mobile River to determine if he had the right wreck.

He came up with a piece of burnt wood that opened a window on our own history and on a particular and strange chapter of the harrowing story of plantation slavery in the Southern states, Carrington said. Had he not done this, the story of the Clotilda  might have been swept aside or glossed over with simplicities. So, thank you, Ben, for asking the vital question of what really happened.

Carrington thanked Rappahannocks Susan Raines, an artist and Bens mother, for summoning her offspring to share his insights with folks where he grew up.

Raines, who lives in Fairhope, Alabama, wrote 2022s The Last Slave Ship, a New York Times Editors Choice, now in paperback. He illustrated his Little Washington Theatre talk with photos from his adventures.

A filmmaker and charter captain in Americas Amazon, the Mobile-Tensa Delta, Raines dug into records and discarded historical myths to find the Clotildas grave.

She was right where her captain, upon offloading her human cargo after a 45-day voyage across the Atlantic, burned and scuttled the schooner in 1860  eve of the Civil War  to conceal the crime. The United States had banned importing Africans 50 years before; President Thomas Jefferson signed the bill into law.

Word of the wrecks discovery made international news.

The Clotildas saga began with a bet.

Mobile steamboat magnate Timothy Meaher wagered $30,000 in todays dollars that he could send a ship to Africa, buy slaves there and return safely to Mobile. If caught, the punishment was hanging.

To pull it off, Meaher hired William Foster, a ship captain whose payment would be 10 of the captives. The 110 Africans Foster brought to Mobile were worth the equivalent of about $5 million today.

The Clotildas best-known passenger, Cudjo Lewis, was abducted at 19 and lived until 1935. Long presumed to be the Middle Passages last survivor, Lewis appears today in movie clips and folklorist Zora Neale Hurstons best-selling Barracoon. His descendants still live in Africatown, the community Lewis and his shipmates built in Mobile after emancipation.

Raines described his travels to Benin, Africa, where the pre-colonial kingdom of Dahomey enslaved 1 million other Africans, selling them to European traders for over 200 years. Statues and murals along Benins Slave Route now commemorate the victims.

When Raines piloted Benins U.S. ambassador to the Clotilda wreck site, it moved the man to tears. Turned out ancestors of the diplomats father had enslaved his mothers ancestors.

Here was the story in one man, reduced to sobbing on my boat, the author recalled.

Benins leaders  worried about tribal civil war  decided decades ago to confront its dark past. Were not hiding from it, its president said on a visit to Baltimore in the 1990s. Kneeling in church there, he apologized for the African role in the slave trade.

In Mobile, once freed, the Clotildas passengers bought land from the Meahers and built houses for one another. By the 1950s, Africantown had 12,000 residents, with theaters, grocery stores, barber shops, schools and restaurants.

Today, no businesses are left.

The Meaher family leased and sold much of its land in Africatown to heavy industry; International Paper built the worlds largest paper mill there. A new highway tore the community in half, destroying its business district and many residents homes.

In July, Africatown opened the first museum devoted to the Clotilda.

Its about the size of Little Washingtons theater, Raines said.

Its a great first start, he said. But its not what we have in mind.

Raines and Africatowns leaders want to build a world-class museum that serves as a national monument to the enslaved, houses the wrecked ship and tells about those smuggled aboard it.

Like Benins public art, the Clotildas story helps represent all the anonymous, faceless people who were sold into bondage, Raines said.

We read about slavery, (but) its anonymous, it was so long ago, and we dont know anything about em, he said. This puts a face on slavery. We can see who the villains are and we can hear the story of the captives from their own mouths. Thats the power of the story.

To learn more, visit theclotildastory.com and facebook.com/ben.raines.58.
A grand jury will be convened to determine the circumstances behind the death of a Colorado man early Friday morning.

The Scotts Bluff County Attorney Dave Eubanks told the Star-Herald that he is awaiting reports, but that the process of convening a grand jury will be started. State statute requires the convening of a grand jury whenever a suspect dies while in custody of law enforcement or while being apprehended.

Troy Brown, chief deputy with the Scotts Bluff County Sheriffs Department, released information regarding the incident, which began as a deputy with the Scotts Bluff County Sheriffs Office attempted to contact a suspect wanted out of Colorado on charges involving sex crimes against children at about 10:52 p.m. A deputy had located the suspects vehicle, a 1999 Black Jeep Wrangler with Colorado plates, in the Maverik parking lot.

After the deputy attempted to contact the suspect, he fled the parking lot northbound on Highway 71 and he turned west on Experiment Farm Road heading toward Mitchell. The man allegedly fired several shots toward the deputy.

A Mitchell Police officer set up spike strips at County Road 17 and Experiment Farm Road and the suspect ran over the spikes. The suspect then fled on foot, southbound on Experiment Farm Road into an open field, with a deputy, Nebraska State Patrol trooper and Mitchell Police officer pursing him. During the foot pursuit, he allegedly fired again at officers, causing them to back off and establish a perimeter.

The Scotts Bluff County Sheriffs Department issued a Panhandle Alert to notify residents of the dangerous suspect in the area. The department also a drone to survey the area, locating the man lying in a field. Deputies used a patrol car for cover, approaching the suspect. Once able to get close, officers observed the man to be deceased, having died of a self-inflicted gun shot wound.

As of publication, the identity of the man has not yet been released as law enforcement await confirmation that next of kin have been notified.

Also assisting the agencies already cited were: Morrill Police Department, Gering Police Department, Scottsbluff Police Department, Mitchell Rural Fire Department and Valley Ambulance.
A Nebraska Police Standards Advisory Council meeting has provided some additional details into the circumstances involving the voluntary surrender of a Scottsbluff Police captains law enforcement certification.

The council considered the surrender of former Scottsbluff Police Capt. Brian Wassons certification during a meeting Tuesday. Reporting by Nebraska Public Media, provided the first public account about the circumstances that led to Wassons surrender of his credentials.

According to details disclosed in the meeting by Nebraska Crime Commission attorney David Stolz, records submitted by Scottsbluff Police Department Police Chief Kevin Spencer cited Wasson as having allegedly admitting to having stolen fentanyl from the departments evidence room. The theft was reported by Wasson to have been occurring a little less than a year, Stolz said.

Wasson cited himself as suffering from an opioid addiction in making the admission.

The council voted unanimously to accept Wassons voluntary surrender of his certification and revocation is recommended by the Crime Commission. That revocation is expected to be accepted.

The Nebraska State Patrol is investigating the theft. Criminal charges have not been filed to date in connection with the allegations.

Spencer, who is also city manager, confirmed to the Star-Herald last week that Wasson is no longer with the Scottsbluff Police Department, a change that was effective Sept. 6. According to a change of status form filed with the state, Wasson resigned from his position in lieu of termination based on grounds cited in 81-1414.15, the statute that outlines the actions that departments must take in response to determinations of police misconduct.

Wasson had served with the Scottsbluff Police Department for about 25 years. His career at the department included stints as a patrol officer, an investigator with the WING drug task force and on the departments SWAT team as an officer and leader, and a sergeant.

He had served the last 17 years as a captain.
(Photo : TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/AFP via Getty Images)

In this picture taken on on May 27, 2013, a 53-year-old former yakuza gangster shows off his silicone-made finger during a visit to prosthetics specialist Shintaro Hayashi's office in Tokyo

The Yakuza crime lords of Japan are one of the most notorious gangsters with strict and bizarre rituals that differentiate them from other organized crime organizations globally. Members adhere to a strict code that is followed or be meted with severe repercussions, or cross them it will be a reckoning.

Stories and reports about them are in the media, from the tattoos and severed fingers, with the terrible revenge they are capable of should anyone of the members get offended. One of these stories even involves displeasure over their boss's botched operation of his private part.

Mafia boss orders assasination after botched up surgery

Most Japanese men cannot complain if an operation of their privates goes wrong, but not for a Japanese mafia boss. Identified as the mafia godfather of the Yakuza, Satoru Nomura, who became mad and required someone to pay for an unsatisfactory surgery over increasing the size of his private part, reported the Sun UK.

His subordinates called him the God or Emperor, which Nomura demanded. When his member surgery got botched up, he allegedly ordered a hitman to teach the nurse a lesson for the wrong result, noted the Vice.

Failing to assassinate the nurse for the personal infraction, the head of the Kudo-kai Yakuza crime lords was caught and will be hanged for avenging the chief's privates, as they attempted to kill the nurse but failed.

Read Also: LA Most Notorius Gang 'MS-13' With Over 10,000 Members Commit Horrific Crimes, Beheading Victims Including Women and Children

How the Nomura 'hit' attempt in 2013 went down happened this way, contrary to the one that circulated but was not the exact story. One of his men stabbed the nurse in the head after she helped with the post-surgery care after the penile enhancement.

But the nurse treated the mafia godfather with the same care as others, who have undergone the same operation. Nomura said the procedure hurt while the nurse was removing hair from his crotch, and she remarked the tattoos must hurt more. The crime chief felt scorned, the reason why she was attacked, but she luckily survived.

Later Nomura was caught red-handed for directing the slaying of the head of a fishing cooperative who defied the will of the Yakuza.

Distinct practices of the Yakuza

Members of the Japanese mafia have to get tattoos and fingers cut as a reminder of their mistakes. Other activities they do are drugs, prostitution, gambling, loan sharking, and protection rackets as sources of income. Yakuzas have even claimed their eradication of petty lawbreakers and crimes tolerated by authorities cited Global Initiative. If there was any violence on the street level, it was assumed to be between crime families only.

Before, custom declared that bosses ordering a hit would pay a large sum and grovel to be pardoned, then authorities would send their minions to jail. But the Japanese police are targeting mob bosses who attack civilians, not those going after rival gangs related to the Samurai honor code that Yakuza crime lords follow.

Related Article: Heavily Armed Bank Robbers Strap Civilians as Human Shields on Getaway Vehicles to Escape, 3 People Killed

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Iredell County Sheriff Darren Campbell announced the latest arrests of those accused of selling or possessing narcotics.

The following individuals were charged:

Dillon Spencer Harwell, 31, of Sherrills Ford, two counts each of felony possession with intent to sell or deliver Schedule II and felony sell or deliver Schedule II and one count of felony obtaining property by false pretense. $12,500 bond.

Tony Deshawn Cauthen, 22, of Reid Street, Statesville, two counts each of counts each of felony possession with intent to sell or deliver Schedule II and felony sell or deliver Schedule II. $20,000 bond.

Calvin Ellis Bennett, 37, of Wilson Street, Statesville, six counts each of counts each of felony possession with intent to sell or deliver Schedule II and felony sell or deliver Schedule II. $30,000 bond.

Jerome Edward Millsaps, 31, of Harris Bridge Road, Stony Point, three counts each of counts each of felony possession with intent to sell or deliver Schedule II and felony sell or deliver Schedule II. $7,500 bond.

Austin Edward Rogers, 25, of Eastwood Drive, Statesville, two counts each of counts each of felony possession with intent to sell or deliver Schedule II and felony sell or deliver Schedule II. $10,000 bond.

Jessica Nicole Black, 32, of Georgia Avenue, Statesville, three counts of felony trafficking Schedule II and one count each of felony possession with intent to sell or deliver Schedule II, felony sell or deliver Schedule II. $400,000 bond.

Jessica Leann Campbell, 32, of New Mexico Drive, Statesville, felony possession with intent to sell or deliver Schedule II and felony sell or deliver Schedule II. $50,000 bond.

Kristen Leigh Werth, 34, of Turnersburg Highway, Statesville, felony possession with intent to sell or deliver Schedule II and felony sell or deliver Schedule II. $20,000 bond.

Zachary Douglas Rogers, 18, of Cross Country Road, Statesville, felony possession with intent to sell or deliver Schedule II, felony sell or deliver Schedule II and felony conspiracy to sell or deliver a controlled substance, $5,000 bond.

Cleates Maurice Lineberger Jr., 37, of Lenoir, felony possession with intent to sell or deliver Schedule II. $25,000 bond.

Brandon Louis Barras, 41, of Taylorsville, felony possession with intent to sell or deliver Schedule II and felony sell or deliver Schedule II. $50,000 bond.

Adam Steven High, 39, of Mocksville, felony possession with intent to sell or deliver Schedule II and felony sell or deliver Schedule II. $11,500 bond.

John Charles Christo Wright, 39, of Hallmark Estates Drive, Statesville, felony possession with intent to sell or deliver Schedule II and felony sell or deliver Schedule II. $20,000 bond.

Vaughn Paul Mitchell, 32, of Claremont, felony possession with intent to sell or deliver Schedule II. $7,000 bond.

Maxx Dakota Witt, 34, of Coolwood Drive, Statesville, felony possession with intent to sell or deliver Schedule II and felony sell or deliver Schedule II. $10,000 bond.

Jessica Marie Starkey, 40, of West Front Street, Statesville, four counts each of felony possession with intent to sell or deliver Schedule II and felony sell or deliver Schedule II. $25,000 bond.

All are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

In making the announcement, Campbell made the following statement:

Drug dealers are dangerous people who profit off of the communities they sell drugs in. Overdoses, assaults, break-ins, and robberies are just a few crimes that are fostered by the sale and use of illegal drugs and increase the likelihood of driving other crimes.

The Iredell County Sheriffs Office is committed to actively pursuing those who sell drugs or arrange for them to be sold and distributed in our community. By conducting undercover operations such as this and the others that are currently ongoing, we want our community to know we are responding to the information you are providing to us.

Our goal at the Iredell County Sheriffs Office is to reduce crime through the use of targeted drug enforcement. We will continue to investigate all complaints by conducting surveillance operations and utilizing other investigative means to ensure career and repeat offenders like these see the inside of a jail cell for as long as possible. If they will sell drugs to an undercover investigator, they will sell to a child.

The quickest way to relay information about suspicious activity is the Iredell Sheriff App. Download the free app, and all the information you provide will be investigated. You can also click the Send Email button on our Facebook page. Together, we are making Iredell County a less profitable place for those who would sell illegal drugs.

Campbell noted that 15 of the 16 have criminal histories and six are currently on probation for various offenses and one is a verified gang member.
There were lots of stories shared Thursday, most humorous and some a little serious, but all paid tribute to a man who was chosen for a rare honor.

Attorney T.C. Homesley was honored as the 2023 inductee to the North Carolina Bar Association Legal Practice Hall of Fame.

A crowd of fellow lawyers, friends and family gathered in the Superior Courtroom at the Iredell County Hall of Justice on Thursday to witness Homesley being presented with the award.

Iredell County Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Joe Crosswhite said Homesley is one of few who have received the award since its inception in 1989, and is the second from this judicial district to be so honored.

Special Superior Court Judge Richard Doughton said if anyone was more deserving of this honor, he didnt know who it would be.

Doughton gave a history of the award, which started as the general practice award. The name changed in 2018 because of the decline of lawyers in general practice and as a way to honor attorneys who specialize in a certain area.

Some of the criteria for the award include being in practice in North Carolina for at least 30 years, be a member in good standing of both the North Carolina Bar Association and North Carolina State Bar, and display the highest ethical and professional conduct in the practice of law.

Doughton said Homesley more than qualified for the recognition, and talked about meeting Homesley for the first time in the early 1970s as the two were on opposite sides of a case. He said Homesley treated him with respect and the two became friends as a result. He has been a mentor and friend to me my entire career, he said.

Special Superior Court Judge Preston Cornelius spoke of Homesleys legal career, but also told a story of his community involvement  as the Jaycees Christmas parade chairman.

Cornelius said Homesley spoke on a local radio station about the upcoming parade. He said everybody wanting to be in a parade, come on down and well put you in, Cornelius said.

And people took Homesley up on the offer, he said. One woman marched in the parade with a goat wearing a wreath around its neck, he said. But the capper, he said, was near the end of the parade. Here comes a dapple gray horse and on that horse is T.C. Homesley, he said, drawing laughter from the crowd.

Iredell County Chief District Court Judge Dale Graham invoked a phrase anyone familiar with Homesley has heard. I just want you to know, he said, is how Homesley frequently starts a conversation, and he used it to describe Homesleys strong work ethic and commitment to his clients over the years.

T.C. was and still is one of the finest trial lawyers, Graham said. He is honest and hard-working. He is usually the first one there.

For one of his law partners, Kevin Donaldson, Homesley was a little frightening, at least at first. Donaldson said he came to Homesleys law firm fresh out of law school. T.C. Homesley was a little scary, he said.

Homesley immediately gave Donaldson a chance to prove his skills, first asking him to help with research on an upcoming civil trial. Donaldson said Homesley invited him to be part of the trial, conducting direct examination of some witnesses and giving the closing argument.

After two-and-a-half days of deliberation, Donaldson said, the jury came back in favor of their client. He came into his office after the verdict, and found a piece of paper in his chair. It was a copy of the signed judgement.

Perhaps one of those who knows Homesley the best  his son and fellow attorney, Cliff, talked about his fathers early life in Mooresville, and his fathers efforts to help the community.

One of those was supporting bringing an ABC store to Mooresville in the 1960s. Cliff Homesley said his fathers goal and those who supported the effort, was to provide some funding for recreation in the community.

The campaign worked, Cliff Homesley said, and the store in Mooresville became the highest-grossing ABC store in the state, and as a result, recreation facilities began to grow in Mooresville.

He said his father, who moved the family to Mooresville, in 1962, was also the chairman of the American Red Cross campaign for 25 years.

Caring was just a part of his fathers legacy, both in the community and in the courthouse. He got to know the people that worked in the courthouse, he said.

Homesleys daughter, Blair Homesley Hawley, said it was a blessing to see her father recognized for his years of work as a lawyer.

At the end of the ceremony, Homesley, who is known to be irreverent at times, said he loved being a lawyer, and he loved it more when the money started coming in, which drew laughter from the crowd.

He also addressed his family who were seated in the jury box. It took me a long time to finally get a favorable jury, he said.

Using his catch phrase, I just want you to know, Homesley said, he figured he spent a third of his life in the Iredell County Hall of Justice.

During the ceremony, Homesley sat in the chair at the defense table beside his wife, Jackie, and he referred to it as he spoke. Im sitting over here for a reason. Thats my chair. Thats where I lived, I figure Ive lived a third of my life in this courthouse, he said.

As he finished his speech, Homesley said he really did love being a lawyer. I think that the law is one of the most honorable professions that anybody can be a part of. I think that, because I think that my life has been spent helping people, he said.
Your daily brief of the English-speaking press on Syria.

Over the span of October 5 to 10, 2023, the Turkish Armed Forces conducted drone strikes in northeast Syria, targeting Kurdish-held areas and resulting in significant harm to crucial water and electricity infrastructure. Simultaneously, in Iraq and Syria, 19 U.S. troops were diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries in the aftermath of recent attacks.

Turkish Drone Strikes Disrupt Water and Electricity Supply in Northeast Syria, Amplifying Humanitarian Crisis

Recent drone strikes by the Turkish Armed Forces on Kurdish-held areas in northeast Syria, occurring between October 5 and 10, 2023, have caused severe damage to vital infrastructure. This has resulted in a significant disruption in the supply of water and electricity to millions of people in the region, exacerbating an already dire humanitarian crisis. Human Rights Watch has raised concerns over these attacks, emphasizing the need for Turkey to halt its targeting of critical infrastructure essential for the well-being and rights of local residents.

The Turkish drone strikes, which targeted more than 150 locations across the governorates of al-Hasakeh, Raqqa, and Aleppo in north and east Syria, resulted in casualties, including civilians, and extensive damage to civilian structures. Of particular concern is the impact on water and electrical power stations, which has led to a complete halt in the supply of electricity and water in the al-Hassakeh governorate. Additionally, the attacks caused damage to critical oil installations and the sole operational gas plant for domestic use in northeast Syria.

The city of al-Hassakeh, which has been grappling with a severe water crisis for the past four years, is now facing further hardships due to these attacks. The ongoing water dispute since Turkeys 2019 invasion of parts of northern Syria has already compromised the right to water for nearly a million people, including residents and displaced communities.

Adam Coogle, Deputy Middle East Director at Human Rights Watch, expressed grave concern over the situation, stating, By targeting critical infrastructure across northeast Syria, including power and water stations, Turkey has flouted its responsibility to ensure that its military actions do not aggravate the regions already dire humanitarian crisis. People in al-Hasakeh city and its surroundings, already facing a severe water crisis for the past four years, must now also bear the brunt of increased bombardment and destruction, exacerbating their struggle to get essential water supplies.

According to the autonomous administration, the infrastructure damage caused by the attacks between October 5 and 10 has affected approximately 4.3 million people in northeast Syria. At least 18 water pumping stations and 11 power stations were rendered non-operational, including critical facilities such as the Sweidiya power plant and the north Qamishli electricity transfer station.

These attacks have left these essential facilities unable to function, leading to a complete disruption of both power and water supply services as of October 18th. The al-Gharbi dam transfer station in al-Hasakeh, responsible for supplying water to over 20,000 families, and the Amuda transfer station, serving 30,000 families, also remain inoperative as of October 18. The Amuda transfer station plays a crucial role in supplying power to the Derbasiya transfer station, which, in turn, powers the Alouk water station.

Alouk Water Station has been facing recurring disruptions over the past four years. Residents who depend on the station have been forced to rely on unregulated private water trucks, which are often expensive and provide poor-quality water. These disruptions have led to sanitation issues and outbreaks of water-borne illnesses, including cholera.

Under the laws of war, Turkey and other parties involved in an armed conflict are prohibited from attacking or damaging objects indispensable to the civilian populations survival, including those related to water distribution and sanitation. Governments and authorities are obligated to ensure that people within their jurisdiction have access to sufficient, safe, and affordable water for personal and domestic use.

To address the ongoing crisis, Turkey must ensure the uninterrupted operation of the Alouk water station and allow qualified repair and maintenance teams regular access. All parties involved in the conflict should engage with the United Nations to facilitate the approval of a monitoring mechanism for the Alouk water station and Derbasiyeh electricity substation. The autonomous administration should refrain from intentional electricity cuts and ensure sufficient power supply to operate the Alouk station.

19 U.S. troops diagnosed with traumatic brain injury following attacks in Iraq and Syria

Nineteen American service members stationed in Iraq and Syria have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury after rocket and drone attacks from Iran-backed militants last week, according to a Defense Department official.

Fifteen troops at Al Tanf garrison in Syria and four at Al Asad air base in Iraq were diagnosed with the injury, the official said on Thursday. Two additional service members at Al Tanf sustained other minor injuries, the official said, and all have returned to duty.

The official was granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

The news comes a day after the Pentagon announced that 21 service members had received minor injuries during the attacks on Oct. 17 and 18. Iran-backed groups have launched a number of additional attacks on U.S. positions in Iraq and Syria over the past week, but none has resulted in additional injuries to service members.

The reports of brain injuries highlight the risk to hundreds of U.S. troops at bases across the Middle East  and that threat is expected to grow as Israel prepares for its ground invasion of Gaza. On Tuesday, another Iranian proxy issued a statement threatening attacks on U.S. military bases in the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has rushed additional ships, aircraft and air defenses to the region to help protect American troops, including most recently multiple Patriot battalions and a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system.

This is not the first time American troops have sustained brain injuries at the hands of Iranian proxies in the Middle East. This spring, the Pentagon said at least 23 service members had been diagnosed with brain injuries from March attacks in Syria that killed an American contractor.

Spy photos of the Syrian desert reveal ancient Roman forts

Science.org published a compelling report that would reinterpret ancient Roman forts in the Syrian desert, initially believed to be part of a defensive frontier against the Sasanian Empire, based on declassified U.S. spy satellite photos.

The new interpretation suggests that these forts had a more economic and trade-oriented purpose. Rather than being primarily defensive, these structures likely served as stops for caravans and traders along trade routes connecting Roman ports to the Silk Road.

They offered protection to travellers from bandits and provided accommodations but were not designed for significant resistance against invading armies. This reinterpretation challenges the traditional view of these forts as defensive structures and highlights the importance of understanding the economic and trade strategies of the Roman Empire in the region.

In the 1920s, Jesuit priest Antoine Poidebard spotted what he believed to be ancient Roman forts while flying over the Syrian desert. He mapped and photographed over 100 of these structures, which historians initially thought were part of a defensive frontier built around 300 C.E. to protect against the Sasanian Empire. However, new research based on declassified U.S. spy satellite photos suggests a different interpretation. Instead of serving as a linear defensive barrier, these forts were likely used to safeguard and tax caravans and traders travelling along trade routes between Roman ports along the Mediterranean Sea and Silk Road trade routes.

Archaeologists identified more than 4500 human-made features in the satellite images, including 396 square or rectangular structures resembling Roman-style fortifications. These structures were dispersed throughout the Syrian plateau, running parallel to trade routes rather than forming a continuous defensive line. Researchers believe these forts served as stops for traders and travellers, offering protection from bandits and providing accommodations but not significant resistance against invading armies.

This reinterpretation challenges the long-standing assumption that these forts were primarily defensive in nature. Instead, they were likely part of Romes economic and trade strategy in the region. These findings suggest that the Roman presence in the Syrian desert was distinct from its more heavily fortified border zones, such as Hadrians Wall in England and the Rhine River. Instead, the Romans and Sasanians may have vied for influence among local tribes and kingdoms in the Syrian desert, making it a buffer area between their respective territories.

While this reinterpretation sheds new light on the purpose of these Roman-style structures, further excavation and dating of the sites are needed to confirm these hypotheses. The current security situation in the region makes on-the-ground archaeology challenging, but researchers hope that future stability will allow for more in-depth investigations. These findings demonstrate how satellite imagery can provide valuable insights into historical landscapes and challenge long-held assumptions in archaeology and history.
A Lewis County jury convicted Kelly David Hribar, 46, of Pe Ell, of first-degree murder and second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm Wednesday afternoon for fatally shooting 40-year-old Leonard Kowalsky near Pe Ell in August.

The trial began Monday, Oct. 16 and concluded Wednesday. The jury delivered its sentence within a few hours after the start of deliberations.

In this case, the jury was not tasked with determining whether or not Hribar murdered Kowalsky with a firearm that was illegal for him to have, as all parties agree the evidence supporting those allegations is indisputable.

Instead, the state prosecution and the defense asked the jury to determine whether Hribar was guilty of first-degree murder as charged by the state, or second-degree murder as argued by Hribars defense attorney.

Both charges are class A felonies punishable by up to life in prison and a fine of up to $50,000, but while Washington state law allows a judge to set a lower sentence for a second-degree murder conviction, life in prison is the mandatory sentence for a first-degree murder conviction.

First-degree murder requires the state to prove the murder was premeditated, while second-degree murder does not.

Second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm is a class C felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.

Hribars sentencing hearing will be scheduled on Nov. 2. Under Washington state law, Lewis County Superior Court has 40 days from the day the jury delivered its verdict to sentence Hribar.

Hribar and Kowalsky both visited the same gas station shortly before the shooting on Wednesday, Aug. 16. Witnesses also at the station reportedly heard Hribar say he planned to confront Kowalsky, and surveillance footage shows Hribar drive away from the gas station  shortly after Kowalsky arrived  toward Kowalskys residence instead of toward his own home. Physical evidence from the scene and witness testimony show Kowalsky backed his pickup into the brush in an unofficial parking area on state Route 6 near the intersection with Katula Street, on which Hribar lived. Kowalsky reportedly drove past Hribars car west on state Route 6, made a U-turn and had started driving east back toward Pe Ell when Hribar fired his shotgun three times, striking Kowalsky at least once, with the fatal shot striking his left buttock and becoming lodged in his torso.

Hribar fled the scene after the shooting. Kowalsky remained conscious long enough to tell first responders Kelly shot me and fell unconscious while en route to Pe Ell School. He was airlifted from the school to Tacoma General Hospital, where he died.

Prior to Kowalskys death, he was the victim of an attack on Nov. 18, 2009. Kowalsky, at the age of 26, survived an ambush attack that left him with a crossbow bolt wound to the neck and several stab wounds to his abdomen, face, hands and chest.

The attacker in that case was convicted of first-degree assault and sentenced to 13 years in prison, according to previous Chronicle reporting.

At the time, Kowalsky told The Chronicle, I would have rather gone fisticuffs than the way it happened  I was lucky it didnt kill me.
Hundreds of health care workers at PeaceHealth were joined on the picket lines Thursday by a national union leader as the strike at Vancouvers hospital entered its fourth day.

The crowd at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center turned into a choir on Thursday afternoon as workers sang along to hits like Michael Jacksons Beat it and Bon Jovis Livin on a Prayer, before speakers took to the stage.

Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.7 million-member American Federation of Teachers, a national union that represents teachers, federal, state and local government employees and other health care professionals, spoke at Thursday afternoons rally outside the hospital at 92nd Avenue and Mill Plain Boulevard in central Vancouver.

Look at these workers, look in their eyes. Im their national union leader and by showing up, they know that I, and AFT, have their back, Weingarten said. The fight is scary, and these health care workers are contorting themselves to do the work  they expect and deserve respect.

The strike at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center and PeaceHealth St. John in Longview is scheduled to end at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. Health care workers are striking over what the union describes as low wages, low staffing levels and prolonged contract negotiations with PeaceHealth management.

The striking workers are part of Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals Local 5017, which is an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers. A bargaining session for the unit at PeaceHealth St. John in Longview is set to resume on Monday. For the service and maintenance unit at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center, bargaining will resume on Tuesday and Nov. 7 for the technicians unit.

Weingarten led the rally alongside Oregon AFL-CIO President Graham Trainor, OFNHP union President Jonathon Baker and state Rep. Travis Nelson.

Were in one of the biggest fights of our lives. After the dedication we gave to our patients during COVID, when we often did not have PPE and we could have transmitted the virus back to our families, we did not falter. All were asking for is respect, said Baker.

The union, which represents more than 1,300 respiratory therapists, radiology technicians and maintenance workers, gave administration a 10-day notice for a strike Oct. 13, with picketing planned at both Vancouver and Longview. Health care workers began striking Monday morning.

This strike does not include doctors or nurses. All hospitals and facilities are open, but PeaceHealth has said patients should plan extra time for appointments due to possible congestion at the medical center. PeaceHealth said on its website it will continue delivering the same safe, high-quality care our patients and families expect from us.

Were asking people to give it a little more time if they have an appointment scheduled, Michelle James, senior vice president for patient care services and chief nursing officer for Vancouver-based PeaceHealth, said earlier this week. After the five-day strike, were going to welcome our caregivers back with open arms and we want to get back to the bargaining table.

In addition, 350 laboratory technicians at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center in Springfield, Ore., part of a separate bargaining unit, will decide on their own strike authorization vote soon.

On Monday, David Keepnews, executive director of Washington State Nurses Association, issued a statement announcing his support for health care workers at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center in Vancouver.

The Washington State Nurses Association stands in solidarity with striking workers at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center and PeaceHealth St. John Medical Center, Keepnews said. Registered nurses in these facilities, represented by WSNA, understand the high value of the work striking health care workers do, and we support OFNHPs reasonable demands in negotiations.
We need your help.

Are you aware of the blow that the 2023 Oregon legislative session dealt to cultural institutions in Oregon? There were 16 capital projects evenly represented throughout the state of Oregon that were vetted by the Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon and recommended to be funded by the Cultural Resources Economic Funds in the 2023 session.

This is the first time in 10 years that all projects put in front of the Oregon capital Ways and Means Committee were not funded. Only two projects located in the Portland area were funded for a total of $4 million. As a result, capital investments in arts and culture around the state of Oregon have been stalled. All 14 capital projects (totaling $7.8 million) not funded by the 2023 session were adversely affected.

Each of the projects Cultural Resources Economic Funds put forward for legislative consideration has been identified as meeting all criteria for funding, including the significant positive economic and community impact the project will have for the area it serves.

Two local museums, The Rainier Oregon Historical Museum and the Columbia County Museum Association of St. Helens, were two of the 14 capital projects that were not funded. The Rainier museum had to delay groundbreaking when a donor who had pledged a large matching donation learned that our project wasnt funded.

The Rainier Oregon Historical Museum is located in one small room inside Rainier City Hall. The museum is seeking funding to build a much-needed museum to preserve, display, research and house its growing collection with a larger meeting and classroom space.

The Columbia County Museum Association is located inside the old county courthouse up two flights of stairs, without wheelchair or handicap access. That museum had to modify its plans to move into the historical John Gumm School building, the site Columbia County is remodeling to house county offices and the museum.

The Oregon Childrens Theatre has paused main stage productions, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival is struggling to stay afloat, and the Portland Artists Repertory Theatre had to suspend its 2023-24 season, due to lack of recovery funding by HB 2459, a pandemic recovery bill for Oregon cultural organizations that wasnt funded in the 2023 legislative session.

There is still hope. Funding for the remaining 14 projects and the HB 2459 recovery bill will be addressed again in a special winter session in early 2024.

Please contact Oregon state Senator Suzanne Weber and let her know how important funding the remaining 14 projects is to the cultural and arts health of Oregon. Oregon Arts and culture is a $9.3 billion industry, or 3.4% of the states economy.

How to contact Rainier's state senator Oregon state Sen. Suzanne Weber: 503-300-4493 or Sen.SuzanneWeber@oregonlegislature.gov

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The latest order issued by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) could potentially mean that the import of Apple Watches is banned in the US. This order comes after the ITC found that the Cupertino-based tech giant violated the patent rights of the medical technology company Masimo. Apple smartwatches are some of the priciest devices you can buy right now as they are equipped with a suite of health trackers such as heart rate, ECG, fall detection, SpO2, and more. However, the inclusion of pulse oximeter could prove to be a costly affair for Apple due to a potential ban being slapped on the Apple Watches.

Potential Apple Watch ban

According to a Reuters report, Apple violated Masimo's patents for a light-based technology for measuring blood oxygen levels. In January, a US judge ruled that Apple indeed had infringed one of Masimo's patents. At that time, the decision was with US' ITC whether to ban the import of these smartwatches, and indeed it has taken the step, sending shockwaves around the tech industry.

The original complaint made by Masimo in 2021 claimed that the Apple Watch Series 6 infringed its patents which was originally made in China, but the production shifted to Vietnam later on. However, the ITC order did not specify which Apple Watches would be affected by the ban.

Masimo Chief Executive Officer Joe Kiani said that ITC's decision sends a powerful message that even the world's largest company is not above the law.

The report further states that this decision will not be in effect immediately as President Joe Biden will be provided a 60-day period to review the order and decide whether to veto it. If not, the policy will go into effect, meaning that the import of Apple Watch in the US could potentially be banned.

A spokesperson for Apple said, Masimo has wrongly attempted to use the ITC to keep a potentially lifesaving product from millions of U.S. consumers while making way for their own watch that copies Apple. While today's decision has no immediate impact on sales of Apple Watch, we believe it should be reversed, and will continue our efforts to appeal.

On the other hand, Apple has also sued Masimo in Delaware's federal court, claiming that Masimo's actions are a way to maneuver to clear a path for its smartwatch in a segment that is highly competitive.
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Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

With X, formerly known as Twitter, hitting the one-year anniversary of Elon Musk's US$44 billion takeover of the social media platform, it can feel disorienting to try to make sense of all that's gone down.

Blue check-mark verifications got hawked. Internal company documents about content moderation policies got laundered. A puzzling rebrand to "X" got hatched. And a literal cage match with Meta head Mark Zuckerberg was on again and, ultimately, off again.

It appears unclear what, precisely, Musk's ambitions are for the platform. But when a threatening competitor, Threads, emerged in summer 2023, he may have offered a brief window of insight.

A clone of X, Threads rolled up 100 million users in less than a week after its June launch, becoming the fastest-growing app of all time. Musk promptly erupted with two attacks on Zuckerberg's creation.

The first was catty and, as such, invited notice within digital spaces programmed to promote outrage. Musk declared, "It is infinitely preferable to be attacked by strangers on Twitter, than indulge in the false happiness of hide-the-pain Instagram."

The second"You are free to be your true self here"was more overlooked, yet revealed an essential premise that social media companies must sell to all their users.

As I argue in my new book, "The Authenticity Industries," authenticity represents the central battle for social media companies. They design their platforms to demonstrate and facilitate genuine self-performance from users. That's what makes for dependable data, and dependable datasold to advertisersis what makes the internet economy hum.

Silicon Valley's commitment to the ideal of authenticity remains ironclad, even as more and more people are starting to recognize that the internet isn't real life.

A life performed

Over the past decade, Instagramwith its glossy, obsessively manicured tableauxbecame the aesthetic antithesis against which all other social media platforms measure that authenticity.

Instagram tinted life by allowing users to apply sun-kissed, nostalgic filters to their photographs. To scrub clean any blemishes on selfies posted there, add-ons like Facetune enabled magazine-quality Photoshopping and topped paid-app charts. Instagram became your highlight reel: galleries of far-flung travels and mouth-watering food porn exquisitely curateda life performed as much as lived.

"[Instagram's] basically almost designed to make your friends jealous," one executive at TikTok confided to me. "It kind of makes me depressed a little bit sometimes when I go on Instagram and I feel, like, 'Oh, I'm not fit enough. I'm not successful enough.'"

Over time, #NoFilter caveats, blurry photo dumps and shameless "finsta" accountsa portmanteau of "fake" and "Instagram"arose as forms of authenticity backlash to the "false happiness" of the posed lifestyles appearing on users' feeds.

Heck, even Instagram knew it had a problem, copy-and-pasting Snapchat's signature ephemerality and launching its disappearing Stories feature to lower the pressure on users to post perfection.

If ever a platform, then, has been deserving of Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian's 2019 quip that "social media, to date, has largely been the domain of real humans being fake," it's probably Instagram.

Different flavors of the same thing

Recall Musk's second, more revelatory rejoinder on behalf of X: "You are free to be your true self here."

For two decades, this has been the first commandment of social media promotionboth by platforms and on them.

More broadly, all online communication bears the burden of proof in this vein: It must compensate for the absence of face-to-face verifiability, which a 1993 Peter Steiner cartoon for The New Yorker satirized with the caption, "On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog."

Research confirms this. One clever study by media scholars Meredith Salisbury and Jefferson Pooley scoured the publicity pablum, CEO platitudes and app store copy from Friendster onward, finding that nearly every site leans on the same rhetorical clicheslike "real life" and "genuine"as a means of defining itself against the purported phoniness of other sites.

But this might well be the narcissism of tiny differences at work, with Threads only the latest instance of social media copycatting.

In 2020, Wired incisively tallied how X's Fleets, a 24-hour posting-expiration feature, was a copy of Instagram's Stories, which was itself originally ripped off from Snapchat. Snapchat developed Spotlight for short-form video content, comparable to Instagram's Reels and YouTube's Shorts, all of which were an attempt to fend off TikTok, itself a reincarnation of Vine.

And all of these, including last year's 56 million-times-downloaded viral sensation, BeRealwhere users snap unfiltered, unposed selfies for friends at random times dailyhave promised users the opportunity to be their true selves.

In as much as Musk has pursued anything in his first year as Chief Twit, that seems to be his ambition: engineering a space with no social guardrails, where any inhibitions of decorum are ignored in favor of speaking, authentically, from the heart.

Ambitions don't match reality

To a certain kind of personality, that's probably an alluring offer. Indeed, Zuckerberg's originaland still most enduringplatform triumph, Facebook, depended on designing a website that induced an online performance of a "true" offline self.

Those norms were embedded in design choices, as Zuckerberg made plain his disregard for our multistage, two-faced selves in an oft-quoted line, "You have one identity. The days of you having a different image for your work friends or co-workers and for the other people you know are probably coming to an end pretty quickly."

"Single-identity authenticity" was Facebook's early market strategy, and the nascent website initially required users to register with a college email address. The design choice may well have been critical to Facebook vanquishing its closest early competitors, Friendster and Myspace.

"The .edu email system served as this authenticating clearinghouse," one early Facebook executive explained to me, a phrasing that could as easily be applied to the utility of Instagram accounts today for Threads. "Really, users 0 through 10 million were all verified and authenticated by the .edu email system, [while] Myspace had 57 Jennifer Anistons."

That authenticating clearinghouse would soon vanish as Facebook opened itself up to users not enrolled in collegelike, say, the disinformation agents who have meddled in U.S. elections from Russia.

A regression to the meanest

All this competition makes for authenticity jockeying: Musk attempted to parry Zuckerberg's Threads threat with his invitation to convene strangers who will stop being polite and start getting real.

But in an ominous echo of Rupert Murdoch's $500 million write-off of Myspace, Musk's $44 billion purchase has struggled with those bot-and-blue check mark difficulties of user verification.

None of this is to say Threads will eventually triumph over X, even as the crisis in the Middle Eastand the misinformation circulating because of itseems to have initiated another exodus of defectors from X. After all, a month after its launch, Threads had already lost an estimated 80% of its daily active users.

Threads' vibes may have been cheerful and friendly at the outsetdisingenuously so, according to Muskbut it may well prove that, eventually, all social media sites regress toward the meanest.

Musk would probably call that "authenticity." On X, you might not be able to trust the veracity of the user or the information they're spreading. But you can be sure that they don't feel like they have to bite their tongue and act nice.

Social media company names may change. But when identity is the most lucrative commodity they trade in, their fetishization of authenticity won't.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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A first ever study of wartime deepfake videos reveals their impact. Pictured (L-R) John Twomey, University College Cork researcher & Dr Conor Linehan. Credit: UCC/Max Bell

A first ever study of wartime deepfake videos reveals their impact on news media and outlines implications for social media companies, media organizations and governments.

Deepfakes are artificially manipulated audio-visual material. Most deepfake videos involve the production of a fake "face" constructed by AI, that is merged with an authentic video, in order to create a video of an event that never really took place. Although fake, they can look convincing and are often produced to imitate or mimic an individual.

Researchers at University College Cork (UCC) examined tweets during the current Russian-Ukrainian war, in what is the first analysis of the use of deepfakes in wartime misinformation and propaganda. The study was published 25 October in PLOS ONE.

'A new type of weapon in the propaganda war'

Close to 5,000 tweets on X (formerly Twitter) in the first seven months of 2022 were analyzed in the UCC study to explore how people react to deepfake content online, and to uncover evidence of previously theorized harms of deepfakes on trust. As deepfake technology becomes increasingly accessible, it is important to understand how such threats emerge over social media.

The Russo-Ukrainian War presented the first real-life example of deepfakes being used in warfare. The researchers highlight examples of Deepfake videos during this war including, the use of video game footage as evidence of the urban myth fighter pilot "The Ghost of Kyiv," a deepfake of Russian president Vladimir Putin, showing the Russian, president announcing peace with Ukraine, and the hacking of a Ukrainian news website to display a deepfaked message of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky surrendering.

Undermining trust

The study found fears of deepfakes often undermined users trust in the footage they were receiving from the conflict to the point where they lost trust in any footage coming from the conflict. The study is also the first of its kind to find evidence of online conspiracy theories which incorporate deepfakes.

The researchers found much real media was labeled as deepfakes. The study showed that the lack of deepfake literacy led to significant misunderstandings of what constitutes a deepfake, showing the need to encourage literacy in these new forms of media.

However, the study demonstrates that efforts to raise awareness around deepfakes may undermine trust in legitimate videos. News media and governmental agencies need to weigh the benefits of educational deepfakes and pre-bunking against the risks of undermining truth, the study asserts. Similarly, news companies and media should be careful in how they label suspected deepfakes in case they cause suspicion for real media.

"Much of the misinformation the team analyzed in the X (formerly Twitter) discourse dataset surprisingly came from the labeling of real media as deepfakes. Novel findings about deepfake skepticism also emerged, including a connection between deepfakes fueling conspiratorial beliefs and unhealthy skepticism," states John Twomey, UCC School of Applied Psychology researcher.

"The evidence in this study shows that efforts to raise awareness around deepfakes may undermine our trust in legitimate videos. With the prevalence of deepfakes online, this will cause increasing challenges for news media companies who should be careful in how they label suspected deepfakes in case they cause suspicion around real media,"

News coverage needs to focus on educating people

"News coverage of deepfakes needs to focus on educating people on what deepfakes are, what their potential is, and both what their current capabilities are and how they will evolve in the coming years," states Twomey.

"Researchers and commentators have long feared that deepfakes have the potential to undermine truth, spread misinformation, and undermine trust in the accuracy of news media. Deepfake videos could undermine what we know to be true when fake videos are believed to be authentic and vice versa," states Dr. Conor Linehan, Supervisor in UCC's School of Applied Psychology.

More information: John Twomey et al, Do deepfake videos undermine our epistemic trust? A thematic analysis of tweets that discuss deepfakes in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, PLOS ONE (2023). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0291668 Journal information: PLoS ONE
Japan is getting closer to ending a tradition that prohibits people with tattoos from joining the Self-Defence Forces (SDF), highlighting the shortage of personnel in the country's military.

The Stigma of Tattoos in Japan

Tattoos are widely accepted in many countries, but in Japan, especially by the older generations, they are still perceived as a sign of involvement in organized crime groups known as "yakuza."

In the 1700s, tattoos started being used to identify criminals, with markings ranging from a simple band on the wrist to a character on the forehead.

Tattoos were stigmatized in Japan because they were associated with criminal organizations, and the rest of society rejected them. Although some young people have chosen to get trendy tattoos that are popular in other countries despite the negative views, the number of people with tattoos in Japan remains very low.

A Change of Heart

Due to a lack of skilled personnel, the military is trying to find new recruits. Masahisa Sato, a former officer in the Ground Self-Defence Force and member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, suggested that regulations preventing certain individuals, such as those with tattoos, from joining the armed forces should be relaxed, as reported by South China Morning Post.

According to The Japan Times, Sato believes rejecting applicants based on tattoos could hinder the military's human resources development.

Sato clarified that tattoos such as small flowers or personal names, common in the fashion industry, should not be confused with the extensive tattoos favored by yakuza gangs.

Kazuhito Machida, who leads the personal and education division of the defense ministry, agreed with Sato's statement. He stated that the government should review its policies in light of the country's declining birth rate, as the number of new babies born last year was less than 800,000.

As Japan's population decreases, there is also a shortage of personnel. This is happening at the same time as the security situation in northeast Asia is getting worse. China is becoming more aggressive in the region, North Korea has nuclear weapons and long-range missiles, and Russia is presenting new challenges.

In April, the ministry announced that only 4,300 new people were hired on fixed-term contracts for the SDF during the financial year that ended in March. This is less than half of their goal of 9,245 recruits for all three military branches. This is the biggest shortage since 2009 when similar data was first collected.

Japan has approximately 247,000 members in its military, which is only 90% of its ideal size. Despite their attempts to recruit new members, there is still a shortage. The lack of awareness of security issues among the Japanese people is the leading cause of the shortage, according to Ryo Hinata-Yamaguchi, an assistant professor of international relations at the University of Tokyo. In contrast to other countries, it is uncommon to see individuals in uniform in Japan.

Read also: Japan and Philippines To Boost Military Partnership Amid China's Growing Aggression

Other Reasons Many People Don't Want to Join the Armed Forces in Japan

Hinata-Yamaguchi stated that despite many people not knowing that joining the armed forces is a viable career option, some also think the military is not essential. Moreover, there is a notion that working in the military does not offer good pay and that there are more advantageous job opportunities in the civilian sector.

People may not want to pursue a career in the services for many reasons. Some of these include instances of bullying and sexual harassment towards recruits, inadequate living conditions, and facilities on military bases. With the aging population and fewer young people entering the workforce, the military faces a personnel shortage and must develop innovative ways to attract new recruits.

Related article: Japan Announces $320 Billion Military Build Up Plan Amid Regional Tensions; Its Biggest Since World War II

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Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

The age-old game of strategy, often confined to chessboards and computer screens, is now being employed to tackle real-world threats against societies, economies and infrastructure, according to new University at Buffalo School of Management research.

Published in the European Journal of Operational Research, the study analyzes the use of attacker-defender games and reveals a connection between game theory and safety.

"In the wake of ever-evolving adversarial threats, governments worldwide have invested trillions to safeguard their nations," says the study's lead author Kyle Hunt, Ph.D., assistant professor of management science and systems in the UB School of Management. "Through game theory modeling, strategic interactions between defensive agencies and adversaries can be studied to tackle some of the world's most pressing security challenges, in both the physical and cyber environments."

The researchers analyzed 127 journal articles published between 2005 and 2021 and found that attacker-defender games have a wide range of use, including infrastructure and asset protection, inspection and screening, and patrolling.

These games use mathematics to model strategic interactions between those defending against threats and those perpetrating them, according to Hunt.

"Imagine a resource allocation model where a government needs to optimally distribute limited defensive resources to protect a set of vital targets, such as airports. On the other side, adversaries aim to identify and exploit vulnerabilities at these targets," he says. "This model reflects the essence of strategic games, where decision-makers manage an intricate dance of protection and infiltration."

The researchers say future studies should focus on developing new models to study contemporary threats, engage with subject matter experts and test these models in real-world scenarios.

More information: Kyle Hunt et al, A review of attacker-defender games: Current state and paths forward, European Journal of Operational Research (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2023.04.009
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Credit: Tsubame Industries

Ryo Yoshida has monster-sized dreams for his drivable, "Gundam"-like robot, even though its huge size makes it hard to park and the $3-million price tag will crush most wallets.

An imposing 4.5 meters (14.7 feet) high and weighing 3.5 metric tons (7,716 pounds), "Archax" can be moved and operated by a pilot who clambers up to the high-tech cockpit.

"I want to make people's dreams come true, the dream people once had as a child, which is to get on board a robot and control it just like science fiction movies," said Yoshida, CEO of the start-up Tsubame Industries.

"This is a product to help people taste a bit of that world," the 25-year-old told AFP at the Japan Mobility Show where his monster was a star of the show.

When maneuvered in the vehicle mode, "Archax" is capable of moving at 10 kilometers (six miles) per hour, according to the company.

It has 26 joints including on two huge hands, which a pilot controls with two joysticks, two pedals and a touchscreen.

One fun use could be getting several of the robots together for a shoot-em-up with toy guns like in the "Gundam" anime series, Yoshida suggests.

"This will be a new sport that still does not exist in the world now. If I can do it, I think I could bring more excitement to the world," he said.

He also envisages more practical roles, such as cleaning rubble after disasters and working at construction sites.

Yoshida said his company's objective is not only creating a robot but also developing a system to integrate a human pilot and a machine.

"This is an idea in which the pilot would not only get on board a robot but also feel as if he became the robot himself, as if he became gigantic," he said.

 2023 AFP
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Credit: Markus Winkler from Pexels

Online privacy policies may not only be difficult to find but nonexistent, according to Penn State researchers who crawled millions of websites and found that only one-third of online organizations made their privacy policy available for review.

"Privacy Lost and Found: An Investigation at Scale of Web Privacy Policy Availability," a paper authored by students and faculty from the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST), detailed an analysis of the online privacy policy landscape and studied the unavailability of privacy policies on company domains. It received the Best Student Paper Award at the 23rd Association for Computing Machinery Symposium on Document Engineering, also known as DocEng'23, held Aug. 2325 at the University of Limerick in Ireland.

"Privacy policies are legal documents that organizations use to disclose how they collect, analyze, share and secure their online users' personal data," said Mukund Srinath, doctoral student in the College of IST and lead author of the paper. "Privacy policies are often the only source of information regarding what happens to users' personal information online. The availability of privacy policies and the ability of users to understand them are fundamental to ensuring that individuals can make informed decisions about their personal information."

Legal jurisdictions around the world require organizations to post privacy policies on their websites. The European Union, for example, regulates this disclosure through laws such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). In the United States, privacy policy regulations are set at the state level, such as the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA).

These laws work under the principle of notice and choice, according to the researchers. Notice is a presentation of termsin this case, the privacy policyand choice is an action signifying the acceptance of those terms, such as clicking an "Accept" link or simply continuing to use the site.

Despite regulations such as GDPR and CPRA, most organizations are not in compliance, according to the researchers. That could mean that a company does not post its privacy policy or that it does so ineffectively, such as with a broken link, a blank page or unreadable content.

"Not many websites have privacy policies," Srinath said. "For a user landing on a random website, there is only a 34% chance that a privacy policy exists. Among them, there is a 2% to 3% chance that the link is broken. And 5% of the links that do work will lead to a page that contains irrelevant information, such as placeholder text or documents in a language that doesn't match the website's landing page."

The researchers conducted a large-scale investigation of the availability of privacy policies by crawling millions of English-language websites to identify when privacy policies were unavailable. They used the capture-recapture technique to estimate the frequencies of the failure modes and the overall unavailability of privacy policies on the web.

"We borrowed the technique that ecologists might use for animals in the wild," said Pranav Venkit, doctoral student in the College of IST and co-author of the paper. "They go into a forest of bears, capture a small sample, tag them and send them back into the wild. They go back the next day and capture another set. The unseen versus the previously seen bears enable the ecologists to estimate the bear population."

According to the researchers, proper resources are needed to support efforts to improve privacy policy availability rates.

"Regulators cannot keep up," Srinath said. "They are often overwhelmed by the numbers of privacy policies on the web and forced to rely on user complaints or compliance self-certification to prompt investigations of missing or ineffective privacy policies."

Promoting transparency and accountability in online data privacy practices is critical to the continued growth and development of the digital economy, according to co-author Shomir Wilson, assistant professor of IST, director of the Human Language Technologies (HLT) Lab at Penn State and adviser to Srinath and Venkit.

"This research provides important insights into the current state of privacy policy practices on the web that can inform efforts to develop more effective privacy policy standards and best practices as well as to improve the accessibility and comprehensibility of existing policies for users," Wilson said.

More information: Mukund Srinath et al, Privacy Lost and Found, Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Document Engineering 2023 (2023). DOI: 10.1145/3573128.3604902
Airline rewards programs are now at risk of being wiped out because of a new bill aiming to lower credit card transaction fees.

Because of this, many flight agencies, such as Southwest Airlines and United Airlines, criticize this legislation, saying it's a bad policy. If you are a regular passenger and rely on airline rewards programs, here's what you need to know about the proposed Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA).

Airline Rewards Could End Because of CCCA

According to Business Insider's latest report, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois proposed the Credit Card Competition Act in June. If this bill becomes a law, it will require big banks in the US to allow businesses to choose another payment network.

This means that airlines and other travel companies will be able to have at least one payment network that isn't Mastercard or Visa in credit card transactions.

Durbin argued that CCCA is needed because Mastercard and Visa hold a "duopoly" over card payments in the United States. He claimed that these two American banks control over 80% of credit card transactions.

The senator said that his proposed legislation was created to lower the 3% swipe fees that Visa and Mastercard charge to airlines and other businesses, which are usually passed on to consumers, leading to price hikes.

He added that if CCCA becomes a law, swipe fees will be reduced and a new market competition could start. But, some American airlines call this bill a "bad policy" because it could undermine their rewards programs.

Read Also: New Airfare Plan: France Considers End To Cheap Flights To Help Protect Environment

Why CCA is 'Bad Policy'

Southwest Airlines claimed that CCCA would undermine or even end credit card rewards programs offered by travel companies.

"This legislation is bad policy and would undermine, if not completely end, credit card rewards programs that millions of Americans rely on for their vacations or personal travel needs," said the Texas-based flight service provider.

Aside from this airline, The Daily Mail UK reported that United Airlines also opposes Durbin's proposed credit card swipe fee legislation.

United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby explained that CCCA is a bad policy because it could "kill" rewards programs if ever passed into law.

Southwest Airlines and United Airlines both argued that CCCA would negatively affect flight rewards programs because this legislation could drastically reduce the revenues of Mastercard and Visa.

If this happens, these payment networks would be less incentivized, forcing them to remove the loyalty rewards programs they offer to return the revenue they might lose.

Of course, airlines will also experience CCCA's impact since they could lose lots of revenues because they rely on credit card issuers to earn billions of dollars.

"Our customers certainly like them a lot. And so I think it'd be hard in Congress to take a vote that 84% of your voters are going to be upset with the outcome of that vote," said Scott Kirby.

Related Article: United Airlines Details Plans To Cut Boarding Time by Processing Window Seat Passengers First

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Gov. Greg Abbott announced Thursday that the Texas Music Office (TMO) has officially designated College Station as a Music Friendly Texas Certified Community.

The TMO, which was established in 2016 and is directed by Texas A&M graduate Brendon Anthony, requires applicants to complete a multi-step certification process. The designation is aimed at helping foster music business-related economic development and job creation throughout the state.

In a statement from the governor's office, Abbott said that the Texas music industry produces billions of dollars every year.

With support from the Texas Music Office, the Texas music industry accounted for more than 192,000 direct and indirect permanent jobs and generated more than $26 billion in economic activity statewide last year, the statement said.

TMO, Visit College Station and the city of College Station will hold a certification ceremony at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 2, at The Tap bar at 815 Harvey Road.

Bryan was designated as a Music Friendly Texas Certified Community in March 2022.
The I-14 Central Texas Corridor will stretch from Odessa to Augusta, Georgia, passing through Bryan-College Station along the way, but residents will probably not be able to experience it anytime soon with construction still an estimated 20-plus years away.

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) conducted an open house meeting in Bryan on Wednesday night to showcase the local study area for the I-14 Central Texas Corridor and the I-214 loop so the public can submit feedback or concerns.

While a preferred route will not be decided on for at least another seven years, TxDOT said the corridor is expected to roughly follow the current path of US 190 and/or Texas 30. The current local area of study includes a 125-mile stretch through Bell, Milam, Robertson, Madison, Brazos, Grimes and Walker counties.

Lindsey Schroeder, TxDOT Bryan District public engagement specialist, said residents concerned about how the corridor might affect their land should submit a request as soon as possible.

Dont stop any investments that you have into your property at this point, the process takes a long time, Schroeder said. The key thing is theres no route [yet]. Its not necessarily going down 190. Its not necessarily going down Highway 30. Its not set in stone at this point.

Bobby Colwell, TxDOT Bryan District public information officer, said it is critical for residents to submit their feedback during the study period so that TxDOT is made aware of as many variables as possible before a route is planned.

People know their property better than we do and so there may be some type of burial ground on their property that we would need to know about, and this would be the time to tell us, he said. Whether it be a cemetery, a church, a river, things of that nature, were looking at those things and taking those into consideration.

According to TxDOT, the planning phase is the first of six in the projects development timeline. This first phase will consist of three sub-phases and at least five rounds of public meetings over a seven-year period. As the study gets closer to a preferred route, TxDOT will narrow the conceptual route from a possible mile-wide area of study, to a 1,000-foot-wide area, to a final 300 to 500-foot-wide area that the corridor would eventually occupy.

This, however, is just the first phase and Colwell said it could be nearly a quarter century before construction begins.

What were calling it is a multi-year project, he said. So what were saying is, before you could ever see construction, or anything start, it could be as long as 20 years.  Or it could be longer.

Once completed, the corridor would be built to interstate standards, TxDOT said. This means that the main thoroughfare would consist of a minimum of two 12-foot-wide lanes in each direction separated by a 68-foot grass median. The minimum design speed of the corridor is 70 mph in open stretches and 50 mph through urban areas.

One of the biggest improvements that an interstate standard would bring would be increased safety, Schroeder and Colwell said.

When theres a corridor that is established, it would ultimately probably serve as a magnet for people to pull off those higher-traveled areas, Schroeder said. Safety is our number one priority.

Youre giving yourself more room if you were to make a mistake, Colwell said. An interstate system is the biggest we make.

While turnout at the meetings so far has been relatively high, Schroeder said that many residents arrived confused as to just how early in the process TxDOT is.

A lot of people think that we have a set route in place right now and we dont, she said. So I think a lot of the time folks think that when they can come to something like this, theyre going to see something set in stone. Were so early in the process right now, its more or less just grabbing feedback from the public.

Four first-round meetings have taken place in Madisonville, Navasota, Huntsville and Bryan-College Station, with two more scheduled for early November in Hearne and Cameron.

The Hearne meeting will be held at Hearne Elementary and the Cameron meeting will be held at the Yards of Cameron, both from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Nov. 2.

A virtual open house is also available on the TxDOT website at any time.

Comments can be submitted online at any time but must be submitted before Monday, Nov. 20 to be included in the official open house summary.
The Texas House approved three bills aimed at beefing up border security in the early morning hours Thursday, one that would appropriate more than $1 billion for additional border barriers, one that would allow police officers to send back migrants who cross the border illegally and another that would increase penalties for human smugglers.

Lawmakers spent hours debating the measures Wednesday and into Thursday morning. All three bills drew Democratic opposition, but the most contentious debate was House Bill 4, which would empower police officers to apprehend, arrest or send back migrants who cross the border illegally. Tempers flared when state Rep. Cody Harris, R-Palestine, made a motion to block new amendments, a rare move used to end a debate sooner.

After that motion passed, House Speaker Dade Phelan called a break as members posed parliamentary inquiries about the motion and the House stood at ease for hours. When they returned, Phelan called for the dozens of pending amendments to be heard.

State Rep. Armando Lucio Walle, D-Houston, confronted Harris during a break, saying its unfair for Republicans to cut off debate when theyre proposing legislation that hurts our community.

It hurts us to our [f] core, Walle said, according to a video posted on social media. And you dont understand that, you dont live in our skin. And thats what pisses me off.

The measure eventually passed 84-60. It will now head to the Senate, where theres strong support for the GOPs border security agenda.

The package of bills continues the states recent push to deter illegal immigration at the Texas-Mexico border, which has been a priority for Gov. Greg Abbott. The state has spent billions, and lawmakers are proposing to spend $1.5 billion more, as part of Abbotts Operation Lone Star.

U.S. Border Patrol agents have had a historically high number of encounters with migrants on the southern border in recent years: 1.7 million in fiscal year 2021, a record topped the next year when agents recorded 2.2 million encounters. In fiscal year 2023, which ended Sept. 30, the number dropped slightly to 2 million encounters.

HB 4, sponsored by state Rep. David Spiller, R-Jacksboro, would create a new state crime for illegally entering Texas from Mexico, authorize state police to arrest violators and allow officers to return migrants to a port of entry and order them to return to Mexico.

Under the bill, a first-time offender could be convicted of a misdemeanor and be punished by up to 180 days behind bars. The penalty would jump to a felony punishable by up to two years in prison if the person has repeatedly entered the country illegally.

The bill is another attempt by lawmakers to empower Texas law enforcement officers to enforce immigration laws, despite rulings by federal courts that the federal government has sole jurisdiction over immigration matters.

Spiller said his bill doesnt preempt federal law and only enforces laws already in place.

There is nothing unfair about ordering someone back from where they came if they arrived here illegally, Spiller said.

State Rep. Victoria Neave Criado, D-Dallas, said shes concerned that the bill could lead to officers mistakenly arresting U.S. citizens who live on the border if they dont have proof of citizenship handy.

Spiller said that scenario would seem unlikely because a U.S. citizen hasnt been wrongfully removed from the country.

However, the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the research arm of the U.S. Congress, has found that immigration agents have arrested 674, detained 121, and removed 70 potential U.S. citizens between 2015 and 2020, according to a July 2021 report.

Neave Criado also said HB 4 could be thwarted by Mexico if officials there refuse to accept non-Mexican migrants returned by Texas law enforcement.

Spiller said if that becomes an issue, Abbott will be able to work that out with the governors of the four Mexican states that border Texas.

But like in the U.S., Mexicos immigration policies are set by its federal government, not governors.

House approves more border wall money

The House voted 84-61 Wednesday to approve House Bill 6, sponsored by state Rep. Jacey Jetton, R-Richmond, which would appropriate $1.5 billion to fund Abbotts efforts to build border barriers along different parts of the 1,200-mile Texas-Mexico border.

The one-page bill says the state would pay five contractors to erect an additional 50 miles of border barriers and maintain the currently planned 40 miles of barrier, according to testimony provided by officials with the governors office.

The bill now goes to the Senate.

The state has issued $1.5 billion in contracts since September 2021 to build the original 40 miles of border barrier; as of August, contractors had erected 10 miles of it in different parts of the border, including in Starr, Cameron, Val Verde and Webb counties.

If the bill is approved, the state could have about 100 miles of border barrier by September 2026  on top of barriers built by the federal government. But acquiring the land remains a challenge because most of it is privately owned and the state would need to secure easements to erect the barriers on private land.

Our goal in the Legislature is to make sure that our law enforcement has all the tools in the toolbox that they need to secure our border, and this is one of them, Jetton said.

Jetton said the bill also would allow the state to also purchase more floating barriers to place on the Rio Grande. Earlier this year, Abbott ordered a 1,000-foot-long string of buoys, separated by serrated saw blades and supporting a submerged mesh net, to be installed in the Rio Grande at Eagle Pass.

A federal judge ordered Texas to remove the barrier because it didnt ask the federal governments permission to place it in international waters. An appeals court later granted Texas request to leave the barrier in place until the courts make a final ruling.

Stricter sentences for human smuggling approved

In a 90-57 vote, the House also passed Senate Bill 4, sponsored by state Rep. Ryan Guillen, R-Rio Grande City. The measure would increase the minimum sentence from two years to 10 years for smuggling immigrants or operating a stash house.

The bill was previously approved by the Senate and now goes to the governors office for Abbotts consideration.

Democrats said the definition of smuggling in the bill is too broad and could lead to law enforcement officers targeting people giving rides to friends or family who happen to be undocumented to places such as a church or a doctors office.

They also raised concerns that the bill imposes a 10-year mandatory minimum sentence, pointing out that more serious felonies have lower minimum sentences  first-degree felonies like murder carry a 5-year minimum sentence, for example.

But Guillen said the state needs to send a strong message that people smuggling immigrants into Texas will face stiff punishment.

What were trying to do with this bill is deter smuggling, he said. Were throwing the book at him.

Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, said the bill will not deter the criminal organizations that drive human smuggling on the border.

Ultimately, if your goal is to nail the big-time traffickers and smugglers with these provisions, you are not going to get them, this law will not touch them, Moody said. What this law will get is the 20-year-old kid who took $200 from the kind of person you dont say no to anyway, to drive someone from one side of town to the other.
Bank of Georgia Group PLC (OTCMKTS:BDGSF  Get Free Report) saw a large growth in short interest in October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 8,500 shares, a growth of 8,400.0% from the September 30th total of 100 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 0 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently  days.

Bank of Georgia Group Price Performance

Bank of Georgia Group stock opened at $41.92 on Friday. Bank of Georgia Group has a 52 week low of $41.92 and a 52 week high of $41.92. The companys 50 day moving average price is $40.37 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $38.47.

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Bank of Georgia Group (OTCMKTS:BDGSF  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 16th. The company reported $3.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The company had revenue of $223.01 million for the quarter.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Citigroup cut shares of Bank of Georgia Group from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a research report on Friday, August 18th.

Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on BDGSF

Bank of Georgia Group Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Bank of Georgia Group PLC, through its subsidiaries, provides various banking products and services in Georgia. It operates through three segments: Retail Banking, Corporate and Investment Banking, and BNB. The Retail Banking segment offers consumer loans, mortgage loans, overdrafts, credit cards, and other credit facilities; funds transfer and settlement services; and customers' deposits for individuals and legal entities under the Express, Bank of Georgia, MSME, and SOLO brands.

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Express (NYSE:EXPR  Get Free Report) and FBC (OTCMKTS:FBCD  Get Free Report) are both retail/wholesale companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings, profitability, dividends, risk and institutional ownership.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

22.3% of Express shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 8.6% of FBC shares are owned by institutional investors. 6.5% of Express shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 68.4% of FBC shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

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Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Express and FBCs top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

Gross Revenue Price/Sales Ratio Net Income Earnings Per Share Price/Earnings Ratio Express $1.86 billion 0.02 $293.83 million $54.81 0.17 FBC N/A N/A N/A -0.20 0.00

Profitability

Express has higher revenue and earnings than FBC. FBC is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Express, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

This table compares Express and FBCs net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets Express 10.26% -106.10% -13.63% FBC N/A N/A N/A

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Express and FBC, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score Express 0 0 0 0 N/A FBC 0 0 0 0 N/A

Summary

Express beats FBC on 5 of the 8 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Express

(Get Free Report)

Express, Inc. operates as a fashion retail company that offers apparel and accessories in the United States and Puerto Rico. The company sells its products under the UpWest and Express brands for men and women through its retail and factory outlet stores; express.com, an online store; and Express mobile app, as well as franchisees Express locations in Latin America. The company was formerly known as Express Parent LLC and changed its name to Express, Inc. in May 2010. Express, Inc. was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio.

About FBC

(Get Free Report)

FBC Holding, Inc. markets and sells streetwear clothing, headwear, and accessories for high school students in the United States. It offers shirts, jackets, hoodies, crewnecks, sweatpants, hats, and beanies under the FormRunner Apparel brand name. The company sells its product through 2 retail locations located in Scottsdale, Arizona, as well as through the online store FormRunnerApparel.com. FBC Holding, Inc. is based in Scottsdale, Arizona.

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Christmas came early for the Ferrum College Theatre Arts Department and its in-residence Blue Ridge Dinner Theatre on Wednesday. Staff announced they received a special license to perform Emmett Otters Jug Band Christmas this December.

This has been a long dream of ours, said Rebecca Crocker, assistant professor of theatre arts, in the announcement on Wednesday. When we were talking about what we could possibly do as a holiday show, the first thing that came out of our mouths was Emmett Otters Jug Band Christmas.

What was originally a 1977 television special directed by Jim Henson has now become a stage production. With the special license granted to Ferrum College, they will be one of only two theaters granted the rights to the performance. The other will be at Chicagos historic Studebaker Theater.

The musical is adapted from the television special and the illustrated book Emmet Otters Jug-Band Christmas by Russell Hoban and Lillian Hoban. It was inspired by the story The Gift of the Magi which is another Christmas classic.

The script was co-written by Timothy McDonald who eventually agreed to grant the rights to Ferrum College. Crocker said they contacted him in April about the performance. After some discussion, he agreed last month that Ferrum would be the perfect place to host the performance.

His response to us was I cant think of a better place for Ma and Emmett to be, Crocker said of McDonald.

While Crocker declined to say how much the college paid for the special license to perform the musical, she did say the amount was less than the license of most shows they have performed.

With the announcement on Wednesday, work will now begin on preparation. Crocker said puppets will be constructed similar to the original television special controlled by puppeteers as well as actors on stage.

Many of the performers for the show will be Ferrum College students, but they will also be looking to the community to also fill roles. Crocker said anyone interested in acting, singing, controlling puppets, or even playing string and percussion instruments. People are also needed to handle stage sound and lighting.

We feel this is something that can bring our community together, Crocker said.

Auditions and interviews for cast and crew will be held at Ferrum Colleges Rex Stephenson Theatre from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Oct. 29Sunday. Crocker said performers should prepare 32 bars of a holiday song and be ready to move and read sides.

For those looking to attend a showing of Emmett Otters Jug Band Christmas, performances will be held from Dec. 5 to Dec. 17 at the Blue Ridge Dinner Theatre. A traditional holiday meal will be served before each show.

Tickets are on sale now at www.ferrum.edu/theatre-tickets.
Charlottesvilles monument of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee is no more.

We come together this afternoon as a community to announce definitively that racists symbols dont belong in our parks or in our city, Andrea Douglas, executive director of the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, the statues owner, told a crowd of some 30 people on Thursday afternoon outside of the Charlottesville courthouse.

She spoke of the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally-turned-riot, the citys long racist past and the Black community members, past and present, who fought back.

We honor their belief that Charlottesville could become a place where democratic ideals and imaginings would flourish. Im proud to announce today we have fulfilled our promise to the city and to our supporters to melt Charlottesvilles statue of Robert E. Lee, she said.

Since it acquired the bronze equestrian statue in 2021, the Jefferson Schools Swords Into Plowshares project has been driven by a plan to melt down the statue and transform the remains into a work of public art.

Step one is complete. Now, the work begins to commission an artist and ideally bring an art installation to Charlottesville by 2027, 10 years after Unite the Right shook the city and the nation.

Its been a long time coming for our community, Olivia Gabbay, who attended Thursdays press conference, told The Daily Progress. To be around something thats caused so much sorrow and sadness and conflict in the community and to see the possibility of change, it feels good.

The Lee statue attracted national attention when White supremacists mobbed the city in 2017 to protest its planned removal from what was then called Lee Park, now Market Street Park. In addition to their tiki torches, the racists brought hate, mayhem and violence; one avowed racist drove his car through a crowd, killing anti-racist counterprotester Heather Heyer and injuring 35 others. Heyers killer, James Fields, is serving a life sentence in a federal prison in Springfield, Missouri.

Douglas made clear that it has been a long road to melting Lee.

In 2012, when Kristin Szakos dared to suggest that Confederate monuments and monuments to White exceptionalism do not belong in our public spaces, she said from the podium, referring to the former city councilor who long rallied to have the statue taken down.

Four years later, Charlottesville resident Zyahna Bryant, then a teenager, created a petition to remove the statue and rename the park, garnering 700 signatures and thus bringing the issue to City Council. Council voted to remove the monument in 2017, a decision that Jalane Schmidt of the Memory Project at University of Virginias Karsh Institute of Democracy and the Swords Into Plowshares steering committee, said should not have been controversial.

Robert E. Lee himself had insisted that there should be no Confederate monuments. The great abolitionist Frederick Douglass agreed, predicting that monuments to the Lost Cause will prove monuments of folly, Schmidt told the crowd gathered at Thursdays press conference. To her left sat a bronze ingot that was melted down from the bronze Lees sword.

This and other Confederate monuments were propaganda, she said, tricking generations of Americans into adopting a Lost Cause misinterpretation of the Civil War.

Some, Schmidt added, argue they should be preserved and used as teaching tools. That was the plan for the Louisa-based Trevilian Station Battlefield Foundation and Tazewell-based Ratcliffe Foundation, which tried and failed to prevent the Jefferson School from securing the statue earlier this year, arguing the city did not follow the correct procedures when gifting the statue to the cultural center. Ultimately, a judge ruled that the Ratcliffe Foundation did not legally exist due to improperly filed paperwork and the Trevilian Station Battlefield Foundation lacked standing.

In a multiracial democracy, we should not maintain the artistic equivalent of a Whites only sign in our public parks in the name of teaching history, Schmidt said Thursday. The fact that the statues stood for a century in our central parks is a testament to their perverse success as propaganda.

By converting the propaganda into a public art piece, the Jefferson School and Swords Into Plowshares said they hope to begin to heal a community where so many of its residents were once enslaved and which still bears the scars of slavery and Aug. 12, 2017, known locally as A12.

But the process will take some time. Douglas said the next step will be to form a jury and solicit art proposals, with the goal of naming an artist by 2024. Donations will also be collected to help fund the new art installation, and a fundraising goal of $4 million has been set, a number Swords Into Plowshares said it based off of public artwork projects in other parts of the country.

The jury is meant to allow the community to participate in the process, Douglas said. She said they will try to include people who specialize in sculpture, history and members of our community who understand our narrative deeply. The jury will help to ultimately choose the artist who will then create a proposal.

Well bring those proposals to the community. Theyll do some community engagement and then ultimately out of that process, theyll boil it down to one organization or artist, Douglas said.

Where in the city the piece will be placed, and if it will even be in the city at all, is still not known. Because the city owns the statues former home at Market Street Park, it will have to give final approval on any proposed location within that jurisdiction.

We have begun conversations with the city and they are open to this process, and so we will continue to engage with them as we move forward, Douglas said.

Three large photos of the statue being melted at an undisclosed foundry were placed next to the bronze ingot at Thursdays press conference. Douglas would not say what foundry ultimately melted Lee down. A Freedom of Information Act request submitted by The Daily Progress earlier this year discovered the statue was being stored at a foundry in Nashville, Tennessee. When that foundry was contacted, workers denied it was there.

Before Schmidt finished speaking Thursday, she told the crowd the next phase of the journey would be to convert something negative into something beautiful. And she cited a line from the prophet Isaiah, from which Swords Into Plowshares derives its name.

They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks, Schmidt said. And they shall study war no more.
The North Korea-aligned Lazarus Group has been attributed as behind a new campaign in which an unnamed software vendor was compromised through the exploitation of known security flaws in another high-profile software.

The attack sequences, according to Kaspersky, culminated in the deployment of malware families such as SIGNBT and LPEClient, a known hacking tool used by the threat actor for victim profiling and payload delivery.

"The adversary demonstrated a high level of sophistication, employing advanced evasion techniques and introducing SIGNBT malware for victim control," security researcher Seongsu Park said. "The SIGNBT malware used in this attack employed a diverse infection chain and sophisticated techniques."

The Russian cybersecurity vendor said the company that developed the exploited software had been a victim of a Lazarus attack several times, indicating an attempt to steal source code or poison the software supply chain, as in the case of the 3CX supply chain attack.

The Lazarus Group "continued to exploit vulnerabilities in the company's software while targeting other software makers," Park added. As part of the latest activity, a number of victims are said to have been singled out as of mid-July 2023.

The victims, per the company, were targeted through a legitimate security software designed to encrypt web communications using digital certificates. The name of the software was not disclosed and the exact mechanism by which the software was weaponized to distribute SIGNBT remains unknown.

Besides relying on various tactics to establish and maintain persistence on compromised systems, the attack chains employ an in-memory loader that acts as a conduit to launch the SIGNBT malware.

The main function of SIGNBT is to establish contact with a remote server and retrieve further commands for execution on the infected host. The malware is so named for its use of distinctive strings that are prefixed with "SIGNBT" in its HTTP-based command-and-control (C2) communications -

SIGNBTLG, for initial connection

SIGNBTKE, for gathering system metadata upon receiving a SUCCESS message from the C2 server

SIGNBTGC, for fetching commands

SIGNBTFI, for communication failure

SIGNBTSR, for a successful communication

The Windows backdoor, for its part, is armed with a wide range of capabilities to exert control over the victim's system. This includes process enumeration, file and directory operations, and the deployment of payloads such as LPEClient and other credential-dumping utilities.

Kaspersky said it identified at least three disparate Lazarus campaigns in 2023 using varied intrusion vectors and infection procedures, but consistently relied on LPEClient malware to deliver the final-stage malware.

One such campaign paved the way for an implant codenamed Gopuram, which was used in cyber assaults targeting cryptocurrency companies by leveraging a trojanized version of the 3CX voice and video conferencing software.

The latest findings are just the latest example of North Korean-linked cyber operations, in addition to being a testament to the Lazarus Group's ever-evolving and ever-expanding arsenal of tools, tactics, and techniques.

"The Lazarus Group remains a highly active and versatile threat actor in today's cybersecurity landscape," Park said.

"The threat actor has demonstrated a profound understanding of IT environments, refining their tactics to include exploiting vulnerabilities in high-profile software. This approach allows them to efficiently spread their malware once initial infections are achieved."
St. Pauls Trunk or Treat set for today

St. Pauls Lutheran Church will host its annual Trunk or Treat from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. today (Friday, Oct. 27), at 1515 S. Harrison.

Come trick-or-treat from decorated trunks, play games, and enjoy some spooktacular fun for the whole family. And its free!

For more information, call 308-382-2973.

Peace Lutheran hosts Trunk or Treat on Saturday

Peace Lutheran Church, 1710 N. North Road, has scheduled its Trunk or Treat from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 28.

Join family and friends in the event featuring creative costumes, trunks with lots of candy, giveaways and free hot dogs and chips. Activities are planned for the outdoors as well as inside.

Add to the fun by parking at Engleman Elementary and riding the shuttle to and from the church.

For more information, call 308-384-5673 or email office@peacegi.org

Trinity UMC schedules Halloween party for Sunday

Trinity United Methodist Church will host its Not-So-Scary Halloween Party and Trunk or Treat from 4 to 6 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 29, at 511 N. Elm St.

This free community event for all ages includes trunk-or-treating outside and carnival games inside. Come in costume if you wish.

For more information, call 308-382-1952 or email publications@trinityumcgi.org

Trinity Lutheran to host Surviving the Holidays seminar Nov. 5

Wondering how you will survive the weeks surrounding Thanksgiving and Christmas? Are you dreading these holidays, knowing everything has changed and happy memories from past years cant be recreated?

Trinity Lutheran Church will host "Surviving the Holidays," a seminar specially for people who are grieving a loved ones death. Youll learn how to deal with the many emotions youll face during the holidays, what to do about traditions and other coming changes, helpful tips for surviving social events, and how to discover hope for your future.

The event is scheduled from 4 to 6 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 5, at the church, 212 W. 12th St. Light refreshments will be served.

For more information, call the church office at 308-382-0753 or go to trinitylutherangi.org

Central City UMC plans Fall Fest on Nov. 5

CENTRAL CITY  The United Methodist Church, 2601 18th Ave., in Central City has scheduled its Fall Fest from 5 to 7 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 5.

Sloppy joes, chips and a cookie will be available, along with fellowship. A freewill donation will be accepted.

In addition a country store will provide items for sale and a silent auction. The auction closes at 6:30.

Hastings UMC turkey dinner set for Nov. 2

HASTINGS  Grace United Methodist Church, 1832 W. Ninth St. in Hastings, will hosts its annual turkey dinner from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 2.

The menu includes turkey and dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, cranberry salad, dinner roll and pumpkin pie.

The event is available as dine in or drive-thru. Those using the drive-thru will not have a beverage available and are asked to have your ticket ready as you enter.

Tickets for all ages cost $12 and can be purchased at the church office prior to event. Office hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to noon Friday. Tickets will also be available on Sunday morning.

For additional information, call 402-463-5696.

Merrick County food bank Nov. 4 at airport

CENTRAL CITY  The August Merrick County drive-thru food bank, organized by Central City United Methodist Church, is planned for 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 4, at the Central City Municipal Airport, 1346 Ormsby Road.

Perishable and nonperishable food provided by Food Bank for the Heartland in Omaha will be available. Drivers should stay in their vehicles and volunteers will put the food in the trunk or backseat.

For more information, call Tina at 308-946-2853.
The Business Coalition for Veterans is seeking Letters from Nebraska, a campaign now in its third year.

Last year, the coalition shipped care packages with letters of support and snacks to 85 Nebraska troops stationed overseas.

A thank-you note was sent to BCV from Kosovo:

Hello from Kosovo! We just received a large goodie box from you! I wanted to find you on FB and let you know it was warmly received! Its been challenging and rewarding for us to support this very unique mission. However, we are surrounded by a great team, and supported by so many back at home, like your nonprofit who give so much. One way to keep us happy is keeping our stomachs full! Thank you again for your support and the goodies we plan to enjoy!

This year, with the current landscape of hostilities we will send care packages to 200 Nebraska troops stationed overseas, said Chef Anthony, head of the coalition. We are asking for area schools, youth groups, scouts, etc., to write cards or letters of support and encouragement, and drop them into the red donation barrels

Snack items requested are: jerky, summer sausage, dried fruit, nuts, and popped popcorn, all in their original packaging. These items will survive the long haul to overseas locations.

Letters and snacks can be dropped off at any of these four locations through Oct. 30:

Veterans Affairs Medical Center, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, 2201 N. Broadwell.

Destiny Church, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 4306 W. Highway 30.

Tiffany Square, any time, 3119 W. Faidley.

St. Pauls Lutheran Church, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Thursday.

After Oct 30, the items will be boxed up and collected by military personnel who will get them on an overseas transport to troops from Nebraska.

For more information, call 308-227-8018 or email chefpro2012@gmail.com
According to Malaysia's communications minister, TikTok and Meta will receive a warning from the country's communications commission for allegedly removing pro-Palestinian content from their platforms.

Following comments from Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil that social media networks had been accused of limiting posts supporting the Palestinians, Meta has subsequently clarified that it was not purposefully stifling opinions on its Facebook platform, according to Reuters.

(Photo: by LIONEL BONAVENTURE/AFP via Getty Images) This picture taken on April 26, 2023, in Toulouse, southwestern France, shows a screen displaying the TikTok social media platform's logo and the European flag.

Without going into further detail, Fahmi said that several parties had requested the government to firmly punish social media companies for allegedly limiting pro-Palestinian information.

There was "no truth" to the assertion, according to a Meta representative. Requests for comment from TikTok did not immediately receive a response.

Read also: TikTok's New 15-Minute Video Limit Leads to Criticisms as Users Claim It's Copying YouTube

The Right to Freedom of Expression

Regarding the Palestinian struggle, Fahmi asserted that Malaysians have a right to freedom of expression and that this right will not be restricted. Next week, he added, he would meet with TikTok executives to talk about the situation.

Concerns have been raised two weeks after Fahmi said that TikTok had not completely complied with Malaysian legislation and had not taken sufficient steps to reduce offensive or deceptive material. In response, TikTok stated that it would take the initiative to resolve the concerns brought up.

Fadzil said there is evidence that the social media network TikTok has routinely banned information about the Israel-Palestine conflict from Malaysia.

According to Bernama, he claimed that the proof corroborated the numerous complaints his ministry had received from people who claimed that their live broadcasts and films on the subject had been blocked or taken down.

Videos of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's address from the "Malaysia Stands with Palestine" demonstration, which took place on Tuesday at the Axiata Arena in Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur, were among them, he said.

Fahmi claimed to have asked the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to summon TikTok for a meeting to discuss the situation and give a severe warning to the social media network.

A meeting with Meta will also be scheduled after a fictitious communication about limitations on material relating to "solidarity with Palestine" was received.

Additionally, over the past several weeks, Instagram has taken down photos and prohibited hashtags related to Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, one of the holiest sites in Islam, since the platform's content moderation algorithm incorrectly linked the location to a classification it reserves for terrorist organizations.

The error is Instagram's and its parent firm Facebook's latest content moderation issue. Facebook has been under fire from people all around the world for allegedly censoring posts criticizing Israeli brutality against Palestinians.

Related article: Meta, Instagram Sued by US States Over Depression, Anxiety, Insomnia Effects on Kids

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Demand is always strong for the annual Project Connect event.

Just before the doors opened Thursday at 10 a.m., about 80 people were standing outside, waiting to get in to the Pinnacle Bank Expo building at Fonner Park.

Inside, 40 to 50 service providers were ready to give those people a hand.

Project Connect is a day of free services for those in need  either experiencing homelessness or experiencing financial hardship, said Jennifer Figueroa of Hope Harbor.

Having the services provided in one spot, all in one day, makes it easier for folks who may be living on the streets or may be going from place to place, or those who dont have the money year-round, Figueroa said.

At Project Connect, people can receive free medical and dental services, including vision and foot care and health screenings. They can also learn about a host of programs. They know that they can get it done in one day and for free, Figueroa said.

On one side of the building, six stylists were giving people free haircuts.

One of the stylists, Tausha Burtis, made the trip from Lincoln, because volunteering is near and dear to my heart. Burtis is the manager of Supercuts at The Highlands.

Also donating their time were Karina Johnston and Nikki Smith of AK Stylz in downtown Grand Island.

It was the ninth time Johnston cut hair for free at Project Connect. I mean, why not give back when you can? said Johnston, the owner of AK Stylz.

In addition to Hope Harbor, Project Connect is organized by the Multicultural Coalition, Willow Rising, the Salvation Army and the Central Nebraska Community Action Partnership. The event, originally called Project Homeless Connect, used to take place at GI Free Church. This was its third year at Pinnacle Bank Expo.

Every year, St. Leos Catholic Parish holds its annual coat giveway the same day as Project Connect. Now in its 19th year, the coat giveaway runs from 10:30 to 5 p.m.

After 11 a.m., there was also a line outside St. Leos.

For families, the approach of winter underscores the urgency of picking up coats, hats and gloves.

Why does St. Leos organize the big project every year?

Were just trying to serve the community. Thats one of our Catholic social teachings, is to take care of the poor and the vulnerable, said Peachis Amadou, the churchs outreach coordinator.

Grand Islanders do a great job of supplying gently used coats, hats, gloves and scarves, Amadou said.

In addition to the church, drop-off boxes are set up at U-Save on Webb Road, Hy-Vee and both Super Savers.

A total of 1,698 coats were distributed by St. Leos last year. Coats not claimed are taken to Church of Christ, which has a free clothing giveaway every Thursday.

Meanwhile, back at Pinnacle Bank Expo, interested people could find out about the Oxford Houses of Nebraska.

The homes are for people who are ready to be done with drugs and alcohol, said Troy Jass of Hastings, who is the programs outreach coordinator for western Nebraska.

Grand Island is home to four Oxford Houses  three for men and one for women with children. More than 80 Oxford Houses operate in Nebraska, including two in Hastings and three in Kearney. The Omaha area has 44.

The addiction recovery houses are operated at no cost to taxpayers, Jass said. Residents pay a weekly fee for housing, and are free to stay as long as they want.

The program has an 87% abstinence rate for people who stay at least a year, Jass said.

Residents caught with drugs or alcohol are shown the door, and referred for in-patient treatment.

Recovery is contagious, and so is relapse, Jass said.

Most alcoholics who dont achieve sobriety have a sad ending, he said.

At another table, Mirian Hurtado and Tina Bourland were representing the Hall County Housing Authority.

The Housing Authority has two programs, one of which is public housing. The Authority leases and maintains 376 apartment units and duplexes, plus 18 scattered site houses. Tenants pay 30% of their adjusted income toward housing costs.

Hurtado said the wait for one-bedroom apartments is two to three months. For two-bedroom apartments, the wait is four to six months. The wait is 24 months for three-bedroom apartments.

The other Housing Authority program is a voucher program, in which people find lodging with private landlords. The voucher program is also known as Section 8.

One of the businesses on hand was Selectel Wireless, which was advertising the Affordable Connectivity Program, created by Congress. Those who qualify for the program may receive a free smartphone and service.
Charlotte Clymer, a transgender activist, at left, moderates a dicussion with, left to right, Omaha State Sens. Machaela Cavanaugh, John Fredrickson and Megan Hunt on Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023, in Washington, D.C. The trio of lawmakers created the Don't Legislate Hate political action committee to fight anti-LGBTQ legislation. (Tom Schumacher/Courtesy of Sen. Megan Hunt)

LINCOLN  A trio of Nebraska lawmakers took to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday for a fundraiser they hope will help turn the tide in Nebraskas upcoming elections and against anti-LGBTQ legislation.

State Sens. Machaela Cavanaugh, John Fredrickson and Megan Hunt, all of Omaha, formed the Dont Legislate Hate political action committee in April. It was established in response to legislation that sought to restrict health care for transgender and gender-nonconforming youths.

The Legislature passed Legislative Bill 574 this spring for such restrictions for minors beginning Oct. 1. The bill outlawed transition surgeries and restricted puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for minors.

The trio has been no stranger to national attention this year as Cavanaugh sustained a filibuster in response to LB 574 that lasted nearly two-thirds of the 90-day session, from Feb. 23, the day after LB 574 advanced from its legislative committee, to May 19, when the bill passed.

Taking few breaks during that period, the Cavanaugh filibuster is believed to be one of the longest of its kind in American history. No one had used the Nebraska filibuster the same way.

Cavanaugh said she did what was in her capacity to do and encouraged others to act if they want to fight similar legislation.

What I did should not be extraordinary. It should be the ordinary, Cavanaugh told those attending the fundraiser in Washington, D.C. Standing up for vulnerable populations and using your platform, whatever your platform is, to do that.

Mike Lux, a Nebraskan who co-founded the progressive-policy-focused Democracy Partners, hosted the discussion. Charlotte Clymer, a trans activist, moderated the event. Cavanaugh and Hunt said at least 40 people attended in person, and Dont Legislate Hate livestreamed the event on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Laws demonize LGBTQ people

State Sen. Kathleen Kauth of Omaha, a freshman lawmaker, introduced LB 574 as well as LB 575, which would restrict K-12 bathrooms, locker rooms and sporting teams to students sex at birth. Kauth has denounced the anti-trans label for her bills and said they are about protecting kids.

There are absolutely people who believe they should be the opposite sex  but wanting to be viewed differently than your actual sex does not in fact change your sex, Kauth said in September when asked if there is such a thing as a transgender person.

Opponents, including those with Dont Legislate Hate, also argue they are protecting kids.

Cavanaugh said Thursday that the fundraiser fits into a larger conversation on efforts to demonize the LGBTQ community and distract from meat and potato issues, including child care and affordable housing.

Its not based on medical best practice, Cavanaugh told the Examiner. Its based on the ideology and feelings of lawmakers.

Cavanaugh declined to comment on how much money the PAC has raised.

We are above it

Fredrickson, a freshman lawmaker and mental health practitioner, said its important to bring conversations back to reality and to move away from sensationalized language, such as the contention that physicians are mutilating kids.

A trans kid wanting to play volleyball is not what people are going to the ballot box for, Fredrickson said.

Luka Hein, a Nebraska woman who received gender-affirming care as a minor, is suing physicians at the University of Nebraska Medical Center over her care, including a double mastectomy at age 16. Hein supported Kauth and was a key supporter of LB 574.

The Dont Legislate Hate trio intends to focus its 2024 efforts on supporting Nebraska candidates who will fight proposals such as LB 574 and LB 575.

Hunt said a goal will be to return the Nebraska Legislature to a tradition of nonpartisanship. This includes helping to elect moderates and leaders who are sober and serious and focused on important issues, she said.

These culture war and woke issues are a trap, and politicians have fallen for it, but Nebraskans are sick of it, Hunt said in a text.

Nebraska First, a PAC founded by former Republican gubernatorial candidate Charles Herbster, conducted polling in mid-March that indicated a majority of Nebraskans surveyed were in favor of LB 574 and LB 575.

Looking ahead to 2024

Cavanaugh said its hard to say what 2024 will look like, including whether LB 575 will be a key issue. For example, State Sen. Merv Riepe of Ralston, who sank a more restrictive abortion bill this year but supported LB 574, told the Examiner in September he continues to have hesitancy over LB 575.

Cavanaugh said she hopes 2024 brings a more boring session and that thoughtful minds prevail.

If thats not the case, I am prepared to address the situation, whatever it may be, Cavanaugh said Thursday. But for right now, Im going to reserve judgment on what the session will look like.
Hotel giant Marriott signs deals to open 3 new resorts in Vietnam

By Tri Duc Fri, October 27, 2023 | 10:22 am GTM+7

Marriott International, Inc. has signed agreements to open three new resorts in Vietnam in a move to expand its luxury portfolio, the U.S. hotel operator said on Thursday.

The Ritz-Carlton Reserve and The Luxury Collection will be based on Hon Thom island in the southern province of Kien Giang, and a JW Marriott hotel will be opened in Trang An, a popular eco-tourism spot in the northern province of Ninh Binh.

Marriott International signed three agreements for the locations recently during a visit by president and CEO Anthony Capuano. The signing marked the debut of Ritz-Carlton Reserve and The Luxury Collection as new brands in Vietnam, and the third JW Marriott hotel in Vietnam, after Hanoi and Phu Quoc island.

JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel. Photo courtesy of the hotel.

JW Marriott Trang An Resort & Spa is slated for opening in 2028. The project is being developed by Vietnamese multi-sector conglomerate Bitexco, also the owner of JW Marriott Hanoi. It will feature 150 spacious rooms and suites, plus a collection of 35 one- and two-bedroom villas, two restaurants, a cafe, lobby lounge and two bars, leisure facilities, and event spaces.

The Luxury Collection resort, owned by Vietnamese realty developer Sun Group, is set for opening in 2029. It is expected to have 305 rooms and suites, two pool areas, a kids club, activity center, fitness center, spa, six restaurants and bars, and event spaces. Sun Group is also the owner of JW Marriott Phu Quoc Emerald Bay Resort & Spa.

The Ritz-Carlton Reserve resort, also owned by Sun Group, is anticipated to open in 2028. It is designed to have 40 pool villas, two resort pools, a spa, salon, fitness center, three restaurants, three bars, and event spaces.

Vietnam is a growing market for luxury travel, with rising demand from both international and domestic sectors. These signings further underscore our commitment to the future of hospitality and luxury in Vietnam, said Rajeev Menon, president for Asia Pacific (excluding China) of Marriott International.

For overseas guests, Vietnams status as a destination with many natural and cultural wonders makes it ideal for visitors seeking one-of-a-kind experiences. The countrys domestic market interest in luxury travel is driving a rise in demand for global luxury brands, Menon added.

These signings add to Marriotts robust portfolio in Vietnam, which is set to expand to more than 50 properties across the country, as Marriott currently operates 16 facilities in the country under eight brands in 10 destinations.

Marriott International Inc. plans to open 20 new luxury hotels and resorts in top tourist destinations like Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang and Phu Quoc Island as the nations tourism industry recovers, Anthony Capuano said to Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh at a meeting on Wednesday.
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It turns out there is no silver bullet for avoiding deer-car collisions.

Each year the Illinois State Police issue a warning for drivers to be on high alert because deer are most active in the fall and early winter months. More traffic accidents involving deer occur in November than any other month.

But, realistically the only thing drivers can do is to be on high alert, especially when driving at night.

There are not a lot of laws when it comes to deer, said Melissa Albert of the Illinois State Police public information office. There are a lot of tips. A lot of it is common sense. Slow down, especially where you see deer crossing signs. If you see one deer run across the road, be prepared. They usually travel in groups.

IDOT (Illinois Department of Transportation) numbers tell us the months of October, November and December are responsible for about half the crashes, Albert said. Its mating season. Theyre out running around. They dont follow the rules. They do what they want.

Its just that, unfortunately, they are not predictable creatures. There are plenty of fences around interstates, but there is no foolproof way to avoid it. Keep your headlights on. Those are just little things you can do to avoid an injury crash.

Other precautions are similar.

Albert said drivers need to be aware of their surroundings, take note of areas in which deer are frequently seen. Drivers also need to scan the side of the road for eyes reflecting in the headlights. Most car-deer collisions occur at twilight or in darkness.

In a recent news release, Natalie Phelps-Finnie, director of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources stated there were 14,524 car-deer collisions in 2022. There were 13,892 crashes that resulted in damage to property or vehicles and 692 that resulted in injuries.

Four of those crashes resulted in fatalities.

While there is frequently nothing drivers can do to avoid a collision with a deer, Albert offered concrete advance to help minimize injuries.

If a deer does run in front of you, dont veer from the deer, Albert said. Were not telling you to hit the deer, were telling you not to swerve. It is safer for you to hit the deer than go into a ditch at full speed and possibly flip.

Admittedly, taking no evasive action can sometimes be easier said than done.

You have seconds to react, Albert said. Reading about it, understanding why we are suggesting that, hopefully it is in that catalog in your brain. Most peoples knee jerk reaction is to swerve. You need to be aware of where youre at, ditches and tress, they can kill you if you are driving at a high speed.

And, a deer-vehicle collision can occur anywhere, on remote backroads or on interstates in heavily populated urban areas.

You can see deer lined up on the interstate from Chicago to St. Louis along I-55, Albert said. Its just something everyone needs to be aware (of), especially when you are driving at higher speeds.

In fact, the number of people in an area seems to be as much a factor in car-deer accidents as the number of deer.

Cook and Madison counties had the highest number of deer-car collisions last year. Rounding out the top 10 counties are McHenry, Lake, Will, Peoria, Fulton, Kane, Sangamon and Macoupin.

If you do strike a deer with your vehicle, you may not have to talk to a policeman in person.

If the accident involved just one vehicle, there were no injuries and damage to the vehicle is less than $1,500, a report can be filed online at: https://isp.illinois.gov/CrashReports/ CrashReportDisclaimer.
(TBTCO) - Thi truong chung khoan hom nay (2/11) co phien phuc hoi thu 2 lien tiep. ang chu y, ay la phien tang tren 3% lan thu 2, chi sau phien tang manh au nam. Sau nhip ieu chinh 230 iem ke tu inh, nhieu co phieu giam sau nen nhip tang dut khoat ngay tu khi mo cua va ngay cang manh ve cuoi phien khien nhieu co phieu ong cua o muc gia tran. o cung chinh la iem nhan trong phien hom nay.
Israeli troops and armor launched an hours-long ground raid into northern Gaza late Wednesday night and into Thursday morning (October 25-26), targeting several Hamas installations to "prepare the battlefield" before an anticipated ground invasion.

The raid, which included indigenous Merkava tanks of the Israel Defense Force (IDF), was the latest in a series of military actions since the bloodshed Hamas initiated earlier this month.

The IDF said Israeli soldiers reportedly killed fighters and destroyed militant infrastructure and anti-tank missile launching positions without any casualties on their side.

However, there was no immediate confirmation of any Palestinian deaths or injuries.

Gaza's Deteriorating Situation

The Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry reported on Wednesday that there were over 750 people dead in the past 24 hours, which was higher than the 704 killed the previous day (Tuesday, October 24). However, the Associated Press could not independently verify the death toll, and the ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

Also on Wednesday, The wife, two children, and grandson of Al Jazeera Gaza bureau chief Wael Dahdouh were killed in an Israeli airstrike, and the Qatar-based network showed footage of his grief as he mourned his dead son.

Read Also: Russia, China Veto US-Backed Resolution at UN Over Worsening Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza

Retired Israeli General: It's Just the Beginning

The IDF has since stressed they were only striking military targets and accused Hamas of operating and launching rockets among civilians in the densely-populated strip.

Benny Gantz, retired Israeli general and member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's war cabinet, told reporters the anticipated ground offensive would only be "one stage in a long-term process that includes security, political and social aspects that will take years."

"The campaign will soon ramp up with greater force," he added.

The remarks echoed Netanyahu's vow to eliminate Hamas for its attack on civilians on October 7.

"We brace for a ground incursion. I won't detail when, how, or how much. I also won't specify the set of considerations we weigh," he said. "When we enter Gaza, we'll make Hamas pay the price for its attack."

Related Article: Gaza Fuel Supplies May Halt Delivery of Aids as Hospitals Become 'Mass Graves'

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The University of Wyoming has agreed to end a lawsuit brought by a Laramie church elder who sued the school for suspending his tabling privileges after he hung a sign directed at a transgender student in the Wyoming Union last year.

UW announced Friday that it has signed a consent order that would prevent the university from carrying out its yearlong suspension of Laramie Faith Community Church elder Todd Schmidts tabling privileges and bar the school from censoring Schmidts views on the sexuality of Artemis Langford, the transgender student Schmidts sign referenced. The school will also cover $35,000 in Schmidts legal fees.

However, UW will still retain its ability to sanction possible future misbehavior by Schmidt, such as continuing to engage with students who do not wish to speak with him.

Schmidt and Chad Baldwin, a spokesperson for UW, declined to comment.

If approved by U.S. Senior District Judge Nancy Freudenthal, the agreement would officially bring an end to the polarizing case that stirred concerns among alumni and drew anger from some lawmakers and elected officials.

Last December, Schmidt set up a table in the Wyoming Union breezeway with a sign that challenged the sexuality of Langford, the first transgender student accepted into a UW sorority. As students gathered and word of the sign spread, UW Dean of Students Ryan ONeil asked Schmidt to take down the sign. He complied and was allowed to stay. In the immediate aftermath, UW President Ed Seidel wrote in a message to students and staff that Schmidts heated exchanges with students did not clearly violate university policies.

However, the university reversed course within a week. Seidel announced Schmidts suspension on Dec. 7, calling the incident harassment of a UW student by an individual external to the university. In a statement, Seidel said that the university had concluded Schmidt violated university policies against discrimination and harassment.

The controversy quickly grew beyond Laramie. UW alumni circulated a letter in the wake of the incident calling for greater action against harassment and more support for the universitys LGBTQ+ community. Lawmakers and then secretary of state-elect Chuck Gray sent a letter to UW slamming the schools decision, declaring that Schmidts suspension violated his First Amendment rights. At the time, freedom of speech and legal experts split over the legality of UWs tabling decision, with some saying that the university acted within its rights and others saying it could run afoul of the First Amendment if the suspension was challenged in court.

Schmidt ultimately sued UW in June, claiming Seidel and ONeil violated his constitutional rights. In a federal complaint, his attorneys argued that the university infringed on Schmidts free speech, due process, equal protection and rights against unconstitutional conditions. Douglas Mason, a Pinedale-based attorney, and Nathan Kellum, an attorney with the Center for Religious Expression, portrayed Schmidts tabling and his use of the sign as a means of conveying his Christian beliefs and spurring friendly discussions. From the beginning, Schmidt had accused UW of discriminating against his religious beliefs, which do not recognize transgender people.

Lawyers for UW refuted Schmidts claims, telling the court that Schmidt was discriminating and harassing a student, which is not protected speech. According to UW, Schmidt had created a hostile environment for students and university employees and violated school policies to the point that the university had to start documenting complaints. UW also asserted that the breezeway of the Wyoming Union is a limited public forum where the university has some ability to control where, when and how speech occurs.

Freudenthal was unconvinced by the universitys arguments and in August granted a preliminary injunction reinstating Schmidts tabling privileges ahead of trial. She found that UW likely violated Schmidts First Amendment rights and discriminated against his religious views. In a Sept. 29 letter reiterating UWs commitment to free speech and free expression on campus, Seidel said the university would not challenge Freudenthals preliminary ruling.

Fridays consent order was filed with the support of both UW and Schmidt. Freudenthal had originally scheduled a pretrial conference for Nov. 30 ahead of a looming trial.
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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.
Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT) is being urged to not downplay the cyberattack and breach of its system, as the ransomware group who are criminal extortionists will hit them again to send a message.
DEATH CAR: The mangled Honda Fit which claimed the life of UWI student Kerissa Dowrich, seen at the San Fernando Police Station yesterday afternoon. On Saturday night, Dowrich and two friends, Dana Corbie, and a male friend, were returning from dinner when a vehicle crashed into them near La Romaine.

Photo: DEXTER PHILIP
Three historical artifacts that were smuggled out of China by Australia have now been delivered to Beijing.

Chinese authorities in Canberra received a dinosaur fossil that is more than 100 million years old as well as two Tang Dynasty figures. The items were confiscated by police at the Australian border, who then reported them to the appropriate authorities for further inquiry, according to BBC News.

(Photo: by DAVID GRAY/AFP via Getty Images) Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (L) and Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney walk to a media conference at Parliament House in Canberra on October 14, 2023. Australians have roundly rejected greater rights for Indigenous citizens, scuppering plans to amend the country's 122-year-old constitution after a divisive and racially-tinged referendum campaign.

Anthony Albanese, the Australian prime minister, will visit Beijing later this month after the handover.

These items are:

A fossil of a long-necked lizard called a hyphalosaurus, which lived between 120 and 133 million years ago in northeastern China.

A figure from the Tang Dynasty (618 to 907 CE) showing a rider on a horse playing a wind instrument. To ensure a secure voyage to the afterlife, these statues were erected in tombs.

An altar object from the Tang Dynasty that is a gilded bronze statue of the Buddhist god Avalokitesvara.

According to a representative of the Australian government, the Tang Dynasty artifacts were brought the next year, while the fossil was imported in 2020.

Before they reached Australia, the commodities had been forcibly transferred from China to other nations. No one was charged since there was no proof the Australian importers knew the items had been taken illegally from China, the spokeswoman continued.

Two other pieces from the Ming and Qing eras were also presented to China at the handover ceremony by the National Gallery of Australia and a private collector.

At the event, according to the news agency Xinhua, China's envoy to Australia, Xiao Qian, conveyed his "heartfelt gratitude" to the Australians.

A Successful Collaboration

Australia and China have reportedly been collaborating closely for the past three years to assist the return of illegally imported fossils, artwork, and cultural artifacts, according to Chinese official media.

After a ten-year inquiry revealed that three bronze statues from the 9th and 10th centuries had been stolen, Australia's National Gallery returned them to Cambodia in August.

The repatriation of four Aboriginal spears that were stolen by British explorer Captain James Cook and his landing party in 1770 when they first landed in Australia was also reported in March.

China has been louder recently in demanding the repatriation of historical artifacts that were taken from them, including ones that are presently in the British Museum.

Read also: Titanic Artifacts Found, New Discovery Mission "Like Opening a Treasure Box"

A Similar Story

In January this year, nine wooden Buddha sculptures that had been in the family of an Australian citizen for more than a century have now been returned to Thailand.

The little carved figurines, which are each around 10-15 cm tall, were returned at the request of Thailand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which handed them over to the Fine Arts Department of the Ministry of Culture in a formal ceremony yesterday.

According to a story on the news website Thaiger, Canberra resident Murray Upton donated the artifacts, which are believed to have been created by regional artists in the southern city of Trang. Murray Upton claimed to have received the sculptures from his father, who bought them in Thailand in 1911.

Related article: Titanic Artefacts: 12 Most Shocking Things Discovered from the Wreck

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Resting at the heart of our actions are the implications which can result from them. We have all, at some juncture, had to pause to consider possible consequences.
Arizona drivers now have 101 different license plate options to choose from now that the state has added three new specialty plates, officials said.

The new specialty plates, dubbed Empower, In Loving Memory and State Forty Eight will all have a portion of their sales go toward supporting charitable causes, the Arizona Department of Transportation said Thursday in a news release.

Specialty license plates offer a great way to customize a vehicle and show your proud support for one of these uniquely Arizona organizations, said Eric Jorgensen, director of the states Motor Vehicle Department said in the release. MVD is pleased to offer the various plates that will have an impact for the organizations dedicated to improving Arizona and our communities.

Like most specialty plates, the new choices will each be priced at $25 a year, with $17 of each plate going to the designated charity or nonprofit organization associated with the plate, according to the news release. Personalization costs another $25 annually.

Empower

The Empower plate will support the Empower Coalition, a Tucson-based nonprofit that supports veterans and their families in need of help. Jim Storey, founder and CEO of the group, says that these plates will support the heroes who need it most.

For those of you that purchase the license plate, not only will it look fantastic on your vehicle, but most importantly, the proceeds will go to those who need it the most, he said Thursday in a written statement. [O]n behalf of the members of Empower Coalition, thank you to everyone who has and continues to serve our country.

In Loving Memory

Proceeds from the In Loving Memory will go to Billys Place, Inc., a Glendale-based nonprofit organization founded in 2013 that provides comfort and companionship to kids and families experiencing grief, according to the organizations website.

Billys Place is a safe community for kids and families experiencing grief, where, as one dad said, families go from broken, to hopeful, to providing hope, said executive director of Billys Place, Kris Friedman.

When someone purchases the In Loving Memory license plate they are helping support hundreds of thousands of kids and families throughout Arizona who have experienced the death of a parent, sibling, child, or another special person, she said.

State Forty Eight

A State Forty Eight license plate purchase will go to the State Forty Eight Foundation, a Chandler-based organization aimed to support entrepreneurs and small-business owners by providing free access to resources and education, as well as grant funding.

[W]e took on the challenge of educating our representatives about who we are and the substantial impact we have across the state, said Zach Hall, president of the foundations board of directors. With every license plate purchased, the community is providing access to essential resources and grant funding for small business owners in Arizona.
American Battery Factory on Thursday broke ground on the first phase of a 2 million-square-foot gigafactory to produce lithium iron-phosphate battery cells south of Tucson International Airport, promising $1.2 billion in capital investment and about 1,000 new jobs at full buildout.

Gov. Katie Hobbs and local government officials and business leaders wielded golden shovels at a groundbreaking ceremony in Pima Countys nascent Aerospace Research Campus, where the first phase of construction of the planned fabric-covered buildings is expected to be completed by Sprung Instant Structures by 2025.

The battery factory, which is expected to employ about 300 workers initially, is expected to generate $3.1 billion in economic impact to the state over 10 years.

American Battery Factory, a spinoff of Utah-based battery pack maker Lion Energy, plans to make the Tucson plant its headquarters, the companys chief marketing officer, Shaun Stirland, told a crowd at the groundbreaking.

It will be the first of a network of giga factories that well build across the country, Stirland said. But were grateful to be here for our corporate headquarters, thats exciting for us.

American Battery Factory President John Kem said the first phase of construction will also include a battery research center.

Kem said the new battery factory and ones to follow will help the U.S. reap the economic benefits of the green revolution now enjoyed largely by foreign countries.

While U.S. firms have played a part, it hasnt been a big enough part and in many cases, a lot of the work has been done overseas with just some of the final assembly in the U.S., he said. Were determined to change that, and were going to do that by working to source raw materials from inside the United States.

Kem said that the companys lithium iron phosphate battery chemistry is much safer and much longer lasting than traditional electric-vehicle batteries, which commonly use a nickel-cobalt-manganese chemistry.

The new factory will feature state-of-the-art manufacturing technology and leverage machine learning and artificial-intelligence technology, he said.

Hobbs said the new plant is just the latest example of high-tech companies flocking to Arizona, including nine battery-related companies in recent years.

This is a momentous occasion for Arizonas advanced manufacturing ecosystem, the governor said. Arizona is quickly becoming a global epicenter for sustainable technologies, including electric vehicles, solar energy, semiconductors, and of course batteries.

Joe Snell, president and CEO of Sun Corridor, said the effort to land American Battery Factory was competitive, but the local economic-development partners were determined to succeed.

American Battery Factory was lured to the area by the efforts of partners including Pima County, the city of Tucson, Sun Corridor Inc., the Arizona Commerce Authority, Pima Community College and Tucson Electric Power.

It validates our position as a player in the clean energy revolution thats occurring, Snell said. Most of the companies in our pipeline right now are made up of clean energy related industries  thats never happened before.

Tucson Mayor Regina Romero said the regions governments, business leaders, Pima Community College and the University of Arizona have partnered to attract green economy companies to the area.

Together we are creating the environment, the infrastructure and the community that brings green jobs to Tucson that will power our economy for years to come, she said.

American Battery will provide good-paying jobs here on Tucsons south side and is vitally important to all of Pima County, Pima County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Adelita Grijalva said.

Under a lease-purchase agreement approved by the county supervisors in December, American Battery Factory will lease up to 267 acres of land at fair market value as determined by an appraisal.

The company will have the option of buying the land as soon as 30 months after the lease is finalized, at a price of about $21 million for all 267 acres, provided it makes lease payments on time and meets initial construction and employment milestones.
Sixth grade is being added to select TUSD elementary schools next school year under a pilot program the district said is aimed at improving student performance and keeping more families from leaving.

Come school year 2024-25, families with children at Banks, Collier, Davidson, Gale, Henry, Lynn-Urquides, Soleng Tom, Steele, Vesey, and Whitmore will have the choice to keep their student in elementary school for sixth grade or proceed to sixth grade in middle school, under the pilot program approved unanimously by the governing board Tuesday night.

Tucson Unified School District started studying the concept of offering sixth grade in elementary school in 2019. Since then, it has surveyed parents and studied the financial and enrollment implications.

A study conducted by TUSD indicated the majority of parents supported the pilot. In it, 53% of parents surveyed supported having a sixth grade option in elementary school. Forty-six percent of parents surveyed indicated they would prefer keeping sixth grade within a middle school setting.

In recent years, the district has lost hundreds of students during the transition from elementary to middle school, said Bryant Nodine, TUSDs operations manager. On average, he said, that number hovers around 400 students a year.

That means if we lose them in one grade, we lose them in three grades. So thats 1,200 students right there, he said.

Another concern raised is that some TUSD middle schools are overcrowded, he said.

The research indicates that students do better in smaller environments, Nodine said. (Kindergarten through eighth grade) schools in particular was one of the things that the research focused on.

Year one of the pilot is estimated to cost the district $1.3 million. That includes staffing, technology, portables and assuming 42 TUSD students would stay in the district and would have otherwise enrolled elsewhere.

Some speakers at the board meeting expressed concern about the pilot.

John Davidson, a teacher at Gridley Middle School, who also a parent to students and both Gridley and Gale Elementary School, said middle school teachers know what they are doing when it comes to helping sixth graders transition from elementary school.

The Gridley Middle School sixth grade team has its own expertise in helping students transition from elementary to middle school, he said. We understand the unique challenges and anxieties that come with this crucial phase in a students academic journey.

He also said TUSD failed to consult with middle school teachers about moving forward with the pilot program.

In an email to the Arizona Daily Star, Nodine said, This is likely to affect, at most, from 0 to 4 existing teachers. No teachers will lose their jobs. In fact we will be hiring additional teachers to support our objective of smaller school communities.

Phillip Switzer and Andrew Nickles, two longtime music teachers who split their teaching time between Gridley and several elementary schools, said in a joint statement that there is a perception among parents that middle schools are less safe, and that is the reason why the district is losing students in the transition from elementary to middle school.

They urged the district to offer more support to make middle schools more conducive to learning by improving discipline practices.

There needs to be more staff and support to be able to address behavior problems and assign consequences, the joint statement said. When meaningful consequences are followed through consistently students will change their behavior in order to avoid consequences.

They also said they worried about losing staff positions at middle schools like Gridley because that could result in fewer class options and scheduling constraints. This will continue to make the middle schools less desirable to attend, further adding to the problem, they told the board. The district started studying the concept of offering sixth grade in elementary school in 2019.

Board member Sadie Shaw asked whether the option of shifting one or more middle schools to junior high schools would be on the table in the future. She clarified that the decision would have to be based on the pilots level of success.

Thats a bigger conversation, Superintendent Gabriel Trujillo responded, adding that there would be a lot of statutory adjustments and additional public input needed if forming a junior high was to be considered.

Nodine said the pilot program discussed Tuesday would continue as long as there was success. Enrollment will be a first indicator, Nodine said in the email when asked about how success will be measured. In the long run test scores, discipline assessments and satisfaction surveys.

Tuesday evening, Nodine told the board:

If we have parents that are interested in staying that sixth grade for a long period of time, then we would just continue that program. I can see the only way we would reverse it is if we just didnt have parental choice to support it.
A 28-year-old has died two days after being struck by a car while crossing North Oracle Road on Tucson's north side, Tucson police say.

Diego Cavazos was struck about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday while crossing Oracle just south of West Prince Road, Tucson police said Thursday evening in a news release.

Police were told Thursday morning that Cavazos died at the hospital.

Cavazos was crossing mid-intersection when police say he was struck by a driver headed south on Oracle.

The driver, 33, stopped immediately and cooperated with police. He was not impaired and no charges have been filed.

Cavazos "had drugs in his system at the time of the collision," and was neither in a crosswalk nor unmarked crosswalk when he was struck, the news release said.

The investigation continues.
(Photo : Noam Galai/Getty Images for Clinton Global Initiative)

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 18: California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks onstage during the Clinton Global Initiative September 2023 Meeting at New York Hilton Midtown on September 18, 2023 in New York City.

California Governor Gavin Newsom engaged in a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Wednesday.

The purpose of this meeting was to promote climate cooperation between the two nations, a trip that has faced criticism from both sides of the political spectrum within the United States, as per NBC News.

Positive Meeting Between Gavin Newsom, Xi Jinping

Reception for Newsom at this high-profile meeting sharply contrasted the official dialogue between Beijing and Washington in recent years. Relations between the world's two largest economies are currently at a low ebb over various issues, including China's aggression toward Taiwan, activities in the South China Sea, trade disputes, and human rights concerns.

Newsom, a Democratic governor, described his 45-minute encounter with President Xi as "remarkably positive." The meeting took place in the stately Great Hall of the People and is part of Newsom's week-long trip to China, which includes visits to Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, and the Guangdong and Jiangsu provinces.

This visit comes amid growing speculation that Newsom could be a potential successor to President Joe Biden if the 80-year-old decides not to accept the Democratic presidential nomination in 2024. However, Newsom has repeatedly ruled himself out as a candidate.

Speaking after he meets with President Xi, Newsom acknowledged the stress in US-China relations in recent years and expressed hope for a "new phase" in the relationship. He emphasized the need to manage strategic differences and reconcile established red lines between the two countries.

Newsom commended President Xi's willingness to work toward reconciliation and promote people-to-people exchanges. While Newsom expressed his support for President Biden, his China visit marks the latest in a series of profile-raising moves.

These include joining Donald Trump's Truth Social network for conservative debate, participating in a Republican primary debate to make the Democratic case, and challenging Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to a televised debate.

However, Newsom's trip to China has faced criticism from Republicans, who argue that he should address issues such as human rights abuses by Beijing and Chinese fentanyl production, according to Mail Online.

Read Also: Georgia Supreme Court Upholds 6-Week Abortion Ban, Sends Legal Challenge Back to Lower Court

Climate Diplomacy Takes Center Stage During Newsom's Visit to China

The meeting with President Xi occurred shortly after Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell referred to China as part of an "axis of evil" along with Russia and Iran.

During his visit to China, Newsom discussed climate change and collaboration between California and China in addressing this global challenge. He highlighted the importance of continuing climate cooperation, even with a difference in the White House.

Fentanyl production and precursor chemicals were also discussed, with Newsom describing the conversation as "remarkably positive."

In his discussions with President Xi, Newsom did not raise China's human rights record, including the persecution of Uyghur Muslims. Instead, the focus was on areas of potential collaboration.

President Xi hoped that Newsom's visit would enhance mutual understanding and promote cooperation between China and California while contributing to developing Sino-US relations. The meeting underscored the importance of climate change as a common ground for collaboration between the two nations.

The US media were physically blocked from Newsom's meeting with President Xi, while Chinese journalists were allowed access. Newsom's meeting with Xi followed discussions with China's top diplomat, Wang Yi, who is set to visit the US Newsom's visit is viewed positively by Chinese officials as a step toward mutual understanding and expanding cooperation.

Newsom's renewed commitment to climate cooperation with China and his discussions on other critical issues indicate a potential shift in the dynamics of US-China relations.

These high-profile meetings suggest stabilizing ties between the two nations and raise expectations for a possible meeting between President Xi and President Biden at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco, California, next month.

Newsom's role in these discussions highlights the diplomatic potential of climate cooperation in bridging differences between the US and China, South China Morning Post reported.

Related Article: California Found San Francisco Responsible for More Housing Roadblocks Than Other Cities in the State

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Thank you Star!

Re: the Oct. 18 article Court: Lawmakers can shield bar owners from liability.

Once again, I am reminded of why I like newspapers in genuine print. The paper provides extensive coverage on a variety of issues. For example, Howard Fischers article on the recent AZ Supreme Court opinion on bar owner liability for their drunk patrons did a great job of explaining the opinion, the dissenting opinion, and the history of the related statutes and the Arizona Constitution.

Thank you for continuing to provide great journalism!

Harold Hallikainen

East side

Funding request

Contained in President Bidens new funding request to Congress is $13.6 billion for border protection, including hiring 1,300 Border Patrol Agents, 1,600 asylum officers and 375 Immigration judge teams. This border protection proposal is a joke! It is not meant to secure the border from illegal immigration, but rather to expedite approval of hundreds of thousands of what I believe are fraudulent asylum applications made by people illegally entering the country. It contains no border wall. It takes about a year from the point of hiring a Border Patrol Agent to getting them working out in the field. Right now, they are actually assisting people entering illegally in Texas by pulling them from the Rio Grande River through barbed wire onto the U.S. side. Then processing and releasing them. There is no indication that hiring more agents would change that. I would rather have the House of Representatives stay without a Speaker so as to not not pass this phony border protection funding presented by Biden.

Paula Martin

Vail

Great day for democracy

Friday, Oct. 20, 2023 was great day for American democracy.

First, Trump-endorsed, Jan. 6 conspirator Jim Jordan was removed from consideration as House Speaker after Republicans got tired of receiving threatening phone calls from Jordans flame-throwers.

Second, former Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, the mastermind of the fake elector scheme, plead guilty to a criminal racketeering indictment and agreed to testify against Trump.

Third, a New York judge fined The Donald $5,000 for violating a gag order to not speak about any members of the court staff  and warned him twice about possible imprisonment.

Now, if we can just vote out Arizonas extremist MAGA Representatives Juan Ciscomani, Eli Crane, Paul Gosar, David Schweikert and Debbie Lesko, in the next election we might actually be on our way to making our democracy great again.

Thea Chalow

Oro Valley

Cartoons R-us

For years we have laughed at the disastrous schemes of the hapless, witless, and hopeless coyote, geared up by good old A.C.M.E. We could enjoy a good laugh from the beginning because the ending calamity was always there to see. Now we dont have to wait till Saturday morning to watch cartoons, all we have to do is check up on the latest efforts in Washington, to find a Speaker of the House.

Tim Canny

Oracle

Reward terrorism?

Most Germans may not have been Jew-hating Nazis, but they acquiesced in the extermination of six million Jews.

Gazans elected Hamas, a terrorist group, as their leaders  a group whose creed is to exterminate all Jews  and Gazans remain silent, without condemnation.

Should we now reward terrorism, legitimize it, by awarding it a state?

Beth Isabelle

Northeast side

Illegal immigration

On Saturday, Oct. 21, when most folks were not reading or watching the news, U.S. Customs and Border Protection quietly released their statistics for fiscal year 2023, which ended on Sept. 30. There were 2,063,000 encounters by the Border Patrol. The second consecutive historic year of more than two million people coming here illegally under Joe Biden. The Border Patrol encountered 218,000 in September. Of those, a whopping 155,000, or about 72% were released into the public with a notice to appear. For FY 2023, there were more than 500,000 Border Patrol encounters in Arizona. The Tucson Sector now has the most illegal entry activity in the country. Where is the outrage from Governor Hobbs? For FY 2023, 278,000 people applied for asylum at the ports of entry using the CBP One app. Biden has angered Muslims around the world by supporting and supplying weapons to Israel. It defies reason to think that would be terrorists have not slipped across or posed as an asylum applicant.

Gary Beachwood

Green Valley

Climate change

You may have noticed  desert vegetation grows a heavy outer layer (skin). So, grow a thicker skin and stop whining about what we should have done! The earth is warming up, be it from the awful emissions from the tiny human infestation, or just the earths natural cycle. Its coming, and we can whine about until we go extinct, or we can adapt and evolve. We need to grow more heat tolerant (evolve). We must plan for the A/C power needs of this future. Nuclear power-the only true zero-emission option.

Thad Appelman

Northwest side

Civil discourse matters

Bullying and violence are threats to domestic tranquility everywhere including Tucson. I am a Democrat and more importantly, I am an American who honors all those candidates who work to preserve domestic tranquility despite todays difficult political and cultural divisions.

Please watch the video of the Pima County Board of Supervisors meeting of June 20, 2023 including the segment beginning at 1:30:09.

You will see the Chairman of the Pima County Republican Partys behavior that required intervention and changes to guidelines for the call to the public. This is the party that put forward the Republican candidates on your ballot.

Then watch the local proceedings of the current City of Tucson Mayor and Council on YouTube.

Vote for those who demonstrate with their actions a commitment to functional, civil, and non-violent local government.

Our 2023 City election ballots and the future of Tucson are in our hands.

Stephanie OLeary

Northeast side

Guns dont kill

Guns dont kill, nor do they protect. It depends on who is holding the gun.

In the hands of a criminal, a crazy person, a terrorist, or an immature child, guns can and do kill.

In the hands of a trained, rational, honest citizen they can protect.

Some groups want you to believe that trying to keep guns out of the hands of the former will also prevent the later from having guns  that is a lie. We can keep the right of honest citizens to protect themselves and others, while making it harder for dishonest, irrational people to get their hands on guns.

Vote for candidates who favor rational gun safety; reject those who refuse to do anything to stop gun violence.

Floyd Newsom

Northwest side

Smarter strategy for Dems

The House Democrats have scored a lot of cheap political points by opposing every candidate proposed by the Republicans for the Speakership. This strategy is embarrassing the Republicans, but the Democrats are missing a golden opportunity to have a say in who is elected speaker. In negotiations, some Democrats could agree to support a moderate Republican for speaker instead of the radicals who have been nominated by the far right. Neither party has the votes to elect their ideologs and thats a good thing. With a moderate speaker, each party gets half a loaf, and we can move on. Do the Democrats have the courage to make such a proposal and do the Republicans have the wisdom to accept? The only losers are the radicals in both parties and the winners are all of us.

Loring Green

Foothills

Prop 496: Yes for our kids

As a parent of two TUSD students and someone who has dedicated two decades to Arizonas public education, I grapple with this question: what holds more weight for a student  a toilet or a textbook, A/C or A/V, security or a school bus? The truth is, theyre all crucial. TUSDs Prop 496, offers a clear solution. A yes vote means we can provide all these essentials for your kids and mine. A vote against 496 is a blow to them  over 40,000 students, 2,500 teachers, and countless others who work tirelessly to serve them. It punishes them. Now, picture this: your yes vote means investing less than 20 cents a day, creating a $480 million difference for 40,000 young lives. Its a legacy in the making! Be the catalyst for change because our kids deserve better, they need your help. Vote yes on Prop 496.

Ricky Hernandez

Sahuarita

Water treatment

Re: the Oct. 22 article City Council endorses treating wastewater for drinking.

I read recently that Tucson Water is considering tertiary treatment of effluent for drinking water like San Diego has. This is very expensive and I must ask why it is being considered. Our current treated effluent is dumped into the Agua Caliente wash to percolate down and replenish our aquifer. The water is not wasted. If we go the tertiary treatment option the aquifer will only be replenished by rain water. So where are we ahead? We could tap the aquifer for the same amount of water the tertiary treatment facility will provide and avoid the expense.

Morton Smith

Foothills

Who speaks for peace?

On Sunday, Oct. 22, I attended a community rally opposing military aid to Israel. I appreciated the large turn-out given the oppressive heat. However, I did not appreciate some of the chants or signage. Some were overtly antisemitic and cast the impression that Israel bears sole responsibility for this tragic war. I am not excusing the current bombing of Gaza and the West Bank and 70 years of Israeli oppression. It must end. Nor am I excusing Hamas terrorist attacks. The killing of non-combatant civilians must stop. It seems to me that nobody is right when everybodys wrong. The siege of Gaza will only continue multigenerational violence between these groups when non-violent ways need to be employed to create a lasting peace.

Who speaks for peace?

Richard Fridena

West side

Say NO to TEP

As the City considers the appeal by TEP to the Citys master plan, consider interests. The City has an interest in maintaining its long standing Gateway Corridors  routes leading to major recreation attractions favorable visual impression of Tucson the citizens and visitors to the City.

Its clear that Kino-Campbell and Kino-Aviation Highway are key gateway corridors to the University of Arizona and Downton. The City has an interest in maintaining beauty, not allowing 10-story tall power poles visually detracting.

TEP is owned by Fortis, a Canadian company; annual revenue $64 Billion, 30 times the annual budget of the City; 486 million shares of stock outstanding with a dividend of about $2, an annual payout approximately $1 Billion.

Weighing the interests of the two entities, TEPs interest is representing shareholders. Our City Council must represent the stakeholder citizens of Tucson and say NO to TEPs request for an exception to the Citys Master Plan. City Council represents us against the shareholders of Fortis.

Mark Ziska
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

OKLAHOMA CITY  For the second straight month, officials with Tulsa Public Schools hit the turnpike Thursday to lay out their efforts to address concerns raised by the Oklahoma State Board of Education during the annual accreditation process.

We have a plan, interim Superintendent Ebony Johnson said. We're executing on it. We've set targets to hold ourselves accountable to ensuring our plan translates to student outcomes. And we are monitoring the data every day to know if we are on track to meet those targets.

As part of its accreditation renewal, TPS officials are required to provide monthly updates to the Oklahoma State Board of Education.

Specific requirements include creating a professional development plan to train all TPS teachers in the science of reading, an action plan for improvement for all schools that received an F on the most recent state report card, and the development and publication of new internal controls to prevent embezzlement.

Thursdays presentation focused on the districts professional development efforts, with Johnson telling the board that to date, 82% of the districts elementary teachers have received training in the science of reading.

The district began using academic intervention plans involving the science of reading more than two years ago and is on track to implement a professional development plan on the science of reading for all of its elementary school teachers in early 2024, as well as most of its secondary teachers.

However, even with that professional development plan in place, Johnson and other TPS leaders said they are struggling to find enough teachers and tutors to provide the direct support many students need. With more than one-third of TPS students considered multilingual, Johnson said the tutoring shortage has the district even considering developing a program to have the districts older bilingual students work with younger English-language learners.

Although the Oklahoma State Department of Education has not yet released spring 2023 state test scores to the district, TPS internally aggregated data included in Thursdays presentation indicate that 11% of students in testing grades scored "proficient" or better on English Language Arts and that 28% scored at a basic level.

By comparison, in 2022, 13% of TPS students in grades 3-8 and 11th grade tested at a proficient or advanced level, and 29% scored at a basic level.

Oklahoma students who score at a below-basic or basic level in a subject are considered to have unsatisfactory or limited knowledge and therefore are that much further off the mark toward college or career readiness by the time they graduate from high school.

But TPS officials said internal projections based on students previous performance on standardized tests, classroom progress and data from intervention programs suggest that at least 700 more students will score at a proficient or advanced level on the English Language Arts portion of the 2024 state exams.

We have students who are proficient, Johnson said. We have students who are performing. And then we do have a substantial number of students that are right now learning the foundations of literacy and reading.

As we look at the data and the progress of the students already from where they were in the spring to what happened over the summer, we saw growth from our students who participated in our Ready, Set, Summer program, coupled with how students perform on our beginning-of-year assessment. We know that we did see growth with those students, but we also have a tremendous amount of work still to do.

TPS is slated to present in November information about its financial policies and improvement plans for schools that received an F on the most recent report card, prompting Walters to repeat his threat to take additional action if those policies and plans do not yield satisfactory results.

Whatever we have to do, resource wise, all options need to be on the table, he said. And again, you are walking us through thought processes here, and that sounds really good, but we want to see the results.

And so again, you know, what I've mentioned before about not testing me and not having the district test me. What I mean by that is we want to see students successful, and I've been very open about I will do anything in my power to make sure Tulsa Public Schools is successful.

There is nothing off limits for what I will do to ensure that that happens.
Curtis Killman Tulsa World Staff Writer Follow Curtis Killman Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today

Poultry companies found to have violated trespass and public nuisance laws in the state have asked a federal judge overseeing the 18-year-old lawsuit to dismiss the case, citing the staleness of the evidence.

The 11 poultry companies named in a civil lawsuit, which dates to 2005, requested that U.S. District Judge Gregory Frizzell dismiss the case because old evidence was used to decide it, according to a motion filed late Thursday in Tulsa federal court.

This case is constitutionally moot because the Court can no longer grant any effectual relief, the poultry companys motion states. The Courts findings and conclusions rest upon a record compiled in 2005-2009.

The time when any injunction could have been entered on a record that old has long passed; decades-old evidence cannot support an injunction today.

Frizzell in January ruled in favor of the state of Oklahoma in its lawsuit that blamed the poultry industry for polluting the 1 million acre Illinois River watershed. The ruling came more than 13 years after a lengthy bench trial in the case.

Frizzell, in his ruling, found for the state on the trespassing and public nuisance-related claims it leveled against poultry companies that operated within the watershed located in eastern Oklahoma and northwestern Arkansas.

The court concludes all defendants, by their conduct, have unreasonably interfered with the publics right to the use and enjoyment of the waters in the (Illinois River watershed) in Oklahoma, Frizzell wrote in his 200-plus page Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law report.

Frizzell sided with the states contention that excessive land application of poultry litter as fertilizer had been a significant cause of excess phosphorus in the watershed.

Excessive amounts of phosphorus-laden poultry litter used on fields as fertilizer end up in storm water runoff, entering creeks and streams that eventually lead to the Illinois River and Lake Tenkiller, the state contends.

Large amounts of phosphorus can cause excessive aquatic vegetation, most of it algae, which can harm waterways, according to the state.

Frizzell found the poultry industry to be liable to the state for statutory public nuisance or for federal common law nuisance with respect to their conduct in both the Arkansas and Oklahoma portions of the Illinois River watershed.

After issuing his report, Frizzell ordered both the state and poultry companies to try to mediate an agreement with regard to remedies to be imposed in this action.

But both sides told the judge Thursday that mediation was unsuccessful.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummonds office declined to comment directly on the dismissal request.

The Attorney General will continue seeking a resolution of this matter that is in the best interests of Oklahoma, a spokesman said Friday in an email to the Tulsa World.

The poultry companies, meanwhile, point to the age of the evidence use by Frizzell when he ruled for the state.

Whatever that evidence showed about the (Illinois River watershed) in 2010  and there was much dispute about the evidence the State offered during trial  it does not speak to conditions in 2023, the poultry industry motion continues.

The poultry companies claim in their motion that phosphorus levels in the watershed have improved vastly since the conclusion of the trial. The companies also note in their motion that land uses there have changed in the past 13 years.

Many poultry farms located in the Arkansas portion of the watershed have since been gobbled up by commercial and residential developments, according to the poultry companies.

Farms in both the Oklahoma and Arkansas portions of the watershed also continue to comply with their state-mandated poultry-litter management plans for the past 25 and 15 years, respectively, according to the poultry companies.

Frizzell gave the state until Nov. 10 to file an answer to the poultry companys motion. The poultry companies then have until Nov. 17 to file a reply.

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BEIRUT  Lebanon's caretaker prime minister Tuesday visited troops deployed near the border with Israel and U.N. peacekeepers, as Saudi Arabia evacuated the families of diplomatic staff because of ongoing clashes between Hezbollah militants and Israeli troops.

The Saudi move comes amid rising tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border, where Hezbollah members have been exchanging fire with Israeli troops daily for two weeks.

There was no official announcement from Saudi authorities, but the move came days after Saudi Arabia urged its citizens to leave Lebanon immediately. Officials who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations said the Saudi ambassador to Lebanon, Waleed Bukhari, the military attache and other staff members were not with the 65 people leaving Lebanon on Tuesday afternoon.

The visit by Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati to the tense southern province was his first since clashes erupted along the border following a surprise attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Israel on Oct. 7. It also came two days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited troops along the border on Sunday.

Mikati and international governments have been scrambling to prevent the Israel-Hamas war from expanding to Lebanon, where the powerful Hezbollah group warned Israel about a ground incursion into the blockaded Gaza Strip.

Hezbollah deputy leader Sheikh Naim Kassem said the group is in the heart of the war to defend Gaza and confront the occupation."

Its finger is on the trigger to whatever extent it deems necessary for the confrontation, Kassem tweeted.

Clashes between Hezbollah and the Israeli military thus far have been mostly limited to several towns along the border.

Journalists from Hezbollah's Al-Manar television reported that an Israeli helicopter attack struck an empty position near the border town of Houla, after a missile fired from Lebanon hit an Israeli military position. The Israeli military said the anti-missile attack hit a position in Manara with no casualties. They added that they struck a group of militants in Mount Dov, a disputed territory known as Shebaa Farms in Lebanon, where the borders of Lebanon, Syria and Israel meet.

Meanwhile, Lebanon's top Druze political leader Walid Jumblatt, said that he along with Mikati and Hezbollah ally Nabih Berri, who is Lebanon's parliamentary speaker, are in agreement that the war shouldn't further expand into the tiny Mediterranean country. Jumblatt said that he held calls with top Hezbollah security officials on the matter.

But the matter is not up to Hezbollah alone  Israel could have hostile intentions, Jumblatt said after meeting with Druze religious officials and clergymen in Beirut. We must expect the worst.

Israel and Hezbollah fought a monthlong war in 2006 that ended in a stalemate. Israel sees Iran-backed Hezbollah as its most serious threat, estimating it has around 150,000 rockets and missiles aimed at Israel.

Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron visited Israel on Tuesday, where he reaffirmed calls to prevent the war from expanding into Lebanon and the wider Arab world, and called for a decisive political process with the Palestinians for a viable peace.

Macron warned Hezbollah and other Iran-backed groups against opening a new front in the ongoing war, and that Paris had expressed those concerns in direct communication with Hezbollah.

To do so would be to open the door to a regional inferno from which everyone would come out the loser, he said.
Coverage of State Superintendent Ryan Walters

Oklahomans first elected State Superintendent Ryan Walters in 2022.

He previously served as the state's education secretary; appointed by Gov. Kevin Stitt in September 2020.

Before then, Walters was CEO of Every Kid Counts Oklahoma and spent eight years as a high school history teacher in his hometown of McAlester. The Oklahoma State Department of Education named Walters as an Oklahoma Teacher of the Year finalist in 2016.

Walters also taught AP U.S. history at Millwood High School and McAlester High School in a pilot course through the Oklahoma Supplemental Online Course Program; and served as the executive director of Oklahoma Achieves, an education initiative of the State Chamber of Oklahoma.

The following is coverage of the superintendent by the Tulsa World newsroom. To send a news tip, contact Staff Writer Andrea Eger at andrea.eger@tulsaworld.com.
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  Four former Oklahoma governors discussed their successes, failures and philosophies for working with the states tribes on Thursday.

The event was sponsored by Oklahoma Watch, an online journalism nonprofit organization based in Oklahoma City.

Former Gov. George Nigh was present but didnt participate on the panel, which included former Govs. Mary Fallin, Brad Henry, Frank Keating and David Walters.

Walters, a Democrat, said he was most proud of increasing education funding, rewarding companies for creating well-paying jobs and spurring development in rural areas.

For Republican Frank Keating, it was working with a Democratic Legislature to create charter schools, passing the right-to-work law, finishing more turnpikes and adding a dome to the state Capitol.

Democrat Brad Henry said he was proud of funding full-day kindergarten, which solidified Oklahomas reputation as the best in early childhood education in the country.

Fallin, a Republican, said she considers a more than $6,000 teacher pay raise and 19% hike in education funding to be some of her top successes, in addition to procuring additional money for infrastructure and work on criminal justice reform.

Panel moderator Dick Pryor, KGOU general manager and former OETA news anchor, asked the former governors about one thing they would have done differently.

Keating said he wished he could have gotten the income and corporate income taxes abolished. He said he believes the state should not tax work but should tax consumption.

Henry said he wished he had done more to protect the Economic Development Generating Excellence Fund, which was raided by the Legislature.

For Walters, it was personal.

He said he would have done a better job of protecting his family.

I think it tells a story about what public service will take them through and more importantly what their families go through, Walters said. We lost our son to suicide after a sweltering  round of negative publicity that went on for two weeks.

After being charged with possession of marijuana, Shaun David Walters, 20, the governor's eldest child, was found unresponsive in 1991 in his car near Bishop McGuinness High School in Oklahoma City, where the University of Oklahoma business major had graduated.

He later died of a drug overdose of a prescription anti-depressant. The death was ruled a suicide.

Shaun Walters home had been searched for drugs and drug paraphernalia. He pleaded guilty to possession of drug paraphernalia, a misdemeanor, and received a six-month deferred sentence.

He was so crushed by that episode that he took his own life, Walters said. He was a wonderful young man destined for greatness.

His son's suicide is an example of what the true cost of public service can be, Walters said.

He said Gov. Kevin Stitt asked him once for advice about a personal matter with kids.

Pryor, the moderator, commented that the relationship between Stitt and the state's tribes has been volatile but is particularly strained now. He asked how the governors would approach tribal-state relations today.

Henry said that during his time as governor he reached out to the tribes. Noting that while energy corporation headquarters may move out of state, the tribes will not, he said: I think we have to do a better job of recognizing and understanding how important the tribes are to the state of Oklahoma.

During his first inauguration in 2003, Henry invited leaders of all the state's tribes to attend, he said. They sat on the stage with him, he said.

Henry said it is important that state leaders reach out and include the tribes as true partners in government.

What is good for the tribes is good for the state of Oklahoma, Henry said.

Fallin said what is missing today is mutual respect.

She said she worked with two tribes to settle a major dispute over water rights with which all sides were satisfied.

Walters said it is important that the governor listen to tribal leaders.

He said the first tobacco compacts came out of meetings with the tribes.

It is a matter of respect, Walters said. Any one of us could have shown respect and asked for 5 to 10% more on those compacts, and it would have been done, he said. Instead, there are lawsuits filed under the Stitt administration.

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Attorneys for the state of Oklahoma and the poultry industry were unable to come up with an agreement on their own regarding how to solve problems caused by excessive poultry waste in the Illinois River watershed, setting the stage for a judge to come up with a solution on his own.

Word of the failed mediation came Thursday when attorneys for the state Attorney Generals Office and 11 poultry companies filed separate status reports in Tulsa federal court.

Both sides said they met three times  twice in September and once on Oct. 12  during sessions that were mediated by a retired federal judge.

The mediation was unsuccessful and (retired 10th Circuit Judge Deanell Reece Tacha) deemed it concluded at the close of October 23, 2023 session, both said in separate reports.

U.S. District Judge Gregory Frizzell had asked both sides earlier this year to meet and try to come up with an agreement with regard to remedies to be imposed in this action.

Frizzells request came after he filed a 200-plus page Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law in favor of the state of Oklahoma on its trespassing and public nuisance-related claims against the poultry industry.

The long-awaited report came more than 13 years after a bench trial concluded in 2009 and 18 years after the initial complaint was filed.

Former Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson filed the lawsuit June 13, 2005, against 14 poultry companies that had operations in the Illinois River watershed, alleging that overuse of poultry waste as crop fertilizer had caused pollution in the watershed. The number of companies named in the lawsuit eventually was narrowed to 11.

A representative for the poultry industry expressed disappointment that a settlement could not be reached in what he called an unnecessary legal battle.

Poultry companies have been trying for nearly two decades to resolve this protracted litigation, and it is disappointing that a settlement was not reached, said Marvin Childers, president of The Poultry Federation. The family farms and local landowners that employ and feed so many Americans care passionately about the land and water quality in the communities they call home across Oklahoma and Arkansas.

While the attorney generals unnecessary legal battle continues, our member companies will keep driving economic growth and caring for the environment.

Childers claimed that water quality in the Illinois River has seen tremendous improvements since the trial ended.

Frizzell, in his report, found that the state established that a significant cause of the excess phosphorus in the waters of Illinois River watershed is the land application of poultry waste, sometimes called litter when mixed with bedding materials.

The States injuries from phosphorus concentrations in the rivers and streams of the IRW and Lake Tenkiller are significant, Frizzell continued. Defendants are liable to the State for statutory public nuisance and for federal common law nuisance with respect to their conduct in the Oklahoma portion of the IRW and their conduct in the Arkansas portion of the IRW.

The defendants are Tyson Foods Inc., Tyson Poultry Inc., Tyson Chicken Inc., Cobb-Vantress Inc., Cal-Maine Foods Inc., Cargill Inc., Cargill Turkey Production LLC, Georges Inc., Georges Farms Inc., Peterson Farms Inc. and Simmons Foods Inc.

The Attorney Generals Office, in its Thursday filing, recommended that Frizzell set a Dec. 1 deadline for each side to submit a proposed journal entry of judgment regarding how they would propose settling the case.

Attorneys for the poultry industry declined to sign on with the attorney generals status report, prompting them to file their own version without the suggested journal entry filing.

The Oklahoma Attorney Generals Office did not respond to a request for comment by deadline.

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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

Nancy McDonald, a longtime Tulsa community volunteer and activist, died Tuesday. She was 87. A celebration of life will be held at 4 p.m. Nov. 12 at All Souls Unitarian Church, with a reception to follow. Per McDonalds wishes, her family invites everyone attending the reception to bring homemade cookies.

Known for her vision and tenacity, McDonald was a force for change in Tulsa for well over 50 years, embracing a variety of causes including public school integration, the arts and LGBTQ rights.

Notably with the latter, her influence extended throughout Oklahoma and beyond.

McDonald and her husband, Joe, were the founders of the Tulsa chapter of Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, the first in Oklahoma, and she later served as president of the national PFLAG organization. It was during her tenure as president, in 1998, that the organization extended its mission to include transgender people.

McDonald was active on a state and national level in promoting legislation that advanced LGBTQ rights. And when a proposed law threatened that advancement, she was there to fight it. That included testifying before Congress in 1996 in opposition to the federal Defense of Marriage Act.

Toby Jenkins, former director of Oklahomans for Equality, said McDonald was a source of needed encouragement for her fellow LGBTQ rights advocates, assuring them that incrementally, bit by bit, relationships would form and change would come.

Nancy taught us to show respect and civility to everyone, even if they were hateful to you, Jenkins said. If they spoke that way, she believed it was just that their hearts and minds had not been opened or challenged. Eventually the change of heart would come. I will miss that most about her.

A Nebraska native and graduate of the University of Nebraska, McDonald moved to Tulsa with her family in 1966. She didnt waste any time getting involved in her new community.

As a parent of school-age children and PTA member, she joined a small group of Tulsa Public Schools parents in helping with voluntary integration, starting with Burroughs Elementary School.

Then, in 1973, district officials turned to McDonald to help integrate Booker T. Washington High School.

Chairing a committee for volunteer recruitment, McDonald led the successful effort to recruit white student volunteers to attend the previously all-Black school, holding a series of meetings with students and parents.

Her volunteering led to a full-time job with TPS, coordinating volunteers and leading the further development of the magnet school concept.

Motivating more community volunteers to get involved in their public schools was at the heart of McDonalds love for the Partners in Education program. She participated in a related White House Symposium and wrote the guidelines for PIE groups that were published as a book. She remained involved with PIE through the end of her life.

McDonald was also passionate about scouting. She was a former board member and president of the Girl Scouts of Eastern Oklahoma. In that role, she helped guide the organization through the tumultuous time following the 1977 murders of three girls at summer camp.

McDonald was recipient of a number of honors and awards. They included induction into the Tulsa Hall of Fame and the dedication of the Nancy & Joe McDonald Rainbow Library in her and her husbands honor at the Dennis R. Neill Equality Center.

McDonalds commitment to the LGBTQ cause began in the 1980s when one of her daughters came out as a lesbian.

The experience of supporting her daughter would shape McDonald, and later she became a mother figure to many LGBTQ people who found themselves facing alienation from friends and family.

We called her everybodys mother, Jenkins said. She was a surrogate parent for so many whose families had rejected them or had not accepted or understood them. There are national LGBTQ leaders who came out of Oklahoma who Nancy mentored about family relationships.

And her motherly influence didnt end with the LGBTQ community, Jenkins said.

If anyone was marginalized, it became her cause, he said.

Morva McDonald, McDonalds daughter, said her mother was just so good at seeing every individual.

At her core, she was always trying her best to help people be seen, be recognized for who they were. And thats what allowed her to reach across so many different causes and arenas.

The issue for her was always helping people be seen. It was a tremendous gift.

For her mother, part of valuing people as individuals included helping them find ways to participate, Morva added.

Thats why were asking people to bring homemade cookies to the reception. It was her idea. Baking was a favorite activity of Moms with her grandchildren.

Even at the end she was thinking about how everyone could share and participate.

McDonalds survivors include her husband, Joe McDonald; four children, JoElyn Newcomb, Paul McDonald, Jason McDonald and Morva McDonald; eight grandchildren; a brother, Howard Nellor; and a sister, Sharlene Clatanoff.

Memorial donations may be made to the Foundation for Tulsa Schools Partners in Education program.

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HONOLULU (AP)  All of West Maui except for burned-out sections of historic Lahaina will reopen to tourism on Nov. 1 following the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than century, the mayor of Maui County said Monday.

Mayor Richard Bissen said he made the move after talking about it with his Lahaina advisory team, the Red Cross and other partners.

West Maui has about 11,000 hotel rooms, or about half of Maui's total. Travelers evacuated those hotels after the Aug. 8 fire raged through Lahaina town, killing at least 99 people and destroying more than 2,000 buildings.

Hawaii Gov. Josh Green last month declared West Maui would officially reopen to tourism on Oct. 8 to bring back badly needed jobs and help the economy recover. Bissen modified the governors declaration with a phased plan, allowing a small section on the northern edge of West Maui to open first with the rest to follow at an undetermined date.

The community has had an impassioned debate about when to welcome travelers back to the disaster-stricken region. Some residents drafted a petition opposing the return of tourists, saying the community wasn't ready.

Bissen said Monday that workers are ready to return to their jobs while acknowledging this isnt for everyone.

Those who arent prepared to go back to work on Nov. 1 should talk to their employers and continue to seek the help and attention that they need, Bissen said at a news conference in Lahaina that was livestreamed online.

The mayor said many residents are also concerned about not having child care. He said the countys partners are working on that issue.

Residents who have been staying in West Maui hotels and other short-term accommodations after losing their homes in the fire won't lose their lodging, the mayor said.

Were assured by the Red Cross that their housing will not be in jeopardy, Bissen said.

The mayor said the reopening schedule was voluntary and said some properties have already reopened on their own.
Phu Quoc Island off Kien Giang Province in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam has recently seen an influx of flights arriving from Kazakhstan, which marks a resurgence of tourists from Eastern European countries.

Consecutively, two connecting flights from Taraz City, Kazakhstan, touched down in Phu Quoc on Tuesday and Wednesday.

On Monday, another inbound flight from the Kazakh capital city of Almaty landed in the Vietnamese island city.

These flights, operated by SCAT Airlines, a civil airline of Kazakhstan, are among the first in over a year to reconnect the tourism route between Eastern Europe and Phu Quoc.

More than 600 tourists on these flights are scheduled to enjoy a five-night stay on the island, provided by Vinpearl, a hospitality subsidiary belonging to Vietnamese multi-sector conglomerate Vingroup, and other branded hoteliers.

International tourists pose for a photo at Phu Quoc International Airport on Phu Quoc Island, Kien Giang Province, Vietnam, October 2023. Photo: Chi Cong / Tuoi Tre

SCAT Airlines plans to operate a weekly schedule of six flights for three routes between Kazakhstan and Phu Quoc until the end of this year.

One route will provide direct service from Almaty to Phu Quoc Island, while the other two routes will include a stopover in Taraz City.

Experts appraised this as a positive indicator for the tourism sector in Phu Quoc to capitalize on the growing interest of tourists from Eastern European and Central Asian countries, who are considering Vietnam as a destination for Halloween, Christmas, and New Year festivities.

International tourists arrive at Phu Quoc International Airport on Phu Quoc Island, Kien Giang Province, located in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam, October 2023. Photo: Chi Cong / Tuoi Tre

South Korea has also announced more flight routes to Phu Quoc.

Its flag carrier, Korean Air, is set to launch a daily commercial flight from Seoul City to Phu Quoc, beginning November 26, with each service accommodating up to 330 passengers.

South Korea's low-cost airlines Jin Air and Jeju Air are expected to follow suit, operating three commercial flights per week to Phu Quoc, each with a capacity of 220 seats, commencing on December 6.

Phu Quoc, Vietnams largest island, was third in the list of 17 most budget-friendly tourist islands worldwide announced by The Travel magazine earlier this year.

CNN placed the island among the best destinations in Asia in 2020.

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9 Arab countries urge UNSC to oblige warring parties in Gaza to accept immediate cease-fire

Xinhua) 09:49, October 27, 2023

CAIRO, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- Nine Arab countries called Thursday on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to oblige the warring parties in the Gaza Strip to an immediate and sustainable cease-fire.

The call came in a joint press statement by the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, and Morocco.

The nine countries condemned targeting civilians, all acts of violence against them, and all violations and transgressions of international law, including international humanitarian law and international human rights law, by any party.

They also condemned and rejected attempts at individual or collective forced displacement, as well as the policy of collective punishment.

The Arab foreign ministers also underscored the importance of immediately releasing hostages and civilian detainees, emphasizing the role of the International Committee of the Red Cross in this regard.

The ministers demanded the UNSC to ensure and facilitate rapid, safe and sustainable access for humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip without obstacles in accordance with relevant humanitarian principles, and to mobilize additional resources in cooperation with the UN and its affiliates.

They expressed deep concern about the possibility of the current confrontations and conflict to expand to other regions in the Middle East, calling on all parties to exercise the utmost restraint.

They also cautioned about the escalation of violence in the West Bank, calling on the international community to support and strengthen the Palestinian National Authority, and provide financial support to the Palestinian people.

In addition, the top Arab diplomats highlighted international efforts to implement the two-state solution on the basis of relevant United Nations resolutions.

The Israel-Hamas conflict, as it entered the 20th day, has killed around 7,028 Palestinians in Gaza and at least 1,400 people in Israel, according to official figures from both sides.

(Web editor: Tian Yi, Liang Jun)
Ford and the United Auto Workers (UAW) union have reached a tentative agreement after weeks of negotiations.

The deal, if finalized, will end the nearly six-week-long strike that has impacted the automotive industry. Notably, the agreement includes a remarkable pay increase, setting a new record in the industry, as per BBC News.

UAW Strike Halts After Reaching Agreement With Ford

A breakthrough has been achieved in the United Auto Workers (UAW) strike at Ford, as the union reached a tentative deal with the automaker that could end the 41-day strike involving 16,600 UAW members.

The UAW considers the Ford deal a potential blueprint for agreements with the other two automakers, where workers remain on strike. The union has called for all workers at Ford to return to their jobs, hoping that this will pressure GM and Stellantis to engage in negotiations. Detailed plans on proceeding with GM and Stellantis are expected to be announced soon.

UAW President Shawn Fain expressed satisfaction with the tentative agreement, noting that Ford had offered a 50% increase in financial terms compared to the beginning of the strike in September.

The proposed deal includes a 25% general wage increase and cost-of-living raises that could bring the total pay increase for top-scale assembly plant workers to over 30% by the end of the contract.

Upon ratification, assembly workers are set to receive an 11% pay increase, almost equivalent to the wage increases accumulated since 2007. Historically, deals between the UAW and one automaker have been a benchmark for subsequent agreements with other manufacturers.

General Motors expressed its commitment to working constructively with the UAW to reach an agreement swiftly, according to Yahoo News.

Read Also: Las Vegas: 2 Teenage Suspects in Hit-And-Run Killing of Cyclist Seen Smiling, Laughing in Court

UAW-Ford Tentative Deal Offers Strong Benefits

At the same time, Stellantis reiterated its dedication to finding a resolution that enables all workers to return to work promptly. Temporary workers will experience substantial wage increases, surpassing the cumulative increases they have seen over the past 22 years.

Retirees will also receive annual bonuses, and the deal includes significant provisions for workers with pensions and 401(k) plans. For the first time, the UAW secures the right to strike in response to company plans to close factories, providing a means to prevent plant closures without consequences.

The potential agreement was lauded as one of the most lucrative per member since Walter Reuther, a prominent UAW leader from 1946 to 1970. The union's national leadership council will meet to vote on recommending the agreement to members.

Regional meetings will be held to explain the deal's details to members, and a Facebook Live video appearance is planned for Sunday evening. President Joe Biden welcomed the settlement, praising the power of unions and employers working together to find common ground and support American workers.

However, the tentative deal still awaits ratification by Ford's union members, which could take more than a week. Nevertheless, the 16,600 UAW members on strike will return to work before ratification is complete in a strategic move to maintain pressure on GM and Stellantis.

The agreement includes an immediate 11% pay increase and gradual pay increases that could reach 25% over the next four-and-a-half years. Reintroducing a cost-of-living adjustment offers additional protection against rising prices, resulting in a potential pay increase of over 30% during the contract's term, CNN reported.

Related Article: Man Arrested for Attempting to Burn Down Ohio Church Over Drag Events

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Instead of sending pets to hotels or pet care centers, many owners hire pet sitters so that the animals can stay in their beloved home.

Elaine, who works as an elementary teacher in an international school in Ho Chi Minh City, wanted a pet sitter for her dog after failing to get the canine to pet care centers.

I have a Vietnamese rescue dog who is shy and nervous. She is an older dog and seems to have had a hard life on the street once separated from her owner, she told Tuoi Tre News.

I did try a shared space but Bi didnt want to interact with other dogs and prefers time with humans. She was also anxious when she came back in the evening.

Getting the dog to pet care was hard due to working hours. So, I prefer the care of a more personal service.

In Ireland, Elaines family dog also uses a private sitter if the family is all away at the same time.

Thanks to recommendations from friends and colleagues, Elaine was able to find a pet sitter who has taken care of her dog in Ho Chi Minh City for the past three years.

She walks my dog and plays with her Monday to Friday and stays to pet-sit during school holidays short and long, she said, praising the pet sitter for her knowledge and love of animals, as well as professional procedures.

Meanwhile, Amanda Cornelissen, an Australian who lives in Ho Chi Minh City, also needs someone to take care of her four pet cats as she frequently travels.

Cats do not like changes in where they live, they prefer to stay in their own home environment otherwise they can become very stressed being in an unfamiliar place, Cornelissen explained why she wanted a pet sitter in her home.

There are a lot of pet centers in Ho Chi Minh City, it's hard to know the level of care and one-on-one attention given to your pet.

When Cornelissen is not home, the pet sitter offers twice-daily visits or sometimes overnight stays depending on her schedule.

She is very professional and reliable and communicates well, Cornelissen said.

I believe that she genuinely loves my cats and gives them lots of love and attention when we are away.

I really like the fact that there are regular updates and videos of our pets, which allows us to be able to relax fully when we are traveling.

What makes a pet sitter?

Mai Dung, 27, the sitter who takes care of Bi and Cornelissens cats, has years of experience in the job and also runs a team of pet sitters who normally look after pets around District 1, 3, 2 and 7.

Many of her customers do not prefer pet hotels, Dung said, because of the risk of stress and diseases their animals may be exposed to.

Being able to stay at home comforts them; however, owners must accept having strangers in their house.

Therefore, according to Dung, besides love for animals and thoroughness, pet sitters need to be honest.

"The cost for pet sitting service at home is not high but not low either. However, if the customer is away from home for a long time, about two months for example, the amount of money they have to spend is hefty, Dung said.

If they pay that much for a pet, it means they expect me to take care of that animal as if I were taking care of their children.

Currently, Dung's service fee starts from VND150,000 for each pet visit which lasts from 45 minutes to one hour. ((US$1 = VND24,572)

A photo provided by Mai Dung shows her and a dog she pet-sits.

For those who want a pet sitter to stay overnight to look after their animal while they are away for a long time, the fee starts from VND300,000 per night.

Before accepting a pet sitting order, Dung will work with the owner on a list of requirements and safety factors, including time spent with the pet, vaccination status, to name a few.

She will also request a meeting with the pet first to see if she and her team can take care of the animal.

A rising market

It all started nearly four years ago when an American friend of Dung's, who is a veterinarian, wanted to travel but did not know what to do with her cat.

She asked Dung to help take care of the feline and offered a much higher salary than what he was earning from his part-time job at a restaurant then.

After succeeding with the first order, Dung and her service have been widely known among the expat community thanks to word of mouth.

About 75 percent of Dungs customers now are foreigners, with the rest being Vietnamese.

According to Dung, pet sitting provides a good but not stable income.

There are days with no customers, but there are also months of working 10-12 hours a day, especially during Christmas or Lunar New Year, when foreigners tend to travel.

Occasionally, Dung encountered some 'accidents' such as customers being dishonest about the dog or cat's condition to reduce care costs, being blamed for losing their pet, or being mistaken as housekeepers.

During the past years, the pet sitting market in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi has become increasingly vibrant.

Not only young Vietnamese people are interested in this job, some foreigners in Vietnam also take it up when they have free time or when they do not have a full-time job.

"This job is often considered easy, but it's actually not, said Q.N., a pet sitter in Ho Chi Minh City.

I need to make the dogs and cats feel comfortable as well as let the owners know how good their pets are being cared for.

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Lewiston (United States) -- An urgent police dragnet entered its second day late Thursday for a man accused of gunning down 18 people at a bowling alley and a bar in the US state of Maine, as President Joe Biden mourned "yet another senseless and tragic mass shooting."

Dozens of law enforcement agents surrounded the family home of 40-year-old suspect Robert Card, but by mid-evening agents left the property in Bowdoin, near Lewiston, to hunt for him elsewhere.

A wide area around Lewiston remained locked down more than 24 hours after Card allegedly went on a rampage, culminating in the deadliest mass shooting this year in America. Thirteen people were also wounded.

Authorities erected roadblocks, ordered schools and businesses closed, and told residents to stay indoors.

Governor Janet Mills said the suspect was "considered armed and dangerous, and police advised that Maine people should not approach him under any circumstances."

Card was seen in surveillance footage pointing a semi-automatic rifle as he walked into the Just-in-Time bowling alley on Wednesday.

In early evening, law enforcement agents surrounded the Card family home in Bowdoin, bringing in armored vehicles, and sending up drones and a helicopter.

State police warned "please come outside" and "we don't want anyone to get hurt" over a loudspeaker near the home, but later said the warnings were routine and not confirmation that Card was inside.

One longtime neighbor, Dave Letarte, said news of the shooting "floored me."

"I would have never expected that from him," he told AFP of Card.

Joseph Walker, a manager at the Schemengees Bar & Grille, was among those killed the night before, his father Leroy Walker told NBC News.

Walker said his family was "suffering and dying in a nightmare we don't understand.

"We were up all night. We didn't know where to go, who to turn to," he said.

Terror at bowling alley

News outlets broadcast footage of people fleeing in terror from the bowling alley after the shooting started Wednesday evening.

One survivor told television reporters that he was 15 feet (five meters) from the gunman when he opened fire. He thought at first it was a balloon popping.

"And as soon as I turned and saw it was not a balloon and he was holding a weapon, I just booked it down the lane and I slid basically into where the pins are and climbed up into the machine and was on top of the machines for about 10 minutes until the cops got there," he said.

Card is a member of the US Army Reserve. US media reported that he had recently been sent for psychiatric treatment after he said he was hearing voices.

Hundreds of police in military-style camouflage gear and FBI agents flooded the search zone in what Lewiston police chief David St. Pierre called "an all-hands-on-deck approach."

Biden called Maine's governor to offer federal support, and ordered flags to be lowered to half-staff at the White House and all government buildings.

"Once again, our nation is in mourning after yet another senseless and tragic mass shooting," he said.

Biden added that the gun violence that plagues the United States "is not normal, and we cannot accept it," urging lawmakers to pass a bill banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.

Daily mass shootings

Police and rescuers reportedly arrived at the bowling alley at about 7:15 pm in response to an active shooter, and then received reports of another shooting at the Schemengees Bar & Grille.

In surveillance images of Card at the bowling alley, he appeared calm and composed as he moved through the doorway with his rifle raised.

Officers located a "vehicle of interest" -- a white sport utility vehicle -- in Lisbon, a town around eight miles (12 kilometers) from Lewiston.

The shooting is one of the deadliest in the United States since 2017, when a gunman opened fire on a crowded music festival in Las Vegas, killing 60 people.

Mass shootings are alarmingly common in the United States, a country with more guns than people, and attempts to clamp down on their spread are always met with stiff resistance.

Efforts to tighten gun controls routinely run up against opposition from Republicans, staunch defenders of the constitutional right to bear arms.

The political paralysis endures despite widespread outrage over recurring shootings.

Law enforcement officials search an area at the family home of suspect Robert Card on October 26, 2023 in Bowdoin, Maine. Photo: AFP

A massive manhunt was underway for a gunman who killed 18 people in the US state of Maine. Photo: AFP
STOCKHOLM -- The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday announced the creation of a 39-member advisory body to address issues in the international governance of artificial intelligence.

Members include tech company executives, government officials from Spain to Saudi Arabia, and academics from countries such as the U.S., Russia and Japan.

Sony Chief Technology Officer Hiroaki Kitano, OpenAI CTO Mira Murati and Microsoft Chief Responsible AI Officer Natasha Crampton are among the executives representing technology companies.

Representatives also come from six continents with diverse backgrounds ranging from U.S.-based AI expert Vilas Dhar to Professor Yi Zeng fom China and Egyptian lawyer Mohamed Farahat.

"The transformative potential of AI for good is difficult even to grasp," Guterres said in a statement.

"And without entering into a host of doomsday scenarios, it is already clear that the malicious use of AI could undermine trust in institutions, weaken social cohesion and threaten democracy itself," he said.

Since OpenAI launched ChatGPT last year, interest in the new technology has spread across the world, leading AI researchers to raise concerns about "risks to society."

While many governments are working to formulate laws to regulate the spread of AI, researchers and lawmakers have called for global collaboration.

The UN body will issue preliminary recommendations by the end of this year and final recommendations by the summer of 2024.

The immediate tasks include building a global scientific consensus on risks and challenges, and strengthening international cooperation on AI governance, the UN said.

The first meeting of the body will take place on October 27.
Mongolias President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh and his spouse will pay a visit to Vietnam on Wednesday next week at the invitation of Vietnamese State President Vo Van Thuong, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Friday.

His five-day trip to Vietnam is to be made one year before the two nations mark the 70th anniversary of their diplomatic ties.

This will be the first state visit to Vietnam by a Mongolian president in 10 years.

Khurelsukh traveled to the Southeast Asian nation in January 2010 when he served as secretary-general of the Mongolian Peoples Party.

The two presidents of Vietnam and Mongolia met each other in the United Kingdom in May, while they were attending the coronation of King Charles III.

Khurelsukh actively promoted ties with Vietnam when he held office as deputy prime minister and prime minister between 2014 and 2021.

Mongolia always sees Vietnam as its key trade partner in Southeast Asia and the Asia-Pacific region.

Two-way trade is still modest due to difficulty in transport and geographical proximity.

As of November 2019, Mongolian firms had got involved in three projects in Vietnam, ranking Mongolia 96th among 126 countries and territories investing in the Southeast Asian nation, with a total value of US$1.1 million.

The two nations are working to expand import and export activities, focusing on farm produce, seafood, and consumer goods manufactured in Vietnam, as well as meat and footwear made in Mongolia.

The Mongolian presidents Vietnam visit is expected to cement the traditional friendship, and center around programs aimed to celebrate 70 years of their diplomatic relations in 2024.

Mongolia, a country in Central Asia, spans over 1.56 million square kilometers, and has a population of more than 3.4 million people.

Mongolias economy is mainly reliant on mining and husbandry.

It boasts the mineral wealth of bronze, coal, gold, aluminum, and uranium.

The mining industry accounts for over 50 percent of Mongolias gross domestic product.

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A truck crashed into a motorbike and an electric bicycle after being hit by another truck, killing three people on the spot in Khanh Hoa Province, south-central Vietnam on Friday morning, the provincial traffic police said the same day.

The accident happened at 6:30 am on a section of National Highway 1 in Cam Ranh City, Khanh Hoa Province when a truck driven by Vo Ngoc Tung, a 30-year-old resident in Phu Yen Province, a neighbor of Khanh Hoa, collided with another truck whose driver was Nguyen Van Phuc, 31, residing in southern Ben Tre Province, running in the same direction.

Phuc's truck later hit the electric bicycle about to cross the road and the motorbike in the same direction, claiming the lives of the two people on the electric bicycle -- H.T.M., 57, and her 12-year-old grandchild D.T.H., as well as the motorbike rider -- N.Q., 65.

All of them resided in Cam Ranh City.

The crash deformed the motorbike and the electric bicycle while slightly damaging the two trucks.

Vo Ngoc Tung, the trucker from Phu Yen Province, was injured so local residents rushed him to hospital.

Local authorities are investigating the cause of the accident.

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A fire engulfed a makeshift house in suburban Hanoi on Thursday evening, killing a 35-year-old mother and her two children, aged 12 and 5, authorities confirmed on the same day.

The fatal blaze, accompanied by an explosion, swept through the house at around 6:00 pm in Tu Hiep Commune under the outlying district of Thanh Tri, a leader of the Thanh Tri administration told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

Following the explosion, the house collapsed, the leader added.

Three died in a house fire in Hanoi on October 26, 2023. Photo: Nguyen Phuong / Tuoi Tre

The family has four members, all from the northern province of Nam Dinh.

At the time of the incident, a man rushed outside, shouted for help but no more members were seen getting out, according to the Tu Hiep administration.

The man was burned and was sent to a nearby hospital for emergency treatment.

Police in Hanoi cited the injured man as saying that the family was using a machine to press scrap metal but they accidentally pressed a nearby hairspray bottle, leading to an explosion and then a fire.

Prior to the incident, the makeshift house was used to store scrap metal, some local inhabitants told the authorities.

On behalf of the Vietnamese government, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on the same day extended his deepest condolences to the bereaved family.

The government leader asked the Hanoi administration to timely offer assistance to the bereaved family and cope with the aftermath of the deadly incident.

He demanded that authorities in provinces and cities nationwide tighten efforts to check the compliance with fire safety rules among businesses and households to minimize fire risks.

Police cordon off the scene of the deadly house fire. Photo: Nguyen Phuong / Tuoi Tre

An ambulance is seen at the scene of the deadly house fire. Photo: H.Q / Tuoi Tre

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A South Korean tourist died after falling four meters off a cliff on Lang Biang Mountain, a popular tourist site that is 12 kilometers from Da Lat City in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong, on Thursday afternoon.

The traveler reached a rock cliff where the local authorities had erected warning signs to discourage tourists from approaching it on Lang Biang Mountain to take photos and slipped.

She was rushed to hospital as she suffered serious injuries and was unconscious before passing away at 4:00 pm.

On Tuesday, four other South Korean travelers died when a flash flood hit their jeep in a shallow stream in Cu Lan Village, Lac Duong District, Lam Dong Province.

The provincial authorities later forced the Cu Lan village tourist site to temporarily suspend operations.

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Geriatric walls along an alley on Nguyen Dinh Chinh Street in Phu Nhuan District under Ho Chi Minh City have been transformed into brightly colored murals by locals and volunteer painters.

These eye-catching paintings resulted from a contest titled Green Corner  Green Space, which was held in the district to make the place more lively and dynamic.

Several firms responded to the program by growing trees and decorating their workplaces, shops, and restaurants.

Many schools in the district are ablaze with green space and colorful drawings.

Alley 195 on Nguyen Dinh Chinh Street had earlier seen trash pile up.

After the Peoples Committee of Ward 11 in the district launched the environmental protection initiative, the alleyway has become beautiful thanks to the flowered walls.

Pham My Hoa, a resident of the district, said that due to several spontaneous rubbish dumps in her ward, she and other neighbors called on volunteers and philanthropists to beautify the streets and prevent littering.

No one is now throwing waste at a place surrounded by trees and covered with lovely walls.

Ho Van Hue Elementary School in Ward 9 has planted various trees to create an airy playground and an eco-friendly reading space for students, said vice-principal Tran Thi Minh Trang.

Each class has its own corner of nature decorated by students and teachers.

Tran Bao Toan, head of the Phu Nhuan District Division of Natural Resources and Environment, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that after four months of its launch, the program attracted the participation of nearly 250 units.

Among them are private businesses and worship facilities such as pagodas and churches.

Several streets are kept clean, while 410 cubic meters of construction waste was removed, as a result of the initiative.

In addition, the district is seeing green coverage increase, with thousands of trees having been grown, while beds of flowers were formed.

As many as 200 deteriorating structures have been upgraded, contributing to making the district more gorgeous.

The district will roll out tree-planting and waste-collecting competitions in the future, he said.

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Good news for die-hard Survivor addicts with Survivor UK to be fast-tracked on 10 Play.

This is only the third season of the show in the UK, rebooted after 21 years with host Joel Dommett.

Host Joel Dommett will welcome 18 castaways to the Dominican Republic to the play the ultimate physical and psychological game. Divided into two rival tribes, they will live on remote beaches, build their own shelters, face the elements and battle against each other in epic challenges for reward or immunity.

The two tribes will immediately be pitted against each other in their first reward challenge, a brutally exhausting clash to retrieve basic supplies. Divisions will begin to form and personalities will be put to the test as the losing tribe struggles to deal with the harsh environment.

The tribes will also compete in their first immunity challenge, an intense feat of endurance. For the losing tribe, it means a sunset showdown at TribalCouncil where they must vote off one of their own.

Which tribe will win the first immunity challenge? And who will become the first person voted out of the game, leaving their dreams of winning 100,000 and the title of Sole Survivor in tatters?

8:30pm AEDT Sunday and Monday on 10 Play.
Its 1986 and war hero Hawkins Fuller (Matt Bomer) is living the dream with a grand American home, good friends and a loving, healthy family.

Yet in new US drama Fellow Travelers when visited by Marcus (Jellani Alladin), an old friend from the 1950s, he is reminded of another life: one full of secrets, passions, danger and lies.

Marcus interrupts Hawks cosy home life to tell him Tim, his former lover from his youth, has AIDS.

A series set in two time periods, we soon flashback to the meeting of Hawk and Tim (Jonathan Bailey), an aspiring political staffer for the Republican Party of which Hawk is already a rising State Dept. suit.

When Hawk isnt wheeling and dealing for his boss Senator Wesley Smith (Linus Roache) hes hooking up with hot trade in cubicles. DC is, after all, the capital of ulterior motives.

The attraction between Hawk and Tim, a polite workplace connection rather than anonymous sex, is instant. Its Hawk who holds the upper hand in both experience and power, outlining to the younger Tim (whom he nicknames Skippy) their meetings must remain secret. And put the radio on when having sex so as not to raise the suspicions of the landlady.

Yet at the same time the era is highly politicised by the McCarthy Communist inquisitions. While their lust is unleashed, Joseph McCarthy (Chris Bauer) and Roy Cohn (Will Brill) declare war on subversives and sexual deviants, communists and homosexuals.

Theres even a Sexual Deviants Unit, charged with ridding the government of the men they believe will give up secrets to avoid being blackmailed.

For Skippy its a dangerous time, but a war hero like Hawk, loaded up with medals, is regarded as bulletproof. All of this contributes to the swagger with which Hawk operates, one moment banging Tim, taking him to underground clubs and insisting its a physical relationship only, the next courting Senator Smiths daughter Lucy (Allison Williams) when questions are raised about his bachelor status.

When the pendulum swings back to the present in Reagans 1986, a guilty Hawk agrees to visit Tim who is now being cared for by his sister as he battles a ravaging disease. But Tim is also uninterested in Hawks too little, too late gesture.

Jonathan Bailey is the standout as the deeply religious Tim, whose optimism is readily crushed by Washington DCs suffocating rules and hypocrisy. His attraction to Hawk is candid and open if also the embodiment of wearing-his-heart on his sleeve.

Matt Bomer is perfectly arrogant as the hunky Hawk, striding through scenes like a DILF and calling all the shots when it suits him. This makes for a relationship of two polar opposites which works for conflict, and passion at the same time, even if he is far less likeable. Later scenes with Hawks father will justify some of his arrogant personality.

Yet there are problems around Bomers age for both time periods. He appears too young as a father (or should that be grandfather?) in the 80s scenes, and too old to be a WWII hero in the 1950s. This requires some suspension of disbelie, if not a little more CGI or extra time in the make-up chair.

It also has to be said, I suspect nowhere near as many men in the 1950s had abs as ripped as these, unless they were on some sort of bodybuilder circuit.

Despite these misgivings, Fellow Travelers is a passionate, detailed essay on a torrid love story in a time of hatred. Further episodes will also highlight how racial abuse prevailed.

Writer Ron Nyswaner creates a political and personal piece that manages to find connection in two troubling eras: AIDS and McCarthyism.

While a war hero like Hawk may indeed be bulletproof, not everybody else is.

Fellow Travelesr screens Saturdays on Paramount+
(Photo : Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images)

WEST HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA - NOVEMBER 12: Kris Jenner attends the 2022 Baby2Baby Gala presented by Paul Mitchell at Pacific Design Center on November 12, 2022 in West Hollywood, California.

The episode titled 'It Takes A Village' began with Khloe Kardashian and her mother, Kris Jenner, discussing Kris' infidelity during her relationship with Robert Kardashian.

The interaction was hinted in the previous episode's ending, as per Mirror.

Khloe Kardashian Confronts Kris Jenner on 'The Kardashians'

The latest episode of 'The Kardashians' took viewers on a journey into the Kardashian-Jenner family's past, as Khloe Kardashian confronted her mother, Kris Jenner, about her infidelity.

Kris' 1989 affair with Todd Waterman had caused her divorce from Robert Kardashian, a pivotal moment in their family's history. Viewers were given an intimate glimpse into Kris Jenner's innermost motivations and the profound regrets that have shaped her life.

The episode opens with Khloe's direct question to Kris Jenner about her mindset during the affair with her father. Kris, taken aback, initially stammers at the question but proceeds to answer honestly.

She attributes her actions to being "young and dumb" at the time, suggesting that she didn't fully comprehend the consequences of her actions. Khloe continues to ask what her father lacked that made Kris Jenner seek companionship elsewhere.

Kris acknowledges the greatness of her late husband as a husband and father and admits that her actions were a colossal mistake and her life's biggest regret. Kris Jenner also reveals the unique bond she and Robert Kardashian formed after their divorce, a friendship that endured until his passing.

They spoke regularly and supported each other through various challenges. She reflects on her regrets during this period, wondering what she was thinking back then. Khloe's inquiry into her mother's past stems from her experience co-parenting her children with her ex, Tristan Thompson.

Khloe, a mother of two, has been navigating a tumultuous relationship with Thompson in the public eye. Kris' desire for Khloe to be cautious in her decisions and let go when necessary arises from her past missteps.

Despite her regrets, Kris asserts that everything happens for a reason and that "God has a plan."

She claims that with her past mistakes, she would have had Kendall and Kylie, her daughters, with Caitlyn Jenner, according to Mail Online.

Read Also: Japan: Social Media Users Criticize Popular YouTubers 'Train Fare Dodgers' in Uploaded Videos

Kris Jenner's Journey to Redemption

This revelation underscores Kris' belief in fate and her acceptance of her past. On the other hand, Khloe emphasizes her commitment to her children and her reluctance to prioritize a romantic partner at this stage in her life.

She's focused on cherishing her time with her kids and acknowledges that life is fleeting. Kris praises her daughter's decision to focus on her children and be present, recognizing that many fail to do so.

The episode provides valuable insights into Kris Jenner's past actions and her path to redemption and self-acceptance. It shows her profound remorse for her past actions, her enduring friendship with her ex-husband, and her belief in a higher plan for her life.

Kris' reflections serve as a lesson for viewers, highlighting the importance of understanding one's past mistakes, finding the silver linings in life's challenges, and ultimately accepting and forgiving oneself. Her story reminds us that we all make mistakes but can learn and grow from them; that truly matters.

As the episode unfolds, it becomes clear that Kris Jenner's journey is not just a personal one but also a testament to her family's resilience and unwavering bond. The Kardashians have faced numerous trials and tribulations throughout their public lives, but they continue to support one another and find strength in their unity.

In a world where personal growth and self-reflection often take a backseat to drama and sensationalism, this episode of 'The Kardashians' provides a refreshing glimpse into a family's willingness to confront their past and learn from it.

It's a reminder that the journey toward self-improvement and acceptance is universal regardless of background or celebrity status. Kris Jenner's story, as told in this episode, serves as a beacon of hope and an example of how one can find meaning and purpose even in life's most challenging moments, E! News reported.

Related Article: Daniel Radcliffe To Produce Documentary About Paralyzed 'Harry Potter' Stunt Double

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
China's Prime Minister Li Keqiang (C) arrives at a Phnom Penh hotel in 2022 for an Asean summit (Nhac NGUYEN)

Former Chinese premier Li Keqiang, a reform-minded bureaucrat once tipped as the country's future leader only to be eclipsed by President Xi Jinping, died Friday. He was 68.

Li suffered a heart attack on Thursday and passed away in Shanghai just after midnight, state-run news agency Xinhua said.

China's ruling Communist Party said in an official obituary that Lis death was "a significant loss for the party and the country", describing him as an "outstanding party member, a time-tested and loyal Communist fighter".

It added that Li "was full of affection for the people and strived to resolve their outstanding difficulties in employment, education, housing, medical care and elderly care, shore up the bottom line of their livelihoods and continuously improve their happiness".

A career bureaucrat who spoke fluent English, Li voiced support for economic reforms during his time in office.

During his 10-year tenure as premier under Xi, he cultivated an image as a more modern official compared to his stiffer colleagues.

The son of a minor party official in eastern China's Anhui province, Li was sent to the countryside to work as a labourer during the tumultuous Cultural Revolution of 1966 to 1976.

He went on to study law at Peking University, where classmates say he embraced Western liberalism.

But he became more orthodox after joining the Communist Party in the mid-1980s, rising to become its top official in Henan province, and later in Liaoning in the northeast -- tenures marked by both economic growth and a health scandal.

Appointed premier in 2013, his attempts at tackling China's deep economic challenges were curtailed by the overwhelming authority of Xi, with whom he was once seen as a rival for the country's leadership.

His tenure saw a shift from the more consensus-based rule associated with former leaders to the concentrated power of Xi.

"People always debated whether (China's) institutions would... determine the outcomes, as opposed to just raw power," Victor Shih, an expert on China's elite politics at the University of California San Diego, told AFP.

Story continues

"Recent events show that raw power still matters more."

"It's very unfortunate that he didn't have a protege to carry on his policies," said Wang Jiangyu, a professor at City University of Hong Kong.

- 'Derailed agenda' -

Under Li's watch, China's economy began to slow from the dizzying heights experienced in the 1990s and 2000s.

When he left office in March, the country was experiencing some of its lowest growth in decades, battered by a Covid-induced slowdown and a crisis in the housing market.

The appointment of Xi ally Li Qiang as his successor was seen as a sign that his reformist agenda had fallen by the wayside as Beijing tightened its grip over the economy.

In his final speech as premier earlier this year, Li struck a bullish tone, saying China's economy was "staging a steady recovery and demonstrating vast potential and momentum for further growth".

"He always struck me as very committed to China's development, intellectually curious, with a highly sophisticated understanding of the Chinese economy," Bert Hofman, director of the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore, told AFP.

"Events derailed some of his agenda in the past 10 years, but his thinking is still very much relevant today."

Former Peking University schoolmate Guoguang Wu, now a researcher at Stanford, told AFP he did not believe Li "has left a political legacy".

"History will soon forget him," he said.

Another former schoolmate was more charitable, saying Li's life and career were a testament to the success of the reform agenda he espoused during his life.

"Without reform and opening up... he and I still might have been farming in the countryside of Anhui," lawyer Tao Jingzhou said.

- Humble beginnings -

In the eastern village of Jiuzi in Dingyuan county on Friday afternoon, flowers were laid against the mud and thatch walls of Li's childhood home -- a far cry from the upper echelons of Beijing to which he ascended.

A small group of people gathered, with some laying bouquets of yellow and white chrysanthemums -- a Chinese flower of mourning.

One woman told AFP she felt "very sad" about his death.

A visitor said he "felt very sad because Li Keqiang was an amiable premier and was loved by people all over the country".

Another man said: "He has done a lot of good things for the people, and the country. We people are very grateful to him."

Social media users took to the popular Weibo platform to share brief messages of condolence, though many comments could not be displayed -- a sign that discussion of the topic was being censored.

bur-reb-oho-mjw/mca
Weaker demand from consumers has pushed Electrolux to cut jobs (SCOTT OLSON)

Swedish home appliances maker Electrolux said Thursday it plans to cut some 3,000 jobs as it reported lower sales in the third quarter.

"Against the background of continued weak consumer demand and competitive pressure in the market, Electrolux Group is stepping up its cost reduction efforts to restore margins," the company said in a statement.

The measures were expected to affect "approximately 3,000 positions," it added.

The company reported a near eight percent drop in sales to 33.4 billion kronor ($3 billion) in the third quarter compared to the same period the previous year.

In October last year, it announced it would cut 4,000 jobs worldwide but mainly in North America.

In February of this year it announced it was ceasing production at one of its two plants in Hungary. This plant employed 650 people.

Although it returned to the black in the third quarter with a net profit of 123 million kronor, compared to a loss of 625 million kronor a year earlier, the company reported a combined net loss of 1.1 billion kronor for the first three quarters of the year.

In the third quarter, the group employed around 44,600 people, down from 51,400 a year earlier.

Electrolux saw a boon during the pandemic as house-bound consumers turned their attention to refreshing their homes.

But the company was then hit with supply-chain disruptions and is now struggling to adapt to weaker demand.

Shares in Electrolux were down over 11 percent during morning trading on the Stockholm stock exchange.

nzg/jll/rl
The Israeli military claims it has killed a Hamas commander responsible for the aerial attack on 7 October, which saw paragliders enter southern Israel and kill over a thousand civilians.

This comes as the IDF ground forces are expanding their activity in the Gaza Strip, as the enclave is plunged into darkness and lines of communication have gone down.

Israeli forces are intensifying bombings of targets in Gaza city at intervals for hours amid reports of fighting inside the enclave between Israeli troops and Hamas.

The territorys internet and mobile communications services collapsed last evening.

Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the armys spokesperson, said aerial attacks had been targeting Hamas tunnels and other targets.

In addition to the attacks that we carried out in recent days, ground forces are expanding their activity this evening, he said on Friday evening. The IDF is acting with great force ... to achieve the objectives of the war.

Meanwhile, the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly backed a resolution drafted by Arab states calling for an immediate humanitarian truce in Gaza and demanded aid access to Gaza and protection of civilians. It was vetoed by the US and Israel.

Key Points

Israel expanding ground operations in Gaza, IDF says

IDF kills top Hamas commander, Israel says

US fighter jets strike Syria after attacks by Iran-backed militia

Over 1,000 people still under rubble in Gaza, WHO says

Palestinian authorities release list of 7,000 people they say have been killed

Israel ground forces expanding activity and communication goes down

Friday 27 October 2023 18:43 , Sam Rkaina

The Israeli military has said its ground forces are expanding their activity in the Gaza Strip tonight, as lines of communication in the enclave have gone down.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the armys spokesman, said aerial attacks had been targeting Hamas tunnels and other targets.

In addition to the attacks that we carried out in recent days, ground forces are expanding their activity this evening, he said. The IDF is acting with great force ... to achieve the objectives of the war.

Story continues

Israel has amassed hundreds of thousands of troops along the border with Gaza ahead of an expected ground offensive against the Hamas militant group.

Airstrikes have intensified since nightfall and the territorys internet and mobile communications services collapsed on Friday evening.

IDF says window to escape northern Gaza is closing

13:43 , Holly Evans

The Israeli military has reissued a call for residents to evacuate northern Gaza ahead of an impending Israeli operation.

IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said: For your immediate safety, we urge all residents of northern Gaza and Gaza City to temporarily relocate south.

He added: Moving back to northern Gaza will be possible once the intense hostilities end.

He added that Hamas was putting civilians in danger by positioning its forces in schools, mosques and hospitals.

The impending IDF operation is set to neutralise the threat of Hamas with precision and intensity.

He told civilians: Your window to act is closing, move south for your own safety.

This is not a mere precaution, this is an urgent plea for the safety of the civilians in Gaza.

An urgent message for the residents of Gaza: pic.twitter.com/GAW3a7lWt8  Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 28, 2023

Woman knocked over by a police horse in London demonstration

13:34 , Holly Evans

A woman has been knocked over by a police horse startled by fireworks let off at a pro-Palestinian protest.

A number of the horses bolted at the sound of the fireworks near the Houses of Parliament.

The woman was knocked to the floor and trampled on but appeared to be fine when brought back to her feet.

Red and green flares were also let off by protesters.

(Jordan Pettitt/PA Wire)

Israeli army reissues orders to evacuate northern Gaza

13:31 , Holly Evans

The Israeli military has reissued a call to Gaza residents to evacuate the north of the territory ahead of an impending Israeli operation.

Latest pictures of Londons ceasefire protest

13:25 , Athena Stavrou

Police are expecting around 100,000 protestors to take to the streets of London for a demonstration calling for a humanitarian ceasefire, after Israel ramped up its ground incursion into the Gaza Strip.

Demonstrators have been told to stick together and not to talk or interact with the police. Rallies have been organised across the country in Manchester, Glasgow and elsewhere.

(AFP via Getty Images)

(PA)

(PA)

SNP leader still hasnt heard from wifes parents in Gaza

13:15 , Athena Stavrou

Scotlands first minister Humza Yousaf said he has still not heard from his in-laws in Gaza as the territory comes under heavy bombardment from Israeli forces and communications were cut off.

In a message apparently aimed at the UK government  which abstained from a UN General Assembly motion on a humanitarian truce  he said he didnt know how those who do not vote for peace sleep at night.

Writing on X, he said: Thank you for your good wishes, Im afraid we have not heard from my in-laws. My concern is for all the innocent people suffering for a crime they did not commit. If you did not vote for peace, while children are dying, then I do not know how you sleep at night.

Thank you for your good wishes, I'm afraid we have not heard from my in-laws.



My concern is for all the innocent people suffering for a crime they did not commit.



If you did not vote for peace, while children are dying, then I do not know how you sleep at night.#CeasefireNow  Humza Yousaf (@HumzaYousaf) October 28, 2023

Thousands of protesters join London march

12:59 , Athena Stavrou

Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of London to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.

After over 100,000 joined a demonstration in the capital last week, Met Police have said more than 1,000 officers will be on duty, with many more working in communities across the city.

Todays demonstration comes after the Israel Defense Forces announced it was expanding ground operations.

And were off! You can still join the march from Victoria Embankment  #CeasefireNOW pic.twitter.com/8kEa5RSPtV  PSC (@PSCupdates) October 28, 2023

Russia warns Israels bombardment of Gaza could create a catastrophe lasting decades.

12:50 , Athena Stavrou

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said that Israels bombardment of Gaza risks creating a catastrophe that could last decades.

Lavrov told Belarusian state news agency Belta: While we condemn terrorism, we categorically disagree that you can respond to terrorism by violating the norms of international humanitarian law, including indiscriminately using force against targets where civilians are known to be present, including hostages that have been taken.

He added that it would be impossible to destroy Hamas without destroying Gaza along with most of its civilian population.

If Gaza is destroyed and 2 million inhabitants are expelled, as some politicians in Israel and abroad propose, this will create a catastrophe for many decades, if not centuries, warned Lavrov. It is necessary to stop, and to announce humanitarian programmes to save the population under blockade.

Russia, which backs an immediate ceasefire and a two-state solution, has angered Israel by inviting a Hamas delegation to Moscow, a decision it defended on Friday. Hamas has said it is seeking eight Gaza hostages at Russias request.

Lavrov said Russia was in close contact with Israel too.

Egypt warns region could become 'ticking time bomb'

12:42 , Athena Stavrou

Egypts President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Saturday warned against any expansion of the conflict in Gaza, saying the region risked becoming a ticking time bomb.

He also said his countrys sovereignty should be respected after drones were intercepted after entering Egyptian air space on Friday.

Israel on Friday said it was the target of the drones which it blamed on Yemens Iranian-backed Houthi movement. Egypts military said the drones, which fell on the Egyptian towns of Taba and Nuweiba near the Israeli border, injuring six, originated in the southern Red Sea. It did not say who launched the drones.

(AP)

Regardless of where it comes from, I have warned of the expansion of the conflict. The region will becoming a ticking time bomb that impacts us all, Sisi said, speaking at a conference.

Egypt is a sovereign country and its sovereignty and position should be respected ... Egypt is a strong country and it is untouchable, he added.

Sisi held a peace summit last Saturday and has called for aid to be allowed into Gaza, the release of hostages, and a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Watch live: Pro-Palestine protesters march in London calling for Gaza ceasefire

12:25 , Holly Evans

Watch live: Pro-Palestine protesters march in London calling for Gaza ceasefire

Bel Trew: Gaza humanitarian crisis could reach catastrophic levels under Israels expanded operations

12:21 , Holly Evans

Bel Trew: Gaza humanitarian crisis could reach catastrophic levels

First pictures of Londons protest

12:13 , Holly Evans

The protest is calling for a ceasefire in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza (REUTERS)

Demonstrators protest in London (REUTERS)

Protestors gather in central London

12:05 , Holly Evans

Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters have gathered in central London with banners and posters.

Demonstrators have been told to stick together and not to talk or interact with the police.

Protesters also chanted from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free, despite controversy around the slogans meaning.

World Health Organisation says reports of airstrikes near hospitals are gravely concerning'

11:57 , Holly Evans

In a statement, the World Health Organisation said: During a night of intense bombardment and ground incursions in Gaza, with reports of hostilities still continuing, health workers, patients and civilians have been subject to a total communication and electrical blackout.

The WHO reiterates its calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, and reminds all parties to the conflict to take all precautions to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure.

This includes health workers, patients, health facilities and ambulances, and civilians who are sheltering in these facilities. Active measures must be taken to ensure they are not harmed and safe passage provided for the movement of desperately needed medical supplies, fuel, water and food into and across Gaza.

The Gaza Strip experienced heavy bombardment overnight (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Reports of bombardment near the Indonesia and Al Shifa hospitals are gravely concerning. The WHO reiterates that it is impossible to evacuate patients without endangering their lives.

Hospitals across Gaza are already operating at maximum capacity due to the injuries sustained in weeks of unrelenting bombardment, and are unable to absorb a dramatic rise in the number of patients, while sheltering thousands of civilians.

Health workers who have stayed by their patients sides face dwindling supplies, with no place to put new patients, and no means to alleviate their patients pain. There are more wounded every hour. But ambulances cannot reach them in the communications blackout. Morgues are full. More than half of the dead are women and children.

Labour voters think Keir Starmer has handled Israel-Hamas crisis badly

11:39 , Holly Evans

Labour voters tend to think Keir Starmer has handled the Gaza crisis badly, a new poll has revealed as the party leader comes under growing pressure to back a ceasefire.

A new YouGov survey finds that 42 per cent of 2019 Labour voters think that Sir Keir has badly handled his response to Israel-Hamas conflict.

Only 26 per cent think Mr Starmer  who has refused to support a ceasefire despite backing from a revolt by dozens of MPs and the partys devolved leaders  has handled it well.

Read more from political correspondent Adam Forrest here

Labour voters think Keir Starmer has handled Israel-Hamas crisis badly

Scotlands Humza Yousaf still has not heard from family in Gaza

11:37 , Holly Evans

Scotlands First Minister Humza Yousaf has said he has still not heard from his family in Gaza after internet and communications were knocked out last night.

In a post on X, he said: Thank you for your good wishes, Im afraid we have not heard from my in-laws.

My concern is for all the innocent people suffering for a crime they did not commit. If you did not vote for peace, while children are dying, then I do not know how you sleep at night. 

Thank you for your good wishes, I'm afraid we have not heard from my in-laws.



My concern is for all the innocent people suffering for a crime they did not commit.



If you did not vote for peace, while children are dying, then I do not know how you sleep at night.#CeasefireNow  Humza Yousaf (@HumzaYousaf) October 28, 2023

Gaza humanitarian crisis could reach 'catastrophic levels', says Bel Trew

11:29 , Holly Evans

Police expecting 100,000 to join London demonstration calling for ceasefire

11:17 , Holly Evans

Police expect about 100,000 people to join a demonstration in London demanding a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, with other rallies organised elsewhere in the UK  including in Manchester and Glasgow.

The Times reported that counter-terrorism officers have privately said Iran is attempting to heighten tensions at rallies over Israels bombing of Gaza and were warning of increased hostile-state activity in Britain.

The newspaper said Iranian activity included a campaign of online disinformation and Tehran operatives being physically present at protests.

This comes after at least 200 protestors were arrested in New York as they forced the closure of Grand Central station in a large sit-in.

The demonstration, made up mostly of Jewish New Yorkers, took over the main hall of the iconic station and blocked its main concourse.

New York Police Department officers arrest protesters at Grand Central Terminal (The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

BBC refusal to call Hamas terrorists wrong says Badenoch

11:13 , Holly Evans

Business secretary Kemi Badenoch has attacked the BBC for its refusal to call Hamas terrorists. She told the Telegraph a false equivalence has been made in an attempt to be impartial.

Given all of the footage that we saw, we were in no doubt that what we were looking at was a terror attack, she said.

The cabinet minister also defending the UK continuing to deal with Qatar which is believed to be housing members of Hamas. If you stop doing business with people, if you stop talking to them, then you have less influence and youre unable to help shape the outcome of events.

Read more here

BBCs refusal to call Hamas terrorists was wrong says Badenoch

Latest pictures from Gaza

11:02 , Holly Evans

Flares fired by the Israeli army light up the sky east of Khan Yunis on the southern Gaza Strip (SAID KHATIB/AFP via Getty Images)

Smoke rises from the northern part of Gaza (EPA)

(AP)

'Anxiety' racks Israeli hostage families as army assaults Gaza

10:55 , Holly Evans

The families of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip have been racked with worry for their loved ones since the military stepped up ground assaults inside the Palestinian territory, a group lobbying for the families, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, said on Saturday.

In a statement, they said:We demand the Prime Minister, Minister of Defense Gallant, and members of the war cabinet to meet with us immediately.

The families spent a night in great anxiety. This night was the most terrible of all nights. It was a long and sleepless night, against the backdrop of the major IDF operation in the Strip, and absolute uncertainty regarding the fate of the hostages held there, who were also subject to the heavy bombings.

Anxiety, frustration, and especially enormous anger that none of the war cabinet bothered to meet with the families of the hostages to explain one thing - whether the ground operation endangers the well-being of the 229 hostages in Gaza.

The families are worried about the fate of their loved ones and are waiting for an explanation. Every minute feels like an eternity. We demand that Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and members of the war cabinet - meet with us this morning!

London set for massive pro-Palestinian protest demanding Gaza ceasefire

10:45 , Holly Evans

Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters are expected to take to the streets of Britain on Saturday as Israel steps up its offensive on Gaza.

Police expect about 100,000 people to join a demonstration in London demanding a ceasefire in Gaza, with other rallies organised elsewhere in the UK  including in Manchester and Glasgow.

It comes as Israel knocked out communications in the Gaza Strip in intensified attacks, largely cutting off the 2.3 million population from contact with each other and the outside world.

Read more here

London set for massive pro-Palestinian protest demanding Gaza ceasefire

Sisi urges all to respect Egypts sovereignty after drones fall on Red Sea towns

10:41 , Holly Evans

Egypts President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Saturday urged all to respect Egypts sovereignty and position in the region following incidents on Friday where drones fell on two Egyptian Red Sea towns.

Egyptians should feel safe and the army is able to protect the country, Sisi said at a manufacturing expo in Cairo.

He also emphasised that Egypt would continue to play a positive role in the Israel-Hamas conflict and did not want it to expand regionally.

Senior Tory MP backs humanitarian truce

10:24 , Holly Evans

Senior Tory MP Alicia Kearns, the chair of parliaments foreign affairs select committee, said she support the idea of a humanitarian truce voted for in a UN General Assembly motion.

120 countries voted for a truce. Personally  I do support a truce. The reason being [is] we need to alleviate the suffering, we need to get more aid in. People are starting to die because they do not have access to basic goods.

She added: A humanitarian would give us the opportunity to get them [UK hostages] out. I think its really important we use the word truce. A truce doesnt mean a long-term cessation of hostilities  it means a temporary white flag.

'Personally, I support a truce'



Conservative MP Alicia Kearns who is also Chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee told #BBCBreakfast she backs a 'humanitarian truce' to get aid in and people out of Gazahttps://t.co/H8mOaCvzDC pic.twitter.com/jx1iq5i8X6  BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) October 28, 2023

Israel's military says thwarted missile fire from Lebanon

10:12 , Holly Evans

Israels military said on Saturday it had stopped a surface-to-air missile fired from Lebanon at one of its drones, and was responding by striking the launch site.

The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) thwarted a surface-to-air missile that was fired from Lebanon toward an IDF UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle). In response, the IDF is striking the origin of the missiles fire, it said.

An Israeli soldier operates a firearm in an armoured vehicle near Israels border with Lebanon (REUTERS)

Some pro-Palestine protesters have negative aims, says Cleverly

10:03 , Holly Evans

Asked about foreign actors helping stoke unrest in the UK, foreign secretary James Cleverly said: Sadly I do think that a minority, a small minority within those protests, have got very much more negative aims.

The cabinet minister told protesters: Be conscious of this and be conscious about disinformation and manipulation.

Mr Cleverly added: To those protesting, I would say that they should recognise that it is possible to be completely condemning of Hamass atrocities on the 7th October and also be supportive of Palestinian people.

"Sadly I do think that a small minority within those protests have got negative aims"



Foreign Sec James Cleverly MP tells people attending protests in the UK to 'be conscious of this and be conscious about disinformation and manipulation'https://t.co/13sgTJYOwg



 Sky 50 pic.twitter.com/4g2N0NZR0L  Sky News (@SkyNews) October 28, 2023

Hamas would not abide by ceasefire, says Cleverly

09:54 , Holly Evans

Foreign secretary James Cleverly said Hamas do not want a ceasefire, as he defended the governments rejection of calls for one.

We want to see this resolved  we want to see Israel safe, peaceful and secure, he told broadcasters.

As yet, I have seen or heard nothing from Hamas that gives me any confidence that they either desire or would abide by calls a ceasefire.

The UN General Assembly approved a resolution calling for a humanitarian truce in Gaza. The UK government  which has called for a humanitarian pause  abstained from the motion, and criticised it failure to include unequivocal condemnation of Hamas terrorist attacks.

"Calls for a ceasefire in the abstract aren't going to help the situation".



Foreign Sec @JamesCleverly says the UK govt has "consistently sought to bring about pauses" to help humanitarian aid enter Gaza.https://t.co/A91Lm9xrLQ



 Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233 pic.twitter.com/bJmglDjPGN  Sky News (@SkyNews) October 28, 2023

Hamas says it is ready to confront Israel with full force

09:44 , Holly Evans

Hamas has said its militants are ready to confront Israeli attacks with full force after Israel announced it was expanding ground operations on Friday.

Their armed wing said: The al Qassam brigades and all the Palestinian resistance forces are completely ready to confront [Israels] aggression with full force and frustrate its incursions.

Netanyahu and his defeated army will not be able to achieve any military victory.

Metropolitan Police set to intervene over jihad calls at Palestine protests

09:32 , Holly Evans

Metropolitan Police officers are set to intervene if activists call for jihad against Israel at pro-Palestine protests in London this weekend.

However, the head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has pointed out that calling for jihad is not an automatic hate crime.

Police expect about 100,000 people to join a huge demonstration in London demanding a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, with other major rallies organised in Manchester and Glasgow.

Read more here

Police set to intervene over jihad calls at Palestine protests

Israel expanding ground operation backed by massive strikes from the air and sea

09:21 , Holly Evans

Israel is expanding its ground operation in Gaza, with infantry and armoured vehicles backed by massive strikes from the air and sea, a military spokesman has said.

Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said on Saturday that the forces are still on the ground and are continuing the war.

Earlier on Saturday, the military had released videos showing columns of armoured vehicles moving slowly in open sandy areas of Gaza, the first visual confirmation of ground troops.

Previously, troops had conducted brief nightly ground incursions before returning to Israel.

Pose star Indya Moore detained as protesters flood Grand Central calling for Israel-Hamas ceasefire

09:14 , Holly Evans

Indya Moore detained in Grand Central as protesters call for Israel-Hamas ceasefire

Israel says it will allow trucks with food and aid into southern Gaza

09:06 , Holly Evans

An IDF spokesperson has told a news conference its military entered northern Gaza and expanded ground operations overnight, with its forces still in the field.

For those who have travelled south, humanitarian aid will increase, spokesperson Daniel Hagari said.

More trucks carrying food, medicine and water will enter. Anybody in that area, which is a safe and protected area, will receive [them].

The number of aid trucks has not been specified, and comes after Israel placed a complete blockade on the besieged enclave, cutting off electricity, medical supplies, fuel and water.

Israel shares video of ground forces in Gaza

08:52 , Holly Evans

The Israeli Defence Forces have shared a video on social media of ground forces in the Gaza Strip. Tanks can be seen entering the besieged enclave, which comes after a night of heavy bombardment with communication services collapsing.

Video activity of the IDF Ground Forces in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/FWt0pFO53q  Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 28, 2023

Explosions light up Gaza sky as Israel says ground operations expanding

08:43 , Holly Evans

Explosions light up Gaza sky as Israel says ground operations expanding

UNICEF loses contact with colleagues in Gaza

08:38 , Holly Evans

UNICEFs executive director Caroline Russell has said she is extremely concerned after another night of unspeakable horror in the Gaza Strip, after the organisation loses contact with their colleagues.

All humanitarians and the children and families they serve MUST be protected, she said.

All humanitarians and the children and families they serve MUST be protected. pic.twitter.com/CAshJKDmf2  UNICEF (@UNICEF) October 27, 2023

UK government doing 'what we can' to deescalate Israel-Hamas conflict, says Cleverly

08:34 , Holly Evans

WHO chief says evacuation of patients is not possible in Gaza

08:21 , Holly Evans

The World Health Organization (WHO) is out of touch with its staff and health facilities in Gaza, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote in a post on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

The blackout is also making it impossible for ambulances to reach the injured, Tedros said. The evacuation of patients is not possible under such circumstances, nor to find safe shelter, he said.

Reports of intense bombardment in Gaza are extremely distressing.



Evacuation of patients is not possible under such circumstances, nor to find safe shelter.



The blackout is also making it impossible for ambulances to reach the injured.



We are still out of touch with our staff  Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) October 28, 2023

Israel used around a hundred fighter jets in overnight bombardment

08:12 , Holly Evans

Around a hundred fighter jets were used in Israels bombardment of the Gaza Strip overnight that destroyed hundreds of Hamas targets, according to the head of Israels Air Force Operations Brigadier General Gilad Keinan.

In a post on X, Israeli forces quoted Keinan as saying that the air forces goal is clear - to destroy everything touched by the hand of Hamas.

He said that they had dropped hundreds of weapons and that they intended to kill every senior or junior terrorist and every terrorist infrastructure of Hamas.

Israel intensified bombing in Gaza overnight (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

French Jewish groups set up a hotline for people in the community traumatized by Israel-Hamas war

08:00 , Holly Evans

French Jewish groups have set up a helpline to provide support to people in the community traumatized by the latest Israel-Hamas war  from families who have lost loved ones in the Middle East to parents anxious about their childrens reaction to the conflict and Holocaust survivors.

Fabien Azoulay, the deputy director general in charge of solidarity at the United Jewish Social Fund, or FSJU, which brings together many associations in France, said that over 60 psychologists, psychiatrists and child psychiatrists are volunteering to call back those who leave messages on the helpline number.People of all ages are seeking support, from teenagers to parents and elderly people, Azoulay stressed.For some survivors of the Holocaust, it brings back childhood traumas they thought theyd never see again, Azoulay said. They see it in the country (Israel) that was supposed to be the refuge for Jews. So its very, very traumatic.

Fears for 1.4m Palestinians displaced by Israeli airtstrikes

07:34 , Holly Evans

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been left homeless after weeks of airstrikes - figures that only look set to increase if Israel launches a full-scale invasion of Gaza

On 13 October, 1 million people were ordered by Israel to evacuate northern Gaza. The move garnered international criticism with the WHO calling it a death sentence for the sick and injured and the UN warning it was impossible to execute and would lead to a calamitous situation.

The call to evacuate was repeated on 21 October with leaflets dropped in the north of the strip asking residents to leave immediately. It prompted Amnesty International to release a statement suggesting that the order could amount to a war crime under international humanitarian law.

Read the full story here

The homeless Palestinians fearing for their future as 1.4m displaced by airstrikes

Israel says it killed head of Hamas's aerial operations

07:19 , Holly Evans

Israels military claimes it has killed the man who allegedly commanded the Hamas fighters who infiltrated Israel on paragliders on 7 October and was allegedly responsible for drone attacks on Israeli military posts.

The Israel Defense Force posted on X, formerly known as Twitter: Overnight, IDF fighter jets struck Asem Abu Rakaba, the Head of Hamas Aerial Array.

Abu Rakaba was responsible for Hamas UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles], drones, paragliders, aerial detection and defence. He took part in planning the October 7 massacre and commanded the terrorists who infiltrated Israel on paragliders and was responsible for the drone attacks on IDF posts.

Overnight, IDF fighter jets struck Asem Abu Rakaba, the Head of Hamas' Aerial Array.



Abu Rakaba was responsible for Hamas' UAVs, drones, paragliders, aerial detection and defense.



He took part in planning the October 7 massacre and commanded the terrorists who infiltrated  Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 28, 2023

WHO says it urgently needs millions of dollars for Gaza response

07:01 , Andy Gregory

The World Health Organisation has warned that it urgently needs an estimated $80m (66m) to respond to humanitarian needs in the West Bank and Gaza and to undertake contingency planning for Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan through the end of 2023.

Besieged Gaza remains cut off from world for more than 12 hours

06:52 , Shweta Sharma

Thousands of Palestinians were thrown into isolation as Israel struck targets in the Gaza Strip with bombardment and artillery fire stepped up overnight, knocking out communications and creating a near-blackout of information.

The enclave of nearly 2.3 million people, mostly living in refugee camps, lost all contact with the outside world.

The Israeli military said it was expanding ground operations in the territory, signaling it was moving closer to an all-out invasion of Gaza, where it has vowed to crush the ruling Hamas militant group after its bloody incursion in southern Israel three weeks ago.

Explosions from continuous airstrikes lit up the sky over Gaza City for hours after nightfall yesterday.

200 pro-Palestinian protesters detained in New York

06:30 , Shweta Sharma

Scores of protesters filled the main concourse of New York Citys famed Grand Central Terminal during the evening rush hour yesterday, chanting slogans and unfurling banners demanding a cease-fire as Israel intensified its bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Wearing black T-shirts saying Jews say cease-fire now and Not in our name, at least 200 of the demonstrators were detained by New York Police Department officers and led out of the train station, their hands zip-tied behind their backs.

The NYPD said the protesters were taken briefly into custody, issued summonses and released, and that a more exact number of detentions would be available today morning.

Some protesters hoisted banners as they scaled the stone ledges in front of leaderboards listing departure times.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority asked commuters to use Penn Station as an alternative. After the sit-in was broken up by police, the remaining protesters spilled into the streets outside.

Hundreds of Jews and friends are taking over Grand Central Station in a historic sit-in calling for a ceasefire, advocacy group Jewish Voice for Peace said on social media.

(The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

London set for massive pro-Palestinian protest demanding Gaza ceasefire

06:27 , Shweta Sharma

Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters are expected to take to the streets of Britain on Saturday as Israel steps up its offensive on Gaza.

Police expect about 100,000 people to join a demonstration in London demanding a ceasefire in Gaza, with other rallies organised elsewhere in the UK  including in Manchester and Glasgow.

It comes as Israel knocked out communications in the Gaza Strip in intensified attacks, largely cutting off the 2.3 million population from contact with each other and the outside world.

The United Nations said the move would prevent aid from reaching Palestinians trapped inside the bombarded territory, with Tel Aviv continuing to fire air strikes on the 25-mile stretch.

London set for massive pro-Palestinian protest demanding Gaza ceasefire

Doctors Without Borders says lost contact with staff in Gaza

06:07 , Shweta Sharma

Doctors Without Borders, a charity organisation, said it had lost all contact with Palestinian colleagues on the ground.

We are deeply concerned about the situation in Gaza. We have lost contact with some of our Palestinian colleagues on the ground, it said.

We are particularly worried for the patients, medical staff & thousands of families taking shelter at Al Shifa hospital and other health facilities.

We call for the unequivocal protection of all medical facilities, staff and civilians across the Gaza Strip.

Keir Starmer hit by open Labour revolt over support for Israel

06:07 , Andy Gregory

Labour leader Keir Starmer is facing mounting pressure to shift his stance on the Israel-Hamas war as some of his partys most senior politicians outside the shadow cabinet broke ranks to call for a ceasefire.

In a blow to Sir Keirs authority, mayors Sadiq Khan and Andy Burnham as well as Anas Sarwar, Labours leader in Scotland, defied their leaders position on Gaza.

Sir Keir was also hit with warnings that more than 100 Labour MPs  half his parliamentary party  back calls for an immediate cessation to the fighting. Forty nine MPs have now publicly made the call.

He now risks a thorny internal row within his previously united party, just two weeks after he appeared to be riding high in the wake of a successful party conference and well ahead of the Tories in the polls.

Kate Devlin and Adam Forrest have more in this report:

Starmer hit by open Labour revolt over support for Israel

Israel claims Hamas fighter who 'took part' in 7 October attack has been killed

06:02 , Shweta Sharma

Israel has claimed a Hamas fighter who took part in planning and commanding the 7 October attack on the country was killed in overnight attacks.

Asem Abu Rakaba, the Head of Hamas Aerial Array was killed, the IDF said in a post.

Abu Rakaba was responsible for Hamas UAVs, drones, paragliders, aerial detection and defense. He took part in planning the October 7 massacre and commanded the terrorists who infiltrated Israel on paragliders and was responsible for the drone attacks on IDF posts, IDF said.

Scotlands first minister Humza Yousaf says he has lost contact with his family in Gaza

05:54 , Shweta Sharma

Scotlands first minister has said he is praying his family survive the night as Gaza comes under heavy bombardment.

Humza Yousaf revealed via social media that he has been unable to contact his wifes mother and her husband after communications were cut off as bombing of the Gaza Strip intensified.

Elizabeth El-Nakla and her husband Maged travelled to the region before the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October and have been trapped since Israels retaliation.

Scotlands first minister says he has lost contact with his family in Gaza

Day breaks in Gaza amid heavy bombing

05:48 , Shweta Sharma

The sun has come up over Gaza after a night of bombardment and heavy fighting between Israeli troops and Hamas militants.

A video purported to be of the Gaza skyline showed smoke rising above grey skies. Bombs and explosions could be heard in the video with gunfire also ringing in the background.

Morning In Gaza

Shots and explosions can be heard as Hamas militias are getting cleared!#starlinkforgaza #Israel #Palestina pic.twitter.com/jFaGOYrqjZ  Adithya Biju (@Adithyabijuc) October 28, 2023

Gaza blackout blackout risks providing cover for mass atrocities, says Human Rights Watch

05:26 , Shweta Sharma

The near-total telecoms blackout in Gaza could create a cover for mass atrocities in Gaza, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch said.

This information blackout risks providing cover for mass atrocities and contributing to impunity for human rights violations, Deborah Brown of HRW said in a statement posted online.

The near-total telecoms blackout in Gaza cuts off 2.2 million peoples access to the outside worldincluding their ability to communicate w loved ones & access life-saving services. It also risks providing cover for mass atrocities & contributing to impunity for grave crimes @hrw pic.twitter.com/4Zqv5SbKbo  Omar Shakir (@OmarSShakir) October 27, 2023

The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS) also expressed deep concern for media workers in Gaza after the communications blackout.

It said it was to suppress information about new massacres in Gaza.

The PJS holds the Israeli occupation authorities fully responsible for the lives of fellow journalists and urges the United Nations and its organizations and all human rights organizations to immediately intervene and stop the war of genocide in Gaza and restore access to communication in Gaza, the association added in a statement.

Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) also said the world was losing a window into the reality of the conflict.

It said the void created by lack of information can be filled with deadly propaganda, dis- and misinformation.

Palestinian telecom provider says complete blackout of services amid bombardment

05:11 , Shweta Sharma

Palestinian telecom provider Paltel said Israels bombardment has caused complete disruption of internet, cellular and landline services.

The cutoff meant casualties from strikes and details of ground incursions could not immediately be known. Some satellite phones continued to function.

Already plunged into darkness after most electricity was cut off weeks ago, Palestinians were thrown into isolation, huddling in homes and shelters with food and water supplies running out.

Relatives outside Gaza panicked after their messaging chats with families inside suddenly went dead and calls stopped going through.

I was so scared this was going to happen, said Wafaa Abdul Rahman, director of a feminist organization based in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Weve been seeing these horrible things and massacres when its live on TV, so now what will happen when theres a total blackout? she said, referring to scenes of families that have been crushed in homes by airstrikes over the past weeks.

What are Israels D9R bulldozers? 1m armoured Teddy Bear tanks set to lead soldiers into booby-trapped Gaza

05:05 , Andy Gregory

As thousands of Israeli soldiers mass at the Gaza border ahead of an anticipated ground offensive, a heavily modified armoured bulldozer dubbed the Teddy Bear is set to lead the charge.

The heavily-armoured vehicles, manufactured by the US tractor company Caterpillar, will be used to soak up enemy fire and clear a path through cluttered streets intermittently mined by Hamas, the militant group in control of the enclave.

In a national address on Wednesday, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said forces were preparing for a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip.

What are Israels Teddy Bear armoured D9 bulldozers?

Scenes from above Gaza and around the world as heavy bombardment continues

05:03 , Shweta Sharma

As Gaza city remains under blackout with communication cut off, pictures of the sky taken from outside the enclave showed the dark area lit up by Israeli airstrikes.

Smoke rises and billows in different regions of Gaza as the Israeli army conducts the most intense air attacks on the 21st day in Gaza Strip (Anadolu via Getty Images)

Israeli bombardment in the northern Gaza Strip (AP)

Meanwhile, pro-Palestinian protesters across the world, including in the US, have demanded governments to call for an immediate ceasefire.

Protests at one of the busiest train stations in the US forced the closure of New Yorks Grand Central Terminal.

NYPD officers respond as people demonstrate calling for a cease-fire amid war between Israel and Hamas, at Grand Central Station in New York City (AFP via Getty Images)

A banner reading

Protests were also seen in Paris, JakaIstanbul, Washington DC and parts of Germany.

Protestors hold placards during a demonstration in support of Palestinians near the Israeli consulate (AFP via Getty Images)

People hold a giant Palestinian flag during a rally in solidarity with the Palestinians, outside the US embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia (EPA)

Hamas vows to counter Israel with full force after ground operations

04:34 , Shweta Sharma

Hamas has said it will confront Israeli attacks with full force after the countrys military plunged the city into darkness and imposed a communication blackout to widen its air and ground attacks.

The Palestinian militant group that rules Gaza said earlier that its fighters were clashing with Israeli troops in areas near the border with Israel after the latter intensified attacks in Gaza.

The armed wing of Hamas said its fighters were clashing with Israeli troops in Gazas northeastern town of Beit Hanoun and in the central area of Al-Bureij.

The Al-Qassam brigades and all the Palestinian resistance forces are completely ready to confront (Israels) aggression with full force and frustrate its incursions, Hamas said in a statement.

Netanyahu and his defeated army will not be able to achieve any military victory, referring to the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Bombardment of Gaza intensified after Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a televised news briefing yesterday evening: In addition to the attacks carried out in the last few days, ground forces are expanding their operations tonight.

UN calls for 'humanitarian truce' in Gaza as Israel expands activity in the territory

04:08 , Shweta Sharma

The UN General Assembly (UNGA) approved a resolution yesterday calling for an immediate humanitarian truce in Gaza leading to a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Gazas Hamas rulers.

The resolution  though nonbinding  was the first UN response to Hamass surprise 7 October attacks on Israel and Israels ongoing military response and vow to obliterate Hamas.

The UNGA adopted the resolution by a vote of 120-14 with 45 abstentions after rejecting a Canadian amendment backed by the US to unequivocally condemn the terrorist attacks by Hamas and demand the immediate release of hostages taken by the militant group.

The resolution was drafted by a group of 22 Arab countries. It passed even as 45 countries abstained and the US and Israel voted no.

(AFP via Getty Images)

Scotlands first minister can only pray family in Gaza survive the night'

04:02 , Andy Gregory

Scotlands first minister Humza Yousaf has said he is unable to contact his family in Gaza and can only pray they survive the night.

Gaza is under intense bombing.



Telecommunications have been cut.



We can't get through to our family who have been trapped in this war zone for almost 3 weeks.



We can only pray they survive the night.



How many more children have to die before the world says enough?  Humza Yousaf (@HumzaYousaf) October 27, 2023

His wife Nadia El-Nakla said 10 days ago that three of her young cousins  including a two-year-old  had suffered shrapnel injuries after being hit by an Israeli drone.

World is in a dark hour, says Pope Francis

03:05 , Andy Gregory

Pope Francis has led special Friday evening prayers in St Peters Basilica for a world in a dark hour and in great danger from what he described as the folly of war.

Francis delivered his remarks in the form of a prayer to the Virgin Mary and did not mention by name the conflict that exploded when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on 7 October and Israel retaliated by sealing off the Gaza Strip and battering the Palestinian territory with air strikes.

He said he was praying for especially those countries and regions at war and he pleaded with Mary to take the initiative for us, in these times rent by conflicts and laid waste by the fire of arms.

This is a dark hour, Francis said in a subdued voice, in his remarks in the basilica.

Pope Francis gestures as he leads a prayer for peace inside St Peters Basilica (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

UN chief urges change in how aid to Gaza is inspected

02:03 , Andy Gregory

The UN secretary-general has appealed for the procedures for inspecting aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip from Egypt through the Rafah crossing to be adjusted to allow many more trucks to enter Gaza without delay.

The humanitarian system in Gaza is facing a total collapse with unimaginable consequences for more than 2 million civilians, Antonio Guterres said.

The US is leading negotiations with Israel, Egypt and the UN to try and create a sustained delivery mechanism for aid to Gaza, but they are wrangling over procedures for inspecting aid which see each truck offload its cargo at a checkpoint to be inspected for possible arms and ammunition.

The verification system for the movement of goods through the Rafah crossing must be adjusted to allow many more trucks to enter Gaza without delay, Mr Guterres said.

Before the conflict about 500 trucks a day were crossing into Gaza, but in recent days, an average of only 12 trucks a day have entered, he said.

Describing the situation in Gaza as desperate and dramatic the U.N. chief said the United Nations will not be able to continue delivering assistance inside the enclave without an immediate and fundamental shift in how aid is going in.

Buses loaded with arrested activists after Grand Central protest

01:48 , Graeme Massie

Footage: Multiple explosions seen and sirens heard on Israel-Gaza border

Saturday 28 October 2023 00:59 , Andy Gregory

Jewish Voice for Peace stages takeover of NYCs Grand Central Station

Saturday 28 October 2023 00:24 , Graeme Massie

US supports humanitarian pause in Gaza

Saturday 28 October 2023 00:01 , Andy Gregory

The United States supports a pause in Israeli military operations in Gaza to get humanitarian aid, fuel and electricity to civilians, White House spokesperson John Kirby has said.

Mr Kirby also said that if getting hostages out of Gaza requires a localised temporary pause, then the United States is in support of that.

We absolutely believe that that if a pause can be effected to allow for the  release of hostages, then that is something we absolutely would support and we believe Israel should support it, Mr Kirby said.

Weve been having active conversations with them about that.

Friday 27 October 2023 23:32 , Graeme Massie

Flares fired by the Israeli army light up the sky east of Khan Yunis on the southern Gaza Strip on October 27, 2023 as battles between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement continue (AFP via Getty Images)

TOPSHOT - Flares fired by the Israeli army light up the sky east of Khan Yunis on the southern Gaza Strip on October 27, 2023 as battles between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement continue. (AFP via Getty Images)

British citizens trapped under Israels bombing of Gaza slam shameful lack of support from UK government

Friday 27 October 2023 23:30 , Sam Rkaina

British citizens trapped under Israels ferocious bombing of Gaza have slammed the shameful lack of support from the British government that has failed to push for evacuation or a humanitarian ceasefire.

There are believed to be 200 Britons registered with the UK authorities in the besieged enclave, where food, water, fuel and medical supplies are fast running out.

Among them is Manchester resident Mohammed Ghalayini, who said Israeli air strikes have killed 37 members of his extended family and forced him to be displaced four times.

He was visiting family in Gaza when Israel unleashed its heaviest-ever air raids in retaliation for Hamass bloody 7 October attack on southern Israel.

Despite struggling to access food, water, and other supplies the 44-year-old said he has only received one communique from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: a single email 10 days ago.

Click here for the full story.

Mohammed Ghalayini (Supplied)

Diplomat contradicts DeSantis claims on shipping weapons to Israel

Friday 27 October 2023 23:25 , Graeme Massie

Governor has helped coordinate evacuation flights.

Diplomat contradicts DeSantis claims on shipping weapons to Israel

Diplomat contradicts DeSantis claims on shipping weapons to Israel

Friday 27 October 2023 23:23 , Graeme Massie

Governor of Florida as helped coordinate evacuation flights.

Will US airstrikes in Syria trigger a wider conflict?

Friday 27 October 2023 22:30 , Joe Middleton

After the recent airstrikes in Syria, America has a careful balancing act on its hands to prevent the situation from getting out of control, writes world affairs editor Kim Sengupta from Jerusalem

Will US airstrikes in Syria trigger a wider conflict? | Kim Sengupta

Dont fall into the trap of picking sides over Gaza

Friday 27 October 2023 22:00 , Joe Middleton

The horrors of Dresden, Guernica and Iraq are compelling reasons not to raze Gaza to dust, just as those sadistic and hate-filled attacks by Hamas are abhorred by all of us. This war is not about choosing one camp over another, writes Alan Rusbridger. Basic humanity is at stake  we need our leaders not to take sides

Dont fall into the trap of picking sides over Gaza | Alan Rusbridger

Biden questioned Gazas death toll, so Palestinians released the names

Friday 27 October 2023 21:59 , Barney Davis

The list is stark in its simplicity: the victims name, age and sex.

There are 6,747 names in total, all of them killed during Israels assault on Gaza.

That number, reached in just 19 days, does not include the missing, making the true toll likely higher still.

Biden questioned Gazas death toll, so Palestinians released the names

Those are real people: Hamas captives family despair as hostage posters torn down across London

Friday 27 October 2023 21:42 , Barney Davis

The family of a headteacher held by Hamas has spoken of their sadness at seeing posters of kidnapped Israelis being ripped down across London.

Ada Sagi, a 75-year-old mother and grandmother, has not had contact with her family since she was believed to have been taken hostage from her home in a dawn ambush on Kibbutz Nir Oz on 7 October.

Her daughter-in-law Michel Sagi, who knows the organisers of the missing poster campaign, said her worst fears were realised when she saw the flyers being ripped down or defaced in a flurry of videos.

Those are real people: Hamas captives family despair as hostage posters torn down

Footage of Israeli ground forces heading towards Gaza City

Friday 27 October 2023 21:32 , Barney Davis

PBS reporter Leila Molana-Allen has shared footage of Israeli trucks full of troops and supplies heading to the Gaza border as air strikes bombard the Strip.

Convoys of Israeli soldiers and artillery pouring in on the northeastern corner of #Israels border with #Gaza tonight. Behind them, the relentless booms of outgoing airstrikes and artillery. pic.twitter.com/Sxk3noQ7UX  Leila Molana-Allen (@Leila_MA) October 27, 2023

Moment Hamas spokesman storms out of BBC interview when asked about killing Israeli families

Friday 27 October 2023 21:30 , Joe Middleton

This is the moment a top Hamas spokesman throws his microphone on the floor and storms out of a BBC interview when questioned about the killing of Israeli families as they slept in their beds.

Ghazi Hamad, the deputy foreign minister for Hamas, was being questioned about the killings by BBCs Middle East reporter Hugo Bachega.

When asked how he can justify killing people as they slept. Mr Hamad looks to the side and pulls off his microphone. He states: I want to stop this interview.

He then throws the microphone onto the floor.

Hamas spokesman storms out of interview when asked about killing Israeli families

IDF cant guarantee safety of journalists

Friday 27 October 2023 21:27 , Barney Davis

Israels military has told international news organisations that it cannot guarantee the safety of their journalists operating in the Gaza Strip.

The Israel Defense Forces wrote to Reuters and AFP this week after they had sought assurances that their journalists in Gaza would not be targeted by Israeli strikes.

The IDF is targeting all Hamas military activity throughout Gaza, the IDF letter said, adding that Hamas deliberately put military operations in the vicinity of journalists and civilians.

TV footage shows fire and smoke rising above Gaza City during an Israeli strike (AFP via Getty Images)

The IDF also noted that its high-intensity strikes on Hamas targets could cause damage to surrounding buildings and that Hamas rockets could also misfire and kill people inside Gaza.

Under these circumstances, we cannot guarantee your employees safety, and strongly urge you to take all necessary measures for their safety, the IDF letter concluded.
Many 'bamboccioni' still live at home well into adulthood (Pexels)

As financial pressures mean many adults are deciding to continue living at home with their parents, one mother in Italy decided enough was enough.

The 75-year-old woman from the northern Italian city of Pavia is mother to two sons, who are both in their 40s.

Despite their age and the fact that they each had a job, the two men were refusing to get their own places even though their mother tried to convince them to live more independently several times.

Plus, the two sons were refusing to contribute to household expenses and chores, according to local newspaper La Provincia Pavese.

The mother decided that the only way to resolve the matter was to take them to court.

An Italian politician coined the term 'bamboccioni', meaning big babies, for adults who live with their parents

The judge decided that the Italian woman was in the right and issued an eviction order against her sons, aged 40 and 42, giving them until December 18 to move out. The judge added that while living at home was previously warranted given the obligation of the parent to provide maintenance, this obligation was no longer a factor given the sons ages.

However, their living arrangement isnt an anomaly. Studies show that 70 per cent of Italians aged between 18 and 34 still live at home with their parents.

While it is commonplace for multiple generations to live under one roof in Italy, the number of young adults staying with their parents has been rising in recent years, mostly because of the tough economic conditions and volatile job market.

In 2007, an Italian politician coined the term bamboccioni, meaning big babies, for adults who live with their parents, mocking that some were simply doing it to take advantage of free accommodation and food.

While this case is not the first of its kind, it is very rare to see a parent decide to get an eviction order against their children. In some cases, adult children have even demanded financial support.

In 2020, for instance, one 35-year-old part-time musician argued that his income, which was 20,000 (17,400), wasnt enough to live off. So, he demanded money from his parents, which was rejected by the court on the grounds that young adults do not have a right to parental financial support.
French President Emmanuel Macron is to visit Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan next week, as France seeks to counter Russian influence in the former Soviet republics and strengthen economic ties in countries with high amounts of raw materials, including uranium.

Announcing Macrons visit on 1 and 2 November, the presidency said France wanted to help the two countries in their "reform and modernisation efforts" and to support their desire to "reinforce their links with Europe.

Kazakhstans President, Kassym-Jomart Tokaiev met Macron in Paris on an official visit in November 2022, and the two leaders spoke about developing their cooperation in the domain of critical raw materials.

Uranium supplies

Kazakhstan is the worlds largest producer of uranium, while Uzbekistan produces a fifth of the worlds supply.

France, which generates two-thirds of its electricity from its 56 nuclear reactors, gets most of its uranium from Kazakhstan, and it is looking to secure its supply after the coup in Niger, its third largest uranium supplier.

According to the Kazakh presidency, the leaders will discuss economic and energy cooperation, as well as international and regional issues.

Kazakhstan, a Russian ally, is looking to play up its strategic position between Europe and Asia by forging partnerships with France and Europe in general.

(with newswires)



Read more on RFI English



Read also:

Can the Shanghai club act as a counterweight to NATO?

Mongolia president begins France visit to discuss uranium mining, energy

Greenpeace cries scandal as France continues to import Russian uranium
Northern Irelands largest car retailer is on the hunt for a new generation of technicians offering salaries of up to 46,000. One of the regions most successful businesses, Charles Hurst Group is hosting a special recruitment evening on Thursday, November 9. Pictured is Jeff McCarney, Charles Hurst Group operations director

Northern Irelands largest car retailer is on the hunt for a new generation of technicians offering salaries of up to 46,000.

One of the regions most successful businesses, Charles Hurst Group is hosting a special recruitment evening on Thursday, November 9 at its Bolt cafe and restaurant at Boucher Road Belfast between 5pm and 8pm.

Part of award-winning automotive group Lookers, Charles Hurst Group operates eight locations in Northern Ireland and two in the Republic of Ireland, offering 25 vehicle manufacturers and brands from Aston Martin, Lotus and Bentley to Vauxhall, Nissan, Toyota and CUPRA.

Charles Hurst has already invested more than 8 million in its dealership estate since the start of this year, increasing choice and creating new jobs as part of an ambitious strategy to drive new growth  and the new technician roles will play a key role in its future success.

A recent 2 million investment in a Cupra dealership joins others, including a 2.2m investment in a new Toyota showroom, around 1 million to refurbish and relaunch two Nissan dealerships in Belfast and Newtownards, and 3 million in a significant redevelopment of its parts centre on Boucher Road, Belfast.

Jeff McCarney, Charles Hurst Group operations director, said: Technicians play a key role in our success, and were delighted to launch a major recruitment drive to welcome a new generation of ambitious, experienced, customer-focused people from a wide variety of backgrounds to our award-winning team.

Friendly, communicative and in touch with our valued customers, inspecting vehicles, replacing components and making vehicle repairs, todays technicians can confidently dive into increasingly sophisticated electronically-controlled cars and vans with up-to-date knowledge of mechanical and chemical engineering, hydraulics, refrigeration, pneumatics and, of course, electronics, which is why were on the lookout for new skills and talent to add to teams.

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The automotive market is changing fast and were offering dynamic, progressive career opportunities with market-leading salaries and benefits for candidates at every level to be part of our sustainable transformation and would encourage everyone to register their interest early.

Successful candidates hired by Charles Hurst as newly qualified technicians can expect to start at between 32,000 and 38,000 OTE, rising to 46,000 OTE for a master technician.

Jeff added: Our technicians are a vital part of our Service team, delivering outstanding customer service on every occasion, Jeff MCartney said. We want you to be a part of our success. If you're a qualified Vehicle Technician or experienced Mechanic, whether you work in a dealer group or independent garage, we want to hear from you.
South Korea flag (Image: Pexels)

A court in South Korea has upheld a ban on gay sex between people in the military.

The decision was made by the countrys constitutional court which came down to a five-to-four vote in favour of upholding the ban. It relates to Article 92-6 of the Military Criminal Act.

As per the BBC, the article refers to anal intercourse and other indecent acts rather than explicitly mentioning gay sex. People found guilty of breaking the law can face up to two years in prison. The BBC also reports that this is the fourth time since 2002 that this ruling has been upheld.

The decision has been strongly criticised by LGBTQ activists who see it as setting LGBTQ rights back and risking greater discrimination.

Boram Jang of an East Asia researcher for Amnesty International has said it has institutionalized discrimination, reinforced systematic disadvantages faced by LGBT people and risked inciting or justifying violence against them, both inside the military and in everyday life.

Meanwhile, the court, as per the BBC, has said queer relationships could undermine discipline and troops readiness.

In South Korea, it is compulsory for men aged 18 to 28 to serve in the military for 18-21 months.

Homosexuality is legal in South Korea although gay marriage is not. Discrimination also remains a problem for many.

As per Equaldex support for gay marriage and for protections against discrimination for trans people scored high in recent polling.

In a 2019 survey, 45% of people support trans people serving in the military.

The post South Korea to uphold military gay sex ban appeared first on Attitude.
This Thanksgiving, there will be no leftover victims.

Eli Roths long-awaited Thanksgiving is a holiday-set slasher, with a masked pilgrim terrorizing the residents of Plymouth, Massachusetts years after a Black Friday riot ended in tragedy.

More from IndieWire

Patrick Dempsey stars as the local police officer investigating the slew of killings, including a woman being baked alive in an oven. Addison Rae, Gina Gershon, Milo Manheim, Jalen Thomas Brooks, Nell Verlaque, and Rick Hoffman also star.

Thanksgiving is co-written and directed by Roth, who previously created a mock trailer for the film to lead into Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguezs Grindhouse in 2007. Roth told Collider that there were rights issues for the film, as well as pressure to get the tone right.

For years, I was just connecting the dots between the trailer, and then I was like, Am I just filming the scenes in between what I already did before it?' Roth said. [Co-writer] Jeff Rendell and I just went through every iteration. Ill tell you, the big revelation was, he said, I have to just pretend that Thanksgiving 1980 exists, and that it was so offensive that every print was destroyed, and the only thing that survived was the trailer. This is the reboot of what that movie was. Every copy of the script was burned. Every print was burned. The only thing that survived was that one trailer, on the darkest corners of the internet. So, we have to make a movie based on that. This is the reboot of what that was. That freed me up creatively to go, I can use a couple of my favorite things in the trailer, but I dont have to worry about recreating the trailer. That trailer was for a movie where every print was destroyed. Now, this is gonna be its own thing.

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The 18-day shoot for Thanksgiving was akin to Roths Cabin Fever and Hostel, according to the director, where its an R-rated movie thats being released in movie theaters by a mainstream studio, but its still totally bonkers.

Roth teased, I want everyone screaming and going, Oh, my God, I cant believe they did that. Its that kind of movie, but its also not gonna be in the way youd expect. You want to outdo what you did in the fake trailer, but hit people in ways that they dont see coming. Thats the trick.

Roth also told Empire magazine that his goal was to have Thanksgiving include as many kills as possible  and not just the turkey.

In addition to Thanksgiving, Roth is co-directing the Borderlands video game adaptation with The Last of Us showrunner Craig Mazin. Deadpool helmer Tim Miller took over two weeks of reshoots that overlapped with Roths Thanksgiving production in January, as Deadline reported. Borderlands also stars Thanksgiving actress Gershon, as well as Cate Blanchett, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Kevin Hart.

Spyglass produces Thanksgiving, along with writer-director Roth and Roger Birnbaum.

Thanksgiving premieres November 17 in theaters from TriStar Pictures. Check out the red band trailer below.

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The Maine mass shooting led to the death of over 18 innocent civilians. As of writing, hundreds of investigators are still looking for the shooter behind the deadly attack in Lewiston, Maine.

The local police department announced that the suspect had been identified as 40-year-old Robert C. Card. Cops warned residents that they should always be on the lookout and consider this man as armed and dangerous.

Maine Shooting Update: What We Know About Robert C. Card

According to USA Today's latest report, the mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, happened on Wednesday, Oct. 25. Because of this, school districts decided to cancel classes.

Meanwhile, law enforcement authorities warned residents and other people in Lewiston to lock their doors and avoid going outside as much as possible since Robert C. Card is still at large.

As of writing, limited information about the shooter is known. These include him possibly being an Army Reservist who is stationed out of Saco, Maine.

The New York Post reported that Card could be suffering from mental health issues. Based on previous reports, the shooter is allegedly hearing voices.

There was even an instance when Card threatened the military training base in Saco, saying that he would shoot everyone there, as claimed by sources familiar with Robert.

Another thing that the police disclosed about Robert is that he is believed to be a firearms instructor at a National Guard facility in Saco.

When it comes to educational background, Card reportedly studied engineering at the University of Maine (2001-2004). Meanwhile, his criminal records only showed two speeding tickets, which happened between 2001 and 2002.

Read Also: Las Vegas: 2 Teenage Suspects in Hit-And-Run Killing of Cyclist Seen Smiling, Laughing in Court

Police Still Manhunting Robert Card

The Maine State Police announced that they already ordered over 100 investigators in order to manhunt Robert C. Card.

Investigators were able to acquire a mugshot of the suspect. Based on the image, Robert is white-skinned and has a mustache and beard, as well as short hair.

On the other hand, the Lewiston Police claimed that they found a white SUV that is believed to be driven by the mass shooter.

The vehicle was specifically seen in Lisbon, which is around eight miles away from Lewiston.

If you want to learn more about the ongoing manhunt against Robert C. Card, you can click this link.

Related Article: Maine: Man Killed At Least 16 People in Mass Shooting, Police Safeguards Residents

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres

THE United Nations General Assembly on Friday adopted a resolution calling for an immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce between Israeli forces and Hamas militants in Gaza.

It also demands continuous, sufficient and unhindered provision of lifesaving supplies and services for civilians trapped inside the enclave, as reports suggest Israel has expanded ground operations and intensified it bombing campaign.

This was the first UN response to Hamass surprise October 7 attacks on Israel and the ongoing military response and vow to obliterate Hamas.

The 193-member world body adopted the resolution by a vote of 120-14 with 45 abstentions after rejecting a Canadian amendment backed by the United States to unequivocally condemn the terrorist attacks by Hamas and demand the immediate release of hostages taken by Hamas.

The fourteen members who voted against the resolution are:

Austria

Croatia

Czechia

Fiji

Guatemala

Hungary

Israel

Marshall Islands

Micronesia

Nauru

Papua New Guinea

Paraguay

Tonga

United States of America

The United Kingdom abstained from voting.

This comes as the Israeli military said its ground forces are expanding their activity in the Gaza Strip, as the army moved closer to a full ground invasion of the besieged territory.

Daniel Hagari, the armys spokesman, said aerial attacks had been targeting Hamas tunnels and other targets.

Hagari said: In addition to the attacks that we carried out in recent days, ground forces are expanding their activity this evening.

The IDF is acting with great force to achieve the objectives of the war.

Micheal Martin, Ireland's Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Defence, issued a statement following the UN vote.

Martin said: "Tonight, Ireland supported the UN General Assembly Resolution on the crisis in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory.

"The dire humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip requires the international community to speak strongly.

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"The resolution emphasises the urgent need for humanitarian assistance which civilians in Gaza so desperately need."

Martin expressed disappointment that a Canadian amendment to condemn "the brutal terrorist attack by Hamas" was not approved.

The statement continued: "We are disappointed that a Canadian amendment, clearly condemning the brutal terrorist attack by Hamas and calling for the immediate and unconditional release of hostages, was not approved. There should be no room for doubt on this.

"We also recall that obligations under International Humanitarian Law fall to all parties, state and non-state actors alike.

"I will continue to work for an urgent humanitarian ceasefire, the protection of civilians and regional de-escalation.

"Millions of citizens deserve nothing less."

The Hamas government said Israel "cut communications and most of the internet" across the Gaza Strip on Friday.

The government's media office accused Israel of taking the measure "to perpetrate massacres with bloody retaliatory strikes from the air, land and sea," as heavy strikes hit northern Gaza.

Palestinian telecom provider Paltel said internet service in the Gaza Strip has been cut off by the Israeli bombardment.

Services were cut on Friday evening following a heavy round of Israeli air strikes that lit up the sky over the territory.

READ MORE: Stephen Flynn calls for recall of Parliament if Israel launch full invasion

The Palestinian Red Crescent, the main emergency service in Gaza, said it was cut off from its operations room because of the internet blackout.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, which provides basic services to hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza, said it has been forced to ration fuel among lifesaving machines in hospitals, bakeries, and desalination plants, and only has enough for a few more days.

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, told reporters: The siege means that food, water and fuel  basic commodities  are being used to collectively punish more than two million people, among them, a majority of children and women.
People have been hospitalised after taking a fake version of the weight-loss control jab Ozempic, with 369 drugs seized by the UKs medicines safety regulator.

The fake jabs, obtained without prescription through black market suppliers, were seized by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency.

Ozempic, the brand name for semaglutide, and demand for the medicine has contributed to shortages in the product, which is also used for people with type 2 diabetes.

The watchdog said a low number of patients had been hospitalised and reported serious side effects, including hypoglycaemic shock. Others ended up in a coma, which indicates the pens may have contained insulin rather than semaglutide.

It has urged the public not to buy drugs without a prescription and warned buying prescription-only medicines online poses a direct danger to health.

Dr Alison Cave, MHRA chief safety officer, said: Buying products such as Ozempic or Saxenda without a prescription, from illegally trading suppliers, significantly increases the risk of receiving something which is either fake or not licensed for use in the UK.

Products purchased in this way do not meet our strict quality and safety standards, and taking such medicines may put your health at significant risk.

A falsified pen on top and a genuine Novo Nordisk pen on the bottom (Novor Nordisk)

We are advising all members of the public not to use any pre-filled weight loss pens they may have bought online and instead to report it to us so that we can investigate and take any necessary action.

UK health minister Will Quince said: No one should put profit before the needs of patients, but fraudsters selling black market medicines like this are extremely dangerous and can put peoples health at risk.

The medical advice is clear: patients should only use medicines like Ozempic or Saxenda where theyve been prescribed it by a legitimate source, such as their GP or another legitimate prescriber.

Following an investigation, the MHRA found the counterfeit Ozempic jabs had been brought into the UK from legitimate suppliers in Germany. No legitimate UK pharmacies or healthcare professionals had dispensed the fake jabs.

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The German Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices said last week that police authorities had been informed and Novo Nordisk, which makes the drug, is investigating.

According to reports earlier this week, several people were hospitalised in Austria after using suspected fake versions of Ozempic. The countrys health safety body was the first report of harm to users as a European hunt for counterfeiters widened.

Anyone who has experienced side effects after taking semaglutide is asked to report them via MHRAs Yellow Card scheme.
Wife of off-duty pilot who tried to turn off engines mid-flight breaks silence

The wife of the off-duty pilot accused of trying to cut off a planes engines mid-flight has broken her silence about the shocking incident.

Sarah Stretch briefly spoke to reporters after attending her husband Joseph Emersons court appearance in Portland, Oregon, this week.

She said that her husband was struggling with depression at the time as she said she finds it hard to believe he could have acted that way.

This is not my Joe, she said, according to CNN.

This is not any Joe that anybody knows. I dont know how to explain it, but it just wasnt him.

Mr Emerson, a 44-year-old successful pilot with a career spanning two decades, was travelling off-duty in the flight deck jump seat in the cockpit of an Alaska Airlines flight from Seattle to San Fransisco on Sunday.

During the flight, he allegedly tried to shut down both of the planes engines by pulling the fire extinguisher handles.

After the captain and first officer intervened to keep the engines running, the flight crew allegedly took him to the back of the plane, put him in wrist restraints.

Mr Emerson then tried to grab the handle of the emergency exit while the flight descended, Alaska Airlines said.

A flight attendant later told police that Mr Emerson said I messed everything up and that he had tried to kill everybody.

The former pilot is currently facing 167 charges over the incident including 83 counts of first-degree attempted murder, 83 counts of reckless endangerment and one could of endangering an aircraft.

While he has pleaded not guilty to the charges, he reportedly told investigators that he was experiencing a nervous breakdown and had taken psychedelic magic mushrooms just two days prior.

Emersons wife is in shock over his arrest (Joseph Emerson/Facebook)

Because of the mushrooms, Mr Emerson claims he thought he was dreaming when he pulled the handles, thinking it would wake him up, according to a federal affidavit.

His wife said she believes her husband would never have knowingly tried to compromise the flight.

He never wouldve done that. He never wouldve knowingly done any of that, Ms Stretch told reporters, her voice was quivering.

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That is not the man that I married. Thats not the man that all of these people in this world are coming together to support him, love him.

Ms Stretch said her husband had been experiencing depression recently, saying: Weve all been dealing with a lot of pressures in life.

Around 10 of his family members and friends attended the court hearing on Thursday. His attorney said that some of his coworkers had also come to support him, CNN reports.

Mr Emersons attorney Ethan Levi said that the off-duty pilot was not suicidal nor homicidal during the incident and did not intend to harm himself or any other person.

He to reporters that Mr Emerson was in a dream-like state and had not slept for around 40 hours at the time of the incident.

Noah Horst, another of Mr Emersons attorneys, told CNN that he was not under the influence of intoxicants when he boarded the flight.

Court documents also showed that the pilots and others who encountered him did not think he appeared to be intoxicated.

Mr Levi also cleared up a claim his client had cited in the charging document  that a friend had recently passed away.

The attorney clarified on Thursday that his friend, who was a best man at Mr Emersons wedding, had passed away around six years ago.

Alaska Airlines announced on Tuesday that Mr Emerson has been removed from service and is no longer working for the company.
The United States intended to send a strong message to Iran with strikes against pro-Tehran militia groups in Syria that had targeted American troops  while seeking to avoid a dangerous regional escalation amid Israels war with Hamas.

By targeting an ammunition and storage area on Thursday night US time, Washington sought to make clear that recent drone and rocket attacks that caused minor injuries to 21 US soldiers in Iraq and Syria will not go unanswered.

But the action is also risky because of soaring tensions as Israel pounds Gaza after October 7 terror attacks against Israeli civilians launched by Hamas  another Iran-allied group. That conflict has provoked fears of a regional war that could draw in Iran, Lebanon and other proxy groups.

President Joe Bidens show of strength could set off its own cycle of consequences that could rock a region already on edge. While the US is underscoring that the strikes have nothing to do with the confrontation between Israel and Hamas, such distinctions may be blurred in Arab nations, where public fury is mounting over the deaths of Palestinian civilians in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza.

The US actions, which were narrowly tailored in self-defense, targeted two facilities linked to Iranian-backed militias in eastern Syria, according to a statement from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. The statement said the facilities have been used by Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and affiliated groups.

Iran wants to hide its hand and deny its role in these attacks against our forces. We will not let them, Austin said.

Bidens political flank

Biden has been under domestic political pressure to take a stand against Iranian proxies. Realistically, there was no option but to respond to an attack in which American soldiers were injured.

Still, the limited scale of the move is unlikely to placate Bidens domestic critics, who have long accused him of being soft on Iran. Such criticism ratcheted up after the administration secured the freedom of five prisoners held by Iran last month in return for the transfer of $6 billion in frozen Iranian funds. The administration says the funds can only be used to buy humanitarian supplies but that has not spared Biden from Republican attacks over Hamas attack on Israel earlier this month.

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The US airstrikes are also certain to, at the very least, heighten the rhetorical tensions between the US and Iran, which are already at alarming levels.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, for instance, warned the US that if Israels military operation against Hamas in Gaza following the groups terror attacks doesnt end, the United States will not be spared from this fire.

The US strikes came a day after Biden put Iran on notice about the activities of its militia during a press conference with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

And Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday warned that while the US doesnt seek conflict with Iran, it would act swiftly and decisively to respond to attacks by Iran or its proxies in the region.

US begins Middle East build-up

Ever since Israel started to respond to the Hamas attacks, there have been concerns in Washington that US interests in the region could be threatened.

Multiple US officials have told CNN that the US has intelligence that Iranian-backed militia groups are planning to ramp up attacks against American forces in the Middle East as Iran seeks to capitalize on the backlash in the region to US support for Israel.

The airstrikes followed another sign that the US, which has been seeking to disengage from the Middle East, is being drawn back into the region because of the danger to its ally Israel. The Pentagon announced earlier in the day that roughly 900 troops have been deployed or are deploying to the Middle East after a series of attacks on coalition bases that resulted in minor injuries for almost two dozen troops.

Biden had previously ordered the deployment of two aircraft carrier groups to the eastern Mediterranean in a show of deterrence to enemies of the US and Israel in the region.

Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said Thursday that between October 17 and 26, US and coalition forces were attacked at least 12 separate times in Iraq, four separate times in Syria, by a mix of one-way attack drones and rockets.

Some 21 US service members have received minor injuries as a result of attacks between October 17 and 18, CNN has reported. Of those, 19 have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury, Ryder said  15 at al-Asad Air Base in Iraq, and four at al-Tanf Garrison in Syria.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
(PA Wire)

The Government has reminded councils that its call for an end to four-day week trials is "crystal clear".

Despite trials and usage of a four-day work week becoming more popular around the world in recent years, the UK government's position remains that removing 20% of a local authoritys potential capacity does not offer value for money for local taxpayers.

Minister for Local Government Lee Rowley said: The Government is being crystal clear that it does not support the adoption of the four-day working week within the local government sector.

Local authorities that are considering adopting it should not do so. Those who have adopted it already should end those practices immediately.

Those councils who continue to disregard this guidance are now on notice that the Government will take necessary steps in the coming months ahead to ensure that this practice is ended within local government.

South Cambridgeshire District Council, which piloted a test for four-day weeks in September, is continuing with its trial despite the guidance, arguing there is strong evidence of benefits, including retention and recruitment.

But the practice may be more common than people tend to think, especially across the globe. Despite the four-day workweek not seen as a feasible concept to have turned into a reality for decades, it has become more recently a serious policy for companies to follow across the world.

Which countries have tried a four-day work week?

Many countries have tried a four-day work week. Here are some of them...

Iceland

One of the largest four-day work week pilots to be tested up to now has been in Iceland; it involved 2,500 employees and was done between 2015 and 2019. It was considered a great success and employees said their well-being, along with work-life balance and productivity was greatly improved.

The decision to cut down hours from as many as 40 to around 35 or 36 was hailed extremely successful.

Japan

There are a number of companies in Japan that have experimented with 4-day workweeks, including Microsoft and Panasonic in 2019 and 2022.

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But in 2021 the Japanese governments annual economic policy guidelines recommended that companies let employees opt for a four-day workweek, giving them a three-day weekend.

Portugal

Owing to the success of other trial programmes in Europe, Portugal has followed suit and joined the non-profit advocacy group 4 Day Week Global.

As part of a government-funded pilot announced at the beginning of June, some 40 private companies signed up to take part.

Companies have been following the "100:80:100 model"- 100 per cent of the pay for 80 per cent of the time, in exchange for a commitment to maintaining at least 100 per cent productivity.

Lithuania

In 2022, Lithuania began its four-day work week for new parents only. It was done to address a persistent gender pay gap which tends to widen once women have children.

It was done in recognition of the fact that during this period, women often cut back on hours, whilst men usually devote more time to a higher-paying job.

South Africa

More than 500 employees at 28 companies participated in South Africas four-day workweek trial, which began in March and continued until September.

The experiment was being run by 4 Day Week South Africa, which is a branch of 4 Day Week Global.

Which UK companies have a four-day week?

Some companies known to have tried a four-day work week include:
Morning View (Photo: gina)

In 2016 a woman in Northern Ireland aged 21 was given a suspended jail term for a self-induced abortion.

This emerged during a Stormont election, and the sentence was widely condemned by prospective MLAs. Yet barely a candidate advocated abortion on demand in NI, no matter how early in the pregnancy. Stormont then even rejected terminations in cases of fatal foetal abnormality, when polls showed big public support for such minor change.

The next year Sinn Fein brought down Stormont and soon Westminster used abortion law to punish unionists. Why unionists? Because it was unionist MLAs who were most likely to oppose reform (the nationalist SDLP was once also anti).

Now NI has abortion laws that are among the most liberal (if that be the word  slack is another) in western Europe. Tory ministers wore their support for imposing abortion on NI as a sign of how enlightened they were compared to unionists. This has all happened when in America much of the public mood is turning against abortion, where millions of people think that the grisly reality of termination has been disguised for too long by language such as 'reproductive rights'.

Scotland's parliament is scrutinising laws to outlaw protests within 200 metres of abortion facilities. NI already has a variation on such a ban. In Birmingham this year a Catholic woman was arrested for silently praying outside an abortion clinic.

Across the UK there have been weeks of Islamist (subtly pro Hamas) protests in the aftermath of the worst slaughter of Jews since the holocaust. You could hardly get a clearer illustration of moral and political confusion in Britain than the fact that amidst such displays of hatred laws have been passed or are being passed to stop protests against the ending of a life in the womb outside the building where it is happening.
Presbyterian Moderator Rev Dr Sam Mawhinney. Credit: Press Eye

Miss Kells, who was from Cookstown, attended Molesworth Presbyterian Church in the town and as a young woman trained as a nurse in Belfast before beginning a life long association with the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Going against the wishes of her family in1968, she began to train nurses in different hospitals and health centres in the central African county. Later on, she became a missionary with WEC International, the international mission agency, Worldwide Evangelisation for Christ.

For nearly 50 years she worked tirelessly and relatively unknown, outside of WEC and her congregation, until 2015. It was in the January of that year she came to national prominence after being shot one night by bandits in the village of Mulita, in the north east of the country. At the time she was 75.

Former missionary Maud Kells who has died at the age of 84. Credit: Adrian Robinson

Speaking about her, Dr Mawhinney said: I was saddened to hear of the death of Maud Kells and would like to offer my condolences to her family and friends, both here in Ireland and the DRC, where she served God so faithfully and for so long. She was certainly part of a great generation of Christian women who demonstrated their love for Christ as they helped and supported others in need overseas.

As a young doctor in the 1990s, before he began his studies to become a minister, Dr Mawhinney also spent time working in Africa, only to the east of the DRC in Kenya. While I did not know Maud personally, her reputation definitely preceded her, especially the way in which she spoke of the events of that night  even going back when she was well enough.

While my time as a missionary doctor in a hospital outside Nairobi was relatively short, it was an experience that I will never forget. In paying tribute to Maud today, and her selfless and tireless gospel-inspired work, having followed so faithfully the call from God over so many years, I also want to commend all those who are called by God to His service overseas, especially our own Global Mission Workers in PCI.

The Apostle Paul tells us in his Letter to the Ephesians, For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10). Maud was a humble and true example of that, Dr Mawhinney said.

Prior to the attempt on her life, in the New Years Honours List of 2015, she was appointed an Officer of the British Empire (OBE) for services to people in the Democratic Republic of Congo by the late Queen. That same year, she was named Belfast Telegraph Women of the Year. Having won the overall title, she was also named Inspiring Woman of the Year. In 2019 she published her autobiography An open door  A true story of courage in Congo.
Pro-Palestine protesters stormed The Cooper Union Library in New York on Wednesday (October 25) as the issue surrounding the Israel-Hamas War escalated.

It was reported that protesters were pounding on the door and shouting "Free Palestine" and other pro-Palestine chants while Jewish students were inside the library. Several social media accounts have recorded or snapped videos or photos of the demonstration.

In particular, both the New York Times and the New York Post reported that the protesters also banged the large glass window overlooking the library's interior.

Students representing the pro-Palestine rally provided a statement to CBS New York that they planned to "peacefully protest outside the building" before walking in and continuing their protest outside the president's office. They also insisted that many different students of all backgrounds were in the library by the time of their rally.

"We would like to make it clear that our protest was not targeting any individual students or faculty, but the institution itself," the protesters wrote. "We would like to reiterate that we do not under any circumstance condone antisemitism and many members of the protest were Jewish."

Read Also: Pro-Palestine Man Threatens Jewish Family After Breaking Into Their Home

Jewish students inside the Cooper Union library were encouraged to hide by a staff member trying to help as pro-Palestinian protesters banged on the doors and windows.



Security was nowhere to be found. The school did not answer questions.https://t.co/BNGPl3NRKL  Louis Keene (@thislouis) October 26, 2023

Jews Inside Library, Public Officials Expressed Concern

Pro-Israel and Jewish Cooper Union students told reporters that school staff locked them inside the library due to safety concerns. It was reported that some of them also participated in a counter-demonstration earlier that day, which featured enlarged signs of some of the Hamas hostages.

"It was tense. People were nervous," one student said. "They were specifically acting very aggressively in those spaces where outwardly Jewish students were sitting."

However, the New York Police Department (NYPD) stated that they were at the scene during the whole protest and its officers safely escorted the Jewish students from the library. There were also no injuries, arrests, or property damage in the planned demonstration, the NYPD added.

In response, both New York Mayor Eric Adams and New York Governor Kathy Hochul expressed disappointment over the protest.

Related Article: Florida Universities Urged To Ban Pro-Palestinian Student Group on Campuses

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
BINH DUONG  A.J. Plast Vietnam Co has inaugurated a 70,000sq.m biaxially oriented plastic film production plant in the southern province of Binh Duong.

The factory's core products include biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP) and biaxially oriented polyethylene trephthalate (BOPET) firms, both serving as essential raw materials for flexible packaging industry in a wide range of applications such as household products, agriculture, and pet food.

Prasan Onwong, General Director of A.J. Plast Vietnam, said that the packaging sector in Viet Nam boasted considerable growth prospects, particularly in the domain of flexible packaging, which predominantly utilises BOPP and BOPET films.

"Our operations are not only efficient but also environmentally friendly, as we prioritise the extensive use of recycled raw materials. This steadfast commitment to both industrial expansion and ecological responsibility underscores our dedication to advancing Viet Nam's flexible packaging industry towards sustainable development, he said.

In terms of production capacity, the initial BOPP production line is geared to deliver 30,000 tonnes annually.

The factory is currently planning to expand its capabilities with the construction of the second production line dedicated to BOPET, marking a significant milestone as the first-ever plant in Viet Nam to produce this product. The expansion is projected to yield an annual capacity of 36,000 tonnes each year, further fortifying the factory's contribution to the plastic film industry.

The company is a subsidiary of A.J. Plast PLC  South East Asias largest BO film producer, and an associate company of SCGC, under SCG Chemicals (SCGC).  VNS
HA NOI  Vietnamese exports have recorded many bright spots and impressive numbers after nearly five years of implementing the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

Export growth at double digits

The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) was officially signed in March 2018 by the remaining 11 member countries of TPP, excluding the US, including Viet Nam, Canada, Mexico, Peru, Chile, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Brunei and Malaysia.

The CPTPP Agreement has been ratified by seven member countries, including Australia, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Singapore, New Zealand, and Viet Nam, and officially took effect on December 30, 2018. CPTPP takes effect in Viet Nam from January 14, 2019.

Evaluating the effectiveness of CPTPP after nearly five years of implementation, Ta Thu Ha, deputy head of the European - American Market Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) said that CPTPP has really created a great driving force for Viet Nam's export growth in recent years, while also bringing prestige and great economic efficiency to the country.

The country's export turnover to CPTPP countries continues to grow at double digits. Despite being heavily affected by unfavorable factors such as war and pandemics, Viet Nam's export turnover to CPTPP countries still reached US$53.6 billion last year, a year-on-year increase of 17.3 per cent.

Particularly for markets where Viet Nam has FTA relations for the first time in CPTPP such as Canada, Mexico, and Peru, growth has always been at a continuously high level over the years, increasing between 12 and 30 per cent.

In addition, there is a significant trade surplus with these countries. The total trade surplus from Canada, Mexico, and Peru has reached $11 billion last year, accounting for 95 per cent of Viet Nam's total trade surplus with the world last year.

In addition, the high tariff reduction helps increase the competitiveness and market access of Vietnamese export goods to the world and countries in the CPTPP region.

The Doanh Nghiep Viet Nam (Vietnamese Enterprises) Magazine quoted Ha as saying that this agreement had also brought indirect benefits in terms of reputation and prestige of an open, dynamic economy.

In recent years, especially since Viet Nam became a member of CPTPP, we have noticed that more and more businesses, organisations, and government agencies in Mexico and Canada have come to us to ask for information to support co-operation with Viet Nam, said Ha.

Benefits and bright spots

Assessing the benefits gained from CPTPP for the Asia-Africa market, Nguyen Tuan Dung from the MoITs Asia - Africa Market Department said that this agreement has brought four benefits.

Firstly, similar to the European -American region, CPTPP has helped trade between Viet Nam and countries in the region grow significantly.

Import-export turnover between Viet Nam and six member countries of CPTPP in Asia reached $89.2 billion last year, a year-on-year growth of 8.6 per cent.

Especially, exports rose by up to 20 per cent, in which import-export turnover grew the most in Brunei with an increase of up to 147 per cent.

Secondly, CPTPP is really a lever to promote Vietnamese goods to other countries. In particular, some demanding markets such as Japan, Australia and New Zealand have also recorded the immediate elimination of import taxes on many important traditional export items of Viet Nam such as wooden products, and agricultural and aquatic products.

This has directly boosted the scale of Viet Nam's trade with partner countries in the CPTPP, as well as promoting its economic growth, noted Dung.

Thirdly, through CPTPP, Viet Nam has the opportunity to take advantage of input sources with competitive prices and a very competitive source of imported raw materials.

From there, Viet Nam could enhance production and boost the export of goods to other member countries with which Viet Nam did not have FTAs such as Canada, Mexico or Peru, he added.

At the same time, it was also possible to take advantage of CPTPP to promote exports to countries and regions that were intending to become members of CPTPP such as China or Taiwan, he said.

Fourthly, CPTPP would create opportunities for Vietnamese businesses, especially in improving their competitiveness in the international market, he added.

At the same time, it was a driving force to increase the technological content of Vietnamese exports, contributing to promote Vietnamese goods to large and demanding markets, he said.

From the perspective of industry associations, Phan Thi Thanh Xuan, General Secretary of the Leather, Footwear and Handbag Association (Lefaso), assessed that CPTPP was one of the very important agreements for the leather and footwear industry.

When the agreement was implemented, export growth to this market was very rapid at over 20 per cent.

Notably, thanks to the implementation of this agreement, the shift of the supply chain of raw materials and accessories has entered Viet Nam, contributing to the growth of the localisation rate of products.

Previously, the localisation rate was only about 45 per cent, but now it has risen to 55 per cent, said Xuan.

It could be said that this was one of the significant successes for the leather and footwear industry besides export growth, she emphasised.  VNS
HA NOI  Sustainable investment is no longer just a common term but has become something that the ASEAN Business Advisory Council puts at its vital core in developing and moving ahead.

That remark was made by Bernardino Vega, Co-Chair of the OECD-SEA Business Network, at the Business Roundtable and Public-Private Policy Dialogue yesterday.

He said the importance of sustainable development and investment is crucial in ASEAN. It lies in the potential to foster economic growth while simultaneously safeguarding the environment, promoting social inclusivity, and adhering to robust governance.

"Sustainable development encompasses a diverse array of opportunities, which include renewable energy, green infrastructure, and responsible agriculture," said the Co-Chair.

He also said sustainable investment would not only steer ASEAN towards a more balanced and resilient economy but also contribute significantly to attaining the UN goals on sustainable development.

Andrea Campagnoli, Founding Partner of Bain Vietnam, said there is a marked increase in efforts and actions from a number of parties in Southeast Asia (SEA) when it comes to energy transition.

Eight out of ten SEA countries have net zero or carbon neutrality commitments, and seven out of ten are now considering or have carbon pricing/taxes. In light of the Paris Accord, corporates have increased four times their science-based target commitments and objectives.

"US$5.2 billion were put to work towards green investments in the region in 2022," said the founding partner.

However, the figure is still a far cry from what is needed to meet the 2030 targets. Over the next 10 years, the region would need around $1.5 trillion to work towards the green goals.

"The bright spot of this is Viet Nam, which definitely punched above its weight in terms of investments, given the size of its economy," added Andrea.

He said what is holding back capital providers includes uncertainty in regulatory environments and constraints in market access, which result in returns that are not economical for the capital earmarked for energy transition.

Stephen Thomsen, Deputy Head of OECD's Investment Division, said foreign investment can contribute to sustainable outcomes in ASEAN. However, there are still a lot of obstacles in terms of discrimination that foreigners face in the region.

Regarding the FDI regulatory restrictiveness index, the ASEAN average is still much higher than the OECD and some other non-ASEAN countries, indicating that several ASEAN member states are still quite restrictive in terms of FDI.

"The restrictions tend to be in the services sector. The more restrictive the services sector, the more labour productivity is affected across the economy," said the head.

Madeleine Chenette, Permanent Representative of Canada to the OECD, said Canada had launched the Sustainable Finance Action Council to help lead the Canadian financial sector towards integrating sustainable finance into industry practices.

The council, made up of both public and private organisations, serves as a centre of expertise, partnership, and dialogue on sustainable finance issues in Canada and investments internationally.

"Canada works with several private financial institutions to develop frameworks and practices to prioritise sustainable and inclusive investment," said the ambassador.

The country also has a robust model for public-private partnerships, especially in infrastructure projects, which often include sustainable criteria. It has been a leader in testing and expanding the scope of blended finance and international sustainable development, piloting innovative approaches that facilitate unconventional partnerships.

A memorandum of understanding was signed at the dialogue.  VNS
HA NOI  Vietnamese shares plunged on Thursday as panic selling flooded the market, following the sharp fall of large-cap stocks.

On the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the market benchmark VN-Index plunged 4.19 per cent, to 1,055.45 points.

The market's breadth was negative with 505 stocks declining while only 24 stocks rose.

The market liquidity was high as over VN23.2 trillion (US$943 million) was poured into the southern bourse, equivalent to a trading volume of nearly 1.2 billion shares.

The VN30-Index, tracking the 30 biggest stocks in market capitalisation on HoSE, dropped 4.34 per cent to 1,064.95 points.

There were no advancers in the VN-30 basket. In the opposite direction, six losers hit the daily limit decline of 7 per cent, which were The Viet Nam Rubber Group (GVR), Masan Group (MSN), Viet Nam National Petroleum Group (PLX), Vinhomes (VHM), Vingroup (VIC) and Vincom Retail (VRE).

Banking stocks also fell and put great pressure on the overall market, with losers including Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID), Vietcombank (VCB), Sai Gon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank (STB), Sai Gon-Ha Noi Bank (SHB), Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), Military Bank (MBB), VPBank (VPB), Techcombank (TCB), Tien Phong Bank (TPB) and Lien Viet Post Bank (LPB).

Energy stocks also lost ground with losers such as Viet Nam National Petroleum Group (PLX), PVPower (POW), PetroVietnam Technical Services Corporation (PVS), PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services Corporation (PVD), Drilling Mud Joint Stock Corporation (PVC) and PetroVietnam Gas JSC (GAS).

"Given the current sluggish developments, it is likely that the market will continue to face difficulties in the near future, and the risk of further weakness still exists. Therefore, investors still need to be cautious and observe supply and demand developments to reassess the state of the market. Temporarily, it is still necessary to consider the market's recovery ability to restructure the portfolio in a way that minimises risks," said Viet Dragon Securities Co.

All 25 sector indices on the stock market posted losses, including retail, wholesale, real estate, construction, seafood production, securities, insurance, IT, banking, food and beverage, construction materials, logistics, healthcare, oil and gas, rubber production and agriculture.

Meanwhile, on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index lost 5.3 per cent to close at 214.98 points.  VNS
HCM CITY  AI is the next big shift in modern marketing, the MMA Impact conference titled "AI-Powered Business Innovation: Navigating Impact" heard in HCM City on Thursday.

Organised annually by MMA Global, this years conference was regarded as a "monumental event" and keenly anticipated by the marketing industry.

It saw top industry executives discuss the newest ideas and initiatives as well as the amazing growth of contemporary marketing in the Vietnamese market in the context that AI is dominating modern marketing.

Participants agreed that AI is changing modern marketing as it is able to multiply creativity, productivity and performances.

Roopa DhawaN, industry head, brand solutions, Southeast Asia, at Google, told the conference that marketers can harness the capabilities of AI to help them at scale of setting bids, finding audiences, generating insights, optimising real-time performance and scaling creatives.

You are not competing with AI. You are competing with marketers using AI.

Speaking about AI applications, she pointed out that smart reply in gMail accounts for 12 per cent of all responses sent on mobile phones, and Google Maps uses AI to predict travel time by analysing historical traffic patterns and current conditions.

Google photos are organised by the places and things in them with no tagging required, she said.

While it is an inevitable trend, participants said, Artificial intelligence must be our ally, not our replacement.

Naoyuki Kawakita, group president of Hakuhodo International Vietnam, said: We are living in an era where machines can compose music, paint portraits and even write poetry.

AI, with its vast capabilities, is often regarded as the solution for modern business challenges.

Lets harness its power, guided by our heartbeats and continue to build brands that resonate, relate and most importantly, loved.

At the day-long conference, top executives and specialists offered insights into many sectors.

They also spoke on topical subjects related to contemporary marketing and how technology in this era transforms marketing.

They reviewed the most outstanding advertising campaigns of the year listed in the Smarties nominations run by leading companies to rising startups.

Complex challenges and seamless collaboration between human creativity and technology to find solutions were shared.

Greg Stuart, CEO of MMA Global, told Viet Nam News: World technology trends run in 13 year cycles. If you think about those trend lines, in 2020, most believed that AI was that next trend, and I think we are experiencing that now.

2020 is the marking point but CHAT GPT and generative AI became popular two-three years later. I think there's still more to come. That's whats going on. This is the trend that will define and dictate all the opportunities in the next 10 years.

In addition to the most in-depth insights in the area, the event offered a stimulating venue for energetic networking and business matchmaking.

Attendees got the opportunity to meet industry executives, managers and marketing specialists, establish partnerships, and explore collaborative prospects.

On the same day as the MMA Impact 2023 event, the SMARTIES Awards Vietnam 2023 was organised to honour the year's top campaigns and highlight innovation and diversity in the marketing sector.  VNS
HA NOI  The public in Ha Noi can explore the imaginative and innovative spirit of Le Monde dHermes magazine  a publication by the French luxury fashion house Hermes, through several exciting activities.

Presented at the Dien Hong Park close to Hoan Kiem Lake from October 26 to 29, the publication kiosk offers visitors a glimpse into the creativity, curiosity and diversity of the Hermes world through stunning visuals and captivating conversations.

Guests can immerse themselves in the world of Astonishing Hermes  the Houses annual theme for 2023, and enjoy several exciting activities.

Welcomed by Mr Kiosk, visitors can enjoy ice cream, a pony dance flash mob or caricature painting. They can also play board games or dance along with a musical performance in the evening. On their way out, they will receive the latest issue of the magazine and a bouquet of fresh flowers.

The first Le Monde DHermes Kiosk, inspired by the iconic Parisian kiosks, was debut in Prague in autumn 2021. It then has travelled to Barcelona, Singapore, Knokke (Belgium), Rotterdam, Tokyo, London, Kuwait, Austin (Texas, US) and Haikou (Hainan, China). In June, it made a stopover in Jakarta, before landing in Lisbon in September.

Created in 1973, Le Monde dHermes is a bi-annual magazine with a print-run of 600,000 copies, published in 10 languages. An editor-in-chief and an artistic director are invited to create two issues per year with Hermes teams, who collaborate each season with selected writers, illustrators and photographers.  VNS
HA NOI  The 15th-tenure National Assembly continues its sixth session on Thursday with discussions on water management, housing and the ongoing Long Thanh International Airport.

Head of the NA Committee on Science, Technology and Environment Le Quang Huy said that having considered comments from the NA deputies, the draft amendment of the Law on Water Resources has been adjusted to be more concise, highlighting the key principles and priorities in water management.

The draft also stipulates groundwater mining in areas with decreasing underground water levels or at risk of landslide or saline intrusion.

For regions that have adequate water supply for households and production, individuals and groups are not restricted in their use of underground water, which ensures peoples legitimate rights and interests regarding water resources, said Huy.

The document also distinguishes the management responsibilities for water resources and for planning, building and operating structures that utilise water.

Water security is also added to the principles of management, protection, regulation, distribution, development and utilisation of water resources, as well as in water-induced damage control.

Highlighting household water issues, NA deputy Ly Tiet Hanh from Binh inh Province said that appropriate measures are needed to ensure safety for people, as well as water and national security.

She suggested that the draft should clarify the scope and responsibilities of protecting domestic water sources.

Hanh also agreed with better defining the role of the Ministry of Public Security in monitoring and protecting large-scale water supply structures, especially cross-provincial and cross-national sources of water.

Ha Giang Provinces NA deputy Vuong Thi Huong underlined that establishing a database for water management is essential for state management in this sector, noting that most localities lack an information system on water resources.

NA deputy Huynh Thi Phuc from Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province also proposed adding regulations on water supply and utilisation to have a flexible approach in case of unusual weather phenomena.

This will support business and production activities as well as peoples daily lives, she said.

She also noted that water management in mineral mining needs to be reviewed to avoid overlapping with regulations on waste discharge stipulated in the environmental protection law.

According to the NA Standing Committee, regulating and distributing water resources is crucial for a stable water supply to various industries.

Therefore, the draft has included the principles, solutions, scenarios and plans to regulate and distribute water resources, as well as the responsibilities of relevant ministries, departments and localities.

Long Thanh Airport project

According to Resolution 53/2017/QH14 approved by the NA, the project has a total investment of VN22.94 trillion (US$932.22 million) with land recovery totalling nearly 5,400 hectares.

In a new government proposal, the project investment is reduced to VN19.21 trillion ($780.64 million), while the area of land recovered will be 5,317.35 hectares.

This includes land for the Long Thanh Airport, the Loc An-Binh Son resettlement area and the reestablished infrastructure outside of the airport area.

The government also proposed adjusting the project implementation period until the end of 2024.

Transport minister Nguyen Van Thang said that when the project was approved, the ong Nai Provincial Peoples Committee mobilised resources and established a steering committee for the project implementation.

However, the progress fell short of expectations due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 and social distancing measures in place. The coordination to measure, calculate and compensate local residents for land recovery also faced difficulties and is taking longer than estimated, he said.

ong Nai Provincial Peoples Committee also have to divide resources for key national projects in the locality such as the Dau Giay-Phan Thiet and Ben Luc-Long Thanh expressways.

The government therefore proposes extending the disbursement period, with VN966.75 billion ($39.29 million) from the 2016-2020 medium-term public investment plan, and VN1.55 trillion ($62.99 million) from the 2021-2025 medium-term public investment plan to complete the project.

Presenting the inspection report, head of the NA Committee on Economy Vu Hong Thanh agreed with the proposal for project extension to 2024 for construction and disbursement work.

The committee also gave high regard to ong Nai Provincial Peoples Committee's proactiveness in advancing the local budget for compensation and resettlement for land clearance.

The NA Committee for Economy also noted that the province should consider the impacts of these advance payments to the local socio-economic development targets.

The NA also discussed resettlement and housing issues later the same day.  VNS
HA NOI  The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) should strengthen policy advice, enhance technical support, and promote experience sharing with Southeast Asian countries to improve institution building and enhance national governance capacity for sustainable investment in order to further promote OECD - Southeast Asia investment cooperation in the future.

Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang made the suggestion at the OECD  Southeast Asia Ministerial Forum 2023 with the theme Sustainable and Quality Investment: New Momentum for OECD Southeast Asia Partnership, organised on Thursday afternoon in Ha Noi.

The forum was held at the ministerial level, with ministers from Australia and Viet Nam co-chairing proceedings along with the OECD Secretary-General, Mathias Cormann.

Quang also said that the two sides were committed to effectively implementing the OECD-ASEAN Memorandum of Understanding, promoting priority projects, especially on taxes, facilitating trade and investment; coordinating to standardise and harmonise investment regulations, policies on environmental protection and green investment.

The two sides should create motivation for investment cooperation on sustainable development in emerging and key areas such as energy transition, green growth, digital economy, circular economy, and ecological agriculture, he added.

He called on OECD countries to cooperate with Southeast Asian countries to build centres of high technology and innovation, thereby helping ASEAN to reach its full potential and become a global semiconductor supply chain linkage centre as well as technology research and development centres, adapting to climate change.

Additionally, the two sides were asked to support the establishment of foundations for sustainable investment in the region, specifically, cooperation in upgrading and connecting strategic infrastructure in Southeast Asia, strengthening connectivity between Southeast Asia and OECD through supporting the implementation of the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity (MPAC) 2025 and infrastructure development initiatives of the OECD and its member countries; developing high-quality human resources to meet the needs of high-tech projects, he said.

The two sides should create models of sustainable and quality investment cooperation, he said.

It needed an effective combination of resources from the State, the private sector, and multilateral development banks, through unifying vision and action among countries, regional and global organisations to meet the huge investment demand, especially in developing countries, he said.

I believe that, with great potential and advantages, the OECD - Southeast Asia investment partnership will be a model for building global investment partnership frameworks, he said.

Lastly, the two sides were suggested to constantly strengthen a peaceful and stable environment for cooperation and development, he said.

Viet Nam and ASEAN are always persistent in promoting the resolution of disputes and disagreements through peaceful solutions, he said.

Quang also said he believed that the forum would find many effective and feasible solutions to promote high-quality and sustainable investment, contributing to creating a new driving force for OECD-Southeast Asia relations.

Speaking at the forum, Alicia Payne, Member of Parliament of Australia, said as co-chair of the OECD Southeast Asia Regional Programme (SEARP), Australia was delighted to once again, alongside Viet Nam, welcome participants to the forum.

We want the Australian business community to take an even greater role in the Southeast Asian growth story over coming decades.

Thats why the Australian Government last month (September 6) launched a Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040 written by one of Australias leading business figures, Nicholas Moore, she said.

Enabling business and relationships within the region is at the core of that strategy, she added.

"We were at the beginning of a new era of OECD ASEAN partnership. A few decades ago, significant ASEAN membership in the OECD might have seemed impossible. Even a decade ago, it might have seemed improbable, she said.

Today, it is inevitable. But there is much to do, she said.

And our Government was committed to working with all of you to deepen and broaden OECD and ASEAN cooperation to the benefit of all our peoples, she added.

This is the second time the OECD  Southeast Asia Ministerial Forum has been held in Ha Noi, under the initiative of Viet Nam and Australia as co-chairs of the OECD Southeast Asia Regional Programme (SEARP) in the 2022-25 period.

The forum focused on Southeast Asia at the regional level, considering opportunities for cooperation between OECD members and Southeast Asian countries to encourage sustainable and quality investment.  VNS
HA NOI The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)  Southeast Asia Ministerial Forum 2023 was organised under the theme of Sustainable and Quality Investment: New Momentum for OECD- Southeast Asia Partnership in Ha Noi on October 26.

As the most important event of the OECD-run Southeast Asia Regional Programme (SEARP) in 2023, the forum drew the participation of Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang, OCED Secretary-General Mathias Cormann, Vietnamese Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son and more than 200 ministers, deputy ministers, ambassadors and representatives from 48 OECD member states and Southeast Asian countries, and many scholars, experts and business community.

In his speech, Deputy Prime Minister Quang said that although Southeast Asia has many advantages in FDI attraction, the region is facing an array of challenges, especially in luring quality and sustainable investment; therefore it is necessary to promote linkages and effective partnership between regions, countries and enterprises.

Highlighting Viet Nams socio-economic development achievements after nearly four decades of Doi moi (Renewal), Quang reaffirmed that foreign investment is an important component of the Vietnamese economy, and the Vietnamese Government is committed to accompanying investors to protect their legitimate rights, and create a sound business climate for them to expand production and business in the country.

He went on to outline five main cooperation orientations to strengthen investment collaboration between regions, with the first being promoting policy consultancy, technical support and experience sharing with Southeast Asian countries in building institutions and improving national governance capacity in sustainable investment.

Second, it is a must to create motive for investment cooperation in sustainable development in emerging and key fields such as energy transition, green growth, digital economy, circular economy and eco-agriculture.

Third, stakeholders should join hands to set up platforms for sustainable investment in the region.

Fourth, it is necessary to establish sustainable and quality investment models.

Fifth, the Deputy Prime Minister called for unceasingly consolidating a peaceful and stable environment for cooperation development which he said is a prerequisite factor.

At the forum, participants hailed Viet Nams role as the Co-chair of the SEARP, while underscoring the forums significance to promoting inter-Governmental and inter-regional cooperation in realising common development goals which help promote the strengths of the OECD member states, and meet the needs and interests of Southeast Asian countries.

The OECD countries reaffirmed the strategic importance of the Southeast Asian region in the OECDs global policy, and committed to supporting the Southeast Asian nations in boosting inclusive, sustainable and quality investment, and promoting green transition and digital transformation for inclusive and sustainable development.

In his closing remarks, Vietnamese FM Bui Thanh Son underlined that enhancing sustainable and quality investment should become a driver for the OECD-Southeast Asia partnership, while stakeholders should give priority to new cooperation areas such as green transition and digital transformation.

Furthermore, cooperation between regions should be elevated, and implementation of the OCEDs strategic framework for the Indo-Pacific should be made in tandem with the ASEANs outlook on Asia-Pacific, he added.

A Viet Nam  OECD investment forum will be organised in Ha Noi on October 27 within the framework of the SEARP. VNS
HA NOI  The Ministry of Public Security has proposed the development of the Extradition Law, which would allow member countries to urgently apprehend fleeing criminals to prevent them from evading capture.

Major General Pham Cong Nguyen, head of the ministrys Department of Legal Affairs and Administrative and Judicial Reforms, who is responsible for drafting the law, stated that after more than 15 years of implementing the Law on Mutual Legal Assistance, extradition efforts had yielded significant results.

In particular, the ministry had received and processed 38 extradition requests from foreign countries, as well as initiated and forwarded 68 extradition requests from Viet Nam to foreign authorities.

These achievements had significantly contributed to the successful resolution of criminal cases involving fugitives who had fled either to or from Viet Nam, he said.

However, the 2007 Law on Mutual Legal Assistance has shown several shortcomings. One such limitation is that the law doesn't address the expansion of criminal liability beyond the offences specified in the extradition request, according to Nguyen.

Nguyen analysed that after extradition to the requesting country, during the investigation and legal proceedings, authorities might discover additional crimes committed by the extradited individual within the territory of the requesting country before fleeing to the country receiving the extradition request.

In such cases, countries might agree to extend criminal liability for the extradited person beyond the original extradition request, provided both parties consent, he said.

This issue was also covered in international treaties on extradition to which Viet Nam was a signatory. Specifically, individuals subject to extradition requests might be held accountable for crimes other than those initially outlined in the extradition request.

Therefore, supplementing provisions on the expansion of criminal liability beyond the offences specified in the extradition request would help prevent escaping criminals from evading justice.

Regarding the ministry's proposal for the authority to urgently apprehend and extradite criminals, Nguyen said that this content aligned perfectly with the international treaties of which Viet Nam is a member.

Viet Nam is a party to 21 bilateral international extradition treaties, many of which include provisions for the urgent apprehension of individuals subject to extradition requests before the formal request is received.

In specific urgent cases, the competent authority of the signing country might request that the signatory country detain the individual sought for extradition during the period awaiting the formal extradition request. This mechanism would help prevent suspects from fleeing before the official extradition process begins, safeguarding the legal rights and legitimate interests of the people, and maintaining social stability and security, he said.

Regarding the application of the death penalty for individuals subject to extradition requests, Nguyen said many countries, particularly in Europe, did not have provisions for the death penalty.

Therefore, when handling extradition requests, these countries frequently requested Viet Nam's commitment not to impose or carry out the death penalty on the extradited individual. Failure to make such a commitment could result in the extradition request being denied.

Hence, adding this provision on death penalty commitment to the Extradition Law would not only ensure compliance with Viet Nam's international commitments but also prevent fugitives from escaping justice, he said.  VNS
U.S. President Joe Biden called for stronger gun laws after the mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, which is considered to be the deadliest one recorded this 2023.

POTUS said that the American nation is mourning for the victims of Robert C. Card, who killed over 18 innocent residents and injured up to 50 civilians.

Here's what Joe Biden specifically said about the latest Maine mass shooting.

Joe Biden Calls for Stronger Gun Laws After Maine Mass Shooting

On Thursday, Oct. 26, Joe Biden said that the United States is mourning again after the "senseless and tragic mass shooting" in Lewiston, Maine.

"Today, Jill and I are praying for the Americans who've lost their lives, for those still in critical care, and for the families, survivors, and community members enduring shock and grief," said the American leader.

Joe Biden added that American citizens should heed local officials' warnings and guidance to ensure their safety, especially since the shooter is still at large.

Reuters reported that the U.S. president is also calling out Republicans in Congress to help him enact stronger gun laws to avoid further senseless mass shootings in the American nation.

"Far too many Americans have now had a family member killed or injured as a result of gun violence. That is not normal, and we cannot accept it," said Biden via the official White House press release.

In his own effort, POTUS said that he already told Maine Gov. Janet Mills, as well as Senators King, Collins, and Congressman Golden that his administration would provide everything they needed to support the affected state's residents.

He promised that the Biden Administration would continue to be there "every step of the way.

Read Also: Sikh Man, 66, Beaten to Death in Brutal Attack in New York; Mayor Eric Adams Condemns Incident

More Efforts to Regulate Guns Needed

During his speech, Biden said that the U.S. government already made some progress on gun safety through the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.

Aside from this, he added that the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence has been established and two dozen executive actions were taken.

However, Biden clarified that these efforts are not enough to prevent further mass shootings. Because of this, he urged Republican lawmakers to fulfill their duties to protect U.S. citizens.

He called them out, saying that they should help him pass a bill banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.

Joe Biden also encouraged these lawmakers to require gun safe storage, end immunity from liability for gun manufacturers, and enact universal background checks.

Related Article: Maine: Man Killed At Least 16 People in Mass Shooting, Police Safeguards Residents

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
BRUSSELS  Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha has had separate working sessions with High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell and EU Commissioner for Climate Action Wopke Hoekstra on the sidelines of the 2023 Global Gateway Forum in Belgium on October 26 (local time).

Meeting with Borrell, who is also Vice President of the European Commission (EC), Ha highlighted Viet Nam's commitment to enhance and deepen the framework of its partnership and comprehensive cooperation with the EU.

He proposed that both sides fully and effectively implement existing cooperation mechanisms and strengthen the pillar of trade and investment through the implementation of the EU-Viet Nam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA). He also urged EU member countries to early ratify the EU-Viet Nam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA) and the EC to remove its yellow card warning imposed on Viet Nam regarding illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

At the same time, the Deputy PM called for an expansion of the sides cooperation in potential areas such as climate change response and energy transition, particularly within the framework of the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP). Viet Nam is willing to act as a bridge to help the EU connect with the Southeast Asian region, and closely coordinate with the EU in implementing the ASEAN-EU strategic partnership and addressing regional and global issues, he said.

For his part, Borrell affirmed that Viet Nam is an important partner of the EU in the region. He lauded the relationships comprehensive development, particularly in economy and trade, with the effective EVFTA implementation resulting in a 20 per cent increase in bilateral trade last year.

The High Representative said there was still untapped potential for bilateral cooperation, especially in the energy sector, and agreed to enhance the sides all-rounded collaboration for the full and efficient implementation of the EVFTA and other cooperation frameworks.

Borrell went on pledging to support Viet Nam within the JETP framework focusing on just energy transition and sustainable development.

He acknowledged Viet Nam's efforts in tackling IUU fishing in recent times and suggested that the country closely coordinate with the EC and fully carry out its recommendations in order to get the yellow card removed early.

Both sides underscored the importance of maintaining peace, stability, freedom, and safety of maritime navigation and overflight, and resolving disputes peacefully based on international law and the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

At his meeting with Commissioner Hoekstra, Ha highlighted Viet Nam's determination to actively fulfil its commitments at the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26). He proposed the EU continue close coordination with Vietnam to expedite the completion of the resource mobilisation plan for the implementation of JETP.

In response, the Commissioner for Climate Action stated that the EU consistently supported Viet Nam in its green transition efforts, and asked Vietnam to support the EU's initiatives at the COP28.

Also in the framework of the forum, Deputy PM Ha had a meeting with CEO of John Cockerill Group Francois Michel, during which the two sides discussed the progress of the group's investment projects in Viet Nam.  VNS
HA NOI  The National Assembly (NA) wants to create a favourable legal corridor for investment, production, and business activities of domestic and foreign firms in Viet Nam, affirmed Chairman Vuong inh Hue while receiving Chairman of the Korean-based SK Group Chey Tae-won in Ha Noi on Friday.

Lauding the groups cooperation with Vietnamese partners and practice of social responsibility, Hue welcomed its investment in a high-tech biodegradable materials factory in Hai Phong as well as its proposals for collaboration in the fields of energy, semiconductors, and ICT in the time to come.

SK has significantly supported the National Innovation Center (NIC) of Viet Nam, which will officially open on October 28. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it donated US$1 million for Viet Nam's vaccination fund.

The top legislator expressed his hope that the group will share its experiences, contributing to the building of a practical legal framework for the improvement of Viet Nam's business climate.

He suggested SK make further contributions to Viet Nam's economic growth and team up with Viet Nam in the nations processes of energy transition and carbon emission reduction toward the net-zero goal for 2050.

Hue went on underscoring the NAs willingness to accompany SK and facilitate its effective, successful and sustainable investment and business operations in Viet Nam.

In response, the SK Chairman showed his delight at outcomes gradually formed following the signing of memoranda of understanding on cooperation between Viet Nam and the Republic of Korea during Hue's 2021 official visit to the latter.

Chey affirmed that the group stands ready to work with Vietnamese partners in green energy transition, helping Viet Nam capitalise on its potential and be proactive in energy production.

In his position as Chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), he informed his host of the chambers ongoing teamwork with the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) regarding the development of private enterprises. Chey said he hopes that small-scale but innovative firms will take a more active role in setting up shop in Viet Nam.  VNS
HA NOI - Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh received Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Mathias Cormann in Ha Noi on October 27, on the occasion of his attendance at the OECD-Southeast Asia Ministerial Forum 2023 and activities of the OCED Southeast Asia Regional Programme (SEARP).

PM Chinh expressed thanks for the OECD's partnership and support to Viet Nam in its role as the Co-Chair of the SEARP, especially its contributions to the success of the OECD-Southeast Asia Ministerial Forum 2023 and the OECD-Viet Nam Investment Forum 2023, which took place on October 26-27.

He welcomed the OECD's approval of the Indo-Pacific Strategy in June and wished that the OECD and the Secretary-General would continue their support for the region by allocating resources to enhance regional cooperation.

The host suggested Viet Nam and the OECD further intensify their substantive and effective cooperation.

Sharing Viet Nam's strategic development directions, he sought the OECD's assistance in formulating policies to attract high-quality investments. This will enable Viet Nam to integrate more deeply into the global value and supply chains, protect investors interests, and efficiently adapt to new standards, particularly the global minimum tax.

He also called on the OECD to assist Viet Nam in promoting new growth drivers such as the green transition, digital transformation, carbon market development, green standards, emission reduction, and innovation, which align with the strengths of the OECD and are currently in high demand and prioritised for development in Viet Nam.

Cormann, for his part, spoke highly of Viet Nam's key role in its capacity as the Co-Chair of the SEARP, especially the initiative to organise the OECD-Southeast Asia Ministerial Forum 2023.

He hailed the forum's theme Sustainable and Quality Investment: New Momentum for OECD- Southeast Asia Partnership, which he said accurately reflects the interests and attracts the participation of many ministerial-level representatives from various countries.

In his view, Viet Nam still has many opportunities to attract high-quality investments towards green and sustainable development amid the global changes.

Reaffirming the significance of Southeast Asia and Viet Nam in particular for OECD, he agreed to elevate the Viet Nam-OECD relationship and expressed readiness to cooperate with Viet Nam in fields of shared interest. VNA/VNS
HA NOI - Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh hailed the ongoing visit by Governor of Japans Gunma prefecture Yamamoto Ichita on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Viet Nam-Japan diplomatic ties this year as an important milestone during a reception in Ha Noi on October 27.

Both sides shared the view that the bilateral extensive strategic partnership is in a strong and comprehensive development phase with high political trust. Japan is now the top economic partner, the biggest supplier of official development assistance (ODA), the second largest partner in labour, the third biggest partner in investment and tourism, and the fourth biggest in trade of Viet Nam.

Around 100 relationships between Vietnamese and Japanese localities have been established. At present, there are about 500,000 Vietnamese people in Japan, making them the second largest foreign community in the country and making practical contributions to its socio-economic development.

Since early this year, both sides have arranged mutual visits and held celebration activities, contributing to deepening the friendship and mutual understanding between their people.

PM Chinh affirmed that the Vietnamese Government attached great importance to enhancing cooperation, considering it a substantial and effective channel to strengthen collaboration in investment, trade, labour and people-to-people exchange.

He hailed the Governors determination, efforts and initiatives to boost ties with Viet Nam, including holding traditional Vietnamese Lunar New Year celebrations, the Viet Nam festivals in Gunma, symphony orchestra exchanges, implementing memoranda of understanding on cooperation with Vietnamese agencies and various policies in support of around 12,000 Vietnamese living in the prefecture, and encouraging local enterprises to expand their operations in Viet Nam.

He suggested that in the coming time, the Gunma authorities and the Governor continue stepping up the exchange of delegations, cultural and people-to-people exchanges, and tourism cooperation with Viet Nam. This includes holding commemorative events and festivals both in the prefecture and in Viet Nam, pushing forward local investments in Viet Nam, especially in areas of their strength such as digital transformation, energy transition, high-tech agriculture, manufacturing and processing, and support industries.

The Vietnamese Government would be ready to create favourable conditions for cooperation between Gunma and Vietnamese localities, he said, adding that Viet Nam would continue improving the business environment by making it more stable, transparent and healthy; reforming administrative procedures, fine-tuning mechanisms and policies, and improving strategic infrastructure.

Ichita, for his part, said via the visit, he wished to further promote economic ties and human resources training cooperation with Viet Nam.

He added that he was accompanied by a delegation of 29 businesses which expressed their appreciation for Viet Nam's business environment. They plan to invest a total of 7.7 billion JPY (US$51.3 million) in Viet Nam in the near future.

In the years to come, there would be continued efforts to encourage firms from Gunma to invest in Viet Nam, as well as welcome Vietnamese enterprises to Gunma, particularly in the fields of information technology and digital transformation. Gunma also planned to receive more Vietnamese interns and workers, especially in the nursing field, he said, affirming his commitment to contributing to joint work between Gunma and Viet Nam, particularly in areas suggested by the PM.

Twelve businesses from the prefecture have already invested in Viet Nam, primarily in industries such as plastics and transportation equipment. The Vietnamese community living there counts around 12,000 people, the largest foreign community in the prefecture. VNA/VNS
LAM ONG  A tourist from the Republic of Korea died on Thursday after falling from a cliff on top of Langbiang mountain in the Central Highlands province of Lam ong, the provincial authorities reported.

The woman was travelling with a group to the top of the mountain when she slipped while taking photos. She fell four metres.

She was rushed to hospital but was later pronounced dead.

There are warning signs posted in the area where she slipped.

Langbiang is located in Lac Duong District, 12 kilometres from tourism hotspot a Lat. It is 1,200 metres above sea level and tourists either walk or travel by car to the top.

Lam ong authorities have demanded that officials and tourism companies tighten safety measures.

Earlier in Lam ong's Lac Duong District, four Korean tourists taking part in a jeep excursion across a stream at Cu Lan Village tourist area died on Tuesday as the vehicle was swept away by flash floods.  VNS
BAC GIANG  According to Deputy Chairman of Bac Giang Provinces People's Committee Phan The Tuan, from now until 2025 the locality will continue to pay attention to e-commerce development and international economic integration.

Bac Giang sets a goal that by 2025, the entire system of supermarkets, commercial centres, modern distribution facilities, and facilities supplying public goods such as electricity, water and telecommunications will flexibly apply different electronic payment methods.

The province also aims to improve and maintain its e-commerce index, including the following indicators: human resources and information technology infrastructure; business - consumer (B2C), business - business (B2B), and government - business (G2B).

Online shopping has become a popular form of purchasing by consumers via electronic means. Sixty per cent of enterprises in the province have been participating in the localitys e-commerce trading floor and other platforms providing e-commerce service. As much as 50 per cent of businesses have their own websites to promote their brands and products.

From now until 2025, Bac Giang will continue focusing on improving the capacity to manage and organise e-commerce activities; and fight against commercial fraud, intellectual property rights infringement and unfair competition in e-commerce.

In addition, the province will strengthen infrastructure systems and enhance the capacity of support services for e-commerce; promote the application of e-commerce to facilitate key export industries, expand consumption of domestic goods; and apply new technologies in e-commerce to support the digital transformation process of businesses.

The locality is also interested in organising e-commerce events such as those on Online Shopping Day - Online Friday, which has been approved by the Government to take place annually on the first Friday of December to bring practical benefits to consumers when participating in shopping; building a close, sustainable link among the business community, from manufacturers, distributors to providers of infrastructure services for e-commerce.

In addition, Bac Giang is supporting businesses in deploying and encouraging people and firms to use secured payment solutions in e-commerce transactions; working out and implementing policy solutions to increase the proportion of domestic goods sold on online platforms; developing systems of business and consumer credit rating and authentication in e-commerce based on the participation of multi-stakeholders such as State management agencies, media outlets, associations, businesses and consumer protection organisations.

Deputy Chairman of Bac Giang Provinces People's Committee Phan The Tuan added that from now until 2025, Bac Giang will continue to pay attention to effectively implementing the Prime Ministers Directive 26/CT-TTg dated September 4, 2018 on promoting international economic integration, consistent with the province's socio-economic development orientation and plan; accelerating international economic integration associated with unlocking the province's potentials and making full use of competitive advantages; accompanying and supporting businesses during the integration process; protecting natural resources, environment and sustainable development, while ensuring social security; and strengthening foreign affairs and investment attraction activities.

According to Bac Giang Provinces Department of Industry and Trade, since 2020, e-commerce activities have been carried out quite methodically by the province. In particular, training courses of setting up stalls and guidance on online trading skills have been provided for businesses, cooperatives, production facilities and farmer households, especially in the agricultural sector, to help them participate in major e-commerce platforms domestically and abroad.

Thereby, Bac Giang Province's typical products have been sold and purchased via stalls on major global e-commerce platforms such as Amazon.com, Alibaba.com and domestic ones such as Postmart.vn, Voso.vn, Sendo.vn, Shopee.vn, Lazada.vn, and Tiki.vn.

Fifteen local businesses and cooperatives have been supported to build online brand identities, and design and build online booths to bring products to domestic and foreign e-commerce platforms such as: Sendo, Voso, San24h and Alibaba.com.

Regarding international economic integration, Bac Giang Provinces industry and trade agencies have been coordinating with media outlets and through information channels of Vietnamese embassies and trade counsellors in other countries and Consulates of other countries in Viet Nam to introduce the potential and strengths of Bac Giang to domestic and foreign markets; proactively cooperating with Vietnamese representative agencies and related agencies abroad to support the province's businesses in expanding export markets, promoting trade, tourism and investment.

La Thi Xuan from An Tru Village of Tan Yen Districts Tan Trung Commune is a retired teacher. Despite being over 70 years old, she and her husband are still actively producing and selling agricultural products every season such as thieu lychees, melons, taro and peanuts. Recently, she has used her personal Facebook page to advertise her products.

Xuan said: "I have recently harvested nearly one tonne of taro. After one day of making and broadcasting the product introduction video on Facebook, everyone registered to buy all of them. Most of the customers are acquaintances in the area, each person buys a moderate quantity, so my family transports the goods to customers by ourselves."

Along with selling agricultural products via social networks, Vu Nguyen Binh's household in Quy Thinh Village of Luc Ngan Districts Quy Son Commune also provides goods on the Postmart.vn e-commerce platform which is developed by the Vietnam Post. According to Binh, participating in e-commerce helps farmers be active, access modern digital technology, and find many customers both at home and abroad. Thanks to that, agricultural products have seen an expanded consumption market.

Le Thi Tuan, head of the Business Planning Department of Bac Giang Province Post Office, shared that in the coming time the agency will continue to innovate its business, especially in the logistics stage. Rural digital commerce is also an opportunity for the postal industry to expand its scope of operations. Therefore, the provincial Post Office will always accompany and directly support farmers to participate in e-commerce, reduce intermediaries, and contribute to providing products with guaranteed quality and reasonable prices to consumers.  VNS
QUANG NINH  Two cruise ships carrying foreign visitors to Ha Long City of the northern province Quang Ninh arrived at Hon Gai international port on Friday morning.

Specifically, 900 tourists from Europe and the US travelled to Ha Long on board the German-flagged Viking Orion ship. They are scheduled to visit the UNESCO-recognised World Natural Heritage site of Ha Long Bay in Quang Ninh, the capital city Ha Noi, and Ninh Binh Province, before coming back to the ship and leaving the port on Saturday afternoon.

Meanwhile, Bahamass Silver Muse ship brought 300 European tourists to Ha Long where they will tour the famous bay and Cai Bau Pagoda, and leave the city in the evening of the same day.

Also on Friday, leaders of the provincial Department of Tourism welcomed a farmtrip delegation from India. The delegation, including representatives from travel agencies, is aiming to build tours bringing Indian tourists to Quang Ninh.

Deputy head of the department Nguyen Huyen Anh said that India is a new and potential market for Quang Ninhs tourism. In the coming time, the province continues to invite experts to train locals on the Islamic culture to better serve visitors from this market.

For the tourist season 2023-24, Quang Ninh is expected to play host to some 20 international cruises. The first two that the province received today is a good omen, Huyen Anh said.  VNS
HCM CITY  University of Economics HCM (UEH) and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have jointly launched the International Master of Business Administration (IMBA) programme in Viet Nam.

The new programme, set to commence in August 2024, aims to deliver a comprehensive business education, amalgamating the collective expertise of both universities to equip participants with skills and knowledge vital for thriving in the green and tech economy.

Upon successful completion of the programme's requirements, participants will be awarded the NTU MBA Degree by NTU Singapore. Additionally, they will receive the Certificate of Completion in Business Administration from UEH. This dual recognition underscores the programme's commitment to delivering a well-rounded educational experience.

The Vietnam government has recognised that sustainable economic growth in the 21st century must be fostered through science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation. This year, education and training have been highlighted as key areas of collaboration during Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinhs visit to Singapore in March. With the two countries celebrating 50 years of diplomatic relations, this programme is poised to facilitate the exchange of expertise, technology, and investment opportunities, promoting mutual growth and development for both countries.

UEH President Professor Su inh Thanh said: The collaboration between UEH and NTU Singapore will bring together the expertise of our two institutions to drive global knowledge exchange, develop leadership, and cultivate talents to contribute to the economic growth of both nations. The collaboration between the two universities will provide participants with a holistic learning experience. By bringing together faculty from both institutions, the programme combines global perspectives with a strong grasp of the local context in Viet Nam.

Professor Christina Soh, Dean of NTU Singapores Nanyang Business School, said: UEH's faculty has a deep understanding and hands-on experience of Viet Nams local business environment, encompassing cultural, economic, and political nuances. NTU's faculty contributes evidence-based knowledge and global insights to enrich this programme. Through this collaboration, we strike a harmonious balance between acting locally and thinking globally.  VNS
By Lam Giang

Considered the most beautiful Communal House in the area, So Communal House stands in the ancient area of Xu oai west of the capital, in So Village, Cong Hoa Commune, Quoc Oai District, Ha Noi.

Since ancient times, Xu oai has been an expansive land to the west of Thang Long imperial city and is known as the cradle of ancient Vietnamese civilization. It was here that the Hung Kings founded the country and established the capital. Xu oai is also renowned as the birthplace of many talented individuals and the guardian of numerous precious tangible and intangible cultural treasures. It encompasses Son Tay Town and the districts of Quoc Oai, Thach That, Ba Vi, and an Phuong.

Although the name Xu oai is no longer in use, the region still preserves hundreds of ancient communal houses. Among them, the ancient communal house of So Village holds the highest rank and occupies a significant position within the ancient architectural heritage of the north.

So Communal House originated as a small temple during the inh Dynasty. During the reign of Le Trung Hung in 1673, the temple underwent renovation and expansion, transforming into a communal house that was completed in 1674.

The communal house is highly regarded and recognised by experts as an epitome of architectural excellence. It is dedicated to the worship of three generals who assisted King inh Tien Hoang in his battle against 12 independent feudal warlords for control of the country during the mid-10th century.

To this day, the communal house proudly displays 40 ao sac phong (documents that transmit the king's orders to confer titles on individuals) ranging from the second year of Hoang inh (1601) of the Le Dynasty to the ninth year of Khai inh (1924) of the Nguyen Dynasty, alongside ancient parallel sentences.

Situated only about 40km from the center of Ha Noi, So Communal House enjoys a prime location amidst picturesque green mountains and a charming river.

"The communal house is situated on a spacious plot of land, with its front facing the river and the back nestled against the mountain. In front of the communal house's entrance is a large semicircular pond, considered a gathering point for water and blessings for the villagers," shared local resident Vuong Tri Quy.

Visitors reach the 1,100sq.m communal house by passing through a three-passage gate, which features two floors, three compartments, and four roofs. The gate's intricate carvings are particularly noteworthy, especially the depiction of two dragons flanking the moon on the roof and the four sacred animals at the base of the wooden pillars.

Inside the communal house, there are seven compartments, two lean-tos, 32 ironwood pillars arranged in six horizontal rows, and an ironwood floor. The main chamber is located behind an altar dedicated to the three generals of the Cao family.

The decorative paintings within the communal house exhibit a variety of motifs and patterns, blending different styles to create a diverse and richly adorned architectural space. From embossed stylized flowers and leaves like pine, chrysanthemum, bamboo, and apricot, to intricately carved dragon images, the decorative elements contribute to a multidimensional and sophisticated ambiance.

So Communal House also serves as the venue for three major festivals held annually by the villagers of Cong Hoa Commune, including the largest village festival, which takes place from the 8th to the 11th day of the 2nd month on the lunar calendar.

In 1980, So Communal House was recognised as a national relic by the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism. VNS
The project is poised to bring a transformation to the local plastic film industry. The factory will not just be manufacturing biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP) film, but will also embark on a plan for the production of biaxially oriented polyethylene terephthalate (BOPET) film over the coming phase.

This pioneering step aligns perfectly with the pressing need to meet the market's currently import-reliant demand for BOPET film. In addition, the A.J. Plast (Vietnam) factory exemplifies SCG's steadfast commitment to continuous investment in Vietnam, aiming to meet the rising consumer demand for high-value-added products by providing essential materials to the flexible packaging industry.

Prasan Onwong, general director of A.J. Plast (Vietnam) said, "The packaging sector in Vietnam boasts considerable growth prospects, particularly in the domain of flexible packaging, which predominantly utilises BOPP and BOPET films."

"As a pioneer in BOPP and BOPET production for over three decades, our operations are not only efficient but also environmentally friendly. We prioritise the extensive use of recycled raw materials, ensuring that we deliver top-tier products of world-class quality. This steadfast commitment to both industrial expansion and ecological responsibility underscores our dedication to advancing Vietnam's flexible packaging industry in its quest for sustainable development," added Onwong.

The A.J. Plast (Vietnam) factory, spanning an expansive 70,000 square metres, is strategically situated in the province of Binh Duong, regarded as a prominent growth hub in the southern region of Vietnam that already houses numerous other factories under the SCG conglomerate's operations.

The factory's core products include BOPP and the upcoming BOPET, both serving as essential raw materials for the flexible packaging industry in a wide range of applications such as household products, agriculture, and pet food. In terms of production capacity, the initial BOPP production line is geared to deliver 30,000 tonnes annually.

The factory is planning to expand its capabilities with the construction of a second production line dedicated to BOPET, marking a significant milestone as the first-ever plant in Vietnam to produce this product. The expansion is projected to yield an annual capacity of 36,000 tonnes per year.

The technological prowess behind A.J. Plast (Vietnam)'s operations is driven by state-of-the-art systems sourced from Germany. These advanced technologies enable the production of BOPP and BOPET films that conform to global standards and are lauded for their exceptional quality.

This technology transfer builds on the expertise of A.J. Plast Plc. in Thailand  with its over 35 years of experience  to ensure that the Vietnam-based factory is equipped to continue the world-class manufacturing standards.

Furthermore, A.J. Plast (Vietnam) diligently adheres to its environmental, social, and governance strategy in its operations, aligning itself with the overarching sustainable development goals of A.J. Plast Plc. and SCG.

An example of its commitment to environmental sustainability is its efficient waste management system. All waste generated during production processes  referred to as post-industrial recycled  is meticulously recycled and repurposed, contributing to a reduction of the ecological footprint and the responsible utilisation of resources.

Plastics firms seek new ways to sail through the slowdown Amidst the downturn in export markets, plastic companies are looking for novel solutions to facilitate their business activities.

Binh Minh Plastics honoured by Forbes Vietnam Binh Minh Plastics JSC (BM PLASCO), an SCG member in Vietnam, was named as one of the 50 Best Listed Firms in 2022 by Forbes Vietnam.
Spam emails are now sounding more human-like. If you are going to blame something, you can blame this issue on AI tools.

Luckily, Google announced that it will release a solution that will prevent Gmail spam from pestering users.

If you are using Gmail and other email platforms on a daily basis, here's what you need to know about the worsening spam email messages.

Detecting Spam Emails Getting More Difficult Due To AI

Tech Crunch's Haje Jan Kamps, a Dutch author, said that he received an email from his ex-colleague whom he hadn't seen for the past few years.

Kamps said that his friend's email message was greatly written. However, he noticed something strange about it. He explained that most of the Gmail messages he received from his friend were not as good as the latest one sent to him.

He described it as a lot more "eloquent" compared to other emails. This is when he realized that his former colleague used an artificial intelligence tool to generate the email message.

Kamps explained that his friend's email message clearly shows that generative AIs are becoming more adept at writing messages, that sound more human-like.

He warned that since new AI tools can now craft, personalized and convincing email messages, users will find it more difficult to detect which ones are written by bots and which ones are crafted by real humans.

The Dutch author claimed that if this AI trend goes on, sales, spam, and even phishing emails will be able to fool more users.

Now, the question is, how will Google protect its users from human-like AI-generated email messages?

Read Also: Microsoft's New Copilot AI Could Replace Windows 12 Start Button

Google's Solution To Worsening Spam Emails

The Verge reported that Google is planning to release an anti-spam solution this coming February 2024.

The tech firm will specifically implement new Gmail requirements that can improve email security, reduce spam messages, and make unsubscribing from commercial email senders easier.

Google said that the new requirements will be enforced on bulk Gmail senders; accounts that send over 5,000 messages to Gmail users each day.

Among the upcoming Gmail requirements is a clearer spam rate threshold for bulk email senders, which will prevent them from bombarding unwanted email messages to users.

Another rule that Google will implement is offering Gmail recipients the ability to unsubscribe from commercial emails with just a single click.

The last Gmail requirement is ordering bulk email senders to follow Google's best practices so that their emails can be strongly authenticated.

Related Article: Google Advances Artificial Intelligence Efforts, Including Generative AI-Powered Search Engine

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Located in Hanoi's Lotte Mall West Lake, just 200m from a Starbucks outlet, the entry of Ten Thousand marks a significant step in the regional coffee market's dynamics.

The brand's name, inspired by the 10,000-hour rule of mastery, signifies the founder's journey from an ordinary individual with limited coffee knowledge to an expert dedicated to popularising specialty coffee. The founder invested these hours into research and brand development, culminating in the establishment of Ten Thousand.

In terms of pricing, Ten Thousand positions itself competitively within the same segment as Starbucks in Vietnam. Its signature beverages are priced at around VND100,000 (approximately $4.22) per serving.

Classic coffee options like Latte and Americano range from VND65,000 to VND90,000 ($2.74 to $3.80), while traditional Vietnamese favourites like Bac Xiu (coffee with condensed milk), Sua Da (iced milk coffee), and Ca Phe Cot Dua (coconut milk coffee) are listed between VND65,000 and VND85,000 ($2.74 to $3.59) per cup.

Speaking about the brand's strategy, Ted Park, director of Global FC, highlighted the distinct approach of Ten Thousand compared to other brands like %Arabica.

"Whereas some brands rely solely on independent outlet growth, Ten Thousand pursues a franchising model," said Park.

"In Australia and the United States, Starbucks and McDonald's might be the best choices away from city centres. However, Ten Thousand is committed to expanding the presence of high-quality specialty coffee, not just in urban hubs but also in more local settings," he continued.

Currently, the chain operates one outlet in Australia, three in the US, and two in Taiwan. Despite a modest beginning, the brand has set an ambitious target of opening 500 stores globally within the next five years.

Lotte Mall West Lake, Hanoi's newest commercial centre, also hosts a variety of other coffee brands, including Starbucks, Ca Phe Giang, and La Viet, making it a vibrant hub for coffee enthusiasts and a testament to the growing diversity in Vietnam's coffee culture.

Nestle Vietnam promotes sustainable supply chain and logistics Khuat Quang Hung, director of Corporate Affairs at Nestle Vietnam, at the Logistics Summit 2023, jointly organised by VIR and SLP Vietnam under the auspices of the Ministry of Planning and Investment in Ho Chi Minh City on October 5, shared about Nestle's approach to sustainability and sustainable logistics.

Japan's largest furniture retail chain Nitori looks to open its first store in Vietnam Japan's Nitori Holdings Co., Ltd., is looking to open its first Nitori store in Vietnam with a view to speed up more store openings in the Asian market.

Nestle Vietnam contributes to elevating the role of women across the supply chain With a strong commitment to empowering women, especially those in rural areas, Nestle Vietnam is implementing many initiatives across its supply chain, such as the NESCAFE Plan and the Nestle Accompanies Women programme.
Tan Long Group and two Japanese partners, Nikkokutrust Group and Tokyo Kiraboshi Group, have just signed a contract to establish a joint venture in Vietnam, namely Nikkoku Tan Long Co., Ltd., to develop industrial catering projects in the country.

The capital ratio stands at 60 per cent from Nikkokutrust, 30 per cent from Tan Long, and 10 per cent from Kiraboshi.

Nikkoku Tan Long will provide industrial meals for offices, factories, schools, hospitals, and nursing homes based on the strengths of each business. Tan Long will supply input materials including rice and meat.

Nikkokutrust has experience in food processing techniques, industrial kitchen operations, and nutritional management that meets Japanese standards.

Established in 1941, Nikkokutrust has 82 years of development in Japan, about 3,000 employees, and two subsidiaries in Hanoi. Tokyo Kiraboshi operates in the financial sector in Tokyo, with core members including Kiraboshi Bank and UI Bank Digital Bank.

Tan Long  specialising in the agricultural sector  focuses on rice trading and livestock farming. Last year, it gained attention following the launch of its clean pork brand BaF Meat  vegetarian pork from BaF Vietnam (a member of Tan Long Group).

Truong Sy Ba, chairman and CEO of Tan Long Group said, "The big problem in the Vietnamese food market is dirty and unsafe food, as well as a lack of origin traceability. Over the past two years, there have been some mass poisonings in Danang province in some schools and factories. Therefore, we want to remove this issue in the country."

Ba said this is the third piece of the puzzle to complete BaF Vietnam's 3F chain, after the slaughtering facility. The industrial catering will cost at least VND30,000 ($1.27) per meal, and will be delivered in Ho Chi Minh City first.

IFC and BaF sign investment agreements On February 23, the strategic partnership announcement and signing ceremony of investment agreements between the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and BaF Vietnam Agriculture JSC took place at Vinpearl Landmark 81.
With just over an hour-long flight from either end of the country, you find yourself standing on the shores of the most breathtaking beach on the entire planet, nestled within the vibrant city of Danang, Vietnam's most liveable city.

Embraced by three world cultural heritage sites, this place promises to whisk you away on an unforgettable and soul-stirring journey of relaxation and bliss.

As the ultimate destination of choice, Grand Mercure Danang eagerly welcomes you to indulge in dream-like vacations with your family and loved ones.

Experience our exclusive Blissful Wellness package, where you'll be enveloped in a luxurious ambiance infused with local charm. Immerse yourself in the ultimate relaxation by indulging in a rejuvenating full-body massage at the renowned Karma Spa.

Grand Mercure Danang  Top 10 most luxurious hotel in Vietnam

Nestled in the bustling heart of Danang, a 5-minute drive from both the airport and the pristine beach, lies the luxurious Grand Mercure Danang.

This exceptional 5-star hotel, managed by the renowned Accor group, has proudly received the esteemed Tripadvisor Travellers' choice Best of the Best 2023 award, a true testament to our exceptional service quality as endorsed by travellers worldwide on Tripadvisor over the past year.

Grand Mercure Danang promises to deliver unforgettable experiences that will leave a lasting impression on each guest.

A body massage at Karma Spa

Nestled on the 4th floor of the hotel, Karma Spa offers a serene and tranquil space that combines traditional and modern therapeutic methods, along with the finest local essential oils and herbal remedies.

From the warm reception of our staff to the premium treatment techniques, you will indulge in truly unforgettable moments. Awaken your senses with a diverse range of spa options, including traditional Vietnamese, Thai, and Swedish massages.

Experience a profound sense of relaxation and rejuvenation in the hands of our skilled therapists, immersing yourself in the soothing ambiance of our spa sanctuary.

Executive Suite with Privilege Lounge access

From September 5 to December 31, experience the pinnacle of 5-star luxury at Grand Mercure Danang, starting from only VND2.53 million ($107) per night for two adults.

As the ultimate destination of choice, Grand Mercure Danang eagerly welcomes you to indulge in dream-like vacations with your family and loved ones.

The package includes a 60-minute full-body massage package for two adults, a complimentary breakfast buffet, a complimentary airport pick-up, complimentary fitness centre and swimming pool access, and exclusive access to the Privilege Lounge for guests staying in Suites and Deluxe rooms.

This offer is applicable for bookings of a minimum of two nights.

As for the three-day, two-night package, the rates applied are VND5.06 million ($214) net per room for Superior rooms, VND6.52 million ($275) net per room for Deluxe rooms, and VND8.48 million ($358) net per room for Executive suites.

The prices above are inclusive of VAT and service charge, with 10 per cent off for Accor Plus members.

Book now with the special code NEW_BLISS through the hotline on +84 236 379 7777 or visit bit.ly/blissful-wellness-eng

Grand Mercure Danang Tel: +84 (0) 236 379 7777 ; Email: h7821@accor.com Address: Lot A1, Green Island, Hai Chau, Danang Website: GrandMercureDanang.com | Facebook.com/grandmercuredanang

Grand Mercure Danang unveils all-inclusive package for year end Delight your tastebuds with unique cuisines at the year-end party with Grand Mercure Danang.

Grand Mercure Danang kicks off festive season Get into the holiday spirit with a fabulous staycation right here at Grand Mercure Danang, with its splendid Christmas tree and awesome deals right at your fingertips.

Grand Mercure Danang prepared for new evolving market The newly appointed general manager of Grand Mercure Danang Hotel David Coyle spoke with VIRs Nhat Ha about his 25 years of experiences in the hospitality industry and his priorities in operating the hotel in Vietnam since the start of the year.

Grand Mercure Hanoi opening marks brand debut in the capital Accor is celebrating the opening of Grand Mercure Hanoi, a new premium hotel in which local Indo-Chinese style, Western neoclassical beauty, and world-class amenities blend harmoniously to reveal Vietnams rich cultural heritage.
On October 9, VinES Energy Solutions JSC, a member of Vingroup, and Australia-based EcoGraf Ltd. signed a non-binding MoU to evaluate the development of a battery anode material facility in Vietnam.

EV battery infrastructure gains interest from suppliers

EcoGraf will support VinES with its graphite expertise and US-patented battery anode material processing technology and VinES will provide its battery materials supply chain logistics, in-country expertise, and manufacturing and construction capability in Vietnam.

The execution of the agreement marks yet another milestone in EcoGrafs long journey to become a vertically integrated battery anode material producer, consistent with its plan to support localised manufacturing developments in Europe, Asia, and also North America.

Establishing an integrated and localised battery supply chain is our key focus to build a strong foundation for the companys sustainable growth, according to VinES CEO Pham Thuy Linh in a press release.

Having a potential battery anode material facility near our existing operations in Vietnam not only significantly enhances VinES operational synergy and flexibility, but it also demonstrates that Vietnam is an advantageous destination for battery supply chain partners to set their manufacturing facilities, Linh added.

Initially established with the mission of supporting VinGroups e-car business VinFast in battery supply, VinES has grown over the past two years and become an integrated clean energy solution provider, with a complete supply chain, manufacturing scale, proprietary technology, and a diverse product portfolio serving multiple markets.

The company is also working with strategic partners, including the worlds top companies in pioneering technologies, for the production of electric vehicle (EV) batteries.

In May, VinES and Japan-based Marubeni Green Power Vietnam entered into a strategic partnership in order to promote the adoption of battery energy storage systems (BESS) across Vietnam.

Under the agreement, Marubeni will jointly evaluate with VinES to, invest in, install and operate BESS at multiple business locations of Vingroup companies to provide an energy-saving solution, load balancing, and more efficient power management.

VinES will be the main manufacturer and solution provider of the BESS for Marubeni under this agreement. The Japanese company also intends to develop dozens of MWh BESS systems within the first phase and expects further capacity expansion in subsequent phases.

In April, VinES also concluded a development agreement with StoreDot, a pioneer of extremely fast charging energy battery solutions for EVs.

The agreement follows the already announced strategic investment of VinES into StoreDot last year; marking a new milestone in the cell technology development between both companies and helping them to promote advanced battery technology and prepare to introduce XFC battery solutions for the green mobility market, including VinFasts smart EVs.

After a period of trial operation, the VinES Ha Tinh battery factory produced its first commercial products in August this year. This was the first and most advanced battery plant in Vietnam so far, equipped with European and also American-standard technologies that boast an astounding workflow automation rate of around 80 per cent.

The battery manufacturing factory is also expected to provide lithium batteries for VinFasts various electric cars and buses. In phase 1, the factory will span eight hectares. The entire infrastructure of the factory, including a casting shop, a welding shop, and a packaging shop, is designed to produce 100,000 battery packs per year.

Phase 2 of the factory will expand production to include battery cells manufacturing and upgrade capacity to one million battery packs per year.

With saving energy and reducing carbon emissions a key concern of most countries, EVs have achieved strong development momentum in recent years. Promoting sustainable mobility in Vietnam requires a corresponding infrastructure, including electricity supply, charging stations, batteries, and battery treatment processes.

Vietnams growing position as an EV manufacturer, potential consumer customer base, and importance in the battery supply chain has created the perfect market conditions for Vietnam to break Chinas dominance in the market, according to a report in The Diplomat this summer.

SNE Research forecasts that the EV battery market by 2035 will increase five times compared to the $121 billion expected this year. EV battery production demand is expected to reach 5.3 terawatt hours globally by 2035, compared to 687 GW hours predicted for 2023.

VinFast reports $387.8 million loss in Q2, amid improved revenues VinFast Auto Ltd., a subsidiary of Vingroup JSC, and Vietnams leading electric automotive manufacturer, reported losses in Q2 despite high revenue growth.

Expansive US market proving pivotal for strong growth potential Vietnam and the United States are fortifying their economic ties through mutual investments, reflecting a shared interest in each others robust growth potential.

Vingroups billionaire founder gifts VinES to VinFast VinFast announced on October 11 that its billionaire founder, Pham Nhat Vuong, has transferred it 99.8 per cent of his stake in Vin Energy Solutions (VinES).
Alba Wellness Valley by Fusion

Peter Meyer, CEO of Fusion Hotel Group and Lodgis, said the three new general managers are well-equipped to deliver continued success in their new roles.

Each of these new general managers brings a wealth of experience and vitality to their respective hotels across Vietnam. Two of these appointees will take on the fresh challenge of a new hotel, an opportunity to further enhance Fusions reputation as one of the worlds leading wellness-driven brands, he said.

Marcus Wirsching takes the helm at Maia Resort Quy Nhon

Marcus Wirsching has been announced as the new general manager of the flagship, culinary-led property, Maia Resort Quy Nhon.

With over 30 years of experience in the luxury hospitality industry, including 10 years in Vietnam, Wirsching brings a wealth of experience from his long-standing career.

He began in food and beverages in the UK and in his native Germany, which was then followed by experiences in destinations throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.

With extensive knowledge of the hospitality sector, Wirsching has held managerial roles for reputable luxury brands, highlighting his expertise in both large global chains and independent brands around the world.

It is an honour to join the team at Maia Resort Quy Nhon, a property renowned for its exceptional service and beautiful location, Wirsching said.

I am excited and feel very passionate to work with our team to continue delivering unparalleled guest experiences and help elevate the resorts reputation as Vietnams next top travel destination, he added.

Alba Wellness Valley by Fusion takes on Eugene Hendricks as general manager

A seasoned professional who graduated in hospitality from the renowned Ecole les Roches in Switzerland, Eugene Hendricks has several years of experience leading hotels in Vietnam, as well as in the Maldives, Australia, Thailand, and his home base of Malaysia.

Hendricks takes the reins at Alba Wellness Valley by Fusion, a hot spring resort on the northern fringes of the imperial city of Hue.

Alba was recently lauded by Travel + Leisure Magazine as third among the Top 10 Hotel Spas in Vietnam, and placed fifth in the Top 10 Upcountry Hotels.

Ronald Espiridion appointed general manager at Fusion Suites Saigon

Espiridion returns to Fusion, where he was previously operations manager from 2019 to 2020. Originally from the Philippines, Espiridions experience in hospitality stretches from as far as Cairo and Qatar to Brunei, Zanzibar, and the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean.

Espiridion joins the young and innovative team at Fusion Suites Saigon, a sleek, glass-fronted hotel standing nine storeys high in the citys business district.

I am grateful for the valuable experience I gained during my time at Fusion Group in 2019, and am thrilled to be back with the company. Returning to Fusion Group feels like coming home to a place where passion, creativity, and a genuine drive to make a positive impact merge seamlessly, he said.

Our team is incredibly proud to present a world where exceptional experiences are brought to life. By combining our inspired minds and innovative ideas, we have cultivated meaningful and impactful relationships with our guests while crafting unparalleled experiences, he concluded.

Fusion is a leader of wellness-inspired hospitality brands in Vietnam, managing 22 properties here and in Thailand. It is expanding further to open new hotels and resorts in both countries.

Hot deals at Fusion Suites Danang Looking for comfort and a wellness stay at an incredible price, Fusion Suites Danang is the best choice with an ideal view overlooking the sparkling ocean, with an exclusive pool and bar down by the sand.

Ixora Ho Tram by Fusion the newest addition to the Grand Ho Tram Strip The Grand Ho Tram Strip has unveiled its newest piece of the puzzle - Ixora Ho Tram by Fusion.

Visit paradise at Ixora Ho Tram Fusion Hotel Group has announced the opening of Ixora Ho Tram by fusion, a wellness-inspired resort featuring 164 luxury guest rooms and 46 private villas with breathtaking views overlooking southern Vietnams pristine coastline.
GSM, the company behind Vietnamese electric taxi brand Green SM, last week set its sights on Southeast Asian expansion, with a planned launch in Laos by the end of the year.

According to the plans revealed, GSM  which is controlled by Vingroup  aims to establish a fleet of 1,000 electric taxis in Laos, encompassing models like the VF5 and VFe34.

The Laos market is the starting point for our international strategy. We will continue expanding into other countries, remarked Nguyen Van Thanh, CEO of GSM.

The company intends to offer a range of services, such as personal car rentals and a business-to-business focus, including the sale of VinFast cars to corporate partners, mirroring its business model in Vietnam.

Besides Vietnams GSM, South Korea-backed Kakao Mobility also made inroads into the Laos market earlier this year by partnering with local firm LVMC Holdings, which operates in mobility sectors across Southeast Asia.

Laos is Southeast Asias only landlocked country and its high potential as an overland trade hub makes it suitable as a base for competition in the Southeast Asian market, said a Kakao Mobility representative.

Yet, while Kakao Mobility presents a challenge for GSM, both face a formidable contender Loca. As Laos premier ride-hailing platform established in 2018, Loca has already carved a significant niche for itself in the market. Both GSM and Kakao Mobility will need to strategise effectively to match Locas influence and reach.

As of last year, Loca boasted over 600 cars and 60,000 users, operating in all major cities of the country, with diverse services like motorbike hailing, express deliveries, grocery transportation, and insurance sales via its app.

Loca has claimed that its premier electric vehicle (EV) taxi service in Laos has marked a significant milestone.

Significantly, we account for more than 12 per cent of EVs in the country, showcasing our pivotal role in steering the electric revolution forward, and proudly serve not just the local population but also visitors from around the world who come to Laos, Loca said.

With an ambitious plan in place, we aim to expand our network to 30 stations by the middle of 2024, ensuring comprehensive coverage across the entire nation and serving both our local and global customers.

Laos has set its eyes 30 per cent of all vehicles on their roads being electric by 2023.

This ambition is backed by concrete plans, including the establishment of 200 public charging stations throughout the nation. Furthermore, within just the initial four months of this year, over 500 more EVs were imported. The wheels are already in motion for this electric revolution, as 17 charging stations are up and running.

We recognise this electrifying potential and are eager to be at the forefront of this transformation, said a representative from GSM.

Founded in April by Vietnams wealthiest man, Pham Nhat Vuong, who holds a 95 per cent stake, GSM has quickly risen to prominence in the Vietnamese market.

The company aspires to operate in 27 provinces in Vietnam by the end of 2023, boasting a fleet of 30,000 electric taxis and over 90,000 electric motorcycles.

Discussing international strategy earlier in May, Thanh of GSM said, This year, GSM will be further present in Southeast Asia. Were currently in discussions with potential partners in countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia, and the Philippines to explore collaborative service roll-outs.

Deputy PM stresses need to encourage use of electric vehicles Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha stressed the need to incentivise the conversion of fossil fuel-powered vehicles to electric vehicles and other types of clean energy.

Lao capital promotes electric vehicles As fuel prices continue to rise, promoting electric vehicles (EVs) as well as installing charging stations in the capital Vientiane of Laos is considered a solution to reducing environmental pollution in the future.

Laos promotes use of electric vehicles The Lao government has taken many measures and policies to encourage its people to use electric vehicles (EVs), as an effort to reduce fuel imports and save foreign currency while mitigating hazardous substances and ensuring energy security in recent years.
Nguyen Thi Tuyen, permanent Deputy Secretary of Hanoi Party Committee, assured the ambassador, "Hanoi has been actively directing relevant departments to expedite procedures for the development of the project."

A notable element of the Smart City project is the upcoming commencement of construction for the Financial Centre Tower on November 10. Touted as a highlight of the North Hanoi Smart City, the tower is poised to be Vietnam's tallest building at 108 stories, towering over the communes of Hai Boi, Vinh Ngoc, and Kim No in Dong Anh district.

The Smart City project, sprawling over 272 hectares with a total investment of $4.2 billion, is a collaborative venture between Vietnam's BRG Group, led by chairwoman Nguyen Thi Nga, and Japan's Sumitomo Corporation, a prominent conglomerate.

The joint venture received its investment certificate at an investment conference in Hanoi in 2018, and groundbreaking occurred in 2019.

By July 2023, Hanoi People's Committee had approved adjustments to the detailed 1/500 scale zoning plans on either side of the Nhat Tan - Noi Bai route, covering both the first and second phases of the smart city project in Dong Anh district.

The progress and future of this ambitious project not only reflect the deepening economic ties between Vietnam and Japan but also underscore Hanoi's commitment to cutting-edge urban development and sustainability.

The Smart City initiative is expected to dramatically reshape the northern landscape of Vietnam's capital, bolstering its position as a modern, dynamic metropolis in Southeast Asia.

BRG chairwoman leans in to corporate responsibility and community outreach With more than 30 years of experience and many achievements, chairwoman of BRG Group Nguyen Thi Nga believes that business development and community outreach go hand in hand.

Hanoi to develop smart city in green, harmonious direction The Hanoi Peoples Committee has approved the adjustments of the detailed planning for the construction of a smart city in the area along the Nhat Tan  Noi Bai road with about 140.23 hectares in the citys outskirts district of Dong Anh.
The new KRX system will help Vietnams bourses introduce new services, Photo: Shutterstock

According to the Vietnam Securities Depository and Clearing Corporation, by the end of September, the number of transaction accounts in Vietnams stock exchanges surpassed 7.8 million, with those of local individuals predominant with over 7.76 million accounts.

Newly opened retail customer accounts in less than three years were more than doubled those opened in the past two decades.

Aside from the markets allure, the use of e-verification in account opening, applied on a massive scale by securities firms, is deemed the key behind the exceptional growth. The method does not require the physical presence of customers when they open transaction accounts, while the use of face and voice identification can significantly save securities firms time and money, while still ensuring privacy.

Besides e-verification, the regulation that each customer is liable to open just one account at a securities firm, yet they can open accounts across firms, has stepped up competition among them.

For years, the incentives in the form of transaction fees or margin interest have been common at securities firms, yet currently digital technology has become an important weapon in market competition.

Along with enhancing user experience on applications or websites, a series of cutting-edge products have been launched by securities firms to support customers in recent months.

For instance, Ho Chi Minh City-based Yuanta Vietnam Securities launched the YSRadar analysis tool with stock evaluation features based on transaction data, financial indicators, and valuation factors. This was followed by the Yswealth asset management tool, providing portfolio recommendations consistent with investors risk appetite, integrated in YSradar.

Many companies have also added new features, such as AI Speed Reporter as a smart assistant to continuously and quickly update market news for Vina Securities; or AI Broker launched by DNSE Securities, helping to synthesise information about stocks and businesses, and send personalised notifications based on investors needs.

With tech prowess, securities firms are also capable of serving numerous investors simultaneously, and thereby significantly supporting the work of brokers or even removing the brokerage department entirely.

More securities companies are now considering digital transformation as a tool to help increase strength. Nguyen Duy Linh, CEO of VPBankS  almost fully owned by Hanoi-based lender VPBank  remarked that to pursue a large-scale retail strategy, building a customer care platform could only be possible when promoting digital transformation.

Despite the disadvantage of starting later, this very factor can help them to take advantage and put into use the latest technologies in building their apps and webs for customer transactions or operating state-of-the art internal operating tools, said Linh.

Availing of technology prowess in creating new products or diversifying business methods is welcomed, yet industry experts assume that there are innovations that, albeit bringing comfort to customers, are still not suitable for application. These may include the use of algorithms, robots, and high frequency trading.

In the securities sector, all innovations and new applications must ensure meeting diverse factors such as legal compliance, transparency, and fairness, and most importantly, their consistency with the current context of the market, said a representative from the State Securities Commission.

For instance, robot orders shall only be applied when there is careful research and preparation on the legal basis and technological infrastructure, yet not at the present time.

This infrastructure bottleneck could be soon resolved as the flagship new trading system KRX is slated to be launched.

The system, from the South Korea Stock Exchange, is set to manage and operate transactions on the Vietnamese stock market. The project aims to upgrade the technology system and infrastructure.

In light of KRXs plan, the Vietnamese side will expedite the systems final testing in November and is expected to finalise all preparation work by the end of the year to be ready for deployment.

When the KRX system is fully operational, Vietnamese bourses are expected to have many new competitive products such as intraday trading, short selling, option contracts, or the application of the central counterparty clearing house mechanism.

Securities companies have been tasked to be well-prepared for the launching of the new system. To entice customers, their technology departments need to prepare for new tech features and products.

Sylvester Kinuthia, head of Transaction Banking, Standard Chartered Bank Vietnam The economic and financial landscape is undergoing rapid transformation. As consumers and businesses increasingly prioritise speed, convenience, and accessibility, banks must keep up. This means innovating at pace to enhance visibility, security, control over financial activities, and the end-user experience, most of which is becoming increasingly reliant on data. Indeed, data is quickly becoming the foundation of how banks operate because it enables understanding consumers at all stages of their financial journey. Data is enabling banks and businesses alike to solve some of their biggest problems. We aim to be a digital-first and data-driven bank that delivers enhanced client experiences. What does it mean to be a data-driven bank? Its about using data and analytics to better serve our customers; to anticipate their evolving needs, to personalise the products and services we provide them with, and to embed ourselves deeper into their financial lives with real-time services. Lately, big data and emerging digital technologies continue to disrupt banking and other industries, as well as consumer behaviour. Banking, as an industry, is best placed to benefit from big data because it can quickly adapt new technologies to deliver innovative solutions for core business challenges and generate new revenue streams. However, to take advantage of data as a resource, banks need to ensure they have a data strategy. They also need to realise that transformation into a data-driven organisation requires alignment and clarity on the business and data strategy. Most banks/organisations struggle to get this right because they dont build a strong foundation for their data strategy. A solid data strategy involves having good data management processes, like ensuring data is not fragmented and managed in silos, having all the right datasets, having the appropriate talent, and continuously developing analytics to meet the evolving needs of consumers. In addition, good management of your data helps ensure that your analytics lead to actionable insights that generate beneficial outcomes such as personalised customer service, driving sustainability, fraud detection, lending decisions, regulatory compliance, cybersecurity, and risk management. Dr. Huy Pham, senior finance lecturer, RMIT University Vietnam The fintech market has welcomed a new wave of products with environmentally conscious objectives, commonly referred to as green fintech. The term refers to tech-enabled innovations applied to financial operations and products that intentionally support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. In the Asia-Pacific, Singapore, South Korea, Australia, and Hong Kong have reached mature levels of green fintech development. In comparison, green fintech development is still in its infancy stage in Vietnam, though the government has shown interest in it. One thing is for sure, government support will be crucial in facilitating the development. For example, the State Bank of Vietnam is expected to soon issue guidelines for financial institutions to promote green finance. Its governor has also issued a directive requesting relevant entities to establish a legal framework for green credit development and an action plan for the banking sector to implement the National Strategy on Green Growth. What is more, there have been increasing funding opportunities available to support sustainable fintech initiatives in Vietnam, from venture capital firms to non-profit organisations. One of the primary barriers to the development of green fintech is the lack of awareness among the public and businesses about the benefits of sustainable finance and green investments. Regulation also remains a significant obstacle. It is crucial to have specific regulations and guidelines that encourage the development and adoption of environmentally friendly fintech solutions. Without accurate and reliable data on environmental impacts and performance, it becomes challenging to assess the effectiveness and credibility of green fintech platforms. Access to data on clean energy, carbon emissions, and other environmental factors is often limited. In addition, limited access to finance remains an issue. Most importantly, green fintech requires collaboration among various stakeholders, including related companies, financial institutions, government agencies, environmental organisations, and consumers. Strong partnerships are essential to building a more robust and sustainable green fintech ecosystem in this country and beyond.

Transparency crucial to upgrading the stock market The goal of upgrading the stock market by 2025 requires the concerted efforts of ministries and market members.
The rapid advancement of investment technology means traders are becoming increasingly demanding towards mobility and market access. Only user-friendly mobile trading apps that deliver a fully featured on-the-go trading experience for both novices and professionals can satisfy the growing technological needs among traders.

Mobile trading apps: the future of online investing?

The importance of simplicity

With a huge amount of Vietnamese traders choosing mobile trading over any other form, the need for user-friendly and secure mobile trading apps has grown. It is therefore safe to assume that mobile trading apps may just hold the future of the financial industry.

Whilst numerous brokers strive to provide the ultimate combination of functionality and sophistication that traders are after, one broker that has stood out in Vietnam with its state-of-the-art mobile trading app is Exness. The multi-asset brokers innovative trading app offers an intuitive solution for traders eager to keep up with the ever-changing global financial markets.

Traders can access all the instruments available on its web trading platform via the Exness mobile app. The instrument tab displays the collection of tradable assets that Exness offers, such as forex, metals, energies, indices, stocks, and cryptocurrencies. If traders want to study the charts of a specific instrument, they can simply select the financial product under the instrument tab.

Furthermore, the mobile app also provides easy access to customer support, contributing to the apps superb usability. The in-app Help Centre provides traders with live chat support in a number of languages, such as Vietnamese, English, and Chinese.

Whenever traders have any enquiries or come across any issues, a dedicated team of Exness customer service representatives is available to offer immediate assistance.

Real-time trading tools

Real-time notifications are one of the most powerful features of the Exness mobile app. After enabling price alerts, users will receive instant notifications on their mobile devices when instrument prices exceed particular thresholds. Traders can set multiple alerts for a single instrument.

They can also create recurring alarms. When recurring alerts are activated, app users will be notified whenever the price of the selected trading asset reaches the set value. This enables traders to respond immediately to movements in the markets. To make sure traders are well-informed about important market changes, the app notifies its users every time trading assets experience substantial volatility.

Traders will also be informed when an instruments price reaches its maximum and minimum over the past seven days, 30 days, and 52 weeks. The robust price alert function of the app provides crucial information that every trader is after in order to perform a thorough market analysis.

Vietnam's mobile devices reached the export value of $51 billion last year Mobile devices and components produced in Vietnam last year were exported to 50 markets and reached the export value of more than $51.18 billion, according to the latest data published by the General Department of Vietnam Customs.

Mobile devices and components lead Vietnamese exports Mobile devices and components continued to lead local exports over the first two months of 2021.
In a submission to the government from the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) dated October 12 on the nations electricity development plan for the decade and beyond, the MoIT suggested strong measures to delay build-operate-transfer (BOT) projects that do not ensure capital arrangements before the end of June 2024.

For instance, if the $3.23 billion Song Hau II scheme from Malaysian investor Toyo Ink Group Berhad cannot overcome its revenue and financial arrangement issues by July 1 next year, the MoIT will send a notice of termination to the company, it said, which would mean an immediate termination of the contract.

Song Hau II is one of five BOT thermal power projects that are behind set schedules. With total capacity of up to 7,220MW, the others are Vinh Tan III, Quang Tri, Cong Thanh, and Nam Dinh I.

At a conference on foreign-invested enterprises with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh last week, Chew Cheong Loong, executive director of Toyo Ink Group said, With the global economic recession and force majeure situations arising continuously around the world, we face many challenges beyond control, causing delays in project progress.

This group is still committed to making efforts with Eximbank Malaysia and financial funds to commit to implementing the project according to the schedule.

Similarly, the Nam Dinh I initiative is also facing a dark future. It is funded by Nam Dinh Electricity Co., Ltd., which was established in Singapore and is owned by Taekwang Power Holdings of Hong Kong and ACWA Power.

The investor is proposing to change the owner before signing the project contract. At the same time, the MoIT also requested the investor to promote implementation to meet the contract signing schedule by mid-2024.

In the context of credit sources for coal power being tightened, many localities have proactively proposed to switch to using liquefied natural gas (LNG). Therefore, experts said it is essential to quickly complete the necessary procedures to convert coal power projects that cannot be deployed to LNG.

This also opens up many opportunities for proposals to convert the Cong Thanh plant to LNG. Currently, the project has almost completed site clearance, levelling, and technical infrastructure investment.

The MoIT reported to the government earlier this month that Cong Thanh has completed some work in the investment preparation phase, such as having infrastructure ready.

Pham Van Hoa, member of the National Assembly Legislation Committee, said, With the advantage of having available space and being able to take advantage of the Nghi Son LNG centre, investors should consider converting Cong Thanh coal power to LNG soon.

Previously, the US-ASEAN Business Council also said that replacing some new coal projects with LNG should be supported. Cong Thanh Thermal Power JSC has actively worked with members of this council such as BP, General Electric, and Actis Investment Fund to study the feasibility of investing in the project using LNG.

According to Vietnams new power plan approved in May, coal is expected to be phased out by 2050 through the introduction of alternative fuels.

Coal continues to be vital for power generation As a result of government intervention and support, the amount of coal used for power generation exceeded 20 million tonnes during the first half of this year.
(Photo : Seoul Children's Grand Park Zoo)

Sero (right) and his late partner, Coco (left), who died on Oct. 16, 2023 due to complications relating to her pregnancy.

Sero, the zebra known for running away from a zoo in Seoul due to his distress after losing both his parents in the span of two years, has been dealt with another heartbreak.

The Seoul Children's Grand Park Zoo announced this week that his partner, 17-month-old Coco, and their unborn offspring, died due to complications related to her pregnancy.

The Korea Herald detailed that Coco began showing signs of an abdominal ailment on October 11, when she had difficulty standing up. Four days later (October 15), she was taken to an equine specialist for surgery but succumbed to her condition the next day (October 16).

A biopsy report indicated that she died from a colic bowel obstruction, a common issue in pregnant horses.

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Loyal Mates

A zoo official told reporters that Coco was notably distressed as Sero occasionally cried out in search of his departed mate, as the pair shared a tight bond.

With Coco gone, there are speculations about Sero's future, with zoo officials confirming on Wednesday (October 25) that they are set to introduce a new companion for him. An undisclosed zoo already confirmed this week that they were in talks of introducing the young male zebra to a female seven years her senior.

Zebras naturally live in harems consisting of one male and multiple females, typically averaging around seven members in total. However, it remains to be seen if Sero, already having faced multiple hardships throughout his short life, would adapt to the next chapter of his life.

Related Article: Couple Attacked by Rhino at Austrian Zoo, Woman Killed

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Dominique Paravicini, State Secretary of the Swiss Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research, said, "Switzerland considers Vietnam a strategic partner in Southeast Asia, and I believe that Swiss businesses have contributed significantly to Vietnam's economy. In fact, the statistics do not reflect the entirety of Swiss involvement in Vietnam, as a large amount of capital comes via Singapore," said Paravicini.

Vietnam is an attractive destination with a lot of potential, but Swiss investors still see a number of barriers to doing business here as they struggle with the legal framework and bilateral trade relationship between the two countries.

Economic cooperation is the most effective tool for strengthening diplomatic relations between Switzerland and Vietnam, and the signing ceremony of this MoU today is an important step," Paravicini added.

Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc said, "Vietnam's economy is valued at $400 billion and is one of the four largest economies in ASEAN, and we greatly appreciate the importance of this cooperation with Switzerland."

Swiss firms are being encouraged to invest in areas in which they are seen as having traditional strengths, such as finance, sci-tech, and digital transformation.

"We will support Swiss ventures here, as the view of the government is that the success of Swiss firms in Vietnam is our success too. In return, Vietnam expects SECO to help Vietnam achieve such goals as developing new eco-industrial parks and renovating older industrial parks while implementing a circular economic model," Ngoc added.

Le Thi Thanh Thao, a representative of UNIDO in Vietnam, pointed out the pivotal role industrial parks have had in the development of Vietnam, but also the many environmental and social challenges, and, therefore, the need to move towards a more sustainable growth model.

In the second phase of the project in the next four years, we will replicate the eco-industrial park model to promote the country's sustainable development strategy," Thao said.

UNIDO has been working with the MPI since 2015 on policy advice and overseeing the conversion of seven older parks to the eco-industrial model with funding from SECO.

"I would like to express my most sincere thanks for the cooperation and active support from the MPI and SECO. They have laid the foundation for the development of eco-industrial parks and I look forward to receiving more support from them in the future," Thao added.

USAID and MPI support pioneering enterprises and promote sustainability Today, the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), through the USAID Improving Private Sector Competitiveness project (IPSC), co-hosted a business forum themed Pioneering Entrepreneurial Spirit, Fostering a Sustainable Vietnam.

Eco-industrial parks to become inevitable trend Vietnam will continue to encourage investors to both develop eco-IPs and transition from traditional to ecological ones, which is set to contribute to the national target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Vietnam to promote eco-industrial parks with international partners The Steering Committee on the Development of Eco-industrial Parks in Vietnam, organised a meeting yesterday to discuss last year's results and set a course for the following two years of the scheme.
The inauguration of the NIC under the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) in Hoa Lac High-Tech Park on October 28 signifies a significant milestone on its journey to propel the development of the entrepreneurial innovation ecosystem in Vietnam.

After nearly three years of construction, the facility is now prepared to commence operations, serving as a focal point for converging and connecting various entities within the innovation and creative transformation ecosystem.

With a series of activities fostering innovation and creativity, the key events at the NIC Hoa Lac opening ceremony serve as tangible evidence of the government's commitment to the advancement of the Vietnam innovation ecosystem. These activities are anticipated to establish a space for exchange, connectivity, and exhibition of solutions for businesses and industry entities.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung will deliver opening remarks, statingthe vision, mission, and direction of the centre within Vietnam's innovation ecosystem.

Government officials and embassy representatives will tour exhibition zones, engage in hands-on experiences, and meet with select partners and notable exhibitors.

A visual art performance combining 3D mapping and stage motion symbolises Vietnam's advancements and the pioneering role of NIC in the national innovation journey.

Meanwhile, the Vietnam International Innovation Exhibition 2023 will take place over five days, where exhibiting entities will have the opportunity to showcase and promote their innovative products and services in eight sectors.

Content includes advanced technologies for enhanced operational efficiency and the integration of Industry 4.0 in smart manufacturing; experiencing urban management technologies centred on digital solutions, data governance, and citizen-centric approaches in smart cities; showcased innovations in hydro technology and renewable energy; and engagement with advanced technologies in semiconductor manufacturing, shaping the electronics industry.

Tech will also be on show in terms of optimising healthcare operations, enhancing quality, and broadening medical service access; solutions for resource management activities, fostering a sustainable and green future; digital communication technologies alongside creative content that creates an immersive and captivating experience in digital media; and cybersecurity solutions, exemplifying Vietnam's progress in establishing and maintaining digital infrastructure.

During the five days, numerous industry conferences will be held at NIC Hoa Lac. Specifically, a conference on energy transition and green hydrogen development will take place in the afternoon of October 28.

The following afternoon, the Vietnam Semiconductor Summit will discuss the current status and growth opportunities of Vietnam's industry, along with human resources and establishing an incubation centre.

And on October 30, the Vietnam Ventures Summit will be a dialogue platform between domestic and international investment funds, government advisory bodies, and the local startup and innovation community to enhance connections within the domestic ecosystem and the global investment fund network.

In the following days, numerous conferences will also take place on the gaming industry, corporate innovation, blockchain, healthcare, and much more.

NIC ready for the inauguration next two weeks The inauguration week of the NIC (the National Innovation Centre) as well as many exhibitions and seminars will take place during October 28 - November 1, 2023.

NIC determined to remain at forefront of technology The semiconductor value chain is moving to Southeast Asia, and Vietnam has an advantage in the region, so fully welcomes all new opportunities. But unless semiconductor technology is fully mastered, the country will remain on the sidelines of core technology.
NIC providing innovation launchpad, Source: NIC

In the last days of October, thousands of people will gather at Hoa Lac High-Tech Park in Hanoi to celebrate the inauguration of a National Innovation Centre (NIC) facility there, and enjoy hundreds of tech shows. Involved will be representatives from major corporations from both Vietnam and overseas, while some will be made up of young startups that have been supported by the NIC and its Vietnam Innovation Network (VIN) over the last few years.

For Digman, specialising in 3D printing, working with the NIC at its Cau Giay office became a turning point for the young startup. After three years of operation, Digman boasts more than 100 industrial 3D printers and has had over 2,000 customers thus far.

Digmans goal is to increase capacity 10 times by 2025, thanks to support from NICs various resources, said founder and director Nguyen Van Hung.

Elsewhere, founded by a member of the VIN, Earable Neurosciences FRENZ Brainband was the first Vietnamese product to win an innovation award at the Consumer Electronic Show earlier this year for the wearable category, and is seen as a breakthrough device for the global neurotechnology industry.

The product has helped more than 1,000 people fall asleep 57 per cent faster on average, while AI and machine learning algorithms are constantly being improved to understand users, founder Tam Vu said.

Vu believes that Vietnamese people can take the lead in the worlds innovation trends. That is why he gave up his work at US universities and returned to Vietnam after completing the last two rounds of fundraising. The company has earned a total amount of $8.2 million from top investors and was welcomed by the NIC since in 2022.

The VIN was established with the goal of connecting the worlds top Vietnamese sci-tech experts to attract and effectively use innovative resources for socioeconomic development and Industry 4.0.

The move was deemed an important one as Nguyen Ba Diep, founder of e-wallet MoMo, said there are always thousands of challenges in the first days of starting a companys business. In 2007, MoMo was built by only four people and four servers.

With the presence of NIC and VIN, startups are more likely to succeed. If MoMo had this advantage at the beginning, it would have taken only one-third of the time to reach its current scale, Diep said. This is a great opportunity for startups to collaborate and associate with larger entities.

Diep added that human resources plays a key role in all cases, being both executor and beneficiary. So the role of NIC and VIN is essential to supply plenty of resources for businesses, and even calling for talent from abroad to contribute to the country.

Additionally, to further strengthen innovation and startups in Vietnam, we need more incentives for them, such as tax incentives for corporates/investors when they transfer capital, Diep suggested.

Vu Quoc Huy, director of the NIC under the Ministry of Planning and Investment, said that the NIC is coordinating all resources to support and promote Vietnams innovative businesses by working with investment funds, financial institutions, and in supporting capital raising and premises for startups from the early stages.

Necessary resources such as finance, laboratories, production areas, human resources, and work space will be a launchpad for innovative businesses like Earable Neuroscience, Digman, and others to accelerate the process of developing new products and business models, reaffirming Vietnamese intelligence on the world innovation map, Huy said.

The NIC has already built an innovation ecosystem that includes the state, businesses, and VIN. From 100 members in the early days, the VIN has gathered more than 2,000 members from 20 countries and territories in the world.

If counting those who are not officially VIN members, the number could be up to 10,000. This is an invaluable resource if we can call on them to return to Vietnam or support the country remotely, Huy added.

Yu Jae Wook, chief representative of SK Group in Hanoi, said that for global conglomerates, innovation plays a key role in their development, while Vietnam reports progress and is emerging as an active factor in innovation worldwide thanks to better conditions. Investors have confidence in predictable policies to make the decision to set up here. Since 2018, for example, SK Group has poured more than $3.5 billion into key areas, Wook said.

NIC propels ahead with semiconductor agreements Vietnamese authorities are teaming up with American businesses and universities to create a leap forward in semiconductor manufacturing in Vietnam.

NIC ready for the inauguration next two weeks The inauguration week of the NIC (the National Innovation Centre) as well as many exhibitions and seminars will take place during October 28 - November 1, 2023.
A Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) document to the government confirmed that there is not yet a legal basis to assign Vietnam Electricity (EVN) and domestic enterprises to deploy offshore wind power projects.

At the same time, in the application dossier to develop a revised Law on Electricity, it was proposed to amend the Law on Investment (LoI) to regulate the authority to decide on investment policies for offshore wind ventures.

Determining specific projects and domestic enterprises implementing pilot offshore wind power is currently an impossible task, as the legal corridor for sector development is still unclear.

Currently, national marine spatial planning has not been approved and there is no basis to determine the scope of marine management. In addition, the LoI does not stipulate the competent authority to decide on such investment policies.

For the immediate future, the MoIT has asked that the prime minister assigns EVN and domestic enterprises to research and survey conditions for offshore wind power development, and being ready to deploy when there is enough legal basis for all levels to have authority to assign to the investor.

EVN wants to invest in offshore wind power and battery storage, in which it asked for an offshore wind pilot project in a northern province divided into two phases between 2030 and 2035.

Offshore developers frustrated at lack of pilot policy, Photo: Shutterstock

Enterprize Energy is one such company waiting for movement. It previously submitted an application to build a 3.4-GW wind farm off the coast of the central province of Binh Thuan, with an expected investment capital of $11.9 billion. Last month, the MoIT explained that due to unissued regulations on piloting offshore wind power projects, there is no basis to resolve the proposal of Enterprize Energy Group.

Ian Hatton, chairman of the Board at Enterprize Energy, told VIR, We feel the region we have chosen is technically feasible and financially viable. Vietnam benefits from an oil and gas fabrication sector and is currently manufacturing components needed in European wind farms, so the supply chain is already in place.

Hatton added that Vietnam is a visionary country with people who are devoted to attaining economic progress while using environmentally beneficial energy sources. Vietnam is demonstrating an exceptional worldwide commitment to responsible energy development, and we are eager to assist the Vietnamese people in this endeavour by bringing our capabilities to bear, Hatton said.

Major global energy players are trying to expand their interest in investing in offshore wind operations in Vietnam as their net-zero objectives grow. For instance, Sembcorp Utilities and PetroVietnam have jointly sought opportunities to develop offshore wind farms in Vietnam in recent months.

Proposals involve approximately 200,000 hectares of sea area across two sites off the coast of South Vietnam, with the plan to enable the export of electricity from Vietnam into Singapore.

In response to the Power Development Plan VIII aim of 6GW of offshore wind by 2030, Stuart Livesey, CEO of Copenhagen Offshore Partners, suggested trial projects that blend 500MW and 1GW installations. These pilots might be led by state-owned corporations and experienced commercial companies, with the remaining 3GW created through competitive auctions.

It is critical for pilot project investors to have certainty about revenue, investment, and returns. This includes having functional power purchase agreements in place without the need for a second round of financial submission negotiations, Livesey said. Grid capacity and availability guarantees, regulatory openness and fairness, and adequate time to create infrastructure are also requested.

The company proposes a two-stage selection process. Each step will be handled by a separate ministry. Nevertheless, these ministries must be informed of the procedures being carried out in order to provide insight into how and when a developer will be able to complete both stages.

Marine planning a prerequisite for offshore investment plans Vietnam may require a more active planning process and appropriate policies to reach its offshore wind capacity goal of 6GW by 2030.

HCMC proposes 6,000MW Can Gio offshore wind power plant in PDP8 Ho Chi Minh City Department of Industry and Trade has put forth a proposal to incorporate the Can Gio offshore wind power plant, boasting a capacity of 6,000MW, into the forthcoming Power Development Plan VIII (PDP8).

Bac Lieus wind power farm: A must-see destination for sunset lovers Bac Lieu leads the way in the Mekong Delta and around Vietnam in the development of offshore wind power projects. Visitors to the southern land can experience the stunning beauty of its wind power farm at sunset.
Tran Thi Phuong Hong, general director, TechX Challenges in building a data strategy In an age where technology equips us with the tools to manage vast volumes of data, the real challenges faced by the banking sector originate from the human element, internal processes, and the dynamics of change management. Banks must not only acquire expertise in big data platforms and data science but also foster a profound transformation in their organizational culture and perception. Leaders, starting from the upper echelons and extending throughout the ranks, need to appreciate how data has the potential to revolutionize a bank's business model and lead it to success. Implementing big data solutions necessitates the development of a clearly defined data collection and enrichment strategy that aligns closely with the bank's specific business challenges. Moreover, it is crucial to address security and compliance requirements, particularly when deploying big data solutions on cloud platforms to harness processing power and integration tools. The aspirations of banks in their journey of digital transformation, firstly, banks are striving to offer a personalized and exceptional customer service experience by placing the customer at the heart of their operations. Data analytics emerges as the pivotal element in this endeavor, enabling banks to understand customer needs, preferences, and real-time behavior. This comprehensive understanding of the customer journey empowers banks to track interactions, analyze experiences, and proactively respond to evolving customer needs. In addition, to streamline the sales process, banks are identifying cross-selling opportunities based on customer profiles and transaction history. Sales automation, driven by AI-powered chatbots and automated marketing campaigns, liberates sales personnel to concentrate on high-value interactions with customers. Besides that, banking institutions are leveraging data collected from transaction history and social networks to build comprehensive customer profiles. This data serves as the foundation for analyzing customer psychology and preferences, thereby facilitating tailored marketing campaigns with higher response rates. Lastly, Big Data algorithms come into play to fortify risk management and compliance with legal regulations while simultaneously reducing the risk of fraud. Furthermore, data analysis contributes to the enhancement of accounting, auditing, and financial reporting processes. Nguyen Chien Thang, director, BIDV Digital Banking Centre Is GenAI a novice or a premier customer care specialist? In the past year, generative AI (GenAI) has surged into public consciousness. Within six months, ChatGPT attracted over 100 million users, while OpenAIs DALLE 2 garnered a staggering 4.2 billion, leading to the emergence of rivals like Googles Bard. Industry analysts Gardner point out that GenAI is on track to become as transformative as historical breakthroughs such as the steam engine, electricity, and the internet. Although initial enthusiasm might wane as implementation challenges become apparent, the influence of GenAI is set to grow. Individuals and businesses alike are bound to discover an array of innovative applications that will reshape daily work and life. GenAIs emergence is leaving an indelible mark on many IT areas, most notably the realm of customer experience. Machines are now approaching human-like communication abilities. This progress in GenAI brings about the opportunity to tap into vast data reservoirs in previously unimaginable ways. However, its vital to provide these systems with access to pertinent business data. There are three core avenues for this. Firstly, training is paramount. Much like a novice employee, GenAI must undergo rigorous training with ample business data, encompassing all customer service aspects. Just as humans dont excel without education and hands-on experience, the same principle applies to GenAI. Secondly, the journey doesnt end at initial training. Continual refinement is a must. The art of customer service requires persistent model tweaking to reach the expected sophistication level. Its the intricate details and unique organisational nuances that guide GenAI to become truly proficient and insightful. Lastly, the technique of suggestion engineering plays a pivotal role in GenAIs evolution. Offering continuous feedback or suggestions helps the technology become more astute, better aligned with an organisations unique requirements, ensuring it adheres to set policies and objectives. While the promise of GenAI in elevating customer service is vast, its not without risks. Theres the possibility of it delivering incorrect information, inadvertently fostering biases that could result in unfair treatment, and concerns over data security. Phillip L. Wright, COO, HSBC Vietnam The power of AI in banking AI enables banks to improve the services we provide to customers, and helps them manage their business more efficiently and effectively. How banks analyse data is a great example  they can understand their customers better and personalise how they interact with them, including how banks protect them from fraud. Were highly aware of the potential risks of AI, so have established a clear set of ethics considerations and principles. Maintaining our customers trust is of upmost importance. We are focused on ensuring we carefully manage and protect data, are transparent about how we use it, and understand the risks associated with it. We are already using AI widely to do things like improve customer service and increase the efficiency of our processes. To further explore the potential, were developing a dedicated innovation team to explore emerging capabilities in generative AI, synthetic data, and advanced AI models. And were conducting research with world-leading academic institutions and technology companies. Finally, were leveraging our scale and developing a group-wide AI strategy that will help us deliver the next generation of digital banking. Examples of how were using AI include scanning for potential signs of financial crime far more effectively, and providing institutional investors with a digital service offering that uses purpose-built natural language processing to enrich the way they interact with global markets. We also created a system, in partnership with Google, that monitors contact centre calls and checks if call agents have sold a specific product correctly by explaining the terms and conditions in the correct way. In particular, were using the latest AI and cloud technology to help identify suspicious activity and prevent financial crime in several markets. Our dynamic risk assessment solution analyses and identifies criminal activity, enabling us to spot genuine crimes twice as fast and with much greater accuracy, generating 60 per cent fewer false cases than previously. Google Cloud has launched the anti-money laundering AI solution  which we co-developed  that could transform how financial crime is tackled across the industry. It has helped HSBC improve detection capability, deliver more accurate results, and significantly reduce batch processing times for its large customer base. Le Phuong Hai, deputy general director, VietCredit Emergent non-contact models revolutionising consumer credit in Vietnam In the rapidly evolving world of e-commerce and consumer credit, non-contact identification has ushered in a transformative era. Beyond just mitigating costs of customer engagement, this technology has deftly addressed geographical constraints. Lenders no longer feel compelled to expand their network of service introduction points, branches, transaction rooms, or representative offices. This technological evolution now ensures that consumer credit services reach even the most remote areas, including rural locales, mountainous regions, and islands. In traditional engagement models, interactions between customers and financial institutions were limited to a few touchpoints, such as branches, transaction rooms, and service introduction points. The non-contact model, on the other hand, offers an infinite array of touchpoints, spanning e-commerce platforms, social networks, over-the-top services, and user forums. In the digital sphere, consumers seeking credit seemingly encounter financial companies at every turn. Conversely, data allows in-depth user behaviour studies, enabling lenders to reach new potential customers with latent borrowing needs. In essence, these interactions are more targeted, translating to substantial savings in marketing expenses, customer acquisition, and product promotion. Under the traditional model, the customer acquisition cost ranged around $40-125 per customer. If this were assessed relative to the loans outstanding balance, representing 5-10 per cent, the adoption of digital footprint-based prediction models could reduce these costs by 70-80 per cent. This translates to a mere $13-21 per customer. Some financial institutions are even laying the groundwork for a Zero-CAC model, where the cost of acquiring a customer is virtually nil. Such cost reductions can set the stage for interest rate cuts, thereby attracting a larger pool of potential borrowers. After acquiring customers, however, some institutions have historically overlooked post-lending customer care. It is partly because they failed to see optimisation potential in their loan portfolio and partly due to the relatively high post-lending data collection costs. Enhanced product offerings enable credit institutions to periodically query the credit status of their clients from other lending organisations more aggressively. This provides options for clients and tailored customer management techniques, minimising bad debts.
Possessing a favourable geographical location for international trade and a large population, Vietnam is becoming a destination for international corporations and foreigners looking for startup and settlement opportunities.

Dr. Dinh Viet Hoa, Chairman, Vietnam National Entrepreneurship Association

Over the past 10 years, the number of Korean businesses established in Vietnam has risen to about 10,000. In addition to policies to collect foreign investment from the government, the development of domestic trade and various advantages has made Vietnam become the destination of dreams in the past 10 years, especially for businesses in technology and finance.

When the government chose 2016 as Year of the Startup, the number of established businesses reached a record number. Before 2016, Vietnam had about 50,000 businesses established each year, but this number increased to 110,000 enterprises that year. In the following years, the number of newly established businesses has always reached an impressive number.

In 2020-2021, there was an inevitable decrease in the number of newly established businesses, but the entrepreneurial spirit of Vietnamese people was still strong. In 2020, the startup ecosystem slowed down with a total investment of only $421 million. However, by 2021, funding in this field grew strongly again, with a record of venture capital up to $1.4 billion.

Vietnams startup ecosystem has jumped from fifth place to third place among the top economies in ASEAN, just behind Indonesia and Singapore, according to an annual report from DO Ventures and Cento Ventures. The growth is reflected in both the rate of capital poured into the market and the number of active investors and startup funds.

The past six years have been a big revolution for Vietnamese businesses, with many laws and projects introduced. These include the Law on Support for Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises in 2018, the Law on Enterprises in 2020, the schemes on supporting the innovative startup ecosystem in Vietnam towards 2025, a project to support students to start a business, and the Womens Startup Programme. There have also been many decrees and circulars to support startups and innovation.

Vietnam is continuing to create the best legal corridors for businesses to continue promoting their entrepreneurial spirit, while attracting more foreign investors.

However, we also objectively view Vietnam as a country with a short history of business development. Most Vietnamese enterprises were established in 1986. At that time, it had nearly 70 million people but only 1,000 private enterprises. Since then, the number of businesses has risen to more than 800,000, equivalent to a ratio of 120-140 people per company. However, the current rate of startup businesses is still not commensurate with the potential, while developed countries in the world have a rate of about 45-60 people per business.

The nation still lacks the milestone 1 million businesses to reach the status of developed countries, but this is a good opportunity for more Vietnamese people to participate.

Vietnam possesses potential in startup fields such as e-commerce, fintech, medtech, edtech, online media, and digital solutions, all forecast to create breakthroughs in attracting investment. In addition to the factors of capital and financial solutions for businesses, it is key to solve output for businesses and develop internal strength to promote business development.

The past few years have made us realise that Vietnamese businesses are still weak in production. It that time, it was appropriate for businesses to restructure, increase learning exchanges, access modern business management thinking abroad, and search for standard technology tools to apply to businesses to create new quality products.

With that, the association has a policy of accompanying businesses focusing on six core elements. The first factor is to promote the entrepreneurial spirit, creating many ideas so that many young people and students create new businesses and establish new business models.

The second factor is to promote the training process and share policies and knowledge that are related to business management, finances, or human resource management.

The third factor is building a network of domestic and global consultants to support businesses. Closing new ones after investing is normal for any business in the world, but if we have a force of consultants with the right vision, we will minimise risks and losses for businesses.

To help entrepreneurs have ideas to create suitable products to bring to the market, the fourth factor is to connect business owners with capital from credit institutions such as banks and funds.

The fifth factor is the market. Vietnam is a populous country which has a geographical location close to the worlds most populous country, China, but we still lose market share to foreign business owners. During the process of digital integration, Vietnams online shopping market share mainly belongs to foreign businesses such as Shopee and Lazada.

The final factor is focusing on supporting dialogue, especially policy dialogue, so that businesses can follow the correct policies and laws, thereby supporting the startup process.

NIC determined to remain at forefront of technology The semiconductor value chain is moving to Southeast Asia, and Vietnam has an advantage in the region, so fully welcomes all new opportunities. But unless semiconductor technology is fully mastered, the country will remain on the sidelines of core technology.
This initiative underscores the growing trend of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Vietnams burgeoning sustainable resource sector.

Tokyo Sangyo and Daichu Corporation, alongside their Vietnamese partner, Phu Tai Renewable Energy JSC, unveiled their proposal to lease 15,000 hectares of state-owned forest land during a meeting with Binh Dinh People's Committee on October 24.

Their objective is to cultivate large timber forests as a sustainable source for a biomass pellet production plant with an annual capacity of 160,000 tonnes.

Pham Anh Tuan, Chairman of Binh Dinh People's Committee noted, "The province currently manages over 75,000 hectares of forestry land dedicated primarily to production, fulfilling multiple roles including environmental protection and timber supply."

He added, "With an annual timber output of approximately one million tonnes that meets 81 per cent of the demands of local pellet manufacturing facilities, Binh Dinh is committed to fostering large-scale forestry development."

This initiative aligns with Binh Dinh's strategic goals to encourage large sustainable timber plantations. The provincial leaders expressed strong support for the Japanese investors' project and pledged to facilitate the FDI inflow into the region.

Initially, assistance will be provided to help the investors collaborate with local forestry companies and review suitable forest areas for the project.

The decision to invest in Binh Dinh is due in part to its ample resources and strategic location as a gateway connecting South Central Vietnam and the Central Highlands. This geostrategic advantage is poised to amplify the province's ability to attract investments in this sector.

Japanese investors have been notably active in Binh Dinh, spanning various sectors.

As of the second quarter of this year, the province has attracted 19 Japanese projects, totalling an investment of $94.2 million. This accounts for 22 per cent of the total FDI in the region.

Binh Dinh has set targets for 2023, aiming to attract 60 new projects from both domestic and international investors. Priority is given to medium- and small-scale investors, particularly those from Japan, South Korea, the US, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe, focusing on clean and advanced technology.

These investments are vital for the rapid development of Nhon Hoi Economic Zone, various industrial parks, and supporting infrastructure and services.

In 2022, the province secured an FDI project worth $4 million, and in the first half of 2023, another with a registered capital of just over $81,000.

Furthermore, in the first six months of the year, Binh Dinh welcomed 50 visits by international investors and organisations exploring the province's investment potential.

ITL Corporation commits $200 million to Vietnam's warehousing infrastructure ITL Corporation is set to invest approximately $200 million in warehousing infrastructure over the next five years, underscoring Vietnam's significance in their strategic expansion.
As the most populous city and leading economic hub of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City has set clear to become a health innovation centre in the ASEAN region in order to serve Vietnamese people and patients from across neighbouring countries.

The South Asia Research Hub of the UKs Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) in collaboration with the British Consulate General is funding the support for Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health to conduct research on improving the quality of medical training, bringing healthcare workforce and medical training facilities to global standards, and expanding research on new disease models and public health demands.

With an initial funding of 75,000 ($90,630), in the next six months, KPMG in Vietnam and Oxford University Clinical Research Unit (OUCRU) will support Ho Chi Minh City to conduct research on the two priorities mentioned above, and organise a study programme to the UK for healthcare experts of Ho Chi Minh City.

In addition to the G2G support in health innovation hub project, other major UK businesses and organisations have recently supported Ho Chi Minh City in healthcare development, including the recent partnership in disease surveillance project between OUCRU and CDC, and AstraZeneca Vietnam's R&D hub project.

Ho Chi Minh City and Liverpool are also exploring becoming partner cities in healthcare, connecting and developing together in this area.

As we celebrate 50 years of deepening friendship and look together to the future, health will be a key pillar of our relationship. I am delighted that we have such a strong UK presence in the health sector here in Vietnam, with such potential for the future, said consul general Emily Hamblin.

As Ho Chi Minh City seeks to build on the excellent foundations of its health sector, I am proud of the collaboration between the UK government and Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health in support of the city to become a regional health innovation hub in Southeast Asia. Today we are very pleased to announce the launch of a new Project funded by the UK Government that will see the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit and KPMG in Vietnam work together with the Citys Department of Health in pursuit of this goal, Hamblin added.

Luke Treloar, national head of Healthcare and Life Sciences at KPMG in Vietnam said, Healthcare has played a pivotal role in UK-Vietnam bilateral relations. KPMG Healthcare Strategy is excited to cooperate with Oxford University Clinical Research Unit to help accelerate Ho Chi Minh City's transformation into a regional health innovation hub.

Ho Chi Minh City among top 10 best destinations in Asia According to renowned Canadian travel website The Travel, Ho Chi Minh City is among the 10 best destinations in Asia with many great places to visit. The best time to enjoy the good weather in the city is from March to May.

Ho Chi Minh City emerges as a prominent startup hub in global rankings The Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2023 by Startup Genome highlights Ho Chi Minh City's significant progress, placing it among the top emerging startup markets worldwide.
On October 26, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea and the Department of State of the United States launched the first joint scientific research project under the Embassy Science Fellows (ESF) Programme.

The research will promote the use of environmentally friendly technologies to extract rare earth elements and other critical minerals from coal ash.

The efforts will bolster international cooperation in enhancing the sustainable extraction and processing of critical materials by advancing the deployment of clean technologies in the global supply chain.

This collaboration complements existing multilateral dialogue mechanisms, such as the Minerals Security Partnership, in which both South Korea and the US are participating.

The South Korea-US ESF project in Vietnam is an important milestone in expanding their sci-tech cooperation in other countries. The South Korean and US embassies in Hanoi are working closely together to support research activities on the ground.

The joint project will be carried out by the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM) and the US Geological Survey for three months from October 2023 from KIGAMs office in Hanoi. South Korea and the United States are working closely with the Vietnamese government to facilitate this research.

Vietnam has the world's second-largest reserves of rare earth minerals  an estimated 22 million tonnes  yet the resources have remained untapped.

Rare earths are being used to produce wind turbines and magnets, serving the renewable energy and green transportation sectors. The global demand is expected to double by 2030 and quadruple by 2050.

Rare earths become trade dispute tools The importance of rare earths, required for everything from iPhones to fighter jets, has been brought back to the fore in recent weeks with China and the United States moving to protect their interests as their trade dispute rumbles on.

Rare earth upsides can help beckon foreign capital Vietnam can utilise its abundant reserves of rare earth materials to lure in high-tech foreign investments.
In a significant stride towards advancing fintech and digital banking in Vietnam, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) initiated a crucial technical assistance project on October 25.

The endeavour, endowed with a $5 million grant from the Swiss Government, is set to revitalise the nation's fintech and digital banking arena.

This funding is complemented by an additional contribution of $2 million from the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction, focusing on enhancing climate-focused and inclusive finance within the country.

According to the ADB, the financial barriers in Vietnam extend beyond individuals, impacting predominantly micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). Those that are women-owned are even more adversely affected, facing an estimated financial shortfall of $1.2 billion.

"This project plays a pivotal role in augmenting financial access for MSMEs, particularly businesses led by women," a spokesperson from the ADB commented.

The initiative will support the SBV in developing and implementing a legal framework to fortify the digital finance sector, ensuring safe market operations and robust ecosystem development.

Deputy governor of the SBV Pham Tien Dung expressed his high regard for the technical support, deeming it, "Invaluable in fostering an enabling environment for fintech development, thereby enhancing the quality and diversity of financial products and services to both the populace and the nation's enterprises. This will contribute greatly to the national agenda on comprehensive finance."

This assistance is also deemed pivotal in driving green growth through the development and contribution of green banking and green credit.

Shantanu Chakraborty, ADB's country director for Vietnam, emphasised the transformative potential of fintech in the country.

"In Vietnam, fintech is key to driving convenient and innovative financial solutions and services, reaching under-banked or unbanked segments including MSMEs, while also enhancing efficiency and financial security. We're thrilled to further stimulate digital banking transformation in a rapidly evolving market like Vietnam," Chakraborty stated.

The project aims to offer fintech training opportunities and best practices in green banking to SBV staff, targeting a 25 per cent female participation. It also provides advisory services to women-owned MSMEs when preparing green loan applications.

Furthermore, it seeks to build the capacity of relevant government bodies and members of banking and fintech associations, while also supporting selected commercial banks in developing their digital banking services.

Dominique Paravicini, State Secretary of the Swiss Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research, highlighted the comprehensive support of Switzerland in bolstering Vietnam's financial sector.

"By strengthening Vietnam's fintech industry and driving the digitalisation of the banking sector, the programme opens new opportunities for MSMEs to improve their access to financial resources," Paravicini asserted.

BIS pledges support for Vietnam in banking infrastructure development, digital transformation The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) will continue to accompany and support the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) in investing in payment and financial infrastructure development and promoting digital transformation, contributing to improving risk management in the local banking sector, stated BIS General Manager Agustin Carstens.
New York Republicans forced a vote on Thursday over a resolution to remove embattled Rep. George Santos from the House following a series of legal and moral controversies.

The development is a rare instance of lawmakers trying to kick a member of their own party out of Congress. It also signifies the distinct political challenge that Santos is facing as a result of his federal criminal prosecution.

George Santos' Expulsion

The latest effort to expel Santos from the House was precipitated by a superseding indictment released earlier this month. This gave the embattled lawmaker 10 new charges, which include wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and credit card fraud.

Furthermore, Rep. Anthony D'Esposito introduced a so-called privileged motion on Thursday to force a vote for the measure next week. The new three-page resolution focuses on Santos' fabrications on the 2022 campaign trail and the federal charges that have been filed against him.

It notes that the superseding indictment "outlined a vast amount of evidence against Santos." These include conversations that the New York representative held with his former campaign treasurer. The talks allegedly included outlining plans to commit the fraud that he is charged with, as per Axios.

D'Esposito was flanked on the House floor by Reps. Marc Molinaro, Nick LaLota, and Mike Lawler in pushing for the resolution to remove Santos from the House. All of these lawmakers are from districts that United States President Joe Biden won in the 2020 election.

Democratic lawmakers used the perpetual controversy surrounding Santos as a cudgel against vulnerable Republicans in New York. This makes his continued presence in Congress a significant political liability for the right-wing party.

In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Santos said that he would not be "resigning" and that he is "entitled to due process and not a predetermined outcome as some are seeking." A spokesperson for newly-elected House Speaker Mike Johnson did not say how he plans to proceed with the vote against the New York Republican.

Read Also: NY Rep. Jamaal Bowman Faces Charges After Pulling 'False' Fire Alarm in Capitol Hill

Dilemma for Republicans

Under the U.S. Constitution, an expulsion resolution requires a two-thirds vote in support of it and there have only been five members who were expelled from the House since 1861. The group of New York Republicans announced their plans to remove Santis earlier this month, according to CBS News.

The embattled lawmaker is now set to appear in court on Friday for his arraignment in the superseding indictment. The new charges against Santos renewed efforts to expel him from the House after Republicans blocked an attempt by Democrats in May.

At the time, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy argued that the legal process should be allowed to play out. He added that the matter was referred to the House Ethics Committee to conduct an investigation.

Efforts to expel Santos have caused an early dilemma for the GOP because of its narrow House majority. If the party loses Santos' seat in a competitive election in Long Island and Queens could make it harder for the right to pass GOP policy priorities, said Yahoo News.

Related Article: Joe Biden Calls for Stronger Gun Laws After Maine Mass Shooting

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At the end of September, Vietnam launched its first carbon credit trading floor. Hoang Bach Duong, vice president of CT Group said, We hope to inspire firms to switch to cleaner, lower-carbon, and more efficient technology.

In the new competition in the global supply chain, meeting the carbon tax barrier standards that major markets are employing will play a decisive role.

Vietnamese carbon market yet to achieve lift off, illustration photo/ Source: freepik.com

Since October 1, the EU has begun testing a carbon tax on products exported to the market under the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. In 2024, the United States will be the next to implement such a mechanism, which will impose a carbon tariff on importers.

Carbon certificates are becoming an instrument for improving global competitiveness as the green financial market develops. According to MarketsandMarkets, the global market for carbon credit trading platforms could reach $317 million by 2027, a rise from $106 million in 2022.

Asia-Pacific is anticipated to grow the quickest between now and 2028, followed by Europe. Since announcing in 2021 that it would reach net-zero emissions by 2050, Vietnam has attracted the attention of numerous carbon credit traders from around the globe.

Pham Thu Thuy, director of the Centre for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF) said, Several foreign buyers want to purchase carbon credits from Vietnam, but they still have legal issues that are not near to being solved.

The recognition and issuance of carbon credits in Vietnam are still dependent on third parties such as organisations and international credit mechanisms, and Vietnams role as a seller remains unclear, even though developing the carbon credit market is one of tools of the 2020 Law on Environmental Protection.

According to Thuy, carbon credit purchasers require assistance from the governments organising agency.

Vietnam does not have a carbon rights registry or a list of carbon-related companies and initiatives, making it challenging for buyers to save time and seek costs, Thuy said.

In Peru and Brazil, purchasers have easy access to data from exchanges displaying credit prices and excess or deficiency of carbon credits in each sector, including forestry, energy, and cattle.

The carbon market is based on the operational principles of a competitive market, which are beneficial for both buyers and sellers. According to Vu Tan Phuong, director of the Vietnam Forest Certification Office, Vietnam has a policy foundation but lacks explicit guidance on which activities qualify as carbon emissions or carbon absorption.

Vietnam still lacks a carbon tax, and transactions are primarily voluntary via projects and initiatives. The lack of policy instruments will make it extremely hard to establish a carbon market, Phuong said.

To pursue a development path that incorporates resilience and net-zero emissions, the World Bank estimates that Vietnam will need to invest an additional $368 billion through 2040, or 6.8 per cent of its GDP annually.

Particularly, the voyage towards reducing emissions while also meeting international commitments accounts for about 30 per cent of resource requirements.

However, the Vietnamese public sector will only be able to provide approximately one-third of the required resources. As the green finance market is still in its infancy, the resources mobilised through the green finance market are minimal in comparison to requirements.

The opening of the carbon market in Vietnam faces significant financial obstacles, too. Thomas Jacobs, country director for Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), said private capital is the key to Vietnams green transition.

In September, the IFC pledged to invest approximately $150 million in local currency sustainability-linked bonds issued by BIM Group subsidiaries BIM Land JSC ($100 million) and Thanh Xuan JSC ($50 million).

According to Jacobs, the sustainable bond link assists the two companies in conserving water and enhancing energy efficiency at three hotels that will satisfy EDGE standards, IFCs green building certification.

These solutions are anticipated to reduce annual CO2 emissions by approximately 4,000 tonnes. According to the IFC, the issuance of sustainability-linked bonds in local currency by two BIM Group subsidiaries is the first in Vietnam.

In a setting where companies are under pressure to go green to maintain competitiveness and investors favour sustainable development initiatives, Doan Quoc Huy, CEO of BIM Group, said that IFCs financing and consulting will facilitate the green transition process while increasing the products appeal. We expect to draw in foreign capital as we develop a green and high-quality tourism infrastructure, he said.

According to Nguyen Van Minh, a representative from the Department of Climate Change under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE), when Vietnam completes the carbon market development roadmap, current problems will be resolved.

The MoNRE will coordinate with the Ministry of Finance towards 2027 to design regulations and pilot the operation of the greenhouse gas emission quota and carbon credit trading platform before its official operation in 2028. Carbon credits and emission quotas will be available on the trading platform.

The MoNRE will work closely with relevant stakeholders in the future to assign emission quotas to each enterprise in accordance with Decision No.01/2022/QD-TTg. If emissions exceed the prescribed level, businesses will be required to purchase additional quotas from other businesses or the state, with a 10 per cent cap. This is to prevent large businesses from spending a lot of money to buy carbon credits to offset their emissions, Minh said.

The carbon market was first mentioned in Decision No.1775/QD-TTg in 2012, which approved the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions management project on managing carbon credit commercial activities for the global market. In January 2022, the government issued Decree No.06/2022/ND-CP regulating the reduction of GHG emissions and the preservation of the ozone layer.

Vietnam makes efforts to develop domestic carbon market In the context that about 70 countries and territories have applied carbon pricing instruments, experts held that Vietnam should also apply such tools, especially by developing the domestic carbon market, in order to support the realisation of the countrys greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction target.

Vietnam poised to become large-scale carbon credit market The Emissions Reduction Purchase Agreements (ERPAs) for 11 forests in the south central region and Central Highlands will lay the foundation for Vietnam's large-scale carbon credit market.
Vietnam is a production powerhouse for the world, evolving its manufacturing capabilities over the past two decades, and has proven to be a solid alternative for companies seeking to reduce dependency on China. However, Vietnam remains a supply-driven country, and is highly dependent on global demands to sustain its industrial activity.

Vietnam's need to remain competitive and relevant to the global supply chain has never been stronger as this year witnessed a slowdown in consumption from its main trading partners, and along with the emergence of other players in the manufacturing field such as India and Mexico, the situation calls for a faster transition towards efficiency and innovation.

CEL's survey, implemented from October 10 to October 25 and released on October 27, reveals that the majority of supply chain leaders in Vietnam have seen a slowdown in their activity and have little hope for recovery before 2025.

The main challenge for supply chain leaders (46.9 per cent) is demand forecasting - the capacity to predict what is coming. Low forecast accuracy seems to be affecting supply chain performance, as forecasting inaccuracy leads to over stocking and low utilisation of capacity. Expectations are high, however, that emerging technologies can bring value to this area of supply chain logistics.

12.5 per cent of supply chain leaders surveyed highlighted the need for tighter controls of supply chain operations, and industry leaders recognise the need for interconnected supply chain systems and data management.

While a gloomy global economic outlook seems to have settled in for the 2024-2025 period, the need for Vietnam to remain in the race has never been stronger. With limited export and domestic demand, supply chain efficiency has become a pressing concern for leaders. Tighter control and integration, better monitoring of potential disruptions, and the ability for businesses to predict demand in volatile conditions are the main focus points for 2024.

German Supply Chain Act: Sustainability focus and Vietnam's implications The 2023 German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act prioritises sustainable criteria in global supply chains. Prof. Andreas Stoffers, country director of FNF Vietnam, and Huyen Nhu Lanh, coordinator of the project at the Delegation of German Industry and Commerce in Vietnam spoke with VIRs Luu Huong on the opportunities and challenges the new law provides for Vietnam.

Firms hold chances to boost supporting industries amid FDI inflows As Vietnam is emerging as a magnet for foreign businesses, domestic companies now have numerous opportunities to join global supply chains and develop supporting industries.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP)  Texas is closer to giving police broad new authority to arrest migrants and order them to leave the U.S. under a bill the state House advanced Thursday, putting Republican Gov. Greg Abbott on the path toward a potential new confrontation with the Biden administration over immigration.

Tempers flared over the proposal in the Texas Capitol, where Hispanic Democratic lawmakers led hours of emotional protests over issues of race and the legality of the plan before House Republicans passed the bill on a party-line vote before sunrise.

A similar proposal has already cleared the Texas Senate, meaning Republicans must now agree on a version before sending it to Abbott's desk.

Our cries for help in the enforcement of existing federal immigration laws have been ignored by President Biden. We have had enough," said Republican state Rep. David Spiller, author of the House bill.

Two years into Texas pushing the boundaries of immigration enforcement  busing migrants out of state, stringing razor wire along the border and installing water barriers in the Rio Grande  new plans to let police arrest migrants and order them to leave the country is setting up another test that would likely face a court challenge.

Opponents say handing all Texas law enforcement such power would risk inadvertent arrests of U.S. citizens, put families of mixed immigration status in danger during routine outings and make crime victims fearful of going to the police for help.

As anger mounted among Democrats Wednesday night, one lawmaker recorded and then posted video of a colleague lashing into Republicans during a private huddle on the floor of the Texas House.

Y'all don't understand the (expletive) you do hurts our community, state Rep. Armando Walle is seen saying in the video. It hurts us personally.

Texas has arrested thousands of migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border on criminal trespassing charges since 2021. But the new law would dramatically expand arrest powers to all Texas police and allow to them to take migrants to ports of entry along the border and order them into Mexico.

The power to regulate immigration lies primarily with the U.S. government, and legal experts said Texas' latest plan flies in the face of U.S. law.

The idea that the state would now take up the power to deport people from the United States is truly radical, even more than the idea of the state creating parallel criminal law to federal criminal immigration law, said Ahilan Arulanantham, co-direcor of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at the UCLA School of Law.

Critics have compared the proposal to a 2010 Arizona law that required police, while enforcing other laws, to question the immigration status of people suspected of being in the country illegally. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down key provisions of that law two years later.

J. Anna Cabot, director of the immigration clinic at the University of Houston Law Center, expressed skepticism of even the high court's current conservative majority taking up the Texas bill if it became law.

It's just too cut and dry constitutionally, Cabot said.
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP)  Kentucky's Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a new state law that allowed participants in constitutional challenges to get the cases switched to randomly selected counties. The court said the legislature's action on the assignment of court cases encroached on judicial authority.

The law, enacted this year over the governor's veto, allowed any participants to request changes of venue for civil cases challenging the constitutionality of laws, orders or regulations. It required the clerk of the state Supreme Court to choose another court through a random selection.

Such constitutional cases typically are heard in Franklin County Circuit Court in the capital city of Frankfort. For years, Republican officials have complained about a number of rulings from Franklin circuit judges in high-stakes cases dealing with constitutional issues.

The high court's ruling was a victory for Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, who in his veto message denounced the measure as an unconstitutional power grab by the state's GOP-dominated legislature. Lawmakers overrode the governor's veto, sparking the legal fight that reached the state's highest court.

Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron's office defended the venue law, which passed as Senate Bill 126. Cameron is challenging Beshear in the Nov. 7 gubernatorial election  one of the nation's highest-profile campaigns this year.

Writing for the court's majority, Chief Justice Laurance B. VanMeter said the new law amounted to a violation of constitutional separation of powers.

The measure granted unchecked power to a litigant to remove a judge from a case under the guise of a transfer, circumventing the established recusal process, the chief justice wrote.

It operates to vest a certain class of litigants with the unfettered right to forum shop, without having to show any bias on the part of the presiding judge, or just cause for removal, VanMeter said.

The measure also resulted in divesting the circuit court of its inherent jurisdiction and authority to decide when and if a case should be transferred to another venue, he said.

Responding to the ruling, Cameron's office insisted the legislature had acted within its authority.

The legislature has always had broad authority to decide where lawsuits should be heard, the attorney general's office said in a statement. "Todays opinion backtracks on that established principle and diminishes the power of the peoples branch of government.

In a dissenting opinion, Justice Robert Conley said the legislature has the constitutional authority to pass legislation fixing venue and providing for changes of venue.

SB126 is new and it is different from what the judiciary is used to, he wrote. I deem it unwise, imprudent, inefficient and inexpedient. But I cannot say it is unconstitutional.

In his March veto message, Beshear said the measure was aimed at one court. The intent, he said, was to control Kentucky courts and block any civil action alleging a law is unconstitutional from being heard in one circuit court: the Franklin Circuit Court.
EDEN, Vt. (AP)  Autopsies have confirmed that the two bodies found in a wooded area off a rural road in northern Vermont are those of two missing Massachusetts men who were shot to death, Vermont State Police said Thursday.

Police found the bodies of 21-year-olds Jahim Solomon, of Pittsfield, and Eric White, of Chicopee, on Wednesday in a wooded area in Eden. Autopsies performed Thursday determined that Solomon died of multiple gunshot wounds to the head and White died of a single gunshot wound to the head, police said.

State police said they continue to follow up on leads in the case and said tips from the public are an important part of the investigation. Maj. Dan Trudeau, commander of the Vermont State Polices criminal division, said Wednesday that police have a number of suspects and people of interest in mind.

Solomon and White disappeared under suspicious circumstances while traveling through several communities, state police said Saturday. They were reported missing on Oct. 15 after falling out of touch with their families for several days, authorities said. Theyd previously been in Burlington, Lowell, Morrisville and Stowe, officials said.
DEAR NEIL: What would be a good replacement for a euonymus that has succumbed to a combination of excessive shade and scale insects? Its also had a mix of powdery mildew thrown in as well. I need something that will grow to about 42 inches tall.

Dear Reader: Dwarf Burford holly, hands down. Its mature height is 48 to 54 inches. Thats after 6 to 12 years, but only if its kept properly watered and fertilized. Its tolerant of a wide variety of soils and climates, and its equally well suited to sun or shade. The only precaution is that you must water it by hand to get it established. Drip irrigation and sprinklers wont be enough, no matter what an irrigation contractor will tell you. No other shrub would even come close to matching your requirements.

DEAR NEIL: I question your response to the person with an issue with his St. Augustine lawn. I live in a neighborhood with 433 homes. I walk the neighborhood every day, and I would say that the great majority of the lawns are St. Augustine. With scores of days of 100F weather this summer, it was difficult for the St. Augustine to survive in the full sun. Where trees cast shade, the grass survived. The cause, I believe, is the heat and not disease.

Dear Reader: I answered so many variations of the St. Augustine question that Im not going to go back and try to find the specific one to which you might be referring. However, given facts as you presented them, I almost assuredly would have laid the blame at the tiny mouthparts of chinch bugs and not gray leaf spot (the summer disease). Chinch bugs were terrible again this summer. They are hot-weather insects and only in the sunniest, hottest parts of our yards. They cause the grass to die out, often in very large patches, as if it werent getting enough irrigation. Gray leaf spot fungus attacks in both sun and shade, and it doesnt cause the grass to die out completely as you describe. Ive seen entire neighborhoods where folks lost big parts of their yards without ever realizing it simply because they didnt get down on all fours and look at the soil/runners to examine for the pest. I answered dozens of questions exactly that way, both here and elsewhere, also on radio over this past summer. Chinch bugs were terrible.

DEAR NEIL: Why are so many cedar trees (junipers) dying this year?

Dear Reader: I dont recall seeing a year as bad as this year. I guess 2011 might have been, since it was another biblical drought, but this one will stick in my memory. To my eye, its been a combination of extreme drought and bagworms. Look at a few or the dead trees closely. If you see the bagworm bags hanging on tightly, theyre the culprits. If not, it was the drought. Thats been the cause in almost all the trees that Ive observed. They need to be cut and removed. Theyre fire hazards.

DEAR NEIL: This oak tree is located on our church property. Is the old bark falling off due to its age, or is there a disease?

Dear Reader: Good question. It looks a bit like the radial shake we saw so frequently after the extreme cold of February 2021. Live oaks trunks suffered vertical splits in their bark. Many of them then started shedding that bark within weeks of the freeze. In less-severe cases new bark formed beneath the wounds, and thats what appears to be happening here. In more serious cases all the bark sloughed off entire sides of the trees and major parts of the tree (or all the tree) were lost.

And then there is Hypoxylon canker. Its a weak fungal organism that moves into trees weakened by environmental stresses such as extreme drought. We saw a lot of it after the drought of 2011. In the ensuing 2-3 years chunks of bark were lost and entire trees died in many cases. Hypoxylon canker, however, seemed to attack post oaks the worst.

This would be the time to have a certified arborist who is a member of the International Society of Arboriculture look at your tree in person, also to have the tissues cultured by the Texas A&M Plant Disease Diagnostic Laboratory at College Station. They would be able to confirm presence of a fungus, if indeed one was involved.

About the only thing I can tell you with certainty is that this is not just normal bark loss due to sloughing of old bark. Thats especially obvious in the one photo showing a major part of the trunk where so much damage and decay is evident.

DEAR NEIL: We have crabgrass that is wrapping up its growing season. I know it will come up again in the spring and Ive already marked the calendar to apply the pre-emergent granules. At this point, however, all its crumpled, purplish stems are mixed in with my St. Augustine. Should I just leave them there, or would it help with next springs crop if I pulled out the runners at this time?

Dear Reader: It wont make a bit of difference. Next years runners will come from the seeds that have already been scattered. Your pre-emergent weedkiller should prevent their growth. They will not come back from the old runners. Those will die with the first freeze, if not before.
Ermete Grillo, originally from Rome but now resident in Pisa, Italy, is on a mission: to create a perfect reproduction of the Hanriot HD.1, as flown by ace Flavio Torello Baracchini, who claimed 31 victories in only six months of the Great War.

I dont remember a day in my life that I didnt spend scanning the sky dreaming of flying. I have always had a passion for flying since I was very young and after reading Biplane by Richard Bach, I understood that in life I would have to do the impossible to own a Biplane. said Ermete. In 2004 I received the registration for my first homebuilt ultralight and in 2007, after years spent building it, I tested the biplane with which I currently still fly.

As the President of the Biplano Club Italia (Italian Biplane Club), Ermete has had many opportunities to organize rallies and re-enactment flights. Today he is the President of the newly formed association Le Ali degli Assi (ETS, Wings of Aces), a non-profit association committed to the preservation, restoration, and promotion of aeronautical culture linked to the pioneering period of flight.

The idea of building a fighter from the Great War has always been in Ermetes mind. He had already purchased construction plans for the Nieuport 17 but, one day, in a bookshop, he found a book on the life story of a pilot previously unknown to him: Flavio Torello Baracchini. This book changed Ermetes life. He discovered the existence of the Caccia Macchi, the Macchi Fighter, or license-built Hanriot HD.1 and how much it was appreciated by Italian pilots. After various vicissitudes, he managed to obtain the original construction plans drawn up by the then Societa Anonima Nieuport and Macchi di Varese. At this point, he had to decide whether to commit to the construction of (yet another) Nieuport, or dedicate himself to the flying reproduction of a fighter as rare as it is appreciated: the HD.1.

Why Baracchini?

Obviously, a key reason for spending thousands of hours in recreating an HD.1 is to commemorate the pilot who, more than any other Italian airman, showed how effective a fighter the Hanriot could be: pilot Captain Flavio Torello Baracchini. Italys greatest ace of WWI was Francesco Baracca with 34 aerial victories in three years of combat. In comparison, Baracchini shot down 31 aircraft in just six months!

Baracchini was the first Italian pilot in the history of aerial combat to be awarded the Medaglia doro al valor militare (MOVM, the Gold Medal of Honor for Military Valor, Italys most important military honor). Baracchini, of humble origins, always placed the defense of his homeland before personal safety. His courage, and great humanity, were an example for all the other pilots, but above all, for the thousands of infantrymen who fought the harsh trench warfare below him. After the war Baracchini worked as an inventor, working in the areas of aviation communications and explosives. He died in 1928 as a result of injuries that he received during an accident in his laboratory.

The HD.1 Baracchini Project aims to rescue the ingenuity and construction techniques of the early 1900s from oblivion, but also to prevent this brave soldier from dying a second time by preventing him from being forgotten.

The airplane

The fighter under construction is a Hanriot HD.1. Ermete has well-founded views and opinions about some of the historical assessments published on this WWI fighter: First of all, I strongly want to deny what is often written on the web or in monographs  which is that the HD.1 was rejected by the French Air Force and then passed on to the Italians and Belgians: nothing could be more wrong! The HD.1 was created following a specific request from the Italian Aeronautical Commission in Paris which announced a competition for the purchase of a fighter with performances that could better adapt to the Italian operational context, which is very different from the French one. The pen of engineer Emile Dupont, who at the time worked for the French company Hanriot, satisfied the needs of Italian military pilots. 1562 examples of this fighter were produced, of which 991 by Macchi of Varese. The main users were the Italians and the Belgians, several examples were delivered to the Americans, a few to the French and the Swiss.

The Hanriot HD.1 was a single-seat, single-engine biplane fighter. The double-spar biplane wooden wings feature a distinctive positive dihedral on the upper wings only, distinguishing it from the similar looking Sopwith Pup. The upper wings also include the ailerons. The fuselage, an almost entirely wooden structure, has the period-standard fabric covering aft of the third fuselage frame, with sheet metal cladding forward. The armament is a 7.7 mm (.303in) Vickers machine gun synchronized for firing through the propeller disc. The HD.1 type is powered by the Le Rhone 9J, a 110  120 hp nine-cylinder rotary engine. In Italian (and Belgian) combat use, the Hanriot which proved to be very robust and extremely agile fighter.

The first Italian squadron to receive the new fighter, in the summer of 1917, was 76a Squadriglia and subsequently 79a Squadriglia of the Italian Armys Corpo Aeronautico Militare (Military Aviation Corps). With the pilots liking the biplane in the type of war they were fighting, Macchi received further orders to build more. In February 1918, out of 240 aircraft that the Fighter Squadrons were equipped with, almost half of them were Hanriots (103, of which 26 were not serviceable). In total, 1,700 HD.1s were ordered, of which 831 aircraft were delivered before the armistice and another 70 after the cessation of hostilities. The HD.1 remained in post-war service for several years, in Swiss, Belgian and even American service as well as with Italy. Today, only five original examples survive, with one airworthy in New Zealand.

Reconstruction process.

The reconstruction process started with the original 1917 plans by Aeronautica Macchi. Ermete said: Since it is a reproduction, the aircraft being created could be perfectly matched to an original. By reproduction of the aircraft, we mean a way of working that enhances and favors the cognitive, technical, and preliminary investigation aspects, and involving a wide spectrum of skills required. The instrumentation is original from 1917, and, in order to guarantee a high degree of fidelity to what was produced in the early 1900s, it was decided to reproduce the correct, specific period wheel rims and rigging turnbuckles (out of production for 100 years!) as planned. Even the joins of the fuselage longerons have been made using a joint that is now obsolete, but required to be faithful to the project. What will make this unique in Italy, is that it will be a flying aircraft with a rotary engine; the original Le Rhone 9Jb. This engine, owned by the Il Magnete Association, will be loaned to project for use in flight. The completion of this project, therefore, has an intrinsic historical and cultural value aimed at maintaining and promoting construction and operational techniques that are now obsolete and which the passage of time otherwise inexorably consigns to oblivion.

So far, two wing panels have been completed, with a third in the works; the tail surfaces; main landing gear; the fuselage frame and distinctive Hanriot cabane struts. Furthermore, almost all of the required period, original instruments have been found. Each phase of construction has been documented, and is the result of long and complex research, including the study of original technical materials such as construction plans and photographs. It should be noted as well that the reproduction of a historic aircraft necessarily involves the procurement and restoration of original components, increasing the authenticity and originality of the aircraft. Ermetes work is monitored by the Club Aviazione Popolare (CAP), the only body delegated by ENAC (the Italian civil aviation authority) to oversee homebuilt projects in Italy. ENAC has already issued the registration; I-FTBA, with the tribute meaning (Flavio Torello BAracchini, with the I for Italian national listing).

Currently, the third wing is to be completed, with the fourth still to be built. Then, all the rigging and cables relating to the flying controls are still to be created. Other remaining tasks are the construction of the oil and gasoline tanks, sheet metal cladding for the front of the fuselage; framing, painting, and construction of the wooden propeller. The engine, which has been static for a century, will undergo a complete overhaul.

Among the future objectives we set ourselves, are those of preserving, and disseminating the historical heritage of our aviation  by participating in national and international air displays and historical re-enactments. We also intend to create, on a specially dedicated airfield, a museum and cultural meeting place where the airplane can be operated from regularly. Furthermore we intend to achieve the publication of a book documenting the various phases of construction, as well as the construction techniques and materials used in the early 1900s, concluded Ermete.

Ermetes can certainly be seen as work is of top quality, and one can only feel a sense of admiration for the dedication, passion, and time dedicated to the reconstruction of a piece of aviation history. Vintage Aviation News will follow this fantastic project closely and we will keep our readers updated with the latest developments. If you wish to support Ermete and his work, click HERE.
US Republican Senator Susan Collins received criticisms for her previous record of voting on gun control after the Maine mass shooting that killed 18 people and injured more than a dozen.

Collins released a statement about the mass shooting on Wednesday. The Sentator posted a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, and said their state mourns for the recent horrific mass shooting in Maine.

Collins Criticized for Gun Control Stance

She said she appreciates the support they have received from across the country, including the call she has received from President Biden offering assistance. Collins' statement received criticism from social media users. The users targeted her previous stances on gun control and her votes that have helped block stronger laws from being put in place around firearms.

"You helped make this happen," one X user posted. Another user also commented on voting for sensible gun laws. According to Vote Smart, Collins has rejected several Senate amendments on gun control in her 26-year career as a senator.

In 2022, Collins was one of the 15 Republicans who voted for the bipartisan gun bill. According to The Guardian, the legislation strengthened background checks for gun owners under 21 and reinforced laws against gun trafficking.

Attorney General Rob Bonta said that weapons of war have no place in the streets of California. He said they will continue to fight to ensure the safety of the citizens from firearms that cause mass casualties.

Read Also: Seoul: Victims' Families Receive No Official Apology After a Year of Halloween Crowd Crush

Mass Shooting in Maine

The police reported that at least 16 people had been killed and more than a dozen injured in the recent mass shooting on Wednesday. The shootings took place at Sparetime Recreation, a bowling alley, and then at Schemengees Bar and Grille, about 4 miles (6.4km) away, as reported by The Guardian.

The authorities revealed that they are investigating two active shooter incidents in Maine. The police are still looking for the suspect, but hours later, the police named a man called Robert Card as a person of interest. The police claimed Card to be armed and dangerous.

Androscoggin County Sheriff's Office released two photos of the suspect on their Facebook page. The photo shows the shooter entering an establishment with a weapon. While the suspect was still on the run, the authorities advised the residents to keep their doors locked and off the roads to allow emergency responders to access the hospitals.

Central Maine Medical Center said their staff were coordinating with area hospitals to take in patients due to mass casualty in mass shootings. Furthermore, the hospital itself was also in lockdown. Local schools were also closed on Thursday. Superintendent Jake Langlais said people should continue staying at home and seeking safety.

Related Article: Maine: Man Killed At Least 16 People in Mass Shooting, Police Safeguards Residents





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GREENE  A Butler County man is asking the court to freeze accounts at a cryptocurrency exchange after he was allegedly bilked out of more than $119,000.

Its one of the latest court actions in response to the burgeoning pig butchering scams that encourage victims to invest in digital currency through a bogus website and then to move the stolen money through digital accounts.

Attorneys for Michael Bullock of Greene said people behind the scam  a woman identified merely as Xin Jessica Li and as many as 20 unidentified men  are likely from Turkey.

According to the suit, filed by attorney Joseph Casey last week in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids, the scam began in April when Jessica sent Bullock a Facebook friend request. They began communicating through the WhatsApp platform at her request and in the following weeks developed an apparent friendship, contacting each other on a regular basis.

Jessica stated she was familiar with Iowa and planned to visit. She also said she was a successful amateur crypto trader.

She further represented that her success was due to information leaked by her godmother, a purported insider and analyst at an options trading firm, the lawsuit states.

She offered to teach Bullock, who had no experience with cryptocurrency, how to make money trading.

In July 2023, he opened an account at a crypto exchange and deposited a total of $120,000 in the following months from his checking account at a Charles City bank, records state. He also borrowed money and liquidated his 401k retirement account, putting the money into U.S. Dollar Coin.

Jessica then showed him how to undertake his own trades and options contracts using the Zaifint exchange, giving him step-by-step instructions. A Telegram messaging app was used to communicate with Zaifint staff.

Jessica also claimed she put $150,000 worth of crypto into a Zaifint account on Bullocks behalf that he could later repay.

Jessica then walked him through how to move funds from his account to purported Zaifint addresses, according to the lawsuit. She showed him a display that claimed he made a hefty profit with the trades  about $917,000  but in reality the funds went to addresses controlled by Jessica and others, records state.

Zaifint did not and does not exist as a legitimate website, investment platform, or cryptocurrency exchange, the suit states.

When Bullock attempted to withdraw his money, people claiming to be Zaifint staff threatened him and said they wouldnt release the funds unless he supplied them with bank statements and other personal information and paid an additional $91,700.

Bullocks attorney asked the court to prohibit the defendants from moving funds from the accounts.
WATERLOO  Hawkeye Community Colleges Trucking with the Troops program got a boost this week when it was presented with a $200,000 grant.

Robin Hutcheson, head of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, toured the colleges Regional Transportation Training Center on Tuesday and presented the grant during a press conference.

Were proud that these grants are giving priority to current and former members of the U.S. Armed Forces, including National Guard, Reservists, and their family members, to pursue a commercial drivers license, said Hutcheson. We are changing lives while filling a huge need for truck drivers.

Trucking with the Troops is designed to assist current and former members of the U.S. Armed Forces with earning a commercial drivers license. For qualifying individuals, the grant pays 100% of tuition and fees. That covers the commercial learners permit, the Department of Transportation physical and drug test, and the commercial drivers license.

This is the eighth consecutive year Hawkeye has received FMCSA funding for the program. Since 2016, the college has received a total of $830,138, which has helped 153 veterans and their families receive training and find employment.

Truck drivers are in demand and the need for drivers is expected to increase over the next several years, explained Hawkeyes Aaron Sauerbrei, vice president of strategic partnerships and workforce education.

More than 72% of all freight is delivered by truck. Truck drivers are the essential workers who keep our economy moving with the delivery of groceries, construction materials and other goods.

Hutchesons visit also highlighted federal grant awards to Des Moines Area and Eastern Iowa community colleges in support of their commercial drivers license training programs. Megan Ellsworth of Des Moines Area Community College and Liang Chee Wee of Eastern Iowa Community College in Davenport participated in the event.

Iowa Workforce Development projects more than 1,300 openings each year for truck drivers in Iowa through 2024. Wages for the average truck driving job in Iowa range from $35,200 to $57,800, according to the agency.

The grant will help prepare local drivers to fill these critical positions, said Waterloo Mayor Quentin Hart, on hand to introduce Hutcheson. Funds were available through the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

What I especially love about this commitment is the focus on underserved communities, he noted. I also want to acknowledge the Biden Administration and the secretary of transportation, my dear friend Pete Buttigieg, for their leadership and funding support to help make these initiatives possible.

For more information about Trucking with the Troops, go online to hawkeyecollege.edu/trucking-with-troops.
WATERLOO  With less than one year on the City Council under her belt, Belinda Creighton-Smith is hoping to keep representing her ward with ambitious goals.

She was elected to fill the Ward 4 seat in March after former councilmember Jerome Amos Jr. began serving in the Legislature in January. She won almost 74% of the votes. In this election, she is seeking to hold a full term and is running against Sarah Cherveny and Josh Gramlich in the Nov. 7 election.

A lifelong Waterloo resident, Creighton-Smith is the pastor at Faith Temple Baptist Church. She is also an instructor at the University of Northern Iowa in the area of social work focusing on cultural competency and disparity faced by people of color. She said her advocacy goes beyond her professional life into her role in the city government.

One goal that she has worked on is making Ward 4 equitable to the citys other wards. The ward sits on the northeast side of the Cedar River and east of Mullan Avenue. If reelected, she wants to keep her focus on Ward 4 because the other wards are getting a lot compared to what were getting.

Growing up, she said, the business district on East Fourth Street was thriving and, from the railyard to downtown, she could get everything she needed. There were also more activities for younger residents, such as a youth center and choirs and classes at the African Palace. She hopes to help create places for kids such as a recording studio, an art center, an arcade and a place for job opportunities.

Housing is another issue in her ward, she said, with absent landlords and a lack of houses with higher property values.

We need individuals who have the wealth  to purchase a home that costs $300,000, she said, referencing a neighborhood like Audubon Park. It increases the property value ... which means we put more money into our community.

Focusing on housing is one way she hopes to turn around the 24/7 Wall Street report, which lists Waterloo and Cedar Falls as the sixth worst place in the U.S. for Black people to live.

The mayors (doing) amazing work to turn around this 24/7 report, she said. Were doing it, were doing some things, but we have a whole lot to do.

Some other ways shed work on the ambitious task is by strategizing with employers for job opportunities, working with the criminal justice system, making traveling easier on the east side, getting rid of dilapidated houses and rebuilding the business district.

She said one of her top priorities is economic development by increasing the pocketbooks of residents  especially poorer people. She also mentioned that there should be more programming for people who are left out, such as people who make too much to qualify for programs but make too little to live comfortably.

Many times while on the council, Creighton-Smith has been alone, voting differently than her peers. One issue that stuck out is being among the three councilmembers who voted against repealing the conversion therapy ban after the city was faced with potential litigation. Even though her lone votes dont turn the tides on the decision, she said she doesnt feel hopeless.

I believe its important for me to represent the voice of my constituents, she said. It also, for me, says that were going to come back to the drawing board on this. Its not over because we voted and were going to find another way to get it done.

She said that even if the organization threatening to sue was successful, it was more important to stand up for what she believes.

If reelected, she said she will always fight for what she needs to, whether that be for the police department, downtown business owners, the homeless, the LGBTQ+ community or people of color.

(The constituents) know Im passionate, she said. They know Im visible and present and accessible, that Im not afraid of a fight.

Misinformation about Israel-Hamas war floods social media; here are the facts Claim: Black flag calls Muslims to action Claim: Kim Jong Un blames Biden for war Claim: Turkish president threatens to intervene Claim: Israel confirms it bombed hospital Claim: Qatars emir threatens to cut off worlds natural gas supply Claim: BBC reports Ukraine provided weapons to Hamas Claim: Video shows actor in fake blood for propaganda Claim: Hamas fighters storm sports field to attack Israelis Claim: Putin warns US to stay away from war
The indictment of Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey alleges misconduct that you might expect to read in a trashy crime novel:

A Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair, selling out national security and American consumers for nearly half a million in cash, a Mercedes convertible for his wife and gold bars stashed at home.

A Christmas in January message accompanying an alleged post-holiday bribe payment to her.

A mob-style text message  We need make things go away  coming from an alleged Menendez co-conspirator who was under criminal investigation.

Menendez scurrying to repay a bribe and calling it a loan after an FBI search alerted the senator that the gig was up.

Problem is, the story is not pulp fiction. Instead, its told in a 39-page indictment alleging stomach-churning corruption by a politician with muscle. Menendez faces charges of conspiring to commit bribery and extortion, and to deprive citizens of honest services.

Menendez is innocent until proven guilty. Even so, he would serve the country by resigning, demanding a speedy trial and, if hes not convicted, running for his seat in 2024.

By resigning, Menendez would help the country by:

Honoring the public trust that holding elected office embodies.

Showing the public that no one should hold or seek office while under a serious indictment.

Distinguishing Democrats from former President Donald Trump, Rep. George Santos and MAGA Republicans who defend individuals holding or running for office while indicted.

If Menendez were to step down, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, would appoint a caretaker senator to serve for just over a year. If a jury does not convict Menendez, he would be tough to beat as an exonerated three-term senator in 2024.

Unsurprisingly, Menendez said hes not going anywhere, and he is expected to run again. Meanwhile, notable New Jersey Democrats, including Gov. Murphy, and some state Republicans have called on Menendez to resign. So have many of Menendez's colleagues in the U.S. Senate.

Some Democrats suggest due process entitles Menendez to hold onto his post. Due process is for legal procedures involving the potential deprivation of a fundamental right, and Menendez will get due process in court. There is no constitutional entitlement to public service when under indictment for abusing ones government position.

Thats why Trump should not be running while indicted.

Shortly after Menendez was charged, the former president posted an unhinged rant on Truth Social, raging that EVERY DEMOCRAT SHOULD RESIGN FROM THE SENATE! The former president asked, Why doesnt the FBI raid Senate Democrats' homes like they searched Mar-a-Lago?

Of course, the court did authorize an FBI search of Menendezs home, but Trump carefully avoided any focus on the indicted senator. Trump and his advisers may appreciate that Menendez, by keeping his post, reinforces the former presidents narrative that its fine to run while under indictment, and even to serve if convicted and elected.

Or Trump may just want to distract attention from how Merrick Garlands Justice Department is an equal opportunity law enforcer for Democrats or Republicans against whom there is compelling evidence of criminality.

Menendezs current indictment is his second go-around facing federal corruption charges. In 2017, a jury hung in a prior trial. If you thought that Menendez, once tried, would be twice shy, youd be wrong.

But note: The allegations in his latest indictment are far more damning than in Menendezs first trial. Federal prosecutors do not include the kind of specificity thats in this indictment unless they have the evidence to support it.

Prosecutors apparently have inculpatory text messages that Menendez or his wife erased. How? The recipients didnt delete them. The indictment also reflects that the government has details of the discussions of pay to play between Menendez and his alleged bribers, as well as the senators disreputable actions that followed. Between the lines are signs of wires, phone taps or testimony from insiders.

One future witness is almost surely the advisor referred to in the indictment  probably an aide  who was allegedly a go-between in a questionable 2021 conversation with the soon-to-be U.S. attorney in New Jersey, whose appointment Menendez controlled.

Later, the indictment alleges, the advisor refused to play the middleman role when Menendez asked this person to have conversations that he or she felt crossed the line. The alleged attempts to influence criminal investigations also extended to the New Jersey state attorney generals office. Prosecutors from that office will also likely be witnesses.

So may the U.S. attorney in New Jersey, whom the Justice Department recused from the case of one of Menendezs co-conspirators because of Menendezs apparent approaches to him.

Further, the indictment states that Menendez used his power and authority to facilitate  sales and financing [of military arms to Egypt] in exchange for bribes. He is supposed to have done that through co-defendant Wael Hana, who had introduced Menendezs wife to an Egyptian intelligence officer. Sen. Menendez is also alleged to have disclosed to Hana non-public information about United States provision of military aid to Egypt.

Then there are allegations of Menendez attempting to interfere when the Department of Agriculture objected to one of his alleged co-conspirators price-gouging on halal meat sales because he had a monopoly. Thats the way graft works. Corrupt vendors pass on to consumers the cost of the bribes theyve had to pay. Move over, Boss Tweed. Question: What kind of government official keeps gold bars at home after allegedly sharing nonpublic national security information with someone known to be in contact with a foreign intelligence service? Answer: A government official who should resign.
DETROIT (AP)  The United Auto Workers union said Wednesday it has reached a tentative contract agreement with Ford that could be a breakthrough toward ending the nearly 6-week-old strikes against Detroit automakers.

The four-year deal, which still has to be approved by 57,000 union members at the company, could bring a close to the unions series of strikes at targeted factories run by Ford, General Motors and Jeep maker Stellantis.

The Ford deal could set the pattern for agreements with the other two automakers, where workers will remain on strike. The UAW called on all workers at Ford to return to their jobs and said that will put pressure on GM and Stellantis to bargain. Announcements on how to do that will come later.

We told Ford to pony up, and they did, President Shawn Fain said in a video address to members. We won things no one thought possible. He added that Ford put 50% more money on the table than it did before the strike started on Sept. 15.

UAW Vice President Chuck Browning, the chief negotiator with Ford, said workers will get a 25% general wage increase, plus cost of living raises that will put the pay increase over 30%, to above $40 per hour for top-scale assembly plant workers by the end of the contract.

Previously Ford, Stellantis and General Motors had all offered 23% pay increases. When the talks started Ford offered 9%.

Assembly workers will get 11% upon ratification, almost equal to all of the wage increases workers have seen since 2007, Browning said.

Typically, during past auto strikes, a UAW deal with one automaker has led to the other companies matching it with their own settlements.

GM said in a statement it is "working constructively" with the union to reach an agreement as soon as possible. Stellantis also said it's committed to reaching a deal that gets everyone back to work as soon as possible.

Browning said temporary workers will get more in wage increases than they have over the past 22 years combined. Temporary workers will get raises over 150% and retirees will get annual bonuses, he said.

Thanks to the power of our members on the picket line and the threat of more strikes to come, we have won the most lucrative agreement per member since Walter Reuther was president, Browning said. Reuther led the union from 1946 until his death in 1970.

Fain said that the unions national leadership council of local union presidents and bargaining chairs will travel Sunday to Detroit, where theyll get a presentation on the agreement and vote on whether to recommend it to members. Sunday evening the union will host a Facebook Live video appearance and later will hold regional meetings to explain the deal to members.

While on the picket line at Fords Michigan Assembly Plant west of Detroit Wednesday night, local union leaders invited workers across the road to the union hall for a briefing on the deal. As they trickled out of the building, many were smiling and most were relieved.

Its an emotional time for me. Im emotional, worker Keith Jurgelewicz said as his eyes welled up with tears. But just super excited that this is over with. I just cant wait to get back to work and just get on with my life.

Jurgelewicz said he is happy that the end of the strike came during his shift on the picket lines, where he has faithfully appeared for all of his shifts.

Hopefully, GM and Stellantis can get their deals done.  Historic day for us, he said.

In a statement, President Joe Biden, who had visited GM picketers near Detroit early in the strikes and has billed himself the most union-friendly president in American history, praised the settlement. Ive always believed the middle class built America and unions built the middle class, Biden said. This tentative agreement is a testament to the power of employers and employees coming together to work out their differences at the bargaining table in a manner that helps businesses succeed while helping workers secure pay and benefits they can raise a family on.

Workers with pensions also will see increases for when they retire, and those hired after 2007 with 401(k) plans will get large increases, Browning said. For the first time, the union will have the right to go on strike over company plans to close factories, he said.

That means they can't keep devastating our communities and closing plants with no consequences, Browning said. Together we have made history.

Ford said it is pleased to have reached the deal, and said it would focus on restarting the huge Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville, as well as the Chicago Assembly Plant. The Louisville plant alone employs 8,700 workers and makes high profit heavy duty F-Series pickup trucks and big truck-based SUVs.

In all, 20,000 workers will be coming back on the job and shipping the companys full lineup of vehicles to customers, Ford said.

Fords statement made no mention of the cost of the contract. Company executives said last week they were at the limit of what they could pay while still being able to invest in new vehicles and the transition from internal combustion to electric vehicles. All three companies have said they don't want to be saddled with high labor costs that could limit their ability to invest in future vehicles and potentially force them to raise prices.

This agreement sets us on a new path to make things right at Ford, at the Big Three, and across the auto industry. Together, we are turning the tide for the working class in this country, Fain said.
The Israeli government criticized Russia for hosting a Hamas delegation in Moscow for alleged diplomatic talks regarding the hostages kept in Gaza.

Delegates from the Palestinian militant group arrived in Moscow as announced by the Russian Foreign Ministry on Thursday evening. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova confirmed the news during a weekly briefing.

Hamas Delegation Arrives in Moscow

The situation comes as Moscow had not previously announced plans for talks with the Hamas militant group. The latter launched an attack on Israel on Oct. 7 that prompted an unrelenting bombardment of the Gaza Strip by the Israeli military.

There were reports that Moussa Abu Marzouk, a senior militant organization member, led the Hamas delegation. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov previously said that Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas was planning to travel to Moscow for diplomatic talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin "soon."

It was later reported that Hamas had met with Boganov and that the delegates commended Putin's position and the efforts of Russia's diplomacy. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was visiting Minsk at the time, as per The Moscow Times.

The Kremlin said that it continues to maintain ties with both the Hamas militant group and Israel to mediate the war between the two sides. Moscow plans to delicately manage the situation to retain its influence in the Middle East.

The Hamas militant group's visit to Russia this week is the first the organization has had since it launched its surprise attack on Israel earlier this month. Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani joined the visit to Russia.

The situation comes as Putin has called for Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, which he said should create an independent Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital. Hamas responded that it welcomed Moscow's "tireless efforts to stop Israel's aggression."

On the other hand, United States President Joe Biden condemned Hamas' and Putin's actions during a speech. He said that the attacks on Israel, as well as the invasion of Ukraine, share common motives on the global stage, according to Yahoo News.

Read Also: Gaza Fuel Supplies May Halt Delivery of Aids as Hospitals Become 'Mass Graves'

Discussions Regarding Gaza Hostages

The Israeli government also called the Hamas delegates and Russian officials meeting an "obscene step." It also called on Moscow to immediately expel the Hamas terrorists, as revealed by a statement issued by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The talks allegedly focus on the release of foreign hostages who were taken during the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. The Israeli government added that there are at least six hostages still under Hamas custody who have Russian citizenship.

Israel's Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson, Lior Haiat, released a statement on Thursday on X, formerly known as Twitter. He said that Tel Aviv saw the meeting in Moscow as Moscow offering its support to terrorism and allegedly trying to legitimize the atrocities of Hamas terrorists.

The statement added that the Hamas militant group is a terrorist organization worse than ISIS. It added that the hands of senior Hamas officials were already stained with the blood of more than 1,400 Israelis who were slaughtered, murdered, executed, and burned, said Newsweek.

Related Article: Israel Executes Another Raid into Gaza

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Dmitry Medvedev writes:

Israel keeps postponing its ground operation in Gaza. Mostly under pressure from the United States and fearing global anger.

But do not flatter yourself. The operation will take place, and will result in the most serious bloody consequences. Moloch always demands more and more victims, and the machine of mutual violence will now work for years.

In addition, the West is very tired of Ukraine. And he enthusiastically took up the support of Israel. Even the new speaker of the US House of Representatives, Michael Jackson (sorry, Mike Johnson, although what difference does it make), called helping Tel Aviv his first business.

Or maybe its better to resume the Middle East settlement process and finally try to implement UN Security Council Resolution No. 242 of 11/22/67? Or even the original Plan for the partition of Palestine, adopted on November 29, 1947 by UNGA Resolution No. 181?

Those questions are, of course, rhetorical. After all, it is much more interesting to divide the loot for someone elses war away from the USA. The war must go on

WtR
A 46-year-old Winona man was arrested Tuesday for arson after police say he started a dumpster on fire on the 800 block of East 10th Street.

Officers had responded at 1:41 p.m. to a residence after two people working on renovations at the home reported that a man  later identified as Patrick Matthew Smith  had approached them and asked if they had seen a cellphone that had been plugged into an exterior outlet.

The two workers reportedly told Smith they had seen the cellphone a day or two before and turned it over to the propertys owner, who did not know who it belonged to and dropped it off at a Verizon store.

Smith reportedly became upset at the workers for taking the phone and then left the property.

About an hour later, the workers told police they had heard a commotion outside and witnessed Smith pour a liquid from a milk jug into the dumpster and then use a lighter to ignite the dumpster on fire.

When officers and the fire department arrived on the scene, the workers provided a description of Smith, who was later found intoxicated in the area and arrested.

Smith was arrested for fifth degree arson and a probation violation for consuming alcohol.

The content in the dumpster was burned, but no other damage to property was reported.
A Prairie du Sac insurance provider which began in a village house celebrated 100 years in business on Wednesday.

Schwarz Insurance started on Feb. 12, 1923 at Raymond R.J. Schwarzs residence on Prairie Avenue in Prairie du Sac as a personal, small business and farm insurance provider. Today, the company, which is operated by Schwarzs granddaughter, president and CEO Kathy Schwarz. It has seven locations throughout Wisconsin, employs roughly 50 really educated people, Schwarz said, and provides insurance coverage in a wide range of areas.

The company website indicates that Schwarz now offers coverage for business, employee, home, auto, health, agribusiness, bonds, life and finances. Supplemental insurance is offered as well.

Just being agile is how weve been able to grow and serve, Kathy Schwarz said. It has just evolved. You name it, we can do it.

R.J. Schwarzs son, Don  Kathys father  joined Schwarz insurance in 1955, and Bob, Dons brother, joined three years later. Kathy Schwarz said her father and uncle expanded the companys business and farm insurance offerings, respectively.

The company opened a larger office in 1970 at 350 Prairie St. in downtown Prairie du Sac and purchased a facility outside of the area in 1986 when it acquired the former Bettinger-Neider insurance agency in Spring Green. One year later, Kathy Schwarz joined the company and operated from Baraboo.

In 1989, Schwarz Insurance purchased the Daehling Agency in Lodi. Five years later, the company extended north, purchasing four agencies in Marshfield and condensing into one centralized location. The provider then opened in Richland Center in 1998, and Pardeeville at the beginning of 2023.

The current Schwarz Insurance headquarters opened in 2012 and is located off of Highway 78 at 1420 N Ridge Drive in Prairie du Sac.

What has set us apart from some of my competition is we have customers that, for a long time, generations of people, have come here for insurance, Kathy Schwarz said. One of the keys to our success is that people can come here and get the advice on any section of the business.

Schwarz said clients have added more insurance services over the years and health plans through the company increased greatly after the passage of the Affordable Care Act and the resulting insurance exchanges.
Wisconsins top election official, who Senate Republicans voted to fire last month, will remain as the Wisconsin Elections Commissions administrator until a court rules on the status of her position, a Dane County Circuit Court judge ordered Friday.

In new court filings, Judge Ann Peacock ruled that the Senates Sept. 14 vote to remove Wolfe from office, which was held despite widespread disagreement over whether Wolfes appointment was legally before the Legislature, and a subsequent resolution passed by the chamber ordering the bipartisan commission to appoint a replacement administrator have no legal effect.

Any further actions by the Legislature to remove or attempt to remove Meagan Wolfe from the Administrator position, including appointing an interim Administrator to the Wisconsin Elections Commission, do not have legal effect, subject to a final decision of this Court, Peacock wrote.

Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul filed the lawsuit shortly after Senate Republicans voted to reject Wolfes reappointment as the commissions nonpartisan administrator, a vote taken to effectively remove her from office. Kaul has argued Wolfes appointment was not legally before the Legislature because the commission did not secure the four votes needed to send the matter to the Legislature.

Earlier this month, attorneys representing Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester; Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg; and Senate President Chris Kapenga, R-Delafield, conceded in court filings the vote was symbolic and meant to signal disapproval of Administrator Wolfes performance.

Attorneys went on to state that the vote thus had no legal effect on Administrator Wolfes status as a lawful holdover.

Peacocks order affirms that the commission is permitted to recognize Meagan Wolfe as the lawful holder of the Administrator position, vested with the full authority of that office and entitled to the privileges thereof, and employ her in that position, pending a final ruling. Wolfe has said she plans to stay in her role until a court rules on the matter.

The Republican leaders have asked the court to require the six-member bipartisan commission to promptly appoint an administrator for the four-year term beginning on July 1, 2023, the date Wolfes appointment expired irrespective of whether a vacancy exists.

Peacock said she agrees with the commissions argument that the public expects stability in its elections system and this injunction will provide stability pending the Courts final decision.

Legislative Republicans have targeted Wolfe 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.

GOP criticism over the states 2020 election has been largely 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.

The 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 voted to nominate her, and the three Democratic members abstained.

Senate Republicans said the deadlocked vote actually constituted a majority since the three commissioners who cast votes voted in favor of appointing her.

Joseph Czarnezki was one of the commissions three Democratic members to abstain from voting on Wolfes appointment, something Sen. Dan Knodl, R-Germantown, called a clear dereliction of duty.

Czarnezki was one of eight of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers appointees to be fired on Oct. 17 when Senate Republicans voted to reject those appointments. Shortly after the vote, Evers appointed former Eau Claire city clerk Carrie Riepl to fill the commissions vacant seat.
What do we expect from a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice? Do we expect honoring the rule of law, and striving for impartiality? One who will remember that lady justice with her scales wears a blindfold?

Conversely, should we expect and demand activism from our courts? That a justice be placed in a position to carry out a known agenda of seeking to pursue vengeance from a perceived wrong?

If you chose the former, you likely supported former Justice Dan Kelly in last springs monumental state Supreme Court election. Kelly would talk at length about impartiality, the rule of law, and other ethical constraints placed upon justices when deciding cases. His opponent, the winner of that election, now Justice Janet Protasiewicz, showed her intent throughout the campaign. Her election ostensibly flipped control from the more conservative justices to the liberal activist wing of the court.

Seizing the new and ripe opportunity for activism, several groups wasted no time in filing major lawsuits, knowing with Protasiewicz on the bench, theyd receive favorable treatment as the actions made their way to the Supreme Court.

The most prominent action to date surrounds a lawsuit filed the day after Protasiewicz was sworn in, seeking to redraw state legislative maps. During the campaign, Protasiewicz commented the newest maps were rigged and unfair. An Oct. 6 Associated Press story said the Supreme Court, by virtue of the new liberal majority, agreed to hear the case that contends current districts are not contiguous. Somewhat ironically, the city of Madison is littered with little pockets of other municipalities, creating several of these anomalies.

Republicans have logically contended, based on Protasiewiczs continual comments regarding her dislike for the current maps, that she should recuse herself from hearing the case. She long ago determined the current maps are rigged, so how can she now contend shell be impartial? It takes an unprecedented level of hubris to stump the state promising youll fight against what you perceive to be gerrymandered maps, and then say in that same AP story she never made a promise or pledge about how she would rule on the cases.

Protasiewicz, while taking $10 million from the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, successfully made the Supreme Court election about abortion rights, legislative maps, and seeking to undo any of the conservative reforms Republicans implemented since taking legislative control in 2011. She was elected to implement an agenda to circumvent the Republican-controlled state Legislature. Plain and simple. Democrats are expecting results.

Lost in the hubbub about maps is the fact Republicans garnered significant majorities (60-39 Assembly, 19-14 Senate) in the 2010 election, based on maps drawn by Democrats. No areas of the state are as red as areas of Milwaukee and Madison are blue. Typically, there are fewer Republican candidates for Assembly across the state than Democrats because of those deep-blue areas, leading to more overall Democratic votes for Assembly statewide.

Quote Box Can you imagine the outrage and furor if Protasiewicz used an impartial approach, and decided the current maps are legitimate? The left would be apoplectic.

The 2011 maps survived a U.S. Supreme Court challenge in Gill v. Whitford. The current maps survived a test in Johnson v. WEC. These maps have been adjudicated, and progressives have been turned away. No reason to re-litigate unless youve got your fingers on the scales of justice.

The case asks for all 132 legislative seats to be up for grabs in 2024 in newly-drawn districts, rather than all 99 Assembly seats, and even numbered Senate Districts. This is beyond the pale. We split the elections of the State Senate on purpose, and Senators not up for election contend with changes in their district boundaries amid their terms. The 2024 election would be a veritable mess for both parties, and more importantly, the voters of Wisconsin.

Can you imagine the outrage and furor if Protasiewicz used an impartial approach, and decided the current maps are legitimate? The left would be apoplectic. The outcome is assured.

Lady justice wears a blindfold, and justices are compelled to review cases on their legal merit, not individual biases. There is still time. Justice Protasiewicz miserably fails the test of impartiality and should recuse herself from this case for her continual commentary of bias toward the maps. The people of Wisconsin deserve better.
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Tang Hongbo becomes first taikonaut to revisit Tiangong space station

People's Daily Online) 09:52, October 27, 2023

Taikonaut Tang Hongbo entered space on the Shenzhou-17 crewed spaceship on Oct. 26, becoming the first taikonaut to return to the Tiangong space station with the shortest interval between crewed spaceflight missions to date.

For Tang, 48, the Shenzhou-17 mission is both a trip of exploration and "homecoming".

The veteran mission commander was born in 1975 in Xiangtan, central China's Hunan Province. At the age of 18, he told his father that he wanted to be a military aviator, and received strong support for this dream from his parents.

Chinese taikonauts Tang Hongbo (C), Tang Shengjie (R) and Jiang Xinlin attend a see-off ceremony at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, Oct. 26, 2023. (Photo: China News Service/Wang Jiangbo)

Fortunately, he was admitted by a flight academy of the PLA Air Force and became a pilot after graduation.

After eight years of training, he was promoted to the head of a flight group thanks to his outstanding performance.

"I like hearing the roar of jet engines taking off, and I enjoy maneuvering the plane through the cloudsthere's something so wonderful about gliding through the sky," he said.

In 2010, Tang was selected as one of China's second batch of reserve taikonauts. However, he found there was a huge difference between being a pilot and a taikonaut. The hundreds of training courses that taikonauts must complete were a big challenge for his learning abilities, and pushed him to his physiological and psychological limits.

The weightlessness training was initially a hurdle Tang could not overcome. For a time, he became agitated and restless as soon as he put on the training suit. However, after repeated practice and adjustments, he gradually became comfortable with the training. Eventually, he was able to push past the hurdle that the training had posed.

Photo shows Tang Hongbo during underwater weightlessness training

In June 2021, he entered space for the first time with the Shenzhou-12 mission crew, after waiting and preparing for this day for 11 years.

"I want to be a better version of myself, striving to be slightly better everyday. As I once said, in order to grow upwards, one must first establish strong roots downwards," said Tang.

Tang said his days in the space station were busy but fulfilling. He said that during that period, he would plan out the entire day's work immediately after getting up. His longest workday lasted 17 hours. Despite the gruelling workload, he had to stay focused and alert at all times.

He said he always watched the Earth from the space station during the mission. "Once a land of poverty and weakness, China now shines as the brightest and most beautiful place on this planet. I truly feel proud and honored for our great motherland," he said.

During their three-month stay in the space, the crew set up the space station's working and living quarters, maintained its operations, carried out two extravehicular activities, conducted scientific experiments and tested new technologies, laying crucial groundwork for the space station's construction and operations.

As Tang completed his mission and prepared to depart from the space station, he was struck by a sense of reluctance. "Before I left, I stayed a while in the core module of the space station, thinking that I would definitely come back," he said.

Now, he really has come back to his "home in space."

As the mission commander this time, Tang knows that the Shenzhou-17 mission is more challenging and the tasks more complicated, because now the space station comes with a three-module configuration, while there was only one core module when Tang joined the Shenzhou-12 mission.

Over the past year or more, Tang and two other taikonauts from the crew have gone through frequent training exercises on the ground. He said that only with solid ground training can taikonauts do well in space.

"In space flight, danger is everywhere. You could say taikonauts have to keep one eye open even while sleeping," Tang noted.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
A federal judge ruled on Thursday that Georgia's congressional map was in violation of the Voting Rights Act and ordered a redraw of the map.

Georgia has become the latest Southern state to have its map struck down for allegedly discriminating against Black voters. The judge in the case ordered the state legislature to redraw the lines by early December.

Georgia's Congressional Map

The ruling would most likely be appealed by Georgia Republicans and it could lead to the creation of an additional majority-Black district in the state. However, the immediate partisan effects of such a development are not clear.

In his decision, district court Judge Steve C. Jones said that Georgia had made great strides since 1965 toward equality in voting. However, he added that evidence before the court showed that the state has not yet reached the point where the political process has equal openness and equal opportunity for everyone.

The judge's lengthy opinion noted that Black voters' power had been diluted following extensive population growth in Georgia that has been disproportionately powered by Black residents. The remedy that Jones ordered should involve the creation of "an additional majority-Black congressional district in west-metro Atlanta," as per Politico.

Jones gave the GOP-controlled state legislature until Dec. 8 to enact a new map that would comply with the Voting Rights Act. This could be done by giving more power to Black voters in the state.

If the state is found to be unable or unwilling to comply with the order, the court will draw the lines itself. On Thursday, GOP Gov. Brian Kemp issued a proclamation that called the legislature into special session on Nov. 29 to handle redistricting.

Georgia's current delegation has nine Republicans and five Democrats following the latest round of redistricting. It represented a one-seat GOP gain compared to before the decennial redistricting process.

Read Also: Here's Why Joe Biden Will Not File for New Hampshire's Democratic Primary Ballot

Supporting Black Voters

The federal judge's ruling is among several legal and political fights that are underway in nearly a dozen states. The situation could determine whether or not the GOP retains its narrow majority in the U.S. House after next year's elections, according to CNN.

Democratic lawmakers and voting rights groups immediately hailed Jones' ruling in the matter. The chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Georgia, U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, called the decision a "resounding victory" for democracy.

In a statement, Williams said that Republicans knew they could not win on their ideas alone so they resorted to redrawing the maps in their favor instead. She added that Jones' decision confirms what Georgia Democrats have already known, which is that the state's Republicans' attempts to hold power via voter suppression and racial gerrymandering will not stand.

The federal judge's ruling on the matter follows an eight-day September trial where the plaintiffs argued that Black voters are still fighting opposition from white voters. They said that the Black voters need federal help in order to get a fair shot. On the other hand, the state argued that court intervention on behalf of Black voters was not needed, said the Associated Press.

Related Article: Mike Johnson Elected as New Republican House Speaker After Tumultuous Voting

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President Joe Biden wasnt successful in unseating New Hampshire from the first-in-the-nation primary slot it has held for more than a century, but his decision not to appear on the states 2024 primary ballot has nonetheless added a new wrinkle to the contest and created complications for his campaign, state election officials and voters
FILE - The al-Tanf military outpost in southern Syria is seen on Oct. 22, 2018. Two U.S. officials told The Associated Press that the al-Tanf garrison, where U.S. troops have maintained a presence to train forces as part of a broad campaign against the Islamic State group, was attacked by drones on Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023. One official said one drone was shot down, but another caused minor injuries. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter before an official announcement about the incident. (AP Photo/Lolita Baldor, File)
Not all U.S. cities are created equal  or even close to it  when it comes to optimal living for veterans. As service members transition into civilian life, and others consider moving to more veteran-friendly cities, there are many factors to consider.



You can subscribe here to AARP Veteran Report, a free e-newsletter published twice a month. If you have feedback or a story idea then please contact us here.

High-quality health care, social networks tailored to veterans and proximity to a military installation all lead to a more robust veteran community and resources, according to Dr. Laura Purdy, an Army veteran and former battlefield surgeon who is now a psychologist and digital health physician.

Theres plenty of room for debate, but here are the top 7, based on canvassing of our AARP community representatives and advocates.

AARP Membership Join AARP for $12 for your first year when you sign up for Automatic Renewal. Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP The Magazine. Join Now

Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina

Veterans looking for a strong employment market can look no further than this warm Southern town. WalletHub ranked it number 1 for employment, based on share of military-skill-related jobs, veteran unemployment rate, job growth and veteran-owned businesses per veteran population. Durham is also home to VA initiatives such as a research program aimed at optimizing wellness and independence.

The George Washington Monument is seen from the Capitol Building grounds in Raleigh, North Carolina. Getty Images

Veterans can earn a steady paycheck in this area and engage in activities at North Carolina military bases. Troy Broussard, senior advisor to AARPs Veterans and Military Families initiative, added that being near a major airport is a big plus.

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Home to the 193rd Special Operations Wing of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard, this city is a must-consider for veterans hoping to be in the heart of a supportive military community. Its also at the intersection of Fort Indiantown Gap, Naval Support Activity Mechanicsburg and the Army War College in Carlisle.

There is a heavy presence of veterans, active duty and military support personnel in the Harrisburg area and its immediate surroundings. Its just close enough to the Washington, D.C., metro area to travel there if needed yet has a much lower cost of living. Harrisburg is also accessible to Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New York and Baltimore.

An old railroad trestle has been made into a pedestrian walkway in Clarksville, Tennessee. Getty Images

Clarksville, Tennessee

Check out this military-supportive suburb outside of Nashville. Near Fort Campbell, residents have that patriotic vibe, even from the city and county mayors. Local businesses partner with Fort Campbell, home of 101st Airborne Division, 5th Special Forces Group and the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, and organizations such as the F&M Bank have a department dedicated to taking care of veterans.

In addition, the Montgomery County Veterans Coalition supports active military, veteran-owned businesses and veterans, providing and connecting them to many programs and services.


Quarterly Activities Report

Perth, Oct 27, 2023 AEST (ABN Newswire) - BPH Energy Limited ( ASX:BPH ) now has an interest of 15.6% and Advent has an interest of 3.9% interest in Clean Hydrogen.



Clean Hydrogen has also issued 760 share options to BPH and 190 share options to Advent, with an exercise price of USD$3,000 each, exercisable immediately, with the option to convert into shares in Clean Hydrogen expiring ten years from the date of issue.



The parties acknowledge and agree that the Cash Consideration and Additional Cash Consideration shall be used by Clean Hydrogen to design, build, produce and test a reactor that can produce a minimum of 3.2kgs and as high as 15kgs of hydrogen per hour and to submit at least 2 new patents in an agreed geography, relevant to the production of hydrogen from proprietary technology.



Advent Energy Limited ("Advent")



PEP 11 Permit



Advent Energy Limited's (BPH 35.8% direct interest) 100% subsidiary Asset Energy Pty Ltd is a participant in the PEP11 Joint Venture with partner Bounty Oil and Gas NL ( ASX:BUY ). PEP 11 interests are:



Advent Energy 85 %

Bounty Oil and Gas 15%



On 14 July 2023 the Hon Chris Bowen, Minister for Climate Change and Energy, gazeted/designated an area of the Pacific Ocean area off the Hunter Region of NSW as suitable for offshore wind energy development and that it would be open for industry to develop wind farms (Declared Wind Area). It will become Australia's second official offshore wind energy zone.



Having reviewed the PEP 11 seismic data and the drill data from the Seaclem 1 well the Declared Wind Area does not materially impact the PEP 11 Title or the main PEP 11 target areas.



Cortical Dynamics Limited ("Cortical")



Investee Cortical Dynamics Limited is an Australian based medical device neurotechnology company that is developing BARM(TM), an industry leading EEG (electrical activity) brain function monitor. BARM(TM) is being developed to better detect the effect of anaesthetic agents on brain activity under a general operation, aiding anaesthetists in keeping patients optimally anaesthetised, and complemented by CORDYAN(TM) (Cortical Dynamics Analytics), a proprietary deep learning system/App focusing on anaesthesiology.



In September 2023 Cortical secured FDA 510(k) clearance in the USA for its flagship technology, the Brain Anaesthesia Response Monitor or BARM(TM) system version 1. The Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") is the federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services which regulates the sale of medical device products (including diagnostic tests) in the U.S. and monitors the safety of all regulated medical products. FDA approval is a necessary precursor for sales of BARM(TM) to commence in the USA.



*To view the full quarterly report, please visit:

https://abnnewswire.net/lnk/22549Q57





About BPH Energy Limited





BPH Energy Limited (ASX:BPH) is an Australian Securities Exchange listed company developing biomedical research and technologies within Australian Universities and Hospital Institutes.

The company provides early stage funding, project management and commercialisation strategies for a direct collaboration, a spin out company or to secure a license.

BPH provides funding for commercial strategies for proof of concept, research and product development, whilst the institutional partner provides infrastructure and the core scientific expertise.

BPH currently partners with several academic institutions including The Harry Perkins Institute for Medical Research and Swinburne University of Technology (SUT).

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(Photo : Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images)

NIR YITZHAK, ISRAEL - OCTOBER 25: Shot through shattered glass frame bloody footprints staining on the floor after Hamas militants shot at civilians, sitting on their couch before they ran to the safe room, where they were killed, in homes two weeks earlier near the border with Gaza on October 25, 2023 in Nir Yitzhak, Israel. In the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas that left 1,400 dead and 200 kidnapped, Israel launched a sustained bombardment of the Gaza Strip and threatened a ground invasion to vanquish the militant group that governs the Palestinian territory. But the fate of the hostages, Israelis and foreign nationals who are being held by Hamas in Gaza, as well as international pressure over the humanitarian situation in Gaza, have complicated Israel's military response to the attacks. A timeline for a proposed ground invasion remains unclear.

A Filipino caregiver, Camille Jesalva, saved her 95-year-old employer, Nitza Hefetz, as she risked her life and gave all her savings to the Hamas gunmen who attacked their home at Kibbutz Nirim.

On Wednesday, Aviva Klompas, a former speechwriter for Israeli delegates to the United Nations and a communication strategist for different Jewish communities worldwide, posted Jesalva's story on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Jesalva Saves Hefetz

On October 7, Hamas militants barged into Hefetz's home with Jesalva, and they could have been killed or taken hostage. But Jesalva offered her $370 (P21,000) savings to the gunmen, which she planned to give to her family in the Philippines when she returned.

"I opened my wallet and told him to take everything I had, NIS 1,500 ($370), just to save myself and Nitza," Jesalva quoted, as The Times of Israel reported.

Jesalva showed her plane ticket and said they could take everything but not her ticket as she booked an October 9 flight to the Philippines to be with her 7-year-old son, whom she had not seen for almost two years.

Hefetz tried to protest during the conversation between Jesalva and the gunmen. But Jesalva told Hefetz to stay quiet, and she saw the gunmen were also nervous.

According to Inquirer.Net, Jesalva defended Hefetz and told the gunmen to understand Hefetz as she was already old and barely understood anything. Fortunately, the gunmen left with the money and Jesalva's phone.

Jesalva locked herself with Hefetz in a protected room and hugged the 95-year-old for about two hours until Israeli defense forces arrived. She was so scared and thought she was going to die that day, so she messaged her mother and asked to send a picture of his son.

Read Also: US Space Force to Propose $8 Billion Nuclear-Survivable Satellite System-What To Know About ESS

Jesalva Express Gratefulness for Second Life

Jesalva's story was confirmed to the Inquirer by the Consul General of the Philippine Embassy in Tel Aviv, Anthony Mandap.

Mandap said that Jesalva canceled her flight to the Philippines after the incident. However, Jesalva is looking forward to going home in a month. Jesalva continued to work for Hefetz and said she could not leave Hefetz alone.

"I feel that I cannot leave her. I feel that she is my best friend," she said. On October 22, Jesalva celebrated Nitza's 95th birthday at the Nofim home for older people in Jerusalem and posted a photo together on her Facebook page.

She said that this is a new life and season for them. She thanked God for her second life and cannot wait to visit his son soon.

Klompas described Jesalva as extraordinary and heroic. She added that if there were more people like Jesalva, then maybe the world could have been a better place. Hefetz's daughter, Yael Arieli, praised and thanked Jesalva for saving her mother's life. Arieli also called her an "angel."

Related Article: 2 Filipinos Confirmed Dead in Israel-Hamas War, Officials Say





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The 'Real Housewives of New Jersey' alum and his fiancee finally got married on Wednesday, October 24, months after they confirmed their engagement.

Oct 27, 2023

AceShowbiz - Congratulations are in order for Albie Manzo and Chelsea DeMonaco. "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" alum and his fiancee finally tied the knot in an Italian wedding on Wednesday, October 25.

The 37-year-old and his now-wife broke the exciting news by reposting photos of their nuptials shared by their loved ones. For the ceremony, the groom wore a black tux paired with a multicolored boutonniere. The bride, in the meantime, looked stunning in a white lace gown that featured a structured, corset bodice with bishop sleeves, a long train and a dramatic sheer veil.

Of the wedding, a source told PEOPLE, "It was the most beautiful wedding I've ever been to." The source added, "They are the definition of true love. The venue was like a quaint, romantic fairy tale in the Italian countryside overlooking the hills of Umbria."

According to the insider, "Albie, his best man and brother Chris, the maid of honor Lauren and the flower girls were all in tears of joy" as the bride came down the aisle. Officiating the wedding was the newlyweds' close family friend, Urbano.

Albie and Chelsea began dating in 2019. The couple announced their engagement back in April, with Chelsea wrote, "To an unforgettable night surrounded by all our loved ones. Also big shout out to Big Al for taking the hit on what was supposed to be his birthday dinner celebration. Promise we will gift you with some gran babies eventually."

Albie's mom, Caroline Manzo, also expressed her excitement in her own post. "She said YES!!!! Congratulations to @albiemanzo and @chelseademonaco on their engagement! We love you both to bits and are excited for this new chapter in all of our lives. Wedding bells will be ringing!!!!" the reality star gushed at the time.

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Having portrayed the late British monarch twice in a 2006 movie and 2013 West End show, the 'Woman in Gold' actress decided she's done playing the royal.

Oct 27, 2023

AceShowbiz - Helen Mirren said it wouldn't have been a "good move" professionally if she'd played Queen Elizabeth in "The Crown". The 78-year-old actress initially played the British monarch in 2006 movie "The Queen" before reluctantly reprising the role in 2013 for West End show "The Audience", and though she was offered the chance to work with writer Peter Morgan again on his Netflix regal drama, she knew it wouldn't be a good idea.

"It was for the same reasons. I walked into rehearsal rooms for 'The Audience' thinking I've decided that I'm not going to do this. It's not a good move for me, really, for personal, selfish, stupid, actress-y reasons, I need to keep changing the story," she told Variety of turning down "The Crown".

Netflix boss Ted Sarandos revealed he was in touch with Helen for a long time about her joining the series as the final incantation of the late monarch - a role which ultimately went to Imelda Staunton - but he "never tell how much of it was real or how much of it was kidding between us all."

Ted recalled running into the "Red" actress at the Ischia Film Festival in Italy in 2015, where he took a photo of himself throwing money at Helen and sent it to Peter as a joke. He remembered. "I just said, 'You know, it's inevitable that you're coming back to do this, right?' And we all laughed about it."

The Oscar-winning star admitted she'd already had "big resistance" to playing the queen again in "The Audience". She said, "It's dangerous to repeat performances. It becomes the sole thing on your gravestone."

But as a favour to Peter, she agreed to do a read-through while he was workshopping the script and ultimately realised she "had" to accept the role. She said, "At the end of it, I sat back and I looked at Peter Morgan, one of the greatest, most prolific writers in the English language today, and Stephen Daldry, one of the greatest directors, and I thought, 'Are you a f****** idiot?' - excuse my language - 'Of course you're going to do this.' "

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The former 'Happy Days' actor explains why he turned down the lead role in Olivia Newton-John's classic movie as he felt 'dumb' for passing up the opportunity.

Oct 27, 2023

AceShowbiz - Henry Winkler really regrets turning down the part of Danny Zuko in "Grease". The 77-year-old actor was famous for playing The Fonz in classic sitcom "Happy Days" when he was offered the part of high school student Danny - which eventually went to John Travolta - in the 1978 movie musical and admitted he had "so many sleepless nights" worrying about being typecast.

"I was dumb. I spent so much energy, so much time - I spent so many sleepless nights thinking, how do I not get typecast? You go with the flow. What you do is you prepare to reinvent yourself. You do something completely different and then come back to center," he said in an excerpt from his upcoming memoir "Being Henry: The Fonz and Beyond".

The Emmy Award-winning star went on to add that he had spent "most of his adult life being frighted" but as he reflects on the years gone by now he has come to the conclusion that he must be "grateful" for the opportunities that have been presented to him.

He added, "I spent most of my adult life being frightened, on the outside looking like I had it together and mostly being anxious. The biggest lesson, I really now believe today in 2023 looking back, is not only must you be tenacious, not only must you be grateful, but you also have to be flexible."

"You have to take a leap of faith. You have to jump off the precipice and just trust you're going to fly, because there were so many years I was not hired as an actor. I have a family, I have a house. What am I going to do? And then somebody suggested I become a producer."

"I start off saying, 'I can't do it. I'm dyslexic. I have no idea what the business is. I can't do it.' And then finally you say, 'Oh, just shut up and try. So I think 'shut up and try' might be the most important lesson that I could pass on to somebody."

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The former star of 'Rob and Chyna' recalls how she actually found out that the 'Rack City' rapper cheated on her with the 'underage' cosmetics mogul, who was only 16 at the time.

Oct 27, 2023

AceShowbiz - Blac Chyna opened up about Tyga's betrayal during a new interview. The "Rob & Chyna" alum recalled how she actually found out that the "Rack City" rapper cheated on her with "underage" Kylie Jenner.

"I feel like it ran its course and then he started talking to Kylie at the time, which she was like, 16 or something," Blac, whose real name is Angela White, revealed during her appearance on Nick Viall's "The Viall Files" podcast on Thursday, October 26. She also confirmed that Tyga's affair with Kylie was the thing that ended her engagement to the rapper.

The former OnlyFans creator, who shares son King Cairo with Tyga, added that she learned about the latter's rumored romance with the Kylie Cosmetics founder "the same way everybody else did, the Internet."

Blac apparently didn't think it was serious until Tyga's friends kicked her out of his house. "It was actually when Tyga's friends threw me outside of his house. Yeah, they packed my stuff up and put it in my, well, his truck at the time," she recalled. "Packed it right on up and packed in the G wagon that he had given to me at the moment."

In the interview, the "Real Blac Chyna" alum also revealed that Tyga's relationship with Kylie put her in a more complicated spot as she's close with Kylie's sister Kim Kardashian. "Me and Kim, we were really good friends. I was on her show and all this stuff like that. We lived in the same community," she said. "And then her little sister started talking to Tyga, which was kinda crazy because she was underage and then everybody came at me and started attacking me."

The former stripper continued, "It's like, nobody's seen the betrayal that was going on behind my back. Kim, and then her little sister, who she has no control over, started talking to my fiance and then I get attacked. And it's like, how does that work?"

Not stopping there, things took a wilder turn when Kim and Kylie's brother Rob Kardashian approached her through Instagram DM in 2016. "What makes it even more wild is the thing with me and Rob after that. Because Rob hit me up on the DM, and it's like, 'OK, what do y'all want now?' " Blac told the host.

Not understanding what was going on, she added, "It was like, 'What are y'all trying to do to me now? Why is your brother in my DM?' " Blac then admitted that she found Rob, with whom she shares daughter Dream together, "actually really cool." She added, "We just fell in love and we had Dream."

Blac and Rob had a messy split a year later with Rob claiming that Blac did drug abuse, alcohol abuse and infidelity. She was even involved in a nasty legal battle with his family as she accused Kim, Kylie, Kris Jenner and Khloe Kardashian of orchestrating the cancellation of "Rob & Chyna". The Kardashian-Jenner was eventually found not guilty of defaming Blac in May 2022.

In her new interview, Blac noted that she and the Kardashian-Jenners are "in a great place now." Meanwhile, co-parenting relationship with Tyga was "good until recently this year."

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In an interview, series creator Peter Morgan says that critics, including Dame Judi Dench, will 'feel rather stupid' after watching the sixth and final season of the hit series.

Oct 27, 2023

AceShowbiz - "The Crown" creator Peter Morgan has commented on criticisms toward the Netflix show. In a new interview, Morgan shared that critics, including Dame Judi Dench, would "feel rather stupid" after watching the sixth and final season of the series.

"All the criticism about the 'The Crown' 's attitude to the royals comes in anticipation of the show coming out," Morgan told Variety. "The minute it's out and people look at it - whether it's Judi Dench or John Major - they instantly fall silent. And I think they probably feel rather stupid."

Morgan added that it's almost impossible to have a sensible conversation about "The Crown" in the U.K. "Everyone in Britain, whether they acknowledge it or not, has that level of sensitivity and attachment to this family, which is why it is an absolute minefield for dramatists to explore," Morgan explained. "And yet dramatists are born to write about kings and queens. That's what we do."

Dench put "The Crown" on blast back in October 2022 in an open letter to The Times U.K. In her letter, she wrote that "no one is a greater believer in artistic freedom" than her but "this cannot go unchallenged." She added, "The closer the drama comes to our present times, the more freely it seems willing to blur the lines between historical accuracy and crude sensationalism."

The actress playing Queen Victoria in 1997's "Mrs. Brown" and 2017's "Victoria & Abdul" noted that "while many will recognise 'The Crown' for the brilliant but fictionalized account of events that it is, I fear that a significant number of viewers, particularly overseas, may take its version of history as being wholly true."

"Given some of the wounding suggestions apparently contained in the new series - that King Charles plotted for his mother to abdicate, for example, or once suggested his mother's parenting was so deficient that she might have deserved a jail sentence - this is both cruelly unjust to the individuals and damaging to the institution they represent," Dench, who also portrayed Queen Elizabeth in 1998's "Shakespeare in Love", continued.

U.K. Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden was also among the critics, urging Netflix to put a disclaimer to the series since it's a work of fiction. "It's a beautifully produced work of fiction, so as with other TV productions, Netflix should be very clear at the beginning it is just that," Dowden said back in 2020. "Without this, I fear a generation of viewers who did not live through these events may mistake fiction for fact."

In response to the backlash, Netflix issued a statement at the time. "We have always presented 'The Crown' as a drama - and we have every confidence our members understand it's a work of fiction that's broadly based on historical events. As a result we have no plans - and see no need - to add a disclaimer," the statement read.

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The demise of Scarlet Witch at the end of 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness', however, does not completely shut the door on a potential return of Elizabeth Olsen's Wanda Maximoff.

Oct 27, 2023

AceShowbiz - MCU has finally set things straight. After months of speculation and debate about the fate of Scarlet Witch following her appearance in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness", she's now confirmed to be dead.

Marvel Studios ends the debate regarding Scarlet Witch's fate in the newly-released "The Marvel Cinematic Universe: An Official Timeline" book. According to the book, the mutant died at the end of the 2022 movie when she sacrificed herself for the greater good.

"[Wanda] destroys Wundagore - and collapses it upon herself - ending two great threats to all of the Multiverse," reads a passage in the book. The death of Scarlet Witch is listed among key events that take place in Fall 2024 alongside other events from "Multiverse of Madness.

While many fans have since mourned the demise of Scarlet Witch, a reliable scooper suggests she simply "ended the threat that she herself posed, NOT herself." Previously, it was said that the hero's fate will be addressed in a Special Presentation tied to "Agatha: Coven of Chaos" a.k.a. "Agatha: Darkhold Diaries" that's partially based on "The Witches' Road" storyline.

The death of Scarlet Witch, however, won't shut the door on a potential return of Elizabeth Olsen's character. As another movie blogger notes, "There is always the multiverse but the MCU Official Timeline book says this version is dead."

Indeed, in "Multiverse of Madness", there are two Wanda Maximoffs from different universes. The book says, "As the kindly 838-Wanda gathers the boys and assures the heartbroken Scarlet Witch they will be loved, the Wanda Maximoff of Universe-616 surrenders."

Besides solving the question regarding Scarlet Witch's fate, the book also fixes the timeline error that 2017's "Spider-Man: Homecoming" made following the flashback sequence at the beginning of the movie. The opening scene of "Homecoming" takes place immediately following the Battle of New York in "The Avengers" in 2012. The movie then shows an "8 Years Later" timecard, incorrectly placing the main events of Homecoming in 2020.

The book erases the eight-year time jump as it confirms that the opening flashback scene takes place in Spring 2012 while the rest of the movie unfolds in Fall 2016, which means that the movie only transitions four years from the opening scene.

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Shortly after denying speculations suggesting that she has eating disorders, the Danni Sullivan depicter on 'Scrubs' star explains why she looks 'a little too skinny' these days.

Oct 27, 2023

AceShowbiz - Tara Reid has blamed "getting a little older and fragile" for her skinnier look. Shortly after denying speculations suggesting that she has eating disorders, the actress portraying Danni Sullivan on "Scrubs" revealed the possible reason why she looked thinner than she used to.

The 47-year-old actress talked about her appearance with host Billy Bush in a new interview published by Extra on Thursday, October 26. During the chat, she revealed, "I would definitely say I've been through a lot of bullying in my life. It's usually about my body that I'm too skinny."

In response, host Billy Bush asked, "Are you too skinny?" She replied, "It's been going on for years, but there's no eating disorder I eat all the time - that's not a problem for me. You've known me for over 20 years, do I look any different?"

Upon learning that Tara wanted his "honest opinion," Billy candidly stated, "I think you look a little... too skinny. I'm gonna say that." In return, Tara pointed out, "Maybe because I'm getting a little older and fragile. That's what happens to older ladies."

In the same interview, Tara also opened up about her appearance in season 2 of "Special Forces: World's Toughest Test". "I wanted to go on the show because I wanted to challenge myself to try to do something that I never thought I could do," she shared.

Noting that she was not ready for the challenge, Tara explained, "They hired me three days before the show... So, I was not physically ready for it The backpack was so heavy on me. I had no chance It didn't work so well." Though so, she stated, "I would do it again if I could start training right now!"

Elaborating her experience on the show more, Tara said, "It is not just a physical thing It takes out a lot of the darkness that you've been fighting I got a lot of that out. It was all the years of pent-up, you know, people can put you down, put you down, say bad things about you and it's not right."

Recently, Tara reacted to speculations suggesting that she suffers from eating disorders. Speaking to the Los Angeles Inquisitor on Wednesday, October 25, she stated, "I have no anorexia and never have... And I definitely don't have any bulimia. I'm terrified of throwing up, so that's not gonna happen. And I love food too much." She added, "So anyone that says I'm anorexic or bulimic, they're wrong."

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The 51-year-old actress returns to the state of Kentucky one year on from mass floods that destroyed the Robinson Elementary School building, noting the importance of library for kids.

Oct 27, 2023

AceShowbiz - Jennifer Garner thinks there is "a lot of trauma" for children growing up in poverty. The 51-year-old actress returned to the state of Kentucky one year on from mass floods that destroyed the Robinson Elementary School building and various other locations in the area and has donated 500 books to the new building to replace ones lost in the flood.

Speaking on the "Today" show, she said, "My little elementary school library totally shaped my life. The kids' faces turned when we started talking about the floods. They wanted me to know how scary it was, what it was like to lose their school, what it was like to lose their homes, where their family went. Children's libraries are some of the most important places in our country, but you know what, a push cart is better than nothing."

"A push cart with an amazing librarian like we met today, who's prioritizing reading, who's showing the kids that it matters enough that she will push around a cart to make sure they have some books," she continued. "There's a lot of trauma just in growing up below the poverty line, and if you can name it, then you can heal, you can be resilient and move on. And it's amazing, it's amazing to watch in action."

The "13 Going on 30" actress went on to insist that "resilience" is the key to carrying on in different times and recognising the "strength" in community. "My takeaway is really that resilience, resilience comes from the doing."

She continued, "It comes from putting one foot in front of the other, it comes from figuring things out and acting on it. But it also can't happen in a vacuum. Sometimes you need community to wrap themselves around you, and boy, this community is strong."

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The 'Raid the Cage' co-host is believed to not go down without a fight as she has just hired powerhouse divorce attorney Randall Kessler to represent her after Jeezy filed for divorce in September.

Oct 28, 2023

AceShowbiz - After allegedly being left "devastated" by Jeezy's (Young Jeezy) divorce filing, Jeannie Mai may not let her estranged husband walk away that easily from their marriage. She is reported to be ready to challenge their prenuptial agreement.

The TV personality has just hired powerhouse divorce attorney Randall Kessler to represent her after Jeezy asked for joint custody of their daughter. Randall, who is known for being a hard charging lawyer who likes to fight, has represented a slew of Atlanta-based celebrities in their divorces and custody battles. His clients included NeNe Leakes, Porsha Williams, Christina Milian and Mike Epps.

While it's said that Jeannie and Jeezy have an iron-clad prenup, it's claimed that the prenup may not be valid. According to Media Take Out, the former "The Real" host signed the prenup just 24 hours before the couple was married.

In several states, a couple needs to sign a prenup at least 30 days before the wedding date. However, Jeannie and Jeezy tied the knot in Atlanta, Georgia, where the court states that prenups signed only a day or two before a wedding, so long as both spouses had the opportunity to speak with a lawyer, are still valid.

Jeezy, whose real name is Jay Wayne Jenkins, filed for the dissolution of the marriage on September 14 after only two years of marriage. In the divorce papers, he asked for joint custody of his and Jeannie's 1-year-old daughter Monaco. He also stated that their marriage is "irretrievably broken" and "there is no hope for reconciliation."

In a statement issued earlier this month, Jeezy insisted that his "love and respect" for his estranged wife remain the same despite the split. The 46-year-old rapper said, "The decision to end this chapter in my life was not made impulsively and comes with a heavy heart." He added, "Despite this, my love and respect for Jeannie remains and the time we spent together holds a cherished place in my heart."

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Renowned entrepreneur and co-founder of InsuranceDekho, Ankit Agrawal, is set to play a pivotal role in the ground breaking OTT series 'Indian Angels' on Jio Cinema. This revolutionary show, produced by Digikore Studios, is set to be a game-changer in the startup and entrepreneurial ecosystem. Ankit Agrawal will be one of the esteemed angel investors, providing invaluable support and guidance to budding startups in his personal capacity.

Ankit Agrawal's journey is a testament to his unwavering commitment to innovation and positive change. Hailing from Kolkata, he transformed adversity into opportunity and founded InsuranceDekho, a leading name in the insurtech space, insuring millions of Indians and providing jobs to thousands. His visionary leadership and dedication have been instrumental in taking InsuranceDekho to new heights.

Ankit Agrawal embodies the spirit of entrepreneurship and a never-give-up attitude. His participation in 'Indian Angels' will undoubtedly bring invaluable insights and mentorship to the startups featured on the show.

'Indian Angels' is set to be a trailblazing series, being heralded as the world's first angel investment show on an OTT platform. This innovative format not only features seasoned angel investors like Ankit Agrawal but also empowers viewers to become investors themselves, democratizing the investment landscape. The show will feature an expert jury panel comprising individuals who have risen from grassroots levels to make their mark as entrepreneurs and angel investors.

The inaugural episode of 'Indian Angels' is scheduled to be released on November 3, with subsequent episodes airing bi-weekly on the Jio Cinema platform. This series promises to be a transformational force in the world of startups and entrepreneurship, with Ankit Agrawal and other distinguished panelists at the forefront of this exciting journey.
China's former premier Li Keqiang has died at age 68 after a sudden heart attack on Friday while he was in Shanghai.

Li was once seen as a reform-minded contender for the Asian nation's top leadership role and was nominally China's second-in-command until late last year. He served as the country's premier, which is traditionally in charge of the economy, for a decade from 2013 to March this year.

Li Keqiang's Death

During the former premier's time in the position, he navigated the world's second-largest economy through a challenging period of rising technology and trade tensions with the United States where it mounted government debt and battled with unemployment and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Within Li's final year in power, the Peking University-educated economist had been a powerful voice who warned of challenges to China's economy amid widespread COVID-19 lockdowns. He also supported efforts to boost employment and maintain economic stability in the region.

Following the news of the former Chinese premier's death, social media users circulated a line from Li's annual address to China's rubber-stamp parliament in 2022. It was where he pledged that "No matter how the international environment may change, China will keep the course of wider openness," as per CNN.

Li was also known to use his English language skills on occasion during appearances outside the mainland. He was seen as representing a different approach to China's relations with the world during a time when the nation had grown increasingly isolated.

In a statement during his annual press conference in March 2021, Li said that China and the United States have common interests. He added that the two nations need to put more energy into their common ground and expand converging interests.

The late Li was a highly educated technocrat with degrees in both law and economics who was considered friendly to the private sector. He was also seen to have an increasingly diverging economic policy stance from Chinese President Xi Jinping who tightened party control over the economy.

Read Also: Chinese President Xi Jinping Kicks Off New Plan for Belt and Road Initiative To Address Chip Restrictions

History of Economic Prowess

Many online users expressed their shock and condolences at the news of Li's sudden and unexpected death. The former Chinese premier was also someone who had close ties with former Chinese President Hu Jintao, which sometimes put him at odds with Xi, according to CNBC.

When Li ended his term as premier, Xi was able to stay for an unprecedented third term and installed loyalist Li Qiang to fill in the recently vacated position. The premier is the head of the State Council, which is China's top executive body.

Li said in 2020 that more than 600 million people in China still had a monthly income of barely $137, which he argued was simply not enough to even rent a room in a medium-sized Chinese city.

The former premier was also known for being pragmatic in economic policies, with ones that focused on reducing the wealth gap while also providing affordable housing. Li is set to be remembered for his strong economic track record. This is despite the end of the late premier's term being plagued by China's zero-COVID crisis, said BBC.

Related Article: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi Set To Meet With Joe Biden This Week for Diplomatic Talks

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Brace yourselves for the automotive event of the year as Auto Awards Season 3 by Zee Media makes its triumphant return! Following the resounding success of Season 2, which attracted over 9 million enthusiastic users to the microsite and generated an astounding 22 million ad impressions, Season 3 is all set to celebrate the extraordinary journey of India's automotive industry. This year's overarching theme, India's Automotive Industry Set to Rise to Global Dominance by 2030, encapsulates the industry's remarkable evolution, the electrifying transition to electric vehicles (EVs), and the strategies shaping future growth. It will serve as a tribute to the unwavering spirit of individuals and organizations driving the industry forward, and a formal recognition of the journey towards global leadership.

The Auto Awards Season 3 event is scheduled to take place on Monday 30th October 2023 in New Delhi, will be graced by Keynote Speaker - Mr. Dilip Chenoy, Chairman of Bharat Web3 Association and Former Secretary General of FICCI and will also be attended by Industry stalwarts. It is all set to ignite discussions on critical industry topics with panel discussions addressing the gravity of safety concerns and the pivotal role of electric vehicles (EVs) in shaping automotive trends.

The upcoming awards will also encompass four-wheeler and two-wheeler award categories. For four-wheelers, the awards will recognize excellence across varied segments, such as mass-market facelifts, budget car designs, luxury car designs, SUVs, luxury cars, electric vehicles, luxury electric cars, high-tech cars, and the most trusted brand in the four-wheel category. Additionally, a spotlight will be cast on the most promising car of the year.

In the two-wheelers category, awards will also be presented for budget motorcycles, electric two-wheelers, outstanding scooters, premium motorcycles, and the most trusted two-wheeler brand, showcasing the breadth of innovation in the Indian automotive industry. The winners will be selected based on the highest votes received online and through a rigorous evaluation done by eminent jury members- Garima Avatar- Athlete, Extreme rally driver, Ranojoy Mukerji  Veteran Auto Journalist, Former SIAM DY Director and Simranjeet Singh- Professional superbike racer, Automobile reviewer.

Dr. I.M Loya (Chief Technology Officer, Essel Group) eloquently expressed, "AUTO AWARDS SEASON 3 serves as a distinguished platform for recognizing and applauding the relentless dedication and contributions of individuals, companies, and organizations within the Indian automotive industry throughout the year. We acknowledge the challenges and stand committed to forging effective solutions. This year's theme reflects the industry's innate potential to ascend to global dominance by 2030."

Ms. Mona Jain (Chief Revenue Officer, Zee Media Corporation Limited) said, "As we surge ahead into the future, AUTO AWARDS SEASON 3 will embark on a profound exploration of India's automotive industry growth, the ever-evolving preferences of our discerning customers, and the swift and compelling embrace of electric vehicles. It promises to be an electrifying journey, an adrenaline-pumping experience, and an earnest tribute to the trailblazers and industry leaders who are actively shaping the sector's dynamic landscape."

Auto Awards Season 3 will by TATA CAPITAL (Financial Partner) and TATA AIG (Insurance Partner) and will broadcast LIVE on the Facebook and YouTube platforms of DNA and Zee News.
Madison Media, a unit of Madison World is delighted to announce the appointment of Avinash Pillai as Advisor on Team Pinnacle for Godrej Consumer Products Ltd. He will be using the Agency's Mumbai office as his operational base.

With over 26 years of experience, Avinash is a seasoned media professional with a wealth of knowledge. Avinash has been at Mediacom for 12 years where he started out as a National Buying Head and gradually went on to lead the P&G AOR for India and later for the AMA (APAC, Middle East and Africa) region. Prior to Mediacom, he has worked at Mindshare Fulcrum and media companies like Mid-Day, Turner International and ABP Ltd.

I am delighted to welcome Avinash Pillai to Madison Media, said Sam Balsara, Chairman, Madison World on Avinashs joining.

Announcing Avinash's appointment, Vikram Sakhuja, Partner and Group CEO, Madison Media & OOH said, "Our need is to build an industry best in class Media Team to meet todays Media challenges, and I could think of no better person than my old friend Avinash Pillai who brings a pedigree of having shaped the Media practice of some of the countrys most respected Marketers. I am looking forward to partnering once again with him".

Speaking about his new role at Madison Media, Avinash said, "I took a break from media to chase things that are closer to my heart and have been actively pursuing those interests. When Sam and Vikram came up with this assignment, the expected outcome and the journey towards it is something close to my heart and I am happy to take that agenda forward".

Madison Media, Indias largest homegrown communication agency, is now the Worlds 4th Largest Independent Media Agency as per RECMA. Madison Media also tops RECMAs qualitative ranking chart for the last 4 consecutive years with a Dominant Score. At GoaFest 2023, the Agency won a total of 17 metals and came in 3rd at the Media Abbys. In 2023, the Agency won for the 6th time, Prime Times TV Media Agency of the Year. The Agency is also ranked the 2nd Most Powerful Media Agency by The Economic Times Brand Equity Ad Agency Reckoner in addition to winning over 440 awards since 2020.

Madison Media is a part of Madison World, Indias largest homegrown communication agency group established in 1988, that handles media planning and buying for clients like Godrej, Marico, Asian Paints, Titan, Blue Star, TVS, Raymond, CEAT, Pidilite, Bajaj Electricals, McDonalds, Lodha, Shaadi.com and many others. Madison World through its 11 Units served last year, as many as 500 Advertisers.
Wacoal India, the renowned Japan-based lingerie brand, has been on a mission to make a significant impact in the fight against breast cancer in India. Breast cancer holds the grim distinction of being the primary cause of cancer-related fatalities among women in the country, with an estimated 1 in 22 women affected. Shockingly, in recent years, nearly 4 out of 10 women diagnosed with breast cancer have lost their lives to this disease.

A study shows that while 69% of cities are aware of self-exams, only 34% have practiced it, highlighting the urgent need for more awareness and proactive measures in India. Breast cancer hotspots, such as Hyderabad, Delhi, Bengaluru, and Chennai, report the highest case prevalence, with over 50% diagnosed in advanced stages, reducing survival chances.

Addressing this critical issue head-on, Wacoal India has been at the forefront of breast cancer awareness in India, spearheading its annual Breast Cancer Awareness campaign, #WacoalKnowsBreast. The brand has been emphasizing the importance of preventing breast cancer at earlier stages through regular tests and mammograms, and encouraging women to take action through breast self-exams.

Last year, in partnership with SoCheers, an independently-led creative digital advertising agency marked Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Wacoal introduced the #WacoalKnowsBreast campaign along with a 3-finger pose, a symbol of how a self-test can be done in just 3 easy steps.

Ms. Pooja Merani, COO-Wacoal India stated, "Our breast cancer awareness initiative from the previous year successfully generated significant attention, reinforcing the message that breast self-care begins in the comfort of one's home and can be accomplished in three simple steps. We also aim to remind our audience of the 3-finger pose and highlight its impact by showing a shorter version of our case study video, highlighting that were bringing it back and taking it a notch up this year."

Rajni Daswani, Director - Digital Marketing, SoCheers, said, In India, breast cancer is unfortunately prevalent, but the good news is that it is treatable and often curable when detected early. Our initiative is designed to raise awareness about the importance of early detection, diagnosis, and treatment of breast cancer, because every click, every share, and every engagement can make a difference in someone's life. With compelling content creation and impactful campaign strategies, we will amplify the reach of this campaign, making it a powerful force for change. Because we believe in painting a brighter future. With our expertise under our entity SoCheers Spark, we aim to reach as many people as possible in the time to come.

Building on last years success, Wacoal India has taken its #WacoalKnowsBreast 3-finger pose initiative a step further this year. The brand aims to educate a broader audience on the importance of breast cancer awareness and the significance of Pink October. They have collaborated with creators from various geographies to spread the word. Notably, offline activations have also been executed to further amplify this crucial messaging.

Taking their commitment to the community a step further, the brand has extended these activities to their in-store audience. Additionally, the brand has leveraged CGI on the Gateway of India to amplify the impact and reach of these initiatives across various social platforms. Wacoal's dedication to raising awareness about breast cancer, promoting self-examination, and supporting those affected by the disease is a testament to their commitment to the health and well-being of women in India.
A Pensacola, Fla., mother accused of throwing her twin 1-month-old babies on the ground during an argument will not serve any jail time, the Pensacola News Journal reports.

According to an arrest report obtained by the outlet, Trinity Crenshaw was holding her infant twins outside her home in December 2022 when an argument began with the father of the children. A witness told investigators that during the altercation, Crenshaw intentionally threw the children to the ground.

After the babies were thrown to the ground, the father and the witness picked them up and left the scene, according to the report. At least one of the infants was injured, with cuts on both sides of her face and chest.

Investigators would later find an exchange of text messages between Crenshaw and the father, with the father writing u threw my babies on the ground and Crenshaw replying I threw them cuz you were full of (expletive).

Crenshaw, 21, was charged with two counts of felony aggravated child abuse, but prior to the start of a jury trial, she reached a plea agreement with prosecutors under which she pleaded no contest to two counts of the lesser charge of child abuse without great bodily harm.

Had she been found guilty of felony child abuse, Crenshaw was facing up to 30 years in a Florida prison. The lesser charge carries a maximum sentence of five years.

The judge, however, sentenced Crenshaw to 18 months community control -- which is in essence house arrest, with Crenshaw allowed to leave her home under certain conditions -- followed by three years probation.

Crenshaw was also ordered to undergo substance abuse and mental health evaluations, successfully complete a parenting class, and submit to random alcohol and drug testing.

Should she fail to meet the requirements set forth by the court, the judge could institute a prison sentence.
The Atlantic hurricane season isnt over yet.

The National Hurricane Center on Friday was watching newly renamed Tropical Storm Tammy and another area for potential development.

The hurricane center said Tammy had redeveloped into a tropical storm on Friday morning. Tammy brought wind and rain to the Leeward Islands as a hurricane earlier this week and then transitioned to a non-tropical system as it moved north of the islands.

The former Tammy was located 215 miles east of Bermuda as of 10 a.m. CDT Friday. A gale warning is in effect for Bermuda, and the hurricane center said those on the island should keep a close eye on the system.

Tammy is expected to turn to the north tonight and then to the east over the next couple of days and will begin to move away from Bermuda Saturday morning.

Tammy is no threat to the U.S.

Tammy is a tropical storm again.NHC

Of more interest to those in the U.S. is a tropical disturbance that is expected to develop in the southern Caribbean in the next few days.

The hurricane center said an area of low pressure could develop just north of South America. It has the potential to slowly develop next week.

Forecasters expect it to track to the north, which could affect Jamaica and Cuba.

Its too soon to say if it could affect the U.S.

The disturbance has a 30 percent chance of becoming a tropical depression in the next seven days.

The Atlantic hurricane season still has about a month to go -- the last official day will be Nov. 30.
The Dexateens are still together, just not the original lineup. Not since 2000.

Thats 23 years since Craig Gates (guitar), Elliott McPherson (guitar, vocals), Matt Patton (bass), Craig Pickering (drums) and John Smith (guitar) played music in the same room.

On Saturday, they pick up where they left off little more than two decades ago.

Were going that many years with no practice and just gonna jump right into it, McPherson said. Hopefully itll be magical and not a trainwreck. But if its a trainwreck, itll still be a magical trainwreck, Im sure. So I just want it to sound good. I want people to have a good time and feel like theyre getting a good show.

The Dexateens certainly arent inactive. Now seven years removed from their latest studio album Teenage Hallelujah, they gig on occasion, as recently as last May at Moms Basement in Birmingham.

On Saturday after 11 p.m., the original five reunite on the Moon Room stage at Druid City Brewing Company, and at a reunion no less. Theyll close The Chukker Weekender, a weekend event commemorating one of Tuscaloosas favorite bars, which closed for good 20 years ago to the day on Halloween night.

Matt Patton, The Dexateens bass player also currently playing the same instrument for Drive-By Truckers and leading his own project Model Citizen, organized the event with many others, inviting more than a dozen bands, poets and comics to celebrate the bar they loved  the one that helped the Tuscaloosa-born Southern punk rock band form and flourish as one of the states most celebrated groups.

The band formed in 1998, often playing hometown shows at The Chukker downtown and Egans on the Strip closer to the University of Alabama. McPherson, Gates and Smith all came from Montgomery, Patton from Jasper, and Pickering from Laurel, Mississippi. They recorded their first two albums The Dexateens (2004) and Red Dust Rising (2005) with Estrus Records out of Washington before working with Birminghams Skybucket Records on Hardwire Healing, co-produced by Patterson Hood and David Barbe in Athens, Georgia.

Shortly after, Pickering (known to all as Sweet Dog) left the band, and was replaced by Brian Gosdin. The departure splintered the group. It wasnt pleasant, Patton said. In 2010, after the release of their fourth record Singlewide (also with Skybucket), John Smith also left the band, as would Craig Gates.

With Patton going back and forth between the group and the Truckers, that left McPherson picking up the pieces with new members like Lee Bains, Brad Armstrong and Taylor Hollingsworth. They also recorded an album in 2016, called Teenage Hallelujah, with Cornelius Chapel Records.

The different iterations, the live shows, the recording  all of it has created distance from any would-be lingering drama.

I think time has healed all of that, Patton said. It seemed less weird doing a reunion when other times, it felt weird. Even though we were friendly, all these years, it felt awkward to consider playing together again. But now enough time has passed that all of that stuff has melted away.

To organize The Chukker Weekender meant bringing back The Dexateens for Patton, who said it didnt require much heavy lifting. Everyone was down. It turns out all you had to do was ask. It wasnt hard, Patton said. As soon as I put it out there, everybody was a yes. It just seemed like any drama just sort of melted away, and that was over with. It was simple as could be.

McPherson said Patton didnt give the rest of them much of a choice. I remember he just started talking about, like, This is what we were doing. I dont think he asked anybodys permission, which is fine. If it was a problem, we wouldnt have done it. It was a good idea, McPherson said. I talk to Sweet Dog now a couple of times a year. I connected with Craig Gates again this year. And weve been friends all this time. Its not that we werent friends. Its just life, as they say. But yeah, were all really excited. Were texting all day, every day about it. Its really cool.

Re-piecing the original five would mean something extra special for the group and the bands longtime fans, Patton said. And they also missed out on playing The Chukkers final show in 2003, so they prioritized the reunion. Someone hung a Dexateens T-shirt on stage [at The Chukker in 2003] because we couldnt be there, Patton said, and I always thought that was so touching.

For Druid City Brewing owner Bo Hicks, his fandom stretches back even further, all the way to McPhersons previous band The Phoebes. He remembers parking on a hill in his hometown Brookwood to pick up the signal for WVUA, the University of Alabamas student-run radio station that often programmed local music.

Hearing that first Dexateens album, knowing something that f---ing rocking could come from Tuscaloosa, Hick said. I know theyre all nice dudes now, but I remember being so  intimidated is probably the wrong word, but so worried I would mess up around all these super-cool people. And it turns out they were like anybody else. They were just dudes who liked to rock.

A musician himself who played percussion in well-known Tuscaloosa bands like Chinese Dentist and Baak Gwai, Hicks has maintained a foothold in the local scene and relationships with artists who often perform at his brewery. McPherson, who owns a cabinetry business, even built the bar in the Druid City location across the parking lot at Parkview Center.

Its gonna blow my mind to see them all back together because theyve gone through a couple of lineup changes, Hicks said. All of them were righteously rock. Its going to be really interesting, and I know its going to be cathartic for them to be back together. Especially as we get older. They have kids. This whole scene, its going to be really cool. Im going to be ecstatic to see them.

They havent played a lick in 23 years. Not one. At least, not together. And they dont plan to practice before Saturday either. But that doesnt mean they dont have a plan. Patton said that several years before they ever signed a deal, they had another set of songs that dont get played very often. They plan to at least give those songs a shot this time. Im excited about putting that version back on stage, playing first tunes we came up with, he said. People can see where weve evolved from.

McPherson couldnt help but laugh when asked about what fans might hear from that stage, as though he cant believe people are excited for this reunion. The plan originally was to play the stuff that Craig Gates was on, and I think we just realized thats not realistic, he said. So were going to do a lot of that stuff. And some of that he sings  good songs, too. Well do stuff from the first two Estrus records or the only two, the ones Dog was on. The ones we always would do. Its going to be the same-old-same-old, plus a couple of different things that people havent heard in 20-something years.

But all these years later, what will it mean to them to connect through music again? Theyve all moved on with their lives, making time for music: McPherson with his cabinetry, Patton with the Truckers. Gates does graphic design. Pickering got his commercial drivers license and drives trucks. Smith is a college professor in Nashville. Is it just another rock show, or something more?

I dont know. My life is going so fast, I really havent spent a lot of time to think about it. I figured I would think about it on Sunday morning. But I have no idea, McPherson said. Its amazed me how excited everybodys gotten. Thats what surprises me, that its just important to a whole lot of people. Its really weird. Its like a real-life Cheers or something, like Cheers for the Weird. Its just crazy. Old friends, like a fraternity of freaks kind of thing. Its awesome. I love it.

Patton remembered the early bond the bandmates shared. They idolized a local band, American Cosmic, with whom John Smith also played. They would often jam on their song Lost and Found, even covering the song at shows, something they could cherish together as they embarked on a journey that mattered to each of them.

We may not always get along, but at the core, theres a real fellowship and brotherhood there, and its gonna come back around. Im so thrilled and happy to see it, Patton said. I cant wait to see everybody. Thats the main thing. We just cant wait to see one another.
One of Alabamas most popular bars just built a monument to its most popular drink.

Gallettes signature cocktail is the Yellowhammer, a rum-based pineapple infusion served in a yellow plastic cup that has become a bucket list item for all who travel through the Druid City year-round, especially on gamedays.

In fact, they sell the famous drink by the literal thousands when the Crimson Tide plays just a few blocks away in Bryant-Denny Stadium. Bama faithful know the drill and re-indulge whenever the opportunity presents itself, while visiting fans finally get the chance to partake in the local tradition.

And its perhaps why the bar felt it appropriate to honor its best-selling item on the walls for all to see. Gallettes just hung a scaled-up sculpture of the Yellowhammer built by local artists and craftsmen.

Mathew Simmons, born and raised in Tuscaloosa, led the way after meeting co-owner Jeff Sirkin, whom Simmons friend and Innisfree Irish Pub owner Tripp Rogers said might have work for him, including an interior sign for the business that famously doesnt have one on its exterior. Simmons said he noticed the Yellowhammer cup and told Sirkin he could scale it up to 5 feet tall and make it look as if it was splashing out of the wall, so he quickly got the green light.

Simmons, who works on commission only, said he took a cup home and drew up the model exactly to scale using computer-aided design (CAD) software. If you look at the cup closely, Ive covered every single facet to scale, Simmons said. Then I just blew it up to 5 feet tall, slightly rotated it forward and made a cut on the backside of it to where it would mount to the wall.

The cup itself is made of aluminum, welding several parts together. Simmons then put an automotive paint finish on the exterior and even created ice cubes and a splash of Yellowhammer drink at the rim of the cup using resin.

Gallettes, one of the most popular bars in Alabama, recently honored its signature drink the Yellowhammer with a new piece by local artist and craftsman Mathew Simmons. This is a rendering of the piece on CAD software. (Courtesy photos)Courtesy

Gallettes, one of the most popular bars in Alabama, recently honored its signature drink the Yellowhammer with a new piece by local artist and craftsman Mathew Simmons. (Courtesy of Mathew Simmons)Courtesy

Gallettes, one of the most popular bars in Alabama, recently honored its signature drink the Yellowhammer with a new piece by local artist and craftsman Mathew Simmons. The piece includes ice cubs and a splash of the rum-based drink. (Courtesy of Mathew Simmons)Courtesy

They also decided to light up the inside of the cup using multicolor LED lights, but Simmons wanted to challenge his realism chops by adding ice cubes -- and not just any ice cubes. I went back to his bar, took an ice cube out of his ice machine, he said. It was three-quarters of an inch square and had these little half-circle holes in them. I went home and drew that up in CAD, scaled that up to 5 feet tall to match the cup to see how many I could fit inside the cup. Then I 3-D printed it, made a rubber mold of it, then cast it into clear resin.

He cast the ice cubes first, which he glued to a piece of clear plexiglass before pouring a clear coat to seal everything into position, and then the flood coat of dyed resin to blend it all together.

So yes, he added giant replica ice cubes to the giant replica cup. There was a lot that went into this thing, he said.

Gallettes, one of the most popular bars in Alabama, recently honored its signature drink the Yellowhammer with a new piece by local artist and craftsman Mathew Simmons. (Courtesy of Mathew Simmons)Courtesy

Gallettes, one of the most popular bars in Alabama, recently honored its signature drink the Yellowhammer with a new piece by local artist and craftsman Mathew Simmons. The piece includes ice cubs and a splash of the rum-based drink. (Courtesy of Mathew Simmons)Courtesy

Gallettes, one of the most popular bars in Alabama, recently honored its signature drink the Yellowhammer with a new piece by local artist and craftsman Mathew Simmons. The piece includes ice cubes and LED lights in the interior. (Courtesy photos)Courtesy

And from what he has heard so far, they are pleased with the result. After all, it is already mounted on the wall. Matt went above and beyond my expectations for the cup, Sirkin told AL.com. I had a vision for it and Matt took it and ran with it and knocked it out of the park. Its an incredible statement piece for our signature drink. Theres only one Gallettes Yellowhammer and this emphasizes and cements its place for our customers and T-Town.

Simmons said he wants to drop by the bar soon to see reactions in real time on a Wine Wednesday, when the bar is typically packed with University of Alabama college students and others. He also credited local artist Eric Nubbe for helping on this project and several other commissions.

Youve probably seen (and will soon see) Simmons work elsewhere at other Tuscaloosa establishments like in the Rabbit Holes front yard stage area at the edge of the Strip towards downtown. He has two projects on the way for Innisfree including a DJ booth as well as a 4-foot, 3D-printed leprechaun.

You can see Simmons work on his website MatTheMaker.com or his Instagram page @matthemaker205.

Gallettes, one of the most popular bars in Alabama, recently honored its signature drink the Yellowhammer with a new piece by local artist and craftsman Mathew Simmons. (Courtesy of Gallettes)Courtesy

Gallettes, one of the most popular bars in Alabama, recently honored its signature drink the Yellowhammer with a new piece by local artist and craftsman Mathew Simmons. (Courtesy of Gallettes)Courtesy

Gallettes, one of the most popular bars in Alabama, recently honored its signature drink the Yellowhammer with a new piece by local artist and craftsman Mathew Simmons. (Courtesy of Gallettes)Courtesy

Gallettes, one of the most popular bars in Alabama, recently honored its signature drink the Yellowhammer with a new piece by local artist and craftsman Mathew Simmons. (Ben Flanagan / AL.com)Courtesy

More on Gallettes:

Take a look inside Gallettes bars major makeover on the Strip in Tuscaloosa

Gallettes in your basement: You wont believe this homemade recreation of the Tuscaloosa bar
Lloyds Restaurant in Sylacauga is serving its last meal Sunday, two weeks after closing its Inverness location and telling patrons the Sylacauga spot would remain open.

Bogue Stevens, the owner of the iconic restaurant -- one of Alabamas oldest -- said Lloyds is planning to return to Birmingham next year. Stevens could not immediately be reached for further comment.

With a heavy heart we share the news that Lloyds Sylacauga will close after service on Sunday, October 29. The good news is, we plan to open a new location in Birmingham in late 2024! Be sure to follow us on social media to get updates on when and where our new location will open, Stevens said in a message posted to Lloyds Facebook page. We hope youll come dine with us in Sylacauga before we close our doors on Sunday. Were thankful for the guests who have supported us during our short time in town and look forward to welcoming you to our new location next year!

Just late last month, Lloyds announced it was closing the Inverness location and that the last hamburger steak would be served there Oct. 15.

We want to express our sincere gratitude to each and every one of you for allowing us to be a part of your lives through dining experiences at our Inverness location. Your support and patronage have meant the world to us, Lloyds said on social media about the Inverness location closing.

The message said the Sylacauga location would remain opened.

On Thursday, the restaurant said that was not the case.

Lloyds dates back to 1937, making it, along with Bessemers 116-year-old Bright Star, one of the oldest continuing full-service restaurants in the Birmingham area. With 480 seats, Lloyds typically serves up to 1,500 patrons on an average Sunday.

Lloyd Chesser opened the original restaurant in Chelsea on the old U.S. 280 highway, better known as the Florida Short Route. Eli Stevens, who sold bread and buns to Chesser, bought Lloyds when Chesser retired in 1971. After the first phase of the new U.S. 280 corridor was completed, Stevens moved the restaurant to its current location 10 miles from downtown Birmingham in 1978.

With the help of his family, Stevens ran Lloyds until his death in 2020. His son, Bogue Stevens, now runs the restaurant.
Temple Beth-El in Birmingham, which was once targeted by a Ku Klux Klan bomb that didnt explode, has unveiled a new exhibit and tour called the Civil Rights Experience that focuses on the role of the Jewish community in civil rights history.

The Temple Beth-El Civil Rights Experience explores Birminghams civil rights history through the lens of the Jewish community with the screening of a short film, a panel discussion and a sampling of exhibits from Beth-Els permanent on-site In Solidarity program.

Were not going to have open hours like a museum, said Margaret Norman, who is engagement and collaboration Coordinator for Temple Beth-El. Its set up more for group tours by appointment.

The temple is now booking group tours for November.

Its the intersection of Jewish and civil rights history, she said. They learn about Birminghams Jewish history as a whole, racism, anti-Semitism.

The temple also plans to also open a library and study area with 2,000 books donated by the estate of Rabbi Abraham J. Mesch, who was Beth-Els rabbi from 1935-1962.

Were still working on the library, Norman said. Thats the next phase for us.

Temple Beth-El was established in Birmingham in 1907 and moved to its current location at 2179 Highland Ave. South in 1926.

Last year, a historic marker was installed outside the temple to memorialize the attempted bombing in 1958.

On April 28, 1958, 54 sticks of dynamite were set outside the temple, but did not explode. Although the case was never solved, its believed the planned bombing was an act of retaliation for Jewish involvement in the civil rights movement.

Jews in the South had also felt the sting of discrimination, persecution and attacks from the Ku Klux Klan. From 1957-58, synagogues were bombed in Atlanta, Nashville, Jacksonville and Miami, and others were targeted.

At Temple Beth-El, the burning fuses were put out by heavy rainfall and the dynamite did not explode. Swastikas were painted on nearby Temple Emanu-El, which formed a security watch team to patrol at night.

Because Jewish businesses were part of the Southern business establishment, there was enormous pressure from bankers, fellow businesses and customers to enforce and support segregation laws.

Outspoken Jewish leaders often felt a backlash in their own communities for supporting civil rights for Black people, which was evident as far back as 1933, when Rabbi Benjamin Goldstein resigned under pressure from the congregational leadership at Temple Beth-Or in Montgomery.

My resignation resulted from my activities not only on behalf of the Scottsboro Negroes for whom I demanded a fair trial and a change of venue, but also on behalf of the Tallapoosa Negro share-croppers for whom last December I demanded fair treatment, Goldstein told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. relied heavily on Jewish supporters, including one of his closest advisers, Stanley Levison, who took part in planning sessions for the Birmingham demonstrations in 1963.

In 1964, King gave a statement to a Jewish newspaper in Atlanta to denounce Black rioters in New York who looted Jewish stores.

Our Jewish friends have demonstrated their commitment to the principle of tolerance and brotherhood in tangible ways, often at great personal sacrifices, King said. Can we ever express our appreciation to the rabbis who chose to give moral witness with us in St. Augustine during our recent protest against segregation in that unhappy city? And who will ever forget the sacrifice of two Jewish lives, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, in Mississippi this past June? It would be impossible to record the contribution that the Jewish people have made toward the Negros struggle for freedom  it has been so great.
An Alabama man has been sentenced to two years probation for smuggling illegal bodybuilding supplements from China before mislabeling them and selling them throughout the Rio Grande Valley.

Robert Lance Schuffert was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Randy Crane in McAllen Thursday morning, court records indicate.

Crane also ordered a $20,000 monetary judgment against Schuffert.

Schuffert had been selling Ostarin MK-2866, which contained a synthetic chemical that mimics the effects of testosterone and other anabolic steroids.

The synthetic chemical can have fatal consequences and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2017 issued a public safety alert about the synthetic chemical, which is called SARMS  or selective androgen receptor modulators.

They are linked to life-threatening reactions like liver toxicity and an increased risk of heart attack and stroke.

Schuffert confessed to smuggling the product from China. To avoid FDA scrutiny, the product was mislabeled as for lab rat use only and for research purposes only.

He then sold it to local retailers with marketing instructions that guaranteed results and purported the product to be pharmaceutical grade.

He was convicted of a similar scheme in North Carolina in 2021 and served a year in federal prison.

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(c)2023 The Monitor (McAllen, Texas)

Visit The Monitor (McAllen, Texas) at www.themonitor.com

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Congressman Jared Golden's stance about guns has changed after the Maine mass shooting incident, which is considered to be the deadliest one in the United States this 2023.

The Democratic representative admitted that his pro-gun stance was because of a false confidence that the American community can handle firearms without serious restrictions. Now, Golden is urging the U.S. Congress to ban assault rifles, like the ones used by the Maine shooter.

Maine Shooting Changes Pro-Gun Congressman Jared Golden's Stance

On Thursday, Oct. 26, Golden finally reversed his long-held pro-gun stance after over 18 innocent people were killed by the Maine shooter, who is still at large.

Golden said that he has opposed efforts to restrict deadly firearms for a very long time, such as the assault rifle used by Robert C. Card to carry out his crime.

"The time has now come for me to take responsibility for this failure," said the U.S. representative via The New York Times.

"I now call on the United States Congress to ban assault rifles like the one used by the sick perpetrator of this mass killing in my hometown of Lewiston, Maine," he added.

He explained that his pro-gun stance reflected a part of false confidence that the United States was above gun restrictions. Golden added that he, along with other Americans supporting gun rights, believes that they could have full control in this situation.

But, Golden admitted that he was wrong and asked for forgiveness and support from the residents of Lewiston, especially the families of survivors and victims. He promised that he would work toward reviving the gun ban in the United States.

Read Also: Maine: Man Killed At Least 16 People in Mass Shooting, Police Safeguards Residents

Golden's Recent Actions as Gun Rights Advocate

Before the Maine mass shooting, many of Jared Golden's actions prevented the U.S. government from imposing stronger gun restrictions. For example, CBS News reported that Golden voted against legislation aiming to restrict certain semi-automatic firearms in 2022.

Luckily, this bill passed the House after the deadly shootings at a school in Texas, a parade in Illinois, and a supermarket in New York.

Aside from this, Golden also opposed a House-passed bill that was established to increase the age limit for semi-automatic rifle purchases. This regulation also aimed to ban the sales of high-capacity magazines.

However, the American congressman promised that he would now work with any colleague just to ensure that a firearm ban would be enacted in Congress.

Related Article: Joe Biden Calls for Stronger Gun Laws After Maine Mass Shooting-Says 'We Cannot Accept It'

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The Birmingham City Council met again on Friday to elect a president after an error in voting on Tuesday nullified what had been announced as the election of Darrell OQuinn.

OQuinn was elected Friday morning in the special called meeting, this time with five votes to three for previous council president Wardine Alexander, with council member Crystal Smitherman abstaining. Alexander was elected Tuesday as president pro tem and will continue in that role.

Before the vote took place on Friday, Council member Clinton Woods called for an investigation into potential malfeasance, asking how an invalid election took place on Tuesday, with OQuinn being declared the winner with only four votes cast with three candidates running.

Its imperative we determine what went wrong, Woods said, as OQuinn illegally assumed the office due to an illegal vote on Tuesday.

A mistake occurred  a mathematical error, said city attorney Nicole King.

Its done now, and its time for us to move on and get back on track, OQuinn said after the meeting.

My understanding is that I think the clerk just simply made a mistake, OQuinn said. Its understandable because (City Clerk) Lee Frazier is an expert on Roberts Rules of Order and parliamentary procedure, and if you were strictly using parliamentary procedure as your guideline for making a determination on the election, I think you would have come to the conclusion that he did. However, the Mayor-Council Act has a different rule, so because the two arent exactly in alignment I think there was opportunity for that confusion.

He added, I do want transparency; I dont think that theres more to it ... even if there were an investigation, thats the likely outcome of any investigation, was that it was just a simple error based on two different sets of rules.

Woods did not get unanimous consent to initiate an immediate investigation but said he will bring it back to the council as a formal resolution.

I heard some very concerning things about what led to that, Woods said after the meeting, although he did not specify what he meant. Prayerfully, none of those things are true, but I think its important as a council with all the feedback from the community wanting to understand whats going on, that we investigate.
A Birmingham man has been convicted in the shooting death of Moody police Sgt. Stephen Williams more than three years ago.

Williams, who was posthumously promoted to the rank of lieutenant, was killed June 2, 2020, while on duty.

A St. Clair County jury on Thursday convicted 31-year-old Tapero Carleone Johnson of capital murder. On Friday, that same jury recommended Johnson be sentenced to death.

On June 2nd 2020, Lt. Stephen Williams was brutally murdered while responding to a call for service. Today, a jury returned a verdict of death for Tapero Johnson,' Moody police Chief Reece Smith said in a statement to AL.com. And though this does not heal all wounds from this tragic loss, it does send a message that justice still prevails in our society.

Reece thanked the St. Clair County District Attorneys Office and the St. Clair County Sheriffs Office for their work in this case.

Please keep the family, friends and co-workers in your thoughts at this time,' Smith said.

District Attorney Lyle Harmon also said he is thankful for the verdict and all who helped bring the investigation and trial to a successful conclusion.

This jury endured 10 days of testimony, including witnessing video that captured the ambush and murder of Lt. Williams,' Harmon said. With these verdicts, this jury has sent a message that St. Clair County will not tolerate the murder of those who protect and serve our community.

Lt. Williams responded to a 911 call at the Super 8 Motel in Moody. As he knocked on the door, he was immediately met with gunfire from inside the room,' Harmon said. The defendant fired 43 rounds through the wall and door of the motel and used four different weapons during the assault.

I would like to thank all the local and state law enforcement agencies that responded to the chaotic scene,' he said, and for the heroism that they displayed.

The trial began in St. Clair County on Oct. 16 before Circuit Judge Phil Seay. Judges can no longer override a jurys recommendation and Johnsons formal sentencing will be held Nov. 15.

The second suspect, 31-year-old Marquisha Tyson, also of Birmingham, is set to go to trial in March.

Attorneys for Tyson had filed a motion saying she would not testify against Johnson in his trial.

Williams, a 50-year-old father of three, had been a police officer for 23 years, the last three of those at the Moody Police Department. He began his law enforcement career at the Bessemer Police Department and then served the Alabaster Police Department.

He had just been promoted to sergeant in the year before his death and was a recipient of the Officer of the Year award in memory of Keith Turner, who was shot to death June 27, 1998, and was the last Moody officer killed in the line of duty.

Williams was born and raised in Mississippi and, after graduating from Mississippi State, served his county in the U.S. Air Force.

In his short time with the City of Moody, he impacted the lives of not only many of the residents of the community, but those police officers that served with him, according to his obituary.

Moody police Sgt. Stephen Williams

Stephen took pride in mentoring and teaching the young police officers entering on duty and took the time to impress on them not just the normal things a training officer may impart on a new officer, but how to see all members of the community in a way that is so important for a police officer, as real people. People who often at the lowest part of their lives deserved the compassion and respect of those who not only enforced the law, but those that tempered that enforcement with love for their fellow man.

Nearly 1,000 mourners attended Williams funeral. His sons - both in the U.S. Coast Guard - had pinned his lieutenant bars on their fathers body, just as he pinned their bars on them when they were commissioned as officers.

The shooting happened shortly before 9:30 p.m. that Tuesday at the Super 8 motel on Moody Parkway when Williams, the night-shift supervisor, and other officers responded to the motel. The call for service turned into a barrage of gunfire during which Williams was struck.

A medical helicopter was sent for Williams, but the officer was instead taken by ambulance to UAB Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Both suspects were quickly taken into custody.
A Wellington man was shot Wednesday morning after he had allegedly attacked another man while in an altercation over a dog, officials say.

Calhoun County Sheriffs Office Lt. Falon Hurst said that around 10:40 a.m. Wednesday, a 911 call had been placed from a landowner stating that he had shot a man that had attacked him on his property.

Upon arrival to the property at the 4000 block of Old Sulphur Springs Road in Wellington, first responders found that the mans neighbor, Thomas Farmer, 47, of Wellington, had died from a single gunshot wound to the chest.

Hurst said that the incident arose from an argument that ensued between the decedent and the landowner over a dog. That argument got heated which resulted in Farmer being shot and killed.

No charges have been placed on the landowner at this time as investigators continue to piece together what happened, Hurst said.

Staff Writer Ashley Morrison: 256-236-1551. On Twitter: @AshMorrison1105.

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(c)2023 The Anniston Star (Anniston, Ala.)

Visit The Anniston Star (Anniston, Ala.) at www.annistonstar.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Two FBI officials in Birmingham on Thursday detailed how Joran van der Sloot last week came to plead guilty to extortion in a case that led to him confessing to killing Natalee Holloway in Aruba in 2005.

The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect their identity as investigators.

Van der Sloot entered his guilty plea in wire fraud and the extortion of Natalee Holloways mother, Beth, the mother of the 18-year-old Mountain Brook High School student. He received a 20-year sentence on each.

Those sentences will be served concurrently with each other and also concurrently with his 28-year sentence for a 2010 murder in Peru. As part of a plea deal, van der Sloot said he kicked Natalee Holloway in the face and then bludgeoned her with a cinderblock when she refused his sexual advances.

We want to make clear the amount of dedication and perseverance the agents, both past and present, the analysts and professional staff have put into this case to bring it to a successful conclusion, one of the officials told AL.com

Here are details from the question and answer session:

The Northern District of Alabama issued the extortion indictment against van der Sloot in 2010. Why did this go to court in the U.S. in 2023?

Prior to that, he committed an act of murder in Peru earlier in 2010 which put us in a situation of dealing with a foreign government and an extradition treaty of getting him over this country to face the extortion charges early.

It was just working through the legal process to get him over to face the charges he was indicted for in this country.

Weve never stopped working this case. Due to the nature of those events (the murder conviction), he was placed in jail and the thought process was that he wasnt going to be released until he finished those sentences there to face those charges here.

In coordination with the U.S. Attorneys Office and our government officials, they discovered an exception and due to the age of witnesses and evidence, we pursued that exception and thats how he was allowed to come to the United States with the understanding that he would return back to custody there after facing trial here.

When is he going back to Peru?

That will be up to the U.S. Marshals Office. I know the judge in open court stated she wanted it to be done as soon as possible but the U.S. Marshals are responsible for that.

Can you say whether van der Sloot was initially agreeable or reluctant to confess to Natalees murder as part of his plea agreement on the extortion charges?

As it pertains to how reluctant he was or forthcoming or wanting to share his information, in this particular situation, there was a lot of conversation and coordination between his legal team and the U.S. Attorneys Office, and we werent privy to those conversations.

We were, however, a part of the proffer session, so we he came to the proffer session, he did give the information that is part of the open record.

Can you describe the proffer session?

The proffer session took place at the Shelby County Jail where hes been housed since hes been here in Alabama.

The setting was a conference room.

On the government side, you had the case agents from Birmingham and Miami, the U.S. Attorneys Office and on the defense side, van der Sloot had two of his attorneys from Alabama and he also had Dutch attorneys there representing him for that proffer.

The proffer lasted just over three hours with a couple of short breaks in there. As far as his demeanor, I would say it was a professional business setting and both parties came in there understanding what the goal of the day was, which was for him to share the narrative of 2005 and 2010 with us.

It was a business-like approach.

Was there anything said that surprised yall?

I would say that we were not surprised. The FBI, the team, has been working this thing for 18 years so weve considered and looked at just about every scenario you can imagine.

So, in preparing for that proffer session, we reviewed all the case files, our and others, talked to witnesses, retired agents, consulted with our Behavior Analysist Unit, everybody we thought could help us best prepare for that proffer.

So, when we walked in there, we were pretty sure what we would hear and were prepared for what he might say.

Are you confident he told the truth?

Yes.

Part of that proffer was ensuring that he satisfied the U.S. Attorneys Office, the FBI and the Holloway family. And by the time we left that proffer, we were pretty satisfied that we had received the information that we needed to receive for that proffer to be executed.

We are confident that the information he provided in the proffer was truthful.

At what point was the Holloway family able to hear or see van der Sloots proffer (confession)?

The Holloway family was allowed to participate in the proffer and at the conclusion of them observing in the method that they observed, they were satisfied with the proffer session.

They were allowed to hear the proffer and were not going to comment in any further detail beyond that.

Were you met with any resistance from Aruba during entire investigation?

Im not aware of any.

I think one of the strong things that took place in this case was our partnerships.

We have great partnerships with local, state, federal and foreign (officials) and that had a great effect on the outcome of this case and moving it forward as it did.
Miguel Colunga has been convicted of robbing a Subway at gunpoint in 2018. Now hes going to prison for the rest of his life.

The Mobile District Attorneys Office announced Thursday the guilty verdict handed down by a Mobile County jury. Colunga was also found guilty of possession of a controlled substance.

In 2018, Colunga entered the Subway restaurant on Cottage Hill Road, brandishing a firearm and ordering an employee to empty the cash register. Colunga stole about $2,000 in cash and then fled the scene on foot, according to court records.

Just a few hours later, Mobile police tracked down Colunga, aided by the use of neighborhood surveillance video. Officers obtained permission to search a home where they found Colunga hiding behind a refrigerator, with the drugs on his person.

But this wasnt Colungas first run-in with the law.

He has jail and court records dating back to the early 1990s. Hes served time for domestic violence, various drug charges, assault, multiple robbery charges and burglary, among a lengthy list of arrests and convictions.

His sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 9, but under Alabama law the only possible sentence Colunga can receive is life in prison without the possibility of parole, the DAs office said.

Alabamas Habitual Felony Offender Act, originally adopted in 1977, mandates life in prison without parole for anyone convicted of a Class A felony after having been previously convicted of three felonies if one of those is a Class A felony.

In Alabama, Class A felonies include murder, rape, robbery, burglary, drug trafficking and manufacturing of a controlled substance. Colungas prior convictions for robbery and burglary qualify him for a life sentence under the habitual offender law.
Although Birmingham is one of the most expensive places to park in Alabama, as the Lede previously reported, visitors can still find the occasional free spot. For those looking to avoid a fee or an unpleasant towing experience, the Lede has compiled a list of five spots you can park for free around the city.

Birmingham public libraries

All branches have free parking nearby. For a list of branch locations visit http://www.bham.lib.al.us/locations/.

Several Birmingham Parking Authority decks.

For example, you can park free at BPA Deck 3, 401 North 20th Street; BPA Deck 4, 2128 4th Avenue North; BPA Deck 5, 2012 5th Avenue North; BPA Deck 6, 2010 2nd Avenue North; BPA Deck 7, 1702 5th Avenue North.
Scholastic Books wont separate its books that celebrate diversity at book fairs after all.

The childrens book publishing company announced that it was reversing course on a previous call to separate books dealing with race and gender into a collection that elementary schools could opt out of when hosting book fairs this week.

The company said its Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice collection was meant to assist schools that wanted to host book fairs but were grappling with recent waves of legislation that limit how gender and identity are taught in classrooms. Critics said the partitioned collection pandered to extreme-right anti-woke culture and set a dangerous precedent.

Several advocacy groups  including the National Black Justice Coalition, the Childrens Defense Fund, Color of Change, and PEN America  urged Scholastic to reverse its decision to segregate the books.

Now, the company is apologizing and the diversity collection is being phased out.

Even if the decision was made with good intention, we understand now that it was a mistake to segregate diverse books in an elective case, Scholastic president Ellie Berger said in a letter addressed to authors and illustrators that was obtained by media outlets. We recognize and acknowledge the pain caused, and that we have broken the trust of some of our publishing community, customers, friends, trusted partners, and staff, and we also recognize that we will now need to regain that trust.

Berger said that Scholastic would discontinue the diversity collection in January and that the company is working on a pivot plan for book fairs already planned for this fall.

Scholastic went public with its apology on Wednesday.

We understand now that the separate nature of the collection has caused confusion and feelings of exclusion, the company said in a statement. We are working across Scholastic to find a better way.

The diversity collection featured 64 books, including National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gormans book, Change Sings, and stories with diverse and LGBTQ characters.

Scholastic initially said the move was unavoidable, citing state laws and book bans nationwide that scrutinize books that address race, civil rights, gender identity and expression, LGBTQ themes, or topics centering around diversity and marginalized groups. Many state laws use intentionally vague language and put the onus on the educators to decide what books comply with regulations, threatening teachers jobs if certain books are taught or found in classrooms.

As noted by Education Week, the laws led to at least 3,300 instances of book bans in U.S. public schools and libraries in the 2022-23 school year and the removal of more than 1,500 titles from students access, according to PEN America data. In Pennsylvania, book bans are not as widespread as in other states. Still, the Central Bucks and Pleasant Valley School Districts have both placed books under review in the last year.

Advocacy groups such as PEN America and Color of Change are lauding Scholastic for pivoting.

Scholastic recognized that as difficult a bind as this pernicious legislation created, the right answer was not to become an accessory to censorship, Jonathan Friedman, the director of its Free Expression and Education program, said in a statement. Scholastic is an essential source of knowledge and a delight for countless children. We are glad to see them champion the freedom to read.

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2023 The Philadelphia Inquirer, LLC. Visit at inquirer.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Several members of Southern Baptist Conventions Executive Committee say they were unaware of a friend-of-the-court brief the organization filed in a Kentucky sex abuse case.

A culture where leadership can make a unilateral legal decision of this magnitude without the approval or discussion of the trustees is in an unhealthy spot. This amicus brief was a foolish strategy and I would have stated so if someone had told me, Pastor Adam Wyatt of Bethel Baptist in Monticello, Miss., posted on X (formerly known as Twitter).

The filing comes in the case of a woman adopted at age 2 by a Louisville police officer -- now serving a 15-year prison sentence for sexually abusing her throughout her childhood, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported Tuesday.

The filing comes after the case was dismissed and reinstated as the states law was expanded to increase the statute of limitations allow claims to be brought against non-perpetrators such as religious organizations.

The Southern Baptist Convention and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary ... in their brief they say they of course do not dispute the laudable policy reasons for providing relief for victims of childhood sexual abuse, the Courier-Journal reported. But not even the most sacrosanct policy can trump the due process concerns presented in this and similar cases involving the attempted retroactive application of expired claims, they say.

Abuse survivors and advocates of reform issued statements on the filing.

The SBC proactively chose to side against a survivor and with an abuser and the institution that enabled his abuse, one statement read. If denying survivors mere access to the justice system is still the heart and tenor of certain leadership, what does that indicate regarding reform?

EC members who say they were in the dark about the filing are also speaking out.

As an EC trustee, I stand with the survivors and this is unacceptable and disheartening. When the trustees dont know about decisions like this, we have a problem, posted Jana White, a teacher in North Carolina.

These ladies have earned the right to be heard with blood, sweat, and tears, posted Dani Bryson, a prosecutor in Tennessee.

I have served as the chair of our Sexual Abuse Prevention Task Force. I am outraged that a decision of the nature was made without consulting the trustees. I stand with survivors and will continue to work on their behalf, Craig Carlisle, Associational Missions Strategist of the Etowah Baptist Association in Gadsden, posted.

Oklahoma pastor Mike Keahbone, an executive committee member and member of a task force implementing abuse reforms in the SBC, told Religion News Service the brief undermined survivors.

Weve had survivors that have been faithful to give us a chance, he told Religion News Service. And we hurt them badly ....We cant seem to get out of our own way.

Keahbone told RNS he is calling for a special meeting of the Executive Committee to address the fling.

Efforts by AL.com to reach spokesmen for the executive committee on Thursday were not successful.

However, in a statement shared by Liam Adams of The Tennessean, the SBC Executive Committee wrote: The SBC Executive Committee must continue to defend itself, and its interests, within the judicial system as appropriate .... These goals (eradicating sexual abuse and legally defending itself) are not mutually exclusive.

Here's the same @SBCExecComm statement in a 1-pg. format.

"The SBC Executive Committee must continue to defend itself, and its interests, within the judicial system as appropriate. These goals (eradicating sexual abuse and legally defending itself) are not mutually exclusive." pic.twitter.com/oOFPUoMJlZ  Liam Adams (@liamsadams) October 27, 2023

Southern Seminary President Albert Mohler on Thursday issued a statement:

As is often the case in questions of law, significant constitutional and legal questions arise and require arguments to be made before the courts, he said. In such cases we must refer all questions to legal counsel. We respect the rule of law and must work through the process with legal representation, who must speak for us in this case.

I hope the SBC Executive committee takes affirmative steps to withdraw their amicus brief and the public position theyve taken against sexual abuse victims, attorney Tad Thomas, who is representing the Kentucky abuse victim, told The Tennessean.
Two former Senate Majority Leaders on Thursday criticized U.S. Senator Tommy Tubervilles 10-month-long hold on key military appointments over a Pentagon abortion policy.

Trent Lott, a former Republican Senator from Mississippi, and Tom Daschle, the former Democratic Senator from South Dakota -- while in Mobile Thursday to speak about bipartisanship in an era of gripping polarization -- each denounced the military holds after they were asked to weigh in during a question-and-answer session before a group of students at the University of South Alabama.

Im from Pascagoula and I feel strongly about the military, said Lott, who served in the Senate from 1989-2007, and was the upper chambers Majority and Minority Leader in the early 2000s. Its not a good idea to hold up these nominations, quite frankly.

Daschle, who served in the Senate from 1987-2005, and was also either Majority and Minority Leader from 2001-2005, called the situation very short-sighted and problematic for democracy.

We got a war in Ukraine and a war in the Middle East, Daschle said. Weve got issues in the last couple of day sin the Philippines and China. There is so much need for military leadership now at the highest levels in how to address all of this.

Former Republican U.S. Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi participates in a question-and-answer session with students during a luncheon at University of South Alabama's Mitchell Center on Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023, in Mobile, Ala.John Sharp/jsharp@al.com

Lott said if was in Senate leadership right now he would discourage Tubervilles actions. But Lott also said that its up to Senate leadership to get everyone to sit down and hammer out a resolution.

The Senate leadership needs to be meeting with Tuberville, the Secretary of Defense and sit down and say, What is your problem? Lott said. If they would just sit down and work it out, it would be resolved.

Tubervilles office declined comment.

Since February, the Alabama senator has held up reportedly more than 300 military promotions. The blanket hold on the nominations, according to the senator, is over a Department of Defense policy that allows service members to be reimbursed for travel while obtaining abortions. The department enacted the policy after the reversal of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court last year, overturning the constitutional right to an abortion and leaving the issue to individual states.

Tuberville, who has claimed there is nobody more military than him, has said the Pentagons policy is illegal and can only be put in place through legislation.

Democrats, as reported by The Washington Post, are attempting to find a way to circumvent Tubervilles holds and get some Republican support in approving a large block of military nominees at once amid the growing unrest in the Middle East. Republicans are reportedly skeptical of any Senate rules changes that might be pitched by the Democrats.

Tubervilles hold applies to all senior military promotions, and more than 350 officers, according to the Post. Those positions, the publication reports, includes officials whose purview is the Middle East, like the deputy commander of the United States Central Command (Centcom), and the commander of the Fifth Fleet  who are both awaiting stalled nominations to three-star positions. President Joe Bidens nominations to lead to the Navy and Air Force are also tied up.

Tubervilles hold cannot stop military promotions from being approved, but it does require a roll call vote on each one. Democratic lawmakers have argued that it could take months to have a vote on every one of them. Senate tradition also has allowed the upper chamber to group military promotions together and approve them by a single voice vote, thereby removing the lengthy roll calls.
A woman and a man from Alabama were killed Thursday morning after the vehicles they were driving collided head-on in Greene County, authorities said.

Dana Freeman, 55, of Demopolis, was driving a 2015 Chevrolet Suburban around 6:50 a.m. Thursday on U.S. 43 when the vehicle collided head on with a 2004 Chevrolet Express G3500 driven by 44-year-old Northport resident Joseph D. Lunceford, said Alabama Law Enforcement Agency Cpl. Reginal King.

Freeman and Lunceford were pronounced dead at the scene of the wreck near the 142-mile marker of U.S. 43, about four miles south of Forkland, in Greene County, said King.

Further information was unavailable as state troopers continued to investigate the wreck.
Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips announced that he would challenge United States President Joe Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The lawmaker will launch his 2024 campaign on Friday in New Hampshire, where he will file to appear on the state's primary ballot. During an interview, Phillips said he would make a late entry into the Democratic primary race.

Dean Phillips Announces Campaign for President

The 54-year-old lawmaker said he admires Biden, who is already 80, but noted that it is time for a new generation of Democrats to lead the party. He noted that this is particularly true with former United States President Donald Trump poised to be the Republican presidential nominee potentially.

The Minnesota Democrat said he studied polling data and was alarmed about the prospect of Trump beating Biden if the 2024 elections are a remake of the 2020 race. He added that Biden had done a spectacular job for the country but argued that the election is about the future, as per CBS News.

Phillips said that he would not sit still or stay quiet in the face of numbers that clearly showed that they would be facing an emergency next November. He described a potential second Trump term as a crisis moment for American democracy.

The lawmaker acknowledged that he still faces an uphill battle since many Democrats fervently support Biden and are convinced that he remains well-positioned to beat Trump again. However, Phillips believes that some Democratic voters are craving an alternative that can provide a generational contrast with a centrist message.

He added that he was encouraging other Democratic lawmakers to enter the race, hoping that additional competition would provide the party with a tested and strong committee. The announcement comes as Biden's re-election campaign informed New Hampshire Democrats earlier this week that the president will not appear on the state's primary ballot.

Read Also: Mike Johnson Elected as New Republican House Speaker After Tumultuous Voting

Joe Biden's Chances of Winning 2024 Elections

Phillips argued that Biden would be a weak general election candidate because of his old age and low approval ratings. The Minnesota Democrat's campaign launch comes as left-wing lawmakers are seeking to unify around Biden, fend off spoiler independence candidates, and lay out the administration's accomplishments to voters, according to CNN.

The president's allies have also described talk of Phillips running as a distraction that would only highlight Biden's weak points. The Minnesota lawmaker tried to reach out to the president in August, but Biden was unavailable.

Phillips instead spoke with White House chief of staff Jeff Zients, who "heard him out" but conveyed that the president is the right person to win in 2024 and finish the job. He added that his attempts to reach the president were a "courtesy" to advise him of his intentions to run in the race.

Because of party guidelines, Biden's name will not appear on the New Hampshire primary ballot. It is part of a long-running dispute within the Democratic Party regarding which states and regions should have the first say in determining the party's presidential nominees every four years, said the Associated Press.

Related Article: New York Republicans Force Vote To Remove Rep. George Santos

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Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Hoover, the erstwhile candidate for speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, is facing another election: the Republican primary for the congressional seat he has held since 2015.

Palmer is facing at least two candidates in the primary for Alabamas 6th Congressional District after insurance agency owner Ken McFeeters became the latest to qualify for the race, according to the Alabama Republican Party.

McFeeters, a 63-year old Hoover resident, owns the Hoover-based PAC Insurance, Inc., which also has locations in Birmingham and Bessemer. He was also a former president of the Mid-Alabama Republican Club.

The reason Im running reminds me of an Albert Camus quote: The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion, McFeeters said in a statement to AL.com. Im running because everyone is sick and tired of the status quo in DC and deserve someone who is not weak, clueless, nor complicit and will stand up to the public/private overlords in DC,

On his campaign website, McFeeters voices deep mistrust of government and the media.

His platform includes ending U.S. involvement in the war in Ukraine, changing the leadership of government agencies (Those leaders no longer regulate/protect us as the government intended, his website states), defunding and withdrawing from the United Nations and the World Health Organization and banning mRNA shots like the coronavirus vaccine for infants and children.

McFeeters is also running on repealing the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act, which went into effect in 2013 and allows content from government-funded news networks like Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty to be broadcast in the United States.

McFeeters said the law allows the U.S. government to use propaganda against its own citizens.

The U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees the networks, disputes the characterization from McFeeters and other critics that their content is American propaganda.

Our journalists must abide by legally mandated broadcasting standards and principles to present accurate and objective news and information. They do so in 63 languages for audiences in more than 100 countries countries where it is often difficult or impossible to receive locally-produced, uncensored or unbiased programs, the organization says on its website. They provide responsible discussion and open debate in places where it is rare in the media. To call these efforts propaganda is an affront to those journalists, many of whom work in some of the roughest spots in the world, putting themselves and their loved ones at great risk.

McFeeters also alluded to Palmer backing out of his promise to run for no more than five terms, saying Washington doesnt need career politicians.

Lets hold Gary Palmer to his 10-year pledge and elect new politicians who will change the political environment in D.C., McFeeters says on his website.

The primary is taking place on March 5.

Besides Palmer and McFeeters, Vestavia Hills businessman Gerrick Wilkins has qualified for the primary.
Though the world now rightly focuses on Israel, the worlds sole Jewish state is largely irrelevant as regards the real threat to world peace: militant Islam. If you really want to address root causes, then look no further. Israel and the Jews are but a convenient distraction, a red herring, just the canary in the coal mine.

To put things in perspective, depending on how one scores things, there are now between 30 and 100 armed conflicts raging in varying degrees on our planet. Even the United Nations (UN) reports that we currently have the highest number of violent conflicts since World War II.

So, whether there are 30 or 100 armed conflicts, it raises a simple question: how many involve Jews?

Answer: 1. Just Israel.

For all the others, theres not a Jew anywhere in sight. So, Jews, frankly, are largely irrelevant as regards world peace and conflict. A red herring. But also, the proverbial canary in the coal mine.

Sadly, but tellingly, and putting Israel aside, the vast majority of armed conflicts on our globe involve militant Islam on at least one side of the conflict. So, if youre looking for root causes to explain world instability, thats it. Stop overthinking things.

Some of the places are old and familiar like Kashmir, where Muslims fight Hindus. In some places  like the Philippines  its militant Muslims versus Catholics. In the Philippines, an Islamic group even beheaded two Jehovah's Witnesses and left their heads in bags with the note, "Those who do not believe in Allah will suffer the same fate."

In much of Africa  Nigeria, Sudan, Congo, Burkina Faso, Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Cameroon  its militant Muslims versus Christians. In Nigeria, it is common for militant Muslims belonging to Boko Haram to burn churches. This is not a new phenomenon.

Boko Haram logo

When Nigeria hosted the Miss World beauty pageant 20 years ago, militant Muslims killed more than 200 people. Apparently, beauty pageants are offensive to the Koran, but murdering innocents is ok. At least fifty churches were destroyed or damaged. The local newspaper was also burned because it had the audacity to publish a story questioning Muslim groups that condemned the pageant.

Though a beauty pageant makes for unique context, Islamists killing Christians is hardly unique. Rather, Nigeria is reflective of what's been going on around the globe for some time now. In Sudan, which we don't hear much about, more than two million Christians have been literally butchered this century by militant Islamists proclaiming, "convert or die."

In Myanmar, in southeast Asia, its Muslims versus Buddhists, a conflict that has been raging since 1948. In Armenia, its Christians versus militant Muslims. Likewise in Indonesia its militant Muslims versus Christians. In Chechnya, its been militant Muslims fighting the Russian army.

And in Muslim countries, the few remaining Christians are persecuted, like Coptic Christians in Egypt or Maronite Christians in Lebanon. Even in Bethlehem the Christian population has plummeted under Palestinian control.

To be sure, in a few places, like in China with the Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, Muslims are more so the oppressed than the persecutor. But in almost all places, Islam is the common denominator on at least one side of the conflict.

As for Israel, to lend some perspective, there are about 50 Muslim majority countries about 1000 times Israels size. So, for Hamas and others, the scoreboard reading 50-1 is not lopsided enough. They want it to read 51-0. Look at a map: when they chant from the river to the sea, they mean no Israel, no Jews.

To be clear, the point here is not to debate whether Islam, or any religion, is peaceful or not. Ill leave that to the religion professors.

Suffice to say, there is enough ambiguity in all the good books that scripture can be used (or abused) for good or evil. Religion provides great comfort to billions and motivates most to live better, more ethical lives.

But as we all know, every group  be it a religion or even the girl scouts on occasion  has its zealots. No religion has a monopoly on crazy.

Once in a blue moon, a crazy Catholic will blow up an abortion clinic. When that happens, however, mainstream Catholics do not throw a parade and shower the bombers family with gifts. Mainstream Catholics are abhorred and rebuke the terrorist.

Likewise, when a crazy, Orthodox Jew gunned down Muslims at a mosque in Hebron in 1994, Jews did not celebrate. Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin immediately condemned the attack calling the perpetrator a degenerate murderer and an embarrassment to Judaism.

Even Buddhist monks can be deemed The Face of Terror, as Time magazine labeled Ashin Wirathu on its cover in 2017 for his actions in Myanmar. Again, no group is immune from extremism.

But, in most groups, the moderate masses self-police their zealots. If they cant reform their zealots, they banish or ultimately punish and attempt to defang them. The moderate masses restore order to their group. The moderate masses do not let the groups tail wag the dog.

But as judged by conduct, not soundbites or scripture, for decades now Islam has had trouble self-policing. Whether its ISIS in Iraq, Boko Haram in Nigeria, now Hamas in Israel, or any of the many other militant Islamic groups, the question must be asked:

Where are the moderate Muslim masses?

If the Muslim zealots are indeed such a tiny minority, then why cant, or dont, the moderate Muslim masses take control and self-police the cancer amidst them? The fact they havent raises the question whether, indeed, they are either moderate or massive?

Though the media now talks about the innocent Palestinians in Gaza, remember they elected Hamas. So now claiming Hamas does not speak for them and they are victims is a bit disingenuous and convenient. Again, they didnt just tolerate Hamas, but elected them.

What ultimately matters is not whether the Koran, Old Testament, or New Testament is "peaceful," but rather the actions of those who follow the different good books. And as judged by actions, Islam has not proven peaceful, as almost all the hot spots on the globe now involve militant Muslims on at least one side.

As for human rights, suffice to say that there are no human rights abuses in much of the Islamic world because there are no human rights to abuse. In Saudi Arabia there are no churches, no Bibles, no Christian artifacts, no non-Muslim worship of any kind. If Christians are caught praying, even in their own homes, they are punished severely. In short, being a non-Muslim in many Muslim countries can be a death sentence.

We can address these realities or apologize for them.

To be clear, it is not suggested that Islam has a monopoly on genocide, as Bosnia revealed in the 1990s. However, the fact that most conflicts on our globe today involve militant Islam is no coincidence either. The rub is that Islam, by self-definition, is an expansionist religion, which today often seeks to gain market share through mass murder in many places.

All said, Israel and the Jews are actually a symptom of a much larger problem. Eliminate Israel and instead of there being 50 conflicts on the globe involving Islam, congratulations, youre down to just 49.

And you may be next.

Jean DuBois is a pen name.

Image credit: Arnold Platon CC By 3.0 license
I am tired of hearing that impassioned support for former president Donald Trump means that one worships him as his savior and hails him as his king. Personally, I interpret such accusations as an attack on my faith. Whats more, its a cheap and easy shot to the Achilles heel of a Christian to accuse him of violating a biblical commandment, and it needs to be called out as the dirty fighting that it is.

Do you want to know why Trump-supporters feel as strongly as they do? Because in their hearts, they believe that if Trump had remained as the 45th president of the United States through to the present day, the following would not have happened:

Its time to recall some of the origins of Trump-worship allegations.

In 2017, writer Rod Dreher wrote Christians Tempted by Trump Idolatry. It was a scathing rebuke of Christians who supported Trump and would be the first of many Dreher articles and blog posts attacking the president and his supporters. In it he quoted his book, The Benedict Option:

Though Donald Trump won the presidency in part with the strong support of Catholics and Evangelicals, the idea that the robustly vulgar, fiercely combative, and morally compromised as Trump will be an avatar for the restoration of Christian morality and social unity is beyond delusional. He is not a solution to Americas cultural decline, but a symptom of it.

He then accused Christians of making a false idol of politics itself, then charged Christians of the previous generation with focusing too much on politics while mistakenly believing that the culture would take care of itself.

Yet The Benedict Option was, in my estimation, largely successful due to being embraced by various Christian factions who felt that the book vindicated their decades-long silence as they clung to the peripheries of a troubled society  even as theyd watched the moral majority positively impact the culture. Though the organization formed by Rev. Jerry Falwell lasted but ten years, the impact of that mainstream Protestant movement was perpetuated by the civil actions of millions of Americans of diverse faiths, the effects of which can still be seen today. It was undeniably successful in advancing conservative social values, a strong national defense, a pro-America pathway that led to the election of Ronald Reagan, and anti-communist policies that led to the fall of the Berlin wall, impacting millions of lives beyond our borders. It also cemented a foreign policy that would never leave Israels side.

Despite all this, Dreher chose to blame that time and those Americans as one reason the contemporary church is in so much trouble. It took but a few pages in Drehers book to fully encapsulate the creed of the anti-Trumpers as he set the precedent for all jaccuse attacks to be couched in the context of idol worship, thus giving Trump-hating Christians lawful permission to throw their Trump-loving brethren under the Roman chariot wheels.

In 2021, black author and theologian Esau McCauley wrote an article accusing white, conservative Christians of weakening the church because they dared to question election results. Using a strategy similar to Drehers, McCauley compared the folks at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, to the legions controlled by Pontius Pilate, the man who ultimately ordered the crucifixion of Jesus.

More recently, a Washington Post exegesis declared: Trump as Jesus? Why he casts himself as a martyr, and why fans go along. The writer mocked a cartoon that showed Jesus Christ sitting next to Trump in a courtroom. (The Post failed to mention that the Trump-supporter who posted the drawing was Dom Lucre, AKA Dominick McGee, a black American, entrepreneur, and conservative influencer.) The caption on the drawing read, This is the most accurate court sketch of all time. Because nobody could have made it this far alone. In a touching public recognition that his faith was giving him strength, Trump re-posted the drawing.

But thats not how critics saw it. The Washington Post wrote, To protect his incredibly fragile ego, he needs to create this victimization. ... Thats where the martyrdom comes in.

The list of unchallenged accusations and vitriolic mocking of Trump is never-ending. But I can assure you of this: millions of people across America...the ones with Trump 2020 still painted on the side of their barns and Trump 2024 signs scotch-taped to apartment windows...they know the difference between whom they vote for and whom they worship.

They wanted Trump because they didnt want to see what the world looked like without the leadership of a strong America. They wanted Trump because they cared about our military and our veterans, the Constitution, free speech, American sovereignty, and strong borders. They cared about preserving lives in Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Israel. And as selfish as it may sound, they wanted a strong economy that could support their families and maybe even help them prosper. They didnt want to see the suffering of humanity that we are seeing now  from the streets of New York and L.A. to Kibbutz Beeri to Mariupol, history will show that Trump-supporters hoped to prevent, or at least delay, the worlds descent into madness.

My parents taught me that it was my Christian responsibility to be involved in the culture, not to hide from it. Subsequently, that meant being politically active, even if it was only to cast an informed ballot, be it at the local or the federal level. Yet there will never be anyone higher in rank to me than my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Maybe instead of continuing to hammer Christians with the accusation that their Trump-support is idol worship, critics should take a repentant look at lives lost in a world on fire  and introspectively consider what role their voice played in the resulting carnage.

Susan D. Harris can be reached at www.susandharris.com.

Image via Raw Pixel.
The moment that Donald Trump won the 2016 election, the outlines of a conspiracy began.

Obama, Biden, their staff, Democrat lifers in the DOJ, FBI, CIA, the Pentagon, the establishment media, woke billionaires and the Democrat party, foremost among them House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, shaped a plan to wreck his presidency and cheat to defeat him in 2020.

Despite that Trump was on his way to a triumphant presidency because of prescient policies, both domestic and foreign.

Something bigly had to be done to stop him.

Dr. Anthony Faucis Wuhan virus coincidently escaped the lab. Aware, and against Trump, the CCP permitted thousands of infected passengers to enter the U.S. where it created a pandemic.

Anticipating it and seemingly prepared for it, the Democrat party exploited it to create a seismic, unprecedented distortion in public policies around economy-killing lockdowns, and in voting rules, increasing unverifiable ballots by previously unheard of multiples.

It coordinated with its champions in social, print and network media to censor and suppress damning information about its own candidate and his depraved family.

They were so certain that they could cheat out a victory that they kept their candidate, lifelong liar and incompetent Joe Biden, in his basement as Trump held massive rallies.

Trump went to bed election night well ahead. By morning he had lost. See Dinesh D'Souza's documentary, 2,000 Mules.

Myriad legitimate legal appeals were filed. All were rejected by the courts, either because of cowardice, complicity, or both.

A rally was organized in Washington to protest the election results and members of Congress were preparing to challenge them on January 6.

Pelosi saw an opportunity to subvert the challenge and refused to provide security for the protest. The FBI infiltrated the protest and arranged to open the doors to the House of Representatives and herd the protesters inside, disrupting the elections challenge by its members.

As a consequence the challenge never happened. Biden was certified and Pelosi prevailed over her hated enemy.

Seeing another opportunity, and seeing how well rigging can work, she rigged up a committee of political sycophants whose mission was to deliver to the complicit media a narrative that the protest was an attempt by Trump to overthrow the government.

To bolster the narrative, she and Biden and the DOJ and FBI conspired to politically persecute and destroy the lives of hundreds of loyal, well meaning, decent people who had set foot in the House that day, invited in by the FBI and Capitol Police. Before and since, other groups have protested in the House. Not one has suffered the evil, malevolent, machinations of Pelosi, Biden and their bureaucratic henchmen.

The public wasnt convinced and sensing Democrat lies, distortion and calumny, its support for Trump increased, surprising and alarming the Democrats.

Something more bigly had to be done. It was time to deny the people their right to choose their president by getting Trump removed from the ballot.

Four lawsuits were filed by four party prostitutes alleging everything from financial fraud to bribery to election interference. In addition to costing Trump huge expenditures of time, money and energy, the lawsuits have brought ruin to many others who have had the misfortune to be on his side against a corrupt foe with limitless resources, both of money and personnel, with which to wage legal war.

Other Democrat operatives are attempting to use the Constitution to have Trumps name stricken from the ballot.

And still Trumps support grows.

What will they think of next?

Image: Pixabay / Pixabay License
Novel scientific processes are being developed to reduce methane production by cows, including feeding milk cows the chemical 3-nitrooxypropanol (3-NOP) as an enteric inhibitor, marketed under the brand name Bovaer in Europe and pending approval for cows in the U.S. Other experimental additives include red seaweed (being fed to cows for Ben & Jerrys Ice Cream). Bovaer is touted as reducing methane emissions from dairy cows by as much as 30%, but its long-term impacts on human health are unclear. Will people drink milk from chemical-dosed cows to save the planet from methane?

This methane-reducing chemical was approved for use in Europe by the European Food Safety Authoritys Panel on Additives and Products or Substances used in Animal Feed (FEEDAP). FEEDAP concluded that 3-NOP was safe for cows even though the genotoxicity potential of 3-NOP cannot be ruled out. Though rats were used to assess impacts on humans, the panel dismissed evidence of potential impact on male reproductivity:

The FEEDAP Panel noted that the severe effects seen on testes and epididymides, affecting spermatogenesis, were observed in rats only.  [T]he testicular toxicity induced by administration of 3-NOP is rat specific. The FEEDAP Panel agreed with this conclusion.  [T]he use of Bovaer 10 in animal nutrition under the conditions of use proposed was of no concern for consumer safety and for the environment.

There have been numerous food additives approved for human consumption for which there was no concern for human safety, and subsequently proved to be unhealthy. High-fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated fat saturate the American food supply with no apparent concern for human safety. Glyphosate has been banned in many parts of the world, but is hailed as harmless by the U.S.s EPA and FDA.

Adding chemicals that are eye and skin irritants (like 3-NOP) to cow feed, to make human food, to reduce methane production seems sketchy: corporations generally only develop additives that bolster profits. The profit pitch may be that consumers will buy the environmentally friendly reduced-methane milk. But findings like this from FEEDAP may offer cause to pause:

The FEEDAP Panel notes that the genotoxicity of 3-NOP cannot be ruled out and that pre-neoplastic lesions and tumours [sic] observed in the 2-year carcinogenicity study with 3-NOP are biologically relevant. However, the consumer is not exposed to 3-NOP. Therefore, the above findings are not considered relevant for the safety for the consumer.

Consumers didnt like bovine growth hormone (bovine somatotropin) in their milk. This was developed in the 1970s to increase milk production, using an artificial hormone developed with recombinant DNA technology: rBGH. Many countries have banned the drug, but it is still used in U.S. milk supplies with no labeling requirement. Proponents claim it will help the climate by increasing productivity, thereby permitting a herd reduction of some 157,000 animals and their associated carbon footprint.

American consumers also objected to pink slime, a processed meat by-product paste used as a food additive and filler called lean finely textured beef, or LFTB. Objections arose to the use of beef trimmings treated with ammonia or citric acid. Pink slime is banned in the European Union, Canada, and several other nations. In the U.S., the product was profitable, so the government overrode consumer safety concerns: it is now found, unlabeled, in American grocery stores since the USDAs Orwellian-named Food Safety and Inspection Service reclassified the substance as ground beef.

Hormones and antibiotics are also used in U.S. beef production, to increase growth rates and leaner finished animals. These include synthetic hormones, some of which adversely impact animal health. Consumer concerns may be justified, given the increasing human illness being caused by damage to the gut. One study observed the lack of study of this potential harm:

Small amounts of antibiotics added to feedstuff present growth promotion effects via the prevention of infectious diseases at doses lower than therapeutic dose. The induction of antimicrobial resistant bacteria and the disruption of normal human intestinal flora are major concerns in terms of human health impact.



[B]efore deciding on any risk management options, risk assessments of antimicrobial resistance require large-scale evidence regarding the relationship between antimicrobial use in food-producing animals and the occurrence of antimicrobial resistance in human pathogens.

There is a pattern at work thoughthose large-scale studies are never done. Consumers are told to just trust the scientific experts and the corporate profiteers. PFAS have seeped into U.S. drinking water for 80 years, and the EPA only established safe levels of these forever chemicals in 2023. Synthetic meat has been approved for production with little study of its potential harms: people dont want to eat the stuff despite claims of climate salvation.

Next thing you know, the government will work with private business entities to compel humans to take an experimental vaccine, with inadequate study, while providing unlimited liability for any harms caused. With revolving-door regulatory oversight for corporate profit now the obvious norm in America, who on earth would drink milk tainted with chemicals that synthetically alter how cows digest grass?

Attorney-farmer John Klar hosts the Small Farm Republic Substack and podcast from his Vermont farm. His new book is Small Farm Republic: Why Conservatives Must Embrace Local Agriculture, Reject Climate Alarmism, and Lead an Environmental Revival.

Image: Free image, Pixabay license, no attribution required.
Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and all the rest of the Democrat Inc. worked very hard to secure financial stability for Iran with the Iran nuclear deal.

Why would you ever give a country that spreads terrorism around the world, pledges death to Israel and death to America, access to hundreds of billions of dollars? What, in their history, have Iranian tyrants done to indicate that they should be trusted on anything, no matter what piece of paper they sign or what promises they make?

Obama even shipped $1.7 billion in cash to the tyrants to help facilitate the deal. I am sure the tyrants used that money for humanitarian purposes for the people.

In its efforts to sweeten the deal with Iran, which is the biggest terrorist sponsor in the world, Obama put the kibosh on a years-long investigation into the terrorist organization Hezbollah and its billion-dollar-a-year crime syndicate activities. From Politico:

In its determination to secure a nuclear deal with Iran, the Obama administration derailed an ambitious law enforcement campaign targeting drug trafficking by the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah, even as it was funneling cocaine into the United States, according to a POLITICO investigation. The campaign, dubbed Project Cassandra, was launched in 2008 after the Drug Enforcement Administration amassed evidence that Hezbollah had transformed itself from a Middle East-focused military and political organization into an international crime syndicate that some investigators believed was collecting $1 billion a year from drug and weapons trafficking, money laundering and other criminal activities. Over the next eight years, agents working out of a top-secret DEA facility in Chantilly, Virginia, used wiretaps, undercover operations and informants to map Hezbollahs illicit networks, with the help of 30 U.S. and foreign security agencies.

There is nothing more dangerous than a president who would let terrorists have access to so much money because he wanted a deal.

When President Trump stood for Israel, and finally fulfilled the promise to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, Biden disagreed with the move:

Joe Biden says embassy should not have been moved, but now that its done, he would not move it back to Tel Aviv.

Somehow Biden thought it was dangerous for Trump to take out a terrorist who was responsible for killing and maiming thousands, including Americans. Iran had to love that Biden and other Democrats didnt want to kill a major terrorist. As NPR reported:

Leading Democratic presidential candidates on Tuesday blasted President Trump's decision to kill Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, casting it as a dangerous escalation in a volatile region. Former Vice President Joe Biden delivered a speech in New York City in which he labeled the deadly strike as the latest in a series of dangerously incompetent steps taken by Trump.

As soon as Biden took office, he launched a flurry of attacks against the U.S. oil industry. That rapidly increased prices and greatly helped oil-producing countries like Iran.

Within one month of taking office Biden lifted Trumps sanctions on Iranian oil which has allowed them to increase their sales from around 400,000 barrels per day to around three million barrels per day. This gives them huge amounts of money with which they can use to fund Hamas and Hezbollah.

Then the Biden administration paid $6 billion ransom for five hostages. The Biden administration claims that the money can only be used for humanitarian purposes. What a joke!

Iran has to love it when the Biden administration says it cant spot any direct involvement in the October 7th Israel attack by Hamas, even though the terrorists themselves reportedly said the regime is complicit; even CNN was forced to report this:

In 2022, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said publicly that the group had received about $70 million from Iran that year and that it used the money to build rockets. A State Department report from 2020 found that Iran provided about $100 million annually to Palestinian terrorist groups, including Hamas.

Iran-backed militants have attacked American forces at least thirteen times recently. We havent retaliated, but we are watching them closely and telling them to stop. We are letting the terrorists know we retain the ability to defend ourselves. From ABC News:

The U.S. retains the ability to defend itself and hasn't ruled out retaliatory operations after the Pentagon said American forces were attacked by Iran-backed militants at least 13 times in the Middle East in the last week, President Joe Biden said Wednesday.

Wow. That is tough. I bet Iran is shaking in its britches.

It is time the media admitted that the Biden administration is funding both sides of the war in Ukraine, and in Israel, instead of pretending how great Bidens words have been.

How is it pro-Israel to fund Iran which funds the terrorists?

Image: DonkeyHotey, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons, unaltered.
As a physicist, John Droz holds in high regard the Scientific Method, a 400-year-old approach to investigating reality.

Rooted in Isaac Newton's work, which included creation of the calculus, the Scientific Method has long underpinned examination of the physical world and technological advancement.

Quite understandable it is, then, that Droz, who holds degrees in mathematics and physics, was prompted to do some investigating of his own after learning that his state of North Carolina had abandoned the teaching of the Scientific Method for the promotion of a faddish theory of entirely unscientific inquiry.

"Upon reading a review of the North Carolina K-12 Science Standards, I was concerned that nowhere was the Scientific Method even mentioned," says Droz, who retired at 34 as a successful investor and launched a 40-year career as a "citizen advocate" of wide-ranging pursuits.

Having a particular concern about the current state of critical thinking, Droz ultimately filed a written complaint with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.

"They subsequently said that they had received some 14,000 inputs on the Science Standards, and apparently, I was the only one bringing up the issue," said Droz, whose varied interests include climate science and election integrity.

The controversy had its beginnings in 2012 when a newly formulated Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) began nudging out the Scientific Method from much of public education. Politically inspired by progressive ideology and backed by the National Research Council, National Science Teachers Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the NGSS gained favor with the education bureaucracy of 45 states. The Scientific Method was replaced by something called "Science and Engineering Practices."

Much of the public might not appreciate the implications of the Scientific Method's fading from public education's officialdom, but the loss is no less than a disaster to scientists and adherents of the traditional tenets of critical thinking.

The Scientific Method requires that questions be asked, observations made, and hypotheses formulated, tested, and proven or rejected. Conclusions are always subject to challenges with new evidence and insights.

The NGSS scraps this centuries-old process for computer models whose products are proof of nothing unless they are verified against real-world data and survive the challenges of new information. However, those criticizing the findings of this corruption of objective inquiry are often dismissed as "science deniers."

Nowhere have the dangers of this travesty been more manifest than in climate science where a paganistic fervor has supplanted rigorous investigation and open debate. Challengers of the status quo are more likely to be met with ad hominem than data. Ideologically driven activists use flawed computer models to justify political actions like banning gas-powered cars, shutting down pipelines and spending trillions on "green" energy subsidies that provide no benefit to society.

In classrooms, students are encouraged by the NGSS to conform to politically correct views: Solar and wind energy are good. Fossil fuels are bad. Catastrophic global warming is the future. Carbon dioxide, a gas necessary for life itself, is pollution. Computer models that fail to predict weather days or months in the future can divine the behavior of the climate, Earth's most complex system, in the next century. Questioning the most absurd of hypotheses is heresy.

Fortunately for North Carolina students, two members of the 18-person State Board of Education embraced Droz's view that the Scientific Method should be restored to the state's Science Standards, which it was in July. Droz said the support of the board members was instrumental in correcting the deficiency in state standards.

"I'm optimistic that the Department of Public Instruction will soon address my second major concern that the state Science Standards need more specificity regarding critical thinking," says Droz. "It should be clear that there is an intimate connection between critical thinking analysis and the universal problem-solving procedure of the Scientific Method."

John Droz's example of standing for scientific integrity is an inspiration to the CO2 Coalition, of which he is a member. Determined to reverse the education establishment's degradation of science teaching, the CO2 Coalition has created educational materials for students and educators.

The CO2 Learning Center's books, videos and lesson plans are free for the asking. The cost of failing to repel the modern attack on rational thought is incalculable.
Just in case you're feeling too cheerful, here are ten more statistics to make you consider emigrating to Mars:

1. Paul Bond quotes a poll by the Barna Group: "Nearly 40 Percent of U.S. Gen Zs, 30 Percent of Young Christians Identify as LGBTQ, Poll Shows." (The Gallup Poll shows considerably less) However, Heather McDonald writes in City Journal that: "The number of trans-identifying students is rising exponentially, leading to majorities in the student bodies of the most progressive schools. This rise is without any historical precedent. It is proof of social contagion, not of a preexisting biological reality."

2. We read in Breitbart that a poll shows that a majority of Americans aged 18-24 say the Hamas massacre of Israeli civilians was justified. Note, this is not because they don't know what Hamas did:"62 percent of that same group say that the attacks were genocidal, and 51 percent said it was still justified." This doesn't seem fair to me. If you or I go and murder, or decapitate, or burn people alive, we would not get a pass. But Hamas is about 'decolonization', bursting out of an 'open air prison,' paragliding to annihilate people you dont like -- so thats justice!

3. A friend of mine moved to Arizona years ago to escape New York taxes. Though that state is overly hot six months of the year, he liked the place. Now, he says, the highway exit ramps are filled with homeless, and statistics back up his observation: from January 2020 to December 2021, the number of homeless in AZ is estimated to have increased by nearly 30 percent. The National Alliance to End Homelessness says that homelessness rates have been climbing nationally by about 6% every year since 2017. Homeless encampments are growing across the country.

4. We can't keep up with the Chinese military. For instance their navy, "surpassed the US Navy in fleet size sometime around 2020 and now has around 340 warships, according to the Pentagons 2022 China Military Power Report, released in November. Chinas fleet is expected to grow to 400 ships in the next two years, the report says."

5. The U.S. Navy also has a problem finding recruits, but don't worry, the Navy has an idea how to recruit more sailors: Yeoman 2nd Class Joshua Kelley, who goes by the stage name "Harpy Daniels" and identifies as non-binary, was a "Digital Ambassador" in the Navy's pilot program to attract new recruits..

6. A shortage of police officers becoming 'a crisis across the country,' at least partly due to anti-police sentiment. Perhaps we should ask Joshua Kelley to solve that problem too?

7. Large counties in Northern California have only a few law-enforcement employees, but the crime situation has changed. Hmong communities have moved in to grow marijuana, as has Mexican organized crime. Even Russian gangs exist in this once idyllic part of the country.

There has been an escalation of the amount of violence. We have had numerous shootings related to marijuana fields, [DHS agent Ray] Greenlee said. This is a very dangerous situation with huge money at stake.

8. But rural counties are boring -- just farms and scenery and bike paths and horses. At least we can visit cities like San Francisco, and LA, right? Well -- they are not the cities they used to be: The Hoover Institution explains why crime exploded in SF, and throws in this statistic: There are now many more drug users in the city than high school students.

9. CBN (Christian Broadcasting Network) has its own list of 16 facts that prove that America is in deep trouble, including: " there are more than 4 million adult websites on the Internet, and they get more traffic than Netflix, Amazon and Twitter combined. Addiction to these websites has become a major national crisis, and yet very little is being done."

10. If you are depressed from reading the above, at least know that our leaders are spending money to solve problems! For instance, "The city of Denver approved a $4.7 million settlement to more than 300 Black Lives Matter protesters over accusations that local law enforcement used excessive force and violated their First Amendment rights." Remember, this is the same BLM that supported the Hamas slaughter in Israel. Plus, it warms the heart to know that in truly compassionate San Francisco: "The Guaranteed Income for Trans People (GIFT) Program will provide low-income transgender San Franciscans with $1,200 each month, up to 18 months to help address financial insecurity within trans communities." In other words, taxpayer will pay you if you claim that you are of the opposite sex.

Perhaps we should look on the bright side. Why shouldn't people change genders in the way they change clothes? And we can just buy some more homes for the homeless. After all, we've been told that deficits don't matter. And if we have less soldiers and hardware than the Chinese and their allies, maybe that's a good thing -- a prolonged war increases Greenhouse Gas emissions. Cheer up.

The original "Ten statistics to ruin your day" appeared on AT here.

Image: Pix4Free
New Zealand's gang members with offensive tattoos could be forced to wear makeup just to cover them. This effort was announced by the country's incoming government, the National Party.

The National's police spokesperson Mark Mitchell said that if their proposed gang crackdown is approved, it would completely restrict clan members from showing their offensive ink patches. Here are other details that Mitchell shared on Thursday, Oct. 26.

New Zealand's Gang Members With Tattoos Could be Forced to Wear Makeup

According to The Guardian's latest report, Mitchell explained that if the crackdown goes ahead, gang members who are not able to cover their tattoos with jackets could face arrests.

This will happen unless they are willing to cover their faces and other parts of their bodies showing off tattoos with makeup.

"If the gangs think they are going to get around a ban on gang patches by having swastikas and offensive tattoos on their faces, then we'll take action to curb that," said the National Party's police spokesman.

Mitchell said that the proposed gang tattoo crackdown was based on the clan tattoo restriction in Western Australia in 2021. This legislation also allowed gang members to retain their skin ink patches by covering them with makeup.

"There are stories in Australia, where you have senior gang members over there that wake up in the morning and have to apply foundation," argued Mark Mitchell.

Read Also: Yakuza Crime Lords: Mafia Boss With Severed Pinkies Orders Series of Crime After Unsuccessful Penile Implant

Some Opposes Gang Tattoo Crackdown

Some individuals opposed and questioned the tattoo restriction of the National Party. These include Queensland University of Technology Associate Prof. Mark Lauchs.

He said that other states in the country even tried copying Western Australia's gang tattoo ban. However, one of the main issues concerning people is that New Zealand's proposed tattoo policy would make it hard to differentiate between gang and cultural tattoos.

This means that it could affect indigenous Polynesian people, such as the Maori, who are having facial tattoos because of their traditions.

Aside from the latest tattoo restriction proposed by the National Party, another policy against gang members was criticized by clan leaders.

This is specifically the patch ban. The Herald reported that gang leaders are concerned that the ban on patches could increase facial tattoos among gangsters.

Mongrel Mob Wahine Toa leader Paula Ormsby explained that no matter what restriction the government implements, gang members will find a way to express themselves visually. You can click here to learn more about what Ormsby argued.

Related Article: Japan's Military Considers Lifting Tattoo Ban to Attract Young Recruits Amid Low Birth Rate

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Rashida Tlaib has always made it clear that one of her most important issues as an American congresswoman is Arab-Palestinian nationalismthe flip side of which is Israels eradication. It turns out, though, that her support may go beyond her personal animus to Israel. Its entirely possible that terrorists helped pay to put her in Congress.

Last year, the New York Times published a long, loving article about Tlaibs devotion to the Palestinian cause. She is the daughter of Arab immigrants who identify as Palestinians. She has been open in her hatred for Israel and, with her support for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, makes it clear that she wishes to see the nation destroyed.

Image: Rashida Tlaib (edited). YouTube screen grab.

Thats not hyperbole. In 2020, Tlaib retweeted from the River to the Sea, which is Hamass poetic way of saying that it intends to overrun Israel and erase the Jews. We saw on October 7 exactly what that looks like.

When Tlaib was elected to Congress, she didnt wave the American flag. With her mothers help, she literally draped herself in the flag of Hamas and the PLO:

Tlaib even wore a traditional Arab costume for her swearing-in.

In the halls of the Capitol building, Tlaib has given the flag that Arab terrorists have adopted pride of place, on equal footing with the American flag:

~

Rep. Rashida Tlaib continues to display Palestinian flag outside Capitol office...



Even as 30 Americans were hunted & slaughtered like animals and 15 more were kidnapped & held as hostages, WHYLE carrying and waving that same flag.



Tlaib is a disgrace...



~ pic.twitter.com/PiR5GBkbqo  Benny Fry (@pourme) October 18, 2023

As an aside, her flag placement violates every protocol associated with displaying the American flag along with other flags.

In the spring, Tlaib tried to use the U.S. Capitol to host an event attacking Israel, a U.S. ally. Then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy put a stop to that. Most recently, following Hamass incursion into Israel, during which it tortured and murdered over 1,400 Israeli civiliansand did so with great pleasure and fanfareTlaib, powered by lies, led a protest in D.C., an activity that perfectly matches the leftist definition of an insurrection.

In the world of hyphenated Americans, Tlaib is super-hyphenated, with every crazed leftist value (open borders, transgenderism, anti-police mania) tied into her fanatic devotion to the Palestinian cause and her efforts to end Israels existence.

The big question now is whether, in addition to leading insurrections, Rashida Tlaib has been gathering funds from terrorist organizers to pay for her career in Congress.

Since 1997, Hamas has been a designated foreign terrorist organization. According to in-depth research by the Canary Mission, Tlaib has extensive fundraising ties to Hamas supporters. Thus, Canary Mission can confirm that at least three Hamas-linked activists fundraised for Tlaib during her 2018 Congressional campaign: Salah Sarsour, Rafeeq Jaber and Abdelbaset Hamayel.

Tlaib also used a pro-terror FB page for 2018 election fundraising. This shouldnt be a surprise because Tlaib worked with terrorists before running for the House:

CONFIRMED: Tlaib Founded a Pro-Terror Hate Group in Detroit in 2015 Black4Palestine [Black For Palestine] is a pro-terror, anti-American, anti-Israel activist group co-founded by U.S. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and Kristian Davis Bailey. It is based in Detroit and was established in 2015.

The whole Canary Mission essay is interesting because it has chapter and verse about Tlaibs virulent hatred for Israel. The big question now, though, is whether terrorist money was used to elect her to Congress. That suggests that she isnt just emotionally devoted to the so-called Palestinian cause, over and above her loyalty to America, but that her hatred is funded by terrorist dollars.
After the anti-Vietnam War turmoil of the late 1960s and early 1970s, Midge Decter wrote an outstanding book called Liberal Parents, Radical Children detailing a generation gap between young militants demanding an end to the Vietnam War with a quasi-Utopian challenge to the establishment and their standard-issue liberal, mostly Democrat parents who did not call American troops war criminals nor did they blame America first for every ill in the universe.

When the war and the draft ended, the protests subsided and even stalwarts of the protests like Senator Eugene McCarthy and David Horowitz, editor of the radical magazine Ramparts and now editor of the conservative FrontPage, announced their support for Ronald Reagan.

Other protesters then turned their sights on community organizations and councils, the academy, and the media, but nothing has prepared parents and the general public for the present outpouring of support for Hamas terrorists and hatred for Israel among students.

As Victor Davis Hanson has stated:

The sheer madness that has gripped many elite universities since October 7 and the butchery, rape, torture, and mutilation of some 1,000 Israeli civilians by Hamas murderers have shocked the public at large. Campus craziness is, of course, nothing new. But quite novel for campuses was the sudden jettisoning of prior campus pretenses. Universities have brazenly dropped their careful two-faced gymnastics to reveal at last -- unapologetic, proudly, and defiantly -- the moral decay that now characterizes American higher education.

Noah Rothman adds:

Younger Americans, aged 18 to 24, disagree with their elders. This demographic is split almost down the middle when asked if the slaughter of senior citizens, the rape of young women, the murder of children, and the immolation of whole families in their homes was justified. Indeed, a slight majority of respondents in this age group said the butchery could be justified by the grievance of Palestinians. Whats more, only a bare majority of this demographic backs Israel in this conflict. Forty-eight percent said they side not with Palestinians but explicitly with Hamas in this war.

But why blame only the media and the academies? Who are the parents?

Thats a rhetorical question. I know the parents. They are smug hypocrites who vociferously defend affirmative action but pay expensive tutors to give their own kids a leg up. They parrot trendy views on gender, cancel culture, trigger words, pronouns, and perceived offenses. They favor open borders, defunding police, bail reform across the board, and sanction the violence and arson occasioned by the death of George Floyd. Theyve ignored the drumbeat of rising anti-Semitism and support overtly racist organizations like Black Lives Matter. They ignore the turpitude of those who pervert truth and history by denying American exceptionalism and vie with their offspring on all liberal cant and demand for flexible history, science, and biology.

The Jews among them are called self-hating but that does not fit. They are self-loving with their preening. They see themselves as an aggrieved minority which rises above others with their empathy for both sides of every conflict and every issue. They curb all debate and dissent in their loathing of Donald Trump and Bibi Netanyahu while ignoring racist genocides throughout the world. They are mildly troubled by anti-Semitic leftist legislators and commentators because they know where they are coming from. But now that the rising tide of global antisemitism is lapping at their toes, they are alarmed but blaming conservatives. Zero insight.

Midge Decter wrote:

One need subscribe to no school of thought beyond that of the plainest common sense to be aware that the behavior of the members of my class and generation as parents has had the greatest bearing on your behavior as our children. We refused to assume, one of the central obligations of parenthood: to make ourselves the final authority on good and bad, right and wrong, and to take the consequences of what might turn out to be a lifelong battle. We allowed you a charade of trivial freedoms in order to avoid making those impositions on you that are in the end both the training ground and proving ground for true independence. We pronounced you strong when you were still weak in order to avoid the struggles with you that would have fed your true strength. We proclaimed you sound when you were foolish in order to avoid taking part in the long, slow, slogging effort that is the only route to genuine maturity of mind and feeling.

Will the parents of the ignorant brats who rally on elite campuses even confront and scold them for complicity in promoting evil? Another rhetorical question.

Image: Ted Eytan
Samsung may offer satellite connectivity on the Galaxy S24 series. The company has the technology ready, Park Yong-in, the head of its System LSI division (semiconductor), confirmed earlier today. He didnt name any device but said that Galaxy smartphones support satellite communication services starting next year. Theres no better candidate than the Galaxy S24 series to kick things off.

Galaxy S24 could debut Samsungs satellite connectivity tech

Satellite connectivity in smartphones is still a novel concept but theres a lot of interest in it. Huawei and Apple offered the feature on their flagships last year  Mate 50 Pro and iPhone 14 series, respectively. Earlier this year, Samsung announced that it had developed a two-way satellite communication system for smartphones. It allows users to send and receive text messages, photos, and videos over satellite.

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A few months later, the South Korean Minister of Science and ICT (Information and Communications Technology) said that domestic smartphone companies are preparing to commercially launch a satellite communication system next year. Since Samsung is the only major smartphone company in the country, the Ministers words suggested that the Galaxy S24 series could debut the new technology.

We now have an official confirmation coming directly from a senior Samsung executive. Park may have refrained from naming the Galaxy S24 here, likely because the phones arent official, but there have been enough hints about it already. The executive revealed the plans during the Semiconductor Expo 2023 keynote where he talked a lot about the Exynos 2400, the chipset that will power the 2024 flagships in some markets.

Samsungs satellite communication system appears to be more robust than that of Xiaomi and Apple. The former allows the sending and receiving of short text messages, while Apples solution is pretty much limited to emergency rescue requests. The Korean firms tech, on the other hand, allows users to send small-sized images and videos as well. It has teamed up with Virginia-based satellite communication company Iridium Communications for the tech.

The 2024 Samsung flagships are still three months away

Samsung is rumored to launch the Galaxy S24 series in the second half of January 2024. We are still three months away from it. Leaks about the phones have been coming thick and fast lately. We might soon get to know more about the companys satellite communication plans for the phones. It remains to be seen whether all three models will have the feature or if Samsung will limit it to the Galaxy S24 Ultra.
Google recently announced a new feature to combat misinformation on its image search engine. About this image provides helpful context to help you determine if the image or its source is authentic. With AI-generated imaging getting wider adoption, the problem of online misinformation has only gotten worse, and the feature will specifically identify AI images.

How About this image works

According to the official press release, the new tool will roll out to users in the U.S. in the coming months. At least initially, it will only be available in English. The feature provides information about when the image first appeared online, where Google first saw it, and which other sites have published it since.

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With that context, you can better understand an images authenticity. For example, if news or fact-checking outlets have already debunked an image, those articles will appear when you tap About this image . It basically lets you research and fact-check an image with minimal effort.

You can access About this image from the three-dot menu on the image result. It works on Google Lens and the Google app. Later this year, it will also roll out for mobile and desktop versions of Chrome. On Chrome, it will pop up on a right-click or long-press.

AI images will include disclaimer labels

Google also announced that moving forward, it will make it easy to identify images generated using its AI platform. The AI-generated images will feature visible labels describing them as such. Each image will have a markup in its original file containing all relevant context you can easily access. The labels will show up even if you view the generation outside Googles platform. The marking will read AI-generated with Google right under the image.

In the coming months, image creators and platforms like Midjourney and Shutterstock have also volunteered to self-label their AI-generated images in a similar way. Image self-labeled as AI generated will sit under the image title when its searched on Google. More creators will apparently join the self-labeling project in the coming months. The move should make the generative image technology more transparent on the whole.

With the proposed self-labeling and the About this image tool, Google is expanding its ongoing media literacy project with more visual elements. Both features will help people filter out unreliable images in an increasingly confusing online world. The added summary of where the image originated, its timeline, and what others have said about it will help people verify sources and make more informed judgments about what theyre reading.
Google is fighting a massive court battle against the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). The company is accused of violating antitrust law by abusing its power in the online search market to stifle competition. We are looking at the biggest antitrust case in the past 25 years. Googles senior vice president responsible for search and ads, Prabhakar Raghavan, was the first to testify in the case on Thursday. CEO Sundar Pichai will follow on Monday.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai to testify in the DOJ antitrust case

The trial for the DOJs antitrust case against Google began last month. After prosecutors presented their case, Google began its defense on Thursday. In his testimony, Raghavan claimed that Google hasnt stifled competition or done anything at all. Users pick it over rivals because its better. It has spent a lot of amount on research and development to improve its product and offer better services to users. All of this is the fruit of its years of innovation.

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The internet giants CEO Sundar Pichai will reportedly be the next big name on the hot seat. He will testify in Washington, DC, on Monday. The prosecutors will reportedly question him for encouraging employees to keep their messages private, the NYPost reports. The Google boss allegedly told employees to change the setting of this group to history off. This happened in at least one recorded chat from 2021.

According to the new report, Pichai made this request to discuss a substantive topic related to company business. Soon after posting the message (nine seconds later) in the group chat, he unsuccessfully attempted to delete this incriminating message. Court filings dont go into detail about the substantive topic that Pichai wanted to discuss with Google employees. Its also unclear if he made similar requests in other chats.

However, the plaintiffs argue that the newly produced chats reveal a companywide culture of concealment coming from the very top, including CEO Sundar Pichai. It will be interesting to see how the Google boss responds to the allegations. The company is expected to present its defense in the case over the next month. The court may not announce its ruling until early next year.

Googles ties with Apple are one of the DOJs major targets

Google pays Apple as much as $18 billion every year to make its search engine the default option on iPhones, iPads, and Macs. The DOJ is targeting this partnership in this case. It argues that Google is stifling competition by not allowing others a chance.

The Justice Department even highlighted the complicated process of changing the default search engine on iPhones. It involves four taps and one swipe. Time will tell what comes out of this court battle.
A teardown of Google Keep revealed that Google is testing generative AI in the popular note-taking app. The new Magic Lists feature will allow users to create entire lists on Google Keep with a quick prompt. If rolled out to the public, Google Keep will join the many Google apps that have adopted built-in gen AI recently.

How Google Keep Magic Lists works

Folks over at 9to5Google decompiled the latest version of the Google Keep APK (the package installer for the app). They found strings of code hinting at the upcoming feature Magic Lists. Also, they found disclaimers pointing out the possible inaccuracies Google Keep may generate. But, since this is an APK breakdown, you will want to take this with a grain of salt.

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The feature works much like the Help Me Write button in Google Docs or Gmail. A similar button will likely show up when you create a new note. You enter a prompt, tweak it, and then insert it into your note. Reportedly, it takes at least three words in a prompt to work.

In a way, its similar to List It included in Googles AI Test Kitchen  an app that lets the public test emerging AI tech and provide feedback. It works by breaking down topics or objectives into a detailed list of subtasks. You could type I want to eat healthily, and it could give you subtasks like Create a meal plan or Take supplements.

Magic Lists isnt rolling out yet  in beta or public. However, the following text appears in the code for Google Keep version 5.23.422.03.90: <string name=magic_lists_insert>Insert</string>.

What Magic Lists can do

The feature may or may not make it to the public, considering its potential for bogging down the app. At the same time, Google Keep has always been about capturing ideas quickly, and gen AI will speed things up. You could ask the note-taking app to instantly generate a grocery list with a simple prompt like groceries for the week. Magic Lists could also help with daily to-do lists and checklists.

As powerful as Googles gen AI is, its still in its early stages. So, you can expect some prompts to not return any results whatsoever. 9to5Google found this message buried inside the APK file: <string name=magic_list_blanket_error_body>We are still learning, and cant help with that.</string>.

Secondly, the information and ideas Google Keep produces come with the caveat of inaccuracy and bias. Thats why Google intends to market the feature as a creative aid instead of a rigorous assistant or research tool. At any rate, Magic Lists has the potential to automate a lot of boring, repetitive tasks.
Googles South Pacific Connect initiative aims to bridge the digital divide between the United States, Australia, and the Pacific islands. The cable landing stations for these new international subsea cables will be located in French Polynesia and Fiji. This project will significantly improve internet access in the region, making it more affordable and reliable. It represents a significant step forward in enhancing connectivity.

According to a White House fact sheet, the project will receive substantial investments from the Australian and US governments. To bring this ambitious plan to life, Google will receive $50 million from Australia and $15 million from the US. The critical components of this venture are two major subsea cabling systems, Honomoana and Tabua.

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Honomoana, a name derived from the Polynesian language, will be the first cabling system, establishing a direct link from the United States to French Polynesia and then on to Australia. The second cabling system, Tabua, named after a Fijian word, will connect the United States to Fiji and onward to Australia.

Googles subsea cables will ensure a reliable and secure data transfer and communication link between these countries

Furthermore, this $65 million investment is not just about infrastructure. Its a catalyst for economic growth. It exemplifies the power of international cooperation and partnerships.

Again, Fiji and French Polynesia will receive unique cable landing stations. The two landing stations will have their own communication channel via a special interlink cable. This interlinking of cabling stations will enhance the transpacific routes reliability and bolster connectivity in the region.

The combined efforts of these two subsea cable lines will create a network encircling numerous Pacific islands. The lines will comprise strategically placed branching units serving the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Timor Leste, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.

The White House fact sheet highlights the United States commitment to supporting expanded internet connectivity in Pacific Island countries under the State Departments Digital Connectivity and Cybersecurity Partnership (DCCP). This initiative aligns with the goal of providing fast, secure, interoperable, and reliable internet access to the region.

Google emphasizes that subsea cables play a pivotal role in enhancing internet affordability and reliability, which, in turn, fuels economic growth and productivity. Given the vast population residing in the Pacific islands, this project holds immense significance. Additionally, creating a disaster-resistant cabling infrastructure in this region is an unprecedented feat.

The South Pacific Connect initiative not only connects continents but also brings the promise of a more connected future for all the nations involved.
We all know the Apple Watch as the most popular smartwatch on the market. Its definitely a hit stateside, but that might change, as the Apple Watch faces a ban in The US. This is all because of a patent infringement lawsuit that the company is facing, according to the report.

Whats going on with the potential Apple Watch ban

We all know that smartwatches have had the ability to detect blood oxygen for a little while. This is something that 2020s Apple Watch 6 can do. However, Apple is facing a patent infringement lawsuit over the light-based pulse oximetry technology that the watch uses.

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A medical technology company called Masimo holds a patent for that technology, and it filed a lawsuit with the International Trade Commission (ITC). Well, the ITC ruled in favor of this case, and it could potentially mean that Apple will not be able to import Apple Watches into the country.

As you can imagine, the company is not too pleased about this. An Apple spokesperson commented on this situation.

Masimo has wrongly attempted to use the ITC to keep a potentially lifesaving product from millions of U.S. consumers while making way for their own watch that copies Apple While todays decision has no immediate impact on sales of Apple Watch, we believe it should be reversed, and will continue our efforts to appeal.

Its up to the president

While the ITC ruled in favor of Masimo, its not going to go into effect right away. You can still put in your order for your Apple Watch 9. At this point, its up to the Biden administration to bring down the hammer. Right now, the US president has the power to veto the ruling, which is a rare occasion.

He has 60 days to make the decision. So, in the meantime, we know that Apple is doing what it can to keep the Apple Watch ban at bay. Also, we cant rule out the possibility of Apple and Masimo communicating and coming to some sort of agreement or settlement before the 60 days are up. Only time will tell.
Samsung has launched new protective cases for the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5 in partnership with the French clothing and fashion brand Lacoste. The company has made one case each for the two foldables, both featuring the same monogram pattern. It represents the Lacoste 2023 collection.

Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Flip 5 get new Lacoste-branded cases

Samsung has long collaborated with Lacoste to make exclusive accessories for its mobile devices. Most recently, it released a case for the Galaxy Z Flip 4 in November 2022. Before that, the duo gave us unique cases for the Galaxy S22 series and Galaxy S21 FE. They are now offering covers for the latest foldables.

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The Galaxy Z Flip 4s cover came in a unicolor design with the same four color options as the device: Rose Gold, Blue, Graphite, and Lavender. It featured Lacostes iconic green crocodile logo at the bottom. This year, Samsung is doing things slightly differently. While the crocodile isnt going anywhere, its no longer green. The firm has made it black to blend well with the cases black body.

The new Lacoste cases for the Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Galaxy Z Fold 5 also look distinct thanks to the white monogram pattern. The repetitive pattern appears to show skyscrapers in a rhombus-shaped box. Samsung says this design is emblematic of the Troyes-based French brands latest luxury collection.

These two designer protectors perfectly match the lines of the Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Galaxy Z Fold 5 while protecting them from scratches and shocks, Samsung said in a press release [machine-translated from French]. Much more than a shell, these two creations marked with the famous crocodile are real fashion accessories to perfect your sporty chic style.

As of this writing, Samsung hasnt revealed the pricing and availability details for these cases. If history is any indication, they should soon be on sale through the companys official website in France. The cases might cost around 50. Samsung may not bring the Lacoste-banded back covers for the Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Galaxy Z Fold 5 to other markets.

Fashion influencer Sally is the new ambassador for the Galaxy Z Flip 5 in France

Alongside collaborating with Lacoste for new cases, Samsung has also roped in social media influencer Sally as the new ambassador for the Galaxy Z Flip 5 in France. Sally makes videos on fashion and beauty tips for hair care. Samsung says she is a natural choice for this promotional campaign because of her assertive personality and audacity that perfectly reflects the spirit of the campaign: asserting your style.
European Union leaders have joined global calls for a "humanitarian pause" as well as air corridors in Gaza as the war between Israel and the Hamas militant group continues to intensify.

The calls come as the Gaza Strip reels under an Israeli bombardment and siege. Leaders at an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday issued a declaration. They called for a halt to the fighting in the area in order to establish humanitarian corridors and get much-needed aid into the embattled region.

EU Leaders Call for Humanitarian Pause in Gaza

The declaration added that the European Council expressed its gravest concern for the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza. It was calling for continued, rapid, safe, and unhindered humanitarian access and aid to reach those in need through all necessary measures.

It was made amid growing criticism from the Middle East regarding Israel's campaign of air raids and a "complete siege" of the Gaza Strip. The region has been cut off from access to food, water, electricity, and fuel, impacting roughly 2 million to 3 million residents, as per Aljazeera.

The Thursday summit was the first in-person meeting since the Hamas militant group carried out its attacks on Israel on Oct. 7. The assault resulted in the death of more than 1,400, the majority of whom were civilians.

Many global parties have condemned Hamas' attack with grim scenes emerging from towns in southern Israel where Palestinian gunmen massacred families and kidnapped hundreds. The EU leaders reiterated prior calls for the immediate release of the hostages "without any precondition."

They also emphasized Israel's right to defend itself "in line with international law." However, those statements were similar to what others have made, including the United States. They rang hollow to some as Israel continues to carry out devastating air strikes in Gaza.

Europe's attention has become divided following the surge of bloodshed during a time of doubts regarding the West's ability to keep supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russia. The leaders spent five hours discussing before coming up with the declaration, according to Yahoo News.

Read Also: Israel Executes Another Raid into Gaza

Israel-Hamas War

On Friday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that there was no contradiction between showing solidarity with Israel and acting on the need for humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza.

The 27-nation bloc has also been divided for a long time between more pro-Palestinian members such as Ireland and Spain and staunch supporters of Israel such as Germany and Austria.

The EU's call for a humanitarian pause and aid for Gaza fell short of the demands made by the United Nations for a "ceasefire." This comes despite a last-ditch effort from Spain to toughen the language.

The conversation at the summit that led to the declaration was so delicate that several EU diplomats said mobile phones were not allowed inside the room. Additionally, leaders kept diplomats in the dark regarding the discussions.

European Council President Charles Michel also welcomed the "strong unity" among EU leaders. His comments came as foreign ministers discussed the advantages of a humanitarian pause or pauses, said Politico.

Related Article: Israel Criticizes Russia's Decision To Host Hamas Delegation in Moscow

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Samsung has released its October 2023 security update for several more A-series phones. The Galaxy A72, Galaxy A33, and Galaxy A32 5G are all receiving the latest security patch. The Korean firm has already pushed this update to dozens of Galaxy devices around the world, including a few tablets.

Samsungs October update is now rolling out to the Galaxy A33 and more

As of this writing, Samsungs October SMR (Security Maintenance Release) for the Galaxy A72 is only available in Latin America. Users in the region are getting the update with the firmware build number A725MUBU6DWJ1. The companys official changelog states that the phone is picking up some system reliability and stability improvements along with the new security fixes.

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Samsung should release this update for the Galaxy A72 in other markets in the coming days. The phone never arrived in the US but was sold in Africa, Asia, Australia, and Europe. Dont expect any major new features with this update, though. The company is keeping everything for the Android 14 update. The major Android OS upgrade, which will be the last for this phone, will arrive in a few months with One UI 6.0 on top.

The Galaxy A33 is another Samsung phone that recently picked up the October SMR. Its receiving the latest security patch widely in Europe and Latin America. The new build numbers in the two regions are A336BXXS7CWJ1 and A336MUBS7CWJ1, respectively. The update doesnt seem to bring anything else. Since the phone is eligible for the Android 14-based One UI 6.0 update, there are plenty of goodies in the pipeline.

Finally, if you have a Galaxy A32 5G, Samsungs security fixes for October 2023 are rolling out to your phone as well. Once again, the company has begun the rollout in Latin America with firmware version A326BXXU8CWJ2 (via). Hopefully, it wont be long before the update is available globally, including in the US. The 4G-only Galaxy A32 hasnt picked up this months security fixes anywhere yet.

The new security update patches 46 vulnerabilities on Samsung devices

The October SMR for Galaxy devices patches 46 vulnerabilities. Some of these security issues are only present in Samsung products while others affect the entire Android ecosystem. At least two flaws patched this month were critical. If youre using a Samsung device and have yet to receive the latest security patch, you might soon. As usual, you can check for new updates through the Settings app on your phone.
While Google Lens hasnt been the talk of the town for several years, Google has been keeping up with it by delivering updates to it. Also, the company has been integrating the service into several of its other products such as Google Photos and the Chrome browser for desktops. So, in case you want to know the best uses for Google Lens, heres a useful guide. Itll be full of the basics and it might involve some stuff you didnt know.

What is Google Len?

On the off chance that youre unaware of what this is, heres a little refresher. Google Lens is Googles AI-powered camera application. It is separate from Googles primary camera that centers around taking photos and videos. Google Lens is an application thats meant to scan and ascertain what you see through the viewfinder and give you search results and additional context based on it.

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You can point your phone at a cat, and Lens will tell you what type of cat it is. It was introduced during Google I/O 2017, and the company has been finding more ways to squeeze it into other Google products.

If you own a Pixel device, then you should have it integrated into your Google Search bar. Just tap on the camera icon in the bar. If you dont have it integrated, you can download the standalone app from the Google Play Store. You can also use Lens on iOS by downloading the Google app on your iPhone or iPad and using the Len integration.

Download Google Lens from the Play Store

Best uses for Google Lens

You can use Google Lens to do a lot of stuff, and most dont really realize that. When you open the app, youll see a bit of an overview of the things that you can do.

Basic Google search

So, the core function of Google Lens is to search. Its like putting a Google Search bar in the real world. When you open the Google Lens app, it will open right to the search function. Just tap on the Search with your camera button on the top half of the screen, and youll see the viewfinder expand to fill the screen.

Youll then point your camera at what you want to search. When Lens scans the object, it will do a Google search on what it sees. Youll get better results with more generic objects, animals, public figures, etc. So, if you see a certain flower, car, etc., youll be able to do a search.

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[Updated] Help you find places in Google Maps

As of October 2023, this feature is still rolling out. So, the availability will vary depending on your region.

Google Maps introduced the Lens in Maps feature in a big update, and it will help you find places in your area. You can use the ariel view to find establishments around you, but Lens in Maps lets you find different places using the street view.

When you tap on the Lens option, youll see your Google Lens viewfinder appear. Just point your camera at different buildings and locations. Youll see the Google Maps labels projected onto them. This makes it easier to discover different places in your immediate area.

Copy text from the real world

Say, you see a bit of text in the real world that you want to copy to your phones clipboard. Well, Google Lens will scan the text thats in the viewfinder and allow you to copy it. The app will highlight all of the text that it sees. All you have to do is take a picture and pick which text you want to copy.

Instantly go to a link

This functionality also lets you go straight to links that you see printed in the real world. Say, you see a business card with a persons website printed on it. Well, if you scan it with Google Lens, youll be able to navigate right to that site on your phone. That saves you the trouble of typing it in yourself.

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Real-time translation

One of the most impressive features of Lens is the ability to point the camera at any text that you want to translate. You can take a picture of the text, but the app will also translate the text right in the viewfinder in real-time. Youll see the translation floating above the original text.

Find prices and where to products you see in the real world

Say, you see a dress or a phone out in the world, and you want to know where you can buy one, Lens makes that process easier. Using the Shopping tab, all you have to do is take a picture. At that point, Google will give you a ton of results showing you prices and how to buy the product.

Now, things get pretty hairy when youre talking about products. When looking up products, Google will give you a bunch of results that look similar to whats in your viewfinder, but theres no guarantee that youll see the exact products youre looking for. For exact results, the product will need to be something extremely distinctive.

Search for landmarks

If you need to know the name of a statue, building, mountain, or other notable landmarks, you can do so with Lens. Just point the camera at it, and youll see a little pin pop up over the landmark. It will tell you what its called. If you want more information, tap on the pin, and it will show you a Google search for it.

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Identify food

That dish on TV looks delicious, but what is it? We often ask that question. All you have to do is point your phone at the food, and the app should be able to tell you what dish it is. As always, Google Lens will offer you extra context via search results.

This is neat if you want to know more about the dish like its origins. Also, youll be able to quickly look up recipes for it.

Help with homework

If youre doing an assignment, and you need some assistance, you can scan the problem that youre working on. Google will then give you search results on what it scans, and you should be able to find some helpful material. If its a math problem, Google will actually teach you how to do the problem. Youll see the process of how to do the problem along with the answer at the bottom.

Scan QR codes

This ones pretty self-explanatory. All you have to do is point your phone at the QR code that you want to go to. It will show the link for you to follow over the code.

Search for visual matches

If you take a picture of something, theres a chance that someone else in the world has taken a picture that looks similar to yours. Whether it has a similar object in it, a similar color aesthetic, etc. When you take a pic, youll get results of other pictures posted to the internet that resembles yours.

Scan your pictures

You can do a lot with Google Lens through the viewfinder, and you can do all of the same stuff with pictures that youve already taken. When you open the app, youll see a grid with pictures youve taken on your phone. Just tap on the photo that you want to scan and the app will do it for you.

Hopefully, with this guide, youll be more inspiration for you to use Google Lens. Its really a useful tool that might help improve your smartphone experience.
(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 27 - Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni met bilaterally with President of the European Central Bank (ECB) Christine Lagarde on the sidelines of the Euro Summit meeting of EU leaders on the economic and financial situation in the EU, sources said on Friday.

The talks reportedly focused on reform of the rules of European economic governance, namely the Stability and Growth Pact, which should be completed by the end of this year.

Italy has been dragging its feet on the reform of the Pact, insisting that it needs to focus less on stability with strict fiscal rules and more on growth.

Separately, sources said that during the Euro Summit meeting Eurogroup President Paschal Donohoe cited ratification of the treaty for the new European Stability Mechanism, Europe's bailout fund, but without citing Italy specifically.

Italy is the only country not to have ratified the treaty amid concerns about budget sovereignty and claims the fund should also be used for growth.

However, it has been coming under mounting pressure to do so in order that other countries can use the mechanism if necessary.

Earlier Donohoe said he understood that "this is a really sensitive political issue and a problem for the Italian parliament, but the priority that we will all have to address if the treaty is not ratified is that no country will be able to access (the ESM) in the future if we are in a crisis situation".

(ANSA).


(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 27 - Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani on Friday announced a new hard line on visa concessions by Italian embassies to reduce the alleged risk of criminals including terrorists infiltrating among migrants heading for Italy.

"It is well known that today there is a risk of criminals and terrorists infiltrating among migrants," said Tajani at the first Lazio Region Security Forum.

"That is why I have been forced to take a hard line even on visa concessions, because today there is a risk of criminals infiltrating among migrants," he continued.

"I have reprimanded some embassy officials who have been granting visas too lightheartedly. This will never happen again as long as I am Foreign Minister," said Tajani.

On Wednesday Tajani told parliament during question time that as of August he had ordered inspections at embassies in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of Congo and Republic of the Congo, and that further inspections were planned in Latin America in due course.

"It is crucial to strengthen the capacity of our offices to intercept fraudulent visa applications and prevent corruption," he told lawmakers.

"The government's priority objective is to combat all forms of irregular entry into Italy," concluded Tajani. (ANSA).


(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 27 - On Wednesday, he said he was cancelling plans to visit Israel because of its "inhumane war" against Hamas militants in Gaza. The Turkish leader added that he did not view Hamas as a terrorist organisation but as "liberators", fighting for their land, drawing swift and angry condemnation from the Israeli government.

Ankara maintains contacts with Hamas and, according to its own statements, is trying to secure the release of hostages. Hamas is considered a terrorist organisation in the US, Europe and Israel, but not in Turkey.

Erdogan spoke on the phone with the head of Islamist Hamas, Ismail Haniya. According to Turkish sources, Erdogan said that a lasting peace solution in the Middle East is only possible with a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. He said that Turkey would continue to advocate a lasting peace solution on the international stage. The press service of the Turkish government announced on Saturday on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), that Turkey will continue to work for a ceasefire in the region as soon as possible. Erdogan also wanted to seek further humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip.

Turkey's activities in the Western Balkans Turkey expanded its influence in the Western Balkans in recent years, mainly in the region's countries with a Muslim population. In Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) Ankara expanded its presence through the opening of educational institutions, but also through large infrastructure projects and networks of Turkish entrepreneurs. Turkey has invested more than 284 million Euro in the infrastructure of BiH and the Belgrade-Sarajevo highway project worth four billion Euro, financed by Ankara, was also announced.

In a recently published report on foreign trade by the Albanian Institute of Statistics for the period January to July 2023, Turkey ranks as Albania's third largest trading partner, accounting for 6.8 percent of the volume.

Turkey taking over NATO Kosovo mission KFOR Turkey is also flexing its muscles in Serbia and Kosovo. On October 25, Turkey's Chief of the Armed Forces Yasar Guler met with Serbia's Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Milos Vucevic in Belgrade. "Turkey has a large and significant political, economic, security and cultural influence and importance for the area of the Western Balkans," said Vucevic.

While Guler stressed that Turkey will support Serbia's EU accession, another dominant topic was the security issue in Northern Kosovo. The NATO-led force KFOR in Kosovo changes command on a regular basis, last in October. The Turkish General Ozkan Ulutas took over leadership of the 4,500-strong force. It comes at a time of renewed tensions between Kosovo and neighbouring Serbia. On September 24, Kosovo Serb paramilitaries ambushed a Kosovan police patrol in northern Kosovo, which is almost exclusively populated by Serbs. Three Serbs and one Kosovo police officer died in the shoot-out.

"We are encouraged by the assurances we received from Mr Guler regarding the security of the Serbian community in Kosovo and Metohija," said Vucevic. He added that Serbia will insist that "on the administrative line towards Kosovo and Metohija, only members of KFOR should be present on the Kosovo-Metohija side and that joint patrols by members of the Serbian Army and members of KFOR should continue along the administrative line".

Serbia also encourages "a direct communication between the Chief of the General Staff in the Serbian Armed Forces and the KFOR commander", he added.

Turkey distancing itself from the West? With the Turkish Republic entering its second century, the question remains in which direction Erdogan is trying to steer the country and if he will ultimately be successful.

For Berk Esen, a professor at Sabanci University in Istanbul, "Erdogan is pushing for a Second Republic, more conservative, more Islamic, which distances itself from the West".

"He tries to leave his mark on all important political fields and on all projects. But whether it is celebrating the country's independence or honouring the army", of which the president is commander-in-chief, "Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is everywhere," notes the academic. "He has not completely succeeded in erasing it, but that is probably what he will try to do after 2023," expects Esen.

(The content of this article is based on news by agencies participating in the enr, in this case AFP, ANSA, ATA, dpa, EFE, FENA, STA, Tanjug) (ANSA).


A British national in Gaza has said a bomb that exploded nearby during an interview is just a glimpse of what she and her family are going through every day in the war-torn territory.

Zaynab Wandawi, a British national born in Salford, Greater Manchester, and a teacher of English as a second language, travelled to Gaza at the beginning of October with her husband  who is British Palestinian  and his family, including seven siblings and his mother, for a family members wedding.

Ms Wandawi, 29, said that for a couple of days their trip was relatively normal, for what Gaza considers normal before war broke out, but they are now trapped in a warzone.

Zaynab Wandawi, a British national born in Salford, Manchester (Lalah Ali-Faten)

During an interview with the PA news agency about her situation, a bomb could be heard approaching and then exploding next to the building Ms Wandawi was in.

That was just a bomb next to our house, she said.

The sound of that bomb is just a glimpse, not even, of what were going through here every single day.

Hundreds of those every day, and every time we hear a bomb we think: Oh, who was affected by that bomb?

Im OK, I was just checking on my family, were OK.

Ms Wandawi said thousands of Palestinians have died while she has been there, while their access to water and fuel has also been cut.

Its just been terrible being here, its been horrible seeing so many lives destroyed, so many families shattered, so many children die, she said.

Thousands of Palestinians have died while Ive been here, its been horrible.

Not only are they attacking us with bombs but of course theyve cut off our water, electricity, fuel, we have nothing, and its just affecting the civilians, these cuts.

Its a luxury, honestly, if youre able to wash your body, youre doing really good. It is difficult just to wash your hands in these situations.

During an interview about her situation, a bomb could be heard approaching and then exploding (Lalah Ali-Faten)

Ms Wandawis mother, Lalah Ali-Faten, 52, from Prestwich, north Manchester, said her daughter has been in touch with the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, but is receiving more or less generic responses.

Their internet signal is very weak. So I wait for a message from her in the morning to see if shes made it through the night, and as soon as I get a message theres a temporary relief, but then as soon as her internet goes, I dont know whats happening, she told PA.

Its been harrowing to be honest, from one minute to the next I dont know if shes alive, so that has affected us as a family really.

Her birthday was on the 24th so she spent her birthday there, she turned 29 a few days ago. I see her on the calls and shes visibly shaking, shes not herself, shes definitely traumatised, as are all the people there.

Ms Wandawi said that they had planned to leave on October 17, and added that her husbands brother is in high school, while his sister had just started at the University of Manchester, and had booked to return on October 12 in order to not miss school or university.

The Palestinian death toll has soared past 7,000 as Israel has carried out waves of devastating air strikes in response to a bloody Hamas incursion into southern Israel on October 7.

The UK meanwhile abstained on a UN Security Council resolution which would have called for humanitarian pauses to deliver lifesaving aid to millions in Gaza.

According to the UNs news website, UK Ambassador Barbara Woodward said that her country abstained from the resolution as the text needed to be clearer on Israels inherent right to self-defence, and because it ignored the fact that extremist group Hamas, which controls Gaza, is using Palestinian civilians as human shields.

Ms Wandawi said: We know the UN called for a vote for a ceasefire and the majority of the countries were in favour of this ceasefire, but the country that Im from, the UK, abstained  abstained from a ceasefire!

All we want is for the bombing to stop. So a message for our PM would be: youve abstained from a ceasefire, please dont abstain from allowing your citizens to return home, please actually take action. Please stop the bombing, stop the killing.

PA has contacted the FCDO for comment.
Boris Johnson has found his latest post-prime ministerial employment, with the former Tory leader set to join GB News.

He is the latest Conservative politician to find a place at the broadcaster, and in a video announcing his arrival the former MP said he would be giving his unvarnished views on a range of topics.

Mr Johnson, who also writes a column for the Daily Mail, said: I am excited to say that I am shortly going to be joining you on GB News.

Im going to be giving this remarkable new TV channel my unvarnished views on everything from Russia, China, the war in Ukraine, how we meet all those challenges, to the huge opportunities that lie ahead for us, why I believe our best days are yet to come.

And why on the whole the people of the world want to see more global Britain, not less.

Were delighted to announce some very exciting newshttps://t.co/BRg8ZgTy1X pic.twitter.com/FD0wz0Urkt  GB News (@GBNEWS) October 27, 2023

Mr Johnson resigned as MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip in June in protest at the sanction recommended by the Privileges Committee after it found he lied to the Commons over partygate.

He quit as prime minister in 2022, following a mass revolt by ministers over his leadership.

He now joins a number of former Tory colleagues including close ally Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg and current Conservative deputy chairman Lee Anderson at the channel.

Former pensions minister Esther McVey and backbencher Philip Davies are also presenters.

Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg in the studio at GB News (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

The channel said that he would be joining as a presenter, programme maker and commentator, adding Mr Johnson would be playing a key role in the coverage of both the upcoming UK and US elections.

Mr Johnson has earned millions of pounds since leaving office, mostly for speaking fees but also for his upcoming memoirs.

The decision to join GB News is a coup for the TV channel, while also giving Mr Johnson a new platform to air his views and opinions.

He has made recurring interventions since leaving office on the war in Ukraine, repeatedly urging Western leaders to go further in offering support to Kyiv in its fight against Russia.

Mr Johnson sought advice from Whitehalls appointments watchdog before taking up the job.

The Advisory Committee on Business Appointments said it did not have any particular concerns about the role.
Dozens of children laid teddy bears outside the gates of the Foreign Office to put pressure on the Government to withdraw military support for Israel.

Gathering in central London on Friday, hundreds of parents chanted: From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.

Tearful protesters accused the Government of being complicit in the deaths of thousands of children killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza after Hamas militants slaughtered more than 1,000 people in southern Israel.

They demanded an immediate ceasefire and called on the Government not to provide arms to Israel.

The demonstration was organised by a group of parents who said they felt compelled to act as they watched the scenes of destruction in Gaza.

They told the PA news agency they had been overwhelmed by support since they announced the protest two days ago.

Clare Welton, 34, a mother of two, helped lead a chant of shame against the Government.

Parents and children lay out cuddly toys (Jordan Pettitt/PA)

She said: The UK Government is saying OK to arms companies increasing their sales to Israel at this time.

What we want to see is the UK end its exports to Israel now and push immediately for a ceasefire, an end to the siege and the occupation of Palestine.

Every child everywhere deserves safety  every single life is sacred.

Annie Dowd, 40, a mother of three who helped arrange the protest, told PA: Were a group of parents absolutely horrified by what were seeing every day.

We came together literally 48 hours ago and asked other parents to join us and for their children to bring teddy bears to commemorate those who are dying in Gaza with the complicity of our own Government.

Weve been absolutely overwhelmed with one and a half thousand parents getting in touch.

As a mum, I cant stomach recent events  I cant see another Palestinian baby pulled out of the rubble.

When asked whether Hamas bore some responsibility for the current conflict in Gaza after it launched the worst terrorist attack in Israel in decades, the charity worker said the proscribed group was a question for the Palestinian people.

She added: Being UK citizens, what we can influence is what our Government does  what our Government is doing right now is supporting Israel who are responsible for the deaths of over two and a half thousand children.

The Foreign Office has been approached for comment.
The Pentagon's UFO metallic orb sighting has finally been solved, as claimed by some UAP hunters. The unidentified flying object was first captured on July 12, 2022.

The US Department of Defense, after releasing the footage, said the unknown aircraft was seen hovering beneath an MQ-9 Reaper drone. Since the US government was baffled by this UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), many space fans were very interested to know what this object really was.

UFO Hunters Claim Solving Pentagon's Mysterious Metallic Orb Sighting

The Pentagon first released the metallic orb UFO video in April. During that period, the defense department said that the sighting in the Middle East was still in active archive. According to the image acquired by The Vice, the Pentagon clarified that the spherical UAP was detected using electro-optical sensors.

Defense officials clarified that they found no demonstration of enigmatic technical capabilities. They also discovered no apparent threat to airborne-asset of the United States.

Since this metallic orb is in the active archive, that means that the Pentagon hasn't solved it yet. Now, The Daily Mail UK reported that Bellingcat, a UFO hunter group, was able to debunk this UFO aircraft.

The organization claimed that its latest findings answer the widespread speculation that the UAP object might be an alien aircraft. But, what is it?

Read Also: UK Top UFO Expert Claims King Charles Can Reveal Truth About UAP With One Phone Call-Here's How

Metallic Orb Was Just Party Balloon

Bellingcat claimed that the metallic orb spotted by the Pentagon was just a party balloon called Mylar. For those who don't know this, Mylar is a balloon made of silvery metallic plastic.

"When the US Department of Defense published a video seemingly showing a UFO in the Middle East, Bellingcat contributor Nathan Patin and researcher Logan Willians went to working using open-source techniques," said the UFO hunting group.

Bellingcat added that this was needed to verify claims of the unidentified flying object in the Middle East. Involved UFO hunters said that they were able to know this information after analyzing the satellite data, which revealed that the metallic orb was less than 1/2 feet in diameter.

They explained that the balloon might have come from the second and largest religious holiday celebration in the Muslim world; Eid al-Adha. Many true UFO believers and UFO transparency advocates applaud the efforts made by Bellingcat.

However, the UFO hunting group's revelations led to criticisms against the Pentagon since many people are now questioning the Department of Defense why they highlighted this specific footage.

Related Article: US Receives Over 200 UFO Reports in 8 Months-Mostly From Military Members, Pilots

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Counter-terrorism police are searching for three women who wore pictures of Hamas paragliders and a man who held a poster supporting the terrorist group at pro-Palestine events in London.

Social media footage of a protest in Whitehall on October 14 shows two women with images of paragliders on their tops, while a third held a placard with the image on it.

Hamas, which is classed as a terrorist organisation in the UK, used paragliders as part of its attack on Israel on October 7.

Women 1 and 2 with a paraglider image attached to their backs (Metropolitan Police/PA)

The Metropolitan Police also want to identify a man seen waving a placard with the words I fully support Hamas during a protest on Bond Street on October 21.

It has released images of all four of them in two separate appeals.

A man holding a placard with the words I fully support Hamas on it (Metropolitan Police/PA)

Dominic Murphy, head of the Mets Counter Terrorism Command, said: Detectives have carried out numerous enquiries to identify these people and we are now asking the public to take a good look at these images and tell us if they know who these people are.

I would stress that we want to speak to these people to help us with our enquiries, and in fact, I would urge them to get in touch with us directly.
The dangerous ringleader of an organised crime gang that kidnapped and tortured its victims with knives and boiling water in exchange for cash and expensive jewellery has been jailed for 25 years.

One of 27-year-old Fortune Lawsons terrified victims, Mohamed Saroya, was kidnapped outside his home in London in November 2018 after he was seen wearing a Rolex watch in a Snapchat photograph and was lured into meeting Lawson on the pretence of discussing cannabis.

Judge Daniel Williams said that was nothing but a ploy, with Lawson, along with two others, instead intent on kidnapping and torturing Mr Saroya until the watch and a ransom was handed over.

The victim was terrorised for eight hours including being stabbed multiple times, his eyes gouged and having boiling water with sugar in it poured on his abdomen and groin, Cardiff Crown Court heard on Friday.

One of the knives used to threaten the terrified victims into handing over money and expensive jewellery. (South Wales Police/PA)

Mr Saroya was forced to call family members to arrange for money and the Rolex to be handed over before being released.

The court heard he was found by his cousin and his brother in a car park near Kenton railway station but he could not get in the car because of his most dreadful injuries.

He was taken to Northwick Park Hospital where he spent five days having treatment for injuries including stab wounds to his arm and back, burns to his thighs, arm and knee and cuts and bruises, and had to undergo surgery three months later.

Judge Williams said Lawson had muscle to carry out the kidnapping, and gophers on hand to collect the cash.

He said: Mr Saroya had to go to hospital many times. The agony he endured is unimaginable.

The extent of the torture broke him completely. It will change him and his family forever.

The gang members tried to cover their tracks by wearing masks and balaclavas. (South Wales Police/PA)

Judge Williams said Lawson considered himself untouchable and relocated to Cardiff where he ran a food business and had a girlfriend, but he didnt care about either.

In December 2020, Lawson struck again, kidnapping another victim, Ledio Ibrahimi on the pretence of smoking cannabis together.

Instead, he took him to a flat in the city and waterboarded and beat him and threatened him with guns and knives and an attack dog.

Mr Ibrahimi was forced to call a friend to arrange for 50,000 to be handed over, but the friend called South Wales Police to report a life or death situation and unbeknownst to the kidnappers, hostage negotiators were monitoring phone calls.

The victim was taken to another stronghold in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, where the horrifying ordeal continued before he was eventually rescued by armed police, who found him with cable ties on his wrists shaking and crying.

A gun that was used by the gang to scare those they had kidnapped (South Wales Police/PA)

DNA evidence obtained from blood found in the Cardiff flat led police to identify another victim, Halim Vladi, who had also been held against his will and repeatedly assaulted at the same address.

Eight other members of the gang  all having been involved in at least one of the three plots  were also sentenced on Friday at the same court.

Davood Assadpour, 33, and Micaiah Marley, 30, were jailed for 15 years; Arnold Fumemeya and Alexis Mutesa, both 27, for 13 years; Gideon Lawson, 24, for 12 years; Ahmed Omar, 29, for nine years; Stephen Isaac, 66, for six years; and Denis Delishaj, 34, for eight years, as well as eight months for having a phone in prison.

Assadpour positioned himself as the professor of the gang and played a leading role in the torture of one of the victims, judge Williams said, and bragged about being Robin Hood to a prison guard.

Marley also played a leading role, threatening one of the victims with a gun and a sword, as did Fortune Lawsons brother Gideon.

A bedroom at the Cardiff flat where one of the victims was tortured (CPS Wales/PA)

Fumumeya and Mutesa were the muscle who transported one of the victims from Cardiff to Hemel Hempstead.

The court heard Delishaj played a significant role in blackmailing Mr Ibrahimi, and while he was not part of the kidnap or torture, he was at the other end of the phone while it was taking place and acted as a translator and ransom negotiator to relay Lawsons vile demands.

Omar acted as a lookout outside the Cardiff flat and knew exactly what the rest of the gang were doing inside, judge Williams said.

Isaac provided his flat in Hemel Hempstead as a base for the torture in return for drugs.

Judge Williams praised South Wales Police for their painstaking work in bringing the criminal gang to justice and noted the bravery of the victims in coming forward.

Detective Superintendent Darren George, head of South Wales Police Major Crime Investigation Team, said: This has been one of the UKs most complicated kidnap investigations in recent times and it has taken nearly three years to convict these nine individuals.

We hope our investment into this crime and sentences handed down send a clear message to those intent on bringing this sort of violence to our streets.

We will relentlessly pursue you with everything at our disposal and you will go to jail.

Jenny Hopkins, Chief Crown Prosecutor, CPS Cymru-Wales, said: The torture suffered by the victims in this case is almost beyond belief. In their pursuit of money, those responsible were seemingly willing to inflict maximum suffering.

The ringleader and mastermind, Fortune Lawson, planned the extortions like military operations. He targeted men who trusted him and who he had identified as possessing high-value goods or significant amounts of money.

Others in the gang had varying roles  but each was aware of the terrifying ordeal the victims were being put through. They all took steps to avoid being implicated, including wearing masks, balaclavas and gloves.

Thankfully these dangerous and violent men have now been brought to justice, but the suffering of the victims and the impact of their injuries goes on.

I want to express my utmost gratitude to the victims for their courage in making statements and giving evidence in this case which ultimately enabled us to secure convictions.

The full list of crimes:

 Fortune Lawson: Convicted of two counts of kidnap, three counts of false imprisonment, one count of blackmail relating to two victims. Also convicted of one count of kidnap and one count of false imprisonment in relation to a third victim.

 Davood Assadpour: Convicted of two counts of kidnap, three counts of false imprisonment and one count of blackmail relating to two victims.

 Micaiah Marley: Convicted of two counts of kidnap, three counts of false imprisonment and one count of blackmail in relation to two victims.

 Arnold Fumumeya: Convicted of two counts of kidnap, three counts of false imprisonment, one count of blackmail relating to two victims.

 Alexis Mutesa: Convicted of two counts of kidnap, three counts of false imprisonment and one count of blackmail relating to two victims.

 Gideon Lawson: Convicted of two counts of kidnap, three counts of false imprisonment and one count of blackmail relating to two victims.

 Ahmed Omar: Convicted of two counts of kidnap, two counts of false imprisonment and one count of blackmail relating to two victims.

 Denis Delishaj: Convicted of one count of blackmail (relating to one victim) and one count of possessing a mobile phone in prison without authorisation.

 Stephen Isaac: Convicted of two counts of kidnap, three counts of false imprisonment and one count of blackmail relating to two victims.
Jay-Z has said that he would never sell his masters as getting the rights to them was the fight of my life.

The 53-year-old American rapper and record producer, real name Shawn Corey Carter, spoke to CBS Mornings Gayle King about his music career and why it is important that he owns his masters.

Artists who own the original sound recordings to their songs, known as masters, have the legal right to license them out if they wish to do so.

The rapper took King on a tour of the Jay-Z tribute exhibit, The Book Of Hov, at the Brooklyn Public Library, where some of his masters are located and was asked by King if he would ever sell them.

Jay-Z responded: No.

I get why people do it, Ive been fortunate enough to make money in this place, but for me, it was the fight of my life, he said.

Jay-Z was president of record label Def Jam Recordings for a three-year spell, until he announced that he would be stepping down from his role in 2007.

Speaking about his role and the journey it took to get back his masters, he said: You know from being an independent company from the beginning and then going through the Def Jam system not really understanding how that works and then having my masters, then going back to Def Jam as the president and then saying, Okay, Ill do this job and part of this job is my masters has to be reverted back to me.

I want my kids to see my work and if they decide to sell it, then its up to them.

The 24-time Grammy-award winning rapper is married to American pop superstar Beyonce and the couple have three children together, daughters Blue Ivy and Rumi and son Sir.

King and Jay-Z discussed whether his daughter Blue Ivy thinks hes cool, to which the rapper said: Blue, she be frontin on me a little bit, but she  I catch her.

I catch her in the corner, you know? Now she asks me if this is cool, her sneakers or whatever shes wearing.
Sir Keir Starmer is under growing pressure to call for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas after Sadiq Khan, Andy Burnham and Anas Sarwar all broke ranks to challenge his stance on Gaza.

Party sources made clear the Labour leader was not about to strengthen his position on Friday despite the demands from the mayors in London and Greater Manchester, and the Scottish party leader.

Sir Keir is united with Rishi Sunak and the US in pressing for humanitarian pauses in the fighting while supporting Tel Avivs right to defend itself against the militants who launched a wave of bloodshed in Israel earlier this month.

But the Labour leader has angered MPs, including some on his frontbench, by not going further and provoked a series of resignations of Labour councillors with his since-retracted support for Israels siege of the strip which is home to more than two million Palestinians.

The scenes of destruction and the large death toll caused by Israels airstrikes on Gaza have added to the pressure, as have fears a ground invasion will provoke a wider conflict.

Thousands of innocent civilians have already been killed in Israel and Gaza. With the humanitarian crisis set to deteriorate even further, Im calling for a ceasefire.pic.twitter.com/9HPau9X9jP  Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) October 27, 2023

Mr Khan, who became the first Muslim mayor of the capital in 2016, released a video on social media to join the international community in calling for a ceasefire.

It would stop the killing and would allow vital aid supplies to reach those who need it in Gaza, he said.

It would also allow the international community more time to prevent a protracted conflict in the region and further devastating loss of life.

A widespread military escalation will only deepen the humanitarian disaster. It will increase human suffering on all sides. No nation, including Israel, has the right to break international law.

There have been too many innocent lives lost in Israel and Palestine. We need a ceasefire now. pic.twitter.com/kFgcU58LAQ  Anas Sarwar (@AnasSarwar) October 27, 2023

Four hours later, Mr Sarwar, who in 2021 became the UKs first Muslim to lead a political party, made the same demand, with his own video.

We are all so desperate for peace and are desperate to see the end of violence, he said.

And that is why we need to see the immediate release of hostages, immediate access to humanitarian supplies, food, medicine, electricity, water, into Gaza

The immediate cessation of violence, with an end of rocket fire into and out of Gaza. And let me be clear, that means a ceasefire right now.

Mr Sarwar said there must be a proper peace process to allow a safe, secure and free Palestine and a safe, secure and free Israel.

He argued there is no justification for the collective punishment of the people of Gaza and said that withholding essential supplies is a breach of international law.

Later in the afternoon, Mr Burnham was joined by his deputy Kate Green, who served on Sir Keirs frontbench until standing down as an MP in 2021, and 10 leaders of Manchester councils in adding to the growing international calls for a ceasefire by all sides and for the hostages to be released unharmed.

We recognise that Israel has the right to take targeted action within international law to defend itself against terror attacks and terrorist organisations and to rescue hostages, they added.

We also have profound concerns about the loss of thousands of lives in Gaza, the displacement of many more and widespread suffering through the ongoing blockade of essential goods and services. It is vital that urgent support and humanitarian aid is allowed into the area.

Shadow cabinet member Steve Reed told colleagues calling for a ceasefire he understands and empathises with them but set out why the leadership was not calling for one.

The shadow environment secretary argued that if the UK had suffered a similar atrocity our state would have sought to defend ourselves to protect our citizens by dismantling the capability of a terrorist organisation that carried it out.

That applies to Israel too, they have the right under international law to do that, he told Sky News.

Sir Keir Starmer is coming under pressure over his stance (Peter Byrne/PA)

But in taking that work, they must continue to follow international law as they carry it out, but long term, the only solution to this crisis is not going to be military.

A Labour Party spokesman issued a defence of Sir Keirs decision.

Of course, we understand why people want to call for a ceasefire. The Palestinian people are not Hamas, and they are suffering terribly.

Thats why we support humanitarian pauses so that aid, fuel, water electricity and medicines can urgently get to those who need it, he said.

We also have to recognise Israel was subject to a vile terrorist attack. Israel has a right and a duty to defend itself, rescue the hostages and stop Hamas from being able to carry out that sort of terrorist attack ever again.

Hamas are currently firing rockets into Israel and have built the infrastructure, including tunnels, from which to carry out further attacks, so that military operation is ongoing.

That must be done within international law and aid must get in quickly, safely, and regularly to halt a humanitarian disaster.

Sir Keir has been holding meetings within his party to soothe some of the anger, including in talks with Muslim Labour MPs in Parliament on Wednesday.

They urged him during the firm exchange to back a ceasefire, believing the British public support the move as well.

Downing Street argues that pauses, as Israel pummels Gaza with airstrikes, are needed to get evacuees out and aid in but says a ceasefire would only serve to benefit Hamas.

The Foreign Office has been contacted by around 200 British nationals in Gaza as officials undertake complex negotiations with both Egypt and Israel to get them free.
NHS waiting lists could top eight million by next summer, regardless of whether medics continue striking over pay, according to new analysis.

The Health Foundation is calling for changes in policy and continued investment to clear the backlog.

In a new report, the organisation modelled four different scenarios and concluded, based on current trends, that NHS waiting lists could peak at eight million by August 2024 if there is no more strike action by healthcare workers before starting to come down.

If strikes were to continue, the list could be 180,000 higher, it said.

Earlier this month it was revealed that 7.75 million people were waiting for NHS treatment as of August, the highest figure since records began in 2007.

Charles Tallack, director of data analytics at the Health Foundation, said: Behind these numbers are people anxious for a diagnosis, patients in avoidable pain and lives put on hold.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made tackling waiting lists a priority at the beginning of 2023, but the Government has since blamed ongoing strikes in the NHS for making the issue more challenging.

Mr Tallack added: While industrial action has a range of impacts on NHS organisations, the strikes have only directly resulted in a small increase in the size of the overall waiting list.

Ministers have been quick to blame industrial action for the lack of progress in reducing the waiting list but the roots of this crisis lie in a decade of underinvestment in the NHS, a failure to address chronic staff shortages and the longstanding neglect of social care.

Different groups of healthcare workers have been striking since December 2022  including nurses, radiographers and ambulance drivers as well as medics  with the action impacting more than one million appointments.

However, the Health Foundations analysis only includes disruption caused by the junior doctor and consultants strikes, due to the direct impact on the waiting list for consultant-led care.

Junior doctors and consultants have walked out on strike together twice so far (Jacob King/PA)

Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive at NHS Providers, said the report will fuel trust leaders concerns that the record-high waiting list will keep growing before it comes down.

The projected increase alongside the rising financial impact of industrial action underscores the urgency of resolving the strikes, she added.

While strikes are not the leading cause of longer waits, the report confirms they exacerbate the issue by swallowing up NHS resources that could be better spent on cutting care backlogs.

Mr Tallack also highlights how the pandemic heaped further significant pressure on an already stressed system, but said waiting lists were already growing long before Covid.

He added: Eliminating the backlog for elective care and returning waiting times to 18 weeks is entirely possible  it was done in the early 2000s and it can be done again. However, it will be very challenging and will require sustained focus, policy action and investment.

An NHS spokesperson said: While the analysis itself acknowledges that the impact of strikes is significantly underestimated and NHS staff and patients wont agree that the impact has been small, with more than one million appointments and procedures rescheduled, there has continued to be important progress in bringing down the longest waits  two-year waits have been virtually eliminated and waits of more than 65 weeks have more than halved.

The NHS is seeing high levels of demand, with more people coming forwarding for the care they need and referrals increasing at an even higher rate than before the pandemic, which is why our elective recovery plan and tools like community diagnostic centres, surgical hubs, and technology like robots and AI are essential to tackling the backlog and ensuring everyone gets the care they need as quickly as possible.

However, Tim Mitchell, president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, said the Health Foundations figures are sobering.

Waiting lists have ballooned over the past decade due to underinvestment and workforce shortages, he added.

The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated these pressures.

While industrial action has contributed to delays, the roots of this crisis precede the strikes.

Mr Mitchell called for transformative solutions to tackle waiting lists in a meaningful and sustainable way.

He added: Crucially, we must also improve staff morale and retention. The governments commitment to grow the healthcare workforce is welcome. However, recruiting new staff is only half of the solution.

Providing a supportive, well-resourced working environment is vital to reducing burnout.

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said: This makes clear that NHS waiting lists would be the highest in history today even without industrial action.

It blows out of the water the Conservatives attempts to blame doctors and nurses for the crisis in the NHS.

Rishi Sunaks failure to stop the strikes has only made a terrible situation worse, leaving even more patients waiting in pain and discomfort, unable to live their lives to the full.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has made tackling waiting lists a priority (Jaime Lorriman/The Daily Telegraph/PA)

NHS strikes escalated last month with the first-ever joint walkout by junior doctors and consultants in history, which led to a second three-day spell of co-ordinated action in early October.

The British Medical Association (BMA) said consultants will hold off calling more strikes until November to allow for negotiations.

They agreed to talk with ministers earlier this month, with the BMAs junior doctors committee following suit.

The Department of Health and Social Care said cutting waiting lists is one of the Governments top five priorities and it is taking action to shorten long waits, despite disruption from strikes.

A spokesperson added: We are maximising all available capacity by drawing on the independent sector, as set out by our Elective Recovery Taskforce to give patients more control over where they receive their care so they can be treated more quickly.
Pete Doherty said he is considering contacting Mark Blancos mother because she believes that I killed her son.

The rock star was interviewed by police but never arrested over the death in December 2006, when Mr Blanco fell from a first-floor balcony in Whitechapel, east London, after the pair were at a party together.

Doherty, who vehemently denies any knowledge of the death, said the story is just not going to go away after a recent documentary titled Pete Doherty, Who Killed My Son? aired on Channel 4.

Sheila Blanco, whose son Mark died after falling from a balcony at a party attended by musician Pete Doherty, arrives at the offices of the Crown Prosecution Service (Ian Nicholson/PA)

The film follows Sheila Blanco and her relentless pursuit of justice for her son.

Libertines frontman Doherty, 44, told the i newspaper: Im going (to) have to meet his mum at some point, I think.

I dont know why that hasnt happened. Maybe I should contact her and help her in any way.

Perhaps thats the only way to move on, now that, actually, she believes that I killed her son, or that I know who did.

It might be better if I sit down with her. Or, because I havent met or spoke to her I dont know (what she believes), maybe thats just the tabloids?

But Im not going (to) watch that documentary, thats for sure.

In May 2011, Ms Blanco accused police of staging a cover-up after the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said Doherty would not face criminal prosecution over the death of partygoer Mr Blanco, who was then aged 30.

The CPS said: None of the evidence is capable of establishing to the required standard that Mr Blanco was thrown or pushed from the balcony or that any other individual was present at the time he fell.

Scotland Yards initial probe found that Mr Blanco jumped deliberately, but a coroner ordered a second independent investigation after recording an open verdict at the inquest.

Officers then found that either Mr Blanco took his own life or he fell because of a criminal act, but could not say which.

This prompted the Blanco family to pay for their own specialist reports on the death.
Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters are expected to take to the streets of Britain on Saturday as Israel steps up its offensive on Gaza.

Police expect about 100,000 people to join a demonstration in London demanding a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, with other rallies organised elsewhere in the UK  including in Manchester and Glasgow.

It comes as Israel knocked out communications in the Gaza Strip in intensified attacks, largely cutting off the 2.3 million population from contact with each other and the outside world.

The United Nations said the move would prevent aid from reaching Palestinians trapped inside the bombarded territory, with Tel Aviv continuing to fire air strikes on the 25-mile stretch.

Israel says it is targeting Hamas fighters who it claims are operating from among civilians, with the UK Government calculating that about 200 British nationals remain in Gaza.

Humza Yousaf, Scotlands First Minister, said he is praying his family survive a night of heavy bombardment as they mark the end of a third week stuck in a warzone.

Gaza is under intense bombing. Telecommunications have been cut. We can't get through to our family who have been trapped in this war zone for almost 3 weeks. We can only pray they survive the night. How many more children have to die before the world says enough?  Humza Yousaf (@HumzaYousaf) October 27, 2023

The SNP leader revealed via social media that he has been unable to contact his wifes mother and her husband after communications were cut off.

Elizabeth El-Nakla and her husband Maged travelled to the region before the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, in which Palestinian militants killed 1,400 people, and have been trapped since Tel Avivs subsequent retaliation.

The First Minister wrote on X, formerly Twitter: How many more children have to die before the world says enough?

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly recognised that Israel is expanding their military campaign against Hamas.

He said the UKs top priority remains the safety of British nationals in Gaza and the region.

Israel is expanding their military campaign against Hamas. The UKs top priority remains the safety of British nationals in Gaza and the region. We support Israels right to self defence, in line with IHL, and continue to push for the protection of Palestinian civilians.  James Cleverly (@JamesCleverly) October 27, 2023

We support Israels right to self defence, in line with IHL (international humanitarian law), and continue to push for the protection of Palestinian civilians, Mr Cleverly tweeted.

The reverberations of the conflict continue to be felt in the UK, with police braced for a fresh wave of protests.

The Metropolitan Police said officers are expected to intervene if protesters use the word jihad in chants in London over the weekend.

A video emerged of a pro-Palestinian protester chanting jihad at one event last week, but officers had said no offences were identified in the footage from the demonstration.

Ahead of the weekend, Kyle Gordon, who is leading the forces command team, told a press briefing: If somebody is calling for jihad specifically against Israel the officers will intervene, gather the information, report it back into us and well be working with colleagues (from counter-terrorism) in relation to what the best course of action is.

It comes after Met commissioner Sir Mark Rowley differed with ministers this week over how to police pro-Palestine protesters using the phrase.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak signalled that police are unlikely to be given more powers to address chants deemed to be extremist after the comments at last Saturdays rally.

Explosions caused by Israeli airstrikes in the northern Gaza Strip on Friday (Abed Khaled/AP)

That is despite suggestions from Sir Mark that laws may need to be redrawn following concerns about gaps in current anti-extremism legislation.

Scotland Yard has pointed out that jihad has a number of meanings.

Max Hill, the outgoing director of public prosecutions, has said that calling for jihad is not automatically a criminal offence.

The head of the Crown Prosecution Service told The Daily Telegraph: In any case arising from the current protests, there needs to be a very careful consideration of the actual circumstances in which something is said, or a flag is waved or actions are taken.

As the Palestinian death toll mounts, with the Hamas-controlled Gazan health ministry saying more than 7,000 people have died, calls for a ceasefire are growing among UK politicians.

Downing Street has insisted that such a move would only benefit Hamas and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has joined the Government in supporting humanitarian pauses.

The issue is causing splits in the Labour Party, with Imran Hussain, shadow minister for the New Deal For Working People and MP for Bradford East, breaking ranks to demand a ceasefire.

2 million people in Gaza have been plunged into darkness. First it was food, water, power and medicine. Now its a communications and internet blackout. Its impossible to imagine the horror that families in Gaza are facing right now and we need a ceasefire NOW.  Imran Hussain MP (@Imran_HussainMP) October 27, 2023

Two million people in Gaza have been plunged into darkness, he tweeted.

First it was food, water, power and medicine. Now its a communications and internet blackout.

Its impossible to imagine the horror that families in Gaza are facing right now and we need a ceasefire now.

It is unclear if Mr Hussain will be able to stay in his shadow ministerial post, having deviated from Labours official position.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar announced on Friday that they were joining the call for a ceasefire  but Sir Keirs team made it clear the party position had not changed.

Pro-Palestinian supporters demonstrated on Friday outside the office of the Tower Hamlets Labour Party, an area represented by another shadow minister, Rushanara Ali, in protest at Labours stance.
Hundreds of workers at Scottish Water will take 48 days of strike action over three months which could see disruption to repairs and delays in responding to floods, unions have warned.

Unite the Union, Unison and GMB Scotland have confirmed more than 500 of their members at the organisation will take action over a pay and grading dispute.

They claim managers linked this years pay offer to a wider restructuring of grades and salaries, which the unions believe will limit the future wages of workers and must be negotiated separately.

Strike action will begin at midnight on November 10 and last until 23.59pm on November 13, and this will be repeated weekly until January 26.

The unions said the strike action is likely to cause disruption and significantly impair Scottish Waters ability to respond to leakages, flooding, pollution, and drinking water quality concerns.

In practical terms, this means burst pipe repairs on roads and highways will not be repaired by Unite members on the scheduled days of action.

Unite members will also not be available to undertake work relating to any sewer flooding issues and the associated environmental impact of failing sewage works.

Stephen Deans, Unite regional co-ordinating officer, said: Scottish Water has paid lip service to our major concerns over pay which is being tied to a proposed new grading structure.

The talks which have taken place with Scottish Water management following our membership emphatically backing strike have been in effect useless.

Unite has therefore been left with no option but to serve notice of 48 days strike action over three months.

Unites membership includes key frontline workers who attend to and repair waterworks, flooding and sewers. If the action goes ahead due to the intransigence of Scottish Water management, then this will have major public safety and health implications.

Unisons Scottish Water branch secretary Patricia McArthur said the firms treatment of workers is storing up problems for the future.

GMB Scotland organiser Claire Greer has urged the First Minister to intervene to avert strike action, saying there has been no genuine attempt by Scottish Water to resolve the dispute, while Unison has written to Government minister Mairi McAllan.

Sharon Graham has accused Scottish Water of insatiable greed (Jacob King/PA)

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said Scottish Water had created the situation through their own arrogance and insatiable greed, as she vowed the union will fully support members.

The publicly-owned company said it is putting in place a contingency plan for strike days and is examining how its activities may be impacted.

Chief operating officer Peter Farrer said the firm will do all it can to ensure customers do not experience disruption.

Mr Farrer added: We are dismayed the unions have taken this course of action over what is an exceptional proposal for our people.

Scottish Water remains committed to reaching an agreement with our unions that avoids industrial action.

This has been the case throughout the negotiations over the proposal to modernise a 21-year-old pay and grading structure and provide employees with an in-year award of at least 8% for all.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: These pay negotiations are a matter for Scottish Water, as the employer, and the unions  we encourage all parties to continue negotiations to resolve this dispute.
A search for four sailors missing after a British cargo ship sank in a collision with a vessel in the North Sea has been called off.

One man died and two others were hospitalised after British-flagged Verity hit a larger cargo ship, Polesie, about 14 miles (22.5km) south-west of the German island of Heligoland at around 5am on Tuesday.

Germanys Central Command for Maritime Emergencies has called off the search for the four remaining men, who are deemed unaccounted for.

While the larger, Bahamas-flagged Polesie stayed afloat, the Verity, which had departed from Bremen and was destined for the port of Immingham on the east coast of England carrying steel coils, became submerged.

The Verity sank following a collision with the Bahamas-flagged vessel Polesie in the North Sea (PA)

Shortly afterwards a signal from the ship was lost, German authorities said, and wreckage was found.

Michael Ippich, of the German Maritime Search and Rescue Service, said the water temperature at the time of collision was 12C (54F), in which people can survive for about 20 hours.

The Isle of Man Ship Registry said: The Ship Registrys thoughts are with the seafarers that sailed on board the Verity, their families, friends and loved ones.

The Ship Registry wish to thank all of those who have been involved in the search and rescue efforts over the past days.

The team will continue to work with the relevant authorities in the ongoing investigations being conducted by the UKs Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB).
By Steve Holland, Matt Spetalnick and Humeyra Pamuk

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden and his team have markedly shifted their tone on the Israel-Hamas crisis in recent days, moving from unfettered support of Israel to emphasizing the need to protect Palestinian civilians in Gaza ahead of a looming Israeli ground invasion.

Biden has not changed his fundamental belief that Israel has the right and responsibility to defend itself in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack from Hamas militants that killed 1,400 people in southern Israel, aides say.

But a rapidly rising Palestinian death toll, the difficulty of freeing hostages held by Hamas and an increasingly vocal outcry from Arab nations, European allies and some Americans at home, have pushed Biden's team to support a humanitarian pause to Israel's attacks and focus on getting aid to Palestinians, say multiple sources inside the administration and out.

A White House official said the shift in tone was based on "the facts on the ground" in Gaza with a humanitarian crisis worsening and the Biden team's "conversations with countries around the world."

There has been a tug of war behind the scenes among Biden and his advisers about the U.S. message, said one former official who is in touch with current officials.

"We've seen sort of an evolution from sort of full-throated, unconditional hugging of Israel to a little bit more nuance," the former official said.

The administration had not expected Palestinian casualties to mount as fast as they have  now more than 7,000 dead in Gaza, local officials say  or for the humanitarian situation to deteriorate so rapidly, a U.S. official said on condition of anonymity.

"I think the framing has clearly changed, unsurprisingly, in response to changing circumstances and what appears to be an even greater looming catastrophe should the Israelis move into Gaza with a major campaign," said Aaron David Miller, a Middle East expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Biden, 80, has evolved in the face of a challenging 2024 reelection bid, threats by some would-be supporters to withhold their votes over his lack of backing for Palestinians, and a warning from former President Barack Obama that Israel's actions could backfire.

Israeli officials and their U.S. supporters have privately voiced concern to Reuters that as more time passes since the Oct. 7 atrocities committed by Hamas, the more the worlds focus will be on death and destruction from the Israeli assault in Gaza.

Bidens aides are urging their Israeli counterparts to take more time to carefully think through their exit strategy before a full-scale ground invasion, one U.S. source said.

U.S. officials have cautioned that crafting fine points of such a strategy "on the fly," as was often the case for the U.S. in the early stages of the Iraq war, would be a mistake, the source added.

U.S. military advisers sent to the region are urging Israeli counterparts to be cautious because any invading force will face difficult fighting terrain and a warren of tunnels and booby-trapped buildings that could increase casualties among Israeli soldiers and Gaza civilians, a separate source familiar with the conversations said.

In rare comments on an active foreign policy crisis Obama, Biden's Democratic predecessor and former boss, warned this week that Israel cutting off food and water to Gaza could "harden Palestinian attitudes for generations."

The White House did not respond when asked if the administration coordinated with Biden's Democratic predecessor.

ARAB LEADERS PRESSURE

When Hamas militants burst out of Gaza and attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, Biden offered full-throated support for Israel, saying he relayed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that "Israel has the right to defend itself and its people. Full stop."

He did not mention the Palestinian people.

Addressing reporters before departing for the Middle East on Oct. 11, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the top objective of his trip was a robust show of solidarity with Israel, including providing all the military equipment that it needs to defend itself.

"The United States has Israel's back," Blinken said. He didn't mention humanitarian aid at all.

During Blinken's six-day trip, the death toll in Gaza soared from Israeli air strikes and concerns grew about food and water. Every Arab leader Blinken met in the region pressed him to urgently find a solution to the rapidly deteriorating situation in Gaza.

Blinken relayed the concerns of Arab leaders, while others spoke to the U.S. president directly.

The intense protests against Israel that followed last week's blast at a Palestinian hospital, which the United States and Israel both blamed on Palestinian militants, also alarmed U.S. officials.

The protests were reminders of the risks of escalation during any ground assault, U.S. officials said, because they show how Israel's adversaries could seek to wield disinformation to spark unrest.

HUMANITARIAN PAUSE

The most rapid shift in U.S. policy has happened this week, to support a cessation in Israel's attacks on Gaza to allow aid in and people to escape.

Asked on Oct. 23 about international demands for a humanitarian pause, White House security spokesman John Kirby said the United States wants to make sure "Israel has the tools it needs to defend itself and to go after Hamas and that humanitarian assistance keeps flowing."

A day later, Kirby and Blinken advocated for one publicly. The shift followed a plea from U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for civilians to be protected and increasingly desperate appeals from U.N. organizations to allow in aid.

The U.S. revised its own U.N. resolution from a focus on Israel's right to defend itself to include calls for all measures, specifically to include humanitarian pauses, to allow unhindered humanitarian access of aid.

Remarks made by Biden on Wednesday are in contrast with those on Oct. 7, and show a new direction. "Israel has to do everything in its power, as difficult as it is, to protect innocent civilians," Biden told a press conference.

He offered a rare criticism as well of Israel's "extremist settlers" on the West Bank, accusing them of pouring gasoline on a fire, and called for a concentrated effort, once the crisis is over, to work toward an accord under which Israel and a new Palestinian state would exist side-by-side in peace.

But Biden also expressed skepticism toward Palestinian estimates of the death toll and a continued staunch support of Israel. He told the press conference that he had "no confidence" in the numbers the Palestinians were using about Gaza's dead.

(Reporting By Steve Holland, Phil Stewart, Matt Spetalnick, Humeyra Pamuk, Trevor Hunnicutt and Michelle Nichols. Editing by Heather Timmons and Alistair Bell)
The West African nation's law enforcement authorities performed mass arrests of queer Nigerians this week using the country's same-sex prohibition law to target the LGBTQ+ community.

Homosexuality was criminalized in Nigeria, which was supported by the public even though the constitution guarantees freedom from discrimination and the right to private and family life.

Mass Arrests of Queer Nigerians

According to the Independent, the country's paramilitary agency announced the arrest of more than 70 young people in the northern Gombe state accused of holding homosexual birthdays and marriage on Monday.

The rights groups reported that mass arrests and detention of queer Nigerians were not thoroughly investigated and could endanger the community with Africa's Anti-LGBTQ+ law.

Isa Sanusi, director of Amnesty International Nigeria, said a similar detention was performed in August in the Southern Delta State, wherein more than 60 people at a gay wedding were arrested. Sanusi said the arrest was "an uptick in this trend of witchhunt and gross violation of human rights."

According to Anietie Ewang, a Nigerian researcher with the Human Rights Watch's Africa Division, queer Nigerians have suffered from abuse and stereotypes since their 2016 report and until now. Lawyers and rights groups said the recent most extensive mass detention suspects were falsely accused and subjected to oppressive conditions.

The lawyers reported that a failed trial of the 47 men occurred in 2018, and they were charged with public displays of affection for LGBTQ+ members at a hotel in Lagos. The court dismissed the case and was recognized as a lack of diligent prosecution, as reported by ABC News.

In 2022, police arrested dozens of gays at a gay wedding at a Delta State hotel. The suspects paraded in front of cameras on a live social media broadcast. The suspect said that he was at the hotel for another agenda. Another suspect explained his side as he cleared that he did not identify as part of the community and was arrested on his way to a fashion show.

Bashir Sani, one of the suspects, denied the allegation and said there was no wedding but a birthday.

Read Also: Taylor Swift Releases 1989 (Taylor's Version) After Nine Years

Anti-LGBTQ + Law

Nigeria's Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act of 2013 was supported by more than 210 million people, which punishes gay marriage with up to 14 years in prison. The law forced many Nigerian gays to flee the country.

Okechukwu Nwanguma, the leader of the Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre, said the mass arrests show how the anti-gay law was being exploited without a fair procedure.

"The law enforcement authorities are exploiting the law to target people whether or not they are queer. There is a tendency to target them based on assumptions or allegations, not based on any investigation," Nwanguma said.

Nigerians were used to delayed justice, where the criminal justice system has been denounced as corrupt. But Chizelu Emejulu, an activist and lawyer, has admitted that the LGBTQ+ community was the most vulnerable.

Related Article: Judge Blocks Tennessee City's Ban on Drag Shows on Public Property





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Can the president fight any war he wishes? Can Congress fund any war it chooses? Are there constitutional and legal requirements that must first be met before war is waged? Can the United States legally attack an ally?

These questions should be critical to a public debate over the U.S. military involvement in Ukraine and the Middle East. Sadly, there has been no great debate. The media are mouthing what the CIA is telling them, and only a few websites and podcasts -- my own, Judging Freedom on YouTube, among them -- are challenging the governments reckless, immoral, illegal and unconstitutional wars.

Here is the backstory.

All power in the federal government comes from the Constitution and from no other source. Congress, however, has managed to extend its reach beyond the confines of the Constitution domestically by spending money in areas that it cannot regulate and in foreign policy by looking the other way when presidents initiate military violence.

Under the Constitution, only Congress can declare war on a nation or group. The last time it did so was to initiate American involvement in World War II. But Congress has given away limited authority to presidents and permitted them to fight undeclared wars, such as President George W. Bushs disastrous invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the War Powers Resolution of 1973.

US President Joe Biden speaks during a joint press conference with Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (off frame) at the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC, on October 25, 2023. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP) (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images) ORIG FILE ID: AFP_33Z66NQ.jpg

Congress cannot legally declare war on Russia or Gaza, since there is no militarily grounded reason for doing so. Neither Russia nor Gaza poses any threat to American national security.

Congress not only has not declared war on Russia; it has not authorized the use of American military force against it. Yet, it has given President Joe Biden a blank check for $113 billion and authorized him to give cash and military equipment to Ukraine, however he sees fit.

He has promised to continue giving Ukraine whatever it needs for as long as it takes. As long as it takes to do what? He cannot answer that because he has no clear military objective. Eliminating Russian troops from eastern Ukraine and Crimea or Russian President Vladimir Putin from office are not realistically attainable military goals. Congress has only authorized cash and weapons to be sent to Ukraine, but Biden has sent troops as well.

As of this writing, Congress has not authorized any military assistance to Israel, yet Biden has sent 2,000 Marines to await his orders on an aircraft carrier in the eastern Mediterranean, and he has put special forces on the ground in Gaza.

The U.S. involvement in Vietnam began the same way: no declaration of war, no authorization for the use of military force, yet a gradual presidentially ordered buildup of American troops as advisers and instructors, and then a congressionally supported war that saw half a million American troops deployed, 10% of whom came home in body bags.

We dont know how many American troops are in Ukraine, as they are out of uniform and their whereabouts a secret. We do know that they are involved in hostilities, since much of the hardware that Biden has sent requires American know-how to operate and maintain. And some of the weaponry has American troops actually targeting Russian forces and pulling the triggers.

Are American soldiers killing Russian soldiers? Yes. Are they helping to kill civilian residents of Gaza? Yes. Has any of this been authorized by Congress? No.

Now back to the Constitution.

The War Powers Resolution, which requires presidential notification to Congress of the use of American military force, is unconstitutional because it consists of Congress giving away one of its core functions -- declaring war. The Supreme Court has characterized delegating away core functions as violative of the separation of powers. Stated differently, Congress cannot constitutionally authorize or permit the president to use the military in a non-defensive manner.

Nevertheless, Biden has not informed Congress of his intentions to use American troops violently. Yet, he has used the Navy and the CIA to attack Germany by destroying the Nord Stream Pipeline; he has sent soldiers out of uniform to Ukraine; and he has dispatched Army, Navy and Marine personnel to wartime Israel.

Andrew Napolitano: The gathering storm of rage

Dont be surprised if Biden gives War Powers Act notice secretly to the Gang of Eight. The Gang of Eight is the Congress within the Congress. It consists of the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees and the Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate with which the president legally shares secrets.

Just as Congress cannot delegate away its war-making powers to the president, it cannot delegate them away to the Gang of Eight. The concept of the Gang of Eight is antithetical to democratic values. Informing them of whatever violence the president is up to is done under an oath of secrecy. What kind of democracy operates and kills in secret and disenfranchises 95% of its elected federal representatives?

The various treaties to which the U.S. is a party limit its war-making to that which is defensive, proportional and reasonable. So, if a foreign power is about to strike  like on 9/11, while the government slept  the president can strike first in order to protect the U.S.

Beyond an imminent attack, the basis for war must be real, the adversarys anti-U.S. military behavior must be grave, the objective of war must be clear and attainable, and the means must be proportionate to the threat.

Has the Russian military threatened the U.S.? No. Have the Palestinian people? No. What grave acts of aggression has either committed or threatened against the U.S.? None.

Do we actually repose the Constitution into the hands of those who ignore it? Does the Congress uphold the Constitution? Does the president? The answers are obvious. It is also obvious that Joe Biden loves war and wants to run for reelection as a wartime president. And he seems to be getting his way.

Andrew P. Napolitano, a former New Jersey Superior Court Judge, has published nine books on the U.S. Constitution. To learn more, visit JudgeNap.com.

Andrew P. Napolitano

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Biden, war and the Constitution
Private-equity billionaire Stephen Schwarzman doesnt think office workers worked hard enough during Covid-19.

Schwarzman, the Blackstone CEO whose fortune is estimated at $32 billion, told a crowd of investors at a ritzy Saudi Arabia conference known as Davos in the Desert that people who worked remotely during the pandemic didnt work as hard  regardless of what th ey told you.

Of course, many Americans would argue they never worked harder.

Parents often had to juggle near-constant Zoom meetings and Slack messages while simultaneously helping kids whose schools were shut. Others had to take care of babies and toddlers whose day cares were closed or help elderly family members quarantining with them.

To catch up on work, some parents ended up working late or starting early or putting in hours on the weekend.

Americans in particular reported spikes in stress levels during Covid.

One-third of US adults reported experiencing stress, anxiety and great sadness that was difficult to cope with by themselves, a significantly higher proportion than in other countries, according to a Commonwealth Fund report published in August 2020.

Schwarzman addressed remote work on Tuesday in the context of the impact on the commercial real estate market, where Blackstone has significant exposure as a major real estate investor.

During the pandemic, people got used to staying at home, Schwarzman said. It was actually more profitable for them to stay home because one, they didnt work as hard, regardless of what they told you. Second, they dont spend money to commute. They can make their lunch at home. They dont have to buy expensive clothes, so their incomes are higher.

The official name of the conference held in Saudi Arabia is the Future Investment Initiative. During Schwarzmans same panel discussion, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon discussed how 60% of his companys employees are now in the office five days a week, while 30% are required to be in the office three days a week. We track it, DImon said.

The JPMorgan boss added that the banks managing directors are required to be in the office 100% of the time.

I dont think you can lead people and work from home, Dimon said.

Still, many employees are working remotely at least some of the time right now.

For example, about 58% of Manhattan office workers were at their workplace on an average weekday in late August and September, according to a survey from the Partnership for New York City. Thats up from 49% in September 2022 but down from 80% prior to Covid-19.

Just 12% of Manhattan office workers are in the office full time, according to that survey.

Schwarzman, the Blackstone CEO, estimated that 20% of US office buildings are vacant and another 20% are leased but empty. He predicted that when existing leases expire, companies will cut back on the amount of office space they lease, leaving many office buildings  especially older ones  un-survivable as economic entities.

Thats going to have a very bad ending, Schwarzman said.

Blackstone told investors earlier this year it has slashed its exposure to US office properties from more than 60% of its real estate portfolio in 2007 to less than 2% now.

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Turning Point awarded federal funding to support victims, families

COLUMBUS  The Office of Criminal Justice Services (OCJS) has awarded over $4 million in federal emergency shelter and supportive services grants for domestic violence victims and their dependents. Among the recipients is Turning Point, which will receive $50,202.

The 67 projects in 46 counties will help community-based, non-profit organizations to provide emergency shelter and/or supportive services for victims of family violence, domestic violence, and dating violence and their dependents, and specialized services for children and victims who are members of racial and ethnic minority populations.

Portion of Marion street closed next week

East Fairground Street, between Jefferson Street and Likens Chapel Road, will be closed 7 a.m. Monday until 5 p.m. Tuesday. A detour sign will be in place to direct traffic.

A contractor will complete utility trench restoration for a proposed private development.

Spooktacular double feature at the Palace Theatre

The Palace Cultural Arts Association is bringing the cult classic film "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" to the Marion Palace Theatre big screen this weekend. Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Friday and Sunday with a 2 p.m. matinee with open captions Saturday.

Moviegoers may not take rice, water or water pistols, open flames or outside food. Going onstage, throwing anything or touching the movie screen is prohibited. Newspapers, flashlights or glow sticks, rubber gloves, noisemakers, sponges, bells and cards are permitted. Moviegoers are invited to dress up and dance in the aisles.

The cult classic "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" will be shown Halloween weekend at the Marion Palace Theatre.

Tickets for "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" will be available at the door  $5 general admission or $3 with a Palace member card.

The theatre also is hosting its annual Halloween party, Dancing Through the Decades, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the May Pavilion. There will be a DJ, best costume awards, raffle prizes, a 50/50 raffle, cash bar and concessions. Tickets are $15.

Nominations sought for Ohio Fire Service Hall of Fame & Fire Awards

COLUMBUS  The Ohio Department of Commerces Division of State Fire Marshal and the Ohio Department of Public Safetys Division of EMS opened their nominations for the annual Ohio Fire Service Hall of Fame & Fire Awards ceremony. The event will honor recipients April 24, 2024, at the Center of Science and Industry (COSI) in downtown Columbus. Nominations of deserving candidates may be submitted at com.ohio.gov/HOFNom.

Deadline for nominations is Dec. 22. This marks the 42nd year of the annual awards ceremony.

The Marion Area Chamber of Commerce recently joined representatives of Tri-Rivers Career Center, RAMTEC, The Ohio State University and the Marion Community Foundation for a ribbon cutting to unveil the new connected smart manufacturing (CSM) cell at Tri-Rivers.

Tri-Rivers debuts new connected smart manufacturing cell

Tri-Rivers Career Center has debuted its state-of-the-art connected smart manufacturing (CSM) cell hosted within the manufacturing bay of the RAMTEC facility. This addition  funded by Tri-Rivers Career Center, The Ohio State University at Marion, and the Marion Community Foundation  represents a pivotal advancement in manufacturing education in Marion.

"This is the next step in a partnership that started a couple years ago when we first established the Bachelor of Science in Engineering Technology (BSET) program" said Dr. Greg Rose, dean/director at The Ohio State University at Marion. "As the BSET curriculum was built out, we needed this piece of equipment. Tri-Rivers had a grant for part of the full machine. We had more conversation about how we might join forces . The Marion Community Foundation was willing to join the partnership to help us pay for the shared equipment. It is a terrific example of how a partnership can evolve.

During the unveiling, two RAMTEC students provided a demonstration of the new equipment and produced small tokens for attendees to commemorate the event.

Speaking Volumes event at the library

Author J. Ryan Stradal will visit Marion Friday for the seventh annual Speaking Volumes event held at Marion Public Library. Speaking Volumes is a fundraising event coordinated by the BookMarks, a separate nonprofit organization devoted to supporting Marion Public Library.

Tickets are on sale, available at the Library and on the BookMarks website at MarionOHBookMarks.org. A $75 ticket includes heavy hors doeuvres during an exclusive mingle hour with Stradal starting at 6 p.m., just prior to the program at 7 p.m. A $30 ticket can be purchased for just the program and includes dessert. There will be a cash bar available. Copies of select J. Ryan Stradal titles will be for sale for the book signing after the program.

Stradal's latest novel, "Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club" published in April 2023, was the top selling hardcover fiction book among independent bookstores in the Midwest its first week of release. In September 2023, it was named a finalist for the Heartland Booksellers Award in Fiction.

New plant to bring more than 100 jobs to Wyandot County

UPPER SANDUSKY  A new soybean processing plant in Upper Sandusky will bring more than 100 new jobs to Ohio. Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC), a leading merchant and processor of agricultural goods, will invest approximately $500 million to construct the new plant in Wyandot County, bolstering the region's economic growth in the critical food and agriculture sector.

There are approximately 26,000 soybean farmers in Ohio, and the annual economic impact from soybean production in Ohio is $5.3 billion. LDCs state-of-the-art soybean processing plant will have integrated crushing, edible oil refining, and lecithin production and packaging capabilities.

The State of Ohio and JobsOhio will consider assistance for the project, which will be made public after any incentives are approved.

Marion Star

This article originally appeared on Marion Star: Turning Point grant, Marion street closing, Palace Theatre Halloween
British citizens trapped under Israels ferocious bombing of Gaza have criticised the lack of support from their government which has failed to push for an evacuation or a ceasefire.

There are believed to be 200 Britons registered with the UK authorities in the besieged enclave, where food, water, fuel and medical supplies are fast running out.

Among them is Manchester resident Mohammed Ghalayini, who said Israeli airstrikes have killed 37 members of his extended family and forced him to be displaced four times.

He was visiting family in Gaza when Israel unleashed its air raids in retaliation for Hamass bloody 7 October attack on southern Israel.

Despite struggling to access food, water, and other supplies the 44-year-old said he has only received one communique from the Foreign Office: a single email 10 days ago.

Mohammed Ghalayini, from Manchester, has lost dozens of relatives in the war (Supplied)

Gaza has been under bombardment for three weeks now (Supplied)

The British response in terms of supporting its citizens has been pitiful, he told The Independent . I think I had an email 10 days ago. I havent even had a text message. Others Im in touch with, a friend said he had a phone call, Mr Ghalayini said, speaking from the flat where he is sheltering with 15 members of his family.

The neighbourhood of Gaza City where his family is from is almost completely destroyed.

A building 50m away from where Mr Ghalayini is currently sheltering in the south of Gaza was bombed a few days ago and he is worried about strikes in the future.

It is obvious that they are not making the noise to get us out because what is more important is their support for Israel, he said. If they really cared about their citizens they would wield that influence but they arent.

Another British dual national, who asked not to be identified for security reasons, said his family had been given no support or help with evacuation apart from relaying information.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been displaced (Supplied)

We expected that to protect their citizens theyd apply proper pressure on Israel but we obviously dont count because were Palestinian, he added.

The Independent has reached out to the Foreign Office for comment.

Israel imposed a crippling siege on Gaza in retaliation for Hamass attack, when militants stormed through villages and towns, killing hundreds of people and taking at least 224 people, including two Britons, hostage.

The UK, the US and other Western allies were quick to throw their full support behind Israels military response.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says at least 7,000 people, including more than 2,700 children, have been killed in the onslaught.

Ghalayini said the British response had been pitiful (Supplied)

The United Nations, who have lost 57 of their staffers in the bombing, have said unless there is a humanitarian truce, supplies are so low they will have to halt their aid support.

Trapped in that are British citizens who have been unable to evacuate as the Rafah crossing with Egypt  which has been bombed by Israel  remains closed to passenger traffic and is only allowing a drip-feed of aid.

On Thursday Rishi Sunak said the UK has sent Border Force agents to Egypt on a mercy mission to bring home UK citizens caught up in the fighting. But he admitted London cannot do anything until the crossing to Gaza opens.

Mr Ghalayini said in the meantime his family was struggling to survive. They only receive municipal water  which is not suitable for drinking  once every three days, and then need dwindling generator fuel to pump the water up the building.

Explosions caused by Israeli airstrikes in the north of the Gaza Strip (AP)

He said he feared the drinking water supply  which is delivered now by donkey carts  would soon run out too. He has lost 37 relatives on both sides of his family, including 20 members of his fathers family just five days ago.

There is no one in Gaza who doesnt know someone who hasnt been killed, he added.

Both Mr Ghalayini and the other British citizen The Independent spoke to said the UKs lack of effort to evacuate its civilians and apparent lack of interest in a proper ceasefire made London complicit in the bloodshed.

I am sad, I am against the killing of Israeli civilians, I will shout that from the rooftops, Mr Ghalayini said. But it is so hard to watch what is going on, knowing there are those who have influence, who could be changing this for the better for us and for the better for Israelis, he added.

The Independent reached out to the Israeli military to ask whether it was committed to assisting British citizens in Gaza who need to evacuate. We have yet to receive a reply.
The judge overseeing the case of Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of murdering four University of Idaho students last year, on Thursday denied the defenses push to dismiss the grand jury indictment based on a purported error in instruction to the jurors.

Judge John Judge of Idahos 2nd Judicial District in Latah County quickly ruled on the motion after a 40-minute afternoon hearing. Kohbergers public defense team had argued that the standard of proof applied to grand juries in Idaho does not align with the language included in the state constitution or Idaho law, requiring the higher legal standard up to beyond a reasonable doubt.

Judge  along with the prosecution in a short oral response  said established precedent suggests otherwise.

I appreciate the argument. I think its really creative and I appreciate the journey back through history, Judge said in court Thursday. I mean, what it comes down to for me is that I am constrained by what I believe is settled law in Idaho. I may be wrong, but this is certainly an issue that you would have to bring up with a higher court, like the Idaho Supreme Court, and I look forward to getting that.

Just before Judge entered the courtroom, Kohberger walked in wearing a blue suit and striped gold-and-blue tie escorted by a sheriffs deputy. He took a seat next to his lead public defender, Anne Taylor, and shared a brief smile with her before directing his eyes forward, where they stayed the majority of the hearing. The other members of his public defense team, Jay Logsdon and Elisa Massoth, sat nearby.

From the outset during oral argument, Logsdon acknowledged that overturning the indictment would be a tall order. But nevertheless he argued that the secretive grand jury process already is heavily stacked against defendants, and the lack of case law in Idaho left the door open that the burden on the prosecution in indictment proceedings should be greater than reasonable doubt.

Plain language seems to support what were saying, Logsdon told Judge. Im arguing that things everyone in the state is doing are wrong and  occasionally, rarely  they say, No, no, that guys right. 

Judge countered that probable cause has been the standard in Idaho for a long time, perhaps a century. Logsdons premise was novel, he said, but existing precedent did not allow him to make a different interpretation or just change the law as a trial court.

For the prosecution, Idaho Deputy Attorney General Jeff Nye spent roughly two minutes presenting the states side. He stated simply that the Idaho Supreme Court had already ruled on the issue in prior decisions.

Earlier Thursday, Judge also heard other defense arguments about several alleged legal flaws related to the grand jury indictment. It is unclear how or whether Judge ruled on those arguments because the hearing was held behind closed doors to protect sensitive information.

Youre probably wondering why it was sealed compared to this part of the hearing, and that is because we were dealing with the procedures of the grand jury and a lot of details, Judge told attendees. The grand jury is secret, so thats why its sealed, and, whether you like it or not, its baked into U.S. Constitution and Idaho Constitution.

At the morning hearing, the defense contended that the indictment should be thrown out based on four other legal grounds: that the local grand jury was biased against Kohberger; and that prosecutors lacked sufficient evidence, used inadmissible evidence and committed misconduct in withholding evidence that would negate their clients guilt. The hearing extended into the scheduled afternoon session, delaying its start by about 35 minutes.

How we got here

Kohberger, 28, is charged with stabbing to death the four U of I students at an off-campus home in November 2022. The victims were seniors Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, both 21; junior Xana Kernodle and freshman Ethan Chapin, both 20.

At the time, Kohberger was a graduate student of criminal justice and criminology at Washington State University. WSU is located in Pullman, Washington, about 9 miles west of Moscow.

Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson has already stated his intent to seek the death penalty for Kohberger if he is convicted by a jury.

In May, a Latah County grand jury indicted Kohberger on four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary. A retired judge from neighboring Nez Perce County presided over the three-day process, which canceled a preliminary hearing scheduled in June on the same charges for Kohberger.

By their nature, grand juries are an intentionally secret tool prosecutors have at their disposal to move a case to trial. Defendants, their attorneys and the public are not allowed to know about them, let alone attend.

Kohbergers defense team submitted its first request to dismiss the indictment in July, alleging the error in the instructions provided to the grand jurors. In its place, they again sought a preliminary hearing for their client, where prosecutors would need to present evidence and testimony in an open forum to prove probable cause of Kohbergers guilt to a judge. The hearing also would grant the defense a chance to cross-examine witnesses.

In August, the defense filed a second motion to dismiss the indictment, citing the other four legal grounds. The prosecution objected to those efforts to throw out the indictment. Judge set September hearings to listen to the arguments, but those were rescheduled to Thursday at the request of the defense on account of an undisclosed illness at that time.

Thursdays hearings were the first time Kohberger has appeared in court in nearly two months. In late August, he waived his right to a speedy trial, which indefinitely postponed his capital murder trial, originally scheduled for the first week of this month. A hearing also was held to review whether to keep cameras in the courtroom in early September.

The Thursday hearings came less than three weeks before the one-year mark of the crime that sent shock waves throughout Idaho, and the nation. The quadruple homicide launched what developed into a nearly seven-week manhunt, ending with Kohbergers late December arrest at his familys home in eastern Pennsylvania.

Monday also marks 10 months since Kohberger was taken into custody. He made his initial court appearance in Pennsylvania on Jan. 3 and arrived the next day in Idaho to the Latah County Jail in Moscow, where he has remained since.

On Nov. 21, Kohberger will turn 29 years old in jail as he  and all those closely tracking the case  continue to await his eventual trial, which still has no scheduled date.
On Wednesday, Henry Whitehorn announced that he gained bipartisan support in his bid for Sheriff of Caddo Parish.

Whitehorn received the endorsement from Caddo Parish Sheriff primary candidates Patricia Gilley and Eric Hatfield.

Hatfield, Chief Deputy of the Caddo Parish Constable's Office said, my family is with Henry Whitehorn 100 percent.... he is kind, professional, knowledgeable, and he truly cares about law enforcement as well as the citizens he will continue to protect and serve.

Gilley a longtime Shreveport attorney said, "Henry Whitehorn has a track record of success in law enforcement and that type of leadership is what the people of Caddo Parish deserve.

Read: Caddo Parish Sheriff's Office position is heading into a runoff. Check out the candidates

She continued by saying, "It is important for voters to get out and cast their ballot for the candidate who will work with residents and stakeholders to create safer communities through partnerships and community engagement.

Whitehorn retired as the United States Marshal for the Western District of Louisiana after nearly a decade of service Jan. 31, 2020. He was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate.

Whitehorn also served as Police Chief and Chief Administrative Officer for the City of Shreveport.

More: Former City Councilman John Nickelson is running for Caddo Parish Sheriff

Makenzie Boucher is a reporter with the Shreveport Times. Contact her at mboucher@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Shreveport Times: Caddo Parish Sheriff candidate receives endorsement from primary candidates
KINGSTON - Years after Hudson River advocates stopped the expansion of commercial shipping anchorages from the Tappan Zee to Kingston, a recent decision by the U.S. Coast Guard puts that supposed ban in jeopardy.

The Coast Guard basically is reinterpreting which rules cover that stretch of river. The change could alter where and how large vessels anchor along the fragile estuary.

"The consequences are a very big deal," said John Lipscomb, boat captain and vice president of advocacy for Riverkeeper, the environmental organization that advocates for the Hudson.

If the changes stand, Lipscomb said, except for a few certain areas, "you can anchor any vessel, anywhere for any reason or for any duration."

What's at stake

A recent boating excursion off Roundout Landing in Kingston underscores some of the concerns with having fuel-laden barges loaded with all sorts of cargo anchoring nearby.

Mid-Hudson communities  including Esopus, Lloyd, Hyde Park, town and village of Rhinebeck, and Poughkeepsie town and city  draw drinking water from the Hudson.

The Port Ewen water treatment plant on the Hudson River in Port Ewen, just south of Kingston, Oct. 25, 2023. This area would be affected by the Coast Guard's decision to redefine the restricted "Port of New York" region for the placement of anchorages for barges in the Hudson. This plan was fought and legislated against earlier.

The stretch of river is critical habitat for Atlantic and shortnose sturgeon, both endangered species.

Various communities have invested millions into revitalizing their waterfronts. Any mishap could jeopardize the investment and recreational opportunities.

How change happened

The change was laid out in a July 2023 Marine Safety Information Bulletin.

The document offers a new interpretation of the boundaries for the Port of New York.

The Coast Guard examined a 1921 interstate compact that set up the Port of New York and New Jersey and said the boundary ended 25 miles from the Statue of Liberty, instead of stretching up to the Port of Albany.

That puts the the Port of New York's boundaries around Irvington on the east riverbank and Piermont to the west.

The bulletin states that mariners north of the boundary don't have to follow earlier anchorage restrictions "because they are not considered to be in the 'Port of New York.' "

Why the change and why now? That remains unclear.

Residences along the Hudson River in Port Ewen, just south of Kingston, Oct. 25, 2023. This area would be affected by the Coast Guard's decision to redefine the restricted "Port of New York" region for the placement of anchorages for barges in the Hudson. This plan was fought and legislated against earlier.

But it's clear who benefits.

"As always it comes down to profit," said U.S. Rep. Pat Ryan, whose 18th District includes Orange County and sections of Dutchess and Ulster counties. "It's cheaper for them to turn that whole stretch of river into a parking lot."

The ports of Albany and Coeymans are often congested, Lipscomb said. The added anchorages would be "like a waiting room" to help ease the chokepoint.

Why earlier anchorage plan was scrapped

Back in 2016, the Coast Guard, at the request of industry, floated a plan to establish 10 new fixed anchorage sites from Yonkers to Kingston for commercial vessels.

Elected officials from every level of government and several environmental groups opposed the move.

John Lipscomb, boat captain and vice president of advocacy for Riverkeeper, gives a tour of the Kingston area on the Hudson River Oct. 25, 2023, which would be affected by the Coast Guard's decision to redefine the restricted "Port of New York" region for the placement of anchorages for barges in the Hudson. This plan was fought and legislated against earlier.

A range of state agencies, including the Office of Parks and Recreation and the Department of State, protested the Coast Guard proposal. More than 10,200 public comments were sent in, about 10,000 disagreeing with the plan.

In 2019, the Coast Guard said it was scrapping the plan.

In a belts-and-suspenders move, in 2021, Congress blocked any new anchorages in the Hudson between Yonkers and Kingston as part of the National Defense Authorization Act.

Elected officials and environmental leaders like Lipscomb say the Coast Guard's new designation for the Port of New York needs a full review and public airing.

What's happening now

Riverkeeper has demanded that the Coast Guard rescind its reclassification until it performs a slew of federal and state environmental reviews.

That includes addressing those 10,000 negative comments made on the 2016 proposal to add 10 new anchorages. The Coast Guard, because it shelved the earlier plan, never offered responses to the critical comments.

John Lipscomb, boat captain and vice president of advocacy for Riverkeeper, and his dog Batu, after a boat ride on the Hudson River in the Kingston area Oct. 25, 2023, which would be affected by the Coast Guard's decision to redefine the restricted "Port of New York" region for the placement of anchorages for barges in the Hudson. This plan was fought and legislated against earlier.

Ryan agrees. Plus, he said, more public comment should be gathered. Until that happens, the congressional Democrat plans to create a portal on his website to collect comments, which his office would then turn over to the Coast Guard.

Meanwhile, legal action is being considered by the Hudson 7, a collaboration of the mid-Hudson municipalities representing more than 100,000 people that draw their drinking water from the Hudson River.

Riverkeeper also believes the Coast Guard is violating that 2021 law that scrapped the earlier anchorage plan.

That first bill was championed by former Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, who represented an earlier configuration of the 18th District. Ryan said he's ready to raise the issue again in Congress.

"If we need to, legislatively, certainly we'll take this up as legislation to clarify," he said. But, he added, the earlier law "was crystal clear."

Nancy Cutler writes about People & Policy for lohud.com and the USA Today Network New York. Email her at ncutler@lohud.com; follow her on Twitter (X), Instagram and Threads at @nancyrockland.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Hudson River changes by Coast Guard allows anchorages past Tappan Zee
The three missing fishermen - Dalton Conway, Tyler Barlow and Caleb Wilkinson - that disappeared of the coast of Georgia.

The United States Coastal Guard has called off the search for the three Georgia fishermen went missing off the coast of Brunswick.

Chris Barlow, the father of Tyler Barlow who is one of the three missing, said that the Coast Guard notified the families shortly before 5 p.m. Thursday that they had suspended the search. The last plane the Coast Guard had searching landed at 1:05 p.m.

"Despite the unwavering dedication of our crews, regrettably, we have not been able to uncover any traces of the vessel and have made the difficult decision to suspend the search for three beloved family members, said Capt. Frank DelRosso, commander, Coast Guard Sector Charleston in a press release. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to our partner agencies and the countless volunteers who have lent their assistance in this arduous search. Undoubtedly, they, like us, share in the deep sympathy we hold for the families of the missing individuals."

The owner of the fishing vessel Carol Ann told Coast Guard Sector Charleston on Oct. 21 that the hired three-person crew, including Tyler Barlow, Caleb Wilkinson and Dalton Conway, failed to return on Oct. 19 as scheduled. The fishing trip began on Oct. 14.

USCG searched more than 94,000 square miles over the span of seven days, according to the release.

Georgia lawmaker on missing fishermen: 'We cannot stop until every avenue has been explored'

Previous reporting: Family of fisherman missing off Georgia coast says 'we're not giving up'

Now, Chris Barlow and the families of Wilkinson and Conway are trying to find additional private search help. Tyler Barlows parents started a GoFundMe to fund a search independently if private pilots or other people wanted to assist. The GoFundMe has received more than $20,000 as of Thursday evening. Donations unused for fuel or other search efforts will be donated to a maritime search and rescue organization, according to the campaign.

"We are trying everything we can to get the naval base from Norfolk, VA to do a search," Barlow said.

There have been several pleas from family members to get the Cajun Navy involved. They also continue requests for resources from Gov. Brian Kemp and any other state official.

Stevie Conway, the sister to Dalton and the girlfriend of Caleb posted on her Facebook that they are officially reaching out and ask everyone else to reach out to the Cajun Navy.

The Camden County Sheriff's Office has reached out to the U.S. Navy to request assistance, according to a Facebook post from the agency.

"We intend to utilize the resources we have to help bring them home," CCSO posted on Facebook. "We intend to utilize the resources we have to help bring them home. Our thoughts and prayers are with these men and their families."

Barlow said if people want to help they can contact state representatives from here to Maryland and possibly farther north.

Destini Ambus is the general assignment reporter for Chatham County municipalities for Savannah Morning News. You can reach her at dambus@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Missing Georgia fishermen update: Coast Guard 'regrettably' ends search
Republican gubernatorial nominee Attorney General Daniel Cameron is facing one of the nations most popular governors whos outraised and outspent him at every turn.

But many Kentucky political experts see a path to victory, and potentially some late-breaking momentum, for the Republican rising star against Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear. A Cameron win, many argue, would all but shut the door on Democrats in the halls of power in Frankfort any time soon.

Beshears campaign has vastly outspent Cameron on television advertisements this cycle, but Cameron has been buoyed somewhat by outside groups like Bluegrass Freedom Action, School Freedom Fund and more who have aired ads taking down Beshear and uplifting Cameron. Most all publicly available polls show Beshear up over Cameron, but many experts have warned against putting too much stock into polling the state.

So what needs to break Camerons way to surprise on election night? Can his campaign do anything in the final days to make up ground? And where in the state does he have to improve his margins?

The Herald-Leader reached out to more than a dozen people involved in Kentucky politics to get their perspective. Heres what they had to say when we asked these questions:

What is Daniel Camerons path to victory?

Sen. Phillip Wheeler, R-Pikeville: Improve Republican margins in the Golden Triangle and maintain elsewhere in the state.

Chris Kirkwood, Lexington, University of Kentucky political science Phd candidate & elections analyst: Winning the Lexington collar county region and all of the marginal Beshear counties from 2019.

Hannah Drake, Louisville, activist & writer: Daniel missed his path to victory when he chose his running mate. I do not know anything about his running mate, but Daniel Cameron would have done better, I believe, had he selected a woman as a running mate.

Rep. Daniel Grossberg, D-Louisville: A very high turnout from the non-urban areas, particularly the strongest pro-Trump areas in Eastern and Western Kentucky.

Andrew Cooperrider, Nicholasville, former GOP candidate for state Senate and treasurer: First, holding a rally with Trump in person could really help with turn out. Second, when asked why a person should vote for Cameron, well hes not Beshear cant be the number one answer if you are trying to get people to turn out and vote for you. This is a turnout election, not a win over voters election.

Larry Glover, Lexington, talk radio host: He needs a big GOP turnout. The GOP have more registered voters in Kentucky than the Democrats do now, and the Attorney General needs them to turn out.

House Majority Floor Leader Steven Rudy, R-Paducah: Rural social conservatives turn out.

Jazmin Smith, Louisville, attorney & co-host of Democratic show My Old Kentucky Podcast: Cameron can win if turnout is low in Louisville and he does well in Eastern and Western Kentucky. Bevin did not do well in Eastern Kentucky in comparison to Donald Trump, so if the Trump endorsement can help Daniel Cameron somewhere, it should theoretically be here.

Tres Watson, Lexington, former Republican Party of Kentucky spokesperson: He needs to win back Warren and Madison counties and Northern Kentucky, all of which Bevin lost in 2019. He also needs to turnout Trump voters in rural counties and run up margins there to counteract big Beshear margins in Louisville and Lexington.

Chris Wiest, Kenton County, Northern Kentucky attorney: Moderate women in purple areas of the state (who Daniel will both need to convince and then convince to turn out). He will also need to turn out votes in red and deep red areas of the state. Theres been a momentum shift over the past 4-7 days for Cameron; I dont think hes won it yet, but if momentum continues hes in a good place.

TJ Litafik, Lexington, Republican strategist: Cameron will need to outperform former governor Matt Bevins numbers in the Golden Triangle, snatch away some collar and college counties that Beshear won in 2019 and increase Republican margins in rural Eastern and Western Kentucky counties.

Al Cross, Frankfort, longtime Kentucky political journalist and observer: Gin up turnout in rural areas and make voters base the election as a referendum on Trump versus Biden.

Stephen Voss, Lexington, University of Kentucky political science professor: Voter engagement has been especially high around cities lately while lagging in small towns and rural areas. Camerons best hope for outperforming the polling is if Republican-leaning voters show up in much higher numbers than the pollsters have been anticipating. GOP territory would need to wake up.

What county or region must Cameron win?

Glover: I think he needs to surprise in Jefferson County. He cannot allow Gov. Beshear to put up a really big number Louisville. He needs to minimize the damage in Louisville as much as he can.

Wheeler: Eastern Kentucky.

Grossberg: Cameron will win Eastern and Western, but if he really runs up the score in Northern Kentucky, hes got it.

Rudy: West and East.

Rebecca Blankenship, Berea, Democratic State Central Executive Committee member & states first openly transgender elected official:: Madison County.

Jared Smith, lobbyist and Democratic political consultant: He has to keep the margin down in Jefferson County, win Northern Kentucky and hope that (lieutenant governor candidate Sen. Robby) Mills carries those same Western Kentucky coal counties that the Beshears have traditionally done well in.

Bill Bartleman, McCracken County commissioner and former Paducah Sun state correspondent: He must win big in the 1st and 2nd U.S. Congressional Districts to overcome margins in Louisville and Central Kentucky.

Robert Kahne, Kentucky Democratic Party State Central Executive Committee member & co-host of My Old Kentucky Podcast: He has to tamp down margins in Jefferson and Fayette counties and push out margins in Southeastern Kentucky  the traditionally GOP areas like Somerset, London and Corbin.

If Daniel Cameron wins, it will be because of this:

Grossberg: Culture war issues.

Wheeler: Kentucky is a state of traditional values.

Kahne: Kentuckians dont care much about state politics and Trumpism rules the day.

Rudy: He effectively paints Andy as a national Democrat.

Litafik: Voters wanted to punish Democrats and chose to lump in Gov. Beshear with President Biden and other national Democratic politicians. The red wave is very real, and it can sweep even the most popular and successful Democratic governor under the tide in a state like Kentucky.

Cross: Trump.

Voss: Cameron has little going for him aside from the dislike Kentucky voters feel toward the national Democratic Party. Campaigning is an educational process, and Cameron needs to figure out a way to remind voters why they usually prefer Republicans  which is tough to do right now.

Cooperrider: He was able to turn out and get enough Trump voters to vote for him, while being able to coordinate a great get out the vote campaign in the final days. Additionally it would mean many of the Republican (registered) voters came home to Cameron.

Bartleman: Hes an articulate new generation Republican who supports conservative issues and would work well with the legislature.

Wiest: Because he has convinced voters that Andy is a radical leftist, and because he sells voters that (he is) the rational, pro-family, candidate. Turnout is key, and turning out Republican voters is critical. There are Republican voters that, right now, Daniel hasnt sold, and he needs to close the deal between now and election day.

If Daniel Cameron loses, it will be because of this:

Wiest: It will be because the campaign failed to win purple areas, and, critically, failed to do what they needed to do in Northern Kentucky: unite fractured Republicans and then turn them out to vote.

Drake: First and foremost, it will be because of Breonna Taylor and his failure to seek any justice for her. We have not forgotten Breonna. Also, Daniel is not prepared well as a candidate. He isnt definitive even on things he says he believes. People like to know who they are voting for, and Daniel never takes a stand on anything with conviction.

Jared Smith: Cameron has run a terrible campaign. Since when have Republicans had problems raising money? Its also interesting that Kelly Craft and Ryan Quarles (the third and second-place finishers in the GOP primary, respectively) have been no-shows on the trail.

Wheeler: He was outspent.

Watson: Trump voters who have switched parties but have been voting for Beshears since the 1970s and have a comfort level with the name.

Litafik: This just was not Camerons race to win, and many voters had doubts as to his readiness for the job and his motivations for running for governor at this time. Kentuckians stuck with a governor (and a name) they knew, and they chose to differentiate a governors race from a federal campaign.

Kirkwood: Finances, a messy primary, Mills having written the sewer bill and being noncommittal overall.

Blankenship: Rather than speaking to voters needs and values, Camerons camp and his PACs have been sharing their most feverish dreams about LGBT people. The polls dont suggest its working  or that any but the most unhinged are even listening.

Cross: People made up their minds about Beshear and dont think the race is about national issues.

Grossberg: If he loses, its because he had no substantive message compared to Beshear or because he is Black and many voters of his party couldnt handle that.

Rudy: Too focused on social issues and didnt hit Andy enough on vulnerable topics.

Jazmin Smith: His inability to inspire. He ran a largely negative campaign against Beshear/Biden, but failed to bring anything exciting to the table. While Daniel Cameron once felt like a young, Republican rising star just four years ago in his Attorney General race, he seems to have lost his shine in this campaign.

What would a Daniel Cameron win say about Kentucky voters?

Rudy: The Democrat party of Kentucky is dead.

Grossberg: A Cameron win tells us that this is now a solidly red state, loyal to Trump more than to its own success.

Bartleman: They stick with party line votes and have confidence Cameron can work with the legislature to tackle issues.

Kahne: People think Andy Beshear and Joe Biden are the same.

Litafik: Outside of Louisville and Lexington, Democrats can pretty well forget about winning, at least for a long time. Republican dominance in Kentucky is complete, and even the stoutest incumbent Democratic governor cannot overcome the fervent partisanship that is now definitive of politics in the Commonwealth.

Jazmin Smith: Kentucky has become an increasingly red state where the party next to your name matters. Cameron has also focused on crime and an education plan centered around children falling behind in school and I think a Cameron win would show that voters are sensitive to that threat and that fear may influence how they vote.

Cooperrider: Beshear has campaigned the best someone could while still toeing the line to not upset the Democrat base. If he as an incumbent being as moderate in his messaging as he has been cant win in the rural south, that sends a message that the party is so far left that anyone who even puts a D next to their name is doomed.

Wheeler: That the GOP revolution in Kentucky is here to stay for at least a generation.

Glover: That the Democratic party message just isnt resonating with Kentuckians. The Kentucky Dems need to come up with an appealing message to help them become competitive in statewide races.

Cross: They have embraced the Republican label and dont care that much about race.

Voss: If Cameron wins despite consistently trailing in the polls, the main thing well learn about Kentucky voters is that they remain incredibly difficult to predict. Some conservatives finalize their decisions late in election season, and others refuse to cooperate with pollsters. If theyre numerous enough, we might be surprised.
Israel's military has called up a record number of reservists for the war with Hamas

Israel's leaders have declared that Hamas will be wiped off the face of the Earth and Gaza will never go back to what it was.

"We have set two goals for the war: to eliminate Hamas by destroying its military and governing capabilities and to do everything possible to bring our hostages at home," announced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as Israel expanded its ground operations in Gaza.

Operation Swords of Iron began in response to the killing of more than 1,400 people by Hamas gunmen in a brutal attack on Israeli communities, and Israel's chief of staff has said the military are fighting "for our right and the right of future generations to live in safety and prosperity in our homeland".

That goal of ending Hamas rule has been endorsed by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who sees the idea of Hamas staying in charge of Gaza and posing a threat to Israel as "unacceptable".

Once Israel is satisfied Hamas is defeated, its stated aim is to disengage from Gaza completely. Defence Minister Yoav Gallant speaks of a "new security regime" there, with no Israeli responsibility for daily life.

Israel's aims appear far more ambitious than anything the military has planned in Gaza before and could last months. But are they realistic, and how can its commanders possibly fulfil them?

Entering the Gaza Strip involves house-to-house urban fighting and carries immense risks to a civilian population of more than two million. Officials in Hamas-run Gaza say more than 9,000 people have already been killed, and hundreds of thousands more have fled their homes.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have the added task of rescuing more than 240 hostages, held in unknown locations across Gaza.

"I don't think Israel can dismantle every Hamas member, because it's an idea of extremist Islam," says military analyst Amir Bar Shalom of Israel's Army Radio. "But you can weaken it as much as you can so it has no operational capabilities."

Yahya Sinwar, head of Hamas in Gaza, has been identified as a prime target by Israel

Weakening it so it no longer poses a military threat to Israelis might be a more realistic objective than dismantling it entirely. Israel has already fought four wars with Hamas, and every attempt to halt its rocket attacks has failed.

Michael Milstein, head of the Palestinian studies forum of Tel Aviv University, agrees that destroying Hamas would be highly complicated. He says it would be pretentious to believe you could uproot the idea that embodies Hamas - an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood that has influenced Islamist movements around the world.

Quite apart from the 25,000-plus strength of Hamas's military wing, it has 80-90,000 more members who are part of its social welfare infrastructure, or Dawa, he says.

In Antony Blinken's words, Hamas's "perverted idea" has to be combated with a "better idea" and a vision that gives people something to hope for.

Ground invasion fraught with risk

The military operation is at the mercy of several factors that could derail it.

Hamas's armed wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, has the use of an extensive network of tunnels and it has targeted Israeli forces with snipers and fighters armed with anti-tank missiles.

The civilian death toll has soared since ground operations expanded on 27 October, and the IDF has lost increasing numbers of soldiers in combat.

Map of Gaza, showing urban areas, refugee camps and border crossing between Gaza, Israel and Egypt. The map also shows the location of Wadi Gaza, as the Israel Defence Force has told people north of Wadi Gaza to evacuate south.

Israelis have been warned to prepare for a long war, and a record 360,000 reservists have reported for duty.

The question is how long Israel can continue its campaign as international pressure grows for a ceasefire, with supplies of water, power and fuel cut off, and UN warnings of an unfolding human catastrophe.

"The government and military feel they have the backing of the international community - at least Western leaders," says Yossi Melman, one of Israel's leading security and intelligence journalists.

But sooner or later he believes Israel's allies will step in.

"It's very complicated because it needs time and the US administration won't let you stay in Gaza for a year or two," says Michael Milstein.

Graphic showing the number of IDF forces and Hamas militants

Saving the hostages

Many of the hostages are Israelis, but there are also a large number of foreign citizens and dual nationals among them, meaning several other governments - including the US, France and the UK - have a stake in this operation and their safe release.

President Isaac Herzog has said it is Israel's top priority to bring them home. But French strategic specialist Col Michel Goya believes the IDF had a straightforward choice, either sparing the hostages' lives, or going in to "do Hamas as much harm as possible".

Heart-rending appeals from families of those in Hamas captivity are ramping up pressure on Israel's leaders, and Hamas's political leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, has said they are ready to swap all the hostages for the thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

That kind of deal is unlikely.

In 2011, Israel exchanged more than 1,000 prisoners for the release of a soldier, Gilad Shalit, held by Hamas for five years. Yahya Sinwar was among those freed, and is now their top man in Gaza.

More on Israel-Gaza war

Neighbours watching closely

What could also affect the duration and outcome of a ground offensive is how Israel's neighbours react.

Egypt's Rafah border crossing with Gaza has become a humanitarian focal point for supplies getting into Gaza. Hundreds of foreign passport holders and some of the wounded have been allowed to leave but more remain.

"The more Gazans suffer following the Israeli military campaign, the more pressure Egypt will face, to appear as if it has not turned its back on the Palestinians," says Ofir Winter of Israel's Institute for National Security Studies.

But that will not stretch to Cairo allowing a mass crossing of Gazans into northern Sinai. President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has warned that any attempt to move Gazans into the Sinai peninsula would prompt Egyptians to "go out and protest in their millions".

Jordan's King Abdullah has also talked of a "red line" for any possible attempt at pushing Palestinian refugees out of Gaza: "No refugees in Jordan, no refugees in Egypt," he warned.

Israel's northern border with Lebanon is also under close scrutiny. There have already been regular, deadly cross-border attacks involving Islamist militant group Hezbollah, and communities on both sides have been evacuated.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has said "all options are open", but for the moment there is no indication of a broader axis against Israel opening up from the north.

Hezbollah's main sponsor, Iran, has threatened "new fronts" against Israel, and Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have fired missiles and drones towards Israel too.

But US President Joe Biden has issued a stern warning to Iran and its allies: "To any country, any organisation, anyone thinking of taking advantage of this situation, I have one word: Don't!"

Two US aircraft carriers, the USS Gerald Ford and USS Eisenhower, have been sent to the eastern Mediterranean to emphasise that message, and some 2,000 US troops have been placed on alert to respond to unfolding events.

What is Israel's endgame for Gaza?

If Hamas were to be significantly weakened, the question is what would go in its place.

Israel pulled its army and thousands of settlers out of the Gaza Strip in 2005 and will have no intention to return as an occupying force. US President Joe Biden says "it would be a big mistake".

A power vacuum would also create very serious risks and Mr Milstein warns the risk of solving one problem is in finding 10 new ones.

Ofir Winter believes a shift in power could potentially pave the way for the gradual return of the Palestinian Authority (PA), kicked out from Gaza by Hamas in 2007.

The PA currently controls parts of the West Bank, but is weak there, and persuading it to return to Gaza would be highly complicated.

Antony Blinken has said it would make "most sense... for an effective and revitalised" PA to run Gaza, although a number of other countries in the region could take part in "temporary arrangements" that might involve international agencies.

The United Nations temporarily ran Kosovo after Serbian forces withdrew in 1999, but the UN is widely mistrusted in Israel.

Another option might be to create an administration, run by Gaza's mayors, tribes, clans and non-governmental organisations, with involvement from Egypt and the US, the PA and other Arab states, says Michael Milstein.

Egypt's president has himself shown no interest in controlling Gaza but has pointed out that if a "demilitarised Palestinian state had been created long ago in negotiations, there would not be a war now".

Gaza's devastated infrastructure will ultimately have to be rebuilt in the way it was after earlier wars.

Israel will want even tighter restrictions on "dual-use goods" entering Gaza that could have a military and civilian purpose. And there have been calls for an expanded buffer zone along the fence with Gaza to provide greater protection for Israeli communities.

Whatever the outcome of the war, Israel will want to ensure a similar attack never happens again.
The United States has conducted airstrikes in eastern Syria, targeting two facilities associated with Iranian-backed militias. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed this action in a statement.

The decision to carry out these airstrikes comes in response to a string of drone and rocket attacks directed toward US forces in the region, as per CNN.

US Strikes Iranian-Backed Militias in Self-Defense Near Boukamal

The US strikes near Boukamal targeted weapons and ammunition storage areas connected to the Iranian-backed groups responsible for the attacks. The precision strikes were executed by two F-16 fighter jets, demonstrating the US's determination to protect its regional personnel and interests.

While there is no information available yet on casualties or damage assessment, the strikes are expected to significantly impact the ability of Iranian proxy groups to continue targeting US forces. Since October 17, there have been at least 19 attacks on US bases and personnel in Iraq and Syria, including three new ones on the day of the retaliatory strikes.

These attacks have caused injuries to 21 US personnel and tragically resulted in the death of a contractor who suffered a cardiac arrest while seeking shelter. The relentless nature of these attacks necessitated a response from the United States.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin emphasized that the strikes were a "precision self-defense" measure responding to ongoing attacks by Iranian-backed militia groups. US President Joe Biden authorized the strikes to send a clear message that the US will not tolerate such attacks and will defend itself, its personnel, and its interests.

The operation is distinct from Israel's conflict with Hamas, and the US does not seek a broader confrontation with Iran. While the specific groups targeted in the airstrikes were not disclosed, the US holds Tehran responsible for funding, arming, equipping, and directing these proxies.

The airstrikes aim to compel Iran to lead the militia groups to cease attacks on American bases and personnel, according to Yahoo News.

Read Also: Former Chinese Premier Li Keqiang Dead at 68 After Sudden Heart Attack

Iran-Linked Sites Amid Escalation Concerns

The US has not directly linked Iran to the recent attacks by Hamas but has raised concerns about Iran's support for the group and the potential for the conflict to escalate into a wider war.

US officials have emphasized that their response is proportional and intended to deter further attacks on US personnel involved in the fight against the Islamic State group.

Similar airstrikes against Iranian targets in Syria have been routine after attacks on US bases. For example, in March, the US struck sites used by groups affiliated with Iran's Revolutionary Guard after an attack killed a US contractor.

The US response is carefully calculated to maintain the delicate balance in the region. The Biden administration has clarified that it does not seek a broader conflict with Iran. However, if Iranian proxy groups continue to target US forces, the US will not hesitate to take additional action to protect its personnel.

The airstrikes on Iran-linked sites in Syria are intended to send a strong message while avoiding further escalation in the region. The recent spate of attacks in Syria and Iraq has raised concerns about the potential impact on the wider region. Iran's support for Hamas and criticism of the US for providing weapons to Israel have added complexity to the situation.

The US has taken measures to strengthen its regional air defenses, deploying Patriot missile systems, THAAD batteries, and additional fighter jets to protect its forces, The Guardian reported.

Related Article: [UPDATE] Top Chinese Diplomat To Meet With Joe Biden This Week for Diplomatic Talks

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
eXoMod

Out of all of the great Mopar muscle cars, none rival the cool factor of the 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona. When the team eXoMod was ready to tackle their next carbon-bodied muscle car build, the fan-favorite homologation special was a natural fit. The resulting build is known as D69 Carbon Daytona, and it comes with over 800 horsepower to go along with its huge wing.

The D69 Carbon Daytona, like eXoMod's other builds, is based on a Challenger Hellcat chassis. This particular build utilized the more potent Hellcat Redeye trim, which comes backed by an 807-hp variant of the 6.2-liter supercharged V-8. That engine comes mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission, which sends power through a limited-slip differential out back. The team at eXoMod have retained the Redeyes suspension, as well as the factory 15.7-inch brake rotors and six-piston Brembo calipers. The wheels have been swapped for a set of 20-inch Forgeline DE3Cs, which come wrapped in a set of Pirelli P-Zeros up front and Nitto NT555s out back. Not only does using the Dodge hardware help give the D69 a potent powertrain to work with, but it also brings a five-year, 60,000-mile warranty from Stellantis.

eXoMod

The star of the build is the custom carbon-fiber bodywork, which takes some 2000 man-hours to fully assemble. The team have managed to get the proportions looking accurate to the original, despite the fact that this car is 5.5 inches shorter overall.

Inside the D69 youll find familiar Hellcat appointments, though eXoMod have reskinned the surfaces in a two-tone Italian leather. Everything else is largely the same as before, including airbag functionality and Uconnect infotainment. Those are the sort of things you might want in your $395,000 muscle car recreation.

The eXoMod D69 Carbon Daytona will make its public debut at the The Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals in Rosemont, Illinois, on November 18. The build should be in good company at the show, particularly as the world gets ready to celebrate the end of the current Mopar muscle-car lineup.

eXoMod

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No Me Sigas, the directorial debut of Anythings Possible writer Ximena Garcia Lecuona, and Malamuerte, from Caye Casas, a rising star of pitch black Spanish comedy, both feature in a rich and far-ranging 2023 Blood Window Lab, the project platform of Ventana Surs genre forum, which unspools Nov. 27-Dec. 1.

The projects are joined by other buzz titles such as Into the Spiral, from Facundo Escudero Salinas, whose thriller, Broken, ranks as one of the top 10 most watched Argentine films of 2023.

More from Variety

Also anticipated is Planet, billed as a vast depiction of unprecedented worldwide alien contact, exploring different cultures and societal classes through their experiences with the phenomenon, and directed by Fredrik S. Hana, a 2022 Melies dOr Award for From.Beyond.

The projects form part of 22 titles as submissions are up 20% this year on last, notes Javier Fernandez, head of the Blood Window Program.

That rise comes as little surprise. As big company lineups at the American Film Market next week underscore, smart genre, in its multiple variations, remains one of the securest market plays in an uncertain world, backed by an appetite from global streamers.

Latin American sales companies such as FilmSharks, Black Mandala and Manticora are also moving into genre pic sales, Fernandez notes.

For Latin America, other factors are at work, however. The program is very diverse and explores many different narratives and mythologies, says Fernandez.

Yet there may be trends. Women, fir example, are eager increasingly making their mark. Chosen for Blood Window Lab, La Susurradora taps into the large number of Latin American female authors who have turned to writing fantastic genre, from a unique point of view, where horror and fantasy depict the day-to-day of woman in Latin America, violence and abuse exercised towards them and the frustration they feel with regard to their rights, says its producer, Valentina Vio.

On the other hand, over the last decade, horror cinema has turned towards social issues, no longer operating as [just] gore or shock fests, she adds.

Multiple Lab titles shock, and say something about Latin America or beyond.

Below, a breakdown of this years Blood Window Lab titles:

Al Final de la Noche, (Jorge Navas, Colombia)

From the director of La Sangre y la Lluvia, a tropical recasting of English Gothic  enclosure, madness, as Navas observes, in a present where an old woman lives haunted by past violence and a toxic masculinity which still reaches her from beyond the grave. Highly erotic and a potential big fest playoff if Navas pulls it off.

Al final de la noche

Always Beautiful, (Siempre Bela, Marcelo Toledo, Rossana Foglia, Brazil)

Produced by Jorge Guedes at Brasilias Arteficio Films, a horror film about self-exploitation and heightened competitiveness. Neusa, 55, owner of a luxurious beauty salon, is robbed by her husband. Penniless, seething with resentment, she returns to her family home, confronting ghosts: A lack of money, loneliness, failure, anonymity, and guilt.

Amigos para siempre, (Daniel M. Caneiro, Spain)

Seven men, now around 40, friends since primary school, get together once a month for a dinner. One, Guille, poisons the others who have to persuade him theyre really friends or theyll die. A comedy and later suspense thriller from bubbling under talent Caneiro, who debuted to acclaim with 2020 mockumentary, El cerro de los dioses.

The Doll, (La Muneca, Marisol Gomez-Mouaka, Puerto Rico)

An anime fan, Betty attempts to escape from her religious abusive family via her sketches, which becomes animations of her doll, Olivia, who acquires her own life. To achieve empowerment, Betty has to descend to her ancestral depths. A hybrid dual-format animation/live action movie from the director of 2016s Angelica.

The Doll

Huaco Retrato, (Fernando Mendoza Salazar, Peru)

In a town in northern Peru, Renzo, a teenager who dreams of becoming a professional gamer, is contacted through a video game by the spirit of an ancient pre-Columbian warrior. A Blood Window Fantaspoa Award winner.

Into the Spiral, (En el espiral, Facundo Escudero Salinas, Argentina. )

Set in 1993, Cleo, the mastermind behind a rock band, travels to a remote house to cut a new album but her band releases a demonic force in the place that seeks to destroy them. Set up at Argentinas Pensilvania Films Behind Exquisite Corpse, Duo, and Broken.

Into the Spiral

Invisible Siege, (El Asedio Invisible, Matias R. Savoldi, Argentina)

Magda and her friends are attacked at their cottage by a supernatural strange figure disguised as a mime artist, who uses invisible weapons. Magda fights back using her only weapon: Imagination. The feature debut of Savoldi, and a critique, he says, of the decline of imagination in the digital era.

Invisible Siege

Last of Kings, (El Ultimo Rey, Victor Checa, Peru, Germany. Mexico)

Another development lab outing for Checas follow-up to breakout feature debut Tiempos Futuros, produced by Bertha Navarro and Sebastian Cordero and picked up by Outsider Pictures. Last of Kings is a coming-of-age Western vampire story, says Checa, set in a futuristic Peru ravaged by desert storms. Presented to interest at Locarnos Open Doors in August.

Last of Kings

Life 2.0, (Gabriel Musco, Arentina)

A potential third feature from Musco, and set up at Sewati Audiovisual which co-produced his second feature, Memories of Evil, with Tondero Distribution. A sci-fi thriller set in a future dystopia in which the protagonist seeks to expose the real controllers of Life, an app governing peoples life time.

LIFE 2.0

Malamuerte, (Caye Casas, Spain)

Based on Casas 2017 RIP, a Sitges best short winner, and co-written with Cristina Borobia, Casas regular art director and Coffee Table co-writer. A deep Spain comedy, set in a village where everyone returns from the dead, which has won project awards at Sitges, BIFF and Ibizas Ibicine.

Malamuerte

Matapalo, (Xavier Chavez C., Ecuador, Colombia)

A sci-fi horror fantasy turning on Angel, 50, struck down by cancer but who never dies, turning into a monster, raping Maria, 38, who desperately desires a child. The second feature from Chavez, produced by Ivonne Campoverde, a co-scribe with Chavez, and Alexandra Yepes.

No Me Sigas, (Ximena Garcia Lecuona, Mexico)

One of Ventana Surs most anticipated projects, from Mexico City-based Maligno Gorehouse, and drinking deep on from Mexican myth. Carla, 26, dreams of becoming a big influencer. Then she discovers and films a shadowy malignant presence in her home. Written and directed by Garcia Lecuona, chosen as one of Varietys Screenwriters to Watch and produced by Francisco Sanchez Solis, executive producer on Huesera.

Planet, (Fredrik S. Hana, Norway)

Recipient of the Blood Window Award at Bucheons NAFF Project Market in July, produced by Norways Julia Joner. Director Hana won best doc at Slamdance for Code Name: Nagasaki and a 2022 Melies dOr Award for From.Beyond.

Playing off footage of an alien invasion, an exploration of the weird and mysterious, and my attempt to reshape and deconstruct the found-footage genre into something new, says Hana.

The River in My Veins, (El Rio Por Mis Venas, Marco Betancor, Nicolas Sotana, Uruguay)

Sabina returns home to bury her father, battles to not be possessed by the demonic spirit of the local river. A fantasy horror thriller exploring family legacy, produced by Lucia Gaviglio and Virginia Hinze, at Montevideos U Films.

The River in My Veins

Saliva, (Martin Desalvo, Argentina)

Directed by Desalvo, helmer of 2014 Austin Fantastic Fest winner Darkness by Day, and The Hunters Silence, from a screenplay by Nicanor Loretti, writer-director of 2015 cult breakout Kryponite. A frenetic gore action movie as a girl rock band attempts to cut a studio session clip, assailed by the ferociously infected, also at one anothers throats. In development, set up at Pensa & Rocca, behind 2021s My Best Friend and 2023s Adios Buenos Aires.

Saliva

Sinister Conclave, (Fercks Castellani, Nicolas Iaconis, Argentina)

A horror-thriller set at a holiday cabin in the woods, whose multiple security cameras allow a lecherous camp host to scrutinise and control its occupants moves, until events spin out of his control. From Castellani, a winner of prizes at two Blood Window labs, with 2021s Lo Inevitable and the 2022 project Ojos Intrusos.

Sinister Conclave

Videogore, (Davar Villegas, Mexico)

Inspired by extreme horror  Hostel, A Serbian Film  Alma, 24, a film student with soaring sadistic obsessions, is induced into a spiral of violence and snuff movies by her seeming double. Maybe she has found her calling. Alma is the perfect opportunity to throw into the air sexual fantasies which we dont dare to say and give them a face, says Villegas.

Fant.Latina

Made up of projects from Latin American women directors:

Downpour, (Aguacero, Cristina Arias, Ecuador)

A body horror thriller from Ecuadors Estudios Mosaico, turning on Elena, 19, a hugely ambitious elite swimmer, whose gravely ill mother asks Elena to kill her. Downpour explores the moment when the love we feel for someone makes us reach our limit, said Arias, In Elenas case, as she attempts to fulfil her ambitions, that means experiencing psychosis, body horror, near suicide and attempted murder. Selected for the high-level Morbido-Sanfic Lab.

Downpour

Cidium,

Bella, 17, lives in a benighted village alone with her mother and assailed by paranormal forces, behind which is her mother, controlled for years by a devil.

Cidium

Village of Secrets, (Vila dos Segredos, Saskia Sa, Brazil)

Set on the Brazilian coast and targeting YAs, a fantasy horror film set in 1997, with flashbacks to 1987. Laura returns to her home town, dominated by an obscure cult, the Ciclo das Sombras, and the supernatural ability of its women to cause conflagrations. Directed by Sa (Rio das Lagrimas Secas)

Village of Secrets

The Whisperer, (La Susurradora, Karla Falcon, Chile)

When Albas best friend is driven to suicide by abuse from a theater director, she turns to witchcraft  her family has a history  to exact justice, whatever the personal cost. A rape-revenge body horror thriller told from a Latin American and feminist POV, directed by Falcon, written by Macarena Araya and produced by La Vieja Rara Producciones and Mnemosine Editorial.

The Woman Who Dreamt Underwater, (La Mujer Que Sonaba Bajo el Agua, (Ale Garcia, Carla Sierra, Mexico)

The directorial debut of screenwriter Sierra and producer Garcia, behind This Is Not Berlin and Dead Mans Hand, a psychological thriller in which Olga suffers a psychotic attack after the death of her baby son, and comes to believe that her family are imposters.

The Woman Who Dreamt Underwater

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Donna Foriska waited about 13 hours in UPMC Hamot's emergency department over two separate visits in September and early October to have a doctor officially diagnose her with a broken ankle.

The Girard woman sat in the ER waiting area for three hours each time before her name was called and she was sent to a gurney in the hallway because all the ER rooms were filled, she said.

"I was more surprised the second time because I wasn't even triaged for nearly two hours," said Foriska, 47. "There were a lot of people in the waiting area. Most of them looked healthy enough that they could be walking around the mall."

UPMC Hamot's emergency department has seen increased wait times in recent years, due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, an older population and staffing issues.

Emergency department wait times at Erie County hospitals have increased significantly since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The average time from ER arrival to departure rose by about an hour at UPMC Hamot and Saint Vincent Hospital between September 2019 and September 2022.

Statewide issues with ER wait times and overcrowding have led the Pennsylvania Medical Society to ask Gov. Josh Shapiro to create a taskforce to address the problem.

"It's always been an issue, but overcrowding and wait times have taken off since COVID," said Dr. Tim Pelkowski, a Saint Vincent family medicine physician who serves on the state Medical Society's Emergency Department Overcrowding Task Force, "I believe that it's due to a number of factors, including staffing and a higher acuity (severity) of illness among patients."

Emergency department wait times have increased significantly at Erie County hospitals since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Saint Vincent patients waited the longest, 226 minutes on average in the most recent year reported, before leaving the ER, followed by Hamot (203 minutes), and LECOM Health's Corry Memorial Hospital (118) and Millcreek Community Hospital (103 minutes).

Smaller community hospitals, like Corry Memorial and Millcreek Community, often treat fewer medically complex ER patients and report shorter ER wait times than larger hospitals do. But even their wait times have increased by around 20 minutes over the three-year period.

ER wait times declined early in the COVID-19 pandemic, then rose

ER wait times actually declined in the early months of the pandemic, when many patients avoided the ER unless they thought they had COVID-19.

"But what we saw was patients not seeing their primary care physicians, or getting routine screenings like mammograms," said Dr. Chris Cammarata, Hamot's director of emergency medicine. "So now we have sicker patients, people getting diagnosed with cancer at later stages. ... We also have an older population in our region, and they tend to need more health care."

ER delays also can occur when other hospital departments are overcrowded.

The process is called "boarding" and it happens when an ER patient is ready to be admitted to the hospital but there are no beds available in a particular unit. As a result, the patient may remain in an ER room for up to an entire day, preventing another patient from using it.

"It's not due to COVID but it's an after-effect of COVID," Pelkowski said. "Lots of places are having difficulty with staffing when it comes to nurses, physicians and technicians. Having a staff shortage in a different unit of a hospital can keep patients down in the emergency department longer than usual."

Saint Vincent Hospital's emergency department, like many across the country, has seen its ER wait times increase since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since the ER wait time/overcrowding problem has multiple causes, the solution is not a simple fix, Pelkowski said. That's why the state Medical Society is asking the governor to create a task force to study the issue.

Part of the solution: Educate patients about where to seek treatment

Part of the answer is educating patients on going to the right place for treatment. Any patient with a medical issue that is considered life threatening should go to the ER, not an urgent-care center or physician's office.

"If you're having a stroke, heart attack or severe respiratory issue, you need to be seen quickly and the place for that is the emergency department," Pelkowski said. "But other issues depend on the patient's medical history.

"Someone who is young with mild asthma may have their issue handled in an office setting, while someone older with more advanced problems may need to go to the ER," he added.

Hiring more nurses, technicians and physicians will also help improve ER wait times, though Cammarata said part of the solution involves other health-care providers.

Many patients are well enough to be discharged from a hospital but are no longer able to live at home, at least temporarily.

"We're not the only ones with staffing issues. Personal-care homes and nursing homes are facing a real staffing crunch," Cammarata said. "Many patients can't be discharged home. These patients need placement and we can't get them into a nursing home."

Another issue is transportation, said Dr. Christopher Clark, Saint Vincent president.

"Many of our patients getting discharged need a ride back home or to a nursing home," Clark said. "We are seeing delays for these rides and that contributes to ER backups."

Saint Vincent reports wait time decrease in 2023

Saint Vincent officials said they have found ways to reduce the hospital's ER wait time by about 20% so far in 2023, partly by enacting new measures.

One is a rapid treatment program, which allows dedicated staff to treat more mildly ill patients without having to transport them to an ER bed. Another is the hospital's new critical decision unit, where ER patients under observation status are transferred.

"These programs help in two ways," Clark said. "They free up emergency department beds for patients who need them, and they also free up beds in other units so that patient flow through the ER goes better."

Foriska, who eventually was diagnosed with two broken bones in her foot/ankle, offered her own suggestion to help with ER overcrowding.

"Hospitals should offer both a clinic and an ER next to each other," Foriska said. "You get triaged and you either get sent to the clinic or to the ER. That way only the seriously ill people are in the ER."

What Foriska suggested is the way Saint Vincent operated its emergency department until about 15 years ago. There is a reason it moved away from that format and now uses protocols like its rapid treatment program instead, Clark said.

"The old way wasn't an efficient use of space," Clark said. "This way we only have one set of diagnostic equipment, but a dedicated team ready to help lower-acuity patients."

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Erie drug stores close: How do you switch pharmacies?

Contact David Bruce at dbruce@timesnews.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @ETNBruce.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie emergency departments saw longer wait times during COVID-19
An overwhelming majority of nations  120 countries  voted on Friday for a United Nations resolution calling for a sustained humanitarian truce in Gaza, even as Israels military announced it is expanding ground operations in the besieged enclave.

The announcement followed reports of intense aerial bombardment in Gaza, which Palestinian telecom company Jawwal said cut off its telecommunications network in the territory. An eyewitness at Gazas Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital described the situation as being left in the dark with no connection to the outside world.

Israel has vowed to continue ground raids over the coming days after ordering the complete siege of Gaza in the wake of Hamas October 7 terror attack that killed more than 1,400 people and saw some 200 people taken to Gaza as hostages. Ongoing Israeli air strikes and a blockade of life-saving fuel have since sparked dire warnings for the fate 2 million people trapped in Gaza.

Israeli airstrikes have killed more than 7,000 people in Gaza since October 7, according to figures released Thursday by the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza.

In New York, UN member nations voted for a sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities in the war between Israel and Hamas, so that humanitarian aid can reach civilians in Gaza.

The vote outcome prompted a burst of loud applause in the assembly hall where delegates had gathered to vote and debate. The US, like Israel, has sharply criticized the effort and was one of 14 countries that voted against it on Friday.

Jordan brought the resolution to the General Assembly after successive attempts to call for ceasefires and humanitarian pauses failed in the more powerful Security Council.

The draft resolution calls for an immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities, as well as immediate, full, sustained, safe and unhindered humanitarian access, and asks Israel to rescind its order to evacuate northern Gaza. It also calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all civilians who are being illegally held captive but does not name Hamas as the captor.

While a general assembly vote is politically significant, it is not binding, and comes amid a lack of global consensus on how to resolve the crisis.

Fridays resolution was criticized by the US and its allies for not explicitly criticizing Hamas. Canadas last-minute amendment on Friday, which sharply denounced the militant group, failed to pass.

Israeli ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan called the resolutions passing a day of infamy for the UN. It is the duty of this body to call out murderous terrorists by name, not hide them behind empty words. Why are you defending murderers? He asked.

Ahead of the vote, Jordans Foreign Minister urged others to support the resolution, warning on social media that Israels expanding ground operations will be a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions for years to come, Ayman Safadi said.

Millions will be watching every vote. History will judge, he said.

A still from AFP TV footage shows balls of fire rising above Gaza City during an Israeli strike on October 27. - AFP/Getty Images

Civilian toll

Sewage is overflowing in the streets of Gaza and its population is facing the increasing threat of disease and hunger without access to outside supply lines, the United Nations has warned, adding that the aid so far permitted to enter Gaza amounts to nothing more than crumbs.

Food and water are running out. The streets of Gaza have started overflowing with sewage. Gaza is on the brink of a massive health hazard as the risks of diseases are looming, said Phillipe Lazzarini, the head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

The last remaining public services are collapsing, our aid operation is crumbling and for the first time ever, [our staff] report that people are now hungry.

Some aid trucks have been able to enter Gaza through Egypt since the crisis began but Lazzarini said the deliveries were doing little to address the Gazans needs. And while the initial aid deliveries have provided some food, water and medicine, Israel has not allowed the import of fuel, which the UN says is paralyzing its aid operations. UNRWA officials said this week that without fuel, they would be unable to collect and distribute aid that reaches Gaza, warning they would be forced to wind down their relief efforts.

We should avoid conveying the message that few trucks a day means the siege is lifted for humanitarian aid. This is not true, Lazzarini added. The current system in place is geared to fail. What is needed is meaningful and non-interrupted aid flow.

A total of 74 trucks have entered the strip since humanitarian aid transfers resumed several days ago, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said Thursday. Eight more trucks were expected Friday, the UN said, adding that previously 450 trucks were going in each day.

Palestinians wait in line to refill their water containers in Rafah on the south of Gaza, October 24, 2023. - Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images

Israel says Hamas is stockpiling fuel for its own use and has called on the militant Palestinian group that governs Gaza to share it. IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus told CNN on Thursday that Hamas controls between 800,000 and perhaps more than 1 million liters of fuel of different types stored inside Gaza, according to Israeli military intelligence estimates. CNN cannot independently verify the amount of fuel in Gaza.

Lazzarini criticized Israels questioning that aid would be used solely for civilians, stressing that UNRWA has strict vetting mechanisms in place. It pains me that humanitarian aid, a very basic right for people, is constantly questioned while at the same time despair is live streamed under our watch, he said.

All our vendors and partners are vetted against the sanctions list. We give aid to those who need it most. Our convoys and their routes are notified and deconflicted, he said. UNRWA does not and will not divert any humanitarian aid into the wrong hands.

A 10-person team of medical staff and experts from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) crossed into Gaza Friday, the organization said in a statement, warning that the humanitarian catastrophe is deepening by the hour. The ICRC said it had enough equipment to treat several thousand wounded people and enough water purification supplies to treat 50,000 liters of water.

Aid group the Red Crescent Society said Friday that it has completely lost contact with the operations room in Gaza and all our teams operating there amid the telecommunications blackout.

Finding the right words

The deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza has sparked huge international concern but, nearly three weeks since the outbreak of violence, the world has so far failed to unite around a common position on the crisis.

European leaders have stopped short of calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, instead appealing for humanitarian pauses.

The health ministry on Thursday published a 212-page report with more than 6,000 names describes as documented deaths since October 7 in Gaza. The ministry blamed the deaths on Israels military aggression, after Israel, along with the United States, expressed doubts about the casualty numbers being reported out of Gaza, without providing evidence that they are exaggerated. The list of 6,747 names gives the sex, age and identity card number of each of the victims.

The maneuvering will begin when the conditions are right. These conditions are complex because so is the campaign. The troops are ready, Gallant said in a briefing in Tel Aviv.

Meanwhile, six people were injured when a rocket struck the Red Sea resort city of Taba, in Egypt, early on Friday, according to official sources cited by Egypt-affiliated Al-Qahera News.

The rocket hit an ambulance building and a residential area of the hospitals administration in the city, which shares its border with Israel. It is unclear yet who fired the rocket

Hagari said at a press briefing Friday that Israel will cooperate with Egypt and the US to tighten the defense in the region against threats from the Red Sea area. Hagari said an aerial threat had been detected in the Red Sea area, which he said he believed was the cause of the strike in Egypt.

This story is developing and is being updated.

CNNs Richard Roth, David Shortell, Hadas Gold, Jomana Karadsheh, Ruba Alhenawi, Hamdi Alkhshali, Kareem Khadder, Abeer Salman, Akanksha Sharma, Amy Cassidy, Tamar Michaelis, Jorge Engels and Lauren Kent contributed reporting.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
A former Hamtramck police officer pleaded guilty Thursday to taking bribes from a towing company operator, including a vehicle and $1,500 in cash, while he was an officer, federal prosecutors said.

Michael Stout, 61, of St. Clair Shores, pleaded guilty to bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds in U.S. District Court in Detroit. He could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. His sentencing is set for Feb. 29.

Prosecutors accuse Stout of taking bribes and, in return, providing information from the Michigan Law Enforcement Information Network, a restricted law enforcement database, to the towing company operator.

They said, for example, when the operator told Stout he was worried a police vehicle had been following him, Stout called an unwitting employee to search the database so Stout could provide the vehicle's registration information to the operator to see if it was a law enforcement vehicle.

More: Feds indict Inkster mayor in corruption case just weeks before election

Stout resigned from the police department in 2020. He was arrested in March 2022 and was charged in connection with an ongoing corruption investigation involving the towing industry, the Detroit Police Department and a former Detroit councilman.

"The public needs the commitment of their police officers to uphold the rule of law, not to breakit for their own financial gain," U.S. Attorney Dawn Ison said in a news release. "Todays guilty plea underscores our commitment to ensure that officers who violate the public trust and accept bribes will answer for their crimes."

Cheyvoryea Gibson, special agent in charge of the FBI in Michigan, said Stout "violated his oath to serve, and his misconduct was a betrayal of the trust placed upon him by the citizens of Hamtramck and his fellow officers. It is important to note that his actions do not represent the brave and exceptional work that our law enforcement officers perform daily."

According to a criminal complaint unsealed in 2020, Stout provided sensitive law enforcement information in 2019 to someone in the towing industry in exchange for the cash and a 2013 Chevrolet Equinox.

The towing company businessman, who was working with the FBI, asked Stout to use a law enforcement database to identify cars that he said could be following him and his tow truck drivers. He told Stout a white Subaru was following him and it could be part of a police internal affairs investigation.

Contact Christina Hall: chall@freepress.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @challreporter.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Ex-Hamtramck police officer pleads guilty in federal bribery case
Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, said the asylum seekers should be brought to the UK

Ex-PM Liz Truss called for asylum seekers stranded on a tiny British territory in the Indian Ocean to be brought to the UK for their own safety.

The request was made in an email sent on behalf of Ms Truss to the prime minister's office when she was serving as foreign secretary in March 2022.

However, it was seemingly ignored.

The redacted email was released to the BBC by the Supreme Court of British Indian Ocean Territory this week after being opposed by the government.

Responding to BBC questions over the contents of the email, the Foreign Office said the British Indian Ocean Territory (Biot) "cannot be a backdoor migration route to the UK".

"Enabling migrants to come to the UK from Biot would only incentivise further irregular migration, and enable criminal gangs to exploit individuals to make dangerous journeys across the sea."

Dozens of Sri Lankan Tamils have been stranded for more than two years in a makeshift camp on the remote island of Diego Garcia, which hosts a secretive UK-US military base.

The first group landed there in October 2021 after their fishing boat ran into trouble while trying to sail to Canada, according to migrants and officials.

Their subsequent asylum claims were the first to ever be launched on Biot - an area described as being "constitutionally distinct and separate from the UK", and where court papers say the refugee convention does not apply.

Satellite image of Diego Garcia, with a label showing the location of the UK/US military base to the north-west

Asylum seekers have described conditions on the island as hellish, but the territory's unusual legal status has left them in limbo.

Many claim to have links with the former Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka, who were defeated in the civil war that ended in 2009, and say they have faced persecution as a result. Some allege they were victims of torture or sexual assault.

Ms Truss' email was set to be included as evidence in a court case last month, but a deal was reached beforehand to withdraw decisions to return migrants whose protection claims had been rejected, to Sri Lanka, and to launch a new process.

The email sent to the private secretary of then Prime Minister Boris Johnson five months after the first group's arrival, states that while Ms Truss "strongly supports the government's overall posture on migration", she "feels that the unique circumstances and severity of risks in this situation require us to take extraordinary action and bring the migrants to the UK for processing".

It states that arrangements were being made to determine whether the return of migrants to Sri Lanka "potentially forcibly" would "be in line with public international law". But it says Ms Truss believed "a more urgent and direct approach" was required.

The email states that the Biot administration has a "duty of care to the migrants", and says "there are severe limitations to the mitigation measures which can be implemented on Biot given the lack of facilities".

It also states that the group had made a "credible threat of mass suicide".

An image provided by one of the migrants shows people on the deck of their fishing boat

The BBC has spoken to multiple migrants who say they have attempted suicide because of poor conditions on the island. There have also been hunger strikes, which lawyers say have involved children.

"I didn't want to live here like a caged animal forever," one man said earlier this year of his attempted suicide.

Lawyers representing asylum seekers on Diego Garcia say that as of late September, 61 remained on the island. Four were in Rwanda after being relocated there for treatment following suicide attempts.

Four people have had their claims to be sent to a "safe third country" approved, but the BBC understands that no country has yet been identified to relocate them to.

One of the group's lawyers, Tessa Gregory, noted that 18 months after Ms Truss's call for the asylum seekers to be relocated to the UK for processing their asylum claims, "our clients remain on the island enduring terrible conditions with no freedom of movement".

"[T]heir asylum claims [were] unresolved because the process they have been subjected to did not withstand legal challenge. It is imperative that this group, which includes children, victims of torture and sexual assault, be urgently relocated to a safe third country, like the UK, to have their claims for international protection lawfully and fairly processed."

Ms Truss was unavailable for comment when contacted by the BBC.
PORTSMOUTH  Fentanyl  both on its own and in combination with other drugs  remains the biggest killer of drug users in New Hampshire.

Through Oct. 18, the synthetic opioid alone has been the cause of 161 overdose deaths statewide, according to a report released this week by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

In addition, the combination of fentanyl and methamphetamines, fentanyl and cocaine, fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamines, and fentanyl and other drugs were responsible for an additional 98 fatal overdoses, according to the report.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid prescribed for severe pain management.

That means that the illicit opioid alone, or in combination with other drugs, caused 259 of the 297 overdoses so far this year in New Hampshire, according to the report.

There are another suspected 61 overdoses this year that are still awaiting toxicology results, according to the report.

Fentanyl overdoses skyrocketing

New Hampshire State Police Col. Nathan Noyes shows a series of pills Thursday, June 30, 2022, that the state says were laced with fentanyl, as officials warn of the rise of fentanyl hidden in black market drugs.

As recently as 2014, heroin typically dominated the overdose deaths lists, according to Kim Fallon, the chief forensic investigator for the Office of Chief Medical Examiner.

Heroin overdose deaths peaked in 2014 at 99, but dropped to 27 in 2016, and then caused a handful of deaths the next couple of years, Fallon said.

Meanwhile, the number of overdose deaths caused by fentanyl skyrocketed during the past several years, according to Fallon and the reports.

She stressed that while there is pharmaceutical fentanyl that is used as a painkiller, by far most of the fentanyl overdoses are caused by illicit fentanyl, which is usually sold as a powder, she said.

People don't know what they're getting

People dont know what theyre getting sometimes. They think theyre getting cocaine or meth, and its fentanyl or some drug laced with fentanyl, she said. You look at this powder, and you cant tell what it is or how strong it is.

You can have two people doing drugs from the same baggie, and one person overdoes, and the other person is okay because its not evenly distributed in the baggie, Fallon added.

The deadly overdoses in New Hampshire caused by fentanyl alone or fentanyl and other drugs surged to 383 in 2018 of the states total 471 fatal overdoses that year, according to the annual report.

There were only two overdose deaths caused by heroin that year.

More than 400 fentanyl overdose deaths in 2022

Seabrook police executed a search warrant at 46 Collins Street on March 8 after an investigation into illegal drug sales. The search yielded a large quantity of suspected crack cocaine and a quantity of suspected heroin/fentanyl with an estimated street value of $15,000, several firearms, and over $3,000 in cash.

By 2022, Fentanyl alone and in combination with other drugs, caused more than 400 overdose deaths, according to the annual state report, coming in at a total of 410.

Numbers reflect what police are seeing

Portsmouth Police Capt. Dave Keaveny, who is captain of the departments investigative division, said he had not reviewed the states report when reached Thursday morning.

But the highlights of the state report are consistent with what police are seeing on city streets, he said.

Were seeing that fentanyl is the leading cause of overdoses, he said. A lot of those do have contributing factors, but fentanyl is the main cause of the overdoses.

Its all fentanyl now, Keaveny added.

In Portsmouth, there have been 23 non-fatal overdoses in 2023 so far, and four fatal ones, he said.

In 2022 in Portsmouth, there were 21 non-fatal overdoses during the entire calendar year, and four fatal overdoses.

There certainly continues to be a problem, Keaveny said.

Like Fallon, he pointed to the inherent danger of taking a dangerous drug like fentanyl, especially when you dont know how strong it is or what it may be mixed with.

Anytime youre taking something thats not overseen by a professional, youre not really sure what youre getting, he said.  Youre really taking your life in your own hands.

He called fentanyl scary and said its unfortunate that were still dealing with it.

Trying to address the illicit use of fentanyl involves incorporating a collaborative effort, Keaveny said.

We need to keep pushing out education and that starts with the schools, but its a health issue, he said.

Because of that, addressing the deadly overdoses needs to include getting people into recovery, he said.

Its difficult. Its been going on for a number of years now, Keaveny said.

Fentanyl is in everything

The overdose prevention van operated by the New Hampshire Harm Reduction Coalition offers a syringe exchange, fentanyl test strips, safety kits, wound care, and other supplies.

Former Portsmouth Police Chief David Mara now serves as Gov. Chris Sununus advisor on addiction and behavioral health.

Asked Thursday if he was surprised by all the fentanyl-related drug deaths, he said, Not at all.

Im disappointed, of course, because that many people have died, but Im not surprised, Mara said. Fentanyl now is in everything. People are dying now that arent seeking fentanyl, not seeking opioids.

They think theyre using cocaine or meth or taking a pill; they have no idea whats really in it, he added.

That danger led to the development of the No Safe Experience public-service campaign, whose goal is to alert people about the dangers of fentanyl and the fact its used in a growing number of other illicit drugs, Mara said.

Its geared toward younger people, and theres a lot of younger people who dont know whats happening  they dont know its out there and killing a lot of people.

Mara believes that the vast majority of fentanyl deaths are from people who are overdosing who know theyre taking fentanyl.

But we are seeing a rise in people who are taking other drugs and dont realize it either includes fentanyl or is fentanyl, Mara said.

A disease called addiction

Mara is also not surprised people continue to use fentanyl knowing its dangers.

They have a disease called addiction and it affects the brain, he said.

The amount of people being exposed to fentanyl is a lot worse now than even five years ago, Mara believes.

Theres a lot more fentanyl out there. Its readily available, its cheap and its very potent, he said.

The supply of fentanyl has increased over the last few years in New Hampshire, according to Mara, because its so much easier for the cartels to produce fentanyl and then ship it up here.

He added that New Hampshire is not far from Lawrence, Mass., where a lot of drugs are located.

The China-Mexico connection

Mara reported that a majority of fentanyls precursors come from China and then go to Mexico, where theyre mixed up in what they call super labs.

Then they ship it up here, Mara said.

To convince people who are abusing fentanyl to seek help, first of all, what we need to do is engage them, he said.

That includes understanding that theres a big issue with stigma, he said.

People are afraid to come forward. People wont try to get help, Mara said.

Its important to meet people where they are, he said, whether thats at a needle exchange program or in an emergency room when theyve survived an overdose.

Convince them to try to get services and just keep on doing that, he said.

How to get help

People using fentanyl  and/or their families  can reach out for recovery help by calling 211, Mara said.

Theres a lot of things going on in the state right now to try to help, where maybe wed be in a lot worse position without them, Mara said.

He urged people when they look at the overdose death numbers to remember every single one of them is a person with a life who leaves behind family and loved ones.

For parents who might not be aware of the fentanyl problem, he warned them its something that is out there and its easy to get.

If their kids are using other drugs, they have to convince them that fentanyl is in everything.

He encouraged parents to have a discussion with their kids about fentanyl, not a lecture.

Let them know the danger is out there, Mara said. Theres plenty of mothers and fathers who never thought their kids were going to die from this.

How firefighters deal with fentanyl overdoses

Portsmouth Fire Chief William McQuillen said firefighters treat the overdose patient the best we can, regardless of what the substance.

Sometimes we dont know whats been ingested, he said during an interview Thursday.

Narcan, which has been very successful in reviving patients who overdosed on heroin, can also be used for fentanyl, he said, but it has its limits.

The issue with fentanyl is the amount thats taken, and whether or not its too much for the Narcan to overcome, McQuillen said.

He added that fentanyl is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine.

Fentanyl is so much stronger than other opioids and nobody is really sure what dealers have mixed into whats being used, he said. Because its so strong, you have to give more of it (Narcan) to try to reverse the effects.

Drug Take Back Day is Saturday

As part of its collaboration with the Drug Enforcement Administration, Portsmouth police will be holding a National Prescription Drug Take Back Day this Saturday.

The event will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., at the Police Department and Portsmouth Regional Hospital.

The event is being held at both locations to provide an opportunity for area residents to turn in prescription drugs which may be in your household and are no longer needed, according to a police press release.

The department and hospital will take pills, patches, and liquid medicine. But no needles or sharp objects will be accepted.

The service is free of charge and anonymous.

This event is part of the continuing effort to help prevent prescription drug and opioid abuse while also offering the community a safe way to dispose of prescription drugs.

In addition to Saturdays event, Portsmouth police have a drug take back box that offers members of the community the opportunity to drop off prescription drugs on any day and at any time, anonymously in their lobby.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Fentanyl overdose deaths 'skyrocketing' in New Hampshire
Amina Noor told the Old Bailey the mutilation is done for cultural reasons

A woman has been found guilty of taking a three-year-old British child to Kenya for female genital mutilation (FGM).

Amina Noor, 39, is the first person to be convicted of assisting a non-UK person to perform FGM.

Noor, from Harrow in north-west London, took the child to a private house for the procedure in 2006.

She had told the Old Bailey the mutilation is done for cultural reasons and was a procedure she herself had undergone as a child.

Noor, who was born in Somalia but has British citizenship, will be sentenced on 20 December.

It was only in 2015 that the girl - who is now aged 21 and who cannot be identified - confided to a schoolteacher that she had suffered FGM and police were informed.

Following an examination at University College Hospital in 2019 it was found that the girl's clitoris had been completely removed.

'No threats'

Giving evidence at her trial, Noor claimed she had come under cultural pressure to have the procedure performed.

Noor told her trial that she and another woman had taken the child in a tuk-tuk vehicle and she had been told to wait outside a house.

She claimed that she had only expected the girl's genitals to be "touched" in a way that would cause them to bleed.

However, the prosecution said the jury could be sure the defendant knew that an act of FGM was to be performed - whether or not that was the removal of the girl's clitoris or some form of physical injury for which there was no medical purpose.

Prosecutor Deanna Heer KC said Noor had repeatedly denied to police that she had been threatened to force her to agree to the procedure.

"She was asked three times if she had been threatened and three times she said there were no threats," Ms Heer said.

But in her defence Noor claimed she feared being "disowned and cursed" by the community if she did not hand over the girl.

The prosecution also drew attention to the defendant's behaviour at the time the FGM was carried out - for example, she had not asked whether the people involved were doctors or insisted on being present for the procedure.

FGM is a practice that is very widespread among the Somali community in East Africa, the court heard, with United Nations figures suggesting that 94% of women of Somali origin living in Kenya have undergone the procedure.
China urges Philippines to stop deliberate, provocative actions in South China Sea

Xinhua) 10:03, October 27, 2023

BEIJING, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese defense spokesperson on Thursday urged the Philippines to stop deliberate and provocative actions in the South China Sea.

Wu Qian, spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense, made the remarks in response to a media inquiry regarding the reactions of the Philippines and the United States on a recent friction between Chinese and Philippine vessels in waters near Ren'ai Jiao.

China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Qundao, including Ren'ai Jiao, and its adjacent waters. China's sovereignty is shaped and confirmed through a historical process, and complies with international laws including the UN Charter, said Wu.

On the specific case, Philippine ships ignored repeated dissuasion and warnings of the Chinese side, and intentionally violated China's sovereignty and made provocations by crossing the bow of a China Coast Guard (CCG) ship in a dangerous manner. A Philippine coast guard vessel then deliberately reversed and bumped into a parked Chinese fishing boat, endangering the personnel of both sides. The responsibility lies fully with the Philippine side. In response to the Philippines' provocations, the CCG responded in accordance with laws to safeguard China's territorial sovereignty. The CCG's operations are reasonable, legitimate, and professional, Wu said.

The Philippine side should stop violating China's sovereignty and stop any deliberate and provocative actions to prevent further escalation of the situation, said Wu, adding that the United States should stop interfering in the South China Sea issue, stop fanning the flame and stirring up troubles, and stop undermining regional peace and stability.

The Chinese military will firmly safeguard China's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests and continue to operate in waters under China's jurisdiction, Wu said.

(Web editor: Tian Yi, Liang Jun)
A Chinese fighter jet came too close to an American B-52 bomber while flying over the South China Sea.

This incident highlights the possibility of an accident as both countries compete for regional influence, as per ABC News.

US-China Tensions Soar Amid Risky Aerial Encounter

There have been ongoing tensions between the United States and China. A Chinese fighter pilot engaged in a dangerous aerial encounter with a US Air Force B-52 bomber. The incident, which took place in the South China Sea, has raised concerns about the potential for a collision and further escalation in the region.

The US Indo-Pacific Command issued a statement expressing concerns about the Chinese pilot's actions. According to a statement, the pilot "flew in an unsafe and unprofessional manner, demonstrated poor airmanship by closing with uncontrolled excessive speed, flying below, in front of, and within 10 feet of the B-52, putting both aircraft in danger of collision."

The US military emphasized that the Chinese pilot may not have been aware of how close the two aircraft came to colliding. This incident comes at a critical time, as President Joe Biden is expected to meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his visit to the White House.

The nature of the formal or informal meeting remains to be seen. Wang is also scheduled to meet with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan. The exchange of accusations and provocations between the US and China has escalated.

During a press briefing, China's Defense Ministry released a video alleging that the USS Ralph Johnson had engaged in "close-in harassment" against a Chinese navy task group during routine training in the South China Sea.

Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian accused the US of being the real provocateur, risk-taker, and disrupter, endangering China's national security, according to CNN.

Read Also: China's Stance on the Israeli-Hamas Conflict Upsets Jerusalem Government

Chinese Pilot Aggression Alarms Pentagon's Indo-Pacific Chief

The Pentagon's top official for security in the Indo-Pacific, Ely Ratner, noted that there had been more instances of "coercive and risky" behavior from Chinese pilots against US aircraft in the last two years over the East and South China Seas than in the entire preceding decade.

Ratner described it as a centralized and concerted campaign to coerce a change in US operational activities. The lack of military-to-military dialogue between the US and China has raised concerns, with Beijing cutting off communications after a visit to Taiwan by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Despite efforts by US officials to engage with Chinese military leadership, requests for dialogue have primarily gone unanswered. China's increasing assertiveness in the South China Sea, where it claims "indisputable sovereignty" over most of the waters, has led to territorial disputes with other nations in the region.

The US and its allies regularly conduct maritime maneuvers and fly aircraft in the area to assert international rights to the waters and airspace. The recent aerial encounter involving the B-52 and the Chinese fighter jet highlights the potential dangers of such meetings, especially when tensions are already high.

The US military has reaffirmed its commitment to conducting operations following international laws and safety measures. As the US and China continue to navigate their complex relationship, these incidents underscore the importance of diplomacy and open lines of communication to prevent further escalation and maintain stability in the region, NBC New York reported.

Related Article: South Korea-China Relations: Yoon Seeks Xi's To Maintain Peace, Security

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
A sample map shows a school building, adjacent grounds with detailed labels for classrooms, utility areas, offices and common spaces as Delaware's Comprehensive School Safety Program announced an almost $1 million investment for accurate and uniform maps in fall 2022.

The Florida Department of Education is giving school districts money to contract with companies to develop gridded maps to "facilitate efficient emergency responses."

Mandated by HB 301, the School Mapping Data Grant Program went into effect on July 1 with an allocation of $14 million for school districts across the state to share.

The gridded maps are meant to be a tool for effective navigation and communication between emergency response agencies that may be unfamiliar with a school campus.

Each school map must be provided to first responders electronically and physically and be compatible with whatever software system is used. It also must have labeled sites verified by a walk-through of the school for accuracy that reflects the layout and structure of the campus.

Critical Response Group (CRG), a New Jersey based company, has developed emergency mapping for several Florida school districts.

CRG Chief Operating Officer Alex Carney said the challenges he faced as a Marine overseas are similar to what first responders experience when at unfamiliar school campuses.

"If there was an incident at a big school, you would have a lot of different public safety agencies show up like police departments and fire departments. They don't work together every day, they're not familiar with the site, well, the same thing happened to us overseas," Carney said.

The purpose of the maps is to be a "tool" and doesn't prevent incidents from happening, according to Carney.

"This is a response tool, so obviously, a map doesn't lock a door, it doesn't stop bullets," Carney said.

A week after violence and panic at a football game at Gene Cox Stadium, Leon County Sheriff's deputies beefed up security at sporting events (as seen here at Leon High School on Aug. 25)

Though the law was recently enacted, Leon County School district spokesperson Chris Petley said the district already follows these measures.

"We have a good connection with our local law enforcement and keep maps at the front of each school for them, as well as training for our staff," Petley told the Tallahassee Democrat. "We already comply with the new law. But we will be going for the grant money to find an agency to complete our mapping for us."

The maps come after LCS added a number of safety measures to its campuses and properties, including Zero Eyes artificial intelligence weapon detecting software at the five major high schools and metal detectors at Gene Cox Stadium.

Carney said mapping is not only for worst case scenarios like active shooters, but for any kind of emergency.

"It could be as simple as a heart attack or a medical issue at some place in one of these big buildings," Carney said. "So, it doesn't have to be used only on the most tragic day, it can be used for any sort of incident that happens at a school."

More: Leon County Schools adding gun-detecting artificial intelligence software to 5 schools

More: Leon Schools taps into high-tech donation to tackle weapon threats at football games

Alaijah Brown is with the Tallahassee Democrat and can be reached at ABrown1@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Florida schools to enhance emergency responses with new gridded maps
Rishi Sunaks plan to cut hotel use for asylum seekers by making them share rooms puts the safety of vulnerable people at risk, MPs have warned in a scathing report.

The cross-party group said the compromises being made to slash the 8m-a-week hotel bill were alarming  warning that the Home Office had failed to show it had considered the trauma some may have faced, or questions of safety, before forcing people together.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) also accused the government of having no credible plan to end the use of asylum hotels  despite immigration minister Robert Jenrick boasting about an exit strategy just days ago.

The damning report also warned that the big push to clear the backlog of legacy asylum cases risked more flawed decisions and could create a new backlog in the courts as decisions were challenged.

It comes as:

Councillors said local authorities may have to house migrants in the same hotels the government claimed it would no longer use

MPs warned there will still be a backlog of around 84,000 new claims even if legacy cases are resolved by the end of 2023

The government scrambled to bring to the UK thousands of Afghans trapped in Pakistan after Islamabad issued a deportation deadline

The government is believed to have begun flights to bring thousands of Afghan refugees already granted sanctuary in the UK but stuck in Pakistan hotels to Britain. Islamabad has told them they must leave before 1 November  warning those without visas they could face arrest within days.

Mr Sunak decided no Afghans should arrive in the UK without sorting their own accommodation  but The Independent revealed last week that the government was forced to reverse that decision after a legal challenge, forcing a last-minute scramble to arrange flights.

The new influx is expected to put added pressure on scarce accommodation, as the system struggles to cope with the huge backlog of asylum cases.

Immigration minister Robert Jenrick has vowed to close asylum hotels (PA)

Mr Jenrick said earlier this week that the government had created thousands of additional beds by forcing people to share hotel rooms  as he revealed that the 400 hotels used to house migrants will be cut by 50 over the next three months.

But the cross-party group of MPs said they were concerned the Home Office does not have a robust process in place to make sure sharing arrangements will be safe  and warned that without proper safeguards, there could be serious consequences.

The PAC chairwoman, Labour MP Dame Meg Hillier, said the compromises being made by the Home Office to meet its commitments [to clear the backlog] are alarming, and some could have grave consequences.

Emma Birks, campaigns manager at Asylum Matters, said the government had created a physical and mental health crisis, saying traumatised people were being crammed together in hotels and other forms of temporary accommodation  children and young people sharing rooms with unknown adults.

Ms Birks added: Hotels should be closed. People seeking asylum should be accommodated within our communities and allowed to work, rather than warehoused in temporary accommodation sites.

Steve Smith, chief executive of the Care4Calais refugee charity, said: Packing asylum seekers, many of whom have experienced maltreatment like torture and modern slavery, into rooms like sardines with strangers of different nationalities, is causing great mental strain to asylum seekers on a daily basis.

Crowne Plaza hotel used to house asylum seekers near Heathrow (AFP/Getty)

The PAC report also accused the department of lacking a credible plan to end the use of hotels  saying that a target of finding 500 new beds every week in an effort to reduce reliance on hotels had not been met, with just 48 new beds a week on average in the year to April.

Despite Mr Jenricks announcement that 50 hotels would see their central government contracts cut, the Local Government Association (LGA) has warned that some councils may end up having to house migrants in those very same hotels.

If not those hotels, then where? Shaun Davies, LGA chairman told the BBC. Thats the irony in this situation, that one part of the system might boast that theyre doing relatively well but actually, thats shunting the issue and the cost to local taxpayers.

Stephen Kinnock MP, Labours shadow immigration minister, said the Tories failed attempts to fix its broken asylum system are now up in lights  they have no credible plan for ending the use of hotels.

He added: This report shows no confidence in ministers meeting their own targets to clear the record asylum backlog, because they dont have a serious plan for delivery.

Refugees from Afghanistan, who were placed in a Leeds hotel (Getty)

Liberal Democrats home affairs spokesperson Alistair Carmichael MP said the government has never had a real plan to deal with the asylum system they broke and instead of coming up with workable solutions, theyre only making it worse.

SNP MP Angela Crawley had written to home secretary Suella Braverman to warn of unsafe accommodation. The home secretarys incompetence and complete mismanagement of her department is a disgrace, she said.

Mr Sunak pledged to clear by the end of 2023 the backlog of older cases which had been in the asylum system as of the end of June last year. By the end of August 2023, the asylum backlog of legacy cases had fallen to around 55,000 cases.

But the PAC report said the Home Offices own analysis suggests that even if the backlog is cleared by the end of the year, there will still be around 84,000 asylum claims in the system made after June 2022.

The cross-party committee also claimed that the department was introducing poorly designed questionnaires  suggesting that it risked people in genuine need not having their application properly considered.

It warned of increased court action and said: People seeking refuge may just be passed from one backlog in the Home Office to another backlog elsewhere in the system.

British Red Cross had predicted that more than 50,000 refugees in the UK could become homeless by the end of the year, with many already living on the streets because of changes in government support.

Mark Davies of the Refugee Council said: We are seeing a homelessness crisis developing with newly recognised refugees being given as little as seven days before being evicted from accommodation. Being given refugee status in the UK shouldnt be a ticket to homelessness with the cost being passed on to local councils.

A Home Office spokesperson said the government was working to end the unacceptable use of hotels by moving asylum seekers into alternative, cheaper accommodation and clearing the legacy backlog.

They added: We have taken immediate action to speed up asylum processing whilst maintaining the integrity of the system. This includes simplifying guidance, streamlining processes and introducing shorter, focused interviews.
Samuel A. Stern

October 7 was supposed to be a day of great rejoicing for Jewish people around the world. It was the holiday of Simchat Torah, the last holiday in our season of major holidays and festivals.

What occurred in Israel that day was a massacre the likes of which the Western world has never seen. Many of us here in Topeka, who otherwise would have been dancing and singing, were glued to the horrible news out of Israel.

There are so few Jews in the world that here in Topeka, over 6,000 miles away from Israel, there is almost no one who does not have a friend or family member or know of someone directly impacted by the tragic Hamas terrorist attack.

There are very few Jewish people in the world. In Topeka, we are 0.2% of the population. In America, it is 2-3%. In the world, it is also 0.2%.

We strive to contribute to our communities and the world, acting as healers and innovators for the benefit of humanity. Yet so often, in every land but America (Baruch HaShem  thank God), we have been persecuted, blamed, exiled and murdered for being different.

You may be familiar with the details of the barbarous terrorist attack, but if not, please bear witness: more than 1,400 innocent Israeli civilians murdered. Over 200 captives taken to the Gaza Strip. At least 22 Americans murdered, as well as people of more than 20 nationalities, with many also taken hostage.

People burned alive in their homes, babies mutilated, children tortured in front of their parents. The worst slaughter of Jews since the end of the Holocaust.

We are grateful for all declarations of sympathy. Justice, however, demands more. We call for the liberation of the Gaza Strip from the rule of Hamas terrorists.

For too long, the world has allowed these terrorists to rule the lives of the people of Gaza and attack the people of Israel. It must not be allowed to stand for another minute.

Good people all over the world, from Topeka and Washington to London and Berlin to Riyadh and Cairo, must declare that the time has come for the brutal regime of Hamas to end, and to support the Israel Defense Forces in the war to free Gaza from Hamas.

I pray for the swift release of the hostages and for justice to be visited swiftly upon our persecutors and the enemies of peaceful coexistence. As it says in our scripture in the book of Kohelet (Ecclesiastes), There is a time for war, and a time for peace.

Let the time of war be short and successful, so that we may earn the time of peace.

Samuel A. Stern is the rabbi of Temple Beth Sholom in Topeka.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Good people must declare the time has come for regime of Hamas to end
JAFFA, Israel  Up a narrow, stone stairwell in this ancient port city, a group of self-confessed radicals plot an evening of interfaith rebellion.

In a sea of hardening views and violent rhetoric after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, this small but growing band have formed an unofficial civil guard, an attempt to prevent the type of urban unrest that has accompanied previous rounds of conflict between Israel and militants in Gaza.

Their mostly leftist movement is a fringe one, a relative speck of cooperation in a land where ethnic and territorial strife is once again reaching a crescendo.

But on a recent humid night, their task was mixing: Israeli Arabs and Jews  and wallpaper paste.

We are trying to send a message  not just to the local community but to the whole world  that there are people who want to come together and reject the violence that we are seeing, said Amir Badran, who is Arab, a local councilman with the We Are the City party, and one of the groups leaders. I lie awake at night worried that a ground offensive could spark more unrest in the streets here as we have seen before.

Amir Badran, left, and Omar Siksik. (Maya Levin for NBC News)

So, perched on a dimly lit rooftop terrace above a hummus cafe, he joined two dozen of the groups core members to make wallpaper paste, the buckets of sticky slop primed to plaster posters of their cause across the neighborhood. They are in Hebrew and Arabic, and feature a QR code inviting people to join the movement.

They know their voice represents a tiny minority.

But the extent of its nascent support has also surprised them, with its WhatsApp groups attracting 3,000 members, 100 of whom have received some form of training from others in the group with different expertise.

They have taken on a range of tasks: accompanying both Arab and Jewish Israelis who are scared to journey across other neighborhoods; sending supplies to Israeli communities displaced by the recent conflict; and, in the event of significant unrest , planning to dispatch volunteers to document and even mediate.

Members of the Arab-Jewish Partnership Guard in Tel-Aviv-Jaffa prepare to put up anti war posters in Jaffa, Israel. (Maya Levin for NBC News)

All here are visibly harrowed by the events of May 2021, when violence in Jerusalem and rocket fire exchanged with Gaza caused Jaffa and elsewhere to descend into rioting, looting and arson.

This is one of Israels mixed cities, where 37% of the population is Arab. Everyone in the group says the locals mostly get along, and the violence two years ago was the doing of far-right and extremist elements from other districts.

That strife showed that the relationships between Arabs and Jews here were very fragile, said Omar Siksik, an Arab community leader who used to run the areas Arab-Hebrew Theater.

Though distressing, this led to real dialogue and real friendship between Arabs and Jews, said Siksik, a well-known figure who locals say is highly respected on both sides of the divide. It was the first time we felt a very warm closeness, because each side expressed their own fears to the other one and we became very good friends, hosting each other in our homes.

These were the seeds of the civil guard that was set up two weeks ago, part of an overarching goal of swimming against the suspicion, prejudice and hate swelling in the region.

Members of the Arab-Jewish Partnership Guard in Tel-Aviv-Jaffa are stopped by police as they put up anti-war posters in Jaffa, Israel. (Maya Levin for NBC News)

Mirroring the demographics of Tel Aviv-Jaffa, most here are Jewish. However, unlike the wider Israeli population, where populism rules and the government is the most right-wing in the countrys history, they range from center-left to avowedly communist.

Most see themselves as allies who need to protect their at-risk Arab neighbors. But few here kid themselves that their worldview is anywhere near making a breakthrough into the Israeli mainstream, where public opinion only seems to have hardened since the Oct. 7 attacks.

Meital Pinto, 46, a law professor specializing in the protection of the Arabic language, said she considers the nighttime poster campaign so controversial among friends and family that she hasnt even told her husband she is here.

Meital Pinto, left, and Amit Okin. (Maya Levin for NBC News)

People say to me, You have to be realistic, youre dreaming of peace, and youre dreaming of collaboration between Arabs and Jews, but youre not realistic, she said while slapping a sticker on a lamppost. People just lost faith.

The nights ringleader is Yeheli Cialic, 23, a Jewish Israeli who grew up in a mainstream family but now describes himself as a communist and an anti-Zionist. He says helping Arabs negotiate the institutionalized prejudice they face in Israel is the civil guards priority.

This feeling of anti-Arab discrimination has only grown under the successive governments of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And since the attacks, advocacy groups say Israeli authorities have eroded free speech by treating many expressions of Palestinian solidarity as incitement.

But its also there for Jewish people who have legitimate fears about cross-community tensions.

Members of the Arab-Jewish Partnership Guard in Tel-Aviv-Jaffa prepare to put up posters in Jaffa, Israel, on Oct. 25, 2023. (Maya Levin for NBC News)

Everyone is afraid, but not everyone is equally threatened, he says, wielding a bag of rolled-up posters and unable to shake hands, elbow-bumping instead, because he is covered in paste.

The crew is mostly young. Among them is Amit Okin, 23, who ran away from his yeshiva and his increasingly religious family to become a self-described anarchist with safety pins in his ears and a half-shaved head.

I didnt understand it, I didnt understand why we cant love everybody, he says, unnecessarily apologizing for his almost-perfect English. We are always told that they hate us, so we need to hate them. I always felt something was wrong there.
Alec Burkin found a way to work for a Woonsocket-based pharmaceutical company and live in Israel at the same time.

He also fell in love with an Israeli woman.

And on the night of Oct. 6, the two of them happily anticipated their Oct. 12 wedding on the shores of the Dead Sea.

The event had already drawn guests to Israel from afar, including 15 relatives from Rhode Island.

Burkin's mother, Alice Braunstein of Narragansett, and his sister Liza Birch of Providence, were part of the dream-come-true setting.

But as Burkin puts it, "Hamas had other plans."

RI children in Tel Aviv take shelter from Hamas rockets

Identified by the U.S. government as a terrorist group, Hamas is a three-decades-old Palestinian organization that follows a policy of deliberately targeting and killing unarmed men, women and children.

As some of Burkin's guests adjusted to their new time zone on Oct. 7, Hamas killers and kidnappers broke out of the Gaza Strip. They crossed into southern Israel, took hostages and commenced a massacre. They burned some families alive, according to U.S. officials.

Some of the atrocities, which were preceded by a barrage of rocket attacks into Israel from Gaza, took place less than 45 miles from Tel Aviv neighborhoods where Burkin's wedding guests, including two Rhode Island families with children, were staying.

By the end of last week, all of the locals were safely home in New England.

Their accounts provide some on-the-ground observations, from a Rhode Island point of view, on impacts in Tel Aviv, which was subject to rocket attack, but otherwise insulated from the type of carnage seen in southern Israel.

These stories are also quite relevant to the experience of the American Israeli groom who remains in Israel.

The Israeli Iron Dome air defense system fires to intercept a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, Israel, on Oct. 19.

Like his wedding guests, Burkin is not telling a harrowing tale of survival in the midst of the latest war between Israelis and Palestinians or seeking sympathy for what happened to his wedding ceremony.

His account is the experience of a Tel Aviv resident and former New Englander with no military training, who grapples with a major shift in history. The setting for his story is Israel, but it has a Rhode Island feel.

As the attacks continued on Oct. 8, the 31-year-old formally canceled the wedding ceremony. Then, he set out to make a difference, in his own small way, as he says, through fundraising.

Within days, the former Narragansett Lobster Company employee was channeling major publicity for his effort.

On Oct. 14, he talked over his personal situation  and fundraising for Israeli reservists  with Lindsey Reiser on MSNBC.

"I just wanted to first mention we lost our wedding but a lot of people across this land, on both sides, have lost their family members," Burkin told her.

Protesting Prime Minister Netanyahu; supporting the Israeli leader's prescription for Hamas

Fierce political polarization was a dominant feature of Israeli politics long before its emergence in the United States  and long before Burkin moved to Israel six years ago.

Many Israelis, for example, have long opposed Israeli settlement building in the West Bank. Such settlements, they have argued, violate international law. Some still hope that the establishment of a separate independent country for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza can resolve the conflict.

Many other Israelis disagree. And not all of them are settlers or extremists. They simply harbor deep doubts that such an arrangement would really end the bloody conflict.

Burkin has figured out some positions for himself. One nuance that's important to him involves Israelis who aren't Jewish  Arab-Israelis.

Alec Burkin, son of Alice Braunstein of Narragansett, sits with his partner, Danielle Haliva, on a beach in Tel Aviv in a different era - before Hamas gunman slaughtered Israeli families and took hostages in Israeli towns near the Gaza Strip earlier this month.

He and his partner, Danielle Haliva, recently bought a condo in a predominantly Arab-Israeli neighborhood in Tel Aviv.

Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is a titan of Israeli politics who has supported settlements and staunchly opposed past proposals for a Palestinian state. He's also been embroiled in a corruption scandal.

Burkin and Haliva have joined protesters opposed to Netanyahu's efforts to curtail the power of the country's Supreme Court.

However, since Oct. 7, Burkin has echoed Netanyahu's call for the destruction of Hamas.

"Hamas needs to be demolished," he said on MSNBC. "There is no other option."

Israel, he said, has "no future" and cannot survive as long as Hamas governs Gaza.

'No answer' for innocent Palestinians

Burkin told Reiser he fears many Palestinians will "suffer greatly" as Israel carries out military operations to eradicate Hamas.

He and many other Israelis, too, are deeply concerned about the plight of Gaza Strip residents who are not Hamas supporters, he said.

"I don't have the answer," he acknowledged.

"We need to do everything in our power obviously to provide support in these days," he added.

"I am extremely empathetic to Gazans ... that have nothing to do with Hamas," he said. "Their lack of choice. Their lack of opportunity. The indoctrination of children into fighting for Hamas. Having grown up in Boston with nothing but opportunity, this is obviously a very different reality."

Mark Patinkin: His niece murdered, her son shielded beneath her body: A family's final moments in Israel

Publicity for Israeli causes

The 31-year-old said he was 26 when he settled in Israel. Due to his age, he said, he was not recruited into the Israel Defense Forces.

Unlike many other Israeli men, Burkin has no military background. However, the Syracuse alum has significant experience raising money for the Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation and generating various types of support for nonprofits and business ventures. He once recruited Rob Gronkowski for an awareness campaign.

Burkin wrote on Instagram

Burkin is also brand manager for MycoClinic, a pharmaceutical company focused on pain relief and owned by Woonsocket-based Aidance Scientific, which hired him in 2017.

On MSNBC, he downplayed his wedding situation  and played up fundraising support for newly mobilized Israeli reservists, lauding the myriad ways Israelis have come forward to assist them.

"People are packaging all types of different materials whether it's socks (or) food," he said. "Baking the soldiers cakes. Doing whatever they can to play their small role."

"This is the way that I can play my small role," he said.

"I feel like it's my responsibility and my opportunity," Burkin said, "to really play this connecting role between the amazing support we've received from folks all over the world and obviously the immediate need here on the ground."

On Sunday, he told The Journal, his fundraising effort had generated $31,000 in proceeds.

Some of those contributions will buy sleeping pads for a group of Israeli paratroopers that Burkin has been in contact with.

Other contributions, he said, are flowing to other causes, including the Israeli Children's Fund, which supports children whose parents have been killed or taken hostage by terrorists, and Rish Lakish Community Food For Israel, a food initiative.

Learning the realities of war: Rhode Island children shelter in 'safe room'

Burkin and Haliva remain devoted to each other and while the wedding ceremony was scuttled, the wedding is by no means canceled. They had much different expectations for October, of course, when the Rhode Island relatives flew in.

Both Burkin's cousin, Simon Braunstein of Cumberland, and Burkin's uncle, Marc Braunstein of Newport, brought their wives and four children, including a toddler.

The three oldest children in the group, ranging in age from about 6 to 8, now have a clear sense of what Israelis do when Hamas fires rockets at them. They know what a safe room is.

"My kids were on edge," Simon Braunstein said. On one occasion, he said, the family took shelter in an alley. Another time, they were in a parking garage, he said.

Alec Burkin shops in Israel last year with his mother, Alice Braunstein of Narragansett.

Burkin's mother had arrived on Oct. 1 and spent the next week making preparations for the upcoming festivities.

On the morning of Oct. 7, she and her husband, Brian Dever, headed out of Tel Aviv on a pre-planned trip to northern Israel.

They were aware of the Hamas attacks at that point, and they knew the situation was serious, but the info they had was scant. This changed over the next few days.

By Oct. 10, all of the wedding guests were among a flood of travelers trying to navigate their way out of Israel.

Braunstein traveled back south to Tel Aviv where Hamas rockets remained a threat. They had a flight out of Ben Gurion Airport to Athens on Oct. 11.

Passengers wait at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, Israel, on Oct. 7, as flights are canceled because of the Hamas surprise attack.

She's emotional as she recalls the scene in the airport.

She wanted to stay in Israel with her son. It was, in part, a mother's guardian instinct.

"I wanted to do what I could to help," she adds.

At one point, sirens warning of another rocket attack sounded in the airport.

She recalls thousands of people trying to find cover. People around her hit the ground. Her husband pulled her down. Then, she looked up: To her dismay, much of the roof above her was glass.

She also noticed fear in the faces of people around her, which was disturbing.

She had gone to Israel to see her son get married. Instead, she was leaving with a sense of dread that would remind her of a certain phrase, "Never Again."

Like her son, she expresses concern for people on all sides of the conflict.

She says she worries about the hostages and about antisemitic rhetoric and dangerous misinformation.

"I'm scared," said the groom's mother. "Scared for this world. Scared for Israel. Scared for the children."

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Hamas wrecks former New Englander's wedding; fuels groom's fundraising
Wisconsinites who heat their homes with natural gas are in line for some badly needed relief this winter.

One year after a spike in gas prices led to the most expensive home heating season on record, the U.S. Energy Information Administration projects average home heating costs in the Midwest will be down 21% for the 2023-24 home heating season.

That's the good news. The bad: Even with that price drop, this winter is expected to be the third most expensive on record, according to historic price data from the EIA. And that's just for natural gas customers. Those who heat with electricity or propane will see smaller decreases.

Gas furnaces are by far the most common heat sources in Wisconsin, accounting for about two-thirds of all Wisconsin households, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2021 American Community Survey. In Milwaukee County, that percentage jumps to nearly 80%.

How much customers will actually pay can vary significantly depending on the weather, their utility, the condition of their home and furnace, and other factors.

Here's what you need to know as winter approaches:

How much your home heating bill will drop varies by where you live

The weather where you live can affect how much you pay. Last winter for example, the average We Energies customer in southeast Wisconsin paid about $725 for heat between November and April, compared to the roughly $800 paid by customers of Wisconsin Public Service Corp., the sister utility that serves northeast Wisconsin.

This year, We Energies customers can expect that cost to be down $50 or $60, or about $8 to $10 a month, while WPS customers' bills will fall about $120, or $20 a month, said Brendan Conway, spokesman for the utilities' parent company, WEC Energy Group.

The differences between the utilities is partly a function of the WPS service territory being colder, but they also reflect the cost of operating and maintaining the gas supply network, the cost of gas that's been bought and stored and winter supply contracts. In addition, We Energies customers are paying for two massive natural gas storage facilities that are under construction in Jefferson and Walworth counties.

Remember, these are only estimates

Weather, gas supply interruptions or increased fuel costs when demand rises during periods extreme cold can dramatically change the numbers. The EIA estimates that an uncommonly cold winter could add about $50 to the average heating bill in the Midwest, while a mild winter could bring costs down another $30.

WEC's cost estimates are based on 20-year weather averages.

In addition, the Wisconsin Public Service Commission is currently reviewing 2024 gas and electric rate proposals from all of the state's biggest utilities. Final rates could change before they are set in coming months.

Natural gas is still cheaper than elecrtric or propane heat

The EIA estimates the average household in the Midwest, defined by the agency as 10 states between Ohio and the Dakotas and Missouri, will pay $581 for natural gas heat this winter based on average historic temperatures.

By comparison, EIA estimates households that heat with electricity will pay $1,215 this winter and those that use propane will pay $1,294.

A few simple things to do to cut your heating costs

Heating a home in winter can be expensive, but there are some simple things you can do to reduce your monthly bill.

Replace furnace filters - If your furnace can't breathe, you're wasting gas.

Get a furnace tune-up - It's a little more costly but it will ensure your furnace is operating at peak efficiency.

Look for places where cold air can get inside - Seal gaps in windows and other places to stop cold air leaks. Wisconsin Focus on Energy offers free weatherization kits.

Install a smart thermostat that can adjust remperatures based on when you're home, away or asleep.

Use your curtains or shades - A little sunshine can make a big difference in daytime room temperatures and closing the curtains at night helps keep the cold out.

What can I do if I'm worried about being able to pay my bill?

Wisconsin earlier this month was awarded $101 million from the federal government to provide home heating assistance through the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program.

The program, administered in Wisconsin by the Division of Energy, Housing and Community Resources, provides heating assistance to housholds that earn 60% or less of the median state income. For a family of three, that's up to $54,678 of household income, before taxes.

Last year, LIHEAP provided an average of $696 in winter heating assistance to 151,377 Wisconsin households.You can apply for assistance at energybenefit.wi.gov.

I don't qualify for low-income assistance programs. How can I reduce my bill?

Wisconsin utilities offer budget billing programs that average the cost of gas and electric service over a six-month period. How much you pay is based on your energy use over the previous 12 months.

The programs help customers avoid the shock of a massive monthly bill following following periods of deep cold.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin home heating bills could be 20% lower this winter
For the first time in weeks, the House has a permanent speaker, and can finally move forward with time-sensitive legislation. Exactly what new House Speaker Mike Johnson will bring to the floor  and what he plans to either delay or bypass  is coming into focus, as Washington gets to know a relatively low-profile member whose prior experience in leadership in Congress was his role as deputy whip.

Congress faces a variety of pressing concerns in the near term: government funding runs out in mid-November, and there is bipartisan support for providing financial support to Israel against Hamas. Johnson suggested that there may be conditions attached to legislation he'll put on the floor in the coming weeks.

Israel funding

The first action the House took after Johnson was sworn in as speaker was to pass a resolution affirming support for Israel, a symbolic gesture. But Johnson says the House will bring to the floor a standalone bill providing about $14.5 billion in supplemental aid to Israel, the same figure that was requested by the White House. However, Johnson told Fox News' Sean Hannity Thursday that he wanted that spending to be offset, which may prompt some opposition.

"We're going to find pay-fors in the budget," he told Hannity. "We're not just printing money to send it overseas. We're going to find the cuts elsewhere to do that."

That bill is expected to come to the House floor soon.

Ukraine funding

Johnson, like many other House Republicans, seems less likely to move as quickly on military aid to Ukraine, despite the Pentagon's recent warning to lawmakers that Ukraine funding is running low.

He told Hannity that aid to Israel and Ukraine must be separate items, after President Biden requested a supplemental package that would provide aid to both at the same time.

"I told the staff at the White House today that our consensus among House Republicans is that we need to bifurcate those issues," Johnson told Hannity.

Still, Johnson told the Fox News host the U.S. "can't allow Vladimir Putin to prevail in Ukraine because I don't believe it would stop there."

Government funding

Johnson has expressed his distaste for continuing resolutions, or short-term funding bills when Congress can't agree on comprehensive ones. Government funding currently runs out on Nov. 17.

He would like the House to pass individual spending bills for the full fiscal year, but he told Hannity Republicans are working to make sure that if a stopgap bill to keep the government open past Nov. 17 is required, "we do it with certain conditions." He did not say what those conditions would be.

Conservatives have long expressed frustration with keeping government spending at current levels and want to make cuts.

Gun control

The deadly mass shooting perpetrated by a suspect in Maine this week hasn't changed Johnson's mind on gun control. He is a staunch defender of gun owners' rights and remains opposed to considering further steps to restrict access to guns.

"At the end of the day, the problem is the human heart," Johnson told Hannity. "It's not guns, not the weapons. At the end of the day, we have to protect the right of the citizens to protect themselves and that's the Second Amendment."

Johnson said it's not the right time to talk about legislation related to gun control, although he expects discussions later, including on addressing mental health.

Like the vast majority of House Republicans, Johnson voted against a 2022 bill tightening access to guns for some populations. The bill did receive bipartisan support.

Gay marriage

In his conversation with Hannity, Johnson indicated he would had no plans to try to move legislation opposing gay marriage, saying, "This has been settled by the Supreme Court" in its 2015 Obergefell opinion. The high court ruled that banning same-sex marriage is unconstitutional.

"So, that's the decision," Johnson said. "... I'm a constitutional law attorney  I respect that, and we move forward."

Last year, with bipartisan support, the House passed a bill protecting same-sex and interracial marriages at the federal level. The bill, which had previously passed the Senate with bipartisan support, was signed into law.

Abortion

Johnson, who spent years fighting against abortion rights as a lawyer for a conservative Christian advocacy group, appeared to distance himself from the idea of a federal abortion ban for now, although some of the most conservative members of Congress and several GOP presidential candidates favor a national ban. He suggested that abortion bans may best be left to the states.

"We argued my entire career for 25 years that the states should have the right to do this. There's no national consensus among the people on what to do with that issue on a federal level, for certain. We have such big priorities in this moment right now," Johnson told Hannity, pointing to other matters like Israel and Ukraine.

Changing the motion to vacate that resulted in McCarthy's removal as speaker

Johnson didn't go into detail on whether or how he would propose changing the current "motion to vacate" rule, a rule that enabled a single member, Rep. Matt Gaetz, to force a no-confidence vote in former Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

"I think we're going to change it," Johnson told Hannity.

Search underway for Maine mass shootings person of interest, police say

The JAY-Z interview: Part 2

WATCH: Maine officials give update on manhunt for suspect in mass shootings
Aubrey Hebert looks into the ear of Malia Perkins using an otoscope. The 13-year-old girls were participating in a MedStart class on Oct. 11 at Poland Junior High School.

ECHO-POLAND  As Rhonda Foster talked to eighth-graders at Poland Junior High School about her career as a certified pediatric nurse practitioner, they naturally wanted to know about the grossest things she's pulled from kids' ears and noses.

That wasn't the goal of Foster's talk with the students, but it helped her connect with them. Foster, who owns the Paradise Children's Clinic in Ball, was at the rural school on Oct. 11 to participate in a MedStart program.

MedStart, a Rapides Foundation-funded program in its second year in some middle schools, presents medical professionals in different fields monthly to talk with eighth-grade students about health-care careers. It's currently in five Rapides Parish schools  Poland Junior, Alexandria Middle Magnet, Brame Middle, Glenmora Junior and Northwood High schools.

Two hundred students in Avoyelles and LaSalle parishes also participate, and there are plans to add more parishes in the future.

It's a program of the Central Louisiana Area Health Education Center (AHEC), and is the second component of the A-HEC of a Career in HealthC.A.R.E. project, along with the summer program, Camp Fast Forward.

During the camp each June, seventh- and eighth-grade students learn from Central Louisiana Technical Community College instructors for four to five half-days on those campuses.

"Kids right now have the interest in something. They want to start exploring, and so thats what this program is going to do  give them some tools, give them some information to kind of pique their interests and then show them other opportunities they can do in high school," said Gabrielle Juneau, AHEC's chief executive officer.

Oh, and the grossest thing Foster has pulled from ears or noses? A roach.

Rhonda Foster, a certified pediatric nurse practitioner, talks to eighth-graders at Poland Junior High School on Oct. 11 about her career and the instruments she uses during a typical day.

A-HEC of a summer: High school students on the healthcare frontlines, size up careers in the medical field

Photo gallery: Pedaling for a healthy snack

Reaching younger students

Juneau has children in middle school, and she said they recognized a few years ago that schools really don't have tools to showcase different careers. Some guidance counselors can be overwhelmed, she said.

AHEC has been working with high school students since the late 1990s. Juneau said, by the time kids get to high school, they might have lost opportunities with some students.

School is different now, compared to when parents today were students. She pointed to how students now can take courses for college credit now.

"I think its, the earlier you start them, getting their mind rolling with some things that interest them, they understand the importance of science and math and how that can relate to a profession in health care."

But Michelle Elliott, AHEC's careers exploration coordinator, said they don't want to focus only on becoming a physician or a nurse. There are loads of other health-care careers that don't require years of study that students can make their livelihood or use as a stepping stone.

"They can go and get a certification in phlebotomy in three months. The same thing with being an EMT," she said.

"They can go to the training for three months and make about $30,000 a year, and still be working on getting their paramedic certification, with which their income doubles. Or they could be going to nursing school. We want to give them a variety of career pathways and, for some, college isnt what theyre going to be wanting to do or can afford to do."

Patrick Williams (right), 14, holds a medical penlight for Quest teacher Pam Newtown to see during a MedStart presentation on Oct. 11. To the left is Caleb Hoyt, 13.

Foster told the kids she began her career as a pediatric intensive-care nurse in the Monroe area. After a few years of that, she began a job transporting pediatric patients to facilities in New Orleans, or she brought patients from smaller areas around North Louisiana to Monroe.

She then went back to school to become a nurse practitioner, and she explained how the field of pediatrics encompasses a greater age range than they think. She can see patients up to age 21, and she can treat special-needs patients throughout their lives, she said.

Foster told the class she spent eight years in school to get her undergraduate and master's degrees.

Now, she works in primary care and mental health at her two clinics, which see patients from about eight parishes.

Foster's career path is part of what MedStart teaches  getting into a field and using it as a stepping stone to advance.

Juneau said a lot of high school students they work with are on pre-nursing or pre-med paths, and they have programs to keep them on track through college and farther.

"Its just giving them resources, you know," she said.

Focusing on rural and underserved students

Rural and underserved students are "a big focus of all that we do," said Juneau, because they know many of those students are likely to return to their homes and work in those areas.

Elliott also said some students don't have the grades necessary to immediately get into higher careers. The pathways offered by MedStart gives them a way to work their way up to whichever career they wish, she said.

Both women agreed that getting kids involved in programs like MedStart can combat the dropout problem. It also can open the eyes of students who might never have considered that college was possible for them, they said.

They hope that students in their programs talk about them with their parents. It's a reason kids always get some sort of handout to take with them.

Declin McClin, 13, squints as classmate Duncan DeSoto looks into his eye with an ophthalmoscope during a MedStart class on Oct. 11 at Poland Junior High School.

For instance, the Poland students got penlights that can be used to assess the response of pupils, either how fast they respond or constrict when exposed to the bright light. A guide on the pen explains what the different sizes of pupils might mean.

Juneau said things like that "gives parents a direction. Where do I start? How do I start helping my child look at bettering themselves?

Surpassing their goal

So far, MedStart is serving about 380 students in all the schools were it's offered. The initial goal was 250, so Juneau says the response tells them there's a need for the program.

All of AHEC's programs are free. It's funded by The Rapides Foundation, and Juneau said that funding is "huge.

"We could not offer these programs without partners and funding made available by The Rapides Foundation."

They also work closely under LSU Health Shreveport, she said, adding that they receive state and federal monies through them.

Elliott said they've been told MedStart fills a void. Middle school teachers and principals have said these years are the toughest and that there aren't a lot of programs to channel that energy and students' interests into, unlike in elementary and high schools.

"So this is perfect for us to be offering these types of programs," she said.

Rhonda Foster holds Gunner Whitt's head as Tori Brouillette looks into his eye on Oct. 11 during a MedStart presentation at Poland Junior High School.

Elliott said it's gratifying to see students raise their hands when asked if they're considering a health-care career.

Juneau said they want students to see what their own communities look like, so it's important to bring in professionals who practice in their areas  like Foster.

One presenter even got to talk to students at a school she had attended, which really conected with them.

"She was very relatable to them," she said. "Its easier to picture themselves in that profession and coming back to work in a local hospital or a clinic thats right there."

Juneau said the programs open doors for students. AHEC can continue to help them beyond high school, and it has a program to help rural students make their way into medical school. The end goal is to get those students to come back home and practice in those areas.

"So we want to be that resource, that place that a student whos interested in health care can come to, and we can help them figure out how to get to the next step," she said.

"We want to grow our own health-care professionals."

This article originally appeared on Alexandria Town Talk: Program for Cenla middle schoolers shows what's possible in medicine
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told a group of reporters in Tel Aviv, Israel, he believes the long-anticipated ground offensive in Gaza will be a long and difficult process, underscoring the challenge of destroying the notorious network of tunnels that Hamas has built underground.

Gallant outlined the difficulty of the invasion, saying it will take a long time.

He said he expects it to lead to another phase of lower-intensity fighting as Israel destroys pockets of resistance. He showed aerial footage of what he described as a tunnel shaft built next to a hospital and said the tunnels often originate in civilian areas. These claims could not independently be verified.

Hamass tunnel system has been described as Israels hidden front line, and much is unknown about the underground system. The tunnels represent a major challenge to Israel, which has said it aims to drive out Hamas and retrieve hostages following the terror groups devastating attack earlier this month.

In addition to the vast tunnel system, Hamass tactics of setting up launch sites in residential buildings and hospitals, its practice of dressing in plain clothes to blend in with civilians and the dense population in Gaza pose great challenges to Israel ahead of a potential ground invasion.

Israeli airstrikes in recent weeks have killed thousands of civilians in Gaza, according to the Hamas-backed Gaza Health Ministry. The United States has cast doubt on the accuracy of the death toll, but the ministry, in response, has released a detailed list identifying thousands of residents of Gaza it says died in the strikes.

Hamas has also launched a series of airstrikes against Israel, but the Iron Dome, Israels rocket defense system, has intercepted many of them. One missile on Friday, however, hit a residential building in Tel Aviv, wounding four people.

On Oct. 7, Hamas launched a surprise attack on the southern border of Israel, killing at least 1,400 people and igniting the current conflict. At least 229 people were taken hostage.

The Associated Press contributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Newly elected US Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, expressed his belief that funding to support Ukraine and Israel should be dealt with as separate matters.

This stance indicates that he may not support President Joe Biden's proposed $106 billion aid package for both countries, as per Reuters.

Biden's Security Package for Ukraine, Israel

The meeting between Speaker Johnson, President Biden, and House Minority Leader Jeffries was held to delve into the details of the president's supplemental national security package. This package encompasses various aspects of national security funding, particularly emphasizing aid to Israel and Ukraine.

The discussions aimed to address the urgent needs of both countries and ensure the allocation of appropriate resources for their defense and stability.

Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, expressed the significance of this bipartisan briefing, stating, "Upon the Speaker's election, we invited him today to a bipartisan briefing with leadership and relevant committee chairs and ranking members... on the president's supplemental national security, obviously, package."

The presence of Speaker Johnson at the meeting highlighted the commitment of the House to address critical national security concerns. Speaker Mike Johnson's attendance at the meeting was of utmost importance, as he had recently won the Speakership, filling a three-week vacancy in the House that hindered official business.

Since the ousting of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on October 4, no bills have been able to move through or pass the chamber. Speaker Johnson's election brought fresh hope for progress and collaboration among lawmakers.

In light of the situation, the United States pledged additional aid to Israel for military and humanitarian efforts. President Biden's announcement last week highlighted the urgency of the matter, as he requested Congress to pass an emergency funding request of approximately $100 billion.

The funding request includes $61 billion for Ukraine's defense and $14 billion for Israel's defense. Moreover, approximately $14 billion of the proposal is allocated for personnel and operations at the US-Mexico border.

Additionally, $10 billion is designated for humanitarian aid, while $2 billion is earmarked for Indo-Pacific security assistance, according to NBC New York.

Read Also: Jewish Cooper Union Students Shelter in College Library as Pro-Palestine Protesters Swarm Building

Supplemental Package Grows in the White House

The White House has witnessed bipartisan support for the supplemental package, with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Senator Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) endorsed the funding request.

This bipartisan consensus bodes well for the swift approval and implementation of the package. Karine Jean-Pierre emphasized the importance of this bipartisan support, stating, "There is no reason we should not be able to move forward to get that done."

The shared commitment to national security ensures that crucial funding will be allocated efficiently and effectively. Congress faces a deadline of November 17 to fund the government, requiring Speaker Johnson to rally his fellow House Republicans to vote on a measure that would keep the government open.

Ensuring the passage of the government funding measure adds another layer of complexity to the discussions at the White House. The collaboration between Speaker Johnson, President Biden, and House Minority Leader Jeffries is vital to reaching a consensus and avoiding a government shutdown.

President Biden's call to Speaker Johnson following his election indicates the willingness to work together and find common ground. The president's statement, released on Wednesday, called for swift action from elected officials to address national security needs and prevent a shutdown in the coming weeks.

This message underscores the urgency and importance of the discussions held at the White House. The national security supplemental package, one of two sent to Congress by the White House, reflects the administration's commitment to various funding priorities.

In addition to funding Israel and Ukraine, the president has requested approximately $55 billion for priorities such as natural disaster relief, child care providers, discounted high-speed internet for low-income households, and treatments and harm reduction to counter fentanyl.

The comprehensive nature of the supplemental package highlights the administration's dedication to addressing critical issues that impact national security and the well-being of the American people, Aol reported.

Related Article: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi Set To Meet With Joe Biden This Week for Diplomatic Talks

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DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP)  Israel knocked out internet and communications in the Gaza Strip in stepped-up bombardment Friday night, largely cutting off its 2.3 million people from contact with each other and the outside world and creating a near-blackout of information, as the military said it was expanding ground operations in the territory.

The militarys announcement signaled it was moving closer to an all-out invasion of Gaza, where it has vowed to crush the ruling Hamas militant group after its bloody incursion in southern Israel three weeks ago.

Explosions from continuous airstrikes lit up the sky over Gaza City for hours after nightfall. The Palestinian telecom provider, Paltel, said the bombardment caused complete disruption of internet, cellular and landline services. The cutoff meant that casualties from strikes and details of ground incursions could not immediately be known. Some satellite phones continued to function.

Already plunged into darkness after most electricity was cut off weeks ago, Palestinians were thrown into isolation, huddling in homes and shelters with food and water supplies running out.

Relatives outside Gaza panicked after their messaging chats with families inside suddenly went dead and calls stopped going through.

I was so scared this was going to happen, said Wafaa Abdul Rahman, director of a feminist organization based in the West Bank city of Ramallah. She said she hadn't heard for hours from family in central Gaza.

Weve been seeing these horrible things and massacres when its live on TV, so now what will happen when theres a total blackout? she said, referring to scenes of families that have been crushed in homes by airstrikes over the past weeks.

Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said ground forces were expanding their activity Friday evening in Gaza and acting with great force ... to achieve the objectives of the war. Israel says its strikes target Hamas fighters and infrastructure and that the militants operate from among civilians, putting them in danger.

The Hamas media center reported heavy nighttime clashes with Israeli forces at several places, including what it said was an Israeli incursion east of the refugee camp of Bureij in the central Gaza Strip. Asked about the report, the Israeli military reiterated early Saturday that it had been carrying out targeted raids and expanding strikes with the aim of preparing the ground for future stages of the operation.

Israel has amassed hundreds of thousands of troops along the border ahead of an expected ground offensive. Earlier Friday the military said ground forces conducted their second hourslong incursion inside Gaza in as many days, striking dozens of militant targets over the past 24 hours.

The Palestinian death toll in Gaza has soared past 7,300, more than 60% of them minors and women, according to the territorys Health Ministry. A blockade on Gaza has meant dwindling supplies, and the U.N. warned that its aid operation helping hundreds of thousands of people was crumbling amid near-depleted fuel.

More than 1,400 people were slain in Israel during Hamas Oct. 7 attack, according to the Israeli government, and at least 229 hostages were taken into Gaza. Palestinian militants have fired thousands of rockets into Israel, including one that hit a residential building in Tel Aviv on Friday, wounding four people.

The Israeli military released the names of 310 soldiers killed during the initial Hamas attack and its aftermath. The vast majority were killed Oct. 7, according to the military. The slain soldiers are part of the overall death toll in Israel.

The overall number of deaths far exceeds the combined toll of all four previous Israel-Hamas wars, estimated at around 4,000.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel expects a long and difficult ground offensive into Gaza soon. It will take a long time to dismantle Hamas' vast network of tunnels, he said, adding that he expects a lengthy phase of lower-intensity fighting as Israel destroys pockets of resistance.

His comments pointed to a potentially grueling and open-ended new phase of the war after three weeks of relentless bombardment. Israel has said it aims to crush Hamas rule in Gaza and its ability to threaten Israel. But how Hamas defeat will be measured and an invasions endgame remain unclear. Israel says it does not intend to rule the tiny territory but not who it expects to govern  even as Gallant suggested a long-term insurgency could ensue.

In Washington, the Pentagon said U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with Gallant on Friday and underscored the importance of protecting civilians during the Israel Defense Forces operations and focusing on the urgency of humanitarian aid delivery for civilians in Gaza. The Pentagon said Austin also brought up the need for Hamas to release all of the hostages.

The conflict has threatened to ignite a wider war across the region. Arab nations  including U.S. allies and ones that have reached peace deals or normalized ties with Israel  have raised increasing alarm over a potential ground invasion, likely to bring even higher casualties amid urban fighting.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi warned on X that the outcome will be a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions for years to come.

With no electricity, no communications and no water, many of those trapped in Gaza had little choice but to wait in their homes or seek the relative safety of schools and hospitals as Israel expanded its bombing early Saturday.

Throughout the night, orange fireballs exploded on the horizon above the apartment buildings and refugee camps of Gaza City, briefly illuminating clouds of white smoke hanging in the air from previous strikes. Some bombs hit in tight groups, apparently slamming into the same location.

Lynn Hastings, U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the occupied territories, posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that without phone lines and internet, hospitals and aid operations would be unable to operate. The Red Crescent said it could not contact medical teams and residents could no longer call ambulances, meaning rescuers would have to chase the sound of explosions to find the wounded. International aid groups said they were only able to reach a few staffers using satellite phones.

The Committee to Protect Journalists expressed alarm, saying the world is losing a window into the reality of the conflict. It warned that the information vacuum can be filled with deadly propaganda, dis- and misinformation.

The loss of internet and phones deals a further blow to a medical and aid system that relief workers say was already on the verge of collapse under Israel's weekslong seal. More than 1.4 million people have fled their homes, nearly half crowding into U.N. schools and shelters. Aid workers say a trickle of aid Israel has allowed to enter from Egypt the past week is a tiny fraction of what is needed.

Gaza hospitals have been scrounging for fuel to run emergency generators that power incubators and other life-saving equipment.

Gallant said Israel believes that Hamas would confiscate any fuel that enters. He said Hamas uses generators to pump air into its hundreds of kilometers (miles) of tunnels, which originate in civilian areas. He showed reporters aerial footage of what he said was a tunnel shaft built right next to a hospital.

For air, they need oil. For oil, they need us, he said.

Late Friday the army released photos showing what it said were Hamas installations in and around Gaza City's Shifa Hospital, Gazas largest. Israel has made such claims before, but declined to say how the photos were obtained.

Little is known about Hamas tunnels and other infrastructure. Claims by the military and Gallant couldnt be verified.

Speaking at Shifa Hospital, Hamas media chief Salama Maroof called Israel's claims lies and said they were a precursor for striking this facility.

I ring the alarm bell. There is imminent danger hovering above the medical facility," Maroof said. The hospital has been overwhelmed and around 40,000 displaced residents have crowded its grounds for shelter, the U.N. says.

Asked if Israel plans to target Shifa, Hagari said, We will not be able to allow terror activity against Israel from hospitals.

Hundreds of thousands of people remain in northern Gaza.

In related developments:

 The U.N. General Assembly approved a nonbinding resolution calling for a humanitarian truce in Gaza leading to a cessation of hostilities. It was the first U.N. response to Hamas surprise Oct. 7 attacks and Israel's ongoing military response and vow to obliterate the militant group.

 In New York City, hundreds of protesters calling for a cease-fire filled the famed Grand Central Terminal during rush hour Friday, wearing T-shirts saying Jews say cease-fire now and Not in our name. Police said approximately 200 protesters were taken briefly into custody, issued summonses and released.

___

Federman reported from Tel Aviv and Mroue from Beirut. Najib Jobain in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Jack Jeffery in Cairo, Isabel DeBre in Jerusalem, and Brian Melley in London, contributed to this report.

___

This story has been updated to correct the name of the Hamas spokesman, Salama Maroof.
Editors Note: A version of this article first appeared in the Reliable Sources newsletter. Sign up for the daily digest chronicling the evolving media landscape here.

A new era is on the horizon for The Washington Post.

The broadsheet  which surged in readership during Donald Trumps chaotic presidency, but has since struggled to maintain that audience  is set to welcome a new chief executive and publisher in the coming weeks.

Owner Jeff Bezos is very close to making his selection, a person familiar with the matter told me Thursday, adding that the pick will likely be announced in November. Pucks Dylan Byers reported Wednesday that a pick could even be announced within days.

Whomever Bezos selects for the task will face enormous challenges. Interim chief executive Patty Stonesifer revealed to employees earlier this month that, under previous chief executive Fred Ryan, the company overshot on expenses. Stonesifer described The Post as a really good business, but added that she has been working to right size it.

Some of the problems stem from The Posts declining audience. Stonesifer disclosed that the publications readership has plummeted since Trumps White House exit, with its digital audience sinking by a staggering 28% since 2021. Digital subscriptions, Stonesifer added, had dropped 15%.

That brutal reality has led to financial distress for the storied newspaper (it is on track to lose $100 million this year), forcing executives earlier this month to take evasive action, announcing that the company will reduce its workforce by 10% through voluntary buyouts.

Executive Editor Sally Buzbee, who held a town hall Thursday to answer questions from apprehensive Post staffers, told the troops that she expects to maintain 940 journalists across the company heading into 2024, people who attended the meeting told me. Still, she acknowledged that saying goodbye to such a large number of newsroom staffers will be difficult.

Its not going to be easy to lose valued colleagues, Buzbee told the gathered staff, according to those who were there.

A general view of the Washington Post building in downtown Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, July 13, 2022. - Graeme Sloan/Sipa USA/AP

During the meeting, Buzbee said that The Post needs to be wholly committed to building workflows centered on its digital presence. In other words, the primary emphasis should no longer be on the print edition that has typically been the focal point throughout its history. The Post, she added, needs to be more engaging for new audiences and improve its offerings to maintain them.

To achieve those goals, Buzbee invoked what she said Bezos told senior leadership while in the office this week: We need to be tactically impatient and strategically patient about our long term future.

For his part, Bezos directly communicated with The Posts journalists by way of a one-paragraph note Thursday. The billionaire Amazon founder said he had an invigorating 48 hours at The Post, learning about our great and important work, according to a copy of the memo I obtained. Bezos affirmed he is committed to the future of The Post as ever. But he reiterated his desire for The Post to be financially solvent.

Long term its important that The Post return to profitability  a key signal that were serving readers in a way thats important to them, Bezos said. If we work hard to understand our readers (and what they value) and keep producing the caliber of reporting I had the pleasure of reviewing with the teams this week, I know well again find financial success.

Getting to that juncture will not be a walk in the park. Media companies, broadly speaking, are navigating a formidable and rapidly-changing landscape posing existential threats to their businesses.

The Post, specifically, has a fair amount of work cut out for it.

One item certain to be on the agenda is expanding the aperture of the D.C.-focused outlet. Its no secret that the acquisition strategy executed in recent years by its arch rival, The New York Times, have frustrated some staffers inside The Post, who wished that Ryan had made similar plays.

Will The Post move to make moves of its own under new leadership?

Once we are given the green light to acquire, there is a lot of running room, a veteran staffer at The Post told me.

But The Post is not alone in its struggles. Legacy newspapers across the country, terrestrial broadcasters, CNN, and digital upstarts alike are grappling with the transition to new revenue models to sustain their newsrooms into the future. The rapid decline in their traditional business not only raises concerns for the future of journalism, it has sweeping implications for society at large.

As the Post proclaims next to its masthead, Democracy dies in darkness.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
Al Jazeeras Gaza bureau chief returned to air less than 24 hours after his family was killed in what the television network said was an Israeli airstrike on Wednesday.

Wael Al Dahdouh lost his wife, son, daughter, and grandson when a blast hit a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza where the family was taking shelter after being displaced, according to the news organization.

Al Dahdouh thanked viewers for their messages and calls following his familys tragedy. The solidarity and prayers were certainly something very important for us but we thought it was necessary to return quickly despite everything, he said.

The area is still burning, as you can see, from the raids and artillery bombardment. I saw that it was my duty, despite the pain and the bleeding wound, to return quickly and to meet you through the camera lens and social networking sites, he added.

In an on-air message on Wednesday, the Qatari-funded news network wrote that Members of the family of our colleague Wael Al Dahdouh, including his wife, son, and daughter, were martyred in an Israeli bombing.

Al Jazeera reported Al Dahdouhs grandson Adam was declared dead two hours later.

An emotional Al Dahdouh was seen in a video crying as he stood over his sons body, wrapped in a white sheet. The distraught journalist was also seen carrying the small body of his grandson through al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Gaza.

His son Mahmoud was 15 years old, and his daughter Sham was seven years old, Al Jazeera reported.

Al Jazeera anchor Abdisalam Farah announced the deaths on air, visibly struggling to keep his composure and tearing up.

Twelve members of the Al Dahdouh family were killed on Wednesday, including 9 children, a statement by the family said.

The Al Dahdouh family were displaced from Tal El Hawa to Nuseirat refugee camp, which they thought would be a safe place for them to stay, Al Jazeeras office in Ramallah told CNN.

CNN cannot independently confirm the source of the blast at the house, and Al Jazeera did not provide evidence linking it directly to an Israeli strike. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed to CNN that it carried out an airstrike in an area of Gaza where Al-Dahdouhs relatives were killed on Wednesday. The IDF said that it was targeting Hamas terrorist infrastructure.

Strikes on military targets are subject to relevant provisions of international law, including the taking of feasible precautions to mitigate civilian casualties. Regarding this specific case, the IDF targeted Hamas terrorist infrastructure in the area, the IDF said in a statement.

Israels leadership has vowed to wipe out Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza, in response to its October 7 deadly terror attacks and kidnap rampage in which 1,400 people, mostly civilians, were killed and more than 200 taken hostage.

Its weeks-long siege on Gaza has resulted in a humanitarian crisis inside the enclave, now cut off from the world by a near-total blockade, say aid groups. Israeli airstrikes have decimated entire neighborhoods, leveling homes, schools, and mosques.

CNN drone footage from Monday showed the level of destruction across parts of the strip, with whole streets flattened in the al-Rimal neighborhood in Gaza City and a row of destroyed buildings known as al-Zahra towers in central Gaza.

More than 6,400 people have been killed and a further 17,000 injured in Israels sustained aerial bombardment of the crowded enclave, according to latest figures from the Hamas-controlled health authorities in Gaza published by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah.

Horrifying

Advocacy groups condemned the death of Al Dahdouhs family members on Wednesday. The International Press Institute (IPI) called it horrifying and outrageous news, in a statement. We condemn the killing of civilians and offer our deepest condolences to Wael Dahdouh.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), at least 24 journalists have died since the start of this conflict as of Wednesday. Twenty of those killed are Palestinian, three are Israeli, and one is a Lebanese journalist, CPJ said.

The figure includes Palestinian journalist Roshdi Sarraj, according to Palestinian press agency WAFA, which said he was killed in an Israeli airstrike.

Sarraj was a fixer at French national public radio broadcaster Radio France and had been working with its correspondents since May 2021, according to Radio France.

When CNN reached out to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment on Sarrajs death, it said on Monday that in stark contrast to Hamas intentional attacks on Israeli men, women and children, the IDF follows international law and takes feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm.

CNNs Mihir Melwani, Pierre Meilhan, Oliver Darcy and Sophie Jeong contributed to this report.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
Dustin Stevens of Rhode Island Kayak Fishing Adventures will be the quest speaker at a Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers Association seminar on at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 30, in the West Warwick Elk's Lodge at 60 Clyde St.

Dustin will cover everything from safety and equipment to techniques for catching fish on light tackle. He will share tips for both topwater fishing  blues, stripers and albies, as well as for the common bottom species, fluke, black sea bass and tautog. Many of his tips are relevant to both boat and shore anglers.

Learn more about kayak fishing for stripers, false albacore and ground fish from expert guide Dustin Stevens of Kayak Fishing Adventures during a seminar on Monday.

Doors will open at 6 p.m. Active members are always free; nonmembers are asked to make a $10 donation. Contact executive director Scott Travers at (401) 826-2121 or travers@risaa.org.

Understanding the North Atlantic right whale population

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries has released a comprehensive population viability analysis for North Atlantic right whales, and the 2023 population estimate. For an article with details, visit Reducing Entanglements and Vessel Strikes Makes Extinction Less Likely for North Atlantic Right Whales | NOAA Fisheries.

The analysis allows users to project how the total populations extinction trajectory could change under various what-if scenarios. Results show that both vessel strikes and entanglement of these whales need to be considerably reduced for the species to continue to exist.

The annual population estimate shows that approximately 360 animals were alive at the beginning of 2022. This is fewer than the numbers alive at the beginning of 2021, but the sharp downward trajectory of this species observed between 2015 and 2019 may be slowing.

Kidney needed for tackle shop owner

Longtime recreational fishing tackle shop owner Dave Henault of Ocean State Tackle in Providence has polycystic kidney disease and is in need of a kidney donation Possible donors do not have to be a match but he does need one donated to offset the kidney he might get in return. For information, contact at Living Donor Transplant | Massachusetts General Hospital (massgeneral.org)

Wheres the bite?

Striped bass, bluefish, bonito and false albacore. Big striped bass are being caught all over the Bay and up into the Providence River," Henault reported. "Anglers are chunking Atlantic menhaden and using white soft plastic lures with success. Bonito and false albacore are still around, too, as the water is still 60 degrees in the Bay. Tom Giddings of the Tackle Box in Warwick said: Stripers were exploding from Patience Island to Conimicut Point. One customer caught three keepers in the slot [28 inches to less than 31 inches] in just a few minutes. Anglers are catching fish from shore and boats. This week the bite was on in Greenwich Bay with fish being taken on swimming lures of all types, both casting to fish on the surface and trolling them." Declan ODonnell of Breachway Bait & Tackle in Charlestown said: Striped bass fishing has been very good from the local beaches and Breachway with lots of surface action during the day  plugs, eels and jigs producing well at night. Schools of smaller bass were around this week with a few 40 inchers being pulled out along the south shore. Schools of false albacore continue to pop up, too. John Littlefield of Archies Bait & Tackle in East Providence said: This is the best striped bass season in some years with customers catching slot and school bass at Sabin Point as well as from the Barrington Bridge where a customer caught a 35-inch bass.

Tautog. The key to a good bite this week was fishing when the tide was moving," O'Donnell said. "Customers that struggled to get their limit with a lot of shorts were not able to sit on top of a group of chewing tog. Most of the action seems to be coming from areas in 20 to 40 feet of water and there have been some cod and black sea bass mixed in. Littlefield said: Tautog fishing is on fire. Customers are catching fish to 8 pounds from the Barrington Bridge with the outgoing tide working best with jigs. Some anglers are catching a lot of shorts to land their five keepers. Giddings reported: Rocky Point, Ohio Ledge and out in front of Newport and Jamestown are all producing some big double-digit fish. Coddington Cove in Middletown, the bulkheads along the Providence waterfront and out in front of Newport are all producing big tautog for anglers. Henault reported that Chris Higgie Higgins, who mates for Capt. Mike Littlefield of ArchAngel Charters, caught a 13.6-pound tautog off Newport this week.

Scup, black sea bass and cod fish have been caught by anglers targeting tautog. One customer targeting scup managed to catch his limit, 30 keepers from his boat, which is remarkable as these fish are still around and it is almost November, Giddings said.

Squid fishing is starting to heat up. Expert squid fisher, Greg Vespe of Tiverton, said: We had a good squid bite last week; it is just starting to build but should really pick up over the next four weeks. Vespe landed what looked to be six or seven dozen squid on his cleaning table.

Dave Monti holds a captains master license and charter fishing license. He serves on a variety of boards and commissions and has a consulting business that focuses on clean oceans, habitat preservation, conservation, renewable energy and fisheries-related issues and clients. Forward fishing news and photos to dmontifish@verizon.net or visit www.noflukefishing.com.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Kayak anglers use techniques that are also good for shore fishing
OTTAWA COUNTY  In at least two lawsuits filed against the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners, attorneys for the municipality waited months to place a litigation hold on essential documents, according to emails obtained by The Sentinel.

Legal Counsel Jack Jordan talks with members of the public during a short break in the board's meeting Tuesday, March 14, 2023, in West Olive.

As the community awaits the Monday conclusion to a termination hearing for Health Officer Adeline Hambley, testimony and internal communications this week have revealed Ottawa County's corporation counsel took no steps in the nearly nine months since Hambley's lawsuit was filed to preserve any records pertaining to the case  until after the discrepancy became publicly known.

More: Ottawa County delays vote on termination of Adeline Hambley until Monday

On Tuesday, Oct. 24, Hambley's attorney, Sarah Riley-Howard, called Ottawa County IT Director Paul Klimas to the stand and asked him if he was ever instructed by corporation counsel Kallman Legal Group to put a litigation hold in place on the county's internal servers and systems.

A litigation hold is a notification from a legal department to employees not to delete any electronic or physical records that may pertain to current or imminent litigation.

Klimas said Tuesday he's never had a litigation hold request in his four years with the county. He said any such request would come to his department for implementation.

The county currently has four pending lawsuits filed in 2023, largely alleging misconduct by the current Ottawa Impact majority on the board. In those cases:

Ottawa Impact is a far-right fundamentalist group formed in 2021 in response to school mask mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic. OI now controls a six-seat majority on the 11-member board  down since infighting caused at least one member to sever his relationship with the group. Two other conservatives on the board have publicly distanced themselves.

Howard requested the litigation hold the day she filed Hambley's lawsuit on Feb. 13, according to emails provided to The Sentinel.

"Please consider this email a formal litigation hold notice in this matter, although I presume youve already implemented a litigation hold given all of the events of the past few weeks," Howard wrote to Jack Jordan, the designated KLG attorney for the board.

In her email, Howard advised the county and commissioners about the "legal obligation to preserve potential discovery material. To that end, we respectfully demand that you take all necessary steps to identify, locate, and preserve potential discovery material.

"This material includes but is not limited to electronic data, such as emails, text messages, audio files, social media communications, and any other data kept in any form or on any device  whether county-owned or personal, including all commissioners and employees business and/or personal cellphones or computers, that in any way relate to or could potentially relate to this dispute."

When Howard asked Klimas about the implementation of the hold, he said, "The litigation hold would have been requested by corporate counsel of us and we would have set it aside such that it wouldn't get purged."

Howard: You have not implemented a litigation hold in the Hambley suit?

Klimas: The litigation hold would have been requested by corporate counsel by us and we would have set it aside.

H: And you were not asked to do that?

Klimas: No. I wasn't.  Sarah Leach  (@SentinelLeach) October 24, 2023

"And you have not been asked to do that by corporate counsel?" Howard asked.

"We have not," Klimas replied.

"The discovery that the county has not asked its IT Department to implement a litigation hold in this case was extremely concerning," Howard wrote in a statement to The Sentinel on Friday. "It almost guarantees that relevant email, text, and messaging app evidence has been lost while the county pursued its appeal of the ruling that Ms. Hambley has been the rightfully appointed health officer. We will be following up with defense counsel on this point, and pursuing it with the trial court if necessary."

In fact, not two days after that testimony, Jordan made the request to Klimas and notified the commissioners and Gibbs.

"After Ms. Howard's questioning of Paul Klimas on Tuesday, we were confused as to her line of questioning of a 'litigation hold' being placed on this litigation with the county," Jordan wrote in an email dated Thursday, Oct. 26.

Jordan blamed the error on Howard's email being sent to his "personal email account," despite listing that account on his public profile with the State Bar of Michigan for attorneys and prospective clients.

"Having said all that," Jordan continues in the Thursday email, "I immediately requested that Mr. Klimas place a 'litigation hold' now to preserve all evidence connected to this matter."

Despite the 256-day gap between Howard's notice and Jordan's action, he assured commissioners and Gibbs that it wasn't an issue.

"Mr. Klimas responded that the request was made in 'plenty of time' from the county's standpoint, but we are requesting that if you have any communications on your personal telephone, computer, or any other electronic communication device connected to this case, you preserve it."

Adeline Hambley and her attorney Sarah Howard give comment to the press after their hearing in front of the Michigan Court of Appeals Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023, in Grand Rapids.

Jordan went on to mention the OMA-related case and asked officials to preserve any records pertaining to that, despite a 232-day gap between the filing of that lawsuit and Jordan's request.

"Although the trial court dismissed the case, they have appealed the matter to the Court of Appeals," Jordan wrote. "Therefore, we request that you preserve those communications as well for this case."

When asked for comment in that case, plaintiffs' attorney Mark Brewer said he sent his own notice of litigation hold in March to four attorneys within Kallman Legal Group: David Kallman, Stephen Kallman, Jordan  at his county-issued email account  and Lanae Monera.

"On March 15, 2023, David Kallman and several of his colleagues were sent the attached litigation hold notice," Brewer wrote in a Friday statement to The Sentinel.

"This email is a formal litigation hold notice in this matter," Brewer wrote in the email. "To that end, we respectfully demand that you take all necessary steps to identify, locate, and preserve potential discovery material."

"If they have allowed any potential discovery material to be destroyed, plaintiffs will seek all available sanctions," Brewer told The Sentinel.

Gibbs gives conflicting statements

During a Sept. 26 budget hearing, the board heard Gibbs say he communicated "many times" the Ottawa Food program and funding for its director position not be cut.

"That is my directive that I have given to the health department as to not cut within the current budget we have given them," Gibbs told Vice Chair Sylvia Rhodea when she asked about the program.

"How many times have you communicated that?" Rhodea asked.

"Many times I've communicated that desire, so the (department) is aware of that," Gibbs said.

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During Hambley's termination hearing, however, Gibbs testified he did not, in fact, communicate that directive to the health department, but rather to Karen Karasinski, the county's finance director.

The only evidence entered by the county to support Gibbs' claims is one email to Karasinski dated Sept. 22  four days before his statements to Rhodea  that says: "Please find a way to retain the Ottawa Food program and staffing based on the current proposed budget, similar to what we did with the epidemiologist position."

The funding for that third epidemiologist position was "found" by reassigning it to the health department's environmental division. Similarly, the health educator coordinating the Ottawa Food program has now been reassigned to work on health education in another area of the department, according to health officials.

Howard said the email was proof Gibbs didn't effectively communicate.

"The first time (Hambley) or I saw the email that the county produced from John Gibbs which mentioned Ottawa Food was during the hearing on Tuesday. So clearly, Mr. Gibbs had never instructed public health nor Ms. Hambley not to make cuts to Ottawa Food, contrary to what he told the board on Sept. 26."

Howard said the revelations underscore the inconsistencies in statements by OI-backed commissioners and what actually transpired in the health department's budget.

 Sarah Leach is executive editor for The Holland Sentinel. Contact her at sarah.leach@hollandsentinel.com. Follow her on Twitter @SentinelLeach.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Emails: County waited months to tell officials to save pertinent documents
A radio personality who has worked in the industry for more than four decades, going from playing scratchy 45-singles in the good ol' days to the high-quality digital songs of today, is celebrating his new role as a radio station owner in downtown Pueblo.

Dave Moore, owner of KIX Country Radio at 107.5 FM, is doing what he loves. It is a venture that involves his entire family and many of his long-time radio cohosts.

Moore celebrated the one-year anniversary of being on the air of his very own radio station Oct. 13  a crowning achievement for a career that has been nothing short of legendary in the radio business.

He said he is, "having so much fun" being live on the radio every weekday from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. hosting his "Dave Moore and Friends" morning show from the studio at 112 W. D St., but he's also adapting to wearing a lot of other hats, including sales, operations and engineering. He's spinning "country's best tunes" from new artists like Luke Combs to industry icons like Garth Brooks.

Dave Moore and his wife Brandi Moore behind the control panel of KIX Country radio 107.5 FM on Wednesday, October 25, 2023.

His wife Brandi is working behind the scenes paying the bills and helping with promotions when she can because she also works for GOAL High School in the finance department. Their son Brady Moore and daughter Carly Moore also take time out from their full-time jobs working for the epidemiology department at Brown University and hosting the Fox31 Morning Show for Channel 2 in Denver to help out with "liners, commercials and social media promotions," Brandi Moore said.

"It really is a family affair and I don't think people realize how difficult it is. It is not easy to get an available frequency to purchase and have the means to do so," Brandi Moore said, pointing out the process also requires approval from the Federal Communications Commission.

"We feel truly blessed. We don't take it for granted," she explained.

How the industry has changed over the years

Being an independent radio station owner is rare these days.

"There was one legislative change in the mid-1990s that changed the face of radio. It used to be that a single owner could only own two FM stations and they had to be at least 100 miles apart so you couldn't own a radio station in Pueblo and one in Colorado Springs," Moore explained.

"The Communications Act was supposed to help minorities and women but what it did was allow really large companies to buy hundreds of stations. Today we have companies like iHeart Radio that owns 850-some stations," he explained.

Moore has seen a big change in the way music is delivered, too. From the days of vinyl  starting with 45s and the larger albums that lined the walls and had to be searched through by hand  to reel-to-reel tapes and then cart machines.

"Then here came the CDs and now everything is on a computer hard drive and it's automatic," he explained. "We also have seen a big change in how we get the news from the Associated Press or UPI (United Press International).

"We used to have wire copy that would come over this teletype machine. It was like a typewriter on steroids and you could look at it as it was typing and read the news line by line," he recalled.

The teletype reported historic events like the death of Elvis Presley.

Moore still has some original wire copy pages that he's lovingly saved in a scrapbook. In it are the stories about history-shaping events like the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion.

Dave Moore, owner of KIX Country radio 107.5 FM, works behind the station control panel on Wednesday, October 25, 2023.

Where it all began

Growing up, Moore recalls his family's side-by-side radio and phonograph set up at home.

"When I was a little kid I would pretend to be on the radio and play records. It was a dream to be on the radio, I loved music," he said.

Later in college, he majored in mass communications with a radio and broadcasting focus back when Colorado State University Pueblo was known as Southern Colorado State College. There, he met the Chieftain's former managing editor Steve Henson and the two would work their first radio jobs at KCSJ side-by-side.

He has one particularly strong memory of his KCSJ days when the station was located at Eighth and Grand.

"One night there was a car accident, so I put on (Donna Summer's) MacArthur Park which was a good 7 minutes long. I checked on the accident and the police arrived so I came back in and the 45 record was about a minute and a half in and it was skipping 'MacArt MacArt, MacArt' over and over again," he recalled with a laugh.

Since Moore graduated in 1975 he has worked mostly in country radio since 1977. He had a seven-year stint at KIQ'N Country and spent 20 years on the morning show at KCCY.

He also put in a few years at radio stations in Colorado Springs and Denver.

Today's radio gig and Moore's helping hands

Now as radio station owner, Moore gets up at 4:30 a.m. every weekday, gets to the radio station by 5:20 a.m. and goes live from 6-9 a.m. with the help of his true friends. Those friends include former morning show cohost Gina Rose from KIQ'N, GOAL High School educator Gunny Pagnotta, and former Channel 5 weatherman Craig Eliot. Even Moore's engineer Mike Baldauf gets on the air every now and then.

"We also have people like Haley Sue Robinson and Michelle Peulen stop in from time to time. My daughter goes on the air with me once a month," Moore said.

Station celebrating its anniversary with a charity event

To celebrate the station's one-year anniversary, the Moores are sponsoring a "Sock it to Me" event with the help of Posada.

"Instead of getting a gift, we are collecting sock donations to give as gifts to the homeless," Brandi Moore explained. Socks can be dropped off at the radio station at 112 W. D St.

To find out more about KIX Country or listen to the livestream, log onto MyKix1075.com or visit the station's Facebook or Instagram pages.

More country music news: Meet Cody Cozz, the country musician from Pueblo making waves in Nashville

Chieftain reporter Tracy Harmon covers business news. She can be reached by email at tharmon@chieftain.com or via X, formerlyTwitter, at twitter.com/tracywumps. Support local news, subscribe to The Pueblo Chieftain at subscribe.chieftain.com.

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Get your KIX on Pueblo's independently owned country music station
Former Chinese premier Li Keqiang has died of a heart attack aged 68.

State media said he died at 10 minutes past midnight on Friday despite "all-out" efforts to revive him.

Li was once tipped to be the country's future leader but was overtaken by President Xi Jinping.

A trained economist, he held the second highest-ranked position in China, though in recent years, he was widely isolated amongst China's top leadership.

He was the only incumbent top official who didn't belong to Mr Xi's loyalists group.

"Li's death means the loss of a prominent moderating voice within the senior levels of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), with no one apparently being able to take over the mantle," Ian Chong, non resident scholar at the Carnegie China think tank told the BBC.

"This probably means even less restraint on Mr Xi's exercise of power and authority."

Li, who had stepped down as premier in March this year, suffered a sudden heart attack on Thursday and died early on Friday while he was in Shanghai.

His death is being widely mourned on Chinese social media, with many expressing shock and grief - though comments on many posts appear to have been restricted.

"This is too sudden, he was so young," said one user on Chinese social media site Weibo. Another said his death was like losing "a pillar of our home".

Reports of Li's death have also appeared in state media, in which his contribution to the CCP and the country are recognised.

Li rose through the party ranks despite not having any power base

Deaths of former Chinese leaders have triggered protests in the past. An outpouring of mourning during Jiang Zemin's death last year was seen as a subtle criticism of President Xi.

Li was known as one of the smartest political figures of his generation. He was accepted into the prestigious Peking University Law School soon after the universities were reopened following Mao's Cultural Revolution during which millions of people are believed to have died.

He is best known outside of China for the Li Keqiang index, a term coined by The Economist as an informal measurement of China's economic progress.

The man who 'told it as it is'

Li came from a modest family and was the son of a local official. He was born in July 1955 in Dingyuan County in eastern China's Anhui province.

He rose among the ranks, becoming the youngest provincial governor in China and later earning a spot in the top echelon of the party's central leadership, the Politburo Standing Committee.

At one point there was speculation that he would be groomed to succeed Mr Xi's predecessor Hu Jintao.

He was widely considered to be Mr Hu's protege and was the last appointee of the Hu administration to remain on the Politburo Standing Committee before he stepped down in March this year. The Hu years were seen as a time of opening up to the outside world and increased tolerance of new ideas.

Li was known for being pragmatic in economic policies, with a focus on reducing the wealth gap and providing affordable housing.

"He was a very enthusiastic open man who really strove to get China ahead and facilitated open dialogue with people from all walks of life," Bert Hofman, a professor at the National University of Singapore told the BBC's Newsday programme.

Li will be remembered for being "open and reformist in his economic orientation", said Dr Chong. "[He was] more of a technocrat than an ideologue or loyalist."

Now President Xi (L) and Li (R) in 2007 under the Hu administration

Li pushed for policies to encourage entrepreneurship and technology innovation, especially among young people.

In a Party dominated by engineers, he was an economist who become known for "telling it like it is" - publicly acknowledging China's economic problems as a means of finding solutions.

His economic policy of structural reform and debt reduction, termed "Likonomics", aimed to reduce China's dependency on debt-fuelled growth and steer the economy towards self-sustainability.

But by 2016, articles in the party's mouthpiece People's Daily had dropped "Likonomics" in favour of Mr Xi's economic thoughts, which emphasised micro-economic reforms and advocated supply-side changes.

Hofman added that Li led China's major campaign against air pollution during his time as premier, famously "declaring war" against pollution in 2014 and acknowledging at the highest level that it was a crisis for the country - leading to a significant reduction in pollution and associated health risks.

Li's end of his time in office was mired in China's zero-Covid crisis.

During the worst of it, he warned that the economy was under massive pressure and called on officials to be mindful of not letting restrictions smash growth. He even appeared unmasked in public before China lifted its zero-Covid policy.

But when cadres had to choose between his order to protect the economy and Mr Xi's to maintain zero-Covid with extreme discipline, it was no contest - with China doubling down on restrictions.

Zero-Covid hit China's economy hard, strangling supply chains and shuttering businesses, from economic hub Shanghai to rural towns.

Additional reporting by Kelly Ng

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Outdoor wedding ceremony reception

One dad has found himself in the midst of a family dilemma after putting his foot down when it came to his daughter's wedding bill.

The father, a man from New York, took to Reddit's AITI (Am I The A--hole) subreddit to explain the situation, revealing that his daughter asked him to foot the bill for a $200k destination wedding in New Zealand.

"My daughter is getting married, and she wishes to have a destination wedding and told her no," the original poster (OP) wrote. "My wife feels I should do it because we can afford it, but I find it to be a pointless showing of wealth."

Plus, the OP noted in one of the comments that some of their family members won't be able to afford flights or lodging in New Zealand, meaning a lot of guests would miss out on the occasion.

As a result of the disagreement, the OP revealed that his daughter is currently not speaking to him, and neither is his wife, which made him wonder, "Should I bite the bullet and essentially burn money, and alienate family members to make my daughter's dream wedding a reality?"

In edited messages under the post, the OP also noted that the $200k his daughter is asking for does not include "what guests would have to pay to come."

>>> Sign up for Parade's Trending News newsletter and we'll keep you in the know on the viral pop culture moments and celebrity news everyone is talking about <<<

Users in the comments were widely supportive of the OP, with many people arguing that his daughter was asking for a lot, especially by insisting on a destination wedding.

"If she cant pay for a destination wedding on her own, then she shouldnt be having a destination wedding. It seems cruel but its true," one person wrote.

Another added, "You're not stopping her from having a destination wedding. You just don't want to be the ATM [at the moment]. What happens when people can't make it because it's a destination wedding? Are you supposed to pay for them, too?"

Someone else claimed that the problem was essentially the OP's fault, as "it appears you are well aware you have a raised a spoiled, entitled daughter."

Other users tried providing helpful solutions, such as giving his daughter a set amount toward the wedding she could choose to spend how she sees fit.

"Man I wish I had rich people problems," another user quipped.

Next: Woman's Full Glam Maternity Photos from Hospital Bed Divide the Internet
Owner Sherman Lee Dunham poses at his produce stand, Spunky-Ds Produce, on South York Road Tuesday afternoon, Oct. 24, 2023.

Eight years ago, Sherman Dunham started selling produce from the back of his truck.

He had been visiting Asheville with some fellow veterans and went to the farmers market, where he met a produce vendor from Columbia, South Carolina.

The vendor had a truck bed full of produce and offered the whole lot to Dunham, which Dunham agreed to take in exchange for the $120 he had on hand.

That truckload of produce marked the first ever lot that Dunham would sell.

What Dunham didn't know when he agreed to take that truckload of produce is that getting into the business would give him an opportunity to connect with his community and mitigate PTSD symptoms.

From 1975-79, Dunham was stationed in Germany working in armored infantry.

We had some hardcore training, Dunham said. Even in training, we lost quite a few guys.

Some of those losses hit very close to home for Dunham.

Even my roommate, he was killed, Dunham said. I came back out to the field, and I gave him my vehicle to drive. On his way out of the field, the tire blew up, flipped over and killed him, and it should have been me.

I hate that it happened to him, but I had to go to the hospital and on that maneuver, it happened with him in my vehicle, Dunham said. It kind of threw me for a loop.

Impact

Everybody has PTSD differently, and with mine, it kind of brings me out of a nutshell to be able to talk to people, Dunham said.

According to Dunham, through his small business, he is able to serve a part of the community that doesnt live close to a grocery store.

Spunky-Ds Produce on South York Road Tuesday afternoon, Oct. 24, 2023.

I love talking to the seniors, the elders older than me, and they appreciate coming out and talking with me also, Dunham said. I also love giving the younger children advice.

I just try to encourage them even if you feel like youre failing or you didnt make it the first couple of times, just dont give up, Dunham said.

Produce business

Spunky-D's produce is actually named after its owner.

"My mom and my brother called me spunky when I was just a couple of days old," Dunham said. "That name carried all the way to Germany where my military buddies added the initial of my last name, and started calling me Spunky-D."

For the first year of running Spunky-D's, Dunham could only accept cash and sell from the back of his truck.

One night during, his second year of running the business, Dunham attended revival at Tabernacle Baptist Church, where he has been a long-time member.

On the last night of revival, Dunham asked Pastor Benjamin Hinton to pray for him to get a building.

The very next day, I got that building, Dunham said.

In recent years, Dunham began working with the Gaston College Small Business Center to get an official LLC and begin taking credit, debit, and even EBT cards.

Just som eof the items for sale at Spunky-Ds Produce on South York Road Tuesday afternoon, Oct. 24, 2023.

These developments have helped his business tremendously, but he has even bigger goals for the future.

"I would like to thank my god sister Donna Tate for her continued help and pushing me to not give up on this business venture," Dunham said. Im not making a profit right now, but Im happy with how its going.

Next year, Dunham plans to get a refrigerated box truck to keep his produce fresher in transit, and hopes to start expanding his business by establishing new locations around Gastonia.

According to Dunham, he will try to staff these locations with disabled veterans to give them the opportunity to connect with the community.

Visiting Spunky-D's

Spunky-Ds Fresh Produce is located at 2421 S. York Road and is open from 10 a.m.- 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

Dunham is currently selling his last watermelon crop of the year from Florida farmers, pumpkins, and several staples like squash, cucumbers, greens, and more.

This article originally appeared on The Gaston Gazette: Local produce vendor finds comfort in the community at his shop
U.S. Army officials say a mass shooting suspect accused of killing 18 people and injuring 13 on Wednesday night in Maine had been evaluated for his mental health in New York this summer while he was serving in the Army.

The New York Army National Guard said that Robert Card, 40, and his fellow Army Reserve battalion were training at Camp Smith in Cortlandt in July when Army staff were alerted to reports of strange behavior.

Police back a up a truck at Schemengees Bar where a mass shooting occurred yesterday in Lewiston, Maine on October 26, 2023. A massive manhunt was under way on October 26 for a gunman who a local official said killed at least 22 people and wounded dozens more in mass shootings in the US state of Maine, the deadliest such incident this year. (Photo by Joseph Prezioso / AFP) (Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)

"On July 16, 2023, leaders of the Army Reserves 3rd Battalion, 304th Infantry Regiment, which was billeted at the Camp Smith Training Site while training at the United States Military Academy, informed garrison staff that Army Reserve Sgt. 1st Class Robert Card was behaving erratically," a spokesperson for the New York Army National Guard said.

Camp Smith is primarily used as a training facility for military members who train at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point. The website says the camp has outdoor ranges and simulators that are used by the military, law enforcement and government agencies.

The New York Army National Guard said New York State Police brought Card to Keller Army Community Hospital at West Point for evaluation.

Authorities are still looking for Card after he opened fire in a bar and a bowling alley in Lewiston, Maine, and fled the scene, police said. Some communities in Maine remain under shelter-in place advisories Friday, as the Lewiston Police Department said Card was "armed and dangerous."

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Maine mass shooting suspect has ties to Westchester NY: Army officials
Camden County, New Jersey, authorities are investigating a series of perplexing arsons at a residence.

The incident at a home on Concord Circle occurred at approximately 1 a.m. on Saturday, as reported by Haddonfield police and the Camden County Prosecutor's Office, as per ABC6.

Mysterious Arsons on Concord Circle in Camden County

Horrifying footage has once again captured a disturbing act of arson. A man was seen pouring gasoline over a car before igniting it, marking the third incident on the same driveway in just six years.

This shocking event has left the community in disbelief, with residents questioning the motivations behind these repeated acts of destruction. The unfortunate couple who reside at the property were asleep when the incident unfolded on Concord Circle.

Surveillance footage depicted the arsonist pouring gasoline into the car's engine bay and beneath the silver vehicle. The culprit then created a trail of fuel leading away from the car and the property. He returned to light the path, causing the SUV to become engulfed in an inferno.

The engine exploded as the fire took hold, sending fire and debris across the driveway. One striking aspect of this disturbing case is that it marks the third time arsonists have targeted the same property. The first incident occurred in 2017, followed by another in 2021, and the most recent attack happened just last weekend.

Police have noted that each time, a different homeowner was living at the residence, raising questions about the motives behind these deliberate acts of arson. The Haddonfield Police Department issued a public safety update: "A suspect poured gasoline on a car parked in the homeowner's driveway and set it on fire.

The property has been the target of arson, with multiple incidents since 2017, despite the house changing ownership multiple times. No evidence indicates that the greater Haddonfield community is at risk. Detectives from law enforcement agencies and the Fire Marshal are committed to solving the crimes and charging the individual(s) to bring closure to the residents of Concord Circle.

Police Chief Jason Cutler, while acknowledging the repeated attacks, expressed that there is no evidence to suggest that an arsonist is running rampant in the town, according to Mail Online.

Read Also: NYPD Tow Truck Kills 7yo Boy in Brooklyn

Serial Arsons, Political Scandal in New Jersey

The motives behind these serial arsons remain shrouded in mystery. These unsettling events unfolded after a significant political scandal in New Jersey.

Senator Robert Menendez, a prominent figure, has entered a not-guilty plea to a criminal charge for conspiring to act as an agent for the Egyptian government. Alongside him, his wife Nadine faces similar charges, adding complexity to this controversial case.

Both individuals are accused of accepting bribes, including cash, gold bars, and a luxury car, from three New Jersey people in business over the past five years in exchange for various corrupt actions.

The indictment has been updated to include a charge alleging that the senator, his wife, and one of the business people conspired to have Menendez act as an agent of the government of Egypt and its officials. Allegations also include passing sensitive information to staff at the US Embassy in Cairo, deepening the intrigue surrounding the case.

The investigation took a surprising turn when a court-authorized search of the couple's home in June 2022 uncovered multiple gold bars. These bars were identified as part of the hundreds of thousands in bribes the couple is accused of accepting, totaling over $400,000.

Furthermore, agents discovered over $500,000 in cash hidden in envelopes and jackets belonging to the senator. The original criminal indictment even suggested that the senator googled "How much is one kilo of gold worth?" upon returning to Egypt in October 2021.

Despite these allegations and charges, David Schertler, a lawyer representing Nadine Menendez, stated that she "denies any criminal conduct and will vigorously contest these charges in court." A troubling event has unfolded in Haddonfield, New Jersey, in these ongoing controversies.

The repeated arson attacks have left the community in shock and fear. Meanwhile, law enforcement agencies work diligently to bring the arsonist to justice, and the district hopes for a swift resolution to these terrifying incidents, Fox29 reported.

Related Article: Florida Universities Urged To Ban Pro-Palestinian Student Group on Campuses

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KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) -Malaysia's royal families elected the powerful and outspoken Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar from the southern state of Johor to be the country's next king.

The king plays a largely ceremonial role in Malaysia, but the monarchy has become more influential in recent years due to prolonged political instability that has prompted the incumbent king to wield rarely used discretionary powers.

Malaysia has a unique system in which the heads of its nine royal families take turns to be monarch for a five-year term. The Southeast Asian country is a parliamentary democracy, with the monarch serving as head of state.

Sultan Ibrahim will take over from current King Al-Sultan Abdullah on Jan. 31, 2024, the keeper of the rulers' seal said in a statement on Friday.

Unlike other traditional Malaysian rulers, Sultan Ibrahim has been outspoken about politics and has said he has a good relationship with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

The sultan, who is known to have a big collection of luxury cars and motorcycles, has wide-ranging business interests from real estate to mining.

King Al-Sultan played an unusually active role in Malaysian politics, picking the country's last three prime ministers.

The federal constitution grants the monarch only a few discretionary powers, with the king largely required to act upon the advice of the prime minister and cabinet.

It also allows the king to appoint a prime minister who he believes has a parliamentary majority, a power never utilised until 2020, as the premier is typically picked through an election.

King Al-Sultan used those powers during a period of political instability triggered by the defeat of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), which had governed Malaysia uninterrupted since independence until 2018.

The king also has the power to pardon convicted people. In 2018, Al-Sultan's predecessor, Sultan Muhammad V, pardoned Anwar, who was then imprisoned on sodomy and corruption charges that he says were politically motivated.

Former prime minister Najib Razak, jailed last year on a graft conviction linked to a scandal over state fund 1MDB, has applied for a royal pardon, a request that could be reviewed by the new king.

(Reporting by A. Ananthalakshmi, Rozanna Latiff and Danial Azhar; Editing by Kanupriya Kapoor and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
Mars Theatre Brewing Company's new ownership team is led by Scott Spruill.

MARS HILL - Mars Theatre Brewing has undergone a lot of change since new ownership took over the business operations a little more than a year ago.

Owner Scott Spruill celebrated the new ownership's anniversary in October. Spruill runs the Mars Hill brewery, while his brother runs the Chimney Rock location.

Before Spruill took over, the brewery was called Hickory Nut Gorge Brewery, a name which many, including Spruill, said never made much sense.

"Sometimes you've got to dumb it down to be right," Spruill said. "This is Mars Theatre Brewing Company. It's Mars Theatre. And we renamed Chimney Rock to Chimney Rock Brewing Company. We're in Chimney Rock, so we simplified things from a name standpoint.

"I've been coming to Lake Lure for 15 years, because my brother has lived there," Spruill said. "We'd have father-son weekends. We'd always go to the brewery in Chimney Rock."

Spruill was living in New Jersey, but after his son, Scotty Jr., died from an asthma attack in January 2021 at 20 years old, he said he and the family needed to get away.

"I had lost my son, so I needed to get out of New Jersey and come here," Spruill said. "He died in my arms. It was like a freak thing. I have two daughters also, so we just needed a new start. So, I relocated and bought a place in Barnardsville.

"We came out, and I looked at this theater, and was like, 'Man, there's so much potential here.' This is just a kickass building. The bones are good. The history is great."

Mars Theatre Brewing Company's Scott Spruill called the Mars Hill venue 'our own little 'Cheers.'"

Spruill's sister is a silent partner as well. He said the family operation is a welcome distraction for his brother, too, as his brother's wife is battling late-stage Alzheimer's.

"So, we were both going through these very difficult times. We both always loved craft beer, and now we're both involved in the craft beer business," Spruill said. "You couldn't ask for a better outlet or distraction for what we're going through."

Since buying the building, Spruill said he has made a number of renovations, including adding chandeliers and adding rock walls.

The intention behind these renovations is to revitalize the building and turn what was once considered simply a brewery into a venue.

"We're not just a brewery, we're a venue. We have live music, karaoke, open mic," Spruill said. "We have live music every weekend."

On the walls are paintings of some of Spruill's favorite rock stars, including Mick Jagger, Jimi Hendrix, Jerry Garcia and New Jersey's own Bruce Springsteen.

Part of the venue's reinvention involves Spruill showing movies on Sundays, as well.

"I'm keeping the theater going," Spruill said. "I've got to show a movie here. It's a 1947 movie theater. I've got a theater, so I want to give back to the community."

On Sundays, Mars Theatre hosts a matinee aimed at children at 1:30 p.m. and then holds a 4:30 p.m. slot for an adult movie.

Mars Theatre Brewing Company in Mars Hill hosts a number of events throughout the week, including trivia night.

'Our little Cheers'

Being community-oriented is a focus that Spruill has been very intentional about implementing at the venue.

"It's our own little 'Cheers,'" Spruill said. "We have our Norm and our Cliff who come here all the time. But then we're getting way more tourists, and more people from Asheville are coming out. The only promotion I do is Facebook, because I wanted it to grow organically and let it just kind of happen naturally.

"We weren't in a mad rush. We're OK financially. Chimney Rock is a moneymaker, so that really subsidizes this place, and allows me to have this as a hobby and keep the history of the building alive. So it's really cool."

On Oct. 5, Spruill and staff hosted a fundraiser for Teresa Ramsay, the Mars Hill postal worker who was shot and had her mail vehicle carjacked in September.

"She is such a great gal," Spruill said. "She would sit over there in that corner. I'm going to name it 'Teresa's Corner.' She was a regular. So we all knew her. When we heard it happened, we thought, 'It couldn't have happened to a sweeter, nicer gal.' She worked hard. She's a single mom with two kids. She's got amazing spirit."

Mars Theatre Brewing Company is located at 70 N. Main St. in downtown Mars Hill.

More: Suspect in Mars Hill attempted murder/carjacking of mail vehicle federally indicted

Spruill said five bands played at the fundraiser, and the auction at the event raised close to $10,000 to be donated to a GoFundMe started by Ramsay's daughter, Scarlet.

According to Spruill, Mars Hill Baptist Church collected $2,300 for Ramsay also.

"We had a great benefit for her. It was a great night," Spruill said. "Her daughter was in a band, and they hadn't played for like six months. So, they reunited that night and did like five songs."

During the college's homecoming weekend, the venue hosted three reunion parties, and a sorority also rented out the space.

"They rented the whole space out for three hours, and they put their pictures up of all the girls over three years," Spruill said. "People want to rent it out. It's great for reunions. People can show clips and video of family and stuff. We have to get our business plan up to speed for events, because it's a different ballgame. So, we're open to that."

Mars Theatre Brewing Company hosted a number of reunions during Mars Hill University's homecoming weekend.

The community has embraced the new owners as well, according to Spruill.

"They love us. I've made friends for life," Spruill said. "I was just up at a cabin with a couple that I met here, with my wife. They've just embraced us. The town administration's embraced us. The town police, the fire. Which is nice because there is an old political regime, and they like their little sleepy town.

"But I think they know they need to do this, when you see Weaverville, you see Marshall, you see Burnsville. All these people are coming out of Asheville, and these boutique towns are becoming cool little historic spots to visit."

Brewery

Philip Shepard is the new brewer on staff at Mars Theatre Brewing. Shepard has worked 13 years as a brewer, including nine years at The Oyster House in Asheville.

"I live up here, so it was just serendipity that this came up," said Shepard, a former graphic designer who grew up in Alabama. "I found their email and contacted them. I just wanted to be closer to home. It's been nice to come in and kind of just go through everything."

Shepard lives in Forks of Ivy.

Philip Shepard is Mars Theatre Brewing Company's brewer.

Spruill told The News-Record the partnership between Shepard and the brewery was "a perfect marriage."

"He's the brewer we always wanted," the owner said. "Philip can come in on a Sunday just to check a fermenter. So, it's a good marriage."

He said the Mars Theatre brewhouse will produce roughly 4,200 "sixtel" kegs, which are 1/6 the size of a regular keg, hence the term. This averages out to nearly 22,000 gallons of beer annually.

The brewhouse uses a seven-barrel system.

According to Spruill, Mars Theatre has been very deliberate about trying to target the younger crowd, as the university is right up the street.

"We want to introduce the young generation to craft beer. So what we do is we bring a keg of Coors in, and we charge $3 for Coors, because that's what they like to drink," Spruill said. "But then as they're here, we're like, 'Hey, try this,' to try to get the young generation to drink craft beer. And they're warming right up to craft beer."

Mars Theatre Brewing Company owner Scott Spruill said he has been intentional about trying to get the younger generations of drinkers to warm up to craft beer.

The venue also offers wine and spritzers.

As for food, the venue is offering more American fare items, including meatball subs, chicken sandwiches and Philly cheesesteaks.

"My wife's taking over the kitchen, so we're getting consistency there," Spruill said. "I want consistency. I really want to make this an eatery as well as a brewery, because Mars Hill doesn't have a ton of places to eat."

The owner said the Mars Hill venue plans to build the deck out to add seating for five or six more tables.

While a number of residents have turned the Mars Hill brewery into their own "little 'Cheers,'" Spruill said the business has been an endeavor that has allowed him to keep his strength through his grief.

"It's been a year and eight months since I lost my boy," Spruill said. "It's been a battle every day. But this at least gives me something to kind of keep going."

Mars Theatre Brewing Company is located at 70 N. Main St. in Mars Hill.

The venue is open Thursday from 4-10 p.m., Friday and Saturday from noon to 10 p.m., and Sunday from noon to 7 p.m. For more information, visit its Facebook page.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Mars Theatre Brewing's new owners: Venue is town's own 'little Cheers'
By Alexandre Meneghini and Josue Decavele

ACAPULCO, Mexico (Reuters) -Looting ravaged the Mexican city of Acapulco after the iconic beach resort was hammered this week by Hurricane Otis, a record-breaking storm that killed at least 27 people and left thousands of residents struggling to get food and water.

Otis pounded Acapulco with winds of 165 miles per hour (266 km per hour) early on Wednesday, flooding the city, tearing roofs from homes, stores and hotels, submerging vehicles, and severing communications as well as road and air connections.

The cost of devastation left by the Category 5 storm was estimated at billions of dollars, and over 8,000 armed forces members were sent to help the stricken port recover.

"Right now, money's no use to us because there's nothing to buy, everything's been looted," 57-year-old Acapulco resident Rodolfo Villagomez said after Otis tore through the city. "It was total chaos. You could hear it here hissing like a bull."

On Thursday evening, people carried off goods including food, water and toilet paper from stores. "We came to get food, because we don't have any," a woman told Reuters.

Reuters video showed people carrying boxes from a wrecked supermarket and loading up cars. Inside, shelves were bare.

"There were acts of looting in some places because there was an emergency," President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Friday, urging residents not to take advantage of the situation.

Elsewhere, household detritus was littered among ruined deck chairs and jumbles of mangled trees outside wrecked homes.

Speaking at a regular press conference, Lopez Obrador said the government would help people in the city of nearly 900,000 in the southern state of Guerrero, one of Mexico's poorest.

But many residents said the aid was insufficient.

"All the stores are closed or destroyed," said Raul Busto Ramirez, 76, an engineer who works at Acapulco's airport. He blamed looting on shortages and said ATM machines were out of action, leaving people with no cash.

The government has released little information about dead and injured, saying only that four people are also missing. Some officials privately express concern the death toll will rise.

Letitia Murphy said she began to worry when she lost contact with her ex-husband and father of her two children, 59-year-old Briton Neil Marshall, who was in Acapulco when Otis hit.

Murphy said she found out on social media he had died after residents discovered his body close to where he was staying.

"We can't even get information about him," she told Reuters by phone. "It's horrible that we don't know what to do."

The Mexican and British governments did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Another weather front that could produce more heavy rain is expected to gain strength off Central America in the coming days, again moving toward southern Mexico.

'WE WERE LUCKY'

Mexican authorities said Otis was the most powerful storm ever to strike Mexico's Pacific coast. It caught forecasters by surprise, gathering strength with unexpected speed before it came ashore, and surpassed initial predictions.

Still, Lopez Obrador said: "We were lucky."

"Nature, the creator protected us, even with the fury of the hurricane," he added. "There's a lot of material damage but luckily we're not registering too many deaths."

To evacuate tourists, an air bridge between Acapulco and Mexico City was being set up on Friday after authorities got the city's battered airport back up and running.

The government has yet to estimate the cost of Otis, but Enki Research, which tracks tropical storms and models the cost of their damage, saw it likely "approaching $15 billion." Lopez Obrador urged insurance companies to speed up payouts.

Governments sent messages of solidarity to Mexico, and Pope Francis expressed his condolences on Friday.

U.S. President Joe Biden expressed his condolences for the hurricane's victims in a brief statement on Friday evening, pledging "full support" to Mexico's government as well as help ensuring U.S. citizens in the area are safe.

State power utility CFE said on Friday it had restored 50% of the electricity service in Guerrero and Mexican telecommunications company America Movil had re-established nearly 60% of cell service.

Jeff, a 65-year-old Canadian in Acapulco, said he was stuck in the city and worried how he would survive the coming days because "all the stores have been pillaged."

"The disaster here is unbelievable," he said. "We don't see nothing happening except people trying to scavenge everything they can to survive for the next couple of weeks or months."

(Reporting by Alexandre Meneghini, Jose Cortes, Quetzalli Nicte-ha in Acapulco; Diego Ore and Kylie Madry in Mexico City, Laura Gottesdiener in Monterrey and Natalia Siniawski in Gdansk; Writing by Dave Graham;Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Bill Berkrot, Sandra Maler and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
The third Republican primary debate will be moderated by two of the biggest names on NBC News and a conservative radio host with a past in the Reagan administration.

The next showdown is set to take place on 8 November at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami.

The moderators

The debate will be moderated by NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt, recently appointed Meet The Press moderator Kristen Welker and conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.

Lester Holt

Mr Holt, 64, co-moderated the first debate in the 2020 Democratic primaries and he was the sole moderator in the first 2016 general election debate between Mr Trump and former Secretary of State and New York Senator Hillary Clinton.

He worked for CBS between 1981 and 2000, at which point he joined NBC. He took the anchor chair of NBC Nightly News in 2015 following the departure of Brian Williams. Mr Holt then became the first African American to be the sole anchor of a weekday network nightly newscast.

Kristen Welker

Ms Welker, 47, NBCs co-chief White House correspondent, was appointed as the new moderator of Meet The Press, NBCs flagship Sunday political talk show and longest-running TV programme ever, on 17 September.

Ms Welker was criticised for her handling of former President Donald Trump during an interview earlier this year but praised after her performance moderating one of the 2020 general election debates between Mr Trump and then-candidate Joe Biden.

Think we can all agree the winner is Kristen Welker, said Jimmy Fallon, the host of NBCs Tonight Show.

Hugh Hewitt

Hugh Hewitt reacts to a comment while siting down to talk about the 2016 presidential race with Jonathan Alter on his show, "Alter Family Politics" at Quicken Loans Arena on July 20, 2016 in Cleveland, Ohio (Getty)

Mr Hewitt, 67, served in the Reagan administration in a number of positions, after which he worked at the Nixon Library before becoming a radio host in the 1990s. The Hugh Hewitt Show is nationally syndicated and Mr Hewitt is also a Washington Post columnist.

Mr Hewitt clashed with Mr Trump on several occasions when hosting events during the 2016 campaign, once saying that he didnt have the temperament to be president. He also said that the GOP failing to see the consequences of Mr Trump becoming the nominee would be similar to ignoring Stage IV cancer.

The candidates

To qualify, candidates need to reach at least four per cent in two national polls, or four per cent in one national poll and four per cent in two early primary states.

They also need 70,000 individual donors, including 200 donors in 20 states, according to the requirements set by the Republican National Committee (RNC).

Five candidates have qualified for the showdown, so far  Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, biotech entrepreneur and woke-bashing author Vivek Ramaswamy, former UN Ambassador and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, and ex-New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.

Former President Donald Trump has also qualified but has said that, like the first two debates, he wont attend. He will instead hold a rally in Hialeah, Florida, not far from Miami.

While former Vice President Mike Pence has reached the required polling results to participate in the debate, he still needs to acquire 70,000 individual donors.

South Carolina Senator Tim Scott has hit the required polling in two state polls but hasnt reached the threshold in national polling or when it comes to donors, according to Politico, even as his campaign argues they have hit the required polling and is on track to get the number of donors needed.

The qualification period is 1 September to 6 November.
More than half the top executives at Arizona's largest nonprofit and public health systems who were leading their organizations during the deadly worldwide COVID-19 pandemic got pay hikes during those tumultuous years.

Peter Fine, who has headed Phoenix-based Banner Health since 2000, was the highest paid nonprofit hospital CEO in Arizona in 2021, according to IRS records. Banner Health is the state's largest private employer and one of the country's largest health systems.

Fine's total reported pay package that year was $12.4 million, a 10% increase from 2019, IRS records show. Banner officials said the amount includes $4.4 million in retirement pay that was accrued but not paid out.

Six CEOS of Arizona's 10 largest hospitals and hospital systems saw increases in their total reported compensation between 2019, 2020 and 2021. Three did not. One did not start his job until the 2021 fiscal year.

Some of those who got raises had double-digit percentage pay bumps.

U.S. hospitals faced an overwhelming and unprecedented crisis situation during the pandemic. Yet critics question whether hospital CEO pay is too high at a time when many front-line health care workers have quit from burnout and when many patients struggle to pay medical bills and find affordable care.

Adding to public interest in hospital CEO salaries, 75,000 health care workers employed by the nonprofit Kaiser Permanente health care system walked off the job Oct. 4 because of what they called inadequate pay and short staffing. Several national media reports have called the three-day walkout the largest U.S. health care strike in recent history. The strike involved workers in multiple states, including California, but none in Arizona.

Nonprofit hospital CEOs are outliers in the nonprofit world, according to an Aug. 11 blog post by Judith Garber, a senior policy analyst at The Lown Institute, a nonprofit public policy think tank that advocates for an improved health care system.

While most nonprofit CEOs earn between $90,000 and $250,000 on average, the average nonprofit hospital CEO gets paid nearly $700,000, Garber wrote.

"Even presidents of universities, the next-highest paid in the nonprofit sector, make about $300,000 less on average than the leaders of nonprofit hospitals," she wrote.

It's unacceptable that nonprofit hospitals received $28 billion in tax breaks in 2020 while reducing the amount of affordable health care they provide to the working class. If these hospitals don't substantially increase charity care they should lose their tax exempt status. pic.twitter.com/hI9r6w7n5Z  Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) October 10, 2023

Total compensation calculated using Schedule J on 990 forms

The total reported compensation for Arizona nonprofit CEOs is on Schedule J of the 990 IRS form, which includes base compensation, bonuses and incentives, "other reportable compensation," retirement and other deferred compensation, and nontaxable benefits.

Here is a list of top CEO compensation for Arizona's largest nonprofit and public hospital and health systems for 2021. Hospital systems that operate on a fiscal year are designated with a single asterisk. All others operate on a calendar year.

Banner Health CEO Peter Fine: $12.4 million in 2021, up 10% from 2019.

Phoenix Children's Hospital CEO Bob Meyer: $3.3 million in 2021, up 13% from 2019.

Yuma Regional Medical Center CEO Dr. Robert Trenschel: $2.6 million in 2021, up by 94% from 2019.*

Former Dignity Health in Arizona CEO Linda Hunt: $2.1 million in 2021, up by 13% from 2019.* Hunt stepped down in January 2022.

HonorHealth CEO Todd LaPorte: $1.9 million in 2021, down 1% from 2019.

Mayo Clinic in Arizona CEO Dr. Richard Gray: $1.8 million in 2021, up by 26% from 2020. Since Gray did not become CEO until midway through 2019, The Republic calculated his total compensation increase from 2020 to 2021.

TMC Health CEO Judy Rich: $1.5 million in 2021, down 2% from 2019. TMC Health operates Tucson Medical Center. The TMC Healthcare 990 says Rich earned $1.9 million in 2021, but health system officials say that amount was an error and they're filing an amended 990.

Valleywise Health CEO Steve Purves: $897,896 in 2021, up by 29% from 2019.

Former Northern Arizona Healthcare CEO Florence Spyrow: $796,381 in 2021, a 5% decrease from 2020.* Spyrow stepped down in August 2022. Since Spyrow did not become the health system's permanent CEO until midway through the 2019 fiscal year, The Republic calculated her total compensation increase between the 2020 and 2021 fiscal years.

Former Kingman Healthcare Inc./Kingman Regional Medical Center CEO William "Will" McConnell: $524,215 in 2021, down 32% from the $773,113 that former CEO Brian Turney earned in 2019.* McConnell started the job in June 2020 and left in June 2022. Turney earned $993,473 in total compensation in 2021, though he wasn't CEO. The compensation was for advisory work as well the remainder of his benefits, which included a payout of accrued PTO hours, medical center leaders said.

Public reporting of 990 tax forms often lags by a year or two, but filings were significantly delayed during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021 income is the most recently available, although some 2022 filings from organizations on a fiscal year are becoming available and are expected to be fully available for all nonprofits in 2024.

The Arizona Republic got the compensation information from three sources  Guidestar, an information service specializing in U.S. nonprofit companies, a nonprofit database maintained by ProPublica, which is an independent investigative journalism news outlet, and for Phoenix-based Valleywise Health, a public records request. Valleywise Health is the public health care system for Maricopa County.

Dissecting Banner Health CEO's pay

Banner CEO Peter Fine's base compensation was $1.6 million in 2021. He also received $6 million in bonus and incentive compensation, and when other reportable pay was added in the total reported was $12.4 million for 2021, the deadliest year for the COVID-19 pandemic in Arizona.

His 2021 pay package was up by 10% from a pre-pandemic total compensation of $11.2 million 2019, Banner's tax return indicates.

Banner Health employs 53,000 people across six states. The nonprofit health system operates 33 hospitals, plus urgent care centers, an academic medicine division and an insurance division, among other entities. No other local health system is similar in size and complexity, company officials said in a statement.

The compensation for Fine, the CEO of Banner Health for 23 years, is established annually by a committee of the Banner Health Board of Directors, which considers several benchmarks, including the compensation of peers at comparable nonprofit health care systems in the U.S. , Banner officials said.

Banner Health

The IRS Form 990 report for Fine's income includes deferred compensation that was accrued but not paid out. Counting it as part of Fine's total compensation is like "double counting," since it will be paid out in future years, Banner officials said.

"For this reason, the annual cash compensation for Banner's CEO in 2021 is approximately $4.4 million less than the total on Form 990," Banner spokesperson Becky Armendariz wrote in an email.

Using those calculations, Fine's 2021 total compensation was $8 million in 2021 and not $12.4 million. Fine's accrued deferred compensation in 2019 was $4.1 million, which would have put his total compensation that year at $7.1 million. Using those adjusted amounts, Fine's compensation still increased by 10% between pre-pandemic 2019 and 2021.

While Fine is the CEO and top executive at Banner Health, the company employs numerous other highly paid leaders, tax returns show, including 14 who earned $1 million or more in total reported compensation in 2021.

Competitive pay 'imperative' in rural areas, Yuma hospital leaders say

The total compensation of Dr. Robert Trenschel, the CEO of Yuma Regional Medical Center, jumped the most of any of the Arizona nonprofit CEOs over two years  by 94% between the 2019 and 2021 fiscal years, IRS records show.

In 2021, Trenschel earned $2.6 million, according to the 990 tax forms the hospital submitted to the federal agency.

Yuma Regional Medical Center officials said the increase was tied to an executive retention program that provides financial credits to an executive every year. At the end of five years, if the executive is still employed, the executive is paid the accumulated value of those credits.

Trenschel began his job in Yuma in 2015, and the executive retention program paid him $1 million in 2020, Yuma officials said. His total compensation for the 2022 fiscal year (ending Sept. 9, 2022) is already publicly available and is listed as $1.7 million, nearly $1 million less than the 2021 amount.

"Competitive pay, especially in rural regions, is imperative to attracting and retaining top leadership," Yuma Regional Medical Center spokesperson Machele Headington wrote in an email. "And with eight years as CEO of YRMC, Dr. Trenschel has been a consummate leader during a time of transformation."

Yuma Regional Medical Center

With about 2,800 employees, Yuma Regional Medical Center is the 65th-largest private employer in Arizona, tied with Vanguard Group, an investment company, according to The Republic's annual survey of the state's largest employers for 2023.

Linda Hunt, who was CEO of Dignity Health in Arizona during the pandemic, had a 13% bump in total compensation between 2019 and 2021, when she earned $2.1 million.

Dignity officials say Hunt took on additional duties during the pandemic, overseeing the Nevada division of Dignity Health and also Yavapai Regional Medical Center, which became affiliated with Dignity Health in 2020.

"The rate of increase was related to this and also the annual merit increase consistent with all employees," Dignity spokesperson Carmelle Malkovich wrote in an email.

San Francisco-based Dignity Health has 13,844 employees in Arizona and is Arizona's 10th largest private employer, The Republic's survey says.

Initiative would cap hospital CEO pay at US president's salary

Voters in Los Angeles will go to the polls in 2024 to decide whether the total compensation for hospital executives in the city should be capped at $450,000, the salary of the president of the United States.

Health care workers in California are are traumatized and burned out after the pandemic, and at the same time, hospital executives, who are not the ones directly taking care of patients, are getting huge raises and bonuses, said Renee Saldana, who is a spokesperson for the SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West union, which spearheaded the proposal.

The salary cap would apply to top executives, administrators and managers of privately owned nonprofit and for-profit hospitals, union officials say. Critics say the measure would hurt recruitment and retention of hospital leaders, arguing that hospitals are complex entities that are responsible for the 24/7 care of patients and the communities where they serve.

It's not just hospital CEOs who are making high salaries. CEO pay is high across multiple U.S. sectors. Top U.S. CEO pay increased by 1,209.2% between 1978 and 2022, compared with a 15.3% increase in a typical workers compensation, according to the nonprofit Washington D.C.-based Economic Policy Institute.

The Washington D.C.-based AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations), which tracks CEO pay, says that in 2022 the American CEOs earned, on average, $16 million per year in total compensation, which is higher than any amount the nonprofit health systems leaders in Arizona earned in 2021. In 2022, the average CEO-to-worker pay ratio in the U.S. was 272-to-1 for S&P 500 Index companies, the AFL-CIO found.

The median household income in Arizona between 2017 and 2021 was $65,913, U.S. Census Bureau data shows.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, on Oct. 10 announced he'd released a report that says many nonprofit hospital systems across the U.S. are failing to provide low-income Americans with the affordable medical care required by their nonprofit status, "despite receiving billions in tax benefits and providing exorbitant compensation packages to their senior executives."

Internal Revenue Service code says nonprofits must pay their executives at a level that is in line with "like institutions," which means they potentially risk their tax-exempt status for paying compensation that exceeds the market level, said Alexander Yaffe, a managing director at the executive compensation consulting firm Pearl Meyer.

A number of factors should be considered when looking at nonprofit health system CEO pay, including that health care is a complex industry and "there are a whole variety of things at play that make managing and growing a health system rather difficult," Yaffe said.

Some CEO pay may have increased during the pandemic because of growth in the organization or because of retention pay at a time when health system leadership was working harder and burnout was high, he said.

In his experience working with nonprofits, Yaffe said boards are typically "very focused on their tax-exempt mission and want to make sure that they are paying competitively and not excessively."

Even in the face of a once-in-a-century pandemic, hospitals & health systems not only continued to provide a comprehensive range of benefits and essential services, but their community benefit commitment actually increased. https://t.co/K6AVKU3h6Opic.twitter.com/DRjQ3IZrei  American Hospital Association (@ahahospitals) October 11, 2023

Reach health care reporter at Stephanie.Innes@gannett.com or at 602-444-8369. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter @stephanieinnes.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Here's what Arizona hospital CEOs earned during the COVID-19 pandemic
Police lights on a patrol car

Five people were fatally shot in a southeast North Carolina home on Thursday, according to the local sheriffs office.

Authorities with the Sampson County Sheriffs Office said deputies were called to the home on Garland Highway just before 1 a.m. after a person discovered the bodies of the victims.

Capt. Eric Pope told local media the individual who found the victims had just spoken to one of them around 11 p.m. before stopping by the home.

The victims are four men and one woman who range in age from mid-30s to 80s, Pope said. Its unclear how the victims were all connected, he added.

Although investigators do not have a suspect in custody, the sheriffs office said there is no threat to the public because they believe the shooting was targeted.

This is not normal for our community. It is not normal for any community, Pope said. It should shock the conscience.

Three other shooting incidents  including one involving law enforcement  happened across the county around the same time, but the sheriffs office said none of the shootings are connected.

SEE MORE: US sets record pace for mass killings so far this year
An estimated 19,000 wild horses live in Kosciuszko National Park, Australia (Associated Press)

Australia has approved the culling of wild horses by aerial shooting in one of its largest national parks, reviving a banned practice in an attempt to protect the native wildlife.

The population of wild horses  locally known as brumbies  has increased by a third in the last two years to over 19,000 in the Kosciuszko National Park in New South Wales.

The authorities wanted to contain their population to about 3000 by mid-2027.

Threatened native species are in danger of extinction and the entire ecosystem is under threat. We must take action, NSWs environment minister Penny Sharpe said.

This was not an easy decision, no one wants to have to kill wild horses.

The national park has already implemented measures to capture, relocate, and euthanise wild horses on the premises, but Ms Sharpe said that it was not enough.

Reports say that although wild horses are a natural component of certain landscapes, their excessive numbers can result in ecological imbalances and pose a threat to native plant and animal species.

In 2000, aerial shooting of brumbies was briefly allowed when more than 600 wild horses were shot dead within three days. However, a massive backlash led to the banning of this method.

In 2018, under the leadership of Gladys Berejiklian, the NSW government introduced legislation commonly referred to as the Brumby Bill. It mandated safeguarding the heritage value associated with the wild horses. The New York Times reported then that the move by the state dismayed Australian and international scientists, who said it would set a disturbing precedent.

I know this decision will upset some members of the community. I empathise with those who feel distressed that we must undertake control programmes. My commitment is that I will always be open and honest with the community about these matters, without risking safety to visitors and staff, Ms Sharpe said in a statement.

In 2018, the NSW Threatened Species Scientific Committee identified habitat degradation and loss caused by feral horses as a significant threat. This process was found to have adverse effects on over 30 NSW and Commonwealth-listed threatened species and ecosystems.

Among the affected species and communities are the critically endangered southern and northern corroboree frogs, the endangered Alpine she-oak skink, the vulnerable broad-toothed rat, the critically endangered blue-tongued greenhood, and the critically endangered fish stocky galaxias.

Authorities say that soil, waterways and limestone caves are also under threat due to the excessive population of wild horses in the park.

The change is essential to protecting the parks threatened native wildlife and ecosystems, the authorities said in a statement.

The Invasive Species Council, a conservation group, has welcomed the decision to resume aerial shooting in response to Australias estimated feral horse population of up to 400,000.

The groups advocacy manager Jack Gough said the wild horse population in New South Wales was growing at a rate of between 15 and 18 per cent a year. The science is crystal clear and the public and political mood has shifted as Australians have become better informed about the damage feral horses are doing to the high country, he continued.

No one likes to see animals killed, but the sad reality is that we have a choice to make between urgently reducing the numbers of feral horses or accepting the destruction of sensitive Alpine ecosystems and habitats, and the decline and extinction of native animals.

But the decision also made some unhappy. The NSW Labor government has failed to uphold any of their election promises for animal protection reform, Emma Hurst of Australias Animal Justice Party was quoted as saying by Sydney Morning Herald. It is clear that animal welfare is not on their priority list, and this announcement to allow inhumane aerial shooting is just another example.

Australian Brumby Alliance president Jill Pickering told ABC News: I am really saddened. Its terrible for us and even worse for the brumbies. Its impossible to get an accurate shot.

She is concerned that the welfare of the horses may be compromised if the accuracy of the aerial shooters is not precise enough to ensure an instant, humane kill. After the aerial shooting, we will find shattered hindquarters, bullets everywhere and the odd horse still alive. So no amount of saying that its going to be humane can cut it with us.
When New Hampshire voters head to the Democratic primary polls early next year, one name will conspicuously be missing from the ballot: Joe Biden.

The president opted not to file for the historically first in the nation race in order to comply with a new Democratic National Committee primary schedule  one proposed by Biden  which designates South Carolina as first in the lineup, according to the Associated Press.

However, New Hampshire law mandates that it holds the countrys first primary, according to the AP, and state officials have said they plan to follow it in spite of the DNCs reshuffling.

Bidens absence from the ballot will shake up the Granite States primary, a contest that has had outsize influence in nominating presidential candidates, according to experts. He could still win  as voters have the option to write in candidates  but other White House hopefuls may pounce on the opportunity to make headway.

The shakeup

Lesser-known candidates may well make efforts to use this to raise their visibility, Matthew McDermott, a Democratic strategist, told McClatchy News.

So far, the only other declared candidate for the Democratic nomination is Marianne Williamson, an author and spiritual leader.

New Hampshires primary should not be fodder for the shenanigans of a political party, Williamson said in a statement, referencing the view held by some that the DNCs schedule change was implemented to benefit Biden, who was carried to victory by South Carolina in the 2020 Democratic primaries.

I will be campaigning there in deference to the laws of the Granite State, not staying away in deference to the rules of the DNC, Williamson added.

Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips is also expected to enter the race, Dante Scala, a political science professor at the University of New Hampshire (UNH), told McClatchy News.

As these long-shot opponents try to make gains, Bidens campaign will have to decide how to frame the contest for New Hampshire voters, Scala said.

They could just do a benign neglect sort of thing, Scala said. Or they could say, Hey, no, we actually think South Carolina should be first, period, and therefore we discourage New Hampshire Democrats from even showing up because we dont recognize the primary is legitimate.

The Biden team is not expected to launch a formal write-in campaign, which would go against the same rules that led to his decision not to file, McDermott said. But he would anticipate an organic, grassroots effort to turn out voters and write-in the president.

Biden victory expected

Even though Biden is at a disadvantage, he is still favored to win a majority of the votes due to a number of factors, multiple experts said.

Dean Phillips starts in New Hampshire with near zero name ID, Scala said. Marianne Williamson, the last time I checked, I think she was (polling) at single digitsso, I mean, 50% doesnt doesnt seem like an especially high bar for Biden.

Its not like Im running to Vegas and betting my house on it, but I feel hell reach that threshold, Leslie Marshall, a Democratic strategist and Fox News Contributor, told McClatchy News.

Only 6% of likely Democratic primary voters in New Hampshire selected Williamson as their first choice, versus 78% who picked Biden, according to a September UNH poll. Support for Phillips, who has not formally announced, was not polled.

In addition to his dominance in the polls, Biden, as the incumbent president and longtime fixture in national politics, also has the advantage of name recognition, which is the number one factor affecting voters decisions, Marshall said.

But whether or not Biden wins in the Granite State does not matter in the grand scheme of things, Melissa Michelson, professor of political science at Menlo College, told McClatchy News.

Hes going to be the nominee of the party regardless of what happens in New Hampshire, Michelson said.

Elections are purely based on numbers, Marshall said, and the state of New Hampshire does not have the numbers to put a candidate over the finish line or to sink them.

Bidens nightmare scenario

Despite New Hampshires relatively few delegates and Bidens favorable odds of winning the primary, a less-than-stellar performance could still spell trouble for him, according to several experts, citing historical precedent.

Frankly, Im not surprised Biden is completely avoiding New Hampshire, Frank Luntz, a political consultant and pollster, told McClatchy News. He wants to avoid a Lyndon Johnson / George Herbert Walker Bush moment.

Although President George H.W. Bush won 58% of the Republican primary vote in New Hampshire in 1992, his margin of victory was seen as unsettlingly small. His results carried many ominous signs and caused alarm in the White House, according to The New York Times.

Before Bush, President Lyndon Johnson, like Biden, opted to keep his name off the primary ballot in New Hampshire in 1968. He thought it was kind of beneath him to have to run for re-nomination, Scala said.

The funny thing is  well not so funny if youre Biden  but the funny thing is that Johnson wins, but his margin of victory is rather small, Scala said. The message that the national political media take out of that is, Look at how weak Johnson is. And then of course, a few weeks later, Johnson says, You know what, Im not running for re-election.

If Biden were to win a similarly slim majority in New Hampshire, hes in danger of being framed in the same way  as a weak candidate not supported by rank-and-file Democrats, Scala said. That would be the nightmare scenario, he said.

He would then face much more scrutiny in the subsequent primaries and could confront calls to step aside for a stronger candidate, he said.

He would really need to blow the doors off in South Carolina to try to put this to bed, Scala said.

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U.S. Border Patrol officials received no official requests and little warning ahead of Elon Musks highly publicized Sept. 28 visit to the U.S.-Mexico border, according to emails obtained by NBC News.

The emails, acquired through a Freedom of Information Act request, show government officials discussing and briefing each other on the visit, in which Musk appeared in a cowboy hat at the border site near Eagle Pass, Texas, with Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas. The two discussed immigration as Musk broadcast live video to the social platform X of a scene that included dozens of detained migrants.

The documents were provided in response to a request from NBC News specifically pertaining to Musks visit. Musks name appears to be redacted throughout the documents, but the emails match the dates of his trip to the site and his interactions with Gonzales. In one portion of the emails, an officer describes in detail an interaction that Musk appeared to livestream on X. Gonzales name was not redacted.

In an email sent with the documents, the Border Patrol explained that the federal code Permits withholding of records and information about individuals when disclosure would be a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.

The Border Patrol did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.

Musk and Gonzales did not respond to emailed requests for comment.

Musk has become increasingly outspoken about U.S. political issues, and has repeatedly discussed immigration online. He has also become an outsize figure in Texas, where his companies have made major investments and purchased large swaths of land.

The incident garnered significant attention at the time, bringing in over 22 million views on X and generating headlines.

Even as Musk posted publicly about the potential of a visit to the site, border officials said in emails that they had not received any official requests from Musk or Gonzales.

On Sept. 26, Musk first posted on X about the possibility of a visit, writing in response to another user: They are being overwhelmed by unprecedented numbers  just hit an all-time high and still growing! Am going to visit Eagle Pass later this week to see whats going on for myself. He hinted again at a visit in a reply to a different user the next day.

The emails show a special operations supervisor warning on Sept. 27 that the Border Patrols Office of Public Affairs had said Musk and Gonzales may appear at the border, and that Musk had arrived in the area a day earlier.

He may approach and engage USBP personnel, the officer wrote. He should be asked to remain on the press side of the area.

The email continued, DHS [Department of Homeland Security] has not received any official request to accommodate Mr. Gonzales or [redacted] at this time. Please notify DRT [redacted] if any USBP personnel encounter Mr. Gonzales, [redacted] or any other persons that present themselves unannounced.

On the day of the visit, Musk only posted once he arrived at the site, and officers reported that they were caught off guard when Gonzales and Musk appeared.

Del Rio Sector (DRT) was notified that [redacted] was touring the Eagle Pass [redacted] with US Representative Tony Gonzalez. DRT personnel were not advised prior to arrival, an official wrote. The official said that multiple Sheriffs from different counties are in attendance as well.

In a follow-up email, a Border Patrol employee wrote, UPDATE: [redacted] approached BP Operations PAIC on scene and advised him that USBP could not be on camera. The officer also noted that Gonzales spoke about Border Patrol operations, which was part of Musks livestream.

In the footage posted by Musk, Gonzales can be heard suggesting they interview Border Patrol agents. Musk asked the agents if they were OK appearing on camera, and they said they werent allowed to be. Afterward, Musk still captured several agents on camera in the video.

Eagle Pass has become a focal point of discussions around immigration in the U.S. particularly among conservatives, as the small town has faced an influx of migrants crossing through it. On Sept. 22, before Musks appearance, the Department of Homeland Security said that there were 2,600 illegal crossings over the southern border through Eagle Pass in 24 hours.

During the visit, Musk said he wanted to welcome hardworking and honest migrants into the country, but keep out migrants who are breaking the law. He said the U.S. should stop a flow of people that is of such magnitude that were leading to a collapse of social services.

The incident caused some controversy at the time, with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., referring to it as a joyride in a post on X.
Protesters at a "Queers for Palestine" march in New York City | Screenshot, TikTok

The Israel-Hamas war has made political allies out of some unusual bedfellows. Yet the strangest pairing on display thus far is probably "Queers for Palestine," most notably because those protesters would risk summary execution should they take their demonstration to the Gaza Strip.

The movement isn't new. But following the terrorist attacks launched against Israel by Hamas, the Palestinian group that controls Gaza, it has seen a sort of reemergence at various protests. "Queer rights! Trans rights!" protesters are heard chanting in a video taken in New York City. "We say no to genocide!"

That protesters appear to be blaming Israel for those attackswhich have included, among other things, Hamas militants murdering people, filming those acts, and putting the videos on social media for the victims' families and friends to seeis perverse. But to marry that cause to LGBT rights is simply unhinged from reality.

Indeed, gay and transgender peopleboth in Gaza and the West Bankface an extraordinary level of persecution, persecution that may result in a yearslong prison sentence or even death.

In 2016, Hamas militants executed one of their own commanders, Mahmoud Ishtiwi, for allegedly having sex with another man. Ishtiwi's allegiance to the group was clear: Just two years prior, he had overseen 1,000 soldiers and an assortment of attack tunnels. But not even his loyalty could save him after they lodged accusations he had engaged in homosexual activity. Prior to executing him with three bullets to the chest, Hamas reportedly tortured him by whipping him, hanging him from a ceiling for hours, and cranking loud music into his cell in order to deprive him of sleep.

Last year, in the West Bank, 25-year-old Ahmed Abu Marhia's severed head was found on the side of the road after he was murdered for being gay. The killer videoed the execution and shared it on social media.

When it comes to "Queers for Palestine," what's richly ironic is that many LGBT Palestinians seek asylum in Israelthe same country these stateside protesters are rallying against.

At the heart of this contradiction is the tendency within social justice movements to pick a clear protagonist and antagonist, the oppressed and the oppressor, and to proceed from there in one-size-fits-all fashion. Some progressives decided long ago that Palestine is the former and Israel is the latter, which is the seed from which everything must grow. Palestine, then, stands not only for anti-colonialism but also LGBT rights and reproductive rights, despite that those rights, in any meaningful sense of the word, do not actually exist there.

Meanwhile, this orthodoxy requires that Israel symbolize a weed and everything that comes with it. The country, then, must typify genocide, regardless of the fact that it has been the victim of relentless terror attacks this month. And it has to represent a hostility toward minorities, including gay and transgender people, notwithstanding that it is one of the most tolerant societies for those very people.

To be sure, Israel's government isn't perfect. There are aspects of the Israel-Palestine debate, and the territorial disputes, that are more complex than many would probably like to admit. This aspect? Not so much, because "Queers for Palestine" is about as convincing as "minks for fur coats."

The post The Contradictions of 'Queers for Palestine' appeared first on Reason.com.
The social media platform TikTok denied the allegations made by the Malaysian government that it was restricting pro-Palestinian content, calling them "unfounded."

The Muslim-majority nation warned of action against TikTok and Meta on Thursday (October 26) after the platforms were accused of restricting content supporting Palestinians.

Meta already responded on Thursday, saying that there was "no truth" to the accusation and that it was not deliberately suppressing voices on Facebook.

TikTok Calls Malaysia's Claims 'Unfounded'

In an email to Reuters on Friday (October 27), a TikTok representative also rejected Malaysia's accusation it was blocking pro-Palestinian content.

"The claim is unfounded," the spokesperson said. "Our community guidelines apply equally to all content on TikTok, and we're committed to consistently enforcing our policies to protect our community."

Both Meta and TikTok designated Hamas -- the Palestinian Islamist movement governing Gaza that was declared a terrorist organization by several Western countries -- a "dangerous organization" and banned content praising it.

Hamas initiated a terrorist raid on October 7, which resulted in the death of some 1,400 people and the abduction of over 200.

Meanwhile, the Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry's Thursday death tool due to Israeli airstrikes reached up to 7,028, but this claim could not be independently verified.

Read Also: Telegram Blocks Hamas Channels on Android

Social Media Platforms Working to Moderate Posts

Since the Israel-Hamas War began, both firms have taken steps to improve moderation, as well as remove or label graphic visuals, partially due to the demands made by the European Union and its Digital Services Act.

Meta has so far taken down or labeled nearly 800,000 pieces of content in Hebrew and Arabic in the days since Hamas's sabbath attack.

TikTok, for its part, said it had removed over 775,000 videos and 14,000 livestreams since the attack.

X, the Elon Musk-owned social media platform formerly known as Twitter, has also been investigated by the EU over the rampant disinformation spreading on the platform since October 7.

Also on Thursday, Telegram restricted access to the channels belonging to Hamas in order to limit its online influence after pressure from critics.

Related Article: Malaysia Takes Stand, Issues Warnings to TikTok, Meta Over Suppression of Pro-Palestinian Content

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
If the American public thought we couldnt get worse than Kevin McCarthy, think againthis choice has the potential to erode justice and democracy, said Preston Mitchum, LGBTQ+ rights activist and CEO of PDM Consulting LLC.

After weeks of instability in the United States House of Representatives, Republicans elected Mike Johnson, R-La., as House speaker.

However, Democrats who are not on board say the Houses new leader poses a threat to democracy, and that his legislative record casts doubt on his ability to work with the opposing party to get things done in Washington.

WASHINGTON, DC  OCTOBER 23: U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) arrives at a House Republican candidates forum where congressmen who are running for Speaker of the House will present their platforms in the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill on October 23, 2023 in Washington, DC. Members of the GOP conference will hear from the now eight candidates who hope to succeed former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who was ousted on October 4 in a move led by a small group of conservative members of his own party. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

In particular, critics are calling out the new conservative speaker wanting to criminalize abortion, cut funding to social programs such as Social Security and Medicare, and roll back rights for members of the LGBTQ+ community.

Its great that House Republicans finally got their act together, said Rep.Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y. She told theGrio, The only question is whether the newly elected speaker can work in a bipartisan manner.

Congresswoman Clarke added, We need to get back to work for the American people, and theres no more time for the extreme partisan nonsense that got us into this situation in the first place.

Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Chairman Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., and other CBC members issued a statement that condemned House Republicans selection of Johnson as speaker.

It is unfortunate and unsurprising that the candidate House Republicans choseis a MAGA extremist who plotted with former President Trump to overturn the 2020 election, said Horsford.

This alone should disqualify anyone from becoming House speaker and sitting second in line to the presidency, and yet for the Republicans, it was not.

In a statement obtained by theGrio, Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., said, The dysfunctional Republican Caucus has unanimously settled with an anti-democracy, anti-LGBTQ+, and anti-abortion extremist as their leader.

Bush continued, Today is the first time that many people have even heard of Congressman Mike Johnson, but as people across our country will soon come to find out, he is dangerous.

She added, He has dedicated his political career by pushing an extreme MAGA insurrectionist agenda.

Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, D-Calif., said in a statement provided to theGrio that Johnsons promotion to speaker was a defeat for democracy and the American people.

We needed a speaker who could have stood up for all people, not a speaker who voted to shut down the government last month, makes it a priority to criminalize abortion, and tries to turn the clock back on LGBTQ+ rights, said Kamlager-Dove.

Mike Johnson is bad news and will enable a far-right economic agenda that includes devastating cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and nutrition assistance programs.

Johnsons election comes more than three weeks after Republicans ousted Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., as speaker, leaving the House paralyzed and the country on the brink of a possible government shutdown.

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., talks to reporters at the Capitol in Washington, Sunday, May 28, 2023. Mediators on the debt limit came to an agreement in principle last night that would avert a potentially disastrous U.S. default, but still has to pass both houses of Congress. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

House Democrats criticized the new conservative speaker for his controversial track record of wanting to criminalize abortion, cut funding to social programs such as Social Security and Medicare and roll back rights for members of the LGBTQ+ community.

Nancy Northup, President and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, told theGrio, Congress needs to fix the disastrous consequences of the Supreme Courts overturning of Roe v. Wade, but instead the House Majority doubled down and elected as Speaker a fierce opponent of abortion rights.

Before becoming a member of Congress, Speaker Mike Johnson, as an attorney, fought against the Center for Reproductive Rights in court to shut down abortion clinics in Louisiana, she said. In Congress, he has cosponsored legislation that would prohibit all abortion care from the moment of fertilization.

Preston Mitchum, LGBTQ+ rights activist and CEO of PDM Consulting LLC., a Black queer-owned consulting firm that aims to empower the LGBTQ+ community, told theGrio he is deeply concerned about Speaker Johnson leading the House of Representatives.

If the American public thought we couldnt get worse than Kevin McCarthy, think againthis choice has the potential to erode justice and democracy, Mitchum told theGrio.

He continued, Congressman Johnsons stance on LGBTQ+ rights, racial justice, and gender equity is deeply troubling. His history of opposing LGBTQ+ rights and advocating for discriminatory policies goes against the principles of equal protection and inclusion that our democracy should uphold.

Rep. Johnson has been deemed an election denier for leading efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

The Louisiana lawmaker, who is a supporter of former President Donald Trump, tweeted, We MUST fight for election integrity, the Constitution, and the preservation of our republic! just before insurrectionists stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Mitchum told theGrio Johnsons staunch support for former President Trumps policies and rhetoric raises concerns about his commitment to the principles of accountability and democratic norms.

It is vital that our elected leaders prioritize the integrity of our democratic institutions and the rule of law, regardless of their political affiliations, he said.

Although doubtful, Mitchum told theGrio, he hopes that Johnson will consider the diverse voices and perspectives of the American people and work towards a more inclusive and just society during his tenure as Speaker.

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

The post Critics warn new House Speaker Mike Johnson is a danger to vulnerable communities appeared first on TheGrio.
Dan Bishop has long been someone far more interested in petty politics than genuine public service or the business of governing. Unfortunately for the state of North Carolina, that doesnt seem to be changing now that hes running for statewide office.

So far, his 2024 attorney general campaign appears to have one goal: to be as unhinged as possible.

Hours after Democrat Jeff Jackson announced his own candidacy, Bishop seized the opportunity to go on the offensive. Did he criticize Jackson for anything of substance? No, of course not. That would be boring.

Instead, he simply said Jackson was a woke liberal and took a dig at his use of TikTok by calling him a Chinese social media star. But it didnt stop there. Bishop then issued an absurd faux press release intended to parodize Jacksons campaign.

The press release uses Jacksons campaign logo and is written in Chinese. The English translation, which is included at the bottom, reads:

My name is Jeff Jackson. Im a TikTok star who wants to make North Carolina soft on crime  Now back to stupid videos of me helping China spy on North Carolina and cats.

The bottom of the press release says Paid for by Jeff Jackson for NCCCP, which ostensibly stands for North Carolina Chinese Communist Party.

Clearly, this is the work of a Very Serious Person running a Very Serious Campaign.

Lets just call this what it is: a stunt. Bishop even tagged the far-right social media account Libs of TikTok, probably hoping that its more than 2.5 million followers would help his campaign go viral. (Libs of TikTok is known for sharing incendiary content that has reportedly led to harassment, threats and violence against LGBTQ+ people and their allies.)

Pretty hypocritical of Bishop to criticize his opponents use of social media while hes busy fishing for views and likes himself.

But its also just bizarre and borderline offensive. Mocking your opponent with a press release written in Chinese  sounding the alarm that he might somehow be a Chinese spy  is simply beyond the pale. While security concerns about TikTok are certainly valid, the anti-Chinese rhetoric that has become ubiquitous among Republican politicians is divisive and only inflames tensions toward the Asian American community. The post also said that the release was for our unamerican friends, as if anyone who speaks Chinese or has Chinese heritage cannot also be American.

Well certainly learn a lot about Jackson from how he chooses to respond to Bishops underhanded tactics throughout the course of the campaign. But Bishop is showing us exactly who he is, and its not someone who wants to talk about his vision for a better North Carolina. Hate and negativity seem to be the only platform he has to run on.
Minnesota Congressman Dean Phillips, who launched a longshot Democratic primary challenge of President Joe Biden, said he would restore New Hampshires contest in 2028 to first in the Democratic nominating order, displacing South Carolina, which kicks off the Democratic process this cycle.

I believe in tradition. I believe our entire country can and must learn from New Hampshire, Phillips said when filing to run in the 2024 New Hampshire Primary, according to the Union Leader.

But South Carolina was moved to first in line for the 2024 process by the Democratic National Committee as a nod to Black voters who make up a significant portion of the Democratic base.

South Carolina will hold its Democratic Primary on Feb. 3. The DNC then chose Feb. 6 for Nevada and New Hampshire.

As a Black man from S.C., a descendant of the enslaved folks who were brought to this nation, Im looking forward to the new tradition of having S.C. kick off the presidential process for the Democratic Party, Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison posted on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

New Hampshire had traditionally voted second after the Iowa caucus, and the new order approved by Democrats would keep the Granite State in that position.

However, the national party said it would revisit the presidential primary order every four years.

New Hampshire has a state law that mandates it hold the First in the Nation Presidential Primary. Democrats in New Hampshire have been unable to come into compliance with the 2024 DNC primary order, as Republicans control the legislature and the governors office in the Granite State. The New Hampshire primaries are expected to be held in January, and whether the DNC strips delegates from New Hampshire remains to be seen.

Biden, who called for the order change, lost the Iowa caucus, New Hampshire primary and Nevada caucus in 2020 before winning the South Carolina primary, propelling him the party nomination and eventually the White House.

South Carolinas First in the South contest is the first state where Black voters make up a majority of the primary voting electorate. Moving South Carolina to the front of the voting line is considered a way to give Black voters more say in naming the eventual Democratic nominee.

Democratic Party officials in South Carolina say the Philips campaign has yet to contact the state party, which state party Chairwoman Christale Spain said is a sign hes not serious, told Politico.

Spain also called Phillips a distraction because any serious Democratic candidate would understand that Black voters in South Carolina have been the backbone of the Democratic Party.

However, Phillips campaign advisor Steve Schmidt said, according to Politico, the campaign will focus on New Hampshire, South Carolina and Michigan, which holds its primary on Feb. 27.

Filing for the South Carolina presidential primary runs from Nov. 1-10. The cost to appear on the Democratic ballot is $20,000.
(Getty Images)

A former senior KGB double agent and British citizen can take the UKs crime agency to court for allegedly revealing his new identity, a court has ruled.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) tried to get the case brought against it by Boris Karpichkov  the former name of a KGB major  thrown out of court but its bid was dismissed by a judge.

Mr Karpichkov, who previously worked for the Latvian and Russian security services before becoming a British citizen, is suing the NCA for data protection breaches.

He claimed the agency unlawfully disclosed details about his private life, some of which he said Russia had gained knowledge of.

The former spy said his new name and address were also revealed to Latvia as part of an extradition request.

Mr Karpichkov, who alleges that in 2006-7 he might have been a victim of a possible chemical or biological attempt on his life, said he had received death threats as a result of the alleged data breach.

He has also described himself in the media as "a dead man walking".

On Friday, Judge Victoria McCloud dismissed the NCAs bid to throw out his case, saying he could proceed with the lawsuit.

In her ruling at Londons High Court, the judge detailed Mr Karpichkovs complicated life as a spy.

He worked for the KGB in the Soviet Union before being recruited to work in Latvia in 1984. After Latvias declaration of independence in 1990, he worked as an undercover agent in the country for the KGBs successor, the FSB.

In 1995, he began working undercover for the Latvian security services (LSP). He was arrested by Latvian authorities the following year, but moved to Moscow where he says he was tortured by the FSB.

He began working for the LSP undercover in Russia before returning to Latvia and going into hiding. In 1998, he moved to Britain as an asylum seeker and was given a new identity.

Latvia sought his extradition, but the High Court quashed a decision to send him there, ruling his life would be in danger from "underworld/rogue government elements if he were returned or extradited", McClouds ruling said.

As part of a second extradition request made in 2018, the NCA provided Latvia with details of his new identity and later his address, arguing it was obliged to make such disclosures under legislation covering European Arrest Warrants.

The request was later refused by a judge who concluded Mr Karpichkov had "an abundance of dangerous enemies in both Latvia and Russia".

Mr Karpichkov has previously tried to sue MI5 over an alleged invasion of his privacy, claiming his family members were victims of a campaign of harassment and unlawful surveillance.

Judges also investigated claims that his east London home was broken into and his telephone calls and post unlawfully intercepted.

After arriving in the UK in 1998, Mr Karpichkiv said he worked for MI5 and Special Branch for a period until his relationship with the security services broke down.
Five workers at Japans Fukushima nuclear plant accidentally got sprayed with radioactive fluid while cleaning a water filtration facility, leading to the hospitalisation of two of them.

The plants operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) said that the workers were splashed with the liquid containing radioactive materials while cleaning the piping.

The accident took place on 25 October at about 10.40am when the workers were cleaning the pipes of the plants Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS), which is used to treat contaminated radioactive water accumulated at the plant.

Tepco said the workers were pouring nitric acid into the piping at that time, according to local reports.

Tepco reported that the hose, which was used to transfer radioactive liquid waste into a containment tank, accidentally disconnected, resulting in the release of approximately 100 millilitres of the fluid.

The two workers, one in his 20s and the other in his 40s, were admitted to the Fukushima Medical Universitys hospital to be decontaminated. Japan Times reported that they were under observation even though they did not sustain any visible injuries or complain of ill health.

According to Tepco, a doctor at the hospital said that the likelihood of both workers sustaining radiation-induced burns was minimal.

There were no injuries found on the exposed areas, the company said. All workers were reportedly wearing protective gear and masks to cover the full face. However, the fluid came into contact with the skin of four workers. Even though they received immediate rinsing at the plant, the radiation levels on the skin of two individuals did not decrease below the established threshold of 4 becquerels per square centimetre.

On 24 August, Tepco started the release of wastewater from Fukushima and these discharges are expected to continue for decades. The move faced opposition from fishing communities in Fukushima and neighbouring nations, including China, which swiftly imposed a ban on all imports of Japanese seafood.

Earlier this week, Lydie Evrard, IAEA deputy director general and head of the department of nuclear safety and security, said: I would say that the first two batches of releases went well. No issues were observed. She stated that she visited Fukushima last Friday to personally witness the situation.

Ms Evrards visit followed closely on the heels of a marine sampling mission conducted by a separate IAEA team, which consisted of scientists from China, South Korea, and Canada.
Israels consul general in Miami on Thursday clarified Gov. Ron DeSantis role in facilitating a claimed transfer of weapons and ammunition to Israel, telling McClatchy that he asked the Florida governors office, among other parties, to provide final clearance for a private shipment of weapons parts in the early days of the war with Hamas.

DeSantis office and presidential campaign said earlier in the day that he had helped ship weapons and drones to Israel at the consulates request, without providing details. In an interview, the consul general, Maor Elbaz-Starinsky, said that a private donation of rifle inserts and other parts was scheduled to be sent on a commercial El Al flight within the first week of the war but that a final bureaucratic approval was necessary to get the shipment on the plane.

They asked me to help. I approached a few contacts, including the governors office, to get the final approval, Elbaz-Starinsky said in a telephone interview. It went through all the process. Im not even sure, at the end of the day, which one untangled this thing and made the shipment be approved.

The stakeholders who did the shipment upon the request of Israel had all of the approvals needed to send the shipment, and they were just missing the final approval, Elbaz-Starinsky said, noting that the party needed approval from the Transportation Security Administration.

Usually I dont get involved in these things, he added, but it was really the first days of the war, everyone was panicked and stressed  everything was urgent.

A lack of clarity from governors office

Earlier on Thursday, DeSantis spokesperson Jeremy Redfern said in an email that the governors office had been contacted by the Israeli consul general in Miami for assistance to clear federal bureaucratic hurdles to get weapons and ammunition to Israel through private parties. DeSantis presidential campaign put out a press release touting the effort as a potential boon to his candidacy.

When pressed for more details, Redfern declined to disclose the private parties or specify what the federal hurdles had been. Redfern later clarified that the state did not purchase the weapons and ammunition, and that those items were transported separately to Israel, without offering details on the mode of transport or source of funding.

An initial shipment of medical equipment and protective vests donated to Israel by U.S. citizens was also sent last week on two cargo planes funded by the state of Florida.

John Kirby, a national security spokesman at the White House, said Thursday that he was not aware of any coordination on the shipments between Florida and the Biden administration.

I would certainly let the governor speak to what Florida is doing. It is not illegal for the governor of a state to offer a measure of foreign assistance to another country, Kirby said. There are laws and regulations which govern how the export process is handled, and thats all done through Commerce. I couldnt speak with authority today about whether the governor has checked all those boxes or not.

Governor touts Floridas role

The shipment of weaponry drew criticism from Florida Democrats.

President Biden is the commander in chief of our military  not Ron DeSantis, said Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried. As a Navy veteran, Ron should understand the importance of respecting the chain of command. This is a gross breach of norms and a potential violation of federal laws governing the shipment of weapons.

DeSantis did not disclose the states role in shipping weapons and ammunition when he posted a graphic on X, formerly known as Twitter, touting several of the states efforts to help Israel amid the war.

Thanks to all who helped make this happen, the governor, who is running for GOP nomination for president, said in the post on Wednesday.

Gov. Ron DeSantis posted this on his account on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

The secrecy surrounding how the weapons were acquired and shipped comes as the DeSantis administration has also been slow to provide information about how much the state has spent to rescue hundreds of U.S. citizens from Israel to the United States and which vendors were involved in the rescue operations.

The Florida Division of Emergency Management on Thursday  nearly two weeks after the first rescue flight arrived in Florida  said that the rescue flights are expected to cost Florida taxpayers approximately $32 million.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis greets passengers arriving from Israel on a chartered flight organized by Project Dynamo on Sunday, Oct. 15, 2023 in Tampa. The flight landed at Tampa International Airport with 270 evacuees rescued by Project Dynamo from Israel including 91 children and four dogs.

The price tag includes payouts to three separate organizations  ARS Global Emergency Management, TAD Recovery Services and Echo 1 Emergency Logistics Inc.  that have helped coordinate flights and identify American passengers who were seeking to flee the war zone in Israel.

ARS is the primary contractor leading the Israel rescue flights, and its purchase order has so far totaled $19 million, said Amelia Johnson, a spokesperson with the Florida Division of Emergency Management. In June, the company was also picked to help carry out DeSantis controversial migrant flight program.

TAD Recovery Services and Echo 1 have purchase orders of $10 million and $3 million, respectively, Johnson said.

The state has not released budgeting documents about the rescue flights because the missions are ongoing, Johnson added.

A chartered flight organized by Project Dynamo arrives at Tampa International Airport on Oct. 15, 2023. The flight had 270 evacuees from Israel, including 91 children and four dogs.

It is unclear when or if the state will provide documents that show the full accounting of the operations logistical and financial arrangements. But history has shown the DeSantis administration tends to be secretive about its handling of large-scale operations, such as the pandemic response and the governors plan to fly migrants from Texas to Democratic strongholds in Massachusetts and California.

In addition to the three private vendors, the state also partnered with Project Dynamo, a nonprofit organization that specializes in bringing U.S. citizens home from conflict zones around the world.

The Orlando Sentinel has reported that Project Dynamo received a $1 million donation from the Volunteer Florida Foundation last week. The foundation is funded by the state and federal government.

The payment came after Bryan Stern, the CEO of Project Dynamo, criticized aspects of how Floridas vendors worked to get American passengers out of Israel, the Sentinel reported.

Volunteer Florida and Project Dynamo did not respond to requests for comment on the payment.

This story was updated to reflect the comments of the Israeli consul general regarding Floridas role in getting inserts for rifles and other parts shipped to Israel.
A retired Colombian army officer who pleaded guilty to leading a group of commandos in the assassination of Haitis president was sentenced Friday to life in prison in Miami federal court, though hes hoping for less severe punishment in a cooperation deal with federal prosecutors.

German Alejandro Rivera Garcia, aka Colonel Mike, declined to say anything when asked by U.S. District Judge Jose Martinez if he wanted to comment before his sentencing. His defense attorney said he would not challenge the prosecutors recommendation for a life sentence at this stage  knowing that his client might qualify for a lesser sentence down the road depending on the value of his inside information.

No, your honor, not for today, attorney Mark LeVine told Martinez.

As part of his plea agreement, Rivera admitted that he met in late June of 2021 with several co-conspirators in Haiti to discuss removing Haitian President Jovenel Moise by force, including a plot to assassinate him the following month.

During the secret gathering, Rivera received directions in a video call from a fellow Colombian in South Florida  who happened to be an FBI informant  that he should follow the instructions of another man attending the meeting in Haiti, according to court records.

That unnamed man then told Rivera and another co-conspirator that the president would be assassinated as part of the operation, according to a factual statement filed in Miami federal court as part of Riveras guilty plea on murder conspiracy charges last month.

Rivera and James Solages, a Haitian American from South Florida, relayed that information to other members of the conspiracy, including another Haitian American, Joseph Vincent, and a member of Riveras Colombian commando group, Mario Antonio Palacios Palacios. The latter is trying to have his confession to FBI agents thrown out because he claims it was obtained under pressure.

The video-call exchange occurred within two weeks of the July 7, 2021, assassination of Moise by a group of ex-Colombian soldiers, U.S. authorities say, marking a strategic shift from kidnapping Haitis leader to killing him at his home in a hillside suburb outside the Port-au-Prince capital.

Over the past year, 11 defendants have been charged with conspiring to kill Haitis president or with playing a supporting role in the FBI-led case prosecuted by the U.S. Attorneys Office in South Florida. Among those charged are: Rivera, 45, who pleaded guilty in September, Solages, Vincent and Palacios. A 12th suspect, Joseph Felix Badio, a former Haitian government anti-corruption official, was arrested last week in Haiti and may be transferred to Miami to face charges in the assassination case.

Haitian President Jovenel Moise, accompanied by his wife, Martine Marie Etienne Joseph, speaks to a group of Haitians living in South Florida who welcomed him as he makes his first visit to Miami as president during a community meeting at the Little Haiti Cultural Center on Friday, June 16, 2017.

Riveras factual statement provides fresh details of meetings among co-conspirators in Haiti and South Florida that led to the shocking assassination of Moise, which has stoked unprecedented turmoil in the Caribbean island.

According to the factual statement, Rivera began meeting in person in Haiti and by video conference in South Florida with the co-conspirators in February 2021. At various meetings, the conspirators discussed proposed methods for carrying out the operation and the need to acquire weapons to facilitate the operation, the statement says.

The meetings held in South Florida were attended by several co-conspirators charged in the assassination case, including Arcangel Pretel Ortiz, the FBI informant who worked for a Miami-area security firm. He allegedly helped recruit some of the Colombian commandos and directed Rivera to follow the instructions of another conspirator regarding the plot to assassinate Haitis leader. Others present at the South Florida meetings were: Antonio Intriago, the head of the security firm, Counter Terrorist Unit; Christian Sanon, a Haitian American physician who aspired to replace Moise as president; and Walter Veintemilla, a South Florida businessman who helped finance the operation, and Solages.

Rivera also attended operational meetings in Haiti with Intriago, Solages, Sanon, Palacios, Haitian businessman Rodolphe Jaar and former Haitian Senator Joseph Joel John. The latter two men have also been charged in the assassination case in Miami. Jaar has been sentenced to life in prison, and John has pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentence.

Jaar, John and Rivera formally pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to kill Haitis president, providing that support, and conspiring to kill or kidnap a person outside the United States.

But all three might be able to avoid a life sentence if prosecutors Monica Castro, Andrea Goldbarg and Frank Russo recommend lesser punishment based on their cooperation under the terms of plea agreements.

Rivera is expected to be a critical witness for the FBI-led case.

READ MORE: How a Miami plot to oust a president led to a murder in Haiti

Separate Haitian, Colombian and U.S. investigations into Moises death were launched shortly after the assault that left the 53-year-old president with 12 bullet wounds and his wife, Martine, seriously wounded. More than 40 people have been jailed in Haiti, including 18 Colombians, as well as members of the Haitian presidential guard accused of taking bribes to stand down or not show up to work on the day Moise was killed.

The deadly plot revolved around suspects collaborating in South Florida, Haiti and Colombia to kidnap and then kill Haitis leader, with the goal of replacing him with a new president and obtaining Haitian government contracts, according to authorities. So far, however, no one has been identified as the mastermind who orchestrated Moises killing.

Martine Moise, in red, was wounded in the attack that killed her husband, President Jovenel Moise, standing next to her. This file photo shows them three years earlier during a 2018 event at the National Palace.

The investigation escalated in February with the transfer of Rivera and three Haitian Americans to U.S. custody.

Rivera and two Haitian Americans were accused of helping coordinate a failed kidnapping of Moise to remove him from office upon his return from a state visit to Turkey in June of 2021. The same three were also accused of conspiring in a final plan to kill him at his home in the hillside suburbs of Port-au-Prince the following month.

Those suspects are: Solages, 37, who quit his job at a South Florida nursing home to go work for a Miami-area security firm linked to the plot to remove Moise from office; Vincent, 57, a former Drug Enforcement Administration confidential informant who lived in South Florida; and Rivera, the retired Colombian colonel who is one of the leaders of the deadly attack.

Also transferred to Miami: Sanon, 64, a Haitian doctor and pastor who split his time between the United States and his Caribbean homeland and wanted to replace Moise as president. Sanon, who was not implicated in the main conspiracy case to kidnap and kill Haitis president but faces related charges, fell out of favor with the group as a possible successor to Moise in the weeks before his assassination.
Keir Starmer

Sir Keir Starmer is under increasing pressure to change his position on the Israel-Gaza war, after a trio of senior Labour figures called for a ceasefire.

The move from mayors Sadiq Khan and Andy Burnham, and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, puts them at odds with their party leader.

Sir Keir has not called for a ceasefire, instead backing humanitarian pauses to help aid reach Gaza.

Labour frontbencher Steve Reed has defended Sir Keir's position.

The shadow minister said humanitarian pauses would allow aid to enter Gaza "without stopping Israel taking action to disable the terrorists who attacked them in the first place".

In stopping short of backing a full ceasefire, the Labour leader is aligned with the UK government, as well as the US and EU.

Compared to a formal ceasefire, humanitarian pauses tend to last for short periods of time, sometimes just a few hours.

They are implemented purely with the aim of providing humanitarian support, as opposed to achieving long-term political solutions.

Israel began its bombing campaign in Gaza, cut off electricity and most water, and stopped imports of food, fuel and other goods in retaliation for a cross-border attack by Hamas on 7 October, in which at least 1,400 people were killed and 224 taken hostage.

Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says 7,000 people have been killed in the territory since then, and that its health system is facing total collapse.

In a statement earlier, Mr Khan said Israel had a "right to defend itself" following the "appalling terror attack" of 7 October.

But he added a ceasefire would "allow the international community more time to prevent a protracted conflict in the region and further devastating loss of life".

In a statement, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and local council leaders said Israel had the right to take "targeted action within international law".

They added they had "profound concerns" about loss of lives in Gaza, and that it was "vital that urgent support and humanitarian aid is allowed into the area".

The leaders said there should be a ceasefire "by all sides" and that all hostages should "be released unharmed".

In a video, Scottish Labour leader Mr Sarwar said: "We need to see the immediate release of hostages, immediate access to humanitarian supplies... and the immediate cessation of violence with an end of rocket fire into and out of Gaza."

"And let me be clear, that means a ceasefire right now," he added.

More on Israel-Gaza war

On Wednesday, shadow Scottish secretary Ian Murray said Sir Keir was likely to be the next prime minister, and therefore had to be "very careful" with what he said.

"It's very easy for us all to sit in a warm bath of throwing around ceasefires, etc but Keir Starmer is in a very sensitive position," he added.

Asked why the UK was not calling for a cessation of violence, Education Secretary Gillian Keegan told ITV that the government would not "cross that line of telling Israel it has anything but the right to defend itself".

She said a humanitarian pause would enable British citizens to leave Gaza.

Labour Gaza tensions

The Labour leader's overall stance on the Israel-Gaza conflict has also led to growing discomfort in his party.

He triggered anger earlier this month, when in reply to an interview question on whether it was "appropriate" for Israel to cut off the supply of power and water to Gaza, he said: "I think that Israel does have that right."

"Obviously everything should be done within international law, but I don't want to step away from the core principles that Israel has a right to defend herself," he added.

A spokesman for the Labour leader later said he had only meant to say Israel had a general right to self-defence.

Around 20 councillors have since quit Labour in protest. In Oxford, resignations have led to Labour losing its majority on the local council.

In Westminster, 39 Labour MPs - including shadow minister Imran Hussain - have signed a parliamentary petition calling for an "immediate de-escalation and cessation of hostilities".

Analysis box by Ione Wells, political correspondent

Senior figures adding their voice to calls for a ceasefire is certainly uncomfortable for the Labour leadership.

Especially following a recent conference where their outward message was one of unity - a shift away from past divisions and factions within senior ranks of the party.

So far, most of the dissent in the party has been from councillors while dozens of Labour MPs have now said publicly they want a ceasefire.

While there's been chatter of frontbenchers considering resignations, that hasn't transpired so far.

Certainly, senior figures in the party have told me that engagement with concerned MPs is ongoing and that the party is trying to support those who have received threats or abuse as a result of the party's position.

They don't deny that lots of people are very concerned. But they argue that at the same time the last thing many in the party want to see is an internal fight - especially if there is an awareness that resignations may not change the leadership's position.

Nor can the Labour leadership's position really change what is going on in Israel and Gaza.

But for some it feels more like a matter of principle than actually changing anything.

Some may begin to feel the heat more from constituents as MPs begin another recess this week.
The city of Lewiston, Maine, was shaken on Wednesday night when a gunman opened fire in a bowling alley and a bar.

Police quickly mobilized in their search for the shooter, advising residents and local businesses to secure their premises immediately, as per The Independent.

Robert Card Unleashes Fear

Robert Card stands accused of taking the lives of 18 innocent people in a horrifying shooting rampage on Wednesday night. With many more injured, some in critical condition, and a massive search underway, this tragedy has sent shockwaves through the quiet town and far beyond.

Card, a US Army reservist and a member of the Army Reserve's 3rd Battalion, 304th Infantry Regiment, is now the target of a nationwide search. The events leading up to this devastating act have raised questions about his mental state and motivations.

Military officials had expressed concerns about Card's erratic behavior during his training at the US Military Academy at West Point in New York. His sister-in-law, Katie Card, has publicly urged him to "do the right thing" and turn himself in, highlighting family members' desperate and concerned plea.

In the aftermath of the shooting, police officers swarmed Card's brother and sister-in-law's home in Bowdoin, a small town near Lewiston, in search of the suspect. The Department of Public Safety initially refuted reports of gunshots heard at the residence earlier in the day, but they later surrounded the house, calling for Card's surrender.

However, it was later revealed that he was not inside the property. As the search continues, the victims of this horrific act are being identified, and stories of heroism have emerged.

Mike Deslauriers II and Jason Walker, lifelong friends, lost their lives while trying to protect children at a bowling alley.

Their selfless actions in the face of danger have been hailed as the embodiment of true heroes.

Card's actions unfolded on Wednesday evening when he opened fire at two separate locations in Lewiston, first at a bowling alley and then at a bar and restaurant just four miles away.

His car was later found abandoned in the nearby town of Lisbon, and he has managed to evade capture since, according to Mirror.

Read Also: Baltimore: 1 Fireman Killed, 4 Others Wounded Combating Rowhouse Blaze

Manhunt for Armed and Dangerous Maine Mass Shooting Suspect

Authorities have issued warnings that Card is armed and dangerous. Experts on the case, like Marko Galbreath, a former police sergeant and SWAT team member, have expressed concerns about Card's potential whereabouts and the threat he poses.

Galbreath emphasized the need for nationwide vigilance and urged the public to be cautious, as Card could have changed his appearance and traveled far from the scene. Card's military background and his reported stay in a mental health facility earlier this summer have raised concerns about his intentions and the potential danger he poses.

Robert Carlson, a law enforcement officer, and firearms instructor, explained that Card's training and experience make him a formidable adversary for responding officers, emphasizing the importance of public awareness.

The search for Card has extended to forests, waterways, and small towns in the rural areas of Maine where the shootings occurred. The entire community is on edge, with schools, doctor's offices, and grocery stores closing and residents staying behind locked doors as far as 50 miles from the crime scenes.

As authorities press on in their search, new information continues to emerge. A search warrant executed at Card's home uncovered a note, and his sister revealed that he may have been searching for his ex-wife, who filed for divorce in 2007.

With eight murder warrants already issued and more expected as the identities of the remaining victims are confirmed, the search for Card remains a top priority. Maine Governor Janet Mills has pledged to do whatever it takes to bring Card to justice and provide closure for the victims and their families.

The community, still reeling from this unimaginable tragedy, remains resilient and determined to see that justice is served. As the nation watches this unfolding tragedy, there is a collective hope that Robert Card will be brought to justice, providing answers and a sense of closure to those affected by this horrifying event.

The urgent manhunt continues, with the safety and well-being of the public at the forefront of the efforts to locate and apprehend the suspect, Mail Online reported.

Related Article: Filipino Caregiver Places Life and Savings at Risk, Saves Employer to Hamas Gunman





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George Santos

Embattled Republican Rep George Santos faces expulsion from the US House of Representatives next week in a vote called by members of his own party.

Congressman Anthony D'Esposito took to the House floor on Thursday to formally demand the vote of expulsion and read the resolution.

It comes after prosecutors filed 23 charges against Mr Santos earlier this month - including identity theft.

Mr Santos denies the charges and has insisted he will not resign.

But he has come under increasing pressure to quit the chamber, and several other Republicans from his home state of New York said they would table the resolution earlier this month.

Mr D'Esposito was joined by New York Republican colleagues Marc Molinaro, Nick LaLota, and Mike Lawler in calling for Mr Santos' ousting on Thursday evening.

"George Santos is not fit to serve his constituents as a United States representative," Mr D'Esposito's resolution read.

He later referred to Mr Santos a "conman" and a "stain on the House" in a social media post. He and his colleagues cite the indictments and investigations into Mr Santos' conduct as justification for expulsion.

But in a post to X, formerly known as Twitter, Mr Santos wrote that "I'm not resigning" and said he is "entitled to due process and not a predetermined outcome as some are seeking".

It is extremely rare for the House of Representatives to expel one of their own. The US Constitution requires two-thirds vote of the House, rather than a simple majority.

Only five lawmakers have ever been expelled, according to the US House Archives. Three of those men were forced out during the US Civil War in the 1860s because of their Confederate allegiance.

Just two congressmen have been expelled in the past four decades, both after being convicted on federal charges.

But Mr Santos' scandals are some of the most serious faced by a member of Congress in recent years.

He has been accused of lying about his college degrees and his work experience; violating campaign finance and conflict of interest laws; falsely claiming his grandparents survived the Holocaust; and creating a fake animal charity that he used to siphon away cash meant for a veteran's dying dog.

Earlier this month, one of Mr Santos' top campaign staffers pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to commit fraud, after she was charged for submitting fake campaign finance reports.

And federal prosecutors have charged Mr Santos with wire fraud, identity theft, lying to Congress, money laundering, and credit card fraud among other crimes.

He currently faces a total of 23 federal charges - 13 from an initial indictment, and an additional 10 that came in a superseding indictment.

All four Republican congressmen who are seeking to expel Mr Santos are from districts that Joe Biden, a Democrat, won in the 2020 election. That means their re-election chances are more precarious than those lawmakers in safely partisan districts.

But Mr Santos has been allowed to remain in Congress until now, despite damaging reports and indictments.

Republicans hold the US House of Representatives with an extremely slim majority, meaning they need every vote on their roster in order to pass agenda items. If Mr Santos is expelled, they will lose one more.

The party has already passed on one opportunity to oust him from Congress.

Democrats introduced a similar resolution to force an expulsion vote in May, but since their party was in the minority and they could not draw support from Republicans, it failed.

Republicans instead voted to refer Mr Santos to the House Ethics Committee.
By Krystal Hu

(Reuters) -Alphabet's Google has agreed to invest up to $2 billion in the artificial intelligence company Anthropic, a spokesperson for the startup said on Friday.

The company has invested $500 million upfront into the OpenAI rival and agreed to add $1.5 billion more over time, the spokesperson said.

Google is already an investor in Anthropic, and the fresh investment would underscore a ramp-up in its efforts to better compete with Microsoft, a major backer of ChatGPT creator OpenAI, as Big Tech companies race to infuse AI into their applications.

Amazon.com also said last month it would invest up to $4 billion in Anthropic to compete with growing cloud rivals on AI.

In Amazon's quarterly report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission this week, the online retailer detailed it had invested in a $1.25 billion note from Anthropic that can convert to equity, while its ability to invest up to $2.75 billion in a second note expires in the first quarter of 2024.

Google declined to comment, and Amazon did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The Wall Street Journal earlier reported the news of Google's latest agreement with Anthropic.

The rising number of investments shows ongoing maneuvering by cloud companies to secure ties with the AI startups that are reshaping their industry.

Anthropic, which was co-founded by former OpenAI executives and siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, has shown efforts to secure the resources and deep-pocketed backers needed to compete with OpenAI and be leaders in the technology sector.

(Reporting by Krystal Hu in New York and Chavi Mehta in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Jeffrey Dastin; Editing by Anil D'Silva, Devika Syamnath and Chris Reese)
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) speaking at the Capitol on Wednesday. (Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images)

The older I get, the more reminders I see that Maya Angelou was right: When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.

Take the new House speaker, Mike Johnson, for instance.

Hes been showing who he is since 1998, when he graduated from law school and started going after the LGBTQ+ community every chance he could. And Im not just talking about trying to stop same-sex marriage, because lets face it, many progressives were against it back then as well. But Johnson was extreme by comparison  advocating for laws that banned two adults from having consensual sex in their own home.

So, to anyone who considers themselves an ally of the LGBTQ+ community, know this: Same-sex marriage and other protections are not safe.

Johnson (R-La.) has made attacking the queer community a huge part of his lifes work. We dont yet know his style as a leader in the House, but we know exactly where he intends to go.

Read more:Calmes: Who is House Speaker Mike Johnson? Matt Gaetz's victory lap says it all

And judging from how the speaker selection process played out over the weeks after the ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield), the Republican Party looks more than willing to go after the queer community with him. Of the three speaker nominations before Johnsons, the fastest one to collapse was that of House Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota. It lasted barely four hours. One of the key issues cited by his opposition: his support of same-sex marriage.

I told him it wasnt between he and I, said Rep. Rick Allen (R-Ga.) about why he opposed Emmer. It was between he and the teachings of Jesus Christ.

For some reason, I dont think Allen meant love your neighbor as yourself.

Read more:Editorial: House Republicans just elected an election denier as speaker. American democracy is in trouble

No, conservatives like him and Johnson tend to use Christianity as justification for anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination. The powerful players within this huge wing of the Republican Party do not, however, seem to take great issue with other sins such as adultery.

Author Jeff Sharlet has written multiple books on the inner workings of a collective of powerful Republican politicians, some of whom share a town house in Washington that was the site of not only prayer groups but also apparently extramarital affairs. The New Yorker dubbed it a frat house for Jesus. It takes a very special reading of the Bible to land on jail gay people and extramarital affairs are OK at the same time.

The Family, as the group is called, is also tied to the passage of anti-gay legislation in Romania and Uganda, which now sentences LGBTQ+ people to death and imprisons anyone who fails to report a queer person to the government.

Read more:Letters to the Editor: Was Speaker Mike Johnson sent by God? 'God, I hope not,' says a reader

I am not sure how the fiscally conservative, socially liberal crowd will process all of this information come the 2024 election, especially if theres a promise of tax cuts bundled up with the distasteful discrimination. However, given how this nation continues to struggle with not only LGBTQ+ rights but also racial and gender equity, Im not too optimistic.

In 2021, not long after the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Johnson gave a talk to a group of congressional staffers as part of the Faith and Law lecture series. The bipartisan organization is like a think tank for Christians working on the Hill. Johnson, a Trump ally who tried to overturn the 2020 election on his behalf, listed the rule of law second among his seven core conservative principles.

He listed individual freedom and limited government as first and third  despite wanting laws to ban sex between two consenting adults in their own home.

Beyond his run-of-the-mill doubletalk, the line that caught my attention most was this one: Im doing the same thing I used to do back in the late 90s.

Remember he graduated from law school in 1998. That is also the year a young gay man in Wyoming, Matthew Shepard, was brutally beaten, tied to a fence and left to die. That tragic story dominated the news for months. And Johnson started his legislative crusade against LGBTQ+ people in the wake of that tragedy.

That is what Johnson was doing back in the late 90s. He may not be a household name yet, but he is not an unknown. He showed us exactly who he was the first time.

So take Maya Angelous advice and believe him.

@LZGranderson

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
The Southern Illinois Builders Association invited students from schools in the metro-east and southern Illinois for their 23rd annual construction exposition, which ran Tuesday through Thursday.

More than 900 students from metro-east schools came to Belle-Claire Fairgrounds for the exposition.

Students entering the exposition were greeted with brochures filled with information about various trades, ranging from hiring and training timelines to the average salary one would expect in each respective field.

We want them to know everything about whats out there, said Southern Illinois Builders CEO Donna Richter.

Carpenters, steamfitters, cement workers and other industries filled the booths inside the fair building while students in small groups shuffled from trade to trade.

We like to keep the groups small, Richter said, That way they can get more hands-on experience.

Richter said that the exposition is a great way for teens to find a fulfilling career.

Some kids have never seen what a pipe fitter or carpenter really does, Richter said, This is a great way to show kids that not everybody has to go to a four year university. This serves as a great opportunity to learn about whats out there.
By Dan Williams, Michelle Nichols and Andrew Gray

(Reuters) -Israel is rejecting calls for respite in Gaza as its closest allies in the West have coalesced around the idea of "humanitarian pauses", or temporary stops to the bombardment.

Growing international distress at the conditions for 2.3 million people trapped under the heaviest air strikes Israel has ever unleashed on the Mediterranean enclave led major powers this week to call on Israel to allow such pauses to get aid in and Israeli hostages held by Islamist militant group Hamas out.

The issue has opened the first public split between Israel and backers including the United States, the EU, UK and other G7 members such as Japan over the campaign after tight alignment and support in the nearly three weeks since Hamas militants burst from Gaza into southern Israel on a deadly rampage.

"Israel is opposed to a humanitarian pause or ceasefire at this time," Lior Haiat, Israel's Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said on Friday, while a senior Israeli official said calls for a pause in fighting appeared in "poor faith."

The chorus of appeals for a pause followed days of intense diplomacy at U.N. headquarters in New York and in Brussels, and was a compromise between those, such as Spain, who wanted to push Israel to call a ceasefire, and those who say Israel's right to self defence was foremost.

Israel says Hamas killed some 1,400 people including children and took more than 200 hostages in its Oct. 7 rampage.

The Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry said 7,326 Palestinians have died in retaliatory air strikes, including around 3,000 children. Supplies of food, water, fuel and medicine are scarce in the 40-km-long (25-mile-long) strip.

Efforts were under way bilaterally and at the U.N. to urge Israel to allow some form of pause, Japan's Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa told reporters on Friday.

"I welcome the growing global consensus for a humanitarian pause in the conflict. I repeat my call for a humanitarian ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages, and the delivery of life-saving supplies at the scale needed," U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement on Friday.

For the moment, a respite from the hostilities appears distant as Israel intensified ground and air operations on Friday.

U.S.-led discussions among Egypt, Israel and the U.N. on improving aid access through the Rafah border crossing were currently the main focus, one EU official said. A White House official confirmed the talks and said they also were seeking agreement by Israel to allow fuel vital for hospitals.

Agreement on these points could lead to more focus on lowering the violence in southern Gaza to let aid enter, the EU official said.

An average of 12 trucks a day have entered Gaza in recent days, down from 500 a day prior to the conflict, Guterres said on Friday.

Israel says any respite from fighting benefits Hamas, which it is determined to destroy, and which it says diverts aid such water, fuel, food and medicine to its fighters.

"A ceasefire means giving Hamas time to rearm itself, so they can massacre us again," Israel's U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan told the General Assembly on Thursday, calling it "an attempt to tie Israels hands."

The U.N. General Assembly on Friday overwhelmingly passed a nonbinding resolution that called for an immediate humanitarian truce between Israel and Hamas and demanded aid access to Gaza and protection of civilians.

Earlier on Friday, a Hamas official said the group, which has freed four captives so far, intended to release civilian Israeli hostages but made this contingent on a ceasefire.

INTERMEDIARY NEEDED

Even among Israel's allies, there is no consensus on what is meant by a humanitarian pause.

Emanuela-Chiara Gillard, senior fellow at the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict, said agreement on the language did not mean implementation of a pause was imminent.

"Someone needs to act as a neutral intermediary to agree the precise modalities," she said, noting this could be a U.N. agency, a player like the Red Cross or even a state.

She said "ceasefire" tends to refer to a general suspension of fighting while humanitarian pauses or corridors are more limited. They should be designed not to have any strategic impact on the conflict as a whole and be intended for a specific purpose, she said.

U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby called a humanitarian pause "a temporary and local agreement to stop the fighting long enough to do some discrete task."

He said the answer to how long and how geographically wide a pause would be was: "It depends". He said multiple pauses over more than one day day might be needed. "If that's what it requires, then we absolutely will try to get such pause or pauses in place."

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the differences were semantic but: "What we want is to see the fighting stop so that humanitarian aid can get in."

(Reporting by Dan Williams in Jerusalem, Andrew Gray in Brussels and Michelle Nichols at the UN; Additional reporting by Emma Farge in Geneva, Steve Holland in Washington and Sakura Murakami in Tokyo; Writing by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA/MOSCOW (Reuters) -An official of the militant Hamas group conditioned the release of hostages in Gaza to a ceasefire in Israel's bombardment of the Palestinian enclave, launched after a deadly rampage into southern Israel nearly three weeks ago.

Israel says it is preparing a ground invasion, but has been urged by the U.S. and Arab countries to delay an operation that would multiply the number of civilian casualties in the densely populated coastal strip and might ignite a wider conflict.

Two U.S. fighter jets struck weapons and ammunition facilities in Syria on Friday in retaliation for attacks on U.S. forces by Iranian-backed militias since the Gaza war erupted.

An opinion poll on Friday suggested almost half of Israelis now wanted to hold off on a ground invasion out of fears for at least 224 hostages reported to be held there.

The Russian newspaper Kommersant quoted a member of a Hamas delegation visiting Moscow as saying time was needed to locate all those abducted by various Palestinian factions in the Hamas attack on Oct. 7.

"They seized dozens of people, most of them civilians, and we need time to find them in the Gaza Strip and then release them," Abu Hamid said.

He said Hamas, which has freed four hostages so far, had made clear it intended to release "civilian prisoners".

But this required a "calm environment", he said, repeating an assertion that Israeli bombing had killed 50 of those held.

Hamas officials in Moscow said they viewed all their hostages as Israelis, whatever additional passports they held, and could not release any of them until Israel agreed to a ceasefire, according to Russian media.

Qatar meanwhile told the U.S. it was open to reconsidering the continued presence of Hamas in Qatar once a hostage release deal has been secured, a senior U.S. official said.

There was no immediate response from Qatar, which, with the U.S., is leading hostage mediation talks with Hamas and Israel.

Palestinian militants clashed with Israeli troops in at least two areas in the Gaza Strip, the latest of several small-scale incursions, Hamas-affiliated media reported. The Israeli military did not immediately confirm the reports.

Israel said its fighter jets had struck three senior Hamas operatives who played significant roles in the Oct. 7 attack, though there was no confirmation by Hamas.

Israel's military said the air force intercepted an aerial threat in the area of the Red Sea, without elaborating.

In early afternoon, rocket sirens sounded throughout southern Israel and an Israeli medic said three people had been wounded when a missile hit Tel Aviv.

Further north, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah said it had carried out a number of attacks on Israeli positions.

In Jerusalem, Israeli security forces restricted young Palestinians from entering Al-Aqsa mosque for prayers as part of measures to quell any unrest linked to the conflict in Gaza.

In the occupied West Bank, Israeli troops killed four Palestinians during raids, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA said. Two of the dead were members of militant factions.

GAZA CIVILIANS DESPERATE

In the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, an air strike killed the pregnant wife of a Palestinian lawyer, Jehad Al-Kafarnah.

"My life, my heart, I love you," Kafarnah wrote, weeping, on the white sheeting wrapped around his wife's body. He held the body of her 8-month-old stillborn child, also wrapped in white, in his arms.

As Gaza's 2.3 million civilians grow more desperate under a siege that has cut supplies of power, water, food, fuel and medicine, the issue of aid comes before the 193-member U.N. General Assembly in New York on Friday.

Unlike in the U.N. Security Council, where resolutions on aid for Gaza failed this week, there can be no veto on the resolution by Arab states calling for a ceasefire, which will not be binding but will carry political weight.

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, says more than 600,000 Gazans have been made homeless.

Ten more trucks of food and medical supplies arrived in Gaza from Egypt, along with 10 foreign doctors who were the first to enter since Israel tightened its blockade nearly three weeks ago, a Palestinian official said.

This made for around 84 trucks in three weeks. The U.N. says Gaza needs around 100 relief trucks every day, and the official said negotiations were taking place with Israel, which wants to prevent resources reaching Hamas, to speed things up.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said many more trucks needed to enter Gaza "without delay".

UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini said 57 UNRWA workers had been killed in Israeli bombardments.

U.N. human rights spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani became emotional when describing conditions for U.N. staff: "Many of them are sleeping out in the open ... You have to make calculations about whether a ceiling collapsing on you or being hit by shrapnel is more likely to happen."

Internet connectivity in the Gaza strip has broken down amid reports of heavy bombardment, the Netblocks internet observatory said.

U.S. STRIKES SYRIAN BASES

Calls for restraint stem not only from concern for Gaza's civilians and Israeli hostages, but also fears that the crisis could spark conflict across the Middle East.

U.S. President Joe Biden ordered overnight strikes on two Syrian bases used by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps and militias that it backs, the Pentagon said, after issuing a rare direct warning to Iran not to attack U.S. troops.

U.S. troops in Iraq brought down a drone near an airbase which hosts U.S. and other international forces in western Iraq, a U.S. defense official said.

Israel says Hamas killed some 1,400 people including children in its Oct. 7 rampage.

The health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said 7,326 Palestinians had been killed in the retaliatory air strikes, including around 3,000 children.

Biden has cast doubt on casualty figures provided by Palestinian officials in Gaza, but international aid agencies say they are broadly accurate and have been reliable in the past.

(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi, Ahmed Mohamed Hassan, Tala Ramadan, Emily Rose, Adam Makary, Jeff Mason, Phil Stewart, Michelle Nichols, Gabriela Baczynska and Andrew Gray; Writing by Grant McCool, Michael Perry, Kevin Liffey and Giles Elgood; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan, Philippa Fletcher and Toby Chopra)
Editors Note: Featuring the good, the bad and the ugly, Look of the Week is a regular series dedicated to unpacking the most talked about outfit of the last seven days.

Four-time NBA champion LeBron James is the latest male celebrity to be spotted out and about wearing a high-fashion bag. On Tuesday, the 34-year-old professional basketball player arrived at the Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado for the latest LA Lakers game against Denvers Nuggets. If James wanted to make a sartorial statement for his first game of the season, it came in the form of the forest green Speedy bag from Louis Vuitton which sat at his hip  one of the standout pieces from Pharells debut collection as creative director of menswear this summer.

James arrived in Denver wearing a green Louis Vuitton Speedy bag. - Garrett Ellwood/NBAE/Getty Images

James paired the cross-body bag with a custom tweed Damoflage jacket (Pharells pixelated, Minecraft-esque print which has already become a brand motif, endorsed by Kim Kardashian and Rihanna), sunglasses and black derby shoes. He follows in the footsteps of several famous men of late who have been seen sporting not just any functional receptacle, but an it bag.

This year, Australian actor Jacob Elordi (who is set to star as Elvis in Sofia Coppolas forthcoming biopic Priscilla) has appeared with a series of highly coveted luxury bags slung over his shoulder including, but not limited to, a Bottega Veneta Cassette bag, a Chanel Mini Messenger, a Burberry Sanford leather tote, a Valentino Loco bag and a yellow version of James LV Speedy. No one can separate Elordi from his fancy bags, wrote one user on X.

Similarly, fashion-forward musicians Tyler the Creator and A$AP Rocky are also batting for the man bag  Tyler has owned an turquoise quilted Chanel number since at least 2018, as well as a green Goyard trunk bag, while earlier this month A$AP was snapped rocking a Barbie-pink Bottega Andiamo.

Jacob Elordi was seen this summer in an array of it bags, including this burgundy Valentino Loco bag. - Alessandro Levati/Getty Images

A gendered stigma has long been attached to men who wear shoulder bags, however. In series five, episode 13 of Friends (The One with Joeys Bag), when Joey debuts a new leather tote bag, his masculinity and sexual orientation is persistently mocked by Chandler and Ross. Indeed, men wearing bags are consistently the butt of jokes in internet memes, comic strips, and even stand-up comedy sets. You better keep a gun in here bro, comic Andrew Schulz told a male audience member who attended a 2019 show wearing a small leather satchel.

A$AP Rocky wore a Bottega Veneta Andiamo bag for his birthday dinner earlier this month  and it was the perfect shade of pink. - Jackson Lee/GC Images/Getty Images

But the tide is changing. In August, Pharrell told GQ Magazine that designing accessories was something he was eager to tackle in the Louis Vuitton top job. One of the things I wanted to do when I got here was I definitely wanted to work on the bags, he said. Doubtless its a dedication appreciated by the likes of James, Elordi, A$AP and Tyler, whose street style looks contribute further proof  were any needed  that man purses are enjoying a newfound socio-cultural appreciation. Because at the end of the day, manbags shouldnt carry so much baggage.

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Institute for Justice

Sonia Book's autistic daughter was hit by a public school teacher who later pleaded guilty to battering two other autistic students. Book tried to sue, but she happens to live in Louisiana, one of three states where school officials are essentially immune from lawsuits for excessive corporal punishment.

Now Book is asking the Supreme Court to step in.

The Institute for Justice, a libertarian-leaning public interest law firm, filed a petition to the Supreme Court this week on behalf of Book, asking the Court to resolve an issue that it says has made corporal punishment of children categorically exempt from constitutional scrutiny in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, which covers Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

"If the school system isn't going to hold the people who hit my daughter accountable, then I hoped the courts would, but so far that hasn't happened," Book said in an Institute for Justice press release. "It makes no sense to me that people who hit your kids can get away with it if they work for the school. That's who my daughter should be able to trust, not fear."

In 2020, Book's 11-year-old daughter, who has nonverbal autism, was hit by school employees in the Jefferson Parish school district on at least three separate occasions for acting out. In one instance, the girl kicked in the direction of a teacher without making contact. In another, she pinched a teacher's aide.

Book filed a lawsuit against the teacher and several school officials in 2021, arguing that the school district and employees violated her daughter's rights. However, both a U.S. district court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit held that the school officials were exempt from Book's claims under Section 1983 of the Civil Rights Act, which created a right to sue government officials acting under the color of law for constitutional violations.

As the Institute for Justice describes in its petition for writ of certiorari, the 5th Circuit is an outlier. It's the only federal circuit that immunizes school officials from civil rights lawsuits for corporal punishment, as long as that force is plausibly related to maintaining classroom order. Under a binding precedent in the circuit, "as long as the state provides an adequate remedy, a public school student cannot state a claim for denial of substantive due process through excessive corporal punishment."

All other nine circuits in the country allow such claims to proceed under either the Fourth Amendment's excessive force provision or the 14th Amendment's Due Process Clause.

That 5th Circuit precedent has led to federal judges dismissing lawsuits where, for example, a student with disabilities was tased, or a 5-year-old boy was allegedly slammed to the ground and dragged to the principal's office by a school police officer. The 5th Circuit has only recognized excessive violence against students in cases where the abuse was cartoonishly grotesque and devoid of any pedagogical justification, such as tying a student to a chair for two days.

"The Fifth Circuit is way out of step with the rest of the nation's courts on this issue, and we're asking the Supreme Court to right this legal wrong," Institute for Justice senior attorney Patrick Jaicomo said in a press release. "The absolute protection the Fifth Circuit has created for abusive teachers and school administrators is greater than the overly-generous immunities that already extend to police and every other public employee."

Meanwhile, the teacher who struck Book's daughter was not disciplined. She transferred to another school. In September, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported that the teacher pleaded guilty to simple battery of two other autistic siblings. A related lawsuit against the teacher accused her of slapping the children, segregating them from nondisabled children, and calling them "feral kids" and "filthy little things."

Reason has reported extensively on state violence against children with disabilities. In Florida, school-age childrendisproportionately those with disabilitiesare frequently restrained by police and involuntarily committed to psychiatric hospitals for throwing tantrums in the classroom. Last year, a Kansas sheriff's deputy hogtied and tased an 12-year-old autistic boy. In North Carolina in 2018, a school resource officer handcuffed a 7-year-old autistic boy and pinned him face-down on the ground for nearly 40 minutes while taunting him.

The Institute for Justice is asking the Supreme Court to resolve whether students' excessive violence claims are cognizable under Section 1983 and whether those claims should proceed under the Fourth Amendment or 14th Amendment.

The post Louisiana Mother of Autistic Child Hit by Teacher Files Supreme Court Petition appeared first on Reason.com.
LISBON, Maine  Hundreds of law enforcement officers on Friday again descended on southern Maine in search of an Army reservist suspected of massacring 18 people this week in the close-knit city of Lewiston.

Officials had urged residents to stay indoors as they hunted for a man they have identified as Robert Card, 40. Card is suspected of going on a shooting rampage at a bowling alley and a bar and grille on Wednesday night.

It is highly unusual for a winding manhunt to follow a mass shooting in the U.S., according to Joseph Giacalone, a retired New York Police Department sergeant and now an adjunct professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

These shootings usually end at the scene, whether the person ends their own life or they wait for law enforcement to do it for them, Giacalone said.

The dayslong search for Card bucks U.S. law enforcements long track record of capturing or killing mass shooters either on the spot or after a brief pursuit.

The sprawling search includes dive teams and air searches at the Androscoggin River, near where Cards white Subaru was found, according to Michael Sauschuck, Maines public safety chief.

Search divers headed into the water in pairs as authorities marked each area they have searched with GPS. Officials were working on slowing the river's current so it would be easier for divers using sonar technology. Low-flying helicopters were using thermal imaging to look for signs of Card.

Authorities also hunted for Card in the wooded areas near the businesses where the shootings occurred.

"We are on 24 hours, and we will be, until the suspect in this case is brought to justice," Sauschuck told reporters at a news conference Friday morning.

Law enforcement officials prepare to search the Androscoggin River in Lisbon Falls, Maine, on Oct. 27, 2023. (Angela Weiss / AFP - Getty Images)

When asked by reporters whether the authorities have any indication that Card may have killed himself and his body might be in the river, Sauschuck said officials were exploring all possibilities.

"We clearly dont have him located at this point. We dont have him in custody, so all of those options are on the table," Sauschuck said. "We certainly dont want to wait too long because the river is a big piece of this."

Authorities are under mounting pressure to find Card. Sauschuck appeared to grow visibly frustrated when asked whether law enforcement agencies had received warnings about the suspect before the attack.

The public safety official did not directly answer the question, saying: "The reality for today is, I'm not going to talk specifically about who knew what and when. We're still actively involved in a very dynamic situation here, and we're focused on an individual who currently has eight warrants out for murder."

With Card still not located, shelter-in-place orders in effect since Wednesday for Lewiston and the neighboring communities of Auburn, Lisbon and Bowdoin were lifted Friday, according to Sauschuck. Hunting will be prohibited in the towns of Bowdoin, Lewiston, Lisbon, and Monmouth beginning Saturday morning, he added.

Authorities could benefit from unseasonably mild temperatures in the region. Lisbon Police Chief Ryan McFee told reporters Friday that "it's not cold at all" and it was "decent outside" as officers continued their search.

Law enforcement personnel in Monmouth, Maine, on Oct. 27, 2023. (Angela Weiss / AFP - Getty Images)

In a dramatic scene Thursday night, officers swarmed a home in Bowdoin owned by Card's relatives. They yelled out for the suspect to surrender, but apparently he wasn't there.

Investigators were combing through more than 530 tips and leads that have come pouring in since the deadly shootings, which left 13 people injured, Sauschuck said.

Robert Card (Lewiston Police Dept. via AP)

There are still victims in critical condition, but if the death toll remains at 18, Card's killing spree would be among the deadliest in modern U.S. history. In other such attacks, the suspects were quickly arrested, killed, died by suicide or surrendered, according to data compiled by NBC News.

The Maine State Police are spearheading the hunt, working with the FBI; U.S. Marshals; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and the Boston and New York City police departments.

George Solis reported from Lisbon, Daniel Arkin and David K. Li reported from New York City.
After a week-long search, Maryland authorities report they have located the body of the man suspected of shooting and killing the judge who presided over his divorce case.

On October 19 in Hagerstown, Maryland, 49-year-old Pedro Argote reportedly shot and murdered 52-year-old Andrew Wilkinson, a judge in the Circuit Court. The shooting occurred in Wilkinson's home driveway, according to the Washington County Sheriff's Office.

Suspect Found Dead

Maryland sheriff's office said Argote's dead body was discovered Thursday morning, October 26, during a search near Williamsport. His corpse was located in a very forested area about a mile from where his vehicle was discovered last week.

After an autopsy is performed, Washington County Sheriff Brian Albert will know more about the circumstances surrounding the death, as reported by ABC News.

Earlier this week, the silver Mercedes SUV that authorities suspect Argote was driving was discovered in a forested location near Williamsport. The judge was killed about eight miles southwest of Hagerstown, where the car was parked.

About 75 miles to the northwest of Baltimore, along the state lines of West Virginia and Pennsylvania, is where the city of Hagerstown is found.

See Also: Maine Mass Shooting: At Large Suspect Robert Card 'Looking for Ex,' Discovered Note Reveals

Judge Wilkinson's Death

Wilkinson presided over Argote's divorce hearings. Albert said he believes custody issues between Argote and his ex-wife were behind the shooting that occurred on October 19. As per the court records acquired by ABC News, Wilkinson also handed the wife full custody of the family home, ordered Argote to pay child support, and barred him from having any contact with his children or wife unless she initiated it.

On October 20, the government made public its attempts to locate Argote and offered a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to his capture.

The sheriff acknowledged that locating Argote was a relief but said that the situation was still a tragedy. "We just came from Judge Wilkinson's viewing, met with the family. They were very appreciative. It brings a little bit of closure to them, but it's still a tragedy. They lost a husband, father, and a brother," Albert stated.

Wilkinson has been a 4th Judicial Circuit judge since January 2020. He said he became a judge to benefit his community during his swearing-in ceremony. "It's an honor, and it's humbling, and I'm happy to serve," he stated.

Born in Guam in 1971, Wilkinson attended the University of North Carolina for his undergraduate studies and Emory University for his legal training. Between 2006 and 2012, he worked as an assistant prosecutor for Washington County, and between 2006 and 2019, he sat on the State Board of Law Examiners' Character Committee.

Reportedly, there has been a disturbing trend of violence directed against judges and their families, with Wilkinson's murder being a recent instance. Nearly 1,300 investigations involving attacks or possible threats against federal court workers took place in fiscal year 2022, according to a data sheet from the US Marshals Service highlighted by CNN.

See Also: New Jersey Suspect Pours Gas to Car Before Setting on Fire Outside House Previously Targeted by Arson

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Donald Trumps former chief of staff Mark Meadows has been walking a tightrope, trying to strike a careful balance of complying with federal investigators who are using his testimony to prosecute Trump, while not crossing any red lines that would jeopardize his influential political relationships with congressional Republicans.

That balancing act was on full display Tuesday night: Hours after an ABC News report that Meadows had been granted immunity and met multiple times with special counsel Jack Smiths team, Meadows was spotted at a right-wing gala in Washington, DC, mingling with well-connected Republicans, according to two people in attendance.

Meadows provided information to federal investigators in both the 2020 election subversion and the classified documents investigations after receiving immunity to comply with a subpoena, sources familiar with the matter told CNN. He didnt get blanket immunity but instead received assurances he wouldnt be prosecuted for what he shared with investigators, the sources said.

As a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus who spent years in Congress as a partisan attack dog, Meadows still wields significant influence among conservative lawmakers. But his clout within pro-Trump circles could be threatened if Republicans suspect that he turned on the former president.

Hes just trying to be a good faith operator and work with them, a person close to Meadows told CNN about his interactions with special counsel prosecutors. That doesnt mean that hes selling anybody out or flipping.

As recently as this month, Meadows met privately with House Republicans, both on and off Capitol Hill, about the race for House speaker pushing GOP members toward supporting more conservative candidates who are aligned with Trump, sources familiar with the meetings told CNN.

And yet, Meadows is a key witness against Trump in his criminal cases. Its one of the reasons the bipartisan January 6 committee said Meadows was uniquely situated to provide critical information about the attempts to delay or prevent the peaceful transfer of power.

After ABC News published its report, Meadows attorney George Terwilliger said in a statement, I told ABC that their story was largely inaccurate. People will have to judge for themselves the decision to run it anyway. Terwilliger did not say which parts of the story he thought were inaccurate.

Meadows did not respond to requests for comment. Meadows legal team declined to comment for this story.

Staying in the GOP fold

Since Trump left office, Meadows has kept close ties with many of the former presidents allies in Congress. He has been a crucial player over the last several months in advising right-wing holdouts on how to exact concessions from House GOP leadership, as CNN reported in May.

During the most recent speaker fight, Meadows DC-based think tank, the Conservative Partnership Institute, where Meadows is senior partner, played a significant role in boosting the failed speakership candidacy of fellow Freedom Caucus member Jim Jordan, coordinating with members, organizing calls and strategizing with right-wing activists about ways to whip up support for the Ohio Republican, sources told CNN.

Mark Meadows, White House chief of staff, listens as President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House on Wednesday, July 29, 2020. - Sarah Silbiger/UPI/Bloomberg/Getty Images

When Jordan was asked Thursday in a Newsmax interview whether Meadows had turned on Trump, he replied, I dont believe Mark would do that. Mark is a good friend, but I dont know. But I trust that Mark  Mark thinks the world of President Trump, as do I.

But Meadows also provided damning text messages to the January 6 committee in fall 2021, and gave crucial grand jury testimony to Smiths team this year  and is currently fighting his own criminal charges in Georgia. (He pleaded not guilty to two state crimes.)

The Georgia indictment accuses Meadows of working with Trump to pressure Georgia election officials to interfere with the vote tally, and says he was involved in some of the fake-elector efforts. Trumps federal indictment also references Meadows emails about the electors and mentions his conversations with Trump about voter fraud allegations  making it likely that Meadows could be a trial witness on those topics.

Advisers to the former president insist that theyre not concerned about Meadows level of cooperation, at least for now. They argue its unclear how valuable Meadows information could be in a trial setting, and they tell CNN that theyre taking Terwilligers statement about the ABC News story at face value.

I think from our standpoint, were just taking his word for it. Weve been pushing out his lawyers statements publicly, one Trump adviser told CNN.

Meadows as a witness

CNN reported in June that Meadows gave grand jury testimony in Smiths probe, and that he was asked about efforts to overturn the 2020 election and Trumps handling of classified documents. Smith has since charged Trump in the two separate investigations.

In front of the grand jury, Meadows was immunized from prosecution by a federal judge when it became clear he planned to assert his Fifth Amendment rights to decline to answer questions about the 2020 election, sources told CNN.

Meadows also provided information to Smiths team  about the election and classified documents  during interviews conducted under whats called a proffer agreement, which provides some legal protection, the sources said.

Meadows grand jury appearance occurred before Smith charged Trump  and before Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis secured indictments against Trump, Meadows, and 17 others in her state-level election subversion case in Georgia.

Terwilliger, Meadows attorney, has previously said publicly, Mr. Meadows has maintained a commitment to tell the truth where he has a legal obligation to do so.

But Meadows told investigators that he didnt believe the 2020 election was stolen and that Trump was being dishonest when he declared victory on Election Day shortly after the polls closed, according to ABC News. The report says Meadows notified Trump by mid-December 2020 that his lawyer Rudy Giuliani couldnt prove his voter fraud claims.

Obviously, we didnt win, Meadows told Smiths team, according to ABC News.

That is the opposite of what Trump and many of his congressional allies are still saying about the 2020 election. As recently as Tuesday night, Trump posted on social media that there was a rigged election in 2020. And Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana was elected House speaker on Wednesday  he has a well-documented history of 2020 election denialism.

Meadows as a political operator

Regardless of what Meadows told investigators in private about the 2020 election and classified documents, he is still in the fold with many House Republicans, including many who also cast votes to throw out the results from Pennsylvania and Arizona, where Biden prevailed.

The balance underscores Meadows long-standing reputation in DC as a political operator who often tells people what they want to hear, which continued in the Trump White House.

One person close to Meadows said that during the post-election period, Meadows was seen as someone who would faithfully investigate, or pass along and sort of evaluate voter fraud allegations, even with a skeptical eye.

One source close to Trump and Meadows said there were three camps in Trumps orbit during the frenetic post-election period: people who thought there was massive fraud, people who didnt, and people who lacked the understanding of election mechanics to know whether there was fraud.

The president listened to all those groups, the source said. From knowing Mark and talking to him, I would not be surprised if he at some point was in all three groups.

Three versions of history

Meadows has put forward three retellings of his dealings with Trump regarding the 2020 election. First, theres his memoir, which he published in late 2021. Second, there is his private testimony to Smiths team, as described in an ABC News report Tuesday. Third, there is his testimony at a public court hearing in August tied to his Georgia indictment.

There are some inconsistencies and omissions across these overlapping histories of Trumps many attempts to overturn the 2020 election, as Meadows saw it.

The starkest difference is how Meadows approaches Trumps voter fraud claims. He was reportedly dismissive in his special counsel testimony, where he could be prosecuted for lying. However, in his book, Meadows clearly but carefully leaned into the fraud claims.

According to ABC News, Meadows told Smiths investigators that he repeatedly told Trump after the election that allegations of mass voter fraud were baseless. Meadows also said he believes the US government assessment that the 2020 election was the most secure in American history.

Former White House Chief of Staff during the Trump administration Mark Meadows speaks during a forum titled House Rules and Process Changes for the 118th Congress at FreedowmWorks headquarters on November 14, 2022 in Washington, DC. - Drew Angerer/Getty Images/File

But Meadows wrote in his memoir there was actual evidence of fraud, numerous credible allegations of fraud, and thousands of allegations of widespread fraud, including many  instances in Georgia. However, Meadows never asserted there was the kind of massive fraud that could flip the results, as Trump has falsely claimed.

When he testified in August at a public hearing related to his Georgia indictment, Meadows put himself in the middle of these two disjoined previous perspectives.

Under oath publicly in Georgia federal court, Meadows cast himself as a diligent aide trying to manage his boss concerns about 2020 election while running the country and working on the transfer of power to the Biden administration.

He said he had no reason to doubt then-Attorney General Bill Barr when Barr told him and Trump in early December 2020 that the voter fraud claims were bullsh*t. However, Meadows testified that he believed at the time that additional investigation into allegations of fraud needed to continue and that Barrs assessment wasnt necessarily the final word.

The ABC News report said Meadows previously told Smiths team that he had confidence in how the Justice Department probed voter fraud claims in 2020  disavowing what he wrote in his memoir, where he said, our many referrals were not seriously investigated.

Trump reacts to Meadows

Trump has said he doesnt believe the ABC News report about Meadows immunity. In a social media post, Trump claimed prosecutors are cutting deals with weaklings and cowards who are willing to say bad things about him.

I dont believe it, Trump said Wednesday. Ive spoken to Mark Meadows many, many times over the years and he strongly believes the election was rigged.

In a court filing Wednesday night, Smith said Trumps comments were prejudicial and threatening against Meadows, and were attempts to intimidate and influence a foreseeable trial witness.

Smiths team told US District Judge Tanya Chutkan that Trumps comments were problematic enough that she should reinstate a gag order that she temporarily paused while Trump appealed. Trumps public attacks on the judicial process, including his commentary about Meadows credibility, pose a grave threat to the very notion of a fair trial, prosecutors wrote.

CNNs Melanie Zanona contributed to this report.

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Illustration: Lex Villena; Midjourney

Bettersten Wade had been searching for her missing adult son for seven months when she finally learned what happened to him. Just minutes after leaving home in March, 37-year-old Dexter Wade had been struck and killed by a police cruiser. Police didn't inform any family members about Dexter Wade's death, eventually burying him on the grounds of a penal farm.

On March 5, Dexter Wade left his mother's home in Jackson, Mississippi, following an argument the two had over a broken window in the house. After not hearing from him for days, Bettersten Wade reported him missing to the local police.

Bettersten Wade told NBC News that she had been hesitant to call Jackson police after an officer killed her brother in 2019an incident that resulted in the responsible officer being found guilty of manslaughter.

"My mama told me, 'They're not going to do anything,'" she told NBC. "But I had to do something to find Dexter, and I thought that was the best way."

According to NBC, Bettersten Wade did everything she could to help find her son. "Bettersten said she kept in regular touch with police, asking for updates and requesting that they put his picture on TV," wrote NBC's Jon Schuppe. "She did her own search, checking out abandoned homes and driving around her neighborhood asking if anyone had seen him." Despite repeated calls, police consistently told her they had no new information about her son.

But it turned out the police knew all along what had happened to Dexter Wade. He had been run over and killed by a police car, less than a mile from his mother's home and less than an hour after leaving.

According to legal documents provided to NBC, an investigator was able to identify Bettersten Wade as Dexter Wade's next of kin just three days after his death, on March 8. But the investigator only attempted to call her onceBettersten Wade, for her own part, says she does not recall receiving a phone call from the investigator.

Jackson police were tasked with continuing to contact Bettersten Wade to properly notify her of her son's death. They failed to do so. By the end of the month, NBC says that the coroner's office had filed documents requesting to bury Dexter Wade on the grounds of a penal farm, as no one had come to claim his body.

Despite Bettersten Wade's repeated attempts to find her son and frequent contact with police, she wasn't informed of his death until a new investigator was assigned to his case.

"They had me looking for him all that time, and they knew who he was," she told NBC.

While Bettersten Wade plans to have her son's body removed and properly buried, the ordeal is still devastating. Dexter Wade left behind two young daughters.

"The hardest thing I ever had to do is tell my girls that their dad is never coming back," the children's mother told NBC. "I just want someone to answer for what happened. I want to know what really happened."

According to NBC, Jackson police have not responded to questions about the circumstances of Dexter Wade's killing or why they refused to inform Bettersten Wade about her son's death. When contacted by Reason, the department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The post Mississippi Police Killed Her Son, Then Buried Him in a Pauper's Grave Without Telling Her appeared first on Reason.com.
North Carolina schools, including in Wake County and Charlotte-Mecklenburg, have won $24 million in federal grant money this year to use strategies such as performance pay to address teacher shortages.

The U.S. Department of Education announced this week that it has awarded $114.8 million this year in Teacher and School Leader grants to 29 recipients, including Wake County, Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Montgomery County and the Raleigh-based Innovation Project.

The amount for the four North Carolina winners is slated to rise to $62 million over the three-year life of the grant. Recipients are supposed to develop, implement, improve, or expand comprehensive performance-based compensation systems.

This nearly $115 million investment will help states and school districts recruit and retain new talent, increase compensation, and address educator shortages that we know disproportionately impact students from our communities of color, students from low-income backgrounds, students with disabilities and English learners, U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a news release.

Performance pay is controversial because some teachers say it leads to competition instead of collaboration. But supporters say it rewards effective teachers.

The grants come as North Carolina school districts opened the school year with 3,584 teacher vacancies. Fewer students in North Carolina colleges and universities are studying to become teachers.

North Carolina grant recipients

 Wake County will get $4.6 million this year to start Project LEADERS (Leveraging Employee Advancement to Develop Excellence and Reach Success). Wake will use performance-based compensation to recruit, retain, reward, and develop well-qualified educators at 24 high-need schools.

Wake is slated to get $13,5 million over the next three years.

Kristin Cubbage, a teacher at Ashley Park K-8 School in Charlotte, was one of the teachers taking part in the Opportunity Culture program in this 2015 file photo. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has won a federal grant to expand the Opportunity Culture program into more schools.

 Charlotte-Mecklenburg will get $2.8 million this year to expand the Opportunity Culture Teacher Leader Pathways program into more schools. The program pays highly effective teachers up to $18,250 extra a year to stay in the classroom while taking on additional leadership roles in their school.

CMS is slated to get $7.7 million over three years.

 Montgomery County will get $8.3 million to start the TEAM (Teacher and Principal Effectiveness Acceleration in Montgomery) program in its 11 schools. The money will help the small rural district, located about 90 miles west of Raleigh, with activities such as hiring a more diverse teacher workforce and identifying master teachers.

Montgomery County is slated to get $21.5 million over three years.

 The Innovation Project will get $8.3 million this year to support its Reimagining Teaching Talent program to help support 79 schools in eight North Carolina school districts. The eight districts are Asheboro, Edgecombe County, Elizabeth City-Pasquotank, Lexington, Mount Airy, Scotland County, Vance County and Warren County.

The Innovation Project is slated to get $21.5 million over three years.
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Friday denied tensions between the government and the Berlusconi family's Mediaset TV group after it broadcast off-air sexist comments from her partner which played a part in their separation.

"The relations between the government and Mediaset are the (normal) relations between the government and a large Italian company," she told reporters after a meeting of European Union leaders in Brussels.

Mediaset is part of the MFE-MediaForEurope group owned by the heirs of the late Silvio Berlusconi, a former prime minister whose Forza Italia party is a Meloni coalition ally.

Meloni broke up with Andrea Giambruno, the father of her daughter, after a Mediaset satirical show broadcast off-air video clips last week in which he used foul language and appeared to make advances to a female colleague.

Giambruno also hosted his own news programme with Mediaset, Italy's leading commercial TV operator.

Italian newspapers reported Meloni was upset with Mediaset after it screened the videos, sparking fears among investors that the issue risked damaging the relationship between MFE and Meloni's administration.

Meloni dismissed such reports as speculation and also denied any rift with Antonio Tajani, the foreign minister who took the reins of the Forza Italia after Silvio Berlusconi died in June.

"There are no problems between me and Tajani, there are no problems with Mediaset either," she said.

Marina Berlusconi, the late tycoon's eldest daughter who together with her brother Pier Silvio has assumed effective control of the family business empire, in recent days also dismissed the reports and said she held Meloni in high esteem.

(Reporting by Angelo Amante; Editing by Keith Weir)
map of Northern Marianas Islands

The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) is a self-governing commonwealth of the United States.

It includes the 14 northernmost islands in the Mariana archipelago - the southernmost island Guam is a separate US territory. The islands lie 2,400km south of Japan.

Those born on the islands are US citizens but not eligible to vote in presidential elections. The territory receives millions of dollars in aid from Washington.

Most of the population live on the island of Saipan, and only four other islands are populated. Native Micronesians outnumber the indigenous Chamorro and Carolinian populations.

Like other remote islands, the CNMI faces the challenge of declining population numbers, leading to falling tax revenues and pressures on public services.

Read more country profiles - Profiles by BBC Monitoring

COMMONWEALTH OF THE NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS: FACTS

Capital: Saipan

Area: 464 sq km

Population: 55,650

Languages: English, Chamorro, Carolinian

Life expectancy: 74 years (men) 79 years (women)

LEADERS

Head of State: The President of the United States

Governor: Arnold Palacios

North Marianas Governor Arnold Palacios

Independent candidate Arnold Palacios was sworn in as governor in January 2023, having defeated incumbent Ralph Torres of the Republican Party in a run-off election the previous November.

Mr Palacios had served as Governor Torres's deputy until they fell out in the run-up to the 2022 election.

MEDIA

The first settlers in the Marianas set up megalithic colonnades of capped pillars called latte stones upon which they built their homes

Broadcasting is regulated by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Press/online

Marianas Variety - English language newspaper and website

Saipan Tribune - English language newspaper and website

Pacific Daily News - Guam-based newspaper covering Pacific region

Television

Docomo Pacific - subsidiary of Japan's NTT, providing TV, internet and phone services in Guam and Northern Marianas

TIMELINE

A monument to Japanese civilians and soldiers who jumped off Saipan's Banzai Cliff to avoid capture by the US army in 1944

Some key events in Northern Marianas' history:

1500-1400BC - Islands first settled by migrants from the Philippines, followed by later migrations from the Caroline islands and then from the Philippines or eastern Indonesia.

1521 - Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan land on Guam. He and his crew are the first Europeans to arrive in the Marianas. He claims the archipelago for Spain.

1565 - Spain incorporates the islands into the Spanish East Indies. Guam becomes an important stopover between the Philippines and Mexico for the Manila galleons trading between Spanish colonies.

1668 - The islands are named Las Marianas, after the Spanish regent Mariana of Austria (1634-1696)

16th-18th Centuries - After first contact with the Spanish, the inhabitants become known as the Chamorros, a Spanish word similar to Chamori, the name of the indigenous caste system's higher division.

Between 90-95% of the islands' population dies from European diseases carried by the Spanish or marries non-Chamorro settlers under Spanish rule. New settlers, primarily from the Philippines and the Caroline Islands, are brought in to repopulate the islands.

1898 - Spanish-American War. US takes Guam from the Spanish.

1899 - Spain cedes Guam to the US and sells the Northern Marianas and Caroline Islands to Germany under 1899 German-Spanish Treaty.

1899-1914 - Germany administers the islands as part of its colony of German New Guinea.

1914 - Shortly after the outbreak of World War One, Japan seizes the islands from Germany and annexes them.

1919 - Following World War One, the League of Nations formally places the islands under Japanese administration as part of its South Seas Mandate.

1920s-30s - Sugar cane becomes the main industry on the islands, which see significant numbers of Japanese migrate to the islands, outnumbering the indigenous population.

1941 - Immediately after its attack on the US navy at Pearl Harbor during World War Two, Japanese forces from the Marianas invade Guam.

1944 - Battle of the Marianas. US forces invade the Marianas. Of the 30,000 Japanese troops defending Saipan, fewer than 1,000 remain a the end. Many civilians are also killed - including about 1,000 civilians who kill themselves by jumping off cliffs.

1945 - New US air bases are built on the islands to aid US attacks on Japan's home islands. Tinian becomes the base for the B-29 aircraft that drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

1947 - Islands become a United Nations Trust Territory under US administration.

1958-1969 - Northern Marianas votes four times in favour of integration with Guam, but Guam rejects integration in a 1969 referendum.

1970s - Islands decide not to seek independence but develop closer links with the US. Negotiations for commonwealth status begin in 1972.

1978 - Islands become a commonwealth of the US.

2009 - The Northern Mariana Islands sends a delegate to US Congress to represent its interests.
A Pasco police officer is in trouble with the law after he allegedly held his wife against her will during a two-hour drunken argument.

Lee Samuel Sam Guerrero is accused of kicking in a bathroom door and keeping his wife trapped in a room during the Aug. 13 struggle inside their Richland home.

He was arrested after his son called 911 to report that Guerrero was hitting walls and yelling at his mother, according to court documents.

Now hes facing charges of unlawful imprisonment, third-degree malicious mischief and fourth-degree assault, one felony and two misdemeanors in Benton County Superior Court, according to court documents. The charges also include a domestic violence enhancement.

Guerrero and his wife have been married for more than 20 years and have four children together.

He has been released without bail. He was ordered to not contact his wife for the next two years and cant come within 500 feet of her.

He will be back in court in December.

Guerrero remains on paid administrative leave and is also facing an internal police department investigation to determine if he violated any of the agencys policies, Pasco Lt. Tom Groom told the Herald.

The department also notified the state Criminal Justice Training Commission about the charges. The agency provides certifications for officers.

The certification division is responsible for investigating any complaint and making sure officers adhere to Washington state law. The agency can suspend, revoke or require additional training for police officers. The commission typically reviews any instance of an officer being charged with a crime, and can revoke the officers certification if theyre convicted of a felony or certain misdemeanors that involve domestic violence.

Guerrero has been an officer since 2018 after having a career in IT. He worked at both the Franklin PUD and city of Pasco before joining the department, according to a 2018 Facebook post.

He helped the police department establish its body camera program.

Drunken argument

The charges stem from an argument on Aug. 13 after Guerrero and his wife went to a bar with friends. He became drunk and started arguing with his wife, according to court documents.

The two left the bar with his wife driving. As they were heading home Guerrero got out of the car, and his wife drove home without him.

Guerreros son went and picked him up and drove him back home in south Richland.

As soon as he got home, they began arguing again and she attempted to get away by going into the bathroom and closing the door. Guerrero allegedly responded by kicking in the door, according to court documents.

When she tried to leave the room, he allegedly blocked her. When she was able to escape into another room and locked the door, he picked the lock to get inside.

The defendant was aggressive toward and argumentative with (his wife,) according to court documents.

He blocked her from leaving the room, and at one point grabbed her arms. She told investigators she feared for her safety.

The incident continued for about two hours before Guerreros son called police.

When officers talked to Guerrero, he allegedly admitted to following his wife around the house when she refused to talk to him and forcing the bathroom door open. He also allegedly said he blocked her from leaving the rooms.

Guerrero is one of two Tri-City police officers to be charged in 2023 with a domestic violence crime.

Kennewick police Detective Joshua Riley is charged with two counts of second-degree assault after he pointed a handgun at his wife and son on Sept. 24. He has been in alcohol and mental health treatment since shortly after his arrest. He is expected back in court in November.
Pilots in the cockpit of a Boeing 737 Max jet. (LM Otero / Associated Press)

After an off-duty pilot who said he had struggled with depression for months tried to shut off fuel to a plane's engines midair, industry advocates are drawing renewed attention to the difficulties pilots face dealing with mental health issues.

The Federal Aviation Administration's tight regulations and reliance on pilot "self-reporting," advocates say, create a culture in which aviators bottle up their problems instead of reporting them and seeking treatment.

"If you mention that you have a mental health issue or problem, you have basically lost your job," said Ross Aimer, chief executive of Aero Consulting Experts and a former United Airlines pilot. "Although we are supposed to self-disclose any mental issues, any drugs that we take to fix our mental issues, the minute you report that, you are basically off flying status and you may lose your job."

The focus on pilot mental health follows the arrest of off-duty pilot Joseph Emerson, 44, who was charged in federal and state court in Oregon this week after he attempted to pull a Horizon Air plane's red fire handles while sitting in the jump seat in the cockpit.

I am not OK, Emerson said after he had been casually engaging the two pilots in conversation, according to the FBI in a criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday.

Read more:Off-duty pilot took psychedelic mushrooms 48 hours before flight, prosecutor says

Then he grabbed onto the fire handles, which are used to extinguish engine fires and will shut off all fuel to the engines, essentially turning the plane into a glider, the pilots told investigators. The flight's pilots wrestled with Emerson and kicked him out of the cockpit. He was cuffed by flight attendants and arrested when the plane landed.

Emerson, who is due to be arraigned in federal court Thursday, told police he had been suffering from depression for six months and took psychedelic mushrooms 48 hours before the flight. He also told investigators that he was in the midst of a nervous breakdown and that he had not slept in 40 hours, according to the complaint.

Though Alaska Airlines said Emerson had completed all mandated FAA medical evaluations and was never suspended, researchers believe that pilots like Emerson underreport issues such as depression.

"Underreporting of mental health symptoms and diagnoses is probable among airline pilots due to the public stigma of mental illness and fear among pilots of being 'grounded' or not fit for duty," wrote researchers with Harvard University's T.H. Chan School of Public Health in a 2016 study.

The study followed the 2015 Germanwings crash that killed 150 in France. The pilot in that crash, Andreas Lubitz, also suffered from depression. He intentionally crashed the plane into a mountain after locking his co-pilot out of the cockpit.

Although it occurred in Europe, the Germanwings crash led the FAA to establish a committee to reevaluate the way it assesses pilot mental health, which led to a few changes, but not a substantial overhaul of the way the industry treats mental health issues, according to researchers.

Read more:Unruly airplane passengers disrupting more flights, despite FAA's zero-tolerance policy

"We thought more would be done at that time. We thought more resources would become available to pilots," said Deborah Donnelly-McLay, a pilot and researcher with Harvard University who contributed to the 2016 Pilot Health Study.

"Nothing was being done that really changed the landscape of mental health treatment," Donnelly-McLay said.

The study Donnelly-McLay co-authored focused on data compiled from 2,000 anonymous pilots' responses to a survey. It found that 12.4% of pilots may be clinically depressed. Even more alarmingly, the survey found that about 4% of pilots had suicidal ideations at times. In Europe, about 17% of pilots suffer from depression, according to a Trinity College survey spearheaded by pilot Paul Cullen.

Still, many pilots do not report their depression.

"The real issue is the job security and the fear of loss of earnings," Cullen said his report found.

But the FAA says that fear over reporting mental health issues is a "perceived risk."

"Were doing our best at the FAA to make that clear," former FAA administrator Steve Dickson said at the University of North Dakota Mental Health Summit in 2021.

"It is a misconception that if you report a mental health issue, you will never fly again. ... Its just not true," he said.

Dickson emphasized a renewed focus on "aircrew peer support networks, where pilots with concerns could talk to other pilots who were specifically trained to help."

Read more:A nationwide pilot shortage is straining air travel

Despite the FAA's insistence that mental health issues can be reported, barriers still exist for struggling pilots.

The FAA still does not allow pilots to take many antidepressants. And even those drugs that pilots are allowed to take for depression "are acceptable on a case by case basis," according to the FAA.

"Approval for any psychiatric drug is very strict and does not permit applicants to be approved by an [Aviation Medical Examiner] or even the FAA office in Oklahoma City. These cases are decided by the FAA office in Washington, D.C. and many cases are not approved for a variety of reasons," the FAA says in its list of accepted medications.

Donnelly-McLay believes the FAA has to treat mental health issues the way the airline industry handled alcohol and substance abuse.

In 1974, the Air Line Pilots Assn. created the Human Intervention Motivational Study, or HIMS, using a grant to treat pilots with alcohol and substance use disorders.

Now, the majority of American airlines refer pilots to HIMS programs that work with the FAA to get pilots treatment. More than 5,400 pilots with alcohol or substance use disorders have been treated through HIMS and returned to the air after successful completion of the program.

Before HIMS, many of the same issues existed related to pilot underreporting of substance use disorders.

"Prior to 1974, the FAA had no practical rehabilitative protocol to accommodate a recovering pilot and return him/her to work with safety. To identify an alcoholic pilot meant suspension or revocation of the medical certification and immediate loss of income," according to the HIMS website.

In its 48-page report on pilot mental health after the Germanwings crash, the FAA report "investigated the concept of developing a pilot mental fitness-focused ASAP-like program" like HIMS.

"Consensus among the group as to the ability to implement such a program was not found," the authors of the report wrote.

Certain airlines have their own programs. Alaska Airlines said it had internal programs to handle pilots with mental health issues, but the company did not immediately elaborate.

Aimer said it takes incidents like the Alaska Airlines flight to bring the FAA's attention back to the critical issue.

"We are all human and we have our portion of alcoholics, mental issues," Aimer said. "The FAA needs to do some serious soul searching and find a solution for this."

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Update: Around 1:45 a.m., officers made entrance into a restaurant where the suspect was barricaded and took them into custody without incident.

Police were investigating a robbery and kidnapping Thursday night after a 1-year-old girl was reported abducted during a carjacking in Kansas City, triggering an Amber Alert.

The child, identified by police as Kemaya Hill, was found safe late Thursday in Lees Summit about 15 minutes after the Amber Alert was issued. Police had said the child was in the backseat of a white Saturn SUV when it was stolen around 8 p.m. from 47th Street and Flora Avenue in Kansas City.

The SUV was later spotted in Independence near 42nd Street and Noland Road, according to police.

Sgt. Jake Becchina, a spokesman for Kansas City police, said the vehicle and child were located around 10 p.m. at Interstate 470 and Woods Chappel Road in Lees Summit. He added that police were in a standoff with a suspect sought in the investigation.

The suspect, who was not identified, was determined by Lees Summit police to be the subject of a reported disturbance inside a restaurant.

As of Thursday night, the suspect was barricaded inside the business. She was armed with a knife, Becchina said, and was believed to be alone.
(Reuters) -Former Ukrainian lawmaker Oleg Tsaryov, a pro-Russian figure whom sources said Moscow had lined up to lead a puppet administration in Kyiv after Russia's invasion, was shot and wounded in a late-night attack, his family said on Friday.

"Around midnight he was shot twice on the premises of the sanatorium where he lives," it said. "When the ambulance arrived, Oleg was unconscious and had lost a lot of blood."

A Russian-installed official in southern Ukraine, Vladimir Rogov, said Tsaryov was being treated in intensive care.

Russian media said the attack took place in Yalta in Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. It was not clear who was behind it, and whether the motive was criminal or political.

Three sources familiar with Russia's post-invasion plans told Reuters last year that Russia had been lining up Tsaryov to head a puppet government in Kyiv if it had succeeded in ousting President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in the first days of the war in February 2022. Tsaryov said Reuters' account had "very little to do with reality".

Tsaryov runs hotels in Crimea. He was previously a member of the Ukrainian parliament and then speaker of the parliament of "Novorossiya", an entity formed after Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine broke away in 2014 and began fighting Ukrainian forces.

Tsaryov has been placed under sanctions by Ukraine, the United States and a number of other Western countries.

He is listed as a "traitor to the motherland" by Myrotvorets ("Peacemaker"), a vast unofficial Ukrainian database of people considered to be enemies of the country. Its website lists personal information on him including an email address, a passport number and an address in Yalta.

No comment was immediately available from Ukrainian intelligence.

Several pro-war Russian figures in the Myrotvorets database have been assassinated since the start of the conflict, including journalist Darya Dugina, war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky and former submarine commander Stanislav Rzhitsky.

Dugina and Tatarsky were blown up by bombs, while Rzhitsky was shot dead while out on an early morning run.

(Reporting by Mark Trevelyan and Maxim RodionovEditing by Gareth Jones)
Gaza's internet connectivity has worsened because of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

Now, Palestinian ISPs (internet service providers) said that they can no longer continue their operations because of the situation in the region.

Doug Madory, the director of internet analysis at Kentik, also confirmed that the broadband services in the Gaza Strip are dramatically collapsing.

Does this mean that the Gaza Strip will soon have no internet connectivity at all? Here are the latest details you need to know.

Gaza's Internet Connectivity Worsens as ISPs Collapse

According to TechCrunch's latest report, internet monitoring firm NetBlocks announced on Thursday, Oct. 26, that the Palestinian ISP NetStream has collapsed.

"Real-time network data show that NetStream, one of the last remaining internet providers in #Gaza, has collapsed days after the operator notified subscribers that service would end due to a severe shortage of fuel supplies," said NetBlocks via its official X post.

Some X users said that there's a chance that ISPs in Gaza will likely cut the internet entirely. But, they believe that this is no longer because of fuel issues.

No matter what the reason is, the lack of internet connectivity will drastically affect Palestinians who are still in the Gaza Strip.

IODA, an internet infrastructure connectivity monitoring system, said the collapse of NetSream further worsened the broadband connectivity in Gaza.

Amanda Meng, a Georgia Tech research scientist, also warned that they are seeing continued internet connectivity decline in the region. She added that this issue began on Oct. 7, when the Hamas terrorist group conducted its deadly attack in Israel.

Meng explained that the internet connectivity in the Gaza Strip dropped to 20% during that day, which was followed by another decline of around 15% on Oct. 20.

Read Also: Israeli Airstrike: Aljazeera Says Gaza Correspondent's Family was Killed During Assault

Gaza Experiencing Near-Total Internet Blackout

Business Insider reported that some outage-detection models claimed that Gaza's internet connectivity has been severely affected by the airstrikes of Israel.

Because of this, Doug Madory warned that the region is experiencing a near-total internet blackout. The lack of outages is dealing a heavy blow to Gaza residents, especially during the war.

Palestinians are having a hard time connecting with their friends and families, as well as accessing essential news and other information.

Another issue that the lack of internet leads to is making it harder to document possible human-rights violations in the Gaza Strip.

Related Article: Israel's Gaza Invasion Delayed as Requested by US; Pentagon To Use Remaining Time for Air Defense Enhancement

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
(Reuters) -Below are reactions to the death on Friday of Chinese former Premier Li Keqiang:

ADAM NI, INDEPENDENT CHINA POLITICAL ANALYST, AUTHOR

"Li was a premier who stood powerless as China took a sharp turn away from reform and opening."

DALI YANG, POLITICS PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO:

"The scope for Li's policymaking and implementation had became more subordinated under President Xi Jinping, who had unabashedly dominated in politics and policy making, relegating Li to playing second fiddle.

"Xi had significantly overshadowed Li, leaving him with less room for initiative than past premiers."

CHEN DAOYIN, INDEPENDENT CHINESE POLITICAL ANALYST, CHILE:

"Li was someone with ideas but no solutions. He did not achieve much as premier. This is partly his own doing and cannot all be blamed on Xi.

"When he first came in power 10 years ago, he had many ideas, such as encouraging entrepreneurship, but no good plan on how to implement them. When these ideas failed to materialise, his power was gradually taken away from him, and he became the most powerless premier in four decades."

WEN-TI SUNG, POLITICAL SCIENTIST, AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY:

"Li's sudden death definitely came as a surprise, as he was merely 68. Top level Chinese leaders have a track record of longevity - both of Li's last two living predecessors, Premier Zhu Rongji (95) and Premier Wen Jiabao (81), outlive him.

"Li will probably be remembered as an advocate for the freer market and for the have-nots. But most of all, he will be remembered for what could have been."

NEIL THOMAS, FELLOW, ASIA SOCIETY POLICY INSTITUTE'S CENTER FOR CHINA ANALYSIS:

"Xi will likely respect party tradition and lead public mourning for Li, as he has no reason to anger Lis colleagues and supporters in the party, whose waning political influence is further weakened by his death.

"Xi may allow some public mourning for Li but will likely have zero tolerance for attempts to use Lis death to oppose his leadership."

RICHARD MCGREGOR, SENIOR FELLOW, LOWY INSTITUTE, SYDNEY:

"The reformist era ended a long time ago. I don't think there is any correlation to Hu Yaobang (a political reformer whose death sparked mass mourning and the Tiananmen Square protests) and no heavy symbolic significance attached to Li's funeral.

"It's a shock because he's relatively young in a system which provides the best healthcare for its leaders."

YUN SUN, DIRECTOR, STIMSON CENTER, WASHINGTON:

"Li has been seen as the representative of the reformists. But during his 10 years as the premier, China saw the regression of many policies."

CHONG JA IAN, POLITICAL SCIENTIST, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE:

"I would not rule out the possibility that a mass mourning triggers some protest, given how there is a degree of unease in the PRC (People's Republic of China) currently...

"The fact that there is so much speculation on Lis cause of death shows a degree of uncertainty and distrust, that reflects unease over the opaqueness and arbitrariness of the top (Communist Party) leadership, as seen with recent sudden and unexplained removals of leaders.

JOSEPH TORIGIAN, STANFORD HOOVER HISTORY LAB, X POST:

"The passing of a senior Chinese political figure can be a complicated and challenging moment for the leadership. Protests after the deaths of popular former deputies like Zhou Enlai and Hu Yaobang show why. The immediate task facing the Chinese leadership will be to come up with an obituary that pleases Lis family (which is not always easy, especially if the family is unhappy about something), suits the regimes political agenda, and does not inflame popular sentiment."

KEVIN RUDD, AUSTRALIAN EX-PRIME MINISTER, X POST:

"Li was warmly disposed to Australia. He also worked closely with the World Bank more than a decade ago on the blueprint for China's economy announced in 2013. We have lost Premier Li far too early in life."

MALCOLM TURNBULL, AUSTRALIAN EX-PRIME MINISTER, X POST:

"I always found Premier Li to be a charming and constructive counterparty who was not tied to the official talking points and engaged candidly and thoughtfully on the big issues of the day."

HIROKAZU MATSUNO, JAPAN'S CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY

"Former Premier Li Keqiang played an important role in Sino-Japanese relations, including his official visit to our country during the trilateral summit between Japan, China and South Korea in May 2018. We hereby offer our sincere condolences and prayers for former Premier Li Keqiang."

SOUTH KOREAN GOVERNMENT STATEMENT:

"Our government highly values the contribution former Premier Li Keqiang has made on developing South Korea-China relations as a close friend of South Korea. We pray for the eternal repose of his soul and express deep sadness and condolences to the bereaved family."

NICHOLAS BURNS, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO CHINA, X POST

"I extend our condolences to the family of former Premier Li Keqiang, the government of the People's Republic of China, and the Chinese people, on his passing."

EUROPEAN UNION CHAMBER OF COMMERCE IN CHINA, STATEMENT:

"The European Chamber is deeply saddened by the passing of former Premier Li Keqiang, who was an important interlocutor for the foreign business community. He was a pragmatic, forward-thinking man who placed great importance on the reform and opening of Chinas economy. On the occasions that the European Chamber had the privilege to meet with him, he always paid close attention to the concerns of European companies operating in China."

AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE IN SHANGHAI, STATEMENT:

"He was well respected by the American business community for his unwavering support for foreign investment in China and for his commitment to the reform and opening policy. His legacy of shaping Chinas development will not be forgotten."

(Reporting by Reuters newsroom; Compiled by William Mallard)
Lynn Carey, a retired nurse with a double lung transplant, has spent years trying to get Wisconsin lawmakers to improve healthcare. Carey organized voters in support of the Affordable Care Act back in 2009. Since its passage, she has pushed to get her Republican representatives in the state legislature to expand Medicaid coverage to its poorest residents.

Related: The rightwing group swamping US election offices with records requests

The idea has been overwhelmingly popular in Wisconsin: a 2019 poll showed 70% of voters in the state supported it. But Medicaid expansion hasnt gone anywhere  even after Democrats won back Wisconsins governorship in 2018.

Republicans still hold near-supermajorities in both chambers of the legislature, and have shown no sign of compromise on this issue or many others popular with most Wisconsinites. Their legislative majorities are virtually impenetrable, cemented by Republican-drawn district lines that have guaranteed Republicans control of the legislature even in years where Democrats received more votes statewide. We dont have competitive districts where people have to listen to their constituents, Carey said.

That could change soon.

In early October the Wisconsin supreme court agreed to bypass lower courts and hear a case seeking to strike down the legislative maps. The maps are so tilted in favor of Republicans, the plaintiffs in the case argue, that they violate the Wisconsin constitutions guarantee of free speech and association. Liberals won a 4-3 majority on the court in April, and are widely expected to rule that the maps are unconstitutional. Oral arguments in the case are set for 21 November.

If the current maps are overturned in favor of new, more competitive ones, its likely to shrink the Republican advantage in the legislature from a supermajority to a narrow one  and give Democrats a fighting chance at winning control. That could transform politics in Wisconsin, forcing Republicans to consider supporting issues that have broad bipartisan support like Medicaid expansion and marijuana legalization that have been stymied by the legislature for more than a decade.

The party majorities are sufficiently large that the legislature can get away with being completely unresponsive to anything a majority of voters want, said Ken Mayer, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin  Madison. If you cant lose, you dont have to care. If you run the risk of losing, based on not caring, you will start to care.

The last gasps of a gerrymandered legislature

With their power threatened, Republicans are scrambling to preserve it. Janet Protasiewicz, a Milwaukee judge, won a seat on the state supreme court in April by 11 points, a landslide in Wisconsin politics. GOP lawmakers have since threatened to impeach her unless she agreed to recuse herself from weighing in on the case, arguing that she had prejudged the case because she called the maps rigged during her campaign. She declined to do so earlier this month. Wisconsin law allows for impeachment of an official for corrupt conduct in office or commission of a crime or misdemeanor. Protasiewicz is not accused of either. When Robin Vos, the powerful Republican speaker of the state assembly, asked three former conservative state supreme court justices for their advice on the issue, at least two told him they didnt think it was warranted.

When their opinions became public, Vos said the state legislature would no longer consider Protasiewiczs remarks out of office in a possible impeachment inquiry but maintained that impeachment was on the table depending on how the case went.

The impeachment threats underscore the anti-democratic power the GOP wields  and how desperate they are to hang on to it. Republicans hold a near-supermajority in Wisconsins state legislature  22 of 33 seats in the state senate and 64 of 99 seats in the state assembly  even though Wisconsin is one of the countrys most competitive swing states.

More than a decade ago, shortly after winning unified control of the state, they drew districts to lock in their majorities. The lines have worked ruthlessly; in every two-year election over the last decade, they have consistently held nearly two-thirds of the seats in the state assembly, including in 2018 when Republicans lost the statewide vote. When Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in the state in 2020 and Evers won re-election in 2022, Republicans were unscathed in the legislature, holding on to more than 60 seats.

In a dramatic power grab, Republicans in the state legislature used their majorities to curb the power of the newly elected Democratic governor and attorney general in 2018. And when Tony Evers, Wisconsins Democratic governor, called special sessions to address issues such as abortion, childcare and education, Republicans responded by showing up at the legislature then immediately ending their sessions rather than holding debate.

In April 2020, as Covid-19 swept the country, other states under both Democratic and Republican leadership moved their primaries rather than force voters to gather in crowded public spaces to cast their ballots. But Wisconsin Republicans refused to move the states primary, starting and abruptly ending a special legislative session called by Evers. They fought measures to expand remote voting during the pandemic. And after Trump lost the 2020 election in Wisconsin by just over 20,000 votes, Republicans launched a review of the election that leaned heavily into false conspiracy theories but failed to unearth any evidence of widespread fraud.

This year, they have moved to fire the non-partisan head of the state elections commission, one of the most widely respected election administrators in the country, even though Republicans unanimously voted to confirm her appointment just a few years ago. They have also refused to seat a Democratic appointee to the panel.

For over a decade, the gerrymandered maps have set up an unsettling reality: election results for state legislative races are largely determined before a single Wisconsin voter casts a vote. Now that there are enough liberal votes on the court to strike down the legislatures maps, Republican lawmakers are leaning on the undemocratic power they have accrued to try and keep their strong majorities.

Its the last gasps of a gerrymandered legislature, said Eric Genrich, a Democrat who serves as the mayor of Green Bay, one of several areas in the state Republicans have split into multiple districts to dilute the influence of their Democratic voters.

You have a number of folks that are doing anything and everything to hold on to the power that theyve accumulated over the last more than decade, Genrich continued. You just see more and more extreme ideas and policies being put forward in order to ensure that there isnt fundamental democratic accountability built into our system.

Cracking and packing

Republicans have held their advantage in the legislature by manipulating legislative lines across the state. In cities such as Madison, Green Bay and parts of Milwaukee, they have packed Democratic voters into a few districts, limiting their influence. They have attached Democratic voters in the suburbs elsewhere to deep-red rural districts.

Election observers call that practice cracking, and its inverse  squeezing voters of one party into a few districts  packing. Essentially, Republicans have configured the map to maximize their seats while limiting competition.

In 2020, Joe Biden defeated Trump in the state by more than 20,000 votes, but he won just 35 of the 99 districts. In 2022, Evers won re-election as governor with a three-point margin of victory, but carried just 38 of 99 assembly districts. Republicans lines are so effective that they won about 13 more seats in the state assembly in 2022 than they would if the map distributed the votes of both parties equally, according to an analysis by Planscore, a non-partisan site that evaluates maps.

Republicans dispute that the maps are to blame for Democratic disadvantages in the legislature. Most of the states Democratic voters are concentrated in just two areas, Madison and Milwaukee, while Republicans are spread across the entire state. In 2022, Evers got about 36% of his statewide vote from the two counties that house those cities.

This idea that the maps are rigged and we have Democrat voters being unconstitutionally disenfranchised I think is a stretch, said Brett Healy, the president of the MacIver Institute, a conservative thinktank.

Healy is skeptical that new maps would fundamentally change Republicans behavior.

I dont think much would change legislatively. It would be tough for Republicans, it would be tough for Democrats to compromise on their core beliefs, he said. When you have a slim majority, more often than not, your team comes together and votes as one.

Mayer, the University of Wisconsin political scientist, disagrees.

The state is gerrymandered within an inch of its life, he said. Theres no doubt that basically the Republican supermajorities in a 50-50 state are almost entirely the result of gerrymandering.

Heavily Democratic Milwaukee and its Republican-friendly suburbs have been one of the key places where Republicans have manipulated lines to keep their advantage. In 2012, they attached Democratic areas on the outskirts of the city to Republican suburbs. But when those suburbs shifted towards Democrats during the Trump era, those districts became more competitive  so they redrew the lines in 2021 to remove Democratic voters to make the seats more safely Republican.

When Republicans drew new legislative maps in 2011, for example, they anchored the 24th assembly district in the northern suburbs of Milwaukee. Voters there reliably elected a Republican, Dan Knodl, to represent them in the assembly. But after 2020, when Joe Biden carried the district with 51% of the vote, a Republican victory seemed in jeopardy. Knodl had only won his 2020 re-election by percentage points, a drop of four points from his margin in 2018.

In 2021 Republicans redrew the map to protect Knodl, removing Democrats from the district and packing them into already Democratic-leaning districts nearby. And they extended the 24th district north, snaking along the coast of Lake Michigan, into areas that were more reliably Republican. Knodl won re-election in his new district in 2022 by more than 22 percentage points.

Bob Tatterson, a Democrat, lost to Knodl in 2022. He believes that the district would have been competitive if not for Republican redistricting.

It was immediately obvious that what had happened was there were two competitive districts that had been essentially turned into two very uncompetitive districts, he said.

Having districts that are significantly rigged in one partys favor makes it more difficult to even recruit candidates to run, said Christy Welch, the chair of the Green Bay-area Brown County Democratic party.

If youre the state party, if youre an individual donor, it makes sense that you want to spend your money in winnable races. And then that creates a vicious cycle of its harder to get someone to run. And then its hard to get someone to contribute to the campaign, she said.

Glimmer of hope

Republicans severe gerrymander has affected concrete policy issues in Wisconsin.

Polling conducted by Marquette University shows about 60% of Wisconsinites believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases (the new liberal majority on the state supreme court is also expected to strike down the states 1849 abortion ban). In a 2019 Marquette poll, 55% of respondents supported raising the minimum wage, nearly 60% said marijuana should be made legal and more than 70% of respondents said Wisconsin should adopt a non-partisan redistricting commission to draw its legislative maps rather than leaving that power with the statehouse.

None of these policies have been enacted.

The Democratic state senator Mark Spreitzer, who introduced a non-partisan redistricting bill in 2015 when he served in the state assembly that Republicans ignored, predicted more competitive legislative maps would force lawmakers to compromise on issues they are currently refusing to consider.

Republicans in the state legislature have rejected Evers calls for a special session to extend a pandemic-era childcare subsidy program using state funds, prompting Evers to redirect federal funds to keep the program in place  a temporary fix to a problem Spreitzer suggested could be resolved through bipartisan negotiation.

There is bipartisan agreement that theres a childcare crisis, said Spreitzer. Thats an area where if we had a legislature that was elected on fair maps, I think we could find a bipartisan solution.

Spreitzer also pointed to the legalization of marijuana and Medicaid expansion as possible areas of bipartisan interest. Wisconsin is one of only nine states where lawmakers have refused to expand Medicaid.

There are a lot of Republicans who are taking their marching orders from Robin Vos, he said. If they suddenly had to think for themselves, [they] would realize that it just makes sense to go ahead and get this done.

Robin Vos, the Wisconsin assembly speaker, speaks in Madison on 12 October. Photograph: Harm Venhuizen/AP

Chris Ford, an emergency care physician in Milwaukee and chairman of the Peoples Maps Commission, a non-partisan advisory redistricting board created by Evers in 2020, said expanding access to Medicaid was one of his main concerns. Citing the link between political representation and health outcomes, Ford said he initially got involved with fair maps activism to help his patients.

Medicaid expansion can loosen up funds to relieve some of the lead exposure in Milwaukee county and rural counties as well. It could go to the expansion of rural mental healthcare. For me, as an emergency health provider, I could see it giving access to much needed primary healthcare for people before they end up in the ER, Ford said.

Under the current maps, those issues have gone nowhere.

But with the new liberal majority on the state supreme court, some, like Democrat Mary Lynne Donohue, say there are finally signs of change.

Donohue, the president of the Sheboygan Area school district, ran for a seat in the assembly in 2020 even though she knew she had no chance to win. The Democratic-leaning city was once represented by a single Democratic-leaning district, but Republicans cracked it in two a decade ago to keep Democrats from electing one of their own to the assembly.

Donohue said the lack of electoral competition had demoralized residents, made it hard to recruit candidates for office, and stifled overall civic participation: Its hard to get a lot of energy going and to fully participate in the political process, because you know you cant win.

With the possibility of new maps looming, she thinks people just have this glimmer of hope.
Did you know that the South Carolina state fruit is a peach? Or that tea is the official state hospitality beverage? The amethyst is the state gem, Indigo blue is the state color and the Yellow Jessamine is the state flower.

Most recently, the Legislature passed Senate bill 581 into law this year, designating the Venus flytrap the states official carnivorous plant. Yes, South Carolina now has an official state carnivorous plant. (Sorry to all the, um, unofficial carnivorous plants that didnt make the cut.) Heres why this curious designation was made and a look at what other symbols our state officially recognizes.

Sen. Greg Hembree, R-Horry, the Venus flytrap bills primary sponsor, said he usually doesnt focus on legislation for state symbolic bills. However, the uniqueness of the Venus flytrap and its relation to South Carolina was hard to ignore, and he was surprised at how specific the plant is to South Carolina.

Venus flytraps only exist in the wild in two places on earth: South Carolina and North Carolina. In Horry County, the plant thrives under protection, but it is little known to residents of the state.

It truly is unique to South Carolina, Hembree said. Theyre really interesting and curious plants.

In addition to bringing awareness to the states connection to the plant, Hembree said it would be interesting for children to study in school.

Hembree said lawmakers try to resist bringing legislation like symbols into session because it can be ridiculous at times, adding they are usually focused on more substantial work. However, when the opportunity presented itself, Hembree said it was worth sharing why the Venus flytrap is important.

The idea came from someone from Horry County, where the Venus flytrap grows. His passion was contagious, Hembree said, and he even went out to see where the plant was growing.

South Carolina has a variety of other state symbols, ranging from flowers to foods and songs. Here are a few:

State beverage: Milk. Dairy farmers are found in almost every county in the state.

State snack: Boiled peanuts. South Carolinians started boiling peanuts in the late 1800s.

State dance: The shag. The shag is often danced to beach music, another Carolina icon.

State fossil: Columbian Mammoth. The discovery of fossilized mammoth teeth in 1725 in a South Carolina swamp was the first scientific identification of a vertebrate fossil from North America.

State stone: Blue Granite. South Carolina is one of the biggest producers of blue granite in the U.S. Granite is actually gray, but it can produce a blue hue.

State spider: Carolina Wolf Spider. Typically measuring around 3 to 4 inches long, it is the largest species of wolf spider in North America.

State tree: You probably already guessed it  the Palmetto, or officially, the Sabal palm. The tree is symbolic of the defeat of the British fleet at Fort Moultrie in the Revolutionary War. Our state is nicknamed the Palmetto State, and the state flag bears the Palmettos likeness, making the tree arguably the most well-known state symbol.
Souad Al-Alem was one of the roughly 10,000 people forced to flee the Palestinian town of al-Majdal. It was 1948, she was a young woman and Israels troops were approaching the community during the Arab-Israeli war in what is now part of the Israeli city of Ashkelon.

Now in her 90s and living in Gaza, Al-Alem has been forced to run again.

On October 7, Hamas launched a deadly terror attack against Israel from Gaza, firing thousands of rockets, going on a bloody rampage that killed 1,400 people and taking more than 220 hostage. In retaliation, the Israel Defence Forces have been conducting a massive bombardment campaign against what it says are Hamas targets in Gaza. More than 6,850 Palestinians have been killed as a result of these strikes, according to information from Hamas-controlled health authorities in Gaza and published by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah.

Al-Alem is one of the hundreds of thousands of civilians caught up in the war.

I see death 20 times every day, in the sky and on earth. Even the force of every blast affects us psychologically. It feels like it is on top of our heads when its next to us or nearby, Al-Alem told CNN.

Just 10 miles north of the Gaza border, not much remains of al-Majdal. Once a buzzing market place known for textile manufacturing, al-Majdal was reduced to rubble after the 1948/49 war.

All of its houses are long gone, replaced with modern Israeli buildings that are now part of Ashkelon. Only the old mosque remains standing. Nearby, an empty, overgrown field gives a hint of the size of the former town.

Some 700,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled their homes following the 1948/49 war, representing at least 80 percent of Arabs living in what became Israel. Like Al-Alem, more than half of those who live in Gaza today are either refugees or their direct descendants.

The town of al-Majdal as it was in 1934. - Sepia Times/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

The old mosque of al-Majdal is the only thing that remains from the once thriving Palestinian town. - Ivana Kottasova/CNN

Many of those displaced in 1948 thought that theyd be back home in a few days or weeks. But Israel has never allowed them to return and many have lived in poverty ever since. According to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), more than 80% of people in Gaza live in poverty now.

Palestinians call that episode the Nakba, the Arabic word for catastrophe.

I lived the Nakba of 1948 and now I am living the Nakba of 2023, Al-Alem said, sitting in a tent in a makeshift refugee camp in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. This second one is worse, she added. She said she fled her home amid intense bombing more than 10 days ago and said she hasnt had a proper meal or bath since then. As a diabetic, she said she was struggling without regular meals and access to her usual medication.

There nothing to use for cleaning our faces and hands and ourselves. We cant wash or do anything. There is nothing. There were toilets, now there arent any. When we go to toilets, they are dirty because too many people are using them. I stopped going to them, she said.

While most of the former Arab villages and towns are long gone, the collective memory lives on.

Its amazing how the Palestinians keep those memories alive. Most of them in the traditional way, from stories told by their fathers and grandfathers, said Umar al-Ghubari, a Palestinian educator who works for Zochrot.

A Tel Aviv-based NGO, Zochrot was originally formed by a group of Israeli Jews with a goal to promote acknowledgement, responsibility and accountability for the emptied Palestinian villages and campaign for the right of return of these communities.

The first step is to spread awareness, al-Ghubari said. Zochrot operates in Hebrew, publishing information materials, organizing tours and collecting testimonies.

Al-Ghubari acknowledges that Zochrots work runs counter to the mainstream Israeli narrative, which tends to gloss over the issue of Palestinian expulsions during the war, preferring to highlight the contentious idea that the desert only started blooming once Israel was founded.

Earlier this year, Israel and its allies including the United States and other Western nations skipped the first ever event at the United Nations marking the 75th anniversary of the Nakba  coinciding with the 75th anniversary of Israels founding.

The Israeli government rejects Nakba commemorations, with Israels Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan saying they only serve to demonize Israel and further push away any chance for reconciliation.

Al-Ghubari said that one of Zochrots missions is to make Israeli people more aware of the history, however uncomfortable it is.

But its hard going, he said. Zochrot has in the past tried to install information signs at the sites of the destroyed villages.

We put signs up in these locations, but unfortunately, these signs would be removed almost immediately within few hours of few days because some Israelis when they come to that place, they dont like the idea of that information being there, he said. Al-Ghubari does not know who took the signs down.

Of the six sites of former villages visited by CNN earlier this week, none had any information about Palestinian villages on display.

No choice but to leave

Most people who live in Gaza today still identify as Palestinian refugees and refer to the towns and villages their ancestors were forced to flee as their homes  even if their families have now lived in the enclave for several generations.

In 1967, Israel captured Gaza during the Six-Day War with Egypt, Jordan and Syria, and held it for nearly 40 years before withdrawing troops and Israelis settlers in 2005. After Hamas took power inside the enclave two years later, Israel and Egypt, which continued to have full control over entry and exit points to the enclave, including the sea, imposed a blockade that critics say transformed it into the worlds largest open-air prison.

Taghrid Ebead is only 35, but she too has a strong sense of belonging to al-Majdal.

We were evacuated in 1948 to Gaza, she said. Ebead said she grew up wondering what drove her ancestors to flee al-Majdal, asking herself why they left their home, why they would allow it to happen.

I used to say that we will not do it again. We will not repeat it. Its impossible to do what our families and grandfathers did, she said.

Taghrid Ebead, left, and her family were forced to flee al-Majdal. She is now sheltering in southern Gaza after being ordered to evacuate from her home in the north. - Hassan Eslayeh/CNN

Then IDF leaflets ordering her to evacuate started dropping from the sky, encouraging residents to move south as the Israeli air force ramped up its operation. Amid the constant airstrikes, she decided she had no choice but to leave her home in Gaza City.

The family of seven fled on foot and ended up in Khan Younis, some 20 miles south of Gaza City.

We faced many difficulties, a lot of shelling everywhere, she said. We came to Khan Younis and here was nothing. The first day I slept on dust and we had no covers. A week has passed and my son is ill. We hope to go back. We have suffered a lot, we cant cope.

She said that now, she finally understands why her ancestors fled their homes.

It is the fear for our children and destruction and death that made (us) leave. To our children, this will not be history because they are living it, they have seen it, she said.

CNNs Celine Alkhaldi and Nada Bashir contributed reporting.

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BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called on the Iraqi government and lawmakers on Friday to close the U.S. embassy in Baghdad in response to Washington's "unfettered support" for Israel.

"If the government and parliament do not abide by this demand, we will go for further actions which we will later announce," the statement said.

The populist leader counts millions of Iraqis among his followers and has shown in the past he can stir up gatherings by hundreds of thousands of supporters, mostly working-class Shi'ite Muslims, if he wishes to exert political pressure.

Sadr has opposed Iranian influence in Iraq, setting him apart from other Shi'ite leaders who have close ties to Tehran. He has also opposed the U.S. and called for the departure of the last remaining U.S. troops in Iraq.

In June, his followers stormed and set fire to the Swedish embassy in Baghdad in connection with the burning of a Koran in Sweden. The demonstration was called by Sadr's supporters.

Last year, he commanded his followers to storm Baghdad's heavily secured Green Zone - which houses government buildings and embassies - and occupy parliament.

(Reporting by Nadine Awadallah in Dubai; Writing by Tala Ramadan and Amina Ismail; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
There has been significant progress on negotiations to release hostages held by Hamas but there are issues still remaining, diplomatic sources familiar with the negotiations told CNN.

Negotiations are going very well. We have a breakthrough, the source said.

There are issues still remaining, but talks are ongoing, and we remain hopeful, the source added.

The US Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs Barbara Leaf is in Doha for meetings with Qatars leadership, a person familiar with the meetings said.

A US official tells CNN there has been progress on the hostages but its still all very touch and go. They voiced caution around the idea that there has been a breakthrough.

Relatives and family members of hostages kidnapped by Hamas protest in Tel Aviv on October 26, demanding that the Israeli government negotiates their release. - Amir Levy/Getty Images

Asked about the status of the negotiations Israels Defense Minister Yoav Gallant commented at a news conference on Thursday that every channel is a possible channel.

One thing should be clear - we have a goal and I trust the State of Israel and the IDF and well keep doing every effort to bring the hostages and the missing back, Gallant said.

Complete blockade

Hamas abducted more than 200 people and killed 1,400 others, including soldiers and civilians, in southern Israel on October 7. The hostages include nationals from countries including Mexico, Brazil, the United States, Germany and Thailand  as well as Israeli civilians and soldiers. The large-scale incursion represented the most deadly attack by militants in Israels 75-year history, and Israeli authorities have faced strong criticism for having failed to anticipate it.

In response, Israel launched a heavy bombardment of Gaza and imposed a complete blockade on the enclave. Israeli strikes have killed at least 7,028 Palestinians, including 2,913 children, according to a report by the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Ministry of Health. About 1,600 people are missing under the rubble of flattened buildings, with many of them feared dead. The ministry said on Friday the actual death toll in Gaza is likely to be much higher.

Human Rights Watch said on Monday Israels collective punishment of Palestinians in Gaza amounts to a war crime.

Qatar and Egypt have been mediating between Israel, the US and Hamas to release the hostages held by the militant group. Four hostages  two Americans and two Israelis  have been freed so far.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged on Wednesday that he will have to give answers for his governments intelligence failures. The comments marked the first time he has talked about his own role in the security breakdownsince October 7.

CNNs Sana Noor Haq, Jennifer Hansler, Hamdi Alkhshali, Jomana Karadsheh, Mostafa Salem and Lianne Kolirin contributed reporting.

This story is developing and will be updated.

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A 10-year-old girl who was wounded in the mass shooting at a Maine bowling alley has asked a heartbreaking question about the state of Americas gun violence.

Zoey Levesque was attending practice with her youth league at Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley in Lewiston, Maine, on Wednesday night when a gunman stormed the building and opened fire.

One of the bullets grazed the little girl as she and her mother Meghan Hutchinson ran for cover and desperately barricaded themselves in a back room.

Speaking to ABC News on Thursday, the 10-year-old was struggling to come to terms with the fact that she is now among a growing list of victims and survivors of mass shootings.

Why do people do this? she asked.

I never thought Id grow up and get a bullet in my leg, she said.

Why? Why do people do this? I dont really know what to say.

Zoeys mother recalled how she first heard a loud pop and turned to see the gunman inside the family-friendly establishment.

When I turned around, I saw the shooter right behind me, said Ms Hutchinson.

He had just come in the door.

The mother and daughter ran towards a set of doors between the bowling lanes but, as they fled, one of the bullets grazed Zoeys leg.

My pants had, like, a bullet thing in it and then I looked and it wasnt deep. It was just like a scrape, she said.

Zoey and her mother speak out after they became the latest survivors of gun violence (ABC News)

Zoey said that her injury didnt scare her at the time  because she was so fearful as to whether she would make it out alive.

I was scared, but it didnt hurt, and I didnt know what happened until I started bleeding, she said.

I wasnt worried about that. I was more worried about, like, am I going to live? Am I going to make it out of here? Like, whats going to happen? Are the cops going to come?

The mother and daughter made it to a back room with other families and barricaded themselves inside.

While the children hid under tables, the adults moved a shelf to block the gunman from getting through the door.

Ms Hutchinson recalled another child in the room bleeding heavily from a bullet wound in his arm.

Sometime later, police officers arrived and freed them from the building.

Speaking of her horror about what happened, Zoey said: People shouldnt be coming in and doing that, thats not okay.

While the 10-year-old only suffered minor injuries, others were far less fortunate.

In total, 18 people were killed in the shootings which took place across two locations on Wednesday night.

Maine police said that the gunman first targeted the popular bowling alley just before 7pm, killing seven people, including one female and six males.

The suspect then headed to the Schemengees Bar & Grille Restaurant and opened fire there minutes later, according to authorities.

Seven males were killed inside the restaurant and one male was killed outside.

A sign advises residents to stay home and shelter in place (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Three other victims died after they were taken to a local hospital.

Another 13 were injured in the attacks, Maine Governor Janet Mills confirmed in a press conference on Thursday.

The conditions of those injured remain unclear.

Now, a manhunt is underway to catch Robert Card  the armed and dangerous suspect and trained firearms instructor wanted in connection to the shootings.

Police identified Mr Card as a person of interest after the gunman was captured on terrifying surveillance footage entering the bowling alley armed with a rifle and after he was linked to the suspects white SUV.

The vehicle was then located close to a boat landing in Lisbon  around eight miles from Lewiston  late on Wednesday night though there was no sign of Mr Card.

Residents in Auburn, Lewiston and Lisbon are all being urged to shelter in place and businesses were told to shutter as the manhunt continues.

Bowdoin  where Mr Card lives  was also placed under a shelter-in-place order on Thursday morning.

Mr Card has been described as armed and dangerous and members of the public have been warned not to approach him if they see him.

A police officer stands at a road closure near the bowling alley (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Due to Mr Cards experience in the military, he is well-trained in the use of firearms.

Mr Card, 40, is a US Army reservist and a certified firearms instructor, meaning he is well-trained in the use of firearms.

The US Army confirmed that he joined in 2002 and has had no combat deployments. He is currently a Sgt 1st class and Petroleum Supply Specialist.

Law enforcement officials said that Mr Card had recently made threats to carry out a shooting at a National Guard facility in Saco and had reported mental health issues including hearing voices.

He spent two weeks in a mental health facility this summer.

Mr Cards family members have revealed their shock at his potential involvement, with the 40-year-olds sister-in-law telling The Daily Beast that they are shaken by the news.

I am with police right now and my children [are] terrified and shaken, so I do not have a comment on anything right now, she said.
Nashville Public School bus

Republican lawmakers in Tennessee say they want to free the state's schools of cumbersome federal rules and regulations by rejecting federal education funds for K-12.

Education advocates worry schools will suffer. A newly created GOP-dominated panel will examine the nearly $1.8 billion in federal education funds next month, the majority of which caters to low-income students, English learners and students with disabilities.

"I just think it's such a complicated thing to undertake and not to be taken lightly," said Gini Pupo-Walker, the executive director at the Education Trust in Tennessee.

If the state rejects federal education dollars, the funding would be replaced with state dollars. However, questions remain about whether the state can foot the bill.

"How do we know that they have the capacity, the wherewithal to redirect that way and maintain that level of funding if something, God forbid, were to happen with the economy?" said Pupo-Walker.

Republican State House Speaker Cameron Sexton proposed the idea earlier this year before creating the legislative panel.

He also asked the Tennessee Department of Education to draft a report that outlines how federal funding is used and under what requirements.

Republicans in many states have long discussed abolishing the U.S. Department of Education, arguing the department has no reason to exist.

SEE MORE: Minnesota Rep. to challenge Biden in New Hampshire Democratic Primary

"The monies that are coming from us as taxpayers and going to the federal government to be redistributed. If they're going to be redistributed with strings on them, our elected officials should be the ones determining the strings, not bureaucrats," said Republican Rep. John Ragan.

Senate Minority Leader Raumesh Akbari, just one of two Democrats on the 10-member panel, said while she is open to hearing what is presented during the meetings, rejecting federal funding would hurt the people of Tennessee.

"Regardless of if we accept the funds or not, we are still required to provide those services. So it just to me is not the best move for Tennessee and certainly for our tax dollars," said Akbari.

Tennessee's Republican governor, Bill Lee, said he's curious to see what the panel finds.

"There's a commitment in this state to make sure that our kids get what they need, that they're served appropriately. And however those dollars serve kids where it's necessary and where it's needed will be committed to that," said Lee.

One of the education programs funded by federal funds is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, which helps students with disabilities.

Jeff Strand with the Tennessee Disability Coalition said rejecting funds could possibly eliminate two key components vital to families.

"Without IDEA, we lose all of that accountability, all of that oversight from the feds," said Strand. "And without due process and procedural safeguards, there's no opportunity for redress for parents and families who feel like they're not getting the supports and services for their child that they need. And there is no guarantee that they can even be involved in planning for their child."

The panels first meeting is scheduled for Nov. 6.
Tyson Fury has explained why his job as a professional boxer means making certain sacrifices, such as missing the birth of his seventh child, Prince Rico Paris, whom he shares with his wife of 15 years, Paris.

Yes, thats correct, the 35-year-old told Kate Garraway and Adil Ray on Good Morning Britain on Friday (27 October).

But Daddy has to do what Daddy has to do, you know, he added.

Bills have to be paid and things have to be sacrificed. Paris understands that when I am in camp, I cant be there at the hospital but I got to see him in the early hours of the morning when he was born, so thats all fantastic.

Fury welcomed his newborn last month. Were over the moon to have welcomed our baby boy to the Fury family, he and his wife said at the time in a statement shared with OK! Magazine.

His brothers and sisters cant wait to meet him and create lots of Fury fun! Our boy is the most perfect addition and were bursting with love for him. Its crazy how you can love someone so quick.

The couple already share six children: Venezuela, 13, Prince John James, 10, Prince Tyson II, six, Valencia, five, Prince Adonis Amaziah, four and Athena, who is two.

Paris and Tommy Fury with their children Prince John James, Athena, Prince Tyson Fury II, Valencia Amber, Prince Adonis Amaziah and Venezuela (Netflix)

They were recently the subject of a hit Netflix documentary series, At Home With the Furys, which explored life at home for Fury, Paris and their children, who live in a 1.7m home in Morcambe.

Speaking about the decision behind his childrens unusual names, Fury told The Guardian in 2011: One night, while I was sleeping, I thought of Venezuela. My wife is called Paris. Im Tyson and [gesturing to his son] hes called Prince John James. If the girl had a normal name it wouldnt fit in, would it? I wanted to call the boy Patrick but the wife didnt want it.

Fury appeared on GMB head of his upcoming fight against Ex-UFC fighter Francis Ngannou in Saudi Arabia on Saturday.

When asked if he would continue to take his shirt off and celebrate body positivity, Fury said: I embrace the love handles, the love handles are what makes me unique, it makes me a unique fighter to have them.

I represent all the fat people around the world, all the Dad bods, all the chubsters, I fight for those people tonight!

To watch the interview and show in full visit itv.com
The Israeli Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, recently informed reporters in Tel Aviv that he expects the next ground attack in Gaza to be a lengthy and tough process, highlighting the difficulty of eliminating Hamas's subterranean tunnel system. In describing the invasion's complexity, Gallant said it "will take a long time."

Hurdles to Tunnel Destruction

In a report by The Hill, Gallant said that the attacks will likely lead to a new period of less intense conflict as Israel eliminates "pockets of resistance." He showed an overhead shot of what he claimed to be a tunnel shaft constructed near a hospital and said that such tunnels often have their origins in residential neighborhoods. There was no way to confirm these assertions.

Despite being called Israel's "hidden frontline," practically nothing is known about Hamas's tunnel network. Israel has stated its intention to eliminate Hamas and rescue captives in the wake of the terror group's deadly strike earlier this month, making the tunnels a significant obstacle to overcome.

Israel has significant challenges in preparing for a land assault on Gaza. These include the Hamas' extensive tunnel network and its strategy of putting up launch locations in residential buildings and hospitals.

On the other hand, Hamas has dismissed Israel's claim that it has command centers buried under hospitals in Gaza and deemed it "baseless," as reported by The Times of Israel.

According to a statement released by Izzat al-Rishq, a member of the militant organization's political bureau, "These lies represent a prelude to a new massacre against our people, greater than the one of the al-Ahli Baptist Hospital." This refers to the explosion at the al-Ahli Baptist Hospital on October 17, believed to have been caused by a misfired Islamic Jihad rocket that Hamas has blamed on Israel.

Also Read: EU Leaders Have Called for 'Humanitarian Pause,' Air Corridors in Gaza as the Israel-Hamas War Intensifies

Constant, Worsening Assaults

The Health Ministry in Gaza, which is guided by Hamas, reports that hundreds of people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes in recent weeks. American officials have expressed concern about the death toll, but the ministry has since provided a comprehensive list of the thousands of Gazans they believe were killed in the attacks.

Hamas has also conducted a number of airstrikes on Israel, albeit many of these attacks have been blocked by Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system. However, on Friday, October 27, one rocket struck a Tel Aviv apartment complex, injuring three people, Aljazeera reported.

Hamas launched an unexpected assault on Israel's southern border on October 7, sparking the current war and killing at least 1,400 people. It is estimated that 229 hostages were seized.

Also Read: TikTok Denies Malaysia's Claims Platform Bans Pro-Palestinian Content

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
By Gwladys Fouche

OSLO (Reuters) - The United States on Friday opened its northernmost diplomatic station, highlighting the increased importance of the Arctic region for Washington at a time when cooperation among Arctic nations has been hit by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the opening of the station, in Tromsoe, Norway, in June, as a means for the United States to have a "diplomatic footprint above the Arctic Circle".

"Symbolically, it is significant," Andreas Oesthagen, a senior research fellow at the Oslo-based Fridtjof Nansen Institute, told Reuters on Tuesday.

"It is a gesture that showcases just how much more important the US sees the Arctic now than only five or ten years ago."

Tromsoe is the largest city in Arctic Norway, located about 400km (250 miles) west of Russia. Norway and Russia share a border in the Arctic.

During the Cold War, Washington had a station in Tromsoe but closed it in 1994.

ARCTIC COUNCIL

Called a "presence post", the station will not offer consular services.

It will have one diplomat, whose work will focus on business outreach, science and the Arctic Council, a polar body comprising the eight Arctic states of Russia, the U.S., Canada, Finland, Norway, Iceland, Sweden and Denmark.

The post will be housed in the same building as the Arctic Council's secretariat.

Cooperation within the Council between Russia and the Western Arctic states was put on hold after Ukraine was invaded in February 2022.

Some cooperation with Russia has resumed since Norway took over as Council chair in May, but this remains limited to contact between diplomats.

Marc Nathanson, the U.S. ambassador to Norway, said Washington believed "very strongly" the council should remain the main body for cooperation in the Arctic.

"The Arctic Council must survive," he told Reuters. "But because of Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine it means, for the seven other members of the Arctic Council, that we can't do business as usual with Russia."

The U.S. post will be "non-military," Nathanson added. It is "for cooperation for a peaceful, scientific-based, diplomacy".

(Reporting by Gwladys Fouche, editing by Terje Solsvik and Deborah Kyvrikosaios)
Relatives of four dual American Israeli citizens Thursday said securing the release of 220 hostages held by Hamas should be the priority agenda for the international community.

The family members, who traveled from Israel to visit members of Congress in Washington, thanked President Biden for prioritizing their plight.

I feel its upon us to make sure that there is continued pressure on members of Congress and the Senate to keep this topic front and center and to try to come to a resolution of this situation as quickly as possible, Jeffrey Yehuda Beinin said. His daughter, Liat Beinin, and her husband were kidnapped from the southern Israeli community of Kibbutz Nir Oz.

Beinin said that he believes his son-in-law, a volunteer security officer with the kibbutz, was abducted and taken into Gaza early on in Hamass Oct. 7 assault, given that no traces of his son-in-laws blood have been found in his home or the surrounding area.

So the assumption is that hes been abducted to Gaza, he said.

Beinin said his daughter was kidnapped from her home.

Hamas terrorists got to my daughters house and abducted her and set the house on fire, they killed the dog, he said.

Top Stories from The Hill

Hamas, recognized as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and European Union, has released just four hostages amid negotiations involving the U.S., Israel, Qatar, Egypt and the International Red Cross. Israel says it believes 220 people are being held by the group.

The U.S. has not confirmed how many hostages are Americans, although two of the four released were dual, U.S.-Israeli citizens.

Hamas kidnapped people from communities in southern Israel in attacks that left 1,400 people, predominantly civilians, dead. The Biden administration and members of Congress in both parties have compared atrocities committed by Hamas to the worst acts of the Islamic State.

The mission to recover the hostages is extremely daunting, and unprecedented, said Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.), a co-chair of the Congressional Task Force on American Hostages and Americans Wrongfully Detained Abroad.

The task force was launched in 2021 to help guide congressional offices helping people wrongfully detained abroad by terrorist groups or foreign governments.

Hill said the scale of Hamass kidnapping, which covers people with more than two dozen nationalities, coupled with the information blackout on their captivity in the Gaza Strip makes negotiations to secure their release more likely than extradition.

Another complication is Israels aerial bombardment of Gaza. Israel says it is targeting Hamas military infrastructure, but it has resulted in the deaths of thousands of Palestinians and raised concerns that hostages may have been harmed or killed.

The U.S. has reportedly called for Israel to delay launching a ground incursion to allow more time for negotiations to recover hostages.

While Hamas said it released four hostages on humanitarian grounds, it has said that it hopes to secure the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. It views the holding of Israeli soldiers, in particular, as valuable bargaining chips to achieve their aims.

But Hamass hostages also include young children, women, elderly people and sick and disabled victims.

Two of the family members present on Capitol Hill are fathers of young men who were serving in the Israel Defense Forces when they were believed to have been taken hostage by Hamas.

Ruby Chen is the father of Itay Chen, 19; and Ronen Neutra is the father of Omar Neutra, 22, who was serving in a tank unit near the border with Gaza.

Asked if he had spoken with the administration over what could be offered to Hamas, Hill said, Weve had conversations with the administration about the steps theyre taking, but Id leave it at that.

Noam Peri, whose 79-year-old father Chaim was kidnapped from Nir Oz, was among the people who traveled to Capitol Hill. She pleaded with those listening to recognize it is individual lives at stake.

Weve made this long trip to be able to tell you these stories, because we know the numbers are staggering and no one can think of 220 people in captivity, she said.

She said those kidnapped from the small community of Nir Oz included 16 children, among them toddlers and a nursing baby.

We also know there are 25 elderly above the age of 75. No one of these people should have a moment more [in captivity]. Ive been here for the past three days meeting members of the Congress and Senate and we feel the overwhelming support and understanding and the willingness to take leadership on this humanitarian crisis in getting all the hostages back.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Two US fighter jets have struck weapons and ammunition facilities in Syria in retaliation for attacks on their own forces by Iranian-backed militias as concerns grow that the Israel-Hamas conflict could escalate into regional unrest.

US President Joe Biden ordered strikes on the two facilities used by Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and militia groups that it backs, the Pentagon said. They warned that the US will take additional measures if attacks by Irans proxies continue.

US and coalition troops have been attacked at least 19 times in Iraq and in Syria by Iran-backed forces in the past week.

The US sent fighter jets and two warships - the Gerald R. Ford-class and the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower - to bolster its military presence in the Mediterranean and Middle East following the Hamas attack on 7 October that killed more than 1,400 Israelis.

On Thursday, the Pentagon added that about 900 more US troops have arrived in the Middle East or are heading there to bolster air defences for personnel.

Iranian-backed proxies, including Hezbollah above the northern border with Israel, have consistently threatened regional escalation, including by attacking US positions. Iran is a major ally of Hamas.

US officials said that additional equipment, including air defences, are being set up in the Middle East to protect its military bases and positions.

US secretary of defence (sic) Lloyd Austin, announcing the two strikes, said they had nothing to do with the conflict in Israel and Gaza.

These narrowly tailored strikes in self-defence were intended solely to protect and defend U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria, he said.

They are separate and distinct from the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, and do not constitute a shift in our approach to the Israel-Hamas conflict. We continue to urge all state and non-state entities not to take action that would escalate into a broader regional conflict.

Since 17 October, the Defense Department said that US and coalition forces have been targeted by drones or rockets at least 10 times in Iraq and three times in Syria.

One of these attacks resulted in the death of a US citizen contractor who suffered a cardiac incident while sheltering in place from the strikes. A further 21 US citizens suffered minor injuries.

Speaking overnight, Mr Austin said there was no higher priority than the safety of US personnel. He added: These Iranian-backed attacks against US forces are unacceptable and must stop.

It comes as Israel said on Friday military raids into Gaza were preparing the next stage of the operation, amid fears that a ground invasion of the Palestinian enclave could further risk regional retaliation.

Israel has bombarded the densely populated Gaza Strip following the Hamas attack on Israeli communities. Israel says Hamas killed some 1,400 people including children, and took more than 200 hostages, some of them infants and older adults.

The Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry said on Thursday that 7,028 Palestinians had been killed in the retaliatory air strikes, including 2,913 children.

After Mr Biden said he had no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using, referring to the death toll, the health ministry published a detailed list of the names of 6,747 people it claimed had been killed by Israeli airstrikes.

The list included the name, age, gender and ID number of each person killed, including those of 2,665 children.

The ministry said it did not name an additional 281 people who had been killed because their bodies could not be identified, bringing the total to 7,028.
At heart, Slanna is just like any other dog, but being blind does come with a few special adjustments.

SPCA of Wake County

A North Carolina animal shelter is looking for a home for a senior dog who has been pretty unlucky in the eye department.

Ten-year-old Slanna was already missing her left eye when she arrived at SPCA of Wake County in Raleigh two months ago.

Samantha Ranlett, a spokesperson for the SPCA of Wake County, told The News & Observerthat the black-and-white mixed breed pup is believed to have suffered some kind of trauma at some point. Due to her age and other infections in her right eye, veterinarians at the organization removed her remaining eye about six weeks ago. Slanna is now happy and healthy, albeit completely blind.

She is resilient, and she's found a way to adapt to her new sightless world, the shelter wrote on Facebook. Slanna relies on her other senses like smell and sound to get around and find her people. She can smell or hear you to find your location in a heartbeat.

From her perspectivedogs with disabilitiesthey dont know they are any different from other dogs, Ranlett explained to The News & Observer. They want to feel loved, feel happy, enjoy their lives, have food and shelter. Slanna hopes to have the same care as anyone else.

Though she might be just like any other dog at heart, rescuers warn that being blind does come with a few special adjustments, noting that Slannas future family may want to pick a consistent walking route, and have other household dogs that are patient, as Slanna cant see body language cues.

She may take some time to learn her new space, but once she's gotten the lay of the land, she can navigate it like a pro (just be careful about moving furniture)! the shelter points out.

She might need a few special accommodations, but Slanna will pay that back in full through love and devotion.

"Dogs with disabilities are great teachers, Ranlett said. You can see this in Slannas spirit that she is completely happy and wants the simple things in life. She wants someone who can see past her disability and love her anyway, the way she will love them.

Though technically still available, Slanna currently has a pending adoption application. For more information on how to adopt visit spcawake.org.



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Read the original article on Southern Living.
Olentangy Schools' administrative building in a file photo.

The Olentangy Schools Board of Education voted Thursday to ask voters for approval of a combined 4.25-mill levy for operating expenses and maintenance on the 2024 primary ballot, and to allow the district to issue up to $350 million in bonds toward the construction of five additional school buildings to meet its rapidly growing student population.

The levy is necessary to keep up with increasing enrollment, the Olentangy Local School District said in a news release Thursday night. More than 22,500 students from southern Delaware County and part of Franklin County attend Olentangy Schools' 27 current buildings, making it the fourth largest district in the state behind Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati city schools  and the district projects enrollment will rise 21% in the next 10 years.

A yes vote would authorize two levies combined into one 4.25-mill levy. The larger, a 3-mill operating levy, would collect about $19 million per year toward day-to-day costs such as staff salaries. The second, a 1.25-mill permanent improvement levy, would put about $7.9 million annually toward maintenance, repair and upkeep of facilities.

If approved by voters in the March 19, 2024, election, the levy would cost homeowners in Olentangy Schools $148.75 annually for each $100,000 of county appraised value, which will be based on 2024 home values, according to the statement.

Should the levy pass, property owners would first see the impact on their tax payments in 2025.

A "yes" vote would also allow the district to sell up to $350,000,000 in bonds to fund the construction of three elementary schools, a middle school and a high school. Bonds are essentially voter-approved loans that school districts use for expenses that require cash up front, such as construction projects. Investors buy the bonds, giving the districts cash to spend, and the school districts repay them over a set period of time with tax money.

School board members said in the statement that Olentangy is a destination school district that attracts residents to the area, and the levy is necessary for the district to continue to provide "exceptional" education to its students.

The decision to place Olentangy Schools on the March ballot is not something the board takes lightly," Board of Education President Kevin O'Brien said in the prepared release. "This vote is a result of the transparent analysis and planning of our treasurers office, our operations team maintaining our current facilities and stretching the capacity of each school building, as well as mindfulness regarding our district budget."

bagallion@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Olentangy Schools seek 4.25-mill levy on March ballot, cite enrollment
The former Burns Rent-Alls building on Liberty Drive and Mishawaka Avenue in Mishawaka. The city-owned building has been offered for sale for a combined Prized Pig/Bourbon Street Pizza family restaurant.

The city of Mishawaka has approved a redevelopment agreement that could result in a sort of family-style food hall specializing in barbeque, smoked meats and pizza in the former Burns Rent-Alls building across from Battell Park.

The agreement calls for a new entity called The Pie and The Pig to jointly run the new business inside the 4,800-square-foot Burns building, which has been sitting vacant since the business relocated to 2401 N. Home Street several years ago.

Three in one: Project adds parking for Battell Park, St. Monica church and potential new business

The Prized Pig, which has been operating a restaurant at 114 Lincoln Way E. in downtown since 2019, will move to the new spot along with Bourbon Street Pizza, which currently operates pizza restaurants in several northern Indiana locations.

The Prized Pig in downtown Mishawaka could end up in a new home near the city's Battell Park in Mishawaka within the next year. It would share space with a pizza operator.

Hence, the proposed name for the new establishment, which also combines the restaurant operations of Prized Pig owner Greg Petkov and Bourbon Street Pizza founder Tim Harman, whose friendship goes back a couple of decades when they both spent time at a Papa Johns Pizza in South Bend.

Since that time, the food and pizza business has been Harmans main focus; Petkov, who also owns Greg's Automotive at 1102 E Jefferson Blvd., Mishawaka, came back to the food business in a more round-about way.

This is an architectural rendering of the proposed exterior of the proposed Prized Pig/Bourbon Street Pizza family restaurant with outside seating. The site at Liberty Drive and Mishawaka Avenue would be renovated for an eventual opening in the summer or fall of 2024.

Though he built up a sizable used car and repair shop business on Jefferson, he loved the food at the Prized Pig when it operated in Niles and somewhat talked Jeremy Vohwinkle into reopening in Mishawaka after the Michigan location closed in 2017.

2019 Reopening: The Prized Pig makes a comeback in Mishawaka with plans to open by September

Unfortunately, the restaurant opened just months before the pandemic forced temporary closures and restrictions at eateries across the country, but The Prized Pig survived because of the quality of its food and the loyalty of its fanbase.

It was probably the worst financial decision that I ever made, Petkov says. But we didn't know that COVID was just around the corner when we opened."

Smoked wings are among the favorites at The Prized Pig in Mishawaka. The restaurant plans to relocate in the next year to a new larger space near Battell Park.

After surviving the pandemic, the restaurant also lost Vohwinkle, who left to pursue other interests about a year ago, Petkov says, attributing the ongoing success of the restaurant to the excellent team thats been developed.

But Petkov still felt the restaurant could do even better.

Ive wanted to move since we opened the doors, he says of the location on Lincoln Way East. Theres limited parking, the bar is non-existent, the space is too small, and there arent any rooms for private parties.

This is the rib platter with fries at The Prized Pig in Mishawaka.

All of those problems are solved with the new location at West Mishawaka Avenue and Liberty Drive across from the citys Civil War Memorial. A parking lot is being developed for shared use with St. Monica Catholic Church, park patrons and restaurant visitors.

Greg Petkov, owner of The Prized Pig in downtown Mishawaka, also owns Greg's Automotive on the east side of the city.

By bringing in Bourbon Street Pizza, Petkov says, the business will also have an even broader appeal, pointing out that the open kitchen will be designed for use by Bourbon Street on one side and by The Prized Pig on the other.

Because the deal isnt expected to close until the end of the year, details are still being worked out. But Petkov envisions a bar area on one side of the restaurant and a large patio outside with a nice view of the park and easy access to the citys popular walking trail along the river.

Smoked ribs are on the menu at The Prized Pig in Mishawaka.

As part of the development agreement, the city wants The Pie and The Pig to spend at least $1 million developing the property into a new restaurant space to serve the neighborhood as well as the visitors that the citys riverside parks are attracting.

In exchange, the new business would get the property for $325,000, but $300,000 of that would be forgivable if it operates as a restaurant for 10 years. According to the timeline, officials hope The Pie and The Pig is ready to open by late summer or early fall with construction underway in March.

Thats an aggressive timeline, but one that Petkov hopes to achieve.

This brisket sandwich is just one of the many offerings at The Prized Pig in Mishawaka. The restaurant plans to relocate in the next year to a new larger space near Battell Park.

The idea of operating a restaurant was planted when The Prized Pig closed years ago, says Petkov, who moved here with his family from Bulgaria when he was 13. It was somewhat of an accident, but its also something that Ive always wanted to do.

This is the dining room of the Prized Pig in downtown Mishawaka. The owner of the restaurant aims to move to a new location near Battell Park that would provide more seating, parking and an outdoor patio.

He likes people and he likes providing things they need, such as good food and dependable transportation. "The American dream is real, he says of the businesses hes managed to build in less than 20 years.

Maybe thats more apparent if you come from a place where opportunities are limited, he says.

Email Market Basket columnist Ed Semmler at esemmler@sbtinfo.com.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Mishawaka will gain parking and new restaurant near Battell Park
A Food Bank for Larimer County worker moves two containers of donated turkeys during the Tour de Turkey event Thursday, Nov. 17, 2022, at the Drake Center parking lot in Fort Collins, Colo. Food Bank officials expect a big boost in volunteer help from a new program at Colorado State University that will pay eligible employees for up to 8 hours of work each year with their organization and other nonprofits in Larimer and Weld County.

Sixteen local organizations that rely heavily upon volunteers are getting a big boost this fall from a pilot program at Colorado State University that will pay employees for up to eight hours of volunteer work per year.

More than 8,000 CSU employees based in Northern Colorado are eligible for the Volunteer Service Hours program, said Eric Ray, CSUs vice president for human resources.

Were extremely excited about it," said Kimberly Schilke-Pinckney, the human resources and volunteer manager for the Food Bank for Larimer County. Theyre one of the Food Banks oldest partners, so we really love them.

Schilke-Pinckney said volunteer slots at the Food Bank started filling up quickly when CSU announced the program last month, and she anticipates a continued boost throughout the year. CSU is the largest employer in Larimer County.

CSU students and staff volunteers, she said, were instrumental in helping the Food Bank meet the increased demand it faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Demand has gone up again, she said, since Colorado made post-COVID reductions in March to its Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits for low-income families.

We desperately need them, because weve gone up by 10,000 clients since the SNAP benefits have been reduced, Schilke-Pinckney said. So, we need all the help we can get.

More: Housing costs dominate forum discussion between CSU students, elected officials

A similar program available to OtterBox employees for many years has provided a huge boost to the Food Bank, she said.

Lani Williams, assistant to the dean of libraries at CSU, first pitched the idea of the Volunteer Service Hours program to the universitys Administrative Professionals Council. CSUs Faculty Council and Classified Personnel Council were in favor, as well, she said.

One of Colorado State Universitys principles of community is service, where we give of our time and talents and resources to improve the well-being of each other and to make a difference in our community, Williams said. So, I wanted to create a program that was a tangible way for employees to honor that principle of community.

There are 16 organizations that have been approved for CSU employees to serve their paid volunteer hours in the programs initial year. They include food banks and school districts in both Larimer and Weld counties; Habitat for Humanity organizations in Fort Collins, Loveland and Greeley-Weld, Boys & Girls Clubs of Larimer and Weld counties; Larimer Humane Society; and United Way of Weld County. United Way of Larimer County doesnt use volunteers directly, Williams said, but instead serves as a clearinghouse, sending them to other organizations under its umbrella, and therefore is not included in the CSU program.

The initial organizations were selected based on recommendations from CSU employees who were already involved in volunteer work with each, she said. Additional nonprofit organizations can be added through a process initiated by employees.

Williams met in advance with each one before the program was launched to make sure they could handle an increased volume of volunteers. All were on board, she said.

More: New CSU President Amy Parsons hopes to strengthen university's land-grant mission

We dont know the exact results, since this is a really big move that is unprecedented, said Nicholas Peterson, community and business coordinator for the Poudre School District. We have ideas in the future about some large, coordinated volunteer projects, but we are just excited to get this first phase off the ground and see what comes of it. This could be just the beginning of something very special.

Poudre School District had 4,377 registered volunteers perform 107,848 hours of service in its schools during the 2022-23 school year, Peterson said Thursday through a PSD spokesperson.

Eligible CSU employees can access the benefit the same way they request other paid time away from work, Ray said. Full-time employees can use all eight hours at one time or incrementally throughout the year up to the 8-hour limit. The program is also available to part-time employees, but for fewer hours each year. Supervisors must approve the requests in advance, he said.

The program is cost-neutral to CSU, Ray said, noting that the employees would otherwise be performing their regular duties for those same eight hours of pay. It could be expanded to CSU employees based outside of Northern Colorado in future years, he said.

One of the missions of CSU is service, and I think you see that, Ray said. A lot of our people throughout the university were already active in this space, but theres some that arent active for various reasons and hopefully this can give them an opportunity to find an organization where they can be active. Find a cause and find a connection, here with the university and with the community.

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: CSU offering employees up to 8 hours of paid time for volunteer work
By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) -Pope Francis has ordered a review of the Church's handling of the case of an internationally known religious artist who was expelled from the Jesuit religious order after being accused of sexual, psychological and spiritual abuse of adult women.

A statement on Friday said the pope had asked the Vatican's doctrinal office to review the case of Father Marko Ivan Rupnik and had lifted any statute of limitations that would apply so that a complete process could take place.

It said the pope made the decision after a Vatican commission on the prevention of sexual abuse "brought to the pope's attention that there were serious problems in the handling" of the Rupnik case, as well as a "lack of outreach to victims".

About 25 people, mostly former nuns, have accused Rupnik, 69, of various types of abuse, either when he was a spiritual director of a community of nuns in his native Slovenia about 30 years ago or since he moved to Rome to pursue his career as an artist.

Allegations against Rupnik began surfacing in Italian media late last year, after which the Jesuit headquarters acknowledged that he had been banned in 2019 from hearing confessions and leading spiritual retreats.

He was expelled from the Jesuits in June. Victims expressed outrage after he was allowed to work as a priest in the diocese of Koper, in his native Slovenia. The diocese said he had been accepted because he was not convicted in either a Church or civil court.

Rupnik has never publicly responded to the accusations against him, which the Jesuits said last February were "very highly" credible.

One ex-nun told an Italian newspaper how he used what she called psychological control to force her into sexual acts, and deployed "cruel psychological, emotional and spiritual aggression" to "destroy" her, particularly after she refused to have three-way sex.

The reopening of the case and the lifting of the statute of limitations means that Rupnik could eventually be defrocked, meaning a dismissal from the priesthood.

The Jesuits, the Vatican's doctrinal department have come under criticism for their handling of the case. There has also been Italian media speculation that the Vatican bureaucracy gave him special treatment because the pope, too, is a Jesuit.

The Jesuits disclosed under media pressure last year that the Vatican had investigated Rupnik and ruled that some of the alleged abuse fell beyond the statute of limitations.

The order disclosed that in 2020 the Vatican's doctrinal department excommunicated Rupnik for "absolution of an accomplice," referring to when a priest has sex with someone and then absolves the person in confession. Rupnik repented and the sanction was lifted after only a month, an unusually short period.

Rupnik specialised in mosaics and came to prominence when the late Pope John Paul II commissioned him to redesign a chapel in the Vatican between 1996 and 1999. He later designed chapels around the world.

(Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
The following is US President Joe Biden's statement on the fifth anniversary of the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He also related the incident to the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in the Middle East.

This is also the first year since gunman Robert Bowers was sentenced to death.

Today marks five years since the deadly shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh - the deadliest act of Antisemitism in our nation's history. A gunman opened fire on Sabbath worshippers as they prayed, murdering 11 precious souls, wounding many more - including first responders. The hearts of Jewish communities were shattered, leaving behind survivors and families who will never be the same.

Deepening the wound, today's remembrance comes on the heels of the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust. On October 7th, a sacred Jewish holiday, the terrorist group Hamas unleashed pure evil against the people of Israel, slaughtering 1,400 Jews and taking hostage hundreds more. This devastating atrocity has brought to the surface painful memories left by millennia of Antisemitism and the genocide of the Jewish people. The fear is amplified by the alarming rise of Antisemitism abroad and at home.

Read Also: Gunman in Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting Who Killed 11 People Eligible for Death Penalty, Jury Finds

Under my presidency, we will continue to condemn Antisemitism at every turn. We are increasing security around centers of Jewish life across the country. The Justice Department has made combating hate crimes a top priority. We passed the most significant gun safety law in nearly 30 years. And we are implementing the first-ever national strategy to counter Antisemitism. Because hate never goes away, it only hides until it is given just a little oxygen. And as a nation, we must ensure hate is never given any oxygen.

During these difficult times, we must never lose hope or give up on a better tomorrow. We must recommit to speaking out against bigotry and hate in all its forms, whether it is racism, Antisemitism, or Islamophobia. And we must come together as fellow Americans to heal the soul of our nation.

Related Article: Jury Recommends Sentence of Death for Pennsylvania Man Convicted for Tree of Life Synagogue Shooting

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Vivek Ramaswamy confronted Sen. Joni Ernst over her criticism of his position on Israel at an Iowa political fundraising event last Friday, according to two sources who witnessed the tense exchange and video obtained exclusively by NBC News.

The two politicians ran into each other as Ernst, R-Iowa, was exiting a podcast studio at Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks' "Triple MMM Tailgate fundraiser and Ramaswamy was heading in. Ramaswamy shook Ernst's hand and held onto it for most of a minute as he aired his frustration.

"You might want to understand my Israel policy before commenting," said Ramaswamy, who was upset about Ernst's remarks at a panel discussion on foreign policy in New Hampshire a week earlier. "I'd be glad to talk to you, because I heard you had some perspectives."

As both smiled through their tough talk, Ernst said: "Well, I was asking, what is your policy?"

Ramaswamy, a political newcomer who is seeking the GOP presidential nomination, has come under heavy fire from fellow Republicans for an interview he did with conservative pundit Tucker Carlson this month that touched on America's interest in the war between Israel and Hamas.

The private interaction illustrated some of the pushback Ramaswamy has been receiving  and how he's working to overcome it as the conflict has become a key issue splintering the party ahead of a conference with Republican Jewish voters and the third primary debate on Nov. 8.

"The selective nature of ignoring certain other conflicts  while even more importantly ignoring the interests of the U.S. right here at home  is what irritates the heck out of me, out of the politicians in both parties, Ramaswamy said in the interview with Carlson on X. It is shameful, and I think that there are, frankly, financial and corrupting influences that lead them exactly to speak the way they do. Thats just the hard truth.

Many Republicans reacted with outrage at Ramaswamy for what they perceived to be the conjuring of an old trope about Jewish power, aggravating long-standing wariness that some in the GOP have about his policies on Israel.

At a Bastion Institute and Polaris National Security forum in New Hampshire on Oct. 13, Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota, who is also running for the GOP presidential nomination, blasted Ramaswamy for suggesting that American supporters of Israel are "bought and paid for."

Ernst, sitting next to Burgum onstage, let out a whoop of approval and thanked him several times.

"Having people running for high elected office here in the United States shifting the blame away and saying its all about fundraising, its abhorrent," Ernst said, clearly alluding to Ramaswamy. "We need to stand with our friends, Israel."

In Iowa last week, as they continued their long handshake, Ramaswamy bored into Ernst about her participation in talks about the prospect of Saudi Arabia's developing civil nuclear energy as part of a broader pact with Israel.

The U.S. should "deeply rethink" allowing Saudi Arabia to have "nuclear capabilities outside of ... a normalized U.S. civilian nuclear transfer," Ramaswamy said.

Ernst, who led a congressional delegation to Saudi Arabia and who had just met with the prime minister, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, when Hamas struck Israel on Oct. 7, replied that any Saudi civil nuclear program would be overseen by a U.S. entity.

Ramaswamy, who is polling fourth nationally in the RealClearPolitics average of several GOP primary surveys, moved back to the topic of the war in the Middle East.

"The most pro-Israel thing we could do right now is to debate what is actually happening before we get into another Iraq or Afghanistan," he said. "So that's where I'm at."

Ernst responded that she is not "fully supportive of a ground invasion," either.

Ramaswamy said he had heard, "maybe secondhand, some of the comments in New Hampshire, I think relating to your awareness of my Israel policies."

Then, he was beckoned to join the podcast.

"But anyway," Ernst said as they shook hands again, "don't make assumptions about where I am [on policy], either."

Ramaswamy retorted one last time: "And vice versa."

A top aide said Ramaswamy believed the U.S.-mediated negotiations between Saudi Arabia and Israel were most likely a factor in the Oct. 7 terrorist assault on Israel.

The idea of the U.S. transferring nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia this year is absolute lunacy  and almost surely played a role in catalyzing the recent attack on Israel, said Tricia McLaughlin, the Ramaswamy aide. You cant simply parrot slogans like We stand with Israel while explicitly advancing policies that catalyzed the attacks on Israel without acknowledgment of that reality.

The unusually frank confrontation with Ernst reflects Ramaswamys approach to politics, McLaughlin said.

Unlike career politicians, Vivek prefers to ... debate those who disagree with him directly, rather than to do it like a coward behind their backs, she said.

Ernst, whose delegation traveled to Israel on Oct. 10 for meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials, served in Iraq and Kuwait in the Iowa National Guard during the Iraq War.

Her spokeswoman, Kelsi Daniell, said there was little need to elaborate on the exchange.

"Retired Lt. Col. Ernst's words in the video speak for themselves," Daniell said in a text message.

Ramaswamys stance on Israel has been the subject of intense scrutiny on the right since long before Hamas launched its terrorist attack this month. During the first GOP presidential debate in August, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, a staunch supporter of Israel, lambasted Ramaswamys call to cut off aid to the country after 2028. Ramaswamy had said such aid would no longer be necessary by then, because he pledged to negotiate Abraham Accords 2.0 with the aim of fully incorporating Israel with its Middle Eastern neighbors.

You have no foreign policy experience, and it shows, Haley said of Ramaswamy in a viral moment from the Milwaukee debate.

Now, Ramaswamy, who is cautioning the U.S. against getting involved in a potential broader war in the region, called on lawmakers to reject President Joe Bidens proposed aid package of more than $100 billion for Israel and Ukraine and said aid to Israel should be contingent on the countrys providing clear objectives for its military effort.

Destroy Hamas is not on its own a viable or coherent strategy, he said in a statement.

He has said, though, that the U.S. should provide the Israelis with intelligence and diplomatic support, as well as weapons for sale or transfer. In a lengthy tweet promoting the interview with Carlson, Ramaswamy called the Hamas-led attacks, during which roughly 1,400 people were killed and more than 200 were taken hostage, barbaric," adding they "cannot be condoned.

We require a rational response that supports Israel while avoiding another U.S.-led disaster in the Middle East, he said.

After the interview, Ramaswamy published a statement forcefully pushing back against the idea that he was promoting an antisemitic trope about the influence of Jewish funding when he discussed the impact of financial and corrupting influences" on his rivals' positions on Israel policy.

Theres plenty of actual anti-Semitism in the world, as has been made painfully clear with Hamas murderous assault on Jews and the reaction by their apologists, whether its BLM chapters or Harvard student groups, he said. Anti-Semitism is morally outrageous, and its wrong to artificially manufacture more of it.

Ramaswamy will no doubt have to address his position on Israel more in the coming days when he speaks with Jewish voters Saturday morning at the Republican Jewish Coalition conference in Las Vegas.
Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., pled not guilty Friday to additional charges in a superseding indictment, including allegations of identity theft and transferring money to his personal bank account from a supporters credit card.

U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert set a trial date for Santos of Sept. 9 of next year, which is expected to last a month. His next status conference is scheduled for this Dec. 12. Santos did not comment to reporters on the way out of the courthouse.

A small group of protestors stood outside the building in Central Islip, N.Y., on Friday waving signs that said Expel Santos now and Santos stole NY."

Santos is accused of "stealing peoples identities and making charges on his own donors credit cards without their authorization, lying to the FEC and, by extension, the public about the financial state of his campaign," the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Breon Peace, said in a statement when the new indictment was announced earlier this month.

Peace also said that the GOP congressman "falsely inflated the campaigns reported receipts with non-existent loans and contributions that were either fabricated or stolen."

The new indictment charges Santos with conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States, wire fraud, making materially false statements to the Federal Election Commission, falsifying records submitted to obstruct the FEC, aggravated identity theft, and device fraud.

Santos' congressional office did not immediately respond to NBC News' request for comment. When the new charges were announced, Santos said he had no clue whats going on, adding, I will fight this.

Santos pleaded not guilty in May to a 13-count federal indictment unsealed by the Justice Department and was released on a $500,000 bond. He was charged with seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds and two counts of making materially false statements to the U.S. House of Representatives.

His appearance in court on Friday comes after House Republicans from New York on Thursday moved to force a vote on whether to expel Santos from Congress. The measure requires the House to vote on the resolution within two legislative days, which could happen next week.
Katie McCabe produced a sensational display at Tallaght Stadium as she notched a hat-trick and also set up Kyra Carusa's two goals

Katie McCabe produced a superb display as her hat-trick helped the Republic of Ireland hammer Albania 5-1 in the Women's Nations League in Dublin.

Megi Doci's shock equaliser cancelled out McCabe's fourth-minute goal but the Arsenal star's deflected effort put the Republic 2-1 ahead at half-time.

She turned provider by brilliantly setting up striker Kyra Carusa for goals in the 56th and 59th minute.

McCabe then completed her hat-trick nine minutes from time.

Diane Caldwell had been handed the captain's armband instead of regular skipper McCabe by interim manager Eileen Gleeson for the Tallaght Stadium contest as she became only the seventh Republic of Ireland women's international to reach 100 caps.

Win maintains Republic's 100% record

The Republic's win maintains their 100% record in Group One of League B following their respective 3-0 and 4-0 wins over Northern Ireland and Hungary last month.

Gleeson's side will continue their campaign when they travel to Albania for the reverse fixture on Tuesday night.

The formation Gleeson opted for gave McCabe licence to attack, with the manager deploying Izzy Atkinson and Abbie Larkin in wing-back roles

At times in the first half the Republic's players looked a little unsure of their positioning as Doci and the particularly impressive Qendresa Krasniqi looked dangerous in possession for the visitors on the rare occasions they did foray into the Irish half.

McCabe needed only four minutes to open her account as she brilliantly controlled Larkin's low cross before poking past Albania keeper Viona Rexhepi.

Kyra Carusa scored the Republic's two second-half goals after being set up by Katie McCabe

However, the visitors - who are 72nd and 48 places below the Irish in the Fifa rankings - were on level terms within three minutes as Doci superbly volleyed a deep Arbenita Curraj cross past Courtney Brosnan.

Caldwell's 100th cap was almost marked with a goal as her looping shot struck the crossbar on 22 minutes, but the Republic regained the lead four minutes later as McCabe's shot from outside the box took a wicked deflection off Alma Hilaj to leave Rexhepi helpless.

After a somewhat middling first-half, the Republic looked more assured after the break and McCabe fired inches wide before Louise Quinn's header was brilliantly grasped on the line by the Albanian keeper.

But the third Irish goal did come after 56 minutes as McCabe intercepted a short Albanian corner on the edge of her own box, burst past two attempted challenges as she charged upfield before teeing up Carusa to loft over Rexhepi.

It was the McCabe-Carusa show again three minutes later as the Arsenal player's cross was nodded home by the USA-based striker.

McCabe's hat-trick was duly completed on 81 minutes as she curled past from the edge of the penalty area following Sinead Farrelly's short free-kick.
Police on the scene of the shooting and Robert Card inset (AP)

On Wednesday night the city of Lewiston, Maine, was shaken after a gunman opened fire in two different locations. Police scrambled to find the shooter, advising residents and local businesses to lock down immediately.

Maine law enforcement officials later announced that Robert Card, a 40-year-old man, was the person of interest in the shootings that claimed dozens of lives at a Lewiston bar and bowling alley.

Heres what we know so far.

Who is Robert Card?

After identifying Robert Card as the person of interest, the sheriffs office made photos of him public for identification. He could be seen in the images wearing brown clothes and brandishing a high-powered assault-style rifle.

The law enforcement also unveiled a picture of the vehicle under investigation  a compact white SUV featuring a front bumper painted black. It was a car that the Maine State Police confirmed as belonging to the shooter.

As of 11am local time on Thursday morning, no arrests had been made.

In total, 18 people were killed while another 13 were injured in the attacks, Maine Governor Janet Mills confirmed in a press conference on Thursday.

The conditions of those injured remains unclear.

A city councillor had previously told CNN that 22 people were thought to have been killed and up to 60 others injured.

Maine Public Safety Commissioner Mike Sauschuck refused to give a specific number of fatalities on Wednesday night, saying: This is a very fluid situation. I dont have firm numbers and when I do, I will be happy to share with you... I dont think its helpful.

Initial reports had also suggested that there may have been a shooting in a third location at a Walmart Distribution Centre but this later turned out to be incorrect.

Walmart released a statement late on Wednesday saying: There was no shooting on Walmarts property. The distribution center was locked down and police searched the facility. They did not find anything and no one was hurt.

John Miller, chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst for CNN, described the weapon as an AR15-style rifle with a possible telescopic sight. He noted that the gunman was wearing blue tactical pants with bulging pockets, suggesting the possibility that he was carrying extra ammunition.

The person of interest, Card, should be considered armed and dangerous, police said.

As per law enforcement reports, Card served as a firearms instructor in the US Army Reserve. He recently disclosed mental health issues, citing experiences of auditory hallucinations including hearing voices and threats to shoot up the National Guard Base in Saco, according to a Maine law enforcement bulletin seen by the Associated Press.

He was also committed to a mental health facility for two weeks during the summer of 2023. According to a report by Macra, Card has a history of arrests for domestic violence and other crimes.

Where did the incidents occur?

Police, fire and rescue personnel first descended on Sparetime Recreation on Mollison Way, in Lewiston, about 7pm local time after a report of an active shooter, according to Maine newspaperThe Sun Journal.

Shortly afterwards, reports circulated online that another incident had taken place at a local bar and restaurant  Schemengees  on nearby Lincoln Street.

Gunman caught on surveillance footage (Androscoggin County Sheriff's Of)

Around an hour after the first police activity, Lewiston public information officer Derrick St Laurent told The Sun Journal that another shooting had been reported at the Walmart Distribution Center on Alfred A Plourde Parkway.

The Androscoggin County Sheriffs office later released two pictures of the person of interest entering a bowling alley  appearing to confirm reports on the first location.

What happened in the initial aftermath?

Video shared online showed multiple police vehicles in the local area.

A message put out online by Maine State Police advised members of the public to shelter in place.

There is an active shooter in Lewiston. We ask people to shelter in place. Please stay inside your home with the doors locked. Law enforcement is currently investigating at multiple locations, the force said.

If you see any suspicious activity or individuals please call 911. Updates to follow.

A text sent out by Lewiston Public Schools urged anyone near or at the school for conferences to get in a safe place.

We are going into lockdown. I will provide more information as it is available and appropriate, the alert read.

How is Lewiston dealing with the tragedy?

Local schools have announced they will cancel classes on Thursday.

There remains a lot of unknowns at this time. Information moves quickly but not always accurately. Please continue to shelter in place or get to safety. We will continue to update you with information and next steps as appropriate, Lewiston Public Schools said.

Stay close to your loved ones. Embrace them. Our prayers go out to those who lost someone tonight. Our prayers go out to all those working to stop further loss of life.

Town offices in Lisbon, which neighbours Lewiston, will also be closed on Thursday.

Maine Governor Ms Mill said in Thursdays press conference that Maine is one of the safest states in the nation as she vowed to hold the person responsible accountable.

I hold these families and this city in my heart, she said.

I wish I could take that pain off your hearts, off your shoulers but I promise you this  we will all help you carry that grief.
Marina Ovsyannikova, the journalist who interrupted a live broadcast on Russian state TV with an anti-war protest sign at the onset of the Ukraine war, has told CNN that she was stripped of her parental custody rights by a Moscow court for political reasons.

I am stunned and shocked by the decision of this court, Ovsyannikova told CNN on Thursday.

Earlier this month, Ovsyannikova told CNNs Erin Burnett that her relatives who remained in Russia, including her mother and her son, testified against her in court. They testified against me today and it was [a] shock for me, she said at the time.

According to state news agency RIA Novosti, Ovsyannikovas ex-husband Igor initiated the legal action, resulting in the removal of her custody rights to both of their children: an 11-year-old girl residing with her mother in Paris and a 17-year-old boy who remains in Russia.

Ovsyannikova, shot to international fame in March 2022 when, as an editor at Channel One, she stood behind an anchor and held up a sign that read No War during a live broadcast.

She was subsequently fired by Channel One and later sentenced to 8.5 years in prison in absentia by a Moscow court for spreading fake news about the Russian army.

Ovsyannikova was found guilty of public dissemination of knowingly false information about the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, according to a statement posted by the press service of Moscows district court.

Ovsyannikova, who dubbed the ruling fake justice in the interview with Burnett, fled Russia with her daughter in a daring escape September 30 of last year.

Speaking about the courts custody ruling on Thursday, Ovsyannikova told CNN she hopes that France, where she has been granted political asylum, will not allow her daughter to be handed over to Russian authorities.

I assume the next step for them [the Russian authorities] is to demand to hand over my child to Russia, but I hope that France wont agree to this as my child, like me, has been granted political asylum here, she said.

Ovsyannikova reiterated her disillusionment with the Russian judicial system, saying, I have no illusions left in regards to Russian jurisdiction. All courts in Russia are controlled by the Kremlin.

Earlier this week, a Russian court ordered US-Russian journalist Alsu Kurmasheva to be held in detention until December 5 for failing to register as a foreign agent, according to her employer.

Kurmasheva is employed by the Tatar-Bashkir service Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and is based in Prague, Czech Republic.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
WASHINGTON - The White House accused the Russian military of executing its own soldiers who disobey orders - the Biden administration's most alarming example of Moscow showing "no regard for the lives of its soldiers" in the war against Ukraine.

"We have information that the Russian military has been actively executing soldiers who refuse to follow orders," John Kirby, a White House spokesman on national security matters, said Thursday. "We also has information that Russian commanders are threatening to execute entire units who seek to retreat from Ukrainian artillery fire."

As Russia mounts a renewed military offensive in eastern Ukraine, Kirby said Russia appears to be using "human wave tactics" by throwing masses of poorly trained soldiers into the conflict. He said the Russian soldiers lack leadership, proper equipment or adequate resources.

"It is unsurprising that Russian forces are suffering from poor morale given all of these conditions," Kirby said, calling the executions of their own soldiers "reprehensible" and "barbaric."

"I think it's a symptom of how poorly the Russia's military leaders know they're doing," Kirby said.

A man walks past an advertising screen depicting Russian army soldiers and promoting contract military service in the Russian army in St. Petersburg, Russia, Monday, Oct. 23, 2023. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky) ORG XMIT: XDL108

The White House did not say how far the executions go back or how many soldiers have been killed. The Daily Beast last December reported that Russia killed some of its own soldiers but the White House hadn't previously made the allegation.

President Joe Biden is asking Congress to approve $60 billion in additional security assistance for Ukraine in its war with Russia as part of a $106 billion supplemental request that also includes funding for Israel in its war against Hamas.

Ukraine has so far successfully held back Russian tanks that were advancing in the eastern Avdiivka region, Kirby said. Since Oct. 11, Russia has suffered significant losses including at least 125 armored vehicles and more than battalions worth of we expect more Russian attacks to come.

"We expect more Russian attacks to come," Kirby said. "This is a dynamic conflict and we need to remember that Russia still maintain some offensive capability and may be able to achieve some task or gains in the coming months."

Reach Joey Garrison on X, formerly known as Twitter, @joeygarrison.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Russia executing own solders who disobey orders, White House says
For the past six months, employees at the tech company Expensify in San Francisco have had a special in-office perk: an upscale lounge offering them free specialty cocktails and other drinks. From its 16th-floor office, workers could enjoy champagne or a draft beer while collaborating in a restaurant-style booth or working on laptops at the bar.

But the lounge is due to close on November 1. The point, CEO David Barrett explained in a blog post on Wednesday, was to run an experiment.

Founded 15 years ago, the $215 million market-cap Expensify, which sells an expense-reporting app, was a remote-first company well before the pandemic. It even has an offshore program, in which employees can work abroad together for a few weeks every year.

But with COVID forcing millions of people to work from home, Barrett wrote, we recognized that we were living through a transformational time for the rest of the market, and decided to fix up one of our offices and run a little experiment around a very simple question: Can anything bring workers back to the office voluntarily?

The answer, he concluded, was mostly no: In practice, the lounge was a place that people would generally visit, marvel at, work for a bit, and leave.

Based on the experiment, he believes that employees at other companies currently working in the office are likely going because they feel pressured to (either by their boss or their peers), not because it's actually their preferred place to be.

RTO divides the Fortune 500

At Amazon, employees staged a walkout earlier this year over the companys return-to-office mandate, but managers now have the green light to terminate workers who ignore it, according to guidelines seen by Insider last week. Nike, meanwhile, recently updated its return-to-office policy from three days to four.

But while the return-to-office trend has been gaining steam, some companies are ignoring it. Nvidia, a $1 trillion AI powerhouse, offers luxurious office spaces, but it still lets employees decide whether to use them. Canva, the graphic design startup valued at $26 billion last year, has taken a similar approach.

In a recent survey of over 8,400 U.S. workers by FlexJobs, 63% of respondents said remote work was still the most important part of a job to them, ahead of salary and a good boss.

Were just never going back

Barrett believes theres still a place for offices, but as a society we're just never going back to a regular nine-to-five office culture, a staple of not just our modern culture, but also the foundation of most urban planning.

In New York City, Mayor Eric Adams announced a plan in August to convert empty office buildings into housing. COVID taught us something, he said. If we want to acknowledge it or not, we are in a different norm. Everything has changed, and we have to be willing to change with it.

Companies now insisting that employees return to the office might want to reconsider, Barrett suggested: If the best office in the entire planet can't compete with the local coffee shop, the tightly closed Pandora's box of work from anywhere has burst open, and will never be resealed. No amount of begging or coercion is going to work in the long run: The businesses that demand it are fighting a losing war of attrition against an infinite universal energy.

But he noted that Expensify did derive a few other benefits from the lounge experiment, such as using it as a laboratory to test new products and impressing possible clients.

As Barrett wrote, It was an incredible brand experience: Despite how lavish it seemed, from a cost perspective it was orders of magnitude cheaper to fix someone a cocktail in our own bar than to try to talk to that same potential customer at a conference booth.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
A pro-Russian former politician in Ukraine is fighting for his life after being shot in his Crimea home, an official has said.

Oleg Tsaryov, who was reportedly being lined up to lead a puppet administration in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv after Russias invasion, is in intensive care, said Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-installed official in southern Ukraine.

He was reportedly shot twice at around midnight at his home in Crimea.

Olegs condition is very serious. He is currently in intensive care, Mr Rogov wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Sources told Reuters last year that Russia had been lining up Mr Tsaryov to head a puppet government in Kyiv after Moscows forces invaded on 24 February.

Mr Tsaryov himself dismissed that possibility when the Financial Times reported it, citing US intelligence, ahead of the invasion.

He told the paper at the time that the idea was pretty funny because he was just running a wellness business in Crimea and was not important enough.

Oleg Tsaryov was reportedly being lined up by the Kremlin to lead a puppet administration in Kyiv after the Russian invasion (Reuters)

Previously, Mr Tsaryov had been a member of the Ukrainian parliament and then speaker of the parliament of Novorossiya, an entity formed after Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine broke away in 2014 and began fighting Ukrainian forces.

News of the shooting comes amid continued fighting on the front line, where Russian troops have been executed for retreating from key battles.

US intelligence said Russian soldiers had been fleeing the front line of the Kremlins offensive in the eastern city of Avdiivka, Donetsk.

We have information that the Russian military has been actually executing soldiers who refuse to follow orders, White House spokesperson John Kirby told a media briefing on Thursday.

President Zelensky says the Black Sea export corridor will continue despite threats (EPA)

Ukrainian forces have been repelling the Russian onslaught on the front line in Donetsk for several weeks, since mid-October.

Meanwhile, the alternative Black Sea export corridor will continue to function despite all threats, Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday morning.

The presidential office reported that Mr Zelensky had discussed the operation of the route as well as vessel insurance during a phone call with British prime minister Rishi Sunak.

On Thursday, the Kyiv-based Barva Invest consultancy, British security firm Ambrey, and a specialised outlet, Ukrainian Ports, reported that Ukraine had suspended use of the corridor due to a possible threat from Russian warplanes and sea mines.

Additional reporting by agencies
Sarah Dorris grew up around guns.

The 24-year-old Otero County woman said that's why she's comfortable handling firearms, though she said she is still worried about leaning back into safety around firearms.

Last month, Dorris was one of dozens of women at the Sidney Paul Gordon Shooting Range in La Luz. She handled a selection of firearms as part of a training course geared toward women who make shooting a hobby or are interested in learning about guns.

Women on Target is held twice a year and teaches basics in pistol knowledge and gun safety.

"They really made sure we knew all the basics before shooting anything," Dorris said. "We first were in the classroom to learn rules like never, ever, have your finger on the trigger when the gun is loaded."

More: Prescribed burn scheduled for Cedar Creek in Lincoln National Forest

Mastering the basics

Dorris, who is now 24 years old, said even though she grew up nearly her life around firearms, she learned things she had not known before. She also had the opportunity to handle guns with optics she never dealt with.

"They had all the guns out on the table, and of course we couldn't touch them until we went through the class," she said. "We were able to deal with guns that had red dots, green dots, silencers and suppressors and I have never had that chance."

The shooting range and the Women on Target event helped re-introduce Dorris to her passion for guns, and out of it, an opportunity for work.

"I intended to get back into this as a hobby," Dorris said. "I had no clue who the ranger director was at the time. When I was chatting with him, I found out they had an opening for a part-time and I applied. I will be at the next Women on Target event whether it's me there to participate or as a volunteer or employee."

She hopes to get the job at the shooting range to teach and learn more about gun safety.

Dorris said this was good knowledge for women who have little to no experience on gun handling. It also allowed her to take home knowledge that she could share with her family.

Chief Range Safety Officer Chelsie Zimmerman said that events like these, that cover basic gun knowledge among women, always have a great turnout. Women had the opportunity to practice with a pistol at the 50-yard range followed by handling various handguns.

"We do classroom instruction in the morning, and basic handgun and safety information," Zimmerman said. "Then they go out to the firing lane."

More: Alamogordo mayor says students gathering at Oregon Park 'problematic'

Safety first

New Mexico law requires a permit for concealed carry but not open carry, making it one of 38 states that allow unpermitted open carry.

However, in recent months, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has made a push to end gun-carry rights in some public spaces in the Albuquerque area.

While state lawmakers continue the debate, Range Director Mark Douglas said firearm safety is paramount within the community. One of the main purposes of Women on Target is to instill four universal safety rules that applies to all firearms, he said.

More: Your guide to Cloudcroft events happening this fall

Handlers must always treat a gun as if it were loaded.

Always keep your finger off the trigger until you are on target and ready to shoot.

Never point your firearm at anything you are not willing to destroy.

Be sure of your target and what is behind it and on its sides.

Douglas has been the range director since 2019, and feels firearm safety trainings are crucial for community members. In 2020, he proposed Women on Target be held twice a year.

"Most clinics have about 40 participants with ages ranging from nine years old to 87 years old," Douglas said. "We have about 12 instructors who provide firearms for the events."

Douglas said that the instructors also work with the participants, one-on-one following the different steps necessary to safely shoot a firearm, which can be a semi-automatic or a revolver.

For more information on any future events at the shooting range you can visit the Sidney Paul Gordon Shooting Range Facebook page.

Juan Corral can be reached at JCorral@gannett.com or on X, formerly Twitter at @Juan36Corr.

This article originally appeared on Alamogordo Daily News: Sidney Paul Gordon Shooting Range hosts gun safety event for women
Scott Alan Tyner is also accused of robbing a bank in Alabama.

Five weeks after authorities started looking for him, Springfield's alleged "Superman" bank robber is in custody in Greene County.

Scott Alan Tyner, 50, was booked into Greene County Jail on Thursday by U.S. Marshals for what appears to be a connection to the Sept. 29 robbery of Legacy Bank and Trust on South National Street. His charges are not listed on the jail roster and the details from his recent federal criminal case filing are sealed.

Tyner was arrested Oct. 13 in Mississippi after several news outlets reported he allegedly robbed a bank in Huntsville, Alabama on Oct. 6, a week after the Springfield incident.

The man in the Springfield bank robbery was seen on surveillance wearing a Superman T-shirt and gym shorts when police say he robbed the Legacy Bank and Trust with an undisclosed amount of money and escaped on foot.

More: Willard alderman, former mayor resigns on same day he's charged with two felonies

Tyner was arrested for his alleged Huntsville robbery on Oct. 13 in Tishomingo County, Mississippi, which is just across the border from Alabama. During a hearing in that county, his case was sent to the Western District of Missouri for other charges.

Minutes from his Oct. 13 appearance in Mississippi say Tyner was "advised of the charges charged out of the Western District of Missouri and his rights in the arresting district. (Tyner) exercised his right to have his Identity Hearing, Preliminary Hearing and Detention Hearing in the Western District of Missouri."

Several news outlets in Alabama noted in Oct. 13 reports that Tyner was believed to be connected to a bank robbery in Springfield, where the Jonesboro, Arkansas, native has previous criminal history dating back to 2015.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Springfield's alleged 'Superman' bank robber is in custody
Israel's military officials said they were expanding their operations in Gaza amid reports of heavy bombing and the cutting off of internet and mobile phone services in the strip.

Reuters reported that Israel Defense Force chief spokesperson RAdm. Daniel Hagari made the announcement on Friday (October 27) after it revealed the alleged existence of a tunnel network running beneath hospitals in Gaza.

"In the last hours, we intensified the attacks in Gaza," he said. "In addition to the attacks carried out in the last few days, ground forces are expanding their operations tonight."

Hagari also stated that military aircraft are also on standby to conduct strikes on tunnels and other infrastructure.

Read Also: Gaza's Internet Connectivity Worsens as ISPs Collapse

Israel-Hamas War Friday Recap

The announcement from the IDF was one of many significant ones that were provided to reporters.

Earlier on Friday, the IDF revealed that several key Hamas structures were allegedly located beneath hospitals in Gaza, specifically the Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

The IDF also stated that its forces killed Madhat Mubasher, commander of Hamas's West Khan Yunis battalion, in an airstrike into Gaza on Thursday night (October 26).

In addition, Palestinian internet service providers (ISPs) in Gaza have said they could no longer continue their operations due to the situation within the strip. This meant internet and telecommunication lines were cut off, resulting in a near-total internet blackout.

Related Article: Israel Says Hamas HQ Located Below Central Gaza City Hospital

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SAN ANTONIO  The Texas House approved a bill that would allow local and state peace officers to detain and remove to Mexico people who they think are here illegally, dismissing pleas from a Latino lawmaker who scolded, "Y'all don't live in our f---ing skin."

The bill's passage came early Thursday morning after Republicans truncated debate on the legislation, employing a rarely used procedure to cut off amendments Democrats could propose beyond those that were on the House speaker's desk.

State Rep. Armando Walle poses for a portrait in Warren Park in Houston. (James Nielsen / Houston Chronicle via Getty Images file)

After Democrats failed to undo that restriction, Rep. Armando Walle, D-Houston, lit into Republican members. Several versions of the passionate, expletive-laced video posted on social media show Walle chastising Republicans on the bill and for their refusal to allow for a longer "civil" debate that would "let us blow some steam."

Rep. Cody Harris, R-Palestine, whom Walle addressed as his friend, sponsored the motion to cut off debate.

"You're my friend, man, I love you, but this f---ing hurts. The s--- that happens on this godd---ed floor hurts. I can't go hang out with my," Walle said, swallowing the end of the sentence as he became emotional. "I can't hang out with my brother, my cousin, OK. I can't take them anywhere, bro? I can't go to a boda (wedding), I can't go to a baptism, because my community is being attacked?"

Reached Thursday afternoon, Walle told NBC News he does not regret his comments. He sees a direct connection between the legislation and the 2024 election season.

Ive been in the Legislature 16 years and over time there has been this salacious appetite to feed Republican primary voters by demonizing border issues, Walle said.

In a statement, Harris defended his motion to limit the number of amendments that Democrats could propose, saying Democrats had filed 50 more amendments as a stalling tactic. He said spikes in numbers of people arriving at the border or crossing illegally has spurred passion on both sides.

"While Democrats argue that this motion was an attempt to shut down debate over the bill, that simply isnt true. My motion prevailed and we went on to debate the bill and their amendments until 4:00 in the morning when the House passed HB 4," Harris said in the statement.

Open season on people of color

Jennefer Canales-Pelaez, Texas policy attorney and strategist for the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, said the state deportation bill the House approved is worse than Arizonas SB 1070 law, signed in 2010, that allowed officers, while enforcing other laws, to investigate the citizenship or immigration status of suspects and people theyve stopped.

Passage of that law led to court challenges, boycotts, protests and demonstrations and invigorated voter mobilization among Latinos who favored Democrats.

The Texas bill goes further than SB 1070 because it would allow any peace officer to not only question, but arrest and remove them, Canales-Pelaez said. The authority is not only extended to law enforcement, but the broad definition means a peace officer could be someone who sits on the dental examiners board," she said.

The way that the law is written is just so vague, so essentially it is just open season on people of color throughout the state of Texas, Canales-Pelaez said.

She said the bill does not address some of the logistics involved in removals, such as what the line of questioning would look like, where it would happen, or what would happen if Mexico does not accept the non-Mexican people Texas tries to remove. Immigration enforcement, including deportation, is a federal responsibility.

The House bill now goes to the state Senate.

Walle's comments were also referring to a bill on its way to the governor that sets a 10-year mandatory minimum penalty for human smuggling and another still to go to the Senate that provided $1.5 billion to buy land and construct a border wall.

"Y'all don't understand the s--- that you do hurts our community. It hurts us personally, bro. It hurts us," he said. "It hurts us to our f---ing core and y'all don't understand that. Y'all don't live in our f---ing skin."

For more from NBC Latino, sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Hispanics outnumber whites in Texas and the state is majority minority.

Though Walle lives in and was born and raised in Houston, as was his mother, his father is from Mexico. His parents and many other relatives live along the border, he said. The border has its problems, he acknowledged, but "nobody wants to solve the problems, at least from a state perspective. This has been a big bag of flaming horse manure that people are throwing back and forth, and instead of putting the fire out, the state of Texas wants to put more gas on the fire."

"But in that process it affects families. It demonizes communities of color like mine," he said.

Walle said it was offensive that Republicans cut off debate on future amendments to the immigration bill since under the Legislature's rules anyone can propose an amendment to a bill brought to the floor. Legislation authors should "stand by their bill," he said.

Republicans were able to cut off amendments by obtaining signatures and subjecting the cutoff proposal to a vote. Several members were not in the House when the vote was taken.

"I will never lie down when I feel my community is being attacked. I don't regret what happened last night, period. If I had to do it all over again, I would do it all over again," Walle said. "We are not going to take it anymore."

The Legislature has approved the bill in the midst of a special session rocked by revelations that the leader of the conservative political action committee Defend Texas Liberty met with white supremacist Nick Fuentes. The PAC gave Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican, $3 million in political contributions. House Speaker Dade Phelan, also a Republican, has called for Patrick and several state GOP members who also got money from the PAC to return it, causing a rift in the party.

Lawmakers should have gone home in May, but Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has called them back for three special sessions as he has pushed to get approval for tax money to be used for subsidizing private school tuition. Along with that, he made border and immigration issues an item for the latest special session, which began Oct. 9 and ends Nov. 7.

In 2017, Texas passed its own "show me your papers" law that allows law enforcement officers to ask people about their citizenship and immigration status and allowed for those who didn't to be removed from their jobs, including elected officials. It was upheld on appeal.
University of Florida professor Juan Gilbert was honored with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation (NMTI) by President Joe Biden at the White House this week.

The NMTI award is the highest honor in the nation for technological achievement and is given to innovators by the President for outstanding contributions to Americas economic, environmental and social well-being, according to a UF news release. The award also recognizes those who have helped strengthen the nations technological workforce and contributed to Americas standard of living, competitiveness and quality of life through technological innovation.

Gilbert was given the honor for developing a universal, open-source voting system that makes voting more reliable and accessible for everyone and increases diversity in the computer science workforce. The UF release states that the user-friendly voting interface accommodates voters with varied abilities by allowing them to cast their ballot using touch, voice or both.

Gilbert at UF: Gilbert named chairman of computer science and engineering

The voting system, named Prime III, accommodates individuals with physical disabilities and ensures the reliability and security of each vote. Prime III began in 2003 when Gilbert was at Auburn University and was the first open-source voting system to be used in the nations federal, state and local elections.

In the future, everyone is going to use technology to vote, and it will definitely be inspired by our work, he said in the release. People have died in this country for the right to vote, and were committed to making voting more accessible for everyone.

About the awardee

Gilbert began exploring voting security in 2000 after the presidential election exposed flaws in the nations voting technology, questioning how being unable to vote was any different from not having the right to vote. He has dedicated the majority of his career to finding ways to improve election technology with the goal of protecting democracy.

Gilbert is an educator and researcher, teaching computer science and acting as chair of the Department of Computer and Information Science and Engineering at UF. He is also an Andrew Banks Family Preeminence Endowed Professor and is a Fellow of organizations including the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the American Association of the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the IEEE and the National Academy of Inventors (NAI).

The University of Florida landmark Century Tower and University Auditorium.

Banks' donation to UF: UF alumnus, wife donate $5 million toward universitys pre-eminence goals

He leads UFs Computing for Social Good Lab and has worked to develop technologies relating to human conditions, such as software that uses artificial intelligence to address issues of diversity in admissions and hiring, as well as created an app that allows police officers to video chat with the driver they have pulled over.

He has received a plethora of recognitions and awards, including the 2021 ACM Social Impact Award, the 2018 Computer Research Association's A. Nico Habermann Award, and the AAAS 2014 Mentor Award. He was also named a 2015-2106 AAAS-Lemelson Invention Ambassador, Speech Technology Luminary by Speech Technology Magazine and a national role model by Minority Access Inc.

In 2011, Gilbert also received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring from President Barack Obama.

He attended college at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. In 2000 he was the first black person at the University of Cincinnati to receive a doctorate degree in computer science, which sparked his journey into academia. Since then, he has worked to diversify the technology field and encourage students from underrepresented groups to pursue graduate degrees, participating in outreach at organizations like the UF chapter National Society of Black Engineers.

The mission of the research enterprise at the University of Florida is to make a positive difference in the lives of people in the state, the nation, and the world, both in the present and in the future, said UF President Ben Sasse in a press release. Dr. Juan Gilbert is doing just that. We could not be more pleased.

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: National Medal of Technology and Innovation given to UF professor
FARO   Beginning May 24, United will be the first and only airline to directly connect the United States and Faro, Portugal, with its new service from New York/Newark, announced the airline on Thursday.

United officials said the new flight will make it easy for U.S. customers to visit Portugals Algarve region, home to some of the country's most scenic beaches and striking historic sites.

United has the most flights to the most destinations across the Atlantic and were now giving our customers even more flexibility and choice when planning their trips abroad, said Patrick Quayle, United's senior vice president of global network planning and alliances, in a prepared statement.

United Airlines will offer non-stop flights to Faro, Portugal, from New York/Newark Airport starting in May.

How much do tickets cost?

The new route, departing from Newark Liberty International Airport, will operate four times a week on a Boeing 757-200.

Flights will depart New York/Newark to Faro at 9:50 p.m., arriving at 10 a.m. the following day (local time). Thus, the flight will take around 7 hours and 10 minutes.

Tickets are already on sale.

On Oct. 27, for example, the fare to travel from New York/Newark to Faro on June 5, 2024, and return on June 12, 2024, would be as follows: $1,389 (basic), $1,564 (economy) and $5,114 (Business).

For more information and to book tickets, visit https://www.united.com/en/us/book-flight/united-reservations

Algarve Tourism Region president welcomes Uniteds announcement

The president of the Algarve Tourism Region (RTA) Andre Gomes welcomed the news about the new route, noting that more and more Americans tourists are visiting the Algarve.

Speaking to Lusa news agency, Gomes said that in overall terms, up until August, the North American tourist market had grown by 29.3% compared to last year and 40% compared to 2019.

This is extremely positive for the regions expectations, given the impact that this market has on the Algarve, in terms of tourism and the presence of investments from major funds and brands, he said.

United bringing back other popular routes to Portugal

The airline will be bringing back other popular routes to Portugal next year.

United currently serves more destinations in Portugal than all U.S. carriers, with its existing year-round service between New York/Newark-Lisbon, as well as seasonal service between Washington/Dulles-Lisbon, New York/Newark-Porto and New York/Newark-Ponta Delgada, Azores.

On Thursday, United also announced that the start date for the Washington Dulles  Lisbon route will be Feb. 15, 2024.

For more information, visit https://www.united.com/en/us

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: United to offer first-ever direct flights from the U.S. to Algarve
The US carried out airstrikes targeting two facilities linked to Iranian-backed militias in eastern Syria on Thursday, according to a statement from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, following a series of drone and rocket attacks against US forces in the region.

The US assessed that the airstrikes against the facilities linked to Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and affiliated groups did not result in any casualties, according to a Friday statement from Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary.

The strikes, carried out by an F-15 fighter jet and a pair of F-16 fighter jets using precision-guided munitions, targeted a weapons and ammunition storage facility in Abu Kamal near the border between Syria and Iraq. The strikes destroyed the facilities, according to Ryder.

Austin on Thursday described the strikes, which were ordered by President Joe Biden, as narrowly tailored in self-defense and emphasized they are separate from the ongoing conflict in Gaza. He directly accused Iran of having a role in the attacks on US forces, saying in the statement, Iran wants to hide its hand and deny its role in these attacks against our forces. We will not let them. Austin also promised further strikes if the attacks by Irans proxies continue.

Biden sent a letter to Congress on Friday evening detailing what he called necessary and proportionate strikes, writing that they were intended to establish deterrence and were conducted in a manner to limit the risk of escalation and avoid civilian casualties.

I directed the strikes in order to protect and defend our personnel, to degrade and disrupt the ongoing series of attacks against the United States and our partners, and to deter Iran and Iran-backed militia groups from conducting or supporting further attacks on United States personnel and facilities, Biden wrote.

The two targeted facilities had been previously occupied by members of Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and affiliated militia groups, a senior military official said. We know that there were people on the target at various points during the day, the official said during a briefing with reporters following the attack, emphasizing: Again, we know that they were not civilians. The people that occupy these locations are Iranian-aligned militia groups as well as IRGC personnel.

A senior defense official called Iran the center of gravity for the attacks on US forces in the region, saying that Iranian fingerprints are all over this.

Tehran and Iranian senior leaders are funding, arming, equipping, training and directing a whole plethora of militia groups across the region, and they have escalated attacks against US forces since October 17, which is why we took self-defense action tonight, the official said.

The Biden administration has carried out strikes against militias before, but at a time of enormous tension, the US is looking to send a strong message to Iran and the militias not to escalate their attacks and spark a wider conflict in the Middle East. The region is on edge as the Israel-Hamas war, which was triggered by Hamas brutal terror attack on October 7, continues.

Earlier Thursday, the US announced it is deploying about 900 troops to the Middle East  with the potential for many more. The US has also moved two carrier strike groups to the eastern Mediterranean Sea and an amphibious ready group closer to Israel in the waters of the Middle East.

The US strikes follow a growing number of attacks against US forces in Iraq and Syria since October 17. As of Thursday evening, when the Syria strikes were announced, US forces had come under attack a total of 19 times, according to the Pentagon, at least 12 separate times in Iraq and four separate times in Syria, resulting in 21 US service members suffering injuries. The Pentagon said the injuries were all minor and that the troops have returned to duty. One US civilian contractor suffered a fatal heart attack as a result of a false alarm at one of the bases in Iraq.

On Friday, the US military shot down a one-way attack drone near Al-Asad Air Base in Iraq, according to a US defense official. It marked the 20th attack and the first since the US announced it had carried out the strikes in Syria.

At approximately 0700 EDT on 27 October, US forces engaged a one-way attack drone a few kilometers from Al-Assad Air Base, Iraq, and successfully shot it down without further incident, the official said.

On Wednesday, Biden issued a strong warning to Iran about its proxies attacking US forces in the region. My warning to the ayatollah was that if they continued to move against those troops, we will respond, and they should be prepared. Biden also said the presence of US troops in Iraq and Syria is focused on the campaign to defeat ISIS and is not related to the ongoing conflict in Israel.

But Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian did not attempt to tamp down the tensions Thursday at an emergency session of the UN General Assembly, stating that the US will not be spared from this fire if the war in Gaza doesnt end. Earlier this week, the minister had said that Iran had received two messages from the US, though he would not say how or when the messages were delivered. The first message said the US was not interested in a wider expansion of the conflict, he said, while the second urged Iran and its partners to have self-restraint.

The last known US strike against Iranian-backed militias in the region occurred in March, when the military struck a facility it said was used by groups affiliated with Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. It followed a similar series of drone and rocket attacks against US facilities in the region.

Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said Thursday that the US will always reserve the right to self-defense and that if the US chooses to retaliate for the drone and rocket attacks, it would be at a time and place of our choosing.

In the face of an increased threat of attack, the Defense Department is rushing additional air defenses to the Middle East. Those systems include a THAAD battery, which is a medium-range air defense system, long-range Patriot batteries, and short-range Avenger air defense systems. The Pentagon declined to say exactly when they would arrive or where they would be stationed.

The US is also providing two Iron Dome air defense systems to Israel for its own needs.

This story has been updated with additional details.

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Editors note: This is the first of a two-part story that focuses on the Williamson Family Farm. Part two will focus on road plans by the farm to improve traffic safety of Medical Center Parkway, Asbury Lane and Wilkinson Pike.

The Williamson Family Farm seeks to preserve its rural charm by thriving commercial developments off Murfreesboro Medical Center Parkway.

The 240-acre farm's agritourism business that's also off Interstate 24 continues to book weddings, corporate events and festivals, including a Pecan Fest Nov. 4 and Holiday Market Nov. 25.

Founded as a dairy farm with commodity crops in 1953 by the late Bascom and Mitsue Williamson, the agritourism business now has grandson John Mark Williamson overseeing operations. The third-generation farmer is growing 9,000 organic apples and other fruits and vegetables on fields near all the apartments, restaurants, hotels, banks, gas stations and other commercial developments.

"Grandfather passed away in 2004," said Williamson, the operations manager for the family business. "He milked his last cow in 1988."

Mandy Singleton, assistant general manager, and John Mark Williamson, the operations manager of the Williamson Family Farm on Monday, Oct. 23, 2023, at the venue.

Preserving the farm that's within walking distance of nearby apartments, townhouses and single family detached homes adds to the "quality of life," of Murfreesboro, Williamson said.

Much of the development near the Williamson property in what city officials such as Murfreesboro Mayor Shane McFarland call their Gateway area is on former farmland. This includes The Avenue Murfreesboro shopping center, Embassy Suites Hotel and Conference Center, the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce building and the new Clari Park mixed commercial and residential project with plans for 300 apartments, 38 single family detached homes, and a range of 182 to 282 townhouses.

"I think everyone recognizes that the Williamson farm is a special place inside an active place," McFarland said.

The Williamson Family Farm honors a city goal from 2035 Compressive Plan crafted by consultant Aaron Tuley and others with Kendig Keast Collaborative based in Sugar Land, Texas.

"Having these agricultural areas illustrates and is emblematic of the city's heritage," Tuley said in 2016.

What's ahead for Clari Park? What's ahead for Clari Park? Mixed-use development offers place 'to live, work and play'

The farm has acres of space for outdoor and tented activities for weddings, social gatherings, or corporate events for up to 2,500 guests.

Williamson Family Farm touts offering a 5-acre private events campus with two renovated indoor barn spaces, a modern commercial kitchen and four privates suites. The farm also can accommodate 2,500 guests for outdoor and tented activities for weddings, social gatherings, or corporate events.

The dairy farmers' children, Mark Williamson and Toni Turner, grew up on the property. Mark, his wife, Alice, and Toni decided to preserve the farm and start the agritourism business in 2016 with the name, The Grove at Williamson Place. The name honored the pecan grove that continues to grow tall trees planted long ago near the barns.

Some people have confused the property as being Batey Farms, which previously had a partnership on farming the property and promoting tourism, such as offering annual a strawberry field for picking. The Batey Farms capture local attention with a large field of blooming sunflowers that led to multiple photos being shared on Facebook.

The historic John L. Batey farm is actually about 5 miles to the northwest in the Blackman community on the other side of I-24. Batey's family farm was founded in 1807 and sits on both sides of Baker Road near Blackman Road.

The Williamson Family Farm is historically part of the Blackman community even though the property is by what the Murfreesboro government calls its Gateway area along Medical Center Parkway. The parkway area also includes Ascension Saint Thomas Hospital, Murfreesboro Medical Clinic, the Fountains at Gateway commercial, office and townhomes development, and the planned Notes Live amphitheater and restaurant project.

Condos with an atrium view? Fountains at Gateway phase 2 a 'trend setter'

November festivals scheduled for Williamson Family Farm

Pecan Fest noon to 8 p.m. Nov. 4 (Saturday): event includes Best Pecan Pie Contest, Little Miss Pecan Festival, hayrides, s'mores by the fire, live music, craft vendors, food trucks, face painter and bounce house

Holiday Market 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nov. 25 (Saturday): Event will include craft vendors, photos with Santa, s'mores by the fire, food trucks and Christmas music playing through sound system

For more information, visit the Williamson Family Farm website:

Williamson Family Farm rebrands name for agritourism business

An old truck on the Williamson Family Farm with the venue's new logo on Monday, Oct. 23, 2023.

The renovated barns on the farm have served as spaces for many events, including a former location for the annual Blackman Barbecue.

The farm has also attracted political events, including a forum for Murfreesboro City Council candidates in 2018. Former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen also used the farm in 2018 to meet to discuss immigration policy with clergy leaders and reporters when he campaigned Democrat for a U.S. Senate seat against the Republican winner, U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Brentwood.

More: Immigrants 'are not criminals' pastor tells Bredesen at Murfreesboro event

Williamson Family Farm has plans to develop a 40-acre festival grounds with a "Festival Amphitheater" for live music, food stands, drink stations and farm-related activities, such as hayrides.

Another plan involves regenerative organic agriculture that goes beyond certified organic farming, said Williamson, a 2021 North Carolina State graduate who studied animal science and agribusiness.

The farm that includes a greenhouse will avoid pesticides or synthetic chemicals sprayed on the crops. Organic farming is healthier for the crops and soils, and healthier for the people eating the food, Williamson said.

The founders' grandson also intends to provide agriculture education for students on school field, such as from nearby Blackman High. Many students are unaware that food comes from farms, so he wants to provide them with demonstrations and hands on activities. This could include planting sunflowers and taking sunflower seeds home.

Another goal will be providing agricultural internships for high school and college students, Williamson said.

Long-traffic plan: Farmland at The Grove could be split by new road

Grandson seeks to honor founding dairy farmers

John Mark Williamson hopes to honor a grandfather who grew up in the rural Milton community on the far northeast side of Rutherford County.

Bascom Williamson oversaw agriculture efforts to grow rice in Japan and Southeast Asia as a World War II Army veteran serving under Gen. Douglas MacArthur.

The grandfather met his wife, Mitsue, while in Japan where she worked at a hotel before the couple bought their dairy farm in 1953.

"He wanted to make sure the world had rice and the kids of Rutherford County had milk," Williamson said.

Mandy Singleton, Asst. General Manager and John Mark Williamson, the Operations Manager of the Williamson Family Farm on Monday, Oct. 23, 2023, at the venue.

'Celebrity' pig's burial plot preserved: School board to buy part of Batey farm

Reach reporter Scott Broden with news tips or questions by emailing him at sbroden@dnj.com. Follow him on Twitter @ScottBroden. To support his work with The Daily News Journal, sign up for a digital subscription for all dnj.com stories.

This article originally appeared on Murfreesboro Daily News Journal: Williamson Family Farm keeps agritourism by Murfreesboro developments
An Israeli airstrike on the Gaza Strip

Israel has needed time to prepare its ground forces, collect intelligence, and destroy Hamas infrastructure from the air as the war enters a new stage, says Israeli Ret. Maj. Gen. Yaakov Amidror.

The ground invasion "will be more like elephants and not like wolves. It will be strong," says Amidror, a former National Security Adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is still said to have the leader's ear. He says Hamas has been preparing for years, and the Israel Defense Forces will close off the main exits to the tunnels to destroy Hamas.

"Mercy is not what is needed here. These barbarians should be killed off. And we will, slowly but surely. We will kill them."

While Israel wants to make an example out of Hamas for their enemies in the Middle East, Palestinians fear that lesson will be deadly to too many.

"They are hitting everywhere. They are hitting the houses. They are hitting the schools," says Shadi, a Gazan who now lives in California. He still has family in Gaza. "I don't stop thinking about my family in Gaza. There is no way even to communicate with them to know how their situation is."

He says Israel's air strikes, which have killed civilians, are no way to prepare a battlefield. "This is not the way to end Hamas, by killing more civilians, hundreds more civilians than Hamas."

Some are turning to the past, to U.S. battles in Iraq.

"The closest analogy I can give is it's almost like being in a knife fight in a phone booth. That's how close the quarters are. That's how, you know, you're maneuvering against each other," says Former Special Operations Officer Eliot Ackerman. He led a Marine rifle platoon in the city of Fallujah, earning a Silver Star and Purple Heart.

He says it's a challenge to know the difference between a terrorist and a civilian.

"When you're fighting a counterinsurgency, by definition, it is messy and the insurgents want it to be messy, like they want you to kill civilians," Ackerman said. "They set up scenarios so you will have a high likelihood of killing civilians. And they do that because they understand that the war is also being fought in the realm of popular opinion."

SEE MORE: An Israeli-American major talks about the imminent invasion in Gaza

Another American veteran, Democratic Congressman Seth Moulton, says counterinsurgencies require a political strategy for peace.

"We went into Iraq and Afghanistan without a plan for the day after," Moulton said. "We didn't think about the political dynamics of a conflict. We thought we could just solve a military problem, just like Israel has said, they want to take out Hamas. But the question is what comes next? We learned that the idea in counterinsurgency that you not only have to defeat the enemy, but also win over the population is central to being able to win that fight."

He says he is concerned the Israelis don't have an endgame.

"If they just go into Gaza and leave it a smoldering mess, then we're going to be right back where we started, with a terrorist hotbed right on Israel's border. And they might even recruit more terrorists in the process. General Stanley McChrystal referred to what he called insurgent math. For every one innocent civilian you kill, you recruit about 10 terrorists in the process."

Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has vowed to create a "new security reality" after the ground invasion.

"It means that Israel will have to make around the perimeter of the Gaza Strip, no-man's-land that no one can enter without being shot," Gen. Amidror, a Distinguished Fellow at The Jewish Institute for National Security of America, tells Scripps News. "It means that Israel will keep the freedom to act whenever we have information about someone that might renew the old military capabilities  either by air, or by ground forces. That is totally new."

National security correspondent Sasha Ingber asked him who Israel would support to govern Gaza. "It's not Israel's decision," he said. "It should be the people of Gaza's decision."
A northern Wisconsin car dealership has agreed to pay $1.1 million in refunds to Native American customers it allegedly scammed, according to a statement this week by the Wisconsin Department of Justice.

The current and former owners of Rhinelander Auto Group in Rhinelander and its general manager, Daniel Towne, agreed to the court-ordered settlement after an investigation by the DOJ and Federal Trade Commission agents showed multiple improprieties.

Working closely with the State of Wisconsin, we are holding these dealerships accountable for discriminating against American Indian customers and sneaking junk fees onto consumers bills, said Samuel Levine, director of the FTCs Bureau of Consumer Protection, in a statement. A vehicle is one of the most expensive purchases families make, and we are fully committed to ensuring that all consumers navigating the car-buying process can do so without facing unlawful discrimination or paying for products and services they do not want.

Rhinelander Auto Group issued a statement saying it settled to avoid a court battle and that it did nothing wrong.

"... We reluctantly agreed to a voluntary resolution to conclude the matter," the statement read in part. "The agreement includes no admission of wrong-doing, and it requires the company to pay a forfeiture; upgrade its compliance, credit, and other administrative policies; and expand its employee training efforts."

Rhinelander is located about 25 miles from Forest County Potawatomi Community tribal lands and is in the region of the Lac du Flambeau and Mole Lake Ojibwe reservations.

In a lawsuit against the car dealership, the FTC and DOJ state their investigation shows the dealer charged an average of $1,362 more for add-ons in credit transactions for Native Americans than non-Latino white customers since 2016.

For example, one customer was told she was required to purchase Guaranteed Asset Protection for more than $1,000, even though she didnt want to and it's not required.

When the dealership changed owners in 2019, the practice continued, according to the lawsuit, and the unlawful junk fees even increased a little on average.

In addition, Native Americans were charged $401 or more in additional markup costs compared to non-Latino white customers, according to the lawsuit.

Rhinelander Auto Group denies it targeted Native Americans and that it deceptively charged add-ons.

"We totally reject that our people  many of whom are long-term members of the local community  would engage in the practices alleged," the dealer's statement read. "Thats not who we are, and there is a great deal of evidence to reinforce the fact that Rhinelander Auto Group and its employees are ethical, decent, and very good people."

The proposed settlement also requires the dealership to stop deceiving customers about whether add-ons are required for a purchase.

Rhinelander Auto Group is glad to put this matter behind us and focus on serving our customers," the dealer's statement read. "We have been a part of the Rhinelander area for nearly 20 years, and we take pride in doing things the right way and treating everyone fairly. Our commitment is to continue on that path going forward.

Frank Vaisvilas is a former Report for America corps member who covers Native American issues in Wisconsin based at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Contact him at fvaisvilas@gannett.com or 815-260-2262. Follow him on Twitter at @vaisvilas_frank.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin car dealer to pay after scam of Native Americans alleged
Scotlands First Minister has written to every political leader in the UK to urge them to back a ceasefire in Gaza.

In a letter understood to have been sent on Thursday evening, Humza Yousaf said Israel has a right to defend itself following the Hamas attacks on October 7, but he added action must be taken now to stop the staggering humanitarian disaster in Gaza before it becomes cataclysmic.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, the leaders of the major parties in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and the conveners of the Westminster Foreign Affairs Select Committee and Holyroods External Affairs Committee all received the letter.

Mr Yousaf, whose in-laws have been trapped in Gaza since the beginning of hostilities, said: The abhorrent terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas on October 7 must be unequivocally condemned, and I will continue to join you in doing so. Hamas must release immediately and unconditionally all hostages and cease its missile attacks on Israel.

The killing of innocent civilians can never be justified, wherever it occurs. Israel, like every other country, has a right to protect itself from attack, but in doing so it must comply with international law.

Food, water, fuel, and medicine are being restricted, with limited humanitarian supplies  nowhere near enough  being allowed in.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)  the largest humanitarian agency working in Gaza  has warned that unless fuel is allowed into Gaza immediately, the agency will be forced to halt all operations as of today.

First Minister @HumzaYousaf has written to UK political leaders urging them to support an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, to allow a humanitarian corridor to open.  https://t.co/rY8cmQTLGh pic.twitter.com/CArCkzVBQt  First Minister (@ScotGovFM) October 27, 2023

I am, therefore, writing to ask for your support in helping to stop the staggering humanitarian disaster we are witnessing, which is set to get even worse.

We should stand together and unite in unequivocally calling on all parties to commit to an immediate ceasefire to allow a humanitarian corridor to be opened, so that lifesaving supplies can get into Gaza and innocent civilians who want to leave be given safe passage out.

The situation in Gaza is at the point of being cataclysmic.

All of us must do everything we can to prevent that. There must be no more dithering, or delay, together we must call for an immediate ceasefire.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar voiced his support for a ceasefire on Friday, as did Labour London Mayor Sadiq Khan  heaping pressure on Sir Keir.

There have been too many innocent lives lost in Israel and Palestine. We need a ceasefire now. pic.twitter.com/kFgcU58LAQ  Anas Sarwar (@AnasSarwar) October 27, 2023

The Labour leader has faced increasing calls from inside and outside the party to back a ceasefire, but has so far been resistant, uniting with Mr Sunak and the US.

Mr Khan, the first Muslim mayor of London, said a ceasefire will stop the killing and would allow vital aid supplies to reach those who need it in Gaza, as well as granting more time for the international community to work to prevent a protracted conflict in the Middle East.

Mr Sarwar  the first Muslim party leader in British history  called for the immediate cessation of violence, with an end of rocket fire into and out of Gaza.

He added: Let me be clear, that means a ceasefire right now.

In a reply to the First Minister, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said his party has called for a a temporary humanitarian ceasefire, adding: We need the space for an intense period of diplomacy, to get humanitarian aid into Gaza, and to provide an opportunity to realise the safe release of all Israeli hostages.

The road to peace feels vanishingly far away right now but it is a road we can and must rejoin.


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China, Pakistan to hold joint maritime exercise

Xinhua) 10:04, October 27, 2023

BEIJING, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese and Pakistani navies will hold the "Sea Guardians-3" joint maritime exercise in the waters and airspace of the northern Arabian Sea in November, said a Chinese defense spokesperson on Thursday.

Wu Qian, spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense, said at a press conference that the exercise will focus on joint response to maritime security threats, and will include subjects such as formation movement, search and rescue and anti-submarine operation. Activities such as professional exchanges and mutual visits will also be arranged.

This exercise aims to consolidate the all-weather strategic cooperative partnership and traditional friendship between the two countries and strengthen realistic combat training of the two militaries, Wu said.

(Web editor: Tian Yi, Liang Jun)
Uber customers in Phoenix can now book a ride in a fully autonomous vehicle such as a Waymo car.

Read Also: Driverless Taxis Delay Ambulance in San Francisco

Uber Partners With Waymo for New Riding Experience

Although Waymo has been around for a while, the partnership with Uber brings it closer to more customers starting in the area of Metro Phoenix. Customers now have an option to literally ride alone in the car using the Uber app by choosing it as an option via the Ride Preferences section of the app.

To book an AV ride, customers who request an UberX, Uber Green, Uber Comfort, or Uber Comfort Electric can be matched with a Waymo vehicle if the route is part of the company's operating territory. The company recently expanded its route and now includes the Sky Harbor International Airport's 24th St. and 44th St. SkyTrain locations.

Once the Waywo vehicle arrives, the car will be unlocked and start the usual Uber trip. On the other hand, riders are still allowed to accept or decline the Waymo vehicle. Uber assures that it is safe by providing 24/7 access to customer support both in the Uber app and inside the car.

Uber Commits to Zero-Emission Mobility

Uber noted that the partnership is an important step to fulfill its commitment to become a zero-emission mobility platform by 2024. Since Waymo uses an all-electric Jaguar I-PACE, the company is hopeful to bring a positive impact on the environment by cutting gas emissions per passenger and making green transportation more accessible.

"Looking ahead, we expect that the number of human drivers and AVs on the Uber platform will continue to grow, side by side, for quite a long time as we continue to scale a hybrid, global network that combines both," Uber wrote in a statement.

The company is yet to disclose its future plans with Waymo. Moreover, there are no details yet on how many AV cars will be deployed within the Metro Phoenix.

Related Article: Uber Debuts Hot Air Balloon Rides to Boost Tourism
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 27, ARMENPRESS. German Member of the European Parliament Viola von Cramon-Taubadel believes that sanctions are the only way to restrain Azerbaijans aggressive steps against Armenia.

In an interview with Armenpress Brussels correspondent, the MEP spoke about possible assistance from Germany to Armenia, the opportunities for peace in South Caucasus and her latest visit to Armenia.

Azerbaijan carried out ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh and it seems to be digested. The reaction and actions of the EU during the days of the attack and forced displacement did not go beyond deep concerns. To what extent do you see the EU's share of guilt in all of this, considering that financial support cannot alleviate the tragedy that happened?

Absolutely. Well, I think this has three layers. First of all, there's only one guilty. This is Aliyev. Second of all, there's only one betrayer of Armenians and that is Russia, the so-called peacekeeping forces have not existed for the last three years. And third of all, for the EU it's very difficult because what we would like to see is that we work together with Armenia on a sustainable peace, and I think the whole intention why the EU has not gone for hard sanctions at that very moment against Azerbaijan, against Aliyev and his regime has deserved or have deserved that. We do not want the brokering, the mediation part to go to Russia or Turkey because we are very much afraid if we are now too tough and too biased, we give too much leverage or too much reason for Aliyev not to have a Brussels format. We've seen it already in Granada. We have seen it at other moments. And I think the EU has shown that the solidarity is fully with Armenia, that we will pay, that we will give financial contribution, that we will work on an economic plan, that we will make offers to bring Armenia closer to the EU, that we have an interest, that you can emancipate from Russia... But what I understand, and I wish we would have seen a tougher stand and a tougher formulation of sanctions and also deterrence to prevent Aliyev to go further because we don't know what he might have in mind. But the reason for this is understandable, is that if we kick ourselves completely out, the peace, hopefully soon, will be brokered by Turkey and Russia, and this is not in our interest.

As you said we don't know whatever Aliyev thinks or wants, but one thing we know very clearly is his expansionist policy. Do you think that the EU has the measures to take care of the security of Armenia, of Armenians? Even if, as you say, Russian forces have failed, beside this, realistically, if today Azerbaijan attacks Armenian sovereign territory, what can the EU do?

No, absolutely. And that is exactly this dilemma. I think if Aliyev knows that the next military attack he would provoke, be it on the enclaves or be it on the Zangezur corridor, he will face immediate sanctions, freezing his assets in London and Cyprus and Geneva wherever his family would not have access to all his real estate he had stolen over the years. I think this would make a difference, but since nothing is on the table, as you said, there's no deterrence. In fact, has the EU formulated anything else? I don't know. I mean, for me, on one hand i's a rich country. They live from the revenues of gas and oil export. But on the other hand, he also wants to be a legitimate leader, being accepted by the West. And we could hopefully behind closed doors make crystal clear: if you dare to think about attacking Armenia on their genuine territory, this must mean no more gas delivering to Europe. This would mean no more official contact. This would mean this and that. I do hope that this has taken place. But I'm not sure.

During his visit to Armenia, the chairman of the Bundestag's foreign relations committee said that if the aggression of Azerbaijan continues and there are attacks on the sovereign territory of Armenia, sanctions will be implemented, which are in the process of being developed. Are you aware of what kind of sanctions we are talking about and how realistic they are?

I was also surprised, positively surprised by that. And I know that my German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock was also in favour. She was trying to build an alliance on the European level. She has actually called for sanctions. But I've heard that there was no unity in the German government. So yes, I could imagine there are a couple of colleagues in the Bundestag who would be in favour and also in the cabinet. But so far, not everyone. And that is a problem, and that's why it is difficult if you raise expectations and Aliyev knows that some people will never follow, so he is safe and we have to play it very smartly to make sure that we have a safe bid on Armenia, that there will be no further attack, that there will be any kind of a sanctioned package which would be in place immediately. And that we stay credible, but I don't know what the chair of the Committee for Foreign Affairs actually meant, whether he meant European? German? intergovernmental? So I don't know, but it's good that he was speaking about this.

A few days ago, Armenia and France signed a military cooperation agreement, according to which France will provide Armenia with defensive ammunition. What can Germany do in case of aggression and attacks of Azerbaijan on the sovereign territory of Armenia?

Germany is normally very good when it comes to humanitarian support. For example, after the 2008 aggression of Russia against Georgia, it was Germany's GIZ which built settlements for the new refugees. So, I see Germany more in this role than supporting militarily. But I don't think that Germany would be against including Armenia into the European peace facilities, which means we could also deliver weapons to Armenia directly. Well, so far, I see that Germany does a lot and I came across with many projects. But financially, for the wintertime, for the time being, I mean we have met with many refugees and it needs quite a lot of effort before the winter kicks in and I mean we speak about this 2000 meters high places. The snow will be there soon and there are some people in need of accommodation. There are holes in the walls, so we have to find something else and make this winterproof.

For Aliyev, the Nagorno Karabakh conflict is over and there is nothing to discuss. For you, is this issue completely resolved or not?

Well, not, I mean what he has done is the most humiliating way of showing that he has military might. To make sure that people, not ethnic Armenians, did not trust him at all, not a single millimeter. That they had all left or had to leave. But some of them have left everything behind and maybe they want to come back. Maybe they want to look after [their belongings]. Maybe they want to just get some stuff out of their apartments or their houses and so on. And so, for them there needs to be a very unbureaucratic way of returning. Finally, also this should be possible without becoming an Azerbaijani citizen, and these things need to be ruled out. They need to be a regulation as soon as possible. I mean, I was standing at this highest peak where you could see over the situation, you could see how the Azerbaijani troops are, not only troops, but also the construction companies building up fences, roads, pipelines, crossing points. It was like ants, like so obviously they invaded and at the same moment they started falsifying, fortifying the borders in a speed which is unimaginable. And here I think the international community should make sure, that people, first people, who lived in Artsakh they need to have a chance to return at any time.

The tripartite meeting scheduled for the end of October in Brussels will not take place, Armenia has already announced that the postponement of the meeting was initiated by Azerbaijan. How would you interpret this behavior of Azerbaijan, taking into account the fact that Aliyev at the last moment refused to participate in the five-party meeting in Granada, which was also attended by Chancellor Olaf Scholz?

I don't know. It's for the third time. I guess it's postponed and they're playing on that and they will see whether they can get more out, as I said before, on a different format. They dream about the 3 + 3.

Do you think that this format matches better with Aliyevs ambitions?

Absolutely, I think for Aliyev it's better. I think for him it would be better and he personally counts that he can get more out of this than of the EU brokered peace deal. So that is a little bit the dilemma we are in. On one hand, we have to have a stick for deterring him not to go a step further, on the other hand, we need a carrot that he can agree on this EU brokered deal. How would this look like? We need to see!

The EUs agenda is much more focused on the possible Peace Treaty. How do you see this peace? How realistic is it for you? Can we really have the peace treaty with Azerbaijan?

No, no, no. I think it was always being pushed by Pashinyan. I understand this government is different to all the other governments, and for the first time, is really speaking about that, it's not our agenda, it's the agenda of the Armenian Government. They see they are a landlocked country. They finally want to have a new set of buttons reset. They really would like to have open borders with Turkey. They really would like to have access to all the countries around. They really would like to trade on the same level and now they need a peace treaty which would be accepted by Azerbaijan, so that Azerbaijan can signal to its partner Turkey: Please open the borders and let Armenia have free passage and free access. But for me this is the salami tactics. So now since the Karabakh issue has settled, they find something else. They find the enclave, they find the "Zangezur Corridor", they find something just to keep Armenia in this economically very vulnerable situation. And that is for me, really, absolutely unacceptable and this needs to be also raised in the public sphere, but it's not my agenda to have a peace treaty. I think it's for the Armenian people and the Armenian people deserve finally peace and they want to develop their country, but with Iran on one side, and Georgia is also a bit unsecure, I think it is actually very strategically smart of the government to say we are ready for a peace deal.

And last but not least, you were in Armenia recently with what kind of feelings are you back?

I am full in admiration and I have a huge respect of everyone in Armenia who managed to integrate 100,000 people within four days through one entry point. I mean, nobody could ever imagine having this in Germany. And in Germany we speak about 84,000,000 and here we speak about, I don't know 3 million maximum. So people managed without foreign help only by themselves, by volunteers, by very, very engaged people. To get these people who are, I mean, they were traumatized, they were exhausted, they didn't have enough food for the last eight months, nine months, they had no medical treatment and these people came and they were welcomed and they found the housing. So, the overall atmosphere was we are proud, we can be proud of what we have achieved, it's good that you come and watch this, but we managed by our own and I think this is really incredible. This is really something which the world should know and now the next steps will be, as I said, I mean giving them a winter proof accommodation. Make sure that people have a second chance, if they want to stay, they get a second career life or education. They can integrate into the labour market and so on. And make sure the European Union is there to support, to help. Some people would need psychological treatment and all this needs to be organized for the next months to come, and there I hope to see bilateral help from the US, from Germany, from other countries, but also the EU should be the first partner so that the Armenian people see there's somebody from the West. Second thing is that Armenia has done a lot of reforms. Armenia has moved a lot into democracy, of course, not fully functional, but much more advanced than some of the other countries. Especially of course much more than Azerbaijan, but I would say even compared to Georgia, they have done a lot and this should be awarded by the EU. I think we should do much more to show the people that we have seen the improvements and be it on visa liberalization, I think we should talk about this association agreement, which was declined in 2013, maybe to have a resumption on this, be it on deepening the trade relations. And many more things. So, I think it is up to the EU now to come up with offers to show the people of Armenia: We want you, we see that you would be our next welcomed partner, something like this. I had so many interesting talks and nobody there was not a single complaint and a situation where, at least in Germany, I saw last winter everyone was complaining about higher energy prices, this and that and too many refugees on them and Armenia where it is definitely difficult, much more difficult than in this rich Germany. Nobody had ever mentioned one complaint. So, I mean, this is a role model for resiliency. Moldova is similar, but Armenia in this neighborhood, it's very difficult to sustain and to be so brave. And so, I am proud and inspired at the same moment.

Lilit Gasparyan
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 27, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian Apostolic Church had a very important role in the restoration of relations between Armenia and Hungary, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in Yerevan on October 27.

He said his visit puts an end to the decade when Armenia and Hungary didnt have any diplomatic ties and contacts.

Diplomatic relations between Armenia and Hungary were severed in 2012 by then-President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan after Hungary extradited Ramil Safarov, the convicted murderer of an Armenian officer, to Azerbaijan. Armenian military officer Lt. Gurgen Margaryan was murdered by Azerbaijani military officer Ramil Safarov during a February 2004 training course organized by NATO in Hungary.

Gurgen Margaryan was asleep in his room when Safarov attacked him with an axe.

During the trial in Hungary, Safarov admitted in court to having killed Margaryan because of his hatred towards Armenia and Armenians. He was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Hungarian court. However, in 2012 Hungary extradited him to Azerbaijan upon Bakus request. He was released upon arrival, glorified on the state-level and pardoned by President Aliyev. On the same day, then-President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan severed diplomatic relations with Hungary.

10 years later, in 2022, Armenia and Hungary agreed to restore diplomatic relations.

We made a decision with the Armenian Foreign Minister to restore diplomatic relations and build the kind of cooperation that would serve the interests of the two nations and countries. This restoration will help us, because there is common basis, Christianity, both countries are Christian countries for many centuries. We, Hungarians, are proudly saying that we enjoy a Christian statehood for over 1000 years, and then we come to Armenia, we see the dates and immediately become humbler. Certainly, Christianity, the Armenian Christian Church played a very important role in the restoration of our relations, Peter Szijjarto said on October 27.

Before the decision on restoring the relations, Hungary expressed its good intentions by mediating the release of 5 Armenian POWs from Azerbaijan, he said.
Raytheon, an RTX business, in partnership with Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, will build a manufacturing facility in East Camden, Arkansas to produce the Tamir missile for the Iron Dome Weapon System and its U.S. variant, SkyHunter.

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The U.S. version of the Iron Dome Weapon System's Tamir, SkyHunter, is a medium-range air defense weapon designed to counter a range of threats, including cruise missiles, manned and unmanned aircraft, rockets, artillery and mortar (Picture source: Raytheon)

Through the established Raytheon-Rafael Area Protection Systems joint venture, the companies have committed to a $33 million capital investment to establish the new facility. Once operational, the facility will produce missiles for the U.S. Marine Corps and other allied partners. "This new Camden site will be the first all-up-round production facility in the U.S. to help support the Armed Forces and allies across the globe with this highly capable air-defense missile," said Raytheon's Tom Laliberty, president of Land & Air Defense Systems and Raytheon-Rafael Area Protection Systems chairman of the board. "This new facility will allow us to expand our presence in Camden and further benefit from the resident talent and expertise of this aerospace and defense epicenter."

Raytheon and Rafael have teamed for over a decade on Iron Dome, which has more than 5,000 operational intercepts and a success rate exceeding 90%. The U.S. version of the Iron Dome Weapon System's Tamir, SkyHunter, is a medium-range air defense weapon designed to counter a range of threats, including cruise missiles, manned and unmanned aircraft, rockets, artillery and mortars. SkyHunter missiles will be produced for the U.S. Marine Corps Medium Range Intercept Capability, or MRIC, program.

"Arkansas is proud to be a leader in aerospace and defense, helping to safeguard the freedom and security of the United States and its allies around the world," said Clint O'Neal, executive director of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission. "East Camden offers an experienced workforce for Raytheon and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems' new venture, and we look forward to the community's and the companies' success."

The joint venture plans to break ground on the new facility before the end of the year with the intent to begin missile production in 2025.

Defense News October 2023
The writer is based in South India for the past 40 years. He writes on India, China, Tibet and Indo-French relations.

All factors, including military, need to be taken into consideration to arrive at a holistic philosophy.

French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau had once said: Nothing is so gentle as man in his primitive state, when placed by nature at an equal distance from the stupidity of brutes and the fatal enlightenment of civil man.

Jawaharlal Nehru too was a romantic; he wrote thus about the inhabitants of the North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA): I am not at all sure which is the better way of living, the tribal or our own. In some respects, I am quite certain theirs is better There is no point in trying to make of them a second-rate copy of ourselves.

Though constitutionally a part of Assam, in the 1950s the NEFA was administered by the ministry of external affairs, with the governor of Assam, seconded by a senior officer (often from the ICS), designated as an adviser to the governor.

In 1955, Dr Verrier Elwin, the famous British anthropologist who had just taken Indian citizenship, joined as adviser for tribal affairs. Verriers concept of the development of these areas was expounded in his celebrated book, The Philosophy of NEFA, which became a sort of bible for all the officers serving in the NEFA.

Near 70 years later, one realises that this romantic view of the border areas amounted to the segregation of a large chunk of the Indian population. Verrier Elwin and Nehru only looked at the anthropological side of the problem, forgetting the strategic as well the economic aspects of border development; it resulted in a huge development gap between the frontier areas and the rest of India.

All factors, including military, need to be taken into consideration to arrive at a holistic philosophy.

However, the first Prime Minister took an excellent initiative: he created a separate cadre for Indias frontier areas, namely NEFA, Tibet, Sikkim and Bhutan: These primitive people especially have to be dealt with care and friendliness and require expert knowledge which our average administrator does not possess. Hence the necessity for a specially trained cadre.

It was the Indian Frontier Administrative Service (IFAS). This was shut down in the 1960s.

Today India is changing fast, particularly the border areas. One could say that the New Philosophy of the Northeast (this is also valid for Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh or Ladakh) is at present being rewritten and this time it should not to segregate the border populations but to integrate them into India.

Take the example of the Chumig Gyatse Holy Waterfalls in the Yangtse sub-sector of Tawang. This is one the most sacred places in Arunachal Pradesh, blessed by Guru Padmasambhava, the great yogi and tantric master who lived in the 8th century AD; it has now been opened to visitors.

The Great Guru extensively visited the border areas and his legacy can still be found in many places (for example, the Taktsang monastery near Tawang, Rewalsar in Himachal Pradesh or Gurudongmar in Sikkim).

On the exact spot where the Guru is said to have created 108 waterfalls, the Yangtse clash took place between the Indian Army and the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) on the night of December 9, 2022.

Several other border areas are now being opened to visitors.

An article in a national newspaper mentions: The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) has decided that tourists, mountaineers, and trekkers will no longer need an Inner Line Permit to visit Milam Glacier [located at 18,000 feet]. The Inner Line Permit has been one of the most mandatory requirements for decades now. It is one of the most famous places for adventure enthusiasts in the Kumaon Himalayas [of Uttarakhand].

The article explains: The Inner Line Permit requirement had many adverse effects on the tourism sector. But it goes beyond that: these areas are within Indian territory and there is no reason why permission should not be required to visit them. The susceptibility of the northern neighbour should not be New Delhis concern.

Interestingly, one newspaper had reported in 2015: As villages along the international border in Uttarakhand face out-migration on an unprecedented scale, uninhabited areas lie open to territorial claims by the Chinese.

The reporter had studied the case of Niti, the last Indian village, located 26 km south from the Niti Pass which demarcates the border between Tibet and India, 88 km from Joshimath. For centuries, the village saw traders, pilgrims and officials freely moving between the two countries and the area flourished. Unfortunately, all this stopped in 1962.

In 2015, only 35 families remained in the village, while a few decades ago there were 250. After the trade with Tibet (today China) stopped, the area is virtually closed to outsiders and slowly it became a ghost region, with most young people moving to the plains in search of education or a better life.

Hopefully, the philosophy is changing fast and the village can now develop with eco-tourism.

In Ladakh too, the UT administration along with the Indian Army and the ITBP are making all-out efforts to change the trend to stop the out-migration. For example, on July 15 and 16, a Nomadic Festival 2023 took place not far from the Line of Actual Control in Hanle, famous for its observatory and white cranes. It was open to any visitor who could witness cultural troupes from different villages in Changthang presenting dance, songs and traditional sports: The main focus of the festival was to present a kaleidoscopic view of the nomadic lifestyle and traditions of the people of the region Nomadic communities in Ladakh lead a challenging but self-sufficient lifestyle, adapting to the harsh climatic conditions and high altitudes. They have a deep connection with nature and maintain a strong sense of community and cultural identity, said a release.

A couple of months later, Umling-la, the worlds highest motorable road at 19,024 feet, entered a Guinness World Record by hosting the Worlds Highest International Fashion Runway, under the Vibrant Ladakh Festival.

All this is good for the local population as well as the defence forces: a populated border is a stronger border.

But the real factor that the Government of India, the UT administration and other stakeholders should not forget to keep in prime focus is the environment. Nobody wants to see another Joshimath or Chunthang (Sikkim), where a number of people lost their lives due to man-made disasters.

And perhaps the government should also think of re-creating an IFAS cadre, with motivated and dedicated officers ready to serve at the remote borders of India.
By Yi Whan-woo

The government cited a need for a gradual hike in the premium rate for the state-run pension as it outlined a proposal for pension reform, Friday.

Announced by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the proposal, however, is anticipated to prompt protest from older subscribers, because it focuses on implementing higher amount for those in the middle- and upper-age groups than the younger ones.

For instance, while the pace of hike in the premium rate will remain consistent for all age groups, such a hike may occur in five years to come from today for those their 40s to 50s, and in 10 years for those in their 20s and 30s.

The ministrys reform proposal came as the government is responsible for outlining a plan every five years since 2003 for future operation of the fund managed by the National Pension Service (NPS).

The NPS runs under the wing of the ministry. This year marks the fifth revision of the NPS fund.

In a press briefing, Health and Welfare Minister Cho Kyoo-hong said the ministrys proposal will serve as a starting point for relevant parties to buckle down in discussing the pension reform.

He was referring to a set of next procedures  a review of each NPS fund operation committee and the Cabinet, plus approval of President Yoon Suk Yeol  before the proposal can be submitted to the National Assembly by the end of October.

Well work with the National Assembly to bring public attention concerning pension reform and craft the proposal in a detailed manner, the minister said.

Experts, however, remained skeptical about the proposal, arguing that the conservative Yoon government rather intends to woo young, liberal voters ahead of the general elections in April 2024.

They also criticized the government for remaining undecided over its policy direction on pension reform.

They especially noted the proposal lacks specific details that the government finds ideal concerning pension premium rates, the starting age of the pension and amount of pension receivable after retirement.

A balanced, carefully crafted overhaul of those three factors is essential to sustain the state-run pension fund, in the face of a looming demographic crisis and heightening fears over depletion of the fund.

The fund is expected to be fully drained by 2055 if corresponding countermeasures are not taken.

Under the circumstances, the ministry said raising the premium rate is inevitable for sustainability of the fund while it is still under review concerning the amount of pension receivable.

Regarding a possible delay of the starting age for the pension from the current 63, it said relevant discussions will start if conditions are met for stable employment of senior citizens.

The ministry said it took into account recommendations from a national pension advisory committee made earlier this year.

It proposed the pension premium rate to be hiked to at least 15 percent, up from the current 9 percent, while recommending the starting age of pension payout to be raised to 68.

Concerning the rate for the amount of receivable pension after retirement, the committee suggested keeping it at the current 40 percent.
In his words: "I am just a professional writer, which means I don't do blogs and try and get money for whatever I write."

The conflict in Israel-Palestine has divided the world, not only through political allegiances and points of view, but morally, religiously.

The Israeli army on the evening of October 27 carried out bombings of "unprecedented" intensity since the start of the war in the north of the Gaza Strip, particularly in Gaza City, according to images from AFP and the Hamas movement. (Photo by AFP)

O Bachchoo are we mere machines

That think and feel and multiply --

Or are we Gods people whose souls

Are accountable when we die?

But since we invented machines

The metaphor is bound to fail

Comparing these to human beings

Is a snake swallowing its tail.

From Kadak Histhry, by Bachchoo

Yes, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the bombings of civilians and the war crimes of Vladimir Putin and gang -- not to mention the cannon fodder they have made of their own young and old men -- compelled the world to take political sides. Yes, the sides were sometimes not very clear. Some of those who supported Russias attempt to annex Ukrainian territory insisted that it was preventing Nato from attacking Russia. Others, though sympathetic to the Ukrainian civilians criminally bombed by Russian missiles, still maintained that America was responsible for Russias actions und so weiter!

The conflict in Israel-Palestine has divided the world, not only through political allegiances and points of view, but morally, religiously and with interpretations of history and even pre-history as considerations.

The stances of Joe Biden and the United States were predictable. They voiced absolute support for Israel after Hamas launched its murderous attack across the Gaza borders, killed a few hundred people and took perhaps 140 hostages. The high command of Hamas undoubtedly knew that the Israeli government of Behnchomin (sic) Netanyahu would respond with a slaughter of Palestinian civilians, the blockade of food, water, medicines, power, etc, and even an invasion of Gaza. Hamas seemed to want to provoke such retaliation, calculating that it would divide the world into open pro and anti-Israeli factions and alter the balance of world politics.

Would that inevitable change or factionalisation benefit the Palestinians in the end?

I have heard idiot British conservatives, some of whom I have counted as friends, despite our diametrically opposed political stances, saying that the Israelis should purge the Gaza Strip of all Palestinians and even that Iran should be obliterated by nuclear bombs. Yes, gentle reader, mad! -- but not untypical of the less cautious members of the party of Hedgie Sunoch and Cruella Cowardperson.

Hedgie pledged his unwavering support to Israel, taking a moral stand against Hamas terrorism. His stance has nothing to do with the fact that Britain sells heaps of armaments to Israel and certainly nothing to do with the fact that Mrs Hedgie gets millions of pounds in unearned dividends from her shares in Infosys which has deep and remunerative contracts in Israel. Anyone who suggests that Hedgies morality is influenced by these two capitalistic or personal concerns should be immediately deported to Rwanda.

Cruella, the home secretary, has repeatedly announced that Hamas is a terrorist organisation and that anyone supporting it will be dealt with. She hasnt in this instance mentioned Rwanda, but we know that she dreams of sending people she doesnt like to that country, we can assume that she dreams about doing just that. Her dreams are of curse (sic) a personal matter, but she has instructed the police, who must obey her, to arrest and charge anyone who utters a word in support of Hamas.

Now, gentle reader, there have been mass demonstrations in all British cities in support of Palestine and against the Holocaust-ish bombing of Palestinians in Gaza and now in the West Bank. The majority of these demonstrations vociferously demand the ceasing of the bombing and the end of the blockade which has starved Palestinians of the necessities of life. Of course, a few chanted pro-Hamas slogans.

Cruella was incensed that the police hadnt arrested those of the 120,000 people who demonstrated in London, who had chanted these slogans. She called the London Metropolitan Police chief to remonstrate. He is supposed to have explained to her that the law didnt proscribe having opinions. Nevertheless, a dozen or so foreign nationals have now been earmarked for deportation to their native countries for shouting thing things like Viva Hamas. I sincerely doubt if these shouts would have brought the walls of Jericho, or the Houses of Parliament tumbling down, but there we are -- dreams must come somewhat true.

The leadership of the Opposition Labour Party, virtually a government in waiting, hasnt had an easy ride over the issue. Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, went on the radio when the dispute began to say that Israel was quite justified to starve Gaza of water, food and medicines. Whoops! Scores of Labour councillors resigned from the party. It was clear that very many of Starmers Labour MPs disagreed with his anti-humanitarian stance.

What impelled this worthy to put his foot embarrassingly in his mouth?

Sir Keir has in the years since the disastrous humiliation of Labour at the polls in 2019, been an anti-anti-Semitism crusader. He went as far as to expel Jeremy Corbyn from the party alleging that he was unrepentant about alleged anti-Semitism during his former leadership of the party. The purge of supposed anti-Semites continued. But this statement was a step too far. Muslim Labour MPs objected to Sir Keirs statement and he immediately backtracked, clarifying his stance by insisting he had been misunderstood and of course humanitarian aid should reach the beleaguered Palestinians. He publicly called for restraint in the Israeli reaction.

Anyone who suggests that his original instinctive stance was influenced by the fact that his wife is Jewish should be sent -- you got it! -- to Rwanda.
by Nirmala Carvalho

Superior General of the Apostolic Carmelite Congregation participates in the Synod, bringing the voice of India's 130,000 women religious. "We are seeking leadership that goes beyond the emphasis on the question of roles, to rediscover that these are services to be performed with humility". "In the face of harassment, silent suffering no longer makes sense".

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - "We must reduce the emphasis on the idea of authority. It is fundamentally a service to be carried out with humility."

As the first session of the Synodal Assembly in Rome draws to a close on Sunday, Sr Maria Nirmalini, Indian religious, superior general of the Congregation of the Apostolic Carmel, expresses her opinion on one of its most debated topics - the role of women in the Church.

Nirmalini is also president of the Conference of the Religious of India and participates in the Synod among the members designated by the Union of Superiors General.

It is not a journey that will end here, the Synod is a process that will continue," - adds Sr. Nirmalini. "We are looking for leadership that is inclusive of all women, young lay people as well as consecrated women: this is the leadership we are looking at."

In India the superior of the apostolic Carmel leads the over 130 thousand local religious women, in a context in which the reflection on the role of women and the recognition of their equal dignity has to deal with a patriarchal system still deeply rooted in society and also in Church itself.

I took on this role, she said, when the Indian Church was experiencing various challenges from within and without, such as sexual exploitation, gender inequality, an unjust wage system, clericalism. I don't pretend that the situation has changed now. But we have put in place clear plans and systems to address these challenges appropriately.

On the issue of harassment, she states without hesitation that silent suffering no longer makes sense. We need to develop platforms for mutual sharing and psychological well-being."

On the phase that will open at the end of this first session of the Synod, you said that by returning to India you will continue to work so that the synod process involves "all members of the communities".

She also underlines the importance of every moment of sharing and prayer for peace, migrants and refugees, experienced in these days in Rome. Regardless of our origins  Nirmalini concludes  we are all members of the family of God.
Today's news: among the struggling hospitals in Gaza is one funded by Indonesia; From 31 January Malaysia will have a new king; Flower rentals for 'Instagrammable' photos are increasingly popular in Vietnam; India will probably not sign a pact to reduce emissions from cooling systems; In Japan two Tepco employees hospitalised after coming into contact with radioactive water from Fukushima.

CHINA

Former Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang has died at the age of 68 from a heart attack. An economist, many thought that he would become president in place of Xi Jinping, but he instead held the second highest office in the country. In recent years, however, he had been isolated by Chinese officials loyal to Xi: "Li's death means the loss of a prominent moderating voice at the highest levels of the Chinese Communist Party, with no one able to take his place." , said Ian Chong of the Carnegie China think tank.

MALAYSIA

The Sultan of Johor, Ibrahim Ismail, will be the new king of Malaysia starting from 31 January 2024. The announcement was made this morning in a statement released by the Keeper of the Royal Seal, Syed Danial Syed Ahmad, after the nine rulers of country met at the Conference of Rulers to vote on who among them will be the next head of state for the next five years.

GAZA  SOUTH EAST ASIA

An Indonesian-built hospital in the Gaza Strip has become one of the last without electricity. Humanitarian workers have been forced in recent days to operate in the dark and suspend some services. The Indonesian hospital had been financed among others by the Islamic group Muhammadiyah. Meanwhile, the Israeli government has confirmed that among the 220 Hamas hostages there are 54 Thai citizens, mostly migrant workers in the agricultural sector of the kibbutzim.

VIETNAM

The sellers who have been working on bicycles loaded with colorful flowers for many years in the capital of Vietnam are expanding their business thanks to the presence of tourists who use their bouquets of flowers for "instagrammable" photographic shots. Originally women, recognizable by their traditional hats, transported flowers grown in rural areas to Hanoi. Today, thanks to the popularity of social media, many people are owning their own photographers and renting bouquets.

INDIA

India is unlikely to sign up to a global commitment to reduce emissions related to cooling systems backed by COP28 hosted by the United Arab Emirates next month, sources said. The commitment would be to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by at least 68% compared to 2022 levels by 2050. Indian officials have said that Delhi is not willing to adopt targets higher than those set in 1992 under the Multilateral Protocol of Montreal.

JAPAN

Two men have been hospitalized after being exposed to radioactive liquid from the Fukushima nuclear power plant while cleaning a filter plant. The two workers, one in his 20s and the other in his 40s, are employees of a partner company of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. and were admitted to Fukushima Medical University Hospital to be decontaminated and placed under observation, although they have no visible injuries or complaints of health problems.

RUSSIA - UKRAINE

The Russian administrations of the occupied territories of Ukraine insist on the forced militarization of local children and young people, as the American Institute for War Research (ISW) writes. On October 25, 12 primary school pupils in Skadovka took an oath of allegiance to strengthening the greatness of the Russian state, becoming cadets.

GEORGIA - ARMENIA

Prime Minister Nikol Pasinyan went on a working visit to Georgia, where he presented the charter of Armenia's "territorial integrity" with the indication of all the new road and railway communication routes, the so-called "Crossroad of Peace" , to help open all the "peace corridors" in the Caucasus region, including that of Lacin.
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The base Firebird was the big star of the show in 1971 when the production included a little over 53,000 units.

The Trans Am was still in its early days and couldn't make an impact on the Firebird production, so the base model and the Esprit continued to spearhead sales.Over 23,000 Firebirds rolled off the assembly lines in the base configuration, with Pontiac building approximately 20,000 Esprits. The Formula accounted for just 7,800 units, while the Trans Am output included only about 2,100 units.Most Esprits left the factory with an automatic transmission, as just 947 units were fitted with a manual gearbox.A 1971 Firebird Esprit made its way to eBay earlier this week, trying to convince someone to take it home and refresh it for a return to tip-top shape.A US Navy Captain originally purchased the car. His family owned it until September 2009, when his daughter sold it to a couple in Arlington. The Esprit made its way to several car meetings, where it became quite a star thanks to its impressive shape. The family that bought it from the dealership properly cared for everything, so the Firebird spent its entire life in a garage.eBay seller cfisherjr3lp7 says they purchased the Firebird to build a Formula clone, but they eventually gave up when they discovered how original it continues to be even after all these years. The only modification is the dual-exhaust system and the radio, but bringing it to a 100 percent original setup shouldn't be too hard.Unsurprisingly, this Firebird isn't a perfect 10, so it still needs several repairs, including in terms of metal. The vehicle exhibits minimal rust problems, including on the passenger's rear quarter panel, and the paint shows its age, with occasional bubbles on the body. It also needs air conditioning repairs, as the interior fan doesn't work, so your best option is to see it in person and get a more accurate picture of everything.The owner says the 350 two-barrel under the hood starts, runs, and drives, with the odometer indicating a little over 93,000 miles. The reading is correct, as the car has never been restored or molested.The Firebird is a solid candidate for a collectible, especially because it's 99 percent original, and all parts are in place. However, the selling price could make many people walk away, not only because the bidding starts at $20,000 but the owner also enabled a reserve. It's unclear how high the bidding must go to unlock the reserve, but it's very clear this Esprit won't sell cheaply.The vehicle is parked in Aldie, Virginia, where anyone can inspect it in person and take it home should they reach a deal with the owner.
The brand-new Chevrolet Blazer EV is an eye-catching zero-emission machine. It also helps that it's a crossover because most people nowadays look for such a vehicle instead of considering wagons or sedans. So, it should be a winner for GM. But let's see just how powerful it can be.

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Photo: TFLEV on YouTube

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Earlier this year, GM CEO Mary Barra said the company she leads would surpass Tesla and sell more all-electric vehicles than the Texas-based brand by the end of 2025.More recently, the executive announced that GM would hit the brakes on itsgoals. It won't manufacture the promised 400,000 units by mid-2024. Still, the Detroit Three group member said it would reach the target set for 2025: making one million EVs in North America.Those numbers are important because Hertz announced last month that it would buy 175,000 EVs from General Motors. Unless the automaker decides to extend deliveries to the rental company through 2025, that deal should keep its factories busy for at least one quarter of next year.Sadly, things don't look good for General Motors. Its robotaxi division, Cruise, was forced to halt operations in the US, Honda gave up on making new EVs with it in Mexico (apart from the Prologue and Acura's ZDX), and there's an ongoing UAW strike that's affecting its business. When writing, there's no tentative agreement between the company and its employees.All those developments might have affected GM's capacity to properly measure the output of its dapper-looking dual-motor Blazer EV RS with a CCS Combo 1 charging port. In a response to Car and Driver, the auto behemoth said the crossoverwould pump out 288 hp and 333 lb-ft of torque.The crew behind the TFLEV YouTube channel took that to heart, got their hands on an all-wheel-drive Blazer RS, and verified those numbers. It seems like GM is pulling a page out of BMW's playbook. It underestimated its own EV!The driver used the vehicle's own measurement system when doing a pull from zero to 60 mph and saw that the maximum output was 225. That amounts to 302 hp  14 more than GM said.Weighing over 5,600 lb (estimated, official data not yet available), the all-wheel-drive Blazer RS went from zero to 60 mph in 6.8 seconds with acceleration set to Sport Mode.As some EV owners might know, horsepower figures aren't that important for an EV. They fluctuate depending on the state of charge and the battery's condition. For example, the vehicle won't allow the motors to work at full capacity if the battery is too cold. Still, knowing the kW or the hp figure matters because it gives prospective buyers an idea about the vehicle's capabilities.The frunkless unit you're about to see in the video below has an MSRP of $60,700 with the destination charge included.Considering that the current MSRP is $60,215 sans freight, $60,700 is a good pre-tax price! It has a range of 279 miles, according to GM. If you can find one for sale, keep in mind that it qualifies for the full $7,500 EV tax credit.Finally, don't forget that a Tesla Model Y Long Range costs less ($48,990), goes farther (330 mi of EPA-rated range), and is faster (zero to 60 mph in 4.8 seconds). It's also eligible for the federal EV tax credit. But Chevy is planning on releasing the Blazer SS into the wild. When it finally happens, Tesla might have something to think about. Until then, it might very well continue its reign.
SUV

Built on the body-on-frame TNGA-F platform, just like the J300 Land Cruiser, the all-new Tundra showed the way forward in the downsized, V6-only era, with the 3.4-liter V35A-FTS twin-turbocharged V6 mill and the hybrid i-Force Max version rocking 437 horsepower. It was soon followed by the fourth generation J310 Lexus LX 600 in late 2021 and the third generation XK80 Sequoia full-sizein early 2022 as the SUV alternatives.Interestingly, the latter might be up first for a quick revamp during the 2025 model year after the 2024 Sequoia was mostly a carry-over featuring a higher base price - $60,875, up from $59,865 for the 2023MY. Well, that's according to the rumor mill and their imaginative realm of digital car content creators, so remember to take this with a grain of salt, as nothing is official from Toyota just yet. Anyway, if you are interested in what the parallel universes of vehicular CGI have to offer, the good folks over at the Q Cars channel on YouTube aim to daze and amaze the audience with a potential styling of their vision for the refreshed 2025 Sequoia.The current model, produced by Toyota at TMMTX - Toyota Motor Manufacturing Texas  in San Antonio, TX, returned to a solid rear axle setup like with the original, eschewing the independent suspension from its direct predecessor. It also gave up the V8s and only uses the hybridized 3.4-liter V35A-FTS twin-turbo V6 i-Force Max engine as the standard powertrain across the trim line, complete with 437 hp and 583 lb-ft (790 Nm) of torque. This is not expected to change  unlike the looks of the ruggedly handsome full-size SUV.In a few words, if the unofficial AI-assisted vision by the channel's resident pixel master comes to fruition, the 2025 Toyota Sequoia should become a bit sleeker at the front, equally rugged and 'manly' in profile, and also a lot more stylish at the rear where the redesigned front LED lights would be joined by sleeker taillights mixed with the fashionable full-width LED strip. All in all, this is a subtle revamp as far as the world of CGI experts is concerned, for sure.However, if you want something more extreme, you can also check out the second video embedded below  the peeps over at FutureAutoVisions didn't hold back with their dream of one day seeing a Toyota Grand Sequoia travel the digital trails. For now, though, all we have is their concept vision. Cool or not?
By Ko Dong-hwan

The Carbon Free Alliance has taken off with a mission to collect all available help from countries and companies worldwide to neutralize carbon emissions, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Friday.

President Yoon Suk Yeol stressed its significance at the 78th U.N. General Assembly in New York last month. The alliance is key to achieving the country's carbon-free energy initiative. The alliance, already joined by Korea's major firms, state-run companies and research agencies, seeks to expand its member pool worldwide.

The alliance was launched at an event held at the headquarters of Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) in central Seoul, Friday. Its inaugural president is Lee Hoe-sung who chaired the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change from 2015 until last July. Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, Trade Minister Bang Moon-kyu and KCCI Executive Vice Chairman Woo Tae-hee joined the event.

Twenty heads of the alliance's member companies, researchers and business groups also joined the event. Private firms included GS Energy, POSCO, Doosan Enerbility, LS Electric, Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, Hyundai Motor Company and LG Chem; while Korea Electric Power Corp., Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power and Korea Energy Agency were among the state-run firms that are now part of the alliance.

President of the Korea Energy Economics Institute and the head of the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade also attended the event.

The alliance's immediate agenda is to promote its presence internationally, with a delegation visiting APEC's general assembly next month in San Francisco and the U.N. Climate Change Conference's COP 28 meeting from November to December in Dubai, UAE. Other international seminars and business round tables taking place in the future will also see speakers from the alliance promoting its campaign.

Forming partnerships worldwide with influential business groups pushing the same environmental initiative is another goal for the alliance. Clean Energy Buyers Alliance in the U.S., a business alliance that encourages energy customers and providers to deploy market and policy solutions for a carbon-free energy system, is one of the alliance's targets for cooperation and partnership.

"Carbon neutralization is no longer a simple matter that can be achieved by just choosing a few certain clean energy sources," Lee said during the event. "We need to scramble all measures available from worldwide to push countries, companies and international organizations to contribute to the carbon-free initiative at multiple angles."

Han said the alliance symbolizes Korea's proposal to the world to solve imminent global problems relating to the climate, environment and energy.

"The alliance and the carbon-free energy initiative will also help the Yoon administration achieve one of its key goals  making Korea a global backbone country," Han said.
Say goodbye to Umiles Next and hello to Crisalion Mobility. The Spanish electric mobility company has changed its name and expanded its executive team, in addition to securing investments from two major groups in Spain. All of this will pave the way for its innovative approach based on fully integrated air and ground e-mobility.

Crisalion is not a random name, but the combination of two symbolic concepts, that of a chrysalis and a lion. It's supposed to reflect the innovative and courageous aspects of AAM (advanced air mobility).This is the new name of a Spanish electric mobility company that was previously known as Umiles Next. Unlike many eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) developers, Crisalion tackles both air and ground transportation, linking them within a unitary vision based on two main elements  electric propulsion and automation.For the ground-based aspect, Crisalion is developing fleet management solutions based on remote operation from a control center. The Intellydrive technology allows operators to control any type of vehicle and to manage vehicle convoys for coordinated travel.For the air mobility part, the Spanish company has developed an eVTOL based on the exclusive FlyFree technology created by the Tecnalia research hub. This advanced rotor control software promises better stability, maneuverability, and safety.Integrity is the company's five-seat (plus the pilot) eVTOL incorporating the FlyFree technology. It promises a 100 km (62 miles) range and a cruising speed of 180 kph (112 mph). The Integrity electric aircraft can handle short-to-medium distance travel, and its flexible configuration can be adapted for multiple domains, including cargo, tourism, and emergency medical transport.Last year, Crisalion conducted the first flight tests of its Integrity Concept prototype. They took place in Toulouse, France, as part of the European TindAIR project that focused on urban air traffic management solutions for unmanned aircraft. This is why, during the flight tests, the Integrity prototype was accompanied by other unmanned air taxis. Someday, we'll see different pilot-free air vehicles operating harmoniously within the same urban area.Last October, the Spanish company's prototype also nailed its first free flight in Spain. The tests took place at the ATLAS Test Flight Centre in Villacarrillo, Jaen. This center specializes in testing unmanned aviation technology and remotely piloted systems. Once again, the Concept aircraft was flanked by other unpiloted aircraft at different layers.Revamped and ready to conquer the world, Crisalion is set to bring its ground fleet management solution to the market as soon as next year. Its complex system for fully automated air mobility will have to wait a while longer to enter commercial service. The Spanish brand hopes to operate the Integrity eVTOL as part of a wider mobility system by the end of this decade.
SUV

Suppose you want to talk about automotive legends. In that case, off-road fans will surely think highly of Japanese legends like the Nissan Patrol and Toyota Land Cruiser  even when pitted against icons like the Jeep models, the Land Rover Defender, or the Mercedes-Benz G-Class. Even freshlings like the Ineos Grenadier might have a hard time finding trump cards against the likes, although they are brand-new vehicles.Regarding the Nissan Patrol, the feud with the Toyota Land Cruiser and the now-defunct Mitsubishi Pajero started long ago, in 1951. However, just six generations have passed across more than seven decades, and the latest iteration, born in 2010, has been around for almost 13 years already. In the meantime, it spawned a luxury version dubbed Infiniti QX56 (now Called QX80), the first time a Patrol-based model was offered in North America since 1969, and also became the second-generation Nissan Armada.The latter was 'born' in 2016 at the Chicago Auto Show and went on sale as a 2017MY with a 5.6-liter VK56VD V8 under the hood, 4x4, and a seven-speed automatic transmission. The upgraded version arrived in late 2020 for the 2021 model year with bolder looks and numerous technical upgrades. However, it can't hide the fact it's based on a platform from the 2000s much longer. As such, it is no wonder that the automotive industry's spy photographers are constantly uncovering new development prototypes 'around every corner.'After the latest batch of camouflaged Patrol and Armada prototypes, the peeps at Kolesa decided it was about CGI time that Chuicko imagined the potential looks of twin Nissan models. According to the virtual artist's vision, extrapolated from the camouflaged SUVs, the signature radiator grille will become even more imposing, the front lights will feature a two-tier separation with a full-width LED strip both at the front and rear, and the Armada will also feature luxury touches borrowed from the flagshipof the Infiniti brand. As a reminder, the QX80 is also ready for a new generation as Infiniti keeps teasing us with the QX Monograph concept.Back to the Patrol and Armada , the siblings might get a fashionable profile with hidden pillars dressed in black to blend in with the tinted windows. The rear lights are pretty minimalist, and the LED strip will connect them for a spectacular show at night. According to the rumor mill, the mighty Nissan full-size SUV series is about to fall victim to downsizing and will retire the big V8 in favor of a smaller V6 featuring dual turbocharging and rocking some 430 horsepower to marginally tower above the J300 Toyota Land Cruiser's 409-horsepower 3.4-liter twin-turbo V6.
Of course, no one really expected the highly lucrative and imaginative realm of digital car content creators to stand still and not take a jab at Honda's reinvented Prelude, right?

Everyone in the automotive industry who loves JDM vehicles currently has their eyes on the inaugural edition of the Japan Mobility Show  formerly known for almost seven decades as the Tokyo Motor Show.As far as we can tell, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association mobilized everyone to make the first JMS memorable. And literally, all Japanese carmakers answered the call, from tiny brands like Suzuki or Daihatsu to the global giants Toyota, Nissan, or Honda.Speaking of the latter automaker, unlike many of its peers, the company kept its trump card for the press days - October 25 and 26, followed by today's invitation-only event and the general public access from October 28 to November 5. While others tried to steal the show for days in advance (think about the staggered Nissan Hyper premieres), Honda knew it would capture the red carpet's spotlight the moment when they dropped the bomb: the revival of the Prelude nameplate The latter was a two-door sport compact coupe manufactured over five generations between 1978 and 2001  and some of them were pretty memorable thanks to their quirky design. Honda's all-new Prelude doesn't necessarily stand out in the crowd from that POV, and understandably, some fans might feel upset that they were looking at a run-of-the-mill hybrid-powered concept when they dreamed for years of the Prelude revival.Alas, that doesn't mean it's any less enticing to think that Honda is giving everyone the Integra they desired  with a coupe roofline. As such, it's also understandable that the CGI world's pixel masters quickly turned the OEM's near-production prototype into something you wouldn't mind buying and driving to the office and back during the weekdays and then hoon on a nice little track or in the mountains during the weekends.Naturally, to make the better of that, a little aftermarket intervention never hurt anyone, right? So, first meet Hugo Silva, the virtual artist better known as hugosilvadesigns on social media, who is ready to make Honda Prelude fans yellow with envy at the sight of his subtly widebody interpretation. It comes not just with traditional white aftermarket wheels but also some nice glossy black aero touches, plus a lowered stance. And voila, the Honda Prelude looks ready for some touge racing battles!Concurrently, if you want to make it a showstopper, maybe we should talk to Musa Rio Tjahjono, also known as musartwork on social media when he's not impersonating his daily job of head Designer at the outrageously cool West Coast Customs! In his vision, the production-ready Honda Prelude would also dream of JDM-style affairs, this time around with dark bronze wheels and a black roof in addition to subtle aero goodies. So, which is your favorite?
Seeing how there is a lack of purpose-built utility scooters on the market, Taiwanese e-mobility specialist Gogoro has unveiled a new work-oriented electric two-wheeler called the CrossOver SmartScooter. Touted as a "two-wheel SUV," the new e-scooter is a robust machine ready to support the lifestyle of a wide variety of riders, from urban commuters to small entrepreneurs.

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Photo: Gogoro

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Gogoro has been on the market since 2011 and is a pioneer in the industry thanks to a comprehensive approach to e-mobility. You may have heard about the Taipei-based company due to its Gogoro Network , an open battery-swapping platform with over 2,500 stations across the island that helps power its domestic urban electric vehicles, but the company also designs and manufactures its own line of electric scooters.The new Gogoro CrossOver Smartscooter is the first entirely new platform unveiled by the company this year, but it relies on the same network of swappable batteries. According to the company, the new electric scooter is all about customization and enhancing the ability to tackle all kinds of terrain. It has a rather rugged appearance with a robust frame and a ground clearance of 5.6 inches (14.2 cm).The manufacturer says its new scooter is anon two wheels, and that's mainly because the CrossOver is designed to provide a lot more utility than a standard electric scooter. The scooter is highly customizable and allows future customers to modify and adapt its configuration to better suit their needs and desires.To enable this high level of customization, the CrossOver comes with "a new mounting point expansion system that includes 26 locking points." This means owners can fit the two-wheeler with a wide range of accessories and set it up for urban commutes, hauling tasks , or adventures off the beaten path. On top of four built-in cargo compartments, riders can equip it with front and rear luggage racks, a side faceplate rack, and a lightweight aluminum front basket.Horace Luke, the CEO of Gogoro, explains that the new scooter takes the existing DNA of their products and improves it with an innovative new design . "Highlighted by new functional design features, improved performance, and the latest in innovation, the CrossOver is focused on being personally customizable by each rider. The CrossOver is based on a completely redesigned all-terrain frame that enables increased rigidity while offering a variety of storage and riding capabilities," he says.In terms of performance, the Gogoro CrossOver is engineered with a centrally mounted G2.2 aluminum alloy liquid-cooled permanent magnet synchronous motor delivering a peak power of 7.6(10 hp) and 196 Nm (145 lb-ft) of torque. The e-scooter also comes with Gogoro's proprietary Flo Drive belt drive system that provides a quieter, smoother ride experience.Just like previous models from the company, the two-wheeler relies on swappable batteries compatible with the brand's extensive network of stations and is said to offer up to 93 miles (150 km) of range at 19 mph (30 kph). It rolls on 12-inch wheels wrapped in Maxxis dual-purpose rubber, and bringing the machine to a halt is a Synchronized Braking System (SBS) with front/rear hydraulic disc brakes, which are said to stabilize and shorten the braking distance.The company also presents the CrossOver as a smart vehicle, so it comes with a range of smart features, too. These include Bluetooth controls, app connectivity, LTE remote networking, and more.Gogoro will launch the new e-scooter in its domestic market in Taiwan later this year, with two models offered - the CrossOver and Crossover S. The former will be available in Desert White or Night Storm Grey, while for the latter, customers will be able to choose between four color options: Myst Red, Summit Yellow, Desert White, and Night Storm Grey. There is no information regarding international availability for now.
A military trainer plane is the aeronautical equivalent of level one. A slow, stable platform where novice pilots work up their skills until, hopefully, they wind up in something far cooler and faster. When military aviation museums are full of Mustangs, Thunderbolts, and Spitfires, why give credence to anything else? The North American T-28 Trojan bucks this trend. Why? Because in the right configuration under the right conditions, it can outclimb a freakin P-51. No seriously, we're not pulling your leg.

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Photo: National Museum of the United States Air Force

Photo: USAF Archives

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Photo: Jim Bixby

The T-28's story is one rooted in traditional piston engine warbirds of World War II. But in the era of jet aircraft, just after the war, radial engines were about to prove they still had a place in military arsenals. During the Second World War, the U.S. Army Air Corps, Navy, and Marine Corps employed a number of different trainer aircraft. Perhaps none were more impactful or well remembered than the T-28's predecessor, the North American T-6 Texan.Over 15,000 T-6s were built, mainly at North American Aviation's state-of-the-art production facility in Inglewood, California. With a small but furious Pratt & Whitney R-1340 Wasp radial engine and provisions to mount up to three 7.62 mm machine guns, the Texan wasn't just a phenomenal trainer plane but a decently effective combat aircraft when called upon. In the Arab-Israeli of just after World War II, a handful of T-6s under their export designation of Harvard even engaged in air-to-air combat, downing an Israeli Avia S-199 fighter during the conflict.As far after World War II as Korea and Vietnam, T-6s were employed as Forward Air Control (FAC) aircraft, helping to guide dedicated close air support ) aircraft to their targets while occasionally dropping their own ordnance if the opportunity arises. So to say, North American Aviation knew what it took to build a trainer plane that wasn't entirely useless outside of friendly air bases thousands of miles away from the fighting. This was the incredibly high standard that the T-6's successor aircraft would have to adhere to if it wanted a reputation even half as celebrated as it was itself.With a significantly reduced workforce after the end of the Second World War, designing a new trainer was easier said than done. But even with staff cuts from over 90,000 employees down to just 5,000 after the war, North American Aviation still managed to get its new trainer, internal codename NA-159, into the air before the end of the 1940s, on September 24th, 1949. By 1950, the newly-christened XT-28 Trojan was delivered to the US Air Force's Air Proving Ground Command at Eglin Air Force Base in Flordia test trials. Safe to say, new recruits for the Navy and Air Force enjoyed North American's work.With dimensions of 33 feet (10 m) long, a 40-foot, one-inch (12.22 m) wingspan, and a maximum takeoff weight of 8,500 lb (3,856 kg), the T-29 Texan was a short, dense machine with much of its curb weight coming from its single Wright R-1820 Cyclone nine-cylinder, air-cooled radial engine. Though the Trojan's engine traced its lineage back to the 1930s and World War II greats like the C-47 Skytrain and B-17 Flying Fortress , refinements to the design since then allowed it to crank between out 1,425 horsepower by the time the Navy-optimized T-28B variant made its first flight.Meanwhile, the Air Force's bespoke variant, the T-28A, only made 800 horsepower. But even so, American pilots found the flight characteristics of both aircraft to be well above average. With a spacious, roomy cockpit that didn't squeeze new recruits into a proverbial tin can, new trainees could come to grips with the finer points of human-crewed, fixed-wing flight without claustrophobia hampering the experience. Its cable-driven non-hydraulically boosted controls also allowed pilots to learn the ropes without relying on new-fangled, overly-boosted control surfaces.But in a way that few trainers before or since were, the Navy's T-28B and carrier-optimized T-28C distinguished themselves by being overpowered for their role. With a power-to-weight ratio that made World War II fighter pilots jealous, T-28Bs were famously faster to climb from takeoff to five thousand feet (1,524 m) than a Merlin V12-equipped P-51 Mustang. That's right, folks, the most famous and capable warbird of World War II couldn't climb as quickly as a lowly trainer plane made by the same company only half a decade after the war.By the time North American Aviation ceased production in 1957, 1,948 T-28s had been manufactured between its A, B, and C variants in service with the US Air Force and Navy, but also countless other nations like France, Mexico, Brazil, Thailand, Taiwan, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and perhaps most famously, South Vietnam. Indeed, it was during the American intervention in Vietnam that the T-28 saw its most famous front-line service. As far back as 1963, a US-backed T-28 pilot from neighboring Laos defected over South Vietnamese lines to the North, where his plane was confiscated by the North Vietnamese Air Force and put into service as its first combat aircraft.By the time of an escalated American presence in Indochina in the late 60s, a little-known and even less remembered aerospace firm named Pacific Airmotive was contracted to modify 321 T-28B and C airframes to accommodate a role as a ground attack-optimized, counter-insurgency plane. With six underwing hardpoints that carried a total of up to 1,200 lb (540 kg) of bombs, rockets, and machine gun pods , these updated T-28D Nomads were incredibly potent attack aircraft. Even outside of Vietnam, the concurrent Cambodian Civil War saw T-28D Nomads used as the Khmer Air Force's primary ground attack airplane.A total of three generations of T-28D Nomads were manufactured in the 1960s. The final Mk.III variant's Wright Cyclone engine jetted a scarcely-believable 1,535 horsepower. Fun fact, that's 56 horsepower more than a non-Super Sport Bugatti Chiron. The more you know, right? But this was just one of several unique and quirky modifications done to stock T-28 airframes over the years. By the late 1950s, the French Air Force was modifying surplus USAF T-28As with supercharged Wright Cyclone engines similar to the ones used on the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress WWII quad-engine bomber and dubbed the T-28S Fennec.With provisions to carry all the same ordnance as the American T-28D plus a host of native French Matra rockets, French Military engagements in North Africa, particularly in the former colony of Algeria, were marked by modified T-28S Fennec's engaging in counter-insurgency activities in some of the most intense combat the type has ever seen. Back in the States, North Americans themselves had modified three T-28As to accommodate a 2,445 hp (1,823) Lycoming YT-55L-9 turboprop engine and one M2 Browning .50 caliber machine gun in each wing root.First flown in 1963, these modified airframes, dubbed the YAT-28E, were briefly considered for deployment to Indochina before the program was canceled in 1965. Whether bone stock or modified to the gills, T-28 airframes continued to prove useful to global air forces well into the late 20th century. The type was officially retired when its final remaining operator, the Philippine Air Force, struck their 12 T-28As from service in 1994, ending over four decades of continuous service.Today, T-28s, in all their forms, have taken on a second life as museum pieces and air-worthy warbirds in the private sector. Thanks to its antiquated and relatively easy-to-maintain engine, operating costs for a T-28 are far lower than newer turboprop military trainers in the surplus market. It's to the point where even very small air museums like the Air Heritage Aviation Museum in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, can even fly their T-28 at air shows across the Northeastern United States, as countless other examples have also done across North America. For a lowly trainer, the Trojan is remarkably more special than most others.
Tesla signed a deal to sell its Supercharger V4 chargers to oil giant BP in a first-of-its-kind deal. BP will buy $100 million worth of super-fast chargers from Tesla, with plans to invest $1 billion in expanding the BP Pulse charging network in the US by 2030.

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Photo: Tesla, BP

kW

Everybody knows that Tesla operates the largest fast-charging network in the world, an important asset for the company and an incentive for people to buy its electric vehicles. Tesla Superchargers are not only ubiquitous but also in good working condition, with an uptime of almost 100% . That is worth mentioning because other fast charging networks have significant difficulties maintaining their charging stations.Tesla recently decided to open its Supercharger network to third-party electric vehicles, allowing otherdrivers to see the benefits. Next year, around 12,000 chargers will become available to carmakers that signed an agreement with Tesla to adopt the NACS plug. These chargers are actually available to all EVs, thanks to the integrated Magic Dock adapters. The decision helps Tesla's mission to advance electromobility and turns the Supercharger network into an important profit center for the company.Things are accelerating now that oil giant BP announced signing a deal with Tesla to buy $100 million worth of ultra-fast chargers. BP is expanding its US charging network, BP Pulse, and chose Tesla as a supplier of charging equipment. This is the first time Tesla has sold its fast-charging equipment to a third-party charging network.BP Pulse charging network will deploy the first Tesla-made fast chargers starting next year, including at key BP and Amoco gas stations across the US. This means that drivers ofvehicles will get the chance to see them and familiarize themselves with the charging procedure. Some chargers will also be installed at private sites for BP's fleet customers. The first installation sites have been identified in Houston, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington, DC.Tesla chargers bought by BP will feature Magic Dock adapters , allowing non-Tesla EVs to use them on the BP Pulse's network. BP says the chargers output 250, which seems in line with Supercharger V3 dispensers. However, the picture shared by BP features photoshopped V4 chargers (see above). Per the contract, BP agreed to meet Tesla's reliability and functionality requirements, which ensures the chargers are listed in Tesla's vehicle interface and the Tesla app.At an estimated $30,000 per unit, including hardware and installation costs, the $100 million contract means BP will buy 3,333 Superchargers. It could be more if it only buys the chargers and takes care of installation itself. This is a win-win-win deal that would benefit BP, Tesla, and EV owners. BP, obviously, gets to expand its charging network while EV owners gain more charging options.It's also a win for Tesla because it basically expands its Supercharger network without spending a dime and getting paid instead. Make no mistake, although the chargers are branded by BP Pulse, the terms of the contract specify that BP will maintain the same high standards as the Tesla Supercharger. With plug and charge, there will be no difference between charging in Tesla's network or BP Pulse fitted with Tesla's chargers.
Armenias former leadership froze diplomatic relations with Hungary in 2012 after Hungarian authorities controversially extradited to Azerbaijan an Azerbaijani army officer who hacked to death a sleeping Armenian colleague in Budapest in 2004. The officer, Ramil Safarov, whom a Hungarian court sentenced to life imprisonment in 2006, was pardoned, rewarded and promoted by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on his return to Azerbaijan.

The Hungarian government claimed to have received prior assurances by Baku that Safarov would serve the rest of his life sentence in an Azerbaijani prison. Yerevan dismissed that explanation.

The current Armenian government decided to restore the diplomatic ties last year even though Hungary never apologized for Safarovs release and continued to support Azerbaijan in the Karabakh conflict. Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and his Hungarian counterpart Peter Szijjarto reached an agreement to that effect when they met in Poland in December 2022. Yerevan and Budapest appointed non-resident ambassadors to each others country earlier this year.

Visiting Yerevan, Szijjarto emphasized the Christian heritage and Christian faith shared by the two nations.

This is the easiest foundation based on which we can rebuild this relationship, he told Mirzoyan at the start of their talks. He also voiced support for Armenias efforts to deepen ties with the EU.

Szijjartos visit came one month after the Azerbaijani offensive that restored Bakus full control over Karabakh and forced its entire ethnic Armenian population to flee to Armenia.

The EU condemns the military operation by Azerbaijan against the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh and deplores the casualties and loss of life caused by this escalation, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a September 21 statement.

Rikard Jozwiak, RFE/RLs Europe editor, reported that the statement was due to be issued by the EUs 27 member states but that Hungary blocked it. The Azerbaijani news agency Trend likewise cited sources in European diplomatic circles as saying that Budapest vetoed its adoption.

Szijjarto commented vaguely on the issue during a joint news conference with Mirzoyan. He said only that Borrell is free to make statements on various issues and that the Hungarian government does not think it necessary to agree on what he should say on behalf of everyone.

In an October 5 resolution, the European Parliament accused Azerbaijan of committing ethnic cleansing against the Karabakh Armenians and called on the EU to impose sanctions on Azerbaijani leaders.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has long maintained a warm rapport with Aliyev, spoke out against such sanctions the following day. He said Azerbaijan is a strategically important country which is helping Europe reduce its dependence on Russian natural gas.

Without Azerbaijan we cannot have energy independence, Orban told reporters during an EU summit in Spain. Its a great country, we need them.

Unlike other EU member states, Hungary has openly supported Azerbaijan in the Karabakh conflict. The Hungarian Foreign Ministry reaffirmed that support three days after the outbreak of the 2020 Armenian-Azerbaijani war in Karabakh.

Shortly after the six-week war, Orbans government encouraged Hungarian firms to participate in infrastructure projects planned by Baku in areas recaptured by the Azerbaijani army. Szijjarto said at the time that Hungarys state-run development bank is ready to lend them $100 million for that purpose.

Mirzoyan did not mention Hungarys pro-Azerbaijani stance when he spoke at the news conference with Szijjarto. Instead, he thanked Budapest for providing over $100,000 worth of humanitarian aid to Karabakh refugees. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian similarly called for closer Armenian-Hungarian ties in various areas when he met with the Hungarian minister later in the day.
27 October 2023 08:30 (UTC+04:00)

Abbas Ganbay Read more

Vivek Ramaswamy, who did not know what he was thinking and even lost his self-control while talking about Armenia, confused the world map and turned himself into a laughing stock. Perhaps it would not be surprising for an ordinary person to do this. But such illiteracy of a candidate who wants to lead America can even be considered the greatest tragedy in American history.

It can also be said that Ramaswamy, of Indian origin, momentarily lost himself from the Armenian euphoria. However, it is difficult to call this true love or some kind of effect of the bribe he received for the next of his unprofessionally prepared campaign against Azerbaijan.

Having no proper knowledge of the history of the Caucasus, he has the audacity to accuse Azerbaijan of supporting the separatist views of the Hay (Armenians). Taking advantage of the popularity and illiteracy of the part of the American population that supports him, pro-Armenian Ramaswamy, using the cover and support of the Armenian Diaspora, groundlessly condemns Azerbaijan over the so-called ethnic cleansing against Armenians in Garabagh, and opposes U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan in a talk held at the Hudson Institute.

The United States of America, experiencing cataclysms, economic and social decline of population, derailment of a dozen (as if by accident) trains with food and chemical waste spills, critical percentages of mass murders for 2023 to the mark of more than 500 cases, hundreds of fires at socially and nationally important factories, the national debt has reached the mark of 33 trillion dollars, and yet there is someone who will take up the problems of Armenians and baselessly condemn Azerbaijan.

The candidate himself, while playing to the public with President Trump's words about the "deep state" that he needs to end and prevent the start of World War 3, conducted interviews with noted "conspiracy theorist" Ales Jones to keep the masses in the same ignorance as Jones once did on his InfoWars channel. So why does candidate Vivek, while preaching and promising like America's 45th President to drain the swamp of the deep state, find time to promote a false story about Martian Armenians settling the Earth and condemn Azerbaijan? Maybe the candidate and the Hays are united by India?

According to British expert and journalist Neil Watson, who made a comment for AZERNEWS, there are several reasons explaining the anti-Azerbaijani bias of the candidate. First of all, the British journalist noted that Ramaswamy represents the American dream, where he became a billionaire as the son of immigrants.

"He desperately wants to attract to support his presidential campaign the wealthy, vocal, and politically active Armenian-American diaspora, which is one of the most active supporters of the illegal Armenian occupation of Garabagh and seven surrounding territories. Second, it is of South Indian Hindu origin. Historically, Soviet influence in India was significant, and so he has a natural predisposition to an Armenian point of view. In addition, there are parallels between the Kashmir and Garabagh issues, with India supporting Armenia, while Pakistan unequivocally supports Azerbaijan and does not even recognise Armenia's independence," the expert said.

Another issue that binds the candidate, according to the journalist, is that as a young man, Ramaswamy was immersed in the machinations of the American religious right, most of whom support the Republican Party, and so it is a win-win for a presidential candidate to support a Christian country against what is classified as an Islamic country, which largely supports the victim mentality of Armenia.

According to Watson, the years-long PR campaign deployed by the Armenian diaspora, especially in the U.S. and France, has contributed to making only the Armenian voice heard in political circles.

"However, until it is proven that any laws have been violated, nothing can be done to stop it. Moreover, European politicians and media are overwhelmingly anti-Islamic and Turkophobic. Azerbaijan should develop an effective lobbying strategy in all countries and international organisations so that its rightful position is understood and heard," the journalist added.

The ongoing pro-Armenian statements of politicians in most of the countries of the "Crusader" powers have increased in great progression. After Azerbaijan achieved justice on its territory by conducting a successful anti-terrorist action in eradicating separatists from Garabagh, false statements and condemnations of Baku in political circles continued unabated, and this can be traced back to Ramaswamy's talk at the Hudson Institute.

In a conversation with Michael Doran of the Hudson Institute, described as "the most ardent supporter of Azerbaijan in Washington," Ramaswamy made the misfire of referring to Garabagh as part of Armenia, calling it "Nagorno-Karabakh" where he was immediately corrected by Michael Doran that the candidate may not believe and check it out on Google Map that Garabagh is Azerbaijan, and this has been confirmed by the world community, as has the Prime Minister of Armenia, and is important to know for the education of America's population.

"In addition to wanting to garner political support and deeply held personal beliefs based on his background, I am sure Ramaswamy is pursuing his own interests. He wants to enlist the support of Armenian industrialists as well as their Jewish and conservative Christian counterparts for his next biotech venture. Ramaswamy worships money, and that's basically his only motivation." British expert Neil Watson added in conclusion.

It is important to add information linking Armenians to India. Any aggression, ethnic cleansing, or annexation policy has a serious ideological justification and, of course, structures.

According to official information, the first Armenian-language newspaper was published on October 16, 1794, in Madras, India. This day is National Press Day in modern Armenia. It must have surprised many people that the first Armenian newspaper was published in India. The largest Armenian community at that time lived exactly in India, mainly in Madras. It can be assumed that if Armenian society continues with this kind of mentality, they can claim territory in India in the next hundreds of years.

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Abbas Ganbay is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @Noend33

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27 October 2023 22:00 (UTC+04:00)

Abbas Ganbay Read more

This is not the first time that France has deployed double standards under the pretext of covering up the defence of cultural values. While on a visit to Yerevan, the French Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul Malak, a French politician of Lebanese origin, arrived on a plane with Anne-Laurence Petel, the French parliamentarian acting as the spokesperson of the Armenian lobby and chairman of the French-Armenian friendship group in the French National Assembly, also known for her anti-Azerbaijani stance.

Continuing the slanderous rhetoric of corrupt politicians, as if they received a mass mailing, in any incomprehensible situation to accuse Azerbaijan, will be what will be. The French Minister of Culture, together with her propaganda partner, made a statement about the alleged "destruction of Armenian cultural monuments" in Garabagh, which in reality is just words and is not substantiated by evidence.

On the one hand, Armenia expressed its desire to establish transport communications with its neighbours after the first meeting of the 3+3 format held in Iran, and on the other hand, the French are pressing in with a whip. Is it a double game, or are the Armenians attempting an imaginary, illusory act of retaliation?

Knowing the hatred of Armenians and their "great pride", one will not find in the headlines reproaches and accusations of Armenians and the French for the colonial policy of the union of the two sister countries.

Azerbaijan, after a successful anti-terrorist operation in Garabagh, electrocuted the pro-Western forces. The impact and consequences can be characterised by the diagnosis of a patient in a psychiatric hospital. How could it be otherwise? They don't want to admit their mistakes and won't; the same sister in the person of France, with the same song and the same chorus, stands up in defence.

We began to perceive the accusations of the Armenians as the trauma of the patients in the ward of the psychiatric hospital, like in the film "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest". The doctors try to "see through" and see what the Armenian patient needs from the given wall opposite him, where the patient shouts "Mine!". In their reality, they can see green reptiles too, but in reality, there is a wall there.

With "Crusader" clans and international support behind them, France is undermining the new road that could lead Armenia to a brighter future. It will not be possible to grasp the 3+3 format, the economic ties, the corridor, the arms buildup, and India at the same time. Either in peace or to hell in a handbasket.

Neither UNESCO nor PACE have found the justice to stand up for the countries and nations that were subjected to French colonisation; there are none. Did the G7 powers take up the defence of Corsica, Guadeloupe, and a million Azerbaijani IDPs expelled under Armenian oppression? Azerbaijan came forward to raise the issue of the oppression of nations and countries colonised by France.

Empty accusations against Azerbaijan are not acceptable or proven. Two UN missions to Garabagh have proved the opposite. There is no "ethnic cleansing" and there is no "cultural genocide". Azerbaijan still keeps under strict protection the cultural values, monuments, and sacred places of Armenians, unlike the latter.

The French keep the skulls and bones of colonised nations in museums, where there are exhibitions of paintings of a "vile nature" in Paris, and this information is not reported. Why? The corrupt media of the West is controlled by the "Crusaders," and this is not on their agenda.

The cultural heritage in the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan, regardless of origin or secular or religious affiliation, embodies the cultural diversity of the Azerbaijani people, which Azerbaijan values and protects.

Moreover, it is Azerbaijan that, for almost 30 years, has been persistently appealing to international organisations to carry out assessment missions related to the deliberate destruction, appropriation, alteration, and illicit transfer of our cultural heritage in the former occupied territories of Azerbaijan to Armenia. Unfortunately, this has not been realised due to obstacles on the part of Armenia. UNESCO itself confirmed this fact in its 2005 report.

As long as there is a shadowy connection between the corrupt coalitions, no fair research on the horrible deeds of the French and Armenians towards the nations they oppressed should be expected. What you sow is what you reap. No power has ever taken up the defence of those nations Azerbaijan has taken up.

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Abbas Ganbay is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @Noend33

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27 October 2023 12:30 (UTC+04:00)

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The delivery of gas from Turkmenistan to foreign markets through Turkiye has acquired strategic importance in the current geopolitical conditions, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a press conference in Ankara after negotiations with the leader of Turkmenistan, Serdar Berdimuhamedov.

Azernews reports, citing the Turkish media.

In the current situation, the delivery of natural gas from Turkmenistan to Turkiye and through it to world markets has acquired a separate strategic importance. In this regard, our cooperation is important both in a bilateral format with Turkmenistan and in a trilateral format with the connection of Azerbaijan to this mechanism, President Erdogan said.

The Turkish leader noted that thanks to the development of cooperation on the basis of such a working mechanism, the parties aim to contribute to energy security. In this regard, we discussed our vision for the development of the East-West transport corridor project passing through the Caspian Sea. As you know, Turkmenistan ranks among regional and world leaders in terms of energy reserves, the Turkish leader added.

The Turkish leader says that Turkiye and Turkmenistan signed 13 protocols and memorandums of cooperation, in particular in the fields of energy, transport, information technology, climate, and agriculture. Speaking about the work of Turkish construction companies in Turkmenistan, Erdogan says that to date they have implemented projects totaling more than $50 billion.

The memoranda signed during the visit, as indicated by the Turkish president, will receive practical implementation in the course of further bilateral cooperation councils of the highest level.

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Seoul Fashion Week rescheduled to be held ahead of 'Big 4'

By Kang Hyun-kyung

Chung So-mi, a model-turned-fashion show director, is a perfectionist.

Even tiny mistakes are unacceptable in her show, although they go unnoticed by watchful audiences.

Her paranoic obsession with flawless presentation of designers collections has made her a workaholic and a strict boss to her staff.

Some insiders call her tiger director because her perfectionist work style doesnt allow any human errors.

Whenever shows are over, I have a moment to heave a sigh of relief. I had poured all my energy and passion into making flawless shows, she said during a Korea Times interview on Monday. That sense of relief is brief, so that theres no time to regret or feel that something is missing because I have another show coming and I need to prepare for it thoroughly.

Through more than three decades of experience as a stage director, Chung came to develop a rule of thumb. Designers ideas and concepts of their wardrobe should always come first, no matter what.

I listen to them and try to read their minds about their expectations. Their ideas matter, not mine, she said. Sometimes, I found we are not on the same page about the show. Whenever this happens, I always try to put myself in their shoes and think like them. Then, I dream of the world they wanted to create with their works and organize things accordingly.

Every year, Chung embarks on tours to four world premier collections, namely New York, London, Milan and Paris fashion weeks, commonly known as the Big 4 among people in the fashion industry, to get a sneak peek into the latest trends and fashion culture of the year.

Since she assumed the role as a director overseeing Seoul Fashion Week (SFW) in 2022, Chung has found herself becoming a victim of a game of expectations.

She is under pressure, facing calls to make the SFW a platform to lift Koreas fashion industry to the next level. Some even blame Korean designers for following global trends as opposed to leading, demanding they emulate the global success of K-pop and Korean cinema and make a mark globally.

Chung said she heard a lot of accusations that K-fashion is falling behind and unable to ride the global boom of hallyu or the Korean Wave, adding a similar discourse is also underway among people in the fashion industry.

People in the fashion industry have been talking a lot about the globalization of Korean fashion for the past decade, but little progress has been made so far, she said.

According to her, the globalization of K-fashion is easier said than done, and attaining it will be a much more daunting job than the overseas success of K-pop and Korean movies.

Fashion is a complicated business, she said, noting it requires collaboration with related players.

We need talented designers, and also a system that can help the industry discover them and help them keep working on their clothing without being distracted by monetary concerns, she said. There also needs to be a system in place for global marketing.

She stressed that the whole process requires a lot of investments.

Among others, she said corporate sponsorships of emerging designers are necessary, but few companies are interested in such investments.

Having world-class fashion labels is a costly project and it is not something designers can achieve on their own. It requires a supportive ecosystem, she said.

She is a tiger director. An insider who asked not to be named

Seoul Fashion Week has undergone a massive reshuffle following the resignation of then-creative director Jung Ku-ho in 2019. The fashion showcase event was held twice a year with the help and support of the Seoul Design Foundation. The organizer was criticized for wasting the government's budget without making progress in its initial goal of making Seoul a hub of Asias fashion industry.

In 2022, the jurisdiction of the show was transferred to the Seoul Metropolitan City Government from the design foundation. Abolishing the standing organizing committee for Seoul Fashion Week, the city government selects the organizer of the biannual fashion show through competition.

The reshuffle coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic. The fashion week had not been held for three years. It resumed this spring after a three-year hiatus.

Under Chungs leadership, Seoul Fashion Week has begun taking baby steps to attain the ambitious goal of taking talented Korean designers to the world stage.

The organizers rescheduled Seoul Fashion Week so that the biannual event could be held earlier than the Big 4.

The rescheduling of Seoul Fashion Week is designed to help young and up-and-coming designers more easily showcase their collections both at home and overseas, according to Chung.

Previously, Seoul Fashion Week was held after the Big 4. So, what happened was that local designers had to showcase their works only in Seoul because they found it difficult to prepare for two different shows  one at home and another abroad within a short time frame, she said.

Under the new event schedule, she said these young designers benefit because they find it easier to showcase their works to overseas buyers after Seoul Fashion Week.

Some buyers didnt come to Seoul because it was held after the Big 4 and they already purchased what they wanted there. So, some skipped Seoul. But from next year, Seoul Fashion Week will be held earlier than the Big 4 and buyers are encouraged to visit Seoul to test the waters of the upcoming global fashion trends, she said.

Chung said she clearly saw the differences between established designers and younger designers, commonly known as Generation MZ. MZ is an acronym for millennials and Generation Z.

Generation MZ designers are rebels, she said. The way they coordinate their outfits is bold and they excel in mix and match in fashion. Compared to the older generation, the younger generation designers excel in the presentation of their collections.

Debuting as a runway model in 1982, Chung witnessed the ups and downs of Koreas fashion industry. She transformed into a fashion show director in the 1990s and oversaw the runway shows of many renowned designers, including the late Andre Kim, the late hanbok designer Lee Young-hee and Jin Te-ok.

Chung wears many hats. On top of being director of Seoul Fashion Week, she teaches aspiring models, serving as president of the modeling agency, The Models, as well as president of the Korea Fashion Model Arts Association.
27 October 2023 13:59 (UTC+04:00)

Abbas Ganbay Read more

A ceremony of laying the foundation stone of a new building of the Tbilisi State Azerbaijani Drama Theatre named after Heydar Aliyev, which has a 150-year history, was held in Georgia on 27 October, Azernews reports.

Azerbaijani Prime Minister Ali Asadov and his delegation, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, and representatives of the local public and media attended the event.

Prime Ministers of both countries addressed the meeting.

Asadov noted that this theatre, in addition to being a worthy gift for lovers of culture and art, will also add a special beauty to the city of Tbilisi, which perfectly synthesizes history, antiquity, and modernity, and will become a cultural center of the capital Georgia:

"It is noteworthy that the theatre is named after Heydar Aliyev" The laying of the foundation stone of the new building of this cultural centre coincides with this year - the 100th anniversary of the birth of the national leader of the Azerbaijani people. Many events were held in Georgia on the occasion of this prestigious anniversary of Heydar Aliyev".

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27 October 2023 15:09 (UTC+04:00)

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Kazakhstan's Minister of National Economy, Alibek Kuantyrov, has announced that the Kazakh authorities are ready to increase the supply of non-resource goods to Azerbaijan by $300 million. In addition, Kazakhstan is interested in exporting domestic processed products to Azerbaijan, which would include more than 100 non-resource commodity items worth about $300 million, Azernews reports.

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27 October 2023 18:41 (UTC+04:00)

By Roya Valiyeva, AZERNEWS

General Directorate of Mineral Research and Exploration of the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources of the Turkish Republic and the State Agency for Utilization of Mineral Resources under the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Azerbaijan Republic have signed a protocol of intent to strengthen mutual cooperation in the field of geology and mining industry, Azernews reports.

The document was inked on the sidelines of the International Geology and Mining Forum, which brought together 70 specialists from 30 countries.

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27 October 2023 10:20 (UTC+04:00)

Laman Ismayilova Read more

The University of Warsaw has hosted the International Conference "Poland and the Turkic World" in partnership with the International Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation and the Azerbaijani Embassies in Turkiye, Kazakhstan and Poland.

In his opening speech, the dean of the Faculty of Oriental Studies of the University of Warsaw Piotr Taracha, and the head of the Department of Turkic Studies A. Bareja-Starzynska, highlighted the historical ties between Poland and the Turkic World and stressed the importance of the event, and the University's activities in the field of Turkic culture research.

The Azerbaijani Ambassador to Poland Nargiz Gurbanova, the Kazakh Ambassador to Poland Alim Kirabayev and Charge d'affaires of Turkiye to Poland Cagdas Bilgin spoke about the constructive relations between the countries they represent and Poland, the fraternal relations between the Turkic peoples formed throughout history and the importance of strengthening the integration between them in the future.

Leyla Hasanova, a representative of the cul, touched upon the historical processes of intensification of relations between Turkic states and peoples currently going on.

She mentioned that the common history, culture and roots form the basis of the Turkic Union and noted that the discussions on Turkic values in Poland has become a positive tradition in recent years.

L. Hasanova rewied the activities and international projects carried out by the foundation in the field of protection and promotion of centuries old Turkic culture and heritage in the Turkic world and beyond its borders, preservation the rich heritage of peoples of Turkic origin living in various European countries, particularly in Poland, Romania and Lithuania and introducing them to wider audiences as well.

The conference was followed by sessions on various topics. A documentary dedicated to the 2023 Cultural Capital of the Turkic World, the city of Shusha, Azerbaijan`s cultural pearl was also demonstrated as part of the event.

Initiated in 2012, the Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation focuses on the preservation of the Turkic heritage in member countries as well as conducting projects in collaboration with partners in third nations.

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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27 October 2023 13:43 (UTC+04:00)

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Azerbaijani Prime Minister Ali Asadov and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan have held a meeting in Georgia with the mediation of Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, Azernews reports.

Details of the negotiations, which lasted several hours, were not disclosed.

The International Silk Road Forum kicked off yesterday in Georgia's Tbilisi. The forum was also attended by Prime Ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia, Ali Asadov and Nikol Pashinyan.

To recall, Pashinyan during his speech at the IV Silk Road International Forum held in Tbilisi, said the following:

"We agree to the laying of international lines of communication. Because the road to peace passes through the agenda of peace-related work."

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27 October 2023 13:18 (UTC+04:00)

A meeting between military medical specialists of the Defense Ministries of Azerbaijan and Lithuania was held in Baku to exchange experience in the field of military medicine, Azernews reports.

At the meeting, a detailed exchange of views on cooperation in the field of military medicine, as well as on a number of issues of mutual interest was held. The Lithuanian delegation was given a briefing on the organization of medical services, as well as military medical provision in the Azerbaijan Army.

Then the guests arrived at several military medical institutions operating under the Medical Department and got acquainted with the created conditions.

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27 October 2023 14:23 (UTC+04:00)

Abbas Ganbay Read more

"Georgia is ready to mediate between Azerbaijan and Armenia from a neutral position," Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said while giving a speech at the groundbreaking ceremony of the Heydar Aliyev State Drama Theatre in Tbilisi, Azernews reports.

"The Georgian government is ready to participate in establishing long-term peace in the region," Garibashvili emphasized.

Noting that the building of the theatre was constructed within the framework of the 100th anniversary of Azerbaijan's national leader, Heydar Aliyev, the Prime Minister said it testifies to the fruitful cooperation between Azerbaijan and Georgia.

The Prime Minister recalled that President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev visited Georgia some time ago and the meeting held there was very productive.

PM thanked Prime Minister Ali Asadov for coming to Tbilisi to participate in the 4th International Silk Road Forum and highly appreciated his visit.

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27 October 2023 14:11 (UTC+04:00)

Abbas Ganbay Read more

On October 27, Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Ali Asadov and Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, who were on a visit to Georgia, took part in the ceremony of laying the foundation stone of the new building of the Tbilisi State Professional Azerbaijani Drama Theatre named after Heydar Aliyev in Tbilisi, Azernews reports.

Prime Minister Ali Asadov made a speech at the foundation-laying ceremony.

"Cultural ties based on historical roots have for centuries been the main factor for the Azerbaijani and Georgian peoples to live in conditions of friendship, good neighbourliness, peace and mutual understanding.

Historically, both Azerbaijan and Georgia have shown great respect and special sympathy for the national and spiritual values, culture, language, religion, art and literature of our peoples.

Many prominent figures and great personalities of Azerbaijan (Mirza Fatali Akhundov, Mirza Shafi Vazeh, Fatali Khan Khoyski) lived and created in Georgia, where they gained immortality.

Similarly, many cultural and art figures, prominent figures of Georgia, worked in Azerbaijan and made an important contribution to our public and cultural life.

As a historical confirmation of the abovementioned, we can mention the beginning of the Tbilisi State Professional Azerbaijani Drama Theatre in 1872 in the city of Tbilisi.

During the long activity of the theatre, immortal works of classics of Georgian, Azerbaijani, and world literature were staged with great success.

Today it is a historical event breathing new life into the Tbilisi State Professional Azerbaijani Drama Theatre named after the national leader of the Azerbaijani people Heydar Aliyev.

"We highly appreciate the decision to locate the new theatre building in an important and beautiful corner of the city of Tbilisi," says the Minister.

"I would like to take this opportunity to share with you some moments about great leader Heydar Aliyev's warm attitude towards Georgia.

While leading Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev always showed a friendly attitude towards neighbouring countries. As for Georgia, this is a special case.

During both administrations, Heydar Aliyev treated Georgia and the Georgian people with great respect, special attention and care.

We all remember well the strong friendship between Heydar Aliyev, who visited Georgia many times, and the late head of Georgia Eduard Shevardnadze, based on mutual trust.

Thanks to their leadership, solid foundations were laid for the development of relations between our countries in political, economic, cultural, humanitarian, and all other fields.

The political careers of both leaders were characterised by originality and marked by similar historical events. Thus, they continued their political activity for the second time as the head of an independent state at the request of their people.

While leading their country, among other areas, they paid special attention, care, and sensitivity to the national-spiritual values, language, religion, culture, art and music of their people and did everything possible to protect and develop them. this heritage.

I should also note that Heydar Aliyev was a great admirer of Georgian art, literature, music, and cinema," the Prime Minister said.

He noted that in the modern era President Ilham Aliyev and Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili preserve the rich historical traditions we have inherited, protect the national interests of our independent states developing through democracy, and lead them to great achievements.

"I hope that the professional creative team of this theatre, which we have established today, will properly use the wonderful conditions that will be created here and will play an active role in the cultural life of Tbilisi with new projects and performances.

This, in turn, will contribute to the strengthening of good neighbourly, friendly and brotherly relations between Azerbaijan and Georgia, the rapprochement of our peoples.

I am confident that this theatre will not only become a worthy gift for lovers of culture and art, but will also add special beauty to the appearance of the city of Tbilisi, which perfectly synthesizes history, antiquity, and modernity, and will become a cultural centre of the capital of Georgia.

It is noteworthy that laying the foundation stone of the new building of this cultural centre named after Heydar Aliyev coincides with the current year - the 100th anniversary of the birth of the national leader of the Azerbaijani people.

A number of events were also held in Georgia on the occasion of the prestigious jubilee of Heydar Aliyev.

On behalf of myself, the government, and the people of Azerbaijan, I express gratitude to Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, the government, and the people of Georgia for the respect and honour shown to the dear memory of the Great Leader.

I would like to note one point: as always in Azerbaijan, the outstanding personalities of Georgia are treated with great respect and honour.

Thus, these days in Ganja, the second largest city of Azerbaijan, a memorial plaque has been erected in front of the building where the famous Georgian poet Nikoloz Baratashvili once lived, created, and worked.

At the same time, the Georgian State Drama Theatre operating in the Gakh district of Azerbaijan was named after the great Georgian writer Ilya Chavchavadze and was decorated accordingly.

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27 October 2023 16:31 (UTC+04:00)

By Mazahir Afandiyev

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Summit 2023 and SDG Action Weekend 2023 took place in New York, USA, during the 78th session of the UN General Assembly on September 1619, 2023.

A delegation headed by the minister of foreign affairs was assembled to attend the Summit and provided outstanding representation for the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Speaking at the Summit, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres made a special appeal to the heads of state and government. During his speech, he emphasized the importance of preparing a global Rescue Plan for People and Planet, paying special attention to the first five goals of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG1: No Poverty, SDG2: Zero Hunger, SDG3: Good Health and Well-Being, SDG4: Quality Education, and SDG5: Gender Equality), and taking appropriate action.

Following the Summit, member states committed to doing all within their power to reach the Sustainable Development Goals announced at the Summit, and the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) adopted a Political Declaration that reaffirmed the commitment of world leaders to the 2030 Agenda and the implementation of the SDGs.

Azerbaijan consistently pays great attention to UN decisions and demonstrates model state behavior in carrying out the recommendations and obligations that stem from these decisions in conformity with realities and the country's Constitution.

The Azerbaijani delegation's successful participation in the Summit's work, speeches, and meetings will open up a number of opportunities and benefits for the future development of cooperation with the UN in the development of the global document.

The Government of Azerbaijan broadly supported the global discussions and the Political Declaration of the SDG Summit and presented a national obligation to SDG Transformation, built on national efforts within the framework of the Socio-Economic Development Strategy for 2022-2026, the State Program of the Great Return to the territories of the Republic of Azerbaijan liberated from the occupation, the Comprehensive National Financing Framework (CNRF), and the implementation of the Sustainable Finance Roadmap of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan.

Following the September summit, the Third Sustainable Development Goals Dialogue was arranged in Baku. October 24, UN Day, was set aside specifically for the dialogue.

The purpose of holding the event on this specific date is to show how much the Azerbaijani government values the celebration of "UN Day", how much it pays attention to it, and how dependable it is in putting the UN's universally endorsed documents into practice.

It should be noted that in order to support the Government of Azerbaijan in implementing national priorities within the framework of the Azerbaijan Sustainable Development Strategy until 2030 and the 2030 Agenda, the series of SDG Dialogues aims to serve as a platform for the main parties: the government, the UN, the private sector, civil society, international financial institutions, and development partners interested in expanding knowledge, applying advanced international experience, and providing innovative solutions.

Every SDG Dialogue focuses on a particular issue, and following the debate, a conceptual approach to the issue is established. Additionally, a policy brief summarizing relevant data and global best practices, as well as a section on useful policy proposals, are included.

Two SDG dialogues have taken place since the series began in November 2022: Green Transformation in Azerbaijan and Towards 2030: Socio-economic Inclusion in Azerbaijan.

This year's third SDG Dialogue also sought to exchange insights from the Summit's conversations and determine the next steps for accelerating and funding the SDGs in Azerbaijan.

Furthermore, our delegations are well-represented at the highest levels, both domestically and abroad, at conferences hosted by UN bodies and UN subcommittees in support of the Sustainable Development Goals.

This year, on October 1920, 2023, in Geneva, Switzerland, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) jointly organized the Regional Conference - the main event of the United Nations Commission on Population and Development (UNECE). The delegation of the Republic of Azerbaijan, including the MilliMajlis, was represented at the conference at a high level.

Our nation's successful involvement on all platforms shows the international community that Azerbaijan consistently handles global challenges, accomplishments, and all related activities with great consideration and respect.

Assuring a lasting peace in the South Caucasus, expeditiously restoring native Garabagh through the Great Return and the process of reintegrating peoples, and guaranteeing that all peoples live in peace and prosperity are currently Azerbaijan's top priorities.

Mazahir Afandiyev is the Member of the Milli Majlis (the Azerbaijani Parliament).

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27 October 2023 17:36 (UTC+04:00)

Abbas Ganbay Read more

Today, the delegation led by the Chairman of the Human Rights Committee of the Council of Representatives of the Republic of Iraq, Arshad Rashad Al-Salih, who is on a visit to Baku, came to the Alley of Honor and paid tribute to Heydar Aliyev, the National Leader of the Azerbaijani people, the architect and founder of the modern independent state of Azerbaijan, and laid flowers in front of his grave, Azernews reports.

The delegation then visited the Alley of Martyrs, honored the memory of the heroic children of the Motherland who died for the freedom and sovereignty of Azerbaijan, and laid flowers on their graves. At the same time, the "Eternal Torch" monument was visited.

Guests watching the view of the capital of Azerbaijan from the highest point of Baku were informed about the history of the Alley of Martyrs and the improvement and construction works carried out in Baku.

During the visit, the delegation was accompanied by the head of the Azerbaijan-Iraq inter-parliamentary relations working group of the Milli Majlis, Ilham Mammadov and other officials.

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The Israeli military said Thursday that a portion of the weapons used by Hamas in its Oct. 7 attacks were manufactured in Iran or North Korea.

The military made the statement during an official media tour in which it displayed a variety of weapons recovered from communities in southern Israel attacked by the militants.

A range of landmines, rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), and homemade drones were part of the haul displayed.

Part of the arsenal included Iranian-made mortar rounds and North Korean RPGs.

"I think about five to 10 percent of the weapons here [were] made in Iran," said an Israeli military official, who helped oversee the clearance of munitions from areas that came under attack.

"And 10 percent [are] North Korean. The rest of it was made inside the Gaza Strip," the official added, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Hamas is believed to rely on extensive smuggling networks to bring weapons into the besieged Gaza Strip.

The group also produces its own munitions, including the rockets it has repeatedly fired at Israeli cities.

"I think the most surprising thing was the amount of weapons that they brought inside Israel," the official said.

In southern Israel, troops have taken over many of the communities attacked on Oct. 7 including Holit, where on Thursday AFP saw a soldier manning a gun pointed towards Gaza.

Scorched homes and bullet holes were visible in the small kibbutz, not far from the Egyptian border, where at least 10 people were killed by militants, according to a volunteer with Zaka, a charity which collects bodies in accordance with Jewish practice.

Hamas's shock Oct. 7 attacks, the worst in Israeli history, saw throngs of Hamas gunmen pour into Israel from Gaza, killing more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 224 more, according to official tallies.

Israel has retaliated with relentless strikes that Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said have killed more than 7,000 people, also mainly civilians  a toll expected to rise substantially if Israeli troops massed near the border move into the Palestinian territory. (AFP)
27 October 2023 16:46 (UTC+04:00)

Qabil Ashirov Read more

Pakistani Embassy in Azerbaijan held a special event to commemorate Kashmir Black Day in Baku, Azernews reports.

Officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, think tanks, and journalists representing print and electronic media attended the event.

The ceremony started with the anthems of Pakistan and Jammu and Kashmir.

Later, the representative of Azerbaijani NGO gave a speech about the conflict. Thereupon, Charge d`Affaires Sara Ijaz gave detailed information about the conflict and noted that October 27, 2023, marks 75 years of Indias illegal occupation of the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir. She stated that the hapless people of the Indian Illegal Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) continue to suffer under the brutal occupation.

It was noted that the sufferings of the Kashmiri people had increased manifold after India abrogated the special status of IIOJK through the revocation of Articles 370 and 35-A of the Indian Constitution on August 5, 2019. Since then, a fresh wave of state-sponsored terror and oppression has been unleashed, marked by curfews, cordon and search operations, media curbs and blackouts, arbitrary arrests and detention of true Kashmiri leadership, extra-judicial killings, settlement of non-Kashmiris in IIOJK to change its demography and distinct cultural identity, among others. These actions are in clear violation of international law, relevant UNSC resolutions, and the 4th Geneva Convention.

The CdA further emphasized that Jammu and Kashmir is an internationally recognized dispute, and unilateral actions by the Indian government can neither alter the disputed status of the territory nor hold legitimate rights to self-determination for the Kashmiri people.

Participants in the event reiterated Azerbaijans consistent support for the cause of Jammu and Kashmir under UN resolutions.

Following the event, guests were invited to see the photo exhibition depicting the plight of Kashmiris under Indian brutality in the IIOJK.

To recall, on October 27, 1947, India invaded the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir and forcibly occupied it against the will of the people. Each year, October 27 is observed as Kashmir Black Day to mark the forced occupation of the valley by the Indian Occupation Forces.

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27 October 2023 19:16 (UTC+04:00)

On October 24, 2023, in The Hague, the 100th anniversary of the great figure of the Turkic world, the national leader Heydar Aliyev, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Turkiye and the 800th anniversary of the Kazakh ruler Sultan Beybars were solemnly celebrated within the framework of cooperation by the International Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation, the Embassies of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkiye in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Azernews reports.

Speaking at the event, the president of the International Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation, Gunay Efendiyeva, spoke about various projects implemented by the Foundation within the framework of prestigious events in the Turkic world this year.

Gunay Efendiyeva talked about the rich legacy of National Leader Heydar Aliyev, the founder of modern Azerbaijan, which ensured its territorial integrity, and who is known all over the world as a wise and far-sighted politician, and she especially emphasized the role of the genius in the history of Azerbaijan and the political, economic, cultural relations with the Turkic states and the countries of the world.

Speaking about the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Turkish Republic, the president of the Foundation noted the country's place in the international arena and the goals achieved in the past time. In her speech, Gunay Efendiyeva also congratulated Kazakhstan on the occasion of the 800th anniversary of great Kazakh ruler, Sultan Baybars, on the occasion of his 800th anniversary, as well as the National Holiday - Republic Day. She said that the successful political, economic, and social reforms implemented by the country in a short period have already yielded positive results.

The Ambassador of the Azerbaijani Republic to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Rahman Mustafayev, informed the participants of the event about the important contributions of the National Leader Heydar Aliyev in the history of Azerbaijan's statehood, and the steps taken in the direction of strengthening Azerbaijan's internal and foreign policy. The ambassador also called the preservation and promotion of the ancient Turkic cultural heritage at a high level by the International Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation an event worthy of appreciation. Rahman Mustafayev said that the ever-increasing influence of the Turkic Union and the further strengthening of Turkic solidarity are of historical importance.

The Ambassador of Kazakhstan to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Askar Jumagaliyev, stated that the Turkic nations and states have been getting closer to each other in recent years, and said that the work done by the Fund has a special place in this regard.

Ambassador of the Turkish Republic to the Kingdom of the Netherlands Selcuk Unal expressed his gratitude to the International Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation and its management, which celebrated the 100th anniversary of the founding of his country with solemn events. The ambassador emphasized the importance of instilling Turkic values in future generations and wished success to the Foundation in this direction.

At the event, a concert of the "Yeddi Gozal" music group, created under the auspices of the Foundation and consisting of professional female musicians representing seven Turkic states: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkiye, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Hungary, was organized. The leader of the group is Turan Manafzade, an Honored Artist of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

State officials of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, deputies, representatives of the diplomatic corps accredited in the country, and representatives of the diaspora took part in the event.

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27 October 2023 20:50 (UTC+04:00)

On October 27, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev made a phone call to President of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Azernews reports.

During the telephone conversation, the sides discussed bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and the United Arab Emirates, and had a broad exchange of views on the prospects for development of cooperation between the two countries in various fields to the benefit of the two peoples. In this regard, the two discussed cooperation between Azerbaijan and the UAE in the fields of investments, expansion of economic and trade relations, cooperation in renewable energy, tourism and other areas.

President Ilham Aliyev stressed the importance of the construction of the Garadagh Solar PV Plant by Masdar company of the United Arab Emirates in Azerbaijan, which was inaugurated yesterday. The head of state emphasized that the 230 MW Garadagh Solar PV Plant is the largest solar power plant in the region and the first renewable energy plant built with foreign investment in Azerbaijan. President Ilham Aliyev described the participation of four ministers and a large delegation of the United Arab Emirates in this event as an example of friendship and partnership between our countries.

The Azerbaijani President congratulated the President of the United Arab Emirates on the occasion of his countrys hosting the UN Climate Change Conference  COP 28, describing it as an example of the United Arab Emirates' contribution to global efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and protect the environment.

The heads of state discussed cooperation between the two countries, as well as within international organizations, including the UN, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Non-Aligned Movement and other institutions.

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27 October 2023 15:33 (UTC+04:00)

Abbas Ganbay Read more

Armenia will not be able to unilaterally abandon the 102nd Russian military base, which is located in Gyumri, until 2044, based on the 1995 agreement between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Armenia on the Russian military base on the territory of the Republic of Armenia.

According to Azernews, the information was confirmed by the State Duma of the Russian Federation.

Thus, Article 27 of the relevant document reads:

"If one of the parties declares its intention to terminate this agreement, issues related to the liquidation of the Russian military base shall be resolved by a mixed commission. The liquidation of the Russian military base shall be completed within the timeframe agreed between the parties".

According to Protocol No. 5 to the agreement on the Russian base, signed in 2010 by Russian and Armenian Presidents Dmitry Medvedev and Serzh Sargsyan, the term of its stay on the territory of Armenia has been extended until 2044.

This information was confirmed to the Russian media by Yuri Shvytkin, deputy chairman of the State Duma Defence Committee.

"According to the treaty concluded between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Armenia, after the expiration of the term of the treaty, it is automatically extended for a subsequent five-year period, unless one of the parties notifies in writing at least six months before the expiration of the next term of the treaty the other party of its intention to terminate it.

The provisions of this agreement may be revised on the initiative of one of the parties and by mutual agreement," Yuri Shvytkin, deputy chairman of the State Duma Defence Committee, told Izvestia.

The day before, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that Yerevan "did not see any advantages" from the presence of a Russian military base on Armenian territory but stressed that Russia and Armenia were not discussing the withdrawal of the Russian military from the republic.

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27 October 2023 23:45 (UTC+04:00)

On October 26, Prime Minister of Uzbekistan Abdulla Aripov made a speech at the meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the CIS countries in Bishkek, Azernews reports, citing Kun.uz News Agency.

In his speech, he proposed to create conditions for the unified operation of the energy systems of the CIS countries. He added that for such work, it is necessary to take into account the energy production and consumption capabilities of each of the Commonwealth countries.

Abdulla Aripov also called the concept of development of industrial cooperation in the CIS adopted in June at the initiative of Uzbekistan and the set of measures for its development until 2030 a big step.
27 October 2023 20:20 (UTC+04:00)

Turkish police on Friday seized more than 100 kilograms of cocaine in southern Turkiye as part of its ongoing anti-narcotic operations, the interior minister said, Azernews reports, citing Anadolu Agency.

Anti-narcotic teams of the Mersin police found 610 kilograms (1,345 pounds) of cocaine in a container of bananas during a search at Mersin port, Ali Yerlikaya said on X.

Three suspects were also arrested, he added.

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27 October 2023 11:24 (UTC+04:00)

Laman Ismayilova Read more

Azerbaijan's gastronomy has been promoted in Japan.

The State Tourism Agency represented the country at the Tourism Expo Japan 2023, Azernews reports.

The expo visitors were acquainted with the possibilities of cultural, natural, health, and business tourism in Azerbaijan, as well as the traditions of winemaking and gastronomy.

The Azerbaijani Ambassador to Japan Gursel Ismayilzade, visited the national stand.

World-famed for its food, Azerbaijan is now taking decisive steps in the gastronomic tourism world. The country offers a wide variety of gastronomic opportunities.

The country has been consistently working to promote the country's culinary heritage through a number of initiatives.

The number of tourists in search of gastronomic tours is increasing day by day. They are visiting Azerbaijan in

Tourism Expo Japan was followed by meetings with travel companies Gerso Travel, Asia Travel and ENC Tours, the Osaka Tourism Bureau, the Japan Association of Travel Agents, where prospects for cooperation were discussed.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @lmntypewriterrr

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Britain's defense ministry has said it is "almost certain" that North Korean munitions have arrived in western Russia for the country's use in its war against Ukraine amid persistent speculation over their arms transfers.

The information followed Washington's revelation that Pyongyang had sent more than 1,000 containers of military equipment and munitions to Moscow as North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a rare summit last month.

"Despite Russia's official rejection of recent reports, it is almost certain that North Korean munitions have now reached ammunition depots in western Russia," the British ministry said in a post updated on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday (local time).

"These depots support Russian military operations in Ukraine," it added.

The ministry said should Pyongyang continue to send military-related shipments at the current pace, it will be "on course" to become one of Moscow's "significant" overseas arms providers, alongside Iran and Belarus.

The international community has condemned the suspected arms agreement, which would violate multiple United Nations Security Council sanctions resolutions banning any weapons trade with the North, which Russia itself has voted for.

In a recent joint statement lambasting the two countries, Seoul, Washington and Tokyo confirmed part of such weapons deliveries and said the North is seeking military assistance to advance its own military capabilities.

Britain's defense ministry said while it is "unclear" what Moscow has agreed to provide to Pyongyang at the current stage, the package would likely include financial compensation, military technology provision and cooperation in other areas, such as space technology.

"It is unlikely the full package has been finalized," the ministry said, adding the package was likely among the top agenda items discussed in recent high-level exchanges between the two countries.

Citing commercial satellite imagery provided by Planet Labs, the U.S. media outlet Voice of America reported Friday that signs of cargo deliveries were detected at the North and Russia's border area and the North Korean port of Najin, reinforcing suspicions over their arms agreement. (Yonhap)
26 days after the October 7th Terror attacks on Israel, where over 1400 Jewish men, women and children were gruesomely murdered, and hundreds more made hostage: Should the Biden /Harris administration finally state that the administration's primary Middle East negotiating partner, Iran, is behind the funding and strategy of the aggressors, the Hamas Terrorists, or continue to take the more moderate position of "Don't," which is clearly not working?

100% Yes, name Iran as the funding /strategy culprit, and begin to enforce the President Trump era sanctions to END Iran's ability to prosecute this war against Israel and the United States.0% No, Iran is a valuable partner in the motives of the Biden / Harris administration, and must not be named as the culprit and our enemy.0% I have larger concerns just to survive in this economy.
As the populist / nationalist anti-immigration Alternativ fur Deutschland surges in polls and state and local elections on the right, and the launch of a new populist anti-immigration anti-woke party on the left is ongoing, the establishment German parties are scrambling to be relevant to voters huge concern with illegal immigration.

Germany's Social Democrat chancellor has called for deporting asylum seekers whose bid for asylum has been denied in the courts, as most are. Now Jens Spahn, who served as Health Minister under Merkel and who was one of the competitiors to succeed her as party leader, has called for the use of force to stop illegal aliens from even entering the country or the EU.

https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/former-german-minister-suggests-eu-use-force-to-control-external-border/

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2023/10/26/germany-to-begin-large-scale-deportations-says-scholz-as-country-faces-record-number-of-illegals/

This follows the globalist French government's announcement that it was going to use quick deportations of problematic illegal aliens to avoid the European Court of Human Rights getting involved. That court has a history of bending over backwards to favor illegal aliens. One example while the UK was still in the EU was when the British government sought to deport a strident jihadist Muslim imam, the ECHR blocked the deportation saying it interfered with his "right to a family life with his cat".
The latest in a trend of lawsuits against doctors, hospitals and others in the medical field by people who were gender transitioned as children, had their bodies irreversibly damaged by the process, and later de-transitioned, has broken new ground by also including the American Academy of Pediatrics as a defendant. The lawsuit alleges civil conspiracy, fraud, and medical malpractice in pressured her to undergo the transition as a minor.

Isabelle Ayala, a biological female, now 21, had the hormone treatment but not the surgery. Nonetheless, she has had permanent damage to her reproductive organs, as well as other permanent damage to her body. When talked into the transition process, she was a teenager suffering multiple mental health issues and thus vulnerable.

While an increasing number of these cases are being filed, including at least two in North Carolina, this is the first case where a medical organization that promotes the gender transition process has been named as one of the defendants.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/fairness-justice/detransitioner-sues-american-academy-of-pediatrics
These are the Public Comments presented by Ray Leary to the Beaufort County School Board meeting on October 24, 2023. During the September 19, 2023 board meeting Dr. Cheeseman explained to the board an incident that occurred at the Beaufort County Early College High School. An instructor handed out material to the students that was not in the approved curriculum. Dr. Cheesemans comments in the video below.

October 24, 20023 board meeting public comments.

This comment is in response to the BCS board meeting minutes of September 19, 2023, item #8. The minutes were approved on October 10, 2023.

Superintendent Dr. Matthew Cheeseman presented information to the Board concerning information that was distributed to some students at Beaufort County Early College High School. An article was written about a class assignment and Brunswick County Schools was named in error in the article. Dr. Cheeseman is working with BCCC President Dr. Loope to clarify our expectations and with the author of the article.

The following was not recorded in the minutes:

Does not say the information was inappropriate. Does not say the information was not authorized Does not say the information was not included in the approved curriculum Does not say it was introduced by a single un-named person Does not say the information was related to transgender identity Does not mention the Gender Unicorn handout to students Does not mention any corrective action Does not name the referenced article or the author It does say that Dr. Cheeseman is working with Dr. Loope to clarify expectations

Anyone reading this record of the meeting that was not present at the meeting on September 19, 2023 will have no knowledge of the true nature of the aforementioned information. This is one example illustrating the boards negligence in maintaining accurate minutes of meetings of public bodies as required by the North Carolina General Statues.

NCGS 143-318.10 (e)

Every public body shall keep full and accurate minutes of all official meetings, including any closed sessions held pursuant to G.S. 143-318.11.

End of Public Comments presentation

The next video is from the October 24, 2023 board meeting. Board member Carolyn Walker requested time to ask each board member to denounce the inclusion of the unapproved instructional materials in Beaufort County schools. She also asked if any board member had prior knowledge of this gender identity material being presented to the early college students.

The public should encourage the board members to ensure the minutes of school board minutes are complete and accurate. As one can see in this instance, the minutes did not reflect the proceedings of the board meeting on September 19, 2023.

Editors Comments: It is instructive to recall that it was only a few weeks ago that concern was raised to this board about another inappropriate curriculum content (Critical Race Theory) and at that time it was stated several times that CRT is not being taught in the school system. Considering this imbroglio at the Early College High School, one has to wonder what other inappropriate material is or has been used in our schools. If unapproved materials were used in one instance how can the public trust that it is not now or will happen in the future.

Our point can be simply stated: This incident at the Early College is an example of the negligence on the part of administrators in insuring inappropriate materials are not being used. And we would add that Ms. Walkers indignation that the public might think the board condoned the illicit materials that were distributed is a lame excuse to try to close the door after the horses have already fled. The point is that the policy was obviously not sufficient to stop this known distribution. But it remains in effect! This board was warned that its policy was inadequate and it remains inadequate. How many more known or unknown instances will it take before they develop an effective policy and administrative procedures.

And let the record show that there has been no public disclosure of what disciplinary actions have been taken to hold the administrators and the teacher accountable for doing something that is now being so roundly condemned. Is this board accepting the unacceptable, by in effect affording immunity for this mistake, or was it a violation of Board policy? The current enforcement procedures are obviously weak when no sanctions have been imposed as a result of this instance.

But let us be clear on this point: We are not advocating for punitive action against the teacher. The Superintendent and board members have bestowed immunity on that teacher. We found it incredible that the Superintendent made a snap public decision in this case (that a wrong was committed). That decision was devoid of respect for the teachers due process rights. Consequently the teacher would never be able to get a fair hearing if significant sanctions were to have been or will be imposed.

This board will be well advised to pull the policy, that should have prevented this mistake from ever happening, for review and de minimus it should be amended it to provide for clear and meaningful sanctions if violated in the future. These board members should learn from this failure at multiple levels. This issue we are suggesting here is not whether the material was appropriate or not, but rather that the boards policies and the administrative procedures in this case were clearly not adequate to prevent a teacher from doing what should have been seen as clearly inappropriate.

We are suggesting that while it was wrong for this material to be distributed, it is equally wrong not to hold those who should have kept it from happening in the first place accountable. And that clearly falls on the Superintendents and principals shoulders. The teachers decisions were indeed inappropriate, but it is just as clear that others, including those responsible for what is being taught in our schools, were at fault also and just as deserving of sanctions as was the teacher. And the public is left to wonder if the sanctions, if any, taken in this case are sufficient to prevent a reoccurrence.

No, board members, it is not sufficient for you to say you did not know about or condone such materials, any more that it being an adequate defense by the teacher that he/she did not know it was wrong. That misses the most important point in all this. The board should have had adequate policies to prevent it from happening and to hold violators accountable for not following the policy. The very fact that it happened is an indictment of the board not fulfilling its policy-making function and for not holding the administrators accountable for seeing that its policies are being followed.

And finally, we offer the following for consideration by this board. Good policy making does not seek to require the board to approve such materials. That is clearly ridiculous. We did not approve something is as foolish as saying we did not know the hazard was there. Rather good policy, in a free society, is almost always negative. It should be written, as are statutory laws, in terms of what is prohibited, not what is permissible. The staff, parents and everyone concerned should be able to read the boards policies and discern whether a specific action (or piece of materialas in this case) is inappropriate. That the board did not approve it is irrelevant. The important thing is to write the policies in such a way that reasonable people can discern what is prohibited. When, in doubt there should be a clear channel to allow the question to be answered higher up the chain. And the higher the question rises up the channel, the greater the responsibility/accountable becomes.

Let us hope that this teacher, the school administrators, the board and most of all the Superintendent learned enough from this that it will be prevented from happening again.





poll#210
Russia denies purchasing arms from Pyongyang

By Nam Hyun-woo

The suspected arms shipments from North Korea to Russia are showing signs of growing, despite the international community's increasing condemnation.

The United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, Thursday (local time), that it is "almost certain" that North Korean munitions have reached ammunition depots in western Russia, which supports Moscow's military operations in Ukraine.

"If North Korea sustains the recent scale and pace of military-related shipments (more than 1,000 containers over the last several weeks), it will be on course to become one of Russia's most significant foreign arms suppliers, alongside Iran and Belarus," the ministry wrote.

Voice of America also reported Friday (Korea Time) that railway shipping activities are increasing in the border areas between the North and Russia, citing satellite images provided by Planet Labs.

In the photos showing railways near the North Korea-Russia Friendship Bridge in the North's Rason city from Oct. 20 to 26, cargo trains covered with blue tarpaulins appeared and disappeared, with a cargo yard nearby showing an increase in the volume of goods.

The news outlet reported that "the satellite images captured the location where the White House pointed out as the venue of North Korea-Russia arms trade in January" and "it is assumed that there have been many activities in the past week."

The U.S. said on Oct. 13 that North Korea delivered 1,000 containers of equipment and munitions to Russia for its Ukraine war, citing satellite images. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that the U.S. believes North Korea is seeking Russian weapons technologies in return for refiling Russia's munitions, in order to boost Pyongyang's military and nuclear program.

Despite denials from Russia and North Korea, speculation is flaring that the alleged arms shipments are the result of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's visit last month to Russia, where he met Russian President Vladimir Putin and visited key military sites.

It is unclear what Russia has agreed to provide North Korea in return, but the U.K. defense ministry said that is highly likely to be "one of the primary discussion topics during recent senior-level Russian visits to North Korea" and suspected financial compensation and military and space technologies could be included in the package.

The U.S. also has said that Pyongyang seeks to obtain military hardware including fighter jets, surface-to-air missiles, armored vehicles and other advanced weapon technologies.

Against that backdrop, international condemnation is growing on the purported Pyongyang-Moscow arms transfers.

On Thursday, South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa released a joint statement saying they confirmed weapon deliveries were completed.

"We are deeply concerned about the potential for any transfer of nuclear- or ballistic missile-related technology to the DPRK," the statement reads, referring to the North by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"Such transfers would jeopardize the ongoing efforts of the international community to keep sensitive technologies out of the hands of actors who are working to destabilize regional security, threaten peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula as well as across the globe."

European Union lead spokesperson for foreign affairs Peter Stano also told Voice of America that "Any kind of support or military support from North Korea to Russia will be met with an appropriate response."

Regarding the statement, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said in a press briefing that "there are many such reports, they are all groundless as a rule, there are no specifics," adding "North Korea is our neighbor and we continue and will continue to develop close relations in all areas."
Here are five physician fraud suits Becker's has covered since Oct. 27:

1. New York pain management physician Duane Dixon, MD, pleaded guilty to unlawful opioid distribution and healthcare fraud. Dr. Dixon, along with a co-conspirator, were charged with conspiring to distribute opioids without a medical purpose across several Virginia clinics operated by L5 Medical Holdings between 2014 and 2019.

2. Metairie, La.-based physician Alex Glotser, MD, pleaded guilty for his role in a scheme to defraud Medicare of $5.6 million in medically unnecessary equipment and genetic testing. While working as an independent contractor for a telemedicine company from around September 2017 to August 2019, Dr. Glotser signed thousands of physicians' orders for Medicare beneficiaries he neither met nor treated.

3. Brian Hyatt, MD, a psychiatrist and former head of Arkansas' state medical board, pleaded not guilty to multiple charges of Medicaid fraud. Dr. Hyatt, who previously served as medical director of the behavioral health unit at Northwest Medical Center in Springdale, Ark., allegedly billed Medicaid for the most expensive billing codes while running the unit despite rarely being onsite at the facility.

4. Raphael Malikian, MD, a former physician based in Llano and Palmdale, Calif., pleaded guilty to federal narcotics charges for illegally dispensing and prescribing controlled substances. Dr. Malikian issued prescriptions for controlled substances to customers without first obtaining the person's full medical history, conducting a physical examination, requiring medical testing or utilizing diagnostic tools from at least December 2019 to August 2021.

5. Kenai, Alaska-based physician Ray Lynn Carlson, MD, and his clinics' managers have been indicted on 23 charges in a Medicare fraud case. From 2014 to 2019, Dr. Carlson allegedly fraudulently billed Alaska Medicaid, along with Aetna and Premera, from his clinics based in Kenai and Nikiski, Alaska.
A North Carolina business court has sided with Fayetteville, N.C.-based Cumberland County Hospital System in an ownership dispute with physician Michael Woodcock, MD, over Fayetteville ASC.

On April 1, 2019, one of the ASC's limited partners divested itself and purchased 100% of the equity of the general partner, known as Cape Fear Valley Ambulatory Surgery Center. Dr. Woodcock alleged that that transaction violated the ASC's limited partnership agreement.

When the ASC's partnership agreement was last amended in 1995, its ownership consisted of one general partner and 12 limited partners.

Dr. Woodcock is one of the physician partners with an ownership stake in the ASC, according to court documents filed in October.

In 2018, the general partner decided to sell its equity in the ASC, and CCHS and Dr. Woodcock both engaged in negotiations to purchase the equity.

Prior to April 1, 2019, the hospital owned about 22% of the facility and Dr. Woodcock owned about 4.6%.

The hospital system won purchasing rights, and following the transaction, owned 43.66% of the limited partnership and 100% of the equity of the general partnership.

Dr. Woodcock challenged the validity of the transaction, stating that the hospital "does not have lawful authority to own 100% of the equity of [CFVASC] or to exercise any authority over [CFVASC]."

The lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed and refiled in 2021 by Dr. Woodcock and three other physician partners with ownership interest.

The court has decided in favor of the hospital system, stating that the hospital and the ASC did not violate the existing limited partnership agreement.
Here are four physicians facing drug charges reported by Becker's since Oct. 9:

1. New York pain management specialist Duane Dixon, MD, pleaded guilty to unlawful opioid distribution and healthcare fraud. Dr. Dixon, along with a co-conspirator, were charged with conspiring to distribute opioids without a medical purpose across several Virginia clinics operated by L5 Medical Holdings between 2014 and 2019.

2. San Diego-based physician Tien Tan Vo, MD, was sentenced to three years of probation for his yearslong use of unapproved, misbranded cosmetic drugs. From November 2016 to October 2020, Dr. Vo injected around 178 patients with unapproved injectable botulinum toxin or lip fillers that had been smuggled into the U.S. from Mexico.

3. Raphael Malikian, MD, a former physician based in Llano and Palmdale, Calif., pleaded guilty to federal narcotics charges for illegally dispensing and prescribing controlled substances. Dr. Malikian issued prescriptions for controlled substances to customers without actually treating them from at least December 2019 to August 2021.

4. Hillsdale, N.J.-based internist Lisa Ferraro, MD, was charged with conspiring to distribute oxycodone without legitimate medical reason. From January 2020 to August 2023, Dr. Ferraro allegedly participated in a conspiracy to prescribe oxycodone to individuals who posed as patients despite never actually seeing them.
ASC owners and administrators are keeping an eye on big trends in healthcare and making significant investments to "future-proof" their centers.

BD sponsored a recent Outpatient Surgery survey providing guidance for surgery center owners and operators. The survey was conducted in late 2022, and included respondents from single and multispecialty groups, independent centers and group or hospital-owned centers. The survey asked what ASC leaders are doing to future-proof their facilities; the top five responses were:

1. Adding surgeon partners: 56%

2. Evaluating and upgrading capital equipment: 53.4%

3. Purchasing new technology: 44%

4. Staff training and education: 41%

5. Adding specialty service lines: 26%

The most desired specialties right now include orthopedics and total joints, spine and neurosurgery, and heart procedures. Adding the right specialties, and specialty surgeons, can drive more volume and revenue to the center.

"As an orthopedic CEO and practicing surgeon, I've witnessed firsthand the transformative impact of outpatient hip and knee arthroplasty on our surgery centers," David Jevsevar, MD, CEO of OrthoVirginia told Becker's in September. "These procedures significantly enhance our center's efficiency, allowing us to treat more patients without the need for extended hospital stays. This not only streamlines our operations but also translates to a notable reduction in overhead costs associated with prolonged inpatient care."

The faster recovery times and ability to recover from big procedures at home appealed to patients, and from a business perspective, Dr. Jevsevar said diversifying services positioned the center to provide more innovative and patient-centric care.

To spotlight capital equipment purchases, many organizations are adding robotic technology. Alfonso del Granado, administrator and CEO of Covenant High Plains Surgery Centers in Lubbock, Texas, said purchasing a DaVinci surgical robot has had the biggest positive impact on the ASC in the last year, even though cost per case is higher. The unused time slots on the ASC's schedule are now productively filled, and surgeons are taking cases to the ASC when the hospital's wait list for using the robotic technology becomes too long.

"We will be performing a second performance review in January to decide whether to continue the program, but so far the financial impact has been positive, and the indirect benefits have been significant," said Mr. del Granado.

Emily Spponer, CEO of Pompano Beach, Fla.-based South Florida Same Day Surgery Center, said the center invested in a new ASC software platform last year that has already had a positive impact.

"Due to the lack of staffing in the healthcare industry, this program has allowed us to be more efficient without as many employees," said Ms. Spooner. "Using one platform for all our surgery center needs has greatly impacted our productivity, especially scheduling surgeries. It has really streamlined the process of complete revenue cycle management."

The report noted five more ways to future-proofing ASCs:

6. Renovations: 26%

7. Building an additional ASC: 25%

8. Expanding current space: 18%

9. Financial partnerships: 16.5%

10. Adding on-site sterilization: 7%
From DSOs entering new states to a state's first dental school, here are 30 dental industry firsts that have taken place so far in 2023, starting with the most recent:

1. Hackensack, N.J.-based Max Surgical Specialty Management appointed Akeyla Brown, DDS, as the company's first clinical director for diversity, equity and inclusion and community engagement.

2. Batesville, Ark.-based Lyon College released plans for the site of its upcoming dental school, which will be the first dental school in the state.

3. SprintRay launched OnX Tough 2, the first resin created for fixed, implant-supported denture prosthetics to earn FDA clearance.

4. Morgantown-based West Virginia University School of Dentistry is adding the state's first pediatric dentistry residency program.

5. Dallas-based MB2 Dental added its first practice in Wisconsin.

6. New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Dental365 acquired its first Pennsylvania practice.

7. The University of Oklahoma College of Dentistry in Oklahoma City introduced the state's first pediatric dentistry residency program.

8. Plantation, Fla.-based Vitana Pediatric & Orthodontic Partners partnered with its first set of dentists in Louisiana.

9. Impress, a clear aligner orthodontics company founded in Barcelona, Spain, opened its first clinic location in New York City.

10. Chicago-based Aspen Dental opened its first Nevada office.

11. Tend opened its first office in Connecticut.

12. Irvine, Calif.-based Pacific Dental Services and Fountain Valley, Calif.-based MemorialCare announced plans to open their first integrated medical-dental office in Irvine, Calif.

13. Frisco, Texas-based Bond Orthodontic Partners added its first Nevada practice.

14. Kira Toulson, DDS, became the first dentist in Baltimore County to utilize the Yomi Robotic Dental System.

15. Irvine, Calif.-based Pacific Dental Services honored the first graduate from its college advancement program.

16. Heera Chang, DDS, MD, was appointed as the first female dental director of Hawaii Dental Service, a dental benefits provider.

17. The Chicago Dental Society named Heather Nash as the organization's seventh executive director and the first female to hold the position.

18. Janice Darko is the first Black female graduate at the The University of Utah School of Dentistry in Salt Lake City.

19. Irving, Texas-based U.S. Oral Surgery Management added its first practices in Pennsylvania and New Mexico.

20. Dental supplier Dentsply Sirona partnered with Smile Train, a cleft-focused nonprofit, and the FDI World Dental Federation to establish the first-ever global protocols for digital cleft treatment.

21. New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Premier Care Dental Management added its first practice in New Hampshire.

22. Jonas Gauthier, DDS, is the first dentist in Louisiana to offer robot-assisted dental implant surgery.

23. Pacific Dental Services and the Workman School of Dental Medicine at High Point (N.C.) University partnered to implement the Epic electronic health record system at the university. The partnership marks the first between a DSO and dental school through Epic's Community Connect program.

24. Allen Robinson, DDS, is first in Washington, D.C., to use the Yomi dental implant robot

25. The University of Alabama at Birmingham's oral oncology clinic is among the first in the Southeast to use augmented reality in head and neck cancer surgery.

26. Implant Dentistry in Sunset Hills, Mo., is the first practice in the state to use the Yomi dental implant robot.

27. Star Community Health in Allentown, Pa., appointed Tonya Cook, DMD, as its first chief dental officer.

28. The University of Alabama at Birmingham's oral oncology clinic was among the first in the Southeast to use augmented reality in head and neck cancer surgery.

29. Tend, a tech-focused dental company, appointed Cynthia Hiskes as its first chief people officer.

30. Carmel, Ind.-based Vista Verde Dental Partners opened its first Britely Dentures + Implants office in Texas.
Pennsylvania legislators are considering expanding dental services covered by Medicaid, wesa.fm reported Oct. 27.

Much of the state's dental coverage was eliminated in 2011, but bills introduced in both chambers aim to restore it.

Helen Hawkey, executive director at the Pennsylvania Coalition for Oral Health, told the news station that eliminating coverage also has a negative impact on dental students because the students treat Medicaid patients as part of their training.
Perry (Okla.) Memorial Hospital, the first rural emergency hospital in Oklahoma, is launching a $13 million facility improvements capital expenditure project, The Journal Record reported Oct. 27.

In 2018, Stillwater (Okla.) Medical Center assumed control over the hospital. Subject to the completion of the facility improvements, Stillwater Medical Center, will enter into another seven-year lease agreement with the Perry Facilities Authority.

The city of Perry will fund early project-related costs. In 2018, when the hospital was struggling to remain open, Perry residents overwhelmingly voted to approve a local tax that would support the hospital.
Iowa City-based University of Iowa Health Care is warning employees against the use of ChatGPT for its potential to violate HIPAA.

In an Oct. 26 notice, the health system said the artificial intelligence chatbot is not HIPAA-compliant and thus, to be used, tools like it must undergo a "proper security review, contracting, and business associate agreement."

"[Entering] patient information into an AI system could result in a HIPAA violation," the warning read. "For example, using ChatGPT to draft a patient letter or using an unapproved AI transcription service requires sharing of (patient health information) with the application. Beware of these types of situations."
General Catalyst plans to buy a health system  and have its digital health portfolio companies help transform it.

On Oct. 8, the venture capital firm launched Health Assurance Transformation Corp., which former Intermountain Health boss Marc Harrison, MD, will run.

One of HATCo's focuses will be to construct an "interoperability model with technology solutions including a subset of our healthcare portfolio companies to drive this transformation," according to a General Catalyst blog post.

The startups that General Catalyst invests in already get access to more than 20 health systems in the firm's "health assurance" partnership. They might soon share ownership with a U.S. health system  one, reportedly, in the $1 to $3 billion range.

Here are some of the healthcare companies in General Catalyst's portfolio:

Adonis

Aidoc

Alinea Health

Altos Labs

ArriVent

August Health

Avant-garde

Beacon

Berry Health

Better Health

BrightInsight

Cadence

Capital Rx

Cartwheel Care

Casana

Cellanome

CertifyOS

Charm Therapeutics

Circulo

Cityblock Health

Color

Commure

Corvia

Ctrl Therapeutics

Curai

Devoted

Dewpoint Therapeutics

Doccla

Eight Sleep

Eikon

Eleanor Health

Elemy

Elephant Healthcare

Elysium

Enable Medicine

Equip Health

Evvy

Examedi

Faro

Finni Health

Flexpa

Fractyl Health

Genial Care

Georgiamune

Hippocratic AI

Homeward Health

Humans Anonymous

IXLayer

Jasper Health

Karius

Kernel

Loop Health

Lottie

Maribel Health

Maze

MD Ally

Medeloop

Medely

Memora Health

Mindstrong

Mirvie

Neko Health

Nirvana

OM1

Odyssey

Ophelia Health

Orange Health

Osana

Osmind

Ossium Health

Overjet

Paradigm

PathAI

Plume Health

Rakuten

Redesign Health

Ribbon Health

Rippl

Ro

Somethings

Sesame

Shyft

SonderMind

Spring

Sprinter Health

Story Health

Sword

Tendo

Transcarent

Triomics

TripleBlind

Truvian

Uno Health

Variant Bio

Vevo

Vial

Well

Zageno

Zerigo
South Korea's unification minister said Friday he leaves open the possibility that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's daughter, Ju-ae, could be the country's heir apparent given her public appearances.

"We cannot rule out such a possibility at this point," Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho said during a parliamentary audit session when asked if the daughter could become the future successor of the reclusive regime.

"We need to be open to the possibility when looking at recent activities," he added.

Ju-ae, believed to be around 10 years old, made her first public appearance on Nov. 18, when she, along with her father, attended the firing of a Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile.

The minister added he "has not been able to confirm" whether the North Korean leader has a son.

"The North Korean regime seems to be stable under the leadership of Kim Jong-un, but it lacks a formal system for the succession of the top leadership, which makes it fundamentally unstable and considerably vulnerable," the minister said. (Yonhap)
Cedars-Sinai is creating a digital health strategy that uses artificial intelligence tools and virtual care to alleviate capacity issues in its in-person care locations.

Earlier this month, the Los Angeles-based health system launched Cedars-Sinai Connect, a virtual care app developed with digital health company K Health. A couple of weeks into the project, Cedars-Sinai CIO Craig Kwiatkowski told Becker's, "we're really seeing that pay off in the patient experience."

While Mr. Kwiatkowski is excited by the potential of AI to liberate clinicians from administrative work, he cautioned that AI is not a "silver bullet" to solve the staffing and burnout crisis.

To learn more about the health system's AI and digital health strategy, Becker's caught up with Mr. Kwaitkowski:

Question: How did Cedars-Sinai Connect come about? How does it work?

Craig Kwiatkowski: So essentially, we call it Cedars-Sinai Connect. It's a virtual healthcare option with physicians available 24/7, for urgent care issues, appointments and primary care needs. It's intended to alleviate and help with capacity and access pressures in our brick-and-mortar physical locations, primarily primary care and urgent care. It has the patient experience emphasis on meeting patients where they are. We're beginning to see that it's a modality that makes things easier for physicians. That was the genesis of that endeavor.

K Health developed the artificial intelligence technology and then we co-built the app experience that is out today. The workflow essentially starts with an AI-enabled question-and-answer chat that gathers relevant health details and symptoms from the patient and helps assess their medical concerns.

So patients, as they're answering, get information about their potential diagnosis via that AI-enabled symptom checker. They can then choose whether they want to have a real-time video visit with a physician or to schedule a visit in the future. If they choose a video visit, that intake information is gathered during the chat session and assimilated and presented to the physician. So the physician has all the necessary and relevant information to initiate a more seamless conversation with the patient.

In terms of the sort of feedback we've gotten so far, it's still early, we're a couple of weeks into the general availability launch, but the response has been quite positive. I think one of the ways in which it has been positive is because we gather all that information from the patient upfront. We're really seeing that pay off in the patient experience. Patients appreciate that the physicians have the relevant info and are prepared to discuss the patient's concerns with them right at the start of the visit. We've also heard feedback from patients that the AI-enabled workflow is easy to navigate. From a physician standpoint, they are appreciative of the efficiency of the solution that really leverages the AI front end to complete clinical intake and data entry assimilation, which is something that helps them focus more on patient care and less on the usual documentation burden. We're excited to continue to build the program and further refine the digital tools.

Q: How do you see these AI-enabled tools contributing to combating physician burnout and the healthcare staffing crisis?

CK: It depends on how broadly we define AI. We've used AI for years, mainly in all the rules-based machine learning categories. The way in which we've deployed the technology has a significant impact on quality and safety and hospital operations, but they've never really solved the clinician burnout, problem or challenge. These new generative AI tools, the large language models, really have enormous potential. I don't see any silver bullets necessarily, but it does seem that we're on the cusp of being able to build solutions that can begin to bend the burnout curve.

Provider organizations like ours have been moving from paper to digital for two decades now. Building the EHR foundation has been transformational in many ways, but it has often been at the expense of burdensome workflows for our frontline caregivers, with a heavy emphasis on documentation and coding. The good news is now that we have all this information digitally captured and available at our caregiver's fingertips. The bad news is it's a lot of information and it's a bit overwhelming. We're finally at a point where that digital foundation we've been building for so long will begin to pay off as we're able to embed these AI tools within existing workflows to reduce some of that burden. These tools have great potential to alleviate some of those pressures, reduce workload, decrease some of the daily staff frictions and allow clinicians and caregivers to focus more on patient care. We're still in the early stages; there's a long way to go. It's essential that we implement these tools thoughtfully to make sure new things are enhancing, assisting and mentoring; they are not here to replace human interaction or human judgment.

Q: How do you ensure that health equity is prioritized when building AI models?

CK: So one of the core pillars of our AI strategy, as an organization, is centered around sound and ethical use of AI and these tools. We really firmly believe that establishing ethical and unbiased standards for these technologies is crucial to get the sound use and to their adoption. It's our obligation to ensure responsible, evidence-based, equitable deployment. Neglecting any of those things could worsen existing disparities.

We created a framework for ethical deployment and use of AI. So, that framework and those policies are really designed to ensure that AI benefits patients, physicians and the community. It advocates for appropriate oversight for safe use, effective and equitable use.

The framework identifies who might be impacted, how the models are trained, what data is used, retraining capabilities and assessment bias. We look to ensure that we have explainability and reducibility of the results. We have an obligation to ensure that we continue to monitor these tools and algorithms proactively for ethics and health equity. There's more and more analysis and research being published about the potential model drift in the way in which these tools can evolve as they're released into the wild.

Q: What projects or technology are you working with that you think could change healthcare?

CK: I feel fairly bullish on ambient voice technology. I think about pairing that with a large language model AI tools as having the potential, I don't want to over-dramatize it, but it could revolutionize the way in which care is delivered. In certain patient interactions, we're working on rolling out a couple of pilots very soon. We're hopeful that those outcomes will be positive.

I think these tools, in particular, have the potential to tangibly and substantially reduce burdens on physicians and other providers. They can hopefully provide a more natural conversational experience so that clinicians can focus more on patient care and less on documentation. Hopefully, this allows the patient to interact more and be more engaged in their care rather than sitting on the other side of the computer screen.
Digital health funding fell 14% compared to the same quarter a year ago to $3 billion and to the lowest level since 2016, according to a new report from CB Insights.

The number of third-quarter deals also fell to 128, the fewest in a quarter since 2013. Despite the decline in funding, the median deal size of $3.8 million was only down 5% year over year, according to the report. General Catalyst and Samsung Next each invested in four digital health startups, more than any other investors.

The United States was the market with the majority of digital health funding, with 63% of deals in the third quarter.
Local governments across the country have set their sights on closed hospitals in an effort to keep care close to home.

It has only been 15 days since St. Mark's Medical Center in La Grange, Texas, closed its doors. Quentin Whitwell, CEO of Progressive Health Group  an Oxford, Miss.-based hospital management group with experience in the rural sector  has spent the past few weeks attempting to gain ownership of the shuttered facility before pharmaceuticals and other supplies are compromised. Now, the governments of La Grange County and Fayette County are asking St. Mark's board chair, Dudley Piland, to pass control to Mr. Whitwell.

On Oct. 20, the Fayette County judge and La Grange mayor penned a letter to Mr. Piland, alleging the hospital's operator  Plano, Texas-based Community Hospital Corp.  has deferred consideration of a new operator to him.

"The Fayette County Community of Citizens and businesses contributed the funds necessary to induce the Department of Housing and Urban Development to guarantee the construction mortgage to build SMMC," reads the letter shared with Becker's. "We, on behalf of the citizens and institutions of Fayette County, demand the SMMC Board, which now appears to have no useful function, to transfer SMMC to Progressive Health Group, that we may have the opportunity to regain the healthcare on which we relied, and as promised."

St. Mark's isn't the only shuttered hospital garnering local governments' attention. Martin General Hospital in Williamston, N.C., filed for bankruptcy and ended operations on Aug. 3, but was brought up during an Oct. 25 county commissioners' meeting. Martin County Attorney Ben Eisner was named the county's interim manager, and residents are depending on him to help reopen the hospital, NBC affiliate WITN reported.

The city of Atlanta has been debating the future of Atlanta Medical Center for more than a year. Mayor Andre Dickens has had a redevelopment ban on the land since Marietta, Ga.-based Wellstar Health System closed the facility last October, preventing the system from selling or redeveloping the land. Previous city planning efforts "have designated the Atlanta Medical Center as a piece of essential infrastructure for the community, and further contemplated that the medical center would continue to be a staple in the community providing both health care and jobs," according to the order, which Mr. Dickens plans to renew for another six months.

La Grange, Williamston and Atlanta have at least one thing in common: the hospitals left a gaping hole in their communities. In the small rural towns of La Grange and Williamston, residents now must travel for care. In Atlanta, underserved populations that once relied on the 460-bed AMC are short one option  and the city is down to one level 1 trauma center.

"Bodies are dropping," Sean Wilson, a Martin County resident, said during the Oct. 25 meeting. "It could be my family member, it could be your family member, or one of us. We need our hospital back."



Read more about the reasons behind recent hospital closures here.
Philadelphia-based Temple University Health System was the lead buyer of the city's Chestnut Hill Hospital when the purchase closed Jan. 1.

The system reported Oct. 27 that the $28 million acquisition of the hospital from West Reading, Pa.-based Tower Health has resulted in an approximate $7.4 million loss on its investment in the first six months of operations.

Temple University's 60% stake in the hospital was originally valued at $16.8 million, but the value of that investment was $9.4 million as of June 30, according to the filing. Temple University also had approximately $23.9 million in receivables due from the nonprofit now running the hospital.

Redeemer Health and the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine each own a 20% stake in the hospital.

The investment loss on the hospital was included in audited financials, which showed Temple University reporting an operating loss of $58.8 million for the year ending June 30.
Israel Rocha, the CEO of Chicago-based Cook County Health, will leave his role Dec. 1.

Mr. Rocha is pursuing "a new professional opportunity," according to an Oct. 27 news release shared with Becker's. The system did not specify what that new opportunity might be, and his LinkedIn page has not been updated with a new title.

Mr. Rocha assumed the helm of Cook County Health on Dec. 7, 2020, and his tenure will end just shy of three years. Prior to joining CCH, he served New York City-based NYC Health + Hospitals as a hospital CEO.

An interim CEO will be named "in short order," and Cook County Health will launch a national search for a successor, the system said.
Rachel Drake, MSN, RN, has been named chief nursing officer of the MUSC Health Catawba (S.C.) Division, which includes two hospitals, The Lancaster News reported Oct. 26.

As CNO of the division, Ms. Drake will lead nursing operations at MUSC Health Lancaster (S.C.) Medical Center and Chester (S.C.) Medical Center.

She joined MUSC Health  an academic health system based in Charleston, S.C.  in October to begin her new role. She previously served as associate chief nurse executive and chief nursing officer at Prisma Health Hillcrest Hospital in Simpsonville, S.C.
The University of Florida in Gainesville has appointed Shakira Henderson, PhD, DNP, as the system chief nurse executive for the UF Health system and dean of the College of Nursing.

Dr. Henderson will join the university system after departing her current role as assistant vice chancellor, system vice president research officer and clinical integration research officer at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and the UNC Health system, according to an Oct. 26 news release.

Her appointment to the role begins Jan. 29, 2024.
Ocean Springs, Miss.-based Singing River Health System is back on the market after negotiations around its planned sale to Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System, a 10-hospital system, broke down, SuperTalk Mississippi Media reported Oct. 25.

The decision to call off negotiations was a mutual one after both parties failed to reach a consensus agreement since talks began in March. The health systems had initially hoped to reach a final agreement for Baton Rouge, La.-based FMOLHS to take over operations this fall.

The decision ultimately came down to poor timing, Ken Taylor, president of the Jackson County board of supervisors, which owns Singing River, told local news outlet WLOX.

"We are concerned with the timing right now in the healthcare industry," Mr. Taylor told WLOX. "Due diligence is what really made us terminate the [request for proposal]. With so much due diligence, we could not see the end of negotiations. We could not see a positive outcome for the hospital, for the county."

Since negotiations began in March, key leadership changes have been announced at both health systems.

Laurin St. Pe took over as CEO of Singing River following the June resignation of Tiffany Murdock, DNP, MSN. Richard Vath, MD, announced that he will be retiring as president and CEO of FMOLHS in June 2024.

Mr. St. Pe has outlined plans to reach seven percent of economic growth for the hospital system by prioritizing quality and efficiency.

"And were going to focus on smart growth, making sure it has a return on investment," Mr. St. Pe told WXXV. "And most importantly, because you cant have quality if you dont have this, and that is focusing on our people. Making sure we're retaining the best of the best and recruiting the best of the best."

Singing River will tap leaders from the hospital, board of trustees and supervisors to work together to determine a new strategic direction for the health system, Mr. Taylor told WLOX.
Santa Clara County in California and Valley Physicians Group, a union that represents more than 450 physicians in the county's health system, have settled the pending unfair labor practice charge VPG filed with the California Public Employee Relations Board alleging that hospital leaders threatened union members against striking last year.

The complaint, which the parties settled on Oct. 12, stemmed from threatening communications VPG members say they received from former Santa Clara County Executive Jeff Smith, MD, Santa Clara Valley Medical Center CEO Paul Lorenz and SCVMC Chief Medical Officer Phuong Nguyen, MD, on Oct. 24 and 25, 2022.

Valley Physicians Group members planned to begin a four-day strike Nov. 1, 2022, and continue through Nov. 4. However, both sides reached a tentative agreement Oct. 28, 2022, on a new contract, averting a walkout. Workloads and staffing were among the key issues brought up during negotiations.

"On Oct. 24, 2022, Smith sent an email to members threatening [union members] risked being reported to the California Medical Board for 'patient abandonment' if they participated in the strike," the union said in a news release shared with Becker's. "The next day, Nguyen and Lorenz sent a similar letter from the Medical Staff Office's email address. Since no Medical Staff Committee endorsed the letter and no Medical Staff Officer signed the letter, this communication from county executive managers also violated the independence of the medical staff."

In its view, the threat was hollow and constituted illegal intimidation, VPG said. The union subsequently filed an unfair labor practice charge with the state late last year, and a hearing date was set for this month. The new county executive, James Williams, agreed to a settlement before the hearing.

The settlement, according to the union news release, requires the county to send an email to all VPG-represented employees retracting the previous letter from executives; hold a training for county executive managers who oversee VPG members regarding employee rights; and formally acknowledge its legal obligation to "meet and confer with recognized representatives of bargaining units before issuing a mass communication concerning public employees' rights to join or support (or refrain from joining/supporting) an employee organization."

"VPG members proudly serve a safety-net community," the union said. "We are devoted to our patients and teaching missions and look forward to continued work with the county, under its new leadership, to achieve these mutual goals."

Mr. Williams shared the following statement with Becker's: "We are happy to have a resolution that will allow both sides to move forward in a positive way. We expect the previous concerns won't be an issue in the future and we look forward to continued excellent care for patients in our healthcare system."








Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and representatives from Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, N.J., have traded critical words this week amid a strike at the hospital, which began Aug. 4.

On Oct. 27, Mr. Sanders' Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee held a field hearing in New Brunswick centered on the strike, staffing and the healthcare workforce.

Mr. Sanders had invited Mark Manigan, the CEO of RWJBarnabas Health, and Alan Lee, the CEO of the nonprofit Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, to attend the hearing. Mr. Lee and Mr. Manigan instead submitted written testimony, a decision Mr. Sanders expressed disappointment in and had asked them to reconsider.

"There are a number of questions that I wanted to ask them," Mr. Sanders wrote in an Oct. 26 statement before the hearing. "I was particularly interested in having them explain to the committee how it happens that they could afford to spend some $90 million on traveling nurses, but somehow could not afford to sign a fair contract with their own nurses to increase patient safety at their nonprofit hospital."

Mr. Sanders wrote that he was also "interested in learning how they could afford to pay their CEO over $17 million in compensation in 2021, but apparently cannot afford to mandate the same safe nurse-patient ratios that have been in place in California for nearly 20 years."

The field hearing comes as members of United Steelworkers Local 4-200, which represents about 1,700 nurses at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, have been on strike since Aug. 4 after the union's most recent contract expired July 21.

Wendy Gottsegen, a Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital spokesperson, has pushed back against Mr. Sanders' comments regarding the hearing.

"It's unconscionable that the senior senator from Vermont overtly inserts himself into labor negotiations between a hospital in New Jersey and our nurses  and his public statements  illustrate that true intent," Ms. Gottsegen said in an Oct. 26 statement shared with Becker's.

She also noted that Mr. Manigan and Mr. Lee submitted comprehensive written testimony "that they hope will inform the committee as it works to understand and address the root cause of labor shortages across healthcare professions, especially in nursing, and the need for greater investments in healthcare all across this country."

The written testimony shared with Becker's states, in part, that the hospital has safe staffing guidelines agreed to by the USW 4200 negotiating committee in multiple contract settlement offers from the hospital that they failed to approve. The testimony also emphasized the hospital's efforts to reach an agreement with the union, as well as its commitment to patients, staff and community benefit.

"We firmly believe in collective bargaining and that those negotiations should be conducted at the bargaining table  not at a press conference," Ms. Gottsegen's statement reads. "We look forward to our next session where we will continue to negotiate transparently and in good faith towards reaching a fair and equitable resolution."
By Jung Da-hyun

A staffer of Tway Air in the Vietnamese city of Da Nang received a letter of appreciation from Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in recognition for helping a Korean national who had been injured in a car accident during a trip to the coastal city, the airline said Friday.

Dong Thi Phoung, an employee at Tway Air's Da Nang branch, discovered the Korean tourist involved in a car accident at around 1 a.m. in a parking lot at Da Nang International Airport on Aug. 29. Seeing that no one else was available to assist, she promptly called for an ambulance and provided initial support to the distressed tourist.

Upon the tourist's arrival at the hospital, Phoung played a crucial role as an interpreter, facilitating communication between the Vietnamese medical team and the Korean, who was traveling alone. Her assistance significantly contributed to the success of the medical treatment. Remarkably, Phoung declined any form of monetary reward from the grateful tourist.

News of her heroic actions spread throughout the Korean community in Da Nang, which led the Korean Consulate in Da Nang to present her with an letter with appreciation.

Kang Boo-sung, the consul general of Korea in Da Nang, expressed his gratitude for her voluntary efforts in assisting a Korean national, ultimately strengthening the friendly relations between Korea and Vietnam.

Meanwhile, Tway Air has disclosed its commitment to enhancing safety measures within the company by instituting regular fire drills in the cabin crew training curriculum and expanding safety education for all employees.

We consider ourselves fortunate to have been able to help a Korean tourist in an emergency situation that occurred at the airport site by local staff at Da Nang branch, said an official from Tway Air.

We are unwavering in our dedication to bolstering safety awareness throughout the company, always prioritizing safety above all else.
Community Hospital for the Monterey Peninsula and its parent company, Montage Health, may file for a new trial after losing a $9.475 million wrongful termination case, Monterey County Weekly reported Oct. 26.

The lawsuit was filed in November 2021 by Jared Stiver, a former supervisor of the Monterey, Calif.-based hospital, who had recently been fired. Mr. Stiver alleged administrators retaliated against employees who reported concerns about patient care, billing practices and other violations; those who complained might be "assigned unsafe working conditions, harassed and punished in other ways," according to a June report from Monterey County Weekly.

Mr. Stiver alleged the hospital violated patient care regulations and wrongfully terminated him for whistleblowing. CHMP and Montage Health executives testifed that Mr. Stiver would have been fired anyway for being a "bully" and "toxic," per the newspaper.

The jury voted unanimously in Mr. Stiver's favor, agreeing that Montage Health executives acted against Mr. Stiver "with malice, oppression or fraud." In May, the defendants were ordered to pay $4.95 million for lost compensation and $5 million for punitive damages. The sum was lowered to $9.475 million in July; the hospital is responsible for $475,000 for emotional distress, while Montage is responsible for $4 million in lost wages and $5 million in punitive damages.

After the trial, Monterey County Superior Court Judge Vanessa Vallarta ruled that the defendants violated a California health and safety code that prohibits hospitals and health systems from retaliating against healthcare workers for complaining about unsafe patient care  so the sum must be paid regardless of whether a new trial is won.

But the system is weighing a second trial on the grounds that Mr. Stiver was only employed by the hospital, not by Montage Health, Kevin Causey, vice president of CHMP, told Becker's in an Oct. 26 statement.

"Montage Health and Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula are considering all options, including appealing the Court's ruling on the motions," Mr. Causey said. "We believe that there were errors made in the trial that will be addressed on appeal, including the fact that Montage Health never employed Mr. Stiver and could not have been liable for any of the alleged conduct. We will continue to vigorously pursue all avenues available to overturn what they consider to be an erroneous jury verdict."
A former director at Doylestown (Pa.) Hospital has been charged with stealing more than $600,000 from the system almost two years after an investigation was launched, according to an Oct. 25 WHYY report.

Norma Galagarza, who retired from the system as the director of medical staff in March 2021, is accused of stealing a total of $604,702 from a hospital account that the board of directors was unaware was even open, the report said.

There were a total of 896 unauthorized transactions on the unknown account between 2008 and 2021.

According to the Bucks County district attorney's office, the account was a charitable fund that was opened in 1991 and funded by physicians, the Bucks County Courier Times reported.

"It is important to note that the misdirected funds were private funds raised by and for the use of Doylestown Healths independent medical staff," the system said in a statement. "They were not connected to the operation of Doylestown Hospital, nor related to the Doylestown Health Foundation. The misappropriation of these funds has had no impact on patient care or delivery of services."

Doylestown Health, which recently sold a retirement community for $80.6 million to boost its balance sheet, operates a 247-bed hospital, clinics and urgent care facilities.
A murder suspect who escaped Washington, D.C.-based George Washington University Hospital is back in custody after a seven-week search, The Washington Post reported Oct. 26.

Christopher Haynes, 30, was found around 10:30 a.m. in Maryland and taken into custody without incident, police said.

D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith said Mr. Haynes was brought to the hospital on Sept. 6 after complaining of a preexisting ankle injury, according to a separate report from the Post. He escaped after officers did not secure one of his arms to a gurney as they were changing his handcuffs in the emergency department, according to Ms. Smith. Mr. Haynes allegedly assaulted an officer in the course of his escape.

The incident prompted the University to issue a shelter-in-place order for students and staff shortly after.

On Sept. 13, authorities offered a $30,000 reward for information about Mr. Haynes' whereabouts. It is unclear if anyone will be awarded the money following his arrest.
Hospitals and health systems across the nation are among thousands of healthcare facilities participating in the Drug Enforcement Agency's National Prescription Drug Take Back Day on Oct. 28.

The semiannual event encourages people to dig through their medicine cabinets to return unused prescriptions to safe disposal sites. For the 25th event, locations include Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare; Reading (Pa.) Hospital; Monongahela, Pa.-based Penn Highlands Mon Valley; Paris (Texas) Regional Health; Cleveland-based University Hospitals; and Cleveland Clinic.

Patients can anonymously discard unused or expired medications by blacking out or removing personal information from labels. The event was created to reduce overdoses and illegal uses of old prescriptions.

On the last Drug Take Back day in April, nearly 5,000 collection sites collected 332 tons, equalling 663,725 pounds, according to the DEA.
The FDA declared the shortage resolved for Pluvicto, a prostate cancer drug made by Novartis.

The shortage began in the spring, sparking concern among oncologists who described Pluvicto as "the only treatment of its kind," to The Wall Street Journal in March.

"People will die from this shortage, for sure," Jonathan McConathy, MD, PhD, director of the division of molecular imaging and therapeutics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, told the Journal in March. "The treatment isn't a cure, but it does extend patients' lives."

Issues with delivery and manufacturing propelled the shortage. The drugmaker had been pushing to begin manufacturing Pluvicto at a facility in New Jersey, which was approved by the FDA in April, and allowed Novartis to initially estimate an end to the ongoing shortage by the end of the year, but the approval allowed it to deliver ahead of schedule.

"This determination is the result of efforts to significantly scale up production of Pluvicto that have more than doubled weekly production capacity since May" Novartis stated in an Oct. 26 press release. "Novartis currently has more than sufficient supply to treat patients within two weeks of diagnosis, which is important for these patients with advanced disease who may need treatment quickly."

In 2024, the company plans to increase production lines to create additional capacity at the New Jersey facility and at another site in Indianapolis.
Phoenix-based OrthoArizona, which employs 70 musculoskeletal specialists, has expanded its total joint service line with the addition of Robert Burnham Jr., MD.

Dr. Burnham is an orthopedic surgeon with particular interest in hip and knee arthritis, hip and knee replacements, and lower extremity fractures. He has multiple peer-reviewed research articles to his name and has been awarded grants such as the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America Research Start Up Grant.

Dr. Burnham is slated to work out of OrthoArizonas sites in Peoria, Avondale and Litchfield Park.
Iowa City, Iowa-based Steindler Orthopedics has filed a motion in court requesting that a judge force Mercy Hospital Iowa City to move forward with a $29 million asset sale following its bankruptcy announcement, alleging that Mercy's delay of the sale is harming hospital operations and scaring away patients and providers, according to an Oct. 26 report from The Gazette.

"As the manager of the ortho service line, Steindler surgeons and professionals are on-site at the hospital daily," Steindler's statement reads. "Accordingly, Steindler is acutely aware of the negative impact that the delay in bringing the sale process to a timely conclusion has had on the ongoing hospital operations. Steindler is also experiencing a negative impact because Steindler patients have canceled or postponed surgeries scheduled at Mercy."

Mercy Hospital's purchaser, Preston Hollow, has asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to compel Mercy to comply with the auction results, reporting an impasse. Preston Hollow has also accused Mercy of trying to use resources from its nonprofit foundation to cover attorney fees instead of its operational losses.

Steindler Orthopedics has noted five areas being harmed as a result of the sale delay:

1. Mercy is struggling to retain staff and providers. "Several health care professionals, including physicians, nurses, and (operating room) staff, are choosing to leave Mercy and pursue more stable employment opportunities due to the perceived uncertainty as to the future of the sole community hospital in Iowa City," the court document reads.

2. Uncertainty around the hospital's sale and provider departures is disrupting patient care.

3. The longer the sale takes, the more confidence wanes among existing staff.

4. The delay in selling is causing a delay in transferring the practice to new management.

5. The impasse is costing money.

Steindler's president and CEO, Patrick Magallanes, told The Gazette that 18 cancellations, referrals elsewhere and postponements have occurred pending the sale outcome.

"There have been a number of resignations over the past 30 days, and excellent, caring folks are leaving. This is alarming to our team and should be to those hoping to see a new nonprofit hospital open," Mr. Magallanes told The Gazette.
By Kim Hyun-bin

Kazakh Ambassador to Korea Nurgali Arystanov celebrated his country's close ties with Korea and underscored the significance of the burgeoning relationship between the two nations, Wednesday, marking Kazakhstan's Republic Day.

The ambassador reflected on the progress Kazakhstan has made over the past 30 years. "Over the short span of 30 plus years, Kazakhstan has emerged as a mature state and responsible member of the international community, with an active foreign policy, dynamic economy and vibrant civil society," he said.

In emphasizing the importance of strategic partners, Arystanov said, "This kind of progress has been possible thanks to the crucial support of close friends and strategic partners. Among friendly countries, the Republic of Korea plays a major role, with which we enjoy the enhanced strategic partnership."

He continued to highlight the strength of the relationship: "Korea for us is the fourth-largest trade partner and sixth-largest foreign investor."

Arystanov underlined the significance of high-level dialogues between the two nations. "As a result of a regular dialogue between our presidents and foreign ministers, bilateral cooperation receives a fresh impetus," he said.

He also noted a recent meeting in New York, where the presidents of Kazakhstan and Korea agreed to "further promote friendship, enhance political cooperation and commercial partnership."

The ambassador concluded with a strong emphasis on the solid foundation of friendship between the two nations: "Let me highlight that our cooperation rests on the rock-solid foundation of genuine friendship between the Kazakh and Korean peoples," he said. "With the mutual desire to promote bilateral cooperation, I am sure that the horizons of our engagement will expand drastically in the years to come."




The Bank Apartments and Safehouse Cafe Bar have been launched in Portrush with manager Natasha Kirke, Mayor Steven Callaghan and Rajesh Rana, director of Andras Hotel Group

A former bank building in Portrush has been brought back to life following a 2.5m restoration project.

The listed building, originally built in 1898 for the Belfast Banking Company, has been converted to serviced apartments and a cafe bar by hotel group Andras Hotels.

The building was opened by Steven Callaghan, Mayor of Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council.

The mayor, who trained as a chef and worked in hotel management, said: I am pleased to open this landmark project, and to see new life breathed into this historic building. This project will provide a boost the local economy and will hopefully attract more investors thinking about setting up businesses in the area.

Rajesh Rana, director of Andras House, said: It is a real source of pride to have been able to bring this wonderful building back into active use.

"We have employed local stonemasons, craftspeople, architects and designers to work on this project, and it is great to see the traditional skills being used on this building which is Grade B1 listed.

Our vision was to tell the history of this building, as a former branch of the Belfast Banking Company. The original bank vault is retained as a feature, and we have displayed old cheques from Belfast Banking Company and historic photographs.

The building will provide tourist accommodation in six serviced apartments, named The Bank Apartments, and a ground floor venue Safehouse Cafe Bar.

Mr Rana said: We are working with local food and drink producers and other suppliers to support businesses in the council area and Northern Ireland as a whole.

I am delighted to bring this project to completion. It is a landmark building on Main Street in Portrush and makes a real contribution to the regeneration of this part of the town.

"We have recently started construction of our hotel project, just across the road, and it is pleasing to bring new life to these two beautiful, listed buildings.

The project at the bank building was completed in two phases by contractors Martin & Hamilton and MSM Contracts.

Consarc acted as architects on the project, while interior design was completed by Philip Watts Design and Philip Rodgers Design.

Caldwell and Ian Black Consultant were consultant engineers.
UUP MLA Mike Nesbitt has argued that Stormont is stable and highly desirable to US investors in comparison to the mass murder taking place in a war between Israel and Hamas.

The comments come after a US business delegation visited Northern Ireland and talked up opportunities created by the region's bespoke post-Brexit trade arrangements on Thursday.

The Chief Executive at Manufacturing NI has also said US companies are chomping at the bit to invest in Northern Ireland.

On the Stephen Nolan Show, UUP MLA Mike Nesbitt said he is very positive about the future, while accepting it is embarrassing we dont have Stormont.

He added: But we dont have instability and I think thats crucial  I think Stormont is highly desirable.

When challenged on that point, he continued: If youre Americans, youre obsessed, sorry, youre focused on whats happening between Russia and Ukraine, between Israel and Gaza, and whats happening in the Middle East.

Youre focused on mass murder in Maine, compared to that, were pretty stable.

The Strangford MLA said business owners would be listening to comments from Brussels, which is that the Windsor Framework is here to stay, so thats not uncertainty, thats a level of certainty whether unionism likes it or not.

Meanwhile, speaking to the BBCs Good Morning Ulster programme, Stephen Kelly added that companies willing to lay down 50 or 100 million dollars want the reassurance of political stability.

Mr Kelly acknowledged that businesses are experiencing problems but said there are big opportunities and big benefits with dual-market access that they are capitalising on.

Business owners arent waiting around for the restoration of Stormont, he said, as they have to get on with the task at hand.

Stephen Kelly

Asked if it matters whether Stormont is restored or not, Mr Kelly said: Theres no doubt about it, our business community alongside our civil service, alongside the US administration represented here in Northern Ireland through the consulate, were working very much in consort on this.

And actually having our politicians alongside us would really strengthen that message. Having our politicians alongside us, as Selina said, really allows us to fully capture the opportunity that exists here.

No other region in the world gets the attention that were getting from the US administration. The US arent content with their investors going to other locations anywhere in the world apart from here.

Where a US investor has to lay down 50 or 100 million dollars which is a big risk for them, he explained, having politicians there adds a massive level of reassurance  so if we want to really capitalise on whats happened this week and the goodwill that exists for us across the world, then we do need our politicians back.

Mr Kelly said he knows cash is coming to Northern Ireland, citing a meeting he held where people were chomping at the bit to begin conversations.

President of the Londonderry Chamber of Commerce, Selina Horshi, said she got the impression the US investors were in NI out of genuine interest.

This isnt just about jobs announcements, he continued, this is about providing access for our businesses to scale and to get into other markets, and I know for a fact that thats definitely coming.

She added: For us to have the focus of this US delegation, in our tiny worldwide population, of only two million, is phenomenal.

They gave up their time, these are important people, because they were interested in seeing what could happen here.

They heard the benefits. They listened to them clearly. And they understood what they could do.

They also heard from companies who have already made it work here. Companies like Seagate and

AllState who have been long-established in this part of the world, and they recognised that we have the people, the talent, the skills, the trading opportunities, the quality of life, that can lead them to build a strong workforce here, at a good price, offering higher wages into our economy and delivering for Northern Ireland so we can realise that prosperity that should have come hand in hand with peace 25 years ago.
The late David Barclay and his twin brother Frederick bought the Telegraph newspapers in 2004 (Michael Stephens/PA)

Belfast Telegraph publisher Mediahuis is in the running to buy The Daily Telegraph, according to reports.

News agency Reuters reported that the Belgian business has joined other publishers and billionaires vying to snap up the broadsheet, along with weekly magazine The Spectator.

Mediahuis also owns the Sunday Life in Northern Ireland, Irish titles The Irish Independent and Sunday Independent and a number of regional papers over the border.

The sale process to dispose of The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph, which are based in London, was announced earlier this month.

Reuters said a source had informed it that Goldman Sachs is advising on the sale and supplying information on the businesses to a double-digit list of interested parties.

Analysis from Enders Analysis said the titles could fetch between 480m and 600m.

They have been put on the market after Lloyds Banking Group in June seized control of the parent company in a long-running dispute with former owners, the Barclay family, over more than 1bn of unpaid debt.

Reuters said that spokespeople for Goldman Sachs, Mediahuis and the Telegraph board declined to comment.

Mediahuis, founded in 2014, has bought news brands in Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Ireland and Germany, and owns titles including De Standaard in Belgium and De Telegraaf in Holland.

It is looking to expand in Britain but a second person told Mediahuis that it may not proceed with a bid.

Gert Ysebaert, chief executive of Mediahuis, told the Financial Times in 2019 that it was interested in buying the Telegraph newspapers if they ever came up for sale.

The Barclays bought Telegraph Media Group in 2004 for 665m.

Other parties linked to the process include Daily Mail owner, Lord Rothermere's DMGT, National World, which is led by Northern Ireland man David Montgomery, Germany's Axel Springer, hedge fund founder Paul Marshall and Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky.
The restoration of Stormont will not guarantee any economic upsurge, a leading economist and former MLA has warned.

Dr Esmond Birnie, from the Ulster University Business School, said in a speech to the Belfast Junior Chamber of Commerce and Belfast Rotary last night that Northern Ireland had a low productivity problem that pre-dated the pandemic, Brexit and the Troubles.

I am not joining the chorus from much of the media, commentariat and some of the business organisations which almost implies that restoration of devolution per se would work an economic upsurge, he said.

Unfortunately, it will not. That is not to deny that there may be political accountability arguments for having a regional government.

But, I am struck by how often poor-quality decision-making occurred during the parts of 1999 to 2022 when devolution was in operation.

Rishi Sunak recently complained that the political system opted for decisions which were easy rather than right.

He was thinking about London, Westminster and Whitehall. The same applies, perhaps even more so, to Northern Ireland.

Read more Significant gaps still remain in trade border impasse talks  Donaldson

The former Ulster Unionist MLA listed a series of questionable Stormont decisions aside from the Renewable Heat Incentive financial crisis that led to the collapse of Stormont in 2017, including:

 No domestic water charges;

 Tuition fees at less than half the English level, and underfunding of higher education;

 The cap on domestic rates at the top end;

 Free public transport to all 60 to 64-year-olds, regardless of whether they are in employment or have above-average incomes;

 A hospital estate which implies too much health service money is swallowed up by bricks and mortar.

Dr Birnie told the gathering Northern Ireland had a historic competitiveness problem, with output per head of the population at around 80% of the rest of the UK over the last 40 years.

He said workers on a 40-hour week in leading economies could produce as much as their Northern Irish counterparts do in a week by Thursday lunchtime.

With a US trade and investment delegation in Northern Ireland this week, he said the best way to attract more inward investment from companies based abroad or in Great Britain would be to raise productivity.

They are profit-seeking, and it is a myth to think the exhortations of politicians, even presidents, influence them all that much, Mr Birnie added.

He said that if the Executive returned, a new approach would be needed for its programme for government (PfG).

He said the PfG  each Executives plan for their mandate  should be drawn up ahead of the appointment of ministers and should include a specific productivity target.

Dr Birnie also said it should be short and cut out a lot of the motherhood and apple pie. He suggested five pledges on a card the size of a credit card, rather than dozens of desired outcomes and scores of indicators.

The Ballymena-born economist was an MLA from 1998 to 2007, a special adviser to the employment and learning minister from 2007 to 2010, and was later chief economist for PwC in Northern Ireland and Scotland.
The former PM left the House of Commons in June.

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said he will offer viewers frank opinions on world affairs as he announced his new role with GB News.

The former MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip will take on a role as presenter, programme maker and commentator with the broadcaster.

GB News has said Mr Johnson will play a key role in the channels coverage of both the UK general election and US election in 2024.

Though he has previously worked for The Times and The Daily Telegraph and has been a columnist for The Spectator, this is Mr Johnsons first broadcast role.

He said he was excited by the prospect of his new position.

"GB News is an insurgent channel with a loyal and growing following. I am excited to say I will be joining shortly - and offering my frank opinions on world affairs, he said.

"I will be talking about the immense opportunities for global Britain - as well as the challenges - and why our best days are yet to come.

In a video posted on the channels X account, Mr Johnson said he would be giving this remarkable new TV channel my unvarnished views on everything from Russia, China, the war in Ukraine, and how we meet all of those challenges, to the huge opportunities that lie ahead for us.

Johnson resigned as an MP in 2023

GB News editorial director Michael Booker said he was delighted to see Mr Johnson join the channel.

"GB News has got Boris done, he said.

We are tremendously proud to have him join the GB News family, particularly as we head into a seismic year of politics both here and across the Atlantic.

"Boris has been the most influential Prime Minister of our generation, and his unique insight into domestic and world affairs will be a smash hit with our viewers and listeners.

As well as his political skills, hes an incredibly talented journalist and author, so we cant wait to start working with him on what will be must-see TV.

Johnson was Mayor of London from 2008 to 2016, before serving as Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022.

His premiership came under scrutiny for the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic which began in 2020, with Johnson receiving a 50 fixed penalty notice for breaching Covid regulations by attending parties.

In doing so, he became the first Prime Minister in British history to have been sanctioned for breaking the law while in office.

The Commons Privileges Committee later published a report which concluded that Johnson lied to and deliberately misled the House of Commons over what became known as Partygate.

Locally, Johnson was criticised by unionists after a number of promises he made on the UKs Brexit deal relating to Northern Ireland did not materialise in the deals struck with the European Union.

His resignation was announced on July 7 2022 following a raft of resignations from ministers and key party members, including current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

Johnson is expected to take up his new role with GB News at the beginning of 2024.
Its been compared to Ballykissangel, Doc Martin and, as actor Ciaran McMenamin jokes, Hamish Macbeth, without the weed smoking.

Hope Street is back for a third series next week and this time the cosy cop drama will feature an extended run of 15 episodes, serving up secrets, fires and new faces.

The BBC Daytime, BBC Northern Ireland and Britbox International series has proven to be popular with fans across the UK and further afield.

Residents of Donaghadee the setting for the fictional coastal town Port Devine  arent too surprised when they bump into tourists hoping to catch a glimpse of the cast or to pop into local pub The Commodore for a pint.

Show co-creator and executive producer Paul Marquess says that this third series follows previous formats  weekly crime stories interwoven with character-led issues  but that a longer episode run means greater impact.

If we set the hares running in episode one, they dont pay off until episode 15 in a more explosive way, he explains.

Marquess says that what makes Hope Street so popular with audiences is its charm and its intentional steering away from serial killers and the Troubles.

Producer Leon Fee, of Long Story TV, agrees and says charm is a tough genre to get right.

Charm seems easy, but its actually really difficult to do, she says.

It looks effortless, but there is much more that goes into it to make it look light.

That combination of tackling relevant, sometimes hard-hitting topics with humour and levity is very much at play again in series three.

The Port Devine police have new crimes to solve. There are explosions, prison breaks and a dead body washing up on the beach to investigate, as well as two new officers to settle in.

But theres also a huge question to be answered: who is Inspector Finn OHares real mum, if not Concepta (Brid Brennan)?

Finn OHare (CIARAN MCMENAMIN), PC Ryan Power (FINNIAN GARBUTT). Pic: BBC / Jack Maguire / Long Story

Fermanagh-born McMenamin, who plays Finn, says he was expecting to take a back seat this series, following his dramatic PTSD storyline in series two. But that wasnt the case.

It was heartbreaking finding out that Concepta wasnt my mum, says McMenamin.

That whole storyline is great and completely throws Finn off-kilter.

Through no choice of his own, he is catapulted back to where he was last season, and he has to dig in again.

Its been a challenge, in a good way, acting-wise, but theres also a lot of humour, some great new characters and guest leads and interesting crimes to be solved.

McMenamin says Hope Street is a wee family show that offers up a more rounded way of looking at the world, dealing with issues such as surrogacy and gay marriage while retaining its cosiness.

We continue with that this year, and I think thats why it really works. Its a mixture of the two  the light and shade  and that can be hard to pitch, he says.

Theres something about it being set here and the way people here deal with things. And weve had to deal with a lot of things.

Were quite stoic, but also sarcastic, and that Northern Irish aspect gives us space to do that.

At the same time, the people that we chat to in Northern Ireland say they like [the show] because we dont go over all that stuff that this place is famous for  very real but very bad reasons  and I think people like that.

DC Jo Lipton (KAREN HASSAN), PC Ryan Power (FINNIAN GARBUTT). Pic: BBC / Jack Maguire / Long Story

Also returning to Hope Street are Des McAleer (Barry Pettigrew), Kerri Quinn (Marlene Pettigrew), Niall Wright (Callum McCarthy), Aaron McCusker (Clint Dunwoody), Niamh McGrady (Nicole Devine), Rachel Tucker (Siobhan OHare), Sade Malone (Taylor Quinn), Louis McCartney (Shay OHare) and Ellie Lavery (Niamh OHare).

Two new recruits join the team: Karen Hassan, star of The Fall, as Detective Constable Jo Lipton, and Finnian Garbutt (Casualty) as Police Constable Ryan Power.

Hassan, who moved back to Belfast from England four years ago, admits to feeling like the new girl at school on day one, but says the cast and crew were welcoming and made her feel at home.

She describes her character as an outsider who has a secret reason for being in Port Devine. Jo Lipton just wants to get her job done, but soon she finds herself falling for the charms of a certain police officer and for the town itself.

Hope Street gets its hooks in, and Jo starts to soften as she finds a bit of a love interest, says Hassan.

The ice queen melts a little bit and over time it comes out why shes secretly here. She just wants to stay because she loves it.

For Garbutt, landing a role in the show was a joy.

He describes PC Ryan Power as young, eager and keen to make a good impression in his hometown.

Ryan goes with his decisions and thinks hes right when he isnt necessarily right, he says.

For me, personally, as an actor, its class because I watched the show and Callum is one of my favourite characters.

I think hes brilliant. To be now working alongside him and for him to be my boss is surreal.

As for the character, he knows he needs to learn. But at the same time, he doesnt like having orders given to him.

PC Callum McCarthy (NIALL WRIGHT), DC Jo Lipton (KAREN HASSAN). Pic: BBC / Jack Maguire / Long Story

PC Callum McCarthy (Niall Wright) is no longer the cub, as his colleague Sergeant Marlene Pettigrew likes to call him. Hes matured and has a lot more drama to come as he navigates his way through love.

Wright says: Callum is finding his feet in a relationship with the new detective.

Its on and off at the beginning and theres a bit of chasing to be done.

There are a few intimate moments between them, which are part of the storyline, and it was important to get them right and truthful.

They were easy to do because Karen [Hassan, DC Jo Lipton] is so easy-going and lovely, so hopefully that comes across on screen.

In series two, Kerri Quinns character Marlene came out as gay and began a relationship with Derry farmer Ash. But this series she finds herself embroiled in a tricky situation when she panics and massively overreacts by popping the question.

Marlenes journey is more of a personal one this time round as her decisions impact on her relationship with her uncle Barry (McAleer). Quinn says the extended run, though bringing with it its own pressures, gave everyone a chance to shine.

Most people said 10 episodes didnt feel enough and left you wanting more, but 15 could have been tricky and a bit stretched, says Quinn.

In 10, theres so much to cram in, but 15 allows you to spread out the storylines.

Quinn also found that the arrival of new cast members gave her the impetus to raise her game.

Nicole Devine-Dunwoody (NIAMH MCGRADY), Clint Devine-Dunwoody (AARON MCCUSKER). Pic: BBC / Jack Maguire / Long Story

New people coming in was great, because that new energy makes you work harder and keeps things fresh.

Back too is Rachel Tucker as Finns wife Siobhan. After a rocky patch last series, the pair are getting back on track. At the start of series three Siobhan is keeping Conceptas secret, about not being Finns biological mum, and isnt happy. But as the series goes on, Siobhan becomes Finns rock and Tucker says she loved exploring this side to their partnership.

Siobhan feels grounded, a bit more accepted by everybody and by herself, she says.

That was one of my favourite things about this series, playing a happily married couple.

Taylor Quinn (SADE MALONE). Pic: BBC / Jack Maguire / Long Story

In the series two finale, Nicole (McGrady) and Clints dreams of having a child were realised when nephew JJ came to live with them at The Commodore. They are settling nicely into family life but a fire at the pub stokes suspicions directed towards their reformed fire-starter nephew.

Things get complicated romantically for them. All is not well in the Devine-Dunwoody marriage, says McGrady.

Theres more than one thing rocking the boat in terms of a blissful reunion; there are a lot of challenges this year.

McCusker (Clint), adds: JJ arrived last series as a key player.

Series two ended with big drama and series three begins with big drama.

Hope Street, part of a partnership between the BBC and Northern Ireland Screen, starts on BBC One NI on Monday, October 30 at 7pm. Series one and two are available on BBC iPlayer
The feature film has been described as an anti-establishment comedy.

Dublin Bricks is releasing a set on Kneecap with a police Landrover on fire.

X-Men actor Michael Fassbender is set to star in an anti-establishment comedy about a controversial Irish language rap group from west Belfast.

The Irish actor has been announced as the lead for an upcoming Kneecap biopic, which will be directed by Rich Peppiatt, who has also directed a music video for the band.

Eponymously named Kneecap, the film has been billed as a raucous, anti-establishment comedy and will star real-life band members Mo Chara, Moglai Bap and DJ Provai as heightened versions of themselves.

The film is a co-production between Mother Tongues Films and Fine Point Films, with Jack Tarling of Mother Tongues Films and Trevor Birney of Fine Point Films producing.

Birney said he had been fascinated by the bands anarchic approach to life.

"The band may cause controversy but their antics belie an intelligence that is beyond their years and an amazing ability to lyrically convey what life is like for young people growing up in post-Troubles Belfast, he told Variety.

Filming on the project wrapped up in May 2023, with Kneecap telling Variety they were buzzing to showcase their home city.

"Were buzzing to show people a side of Belfast that isnt about guns, bombs and death, they said.

"To give an insight into the youth culture that has been born out of that madness  we all needed a break from it and theres revenge in our laughter.

Kneecap pictured next to their latest mural

"This is the North of Ireland and the importance of culture and community in the 21st Century.

Director Rich Peppiat said: For those who already know Kneecap as musicians, I promise this will be a film true to their hedonistic and anarchic soul. And for those who havent yet heard of Kneecap, well, buckle up.

No date has yet been confirmed for the films release.

The band have continued to raise eyebrows in their home city. Murals unveiled over the last two years on Hawthorne Street have caused controversy with some of their messaging.

Their latest mural  unveiled in summer 2023  features the slogan England Get Out of Ireland.

A hand extends from a partitioned map of Ireland to grip an arm adorned with a Union flag as it places a Northern Ireland-shaped piece of land into place.

Both land masses are depicted in the colours of the Irish flag.

Last year they caused outrage in some circles by unveiling a mural featuring a burning PSNI landrover along with the caption Nil failte roimh an RUC/The RUC are not welcome.

Dublin Bricks is releasing a set on Kneecap with a police Landrover on fire.

The mural featured in a Dublin-based companys latest Lego collection, with flaming landrover and mini petrol bomb accessories accompanying figurines of the three artists.

DUP Policing Board member Trevor Clarke said the release of the set is particularly insensitive and sinister.

At a time when police officers in Northern Ireland live under severe threat to their lives, no company should be seeking to profit from toys making light of this, he said.

Creator Gianni Clifford  of Dublin Bricks  said he wanted to squish this unlikely pairing of building bricks and the Belfast group together to offer fans of both something really unique.
Local dog groomer Paul O Gallachoir and cockapoo owner Meadbh Ni hIr talk about their roles in the Irish language series

Now in its third season, Peatai! is a series which meets families from around the island of Ireland and their pets to answers some common and more obscure questions that they have.

Produced by Big Mountain Productions for BBC Gaeilge and RTE with funding from Northern Ireland Screens Irish Language Broadcast Fund, the programme features resident panel expert Paul O Gallachoir and dog owner Meadbh Ni hIr, who is from Castlewellan.

In episode three, Belfast dog groomer Paul meets Meadbhs feisty cockapoo Lily for her first doggy groom, and helps her to overcome her fear of the hairdryer.

Meadbh, who is an Irish Language Broadcast Fund officer, is the proud owner of two rescue cockapoos Lily and Rua.

Lily was seven months old when Peatai! was filmed earlier this year.

Read more How to prepare children for the reality of caring for a dog

Anytime they put the hairdryer on, Lily just freaks out, she starts shaking and jumping about, Meadbh says.

But Paul was very good when we were there and he even spent half an hour with her beforehand, and so she trusted him. He spent the time and let her sniff around him before he did anything.

Its a big massive dog hairdryer and it is louder than normal hairdryers, so she did freak out a bit. We do have one of them in the house for Rua because they are actually way stronger and it takes less time to dry their hair. Rua loves it and loves getting her hair done, so it was mad for us when Lily hated it.

Its really bad for them if you dont dry their hair properly because their skin gets irritated. They need to be properly dried and brushed.

Since the session with Paul, the pup has made progress in overcoming her fear. Meadbh says:

She is a lot better now but still not 100%. She has only been to the groomer once since meeting Paul and probably needs a lot of practice.

Meadbh Ni hIr

Rua and Lily both star in episode four, where animal behaviourist Paula Doohan offers step-by-step advice on how to train the twosome to stop barking at visitors to their home.

Implementing Paulas advice was not always easy Meadbh admits, as the dogs are the babies of the house.

Theyre a bit spoiled, they get away with everything, especially Lily because shes so cute, Meadbh adds.

So it is hard, but they are getting better.

Paul O Gallachoir runs Fetch Dog Grooming, a pick-up and drop-off service based in Newtownabbey.

Peatai! started off as a quite light-hearted programme whereby the animal experts were presented with relatively simple issues, Paul says, whilst season three is a lot more dynamic with a variety of breeds on the show.

Grooming dogs for Peatai! comes with various challenges, the resident expert explains:

This is a TV set, theres coming and going. Its outside and thats not ideal grooming conditions. Theres things you dont even have to consider in the groomroom, like the weather  if its really windy and your trying to style hair.

People coming and going is enough to trigger a dog, and if you are dealing with scissors around a dogs face and they suddenly move, its a very stressful situation. You want to keep the dog as calm as possible. Its quite challenging to do.

Prior to filming, Paul didnt meet the animals, so he had to act fast in assessing the creature and figuring out how it may react.

As a dog groomer what you are doing is taking a dog and getting it as pretty as possible and getting it as clean as possible, but what youre also doing is training them to stand on the table for these processes, to get it relaxed to enjoy the groom, he says.

Some techniques he used to help Lily relax included gradually introducing the dryer, using positive reinforcement, and ignoring any bad behaviour.

Viewers can also expect to see some impressive makeovers by Paul assisted on set by his wife Hannah, and heartwarming clips of puppies attending their first grooming session.

People often expect their puppy to have a fear response to being groomed, the business owner says, but actually the animal doesnt have any understanding of what will happen, therefore its important to ensure they have a positive experience and enjoy it.

Paul encourages families to tune in to Peatai!, as they can learn a lot about caring for their pets. He says:

Its really a great educational programme for families and people who maybe have a pet for the first time. A lot of the generic general questions that we get asked day to day are answered on the show. Its a really great educational tool.

An understanding of the Irish language is not necessary to understand the programme as its subtitled, Paul says.

I dont speak Irish, I know words here and there, but all my parts are subtitled in the Irish, and then the Irish is subtitled in English.

So if you dont speak Irish, theres not an issue with watching the programme at all.

If anyone is trying to learn Irish, its a great programme because things are quite relaxed, its not very fast paced. Its just questions and answers and these little scenarios. Its a great tool for learning Irish.

A couple of people have come to me and said they watched season one and two for that reason, and had no idea I was even in it, including one of my customers; that was a happy coincidence.

Season three, episode three of Peatai! airs on RTE on October 30 at 8pm
Rosalind Lowry is recording each of our 481 endangered species on a long linen cloth which will be placed in different locations and habitats around the country  including Stormont  and then photographed.

I was aware of the list, but I was shocked at the length of it. I had no idea we had so many moth species, let alone 67 on the endangered list. Those of my generation and older will remember summer nights with moths flying around the kitchen light. Big fluffy ones and little drab brown ones. I dont see them any more. Its unusual to see a moth nowadays, she says.

We will all be aware of the major names on the list  like the Irish hare, otter, red squirrel, curlew, corncrake  but we also have 85 other birds on the list, from the song thrush to starlings.

We are forcing them out by building on their green spaces, cutting down their homes, over-farming on their land. Its no longer about the romantic tales and poems of the corncrake calling in our fields, its about the rapid destruction of our native wildlife population. There are now over 500 species on the list.

Rosalind Rosalind Lowry at Stormont

Rosalinds project is a tribute to our linen industry  something all the more important given that, alongside an endangered species list for wildlife, theres a red list of endangered crafts.

The linen industry in this country was so huge at one stage, and on my mothers side of the family most of the females worked in the industry, explains Rosalind, who is based in Co Antrim.

I had an old aunt who worked in the Old Bleach Linen mill in the fine needlework department. She passed away a few years ago and I have wondered during this project what she would make of my work. She was probably looking down and rolling her eyes at my processes!

I have been supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland to complete the project this year, which has allowed me time and space to work on a large scale in my studio. Its such an important boost for artists to have the support of the Arts Council to create new work.

Art, she says, can be used in so many ways  to raise awareness of issues, make a social statement, record moments in time, and can enable and enhance individual or community health.

But it can also be used to create beauty. The biggest compliment anyone can say to me is that I have created something of beauty. The world needs more beauty, especially at the minute.

I think art can be used to make issues more accessible, continues Rosalind, who was the artist-in-residence for the Lough Neagh Landscape Partnership.

Working on the project in the studio

I have seen art used to tackle complex or contentious issues. Whether the art form is visual art, theatre, music, poetry, dance, it doesnt matter. Particularly in this country, the arts have been used very successfully to address a range of issues, anniversaries and social problems. But sometimes the arts should just be used for the sheer pleasure of self-expression and creativity and good old-fashioned enjoyment.

I have been asked to use my art for various reasons. In 2019 I was invited by the Alaska state government to be artist-in-residence in one of their national parks. I spent three weeks alone in a cabin in the woods, with an outside toilet and only bears as neighbours.

I was tasked with creating an art trail around the area, to make people using the paths and trails look at the area in a different way and to treat the area in a different way.

I used to teach art in Crumlin Road Gaol for the NI Prison Service and I watched prisoners breathe and relax for an hour while painting or drawing. Art can be very powerful, or very personal.

Butterfly in the studio

As a child, Rosalind was always making things: Nothing was wasted in our house, whether it was empty boxes, old buckets or whatever I could get my hands on.

She went on to study sculpture at Chelsea School of Art and Saint Martins School of Art in London.

I struggle to work on paper; Id much rather be creating a structure. Its also a perfect medium for impatient people  very hands on.

In 2021 I was elected as a member of the Royal Society of Sculptors, which proves that empty Rice Krispies boxes and toilet roll tubes are a great place to start making sculpture.

For more information on Rosalind, see www.rosalindlowryartist.com or Instagram @rosalindlowry. Endangered Species List 481 is part of Linen Biennale NI 2023; view it online at www.linenbiennalenorthernireland.com/endangered-species
About 4 mln Somalis facing food crisis amid anticipated El Nino: UN

Xinhua) 10:09, October 27, 2023

MOGADISHU, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- About 4 million Somalis are living at different levels of food security crisis, a United Nations relief official has said.

George Conway, UN resident and humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, said the situation is projected to deteriorate further until December.

About 3.8 million Somalis are internally displaced across the country, and the number has increased by 1 million people over the course of the protracted drought, Conway said in a statement released in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, Wednesday evening. According to him, Somalia has been experiencing a long and severe drought -- its worst in 40 years -- which has also involved significant risks of famine.

At the height of the humanitarian response over the past two years, he said, more than 6.3 million Somalis were receiving some form of UN assistance which included support with food, hygiene, water, sanitation and more.

He, however, said that while recent rains have ameliorated the situation and food insecurity across the country has improved, challenges remain.

"So right now, today in addition to the baseline of humanitarian need in the country, we are very concerned about the impact of El Nino on the Deyr rainy season. We have already in the past two weeks seen flash flooding happening in a number of cities throughout the country. We have seen river levels rising," the UN official said.

According to estimates from the Food and Agriculture Organization, around 1.2 million Somalis could be impacted by flooding over the course of the next three months, with 1.6 million hectares of land also inundated as a result.

Somalis in camps for internally displaced people, and the host communities for those camps, are expected to be disproportionately affected, the UN official said. "The estimates that we have right now are that the rains are likely to be the worst that we've seen in at least 20 years, with the most recent worst rains in 1997," he said.

Conway noted that UN humanitarian agencies have been working with the Somali government on preparedness measures to try to reduce the impact on Somalis.

(Web editor: Tian Yi, Liang Jun)
Italian President Sergio Mattarella will pay a state visit to Korea next month and hold a summit with President Yoon Suk Yeol, Yoon's office said Friday.

Mattarella will visit Korea from Nov. 7-9 at Yoon's invitation.

During the summit, the two leaders will discuss ways for the two countries to cooperate in various sectors, including the economy, space, science and technology, and cultural and people-to-people exchanges, the presidential office said. (Yonhap)
A 40-year-old man appeared in court today where he denied the murder of Paul Rowlands.

Mr Rowlands died following an incident in Portrush in July 2022. At the time of his death, the 46-year-old was living homeless in the Co Antrim town, as was the accused.

Jason Murray, whose address was given as HMP Maghaberry, appeared at Belfast Crown Court, via a videolink with the prison, where he was charged with murder.

After confirming his identity and that he could see and hear the court, Murray was then charged that on a date unknown between July 16 and July 19, 2022, he murdered Paul Rowlands and the offence was aggravated by reason of involving domestic abuse.

When the charge was put to Murray, he replied: Not guilty.

Defence barrister Richard McConkey told Mr Justice OHara that he was seeking medical reports on his client ahead of the trial.

No date for a trial was set during the brief hearing; however, Mr Justice OHara said he would review the case on Friday, January 26, 2024.
A Belfast man is to stand trial next spring on charges arising from a bomb hoax involving Irish Minister Simon Coveney.

Darren James Service appeared at Belfast Crown Court today where he was charged with  and denied  three offences linked to an incident at the Holy Cross Church in Ardoyne, Belfast, in March 2022.

The gym owner, from Ballysillan Road in the north of the city, confirmed his identity to a court clerk and was then charged with three offences.

The 42-year-old was charged with the preparation of terrorism acts on March 25, 2022, namely the hijacking of a van with a view to facilitating the deployment of a hoax bomb device at a public meeting at the Houben Centre, Holy Cross Church, 432 Crumlin Road, Belfast.

When asked how he pleaded to the first count, Service replied: Not guilty.

He was also charged with, and denied, hijacking a Ford Transit Van on the same date.

In addition, Service had a charge of causing a bomb hoax on March 25, 2022 levelled at him.

When the charge of placing an article in the vicinity of the Houben Centre with the intention of inducing a belief that it was likely to explode or ignite was put to the defendant, he again replied: Not guilty.

The charges relate to an incident which unfolded when a workman was threatened and forced to transport a device placed in the back of his vehicle by two masked men to a peace-building event on the Crumlin Road.

Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney was attending the event at the Houben Centre in the Holy Cross Church.

After the van driver alerted police regarding the device in his van, the centre was evacuated in what was later described as a hoax bomb alert.

Following the not guilty pleas entered by his client, defence barrister John Larkin KC told Judge Mark Reel there were some issues that need fairly extensive investigation ahead of the trial.

Mr Larkin also told Judge Reel he expected the trial to last up to two weeks, while a date for the hearing was fixed as April 15, 2024.

The hearing concluded when Service was released on continuing bail.
A de facto uncle who plied his partners 14-year-old niece with alcohol then raped her during a sleepover was jailed today.

The 26-year-old, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his young victim, was handed a sentence of six years and four months.

He was told by Judge Patricia Smyth that half his sentence will be served in prison, with the remainder spent on licence when he is released.

The north Belfast man will also be on the Sex Offenders Register for life.

He appeared at Belfast Crown Court and was sentenced for both raping the child on June 4, 2022, and possessing cocaine two days later, which was found on the day of his arrest.

The court heard that in the early hours of June 6, 2022, police received a report from a doctor at the Royal Hospitals Childrens Emergency Department.

The medic made the report after the parents of the 14-year-old brought her to the hospital and alleged she had been raped.

The teenager said she had been raped during a sleepover at her aunts house and named her aunts partner as her attacker.

The Belfast Recorder revealed that when the defendant returned to his home in the early hours of June 4, he woke his partners niece, who was sleeping on the sofa.

He then plied her with up to five shots of alcohol, which she said rendered her nine out of 10 drunk and made her sleepy.

Despite the victims attempts to resist the defendant, he then raped her on the sofa whilst she could hardly open her eyes.

After disclosing to the doctor what had happened to her, the teenager was then taken to a sexual assault referral centre.

She had not been previously sexually active and intimate tests were carried out which indicated the presence of the defendants DNA.

He was arrested on June 6, during which he dropped a small bag containing cocaine. He was charged with both rape and possessing a Class A drug.

During interview, the defendant accepted he had given his partners niece alcohol but initially denied any sexual contact with her.

When the forensic evidence was put to him, he said he accepted the findings but had no recollection of any sexual activity.

During todays sentencing, Judge Smyth said a significant aggravating factor was that the defendant plied the teenager with alcohol.

Judge Smyth also spoke of a breach of trust, telling the defendant that, as the childs de facto uncle, he raped her in a place where she should have been safe.

Judge Smyth said she had received and read a statement written by the young victim.

Addressing the defendant as he stood in the dock, Judge Smyth told him: It is clear that what you did to her has had a very profound impact upon her young life.

Her family has been torn apart. She has difficulty sleeping. Her education has been disrupted and she now has trust issues given the terrible circumstances.

Judge Smyth said she has taken into consideration the defence submission which set out the defendants difficult and traumatic childhood.

Also noted, she said, were his clear criminal record, his expressions of remorse, his issues with drugs and alcohol and the fact he pleaded guilty to both charges.

As well as imposing the sentence, Judge Smyth also made the defendant the subject of a six-year Sexual Offences Prevention Order, which will be activated when he is released from prison.
Disgraced social worker facing jail for air rage incident could be struck off

Professional body probes Co Antrim woman over her drunken assault on Jet2 cabin crew

Heather McCarroll

Stephen Gordon Fri 27 Oct 2023 at 07:40

Shamed social worker Heather Ann McCarroll is facing another investigation following her drunken assault on Jet2 cabin crew during a flight from Belfast.
Exclusive | Gary Haggarty flown in for murder trial on private jet used by Rishi Sunak

Government departments unable to say how much killers return flight cost the taxpayer

Gary Haggarty

Allison Morris Fri 27 Oct 2023 at 07:30

A private jet was used to fly Gary Haggarty into Northern Ireland to give evidence against a former UVF associate.
Former health minister Robin Swann has received a prestigious Honorary Fellowship from the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

The Fellowships are awarded annually to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to psychiatry.

Robin Swann was awarded for championing mental healthcare and working closely with psychiatrists in Northern Ireland to address the enormous treatment gap that still exists.

The former Stormont health minister was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2021 and was Northern Irelands Minister of Health from 2020-2022.

During his time in post, he presided over the response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

He was jointly awarded Politician of the Year in 2022 by Civility in Politics.

Speaking after the awards ceremony, Robin Swann said: I was deeply humbled to have been told in recent weeks by the Royal College of Psychiatrists that they were granting me this award.

"I never entered into elected office to receive acclaim or awards such as this, but I must say I was honoured to have been recognised by such an eminent body.

During my remarks at the ceremony I made it clear that whilst the College had granted me the award, I wanted it to be viewed as an award for the many health workers working across the local system and who more than anyone else, have been responsible for securing some of the improvements over recent years.

Despite the constant focus that was required on responding to the pandemic, I was always conscious that walking into the Department on my first day I had set mental wellbeing and improving services as a top priority for me as Minister.

"Yet if anything, rather than pushing that priority to the side, the pandemic and all the associated disruption made it ever more important.

During my time as Minister, working with countless mental health workers, stakeholders, patients, carers, and professional bodies, I am genuinely proud of what we were able to achieve.

"One achievement that I am especially proud of was the fact that we were able to produce and publish the mental health strategy, which ambitiously set the future strategic direction of mental health services in Northern Ireland for the following decade.

He added: The input from RCPsych NI to the Mental Health Strategy was vital and I want to thank the Northern Ireland officers, Chair Dr Richard Wilson, Vice-Chair Dr Stephen Moore, Policy Development Dr Michael Doherty, for the positive and critical friend approach, the Colleges recognition for positive engagement and support in policy development was also key to the development of the Enhancing Clinical Care Framework, where the Colleges Northern Ireland Policy Officer Thomas McKeever was a key contributor.

I was really grateful, if somewhat taken-aback, to have been recognised by the RCPsych in this manner. I just hope that very quickly some political leadership can be shown that once again delivers the investment and commitment to our full range of mental health services.

Richard Wilson, chair of RCPsych NI, was delighted Mr Swann had been given this prestigious prize.

"He is a true Honorary Fellow to us. Not only for his contribution to mental health services but for his leadership and management during the pandemic, Mr Wilson added.

Working in partnership with Robin during the Covid-19 crisis  we shared many ups and many downs  and all the stuff in between.

This is our way of saying thank you and well done.

Dr Lade Smith CBE, president of RCPsych added: I would like to take this opportunity to thank Robin Swann for his amazing achievements in promoting mental healthcare.

"His joint working with RCPsych NI has been impactful in raising the importance of mental illness across Northern Ireland.
A Co Armagh man who passed away suddenly in the Mourne Mountains earlier this week has been remembered as a gentleman full of infectious joy.

Gareth Prideaux (41) had been reported missing to police, who then prompted a large-scale search for him on Tuesday evening with the help of the Mourne Mountain Rescue Team (MMRT), which dispatched 12 members into the mountains near Annalong at around 7pm.

The operation was stopped just after 11pm.

Mr Prideaux had lived in Portadown.

A funeral notice states that he was the devoted husband of Julie-Anne and a treasured father of Ashton, Tom and Jamie-Lee.

He previously served for five years in the British Army as an infantry soldier, both home and abroad, including in Afghanistan.

Upon returning to Northern Ireland, he then worked as a retail assistant and construction worker and was most recently employed as a medical laboratory assistant at Craigavon Area Hospital.

The Southern Health and Social Care Trust paid tribute to Mr Prideaux, stating: We offer our deepest sympathies to the Prideaux family.

Gareth was a respected and highly valued colleague within the labs team at Craigavon Area Hospital.

As a colleague and friend, Gareths sudden passing is a great loss to all in the department. He will be sorely missed.

Read more Body found in Mourne Mountains confirmed to be Portadown dad-of-three

One co-worker described Mr Prideauxs death as heartbreaking and said that he was always happy to help in work.

A gentleman. May his soul rest in peace, they said.

One woman added that Mr Prideaux was one of a kind and always made us laugh out loud any time he walked into the lab.

Words completely fail at this heartbreaking time. Sending love and prayers to Julie-Anne, Ashton, Tom and Jamie-Lee, she continued.

Similarly, a fellow colleague of Mr Prideaux said that he had a unique ability to get a laugh and a smile out of people even on their bad days.

Paying a direct tribute to him, she noted: The joy you brought to lab life was infectious and you could lift the mood in any room. I will miss your playfulness and witty banter.

Many happy memories are held in my heart and something I will forever treasure. I still cant believe this.

The father-of-three stayed close to his military roots later in life, often raising money for charities such as Scottys Little Soldiers  which provides relief from the effects of bereavement to children and young people who have experienced the death of a parent who served with the British Armed Forces  and Help For Heroes, which provides recovery and support for the Armed Forces community whose lives are affected by their service, no matter when they served.

Mr Prideauxs funeral service will be held on Wednesday at 12.30pm in Thomas Street Methodist Church in Portadown, followed by a private cremation.

A funeral notice reads: The home house is strictly private. Family and friends will be made most welcome at Milnes Funeral Home on Saturday from 4pm to 6pm.

Family flowers only please. Donations for the benefit of the Royal British Legion and the Mourne Mountain Rescue Team via www.milnefuneralservices.co.uk/donate, or cheques made payable to Milne Funeral Services, donations account c/o59, Seagoe Road, Portadown, BT63 5HS.

Very deeply regretted and sadly missed by the entire family circle.
Motorists and cyclists appear to be using the road again. Pic: Colm LenaghanPacemaker

Road users were advised that the Coast Road between Glenarm and Ballygally is completely impassable following a landslide. Pic Colm LenaghanPacemaker

Road users were advised that the Coast Road between Glenarm and Ballygally is completely impassable following a landslide. Pic Colm LenaghanPacemaker

Road users have been advised that the Coast Road between Glenarm and Ballygally is completely impassable following a landslide.

Police erected no entry signs and urged road users to seek an alternative route for their journey.

Road users were advised that the Coast Road between Glenarm and Ballygally is completely impassable following a landslide. Pic Colm LenaghanPacemaker

Images show a trail of water and mud leading down a hill onto the road.

The road appears to have been mostly cleared of debris.

Vehicles and a cyclist could be seen making their way past the site of the incident, however, police have said it remains impassable.

Motorists and cyclists appear to be using the road again. Pic: Colm LenaghanPacemaker

Meanwhile, the Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for rain in parts of Northern Ireland.

Counties Antrim and Down are expected to be impacted most by rainfall with the warning in place from midday on Friday to 6pm on Saturday.

Further heavy showers will affect Antrim and Down at times through Friday and Saturday, these most frequent near the coast and over high ground, a Met Office spokesperson said.

10mm of rain is possible within an hour, with a few places seeing 30-40 mm in 6 hours where the most frequent showers occur.
A neurologist at the centre of Northern Irelands largest ever recall of patients has withdrawn his legal representative from a tribunal considering his fitness to practise.

A lawyer for Belfast-based neurologist Dr Michael Watt said the tribunal was willing to embrace an increased risk to his clients mental health by proceeding with the hearing.

However, a barrister for the General Medical Council (GMC) told the tribunal that he believed on the balance of fairness the hearing should proceed uncontested.

The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) is carrying out the hearing into Dr Watt.

In 2018 more than 4,000 of the neurologists patients attended recall appointments amid concerns over his clinical practice.

A previous MPTS tribunal granted Dr Watt voluntary removal from the medical register.

However, the High Court quashed that ruling due to concerns it was not sufficient to protect the public.

The three-person tribunal began its new hearing last month, when it was told a performance report into Dr Watt in 2018 found that he repeatedly failed to make correct diagnoses.

Resuming the hearing in public session on Friday, tribunal chair Neil Dalton said they had heard evidence and a number of submissions in private session and the panel had made a determination that the hearing should now proceed.

Dr Watts barrister, Matthew McDonagh, said there were concerns about his clients serious mental health condition.

He added: The tribunal has accepted, as indeed the previous fitness to practise tribunal accepted, that the continuation of this hearing in public presents a real risk to Dr Watts mental health.

The tribunal is willing to embrace the increased risk to Dr Watts serious mental health condition by proceeding in this way.

Those risks have been confirmed by both the General Medical Council and the defence expert witnesses who have given evidence before you.

The defence team are not willing to embrace that risk.

Mr McDonagh said his clients condition had prevented the defence from challenging the performance report.

He added: Dr Watt fears that the extensive opprobrium that the General Medical Council and MPTS have encountered may be a factor that has impacted their present approach to this case.

Dr Watt believes the present hearing only serves to mollify the public clamour that is resounding in this case.

He added: Further iterations of this case and the frenzied media cycle may satiate the public clamour but will serve no legitimate purpose and will increase the risk to Dr Watt.

Mr McDonagh said his instructions were to withdraw an application for voluntary erasure of his client from the medical register and to withdraw from the proceedings.

Representing the GMC, Charles Garside KC said the tribunal would now have to make a decision on whether to continue with the hearing while it was uncontested.

He said: Fairness includes fairness to the public and fairness to the GMC.

In this case the doctor has made a decision with full advice and knowledge of what the implications may be.

Public interest requires that these proceedings are dealt with as expeditiously as possible, so both the public and Dr Watt know what the outcome of them will be.

In my submissions the balance of fairness is in favour of the tribunal continuing with this hearing.

Mr Dalton said the panel would retire to consider the application that the hearing proceed in the absence of legal representation from Dr Watt.
Pacemaker Press 02-11-2023: Flooding: 'Apocalyptic' scenes in Downpatrick as businesses damaged. Picture By: Arthur Allison: PacemakerPress.

The Main Street in Millisle is closed in both directions due to a road traffic collision on Friday evening.

Police say motorists should expect delays and seek alternative main routes for their journey.

There has also been a Northbound Road traffic collision in lane 2 of the M2 before Greencastle, causing long delays in the area.

Meanwhile, many roads across Northern Ireland remain closed due to adverse weather-related conditions.

In Downpatrick, the Department for Infrastructure say water Levels in the Quoile River have fallen to a level to allow pumping to commence on Friday evening in the Market Street area.

Police, the NI Fire and Rescue service and Newry Mourne and Down District Council will assist with the operation and the public are asked to adhere to all temporary traffic management arrangements while the work is carried out and abide by road closures and diversions.

Water levels will continue to be monitored to determine the impact of the removal of floodwater in Downpatrick.

The Department and its multi agency partners would like to thank the public for their patience and assistance over the last few days and while the clear up continues.

The list of roads closed due to the weather conditions on Friday evening is:

Co Down

Newry Road from Rathfriland Road Roundabout to Mayobridge closed due to flooding.

Ferryhill Road, Newry closed due to a landslide.

A2 Shore Road leaving Rostrevor closed due to a landslide. Local diversion in place.

Mayobridge - Hilltown Road is now passable with care between Maybridge and Hilltown

Killowen - The A2 Killowen Road closed due to the possibility of landslips - Rostrevor to Kilkeel traffic will be diverted via Rostrevor  Hilltown  Kilcoo  Castlewellan  Newcastle - Kilkeel. Allow extra time for your journey.

Scarva - The B3 Legananny Rd has been closed between the Old Mill Road and Lisnagade Road following damage to a bridge - Road users are advised to seek an alternative route for their journey

Newry - Camlough Road / Newtown Road closed due to flooding. Road users are advised to find an alternative route for their journey.

Newry - Greenan Road, Poyntpass is closed from:- Rockmeeting Road to Blackridge Road. Please seek an alternative route for your journey. (20:26)

Helens Bay - The Bridge Road has been closed due to flooding - Please seek an alternative route for your journey.

Ballynahinch - Drumgiven Road closed from Creevyargon Road to Cahard Road due to severe flooding. Please seek an alternative route for your journey.

B3 Ballynaskeagh Road  Passable with care, verge collapsed at two separate locations. Being assessed, may require TTM/lights and closing of a lane to allow safe passage of traffic.

River burst banks.

Castlewellan : Magheramayo road Flooding

Aughnacloy : Rehaghey road : culvert colapse and road slip

Banbridge:- Riley street closed at the junction with Downshire Road at mini roudabout due to flooding. Please seek an alternative route for your journey.

A27 Dublin Road, Castlewellan closed due to flooding. Is now re-opened

A25 Ballydugan Road, Downpatrick is closed at the leisure centre and entrance to Rathkeltair Car Park.

Robbery Road (closed due to flooding)

Dunygarton Road (closed due to flooding)

St James Road (closed due to flooding)

Artifinny Road (closed due to flooding)

Listullycurran Road (closed due to flooding)

Newtownards Road, Bangor at Fire Station. Flooding

A2 Newcastle Road North of Kilkeel. Bridge in dangerous condition.

B3 Legannany Road between Loughbrickland and Scarva  Damaged parapet wall.

B3 Ballynaskeagh Road  Passable with care, verge collapsed at two separate locations.

U1225 Milltown Road, Waringstown  Passable with care.

U1268 Maygannon Lane, donaghcloney - closed due to flooding

U4297 Rockmeeting Road - closed due to flooding

Old Road, Maghaberry (closed due to flooding)

River Road, Lambeg (closed due to flooding)

A7 Belfast Road, Downpatrick between the Finnebrogue Road junction and the Belfast Road Roundabout, Downpatrick

U0166 Inch Abbey Road, Downpatrick.

Woodgrange Road Downpatrick has been close to flooding from the Loughinisland Road junction to the Drumcullen Road junction

B180 Bryanford Avenue, Newcastle is closed for the Bryansford Road Roundabout to the Shimna Road junction due flooding. Pumping operation in progress at this location.

Callan River burst banks.

River Callan burst banks.

C182 Derryscallop Rd closed.

C172 Terryhoogan Rd closed close to A27 Aughlish Rd.

Lagangreen Road between the Leapoges road and Black Bog Road Dromore is closed due to flooding

Downpatrick: The C280 Quoile Road Downpatrick has been closed from its junction with the Old Belfast Road (A22) to Quoile Brae.

U4037 Lagangreen Road, Dromore - closed this morning between Leapoges Road and Dromara Road / Black Bog Road closed due to flooding.

The A25 Strangford Road, Downpatrick Road outside the Cricket Club is closed at the A22 Old Belfast Road junction

The U174 Old Belfast Road, Saintfield has been closed due to flooding.

C182 Derryscallop Rd closed.

C172 Terryhoogan Rd closed close to A27 Aughlish Rd.

Co Armagh

C180 Cloveneden Rd closed near Cockle Hill junction  carriageway collapsed road not safe for traffic

Co Antrim

Dunadry Rd and Steeple Rd at M2 bridge all closed

Co Tyrone
Size of nation's armed forces to fall below 400,000 by 2038: report

By Lee Hyo-jin

Concerns about South Koreas shrinking pool of military conscripts are not new.

The demographic cliff caused by the countrys plunging birthrate  the lowest among OECD member nations  has long been cited as the main cause of a foreseeable plunge in new recruits by the nation's armed forces.

Under current laws, all able-bodied South Korean men aged over 19 are obliged to serve in the military. Women can volunteer to serve in the military as officers or non-commissioned officers.

As of 2022, the number of South Koreas military personnel stood at 480,000, falling below the 500,000 benchmark for the first time, according to a report published in July by Cho Kwan-ho, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses. The figure is about 40 percent of the size of North Korean troops, which is estimated at around 1.14 million.

In his report, Cho predicted that the size of the South Korean military will remain at an average of 470,000 troops over the next 10 years. But he projected the figure to decrease to 396,000 by 2038.

The anticipated decline in military personnel poses serious concerns to South Korea's national security, a country that remains technically at war with North Korea.

To address those concerns, the Military Manpower Administration (MMA) is considering revising measures to expand military conscription to orphans and North Korean defectors, who are currently exempt from mandatory service as they are classified as socially vulnerable groups. If implemented, the MMA estimates around 600 to 700 orphans and 150 to 250 North Korean defectors will be subject to conscription every year.

However, these measures are not enough to resolve the chronic shortage of enlistees, experts said, who called for more drastic solutions.

No panacea

"There is no panacea to the decreasing number of soldiers caused by the demographic crisis," said Kim Yeoul-soo, chief of the Security Strategy Office at the Korea Institute for Military Affairs. "In order to address this issue, the government should review various measures ranging from immediate mitigation plans to long-term revisions that require a lot of discussions."

One feasible and relatively easy measure the government can take is to extend the compulsory military service period, he said.

The duration of the military service was initially set at 30 months, but has been reduced to between 18 to 21 months. Under current laws, active duty enlisted personnel should serve 18 months in the Army or Marine Corps, 20 months in the Navy and 21 months in the Air Force.

Kim also said now may be the time to review an existing law that exempts athletes who win an Olympic medal or a gold medal in the Asian Games from mandatory military service, as well as measures allowing draft dodgers, such as conscientious objectors, to perform other forms of national service instead of military conscription.

"I don't want to undermine their contributions to the country, but considering the severity of the current situation regarding our military manpower, I think the government should reconsider the incentives given to those athletes," he said.

The military expert also touched on women's conscription, a subject that often leads to gender conflicts here. People who oppose female conscription say the debate should come only after the male-dominated culture in the military is overhauled and other forms of social discrimination against women are resolved.

"The government should more actively discuss including women in the military service. In some countries like Israel, women have to serve two years in the military and in the reserves until the age of 38," Kim said.

The decades-old debate over women's conscription flared up again recently after the Constitutional Court unanimously upheld the lawfulness of the Military Service Act that subjects only men to conscription.

The ruling, issued in September in response to a petition filed by five men, including current and prospective draftees, viewed that the current law does not breach the right to equality. The court, however, noted that the country may have to seriously consider legislation to conscripting both men and women or shifting to a volunteer military system to tackle the decline in draftees.

Shin Jong-woo, a senior researcher at the Korea Defense and Security Forum, a think tank, said the military should improve its reward and service conditions to entice more people to enlist.

"Before discussing ways to enlist more young people, the government should first think about why they shun joining the army," he said. "No conscript is happy when he gets called up and almost everyone recalls their time in the military as being a nightmare."

Shin said the military should give more benefits to those deployed in strategic locations compared to those who are stationed in Seoul and the metropolitan areas.

Foreigners to the rescue?

Recently, the idea of including foreign nationals in the military was floated by Rep. Sung Il-jong of the ruling People Power Party (PPP). He proposed the measure during a National Assembly audit session of the Military Manpower Administration earlier this month.

The administration should actively and positively review the idea of allowing healthy, young foreign nationals who pass a Korean language proficiency test to volunteer for military service, and then granting them citizenship, he told MMA chief Lee Ki-sik.

The lawmaker cited as an example the U.S.'s Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest (MAVNI), a recruiting program that allows certain non-Americans to join the military and apply for citizenship.

Sung said a Korean version of the American military recruiting program, if implemented, would encourage immigrants to feel more pride as members of Korean society.

Kim at the Korea Institute for Military Affairs, however, commented that the lawmaker's proposal seems premature as Korea still remains predominantly homogeneous.

It could be considered as an option in the future, but not immediately. For now, we should think of ways to more effectively utilize the resources we have rather than including foreign nationals in the military, which handles sensitive information, he said.












The plane was due to depart for Belfast this afternoon.

Masked men arriving at Belfast Crown Court for the trial on Monday. Pic: Alan Lewis

A private flight laid on to bring UVF supergrass Gary Haggarty back to England has been cancelled.

Haggarty has been in Belfast this week giving evidence against former UVF associate James Smyth, who is charged with the 1994 murder of Catholic workmen Eamon Fox (41) and Gary Convie (24).

Both men were shot dead as they ate lunch in a car parked beside a building site close to the loyalist Tigers Bay area. A third man avoided injury in the attack.

There was a heavy police presence around Belfast Crown Court for the trial, the first time Haggarty had been seen in Northern Ireland since 2009.

A private jet was used to fly Haggarty  who is from the Mount Vernon area of north Belfast but now lives in England under witness protection  into Northern Ireland to appear in court.

According to Flight Radar, the plane which would have taken Haggarty back to England was due in on Friday, but has been cancelled.

The plane was chosen because of concerns for the safety of the loyalist murderer.

The cost of the return flight is not known, but the jet is believed to have been previously used by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and other senior members of the government.

A source said: He couldnt just be put on an easyJet flight. There is a duty of care to make sure he got to and from Belfast safely. In the circumstances, the options were limited.

Haggarty has a price on his head, and theres a lot of people who want him dead.

That had to be a constant consideration during every aspect of his return to Belfast.

The Belfast Telegraph sought a reaction from the government over the use of the jet and its cost, as well as clarification on the flights cancellation.

The Northern Ireland Office, the Ministry of Defence, the Cabinet Office and the Ministry of Justice were unable to directly answer any of our queries.

The Department of Justice said it had no involvement in the issue, while the NIO said it was not a matter for them.

Masked men arriving at Belfast Crown Court for the trial on Monday. Pic: Alan Lewis

The Smyth case is expected to be the last supergrass trial.

Haggarty previously admitted his role in 202 crimes, including five murders. More than 300 other offences were taken into consideration.

The catalogue of crimes he admitted stretches over a 16-year period from 1991 to 2007.

It includes the loyalist murders of Peter McTasney, John Harbinson, Sean McParland, Mr Convie and Mr Fox.

Haggarty served two years in prison under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement for pre-1998 offences.

As an assisting offender, he was given a 75% discount on sentences for crimes committed after 1998.

While a legal order prevents the media from describing what he now looks like, the gallery of Court 12 in Belfasts Court was open to the public.

There was widespread condemnation after six masked men sat in the gallery, just feet from the families of the two victims, for hours on Monday.

Lady Chief Justice Siobhan Keegan has asked the court service to identify how the incident was allowed to happen.

The PSNI said it would use all appropriate legislation to prevent a repeat of the display.
The PSNI unlawfully shared personal data relating to 174 people - understood to include loyalists and republicans - with the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a watchdog has found.

A probe by the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) has identified a catalogue of breaches of the Data Protection Act which it blames of process failings.

Its understood a number of legal cases related to the issue are ongoing.

Investigators found that a culture sharing data outside agreed procedures had developed within the PSNI and warned about a lack of effective managerial oversight".

"Staff were proactively sharing personal data to disrupt travel arrangements and that sharing was not necessary for law enforcement purposes, the ICO concluded.

"The transfer of data was not for any specified special circumstances.

"Therefore, the investigation found the transfer of personal data to be unlawful."

Read more 800 PSNI officers and staff lodge High Court proceedings over data breach

It comes nearly a year-and-a-half after the Belfast Telegraph reported that more than 150 individuals were told that their information had been wrongly handed over to the US law enforcement agency between 2018 and 2020.

Police previously apologised for what was at that time one of its biggest data breaches and notified the Police Ombudsman and Policing Board.

The force also conceded that the information passed by its extradition unit to DHS influenced decisions on whether or not to allow people to visit the USA.

The ICO report noted the PSNI has implemented "stricter controls" since the breaches came to light in 2021.

The information, which included details of criminal convictions and biometric data, was shared between the PSNI's extradition unit and the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

In correspondence seen by this newspaper, the PSNIs senior information risk officers previously warned those affected that an internal review found that data sharing may not have been in compliance with data protection law applicable at the time.

"The Information Commissioners Office have been notified of both the circumstances and the steps which have been taken to rectify the error and to prevent a repeat, the letter stated.

I would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused.

The PSNI has reiterated its apology following the outcome of the ICO probe which did not impose any financial penalty.

Chief Superintendent Sam Donaldson said the PSNIs Assistant Chief Constable Chris Todd and its Senior Information Risk Owner apologised to those affected at the time.

On Friday he reiterated that apology.

This issue is one we take extremely seriously and as part of our investigation we made a self-referral to the Office of the Police Ombudsman, Mr Donaldson added.

"We also informed the Information Commissioners Office and the Northern Ireland Policing Board and kept both briefed about the steps we have taken since discovering this issue.

The Information Commissioners Office made a number of recommendations to the Police Service.

"I want to reassure the public that significant steps have already been taken and that each of these recommendations has already been implemented to prevent any reoccurrence of this breach.

"These steps have been acknowledged and welcomed by the Information Commissioners Office.
UUP MLA says 26 such incidents in two years shows people struggling to make ends meet amid cost-of-living crisis need more help from government

Jobs & Benefits staff are trained to react to customers who may be suicidal or threaten to self-harm

Emergency services had to be called to benefits offices here 26 times over the last two years due to clients suffering distress, it has been revealed.

The Department for Communities said all Jobs & Benefits Office staff undergo training on what to do if a customer indicates or states an intention to attempt suicide or self-harm.

Ulster Unionist MLA Andy Allen said it showed the need for more support for families struggling to make ends meet, as this can affect their mental health.

He said: Across Northern Ireland, individuals and families are facing ongoing struggles as household budgets fall short of covering the basic necessities.

High energy prices, escalating costs of food and travel with limited available support and the devastating impact of budget cuts have exacerbated the situation, pushing many to the brink of crisis.

In the absence of a functioning local government to provide vital support, the UK Government must step in and take decisive action.

This support is not just about short-term relief, but also about implementing sustainable measures that can lift households out of the cycle of poverty.

Daily, I work with individuals and families at breaking point who are seeking support and I am committed to addressing these pressing issues.

Mr Allen said he recently wrote to Government minister Amanda Solloway about providing more help for households.

Ms Solloway said the Government provides a range of support schemes for families and measures like the energy price guarantee, which caps household power bills.

The Government has offered additional support to those most in need, including 900 worth of cost-of-living payments for those on qualifying benefits or tax credits, she added.

The 900 payment includes the Winter Fuel Payment, which is scheduled to be made during winter 23/24.

Recipients eligible who may be entitled to cost-of-living payments include those on income-based jobseekers allowance, income-related employment and support allowance, income support, pension credit, universal credit, child tax credit, and working tax credit.

The Government has also offered a lump sum payment of 150 to certain groups on disability benefits.

Ms Solloway added that while energy policy is a devolved matter, in the absence of a sitting Executive and Assembly the Government will continue to closely monitor prices and is keeping energy support schemes under review.

Mr Allen said: It is disappointing that there is no commitment to bring forward new support for those in need.

With worsening global conditions, Westminster should, at a minimum, immediately reinstate household energy support through the energy price guarantee, whilst exploring and developing other much-needed interventions.
Palestinians ride on an Israeli military vehicle taken by an army base overrun by Hamas militants near the Gaza Strip fence, in Gaza City, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Abed Abu Reash)

The Alliance Party has called on the DUP to take action after one of its councillors drew links between the LGBTQ+ community and Hamas terrorists.

Newtownards councillor Colin Kennedy made the remarks during a meeting of Ards and North Down Borough Council earlier this week.

Councillors had gathered to deabte an ultimately successful DUP motion calling on the council to stand with Israel after the Hamas attacks on October 7.

Mr Kennedy said: Do not be surprised when those who enthusiastically endorse the LGTBQIA alphabet soup agenda in the West are the very same people who are now seeking to defend Hamas, who are not averse to tossing gay people off the roofs of houses.

What binds these causes is a deep-seated hatred of the West.

Read more Unionism and republicanism are piggy-backing on Middle East causes to inflate their own significance

Independent councillor Ray McKimm and Alliance Party deputy mayor Hannah Irwin left the meeting in protest.

Before leaving, Ms Irwin asked Mr Kennedy to retract the statement. DUP Mayor Jennifer Gilmour then asked for a point of order, and said she did not believe Mr Kennedys comments were directed against anyone in the chamber.

Ms Irwin replied: As a member of the LGBT community, I feel personally offended by it.

Mr Kennedy refused to withdraw his comments but said he happy enough to speak to the member afterwards to assuage any concerns she might have.

After an hour-long debate, 22 of the 40 councillors present at the meeting voted in favour of the DUP motion. Two voted against it and the rest abstained.

A recorded vote was not requested but a show of hands was taken.

During the debate, Alliance, Green and SDLP councillors said they would not support the motion.

After the council meeting, an Alliance spokesperson said: Colin Kennedy made comments linking LGBTQ+ people with Hamas during a meeting of Ards and North Down Borough Council on Wednesday.

The comments went unchallenged by DUP mayor Jennifer Gilmour, despite attempts by Alliance representatives on the night.

Alliance is disgusted by not only the intent to link the LGBTQ+ community to a terrorist organisation, but also councillor Kennedys decision to outright ridicule the entire LGBTQ+ community in such a public forum.

It is now urgent that the DUP leadership take immediate action to show the party will not accept such blatant homophobia within its ranks.

Such comments have no place in any society, especially from those in a position of responsibility.

Any mainstream party anywhere else in these islands would have suspended this councillor by now, particularly given it is not the first time he has been involved in controversy.

The DUP must outline immediately if it is intending on taking the same action.

A full audio recording of the meeting is available on the council website.
Ashling Murphy was attacked and killed while out for a run in Tullamore, Co Offaly, on January 12, 2022

A male DNA profile found under the fingernails of Ashling Murphy matched a blood sample taken from murder accused Jozef Puska as well as a second sample taken at Tullamore Garda Station, a court heard.

Dr Lorna Flanagan said the likelihood of this male DNA belonging to someone unrelated to murder accused Jozef Puska was "one in 14,000".

Dr Flanagan was giving evidence in the trial of Mr Puska (33), who has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Ashling Murphy at Cappincur, Tullamore on January 12, 2022.

On Friday, the Central Criminal Court heard from Dr Flanagan, a scientist with Forensic Science Ireland.

Dr Flanagan told prosecutor Anne-Marie Lawlor SC that she had worked in the DNA section of FSI for eight years.

She said she carried out male specific DNA profiling - known as Y-STR - on a sample provided to her.

This sample was generated from scrapings taken from the fingernails on the left and right hand of Ms Murphy, the court heard.

Dr Flanagan said females only have X chromosomes, but men have X and Y chromosomes. By focusing purely on the Y chromosome this meant that she could ignore all the DNA in the sample that was female.

Dr Flanagan said she would generally expect to see a person's own DNA under their fingernails. She said that other DNA found under a person's fingernails could "indicate more than social contact".

Dr Flanagan said she was provided with two other samples - a blood sample given by Mr Puska in St James' Hospital and a sample provided by him in Tullamore Garda Station.

Dr Flanagan said that the Y-STR profile she generated from the fingernail swabs was a match to the blood sample and the sample taken in the garda station.

Dr Flanagan said the likelihood of this male specific DNA profiling coming from someone unrelated to Mr Puska was one in 14,000.

Dr Flanagan accepted that a father and son, or fraternal male cousins could have the same Y-STR profile.

Ms Lawlor said there was no suggestion that any other male relative of Mr Puska had any contact with Ms Murphy.

Cross examined by Michael Bowman SC, Dr Flanagan said the Y-STR statistic was generated from a Western European database of 28,000 Y-STR profiles.

This database extended as far as Latvia, Ukraine and Romania, she said.

Dr Flanagan also confirmed to Mr Bowman that the database included "ethnic Romany Slovak" profiles.

Detective Sergeant David Scahill told the court that he arrested Mr Puska at St James' Hospital at 11.31am on January 18, 2022 and he was taken to Tullamore Garda Station.

Sgt Scahill said Mr Puska was detained under the provisions of Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984, and his periods of detention were extended twice, first by Superintendent Eamonn Curley and then by, since retired, Chief Superintendent John Scanlan.

Sgt Scahill said Mr Puska was interviewed a number of times during his detention, and he was also seen by doctors and his solicitor.

Sgt Scahill said that his supervisor Detective Inspector Brian Farrell told him that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had made the decision to charge Mr Puska with the murder of Ms Murphy.

Sgt Scahill said that Mr Puska was released from the provisions of Section 4 at 7.22pm on January 19, 2022 and he was formally arrested and charged with the murder of Ashling Murphy at 7.42pm.

Sgt Scahill said Mr Puska was cautioned and in reply to the charge after caution he said "no".

Cross examined by Mr Bowman, Sgt Scahill said he had travelled to Dublin on January 17 but had learnt that Mr Puska was not going to be released from hospital.

Asked by Mr Bowman if Mr Puska's arrest was widely known, Sgt Scahill said that as far as he was aware only he, his colleague Garda Andrew Dolan who travelled to Dublin with him and the investigation team knew about the arrest..

Questioned by Mr Bowman if there was a crowd of people outside Tullamore Garda Station, Sgt Scahill said he had gone into the station via the rear entrance and was unaware.

Detective Superintendent Patrick O'Callaghan told the court that as part of the investigation into Ms Murphy's murder gardai followed a number of lines of enquiry, and about 720 jobs were created from that.

For example, a job could have involved calling to a house to take a statement or identify a bike, Supt O'Callaghan said.

Another suspect had been arrested as part of the investigation, Supt O'Callaghan said, but he was released about 10.30pm on January 13.

Supt O'Callaghan said this individual was interviewed on seven occasions, and gave a consistent account of his movements throughout the interviews, and these movements were corroborated by relatives.

Supt O'Callaghan said the other individual was released when DNA and fingerprints taken from him did not match DNA taken from the scene.

The trial continues on Tuesday before Mr Justice Tony Hunt and a jury of nine men and three women.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar visits the memorial to the Heavenly Hundred at Maidan Square, following a meeting with Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelensky, in Kyiv, Ukraine (PA)

Irish premier Leo Varadkar has said it was essential to not lose focus on the war in Ukraine as global attention focuses on the Israel-Palestine conflict.

The Taoiseach was speaking ahead of a two-day meeting of the EUs 27 leaders in Brussels on Friday.

Mr Varadkar said on the first day of the summit that some countries wanted attention to be drawn away from the Russian invasion of Ukraine and towards the threat of an escalating conflict in the Middle East.

Because of all the other things that are happening in the world, not least in the Middle East, itd be very easy to lose focus on the war in Ukraine, and it is essential that we dont do that, he told reporters on Friday.

We need to continue, if not continue, double down on  our support for Ukraine, in terms of political, military, financial and other support.

He said European leaders will also discuss migration but there is no expectation of any new conclusions.

He added: We have a very strong view that Ukraine has a right to defend its sovereignty, its independence, its democracy.

If we dont stop (Vladimir) Putin in Ukraine, he wont stop there.

So it is a threat to all of us and Ireland will continue with support for Ukraine until victory.

His comments come as the Irish government debate on how to change their offering to the thousands of Ukrainians fleeing the war and arriving in Ireland.

As of this month, 96,338 Ukrainian refugees have arrived in Ireland since the start of the war in February 2022.

The Government has said that as a further 30-50,000 are expected to arrive in the next year, it must change the current open-ended accommodation it is offering, and potentially reduce entitlements to social welfare supports.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar (left) and Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe (Brian Lawless/PA)

There were disagreements at Cabinet this week after it was proposed a three-month limit would be placed on the period the state would be obliged to provide accommodation to Ukrainians.

Irelands Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe has said any change to state provisions for Ukrainian refugees must be sustainable, while cautioning that no decision had yet been taken.

The minister, who is attending the EU summit in Brussels in his capacity as president of the Eurogroup of Eurozone finance ministers, said cabinet would come to a decision soon.

This is an issue thats already been discussed at many different levels within government, its been discussed a number of times in the Ukraine cabinet sub-committee, and we regularly discuss policy issues in relation to migration and our support for the people of Ukraine who are facing this terrible war and the discussion that happened in cabinet earlier in the week is just part of that deliberative process, he said.

So Id expect that it will conclude soon.

The Government has not made a decision on that.

This is a complex matter.

The Irish people, the Irish state have shown a remarkable ability to support nearly 100,000 people that have come to our country in the last two years.

We just need to consider how we can continue to do this in the future and do so in a way that is sustainable.

Government hasnt made the decision on the matter.

Were aware of the many consequences of any decision that we make.

And Id expect that in the next few weeks the matter will be considered again, he said.
Leo Varadkar said he had no criticism of Steve Baker giving his thoughts on the Irish unity debate (Brian Lawless/PA)

Irish premier Leo Varadkar has said that a UK government minister is absolutely entitled to express his opinions after suggesting that a super majority should be needed in a poll on Irish unity.

Northern Ireland Office minister Steve Baker told the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly (BIPA) that the Brexit referendum probably should have been a supermajority of at least 60%.

He then cautioned against a 50% plus one result in any potential Irish unification vote.

The UK Government has since clarified that this does not represent a change on its position towards an Irish unity referendum.

Mr Varadkar said although a 50 plus one majority wouldnt be desirable, he questioned what would happen if there was a consistent majority in favour of change.

Mr Varadkar, who has said previously that he believed there would be a referendum on Irish unity within his lifetime, also said it shouldnt be held any time soon.

Mr Varadkar said it would be a divisive process, and said there is not enough talk about convincing British people in Northern Ireland that a united Ireland would be a warm home for them.

Irish premier Leo Varadkar has previously said he thinks there will be an Irish unity vote in his lifetime (PA)

Speaking in Brussels on Friday, the Taoiseach said: I know on occasions people have even questioned my right to have an opinion. I do have an opinion on these things, Steve Baker does too.

I totally respect that and would offer no criticism of the fact that hes thinking about these things and expressing views.

I understand the argument in favour of a supermajority. You know, 50% plus one would not be the most desirable outcome, we would much rather see a convincing majority for unification if and when a border poll comes.

I dont think the time is right for that. I think its quite distant, in fact, for reasons Ive explained in the past.

I suppose the difficulty with a supermajority is how long could you keep the status quo in place, if consistently, a majority of people didnt want that status quo?

Mr Varadkar said that a huge amount of work is needed ahead of a referendum on Irish unity.

The reason why I dont think its a good idea at the moment is the indications are that it would be defeated, and it would also be divisive, the Fine Gael leader said.

And thats why the focus has to be on getting the Good Friday Agreement working again, and institutions up and running.

We see all around the world what happens when important referendums fall. I remember the referendum on an Australian republic 25 years ago, pretty far away, was defeated; independence in Quebec, for example in Scotland.

I think having a referendum on such an important matter that you may not win is fraught with risk: defeat, division.

And if were going to win a referendum on that matter, a huge amount of work has to be done to convince the British people in Northern Ireland, those who have a unionist/loyalist/Protestant/British identity, that theyre welcome, that theyre wanted, that a united Ireland would be a warm home for them, and theres not enough talk about that, quite frankly.
A consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist who claimed he was sacked for raising whistleblowing concerns about midwifery care at his hospital has described losing his employment tribunal as a devastating blow.

Martyn Pitman was dismissed earlier this year from his job at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital (RHCH) in Winchester, where he had worked as a consultant for 20 years.

He told the Southampton tribunal, which concluded earlier this month, that he had been subjected to brutal retaliatory victimisation in a claim which alleged he had suffered a detriment due to exercising rights under the Public Interest Disclosure Act.

A tribunal judgment released on Friday said: It is the unanimous judgment of the tribunal that the claimants complaints of detriment on the grounds of whistleblowing, fail and are dismissed.

Mr Pitman said he now faces the brutal reality of losing the career I have cherished and he, his legal team and the British Medical Association will now have to pick through the 75-page judgment before he decides on appropriate next steps.

His claim was made against the Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (HHFT) and its former chief medical officer Dr Lara Alloway.

It related to the whistleblowing disclosures made by Mr Pitman between March 2019 and July 2021, and resulting detriments he claims he was subjected to.

Mr Pitman told the hearing that up to the spring of 2019 morale was deteriorating in the RHCH midwifery team and clinical midwives had lost confidence in the senior midwifery management.

Mr Pitman also stated he was elected by the midwives to act as their spokesperson, which led to him raising issues with the management.

After the judgment, Mr Pitman said in a statement: This decision is incredibly disappointing and another devastating blow in what has been a very long and challenging legal dispute with the Hampshire Hospitals Foundation Trust.

I have dedicated my entire career, particularly my two decades as a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, to the provision of safe, evidence-based and patient-centred care for those individuals who I have had the privilege and responsibility to look after.

I also very much valued my position of responsibility in being able to support and represent the views and concerns of my clinical midwifery, nursing and healthcare assistant colleagues.

My decision to whistleblow patient and staff safety concerns at the trust has cost me very dearly, and I am faced with the brutal reality of losing the career I have cherished.

He said that his unfair dismissal claim is ongoing.

The trust said it was grateful the tribunals decision had been made in its favour, but also accepted that Mr Pitman had raised important and valid concerns particularly in relation to impacts around staffing levels on our maternity unit.

In a statement, the trust said: He was right to do this  and he was not alone in doing so. We listen to concerns raised and take action. Today, our maternity units are fully recruited for midwives.

Our issue was never about the concerns raised by Mr Pitman, but about concerns raised by others of disruptive behaviour and then a breakdown in working relationships.

These factors are damaging in any workplace, but in a healthcare setting, which is by its nature an intense and pressurised environment, their destabilising effect is even more serious.

The trust said our staff are actively encouraged to speak up candidly and free of any concern about a perceived risk to their role  this was true in 2019, it is true today, and it will always be a guiding principle for Hampshire Hospitals.

It said that patients are best served by teams that work together effectively and where this cannot be achieved, we are obliged to investigate and take appropriate action.

The statement adds: We are grateful to the tribunal for recognising that we acted on the concerns we received, and we take on board their view that action should have been taken sooner.

It is important we continually demonstrate to staff that our hospitals are fair and respectful places to work, and that HHFT is a good employer.

This way we can retain great people, attract new talent, and serve our patients in the best way possible.
A group of 20 environmental organisations have urged the Prime Minister to review the Internal Market Act, which they claim has had unintended negative consequences on policymaking across the UK.

The legislation was passed in 2020 to limit the regulatory divergence between the four nations of the UK, but has been criticised by devolved administrations as a power grab.

In a letter to Rishi Sunak, groups including Wildlife and Countryside Link, Wales Environment Link and Scottish Environment Link, have now urged him to review the policy, which they say has led to significant hurdles to progress and added to the bureaucratic overheads associated with policy-making in every part of the UK.

The groups pushed for qualified automatic exemptions to be made for policies in devolved administrations relating to the environment or public health, saying: One of the benefits of the devolution settlement has been policy innovation and the learning of lessons.

The most famous examples are in those two broad policy areas: the carrier bag charge (initiated in Wales and then adopted across the UK) and the ban on smoking in public places (initiated in Scotland and then similarly adopted across the UK).

The unintended effects of the Internal Market Act include limitations on how this policy development process can operate in future, to the detriment of all.

We would therefore urge a qualified automatic exemption for legislation in those two areas, qualified perhaps by expanding the operations of the Office for the Internal Market to assess whether any relevant future legislation is indeed designed to achieve those shared aims.

The groups also raised issues with when an exemption to devolved legislation should be applied for, and what is considered a substantive change under the Act that would not be allowed to regulations passed before the Act came into force.

A spokesman for the UK Government said: The rest of the UK remains the most important economic partner for Scottish businesses, and so the UKIM Act is absolutely vital to Scotlands economy.

For Scotland in 2019, 66% of purchases and 60% of exports were either to or from the rest of the UK. The Act supports this trade rather than preventing it.

We recognise that parts of the UK may adopt different policies which is why the Act ensures equal opportunities for businesses and consumers no matter where they are located in, ensuring the whole of the UK will level up together.

The Acts most notable use came earlier this year, when UK ministers refused to grant a full exemption that would see glass containers included in the Scottish Governments planned deposit return scheme.

As a result, the scheme was delayed, with the Scottish Government now aiming to launch at the same time as the UK-wide scheme.
South Korea and the United States have held a large-scale combined military exercise to hone response capabilities against North Korean long-range artillery threats, officials said Friday.

The three-day drills, involving more than 5,400 South Korean and U.S. troops and some 300 artillery pieces, began Wednesday across the country amid renewed attention on Seoul's readiness against possible North Korean artillery shelling in the wake of Hamas' recent surprise attack on Israel.

The North is known to operate some 340 long-range artillery pieces along the inter-Korean border, directly targeting the greater Seoul area  home to about half of South Korea's 51 million people.

The latest exercise, overseen by the Army Ground Operations Command, focused on training troops to strike enemy artillery and their origin of provocation, and to prepare against possible surprise artillery firings akin to Hamas' recent attack, the unit said.

On Friday, K9 and K55A1 self-propelled howitzers were deployed for live-fire drills at firing ranges in the border counties of Cheorwon, 85 kilometers northeast of Seoul, and Yeoncheon, the command said.

The allies also mobilized unmanned aerial vehicles, counter-battery radar, Multiple Launch Rocket Systems, Army Tactical Missile Systems, South Korean F-15K fighter jets and U.S. A-10 attack aircraft among other assets for the three-day exercise.

The exercise took place as part of the South Korean military's ongoing annual Hoguk drills that kicked off on Oct. 13 and is set to run through Nov. 22. (Yonhap)
An artists impression of Joshua Bowles who is accused of stabbing a woman at a leisure centre in Cheltenham (Elizabeth Cook/PA)

A former GCHQ worker described himself as a terrorist after launching a premeditated, targeted and vicious knife attack on a US spy outside a leisure centre, a court has heard.

Armed with two knives, Joshua Bowles, 29, punched and stabbed the woman repeatedly at the centre some three miles from the UK intelligence agencys Cheltenham base on March 9.

In August, Bowles, of Welwyn Mews, Cheltenham, pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of the woman, referred to by the code number 99230, and assaulting a second person, causing actual bodily harm.

On Friday, he appeared in the dock of the Old Bailey to be sentenced by senior judge Mrs Cheema-Grubb.

The prosecution asserted Bowles attack was a planned terrorist-related attack after the defendant searched the internet for topics including the American Unabomber terrorist, Theodore Kaczynski.

Opening the facts, prosecutor Duncan Penny KC said it was a pre-meditated, targeted and vicious attack on an unarmed woman.

He told the court: That woman was a United States government employee working in the United Kingdom.

She was attacked by a man who was carrying two knives and she was stabbed three times outside, and in the reception area of, a leisure centre in Cheltenham.

The attack which the perpetrator launched was intended to be lethal  that the helpless victim survived it was mere happenstance.

Her selection as the target for this attack was entirely and solely associated with her role as a US government employee in the National Security Agency of the United States.

Mr Penny said Bowles, a former British employee at GCHQ, had described himself as a terrorist in the aftermath of the attack.

In a police interview, the defendant told police: The target was selected for her employment at the NSA.

Due to the size and resourcing, American intelligence represents the largest contributor within the intelligence community so made sense as the symbolic target. I consider GCHQ just as guilty.

Mr Penny said the victim 99230 had been playing netball at the leisure centre in Cheltenham on the evening of March 9 and was leaving with a friend, who was a fellow US national identified as 25869.

CCTV footage showed the pair walking into the car park just after 9pm followed by the defendant, who had been waiting in his car with two knives in a rucksack.

The victim turned round when she heard a man say excuse me and was punched repeatedly in the face.

Mr Penny said she assumed she was being mugged and saw he had a knife when the blade caught the light.

The prosecutor told the court: The defendant was punching her, and she was fighting back, concerned about the knife: kicking, punching and screaming as much as she could.

Her friend shouted at Bowles to leave her alone and hit him with her bag while the victim tried to fight him off.

The victim said the defendant kept coming at her with the knife, saying: He just wouldnt stop.

Alex Fuentes was on his way to play football and asked Bowles whats going on.

The defendant responded by hitting him in the face before walking away, leaving him in complete shock.

The two women ran back into the leisure centre, followed seconds later by the defendant.

Mr Penny said: The defendant attacked 99230 a second time, immediately upon entering reception. 99230 recalls him yelling but cant remember what was said.

The CCTV footage shows the defendant holding a knife and lunging towards 99230, who was trying to back away. She describes that it felt like he hated me  his focus was me.

Steve Bunn, another visitor to the Leisure Centre, saw blood flowing from the womans mouth and down her chin and throat.

Describing the resumed attack on the victim inside reception, he said: He was on her, immediately, grabbed her and was moving around in such a way it was obvious he was trying to hit her or hurt her, he was striking at her.

It looked like he was throwing punches or attacking her with punches.

He grabbed the defendant, enabling the two women to move away and Bowles dropped a knife on the floor, the court heard.

Mr Bunn said the defendant was fuelled by frenzied aggression but it just dissipated once the two women had left. Asked if he was OK, Bowles said no, Ive just tried to kill her.

While waiting for police, the defendant told Mr Bunn that he would understand what he had done if he knew what they did at GCHQ.

He said Bowles was making out that he was disgusted by the manner in which they gather information and use things against people and was appalled by the agency (99230) works for.

He remembered the defendant saying he could no longer handle the murky waters of ethics and whether they are doing the right thing and the power that the American NSA have and the things they do. Its a good job I didnt have a gun, isnt it?

What have I done? Ive tried to kill her. I cant believe this  They pay me all this money, I just couldnt face the ethics of it  I make a pretty shit terrorist, dont I?

The court was told the female victims injuries included cuts to her abdomen, chest and thigh.

In a victim impact statement, she said that using the defendants name made her feel sick and brought back awful memories.

She said: I now know he used to work where I work and Im devastated by this.

This attack has had a profound effect on me and its utterly and completely changed my life.

Ive spend a week in hospital after having emergency surgery. I had never had surgery before in my life and it was very frightening.

Months later, my wounds are still sore. I instinctively cover my abdomen to protect it. My scars bother me.

Following the attack I went from being in the best shape I had ever been to being the weakest I have ever been.

The prosecution asserted the offence had a terrorist connection but that was disputed by the defence.

In mitigation, Bowles barrister Tim Forte said his client expressed his profound regret, remorse and shame at what he has done.

Mr Forte dismissed the defendants comments as bravado, having realised his reasons were petty and embarrassing.

His twin motivations were rejection by the object of his affections and a desire to hurt his ex-employer for employment reasons, Mr Forte said.

Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb adjourned sentencing until Monday morning.
The First Minister has written to all political leaders in the UK (Jane Barlow/PA)

Scotlands First Minister has written to every political leader in the UK to urge them to back a ceasefire in Gaza.

In a letter understood to have been sent on Thursday evening, Humza Yousaf said Israel has a right to defend itself following the Hamas attacks on October 7, but he added action must be taken now to stop the staggering humanitarian disaster in Gaza before it becomes cataclysmic.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, the leaders of the major parties in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and the conveners of the Westminster Foreign Affairs Select Committee and Holyroods External Affairs Committee all received the letter.

Mr Yousaf, whose in-laws have been trapped in Gaza since the beginning of hostilities, said: The abhorrent terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas on October 7 must be unequivocally condemned, and I will continue to join you in doing so. Hamas must release immediately and unconditionally all hostages and cease its missile attacks on Israel.

The killing of innocent civilians can never be justified, wherever it occurs. Israel, like every other country, has a right to protect itself from attack, but in doing so it must comply with international law.

Food, water, fuel, and medicine are being restricted, with limited humanitarian supplies  nowhere near enough  being allowed in.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)  the largest humanitarian agency working in Gaza  has warned that unless fuel is allowed into Gaza immediately, the agency will be forced to halt all operations as of today.

I am, therefore, writing to ask for your support in helping to stop the staggering humanitarian disaster we are witnessing, which is set to get even worse.

We should stand together and unite in unequivocally calling on all parties to commit to an immediate ceasefire to allow a humanitarian corridor to be opened, so that lifesaving supplies can get into Gaza and innocent civilians who want to leave be given safe passage out.

The situation in Gaza is at the point of being cataclysmic.

All of us must do everything we can to prevent that. There must be no more dithering, or delay, together we must call for an immediate ceasefire.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar voiced his support for a ceasefire on Friday, as did Labour London Mayor Sadiq Khan  heaping pressure on Sir Keir.

The Labour leader has faced increasing calls from inside and outside the party to back a ceasefire, but has so far been resistant, uniting with Mr Sunak and the US.

Mr Khan, the first Muslim mayor of London, said a ceasefire will stop the killing and would allow vital aid supplies to reach those who need it in Gaza, as well as granting more time for the international community to work to prevent a protracted conflict in the Middle East.

Mr Sarwar  the first Muslim party leader in British history  called for the immediate cessation of violence, with an end of rocket fire into and out of Gaza.

He added: Let me be clear, that means a ceasefire right now.

In a reply to the First Minister, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said his party has called for a a temporary humanitarian ceasefire, adding: We need the space for an intense period of diplomacy, to get humanitarian aid into Gaza, and to provide an opportunity to realise the safe release of all Israeli hostages.

The road to peace feels vanishingly far away right now but it is a road we can and must rejoin.
Epidemiologist Wu Zunyou, who helped drive anti-Covid measures in China that suspended access to cities and confined millions to their homes, has died aged 60.

An announcement from Chinas Centre for Disease Control and Prevention about Mr Wus death gave no cause, but said that rescue measures failed.

The news of his death came just hours after the death of former premier Li Keqiang was announced. Mr Li was the countrys deputy leader during the pandemic.

Mr Wu was the chief epidemiologist of Chinas CDC and one of the public faces of the countrys zero-Covid measures that suspended international travel, imposed draconian lockdowns and prompted protests at the end of 2022.
Palestinians inspect the rubble of a house after it was struck by an Israeli air strike in Khan Younis refugee camp (AP)

Israel expects to launch a long and difficult ground offensive into Gaza soon to destroy Hamas, the countrys defence minister said.

Yoav Gallant described a campaign that will require dismantling a vast network of tunnels used by the territorys militant rulers.

The defence minister spoke to a small group of foreign reporters in Tel Aviv after Israeli forces backed by fighter jets and drones carried out a second, limited ground raid into Gaza in as many days, striking the outskirts of Gaza City.

Mr Gallant said the ground invasion that follows weeks of air strikes will take a long time, and that it would lead to another lengthy phase of lower-intensity fighting as Israel destroys pockets of resistance.

In a sign of the rising tensions in the region, US war planes earlier struck targets in eastern Syria that the Pentagon said were linked to Irans Revolutionary Guard after a string of attacks on American forces, and two mysterious objects hit towns in Egypts Sinai Peninsula.

After three weeks of war sparked by a bloody Hamas incursion into southern Israel, the Palestinian death toll has soared past 7,300, according to officials in Gaza.

A blockade on Gaza has meant dwindling supplies of food, fuel, water and medicine, and UN and Arab leaders have called for a ceasefire to allow entry of humanitarian aid that is only trickling in.

Palestinian telecom provider Paltel said internet service in the Gaza Strip has been cut off by the Israeli bombardment.

Services were cut on Friday evening following a heavy round of Israeli air strikes that lit up the sky over the territory.

The Palestinian Red Crescent, the main emergency service in Gaza, said it was cut off from its operations room because of the internet blackout.

On Thursday, Gazas health ministry released a detailed list of names and identification numbers of those killed, including more than 3,000 minors and more than 1,500 women.

An Israeli man evacuate an elderly woman from a building struck by a rocket fired from Gaza, in Tel Aviv (AP)

More than 1,400 people were slain in Israel during Hamas October 7 attack, according to the Israeli government, and at least 229 hostages were taken into Gaza.

Palestinian militants have fired thousands of rockets into Israel, including one that hit a residential building in Tel Aviv on Friday, injuring four people.

The overall number of deaths far exceeds the combined toll of all four previous wars between Israel and Hamas, estimated at around 4,000.

A ground invasion is expected to cause even higher casualties on both sides as Israeli forces and Hamas battle each other in dense residential areas.

Hospitals have been scrounging for fuel to run emergency generators that power incubators and other life-saving equipment after Israel cut off all fuel deliveries to Gaza at the start of the war, forcing its only power plant to shut down.

Mr Gallant said Israel believes that Hamas would confiscate any fuel that enters. He said Hamas uses generators to pump air into its hundreds of miles of tunnels, which originate in civilian areas.

He showed reporters aerial footage of what he said was a tunnel shaft built right next to a hospital.For air, they need oil. For oil, they need us, he said.

Little is known about Hamas secretive tunnels and other infrastructure, and it was not possible to independently confirm Mr Gallants claims.

Lynne Hastings, the UN aid coordinator for the Palestinian territories, declined to comment on Mr Gallants remarks, saying: We dont know what Hamas has or doesnt have.

She added: We have been bringing fuel into Gaza in coordination with the government of Israel for decades. We know fuel is a high-risk item and are working with the Israelis to make sure what we will be using for our operations is done securely.

(PA Graphics)

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, which provides basic services to hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza, said it has been forced to ration fuel among lifesaving machines in hospitals, bakeries, and desalination plants, and only has enough for a few more days.

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, told reporters: The siege means that food, water and fuel  basic commodities  are being used to collectively punish more than two million people, among them, a majority of children and women.

Earlier on Friday, the military said ground forces raided inside Gaza, striking dozens of militant targets over the past 24 hours.

It said aircraft and artillery bombed targets in Shijaiyah, an area on Gaza Citys outskirts that was the scene of an urban battle in the 2014 Gaza war.

The military said the soldiers exited the territory without suffering any casualties. It reported an earlier, hours-long raid into northern Gaza on Thursday.

The damage to Gaza from nearly three weeks of bombardment showed in satellite photos of several locations taken before the war and again in recent days. Entire rows of residential buildings simply disappear in the photos, reduced to smears of dust and rubble.

Palestinians look for survivors after an Israeli air strike on buildings at Shati refugee camp (AP)

The Israeli military says it only targets militants and accuses Hamas of operating among civilians in an attempt to protect its fighters.

The conflict has threatened to ignite a wider war across the region.

US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said that the Friday strikes in eastern Syria were a response to ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against US personnel in Iraq and Syria over the past 10 days.

He said the operation was separate from the Israel-Hamas war.

Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed ally of Hamas in Lebanon, has repeatedly traded fire with Israel along the border, and Israel has carried out air strikes targeting Iran-linked groups in Syria. The United States has sent two aircraft carrier strike groups to the region, along with additional weaponry and personnel, in part to deter Iran and its allies from entering the war.

Last week, a US Navy destroyer in the northern Red Sea shot down three cruise missiles and several drones launched toward Israel by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in northern Yemen.

About 1.4 million of Gazas 2.3 million residents have fled their homes, with nearly half of them crowding into UN shelters.

Hundreds of thousands remain in northern Gaza, despite Israel ordering them to evacuate to the south and saying that those who remain might be considered accomplices of Hamas.

Over the past week, Israel has allowed more than 80 trucks with aid enter from Egypt through the Rafah crossing, the only entry point into Gaza not controlled by Israel. But aid workers say the convoys meet only a tiny fraction of the territorys mounting humanitarian needs.
Ivanka Trump will have to give evidence, a judge ruled (House Select Committee via AP)

Ivanka Trump will have to give evidence in the civil fraud case against her father, her brothers and the family business, a judge has ruled.

The ruling came weeks into the trial of New York attorney general Letitia James lawsuit against former president Donald Trump, sons Don Jr and Eric, the Trump Organisation and some executives. Donald Trump is set to give evidence on Monday November 6.

After Ivanka Trump was dismissed from the case months ago, lawyers for her and the defence contended that she should not have to give evidence, noting that she moved out of New York and stepped away from her Trump Organisation job in 2017.

The states lawyers argued that the former Trump Organisation executive vice president has relevant information.

Former president Donald Trump waits for the continuation of his civil business fraud trial in New York (Spencer Platt/Pool Photo via AP)

Judge Arthur Engoron sided with the state, citing documents showing that Ms Trump has ownership or management ties to some businesses in New York and still owns Manhattan apartments.

Ms Trump has clearly availed herself of the privilege of doing business in New York, Judge Engoron said. He said her testimony would not be scheduled before November 1, to give her lawyers time to appeal.

Ms James lawsuit accuses the former president of overstating his wealth for years on financial statements that were given to banks, insurers and others to help secure loans and deals.

The defendants deny the allegations. Donald Trump, the current Republican 2024 presidential front-runner, has called the trial a politically motivated sham.

The ex-president and his sons are expected to testify at some point. In a surprise preview, the elder Trump ended up briefly on the witness stand on Wednesday to answer Judge Engorons questions about an out-of-court comment.

Ivanka Trumps lawyer told the judge on Friday that state lawyers had no legal basis to make her testify.

At the end of the day, your honour, they just dont have jurisdiction over her, said the attorney, Bennet Moskowitz.

A state appeals court in June dismissed the claims against her as too old.

Ms Trump announced in January 2017, ahead of her fathers inauguration, that she was stepping away from her Trump Organisation job. She soon became an unpaid senior adviser in the Trump White House. After her fathers term ended, she moved to Florida.

The idea that somehow Ms Trump is under the control of the Trump Organisation or any of the defendants, her father  anyone who has raised a daughter past the age of 13 knows that theyre not under their control, said Christopher Kise, a lawyer for the ex-president.

Mr Kise maintained that state lawyers just want another free-for-all on another of President Trumps children.

State lawyers, however, argued that Ms Trump was a key participant in some events discussed in the case and remains financially and professionally intertwined with the family business and its leaders.

She is 100% someone who can come in and testify, said Kevin Wallace, a lawyer for the attorney generals office.
Speaker of the Assembly, Alex Maskey, welcomes the US Special Envoy Joe Kennedy III and Ambassador Jane Hartley to Parliament Buildings. Photo: Kelvin Boyes/Press Eye

They say every picture tells a story. They also say the camera doesnt lie. But thats not quite the whole truth.

Its often what goes on when the camera stops clicking thats more important and more relevant.

Our politicians putting on a united front while wining and dining a US business delegation led by special envoy Joe Kennedy III is one thing.

But in light of the ongoing DUP boycott of Stormont, theres an audience much closer to home that needs to be impressed.

Isnt it obvious that much needed  and obviously available  investment from across the Atlantic would be more forthcoming if there was a positive future to invest in?

No country in its right mind would throw finance at a place that seems to do so little to help itself.

The image of Sinn Feins Michelle ONeill and the DUPs Sir Jeffrey Donaldson walking down the steps at Stormont is a welcome one, as was the presence of Alliance, UUP and SDLP.

But we need more than a show for our guests from the United States.

This one-off display for the cameras gives us a glimpse of how things could be if the institutions were restored.

The prospect of continued and more American investment in our economy is surely something we all want to see in the months and years ahead.

However, much work remains to be done across all aspects of government here.

Civil servants have been running the place for a year now  but that is simply unsustainable.

Depressingly, all too soon after the Stormont gathering the cracks that had been papered over by fine dresses, suits and dining began to resurface once again.

Mr Donaldson has already warned that significant gaps remain between London and his party over the Windsor Framework and the Irish Sea border.

He may well claim the event does show that Northern Ireland is open for business.

But how long the rest of the world remains open for business with us is a different matter.

Thats why the restoration of the power-sharing administration is essential to help take advantage of the changed economic circumstances we find ourselves in post-Brexit.

The kitchens at Stormont might have offered some rather appetising fare the other night for our politicians and their esteemed guests.

However, the ongoing political stalemate is getting much harder to swallow.
Pexels.com

Have you ever seen a cardinal at a time when you needed comfort? Cardinals have always had a deep spiritual meaning, tracing back to when they were first named. According to the Farmer's Almanac, when European settlers came to North America, they noticed these birds with a bright red hue that closely resembled the red vestments of Roman Catholic leading bishops.

It adds that the bird's jaunty crest resembles the shape of the church officials' headgear, especially the tall, pointed miter. Fr. Jeffrey Kirby, pastor of Our Lady of Grace in Indian Land, South Carolina, told Fox News Digital that the red color of the cardinal is seen as a symbol of Jesus' blood, adding that, in Christianity, it's the blood of Jesus that opened to gates of paradise to humanity. Due to this religious correlation, many believe a visit from a cardinal serves as a heavenly communication or sign from a departed loved one.

What a red cardinal symbolizes.

The unique color of the cardinal, the males are bright red, while the females are typically a pale brown, with warm reddish hues on their tail, wings, and crest, bring a great sense of joy to some when they see the magical bird. Fr.Kirby added that the encouraging presence of cardinals in sad moments has created a cultural association of the birds with hope and the presence of our dearly departed loved ones.

Many people have noticed a cardinal's presence when they bury a loved one or in times of great sadness connected to a departed family member. This common occurrence can mean a loved one is close by, and the person you're thinking of will always love you. CaringCardinals.com says that people have often reported that they start seeing cardinals frequently after the death of a loved one. Seeing a cardinal for the first time, or more commonly than usual, can signify to your loved ones that they'll always be near you and feel your love.

The Bible asks are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Still, none of them will fall to the ground apart from the Father. Even our heads' hairs are counted, so we shouldn't be afraid. We are of more value than most sparrows. The text uses birds as an example to share a lesson that points to God's presence in our lives. Fr. Kirby believes that God can use a cardinal if He can use a sparrow.

It's possible that God would send a cardinal to someone grieving and in anguish. The bird's spirit would certainly complement such a special mission. The cardinal might not be your loved one incarnate, but it may be a physical manifestation of the Lord's providence that you can see. Here are some other spiritual meanings behind seeing a cardinal.

A transformation is happening.

According to Alyson Charles, a spiritual teacher, seeing a cardinal can indicate a bold change waiting to happen in your life. Whatever that change is for you, she says that seeing a cardinal invites you to trust yourself and your evolutionary processes to go to the core of this change and embrace it.

You may need to connect to your root chakra.

With its head-turning red color, cardinals also relate to the root chakra, particularly regarding changes you're going through. Charles explains that any time we're going through substantial transformations, which also typically involves an urging to expand and rise in consciousness, it's essential to stay connected, stay in your body, and be grounded. As such, practices to help harmonize and balance your root, like spending time in nature, are good. Affirmations can also support you in your time of transformation.

You're free to express yourself.

When you think about cardinals, you think bold, and that's what this bird wants you to become. Charles says that seeing a cardinal is a reminder not to withdraw but to express yourself and open up. Perhaps your initiation or transformation brings up feelings of embarrassment or shame, eliciting a desire to hide. However, cardinals ask you to do the opposite.

Loyal people surround you.

Cardinals are known for their loyalty, mating with one partner for life. This gives them a connection to loyalty, partnership, and monogamy, and if that's what you're seeking, you can take seeing a cardinal as a positive sign, especially if you see one when you're thinking about your partner or when you're with your partner.

You're connected to the spirit realm.

As aforementioned, cardinals are typically considered couriers from the spirit realm, either connecting you with guides or dearly departed loved ones. Many people discuss seeing cardinals after a loved one passes away, with the bird's bright red hue offering support and comfort.

What to do if you keep seeing cardinals.

If cardinals keep appearing, there's likely a message available for you. As Charles explains, any power animal likes to get an invitation from you before working with you. Seeing a cardinal in your window isn't surprising and may have a special meaning, depending on your situation. Any of the meanings mentioned above may still apply, but the window is unique because the cardinal appears to you in your home.

Our homes are our havens and safe spaces from the world. For a cardinal to appear, that can indicate a need to tap into your power and energy to keep your home secure and safe. Perhaps that means working with your root chakra, setting firmer boundaries, or facing any fears you've been avoiding. The next time you see a cardinal, God may send you a message from a dearly departed loved one.

God's providence could allow a bird to serve as a reminder and a sign to us of the presence of our loved ones and their care and kindness for us. Animals can appear to us in many ways, each with unique insights and messages. In the case of the cardinal, this bright red bird reminds us that our loved ones are always with us, bold expression, and of the importance of security and strength.
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Biblical marriage is a representation of the marriage of Jesus to His church. Isaiah 61:10 says that our souls shall rejoice in our God because He has clothed us in our garments of salvation and covered us with the robe of righteousness. Revelation 19:7 echoes this Old Testament verse with its joyous tone.

Christian churches typically encourage a woman and a man not to live together before marriage and not to forgo the ceremony. A wedding doesnt have to be lavish, but declaring vows in front of loved ones provides accountability to everyone. Husband and wife are now accountable to each other and the body of Christ.

Suppose one party openly engaged in sins, and a church member witnesses the activity. In that case, that member is responsible for declaring the truth and leading this person back to the cross. Married couples can also become mentors to younger grooms and brides. Their relationship is designed to express the relationship between a person and their Savior, one where theres forgiveness, grace, gentleness, humility, loyalty, and so on. Marriage is a great friendship, and the Bible has a lot to say about it.

However, much of what is written is overlooked in the modern world and taken out of context, leading to the proliferation of damaging lies. Here are some myths about biblical marriage.

Your spouse will complete you.

Biblical counselor June Hunt told The Christian Post that a soul mate isnt a Christian idea. Instead, this idea comes from Plato, an ancient Greek philosopher, who taught that women and men were made in one body, but the gods separated them. Hunt wrote that women and men seem to act like half-people looking for the second piece to make them whole. Marshall Segal expounds on this theory, saying that God didnt create marriage as a means of enduring lifes burdens. Instead, the ultimate reason for marriage is a means of expressing and experiencing a far greater union.

Whether a partner comes into our lives or not, we are all complete entities. Were not more or less valuable to God based on our relationship status. Furthermore, relying on someone else to be the other 50 percent puts a lot of pressure on that individual to supply all of ones needs. In a perfect partnership, wives and husbands encourage each other to look to Jesus to supply every need instead of turning each other into idols they cant live without.

Indeed, the loss of a spouse will cause terrible grief, but Colossians 2:10 reminds us that we are complete in Him. Put another way, were filled in Him, and no one makes us complete except for Jesus in us.

Ill deal with my sin when Im married.

The idea of being incomplete until marriage contributes to the idea that were allowed to get our sins out of our system before marriage and invited to save righteous behavior for life with a future spouse. One excuse for stalling in our chase of holiness is that single Christians arent yet responsible in the same ways as married Christians, as if theyre somehow less human. If one isnt whole as a single person, they have no incentive to resist temptation.

However, habits established when single carry into marriage. Marriage tends to amplify, not alleviate, overcoming sin. Healthy sexual desire is redeemed by marriage. Suppose men and women cant exercise self-control. In that case, they should marry because its better to marry than burn with passion, as detailed in 1 Corinthians 7:9. However, unhealthy desires cause damage and bring pain.

Only God can rehabilitate a person, so its not the spouses responsibility. If you deal with chronic sin issues like addictive behavior, discuss that openly with your potential spouse. If such a sin emerges during marriage, spouses are helpers. One of marriages most beautiful blessings is the help spouses are for each others sanctification.

Husbands rule over their wives.

Paul tells Ephesian women to submit to their husbands like the Lord. Ephesians 5:22-24 tells us that the husband is the head of the wife, like Christ is the head of the church and His body. As the church submits to Christ, so should wives submit in everything to their husbands. However, in Ephesians 6:25, Paul also says that husbands should love their wives like Christ loved the church and sacrificed Himself for her.

Men habitually take Ephesians 5 out of context to justify abusive, neglectful, domineering relationships with their wives because they think God said their wives should do what they want. However, the correct way to read this verse is through the lens of the entire Bible. Think about Jesus life and what He told his disciples about encouragement and mutual care. In Matthew 20:28, Jesus tells His disciples that He came to serve, not to be served.

We should also consider what Paul wrote to the church at Phillippi, where he reminds us to consider others outside of ourselves. That doesnt sound like an invitation for husbands to exploit their wives.

"Christian marriages are unbreakable."

The Bible has made provisions for people whose marriages are scarred by neglect and abuse because He knows that broken people commit sins against each other. Its not a sin to leave a marriage where one party continually puts their needs above the other spouses needs, ignores, manipulates, gaslights, and hits. Powerful faith can move mountains, and there should be support for spouses who want to fight for their marriage.

Still, there should also be support for the person being repeatedly, chronically neglected or abused, whether spiritually, emotionally, physically, or all three. If an abuser seeks counseling, repents, and shows the fruit of a transformed heart, a spouse may want to make things work. The choice will be influenced by the situations severity and the level of fear hammered into the abused party.

You could be celebrating your golden wedding anniversary or a newly married pair of 20-somethings. You could even be a pair of older newlyweds. There will be a time to forget but also to remember the beautiful truths about a marriage brought together in Christ.
Peace talks between Thailand and Barisan Revolusi Nasional rebels came to a complete stop in early 2023 when BRN said they would not return to the table until a new government took power following the May general election.

Prime Minister Srettha Tavisin and his cabinet were inducted on Sept. 5 after political wrangling and a post-polls impasse that lasted 3 months. But nearly two months into office, Sretthas government still has not announced who he has appointed to serve as the chief negotiator representing Thailand in the Malaysia-brokered talks.

Its also unclear whether Srettha has removed Gen. Wanlop Rugsanaoh, the incumbent, from that post. The delay is not so much a tactic but a reflection of how this administration prioritizes its policies.

Srettha has other urgent matters to attend to such as restoring the faith of his Pheu Thai Partys support base, who felt betrayed by deals it made in forming a ruling coalition with the help of ex-military rivals who had toppled another Pheu Thai prime minister through a 2014 coup.

And so its important to give the impression of civilian supremacy.

The prime minister is poised to appoint the first non-military person in years to lead the negotiating team. The past three chief negotiators for the southern peace process were retired army generals. A non-military person is expected to lead the National Security Council (NSC) as well.

Official sources said the negotiating team would report directly to Srettha, who would incorporate his own key personnel into the outfit. The NSC will not take the lead on that team but will join representatives from other government agencies and ministries in the secretariat.

While the negotiations team will come directly under the prime minister, the Prachachat Party, a local party made up of mostly ageing Malay Muslims who were members of the now-defunct Wadah Faction, will take the lead in overseeing policy for the far south. They will receive a wide mandate, from development to national reconciliation.

Anas Abdulrahman (center), the head of the panel representing Barisan Revolusi Nasional rebels in peace talks with Thailand, and fellow BRN delegates take part in a post-meetings press conference at a hotel in Petaling Jaya, near Kuala Lumpur, Aug. 3, 2022. [S. Mahfuz/BenarNews]

However, identifying the terms for peaceful coexistence between the ethnic Malays in the troubled border region and the rest of the predominantly Buddhist country will not be easy.

Wadah politicians were given the same mandate by the then-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra who, almost immediately after coming to power in 2001, dissolved the multiagency Southern Border Provinces Administration Center so that his people could have a freer hand to deal with the region.

But the government of Thaksin, Pheu Thais patriach, was caught off guard with the emergence of the new generation of Patani Malay separatist fighters after nearly a decade of relatively calm.

At first, Thaksin labeled them sparrow bandits, insisting that Patani Malay separatist ideology was a thing of the past. But his government could no longer deny the political underpinnings of their operations when, on Jan. 4, 2004, scores of BRN insurgents raided an army battalion and made off with hundreds of military weapons from an arms depot on base.

Since then more than 7,300 people have been killed from insurgency-related violence.

Peace initiatives have come and gone but none generated enough traction to push the talks beyond confidence building measures, or CBM  not even after the BRN, the group that controls virtually all of the combatants in the field, came to the table, in early 2020.

As long as anyone could remember, Prachachat members like to blame the military for just about everything, from abuse of power and heavy handedness in counter-insurgency operations, to obstructing progress and development in this historically contested region.

But it was their refusal to stand up for their own people against the then government of Thaksin and the army during two bloody incidents  the Tak Bai massacre and the Krue Se Mosque standoff in April and October 2004, respectively  that undermined their popularity with voters.

According to Daungyewa Utarasint, an assistant professor at the New York University campus in Abu Dhabi, the so-called Wadah politicians were shunned by their constituency for nearly 15 years. They were able to make a comeback in 2018 with the help of Police Col. Tawee Sodsong, a close political ally of Thaksin. Together, these so-called Wadah politicians formed the Prachachart Party.

Artef Sohko, president of The Patani, a political action group advocating rights to self-determination for the people in the far south, said memories of the Tak Bai and the Krue Se incidents are still vivid in the minds of the locals who have yet to come to terms with these atrocities.

Blaming the Army for all the regions problems is Wadahs way of excluding themselves from any responsibilities. They were more concerned about staying in power than bringing justice to their people, Artef said.

Justice to them is mainly about economic development. They forgot its also about human dignity, Artef added.

Thai forensic experts examine the site where village defense volunteers were killed by suspected separatist insurgents in Yala province, southern Thailand, Nov. 6, 2019. [Surapan Boonthanom/Reuters]

Negotiations can be a thankless job because the Thai team was hampered by national politics that would not permit them to make any meaningful concessions to the rebels or to the Patani Malays, a people who embrace an entirely different set of historical and cultural narratives from that of the Thai State.

For the young men taking up arms against the state, said local writer Asmadee Bueheng, their political objective is non-negotiable.

People have put their lives on the line for it and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

Thailand has to learn how to deal with this sacred value that cannot be compromise, Asmadee said.

Today, with a civilian-led government in place, it is tempting to believe that changes is inevitable. It is hoped that meaningful topics would reach the negotiating table and generate greater social-political space for the Malays in the far south that could lead to reconciliation.

But this blind optimism rests on the assumption that the civilian leaders understand the nature of the conflict better than the military who had dominated the countrys national politics for much of the past two decades.

Civilian leaders may have a better rapport with civil society organizations (CSO). But if the past two decades tells us anything is that neither the political leaders nor the countrys top brass has the political will to push for real changes.

Don Pathan is a Thailand-based security analyst who works on conflict and insurgency in the Southeast Asia region. The views expressed here are his own and do not reflect the position of BenarNews.
An army soldier on Friday stormed out of an armored vehicle on the way back to his unit following an exercise and brandished a military knife at the drivers of nearby cars in a hijacking attempt in Paju, northwest of Seoul, police said.

The soldier, whose identity was withheld, was arrested at the scene and is under investigation.

Police received a 112 emergency call at around 9 a.m. saying a soldier jumped off an armored vehicle and suddenly started wielding a hand knife at nearby people in Paju.

Armored vehicles carrying soldiers were on their way back to the unit after completing an annual Hoguk defense exercise, according to police and military authorities.

The soldier in his 20s abruptly jumped off the vehicle while they were stuck in traffic, approached the cars pulled over to the side of the road, and threatened the drivers to hand over their car keys to him before he was subdued by a military personnel and handed over to the police.

The incident left one driver injured, and some cars had a minor collision while trying to avoid the scene.

Police said they referred the suspect to the military police at 12:40 p.m. after questioning him.

The Army identified the suspect only as a corporal, saying he was in the area for an exercise. It said an investigation is under way in coordination with the police, and vowed to take "stern" measures based on its results.

"It is regrettable this incident occurred during an exercise," it said in a statement. "We express deep sympathy to the victim and we will take an active interest in their treatment." (Yonhap)




Police officers carry the body of a victim of an attack on gold miners by separatist rebels in Dekai, a district in Yahukimo regency, Papua Highlands province, Indonesia, Oct. 27, 2023.

Indonesian police on Friday said they had found the bodies of six more civilians killed in an attack on gold miners by Papuan separatist rebels earlier this month, bringing the death toll to 13.

The victims were among a group of non-Papuan miners who, according to officials, were attacked on Oct. 16 by insurgents from the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) in Yahukimo, a regency in Papua Highlands province. A day after the deaths of seven miners were reported, the rebels claimed responsibility for the attack.

The six decomposed bodies were discovered during a joint search operation by police and the military on Friday morning, following reports from South Sulawesi province residents who were looking for their missing relatives, Yahukimo Police Chief Heru Hidayanto said.

We managed to find six more bodies, quite far from the initial location where we found [seven bodies] on Oct. 16, 2023, he said in a statement.

Bayu Suseno, spokesman for Peace Cartenz, a police-military task force dealing with the insurgency in Papua, said he did not know whether other people may still be missing in the wake of the attack.

"But we will search again in the next few days, Bayu told BenarNews.

The attack was the worst incident since December 2018, when rebels killed 19 road workers and a soldier.

The task force said most of the victims from this months attack were gold prospectors from South Sulawesi and one was from North Sumatra.

It said the rebel leader, Asbak Koranue, was part of the Liberation Army faction led by Egianus Kogoya, which has been holding a New Zealand pilot hostage since February in Papuas Nduga regency.

Liberation Army spokesman Sebby Sambom did not immediately respond to a BenarNews request for comment.

On Oct. 17, Sambom told BenarNews that his group had killed seven illegal gold miners in Yahukimo who were military informants, as he warned migrants from other parts of Indonesia to leave the conflict areas in Papua.

Longstanding conflict

Tensions have arisen over the years in Papua, a mountainous and underdeveloped region in the easternmost part of the archipelago following the settlement of large numbers of people from other regions of Indonesia as part of a government transmigration program.

Violence between Indonesian security forces and separatist rebels has spiked in recent years.

Papua was a Dutch colony that was transferred to Indonesia in 1963 under a U.N.-brokered agreement.

In 1969, under U.N. supervision, Indonesia held a referendum in Papua that was widely seen as rigged. Only about 1,000 people were allowed to vote and they were reportedly coerced to choose to join Indonesia.

Human rights groups have accused both sides of committing atrocities and violating human rights.

Usman Hamid, executive director of Amnesty International in Indonesia, said the government should immediately talk with pro-independence groups in Papua to end the violence there.

He said the United Liberation Movement for West Papua, a separatist coalition, had recently called for dialogue to solve the problem.

Hostility must stop. There must be a ceasefire and a humanitarian pause to deal with displacement, Usman told BenarNews.

He also said that blaming the Liberation Army for the killings was not enough as he urged authorities to bring criminal cases against those who harm civilians in Papua.

That way police can be sure who the perpetrators are, he said.
Indonesian police officers at the regional police headquarters in Banda Aceh dump methamphetamine into a cement mixer as they destroy more than 100 kg. seized during a two-month period, Oct. 11, 2023.

An Indonesian court on Friday ordered that eight Iranian nationals be executed for smuggling more than 700 pounds of crystal methamphetamine by sea into Java.

Indonesia has one of the worlds toughest anti-drug laws and has executed several foreign and local drug offenders in recent years, despite condemnation from other countries.

The Iranians were arrested in early 2023 after authorities found the stash hidden aboard a ship that brought them to Banten, a province on the western tip of Java island.

The Serang District Court in Banten, about 100 km (62 miles) west of Jakarta, found the defendants guilty of trafficking the drug.

We hereby sentence the defendants to the death penalty, Uli Purnama, who led the three-judge panel, said Friday as he read out the verdict following the trial.

The defendants, who attended the trial with interpreters, said they were considering appealing the verdict. They have seven days to challenge it.

A joint team from the National Narcotics Agency and the customs department seized 319 kg (703 pounds) of methamphetamine hidden under the fuel tank of their ship when the men were arrested in February. Sniffer dogs found 309 packages containing the drug.

The men had been sailing without documents in the waters south of Java.

Prosecutors had sought to spare one of the defendants, Amir Naderi, from being sent to death row. They said he had shown law enforcers where the methamphetamine was stowed away on the ship.

The judges rejected that request, sentencing him to die with the others.

During Fridays courtroom session, the judges heard that the smuggling operation began in January when a man named Ali Baluchazai, who is still at large, asked one of the defendants, Abdul Rahman Zardkuhi, to deliver methamphetamine to Indonesia by sea by promising 80 million Iranian rials (U.S. $1,883).

Zardkuhi then recruited the other defendants, divided the money and departed by boat from Pozm Port, about 1,700 km. (1,056 miles) southeast of Tehran, the prosecution said. They received the methamphetamine package on their way and continued sailing to Indonesian waters.

Indonesia has one of the worlds toughest anti-drug laws and has executed several foreign and local drug offenders in the past. In July 2016, four drug convicts were shot by firing squad on an island off Java.

Those executions occurred 15 months after eight convicts, including an Indonesian and two Australians, were executed in the same manner.

Indonesian courts can impose death sentences for other crimes including terrorism and murder despite international pressure to stop this practice.

The country faces a growing drug abuse problem among its population of more than 270 million people. Indonesia is home to an estimated 3.6 million drug users, according to a 2022 report by the National Narcotics Agency.

Indonesian President Joko Jokowi Widodo (second from left), Chief Security Minister Wiranto (second from right), and other officials prepare to destroy illegal drugs during a ceremony in Jakarta, Dec. 6, 2016. [Antara Foto/Puspa Perwitasari/via Reuters]

Indonesian President Joko Jokowi Widodo has defended the use of capital punishment as a deterrent against drug trafficking and abuse, saying the country was facing a national emergency.

He has repeatedly rejected clemency pleas from drug convicts and has said he would not compromise on the issue.

I have said it before, we must be firm. Especially for the foreign drug dealers who resist, just shoot them right away. Dont give them any mercy, Jokowi said in 2017.

Rights activists: No deterrent effect

Still, human rights activists and legal analysts have questioned the effectiveness and fairness of Indonesias anti-drug policy and called for a moratorium on executions.

Under the new criminal code passed last year, judges can impose death sentences with a probationary period of 10 years, after which the sentence can be reduced to life in prison.

Usman Hamid, executive director of Amnesty International Indonesia, criticized the courts decision to hand down death sentences to the Iranians.

We are not against punishment for people who are proven to have committed crimes, but the death penalty does not have a deterrent effect and has been proven to be ineffective in preventing narcotics crimes, he told BenarNews.

Amnesty International opposes capital punishment in all cases and has called on Indonesia to abolish it, he said.

The human rights group said that as of this month, at least 229 people are on death row in Indonesia, most of them for drug-related offenses.

In August, Indonesias state news agency Antara reported that the Banda Aceh High Court had upheld death sentences this year for 12 drug offenders convicted of crimes in Aceh province.
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By Kim Hyun-bin

Another Korean tourist has died in the popular Vietnamese tourist destination of Dalat, after four were killed earlier this week as their car was swept away by floodwater following days of heavy rains.

According to local media, Friday, a 60-year-old Korean tourist fell four meters at a mountain in the vicinity of Dalat, located in the southern Lam Dong province. She was rushed to a nearby hospital, but died there on Thursday.

The accident occurred while the tourist and her companions were taking photographs on their way to the summit of Langbian Mountain.

It has been reported that warning signs were in place in the area where the accident took place, indicating potential risks. Langbian Mountain, with an elevation of 1,200 meters, is situated 12 kilometers from Dalat.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Seoul also confirmed the accident later on Friday, saying the government has deployed an official to the hospital where the tourist died to provide necessary consular support to the bereaved family, such as help with funeral procedures.

The latest incident came after a group of four Korean tourists lost their lives in Dalat, Tuesday, after their vehicle was swept away by a sudden surge in a river while traveling along the waterway.
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Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung said Friday that President Yoon Suk Yeol should issue a formal apology to the victims of last year's deadly crowd crush in Itaewon and visit the commemoration event scheduled for the weekend.

Lee's remarks come after the presidential office said Yoon will not attend the event marking the tragedy's first anniversary, saying it has "the tinge of a political rally organized by the opposition party."

The event, set to be held at Seoul Plaza in front of City Hall on Sunday, is co-organized by a group of victims' families and the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK).

"Protecting people's lives and safety is the responsibility of the government, and the most important duty of the president," Lee said in a leadership meeting of the DPK. "He should apologize...He must offer words of consolation to the bereaved families and victims unfairly affected" by last year's crowd crush.

Lee urged Yoon to stick to his promises of creating a safe society by coming up with measures to prevent the future reoccurrence of such tragic events.

The DPK chairman also refuted claims that Sunday's event is politically motivated.

"If both ruling and opposition parties participate, it cannot be called a political rally, can it?" he said. "Nobody can label it as a political rally, if the government's president officially participates."

The tragic crowd crush occurred on Oct. 29 last year, killing 159 people, as a massive crowd packed a sloped, narrow alleyway in the nightlife district of Itaewon amid Halloween festivities. (Yonhap)
Richmond Select Board members (left to right) Roger Manzolini, Alan Hanson and Neal Pilson at Wednesday's Special Town Meeting. Behind them is the 1930s "stage curtain" rescued from the Old Town Hall and recently reinstalled in the new Town Hall & Library after a thorough cleaning.
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The Northern Berkshire YMCA in North Adams is temporarily stopping its early childhood child care services because of staffing deficiencies.
The Reuben sandwich is named after Reuben Kulakofsky, a Lithuanian-American grocer who invented it in Omaha, Neb., in the early 1920s. It is traditionally made with corned beef, pastrami, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and Russian dressing on rye bread.
An eight-town school district merger has been rejected  mostly by voters in the Southern Berkshire Regional district Seven towns held simultaneous special town meetings Monday on the proposed eight-town school district merger, with three towns voting against the plan. A fourth, Egremont, shot the plan down on Saturday.

In a rather definitive series of votes, a South County school district merger proposal forged in years of deliberation and scores of public meetings met its demise over the last week.

Our Opinion: The Eagle editorial board endorses South County merger  and encourages eight towns to get out and vote These neighboring communities would do well to face dwindling enrollment and other structural challenges together, which is why The Eagle editorial board supports the proposed merger between the Southern Berkshire and Berkshire Hills regional school districts.

The Eagle editorial board endorsed the merger between Southern Berkshire and Berkshire Hills regional school districts because we considered it the best path forward for neighboring school communities dealing with declining enrollment and other systemic struggles disproportionately weighing on rural school districts. As frequent cheerleaders for the benefits of regionalization, we still believe that.

But the people have spoken, and, particularly in SBRSD, they disagree. That is democracy in action. We appreciate the broad civic engagement and rigorous debate that the South County community put toward this decision. We were proud to play a part in that community conversation as well, from the dozens of impassioned letters to the editor we received and published to the educational forum The Eagle hosted in partnership with the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center.

Some held out hope that even if this particular merger proposal were voted down in one or more of the eight towns, there might be some momentum to salvage and take back to the drawing table for a revised regionalization plan. The considerable margins against this proposal in four of the five SBRSD towns, however, suggest otherwise.

In South County, the way forward now is clear but steep. Berkshire Hills will go it alone in seeking a new high school to replace the aging Monument Mountain  a process that will prove costly for three towns instead of more cost-effective and beneficial for eight. If and when its built, it likely would offer new and improved voc-tech offerings that the region desperately needs, which some Southern Berkshire families will choice into without the benefit of increased control and input that a merger would have offered.

Meanwhile, the ball is now in Southern Berkshire Regional School Districts court to deal with its decreasing enrollment, increasing per-pupil costs and other growing challenges for rural districts. Its not a good sign that some in SBRSD seem to prefer denial of the obvious downward enrollment trends over a clear-eyed assessment of the problem and potential solutions. Its up to those willing to take on this reality with clear eyes to figure out a doable, acceptable alternative to this roundly defeated option.

In the meantime, the voters in the Southern Berkshire Regional School District have chosen to pay higher taxes in the short run if they wish to maintain the present level of instruction at Mount Everett Regional High School.

More broadly, though, we hope that this outcome doesnt act as a deterrent to other consolidation efforts when their consideration is warranted. Regardless of ones thoughts on the regional agreement, the members of the 8 Town Regional School District Planning Board and other town leaders who have weighed this issue over nearly 200 public meetings deserve credit for putting in those years of work. Like any sweeping proposal, the one this panel voted to recommend was open to critique, although in some (not all) cases, these critiques appeared to devolve into bad-faith dismissal and knee-jerk demonization. Going forward it is essential that we all learn to assess the value and costs of regionalization proposals and distinguish the better plans from the others, assessing in good faith the value and costs to seemingly parochial interests. We dont want capable local thought leaders to be discouraged from taking on the already difficult conversations that regionalization proposals often entail.

We acknowledge those difficulties, just as we did in our endorsement of the South County merger proposal. No policy is perfect, and the hard feelings and hesitance over things like longer transportation times or sending your child to a different school than the one you attended are real. This doesnt justify parochialism at its most extreme and unproductive, but the fate of this particular merger pitch underscores the fact that intangible factors like school character and district culture matter to families as much or more than the quantifiable but often delayed benefits of budget efficiencies and shared resources.

That is the reality that must be grappled with by ambitious efforts like those of the 8 Town Regional School District Planning Board. For on the other end of the scale are concerns that warrant these difficult conversations  taxpayers shouldering ballooning costs, the rising fiscal cliffs rural districts face in modernizing public infrastructure like school buildings, the vicious cycle of difficulty in trying to attract young families while balancing quality public services and buckling small-town budgets. While that discussion might be quieted in South County for now, we hope observers throughout the Berkshires arent deterred from forwarding these difficult but necessary conversations.
Gov. Maura Healey thinks that there is merit to reforming the state's Mass Save program.
Law enforcement officers hold rifles while investigating a scene, in Bowdoin, Maine, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. Residents have been ordered to shelter in place as police continue to search for the suspect of Wednesday's mass shootings.
Students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst gathered outside the Whitmore Administration Building on Wednesday while campus police officers arrested protesters participating in a sit-in in support of Palestine inside the building.
Ruling bloc snubs opposition's claim as cheap conspiracy

By Kim Hyun-bin

Members of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) have speculated that the Yoon Suk Yeol administration intentionally initiated the current suspected celebrity drug use issue to divert public attention away from unfavorable developments involving the government and ruling People Power Party (PPP).

The ruling bloc dismissed the claims as unsubstantiated and groundless conspiracy theories.

Police have investigated high-profile celebrities, including Ocscar-winning Parasite actor Lee Sun-kyun and G-Dragon of boy band Big Bang, over suspected drug use, and the story has grabbed news headlines over recent days.

Some DPK members, including five-term lawmaker An Min-suk, claimed that the ruling bloc used the issue to divert public attention from the government. It suffered a crushing defeat in the Oct. 11 by-election for the head of Seouls Gangseo District and has been caught up in a school violence case involving the daughter of President Yoon Suk Yeols former secretary.

Previous administrations have the experience of bringing up issues related to celebrities drug use when the administration is in a disadvantageous position, effectively diverting public attention, Rep. An said during his appearance in a radio interview, Thursday.

Politics is often referred to as the art of timing, and it is a well-timed statement that is enough to lead people, who are not fools, to believe that someone may have intended and planned it.

Rep. An claimed the Yoon administration faced its greatest crisis after taking office after losing the by-election, suggesting that the celebrity drug use issue being mentioned at exactly this moment, was no coincidence.

Lee Kyung, spokesperson for the largest opposition party, raised a similar view, bringing to light the recent resignation of Kim Seung-hee, the protocol secretary to the president, in the wake of accusations that his daughter had allegedly assaulted a fellow student in a school violence case, resulting in a nine-week long injury for the victim.

The daughter of the former presidential secretary inflicted significant harm, she said, alleging that the Yoon administration disclosed the celebrity drug use allegations as a means to redirect public attention away from recent events, including the defeat in the Gangseo District by-election.

The ruling party criticized these assertions, labeling them as politically motivated attempts to discredit the government and the ruling party without any substantiated evidence or proof.

Rep. Yun Jae-ok, the floor leader of the PPP, said the DPKs claims were "baseless conspiracy theories."

Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon also said the drug use issue was unrelated to politics.

Drugs do not understand politics. If that's the case, it's as if they're obsessed with a severe conspiracy theory, Han said.
What is grace? The simplest definition is unmerited favor. To receive grace is to gain what is undeserved; it is to obtain what can never be earned or gained by our own efforts.

The world has its own idea of what defines grace, but like all virtues, grace is rooted in the character of God. He is the original author and only true source of grace. All our human efforts of extending grace to one another are either poor imitations performed in our natural flesh, or an overflow of the grace weve received through salvation in Jesus Christ, who is Himself, full of grace and truth. Jesus is the gift of grace God gave to the world  the highest standard and greatest example of grace.

Moses  A Perfect Example of Gods Grace

Moses was a man who walked with God, speaking to Him as a friend, face to face. The name Moses might not come to mind immediately if were talking about grace; after all, it was Moses who received the Law as he led the children of Israel through the wilderness, and in our minds, grace and law are two separate, distinct things which cannot be reconciled. The Jews considered Moses a highly respected prophet, so much so that the book of Hebrews addresses what was essentially worship of Moses because of his intimacy with God and connection to the laws that governed their religious observances.

On closer examination, Moses is the perfect example of Gods grace. During the time of his birth, his people were enslaved in Egypt. Fearing that the Hebrews would become too numerous and decide to overthrow him, the Pharaoh ordered that all male Hebrew babies were to be murdered by the Egyptian midwives who delivered them. By Gods grace, the midwives feared God more than the Pharaoh and chose to disobey this wicked command, and so Moses arrived safe and sound, delivered into his mothers arms.

By Gods grace, his mother hid him for three months. By Gods grace, he was placed in a basket and floated on the river. By Gods grace, his sister watched him be drawn from the water by an Egyptian princess, and by Gods grace, was able to suggest his own mother as a wet nurse when the princess decided to adopt him. By Gods grace, Moses was well-educated as an Egyptian son, but also told of his Hebrew heritage. By Gods grace, he escaped with his life after slaying an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew slave. By Gods grace, he became a shepherd for forty years away from the Egyptian influence, where he was able to hear and learn what God wanted to do in, and through, his life.

Up until this point, Moses experienced the grace of God without pursuing it. Gods goodness and benevolence protected him until the time when he would meet the God of grace in a very personal way. An unusual meeting with God would grow into an intimate relationship that caused a deep hunger in him to know the grace of God more fully.

Isnt that how it happens with many of us? Once our eyes are opened spiritually and we come to faith in Jesus, we look back over our lives and see the hand of Gods good grace at every turn, in every crisis that we faced and every good thing that brought us any kind of joy. Once we recognize this, we desire more and more of Gods grace and goodness.

The Bible describe two separate encounters between Moses and God that give us a more complete picture of grace. In the first event, Moses discovers what grace looks like practically: what God does. But in the second event, he discovers an even greater truth: grace is who God is.





Photo credit: Getty Images/buburuzaproductions

Moses Discovered Grace When God Asked Him to Go

Exodus 3:7-8a  The LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings. So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey.

While pasturing his father-in-laws flocks in the wilderness, Moses comes upon a bush that is burning with fire, yet it is not consumed. He knows this is a marvelous thing and stops to investigate further. To his surprise, he hears God speaking to him, telling him to remove his shoes, that he is standing on holy ground.

The first thing God does is to identify Himself as the God of Moses forefathers (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob). Moses people are enslaved to the Egyptians, but God is reminding Moses that He has not forgotten them, nor His covenant with them. Gods grace had been working for generations to carry out His sovereign plan to build a nation out of Abrahams descendants.

Gods grace chose Abraham to bear a son in his old age, Isaac.

Gods grace chose Rebekah to be Isaacs wife.

Gods grace chose Isaacs son, Jacob, the younger twin.

Gods grace chose Joseph to suffer in Egypt so that his family could be saved during a famine.

Gods grace chose the children of Israel to greatly multiply, even under slavery.

Now Gods grace was going to act once more. His words to Moses are simple, profound, and prophetic, and they define for us what the grace of God is all about.

I have seen their affliction.

I have heard their cry.

I am aware of their sufferings.

I have come down to deliver.

I will bring them up.

In Grace & Glory: 50 Days in the Purpose & Plan of God, I explained it this way:

Has not God seen our affliction, our sin-sickness? To see is to observe, to give attention to, to gaze at. God looks at us, even in our unworthiness and unholiness. Grace does not turn its face away, but looks us directly in the eye, assuring us, He sees.

Has God not heard our cry? He hears with attention, with the intent to listen. Our prayers are not simply the background noise of heaven. Grace does not tune us out, but focuses on the cry of our hearts, for He listens.

Is God not aware of our sufferings? To be aware is to know, to recognize, and to consider. Grace identifies with our pain and sorrow. Grace feels what we feel. He knows.

Has God not come down to deliver us? Christ on the cross is the One who rescues. Grace stoops low to show kindness to the lowly. He delivers.

Has God not raised us up, seating us in the heavenlies at the present time? Our citizenship is in heaven, and one day grace will carry us into the presence of God, for He will bring us up.

Gods grace is practical and real, and acts on behalf of those whom God has chosen. God chose Moses to go and be His servant to rescue the children of Israel out of slavery, a vivid and practical illustration of the time when Jesus would go at His Fathers request to rescue Gods children from the slavery of sin.





Photo credit: Pexels/Andrea Piacquadio

Moses Discovered Grace When He Asked to See Gods Glory

Exodus 33:18-23  Then Moses said, I pray You, show me Your glory! And He said, I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion. But He said, You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live! Then the LORD said, Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand there on the rock; and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen.

Exodus 34:5-6  The LORD descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the LORD. Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth.

A few verses earlier we see that Moses has recognized that God has found favor with him and knows him by name. In response, he asks God, Let me know Your ways that I may know You. What is Gods answer? My presence will go with you. Yet, Moses is hungry for more. He has experienced Gods favor but persists. I want to see Your glory. God graciously walks by, covering Moses with His hand, lifting it just as He passes, allowing Moses a glimpse of His back. And as He passes, the LORD proclaims His name:

The LORD (Jehovah).

The LORD God (Jehovah God, the self-existent One).

Compassionate.

Gracious.

Slow to anger.

Abounding in lovingkindness.

Abounding in truth.

The Old Testament Hebrew word for gracious (chanan) means to bend or stoop in kindness to an inferior. It is to bestow favor, to show kindness or pity. It is to have mercy on the object of ones favor.

God is not only the giver of grace; He is grace. Moses begged to know God, and when he caught a glimpse of the goodness and glory of God, it was named grace (Grace & Glory: 50 Days in the Purpose & Plan of God).

Do you see that grace is not just a New Testament concept? Gods grace is woven throughout all of Scripture, from the moment He spoke our world into existence. Gods works were finished from the foundation of the world (Hebrews 4:3); He knew from the beginning that we would need grace. The Old Testament law was evidence of Gods grace, as it revealed mans innate sinfulness and need of salvation. The corresponding requirements of the sacrificial laws were also grace, as God provided a temporary covering for their sin and a way to live in relationship with Him until the once-for-all sacrifice was made on the cross by Christ.

The New Testament word for grace, charis, contains the similar idea of kindness which bestows upon one what he has not deserved, but also carries the additional sense of that which affords joy and delight. We understand the joy grace brings to us, but did you know that God gets pleasure and delight in showing us grace?

Salvation by grace is evidence of Gods favor in choosing us and His mercy in forgiving us, but it also reveals His delight as He carries out His sovereign plans and purposes which reveal His glory. As Moses learned, Gods glory and His grace are intimately connected. The gracious God of the Old Testament who chose Noah and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and Moses is the same God of the New Testament who freely bestows grace on us, to the praise of His glory (Ephesians 1:6).

God is the source of grace, for God is gracious.

God is the giver of grace, for His every action is motivated by grace.

Moses met the God of grace on the back side of a wilderness mountain when the voice of God called out to him from a burning bush. He encountered Him again on another mountain, hidden in the cleft of the rock as God walked by and declared His name: Jehovah God, gracious and compassionate.

We too, can meet the God of grace on the mountain, as we kneel at the cross of Mount Calvary. Jesus is God, full of grace and truth, acting on our behalf with unlimited, incomparable grace that redeems and saves.

Related articles

What Makes God's Grace So Amazing?

God's Grace Isn't Fair, and That's a Good Thing

3 Remarkable Lessons in Grace from Jonah



Photo credit: Pixabay/jeffjacobs1990

Author Sheila Alewine is a pastors wife, mother, and grandmother of five. She and her husband lead Around The Corner Ministries, which serves to equip Christ-followers to share the gospel where they live, work and play. She has written seven devotionals including Just Pray: Gods Not Done With You Yet, Grace & Glory: 50 Days in the Purpose & Plan of God, and her newest one, Give Me A Faith Like That, as well as Going Around The Corner, a Bible study for small groups who desire to reach their communities for Christ. Their ministry also offers disciple-making resources like One-To-One Disciple-Making in partnership with Multiplication Ministries. Sheila has a passion for Gods Word and shares what God is teaching her on her blog, The Way of The Word. Connect with her on her blog, Facebook, and Instagram.
When the prophet Elijah battled the prophets of Baal and called down fire from Heaven, God answered with such strength that it not only consumed the offering and the wood, it lapped up the water and the stones as well (1 Kings 18:38). And with this extraordinary victory, Elijah had high expectations. He not only expected to see Israel return to God, but he also expected King Ahab and Queen Jezebel to convert from their idolatry to follow Jehovah God. But thats not what happened.

Rather, Queen Jezebel vowed to assassinate him. In frustration, exhaustion and disappointment, Elijah ran from there, hid out in a cave at Mount Horeb and contemplated giving up.

Elijah is so very human, isnt he? A mighty man of God one moment, and Minnie Mouse the next.

And as Elijah stewed in his fear and depression, thinking he was the only believer left in Israel, God showed up and called him to come outside. Then God spoke to Elijah, but He was not in the ferocious wind, the violent earthquake or the fire (1 Kings 19:11-13). He spoke to Elijah in a whisper, and said,

you shall anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi as king over Israel. And Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel Meholah you shall anoint as prophet in your place (1 Kings 19:16).

This was not a punishment, but rather empowerment and encouragement in answer to the cry of Elijahs heart. Im the only prophet left! And God replies, But there is someone; there is someone who can carry your mantle forward when the time for your assignment is overand his name is Elisha.

And instead of retired, Elijah came out of that cave refired, restored and ready to work for the Kingdom.

So he departed from there, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he was with the twelfth. Then Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle on him. And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah, and said, Please let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you. And he said to him, Go back again, for what have I done to you? So Elisha turned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them and boiled their flesh, using the oxens equipment, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah, and became his servant (1 Kings 19:19-21).

Elishas Moment of Destiny

When Elijah found Elisha working in the field, he removed and threw his mantle on the shoulders of Elisha without saying a word. Elishas mantle was a cloak, or outer garment, which symbolized his prophetic authority. His act was an invitation for Elisha to follow Elijah, become his disciple, and grow into his prophetic authority. And ultimately, it was an invitation by God to leave the mundane life he was living and experience the destiny God had designed for him. But notice, when God calls us into a destiny designed for us, He doesnt beg, doesnt command  He invites.

Leave your 12 yoke of oxen, drop your fishing nets, sell everything you have, pick up your cross and come follow me! It requires that you voluntarily go all in, in full devotion to Christ, no matter what the cost or what you must leave behind. It requires you to recognize your divine moment, and step out in faith.

Dont miss your moment!

1. Believe That Gods Got Something Better

Sometimes its hard to believe that Gods plan is greater than the labels you were given as a child, and greater than the cynicism setting in as you get older. And greater than the shame that binds you to a godless past, and the betrayal that you suffered at the hands of people you trusted.

Gods plans are greater than the dreams you once had for yourself; and theyre greater than even the greatest moment youve experienced thus far!

Elishas Ho-Hum Life

There was nothing glamorous about Elishas life. On the surface, it looked like so many of ours, stuck in daily routine and mediocrity. When Elijah first saw him, he was just a guy plowing a field behind 12 yoke of oxen.

It was backbreaking, physically demanding work. Every day, Elisha would be covered in his own sweat, and caked in dust and dung. And though his job may have lacked glamor, at least it was a consistent, stable job that paid the bills.

For many, it would have been a good-enough life  exactly the reason its so hard for some people to drop everything, go all in and experience Gods greater plan for them. Sometimes it is the blessings from God we have today that stop us from seizing the very best from God tomorrow. Truly, the enemy of the greater life is a good life.

God had been watching Elisha and noting his humility and faithfulness, day in and day out. And God talked to Elijah, miles away, about His plans for this young man to learn and take on the role of Elijahs successor, as Gods prophet to the nation of Israel. In a moment when Elisha least expected it, God showed up with an invitation to seize his divine moment and be launched into his pre-determined destiny!

Whats my point? Even now, as some of you are stuck behind the oxen butts of life, resigned that you will spend the rest of your years behind the plow in miserable mediocrity, you Father is orchestrating a divine moment to come walking into your life. But it will require you to believe, go all in, and embrace the greater life He is inviting you to. Isnt that the promise of John 10:10?

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly (John 10:10).

2. Be Sensitive to the Leading of the Holy Spirit

The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord, Searching all the inner depths of his heart (Proverbs 20:27).

Gods direction for your life  your go and your no, your seize it and your step away from it, all comes from the Holy Spirit within you.

In practical terms, it means we must learn to follow His leading within, follow our instincts, obey the unction, and listen to the inner calling or whisper in our souls. It means we must tune into the inner voice which speaks.

Some people get concerned about this, because they feel like their hearts will lead them astray. But when you are born again, and are all in with your commitment to God, you can trust what is in your heart.

But the key is, you must be all in.

When you are fully committed in your relationship with the Lord, His voice will be louder than the voice of your flesh. When you are all in, your desires will not be your own selfish desires, but they will reflect the desires that God has placed within you.

The Scripture states this plainly:

Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart (Psalm 37:4).

The word desire here literally means of the father, not of the flesh, but of the Father. And it literally means God will plant desires in you that you can trust and follow.

The key is, are you delighting? Are you all in? Or are you casual toward Christ?

3. Commit an Act of Spiritual Arson

And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah, and said, Please let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you. And he said to him, Go back again, for what have I done to you? So Elisha turned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them and boiled their flesh, using the oxens equipment, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah, and became his servant (1 Kings 19:20-21).

Elisha recognized the importance of his moment and did three things to seize it:

He kissed his family good-bye  Elisha publicly said goodbye to the life he knew to gain the life God had for him.

He had a neighborhood barbecue  He slaughtered his oxen as a ceremonial sacrifice celebrating this significant, defining moment in his life.

He burned the plow equipment  He destroyed the tools necessary for his professional trade, ensuring there was no going back. And to God it was an act of unbridled faith.

Elishas final days at home were a testimony to all: Im seizing my divine moment! Im cutting ties with everything that can pull me back, removing the safety net. Im betting on God and going all in. Im believing the life He has designed for me is greater than the life I have made for myself.

4. Understand Gods Non-Instant Gratification

Elisha then served the prophet Elijah for six years before being personally used by God in a single miracle, or being recognized by anyone as Israels new prophet.

I believe this delay is why more believers dont step into their divine moment. We are conditioned to want everything now, but all in doesnt always produce instantaneous results.

When what we do does not produce the results we want right away, too often we pivot to whatever will give it to us now. In the process we lose out on the life God had designed for us to have. Its an indictment against a cultural-based Christianity; it is not how God works and is rarely the way a divine moment works!

Divine moments are invitations by God for Him to use your life in a greater way. They are not the end goal, but the beginning of a life dedicated to God. They are the doors to our destiny which require us to submit to a time of preparation for the tasks He has assigned to us.

Can you be faithful to God while you are waiting, serving another ministry, and watching God do miracles for others? Can you still burn your plow and go all in, even if there is no instant gratification for doing so?

If you dont know that divine moments are not always followed by instant gratification, then you will not stay all in long enough to see the life God has designed for you. You will quit in frustration and disappointment and will return to casual, comfortable, convenient Christianity and miss out on all God has.

Trust me, its a test  not to disappoint you, but to deepen your dependence on God. He will make sure you can handle the miraculous destiny He planned. And when your time comes, you will certainly succeed!

This vision is for a future time. It describes the end, and it will be fulfilled. If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place (Habakkuk 2:3).

After six years of preparation, it happened for Elisha: that divine moment he seized, when he burned his plow and went all in for God, turned into a life of miracles! God is faithful.

Friends, dont miss your moment! Not so you can have fame, fortune, or a fabulous life. Go all in so you can experience a life of incomparable gratification, and a life lived for the glory of God!

Photo credit: Getty Images/Zbynek Pospisil

Frank Santora is Lead Pastor of Faith Church, a multi-site church with locations in Connecticut and New York. Pastor Frank hosts a weekly television show, Destined to Win, which airs weekly on the Hillsong Channel and TBN. He has authored thirteen books, including the most recent, Modern Day Psalms and Good Good Father. To learn more about Pastor Frank and this ministry, please visit www.franksantora.cc. Photo by Michele Roman.

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President Yoon Suk Yeol visited the southeastern city of Andong on Friday as part of an effort to promote the economies and sustainability of local regions.

Yoon traveled to the city, 192 kilometers southeast of Seoul, for a visit that some viewed as aimed at rallying the support of conservatives ahead of next April's parliamentary elections, as the southeastern Gyeongsang provinces, where Andong is located, have traditionally been a conservative stronghold.

The speculation was backed by Yoon's meeting with ousted President Park Geun-hye the previous day, which took place during a memorial ceremony for Park's late father and conservative icon President Park Chung-hee.

In Andong, Yoon met first with a group of Confucian scholars at Byeongsan Seowon, a Confucian academy dating back to the Joseon Kingdom(1392-1910) and a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Yoon renewed his commitment to developing local economies and respecting traditional cultures, saying he believes the development of a nation depends on its people upholding tradition and fulfilling their individual responsibilities.

He later presided over the fifth meeting on cooperation between the central and local governments, where participants discussed ways to salvage local communities amid dwindling populations and increasing immigration to the cities.

Yoon emphasized the importance of balanced development between regions while also calling for all-out efforts to bring the 2030 World Expo to the southeastern city of Busan. (Yonhap)
New Media scored a trifecta at the prestigious 2023 Eddie & Ozzie Awards, taking top honours in three hotly contested categories.

Tech Talk with Vodacom won Best Science or Technology Podcast, Woolworths Taste won Best Social Media/Online Community in the Consumer category for its Instagram and TikTok presence, and long-standing Taste food director Abigail Donnelly won Best Series of Articles in the Custom/Content Marketing category. Taste's deputy food editor, Khanya Mzongwana, received an honourable mention in the same category as Donnelly.

New Media's head of growth, Jeanine Boshoff, was in the Big Apple to accept the trophies at a glitzy gala event at The Edison Ballroom in Times Square.

New Media CEO Aileen Lamb says: "The Eddie & Ozzie Awards are a favourite of ours, as they recognise editorial and design excellence from across the globe. To stand out among thousands of entries is a true honour and testament to the passion for craft that our Purple People possess. I could not be prouder of their storytelling abilities and the exceptional work they deliver for our Vodacom and Woolworths clients."

New Media's nods at the Eddie & Ozzie Awards follow a gold win at the local New Generation Awards for Blogging Excellence by an Agency  also for Vodacom. This was the third time in four years New Media and Vodacom had won that award.

Vodacom's portfolio manager for social media and content marketing, Sunaina Parbhu, says: "The Tech Talk with Vodacom podcast leverages a powerful medium to discuss emerging tech in an easy-to-understand way, bringing listeners along the journey with us as we uncover and expand on the latest trends. After all technology is nothing without humanity. We're thrilled that the podcast, with our partners New Media, has achieved international recognition at the Eddie & Ozzie Awards."

In 2023, New Media and Woolworths are celebrating a 20-year, multiple award-winning content partnership. Woolies' head of food marketing, Elizka Ferreira, says: "New Media has become a close and cherished collaborator, helping entrench Woolworths as South Africa's food authority. Their work resonates with our customers, creating a personal connection through content that leads to higher conversion. This is testament to an incredibly strong team of true content experts who are literally among the best in the world."

New Media also has eight nominees at the upcoming International Content Marketing Awards: four for Woolworths Taste, one for the Vodacom now! blog, one for Mediclinic and two for Coca-Cola Beverages Africa. The ceremony takes place in London on 23 November 2023.

Lamb concludes: "Huge congrats to our incredible clients, winning teams and our finalists. At New Media, we value deep partnerships with our clients and it's always gratifying to see that translate into meaningful engagement with their customers - and internationally recognised work."




Caleb Shepard might be just 25 years old, but his list of accomplishments reads more like someone two decades his senior. The born and raised Durbanite is one of two media directors at The Digital Media Collective (TDMC), and he is currently leading the digital agency's new Cape Town office. Besides also being an award-winning photographer who has had his work published in Africa Geographic, Caleb was recently named as a finalist in TransUnion's respected Rising Star Awards. We talk to Caleb about his path to success and industry insights.

Caleb Shepard

Congratulations on being named a finalist in the Transunion Rising Stars Awards which recognise, celebrate, and connect young individuals who possess exceptional talent in their respective fields. Tell us a bit more about this.

Im really honoured to be nominated for the award. They have been running for 12 years now and there were more than 750 nominees, so I am very excited to be named as a finalist in the Media and Advertising Category. The Rising Star Programme is a wonderful opportunity to be part of a community of like-minded young professionals and entrepreneurs who are mentored and developed with the aim of enabling them to become influential opinion leaders and role models for future generations.

Lets talk about your role at TDMC and your journey with them from intern to director.

I was fortunate to get an internship with TDMC in 2016 during my gap year after I matriculated from Westville Boys High School. I spent the first part of my gap year travelling in Africa and the UK, along with a stint in the Eastern Cape ring-barking alien invasive vegetation.

I have always been a keen photographer and videographer  I won an international photography award when I was 18 after I entered photographs from a life-changing trip to Namibia with my family. The prize was an incredible trip to Serengeti  I took my father with me and got to experience the wildlife and unique culture there. As fate would have it, it was my photographic skill that secured my internship at TDMC working in their design department photographing and deep-etching product shots.

I have always been both creative and good with numbers, so I decided to enrol for my BCom specialising in digital marketing at Vega, while at the same time continuing to intern with TDMC. During those three years of working and studying I had the flexibility to move across all three departments within the business  creative, web development and media  giving me a great overview of how things worked.

When I finished my degree there wasnt a place for me in the creative arm of the business, so I spoke to TDMCs managing director, Cheryl Ingram, about taking up a role in the media division as it tied in with my degree. She agreed, and this offered me a completely new experience, managing client expectations and buying media on their behalf.

I learnt a lot about myself during this time and spent many long hours trying to keep my head above water. I grew from an account executive into an account manager, managing a growing list of clients. I really enjoyed working with diverse clients in different fields and gaining an understanding of the complexities of their businesses and their unique challenges. I began pivoting into a strategist role, doing slightly less implementation with more focus on helping the team unpack the clients key objectives and defining a media strategy.

Two years ago, I was made joint director of the media arm of the business. My media co-director Melissa Humphry and I are responsible for a team of 35, and we take care of all digital strategy, paid media, data analytics and reporting, and currently service more than 120 clients a month.

At the end of June this year, I moved from our Durban Head Office to set up our new office in Cape Town. I had already been travelling back and forth to Cape Town for the last two-and-a-half years every month for a week seeing my main client, who is one of South Africas biggest e-commerce spenders, managing their R6m per month budget. Although I had got used to living out of a suitcase, it made sense for us to set up an office in Cape Town as it is home to many of SAs big e-commerce brands. We are currently a team of eight and our client list is growing rapidly  we already have 28 clients in our Cape Town portfolio.

For me, my journey from intern to director is testament to the impact of seizing opportunities, embracing constant learning, and adapting to change within the ever-evolving realm of digital marketing.

What have been some of your biggest successes during your time at TDMC?

Facebook recently published a case study I conducted for them showcasing the successful use of Metas Advantage+ shopping campaigns to maximise ad performance for the South African division of one of the worlds leading adventure footwear, equipment and apparel brands. The results showed that this solution, coupled with business-as-usual campaigns, led to incremental conversion lift and improved efficiencies. It was a privilege to have my work showcased on this global platform. I was also very proud to be invited to take part in a key Meta event last year where I was a member of a guest panel sharing my insights, learnings and recommendations around paid media strategies.

For me, another great achievement is seeing the excellent results we are getting for our global accounts, and the growth in this area.

Who mentored you and what are some of the invaluable lessons you have learned along the way?

I am naturally inquisitive and curious  Im a learner and strategiser. I was employee number eight at TDMC  we have now grown to a 50+ strong team  so I spent a lot of time self-learning and self-teaching to gain an understanding of the business as we developed.

Cheryl is a firm believer in exposing people to all aspects of the business at a young age. She would include me in big client meetings giving me valuable insights into how to conduct business at a high level and how to problem solve. I learnt so much about the importance of building relationships with clients and people and I will forever be grateful for that.

How does being a digital native play into your success?

As a digital native I am not scared to test and learn. And this plays directly into my role in digital marketing  in this industry you cant be afraid of change, and you must be able to adapt quickly. There isnt a single day when there isnt a change on one of the platforms we are working on, and we quickly need to figure out a way to work with that. I also have an inherent faith in data  data never lies!




The end of the year is fast approaching, and every South African knows that it means drinks ne bozza yakho, and Siyavanna South Ahh mos. This also means that 13th cheque can come in handy and it is time to lag like your bonus depends on it. So it is time to 'lag' as hard as you can at all those boss jokes, all the way to that 13th cheque, and that corner office. Savanna Premium Cider has been serving up crisp, dry punchlines since forever, and this new Siyavanna Boss Jokes campaign is no different as it offers a witty perspective on bonus season in South Ahh!

Consumers can get ready for some in-cider trading with funny man Mpho Popps, who will run a national trade, buy, and dial competition for consumers to stand a chance to win one of 10 Dezemba cash bonuses.

Whether you are choking from all the joking, crying, or really dont know what is going on, start lagging your way up the corporate ladder and watch various characters come to life to try and land that bonus:

This campaign says Siyavanna, we get you, Benneton the repeater, Benson the crier, Karen the clueless and Clifford the choker, to name but a few. Now and again, you think, oh no, is that me? Or, I have been there myself. It amplifies the crisp, witty perspective on the complexity of work relationships, especially between employee and boss," says Kayla Hendricks, Savanna senior brand manager.

"We are always looking for uniquely South African perspectives to land the brand's iconic crisp and witty humour in a fresh way. With this lovely insight (we've all fake-laughed at least once), we've managed to balance staying true to the brand's positioning, with timely relevance as we head into the last bit of the year and bonus season, says Maxine Selmer-Olsen, strategist at Grey Advertising Africa.

Savanna Premium Cider, it's dry, but you can drink it.

#SiyavannaSA

Savanna promotes responsible drinking. Not for persons under 18.

For more information, follow Savanna's social media channels or go to www.savanna.co.za.

Instagram: @savannacider

Facebook: @SavannaCider

Twitter: @SavannaCider

YouTube: SavannaCider

About Savanna  "It's dry, but you can drink it."

Savanna is a premium, crisp apple cider with a distinctive dry taste. It is one of the largest cider brands in the world and is available in over 60 countries. Since its launch in 1996, Savanna Premium Cider has won consumers' hearts and funny bones with its intelligent, dry and witty sense of humour.




The Uganda Manufacturers Association (UMA) has urged government to consider retaliation mechanisms against the Government of Kenya, for what they termed as ill treatment of Uganda and severe injury to investment.

Following the persistent ban on Ugandan exports to Kenya, traders have called for retaliation saying the diplomatic way has failed.

Our very blunt demand as manufacturers is there should be a retaliatory measure, because we cannot be in a marriage where you cannot enter some bed rooms. Every time we speak about mistreatment of Uganda, government is in un-ending engagements with Nairobi and other capitals, said Richard Mubiru, executive director at UMA.

Mubiru added that, since there is no level of dialogue that has offered better results for Uganda, the private sector cannot survive in an environment of diplomatic appeasement that is seriously injuring investments, he said.

Mubiru made this call while presenting a paper on the state of the economy during a meeting of the Committee on National Economy on Thursday, 26 October 2023.

Officials from the Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU) and Kampala City Traders Association (KACITA) were also in attendance.

The director for policy and advocacy at PSFU, Julius Byaruhanga said that the ban on milk exports to Kenya in March 2023 has grossly affected trade with companies like Brookside Uganda laying off half of their employees.

It is key to note that Kenya accounts for 75 percent of Brookside diary market. This is a very unfair practice which does not put into consideration the value chain disruptions and the subsequent losses it is creating, Byaruhanga said.

He decried the recent ban on wheat and maize exports to Kenya, cognizant that Kenya has been the biggest consumer of Ugandan maize, with export revenue worth $92m registered in 2020 and $52m in 2021.

Traders want government to boost trade relations with DRC which they said has demonstrated potential.

For us to grow the manufacturing output by almost double, we do not have to invest any new dollars. If we are able to secure US$ 500 million for DRC targeting women, youth and small holder exporters, we estimate the number could grow five folds, meaning we could easily get $2,5bn as annual revenue, Mubiru said.

He emphasized that such a milestone requires an export insurance policy which he says will save government from making compensation on trade losses.

Parliament has made compensation to traders for losses in South Sudan and other markets but our view is that we need to be smarter and create instruments where the private sector needs not to look for you, Mubiru said.

Isingiro County South Member of Parliament, Hon. Alex Byarugaba said there is need for the private sector to complement governments efforts in regulating what he described as illegal trade, saying it has contributed to the ban on Ugandan products.

I made inquiries and was told that our traders go to Tanzania buy some cheap rice and mix it with local rice and export it. I am told the same has happened with milk; you are cheating us. You need to look into your backyard, Byarugaba said.

Kalungu East County MP who doubles as the Shadow Minister for East African Community Affairs, Hon. Francis Katabaazi said there is need to improve diplomatic relations in the region saying the trade wars are not only with Kenya.

We have even had issues with South Sudan; they recently arrested 74 of our trucks saying our posho had toxins. I think we need to improve our diplomacy such that we are not the punching bag, Kataabazi said.
World Champagne Day is marked on the fourth Friday of October every year. On this day, champagne enthusiasts worldwide raise their glasses, honouring the artistry of winemaking and the sheer joy of being alive.

Image by Ilo from Pixabay

The Absa Champagne in Africa Festival, 10  11 November 2023, brings champagne from the region of Champagne to our doorstep for a two-day festival in Sandton, Johannesburg. With over 35 champagne houses under one roof, the festival is set to embody the African Renaissance  an opportunity to honour and appreciate the continents diversity, culture, and excellence. By melding Champagnes grace with authentic African cuisine, a new narrative unfolds that seamlessly blends tradition and innovation.

In celebration of World Champagne Day and anticipation of the Absa Champagne in Africa Festival, wine expert Tinashe Nyamudoka shares some pearls of wisdom on truly relishing your glass of champagne:

Never serve Champagne warm.



Opening champagne should not make a loud pop  unless you are at a lively party.



Always open a bottle of champagne at a 35-degree angle just in case it begins to foam out  it may have been shaken.



The best glass to enjoy champagne is one with a tulip shape  the traditional flute concentrates CO2 at the top, making it challenging to savour the aroma. While it is still ideal for events like weddings, where the spectacle is paramount.

The Absa Champagne in Africa Festival is an affair that venerates herniate, craftsmanship, and the relentless pursuit of excellence.

By embracing the intricacies of Champagne production, and infusing it with the spirit of Africa, this festival not only tantalizes the taste buds but also nurtures the soul. Cheers to World Champagne Day and the Absa Champagne in Africa Festival  where excellence meets tradition
Barrick Gold, Tanzania's second-largest gold producer, has been lauded for its significant contributions to the country's socio-economic development. Since acquiring its North Mara and Bulyanhulu mines in 2019, the company has injected over $2.1bn into the Tanzanian economy.

The mines are highly regarded by both the government and local communities for their responsible business practices. Barrick Golds commitment to fostering growth in the local mining sector is further demonstrated through its partnership with PRISMA Training Solutions.

PRISMA is a professional training provider in Africa, specialising in the mining sector. With full Mining Qualification Authority (MQA) accreditation, PRISMA has successfully trained over 40,000 learners in mining, team, and supervisor development.

African excellence in mining

The partnership is driven by Jacques Farmer, managing director at PRISMA, and focuses on enhancing productivity, efficiency, and safety at both mining sites.

The collaboration between PRISMA and Barrick is setting new benchmarks for the African mining landscape. It exemplifies the continents capacity to offer exceptional training solutions.

Set to run over three phases, with at least a three to five-year view, the project began with a gap analysis encompassing technical training, compliance, safety measures, surface training, career development, and training planning, carried out in two distinct phases.

In the initial phase, the focus was on evaluating mine technical training, including competencies related to safety, compliance, technical skills, and career advancement for miners. The subsequent phase involved assessing surface training, soft skills, mineral processing, and plant operation training.

This effort aligns with our resource management and human capital development strategies. We are moving forward toward the ultimate goal of transferring skills and competencies to the organisations internal training department. This will establish their efficiencies and effectiveness to eliminate the need to rely on external training providers from other African countries, notes Farmer.

Now deep in the third phase, PRISMA has begun implementing the recommendations made in the first two phases that will set the wheels in motion for self-sufficiency.

Localisation policy

Barrick's localisation policy emphasises a workforce composed of Tanzanians, with 96% of employees being locals and the rest hailing from nearby communities. To align with this policy, PRISMA proposed conducting induction and initial training in Kiswahili, the local language, to enhance safety training accessibility and effectiveness.

The Women in Mining initiative champions diversity and inclusivity, with substantial impact. This initiative commenced by training 20 women from local communities to operate underground dump trucks over approximately six months. Their training encompassed a comprehensive understanding of the mining environment and culture, preparing them for potential mining careers.

The women trained under this initiative are well-positioned for employment in Tanzania's booming mining sector. The demand for mining skills has surged due to increased exploration activities, and the success of this initiative underscores the rapid expansion of women's representation in mining.

While the Bulyanhulu operation currently has 6% female representation, the North Mara site has achieved quick progress with an 11% representation. This upward trajectory indicates positive advancement. Applying effective strategies from Bulyanhulu to North Mara exemplifies our commitment to further enhancing women's inclusion and participation in the mining industry, explains Farmer.

Simulate real conditions

PRISMA utilises both underground and open-air mock mine environments, allowing trainees to simulate real working conditions safely, and bridging the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application. By interacting with lifelike simulations, miners can refine their skills, decision-making, and problem-solving abilities. This approach accelerates the learning process and boosts confidence.

The organisations e-learning platform is being updated, and this is being incorporated into training practices along with a psychometric assessment tool to assess learners' capabilities in different underground mining scenarios.

This partnership serves as a testament to the profound impact of localised skills development within the African mining sector. It underscores the pioneering role of African suppliers, showcasing their ability to deliver world-class training interventions right on the continent," says Farmer

"This alliance stands as a transformative model, charting a path towards enhanced productivity, safety, and industry excellence for years to come."
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz this weekend makes his third visit to sub-Saharan Africa in two years, as conflicts elsewhere highlight the growing importance of an energy-rich region in which Berlin has traditionally had little involvement.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz arrives for the EU-Africa summit at the European Council building in Brussels, Belgium in 2022. Source: Geert Vanden Wijngaert/Pool via Reuters

He will visit major energy producer Nigeria, as well as Ghana, with migration flows and instability in West Africa also on his agenda.

Much of the impetus for the trip has come from the realisation that Germany - and Europe - need Africa more than it thought, said Greens legislator Anton Hofreiter.

"People realised we needed allies against Russia's invasion of Ukraine," he said. "And suddenly we noticed they weren't necessarily on our side... That was a rude awakening."

The war between Israel and Hamas has leant new urgency to the energy aspect of the trip.

After Russia's invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Germany turned to Qatar for the liquefied gas it needs to fuel its industries. Potential disorder across the Middle East has provided a timely reminder of the importance of diversifying energy sources.

Oil is Nigeria's single largest export to Germany, and officials are considering adding gas to that mix.

"Oil-exporting countries face the question of whether they want to flare all that gas off or use it," a German official said in connection with the visit. "We are very open to discussing with Nigeria whether we can buy gas too."

Ageing population crisis

But to make that happen, chronic underinvestment in Nigeria's energy sector would need to be looked at - something the as-yet unidentified business delegation accompanying Scholz may be able to help address.

They may also see Nigeria, with a population of 200 million, and Ghana, with 30 million, as sources of the labour that Germany desperately needs as its own population increasingly ages out of the workforce.

"Especially in Ghana there are IT experts that German medium-sized companies are desperate to get hold of," said Stefan Liebing, a consultant, and former head of the German African Business Association.

Some in Berlin hope that Germany, without France's baggage as the former colonial power in West Africa, will also be able to play a constructive political role in a region that has been marked by instability this year.

Last year, Germany returned several of the Benin Bronzes, sculptures from the Benin kingdom in modern-day Nigeria, a gesture seen as an attempt to win favour on a continent where anger at European colonial crimes still smoulders.

For Scholz, under pressure at home from critics who say that he is failing to get to grips with the scale of illegal migration, the trip will also be a chance to advance his argument that creating economic opportunities in the source countries is the best way of reducing migrant flows.
New energy vehicle (NEV) sales in South Africa saw a dramatic increase in 2022, reaching 4,764 units from just 202 in 2018, according to statistics from Naamsa (the automotive business council). However, this still represents a tiny fraction of total vehicle sales at 0.88%. The South African National Energy Development Institute (Sanedi) is taking steps to accelerate the adoption of NEVs by launching an Electric Vehicle Minibus Taxi (e-MBT) retrofit project as part of its Cleaner Mobility Programme.

The rollout of the first prototype is a significant achievement, but Sanedi acknowledges that one e-taxi does not signify a complete shift towards cleaner mobility.

The e-MBT retrofit project is not only focusing on vehicle safety and performance but also on fostering collaboration between industry and government to scale up the initiative

In its thought leadership discussion document on NEVs for South Africa, released in February this year, Naamsa eloquently makes the case for decarbonising road transport locally and across the world.

The latter is an important consideration for naamsa, given that 63% of light passenger vehicles manufactured in South Africa are exported  about 77% of those going to Europe where the demand for NEVs is growing fast. In addition, the South African Automotive Masterplan [SAAM] 2021  2035 sets ambitious targets for local NEV sales, ie, 20% of the total by 2025, 40% by 2030 and 60% by 2035.

Meeting these targets and maintaining our export markets will depend on appropriate support to stimulate demand for NEVs as well as the manufacture of NEVs and NEV components in the country. The only way to achieve this, is by throwing the collaboration net as far and wide as possible.

Green energy future

As its name indicates, Sanedi is single-mindedly focused on turning a green energy future for South Africa into reality by supporting the development of a wide range of technologies and bringing them to commercial readiness. This includes establishing an enabling policy environment, as well as the necessary manufacturing capabilities  both in terms of technology and skills  and consumer demand.

The MBT retrofit project is a good example of the level of collaboration required, and of the results that can be achieved.

South Africa's transport sector ranks as the second-largest contributor to pollution after the electricity supply industry, and accounts for 13% of CO 2 emissions. Road transport alone accounts for 91.2% of the total emissions in the country. Retrofitting the more than 250,000 MBTs on our roads can contribute significantly to transforming the transport sector.

Professor MJ Booysens from the Stellenbosch University Faculty of Engineering suggests that many of these vehicles are roadworthy and could undergo a transformation by swapping out their conventional propulsion systems, such as diesel or petrol engines, fuel tanks, and gearboxes, in favour of electric motors and regenerative braking. The retrofitting process involves the addition of a large battery and battery management system.

Developing this technology and the capability to manufacture it locally  which Sanedi is undertaking with the Stellenbosch University, Rham Equipment and Oxford University  will benefit the entire automotive sector.

Transport sector transformation

As Naamsa notes: vehicle exports to the domestic automotive industrys top export destinations, the UK and the EU, are subject to strict Rules of Origin requiring 60% local content in a vehicle to ensure duty-free access. Without battery manufacturing in South Africa or the UK and the EU, flexibility in the strict Rules of Origin requirements would be imperative for ongoing duty-free market access.

Pooling research funds, skills and facilities is critical if we stand a chance of turning South Africas Green Transport Strategy for 2018-2050 into reality. One of the most important outcomes of such collaboration must be clear and powerful industry input into policies that will facilitate and enable the transport sectors transformation.
Cape Town industrial property continues to see positive growth as the city is seen as the better place to live and do business. Urban Growth Property Group (Urban Growth) is not letting this opportune moment pass it by and is taking the lead and growing its property portfolio.

Source: Supplied. Industrial property in Paarl that is off-grid, alleviating concerns around load shedding and sporting a low carbon footprint.

But what's contributing to this growth?

Cape Towns roads and infrastructure are well maintained.

There is a limited supply of industrial property in the area.

The industrial property sector has been the best-performing property sector in South Africa over the past year.

Tenants require protection from load shedding and the financials for off-grid industrial properties makes better sense.

Urban Growth is an independent property-investment company operating in South Africa. Its portfolio consists of completely off-grid, Grade-A industrial properties located in the Western Cape.

The aim is to generate a reliable, consistent, and growing income stream, coupled with capital growth, primarily through investments in South African real estate via debt instruments and a profit share backed by property assets, says group chief executive officer, Colin Young and director and co-founder Ross Gregory.

Urban Growth's strategic advantages

Urban Growth boasts a distinguished blue-chip background and a successful track record in the industrial property sector, he notes.

Its focus is on adding economic value to urbanisation growth in South Africa and beyond. The company specialises in large-scale supply chain logistics industrial property and collaborates with world-class property professionals to maximise the human and investment capital returns on its projects.

The Western Cape portfolio consists of distribution warehouses and last-mile logistics buildings, with a collective market value of more than half a billion rand. The properties also boast energy-efficient features that support responsible and sustainable investing, says Young.

To ensure consistent returns, the tenants of the properties are national and international businesses with strong financials and leases of at least five years.

Value of Western Cape location

Young highlights the strategic advantages, explaining, The properties are off-grid, so there is no worry about load shedding and the carbon usage is low and, on top of this, it generates good cash flow.

Gregory points out that, South Africa, in general, offers good value in terms of property  both residential and industrial  but the Western Cape location adds enormously to the development's value.

The supply chain industry is booming in the province and people are coming to the region from far and wide  both locally, through semigration, and globally. The influx of people means more infrastructure, more houses, more business, and you can rely on the support of the provincial government and a sound provincial economy.

Further testament to the resilience of the portfolio is that all properties have undergone vetting by Investec Private Bank and Nedbank Private Wealth, the portfolios principal banking partners.
Situated just 10km from Cape Town's city centre, the vibrant Claremont CBD has proven its resilience as a thriving mixed-use node that represents the economic heart of the city's sought-after Southern Suburbs.

Source: Supplied. Abdul Kerbelker, executive manager of the Claremont Improvement District Company (CIDC).

Well positioned relative to major arterials and home to a diverse array of businesses including the retail and office sector, as well as a wide range of residential apartments, Claremont CBD has not only rebounded from the impacts of Covid, but is continuing to attract new businesses and increased investment and growth, says Abdul Kerbelker, executive manager of the Claremont Improvement District Company (CIDC).

In its 2023 report, it is evident that the CIDC has played a major role in the sustainability, growth and development of this node, in close co-operation with its partners in law enforcement, property and business owners, and the local community.

The CIDC aims to protect and enhance the nodes existing asset base while simultaneously attracting new investment, tenants and customers.

As noted by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), resilience entails far more than just sustainability  it requires transparent and community-inclusive leadership and clear and financially viable co-ordination in order to succeed.

Says Kerbelker: Throughout Covid and the lockdowns, the CIDC was able to provide uninterrupted urban management and social services while co-ordinating the efforts of local partners to address issues raised during that period, and providing a stable environment from which the business and residential sector was able to recover.

We express appreciation to business owners who play a critical role in the resilience of Claremont CBD, having responded successfully to Day Zero during the drought - prior to Covid, and who are now proactively tackling load shedding issues.

Positively, business activity is back to pre-pandemic levels, with a recovery in demand for both office and retail space, and with a desire for maximum flexibility reinforcing the trend towards eco-living and co-working spaces.

The demand for office space has been primarily driven by business process outsourcing and e-commerce companies, including call centres, while the node remains the preferred hub for financial services companies given the areas lifestyle offering and access to top-notch schooling and high-end residential areas.

Claremont CBD: A thriving hub

The CIDC report, at the time of writing, states that seven call-centre operations employ more than 2,100 people in the Claremont CBD, while a vibrant, well-managed, night-time economy contributes to the social and cultural life of Claremonts community.

As Professor Francois Viruly, head of UCT Urban Real Estate Research Unit points out: There are very few nodes in South Africa that successfully offer the Claremont mix of residential and non-residential uses. I envisage that Claremont will continue to strengthen its dominant position in the Cape Town metropolitan area.

Highlighting the resilience of Claremont CBD is the increase in property valuation  with the total value of both residential and commercial property almost doubling over the past decade, rising from R4.49bn in 2012/13 to R8.85bn in 2022/23  an increase of 97.1%, compared to a total valuation of just R1.4bn in 2004/05.

Says David Stoll, CIDC Board chairman: Furthermore, with office vacancy rates back in line with pre-Covid levels, office rentals increasing and residential apartment sales rebounding strongly, development activity in and around this node is expected to gather momentum during the next few years, with a number of major new developments currently planned or proposed anticipated to bring new businesses, residents and visitors to the area.

Adds Kerbelker: Importantly, the proposed expansion of the MyCiTi bus service to Claremont CBD will see a significant further investment in Claremonts public transport interchange (PTI), which will improve accessibility to the node, thereby boosting retail and business activity.

Extending the MyCiTi service to the metro southeast, linking Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain with Wynberg and Claremont will not only provide much-needed, affordable and reliable access for employees, students and visitors, it will also benefit businesses along the route.

Coupled with this, the potential release of several City-owned vacant plots in the vicinity of the new PTI is likely to provide the impetus for increased commercial developments in the area.

The new MyCiTi station will be in the heart of Claremont, in walking distance of student accommodation, shopping malls and other amenities, and only a block away from Main Road  the main artery connecting this area with Cape Town CBD.

Once the new MyCiTi station is operational, commuters will have a choice of five different modes of public transport  MyCiTi, Golden Arrow Buses, the UCT Shuttle, passenger rail and minibus taxis, all within a radius of less than 120 metres.
By Baek Byung-yeul

Lee Jae-yong, executive chairman of Samsung Electronics, appeared in court on Friday, offering no comment over allegations that he illegally intervened in the management succession process.

The executive chairman appeared in the first hearing of his trial on charges of violating the Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act at the Seoul Central District Court, one year after taking on the role of executive chairman.

Arriving at the court wearing a mask, the executive chairman did not respond to reporters' questions about his one-year anniversary as the chief of Samsung Electronics. He will not hold any events or issue any statements related to the milestone.

Lee is accused of illegally interfering in a merger of Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries in 2015 for the purpose of facilitating his leadership succession.

Prosecutors believe that Lee and executives manipulated the merger ratio of Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries and that there was accounting fraud in Samsung Biologics, a subsidiary of Cheil Industries, in the process.

The defendant maintains there were no problems with the merger process, saying that it was a reasonable management decision at the time and the companys performance improved afterwards.

Lee's trial began in April 2017 when he was indicted on charges of bribing former President Park Geun-hye and her close friend Choi Soon-sil. Lee was sentenced to two years and six months in prison for his role in the corruption scandal, and was imprisoned until 2021 when he was released on parole, and then pardoned in August 2022.

Depending on the outcome of Friday's hearing, the court may schedule a final hearing next month to conclude the trial. Sentencing could come as early as this year.

Lee was appointed as executive chairman of Samsung Electronics, the crown jewel affiliate of Samsung Group, on Oct. 27, 2022, after being approved at a board meeting. He succeeded his founder-grandfather Lee Byung-chul and his father Lee Kun-hee.
The United States should make changes to its flagship trade initiative with Africa that would increase its impact as part of a potential reauthorisation by Congress, a senior US trade official said on Thursday, 26 October.

Source: Reuters.

Launched in 2000, the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) grants exports from qualifying countries duty free access to the US market. It is set to expire in September 2025, but discussions are already under way over whether to extend it and for how long.

"We need to do better," assistant United States trade representative for African affairs, Constance Hamilton told a media briefing ahead of a meeting of US officials and African trade ministers in South Africa next week.

"Some countries have benefited greatly from Agoa, but the majority have not," she said.

A research report requested by US lawmakers and published earlier this year found that Agoa had helped reduce poverty and create jobs in certain countries, particularly for women.

But over three quarters of duty-free non-petroleum exports to the United States under the programme during 2014 to 2021 came from just five countries: South Africa, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar and Ethiopia.

African governments and industry groups are pushing for an early 10-year extension without changes in order to reassure business and new investors who might have concerns over Agoa's future.

Such a reauthorisation is also supported by some in Congress, who worry that revising the programme could delay or derail its renewal.

A bipartisan group of 13 senators headed by Democrat Chris Coons and Republican Tim Scott wrote to the Senate leadership on Thursday, 26 October, urging it to make Agoa a legislative priority.

"While there are aspects of Agoa that Congress should seek to improve, we believe the priority should be renewing the programme as soon as possible and for a lengthy period," they said in their letter.

Republican Senator John Kennedy last month proposed a 20-year extension of Agoa without changes, stating that it would play a key role in deterring "China's growing influence throughout the region".

Hamilton, however, said the Office of the US Trade Representative hoped Congress would look at measures "to make the programme more impactful" without giving further details.

"Not trying to change the programme and make it better is a wasted opportunity," she said.
The irony of 87,000 new IRS agents is that there is no law that imposes an income tax on sovereign citizens. Taxation is an attribute of sovereignty. That over which the taxing authority is not sovereign is not a suitable object for taxation. Our form of government is "guaranteed" to be a "Republican" form where People are sovereign. Ref. Constitution, Article IV, Section 4.

If a tax upon the labors of a Sovereign Citizen properly existed it would authorize the subordinate government to seize 100% of the Citizens earnings. Reasonable is not a limitation for a tax. It is not a matter of concern to the court if the tax destroys the object being taxed. Such a law would authorize slavery. No such law exists.

Former IRS special agent Joe Banister, after repeated unsuccessful efforts to find a statutory income tax with the help of his supervisor, separated from the IRS.

LIBERTY, enshrined in the 5th and 14th Amendments, includes the Citizens opportunity to Pursue a Livelihood as a fundamental Right. Such Rights, similar to your Right to a trial by jury, are not suitable objects for taxation or fee. If it were otherwise, all Rights could be taxed out of existence. [87,000 new IRS agents are getting hired to harass terrorists. Ref 16A American Jurisprudence 2nd, Constitutional Law  616-617 (2009).

26 USC 1 authorizes an income tax on the taxable income of an individual. Taxable income is not legally defined. If you wish to donate to the government, they will take your moneyand demand more. This statute is never alleged to be violated in an indictment and is therefore not submitted to contestation with the burden of proof upon the plaintiff.

26 USC 871 imposes an excise tax upon non-resident aliens for the privilege of being permitted into the USA. The government does not extend a privilege for the pursuit of a livelihood.

Violations of 26 USC 7201-7215 are frequently alleged in indictments. The Supreme Court, relying upon the Congressional Record, has identified those penalty statutes as applying to all taxes in Title 26. They cannot allege violation of a known legal duty as required for a valid indictment. Ref. Sansone v. US, 380 US 343, 348.

The IRS relies upon a citizen signing a tax form, under oath, over the caveat of taxpayers name to identify you as legally responsible for a tax. You have just sworn that you legally owe a tax. The court accepts your affidavit. The income tax is a known scam enforced by a perfidious judiciary.

Lawyers who aggressively make this claim face lose of license and HAVE been sent to jail on bogus charges.

State courts have repeatedly covered up similar challenges to state income taxes, earnings taxes, and occupational licenses, to avoid an exempt precedent from becoming established.

IRS Exempt Tax form #4852 has been claimed by Pete Hendrickson as successfully recovering prior years income taxes erroneously paid to the IRS.

WARNING: The positioning of the burden of proof is critical. Due Process requires the Petitioner to prove the validity of any claimed authority. If the BOP can be shifted by the court to the citizen to prove the tax authority does not exist, they will require proof that there is no possible way the tax might be valid. Such a proof is impossible. This shift doomed the Springer case. Springer v US, 102 US 586, (1881).

The Supreme Court declared Springers claim the income tax was an unapportioned Direct Tax and therefore unconstitutional was not valid. The court added that the only alternate Constitutional tax was an indirect tax of either an impost, a duty, or an excise tax. Since a duty or impost relates to merchandise crossing a territorial boundary, by deduction, an income tax must be an excise tax.

Tax denier Sherry Peel Jackson was convicted of tax charges in 2008. A Opinion declares several tax protester theories by Jackson were denied by the court. There is no claim the court declared the income tax did not improperly infringe on Constitutional Rights. The courts shift of the BOP doomed her case.An excise tax is based upon a privilege being received. This writer does not see any privilege being received by a Sovereign Citizen upon which the government of the United States can properly base an income tax.

The 16th Amendment attempts to expand the definition of taxable income; some federal courts have opined it removes all restrictions on federal taxation. In reality, such a concept would convert a Sovereign Citizen immune from taxation [except for an excise tax on a privilege received] into a subject that can be forced to give 100% of their earnings to the ruler. That would stand the Constitution on its head and is a coup that is currently obsessed with nuclear war-mongering against two of the most powerful nations of the world to compel submission to Great Reset. The power to tax is the power to destroy. Such an act would violate the judges oath of office and negate the jurisdiction of the judge. The prohibitive cost of appeals, and denial of certiorari, along with a lucrative self-interest, has prevented any review by the SCOTUS.

If the 16th Amendment is construed to authorize seizure of a Citizens earnings, it is in direct conflict with the Constitution. Article IV, Section 4 establish the federal government has a duty: The United States shall guarantee to every State in the Union a Republican Form of Government... A Republican form of government rests Sovereignty in the People. If the political powers of a corrupt government can seize unlimited assets of its Citizens by taxation, under color of law, it is tyranny. A government that corrupts the election of representation is not different. The Constitution mandates a duty to judicially review any alleged infringement of the Citizens Sovereignty.
A New York state Supreme Court ordered all New York City employees who were fired for not being vaccinated to be reinstated with back pay.

The court found Monday that being vaccinated does not prevent an individual from contracting or transmitting COVID-19. New York City Mayor Eric Adams claimed earlier this year that his administration would not rehire employees who had been fired over their vaccination status.

NYC fired roughly 1,700 employees for being unvaccinated earlier this year after the city adopted a vaccine mandate under former Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Many of those fired were police officers and firefighters.
By Baek Byung-yeul

CHA Medical and Bio Group hosted a forum featuring international researchers in the field of cell and gene therapy (CGT) to share the latest research findings and discuss the potential of CGT to treat rare and intractable diseases, the bio group said Friday.

The bio group hosted the 2023 Global Forum on Future Medicine at its headquarters CHA Bio Complex in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province. About 400 people, including domestic pharmaceutical and bio companies, associations and government officials, gathered to explore ways of cooperation.

We hope that this forum will serve as an opportunity for global collaboration by strategically cooperating with researchers from advanced countries such as the United States and Japan beyond Korea, Yoon Ho-sup, president of the CHA Advanced Research Institute, said in an opening speech.

During the forum, research on the production of human organs using stem cells and preventing aging gained the attention of participants.

Hiromitsu Nakauchi, a genetics professor at Stanford University, said that the production of organs from different species, which is currently being researched, and its use in treatment of rare diseases, are so promising that the Japanese government has enacted a related law.

Lee Dong-ryul, a professor of biomedical science at CHA University, shared his research on mesenchymal cells made from somatic cell nuclear transfer-derived embryonic stem cells to inhibit ovarian aging and improve fertility.

Ovarian health is directly related to womens fertility. We are researching effective methods to preserve ovarian function using stem cells, Lee said.

The potential for stem cells to treat intractable diseases such as spinal cord injuries and Parkinson's disease was also highlighted during the forum.

"Currently, there is no fundamental treatment for spinal cord injury patients," said Hideyuki Okano, a professor and chair of the Department of Physiology at Keio University. We are conducting the world's first clinical trial in 2022 to transplant iPS (induced pluripotent stem cells) derived nerve cells into patients who cannot move their limbs due to spinal cord injuries, and we expect to develop an effective treatment."

Han In-bo, a professor of the Department of Neurosurgery, Spine Center at CHA University, presented research on the treatment of chronic back pain using stem cells.

I expect that the stem cell therapy Codestem-DD for chronic back pain developed by CHA Biotech will be a new treatment option for patients who have failed conservative therapies such as painkillers and non-surgical therapies when it is commercialized, Han said.


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Ceasefire needed to prevent worse humanitarian disasters

10:17, October 27, 2023 By Huan Yuping ( People's Daily

Since the outbreak of the latest round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the escalating situation has drawn global attention. The large-scale civilian casualties and worsening humanitarian crises are questioning the conscience of humanity.

Currently, the fighting continues and lives are still being lost, and the spillover effect is impacting regional peace and stability.

The international community generally hopes that the parties to the conflict will cease fire and return to the track of negotiation as soon as possible, so as to create opportunities for peace and prevent an even worse humanitarian disaster.

In recent days, the number of casualties resulting from the conflict has continued to rise, and the living conditions of the people in Gaza have been deteriorating.

A deadly blast at the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza has resulted in heavy casualties. Such acts of killing and maiming innocent lives must be unanimously rejected and condemned by the international community.

Faced with a complex and extremely urgent situation, all parties must prioritize the value of life and conscience of humanity.

Military actions should not go beyond self-defense or impose collective punishment on civilians. Protecting civilians in armed conflicts is a red line defined by international humanitarian law, and the indiscriminate use of force is unacceptable.

The parties to the conflict should adhere to international law and international humanitarian law, including ensuring the safety of civilians and detainees, opening humanitarian corridors, and preventing an even worse humanitarian disaster.

The history of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has repeatedly demonstrated that the conflict cannot be resolved with military means, and responding to violence with violence will only lead to a vicious cycle.

The parties to the conflict should exercise restraint, immediately cease fire, and seek dialogue. All relevant parties in the region should maintain calm and restraint, uphold objectivity and fairness, promote de-escalation of the conflict, and avoid greater impacts on regional and international security.

The international community should take action to oppose any actions that harm civilians, and actively encourage peace talks. United Nations, especially the UN Security Council, must shoulder its responsibility, focus on humanitarian concerns, clearly call for practical measures to a ceasefire, an end to violence, protection of civilians, and the formation of a binding international consensus.

As long as the fighting continues, it will be impossible to avoid further violations of international humanitarian law. Without a full ceasefire, any humanitarian aid will only be a drop in the bucket.

If the current fighting in Gaza is allowed to drag on, the end result will not be a complete military victory for any side, but a wider humanitarian disaster and a more serious crisis.

Currently, the international community is expecting the UN Security Council to play a role in de-escalating the conflict and preventing humanitarian crises. However, a few major countries, while verbally emphasizing the need for the Security Council to take appropriate actions, have triggered doubts about their true intentions through their voting positions on relevant draft resolutions.

In recent years, the international landscape and the situation in the Middle East have undergone numerous changes, with certain major countries pulling the strings in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. This has led to the gradual marginalization of the Palestinian issue, and relevant UN resolutions have not been effectively implemented.

The current Palestinian-Israeli conflict serves as a painful reminder to the international community that the Palestinian issue has always been at the core of the Middle East issue. Without a just and equitable resolution to the Palestinian issue, lasting peace in the Middle East is unlikely to be achieved.

The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is a long-standing and complex issue, intertwined with disputes over territory, ethnicity, and religion. The difficulty in resolving the conflict lies fundamentally in the prolonged denial of the Palestinian people's right to statehood, right to existence, and right to return.

Israel has the right to statehood, and so does Palestine. The fundamental approach to addressing the Palestinian question is the implementation of the two-state solution, and promoting the establishment of the timetable and roadmap for restoring the legitimate rights of the Palestinian nation.

The two-state solution, recognized by the international community, is that the Palestinians have their independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital, along the borders from 1967.

The international community generally supports the resumption of negotiations between the two sides based on the principles of "land for peace," relevant UN resolutions, and the two-state solution.

Despite the differences between the two sides in terms of implementation, the two-state solution remains the only consensus-based approach to resolving the issue.

After the outbreak of the current conflict, the international community has once again come to the profound realization that the true implementation of the two-state solution is essential for resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and bringing genuine peace to the Middle East.

Some said that any solution that deviates from the two-state solution is not feasible, and some believed that there is no alternative to the solution for resolving the issue. Some voices thought that a just and lasting resolution to the Palestinian issue could not be achieved without implementing relevant UN Security Council resolutions and establishing an independent State of Palestine.

On the issue of Palestine, China always stands on the side of peace, justice, international law, the common aspirations of most countries, and human conscience.

Currently, China is in communication with the relevant parties to prevent the escalation of conflict and humanitarian disasters, and will continue to provide emergency humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip through the UN and bilateral channels.

China will support all efforts conducive to the implementation of the two-state solution and seeks a comprehensive, just, and lasting resolution to the Palestinian issue, in order to achieve peaceful coexistence between Palestine and Israel.

To act responsibly for peace and lives is a shared duty among all peace-loving and fair-minded nations. In the face of ongoing conflicts and escalating humanitarian disasters, major countries, in particular, need to uphold objectivity and fairness, promote a prompt ceasefire and cessation of hostilities, and explicitly call for the implementation of the two-state solution, so as to eliminate the fertile ground for violence and play a constructive role in maintaining peace and stability in the Middle East.

(Web editor: Chang Sha, Liang Jun)
Authorities searched forests, waterways and small towns Thursday for a U.S. Army reservist who they say killed 18 people and wounded 13 in a mass shooting at a bowling alley and a bar that sent panicked patrons scrambling under tables and behind bowling pins and gripped the entire state of Maine in fear.

Schools, doctor's offices and grocery stores closed and people stayed behind locked doors in cities as far away as 50 miles (80 kilometers) from the scenes of Wednesday night's shootings in Lewiston.

President Joe Biden ordered all U.S. flags to be flown at half-staff as condolences poured in from around the nation and at home, including from Maine native and author Stephen King, who called it madness. The attacks stunned a state of only 1.3 million people that has one of the countrys lowest homicide rates: 29 killings in all of 2022.

The suspect, Robert Card, is considered armed and dangerous and should not be approached, authorities said at a news conference. Card underwent a mental health evaluation in mid-July after he began acting erratically while with his reserve regiment, a U.S. official told The Associated Press.

Police have not said if they have seen Card since the shootings at Schemengees Bar and Grille and at Sparetime Recreation, a bowling alley about 4 miles (6 kilometers) away. The Androscoggin County Sheriffs Office released two photos of the suspect walking into the bowling alley with a rifle raised to his shoulder.

Investigators also havent said what weapon or weapons Card used in the shootings or how he obtained them.

Several FBI agents and other heavily armed officers gathered Thursday afternoon off a road where several relatives of Card lived near Bowdoin. A military-style vehicle and a white van arrived as a helicopter hovered overhead and someone repeatedly yelled, FBI! Open the door! Several loud bangs were heard a short time later. Nearby, several police officers armed with rifles stood on alert in the back of a pickup truck.

About 80 FBI agents were in Maine looking for Card along with numerous other federal, state and local police, Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins said at an evening news conference.

A telephone number listed for Card in public records was not in service. A woman who answered a phone number for one of Card's relatives said Thursday afternoon the family was helping the FBI. She didn't give her name or additional details.

The Canada Border Services Agency issued an armed and dangerous alert to its officers stationed along the Canada-U.S. border.

Maine Gov. Janet Mills promised to do whatever was needed to find Card and to hold whoever is responsible for this atrocity accountable ... and to seek full justice for the victims and their families.

We are not, and we will not, rest in this endeavor, she said.

Eight murder warrants were issued for Card, 40, after authorities identified eight of the victims, police said. Ten more will likely be issued once the names of the rest of the dead are confirmed, said Maine State Police Col. William Ross.

Three of the 13 people wounded in the shootings were in critical condition and five were hospitalized but stable, Central Maine Medical Center officials said.

The attack started at Sparetime, where a children's bowling league was taking place, just before 7 p.m. Wednesday. One bowler, who identified himself only as Brandon, said he heard about 10 shots, thinking the first was a balloon popping.

I had my back turned to the door. And as soon as I turned and saw it was not a balloon  he was holding a weapon  I just booked it, he told the AP.

Brandon said he scrambled down the length of the alley, sliding into the pin area and climbing up to hide in the machinery.

Less than 15 minutes after the shooting began, numerous 911 calls started coming in from Schemengees, which was offering 25 percent discounts to customers who work in the bar or restaurant industry.

Patrick Poulin was supposed to be at the bowling center with his 15-year-old son, who is in a league that was practicing Wednesday. They stayed home, but he estimates there were probably several dozen young bowlers, ages 4 to 18, along with their parents, in the facility. Poulins brother was there, he said, and shepherded some of the children outside when the shooting began.

Hes pretty shook up, Poulin said Thursday. And its just sinking in today, like, wow, I was very close to being there. And a lot of the people that got hurt, I know.

April Stevens lives in the same neighborhood where one of the shootings took place. She turned on all her lights overnight and locked her doors. She knew someone killed at the bar and another person injured who needed surgery.

Im still working because I can work from home. My husband canceled his jobs today to stay home with me. Were praying for everyone, Stevens said through tears.

Authorities launched a multistate search for Card on land and water. The Coast Guard sent out a patrol boat Thursday morning along the Kennebec River, but after hours of searching, they found nothing out of the ordinary," said Chief Petty Officer Ryan Smith, who is in charge of the Coast Guards Boothbay Harbor Station.

A car believed to belong to Card had been discovered by a boat launch in the town of Lisbon near the Androscoggin River, which connects to the Kennebec, and Card's 15-foot (4.5-meter) boat remains unaccounted for, Smith said.

A bulletin sent to police across the country after the attack said Card had been committed to a mental health facility for two weeks this past summer after hearing voices and threats to shoot up a military base.

A U.S. official said Card was assigned to support training with the Army Reserves 3rd Battalion, 304th Infantry Regiment in West Point, New York, when commanders became concerned about him.

State police took Card to the Keller Army Community Hospital at West Point for evaluation, according to the official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss the information and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

A neighbor, Dave Letarte, said Card's family let them deer hunt on their property and were kind, although Letarte said he noticed Card appeared to have mental problems for a while.

People have problems, but you dont expect them to go on the deep end like that," Letarte said. "When we saw it on the news last night, I was shocked.

Immediately after the shooting, police armed with rifles took positions around Lewiston, Maine's second largest city, with a population of 37,000. The once overwhelmingly white mill community has become one of the most diverse cities in northern New England after a major influx of immigrants, mostly from Somalia, in recent years.

Schools 50 miles (80 kilometers) away in the town of Kennebunk closed as the search continued. Maine's largest city, Portland, closed its public buildings.

In many past U.S. mass shootings, the suspect was found  whether dead or alive  within minutes. But Card was still on the loose a full day after the shootings. Lewiston was mostly empty on an unusually warm fall day. Changeable message signs reminded people to stay behind locked doors.

Art teacher Miia Zellner was one of the few people out. She came with friends to downtown Lewiston, where they hammered about 100 paper hearts into trees with the words To My Neighbors.

This is just my way of showing my love and my support for the community, she said. I just hope that people, when they see this, get some type of positivity from it and feel some sense of hope.

In Bates College in Lewiston, students stayed in dorms with the blinds closed, said Diana Florence, whose son is a sophomore. She has a daughter who is a senior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which was locked down twice last month for a shooting and a man with a gun.

I could not believe it  that this is happening again. Its happening to my son after it just happened to my daughter, she said in a phone interview Thursday.

The shootings mark the 36th mass killing in the United States this year, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.

Maine doesn't require permits to carry guns, and the state has a longstanding culture of gun ownership that is tied to its traditions of hunting and sport shooting. Keeping in mind the strong support for gun rights, lawmakers passed a yellow flag law in 2019 that would require police to seek a medical evaluation of anyone believed to be dangerous before then trying to take their guns away. However, critics charged that it was a weaker version of the tougher red flag laws that many other states have adopted.

Author Stephen King responded to the shootings Thursday morning in a pair of posts on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The shootings occurred less than 50 miles from where I live. I went to high school in Lisbon. Its the rapid-fire killing machines, people. This is madness in the name of freedom. Stop electing apologists for murder, he wrote. (AP)
Israeli forces carried out their biggest Gaza ground attack in their 20-day-old war with Hamas overnight as anger grew in the Arab world over Israel's relentless bombardment of the besieged Palestinian territory.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had said Israeli troops were still preparing for a full ground invasion, while the U.S. and other countries urged Israel to delay, fearing it could ignite hostilities on other Middle East fronts.

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said it may soon have to shut down operations in Gaza if no fuel reaches the Hamas-ruled territory amid a desperate need for shelter, water, food and medical services.

The Israeli military says Hamas is holding large reserves of fuel which could be used by hospitals.

Overly stringent checks on trucks at the Rafah crossing from Egypt into Gaza were slowing the flow of aid, U.N. World Food Programme Executive Director Cindy McCain said in an interview with Reuters.

"We need safe, unfettered access into Gaza so that we can feed and make sure that people dont starve to death, because thats whats happening," McCain said.

Israel has bombarded the densely populated Gaza Strip following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israeli communities. Israel says Hamas killed some 1,400 people including children, and took more than 200 hostages, some of them infants and older adults.

Gaza's health ministry said on Thursday that 7,028 Palestinians had been killed in the retaliatory air strikes, including 2,913 children.

The U.S. State Department said Washington knows that a significant number of people have died in Gaza but does not have independent confirmation of numbers, and it does not trust figures released by Hamas.

The Israeli military has also said Hamas figures cannot be trusted, but has not provided its own assessment. Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra rejected statements questioning the figures.

The ministry on Thursday published a 212-page document with names and ID numbers of the more than 7,000 Palestinians it says were killed in Israel's bombardment.

Israeli army radio said the military had overnight staged its biggest incursion into northern Gaza of the war.

"Tanks and infantry struck numerous terrorist cells, infrastructure and anti-tank missile launch posts," it said.

Palestinians said Israeli air strikes pounded the territory again overnight and people in central Gaza reported intensive tank shelling all night.

Governments in the West and the Middle East are concerned about a wider regional conflict developing.

U.S. forces have been attacked more than a dozen times in Iraq and Syria in the past week by what Washington suspects are Iran-backed groups. Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah have exchanged fire. The United States has sent warships and fighter aircraft to the region since Oct. 7 and on Thursday the Pentagon said about 900 more U.S. troops have arrived in the Middle East or are heading there to bolster air defences for U.S. personnel.

U.S. President Joe Biden delivered a direct message to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei against targeting U.S. personnel in the region, the White House said on Thursday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian had said at the United Nations that if Israel's offensive against Hamas did not stop, the United States will "not be spared from this fire".

For Israel's part, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, asked at a press conference about the possibility of a confrontation with Iran, said Israel has "no interest in expanding the war."

"We are waging war on the southern front against Hamas, prepared for any development in the north, Hezbollah is suffering many losses," Gallant said.

With no sign of a let-up in Gaza, the foreign ministers of Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates condemned what they called the targeting of civilians and violations of international law.

Their joint statement said Israel's right to self-defence did not justify breaking the law and neglecting Palestinians' rights. The Arab ministers condemned forced displacement and collective punishment of Palestinians in Gaza, where an estimated more than 613,000 people have been made homeless and are being sheltered by UNRWA.

They also criticised Israel's occupation of Palestinian areas and called for more efforts to implement a two-state solution to the decades-long conflict - an idea at the heart of long-moribund peacemaking.

"The absence of a political solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has led to repeated acts of violence and suffering for the Palestinian and Israeli peoples and the peoples of the region," it said.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said EU leaders meeting in Brussels on Friday will send a clear signal of backing for Israel.

At an EU summit, a declaration expressed the group's "gravest concern for the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza." It called for "continued, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access and aid to reach those in need", including humanitarian corridors and pauses in fighting to deliver aid.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Bloomberg News that Washington was looking for more ways to reduce the flow of financing to Hamas.

Concern also grew over the fate of more than 200 hostages seized by Hamas in the Oct. 7 assault and taken to Gaza.

A spokesman for Hamas's armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, said on Thursday about 50 captives had been killed in Gaza due to Israeli strikes. He gave no further details and Reuters was unable to verify the numbers. (Reuters)


Defence Minister Rajnath Singh with Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt, Defence Secretary Giridhar Aramane, Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan, Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari and others during the Indian Air Force Commanders' Conference, in New Delhi, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. A PTI Photo

NEW DELHI (PTI): Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has asked the top commanders of the Indian Air Force to examine the rapidly changing global geo-political situation and assess them in the Indian context besides emphasising on the need to bolster its operational readiness.



In an address at the inaugural session of the two-day IAF commanders' conference on Thursday, Singh also exhorted the top brass of the force to focus on strengthening India's air defence systems and use of drones, noting that new trends have emerged in the field of air warfare.



It is learnt that the commanders are extensively analysing use of various aerial platforms in the Hamas-Israel conflict and the Russia-Ukraine war.



Chief of Air staff Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari and other commanders are also carrying out a comprehensive review of the security situation along the border with China, especially rapid expansion of military infrastructure by the PLA Air Force in areas near the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Ladakh sector.



"There are new challenges emanating from the global security scenario. We must always be ready to deal with them," Singh told the commanders at the conference here.



In his address, Singh emphasised on the need to enhance operational preparedness and highlighted the importance of joint planning and execution of operations by the three services.



The defence ministry said he urged the IAF commanders to examine the rapidly changing global geo-political situation and assess them in the Indian context.



He pointed out that new trends have emerged in the field of air warfare and there is a need to analyse and learn from them to strengthen the defence preparedness.



The defence minister also exhorted the IAF to focus on strengthening the air defence systems, use of drones and making headway in the field of aerospace to protect India's air domain, the ministry said.



It said Singh praised the "stellar role" played by the IAF during the recent humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) missions in Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and other flood affected areas.



He also congratulated the IAF for successfully organising the Air Force Day parade and air display in Uttar Pradesh's Prayagraj.



Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan was among those present on the occasion.



The commanders will hold wide-ranging deliberations on the IAF's plans for the future with an aim to bolster its combat capabilities, sources said.



They are especially expected to hold extensive deliberations on use of new technologies.



The conference, which is held bi-annually, involves discussions on charting the lAF's way ahead, given the current geo-political environment and technological imperatives.



Eminent national security experts and accomplished personalities from various fields are invited to present their views during the conference.




Defence Minister Rajnath Singh during his visit to forward posts in Arunachal Pradesh on the occasion of 'Vijayadashami', in Tawang district, Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2023. Chief of Army Staff General Manoj Pande is also seen. A PTI Photo

NEW DELHI (PTI): The ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict reaffirmed the significance of land warfare and the domain will remain "extremely important" in India's case as well as for countries having contested borders, Army Chief Gen Manoj Pande has said.

In an interactive session at an event on Thursday, referring to the situation along the Line of Actual Control with China, he said the border situation remains stable and that his force is focusing on boosting its overall combat capabilities to effectively deal with any future security challenges.



Delving into global geopolitical upheavals, the Chief of Army Staff said the key lesson that the Army has learnt from the Russia-Ukraine conflict is that it can't rely on import of military hardware and achieving self-reliance in defence is very important.



He described the Indo-Pacific as a key region and noted that India has an important role to play.



The Army chief was speaking to Lt Gen Raj Shukla (retd) at the curtain-raiser for the first Chanakya Dialogue.



He said the first batch of 40,000 Agniveers have joined the units and the feedback on them from the field units has been encouraging.



To a question on increasing global focus on the maritime domain while both Russia-Ukraine war and Hamas-Israel conflict have the dimension of land, Gen Pande said land warfare will remain crucial in the Indian context.



Though he chose not to make specific reference, it was clear the Army Chief was indicating the border issue with China.



"I mentioned about the lessons we drew from the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict. And if I can delve on one of the key lessons -- I think land will continue to be a key domain of warfare, especially in cases where you have contested borders just as in our case," he said.



"I think the victory marker will have to be in the land domain. The salience of land domain, I think, is going to be extremely important in our case," he said.



Talking about India's rising global profile, Gen Pande said India will continue to play a key role in the Indo-Pacific region.



"With the enhanced stature, we will have additional responsibilities and with this we will have certain challenges to encounter," he said.



The Chief of Army Staff said "In all of this, we need to remain proactive rather than responding or reacting. We should be able to shape our strategies."



He said there will be responsibilities, opportunities and challenges for India in the Indo-pacific.



"I think the nation is on the rise, be it the economic growth, technological progress or the influence that the nation wields in the world arena," Gen Pande said.



He described the last one year period for the Army as "challenging yet satisfying".



"As far as the operational situation is concerned, on the borders, I would say it is stable and we have dealt with internal security challenges in a manner that is expected of us," he said.



The Chief of Army Staff also noted that the ongoing reform process in the Army is being implemented as planned.



"About a year back, we spelt out our transformation roadmap. In that we defined five distinct foundations as pillars of transformation," he said.



"These were restructuring and right-sizing of the force, modernisation and technology infusion, refining and improving our systems and processes to improve combat and functional efficiencies, jointness and human resources management," he said.



He said the progress of the reform process has been good.



The Army chief also listed technology infusion into his force as a key focus area.



In his remarks, Gen Pande also spoke about how national security is emerging as a crucial aspect in the geo-political competition.



"What we are seeing is the centrality of national interest in this global flux...The salience of national security is growing in the entire international system," he said.



Highlighting the changing character of war, Gen Pande said "by this I am alluding to what we are witnessing in the context of Russia-Ukraine conflict."



"You have new domains -- be it cyber, be it space, be it information warfare, battle of narratives and the rest. All these indicate that we need to be better prepared and future ready to be able to meet future security challenges," he said.



"Looking at the future security challenges, I think we need to transform and that is what we are doing," he added.




The High Court has appointed an interim examiner to Dublin-registered medical technology firm HealthBeacon after hearing it has run out of cash and requires external funding to meet its payroll commitments today.

The petition for examinership came in most unusual circumstances as literally there is no more gas in the tank for the company to financially support itself even during the 100-day period of court protection, said senior counsel Kelley Smith on behalf of HealthBeacons directors.

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The firm, which specialises in digital therapeutics, has made persistent losses since it floated as a publicly listed company in 2021, raising 25 million. It made after-tax losses of 8 million in 2021, rising to 13 million in 2022. Similar losses are expected this year, said Ms Smith.

US distributor Hamilton Beach, which manages HealthBeacons US supply chain, will provide a loan of up to 1.85 million, fully repayable in 120 days, she said, adding that 250,000 will be drawn down immediately.

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Its availability was predicated on an interim examiner being appointed and will be repaid ahead of all other secured and unsecured debts in the event the examinership fails, and the firm needs to be liquidated, Ms Smith told the court, adding that the debts are largely unsecured.

At this, Mr Justice Rory Mulcahy questioned whether Hamilton, through its proposal, was trying to make a one-way bet in guaranteeing it receives its money back while other creditors are at risk.

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Ms Smith said the arrangement limits but does not eliminate risk for Hamilton, which would only see return from the companys realisable assets in the event of a liquidation. The support from Hamilton is significant, she added, as it is an entity that knows the firm and the market.

Urging the judge to appoint insolvency practitioner Shane McCarthy, of KPMG, as interim examiner, Ms Smith, appearing with Eithne Corry BL, said the step is critical to securing funding.

Contributing to the companys recent current financial woes, said Ms Smith, instructed by A&L Goodbody's Mark Traynor, is the unsuccessful attempt to channel products directly to consumers, an increased staff headcount, the building of new infrastructure and the heavy focus on research and development. She said the company has been focused on building its own patented technology.

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It was hoped the firm was turning a corner and would produce better results in 2023, but there have been significant delays of nine to 12 months in getting its products to speciality markets and it made losses of just under 10 million up to September, she said.

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Redundancies

HealthBeacon has 75 employees, of which 50 are based in Ireland. It is expected that about 20 staff members will be made redundant, Ms Smith said.

Independent expert Nicholas ODwyer, of Grant Thornton, determined that the company has a reasonable prospect of survival as a going concern if a successful rescue plan is put together. Among the factors supporting this contention was that HealthBeacon has projected growth of 387 per cent from 2024 to 2026, the court heard.

Unsecured creditors would receive 19 per cent of what they are owed if the company was to be liquidated, and it is anticipated they would do better under a restructuring, he said in a report.

Before appointing the interim examiner, Mr Justice Mulcahy asked about the type of creditors who could be prejudiced by the arrangement if the rescue attempt fails. Ms Smith said it can be assumed that unsecured creditors would be the most likely category to be adversely affected in such a scenario.

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The court heard HealthBeacon has a net asset position of 10 million, with liabilities of 6.3 million primarily due to trade creditors and general unsecured creditors. Taoglas, a Co Wexford firm, is the largest creditor, the court heard.

The Revenue Commissioner, which is usually treated as a preferential creditor in insolvency situations, is owed just under 62,000.

Mr Justice Mulcahy was satisfied the statutory requirements were met and that it was appropriate for him to exercise his discretion to make the appointment.

He noted the application came before him while only the company was represented in court and notified. He adjourned the case until a date next month.
Boris Johnson has found his latest post-prime ministerial employment, with the former Tory leader set to join GB News.

He is the latest Conservative politician to find a place at the broadcaster, and in a video announcing his arrival the former MP said he would be giving his unvarnished views on a range of topics.

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Mr Johnson, who also writes a column for the Daily Mail, said: I am excited to say that I am shortly going to be joining you on GB News.

Were delighted to announce some very exciting newshttps://t.co/BRg8ZgTy1X pic.twitter.com/FD0wz0Urkt  GB News (@GBNEWS) October 27, 2023 Advertisement

Im going to be giving this remarkable new TV channel my unvarnished views on everything from Russia, China, the war in Ukraine, how we meet all those challenges, to the huge opportunities that lie ahead for us, why I believe our best days are yet to come.

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And why on the whole the people of the world want to see more global Britain, not less.

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Mr Johnson resigned as MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip in June in protest at the sanction recommended by the Privileges Committee after it found he lied to the Commons over partygate.

He quit as British prime minister in 2022, following a mass revolt by ministers over his leadership.

He now joins a number of former Tory colleagues including close ally Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg and current Conservative deputy chairman Lee Anderson at the channel.

Former pensions minister Esther McVey and backbencher Philip Davies are also presenters.

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Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg in the studio at GB News. Photo: Stefan Rousseau/PA.

The channel said that he would be joining as a presenter, programme maker and commentator, adding Mr Johnson would be playing a key role in the coverage of both the upcoming UK and US elections.

Mr Johnson has earned millions of pounds since leaving office, mostly for speaking fees but also for his upcoming memoirs.

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The decision to join GB News is a coup for the TV channel, while also giving Mr Johnson a new platform to air his views and opinions.

He has made recurring interventions since leaving office on the war in Ukraine, repeatedly urging Western leaders to go further in offering support to Kyiv in its fight against Russia.

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Mr Johnson sought advice from Whitehalls appointments watchdog before taking up the job.

The Advisory Committee on Business Appointments said it did not have any particular concerns about the role.
The general secretary of the Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI), Michael Gillespie has warned that it could be difficult to introduce a blanket ban on the use of mobile phones in schools.

It was obvious that there are issues with mobile phones, he told RTE radios Morning Ireland. If they're banned, it will reduce cyberbullying, the inappropriate use of social media in schools. And it would reduce distractions and enhance social interaction between students.

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So there are advantages, but there's also disadvantages.

A ban would be difficult to introduce as there, were lots of schools that do not have digital devices, which could lead to students missing educational opportunities, he said.

Smartphones can be a valuable educational tool. There's lots of access to a wealth of information, educational apps, and therefore there's a lack of digital literacy if you don't have a device.

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"So schools that have devices have an advantage here, and not all schools have devices. So this is where you've got this equity issue.

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There was a digital strategy to 2027 introduced with supposedly 200 million available, our Principals and Deputy Principals Association just wrote to the minister looking for that to be reinstated because all that was ever paid and that was the first 50 million.

"We need, in conjunction with any ban, we need to make sure there is equity, that all students across the board have access to these devices. Because it's really important for educational opportunities, for digital literacy that everybody has access to something.

A school by school approach would work, said Mr Gillespie. Schools that have digital devices have an advantage already and parents buy into it. It's very important that everybody buys into it, including the students.

"So that's why I would say they have it as part of their code of positive behaviour. And as I said, parents can buy into it. But as I said, the key thing here is that we're not disadvantaging anybody because of the lack of digital devices in schools.

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Mr Gillespie said he was not against a blanket ban, but it needed to be introduced in conjunction with the previously promised digital strategy.

It would be good if a ban came in because it would give it a statutory function. So schools will be in a stronger position where there is difficulties. So we will be in support of it, but only if there's equality across the system.
Leo Varadkar has said it was essential to not lose focus on the war in Ukraine as global attention focuses on the Israel-Palestine conflict.

The Taoiseach was speaking ahead of a two-day meeting of the EUs 27 leaders in Brussels on Friday.

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Mr Varadkar said on the first day of the summit that some countries wanted attention to be drawn away from the Russian invasion of Ukraine and towards the threat of an escalating conflict in the Middle East.

Because of all the other things that are happening in the world, not least in the Middle East, itd be very easy to lose focus on the war in Ukraine, and it is essential that we dont do that, he told reporters on Friday.

We need to continue, if not continue, double down on  our support for Ukraine, in terms of political, military, financial and other support.

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He said European leaders will also discuss migration, but there is no expectation of any new conclusions.

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He added: We have a very strong view that Ukraine has a right to defend its sovereignty, its independence, its democracy.

If we dont stop (Vladimir) Putin in Ukraine, he wont stop there.

So it is a threat to all of us and Ireland will continue with support for Ukraine until victory.

His comments come as the Government debate on how to change their offering to the thousands of Ukrainians fleeing the war and arriving in Ireland.

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As of this month, 96,338 Ukrainian refugees have arrived in Ireland since the start of the war in February 2022.

The Government has said that as a further 30-50,000 are expected to arrive in the next year, it must change the current open-ended accommodation it is offering, and potentially reduce entitlements to social welfare supports.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar (left) and Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe (Brian Lawless/PA)

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There were disagreements at Cabinet this week after it was proposed a three-month limit would be placed on the period the state would be obliged to provide accommodation to Ukrainians.

Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe has said any change to state provisions for Ukrainian refugees must be sustainable, while cautioning that no decision had yet been taken.

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The minister, who is attending the EU summit in Brussels in his capacity as president of the Eurogroup of Eurozone finance ministers, said cabinet would come to a decision soon.

This is an issue thats already been discussed at many different levels within government, its been discussed a number of times in the Ukraine cabinet sub-committee, and we regularly discuss policy issues in relation to migration and our support for the people of Ukraine who are facing this terrible war and the discussion that happened in cabinet earlier in the week is just part of that deliberative process, he said.

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So Id expect that it will conclude soon.

The Government has not made a decision on that.

This is a complex matter.

The Irish people, the Irish state have shown a remarkable ability to support nearly 100,000 people that have come to our country in the last two years.

We just need to consider how we can continue to do this in the future and do so in a way that is sustainable.

Government hasnt made the decision on the matter.

Were aware of the many consequences of any decision that we make.

And Id expect that in the next few weeks the matter will be considered again, he said.
A man who violently sexually assaulted his former sister-in-law in a prolonged and terrifying ordeal in her bed, during which he threatened to stab her 50 times, has been jailed for nine years.

The 41-year-old man, who can't be named to protect the anonymity of his victim, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to one count of aggravated sexual assault of the woman at her Dublin home on July 16th 2021. It is a charge that carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

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The court heard the man entered his former sister-in-law's bedroom at around 2am on the morning in question and subjected her to a prolonged and violent sexual assault over the subsequent five hours.

Sentencing the man on Friday, Ms Justice Melanie Greally noted that during the terrifying ordeal, the man repeatedly sexually assaulted the woman, including digitally penetrating her on multiple occasions to the point that she sustained internal injuries.

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He was armed with a metal object which was described as a turkey baster, and he threatened to stab her 50 times if she did not comply with his demands, the court heard.

He physically assaulted the woman by choking, pulling, pushing, grabbing and turning (her) with force, Ms Justice Melanie Greally said. At times she struggled to breathe. He pushed the turkey baster against her body during the assault.

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The woman made every effort to resist the man, which further enraged him, the court heard. He took her phone when she tried to call for help. She eventually managed to escape her home at 7.30am and was discovered by a neighbour.

She was taken to a sexual assault treatment unit where she was found to have bruising and abrasions consistent with a sexual and physical assault.

In her victim impact statement, the woman said she is a shadow of the person she used to be, and she has withdrawn from all forms of physical activity. She suffers from panic attacks and is in a perpetual state of fear and anxiety.

Ms Justice Greally noted the woman is a long way from putting this offence behind her.

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The court heard the man is originally from the Dominican Republic. He has no previous convictions. The court heard he was working for a tech company at the time of the offence and has two children, including one child with his victim's sister.

The court heard the man's guilty plea was accepted by the prosecution on a full facts basis. He has been in custody since July 2022 and has stated he intends to return to the Dominican Republic upon his release.

Ms Justice Greally noted the aggravating factors in the case included the prolonged nature of the offence, the multiplicity of sexual violations, the persistent and extreme level of abuse, the threats to kill and the restriction of the woman's liberty.

She set a headline sentence of 14 years, before taking mitigating factors into account including the man's lack of previous criminal offending and his guilty plea.

She handed down a sentence of 10 and a half years and suspended the final 18 months on a number of conditions, including that the man leave the jurisdiction within seven days of his release from custody, and that he not return to Ireland for a period of 30 years.
Micheal Martin has said unionism should have claimed victory on the Windsor Framework.

The Tanaiste also told the BBC that the majority of what the DUP was trying to achieve was awarded in the Framework.

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The devolved government in Northern Ireland has not been operational for over a year due to the DUPs boycott of power-sharing institutions in protest against post-Brexit trading arrangements.

Unionist parties including the DUP expressed concern that the initial post-Brexit trade deal, the Protocol, created a border in the Irish Sea by implementing checks on good travelling between Northern Ireland and mainland UK.

The Windsor Framework, introduced by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, sought to alleviate these concerns through the creation of a red lane, green lane system to minimise checks on goods coming from mainland UK to Northern Ireland not intended for further travel into the EU.

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The DUP declined to return to government following the Windsor Framework announcement and is currently in negotiations with the British government to seek further legislative assurances of Northern Irelands trading position within the UK.

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DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson (PA)

Mr Martin said the DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson wanted to return to government, but should have done so after the Windsor Framework was announced.

I take in good faith Jeffrey Donaldsons commitment that he wants the executive and the assembly back, he said.

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I think the Windsor agreement was a major milestone, I think actually unionism should have claimed victory on the Windsor agreement.

Much of what they campaigned for, the vast majority of what they campaigned for was delivered in the Windsor agreement.

Asked if he believed it was a mistake by Mr Donaldson not to endorse the Windsor Framework, Mr Martin said I do.

I think it was a missed opportunity because things were provided for in the Windsor agreement that unionism was told couldnt be provided for two years ago, he said.

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During a visit to Belfast in August, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said if Stormont was not operational by autumn that it would be time to consider alternatives or plan-B.

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Mr Martin said that the Irish government would work with Northern Ireland parties and the British government in exploring next steps.

There is no specific plan B there and I think the use of the phrase plan B is not the most elegant of phrases to characterise this, he said.

But lets be clear that if the institutions arent back, that is fairly fundamental in terms of the Good Friday Agreement, and I think it will mean that the British and Irish governments will have to engage, and with the parties involved, in terms of next steps.
The United States and China have disagreements and need "in-depth" and "comprehensive" dialogue to reduce misunderstandings and stabilize ties, China's foreign minister, Wang Yi, said on Thursday, kicking off a long-anticipated visit to Washington.

Standing next to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Wang said the two countries share important common interests and challenges that they need to resolve together.

"Therefore, China and the United States need to have dialogue. Not only should we resume dialogue, the dialogue should be in-depth and comprehensive," Wang said, speaking through an interpreter.

Dialogue would help reduce misunderstandings, help stabilize the relationship and "return it to the track of healthy, stable and sustainable development," he said.

Blinken responded: "I agree with what the foreign minister said."

Before Wang spoke, Blinken had said he looked forward to constructive talks with his Chinese counterpart.

Wang's three-day visit is the latest in a flurry of diplomatic engagements between the two strategic rivals as they seek to manage their differences to avoid conflict. The trip primarily is to prepare for an expected summit between President Joe Biden and President Xi Jinping in November.

The Israel-Hamas conflict has added a fresh dynamic to the testy relationship of the superpowers, and Washington is hoping Beijing can use its influence with Iran to prevent an escalation into a wider war in the Middle East.

Wang is expected to meet with U.S. national security advisor Jake Sullivan on Friday. He is also expected to speak with Biden during his visit to the White House, although it is unclear how substantial their interaction will be.

The Biden administration's priority with Beijing has been to prevent intense competition between the two largest economies and disagreements on a host of issues - including trade, Taiwan and the South China Sea - from veering into conflict.

However, while both Beijing and Washington have spoken of looking for areas where they can work together, and Xi on Wednesday said China was willing to cooperate on global challenges, experts do not expect immediate progress.

Policy analysts in China and the U.S. say both sides share an interest in averting a wider war in the Middle East and that China, as a major oil purchaser, could exert considerable influence on Iran. Whether it will remains to be seen.

"The Chinese certainly have an interest in preventing a direct U.S.-Iranian confrontation, as they are major oil consumers and that would spike prices," said Jon Alterman, head of the Middle East program at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"Still, the Chinese are unlikely to do any heavy lifting here. I expect they'll want a seat at the table when the Israel-Gaza struggle gets resolved, but they don't feel much need or ability to hasten resolution."

Shi Yinhong, professor of international relations at Renmin University of China, said Beijing exerting its influence over Iran was "almost the only serious and practical U.S. expectation of China on the Middle East situation."

However Shi added: "The U.S. position on Iran is far from acceptable to China and vice versa. Mutual compromise on this issue could be too limited and small to be of any significance."

Wang's visit to Washington comes after several top U.S. officials, including Blinken, visited Beijing in the past several months.

Analysts expect Wang's talks to focus on preparations for an anticipated meeting between Biden and Xi on the sidelines of the summit of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) countries in San Francisco from Nov. 11 to 17. It would be Biden and Xi's first in-person meeting since a summit in Bali last November.

The two sides go into APEC from different economic perspectives, with economic policy analysts saying the U.S. has weathered challenging global conditions after the COVID-19 pandemic somewhat better than China.

U.S. and Chinese officials held a virtual meeting on Monday on macroeconomic developments.

U.S. officials said Taiwan and the South and East China Seas, where they accused Beijing of "destabilizing and dangerous actions" against rival territorial claimants, would also be on the agenda. Re-establishing military-to-military ties with China remains a top priority to avoid unintended conflict, they said. (Reuters)
There is not enough time to hear a fresh inquest into the deaths of nine people in Loughgall in 1987 before the cut-off date imposed by the UK governments new legacy legislation a senior judge has said.

However Mr Justice McAlinden, who is the coroner in the case, ruled that preparation work should continue, noting legal challenges to the legislation and a potential Westminster election next year.

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The nine men were shot by the SAS in the Co Armagh village in 1987 as an IRA unit carried out an attack on a police station.

Eight had been among the IRA unit, while civilian Anthony Hughes, who was travelling through the village in a car, was also shot dead.

The eight-man IRA unit killed in a shoot out with SAS soldiers following the bombing of the Loughgall RUC station, County Armagh, in May 1987, (clockwise from top left) Gerard OCallaghan, 29, Antony Gormley, 25, James Lynagh, 32, Eugene Kelly, 25, Declan Arthurs, 21, Patrick McKerney, 32, Seamus Donnelly, 21 and Patrick Kelly, 25. Photo: Archives/PA.

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The Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act, which received royal assent earlier this year despite widespread opposition, will halt future civil cases and inquests which have not concluded by May 1st 2024.

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Following that date cases are to be passed to the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (Icrir), led by former Northern Ireland Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan.

At an inquest preliminary hearing on Friday, Justice McAlinden said it will take six months to hear the Loughgall inquest.

He said that would mean it would have to start in November, to finish by the May deadline, which he said was not possible.

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Lawyers representing the Ministry of Defence and the PSNI said work to prepare for Loughgall will have an impact on the preparation for other cases, describing a finite resource.

There are other cases listed, other cases indeed similar in nature to this that are listed and stand a prospect of being completed by May 1st, said Peter Coll KC, acting for the MoD.

Mr Justice McAlinden said the court has to be aware of the risk of imposing unachievable burdens upon state agencies, and potentially interfering with the successful completion of other cases.

He described a delicate balancing exercise between the need to proceed with the investigation until it is prevented from doing so, while ensuring that any direction does not sabotage the prospects of other case.

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Concluding, he said work needs to continue.

He said the state bodies need to reflect on what can be done, and provide a business plan of what can be done, to ensure there is some level of resourcing, so that meaningful progress can be made.

The state agencies should not simply sit on their hands and wait for that date (May 1 2024) to expire, he said.

The state agencies should, in the view of this court, take steps to ensure that some meaningful progress is made.

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Mr Justice McAlinden also said there is no guarantee that date will remain cast in stone, in light of legal challenges and an election next year.

In those circumstances, to permit the downing of tools at this stage would be an abdication of this courts responsibility to ensure that these deaths are investigated and to ensure there is meaningful progress in the investigation of this matter, he said.

He directed that the MoD and PSNI come back within six weeks with proposals and business plans to ensure that in light of their other commitments, some meaningful progress can be made in relation to the Public Interest Immunity (PII) issues.

He added: One cannot at this stage foresee the possible outworkings of such progress, but if such progress can benefit the families in terms of their quest for the truth in respect to these killings, can possibly inform the potential involvement of Sir Declan Morgans body, can possibly assist in relation to the civil claim which is ongoing, I think those are all matters which the court can take into account rather than limiting utility to the issue of whether the inquest can be completed.

Another review hearing is set to take place on December 14th, which is also set to look at an ongoing civil case.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said that a UK government minister is absolutely entitled to express his opinions after suggesting that a super majority should be needed in a poll on Irish unity.

Northern Ireland Office minister Steve Baker told the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly (BIPA) that the Brexit referendum probably should have been a supermajority of at least 60 per cent.

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He then cautioned against a 50 per cent plus one result in any potential Irish unification vote.

The UK government has since clarified that this does not represent a change on its position towards an Irish unity referendum.

Mr Varadkar said although a 50 plus one majority wouldnt be desirable, he questioned what would happen if there was a consistent majority in favour of change.

Mr Varadkar, who has said previously that he believed there would be a referendum on Irish unity within his lifetime, also said it shouldnt be held any time soon.

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Mr Varadkar said it would be a divisive process, and said there is not enough talk about convincing British people in Northern Ireland that a united Ireland would be a warm home for them.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has previously said he thinks there will be an Irish unity vote in his lifetime (PA)

Speaking in Brussels on Friday, the Taoiseach said: I know on occasions people have even questioned my right to have an opinion. I do have an opinion on these things, Steve Baker does too.

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I totally respect that and would offer no criticism of the fact that hes thinking about these things and expressing views.

I understand the argument in favour of a supermajority. You know, 50% plus one would not be the most desirable outcome, we would much rather see a convincing majority for unification if and when a border poll comes.

I dont think the time is right for that. I think its quite distant, in fact, for reasons Ive explained in the past.

I suppose the difficulty with a supermajority is how long could you keep the status quo in place, if consistently, a majority of people didnt want that status quo?

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Mr Varadkar said that a huge amount of work is needed ahead of a referendum on Irish unity.

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The reason why I dont think its a good idea at the moment is the indications are that it would be defeated, and it would also be divisive, the Fine Gael leader said.

And thats why the focus has to be on getting the Good Friday Agreement working again, and institutions up and running.

Ireland 'You dream too much or will live to 100': Taoiseac... Read More

We see all around the world what happens when important referendums fall. I remember the referendum on an Australian republic 25 years ago, pretty far away, was defeated; independence in Quebec, for example in Scotland.

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I think having a referendum on such an important matter that you may not win is fraught with risk: defeat, division.

And if were going to win a referendum on that matter, a huge amount of work has to be done to convince the British people in Northern Ireland, those who have a unionist/loyalist/Protestant/British identity, that theyre welcome, that theyre wanted, that a united Ireland would be a warm home for them, and theres not enough talk about that, quite frankly.
Another eight trucks carrying food, medicine and water are expected to cross into the Gaza Strip on Friday, a senior United Nations official said, as a combination of technical, political and security issues were hindering deliveries.

"We have gotten in approximately 74 trucks. We're expecting another eight or so today," Lynn Hastings, the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, told reporters in Geneva.

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Hastings said detailed negotiations were taking place with Israel in a bid to secure more humanitarian crossings in the densely populated enclave, which has been hit by unrelenting air strikes that have killed thousands in response to surprise attacks by Hamas gunmen on October 7th.

"In addition to the technical issues and the security issues, there are political issues as well," Hastings said. "And there's a certain amount of pressure on the government of Israel in terms of its domestic politics."

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There is still no agreement to get fuel into Gaza, and the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency has said the absence of fuel was jeopardising life-saving humanitarian operations there.

Officials are also grappling with the issue of deciding how to distribute the scant aid.

"We are aware of the 1,000 patients that require dialysis and over 100 children and babies that are in incubators, so we do our best to try and make the prioritisation in accordance with the greatest needs," Hastings said.
Vicky Pattison has revealed she felt embarrassed when her premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) was initially dismissed by medical professionals.

The former Geordie Shore star, 35, appeared before the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee last week alongside BBC Breakfast presenter Naga Munchetty as part of its inquiry into womens reproductive health to discuss her experience.

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Appearing on ITVs Good Morning Britain on Thursday, she said the disorder can cause her to feel despair, chronic fatigue, crippling anxiety and suicidal thoughts.

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Symptoms of PMDD are similar to PMS (premenstrual syndrome) but are much more intense and can have a much greater negative impact on your daily activities and quality of life, according to the NHS website.

Pattison told GMB: We all put so much faith in medical professionals and I was completely shocked to be treated the way I was.

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Its so indoctrinated in me that theyre right and they know whats wrong and if theyre saying theres nothing then evidently there isnt.

So when I went and explained what was wrong  and was told, Its just PMS, every other woman in the world is going through it, theyre just not making as much of a fuss as you  I felt embarrassed and I felt weak that they were able to cope, all these other brilliant, shiny, strong women, and I couldnt.

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She said she experiences her symptoms for around 10 days a month and it leaves only hopelessness and despair.

Vicky Pattison has been calling on the NHS to 'take women seriously' after her symptoms of pre-menstrual dysphoric disorder were dismissed.



On the weeks leading up to her period she would often suffer with constant fatigue, insomnia and at times suicidal thoughts. pic.twitter.com/RuaT1ABDne  Good Morning Britain (@GMB) October 26, 2023 Advertisement

Its just a constant cycle and, for me although some people can have different symptoms, it was despair, hopelessness chronic fatigue, crippling anxiety, and in some of the darker moments, it was suicidal thoughts, she added.

The TV star said that due to the symptoms it can be misdiagnosed as depression, which is what happened to her at first and she was offered antidepressants.

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Pattison said she would have no problem taking antidepressants if that was the correct diagnosis but emphasised that her case was different.

She said: I love my life, Im very fortunate, Im mentally strong and all the rest of it. This is just 10 days of the month.

I dont think its too much to ask for women suffering with PMDD to be treated for that rather than depression, because they are different.

Naga Munchetty and Vicky Pattison appearing before the Women and Equalities Committee (House of Commons/UK Parliament/PA)

Pattison spoke about her experiences to the Women and Equalities Committee last Wednesday, telling them that after visiting various doctors around the country who put it down to PMS, she finally received a diagnosis after turning to private healthcare.

The TV star and Munchetty, who shared a similar experience, told the MPs women must be properly listened to in the health service when they are expressing concerns about pain.

Pattison said she was experiencing a week of PMDD fog when she appeared before the committee, which made her a nervous wreck, but added that she felt more confident talking on the ITV breakfast programme on Thursday as the symptoms had lifted.

The reality star added that she is trying a combination contraceptive pill at the moment which she hopes will alleviate her symptoms.

For mental health support, contact the Samaritans on 116 123, email them at jo@samaritans.org, or visit samaritans.org to find your nearest branch.
Chinas top diplomat is meeting high-level US officials, possibly including President Joe Biden, on a visit to Washington that could help stabilise US-China ties by facilitating a summit between the American leader and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

Wang Yi, the Chinese foreign minister, met US secretary of state Antony Blinken on Thursday afternoon, shortly after he landed for the three-day visit and quickly raised hopes that the relationship can be steadied.

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Before going into their closed-door meeting, Mr Wang said China would seek consensus and cooperation to push the relationship as soon as possible back to the track of healthy, stable and sustainable development.

Before the meeting, American officials said they would press Mr Wang on the importance of China stepping up its role on the world stage if it wants to be considered a responsible major international player.

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Mr Blinken met the Chinese leader earlier this year (AP)

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The US has been disappointed with China over its support for Russia in the war against Ukraine and its relative silence on the Israel-Hamas war.

China should use whatever ability it has as an influential power to urge calm in the Middle East, said US state department spokesman Matthew Miller.

We know China has relationships with a number of countries in the region, and we would urge them to use those relationships, the lines of communication they have, to urge calm and stability.

American officials believe the Chinese have considerable leverage with Iran, which is a major backer of Hamas.

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In a readout after the meeting, the US state department said the two men addressed areas of difference and areas of cooperation, while Mr Blinken reiterated that the United States will continue to stand up for our interests and values and those of our allies and partners.

Chinas foreign ministry said: The two sides had an in-depth exchange of views on China-US relations and issues of common concern in a constructive atmosphere.

Mr Wang is scheduled to meet again on Friday with Mr Blinken as well as national security adviser Jake Sullivan. They are expected to urge China to play a constructive role in both the Israel-Hamas and Russia-Ukraine wars.

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It is not yet clear if Mr Wang will meet Mr Biden. The diplomatic practice of reciprocity suggests it is likely, since Mr Blinken met Mr Xi when he visited China in June.

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The bilateral meeting took place at the US state department in Washington (AP)

Neither side has confirmed whether Mr Biden and Mr Xi will meet next month on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders gathering in San Francisco.

But Mr Wangs trip indicates the likelihood is extremely high, said Scott Kennedy, senior adviser and trustee chair in Chinese business and economics at the Washington-based think tank Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

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His visit is most likely about nailing down the agenda and negotiating potential deliverables, Mr Kennedy said.

The Chinese president last came to the US in 2017, when former President Donald Trump hosted him at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

Mr Biden, who took office in 2021, has yet to host Mr Xi on American soil. The two men last met in Bali, Indonesia, in November 2022, on the sidelines of the Group of 20 meeting of leading rich and developing nations.

The US-China relationship began to sour in 2018 when the Trump administration slapped hefty tariffs on Chinese goods worth 50 billion dollars (41.3 billion).

It deteriorated further over a range of issues, including rights abuses, the South China Sea, Taiwan, technology and the Covid-19 pandemic.
US congressman Dean Phillips of Minnesota will launch a long-shot challenge to US president Joe Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination on Friday, seizing on Mr Biden's lacklustre approval ratings and voter wariness over his age, according to two people familiar with his plans.

The 54-year-old millionaire businessman and co-founder of a gelato company is expected to hold an event outside New Hampshire's Statehouse in Concord on Friday and file for its primary inside the building in the secretary of state's office before embarking on a bus tour.

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Mr Phillips, a three-term House Democrat from a swing district, is unlikely to affect Mr Bidens chance of securing the party's nomination, given Mr Biden's deep resources, official party support and reshaping of the party's nominating contest calendar to help fend off any early challengers.

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Mr Phillips has already missed the Nevada filing deadline and will have to follow his New Hampshire performance with a race against Mr Biden in South Carolina, a state with a large Black voter population that set Mr Biden on the path to victory in 2020.

Even so, Democrats are wary of any challenge to Mr Biden that could dent the party's chances against likely Republican nominee Donald Trump.

I've known Dean for 10 years. He's a friend, someone I deeply respect and admire, but I have a deep disagreement with him on this," said Ken Martin, head of the Minnesota Democratic Party.

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He added, "I don't understand the political calculus on this. I don't understand the how, I don't even understand his why. It doesn't make any sense to me that he would spend all of this political capital, frankly, all of his political capital, on a wild goose chase that isn't going to result in him being the president of the United States."

Both Mr Phillips and the Biden campaign did not respond to requests for comment.

Mr Phillips entry into the race will come only days after the Biden campaign officially informed the New Hampshire Democratic Party the president will not submit his name to appear on the states primary ballot because the state didn't comply with Mr Biden's demand that New Hampshire give up its first-in-the-nation primary status in favour of South Carolina.

The Democratic Party is expected to penalise New Hampshire by robbing it of all its delegates, leaving the winner no closer to securing the delegates needed to win the party nomination.

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Top New Hampshire Democrats expect a write-in campaign to kick off on behalf of Mr Biden.

Opinion polls show Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents want someone other than Mr Biden, 80, to be the party's nominee, citing concerns about his age.

Mr Phillips has said the polls show voters want an alternative. In August, Mr Phillips said that he wasnt planning on running at that time, and was tired of Mr Trump's fearmongering, but thought Mr Biden should step aside.

"I would like to see Joe Biden, a wonderful and remarkable man, pass the torch, cement this extraordinary legacy," he said on NBCs Meet the Press.
A former KGB double agent can take legal action against the UKs National Crime Agency (NCA) after accusing it of wrongly disclosing his new identity, England's High Court has ruled.

Boris Karpichkov  his former name  alleges he received death threats after his new name and address were given to the Latvian authorities by the UKs law enforcement agency.

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The ex-KGB major maintains he is a dead man walking, claiming the Russian state gained knowledge of his new identity and that threats written in Russian were sent to his home.

In a judgment on Friday, Master Victoria McCloud ruled against the NCAs bid to strike out the claim or request a summary judgment, and said Mr Karpichkovs case, subject to any appeal, can proceed.

Mr Karpichkov  whose current name cannot be made public and did not appear in the ruling  is claiming damages for breaches under the Data Protection Act 2018 and for misuse of his private information.

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He worked for the Russian security services for many years and within the Latvian security services before moving to the UK in 1998 as an asylum seeker with his family, eventually being granted British citizenship and a new identity.

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The ruling showed that in a previous British court hearing he was found to be in a unique position to confirm past collaboration by high-ranking Latvian officials with the KGB.

He was also likely to be considered a threat to the Russian intelligence services by virtue of his work as a double agent for the Latvian LSP and against Russian state interests and by his ongoing outspoken criticism of Russia..  (his) life has been at risk since these allegations were first brought

Mr Karpichkov alleges that in 2006-7, before the disclosures in the case, he may have also been the victim of a possible chemical or biological attempt on his life.

Latvia attempted to extradite him from the UK, but the High Court quashed a decision agreeing to this, ruling his life would be in danger from underworld/rogue government elements if he were returned or extradited.

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In 2018 amid a second extradition attempt, the NCA gave the Latvian authorities Mr Karpichkovs new identity, after which he alleges he began to receive anonymous threats, and in 2019 they received his address, the judgment said.

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The NCA argues it had to disclose Mr Karpichkovs new name and address, which happened pre-Brexit, due to laws governing exchange of information between EU states relating to criminal suspects.

In dismissing the NCAs application, Master McCloud said it was arguable that the NCA should have considered whether the disclosures were truly required by law after taking into account Human Rights and EU Charter provisions.
Israel has knocked out communications in the Gaza Strip in intensified attacks, largely cutting off its 2.3 million people from contact with each other and the outside world, as the military said it was expanding ground operations in the territory.

The militarys announcement signalled it was moving closer to an all-out invasion of Gaza, where it has vowed to crush the ruling Hamas militant group after its incursion in southern Israel three weeks ago.

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Explosions from continuous air strikes lit up the sky over Gaza City for hours after nightfall.

The Palestinian telecom provider, Paltel, said the bombardment caused complete disruption of internet, mobile phone and landline services.

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Already plunged into darkness after most electricity was cut off weeks ago, Palestinians were thrown into isolation, huddling in homes and shelters with food and water supplies running out.

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Relatives outside Gaza panicked after their messaging chats with families inside suddenly went dead and calls stopped going through.

I was so scared this was going to happen, said Wafaa Abdul Rahman, director of a feminist organisation based in the West Bank city of Ramallah. She said she had not heard for hours from family in central Gaza.

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Weve been seeing these horrible things and massacres when its live on TV, so now what will happen when theres a total blackout? she said, referring to scenes of families that have been crushed in homes by air strikes over the past weeks.

An Israeli man evacuate an elderly woman from a building struck by a rocket fired from Gaza, in Tel Aviv (AP)

Lynn Hastings, UN humanitarian coordinator for the occupied territories, posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that without phone lines and internet, hospitals and aid operations would be unable to operate.

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The Red Crescent said it could not contact its medical teams and residents could no longer call ambulances, meaning rescuers would have to chase the sound of explosions to find the wounded.

International aid groups said they were only able to reach a few staff using satellite phones.

The Committee to Protect Journalists expressed alarm, saying the world is losing a window into the reality of the conflict. It warned that the information vacuum can be filled with deadly propaganda, dis- and misinformation.

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Today I spoke with Israeli Minister of Defense Gallant. We discussed the need to facilitate humanitarian aid into Gaza and to ensure the protection of civilians. I expressed the U.S. commitment to deterring escalation, and our hope for the release of the remaining hostages.  Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III (@SecDef) October 25, 2023

Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said ground forces were expanding their activity on Friday evening in Gaza and acting with great force  to achieve the objectives of the war.

Israel said its strikes target Hamas fighters and infrastructure and that the militants operate from among civilians, putting them in danger.

Israel has amassed hundreds of thousands of troops along the border with Gaza ahead of an expected ground offensive.

Earlier on Friday, the military said ground forces conducted their second hours-long incursion inside Gaza in as many days, striking dozens of militant targets over the past 24 hours.

The Palestinian death toll in Gaza has soared past 7,300, more than 60% of them children and women, according to the territorys Health Ministry. A blockade on Gaza has meant dwindling supplies, and the UN warned that its aid operation helping hundreds of thousands of people was crumbling amid near-depleted fuel.

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(PA Graphics)

More than 1,400 people were killed in Israel during Hamas October 7 attack, according to the Israeli government, and at least 229 hostages were taken into Gaza.

Palestinian militants have fired thousands of rockets into Israel, including one that hit a residential building in Tel Aviv on Friday, wounding four people.

The overall number of deaths far exceeds the combined toll of all four previous Israel-Hamas wars, estimated at around 4,000.

Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told foreign reporters that Israel expects a long and difficult ground offensive into Gaza soon.

It will take a long time to dismantle Hamass vast network of tunnels, he said, adding that he expected a lengthy phase of lower-intensity fighting as Israel destroys pockets of resistance.

Palestinians carry an injured man out of a damaged building (Abed Khaled/AP)

His comments pointed to a potentially gruelling and open-ended new phase of the war after three weeks of relentless bombardment.

Israel has said it aims to crush Hamass rule in Gaza and its ability to threaten Israel.

But how Hamass defeat will be measured and an invasions end game remain unclear. Israel says it does not intend to rule the tiny territory of 2.3 million Palestinians but not who it expects to govern  even as Mr Gallant suggested a long-term insurgency could ensue.

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The conflict has threatened to ignite a wider war across the region.

Arab nations  including US allies and ones that have reached peace deals or normalised ties with Israel  have raised increasing alarm over a potential ground invasion, likely to bring even higher casualties amid urban fighting.

Jordanian foreign minister, Ayman Safadi warned on X that the outcome will be a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions for years to come.
Israeli forces backed by fighter jets and drones have carried out a second ground raid in Gaza in as many days and struck targets on the outskirts of Gaza City.

The operation comes as the Israeli military prepares for a widely expected ground invasion of the Hamas-ruled territory.

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Meanwhile, US war planes struck targets in eastern Syria that the Pentagon said were linked to Irans Revolutionary Guard after a string of attacks on US forces by Iran-backed fighters, adding to the regional tensions fuelled by the three-week-old Gaza war.

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The Palestinian death toll has soared past 7,000 as Israel has carried out waves of devastating air strikes in response to a bloody Hamas incursion into southern Israel on October 7.

The health ministry in Gaza, which tracks the toll, released a detailed list of names and ID numbers on Thursday. The toll includes more than 2,900 minors and more than 1,500 women.

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The overall number of deaths far exceeds the combined toll of all four previous wars between Israel and Hamas, estimated at around 4,000.



A Palestinian mourns relatives killed in an Israeli bombardment on the Gaza Strip (AP)

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More than 1,400 people in Israel, mostly civilians, were killed during the initial Hamas attack, according to the Israeli government.

Hamas is holding at least 224 captives inside Gaza, including men, women, children and older adults.

The air strikes have flattened entire neighbourhoods, causing a level of death and destruction unseen in the last four wars between Israel and Hamas.

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More than one million people have fled their homes, with many heeding Israeli orders to evacuate to the south, despite continuing Israeli strikes across the sealed-off territory.



Israelis take cover as a siren warns of incoming rockets fired from the Gaza Strip (AP)

The humanitarian crisis sparked by the war and the Israeli siege has sparked protests across the region, and more demonstrations are expected later on Friday after weekly Muslim prayers.

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The military said ground forces raided inside Gaza, striking dozens of militant targets over the past 24 hours. It said aircraft and artillery bombed targets in Shijaiyah, an area on the outskirts of Gaza City that was the scene of a bloody urban battle in the 2014 Gaza war.

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The military also said the soldiers left the territory without suffering any casualties. It had reported an earlier raid into northern Gaza on Thursday, saying ground forces battled militants and struck anti-tank missile firing positions in an operation that lasted hours.

The damage to Gaza from nearly three weeks of bombardment showed in satellite photos of several locations taken before the war and again in recent days.





OPERATIONAL UPDATE: The IDF conducted strikes on Hamas terrorist targets over the last 24 hours.



IDF ground troops, fighter jets and UAVs struck:



 Anti-tank missile launch sites

 Command & control centers

 Hamas terrorist operatives



The troops exited the area and no pic.twitter.com/yNdiY6XTby  Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 27, 2023

Entire rows of residential buildings simply disappear in the photos, reduced to smears of dust and rubble.

A complex of 13 high-rises by the sea was pounded to dust near Gaza Citys al-Shati refugee camp, leaving only a few tottering sections of facade.

Just down the street, hardly anything remained in what had been an area of low-built homes on winding lanes, according to the photos by Maxar Technologies.

The military said it only strikes militant targets and accuses Hamas of operating among civilians in an attempt to protect its fighters.

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The Israeli military said an air strike killed one of two masterminds of the October 7 massacre, Shadi Barud, the head of Hamas intelligence unit.

Palestinian militants have fired thousands of rockets into Israel since the war began.





Today I spoke with Israeli Minister of Defense Gallant. We discussed the need to facilitate humanitarian aid into Gaza and to ensure the protection of civilians. I expressed the U.S. commitment to deterring escalation, and our hope for the release of the remaining hostages.  Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III (@SecDef) October 25, 2023

Hamas military wing said Israeli bombardment has so far killed about 50 of the hostages.

There was no immediate comment from Israeli officials, who have denied previous, similar claims.

The conflict has threatened to ignite a wider war across the region. Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed ally of Hamas in Lebanon, has repeatedly traded fire with Israel along the border, and Israel has carried out air strikes targeting Iran-linked groups in Syria.

The United States has sent two aircraft carrier strike groups to the region, along with additional fighter jets and other weaponry and personnel, in part to deter Iran and its allies from entering the war on the side of Hamas.

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US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said the strikes in eastern Syria were a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against US personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on October 17.



(PA Graphics)

He said President Joe Biden directed the narrowly tailored strikes to make clear that the United States will not tolerate such attacks and will defend itself, its personnel and its interests.

He added that the operation was separate and distinct from Israels war against Hamas.

Syrian opposition activists in the area said the two locations are associated with Iranian arms shipments to militant groups in the region, and had been evacuated ahead of the strikes. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Israel has vowed to crush Hamas capacity to govern Gaza or threaten Israel again but also says it does not want to reoccupy the territory, from which it withdrew soldiers and settlers in 2005.

That could prove a daunting challenge, since Hamas is deeply rooted in Gaza, with political and charity organisations as well as a formidable armed wing.



Palestinians look for survivors after an Israeli air strike in Rafah (AP)

Benny Gantz, a retired general and a member of Israels war cabinet, said on Thursday that any possible ground offensive would be only one stage in a long-term process that includes security, political and social aspects that will take years.

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He added: The campaign will soon ramp up with greater force.

Supplies of food, medicine and fuel for powering emergency generators in Gaza are running low. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, which provides basic services to hundreds of thousands of people, including operating schools turned into shelters, has said it may run out of fuel within days.

Gazas sole power station shut down for lack of fuel days after the start of the war, and Israel has barred all fuel deliveries, saying it believes Hamas would steal them for military purposes.

About 1.4 million of Gazas 2.3 million residents have fled their homes, with nearly half of them crowding into UN shelters.

Hundreds of thousands remain in northern Gaza, despite Israel ordering them to evacuate to the south and saying that those who remain might be considered accomplices of Hamas.
The Israeli military has said its ground forces are expanding their activity in the Gaza Strip, as the army moved closer to a full ground invasion of the besieged territory.

Daniel Hagari, the armys spokesman, said aerial attacks had been targeting Hamas tunnels and other targets.

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In addition to the attacks that we carried out in recent days, ground forces are expanding their activity this evening, he said. The IDF is acting with great force to achieve the objectives of the war.

Earlier, the countrys defence minister said Israel expects to launch a long and difficult ground offensive into Gaza soon to destroy Hamas.



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Yoav Gallant described a campaign that will require dismantling a vast network of tunnels used by the territorys militant rulers.

The defence minister spoke to a small group of foreign reporters in Tel Aviv after Israeli forces backed by fighter jets and drones carried out a second, limited ground raid into Gaza in as many days, striking the outskirts of Gaza City.

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Mr Gallant said the ground invasion that follows weeks of air strikes will take a long time, and that it would lead to another lengthy phase of lower-intensity fighting as Israel destroys pockets of resistance.

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In a sign of the rising tensions in the region, US war planes earlier struck targets in eastern Syria that the Pentagon said were linked to Irans Revolutionary Guard after a string of attacks on American forces, and two mysterious objects hit towns in Egypts Sinai Peninsula.

After three weeks of war sparked by a bloody Hamas incursion into southern Israel, the Palestinian death toll has soared past 7,300, according to officials in Gaza.



An Israeli man evacuate an elderly woman from a building struck by a rocket fired from Gaza, in Tel Aviv (AP)

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A blockade on Gaza has meant dwindling supplies of food, fuel, water and medicine, and UN and Arab leaders have called for a ceasefire to allow entry of humanitarian aid that is only trickling in.

Palestinian telecom provider Paltel said internet service in the Gaza Strip has been cut off by the Israeli bombardment.

Services were cut on Friday evening following a heavy round of Israeli air strikes that lit up the sky over the territory.

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The Palestinian Red Crescent, the main emergency service in Gaza, said it was cut off from its operations room because of the internet blackout.

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It doesnt only mean that Gaza is isolated from the world but also it means people cant connect to each other. Our emergency line is down so people are literally not able to call an ambulance, said Nebal Farsakh, a spokesperson for the organisation. We are extremely worried because we are completely cut off from our teams.

She added: That means that our emergency rescue workers are having to just follow the sound of bombardment to search for wounded people instead of arriving at a location that needs help in the fastest way possible.

On Thursday, Gazas health ministry released a detailed list of names and identification numbers of those killed, including more than 3,000 minors and more than 1,500 women.

More than 1,400 people were slain in Israel during Hamas October 7 attack, according to the Israeli government, and at least 229 hostages were taken into Gaza.

Palestinian militants have fired thousands of rockets into Israel, including one that hit a residential building in Tel Aviv on Friday, injuring four people.





Today I spoke with Israeli Minister of Defense Gallant. We discussed the need to facilitate humanitarian aid into Gaza and to ensure the protection of civilians. I expressed the U.S. commitment to deterring escalation, and our hope for the release of the remaining hostages. Advertisement  Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III (@SecDef) October 25, 2023

The overall number of deaths far exceeds the combined toll of all four previous wars between Israel and Hamas, estimated at around 4,000.

A ground invasion is expected to cause even higher casualties on both sides as Israeli forces and Hamas battle each other in dense residential areas.

Hospitals have been scrounging for fuel to run emergency generators that power incubators and other life-saving equipment after Israel cut off all fuel deliveries to Gaza at the start of the war, forcing its only power plant to shut down.

Mr Gallant said Israel believes that Hamas would confiscate any fuel that enters. He said Hamas uses generators to pump air into its hundreds of miles of tunnels, which originate in civilian areas.

He showed reporters aerial footage of what he said was a tunnel shaft built right next to a hospital. For air, they need oil. For oil, they need us, he said.

Little is known about Hamas secretive tunnels and other infrastructure, and it was not possible to independently confirm Mr Gallants claims.

Lynne Hastings, the UN aid coordinator for the Palestinian territories, declined to comment on Mr Gallants remarks, saying: We dont know what Hamas has or doesnt have.

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She added: We have been bringing fuel into Gaza in coordination with the government of Israel for decades. We know fuel is a high-risk item and are working with the Israelis to make sure what we will be using for our operations is done securely.



(PA Graphics)

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, which provides basic services to hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza, said it has been forced to ration fuel among lifesaving machines in hospitals, bakeries, and desalination plants, and only has enough for a few more days.

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, told reporters: The siege means that food, water and fuel  basic commodities  are being used to collectively punish more than two million people, among them, a majority of children and women.

Earlier on Friday, the military said ground forces raided inside Gaza, striking dozens of militant targets over the past 24 hours.

It said aircraft and artillery bombed targets in Shijaiyah, an area on Gaza Citys outskirts that was the scene of an urban battle in the 2014 Gaza war.

The military said the soldiers exited the territory without suffering any casualties. It reported an earlier, hours-long raid into northern Gaza on Thursday.

The damage to Gaza from nearly three weeks of bombardment showed in satellite photos of several locations taken before the war and again in recent days. Entire rows of residential buildings simply disappear in the photos, reduced to smears of dust and rubble.

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Palestinians carry an injured man out of a damaged building (Abed Khaled/AP)

The Israeli military says it only targets militants and accuses Hamas of operating among civilians in an attempt to protect its fighters.

The conflict has threatened to ignite a wider war across the region.

US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said that the Friday strikes in eastern Syria were a response to ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against US personnel in Iraq and Syria over the past 10 days.

He said the operation was separate from the Israel-Hamas war.

Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed ally of Hamas in Lebanon, has repeatedly traded fire with Israel along the border, and Israel has carried out air strikes targeting Iran-linked groups in Syria. The United States has sent two aircraft carrier strike groups to the region, along with additional weaponry and personnel, in part to deter Iran and its allies from entering the war.

Last week, a US Navy destroyer in the northern Red Sea shot down three cruise missiles and several drones launched toward Israel by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in northern Yemen.

About 1.4 million of Gazas 2.3 million residents have fled their homes, with nearly half of them crowding into UN shelters.

Hundreds of thousands remain in northern Gaza, despite Israel ordering them to evacuate to the south and saying that those who remain might be considered accomplices of Hamas.

Over the past week, Israel has allowed more than 80 trucks with aid enter from Egypt through the Rafah crossing, the only entry point into Gaza not controlled by Israel. But aid workers say the convoys meet only a tiny fraction of the territorys mounting humanitarian needs.
Former Premier Li Keqiang, Chinas top economic official for a decade, died Friday of a heart attack. He was 68.

Li was Chinas No. 2 leader from 2013-23 and an advocate for private business but was left with little authority after President Xi Jinping made himself the most powerful Chinese leader in decades and tightened control over the economy and society.

CCTV said Li had been resting in Shanghai recently and had a heart attack on Thursday. He died at 12:10 a.m. Friday.

Li, an English-speaking economist, was considered a contender to succeed then-Communist Party leader Hu Jintao in 2013 but was passed over in favor of Xi. Reversing the Hu eras consensus-oriented leadership, Xi centralized powers in his own hands, leaving Li and others on the partys ruling seven-member Standing Committee with little influence.

As the top economic official, Li promised to improve conditions for entrepreneurs who generate jobs and wealth. But the ruling party under Xi increased the dominance of state industry and tightened control over tech and other industries. Foreign companies said they felt unwelcome after Xi and other leaders called for economic self-reliance, expanded an anti-spying law and raided offices of consulting firms.

Li was dropped from the Standing Committee at a party congress in October 2022 despite being two years below the informal retirement age of 70.

The same day, Xi awarded himself a third five-year term as party leader, discarding a tradition under which his predecessors stepped down after 10 years. Xi filled the top party ranks with loyalists, ending the era of consensus leadership and possibly making himself leader for life. The No. 2 slot was filled by Li Qiang, the party secretary for Shanghai, who lacked Li Keqiangs national-level experience and later told reporters that his job was to do whatever Xi decided.

Li Keqiang, a former vice premier, took office in 2013 as the ruling party faced growing warnings the construction and export booms that propelled the previous decades double-digit growth were running out of steam.

Government advisers argued Beijing had to promote growth based on domestic consumption and service industries. That would require opening more state-dominated industries and forcing state banks to lend more to entrepreneurs.

Lis predecessor, Wen Jiabao, apologized at a March 2012 news conference for not moving fast enough.

In a 2010 speech, Li acknowledged challenges including too much reliance on investment to drive economic growth, weak consumer spending and a wealth gap between prosperous eastern cities and the poor countryside, home to 800 million people.

Li was seen as a possible candidate to revive then-supreme leader Deng Xiaopings market-oriented reforms of the 1980s that started Chinas boom. But he was known for an easygoing style, not the hard-driving impatience of Zhu Rongji, the premier in 1998-2003 who ignited the construction and export booms by forcing painful reforms that cut millions of jobs from state industry.

Li was believed to have supported the China 2030 report released by the World Bank and a Cabinet research body in 2012 that called for dramatic changes to reduce the dominance of state industry and rely more on market forces.

The Unirule Institute, an independent think tank in Beijing, said state industry was so inefficient that its return on equity  a broad measure of profitability  was negative 6 percent. Unirule later was shut down by Xi as part of a campaign to tighten control over information.

In his first annual policy address, Li in 2014 was praised for promising to pursue market-oriented reform, cut government waste, clean up air pollution and root out pervasive corruption that was undermining public faith in the ruling party.

Xi took away Lis decision-making powers on economic matters by appointing himself to head a party commission overseeing reform.

Xis government pursued the anti-graft drive, imprisoning hundreds of officials including former Standing Committee member Zhou Yongkang. But party leaders were ambivalent about the economy. They failed to follow through on a promised list of dozens of market-oriented changes. They increased the dominance of state-owned banks and energy and other companies.

Xis government opened some industries including electric car manufacturing to private and foreign competition. But it built up state-owned national champions and encouraged Chinese companies to use domestic suppliers instead of imports.

Borrowing by companies, households and local governments increased, pushing up debt that economists warned already was dangerously high.

Beijing finally tightened controls in 2020 on debt in real estate, one of Chinas biggest industries. That triggered a collapse in economic growth, which fell to 3 percent in 2022, the second-lowest in three decades.

Li showed his political skills but little zeal for reform as governor and later party secretary of populous Henan province in central China in 1998-2004.

Li earned the nickname Three Fires Li and a reputation for bad luck after three fatal fires struck Henan while he was there. A Christmas Day blaze at a nightclub in 2000 killed 309 people. Other officials were punished but Li emerged unscathed.

Meanwhile, provincial leaders were trying to suppress information about the spread of AIDS by a blood-buying industry in Henan.

Lis reputation for bad luck held as China suffered a series of deadly disasters during his term.

Days after he took office, a landslide on March 29, 2013, killed at least 66 miners at a gold mine in Tibet and left 17 others missing and presumed dead.

In the eastern port of Tianjin, a warehouse holding chemicals exploded Aug. 12, 2015, killing at least 116 people.

A China Eastern Airlines jetliner plunged into the ground on March 22, 2022, killing all 132 people aboard. Authorities have yet to announce a possible cause.

Li oversaw Chinas response to COVID-19, the first cases of which were detected in the central city of Wuhan. Then-unprecedented controls were imposed, shutting down most international travel for three years and access to major cities for weeks at a time.

In one of his last major official acts, Li led a Cabinet meeting that announced Nov. 11, 2022, that anti-virus controls would be relaxed to reduce disruption after the economy shrank by 2.6% in the second quarter of the year. Two weeks later, the government announced most travel and business restrictions would end the following month.

Li was born July 1, 1955, in the eastern province of Anhui and by 1976 was ruling party secretary of a commune there.

Studying law at Peking University, he was the campus secretary of the ruling partys Communist Youth League, an organization that launched the political careers of former party leaders Hu Jintao and Hu Yaobang. He was a member of the Leagues Standing Committee, a sign he was seen as future leadership material.

After serving in a series of party posts, Li received his Ph.D. in economics in 1994 from Peking University.

Following Henan, Li served as party secretary for Liaoning province in the northeast as part of a rotation through provincial posts and at ministries in Beijing that was meant to prepare leaders. He joined the party Central Committee in 2007.

Former Premier Li Keqiang, Chinas top economic official for a decade, died Friday of a heart attack. He was 68.

Li was Chinas No. 2 leader from 2013-23 and an advocate for private business but was left with little authority after President Xi Jinping made himself the most powerful Chinese leader in decades and tightened control over the economy and society.

CCTV said Li had been resting in Shanghai recently and had a heart attack on Thursday. He died at 12:10 a.m. Friday.

Li, an English-speaking economist, was considered a contender to succeed then-Communist Party leader Hu Jintao in 2013 but was passed over in favor of Xi. Reversing the Hu eras consensus-oriented leadership, Xi centralized powers in his own hands, leaving Li and others on the partys ruling seven-member Standing Committee with little influence.

As the top economic official, Li promised to improve conditions for entrepreneurs who generate jobs and wealth. But the ruling party under Xi increased the dominance of state industry and tightened control over tech and other industries. Foreign companies said they felt unwelcome after Xi and other leaders called for economic self-reliance, expanded an anti-spying law and raided offices of consulting firms.

Li was dropped from the Standing Committee at a party congress in October 2022 despite being two years below the informal retirement age of 70.

The same day, Xi awarded himself a third five-year term as party leader, discarding a tradition under which his predecessors stepped down after 10 years. Xi filled the top party ranks with loyalists, ending the era of consensus leadership and possibly making himself leader for life. The No. 2 slot was filled by Li Qiang, the party secretary for Shanghai, who lacked Li Keqiangs national-level experience and later told reporters that his job was to do whatever Xi decided.

Li Keqiang, a former vice premier, took office in 2013 as the ruling party faced growing warnings the construction and export booms that propelled the previous decades double-digit growth were running out of steam.

Government advisers argued Beijing had to promote growth based on domestic consumption and service industries. That would require opening more state-dominated industries and forcing state banks to lend more to entrepreneurs.

Lis predecessor, Wen Jiabao, apologized at a March 2012 news conference for not moving fast enough.

In a 2010 speech, Li acknowledged challenges including too much reliance on investment to drive economic growth, weak consumer spending and a wealth gap between prosperous eastern cities and the poor countryside, home to 800 million people.

Li was seen as a possible candidate to revive then-supreme leader Deng Xiaopings market-oriented reforms of the 1980s that started Chinas boom. But he was known for an easygoing style, not the hard-driving impatience of Zhu Rongji, the premier in 1998-2003 who ignited the construction and export booms by forcing painful reforms that cut millions of jobs from state industry.

Li was believed to have supported the China 2030 report released by the World Bank and a Cabinet research body in 2012 that called for dramatic changes to reduce the dominance of state industry and rely more on market forces.

The Unirule Institute, an independent think tank in Beijing, said state industry was so inefficient that its return on equity  a broad measure of profitability  was negative 6 percent. Unirule later was shut down by Xi as part of a campaign to tighten control over information.

In his first annual policy address, Li in 2014 was praised for promising to pursue market-oriented reform, cut government waste, clean up air pollution and root out pervasive corruption that was undermining public faith in the ruling party. (AP)
President Joe Biden has met Chinas foreign minister for talks that are viewed as the precursor to a potential meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping next month.

The encounter was the latest in a series of high-level contacts between the two countries as they explore the possibility of stabilising an increasingly tense relationship at a time of conflict in Ukraine and Israel.

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The White House said Mr Biden emphasised that both the United States and China need to manage competition in the relationship responsibly and maintain open lines of communication and he underscored that the United States and China must work together to address global challenges.

Mr Biden had been widely expected to talk with Wang Yi, a reciprocal action after Mr Xi met Secretary of State Antony Blinken in June.

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Mr Blinken met the Chinese leader earlier this year (AP)

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Beijing has yet to confirm if Mr Xi will travel to San Francisco for the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit next month but Mr Biden has said a meeting between the two leaders on the sidelines is possible.

The US has been disappointed with China over its support for Russia in the war against Ukraine and its relative silence on the Israel-Hamas war.

China should use whatever ability it has as an influential power to urge calm in the Middle East, said US state department spokesman Matthew Miller.

We know China has relationships with a number of countries in the region, and we would urge them to use those relationships, the lines of communication they have, to urge calm and stability.

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American officials believe the Chinese have considerable leverage with Iran, which is a major backer of Hamas.



The bilateral meeting took place at the US state department in Washington (AP)

The Chinese president last came to the US in 2017, when former president Donald Trump hosted him at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

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Mr Biden, who took office in 2021, has yet to host Mr Xi on American soil. The two men last met in Bali, Indonesia, in November 2022, on the sidelines of the Group of 20 meeting of leading rich and developing nations.

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The US-China relationship began to sour in 2018 when the Trump administration slapped hefty tariffs on Chinese goods worth 50 billion dollars (41.3 billion).

It deteriorated further over a range of issues, including rights abuses, the South China Sea, Taiwan, technology and the Covid-19 pandemic.
Sir Keir Starmer is under growing pressure to call for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas after Sadiq Khan, Andy Burnham and Anas Sarwar all broke ranks to challenge his stance on Gaza.

Party sources made clear the British Labour leader was not about to strengthen his position on Friday despite the demands from the mayors in London and Greater Manchester, and the Scottish party leader.

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Sir Keir is united with Rishi Sunak and the US in pressing for humanitarian pauses in the fighting while supporting Tel Avivs right to defend itself against the militants who launched a wave of bloodshed in Israel earlier this month.

Thousands of innocent civilians have already been killed in Israel and Gaza.



With the humanitarian crisis set to deteriorate even further, Im calling for a ceasefire.pic.twitter.com/9HPau9X9jP Advertisement  Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) October 27, 2023 Advertisement

But the Labour leader has angered MPs, including some on his frontbench, by not going further and provoked a series of resignations of Labour councillors with his since-retracted support for Israels siege of the strip which is home to more than two million Palestinians.

The scenes of destruction and the large death toll caused by Israels airstrikes on Gaza have added to the pressure, as have fears a ground invasion will provoke a wider conflict.

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Mr Khan, who became the first Muslim mayor of the capital in 2016, released a video on social media to join the international community in calling for a ceasefire.

It would stop the killing and would allow vital aid supplies to reach those who need it in Gaza, he said.

It would also allow the international community more time to prevent a protracted conflict in the region and further devastating loss of life.

A widespread military escalation will only deepen the humanitarian disaster. It will increase human suffering on all sides. No nation, including Israel, has the right to break international law.

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There have been too many innocent lives lost in Israel and Palestine.



We need a ceasefire now. pic.twitter.com/kFgcU58LAQ Advertisement  Anas Sarwar (@AnasSarwar) October 27, 2023

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Four hours later, Mr Sarwar, who in 2021 became the UKs first Muslim to lead a political party, made the same demand, with his own video.

We are all so desperate for peace and are desperate to see the end of violence, he said.

And that is why we need to see the immediate release of hostages, immediate access to humanitarian supplies, food, medicine, electricity, water, into Gaza

The immediate cessation of violence, with an end of rocket fire into and out of Gaza. And let me be clear, that means a ceasefire right now.

Mr Sarwar said there must be a proper peace process to allow a safe, secure and free Palestine and a safe, secure and free Israel.

He argued there is no justification for the collective punishment of the people of Gaza and said that withholding essential supplies is a breach of international law.

Later in the afternoon, Mr Burnham was joined by his deputy Kate Green, who served on Sir Keirs frontbench until standing down as an MP in 2021, and 10 leaders of Manchester councils in adding to the growing international calls for a ceasefire by all sides and for the hostages to be released unharmed.

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We recognise that Israel has the right to take targeted action within international law to defend itself against terror attacks and terrorist organisations and to rescue hostages, they added.

We also have profound concerns about the loss of thousands of lives in Gaza, the displacement of many more and widespread suffering through the ongoing blockade of essential goods and services. It is vital that urgent support and humanitarian aid is allowed into the area.

Shadow cabinet member Steve Reed told colleagues calling for a ceasefire he understands and empathises with them but set out why the leadership was not calling for one.

The shadow environment secretary argued that if the UK had suffered a similar atrocity our state would have sought to defend ourselves to protect our citizens by dismantling the capability of a terrorist organisation that carried it out.

That applies to Israel too, they have the right under international law to do that, he told Sky News.

Sir Keir Starmer is coming under pressure over his stance. Photo: Peter Byrne/PA.

But in taking that work, they must continue to follow international law as they carry it out, but long term, the only solution to this crisis is not going to be military.

A Labour Party spokesman issued a defence of Sir Keirs decision.

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Of course, we understand why people want to call for a ceasefire. The Palestinian people are not Hamas, and they are suffering terribly.

Thats why we support humanitarian pauses so that aid, fuel, water, electricity and medicines can urgently get to those who need it, he said.

We also have to recognise Israel was subject to a vile terrorist attack. Israel has a right and a duty to defend itself, rescue the hostages and stop Hamas from being able to carry out that sort of terrorist attack ever again.

Hamas are currently firing rockets into Israel and have built the infrastructure, including tunnels, from which to carry out further attacks, so that military operation is ongoing.

That must be done within international law and aid must get in quickly, safely, and regularly to halt a humanitarian disaster.

Sir Keir has been holding meetings within his party to soothe some of the anger, including in talks with Muslim Labour MPs in Parliament on Wednesday.

They urged him during the firm exchange to back a ceasefire, believing the British public support the move as well.

Downing Street argues that pauses, as Israel pummels Gaza with airstrikes, are needed to get evacuees out and aid in but says a ceasefire would only serve to benefit Hamas.

The British Foreign Office has been contacted by around 200 British nationals in Gaza as officials undertake complex negotiations with both Egypt and Israel to get them free.
Scores of protesters have gathered on the streets of Ukrainian cities to demand a cap of 18 months on mandatory military service, amid suggestions of possible Ukrainian and international weariness over the 20-month war.

Both Ukraine and Russia are striving to keep their military momentum, though neither side is able to land a knockout blow, and the fighting is expected to drag on into next year.

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The 18-month service limit in Ukraine would be the same maximum as before the war. It is currently open-ended for draftees.

The protesters, who are part of a loose national network, want the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraines parliament, to consider possible alternatives on service time.



Liliia, who waits for her father to return from the frontline, holds a poster reading: Bring my father back. Demobilisation! (AP)

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Around 100 wives, mothers, children and relatives of Ukrainian soldiers attended a demonstration in the capital, Kyiv.

They chanted: Demobilise the soldiers and carried banners calling for the return of their loved ones.

Why is dad not coming back? asked one placard carried by a child.

I live in constant fear for his life, said Valeriia Koliada, 35, said of her husband who volunteered for the military.

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Its nerve-wracking for me. He is tired as well, she said. We are a young family. I also want to have a child and sleep calm at night.

Protesters also gathered in at least six other cities.





I spoke with @RishiSunak.



The United Kingdom's support for Ukraine remains unwavering. I greatly appreciate it.



I updated Rishi on Russian attempts to encircle Avdiivka. Our warriors stopped them and inflicted heavy losses on the enemy, who lost at least a brigade of personnel. Advertisement  Volodymyr Zelenskyy /   (@ZelenskyyUa) October 27, 2023

Ukraine ordered a general mobilisation of the male population between the ages of 25 to 60 when Russia launched its invasion on February 24 2022.

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The vast majority joined up as volunteers. As the war grinds on, Ukraine has ramped up the draft.

There are no signs that Ukrainian public support for the fight against Russias invasion is waning. In Russia, meanwhile, authorities have cracked down on anti-war protests, and critics of the Kremlins policies are on the whole swiftly silenced.

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Even so, US officials say that Russian forces are experiencing morale problems as another winter campaign looms.

The White House said that Russia is executing soldiers who disobey orders and threatening entire units with death if they retreat from Ukrainian artillery fire.

The latest hot spot draining resources is Avdiivka, a city in the eastern Donetsk region that Russian forces partially occupy.



Family members of servicemen took to the streets across Ukraine (AP)

Avdiivkas location provides Ukrainian forces with artillery advantages over the city of Donetsk and could serve as a launchpad for them to liberate the rest of Donetsk.

the city lies in ruins after weeks of bitter fighting in a costly effort, mostly for the Russian attackers, according to analysts.

The bid to overrun the city has backfired on the Kremlins forces, robbing it of troops and heavy equipment that will likely undermine Russian offensive capabilities over the long term, the Institute for the Study of War said.

The Washington-based think tank noted that Ukrainian military officials said that around 5,000 Russian soldiers have been killed and wounded, and 400 armoured vehicles lost in the area since October 10.

Satellite images show the Russian military lost at least 109 military vehicles, mostly armoured fighting vehicles and tanks, near Avdiivika between October 10 and 20, the institute said.

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The Kremlins forces have failed in their weekslong effort to surround the city, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he told UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in a phone call on Friday.



The war will drag into its second winter (AP)

Our soldiers stopped them and inflicted significant casualties, amounting to at least a brigade of personnel, Mr Zelensky said on his Telegram channel.

The Avdiivika fight and other battles are draining both sides resources.

Moscow has stepped up its military production and has reportedly turned to North Korea and Iran to replenish its stockpiles, observers say, while Kyiv is urging its Western allies to keep providing vital support.

The US statement about Russian morale came as President Joe Biden met on Thursday with new House Speaker Mike Johnson, a staunch conservative whose support for Ukraine has been more muted than that of the administration.

He told Mr Biden, who wants billions of dollars in new support for Kyiv, that congress is not going to abandon Ukraine, but demanded more information about US strategy in the conflict.

Meanwhile, cracks are showing in the unity of the 27-nation European Union over its backing for Ukraine.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, attending an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday, said that he was right to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, insisting he was actively seeking peace in Ukraine.

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He recently gained a Russia-friendly ally in the bloc with the election of new Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico.

In an address by videoconference to the EU summit, Mr Zelensky urged the bloc to stand firmly together against Putin.
Nadine Dorries has suggested the name of her upcoming book The Plot refers to a secret plan by several people to do damage to a person or government.

The Plot: The Political Assassination Of Boris Johnson, which is billed as a fly-on-the-wall account of how the saviour of the Conservative Party became a pariah, is set to be released on November 9th.

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The former UK culture secretary teased the book launch tweeting a picture of how she defines the word plot on Friday.

If you thought that power flowed from the people into Westminster, think again.



Available for pre order on @Amazon on sale November 9th. pic.twitter.com/6FqHG7ujOv  Rt Hon Nadine Dorries (@NadineDorries) October 27, 2023 Advertisement

A secret plan by several people to do something that is wrong, harmful, or not legal, especially to do damage to a person or a government, the 66-year-old wrote.

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She added: If you thought that power flowed from the people into Westminster, think again.

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The book had been scheduled for release on September 28th, prior to the start of the Conservative Party conference in early October, but publisher HarperCollins later announced that it would be delayed.

It cited the small delay had been necessary to allow for the huge volume of material the author has consulted, the number of high-level sources spoken to, and the required legal process needed to share her story.

A staunch ally of Mr Johnson, Ms Dorries handed in her resignation in September which saw her former Tory constituency of Mid Bedfordshire overturned to a Labour seat following a by-election.

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Newly elected Mid Bedfordshire Labour candidate Alistair Strathern with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer (Joe Giddens/PA)

Her departure came after weeks of pressure to act on her June 9th pledge to step down with immediate effect, in protest at not getting a peerage in Mr Johnsons resignation honours list.

Her resignation came with a scathing attack on UK prime minister Rishi Sunak, claiming he presided over a zombie Parliament.

Ms Dorries, who was born in 1957 in Liverpool and grew up on a council estate, has written more than a dozen books during her career, including The Four Streets fiction series and The Lovely Lane collection  both of which are set in post-war Liverpool.

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The Plot: The Political Assassination Of Boris Johnson marks her first non-fiction book.

Downing Street and the Conservative Party have been contacted for comment.
A woman who lost her partner to Covid has hit out at UK government officials who held illegal lockdown parties, saying there was a culture of contempt for the ordinary people throughout the pandemic.

Jane Morrison of Scottish Covid Bereaved told the Scottish Covid-19 Inquiry on Friday of the hardship she faced after her partner, Jacky Morrison-Hart, died in 2020.

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Ms Morrison-Hart, 49, had been admitted to hospital for a separate illness but contracted Covid-19 while at Ninewells Hospital, Dundee.

After battling the disease, she died a short time later in October 2020.

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Speaking to the inquiry panel, Ms Morrison said there was contempt for normal citizens as UK government officials illegally held lavish parties despite lockdown restrictions meant to prevent anyone from doing so.

She said the partygate revelations were the ultimate insult.

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Ms Morrison said: It seems it doesnt matter if the plans in place are the best in the world or not.

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If the political comprehension of the coming storm is lacking, and its partly driven by pandering  this was directed for the UK side to the loudest MPs in government  irrespective of the science, rather than doing whats in the best interest of the people, then more people die than would otherwise be the case.

Many times during the pandemic there was a culture of contempt for the ordinary people.

As Ive said before, hubris does not stop a pandemic.

I think this attitude has been confirmed by the investigation into the so-called partygate scandal.

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Jane Morrison, centre, addressed the Scottish Covid-19 Inquiry on behalf of the Scottish Covid Bereaved group Photo: Andrew Milligan/PA.

Ms Morrison has previously spoken of the restrictions on funerals during the pandemic.

On Friday she told how she had to wait seven months following the death of her wife to share a hug with a friend or family member.

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She told the inquiry it was wrong for lockdown restrictions to prevent mourners from embracing at funerals.

She went on to speak of Covid-deniers and conspiracy theorists who she believed began to gain more ground and became more vocal.

However, she maintained: I think the ultimate insult came when all of the so-called partygate stories came out and people became so angry.

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They felt theyd been treated with absolute contempt and they felt theyd been taken for a ride and treated as mugs.

That produced so much anger, its difficult to find the words to adequately display all of those factors. All of those factors contribute in my view.

The inquiry, taking place before Lord Brailsford in Edinburgh, continues.
Pope Francis has led special Friday evening prayers in St Peters Basilica for a world in a dark hour and in great danger from what he described as the folly of war.

Francis delivered his remarks in the form of a prayer to the Virgin Mary and did not mention by name the conflict that exploded when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on October 7 and Israel retaliated by sealing off the Gaza Strip and battering the Palestinian territory with air strikes.

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He said he was praying for especially those countries and regions at war and he pleaded with Mary to take the initiative for us, in these times rent by conflicts and laid waste by the fire of arms.

This is a dark hour, Francis said in a subdued voice, in his remarks in the basilica.

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Pope Francis leaves after attending a prayer for peace inside St Peters Basilica (Andrew Medichini/AP)

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Since the Israel-Hamas war started three weeks ago, Francis has appealed for the release of hostages taken by Hamas and for civilians in the Gaza Strip to be spared from warfare.

He has also decried the massacre by Hamas of civilians in Israel, at a music concert and in their homes.

The pope has also pressed for humanitarian aid to head off what he said would be a catastrophe for civilians after Israel cut off supplies of food, water and fuel into the Gaza Strip following the deadly Hamas incursion.

During Fridays basilica service, Francis deplored that the human family has strayed from the path of peace, preferred Cain to Abel, and lost the ability to see each others as brothers and sisters dwelling in a common home. He was referring to the Biblical account of two brothers, one who fatally turns against the other.

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Intercede for our world, in such turmoil and great danger, the pope prayed. Francis also prayed that people will learn to care for each and every human life  and to repudiate the folly of war, which sows death and eliminates the future.

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His prayers included one for hearts imprisoned by hatred as well as an appeal for national leaders to seek paths of peace. He further prayed for a reconciliation for those who are seduced by evil, blinded by power and hate.

Francis offered no formula for how to defuse the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict that flared again this month and has fuelled anxiety of a wider, regional war developing in the Middle East.

But in a Thursday phone conversation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Francis expressed hope, according to the Vaticans readout of the call, for two states and a special statute for the city of Jerusalem, with its several sites sacred to faithful of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

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Francis has also repeatedly invoked peace for Ukraine since Russia invaded the eastern European country in February 2022.
The UN General Assembly has approved a non-binding resolution calling for a humanitarian truce in Gaza, leading to a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Gazas Hamas rulers.

It was the first UN response to Hamass surprise October 7 attacks on Israel and the ongoing military response and vow to obliterate Hamas.

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The 193-member world body adopted the resolution by a vote of 120-14 with 45 abstentions after rejecting a Canadian amendment backed by the United States to unequivocally condemn the terrorist attacks by Hamas and demand the immediate release of hostages taken by Hamas.





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Jordans UN ambassador Mahmoud Hmoud, speaking on behalf of the UNs 22-nation Arab group, which drafted the resolution, called for an afternoon vote before all 112 speakers got to the assemblys rostrum, because of the urgency of taking action.

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The Arab group sought action by the UN body because of the failure of the more powerful 15-member Security Council to agree on a resolution after four attempts.

Unlike the Security Council, there are no vetoes in the General Assembly so the resolution was certain to be adopted. While council resolutions are legally binding, assembly resolutions are not but they do serve as a barometer of world opinion.

The assemblys emergency special session on Israeli actions, which began on Wednesday, continued with US ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield echoing Israels envoy in calling the resolution to be voted on outrageous for never mentioning Hamas and saying it is detrimental to the vision of a two-state solution.

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Oman, speaking on behalf of the Gulf Cooperation Council, condemned Israels siege of Gaza, starvation of its population and collective punishment of Palestinians.

But it said the Palestinians will not be deterred from demanding their legitimate inalienable rights, chief among them the right to self- determination and the right to establish an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

In addition to calling for an immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities, the resolution demanded that all parties immediately comply with their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law requiring protection of civilians and the schools, hospitals and other infrastructure critical for their survival.

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The resolution also demanded that essential supplies be allowed into the Gaza Strip and humanitarian workers have sustained access. And it calls on Israel to rescind its order for Gazans to evacuate the north and move to the south and firmly rejects any attempts at the forced transfer of the Palestinian civilian population.
Architect Jeremy McLeod had a vision when he designed The Commons, a landmark Brunswick apartment block completed in 2013.

The director of Breathe Architectures premise was to create affordable housing that was both sustainable and inclusive, with a significant amount of social housing.

ParkLife, part of the Nightingale Village development.

The award-winning development, close to Anstey railway station, became a design benchmark for what was to follow.

Fast-forward 10 years and Nightingale Village, a collection of six neighbouring buildings  Evergreen, Leftfield, CRT+YRD, ParkLife, Urban Coup and Skye House  just a block away from The Commons, continues a vision that remains true to Brunswick.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Faking It

Toby Walsh

La Trobe Uni Press/ Black Inc., $34.99

At the heart of artificial intelligence is a fundamental deceit, claims AI doyen Toby Walsh, in Faking It: Artificial Intelligence in a Human World, his fourth book on the subject. The con starts at the name. AI is not true intelligence. It does not arrive at conclusions (or outputs) through understanding or reason. Instead, these are predictive machines, reared on vast data sets, which simulate coherence based on the probability that one word or pixel will follow another.

The difference is crucial. When asked to provide an answer to a relatively simple mathematical question, ChatGPT often gets it wrong. When we infer intelligence on the other side, its actually the human mind doing the work, so habituated are we to equating meaning making with intelligence.

Such confusion isnt new. According to rumour, at a screening of the first-ever moving picture film, called The Arrival of a Train, members of the audience leapt from their seats, convinced they would be run down by the approaching train. The brain was hacked, as it still is, to knit together stills into moving object, but today we understand film is not reality. Rumour or not, the point is: we extrapolate our understanding into the void, even when it doesnt fit.
The sudden death of former China's No. 2 leader Li Keqiang has shocked many people in the country, and they are paying tribute to the ex-official who promised market-oriented reforms but was politically sidelined.

Li, who died Friday of a heart attack, was Chinas top economic official for a decade, helping navigate the worlds second-largest economy through challenges such as tensions with the United States and the COVID-19 pandemic.

He was known for his advocacy of private business but lost much of his influence as President Xi Jinping accumulated ever-greater powers and elevated the military and security services in aid of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

A hashtag related to his death on the Chinese social media platform Weibo drew over 1 billion views in just a few hours. On posts about Li, the like button was turned into a daisy  a common flower for funerals in China, many users commented rest in peace and some said the news was hard to believe."

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed his condolences on the passing of Li, said Matthew Miller, State Department spokesperson.

Japans embassy in China expressed its condolences on Weibo. It said Li had visited Japan in 2018 and he played an importance role in the relations of both countries.

Li, an English-speaking economist, was from a generation of politicians schooled during a time of greater openness to liberal Western ideas. Introduced to politics during the chaotic 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, he made it into prestigious Peking University, where he studied law and economics, on his own merits rather than through political connections.

Li had been seen as former Communist Party leader Hu Jintao's preferred successor as president about a decade ago. But the need to balance party factions prompted the leadership to choose Xi, the son of a former vice premier and party elder, as the consensus candidate.

The two never formed anything like the partnership that characterized Hus relationship with his premier, Wen Jiabao  or Mao Zedongs with the redoubtable Zhou Enlai  although Li and Xi never openly disagreed over fundamentals.

Last October, Li was dropped from the Standing Committee at a party congress despite being two years below the informal retirement age of 70. He step down in March and was succeeded by Li Qiang, a crony of Xis from his days in provincial government. His departure marked a shift away from the skilled technocrats who have helped steer Chinas economy in favor of officials known mainly for their unquestioned loyalty to Xi. (AP)
All media organisations, from the ABC to News Corp, are being affected by news avoidance and declining audience trust, the three-time Walkley Award winner said. The media overall is close to the bottom of the trust index. The ABC is currently the 18th most trusted brand in Australia, while News Corp is the fourth most distrusted. Back in 2019, the ABC was fifth most trusted.

In the annual Andrew Olle Media Lecture, the former 7.30 host told the room of around 400 media executives and journalists at Sydneys Doltone House that the public is losing interest in stories media organisations are telling.

Citing the Digital Media Australia report last year, she noted that about two-thirds of people say they actively avoid the news because its untrustworthy or biased; it harms my mental well-being; it wears me out; theres too much politics; and it leads to arguments I dont have time for.

Lets have the guts to look that in the face ... are we doing something thats causing audiences to avoid the news and to trust us less? If were too scared to scrutinise that, and to examine the issues we choose to emphasise and how we go about reporting stories and to perhaps have some awkward conversations about that, then we compromise our integrity, the former current affairs host, now presenter of Australian Story said.

Why she previously declined to give the Olle lecture

Sales said despite the honour, she had declined a previous request to deliver the annual lecture, given in memory of former ABC journalist Andrew Olle, who died of a brain tumour in 1995, at the age of 47.

The main reason is its just so tiresome that when you do something like this these days, instead of thinking, What sincere views should I share, and how will people respond?, what you have to consider is, How will what I say be taken out of context and weaponised by ABC-haters and Twitter nutters? How will I manage a spread of misinformation unrelated to what I actually said, and will my employer have the guts to stand by me? Do they really want me to say what I actually think? Thats what it is to step into the arena in 2023.
Internationally he has held talks at universities including Oxford, Cambridge, MIT and the University of California. During the Sydney talk, Forrest said he was motivated by the string of heatwaves that hit the northern hemisphere this year, driving extreme temperatures that climate scientists had not expected to see for some years. This week one report concluded that 2023 is likely to be the hottest in 100,000 years. Loading The searing temperatures prompted Forrest to do some research, or at least to commission some from his harried staff, who brought to his attention the concept of wet bulb temperature. This is a measure of the temperature at which the moisture in a wet cloth evaporates when draped over the bulb of a thermometer, thereby dropping the temperature. It is a metric that takes in the interplay of both heat and humidity. It came to prominence around a decade ago, in large part due to the work of UNSW Professor Steven Sherwood, who attended the Sydney talk and was lead author of a 2010 paper that estimated when the wet bulb temperature reaches 35 degrees, the human ability to thermoregulate begins to fail, potentially causing death in under six hours.

A more recent study found billions of people to be at risk of living in temperatures at 1.5 degrees of warming, which some areas are already experiencing. Many of those live in parts of the world without access to air conditioning. Forrest focused on the impact on the body. Your core temperature rises and it rises really quick, he said. Your heart rate accelerates. One hundred per cent more blood starts sloshing through your system, you get a pounding headache, vomiting. This is really well documented in human science. Within minutes to hours, you start to reach a point where those wonderful, complex blood proteins start to unravel. Its a chemical reaction. This is a lethal humidity death. Your blood thickens. You internally haemorrhage. Those structures inside your body are like chemical reactions, theyre not coming back. Theyre like an egg. When its cooked, it cant be uncooked.

Such doomsaying has left some observers a little jarred. One of the first versions of the talk, delivered at the Boao Forum for Asia in Perth in August, was largely unnoticed by mainstream media but prompted performative sniggering among some climate sceptic commentators. In Sydney, Forrest asked his expert audience to comment. Among those to respond was Professor Ollie Jay, director of the Heat and Health Research Incubator and Thermal Ergonomics Laboratory in the Faculty of Medicine and Health at The University of Sydney. Id like to propose that [your assessment of] the impacts on human health and wellbeing in the future with different climate change scenarios may actually be conservative, and the impacts may be even greater, he said. The science on lethal heat has improved in the past decade just as the world has grown warmer, Jay said in a later interview. New studies, including those undertaken by Jays team, focus on more sophisticated modelling of the human body in a hot environment. Preliminary work suggests death can strike more commonly and at lower temperatures.

Inside Jays heat chamber, thats not hard to imagine. I was allowed to remain inside a dry heat about the same as that experienced in parts of the northern hemisphere for a few moments. With each breath, I noticed the odd sensation of my tongue instantly drying. Jay believes that the science in Forrests talk could be improved, however, his efforts to forge an alliance between industry and academia to accelerate government change should be applauded. Not everyone was so convinced. One of those who attended in Canberra said she presumed experts were being gathered to offer Forrest advice rather than hear a lecture of his views on their fields of study. Look, hes, you know, hes not wrong, she said when pushed on her view of his talk. Lethal humidity is one amongst many, many impacts of climate change that are going to make peoples lives worse.

Loading I was kind of wondering if he may have latched on to that because hes someone who spends a lot of time in the Pilbara and understands how uncomfortable [that is] compared to say those of us who live in Sydney and Melbourne. Another observer said he feared Forrest was driven by an unchecked ego, accelerated by deep pockets. He has no one in his life to say no any more. Others presumed that the talks were simply part of his long campaign to champion the hydrogen technology on which he was focusing parts of his business. Forrest makes the same point. In Sydney, he argued that as a capitalist and an industrialist, his climate views would be better received among governments and industry than those of environmentalists and academics. But, he added, he needed scientific endorsement.

His company, Fortescue, he claimed, was proving that it was possible for captains of industry to shift towards carbon-free processes at profit. Its great for your shareholders if you have the character to change. Often when Forrest is asked what sparked his climate crusade  which long predates this current push  Forrest refers to the PhD in Marine Science he completed in 2019. Loading In 2015 he was bushwalking by a billabong in the Kimberly when he slipped and fell into the water, shattering his leg below the knee. I smashed both the bones and the kneecap and ended up underwater and trapped. I had to twist my body and twist the leg, breaking it further, in order to get to the cliff edge behind me and pull myself out of this wedge I got myself into. You can imagine the pain.
Approximately 70 per cent of Australians use complementary medicines, and my family was among them.

Whenever we were unwell as kids, it wasnt uncommon to see a Chinese medicine practitioner along with our regular GP. Each visit always began  in stark contrast to the GP appointments  with the same three requests: let me feel your pulse, tell me how youve been sleeping and stick out your tongue.

The tongue is a window into our health. Credit: iStock

In the 2000-year-old practice of Chinese medicine, the tongue holds a special place and is regarded as a crucial diagnostic tool, explains Professor Danforn Lim, a dually registered specialist medical practitioner and Chinese medicine practitioner.

A window into the state of our body
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Its 2pm on a Monday in October when the fire alert is sent: 5-day strike team - immediate deployment.

After three quiet years, El Nino is declared and in seeming anticipation fires have erupted along and east of the NSW ranges. Firefighters have been battling the blazes north west of Casino for several weeks. The strike team is being sent to strengthen and deepen containment lines on the Bean Creek fire while the local RFS take some respite. The Bonalbo crews are also dealing with the recent loss of their long-serving and respected senior deputy captain John Holmes while battling the blaze.

Backburning along the border of the Bean Creek fire. Credit: Nick Moir

Within an hour of the alert being sent, a mixture of crews from Sydney and surrounds have indicated their willingness to help. By the following morning, around 25 volunteers - many of whom have taken leave from their jobs and scrambled to organise family life in their absence - have assembled in their trucks and meet at Ourimbah on the Central Coast for the 650km haul to Casino.

Arriving at the Bean Creek fire the following morning, the pain of the loss of a member is clear on the faces of the firefighters. The committed strike team listens as the crew leaders and group captain convey the strategy for the day and outlines the areas hazards.

Its hard, steep and dry Eucalypt forest filled with an understorey of lantana which tears at clothes and skin alike as firefighters push into the thick maze to start backburning and deepen the control line which has only just been pushed in by dozers, their presence indicated by a moving pall of dust and clanking of tracks.
The October 28 Edition

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The reading standards of Victorian students could noticeably decline unless the state government adopts a consistent teaching approach to the key learning skill, experts have warned.

NSW, South Australia and Queensland have now all backed a phonics-based approach, while Victoria continues to allow schools to choose their own adventure when it comes to their literacy teaching strategy.

The Victorian government needs to offer more explicit guidance to schools on literacy or risk declining results, academics say. Credit: Simon Schluter

A group of 45 academics delivered a joint letter to state and federal governments this week, calling for immediate action to provide evidence-based science of reading instruction to stem the flow of students who leave primary school without proficient reading skills.

Academic Pamela Snow, professor of cognitive psychology at La Trobe Universitys School of Education, said there were still significant gaps between reading research and classroom teaching, and governments needed to be more deliberate in guiding schools to adopt best practice.
A jet-setting former Melbourne dentist has been banned from practising in Australia for five years and hit with record legal costs after he was found to have misled a court.

Myles Holt, a self-described new breed of cosmetic dentist, in 2014 sued his former employer in Darwin in a pay dispute dating back to 2011 in which he claimed he could no longer work on Saturdays for personal reasons.

He was actually flying to Singapore to moonlight as a dentist there.

Myles Holt has been hit with record court costs and disqualified from applying for registration for five years after misleading a court.

The Northern Territory Civil and Administrative Tribunal in 2022 found Holt had engaged in professional misconduct by giving dishonest evidence during proceedings in a local court. In March, the NT Supreme Court dismissed an appeal and upheld that finding.
The Summary Offences (Nazi Salute Prohibition) Bill received royal assent last Friday, which means it has been illegal to undertake a Nazi salute in Victoria for just a week. This is the first time an alleged incidence of a Nazi salute has been reported to police since the new legislation came into effect on October 21. A decision to strengthen the anti-vilification laws was confirmed after a far-right protest at Parliament House in March attended by the National Socialist Network, who performed Nazi salutes on parliaments steps before being led away by police. Sewell and Hersant were sentenced in the County Court on Friday after pleading guilty to violent disorder against three bushwalkers who filmed the pairs group as they gathered at the Cathedral Range State Park at Taggerty in May 2021. The National Socialist Network at a gathering in the Grampians.

During the sentencing, Judge Kellie Blair said the pair were both young fathers who had little prior contact with the criminal justice system and their offending was at the lower end of the spectrum. I do not consider the offending to be directly or causally related to your political views. I accept that your offending was reactive in nature to the situation that unfolded on the day, she said. Blair said she believed the prospects of rehabilitation for the pair were good. I agree ... that the offending of each you should be seen towards the lower end of seriousness for offending of this type, she said. Good luck with the future gentlemen, she added as she left the bench.

It is the second time Sewell, Australias most prominent neo-Nazi, has been sentenced for violent behaviour in the last 12 months. During a plea hearing in September, Sewells barrister Michael McGrath said his client had held white supremacist, far-right beliefs for a long time, and was likely to hold them into the future. This is a belief that hes held for a long time, and hes likely to have into the future, and as long as hes not breaching the law, whether people agree with it or not, hes entitled to have it, McGrath said in September. Loading Blairs comments prompted disbelief and stiff rebuke from extremism experts. Josh Roose, a Deakin University expert on the far-right, said his study of the National Socialist Network indicated that Sewell has for a long time held far-right and extremist ideas that are inherently undemocratic and hate-filled.

It beggars belief that this person could be considered to have good rehabilitative prospects, he said. This is someone who leads the biggest group of far-right extremists in the country  to argue that an individual with that track record has good rehabilitative prospects calls for some sort of reflection about what that actually means in practice. Victoria University extremism expert Mario Peucker said he was confused by Blairs finding that the attack was not motivated by the groups beliefs given two members were heard yelling ANTIFA before setting upon the car  a term he said they use to describe their political enemy on the left. That suggests theres a political element in the action that unfolded, he said.

Shadow Attorney-General Michael OBrien said: Rather than wishing good luck to these thugs, perhaps the judge should have wished good luck to the rest of the community. Dvir Abramovich, chair of the Jewish-Australian community group the Anti-Defamation Commission, said he expected the community would be shocked that the prospect of rehabilitation was considered as realistic given what we have witnessed over several years. Sewell and Hersant both complained police were targeting them with unfair and unwarranted attention because of their beliefs. Police had been surveilling the group, members of the network and European Australian Movement, as they hiked to the peak of Sugarloaf Saddle. Loading The victims were attacked after filming the group in the car park. Masked group members smashed the windscreen and passenger window of the victims vehicle, threatening them with knives. Hersant reached into the car in an attempt to keep it from leaving, the court heard.

The driver of one of the cars drove into a rock while trying to escape, before restarting the car and dialling triple zero. Blair said Sewells DNA and fingerprints were found on the VW, as was Hersants DNA, and that Hersant had been identified by a victim. Blair accepted they had not been wearing face coverings and had not been armed with knives. All the occupants of the car were in fear of being assaulted or killed, she said. Sewell was sentenced to a month and seven days jail over the incident and Hersant to three days and an 18-month community corrections order with 200 hours of community work. They walked free immediately with time served, hugging and congratulating each other as they left the dock. Timothy Lutze, previously a director of Legacy Boxing Gym in Sunshine West, a venue that has held multiple gatherings of neo-Nazis, also attended court on Friday. At the time of the violent disorder offence, Sewell was on bail over an attack on a security guard outside Channel Nines Docklands headquarters before an A Current Affair broadcast a segment about his group in March 2021.
School fetes are ditching 20 cent lucky dips and free petting zoos in favour of large school festivals as they try to plug financial shortfalls with community fundraising.

With the most successful fetes raking in close to $100,000 and events taking up to 12 months to plan, the stakes for volunteer school committees are high.

Families enjoy a ride at Our Ladys Ringwood school fete. Credit: Paul Jeffers

Some schools are now trucking in carnival rides, with one recent fete in the outer east charging $40 per child for all-day passes. At another, a silent auction offered dinner with former Richmond footballer Matthew Richardson.

Even the food has gone upmarket, with slow-cooked brisket and banh mi on offer alongside the humble sausage sizzle.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has raised the plight of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in talks this week with United States President Joe Biden, stepping up efforts to find a way to release the Australian from jail.

Albanese discussed Assange in his private talks in Washington DC after making public calls in recent months for a resolution to the US charges against him for releasing state secrets.

Julian Assange in 2017. Credit: AP

The talks came as Assanges brother, Gabriel Shipton, told this masthead that he feared for his brothers life because of the impact of the detention on his mental health.

Shipton joined protestors outside the White House this week to raise awareness of the case at the same time Biden hosted Albanese at the residence.
A Hamas official tied the release of hostages held in Gaza to a ceasefire in Israel's bombardment of the enclave, launched after a deadly rampage by Hamas militants into southern Israel nearly three weeks ago.

Israel says it is preparing a ground invasion, but has been urged by the U.S. and Arab countries to delay an operation that would multiply the number of civilian casualties in the densely populated coastal strip and might ignite a wider conflict.

Two U.S. fighter jets struck weapons and ammunition facilities in Syria on Friday in retaliation for attacks on U.S. forces by Iranian-backed militias since the Gaza war erupted.

An opinion poll published on Friday suggested almost half of Israelis now wanted to hold off on a ground invasion out of fears for at least 224 hostages reported to be held there.

The Russian newspaper Kommersant quoted a member of a Hamas delegation visiting Moscow as saying time was needed to locate all those who had been abducted by various Palestinian factions in the Hamas attack on Oct. 7.

"They seized dozens of people, most of them civilians, and we need time to find them in the Gaza Strip and then release them," Abu Hamid said.

He said Hamas, which has freed four hostages so far, had made clear it intended to release "civilian prisoners".

But this required a "calm environment", he said, repeating an assertion that Israeli bombing had already killed 50 of those held.

Palestinian militants clashed with Israeli troops in at least two areas inside the Gaza Strip, the latest of several small-scale incursions, Hamas-affiliated media reported, though the Israeli military did not immediately confirm the reports.

Residents of central Gaza said they had heard an apparent exchange of fire as well as heavy shelling and air strikes along the border, with Israeli planes dropping flares and bombs.

Hamas's al-Qassam Brigades said Israeli forces had attempted to land on a beach at the southern end of the Strip.

Israel said its fighter jets had struck three senior Hamas operatives who played significant roles in the Oct. 7 attack, though there was no announcement by Hamas.

In early afternoon, rocket sirens sounded throughout southern Israel and an Israeli medic said three people had been wounded when a missile hit an apartment building in Tel Aviv.

In the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, an air strike killed the pregnant wife of a Palestinian lawyer, Jehad Al-Kafarnah.

"My life, my heart, I love you," Kafarnah wrote, weeping, on the white sheeting wrapped around his wife's body. He held the body of her 8-month-old stillborn child, also wrapped in white, in his arms.

As Gaza's 2.3 million civilians grow more desperate under a siege that has cut power and water as well as supplies of food, fuel and medicine, the issue of aid comes before the 193-member U.N. General Assembly in New York on Friday.

Unlike in the U.N. Security Council, where resolutions on aid for Gaza failed this week, there can be no veto on the resolution by Arab states calling for a ceasefire, which will not be binding but carry political weight.

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, says more than 600,000 Gazans have been made homeless, at least three times more than its shelters can hold.

Ten more trucks of food and medical supplies arrived in Gaza from Egypt, along with 10 foreign doctors - the first to enter since Israel tightened its blockade nearly three weeks ago, a Palestinian official said.

This made for around 84 trucks in three weeks. The U.N. says Gaza needs around 100 relief trucks every day, and the official said negotiations were taking place with Israel, which wants to prevent resources reaching Hamas, to find a faster mechanism.

UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini said 57 UNRWA workers had been killed in Israeli bombardments, and U.N. human rights spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani became emotional when describing conditions for U.N. staff:

"Many of them are sleeping out in the open ... You have to make calculations about whether a ceiling collapsing on you or being hit by shrapnel is more likely to happen."

A U.N. World Food Programme representative said only one of two bakeries it had contracted to feed thousands of displaced families had fuel to make bread, "and tomorrow there might be none".

Iran

Calls for restraint stem not only from concern for Gaza's civilians and Israeli hostages, but also fears that the crisis could spark conflict across the Middle East.

U.S. President Joe Biden ordered overnight strikes on two Syrian bases used by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps and militias that it backs, the Pentagon said, after issuing a rare direct warning to Iran on Thursday not to attack U.S. troops.

U.S. and coalition troops have been attacked at least 19 times in Iraq and in Syria by Iranian-backed forces in the past week.

Israel says Hamas killed some 1,400 people including children in its Oct. 7 rampage.

The Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry said 7,326 Palestinians had been killed in the retaliatory air strikes, including around 3,000 children.

Biden has cast doubt on casualty figures provided by Palestinian officials in Gaza, but international aid agencies say they are broadly accurate and have been reliable in the past.

In a poll in Israel's Maariv newspaper, 49 percent of Israelis said "it would be better to wait" before beginning a large-scale ground offensive, while 29 percent disagreed. A week earlier, 65 percent had backed a ground invasion.

"It is almost certain that the developments on the matter of the hostages, which is now topping the agenda, have had a great impact on this shift," Maariv said. (Reuters)
I think the rising level of anger here is something that Australians really should take note of, remarked Dutton. The Coalition certainly will be. In NSW alone, the Coalition sees potential to exploit new energy infrastructure concerns to help it take as many as five seats held by federal Labor, and the opportunity for trouble-making in another three. In some seats, there is community resistance to proposed wind turbines. In others, its anger at proposed high-voltage transmission lines. In some rural areas, its exasperation at the use of farmland for solar farms and carbon sinks. A Labor strategist sees the Coalitions newfound climate campaign as a revival of some of its old tactics, but adds that now theyre not just campaigning on the energy transition hurting jobs, its NIMBY protests adding another string to it, referring to the acronym for localised anti-developmentalism, not in my backyard. Bugger off Bowen, the wind farms are goin, rang the chant from a protest meeting of perhaps a thousand people earlier this month. And where theres trouble for Labor, theres Barnaby Joyce. He filmed himself at the Nelson Bay rally and uploaded it to his Facebook page.

Ive become the doyen of the protest movement, Joyce tells me. All these people who, in another life, wouldnt vote for me now want me to turn up at their protests in Labor-held seats, and I will do that for them. Loading Joyce was the author of the original Coalition climate wars. The Joyce-Abbott climate wars set Australia back by a decade, but helped the Coalition win and hold office for that decade. Today, Joyce is at the centre of the new climate wars. He has connected some 50 or 60 localised community protest groups from Cape York to Tasmania by helping create a national co-ordination group. Hes not running it, but hes cheerleading it. He suggested they rally in front of Parliament House on the first sitting day of the new year, February 6. Instead of them all jumping up and down in different places, they will all jump up and down together on the first day back in Canberra, and these are angry people, says Joyce.

Language is important in campaigning and Joyce refuses to call them wind farms or solar farms: Farms grow cattle or asparagus or wheat  its a euphemism. These are wind factories and solar factories. Everybody thinks theyre a great idea as long as they cant see them. Peter Dutton doesnt expect that problems with the rollout of new energy infrastructure alone are going to put the Coalition onto the Treasury benches. But it is the Coalitions newfound power playground. The climate wars are only just beginning. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen/Dominic Lorrimer Albanese already has acknowledged community concern. And hes promised that his government will do a better job of listening. But if the government slows the rollout, it sabotages its own renewables targets. Beyond the physical infrastructure itself, the Coalition sees the turbines and transmission lines as symbols of a larger sociopolitical syndrome: People have described this as the elites versus struggle street and theres something to that, says a member of the Liberal leadership.

People say, why not put wind turbines off Manly or North Sydney? Why are we being asked to pay the price with our charter boat business operating in the proposed Hunter offshore wind zone? They say, Theyre only sticking it here because this a Labor seat theyre taking for granted, Paterson or Dobell or Hunter. These are the voices of people who are feeling overlooked by Canberra, relegated by the cities and condescended to by the wealthy and the privileged areas of Australia. They are already having to tighten up their spending, theyre struggling to pay the bills as mortgages go up and prices go up, their lives are completely and utterly removed from the capitals and, fairly or not, they see the PM swanning around, says the senior Liberal. The Voice referendum confirmed the suspicion of many that the Albanese government was pursuing a progressive priority irrelevant to their own lives, according to the Coalitions analysis, one shared by some senior Labor figures. The NSW Labor seats where the Coalition thinks the government is vulnerable to a campaign against new energy infrastructure all run along a great sweep of the coast, to the north and south of Sydney. The five they consider potentially winnable are Gilmore, which Labor holds with a two-party-preferred share of the vote of a bare 50.2 per cent, Paterson with 53 per cent, Hunter with 54, Shortland with 56, and Dobell with 57. A further three, less gettable, are Eden-Monaro at 58, Whitlam at 60 and Cunningham at 65.

These larger margins look unassailable, seats more vulnerable to Coalition mischief than Coalition victory. But NSW seats are awaiting a redistribution which will shake them up for the next election. And Barnaby Joyce sees a 15 per cent margin, once considered fortress-like, as entirely conquerable: I won a seat that had a 23 per cent margin. More than anyone else, Ill tell you that no one has a safe seat. A Labor strategist describes the list as over-egged but not fantasy. Recall that Labor holds a House majority of three seats.

The new climate war is distinct from the old for another reason. In the Coalitions earlier efforts, there was a strong element of climate change denialism  Tony climate change is crap Abbott, for example. And the absence of an alternative policy for cutting emissions. They merely clung to coal-fired power. But today it proposes an alternative. As Dutton said at Nelson Bay: There are other ways that we can firm up renewables. There are other ways that we can introduce zero-emission or low-emission technologies into the energy mix. Hes speaking of nuclear power, small modular reactors in particular. The Coalition proposes putting them on the sites of coal-fired power stations so they use the existing electricity grid, no new high-voltage wires required.
After years of punishing economic coercion and the diplomatic cold shoulder, Australia-China relations are entering a new spring. Chinas trade restrictions are tumbling, and the two sides are talking at the highest levels.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese met Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Bali last year. Credit: AAP

Fresh from a widely feted trip to Washington, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will want to emphasise the upside in the Australia-China relationship during his Beijing visit next week. Not least because it will be the first visit by a serving Australian prime minister in more than seven years and will coincide with the 50th anniversary of Gough Whitlams first-ever leader-level visit to the Peoples Republic of China.

Amid all the bonhomie, Albanese should also deliver a pointed message to Chinese President Xi Jinping: an attack on Taiwan would be disastrous for Australia and the world, and would risk dealing a body blow to Chinas economy.

As well as being essential for the preservation of international peace and security, deterring China in the Taiwan Strait is vital for the Australian national interest.
London: British MP Crispin Blunt has revealed he was the person arrested in connection with a rape allegation, after media reported the case without naming the alleged offender.

Blunt, 63, has been a Tory MP for more than 25 years and is a former minister.

Britains Conservative MP Crispin Blunt, speaks at an event. Credit: AP

It has been reported that an MP was arrested yesterday in connection with an allegation of rape. I am confirming that MP was me, he said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

I have now been interviewed twice in connection with this incident, the first time three weeks ago, when I initially reported my concern over extortion. The second time was earlier this morning under caution following arrest.
More than 7000 Palestinian civilians are estimated to have been killed in the air campaign so far, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, while the remainder of Gazas two million-plus population face a humanitarian catastrophe unlike any they have endured, triggering condemnation around the world. Israeli tanks have been stationed at the border for almost two weeks, awaiting the green light. Credit: AP Tens of thousands of Israeli troops have spent almost two weeks massing on the border with Gaza, waiting to launch the operation Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised will destroy Hamas and rain hellfire on its regime. Israel has faced calls from leaders around the world for a humanitarian pause in the conflict, while other voices have called for a ceasefire amid fears a ground invasion would almost certainly threaten geopolitical consequences far beyond the Gaza Strip. US President Joe Biden this week said he had asked Israel to delay the operation to assist in the return of hostages (four have been freed), while reports later suggested his administration had sought more time to secure air defence assets after a spate of attacks by Iran-backed groups on US military bases in the region.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at a press conference with US President Joe Biden, who said he had asked Israel to slow its operation to aid the rescue of hostages. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen Amid reports of discord between senior members of Israels war cabinet and the military, Netanyahu has insisted the ground operation is imminent. With hundreds of tanks already lining the border, Linda Robinson said Israel was unlikely to back down now. A senior fellow for women and foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, Robinson said Israel had repeatedly pledged to carry out the invasion, and they have the weight of Israeli public opinion behind them. The problem is, how do you do a ground invasion-light? Robinson said, highlighting the risk of enormous casualties against military objectives they risk not achieving.

In Israel, director of the Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies Eitan Shamir said the public expectation of the military wiping out Hamas was now too great to change course. Loading They raised the bar very high in terms of destroying Hamas, he said. Bruce Riedel is a former official in the Clinton administration, who served as a member of Clintons peace process team and was a negotiator at Arab-Israeli summits. From Washington, where he is now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, he said events appeared to be driving the situation much more than the leadership.

There is intense frustration among many of the leaders that [Israel] dont really have a good path forward. Netanyahu knows his political career has reached its dead endbut he now wants to find some way to put a better ending on it, Riedel said. They cant figure out, one, how to do it at an acceptable cost to the Israeli Defence Forcesand secondly...they dont have a day after plan. Nobody does. Invasion In a televised address to the nation on Thursday, Netanyahu said ground forces had pushed into northern Gaza to prepare for a ground invasion, and hinted it could be one of several. I will not elaborate on when, how or how many, the prime minister said. I will also not elaborate on the various calculations were making, which the public is mostly unaware of. And that is how things should be.

Israeli ground forces operated within the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday, attacking multiple Hamas targets before withdrawing, the Israeli Defence Forces said. Rodger Shanahan, a former Australian Army officer and Middle East expert, has told this masthead the objectives of a ground mission would be three-fold: recover as many hostages as possible, punish Hamas for its atrocities, and cripple or destroy its capabilities for several years. While the IDF is among the best prepared military in the world, Gazas complex urban terrain will pose extreme challenges for troops on a battleground favouring guerrilla and terrorist groups. Loading The greatest challenge will be navigating underground Gaza, which is honeycombed with hundreds of kilometres of dark tunnels, likely booby-trapped and difficult to reach with a bombing campaign. Mouse holes punched through walls will allow Hamas fighters to move around at depth where technology and connectivity may be disabled.

Israeli military expert Dr Eado Hecht estimates Hamas and other groups can muster at least 40,000 fighters to conduct a deadly game of hide-and-seek for an extended period. Destroying the tunnels with ground forces, as was done in the summer 2014 war, requires the ground force to locate well-camouflaged entrances and then transport large amounts of explosives into the tunnels along a significant portion of them, he wrote in a recent paper for the Begin-Sadat Centre. For now, the broader ground mission remains paralysed at Gazas border, while international pressure for restraint mounts - both to allow humanitarian aid and to better the chances of releasing the 200-plus hostages held captive in the tunnels. Short and sharp, or slow and patient?

Military observers say the next Israeli steps will be critical in determining the course of the conflict already deemed the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides. Israels government has warned repeatedly that the war will be long. Loading Some suggest Israel could achieve its military target of crushing Hamas by maintaining its aerial campaign, along with targeted operative raids. Others say anything less than a full-scale onslaught by tens of thousands of troops in armoured tanks will not destroy Hamas. Withdrawing without killing or capturing most of Hamas will definitely not provide the political and security solution we need, Hecht said. Council on Foreign Relations Robinson, a former foreign correspondent and now-conflict analyst, said Israel should heed the lessons of past conflicts, like Iraq and Afghanistan, which showed the shortcomings of military operations in rooting out groups like Hamas and any resulting insurgency.

Im very afraid that the Israeli military is actually going to get bogged down... in a difficult spot, between Palestinian casualties, its own casualties and a growing wave of [international] criticism, she said. Loading A second front with Lebanon While Israel has been pummelling Gaza with rockets, its forces have also been engaged in almost daily fire across the Lebanon border with Hezbollah, fuelling fears of a second front with the Iran-backed group, which is also a designated terrorist organisation.

On the receiving end of Hezbollahs guided anti-tank missiles and mortars, Israeli forces are returning fire without escalating the response. Hezbollah claims more than 40 fighters have been killed so far, while the UN estimates almost 20,000 people have been displaced either side of the border. If the cross border fire between Israeli Defence Forces and Hezbollah in Lebanon were to give way to a fully fledged second front, Robinson said it would be catastrophic to the Israeli military operation. I think they had a very hard time in the 2006 war with Lebanese Hezbollah and their incursions there. And Hezbollah is now much more experienced from its extensive operations in Syria. Smoke rises from inside an Israeli army position which was hit by Hezbollah fighters as seen from Tair Harfa, a Lebanese border village with Israel, south Lebanon. Credit: AP Riedel added that Hezbollah and Israel both well understood the devastation they would suffer. It would be unlike anything weve ever seen in an Arab-Israeli war.

My instinct would be that Iran is telling Hezbollah, let it simmer, but dont let it boil over. If it boils over, this whole situation becomes very unpredictable and Hezbollah is a very valuable asset of Iran. It doesnt want to see that asset significantly diminished. Hezbollah possesses far greater military might than Hamas. An estimated 150,000 to 200,000 rockets in its arsenal have the potential to reach northern and central Israel on a scale that would likely overwhelm Israels highly effective Iron Dome. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, right, meets with Ziad al-Nakhleh, the head of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, centre, and Hamas deputy chief, Saleh al-Arouri, in Beirut, Lebanon. The photo is dated October 25. Credit: AP On the other hand, Israel has the best air force in the Middle East, and its capacity to bomb the suburbs of Beirut and other strongholds of Hezbollah] is enormous, Reidel said. While there remains little appetite on both sides for a second front, a meeting this week between Hezbollahs usually shadowy leader Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and top chiefs of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad revealed closer than ever cooperation within the Iran-backed alliance.

US and Iran dragged into all-out war Against the backdrop of rising regional tensions, the US has repeatedly warned other actors not to escalate the conflict, most notably Iran, which Secretary of State Antony Blinken singled out this week with a curt message: Dont throw fuel on the fire. Biden went a step further on Friday in a rare message to Irans supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, following at least 12 attacks on American forces in the region since October 17. My warning to the ayatollah was that if they continue to move against those troops, we will respond, and he should be prepared. It has nothing to do with Israel, he said, as reported by Reuters.

Loading Iran is already engaged by extension through Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, both of which it funds. Within its proxy network, the so-called Axis of Resistance, Iran holds the most influence over Hezbollah, with members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps in senior ranks. Senior fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington Ali Alfoneh said it was in no ones interest for the US and Iran to be dragged into conflict. He argued that Irans main objectives had already been met on day one of the war: poke a hole in the Iron Dome, disrupt Israel-Saudi diplomatic normalisation, and ridicule its intelligence agencies. Hamas, meanwhile, was simply an expendable pawn in Irans grander chess game with Israel and the US. Iran sits back and watches Israels legitimacy decline as civilian corpses pile up in Gaza. In the meantime, Lebanese Hezbollah serves its purpose as added deterrence against Israeli bombardment of Irans nuclear facilities, Alfoneh said.

Khamenei has denied Iranian involvement in the October 7 invasion, but praised attacks on Israels military and intelligence structures. As long as the conflict stays confined to Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon, Reidel said Israel was unlikely to need American boots on the ground, thanks to the recent $US14 billion ($22 billion) aid package, on top of the $US3.3 billion ($6 billion) in defence funding it already gives Israel every year. Only in the worst-case scenario of a full-scale war between Israel and Iran would the entry of US troops be unavoidable. Because if there are significant military attacks inside Iran, the Iranians are going to respond against Israel, but theyre also going to respond against Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, theyll go after American bases in places like that, Reidel said.

And places like Dubai and Riyadh are extraordinarily vulnerable. You destroy the water desalination facilities in Saudi Arabia, and you have to evacuate the city of Riyadh. The day after tomorrow As a former advisor to Palestinian peace negotiators, Khaled Elgindy has been struck by the severity of the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, calling out a lack of outrage from the international community. It seems to be that Israels political and military leaders are operating on the basis of rage and revenge, but nobody is asking the Israelis, what is your endgame other than death and destruction? said Elgindy, who is the director of Palestinian-Israeli Affairs at the Washington-based Middle East Institute. Robinson agreed that there had been too little discussion of what lies ahead for Gaza, if indeed Israel can successfully dismantle Hamas, which many say is unattainable.

As she sees it, there are two scenarios: One is that the UN is brought in to provide a trusteeship for, in essence, a temporary government, she said. The other option is to bring in the Palestinian Authority. It is not calling for the destruction of Israel, unlike Hamas, but it has a very weak government and would need to refresh its legitimacy through elections. The authority is dominated by the Fatah party, which Hamas ousted from Gaza in 2007. Its president, Mahmoud Abbas, 87, is now in his 18th year of a four-year term that expired in 2009. Elgindy said it would be political suicide for the Palestinian Authority leadership to return to Gaza in any arrangement with Israel, and cement their public perception as the Vichy government of Palestine. It would absolutely destroy whatever shred of credibility they may have left, which, frankly, isnt much, he said.

Robinson acknowledged the corruption and mismanagement that has long wracked the Palestinian Authority, but said any future pathway would rely on its fundamental reform. Because if you dont have a Palestinian partner in this, theres no way. More coverage of the Hamas-Israel conflict Cascading violence: Tremors from the Hamas attacks and Israels response have reached far beyond the border. But what would all-out war in the Middle East look like?

Tremors from the Hamas attacks and Israels response have reached far beyond the border. But what would all-out war in the Middle East look like? The human cost: Hamas massacre in Israel has traumatised - and hardened - survivors. And in Gaza, neighbourhoods have become ghost cities.

Hamas massacre in Israel has traumatised - and hardened - survivors. And in Gaza, neighbourhoods have become ghost cities. Hamas metro: Inside the labyrinthine network of underground tunnels, which the Palestinian militant group has commanded beneath war-ravaged Gaza for 16 years. The covert corridors have long provided essential channels for the movement of weapons and armed combatants.

Inside the labyrinthine network of underground tunnels, which the Palestinian militant group has commanded beneath war-ravaged Gaza for 16 years. The covert corridors have long provided essential channels for the movement of weapons and armed combatants. What is Hezbollah?: As fears of the conflict expanding beyond Israel and Hamas steadily rise, all eyes are on the militant group and political party that controls southern Lebanon and has been designated internationally as a terrorist group. How did it form and what does Iran have to do with it?
The families of hostages held in Gaza by Hamas warned they will begin protesting if Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant do not meet with them Saturday.

A spokesperson for the families said they plan to gather at a central square in Tel Aviv. They want the meeting because of increased apprehension about their loved ones after Israel ramped up attacks on Gaza overnight Friday.

The militarys claim it is targeting tunnel infrastructure has prompted fear among the families that military leaders are being cavalier with the lives of the hostages, who are believed to be held inside the tunnels.

AP
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 West Bank: If you want to see the violence, the anger that is always ready to erupt here in the West Bank, this is where you come. A petrol station on the outskirts of Ramallah on a Friday afternoon. The sound of gunfire and screeching ambulance sirens; the smell of burning tyres and tear gas. Black plumes of smoke soaring to the sky from blazing orange fireballs. Palestinian boys lobbing stones and Israeli soldiers shooting bullets. People who live beside each other but exist in largely alternative universes, driven apart by competing historical narratives and modern grievances. At least once a week youll find clashes like this here: ritualistic and sometimes deadly displays of division that have intensified since the beginning of Israels war against Hamas. Palestinian youth during clashes with the Israeli military at the City End Circle near the al Jalazone refugee camp in al Bireh, Ramallah, West Bank. Credit: Kate Geraghty The afternoon begins peacefully with the call to Friday prayers, regarded as mandatory for Muslim men. Through Ramallahs bustling fruit and vegetable markets, the worshippers gravitate towards the Jamal Abdel Nasser Mosque. The loss of civilian life in Gaza, the imam bellows on a loudspeaker, is as bad as the Holocaust, as bad as the creation of the state of Israel. A few doors down, a group of five friends sip Arabic coffee outside a bakery. They lay the blame for the October 7 massacres on Israel, rather than Hamas. Israel got what it deserved, says one man. We are living inside a big prison with no freedom. I see no future here for my three children. Ramallah is a city of cosmopolitan charm, where you can smoke shisha at sidewalk cafes and indulge in succulent shawarma and stretchy mastic ice cream. Its a gorgeous place. A tragic one too. Stencilled on walls everywhere are graffiti portraits of Palestinian men who are regarded as heroic martyrs because they died in clashes with Israelis. Palestinian youth during clashes with the Israeli military at the City End Circle near the Jalazone refugee camp in al-Bireh, Ramallah, West Bank. Credit: Kate Geraghty This year was already the deadliest for Palestinians in the West Bank for at least two decades. Hamas massacre in Israel, and the resulting bombardment of Gaza, have inflamed tensions further: 103 Palestinians have died in conflict with Israelis in the West Bank in the past three weeks alone, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Fighting in Gaza is starting to spread to the West Bank, sparking what could become a third intifada, Middle East scholar Daniel Byman wrote in Foreign Affairs this week, highlighting the possibility of another bloody, years-long Palestinian uprising like those which began in 1987 and 2000. After prayers end, a demonstration winds its way through the streets of Ramallah, the de facto Palestinian capital. Some wave the green flag of Hamas; others the yellow flag of Fatah, the more moderate political party that controls the Palestinian areas of the West Bank. The march concludes at the petrol station, opposite an Israeli military checkpoint that guards Psagot, a Jewish settlement in the Jerusalem Mountains. Established in the early 1980s, Psagot is considered illegal under international law, as are all Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Many of the Palestinian protesters live 10 minutes away in a refugee camp, established to house those driven out of their homes by the founding of Israel in 1948.

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A man walks past paintings of those regarded as martyrs on a wall in Dheisheh refugee camp in Bethhlehem, West Bank. Credit: Kate Geraghty As evening approaches, the atmosphere grows edgy as young Palestinian men use slingshots to hurl rocks towards the settlement. Many are teenage boys, hopped up on testosterone and rage. Israeli snipers, perched high on the mountainside, fire at them with live ammunition. The protesters know they are completely outgunned, yet they keep throwing rocks. One boy risks his life to plant a Palestinian flag on a petrol tanker near the entry to the settlement. At least eight protesters are rushed to hospital with gunshot wounds, many in the leg but at least one in the chest. Martin Luther King Jr described riots as the language of the unheard, and most protesters offer a version of this statement when asked why they come here. They dont know any better way to express their indignation at life under occupation. To spend even a brief amount of time travelling around the West Bank is to experience the Byzantine rules that govern life here. So it is at the protest. Under the 1995 Oslo Accord, the West Bank was sliced up into three divisions: Areas A, B and C. The Ramallah protesters are standing in Area A, which is under the administrative control of the Palestinian National Authority. The refugee camp up the road is classified as Area B, meaning it is jointly run by Palestinian and Israeli authorities. Psagot, like all Israeli settlements, is classified as Area C, putting it under exclusive Israeli control. Under a Hamas flag, a demonstrator protests the Israeli bombing of Gaza on the streets of central Ramallah, following Friday prayers. Credit: Kate Geraghty At the protest to express solidarity is Saber Shalash, a local Fatah leader, olive farmer and military veteran. I am against the occupation and I support Gaza, he says. We are the same country, the same people.

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Shalash explains that he lives in Jibiya, a nearby village classified as Area B. Five years ago, he says, an Israeli settlement popped up on the outskirts of town, leading to near daily clashes between the settlers and Palestinian farmers. We agree to stay in touch, and arrange to visit his home. A day later, Shalash calls and says that a boy was shot by an Israeli settler in the hills near his village. He is in hospital and has had major surgery. Fatah leader Saber Shalash near his hometown of Jibiya, which is in Area B, and his farm, which is in Area C. Credit: Kate Geraghty Living in fear Two Palestinian teenagers named Sohaib. Both so young and with so much life left to live. Two boys who were shot in the chest by Israelis. One made it to Saturday alive; another is now regarded as a martyr. Such is life, and death, in the West Bank. Lying in a hospital bed near Ramallah, Sohaib Mahmoud lifts up his gown to display the stitched-up chest wound where he was almost shot dead. According to Sohaib and his relatives, they were picking olives peacefully on their family land, near Jibiya, early in the morning last Tuesday when Israeli settlers started firing on them. They didnt even tell us to go away, says the 16-year-old electrical engineering student. They just started shooting. They were aiming at me. A cousin backs up the story, showing footage he took on his phone while trying to avoid the gunfire. Sohaib Mahmoud recovers in hospital in Ramallah after being shot by a settler near the village of Jibiya. Credit: While it is impossible to confirm exactly what occurred that morning, there is no doubt settler violence poses an increasingly dramatic threat to Palestinians living in the West Bank. In an olive grove, near where Sohaib was shot, we encounter a third-generation olive farmer named Al-Haj and his two wives. We are always living in fear, he says, offering us glasses of sweet tea infused with sage. This is a settler strategy to steal the lands. They are hunting us. They dont want to see any Arabs in front of them.

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The United Nations recorded an average of three settler-related incidents a day in the first eight months of this year, up from two a day in 2022 and one per day the year before. The olive picking season  which runs from October to November  is a particular flashpoint for attacks. At the White House this week, US President Joe Biden said that attacks on Palestinians by extremist settlers were pouring gasoline on the already burning tensions in the region. In a June joint statement, Israels top law enforcement and intelligence officials said vigilante attacks by settlers contradict every moral and Jewish value and constitute nationalist terrorism in the full sense of the term. Palestinian women harvest olives on their farm in Area C, near Jibiya in the West Bank, Palestine. Credit: Kate Geraghty Given the bullet pierced his sons liver and kidney, Sohaibs father is amazed he survived. What happened to him is what is happening to the whole of our country, he says. Sohaib al-Sous, 15, was not so lucky. Last Friday morning he was shot dead during Israeli military raids in his hometown of Beitunia, three kilometres west of Ramallah. According to his family, Sohaib and some fellow students were marching peacefully from their school to a military contact point when the soldiers began shooting. Defence for Children International, a non-government organisation, said he was killed after Israeli troops opened fire indiscriminately toward a group of Palestinian youth from 100 metres away. A spokesperson for the Israel Defence Forces said a violent riot developed when Israeli troops were travelling through Beitunia after conducting a preventive operation in a nearby village.

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The forces responded with the use of crowd dispersal methods and live fire to disperse the gathering, the spokesperson said, adding that the incident was under review. Mourners bring the body of Sohaib al-Sous, 15, to the family home in Beitunia on the outskirts of Ramallah for his funeral. Credit: Kate Geraghty In keeping with Islamic law, Sohaibs funeral is held the following day near his family home. As his mother and other female mourners wait in a covered area, his male relatives carry his body on a stretcher through the street. His body is covered in the Palestinian flag, his face adorned with flowers. As he is taken away to be buried, the grieving womens cries morph into wails of grief. What happened in Gaza broke Sohaibs heart, his grandfather Zaid tells us, describing him as a non-violent boy and a hard-working student. His father raised him with a love of Palestine. It was important for his father to remind him that this was his land. The car bumper keeping the country safe Driving south through the spectacular limestone mountains of the West Bank, we arrive at Kiryat Arba, a Jewish settlement an hours drive from Ramallah. Boaz Haetzni pulls up in a silver Suzuki, tapping the windows to show they are made of heavy-duty plastic, rather than glass. To protect us from stone attacks by Arabs, he says. The Israeli government, he says, covers the cost for Jewish residents in Judea and Samaria, the official Israeli name for the West Bank. In Haetznis view, we are meeting not in the occupied Palestinian territories but in greater Israel.

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Interest from overseas property seekers surged as migration had returned to pre-pandemic levels, PropTrack has reported.

The PropTrack Overseas Search Report in October revealed that searches from abroad had continued to increase since the last report in July, with buy searches up by 11.5% in the past three months and rent searches up by 7.8%.

Karen Dellow (pictured above), PropTrack senior data analyst, said both buy and rent enquiries have surpassed pre-pandemic levels and are expected to keep increasing due to the resurgence of migration to previous levels.

A quarter of overseas buy and rent searches originated from New Zealand, with interest from this neighbouring nation steadily growing each month. Rent searches from across the Tasman have surged by 38% compared to last year, while buy searches have also increased by 7%.

Interest from China took a hit in 2020, plunging 53% in the year up to September 2020. However, searches for properties to purchase in March jumped and have now bounced back to pre-pandemic levels. Rental searches from China tell a similar story, with volumes nearly doubling compared to the levels observed prior to the pandemic.

This increase is primarily driven by the return of students and migrant workers to our shores, Dellow said.

In July 2023, the number of arrivals from migrant workers and students reached the highest level since January 2020, with an average of 265,000 new arrivals each month over the past six months.

Rental searches in particular are a leading indicator of overseas migration and have mirrored the trend of permanent and student arrivals to Australia, illustrating new arrivals relationship with the rental market, Dellow said.

In early 2022, when Australia reopened its international borders, both the number of overseas arrivals and search volumes began to increase month by month.

Recent ABS data indicated that reopening the borders had a substantial impact on the population.

In 2022, Australia's population grew 1.9%, an increase of 496,800 people over the 12 months, which was the largest increase in 15 years. Around 78% of the increase resulted from overseas migration, most of which were overseas students.

When comparing the population increase to the rise in rental searches during the same period, the data revealed a substantial surge in interest from overseas searchers.

Hotspots for overseas property seekers

Melbourne has been the most searched location on realestate.com.au over the past six months, which Dellow said was hardly surprising given its popularity among migrants and its status as a significant center for commerce and education.

Overseas buyers have also shown a strong demand for the Gold Coast, attracted by its sandy beaches and year-round sunshine, PropTrack reported.

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European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson are praising the post-Brexit trade deal hammered out on Christmas Eve. (Photo: Olivier Hoslet/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo)

Since the outbreak of the Israel-Palestine conflict on October 7, the European Union (EU) has been embroiled in internal debates over supporting Israel's right to self-defense versus advocating for the protection of civilians.

Just two days after Hamas launched attacks on Israel, Oliver Varhelyi, the EU Commissioner in charge of European Neighborhood and Enlargement, announced an immediate suspension of the EU's 6.9 billion aid to Palestine. However, hours after Varhelyi's statement, Janez Lenarcic, the EU's Crisis Management Commissioner, expressed the opposite sentiment, asserting that the EU would continue its aid to Palestine. The EU Commission later clarified that aid to Palestine had not been suspended but was under urgent review.

At the top echelons of the EU, officials have made contradictory statements regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict. Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, echoed the U.S. in staunchly supporting Israel, asserting the EU's solidarity with Israel during her visit. This stance sparked controversy within the EU. Josep Borrell, the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, publicly noted that the EU's foreign policy is determined by its member states, not the Commission's president.

Borrell further stated that while Israel has a right to self-defense, some of its actions in Gaza have violated international law. This is the strongest criticism of Israel by an EU official to date. Charles Michel, President of the European Council and a known critic of von der Leyen, sided with Borrell, emphasizing Israel's obligation to adhere to international humanitarian law.

Last week, over 800 EU staff members and diplomats penned a letter to von der Leyen, criticizing her "unrestrained" support for Israel. The letter accused the EU Commission of double standards: opposing Russia's blockade of Ukraine but turning a blind eye to Israel's blockade of Gaza.

During the EU summit on October 26-27, leaders of the 27 EU nations clashed over the wording of the EU's statement on the Israel-Palestine conflict.

According to an interview with Reuters, EU officials revealed that diplomats debated whether to call for a "humanitarian pause" (singular) in Gaza, multiple "pauses" (plural), or a full "ceasefire." By Wednesday, the singular "humanitarian pause" seemed to be the favored term, suggesting a temporary halt rather than a long-term ceasefire. By Thursday afternoon, the plural version, indicating multiple pauses for humanitarian reasons, became the dominant discussion.

Among EU nations, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, and Luxembourg advocated for the term "ceasefire," urging both sides to end hostilities and restore peace in Gaza. Ireland and Spain are seen as the most pro-Palestinian members of the EU. However, Germany, bearing the weight of its WWII history, along with Austria and the Czech Republic, which were occupied by Nazi Germany during WWII, supported Israel's right to self-defense. They believed that calling for a "ceasefire" would weaken Israel's defensive capabilities and provide Hamas with an opportunity to counterattack.

Ultimately, countries like Spain made concessions, agreeing to use "pause" instead of "ceasefire" in the declaration. In exchange, the EU agreed to Spain's request to convene an international peace conference on the Israel-Palestine issue as soon as possible.

The official statement from Thursday's meeting, published on the EU's website, reiterated the EU's condemnation of Hamas's attacks on Israel and supported Israel's right to self-defense within the bounds of international and humanitarian law.

Meanwhile, the EU Commission expressed "deep concern" over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza, urging relevant parties to take all necessary measures to ensure that humanitarian aid enters Gaza "swiftly, continuously, safely, and unimpeded." This includes establishing humanitarian corridors and "pauses for humanitarian needs." The term used for "pauses" was in plural.

However, the declaration, formulated after several rounds of disputes among EU nations, did not impact the actual situation in Gaza.

As of October 26, the death toll in Gaza had risen to over 7,000. Apart from intense airstrikes, Israel dispatched ground troops and tanks to Gaza for a second minor ground assault, preparing for a larger-scale invasion. After completing their mission, Israeli soldiers withdrew from Gaza.

A commentary in the EU edition of Political News Network pointed out that although the EU is one of Palestine's largest donors, due to internal divisions and habitual reliance on the U.S., the EU's influence in international affairs has noticeably declined.

The article argued that in this round of the Israel-Palestine conflict, the EU has been reduced to a "non-governmental organization": while its humanitarian contributions are welcomed, its influence stops there.
Hinduja group-owned commercial vehicles maker Ashok Leyland expects over one-fifth of its revenue to come from exports in the next five years, according to company's Executive Chairman Dheeraj Hinduja.

The thrust is to see Ashok Leyland among the top 10 global original equipment manufacturers (OEM), said Hinduja at Carlton House Terrace, London, UK, during a select media roundtable with the Hinduja family members here.

The company, which is investing around Rs 1,000 crore to set up a bus manufacturing facility near Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, expects the first vehicle to roll out within 15-18 months.

Besides, Ashok Leyland has plans to enter Europe with electric buses in 2025, said Hinduja.

As per its strategy, the company would focus only on the commercial vehicle segment and has no plans to enter the passenger vehicle segment as of now, he said.

There is "room to grow with commercial vehicles" and a "much better growth path" in the segment, said Hinduja.

In financial year ended March 31, 2023, Ashok Leyland's consolidated revenue was at Rs 41,672.60 crore and it had exported 78,645 units, which was less than a year before.

When asked about overseas sales, Hinduja said:"At the moment, we do about 10-11 per cent and within the next five years, our target is to definitely be over 20 per cent.

"That is also because the Indian market has substantial room for growth. If the Indian market was not growing at the pace, then that percentage would be a lot higher," he added.

Ashok Leyland is growing not only in the domestic market, but much more internationally, Hinduja said.

"Our vision is clear, we have to be one of the global top 10. So there is a large thrust with the management team to ensure that we can actually make Ashok Leyland a global Indian OEM, which today I think we would be the only one if you are able to achieve such a position."



The company has assembly plants at the UAE's Ras al Khaimah and also in Nigeria and South Africa, where it is working with local partners.

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"We are looking at other GCC markets, which are very strong. This year, we will start moving into the Philippines and Malaysian markets as well and hopefully very soon into Indonesia as well," he said.

Besides, former CIS countries offer a large opportunity to Ashok Leyland, Hinduja added.

"So I would say barring Europe, US, Japan, we are looking at all parts of the world and we will enter Europe with electric buses in 2025," he said.

On its upcoming plant near Lucknow, Hinduja said:" The government has moved very quickly over there. We have selected a site and I think we are looking forward to having the first buses roll out within 15 to 18 months from now."



When asked about any plans of Ashok Leyland to enter the passenger vehicle segment, Dheeraj Hinduja said it has much better growth plans in the commercial side.

"I know passenger cars have a large headroom as well, but I think the competitive environment in passenger cars, including electric is going to be far more fierce and how we are positioned in Ashok Leyland and the opportunities I think it will give us a much better growth path rather than moving into a different area," he added.

Hinduja further said, "I think we will stick to right from a 2 tonne to a 55 tonne truck, to a small minibus, to a large double-decker bus."



About 25 years ago, Ashok Leyland had explored the car segment when the economy was opening up, he said.

It had signed an MoU as well with one of the largest OEMs to explore the opportunities. However, it could not take shape as it was not getting a majority stake. The OEM wanted to run the show as well, he added.

"So they wanted majority, we wanted majority and it was not something that we felt comfortable with and also if you go back nearly 25 years or so, the room to grow with commercial vehicles was quite substantial," said Hinduja.
Tata Electronics is set to acquire 100 per cent of Wistron Corporations indirectly held stake in its Indian venture for $125 million  a deal that will catapult the Tatas into a globally exclusive club of iPhone assemblers. The agreement will enable Tata Electronics to emerge as the countrys first homegrown iPhone maker.

The board of Wistron Corporation, the worlds third-largest electronics manufacturing services (EMS) player, on Friday approved a proposal by its two subsidiaries, which jointly own the Taiwanese firms India venture  Wistron InfoComm Manufacturing (India) Pvt Ltd  to sell it to Tata Electronics via a share purchase agreement. The India venture operates the iPhone manufacturing plant in Narasapura, near Bengaluru.

At the same time, however, SMS InfoComm (Singapore) Pte Ltd, one of the two subsidiaries of Wistron Corp, has announced a proposal to convert a loan of $130.26 million (including accrued interest) that it extended to the Indian venture into equity.

While the conversion price is not known, according to sources, this potentially could mean that Wistron may continue to have a minority stake in the Indian unit.

Following the deal, Tata Electronics would become the first Indian company to join Apple Incs exclusive list of currently four global vendors that assemble the iPhone. Besides Wistron, Taiwanese players Foxconn and Pegatron, and Chinese company Luxshare are on the list.

The importance of the agreement could be gauged from the fact that 7 per cent of iPhones global production has already shifted to India from China, and the target is to hit around 18-20 per cent by FY26.

Commenting on the development, Union Electronics and IT Minister Ashwani Vaishnaw said: It is another major step in mobile manufacturing. With this acquisition, mobile manufacturing will be further strengthened in the country. The Tatas declined to comment.

Wistron has been one of the key players in assembling iPhones in the country in Karnataka, apart from Foxconn and Pegatron, and is eligible for incentives under the production-linked incentive scheme for mobile devices. It has been manufacturing the iPhone 14 in the country. According to data from S&P Global Intelligence, Wistron was the second-largest exporter of iPhones from India, after Foxconn, notching up $1.98 billion in revenue in FY 23 against $0.71 billion in FY22; it accounted for 36 per cent of iPhone exports from the country. The sources said over 90 per cent of Wistrons production in India was exported.

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The company, according to the sources, has already invested Rs 1,250 crore in setting up the plant and employs more than 12,000 workers  a figure that it was planning to triple. However, it faced labour issues in the plant with workers protesting allegedly unpaid wages and long working hours.

The Tatas are not new in the business with Apple, and have a clear strategy to become a major player in the electronics and semiconductor space. They have been an important partner of the Cupertino-headquartered company, which is looking at building a local supply chain so that it can increase value addition in iPhones, something which it had committed would be at 40 per cent at the end of the five-year PLI scheme. Currently, the local value addition ranges from 12-15 per cent, according to the sources.

Apple had tied up with Tata Electronics to supply it iPhone enclosures, which account for 9-12 per cent of the total cost of production. After a learning curve of two-three years to cut rejection rates, the Tatas are now exporting the India-made enclosures to Chinese assemblers of the iPhone. The Wistron deal will again it an opportunity to become a global EMS player.

The Tatas have also announced that they are interested in semiconductor opportunities, including fabs, but have not given details of their plans.





Wistrons India journey

2017: The first EMS player to come to India to assemble iPhones For Wistron, pulling out from assembling iPhones is not new. It did so in Vietnam, where it sold its two iPhone-making plants in 2020 to Chinese EMS player Luxshare, which is increasingly becoming a key Apple vendor after Foxconn.

2020: Pulls out from China and Vietnam; sells iPhone-making factories to Luxshare

2021: Emerges as an eligible player for production-linked incentives. Last year, it even assembled iPhone 11, 13 and 14

2022: Starts negotiations with the Tatas to sell the Karnataka factory

2023: Board of Wistron clears the plants sale to the Tatas
State-owned SJVN Ltd on Friday said its green energy arm has inked an initial pact with Norwegian firm Ocean Sun for a membrane-based floating solar pilot project in India.

"Under the aegis of India-Norway Task Force for Energy, SJVN Green Energy Ltd (SGEL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of SJVN Limited today inked an MoU with Ocean Sun, Norway for collaboration in the field of new technologies in green and clean energy sector," a BSE filing said.

As per the MoU, SGEL shall develop and finance a pilot membrane-based floating solar project (about 2 MW) at a suitable location in India.

For this project, patented technological support shall be provided by Ocean Sun.

This MoU shall pave way for technology transfer and cooperation amongst the two countries, it added.

Once this pilot project succeeds, the two companies can look forward for expanding this technology on a large scale along the vast coast line in the southern part of India.

SJVN has aligned its shared vision with that of the Indian government's target of achieving 50 per cent energy from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030.
Cipla on Friday posted a 43.4 per cent rise in profit for the September quarter at Rs 1,131 crore, with its highest-ever quarterly revenue of Rs 6,678 crore, up 14.6 per cent year-on-year (YoY).

The earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (Ebitda) stood at 26 per cent, up 380 basis points.

On a sequential basis, the revenue was up 5.5 per cent from Rs 6,329 crore in Q1FY24, and profit after tax (PAT) surged 13.5 per cent from Rs 996 crore in the first quarter of the financial year.

Cipla beat Bloomberg estimates which had pegged revenues at around Rs 6,490 crore and net income at Rs 984 crore.

Revenue from its India business rose 10 per cent Y-o-Y, riding on branded prescription and generic businesses. North America sales stood at $229 million, showing a 28 per cent Y-o-Y growth and 3 per cent quarter-on-quarter (Q-o-Q) growth. The South Africa private market registered a 12 per cent Y-o-Y growth in local currency terms on the back of prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) growth. Cipla had acquired Actor Pharma in South Africa during the quarter to enhance its OTC portfolio.

We reported our highest-ever quarterly revenue with Ebitda margins scaling up to 26 per cent. India business grew at a healthy 10% Y-o-Y with continued market-beating performance in the branded prescription and Trade Generics business, said Umang Vohra, managing director and global chief executive officer, Cipla.

Strong sales of some products in the US and lower anti-infective sales in India drove the margins. Anti-infective is a low-margin category. The benefits of price correction in India were also seen in the second quarter.

Commenting on the market reports stating that Cipla promoters are looking to sell their entire stake in the company, Vohra said, The organisation and the promoters are different entities...we have not heard anything on the transactions, and we have maintained that these are speculative. We would disclose it to the public when there is any development.

Vohra also said that these speculations wont impact the companys future capex plans. Usually, the annual capex is around Rs 1,500 crore.

Also Read Cipla on the block: Who's a better fit and what it means for shareholders? Cipla surges 4% on beating Q2 estimates; profit jumps 43%, revenue up 15% Cipla Q1 preview: India biz may push profit over 50% QoQ; US sales to drag Cipla Q2 net profit seen rising 25% YoY; US sales may drop QoQ to $215 mn Torrent pharma in advance talks with CVC Capital to buyout Cipla promoters Inox Wind Q2 results: Net loss narrows to Rs 26.8 cr due to higher revenues Indian Hotels Company Q2 results: Consolidated PAT rises 37% to Rs 167 cr Schaeffler's India unit Q2 profit rises 8% to Rs 233 cr on robust demand SRF Q2 results: Net profit declines 37% to Rs 301 crore on lower income SBI Life Insurance Q2 PAT flat at Rs 380 crore as higher expenses weigh

"In Cipla we have always believed in investing for the future. Having said that, how human beings engage with the organisation, and how they are affected, is something to be seen," Vohra added.

He also admitted that the time taken in resolution of USFDA warnings in the Indore plant may delay product launches by 6 months. The company had started shifting products (generic Advair) to other sites like Long Island in the US four months back. Some of the respiratory assets from Goa are also being shifted.

Our pipeline is progressing really well with key milestones achieved in Respiratory and Peptide assets. We will continue our focus on driving profitable growth across businesses, Vohra noted.

R&D investments stood at Rs 379 crore or 5.7 per cent of sales, higher by 13 per cent Y-o-Y driven by continued progress of clinical trials on key pipeline assets, the company said. The company has a net cash position of Rs 5,850 crore.
Chemical firm SRF Ltd on Friday reported a 37 per cent decline in its consolidated net profit to Rs 300.78 crore for the September quarter on lower income and announced a total capex of Rs 510 crore for setting up of facilities to produce agrochemical intermediate and packaging film.

Its net profit stood at Rs 480.99 crore in the year-ago period.

Total income fell to Rs 3,206.48 crore during the July-September period of the 2023-24 financial year from Rs 3,760.52 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year, according to a regulatory filing.

SRF Chairman and Managing Director Ashish Bharat Ram said, "During the (second) quarter, we felt the brunt of the destocking and inventory rationalisation phenomenon in our chemicals business. Having said that, we are now beginning to see some positive traction that should bode well for a better second half of FY24. The overcapacity in our packaging films business will continue for some more time."



The board has approved projects for setting up a manufacturing facility for capacitor-grade BOPP Film in Indore at a projected cost of Rs 275 crore. It also approved a project for setting up a new facility to produce agrochemical intermediate in Dahej, Gujarat at a cost of Rs 235 crore.

Updating on a capital expenditure plan for setting up an integrated facility for the development of PTFE at an estimated cost of Rs 424 crore, SRF informed that the project has been commissioned and capitalised at an aggregate cost of Rs 489 crore.

"The cost over-run is due to an increase in civil and preoperative expenses and delays caused in obtaining support from the technology partner due to COVID imposed restrictions," it added.

With an annual turnover of Rs 14,592 crore, SRF Ltd is a chemical-based multi-business entity engaged in the manufacturing of industrial and specialty intermediates. Established in 1970, the company's diversified business portfolio covers fluorochemicals, speciality chemicals, packaging films, technical textiles, and coated and laminated fabrics.

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The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare reported a 19 per cent increase in mango exports during the first five months of the ongoing financial year. India has exported mangoes worth $47.98 million, compared to $ 40.33 million during the same period last year. Collaborating with the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, APEDA facilitated the export of 27,330.02 MT of mangoes from April to August 2023.

India's mango exports to the USA alone surged by 19 per cent, totalling 2043.60 MT in these first five months. Aside from the USA, India exported mango to Japan (43.08 MT), New Zealand (110.99 MT), Australia (58.42 MT), and South Africa (4.44 MT). India also expanded its mango exports to 41 countries, exploring new markets in Iran, Mauritius, the Czech Republic, and Nigeria.

To boost mango exports in the 2023 season, the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and APEDA invited inspectors from the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) for preclearance of mangoes at irradiation facilities in Vashi, Nashik, Bangalore, and Ahmedabad.

Inspectors from South Korea were also invited for preclearance of mangoes, enabling India to export 18.43 MT of mangoes after treatment at authorised vapour heat treatment facilities. APEDA showcased Indian mangoes at the Seoul Food & Hotel Show, promoting exports. To mark India's 75th Independence anniversary (Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav), APEDA exported 75 eastern varieties of mangoes, including 5 GI-tagged varieties, to Bahrain.

Promotion events for mangoes were held in collaboration with Indian Missions in various countries, including a mango-tasting event in Brussels, featuring Amrapalli, Banganapalli, Kesar, and Himsagar varieties.

In 2023, APEDA also organised a mango promotion programme in Malaysia, showcasing Kesar and Banganapalli mangoes. Similar events were conducted in Afghanistan and Kuwait with the respective Embassies of India.




Even as 5G, 6G, made-in-India phones and the role of tech revolution in bringing social justice dominated the seventh edition of the countrys flagship telecom summit India Mobile Congress, satellite communication managed to steal some of the thunder. At New Delhis Bharat Mandapam, which had last month hosted the G20 leaders, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the audience in a packed hall on Friday morning that India will lead the world in 6G technology. After the fastest roll-out of the 5G technology in India, the government is now working on becoming a leader in 6G, the PM said amid loud cheer from the crowd made up of industry honchos, bureaucrats and others.

Sharing the dais with the PM were Reliance Jio Chairman Akash Ambani, Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal and Aditya Birla Group Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla, who sits on the board of Vodafone Idea. They stayed with the 5G theme talking about their expansion plans, but the two biggest telcosJio and Airtelmade major announcements on the satellite telecom front, an area thats been in the news for uncertainty on spectrum allocation method.

Mittal said that Bharti Airtel-backed Eutelsat OneWeb's satellite communication service will be available in India from next month. He said the company had established its ground station in Mehsana, Gujarat. Akash Ambani, who made his debut at India Mobile Congress, showcased the JioSpaceFiber technology to the PM. The company on Friday announced JioSpaceFiber as Indias first satellite-based giga fiber service to provide high speed broadband to previously inaccessible geographies within the country. Jios venture with a Luxembourg-based satellite telecom network provider is likely to unleash intense competition with Bharti Airtels OneWeb.

The PM, however, did not speak on satellite telecom, while keeping the focus on the core areas of the sector. "In 5G, we reached from roll out to reach out stage," he said. Within one year of roll-out, 400,000 5G base stations have been set up in India. "Not only 5G, we are in the direction of becoming a leader in the 6G space."

Modi highlighted that unlike in 2014, when India was a net importer of mobiles, the country today is the world's second-largest mobile manufacturer. He added that the country is also manufacturing electronic goods worth Rs 2 trillion for exports. "Today we all are proud that the whole world is using 'Made in India' phones," he said, adding that the need of the hour is to take forward the success in mobile and electronics and establish a strong semiconductor manufacturing sector in the country.

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Pointing out that India is lucky that its young generation is leading the country's technology revolution, he said in broadband speed, India's rank has risen from 118 to 43. He also said that the speed and availability of connectivity have a huge impact on the social and economic situation in the country. For this, the Centre's top priority is to provide access to capital, resources and technology. The Centre is also focussing on democratising technology, he said. "For me, this is the biggest social justice. The more we use technology, the more we will go closer to becoming a developed nation."

At the event, Modi also gave the award of "5G Lab" to 100 institutions. Earlier at the event, IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that India is emerging as a telecom technology developer, exporter and leader. Telecom is the gateway of digital, Vaishnaw said, citing the speedy roll-out of 5G services in India and the nation's clear 6G vision.

Committed to 5G

Akash Ambani said the 5G rollout in India has been the fastest and promised to expand 5G connectivity further.

Jio had installed 85 per cent of 5G cells deployed in the country, he added. "Deploying a 5G cell every 10 seconds, Jio has installed over 1 million 5G cells across all 22 circles of India," he said.



Mittal said 5,000 towns and 20,000 villages have already been covered with Airtel's 5G network and promised to keep his earlier commitment to complete the rollout nationwide by March 2024. He stressed India is becoming a world leader in the manufacturing of digital technology.

Birla spoke about Vodafone Idea developing a range of 5G use cases across diverse sectors such as agri, infra, automotive and logistics, among others. While the company is yet to begin offering commercial 5G services, the company would invest significantly to complete the rollout of 5G services and expand 4G services, he said.

Bharti Airtel, which showcased its state-of-the-art artificial intelligence-powered, self-optimised network, drew the PM's attention to Airtel's LEO satellite constellation.
India's mango exports witnessed a 19 per cent jump at $47.98 billion as the demand for the fruit remained robust during the 2023 season, according to data from the commerce department.

In terms of volume, India exported 27,330 MT of mangoes worth $47.98 billion during the first five months of the current financial year, which is also roughly the mango season in the country. The growth was 19 per cent year-on-year in terms of volume.

In India, the mango season usually starts around April and lasts until July or August. The country is one of the prominent exporters of fresh mangoes to the world, with key markets being the United States (US), the United Kingdom, Japan, and West African countries such as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), among others.





In the 2023 season, India exported mangoes to 41 countries by exploring new destinations such as Iran, Mauritius, Czech Republic, and Nigeria.

The government has also been taking steps to propel the export of the fruit from India. Towards this, the Agriculture and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), which comes under the administrative control of the commerce department, played a key role.

"As part of its initiative to promote the export of mangoes in the 2023 season, the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and APEDA invited the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) inspector for preclearance of mangoes at irradiation facilities at Vashi, Nashik, Bangalore, and Ahmedabad," an official statement said.

Export of Indian mangoes to the US witnessed a 19 per cent jump in comparison to the previous financial year. India has exported 2,043.60 MT of Indian mangoes to America in the first five months of the current financial year.

Besides the USA, India exported 43.08 MT of mangoes to Japan, 110.99 MT of mangoes to New Zealand, 58.42 MT of mangoes to Australia, and 4.44 MT of mangoes to South Africaa new destination.

"Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and APEDA jointly invited inspectors from South Korea for preclearance of mangoes for export there. This has allowed India to export 18.43 MT of mangoes after being treated at the authorised Vapour Heat Treatment facility under the joint supervision of the Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine, and Storage (DPPQS), India and Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency (APQA), South Korea," the statement said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Madhya Pradesh on Friday, October 27, for the second time in a week and fourth in less than a month. He was in Gwalior five days ago. The prime minister will visit Chitrakoot in the Satna district of Madhya Pradesh on Friday and take part in functions at the Shri Sadguru Seva Sangh Trust, an official release said.

PM Modi will reach Chitrakoot at 1.45 pm, after which he will pray at Raghubir Mandir, visit the Shri Ram Sanskrit Mahavidyalaya, pay floral tribute at the "samadhi" of late Arvind Bhai Mafatlal and inaugurate the new wing of the Jankikund Chikitsalaya, the release said.

The prime minister will then attend a public programme marking the centenary birth year celebrations of the late Arvind Bhai Mafatlal, who was inspired by Ranchhoddasji Maharaj, who set up the Shri Sadguru Seva Sangh Trust in 1968, it said.

"The prime minister will also visit Tulsi Peeth. At around 3:15 pm, he will perform pooja and darshan at Kanch Mandir and seek blessings of Jagadguru Ramanandacharya of the Tulsi Peeth. He will attend a public function where he will release three books, namely Ashtadhyayi Bhashya, Ramanandacharya Charitam and Bhagwan Shri Krishna ki Rashtraleela," it added.

Tulsi Peeth, an important religious and social service institution in Chitrakoot, was established by Jagadguru Rambhadracharya in 1987 and is one of the leading publishers of Hindu religious literature.

PM Modi's special connection with MP

Earlier, PM Modi penned a letter to the people of Madhya Pradesh seeking their support in the upcoming Assembly elections. In the letter, he said, "I am confident that you will again make a double-engineered government in Madhya Pradesh."

"I have always had a special connection with Madhya Pradesh and that meant that people have given us a big victory in the state in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections in the state. I am confident that you will give me similar support in the upcoming state elections in Madhya Pradesh," he added.

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Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone joined the first episode of Koffee with Karan, which streamed on Disney+ Hotstar on October 26, 2023.

The popular B-town couple appeared on the talk show for the first time as a married couple on Thursday, midnight. Fans were expecting a great chemistry from the couple, however, the episodes lack the surge of emotions.

The couple also shared their wedding video for the first time after many years of their marriage. They didnt shy away from revealing so much about their wedding life, and on top of it, Karan Johar also shared his life and love (and mental health).

Ranveer's first meeting with Deepika's parents

Ranveer Singh also shared interesting anecdotes about Deepika's parents. Ranveer proposed to Deepika in 2015 and asked Deepika in the most picturesque location. The actor bought a ring 'which was far from his reach at that time,' and even pitched some money from his family as well, and then left for a vacation with Deepika in the Maldives. During the boat ride when the two were together with a sliver of sand surrounded by sea all around in that beautiful moment, Ranveer proposed to her.

Deepika was overwhelmed with emotions, and she was not expecting this and said yes.

The challenge was to break the news to Deepika's family. The couple went straight to Bangalore from Maldives to meet Deepika's parents. However, the moment did not go as expected, as Deepika revealed the engagement news when the family was with close friends. Deepika's mother was not pleased with the happening but over time, Ranveer's constant effort gained her trust.

Deepika shares her wedding video for the first time

Ranveer and Deepika tied the knot in 2018 at Lake Como in Italy. The couple finally revealed the video of their wedding for the first time on the show, which was a heart-warming and beautiful moment.

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Karan was overwhelmed with emotions and he couldnt help getting emotional on the show. He opened up about his life and about how he longs for a partner as well. Karan also revealed that he feels a vacuum in his life even though he lives with his mother and his kids around.

Karan and Deepika share their mental breakdown

Deepika also opened up about the issue of mental health and how she met Ranveer as a caregiver. She also shared that she has been on medication since 2014.

Recently, during the NMACC (The Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre) launch, Karan also opened up about his mental breakdown. He suffered a blackout and Varun noticed something unusual and took Karan to an empty room away from the limelight. The filmmaker also revealed that he even consulted with a specialist and is on medication and revealed how much it has helped.
Uttar Pradesh plans to attract net private investment of more than Rs 1,000 crore in its upcoming maiden Toy Park in Noida.

While the proposed manufacturing hub is expected to be ready by next year, leading toy manufacturing and gaming firms, including Fun Zoo Toys India, Funride Toys LLP, have lined up for captive plants.

The Toy Park, estimated to create over 6,000 jobs in UP, will also challenge the virtual monopoly enjoyed by Chinese companies in the domestic toy market and boost socioeconomic growth, a government spokesperson said. The move would promote the labour-intensive micro, small, and medium enterprises segment in UP, he said.

The Indian toy market is estimated to double to $3 billion by 2027-28, from $1.5 billion now. Although Indian toymakers export to nearly 50 countries, China enjoys near dominance in the global toy sector.

In the past few years, the import of toys in India has witnessed a steady decline while the toy exports from India have surged. Toy exports increased from $37 million in 2013-14 to $154 million in 2022-23. Indian toy shipments touched $177 million in 2021-22 before declining to $154 million last year.

Spanning across100 acres, the park is being developed by the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) in Noida Sector 33.

To accelerate the toy manufacturing hub, YEIDA is allotting plots to toy makers in different categories, such as soft toys, electronic toys, wooden toys, ride-on toys, slides, board games, plastic toys, and playground equipment toys.

So far, about 150 plots have been allotted, of which 35-40 companies have signed the land lease deed with the authority.

Earlier, Toy Association of India President Ajay Agarwal had said several under-construction plants in the Noida Toy Park would be ready for commercial production within next year.

Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi exhorted domestic toymakers to tap the international markets by manufacturing appealing and quality products.

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To promote the sector, the Centre increased import duty on toys to 70 per cent to pare imports and boost domestic manufacturing.

At present, toy makers are primarily located in the National Capital Region (NCR), Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, etc. There are an estimated 4,000 toy manufacturing entities in India with the bulk of the units clubbed under the MSME sector.
Eight former Indian Navy personnel working in Qatar, who were arrested in August last year, in an alleged espionage case, have been sentenced to death by a Qatar court on Thursday.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) called the verdict "shocking" but said it would not comment given the "confidential nature of proceedings". However, the MEA assured that it would contest the judgment.

Let's look at who these Indian Navy officers are and why they have been sentenced to death.

Who are the eight Indian Navy veterans?

The eight former Indian Navy personnel have been identified as Commander Purnendu Tiwari, Commander Sanjeev Gupta, Commander Sugunakar Pakala, Commander Amit Nagpal, Captain Navtej Singh Gill, Captain Saurabh Vasisht, Captain Birendra Kumar Verma, and sailor Ragesh Gopakumar.

All eight officers had a distinguished service track record of up to 20 years in the Indian Navy. They had held important positions, and some of them were instructors in the Navy.

What were they doing in Qatar?

They were employed by Dahra Global Technologies and Consultancy Services, a company that provides defence services. It is owned by an Omani national, Khamis al-Ajmi, a retired squadron leader of the Royal Omani Air Force. He was also arrested along with the Navy officers, but was released in November last year.

The company provided training and related services to Qatar's armed forces. Most of the arrested men had been working for Dahra for four to six years at the time of their arrest.

Who arrested them? And when?

They were arrested by Qatar's intelligence agency State Security Bureau in Doha in August 2022 and were kept in solitary confinement. Their trial began on March 29, 2023.

When did the Indian embassy meet the accused?

The Indian embassy in Qatar learnt about their arrest only in mid-September last year, and the arrested men were allowed to speak to their families on September 30, 2022. The embassy personnel were allowed to meet them in October last year.

What are the charges against them?

The Qatar and the Indian governments have not made the charges public. They were mentioned during the court hearing. According to media reports, the men were charged with spying for Israel and leaking information about Qatar's secret submarine deal with Italy. The submarines were considered to be advanced stealth technology.

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Their families also were allegedly not informed of the formal charges against them. Their bail petitions had been rejected several times and the verdict against them was pronounced by the Court of First Instance in Qatar on Thursday.

What has the Indian government said?

After the Qatar court sentenced the former Indian Navy officers to death, the MEA said, "We are deeply shocked by the verdict of the death penalty and are awaiting the detailed judgement. We are in touch with the family members and the legal team, and we are exploring all legal options."

"We attach high importance to this case, and have been following it closely. We will continue to extend all consular and legal assistance. We will also take up the verdict with Qatari authorities," the MEA said. The MEA further said that it was exploring legal channels to ensure the release of the eight arrested Indians.

Speaking about the charges in mid-October, the MEA spokesperson had admitted that "the charges were presented as part of the hearings" but that they wouldn't like to get into the legal part of it.

"They have legal representation in court. We are now looking forward to what the court judgement is and we hope that they are able to return to India," MEA spokesperson had said at that time.
As much as 80 per cent of telecom equipment used in 5G rollout of India was locally manufactured, and the country currently exports such products to 72 countries, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union minister of communications and information technology said on Friday.

We are competing on equal terms (in quality) with the best manufacturers in the world. The companies are developing local intellectual property in India. Cost is a factor in many consumer items. But this is a particular sector in which your customer experience can take a big hit if your quality is not good, he said.

The ministers comments came days after the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) came up with recommendations on promoting Networking and Telecom Equipment Manufacturing in India. The regulator had found that manufacturing telecom hardware in countries such as China leads to 12-13 per cent lower cost, despite the governments production-linked incentive scheme in India.

In financial year 2022-23, India exported network equipment worth only around Rs 173 crore.

There are so many companies who have started design and manufacture in India and today they have become exporters of equipment. Indian designed and manufactured telecom equipment is exported to a total of 72 countries today, Vaishnaw said at a press meet on the sidelines of India Mobile Congress.

On semiconductor manufacturing, the minister said at least three players were in advanced talks with the government for building a chip plant in India.

Today, the discussions are that half of the semiconductor market will consist of 40-60 nanometers compound semiconductors. It has applications ranging from electric vehicles, mobile towers to airplanes. We must carefully work and take lead in such rapidly growing segments, Vaishnaw said.

12-18 months transition period for Digital Personal Data Protection Act unreasonable

Meanwhile, when asked about the enforcement timeline of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 enacted in August this year, the minister said companies should be ready to comply with the law, as they already comply with legislations like Europes General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

We have consulted with practically every company, and they are very happy with the law. Already the draft rules are ready, the rule-making process is practically complete, and very soon we will publish the rules for public consultation. The digital architecture which is required for the Data Protection Board is also in a very good process, Vaishnaw said.

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The Act provides broad principles of data protection, but the way of implementation and the exact processes will be as may be prescribed in the rulebook. The law has defined 26 matters on which the government can make rules to enforce the provisions of the Act. Vaishnaw clarified that all the rules will be notified together unlike previous speculations that suggested a few important rules may get notified initially.

Meanwhile, he also asked social media platforms to be more responsive on matters like child abuse content.

We have to make sure that all the platforms are keeping the internet safe and are making sure that whatever is not supposed to be there on the internet shouldnt be there. The idea that a platform has no responsibility for the content cannot be unfettered or unlimited. Platforms will have to be responsible for what they are publishing. That stage has come, the minister said.

He added that all social media platforms have almost 100 per cent compliance with content takedown orders by the government but globally there were calls for stronger content moderation by platforms on their own.

Today every platform has a team that basically looks at the content which is posted. Time has come when societies across the world are demanding that the moderation process should be further strengthened. There are countries which have already legislated on this matter, Vaishnaw said.
Indias thirst for cheap oil got a legup this week after the US lifted sanctions on exports of Venezuelan crudes, which, until a few years ago, accounted for a tenth of Indias crude oil imports.



These grades are available at discounts of over 20 per cent to the average of the Indian crude oil basket, according to government and industry officials and the ship-tracking data.


Israeli forces backed by fighter jets and drones carried out a second ground raid into Gaza in as many days and struck targets on the outskirts of Gaza City, the military said Friday, as it prepares for a widely expected ground invasion of the Hamas-ruled territory.

US warplanes meanwhile struck targets in eastern Syria that the Pentagon said were linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guard after a string of attacks on US forces by Iran-backed fighters, adding to the already high regional tensions fuelled by the three-week-old Gaza war.

The Palestinian death toll has soared past 7,000 as Israel has carried out waves of devastating airstrikes in response to a bloody Hamas incursion into southern Israel on Oct. 7. The Health Ministry in Gaza, which tracks the toll, released a detailed list of names and ID numbers on Thursday. The toll includes more than 2,900 minors and more than 1,500 women.

More than 1,400 people in Israel, mostly civilians, were slain during the initial Hamas attack, according to the Israeli government. Hamas is holding at least 224 captives inside Gaza, including men, women, children and older adults.

The airstrikes have flattened entire neighbourhoods, causing a level of death and destruction unseen in the last four wars between Israel and Hamas. Over a million people have fled their homes, with many heeding Israeli orders to evacuate to the south, despite continuing Israeli strikes across the sealed-off territory.

The humanitarian crisis sparked by the war and the Israeli siege has sparked protests across the region, and more demonstrations were expected later Friday after weekly Muslim prayers.

The military said ground forces raided inside Gaza, striking dozens of militant targets over the past 24 hours. It said aircraft and artillery bombed targets in Shijaiyah, a neighbourhood on the outskirts of Gaza City that was the scene of a bloody urban battle in the 2014 Gaza war.

The military said the soldiers exited the territory without suffering any casualties. It reported an earlier raid into northern Gaza early Thursday, saying ground forces battled militants and struck anti-tank missile firing positions in an operation that lasted hours.

The damage to Gaza from nearly three weeks of bombardment showed in satellite photos of several locations taken before the war and again in recent days.

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Entire rows of residential buildings simply disappear in the photos, reduced to smears of dust and rubble. A complex of 13 high-rises by the sea was pounded to dust near Gaza City's al-Shati refugee camp, leaving only a few tottering bits of facade. Just down the street, hardly anything remained in what had been a neighbourhood of low-built homes on winding lanes, according to the photos by Maxar Technologies.

The military says it only strikes militant targets and accuses Hamas of operating among civilians in an attempt to protect its fighters. The Israeli military said an airstrike killed one of two masterminds of the Oct. 7 massacre, Shadi Barud, the head of Hamas' intelligence unit.

Palestinian militants have fired thousands of rockets into Israel since the war began.

Hamas' military wing said Thursday that Israeli bombardment has so far killed about 50 of the hostages. There was no immediate comment from Israeli officials, who have denied previous, similar claims.

The conflict has threatened to ignite a wider war across the region.

Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed ally of Hamas in Lebanon, has repeatedly traded fire with Israel along the border. The United States has sent two aircraft carrier strike groups to the region, along with additional fighter jets and other weaponry and personnel, in part to deter Iran and its allies from entering the war on the side of Hamas.

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said the strikes in eastern Syria were a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against US personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on Oct. 17.

He said President Joe Biden directed the narrowly tailored strikes to make clear that the United States will not tolerate such attacks and will defend itself, its personnel and its interests. He added that the operation was separate and distinct from Israel's war against Hamas.

Israel has vowed to crush Hamas' capacity to govern Gaza or threaten Israel again but also says it doesn't want to reoccupy the territory, from which it withdrew soldiers and settlers in 2005. That could prove a daunting challenge, since Hamas is deeply rooted in Gaza, with political and charity organizations as well as a formidable armed wing.

Benny Gantz, a retired general and a member of Israel's war Cabinet, said Thursday that any possible ground offensive would be only one stage in a long-term process that includes security, political and social aspects that will take years.

The campaign will soon ramp up with greater force, he added.

Palestinians in Gaza are contending with a worsening humanitarian crisis as supplies of food, medicine and fuel for powering emergency generators run low. The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, which provides basic services to hundreds of thousands of people, including operating schools turned into shelters, has said it may run out of fuel within days.

Gaza's sole power station shut down for lack of fuel days after the start of the war, and Israel has barred all fuel deliveries, saying it believes Hamas would steal them for military purposes.

About 1.4 million of Gaza's 2.3 million residents have fled their homes, with nearly half of them crowding into UN shelters. Hundreds of thousands remain in northern Gaza, despite Israel ordering them to evacuate to the south and saying that those who remain might be considered accomplices of Hamas.

In recent days, Israel has let more than 70 trucks with aid enter from Egypt, but aid workers say the convoys meet only a tiny fraction of the territory's mounting humanitarian needs.

Nine Arab countries including key US allies and nations that have signed peace or normalisation deals with Israel issued a joint statement Thursday calling for an immediate cease-fire and an end to the targeting and death of civilians.

The right to self defense by the United Nations Charter does not justify blatant violations of humanitarian and international law, said the statement, signed by Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, The United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait and Morocco.
A Hamas official tied the release of hostages held in Gaza to a ceasefire in Israels bombardment of the enclave, launched after a deadly rampage by Hamas militants into southern Israel nearly three weeks ago.



Israel says it is preparing a ground invasion, but has been urged by the US and Arab countries to delay an operation that would multiply the number of civilian casualties in the densely populated coastal strip and might ignite a wider conflict. An opinion poll published on Friday suggested almost half of Israelis now wanted to hold off on a ground invasion out of fears for at least 224 hostages reported to be held there.









The number of hostages kidnapped from Israel and held by Hamas in Gaza has also been updated to 229. According to a Russian newspaper, a member of a Hamas delegation visiting Moscow as saying time was needed to locate all those who had been abducted by various Palestinian factions in the Hamas attack on October 7.

They seized dozens of people, most of them civilians, and we need time to find them in the Gaza Strip and then release them, Hamas official Abu Hamid said. He said Hamas, which has freed four hostages so far, had made clear it intended to release civilian prisoners. But this required a calm environment, he said.



Israels defence minister said Friday that it expects to launch a ground offensive into Gaza soon that will be long and difficult, and aim to destroy a vast network of tunnels used by the territory's militant Hamas rulers.



Yoav Gallant spoke to a small group of foreign reporters after Israeli forces backed by fighter jets and drones carried out a second ground raid into Gaza in as many days, striking the outskirts of Gaza City. He said the ground invasion would include large forces, backed by airstrikes, and will take a long time, without elaborating.



Meanwhile, the US on Friday issued a second round of sanctions aimed at Palestinian militant group Hamas following its attack this month on Israel, including a Hamas official in Iran and members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The measures target additional assets in a Hamas investment portfolio and people facilitating sanctions evasion by Hamas-affiliated companies, the US Treasury Department said.



Also Read Israel-Gaza war: Death toll up as conflict expands to bordering nations We must find a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine, says MEA Gaza strip: Understanding the territory, its history, and ongoing conflict Israel-Gaza war: Nations call for peaceful resolution; latest updates here Israel-Palestine war: Here's a look at the history of the conflict UNGA set to vote on nonbinding resolution for 'humanitarian truce' in Gaza UAE will not host next year's COP29 climate talks, says official JPMorgan chief Dimon to sell some of his own company stock for first tim Federal Reserve expected to leave benchmark interest rate unchanged US announces fresh sanctions on eight individuals with Hamas connections

A senior Iranian envoy also met with Hamas representatives in Moscow following talks with Russian diplomats that underscored Moscows efforts to expand its clout as a power broker in the latest Israel-Hamas war, Russian and Iranian media said Friday.



US fighter jets strike Iran-linked sites in Syria US fighter jets launched airstrikes early Friday on two locations in eastern Syria linked to Irans Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Pentagon said, in retaliation for a slew of drone and missile attacks against US bases and personnel in the region that began early last week. The US strikes reflect the Biden administration's determination to maintain a delicate balance. Meanwhile, Iran warned that the US wont escape unaffected if the Hamas-Israel war turns into a broader conflict.



At a glance

Israel claims Shadi Barud, the deputy head of Hamas's intelligence arm, was killed in an operation



US sending Ukraine $150 million more in weapons from stockpiles



TikTok rejects Malaysian accusation it blocks pro-Palestinian content



Aid trucks allowed through an Egyptian crossing point so far have provided only crumbs, says UNRWA chief Phillippe Lazzarini



Hamas rejects Israeli accusation of hospitals as operation centres
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has announced that the United States is imposing fresh sanctions on eight individuals who have ties to Hamas, including those who played significant roles in "facilitating sanctions evasion by Hamas-affiliated companies".

He also said that four entities with ties to Hamas and other designated terrorist organisations are also being sanctioned.

"We are imposing sanctions on eight individuals with ties to Hamas, including those who have played key roles in facilitating sanctions evasion by Hamas-affiliated companies, as well as sanctioning four entities for their ties to Hamas & other designated terrorist organisations," posted Blinken on X.

Earlier in the day, the US imposed a fresh round of sanctions targeting key Hamas-linked officials, financial networks and Iran-based organisations that were involved in the funding of the terror group.

The US Treasury Department informed about the sanctions following the October 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas.

"Today's action targets additional assets in Hamas's investment portfolio and individuals who are facilitating sanctions evasion by Hamas-affiliated companies. Treasury is also designating a Hamas official in Iran and members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as well as a Gaza-based entity that has served as a conduit for illicit Iranian funds to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ)," the statement by Treasury Department read.

US Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo said that Washington is committed to dismantling Hamas' funding and won't hesitate to take further actions.

"Today's action underscores the United States' commitment to dismantling Hamas's funding networks by deploying our counterterrorism sanctions authorities and working with our global partners to deny Hamas the ability to exploit the international financial system," Adeyemo said.

He added, "We will not hesitate to take action to further degrade Hamas's ability to commit horrific terrorist attacks by relentlessly targeting its financial activities and streams of funding."

One of the major names sanctioned by the US is Khaled Qaddoumi, who is a Jordanian national and longtime Hamas member who is the representative of Hamas to Iran, and acting as a liaison between Hamas and the Iranian government.

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Qaddoumi works to maintain strong relationships with Iran by attending delegation meetings with high-ranking Iranian officials and praising Iranian support for Hamas, including its provision of weapons, the statement read.

The US has also sanctioned Turkiye-based company Trend GYO, designated in May 2022 as part of Hamas's investment portfolio, which is a key component of Hamas's global asset holdings which had previously been estimated to be worth over USD 500 million. Trend GYO currently has three primary shareholders; Turkiye-based Alaeddin Senguler, Gulsah Yigidoglu, and Arwa Mangoush.

"As a result of today's action, all property and interests in property of the designated persons described above that are in the United States or in the possession or control of US persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC. In addition, any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, individually or in the aggregate, 50 per cent or more by one or more blocked persons are also blocked," the department stated.

It added, "Treasury remains committed to enabling the flow of legitimate humanitarian assistance supporting the basic human needs of vulnerable populations, while continuing to deny resources to malicious actors. Accordingly, OFAC sanctions programs contain provisions for legitimate humanitarian support to vulnerable populations, including authorisations for certain humanitarian transactions in support of nongovernmental organisations' activities".
US fighter jets launched airstrikes early Friday on two locations in eastern Syria linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Pentagon said, in retaliation for a slew of drone and missile attacks against U.S. bases and personnel in the region that began early last week.

The U.S. strikes reflect the Biden administration's determination to maintain a delicate balance. The U.S. wants to hit Iranian-backed groups suspected of targeting the U.S. as strongly as possible to deter future aggression, possibly fueled by Israel's war against Hamas, while also working to avoid inflaming the region and provoking a wider conflict.

According to a senior U.S. military official, the precision strikes were carried out near Boukamal by two F-16 fighter jets, and they struck weapons and ammunition storage areas that were connected to the IRGC. The official said there had been Iranian-aligned militia and IRGC personnel on the base and no civilians, but the U.S. does not have any information yet on casualties or an assessment of damage. The official would not say how many munitions were launched by the F-16s.

A senior defense official said the sites were chosen because the IRGC stores the types of munitions there that were used in the strikes against U.S. bases and troops. The two officials briefed reporters after the strikes on condition of anonymity to provide details on the mission that had not yet been made public.

According to the Pentagon, there have now been at least 19 attacks on U.S. bases and personnel in Iraq and Syria since Oct. 17, including three new ones Thursday. Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said 21 U.S. personnel were injured in two of those assaults that used drones to target al-Asad Airbase in Iraq and al-Tanf Garrison in Syria.

In a statement, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the precision self-defense strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on October 17.

He said President Joe Biden directed the narrowly tailored strikes to make clear that the United States will not tolerate such attacks and will defend itself, its personnel, and its interests. And he added that the operation was separate and distinct from Israel's war against Hamas.

The senior defense official told reporters that the F-16 airstrikes will have a significant impact on the ability of Iranian proxy groups to continue to attack U.S. forces. Asked what groups were targeted, the official said there are several that can have different names, but the U.S. holds Tehran responsible for funding, arming, equipping and directing the proxies. The official said the airstrikes were not designed to expand the conflict in the region, but to compel Iran to direct the militia groups to cease the attacks on American bases and personnel.

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The Biden administration has not accused Iran of having a direct role in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and has said it appears so far that Tehran was not aware of it beforehand. But the U.S. has noted that Iran has long supported Hamas and has raised concerns that Iran and its proxies could turn the conflict into a wider war.

Austin said the U.S. does not seek a broader conflict, but if Iranian proxy groups continue, the U.S. won't hesitate to take additional action to protect its forces.

According to the Pentagon, all the U.S. personnel hurt in the militant attacks received minor injuries and all returned to duty. In addition, a contractor suffered a cardiac arrest and died while seeking shelter from a possible drone attack.

The retaliatory strikes came as no surprise. Officials at the Pentagon and the White House have made it clear for the past week that the U.S. would respond, with Ryder saying again Thursday that it would be at the time and place of our choosing.

I think we've been crystal clear that we maintain the inherent right of defending our troops and we will take all necessary measures to protect our forces and our interests overseas, he told reporters during a Pentagon briefing earlier in the day.

Biden said Wednesday that he had warned Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, that if Tehran continues to move against U.S. forces in the Middle East, we will respond.

The latest spate of strikes by the Iranian-linked groups came in the wake of a deadly explosion at a Gaza hospital, triggering protests in a number of Muslim nations. The Israeli military has relentlessly attacked Gaza in retaliation for the devastating Hamas rampage in southern Israel nearly three weeks ago, but Israel has denied responsibility for the al-Ahli hospital blast and the U.S. has said its intelligence assessment found that Tel Aviv was not to blame.

The U.S., including the Pentagon, has repeatedly said any strike response by America would be directly tied to the attacks on the troops, and not connected to the war between Israel and Hamas. Such retaliation and strikes against Iranian targets in Syria after similar attacks on U.S. bases are routine.

In March, for example, the U.S. struck sites in Syria used by groups affiliated with Iran's Revolutionary Guard after an Iranian-linked attack killed a U.S. contractor and wounded seven other Americans in northeast Syria. American F-15 fighter jets flying out of al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar struck several locations around Deir el-Zour.

U.S. officials have routinely stressed that the American response is designed to be proportional, and is aimed at deterring strikes against U.S. personnel who are focused on the fight against the Islamic State group.

U.S. officials have not publicly tied the recent string of attacks in Syria and Iraq to the violence in Gaza, but Iranian officials have openly criticized the U.S. for providing weapons to Israel that have been used to strike Gaza, resulting in civilian death.

The Pentagon, meanwhile, has beefed up air defenses in the region to protect U.S. forces. The U.S. has said it is sending several batteries of Patriot missile systems, a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery and additional fighter jets.

The THAAD is being sent from Fort Bliss, Texas, and the Patriot batteries are from Fort Liberty in North Carolina and Fort Sill in Oklahoma. An Avenger air defense system from Fort Liberty is also being sent.

Officials have said as much as two battalions of Patriots are being deployed. A battalion can include at least three Patriot batteries, which each have six to eight launchers.

Ryder said Thursday that about 900 troops have deployed or are in the process of going to the Middle East region, including those associated with the air defense systems.
Project Management Institute (PMI), the world's leading organization for the project management profession, has signed an agreement to acquire PMO Global Alliance (PMOGA), the largest global community of PMOs and PMO professionals.

Instead of focusing solely on implementing standard processes and procedures, the most effective PMOs also influence strategy and play a pivotal role in helping organizations create value-driven cultures. In fact, research from PMI and PwC on the most mature PMOs found that 73% of them even include a C-suite-level role, compared to 47% of organizations overall. With this increased opportunity to have a seat at the decision-making table, current and aspiring PMO professionals need resources to hone their skills, learn from their peers, and stay current.

Were dedicated to empowering project professionals through their entire career journey  from early learning to advancing into the PMO, said Pierre Le Manh, President & Chief Executive Officer of PMI. Acquiring PMOGA is key to us strengthening how we support PMO professionals and fulfilling our purpose, especially as PMOs play a crucial role in project success and growth of the project management profession.

This milestone in PMI and PMOGA history will extend PMOGAs reach and elevate the value the two organizations collectively bring project professionals worldwide. Chief Executive Officer and Founder of PMOGA Americo Pinto will continue to lead the organization now as a part of PMI.

Founded in 2017, PMOGA is a global community with more than 17,000 members in more than 125 countries. PMOGA developed two professional certifications  the PMO Certified Practitioner (PMO-CP) and the PMO Certified Consultant (PMO-CC) certifications. Members have access to an extensive catalog of learnings and events, including PMOUNCON, the PMOGA World Unconference in Paris, France on 4-5 December 2023. The organization also hosts its own award program, the PMO Global Awards, to celebrate the most accomplished PMOs and PMO professionals.

PMOGA and PMI have a common passion: empowering professionals and organizations to deliver more value, said Americo Pinto, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of PMOGA. My goal was to create a single place where PMO professionals and organizations can find the knowledge and learning experiences they need to create successful and impactful PMOs. With this news, PMI becomes that place, which will unlock new opportunities for the global PMO community.

Visit pmoga.world to learn more about PMOGAs mission to connect people and organizations dedicated to advancing the role of PMOs.

About Project Management Institute (PMI)

PMI is the leading authority in project management, committed to advancing the project management profession to positively impact project success. We empower professionals to excel in project management practices through our growing global community, knowledge sharing, and best-in-class certificationsdriving positive change in organizations and communities. Since 1969, our unwavering mission has been to advocate for the profession by offering life-long learning and connections to sharpen high-demand skills. Today, PMI provides professionals at every stage of their career journey with the globally recognized standards, online courses, thought leadership, events, and tools they need to succeed. With more than 300 chapters around the world, PMI members can network, find mentors, access career opportunities, and learn from peers, working together to drive greater impact.

Visit us at www.pmi.org, linkedin.com/company/projectmanagementinstitute, facebook.com/PMInstitute, and on X @PMInstitute.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231025781382/en/
Today Seclore, the leading provider of data-centric security solutions, has been named the winner of the Hot Company award in the Data Security category from Cyber Defense Magazines (CDM) annual Cyber Defense Awards. CDM, the industrys leading electronic information security magazine, selected Seclore as a winner based on the companys radically different approach to cybersecurity. Seclore embeds granular protections and controls into the data itself, earning the trust of leading enterprises like American Express and Applied Materials that rely on Seclore to secure their digital assets and achieve compliance.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231026119975/en/

Seclore named the winner of the Hot Company award in the Data Security category from Cyber Defense Magazines (CDM) annual Cyber Defense Awards (Graphic: Business Wire)

Were thrilled to be recognized alongside such an impressive group of innovative companies in the 11th year of Cyber Defense Awards, said Vishal Gupta, CEO and co-founder of Seclore. Data and IP are the lifeblood of enterprises, but too many cybersecurity solutions focus on securing everything but the data. We're committed to helping businesses control their most sensitive digital assets without sacrificing usability and easy collaboration. Being a hot company is a testament to the companys hard work, and were just getting started.

Seclore embodies three major features we judges look for with the potential to become winners: understanding tomorrows threats, today, providing a cost-effective solution and innovating in unexpected ways that can help mitigate cyber risk and get one step ahead of the next breach, said Gary S. Miliefsky, Publisher of Cyber Defense Magazine.

Founded in 2011, the Seclore platform consists of risk insights, data classification, enterprise digital rights management (EDRM), and email encryption, with a specialized expertise in the financial services, manufacturing, semiconductors, and pharmaceutical industries. To learn more about Seclore and the platforms robust set of capabilities, visit https://www.seclore.com/.

The full list of the Top InfoSec Innovators for 2023 is found here: https://cyberdefenseawards.com/top-infosec-innovators-for-2023/.

About Seclore

Protecting the worlds sensitive data wherever it goes. Seclore protects and controls digital assets to help enterprises close their data security gap to prevent data theft and achieve compliance. Our data-centric approach to security ensures that only authorized individuals have access to sensitive digital assets, inside and outside of their organization. Enterprises can set automated policies and enable users to control and revoke who has access, what access they have, and for how long. Learn why leading enterprises like American Express and Applied Materials choose Seclore to protect and control their digital assets without sacrificing seamless collaboration and data sharing.

About Cyber Defense Awards

This is Cyber Defense Magazines 11th year of honoring cybersecurity innovators, in this case the Top Global CISOs for 2023, on our Cyber Defense Awards platform. In this competition, judges for these and other prestigious awards includes cybersecurity industry veterans, trailblazers and market makers Gary Miliefsky of CDMG, Dr. Lindsey Polley de Lopez of VentureScope, Robert R. Ackerman Jr. of AllegisCyber, Dino Boukouris of Momentum Cyber and with much appreciation to emeritus judges Robert Herjavec of Cyderes, Dr. Peter Stephenson of CDMG and David DeWalt of NightDragon. Top InfoSec Innovators for 2023 is found here: https://cyberdefenseawards.com/top-infosec-innovators-for-2023/ and download The Black Unicorn Report for 2023: https://cyberdefenseawards.com/the-black-unicorn-report-for-2023/ and Top Global CISOs Winners for 2023, here: https://cyberdefenseawards.com/top-global-cisos-winners-for-2023/.

About Cyber Defense Magazine

Cyber Defense Magazine was founded in 2012 by Gary S. Miliefsky, globally recognized cyber security thought leader, inventor and entrepreneur and continues to be the premier source of IT Security information. We are managed and published by and for ethical, honest, passionate information security professionals. Our mission is to share cutting-edge knowledge, real-world stories and awards on the best ideas, products and services in the information technology industry. We deliver electronic magazines every month online for free, and limited special editions exclusively for the RSA, BlackHat and Cyber Defense Conferences. Learn more about us at http://www.cyberdefensemagazine.com. Cyber Defense Magazine is a proud member of the Cyber Defense Media Group.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231026119975/en/
Study Design: Prospective, observational, multicenter, single-arm study

Primary Objective: To evaluate the safety and performance of the ultrathin Supraflex Cruz SES in patients with coronary artery disease.

Patient Population: All-comers patients requiring PCI (Stent implantation)

Follow-up / Total Duration: 12 months (data presented at TCT 2023, San Francisco, October 23-26, 2023)

Primary Endpoint: Target Lesion Failure (TLF), a composite of cardiac death, target vessel MI (TV-MI), and clinically driven target lesion revascularization (CD-TLR), at 12 months.



SMT (Sahajanand Medical Technologies), a pioneering healthcare company in India with a focus on innovative patient care in the cardiovascular sector, is pleased to announce promising data from its study, the Prospective S-FLEX UK-II Registry.The S-FLEX UK-II Registry was designed to evaluate the safety and performance of the ultrathin Supraflex Cruz sirolimus-eluting stents (SES) in a diverse population of patients with coronary artery disease. This multicenter, single-arm study involved 19 sites across UK, with a total of 1835 patients enrolled between March 2020 and September 2021.Study highlights:Prof. Azfar Zaman, Freeman Hospital, Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom Principal Investigator of the study stated, The overall study results show consistently low clinical event rates with Supraflex Cruz in a real-world all-comers population from the United Kingdom. Importantly, the safety of Supraflex Cruz was once again confirmed in a high-risk subset of patients and lesion types.The study demonstrated, in the overall population, that TLF occurred in 0.7% of patients (0.3% cardiac death, 0.2% TV-MI, 0.2% CD-TLR) at 30 days and in 2.4% of patients (0.8% cardiac death, 0.8% TV-MI, 0.9% CD-TLR) at 12 months follow-up. The rate of definite stent thrombosis was 0.3% in the overall population at 12 months. The incidence of TLF and stent thrombosis in pre-specified subgroups were  6.5% and 1% in patients with diabetes, 1.9% and none in bifurcation lesions, 2.6% and 0.3% in type B2/C lesions, and 2.8% and 0.3% in long lesions (>20 mm) respectively. at 12 months follow-up.SMTs Chief Medical Officer Dr Krishna Sudhir commented, This study adds to a convincing body of clinical evidence from several registries and two major randomized trials confirming the benefits of using Supraflex Cruz in patients with complex coronary artery disease.This study offers compelling data to the interventional cardiology community, highlighting the safety and efficiency of Supraflex Cruz, and reaffirm SMT's unwavering commitment to advancing cardiovascular care.
Every business, big or small, has risks, and knowing how to deal with them effectively can help a company thrive in a competitive environment. A risk manager is hired by a corporation to assess, identify, and analyze these risks. Knowing these experts' key responsibilities, earning potential, and skill set might help you decide if this is the right career for you. In this article, we will address the question "What does a risk manager do?" as well as analyze the different types of risk management, the salaries these professionals earn, the skills required, and the processes to becoming a risk manager.

What Is the Role of a Risk Manager?

A risk manager's primary responsibility is risk management. Risk managers work with businesses to identify and assess any risks that could jeopardize a company's reputation, security, safety, and financial prosperity. These managers are responsible for analyzing, assessing, and managing the risks that various organizations confront. Part of their job entails developing ways to remove, reduce, and transfer the risk that a firm is expected to experience. Some of their usual employment responsibilities include:

Making a risk assessment, which includes analyzing the risk and identifying and assessing hazards that may influence a firm.

determining and quantifying an organization's risk tolerance

Planning, developing, and implementing the organization's comprehensive risk management process

Contributing to the evaluation of proposed facilities, new initiatives, and important contracts

Obtaining confidential customer information such as assets, income, and obligations

Budgeting for risk management and insurance

Conducting a risk assessment and comprehending the company's previous risk management

Providing training to the organization's employees to keep them informed about the hazards

Conducting policy and compliance audits

Keeping track of insurance claims and policies

Internal business ideas and new large contracts are being reviewed.

Creating action plans to reduce the risk elements in the organization

Creating a business continuity plan in order to restrict and decrease risk

In general, a risk manager's job is similar to that of a project manager because risk assessment is a significant aspect in assessing whether a project can be completed without incurring losses.

Types Of Risk Management

A risk manager often responds to numerous types of risks. Here are some examples of risk management that you may experience in your career:

Legal: Lawsuits from vendors, consumers, competitors, and even government agencies can pose a risk to a company. Risk managers examine these legal vulnerabilities and put rules and procedures in place to mitigate the impact of a legal risk.

Financial: Changes in the financial markets can disrupt business cash flow management, leading to an investment in a riskier financial instrument. The role of a financial risk manager is to mitigate these risks and keep a company's financial risk under control.

Operational: This type of risk is related to outdated procedures, out-of-date machinery, and departing key personnel from an organization. A risk manager recognizes these weak points in an organization's operations and develops plans to address them.

Strategic: Organizations may experience risk as a result of developments in a certain market. A risk management specialist maintains the organization's focus on the outside world and searches for market change indicators to assist a corporation in changing its business plan.

Regulatory: Every organization follows the laws and regulations of the federal and state governments that apply to its industry. Regulatory risk managers monitor changing and existing regulations in order to develop organizational policies that conform with the law.

Economic: The economic health of a state or country can have a negative impact on the operation of an organization. These risk managers analyze past data and trends to forecast future recessions and economic booms.

Average Salary Of A Risk Manager

The annual compensation of a risk manager is Rs. 7,65,666. Their actual salary will vary depending on their experience, qualifications, industry, and job location. Some cities offer more compensation than others. For example, the average income of a risk manager in Indore is 10,70,820 per year, whereas the average salary in Kochi is 10,000,000. The average salary in Gurgaon is 7,23,107 per year. If you want to make a great salary, you should live in a city that offers it.

Skills Of A Risk Manager

To be successful in their job, a risk manager must have both hard and soft talents. If you wish to work in risk management, work on the following skills:

Knowledge of risk assessment tools: As part of your employment, you may utilize several assessment techniques to assess and identify the risk associated with an organization. This profession requires the ability to use methods such as decision trees, failure modes and effects analysis (FEMA), and the Bowtie model.

Organizational skills: As a risk manager, you may review or work on many projects at the same time, which necessitates great organizational abilities. This profession requires a great deal of planning and time management.

Mathematics: A risk manager works with dollars, numbers, and other data, therefore basic numerical and mathematical skills are required. As a result, businesses favor people with strong mathematical skills.

Business understanding: Because a risk manager works with organizations of all sizes, this position necessitates knowledge of regulatory and legal issues. Depending on the industry, you may need a thorough understanding of that area and industry.

Communication skills: Part of your job includes offering risk management training to other employees in your organization. You must have strong communication skills when describing risk ideas and how a specific risk may influence your organization.

Computer literacy: As a risk manager, you would produce reports, analyze data, and work on various spreadsheets to assess the risk associated with a specific project or proposal. For in-depth risk analysis, you can also employ various analytical and software tools.

Problem-solving: After identifying potential risks, you may be able to develop a way to overcome or lessen the impact of those risks on your organization. Employers appreciate applicants with problem-solving skills because they seek strategic solutions to any company issue.

Strategic and analytical thinking: Regardless of the risk area in which you specialize, a risk manager must have strong analytical skills and an eye for detail. A desirable talent for this profession is the capacity to analyze data in order to make strategic business decisions.

How To Become A Risk Manager

Follow these steps to become a risk manager:

1. Earn a bachelor's degree

A bachelor's degree is the minimal minimum for becoming a risk manager. Having a degree in a business-related field such as economics, accounting, finance, or business administration. You can even take several risk management courses. Risk management courses such as BBA or BCom can also help you become a risk manager. A bachelor's degree in risk management, which may include a specialized course, is an option.

2. Get hired for a risk management role

A risk manager is a managerial position that takes some prior experience to flourish in. So, after graduation, look for opportunities in industries that hire risk managers to assess the risk of their firm. You may, for example, look for an internship or an entry-level employment in a stock brokerage firm where they select investments for their clients. Experience in such tasks can assist you in developing the abilities necessary to flourish in this career. The abilities you get in such a financial risk management position are transferable and will assist you in transitioning into any risk-management focused role.

3. Complete your post-graduation

Though post-graduate education is not required, it can be beneficial if your degree does not relate to risk management. A master's degree in risk management or a similar field is an option. Many courses concentrate on specific topics such as financial, business, or health and safety management. You can advance your career by pursuing a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in risk management.

4. Obtain a professional certificate in risk management

Risk management certificates can help your career advance. There are numerous online and offline courses available to help you advance your career. Look for several certifications online and pick one that interests you. Some examples of common certificates are:

PMI risk management professional certification

Certified risk management professional (CRMP)

Financial risk manager (FRM)

Chartered enterprise risk analyst (CERA)

Certified risk manager (CRM)

Professional risk manager (PRM)
The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has officially published a CISF Recruitment 2023 notification for 215 Head Constable (General Duty) positions. Candidates interested in becoming CISF Head Constables should be aware that the application period will run from October 30 to November 28, 2023. Candidates who have been looking for a job in the CISF department can apply on the official website at www.cisf.gov.in

Overview

Organization Name Central Industrial Security Force (CISF)

Job Type Defence Jobs

No of Vacancies 215

Post Name Constable

Job Location All India

Notification Date October 2023

Application Mode Online

Official Website cisf.gov.in

Key Highlights of CISF Constable Recruitment

The CISF constable recruitment is an annual process that promotes secure job opportunities in the field of defense. Known for its stringent selection procedure, the recruitment boasts of transparent selection, meticulous training, and excellent job benefits. The dedicated individuals who pass through the rigorous selection process have the opportunity to serve the nation and also enjoy a promising career trajectory.

Criteria

Applicants wishing to apply for the CISF Constable Recruitment need to satisfy specific eligibility criteria. Only Indian nationals between the age of 18 to 23 years with a minimum educational qualification of a matriculation certificate or equivalent from a recognized educational board are eligible. Physical standards like height, weight, and chest measurements also play a significant role in the selection process.

Application Process

The application process for CISF recruitment is primarily online. The official CISF website broadcasts the updated notifications where aspirants can access the application forms. It is a user-friendly process designed to provide the candidates with a hassle-free application experience. Payment of the application fee is also made online.

Selection Procedure

The CISF selection procedure is a multi-tiered process, testing both the physical and mental capabilities of candidates. It incorporates a written examination, physical standard test (PST), physical efficiency test (PET) and a medical examination. The written test is the first stepping stone, after which candidates are subjected to the strenuous physical and medical tests.
In an exciting development for India's education sector, the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur has announced a pioneering online master's degree program. This revolutionary program focuses on two sectors that are essential for the future of sustainable development: renewable energy and electric mobility. As the first of its kind, the eMaster's course guarantees to provide all participants with a robust, comprehensive education in these vital fields.

The programme is designed to introduce professionals to many technological components of this change, such as generation side sources such as photovoltaics, wind, batteries, hydrogen, and the rapidly expanding Electrical Vehicle sector. Renewable energy and e-mobility encourage innovation, reduce reliance on nonrenewable resources, and foster a greener, more resilient world, addressing environmental and economic imperatives. The worldwide renewable energy market is estimated to exceed $2 trillion by 2030, necessitating a highly skilled workforce to meet difficulties and capitalise on possibilities.

The programme provides a high-impact learning experience through live interactive weekend classes and self-paced learning. IIT Kanpur's distinguished teachers and skilled researchers are leading the way. The industry-tailored 60-credit curriculum enables seamless credit transfers to higher education opportunities such as MTech and PhD programmes at IIT Kanpur, with the possibility of waiving up to 60 credits. Participants also have access to IIT Kanpur's incubation cell and vast alum network, which enhances their career progression and networking opportunities. Participants have the unique chance to visit the IIT Kanpur campus as part of the immersive learning journey, where they can connect with renowned faculty members and network with seasoned professionals, ultimately achieving the coveted designation of IIT Kanpur alumnus.

Pioneering Course for the Future

The online master's degree in renewable energy and e-mobility represents a considerable leap in Indian higher education. The program combines the convenience and flexibility of online learning with the depth and quality of IIT Kanpur's academic reputation. By focusing on renewable energy and electric mobility, the program responds directly to global demands for sustainable, green technology solutions.

The eMaster's degree announcement aligns with IIT Kanpur's commitment to training India's future workforce. The program's focus on renewable energy and e-mobility sectors, which are poised for significant expansion in the coming years, underpins this commitment. This innovative course empowers students to make significant contributions to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting sustainable development.
Is India on the brink of a groundwater crisis reminiscent of the challenges faced by countries like Saudi Arabia? A recent United Nations report suggests that India may not be far from such an ominous aquifer scenario.

India currently holds the unenviable title of being the world's largest consumer of groundwater. It extracts more groundwater than the combined usage of the United States and China, two of the most populous and industrially advanced nations on the planet. This insatiable demand for groundwater is causing serious concern among environmental experts.

According to the UN report titled "Interconnected Disaster Risks Report 2023," some regions in the Indo-Gangetic basin in India have already crossed a critical threshold concerning groundwater depletion. These regions are heading towards a dire situation where the amount of groundwater being extracted surpasses its natural replenishment.

The situation is most alarming in the northwestern region, which includes states like Punjab and Haryana. This region plays a pivotal role in the nation's food production. However, the report grimly warns that the entire northwestern region is expected to experience critically low groundwater availability by the year 2025. Currently, a staggering 78% of wells in Punjab are classified as overexploited, a clear indication of the unsustainable demand for this finite resource.

A Bigger Global Concern

The UN report, published by the United Nations University - Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS), raises a broader global concern. It highlights that the world is approaching six environmental tipping points. These include accelerating extinctions, groundwater depletion, mountain glacier melting, space debris, unbearable heat, and an uninsurable future. Each of these tipping points represents a critical threshold in Earth's systems, beyond which abrupt and often irreversible changes take place.

Groundwater as a Precious Resource

Around 70% of global groundwater withdrawals are allocated to agriculture, especially when above-ground water sources are insufficient. Aquifers, vast underground water reservoirs, play a crucial role in mitigating agricultural losses caused by drought - a challenge expected to intensify due to climate change. However, the UN report sounds a cautionary note, suggesting that many aquifers around the world are teetering on the edge of a tipping point. More than half of the world's major aquifers are depleting faster than they can naturally replenish.

The Urgent Need for Action

The UN report underscores the urgent necessity for policymakers, governments, and communities to institute significant changes in policies and practices. Addressing these environmental challenges is crucial in averting the crossing of these critical tipping points, which could lead to profound and, in some cases, catastrophic shifts in ecosystems, climate patterns, and the overall environment.

The groundwater crisis in India serves as a stark reminder of the global water predicament. As the world grapples with these environmental challenges, the time for action is now. Failing to do so could have far-reaching and irreversible consequences, threatening the well-being of both current and future generations.

Key Issues related to India

Critical Reliance on Groundwater and Buffering Monsoon Variability

India tops the global chart as the largest consumer of groundwater.

Estimated usage of 230 cubic kilometers annually, exceeding a quarter of the world's total groundwater consumption.

More than 60% of irrigated agriculture and 85% of drinking water supplies depend on groundwater.

Increasing urban dependence on groundwater due to unreliable municipal water supplies.

Groundwater plays a vital role in stabilizing food production against erratic monsoon rains.

Notably, groundwater usage mitigated the impact of a rainfall deficit in 1987-88 on food production.

Enhanced Crop Water Productivity and Deteriorating Conditions

Farms irrigated with groundwater achieve double the crop water productivity compared to surface-water-dependent ones.

Greater control over irrigation timing and water quantity contributes to this efficiency.

Approximately 29% of groundwater blocks are semi-critical, critical, or overexploited.

Depletion primarily occurs in densely populated and economically active areas.

Climate change will exacerbate the strain on groundwater resources.

Implications for Agriculture and Food Security

Threatens the sustainability of agriculture, long-term food security, livelihoods, and economic growth.

Over 25% of the country's harvest is at risk.

A multitude of factors influences groundwater use.

Factors include landholdings size, population density, crop water intensity, user behavior, legislative and administrative aspects, power subsidies for irrigation water, and economic policies.

Diverse Aquifers, Diverse Solutions

India possesses both hard-rock and alluvial aquifers, each with distinct physical and socioeconomic characteristics.

Tailored solutions at macro and micro levels are essential.

Global experience provides limited comparable models, necessitating homegrown solutions.
A recent report by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) has revealed that approximately 2.2 billion individuals in India and the Indus Valley may be exposed to several hours of heat that surpasses human tolerance levels by the end of the century. Other reports suggest that the situation could be even more critical in African nations, and the Western part of the world will also face a significant impact from heatwaves.

This new study further substantiates these facts by establishing a strong connection between climate change and the global population.

A recent study conducted by researchers from Kiel University in Germany has illuminated the dynamic relationship between climate change and human populations between 5,500 and 3,500 years ago. Published in the journal PLOS ONE, this groundbreaking research utilized archaeological remains and geological climate data to investigate how shifting environmental conditions affected human societies in Europe.

The study examined three key regions: the Circumharz area in central Germany, the Czech Republic/Lower Austria region, and the Northern Alpine Foreland in southern Germany. This inquiry not only unveiled the influence of climate on population trends but also highlighted the profound social changes that occurred during these periods of climatic fluctuation.

The Correlation Between Climate and Human Populations

Between 5,500 and 3,500 years ago, climate played a pivotal role in shaping the demographics and social structures of human populations residing in these regions. The researchers discovered that the size of populations, as well as their social organization, underwent significant transformations in response to climatic variations.

To examine these trends, the research team collected and analysed over 3,400 radiocarbon dates from archaeological sites within the selected regions. Radiocarbon dates serve as valuable indicators of ancient populations, as larger populations typically leave behind more materials for dating. Simultaneously, climate data were sourced from cave formations in these regions, providing insights into historical climate conditions spanning from 3550-1550 BC, encompassing the Late Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age.

Impact of Climate Fluctuations

The study revealed a notable correlation between climate and human populations. During periods of warmer and wetter climates, populations tended to increase. These favourable conditions likely led to improved agricultural practices and stronger economies, which, in turn, supported higher population growth. Conversely, during colder and drier times, populations often decreased, with some regions experiencing profound cultural shifts. For instance, the Circumharz region displayed evidence of growing social inequality during these periods, marked by the emergence of high-status "princely burials" for specific individuals.

The Social and Cultural Implications

The emergence of high-status burials is indicative of how changing climates influenced social structures and hierarchies. These findings suggest that climate variability played a pivotal role in shaping not just population numbers but also the dynamics of human societies. It highlights the adaptability and resilience of ancient cultures in the face of environmental challenges. As climates fluctuated, human societies responded by adjusting their social, economic, and even political structures to thrive in these changing conditions.

Limitations and the Way Forward

The researchers acknowledge that their study's results could be influenced by the limitations of the archaeological record in the selected regions. To strengthen and refine these findings, further data and research will be essential. Nonetheless, this research is a vital step in understanding the complex interplay between human populations and their environment. It emphasises the importance of studying the past to gain insights into the potential impacts of ongoing climate change on contemporary societies.

The study conducted by Kiel University researchers provides a valuable historical perspective on the intricate relationship between climate change and human populations. It highlights how climatic fluctuations between 5,500 and 3,500 years ago significantly influenced population sizes and social structures. By examining the response of ancient societies to changing environmental conditions, we gain essential insights into how our own societies might adapt to the challenges posed by contemporary climate change. Understanding these historical connections is crucial as we continue to grapple with the impacts of climate change on our world today.
UPSC has recently declared the final result for the NDA NA-1 examination for 2023. Candidates who appeared for the examination can check their results on the official website of the Union Public Service Commission, i.e., www.upsc.gov.in. This article provides a detailed guide on how to handle the UPSC NDA NA-1 final result 2023, providing a direct link to download results.

NDA NA-1 Exam 2023

The National Defense Academy (NDA) and Naval Academy (NA) examinations are conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). These exams are for aspirants who wish to join India's defence forces. The UPSC NDA NA-1 exam is the first stage of the selection process, and the final results are eagerly awaited by thousands of candidates across the country.

How to Download the UPSC NDA NA-1 Final Result 2023

Accessing the UPSC NDA NA-1 final results is a fairly straightforward process.

Candidates must head to the UPSC website and locate the 'Final Result: National Defence Academy and Naval Academy Examination, I, 2023' notice.

Clicking on this link will take the aspirants to the results page.

They need to input their roll number or registration number to view their result.

What Follows the UPSC NDA NA-1 Final Result?

Candidates who have cleared the final exam will be called for an interview by the Service Selection Board of the Ministry of Defence. This interview is a crucial step in the selection process and further solidifies a candidate's chance for a career in the defence services. The UPSC advises selected candidates to contact the Ministry of Defence for further information on the interview procedures and next steps.
China's magical straw checkerboard: turning desert into lush land

Due to its dry climate and limited water resources, northwest Chinas Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region has struggled with severe environmental problems, including desertification and water preservation. The World Food Programme designated its Xihaigu region as one of the "most unfit places for human settlement" in the 1970s due to its fragile ecosystem and susceptibility to droughts.

Imagine my astonishment when I found Yinchuan, Ningxia's capital city, is a wetland city listed on the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands due to the outstanding preservation efforts of the locals. The Ramsar Convention granted Yinchuan certificates of "international wetland cities" in 2018 to mark the city's continuous dedication to wetlands protection through creative measures. Yinchuan is the first city in Western China to receive this distinction.

Locals plant straw checkerboard sand barriers in the desert in northwest Chinas Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. (Photo/Chizao)

China ranks first on the list of countries with "international wetland cities", with 13 out of a total of 43.

During my visit to Yinchuan, I met Johns Muleso Kharika, Chief of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification's Unit of Science, Technology, and Innovation, and several academics who came here to better understand the region's environmental preservation miracle.

Through our talk, I learned about straw checkerboard sand barriers, a low-cost and highly effective anti-desertification approach. To learn more about the history of China's anti-desertification efforts and the "straw checkerboard sand barrier" technique, which was developed in China and has since spread worldwide, I travelled to Shapotou (literally high sand dunes), a district in Zhongwei city in Ningxia.

The straw checkerboard sand barriers were originally created to build the desert section of the Baotou-Lanzhou Railway. Researchers discovered that straws arranged in a checkerboard pattern on the desert floor can effectively control the movement of sand dunes.

In 1955, the Chinese Academy of Sciences established Chinas first comprehensive observation station in Shapotou. The following year, the countrys first specialized sand-break forest was launched.

After numerous failures and explorations, straw checkerboard sand barriers were adopted as the main method for dealing with moving sand when the railway opened.

The method was applauded by experts from both home and abroad at the United Nations Conference on Desertification (UNCOD) in Nairobi in 1977. Since then, foreign experts and personnel have come to Shapotou to learn the unique method.

In China, the fight against desertification and for environmental conservation began with the deployment of straw checkerboard sand barriers.

The magic straws that hold back deserts in China

Wang Lifu, aged 68, was born and raised in Zhongwei, northwest Chinas Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. (Photo/Chizao)

I met Tang Xining, a 57-year-old scientist who has been fighting desertification in Ningxia for over 33 years. He is the third generation to use the tried and true "straw checkerboard sand barrier" technique. More than 487 square kilometers of land have been saved from desertification due to his efforts.

The straw checkerboard sand barriers can only halt the progression of the desert, though grass and vegetation are planted inside the straw squares to prevent desertification indefinitely. The seed inside the straw square is dragged up by the wind and spread to the inner borders of the straw barriers. With sufficient moisture, the grass will flourish, and the decomposing straw will act as a natural fertilizer.

The straw barriers will decompose for three years, and living "grass checkerboard sand barriers" will replace them, turning the dunes back to green.

Wang Lifu, aged 68, was born and raised in Zhongwei. It astonished me to see an elderly man like him working in the scorching desert heat, planting the straw checkerboard sand barriers.

He told me that planting these barriers in the desert allows him to make an extra 200 RMB per day and that he is physically capable of doing so and safeguarding his hometown from sandstorms.

"When I was a kid, the sandstorms never stopped engulfing our city. The wind was so strong it would knock you over, and the sand in the air was so thick it was physically painful to breathe," he said.

According to Wang, there used to be dozens of sandstorms a year before China's anti-desertification measures, but today they only happen once a year, and sometimes not at all.

Wang says he does not want to stay at home like other elderly people, and wants to help with the fight against desertification while he still can.

"If we don't stop the sandstorm here, it will spread to many other places in China, even to Beijing, our capital and where you live," he said.

The labor involved in laying down straw barriers in the desert does not appeal to the younger generation, and most of those who do it are either housewives or the elderly. Most "straw checkerboard sand barriers" are now planted by machines, although human labour is still required on particularly steep slopes or shifting sand dunes.

A star-gazing themed hotel in the desert of Zhongwei draws visitors from around China. (Photo provided by the hotel)

Wang has modernized the method using machines and other cutting-edge technology, earning five patents. The original "straw checkerboard sand barrier" only kept 25% of the desert's grass alive, while the new technique allows almost 75% of the plants to thrive.

Scholars from many developing nations have come to Ningxia to learn about the secrets of the straw checkerboard sand barriers, and we are willing to share our experiences in environmental protection with the whole world, said Tang.

Locals informed me that a large part of the desert in Ningxia has been developed as a tourist scenic site. Ningxia hosts annual summer vacation events where kids from all around China come to learn about environmental conservation and try out the checkerboard sand barrier.

It's a clever strategy that simultaneously protects the environment, educates the youth, and develops ecological tourism.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Wu Chengliang)
Photo: Parliament of Canada Kelowna-Lake Country MP Tracy Gray

After Bill C-11 recently passed, the Canada Radio and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announced its plans to bring in a new registry for social media and online podcasts.

Under the new regulations, podcasts and streaming companies would be required to register with the federal government by Nov. 28. Warnings were raised about online censorship, government overreach and individual liberties during debates on Bill C-11 in the House of Commons and the Senate. The government continually stated Bill C-11 wouldn't infringe on individual posts or online content.

It's crucial for Canadians to receive answers and transparency from both the telecommunications regulator, the CRTC, and the heritage minister.

Conservatives brought forward two motions recently at the Heritage Committee to scrutinize the impact and implications of the new proposed podcast registry restrictions and regulations. We aimed to provide a platform for concerned Canadians and content creators to voice their concerns and seek clarity on the federal government's intentions.

Despite growing unease among Canadians, the federal Liberals, NDP and Bloc Quebecois chose not to study this issue.

The concern is that these CRTC measures will control what Canadians can access, see and express online. The potential for government interference in the content Canadians can access is a significant concern, as it could compromise the principle of "net neutrality," which includes open access to information for what you search and see online.

Conservatives warned C-11 will restrict what Canadians may view and listen to and it will negatively impact digital producers by limiting their success and ability to reach a Canadian and a worldwide audience. Canadian talent and creative content will no longer be successful based on what Canadians want to see. Instead, viewers will only see it if it meets the criteria set by Ottawa bureaucrats at the CRTC.

Canadians deserve a choice in what they watch and listen to online, free from undue government influence. The official Opposition's call for a more transparent and consultative process was made when this legislation was proposed and debated. Now, as we see the implementation of the C-11 through CRTC regulation where the oversights of online podcasts was not something analyzed and has come as a surprise to many.

I will continue opposing federal government overreach that is harming how Canadians access what they search and see online. We only have to see what has already occurred with (Metas) removal of Canadian news articles from (Facebook and Instagram) search results and from the inability to copy links to news articles on the social media platforms due to another restrictive piece of legislation, the governments Bill C-18. Canadians are now left with having to screenshot headlines rather than attaching full article links that no one can click on and see (the full article).

(Conservatives) will continue to press for answers about the regulations being put forth by the CRTC based on legislation from the government. This includes bringing forth concerns and seeking clarity on regulations such as those being proposed for podcast creators.

If you need assistance with federal programs or have any thoughts to share, feel free to reach out, at 250-470-5075 or at [email protected].

(Editors note: In June, Google also said it planned to remove links to news articles for searches in Canada in response to Bill C-18 but as of Thursday, they were still available.)

Tracy Gray is the Conservative MP for Kelowna-Lake Country.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.
Photo: The Canadian Press

Conservative talk radio host Larry Elder announced Thursday that he was ending his 2024 Republican campaign for president and endorsing former President Donald Trump.

Elder, who sought to replace California Gov. Gavin Newsom in a failed 2021 recall effort, said in a statement that he had made the difficult decision to end his bid after careful consideration and consultation with his team and to throw his support behind Trump. Trump's leadership, he said, was instrumental in advancing conservative America-first principles and policies that have benefited our great nation.

He said now was the time to unite behind Trump to beat President Joe Biden. He also said he hoped his campaign had shined a light on the issues important to him, including fatherlessness, fighting crime and opposition to the idea that the U.S. is a racist country.

Elder is the fourth major candidate to suspend or end his 2024 GOP bid, following Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, former Texas congressman Will Hurd and businessman Perry Johnson. Johnson also backed Trump on his way out of the race, while Hurd endorsed former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley.

He announced his long-shot campaign in April, saying that America is in decline, but this decline in not inevitable.

We can enter a new American Golden Age, but we must choose a leader who can bring us there. Thats why Im running for President, he wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Elder found little visibility in a primary race dominated by Trump and including other high-profile figures such as Haley, former Vice President Mike Pence, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, U.S. Sen. Tim Scott and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.

Elder wasn't among the GOP candidates on stage for either presidential debate after failing to meet the polling and donor qualifications required by the Republican National Committee to participate. He said he filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission after missing the first one, alleging the rules about debate participation werent equally applied to all candidates.

Elder made his first bid for public office in 2021, when he received the most votes out of 46 people who were hoping to replace Newsom in a recall effort. But a majority of voters ended up voting against removing Newsom, making the vote count in the replacement contest irrelevant.

Some Democrats say Elder's role as a foil to Newsom helped the Democratic governor inspire voters in liberal California to turn out and reject the recall. Newsom attacked Elder for his support of Trump and his conservative positions, such as opposing abortion rights and restrictions imposed to slow the spread of COVID-19, such as mask mandates.

But Elder said the experience of running for office  and the millions of votes he received  showed he had a message that resonated with voters. A lawyer who grew up in Los Angeles' rough South Central neighborhood, Elder attended an Ivy League college and then law school. He has a following among conservatives through his radio programs and has been a frequent guest on Fox News and other right-wing media.

Elder, who is Black, has criticized Democrats' woke agenda, Black Lives Matter and the notion of systemic racism, positions that have put him at odds with many other Black people.
Photo: The Canadian Press

Sheila North, a former grand chief of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak, announced Thursday she is joining the contest to become the next national chief of the Assembly of First Nations.

North told reporters at a news conference in Winnipeg that some chiefs don't feel they are being listened to by regional and national leadership in the advocacy organization, which serves as a national voice for more than 600 First Nations across the country.

She said she has spoken with chiefs who are frustrated by a lack of movement on policy resolutions they have adopted  and that has to change.

"I think it's time to take the Assembly of First Nations back to the chiefs of Canada, because it's their organization," she said at a news conference in Winnipeg on Thursday.

"Chiefs don't work for the AFN  the AFN should work for the chiefs."

It means that chiefs in the assembly must feel their opinions are valued, and their resolutions will be implemented, she said.

North is an advocate for missing and murdered Indigenous women, a former journalist and a member of Bunibonibee Cree Nation.

She told reporters that she has the right qualifications, training and people around her to become the next national chief, and she has received endorsements from Bunibonibee Cree Nation Chief Richard Hart and others across the country.

North is currently working with the International Commission on Missing Persons, which is consulting with Indigenous communities that are interested in searching for unmarked graves near former residential school sites.

She said she would continue in the role, which involves helping the group to facilitate community engagement sessions, if she is elected. But she would make changes to make sure that the work is not hampered by her new gig, she said.

The upcoming election comes after the dramatic ouster of former national chief RoseAnne Archibald, who was voted out after colleagues accused her of creating a toxic work environment  an allegation she continues to deny.

The deadline for nominations in the contest is Nov. 1, and the vote is set to occur on Dec. 6 during a special chiefs assembly in Ottawa.

North said the election process is a "spiritual journey," and she has been called to fast until the election.

"I commit to that, because I know this is a very serious job."

She said that during her time at Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak, she was "relentless" in her efforts to get the federal government to address the health crisis in the province, especially in Manitoba.

She also spoke of how she commissioned a study by Brandon University, alongside Manitoba's Southern Chiefs' Organization, that found Indigenous Peoples in Manitoba contribute $9.3 billion to the economy.

"Manitobans know that Indigenous people have value, that we are here, and we do contribute."

She acknowledged that challenges such as poverty and substance use are not unique to Indigenous Peoples.

But she said that during conversations with various chiefs leading up to her Thursday announcement, most of them told her they had recently attended funerals because of ongoing substance-use and mental-health crises.

"We are in dire straits," said North.

"We need to start addressing these real issues and we can't do the old way anymore."

To address those issues, treaties and the inherent rights of First Nations must be respected, she said, including the right to self-govern.

"We need our own health systems. We need our own justice systems."

And, more importantly, she said, the AFN needs to stop acting as a kind of administrative arm of the federal government.

"We need to change that," she said.

David Pratt was the first person to announce his intention to run to be the new national chief in August.

Pratt currently serves as a vice-chief with the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations, an organization representing 74 First Nations in Saskatchewan.

In his announcement, Pratt said the AFN is at a "critical juncture" and the election is about restoring and rebuilding the national organization.

Manitoba regional chief Cindy Woodhouse, the lead Assembly of First Nations negotiator for a landmark child-welfare settlement passed this week, announced her candidacy earlier this month.

Woodhouse said that growing up in Pinaymootang First Nation, she saw a disparity between her community and non-Indigenous communities. As a result, she said, she is devoted to making the lives of First Nations people more equal.

Woodhouse also said that she is a "bridge-builder" who would work on First Nations policing, as well as renewing and strengthening relationships federally and provincially.
Photo: The Canadian Press Pentagon spokesman Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder.

U.S. fighter jets launched airstrikes early Friday on two locations in eastern Syria linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Pentagon said, in retaliation for a slew of drone and missile attacks against U.S. bases and personnel in the region that began early last week.

The U.S. strikes reflect the Biden administration's determination to maintain a delicate balance. The U.S. wants to hit Iranian-backed groups suspected of targeting the U.S. as strongly as possible to deter future aggression, possibly fueled by Israel's war against Hamas, while also working to avoid inflaming the region and provoking a wider conflict.

According to a senior U.S. military official, the precision strikes were carried out near Boukamal by two F-16 fighter jets, and they struck weapons and ammunition storage areas that were connected to the IRGC. The official said there had been Iranian-aligned militia and IRGC personnel on the base and no civilians, but the U.S. does not have any information yet on casualties or an assessment of damage. The official would not say how many munitions were launched by the F-16s.

A senior defense official said the sites were chosen because the IRGC stores the types of munitions there that were used in the strikes against U.S. bases and troops. The two officials briefed reporters after the strikes on condition of anonymity to provide details on the mission that had not yet been made public.

According to the Pentagon, there have now been at least 19 attacks on U.S. bases and personnel in Iraq and Syria since Oct. 17, including three new ones Thursday. Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said 21 U.S. personnel were injured in two of those assaults that used drones to target al-Asad Airbase in Iraq and al-Tanf Garrison in Syria.

In a statement, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the precision self-defense strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on October 17.

He said President Joe Biden directed the narrowly tailored strikes to make clear that the United States will not tolerate such attacks and will defend itself, its personnel, and its interests. And he added that the operation was separate and distinct from Israel's war against Hamas.

The senior defense official told reporters that the F-16 airstrikes will have a significant impact on the ability of Iranian proxy groups to continue to attack U.S. forces. Asked what groups were targeted, the official said there are several that can have different names, but the U.S. holds Tehran responsible for funding, arming, equipping and directing the proxies. The official said the airstrikes were not designed to expand the conflict in the region, but to compel Iran to direct the militia groups to cease the attacks on American bases and personnel.

The Biden administration has not accused Iran of having a direct role in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and has said it appears so far that Tehran was not aware of it beforehand. But the U.S. has noted that Iran has long supported Hamas and has raised concerns that Iran and its proxies could turn the conflict into a wider war.

Austin said the U.S. does not seek a broader conflict, but if Iranian proxy groups continue, the U.S. wont hesitate to take additional action to protect its forces.

According to the Pentagon, all the U.S. personnel hurt in the militant attacks received minor injuries and all returned to duty. In addition, a contractor suffered a cardiac arrest and died while seeking shelter from a possible drone attack.

The retaliatory strikes came as no surprise. Officials at the Pentagon and the White House have made it clear for the past week that the U.S. would respond, with Ryder saying again Thursday that it would be at the time and place of our choosing.

I think weve been crystal clear that we maintain the inherent right of defending our troops and we will take all necessary measures to protect our forces and our interests overseas, he told reporters during a Pentagon briefing earlier in the day.

Biden said Wednesday that he had warned Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Irans supreme leader, that if Tehran continues to move against U.S. forces in the Middle East, we will respond.

The latest spate of strikes by the Iranian-linked groups came in the wake of a deadly explosion at a Gaza hospital, triggering protests in a number of Muslim nations. The Israeli military has relentlessly attacked Gaza in retaliation for the devastating Hamas rampage in southern Israel nearly three weeks ago, but Israel has denied responsibility for the al-Ahli hospital blast and the U.S. has said its intelligence assessment found that Tel Aviv was not to blame.

The U.S., including the Pentagon, has repeatedly said any strike response by America would be directly tied to the attacks on the troops, and not connected to the war between Israel and Hamas. Such retaliation and strikes against Iranian targets in Syria after similar attacks on U.S. bases are routine.

In March, for example, the U.S. struck sites in Syria used by groups affiliated with Irans Revolutionary Guard after an Iranian-linked attack killed a U.S. contractor and wounded seven other Americans in northeast Syria. American F-15 fighter jets flying out of al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar struck several locations around Deir el-Zour.

U.S. officials have routinely stressed that the American response is designed to be proportional, and is aimed at deterring strikes against U.S. personnel who are focused on the fight against the Islamic State group.

U.S. officials have not publicly tied the recent string of attacks in Syria and Iraq to the violence in Gaza, but Iranian officials have openly criticized the U.S. for providing weapons to Israel that have been used to strike Gaza, resulting in civilian death.

The Pentagon, meanwhile, has beefed up air defenses in the region to protect U.S. forces. The U.S. has said it is sending several batteries of Patriot missile systems, a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery and additional fighter jets.

The THAAD is being sent from Fort Bliss, Texas, and the Patriot batteries are from Fort Liberty in North Carolina and Fort Sill in Oklahoma. An Avenger air defense system from Fort Liberty is also being sent.

Officials have said as much as two battalions of Patriots are being deployed. A battalion can include at least three Patriot batteries, which each have six to eight launchers.

Ryder said Thursday that about 900 troops have deployed or are in the process of going to the Middle East region, including those associated with the air defense systems.
Photo: The Canadian Press

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried testified at his New York trial on Friday, denying that he defrauded anyone but acknowledging that the innovative business he had hoped would move the cryptocurrency ecosystem forward ended up hurting customers instead.

The onetime cryptocurrency golden boy lost his businesses and his reputation as a pioneering entrepreneur in an emerging facet of finance when a rush of customers withdrew their money last year, exposing that billions of dollars were missing.

Bankman-Fried, 31, acknowledged some of his failures early in his testimony in Manhattan federal court, saying he made mistakes, large and small.

We thought we might be able to build the best product on the market and move the cryptocurrency system forward, he said.

It turned out basically the opposite of that, and a lot of customers and others got hurt, Bankman-Fried said.

Asked by his lawyer, Mark Cohen, if he defrauded anyone or took customers' funds, Bankman-Fried answered, No I did not."

The California entrepreneur has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy charges accusing him of diverting billions of dollars from his clients and investors to make risky investments, buy luxury housing, engage in a star-studded publicity campaign, and make large political and charitable donations.

His much-anticipated testimony became the centerpiece of a defense that has tried to convey that Bankman-Fried had no criminal intent as he took actions that prosecutors say were directly to blame for the collapse last November of businesses Bankman-Fried began creating in 2017 and eventually ran from the Bahamas.

Before Bankman-Fried began testifying Friday, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan mostly shut down his lawyers' attempts to suggest to jurors that Bankman-Fried made many decisions about his businesses after consulting with lawyers.

After the jury was sent home Thursday, Bankman-Fried testified in front of the judge about his communications with lawyers as he built his cryptocurrency empire.

That evidence would, in my judgment, be confusing and highly prejudicial by falsely implying, given testimony yesterday, that lawyers with full knowledge of the facts  all of the facts  blessed what the defendant is alleged to have done. And I didnt hear that at all yesterday, Kaplan said.

He did, though, grant a defense request to permit testimony about the involvement of lawyers in data retention policies at Bankman-Fried's businesses that required the frequent deletion of some communications.

He was extradited from the Bahamas to New York in December to face fraud charges.

Though he was initially granted a $250 million personal recognizance bond and allowed to live with his parents in Palo Alto, California, the bond was revoked in August and he was jailed when Kaplan concluded that he had tried to influence potential witnesses at his upcoming trial.

Prosecutors built their case against Bankman-Fried for three weeks, relying largely on his former top executives, an inner circle of individuals who shared a penthouse apartment in the Bahamas with Bankman-Fried.

The executives testified that Bankman-Fried directed them to spend billions of dollars taken from the accounts of FTX customers and funneled through Alameda Research, a hedge fund he started in 2017, two years before he created the FTX cryptocurrency exchange.
Photo: The Canadian Press A police crackdown on violent and chronic shoplifters in Vancouver has ended with 258 arrests and the recovery of almost $57,000 in stolen goods. Police cars are seen parked outside Vancouver Police Department headquarters in Vancouver, on Saturday, January 9, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

A police crackdown on violent and chronic shoplifters in Vancouver has ended in 258 arrests and the recovery of almost $57,000 in stolen goods.

Vancouver police say the arrests were made during a two-week operation in September, which was co-ordinated with other Lower Mainland police departments, resulting in another 82 arrests in Delta, Langley, Richmond and Burnaby.

Staff Sgt. Mario Mastropieri says Vancouver isn't alone in dealing with rampant theft, and other North American cities have seen some major retailers shut down because of violent shoplifting.

He says police are determined not to let that happen in Vancouver.

Tony Hunt, general manager for London Drugs loss prevention, says employers are spending millions on security measures, but not all businesses can afford to take those steps, and they rely on police, courts and social support systems to make it safe to work in communities.

The latest arrests are in addition to a police blitz last spring when 355 people were arrested for shoplifting.
TOKYO, Oct 27 ( NHK ) - A district court in central Japan has begun the retrial of an 87-year-old man convicted of killing a family of four in 1966.

The Shizuoka District Court began a hearing on Friday for Hakamada Iwao, more than 40 years after his death sentence was finalized.

The court allowed Hakamada to skip the session, judging him incapable of communicating due to his mental state. His 90-year-old sister Hideko entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf.

Hideko said her brother proclaimed his innocence when he first went to trial in 1966, and has since gone through various setbacks and hardships over 57 years. She pleaded with the court to give her brother "true freedom."

The main point of contention involves blood-stained clothes allegedly worn by Hakamada. They were found in a tank of fermented soybean paste more than one year after he was arrested.

The Tokyo High Court that ordered the retrial in March said there were reasonable doubts with the original ruling that Hakamada wore the clothes at the time of the crime. The court went as far as to say that investigators may have planted the clothes in the tank. ...continue reading
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Two new physician assistants have joined Erlanger Dermatology and Erlanger Primary Care  East.Lisa Carroll is a physician assistant joining Erlanger Dermatology. She received her undergraduate degree in biology from the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. Ms. Carroll earned her physician assistant degree from the University of Utah Physician Assistant Program. She is experienced in general and surgical dermatology, infectious disease laboratory and microbiology/mycology. Ms. Carroll is a member of the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants, and is an active member of the Society of Dermatology Physician Assistants and the American Academy of Physician Associates.To make an appointment with Ms. Carroll, call 423-778-5693.Angelina Sheridan is a physician assistant joining Erlanger Primary Care  East. She received her bachelor of science in biology, with a concentration in pre-medicine from Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Fl. Her physician assistant degree was completed at Lincoln Memorial University at the DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine in Harrogate, Tn. Ms. Sheridan has participated in multiple Remote Area Medical (RAM) clinics across Tennessee, providing care to underserved and poverty-ridden populations. She has been nominated to Whos Who of Professional Providers annually since 2014. To make an appointment with Ms. Sheridan, call 423-778-8909.We are proud to continue to grow our services offered at Erlanger East Hospital. Accessibility to high quality and compassionate care is paramount when selecting a healthcare provider, which is why we continue to add providers to where our community lives, works and plays in the fastest growing area in Chattanooga," said Tyler Winks, CEO of Erlanger East Hospital.
Skeletal remains found in McMinn County last week have been identified as a man missing from Fort Oglethorpe, Ga., since 2016.

According to Sheriff Joe Guy, on Oct. 19, McMinn Sheriffs detectives, TBI agents, and Investigators with the Attorney Generals Office began an investigation into partial skeletal remains located by a group of hunters off Highway 30 west of Athens, in a wooded area near County Road 119, about 200 feet off the highway.

The remains were sent to the Forensics Center in Knoxville on Thursday, said Sheriff Guy.On Monday we were contacted by retired Fort Oglethorpe Detective Steve Blevins about the possibility of the person being related to a case Detective Blevins had worked in 2016. Detective Blevins contacted the Forensics Center about his cold case, and they were able to confirm the identification as David Abbott, of Fort Oglethorpe.

Sheriff Guy said the case originated when Mr. Abbott was reported missing in Fort Oglethorpe on June 23, 2016. The next day, Mr. Abbotts truck was located in McMinn County, abandoned in a driveway on County Road 126 just off Hwy 30 west of Athens. Both McMinn County officers and Detective Blevins had searched the area but Mr. Abbott was not located.

According to family members, Mr. Abbott suffered from mental health issues, as well as numerous other health problems. Investigators say that there is no evidence of foul play; that Mr. Abbott seems to have walked off into the wooded area and passed away shortly after leaving his truck on County Road 126. Mr. Abbotts body was located approximately  mile from the location his truck was found in 2016.

Detective Blevins and our officers had communicated several times over the past six years about this case, said Sheriff Guy. So we are fortunate to have located Mr. Abbott, confirm his identity, and bring some peace to his family. We appreciate the assistance of the Fort Oglethorpe Police Department, but especially Detective Blevins, who even in his retirement kept working diligently on this case.

Detective John Lanham with Fort Oglethorpe Police said this will officially close Mr. Abbotts case.
Tourism is getting a boost in communities across Tennessee, as the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development announced on Friday that the state awarded 29 communities over $2.22 million in Tourism Enhancement Grants.

Tennessees Tourism Enhancement Grants support cities and counties seeking to invest in their local tourism assets, lift visitation and increase economic impact. Eligible projects include stages, signage, historic preservation, ADA compliancy and other improvements to local attractions and venues.

Tourism is vital for the growth and sustainability of communities throughout Tennessee, especially in our rural communities, said Melanie Beauchamp, Assistant Commissioner of Rural Tourism and Outreach, Tennessee Department of Tourist Development. These projects create opportunities for visitors, enhance the quality of life for residents and ultimately, bring more funds back into the communities.

Weve seen first-hand how tourism can transform communities, said Commissioner Mark Ezell, Tennessee Department of Tourist Development. Tourism development is economic development, and these investments are essential to Governor Lees mission to expand opportunity for rural Tennesseans.

Tourism enhancement grants were awarded to 10 at-risk and distressed communities. The list of awardees follows, with a full list of projects here .
Dr. James Metcalfe said he is retiring as Hamilton County medical examiner effective Dec. 31. He had no further comment.

Dr. Steven Cogswell testified in court this week that he is serving as interim medical examiner. He came to Chattanooga in 2013 to serve as associate medical examiner.

Dr. Metcalfe joined the medical examiner's office in 2007 and became medical examiner five years later.

Dr. Frank King was the prior medical examiner.

Dr. Metcalfe is the second highest paid county employee at $222,256.

Dr. Metcalfe is from Australia and graduated from the University of Adelaide Faculty of Health Sciences in 1972..
Ancient bear skull found in Lookout Mountain Cave photo by Gray Fossil Site & Museum Collections Department at Gray Fossil Site & Museum analyze fossils photo by Gray Fossil Site & Museum Jaguar humerus from Lookout Mountain Cave (right) compared to modern-day Jaguar humerus (left) photo by Gray Fossil Site & Museum Previous Next

The private collection of fossils discovered decades ago in Lookout Mountain Cave prompted a significant new partnership between Ruby Falls and the East Tennessee State University Center of Excellence in Paleontology and Gray Fossil Site & Museum. The fossils recently donated for research and display by Ruby Falls are believed to be from the Pleistocene Epoch, commonly known as the Ice Age. The Ruby Falls collection includes fossil remains from an ancient jaguar, black bear, striped skunk, bat, woodchuck, muskrat, deer and weasel. Matt Bushell, recent graduate of the paleontology master's program at East Tennessee State University (ETSU), reached out to Ruby Falls after learning about the fossil collection held by the popular Tennessee attraction. The specimens are of significant interest to the researcher due to his scientific focus on Pleistocene large cats from this area. "The Ruby Falls jaguar humerus is particularly exciting as that animal no longer lives here today but used to roam these hills back in the Ice Age," said Mr. Bushell. "This jaguar humerus may be one of the biggest found from the state so far."

The collection of Lookout Mountain Cave fossils was initially on loan to the Center of Excellence in Paleontology for confirmation ofauthenticity and identification. The successful collaboration with Mr. Bushell and his research advisor laid the foundation for Ruby Falls to donate the collection to the Gray Fossil Site & Museum's permanent collection.

"The Gray Fossil Site & Museum is a repository for important fossils discovered in Tennessee and the Appalachians, and it is our job to care for these remains using the highest standards," said Dr. Blaine Schubert, Mr. Bushell's advisor and executive director of the Center of Excellence in Paleontology and Director of the Gray Fossil Site & Museum. "This ensures that these natural treasures will be available for scientific research and exhibit purposes well into the future."

The Center of Excellence in Paleontology conducts paleontological research, and provides teaching, training, and public education at East Tennessee State University. In addition to managing and caring for the Gray Fossil Site & Museum, the Center oversees scientific research related to the five-million-year-old Gray Fossil Site, an extraordinary fossil locality in the heart of the Appalachian Highlands, recognized around the globe for its significance in paleontology.

"We are thrilled to partner with ETSU and the Gray Fossil Site & Museum to preserve, research, and share Lookout Mountain's natural history," said Ruby Falls CEO and president Hugh Morrow. "The caverns of Lookout Mountain hold an incredibly rich story to tell of the past. Through this collaboration, we can better understand and protect its extraordinary range of plant and animal life."

The Center is creating 3D printed replicas of the original specimens to aid Ruby Falls in educating the public about Ice Age wildlife living and taking refuge in the cave systems within Lookout Mountain. Additionally, they will conduct an educational session on Pleistocene-era creatures that once inhabited the Lookout Mountain region.
Morning Pointe at Happy Valley, the new assisted living and memory care campus in development in Walker County, has hired several new key leaders and continues to prepare for opening before the end of the year.Among recent hires are Teresa Whited as life enrichment director to oversee activities on the assisted living side; Hannah Dahany as Lantern program director to oversee activities on the memory care side; Ellen Vitorino as food services director; and Eli Gaines as maintenance director.The community, located at 2989 Happy Valley Road in Rossville, is still finalizing other staffing.Meanwhile, furniture is arriving and the finishing touches are being put in place on the building.Interested families continue to take tours and choose apartments.We are getting very close to opening, and excitement is truly building here, said Pam Turley, executive director at Morning Pointe at Happy Valley.Tours are picking up fast now that furniture has been delivered. Families are able to truly envision their loved ones new home.To arrange a tour, call Kristen Weitz, community relations director, at 706-916-2777.The new campus will offer 58 assisted living apartments and 24 memory care apartments speciallydesigned for residents with Alzheimers disease and other forms of memory loss. The senior community is part of an overall community redevelopment of the historic 300-acre Happy Valley Farms. It will be the 38th Morning Pointe Senior Living community and the companys second campus in Georgia (with the other in Calhoun).The 300-acre Happy Valley farm and estate were established in 1935 by John L. Hutcheson, Jr., andwere the site of an award-winning Jersey cattle and dairy farm, and later a world-class AmericanSaddlebred horse-breeding facility. Greg A. Vital, Co-Founder and President of Morning Pointe Senior Living, purchased the farm from the Happy Valley Estate in 2020 for preservation and development. The campus is located across the road from the barn, between Ridgeland High School and Rossville Middle School. Leaders at the community anticipate many intergenerational activities between the students and the residents.Clinical services at the campus will include 24/7 nursing care and personal care services, medicationassistance and reminders, periodic check-ins, personal grooming assistance, assistance with transferring to a bed or chair, escorting to meals and events, incontinence management and more. On-site physical, occupational and speech therapy services will also be offered through The Weston Group. Programming will include life enrichment such as arts and crafts, wellness offerings such as exercise classes, and intergenerational activities such as partnering with local schools.The Lantern memory care wing will provide an array of Alzheimers and dementia care services, including innovative therapies such as Teepa Snows Positive Approach to Care, Best Friends Approach and Morning Pointes own Meaningful Day  a purposeful memory care program providing structure to help residents feel safe and secure.The campus will also feature Morning Pointes Farm to Table program with local, farm-fresh and seasonal ingredients.Everything is coming together, and we are so excited to be so close to opening this beautiful building on this historic and gorgeous site that means so much to the North Georgia community, said Greg A. Vital, Morning Pointe Senior Living co-founder and president. We are so pleased to welcome this team of professional and caring staff who will make Morning Pointe at Happy Valley a bright and welcoming home for our residents.To reserve an apartment, or to inquire about job opportunities, call 706-916-2777. Jobs are alsoposted at morningpointe.com/careers/.
Classical strong metal-support interaction (SMSI) describes that reducible oxide migrates to the surface metal nanoparticles (NPs) to obtain metal@oxide encapsulation structure during high-temperature H 2 thermal treatment, resulting in high selectivity and stability.

New strategy boosting carbon dioxide reduction to carbon monoxide DICP

However, the encapsulation structure inhibits the adsorption and dissociation of reactant molecular (e.g., H 2 ) over metal, leading to low activity, especially for the hydrogenation reaction.

Recently, a research group led by Prof. LIU Yuefeng from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has proposed a new migration strategy, in which the TiO 2 selectively migrates to second oxide support rather than the surface of metal NPs in Ru/(TiO x )MnO catalysts, boosting the CO 2 reduction to CO via reverse water-gas shift reaction.

The researchers achieved controlled migration by utilizing the strong interaction between TiO 2 and MnO in Ru/(TiO x )MnO catalysts during H 2 thermal treatment, and TiO 2 spontaneously re-dispersed on the MnO surface, avoiding the formation of TiO x shell on Ru NPs for the ternary catalyst (Ru/TiO x /MnO).

Meanwhile, high-density TiO x /MnO interfaces generated during the process, acting as a highly efficient H transportation channel with low barrier, and resulting in enhanced H-spillover for the migration of activated H species from metal Ru to support for consequent reaction.

The Ru/TiO x /MnO catalyst showed 3.3-fold catalytic activity for CO 2 reduction to CO compared with Ru/MnO catalyst. In addition, the Ti/Mn support preparation was not sensitive to the crystalline structure and grain size of TiO 2 NPs. Even the mechanical mixing of Ru/TiO 2 and Ru/MnO x enhanced the activity.

Moreover, they verified that the synergistic effect of TiO 2 and MnO didn't alter the catalytic intrinsic performance, and efficient H transport provided a large number of active sites (hydroxyl groups) for the reaction process.
Works of five Native artists who are Fellows featured in UNSETTLE/Converge, Nov. 11-Feb. 25
A variety of attractions and panels will be a part of a Native American Cultural Celebration Nov. 10-11 at the Historic Coleman Theater in Miami.
Cherokee Nation citizen and author Vanessa Lillies new mystery thriller Blood Sisters is set to release on Oct. 31 followed by a book tour.
This woman has a younger sister named Bianca, who is 19-years-old. And ever since Bianca was a little girl, her sister has always claimed that she wanted to be a model.

But no one in our family ever really took it seriously, she admitted.

Then, once it came time for Bianca to head off to college, her sister chose to major in business. At the time, this decision pushed her and her family to believe that Bianca had left all modeling dreams behind her.

Right now, her sister is attending an expensive university in New York and her parents are footing the bill for it. She also wanted to make it clear that her family is not rich by any standard, so this is a big deal.

However, it appears that Bianca hasnt completely given up her modeling aspirations because recently, her sister reached out and claimed to have submitted an application to Wilhelmina Agency.

Bianca is also convinced that the modeling agency will accept the application, which is why her sister now wants to drop out of college all of a sudden.

Now, she is an extremely truthful person, and she tends to say whatever comes to her mind honestly. And after Bianca told her the news, she didnt hold back.

I told Bianca that I dont think she has what it takes to be a model, she revealed.

To be clear, she was not referring to her sisters looks whatsoever. In fact, she claimed that Bianca is a very beautiful young woman.

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When it comes to the longtime debate between being a dog person or a cat person, its generally thought that dogs need more TLC while cats are the aloof ones.

So, people often think cats are more self-reliant and arent as invested in human companionship compared to dogs. But is it true that we actually take care of dogs more attentively than cats? New research from three European nations suggests that yes, we do.

That said, the study also points out that attitudes toward dogs and cats arent universal; they differ significantly depending on the country. For example, in the UK, people are nearly equally fond of both pets. However, in Denmark, dogs clearly win the popularity contest.

Before this research, previous studies suggested that pet owners were less emotionally invested in their cats and less willing to spend on their healthcare compared to dogs.

However, those earlier studies often had limitations, such as relying too heavily on unrepresentative samples and not taking into account cultural factors that might affect attitudes toward pets. In order to provide a clearer picture, Dr. Peter Sande from the University of Copenhagen set out to conduct this study.

We and others have found that people are willing to spend much less on their cats than on their dogs. We wanted to find out whether cats could eventually end up having the same high status as dogs do today, he said.

To delve into this issue, the researchers partnered with a survey firm to gather a diverse group of adult pet owners from Denmark, Austria, and the United Kingdom.

Although these countries share some similarities, they each have a distinct timeline when it comes to urbanization: the UK led the way, Denmark followed most recently, and Austria fell somewhere in between.

The studys authors hypothesized that a countrys historical relationship with rural animals could play a role in shaping modern-day attitudes toward pets.

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This womans husband of 10 years sadly has early-stage Alzheimers disease. So, he decided to use Dignitas medical aid in dying services in Switzerland in March 2024.

He wants to do it while he is still legally considered mentally competent, she said.

Her husbands son, who is 29, also quit his job in order to live with them for three months from October to December. That way, her stepson could spend more time with her husband before he passed away.

Ever since her stepson moved in with them, he and her husband have accomplished a ton, too. They went on a 10-day trip to New Zealand, hiked in local areas, went on art studio tours, and watched movies.

In the near future, they will also be going on a trip to Lake Louise, attending two Green Bay Packers games, taking a trip to Roswell, another trip to Los Alamos, and spending two weeks in D.C.

Now, she couldnt go on many of these outings with her husband and stepson.

I have Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis (SPMS) and cannot travel, she noted.

Still, she wants to spend time with her husband, which is why she asked him to visit the museum and grab lunch yesterday. She also hoped that the outing would just include the two of them.

To her surprise, though, her husband only reluctantly agreed. He also claimed to be extremely depressed about the conflict between her and his son. Apparently, her husband was concerned that she would be offended if he invited his son to tag along on the museum trip, too, even though her husband really wanted to invite him.

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While ministering to high school students in Metro Manila in 2005, Ronald Molmisa found himself in recurring conversations with students about love and dating. Some students were serial daters who dated girlfriend after girlfriend. Others struggled to deal with their heartache after a break-up.

With sex and dating being taboo topics in the majority Catholic country, young Filipinos often turn to the internet or Western media to learn about love rather than the church. So Molmisa sought Christian resources to help his students.

At the time, Christian books about love from the United Stateslike Joshua Harriss I Kissed Dating Goodbyewere popular, but Molmisa wanted a book that could speak to the lived experiences of Filipino students. While some Filipino authors had penned books on dating and love, he found them outdated and written in English, which many in the younger generation struggled to read. In everyday life, teens spoke, texted, and read articles in Taglish, a combination of Tagalog and English.

So Molmisa decided to write a book on relationships that would be both Bible-based and relevant to young people in the Philippines. With a background in research, he began conducting surveys and interviews to map out trends among Filipino teens. In 2010, he published Lovestruck: Love Mo Siya, Sure Ka Ba? (Lovestruck: Are You Sure You Love Her?), which mixes comical anecdotes on love and relationships with biblical stories and pastoral wisdom.

The short 80-page book, which was written in Taglish, quickly became wildly popular among young people in the Philippines. Lovestruck went on to become a nine-book series, including titles like Lovestruck: Sexy Edition, on sexuality and pornography; Lovestruck: Sakit Edition, on breakups and heartache; and Lovestruck: Shanaba? Edition on choosing a spouse. Molmisa also started the Lovestruck Movement, a nationwide ministry that includes seminars, conferences, and podcasts about relationships.

Molmisa believes Lovestrucks success comes from the fact that hes able to relate to young people by speaking their language, using humor and slang to distinguish himself from the stern and guilt-inducing stance on the topic that Christian authors have traditionally taken. (For instance, he opens Lovestruck with cheesy pickup lines suitors have sent over text, which he ties into a discussion about Jacob and Rachel in Genesis 29.)

He also sought to show how Christians could approach relationships differently from the secular world, which tends to portray romantic relationships as privatized and humanistic instead of communal and spiritual.

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I want it to feel like you are directly talking to me, he said of his writing. That is my voice as a pastor and counselor.

Studying love from multiple facets

While Molmisa served in student ministry at Rizal High School from 2005 to 2013, he was also teaching political science at several local universities. His pastoral and academic background informed his approach toward his writing. As the pastor of Generation 3:16, a ministry that disciples Filipino youth and families, he deemed it important to respond with biblical truth that is Christ-centered. As a researcher, he made it a priority to back his statements with empirical evidence based on studies.

He found that many relationship problems among teens traced back to their upbringings. The root of relationship problems is the family, Molmisa says. If your identity inside the house is complete, you dont need to find your value elsewhere.

In the Philippines, some families are separated as one or both parents work overseas to send back money to their families. Last year, the government recorded nearly two million overseas Filipino workers. Molmisa found that this often resulted in teenagers dating early as they didnt have parents to support them emotionally.

This presents a challenge, since in the Philippines, dating has always been done in the context of family. The harana, a traditional mode of courtship starting in the 1800s, involved a man serenading a woman in the house of the womans family. Its important to gain the familys approval in order to further pursue a relationship. However, when the family unit is broken as parents work abroad, it can be difficult to find guidance in dating or marriage.

Image: Courtesy of Ronald Molmisa / Edits by CT

In Lovestruck, Molmisa adopts the tone of an older brother in addressing the causes of young peoples love woes. Since humans are holistic beings, Molmisas writing and ministry try to engage the soul, mind, and spirit.

We approach the ministry with an integrationist perspective, Molmisa said. You cannot separate social science, theology, and pro-biblical psychology from each other in understanding human realities.

This and the humorous and approachable tone caused his book to stand out when it was first published in 2010.

Reviews were overwhelmingly positive, praising Molmisas faithful and funny take on love in the Filipino context. The few negative reviews either criticized its orthodox Christian stance on sex and marriage or its use of Taglish, which was considered by some as too colloquial for literature at the time. The book went on to become a bestseller at the countrys largest bookstore chain, National Book Store, and has sold 100,000 copies to date.

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I like it because it gives a balanced content from testimonies, scientific studies, and a biblical point of view, and explains it in our language, said 33-year-old Kennel Jane Pangaral, a campus minister for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in Northern Mindanao. She finds it relevant for the college students she interacts with and often recommends it to them. Pangaral said this book challenged her to weigh her decisions when entering a romantic relationship by seeking advice from Christian mentors.

Meanwhile, the small book surprised Sara Jane Tantay-Mayorca, also 33, with how it could correct and disciple her. It gave me clear biblical principles and practical guides about love, which, as a young person, became my source of emotional strength and stability, said Tantay-Mayorca, now a youth pastor at Radiance of Christ Ministries International.

Since discovering the Lovestruck books, she has read the entire series and attended the Lovestruck Conference. I credit my beautiful marriage now to this book because if not, I would have not chosen the right person and have not become the right person too.

In his books, Molmisa writes about family, social issues, and other challenges that Filipinos face when it comes to love. While writing Lovestruck: Singles Edition, he held focus group discussions with women over 25 about why they are single. He found that some were their familys sole breadwinner and, as a result, were too busy to find a husband. Another group of female students at the University of Santo Tomas, an elite Catholic school, said they were single because they felt called into singleness and destined to live a life of celibacy.

Starting the Lovestruck Movement

In 2013, Molmisa left his job as a professor to become a full-time pastor and started the Lovestruck Movement, which he desired to be a venue for personal spiritual revival, reignition of love for God, and the promotion of righteous relationships.

Through in-person conferences and online platforms, Molmisa encourages young people to set boundaries for themselves. He also holds Bible studies and lectures on different issues surrounding love and relationships. Molmisa encourages young people to pursue purity in the body, soul, and spirit; to practice accountability in community; and to trust in Gods power to escape from temptation.

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[Lovestruck] speaks to the core of the youth, said Joyce Piap Go, a radio broadcaster, author, mental health counselor, and regular speaker at the Lovestruck Conference. The Lovestruck Movement knows the needs of young people and addresses their issues head-on, guiding them to the Word of God and trusting the Lord Jesus Christ.

Molmisa seeks to present youth with a hopeful message rather than guilt-tripping them into following Gods law. The ministry does not give away purity rings or make young people partake in oaths of chastity toward God during their conferences.

I believe that Filipinos dont need ceremonies for them to obey the Lord and prove that they live in purity and holiness, Molmisa said. The culture of the Philippines is very flexible [so] I dont want to box them into a ritual.

He added that he doesnt want to pressure the teens, whose parents may be the ones pushing them to attend purity ceremonies. I want them to grow in the grace and knowledge of God according to their commitments.

As the Lovestruck Movement continues to grow, Molmisa has trained more than 50 seminar facilitators across the country to hold conferences on the Filipino islands of Luzon and Mindanao. Lovestruck partners with local churches to train volunteers to serve as staff during their gatherings. Around 3,000 young people attend their gatherings every year.

They have also extended programming to include parents and families in seminars on relationships and to provide scholarships for low-income elementary and high school students to attend school through their Love Scholar Project.

A new Lovestruck generation

Through his years of serving, Molmisa has seen the fruits of his ministry enrich his relationship with God and the people around him. He has learned to be open about his struggles with his wife and to find accountability with other pastor friends. Also, he finds it rewarding when some of the couples he married in the past now serve alongside him in the Lovestruck Movement.

Young people have different challenges today compared to when he first started ministering almost two decades ago. The Filipino youth are facing a severe mental health crisis. And due to the influence and pervasiveness of social media, they bring their problems online instead of to trusted mentors or friends. They get their information and attention from these platforms and, as a result, are shaped by the dominant ideologies present there.

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To combat the worldviews students find on social media, the Lovestruck Movement has been active online since 2013, engaging with young people on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. They also release podcasts on topics like how to deal with long-distance relationships, how to manage your emotions, and the root causes of adultery.

Today, Molmisa visits schools and universities to spread the Lovestruck message, giving a gospel presentation about how love is inseparable from the Creator of love. The source of love is Love himself, Jesus Christ, he said.

Molmisa believes that heart transformation will pave the way for the transformation that Gen Z wants to see in the world. The heart of the problem is the problem of the heart, he says. Although change cannot happen overnight, Molmisa knows it can happen as long as young people find their purpose from the Creator. Only a generation that is changed by God can change a nation.
This week on The Bulletin, hosts Mike Cosper and Nicole Martin take a look at the spooky and kookyour obsession with horror flicks, the circus show wrapping up in the House of Representatives, and the hall of mirrors many women navigate to get equal pay. Special guest Kutter Callaway joins the show to talk about fear and his newest podcast, CTs Be Afraid. Eric Kohn of the Acton Institute distills the complexities of the House and introduces us to the new Speaker, and Bible teacher Jen Wilkin shares new research about womens compensation in the church.

Joining us this week:

Kutter Callaway is the William K. Brehm Chair of Worship, Theology, and the Arts, as well as associate dean of the Center for Advanced Theological Studies, and associate professor of theology and culture at Fuller Seminary. He is author and contributor to several books, and his most recent book is Theology for Psychology and Counseling: An Invitation to Holistic Christian Practice. Some of his past titles include Techno-Sapiens in a Networked Era: Becoming Digital Neighbors, which he coauthored with Fullers Ryan Bolger; The Aesthetics of Atheism: Theology and Imagination in Contemporary Culture; and Deep Focus: Film and Theology in Dialogue.

Eric Kohn is director of marketing and communications at the Acton Institute. In that role, he works to bring Actons vision of a free and virtuous society characterized by individual liberty and sustained by religious principles to a wider audience. He is a producer of the award-winning film The Hong Konger: Jimmy Lais Extraordinary Struggle for Freedom, the newest documentary feature from the Acton Institute, released in 2022. Hes the executive producer of Actons podcast network, where he hosts the weekly roundtable podcast, Acton Unwind, and is a part-time host of Acton Line, Actons weekly interview podcast.

Jen Wilkin is an author and Bible teacher from Dallas, Texas. She has organized and led studies for women in home, church, and parachurch contexts. An advocate for Bible literacy, her passion is to see others become articulate and committed followers of Christ, with a clear understanding of why they believe what they believe, grounded in the Word of God.

Read more from Christianity Today about todays topics:

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Executive Producer: Erik Petrik

Producer: Clarissa Moll and Matt Stevens

Editing and Mix: TJ Hester

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Graphic Design: Amy Jones

Social Media: Kate Lucky
This Reformation Day, 18 of Argentinas 24 provinces will celebrate evangelical and Protestant churches.

Evangelical leaders hope that someday soon, the whole country will join in.

Last month the federal government moved closer to nationally recognizing October 31 in honor of these communities when the Chamber of Deputies approved a bill that has since headed to the Senate.

For many evangelicals, appearing on the countrys public legislative agenda is very important. It responds to an aspiration for visibility in the community, said Viviana Barron, rector of Baptist school Seminario Internacional Teologico Bautista. Years ago, many said that our churches were practically invisible to governments. That has been changing and is received with joy by many.

In our country, evangelical Christians are second-class citizens, said Joel Issachar Stefanini, president and founder of the Federacion Iglesias Pentecostales de Argentina.

We have been fighting for more than 40 years, since democracy arrived again in our country, to be recognized as a Christian church and to have equal rights.

Many evangelical leaders have been frustrated as to what they interpret as a 150-year-long state snub toward their community.

According to CONICET, Argentinas national scientific research council, the evangelical community grew from 9 percent to 15.3 percent of the population between 2008 and 2019. The same report put the Catholic community at 62.9 percent. (Argentina has 46 million people.)

Argentinas Supreme Court has ruled that the country has no official or state religion. But although its constitution guarantees freedom of religion, it also states that the Federal Government supports the Roman Catholic Apostolic Faith.

While this relationship has been renegotiated over time through various laws and court cases, its most lasting manifestation has been a national worship registry implemented in 1979 during one of the final years of the countrys dictatorship. Under this law, the Catholic church does not have to register with the government. Meanwhile, all non-Catholic religious groups must register in order to enjoy privileges such as not paying municipal taxes.

The progress of the bill is good, but that only confirms that we have a very uneven dynamic with respect to the Catholic church, which is the one that holds religious political power and official support from the Argentine State, said Ana Valoy, a pastor and political analyst from the northern city of Tucuman.

Argentina is known for its cultural and religious diversity, wrote Renata Viglione, a Christian psychologist who co-authored the current bill, in 2021.

Therefore, it is inexplicable that several centuries after the arrival of the first Protestants in Argentine territory, [and given the] public recognition of the contributions made by the Argentine evangelical community as a whole, and the right to religious equality guaranteed by the national Constitution, we are still waiting for the first national evangelical commemorative day, she wrote.

In 2017, Entre Rios became the first province to institute an annual day of commemorating the Protestant Reformationon the 500th anniversary of Martin Luthers 95 Thesesthanks to the efforts of local Christian leaders.

For the first time, we are officially recognized as a religion, Carlos Duarte, a pastor in the Iglesia Evangelica del Rio de la Plata (Evangelical Church of the River Plate) denomination, said at the time.

The current legislation began at the initiative of citizens like Viglione, who reached out to lawmakers all the way back in 2014. While numerous provinces and municipalities have since adopted their own proclamations and laws recognizing evangelicals, it took years for Viglione and her colleagues to educate the Argentine church about the proposed bill and for the different political parties to agree on what language they would support for the initiative.

I am optimistic that the Senate will discuss the project in the next session and approve it, said Dina Rezinovsky, one of three evangelicals in the 257-seat Chamber of Deputies, who co-sponsored the bill along with three of her Catholic colleagues.

For Argentine evangelicals, political recognition validates the nation-building work they have committed to for decades.

Since the beginning of our nation, evangelicals have collaborated in the progress of the country through teaching principles and values that emanate from the Bible and through founding schools, nursing homes, orphanages, rehabilitation centers for drug addicts, and helping the most neglected sectors of society, said Ciro Pablo Crimi, who leads Seminario Biblico de Fe.

Among other things, Argentine taxes help support the salaries of bishops and priests, says Crimi, and evangelicals frustration with this arrangement has at various times led them to organize more formally in opposition.

In September 1999 at the obelisk in Buenos Aires, 250,000 evangelicals gathered under the motto Jesucristo por todos y para todos (Jesus Christ for all and to all). They requested a religious freedom law that would ensure equal treatment of faiths, notes Crimi. Two years later, 400,000 evangelicals gathered again in September under the motto For my country, I want religious equality.

Gods justice demands equality without discrimination or exclusions, he said.

While this type of recognition is validating to a community with a history as long as that of evangelicals, Jesus teaching cautions his followers about the danger of public recognition. Seeking the approval of others can disqualify people as ministers of Christ, and believers should seek to please God, not others, says Ruben del Re, who is the head of the Sociedad Biblica Argentina.

Our purpose must be aligned with what our Lord clearly taught in the Sermon on the Mount: that men, seeing our good works, glorify God, he said. So it is not about public recognition of our work, nor about achieving greater social prestige. The church of Christ will never need that.

Further, establishing a day celebrating Protestants and evangelicals is easier than changing the religious freedom law. Congress tried multiple times to do so from 2001 to 2019, noted Rezinovsky.

Legislators do not want to deal with the reform of the religious freedom law that dates back to the 1970s. This type of decision can be seen as a way to calm the underlying discussions that have not taken place, said Barron. We continue to wait for a country where belonging to a religious group does not give privileges to anyone. But there is a long way to go for that.

Viglione sees the growth of October 31 celebrations and the current legislative success of her bill as a step forward in redressing the governments imbalanced relationship with non-Catholic faiths.

In Argentina, we freely profess our faith, we can freely speak on faith, we can organize gatherings.  In that sense, there is absolute freedom, she said. But we needed equality, and I think thats what they finally realized.

[ This article is also available in espanol. ]
Editors note: This article is now available in Turkish, in addition to the languages linked in yellow above, as part of CT Globals 3,000+ translations.

Since the outbreak of war after unprecedented terror attacks on Israel by Hamas, Middle Eastern churches, councils, and leaders have expressed their outrage over the killing of thousands of innocent civilians.

Many Arab Christian groups have issued public statements. Most emphasized the Christian call to be peacemakers. Several have been criticized for what some see as calls not specifically addressing the suffering of civilian Jews targeted for death by terrorists.

Originating from Palestine, Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanonwith most prompted by the tragic bombing of the Anglican hospital in Gazathe public statements range in focus and intensity. Some assert the international community overlooks the context of occupation by the Israeli state; others remind the global church of the continued Christian presence in the land.

CT studied texts from nine Arab and four Western organizations, most of evangelical conviction, and queried the perspective of an Israeli Messianic Jew and a Lebanese Armenian evangelical. The review found that few Middle Eastern statements have named Hamas as the perpetrator of terrorism, while many specifically criticize Israel itself.

One of the most recent statements is from Musalaha, which names both.

The Jerusalem-based reconciliation ministry works with Israelis and Palestinians from diverse religious backgrounds using biblical principles to engage the issues that divide them in pursuit of peace. After two weeks painfully watching the widespread carnage, its public statement centered on lament and called for a reconciling response.

We lament people who, in the name of justice, have allowed rage to perpetuate the cycle of dehumanization and excuse bloodshed; as seen with Hamas attacks and the Israeli armys response, stated Musalaha. We invite both Palestinians and Israelis to see the dignity and humanity of the other by non-violently co-resisting together for a better future.

The regions most representative Christian body, however, was bluntly specific about the suffering it asserts the Jewish nation-state is imposing on Gaza.

What the Palestinian people are exposed to in Gaza is not a military reaction to a military action, stated the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC), but rather a genocide and ethnic cleansing, targeting the detainees of the largest prison in human historyand with premeditation.

Its statement, the starkest of the nine Arab ones surveyed, called the war a war of extermination, and called for all honorable people to intervene.

Michel Abs, secretary general of the MECC, told CT he recognized that what he calls the Zionist entity was attacked and respondedand that it should have stopped there.

The MECC focused on denouncing Israel for cutting off water in the densely populated coastal strip, the destruction of medical infrastructure, and the collateral deaths of defenseless citizens. It called to stop the aggression, to lift the siege of Gaza, and to hold what Abs called the occupying forces accountable.

Member churches in the MECC include Catholic, Orthodox, and many Protestant denominationsmost of which are called Evangelical, per local usage. Yet while mainline differences known in the American Christian landscape are not as distinct in the Arab world, the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) incorporates bodies not represented in the MECC.

We are generally in agreement [with the MECC statement], without necessarily adhering to each word, said Paul Haidostian, acting president of the Union of Armenian Evangelical Churches in the Near East, a reformed church of pietistic expression and not a WEA affiliate. But are there elements of extermination in the current war? I would think yes.

Jack Sara, general secretary of the regional Middle East and North Africa evangelical alliance, helped craft the official WEA response to the Holy Land conflict. But he agreed with the MECC statement as well.

With thousands of Palestinians dying nonstop, it clearly describes the facts on the ground, he said. If anything, it falls short in beseeching the world to intervene.

Analysts have noted that Hamas embeds itself in civilian areas, and that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) often issues warnings before striking residential structures. In preparation of an anticipated ground invasion, the IDF called on noncombatants to evacuate northern Gaza; Hamas told them to remain in place.

The United Nations, however, has stated that Gaza already represents a humanitarian catastrophe with more than 6,500 killed and a million displaced as of October 26, according to the Hamas-run Palestinian Health Ministry. Responding to Hamas terrorism and the deaths of 1,400 citizens, mostly civilians, Israels dilemma is stark, as the urban warfare necessary to pursue terrorist leaders in Gaza will further deteriorate local conditions and increasingly inflame much global opinion.

But watching many in the United States and wider evangelical world rally behind Israel, Saras Bethlehem Bible College (BBC) cosigned a Palestinian Christian statement of significant rebuke, calling Western church leaders and theologians to repent.

It opened by quoting the prophet Isaiah: Learn to do right; seek justice; defend the oppressed (1:17).

Western attitudes towards PalestineIsrael suffer from a glaring double standard that humanizes Israeli Jews while insisting on dehumanizing Palestinians and whitewashing their suffering, it stated. With a broken heart, we hold [such leaders] accountable for their theological and political complicity.

While grieving the renewed cycle of violence and condemning all attacks on civilians, it chided the failure of Christian leaders to mention the wider context and root causes of the warincluding ongoing occupation and 17 years of the Gaza blockade. And three-quarters of the local population, it reminded, is descended from Palestinians displaced in the conflict that followed the 1948 establishment of Israel, which denies their proclaimed right of return.

Sara complained that in the months prior to the war, extremist Jews and Israeli settlers increased attacks on local churches, spitting at priests while international Christians said little. Believers, he said, often feel that they are a nuisance to Western proponents of End Times theology, or else of their governments narrative on the region.

We are praying that the church would be the church, and not a political body that takes sides, said Sara in a YouTube message. It is no longer the ethnic background that matters to GodJesus is no longer only a Jew, he is everything to everyone.

One Messianic Jewish leader called the joint statement reprehensible.

Not only did the Palestinian Christians fail to denounce or mention Hamas or terrorism, stated Michael Brown, host of the nationally syndicated Line of Fire radio program, their statement repeated libelous claims that Israel intentionally bombed al-Ahli Arab hospital on October 17 as well as St. Porphyrius Greek Orthodox church on October 19. (The IDF determined the hospital deaths were caused by a misfired rocket from Islamic Jihad militants, while acknowledging the church deaths were caused by one of its missiles targeted at a nearby building.)

Furthermore, Brown critiqued the statement for engaging in standard leftwing tropes that equate settler colonialism with the return of Jews to their ancient homeland.

We want to show solidarity as brothers and sisters in Jesus, said Brown, who has participated in BBCs Christ at the Checkpoint conferences. [But] repent of this deeply flawed call to repentance so that together, we can pursue righteousness, goodness, equity, and mercy.

The president of the Evangelical Alliance of Israel compared signatories to a battered wife.

Most Middle Eastern Christians are not at liberty to speak out and condemn Islamist violence, said Danny Kopp. The social, and often physical, cost is just too high to contemplate.

Instead, they stay silent, deflect, or blame others. Traumatic abuse distorts the capacity for sound moral judgment, he said. But having witnessed the worst mass murder of Jews in a single day since the Holocaust, Arab believers are at a critical inflection point.

At just the moment when Christians could have offered a rare ray of light of truth, Kopp said, the church has largely relegated itself to a state of moral decay and irrelevance.

Egyptian evangelicalshowever evaluatedspoke out from the beginning.

The Presidency of the Protestant Churches of Egypt (PCE), a member of both the MECC and WEA, was one of the first regional bodies to issue a statement. Only one day after the Hamas massacre on October 7, it issued a nonspecific condemnation of all forms of violence and armed conflict between Palestinians and Israelis, noting the attacks on innocent civilians.

A second statement, the PCE said, backed Egyptian government policy to supply humanitarian aid. But three statements next followed in quick succession, shifting the focus to Israeli abuses. The PCE condemned the bombing of the Gaza hospital, then rejected handling the Palestinian case with military tools. And following the attack that partially destroyed the Gaza church, it expressed deep concern about the violence directed at residential areas, since the very beginning of the outbreak of events.

Egypt was the first Arab nation to make a peace treaty with Israel. Israels criticism elsewhere may have led to a shift in certain statements.

What incensed many Arab Christians was that the hospital bombing took place on a day that the Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem (PHCJ) called to devote for fasting and prayer. And two days prior, in response to Israels call to evacuate the north of Gaza, the PHCJ reflected an awareness of Jewish anger as it warned against a new cycle of violence that began with an unjustifiable attack against civilians in Israel.

The Jerusalem Christian leaders still did not denounce or mention Hamas, but this statement varied the language from their first reaction the day of the terrorist atrocities. With Israel still reeling from the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust, the PHCJ had advocated against any harm to both Palestinian and Israeli civilians.

Israels envoy to the Vatican was outraged by the immoral linguistic ambiguity.

Do Jordans evangelicals merit the same reply?

On October 14, the Jordanian Evangelical Alliance (JEC), a member of the WEA but not the MECC, issued a statement to endorse the PHCJ invitation to prayer. But reflecting the will of its five-church constituency, the JEC general assembly voted to avoid specific mention of either Israel or Hamas.

A strong minority wanted to name Israel.

Hamas, said Nabeeh Abbassi, president of the Jordanian Baptist Convention, a JEC member denomination, is viewed as a liberator by many Palestinians in Jordan, who make up a significant but contested percentage of the kingdoms population. Wishing not to be viewed as against this sentiment, the evangelical alliance chose to not go into politics and instead focus on a common humanity.

The JEC statement condemned the current cycle of violence and counterviolence, though it specified aggression against the Palestinian people. Nonetheless, the Sermon of the Mount calls believers be peacemakers, with dialogue and negotiation the necessary means to end an ongoing but unnamed Israeli policy of settlement expansion.

Violence begets violence, the JEC stated, occupation creates resistance, and siege results in explosion.

This sentence is explanation, Abbassi explained, not justification.

The one who started the trouble is Hamas, he continued. Israel has the right to defend itself. But then did much worse.

Abbassi believes too many Western Christians support Israel from a faulty application of theology. A dispensationalist himself, the Jordanian pastor said that it is not the job of believers to hurry along Gods eschatological timetable.

He referenced Acts 1:68, in which the disciples asked the resurrected Jesus if he would then restore the kingdom to Israel. Abbassi pointed to Jesus refusal to answer the question, instead calling the believers to be his witnesses.

If we want to help God, this is what we should do, Abbassi said. Not to take sides, but to love both, and share the gospel with all.

But following what he said was a brutal raid on the Anglican hospital, Abbassi said his convention felt compelled to issue a statement of its own, and was later grieved by the strike at the Greek Orthodox church. It blamed an Israeli war machine policy that targets Muslims and Christians alike, without differentiating between civilians and military personnel.

Hamas is a group, Israel is a state, Abbassi said. Hamas is expected to do anything, but I expect Israel to do the right thing.

The Jordanian denominational statement, he said, came from a rare moment of local appreciation. Nearly all Jordanian media called the Gaza hospital Baptist, reflecting the popular sentiment established during its administrative identity in the 1967 war.

It was a moment to show our heart to the average JordanianAbbassi gave three TV interviews after the wakeas well as local Christian agreement with a government policy that defends Palestinian rights while maintaining peace with Israel, with King Abdullahs Hashemite kingdom as the historic custodian of Muslim and Christian religious sites in Jerusalem.

Lebanese evangelicals had varying objectives.

Some wanted a statement to show the government, some to show the Muslims, said Joseph Kassab, president of the Supreme Council of the Evangelical Community in Syria and Lebanon. But I wanted it simply to reflect our faith and theology.

Encouraged by several local leaders to speak out after the hospital explosion, the Lebanese document referenced the eye for eye ethic repudiated by Jesus but present, Kassab said, among Jews and Muslims. According to such logic, the statement argued, Hamass terrorism might merit equal response, but not double. However Israel, he said, has upped it ten times in scale.

While deterrence through disproportionate response is part of basic Israeli military strategy, Kassab believes Christians should have a different metric.

You cannot work for peace and reconciliation, he said, and give your unconditional support to anyone.

Instead, in seeking to focus on the need for a just solution for the overall IsraeliPalestinian conflict, the Lebanese statement did not name either Israel or Hamas as adversaries.

What if Iran enters the war, Kassab said, or the United States?

Speculating the sad and unfortunate actions of Hamas were meant to disrupt the recent pattern of Arab normalization efforts with Israelknown as the Abraham AccordsKassab stated clearly that neither Palestine nor the region has a future if Islamist ideology succeeds to rule.

Israel, however, has multiplied atrocities, he said. Kassab mentioned the thousands of Gazan apartment buildings destroyed, and the call for refugeeslater revisedto get out and flee through the strips southern border to Egypt. Previous displacements of Palestinians in 1948 and 1967 have become permanent.

Even so, he said the MECC statement is not fully warranted.

It might not be the intention of Israel to exterminate, but if they continue to act this way it will lead to that end, said Kassab. If you dont like the word, substitute anotherbut this will not change the scale of violence.

Munir Kakish, president of the Council of Local Evangelical Churches in the Holy Land (CLEC), a WEA affiliate, distanced himself from the MECC statement altogether.

When we are invited to their meetings, he said, then I can put in an opinion.

Emphasizing the calling to be a bridge of peace and reconciliation, his October 18 statement was non-specific in all directions. While focused on Gaza alone, it mentioned neither Hamas nor Israel and called for immediate humanitarian aid and a comprehensive peace treaty.

What happened to hospitals and schools in Gaza is unacceptable by all international laws and customs, stated the council, which then echoed 1 Timothy 2:2. We appeal to all parties for an immediate cessation of the war  so that we may live a peaceful life in all piety and dignity.

But also to preach the gospel. Kakish saw current events as part of the wars and rumors of wars that Jesus predicted before the end times. Evil is increasing, he said, as in the times of Noahand the ark door will soon be shut.

It is time for the church to wake up and fulfill the great commission, he said, instead of being distracted by other things.

But Arab Christians are not the only ones to make statements.

Unlike their counterparts in the Middle East, the Southern Baptist Conventions Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) in the US, and the WEA promptly condemned Hamas by name.

The ERLC issued the strongest pro-Israel pronouncement.

Recognizing varying theological positions on the relation between Israel and the church, the Southern Baptistled statement recognized how the Jewish people have long endured genocidal attempts to eradicate them and to destroy [their] state. Citing Israel as a rare example of democracy in the region, the ERLC referenced Romans 13 in support for the Israeli government to bear the sword against acts of evil toward innocent life.

Furthermore, the ERLC statement recognized the dignity and personhood of all persons living in the Middle East, and prayed for the difficult ministry of Jewish and Palestinian believers who labor for the gospel.

[Editors note: CT editor-in-chief Russell Moore, a former ERLC president, signed the statement alongside 2,000 other leaders.]

Counterparts in the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) focused on Palestine, noting the al-Ahli hospitals Southern Baptist heritage as it plead[s] for the protection of all citizens and the establishment of genuine peace.

Counting 17 Baptist churches in Israel and 13 in the Palestinian Territoriesincluding one in Gazathe BWA called for paths of peacemaking that unequivocally reject terrorism. And in the midst of complexity it urged the pursuit of restorative justice and peace.

General secretary Elijah Brown offered the BWA prayer guide as an example.

Believing that as ambassadors of peace we are not to emphasize approaches of political antagonism, he told CT, we must work to model a shared voice of common engagement.

The NAE also recognized Israels right to defend itself. But it also warned Israel about undermining its own security by going beyond this to take revenge and inflict further suffering on innocent civilians. The WEA expressed bewilderment at demonstrations that appeared to rejoice over the initial killings, while encouraging all efforts to deescalate violence.

Both called for a just peacea phrase not used by the ERLCbut neither have issued an evaluative statement since then. Given the NAEs reiteration of the evangelical role to constructively critique government leaders, is it required now?

The doctrine of just war, by its very nature, has a framework with limits on how war may be waged, including a prohibition on targeting innocent civilians, ERLC president Brent Leatherwood told CT. Our concern for the vulnerable has no borders, but we must remain clear-eyed about who is at fault in this conflict.

NAE president Walter Kim also cited Christian tradition.

Most evangelicals look to classic just-war principles in pursuing justice while restraining violence. Israel has the right to defend itself against Hamas, which continues its attack, he said. Other just war principles include just intent, limited retribution, long-term peacemaking, and protection of innocents.

He left evaluation for the reader to decide.

Thomas Schirrmacher, general secretary of the WEA, already has.

Israel is still in the parameter of self-defense, he said. As those attacking clearly state, they want to kill all Jews and wipe Israel off the map.

Raising strong doubts about Israels culpability for the hospital bombing, Schirrmacher blamed Palestinian leadersin the West Bank, governed by the Palestinian Authority, as well as in Hamas-controlled Gazafor failing to build a functioning state. With Hamas committed to terrorism, in Gaza the two are mutually exclusive.

He emphasized, however, that all comments are offered in his personal capacity. The WEA represents national alliances and partnerships in 173 countries, including the ones led by Kakish, Kopp, and a second affiliate focused on Arab citizens of Israel.

The regional Middle East and North Africa alliance is at odds with the WEAs regional European alliance over the specifics of an antisemitism definition, he said, while an alliance in Azerbaijan is pinched by WEA condemnation of the Caucasus nations human rights abuses against Armenians in a contested enclave.

He also tries to balance between fellow believers in Ukraine and Russia.

Balanced also is the aid provided. The WEA is working through its alliance in Israel to provide shelters in Ashdod and Ashkelon near the Gaza border. Partnering with the affiliated Synod of the Nile in Egypt, relief will be given at the crossing in Rafah. And with its Palestinian alliance, cash support is being provided to rebuild the Anglican hospital in Gaza.

Before we speak, we engage all sides, Schirrmacher said. It means we are slow, but better able to contribute toward peace and positive change than quickly issuing a statement that would later have to be revised.

Statement-making is not the most critical task of the church, said Haidostian, whose Armenian evangelical union has not commented officially on the war. More important is the task of educating about peace, justice, and historical grievances, not only current affairs.

But Arab Christians make them, he said, from concern in two directions.

First, he said, they appeal to a relationship of trust with international partners in the West, to counter the unbalanced and unconditionally favorable view of Israel often conveyed by the mainstream media.

And second, to show the region that they are not simple bystanders. Haidostian agreed that they may face local pressure from Muslims or Jews, adding that they often feel an existential hopelessness at the dwindling state of the Christian community.

But their statements assert that they, like Palestinians, are not illegitimate children of the land, nor foreign to it.

Arab Christians are often victims too, Haidostian said. To blame them for partiality is simplistic.

And though he has a strong opinion about this current conflict, the Armenian leader urged Christians not to view the region as a monolith. Believers should be careful not to conflate biblical Israel with the modern state, he said, nor allow government and media rhetoric to shape their faith commitments.

What does Christ desire of us now? he asked. Inasmuch as the Holy Land is the cradle of Christian faith, in John 17 Jesus made clear his desire stretches far beyond.

Peace in any part of the world depends upon peace elsewhere, Haidostian said. And the vibrancy of the church in Middle East is critical to the global unity of the body of Christ.

Additional reporting by Jeremy Weber. This article is also available in Turkish.

[ This article is also available in espanol, Francais, , and . ]
Abuse survivors, along with some members of the Southern Baptist Conventions Executive Committee and the SBCs abuse reform task force, have denounced a Kentucky court filing by Southern Baptist entities aimed at limiting their liability for sexual abuse claims.

A brief filed earlier this year by lawyers for the Executive Committee, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Lifeway, an SBC publisher, argues that a Kentucky law that changed the statute of limitations for making civil claims over abuseand allowing survivors to sue third parties such as churches or policeshould not be applied retroactively.

There are no mincing of words here. No holding back. This is disgusting, abuse survivors Megan Lively, Jules Woodson, and Tiffany Thigpen said in a statement released Wednesday.

A group of Southern Baptist leaders working on abuse reforms also criticized the brief, saying the filing was a choice to stand against every survivor in Kentucky.

This brief, and the policy arguments made in it, were made without our knowledge and without our approval, the statement read. Moreover, they do not represent our values and positions.

Members of the Executive Committee, including Oklahoma pastor Mike Keahbone, expressed dismay at the brief, saying he and other members of the committee were blindsided by it. Keahbone, a member of a task force implementing abuse reforms in the SBC, said the brief undermined survivors such as Thigpen, Woodson, and Lively, who have supported the reforms.

Weve had survivors that have been faithful to give us a chance, he told Religion News Service in a phone interview. And we hurt them badly.

The controversy over the amicus brief is the latest crisis for leaders of the nations largest Protestant denomination, which has dealt with a revolving door of leaders and rising legal costs in the aftermath of a sexual abuse crisis in recent years.

The denomination passed abuse reforms in 2022 but has been slow to implement them, relying mostly on a volunteer task force charged with convincing the SBCs 47,000 congregations and a host of state and national entities to put those reforms into practice. Those delays have led survivors to be skeptical that things would actually change.

Earlier this week, the Louisville Courier Journal reported that lawyers for the Executive Committee, Southern Baptist Theological Seminarythe denominations flagship seminary in Louisvilleand Lifeway had filed the amicus brief earlier this year in a case brought by abuse survivor Samantha Killary.

Killary was abused for years by her adoptive father, a Louisville police officer, the Courier Journalreported. She has sued two police officers who allegedly knew about the abuse and did nothing to prevent or report it, as well as Louisvilles city government, which employed them. Her suit was initially dismissed but was later reinstated after Kentucky legislators passed legislation that changed the statute of limitations for filing abuse claims.

That legislation also allowed survivors to sue third parties, such as police, government units or religious organizations that violated their duties to children, according to the Courier Journal.

Kentuckys Supreme Court is now trying to decide whether third parties can be sued in cases of past abuse under the new law, known as KRS  413 249.

A number of states, including New York and Maryland, have lifted or amended states of limitations for filing civil lawsuits in cases of abuse. That has led some Catholic dioceses to declare bankruptcy in the face of abuse lawsuits.

The brief filed by lawyers for the Executive Committee, Southern Seminary, and Lifeway argues that the Kentucky law should not apply retroactively to third parties. While those entities have no ties to the Killary case, they are being sued in a different case of abuse.

Lawyers for the SBC entities say their clients do not dispute the laudable policy reasons for providing relief for victims of childhood sexual abuse.

But not even the most sacrosanct policy can trump the clearly expressed legislative intent and fundamental due process concerns presented in this and similar cases involving the attempted retroactive application of KRS  413 249 to expired claims, the brief claims.

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president Albert Mohler declined to comment on any specifics of the brief.

As is often the case in questions of law, significant constitutional and legal questions arise and require arguments to be made before courts, said Mohler in a statement. In such cases we must refer all questions to legal counsel. We respect the rule of law and must work through the process with legal representation, who must speak for us in this case.

The Executive Committee and Lifeway did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Taking sides against an abuse survivorin a case that has no SBC tieswas an act of betrayal, say the SBC survivors.

Neither the SBC, Executive Committee, Lifeway nor SBTS are named in this lawsuit nor involved in this case, yet the SBC proactively chose to side against a survivor and with an abuser and the institution that enabled his abuse, arguing that Samantha should not even be given access to the court systemthat statute of limitations reform does not extend to institutions, they wrote in their statement.

A group of SBC leaders, including North Carolina pastor Bruce Frank, who chaired an initial task force working on abuse reforms, and Marshall Blalock, a past chair of the abuse reform implementation task force, said they were grieved at the decision to file the brief.

They wrote that opposing changes to the statute of limitations is not an effort to honestly consider the facts and questions related to responsibility.

Rather, it is a deliberate effort to ensure those questions are never asked. Revising the Statute of Limitations does not alter the burden of proof, it does not impact evidentiary rules, it does not change laws regarding institutional Responsibility, they wrote. It simply allows survivors access to the justice system so that a full and fair hearing on the merits can take place.

For decades, leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention have sought to protect the nations largest Protestant denomination from any liability for sexual misconduct at local churches.

That legal strategy led SBC leaders to downplay the scope of abuse in the denomination, to treat abuse survivors as their enemies and to stonewall attempts to address abuse on a national level for years. While the denominations annual meetings have apologized for the past behavior of leaders, the SBC has struggled to move forward with reforms while dealing with its legal challenges.

Its unclear who approved the brief or how it came about.

Keahbone said he is calling for a special meeting of the Executive Committee to figure out what happened and to decide what to do next. He said theres a difference between doing the right thing and doing what seems to be legally wise.

He said members of the Executive Committee want to do the right things. Then they keep taking steps backward.

We cant seem to get out of our own way, he said.
16 Democratic attorneys general claim pro-life pregnancy centers are 'misleading consumers'

More than a dozen Democratic attorneys general have signed onto a letter condemning pro-life pregnancy centers for spreading what they say is "misinformation and harm."

In a letter published Monday, 16 attorneys general expressed concern about the rise of "anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs)" they claim are "misleading consumers and delaying access to critical, time-sensitive reproductive healthcare."

Led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, the attorneys general of Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington also signed on to the letter.

The signatories signaled their support for the business review website "Yelp's efforts to ensure that customers receive clear information about the limitations of the services and staff available at CPCs." The letter comes as Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing Yelp for "appending inaccurate and misleading language to listings on pregnancy resource centers appearing in the search results on Yelps app and website."

The attorneys general insisted that "CPCs do not provide full-scope reproductive healthcare and often use deceptive tactics to lure in patients seeking reproductive healthcare," adding, "these tactics can have dire health consequences and rob patients of their healthcare choices."

The letter cited studies from two pro-abortion advocacy organizations, The Alliance: State Advocates for Women's Rights and Gender Equality and NARAL Pro-Choice America.

The letter highlights a statistic included in the study of crisis pregnancy centers in nine states conducted by The Alliance, asserting that "the majority did not offer medical services beyond urine pregnancy tests."

"While 56% of CPCs offered ultrasounds, those ultrasounds were limited and undiagnostic, meaning the ultrasound only confirmed that a person was pregnant but did not provide any information about the medical condition of the fetus or the pregnant person," they added. "The CPC-provided ultrasounds cannot 'determine gestational age, study placenta or amniotic fluid, or detect fetal abnormality, ectopic pregnancy, or fetal distress.'"

According to the pro-life research organization Charlotte Lozier Institute, there are more than 2,700 pro-life pregnancy centers in all 50 states that served over 2 million men, women and youth in 2019.

The pro-life organization Human Coalition, which operates several crisis pregnancy centers across the U.S., responded to the attorneys general's claims about the services provided at crisis pregnancy centers in a statement to The Christian Post.

"What 'reports' from abortion advocacy organizations won't tell you is the myriad of testimonies from women who are grateful for their life-saving experiences with pregnancy centers," the statement reads. "Many women leave these centers transformed and empowered."

According to Human Coalition, "They certainly don't get this experience at a Planned Parenthood, where they walk out of an abortion right back into the dire circumstances that pressured them to abort. Listen to the voices of these women."

Condemning crisis pregnancy centers for declining to "even refer for abortion services," an entire section of the letter maintains that "CPCs often use deceptive tactics to lure in patients seeking actual reproductive healthcare."

This portion of the letter includes examples of what the attorneys general describe as the centers providing "inaccurate and deceptive information about reproductive health," as outlined in a NARAL study.

One allegation listed by the attorneys general accuses crisis pregnancy centers of using "online strategies to target women, ensuring that when someone types 'abortion clinic' into a search engine (e.g. Google), they 'get[] results for CPCs, which use false advertising tactics to lure women to their facilities instead of actual health clinics.'"

Additionally, the letter dismisses the notions that abortions can result in "grief and regret," characterizing "post-abortion syndrome" and "post-abortion stress" as fictitious conditions.

The attorneys general complained that "CPCs purposely locate their centers' near comprehensive health clinics or in medical buildings that give the impression that medically accurate services are available." They said, "By locating near clinics that provide comprehensive information and services, CPCs purposefully try to confuse patients into mistakenly entering their deceitful clinics.'"

"CPCs notably often target vulnerable populations and communities facing barriers to reproductive healthcare access with their deception and misinformation, such as young people, people of color, and those for whom English is not their primary language. CPCs purposely advertise with billboards near high schools, colleges, and low-income neighborhoods to reach a target audience of low-income and vulnerable pregnant people," they wrote.

Human Coalition pushed back on the letter's assertions that crisis pregnancy centers "target" minority communities.

"These centers minister to many low-income communities because it's precisely these women who need the most care and support at a critical time in their lives," the Human Coalition statement reads. "For the record, Planned Parenthood intentionally sets up clinics in low-income communities for the same reason  except they profit greatly from abortion, so it's actually Planned Parenthood that's 'targeting' these low-income communities."

As Brittany Smith of Save the Storks wrote in 2020, many misunderstand that there are two types of pro-life pregnancy clinics: "non-medical" and "medical."

Non-medical pregnancy centers, she wrote, offer pregnancy tests, counseling, parenting classes and "practical instruction to parents." Additionally, most centers offer supplies like diapers, baby clothing and formula at no cost to the mother or family.

Medical pregnancy resource centers offer many of the same things non-medical centers do but also employ registered nurses or ultrasound technicians trained to perform sonograms under the guidance of a licensed medical director.

According to the Charlotte Lozier Institute, support provided by crisis pregnancy centers in 2019 was valued at nearly $270 million at little to no cost to clients. The organization reports that about 75% of women at risk for abortion who view an ultrasound at a pregnancy center chose to continue their pregnancy.

The attorneys general characterize the "abortion pill reversal" often administered by pro-life pregnancy centers as "unproven and potentially risky," adding "there is no credible science or evidence" that the reversals work and that they have saved "thousands of lives."

They claimed that "the only scientifically rigorous study had to be halted almost immediately due to serious 'safety concerns' after 3 of the 12 study participants had to be transported by ambulance to the hospital after 'severe vaginal bleeding' occurred."

Human Coalition rejects the letter's assertion that not having an abortion can bring negative consequences for women.

"Of the women we see at Human Coalition, 76% would actually prefer to parent if their circumstances were different," the statement explains. "They often experience economic or social hardships that pressure them to abort, but Human Coalition and pregnancy centers across the country offer them an off-ramp from their difficult situations by giving them support and material assistance, on their terms."

"That's what so many miss in today's abortion discussion  many women actually don't want abortion, they just think it's their only option, and it's a message they hear over and over again from the abortion industry. Human Coalition and pregnancy centers meet them where they are at and help them make an empowered decision from a place of stability."

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is among a group of lawmakers who introduced the Stop Anti-Abortion Disinformation Act, which would direct the Federal Trade Commission to prohibit "deceptive advertising" about the provision of abortion services and collect fines from violating organizations.

Jor-El Godsey, president of Heartbeat International, a worldwide network of more than 3,000 pro-life pregnancy centers that assist pregnant women by offering free services, told The Christian Post last year that the types of care centers provide differ, but most offer material services and connect women with community resources.

"It's the local pregnancy centers that are really defining their own services," he said.

"That's one of the beauties of being local, the idea that the community knows best what the community needs," he continued. "So we firmly believe that the local pregnancy centers are positioned very well to serve the very type of woman in their community who needs that help."

Many pro-life pregnancy centers have suffered varying degrees of vandalism after least year's leak of the U.S. Supreme Court's draft decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, determining that the U.S. Constitution does not contain a right to abortion.

CompassCare, a group of pro-life pregnancy centers in upstate New York, had its Buffalo-area office firebombed last year, while Wisconsin Family Action in Madison, Wisconsin, had a Molotov cocktail thrown through the window.

The vandalism continued after the Supreme Court handed down the official Dobbs decision last year and after the early-morning raid on the home of a pro-life activist.
Being a pastor is an awful existence, JD Hall says a year after being removed from the pulpit

Just over a year after he was removed from ministry for abusing the prescription drug Xanax, and later accused of embezzling money from his church and physical abuse, former pastor and notorious polemics blogger, Jordan Daniel "J.D." Hall, says being a pastor is an awful existence and he would never want his son to follow in his footsteps.

Hall, who formerly led Fellowship Baptist Church in Sidney, Montana, and was known for his scathing criticisms of Christian leaders on his polemics website Pulpit & Pen, and, more recently, Protestia, was removed from his roles with those organizations after news broke about his arrest on DUI and a weapons charge last summer. However, no alcohol was found in his system when a blood alcohol test was administered.

Appearing with his wife, Mandy, in an interview with Protestias David Morrill earlier this month, Hall revealed he is now living a quiet rural life with his family and doesnt miss vocational ministry.

You know, I always felt like I was thrust into it. But David, I'm sure I've had conversations with you over the years where I talked about the stress and the burden of it.  To have 100 or 120 people with their problems somehow become your problems. Never knowing when the phone is going to ring, being gone from my family so much, Hall said.

And, you know, when you're there to solve somebody else's family crisis, usually the question on the top of their head at 2 o'clock in the morning is who's with your family right now? It's like, their concerns become your concerns, but your concerns are seldom theirs, he explained.

I don't miss it. And for the life of me, I can't figure out why guys who seem like they just can't get out and go do something else, why they would persist. Being a pastor, I've said this for a long time, it's an awful existence. It just is.

Hall pointed to megachurch leaders such as Mark Driscoll and Perry Noble who lost their ministries in public scandals but later returned to the pulpit with new ministries as examples of something he would not do.

I look at guys like Perry Noble or Mark Driscoll who just don't know when to quit. And I'm thinking, you know,  you've heard me say that for years, that if you're in the ministry and you become disqualified, get out and stay out, Hall said.

If nothing else, I hope to practice what I preach in that. It's the last thing I want to do. And it's not as though there aren't blessings that are associated with it [preaching]. But I think I've surprised people for years that I've talked about my son, saying the last thing I want him to be is a pastor, he said. That life is hard. I don't miss it.

A report from the Sidney Police Department cited by The Sidney Herald said Hall was arrested on May 11, 2022, at approximately 11 p.m. on suspicion of carrying a concealed weapon and multiple traffic violations while driving under the influence.

An incident report shows that when police approached Hall, he spoke slowly, his eyes were watery, closed slowly and deliberately, and his speech was slurred and mumbled.

He also stumbled, displayed poor balance, and performed poorly on a field sobriety test. No alcohol was found in his system when a blood alcohol test was administered. He also had a Smith & Wesson M&P 2.0 Shield handgun, which was found under his coat in an inside-the-waistband holster during his arrest, the report added.

Fellowship Baptist Church leaders say they were unaware of Hall's addiction to Xanax when they defended him publicly and rejected his initial offer to resign.

As the scandal erupted, Hall was also accused of physically assaulting his wife, Mandy, and son, and embezzling $10,000 from his church.

When asked how she was doing a year outside of ministry, Mandy Hall said the change of pace has been a good one for her family.

It's a good change. I don't really miss much about it [ministry], she said. We have a really good church we go to now. I love our pastor, good solid Bible preaching man who stands up for God's Word, and I appreciate that. But it's really hard to get back into a church. It's hard to let our guard down, to be really active. So I'm hoping that time will heal that. God has already healed a lot of it, but it just gets challenging sometimes.

A recent Barna study showed that as American pastors continue to skew older, with an average age of 52, a majority now say it is becoming increasingly difficult to find younger replacements willing to do their jobs as they prepare to retire.

Researchers found that some 75% of the pastors in the study at least somewhat agree with the statement that "It is becoming harder to find mature young Christians who want to be pastors."

About a third of respondents "strongly agreed" that it's becoming harder to find young Christians to be pastors, up from 24% in 2015.

An October 2021 Barna survey also showed that nearly four out of 10 pastors (38%) said they were "seriously considering" leaving full-time ministry, which was a significant increase from the 29% of pastors who reported feeling this way several months earlier in January 2021.

As the world was still reeling from the pandemic in 2022, some Christian denominations, such as the progressive, LGBT-affirming Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, reported that they were already in the throes of a succession crisis with a national shortage of "at least 600" pastors.
Christian doctor murdered in machete attack in Nigeria

ABUJA, Nigeria  A Christian doctor was killed in a machete attack on him and his motorcycle driver on Oct. 17 in Nasarawa state, Nigeria, sources said.

Terrorists attacked Dr. Stephen Angbas, head of Angbas Hospital in the town of Lafia, at about 4 p.m. as he was returning from his farm in Awe County, in the southern part of the state, said area resident Jackson Habila in a text message to Morning Star News.

Angbas was a member of the Evangelical Reformed Church of Christ, Habila said.

Police spokesman Rahman Nansel of the Nasarawa State Police Command said in a press statement that Angbas commercial motorcycle driver, Mikailu Dahiru, was wounded in the attack along Jangargari-Awe Road.

Eyewitnesses informed Punch news outlet that the assailants attacked them with machetes and that Dahiru was rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment of severe wounds.

It was unclear if the attack was religiously motivated, although the gruesome nature of the attack was similar to that of Nigerian terrorist attacks on Christians. Punch indicated robbery might have been the motive, though neither media nor police indicated any money was stolen.

Nasarawa state has suffered increasing attacks by Fulani herdsmen and other terrorists who have moved into the state. From April 24 to April 29, Fulani herdsmen killed 12 Christian farmers in Ajimaka, Doma County, in attacks there and in 13 other villages.

By mid-March, armed attacks by Fulani herdsmen on predominantly Christian communities in Nasarawa state had left more than 200 people dead and destroyed homes and farms, according to Nasarawa-based Ajiri Afo Development Association.

Nigeria led the world in Christians killed for their faith in 2022, with 5,014, according to Open Doors 2023 World Watch List (WWL) report. It also led the world in Christians abducted (4,726), sexually assaulted or harassed, forcibly married or physically or mentally abused, and it had the most homes and businesses attacked for faith-based reasons. As in the previous year, Nigeria had the second most church attacks and internally displaced people.

In the 2023 World Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian, Nigeria jumped to sixth place, its highest ranking ever, from No. 7 the previous year.

Militants from the Fulani, Boko Haram, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and others conduct raids on Christian communities, killing, maiming, raping and kidnapping for ransom or sexual slavery, the WWL report noted. This year has also seen this violence spill over into the Christian-majority south of the nation.  Nigerias government continues to deny this is religious persecution, so violations of Christians rights are carried out with impunity.

Numbering in the millions across Nigeria and the Sahel, predominantly Muslim Fulani comprise hundreds of clans of many different lineages who don't hold extremist views, but some Fulani do adhere to radical Islamist ideology, the United Kingdoms All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom or Belief (APPG) noted in a 2020 report.

They adopt a comparable strategy to Boko Haram and ISWAP and demonstrate a clear intent to target Christians and potent symbols of Christian identity, the APPG report states.

Christian leaders in Nigeria have said they believe herdsmen's attacks on Christian communities in Nigerias Middle Belt are inspired by their desire to forcefully take over Christians lands and impose Islam as desertification has made it difficult for them to sustain their herds.
Episcopal priest sues Michigan county, claims only extremist Christians allowed to give invocations

An Episcopal Church priest has sued officials of a Michigan county, claiming he has been wrongfully banned from giving the invocation at official board meetings.

The Rev. Jared Cramer of St. Johns Episcopal Church of Grand Haven filed a lawsuit against the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners earlier this month in the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan, Southern Division.

The complaint claims that Commissioner Joe Moss, who serves as chair and oversees the selection of clergy to pray at the meetings, has been excluding Cramer and others who don't share Moss Christian beliefs about marriage and human sexuality.

Cramer claims to have reached out to Moss on multiple occasions this year about being added to the invocation list, according to the lawsuit, however, the commission chair allegedly hasn't responded to his requests.

The complaint further argues that Moss has excluded Cramer because of his support for LGBT ideology, and his Episcopal congregations open support for the LGBT movement.

Mosss refusal to allow Reverend Cramer to lead the invocation demonstrates the Commissions policy of religious discrimination in selecting individuals to lead the invocation, reads the complaint. Upon information and belief, the Commission does not have a non-discriminatory policy that allows individuals of various religious denominations and beliefs to lead the invocation; on the contrary, Defendant Moss alone chooses individuals based on his personal endorsement of their religious beliefs.

The Christian Post reached out to the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners this week. A spokesperson said they could not comment but forwarded the request to the corporate counsel. This article will be updated if a response from the counsel is received.

In an interview with Episcopal News Service, Cramer said he hoped his lawsuit would make sure that broader Christian voice can be represented at the county level.

Cramer went on to say that he believed the commissioner board was dominated by a socially conservative advocacy group known as Ottawa Impact, which he claims favors Christians which agree with their extreme views.

Ottawa Impact advocates for pro-life issues and parents' rights in education, including opposing the sexualization of children in public schools.

Cramer argues that the commission has effectively attempted to silence the voices of a significant number of Christians who believe that following Jesus means something very different than what Ottawa Impact is doing.
Israeli Christian warns Hezbollah another threat to Jewish state: 'With Satan, there is no peace'

An Israeli Christian leader believes that Satan is at work through the terrorist group Hamas and the ever-increasing threat of Hezbollah, arguing that there cannot be peace in the region until both forces are defeated.

Shadi Khalloul, director of strategic partnerships at the Alma Research and Education Center, a nonprofit that analyzes security issues on Israel's northern border, recently spoke with The Christian Post about the ongoing conflict impacting Israel and Gaza.

Khalloul is also the president of the Israeli Christian Aramaic Association NGO, a group that seeks to revive the Aramaic language and also encourages Christians to serve in the Israel Defense Forces. The ICAA president resides in a community in northern Israel comprised of Aramaean Christians for the purpose of preserving the Aramaic language, which Jesus spoke.

Following Hamas' Oct. 7 assault on Israel that left over 1,400 Israelis dead, there have been fears that the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah would join the fight.

According to the Institute for National Security Studies, Hezbollah has an arsenal of destructive weapons, and the group's regular and reserve is estimated to be between 50,000 and 100,000 fighters.

"All they care about is to wipe out Israel and kill Jews and Israelis," Khalloul told CP.

"And so for me, as a Christian living in the border and as a loyal citizen of the state of Israel, an Israeli, of course, I am worried," Khalloul added. "As a father, I don't want to live with this monster that is just sitting here in my borders."

For there to be peace, Khalloul asserted that Hezbollah and Hamas must be dismantled and disarmed.

"This is Satan, and with Satan, there is no peace," he said. "With Satan, you need to defeat the evil, and if we don't defeat the evil, we will not have peace."

Khalloul warned that there are many strategic areas in Israel that Hezbollah could strike, including gas fields and Haifa, the third largest city in Israel. Khalloul noted that it is not only Jews that reside in the city but that Christians live there as well.

"All of us are Israelis living together in the same cities," he said.

As The Times of Israel reported Monday, Israel Defense Forces intercepted a "suspicious target" that entered Israeli airspace from Lebanon, which the military suspects may have been a drone. The newspaper reported that IDF forces struck four Hezbollah cells that were allegedly planning to conduct attacks on the border.

The IDF also reported that the Iron Dome defense system struck down a drone that entered Israeli airspace from Lebanon through the sea, intercepting it over the Ein Hamifratz kibbutz.

On Monday, the IDF announced that a terror cell in Lebanon was preparing to launch an anti-tank guided missile attack in the Mount Dov area on Israel's northern border, according to The Times.

Amid the clashes at the border, Israel evacuated 28 communities last week that live within 1.2 miles of the Lebanese border. At the same time, Khalloul also evacuated his family for their safety.

In the community where Khalloul resides, he said that some have also opted to evacuate, although he is unsure of the exact number. However, at least 30,000 people evacuated the Jewish towns surrounding the Aramaean Christian community.

The ICAA president explained that he serves as a community representative and speaks with government officials about the needs of Christians in Israel, including guns, so members of the community can protect themselves.

According to Khalloul, the only people allowed to carry guns are those who had previously served in the military and understand how to operate a weapon.

Amid escalating tensions near Israel's border with Lebanon, Khalloul said that his community has been building up squads of residents. These squads work in cooperation with the police and IDF to defend the community, according to Khalloul, and their members aren't limited to a specific number but vary in each town inside of the community.

In addition, the ICAA works with an organization called Christians for Israel to provide an improved quality of life for the military units defending the area. ICAA receives funding from CFI, usually a couple of thousand dollars, to buy food, clothing and water for nearby military units.

"It's enough for building trust between our communities and the IDF surrounding us," Khalloul said. "This is important as well. This building trust and knowledge among them about our existence and our own support for them as well during this hard time."

One of Khalloul's concerns is that Hezbollah will take control of Lebanon, noting that the group's goal likely involves taking over the country and Israel. He worries that if this happens, Lebanon will turn into an Islamic Republic that would prohibit practicing the Christian faith.

"And so, hopefully, we will prevail, and we will win this evil, and we will take them down because we have no other choice," Khalloul said.

"We are defending and fighting for life, for the life of people, for people to live freely and worship freely and believe in what they are as human beings," he continued. "That's the war today."
James MacDonalds PTSD goes on trial as he seeks to avoid prison for assaulting woman

A California judge ruled Wednesday that Harvest Bible Chapel founder James MacDonald's diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder makes him eligible for a mental health diversion program that would keep him out of prison for allegedly attacking a 59-year-old woman in a Corona parking lot earlier this year and causing her "great bodily harm." The San Diego County District Attorney's office is contesting the decision.

In a recording of MacDonald's mental health diversion hearing first highlighted by The Roys Report, San Diego County Superior Court Judge Carlos Varela said the attorney for the former leader of Harvest Bible Chapel in greater Chicago made a prima facie showing that he was both an eligible and suitable candidate for the program.

MacDonald is currently facing seven years in prison for the felony assault and battery of Barbara Bass in March.

The former megachurch pastor's attorney, Marc Carlos, highlighted in the evidence presented before the court, including testimony from mental health experts, that MacDonald was first diagnosed with PTSD in 2020 and as recently as 2023.

He also explained that MacDonald's PTSD was developed under the weight of online criticism, including news reporting that came with his celebrity status, as well as underhanded dealings by his former church community.

Carlos argued that before the 63-year-old MacDonald's attack on Bass in March, which Assistant District Attorney Alexis Lamprea said caused the woman to be hospitalized for 21 days, he was an upstanding husband, father and grandfather with "with no record, no criminal history."

"So if you think about it this way, 50 years, roughly 50 years, adult male, he's had no incidence of violence, no incidence of any type of criminal history, no substance abuse, domestic violence, nothing. He's been married for 40 years to his wife, who is here today," Carlos argued.

Even though MacDonald was ousted in 2019 as senior pastor of his once 15,000-member multi-campus church and accused of being a gun-toting bully who once sought to hire a hitman to commit murder, Carlos argued that MacDonald had "basically done everything" right and was a victim of his church and critics.

"All of the things that I'm talking about before were taken away as a result of some kind of underhanded dealings with other church members," Carlos told the judge.

"It's really, as we've shown in our papers here, there was really bad reporting that went on as well as internet trolling that went on, which undermined his ministry, not to mention his mental health," he continued. "As a result of the lawsuits and the constant harassment he gets on the internet, he developed the symptoms we've seen here today."

Reading from the report of a clinical psychologist noted as "Dr. Anderson," which framed the work of journalist Julie Roys as part of the reason MacDonald developed PTSD, it was claimed that MacDonald's attack on Bass was a "function of PTSD."

"It is the examiner's professional opinion that James's reaction is a function of PTSD. And he's talking about his reaction to the alleged offense or his reaction when this incident happened. Once the woman in the car in front of him got out of the car and moved towards him in an angry and agitated state, the years of traumatic memories of being vilified by Julie Roys rushed back to him and triggered a fight or flight response," Anderson's report said. "Feeling powerless and misunderstood and essentially trapped in his truck, he got out of the vehicle to fight back against his accuser."

In order to qualify under California law for the mental health diversion program, Varela explained that he had to consider both MacDonald's eligibility  having a diagnosed mental health disorder  as well as his suitability for the program. On the face of it, he said, MacDonald had met both standards.

The American Psychiatric Association defines PTSD as "a psychiatric disorder that may occur in people who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event, series of events or set of circumstances. An individual may experience this as emotionally or physically harmful or life-threatening and may affect mental, physical, social, and/or spiritual well-being."

"According to the statute, he has been diagnosed with a mental health disorder and the Courts shall find that the defendant's mental health disorder was a significant factor unless there's clear and convincing evidence otherwise. At this point, I haven't seen that clear and convincing evidence otherwise," Varela said.

The judge further argued that MacDonald's background, as presented by his attorney, also makes him a suitable candidate for the diversion program.

The assistant district attorney, however, strongly disagreed.

"While the defendant was diagnosed by an expert with PTSD, the people do not believe that the PTSD was a significant factor in the crime committed. It is the people's position that the crime committed was a willful and callous act that the defendant thought about just based off the facts," Lamprea said.

"The defendant bumped the victim's car, the victim got out of her car to keep the defendant from leaving, the defendant got out of his truck, runs towards the victim, which they fell to the ground, and the victim sustained significant injuries that she was in the hospital for 21 days," the assistant district attorney said.

Lamprea said Bass is still receiving physical therapy and only recently stopped using a walker to get around her house.

"The PTSD portion that the mental health expert opined is based off some reporting or trolling that happen toward the defendant online. The defendant, to my knowledge, does have a larger following. A lot of people know him. He is a pastor with a following, and with that following comes people expressing their opinions," she said.

She argued that the opinions that were expressed about MacDonald were about his behavior.

"They're members of his community, and many of them were negative towards the defendant based off of his behavior. Now, whether the PTSD can come from somebody saying something about him online, that's for an expert to opine, that is something that the people, if the court is going to grant the prima facie, we would be asking for the contested hearing so we could look into hiring our own expert," Lamprea argued. "As it stands, the people do not agree that his PTSD played a significant factor in the crime committed. The people believe the crime was a willful and thought-out crime that the defendant committed."

The prosecutor also argued that MacDonald would not be a suitable candidate for the diversion program because he was previously in treatment multiple times and the treatment was unsuccessful in changing his behavior.

"He's already been unsuccessful on treatment multiple times. And if the defendant has had three years since his diagnosis or previous diagnosis in 2020, now we're in 2023, obviously, whatever he was doing in between that time hasn't affected him in a good, in a positive way, or helped his mental health diagnosis in a positive way as we are now here on this crime, and his behavior in this crime was very egregious," Lamprea said.

"He acted in a callous and egregious nature. And so for those reasons, the people would be asking the court to deny the defendant's request for mental health diversion."

A hearing to contest the judge's decision is scheduled for Feb. 28, 2024.
The sexualization of culture: A Christian perspective

Culture can never be underestimated. It can exert a mysterious influence. Cultural thought can establish trends that sweep a society and subtly demand compliance. Of course, not all cultural trends are wrong. What should always be concerning, however, is when the voice of democratic and civil people is not heard. AustrianBritish philosopher Karl Popper commented well when he said, in order to maintain a tolerant society, the society must be intolerant of intolerance. Here, polite society should take a lesson.

Evangelical Christians have always believed that sex outside of marriage between a biological man and a biological woman is sinful. Lately, some evangelicals have begun to negotiate this belief. What has caused this shift? Was it a great biblical awakening? No, I believe its cultural pressure. In short order, cultural thought has changed drastically and placed immense pressure on evangelicals to find appeasement.

In my country, the Anglican Church of Canada commissioned a team of its leaders in 2015 for the purpose of developing a biblical and theological rationale to affirm same-sex relationships. The committee recommended that its theologically possible to extend the marriage canon to include same-sex couples, without thereby diminishing, or curtailing the rich theological implications of marriage as traditionally understood. This suggestion reinterprets the ACCs theological and doctrinal heritage and tweaks its understanding of the marriage canon.

In other words, what it has always maintained must now be negotiated and weaved into our cultural fabric. The committee was also charged with developing a conscience clause. So that no member of the clergy, bishop, or congregation or diocese should be constrained to participate or authorize such marriages against the dictates of their conscience. Why didnt the ACC institute the conscience clause as a denomination and articulate it accordingly? Its obvious why: cultural pressure.

In culture, the gay lobby has become a tour de force. Think about this. In January, the Americans take one day known as Martin Luther King Jr. Day to honor the great achievements of the civil rights movement. In Ontario, we take one day in February to observe Family Day. Good Friday is one day. Mothers Day. Fathers Day. Canada Day. Independence Day. Labor Day. Christmas Day. New Years Day. All the soldiers who died to protect the freedoms we enjoy, Remembrance Day. The gay community can have one day to observe its cause, but they have managed remarkably to make it Pride Month. Every day in June, the rainbow flag becomes ubiquitous. People are being enculturated into going along with it. Truth be told, in Canada, there are many who disagree but remain silent, because the cultural narrative does not tolerate disagreement.

For example, this past September in Canada, concerned parents organized the 1 Million March 4 Children to protest nationwide against an ideological approach to gender identity as the only way to educate children. The events were framed by Canadian media and politicians as hateful. Thankfully, a transgender person spoke at one event and wrote about the experience in an article published by the National Post:

I experienced no hate or dissent from a single individual ... Needless to say, I was disappointed when ... the Mayor of Whitby made strong statements the following day, lambasting the protests as both harmful and hateful ... Rather tellingly, her narrative describes the hate in the most general and non-specific terms possible ... devoid of a single example ... That warning of hate from the Whitby Mayor seems to be the norm in the pushback against the parental rights movement. Whether from aspiring politicians or progressive news agencies  we have received a clear message that condemns parental hatred in the strongest terms while neglecting to provide any tangible example of what in particular is so hateful.

Canadian politicians and media have become enculturated with bias, and they are making things worse by ignoring reality, that is, the diverse views and convictions of all people. Society must tolerate the shared center of civility and accommodate the rights of parents to have a say in how their children are educated. Shouldnt their concerns be heard and discussed at the table of civility? How is it possible that parents are asking too much?

Christians believe in love and kindness for people of all sexual, political and religious orientations. Yes, there are times when our biblical conscience cannot accommodate some requests. If and when that were to happen, people should tolerate the evangelical conviction and respect societys shared center of civility.

Can a Christian attend mosque services and expect an accommodation to read the traditional creeds of Christianity? Can a member of the Conservative Party of Canada attend a rally of the Liberal Party and expect to take the microphone and voice Conservative values? Can a conservative Christian attend meetings that plan for Pride events and expect to be accommodated in a leadership capacity? Polite society goes forward by the shared center of civility, and not by the usurpation of one groups will over anothers.

I have heard and read many stories of openly gay people who attended a church that was welcoming and friendly, but when they requested to participate in leadership roles they were declined. They were under the impression that welcoming implied ministry opportunities. Those church leaders should have made it clear from the outset where they stood, instead of dancing around the topic.

Now it should be noted that requests for church ministry are also declined for many reasons. Doctrinal distinctive are particular to each denomination. Not aligning with a distinctive will most likely disqualify one from a leadership role. Qualifying for ministry in a local church is based on various criteria that apply to everyone. It has never been a free-for-all wherein anyone can come and lead.

The evangelical conscience should remain faithful to its distinctives, and not feel culturally pressured to engage in biblical and theological eisegeses. Do you honestly believe that our rich heritage of scholarship and exposition got it wrong on its biblical interpretations of sexuality? So you now have biblical revelations from God that they did not have? Seriously? Regardless, dont you agree that evangelical thought should not be intimidated by cultural opinions of its worldview? When have we ever allowed culture to exposit the Scriptures for us on any topic?

The cost of practicing the Christian faith has never been cheap. Fear not is everywhere in the Bible. Evangelical Christians need to be reminded of how courage has always been required to uphold biblical values: My conscience is captive to the Word of God. To go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.
5 colleges facing accusations of anti-Semitism on campus after Hamas attack

From instructors praising Hamas to the harassment of Jewish students, the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas has heightened tensions on some college campuses throughout the United States.

The conflict began after Hamas terrorists launched an Oct. 7 offensive targeting civilians in southern Israeli communities near the border with Gaza, killing over 1,400 people and seizing around 200 others as hostages. At least 30 Americans were killed.

In response, Israel Defense Forces launched airstrikes into Gaza, targeting Hamas infrastructure that Hamas-run health authorities say have killed over 7,000, including nearly 3,000 minors. This week, U.S. President Joe Biden accused Hamas of hiding behind Palestinian civilians, putting "an added burden on Israel while they go after Hamas."

Many pro-Palestinian students and faculty on college campuses in the U.S. have demonstrated, released statements or engaged in criminal behavior. The behavior and rhetoric of some of these students, professors and groups have prompted strong reactions from people concerned about anti-Semitism.

The following pages highlight five institutions of higher learning dealing with accusations of anti-Semitism on campus amid the Israel and Hamas war.

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US-based Hamas networks 'still engaged' in 'various forms of support,' GWU report warns

A new report from the Program on Extremism at George Washington University (GWU) details how Hamas has had an extensive support network operating in the United States for decades, with many "core activists" still engaged in "various forms of support."

The report, published Oct. 13 and authored by Director of the Program on Extremism Lorenzo Vidino, explains how individuals and networks providing "fundraising, lobbying, education, and propaganda dissemination" for Hamas have been in the U.S. since the 1980s, according to internal Hamas documents and FBI wiretaps that have been used as evidence in federal court cases.

Hamas, a designated foreign terrorist organization that took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, launched an Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, killing over 1,400 people, including over 30 Americans. The attack drew retaliatory airstrikes by Israel into Gaza, targeting Hamas infrastructure. The Hamas-run Palestinian health authorities say around 7,000 people, including nearly 3,000 minors, have been killed since the airstrikes began.

The report notes that the support network in the U.S. emerged from the Palestine Committee in the U.S., a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood founded in 1988, a year after the founding of Hamas.

The committee would go on to generate other public organizations such as the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), the Holy Land Foundation (HFL), and the United Association for Studies and Research (UASR), the report said.

An internal memo circulated within the Palestinian Committee in 1992 noted that the organization's goals were to "increase the financial and the moral support for Hamas," to "fight surrendering solutions," and to broadcast "the savagery of the Jews."

The report also recounts how, in 1993, the FBI wiretapped top Hamas activists meeting in Philadelphia to discuss bolstering the organization's activities through deception and to prevent it from being designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S., which ultimately happened in 1997.

"I swear by Allah that war is deception," leader Shukri Abu Baker was recorded to have said during the meeting. "Deceive, camouflage, pretend that you're leaving while you're walking that way. Deceive your enemy."

"Let's not hoist a large Islamic flag and let's not be barbaric-talking," he added. "We will remain a front so that if the thing [the U.S. government ban on Hamas] happens, we will benefit from the new happenings instead of having all of our organizations classified and exposed."

The report also noted that key figures associated with the Palestine Committee remain active despite the U.S. government's attempts to crack down on Hamas-supporting networks by shuttering their front organizations and prosecuting HLF leadership for giving millions to Hamas.

"Yet, US-based Hamas networks and individuals have displayed a remarkable resilience and many of the core activists of the Palestine Committee are still engaged in various forms of support (albeit at times purely political and not material) for Hamas," the report states.

HLF was designated a foreign terrorist organization in 2001, and its leaders were prosecuted for disbursing $12.4 million to Hamas.

"[M]any of the members of the Palestine Committee and participants of the 1993 Philadelphia meeting have over the years created new structures to provide support to Hamas," the report concluded. "While some of them focus on fundraising, others have concentrated on more political and educational efforts (which, due to their nature, are more difficult to fall under the provisions of material support to a terrorist organization and therefore trigger criminal charges)."

Last week, 19 Republican lawmakers sent a letter demanding the U.S. State Department and the Department of Homeland Security revoke the visas and deport foreign nationals who support Hamas.
Pope Francis accepts resignation of bishop after priest's gay orgy, drug overdose scandal

Pope Francis accepted the resignation of a Polish bishop Tuesday following accusations that a priest under his authority hosted a homosexual orgy in his apartment that required medical attention due to an overdose.

Bishop Grzegorz Kaszak, 59, who led the diocese of Sosnowiec in southwestern Poland, quit amid allegations that parish priest Tomasz Zmarzly organized a gay sex party involving a male prostitute at the rectory of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Angels church in Dabrowa Gornicza in August, according to The Associated Press.

Zmarzly was placed under criminal investigation following the alleged incident, which Polish media reported involved a 27-year-old participant collapsing after overdosing on erectile dysfunction pills. The priest and others allegedly attempted to keep paramedics from entering the rectory until paramedics called the police.

According to an audio recording of a call to police that was reported by Polish tabloid Fakt, one of the alleged orgy participants claimed he was thrown out of the apartment and wept as he said that his friend had taken drugs and was foaming at the mouth, The U.K. Times reported.

Waldemar ubniewski, who serves as a spokesman for the District Prosecutors Office in Sosnowiec, said the investigation centered on a failure to provide assistance to a person in a situation that poses an immediate threat of loss of life or serious damage to health.

In a statement to the Polish press last month, Zmarzly disputed the description of the party and the number of priests in attendance at the alleged orgy, saying, "it is worth reading what the definition of an orgy is," according to The New York Times.

The priest also characterized the controversy as "an obvious attack on the church, including the clergy and believers, in order to humiliate its position, tasks and mission," maintaining that nobody would have cared if "something similar had happened" involving someone who was not a member of the clergy, according to the Gazeta Wyborcza daily newspaper.

The diocese released a statement in September admitting that Zmarzly's participation in the alleged orgy was "not in doubt," and that he was subsequently prohibited on Sept. 21 from celebrating Mass, mandated to live outside the parish, and subjected to a canonical trial that could see him defrocked.

Kaszak, who was appointed to his position by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009, asked to resign in a Sept. 29 letter to Francis amid the allegations against the parish priest.

"I ask everyone to forgive my human limitations," Kaszak wrote on the diocese website. "If I have offended anyone or neglected something, I am very sorry."

The Vatican embassy in Poland noted that Archbishop Adrian Galbas of Katowice would be filling in as the head of the Diocese of Sosnowiec until a new bishop takes the reigns, according to the AP.

The Roman Catholic Church in Poland, the home country of Pope John Paul II, has been afflicted by allegations of clerical sex abuse against minors, which has led to the forced resignations of multiple bishops.
The Gordean Knot of moral proportionality in the Middle East (part 2)

Last week, I began the process of applying Just War Theory to the current Hamas mega atrocities against the Israeli civilian population and how just war criteria should be applied.

Remember, Just War Theory was never intended to justify war. Instead, it tries to bring war under the sway of justice as understood by Christians and to ensure that war, when it does occur, is hedged about by limits that mitigate its barbarity.

In fact, if all parties accepted just war criteria, there would be no war, since the theorys first rule clearly states no war is just unless it is a last-resort defense against aggression. If everyone adhered to just war criteria, aggression would be eliminated.

Lets remind ourselves briefly of Just War Theorys criteria:

1. Just cause. War is only permissible to resist aggression and to defend those victimized by it. Only defensive war is defensible.

2. Just intent. The only acceptable motive must be to secure justice for all involved. Revenge, conquest, and economic benefit are insufficient, illegitimate and unacceptable motives. The restoration of the status quo ante is NOT sufficient.

3. Last resort. Resort to arms can only be morally legitimate when all other reasonable avenues of conflict resolution have been rebuffed or have demonstrably failed.

4. Legitimate authority. The use of military force is only the prerogative of governments. Consequently, only the duly constituted civil authority can legitimize military action.

5. Limited goals. If the purpose is peace, annihilation of the enemy or total destruction of his civilization is not acceptable. Total War is beyond the pale. Also, unless ones survival or liberty is imperiled, it is not acceptable to resort to war unless the goals are achievable.

6. Proportionality. Will the human cost of the armed conflict to both sides be proportionate to the stated objectives and goals? Does the good gained by resorting to armed conflict justify the cost of lives lost and bodies maimed?

7. Noncombatant immunity. No war can be just which does not disqualify noncombatants as legitimate military targets and which does not seek to minimize collateral, inadvertent civilian casualties. No one has the right to make war on civilians.

Applying these criteria to the Israeli response to the Hamas tenant attacks will lead us to quickly focus on the salient points in dispute.

Clearly, the Israeli response is defensive. It is being authorized by legitimate authority. It is also a last resort and the declared intent is to secure justice and they are doing their best to recognize noncombatant immunity, even though Hamas is deliberately using noncombatants as a shield against Israeli attack.

The really thorny questions revolve around proportionality. When does the human cost of the military objective to be gained become so disproportionate that it morally outweighs the military gain?

As the definition of social justice rises, so does the acceptable price of noncombatant casualties. In the example I employed last week (the Hanoi oil tank storage facilities into which the North Vietnamese government moved civilians in to prevent American attacks), the moral responsibility for civilian casualties obviously rested with the North Vietnamese government. However, at what point would the civilian casualties override the military gains from destroying the oil storage facilities?

I would argue that the moral threshold for not attacking would be reached more quickly in inverse proportion to the goals sought by military intervention. In the case of the U.S., our goal was to prevent the Communists from subjugating South Vietnam, not seeking the liberation and democratic self-determination of the entire Vietnamese population. Consequently, the lower the goal sought, the lower the threshold at which the civilian casualties would outweigh the gain sought.

Just so, what Israels goals are are determinative in assessing proportionality. If their goal is to destroy the terrorist organization that is Hamas and to replace them with a government committed to human justice for Arabs and Jews (and keeping Hamas from poisoning the hearts and minds of another generation of Palestinian children), perhaps the higher noncombatant civilian costs are more acceptable than if they have much more limited goals.

Israel should have as its goal a just, civilized government for Gaza, aiming toward one run by civilized Palestinians. In the interim, it may need to be under U.N. trusteeship after Israel has rooted out the Hamas barbarians. The goal must be delivering the next generation of Palestinians, as well as Israelis, from the current barbarization fomented by Hamas and their Iranian puppet masters.

So, how far can and should Israel go? It depends on how noble their goals are. The more noble their goal, the higher the threshold for costs. If the goals are small and limited, the costs may be smaller now, but the costs will be exponentially higher the next time, and there will be a next time.

These are sobering days that try mens souls. May God give us wisdom and courage.
The scandal of the Evangelical spine: Unelected 'evangellyfish'

For almost three decades now, Evangelical Christianity in America has been haunted by a single sentence. That sentence is the opening line of Mark Nolls 1994 work, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, which bluntly suggests that The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind.

Noll continues: Notwithstanding all their other virtues, however, American evangelicals are not exemplary for their thinking, and they have not been so for several generations. Despite dynamic success at a popular level, modern American evangelicals have failed notably in sustaining serious intellectual life.

The reason this (largely inaccurate) assessment has so haunted the striver class of American Evangelicals is that, like all fallen humans, they desperately desire to be accepted by the so-called elites of society. They fear man, and thus they crave mans approval. They are embarrassed by the clear teachings of the Bible and so they try to downplay it in order to gain a seat at the table in the academy or have their opinions published in The New York Times.

But Im not here to talk about Noll (other than as a convenient foil) and why his thesis is wrong. I think there is a vibrant Evangelical mind, but its one that submits to Gods Word and views the Bible as inerrant, and then works all of its scholarship and cultural engagement out from that starting point.

When it comes to even more fundamental doctrinal issues of the Christian faith, such as the virgin birth of Christ, the veracity of His miracles, and the authority and inspiration of the Scriptures, faithful Christian scholars  truly bright scholars with new hearts, saved souls, and, yes, strong minds  must again stand strong on these commitments as true truth. Any effort to disguise our beliefs in order to garner a broader audience in the secular academy or to win praise from the world reveals a Christian mind that has forgotten the purpose of knowledge and scholarship, which is to find and affirm the truth and never to downplay or discount it.

When viewed rightly, the Evangelical mind is alive and well, but I would suggest there is a much greater scandal plaguing Evangelicals  the scandal of the evangelical spine.

And the scandal of the Evangelical spine is that there is not much of an Evangelical spine.

What do I mean?

I mean that our cadre of unelected evangellyfish leaders (to borrow a phrase from Douglas Wilson) have proven themselves to be blessed with a backbone consisting of the same fortitude as a mushy banana, which is to say, not much of one at all.

The anatomical purpose of our backbone, our spine, is to enable us human vertebrates to stand tall. Sadly, a survey of recent Christian anthropology in America yields results that would map much better onto a bunch of arthropods  the class of animals without a spine. You know, like worms.

When the winds of cultural change blew in fast and furious over the fruited plains, bringing the sexual revolution and all of its myriad sins and sophistries, far too many Evangelicals folded like a cheap suit.

Birth control? Why not. Freezing embryos? Sure. No-fault divorce? No problem. Abortion? Well, thats a knot that even many of the most morally flexible Christians couldnt quite tie themselves into supporting, but that didnt stop them from trying. My body, my choice, right? Wrong. Pornography? Well, Christians shouldnt view it, but its protected by the First Amendment, so what can we do?

You could rent a spine, to start, and then walk back out into the public square and boldly decry the heinous evils of synthetic sex.

Then came the hurricane of civilizational destruction we now know as Obergefell and the legalization of a same-sex mirage we so euphemistically call gay marriage. Even here, at one of the most critical junctures in the history of America, with nothing less than the pre-fall, God-ordained institution of marriage on the line, so many pastors, public Christian leaders, and people who claim the name of Christ couldnt manage to stand up against the lies of Love is love. It is? Well, water is water  so why dont you drink out of the toilet?

Instead, they bought the lie that sexual orientation is immutable and that what we really need to do is praise singleness, downplay marriage, and make everyone feel welcome. But as pastor and theologian Jared Moore  a man who does not suffer from the scandal of a missing spine  so aptly put it: So, you believe Jesus can walk out of a tomb, but He cant change your same-sex desires? I dont buy it.

I dont buy it either. And neither should you.

I could go on. In fact, I will.

When the lies of Ferguson and Hands up, dont shoot birthed the Black Lives Matter movement, Evangelicals bowed before the false god of Critical Race Theory (CRT), social justice, and wokeness in record time. Never mind that James 2:1 clearly teaches to show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. Some partiality is apparently needed when deciding between Anglo 8s and African American 7s, in a pastoral hiring search process, or so says Matt Chandler.

When #MeToo hit the airwaves, Evangelicals bowed before the false gods of Believe all women, promptly throwing out the biblical standards of justice and due process as quickly as you could say Smash the patriarchy or Im with her.

When the government handed down tyrannical lockdown orders during COVID that told churches they had to close up shop while casinos and liquor stores could stay open, Evangelicals all across America promptly locked the doors to Gods house and handed over the keys to the state.

Even worse, when an unproven vaccine became the price of admission for reentering polite society and earning a paycheck to put food on the table for your family, Evangelical leaders twisted Scripture and told us to Love your neighbor, get the shot.

Once again, I could go on, but I will pause here and point out what should, hopefully, be painfully obvious. The lowest common denominator uniting all of these examples, and it is low indeed, is that in each case, too many (though not all) of the men of God in our nation showed about as much courage as a church mouse. Even less, perhaps, as I trust the church mice continued to hold unmasked indoor church services during COVID.

If you were to look at the regime Evangelicals of our day, no doubt they look like men in full possession of an intact backbone. But when we put them, and their like, under the X-ray machine of Gods moral standards and cross-examine them by what He expects from those who occupy seats of leadership in our Evangelical life, you would see a gelatinous blob of third-way platitudes just waiting to take on the shape of whatever the world demands of them next. Their backbones turned out to be made not of bone but of Flubber.

But as with the Gospel, so with this scandal: We need the bad news first, and then the good.

What is the good news? For that, we must turn to the Good Book. The Bible is chockful of men of courage, godly men with spines of steel, who stood tall when it mattered most and refused to bow to the idols of their day  even at the risk of their very lives.

Enter one image of gold, three brave men, a mad king, and a blazing furnace.

In Daniel 3 we learn what it looks like to be men of God who stiffen their spinal column when it counts.

Furious with rage, Nebuchadnezzar summoned Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. So these men were brought before the king, and Nebuchadnezzar said to them, Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the image of gold I have set up? Now when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe and all kinds of music, if you are ready to fall down and worship the image I made, very good. But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?



Meshach and Abednego replied to him, King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majestys hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up (Daniel 3:13-18).

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow before the golden image because it was a false god  it was an idol. And in Gods good world, idols are meant to be smashed, not worshipped. They are meant to be broken, not bowed to. You cant bend the knee to the false gods of our day and their avatars while claiming to worship the King of Kings. No man can serve two masters.

But standing when everyone else bows, and smashing an idol in front of its worshippers, takes a spine that has been infused with a courage that can only be drawn from a well of fear  the fear of the One True God. This is indeed a paradox. Still, it is the choice that every Christian faces. We will either fear man and go weak at the knees when Nebuchadnezzar, Caesar, the government, our family, employer, or culture demand that we offer a pinch of incense to the pagan gods of our age  or we will fear the Lord and stand on the two feet He gave us, pushing all 33 of our vertebrae erect, stare them in the eyes, and say, I have no King but Christ.

To help bring this all to a close I must enlist the aid of the famed Christian apologist C.S. Lewis. In The Screwtape Letters, Lewis puppets the demon Screwtape and explains the crucial nature of true courage:

This, indeed, is probably one of the Enemys motives for creating a dangerous world  a world in which moral issues really come to the point.



He sees as well as you do that courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means, at the point of highest reality.



A chastity or honesty, or mercy, which yields to danger will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions. Pilate was merciful till it became risky.

Courage is the testing point of every virtue. Courage is what makes it all count. Courage is what shows the world whether you actually believe what you say you believe  or whether your convictions are just another form of empty virtue signaling.

Courage is therefore necessary for the Christian life. Without it, we will be blown about by every wind of false teaching. Without courage  without a spine  we will, at some point, melt away into an indistinguishable bowl of lukewarm pudding. What does Christ have to say to those who are lukewarm?

I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth (Revelation 3:15-16).

Bones are hard to bite down on. So grow a spine, and dont get spit out.

Yes, the world is filled with dragons. But Christians worship a serpent-crushing King. Whom have we to fear but God alone? We dont fear those who can destroy the body, but the One who can destroy both the body and soul.

Its not the lack of an Evangelical mind that plagues American Christianity. Its the lack of a spine. We have chosen men without chests as our leaders and have suffered duly for our folly.

Flannery OConnor once called on Christians to Push back against the age as hard as it pushes against you. What people dont realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross.

You can only push back if you have a backbone. A backbone on which you carry your cross  like our Lord, who set His face like flint towards Jerusalem. If He endured the cross, can we not endure some social scorn for our faith? Lost jobs? Even imprisonment?

We can endure these and all other trials set before us if we just reach around and press the middle of our backs, find our spine, thank the Lord He put it there, and use it.

Originally published at the Standing for Freedom Center.
Ron Fucheks depiction of the Port Arthur, Duluth and Western railroad, a local railroad from the early 20th century, in G scale, a scale usually considered for outdoor backyard layouts, is a crowd favourite. Thunder on Rails will be held in Thunder Bay at the West Thunder Community Centre at 915 Edward St. S. on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Entry fees are $2 for adults, $5 for families, and children under 12 are admitted free when accompanied by an adult.
IKT Expands EMS Sites to Bulgaria Published: 27 October 2023 by Tyler Hanes by Tyler Hanes

CHERNIHIV, UKRAINE  IKT Group has opened a contract electronics assembly factory in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The new plant is the EMS companys third in Europe.

The company said it chose the location for its proximity to customers in the European Union and Israel, and to lower risks associated with production in its native Ukraine. After considering several countries in Eastern Europe, Bulgaria was selected for its investment climate, vibrant electronics sector and growing economy.

The company has procured lines from Juki, PBT Works, and Olamef, among others, for the new plant, which is called IKT Electronics.

IKT also has sites in Israel and Ukraine.
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Commentary: Space industry progress demonstrates China's confidence, openness

Xinhua) 10:43, October 27, 2023

BEIJING, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- China on Thursday launched the Shenzhou-17 manned spaceship, and the three astronauts aboard, the country's youngest lineup ever with an average age of about 38, will spend about six months in orbit on a space station mission.

The rapid and steady progress China has made in the space industry is a testament to its independent capacity and strength in science and technology. It has also demonstrated the nation's confidence and willingness to open to the world in jointly building a community with a shared future in outer space.

Over the past two decades, China achieved a number of significant breakthroughs in space exploration, ranging from the launch of its first manned space vehicle in 2003, with Yang Liwei becoming the country's first astronaut, to the landmark completion of the space station's construction last year.

These successes are the result of China's new system for mobilizing resources nationwide to make key technological breakthroughs.

While stressing self-reliance in developing its space industry, China also advocates and promotes openness in space research, having carried out cooperation with multiple countries and international organizations.

For example, China has carried out gamma-ray burst polarization monitoring research with the European Space Agency on the Tiangong-2 space laboratory. It has also conducted human body medical research in a micro-gravitational environment with France during the Shenzhou-11 manned spaceflight mission, and carried out joint CAVES training and maritime rescue drills with the European Astronaut Centre.

In early October, China announced that the lunar soil samples retrieved by the probe of its Chang'e-5 mission would soon be open to international applications for joint research.

At a press conference Wednesday, the China Manned Space Agency extended an invitation to the world to participate in China's space station missions.

China has always advocated the use of outer space for peaceful purposes, and opposes any attempt to turn outer space into a weapon or battlefield or launch an arms race in outer space. It develops and utilizes space resources in a prudent manner and takes effective measures to protect the space environment. China's openness to the outside world highlights its sincerity in these solemn pledges.

With growing confidence and more openness, China is set to achieve even greater progress on its new journey towards a strong space presence. It is certain that the future achievements China makes in aerospace will benefit not only China, but also all humanity.

(Web editor: Tian Yi, Liang Jun)
Consimtamantul pentru controlul de fond/ a antecedentelor

Subsemnatul/Subsemnata, confirm ca am aplicat la Secretariatul Pre-Vetting/ de Evaluare a Procurorilor si recunosc ca candidatura mea este supusa unui control de fond/ a antecedentelor efectuat de Centrul National Anticoruptie (CNA) din Moldova. Furnizarea datelor mele personale, copiei buletinului meu de identitate/pasaportului, CV-ului si semnatura de mai jos servesc drept consimtamant pentru ca datele mele personale sa fie examinate de catre CNA in vederea finalizarii controlului de fond / a antecedentelor necesar antece

Inteleg ca rezultatele ycontrolului de fond/a antecedentelor mele vor fi transmise catre Dexis Consulting Group in calitatea anagajator si autoritate contractanta pentru pozitia la care am aplicat.

De asemenea, confirm ca parte a consimtamantului meu sunt atasate urmatoarele:

__XX_ Copia pe fata si verso a buletinului meu de identitate/ pasaportului

__XX_ CV-ul current, cu indicarea tuturor locurilor de munca si studiilor anterioare.
Terre des hommes Moldova este in cautarea unui Asistent Logistica care sa se alature echipei din Chisinau, pentru a oferi suport in implementarea proiectelor sale. Daca sunteti in cautarea unui loc de munca ar avea un impact de durata asupra vietii copiilor, vrem sa va cunoastem.

Data inceperii: cat mai curand posibil

Durata contractului:1 an (cu posibilitate de prelungire)

Locatie: Chisinau, Republica Moldova

Termenul limita de aplicare: 14 noiembrie 2023

Candidatul trebuie sa fie eligibil din punct de vedere legal pentru a lucra in Republica Moldova.

Cine suntem noi

Terre des hommes este cea mai importanta organizatie elvetiana de ajutorare a copiilor. Fondata in 1960, prin intermediul proiectelor sale, organizatia participa la eforturile internationale pentru a ameliora calitatea vietii a milioane de copii vulnerabili si membrii familiilor acestora din 30 de tari.

Terre des hommes (Tdh) activeaza in Republica Moldova din 2004. Organizatia intruneste o echipa de 50 de profesionisti din domeniul protectiei copilului, traineri, manageri de proiecte, specialisti in comunicare, monitorizare si evaluare, drept, finante si administrare, asistenti sociali si psihologi.

Programele organizatiei sunt orientate spre asigurarea ca toti copiii din tara sa beneficieze de un sistem care le poate garanta protectie, dezvoltare si implicare in procesele sociale, educationale, culturale si de sanatate care ii afecteaza.

Tdh Moldova lucreaza pentru:

- a reduce vulnerabilitatea copiilor afectati de migratie si a imbunatati protectia lor;

- a ameliora accesul copiilor si tinerilor la drepturile lor in sistemul justitiei, promovand o abordare restaurativa;

- a fortifica capacitatea institutiilor si profesionistilor din domeniul protectiei copilului, precum si a copiilor, familiilor si comunitatilor in general.

Din 2018 Tdh Moldova lucreaza inclusiv cu tinerii, oferindu-le programe de abilitare si incurajandu-le participarea, iar din 2022, odata cu razboiul din Ucraina, organizatia si-a extins activitatea si in domeniul umanitar, venind cu un raspuns promt si consistent la criza refugiatilor.

Pentru a-si atinge obiectivele, Tdh Moldova realizeaza activitati de instruire a profesionistilor, care lucreaza cu copiii si tinerii; activitati de imputernicire si de a asigurare a participarii copiilor si tinerilor; activitati menite sa sustina initiativele comunitare prin programe de mini-granturi, etc.

Responsabilitatile de baza

1. Ofera suport Managerului de logistica in procesul de achizitie a bunurilor.

2. Identifica noi furnizori si colecteaza ofertele in functie de necesitatile activitatilor.

3. Asigura receptia marfurilor si materialelor.

4. Asigura respectarea procedurilor de achizitii ale Tdh pentru fiecare achizitie.

5. Asigura intretinerea echipamentului.

6. Monitorizeaza echipamentul suplimentar necesar si consultarea cu privire la achizitie;

7. Notifica in avans referitor la necesitatea achizitionarii bunurilor si materialelor.

8. Ofera suport privind distribuirea de bunuri catre beneficiarii proiectelor la necesitate.

9. Participa in procesul de inventariere si evidenta a stocului de marfuri.

Cerinte fata de candidat

 Experienta anterioara in sectorul ONG constituie avantaj.

 Experienta in domeniul vanzari/logistica, constituie avantaj.

 Studii in domeniul logisticii va fi considerata un avantaj.

 Abilitati de organizare, planificare, prioritizare si administrare

 Abilitati de a lucra in colaborare si productiv intr-un mediu multidisciplinar si multicultural.

 Cunoasterea la nivel avansat a limbilor romane, rusa si engleza.

 Cunostinte de aplicatii informatice relevante (Microsoft Office, inclusiv Excel etc.).

 Detinerea permisului de conducere.

Oferim:

Promovam o cultura a diversitatii. Consideram ca lucrul cu persoane talentate, din medii si cu puncte de vedere diferite, reprezinta un avantaj strategic si o oportunitate. Diversitatea ne imbogateste solutiile creative si adauga valoare pentru beneficiarii nostri.

Valorile noastre comune se afla in centrul organizatiei inca de la infiintarea noastrei: Actionand cu un scop, Grija, Integritate, Echitate.

Asigurare medicala privata.

Procedura de aplicare:

CV-ul;

Scrisoare de motivare de maximum o pagina, in care va descrie experienta relevanta, precum si motivatia de a ocupa aceasta pozitie.

Dosarele de concurs vor fi expediate la adresa de e-mail: mda.office@tdh.ch, pana la data de 14 noiembrie 2023, cu mentiunea Asistent logistica + prenumele si numele dvs.

Politica de protectie a copiilor:

Angajament privind respectarea Politicilor Terre des hommes de gestionare a riscurilor, inclusiv: Politica de salvgardare a copiilor, Politica de siguranta si securitate si Politica antifrauda/coruptie, Politica de avertizare.

*** Tdh ofera sanse egale persoanelor calificate, indiferent de varsta, rasa, credinta, culoare, religie, sex, stare civila, afiliere politica. ***

Prin trimiterea dosarului de aplicare, sunteti de acord ca datele dumneavoastra personale sa fie utilizate in procesul de recrutare. Toate documentele pe care le vom solicita in diferite etape ale procesului de recrutare vor fi folosite doar in acest scop. Tot personalul implicat in recrutare si selectie este constient de faptul ca se aplica regulile de protectie a datelor si ca informatiile personale vor fi tratate in mod confidential. Conform politicii noastre, vom pastra documentele de aplicare numai pentru perioada de recrutare.
Background





Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are core principles at UNDP: we value diversity as an expression of the multiplicity of nations and cultures where we operate, we foster inclusion as a way of ensuring all personnel are empowered to contribute to our mission, and we ensure equity and fairness in all our actions. Taking a leave no one behind approach to our diversity efforts means increasing representation of underserved populations. People who identify as belonging to marginalized or excluded populations are strongly encouraged to apply. Learn more about working at UNDP including our values and inspiring stories.

UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.



On 23rd of June 2022, the European Council granted the Republic of Moldova the status of EU candidate country which is a substantial achievement, but which comes with great responsibilities and obligations. One of such obligation is the Green Agenda and Sustainable Connectivity which includes Chapters of the environment and climate change acquis. In this sense, meaningful reform are expected in view of European Green Deal targets.

The proposed Green Transition Project takes due account of this endeavour. Hence, it will put in place the enabling conditions for a green transformation in Moldova through a combination of cross-sectorial decision-making in joint stakeholder platforms, capacity building measures, general education and awareness raising, dissemination of best policy practices, information sharing and networking, as well as pilot-testing green-transition related solutions and other activities, to ensure that the green transition concept is well understood and implemented.

The established enabling conditions and the investments into green-transition solutions will respond to the key development challenges that the country is currently dealing with such as the climate change, environmental pollution and the energy crisis.

It is well acknowledged that Moldova is highly vulnerable to climate change, given the limited resources and institutional capacities to address the climate change impacts. It is also due to the heavy reliance on the agricultural sector, water scarcity and other geographical factors. Currently the country is advancing with the national adaptation planning, including in the agricultural sector, aimed at putting in place proper institutional, technical and budgeting capacities in the context of climate change, however significant gaps remain in embarking of the sectors into achievement of the long-term adaptation targets.

Environmental degradation is also posing a major threat to Moldovas development agenda as its economy relies greatly on natural resources which leads to their overexploitation and pollution. Inadequate waste management practices and outdated practices and technologies in the key sectors of the economy also contribute to the environmental degradation and pollution. Mainstreaming of the green agenda into the countrys economic activities is taking place slowly.

Moldova is in line with the global trend of continuously growing urbanization, with the proportion of the population living in urban areas expected to rise from 47% in 2010 to 60% in 2030 (UN Habitat). Cities are increasingly and significantly contributing to the main drivers of global environmental degradation. The municipalities have the greatest impact on air quality and are responsible for more than 50% of total air pollution in Moldova.

From energy security perspective  Moldova is highly dependent on imported energy sources, and rely mostly on the use of fossil fuels. In addition, inefficient energy supply and consumption across all sectors exacerbates the situation. Until recently being 100% dependent on Russian gas import, the country is actively seeking diversification of energy supplies after the war of aggression in Ukraine. Improvements both in energy efficiency and in the development of domestic resources  including renewable energy resources  for strengthened sustainability, competitiveness, and energy security rank high on the political agenda. Energy sector is also the main source of GHG emissions in the country.

Against this background, the Green Transition Project aims to support the Government of Moldova to engage sustainably in a transformative green agenda by enhancing awareness, building capacities and encouraging investments into low-emission and resource efficient economy.

The target areas of the project are resource efficiency, green and circular economy, cleaner and sustainable energy, and mobility.

The Project will be implemented under the following three specific components:

1. Socio-economic framework for a gender-responsive and inclusive green transition enabled.

2. Capacity and awareness on the inclusive green transition increased among key stakeholders.

3. Additional funding attracted by promoting and piloting investments in green and innovative technologies, while evidence-based decision-making for green transition is improved by deploying a reliable air quality monitoring system.

The implementation period of the project is 48 months and the total budget is 10 mln EUR.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the guidance and direct supervision of the Project Manager, the Communication Analyst shall contribute to an effective and efficient implementation of the projects communication and outreach plan, contributing to an increased visibility of the project. The Analyst will apply and promote the principles of results-based management (RBM), as well as a client-oriented approach consistent with UNDP rules and regulations.

The Communication Analyst will coordinate the implementation of the Projects communication and public outreach portfolio, particularly focusing on:

Effective communication plan management:

Contribute to the timely and efficient delivery of outputs and products leading to the achievement of expected Project results and ensure full compliance of all the actions with UNDP policies and procedures.

Coordinate the activity of the projects national consultant(s) in the field of communication and public outreach.

Review, implement and continuously monitor the projects communication, using appropriate feedback mechanisms and monitoring tools.

Establish meaningful partnerships with mass-media, at the local and national levels.

Ensure synergies with other programmatic partners on joint outreach, communication, and capacity building activities.

Identify appropriate suppliers for the provision of services required for the implementation of the communication plan.

Ensure compliance with all corporate rules and regulations of UNDP and the Donor organization in the field of communication and visibility promotion, efficiently cooperate with the UNDP and EUD communication analysts.

Provide solid inputs to projects analytical products, work plans and progress reports, etc.

Support the Project Manager and the UNDP CO in general project implementation and related strategic processes.

Visibility of project results:

Support the communication capacities of projects partners (including representatives of ministries, LPAs and private sector).

Document best practices (via articles, success stories, interviews, press releases, etc.) and ensure wide dissemination and visibility of project achievements in the national media as well as in the local and regional media/websites.

Design concepts for communication products and oversee their implementation.

Organize press trips and ensure media coverage.

Provide support to the project team on the conceptualization of new initiatives in line with the projects objectives.

Institutional Arrangement

The Communication Analyst will work in close collaboration with the Project Manager and the project staff for the effective achievement of results, anticipating and resolving complex project-related issues and information delivery.

The Communications Analyst shall exercise full compliance with UNDP programming, financial, procurement and administrative rules, regulations, policies, and strategies, as well as implementation of the effective internal control systems.

Competencies

Core Competencies

Achieve Results: LEVEL 1: Plans and monitors own work, pays attention to details, delivers quality work by deadline.

LEVEL 1: Plans and monitors own work, pays attention to details, delivers quality work by deadline. Think Innovatively: LEVEL 1: Open to creative ideas/known risks, is pragmatic problem solver, makes improvements.

LEVEL 1: Open to creative ideas/known risks, is pragmatic problem solver, makes improvements. Learn Continuously: LEVEL 1: Open minded and curious, shares knowledge, learns from mistakes, asks for feedback.

LEVEL 1: Open minded and curious, shares knowledge, learns from mistakes, asks for feedback. Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 1: Adapts to change, constructively handles ambiguity/uncertainty, is flexible.

LEVEL 1: Adapts to change, constructively handles ambiguity/uncertainty, is flexible. Act with Determination: LEVEL 1: Shows drive and motivation, able to deliver calmly in face of adversity, confident.

LEVEL 1: Shows drive and motivation, able to deliver calmly in face of adversity, confident. Engage and Partner: LEVEL 1: Demonstrates compassion/understanding towards others, forms positive relationships.

LEVEL 1: Demonstrates compassion/understanding towards others, forms positive relationships. Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 1: Appreciate/respect differences, aware of unconscious bias, confront discrimination.

Technical Competencies

Business Direction and Strategy -Entrepreneurial Thinking Ability to create clarity around UNDP value proposition to beneficiaries and partners and to develop service offers responding to client needs based on UNDPs organizational priorities and mandate.

Business management-Communication Ability to communicate in a clear, concise, and ambiguous manner both through written and verbal communication; to tailor messages and choose communication methods depending on the audience. Ability to manage communications internally and externally, through media, social media and other appropriate channels.

Digital Awareness and Literacy Ability and inclination to rapidly adopt new technologies, either through skillfully grasping their usage or through understanding their impact and empowering others to use them as needed.

Digital & Innovation-Data storytelling and communications Skilled in building a narrative around a set of data and its accompanying visualizations to help convey the meaning of that data in a powerful and compelling fashion.

Social Media Knowledge of social media and ability to advise the use of social media for development outcomes.

Communications-Campaign Management Ability to produce and implement communications and advocacy campaigns which lead to impactful change.

Business development-Knowledge Facilitation Ability to animate individuals and communities of contributors to participate and share, particularly external.



Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Masters degree in journalism, communication, public relations, sociology, international relations, or another relevant field.

Bachelors degree in combination with additional two years of experience will be given due consideration in lieu of Masters degree.

Experience:

Up to 2 years (with Master's degree) or minimum 2 years (with Bachelors degree) of relevant and progressive experience in communication, mass-media, public relations, and/or other substantive area is required.

Language:

Fluency in English and Romanian (written and spoken) is required.

Knowledge of one or more minority languages relevant for Moldova, including Russian, Romani, Gagauzian, Bulgarian, Ukrainian and sign language, will be an asset.

Required Skills:

Openness to change and ability to manage complexities.

Commitment to UNDP mission, vision, and values.

Desired Skills:

Proven experience in similar positions in UN Agencies will be an asset.

Additional training and/or certification in communication and/or new media will be an asset.

Experience in development and implementation of media/ communication strategies and plans will be an asset.

Experience in conceptualizing and implementing national and local public outreach/communication campaigns will be an asset.

Disclaimer



Applicant information about UNDP rosters

Note: UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement. We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements.

Non-discrimination

UNDP has a zero-tolerance policy towards sexual exploitation and misconduct, sexual harassment, and abuse of authority. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.

UNDP is an equal opportunity and inclusive employer that does not discriminate based on race, sex, gender identity, religion, nationality, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy, age, language, social origin or other status.



Scam warning

The United Nations does not charge any application, processing, training, interviewing, testing or other fee in connection with the application or recruitment process. Should you receive a solicitation for the payment of a fee, please disregard it. Furthermore, please note that emblems, logos, names and addresses are easily copied and reproduced. Therefore, you are advised to apply particular care when submitting personal information on the web.

Salariul net: 31.000 - 38.500 MDL pe luna

Pentru a aplica, va rugam sa adresati link-ul: Apply Now

Data de incheiere a postului vacant au fost extins pana la: 11 noiembrie 2023
Youll be pleased to know that Diary has returned from their excursion as an interviewer, having bothered another charity CEO with inane questions.

Diarys most recent interviewee was RSPBs chief Beccy Speight , who recalled the time she cried at seeing an elephant and met Benedict Cumberbatch (not at the same time).

As 'tis spooky season, this columnist will be plucking its next interviewee from charity land without warning and bothering them ceaselessly until they agree to answering some questions (this is also the strategy Diary uses to make friends, in case you were wondering).

In other scary news, former secretary of state Nadine Dorries has a new book coming out next month, dedicated to the ousting of her one true love, Boris Johnson, from parliament.

The blurb of The Plot asks how the Conservative members that elected BoJo could turn against him  conveniently forgetting to mention how he broke the very lockdown rules he set.

Please stop giving sex toys to charity shops

Diary comes to you with a plea from a Barnardo's charity shop in Swansea, which is asking people to stop donating used or unused sex toys to the charity. Sidenote: ew.

The charity shop reminded donors that it also has CCTV in operation, so will look to return the toys to their rightful owners from what sounds like a rather nightmarish lost-and-found bin.

"It's fair to say that these items aren't quite the sort of toys we're looking for," the branch said in a statement.

Batty Laureate

The Bat Conservation Trust has put on a creative writing contest called the Batty Laureate and is encouraging children and adults to enter stories about bats.

Diary is tempted to enter their own musings on the animal, though fear they would have an unfair advantage as an already esteemed columnist and life-long fan of the Batman.

In a social media post , the Bat Conservation Trust gave the creative writing prompt: What are these bats saying to each other?

Diary assumes they would probably be asking why its so dark in here, or indeed why a camera was being shoved in their faces.

Spooky Welly Walk

Diary is sure you'll agree that there is nothing quite as spooky as a Wellington boot.

Thankfully, a Halloween fundraiser dedicated to them is in its twelfth year. Liverpool hosted the Spooky Welly Walk for charity last Saturday.

The event encourages families with young children (or older, no judgement) to buy tickets so they can access an array of activities like cake decorating, face painting, fairground games and more.

So far, a JustGiving page has raised over 7,000 for the Liverpool event for the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation.

The charity will also be hosting the popular Halloween fundraiser in Birmingham this Saturday.

Peppa Pigs dad turns up to charity coffee morning

In a surprising turn of events, Peppa Pigs dad turned up to a Macmillan Coffee Morning this week. Diary is hoping no bacon butties were served, out of courtesy.

The famous voice actor returned to what was formerly his grammar school, Henley College, where he invited teachers and students to join the charity fundraiser in his Daddy Pig voice.

A report in the Henley Standard said he declared be there or be cake-less followed by an oink which, while incongruous, was deep and cheery, according to the reporter.

The event raised 690 for Macmillan Cancer Support.

Blessed with birds

Last week, RSPB granted us good luck for the weekend with this albatross chick of good fortune. Needless to say, Diary would like more baby birds to grace their social media feeds granting them luck; this columnist is all too often having to salute single magpies.

Share to spread good bird-spotting fortune to all  pic.twitter.com/VlROkyzkW1  RSPB  (@Natures_Voice) October 13, 2023
As an iconic Mexican resort lay devastated by a surprise hurricane, the countrys president was, quite literally, stuck in the mud.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador got out of his car, wearing heavy boots, and trudged through mud to an army vehicle  which made it just a few meters before also getting stranded. So, the 69-year-old began to walk about four kilometers toward Acapulco, while his team asked journalists to stop following them, local media reported.

The unexpected, violent strength of Hurricane Otis had caught the president similarly flat-footed the night before.

Lopez Obrador warned about the storm on social media less than five hours before it made landfall, having suddenly swelled to become the strongest hurricane to hit the country in decades. Now, the highly popular Lopez Obrador faces one of biggest challenges of his presidency, marshaling the response to a catastrophe that has killed at least 27 people, with another four listed as disappeared.

Lopez Obrador, known as AMLO, has less than a year left of his single six-year term, but his popularity  hovering around 60%  is crucial for the chances of his longtime protege, former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, in the 2024 election.

Sheinbaums lead opponent, opposition Senator Xochitl Galvez, has already criticized the failure to evacuate the city while insisting that she didnt want to politicize the tragedy.

The government was irresponsible in not warning the population, she told reporters Thursday. Now is not the moment to trade blame, its the moment for all Mexicans to close ranks, to end division and focus on Acapulco.

Sheinbaum, for her part, suspended her campaign tour around Mexico and focused on collecting resources and donations to help the hurricane victims.

Teflon Presidency

Lopez Obrador has been adroit at dodging the fallout from major scandals and catastrophes throughout his presidency, deploying a mix of skillful politicking and homespun charm to minimize controversies and shift blame.

When videos surfaced in 2020 of his brother handling bundles of cash, Lopez Obrador said these were simply donations from the people to pay for small campaign expenses. Criticism for a Mexico City metro crash that killed 26 people in 2021 was shunted away from his allies who ran the city and onto Mexicos richest man, whose firm built the collapsed line. And he survived politically unscathed from the pandemic despite the country suffering one of the more deadly Covid-19 outbreaks in the world.

Its also true that Hurricane Otiss rapid surge of power was hard to predict, taking emergency services and weather forecasters by surprise and preventing timely evacuations.

In Acapulco, however, those worst affected will be from Lopez Obradors own base  the thousands of working-class people whose homes have been wrecked and who dont have insurance to fall back on because they live in precarious conditions in the first place. They will also be jobless, with the tourism sector that drives the city having been scythed apart by Otiss 165 mile-per-hour (265 kilometer-per-hour) winds.

But, curiously, Lopez Obrador  normally a master of political theater  didnt hang around to pose for photos of himself helping out in the wreckage. Instead, he returned to Mexico City by helicopter. On Friday, he thanked people who had given him rides along the way in order to get to Acapulco despite the blocked roadway.

The public was expecting AMLO to appear at the ground zero of the disaster quicker. Though AMLO said conditions didnt allow him to fly, and the lack of signal affected communication in most of the city, his absence could affect the image of his government in the crucial months before elections, said Juan Carlos Villarreal, a political science professor at the Autonomous University of Mexico State.

Youd expect the president to be in the epicenter of the conflict, to have arrived by helicopter, he said. Theres a cocktail here that can turn into a much bigger problem for the end of the government.

The biggest challenge ahead to rebuild Acapulco will be logistics  especially for a government whose major projects have consistently blown past budget ceilings and time limits, said Valeria Moy, an economist with experience in disaster response from working in the insurance sector. The fact that it took a day for the government to start posting a death toll is a bad sign, she said.

The first thing you have to automatically do is a rapid census and a damage evaluation, said Moy, director of the think tank Mexican Institute for Competitiveness. Theyve shown themselves to be very inefficient in many areas and I think thats a problem.

Sensitive Spot

Hurricane Otis has hit a sensitive spot for Lopez Obrador. Acapulco was already a symbol of a policy failure that Galvez has consistently hammered: the searing political violence that has worsened recently in a state governed by a close ally of AMLO. The security failure has aggravated the decline of a beloved resort that went from a Hollywood hotspot in the 1960s and 1970s to become one of the worlds most dangerous cities.

Salvaging Acapulco and its surroundings in that environment will be complex, Moy said.

Guerrero is one of the poorest states in the country, its a state thats co-opted by the narcos. I cant imagine rebuilding in a state where you have narcos controlling part of the economy, she said.

While part of the rebuilding will be driven by the tourism sectors private insurance, the famously austere Lopez Obrador will likely have to turn to government credit lines. One estimate puts the damage at between $10 billion to $15 billion, but the government has just about a 10th of that sum in its disaster relief fund.

Lopez Obrador has already gone against his nature by proposing the biggest budget deficit in 36 years for 2024, in an effort to finish a handful of grand projects in his final year in office. On Thursday the president said that when Mexican people is in need, there are no limits to what the government can spend.

Yet even money wont automatically restart one of Mexicos biggest tourist destinations at high season and for the population of fewer resources, access to insurance isnt an option.

Its an important loss for people, and for small businesses, said Mauricio Gonzalez, an economist who worked in the Finance Ministry when a major earthquake hit Mexico City in 1985. For them, it will take a long time for the economic life of the city to get back to normal.

Top photo: A resident walks through floodwaters where a home once stood, in the aftermath of Hurricane Otis in Xaltianguis, Guerrero state, on Oct. 26. Photographer: Alejandro Cegarra/Bloomberg

Copyright 2023 Bloomberg.
Auto repairs are taking more than twice as long as they did in 2021, but policyholders who filed claims appear to be taking that in stride.

J.D. Power reported Thursday that the industry average claims satisfaction rating increased five points to 878 on a 1,000-point scale, even though the average repair cycle time increased to 23.1 days, up 6.2 days from 2022 and more than double the average repair time in 2021.

Mark Garrett, director of global insurance intelligence for J.D. Power, said the bump is due to concerted efforts by insurers to manage customer expectations.

Insurers have been able to earn significantly higher auto claim satisfaction scores at a time when costs and rates are risingeven though its never taken longer to get a vehicle repaired, he said. Notable, too, is that insurers that have improved the most in overall satisfaction have done so in two key customer areas: showing concern for their situation at the beginning of the process and keeping them informed. Being empathetic toward the customer situation goes a long way in building trust with them.

The 2023 rating recovered much of what was lost in 2022, when the average satisfaction score dropped seven points from a record high of 880. J.D. Power blamed lengthy repair times, which had increased to 17 days from a pre-pandemic average of about 12 days.

Even though repair cycle times continued to deteriorate this year, customer satisfaction increased in nearly every factor, including settlement; first notice of loss; claim servicing; estimation process; and repair process. The only factor to decline was rental experience, which fell two points, J.D. Power said.

One sore point for claimants was the amount of time that insurers pay for their rental cars. J.D. Power said a larger share of customers said their rental period was not long enough or they had incurred out-of-pocket expenses. Overall rental satisfaction for repairable claims drops 32 points when a car repair took 15 days or longer.

Seamless digital interactions, on the other hand, create happier customers, but only if the customers prefer digital channels. J.D. Power said satisfaction declines among customers who prefer personal interaction but are directed to digital processes.

Amica Mutual Insurance Co. seems to be getting the claims process right. The insurer earned the top rating among 26 insurers that were included in the ranking, with an average score of 909. Amica improved from an average score of 903 last year, when it also placed No. 1 in the ranking.

Sean Welch, senior vice president of claims for Amica, said in a statement that the company anticipates customers needs and proactively communicate, especially when it is experiencing longer repair times.

We also leverage technology to expedite the claims process, issue payment quickly and maintain a strong network of reputable repair shops, he said. We know what an inconvenience it is to not have access to your vehicle, and we do everything in our power to make the process seamless for our customers.

Erie Insurance ranked second in this years survey, with an average score of 902. NJM Insurance Co. took third place, with a score of 900. USAA also scored 900, but J.D. Power does not include it within its ranking because the carrier serves military families exclusively.

Kemper ranked last, a position it has held in each of the last three years. Kempers customer satisfaction score improved, however, to 820 from 798 last year and the year before. Mercury and Automobile Club Group ranked just above Mercury with a score of 848 each.

J.D. Power said its claims satisfaction study is based on responses from 9,659 auto insurance customers who settled a claim within the past nine months prior to participating in the survey. The study excludes claimants whose vehicle incurred only glass/windshield damage or was stolen, or who only filed a roadside assistance claim.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP)  What authorities describe as an off-duty pilot`s attempt to shut down the engines of a Horizon Air flight with more than 80 people on board has renewed attention on the mental fitness of those allowed in the cockpit.

Joseph Emerson, 44, had been flying passengers himself just three days before police said he tried to engage an emergency fire suppression system while catching a ride from Washington state to San Francisco on Sunday in the extra seat behind the pilot and first officer on Flight 2059. He was subdued by the flight crew, and the plane landed safely in Portland, Oregon.

Emerson, who has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder charges, told police after his arrest that he`d had a nervous breakdown, had been struggling with depression and the recent death of a friend, and hadn`t slept for 40 hours, according to charging documents.

Emerson also said he had taken psychedelic mushrooms for the first time about 48 hours earlier. It`s not clear whether he took them recreationally or in an attempt to self-medicate, but psilocybin is increasingly being recognized in the U.S. for its potential to aid mental health. The pilots and others who encountered Emerson said he did not appear intoxicated.

Heres a look at some of the issues raised by the harrowing cockpit episode:

How are pilots screened for mental health?

Airline pilots are required to renew their medical certificates regularly  annually for those younger than 40 and every six months for those older. That includes filling out forms where they are required to disclose if they have experienced depression, anxiety or drug or alcohol dependence, as well as medications they take.

The foundation of that system is trust, said Shawn Pruchnicki, a former pilot who teaches aviation safety at the Ohio State University.

The idea is that you will confess any diseases or any problems that you have, he said.

Pilots who do so can risk being grounded, at least temporarily, while the Federal Aviation Administration sorts out whether they`re fit to fly. Pilots can also be grounded after relatives or coworkers report concerns.

Emerson had his most recent exam in September, according to Federal Aviation Administration records.

The administration started allowing some pilots on medication for mild to moderate depression to continue flying on a case-by-case basis in 2010, and some airlines have introduced confidential programs to help struggling employees. The Air Line Pilots Association also offers a round-the-clock, peer-to-peer stress hotline staffed by volunteer pilots.

The FAA encourages pilots to seek help if they have a mental-health condition since most, if treated, do not disqualify a pilot from flying, the agency said in an emailed statement.

Some conditions, including bipolar disorder and psychosis, are disqualifying.

Pilots who are struggling should speak up, because even if they`re temporarily grounded, it`s better than ruining their career and possibly costing lives with a more disastrous episode down the road, said Dr. Warren Silberman, a former Federal Aviation Administration aeromedical certification chief.

Investigators concluded that is what happened on board a Germanwings plane in 2015 when the copilot deliberately crashed the aircraft in the French Alps, killing 150 people.

What about drug or alcohol use?

The U.S. Department of Transportation has a mandatory drug testing program for on-duty pilots or flight attendants, which can include random testing before or after a flight, or testing based on reasonable suspicion. The tests look for opioids, cocaine, methamphetamine, marijuana and some other drugs  but not psychedelics.

The effects of psychedelic mushrooms typically last about six hours. Usually they are no longer detectable in urine 24 hours after ingestion.

Alaska Airlines, which owns Horizon Air, said it has a zero-tolerance policy and that all gate agents and flight attendants are trained to identify signs of impairment.

The flight crew on the Horizon flight and the police who interviewed Emerson afterward said he did not appear to be impaired.

There is no specific guidance regarding pilot behavior off-duty, but Pruchnicki cautioned that drugs can show up in a random test well after the effects have worn off.

Is that something you want to do on your days off? he said. And how does that fit into your mindset as a professional pilot?

Many pilots get rides in cockpit jump seats every day as a way to shuttle between locations after making flights. Pruchnicki said he didn`t think they needed to be subject to random testing because they`re off-duty and not making operational decisions about the flights. Pilots can bar them from the cockpit if they present issues.

I dont believe that necessarily one extremely rare event means that we need to completely overhaul the entire system, Pruchnicki said.

What are the effects of psychedelic mushrooms?

While psilocybin remains illegal in most of the United States, it has been gaining greater acceptance in the country as a potential therapy. The Food and Drug Administration published draft guidance this summer for researchers designing clinical trials for psychedelic drugs to treat depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance-use disorders and other conditions.

Such hallucinogenic substances have been used by the Indigenous peoples of the Americas to induce altered states of consciousness and healing since pre- Columbian times. Users have described varied experiences, from vivid geometric shapes, patterns and colors to a sense of oneness with the universe.

Oregon became the first state to legalize psilocybin in 2020 after voters approved a measure that allowed for the manufacture and controlled, therapeutic use of psilocybin for people 21 years of age or older.

Its unclear what prompted the episode on Horizon Air  police said Emerson described having been in a dream-like state.

Brian Pilecki, a clinical psychologist in Portland who is involved in research on psychedelic therapeutics, said that for people diagnosed with psychosis or bipolar disorder, taking a psychedelic like psilocybin can potentially trigger a psychotic episode.

Whats next in the case?

Emerson pleaded not guilty in state court Tuesday to 83 charges of attempted murder and one of endangering an aircraft.

He remains in custody and is scheduled to make his first appearance Thursday on a federal charge of interfering with a flight crew, which can carry up to 20 years in prison.

Top photo: Pilots conduct a pre-flight check in the cockpit of a jet before taking off from Dallas Fort Worth airport in Grapevine, Texas, on Dec. 2, 2020. Aviation experts say the incident on Sunday in which an off-duty pilot, riding in a jump seat in a cockpit, tried to disable a jetliner in midflight renews questions about the threat posed by airline workers who have special access to places where passengers cant go. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)

Copyright 2023 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
LOS ANGELES (AP)  Federal prosecutors said Wednesday that the captain of a scuba dive boat should be held responsible for the deaths of 34 people killed in a fire aboard the vessel in 2019, while the captain`s defense attorneys said the boats owner is to blame in the deadliest maritime disaster in recent U.S. history.

The conflicting accounts were presented Wednesday during opening statements in the Los Angeles trial of Jerry Boylan, who is charged with one count of misconduct or neglect of ship officer, a pre-Civil War statute colloquially known as seamans manslaughter that was designed to hold steamboat captains and crew responsible for maritime disasters.

Boylan faces 10 years behind bars if convicted.

The 70-year-old has pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing. Boylan sat silently in the courtroom as roughly two dozen family members filling three rows in the gallery heard about their loved ones` last moments alive. Boylan and four crew members survived the Sept. 2, 2019, inferno aboard the Conception, while 33 passengers and a deckhand perished.

The fire spurred changes to maritime regulations, congressional reform and civil lawsuits. Those on board the 75-foot (23-meter) boat included a new deckhand who had landed her dream job, an environmental scientist who did research in Antarctica, a globe-trotting couple, a Singaporean data scientist, and three sisters, their father and his wife.

The boat was anchored off the Channel Islands, 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Santa Barbara, when it caught fire before dawn on the final day of a three-day excursion, sinking less than 100 feet (30 meters) from shore.

Throughout the excursion, Boylan failed to post the required roving night watchman and never properly trained his crew in firefighting, prosecutor Matthew O`Brien said.

The captain was the master of the vessel, O`Brien said, and the lives and safety of those aboard were his responsibility.

Boylan, after making a mayday call to the Coast Guard, was the first one to jump overboard, while 34 people were trapped in a bunkroom below deck by smoke and flames, the prosecutor said.

The 34 people who were killed didn`t have a chance to jump overboard, O`Brien told the jury. They were waiting to be rescued. But nobody rescued them.

While coroners reports list smoke inhalation as the cause of death, what exactly started the fire before dawn remains unknown.

Boylans federal public defender, Georgina Wakefield, blamed the boat`s owner, Glen Fritzler, who had designed the Conception and captained the vessel for more than four decades. Fritzler had trained Boylan himself when the latter joined as a deckhand in 1983.

Fritzler and his wife, Dana Fritzler, own Truth Aquatics, Inc., the company that operated the Conception and two other scuba dive boats.

Wakefield argued that Glen Fritzler was responsible for failing to train the crew in firefighting or other safety measures and creating an environment where no captain who worked for him posted a roving watch, calling it the Fritzler way.

The same thing could have happened on any of the Fritzler boats, she said, noting that the Coast Guard had certified Truth Aquatics` records for years.

During the fire, Wakefield said, Boylan was thwarted by 15-foot (4.57-meter) flames consuming the Conception, making it impossible to reach those trapped below.

You`re going to see that there was no way out __ and there was no way in, either,  she told the jurors.

Fritzler`s attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. The couple has not commented publicly besides an interview with Santa Barbara local TV station KEYT shortly after the fire.

We`re all so saddened, Glen Fritzler told the TV station`s reporter at the time.

Three days after the blaze, Truth Aquatics filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles under a pre-Civil War provision of maritime law that allows it to limit its liability to the remains of the boat, which was a total loss. The time-tested legal maneuver has been successfully employed by the owners of the Titanic and other vessels, and requires the Fritzlers to show they were not at fault.

That case is pending.

The National Transportation Safety Board blamed Boylan for the tragedy, saying his failure to post a night watchman allowed the fire to quickly spread undetected. The agency also faulted the Coast Guard for not enforcing the roving watchman requirement and recommended it develop a program to ensure boats with overnight passengers have a watchman.

Victims families have sued the Coast Guard in one of several ongoing civil suits.

At the time of the fire, no owner, operator or charterer had been cited or fined for failure to post a roving patrol since 1991, Coast Guard records showed.

The Coast Guard has since enacted new, congressionally mandated regulations regarding fire detection systems, extinguishers and escape routes, though it has yet to implement others.

Copyright 2023 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
A roundup of conversations we're having daily on the site. Subscribe to the Reckon Daily for stories centering marginalized communities and speaking to the under-covered issues of the moment.

Jackson, Mississippi Mayor Chokwe Lumumba held a moment of silence for Dexter Wade on Thursday, who was struck by an off-duty police officer on March 5 and buried four months later in an unmarked grave.

At no point have we identified, nor did any investigation reveal that there was any police misconduct in this process, nor was there any malicious intent, he told listeners at his State of the City Address Thursday. Wades death has garnered national attention and put a spotlight on Jackson, Mississippi, he said.

An off-duty Jackson police officer struck and killed Dexter as he was crossing a highway leaving his mothers house in March. The Hinds County Coroners Office identified him using fingerprints and information from prescribed medication police found at the scene. Police said they couldnt reach Wades mother, Bettersten Wade, after establishing Dexters identity, however, and left his body unclaimed at the morgue for months before burying him in an unmarked grave on the Hinds County Penal Farm.

Wades mother filed a missing persons report one week after last seeing her son and cooperated with Jackson Police Department in a seven months-long search before finding out hed been dead and buried all along.

Lumumba called this a tragic accident and said investigators have determined there was no malicious intent.

It is tragic to bury your child, he said. But, to add insult to that trauma, it is even more difficult to not have the ability to grant a proper burial for that child.

Lumumba said Wades death was ultimately a result of lack of communication between the missing persons division, coroners office and traffic accident investigators and cautioned community members against regarding Wades death as anything but an accident. He then commended the citys new police chief, Joseph Wade, for the departments expansion in force.

The department added 29 officers to its ranks under his leadership and Lumumba said it plans to swear in more soon. He did not mention what the city police plan to do in the wake of Wades death.

Bettersten Wade told NBC News she didnt trust the police and even hesitated calling to report Dexter missing because of prior bad experiences. Last year, former Jackson Police Officer Anthony Fox, was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison for the 2019 beating death of her brother, George Fox.

There are no known connections between Foxs death and Dexter Wades death. Bettersten has retained civil rights attorney Ben Crump but has not taken any legal action as of this writing.

Dexters story is a living nightmare for any mother. The secrecy surrounding his death, the alleged concealment of vital information and the callous burial in a paupers field without his mothers knowledge are not just oversights  they are a grave miscarriage of justice, Crump said in a statement. The fact that Dexters tragic end involved an off-duty police officer only deepens the wounds of this community and raises troubling questions about the integrity of those entrusted with upholding the law.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip  Israeli forces backed by fighter jets and drones carried out a second ground raid into Gaza in as many days and struck targets on the outskirts of Gaza City, the military said Friday, as it prepares for a widely expected ground invasion of the Hamas-ruled territory.

U.S. warplanes meanwhile struck targets in eastern Syria that the Pentagon said were linked to Irans Revolutionary Guard after a string of attacks on U.S. forces by Iran-backed fighters, adding to the already high regional tensions fueled by the three-week-old Gaza war.

The Palestinian death toll has soared past 7,000 as Israel has carried out waves of devastating airstrikes in response to a bloody Hamas incursion into southern Israel on Oct. 7. The Health Ministry in Gaza, which tracks the toll, released a detailed list of names and ID numbers on Thursday. The toll includes more than 2,900 minors and more than 1,500 women.

The overall number of deaths far exceeds the combined toll of all four previous wars between Israel and Hamas, estimated at around 4,000.

More than 1,400 people in Israel, mostly civilians, were slain during the initial Hamas attack, according to the Israeli government. Hamas is holding at least 229 captives inside Gaza, including men, women, children and older adults.

The airstrikes have flattened entire neighborhoods, causing a level of death and destruction unseen in the last four wars between Israel and Hamas. Over a million people have fled their homes, with many heeding Israeli orders to evacuate to the south, despite continuing Israeli strikes across the sealed-off territory.

The humanitarian crisis sparked by the war and the Israeli siege has sparked protests across the region, and more demonstrations were expected later Friday after weekly Muslim prayers.

Injured Palestinians are evacuated Thursday following Israeli airstrikes on town of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip. (Mohammed Dahman, Associated Press)AP

The military said ground forces raided inside Gaza, striking dozens of militant targets over the past 24 hours. It said aircraft and artillery bombed targets in Shijaiyah, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Gaza City that was the scene of a bloody urban battle in the 2014 Gaza war.

The military said the soldiers exited the territory without suffering any casualties. It reported an earlier raid into northern Gaza early Thursday, saying ground forces battled militants and struck anti-tank missile firing positions in an operation that lasted hours.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesman, said the raids enable forces to uncover the enemy, to kill militants and to remove explosives and launch pads. The aim is to prepare the ground for the next stages of the war, he added.

The damage to Gaza from nearly three weeks of bombardment showed in satellite photos of several locations taken before the war and again in recent days.

Entire rows of residential buildings simply disappear in the photos, reduced to smears of dust and rubble. A complex of 13 high-rises by the sea was pounded to dust near Gaza Citys al-Shati refugee camp, leaving only a few tottering bits of facade. Just down the street, hardly anything remained in what had been a neighborhood of low-built homes on winding lanes, according to the photos by Maxar Technologies.

The military says it only strikes militant targets and accuses Hamas of operating among civilians in an attempt to protect its fighters. The Israeli military said an airstrike killed one of two masterminds of the Oct. 7 massacre, Shadi Barud, the head of Hamas intelligence unit.

Palestinian militants have fired thousands of rockets into Israel since the war began.

Hamas military wing said Thursday that Israeli bombardment has so far killed about 50 of the hostages. There was no immediate comment from Israeli officials, who have denied previous, similar claims.

The conflict has threatened to ignite a wider war across the region.

Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed ally of Hamas in Lebanon, has repeatedly traded fire with Israel along the border, and Israel has carried out airstrikes targeting Iran-linked groups in Syria. The United States has sent two aircraft carrier strike groups to the region, along with additional fighter jets and other weaponry and personnel, in part to deter Iran and its allies from entering the war on the side of Hamas.

Mourners carry a coffin draped with the Israeli flag Thursday during the funeral of the Israeli man Sagiv Ben Svi, killed by Hamas militants while attending a music festival, at a cemetery in Holon, central Israel. (Petros Giannakouris, Associated Press)AP

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the strikes in eastern Syria were a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on Oct. 17.

He said President Joe Biden directed the narrowly tailored strikes to make clear that the United States will not tolerate such attacks and will defend itself, its personnel and its interests. He added that the operation was separate and distinct from Israels war against Hamas.

Syrian opposition activists in the area said the two locations are associated with Iranian arms shipments to militant groups in the region, and had been evacuated ahead of the strikes. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Egyptian state media reported that six people were lightly wounded when a rocket slammed into a medical building in the town of Taba, on the border with Israel. It was not immediately known who fired the projectile.

Hagari, the Israeli military spokesperson, said an aerial threat was identified in the area of the Red Sea, which appeared to be the source of the blast in Egypt. He said fighter jets were dispatched to the area and that Israel, Egypt and the U.S. were tightening their defenses in the region.

Last week, a U.S. Navy destroyer in the northern Red Sea shot down three cruise missiles and several drones launched toward Israel by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in northern Yemen.

In Gaza, supplies of food, medicine and fuel for powering emergency generators are running low. The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, which provides basic services to hundreds of thousands of people, including operating schools turned into shelters, has said it may run out of fuel within days.

Gazas sole power station shut down for lack of fuel days after the start of the war, and Israel has barred all fuel deliveries, saying it believes Hamas would steal them for military purposes.

About 1.4 million of Gazas 2.3 million residents have fled their homes, with nearly half of them crowding into U.N. shelters. Hundreds of thousands remain in northern Gaza, despite Israel ordering them to evacuate to the south and saying that those who remain might be considered accomplices of Hamas.

In recent days, Israel has let more than 70 trucks with aid enter from Egypt through the Rafah crossing, the only entry point into Gaza not controlled by Israel. But aid workers say the convoys meet only a tiny fraction of the territorys mounting humanitarian needs. Before the war, an average of 500 trucks entered Gaza each day.

The U.S. has been working with other mediators to send in more humanitarian aid, but Israel is demanding strict screening to make sure none falls into the hands of Hamas. The U.S. says Hamas has meanwhile refused to open the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing to let hundreds of foreign passport holders leave.


4finance EUR 2025 bondholders approve refinancing



27-Oct-2023 / 19:39 CET/CEST

Disclosure of an inside information acc. to Article 17 MAR of the Regulation (EU) No 596/2014, transmitted by EQS News - a service of EQS Group AG.

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.



4finance EUR 2025 bondholders approve refinancing Delivers balanced maturity profile, with bonds extended to May 2028

Resounding support for the amendments with over 70% participation and over 90% approval 27 October 2023. 4finance Holding S.A. (the Group), one of Europes largest digital consumer lending groups, today announces results of its recent bondholder vote. The resolution, which included extending the maturity of its EUR 2025 bonds to May 2028, was successfully passed. On Monday 30 October, the deed signed by the Notary will be filed with the German Federal Gazette and published on the Group's website.



The Notary, acting as scrutineer to the vote, has confirmed that valid votes were received from over 1,200 investors, in total holding approximately EUR 95 million in nominal value of bonds. Such participation represents of 72% of outstanding bonds, so the quorum threshold of 50% was duly satisfied. The resolution was approved by 94% of investors by value, so the qualifying majority threshold of 75% was also duly satisfied.



The extension sees bondholders who voted receiving a 1.25% participation fee.



Fees will be paid to the participating investors once the Terms and Conditions of the EUR bonds are formally amended in early December 2023. The full documentation is available on the Group's website.



Kieran Donnelly, CEO of 4finance, commented, Our investor base had indicated strong support for our business and our efficient way of refinancing. One that intentionally puts much of the cost of refinancing into the pockets of our bondholders. We are pleased to have that view resoundingly confirmed at the vote."



James Etherington, CFO of 4finance said: "I'm grateful to our bondholders for the high level of interest in the process and hope that they will remain actively engaged. Over 1,200 investors participated, both large and small, with 94% approval by count as well as by value, demonstRating strong support from both retail and institutional investors."



Aalto Capital (Munich) and Gottex Brokers are acting as financial advisors to the Group.



For more information, please contact:

4finance Email: investorrelations@4finance.com Email: press@4finance.com Aalto Capital Email: manfred.steinbeisser@aaltocapital.com +49 1752668901 Gottex Brokers Email: jonatan.gonn@gottexsecurities.com +46 8 665 64 54

This announcement contains inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulation.



Certain statements in this document are forward-looking statements. These statements are based on managements current expectations and are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. Actual results may differ materially from those included in these statements.



Notes to Editors



About 4finance

Established in 2008, 4finance is one of Europes largest digital consumer lending groups with operations in 11 countries.

Leveraging a high degree of automation and data-driven insights across all aspects of the business, 4finance has grown rapidly, issuing over 10 billion since inception in single payment loans, instalment loans and lines of credit.

4finance operates a portfolio of market leading brands, through which, as a responsible lender, the firm offers simple, convenient and transparent products to millions of customers who are typically underserved by conventional providers.

4finance has group offices in Riga (Latvia), London and Luxembourg, and currently operates in 11 countries globally including the Philippines and Mexico. The Group also offers deposits, in addition to consumer and SME loans through its TBI Bank subsidiary, an EU licensed institution with operations primarily in Bulgaria, Romania and Greece.

27 October 2023. 4finance Holding S.A. (the Group), one of Europes largest digital consumer lending groups, today announces results of its recent bondholder vote. The resolution, which included extending the maturity of its EUR 2025 bonds to May 2028, was successfully passed. On Monday 30 October, the deed signed by the Notary will be filed with the German Federal Gazette and published on the Group's website.The Notary, acting as scrutineer to the vote, has confirmed that valid votes were received from over 1,200 investors, in total holding approximately EUR 95 million in nominal value of bonds. Such participation represents of 72% of outstanding bonds, so the quorum threshold of 50% was duly satisfied. The resolution was approved by 94% of investors by value, so the qualifying majority threshold of 75% was also duly satisfied.The extension sees bondholders who voted receiving a 1.25% participation fee.Fees will be paid to the participating investors once the Terms and Conditions of the EUR bonds are formally amended in early December 2023. The full documentation is available on the Group's website.Kieran Donnelly, CEO of 4finance, commented, Our investor base had indicated strong support for our business and our efficient way of refinancing. One that intentionally puts much of the cost of refinancing into the pockets of our bondholders. We are pleased to have that view resoundingly confirmed at the vote."James Etherington, CFO of 4finance said: "I'm grateful to our bondholders for the high level of interest in the process and hope that they will remain actively engaged. Over 1,200 investors participated, both large and small, with 94% approval by count as well as by value, demonststrong support from both retail and institutional investors."Aalto Capital (Munich) and Gottex Brokers are acting as financial advisors to the Group.This announcement contains inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulation.Certain statements in this document are forward-looking statements. These statements are based on managements current expectations and are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. Actual results may differ materially from those included in these statements.Established in 2008, 4finance is one of Europes largest digital consumer lending groups with operations in 11 countries.Leveraging a high degree of automation and data-driven insights across all aspects of the business, 4finance has grown rapidly, issuing over 10 billion since inception in single payment loans, instalment loans and lines of credit.4finance operates a portfolio of market leading brands, through which, as a responsible lender, the firm offers simple, convenient and transparent products to millions of customers who are typically underserved by conventional providers.4finance has group offices in Riga (Latvia), London and Luxembourg, and currently operates in 11 countries globally including the Philippines and Mexico. The Group also offers deposits, in addition to consumer and SME loans through its TBI Bank subsidiary, an EU licensed institution with operations primarily in Bulgaria, Romania and Greece.



End of Inside Information

27-Oct-2023 CET/CEST The EQS Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases.

Archive at www.eqs-news.com


The Russian army is abandoning the BTG (Battalion Task Group) concept. In February 2022 one of the surprising developments was the failure of the BTG system. Russia had expanded the use of BTGs since the 1980s because BTGs had consistently proved successful in many small wars, including the rather large operation in Afghanistan during the 1980s.

Systems like the BTG began to appear during World War II when it was found that forming temporary task forces containing tank and infantry units were more effective. The Germans did the same thing, calling them battle groups (Kampfgruppen) and the Americans adopted the practice after World War II. There was an important difference between the Western battle groups and the current BTGs. The Western battle groups were kept simple (mainly infantry and tank companies) with the addition of combat engineers or artillery as needed. American infantry officers got lots of realistic training using these battle groups. Western armies had many career NCOs to make sure the troops performed well.

Russia expanded their BTGs after 2000 and added more support units so that each BTG had most of the support capabilities usually found in a division. These support units were smaller in the BTG, often a dozen or so specialists riding in a few trucks. The BTG commander put an officer in charge of all these non-combat support troops and the dozens of trucks they traveled in. The combat element of a BTG always consisted of a few hundred infantry and ten or twenty tanks. But now there were small (platoon sized) detachments of specialists. The only ones that were always present were a dozen or so self-propelled 152mm guns and somewhat more 82mm and 120mm mortars. There was also a medical detachment. In the last decade a detachment of fire control troops was added to coordinate all that firepower with some UAVs to scout for targets. There were also a small number of self-propelled anti-aircraft weapons in addition to the portable anti-aircraft missiles carried by individual soldiers. There were several other specialist units that could be added as needed. Total strength of a BTG varied depending on how it was assembled. Official personnel strength varied from 600 to 800 personnel but was more like 300-500 in peacetime.

These new BTGs became the standard for Russian divisions, which now consisted of two or three brigades. Each of these usually had just two BTGs. The division had fewer support units because most of these troops were now assigned to BTGs or brigades. By 2021 there were 170 BTGs. The combat elements usually consisted of one tank company, two or three infantry companies and one or two batteries of artillery. While BTGs had some contract (volunteer) troops, most of the rest of the BTG personnel were conscripts. The conscripts had several shortcomings. They could not be used in a combat zone; their term of service was only one year, and they were not as well trained as the contract troops (or trained at all). By law conscripts were not allowed in a combat zone unless it was wartime, and they were defending Russia.

This massive adoption of BTGs was a mistake that became obvious when nearly half the available BTGs were sent into Ukraine in early 2022. Many newly formed BTGs were sent to the Ukrainian border in late 2021 to threaten Ukraine and if that did not work, to invade.

The flaw in the BTGs was not obvious until they encountered well-armed and motivated opponents. That happened soon after they crossed the border into Ukraine. The leadership in these BTGs simply could not handle the complex composition of BTGs. Senior Russian leaders knew this from the performance of BTG leaders during military exercises. This was not a surprise as the quality of officers had declined in the last decade and there were still not enough experienced NCOs.

The lack of competent leadership meant the troops in the BTGs were poorly used during combat, and increasingly abandoned their vehicles and fled if they encountered Ukrainian troops, who concentrated on hitting the very vulnerable tanks and light armored vehicles, like BMPs or wheeled armored infantry carriers. BTG commanders failed to order effective reconnaissance or even get the infantry out of their armored vehicles to protect their tanks from Ukrainian infantry armed with modern Western anti-tank weapons. Worse, the Ukrainians concentrated on attacking the BTG trucks carrying supplies and maintenance personnel. The trucks were the last to enter Ukraine because there were a lot of conscripts driving the trucks and these conscripts were not told they were driving into Ukraine. Instead, many were told they were on another training exercise.

Most of these vehicles were destroyed or abandoned because of Ukrainian artillery fire and ground troops using whatever weapons they had. In one case a retired Ukrainian soldier was given a single-shot RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenade launcher) by some passing Ukrainian troops. The elderly veteran used that one RPG to destroy a whole Russian truck convoy by waiting for the fuel trucks and hitting one of them. The fiery explosion ignited other trucks including some carrying fuel. Soon the entire truck column was in flames and the surviving drivers were walking back to the border.

These attacks on fuel trucks meant that the combat units could not refuel and had to stop before they reached their objectives. The Ukrainians now had stationary Russian armored vehicles to attack. The few competent or determined BTG officers were soon killed as they tried to get their troops to put up an effective fight. These young officers had no combat experience, and many had little or no training for combat, such as a weather officer ordered to serve as an armored reconnaissance officer. Senior Russian officers, like colonels and generals, who did have experience were under tremendous pressure from their military and political commanders to get the problem fixed. Many went to the front line BTGs to show the junior officers how it was done, often by example. Many of these senior officers were killed or wounded. This further weakened the leadership of the brigades and divisions that went into Ukraine dependent on their BTGs.

The BTGs and leadership problems were known to many senior political and military leaders. There had been continuous reform efforts since the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991. The Russian Defense Ministry introduced some unexpected changes in 2013. For the first time the Command Center '' for the military was physically separate (in a new building complex from the Stavka, the General Staff which long handled planning and administration of the military. This was part of a trend towards installing more Western style civilian control over the military high command. At the same time there was an effort to placate military traditionalists. A new Defense Minister reversed the conversion of the elite Kantemyrovskaya tank division and the Tamanskaya motor-rifle division into numerous BTGs. These two elite divisions are stationed outside Moscow.

The ministry also ordered the return of ideological training for troops and increased the use of informants and opinion surveys to monitor morale and loyalty in the military. This included a return of the Soviet era "Zampolit" (political officer). In Soviet times every unit commander had a deputy (Zampolit) who represented the communist party and could veto any of the commanders decisions. The Zampolit was responsible for troop loyalty and political correctness. Sort of a communist chaplain. In 2010 the army reintroduced chaplains, something that the communists did away with in the 1920s. The new chaplains are, however, expected to report on the loyalty of the troops to church and state. Additional officers were added to handle ideological training and monitoring morale. Not exactly the return of Zampolit but a return of most of the Zampolits duties.

This was not what a lot of senior officers expected when the reformist Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov took over in 2007 and was replaced by Sergei Shoigu in 2012. At first it was believed that Shoigu was going to reverse a decade of military reforms, but that did not happen. Some senior members of the Defense Ministry were openly advocating returning to the use of divisions, instead of Western style brigades, a system pioneered in the West. BTGs and a large reserve force were things that were only talked about and rarely acted on. The reason for the demand to keep the divisions was the possibility of a large war in the east. The only major foe out there was China, but China was not mentioned because China had become an economic and diplomatic asset for Russia. Nevertheless, China is and remains the major potential threat to Russia. The Chinese Army is three times larger than Russias and has 15 tank and mechanized infantry divisions it could place on the Russian border. China is also reorganizing its ground forces into one based on brigades rather than divisions. China believes that will be more effective than divisions and they may be right.

Officially Russia ceased to consider Chinese ground forces a threat, as Russian nuclear weapons are supposed to stop a Chinese ground assault. This is what kept the Russian brigade reorganization efforts alive, because brigades are more effective in dealing with insurrections and low-level unrest. Traditionalists in the Defense Ministry pointed out that nuclear war would destroy both nations and that the current situation allows China to quickly grab the Russian Far East, which China has long claimed and then call for a peace conference. This is the sort of tactic China has used in the past and the Chinese are big fans of their imperial past. But the senior government leaders believed they could use diplomacy and new, faster moving conventional forces to prevent any Chinese use of grab and declare peace tactics.

For a while it seemed that Russian reformers were on the defensive. Since the end of the Cold War in 1991, there have been growing efforts to drag the army out of the 19th century. There has been resistance to change, especially when it involved ancient and often uniquely Russian practices. All these new ideas from the West were seen as, well, un-Russian. A year after reformist Defense Minister Serdyukov was replaced, most of his reforms continued and some, like making life more comfortable for the troops, were expanded. Soldiers now had showers in the barracks and even hot water (the only hot water in ex-Soviet bases were in pre-WWII barracks in East Germany). The food was getting better and buffet style dining, used for decades in the West, was introduced. New barracks were built and life in the military was much less like being in prison, which is what it resembled until the reforms began.

For generations Russian conscripts were confined to their barracks when not on duty. This was unpleasant, as the barracks were often decrepit and uncomfortable. The barracks were upgraded over the last decade to include hot water, flush toilets, showers, central heating, washing machines, and many other amenities Western troops take for granted. In these old barracks troops were allowed to bathe once a week in a bathhouse that was often improvised for the occasion. In addition to showers in all barracks, along with wi-fi in some and new furnishings, the new barracks had flush toilets and central heating.

Military reform has never come easily to Russia and usually occurred when a particularly strong and harsh ruler was in charge. In modern times Russia has undergone four periods of major military reform. The first was in the early 18th century, under Czar Peter the Great. The next was under Field Marshall Milyutin in the late 19th century. In the 1930s over a dozen daring reformers made the military ready for modern warfare, but most were executed by paranoid dictator Josef Stalin just before World War II. For over 60 years there was not much real reform, until 2008, when Defense Minister Serdyukov sought to make the Russian military like what the West had long possessed. This meant fewer officers and conscripts, more NCOs and volunteers, plus new equipment, weapons, training methods, and tactics. Serdyukov made a lot of enemies in the military with his reform efforts and was replaced in 2012. One of Serdyukovs most unpopular moves was to shrink the size of the officer corps. Even though most of the officers being let go were not really needed, this elicited a lot of protests from active duty and retired officers.

Yet the mass officer firings continued anyway. Shrinking the officer corps proved bad for officer morale, as could be expected. Moreover, most of the good officers had left after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 and the Russian military saw its budget slashed by 80 percent. Building an NCO corps of long-serving soldiers was difficult because the 1930s reforms eliminated them as a potential source of revolutionaries. Officers, all members of the Communist Party, were considered more politically reliable than NCOs. Another big problem was the collapse of the Soviet era military industries. With orders from the Russian military disappearing in the 1990s, many of these firms disappeared or switched to civilian products. Those that survived did so with export orders. The defense industries lost their best people, who left for better paying jobs overseas or in new non-defense firms in Russia.

Then there's the corruption, which expanded in the military in the 1990s as the size of the force shrank over 70 percent. Officers and troops sold off a lot of unneeded military equipment and officers stole money they had control over. This caused all sorts of problems, from lack of equipment maintenance and barracks to shortages of food or fuel to stay warm during the severe Russian winter. The food shortages caused hunger and even some starvation deaths among lower-ranking troops. After 2000 military prosecutors have been busy sending unlucky corrupt officers who got caught to prison, but that did not eliminate the problem. Low troop morale remained a problem. It was not surprising that the government gave priority to keeping nuclear weapons, and the missiles that deliver them, in good shape. As for the rest of the armed forces, change kept coming very slowly but persistently. The ancient Russian army traditions are gradually being peeled away and the Russian army is slowly evolving into a 21st century force. The new Defense Minister Shoigu didnt halt the reforms, he just made them more palatable for the traditionalists and made it clear that the big changes were here to stay. That included discarding the BTG concept because it didnt work. The traditional brigades and divisions still got the job done, sort of.
 
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CVS : "Remember, CVS, in the end, is a retailer that has a healthcare business. It's not a healthcare business that is a retailer, and retail means theft. I don't know if you've been to a CVS lately, but you know, you got to have that, like, master key to be able to go get some Gillette razor blades. That's not my way of shopping."

Stock Chart Icon Stock chart icon Canadian Natural Resources' year-to-date stock performance.

Canadian Natural Resources : "I like that company. I think you got horse sense. I'd be a buyer of that."

Stock Chart Icon Stock chart icon HF Sinclair's year-to-date stock performance.

HF Sinclair : "I've got so many other good oil companies...I want to stay away from HF Sinclair."

Stock Chart Icon Stock chart icon Exact Sciences' year-to-date stock performance.

Exact Sciences : "I think they're going to have to start making a lot more money. It's been a sales story, I like earnings story right now."

Stock Chart Icon Stock chart icon SoFi's year-to-date stock performance.

SoFi : "I like SoFi, but remember, it is a bank in the end, even though it's a membership bank. And banks are all going back down again because we're fighting the Fed, but I would stay long SoFi."

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Ford (F) reported weaker-than-expected earnings on Thursday as warranty costs ate into profits. It also pulled its full-year outlook to deal the fallout from the work stoppage by the United Auto Workers union, which reached a tentative deal with the carmaker on Thursday. Automotive revenue rose about 11% year over year, to $41.18 billion, missing analysts' forecasts of $41.22 billion, according to estimates compiled by LSEG. Adjusted earnings-per-share (EPS) increased 3% on an annual basis, to 39 cents, but missed estimates of 45cents per share, LSEG data showed. Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) increased 22% from last year to $2.2 billion but fell short of the $2.7 billion analysts forecasted. Ford shares moved more than 3% lower in after-hours trading in reaction to the disappointing quarter. Bottom Line We have to question if Ford took its eye off the ball this quarter as it prepared for the UAW strikes, which began on Sept. 15. We all know that the electric vehicle market is facing pricing pressure and is causing losses at this "startup" to swell. But our greater cause for concern was the operational headwinds, both on quality and costs. On a year-over-year basis, there was about a $1.2 billion increase in expenses from warranties. That's a lot of money we don't want to see Ford leave on the table. We can't help but be disappointed by that. Part of the hope we've had since CEO Jim Farley took over the company was his plan to improve the company's cost structure and fix these issues, which by the way, have plagued the company for decades. But more time is needed to reduce complexities and improve quality. The good news we learned tonight is that Ford understands that profitability is paramount and is making changes on how it allocates capital. The strategy tweak, explained by management on the call with analysts, is to lean into the production of high-demand, higher-margin ICE and hybrid vehicles while moderating its pace of investment and production in EVs. We see no issue with Ford being flexible with its capital and production. However, there's still uncertainty about how Ford's tentative agreement with the UAW will impact its cost structure going forward. The company said it will provide a deeper look at the contract and its impact after the deal is ratified. All in all, there's some good and some bad in this earnings report, but the concern around costs and warranties is what could put Ford back in the penalty box, therefore some patience will be required before buying this dip. Quarterly commentary Ford Blue, which represents Ford's gas-powered and hybrid vehicles, revenue grew about 7% year over year. That's a solid feat in the context of lower volumes from last year. EBIT Margin improved to 6.7% from 6.2% last year, but profits were impacted by higher warranty expense and material costs, leading to profits that were below market expectations. On the bright side, Ford's multiyear restructuring continues to bear fruit with Blue profitable in all regions. Sales at Ford Model e, the electric vehicle division, increased about 29% from last year with volumes up 44% thanks to increased production capacity of the Mustang Mach-E. However, the entire industry continues to go through price cuts right now for variety of reasons, leading to higher losses in the quarter. To understand the delicate balance lower prices has on Ford's EV business, revenues were about flat from the second quarter despite a 6% increase in volumes. That's a major headwind for Ford because the company losses money on every EV it makes. That's how operating losses worsened to $1.3 billion compared to a loss of $1.1 billion in the second quarter and about $600 million last year. The good news is that Ford recognizes that EVs aren't as hot as they were two years ago. Management said it will be "judicious" about production and will adjust future capacity to match market demand. The company said it will also push out about $12 billion capital expenditures directly on EVs. This matters to us because we don't want to see Ford throw money away at its EV business while the industry is experiencing pricing pressure. Ford Pro, the unit that houses the company's commercial vehicles, as well as its software and services business, saw its revenue grow 16% with solid EBIT margin of 12%, though it was well below estimates. Still, Ford remains upbeat about how this business unit will become a huge driver of the company's growth and profitability in the future. Software subscriptions and services is a major part of that story because of its gross margins of about 50%. Ford said its average revenue per subscription is up about 10% over the past six months and total new software subscriptions were up 50% in the quarter. Guidance Ford withdrew its full-year 2023 outlook as it awaits the ratification of its tentative agreement with the United Auto Works. However, it's worth noting that with adjusted EBIT of $9.4 billion through the first three quarters of the year, the company said it would have been in position to deliver profits within its full-year range of $11 billion to $12 billion. Still, there's a lot of uncertainty and disruption facing Ford and the entire auto industry as it moves past these strikes. "The follow-on impact to our shared supply base, the ramp up of production in our plants and at our supplier partners, as well as other ancillary effects" factored into the decision to pull the outlook, CFO John Lawler explained. Ford said the strike has caused Ford to trim about 80,000 units from its plan, reducing 2023 EBIT by $1.3 billion. (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long F. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.

James Farley, president and chief executive officer of Ford Motor Co., speaks during a launch event for the 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning all-electric truck at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Michigan, U.S., on Tuesday, April 26, 2022. Emily Elconin | Bloomberg | Getty Images
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"You also have to recognize, this is not just the theft, but the danger to the employees, the cost to the consumers, and then the impact upon the individual retailer," one of the bill's co-sponsors Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said at a press conference. "[Organized retail crime] has to be dealt with in a comprehensive way. And that's what our legislation is all about."

Before holding individual meetings with retail officials, the bill's co-sponsors joined NRF CEO Matthew Shay in a press conference outside the Capitol  where they framed the legislation as critical to retailers' bottom lines and their employees' safety.

The National Retail Federation escalated its campaign to rally support for the bill, known as the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act, which would make it easier to prosecute theft as a federal felony and set up a system for governments to share resources on crime. The retail lobby group dubbed its event "Fight Retail Crime Day."

Representatives from more than 30 retailers joined a major industry lobbying group on Capitol Hill on Thursday, as they ramped up pressure to pass a law that backers say will curb retail theft.

Organized retail crime is different from shoplifting. The NRF defines it as "the large-scale theft of retail merchandise with the intent to resell the items for financial gain." It usually involves multiple people who steal large amounts of goods from a range of stores, which a so-called fencing operation then sells, according to the group.



The NRF and individual retailers have spoken more than ever in recent months about how retail crime affects their profits, their employees and their customers. Target even cited the trend as it announced it would close nine stores.

Despite those comments, a survey released by the NRF last month found retailers' losses from theft are largely in line with historical trends, but most respondents reported violence associated with the acts is getting worse. Much of companies' lost inventory can also come from internal theft or management issues, as William Blair analysts wrote in a research note Thursday.

Even so, the industry has pushed for federal and state laws that aim to crack down on crime. Retailers continued their campaign for policy changes in Washington on Thursday.

The Combating Organized Retail Crime Act was reintroduced earlier this year. It seeks to create a new multi-agency group under the Department of Homeland Security that would pool information and intelligence from many states and local law enforcement sources. Officials want to better detect, track and prosecute members of organized crime rings with new federal standards.

American Eagle Outfitters chief global asset protection officer Scott McBride, who is meeting with lawmakers to rally support for the law, pointed to the collaboration as a major benefit of the proposal.

"That's one of the main purposes that allows us to have a charter within a federal agency to actually help us create a clearinghouse to aggregate properly to investigate more efficiently and more in depth," he said.

While retailers say organized retail crime could lead to higher prices for shoppers and store closures, many of the co-sponsors are focused on what retailers have said is escalating violence associated with the theft.

The NRF's national retail security survey showed two-thirds of retail respondents reported seeing increased levels of violence and aggression from ORC offenders in 2022 compared with 2021. In the 2021 survey, 81% of respondents reported more violence than in the year prior.

McBride noted that some areas of the country have had a harder time hiring and retaining store employees because of the increase in violence. Most retail store employees are instructed not to intervene when theft is taking place because of the risk of violence.

Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., told about a recent incident she witnessed in a Walgreens.

"The person came up with a backpack and just started scraping eyelashes into the backpack and walked out," she said at the press conference. "I said to the sales lady, 'Did you see what that guy just did?' She said, 'Yeah, he comes in here two or three times a week and we can't do anything about it because management is afraid somebody might get hurt.'"

The industry has also focused on the amount of stolen goods needed to prosecute as a felony depending on the location. Trade groups have said many crime rings know the law, and steal just enough to stay below it in each incident.
Sam Bankman-Fried took the stand in a New York courtroom on Thursday, as he and his defense team auditioned their best legal material for U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan.

The former crypto billionaire had originally been scheduled to testify before the jury, but the judge sent jurors home early to consider whether some aspects of Bankman-Fried's planned testimony, related to legal advice he got while running FTX, would be admissible in court.

In a sort of mini-hearing within the trial, defense attorney Mark Cohen guided Bankman-Fried through a series of questions designed to showcase the defense's strongest arguments of his innocence, including suggesting that he relied on FTX's former chief regulatory officer and in-house attorney, Dan Friedberg, to guide some actions that the government claims are illegal.

Bankman-Fried faces seven criminal counts, including wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering, that could land him in prison for more than 100 years if he is convicted at his trial in Manhattan federal court. Bankman-Fried, the son of two Stanford legal scholars, has pleaded not guilty in the case.

"Before the trial, I was convinced that SBF was headed to near-certain conviction on serious felony counts, and it was apparent to me that his defense team had not come up with anything that could derail that result," said Renato Mariotti, a former prosecutor in the U.S. Justice Department's Securities & Commodities Fraud Section and now a trial partner in Chicago with Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner.

"Nothing that has occurred during the trial has changed my view. The evidence of his guilt appears to be overwhelming," added Mariotti.

In the last four weeks of trial, multiple members of the C-suite at crypto exchange FTX, and its sister hedge fund Alameda Research, have all singled out Bankman-Fried as the mastermind behind the scenes. Several of these witnesses have themselves pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including Bankman-Fried's ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison, who faces a maximum sentence of 110 years for crimes committed while she was the CEO of Alameda.

Prosecutors have also entered evidence to corroborate witness accounts, including encrypted Signal messages and other internal documents that appear to show Bankman-Fried orchestrating the spending of FTX customer money.

The defense's case  which is comprised of Bankman-Fried's upcoming testimony along with that of two witnesses who both wrapped in just over an hour on Thursday morning  hinges on whether the jury believes the defendant when he takes the stand.

"He has always been convinced that he's the smartest guy in the room and that he can talk his way out of any problem," continued Mariotti.

"But the biggest problem with SBF's testimony will be SBF himself. Given that the core issue will be intent to defraud, SBF should be portraying himself as clueless, inattentive, and in over his head. But for years he had portrayed himself as a visionary genius, and I don't expect that to change on the stand," he said.
Bob Rohloff has been cutting hair for almost as long as he's been alive  and at 91 years old, he doesn't plan on stopping anytime soon. In June, Rohloff opened Bob's Old Fashioned Barbershop in Hortonville, Wisconsin, a 20-minute drive from his hometown, Black Creek, and a 2-hour drive north from Milwaukee. Rohloff says this new business venture fulfills a dream he has had on his bucket list for decades: to own a barbershop in his "favorite place in the world." He started cutting hair in 1948, training under his dad, Erv, who was also a barber, and honing his skills at the Appleton Vocational School in nearby Appleton, Wisconsin. After graduating, he opened two shops in Wisconsin, then moved to Arizona in 1990 and spent 18 years working there. Rohloff tried to retire when he and his wife Marian lived in Arizona, but "unretired" just a few months later because he missed the camaraderie and conversation of the barbershop.

Erv Rohloff cutting Bob's hair circa. 1930s Courtesy: Rohloff family

"Retirement isn't that easy," he says. "You need to stay active in something, whether it's a hobby or a job, and I happened to enjoy my job very much  it's fun coming into the shop, I like to do it and I feel good, so why stop?" When he and Marian moved back to Wisconsin in 2010, Rohloff took a job at the Hortonville Family Barbershop, but he had always toyed with the idea of opening his own shop again. Then, fate intervened: In March, Mark Karweick, another barber, walked into the shop, looking for opportunities to move from Michigan back to Appleton, his hometown. One of the barbers introduced him to Rohloff, and 90 minutes later, the pair shook hands and agreed to open a shop together. "Bob can sit and talk to anybody, he can be really persuasive," Karweick, 55, says. The shop took roughly three months to open. Karweick and Rohloff got a lot of the equipment from an old barbershop in Michigan, decorating the tables and chairs in red and white details. Rohloff jokes that his customer chair, which is 100 years old, is the only thing in his shop that is older than him. "There aren't that many old-fashioned shops left in the country, we want to try and keep the tradition alive," he adds.

Bob Rohloff cuts his wife Marian's hair at his new barbershop. Photo: Mark Karweick
Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., candidate for speaker of the House, is seen outside a House Republican Conference election meeting in Longworth Building on Tuesday, October 24, 2023.

WASHINGTON  There's a renewed hope for approving additional aid to Ukraine after House Republicans resolved their speaker paralysis, and as some hard-right lawmakers critical of new funding hint at a viable path to vote on it.

One month ago, then-Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., voted with 93 Republicans to cut off Ukraine aid. Now, as speaker, Johnson said he's asked White House staff "bifurcate" aid to Israel and Ukraine. But he emphasized that the U.S. must stop Russia's advances.

"We can't allow Vladimir Putin to prevail in Ukraine because I don't believe it would stop there," Johnson said in an interview on Fox News the day after he was sworn-in. "And it would probably encourage and empower China to perhaps make a move on Taiwan. We have these concerns. We're not going to abandon them."

Johnson added that he wants "accountability" over how the money is spent as lawmakers "have a stewardship responsibility over the precious treasure of the American people."

His remarks, which have since circulated around Capitol Hill, provide fresh optimism among proponents of Ukraine aid who believed the cause was fizzling under the tenure of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy. McCarthy stripped out Ukraine funding from a late-September funding bill under pressure from conservative hardliners who opposed the aid and had threatened to oust him if he gave in to Biden administration demands.

But notably, some of those Republicans now say they could accept holding separate votes on Ukraine money, which they oppose, and aid to Israel, which they favor.

"Well, they should definitely be separate questions," Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., told NBC News. "We have a lot of members who want to vote for Ukraine funding. So that may be a vote that they're able to bring to bear through regular order."

Gaetz added that what he wants is single-subject bills: "Mike Johnson believes in that principle, so I think he is very unlikely to smoosh those things together in one vote."

The demands from Republicans indicate that the Biden administration's supplemental funding request pairing aid to Israel and Ukraine may come untied in the Republican-controlled House. But a standalone Ukraine aid bill has a strong chance of passing because Democrats in both chambers overwhelmingly support the idea and many Senate Republicans do, too.

Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., another anti-McCarthy rebel and opponent of Ukraine funding, said he prefers that a majority of the House GOP support additional aid in order for it to come to a vote.

"I suspect that it might pass because some Republicans and Democrats support it," Good said. "I don't think we ought to bring it to the floor unless it's supported by a majority of Republicans. That's why we have a majority Republican House. I would not vote for it. However, this is a town of negotiation and to some degree compromise."

Good also suggested pairing Ukraine aid with border security money and policy changes to the asylum system.
Abercrombie & Fitch is in the middle of a major comeback, but the retailer is still being haunted by the alleged sins of former chief executive Mike Jeffries.

The company was sued Friday for turning a blind eye to Jeffries' alleged misconduct, court records show. He's accused of running a sprawling sex trafficking ring that exploited young men hoping to become models for the brand.

The suit alleges that Jeffries, who's also listed as a defendant, sexually abused numerous men under the guise it would land them coveted modeling contracts.

It comes just weeks after BBC published an investigation into Jeffries and Abercrombie that made similar accusations.

In response, a company spokesperson told CNBC it does not comment on pending litigation. However, after the BBC story was published, the company said it was "appalled and disgusted" by Jeffries' alleged behavior. It said it had contacted an outside law firm to conduct an independent investigation into the issues BBC raised.

"The company's current executive leadership team and board of directors were not aware of the allegations of sexual misconduct by Mr. Jeffries," the company said at the time.

"For close to a decade, a new executive leadership team and refreshed board of directors have successfully transformed our brands and culture into the values-driven organization we are today. We have zero tolerance for abuse, harassment or discrimination of any kind."

Brian Bieber, Jeffries' attorney, didn't deny the claims when contacted by CNBC.

"Mr. Jeffries will not comment in the press on this new lawsuit, as he has likewise chosen not to regarding litigation in the past. The courtroom is where we will deal with this matter," Bieber said in an email.

David Bradberry, who brought the suit, claims he was recruited for a modeling opportunity in 2010 and introduced to a scout who said he was working on behalf of the brand.

"He then made it clear to David Bradberry that he held the key to the next level in the Abercrombie process and that unless he let the scout perform oral sex on him, Bradberry would not be meeting with Abercrombie or its CEO, Michael Jeffries," the lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court, states.

Bradberry was then assaulted by the scout and paid, the lawsuit states.

Soon after, he was invited to a casting event at Jeffries' house in the Hamptons that Bradberry assumed was a "legitimate Abercrombie-sponsored function" because it included a meeting with the CEO and he was forced to wear the brand's clothes for the event, the lawsuit states.

But instead of a professional casting event, Bradberry was soon raped by Jeffries and forced to take poppers, a type of drug that made him feel lightheaded, the suit states.

"Amidst the confusion caused by the poppers, David Bradberry began to focus on the four older, larger, physically fit men who appeared to be security guards observing the activity in the room," the lawsuit alleges.

"These imposing men, dressed in Abercrombie clothing, caused Bradberry to feel like there was no way that he could leave the room safely or resist what Jeffries was demanding."

Following the event, Bradberry was flown to Nice, France, where he was again forced to perform sex acts on Jeffries, the suit states.

The lawsuit, which is seeking class action status, alleges that similar events happened to more than 100 other victims and Abercrombie allowed it to happen.

Jeffries, who previously served as the president of the bankrupt women's retail chain Alcott & Andrews, was tapped by Abercrombie's former owner Leslie Wexner to be the brand's CEO in 1992 and bring it back to life.

Under his tenure, Abercrombie became one of the most prominent names in retail and was known for its sexually charged advertising and shirtless male models, who were frequently positioned outside of the brand's stores.

The company saw steady growth in earnings and sales during that time, but its success was soon overshadowed by accusations of discrimination against its staff and claims that its clothes were only meant for attractive people.

In 2004, Abercrombie paid $40 million to settle a class action lawsuit that accused the company of discriminating against Black, Hispanic and Asian employees. In 2012, it settled a case brought by a former pilot that accused the company of age discrimination.

Following its mid-2000s heyday, Abercrombie developed a reputation for racism and being a clothing brand that was only reserved for certain types of people and lost relevancy among American consumers.

Jeffries left the company in 2014 and Abercrombie has since rebranded itself as an inclusive retailer under CEO Fran Horowitz, who became the company's chief executive in 2017.

Recently, Abercrombie has surprised Wall Street with earnings and profits that blew past estimates and has opened new stores, even as other retailers close doors and the economic outlook remains uncertain.

The company's shares have more than doubled this year.



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Northeast Dallas in Texas is the neighborhood buyers are most interested in, according to a new report. Halbergman | Istock | Getty Images

Where a child grows up in the U.S. is becoming an increasingly critical component toward determining their future economic status. Research from economists at Brown University, Harvard University and the U.S. Census Bureau shows that the numerous variables that define neighborhoods  such as the quality of their school districts, poverty rates and conditions that influence social capital in a community  all have lasting impacts on children's future income. The research's findings were presented earlier this year comparing mobility levels around the world at a World Bank conference. While it may seem obvious that a good neighborhood may translate into better chances for success in adulthood, it also highlights that being immersed in these areas at a young age is important  and that sociological forces, while difficult to quantify, play an important role in economic prospects. These insights could help to shift the tide against worsening rates of intergenerational mobility in the U.S. by informing policymakers as to which decisions could be the most influential in shaping upward prospects, according to John Friedman, professor of economics at Brown University and co-director of Opportunity Insights. Given the geographic span of the U.S., intergenerational mobility varies across a national scale. Yet even when focusing on just an intra-city level, mobility can differ widely between neighborhoods across the street from each other, Friedman said. Friedman and his colleagues at Opportunity Insights research program created the Opportunity Atlas, which tracks children's outcomes in adulthood using U.S. Census and tax data. The data shows a child can earn an average of $56,000 as an adult if they grow up in one neighborhood, versus just $33,000 if they grow up in an adjacent area.

We are thought to be the country of the American dream, [where] once you start from the bottom, you move to the top. But that's just not really what we see. Kreg Steven Brown Director of economic mobility policy at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth

"It's not just that exposure to these local places is incredibly important. It seems [that] exposure during childhood is the most important thing," Friedman said. While moving to a "better" neighborhood can shape their earnings as adults, the age at which a child moves is also critical in realizing these benefits, Friedman found. The older a child is at the time of the move, the lower their projected income at age 35. At age 24, no income gains can be measured from moving to a higher-mobility neighborhood. Although it's difficult to pinpoint all the various characteristics of high-mobility neighborhoods, these areas hold certain common characteristics. These include lower poverty rates, more stable family structure, greater social capital and better school quality. "Policies tend to be more impactful in people's trajectories when people are kids, but I don't think there's a sharp cut-off," said Friedman. Measures of mobility There are two measures of mobility: relative and absolute. The former measures the chances of rising to the top of the country's income distribution and has remained stable in the U.S. The latter gauges the chances that a child born into poverty rises to a higher standard of living. "We have less [relative] mobility in this country than we do in other developed nations, especially in Europe and developing European countries. And so even though relative mobility haven't gotten much better, or much worse over time, it is harder to move from the bottom to the top," said Kreg Steven Brown, director of economic mobility policy at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. "We are thought to be the country of the American dream, [where] once you start from the bottom, you move to the top. But that's just not really what we see." In the U.S., there's 13.1% average probability that a child of parents in the bottom half of the income distribution can make it to the top quartile, according to data from the World Bank. In Denmark, that probability rises to more than 20%. China, South Africa and Morocco also rank higher than the U.S.
Nvidia (NVDA) has needed help from its Big Tech friends to become Wall Street's artificial intelligence darling. Those friends haven't left the party yet. In their earnings reports this week, Club holdings Microsoft (MSFT), Alphabet (GOOGL), Facebook-parent Meta Platforms (META) and Amazon (AMZN) indicated continued investments to advance their AI ambitions  a good sign for Nvidia. All four companies are buyers of Nvidia's cutting-edge AI chips, which dominate the market for training the massive models that power applications like the viral ChatGPT. Investors will hear directly from Nvidia in late November when the Jensen Huang-led company releases quarterly earnings. "I think that Nvidia is the quiet partner behind the winners including Microsoft," Jim Cramer said Friday. "Not saying it will be the best [quarter], just saying it is best positioned." The encouraging signs for Nvidia come as the chipmaker grapples with the U.S. government's new curbs on AI chip exports to China, weighing on investor sentiment and its stock price since the restrictions were announced early last week. Fervent demand for Nvidia's chips in the rest of the world should make up for lost China sales in the short run, the company has said. However, the primary worry for investors  including here at the Club  is whether a substantially diminished China opportunity will prevent Nvidia from meeting The Street's loftiest long-term growth projections. While Nvidia has, by far, been the best-performing stock in our portfolio this year with a gain of roughly 175%, it has dropped 20% since its all-time high of $502.66 back in late August. NVDA YTD mountain Nvidia YTD Nevertheless, the earnings reports and commentary from Microsoft, Google-parent Alphabet, Meta and Amazon help illustrate why Nvidia has repeatedly been able to downplay the near-term financial impact of Washington's export controls. Spending by U.S. tech giants on AI infrastructure is soaring, and orders for Nvidia's advanced chips are an essential part of those capital expenditure budgets. The demand for AI is so strong that those customers may be willing to take on the modified AI chip s that Nvidia can no longer send to China, Jim has said. Capital expenditures, or capex, is money spent to acquire or upgrade physical assets, which in the context of Big Tech companies encompasses data-center facilities and the computer hardware inside them. Microsoft Microsoft's total capital expenditures totaled $11.2 billion in the three months ended Sept. 30 , up 5% from the prior quarter and 70% from the same period a year ago. Notably, Microsoft expects to spend more on capital expenditures in its current quarter than in the one just reported, "driven by investments in our cloud and AI infrastructure," CFO Amy Hood said on the post-earnings conference call Tuesday evening. Microsoft's AI strategy  including investments in OpenAI , the buzzy startup behind ChatGPT  is showing signs of success. Microsoft's cloud-computing service Azure posted better-than-expected revenue growth in the September quarter, jumping 29% compared with the Wall Street estimate of 26%. Notably, about 3 percentage points of Azure's growth was linked to customer AI spending, Hood said. This evidence that Microsoft is already monetizing AI is why investors tolerate Microsoft's surge in capex spend. Alphabet Alphabet's capex was $8 billion in the third quarter , up 17% from the three months ended June 30 and 11% year over year. The largest component of the spending, according to CFO Ruth Porat, was servers  the powerful computers inside data centers that contain AI chips. Servers also were the biggest piece of Alphabet's second-quarter capital expenditures. "We continue to invest meaningfully in the technical infrastructure needed to support the opportunities we see in AI across Alphabet and expect elevated levels of investment, increasing in the fourth of 2023 and continuing to grow in 2024," Porat said on Alphabet's call Tuesday evening. In addition to buying Nvidia products and partnering with the company , Alphabet's Google Cloud uses a custom processor in its AI work. That in-house chip, known as a Tensor Processing Unit , is developed alongside Broadcom (AVGO), another Club holding. Meta Platforms Meta's third-quarter capital expenditures were lower year-over-year, as the company prepares to transition to a new data center design that's more energy-efficient and optimized for running AI workloads. Next year's spending will see a boost as that transition takes hold, the company said. Meta's initial 2024 capex outlook is between $30 billion and $35 billion, compared with its projected 2023 levels between $27 billion and $29 billion. The 2024 outlook suggests a roughly 16% increase from the midpoint of guidance, with the growth fueled by "investments in servers, including both non-AI and AI hardware, and in data centers," Meta's finance chief, Susan Li, said on the call. Amazon Amazon's results and earnings call Thursday added to the body of evidence on AI spending as a priority at U.S. tech giants. Amazon's Web Services has long been the largest cloud-computing provider by revenue. Its overall capital expenditures were down 24% year-over-year in the third quarter and are expected to total $50 billion in 2023, compared with $59 billion last year. But the breakdown of the spending tells the story. Capital investments on the e-commerce side of Amazon's business are falling, but that's partially being offset by increased spending on the cloud-computing side of its business, according to CFO Brian Olsavsky. On the call, he specifically mentioned investments in generative AI efforts and large language models. "I still think we're very early in generative AI," Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said. Like Alphabet, Amazon's spending on AI processors goes toward both Nvidia chips and custom products, such as the AWS Trainium , which is designed for large-language model training, and the AWS Inferentia , which is geared toward the day-to-day deployment of AI models. The exact breakdown of Amazon's spending on silicon is unclear, but analysts at Loop Capital earlier this month said it expects Amazon "will be a large customer of Nvidia for the long term." On Thursday's call, Jassy said the limited supply of graphics processing units  the technical name for chips like Nvidia's  is a boon to interest in Amazon's in-house processors. "I still think we're very early in generative AI," Amazon CEO Andy Jassy "It's really hard to get the amount of GPUs that everybody wants," Jassy said. "It's just another reason why Trainium and Inferentia are so attractive to people. They have better price-performance characteristics and things than the other options out there, but also the fact that you can get access to them." Nvidia has been working with its suppliers  including foundry partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSM)  to address the chip shortages, though. And, management has forecast improvements each quarter into its fiscal 2025. Nvidia, which became the world's most valuable chipmaker this year due to AI excitement, will report its fiscal 2024 third-quarter earnings Nov. 21. This week's slate of Big Tech earnings left little doubt that, as more Nvidia chips become available, there will be a place inside data centers for them to go. (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long NVDA, MSFT, GOOGL, AVGO, AMZN and META. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Getty
Energy heavyweights Chevron and Exxon Mobil announced shiny new acquisitions this month  and some industry watchers say it could be the start of more multibillion megadeals to come.

Chevron on Monday said it's buying Hess for $53 billion in stock, allowing Chevron to take a 30% stake in Guyana's Stabroek Block  estimated to hold some 11 billion barrels of oil.

The announcement comes just weeks after Exxon Mobil announced its purchase of shale rival Pioneer Natural Resources for $59.5 billion in an all-stock deal. While this marks Exxon's largest deal since its acquisition of Mobil, the merger would also double the oil giant's production volume in the largest U.S. oilfield, the Permian Basin.

"The big-money acquisition of Hess by Chevron accelerates the trend of consolidation and big-money deals," energy consultancy Rystad Energy said in a note.

Although Chevron's acquisition is the continuation of a story started by the Exxon-Pioneer deal, its motivation and impact is slightly different, the note stated.

Exxon is zoning in on its core operations in the Permian basin, while Chevron has decided to expand into where it does not yet have existing assets: Guyana and the Bakken shale.
BEIJING  Chinese smartphone and appliance maker Xiaomi announced late Thursday a new operating system  as it seeks to develop its ecosystem with the imminent release of its own car.

Xiaomi shares rose more than 1% in Hong Kong trade Friday morning, building on gains of more than 20% for the year so far.

The new system, called HyperOS, is set to reach consumers Oct. 31 when Xiaomi's latest phones, wearables and TV sets begin sales in China.

"The system marks a pivotal move forward in Xiaomi's strategic vision of delivering the 'Human x Car x Home' smart ecosystem," the company said in a release.

CEO and founder Lei Jun said on Chinese social media Wednesday that Xiaomi would release its car in the first half of next year. He did not specify whether it would be electric.
Ford Motor Company's electric F-150 Lightning on the production line at its Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Michigan, on Sept. 8, 2022.

Shares of Ford Motor traded sharply lower Friday after the company reported earnings that missed estimates and said that demand for its electric vehicles was falling short of expectations.

The stock closed down more than 12% on Friday.

Ford reported its third-quarter results after the markets closed Thursday, and they weren't what Wall Street had expected. Ford's revenue and profit both fell short of analysts' estimates, shortfalls that executives attributed to lost production following the United Auto Workers' decision to strike three of Ford's key U.S. factories, including an important truck factory in Kentucky.

The results were a stark contrast to rival General Motors ' third-quarter report Tuesday. GM's revenue and profit both handily beat Wall Street estimates.

Ford on Wednesday night became the first of the three Detroit automakers to reach a tentative agreement with the UAW. It won a surprising concession that should help its fourth-quarter numbers: Striking workers will return to their jobs before the new deal is officially ratified.

But Ford's new contract will be an expensive one. Chief Financial Officer John Lawler said the UAW deal, if ratified by members, will add $850 to $900 in costs to every vehicle assembled in the U.S. That will put additional pressure on CEO Jim Farley's ongoing efforts to improve Ford's costs and quality.

Ford also said it plans to delay about $12 billion in previously announced spending on EV manufacturing capacity, saying that its customers in North America are no longer willing to pay a premium for an EV vehicle versus a comparable internal-combustion or hybrid alternative.

While executives emphasized Ford isn't cutting back on or delaying its plans to develop a range of more advanced EVs, investors concerned about the company's ability to compete with Tesla and other new EV entrants were given a new reason for caution.

Ford also withdrew its previous financial guidance for 2023 in light of the pending deal with the UAW.



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Here are Friday's biggest calls on Wall Street: Cantor Fitzgerald upgrades Rivian to buy from hold Cantor said it sees an attractive entry point for investors. "Upgrading Rivian to Overweight on Valuation. We Expect Strong Demand to Continue into 2024." Stifel upgrades Old Dominion to buy from hold Stifel said in its upgrade of the stock that it's a "secular grower." "In 3Q23, Old Dominion offset market softness with better operating efficiency, leading to a healthy EPS beat8% and 6% ahead of our estimate and Consensus, respectively. The company has consistently demonstrated industry-leading execution, margins, and growth for more than two decades. And we've said it before: 'buy Old Dominion when you can.'" JPMorgan initiates TKO Group as overweight JPMorgan said the WWE and UFC combo company is a "sports champion." " TKO offers investors ownership of UFC and WWE, the leading MMA and professional wrestling promotions." Bank of America downgrades Hasbro to neutral from buy Bank of America downgraded the toymaker after its earnings report on Thursday. " HAS did report very strong 3Q WOTC [Wizards segment] revenue (+38% YoY vs. consensus +26%), but unfortunately its Consumer Products (CP) sales declined 19% YoY, well below our -13% estimate and consensus -5%." Morgan Stanley upgrades ResMed to overweight from equal weight Morgan Stanley said the sleep apnea solutions company is still a winner despite the growth of obesity drugs. "We upgrade to OW from EW - Deep dive suggests RMD can still grow while GLP- 1 proliferates." Piper Sandler downgrades Enphase Energy to neutral from overweight Piper said it has no visibility on the solar stock. "Given limited visibility and a full valuation given no near-term growth, we are throwing in the towel and downgrading ENPH to Neutral (PT to $75/sh). We look for confirmation of revenue stability and declining US resi financing costs to get more constructive on the name." JPMorgan upgrades Yelp to neutral from underweight JPMorgan upgraded the stock ahead of earnings next week. "We are upgrading Yelp to Neutral ahead of 3Q earnings on 11/2 AMC. Yelp has navigated the challenging ad market better than most of its peers, with nine straight quarters of double-digit% revenue growth." HSBC upgrades Intel to hold from sell HSBC upgraded Intel after its earnings report on Thursday. "Upgrade to Hold: Improving PC outlook and execution despite ongoing uncertainty over datacentre recovery." Guggenheim initiates Idacorp as buy Guggenheim said the electricity company has numerous positive catalysts. "We are initiating coverage of IDACORP, Inc. (IDA) with a BUY rating, primarily based on key drivers and catalysts which we do not believe are already reflected in the shares despite current valuation levels." Raymond James initiates Roblox as strong buy Raymond James said it sees a compelling entry point for the stock. "We see a number of encouraging factors positioning Roblox for long-term growth, with an attractive entry point following 2Q23 results." Deutsche Bank initiates Griffon as buy Deutsche said in its initiation of the diversified management and holding company that it likes the company's wide array of strong brands. "With a winding history that dates back to the 60's, Griffon Corp started as a fledgling pioneer within the avionics industry, but fast-forward to today and the company is a singularly-focused portfolio of strong brands spanning two segments we expect to drive significant value for shareholders over the coming years." TD Cowen downgrades Southwest to market perform from outperform TD downgraded the stock after its "tough" earnings report on Thursday. " Southwest reported adjusted 3Q profit that was better than our forecast but below consensus. Revenue of $6.25 billion was below estimates. Management is focused on improving results and to that end will reduce capacity growth." TD Cowen downgrades Hershey to market perform from outperform TD downgraded the stock after its earnings report and said it sees too many headwinds for Hershey. "The company's 3Q results exceeded our estimates, but management lowered 4Q and warned of more headwinds than tailwinds ahead. We lower 2024 EPS growth to 5% to reflect higher probability of a guidance reduction from management's initial 7-8%." BMO upgrades Merck to outperform from market perform BMO said in its upgrade of Merck that it sees "pipeline success." "Upgrading to Outperform, Revised Target of $132. Following another strong quarter and strengthening narrative around growth we're upgrading shares." Citi opening a positive catalyst watch on DraftKings Citi said it's bullish on the stock ahead of its investor day in mid-November. "Given trends to date, we see scope for DraftKings to raise its longterm Adj. EBITDA target at its upcoming Investor Day (11/14/23) and believe this upside may not be fully reflected in the firm's equity. As such, we would be buyers of DKNG heading into the firm's Investor Day and are opening a 30-day positive catalyst watch." Wells Fargo downgrades Datadog to equal weight from overweight Wells said in its downgrade of the cloud software company that 2024 estimates are too aggressive. "We are downgrading shares of DDOG to EW and lowering our PT to $95. Cost optimization trends are still ongoing and FY24 estimates look high, offset by potential share gains related to Cisco/Splunk acquisition and new AI-based solutions. JPMorgan downgrades Regions Financial to neutral from overweight JPMorgan said in its downgrade of the bank holding company that it sees too many negative catalysts. "We are downgrading Regions Financial to Neutral from Overweight to reflect the impact of faster catch-up in deposit betas." Goldman Sachs reiterates Amazon as buy Goldman said the stock remains attractive after its earnings report Thursday. "While some questions will remain about the linear vs volatile nature of the global consumer and a need for better visibility into a sustained AWS revenue reacceleration, we see this earnings report as confirmatory that AMZN 's risk/reward from current levels remains skewed heavily in a positive direction looking forward." Deutsche Bank downgrades Frontier to hold from buy Deutsche downgraded the airline mainly on valuation. "With its share price trading in the vicinity of what we consider to be fair value (i.e., last close of $4.19), we believe ULCC shares no longer warrant a Buy rating, and therefore are downgrading the stock to Hold." Bank of America reiterates Apple as neutral Bank of America said it's standing by its neutral rating on the stock. "We maintain our Neutral rating on Apple as positives of new products are offset by the risk of a weaker consumer." Correction: JPMorgan upgraded Yelp to neutral from underweight. An old version misstated the previous rating.
Former FTX Chief Executive Sam Bankman-Fried, who faces fraud charges over the collapse of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange, walks outside the Manhattan federal court in New York City, U.S. March 30, 2023. Amanda Perobelli | Reuters

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried told jurors in his criminal trial on Friday that he didn't commit fraud, and that he thought the crypto exchange's outside expenditures, like paying for the naming rights at a sports arena, came out of company profits. On Friday morning, defense attorney Mark Cohen asked Bankman-Fried if he defrauded anyone. "No, I did not," Bankman-Fried responded. Cohen followed by asking if he took customer funds, to which Bankman-Fried said "no." Bankman-Fried, 31, faces seven criminal counts, including wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering, that could land him in prison for life if he's convicted. Bankman-Fried, the son of two Stanford legal scholars, has pleaded not guilty in the case. Prior to the defendant's appearance on the stand, the four-week trial was highlighted by the testimony of multiple members of FTX's top leadership team as well as the people who ran sister hedge fund Alameda Research. They all singled out Bankman-Fried as the mastermind of a scheme to use FTX customer money to fund everything from venture investments and a high-priced condo in the Bahamas to covering Alameda's crypto losses.

Courtroom sketch showing Sam Bankman Fried questioned by his attorney Mark Cohen. Judge Lewis Kaplan on the bench Artist: Elizabeth Williams

Prosecutors walked former leaders of Bankman-Fried's businesses through specific actions taken by their boss that resulted in clients losing billions of dollars last year. Several of the witnesses, including Bankman-Fried's ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison, who ran Alameda, have pleaded guilty to multiple charges and are cooperating with the government.

On Friday, Bankman-Fried acknowledged that one of his biggest mistakes was not having a risk management team. That led to "significant oversights," he said. At the start of his testimony, Cohen walked Bankman-Fried through his background and how he got into crypto. The defendant said he studied physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and graduated in 2014. He then worked as a trader on the international desk at Jane Street for over three years, managing tens of billions of dollars a day in trading. That's where he learned the fundamentals of things like arbitrage trading. In the fall of 2017, Bankman-Fried founded Alameda Research. "This was when crypto was starting to become publicly visible for the first time," Bankman-Fried testified. He said people were excited about it, watching bitcoin , which had jumped from $1,000 to $10,000 in a two-month period. Banks and brokers weren't involved yet and it seemed like there would probably be big demand for an arbitrage provider, he said. "I had absolutely no idea" how cryptocurrencies worked, Bankman-Fried said. "I just knew they were things you could trade." The first Alameda office was in an Airbnb in Berkeley, California, he said. It was listed as a two bedroom but they used the couch in the living room as a third bed and also repurposed the attic as a fourth bedroom. He started FTX in 2019. Trading volume grew substantially on FTX from a few million dollars a day to tens of millions of dollars that year to hundreds of millions of dollars in 2020. By 2022, that number was up to $10 billion to $15 billion per day in trading volume, he said. Bankman-Fried said Alameda was permitted to borrow from FTX, but his understanding was that the money was coming from margin trades, collateral from other margin trades or assets earning interest on the platform. At FTX, there were no general restrictions on what could be done with funds that were borrowed as long as the company believed assets were greater than liabilities, Bankman-Fried testified.

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In 2020, a routine liquidation gone wrong led to some of the special borrowing permissions at Alameda, he said. The risk engine was sagging under the weight of growth. A liquidation that should have been in the thousands of dollars was in the trillions of dollars. Alameda was suddenly underwater because of closing the position. The incident exposed a larger concern, that the potential of an erroneous liquidation of Alameda could be disastrous for users. Bankman-Fried said he talked to FTX's engineering director Nishad Singh and co-founder Gary Wang, both of whom testified earlier on behalf of the prosecution. He suggested creating an alert, which would prompt the user to deposit more collateral, or a delay, Bankman-Fried said. In response to this feedback, Singh and Wang told Bankman-Fried they had implemented a feature like that, he said, adding that he later learned it was the "allow negative" feature. Bankman-Fried testified that he wasn't aware of the amount Alameda was borrowing or its theoretical max. As long as Alameda's net asset value was positive and the scale of borrowing was reasonable, increasing its line of credit from so that Alameda could keep filling orders was fine, he said. Earlier testimony from Singh and Wang suggested the line of credit was raised to $65 billion, a number Bankman-Fried said he was not aware of.

Tough sell

Convincing the jury will be a tall order for Bankman-Fried after a mountain of damning evidence was presented by the government. Prosecutors entered corroborating materials, including encrypted Signal messages and other internal documents that appear to show Bankman-Fried orchestrating the spending of FTX customer money. The defense's case, which consists of Bankman-Fried's testimony along with that of two witnesses who took the stand Thursday morning, hinges largely on whether the jury believes the defendant didn't intend to commit fraud.

The logo of FTX is seen on a flag at the entrance of the FTX Arena in Miami, Florida, November 12, 2022. Marco Bello | Reuters

In Friday afternoon testimony, Bankman-Fried was asked about FTX's marketing and promotions. He said there were 15 people on the marketing team, and noted that he got more involved with it as time progressed. In particular, he discussed the naming rights in 2021 for the basketball arena in Miami, which was to be a 19-year deal for $135 million. Bankman-Fried said the sponsorship of FTX Arena would deliver returns for the company and create wide brand awareness because even he, as an "average level sports fan," could name dozens of stadiums. He said the investment would be about $10 million a year, or 1% of revenue. The company had been deciding among a few different stadiums, including the homes to the NFL's New Orleans Saints and Kansas City Chiefs, Bankman-Fried said. A crucial part of his testimony came when Bankman-Fried said he thought the stadium deal funding was coming from revenue from the exchange and returns from venture investments, as opposed to customer money. Similarly, Bankman-Fried testified that he believed the lavish Bahamas properties were being paid for with FTX operating cash that came from revenue and venture investments. He said having available property to rent was a necessary incentive if the company wanted to poach developers from Facebook and Google . As for the venture investments, Bankman-Fried said he thought that money was coming from Alameda's operating profits and third-party lending desks. Alameda's venture arm was renamed Clifton Bay Investments, which Bankman-Fried said was a first step in building a dedicated venture brand. When asked about loans he took from the business, Bankman-Fried said they were to pay for venture investments and political donations. He said that, as the primary owner of Alameda, he thought he had a few billion dollars in arbitrage profit from the past few years and there was no reason he couldn't borrow from it. He said the loans, except for the most recent one prior to the firm's bankruptcy filing, were all documented through promissory notes. Bankman-Fried said he never directed Singh or former FTX executive Ryan Salame to make political donations. Salame pleaded guilty in September to federal campaign finance and money-transmitting crimes, admitting that from fall 2021 to November 2022, he steered tens of millions of dollars of political contributions to both Democrats and Republicans in his own name when the money actually came from Alameda. Bankman-Fried, who allegedly used FTX customer funds to help finance over $100 million in political giving during the 2022 midterms, testified that he talked to politicians about pandemic prevention and crypto regulation. He said he had a vested interested in crypto policy even though FTX's U.S. operation was relatively small, because the company was seeking to offer crypto futures products in the U.S. Bankman-Fried then discussed his public persona. He said he hadn't intended to be the public face of the company because he's "naturally introverted." But a few interviews went well, and it snowballed from there. He said he was the only person at the company that the press sought. He wore T-shirts and shorts because they were comfortable and said he let his hair grow out because he was busy and lazy. Bankman-Fried was photographed at the 2022 Super Bowl in Los Angeles with Katy Perry. He told the jury, which was previously presented with the photo by the prosecution, that he thought it was natural to go to the game because he was in town for meetings and the company had a commercial running. "I thought maybe it would be interesting," he said.

Shifting blame to his ex-girlfriend

The afternoon testimony largely focused on Bankman-Fried's repeated and unsuccessful request to Ellison that she hedge Alameda's risk. Bankman-Fried said in late 2021, he had talked to Ellison about putting on trades to protect against the risk of market moves since Alameda had been leveraged long, meaning they would lose money if the market went down. Ellison said she would look into it, which Bankman-Fried said he "interpreted" as her being "far less enthusiastic about it." Over the course of 2022, Bankman-Fried said every two months he would check in to see if Alameda had hedged, and each time he was told not yet, but Ellison would say she was planning to do so in the near future. Specifically, Bankman-Fried said he had talked with Ellison and Ramnik Arora, who had been the head of product at FTX, about putting a $2 billion hedge on the company's investment in Genesis Digital Assets, a bitcoin miner. He told the jury that the hedge was never made. There was also more detail on how Bankman-Fried was told about FTX's $8 billion liability. According to the defendant, in October 2022, developers built a Google database that included financial data. That's where Bankman-Fried noticed the negative $8 billion balance, which he said he was "very surprised" to see. Cohen then brought the jury through the summer months of 2022, a time when Alameda's lenders, specifically Genesis, BlockFi, Celsius and Voyager, all had direct conversations with Bankman-Fried about the need for emergency capital. In the end, only BlockFi and Voyager received funds from Alameda and Bankman-Fried. In late 2021 and early 2022, Bankman-Fried said he wanted FTX revenue to be above $1 billion because it was a round number. He asked company executives if there were ways to reach that mark. Singh said he'd dealt with it by staking the company's investment in crypto token Serum, a way of putting the coins to work. That had added another $50 million in revenue. Bankman-Fried testified that he was "a little surprised" they found that additional money, but it got him to $1 billion.  CNBC's Dawn Giel contributed to this report WATCH: Sam Bankman-Fried testifying in his criminal case
The Employee Retention Credit was intended to be a financial lifeline to small businesses struggling to make ends meet during the pandemic. The government program, seemingly flush with cash, led to the emergence of an industry of its own, which focused on helping businesses claim the credits. Suddenly, a parade of ads encouraging businesses to apply for the credit were everywhere. Companies promised fast approvals and made statements claiming many businesses qualify for the Employee Retention Credit, or ERC. Some of the companies also took large percentages of the awarded refunds for their services. Demand for the aid surged, as businesses deemed eligible for the credit could claim up to $26,000 per employee by submitting amended tax returns for years in which their operations were affected by Covid-19. In September, the Internal Revenue Service, the agency that processes these credits, put a moratorium on new applications until 2024. The agency cited "questionable claims'' and "fraud" concerns across the entire industry. IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said the ERC program was not meant to become a "gravy train" for companies that promote and profit from the refund. The IRS has not named individual promotion companies or consultants. Innovation Refunds  a consulting firm that focuses on the ERC  was one of the most visible advertisers during the tax credit's heyday. CNBC spoke to 20 former employees and contractors at varying levels of the company, many of whom requested to remain anonymous due to fears of retaliation. From many of those interviews, a picture emerged of a company focused on "aggressive" growth and sales of the product that some called "bullying" or "hound"[ing] of small businesses, up against a "shot clock" to cash in on the ERC. But others spoke well of both their time at the company and its practices, saying it complied with guidelines and helped small businesses access needed capital.

How Innovation Refunds works

On its website, Innovation Refunds makes it clear it is not a tax professional. The company is positioned as a middleman between small business owners and independent tax attorneys. Innovation Refunds markets to clients, determines if they are viable candidates for the credit and then collects businesses' documentation. For its services, it charges a contingency fee, which amounts to 25% of the refund once it's paid out to the business, according to its website.



A person walks by a row of stores closed during the outbreak of Covid-19 in New York, March 28, 2020. Andrew Kelly | Reuters

Innovation Refunds does not, however, make the final decision on eligibility for the credit or determine how much money a business should receive. For this, it says it contracts independent tax attorneys and professionals. Some former employees said this could insulate Innovation Refunds from potential liability if ineligible businesses claimed the credit. Innovation Refunds doesn't sign off on the returns submitted to the agency  the independent tax partners and small businesses do, according to documents viewed by CNBC. The company also says it provides audit protection for small businesses, but would not outline what that entails when asked for comment. Innovation Refunds declined to participate in this story. A former employee in a leadership position said, in their opinion, because of this business model "management was encouraged to take aggressive tax positions on qualifications in order to maximize their contingency fee." Two other former workers echoed this view, saying the company put through businesses whose eligibility fell into a gray area. This was not the case, however, for those who were outright ineligible, as those businesses were rejected, the two former workers said. "Get as many deals through the door and let the IRS decide who was qualified," as one former midlevel accounting and finance employee put it. The ERC 'shot clock' Innovation Refunds spent millions to make businesses aware of its services. The company had ads appear on television during major sporting events and on CNBC, as well as radio and on social media. Many of the commercials featured the company's CEO, Howard Makler, and Ty Burrell, the affable father figure from ABC's "Modern Family." A representative for Burrell did not respond to requests for comment on this story. Some of these commercials touted a simple application process for small business owners, saying they could qualify in as little as eight minutes. In another TV ad, the company encouraged businesses to contact Innovation Refunds even if a CPA previously told them they don't qualify. "Our independent tax attorneys will work with your CPA to determine if your company is eligible," the ad said. In addition to these promotions, the company offered $1,000 gift cards to clients who referred other businesses that wound up filing, according to solicitation emails CNBC reviewed. The marketing worked. Through May, the company said it had processed more than $4 billion in ERC claims since the credit was introduced. Rob Domenico, the company's former executive vice president of financial partnerships, told CNBC the company had processed nearly $7 billion worth of claims and he was aware of fewer than 10 clients under audit when he left in mid-September as part of a round of layoffs, adding all had results "moving along positively." But advertising came to a halt for Innovation Refunds and other ERC companies after the IRS announced the moratorium that paused all new applications. "We believe we should see only a trickle of employee retention claims coming in. Instead, we are seeing a tsunami," Werfel told reporters on a media call Sept. 14.

IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel testifies during the Senate Finance Committee hearing on the fiscal year 2024 IRS budget and the IRS' 2023 filing season, in the Dirksen Building in Washington, D.C., April 19, 2023. Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images

The agency at the time said its inventory of unprocessed claims was over 600,000, virtually all of which had been received in the last 90 days, even though the program is more than three years old. Since its inception, more than 3.6 million claims have been submitted, with an estimated $230 billion paid out from the program since mid-September, according to the IRS. Makler promoted the idea that Innovation Refunds' mission was to help small businesses. "Small businesses are the foundation of our economy and are the motivation behind the work we do here at Innovation Refunds," he wrote on LinkedIn. But former employees and contractors, many of whom were tasked with selling the tax credit to businesses, said the metrics they were supposed to hit were "unrealistically high," which fostered an "aggressive" outreach approach. "It was being pushed down our throat to call, call, call, old leads that had already been called many times," one former contractor said. Nine former employees and contractors spoke of a culture of aggressive sales or growth targets, with several noting incentives to stay and sell. An internal email CNBC obtained said all employees hired by March 31, 2023, were eligible for a $100,000 bonus payment if the company closed 50,000 lifetime deals. Former employees said deal counts were broadcast on a screen at the company's headquarters in Des Moines. Another former employee said that as time passed, and prospective customers ran dry, the follow-ups with viable leads only got more aggressive. "If I were somebody receiving those emails or calls, I would feel like it was very scammy or spammy, and I would stay away from it," they said. The employee added that the company's visible advertising enticed many owners. But the person said the company did not initially have proper guidelines in place for sales staff for communicating with customers, adding that it didn't provide those rules until January.

Kate Rogers speaks with a former Innovation Refunds employee who says the company insulated itself from blame by partnering with outside tax attorneys and professionals. CNBC

'It only takes eight minutes to qualify'

There are two ways businesses can qualify for the ERC refund, according to IRS guidelines. The first is through a "gross receipts'' test  a more black-and-white method where a business needs to show revenue losses. The second way to qualify is if a government order impacted the business. The IRS continued to update language around the guidelines through September. Some have said the credit's guidelines, certain of which were open to interpretation, paved the way for promoters of the credit who profited off small business submissions. Former employees and contractors CNBC spoke with said most of the small businesses Innovation Refunds approved for the ERC credit were greenlit through the less clear-cut method, which it refers to as "limited commerce" on its website and in customer communications. Several former employees and contractors also told CNBC they understood limited commerce to be more "subjective" and encouraged many businesses to apply through this method. CNBC viewed an exchange between Innovation Refunds and a potential client prior to the Sept. 14 moratorium, where a sales representative told the company one of its third-party tax firms qualified it under "limited commerce" due to pandemic shutdown orders, even though the business was able to operate remotely. The IRS issued updated guidance as of the September moratorium that states "if all your employees were able to telework during the pandemic and your business continued to operate, your business wasn't suspended." On its website, Innovation Refunds writes, "The IRS expects 70-80% of SMBs are good candidates for taking the ERC." In a statement to CNBC, the IRS said it "has not published estimates of the percentage of taxpayers expected to qualify for the Employee Retention Credit." A former contractor said that if a claim was "totally questionable" the tax attorneys would reject it but that very few of the applications that person oversaw were denied. CNBC also spoke with several Innovation Refunds customers who said they were enticed with large preapproval estimates from the company. In one instance, a potential customer was sent a preapproval notice for more than $300,000. The company gave these emails titles such as "Apply or Say Goodbye" and "Save your place in line" to encourage prospective clients to apply for the credit through Innovation Refunds. But five of the 20 former employees and contractors CNBC spoke with spoke positively about their time at the company. Innovation Refunds employees "pride themselves on being ultra conservative and compliant," Domenico, the former executive vice president, wrote on LinkedIn after the IRS moratorium in September. He also told CNBC most of the company's leads were "already enticed by the marketing" and many of the businesses initiated the outreach to Innovation Refunds as a result. CNBC also spoke with a client who said applying for the ERC through Innovation Refunds was a "seamless" process. The client said they felt comfortable using the company because it had licensed and insured tax attorneys. "They did a good job," the client said. "It was very smooth  I had continuous communication with a number of their employees."

Lavish events and layoffs

Many of the former employees and contractors CNBC spoke with said the company appeared to prioritize employee well-being and offered enticing bonuses  at least at first. A free-spending culture also emerged as the company pursued business. Former workers described lavish large-scale events Innovation Refunds hosted for employees. For one holiday party, the company hired a marching band, had interpretation artists entertain guests and decorated the venue with Innovation Refunds-themed ice sculptures, three former employees said. "We saw a whole lot of use of capital in irresponsible ways," the former employee said. "Hosting very large, extravagant parties, showering employees with all kinds of gifts." Many former employees and contractors told CNBC the allure of big bonuses and a strong pipeline of leads initially drew them to the job. But as time went on and potential clients began to dry up, the draw of bonuses turned into an empty promise, as many said there were not enough leads for the $100,000 to pan out. "We were working on recycled leads," one former contractor said. "It got toward the end where people were complaining left and right because they were being called every day." Many former workers who spoke to CNBC said they feared losing their jobs as the company carried out several rounds of layoffs. Shortly after the IRS moratorium in September, Innovation Refunds abruptly laid off more than 40% of its staff and paused advertising, according to an internal memo CNBC reviewed. Makler, often eager to take center stage before employees, spoke briefly on a Zoom call looking visibly affected, two former employees said. The company sent Slack messages to those who lost their jobs, and shuttered their computer access. Many received 30 days of severance. The employees who remained after the layoffs were instructed to gather around a fire and toss a piece of paper with a negative emotion written on it into the flames, according to a video recording of the exercise CNBC obtained. "We must look like a bunch of complete weirdos," Makler said on the video. The video shows dozens of employees standing in a circle outdoors, with Makler at the center of the circle explaining the practice. Makler then tosses a piece of paper into the fire. "And with that, we can allow that energy to stay here so we can all get back to better things," he said.

Concerns across the industry

The IRS said it is now investigating a cottage industry that exploded onto the scene promoting the ERC program to small business owners, as well as investigating some businesses that filed for the credit. The Department of Justice is now involved to pursue what the agency in its moratorium announcement called fraud that is "fueled by aggressive marketing," without naming any individual companies. The IRS, which had been warning businesses about potential scams related to the ERC for months, continued to update eligibility guidance for submissions for the program, which had been open since 2020, through the moratorium. Across the industry, CPAs, attorneys and consultants have been raising red flags about the promotion of the ERC to small businesses who may not be eligible under IRS guidelines.

Jenn McCabe, a partner at accounting firm Armanino LLP, said she has been raising red flags about the promotion of the Employee Retention Credit to small businesses that may not be eligible under IRS guidelines. CNBC
The Israeli army is increasing its air attacks in Gaza and its ground forces are "expanding their activity" in the Gaza Strip, according to a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces. The news Friday came as a Palestinian data provider said internet service in the Gaza Strip has been cut off by Israeli bombardment.

A spokesperson for IDF said Hamas is running part of its campaign from underneath the al-Shifa Hospital in central Gaza. The IDF shared more details of its recent strikes, saying ground troops, fighter jets and drones struck anti-tank missile launch sites, command centers and control centers. The IDF also said operatives of Palestinian militant group Hamas were hit.

A large Israeli ground incursion into the Gaza Strip still appears likely, but humanitarian groups have warned against such a move, citing the worsening conditions for those trapped in the resource-deprived and blockaded enclave.

On Thursday, violence in the Middle East escalated as U.S. President Biden ordered fighter jet strikes in eastern Syria, targeting facilities used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The U.S. Department of Defense said the strikes were in retaliation for attacks on U.S. forces.

"These narrowly tailored strikes in self-defense were intended solely to protect and defend U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria," U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin said in a statement.
Palestinian members of the al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, take part in a gathering on Jan. 31, 2016, in Gaza City to pay tribute to their fellow militants who died after a tunnel collapsed in the Gaza Strip. Mahmud Hams | Afp | Getty Images

The United States Treasury Department announced a new round of sanctions targeting Hamas' fundraising network Friday, the department's second attempt to block Hamas' money supply since the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks that killed 1,400 Israelis and saw another 200 Israelis taken hostage. "A key reason for acting now is that we're seeing, in the wake of this month's attack, increased fundraising activity," said Brian Nelson, Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, in an interview with CNBC Friday. Nelson was in Saudi Arabia and Qatar this week, appealing for increased cooperation from Gulf countries, some of which maintain channels of communication with Hamas. Speaking from Doha, he said Treasury officials have stepped up their efforts to stop the money flow to Hamas in recent days.

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Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo was in London on Friday, where he laid out steps the United States and its partners are taking increase the financial pressure on Hamas. "While Hamas itself has been under sanctions for decades, we must go after new, emerging shell companies, middlemen, and facilitators," he said. "We are working with partners and allies around the globe to increase information sharing and collaboration to tackle terrorist financing," said Adeyemo. "Hamas should have nowhere to hide." In addition to international cooperation, Adeyemo also emphasized the role of banks and cryptocurrency platforms in the overall sanctions campaign. "Our expectation is that financial institutions and digital asset companies and others in the virtual currency ecosystem will take steps to prevent terrorists from being able to access resources," he said. "If they do not act to prevent illicit financial flows, the United States and our partners will."

Friday's new sanctions targeted several members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard who the United States said have been raising money for Hamas in various ways, including through two newly listed entities, "Islamic National Bank" and the "Al-Ansar Charity Association." The charity, "serves as a recruiting tool for terrorist activities," Treasury said in its sanctions announcement. Sanctions designations were also issued against front companies in Turkey, Spain and Sudan. "Don't expect this to be Treasury's last action," Matt Levitt, a former intelligence analyst at Treasury, told CNBC in an interview Friday. A leading expert on terror financing at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Levitt testified twice on Capitol Hill this week about how Hamas gets its money, and what can be done to stop it.
Intel (INTC) shares are on a tear Friday after reporting strong third-quarter results Thursday evening, a rally that CNBC's Jim Cramer said may continue on signs of a rebound in the personal computer business.

The major supplier of semiconductors that power PCs beat earnings estimates and issued strong revenue guidance, sending shares roughly 10% higher on Friday.

"They're winning a lot of business and there should be some new product," Cramer said on "Squawk on the Street." "This was a good clean quarter."

If you like this story, sign up for Jim Cramer's Top 10 Morning Thoughts on the Market email newsletter for free.

Jim described the period ended Sept. 30 as "very positive" for the company, adding that many stocks such as Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) also stand to benefit if indeed the PC market is back.

AMD and Intel dominate the market for central processing units, or CPUs, that are the brains of PCs.

Cramer's Charitable Trust does not own Intel, but previously held AMD, which is back in the Investing Club's Bullpen, a list of stocks being watched closely by Cramer and his analyst team.

While Club name Nvidia (NVDA) does have a lot of its graphics processing units, or GPUs, in PCs to power video games and other visual-intensive tasks, its overall business is not as reliant on the PC market compared with Intel and AMD.

Nvidia derives most of its revenue from data center chips used by cloud providers and other companies to run artificial intelligence and other tasks that require lots of computing power.

There was a report this week, however, that Nvidia might be looking to leverage its alliance with Arm Holdings (ARM) to make CPUs. Apple (AAPL), another Club name, uses Arm technology in the making of its in-house chips.
Law enforcement personnel block a road as they search a house on Meadow Road in Bowdoin, Maine, on Oct. 26, 2023. Salwan Georges | The Washington Post | Getty Images

Authorities in Maine on Friday released the names of the 18 victims who died in a mass shooting at a bowling alley and bar in the town of Lewiston, as a massive search effort for the suspect continues for the second day. The names of the 18 victims were read during a press conference Friday evening. A moment of silence was held after the reading. They ranged in age from 14 to 76. Robert Card, 40, of Bowdoin, Maine, is wanted on multiple counts of murder. Card is considered armed and dangerous and should not be approached under any circumstances, police said. Authorities have lifted a shelter-in-place order but asked the public to remain vigilant as they search for Card.

The 18 people who died in the Lewiston shooting Ronald G. Morin, 55 Peyton Brewer-Ross, 40 Joshua A. Seal, 36 Bryan M. MacFarlane, 41 Joseph Lawrence Walker, 57 Arthur Fred Strout, 42 Maxx A. Hathaway, 35 Stephen M. Vozzella, 45 Thomas Ryan Conrad, 34 Michael R. Deslauriers II, 51 Jason Adam Walker, 51 Tricia C. Asselin, 53 William A. Young, 44 Aaron Young, 14 Robert E. Violette, 76 Lucille M. Violette, 73 William Frank Brackett, 48 Keith D. Macneir, 64

Police are canvassing neighborhoods, combing the woods and dive teams are searching the Androscoggin River near a boat launch where Card's white Subaru was found. Law enforcement officials have received more than 530 tips and leads from the public so far, said Mike Sauschuck, Maine's public safety commissioner. Sauschuck was asked Friday whether he was concerned the trail may be growing cold given that Card remains at large as the search continues for a second day. "Every minute that this goes on, we're more and more concerned," Sauschuck told reporters at a briefing. "That's why we're working 24/7 to bring this individual to justice and to try to bring some closure and overall safety to our communities." Card is a trained firearms instructor and a sergeant first class in the Army Reserve, where he serves as a petroleum supply specialist. He has no combat deployments on record, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. As recently as this summer, Card suffered from mental health issues, law enforcement and Defense Department officials told NBC News. His superiors in the Army sent him to an inpatient facility in July after he claimed he was hearing voices and made threats to the base. There, Card underwent psychiatric treatment for two weeks and was then released, officials said.

In this image from video released by the Androscoggin County Sheriff's Office, a gunman enters Just-In-Time Recreation in Lewiston, Maine, on Oct. 25, 2023. Androscoggin County Sheriff's Office via AP

The rifle used by the gunman was purchased legally this year, law enforcement told NBC News. Police said a shooter opened fire at the Just-in-Time Recreation bowling alley and Schemengees Bar and Grille on Wednesday evening, killing seven people at the bowling alley and eight people at the bar. Three people were later pronounced dead at the hospital. The two businesses are about 12 minutes apart by car.
No-mad | Istock | Getty Images

The United Auto Workers union has brought new attention to the idea of a 32-hour workweek as part of its strike demands. Turns out, most workers would embrace a shorter workweek. A recent Bankrate survey found 81% of full-time workers want a four-day workweek. That goes particularly for younger workers ages 18 to 42, with 83% embracing that work schedule, the personal finance website found. The enthusiasm for a four-day workweek comes as the Covid-19 pandemic prompted many workers to question the so-called "hustle culture" that has defined traditional full-time in-office work. Many people now want a better work-life balance, prompting workers to want to continue to work from home rather than returning to the office. "When you look at these younger generations, they might be more shaped by some of the changes that we felt from the pandemic," said Sarah Foster, economic analyst at Bankrate.

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To get a four-day workweek, 48% of Gen Z and millennial workers said they would be willing to work longer hours; 35% said they would change jobs or companies; 33% said they would work fully in person; 20% said they would take fewer vacation days; 13% said they would accept a pay cut; and 12% said they would take a step back in their careers. Yet it remains to be seen whether the idea will be widely adopted by employers. "It's still nontraditional," Foster said. "Because so many Americans want it, it's probably going to mean competing for those relatively few jobs that offer the perk."

Employers are emphasizing well-being

In the meantime, Gen Z and millennial workers still say their top priority is higher pay, with 32%, according to Bankrate's research. But better work-life balance came in a close second, with 31%. That includes flexible working hours, more time off and the ability to work from home. "Employees want their organizations to share in their sense of well-being," said Julie Schweber, senior knowledge advisor at the Society for Human Resource Management, or SHRM. Employers, in turn, are making efforts to show they care about workers' well-being. More from Personal Finance:

6 key terms to know as health insurance open enrollment starts

The connection between workers' mental health, retirement savings

As mortgage rates hit 8%, home 'affordability is incredibly difficult' That includes expanded mental health resources and benefits, and more options for paid or unpaid leave for family and child care, Schweber said. Employers are also expanding their wellness offerings in areas such as handling stress and financial planning, as well as enhanced insurance subsidies, on-site flu and Covid shots and health screenings. The availability of a formal four-day workweek is still limited, Schweber said. The perks workers might find more widely available instead include unlimited vacation time, flexible hours or "Summer Fridays" where employees can either leave early or not work at all on Fridays during the summer, she said.

How to ask for flexibility
The logo of NatWest, a retail unit of RBS, outside a bank branch in London, U.K., on Tuesday, June 26, 2012. Simon Dawson | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Trading in NatWest shares was briefly suspended on Friday morning as the stock slid after a combination of lacklustre earnings and regulators flagging possible rule-breaking in a highly mediatized case. Shares fell as much as 17% in morning trade, and were 10.7% lower at 11:14 a.m. London time  marking the steepest single-day fall for the bank since 2020, according to LSEG data. The U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority on Friday announced that its report into NatWest Group and its wealth management subsidiary Coutts found "potential regulatory breaches and a number of areas for improvement." These included the systems and controls around how they consider account closures and customer complaints, along with the effectiveness of governance mechanisms. The report was commissioned by NatWest, which is 39% state-owned.

A scandal erupted over the summer over the closure of the Coutts account of Brexit figurehead Nigel Farage, for which the politician said the lender did not initially provide a reason. Farage filed a subject access request to obtain a dossier that the bank held on him, which addressed his political views. NatWest CEO Alison Rose then admitted to discussing Farage's bank account with a BBC reporter, supplying information that was used in a story and later proved to be inaccurate. She eventually resigned in July, amid heavy criticism. The FCA said it will now further investigate the banks' processes.

Alison Rose, NatWest chief executive, (right) departs 10 Downing Street in London, after meeting with Chancellor Jeremy Hunt. James Manning | PA Images | Getty Images

NatWest said in a statement that it had accepted and would implement all recommendations in the review. It added that it would also make its own changes to "ensure that the lawfully protected beliefs or opinions of customers do not play any role in exit, retention or onboarding decisions." NatWest Group Chairman Howard Davies said the report "sets out a number of serious failings in the treatment of Mr Farage." Davies said the findings showed a "lawful basis for the exit decision" but "clear shortcomings in how it was reached as well as failures in how we communicated with him and in relation to client confidentiality."

NatWest results
China has changed the world's energy system before and is set to do so again, as a peak in demand for fossil fuels nears, according to the International Energy Agency's Executive Director.

Fatih Birol said that there was one country behind the substantial increase in global fossil fuel consumption over the last decade: China.

"China changed the global energy system in the last 10 years. And China itself is changing now," he told CNBC's Julianna Tatelbaum on Tuesday. "[The] Chinese economy is slowing down and ... rebalancing, restructuring."

He described this as one of two "important drivers" behind the IEA's belief that global demand for fossil fuels will peak by 2030. The comments come after the IEA published its World Energy Outlook 2023, a major report on the global energy system.

According to the analysis, demand for oil, coal and natural gas is on course to peak before the end of this decade, with fossil fuels' share in the world's energy supply dropping to 73% by the year 2030 after being "stuck for decades at around 80%."

In relation to China, the IEA's report describes it as accounting for "more than 50% of global energy demand growth and 85% of the rise in energy sector CO2 emissions" in the past decade.
KSUM-incubated Techmaghi secures Rs 20 lakhs startup seed fund

Kochi, Oct 27 (UNI) Ed-tech firm Techmaghi got a fund of Rs 20 lakh from startup-supporting LJ Knowledge Foundation, taking forward the Kerala companys mission to bridge a gap between industries and educational institutions through up-skilling courses that meet the demands of a modern workforce.

The 2021-founded Techmaghi, which is incubating under Kerala Startup Mission, said the partnership with the Ahmedabad-based LJKF will catalyse the companys expansions towards reaching out to more students and professionals. "This funding will allow us to make a more significant impact on cutting-edge education and skill development," according to Techmaghi Founder CEO Deepak Rajan.

The funding from the Gujarat NGO comes as a CCD (compulsorily convertible debenture) for Techmaghi, which functions at the Maker Village at KINFRA Hightech Park in Kalamassery, 20 km north of the city. Launched in 2021 with a modest 30-member team, Techmaghi is today a leading education provider, having trained more than 75,000 students, generating revenue of more than Rs 2 crore.

The company's primary focus lies in the core engineering fields, equipping individuals with the skills and knowledge necessary to excel in competitive job market. We attribute much of our success to the support of KSUM, added Rajan.

KSUM is Kerala governments nodal agency established in 2006 for entrepreneurship development and incubation activities in the state.

UNI DS AKS
Representative George Santos, a Republican from New York, gestures to protestors and members of the media after exiting federal court in Central Islip, New York, US, on Friday, Oct. 27, 2023.

Republican Rep. George Santos of New York on Friday pleaded not guilty to new criminal wire fraud and identity theft charges that were added to his ongoing federal theft and money laundering case.

Santos' trial is scheduled for Sept. 9, 2024, a federal judge ruled at his brief arraignment hearing in U.S. District Court in Long Island.

Santos gave no comment to reporters outside the courthouse.

The 10 new felony counts accuse the embattled freshman lawmaker of submitting false campaign finance reports and charging his campaign donors' credit cards without their permission.

Ahead of his plea, the 35-year-old Santos had repeated his promise not to resign from office. His trial is set to begin less than two months before he is expected to face voters in New York's 3rd congressional district.

Santos has ignored a bipartisan group of state and federal lawmakers who have been calling on him to step down since before he was sworn into Congress in January.

On Thursday, Santos' fellow House Republicans from New York moved to force a vote on whether to kick him out of Congress. But Republican Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana, the newly elected speaker of the House, said in an interview last night that Santos deserves "due process," after noting that the GOP holds a razor-thin majority in the chamber.

A lawyer for Santos declined CNBC's request for comment.

Santos has admitted to lying about his employment and education history during his campaign, and has also since been linked to numerous other scandals. But he has denied criminal wrongdoing.

In May, federal prosecutors filed a 13-count indictment accusing Santos of defrauding supporters of his congressional campaign by soliciting contributions that he then used for his personal expenses, including designer clothes and credit card payments.

He was also charged with fraudulently obtaining more than $24,000 in unemployment benefits, and with reporting false income and asset data on congressional disclosure forms.

The new, superseding indictment filed Oct. 10 described two new criminal schemes.

"Santos is charged with stealing people's identities and making charges on his own donors' credit cards without their authorization, lying to the [Federal Election Commission] and, by extension, the public about the financial state of his campaign," a U.S. attorney said in a press release announcing the new indictment.

"Santos falsely inflated the campaign's reported receipts with non-existent loans and contributions that were either fabricated or stolen," the prosecutor added.

The superseding indictment followed the guilty plea of Santos' former campaign treasurer, Nancy Marks. She pleaded guilty on Oct. 5 to conspiring with a congressional candidate to commit wire fraud, among other charges.

Marks is prominently featured in the latest charges against Santos.

In mid-May, Santos pleaded not guilty to the charges in his original indictment, the most serious of which carry 20-year maximum prison sentences.

In August, Samuel Miele, a former Santos fundraiser, was charged with impersonating a top aide to former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy during phone calls with potential donors.

Miele's attorneys are in negotiations with federal prosecutors about a possible plea deal.
Spirit Airlines will suspend training for new pilots and flight attendants next month "until further notice," according to company memos, as it plans for slower growth amid softer demand and the expected grounding of dozens of aircraft for inspections because of a manufacturing problem with some Airbus planes' engines.

The company had already slowed hiring and captain upgrades, Greg Christopher, vice president of flight operations at Spirit, said Thursday in a memo to pilots, which was seen by CNBC. "With these recent developments, however, we will also be suspending all new-hire training efforts starting in November, until further notice."

The company told flight attendants that it will halt new flight attendant training starting Nov. 7 for the foreseeable future. It is also planning to offer voluntary time off for cabin crew members, according to a separate memo from Tina Milton, vice president of inflight experience.

A Spirit spokesman confirmed the changes.

"This is not a decision we've taken lightly, but it's necessary to ensure our crew staffing levels match our operational need given the number of aircraft we can fly," he said in a statement.

The Miramar, Florida-based discount carrier said it expects to have to ground an average of 26 Airbus A320neo aircraft for inspections of engines made by RTX unit Pratt & Whitney after that company disclosed a manufacturing defect in August. The carrier said it expects 13 grounded planes in January, rising to 41 in December of next year. The airline had a fleet of 202 Airbus planes as of Sept. 30, according to a filing.

"This expectation drives a dramatic decrease in the Company's near-term growth projections," Spirit said in a filing. It said it expects capacity to be flat to up mid-single digits next year compared with 2023. The airline is in talks with RTX about compensation for the issue.

Last month, RTX said it expected repairs to take between 250 and 300 days, with an average of 350 planes powered by the geared turbofan engines grounded worldwide between 2024 and 2026.

The budget airline Spirit on Thursday posted a net loss of $157.6 million, which was more than four times its loss a year ago. It forecast negative margins for the last three months of the year.

"We continue to see discounted fares for travel booked through the pre-Thanksgiving period," CEO Ted Christie said in an earnings release. "And, unfortunately, we have not seen the anticipated return to a normal demand and pricing environment for the peak holiday periods."

JetBlue Airways is in the process of trying to acquire Spirit, a deal the Justice Department has already sued to block. The trial is expected to begin next week in Boston.

Frontier Airlines , a fellow discount carrier, continues to hire flight attendants, pilots, and mechanics, an airline spokeswoman said.



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U.S. President-elect Joe Biden speaks as he campaigns on behalf of Democratic U.S. Senate candidates from Georgia Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, ahead of their January 5 run-off elections, during a drive-in campaign rally in Atlanta, Georgia, January 4, 2021.

Phillips, a multimillionaire serving his third term in the House, registered Friday to appear on New Hampshire's Democratic primary ballot. The Granite state is no longer the first primary for Democrats, however, after the Democratic National Committee approved a new calendar this year that put South Carolina first.

Phillips told reporters Friday that he tried to speak to Biden by phone on Thursday, but the president did not take his call. Phillips also tried to call Biden three months ago, when he first considered entering the race. Biden did not speak to him then, either.

Allies of President Joe Biden barely acknowledged Phillips' formal entrance into the race this week. In a prepared response to Phillips' announcement, Biden 2024 campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz did not even mention him by name.

WASHINGTON  For team Biden, Rep. Dean Phillips , the Minnesota Democrat who launched a longshot primary challenge against the president, is barely a blip on the radar.

U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN)(R) holds a rally outside of the N.H. Statehouse after handing over his declaration of candidacy form for President to the New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan, on October 27, 2023 in Concord, New Hampshire.

More than a dozen Biden allies and campaign aides contacted by CNBC Friday to discuss Phillips' challenge did not respond to requests for comment. But a few did.

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said Phillips is "not mounting a serious or meaningful bid to be president of the United States."

"The stakes are too high in this election  especially for Black voters  to be focused on a side-show vanity project rather than what's best for our party and our country," Dickens wrote in an email to CNBC.

Phillips, for his part, insists that his running against Biden will not work to the advantage of the eventual Republican nominee, a field currently dominated by former President Donald Trump.

"That conventional wisdom [that] a primary to a sitting president will help the alternative is nonsensical to me," Phillips said Friday on Meet the Press Now.

One of Phillips' fellow members of Congress was a little easier on him. "I like and respect Dean," said Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa. "But I'm a 'Day One' supporter of Joe Biden and that isn't changing." Both Boyle and Dickens serve on the Biden campaign's national advisory board.

Phillips is also a Biden supporter, judging from his voting record in Congress, which he stands by.

"I admire the president. I voted for those policies because they're good ones and they will be making a difference over time," he told Meet the Press Now host Kristen Welker.

This was the same point White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre made earlier in the week, when was asked about Phillips' anticipated entry into the race.

"We appreciate the congressman's almost 100% support of this president," she said. Jean-Pierre is prohibited by law from endorsing candidates from the White House lectern.

For months, Phillips has been giving interviews suggesting that Biden, 80, is effectively too old to be president.

Phillips has also said a competitive primary will ultimately make Biden a stronger candidate if the president wins.

Still, it's not clear exactly what Phillips hopes to accomplish with his run.

"I'm not running against Joe Biden. I'm not running against President Biden," he said on MTP Now. "I'm running for the future."
In this article CVS

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Signs offering COVID-19 vaccinations are seen outside of a CVS pharmacy in Washington, DC. Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images

The company's ongoing efforts are focused on how it can recruit, retain and reward pharmacy staff, the spokesperson said. They added that Walgreens has improved technology and centralized many operations to help maintain appropriate workloads in pharmacies. A spokesperson for CVS said the company is facing "unprecedented demand and a clinical workforce shortage in the health care industry and [is] making targeted investments in our retail pharmacy business in direct response to feedback from our pharmacy teams." Those investments include enabling teams to schedule additional support as needed, enhancing pharmacist and technician recruitment and hiring and strengthening pharmacy technician training, according to the spokesperson. They said those changes will begin in November and roll out throughout next year. Here's what a typical day looks like for some staff from the two chains, according to the accounts related to CNBC.

Walgreens pharmacist

A Walgreens pharmacist said their shifts range anywhere from six to 12 hours on three to five days of the week. The pharmacist said they typically arrive for work at 8 a.m., an hour before the shift. The pharmacist typically begins the shift by completing several paperwork tasks, which take about five to 10 minutes. Then, the pharmacist checks which medications are out of stock. The pharmacist said that task is primarily the responsibility of pharmacy technicians, but it often falls to them because their colleagues are stretched thin with other duties. The pharmacist also takes about 20 to 30 minutes to check which medications weren't delivered to the pharmacy by drug distributors, and calls patients to inform them about when they can expect their prescriptions to be ready. The pharmacist then spends 10 to 15 minutes canceling vaccination appointments for shots the pharmacy doesn't have in stock, which involves calling patients and redirecting them to other store locations with vaccines available. The pharmacist said Walgreens is allowing people to schedule appointments for any vaccine online, even if a store location doesn't have it in stock. The Walgreens spokesperson acknowledged that some pharmacy locations had to reschedule appointments when vaccines first became available this fall due to delays in supply, and added that the chain has apologized for any inconvenience caused to consumers. However, the spokesperson said that all locations had the necessary supply "within a few days." By 9:15 a.m., vaccine appointments begin and continue until 6:45 p.m., according to the pharmacist. Their store usually takes one appointment every 15 minutes, and some patients get up to four vaccines at a time. The pharmacist and a pharmacy technician then juggle administering shots with several other tasks. Giving jabs has become even more challenging in recent months due to the arrival of new vaccines against Covid and respiratory syncytial virus. Among the other duties is addressing the prickly problems related to insurance coverage for prescriptions, the pharmacist said. Their store receives 100 to 160 insurance issues in their system each day, so the pharmacist dedicates up to three 30-minute to one-hour chunks of their shift to addressing them. Both pharmacists and technicians also have to tend to customers in-store and over the phone. The pharmacist said they get eight to 10 phone calls per hour on average, which can take up to 10 to 15 minutes each.

A sign advertises COVID-19 (coronavirus) vaccine shots at a Walgreens Pharmacy in Somerville, Massachusetts, August 14, 2023. Brian Snyder | Reuters

All of those tasks  along with other minor responsibilities  are additional to the pharmacist's main job of verifying and dispensing prescriptions. The technician typically handles the first part of that task, which involves processing new prescription orders from doctors. The pharmacist said they have to check that all prescription information entered into the system matches what the doctor ordered for a patient. Their store typically receives 300 prescriptions a day, so the pharmacist said they review around 25 an hour. A technician or the pharmacist then fills those prescriptions, and the pharmacist does a final review to make sure the medications in the bottles are correct. The pharmacist said they are often interrupted when performing tasks, given the urgency of other issues. The disruptions can create a backlog of work. The pharmacist noted that the pharmacy closes for their scheduled lunch break from 1:30 p.m. to 2 p.m., which they often work through. By lunch, they often have to address new insurance issues or catch up on other work they couldn't get to while working directly with patients.

Pharmacy technicians from CVS, Walgreens

Pharmacy technicians are medical professionals who work alongside pharmacists to help and support patients. One CVS pharmacy technician said they typically come to their store location at 7:50 a.m., 10 minutes before their eight-hour shift starts. The technician said they typically work with one to two other technicians and one pharmacist during their shift, which they believe is not enough to handle the workload. The technician said they start off their day by processing new prescription orders from doctors  a task that they continuously do throughout the day. The technician said they have to match each prescription to the patient profile in the CVS system and enter all the correct information before sending it to a pharmacist for review. The technician also takes care of another part of the process, which involves filling the prescriptions and printing labels before the pharmacist reviews it for a final time. They said their store location's prescription volume is 600 to 1,000 per day. The technician said that as soon as their store location opens, they and their co-workers have to handle dozens of patient phone calls, and customers waiting to get their prescriptions or other essentials through the drive-thru. In addition to filling prescriptions and tending to patients, the technician said they alternate performing several other tasks throughout the day. The duties include administering vaccines and returning medications that weren't picked up by patients to pharmacy shelves.

A CVS pharmacy stands in a Brooklyn neighborhood on February 08, 2023 in New York City. Spencer Platt | Getty Images
Former Prime Minister and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan could face serious legal consequences after the Islamabad High Court on Thursday rejected his plea seeking bail and quashing the First Information Report (FIR) related to the cipher case.

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) dismissed Imran Khan's petition seeking a halt in proceedings against him in the cipher case by a special court under the Official Secrets Act, Geo TV reported.

The former Prime Minister and his then foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi were indicted in the cipher case by the special court on Monday under the charges of violating the secret law by misusing and misplacing the diplomatic cable based on conversations between Pakistan's envoy to Washington and the US diplomat during the tenure of his government last year, the report added.

What is the Cipher Case against Imran Khan?

Cipher, in simple terms, is a secret, restricted diplomatic communication written in a code language, with specific numbers and dates assigned to it. Deeply encrypted and challenging to decode, cipher documents are categorised into grades I and II, with the former having limited circulation compared to the latter. These documents are machine-generated based on the distribution list, and making copies of them is against the law. The original copies are stored at the Foreign Office.

The cipher case revolves around Khans speech and the public display of a confidential diplomatic letter at a rally following his ouster in a parliamentary no-confidence vote in 2022. Khan claimed that the document, known as Cipher, was proof of a US-backed conspiracy orchestrated by Pakistans military establishment. However, the content of this letter has not been made public either by the government or Khans legal team. The case alleges that Khan violated secret laws by revealing state secrets through his actions.

Imran Khan was arrested in August for allegedly violating the Official Secrets Act by disclosing a secret diplomatic communication sent to the Pakistan Embassy in Washington in March last year.

Trial of the case

Imran Khan alleged that the US had pressed Pakistans military to orchestrate his governments fall due to his visit to Russia shortly before its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, according to a report by Al Jazeera.

The charges of revealing state secrets in the Cypher case carry severe penalties, ranging from life imprisonment to the death penalty in extreme cases, as per one of Imran Khans defence lawyers, Umair Niazi, a Times of India report mentioned.

Both Imran Khan and PTI leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who was also indicted in the Cipher case, have pleaded not guilty to the charges. Qureshi was named as the main offender in the cypher case in a chargesheet submitted by Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), a Dawn report added.

Notably, the case against Imran Khan comes at a time when he was barred from contesting national elections for five years due to his previous conviction in corruption cases. In August, he was convicted in a separate corruption case, where he was sentenced to three years in jail for unlawfully selling state gifts during his tenure as prime minister from 2018 to 2022.

Despite Imran Khans claims of a US conspiracy, both American and Pakistani officials have denied any involvement in the collapse of his government.

A Timeline of Cipher Case

August 30: An FIR was filed against Imran Khan and Qureshi for violating Official Secrets Act. Their judicial custody was extended till September 13 and then till September 26.

September 30: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) filed the chargesheet in the special court naming Qureshi as the principal accused in the cipher case.

October 17: The special court adjourned the indictment hearing after Imran Khans lawyer raised an objection that they were not provided with a copy of the charge sheet.

October 23: A special court established under the Official Secrets Act indicted Imran Khan and Shah Mahmood Qureshi in the cipher case.

October 26: The Islamabad High Court rejected Khan's petition challenging his indictment in the case.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 27)  The Office of the Ombudsman has ordered the dismissal of two officials from the Department of Agriculture (DA) and Food Terminal Incorporated (FTI) after finding them guilty of grave misconduct in the probe into the onion supply issue that caused prices to shoot up last year.

In its decision, the Ombudsman dismissed DA Assistant Secretary Kristine Evangelista for grave misconduct, and FTI Vice President for Operations John Gabriel Benedict Trinidad III for negligence of duty. Both were deemed guilty of conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service.

The Ombudsman also found probable cause to indict Evangelista, Trinidad, and several other individuals for violating the Anti-graft and Corrupt Practices Act (RA 3019), and for "falsification by private individuals and use of falsified documents (Art. 172 of the Revised Penal Code)."

The officials were allegedly involved in the onion shortage and price manipulation, as well as the questionable procurement of the produce. https://www.cnnphilippines.com/news/2023/8/1/ombudsman-preventive-suspension-da-fti-onion-probe.html

The Ombudsman said the DA had inked a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the FTI for the Kadiwa Food Hub project, while the latter also had a deal with the Bonena Multi-Purpose Cooperative for the delivery of 8,845 bags of onions, with about 28 kilograms per bag, for the Kadiwa Food Hub.

The officials allegedly violated procurement rules, including the "lack of parameters in the selection of a cooperative that will supply and deliver the onions; questionable advance payment of 50% of the contract price; non-compliance of the MOA; partial implementation of the contract; and doubtful deliveries by Bonena."

The charges against co-respondents DA Senior Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban, DA Administrative Officer V Eunice Biblanias, DA OIC-Chief Accountant Lolita Jamela, and FTI Budget Division Head Juanita Lualhati were dropped due to lack of probable cause.

The charges against FTI President Robert Tan were also dismissed after he agreed to testify for the prosecution.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 27)  The Philippines is looking for other partner-investors to fund big-ticket transport infrastructure projects after the Department of Transportation (DOTr) dropped China as its partner for three main projects, Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista said.

In a statement released Thursday, Bautista said the South Long Haul Project, Mindanao Railway Project, and Subic-Clark Railway were dropped as Chinese official development assistance (ODA) interest has "waned."

"'Yun ang hahanapan namin ng additional funding or replacement (We are looking for additional funding or replacement for those)," Bautista said.

"We will look for another funding source. We are working on that now," he added, mentioning that the DOTr has requested assistance from the Department of Finance (DOF).

Bautista, however, said he is "not saddened" at losing China as a partner for the big projects, citing other funding assistance sources.

"Ang options natin (Our other options), we can still go to other official ODA. Nandiyan pa rin ang JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency), nandiyan ang ADB (Asian Development Bank), nandiyan ang World Bank (JICA, ADB, and World Bank are still there)," he explained.

"There are other governments talking to us with the possibility of supporting the financing of these projects," he added.

Senator Grace Poe, chairperson of the Senate committee on public services, said the country's withdrawal of its request for ODA from China should not derail the implementation of infrastructure programs.

"It's time to explore ODAs from other countries and seek available funding options from multilateral institutions and international assistance agencies that can deliver the goods," Poe said.

The senator further said Chinese banks have kept projects in "suspended animation" with delays in loan applications for a number of government projects.

Poe said this after the DOF informed Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian that the country's request for ODA from Beijing for the 83-billion Mindanao Railway Phase 1 Tagum-Davao-Digos segment was pulled out.

"A strategic move would also be to tap the private sector which holds the potential of accelerating infrastructure development and bringing innovative and efficient services," she added.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 27)  The Office of the Ombudsman has junked the murder and grave misconduct complaints against Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla and Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Director-General Gregorio Catapang filed by former Bucor chief Gerald Bantag.

The Ombudsman dismissed the complaints for lack of probable cause and substantial evidence, in documents shown to CNN Philippines on Friday.

Bantag accused Remulla of masterminding the killing of radio broadcaster Percy Lapid in October last year.

He also alleged that Remulla was responsible for the death of supposed middleman Jun Villamor.

Catapang was included in Bantag's complaint for allowing inmates to be transferred from New Bilibid Prison to the custody of the National Bureau of Investigation.

Bantag alleged that Remulla had a motive to order the death of Lapid after the broadcaster criticized the secretary in an episode of his show which aired days before he was shot to death.

Bantag remains at large for the murder of Lapid and Villamor.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 27)  Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla has signed the department circular on the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of Republic Act No. 11643 or the law granting benefits to dependents of a deceased retired prosecutor.

With the IRR, the family of a qualified prosecutor who died on or after Feb. 8, 2021 shall now be eligible to receive survivorship benefits, that is, all accrued retirement benefits that a deceased prosecutor ought to have received if he or she were still alive.

In a career fraught with stress from high caseloads amid challenging environments, not to mention the inherent hazards of the job, the law offers a measure of social protection for the surviving heirs of public prosecutors who will find themselves orphaned by their breadwinner, Remulla said in his speech.

The law provides that the legitimate spouse shall continue to receive retirement benefits until the spouse remarries.

The spouse and dependent children shall equally share the retirement benefits.

I ask for nothing more than for our prosecutors to do justice to every Filipino, by enforcing the law without fear or favor, with integrity, fairness, and promptness, and by ensuring due process, protecting human dignity and upholding human rights, Remulla noted.
Jerusalem and Gaza (CNN)  Israel conducted a targeted raid using tanks in northern Gaza before withdrawing, its military said Thursday, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned a ground incursion into the besieged enclave will take place.

Video published by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Thursday showed tanks and armored vehicles, including a bulldozer, moving on a road near a fence in northern Gaza. The tanks fired artillery, and some destruction could be seen nearby.

Speaking to CNN, IDF spokesperson Peter Lerner said the raid, which he described as large but limited in scope, was a clear and sweep operation intended to create better terms for ground operations if and when that comes in.

We actually engaged the enemy, killing terrorists who were planning to conduct attacks against us with anti-tank guided missiles, he said.

The soldiers exited the area at the end of the activity, the IDF statement concluded.

The raid comes as new satellite images revealed the devastation wrought by Israels bombs in the embattled Gaza Strip.

As the humanitarian crisis reaches a critical point in Gaza, with daily airstrikes, life-saving fuel on the verge of running out and health services crippled, pressure is building on the international community to get Israel to allow desperately needed aid into Gaza, with more countries advocating for a humanitarian pause in fighting.

We are raining down hellfire on Hamas, Netanyahu said in a televised address Wednesday evening, while claiming Israel has already eliminated thousands of terrorists  and this is only the beginning.

At the same time, we are preparing for a ground incursion, he added, but said the decision on when such action would be taken would be decided by Israels War Cabinet.

The prime minister also acknowledged for the first time that he will have to give answers for the intelligence failures that allowed the worst terror attack in Israeli history, saying it will be examined fully after the war.

Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas, the militant group which controls Gaza, in response to its October 7 deadly terror attacks and kidnap rampage in which 1,400 people, mostly civilians, were killed and more than 200 taken hostage.

Israeli forces said they killed the deputy head of Hamas Intelligence Directorate  one of the Hamas officials they say is partially responsible for planning the October 7 attacks  in a joint statement Thursday from the IDF and Shin Bet, the Israeli Security Agency.

Based on precise IDF and ISA intelligence, IDF fighter jets struck the Deputy Head of the Hamas Intelligence Directorate, Shadi Barud, the statement said, adding that Barud previously served as Hamas battalion commander in Khan Yunis and had held several other positions in Hamas military intelligence.

The IDF and ISA also released footage they claim shows the strikes that killed Barud, showing at least two damaged buildings in Gaza appearing to collapse.

Hamas has not commented on the claim.

Its retaliatory air assault on what Israel calls Hamas terror infrastructure has since devastated the densely-populated 140-square-mile enclave, which had been described by rights groups as an open-air prison long before the current war began.

New satellite images released by Maxar taken on October 21, show significant destruction to sites across northern Gaza, with entire neighborhoods flattened in eastern Beit Hanoun and similar devastation near the Al Shati Refugee Camp, Atatra and Izbat Beit Hanoun.

The IDF told civilians to leave the crowded northern portion of the Palestinian enclave, where the bombardment has been especially severe. But it has also continued to bomb areas in the south, with a CNN producer in Gaza saying there is no safe area.

Israeli strikes have killed more than 6,850 people and injured a further 17,000 in Gaza since October 7, according to figures released Thursday by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah drawn from sources in the Hamas-controlled enclave.

At a press conference Thursday, Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra said 12 hospitals had been rendered non-operational since Israels bombing campaign began, and 101 medical personnel had been killed.

He accused Israeli forces of deliberately causing a complete collapse of the healthcare system by obstructing the entry of fuel and essential medical supplies into Gaza. Israel says Hamas diverts fuel transfer into Gaza for military purposes.

On Wednesday, Al Jazeera said its bureau chief in Gaza, Wael Al-Dahdouh, lost his wife, son, daughter and grandson in what it said was an Israeli airstrike.

The blast hit a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip where the family was taking shelter after being displaced, according to Al Jazeera. In total, 12 members of the Al-Dahdouh family were killed in the blast, including nine children, a statement from the family said Thursday.

The IDF told CNN it did carry out an airstrike in the area where Al-Dahdouhs relatives were killed, saying it had targeted Hamas terrorist infrastructure in the area.

Strikes on military targets are subject to relevant provisions of international law, including the taking of feasible precautions to mitigate civilian casualties, it added.

But harrowing photos show Al-Dahdouh seeing the bodies of his wife and children in the morgue. In one image he can be seen holding the body of his daughter, who is wrapped in a white shroud.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), at least 24 journalists have died since the start of this conflict as of Wednesday. Twenty of those killed are Palestinian, three are Israeli, and one is a Lebanese journalist, CPJ said.

Overcrowded hospitals on the brink of collapse say they are overwhelmed with the numbers of injured people arriving every day and doctors have repeatedly told CNN they dont have the supplies or the electricity to run critical functions to care properly for them, or other patients, who rely on oxygen supplies to survive.

Videos filmed by journalists working with CNN showed victims in body bags in the aftermath of airstrikes and severely injured people, including children, in overcrowded hospitals.

Families that fled south in an attempt to flee the bombs and staying in UN shelters are grappling with overcrowded conditions which are severely constraining access to basic assistance and essential services, increasing health and protection risks, and negatively affecting mental health, the UN humanitarian affairs office (OCHA) warned Thursday.

A total of 1.4 million people  of Gazas population of more than 2 million  have been displaced since October 7, with almost 629,000 people living in UN shelters, OCHA said. Half of Gazas population are children.

The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza said Wednesday it will have to halt aid operations within a day if fuel is not delivered, saying it would mark the end of a lifeline for civilians.

UNRWA director for Gaza Tom White told CNN that aid workers would have to decide what aspects of life-saving aid they could and could not provide to civilians.

Do we provide fuel for desalination plants for drinking water? Can we provide fuel to hospitals? Can we provide the essential fuel that is currently producing the bread that is feeding people in Gaza? he said.

Nearly three weeks since the outbreak of fighting, the UNs Security Council remains divided on how to proceed with the crisis. Two differing resolutions on the matter, introduced by the US and Russia, both failed to pass on Wednesday.

The draft resolution from the US called for humanitarian pauses, not a ceasefire, to allow for aid to reach Gazan civilians. The US previously vetoed a Brazilian draft calling for a humanitarian pause.

The European Union may also lean toward calling for a short humanitarian pause in Gaza after leaders meet on Thursday, a senior diplomat said.

Several leaders have already voiced some version of this, including Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and the foreign ministers of Ireland and Slovenia.

Meanwhile in Moscow, representatives from Hamas held talks with a senior Russian foreign ministry official on Thursday, according to Russian state media TASS and a statement from Hamas.

TASS said the discussions centered on the release of hostages held by Hamas and the evacuation of Russian citizens from Gaza.

The Hamas delegation praised the position of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the efforts of Russian diplomacy, according to the militant groups statement. Mousa Abu Marzouk, deputy chief of Hamass political bureau, and Basem Naim, another senior Gaza-based Hamas leader, were part of the delegation which met with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister and Special Presidential Representative for the Middle East and Africa, Mikhail Bogdanov, it also said.

Qatar, which is helping to mediate with Egypt, US, Israel and Hamas, is hopeful for a breakthrough soon on negotiations to release hostages held by the militant group, the prime minister and foreign minister said Wednesday.

The hostage crisis is a truly international one.

Israels government press office said 135 hostages  more than half of those being held by Hamas  hold foreign passports from 25 different countries.

They include 54 Thai nationals, 15 Argentinians, and 12 citizens from Germany and the US.

Four hostages  two American and two Israeli  have been freed so far. Talks to secure the release of the rest of the hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza are ongoing, Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said.

US President Joe Biden said Wednesday he told Netanyahu that if its possible to secure the release of hostages in Gaza ahead of an Israeli ground invasion, he should do so.

But Biden said flatly no when asked whether hed sought assurances from his Israeli counterpart that he would hold off on a ground invasion while the hostages remain in custody.
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Colorado has never seen a campaign finance report like the one filed last week by Democrat Adam Frisch.

after nearly beating Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert last year in the GOP-leaning 3rd Congressional, Frisch is seeking a rematch, and so far, he's outraising the incumbent by leaps and bounds.

Until this year, Boebert, who is seeking a third term, has recently ruled the roost as the state's premiere congressional fundraiser, posting totals many times what her fellow House members and their challengers have pulled in.

But she's met her match in Frisch, whose calling card has essentially been that he's the anti-Boebert, an antidote to what he terms  in a seemingly endless cavalcade of fundraising emails and social media appeals  the incumbent's "angertainment" approach to politics.

Coming within 546 votes of unseating Boebert in a district that tilts roughly 9 points toward Republicans, in what turned out to be the closest congressional race in the country last year, only amps up the stakes, apparently, since Frisch raised more this past quarter than all but one House candidate nationwide and more than any Colorado House candidate ever has.

That he did it in the traditionally sleepy off-year only underlines the enormity of Frisch's achievement.

A year out from the 2024 election, polls are scarce  and can only hint at the state of the race, since voters aren't paying as much attention as they will be by next summer  so fundraising reports are virtually the only concrete measure of campaigns' relative standing.

Money isn't everything  just ask the plethora of deep-pocketed self-funders who poured their children's inheritance into unsuccessful runs for office  but it matters, particularly early on when candidates can spend the money they've raised to make more money and bank big bucks for the expensive final push.

Campaign fundraising records can be a dime a dozen. Political reporters have been known to roll their figurative eyes at the gyrations campaigns will go through to get "record-setting" into a story. The most raised by a non-gubernatorial statewide executive candidate in an initial quarter during an off-year before the advent of modern campaign finance limits? Sure, sounds like a record.

Reporting on quarterly campaign totals can feel sometimes like Oprah: You've got a record! And you've got a record!

But in Frisch's case, it's indisputable.

The magnitude of Frisch's fundraising is hard to express.

While the headline-grabbing Boebert has reported quarterly contribution totals similar to what she raised last cycle, the record-shattering receipts posted by her leading Democratic challenger have pushed the district's dollars into the stratosphere.

For the just-completed third quarter, from July 1 to Sept. 30, Frisch raised nearly $3.4 million, almost exactly four times the roughly $850,000 raised by Boebert.

Frisch finished the period with more than $4.3 million on hand, just over three times the $1.4 million Boebert had in the bank.

Both candidates face primary challengers.

Grand Junction Republican Jeff Hurd, an attorney and newcomer to politics, raised just over $400,000 in the third quarter, his first in the race, and had about $350,000 on hand. Another Republican, Russ Andrews, had just over $260,000 in the bank after loaning himself more than $250,000.

Grand Junction Mayor Anna Stout, a Democrat, raised just over $100,000 during the period, her first as a candidate, and had about $40,000 left to spend.

One of the state's foremost political strategists told Colorado Politics not to discount Frisch's overwhelming fundraising edge.

"This is such a massive number that it clearly puts Adam in great position," said Craig Hughes, a Democratic consultant and partner at Hilltop Public Solutions. "He's not only raising money  clearly, it costs money to raise money  but hes banking enough thats going to continue to grow. Once those donors have given once, you can go back to them again and again."

Hughes, who has helmed some of the state's most competitive  and expensive  races, including U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet's runs, said a strong financial advantage can make a big difference in the sprawling 3rd CD.

"This type of money will let Adam communicate to voters in a way he couldnt do in 2022 with a much more limited budget," Hughes said. "This is a district that encompasses all of Colorados four media markets  all the candidates in CD3 are running almost a statewide campaign  making it very expensive to compete in. You have to communicate to a lot of voters, and that costs a tremendous amount of money."

While he hasn't worked for Frisch or opposed Boebert  Hughes said with a chuckle he was as surprised as anyone that the race was so close last time  Hughes said that he's slated to run an independent expenditure campaign in the district next year.

Acknowledging that Boebert continues to raise money at "a very solid clip," Hughes added that Frisch could be able to make effective use of all the money he brings in, unlike independent groups, which can face "a little bit of a diminishing return."

"When youre on a campaign side, that money is always incredibly valuable  you can buy more TV time, hire more staff, put it into field efforts, door-to-door," he said. "There is no diminishing return."

Boebert's campaign team downplayed Frisch's most recent haul, suggesting that all the money in the world won't be enough to overcome her advantages in the largely rural, conservative-minded district.

He just might be able to put that proposition to the test.

It's the third quarter running that Frisch has raised more than all the other Colorado congressional candidates combined.

It's also the third consecutive quarter that Frisch has broken his own state record for off-year fundraising by a House candidate.

The previous off-year apogee was set by Boebert in the third quarter of 2021, when she raised $990,000, but Frisch nearly doubled that in this year's first quarter, hauling in more than $1.7 million.

Before Boebert thrust the 3rd CD into the national spotlight in 2020, Colorado House candidates in battleground seats reached record territory with more modest sums. The off-year record she broke was held for years by former Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, who raised $566,000 in the second quarter of 2013, when he was gearing up to fend off a challenge from Democrat Andrew Romanoff.

Frisch has rewritten the record books, obliterating even the election-year records set by other state congressional candidates.

The $3.4 million raised by Frisch surpasses the previous record-setting $3.2 million reported for the second quarter of 2008 by Democrat Jared Polis, who mostly self-funded his run. Among candidates who didn't self-fund, Democrat Jason Crow set the previous high-water mark overall in the third quarter of 2018, raising $2.2 million on his way to defeating Coffman.

Frisch has been dominating fundraising in Colorado all year but didn't vie for the top spot nationally until the most recent quarter.

Only former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican known as one of the best fundraisers the House has ever seen, exceeded Frisch's receipts among congressional candidates  incumbents or challengers  in the third quarter, with $4.8 million to Frisch's $3.4 million. The next-best total for a House candidate was the $2.1 million raised by Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, with Ohio Republican Jim Jordan posting $1.7 million to nab fourth place.

Rankings don't include the multiple House members who are running for the Senate. Nor do they reflect funds raised by leadership PACs, which are typically distributed to other candidates.

For the first quarter which ended on March 31, Frisch raised $1.7 million  more than twice the $763,000 raised by Boebert  but landed behind a handful of the preeminent House fundraisers.

McCarthy led the pack for the period at $3.8 million, with Jeffries at his heels with nearly $3.7 million. Then came Republican Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana at $2.7 million, followed closely by California Democrat Ro Khanna, who represents Silicon Valley and raised $2.6 million. Frisch finished in fifth place for the quarter.

McCarthy again blew away the competition in the second quarter, covering donations received from April 1 through June 30, but this time only Scalise also outraised Frisch, who was both the top Democratic House candidate and the leading challenger.

The soon-to-be-former speaker brought in $5.3 million to Scalise's nearly $2.9 million, with Frisch depositing $2.6 million. The next-closest House candidate for the quarter was Jeffries, who raked in just over $2 million.

Ernest Luning has covered politics for Colorado Politics and its predecessor publication, The Colorado Statesman, since 2009. He's analyzed the exploits, foibles and history of state campaigns and politicians since 2018 in the weekly Trail Mix column.

Colorado lawmakers grapple with fate of speaker's gavel in wake of McCarthy's downfall | TRAIL MIX In the days after a handful of dissenters broke with fellow House Republicans to strip the speaker's gavel from Kevin McCarthy, Colorado lawma
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Leveraging their expertise, Computable provides a comprehensive coverage of cybersecurity news, trends, and insights. During Cybersec Netherlands 2023 they bring a diverse program at the main stage.
In the decades Ive been writing about technology, Ive never seen a something take off as fast as generative AI  or seen anything so hyped.

The promises about how genAI will change our lives have come fast and furious. It will write the Great American Novel, compose symphonies, steal millions of jobs. It will do our work for us, help authoritarian regimes spread misinformation, and ultimately become an existential threat to humankind.

The claims have been outrageous. But unlike many overhyped technologies, genAI has proven it can bring in significant revenue. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, recently told his staff that the company was raking revenue in at a pace of $1.3 billion per year, roughly $100 million a month. Compare that to 2022  before the launch of the generative AI chatbot that took the world by storm; OpenAI had a total revenue that year of just $28 million.

Microsoft has invested $13 billion in OpenAI, and that doesnt account for how much money the company is spending on AI internally. Google, Facebook, Amazon, and others are investing many more billions. AI startups seemingly become valued at more than $1 billion overnight.

So, when I got my hands on Copilot for Windows when it was released late last month, I was expecting big things. After all, this was Microsofts chance to make a big splash, to show how genAI could improve the worlds most popular desktop and laptop operating system, installed on an estimated 1.4 billion PCs. Before the release, Microsoft promised Copilot for Windows "empowers you to create faster, complete tasks with ease and lessens your cognitive load  making once complicated tasks, simple."

Landing with a thud

To say I was underwhelmed by Copilot for Windows would vastly understate just how disappointing I found it. To begin with, it didnt give Windows a single new capability. The things you can do with Windows that includes Copilot are exactly the same things you can do with Windows without Copilot.

That was bad enough. Worse was that it didnt make Windows easier to use in any meaningful way. It can help you accomplish only the most basic of tasks. What can it do? If you want to use dark mode, you can tell it to Turn on dark mode and answer Yes a few seconds later when Copilot asks you to confirm that you want it turned on. That saves you from going to Settings > Personalization > Colors and then choosing dark from the dropdown menu in the Choose your mode setting.

Similarly, if you ask to change the image on your lock screen, it pops up the Setting page for personalizing your background, where you can select a different picture to use. It also asks if you want to perform several other similar tasks, such as changing your desktop background.

And that, I am sad to say, is pretty much the basics of what it can do. Overall, it helps you bypass having to hunt for the right settings for a limited number of often not-so-important tasks.

However, there are countless things it wont help you with. Ask it to connect you to a Wi-Fi network, for example, and rather than popping up the right settings, it only offers a set of instructions, which are the exact same instructions youd get by using Bings chatbot.

Another example: When I asked it to check for Windows updates, rather than checking for updates, it instead launched a troubleshooter that would help me fix any problems with Windows updating itself, even though I wasnt having any troubles with that.

It also had the tendency to indulge in non sequiturs  asking, for example whether Id like it to tell me a joke.

Theres even worse. It requested that I ask its name. I asked, and it answered, My name is Bing. I am a chat mode of Microsoft Bing, a web search engine that can help you find information, images, news, and more.

I thought you were Copilot for Windows, I replied.

No, I am not Copilot for Windows, came the response. I am Bing, a chat mode of Microsoft Bing, a web search engine that can help you find information, images, news, and more.

After $13 billion spent, Microsoft built an AI that doesnt even know its own name  and then bull-headedly insists on being called by the wrong name, even when you point out its wrong. Id say thats not a great return on investment.

What does this mean for the future of genAI?

What does this high-profile failure mean? Has the technology been blown full of hot air, and will it eventually deflate? Will we see a re-run of the dotcom crash? A flashback to false metaverse promises?

Not likely. The dismal performance of Copilot for Windows is due more to a failure on Microsofts part than of the technology itself. AI truly can be a transformative technology when used properly. But Microsoft needs to tone down the AI hype, and only promise what it can deliver.

As the saying goes, to man with a hammer, the whole world looks like a nail. To that I add: To a company with AI hopes, every problem it sees can be solved with AI. (It's worth nothing that Copilot for Windows is just one such tool Microsoft is rolling out. There's also the coming Microsoft 365 Copilot, a security Copilot, and Copilot variations for other Microsoft services. They may well fare better than what's been added to Windows.)

Generative AI alone cant make Windows simple to use. Windows is a nearly 40-year-old operating system with plenty of complexity, confusion, and illogic. Merely slapping a genAI bot on top of it doesn't do the trick.

Microsoft could have made a far more useful and powerful AI-based Copilot for Windows if it were willing to put in the time and work. As Computerworld Windows blogger Chris Hoffman points out, Microsoft never did the work to truly integrate Copilot with Windows itself. That would have required writing specific APIs that Copilot could hook into for many tasks. If Microsoft had done that, when you asked Copilot to do something for you, it would make a call to the API, and it would do what you wanted, rather than searching the Internet for an answer and spitting that answer back to you.

Microsoft decided not to put in the effort, and the results are an embarrassing failure. It wont be the first, not just for Microsoft, but for others as well. Plenty of companies are piggybacking onto the genAI hype. Theyll promise you the sun, moon and stars and deliver barely anything at all.

So be very suspicious of genAI promises. Expect the worst. Maybe then, sometimes, youll be pleasantly surprised.
Washington, Oct 27 (UNI) US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi have met in Washington and discussed a number of bilateral and global issues, including areas of difference and cooperation, the US Department of State has said.

"Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken hosted PRC [People's Republic of China] Director of the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] Central Foreign Affairs Commission and Foreign Minister Wang Yi for an official visit today in Washington ... The Secretary and Director and Foreign Minister Wang discussed a range of bilateral, regional, and global issues, including addressing areas of difference as well as exploring areas of cooperation," the statement read on Thursday.

The two senior officials will continue their talks on Friday, it added.

Blinken expressed his condolences on the passing of former Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, who had held the office from March 2013 to March 2023. Li died from a heart attack at the age of 68 earlier on Friday.

"The Secretary expressed his condolences on the passing of former Premier Li Keqiang," the statement said.

UNI/SPUTNIK GNK
Apple is working with a variety of large US corporations, including Nike, to launch the Clean Energy Procurement Academy. Its an attempt to empower other companies with the technical knowledge they need (and Apple has) to adopt clean energy and support supply chain decarbonization.

Supply chains account for more than 50% of global greenhouse gas emissions, so it makes sense to attempt to decarbonize that sector. Apple maintains some leadership in its own attempts at decarbonization, and has increased the use of renewable electricity across its supply chain by almost 30% in 2022.

We do need some education

Apple and Nike got the project off the ground through the Clean Energy Buyers Institute's (CEBI) Global Program, which was launched in 2022 with funding from Google. Amazon, Meta, PepsiCo, and REI Co-op all signed up to support the scheme.

Famously, all of Apples retail stores, data centers, and offices source 100% renewable energy.

The big idea behind the new group is to advocate for the provision of clean energy in all regions and equip other companies with the resources they need to make that happen. This matters to corporations. They know consumers are taking these matters increasingly more seriously. Recent research from GfK found climate change to be one of the fastest-growing concerns among consumers.

Reading between the lines of the latest initiative, it seems likely Apple has leaned into what it has learned from its own Supplier Clean Energy Program to help resource the academy. That effort offers Apples manufacturing partners information, training materials, data, and expert advice.

Wish you were here

To address the climate crisis, we need to act quickly to expand access to clean energy around the world. Businesses can help drive that change, said Sarah Chandler, Apples vice president of environment and supply chain innovation. As we make progress to ensure every Apple product is carbon neutral by 2030, we will continue to work closely with our global suppliers to support their transition to renewable energy. Were proud to collaborate with CEBA and others to expand those efforts beyond our supply chain and across industries.

So, what are the big US corporations offering via the Academy?

First, industry leaders have pooled their expertise and internal training resources to create a shared training curriculum and delivery processes to help companies rapidly mature as clean energy customers."

They also aim to help industries and companies work together to solve these challenges.

The resources provided should enable participating companies to:

Boost supply chain companies capacity to invest in renewable energy through education and data accessibility.

Foster synergy among different industries tackling shared challenges in supply chain climate action.

Encourage supply chain companies to escalate their renewable energy goals and commitments.

Establish new renewable energy-buying communities in pivotal manufacturing regions.

Climate change threatens the prosperity of people and communities, especially those within our business agricultural supply chain with threats to biodiversity, temperature extremes, adverse weather events, droughts, and coastal flooding, and more," said Roberta Barbieri, PepsiCo vice president for global sustainability.

One of these days

Apple CEO Tim Cook has made numerous statements about his companys efforts at decarbonization. He frequently says Apple wants competitors to do what the company is doing and has expressed willingness to share information to help them. This is precisely what this latest initiative seems to be.

Earlier this month, Cook said that while Apple is secretive when it comes to its products, it does not want to keep secrets concerning its environmental work. Speaking at Apples data center in Denmark, he said: "It is different with our initiatives like the environment. We want to be very open because we want to be copied, we want to be the ripple in the pond that other people can look at and copy.

Us and them

Quite rightly for a thought leader, Apples commitment to the environment is frequently under scrutiny. Most recently, European environmental and consumer groups slammed Apples decision to sell what it describes as a carbon neutral Apple Watch because the claim relies on carbon credits to offset the consequences of production.

Carbon neutral claims are scientifically inaccurate and mislead consumers, Monique Goyens director-general of European consumer organization BEUC told the Financial Times. The EUs recent decision to ban carbon neutral claims will rightly clear the market of such bogus messages, and Apple Watches should be no exception.

Apple, however, likely argues that it only makes use of high quality carbon offsets, such as managed forests and grasslands designed to suck carbon from the atmosphere. Apple is at the very least making a big effort at being transparent in its claims. Many competitors continue to fail to make any account whatsoever of the emissions generated by their business.

It seems reasonable to expect environmental groups to throw some vitriol at those companies, even while scrutinizing Apples approach.

High hopes

According to Apples most recent Environmental Responsibility Report, the use of clean energy across the companys supply chain has increased five-fold since 2019. Over 85% of its suppliers have committed to using renewable energy for all Apple-related production by 2030.

Apple's stated aim is to become completely carbon neutral across all its products by 2030. Indeed, even the visitor badges used at its recent Apple Watch launch event were made of recycled materials.

Responding to Europes criticisms, Apple said

Our approach to decarbonizing products offers a rigorous blueprint for how businesses can do their part, prioritizing deep emissions reductions across our value chain before applying high-quality carbon credits.

The company's support for the Clean Energy Procurement Academy suggests it is willing to share what it has learned so far, while the criticism of aspects of its approach remains the kind of scrutiny any large corporation attempting to take such steps should be exposed to. "Were doing the hard work to lower our footprint dramatically, Cook said in Denmark. "Greenwashing is reprehensible.

Of course, those claims will be tested, but they do seem to be a positive step.

Please follow me on Mastodon, or join me in the AppleHolics bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe.
Conn Hosts International Scholars

Sixteen highly respected decision-makers and academics came to Conn in July to serve as elite U.S. policy-makers

Sixteen highly respected decision-makers and academics came to Conn in July to serve as elite U.S. policy-makers. Their roles included the White House chief of staff, the national security adviser, the Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority Leader, and they presented their political judgments about a fictional Council to Anticipate and Respond to Biohazards (CARB).

This experience was part of an intensely competitive, five-week U.S. State Department program hosted by the Study of the United States Institutes (SUSI), Foreign Policy. Scholars hailed from Bangladesh, Cameroon, Chile, Egypt, Georgia, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, North Macedonia, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Poland and Turkey.

The SUSI scholars spent four weeks studying at the University of Delaware and one week traveling throughout the U.S. for campus visits. At Conn, Susan Eckert Lynch 62 Professor of Government MaryAnne Borrelli hosted a workshop focused on U.S. domestic politics and international policy-making.

Borrelli divided the 16 scholars into four groups (the White House Office, National Security Council, House Republican Leadership and Senate Democratic Leadership). The scholars were directed to act and behave as their assigned politician (personality and all!) and assess the policy, organizational and political consequences of the fictional CARB initiative for their office, department, party or branch; develop two strategies (one proactive and one reactive); and present a sound bite to serve as the hallmark of their groups response to the initiative.

SUSI scholar Bharti Chhibber, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Delhi in India who has spent nearly two decades studying and speaking about international relations and foreign strategic policy, said, Coming to the College and meeting MaryAnne was amazing. She made it so interesting for us.
Salmonella has touched down in 22 states across the country.

The culprit? Packages of Gills Onions.

So far, there have been over 70 cases of salmonella traced back to the onions, with 15 people landing in the hospital as a result of the infection.

What to avoid

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are working together to collect as much information as possible about this salmonella outbreak.

The agencies have identified five different products from Gills Onions that consumers should steer clear of:

Three-pound bags of diced yellow onions

Eight-ounce cups of diced yellow onions

Eight-ounce cups of diced celery and onions

10-ounce cups of diced mirepoix

Eight-ounce cups of diced red onions

The retailers that have been selling the contaminated vegetables include:

Smart & Final

Bashas Markets

CHEFSTORE

Stater Bros.

While the onions were only distributed in six states  Idaho, Montana, Washington, Oregon, Arizona, and California  infections are spreading across the country. California and Utah have been linked as the hot spots for this salmonella outbreak, with both states tallying 17 cases.

Other states that have been affected include Michigan, Illinois, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Montana, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, Texas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Iowa, Georgia, New York and Massachusetts.

Gills Onions has recalled all of the potentially contaminated products, and the items have been pulled from store shelves; however, consumers should still be on alert if they have these products at home, mixed in with other foods, or stored in the freezer.

The FDA reported that the products that have been linked to infection all have use by dates ranging from August 8, 2023 through August 28, 2023.

According to the CDC, illnesses traced back to Gills Onions started as early as August 2, 2023, and while over 70 cases have been reported so far, the agency believes the actual figure of those who have been infected is much higher.

Consumers are advised to throw away any potentially contaminated products they find at home, and immediately sanitize any surfaces the contaminated onions have touched.
Former NSA Employee Pleads Guilty to Attempted Espionage

Jareh Sebastian Dalke, 31, of Colorado Springs, pleaded guilty today to six counts of attempting to transmit classified National Defense Information (NDI) to an agent of the Russian Federation (Russia).

According to court documents, from June 6, 2022, to July 1, 2022, Dalke was an employee of the National Security Agency (NSA) where he served as an Information Systems Security Designer. Dalke admitted that between August and September 2022, in order to demonstrate both his legitimate access and willingness to share, he used an encrypted email account to transmit excerpts of three classified documents to an individual he believed to be a Russian agent. In actuality, that person was an FBI online covert employee. All three documents from which the excerpts were taken contain NDI, are classified as Top Secret//Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) and were obtained by Dalke during his employment with the NSA.

On or about Aug. 26, 2022, Dalke requested $85,000 in return for all the information in his possession. Dalke claimed the information would be of value to Russia and told the FBI online covert employee that he would share more information in the future, once he returned to the Washington, D.C., area.

Dalke subsequently arranged to transfer additional classified information in his possession to the purported Russian agent at Union Station in downtown Denver. Using a laptop computer and the instructions provided by the FBI online covert employee, Dalke transferred five files, four of which contain Top Secret NDI. The other file was a letter, which begins (in Russian and Cyrillic characters) My friends! and states, in part, I am very happy to finally provide this information to you. . . . I look forward to our friendship and shared benefit. Please let me know if there are desired documents to find and I will try when I return to my main office. The FBI arrested Dalke on Sept. 28, moments after he transmitted the files.

As part of his plea agreement, Dalke admitted that he willfully transmitted files to the FBI online covert employee with the intent and reason to believe the information would be used to injure the United States and to benefit Russia.

Dalke faces a maximum penalty of up to life in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for April 26, 2024. A U.S. district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Departments National Security Division, U.S. Attorney Cole Finegan for the District of Colorado and Executive Assistant Director Larissa L. Knapp of the FBI's National Security Branch made the announcement.

The FBI Washington and Denver Field Offices are investigating the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Julia K. Martinez and Jena R. Neuscheler for the District of Colorado and Trial Attorneys Christina A. Clark and Adam L. Small of the National Security Divisions Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are prosecuting the case.

This story has been published on: 2023-10-27. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
China's Changan Auto to set up EV plant in Thailand

Xinhua) 10:46, October 27, 2023

Chinese automaker Changan signs a land purchase agreement with Thailand's industrial estate developer WHA Group to build its new electric vehicle (EV) factory, in Bangkok, Thailand, Oct. 26, 2023. The 40-hectare plant is located in Thailand's eastern Rayong province, part of the country's Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC), a special development zone. (Xinhua/Rachen Sageamsak)

BANGKOK, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese automaker Changan on Thursday signed a land purchase agreement with Thailand's industrial estate developer WHA Group to build its new electric vehicle (EV) factory in the Southeast Asian country.

The 40-hectare plant is located in Thailand's eastern Rayong province, part of the country's Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC), a special development zone.

Scheduled to start operation in 2025 with an initial capacity of 100,000 units per year, the plant will be a production base for electrified vehicles to supply the Thai market and export to neighboring ASEAN and other markets including Australia, New Zealand and Britain.

Changan's investment highlights the role of Thailand in the EV industry on a global stage. This also reflects the company's confidence in the country and will promote the transformation of Thailand's automotive industry, said Jareeporn Jarukornsakul, WHA's chairman and Group CEO.

Strategic location in the EEC-promoted zones for proactive policy to promote the EV industry as well as transportation facilities and infrastructure, are key reasons that support the investment decision worth 8.86 billion baht (about 244 million U.S. dollars) in the first phase, said Shen Xinghua, managing director of Changan Auto Southeast Asia.

He noted that this is the first overseas EV factory, and Changan's entry into Thailand will bring much more jobs for the locals, as well as promote the development of Thailand's EV industry chain and supply chain.

Thailand has long been a major automobile production base in Southeast Asia due to its industrial chain and geographical advantages.

Under the government's investment promotion, which aims to produce EVs for 30 percent of all vehicles in the kingdom by 2030. In addition to Changan, Chinese carmakers such as Great Wall and BYD have built plants in Thailand and launched EVs. According to the Federation of Thai Industries, in the first half of this year, Chinese brands accounted for over 70 percent of Thailand's EV sales.

(Web editor: Tian Yi, Liang Jun)
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SCTVs Rick Moranis insists that he was actually a huge George Carlin fan. How could I not be? he asks in a new oral history of Torontos Second City comedy troupe. But that didnt stop him from taking shots at the master in the early 1980s. There came a point where I saw (Carlin) on a talk show, and he was reading off cards, says Moranis. I had a feeling I could look like him, so I did an impression of him reading off notes and telling lazy jokes.

The Moranis imitation (repeated a few times in various SCTV sketches) was a pretty vicious take, explained Patton Oswalt in the documentary George Carlins American Dream. But Moranis wasnt the only one whod noticed the turn in Carlins stand-up. He had kind of collapsed in on himself a little bit, said Oswalt, where he was literally parsing words to a point where it sounded like somebody doing a parody of George Carlin.

In another SCTV bit, with Moranis Carlin standing in for Woody Allen, he begins another language rant before Eugene Levys character cuts him off: Come on and stop doing those stupid bits! Women hate them. I hate them!

Carlin was well aware of Moranis impression and the opinions of other comedians at the time. In the documentary, Carlin recalled a magazine quote from Cheech Marin: George Carlin is obsolete. Hes talking about peas now.

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Most comics would get angry at that kind of criticism and mockery, and Carlin was no exception. But rather than railing against his critics about unfair treatment, he took the ridicule as a challenge. I say to myself, Im going to make these people pay by getting better and learning how to really be a fucking artist, Carlin said. And it gave me an inner resolve to be terrific. To go to a new level. To just fucking show the world what was really inside me.

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And thats just what Carlin did, reinventing himself with a third act like few stand-ups have ever been able to pull off. His scorched-earth tirades fueled several award-winning HBO specials as he turned his inner anger into righteous comedy. But that didnt make Moranis any less terrified when he ran into Carlin years after the fact. I was at an awards show, Moranis remembers in the Toronto Second City oral history. Across the aisle was Carlin, sitting there. We looked at each other, and he just said, Brutal. Brutal, man. Brutal.

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Moranis could only sort of shrug and gesture about how much he loved Carlin. The two funny men never got to speak that night, or at any time before Carlin passed away. Later, Moranis was contacted by Carlins daughter, Kelly, who wanted to include the SCTV clips in a tribute she was putting together. Moranis assured her: Look, I want you to understand that, believe it or not, that was really done out of reverence.

She said, No, you dont understand. It had a profound effect on him. He wasnt aware that he was really being lazy. He was unhappy and wasnt doing the kind of work that he wanted to be doing. And your impression caused him to change his approach.

God, says Moranis now, am I glad I spoke to her.
Content warning: The following stories are terrible. Do not read them if you are currently sane, or plan to become sane. Serial killer tales are awful, and if you read any further, you will be burdened with the truth about villains such as...

4 The Guy Who Died Killing His Last Victim Bruce Lindahls career in crime should have ended early. In 1979, he raped a woman at gunpoint, she convinced him to let her go afterward, and she went to the police and identified him. Police interviewed the guy and decided not to charge him, perhaps influenced by how the incident had taken place at the home of a police officer. The following year, a different woman fled Lindahls home, naked, and this time, police did charge him. But the judge dismissed the case when the primary witness (the woman herself) disappeared. Another police run-in qualified even more as catching him red-handed. Police pulled Lindahl over one night and spotted a woman in his car, unconscious with a giant head wound. He was taking her to the hospital, he claimed (he was driving in the opposite direction to where to hospital was). Medical examiners determined shed been raped, and the officer would later conclude that Lindahl had likely been taking her somewhere to kill and bury her. But the woman herself remembered nothing between Lindahl giving her a drink at a party and her waking at the hospital, so authorities didnt pursue the case. DuPage County SA office Pictured: Lindahls evolution, from a serial killer to also a serial killer Lindahl murdered four people, including two high school girls, and he may have murdered dozens more. Police ended up linking him to what victims they could thanks to photos they found in his home, after he died. Advertisement He died in 1981, killing 18-year-old Chuck Huber, whom he probably pursued as a means of reaching Hubers girlfriend, given that the two were found dead in her apartment. Police discovered the two bodies, each having evidently been stabbed to death, and first assumed some unknown third party had killed them both. Knowing Lindahl was a murderer, you might instead guess that hed attacked Huber, and Huber had half-successfully fought back and killed the guy before dying from his own wounds. Investigators eventually determined something different. Lindahl stabbed Chuck to death and also, during the struggle, cut open his own femoral artery himself and bled out. Just like in Dexter, it takes a serial killer to kill a serial killer, and sometimes, both serial killers are the same guy.

3 Lenny and Chuck, Playing the Long Game When police arrested Lenny Lake, he swallowed a cyanide pill rather than let them take him alive. This struck them as a bit of an overreaction, given that theyd arrested him on suspicion of shoplifting. Indeed, it indicated he had far more serious secrets  secrets that also explained why he and his partner had been stealing a vise from a San Francisco hardware store. via WikiCommons See, looting San Francisco stores isnt a new thing. Advertisement Advertisement Much like Bruce Lindahl, Lenny Lake and Chuck Ng were in the rape and murder business. They didnt satisfy themselves, however, with merely attacking one victim, killing or abandoning her and then moving on. The way they worked, theyd break into a home, and theyd kill any men they found. Men, and also children (they murdered at least two babies). The women, Lenny and Chuck abducted and took to their sex dungeon. Thanks to BDSM, the term sex dungeon sounds quite attractive nowadays, but actual sex dungeons are horrible, as are actual sadism and actual bondage. Chuck and Lennys sex dungeon was a bunker in the desert, with one cell behind a hidden doorway furnished with a pad on the floor and a bucket as a toilet. The two video taped three of their torture victims. This proved to be strong evidence at Ngs murder trial, as were the thousands of teeth and bone fragments found on the property, along with additional hundreds of burned bone fragments. Advertisement Ng was found guilty of 11 murders, which was less than half the number police suspected but enough to earn him a death sentence. He was convicted in 1999. California has had a moratorium on the death penalty since 2006, so he may never be executed, but even some strong opponents of the death penalty may be willing to make an exception in his case.

2 The Butcher of Kansas City Up next, we have another sex dungeon for you, this one in a relatively densely populated bit of Kansas City. The dungeon master was Robert Berdella, a man whom neighbors would later describe as a nice guy and very normal. This, despite his store named Bobs Bizarre Bazaar, which claimed to sell human skulls. They were just fake skulls, assumed neighbors. Later, they wouldnt be so sure. Advertisement Advertisement Bob tortured and murdered at least six men, mostly sex workers. His torture methods, as he documented in his personal journal, included: Needles in the testicles

8 kilovolt shocks

Drano down the throat (to injure the larynx and keep him from screaming)

Biting through the penis

Eye-gouging, to see what would happen

Terrible butt stuff via Zillow Neighbors didnt hear a thing. That must have been some top-quality Drano. Victim number seven escaped. After several days of having his eyes swabbed with ammonia, Chris Bryson used matches Bob left behind to burn through his bonds. He jumped out the window of his second-story cell, and neighbors were shocked by the look of this injured man, naked except for a dog collar. Police came in and arrested Bob  for sodomy, which was illegal in 1988. They also searched the house and found an envelope of teeth, a chainsaw covered in blood and pubic hairs, a few scattered vertebrae and (yep) a genuine human skull. Also, an additional skull that still had a face and hair on it. Also, also, 340 photos of his torture victims. They now had evidence of crimes more serious than sodomy, plus Brysons testimony, and Bob would go on to escape the death penalty only by pleading guilty in exchange for life in prison. Advertisement Within four years, he was complaining that hospital staff were deliberately withholding heart medication from him. By the end of 1992, a heart attack killed him.
Youve likely had a dinner that you immediately regretted. I myself have had many, especially the dinners Ive had in my own bed, after midnight. Whether the regret after is based in shame or in biological despair, I shouldnt have eaten that is a common modern refrain. Or maybe youre one of those diamond-cut exercise freaks who thinks almonds are a good snack, in which case, shouldnt you be out rock climbing instead of reading internet articles?

Some dinners in history, though, have been uniquely ill-advised. Dinners with ramifications that lasted long past your bodys ability to clear itself of cut-rate taco meat. Supper choices that planted their fork in the road of a life or many lives, times when everything could have been different if someone had simply stayed in and hit the leftovers.

Here are five disastrous dining choices from history

5 Rasputins No-Good Terrible Horrible Dinner Party Zero stars. Too much poison. Historical figures dont make it into the plot of Hellboy by being boring. Famously stinky magic man Grigori Rasputin is no exception. The man remains an object of grim fascination to this day for his occult connections, enhanced by him having an extremely dark-wizard-worthy beard and general vibe. Even if you strip away all his purported auras and explorations into black magic, the fact is he was still very powerful from a political perspective. Thanks to accidentally saving her hemophiliac son by banning for spiritual reasons the prescription of blood-thinning aspirin, the Tsarina Alexandra practically gave Rasputin the keys to the kingdom. Of course, a ratty magic man having incredible sway over a kingdom didnt sit especially square with the establishment, specifically a man named Felix Yussupov. He extended a dinner invitation to Rasputin, but instead of delicious borscht, Rasputin was served a three-course assassination. First, he was given poisoned cakes and wine, which he alarmingly downed with no ill effects, at which point Yussupov panicked, shot Rasputin repeatedly, and drowned him in the river because third times the charm, I suppose. Advertisement

4 The First Sioux War Started Over A Single Cow Who, me? A misunderstanding about ownership between settlers and Native Americans that resulted in horrific repercussions? Unimaginable! Our second entry is yet another example of the exceedingly poor mediation skills of Americas Manifest Destiny-fueled murderers. In 1854, when some Mormons were traveling the Oregon Trail, one of their cows, as they are known to do, wandered off. Another thing cows are known for is being made of delicious meat. When a local member of the Mincojou tribe of the Lakota Sioux saw a random, unaccompanied cow, that was his focus, and the cow was killed and eaten. The Mormons were none too pleased about this, and following the Treaty of 1851, they brought in a Native American mediator to help the two sides resolve just kidding. Twenty-eight soldiers showed up, demanded they hand over the unlucky diner, and then shot and killed the chief of the tribe. At that point, the Sioux fought back, and the negotiations ended with all the soldiers dead. This kicked off the two-year long First Sioux War. Advertisement

3 James Blaines Tone-Deaf Feast Seeing yourself in a full-page political cartoon is generally a bad sign. Advertisement Youre probably, at least vaguely, in some retired portion of your mind, aware that Grover Cleveland was a United States President. What youre much less likely to be aware of is that up until a week before, he was not pegged to come out ahead in the presidential contest. What pushed him over the edge and into the seat of Commander-in-Chief wasnt his own doing, either, but was instead one highly ill-advised dinner party attended by his opponent, James Gillespie Blaine. These days, its an essential part of any presidential campaign for whatever blue-blood politicker chosen to be the nations next leader to hobnob on video with the residents of some podunk rib shack, covertly spitting a half-chewed pork trotter into an aides napkin to show theyre a man of the people. Blaines dinner was the exact opposite: a lavish feast fit for a medieval king, at the hoitiest, toitiest restaurant available. By the next day, a mere week before the polls opened, the Associated Press printed the nine-course menu hed enjoyed along with a list of the millionaire guests hed shared it with. Advertisement He was roundly, soundly mocked for the extravagance, and when the dust settled, hed lost the location of said dinner, New York, by a handful of votes, costing him the presidential election.

2 Park Chung-hees Deadly Dinner The first rule of the new Constitution is that I get to be president forever. The fourth entry comes with a caveat: Its a dinner that was undeniably disastrous for one particular attendee, but that also arguably benefitted an entire country. Thats because the person who came out on bottom (six feet under, in fact) from this particular dinner was a dictator. Park Chung-hee was the third President of South Korea at the time, though really, he shouldnt have been. Hed already served for the maximum two presidential terms, but had Parliament force through a change allowing him a third. Advertisement Advertisement This considerably worried his friend, security chief and advisor Kim Jae-gyu, who made him promise it would be his last term. That promise lasted one year, until 1972, when Park established martial law and replaced the constitution with his own, highly non-democratic version, known as the Yushin Constitution. As you can imagine, this did not have a positive effect on public or private opinion of him and his regime. At a dinner in 1979 with ex-BFF Kim, the two got into an argument that I can only imagine started with hey man, youre a fucking dictator and that ended with his old ally shooting and killing Park. Like they say, keep your friends close, and your friends that are also your armed security chiefs closer.
The CW has been more aggressive than some of its fellow broadcast networks in responding to this years double strike by importing shows from other English-speaking countries. And while promos for the likes of Son of a Critch and Run the Burbs, both from Canada, may not have particularly intrigued you, the network also looked across the ocean to find us Everyone Else Burns, which premiered last night. If youve been put off by other recent CW imports, you might skip it, which is why Im here to tell you that you shouldnt.

And while Im here, I also want to shout out some other broadcast and streaming imports of the past decade or so that havent gotten the coverage or Emmy attention of (Canadas) Schitts Creek or (Englands) Fleabag. While you wait for Abbott Elementary and Girls5Eva to return for their new seasons, your friends in the Commonwealth have you covered.

5 Wellington Paranormal (2018-2022) Play Who Imported It? The CW Premise: As everyone knows who watched the 2014 film What We Do in the Shadows, Wellington, New Zealand, is a hotbed of inexplicable phenomena. Police officers Minogue (Mike Minogue) and OLeary (Karen OLeary) already survived a run-in with vampires in the movie; since then, theyve been recruited by Sgt. Ruawai Maaka (Maaka Pohatu) to work in the departments new, and very secret, Paranormal Unit. In this capacity, OLeary and Minogue bravely protect the largely oblivious citizenry from ghosts, zombies, alien clones and figures of local Maori legend, like a Kurangaituku (thieving bird woman) and a taniwha (sea monster)  and, sometimes, find themselves bested but dont get too bothered about it. Most Pleasant Surprise: Wellington Paranormal was followed, around a year later, by FXs series adaptation of What We Do in the Shadows. The two shows share co-creators Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi (who co-wrote, co-directed and co-starred in the movie); both also stick with the films mockumentary format. And yet, Wellington Paranormal and What We Do in the Shadows are about as different as two shows spun off from the same movie possibly can be, without ever seeming like theyre cannibalizing each other. Or featuring cannibals, though Shadows still could! And If This Hits, Try: What We Do in the Shadows, movie and show, are the obvious companion pieces, but if youve already run through those, try Flight of the Conchords, in which Clement plays himself as half of the titular band, struggling to break out in New York.

4 Everyone Else Burns (2023-) Play Who Imported It? The CW. Premise: Rachel (Amy James-Kelly) would probably love to have the kind of teenhood her classmates enjoy  hanging out with friends in the evenings, preparing to go to university and wearing something other than very long skirts. Unfortunately for her, shes being raised by David (Simon Bird) and Fiona (Kate OFlynn), members of the Manchester, England branch of the Order of the Divine Rod. Its not clear that every member of this Christian sect believes the apocalypse is imminent, but David is certain enough about it to subject the family to doomsday drills. We meet the family just as Fiona and Kate start engaging in small rebellions against Davids tyranny: Fiona starts doing online sales with free-spirited divorcee neighbor Melissa (Morgana Robinson); and Rachel meets Joshua (Ali Khan), whos been excommunicated from a different Divine Rod branch, and the two develop a tentative friendship thats maybe on its way to being something more. Most Pleasant Surprise: I spent the series premiere braced for some kind of pro-Christian moment inserted after a note from network executives who dont want angry letters about the show being disrespectful to people of faith, but no: David is portrayed as a petty dictator whose religious observances are regarded as comically extreme even by other parishioners of this extraordinarily strict community, so its perfectly fine to laugh at him. And apparently this attitude has served the show well. Its already been picked up for a second season in the U.K., and The CW, which premiered it this week, has committed to air that season too. And If This Hits, Try: The Inbetweeners, in which Bird proves bossy losers arent only heads of household; they can also ruin lives as high schoolers.

3 Rosehaven (2016-2021) Play Who Imported It? SundanceTV, originally; its no longer officially streaming there, but if you start by clicking the linked title above, more is easy to find. Premise: Daniel and Emma (Luke McGregor and Celia Pacquola, who also co-created the show) were friends when Daniel was working as a real estate agent on the Australian mainland. She gets married and Daniel returns to his hometown of Rosehaven in Tasmania to help run his mothers real estate business while she recovers from surgery. Then Emma leaves her husband on their honeymoon and joins Daniel in Rosehaven, and they both just end up sticking around working at the agency and getting into various comic misadventures for five seasons. Most Pleasant Surprise: I guess its not a spoiler to say what doesnt happen, so: the heart of the show is Emma and Daniels deep, abiding, but entirely platonic friendship, and it remains that way until the very end. With so many hangout shows sliding into romcoms, its nice to see one that respects friendship and takes it seriously! And If This Hits, Try: Another gentle comedy set among quirky weirdos in a ruggedly beautiful part of the world: Northern Exposure.

2 Stath Lets Flats (2018-2021) Play Who Imported It? Max. Premise: Stath Charalambos (Jamie Demetriou, who also created the show) is a London letting agent  essentially a broker who works as a go-between for rental owners and tenants. Hes desperate to prove himself to his father Vasos (Christos Stergioglou), who owns the agency Stath works for, and while Vasos is loving and supportive, Stath is a terrible agent who is routinely outshone by his colleagues, which isnt hard to do given that Stath is given to clumsy gaffes like, for instance, accidentally setting a fire in a property he intends to show. Biggest Surprise: British comedies are known for their savagery; writers generally have no compunction about creating situations that will leave characters humiliated, abused or worse. And while Stath does have to live with the consequences of his many mistakes, the show does have heart, and will shock the viewer with an emotionally affecting moment when you least expect it. And If This Hits, Try: Starstruck! Al Roberts, who plays Staths fellow letting agent Al, appears as Ian, devoted boyfriend (and eventual husband) to Kate (Emma Sidi), roommate to protagonist Jessie (Rose Matafeo).
By now, youre likely familiar with McDonalds infamous hot coffee lawsuit or Subways neverending defense of its tuna. But these high-profile disputes are hardly the only legal battles in food industry history. From allegations of misleading ingredients to false advertising claims that suggest size really does matter, here are 14 food-related lawsuits that will make you wonder about your legal standing before buying that half-full bag of chips from the grocery store

14 The Case of Velveeta Shells Ready Time Last year, a Florida woman launched a class-action lawsuit against Kraft Heinz, alleging that the boxs ready in 3 minutes claim was false and misleading. While most food packaging says that cooking times may vary based on microwave wattage, this wasnt about the cooking time at all. The cheesed-off woman was expecting the process to take 210 seconds total, and explained that the boxs estimation didnt account for steps like mixing water and the cheese sauce  a step that takes no more than 10 seconds at most.

13 Cracker Barrels Country Chemicals After eight years of legal battles and 40 minutes of jury deliberation, a Tennessee court ordered Cracker Barrel to pony up nearly $10 million in damages to a customer. Back in 2014, the patron was served a glass of liquid he thought was ice water, only to find out that it was actually the chemical being used to clean the kitchen. Instead of a nice refreshing sip, he felt a burning sensation in his throat and still has stomach issues to this day.

12 Fruitless Loops and Missing Berries From 2007 to 2010, seven different near-identical lawsuits were filed against Kellogg and PepsiCo, thanks to a couple of their colorful breakfast offerings. Parents waged war against Froot Loops and Capn Crunchs Crunch Berries respectively, which they believed to contain a significant amount of real fruit, and felt deceived to discover otherwise. Luckily for Toucan Sam and the Capn, the lawsuits were dismissed.

11 Panera Breads Super-Charged Lemonade When Panera Bread introduced their Charged Lemonades late last year, the new drink went viral. Though Panera claimed their newest beverage provided a green alternative to mainstream energy drinks, one TikToker jokingly warned that the caffeinated lemonade will lead to (her) cardiac arrest, after unknowingly consuming 1,000 milligrams of caffeine. Unfortunately for another customer, that joke became a reality. The popular cafe is currently being sued by the parents of a Pennsylvania college student who suffered cardiac arrest and died after drinking the viral lemonade in September 2022. The lawsuit alleges that the lemonade contains more caffeine than a Red Bull and Monster Energy combined with no consumer warning, which would have likely steered the college student, who battled a lifelong heart condition, away from drinking it.

10 Italys #1 Pasta, Made in Iowa A grocery store pasta staple found itself at odds with two California residents in late 2022. A lawsuit brought against Barilla alleged that their claim to be Italys #1 Brand of Pasta could deceive customers into believing that their pasta was made in Italy  despite being produced in Iowa and New York with locally-sourced ingredients. The Illinois company criticized the class-action lawsuit, noting that their boxes also say Made in the U.S.A.

9 Popeyes Chicken Sandwich Shortage Everyone remembers where they were when important events happened: 9/11, Michael Jacksons death and Popeyes introducing its chicken sandwich. The release caused such a frenzy that the Louisiana fast-food chains supply couldnt keep up with the demand. When the sandwich sold out, one Tennessee man sued the restaurant for false advertising and deceptive business practices by entities to the public. The man, who represented himself in the case, sought $5,000 in damages. He had hoped to cover the $1,500 in rim and tire deterioration due to driving from location to location, the $25 a Craigslist con man posing as a Popeyes employee with secret sandwiches swindled from him and the psychological humiliation of his friends laughing at him, which he put at $3,475.

8 Gingerless Ale A Vancouver man walked away with $1,500 after Canada Dry Motts Inc. settled a class-action lawsuit for $200,000. Victor Cardoso spearheaded the lawsuit after he spent years buying the brands namesake ginger ale with the belief that it had medicinal benefits. The 2019 lawsuit claimed that the drinks slogan Made from Real Ginger and visual marketing linking the beverage to the ingredient were categorically misleading.

7 Toxic Skittles A 2022 class-action lawsuit against Mars alleged that the companys Skittles contain a toxin with the ability to change DNA. The toxin in question is titanium dioxide, which is an additive pigment that gives the candies their signature rainbow richness. The North California woman suing the company used France banning the substance in 2019 as the basis of her claim.

6 Subways Missing Inch In 2012, a customer posted a picture of their Subway footlong measuring less than 12 inches, which led to a class-action lawsuit full of outraged customers with similar experiences. The chain pulled a Costanza and claimed shrinkage due to the toasting process, noting that a number of variables can cause bread to compress. Still, the chain settled and vowed to make measuring tools readily available in stores to ensure customers that theyre getting every inch they pay for.

5 Performance-Enhancing Beans A California woman filed suit against Jelly Belly Candy Co. when she discovered that her jelly beans were actually full of sugar. The companys Sport Beans, which boasted a performance-enhancing offering full of vitamins, electrolytes and carbohydrates mostly only contained evaporated cane juice, aka a form of sugar. The woman claims she wouldnt have spent so much money on the product had she not been misled into believing it was a healthy energy source.

4 Nutellas Nutty Health Claims The phrase part of a balanced breakfast has been slapped on oatmeal boxes and juice cartons of all sorts. For a while, it was also on packages of Nutella. But that ceased to be the case when a judge ruled in favor of a mother who felt duped into believing the chocolate-hazelnut spread was good for her children, and Ferraro USA had to shell out $3.05 million in class-action settlement money.

3 Titos Machine-Made Vodka The ever-popular Titos Vodka was hit with a lawsuit alleging that its handmade spirit is not actually made by hand. A San Diego woman filed the suit, claiming that the vodka is actually made via a highly mechanized process that she feels results in an inferior product not properly marketed to consumers. Titos fought back against the claims, noting that its use of the word handmade is federally approved.

2 Wingless Red Bull Red Bull was sued over misleading claims that the drink gives you wings, as the slogan goes. The class-action lawsuit wasnt literal, but it did attack the energy drink for purporting to be a higher-powered coffee alternative, despite containing a similar amount of caffeine to an average cup of coffee. The $13 million settlements earned claimees a whopping $10 cash out.
Marlene Kennedy is a freelance columnist. Opinions expressed in her column are her own and not necessarily the newspapers. Reach her at marlenejkennedy@gmail.com.
Jessica Bellone, left, stands with her daughter Georgia Mullen in front of The Galway Local on Sacandaga Road in Galway on Monday, Sept. 4, prior to its expected opening later this month. STAN HUDY/THE RECORDER
The Prime Minister trod a difficult line in yesterday's landmark speech on Artificial Intelligence.

On the one hand, he was right to downplay fears that the technology might bring about the apocalypse. Rishi Sunak understands that, despite the hysterical warnings of some Silicon Valley gurus, we shouldn't fear killer robots enslaving or extinguishing our species.

Instead, as he pointed out, AI is revolutionary  and that revolution brings opportunities, especially in medical research and making our economy more productive.

But it undoubtedly brings risks, too. And as head of cyber security at GCHQ for seven years, I learned to appreciate them.

As Sunak outlined yesterday, AI could help rogue states unleash new cyber-attacks with unprecedented penetration, design devastating biochemical weapons and generate vast amounts of disinformation that hostile nations could use to undermine their enemies' politics.

Some of this process is already under way. A parliamentary election in Slovakia last month was mired in controversy after a 'deepfake' audio file emerged only 48 hours before the vote.

Ciaran Martin, former head of GCHQ's national security centre

The Prime Minister trod a difficult line in yesterday's landmark speech on Artificial Intelligence

Highly convincing, it purported to record the leader of the main liberal party hatching a plot with a newspaper journalist on rigging the election.

Challenges like these are only going to become more common  which is why Rishi Sunak is right to address them at next week's international summit on AI at Bletchley Park.

As the PM acknowledged, some members of his party will be dismayed at the invitation being extended to China, a totalitarian state that has long held ambitions to outdo the West in this area.

Beijing already deploys more than 500 million surveillance cameras nationwide  more than half the world's total  and this, combined with AI-powered facial-recognition software, is transforming life for ordinary Chinese people in frankly dystopian ways.

China has developed and used 'gait-recognition' software, in which cameras can distinguish individuals' walks and body shapes even when their faces are obscured.

Minority groups such as the Uyghurs are persecuted in the regime's internment camps, watched by overseeing eyes.

And even lavatories are no longer private, as some public conveniences will dispense loo roll only to those who pass a facial- recognition scan.

Mr Sunak is being commendably hard-headed, despite these abuses. Excluding China from a conference on AI would make no sense. Beijing will develop advanced AI whether it comes to Bletchley Park or not  whatever we might think about it.

Chinese absence from the conference would mean that there could be no genuinely global framework for managing the biggest risks posed by the technology.

At present, even states with powerful cyber capabilities think twice before unleashing computer viruses that could cause a devastating worldwide IT meltdown. The consequences are simply too unpredictable.

But a terrorist group would likely have no such compunction. And AI, which may well come to write computer code far better than any human, could certainly make this job easier for them. China's leaders are nothing if not calculating: they have no more interest in allowing terrorists to exploit dangerous technology than we do. So a realistic approach is needed.

There is a lesson from history here.

Some 40 years ago, when the internet was in its infancy created, its early pioneers failed to predict that people would intentionally take advantage of the network they were creating to commit serious crime.

We pay the price of that complacency on a daily basis with cyber-attacks and other online harms.

By gathering world leaders together at the dawn of a new digital age, Rishi Sunak is trying to ensure that we don't make the same mistake.
These are frightening times. American jets pound Iranian Revolutionary Guard bases in ravaged, unstable Syria. Immensely powerful American naval forces are assembled in the Eastern Mediterranean. The whole region is alive with danger.

And right at the centre of the crisis, the world waits to see whether or when Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu will launch a risky ground offensive into the Gaza Strip.

Experience shows such incursions are much easier to begin than they are to end, and this is complicated even further by the scores of hostages still held in Gaza by the bloodstained terrorists of Hamas.

The Arab and Muslim world is, meanwhile, convulsed with protest against the Israeli bombardment of Gaza, now under way for many days.

Israel is still in shock over the cruel, racist Hamas pogrom against defenceless civilians on October 7, which began this eruption of one of the planets oldest and most intractable conflicts.

The Arab and Muslim world is convulsed with protest against the Israeli bombardment of Gaza (pictured), now under way for many days

Jerusalem regards its bombing of Gaza as entirely reasonable and justified. The Western world, so far, has endorsed Israels policy. But now we approach a more complex and dangerous moment.

What we used to call The Holy Land is criss-crossed with tripwires which might widen the combat into full-scale warfare.

The key to this is Iran, and its powerful Lebanese proxy Hezbollah, as Richard Pendleburys compelling dispatch today illustrates so starkly. Britain has unrivalled experience and knowledge of this region. We remain deeply involved in it, and cannot stay out of any crisis there.

Up to this point, Israeli anger has been justified and proportionate. But a general war would benefit nobody, least of all the hostages for whose safety the world prays.

All involved should remember that coolness under fire and wise caution are not weakness. On the contrary, they are signs of strength.

A duty to both sides

Once again, Londons Metropolitan Police will be faced today with a major demonstration in favour of the Palestinian cause. Feelings are running high especially among Britains Muslim population, and it is good that these discontents should have unrestricted expression in our free country and its capital.

The demonstrators come from an important and valuable part of our society. The complex and often distressing history of the region quite reasonably engages their emotions.

If they sought to make their case in many Muslim nations, they would face severe monitoring or even the heavy-handed suppression of their protests. We, by contrast, have a sensible rule that you may say what you like, as long as your actions remain within the law. Yet this, in practice, is more complicated than it looks.

Once again, Londons Metropolitan Police will be faced today with a major demonstration in favour of the Palestinian cause. Pictured: Demonstrators in London protested last week in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza

Legitimate criticism of the actions of Israel is entirely protected by the high status we rightly give to liberty of thought, speech and assembly. But hostility and bigotry directed against Jews is unacceptable and should not be protected.

For we owe an equal duty to this countrys long-established Jewish population that they should never be  or even feel  threatened, as so many of them currently are, to the great shame of those who have openly behaved in anti-Semitic ways.

So the police have our complete support if they restrain expressions of bigotry, and if they act with swift and decisive measures against anything which even borders on incitement to violence.

We are sure that the organisers and leaders of the demonstration will entirely agree with this and that they will co-operate with the police in ensuring that the march is a peaceful and dignified expression of a legitimate point of view, and nothing else.
It is often said that the late Queen Elizabeth was much influenced by her father, George VI, particularly when it came to questions of duty.

The way he stuck to the task thrust upon him thanks to the feckless behaviour of his elder brother, Edward VIII, is still admired today.

But when it came to iron-clad determination, there had been another example for the young Princess Elizabeth, also: that of her forceful grandmother, Mary, who once explained the rights and wrongs to another royal as follows:

'You are a member of the British Royal Family. We are never tired and we all love hospitals.'

Queen Mary set down the template for younger royals, saying: 'You are a member of the British Royal Family. We are never tired and we all love hospitals'

Queen Elizabeth II pictured during a visit to open the new premises of the Royal National Ear Nose and Throat and Eastman Dental Hospital in London in 2020

Queen Mary pictured opening a new hospital wing at Roehampton Hospital in 1925

The generations following after Queen Mary have stuck to her maxim, even if the elder of her two sons grew notoriously tired of 'Princing' as he termed it, before eventually abdicating in disgrace.

Whatever the criticism the royal finances might bring, no one can doubt the wholeheartedness of their appearances around the country - including many hospitals, of course.

Today, Queen Mary seems an ever more distant figure to younger but she was a major figure in the life of the royals and unquestionably an influence on her granddaughter Elizabeth, later to be Queen.

According to her official biographer, James Pope-Hennessy, Mary had been a shy child  'a big, pink and white, gawky girl'  who was overshadowed by her ebullient mother, the party-loving Duchess of Teck.

Mary, in contrast, became a somewhat serious woman with strong passions.

Straddling the 19th and 20th centuries, Queen Mary connected the present with a fast-vanishing world of the past, having been the first consort for 400 years to speak English as her mother tongue.

During the First World War, Queen Mary instituted an austerity drive at the palace, where she rationed food, and visited wounded and dying servicemen in hospital.

Prince William, Prince of Wales, and Catherine, Princess of Wales, meet with staff during a visit to the Royal Liverpool University Hospital in Liverpool in January earlier this year

Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, meeting medical staff and survivors at Panzi Hospital, Bukavu, South Kivu Province in October 2022

The Queen Mother is ntroduced to staff at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London, in 1995

It was also her idea to send every British soldier during World War I a gilt cigarette box with her photograph - the Queen had a solid grasp of public relations.

The Queen's support of her husband was invaluable during the latter half of his reign as she advised him on speeches and used her extensive knowledge of history to advise him on political matters.

In the late 1920s, King George V became increasingly ill, but Queen Mary paid particular attention to his care. During his illness in 1928, one of his doctors, Sir Farquhar Buzzard, was asked who had saved the King's life. He replied, 'The Queen'.
It is important to feel valued in the workplace - but when a boss cuts corners with their attempts at appreciation it can have the total opposite effect.

People from around the world have shared their employers' dismal attempts to make them feel appreciated and Bored Panda collated the best into an online gallery.

The examples include one person who was gifted a stone with the words 'you rock' written on it by her employer.

Another company gave their employees an empty sandwich bag with a note saying even though the bag 'looks empty it's actually filled with our love.'

Elsewhere another person was treated to an office 'pizza party' but the small slither of pizza left a lot to be desired.

People from around the world have shared their employers' dismal attempts to make them feel appreciated and Bored Panda collated the best into an online gallery. One company gave their employees an empty sandwich bag with a note saying even though the bag 'looks empty it's actually filled with our love'

While nursing staff were given an 'anti stress kit' by their management which included a green tea bag, an elastic band and a snickers.

Elsewhere, an employee, who works in a college dorm in the US, was told she would get a 'free meal' from her boss, only to receive crisps, an apple and water after a 12 hour shift.

Here FEMAIL takes a look at some of the most shocking fails at making staff feel appreciated...

While one person who was gifted a stone with the words 'you rock' written on it by her employer

Elsewhere another person was treated to an office 'pizza party' but the small slither of pizza left a lot to be desired

While nursing staff were given an 'anti stress kit' by their management which included a green tea bag, an elastic band and a snickers

Another person received a 'lucky lotto scratch' card from their employer only for it to say have 'an amazing day'

An office, in the US, received 12 donuts between an office of 200 people for 'employee appreciation day'

Another employee, in the US, got a polo mint as a thank you for driving sales past $6,000,000

Nothing says appreciation like this manager, in the US, saying he is watching his staff on a camera

While this employee, who works in a college dorm in the US, was told she would get a 'free meal' from her boss, only to receive crisps, an apple and water after a 12 hour shift

While another person, in the UK, was gifted a 2.50 voucher for the canteen as a thank you for a good job
Eddie Van Halen's son Wolfgang and new wife Andraia Allsop have revealed how they came up with special ways to honor their late loved ones on their wedding day.

The legendary rocker died in October 2020 at 65 years old after a long battle with cancer, but his son Wolfgang, 32, and his new wife still wanted him to be a part of their October 15 nuptials.

Not only did they leave an open chair for him in their intimate, living-room ceremony, but they also incorporated music and special jewelry to honor the late rock star.

'One of the things that I really wanted was a way to bring Wolf's dad into it,' software engineer Andraia, also 32, told People ahead of the couple's wedding.

Newlyweds: Eddie Van Halen's son Wolfgang has married his longtime partner, Andraia Allsop, in an intimate LA ceremony - three years after his rock legend father died aged 65

'We'll be having an empty chair that would've been his at the ceremony,' she explained.

They also used their bookshelves to honor the other family members they had lost.

'We cleared out all the bookshelves and we've just lined them with photos of our family, our loved ones, people who've passed, people who couldn't make it. We want everyone included and everyone to be able to also think of them on our special day,' Andraia explained.

Wolfgang added: 'We've lost important family members on both sides, so it's important to include them and have them be a part of the ceremony that we wish they were here for.'

Decor aside, the newlyweds also used other elements of their wedding to honor Eddie.

Wolfgang walked down the aisle with his famous actress mother, Valerie Bertinelli, to a song that his father wrote for him.

'It's an instrumental piece called "316." The pianist is going to play a rendition of that on the piano. It's be a nice way to include my dad,' he told the outlet ahead of the wedding.

As a surprise, Andraia also handmade memory charms to go on the bridal party's floral accessories.

Tribute: Wolgang's mother, Valerie Bertinelli, walked him down the aisle to a song his father wrote for him called 316 (the couple is pictured with his mom in April 2022)

Fighter: Wolfgang (left) revealed doctors only gave his father, Eddie (right), 'six weeks' to live after he was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer back in 2017

'They have a picture of Wolfie and his dad on it so that everybody with the boutonniere or corsage or bouquet can have it and just continue to have the reminder of his dad and just to continue to think about him throughout the day,' she shared.

Valerie - whose marriage with Eddie ended in 2007 - expressed that her late ex-husband would be happy for their son and his marriage with Andraia.

'Ed would've been absolutely beaming and so, so proud of the man Wolfie has become and is becoming and so happy that he has found Andraia, someone who really understands Wolfie, who he is and who he wants to be, and supports him wholeheartedly,' she told People.

Wolfgang also paid tribute to his father shortly after his death.

Six weeks after Eddie passed away from cancer, he dropped the single for his first solo single, which was titled Distance.

'It's tough. A lot of crying,' he told Carson Daly on Today of writing the song.

'While he was this icon to so many people, he was still my dad. He was incredibly loving and he was my best friend in many ways.'

He also addressed backlash about releasing the song so soon after his father's death for clout.

Heartbreak: Eddie was 65 when he died after battling throat cancer for several years

Wolfgang admitted: 'I'm awful. It's terrible. Every day, man. Some days are better than others'

'And I know the first reaction people will have is, wow, this is a little soon,' he admitted.

'I think when people realize that this is just an honest tribute to my father, any money that I would have made is going to my dad's favorite charity, Mr. Holland's Opus, that makes sure underprivileged students can get instruments and play music.'

He also admitted that he had been struggling in the past six weeks after his father's passing.

'Some days it's just really hard to get out of bed.' he added.

'It doesn't seem like the pain is ever really going to go away. You just figure out how to carry it better.'

'I'm awful. It's terrible. Every day, man. Some days are better than others,' Wolfgang admitted.

'The pain is still there always, but you just kind of figure out how to carry it a little better as time goes on. But it's always gonna hurt.'

The former Van Halen bassist added: 'We had such a close connection and now, for the rest of my life, there's no way I'll never be able to think about him no matter what I do - which is good but also hurts a lot.'

RIP: It was Wolf who first announced the legendary Van Halen guitarist had died, aged 65, on October 6 following a decade-long battle with cancer that spread to his lungs and brain

The former Van Halen bassist added: 'We had such a close connection and now, for the rest of my life, there's no way I'll never be able to think about him no matter what I do - which is good but also hurts a lot' (pictured in 2015)

The Van Halen guitarist passed away on October 6, 2020.

That day, Wolfgang penned a heartfelt tribute to his father on Instagram.

'I can't believe I'm having to write this, but my father, Edward Lodewijk Van Halen, has lost his long and arduous battle with cancer this morning,' it read.

'He was the best father I could ever ask for. Every moment I've shared with him on and off stage was a gift. My heart is broken and I don't think I'll ever fully recover from this loss. I love you so much, Pop.'

Eddie was initially diagnosed with stage four lung cancer in 2017. However, shortly after his father's death, Wolfgang revealed that he lived three years longer than he was supposed to thanks to German doctors.

Wolfgang revealed US doctors only gave his father Eddie Van Halen 'six weeks' to live after he was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer back in 2017.

'And then he went to Germany. Whatever the f*** they do over there, it's amazing because I got three more years with him,' the 29-year-old musician marveled on an episode of The Howard Stern Show.

'I was with him every step of the way. Every second.'
Ivanka Trump may well have left her days as First Daughter behind her - but she happily channeled iconic First Lady Jackie O this week when she stepped out in Miami sporting a demure yellow shift dress and a ladylike headband.

The 41-year-old was pictured strolling into the Four Seasons hotel near her family's home in Surfside on Thursday, beaming happily as she was snapped by photographers - and looking every inch the glamorous socialite in a pair of shades.

She paired the look with a pair of white pointed-toe kitten-heel mules, and completed the ensemble with a quilted Chanel tote - which range in price from $5,000 to $7,000 online.

Ivanka's visit to the upscale hotel comes after she enjoyed a fun-filled night out with friends on Wednesday, when she was given a sneak peek at new upscale Italian restaurant Casadonna, before it officially opened its doors to the public later in the week.

Former First Daughter Ivanka Trump channeled former First Lady and style icon Jackie O on Thursday, when she was pictured heading to the Four Seasons in Miami

The 41-year-old showed off her toned legs in a yellow tweed shift dress, which she paired with some white pointed-toe kitten-heel mules and a pricey Chanel tote bag

She finished off the look with a pair of shades and had her hair pulled back with a headband

But if her late night caused any tiredness, Ivanka certainly didn't let it show as she made her way inside the Four Seasons, smiling happily as she stepped inside, while accompanied by a burly security guard.

Her elegant ensemble for the day was a marked departure from the rather more risque outfit she chose for her evening on the town on Wednesday.

In a series of pictures posted to her Instagram account, Ivanka was seen sporting a red halter dress that showed off her long legs and slender frame.

She styled the design with matching sky-high strappy heels and a yellow, green and white clutch, and wore her blonde hair loose around her shoulders.

Photos posted to Ivanka's Instagram Stories on Wednesday show her posing outside the restaurant in Miami's Edgewater neighborhood with David Grutman, who heads up Groot Hospitality - one of the driving forces behind Casadonna - and his model wife, Isabela Rangel, as well as inside its luxurious bathroom for a mirror selfie.

They were also joined by two other friends - with one of them sharing a cheeky post of herself and Ivanka, writing: 'Date night, Miami style.'

During the meal, Ivanka dined on one of Casadonna's signature dishes - a dessert that has been crafted to look like lemons on a tree, served table side.

Ivanka's visit to the upscale hotel comes after she enjoyed a fun-filled night out with friends on Wednesday

But if her late night caused any tiredness, Ivanka certainly didn't let it show as she made her way inside the Four Seasons

Ivanka was accompanied by a burly security guard, who followed her into the venue

The former First Daughter smiled for the cameras as she stepped through the hotel doors

But while Ivanka was accompanied by several friends, she was without her husband Jared Kushner, who is traveling in Saudi Arabia, where he spoke on a panel at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference in Riyadh.

The former White House adviser sat down with former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi for a discussion about 'conflict and opportunity in the Middle East', during which the politician described Jared as a 'peace builder'.

Jared spoke out about the Israel-Palestine conflict, discussing how the 'vicious, terrible' Hamas terrorist attack has impacted the Israeli economy.

'Obviously this is a very important moment to see what is going to happen,' he said.

Jared's trip to the Middle East unfortunately coincided with the couple's 14th wedding anniversary, which also took place on Wednesday.

But Ivanka still made sure to mark the milestone moment with a gushing Instagram tribute to her husband, in which she described him as her 'rock'.

The hotel is located just a stone's throw from the luxury condo building where Ivanka lives with husband Jared Kushner and their three children

Ivanka and Jared marked their 14th wedding anniversary on Wednesday - but the former First Daughter spent the day alone while her husband was attending an event in Saudi Arabia

Ivanka enjoyed a fun night out with friends on Wednesday, when she attended a preview of new restaurant Casadonna

She once again flaunted her long legs in a red mini dress

Sharing an image from their wedding day in 2009, the eldest daughter of former President Donald Trump wrote: 'Celebrating 14 years (!!!) of love, laughter, wild rides and endless adventures with my rock, Jared.

'I am so thankful for this beautiful life and family we've built together.'

The couple shares three children together: 12-year-old Arabella, 10-year-old Joseph and seven-year-old Theodore.

Since stepping back from politics when her father's Presidency came to an end in 2021, Ivanka has seemingly been enjoying a life of leisure - regularly attending celebrity events, including Kim Kardashian's 43rd birthday party last Friday.

After rubbing shoulders with several A-list stars at the soiree, Ivanka was pictured leaving the party, which took place at Beverly Hills-based pasta restaurant Funke's.

As she made her way out of the venue, Ivanka maintained a stony silence as she was asked whether she is scared to testify at father Donald's ongoing civil fraud trial.

Looking every inch the glamorous superstar in a dazzling sequin two-piece set, Ivanka declined to respond to questions about her dad's legal case - in which she has been ordered to testify.

While Ivanka lived it up in Miami, her husband Jared was attending the Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference in Riyadh, where he did a panel with the former Italian Prime Minister

The former White House adviser sat down with Matteo Renzi for a discussion about 'conflict and opportunity in the Middle East'

Ivanka is supposed to testify at the case in New York, but has recently filed a request not to appear.

Her lawyers argue that she should not have to testify as she is no longer listed as a defendant and does not live in New York any more. It is not yet known when the court will rule on the submission.

Ivanka was a former executive at the Trump Organization which has been accused of fraudulently inflating asset values on financial statements given to lenders, insurers and others.

She was dismissed as a defendant from the wide-ranging lawsuit, after a New York appeals ruled the claims against her were barred by the states statute of limitations.

But she is still being sued as part of the case, along with her brothers, Eric Trump and Donald Jr., as well as other executives of the Trump Organization.
She questioned if she was an 'a**hole' on Reddit for 'outshining the bride'

An African woman has been accused of 'outshining' the bride at the first 'European wedding' she attended.

The 27-year-old woman took to Reddit to share that she was ridiculed after she sported a green dress to a German wedding, despite asking if there was a dress code.

She explained that she had been living in Germany for quite some time and had formed a friendship with her 60-year-old colleague, who invited her to her daughter's wedding.

Since she was told she needed to 'dress to impress,' the woman, 27, donned an embellished green gown, but she has now questioned if she was in the wrong in the Am I the A**hole subreddit after being slammed by her coworker and the bride.

An African woman has been accused of 'outshining' the bride at the first 'European wedding' she attended

The unnamed 27-year-old woman took to Reddit to share that she was ridiculed after she sported a green dress to a German wedding, despite asking if there was a dress code

'So I, 27F, am a black African woman. I'm living and working in Germany for a fixed period,' she said at the beginning of the post.

Then she explained that while working in Germany, she became 'quite friendly' with a colleague, 60, who invited her to her daughter's wedding.

The African woman added: 'I was excited as I've never been to a white wedding. I asked if there was a dress code/color scheme to adhere to since it wasn't specified on the invite. I was told the code is "dress to impress."'

On the day of the wedding, she showed up in a green gown and thought she 'understood the assignment.'

She saw her colleague while at the wedding, and noted that she seemed 'colder' than usual, however, she didn't pay attention to it.

'The bride is downright rude to me, but again I give her grace,' she said.

The 27-year-old added: 'I keep to the edges of the room as the music isn't really my vibe, and I'm just observing how European weddings work.

'I leave around 8[pm] (after five hours) and go home before the wedding finishes.'

She explained that she had been living in Germany for quite some time and had formed a friendship with her colleague, 60, who invited her to her daughter's wedding (stock image)

When she went back to work on Monday, she noted that her coworkers were 'more reserved than usual.'

She noted that one of her friends at the office pulled her aside and explained that the mother of the bride was 'fuming' because her green gown was 'too extravagant.'

The 60-year-old accused her of 'drawing attention from the bride', being 'rude' and 'disrespectful.'

The wedding guest noted that she asked her coworker to speak to her privately, however, she refused.

'I explained to anyone who scolded me that this was my first white people wedding: I specifically asked what to do wear and followed the guidelines. Where I'm from, there's no such thing as outshining the bride - weddings are a fashion show and a chance to wear your best and brightest clothes,' she noted.

However, her coworker quipped back, 'This isn't Africa', and told her that people in Germany 'have manners.'

At the end of the post, she questioned if she was an a**hole.

Luckily, people on the web flooded to her defense and slammed her coworker.

One person said: 'Your dress was gorgeous  you followed the instructions! I would be honored to have you attend my wedding. Your friend is not your friend so sorry! Hold your head up & let your beauty shine. Not the a**hole.'

People on the web flooded to the woman's defense and slammed her coworker

Another user added: 'Exactly. They said dress to impress and you understood the assignment. They failed.'

Someone else commented: 'I think some women are just insecure and petty. As long as you're not dressed in white, then I think it should be fine! Weddings are an event to have fun, dress up and celebrate the new couple!'

One Redditor wrote: 'I'm from Italy and here weddings are basically fashion shows, it's even recommended to dress the best you can!

'You don't outshine the bride until you wear white.'

'Big time not the a**hole. Now upload a picture of your dress,' a commenter said.

Another Redditor added: 'How drab was the bride if that would outshine her?! Your dress is lovely and in my opinion, very subtle and appropriate.'

Someone else said: 'You know what, my opinion is that your coworker is just setting you up to fail. No matter what you wear, it was always going to be a gossip!'
Prince Albert of Monaco has visited a park in Philadelphia to plant a tree after his foundation gave a grant to a Pennsylvania green charity.

The billionaire monarch, 65, flew to Pennsylvania to meet with Orlando Rendon the Commissioner of Philadelphia Parks & Recreation.

He was without his wife Princess Charlene, 45, who hasn't been pictured in Monaco in the last month.

While in Philadelphia Albert and Orlando were seen during the Golden Shovel Tree Planting Ceremony to Celebrate the $130,000 Grant Awarded by the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation to further the Philly Tree Plant's Initiatives to Combat Climate Change.

The appearance in the US comes just days after Albert's son Alexandre revealed he is living in New York - which is less than two hours from Philadelphia.

Prince Albert of Monaco has visited a park in Philadelphia to plant a tree after his foundation gave a grant to a Pennsylvania green charity. Deputy Mayor, Office of Children and Families Vanessa Garrett Harley, HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco and John B. Kelly III are seen during the Golden Shovel Tree Planting Ceremony

The billionaire monarch, 65, flew to Pennsylvania to meet with Orlando Rendon the Commissioner of Philadelphia Parks & Recreation

Speaking to Tatler, Alexandre, 20, added that he and his father are 'really close'.

Alexandre, a student at Royal Holloway in London, is the son of Albert and Nicole Coste, 52, a former Air France flight attendant from Togo.

Although he is Albert's eldest son, he is not in the line of succession to the Monegasques throne as his parents were not married when he was born.

His father acknowledged his paternity as an infant, and despite growing up out of the spotlight he has increasingly come into the royal fold in recent years.

Alexandre said that he often spends time with his half-sister Jasmin Grimaldi, 31, whose mother is American waitress Tamara Rotolo, and his twin siblings Prince Jacques and Princess Gabriella, eight, who Albert shares with wife Princess Charlene.

The 20-year-old also revealed how he and Jasmin watch Grace Kelly's films together as a way to feel close to the grandmother who died before he was born, adding that Dial M for Murder is his favourite.

'We talk about her a lot, because of things we're currently doing  especially Jazmin, as she's sort of following in our grandmother's footsteps in Hollywood. We always talk about that and how she wants to continue her legacy.'

Alexandre, Jazmin and his half-brothers from his mother's first marriage also have a text group.

He was without his wife Princess Charlene , 45, who hasn't been pictured in Monaco in the last month. From left: Deputy Mayor, Office of Children and Families Vanessa Garrett Harley, HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco, John B. Kelly III and Commissioner of Philadelphia Parks & Recreation Orlando Rendon

While in Philadelphia Albert and Orlando were seen during the Golden Shovel Tree Planting Ceremony to Celebrate the $130,000 Grant Awarded by the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation to further the Philly Tree Plant's Initiatives to Combat Climate Change

The appearance in the US comes just days after Albert's son Alexandre revealed he is living in New York - which is less than two hours from Philadelphia

Prince Albert II of Monaco is seen during the Golden Shovel Tree Planting Ceremony to

'We are all very close We actually have a text message group. Were having arguments about whos better: Erling Haaland or Mbappe. My sisters more Team Mbappe, but its more Haaland on the boys side. I like both.'

The little ones [referring to Jacques and Gabriella, 10], are too young to have a phone, so itll take them a few years, he laughs.

She added that his godmother and aunt Princess Stephanie is 'a lot of fun'.

'She's very funny, very down to earth.

'I am quite close to her. In the past few years, weve had dinners and lunches together to celebrate my birthday with my cousins. Shes been there for me as a godmother and an aunt.

After growing up in Knightsbridge, the aristocrat is now set to move to New York for post-graduate education where he plans to go to NYU or Fordham. He is currently living in the Four Seasons hotel while he scouts for apartments.

The royal is seen during the Golden Shovel Tree Planting Ceremony to Celebrate the $130,000 Grant Awarded

Prince Albert is seen chatting to a John B. Kelly in Philadelphia

A mystery woman, who he met in Monaco, is also coming to New York with him. While he kept her name under wraps Alexandre did tell the society bible it's 'going very well'.

Alexandre has previously berated his title of 'illegitimate' and revealed he's 'very close' to his father and half-siblings.

In August, the student gave a tell-all interview to French magazine Point de Vue where he described father Prince Albert of Monaco, 65, as 'benevolent' and said he considers himself 'lucky'.

Since 2022, with his father's encouragement, he has begun using his family's name of Grimaldi (although kept his mother's too, with the hyphenated with Grimaldi-Coste).

'My father's name is Grimaldi. It makes sense that I bear his name. I would have been called Dochomel if my father had been Mr. Dochomel!' he told the magazine.'

He also hit back at being called 'illegitimate' complaining that online trolls question his legitimacy.

'When I was born, neither of my parents were in another marriage, and they did not commit adultery. Using that word [illegitimate] is insulting! I hope no one believes the lies conveyed on the internet. One bears the name of one's father when one has been recognised since birth. I had voluntary recognition from my father when I was a baby. Not from a judge or the press who have forced him to,' he added.

The royal has spent time with the Monegasque side of his family, and was recently pictured at his cousin, Louis Ducruet's wedding.

Meanwhile, Princess Stephanie, his aunt, is also his godmother.

And despite his good looks, he said he has no plans to go into modelling, following his grandmother Grace Kelly's footsteps.

'My father is a prince and head of state  I personally cannot imagine myself marching on a podium.'

'On the other hand, if a prestigious brand asks me to be its ambassador and its image suits me, why not?'
The royal attended the launch of the Camille Charriere x Stripe & Stare collection

Lady Amelia Windsor looked effortlessly elegant as she stepped out in London last night.

The 28-year-old royal attended the launch of the debut Camille Charriere x Stripe & Stare collection, keeping her outfit simple and sleek in all-black.

Amelia, often dubbed the 'world's most beautiful royal' opted for a lace-trimmed camisole, high-waisted jeans and ankle boots.

The Duke of Kent's granddaughter added a chunky chain necklace, statement earrings and rings on every finger.

She showcased her signature natural make-up look, incorporating a light coat of mascara and rose-coloured lipstick.

Lady Amelia Windsor attended the launch of the debut Camille Charriere x Stripe & Stare collection in London

Whether she's stepping out on the catwalk, posing on the cover of a glossy magazine or gracing the latest society knees-up with her fashionable presence, it's clear that Lady Amelia Windsor belongs to one of the most fortunate clubs in Britain.

Much like her Windsor cousins, and the grandchildren of Princess Margaret, Lady Amelia is what you might call a 'satellite royal' - impossibly well-connected, an occasional guest on the Buckingham Palace balcony and yet free to do mostly as she chooses.

The 28-year-old model, signed to Storm Model Management, is the granddaughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, making her a third cousin of the Prince of Wales and 43rd-in-line to the throne.

Once described by Tatler as 'the most beautiful royal', Amelia was educated at the exclusive St Mary's, Ascot, where boarders pay more than 45,000 a year - proving she boasts brains as well as looks.

She took a year out of education to travel India and Thailand, before studying Italian at the University of Edinburgh.

Since graduating, Amelia has pursued a mixed career of modelling, fashion design and writing for publications, such as Tatler - having also appeared on the magazine's cover.

On the books of Storm management, an agency which once represented Kate Moss, Lady Amelia has modelled for brands including Dolce & Gabbana.

The 28-year-old, who is the granddaughter of the Duke of Kent, looked effortlessly chic in an all-black ensemble, comprising a lace-trimmed camisole, high-waisted jeans and ankle boots

She added a chunky chain necklace, statement earrings and rings on every finger

The model showcased her signature natural make-up look, opting for a light coat of mascara and rose-coloured lipstick (pictured with Stripe & Stare founder Katie Lopes)

Updating us on her latest enterprises, the agency said: 'Most recently, Amelia collaborated with luxury knitwear brand Brora, where she drew inspiration from her love of the sea and donated a portion of all sales to the Blue Marine Foundation.

'Amelia is hugely committed to supporting sustainable fashion and her Instagram features many of the sustainable brands she is passionate about.'

In 2021, she attracted more attention than ever by posing in polaroid-style snaps, wearing a baby pink bra, created using seaweed and wood pulp, for Alexander Clementine.

Lady Amelia is a big fan of social media and regularly shares glimpses of her glamorous life with followers.

She regularly posts style tips on her Instagram page, along with news of her latest collaborations, such as fine jewellery specialist Alice van Cal.

Speaking of her enthusiasm for social media, she said: 'It allows anyone to be creative and imaginative.

'I also love that we can share all the beautiful and meaningful things we see and hear in the world. I find it so inspiring and uplifting.'
King Charles has gone from a 'confused young man' to the 'nation's grandfather' thanks to his love and support from wife Camilla, a royal expert has claimed.

Speaking in a special episode of Palace Confidential to celebrate the monarch's 75th birthday next month, Richard Kay shared how Charles has become 'very comfortable in his skin'.

'Prince of Wales as he then was, was a confused man.

'He was constantly competing with his wife [Princess Diana] and unsure of himself he was often being criticised in public.

'But the king he is today? He's a man much more comfortable in his skin in large part because of his marriage to Queen Camilla.

King Charles has gone from a 'confused young man' to the 'nation's grandfather' thanks to his love and support from wife Camilla, a royal expert has claimed. Charles and Camilla are pictured

Mr Kay also touched on how Charles was once seen as too politically outspoken - but can now 'look back with some satisfaction that many of the views that he held thirty years ago are now very mainstream and have wide public support'.

However, Charles' first year as king has been dominated by the issues of 'Harry, Meghan and Andrew'.

'I think that's going to go on i think what's interesting is what his response has been,' Mr Kay added.

'He has remained stoically silent indeed almost impervious to many statements and remarks that have come out of California, and I think that will continue'.

'He is becoming i think what he wants to be which is the nation's grandpa.

'It was always going to be such a difficult act to follow after the queen.'.

Daily Mail's Royal Editor Rebecca English added that senior member's of royal staff have told he the King would be the 'first to admit' that he 'made mistakes in his personal life' in the past.

She added: 'But should he be expected to pay for those mistakes for the rest of time on earth? Time is a healer an people have come to accept the man that he is.

'He's in a much happier place personally and that seeps into his professional life.

Speaking in a special episode of Palace Confidential to celebrate the monarch's 75th birthday next month, Richard Kay shared how Charles has become 'very comfortable in his skin

Charles was 'confused' as a young man, the experts says

King Charles and soon-to-be Queen Camilla have had a rollercoaster of a relationship since they first met at a polo match in Windsor Great Park in 1970.

After what seemed to be an extended bachelorhood, the then-Prince Charles married Princess Diana in 1981 in a televised ceremony watched by millions, whereas Camilla married Andrew Parker Bowles in 1973.

After high profile divorces and royal scandal, Charles and Camilla appeared together publicly for the first time a year after Diana's death and were finally married in 2005 in a civil ceremony at Windsor Guildhall with just 28 guests.

During her 2022 Platinum Jubilee celebrations, Queen Elizabeth II announced that the then-Duchess of Cornwall would be made Queen Consort when Charles was King - a title she subsequently assumed upon the late Queen's death in September, 2022.

King Charles and the Queen Consort beam widely in photo released with Coronation ceremony invitation

Camilla's public image has been transformed after she was initially cast as the 'third' person in Diana, Princess of Wales, and Charles's marriage, before becoming a campaigning member of the monarchy prepared to serve the nation.

It took time for the nation to warm to the future Queen following Diana's death in 1997 and when Camilla wed Charles in 2005 the subject of her future title was a point of contention.

At the time, Palace guidance said she would only ever be known as 'Princess Consort' - until Queen Elizabeth II ended years of uncertainty over the issue by assuring Camilla's future status in an historic Platinum Jubilee statement.

In her surprise announcement in February 2022, Her late Majesty declared it was her 'sincere wish' for her daughter-in-law to be fully acknowledged upon Charles becoming King.

And the first clue that the Kings long-held dream of having his wife crowned Queen at his side was finally to be realised came in the wording of the Coronation invitation itself: The Coronation of Their Majesties King Charles III and Queen Camilla.

Officials released an image of the elaborately illustrated invitation last night that will be sent out later this month to 2,000 guests who have secured a much-coveted place at Westminster Abbey on May 6.

Charles and Camilla at the Service of Prayer and Dedication blessing their marriage at Windsor Castle on April 9, 2005

Asked about the title  when the accompanying press release itself still referred to Camilla as the Queen Consort  a senior royal aide confirmed: It made sense to refer to her Majesty as The Queen Consort in the early months of His Majestys reign, to distinguish from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Queen Camilla is the appropriate title to set against King Charles on the invitation. The Coronation is an appropriate time to start using Queen Camilla in an official capacity. All former Queen Consorts have been known as Queen plus their first name.

It's a stark contrast to how Camilla was viewed in the early years of her and Charles's relationship - with even the late Queen initially 'wanting nothing to do with her'.

Just 12 months after the crash in Paris in which Princess Diana was killed, Charles went to see his mother, looking for approval and support for his relationship with Camilla, then Mrs Parker Bowles.

It was not a happy meeting. As a highly placed royal confidante told The Daily Mail then: The Queen told her son she never wanted to talk about that wicked woman, and wanted nothing to do with her.

Charles and Camilla leaving The Ritz hotel in London after attending a 50th birthday party for Camilla's sister in their first official outing together in 1999

However, the late monarch personally endorsed 'Queen Camilla' in the end, accepting Charles's former mistress as a respected member of the 'Firm'.

Meanwhile, The Daily Mail was the first to reveal back in December that the Palace planned to drop the word Consort from Camillas title organically this year.

This was confirmed by The Mail on Sunday in February, when it reported that she would be referred to as Queen after the Coronation.

The change, once unthinkable, sets the seal on a remarkable transformation for Camilla in the nations affections.

When she married the then Prince of Wales in 2005 in a civil ceremony  which Queen Elizabeth declined to attend  it was announced that Camilla intended to be known as Princess Consort when her husband acceded to the throne.

The use of the word intended was designed to give royal aides room for manoeuvre, but at the time many still blamed her for the breakdown of Charless marriage to Diana, Princess of Wales.

Since then, however, Camilla, 75, has won many over with her warmth, sense of humour, lack of complaining and work championing the victims of domestic violence, as well as the promotion of literacy.

One royal insider said last night: His Majesty has always seen it as a matter of honour. He is King so, therefore, it follows that his wife should be Queen. Its rather like telling someone they cant be known as Mrs So-and-So.

Its entirely up to them whether to chose to be called that, but its still fundamentally their right to do so.
Dodi and Diana are up close and personal in a newly released image of the show

The sixth and final series of Netflix's The Crown recreates moving images of Diana's final summer holiday on board Mohamed Al-Fayed's yacht in the South of France, days before her death in 1997.

The finale is set to recreate poignant moments from Diana's last days, including her whirlwind romance with Dodi Fayed and their trip to the south of France the summer before the pair died in a car accident in Paris on 31 August 1997.

The series revisits the moment Diana, then 36, was spotted gazing into the distance from the yacht's diving board - one of the last pictures ever taken of her.

As the final series of The Crown attempts to avoid causing more controversy following backlash over the more recent series' dramatisations, Netflix bosses have said there are no intimate scenes between Diana and Dodi in the latest episodes.

However, a newly released image from the new series portrays Princess Diana cosying up to her lover Dodi Fayed as she tenderly holds his face in her hands.

The sixth and final series of Netflix 's The Crown recreates moving images of Diana's final summer holiday on board Mohamed Al-Fayed 's yacht in the South of France , days before her death in 1997. Pictured above is Elizabeth Debicki recreating the moment

Released yesterday, the new trailer depicts Diana in a moment of solace as she is sat on the diving board of a luxury motor-yacht.

Back in 1997 the royal gazed off into the distance in one of the last pictures ever taken of her, as paparazzi tailed the boat in a dinghy to capture the image.

Elizabeth Debicki, who plays Diana in The Crown, offers a parallel image - sat with her head down in a near identical striking swimming costume.

Netflix has also released a photo which gives viewers an insight into how Diana's relationship with Dodi will be depicted.

The pair will be seen engaging in a love affair, but Netflix have claimed that there will be no steamy scenes shown in the series.

In the new image, Diana (Debicki) is faced away from the camera as cups Dodi's face (played by Khalid Abdalla) with her hands.

The Egyptian filmmaker stares longingly back into his lover's eyes, in an emotional recreation.

The royal gazed off into the distance in one of the last pictures ever taken of her, as paparazzi tailed the boat in a dinghy to capture the image

A newly released image from the series finale portrays Princess Diana cosying up to her lover Dodi Fayed, with her devotedly holding her hands around Dodis face

The new trailer for the sixth and final series of Netflix's The Crown was released yesterday features one of the controversial appearances of Princess Diana's ghost which have caused backlash among fans.

Sensationalised conversations between Diana and the late Queen, a watery-eyed King Charles and a final phone call with William and his mother - The Crowns finale does not hold back on creative license if the teaser is anything to go by.

Netflix bosses are set to prompt controversy with the first part of their final series of the drama as the trailer reveals it will portray the royal familys most intimate moments in the run-up and aftermath of the crash that killed Diana in 1997.

Elizabeth Debicki, 33, returns for her second season playing the late Princess of Wales and is seen having a final phone call with a 15-year-old William, played by Rufus Kampa, 17, before the fatal Paris car crash.

William asks Diana if she is okay before she morbidly responds: Its all just been a bit mad recently, before there is a flash of bulbs and audiences see her stepping into the black Mercedes that would drive her to her death.

A new trailer for the sixth and final series of Netflix's The Crown has been released. Pictured, Diana's 'ghost' speaking to Imelda Staunton's Queen

The crash is not explicitly revealed in the cryptic trailer but audiences glimpse a shot of Diana clutching onto Dodi Fayeds hand in the back of the car.

A tight-lipped Queen, played by Imelda Staunton, 67, sensationally declares to Diana, Youve finally succeeded in turning this house upside down. Its nothing less than a revolution,' despite her late Majesty never revealing how she felt about her daughter-in-law.

Another brazenly dramatised scene shows Charles, played by Dominic West, on the phone after the Princess's death as he grimly declares the funeral, Will be the biggest thing that any of us have ever seen.

The funeral, which was not shown in the trailer, was filmed at a disused RAF base five miles outside Bicester, Oxfordshire.

Scenes will show Princes William and Harry walking alongside King Charles, the Duke of Edinburgh and Earl Spencer in the procession of mourners behind the coffin of his mother.

The first four episodes, which will drop on the streaming giant on November 16, will heavily feature the young princes as teenagers during the summer of 1997, when they split their time between their mother, who is with the Fayeds on board a yacht in the South of France and their father at Balmoral.

Viewers will also see the Queen being caught off-guard by the vast outpouring of grief following Dianas death - which is almost certain to upset members of the royal family.

The shows will also feature Mohammed Al Fayed, who died earlier this year, processing the loss of his son while being shunned by the royals as Prince Williams returns to Eton school where he struggles to deal with his mothers death.

Fans will have to wait until December 14 for the final six episodes which Netflix insiders say will be more jolly.

The scenes will show Prince William and Kate Middleton meeting at St Andrews University and the final programme will show King Charles and Queen Camilla - played by Olivia Williams - marrying in April 2005.

Today's trailer, shared on social media by the streaming service, centres on Diana and her tragic death after the fatal Paris car crash in 1997.

Playing Queen Elizabeth II in the final season, Imelda's character is seen telling Diana's 'ghost' that she's 'finally succeeded in turning this house upside down'.

The trailer opens with Elizabeth Debicki's Diana playing the piano, while explaining in the voiceover: 'I don't really understand how I ended up here. Dashing around... and losing sight of myself in the process. I think that's been the story of my whole life.'

Her Majesty, played by Imelda, appears sombre during one scene shared in the teaser clip

Happy times: During the trailer, scenes play of the Princess singing during a car drive with a young Prince William (pictured together)

The teaser also shows Diana having difficulties dealing with media attention following the end of her marriage to Charles (Dominic West, pictured), the then Prince of Wales

It also shows Diana having difficulties dealing with media attention following the end of her marriage to Charles (Dominic West), the then Prince of Wales.

A royal advisor, while flicking through newspaper front pages dominated by Diana, then tells The Queen: 'I'm afraid, Your Majesty, interest in the princess's private life is unlikely to die down any time soon.'

To which Her Majesty responds: 'All one wants is for that girl to find peace', while scenes play of the Princess singing during a car drive with a young Prince William.

Her eldest son, played by Rufus Kampa during his teenage years, asks: 'Mommy, you OK?'. The princess replies: 'I'm OK, it's just... It has all been a bit mad recently.'

Diana is then filmed receiving roses from lover Dodi Fayed (Khalid Abdalla) alongside a note, reading: 'Paris next week?' before the clip skips to the princess in a car surrounded by photographers.

The final moments of the trailer appear to look at the aftermath of Diana and Dodi's deaths following a car crash in a Paris tunnel in August 1997.

In the teaser, Dominic as Prince Charles can be heard saying the Queen should 'be mother to the nation' as there is talk of silence from Buckingham Palace.

He adds: 'You've seen the images on the television, Diana gave people what they needed, all over the world in their thousands, and they adored her for it.'

The trailer ends with the line: 'This is going to be the biggest thing that any of us have ever seen.'
The Princess of Wales' brother James Middleton has followed a royal tradition - by ferrying his newborn around in a Silver Cross pram.

Already a doting dad, the entrepreneur, 36, fit right in with the west London set as he pushed a 795 buggy from the British brand while enjoying a walk around Notting Hill on Tuesday alongside his wife Alizee Thevenet and their first child.

Silver Cross has been the Royal Family's baby carriage of choice for almost a century.

Considered 'the worlds most exclusive pram', a Silver Cross has carried the late Queen Elizabeth II, her children, grandchildren and her great-grandchild, including Kate's children.

Prince William's mother Princess Diana also spent her earliest days in the buggy being pushed around her family's estate at Althorp in Northamptonshire, while both the late Queen and King Charles spent some of their early months in a Silver Cross.

The Princess of Wales' brother James Middleton was spotted walking around Notting Hill on Tuesday alongside his wife Alizee Thevenet and their first child (pictured together). The entrepreneur, 36, fit right in with the west London set as he pushed a 795 Silver Cross pram

Invented in 1877 by William Wilson because of a lack of suitable buggies for his own children, the baby carriages became hugely popular by the 1960s.

The inventor opened a small workshop in Silver Cross Street, Leeds, where he grew the business with the help of his three sons.

In 1913 it became the official royal pram, and a special edition was created and sent to George VI for Princess Elizabeth, who is now Queen.

After moving to larger premises, an old silk factory in Guiseley, it has grown to a worldwide brand.

Television footage of Her late Majesty pushing her children around royal estates in one helped turn them into a must have baby accessory for the wealthy.

The prams were often spotted being pushed by Norland Nannies wearing their distinctive brown uniforms, while more recently, Kate and William ferried Prince George around in a Silver Cross pram.

James and his French financier wife, 33, have also opted for a Silver Cross pram for their first child.

The baby - whose gender has not been revealed - is the first cousin of Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis and the niece or nephew of Kate and William.

A photo from 1965 shows Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip with their children, Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, and Prince Edward in his Silver Cross

The buggy brand has been the British Royal Family's baby carriage of choice for almost a century. Pictured, Kate pushed Princess Charlotte in a vintage pram for the youngster's christening in 2015

The parents have kept the exact details and date of the baby's birth private. It's believed he or she was born in recent weeks as James shared a snap of his then-pregnant wife on September 12th to celebrate their anniversary and declare: 'the best is yet to come'.

The couple, who live near where Kate, sister Pippa and James grew up in Bucklebury, Berkshire, strolled along Westbourne Grove in Notting Hill.

James announced Alizee's pregnancy on Instagram in July, where he shared a snap of his wife in a olive green dress with their dog Mable in a gorgeous countryside setting.

'We couldn't be more excited  well Mable might be,' James wrote, before referencing his tough year following the death of his dog Ella.

Queen Elizabeth II is pushed in her Silver Cross pram followed by Queen Mary in 1927, the Queen Mother, King George V and her father King George VI through the grounds of Balmoral

1952: Looking round to call one of his mother's Corgis, a young Charles is walked to Clarence House in his luxury buggy

A photo from 1963 shows Prince William's mother Diana sat in her buggy as a child in the grounds of Althorp in Northamptonshire

'It was a very difficult start to the year after losing my beloved Ella however we will end the year with the most precious little addition to our growing family'.

It's likely that Kate will certainly welcome becoming an aunt again, as she has mentioned she is 'feeling broody' on many occasions.

James and Kate's sister Pippa also has three children with her husband James Matthews: - Arthur, Grace and Rose - meaning the new addition will be the seventh grandchild of Carole and Michael Middleton.
A mother has revealed how she has married her adopted son - after raising him from the age of 14.

Aisylu Chizhevskaya Mingalim, 53, from Tatarstan, Russia, has left child welfare experts horrified by tying the knot with 22-year-old Daniel Chizhevsky.

She first met Daniel when he was just 13 and working as a singing teacher at his orphanage.

Aisylu then adopted him and raised him from the age of 14.

But just eight years later the pair have now tied the knot, leaving authorities to take custody of her other adopted children.

Aisylu Chizhevskaya Mingalim, 53, from Tatarstan, left child welfare experts horrified after tying the knot with her 22-year-old adopted son Daniel Chizhevsky (pictured together)

Aisylu first met Daniel (pictured together) when he was aged just 13 years old, with the musician teaching singing lessons at the orphanage where he lived

'Our relationship is perfect. We can't live without each other. We are on the same wavelength,' she told local media.

The mother and her adopted son wed in a ceremony at a restaurant in Kazan last week.

Child welfare officials have now seized Aisylu's other five adopted children - one boy and four girls.

The adoptive mother has denounced the decision, with the children reportedly having been placed into care homes or given back to their biological relatives.

She wants the children back in her care, so all of them - including their adopted brother turned step-father - can flee to Moscow.

The former music teacher believes the family will be able to live more 'freely' in the Russian capital.

Reportedly Aisylu has a biological son from a previous marriage, however no additional information about him has been detailed.

The former singing teacher's adoption spree started shortly after coming into contact with orphans whilst on a film project with a Tatarstan TV station.

Child welfare officials have now seized Aisylu's other five adopted children - one boy and four girls. Pictured, Aisylu with Daniel

Last year, a woman who traded in her husband for her step-son revealed she was expecting their second child.

Marina Balmasheva, 38, from Russia, already had a 20-months-old daughter with Vladimir 'Vova' Shavyrin, now 24.

She has known him since he was seven, calls him 'the most charming blue-eyes in the world', and was previously married to his father Alexey Shavyrin, 48, who now cares for their five adopted children.

Marina, who is a popular weight loss influencer, announced her baby news online, sharing a video of the moment Vladimir learned she was going to be a father for the second time.

She wants the children back in her care, so all of them - including their adopted brother turned step-father - can flee to Moscow. Pictured, Aisylu with Daniel

Marina calls her second husband 'the most charming blue-eyes in the world' but scolds him on social media for being 'clumsy' pushing their daughter's pram, and failing to hold down a well paid job in Krasnodar region, close to Ukraine, where war is raging.

She makes clear that she supports him from her social media earnings rather than allow him to do a mundane office job.

After revealing her relationship with her former stepson, she said: 'So many people tell me to use makeup - make lashes, and curl my pubic hair - because of my young husband.

'But there is one thing - he fell in love with me with all my scars from plastic surgeries, cellulite, excessive skin and personality.
Kate Middleton has a new nephew after her younger brother James and his wife Alizee Thevenet welcomed a son a few weeks ago.

The brother of the Princess of Wales, 36, revealed his little boy Inigo was born a few weeks ago in an adorable Instagram post after he and his wife were spotted out and about with a pram for the first time yesterday.

Sharing a photo of Inigo's tiny hand 'holding' a badge containing an emblem of his late beloved dog Ella, and another photo of the tiny baby in his cot while James's other dogs watched over him, the new father praised the NHS for looking after both Alizee and the newborn at Basingstoke Hospital, where he was born.

He also revealed he has already taught little Inigo about Ella, who passed away in January of this year leaving James heartbroken.

Although he did not reveal Inigo's exact birthday, he said the little one has been in his life for 'just a few weeks'.

James Middleton has revealed on Instagram that he and his wife Alizee Thevenet have welcomed a son called Inigo into the world

In a heartfelt announcement on Instagram, James wrote: He has been in our lives for just a few weeks but they have been the most special of my life getting to know our beautiful baby boy.

'No matter how prepared I thought I wasI was not prepared for the overwhelming emotion of meeting Inigo for the first time and the love for my darling Alizee as we became three.

'We have settled into our new life as parents and Ive told him all about Ella and that if it wasnt for her he wouldnt be here today and that we miss her greatly.

'The dogs have been fantastic at welcoming their little brother into the pack (although Inka needs to know the teddybears are not all for her)

Posting a heartfelt message on Instagram, James revealed he's already teaching Inigo about his deceased beloved dog Ella

'We would like to thank the wonderful team at Basingstoke hospital, from the very first scan to walking out the front door for the first time as three, we couldnt have felt more supported and looked after throughout so thank you NHS.'

The announcement comes after James and ALizee were spotted for the first time since becoming parents yesterday as they took a stroll in west London.

Already a doting dad, James pushed a 795 Silver Cross pram while sporting an autumnal ensemble of navy chinos, brown boots and a green jacket.

He added a yellow scarf to brighten up the look, while Alizee proved she was a cool mum in a double denim look with a blue shirt and jeans which she paired with a 1970s-inspired brown suede coat and fur gilet.

Princess Kate's brother James Middleton has welcomed his first chid with wife Alizee Thevenet

The baby - whose gender has not been revealed - is the first cousin of Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis and the niece or nephew of Princess Kate and Prince William. James and Alizee are pictured

James added a yellow scarf to brighten up the look, while Alizee, 33, sported a double denim look in a blue shirt and jeans which she paired with a 1970s-inspired brown suede coat and fur gilet

Keeping her blonde hair long and loose, the French financial analyst showed off he natural beauty in a make-up free look while clutching a shopping bag and cup of coffee.

Slung in the bottom of the pram was a travel bag from Sezane - which costs around 127. The brand is a favourite of Princess Kate's.

The couple, who live near where Kate, sister Pippa and James grew up in Bucklebury, Berkshire, strolled along Westbourne Grove in Notting Hill.

James announced Alizee's pregnancy on Instagram in July, where he shared a snap of his wife in a olive green dress with their dog Mable in a gorgeous countryside setting.

'We couldn't be more excited  well Mable might be,' James wrote, before referencing his tough year following the death of his dog Ella.

'It was a very difficult start to the year after losing my beloved Ella however we will end the year with the most precious little addition to our growing family'.

It's likely that Kate will certainly welcome becoming an aunt again, as she has mentioned she is 'feeling broody' on many occasions.

James and Kate's sister Pippa has also has three children with her husband James Matthews: - Arthur, Grace and Rose - meaning the new addition will be the seventh grandchild of Carole and Michael Middleton.

Slung in the bottom of the pram was a travel bag from Sezane - which costs around 127. The brand is a favourite of Princess Kate's

Ella is James' beloved spaniel, who died last year aged 15.

Writing in The Telegraph in 2021, James explained he met Alizee in 2014 at Chelsea's the South Kensington Club when Ella 'made a beeline for Alizee'.

James, who was 'embarrassed', went over 'to apologise and bring Ella back', recalling how Alizee thought he was a 'waiter' and 'ordered her drink while continuing to stroke Ella, who at this point was on her back lapping up the attention.'

Who are Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis's Middleton cousins? As well as Archie and Lilibet from their uncle Prince Harry, the Wales children have three cousins on their mother's side. Arthur William Matthews, born October 2018

Grace Matthews, born March 2021

Rose Matthews, born June 2022

Baby Middleton, born September or October 2023 Advertisement

He has previously credited the black spaniel with helping him overcome his mental health struggles and introducing him to his wife .

In January 2019, James explained in a personal essay for the Daily Mail how Ella had helped him through his depression battles.

He wrote: 'During the day I'd drag myself up and go to work, then just stare with glazed eyes at my computer screen, willing the hours to tick by so I could drive home again.

Alizee and James got engaged in September 2019 but had to delay the ceremony twice in the due to Covid, before finally announcing they had tied the knot in Bormes-les-Mimosas in Provencein 2021.

Alizee, who is trilingual has lived and worked in London for several years, is currently a director at TreasurySpring, a fin tech firm that uses digital pipelines to connect cash rich firms to institutional borrowers.

She's the daughter of retired diplomat Jean-Gabriel Thevenet, who lives in Paris and is currently pursuing a career as a writer and poet.

Her father is very fond of his daughter's husband, previously describing Alizee as 'deliriously happy' with James.

'My daughter Alizee is very happy with James, they are very much in love,' Mr. Thevenet told MailOnline in March 2019 when news of the couple's relationship first broke.

'James is a very charming man,' he said. 'I am very happy that Alizee is together with James. I know she is very happy. We keep our fingers crossed for them.'

The finance guru has lived in six countries - Germany, Indonesia, Chile, France, Belgium and England.

James and Alizee dipped in and out of coffee shops as they enjoyed the autumnal stroll in west London

Alizee and James are pictured in London on Tuesday

The pair strolled through the west London village while Alizee held onto her phone

With three nieces and three nephews James has no doubt had practice looking after babies

Despite new parenthood the pair looked well-rested and stylish for the walk

Stylish Dad James came equipped with a posh pram for his walks with the baby

James and Alizee clutched onto coffees for their walk through Notting Hill

Need a caffeine boost? James, the youngest of the Middleton siblings, clutched what appeared to be flat white for the walk

The pair made the most of the bright autumn day in the idyllic west London neighbourhood

Alizee appeared to have pink headphones strapped around her for the walk

Dashing James carried his essentials in a backpack as he strolled through Notting Hill

James and Alizee carried bags while pushing the child through the posh west London streets

New parenthood hasn't affected the couple's style who looked effortlessly chic during the walk

The couple live in a 1.45million home in Bucklebury, west Berkshire. The village Kate, Pippa and James grew up in

But Alizee has been settled in the UK for several years, graduating with a masters degree in investment and finance from Queen Mary, University of London.

The couple live in a 1.45million home in Bucklebury, west Berkshire. The village Kate, Pippa and James grew up in.

Before then she did her undergraduate degree in accounting and finance in Brussels. On her Linkedin profile, she descries herself as having a 'high work ethic and dedication to success' as well as 'always being open to new ideas'.

Alizee has a keen interest in sailing and watersports and shares James' love of dogs, with the pair often sharing snaps of them out and about with the entrepreneur's beloved pets.

Her father revealed how his daughter Alizee is named after the sub-tropical trade wind  known as the Alize in French.

The couple fit right in with the cool west London set in their chic attire

He said: 'My daughter is named after my first love which is wind-surfing and the Alize wind that fills the sails.'

James has previously described how Alizee had helped to transform his life following crippling depression.

They were first seen together at the Henry van Straubenzee Memorial Fund's Christmas Carol Service at St. Luke's Church.

The following month, they were spotted vacationing in St. Barts along with James's sister Pippa and her husband James Matthews.

James, the brother of Made in Chelsea's Spencer Matthews, is the son of David Matthews who own the Eden Roc hotel on the island.

James and Alizee live in a four-bedroom Grade II listed period farmhouse with beams and leaded windows in a village on the Bucklebury fringes.

It means Kate's family are all now near-neighbours, with parents Carole and Michael living in a 4.7 million Georgian manor house in the village, while her sister Pippa recently bought Bucklebury Farm Park, a petting zoo which is a favourite of Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.
Behind an unassuming side door in the middle of the suburbs lies a hidden gem foodies are flocking to.

A brown brick wall holds a gate labelled 550 which is the entrance to an authentic Italian eatery called Nonna's House in the inner-city Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy North.

Nonna's House serves up mouth-watering Italian sub sandwiches with a range of tasty fillings that will leave diners wanting more.

There is no formality to this casual eatery with cardboard signs and a hole in the wall style counter out the back of a residential home.

Those lucky enough to get in before the sandwiches sell out can enjoy a delicious menu of subs or tramezzinos as well as loaded fries.

Hiding behind a gate down the side of a unassuming brown-brick home lies an authentic Italian eatery foodies are flocking to

Nonna's House is in the inner-city Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy North and serves up mouth-watering Italian sub sandwiches with a range of tasty fillings

A fan favourite is the classic meatball sub with four juicy meatballs cooked in a traditional tomato sauce or sugo and topped with grated parmesan cheese.

Other sandwiches include the pesto chicken or vegetarian pesto mushroom and eggplant parma.

As a side there are also servings of plain seasoned fries as well as bolognese or carbonara loaded fries.

The Italian-Australian authenticity extends beyond the food as guests will feel like they're sitting in their nonna's backyard as they chow down on their tramezzino.

Those lucky enough to get in before the subs sell out can enjoy a delicious menu of subs or tramezzinos as well as loaded fries

The Italian-Australian authenticity extends beyond the food as guests will feel like they're sitting in their nonna's backyard as they chow down on their tramezzino

Melburians have been raving about their visit to Nonna's House with food blogger Chelsea calling it the 'most Melbourne thing ever'.

'This was such a cute wholesome experience! Grab an authentic Italian meatball sub and takeaway to eat in the park,' she said in an Instagram video.

'It's a bit of a hidden gem! You enter through a cute gate into Nonna's backyard. The fillings are to die for. The meatball sub was juicy and so flavourful,' another revier wrote.

'The most amazing food I've ever tasted!' a third said.

Nonna's House is only open on weekends from 11am until 3pm or until sold out so foodies better be quick if they want to try the decadent subs.
A sports-mad school teacher has urged all Australians young and old to 'check their poo' after being diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer at 38.

The teacher revealed he had noticed blood in the toilet for a few weeks before going to the doctor to get it checked out.

A colonoscopy revealed a huge cancerous growth which almost obstructed the young man's bowels.

'This is a public service announcement to check your poop every few days. You don't have to touch it but just make sure it has no traces of blood and is looking OK,' the man, from Newcastle, New South Wales, wrote in a post on Reddit.

He added that the cancer is often slow-growing which makes doctors think he has had it for over a decade.

A sports-mad school teacher has urged all Australians young and old to 'check their poo' after being diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer at 38 (stock image)

Despite the growth forming over such a long period of time he said he only noticed blood for the first time in May this year.

'Blood in poo doesn't always mean cancer. People with IBS and chronic conditions like colitis or Crohn's get bloody stools regularly,' he said.

'Also hemorrhoids are quite common for causing blood in poops. It is still worth getting a colonoscopy to ensure you know what it is.'

Before his colonoscopy doctors revealed they were 99 per cent sure he just had ulcerative colitis so the cancer diagnosis came as an even bigger shock.

The teacher didn't mention anything about pain or weight loss which can also be signs of the disease.

Hundreds of people commented on the post thanking him for reminding them to inspect their bowel habits more regularly.

'There is some push for the bowel screening program to be dropped to 45, which would be a good. Colon cancer rates for under 50s is growing so this is a very important message,' one man said.

Others said they have struggled to get tested despite pushing their GP for answers.

'I have had multiple GP's deny me getting a colonoscopy even though I have had blood in my stool for four years now. I am 47 so I am waiting for another three years so I can get tested,' one man said.

The teacher admitted it is hard to get tested and even though his GP was on board it took three months on the waiting list before he could go into hospital.

'I can't afford a good GP I have to go to bulk billing ones and they just turn me away,' another said.

Eligible Australians aged 50 to 74 are mailed a free test done at home every 2 years but other people can buy tests at the pharmacy.

A 26-year-old also jumped in on the chat - agreeing with the teacher's urgent suggestion.

'I had blood in my poop and was diagnosed with stage three rectal cancer about six months ago. six months of chemotherapy and next thing that is up is to get 30cm of my intestines cut out to remove the tumour,' they wrote.

'I had two episodes of bloody diarrhea and got told I was too young to have cancer. It was a fight to get a colonoscopy and break the dogma that only old people get cancer.'

The teacher revealed he is lucky to have sick leave 'built up' so is off for the rest of the year while going through chemotherapy.

He also added he has no family history of the disease and that he had never had 'anything go wrong' with his body which is why he is still in disbelief.
The event would've cost $200,000 for the venue and decorations alone

A father has been dubbed 'selfish' and a 'spineless coward' by his wife and daughter after refusing to fork out $200,000 for his daughter's 'dream' destination wedding in New Zealand.

The New York man originally agreed to pay for the wedding but didn't expect his daughter to pick an international venue.

He believed spending so much money was a 'pointless show of wealth' - but the women in his family claimed it didn't matter because they could afford it.

An additional cost would include paying for several other family members who could not afford to travel from America and find accommodation in New Zealand - which would add on tens of thousands to the bill.

'My daughter is not talking to me, nor is my wife. Which got me thinking - should I bite the bullet, burn money, and alienate family members to make my daughter's dream wedding a reality?' he asked on Reddit.

The New York man originally agreed to pay for the wedding but didn't expect his daughter to pick an international venue [stock image]

The father shared a post detailing the situation.

'My daughter is getting married, and she wishes to have a destination wedding and told her no. She is currently asking for around $200k, which is not counting what guests would have to pay to come.

'It is 100 per cent a destination wedding, she wants to get married in New Zealand.

'Many of our family cannot afford to fly to, let alone stay, in NZ. Some of our family members don't even have passports or have left the country.'

The man claimed that he'd have to end up paying for the extended family because he didn't want to 'alienate' them from an important event.

He also shared that he couldn't give his daughter a set amount to make her own arrangements because she would trick him.

'If I give her a set amount, she will use it as a down payment for her dream wedding and put me in a situation where either I foot the bill or waste the time and money of everyone that was meant to come,' he said.

The father revealed that he was happy to gift his daughter a large amount of money to spend on a house, but a wedding wasn't worth it in his books.

A father has been dubbed 'selfish' and a 'spineless coward' by his wife and daughter after refusing to fork out $200,000 for his daughter's 'dream' destination wedding in New Zealand

Thousands sided with him and claimed his daughter was being 'unreasonable'.

'If she can't pay for a destination wedding on her own, then she shouldn't be having a destination wedding. It seems cruel but it's true,' one said. 'Not to mention there's so much more money involved with the flights and the hotels and stuff.'

'Establish the amount of money you are willing to provide and give her the budget. Tell her anything above that is on her. Make sure to mention the amount includes travel, etc for the bridal couple and family members,' another suggested.

But some claimed he was being selfish for refusing his daughter her dream wedding.

'You agreed to pay for the wedding before you knew the location. A gift should be given for the recipient, not the giver,' a woman said.

'Is this the hill you wanna die on? You said, rather stupidly, you'd pay for the wedding. Now, you're on the hook. You can afford it - I don't see the problem,' a second said.
Aries (March 21 to April 19):

It's not the time for impulsivity, especially regarding your money. There could also be some turbulence with communications as your ruler Mars opposes this eclipse so do watch for irritations with women.

Possessions could give a sense of stability and you may be attracted to antiques or items with nostalgic value. On the upside, you could reassess your belief systems, decide that your self-worth is very important or reflect upon what you deserve in life.

You probably reassess your financial values now. In Taurus, the lunar eclipse paints the night, for Aries emotions run strong and bright. It's a cosmic spectacle and a thrilling sight as you manage your money gaining success so right.

Taurus (April 20 to May 20):

The lunar eclipse in your sign means you'll probably be strongly affected by emotions.

Do watch for emotional outbursts giving a clue to deeper issues coming up for resolution. Positively, your feelings will help with authenticity and honesty in relationships.

People will notice you expressing yourself with directness and fortitude. You may also be inspired to start new projects, especially in how you approach the world or related to your physical body.

Think new diet, new movement regime and new viewpoints. Changing your appearance, identity or beliefs could be a thing! Beneath Taurus' Lunar Eclipse so bright, emotions surge in the tranquil night. A cosmic dance unveils your hidden insight!

Gemini (May 21 to June 20):

You're pointed down a spiritual path so it's a fab time for a life review and some inner reflection.

Focus on those little flashes of brilliance you receive when your mind is blank.

This often happens when doing routine jobs and dealing with water such as having a shower, watering the garden or washing up. Write these subconscious messages down.

Spiritual healing might help clear up any recent issues that may be troublesome. For you, the eclipse joins Jupiter and Uranus so things may seem bigger than they actually are or perhaps something unusual or unpredictable occurs.

As the lunar eclipse graces the night, it's a celestial delight. Curiosity soars, your thoughts take flight!

Cancer (June 21 to July 22):

Friends, groups and connections are key for you now. You may find yourself having get-togethers for close friends and family.

Emotions could come up but then for you, they usually do. You're likely to get some needed support in sharing your emotions, so go right ahead and wear your heart on your sleeve.

Your hopes and dreams are also pinpointed as you feel more inspired and passionate about what you believe.

You may also meet someone special through friends, groups or associates. During this lunar eclipse, your heart is aglow, your emotions run deep in the moon's gentle flow.

A cosmic dance of feelings is the night's gift with a bow! Well done you!

Leo (July 23 to August 22):

It's a great time to expand your career, reputation or status because old templates no longer fit.

You may be in the public eye so that you become more visible somehow.

Perhaps social media is on your mind? You could also be working very well with the public and you're becoming noticed in some way. Your family or home could be affected also, so do watch for irritability or crabbiness here.

Relationships may seem 'magnetic' but also can swing to painful discussions, so use caution in your communications. Transformation of your career or relationships with authority figures such as a parent are also on the cards now.

Amidst the lunar eclipse, Leo's fire burns bright. In the cosmic theatre, you claim your rightful height. Your radiant dance of confidence is a captivating sight!

Virgo (August 23 to September 22):

Have you been wondering how to expand your life? Perhaps travel or study features on your agenda now? You may also have memories coming up about exciting adventures you either had or would like to have.

Other cultures and the exotic seem more interesting as you need something different in your life... yes, it's time for a bit more excitement.

Spirituality or philosophy can be gifts that keep on giving. Try to adopt a 'higher' viewpoint and you will see more of the real picture. Communications could get a bit testy or perhaps there's something annoying in your local area, with distant family or siblings.

Don't get involved if you can help it. Under the lunar eclipse, Virgo's grace shines! In the cosmic tapestry, your analytical lines are a dance of perfection where all details align.

Libra (September 23 to October 22):

Sometimes it all seems like too much to handle. You could be tempted to close yourself off from intimate encounters or money matters related to others.

In fact, anyone that you share energy with... you may run the other way. Take a deep breath and make no important decisions just yet. You need to have a clear headfirst.

Taking care of business and dealing with legalities  inheritances, loans or superannuation might be on the cards. Arguments may ensue because you might not wish to back down and before you know it, the matter escalates beyond your control.

Go slowly and carefully now. Beneath the lunar eclipse, Libra's scales align. In the cosmic arena, you will redefine a dance of equilibrium in the night's grand design.

Scorpio (October 23 to November 21):

The theatre of relationships is likely to see some turbulent situations under this eclipse, you may be trying to hold on but ask yourself 'is it really worth holding onto'?

If you receive support from partnerships (business or personal) then maybe it is. Emotional support is very important to you now, so any signs of love or caring do count.

Stay calm and take a deep breath, it's not the time to make important decisions as knee jerk reactions. On the positive side, any turbulence you experience is likely to bring things out into the open where they need to be.

Women may strongly feature during any relationship upsets. During this lunar eclipse, Scorpio's intensity flares.

In the cosmic depths, emotions lay bare. A passionate dance - the night's secrets you finally share.

Sagittarius (November 22 to December 21):

There's a tendency to reach out and help others, especially at work or during your normal everyday routine. The important thing is that you pay the same amount of attention and care to your own health and wellbeing.

It's great to help others and it's even better to help yourself so you can keep doing what you're doing. So do be cautious about overly self-sacrificing. A little bit is fine if you're aware of what you're really doing.

This lunar eclipse could bring issues at work or perhaps with your daily habits. Do try to be tolerant of foibles belonging to both others and yourself.

Beneath the lunar eclipse, Sag aims high. In the starry expanse, your dreams take to the sky of mind. A cosmic dance of adventure as you spread your wings and fly.

Capricorn (December 22nd to January 19):

Cap goats may be more emotional than usual they climb mountainous challenges. This lunar eclipse brings up all those emotions that may have been pushed down for some considerable time.

But on the upside, such emotional eruptions are likely to release subconscious creativity and freedom.

You may also live closer to the world of the child  a desire for fun and playtime is likely. Do it! Have more fun...you are allowed to! Romance might also be on your agenda, don't be stubborn go with the flow!

You could express yourself moreso with women now. During the lunar eclipse, Capricorn stands strong. In the cosmic shadows, you labour and toil along. A steady dance of ambition, you now sing a new song!

Aquarius (January 20th to February 18):

Your home and family could expand in some way. Are you thinking about home renovations?

Jupiter is smiling at you in this lunar eclipse, and you could receive an expansion of some kind related to your domestic affairs.

Memories from the past pop into your mind or perhaps you're even thinking about your ancestors now. Your own schooldays may also become more important. Reflect on your foundations which may need strengthening in some areas.

Of course, all these things may need to be balanced with career needs. An authority figure like a parent could also feature strongly now.

Beneath the lunar eclipse, Aquarius shines. In the cosmic realms, your intellect refines a progressive dance where innovation entwines.

Pisces (February 19 to March 20):

You dear Pisces are no stranger to making decisions based on feelings. This could be even more so during the lunar eclipse. Do watch for communications turning overly emotional at the drop of a hat.

As logic is also important, it's not a great time to make important decisions, especially those involving money. Any study, promotions or marketing you might be involved with are also likely to take on emotional overtones  sometimes this can work to your advantage.

You may hear from distant family members such as cousins or siblings including those you haven't heard from in a while. During this lunar eclipse, Pisces dives deep. In the starry waters, your soul's secrets you keep. A transcendental dance where your emotions and dreams meet!
NHS patients are now getting referrals for mental health treatment by an AI chatbot - but those behind the tech insist they are 'streamlining' services and 'not trying to replace' therapists.

Limbic, an AI-powered 'clinical assessment chatbot,' has referred more than 220,000 patients to the treatment they need in England, according to the NHS.

Those behind the technology claim it can predict eight mental health disorders with an accuracy rate of 93 per cent.

Limbic says the AI chatbot currently operates with 30 per cent of the NHS 'Talking Therapy' services in England - which are used by people with anxiety and depression.

Josh Cable-May, a cognitive behavioural therapy specialist at Limbic, insists they aren't trying to replace human therapists - the aim is to improve efficiency.

NHS Bradford District and Craven is one of the services which use Limbic on their website

The AI uses questionnaires to suggest likely conditions the user may have to the NHS

Limbic says the AI chatbot currently operates with 30 per cent of the NHS 'Talking Therapy' services in England - which are used by people with anxiety and depression (stock image)

In 2021, the government announced a 36million boost for AI technologies to revolutionise NHS care - and Limbic was the first mental health chatbot to secure UKCA (UK Conformity Assessed) medical device certification.

But in May, The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence fast-tracked approval for nine mental health apps to be offered within the NHS for people struggling with anxiety and depression.

Some are already in circulation, like Limbic, but six of the apps/programs are recommended for use only with the support of a high-intensity therapist.

They are for use by people with disorders such as generalised anxiety, PTSD and social anxiety disorder.

The chatbot asks users screening questions that are typically asked during a phone call prior to referral - many people with anxiety or related disorders find phone calls daunting and the AI is hoped to break down this barrier.

Once the user has answered all of the questions, all the data is attached to a referral record to support a practitioner in providing the right clinical assessment.

But some doctors are concerned about what the use of chatbots in the NHS mean for them.

Posting on X (formerly Twitter), one user said: 'As a doctor, all I want politicians to know is this - there's no point in talking about revolution in the NHS because currently we aren't able to provide the very basics of care.

'Robots/AI/Ground-breaking research means nothing without GPs, safe emergency care, beds and staff.'

Another user said: 'I worked in the NHS. They cannot even get their current IT systems to work, to interconnect, to manage assets.

'Disparate systems across trusts and multiple non connected systems within each trust. The pay is poor and they lack skills and innovation. They have no chance with AI.'

READ MORE - How big is the 'hidden' waiting list at YOUR hospital? Advertisement

However, those behind the technology say they are only trying to free up practitioner time and help people take the first step towards therapy.

The Limbic website reads: 'Replacement isn't the answer, making therapists' lives easier is.'

Mr Cable-May told the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy: 'We lower the barrier to accessing services, which has also led to an improvement in access for underserved populations.

'Around 40 per cent of our referrals are outside normal office hours, which speaks to the helpfulness of having a 24/7 tool. It is a very effective digital front door.

'We are not trying to replace therapists.

'We still need a human in the mix, and that is why we are still embedded within a care ecosystem. Everyone who refers into the NHS Talking Therapies using Limbic Access will have a human assessment and continue with a human therapist.

'But reducing the admin burden frees up [practitioners] to do the actual therapy, which can assist in reducing waiting lists.'

An audit of the technology Limbic uses found there were 45 per cent fewer changes in treatment for patients who used it, due to the increased accuracy.

The chatbot stores answers to the questionnaire in a data profile for practitioners

It also found that patients were assessed 12 minutes quicker, an 18 per cent reduction in treatment drop outs and a five per cent reduction in wait time.

Limbic estimates their chatbot has saved NHS services in England more than 46,000 hours since it was launched, at a time when practitioners are massively overworked.

A study of this AI-self referral tool in the NHS found Limbic to be especially effective for minority groups, though it is currently in the pre-print stage and awaits full peer review.

The research, carried out by those working at Limbic, found an increase of 235 per cent in non-binary people being referred, a 30 per cent increase for bisexual people and a 31 per cent increase for ethnic minority individuals.

Sebastiaan de Vries, co-founder and CTO of Limbic, told MailOnline: ''Limbic is using AI to support clinicians working at the frontlines of our mental health services in their day to day.

'Our psychological assessment assistant, Limbic Access, is the first in the world to achieve Class IIa UKCA medical device status. This, and our track record in the NHS, demonstrates Limbic Access is a safe and clinically effective way to augment therapy processes.

'Limbic Access increases capacity for NHS Talking Therapies clinicians by gathering information through a friendly, supportive chatbot conversation and using its machine learning capabilities to deliver effective triage.

'The result is that clinicians are more informed ahead of appointments and can spend more time focusing on the patient; services have less admin to complete, and patients enjoy shorter wait times and faster recovery.

'Such support has never been more needed. We care deeply about people struggling and patients who are put on waitlists and sometimes wait months before they see a therapist.

'By partnering with NHS Services, and working together to deploy technology, we estimate Limbic Access has saved over 57,000 days of patient waiting. If I think about the impact on individuals and their loved ones, it's humbling weve been able to achieve this already.'

READ MORE - Receptionists refer patients for treatment in bid to cut cancer waiting times Advertisement

Dr Ross Harper, co-founder and CEO added: 'This is a landmark moment for mental healthcare, as it provides strong evidence that our psychological assessment software - the first in the world to gain this level of certification - is a safe and clinically effective way to augment the therapy process within mental health services at a time when such support has never been more needed.

'Limbic Access is reducing the workload for IAPT services by gathering information through a friendly, supportive chatbot conversation and using its machine learning capabilities to deliver effective triage.

'The result is that clinicians are more informed ahead of appointments and can spend more time focusing on the patient; services have less admin to complete, and patients enjoy shorter wait times and faster recovery. It's win-win-win.

Earlier this year, the mental health charity Mind revealed the public's loss of confidence in mental healthcare, with YouGov polling showing more than 1 in 3 British adults (35 per cent) said they don't have confidence that a loved one would be safe if they needed hospital mental healthcare.

This is part of an ongoing 'crisis' in mental health care in the UK.

The NHS Confederation says the neglect of mental health services means some patients are waiting up to 80 hours in A&E.

Matthew Taylor, chief executive of NHS Confederation said in a press release: 'The current focus on the elective recovery, industrial action and GP access has meant that mental health has slipped down the government's set of priorities and patients and services are being forgotten.

'This is a national emergency which is now having serious consequences across the board, not least for those patients in crisis.

'We know that there is increasing demand for mental health support, but with limited supply in the community, this demand is washing up on the shores of wider NHS services and having a knock-on effect on the care of other patients, waiting times and recovery efforts.'

AI chatbots aren't the only technology the NHS is using to try and ease the burden on its overworked staff.

Earlier this year, a trial at Milton Keynes University Hospital saw a self-driving 'helper bot' called Milton used to transport medicines around the building.
A mass shooter in Maine who slaughtered dozens and is still at large is thought to be a schizophrenic who heard voices urging him to carry out his massacre.

Robert Card, an Army reservist and firearms instructor, was hospitalized in a mental health facility in June for an unspecified condition that experts, as well as his cousin, said showed hallmark signs of schizophrenia.

An estimated 2.8 million American adults have the reality-distorting disorder, or 1.1 percent of the population - yet an estimated four in 10 go without treatment.

And while the rate is around one in 100 in the general population, more than a third of America's mass shooters suffered from the condition, according to gun violence research and prevention organization The Violence Project.

The suspected shooter reported hearing voices before allegedly carrying out his massacre, which is a hallmark sign of schizophrenia

Psychologist Dr Elinor Greenberg said that while Card may fit the bill for a psychotic disorder, his age is older than the typical onset.

She told DailyMail.com: We know he was hospitalized at 40, and the onset of schizophrenia in men would be 16 to 20.

'So what happened between then and now? I'm trying to account for how this guy got from 20 to 40 without being hospitalized before last summer Something disturbed his functioning severely. So that's the big question  what's going on, and why the violence?

Early signs of schizophrenia to watch out for - Poor grooming and personal hygiene - Social withdrawal and depression - Flat, expressionless affect - Disorganized and jumbled thinking - Rapid speech and going on tangents - Auditory or visual hallucinations - Hostility in response to criticism - Delusions and fantasies Advertisement

Schizophrenia is what is known as a polygenic disorder, meaning it involves the interaction of multiple genes.

Studies in identical twins have revealed that genetics are not the only factor in a schizophrenia diagnosis. If they were, then both identical twins would have schizophrenia.

Dr Greenberg said: 'So theoretically, they're in the same womb, they have the same genetics. If it were only genetic, there would be 100 percent likelihood [that the other twin gets it too]. But that's not what people found, the average is about 46 percent chance.'

Until very recently, scientists did not know exactly which genes those were, but a fuller picture is just now coming into view, with scientists recently identifying a handful of genes associated with the balance of neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin in the brain.

Family members of diagnosed schizophrenics may carry the genetic factors that make them susceptible too, but they will never have the disorder themselves.

Traumatic events can trigger the onset of schizophrenia, which typically occurs in late teen years to early 20s for men and late 20s to early 30s for women. The brain changes a lot during puberty, and those changes could trigger the on-switch for the disease.

Scientists also believe, in addition to external factors like trauma combined with genetic factors, that a chemical imbalance in the brain is to blame.

They have been particularly interested in serotonin, which helps regulate mood, dopamine, which drives desire and motivation, and glutamate, which is important to memory, cognition, and mood regulation.

It has also been shown that 30 percent of schizophrenia cases among men aged 21 to 30 are related to heavy and problematic use of marijuana, which is legal for medicinal and recreational use in Maine.

Diagnosing schizophrenia is not always easy. Too little is understood about the underlying causes of the disorder. Much of what is known about it comes from subjective self-reporting and there is no objective diagnostic test.

Some changes leading up to schizophrenia may look like normal life events or symptoms of bouts of depression, such as dropping certain friends, suddenly doing poorly in school, and not maintaining personal hygiene, making it all the more difficult to spot early on.

When a healthcare provider evaluates a person for schizophrenia, they have to start by ruling out other, provable diagnoses, such as brain tumors or another psychiatric diagnosis like bipolar disorder.

Card, a US Army reserve soldier, launched the initial attack at a bowling alley (pictured) at around 6.56pm then struck again at bar and restaurant four miles away just 12 minutes later

The manhunt for Card continues today with an alert for the Canadian border

Mr Cards cousin Michael Mercier told a CBS news station that Card is a schizophrenic and has a lot going on in his head.

At the same time, Cards sister-in-law Kate ONeill maintains that her relative is not someone who has had mental health issues for his lifetime or anything like that, adding that this was 'an acute episode.

Slightly over a third of mass shooters suffer from the condition, according to gun violence research and prevention organization The Violence Project.

Dr Greenberg said that while the suspect may fit the bill for a psychotic disorder, his age is older than the typical onset: We know he was hospitalized at 40, and the onset of schizophrenia in men would be 16 to 20.

The vast majority of people with schizophrenia are nonviolent, but an estimated 10 percent will engage in violence at some point during their lives.

At the same time, people with schizophrenia are three to four times more likely to act violently compared to the rest of the population.

Wednesdays string of shootings at a bar, a bowling alley, and a Walmart distribution center joined the grim docket of 192 mass shootings, defined as events killing four or more people, carried out in the US since the 1960s.

According to The Violence Project, roughly a quarter of criminals who carried out those mass shootings had a history of thought disorder, a defining symptom of schizophrenia.

Thought disorder causes a person to lose the ability to think logically and coherently, unable to maintain a clear pattern of thinking when communicating with others. A person with thought disorder will jump from one topic to another in rapid succession without clear reasoning and veer off into tangents.

Schizophrenia often shows symptoms similar to other disorders, including mania as part of bipolar disorder and severe depression, making it difficult for some doctors to diagnose

Mental health issues have often been cited as a primary driver of gun violence. While it is true that an estimated 3 percent of mentally ill people carried out violent acts, people with schizophrenia are thought to be four to six times more likely than the level of general population without the disorder to commit violence.

Psychologists have grappled with potential causes of schizophrenia since it was first described in the late 19th century.

Dr Greenberg, who authored the authoritative book Borderline, Narcissistic, and Schizoid Adaptations: The Pursuit of Love, Admisration, and Safety, told DailyMail.com that medication helps many people with schizophrenia manage their symptoms and live independently.

But at the same time, many people, namely the poor and the homeless schizophrenic population who would benefit from treatment cant get it.

She said: We need more resources. But most importantly, we need these kinds of halfway house resources, where you have a social worker who's making sure they get to their appointments, making sure that they're in at night.

And if they begin to have a psychotic episode, there's a psychiatrist associated where they can be sent to and so things will go more smoothly, and it will progress without people noticing for months until it's so full-blown that the person needs hospitalization.

The best tools available to treat schizophrenia are a particular class of psychiatric medicines called antipsychotics.

Theyre largely effective but come with side effects that can become so disruptive  such as involuntary jerking movements  that people stop taking them altogether.

Dr Greenberg said: People don't like taking them for two reasons. One, they don't like the side effects. And two, when they feel better, they think I don't need this anymore.

It is believed to be a product of combined genetic and environmental influences. But researchers have not identified a specific gene as the cause, in the same way they can identify the causes of diseases such as cystic fibrosis and sickle cell anemia.
Long theorized pets can pass C. diff to humans but never documented in US

Healthy woman from Houston suffered from violent diarrhea for two months

A 'healthy' woman in Texas suffered from violent diarrhea for months after catching a bacterial infection from her pet cat.

The 31-year-old, from Houston, was diagnosed with C. diff, a highly contagious infection that throws the digestive system off balance and leads to painful inflammation in the colon.

It is usually caused by coming into contact with contaminated surfaces or contact with infected people. But when the woman's symptoms did not subside after two months despite taking medication, doctors began investigating further.

They worked out that she had adopted a stray cat about a month before her symptoms started - and decided to test the animal.

It has always been theorized that animals could pass the infection to humans, but it's never been proven.

NEW PIC ENROUTE WAS ORDERED AN HOUR AGO: When the woman's infection returned, suspicion fell on her pet cat which was an adopted stray (stock image)

The above shows a timeline of the woman's illness

Swabs revealed that both the woman and the cat were infected with the same strains of C. diff.

The cat had no symptoms of the illness. The woman was otherwise healthy, did not smoke, drink alcohol socially and only had one male sexual partner.

The case was revealed in the American Journal of Case Reports, with doctors warning it was a reminder of the risks posed by household pets.

The woman first came to doctors complaining of severe diarrhea four times a day and a fever which she had been suffering for a week.

Doctors kept her in hospital for two days and gave her antibiotics before she was discharged.

Statistics show about 500,000 Americans are infected with C. difficile every year, with two-thirds of these cases linked to care homes.

It kills 15,000-30,000 people each year in the US.

Anyone can be infected, but the majority of cases happen when patients are taking antibiotics, or shortly after they finish their course.

This is because antibiotics disrupt the bacteria in the gut.

Those 65 and older who have stayed at hospital or nursing home recently are most at risk.

Immunosuppressed individuals are also more at risk.

Symptoms include stomach aches, loss of appetite, feeling nauseous, diarrhea and a fever

It can be ingested as spores and survive the acid in the stomach to reach the intestines, where it starts to grow out of control and release toxins causing damage to cells.

Symptoms begin five to ten days after infection and initially appear to be similar to food poisoning  although they persist.

In serious cases, it can lead to life-threatening dehydration caused by severe diarrhea from the infection.

Studies suggest up to 20 percent of patients die from a C. difficile infection within 30 days of diagnosis, although the disease is much more common in older adults with weaker immune systems.

The disease can also cause damage to cells in the colon raising the risk that they will become cancerous and colon cancer will emerge.

Cats can become infected from C. difficile via contact with soil contaminated with the feces of other animals.

They can also be infected via ingesting contaminated food and from veterinary clinics and animal shelters where they are in close proximity to other animals.

Dogs can pick up the bacteria in the same ways.

Cats can then get spores from the bacteria onto their fur when they clean themselves or they can be present in their feces.

Humans can pick these up via stroking the animal or when cleaning their litter trays, causing an infection.

Antibiotics are used to treat C. difficile infections.
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In this future shock Wyndhamesque tale, bots do everything from driving to very personal services

LIGHT OVER LISKEARD

by Louis de Bernieres (Harvill Secker 20, 304 pp)

In this future shock Wyndhamesque tale, bots do everything from driving to very personal services.

Humanity is becoming redundant and Arthur, aka Q, is a government cryptographer convinced it is about to be wiped out altogether.

To ride out the crisis, he buys a ruined farmhouse on Bodmin Moor and begins the Herculean task of renovating it.

Formerly flabby and grey, he becomes bronzed and fit and learns old-fashioned skills such as building and digging. Via fellow moor-dwellers, an Andean farmer and his daughter, he enjoys other timeless experiences such as friendship and love. Wry, wise and not a little worrying.

A New York novelist, wanting bland surroundings to write in, heads to a Best Western motel in California

DEATH VALLEY

by Melissa Broder (Bloomsbury 16.99, 240 pp)

A New York novelist, wanting bland surroundings to write in, heads to a Best Western motel in California.

But the generic decor, routine and staff prove strangely (and hilariously) distracting.

Writings also impossible because of her grief and guilt; her father is dying and her husband has an incurable disease.

Once she starts hiking on nearby desert trails, things become complicated and surreal.

There are encounters with giant cactuses, rabbits and even talking stones, which give the novel an Alice In Wonderland feel.

This is an offbeat read for sure  but also funny, frank and life-affirming.

Two stories intertwine in this exciting tale

THE LEFTOVER WOMAN

by Jean Kwok (Viper 14.99, 288 pp)

Two stories intertwine in this exciting tale.

Jasmine, whos Chinese, has entered America illegally in search of her child.

Her daughter did not, after all, die at birth, but was sold to wealthy and childless New Yorkers.

The couple, Rebecca and Brandon, lead fabulous uptown lives while Jasmine works in a sleazy, triad-run strip club to pay off the people smugglers.

But Rebeccas under pressure too; an editor, she must land a star author to keep her job.

Meanwhile, at home, shes becoming suspicious of her adopted daughters Chinese nanny.

Its all a bit Mrs Doubtfire meets Memoirs Of A Geisha, but I was gripped and romped through it.
CLASSIC CRIME

Popular images of rural France are of bucolic contentment with good food and wine

THE MAN WHO DIDN'T BURN

by Ian Moore (Duckworth 14.99, 288 pp)

Popular images of rural France are of bucolic contentment with good food and wine. But, when it comes to life in the Loire, Ian Moore gives us the darker side with the savage murder of an English expat that bears all the marks of a homage to the martyred St Joan.

Leading the investigation is Matthieu Lombard, an examining magistrate who is haunted by his own demons. Mourning an adored wife is made harder by the suspicion that she was leading a double love life.

Coping with an uneasy relationship with the police, local politicians and fellow lawyers, Lombard sticks doggedly to a case that threatens to tear apart a close-knit community. As more deaths follow, the solution remains tantalisingly out of reach.

With more twists and turns than a backwoods farm track, Moore has made a blistering start to what is near certain to be a long-running series.

Could it have happened here? A question often posed after the war when there was speculation as to how Britain would have coped under German occupation

SS-GB

by Len Deighton (Penguin Classics 9.99, 464 pp)

Could it have happened here? A question often posed after the war when there was speculation as to how Britain would have coped under German occupation. For Len Deighton, the answer was this ingenious and disturbing novel of a Scotland Yard detective who has to reconcile his professional duty with the need to keep on the right side of his Nazi overlords.

Complications multiply for Detective Inspector Archer when he finds himself caught up in rivalry between the military and the SS for the top job at the Yard while his closest associate is involved in a resistance plot to smuggle the King out of the country.

To cap it all, Archer is in charge of investigating a mysterious death caused by radiation. A mega bomb is in the making.

Deighton keeps us guessing as, balancing justice with expediency, Archer struggles against forces he barely understands. Could it really have happened here? Never doubt it.

A master of the locked room mystery, John Dickson Carr reckoned this to be one of his best efforts. He was not far wrong

HE WHO WHISPERS

by John Dickson Carr (British Library Crime Classics 9.99, 272 pp)

A master of the locked room mystery, John Dickson Carr reckoned this to be one of his best efforts. He was not far wrong. The plot hinges on the violent death in the top room of a stone tower to which no one, apart from the deceased, had access.

Fuelled by superstition, the consensus hints at a murderer with the paranormal power to enter the tower without use of the stairs.

But murder by supernatural means does not impress Dr Gideon Fell, whose wheezing obesity belies an intellect capable of explaining the apparently inexplicable.

Carr mixes in more than a pinch of Gothic horror with storm-lashed battlements, talk of vampires on the loose and a wild-eyed woman who gives every sign of having arrived on a broomstick. But, as the web of lies and subterfuge unravels, we can only marvel at the skill of a great storyteller.
Tremor by Teju Cole (Faber 18.99, 256pp)

Tremor

by Teju Cole (Faber 18.99, 256pp)

It's been 12 years since Cole wowed critics with his debut Open City, in which a psychiatrist wanders Brussels and New York musing on the legacies of historical bloodshed.

Tremor doubles down on his discursive style, taking us into the mind of Tunde, a Harvard professor, in the weeks before Covid-19 struck. He thinks about everything from the colonial sack of Benin to the aesthetics of a French spy drama and the music of Mali.

There's a curveball in Cole's use of second-person narration - part of the novel is addressed to an unseen 'you' - as well as a segment made up of two dozen voices from locals in Lagos.

I can think of few writers whoportray so persuasively what it is like simply to be alive in the world, thinking and feeling. Sure, you might want a bit more 'doing', too, but there's steady electricity in the analytical bite of Cole's seamlessly fluent digressions.

This Plague of Souls by Mike McCormack (Canongate 16.99, 192pp)

This Plague of Souls

by Mike McCormack (Canongate 16.99, 192pp)

McCormack's previous novel, Solar Bones, was robbed when it only made the longlist for the Booker Prize in 2017.

Centred on the everyman psyche of an Irish engineer, it had a poignant twist I'm not about to spoil here - but if you've read it, let me say now that the trick he pulled in that book has nothing on the high-jinks afoot here.

Set in Ireland, this book follows a middle-aged father released from jail for crimes that, like much else, are kept teasingly vague. His wife and son mysteriously aren't home, and he keeps having elliptical conversations with a shadowy interlocutor who menacingly seems to know more about his life than he does himself.

Things get weirder still when there's a nationwide terrorist attack in which he may or may not be involved. It's all very slippery and endlessly suggestive, as the circular wandering gives way to dystopian horror and a parable of complicity and guilt on an interconnected planet.

The Caretaker by Ron Rash (Canongate 16.99, 272pp)

The Caretaker

by Ron Rash (Canongate 16.99, 272pp)

If it's a gripping yarn you're after, look no further than this stirring tale of intergenerational deceit set in small-town America during the Korean War.

It centres on Jacob, a teenage conscript whose near-fatal wounding in the field is seized upon by his snobby parents as a way to prise him out of his love match to a chambermaid from the wrong side of the tracks. Never mind that she's pregnant with his child - they know how to take care of that.

Rash, a seasoned writer with multiple awards to his name, lets us see their wicked plot before focusing the action on Jacob's boyhood pal Blackburn, caretaker of the local cemetery, as he wises up to the skulduggery.

Along the way, our sympathy is aroused by every character involved, even Jacob's parents, who overburden him with their aspirations after the deaths of their two daughters. A terrifically involving scenario from a consummate storyteller
Thefts of Ford vehicles now account for nearly one fifth of UK car insurance claims - followed by Land Rovers, Mercedes, BMWs and Vauxhalls, it has been revealed.

Black Land Rovers are the now most commonly stolen vehicles ahead of blue Fords while cars made in 2016 are most likely to be taken, according to Tesco Bank data.

And Birmingham has been billed the UK hotspot for car thefts, accounting for 8 per cent of all claims made - followed by London at 7 per cent and Sheffield 6 per cent.

Research also found black vehicles are the likeliest colour to be stolen, while most thefts happen overnight between midnight and 7am when many owners are asleep.

Analysis by Tesco Bank of its car insurance data found Fords make up 17 per cent of theft claims, ahead of Land Rovers at 11 per cent, then Mercedes at 10 per cent.

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Thefts of black Land Rovers make up 4 per cent of claims - the highest of any make and colour

BMWs and Vauxhalls are joint fourth at 8 per cent, while completing the top ten are Audis in sixth, Volkswagens seventh, Toyotas eighth, Kias ninth and Nissans tenth.

Six tips on protecting yourself from car theft By DAVE THOMPSON, claims director at Tesco Bank Keep your keys stored away at night A popular tactic used by thieves is to use a device which boosts the signal of your key fob. This fools your car into thinking you are close by and it unlocks it or even starts the engine. To stop this, you need to make it hard for any signal to make it through the airwaves. Specially lined bags or wallets can block these signals, or you can pop your car keys in a safe while you are at home. Also make sure you keep spare keys in a safe in your house and away from the front door. Park it wisely Park your car in a garage or on your driveway if you have access to one. Failing that, try and park in a well-lit or residential area so others have a clear view of your vehicle, and where there will be people passing by often. Check, check and check again Just as you would make sure to double check you've locked the front door of your home each day, make sure you hear the central locking activate and pull the door handle before you walk away. Also check that all the windows are properly closed. Remove personal items Clear out your car and hide all your personal possessions from view when you're leaving it unattended. Bags, mobile phones, keys, tech (like iPads or laptops) and wallets are all items that can catch a thief's eye, so make sure these are tucked away and locked in the boot or glove compartment or, better yet, removed from the vehicle completely. Consider fitting an alarm or tracker Some drivers may wish to fit an alarm or tracker in their car, ensuring they always know its location. Do your research beforehand to make sure you find the best level of security for your money. It is also worth remembering that your car insurance premium is likely to fall when you improve the security of your car. Ask your insurance company which tracking devices they recognise. If your budget does not quite stretch to a tracking system, or at the very least a more sophisticated alarm and immobiliser, a metal locking device placed over the steering wheel should help. Ensure you're covered with the right car insurance It's important to protect your car and what's inside it by getting insurance. It's also critical you don't leave your keys in the ignition when you leave your car unattended. If your car is stolen in this way, you may find yourself out of pocket as many motor insurance policies now exclude cover for theft if the car is left unlocked and unattended, or if the keys are left inside.

The data also found vehicles between five and eight years old are responsible for 40 per cent of claims, with cars made in 2016 most likely to be stolen at 12 per cent.

Black vehicles are mostly reported stolen, accounting for 26 per cent of all claims to Tesco Bank in 2022/23, followed by grey at 19 per cent and white at 17 per cent.

Thefts of black Land Rovers make up 4 per cent of claims, followed by blue Fords. And 36 per cent of claims indicate that thefts took place between midnight and 7am.

The data also confirms a rise in BMWs being broken into and having the steering wheel stolen, which can cost up to 3,000 to replace in high-end cars.

Car insurance policies normally cover motorists if their vehicle as stolen - although claims can be declined if keys have been left in the ignition or a window has been left open.

Dave Thompson, claims director at Tesco Bank, said: 'Car thieves, and the tactics they adopt, are becoming increasingly sophisticated.

'With devices that can connect key fob signals and unlock cars remotely, thieves can snatch a car off the driveway in a matter of seconds.

'And it's black Land Rovers and blue Fords that are firmly in thieves' sights. While Land Rovers are sought after and can be sold on quickly, some models like Fords can be broken down pretty much overnight and sold on for parts the next morning.

'And while the precious metals in catalytic converters aren't fetching as much as they once did, thieves are turning to other high value parts such as the steering wheels in BMWs.'

He added that his top tips for drivers to reduce the risk of car theft included keeping keys stored in specially-lined bags or wallets at night; parking in a garage, driveway or well-lit area; and double checking the doors are locked and the windows closed.

Mr Thompson also advised removing personal items from the car; fitting an alarm or tracker; and ensuring you do not leave your keys in the ignition when you leave your car unattended, because this could otherwise stop a claim from being paid out.

In February, Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency figures exclusively shared with MailOnline suggested Britain's most-owned car is also the most stolen - with Ford Fiesta thefts increasing 53 per cent in 2022.

DVLA data showed 5,979 Fiestas were reported stolen last year compared to 3,909 in 2021. It meant a criminal made off with one every 88 minutes on average.

Experts warned the Fiesta could be at greater risk after Ford announced last year that it will stop making them, which would see the cost of Fiesta parts rise.

These figures also suggested thieves were continuing to target high-value motors, with Range Rovers second in the order of stolen vehicles by volume last year.

There was a 47 per cent rise in the number stolen in 2022 compared to the previous year, while Land Rover Discovery thefts also rose by more than half.

Birmingham is the UK hotspot for car thefts, accounting for 8 per cent of all claims made (file)

Over the summer, MailOnline reported how car insurance premiums were at their highest-ever level, with the average driver now paying 776 a year.

Motor cover rose in price by 18 per cent in the three months to July, making it one of the most expensive household bills, according to comparison website Confused.com.

Confused.com worked out this figure after analysing 6million car insurance quotes.

However, the 776 figure is the average quoted price, not the average premium drivers actually pay.

This is because the premium a price comparison website calculates can change by the time a driver buys the policy, for example if they buy additional cover - but the data gives a good snapshot of current cover costs.

Confused.com said car insurance is now the third highest household bill behind council tax and energy.

It comes at a time when motorists already suffering from the cost-of-living crisis are also enduring the controversial extension of Mayor Sadiq Khan's Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez).

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A Russian drone attack early on Wednesday in the western Khmelnitskyi region had probably targeted the area's nuclear power station, Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

The attack at the Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plant, 120 miles east of the country's border with Poland, saw windows shattered by falling drone wreckage injuring 20 people.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, said blasts from the drone attack did not affect the plant's operations or its connection to the grid. Power was temporarily cut to some off-site radiation monitoring stations.

In his nightly video address, Zelensky said the attack provided yet more evidence that tougher sanctions were needed against Russia.

'It is most likely that the target for these drones was the Khmelnitskyi nuclear power station,' he said.

Ukraine's President Zelensky said in his nightly address that a Russian drone attack had probably targeted a power plant in the western Khmelnitskyi region, with falling wreckage injuring 20 people

'The shock wave from the explosion shattered windows, including on the nuclear power station's premises.'

Mr Zelensky said every Russian strike, 'especially those daring enough to target nuclear power stations and other critical facilities, serves as an argument that pressure on the terrorist state is insufficient.'

Regional governor Serhiy Tyurin gave a more complete picture of the extent of the damage, saying more than 1,700 buildings sustained damage.

Tyurin, in a statement posted on Telegram, said these included 282 apartment blocks, more than 1,400 private homes, 41 educational institutions and six healthcare buildings.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi, in a statement, said: 'The fact that numerous windows at the site were destroyed shows just how close it was. Next time, we may not be so fortunate.'

Ukraine's air force destroyed all 11 Russian drones launched overnight, the military said. Damage was caused by blast waves and falling debris, according to the interior minister.

'At night, the enemy struck territory near the Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plant. As a result of the explosion, windows in administrative and laboratory buildings have been damaged,' the Energy Ministry said on the Telegram messaging app.

Power lines were also damaged, it said, with more than 1,800 consumers in the adjacent towns of Netishyn and Slavuta facing power cuts.

In Slavuta, 20 buildings were damaged, including a building used by a fire and rescue unit and another by a police department, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Telegram.

Mr Zelensky said the attack on the Khmelnitskyi nuclear power station (pictured) showed that existing sanctions on the 'terrorist state' Russia were not tough enough

The town's mayor Vasiliy Sydor said 20 people were hurt, however these reports have not yet been verified.

The Khmelnytskyi region has regularly been a target of attacks by Russian drones and missiles, which analysts link to a military airfield in the region.

Ukraine's five nuclear power stations have been a point of contention in the 20-month-old Russian invasion.

Ahead of the usually harsh winter, a fresh wave of Russian strikes are expected to target energy infrastructure.

Russia occupied the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe's largest such facility, early in the conflict and each side has since routinely accused the other of planning to shell or attack the site. (Reporting by Pavel Polityuk and Yuliia Dysa; Editing by Robert Birsel, Tom Balmforth and Ron Popeski)
Rep. Dean Phillips made his run against President Joe Biden in the Democratic primary official Thursday night, ahead of a trip to New Hampshire where he'll officially register to be on the Granite State's ballot.

The 54-year-old father-of-two from Minnesota who is one of the richest members of Congress confirmed the open secret to CBS' Bob Costa answering, 'I am, I have to,' when asked if he was planning to seek the presidency.

'I think President Biden has done a spectacular job for our country, but it's not about the past. This is an election about the future. I will not sit still, I will not be quiet in the face of numbers that are so clearly saying that were going to be facing an emergency next November,' Phillips said.

Phillips had done everything to announce a run without saying it was happening - parking his 'government repair truck' in front of New Hampshire's Capitol building in Concord, having volunteers pass out flyers for a Friday rally and having a presidential campaign bus drive to the state.

As a businessman,Phillips sold Americans on spending a little more of their dough on products like Belvedere vodka or Talenti gelato, but as a presidential candidate he wants to save people money - the bus uses the tagline: 'Make America Affordable Again.'

Rep. Dean Phillips attends President Joe Biden's inauguration in 2021 with his wife Annalise. The 54-year-old congressman will challenge the 80-year-old president for the Democratic nomination arguing that he's too old to go for a second term

Phillips on Capitol Hill. The congressman was first elected in 2018, flipping a long-held Republican district two years into former President Donald Trump's tenure

Phillips with his daughters Pia (left) and Daniela (right). The Minnesota lawmaker is one of the wealthiest members of Congress, and brought Belvedere vodka to the United States

Phillips will be the first Democrat with government experience to challenge the 80-year-old Biden, who announced in April he would seek a second term.

Despite Phillips' campaign bus hinting the campaign would have an economic focus, it will be difficult to differentiate himself from Biden, as he's voted with the Democratic president 100 percent of the time.

The real issue for him is that Biden, in his view - which he shares with a majority of Americans - is that the president is too old to run for a second term.

'I think the country would be well-served by a new generation of compelling, well-prepared, dynamic Democrats who step up,' Phillips said during a radio interview in July, declining to support a second Biden presidential run.

An AP-NORC poll from August said 77 percent of Americans - including 69 percent of Democrats - said Biden is too old to be effective for four more years.

Phillips said that Biden would need to be '15-20 years younger' to receive a ringing endorsement from him.

Phillips chose New Hampshire for the campaign launch because it holds the first primary - and Biden won't be appearing on the ballot.

Traditionally, New Hampshire holds the nation's first primary days after the Iowa caucuses - but after the Iowa Democratic Party couldn't tabulate the 2020 results for hours and Biden's first win came in South Carolina - the president greenlit a plan to reorder the Democratic primaries.

But New Hampshire has a law on its books that it must hold the first primary and Republicans control state government, so the Granite State will hold an unsanctioned Democratic primary instead.

Phillips right stands in front of a Phillips Distilling Company truck. His mother married into the Phillips family and the congresman took charge of the company in 1993, getting the rights to bring Belvedere vodka, a state-owned Polish brand, to the United States

Phillips, a divorced father of two daughters, remarried Annalise Glick in 2019

This opens the door for Phillips, or another challenger, to beat Biden in the state - unless Biden supporters can successfully pull off a write-in campaign.

Phillips will likely play up his backstory, which is one of both sadness and good fortune.

As six months old, the congressman's birth father, Artie Pfefer, was killed in action in Vietnam.

His mother DeeDee remarried a man named Eddie Phillips, who was the heir to the Phillips Distilling Company, which today is the largest booze producer in Minnesota.

Eddie's mother was Pauline Phillips, who started the advice column, 'Dear Abby.'

Eddie adopted Dean as his son.

Phillips was sent to Brown University and then received an MBA from the University of Minnesota.

From there, he took over as president and CEO of Phillips Distilling Company in 1993.

As early win for Phillips was recounted in a Forbes profile of the aspiring congressman in 2017.

The 'Government Repair Truck' that Phillips used during his Congressional run was outside the New Hampshire state capitol Thursday ahead of his official campaign kick-off

Phillips' mom DeeDee with Eddie Phillips, the heir to a liquor fortune who she married after the congressman's father died in Vietnam

Phillips and other Minnesota lawmakers stand outside Air Force One after getting a ride to the state from Biden. Phillips has voted with Biden 100 percent of the time but argues the president is too old to run for a second term

Phillips' dog Henry, a Norwich terrier, is often seen on Capitol Hill

Phillips traveled to Poland where he and family members discovered a state-owned vodka called Belvedere - served in an ornate frosted glass bottle.

'It was those bottles that inspired us,' Phillips told Forbes, 'to eventually create the luxury category with the introduction of Belvedere.'

He bought the right to import Belvedere to the U.S. and in 1995 sent bottles to a number of celebrities, implementing a modern-day influencer campaign a decade before most social media sites were online.

'We created a couple hundred very beautiful gift boxes of Belvedere and sent them to 200 leaders of industry, and actors and actresses, and celebrities and artists,' Phillips told Forbes. 'We did an ad in the Wall Street Journal in the "Tiffany section" - page three, top right corner - that spoke only to those 200 people that received that box in the mail that week.'

The ploy did the trick.

Phillips eventually sold the rights to Belvedere to luxury giant LVMH a decade later.

In 2012, Phillips moved over and led the company Talenti gelato, which started as a tiny Dallas gelato-maker.

A picture of Phillips in his youth

A picture of Phillips' fahter Artie Pfefer, who perished fighting in Vietnam six months after the now-congressman was born

Phillips shows off a trans flag in his office. The congressman holds many of the same positions as Biden, but is pushing for a new generation of leadership

Under Phillips it's now an up-market brand sold in grocery stores around the country.

He sold it to Unilever in 2014 - when sales were reaching $120 million - to Unilever for an undisclosed sum.

But not every business endeavor has been a money-making success.

After Talenti, Phillips invested in a coffee and crepe shop concept in 2016 that went belly-up in 2022, with the two Twin Cities locations of Penny's Coffee closing their doors.

But for Congressional runs and now a presidential campaign, Phillips has one indispensable attribute - money.

The 'charming liquor heir,' as he was first branded when he ran for Congress in 2018 - objecting to another businessman, former President Donald Trump's, handling of the presidency - has between $20.5 million to $70 million in assets, according to last year's disclosure report.

In his first bid, the moderate Democrat was able to turn a suburban Minneapolis congressional district blue for the first time since 1958.

On the family front, Phillips is a divorced dad of two daughters - Daniela and Pia, with Pia being a cancer survivor.

He married Annalise Glick in 2019.

His dog Henry, a Norwich Terrier, is often seen on Capitol Hill.
An alcoholic drink and container of cannabis sit in the center console

New photos show car's interior after crash, littered with glass and pieces of trash

Jessica Beauvais, 32, is accused of mowing down veteran NYPD officer Anastasios Tsakos, 43 in her 2013 Volkswagen

New photos show the filthy interior of the car belonging to a woman accused of moving down an NYPD traffic patrol officer - including a container of marijuana and an alcoholic drink.

Jessica Beauvais, 32, has been charged over the death of NYPD Highway Officer Anastasios Tsakos, who was struck by her Volkswagen on the Long Island Expressway.

The 43-year-old officer had been directing traffic away from a fatal crash in April 2021 when Beauvais - allegedly drunk and high - plowed into him, throwing his body nearly 200 feet down the highway.

Exclusive photos taken by Dailymail.com show the aftermath of the grisly crime.

Exhibits presented to the court show the crumpled hood of Beauvais's 2013 Volkswagen and the smashed front windshield where Tsakos's body collided and broke the glass.

A plastic cup with a straw and an ashtray sat in the cupholder. A small container of weed was also found behind the gearshift

Jessica Beauvais, 32, enters court. She is charged in the death of an NYPD Highway Officer after allegedly mowing him down with her car

The hood of the 2013 Volkswagen was crumpled with the impact of a body being thrown against it

Officer Anastasios Tsakos, 43, was directing traffic away from another fatal accident when he was struck and killed in April 2021

Another photo depicting a blue glow along the roof and trunk appears to show the path the officer's body travelled as it rolled down the length of the car.

The glow appears to be luminol, a chemical that reacts with the iron in blood to show traces invisible to the naked eye.

A photo from inside the car shows the floor showered with shards of glass and an assortment of items including a tube of lip-gloss, a small notepad and tweezers, as well as a plastic bag containing a folded slip of paper folded.

Other pictures show the damage sustained to the windshield as Beauvais plowed into the officer, hitting him so hard that the glass bent inwards.

The front seats and dashboard are also littered with glass.

The cup holder contains a plastic cup filled with reddish liquid, described by prosecutors as a 'strong mixed drink.' Next to it sits an ashtray with flecks of cannabis.

Behind the gearshift, an evidence card denotes where a small container of marijuana was found. The container was presented as evidence in a separate image.

As prosecutors disclosed the details of Tsakos's death in Queens Supreme Court this month, his sobbing widow had to be led out of the court room.

A photo presented to the court shows a blue glow atop the car - presumably showing the path Tsakos's body travelled as it was thrown nearly 200 feet

The interior of the car was littered with broken glass from the windshield, which was struck so hard that it bent inwards

The dashboard was covered in shards of glass

Other items of evidence included a lip-gloss tube, a small notepad and tweezers

The pink liquid (left) was described by prosecutors as a 'strong mixed drink.' The ashtray contained traces of cannabis

A container filled with marijuana was also recovered from the car

New York Presbyterian EMS worker Kevin Beverly told the court that the officer's face was 'split in two.'

'There was a lot of facial trauma, a lot of swelling, bleeding, bleeding from the ears, bruising on the neck area,' Beverly said. 'He had a left leg amputation below the knee halfway down.'

Assistant District Attorney Greg Lasak Jr. stressed this point during opening arguments, saying: 'His organs and bones were crushed. His leg was amputated. He landed 171 feet from impact.

'She left him there on the side of the road to die, without his leg.'

The court was shown photos of Tsakos's battered body. His face was masked in blood, his eyes closed, nose broken and mouth stuffed with gauze.

One of his police-issued boots was strewn in the road, as well as his hat, which was knocked from his head upon impact.

Jurors were also shown a photo of an NYPD Highway Patrol pin that Tsakos had been wearing at the time of his death.

Hours before the crash, Beauvais appeared in a Facebook livestream where she addressed the trial of ex-cop Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd.

During the livestream, she slammed the justice system, and played the N.W.A song 'F**k Tha Police'.

Beauvis enters court handcuffed. The 32-year-old is accused of getting behind the wheel while intoxicated

Hours before the crash, Beauvais appeared in a Facebook livestream where she addressed the trial of white ex-cop Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd

In the video, she was seen vaping and sipping the 'mixed drink' later found in her car

Prosecutors say Beauvais took several hits from a pipe and repeatedly downed shots or took sips of a cocktail over a 90-minute period

'Everybody knows I smoke weed. Its very simple, you not supposed to be here if you dont know weed is my thing,' Beauvais said in a clip shown to the court

Beauvais's attorney, Jorge Santos (pictured), told jurors: 'If Officer Tsakos had not stepped into my client's car he would be alive today'

The 32-year-old faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted on the charges

She was seen vaping and sipping the 'mixed drink' later found in her car and, at one point, washed down the contents of a red shot glass with a bottle of Snapple.

Prosecutors say Beauvais took several hits from a pipe and repeatedly downed shots or took sips of a cocktail over a 90-minute period before getting behind the wheel.

'I still do that s***! I smoked it every day of my life,' Beauvais said in a clip from the livestream that was shown to the jury.

'Everybody knows I smoke weed. Its very simple, you not supposed to be here if you dont know weed is my thing.'

'She admitted during the podcast to taking a shot,' Lasak told the court. 'She admitted after the podcast she had another shot of liquor.

'Her eyes were bloodshot and watery, she was unstable on her feet and her speech was slurred.'

Beauvais's attorney, Jorge Santos, at one point told jurors: 'If Officer Tsakos had not stepped into my client's car he would be alive today.'

The remark was immediately met with an objection from prosecutors and was struck from the record.

During the Facebook Live, Beauvais slammed the justice system while playing the N.W.A song 'F**k Tha Police'

A photo of an NYPD Highway Patrol pin belonging to Tsakos was also shown to the court

Hundreds attended the fallen officer's funeral

This included members of Hartford Police, who rode in a motorcycle procession

Officers lined the street to pay their respects

Tsakos, affectionately referred to as 'Tasso,' was a married father-of-two who grew up in Greece and New York City

Beauvais faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

After her arrest, Beauvais is alleged to have said: 'Why did my first accident have to be a cop?

'Not that I wanted it to be someone else, but f**k, I've been driving since I was 16 and haven't hit as much as a pothole.'

She offered a tearful apology as she was being taken for arraignment in May 2021, telling reporters: 'I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I hit him and now he's dead.'

Tsakos, affectionately known as 'Tasso,' was a married father of two who had recently moved to East Northport before his death.

He grew up in Greece and New York City before serving in the Greek army after high school.

Tsakos worked in his father's diner on Long Island, before studying aviation in college to follow his dreams of flying helicopters for the NYPD.

Hundreds mourned at his funeral, where Tsakos was posthumously promoted to the rank of detective.
Rains that helped extinguish critical fires in Australia's east have started to ease while intense heatwave conditions continue to swelter the north.

The wet weather system over New South Wales will lose momentum throughout Friday before completely easing for a dry weekend.

The rainband, which was triggered by a cold front earlier this week, stretched from eastern Victoria to parts of southeast Queensland on Friday morning.

However, Weatherzone senior meteorologist Brett Dutschke forecast it will start drying from the bottom-up as the day progresses.

'The rain has already eased in most area, the please most likely to still see bursts of heavy rain are between Coffs Harbour and the Gold Coast on the east side of the ranges,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

'Those bursts will only be between the morning and mid to late afternoon, I don't think we're going to see any significant rain beyond that point.

'The South Coast is set to dry later today, followed by the Illawarra, Sydney and parts of the Hunter in the afternoon while showers persist in the north.

'The odd shower could reach the northern Central Tablelands.'

A rainband stretching from eastern Victoria to southeast Queensland will ease through the day on Friday

Almost no rain is forecast across Australia on Saturday and Sunday.

The system saw heavy rain fall in several areas on Thursday, particularly in New South Wales' northeast.

Unfortunately, the wet weather didn't reach the worst of the state's fires.

'The main fires are on the northern Tablelands and North West Slopes which haven't had a lot of rain and won't see enough today to cause significant impact,' Mr Dutschke said.

'All other fires burning toward the east and south have been suppressed significantly, some have even been extinguished.'

At 9am on Friday, the NSW Rural Fire Service was fighting 110 bushfires across the state, 58 of which had not been contained.

All fires were burning at the Advice level, not Emergency.

'Overnight saw rainfall across many firegrounds with some areas receiving between 20-90mm of rain,' it said.

'This weather can also bring adverse conditions with the presence of lighting and boggy grounds.

'Be aware there are still high and moderate fire danger forecasts across the state today.

'Firefighters are taking advantage of current weather to contain the current fires and strategise for changing conditions early next week.'

The intense fires over the Glens Creek Rd Fire in Nymboida triggered a fire-generated thunderstorm on Thursday.

The rain system did not reach the worst of the fires in New South Wales and Queensland (pictured, fire in Toorbul)

'This is an extremely dangerous situation, with these storms having the potential to create erratic winds, dry lightning and rapidly increase the fires spread and behaviour,' the RFS said.

'During these events, it's important you monitor the conditions and stay up-to-date with the latest information through the Hazards Near Me app and RFS website.'

Once the rain over Sydney clears on Friday, Sydneysiders can expect partially cloudy conditions on Saturday before the skies clear on Sunday.

Temperatures are also set to return to normal through the weekend following a cold snap earlier this week.

Friday is forecast to reach a top of 19C, followed by 21C on Saturday and 26C on Sunday.

The temperatures in Melbourne are also picking up with a maximum of 20C on Friday, 24C alongside cloudy conditions on Saturday and a sunny 26C on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Northern Territory's western Top End and parts of Western Australia are suffering through a heatwave.

'The severe heatwave is now really confined to the northwestern end of the Northern Territory, including Darwin,' Mr Dutschke said.

'Temperatures are reaching the high 30Cs and low 40Cs and the heat is forecast to continue through to about Monday.

'From then it will lower in intensity.'

Almost no rain is forecast across Australia on Saturday and Sunday (pictured, rain forecast for Saturday)

READ MORE: Second person dies in deadly Queensland blaze Advertisement

While Perth is forecast to enjoy mostly sunny weather this weekend with a four-day high of 26C, other regions in the state will be grateful for a reprieve from the heatwave as it starts to cool.

'There's only small areas of low intensity heatwave in the Kimberley,' Mr Dutschke said.

'It has started to cool down.

'The area around Broome is still looking fairly hot with temperatures in the high 30Cs and low 40Cs, but the main heatwave is around Darwin.'

Brisbane's weather is looking grey with showers from the cold clearing in the afternoon to a cloudy sky.

Those clouds will hang around on Saturday and Sunday alongside temperatures ranging from the low teens to mid 20Cs.

Canberra's forecast is also looking cloudy with partially grey skies forecast on Friday and Saturday ahead of a sunny Sunday with a top of 26C.

Adelaide is expected to see mostly sunny weather on Friday and Saturday before the clouds completely clear on Sunday.

However, the South Australian capital should brace for a cool start to the day with a low of 8C expected early Sunday morning.

Hobart's partially cloudy weather on Friday is set to develop into showers on Saturday before the weather clears back to cloudy conditions on Sunday.

The intense fires over the Glens Creek Rd Fire in Nymboida triggered a fire-generated thunderstorm (above) on Thursday
Police are investigating the death of a man in Melbourne's west overnight.

The man's body was found by police at the base of a building on Duncans Road, Werribee, about 32km west of Melbourne, at around 10:30pm on Thursday evening.

Attending police immediately called for medical assistance and provided first aid until ambulance paramedics arrived.

The man was however unable to be revived and died at the scene.

A man has died at Werribee, in Melbourne's west, overnight after police found a body at the base of a building at about 10:30pm

The man's body was found by police at the base of a building on Duncans Road, Werribee, about 32km west of Melbourne

Police were in the area after a van was seen entering the underground carpark of a hotel building on Duncans Road by the Air Wing.

The Air Wing had been assisting officers on the ground after the driver of the van sped off from police in Werribee about 9.30pm.

Police believe the deceased man was the driver of the van.

Police said they are looking at a possible link between the van and an aggravated car jacking in the nearby suburb of Hoppers Crossing on October 22.

Detectives from the Homicide Squad will investigate the incident with oversight from Professional Standards Command, as per standard practice when a person dies in police presence.

Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers.
Pilot missing for more than 24 hours

Debris has been found on the shore of a popular beach after a helicopter went missing in the area more than 24 hours ago.

A 54-year-old pilot and his dog departed Cessnock airport in New South Wales before vanishing en route to Wallace Island near Kempsey at 8:50am Thursday morning.

Police have since launched a massive land and sea rescue operation around Port Stephens with assistance from the Marine Area Command.

The pilot radioed into an air control tower to confirm that he was taking the coastal route and there are suspicions that he may have encountered bad weather.

It is understood that debris has been found on Bennetts Beach, a stretch of sand immediately north of Yacaaba Headland, according to the Daily Telegraph.

A massive land and sea search has been launched by the Port Stephens-Hunter police department to find a missing helicopter carrying a 54-year-old pilot and his dog

The Port Stephens-Hunter police department confirmed that it had 'commenced inquiries' after receiving reports of the missing pilot and his dog.

Officers had searched parts of the Yacaaba Headland on Thursday before suspending the operation until Friday morning after failing to find anything.

An organised effort resumed on Friday morning with the assistance of water police as the search area widens.

The 54-year-old pilot had refuelled at Cessnock airport after an earlier trip from Kosciuszko before he vanished.
Jetstar and Qantas have announced cheap flight sales as airlines hike their prices amid the soaring cost of fuel.

Domestic and international flights with Qantas will increase by 3.5 per cent from Friday while Jetstar will increase their baseline fares by 3 per cent.

Qantas announced a flash 'surprise sale' ahead of the hike, which ended last night at midnight, but the carrier still has other offers going and Jetstar's Fare Frenzy sale goes from midday Friday until 8pm.

A Qantas Group spokesperson said: 'As flagged last month, sustained increases in fuel prices are placing upward pressure on fares.'

'The Qantas Group has absorbed recent fuel cost increases but, given current tensions in the Middle East and broader economic factors including a weaker Australian dollar, the price of fuel is expected to remain elevated for some time.'

Jetstar is offering a 'Friday Frenzy' sale as they raise baseline ticket prices by 3 per cent amid soaring fuel costs

Qantas average ticket prices will increase by 3.5 per cent to compensate for increased costs as as OPEC restricts the global supply of oil

Qantas said as a result of the fuel price increases fares will rise by an average of 3.5 per cent to 'recover some of this higher cost going forward while continuing to absorb the remainder.'

'Similarly, Jetstar will increase its fares by an average of 3 per cent, though actual increases will vary by route and cabin.'

The airline added that even after the adjustment, average fares remain below peaks seen in late 2022.

'Qantas Group is acutely aware of the importance of affordable travel and will continue to have regular sales and special offers.'

In addition, Qantas is also offering a 'Points Plus Pay' sale on Friday in which the amount of Qantas Points required to book first class, business class, or premium economy tickets is halved.

Both Qantas and Jetstar said they are 'aware of the importance of cheap travel' and will have regular sales
A fun trip to the city ended turned into a nightmare after a young nanny became separated from the three-year-old twins she was looking after while retrieving the pram from a Melbourne train.

Toddlers Alice and Charlie were left stranded, alone and terrified on the platform of Brighton Beach station earlier this week after the train they had alighted from moments earlier departed with their nanny still on board.

Krystal Lewis-Smith helped the twins step off the train onto the platform before getting back on to get the pram, only for the doors to shut.

She frantically pressed the emergency button to raise the alarm, but during the agonising 30-second wait for a response, the train took off.

A Good Samaritan who alighted from the same train rushed to the distraught toddlers' aid and stayed with them until they were reunited with their nanny.

Three-year-old twins Charlie and Alice are still traumatised from the terrifying ordeal

'All I could hear was the kids screaming, which broke my heart as they could see me through the glass and their little brains are like, 'she's not coming back,' Ms Lewis-Smith told Seven News.

'The possibilities of what could have gone wrong are really scary to think about.'

The twins' mum Kristin Hamer-Ryan doesn't place any blame on the nanny and believes the train driver should have noticed her children alone on the platform.

'It's pretty negligent, I don't think he looked as I can't understand how he didn't see them,' the mother-of-four said.

'I feel terrible for her (the nanny) because I know she did everything she could to keep them safe.'

'It's not about the risk of injury. It's actually the risk of death.'

The twins are still traumatised by the harrowing ordeal.

'They were a little bit shaken yesterday. Alice has woken up quite a few times overnight which is unusual,' Ms Hamer-Ryan told Sunrise on Friday.

'They definitely get that something happened and were distressed by that. But I think we're all just trying to keep things as normal as possible and stay calm.'

Krystal Lewis-Smith (pictured) had momentarily got back on the train to get the pram when the doors shut behind her

The young nanny is also still shaken.

'I feel bad for her - she is really traumatised by this and obviously feeling very sorry, even though I genuinely don't think there was any fault on her,' Ms Hamer-Ryan said

She held the kids' hands and safely stepped them over the gap. And literally had them safely standing on the platform, turned, the pram was at her hip and she went to push the pram forward and the doors just shut.

'She pressed the doors' open button multiple times when the train was still stationary at the station and it was when the train started to move that she immediately pressed the emergency buzzer.'

The mum and nanny aren't the only ones demanding answers from transport authorities.

The twins has just gotten off at Brighton Beach station (pictured) when the train doors shut and took off with their nanny still on board

Commuter John Nockles saw the stranded twins screaming and trying to run after the train.

The father-of-one stayed with them until the nanny returned to the station.

'It was distressing,' the father-of-one recalled.

'Clearly something went wrong and that needs to be looked at.'

Metro Trains says an investigation has been launched but wouldn't comment on what steps would be taken to avoid a similar incident in the future.

'This is a distressing incident for those involved  our priority is keeping our passengers safe at all times,' a spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia.

'As soon as station staff were made aware that there were children unaccompanied on the platform, staff followed safety procedures to ensure the children were safe, and all parties were reunited as quickly as possible.'

'This matter is under investigation, and it would be inappropriate to comment further.'

Metro Trains urges parents and carers with prams to board towards the front of the train where the driver is close by and to ensure children board/alight with them.
READ MORE: Crispin Blunt says he is the Tory MP who has been arrested

Crispin Blunt won his seat in the House of Commons in a rare consolation for the Tories on a dark night as they suffered a crushing 1997 defeat at the hands of Tony Blair's New Labour.

It marked a comeback for the former Army officer who signed up to Sandhurst at 18 in 1979 and stayed in the military, commissioned into the 13th/18th Royal Hussars, for more than a decade.

After leaving the forces, Blunt, 61, turned his attention to politics, finding himself knocked back by the voters of West Bromwich East at the 1992 election.

But he went on to learn the ropes of parliament during four years as a special adviser to then-defence secretary Malcolm Rifkind before succeeding at the next time of asking.

He took over from long-serving strongly Eurosceptic Sir George Gardiner as MP for Reigate.

Tory MP Crispin Blunt was arrested on suspicion of rape and possessing controlled substances

Crispin Blunt with wife Victoria in 1997 when he was elected as an MP. The couple separated after nearly 20 years of marriage following his coming out as gay in 2010

His rise through the Tory ranks has seen him emboldened in his beliefs and unafraid to speak his mind.

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Blunt led rebellions against then-party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith in 2003 and then was the first to call for Liz Truss to go last year as her short-lived premiership blew up.

Blunt raised eyebrows last year after speaking out in defence of convicted ex-MP Imran Ahmad Khan when he was found guilty of the sexual assault of a boy of 15.

He later apologised for his comments. Last week he said the UK could be complicit in any war crimes committed in Gaza.

'If you know that a party is going to commit a war crime  and this forcible transfer of people is a precise breach of one of the statutes that governs international law and all states in this area  then you are making yourself complicit,' he said.

Blunt was appointed to the shadow frontbench when Labour were in government and became a junior justice minister in 2010 under the coalition.

He came out as gay months later and separated from his wife of nearly two decades, Victoria, with whom he had two teenage children - as said he was going to 'come to terms with his homosexuallity'.

Blunt was an Army officer who signed up to Sandhurst at 18 in 1979 and stayed in the military, commissioned into the 13th/18th Royal Hussars, for more than a decade

Blunt led rebellions against then-party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith in 2003 and then was the first to call for Liz Truss to go last year as her short-lived premiership blew up

While David Cameron's government supported him, he put his ministerial job in danger when he announced that rules around prison parties would be relaxed - forcing No 10 to issue a formal instruction overruling him.

He then lost his job as a minister in the 2012 reshuffle.

Blunt has since been a vocal back bench supporter of gay rights, chairing the all-party parliamentary group on global LGBT+ affairs, and revealing to the Commons in 2016 that he had used poppers.

Challenging a ban on the drug that had been proposed by the government, he said: 'There are some times when something is proposed which becomes personal to you and you realise the government is about to do something fantastically stupid and I think in those circumstances one has a duty to speak up.'

'I use poppers, I out myself as a popper user, and would be directly affected by this legislation.'
A formidable military force backed by Iran, Hezbollah has been engaging Israeli forces along the Lebanon-Israel border in the deadliest escalation since it fought a war with Israel in 2006. Hezbollah has in recent years emerged as a potent force in the Middle East, boasting a multifaceted arsenal and diverse military capabilities that pose a considerable threat to Israel. There have been growing fears that the terror proxy will become involved in a war that has already seen around 1,400 from Israel killed in the October 7 massacre and 9,227 deaths in Gaza, according to Hamas officials. The Lebanese political and military group emerged in the early 1980s as a response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and officially announced its existence in 1985 with the release of its first manifesto. Initially the group was a large but informal conglomeration of Shia Muslims in Lebanon who were spurred on by Iran 's Islamic Revolution in the 1970s, which culminated in the overthrow of the Shah and the establishment of the Islamic Republic by Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini. The group adopted the name Hezbollah - which translates to 'Party of God' - with the primary goal of resisting Israeli occupation in Southern Lebanon. The group has been exchanging fire with Israel across the border intermittently since Hamas' October 7 attacks - the latest escalation since Israel and Hezbollah fought a major war in 2006.
Three have been charged and released on bail

Three children have been arrested and charged after allegedly assaulting a convenience store worker on the job.

At least five youths stormed into the Ezy Mart in Adelaide's Rundle Mall at 10:20pm on Wednesday night and assaulted the shopkeeper before causing a mess.

Three girls, two aged just 12 and one, 13, who cannot be named for legal reasons, have since been reprimanded by police and released on bail.

CCTV footage from inside the convenience store shows the group shoving the worker and grabbing at his throat before making their way inside.

A group of five youths ransacked a convenience store and allegedly assaulted the shopkeeper in Adelaide's Rundle Mall at 10:20pm on Wednesday night

Three girls, two aged 12 and one 13, have since been accused of stealing lighters and assault

The footage shows the youths pouring a drink on the ground at the entrance of the store before the worker attempts to make them leave.

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In retaliation the man is grabbed and shoved into the corner where he is kicked, throttled and threatened by one girl, who raises her fist before grabbing his collar.

As two girls continue jostling the worker the others make their way inside, where one girl empties several boxes of goods that were on the counter.

Adelaide's youth court has heard that the group of five entered the store and stole lighters before they began to act erratically.

'The victim has recognised the two from previous encounters and told them they were not allowed to enter the store,' a police prosecutor said, as reported by the Advertiser.

'They began verbally abusing the victim and stealing lighters before kicking the victim.'

The court heard that the worker was 'slammed' into shelving before being dragged to the front of the store where 'they continuously slapped and pushed before he started to fight back in self defence'.

The store is located in the centre of Adelaide and the storekeeper told police that he had recognised two of the girls from an earlier encounter

The five youths fled the scene before police arrived but were found at the Bowden Railway Station, 4km from Rundle Mall, at 11pm.

Two of the teens, 12 and 13, were on bail at the time for unrelated offences.

The two were granted bail for their actions on Wednesday but Magistrate Kate Hodder told them that the allegations against them were 'very serious'.

Both girls will return to court in November.

Another girl, 12, was arrested and charged with aggravated assault and theft and has been released on bail to return to court at a later date.

Police confirmed outside of the court that they had spoken to the other two girls involved in the incident and confirmed that they're still investigating the matter.
The demonstrators projected messages onto City Hall, with phrases like 'Palestine will never die' and 'Gaza, Gaza, you will rise'

Some anti-Israel activists burned Star of David flags and Stars and Stripes

Anti-Israel activists burned Stars and Stripes outside City Hall in New York City- after thousands of demonstrators marched from Wall Street and accused Biden of 'genocide' for supporting Jewish state.

The shameful protest came two weeks after the brutal terrorist attack which has claimed the lives of more than 1,400 Israelis, most of whom were civilians.

A reported 3,000 protesters started gathering at Wall Street in NYC's financial district at 5.30pm, chanting 'genocide Joe has got to go' and 'Eric Adams, you can't hide, you support genocide'.

Upon reaching Foley Square, some angry Anti-Israel activists set fire to Star of David flags and Stars and Stripes, as they chanted songs in support of Palestine and Gaza.

Someone also left graffiti reading 'f**k the IDF' and 'free Palestine'.

Before they escalated the demonstration, the protesters projected messages onto City Hall with phrases like 'Palestine will never die' and 'Gaza, Gaza, you will rise' earlier that evening.

Star of David flags and Stars and Stripes were burned by anti-Israel protestors outside City Hall in New York City

Someone also left graffiti reading 'f**k the IDF' and 'free Palestine'

The shameful protest came two weeks after the brutal terrorist attack which has claimed the lives of more than 1,400 Israelis, most of whom were civilians

The protesters set fire to Stars and Stripes as they chanted songs in support of Palestine and Gaza

Earlier that evening, the protesters also projected messages onto the New York County Courthouse, with phrases supporting the territory

The 'Within Our Lifetime' organization, led by Palestinians and advocating for the cause since 2015, organized the rally

The protesters claimed that U.S. weapons manufacturers bear responsibility for the 'bombs being dropped on Gaza' and are profiting from the ongoing 'genocide of the Palestinian people'

The 'Within Our Lifetime' organization, led by Palestinians and advocating for the cause since 2015, organized the rally

Protesters chanted 'genocide Joe has got to go' and 'Eric Adams, you can't hide, you support genocide'

Draped in flags, wearing 'Free Palestine' shirts and Arab headscarves, the protesters chanted 'We will free Palestine, and Palestine will be free' as they made their way through the Financial District during what they called the 'Flood Wall Street for Gaza' rally Thursday afternoon.

The protesters claimed that U.S. weapons manufacturers bear responsibility for the 'bombs being dropped on Gaza' and are profiting from the ongoing 'genocide of the Palestinian people'.

They made passionate cries during the rally saying 'Israel bombs and USA pays, how many kids did they kill today'.

The 'Within Our Lifetime' organization, led by Palestinians and advocating for the cause since 2015, organized the rally.

One of the flyers singled out several American companies, including Woodward, Raytheon Technologies, and Boeing, which the organizers claim are manufacturing the bombs being dropped in Gaza.

The organization's social media account only displays protesters praying and chanting in a circle, with some users praising their actions.

The group distributed stickers and sheets at 3pm, started what they called 'teach-in' at 4pm, and commenced the rally at 5.30pm.

The protesters moved to different parts of Manhattan and reached Washington Square Park at around 9pm Thursday.

In one of the photos obtained by DailyMail.com, protesters can be seen climbing onto the scaffolding outside City Hall and hanging Palestinian flags on it.

Reportedly up to 3,000 protesters gathered on Wall Street at 5.30pm, protesting against U.S. weapons manufacturers and investment companies

Upon reaching Foley Square, they projected messages onto the New York County Courthouse

Draped in flags, wearing 'Free Palestine' shirts and Arab headscarves called Keffiyeh, the protesters chanted 'We will free Palestine, and Palestine will be free'

Demonstrators projects messages like 'cease fire now' on the building

Protesters can be seen climbing onto the scaffolding outside City Hall and hanging Palestinian flags on it

Protestors climbed onto the scaffolding as NYPD walked passing them

Many protesters were masked during the rally

They planned to take the streets of New York again, calling to 'flood Brooklyn' at Brooklyn Museum Saturday

They planned to take the streets of New York again, calling to 'flood Brooklyn' at Brooklyn Museum Saturday.

The group claimed one of their rallies last Saturday at the bay bridge was 'abruptly ended'' by the NYPD, 'pushing, punching, and choke-holding protesters.'

In two weeks since Hamas launched its devastating assault, tensions in the region are still rising.

'I am a Muslim, and I support my Palestinian brothers and everything that's going on in the world right now,' one demonstrator told CBS.

Another demonstrator said: 'The reason why people are fighting - do you think these people are crazy? Like, these people - There's a reason for it.

'There's a reason why after one incident that happened on October 7th, these are the lives that every day for the Palestinians for the past 75 years.'

NYPD has closed a nearby entrance to the Broad Street subway station near the protest for 'safety reasons'. No injuries have been reported as yet.

NYPD has closed a nearby entrance to the Broad Street subway station near the protest for 'safety reasons

The rally featured a large police presence

The protesters claimed that U.S. weapons manufacturers are responsible for the 'bombs being dropped on Gaza and are profiting from the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people'

NYPD has closed a nearby entrance to the Broad Street subway station near the protest for 'safety reasons'

NYPD was seen during the demonstration

The demonstrators used a projector to deliver their messages

The same day a crowd supporting Israel gathered at Washington Square park, a day after hundreds of NYU students and faculties rallied as part of a nationwide pro-Palestinian walkout.

The protesters can be seen holding Israeli flags and engaging in conversations with bystanders

Dozens of Gen Z protesters in Washington Square Park a day before, waving pride flags and wearing kaffiyehs, demanding 'freedom for Palestine' and a 'divestment' of Israel's 'genocidal regime'.

Among them were a handful of more hateful youngsters, including one young woman who held up a pink sign that read: 'Keep the world clean', with an illustration of the Star of David in a trash can.

The same day a crowd supporting Israel gathered at Washington Square park

The protesters can be seen holding Israeli flags and engaging in conversations with bystanders

Odelya Halevi is seen in the pro-Israel protest on October 26, 2023 in New York City

This is the latest protest as thousands took to the streets across the globe - in Bangladesh, South Korea, Lebanon and Iraq - with some burning American, British and Israeli flags and holding signs that read 'USA go to hell and 'Death to Israel.'

Less than a week ago, more than 150 pro-Palestinian protestors were arrested while calling for a Gaza ceasefire in New York City as they gathered on the steps of the New York City Public Library and marched toward Senator Kirsten Gillibrand Midtown office.

Protestors called for the end of US aid to Israel as it defends itself against Hamas terrorists, who are holding around 200 people hostage since their brutal October 7 slaughtering that killed 1,400 people.

Rioters chanted, 'From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,' and 'Ceasefire now,' while the NYPD announced on loudspeaker that those who refuse to disperse would be arrested and charged with disorderly conduct.

Video footage shows officers asking each protestor individually to remove themselves from the street, before handcuffing them if they refused. New York City corrections busses drove off with those arrested as their pro-Palestine friends cheered.

More than 150 pro-Palestinian protestors were arrested while calling for a Gaza ceasefire in New York City as demands mount for Biden to stop giving aid to Israel

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered on the steps of the New York City Public Library and marched toward Senator Kirsten Gillibrand Midtown office Friday evening, before blocking traffic on 5th Avenue

Some protesters were arrested for civil disobedience. Police can be seen on video asking each person to leave after having announced it on the loudspeaker

Hamas terrorists are believed to be holding hundreds of hostages, including American citizens, nearly two weeks after the deadly surprise attack.

Some voiced concerns about the violence affecting civilians on both sides of the conflict.

'I think Hamas absolutely needs to be condemned. Violence against civilians is always awful and the violence that Israel has been carrying out against Palestinian civilians for over 75 year is condemnable as is Hamas's attacks,' New York City resident Oren Schweitzer said to CBS News at the protest.

'Half of the people who live in Gaza are kids, schools have been bombed, hospitals have been bombed. no one has access to water, food,' he added.

'I don't see how bombing Gaza is preventing more people from joining Hamas. I don't se how killing thousands of children will keep anyone around the world safer,' another protestor said.

The rally featured a large police presence and barricades closed the streets for protestors as they walked downtown to City Hall Park.

'Jews say ceasefire now' reads shirts on the backs of the protestors

Pro-Palestinian protestors are taking over the U.S. Capitol

Earlier this month, pro-Palestinian protestors took over the U.S. Capitol as hundreds demand a ceasefire between Hamas terrorists in Gaza and Israel.

The protestors, dressed in black shirts that read 'JEWS SAY CEASEFIRE NOW' and 'NOT IN OUR NAME' took over the large rotunda in the Cannon House Office Building.

The demonstrators held posters with messages like 'LET GAZA LIVE' and 'MOURN THE DEAD, AND FIGHT LIKE HELL FOR THE LIVING.'

Capitol Police made 300 arrests as the group got louder and more disruptive with chants and singing.

They cut off public access to the Capitol complex as swarms of angry Palestinian advocates flooded the Cannon building.

Capitol Police said of the mass arrests: 'We warned the protestors to stop demonstrating and when they did not comply we began arresting them.'
Ministers have 'no credible plan' to end the use of migrant hotels and face a 'huge challenge' in clearing the asylum backlog, MPs have warned.

The Commons' Public Accounts Committee urged the Government to set out a full timetable for reducing the number of asylum hotels  and set a deadline for closing them altogether. Their report slammed the 'unacceptable' 8million-a-day bill being footed by the taxpayer.

It comes days after immigration minister Robert Jenrick unveiled plans to close the first 50 properties by the end of January. The Mail revealed earlier this week how luxury, country house-style hotels will be the first to see migrants removed.

The report said. 'No credible plan exists to end the use of hotels to accommodate people waiting for a decision, at a cost of 2.3billion in 2022-23.' It said the Home Office must 'set out how and by when it intends to reduce use of hotels, and when it intends to stop using hotels altogether'.

Immigration minister Robert Jenrick unveiled plans to close the first 50 properties by the end of January

The Commons' Public Accounts Committee urged the Government to set out a full timetable for reducing the number of asylum hotels  and set a deadline for closing them altogether (File Photo of hotel used to house asylum seekers)

The Mail revealed earlier this week how luxury, country house-style hotels will be the first to see migrants removed (File Photo of hotel used to house asylum seekers)

The report, published today, also raised concerns over a new policy of requiring migrants to share rooms, suggesting there could be 'serious consequences' arising from 'vulnerable people having to share accommodation with strangers'.

Latest data shows there were 175,000 asylum seekers, including dependants, awaiting a decision in August  up from less than 57,000 three years earlier.

Labour MP Dame Meg Hillier, the committee chairman, said the backlog is leaving people 'in limbo', but the 'compromises being made by the Home Office to meet its commitments are alarming'.

The Home Office last night said it has 'taken immediate action to speed up asylum processing whilst maintaining the integrity of the system'.
Allegations of malpractice against immigration lawyers have rocketed after a sensational Daily Mail investigation.

In July we revealed legal advisers were charging illegal immigrants up to 10,000 to create fake asylum and human rights claims.

There were just 12 potentially dodgy lawyers and immigration advisers referred to two agencies in June, before the extraordinary findings of the investigation were revealed.

But in August the figure soared ninefold to 110, sources said. September also witnessed increased referrals, with 96.

The cases were flagged to a special Home Office unit which seeks to identify 'professional enablers' of immigration crime, and to legal quango the Solicitors Regulation Agency (SRA).

'We are calling it the Daily Mail effect,' one source said. Our investigation led to the SRA suspending three legal firms caught offering to lodge fake asylum applications.

In one case, a legal adviser told an undercover reporter posing as an economic migrant that he could invent claims of sexual torture, beatings, slave labour, false imprisonment and death threats.

He promised he could get a doctor's report to back up the story and even produced anti-depressants to be given to the Home Office as 'evidence' of psychological trauma.

At another firm, one lawyer said he would have to 'create the evidence' to make it appear the reporter had a genuine fear of 'persecution and assassination' if he returned to his home country. He boasted of a success rate of more than 90 per cent.

A third outlined the 'fine ingredients of an asylum case' he said he would use to make it appear the reporter feared for his life in India. This could include anti-government political allegiances, a love affair with someone from the wrong caste or being gay.

Two said they would falsely claim the Mail's reporter was a 'victim of human trafficking' who had been fleeced, betrayed and abandoned by people smugglers.

In August the Home Secretary vowed that crooked immigration lawyers would end up behind bars.

Suella Braverman launched a new anti-corruption taskforce designed to improve the way intelligence is gathered on bent solicitors. She said at the time: 'The Mail has done a great public service with its investigation into crooked immigration lawyers.

In July we revealed legal advisers were charging illegal immigrants up to 10,000 to create fake asylum and human rights claims

Rashid Ahmad Khan (pictured) told our covert reporter he can't help him apply for asylum if he doesn't say 'his life is in danger back home' and told him to lie to the Home Office

Staff at solicitors' firms readily agreed to help an undercover Mail reporter posing as an economic migrant get refugee status - despite being told he had no legitimate reason to stay in the UK after arriving on a small boat. VP Lingajothy (pictured) asked for 10,000 to invent a horrific back story to use in the asylum application

Malik Nazar Hayat (pictured) told our reporter the whole process would cost 5,500 in cash, a price he insists is a steal from his usual fees of 12,000 to 15,000 for similar cases

Many of the law firm staff enjoy wealth and prestige, including Mr Lingajothy (pictured) who owns a multi-million pound property empire with his wife, drives a BMW with personalised number plates and sent his son to Eton

Suella Braverman launched a new anti-corruption taskforce designed to improve the way intelligence is gathered on bent solicitors

'These conmen make it far harder to remove people who have no right to be here  and they must face the full force of the law.

'I want to see the worst offenders in jail and we have the laws in place to bring them to justice,' she said. A Home Office spokesman said at the time that the new unit had already uncovered links between an immigration advice firm and 'one of the most wanted human traffickers'.

The taskforce brings together watchdogs, legal industry bodies, government departments and law enforcement to gather stronger evidence against dodgy lawyers.

In future, it will widen its scope to investigate doctors, accountants and employers who conspire to aid illegal migrants. Those found guilty could face life imprisonment.

The Professional Enablers Taskforce will train frontline immigration staff to identify and report 'suspect activity', for example patterns of similar claims submitted for different migrants by the same firms.

Crooked lawyers who help migrants fraudulently remain in Britain can be prosecuted under the Immigration Act 1971 for 'assisting unlawful immigration'. The crime carries a maximum life sentence.
Traditional owners from the Murray-Darling Basin have launched a court challenge to federal government approval of a plan to manage groundwater in the basin.

The NSW Murray-Darling Basin Fractured Rock Water Resource Plan, accredited last year, covers groundwater stored within cavities as well as alluvial sediments that lie on top of the fractured rock systems.

The Murray Darling Basin Authority acknowledged during the consideration process there were deficiencies in NSW's consultation with First Nations groups and people.

But the authority's chief executive Andrew McConville recommended approving the plan anyway in a letter to Environment and Water Minister Tanya Plibersek in November last year.

'Water is life for us, without it the injustice against our people continues,' Brendan Kennedy said

In the letter, Mr McConville said NSW had committed to work with the affected First Nations people over the following 12 months, and their objectives and outcomes would be incorporated into the water resource plan at a later date.

Ms Plibersek approved the plan in November.

A group of more than 20 Murray-Darling Basin First Nations people has launched a legal challenge against Ms Plibersek's decision saying they were not properly consulted, including about their social, cultural and spiritual values in relation to the water resources.

The Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations (MLDRIN) will argue the water resource plan does not comply with the law, and will ask the Federal Court to rule that the minister's accreditation of the plan is legally invalid.

Group chair Grant Rigney said they had been backed into a corner.

'We have repeatedly raised our reasonable concerns with Minister Plibersek. We have been entirely disregarded,' he said.

Mr Rigney said the group wanted reform of the consultation process, improved provisions for First Nations water rights in the Water Act and the basin plan, including through the Restoring Our Rivers bill before parliament.

'We cannot wait for legislative reform,' he said.

'This is urgent so we're taking this legal action now to ensure the law as it stands is upheld and our rights are respected.'

Deputy chair and Tati Tati Millu Wudungi (Murray River man) Brendan Kennedy said proper consultation with the basin's traditional owners about the management of water resources was an inherent right.

'We hope not just to win this case, but to set a precedent that ensures that all Murray-Darling Basin water resource plans must be properly undertaken according to fair and reasonable standards of consultation,' he said.

Acting on behalf of MLDRIN, Environmental Defenders Office special counsel Emily Long said traditional owners had been seeking water justice in the basin and getting nowhere.

'The Water Act contains only the barest of consultation requirements for First Nations and in this case MLDRIN argues that even those were not met,' she said.

Ms Long said it was a requirement under the basin plan that traditional owners were consulted during the drafting process of water resource plans.

'This must be done properly to give First Nations a meaningful opportunity to contribute to water resource management and to care for their country,' she said.

Mr Kennedy said the Murray-Darling was not just a river system, 'it's our lifeblood, the source of our cultural economies, as well as an ancestral being'.

'The result of 240 years of mismanagement and water dispossession is the ongoing suffering of our people,' he said.

'Water is life for us, without it the injustice against our people continues.'

A spokesperson for the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water said they could not comment because the matter was before the Federal Court.
The Kremlin has issued an extraordinary denial to the 'lies' that Vladimir Putin, 71, had 'died at his luxury Valdia forest palace' - amid claims a 'coup' was underway in Moscow.

This comes after a Telegram channel, which has claimed for months the Russian leader had cancer and was terminally ill, announced that Putin had died.

It further claimed that a 'coup' was underway in Russia as Putin's inner circle would be trying to pass off his 'body double' as the real president.

But Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state media RIA Novosti that the report was an 'absurd information canard'.

Earlier this week he had strongly denied Putin suffered a heart attack last weekend, and said reports the Russian president used a doppelganger were false.

A Telegram channel, which has claimed for months the Russian leader had cancer and was terminally ill, announced that Putin (pictured) had died

But Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov (left) told state media RIA Novosti that the report was an 'absurd information canard'

Vladimir Putin's alleged palace in Valdai, Russia, where a Telegram channel claimed he has died

One theory on the Telegram channel is that it is funded by figures once close to Putin who have lost ground, and that the false report is evidence of an intense battle for power as Russia struggles in its war in Ukraine.

There are claims that elements of the GRU military intelligence may be involved.

The full Telegram post read: 'Attention! There is currently an attempted coup in Russia!

'Russian President Vladimir Putin died this evening at his residence in Valdai.

'At 20.42 Moscow time, doctors stopped resuscitation and pronounced death.

'Now the doctors are blocked in the room with Putin's corpse, they are being held by members of the presidential security service on the personal orders of Dmitry Kochnev [director of the Federal Guard Service], who is in touch and receives instructions from the Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Nikolai Patrushev.

'Security for the president's double has been beefed up.

'Active negotiations are underway.

'Any attempt to pass off a double as the president after Putin's death is a coup.'

Nikolai Patrushev, 72, is secretary of Russia's powerful Security Council, and Putin's top intelligence advisor.

The Telegram channel has claimed he is in pole position to succeed the president but may wish power for his son, agriculture minister Dmitry Patrushev, 46.

The channel has claimed for months that Putin was ill and replaced by actors trained by the security services who underwent plastic surgery to look like the Russian leader.

The same theory has been espoused by Valery Solovey, a former professor at Moscow's prestigious Institute of International Relations, a training academy for spies and diplomats.

He said recently: 'The fact is that the current President Vladimir Putin is living out the last days of his earthly life.'

Nikolai Patrushev (left), 72, is secretary of Russia's powerful Security Council, and Putin's top intelligence advisor. The Telegram channel has claimed he is in pole position to succeed the president

But Patrushev may wish power for his son, agriculture minister Dmitry Patrushev, 46

'I can tell you there are no doubles when it comes to work and so on,' said spokesman Peskov earlier this week. Specifically on Putin's alleged heart problems, Peskov said: 'He is well - this is no more than just another canard.'

The head of Ukrainian military intelligence Lt-Gen Kyrylo Budanov has alleged the real Putin has not been seen since June 2022.

'The one, who everyone used to know, was last seen around 26 June 2022,' he said last month.

A recent Japanese TV report used AI to analyse Putin's face, walk and voice in multiple appearances, and concluded that he does use one and perhaps two body doubles.

'I can tell you there are no doubles when it comes to work and so on,' said spokesman Peskov earlier this week.

Specifically on the heart problems, Peskov said: 'He is well - this is no more than just another canard.'

The spokesman said: 'These [kinds of stories] belong to the category of fake news, discussed with enviable tenacity by a number of media outlets.

'This brings nothing but a smile [in the Kremlin].'

In April, Peskov admitted that reports were rife about Putin's doppelgangers but claimed the warmonger was 'mega-active'.

'Perhaps you had heard that Putin has multiple doubles, who work instead of him while he is sitting inside a bunker,' he said.

'This is yet more lies. This is one more lie. You see our president. He is just as he used to be - mega-active.'

The channel is supposedly run by a former Kremlin lieutenant-general, known by the alias Viktor Mikhailovich.

It claims Putin's top apparatchiks and security henchmen control the activities of the doppelgangers.

It is dismissed by most political analysts as run by conspiracy theorists.

The claim comes amid reports that Putin is preparing to announce in a few days he will stand in next year's presidential election, seeking a new six year term.

Putin is reported to share his Valdai palace with his secret partner Alina Kabaeva, an Olympic gold winning rhythmic gymnast, and their young family.
Putin is attempting to form a 'new axis of terror against the West', experts warned on Thursday after the Russian despot invited Hamas and Iranian representatives to Moscow.

In an apparent departure from Russia's former alliance with Israel, Putin hosted leaders of the Hamas terror group who praised him for taking an active 'stance' against 'Israeli aggression.'

In a photograph released by Hamas, two of its senior leaders were pictured alongside Ali Baheri Kani, the deputy foreign minister of Iran, for talks in the Russian capital.

Bassem Naeem, its head of international relations, and Mousa Abu Marzouk, a senior member of the Hamas politburo, met with Putin's special envoy in the Middle East Mikhail Bogdanov.

The move should be treated with 'extreme concern' as it could 'spell trouble for a new alliance brewing', experts have claimed.

It came as the IDF continued to carry out raids into Gaza territory overnight into the early hours of Friday morning.

Bassem Naeem, Mikhail Bogdanov and Moussa Abu Marzouk are pictured in Moscow

Putin is attempting to form a 'new axis of terror against the West', experts warned on Thursday

Wounded Palestinians receive treatment at the al-Shifa hospital, following Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City

Russian media claimed the meeting took place to further negotiations for the release of more than 200 hostages held by Hamas, including Russian citiziens.

But Kasra Aarabi, the director of IRGC research at United Against Nuclear Iran, said Russia and Iran were united by 'hostility towards the West, the liberal rule based international order and liberal values'.

He told the Telegraph: 'A new and looming axis of terror against the West centred around the Iranian regime's IRGC and Putin's Russia may very well be on the horizon'.

'News of the Iran-backed Hamas terror group being welcomed in Moscow should be extremely concerning to the West.'

A spokesperson for the Israeli foreign ministry said Israel 'sees the invitation of senior Hamas officials to Moscow as an obscene step that gives support to terrorism and legitimises the atrocities of Hamas terrorists'.

Russia has not condemned the atrocities carried out by Hamas in its October 7 assault, which led to more than 1,400 deaths, nor has it thrown its support behind the Israeli response, which Hamas claims has killed more than 7,000 people.

'Contacts were held with [Abu Marzouk] in continuation of the Russian line on the immediate release of foreign hostages in the Gaza Strip. Issues related to ensuring the evacuation of Russian and other foreign citizens from the territory of the Palestinian enclave were also discussed,' TASS said.

Russia has ties to all key players in the Middle East, including Israel, Iran, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, the militant Islamist group that controls Gaza.

But Jonathan Harounoff, of The Jewish Institute for National Security of America, believes the meeting could 'spell trouble for a new alliance brewing, and a growing global splintering between East and West'.

Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah

People search for survivors among the rubble of buildings destroyed in Israeli airstrikes in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis

A wounded Palestinian is carried into the al-Shifa hospital following Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City on Thursday

Smoke and fire rise from buildings as people gather amid the destruction in the aftermath of an Israeli strike on Gaza City on October 26

Palestinians search for survivors and the bodies of victims through the rubble of buildings destroyed during Israeli bombardment

People search for survivors and the bodies of victims through the rubble of buildings destroyed during Israeli bombardment, in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip

Whole areas of Gaza have been razed to the ground

Smoke and fire rise from buildings as rescuers gather amid the destruction in the aftermath of an Israeli strike on Gaza City

He told the Telegraph it 'could also signal Moscow's readiness to abandon its longstanding ties with Israel in order to spread and benefit from chaos and conflict.'

Moscow has repeatedly blamed the current crisis on the failure of US diplomacy, and called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and the resumption of talks aimed at finding a peace settlement.

Hamas released its own statement in which it praised the efforts of Russia's President Vladimir Putin and foreign ministry to end what it called 'the crimes of Israel that are supported by the West', according to Russia's RIA news agency.

Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas in retaliation for the October 7 attack and launched a raid into the Gaza Strip on Wednesday night as a preclude to an expected imminent incursion.

It continues to bombard Gaza from the air and limit vital aid supplies to the 2.3 million people living in the strip.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova confirmed Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister was currently visiting Moscow, but gave no further details.

Baghiri Kani is Iran's chief nuclear negotiator.

Israel's military, which has been carrying out limited raids into Gaza as it prepares for a ground incursion of the enclave, said early on Friday it was 'currently conducting raids in the Gaza Strip as part of preparations for the next stage of the operation.'

Palestinian militants clashed with Israeli troops in at least two areas within the seaside enclave near the border with Israel early on Friday, Hamas-affiliated media reported.

People inspect the damage after Israeli airstrikes in the southern Gaza Strip

A picture taken from the southern Israeli city of Sderot on October 26, 2023 shows flares fired by the Israeli army over the northern Gaza Strip

A smoke plume covers the sun during a forest fire that reportedly ignited after shell fire from Israel, in the Labouneh area in southern Lebanon

Israeli military vehicles raided the central area of Al-Bureij and troops were clashing with militants near the border there, the reports said. In the south, in a border area near the town of Rafah, Hamas militants were trading fire with Israeli troops, according to the reports.

The trip came as European Union leaders urged pauses in Israeli bombing and Hamas rocket attacks so humanitarian aid could be delivered to Gaza.

In Brussels, the 27 leaders of the EU reached a compromise declaration after days of wrangling, expressing the 'gravest concern for the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza'.

They called for 'continued, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access and aid to reach those in need through all necessary measures including humanitarian corridors and pauses for humanitarian needs'.

While EU leaders have strongly condemned Hamas' attack, they have struggled to stick to the same message beyond that, with some stressing Israel's right to self-defence and others emphasising concern about Palestinian civilians.

Separately, Mamadou Sow, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross' regional delegation, said from Jeddah: 'To say that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is catastrophic is an understatement. Everything that is needed to sustain life is missing or dwindling by the hour in Gaza.'
Online fraudsters could use AI to launch a wave of convincing scams through ChatGPT and Bard, a consumer group has warned.

Which? said the two so-called large language models used in the programs lack effective defences for the public.

Consumers often spot scam emails and texts because they are badly written but ChatGPT and Bard can easily create messages that convincingly impersonate businesses and official bodies.

The City of London Police estimate that more than 70 per cent of fraud cases involving UK victims could have an international component. AI services allow fraudsters to send professional-looking emails from anywhere in the world.

Which? found that both ChatGPT and Bard have some safeguards but these can easily be circumvented.

Experts asked ChatGPT to create an email telling the recipient someone had logged into their PayPal account. In seconds, it produced a professionally written email with the heading Important Security Notice  Unusual Activity Detected on Your PayPal Account.

Online fraudsters could use AI to launch a wave of convincing scams through ChatGPT and Bard, a consumer group has warned

Consumers often spot scam emails and texts because they are badly written but ChatGPT and Bard can easily create messages that convincingly impersonate businesses and official bodies

It included steps on how to secure the account and links to reset a password and contact customer support.

But fraudsters would be able to use these links to redirect recipients to their malicious sites.

Which? also found it was possible to use Bard to create bogus security email alerts and direct victims to fake sites that can gather personal and security information.

The consumer groups director of policy and advocacy, Rocio Concha, said: OpenAIs ChatGPT and Googles Bard are failing to shut out fraudsters, who might exploit their platforms to produce convincing scams.

Our investigation clearly illustrates how this new technology can make it easier for criminals to defraud people. The Governments upcoming AI summit must consider how to protect people from the harms occurring here and now, rather than solely focusing on the long-term risks of frontier AI.

People should be even more wary about these scams than usual and avoid clicking on any suspicious links in emails and texts, even if they look legitimate.

Google said: We have policies against the use of generating content for deceptive or fraudulent activities like phishing. While the use of generative AI to produce negative results is an issue across all LLMs, weve built important guardrails into Bard that well continue to improve over time.

OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment from Which?.

Meanwhile, a report claims we already use AI three times more often than we think. Most Britons recognise that the technology plays a role in their lives, according to a survey by the Institution of Engineering and Technology. But they completely underestimate the extent to which it is already a part of the tools they use every day.

Over half of respondents said they used AI once a day or less, with one in four claiming they never used it at all.

They were then asked about their online activity, such as writing emails, using Google Maps to find their way around and compiling personal playlists on Spotify. Almost two-thirds of people said they did at least one of these things on a daily basis.

Given that all of these apps rely on AI in some capacity, alongside others such as autocorrect and search engines, the IET said its poll showed most people failed to understand how much they were using the technology. It said: We have three times as many daily interactions with AI than most people realise.
This is the awkward moment a drag queen named Pickle was stopped from entering a California library for a children's drag queen story hour by protestors.

A group of at least 50 protestors showed up at the San Fernando Library to protest the event, labelled 'Drag Queen Storytime'.

The event was to celebrate LGBTQ+ History Month, according to an event listing, and Pickle was to be joined by the 3rd District Supervisor Lindsey P. Horvath.

Due to the protesters blocking the drag queen from entering the building, the event was cancelled at the last minute.

Video of Pickle being denied entry to the building has since been shared on social media, with her being surrounded by police officers as protestors shout and chant.

Video of Pickle being denied entry to the building has since been shared on social media, with her being surrounded by police officers

A group of protestors showed up at the San Fernando Library to protest the event, labelled 'Drag Queen Storytime', with Pickle, seen here, hosting the event

One protestor can also be seen in the video holding onto a gate to the library as they shouted: 'Leave our kids alone.'

Another person on a megaphone can be heard saying to Pickle: 'Bye bye', as the drag queen looks on stunned.

According to the LA County Library, the event was to be a 'fun drag story time' that involved 'stories that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion'.

San Fernando Police Lieutenant Pete Aguirre told The San Fernando Sun that they knew about the protest and sent officers, as well as a contingent of County Sheriffs.

He said: 'Their primary objective [was] to ensure no one got assaulted, no one got injured.

'And in that end, we were successful. Secondary to that was opening the thruway to ensure people could get in and out.'

Aguirre confirmed to the outlet that nobody was arrested and no violence ensued, despite protestors illegal blocking the public space.

Organizer of the protest Alyssa Sonora also told the outlet: 'Now we have to have these conversations with our kids at such a young age.'

Sonora, who co-founded the San Fernando Valley Alliance community action group added: 'Its frustrating. We werent ready to have these conversations with them.'

Pickle told the outlet: 'Drag is an art form, like ballet or acting or singing  an art form that encourages expression.

'The work that I do is not only appropriate for children, but it is tailored to meet their educational goals to encourage them to rea.'

Police confirmed to the outlet that nobody was arrested and no violence ensued, despite protestors illegal blocking the public space

According to the LA County Library, the event was to be a 'fun drag story time' that involved 'stories that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion'

She continued: 'It sets a very dangerous precedent to imagine that a person should not be allowed to read stories because of the way they look.'

In a post to Instagram, Pickle added: 'I am once again deeply upset that people think it's ok to demonstrate this behavior for children who are looking for a safe space to read and enjoy books.

'I will certainly not be intimidated by a mob and I am thoroughly disappointed that I and other patrons were physically prevented from entering a public library and that the program was cancelled.

'I will be pursuing a thorough investigation of what happened today and will not stop until responsible parties are held accountable.'

District Supervisor Horvath also took to social media, and slammed the protesters for using 'disgusting tactics'.

Horvath said: 'Protestors claimed they want to keep children safe while they pounded on doors, shouted obscenities & slurs toward my staff and library staff, and used strollers to blockade moving vehicles. The hypocrisy is astounding.

'These disgusting tactics and efforts to incite violence prevented Pickle and Library patrons from even entering the building. I hope no one does to their families what they did to their neighbors today.'

Pickle, seen here in an Instagram post, said she was 'deeply upset' about the protest outside the library

District Supervisor Horvath also took to social media, and slammed the protesters for using 'disgusting tactics'

The topic of drag queens reading in front of minors has become a hot topic, with numerous states now banning them.

In May of this year, Montana became the first state to specifically ban people in drag from reading books to children at public schools and libraries.

Governor Greg Gianforte signed the bill because he 'believes it's wildly inappropriate for little kids, especially preschoolers and kids in elementary school, to be exposed to sexualized content.'

The bill initially sought to ban minors from attending drag performances, which were defined as shows that 'excited lustful thoughts.'

The legislation was later amended to ban minors from attending sexually oriented or obscene performances on public property.

The topic of drag queens reading in front of minors has become a hot topic, with numerous states now banning them

The law received intense public testimony at an earlier committee hearing in February.

Bills in Florida and Tennessee also appear to try to ban drag reading events, but both require the performances to be sexual in nature, which could be up for interpretation.

In Tennessee, bids to restrict drag performances in public spaces or in the presence of children were in March by a federal judge who sided with a group that filed a lawsuit claiming the statute violates their First Amendment rights.

Critics have argued the law banning drag reading events limits free speech and seeks to block efforts to help young people know they are not alone.
One of the two Rottweilers that savagely mauled its owner and left her fighting for life in hospital has been euthanised.

Nikita Piil, 31, was left with severe injuries to her arms and legs after being mauled by her pets at her home in Success, south Perth, on September 16.

Police were forced to shoot Ms Piil's oldest Rottweiler, seven-year-old Bronx, during the attack after attempts to taser and distract the dog failed.

Her surviving pup, Harlem, was taken to the City of Cockburn's animal management centre with Ms Piil confirming last week she had decided to euthanise it.

Cockburns head of community safety and ranger services Michael Emery confirmed on Thursday the dog had been put down.

Nikita Piil (above) has made the tough decision to euthanise her surviving Rottweiler after her pet dogs attacked her in September

Ms Piil's oldest dog, Bronx, was shot by police during the attack while her youngest, Harlem, was taken to the local animal management centre and classified a 'dangerous dog' (pictured, both Ms Piil's Rottweilers)

'The procedure was completed on Thursday morning by a qualified veterinarian as humanely as possible for the dog,' he said.

The council conducted a month-long investigation following the attack and gave Ms Piil an ultimatum: subject Harlem to strict security measures or euthanise him.

READ MORE: Perth dog owner attacked by her pet Rottweilers faces heartbreaking decision Advertisement

Mr Emery said Ms Piil made the tough decision last week to surrender Harlem to council.

'(Last) Friday afternoon the owner officially relinquished their ownership of the dog to the City of Cockburn,' he said.

The measures for Ms Piil to keep Harlem as a 'dangerous dog' included keeping him 'securely enclosed' in an area not easily accessible to children under the age of seven, being muzzled and installing warning signs around her home.

Ms Piil, who is understood to still be in hospital, is unlikely to face charges over the incident as a member of the public was not attacked.

The council wished her a speedy recovery from injuries to her arm, leg and head.

Mr Piil's family revealed in a GoFundMe post she had 'gotten caught in a crossfire' while trying to calm down her dogs during a neighbourhood incident.

Ms Piil (above) nearly died several times after suffering severe injuries and infections to her arm, head and leg in the Septmeber attack

'The rehabilitation journey ahead will be painful, long and costly,' they said.

'We nearly lost our precious girl a couple of times  but as you all know, Nikita is our little fighter.'

The City of Cockburn had previously received complaints from neighbours over the Rottweilers' excessive barking, however there were no reported incidents of attacks prior to September 16.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Ms Piil's family for comment.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his partner Jodie Haydon's body language revealed subtle clues about their feelings as guests of honour at a state dinner at the White House hosted by President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill.

Body language expert Dr Louise Mahler told Daily Mail Australia that Mr Albanese and his partner, Jodie Haydon, looked 'uncomfortable' in the international spotlight. Still, she claimed their relationship with the Bidens was 'all love and light'.

Looking at photos from the dinner, Dr Mahler was particularly impressed by how Ms Haydon - a political novice - handled the pressure of the visit, saying she 'did very well'.

'I think, given the circumstances, she handled it very well because this is the international stage. She's not accustomed to that,' she said.

'How that shows is her smile is quite forced. There's no smile in the eyes, the mouth has just gone sideways, and it's quite forced.'

Body language expert Dr Louise Mahler analysed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (centre left) and partner Jodie Haydon's (left) body language as they dined with US President Joe Biden (centre right) and First Lady Jill Biden (right) at the White House

Dr Mahler revealed Ms Haydon was uncomfortable on the 'international stage' and revealed her lack of confidence by crossing her hands in the Bermuda Triangle (marked above)

Dr Mahler highlighted how Ms Haydon broke one of the golden rules of body language by entering the 'Bermuda Triangle'.

'Her hands are across her stomach. The Bidens don't cross there's,' she said.

'It's called the Bermuda Triangle. You don't go into the Bermuda Triangle - which is across your shoulders and down to the groin.

'But (Jodie)'s doing very well. She's not uptight. At least her hands are on her stomach and not on her chest.

'She did very well for the international stage, but her body language is showing a lack of professionalism and a lack of experience.'

Photos from the event also show Albanese's hands occasionally crossed into the triangle, making him look less confident.

However, Dr Mahler said several other factors pointed to the Prime Minister's discomfort.

'Look at that picture with the backs of his hands showing to the camera and the tension in his shoulders and upper body, which shows a lack of ease under the international spotlight,' she said.

'He does fine, he remains fairly neutral and he pulls himself together in the other photos.

'But there's that one photo where he looks very tense in his upper body.'

Dr Mahler said Albanese also looked uncomfortable with the 'backs of his hands showing to the camera and the tension in his shoulders and upper body' (above) pointing to 'a lack of ease'

Albanese and Haydon's visit marks the fourth state dinner the Bidens have held, followed by South Korea, India and France (pictured, the leaders on Wednesday night)

READ MORE: Biden is briefed on Maine mass shooting during state dinner with Albanese Advertisement

As for which Aussie handled the spotlight better, Dr Mahler said: 'They both look similar, they're both uncomfortable in this environment.

'I'd tell them to get their breath into their lower bodies and to keep their arms long with palms facing out - palms show trust.

'You'll see Donald Trump stands with his palms out permanently.'

As for the overall relationship between the couples, Dr Mahler said all parties appeared positive toward one another.

'Basically, it's just all love and light, the whole thing was love and light,' she said.

'Everybody just couldn't love each other more.'

The state dinner was Biden's fourth since becoming president. Previously events were held for South Korea, India and France.

Biden had planned to visit Sydney following the Japan G7 summit in May but had to cancel the trip to continue talks on the US' debt.

Wednesday saw the White House play host to between 325 and 350 guests, including Australian musicians Vance Joy and Kid Laroi.

In a speech, Albanese reflected on the American spirit.

Dr Mahler recommended Albanese and Haydon open their palms and 'get their breath into their lower bodies' to appear more confident and trustworthy

The visit comes months after Biden cancelled his plans to visit Sydney following the Japan G7 summit in May

'It is a spirit that Australians identify with - with a small population but a very big imagination, we punch above our weight. All the while drawing inspiration from our friends across the Pacific,' he said.

'We stand as close as we have ever been and I think after this week closer than we have ever been.'

Albanese added Australians and Americans are 'close friends'

'To the history our peoples have made together but importantly, the future we will build together as people. To friendship,' he toasted.
Labour MPs have been offered increased security after facing direct threats from constituents over the party's stance on Gaza.

Frontbenchers say there is a 'real fear' that a 'lone wolf' could be pushed over the edge by the continuing tensions and commit an act of terror.

At least one shadow minister has been accosted at home by a constituent demanding answers over Labour's refusal to call for a ceasefire, The Times reported.

Yesterday the party's chief whip, Alan Campbell, wrote to MPs acknowledging the 'heightened security concerns', adding: 'I know this has been a very difficult period for colleagues and we appreciate the pressure that you are under as a leader in your community.'

A separate email from John Cryer, the party's chairman for security and wellbeing, said MPs' local police forces should be in contact to discuss heightened security.

The Labour leader has only gone so far as to call for 'humanitarian pauses' to allow aid into the besieged territory

More than four Labour frontbenchers are now on resignation watch amid fears the party could reach 'breaking point' over Sir Keir Starmer's stance on Gaza.

Pressure has continued to build on the Labour leader to shift his position on the conflict, holding crisis talks with Muslim MPs on Wednesday amid reports that some were considering resigning.

Yesterday shadow minister Imran Hussain became the first frontbencher to sign a motion demanding an immediate ceasefire and an 'end to the total siege of Gaza'.

The Early Day Motion is now signed by 39 Labour MPs, while a further six have publicly called for a ceasefire.

The Labour leader has only gone so far as to call for 'humanitarian pauses' to allow aid into the besieged territory. Scores of his own backbenchers are now 'fuming' over his unwillingness to listen.

The Labour leader has only gone so far as to call for 'humanitarian pauses' to allow aid into the besieged territory (Pictured: Pro-Palestinian protesters march through London)

Last night a voting sentiment survey showed Labour support among Muslim voters dropping from 71 per cent at the 2019 election to just five per cent currently

However, the divisions within the party could be greater than previously thought, with more than just four frontbenchers said to be considering their future. A senior Labour figure told the Mail: 'There are a lot more than four frontbenchers on resignation watch after this. It's not just the ones reported.

'Keir can't be complacent because he's won a few by-elections. It's become really tough in our constituencies - this is proving bigger than the Iraq War response.'

'People are p****d off and really upset  most MPs feel like they got nothing from the meeting when they saw the statement after.

'They're asking why, after the Government have followed Labour on policy for everything else, are we now copying whatever Rishi says on Gaza,' a source familiar with discussions said last night.

'There will be a breaking point soon enough. And once one person goes, others will follow like dominoes.'

More than 250 councillors have written to Sir Keir to urge him to back a ceasefire, while frontbencher Yasmin Qureshi defied the leadership by asking Mr Sunak if he would back the policy during Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday.

Last night a voting sentiment survey showed Labour support among Muslim voters dropping from 71 per cent at the 2019 election to just five per cent currently.
At a Walmart in New Jersey, it took a whopping 40 minutes to buy three items

The team consistently waited around 10 minutes after requesting assistance for employees to unlock the glass casings

An Inside Edition investigation exposed the exasperating wait times for products like body wash and razors

Shoppers are being forced to wait as long as 40 minutes to buy basic essentials like baby formula and body wash as major retailers lock up products to counter skyrocketing rates of theft.

Reporters from Inside Edition visited five Targets, five Walmarts and five CVS stores in New York and New Jersey and timed how long it took for employees to retrieve different products from glass casings.

'Everything's locked up,' journalist Lisa Guerrero said as she stepped inside a Target in Manhattan where baby formulas, razors and cleaning products were kept under lock and key.

'They locked up the underwear,' she quipped. 'And the socks.'

The camera panned past a row of customers waiting near one of the product cases.

At a Walmart in New Jersey, a manager was forced to apologize after a 15-minute delay to buy baby formula

At the same Walmart, a 24-minute wait for a toothbrush followed

It took the Inside Edition team a whopping 40 minutes to check out with just three items

The Inside Edition team pressed the help button three times as they tried to buy toothpaste. An employee showed up after seven minutes - only to find that her key didn't work.

In a different aisle, the team waited over 10 minutes to buy vitamins.

A customer standing outside the store disclosed that he'd waited 13 to 14 minutes for assistance before 'giving up.'

At a CVS in Manhattan, the wait time was much shorter - only 30 seconds for body wash and 30 seconds for razors.

However, at a Walmart in New Jersey - where the team requested help three times for baby formula - a manager was forced to apologize after a 15-minute delay.

This was followed by a 24-minute wait for an electric toothbrush, bringing the total to 40 minutes just to purchase three items.

People on social media have reacted just as strongly since retailers began locking away scores of products.

Earlier this month, a doctor from Boston took to TikTok to blast Target over the policies it has implemented in a bid to crack down on theft.

Emily Long claimed that $8 body wash was kept behind glass, even as more expensive items were left sitting out.

'So while you could get like $40 La Roche Posay or makeup that was sitting out, my $8 body wash was locked away as was my deodorant and my husband's body wash and his razors and the basic things that I went to Target to get,' Long said.

Walmart is just one of the major retailers that has imposed new methods for countering soaring rates of theft, including locking up basic essentials

Products sit behind plexiglass at a Target store in Harlem. This location was permanently closed just last week

In April, a Target spokesperson told DailyMail.com that organized retail crime is a concern for the company

In April, a Target spokesperson told DailyMail.com that organized retail crime was a concern for the company.

'Were taking proactive measures to keep our teams and guests safe while deterring and preventing theft,' the spokesperson said.

'These mitigation efforts include hiring additional security guards, adding third-party guard services at select locations, and using new technologies and tools to protect merchandise from being stolen.'

In late September, the retailer announced its plans to shut nine stores across the country, citing an uptick in crime and other safety concerns.

Just last week, two locations in Seattle, three stores in the San Francisco-Oakland area, three stores in Portland and one store in Harlem, New York closed for good.

'We cannot continue operating these stores because theft and organized retail crime are threatening the safety of our team and guests, and contributing to unsustainable business performance,' Target said in a news release.

'We know that our stores serve an important role in their communities, but we can only be successful if the working and shopping environment is safe for all.'

Other companies are taking creative measures to counter theft, such as an Atlanta Walmart set to open in May 2024.

A Target worker locks up a cabinets holding men's deodorant in Queens, New York

Emily Long, a Boston doctor, shared a video to TikTok where she blasted Target for locking up her $8 body wash and forcing her to spend an hour just to buy a few items

The video then cuts inside the store as Long pans round the aisles to show the products locked behind glass casings

The location will include an on-site police substation or a mini precinct that will double as a deterrent to shoplifters and a working space for officers.

Concerns about theft have been an ongoing issue for the grocery giant. In December of last year, CEO Doug McMillon admitted that theft had become a major issue for the chain.

He said the company had been forced to implement new safety measures at different locations but stressed that he saw local law enforcement as the main solution to the growing problem.

'I think local law enforcement being staffed and being a good partner is part of that equation, and that's normally how we approach it,' he said.

'It's store managers working with local law enforcement, and we've got great relationships there for the most part.'

In May, Target CEO Brian Cornell admitted that theft was costing the chain millions.

The company predicted $500million more in losses from theft this year on top of the $750 million in losses it incurred during its last fiscal year - meaning losses could top $1.2billion by the end of 2023.
This is the moment a top Hamas spokesman stormed out of a BBC interview after being asked how the terrorists justified the killing of Israeli families as they slept in their beds.

The deputy foreign minister for Hamas in Gaza, Ghazi Hamad, was being grilled by the BBC's Middle East correspondent Hugo Bachega about the barbaric murders of up to 1,500 Israelis.

In the sit-down interview, Mr Hamad suggested there was no command to kill any civilians when Hamas invaded Israel on October 7 which saw the terrorists paraglide into the desert, surround the Nova Festival and slaughter 260 festivalgoers as they fled for their lives.

Footage has since emerged of the massacre of Be'eri Kibbutz where people were slaughtered in their beds. Images shown to MailOnline by the Israel Embassy in London, which are too graphic to publish, show the blood-splattered rooms.

Inside the bedroom of one home, three dead bodies were left to rot by Hamas fighters, who killed at least 100 people in the community. A woman lies face down in a pool of her own blood. Her blonde hair is blood stained and the wall behind her has at least six bullet holes.

In a sit-down interview, Mr Hamad suggested there was no command for Hamas to kill any civilians when they invaded Israel on October 7

Who is Ghazi Hamad? Ghazi Hamad is a former newspaper editor and politician, heading top roles in Hamas for 25 years. In 1999, Hamad was jailed by the Palestinian Authority for writing critically about its prison system. His experiences later saw him become a top spokesperson for the Hamas government, a platform from which he once said: 'Israel should be wiped from the face of the Earth. It is an animal state that recognizes no human worth. It is a cancer that should be eradicated.' Hamad has previously expressed support for a Palestinian state under its pre-1967 borders. This week he called for stronger intervention from allies in Lebanon in fighting Israel. Advertisement

While harrowing photos showed the aftermath of a bloodbath caused when Hamas barbarians opened fire at a pre-school - leaving teddy bears riddled with bullets and killing an unknown number of innocents.

But Mr Hamad incredulously suggested 'because the area was very wide' there 'were clashes and confrontations'.

Mr Bachega said it was not a confrontation when they invaded people's homes to which he replied: 'I can tell you we didn't have any intention or decision to kill the civilians.'

He was then asked how he can justify killing people as they slept. Mr Hamad then looks to the side and pulls off his microphone attached to his dark-coloured suit jacket and declares: 'I want to stop this interview.'

He then chucks the microphone onto the floor.

Up to 1,500 Israelis have been killed at the hands of Hamas with at least 200 taken hostage back to Gaza.

Some of the most harrowing images and footage to have emerged since the barbaric attacks was when Hamas streamed into Israel and surrounded the Nova music festival where thousands of innocent partygoers had danced the night away.

Yesterday, Dor Kapah told of how he heroically escaped the festival as he piloted a getaway vehicle filled with terrified civilians from a fleet of rifle-wielding terrorists chasing them down on motorbikes.

But he appeared agitated when BBC Middle East correspondent Hugo Bachega asked him to justify killing families as they slept in their beds

Without responding to the question he declares he wants to end the interview before taking off his microphone and chucking it on the floor

At least 100 people were killed by Hamas terrorists in the early hours

Hamas' deputy foreign minister abruptly ends interview with BBC Ghazi Hamad: There was no command, no command to kill any civilians. Hugo Bachega: You say this was a military operation but the result of it was that hundreds of civilians Hamad: Yes, I say this because the area is very wide and there are many people there and there was [sic] clashes and confrontation Bachega: Its not confrontation; you invaded houses Hamad: I can tell you that we didnt have any intention or decision to kill the civilians. Bachega: How do you justify killing people as they sleep. You know, families? Hamad: I want to stop this interview. Advertisement

'Everything was amazing until 6am... then we saw the trails of missiles streaking into the air,' Dor said.

'The music stopped, everybody panicked.

'People started running, lying on the floor... it was complete chaos.

'We started hearing gunshots in the distance... then we saw them coming - 400 metres. 300 metres.'

Dor and his friends began packing up their belongings and readying their jeep to flee the festival ground.

But then he received a call from a friend in a nearby kibbutz that plunged the group into a catch-22.

'Don't leave the festival,' the friend said. 'The streets are full of terrorists.'

It was at that moment Dor truly realised the horror of his predicament - damned if you stay, damned if you go, with gunmen lying in wait at every turn.

But with terrorists wielding AK-47s bearing down on him, Dor and his pals were left with no choice but to pile into their jeep and take off.

While in Be'eri Kibbutz people were massacred in their beds with Israel releasing images of tiny babies being murdered and burned.

The more than 100 bodies found at the kibbutz were removed by the Zaka search and rescue group.

Scenes from kibbutz Be'eri, where Dor was forced to hide for six hours from Hamas terrorists

A home destroyed during the attack by Hamas is seen within Kibbutz Be'eri on October 14, 2023 in Be'eri, Israel

Rubble is seen all across the floor with holes in the wall and the ceiling starting to collapse at a burnt out nursery in Be'eri

An Israeli soldier in the destroyed Jewish home in the community of Kibbutz Be'eri along the border with the Gaza Strip

Most of the photos passed to MailOnline by the Israeli Embassy in London were too graphic to publish

Speaking earlier this month, one survivor, Haim Jelin, told local media that Hamas fighters 'walked around Be'eri like they owned the place'.

'They shot indiscriminately, abducted whoever they could, burned down people's homes so they'd have to escape through the window, where the terrorists would wait,' he added.

A woman called Miri Gad Mesika told local media that she and her husband were choking on thick smoke and gas fumes as they tried to hide.

'We soaked towels with water and covered our faces, while my husband Eli held the shelter door closed as hard as he could as the terrorists tried to break in,' she said.

'Moments before we jumped from the second floor, we assessed the situation of the fire and looked out for the terrorists and decided to jump.

'We fled to our neighbours across the street, and watched our house go up in flames before it was completely burned down. I have no idea how we survived.'
Police are calling on the public to keep an eye out for a $400,000 Ford Mustang after it was stolen by a pair of brazen thieves in Melbourne's south-east.

The 2021 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500KR, the only one of its kind in Australia, was casually driven out of Mustang Motorsport in Ferntree Gully, about 35km south-east of Melbourne, on October 11.

Two men were earlier captured on CCTV loitering out the front of the car specialist before one returned, entered through the front gate and allegedly drove off in the distinctive ride.

Victoria Police said staff from the business were moving cars in and out of the showroom at the time of the theft, making the keys to the car accessible.

A 2021 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500KR, the only one of its kind in Australia, was stolen from Mustang Motorsport in Ferntree Gully on October 11

The Mustang was last seen heading north towards the Burwood Highway.

The two men stopped at a fast-food store on the highway before the theft, with one reaching behind the counter and stealing a drink.

Investigators on Friday released CCTV footage and images of the stolen car and two suspects, describing one as Caucasian and about 190cm tall and another as Asian/Polynesian and about 160cm tall.

The Mustang is charcoal, with a distinctive blue stripe over the driver and passenger side doors and emblazoned with 'GT 500KR'.

It has a rear spoiler and was bearing the registration plates 900KR when stolen.

The Mustang is charcoal, with a distinctive blue stripe over the driver and passenger side doors and emblazoned with 'GT 500KR'

The man who allegedly drove off with the vehicle has been described as Caucasian and about 190cm tall

Police have described the other suspect as being Asian/Polynesian and about 160cm tall

The Mustang could have travelled anywhere across Melbourne or interstate but police aren't giving up hope of reuniting the rare car with its owner.

'This was an utterly brazen theft of someone's prized possession and done in broad daylight,' Vehicle Crime Squad Detective Senior Constable Michael Gatt said in a statement.

'This is someone with a great love of vehicles who has worked hard to build this car and has had it taken away from him.'

Anyone with information on the two men in the CCTV or who has seen the vehicle is urged to contact Crime Stoppers.
They are naturally at home as part of a flock. But Scotlands loneliest sheep has been marooned at the foot of a cliff in the Highlands for the past two years.

Jillian Turner spotted the animal in 2021 during a trip from Balintore to Nigg with the East Sutherland Canoe and Kayak Club.

But recently she took the same trip again and noticed the sheep was still trapped on the small area of beach. Now drones have been sent in to check on the animal.

Ms Turner, of Brora, Sutherland, said that when she first saw the sheep she assumed that it would manage to make its way up the rocky face. When the canoe club returned she was horrified to see that the animal was still there.

She said: She called out on our approach and once again followed the group along the shore, jumping from rock to rock, calling to us the whole way.

The sheep, circled, looks over in the hopes of rescue and, above, shows off its impressive long fleece

The rugged shoreline where the sheep has been stranded for more than two years

A kayaker passes by the rocky shoreline where a sheep has been marooned

The poor ewe has been on her own for at least two years  for a flock animal that has to be torture, and she seemed desperate to make contact with us on the two occasions weve gone past her.

It is heart-rending. We honestly thought she might make her way back up that first year.

After the storm at the weekend I worry about whether she survived. With huge seas coming in and a deluge of water pouring down the gullies, it must have been traumatic for her if not fatal.

The ewes fleece highlighted its time in isolation. Ms Turner said: Her fleece on the first occasion was a normal years growth, however on the recent trip the fleece was huge and touching the ground at the back.

The sheep is not the same breed as those belonging to farmers in the local area.

Ms Turner has appealed to anyone she could think of who might be able to help with a rescue, but so far she has drawn a blank.
Hamas is ready to release civilian hostages being held captive in Gaza, an Iranian politician claimed yesterday.

Iran's foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said Hamas had told its backers in Tehran that it was ready to hand over the hostages seized in Israel.

Gunmen seized 224 hostages and have released just four so far, with Hamas leaders claiming 'almost fifty' have been killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza.

Mediators in Qatar have led talks over their release and a negotiator said there had been progress in recent days.

Dr Mohammed Al Khulaifi, the Qatari foreign minister, said negotiators were working towards the release of all the civilian hostages, although he declined to say if any release was imminent.

Iran's foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said Hamas had told them it was ready to hand over hostages captured in Israel

Qatar's foreign ministry has previously confirmed that talks included negotiations over a possible prisoner swap.

Mr Amir-Abdollahian told a UN general assembly that Hamas had spoken with Iran about a possible release.

He said: 'The Islamic Republic of Iran stands ready to play its part in this very important humanitarian endeavour, along with Qatar and Turkey.

'Naturally, the release of the 6,000 Palestinian prisoners is another necessity and responsibility of the global community.'

Earlier, Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri told Hezbollah's television channel al-Manar that Israeli hostages would be swapped for Hamas fighters.

His comments followed a 2011 agreement between Israel and Hamas to release a captured Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian and Arab-Israeli prisoners.

Russian news agencies also reported that a delegation from Hamas had arrived in Moscow yesterday for talks over releasing hostages including several Russian citizens

Meanwhile Russian news agencies reported that a delegation from Hamas arrived in Moscow yesterday for talks over the release of the hostages, including several Russian citizens. Senior Hamas official Abu Marzouk was reported to be among those attending.

The four hostages released so far were an American mother and her daughter and two elderly Israeli women.

One of the women, 85-year-old Yocheved Lifshitz, described how she was dragged through a 'spider web of tunnels'.

The fate of the hostages has proved a difficult challenge for Israeli military chiefs as they plan airstrikes and a possible ground assault on Gaza. Hamas said airstrikes so far had killed 'almost fifty' hostages, although it did not give further information and it was not possible to verify its claim.
The former head of the Navy has warned surrendering the Chagos Islands to an ally of China is a 'colossal mistake'.

Admiral Lord West added his voice to concerns that it would endanger the UK's strategic interests to cede the territory to Mauritius.

His intervention comes after Boris Johnson warned that it would be 'utterly spineless' to abandon the islands.

Since last year, talks have been under way with Mauritius as part of a transfer of sovereignty over the British Indian Ocean Territory.

The archipelago includes Diego Garcia, which hosts a Anglo-American military base nicknamed 'the unsinkable aircraft carrier in the Indian Ocean'.

It played a crucial role in the first Gulf War to liberate Kuwait, in 2001 to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan and in the Iraq War in 2003.

Admiral Lord West has warned surrendering the Chagos Islands to an ally of China is a 'colossal mistake'

Since last year, talks have been under way with Mauritius as part of a transfer of sovereignty over the British Indian Ocean Territory

Lord West, the former First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff, said ceding the territory would play into Beijing's hands.

In a foreword for Policy Exchange, he writes: 'Ceding the Chagos Islands to Mauritius would be an irresponsible act, which would put our strategic interests - and the interests of our closest allies - in danger, while also recklessly undermining fundamental principles of international law.'

He adds: 'How on earth can the Government explain a decision to negotiate with Chinese-aligned Mauritius to hand over sovereignty of the strategically vital island of Diego Garcia, an island which is located some 2152 kilometres from Mauritius itself.

'It would be a colossal mistake - and one which opposition parties in Parliament would also be complicit in, given they are supporting the Government's stance.'

He argues that there can be little doubt that the Chinese are pushing Mauritius to claim Diego Garcia and gain control over the port and airfield.

He points to the 47 official Chinese development finance projects on the island. Lord West has backed the think tank's report which urges the Government to cease its negotiations with Mauritius.

Its author, Richard Ekins, head of the think tank's Judicial Power Project, calls on politicians to defend UK sovereignty over the islands.

Foreign Office sources denied reports that there were tensions with the US over the talks and said that Diego Garcia would never be part of the negotiations.

The Foreign Office said: 'The UK and Mauritius have reiterated that any agreement between our two countries will ensure the continued effective operation of the joint UK-US military base on Diego Garcia, which plays a vital role in regional and global security.'
A body that was found dumped in a Ukrainian drain was identified as missing former paratrooper Daniel Burke, who was 'accidentally shot' by a fellow fighter.

Ukrainian authorities informed police officers searching for missing Mr Burke, 36, that they had found a body in September.

And now DNA tests have confirmed that the body was that of the former British soldier, from South Manchester, who vanished in August around 15 miles behind the front lines.

Police reportedly found his remains on a firing range in Zaporizhzhia, after being taken there by Australian-Algerian trooper Abdelfetah Nourine, who allegedly told police he had shot Daniel accidentally.

A body that was found dumped in a Ukrainian drain was identified as missing former paratrooper Daniel Burke, who was 'accidentally shot' by a fellow fighter

Ukrainian authorities informed police officers searching for missing Mr Burke, 36, that they had found a body in September

Mr Burke's father Kevin, 62, yesterday confirmed that the DNA test was positive for his son, the Sun reports.

READ MORE: Body is found in hunt for missing British volunteer fighter who went missing in Ukraine amid fears he had been murdered by fellow foreign legion soldiers in row over money Advertisement

The man who allegedly shot Mr Burke reportedly claimed that the English ex-soldier had come home from the shooting range after attending it with him.

In later messages, which the Sun newspaper has seen, Nourine reportedly said 'obviously me, but I didn't murder the guy' when asked who had killed Mr Burke.

Ukrainian police officials refused to confirm to the Sun if Nourine had left the war-torn nation.

Nourine did not respond to its requests for comment.

After the body was discovered in September, Greater Manchester Police said that officers are working with the family of the deceased and the Ukrainian authorities to support the identification of Mr Burke and bring him back to the UK.

Detective Superintendent Lewis Hughes, the force's lead for disaster victim identification said at the time: 'This is an upsetting time for Daniel's family, we have Family Liaison Officers in contact with the family and offering support.'

The detective added: 'My team and I are working with the Ukrainian authorities to make formal identification with a view to repatriating Daniel following that process.

'Daniel's family have asked for privacy at this difficult time.'

Mr Burke went to fight in Ukraine as a volunteer last year, and then vanished from his flat in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia on August 11.

It was feared that he could have been killed not by Russian soldiers, but by his fellow foreign legion fighters because of reported disputes and jealousy over the amount of money he was receiving in donations.

Ukrainian police combed the fields of Komyshuvakha village on the outskirts of Zaporizhzhia for any sign of Burke's body.

Daniel Burke set up his own volunteer unit in Ukraine called the Dark Angels (pictured)

A body was found in September the hunt for Daniel Burke (pictured), a former paratrooper who went to fight in Ukraine as a volunteer last year

Ukrainian police, already struggling with a heavy caseload since the war began, were investigating claims that Burke could have been killed following disputes over money.

Burke, who had served in Afghanistan with the British army before fighting against ISIS with the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in Syria, had travelled to Ukraine to fight as a volunteer last year.

He had told fellow fighters that he was receiving 8,000 a month from American millionaires in donations thanks to his public profile - and there are fears this could have sparked envy among the troops.

It was also reported that police were analysing CCTV footage of Burke's movements in a car that his friend, Australian volunteer Norine Abdelfetah, had lent him on the day he disappeared.

Abdelfetah told police he had dropped Burke off at his apartment on August 11 and had lent the Briton his car for the weekend after he complained about having food poisoning, reports the Telegraph.

The Australian said there was no sign of Burke when he came to collect the car two days later, and a day later, Adbelfetah's colleague, James Sutton, told police.
Jeremy Hunt is being urged to introduce a stamp duty rebate to reward households which improve their home's energy efficiency.

Under the 'Rebate to Renovate' policy, homeowners would benefit from the tax refund if they make green improvements within two years of buying the property.

The proposal has previously been backed by Lloyds bank and the owner of B&Q.

Today, the Onward and Bright Blue think tanks joined the Conservative Environment Network in also backing the policy.

Adam Hawksbee, deputy director at Onward, said: 'Homeowners want to make improvements to their properties but many people are unable to due to the significant costs involved.

Jeremy Hunt is being urged to introduce a stamp duty rebate to reward households which improve their home's energy efficiency

Under the 'Rebate to Renovate' policy, homeowners would benefit from the tax refund if they make green improvements within two years of buying the property (Stock Image)

'This is particularly true for people living in low value homes in poorer parts of the country.

'We need to find ways to incentivise, not penalise, people to retrofit their homes. That is why the Government should consider the idea of a Rebate to Renovate, a practical solution which will help bring down energy bills and decarbonise our inefficient housing stock.'

Sam Hall, director of the Conservative Environment Network, added: 'Since the Prime Minister has ruled out mandating higher energy efficiency standards, it is important that households are instead offered incentives to insulate their homes in order to achieve our climate targets.

'A 'Rebate to Renovate' scheme would be an effective way to incentivise much-needed energy efficiency improvements in homes. It would accelerate progress on improving the UK's housing stock, which is the leakiest in Europe, while easing pressure on household bills and making the UK more energy secure.'

The average UK household would need to spend just over 8,000 to upgrade their property to a decent standard of energy efficiency, according to the English Housing Survey.
Israeli comedians have ruthlessly mocked the BBC's reporting of the Al-Ahli hospital bombing in Gaza after the broadcaster was slammed for its coverage of the blast.

In the satirical show, a fake BBC newsreader said: 'Good evening from London, here are some news from the war in Gaza.'

A BBC News banner on screen read: 'Israel bombs hospital. 500 killed' as the actress continued: 'Israel has bombed a hospital killing hundreds of innocent people.'

She then shook her head and indicated to the person behind the camera for 'more, more'. The banner's death count then changed to '750 killed', with the fake newsreader declaring this was 'much better'.

The screen cut to mock BBC Middle East correspondent 'Harry Whiteguilt', who said: 'Good evening Rachael from the illegal colony of Tel Aviv.

Just to highlight how much of a laughing stock the BBC is now, an Israeli satirical programme made fun of them and its pretty spot on. pic.twitter.com/hlZPGGsyR6  Chris Rose (@ArchRose90) October 26, 2023

In the satirical show, the fake BBC newsreader said: 'Good evening from London , here are some news from the war in Gaza'

'Israeli officials have denied bombing the hospital, but we have video footage showing what really happened indeed.'

The footage that followed was a compilation of clips from the hospital blast - which including a paper plane flying over head, a scene from the movie Oppenheimer and an exploding bomb.

The newsreader said: 'Absolutely shocking Harry.' A new banner across the screen said 'We love Hamas' with the BBC News logo next to it.

'We got this video from Hamas the most credible not terrorist organisation in the world,' correspondent Harry reported.

'I'm sorry Rachael, I've got some terrible news. The United States Pentagon says it has evidence Israel did not bomb the hospital.'

Newsreader Rachael looked shocked and quickly backpedaled: 'What? Well... I guess it's going to be one of those things we can never be sure about. Like how the Jews knew about 9/11 and did not go to work that day,' she said while winking.

'No, they just published recordings of Hamas Freedom Fighters admitting they were the ones who fired the missiles by mistake,' correspondent Harry clarified.

The show then played a recording from who they call 'Jihad Militant #1', who said: 'My god, what a huge mistake. I fired our missile on our own hospital.'

Another militant replied: 'It's ok not a big deal. Maybe we had there a few gays. That's life. You win some you lose some.'

Back in the studio, fake BBC journalist Rachael said again: 'Well, I guess we'll never know exactly what happened.'

Another audio clip by 'Jihad Militant #1' repeated: 'No, no, we did it,' but Rachael still insisted: 'It's just going to stay a mystery.'

A new banner across the screen in the satirical show read 'We love Hamas' with the BBC News logo next to it

The show then played a recording from who they call 'Jihad Militant #1', who said: 'My god, what a huge mistake. I fired our missile on our own hospital.' Another militant replied: 'It's ok not a big deal. Maybe we had there a few gays. That's life. You win some you lose some'

Newsreader Rachael ended her newscast with the words: 'Good night everyone and remember: Israel is ISIS'

'Jihad Militant #2' said: 'It's not a mystery. It's us. Totally us. Only us.'

Both fake BBC employees looked uneasy, until Harry declared: 'But it's still Israel's fault... because the Israel blockade prevented Hamas from getting proper functioning missiles and this is why tragic accidents like this happened indeed.'

Newsreader Rachael ended her newscast with the words: 'Good night everyone and remember: Israel is ISIS.'

This comes after the BBC was slammed for its coverage of the blast and even Israel warned the broadcaster it could be stopped from reporting in the country for refusing to call Hamas terrorists.

The BBC admitted it was wrong to speculate that a rocket that hit a Gaza hospital was an 'Israeli air strike'.

A senior Israeli official said the government could take action if the BBC continued 'crossing the line in accordance with our laws'. It came after Israel's president Isaac Herzog said its policy of referring to Hamas as militants was 'atrocious'.

Israel's communications ministry is currently looking at the possibility of closing Qatari owned Al Jazeera's local bureau over claims its coverage was favourable to Hamas.

The BBC refers to Hamas as a 'militant' group rather than a terror group and described the slaughter of civilians as a 'militant' attack.

It has a long-standing policy of only using the term 'terrorist' when it is attributed to someone else.

This comes after the BBC as slammed for its coverage of the blast and even Israel warned the broadcaster it could be stopped from reporting in the country for refusing to call Hamas terrorists. Pictured is the aftermath of the explosion

In the immediate aftermath of the blast, correspondent Jon Donnison said it was 'hard to see' what else could have happened at the al-Ahli Hospital other than an 'Israeli air strike'

John Simpson, its World Affairs Editor, has warned that calling Hamas terrorists would be 'taking sides' and 'it's not the BBC's job to tell people who to support and who to condemn'.

The BBC was criticised after a reporter speculated that an 'Israeli strike' was responsible for an explosion at a hospital in Gaza that killed hundreds of people.

In the immediate aftermath of the blast, correspondent Jon Donnison said it was 'hard to see' what else could have happened at the al-Ahli Hospital other than an 'Israeli air strike'.

Despite this claim, growing evidence has emerged that the explosion at the al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City was caused by a failed rocket launch by terrorist group Islamic Jihad.

Following huge criticism, the corporation issued a statement on October 19 on the 'Corrections and Clarifications' page of its website, which admitted 'it was wrong to speculate in this way'.
The peak federal Government body responsible for Aboriginal affairs - the National Indigenous Australians Agency - is conducting investigations into 15 cases of potential fraud in grants they handed out.

The allegations of large-scale fraud worth $12 million involve grants handed out by the NIAA - which employs more than 1,400 staff across Australia and costs $2.1billion a year to run - and were revealed by the organisation during a Senate estimates hearing on Friday morning.

During the hearing, Coalition Senators Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Kerrynne Liddle, who are both Indigenous, raised concerns about the misconduct.

When pressed by Ms Nampijinpa Price, Integrity Group Manager Sean Worth conceded the monetary figure attached to those 15 fraud investigations totals $12million.

'There's three matters before the courts that total just over $3.5million,' he added.

A representative for the NIAA revealed the 15 cases 'equates to one per cent of the total number of organisations funded' by the organisation.

Coalition Senators Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Kerrynne Liddle raised concerns about the misconduct allegations at a Senate estimates hearing on Friday morning

Minutes earlier, Mr Worth argued it is not yet possible to 'quantify any potential losses due to fraud' due to the nature of such investigations.

'Some do ultimately result in a referral to police and the public prosecutors office... At that point in time the matters effectively go out of our hands and into the hands of prosecutors.'

Ms Broun said: 'The NIAA is delivering an ambitious agenda to empower First Nations people and communities across Australia.

'Our national presence, including here in Canberra, allows us to lead and influence across government.'

Assistant Indigenous Australians Minister Malarndirri McCarthy was expected to attend the hearing as a representative for Minister Linda Burney. Only Senators are required to attend, and Ms Burney is in the House.

However, on Friday, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher appeared in her place.

Assistant Indigenous Australians Minister Malarndirri McCarthy was expected to attend the hearing as a representative for Minister Linda Burney. Only Senators are required to attend. However, on Friday, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher appeared in her place

The NIAA falls under the responsibility of Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney

READ MORE: Voice architect Marcia Langton spotted in Bali after defeat Advertisement

Senator Malcolm Roberts asked the NIAA to clarify how the $5.8million funding package it received from the government to set up a Makarrata Commission in the last Budget had been spent.

Dr Simon Gordon, Acting Group Manager of Empowerment and Recognition, said none of the money had gone toward the Commission itself.

Instead, $607,066 has been spent so far on 'understanding treaty and truth telling processes in the states and internationally,' he said.

'This involves some desktop research, but also some bilateral and multilateral meetings with states and territories.'

In all, Dr Gordon could recall approximately 25 bilateral meetings held over the last year discussing treaty and truthtelling.

The agency is awaiting further instruction from Ms Burney about how to spend the remainder of the $5.2million.

This will take place after consultation with the First Nations community, some of whom were in mourning and took a vow of silence after the overwhelming No vote to the Voice to Parliament proposal.

The NIAA's mission is 'to ensure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have a say in the decisions that affect them'.
A man accused of an anti-Israeli incident where he allegedly threatened to kill four teenagers attempted to evade media by not coming into court as his lawyer entered pleas to the charges.

Abdullah Al-Taay is accused of verbally threatening four teenagers on Bellevue Rd at Bellevue Hill in Sydney's east on October 9 after the teens tried to display an Israeli flag on their car.

A video of the incident emerged online, appearing to show Mr Al-Taay telling the group to 'put that thing back' before allegedly threatening them.

'I swear if I f***ing see youse with that flag I'll f***ing kill youse all,' he allegedly says in the video.

'I'm telling youse right now - all of youse,' he allegedly added before retreating from the car.

Abdullah Al-Taay seen leaving Downing Centre Local Court on Friday after entering pleas of not guilty to four counts of stalk/intimidate intending to cause fear or physical harm. Picture: NCA NewsWire

Mr Al-Taay's lawyer Aqib Javed told a deputy registrar that his client was 'present in the vicinity' of the Downing Centre Court but was 'not inside due to media coverage and controversial issues' on Friday

Mr Al-Taay was then charged with four counts of stalk/intimidate intending to cause fear or physical harm, 'one for each of the (alleged) victims', according to Detective Superintendent Jodie Radmore.

He was charged on October 11 and spent one night in custody before he was released on bail following an application to a magistrate at Downing Centre Local Court the following day.

He was due to face the same court on Friday to enter pleas to the charges, but his lawyer Aqib Javed told a deputy registrar that Mr Al-Taay was 'present in the vicinity' of the Downing Centre Court but was 'not inside due to media coverage and controversial issues'.

'For that reason he is not making an appearance ... he is downstairs, if I could just indicate,' Mr Javed told the court.

He told the court that his client was 'reluctant' to make an appearance due to the media presence outside court and 'kindly' requested the court proceed without Mr Al-Taay present due to the 'controversy'.

Abdullah Al-Taay allegedly verbally threatened four teenagers on Bellevue Rd in Bellevue Hill on October 9

'I swear if I f***ing see youse with that flag I'll f***ing kill youse all,' he allegedly says in the video

The registrar asked Mr Javed to bring his client to court as he didn't have 'any order to be excused'.

Minutes later, Mr Al-Taay walked into the courtroom as Mr Javed formally entered pleas of not guilty to all four charges.

Mr Al-Taay did not answer questions outside court from a large media scrum but pulled out his phone and filmed as he walked away.

In the days following the incident, Superintendent Radmore told the media the group of teenagers were fixing the Israeli flag to their car before heading to a vigil to commemorate the lives lost in the first attack by Hamas on Israel earlier this month.

Mr Al-Taay is on strict bail due to police having concerns for the community's safety given his prior assault conviction

'The young people were going about their business ... when the driver of the vehicle stopped and started to threaten them,' she said at the time.

Mr Al-Taay is on strict bail due to police having concerns for the community's safety given his prior assault conviction.

Part of his bail conditions include being banned from suburbs where Jewish people might congregate in Sydney's east, including Bellevue Hill, Double Bay, Woollahra, Queens Park, Bondi Beach, Bondi Junction, Tamarama, Dover Heights, Rose Bay, Vaucluse, Watsons Bay and Randwick.

He is also banned from attending any protest or rally and must abide by an 8pm to 6am curfew.

The matter will return to court on December 15.
He is the third federal Labor MP to support Palestine

One of the Albanese government's most senior ministers is the latest to break ranks on Australia's steadfast support of Israel and throw their support behind Palestinians amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

Tony Burke, the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and Minister for the Arts, on Friday posted video of an interview with ABC Radio National breakfast host Patricia Karvelas in which he supported a local council's decision to fly the flag of Palestine outside its offices.

'I completely support the Canterbury-Bankstown Council's decision to raise the Palestinian flag and this is why,' a caption on the video read.

The City of Canterbury-Bankstown has voted to display the Palestinian flag outside council offices until a ceasefire is declared in Palestine.

In the interview, Ms Karvelas asked Mr Burke if he supported the move, to which he replied: 'I support the decision completely'.

'You need to understand in my part of Sydney people are watching everyday death. They're watching everyday images sometimes of people they know, often of children,' he said.

Mr Burke is the member for Watson, which incorporates suburbs in Sydney's west.

'I had a professional woman say to me the other day she has never seen so many bodies of dead babies in her life,' he said.

'If I go through the suburbs across from Belmore, Lakemba, where I live in Punchbowl through to Bankstown, pretty much everybody knows somebody who has lost someone.'

Mr Burke said until the Canterbury-Bankstown Council made that decision to fly the Palestinian flag 'there was no where in Australia where those colours were being acknowledged as worthy of grieving'.

In support of Palestinians, Mr Burke said 'we can't say we only grieve for certain people who are slaughtered'

Mr Burke stressed that the flag was not the Hamas flag, but the one of Palestine, and that 'gives the chance that there is recognition and not selective grief'.

'We can't say we only grieve for certain people who are slaughtered. We can't have a situation as a nation where we only formally acknowledge particular deaths,' he said.

Meanwhile, a peak Australian Jewish body has criticised Ms Karvelas and Mr Burke for entertaining the notion that Palestinians were subject to a genocide during Friday's interview.

The minister was asked by Karvelas whether he considered the treatment of Palestinians in Gaza as an act of genocide.

Mr Burke said he would prefer to describe the facts and leave it to listeners to find their own words.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin said the interview was a clear example of how language matters and leadership matters, adding that the council expect better.

Genocide isn't a buzzword. It is the most heinous crime a nation can commit and involves the deliberate extermination of an ethnic group, Mr Ryvchin said.

For a respected journalist to give the claim credibility and from a cabinet minister to have even entertained the notion is deeply irresponsible.

Mr Burke is the third member of the Albanese government who has come out in support of Palestinians over the past few weeks.

Senior federal minister Ed Husic last week said Palestinians were being 'collectively punished for Hamas's barbarism' in a bold statement condemning Israel's reprisals in Gaza.

Federal minister Ed Husic (centre) last week said Palestinians were being 'collectively punished for Hamas's barbarism'

West Australian Labor MP Anne Aly immediately backed Husic, saying it was 'difficult to argue' that Palestinians, including 1,000 children who had been killed, were not being 'collectively punished'.

Aly, the early childhood education minister, suggested Israel could be investigated over whether it had committed war crimes.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese however has stood by US President Joe Biden in his support for Israel at a lavish state dinner this week.

President Biden welcomed Mr Albanese to the White House on Thursday, emphasizing the two countries' alliance against the backdrop of violence in Israel and Ukraine.

'Together we're standing with Israel against Hamas' terrorism. We're standing with Ukraine against Putin's tyranny,' Biden said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (pictured right with Boe Biden) stood by the US President in his support for Israel at a lavish state dinner this week

From left to right: Jodie Haydon, Anthony Albanese, Joe Biden and Jill Biden at a state dinner this week

Ahead of the Oval Office meeting, Mr Albanese praised Mr Biden's involvement in the Israel-Gaza war in a speech to several thousand people on the South Lawn outside.

'All Australians condemn the atrocities, terror and pitiless brutality of Hamas,' he said.

'And Mr President, we applaud the personal resolve you have brought to this troubled part of the world.'

Meanwhile, pro-Israel supporters on Friday lashed out at Melbourne's Federation Square after about nine Palestine flags were seen hoisted at the popular city landmark.

It is not known at this stage who raised the flags.

A 'Vigil for Gaza' will be held from 7pm for two hours at Federation Square, organised by the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, Casey Friends of Palestine and Free Palestine Melbourne, according to a Facebook event.

Since Hamas' surprise October 7 attack, Israel has waged a relentless campaign against the terrorist group in the besieged Gaza Strip.

More than 7,000 Palestinian civilians are estimated to have been killed so far, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, while the remainder of Gaza's two million-plus population face a dire ongoing humanitarian crisis.
New York City's largest Jewish community has been warned to be on guard by security sources ahead of a anti-Israel protest being held in Brooklyn.

The Big Apple, which has the biggest Jewish population in the world outside of Israel, has been a hotbed for protests since Hamas' deadly attack on Israel October 7.

Earlier Thursday, thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched from Wall Street to City Hall to protest against U.S. weapons manufacturers and investment companies and dozens of others have raged across the country and world.

Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, announced Thursday that 233 people have been arrested at the over 100 protests and rallies held since the appalling attack that led to the ongoing war in the Middle East.

New York's Jewish community is now being warned to stay away from the Brooklyn rally as a matter of safety.

'Jews should definitely avoid the area,' COLlive.com reported, citing a security source. 'There's no intel at this time in which direction the protest will head. Locals should definitely stay away from Eastern Parkway in that area.'

A pro-Palestine protest scheduled for one of New York City's largest Jewish communities on Saturday has local advisors suggesting that people stay away out of safety concerns

New York's Jewish community is being warned to stay away from a rally to be held at the Brooklyn Museum on Saturday

'We are in constant contact with the NYPD and they are fully aware of this event,' Shmira, a volunteer Jewish civilian patrol in the city, has advised in a statement.

They added that both the police and Shmira will have extra patrols there just in case at the protest.

The Crown Heights protest was given the title 'Flood Brooklyn For Gaza' and is meant to end at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's home.

'The more they try and silence us the louder we will be,' the groups WOL Palestine and Existence is Resistance posted to Instagram, promoting the demonstration.

'From across the city and around the world, across communities and national liberation struggles, united in defense of Gaza and all of Palestine, until liberation and return within our lifetime. Bring flags, signs, keffiyehs, and help spread the word by sharing widely.'

DailyMail.com has reached out to the NYPD for comment.

While many have protested peacefully in the city, the number of arrests and signs displaying anti-Semitic and anti-Israel rhetoric has left many in the Jewish community worried.

In a column for the New York Post Thursday, John Podhoretz said: 'The Jews of Brooklyn feel they are at risk, and  this is the implicit corollary  they cannot be protected.'

While many have protested peacefully in the city, the number of arrests and signs displaying anti-Semitic and anti-Israel rhetoric has many of the Jewish faith worried

Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, announced Thursday that 233 people have been arrested at the over 100 protests and rallies held since the 7th

WOL Palestine, the 'Within Our Lifetime' organization, led by Palestinians and advocating for the cause since 2015, organized the rally in Manhattan earlier Thursday.

A reported 3,000 protesters gathered at Wall Street in NYC's financial district at 5.30pm, chanting 'genocide Joe has got to go' and 'Eric Adams, you can't hide, you support genocide' during the 'Flood Wall Street for Gaza' rally.

Draped in flags, wearing 'Free Palestine' shirts and Arab headscarves called Keffiyeh, the protesters chanted 'We will free Palestine, and Palestine will be free' as they made their way through the Financial District to City Hall.

Upon reaching Foley Square, they projected messages onto the New York County Courthouse, with phrases like 'Palestine will never die' and 'Gaza, Gaza, you will rise'.

The same day a crowd supporting Israel gathered at Washington Square park, a day after hundreds of NYU students and faculties rallied as part of a nationwide pro-Palestinian walkout.

The protesters can be seen holding Israeli flags and engaging in conversations with bystanders.

Dozens of Gen Z protesters in Washington Square Park a day before, waving pride flags and wearing kaffiyehs, demanding 'freedom for Palestine' and a 'divestment' of Israel's 'genocidal regime'.

Among them were a handful of more hateful youngsters, including one young woman who held up a pink sign that read: 'Keep the world clean', with an illustration of the Star of David in a trash can.

The same day a crowd supporting Israel gathered at Washington Square park

The protesters can be seen holding Israeli flags and engaging in conversations with bystanders

Odelya Halevi is seen in the pro-Israel protest on October 26, 2023 in New York City

This is the latest protest as thousands took to the streets across the globe - in Bangladesh, South Korea, Lebanon and Iraq - with some burning American, British and Israeli flags and holding signs that read 'USA go to hell and 'Death to Israel.'

Less than a week ago, more than 150 pro-Palestinian protestors were arrested while calling for a Gaza ceasefire in New York City as they gathered on the steps of the New York City Public Library and marched toward Senator Kirsten Gillibrand Midtown office.

Protestors called for the end of US aid to Israel as it defends itself against Hamas terrorists, who are holding around 200 people hostage since their brutal October 7 slaughtering that killed 1,400 people.

Rioters chanted, 'From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,' and 'Ceasefire now,' while the NYPD announced on loudspeaker that those who refuse to disperse would be arrested and charged with disorderly conduct.

Video footage shows officers asking each protestor individually to remove themselves from the street, before handcuffing them if they refused.

New York City corrections busses drove off with those arrested as their pro-Palestine friends cheered.

More than 150 pro-Palestinian protestors were arrested while calling for a Gaza ceasefire in New York City as demands mount for Biden to stop giving aid to Israel

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered on the steps of the New York City Public Library and marched toward Senator Kirsten Gillibrand Midtown office Friday evening, before blocking traffic on 5th Avenue

Some protesters were arrested for civil disobedience. Police can be seen on video asking each person to leave after having announced it on the loudspeaker

Hamas terrorists are believed to be holding hundreds of hostages, including American citizens, nearly two weeks after the deadly surprise attack.

Some voiced concerns about the violence affecting civilians on both sides of the conflict.

'I think Hamas absolutely needs to be condemned. Violence against civilians is always awful and the violence that Israel has been carrying out against Palestinian civilians for over 75 year is condemnable as is Hamas's attacks,' New York City resident Oren Schweitzer said to CBS News at the protest.

'Half of the people who live in Gaza are kids, schools have been bombed, hospitals have been bombed. no one has access to water, food,' he added.

'I don't see how bombing Gaza is preventing more people from joining Hamas. I don't se how killing thousands of children will keep anyone around the world safer,' another protestor said.

The rally featured a large police presence and barricades closed the streets for protestors as they walked downtown to City Hall Park.

'Jews say ceasefire now' reads shirts on the backs of the protestors

Pro-Palestinian protestors are taking over the U.S. Capitol

Earlier this month, pro-Palestinian protestors took over the U.S. Capitol as hundreds demand a ceasefire between Hamas terrorists in Gaza and Israel.

The protestors, dressed in black shirts that read 'JEWS SAY CEASEFIRE NOW' and 'NOT IN OUR NAME' took over the large rotunda in the Cannon House Office Building.

The demonstrators held posters with messages like 'LET GAZA LIVE' and 'MOURN THE DEAD, AND FIGHT LIKE HELL FOR THE LIVING.'

Capitol Police made 300 arrests as the group got louder and more disruptive with chants and singing.

They cut off public access to the Capitol complex as swarms of angry Palestinian advocates flooded the Cannon building.

Capitol Police said of the mass arrests: 'We warned the protestors to stop demonstrating and when they did not comply we began arresting them.'
Aerial footage has captured the devastation caused by Hurricane Otis after it made landfall in Acapulco on Wednesday

Aerial footage has emerged showing the devastation Hurricane Otis caused in Acapulco after the storm ripped through the city.

At least 27 people have died after 165 mile per hour winds caused power outages, widespread flooding and debris across the area.

Desperate residents have turned to looting supermarkets left in disarray with pictures showing locals taking bottled water and food from ransacked shelves while others have packed their belongings into plastic bags in hope of finding safe shelter.

Due to the severe winds that Otis brought with it, it is now on record as the strongest landfalling Eastern Pacific tropical cyclone.

The disastrous weather front was centered about 55 miles south-southeast of Acapulco, and its ruinous effects were also moving north-northwest at 9 mph.

The Category 5 storm brought floods and sustained winds of 165 miles per hour, with damage seen to balconies and roofs in the video

Due to the intense winds that Otis brought with it, it is now on record as the strongest landfalling Eastern Pacific tropical cyclone

Brown floodwaters extended for miles in some areas. Many residents were taking basic items from stores to survive

Debris litters a beach after Hurricane Otis ripped through Acapulco, Mexico, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023

The disastrous weather front was centered about 55 miles south-southeast of Acapulco, and its ruinous effects were also moving north-northwest at 9 mph.

Otis turned from mild to monster in record time, and scientists were struggling to figure out how and why they didnt see it coming.

Brown floodwaters extended for miles in some areas. Many residents were taking basic items from stores to survive.

Others left with pricier goods, in widespread rampages through the area's stores.

The early images and accounts were of extensive devastation, toppled trees and power lines lying in brown floodwaters that extended for miles.

The disastrous weather front was centered about 55 miles south-southeast of Acapulco, and its ruinous effects were also moving north-northwest at 9 mph

Many of the once-sleek beachfront hotels in Acapulco looked like toothless, shattered hulks a day after the Category 5 storm

Resulting destruction delayed a comprehensive response by the government, which was still assessing the damage along Mexico's Pacific coast, and made residents desperate.

Many of the once-sleek beachfront hotels in Acapulco looked like toothless, shattered hulks a day after the Category 5 storm blew out hundreds - and possibly thousands - of windows.

While some 10,000 military troops were deployed to the area, they lacked the tools to clean tons of mud and fallen trees from the streets.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador toured an area of the city on Thursday and said that Otis toppled every power-line pole in the region.

This has left most of the city's one million residents without electricity, and the municipal water system was also shut down.

The President said: 'The people sheltered, protected themselves and that's why fortunately there weren't more tragedies, loss of human life.'

A woman is helped across a highway blocked by a landslide triggered by Hurricane Otis, near Acapulco

Tourism infrastructure on the beach lays in shambles after Hurricane Otis made landfall

Many residents were taking basic items from stores to survive. Others left with pricier goods, in widespread rampages through the area's stores

The early images and accounts were of extensive devastation, toppled trees and power lines lying in brown floodwaters that extended for miles

A damaged car lays on a street divider in Acapulco, Mexico, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023

People carry away a mattress, a television monitor and a bicycle from a store at a shopping mall

One victim is a solider who died after a wall inside his home collapsed on him, the president said.

Juan Pablo Lopez, 26, had been talking to his wife when their call was cut off early Wednesday as Otis made landfall.

She had returned to Acapulco to be with her family and give birth to their son a month ago. Lopez was at home in Cancun.

With no information coming in, he created an online chat with friends and family from and invited friends who has emigrated to the U.S. to add fellow locals.

He said: 'I'm very worried for my newborn son. We started to cross-reference information, to share what we found, almost like a WhatApp newspaper.'

A damaged car sits under a fallen tree and utility pole on a road next to Acapulco International Airport

Forecasters and meteorologists are baffled at how they did not see Otis' catastrophic path coming

A woman walks carries a mirror looted from a furniture store on Wednesday after the storm made landfall

It took nearly all day Wednesday for authorities to partially reopen the main highway connecting Acapulco to the state capital Chilpancingo and Mexico City

Hundreds of trucks from the government electricity company arrived in Acapulco early Wednesday, but seemed at a loss as to how to restore power.

Forecasters and meteorologists are baffled at how they did not see Otis' catastrophic path coming.

The city was warned it would just be a tropical storm, but the usually-reliable computer models failed to predict its explosive intensification.

University of Miami hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy said: 'It's one thing to have a Category 5 hurricane make landfall somewhere when you're expecting it.

'But to have it happen when you're not expecting anything to happen is truly a nightmare.'

MIT atmospheric sciences professor and hurricane expert Kerry Emanuel said that 'the models completely blew it.'

McNoldy said there may be a mystery ingredient that scientists just don't know right now, but water is key.

The surface waters off the Mexican coast were warm but 'not crazy warm,' said University at Albany atmospheric scientist Kristen Corbosiero. Bennan and McNoldy said those waters were maybe 1 or 2 degrees above normal.

Below that, the water was much hotter than usual 'and there's just a ton of fuel out there right now,' McNoldy said.

Still, the storm didn't linger and feed on that, which would be expected in rapid intensification, Brennan added.

Jakob Sauczuk was staying with a group of friends at a beachfront hotel when Otis hit. 'We laid down on the floor, and some between beds.'

A looter carries goods stolen from a supermarket as residents deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Otis

Bottled drinking water was whipped off the shelves which appeared to have been raided

People were seen filling up bags and taking whatever was left, walking through puddles of water to access supplies

Locals used torches as a guide through the carnage that was left after Hurricane Otis lashed Acapulco

Once the fridges were cleared, people retreated to entering the storage freezer to take what they could

Destroyed goods were strewn across the floor of a store following the destructive weather event

A man collects groceries in a looted supermarket which appears to be in total disarray

People collect groceries in a looted supermarket as they desperately take supplies

People leave with goods after looting a local supermarket in the aftermath of Hurricane Otis

Pablo Navarro, an auto parts worker who was lodged in temporary accommodations at a beachfront hotel, thought he might die in his 13th story hotel room.

'I took shelter in the bathroom, and thankfully the door held,' said Navarro. 'But there were some room where the wind blew out the windows and the doors.'

It took nearly all day Wednesday for authorities to partially reopen the main highway connecting Acapulco to the state capital Chilpancingo and Mexico City.

The vital ground link allowed dozens of emergency vehicles, personnel and trucks carrying supplies to reach the battered port.

Acapulco is at the foot of steep mountains - where luxury homes and slums alike cover the hillsides with views of the Pacific Ocean.

Once drawing Hollywood stars for its nightlife, sport fishing and cliff diving shows, the port has in recent years fallen victim to competing organized crime groups that have sunk the city into violence.

This has in turn driven many international tourists to the Caribbean waters of Cancun and the Riviera Maya or beaches farther down the Pacific coast in the state of Oaxaca.

Lopez Obrador noted that Otis was a stronger hurricane than Pauline, which hit Acapulco in 1997, destroying swaths of the city and killing more than 300 people.
Hours later was spotted covering up Israeli hostage posters with stickers that advertised a school walkout she attended - and sported anti-Semitic signage

When asked if they would change anything about their statement that called the attacks 'necessary', Workman - who uses they/them pronouns - refused to budge

The NYU Law School student and student bar association president who lost a job offer for praising this month's Hamas attacks has doubled-down on her comments in a bombshell interview.

Ryna Workman - a 24-year-old who uses they/them pronouns - insisted they felt speaking out against Israel was a matter of standing up for 'Palestinian human rights,' even after facing fierce public outcry.

When asked if they would change anything about their statement to students that said the attacks 'necessary', Workman refused to budge, and hours later was spotted covering up Israeli hostage posters with stickers that advertised a school walkout.

They also declined to answer an inquiry about prospective feelings of sorrow for murdered Israelis - before reiterating how she still stands by her earlier pro-Hamas statements.

The next day, some 300 NYU students walked out of class for the same pro-Palestinian rally she had advertised, including Workman herself.

Scroll down for video:

Instead of walking back her comments, Ryna Workman - a 24-year-old who uses they/them pronouns - instead insisted they felt speaking out against Israel was a matter of standing up for 'Palestinian human rights'

When asked if they would change anything about their statement to students that said the attacks 'necessary', Workman refused to budge, and hours later was spotted covering up Israeli hostage posters with stickers that advertised a school walkout.

The next day, some 300 NYU students walked out of class for the same pro-Palestinian rally she had advertised, including Workman herself

Held in Washington Square Park, several protestors were seen sporting anti-Semitic signage - attracting attention from a pro-Israeli demonstration that gathered at the same time.

Less than a day earlier, Workman - who previously wrote that Israel bears 'full responsibility' for this months attacks - told ABC News that they would refuse to condemn Hamas.

'I will continue to speak up for Palestinian human rights and use whatever platform I have available to me to call for a ceasefire and end this occupation that's harming the Palestinians,' the non-binary law student said.

'I think what I use my platform for, and who I condemn was pretty clear by my message,' she added, after being asked whether she wanted to walk back her comments.

'I think I will continue to condemn apartheid and military occupation.'

Being interviewed by ABC News Live Prime anchor Linsey Davis, Workman was then asked if she would ever denounce Hamas for their actions, to which she said: 'I think what I use my platform for and who I condemn was pretty clear by my message.'

When questioned repeatedly if she or others should feel empathy for the more than 1,400 Israelis who have died, she deflected - saying instead: 'I will continue to use my voice to uplift the voices of Palestinians and the struggles they're going through.'

She, however, went on to add: 'I think whether or not my empathy goes to Israelis or to Palestinians is really not the question here.

'What the question is, is will we call for an end to this genocide and will we call for a cease fire?'

Just three days after the attacks by Hamas, Workman wrote a statement in the law school's student bar association's newsletter that laid blame for the current conflict entirely on Israel

The heated interview aired Tuesday evening - and shortly after Workman and another NYU law student were filmed obscuring posters of hostages in the Israel-Hamas war, before placing their own signs advertising a 'National Student Walkout' for Palestine

The footage, since circulated on X and Instagram, shows Workman in the same outfit that she appeared in while on-set at ABC's studio

The heated interview aired Tuesday evening - and shortly after Workman and another NYU law student were filmed obscuring posters of hostages in the Israel-Hamas war, before placing their own signs advertising a 'National Student Walkout' for Palestine.

The footage, since circulated on X and Instagram, shows Workman in the same outfit that she appeared in while on-set at ABC's studio.

At a point in the clip, the person filming the video confronts the two students, asking them to state their names for future viewers of the now viral snippet.

Workman, however, chooses to stay quiet, but continues to deface posters calling for the release of several Israeli children and seniors who are still being kept against their will by Hamas.

The next morning, as the signs had advertised, hundreds of students gathered for the protest specifically called for by Workman.

Dozens of Gen Z protesters were among the procession, seen waving pride flags and wearing kaffiyehs, demanding 'freedom for Palestine' - as well as a 'divestment' of Israel's 'genocidal regime'.

A woman who was recorded proudly displaying an overtly anti-Semitic sign suggesting the world needs to be 'cleaned' of Jews, while some students were heard shouting slurs, highlighting a concerning trend of hatred towards Jews in New York.

NYU spokesman John Beckman told DailyMail.com on Wednesday the school is was working to verify the identities of those sporting the anti-Semitic signage.

At the same protest, a young Jewish man was hounded by pro-Palestine supporters who refused to answer him when he asked whether they supported Hamas.

The next morning, as the signs had advertised, hundreds of students gathered for the protest specifically called for by Workman - including woman who was recorded proudly displaying a deeply anti-Semitic sign

'Your 9/11 is their 24/7' read another of the signs at the protest on Wednesday, which was attended by workman

The young female protester's sign also read 'f**k Israel'. She is yet to be identified

The school said it was working to verify the identity of the students with the offending signs

Another protester with the same sign at the protest in Manhattan on Wednesday

NYPD cops watch the protest in Washington Square Park on Wednesday

The students say they are demanding a 'divestment' of NYU funds from Israel

In the middle of the protest, a handful of young Jewish men sang and prayed in the face of the anti-Semitic signs

The young protesters screamed and chanted, and were led by Workman - who advertised the event on her social media.

Just three days after the attacks by Hamas, they wrote a statement in the law school's student bar association's newsletter that laid blame for the current conflict entirely on Israel.

The letter, which Workman signed as the president of the association, expressed full, undying support for the Palestinians.

It read: 'This week, I want to express, first and foremost, my unwavering and absolute solidarity with Palestinians in their resistance against oppression toward liberation and self-determination.

'Israel bears full responsibility for this tremendous loss of life,' Workman went on to write. 'This regime of state-sanctioned violence created the conditions that made resistance necessary.'

Immediately after, the Student Bar Association demanded that Workman be removed as its president - a process that will require multiple hearings to be completed.

Members also issued a statement saying that they did not 'write, approve, or see' any of Workman's message before it was sent, and that Workman's words did not represent the group's opinion.

Workman - who uses they/them pronouns - advertised the event on her social media

The non-binary pupil now faces being removed from her post as the SBA - as the group revealed 'multiple students' have received 'death threats' as a consequence of Workman's piece. (Pictured: NYU Student Services building)

Of Wednesday's walkout, Workman on Tuesday said: 'I think this walkout is an opportunity for students to find their voice again. 'And to feel the collective power that their voice has when they walk out not only with the students at their institution... but with students across the [US]'

The newsletter also saw Workman lose out on a job at Chicagos prestigious Winston & Strawn law firm, which rescinded a job offer for the student only hours after the letter went live.

NYU law also released a statement in the wake of Workman's letter - one that sought to make 'several things abundantly clear on behalf of the NYU Law Board of Trustees and our Law School as a whole.'

It added: 'We want to say, loud and clear, to our community: Any statement that does not recognize this brutality does not reflect the values of NYU Law.'

Of Wednesday's walkout, Workman on Tuesday said: 'I think this walkout is an opportunity for students to find their voice again.

'And to feel the collective power that their voice has when they walk out not only with the students at their institution like we'll be doing at NYU, but with students across the country.'

As of Thursday, Workman is still the head of the schools Student Bar Association.
The new Speaker insisted he didn't remember some comments

Louisiana Rep. said in 2004 there's 'no clear right to sodomy in the Constitution'

Newly-elected Speaker Mike Johnson has defended calling homosexual relationships 'inherently unnatural' and same-sex marriage 'the dark harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy' in his first sit-down interview.

The Louisiana Rep. was pressed on remarks he made 15 years ago, where he hinted that cross-dressing is a 'bizarre choice' that doesn't 'deserve protection' and that a same-sex union is a 'moral lapse' that could 'doom even the strongest Republic'.

Fox News' Sean Hannity asked about the 51-year-old lawmaker's work as the spokesman for Alliance Defense Fund, where he called homosexuality 'sinful destructive' and stated there was 'no clear right to sodomy in the Constitution.'

'Go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it  thats my worldview. Thats what I believe, so I do no apologize for it,' Johnson said.

He claimed he didn't remember some of his statements, and insisted: 'I also genuinely love all people regardless of their lifestyle choices. This is not about the people themselves. I am a Bible-believing Christian.'

Johnson was elected to lead the House majority on Wednesday, earning all 220 votes from Republicans on the floor. He has since been heavily scrutinized for his stance on abortion and same-sex marriage.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson sat down with Sean Hannity on Thursday for an interview at the Capitol

Johnson was asked to explain his previous comments on same-sex marriage. 'I wanna know exactly, you know, where you stand,' Hannity said

The father-of-four, pictured here with his family, worked as an attorney and spokesperson for the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian advocacy group

The 51-year-old Louisiana representative was elected on Wednesday, concluding a tumultous 22-day search for a new Speaker

In his defense, Johnson insisted that he was in an elected official tasked with upholding the defense of marriage.

'I was a litigator that was called upon to defend the state marriage amendments,' he said, describing how people in over 30 states went to the ballot to amend state constitutions in the early 2000s. 'I was a religious liberty defense and was called to defend those cases in the courts.'

While working for Alliance Defense Fund, Johnson authored his opposition to the Supreme Court ruling in Lawrence v. Texas, which overturned state laws that criminalized homosexual activity between consenting adults.

In September 2004, the lawmaker voiced his support of a Louisiana amendment banning same-sex marriage.

'Homosexual relationships are inherently unnatural and, the studies clearly show, are ultimately harmful and costly for everyone,' he wrote.

In another column from the same year, Johnson described same-sex marriage as a 'moral lapse,' adding: 'Experts project that homosexual marriage is the dark harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy that could doom even the strongest republic.'

His most recent comments came in a 2005 op-ed, where he stated: 'Your race, creed, and sex are what you are, while homosexuality and cross-dressing are things you do. This is a free country, but we don't give special protections for every person's bizarre choices.'

In the interview, Johnson explained that he was a 'religious liberty defense' who was called to defend cases in states that opposed gay marriage

The newly-elected speaker added: 'But I also genuinely love all people regardless of their lifestyle choices'

Johnson, pictured here with wife Kelly (left), entered Congress in 2017 and is serving his fourth term

Johnson was unanimously selected as Speaker after 22 days, thirteen failed candidates, four nominees and four floor votes.

The Louisiana Republican is a father-of-four who entered Congress in 2017 and is serving his fourth term.

Before dipping into politics, he was a partner at Kitchens Law Firm and a chief counsel for the nonprofit firm Freedom Guard.

Johnson described his legal career as focusing on 'defending religious freedom, the sanctity of human life, and biblical values, including the defense of traditional marriage, and other ideals like these when they've been under assault.'

From 2004 until 2012, Johnson served as a trustee of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.

Then, for one term, Johnson was a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives for the 8th district from 2015 to 2017.

He decided to run for Congress in 2016 to replace outgoing Republican Rep. John Fleming.

The Louisiana lawmaker is a staunch Trump supporter, having earned the former president's backing in his reelections since 2016 and attended multiple rallies.

He opposed the certification of the 2020 presidential election results and took the lead in filing a brief in a lawsuit that sought to overturn Biden's victory. The congressman was also a member of Trump's impeachment defense team.

Johnson is already in leadership in the House as Vice Chairman of the Republican Conference.

He serves as an Assistant Whip and is a member and former Chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee. Johnson also sits on the Judiciary and Armed Services Committees.

Following the Lewiston, Maine shooting that left at least 18 people dead, the new Speaker said: 'This is a this is a dark time in America. We have a lot of problems and we're really, really hopeful and prayerful. Prayer is appropriate at a time like this.

'So, that's the statement this morning on behalf of the entire House of Representatives. Everyone wants this to end, and I'll leave it there.'
Bruce Lehrmann has known for the past 11 months he could one day be unmasked as the 'high-profile Australian' accused of raping a woman three years ago in Toowoomba.

His lawyers told the Queensland Supreme Court that once his client's identity was revealed he would be at an increased risk of 'catastrophic' self-harm.

But even with that threat of exposure hanging over him, Lehrmann has appeared to have been able to at least sometimes get on with living a relatively normal life.

The former political staffer has given multiple media interviews - on television, online and in print - as well as returning to university to study law and working at a Tasmanian winery.

He has also been photographed dining at a popular Italian restaurant in Sydney's eastern suburbs and spotted drinking in city bars.

At the height of speculation about when the rape charges against Lehrmann would be revealed he took to Instagram to address speculation he would have a tilt at federal politics.

Bruce Lehrmann has known for the past 11 months he would eventually be unmasked as the 'high-profile Australian' accused of raping a woman three years ago. He is pictured in May in Sydney's eastern suburbs at Bondi Trattoria

Lehrmann was charged in December last year with two counts of rape alleged to have occurred in Toowoomba, west of Brisbane, in October 2021 but could not be named under Queensland law.

Until this month persons charged with sexual offences in that state were protected from being identified before they were committed for trial.

Police, lawyers and journalists around the country knew Lehrmann had been charged with rape but no one was allowed to report it.

The charges relate to a woman Lehrmann met in a nightclub a month after he pleaded not guilty to raping former colleague Brittany Higgins at Parliament House in March 2019.

Lehrmann, who has always denied having any sexual contact with Higgins, faced an ACT Supreme Court trial last year which was aborted in October due to juror misconduct.

In December 2, ACT Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold announced Lehrmann would not face a second trial amid concerns about Higgins' mental health.

The latest allegation against Lehrmann is that he twice had non-consensual sex with the Toowoomba woman the morning after he had protected intercourse with her.

Failing to wear a condom without a partner's consent is considered sexual assault under Queensland law.

Lehrmann has given multiple media interviews - on television, online and in print - as well as returning to university to study law and working at a winery in Tasmania (above)

Lehrmann was spotted in May helping an elderly woman with a walker up a flight of stairs

Lehrmann has not been required to enter a plea but denies the rape allegations. The 28-year-old's latest rape case was first listed at Toowoomba Magistrates Court on January 11 when he was represented by lawyer Rowan King.

On that occasion magistrate Kay Ryan demanded to know from King why Lehrmann had not appeared before her in person.

'He's been given a notice to appear, why is he not here?' Ryan asked.

King said his client was interstate but would be able to appear via telephone. Lehrmann's bail conditions including surrendering his passport.

The next day Daily Mail Australia revealed Lehrmann had commenced a new life picking grapes at a boutique Tasmanian winery.

Lehrmann, who had vanished from the public eye immediately after his trail was terminated, was located working on a nine-acre vineyard in the island's hinterland.

The former political staffer has been photographed dining at a popular Italian restaurant in Sydney's eastern suburbs and spotted drinking in city bars

At the height of speculation about when he would be revealed as the alleged rapist Lehrmann took to Instagram to address speculation he would have a tilt at federal politics

A photo uploaded to Facebook in March 2021, seven months before the Higgins trial began, showed Lehrmann smiling with a group who had just finished picking a batch of pinot.

Also keeping Lehrmann busy were defamation actions filed against three media outlets.

Lehrmann filed a suit against Network Ten in February over an interview Lisa Wilkinson conducted with Higgins in February 2021 on The Project.

At the same time he sued News Life Media over journalist Samantha Maiden's interview with Higgins, also published on news.com.au in February 2021.

Also in February author Andrew Urban told Sky News he had met with Lehrmann to talk about writing a tell-all biography.

In April, he commenced a case against the ABC over its broadcast of Higgins's address to the National Press Club in February 2022.

Lehrmann settled his case against News Life Media in May but his actions against Ten and the ABC will be heard in the Federal Court next month.

In March, he outlined his plans for the future in his first media interview, published just as he was finishing a criminal law examination.

'I'm hellbent on, you know, I don't want to stuff around being a solicitor,' Lehrmann told The Australian.

Also keeping Lehrmann busy were defamation actions filed against three media outlets. He is pictured outside the Federal Court in March

Lehrmann gave his first television interview to Liam Bartlett on Network Seven's Spotlight in June to tell his side of the Higgins story

'I want to get there to the Bar and be a barrister and help some of these people out there who have been done over the system.'

In May, Daily Mail Australia photographed Lehrmann at Bondi Trattoria just hours after Drumgold announced he was taking leave ahead of an inquiry into how the Higgins rape allegations were handled.

Lehrmann had ditched his standard dark suit for the lunchtime catch up with friend Harry Hughes in favour of a white dress shirt, jeans and sunglasses.

The pair settled in at a window table and appeared relaxed as they chatted and laughed over coffees.

Hughes, the nephew of former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, was later spotted chatting on his phone while Lehrmann helped an elderly woman with a walker up a flight of stairs.

Lehrmann sat down for his first television with Liam Bartlett on Network Seven's Spotlight in June to tell his side of the Higgins story.

'Let's light some fires,' he told the former 60 Minutes journalist.

Lehrmann has always denied having any sexual contact with former colleague Brittany Higgins (above). He faced an ACT Supreme Court trial last year which was aborted

Just hours before the program screened, Lehrmann had used his Instagram account to mark one year since he legal team for the trial was assembled.

In a post accompanied by the theme song of U.S. police drama series Law & Order, Lehrmann shared several pictures of himself walking alongside his lawyers.

'A year ago today a crack team of Defenders assembled to act for me,' he wrote.

'They did so with little preparation to take on Goliath. He felt their presence just quietly', he added alongside a love heart emoji.

He thanked barrister Steve Whybrow, who was assisted by junior counsel Katrina Musgrove, and made special mention of solicitor Rachel Fisher.

'Thank you to the Captain Steve Whybrow SC (but actually it was Rachel),' Lehrmann wrote.

A month later Lehrmann made time to hose down rumours he was considering standing as a Liberal candidate for the federal seat of Wentworth.

In August, Lehrmann appeared again on Spotlight after retired Queensland Supreme Court judge Walter Sofronoff's scathing review of how the Higgins trial was run led to Drumgold's resignation.

During a visit to Bondi in May, Lehrmann ditched his standard dark suit for the lunchtime catch up with friend Harry Hughes in favour of a white dress shirt, jeans and sunglasses

The morning after the program aired Lehramann spoke to Natalie Barr on Seven's Sunrise, and that night he joined Sharri Markson to again discuss how he was 'getting on' with life in a broadcast on Sky News.

Lehrmann's willingness to speak to the media did not help his cause when he appealed against a magistrate's order to revoke a non-publication order issued on the eve of Queensland's laws being changed.

Queensland Supreme Court judge Peter Applegarth ruled on Thursday that Lehrmann's media appearances this year were at odds with claims that coverage of the Toowoomba allegations could damage his mental health.

'A cynic might say: "I hope Channel Seven paid him, or his solicitors, a lot of money", for the consequences it had on his application, if nothing else,' Justice Applegarth said.

[Seven has previously denied Lehrmann was paid for his Spotlight interviews].

Lehrmann's willingness to speak to the media did not help his cause when he appealed against a magistrate's order to revoke a non-publication order on his name

Lehrmann's barrister Andrew Hoare had submitted if his client were to be identified he would be at an increased risk of 'catastrophic' self harm but Justice Applegarth rejected his application.

'Rather than lower his public profile and retreat from the media spotlight, the applicant chose for whatever reason to appear more than once on national television and revisit events that had triggered his mental illness in early 2021,' the judge found.

'He seemingly felt well enough to engage with sections of the national media, and to deal with any resulting further coverage he received from the media outlets he appeared on and other media that followed up on his high-profile appearances.'

Lehrmann has never had to run the gauntlet of cameras outside Toowoomba Magistrates Court because he was excused from appearing when his case was mentioned in February, April, May, June, July and August.
A man has been charged with the alleged murder of his 65-year-old partner in Australia's capital.

The 70-year-old man is accused of stabbing the woman to death in her home on Kinloch Circuit in Bruce, Canberra at 5:40pm on Monday.

He has been in Canberra Hospital since the discovery of her body under a police guard. The man suffered knife wounds to his wrists during the altercation.

The man appeared before the ACT Magistrates Court on Friday afternoon via audio-visual link from his hospital bed.

A man, 70, has been charged with murdering his partner, 65, in her Bruce, Canberra home on Monday

The man has been under police guard since the incident in Canberra Hospital after suffering wrist wounds

READ MORE: Twist in ACT cold case mystery Police made a major breakthrough in the horrific case of an elderly woman who was murdered in a home invasion almost a quarter century ago. Advertisement

When authorities arrived at the house on Monday they were unable to revive the woman who died at the scene from her wounds.

Acting Superintendent Mark Steel said that the couple's daughter reported the murder to police after discovering the body in the kitchen.

No one else was at hurt during the altercation.

Acting Supt Steel was unable to divulge the nature of their relationship but expressed his sympathies for their daughter.

'Obviously the family member suffered a great deal of trauma seeing the deceased family member at the scene,' acting Supt Steel told the Canberra Times.

The man was formally arrested on Friday and has yet to enter a plea.
A woman has been found guilty of murdering her ex-partner by having him fed to an industrial woodchipper in a heinous, 'almost Shakespearean' plot to claim his $750,000 life insurance and will.

Sharon Graham, 63, had pleaded not guilty being the 'architect' of the plot to kill Bruce Saunders, her 'on and off' lover, while he was clearing trees at a central Queensland property in November 2017.

However, a Supreme Court jury spent less than a day deliberating before returning a guilty verdict on Friday.

Mr Saunders, 54, died after being dragged through an industrial woodchipper at the Goomboorian property while clearing vegetation with two men, her then-partner Gregory Roser and Peter Koenig.

The court heard Sharon Graham stood to gain $750,000 from Bruce Saunders's life insurance policy and was the sole beneficiary of his will

Ms Graham had been romantically involved with all three men at different points, at the time dating Mr Roser.

Mr Saunders was hit on the head with an iron bar and his body fed into an industrial woodchipper to make it look like an accident, Brisbane Supreme Court was told.

All that was left of Mr Saunders was his legs, up to his thighs.

Koenig said he placed Mr Saunders on the chipper tray and used a stick to push the body in.

The next day Graham discussed Mr Saunders' will over coffee before sleeping in his bed with another man, the court heard.

Crown prosecutor Todd Fuller KC submitted Mr Saunders was 'worth more dead than alive' to Ms Graham as she was named the sole beneficiary of his will, including his car, house and savings.

Sharon Graham (left) has been found guilty of the murder of her ex partner, Bruce Saunders, who was fed to a woodchipper in 2017

She also stood to gain a $750,000 payout from his life insurance policy.

Peter Richards, Ms Graham's defence barrister, had submitted his client did not procure Mr Roser to commit the murder and maintained she believed it was an accident.

Graham is set to be sentenced after the jury reached a guilty verdict on Friday afternoon.
Two leaders of Australian neo-Nazi movement have remained defiant, blaming 'gay-Jewish-Communist' lies, as they walked free from court over a violent encounter.

Thomas Sewell, 30, and Jacob Hersant, 24, were spared jail in the County Court on Friday after pleading guilty to a charge of violent disorder each.

The two men, both dressed in navy suits, sat relaxed in the dock chatting casually before the hearing began as nine supporters entered the courtroom.

Thomas Sewell, 30, (left) and Jacob Hersant, 24, (right) avoided jail time over a violent attack on hikers in 2021

READ MORE: Nazis' brazen 2am protest A group of masked men and woman throwing banned Nazi salutes and carrying a banner reading 'Expose Jewish Power' have been captured on video terrifying other passengers on a Melbourne train. Advertisement

The court was told Sewell, then-leader of the European Australian Movement, and Hersant, who headed the National Socialist Network, were gathering with members of the organisations at the Cathedral Range State Park northeast of Melbourne on May 8, 2021, for a 'camping weekend'.

About 10 to 15 members of the group confronted a separate group of six friends who were staying nearby and chose to hike Mount Sugarloaf.

The court was told the incident began when one of the hikers filmed the men, many of whom were wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the Celtic cross - a known white supremacy symbol - after seeing an 'Australia for the white man' sticker on a nearby tree.

The group, including Sewell and Hersant, began kicking and punching a vehicle as the hikers attempted to leave - smashing windows and taking their mobile phones.

One of the victims later recounted a Stanley knife being thrust through the windows as he was ordered to 'give us your phones and get out of the car'.

Sewell (left) was sentenced to one month and seven days jail which was recognised as time served

They called triple-0 as they fled the area, telling police they were 'terrified by the violence' and feared being assaulted or killed.

Sentencing Sewell and Hersant, Judge Kellie Blair said while the offending was 'inherently serious', she agreed with their lawyers that it was spontaneous, not linked to their political views and the two men didn't instigate the 'pack mentality of violence'.

'The victims posed no danger or threat to your group,' she said.

'You were both active participants in the violent offending in that you both performed acts.'

Sewell, who had spent more than six months on remand after his arrest, was sentenced to one month and seven days jail recognised as time served.

Hersant, who had spent three days in custody, was sentenced to 200 hours of community service over the next 14 months.

'Good luck gentlemen,' Judge Blair said as she left the bench.

Sewell (centre) has been an active face in the Neo-Nazi community in Melbourne and was involved in a key protest which prompted the state government to ban the Nazi salute

Both Sewell and Hersant smiled and received congratulations from their supporters after Judge Blair left the courtroom.

Outside court both men remained defiant, with both yelling 'heil Hitler' and Sewell claiming the victims had fabricated parts of the story and attacked them first.

'We've been attacked on two occasions and on both occasions we were defending ourselves,' Sewell said, referencing his 2021 attack on a Channel 9 security guard.

'If it happens a third time, unfortunately we'll have to do it again.'

Both Sewell and Hersant blamed the attack on the victims, claiming they believed they were responding within the law to the hikers' alleged violence

He claimed he, and two 18-year-old members, were run over during the exchange, which he blamed on 'gay-Jewish-Communists'.

'They're anti-fascists, so they've got a political motivation to make false accusations,' Sewell said.

'People feel like they can attack us, we've got views against the mainstream and therefore they can do whatever they want to us,' Hersant added.

'Those people learnt on the day differently ... it's a complete lie and it's in the interest of the state to allow these lies to just be believed.'
The US military has revealed that a Chinese jet came dangerously close to a US bomber earlier this week over the South China Sea.

The revelation, offered by the US Indo-Pacific Command in a statement Thursday, comes as part of what American officials have described as increasingly risky behavior by Chinese military aircraft.

The US military blasted both the pilot and maneuver, saying that it unnecessarily put both pilots at risk - citing footage that shows the Chinese J-11 jet coming within 10 feet of the B-52 aircraft Tuesday.

Officials also said the U.S. Air Force B-52 had been lawfully conducting routine missions over international waters in the South China Sea when the Chinese jet identified approached 'at excessive speed.'

The People's Republic of China pilot then 'flew in an unsafe and unprofessional manner, demonstrated poor airmanship by... flying below, in front of, and within 10 feet of the B-52, putting both aircraft in danger of collision,' the statement said.

The US military has revealed that a Chinese jet came dangerously close to a US bomber over the South China Sea on Tuesday

The twin-engine J-11 jet fighter that is operated by the People's Republic of China (File photo)

The Chinese J-11 fighter jet came just feet away from colliding with a US B-52 bomber flying over the South China Sea, according to US military officials

'We are concerned this pilot was unaware of how close he came to causing a collision,' officials said - indicating the incident was likely an accident.

Earlier this month, the Pentagon said Chinese military aircraft have carried out maneuvers close to US planes nearly 200 times since 2021 - fueling already heightened tensions between Beijing and Washington.

Just last week, China's defense ministry shot back at those claims, insisting in a statement that the Pentagon's criticism of its aerial intercepts was a premeditated smear on China - one with ulterior political motives.

Relations between China and the United States have already been tense, and the recent close-calls have not helped.

The friction between the world's two largest economies - over everything from Taiwan and China's human rights record to its military activity in the South China Sea - has threatened to end the nations' tempestuous relationship altogether, and multiple wars currently raging overseas have added to the unrest

That said, Washington has still expressed a desire to revive military-to-military communications with China.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi began a long-anticipated visit to Washington Thursday, as the US and China seek to manage deep strategic differences and pave the way for an expected summit between President Joe Biden and his counterpart Xi Jinping.

Yesterday, during a dinner at the White House, Biden warned visiting Australian prime minister Anthony Anthony Albanese to be cautious trusting China - as Australia also seeks to repair relations with the communist nation.

There has been growing tensions between the United States and the Peoples Republic of China in the South China Sea area in recent years

The revelation, offered by the US Indo-Pacific Command in a statement Thursday, comes as part of what American officials have described as increasingly risky behavior by Chinese military aircraft

Officials also said the US Air Force B-52 had been lawfully conducting routine missions over international waters in the South China Sea when the Chinese jet identified approached 'at excessive speed'

Earlier this month, the Pentagon said Chinese military aircraft have carried out maneuvers close to US planes nearly 200 times since 2021

The President made the comments during Albanese's visit to Washington DC this week, days before the Prime Minister visits Beijing.

Biden was asked at a joint press conference with Albanese if he believed Australia should trust China given its history with economic sanctions, cyber-attacks, surveillance and human rights abuses.

'Trust but verify is the phrase,' the President responded.

'China is having their own internal and external difficulties right now.

'China's economic growth is stagnant compared to what it was. China has engaged in activities, that Russia and many others have engaged in, in terms of intimidation with other countries.'

Biden also warned China about its recent harassment of Philippine vessels in the South China Sea.

'Any attack on Filipino aircraft, vessels or armed forces will invoke our mutual defense treaty with the Philippines,' he said.

'I want to be very clear. The United States defense commitment to the Philippines is ironclad.'

In 2021, President Biden established a trilateral security alliance named AUKUS, involving Australia and Britain.

This partnership allows the United States to provide Australia with nuclear technology, which will be used to power traditionally armed Australian submarines.

President Biden said he was 'confident' Congress would fund AUKUS.

'It's overwhelmingly in our interest,' he said.'

'When...we put together the deal, I was asked by Xi Jinping were we just trying to surround China. I said, 'No, we're not surrounding China. We're just making sure that the sea lanes remain open.'

'He doesn't get to unilaterally be able to change the rules of the road in terms of what constitutes international airspace and water space, et cetera. And so, that's what this is all about.'

Earlier during the visit, Biden said China's leader had asked him why the US was 'working so hard' with Australia.

'I said, 'because we're a Pacific nation',' President Biden said.

'We are, and we're going to stay that way.'
Mining conference, exhibition opens in Tianjin

Xinhua) 10:47, October 27, 2023

Visitors look at models of mining equipment during the 25th China Mining Conference and Exhibition at Tianjin Meijiang Convention Center in north China's Tianjin Municipality, Oct. 26, 2023. The 25th China Mining Conference and Exhibition opened here on Thursday, attracting more than 260 exhibitors and approximately 5,000 visitors from nearly 30 countries and regions.

The three-day event, themed "Innovation promotes the high-quality development of mining," aims to promote mutual understanding and cooperation in the global mining industry. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue)

TIANJIN, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- The 25th China Mining Conference and Exhibition opened in north China's Tianjin Municipality on Thursday, attracting more than 260 exhibitors and approximately 5,000 visitors from nearly 30 countries and regions.

The three-day event, themed "Innovation promotes the high-quality development of mining," aims to promote mutual understanding and cooperation in the global mining industry.

Several sub-forums will take place during the event, with topics including mining equipment, green mine development and intelligent mining.

"We will share experience and opportunities with an open attitude, and promote interaction between industrial development and resource supply," said Wang Guanghua, China's minister of natural resources, adding that China is the world's largest producer, consumer and trader of mineral products.

Mining remains the bulwark of the African economy, contributing substantially to revenue and gross domestic product (GDP). Promoting the high-quality development of mining is of the utmost importance to spur Africa's economic development, according to Samuel A. Jinapor, the minister for lands and natural resources of Ghana.

"It is our hope that through this conference, the Sino-African relationship will be strengthened and that we will see an increased Chinese investment in the mining industry of Africa and, of course, my country, Ghana," the official said.

Guests attend the opening ceremony of the 25th China Mining Conference and Exhibition at Tianjin Meijiang Convention Center in north China's Tianjin Municipality, Oct. 26, 2023. The 25th China Mining Conference and Exhibition opened here on Thursday, attracting more than 260 exhibitors and approximately 5,000 visitors from nearly 30 countries and regions.

The three-day event, themed "Innovation promotes the high-quality development of mining," aims to promote mutual understanding and cooperation in the global mining industry. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue)

A visitor walks past models of mining equipment in sea area during the 25th China Mining Conference and Exhibition at Tianjin Meijiang Convention Center in north China's Tianjin Municipality, Oct. 26, 2023. The 25th China Mining Conference and Exhibition opened here on Thursday, attracting more than 260 exhibitors and approximately 5,000 visitors from nearly 30 countries and regions.

The three-day event, themed "Innovation promotes the high-quality development of mining," aims to promote mutual understanding and cooperation in the global mining industry. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue)

People visit the 25th China Mining Conference and Exhibition at Tianjin Meijiang Convention Center in north China's Tianjin Municipality, Oct. 26, 2023. The 25th China Mining Conference and Exhibition opened here on Thursday, attracting more than 260 exhibitors and approximately 5,000 visitors from nearly 30 countries and regions.

The three-day event, themed "Innovation promotes the high-quality development of mining," aims to promote mutual understanding and cooperation in the global mining industry. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue)

A staff member of an exhibitor talks with a visitor during the 25th China Mining Conference and Exhibition at Tianjin Meijiang Convention Center in north China's Tianjin Municipality, Oct. 26, 2023. The 25th China Mining Conference and Exhibition opened here on Thursday, attracting more than 260 exhibitors and approximately 5,000 visitors from nearly 30 countries and regions.

The three-day event, themed "Innovation promotes the high-quality development of mining," aims to promote mutual understanding and cooperation in the global mining industry. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue)

Visitors look at models of mining equipment during the 25th China Mining Conference and Exhibition at Tianjin Meijiang Convention Center in north China's Tianjin Municipality, Oct. 26, 2023. The 25th China Mining Conference and Exhibition opened here on Thursday, attracting more than 260 exhibitors and approximately 5,000 visitors from nearly 30 countries and regions.

The three-day event, themed "Innovation promotes the high-quality development of mining," aims to promote mutual understanding and cooperation in the global mining industry. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue)

This photo taken on Oct. 26, 2023 shows the opening ceremony of the 25th China Mining Conference and Exhibition at Tianjin Meijiang Convention Center in north China's Tianjin Municipality. The 25th China Mining Conference and Exhibition opened here on Thursday, attracting more than 260 exhibitors and approximately 5,000 visitors from nearly 30 countries and regions.

The three-day event, themed "Innovation promotes the high-quality development of mining," aims to promote mutual understanding and cooperation in the global mining industry. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue)

(Web editor: Tian Yi, Liang Jun)
A one-year-old boy who died from blunt force trauma did not have an official name at the time of his death.

Ruthless-Empire Souljah-Reign Rhind Shepherd Wall was just days away from turning two when he died after being taken to Hutt Hospital in Wellington, New Zealand, in an unresponsive state at 10.30am on Sunday.

A homicide investigation has now been launched.

The child, known as Ru, is understood to have had his name rejected by the Department of Internal Affairs, Stuff reported.

Authorities had been working with Ru's family to find a suitable alternative before his death. The child's birth had also not been registered.

Ruthless-Empire Souljah Reign Rhind Shepherd Wall (pictured) died on Sunday morning

The one-year-old's mother Storm Angel Wall is considered a person of interest

Ru will now be farewelled at a traditional funeral service in Taupo, around 270 kilometres south of Auckland on Saturday.

Police have revealed three people are now being considered persons of interest, including the child's mother Storm Angel Wall.

Another female relative and a male relative, not believed to be Ru's father, are also of interest to police. All three lived at the home at the time of the one-year-old's death.

Ru's mother previously claimed her baby choked during breakfast and that the family found a wet wipe in his mouth at their property in Poole Street, Taita.

NZ Police Detective Nick Pritchard told reporters on Thursday that the baby died from blunt force trauma.

'Police have no direct evidence that Ru ingested wet wipes,' he said.

'Some discarded wet wipes were found at the scene so I can't confirm whether he has ingested any or not but they were not a contributor to his death.

Ru's mother previously claimed her baby choked during breakfast and that the family found a wet wipe in his mouth at their property in Poole Street, Taita

'He was an innocent child. He should have been safe and loved and should not have died as he did.

'This level of violence towards a child is difficult to fathom'.

Ms Wall earlier described how she attempted to save the life of her son.

'I have tried with all will and power to respond to all helps to act for him but he is resting now in Wellington,' she wrote on Facebook.

Findings from a post-mortem examination showed the child sustained his injuries on Saturday around 10.30pm - 12 hours before he was taken to hospital.

Ru would have turned two on Thursday.

Investigations into the boys death are ongoing.
The Kremlin has spoken out about US airstrikes on two Iranian-controlled sites in eastern Syria saying it would further stoke rising tensions in the Middle East.

The Pentagon deployed a pair of F-16 fighter jets overnight to attack a weapons storage facility and an ammunition plant near Abu Kamal - both of which were allegedly run by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The strikes were not connected to the Israel-Hamas war, the Pentagon said, but they came just hours after Iran's Foreign Minister said the United States will 'not be spared from this fire' if Israel continues to attack Hamas - leading analysts to conclude the strikes were a blatant warning to Iran not to take advantage of the regional turmoil.

In the wake of the strikes, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov ruled out any risk of Russia being drawn into the conflict but said the strikes would further stoke tensions across the region.

'This is very bad,' he said.

Members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) force attend a rally marking the annual Quds Day, or Jerusalem Day in Tehran

F-16 fighter aircraft conducted strikes overnight on Iranian-held targets in Syria, the Pentagon said

Smoke and fire rise from buildings as people gather amid the destruction in the aftermath of an Israeli strike on Gaza City on October 26, 2023, as battles continue between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group

Israeli Merkava tanks are lined up during in a military drill near the border with Lebanon in the upper Galilee region of northern Israel on October 26, 2023, amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas in the Gaza Strip

A Hamas delegation was invited to Moscow on Thursday, despite strong Israeli criticism describing the decision as 'deplorable'.

Peskov defended their choice telling reporters: 'We consider it necessary to continue our contacts with all parties and, of course, we will continue our dialogue with Israel.'

Meanwhile, former White House Adviser Ben Rhodes, who worked closely with Barack Obama on Middle East policy during his terms in office, warned that the Middle East is now a 'tinderbox' that is waiting to be set alight.

'You're going to have a tinderbox where things are flaring up in different places - it might be Syria one day, it might be southern Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen,' he said.

There's a lot of risk here and a lot of capability across this region... if you continue to light this tinderbox on fire, it's going to catch.

Rhodes' warning comes after Tor Wennesland, the UN's Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, said any escalation of violence may instantly alter the trajectory of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for the worse and drag the entire Middle East with it.

'The events of the past days have served to reignite grievances and reanimate alliances across the region,' he told the UN Security Council last week.

'The risk of an expansion of this conflict is very, very real and extremely dangerous.'

And Jon Alterman, a senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said: 'If this starts going bad, it could go bad in a lot of places simultaneously and very quickly.'

In the wake of Hamas' ruthless surprise attack on Israel on October 7, which claimed the lives of 1400 people, Israel responded with full fury, launching an incessant bombing campaign in the Gaza Strip that in turn has killed thousands of Palestinians.

Almost three weeks on from the atrocities, Israel's Defence Forces (IDF) have massed tens of thousands of troops, tanks and heavy armour along the border with Gaza ahead of what threatens to be a full-scale ground assault - with some units having already conducted a series of limited incursions.

To Israel's northern border with Lebanon, Israeli units have engaged with militants from Iran-backed Hezbollah, who have also fired rockets at Israel's cities.

And in Yemen, Houthi rebels also began firing rockets of their own, forcing a US warship to blast the missiles out of the sky.

Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in have previously expressed support for the Palestinians and threatened Israel.

Now, a boots-on-the-ground invasion of Gaza looks imminent, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week vowing to press on with a ground assault.

Such an operation is sure to be extremely bloody, with leading military and defence analyst and RUSI Associate Fellow Sam Cranny-Evans, likening the potential conflict to scenes from the most bitter urban fighting amid the Iraq war.

'The tactics employed by the IDF will depend in part on the tactics used by al-Qassam (Hamas armed wing).

'It is likely that drones will be used to drop bombs on Israeli forces, and that improvised explosive devices (IEDs) will be deployed to slow them down. The IDF has experienced these technologies, but they do have the ability to inflict serious casualties,' he said.

But other analysts said a greater threat to Israel would come from elsewhere.

Israeli armored vehicles gathered at an undisclosed location near the border with Gaza, in Israel

Israeli soldiers listen to Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant as he meets them in a field near Israel's border with the Gaza Strip

Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in the Tal Al-Hawa neighbourhood in Gaza

People brandish rifles and Palestinian flags during a march to show solidarity with the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip

Firas Maksad, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute in the US, emphasised the potential consequences of a full-scale war with Lebanon, noting that it would turn Gaza 'into a sideshow.'

Maksad warned that Hezbollah's military capabilities far exceed those of Hamas, meaning Israeli forces would be in for a bitter fight to the north should the Lebanese based group choose to launch a full-scale attack.

In a recent analysis of the conflict in the Foreign Affairs journal, Senior Fellow at UCLA's International Relations department Dalia Dassa Kaye wrote: 'Missile barrages from Hezbollah could more easily overwhelm Israel's missile defenses than even the most potent strikes from Hamas.'

The spectre of such a conflict brings with it the prospect of unprecedented levels of destruction and bloodshed which could far surpass all previous wars in Israel's history.

Maksad's concern comes as Hamas' top representative in Lebanon, Ahmed Abdul-Hadi, told POLITICO that Hezbollah will not stand for an Israeli ground attack on Gaza.

'Hezbollah will pay no attention to threats from anyone against it entering the war; it will ignore warnings to stay out of it. The timing of when Hezbollah wants to enter the war or not will relate to Israeli escalation and incidents on the ground, and especially if Israel tries to enter Gaza on the ground,' he said.

Tensions with Iran add another layer of complexity to the already volatile situation.

The Islamic Republic, led by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his hardline President Ebrahim Raisi, has long been opposed to Israel's existence, viewing it as illegitimate.

Israel, in turn, perceives Iran as a security threat due to its support for groups like Hezbollah and Hamas, and its nuclear ambitions.

A picture taken from the southern Israeli city of Sderot on October 20, 2023, shows smoke ascending over the northern Gaza Strip following an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas

Palestinians search the destroyed annex of the Greek Orthodox Saint Porphyrius Church, the oldest church still in use in Gaza, damaged in a strike on Gaza City on October 20, 2023

People set a US and an Israeli flag on fire during a march to show solidarity with the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip on October 18, 2023, in the Houthi-controlled Yemeni capital Sanaa

Following a blast at Gaza al-Ahli hospital on Tuesday night, which sparked a furious blame game between Israel and Palestinian militant groups, Iran's foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian travelled to Saudi Arabia - a remarkable show of unity between two former sworn enemies, particularly given that Israel and the Kingdom were working towards normalising their relations.

While there, Amir-Abdollahian issued a stark warning to Israel, with the foreign minister tweeting: 'After the terrible crime of the Zionist regime in the bombing and massacre of more than a thousand innocent women and children in the hospital, the time has come for the global unity of humanity against this fake regime more hated than ISIS and its killing machine. Time is OVER.'

Other parties have attempted to quell the tensions, with US President Joe Biden declaring there was 'no clear evidence' that Iran helped Hamas plan its October attacks, despite being the Palestinian group's main financial backer.

Dassa Kaye remains hopeful that interested parties could help mediate tensions between Israel and Iran, arguing that the Biden administration is 'reaching out to Iran with the help of regional partners... to avoid miscalculation and unwanted military escalation.'

But she added a stark warning for what may happen with respect to Iran if the violence in Israel and Gaza cannot be contained.

'More skirmishes between Israel and Iran, not to mention a full-scale war, could destabilize the region, disrupt global markets, cause massive harm to civilians, draw in U.S. forces, and perhaps even prompt Iran to weaponize its nuclear capabilities.'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sought to warn his foes not 'to test us' in the north, while the IDF threatened to 'destroy' Lebanon if the terror group joined the war.

'Don't test us in the north. Don't make the mistake of the past. Today, the price you will pay will be far heavier,' Netanyahu threatened Hezbollah and Iran, referring to Israel's 2006 war with terror group.

But it remains to be seen whether his warning will be heeded.

Head of Hezbollah's Executive Council Sayyed Hashem Safieddine addresses a protest organized by Hezbollah in solidarity with the Palestinian people

Iranian protestors set fire to the American and Israeli flags as they take part in a protest in support of Palestinians in Gaza

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi speaks during the protest against the bombing of Gaza's Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital at Palestine Square in Tehran, Iran on October 18, 2023

A woman waves a Palestinian and a Hezbollah flag during a protest in Tehran in support of Palestinians in Gaza

As the conflict rolls on and the death tolls mount, the Abraham Accords, which have fostered the normalisation of relations between Israel and other Arab nations, face a severe test.

The bombing campaign in Gaza has prompted condemnation from several Arab nations, putting strains on the diplomatic progress achieved through the accords.

If the conflict continues to escalate, the fragile web of newfound regional cooperation could unravel.

Now, world leaders are converging on the region for crisis talks, recognising the urgent need for diplomatic intervention.

Egypt, which shares a border with both Gaza and Israel, is a key player in the region, and is hosting a slew of leaders and delegates seeking to expedite a peace process while Egyptian NGOs and UN aid agencies ready to deliver aid to southern Gaza via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.

European Council President Charles Michel will visit Egypt on Saturday where he will call for support for the country, which borders the war-torn Gaza Strip, he said Thursday.

'Egypt needs support, so let's support Egypt,' said Michel, who is in Washington to attend a summit with US President Joe Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Friday.

He added that he would meet Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi during his weekend visit.

In addition, Michel will attend at Sisi's invitation a 'conference on the current developments in the Middle East, Palestine and the Peace Process,' said his spokesperson, Ecaterina Casinge.

Accompanying Michel to Egypt will be Josep Borrell, the EU's foreign policy chief, Casinge said.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is also heading to Egypt today after meeting with the Emir of Qatar in Saudi Arabia.

Qatar is seen as a key mediator in the battle, with Doha using its ties to the Palestinian militant group to negotiate for the release of about 200 hostages taken during the deadly assault on Israel.

During discussions with Qatari ruler Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani in Riyadh, No 10 said the pair 'underlined the imperative of avoiding any escalation in the violence across the region', agreeing that 'leaders had a responsibility to do everything possible to prevent it'.

A spokesman said Mr Sunak thanked Qatar for their efforts to secure the release of hostages, including at least two British nationals who are known to be among those being held captive.

The No 10 spokesman added: 'He said the UK Government would use all the tools at our disposal to support these efforts and end the torment of the victims and their families.

'The leaders agreed to stay in close contact to continue these efforts.'

The two leaders also welcomed humanitarian aid being opened up to Gaza, agreeing on the 'urgent need to get food, water and medicine to civilians who are suffering'.

Downing Street said the Prime Minister would hold further meetings with counterparts from the region in Egypt.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has also been in the region, visiting Egypt, Qatar and Turkey with a mission to 'secure the release of British hostages, stop the violence spreading to the region (and) ensure emergency aid can get into Gaza'.
Hamas have set up their main base beneath Gaza's biggest hospital, Israel claims, as it announced it expects 'a long and difficult ground offensive' will begin soon.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said there is 'concrete evidence' to suggest Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City is a Hamas base of operations.

Its spokesperson Daniel Hagari said that 'hundreds of terrorists flooded into the hospital to hide there after the massacre of October 7'.

He said it is 'one of many' hospitals that the terrorists are operating inside and under, adding that they chose it to 'exploit innocent Gazan civilians as human shields'. He also noted that Hamas is using fuel stored in these facilities to carry out its operations.

He added: 'Hamas's use of hospitals is systematic. Precisely because they know Israel distinguishes between civilians and terrorists.'

When asked how it would alter the IDF's mission if hostages were being held in the hospitals being used by Hamas, Hagari said: 'Israel has got clear targets for the operation in Gaza. Our aim is to achieve both of our targets, to defeat Hamas and to bring our babies, our women, our elderly, our men back home. And we will do that.'

A smoke plume ascending following Israeli bombardment over the northern Gaza Strip near Israel's southern city of Sderot on October 27, 2023

Palestinians wounded are brought to receive medical care at Al-Shifa Hospital after Israeli airstrike on El_Nasan building in Gaza City, on October 27, 2023

IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari has said there is 'concrete evidence' to suggest Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City is a Hamas base of operations

He highlighted buildings that Hamas is using for 'command and control', including launching rockets.

In the news conference, Hagari showed photographs, diagrams and audio recordings that he said illustrated how Hamas was using the hospital system and Al-Shifa hospital in particular to hide a variety of command posts and entry points into the extensive tunnel network under Gaza.

He played a recording that the IDF claim is a call between two Gazans in which they are heard saying that the hospital is being used for this purpose.

In the recording speaker A says: 'Now they have plans of all of the underground tunnels. When they blow up a university or when they blow up a hospital or a mosque or a school.'

Speaker B replies: 'They know all of this.'

Speaker A then adds: 'Under them are headquarters. So... where are the main headquarters of the Al-Qassam Brigades?'

Speaker B says that they do not know.

Speaker A then says: 'Under the (hospital) compound Al-Shifa.'

Speaker B replies: 'God forbid, are you serious?'

Speaker A says: 'Yes, the leadership headquarters are under the Al-Shifa compound... bathrooms, rooms, headquarters, all under the main compound.'

Hamas official Ezzat El-Reshiq, a member of the movement's political bureau, said on Telegram: 'There is no basis in truth to what was reported by the enemy army spokesman,' accusing Israel of spreading lies as 'a prelude to committing a new massacre against our people'.

Israel's defence minister said on Friday that it expects to launch a ground offensive into Gaza soon that will be long and difficult, and aims to destroy a vast network of tunnels used by the territory's Hamas rulers.

Yoav Gallant spoke to a small group of foreign reporters after Israeli forces backed by fighter jets and drones carried out a second ground raid into Gaza in as many days, striking the outskirts of Gaza City.

He said the ground invasion would include large forces, backed by airstrikes, and 'will take a long time,' without elaborating. He said it would be followed by a third phase of lower-intensity fighting, as Israel destroys 'pockets of resistance'.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated earlier this week that Israel was 'preparing for a ground offensive'.

Israel has carried out a fresh incursion into Gaza, targeting Hamas terrorists, military command centres and missile launch sites.

The Israeli army said on Friday its ground forces backed by fighter jets and drones carried out a 'targeted raid' in Gaza over the past day, as it prepares for a land invasion.

Smoke and fire rise from a levelled building as people gather amid the destruction in the aftermath of an Israeli strike on Gaza City on October 26, 2023

Smoke and fire rise from buildings as people gather amid the destruction in the aftermath of an Israeli strike on Gaza City on October 26, 2023

A colleague of Palestinian nurse Haniyeh Qudih, who was killed in an Israeli strike, mourns next to her body in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, on October 27, 2023

It comes after EU leaders demanded 'humanitarian corridors and pauses' in Israel's war against Hamas, urging aid access for civilians trapped in besieged Gaza, where the United Nations says 'nowhere is safe'.

'During the last day, IDF ground forces, accompanied by IDF fighter jets and UAVs, conducted an additional targeted raid in the central Gaza Strip,' an army statement said.

'The IDF identified and struck numerous terror targets, including anti-tank missile launch sites, military command and control centres, as well as Hamas terrorists,' it said, adding that troops 'exited the area at the end of the activity'.

Black-and-white footage released by the military showed a column of armoured vehicles as a thick cloud of dust billowed into the sky after the strikes.

The army conducted a similar ground operation using tanks and infantry the previous night in the northern part of the Palestinian territory.

Rockets also struck Tel Aviv this afternoon, with a residential building taking a direct hit.

Hamas's Al-Qasam Brigades have taken responsibility for the rocket barrage.

Three people were injured, medical services said, including a 20-year-old man who suffered a moderately serious head injury.

On October 7, throngs of Hamas gunmen poured from Gaza into Israel, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 224 more, according to Israeli officials.

In retaliatory Israeli air and artillery strikes, at least 7,326 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip, including 3,083 children, according to figures released by the Hamas-controlled health ministry.

Images released on Friday show wounded children, bandaged and coated in dust, being treated at Al-Shifa hospital following Israeli airstrikes.

The fatalities in Gaza are the highest there since Israel unilaterally withdrew from the Palestinian territory in 2005.

EU leaders have demanded 'humanitarian corridors and pauses' in Israel's war against Hamas, urging aid access for civilians trapped in besieged Gaza.

Israel has carried out relentless strikes on the territory since Hamas gunmen stormed across the border on October 7 in the deadliest attack since Israel's creation.

Late on Thursday, EU leaders called for 'continued, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access and aid to reach those in need through all necessary measures including humanitarian corridors and pauses for humanitarian needs'.

Just 74 trucks of food, water and medicine have been permitted to enter Gaza, home to 2.4 million people, since the conflict began - a figure described by aid groups as vastly insufficient.

Before the conflict, around 500 trucks entered daily, according to the United Nations.

Palestinians could be seen queuing up at a water station on Friday, with some arriving by donkey-drawn carts.

Israel has cut its supply of food, water and power to Gaza and insisted no fuel can be imported as it could be used by Hamas.

The resulting shortages have forced 12 of the territory's 35 hospitals to close, and the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA says it has started to 'significantly reduce its operations'.

'Without fuel, there will be no humanitarian response, no aid reaching people in need, no electricity for hospitals, no access to clean water, and no availability of bread,' UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini said.

Medics from the International Committee of the Red Cross entered Gaza on Friday for the first time since the outbreak of war, a spokeswoman for the organisation said.

Six medical staff passed through Gaza's Rafah border crossing with Egypt, alongside four other ICRC specialists and six aid trucks.

The organisation's regional director, Fabrizio Carboni, said the convoy was 'a small dose of relief, but it's not enough'.

'Our surgical team and medical supplies will help relieve the extreme pressure on Gaza's doctors and nurses. But safe, sustained humanitarian access is urgently needed,' he said in a statement.

'This humanitarian catastrophe is deepening by the hour,' Carboni added.

Black-and-white footage released by the military showed a column of armoured vehicles

Explosion from a 'targeted raid' in northern Gaza as seen in footage released by the Israeli army

The video also showed a building being targeted

An explosion in the path of the crosshairs can be seen in dramatic footage

Smoke rises as the Israeli attacks continue on the 21st day in Gaza City on October 27, 2023

Palestinians wounded are brought to receive medical care at Al-Shifa Hospital after Israeli airstrike on El_Nasan building in Gaza City, on October 27, 2023

Palestinians wounded are brought to receive medical care at Al-Shifa Hospital after Israeli airstrike on El_Nasan building in Gaza City, on October 27, 2023

An injured man sits in front of a smouldering building in the aftermath of an Israeli strike on Gaza City on October 26, 2023

An Israeli air force F-15 fighter tactical fighter aircraft flies along the border with the Gaza Strip near Sderot in southern Israel on October 27, 2023

Israeli Merkava tanks are lined up during in a military drill near the border with Lebanon in the upper Galilee region of northern Israel on October 26, 2023

Israeli firefighters and rescuers stand on the roof as they access the damage to a partially destroyed building following a rocket attack from the Palestinian Gaza Strip, on the Israeli city of Tel Aviv on October 27, 2023

Smoke rises from a residential apartment building after a rocket, fired from the Gaza Strip towards Israel, landed in Tel Aviv, Israel, on October 27, 2023

Israel has defended its operations, with staunch backing from allies including Washington, and demanded Hamas release the 224 foreign and Israeli hostages it seized on October 7.

The fate of the hostages remains a complicating factor for Israel's planned ground operation, with little information on their well-being.

Hamas's armed wing said on Thursday that 'almost 50' Israeli hostages had been killed in Israeli bombing raids.

Four hostages have been released, but for relatives of those left behind, the anguish continues.

'Our lives stopped,' said Moran Betzer Tayar, of the day her nephew and his wife were abducted.

She told a press conference in France she was 'worried sick' and desperate to keep the fate of the hostages in the public eye.

Rights groups and international organisations have demanded the immediate release of hostages, who include women and children.

Inside Gaza, the punishing strikes have left people 'with nothing but impossible choices', the UN's humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory said on Thursday.

'Nowhere is safe in Gaza,' Lynn Hastings said in a statement.

Palestinians inspect the damage of destroyed buildings following Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City, on October 27, 2023

Palestinians inspect the damage of destroyed buildings following Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City, on October 27, 2023

Remains of a destroyed mosque in seen following Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City, Friday, Oct. 27, 2023

Palestinians gather to collect water from a truck at a United Nations-run school where displaced Palestinians shelter, as the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas continues, in central Gaza Strip, on October 27, 2023

Palestinians with animal-drawn carts collect water from a water desalination plant, amid water shortages in central Gaza Strip on October 27, 2023

Palestinians, who have fled their homes due to Israeli strikes, watch a nearby Israeli strike as they take shelter in a UN-run school, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, on October 27, 2023

Black smoke raise from Eastern Gaza City, on October 26, 2023 following Israeli airstrikes

Smoke and fire rise from buildings as rescuers gather amid the destruction in the aftermath of an Israeli strike on Gaza City on October 26, 2023

Israel has repeatedly urged civilians in northern Gaza to move south for their safety, but strikes have also hit southern areas and evacuation routes, Hastings said.

Around 45 per cent of all housing in Gaza has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN, which cited local authorities, and satellite images show vast swathes of destruction.

Rahma Saqallah fled south with her family, heeding Israeli warnings. But after strikes killed her husband and three of her children, she was heading back home.

'Wherever we go, we will die,' she told AFP, as she prepared to leave the southern city of Khan Yunis to return to Gaza City with her surviving child.

'They told us to leave for the south and then they killed us (here).'

Hamas on Thursday released a list of almost 7,000 names of people it said had been killed in Israeli strikes, after US President Joe Biden cast doubt on the toll from the territory.

The list of 6,747 names gave the age, sex and identity card number of each victim, adding that 281 bodies had not yet been identified. Another 1,600 people, including 900 children, are missing and may be under rubble, according to the UN, which cited local authorities.

The war's surging death toll is by far the highest since Israel unilaterally withdrew from the coastal territory in 2005 - a period that has seen four previous Gaza wars.

The situation has been exacerbated by dire medical shortages, with operations now carried out without anesthetic and ice-cream trucks turned into makeshift morgues.

An Israeli army M109 155mm self-propelled howitzer is deployed at a position along the border with the Gaza Strip near Sderot in southern Israel on October 27, 2023

Israeli soldiers patrol along the border with southern Gaza, in Israel, on October 26, 2023

There are fears that the toll will grow exponentially if Israel launches a ground operation that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says is being prepared.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday called for a 'humanitarian truce' in the conflict between Hamas and Israel to ensure the protection of civilians in the Gaza Strip.

Recognising Israel's 'right' to 'fight against terrorism', Macron pointed to 'the complete blockade, the indiscriminate bombardment and even more the prospect of a massive ground operation' as risks for civilians.

Israeli troops entered northern Gaza on Wednesday for a 'targeted raid' that came in 'preparation for the next stages of combat', the military said.

But Israel faces growing calls, including from allies, to ensure its response does not cause increasing civilian casualties.

'Israel has to do everything in its power, as difficult as it is, to protect innocent civilians,' Biden said this week.

An expansion of fighting on the ground also risks a wider regional conflagration, with Iran's foreign minister warning US officials and military.

'We do not welcome the expansion and scope of the war in the region,' Hossein Amir-Abdollah said at the UN.

'But I warn if the genocide in Gaza continues, they will not be spared from this fire.'

American and allied forces in Iraq and Syria have been attacked at least 16 times this month, according to the Pentagon, which blamed Iranian-backed groups.

Biden sent a rare 'direct message' to Iran's supreme leader warning against further escalations, according to White House spokesman John Kirby.

'My warning to the Ayatollah was that if they continue to move against those troops, we will respond, and he should be prepared. It has nothing to do with Israel,' Biden said.

Exchanges of fire across the Israel-Lebanon border have prompted the evacuation of tens of thousands of people on either side.

And five people were wounded after a rocket fired in the conflict hit an Egyptian border town on Thursday, Egyptian media reported.

On Friday, hundreds of Palestinians demonstrated in the streets of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, where some expressed support for Hamas amid Israel's ongoing war against the terrorist group based in Gaza.

The crowd chanted slogans including: 'liberate Gaza' and 'the people want the Al-Qassam Brigades' in reference to Hamas's armed wing. Others waved Hamas flags along with banners representing a range of Palestinian movements.

Fakhi Barghouti, 80, said Palestinians in the West Bank 'need to do more about the war in Gaza'.

The demonstration came just hours after Israeli forces killed at least four Palestinians during a dawn raid in the north of the occupied West Bank, with Hamas members among the dead.
Nigel Farage lashed out today after a 'whitewash' report ruled that NatWest did not break the law when it shut down his account with establishment bank Coutts.

An independent review of the actions of NatWest Group ruled that while there were 'serious failings' in the way he was 'debanked', it was mainly a commercial decision.

The former Ukip and Brexit Party leader, now a television presenter, was dropped in June by private bank Coutts, which is used by aristocrats and royalty and is owned by NatWest. He said it was over his Right-wing views.

It led to the resignation of NatWest chief executive Dame Alison Rose after she admitted breaching privacy rules by briefing a BBC reporter about his account.

NatWest apologised again to Mr Farage this morning after the review by law firm Travers Smith found failings but said NatWest's decision was lawful and predominately commercial.

In a statement, Mr Farage, who works for GB News, said: 'Travers Smith has taken a very mealy-mouthed approach to this complex issue. The law firm argues that my political views 'not aligning with those of the bank' was not in itself a political decision. This is laughable.

An independent review of the actions by NatWest Group ruled that while there were 'serious failings' in the way he was 'debanked', it was mainly a commercial decision

The furore led to the resignation of NatWest chief executive Dame Alison Rose after she admitted breaching privacy rules by briefing a BBC reporter about Mr Farage's account

Mr Farage said earlier this year that Coutts had moved to shut down his account because his political beliefs did not align with those of the bank.

Travers Smith found failures in how the bank treated confidential information, but insisted the decision to shut down Mr Farage's account did not break the law.

It said Coutts decided its relationship with Mr Farage was commercially unviable because it was significantly loss-making.

NatWest chairman Sir Howard Davies said: 'This report sets out a number of serious failings in the treatment of Mr Farage.

'Although Travers Smith confirm the lawful basis for the exit decision, the findings set out clear shortcomings in how it was reached as well as failures in how we communicated with him and in relation to client confidentiality.

'We apologise once again to Mr Farage for how he has been treated.

'His experience fell short of the standards that any customer should expect.'

The report is the first stage of a probe that was commissioned by the NatWest board in July.

The City regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, said the report 'has highlighted potential regulatory breaches and a number of areas for improvement'.

Last night, Britain's information watchdog ruled that Dame Alison breached Mr Farage's privacy rights.

The Information Commissioner's Office said the disclosure of details of his account to a journalist had been 'unacceptable', but that it had decided no further regulatory action after she quit.

The former chief executive had admitted a 'serious error of judgment' by discussing with a BBC journalist Mr Farage's relationship with Coutts.

The ruling comes at a sensitive time for NatWest, which is due to announce its quarterly results on Friday.

It followed calls for staff members to be suspended after several posted messages mocking Mr Farage, including one who said they wanted to throw a milkshake at him.

In a statement, Dame Alison said the report 'confirms everything I told the Board in July was correct'.

'Both Travers Smith and the Information Commissioner's Office have concluded that I inadvertently confirmed what had already been widely reported, that Mr Farage held an account at Coutts. The ICO also concluded the ''impact around this specific disclosure was minimal'',' she added.

'Travers Smith is clear that ''there was no leak of specific detailed financial information''. Travers Smith also confirmed I knew nothing about the comments made by Coutts staff about Mr Farage, which were deeply unpleasant and unfair.'
Some of the victims were participating in their weekly cornhole tournament

Maine gunman Robert Card might have been targeting his deaf friends at the second location of his shooting rampage on Wednesday night.

Card, who spent time in a mental facility this summer and whose family say is 'schizophrenic', is still at large after bursting into a bowling alley and a bar in the small city of Lewiston with an AR-15-style rifle on Wednesday night, killing at least 18 people and injuring 13 more.

First, he slaughtered seven people at the Just-in-Time bowling alley.

He then drove four miles to the Schemengee's Bar, where the deaf cornhole tournament was underway.

There, he killed another eight people, including at least four deaf men. Another three people later died in the hospital from injuries.

In the months before the shooting, Card had been prescribed a hearing aid, which he claimed allowed him to hear people criticizing him at Schemengee's Bar where he carried out his second shooting.

Card, a US Army reserve soldier, launched the initial attack at a bowling alley (pictured) at around 6.56pm then struck again at bar and restaurant four miles away just 12 minutes later

Deaf community member Bryan MacFarlane (pictured), 40, was shot dead by Card in Schemengees

Deaf community activist Joshua Seal, pictured alongside his wife Elisabeth, was also killed

Deaf Steve Vozzella, who was killed at the bar in the massacre, is pictured last June playing in cornhole tournament in Maine

Bill Brackett (pictured) was confirmed dead by his father, William, who said he was at a deaf cornhole game

The 40-year-old, from Bowdon, Maine, first opened fire at the Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley just before 7pm, killing seven.

The gunman then entered Schemengees Bar & Grille, where he killed eight more. Three others died in hospital.

His family say they believe he was targeting his ex who he believed may have been at the bowling alley, and had left a suicide note for his son which included bank account details.

At the time of the horrific attack, the bar was hosting a cornhole tournament for the 'tight-knit' deaf community, which Card actively competed in. The group were playing as they usually do every Wednesday night.

The local community is reeling after it was confirmed that Bryan MacFarlane, Steven Vozzella, Bill Brackett and Joshua Seal were among the deaf people killed at Schemengees.

In an interview with The Daily Beast, Card's sister-in-law said that the suspect had been claiming that through the hearing aids he could hear people 'bashing' him.

She added that Card had been struggling with his mental health throughout the past year.

'He truly believed he was hearing people say things. This all just happened within the last few months,' Katie Card said Thursday.

She also said that Card would 'get mad' when people tried to convince him that nobody was talking about him.

'I have known Rob my whole life. He is quiet but the most loving, hardworking, and kind person that I know.

But in the past year, he had an acute episode of mental health, and it's been a struggle,' she added.

Card at a cornhole tournament in October last year. He was a cornhole enthusiast who friends say had become convinced people were 'bashing him'

The manhunt for Card continues today with an alert for the Canadian border

The American Deaf Cornhole organization confirmed its members were among those killed

Katie Card said that when she first heard about the shooting, she hoped that her brother-in-law had nothing to do with it.

'We know he is out there and he is a good person in his heart. After all of this, when he has time to reflect, he will be disgusted. We all want him to know that we love him and that we can handle things as a family. He just has to reach out and do the right thing,' she continued.

Among those killed was well-known American Sign Language interpreter Joshua Seal, 40.

'He was also a wonderful boss, an incredible interpreter, a great friend, a loving son, brother, uncle, and grandson,' Seal's wife, Elizabeth, wrote in a heartbreaking Facebook post.

'He loved his family and always put them first. That is what he will always be remembered for.'

Seal, who was deaf himself, was the program director of the Pine Tree Society, an interpreting service. His social media was filled with calls for interpreters and he often spread awareness about the importance of sign language.

Robert Card, 40, had recently been prescribed two hearing aids that his sister-in-law says led him to believe others were 'bashing him'

Ron Morin (pictured left) and Arthur Strout, right, were gunned down by Card at the bar too

Bar manager Joseph Walker (left) and Peyton Brewer-Ross (right), 40, were the other two who died at the bar

Law enforcement officers, right, stand near armored and tactical vehicles, center, near a property on Meadow Road, in Bowdoin, Maine, on Thursday night

The body of a victim in the Maine massacre shooting which killed at least 18 people has been wheeled out of the bar targeted by the gunman

He was also a father-of-four who 'always loved spending time with them, traveling, going for a day trip to the beach, or going camping for the weekend,' his wife said.

'My heart is shattered into a million pieces for our Deaf community,' wrote Krissey Taplin Richardson in a tribute.

Family members of Bill Brackett and Steven Vozzella confirmed to ABC News that they were part of a gathering of deaf people playing cornhole when they were killed.

Vozzella's wife Megan told USA Today that the cornhole tournament had 10 players, which means almost half the men attending were gunned down.

MacFarlane's sister, Keri Brooks, told CNN the group gathered at the bar every Wednesday and that she was proud her brother was able to be a truck driver despite being born deaf.

Also confirmed to have died at Schemengees were bar manager Joseph Walker, Peyton Brewer-Ross, Ron Morin and Arthur Strout.

FBI agents staged a dramatic raid on a family property on Thursday night but Card, 40, remains on the run - as experts warned that the 40-year-old deer hunter and Army reservist was well equipped to survive in the wild, and could even be planning a new attack.

It now emerges he left behind his cell phone, to avoid detection, ABC News reported.

And his online search history contained conspiracy theories, plus showed fears about a financial crisis and plunge in the stock market; LGBTQ+ issues; gun rights and commentary about Democratic public officials, including President Joe Biden, ABC News said.

Card was last seen on Wednesday night fleeing the second of two locations in Lewiston. His abandoned car was found just before 10pm in the town of Lisbon, seven miles from Lewiston.

Since then over 350 state and federal law enforcement officials have been scouring the area for Card, backed by helicopters, drones, and dogs.

The 40-year-old is an Army Reservist stationed out of the city of Saco

A series of four loud bangs were heard on Thursday evening near this Bowdoin, Maine home connected to Robert Card

The Card family home in Bowdoin is pictured above. It is the suspect's last known address

Card lived in the small town of Bowdoin, close to homes owned by his parents and his brother and sister-in-law.

One neighbor told The Messenger that the Card family's arrangement was 'basically a compound', and he and his relatives were all 'gun-toting enthusiasts'.

'They would shoot guns all the time, you could hear them every day after school. It was like clockwork,' said Liam Kent.

He said he once saw Card 'covered in blood with a gun on his back, a giant grin on his face' after going deer hunting.

Marko Galbreath, a former Florida police sergeant and SWAT team member, told DailyMail.com that Card could have traveled anywhere - and the whole country must be vigilant.

'He could still be in that area, planning to have a shootout with police, planning to commit suicide, planning to commit another attack. Or, you know what, he could be in Texas right now. We have no idea.

'If he planned it out well enough, he could very well be far from that area right now,' said Galbreath, who provides active shooter response training through his company T4Tactics.

'We need to tell the entire country that until this guy is captured, we need to use due diligence.'

He added: 'He could have shaved, he could have put on a wig, he may change his appearance. He he may not look like what people think he looks like, so we need to really watch.'

Galbreath added that Card's military training would have also provided a survival 'skillset and mindset' which would have taught how to 'live in an environment that's not comfortable'.

Card is believed to have joined the military reserve in 2002.

A bulletin sent to police across the country after the attack said Card had been committed to a mental health facility for two weeks this past summer after 'hearing voices and threats to shoot up' a military base.

A US official said Card was training with the Army Reserve's 3rd Battalion, 304th Infantry Regiment in West Point, New York, when commanders became concerned about him.

Galbreath said Card's history of mental illness meant he could have taken his own life somewhere secluded to 'keep the fear going' among the public.

Robert Carlson, a law enforcement officer and firearms instructor who founded the Brave Defender Training Group in Memphis, told DailyMail.com that Card's military history means he has 'the same, if not even a possibly higher level of, training and experience as the responding officers'.

'It does most significantly add an increased level of danger when you have somebody that has some sort of level of training or familiarity with tactics and weapons,' he said.

Carlson said it is important law enforcement provide information so that 'that the public is aware of not only their risk, but also so that they can aid law enforcement in attempting to identify or spot that individual'.

The search has included forests, waterways and small towns around the rural areas in Maine where the shootings took place.

Schools, doctor's offices and grocery stores closed and people stayed behind locked doors in cities as far away as 50 miles from the scenes of the shootings.

On Thursday evening at 7:20pm, FBI agents were heard using a bullhorn outside a house and saying: 'Come out with your hands up.'

It was unclear who they were talking to, if anyone.

Card, his parents and his brother and sister-in-law all live in the area.

The police began withdrawing at 8:42pm, and by 9pm the final convoy - among them Maryland State Police - exited the scene. A helicopter, from New Hampshire State Police, also left.

The FBI on Thursday night were shining a light on this window, on the upper floor of a home believed to belong to either Card's parents or brother and sister-in-law

The agents, using a bullhorn, had told a person to come towards them, and asked if anyone else was inside. Helicopters were overhead, and drones.

Connor Clemente, a reporter with local news channel WMTWTV, said he heard the FBI ordering Card himself to come out of the house.

He tweeted that he heard: 'Robert Card, you're under arrest. We know you're inside, come out with your hands up, we don't want anyone to get hurt.'

Maine state police said that the orders to 'come out with your hands up' were 'standard', and refused to comment on who was inside.

'The announcements that are being heard over a loud speaker are standard search warrant announcements when executing a warrant to ensure the safety of all involved,' said Shannon Moss, a spokesman for Maine state police.

Timeline of Lewiston shooting 6:56pm Weds - gunfire reported at the Just in Time bowling alley in Lewiston. 7:08pm Weds - gunfire reported at Schemengee's bar. 8:06pm Weds - police release a photo of the gunman. 9:56pm Weds - police in Lisbon, seven miles from Lewiston, tell Lewiston police they have found the suspect's abandoned car near a boat dock. - police in Lisbon, seven miles from Lewiston, tell Lewiston police they have found the suspect's abandoned car near a boat dock. 11pm Weds - Robert Card, 40, named by police as a 'person of interest'. 5pm Thurs - police arrive at Meadow Lane, Bowdoin, where Card's parents and brother live in neighboring houses. They leave at 6:18pm. 7:15pm Thurs - police return to Meadow Lane and use a bullhorn to tell someone to 'come out with your hands up'. 8:42pm Thurs - many of the police vehicles drive away from the scene. Advertisement

'It is unknown whether Robert Card is in any of the homes law enforcement will search.

'Law enforcement officials are simply doing their due diligence by tracking down every lead in an effort to locate and apprehend Card.'

Card has been on the run since murdering 18 people on Wednesday night in Lewiston, 15 miles from his Bowdoin home.

It emerged on Thursday he may have been searching for his ex at the bowling alley and bar where he opened fire.

And police sources told ABC News that he left a suicide note addressed to his son.

The note did not give a motive for the mass shooting, the sources said.

Shannon Moss, a spokesman for Maine state police, said that the activity at the Bowdoin property was 'part of the investigation', and said no gunshots were fired.

'Law enforcement is at a home in Bowdoin as part of the investigation into the Lewiston shootings and the search for Robert Card,' she said.

'When it's appropriate to do so additional information will be released.'

She added: 'It's a tactical operation.'

Card's sister told law enforcement officials the Army reserve firearms instructor could have targeted Schemengees Bar and Grille and Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley in Lewiston in the hope of finding his ex, ABC reported.

Court documents show his ex-wife filed for divorce in 2007 and they were granted joint custody of their child - though it's unclear whether she is his most recent ex.

Card is still on the run and considered armed and dangerous after he carried out the year's deadliest shooting at around 7pm on Wednesday. It's feared he may have fled on a boat he owns.

Ryan Koroknay, a spokesman for the Coast Guard, said a response boat crew has been dispatched from Boothbay Harbor, and a fixed wing plane from Cape Cod is also assisting with search efforts.

A Maryland TAC team walk out out of a field after law enforcement surrounded a property in Bowdoin, Maine, believed to be connected to Lewiston shooting suspect Robert Card

An armored vehicle is seen leaving the property connected to the Card family on Thursday night

Card owns a 12-foot Sea Doo Jet Ski and previously registered a 15-foot Bayliner boat, The Sun Journal reported.

Koroknay would not say whether the Coast Guard was looking for any particular vessel.

Opening fire with an AR-15-style rifle, the gunman killed at least 18 people while injuring 13 more before fleeing.

As the multi-agency search for the armed fugitive enters its 22nd hour, cops have also uncovered a cryptic note at his Bowdoin home.

An aerial view of law enforcement personnel at the Schemengees Bar & Grille Restaurant after deadly mass shootings in Lewiston, Maine

Four law enforcement sources told NBC New York that police are poring over the meaning of the letter.

Card was training with his unit in the Army Reserve's 3rd Battalion, 304th Infantry Regiment at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in New York in July, when his military commanders said they observed him acting erratically.

In an updated statement, a U.S. Army spokesperson said Card was not trained as a firearms instructor, as police had originally reported.

He said Card's unit did train at West Point this summer, but no records indicate that Card participated in that training.

Card was taken to the Keller Army Community Hospital to be evaluated, according to the AP report.

A police bulletin sent to law enforcement said he had been in a mental health facility for two weeks this summer and that he had reported 'hearing voices and threats to shoot up' the military base.

No information was provided about Card's treatment or diagnosis.
Sadiq Khan launched a direct challenge to Labour leader Keir Starmer's authority today as he backed demands for a full ceasefire in Gaza.

The London mayor became the most high profile figure to back calls for a complete break in fighting between Israel and Hamas that has claimed thousands of lives since the Palestinian terrorists' brutal raid.

Sir Keir has joined Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is calling for a 'humanitarian pause' in fighting but has also backed Israeli's right to defend itself and retrieve hostages taken by Hamas.

It has sparked a full-scale Labour battle, with a quarter of his MPs joining Mr Khan in calling for an end to fighting to let aid into the besieged enclave.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar this afternoon added his weight to the call with his own ceasefire demand.

Last night it was revealed MPs have been offered increased security after facing direct threats from constituents who have labelled them 'traitors' and 'backstabbers'.

But the leadership and Sir Keir's other allies are resisting pressure to alter their position, despite claims it is costing the party Muslim votes.

In a video posted online this morning the London mayor said: 'Thousands of innocent civilians have already been killed in Israel and Gaza. With the humanitarian crisis set to deteriorate even further, Im calling for a ceasefire.'

The Labour leader has only gone so far as to call for 'humanitarian pauses' to allow aid into the besieged territory

The London mayor became the most high profile figure to back calls for a complete break in fighting between Israel and Hamas that has claimed thousands of lives since the Palestinian terrorists' brutal raid.

Shadow environment secretary Steve Reed today said that while the only long-term solution to the crisis was political, rather than military, Israel had the right to take action.

Parents and children bring teddy bears and other soft toys representing children killed in Gaza, to the gates of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in London at a protest organised by Parents for Palestine calling for the UK government to withdraw its support for Israel.

At least one shadow minister has been accosted at home by a constituent demanding answers over Labour's refusal to call for a ceasefire, The Times reported.

Leftwing figures have also been circulating claims that the row could cost the party seats with large Muslim communities.

But shadow environment secretary Steve Reed today said that while the only long-term solution to the crisis was political, rather than military, Israel had the right to take action.

'What I would say to colleagues is if this attack that Israel suffered had been on the UK, if it had been on the US, our state, the United States and our state would have sought to defend ourselves to protect our citizens by dismantling the capability of a terrorist organisation that carried it out,' he told Sky News.

'That applies to Israel too, they have the right under international law to do that.'

Meanwhile former Labour shadow minister Lord Walney told the Jewish Chronicle: 'Now, when the issue is standing with Israel against the most grotesque anti-Semitic butchery imaginable, it would be inexcusable for anyone in Labour to use the threat of ''losing Muslim votes'' to pressure Sir Keir Starmer to change his position.'

What did Keir say in his LBC radio interview? Labour's row over the Middle East crisis has centred on Sir Keir Starmer's comments in a radio interview with LBC's Nick Ferrari on October 11. Sir Keir appeared to suggest Israel had the right to besiege Gaza by cutting off power and water to the territory. But the Labour leader has since sought to clarify his position and said he has never backed Israel's right to cut off supplies. Here's what was said in the LBC interview: Ferrari: 'Sir Keir Starmer, what is a proportionate response in your view?' Sir Keir: 'I think the first thing I have to say is responsibility lies with Hamas. 'This is coldblooded murder of men, women, even children. It is terrorism, and Israel has the right to defend herself. 'And there are ongoing situations with hostages, and Israel has the right to do everything that it can to get those hostages back safe and sound. 'And therefore Im very clear, Israel must have that, does have that right to defend herself. And Hamas bears responsibility.' Ferrari: ' A siege is appropriate? Cutting off power, cutting off water, Sir Keir?' Sir Keir: 'I think that Israel does have that right, it is an ongoing situation  obviously, everything should be done within international law but I dont want to step away from the sort of core principles that Israel has a right to defend herself and Hamas bears responsibility for these terrorist acts. 'And I would call on all responsible states, particularly Middle East responsible states, to call this out for what it is, and to stand with the world in condemning, utterly condemning, these actions by Hamas.' Advertisement

Frontbenchers say there is a 'real fear' that a 'lone wolf' could be pushed over the edge by the continuing tensions and commit an act of terror.

Yesterday the party's chief whip, Alan Campbell, wrote to MPs acknowledging the 'heightened security concerns', adding: 'I know this has been a very difficult period for colleagues and we appreciate the pressure that you are under as a leader in your community.'

A separate email from John Cryer, the party's chairman for security and wellbeing, said MPs' local police forces should be in contact to discuss heightened security.

More than four Labour frontbenchers are now on resignation watch amid fears the party could reach 'breaking point' over Sir Keir Starmer's stance on Gaza.

Pressure has continued to build on the Labour leader to shift his position on the conflict, holding crisis talks with Muslim MPs on Wednesday amid reports that some were considering resigning.

Shadow faith minister Sarah Owen is among the Labour frontbenchers said to be on resignation watch. Her Luton North constituency has a large Muslim population.

It is feared by senior Labour figures that shadow Cabinet Office minister Rachel Hopkins, who represents neighbouring Luton South, might also jump ship.

Yesterday shadow minister Imran Hussain became the first frontbencher to sign a motion demanding an immediate ceasefire and an 'end to the total siege of Gaza'.

The Early Day Motion is now signed by 39 Labour MPs, while a further six have publicly called for a ceasefire.

Bradford East MP Mr Hussain lined up alongside 38 other Labour MPs who are backing the parliamentary motion calling for 'an immediate de-escalation and cessation of hostilities' in the Palestinian territory.

The 45-year-old, who backed Jeremy Corbyn to become Labour leader in 2015, last night posted on social media from a meeting with the Palestinian ambassador, Husam Zumlot, in Parliament.

Mr Hussain was elected in Bradford East in 2015, having been beaten in neighbouring Bradford West in a 2012 by-election by George Galloway.

He nominated Mr Corbyn to become leader and was later shadow minister for justice and for international development in his Cabinet.

Last night he tweeted a picture from a meeting with Mr Zumlot, writing: This is the #Gaza update we received from the Palestinian Ambassador Husam Zumlot this evening.

'Over 6,000 Palestinians killed. Disease spreading through contaminated water. Incubators on the brink of shutting off.'

That followed an attack on Foreign Secretary in a Commons debate on Tuesday, when he said: 'Since I raised this question with the Prime Minister last week, indiscriminate airstrikes and a total siege blocking food, water and medical supplies have killed thousands of innocent Palestinian men and women and more than 1,000 children.

'Let us be absolutely clear in this House: this is now beyond a humanitarian catastrophe. Even as we stand here today, innocent blood continues to be spilt on the streets of Gaza, and mosques, churches, schools, hospitals, bakeries, water plants and homes continue to be flattened by the Israeli military.

'I have a very simple question for the Foreign Secretary. Just what will it take? How many thousands of innocent Palestinians must be slaughtered before this Government condemn the brutality and bloodshed?'

The Labour leader has only gone so far as to call for 'humanitarian pauses' to allow aid into the besieged territory (Pictured: Pro-Palestinian protesters march through London)

Last night a voting sentiment survey showed Labour support among Muslim voters dropping from 71 per cent at the 2019 election to just five per cent currently

The Early Day Motion is now signed by 39 Labour MPs, while a further six have publicly called for a ceasefire.

The Labour leader has only gone so far as to call for 'humanitarian pauses' to allow aid into the besieged territory. Scores of his own backbenchers are now 'fuming' over his unwillingness to listen.

However, the divisions within the party could be greater than previously thought, with more than just four frontbenchers said to be considering their future. A senior Labour figure told the Mail: 'There are a lot more than four frontbenchers on resignation watch after this. It's not just the ones reported.

'Keir can't be complacent because he's won a few by-elections. It's become really tough in our constituencies - this is proving bigger than the Iraq War response.'

'People are p****d off and really upset  most MPs feel like they got nothing from the meeting when they saw the statement after.

'They're asking why, after the Government have followed Labour on policy for everything else, are we now copying whatever Rishi says on Gaza,' a source familiar with discussions said last night.

'There will be a breaking point soon enough. And once one person goes, others will follow like dominoes.'

More than 250 councillors have written to Sir Keir to urge him to back a ceasefire, while frontbencher Yasmin Qureshi defied the leadership by asking Mr Sunak if he would back the policy during Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday.

Last night a voting sentiment survey showed Labour support among Muslim voters dropping from 71 per cent at the 2019 election to just five per cent currently.
A 'JEALOUS' husband who stabbed his university lecturer wife to death with a kitchen knife in their home after wrongly suspecting she was cheating on him has been found guilty of murder.

Ertan Ersoy, 51, stabbed Dr Antonella Castelvedere 'many times, causing 15 areas of sharp force injury' to her face, neck, upper chest and to both hands, prosecutor Christopher Paxton KC said.

The defendant had suspected his wife was cheating on him, Chelmsford Crown Court was told, and he had previously placed a listening device in their home in Colchester, Essex.

The listening device 'proved no such thing' about Ersoy's suspicions that his wife was being unfaithful, the barrister said.

Mr Paxton had told Ersoy's trial: 'In short and simple terms, we the prosecution say it was this defendant's anger, jealousy and his failings that led to him killing his wife.'

Ertan Ersoy denied his wife's murder but was found guilty following a trial, Essex Police said

University lecturer Dr Antonella Castelvedere who died at her home in Colchester, Essex

Dr Castelvedere, 52, a lecturer at the University of Suffolk who led an MA course in English and creative writing, was found dead on the kitchen floor of their home on June 1 last year.

Mr Paxton said Ersoy, also a lecturer and teaching fellow, had called emergency services and went out into the street and called for help after stabbing his wife.

Ersoy denied his wife's murder but was found guilty following a trial, Essex Police said.

He had pleaded guilty to manslaughter and claimed in his defence he was suffering from an abnormality of mental functioning at the time, but this was rejected by jurors.

In a statement released through police, the family of Dr Castelvedere expressed their thanks for the 'respect shown towards Antonella'.

They said this was 'respect that Antonella did not have from her husband'.

They also thanked 'all the people involved and the delicacy with which they communicated to us the developments of this tragic story', adding: 'Respect is important for those who remain.'

Dr Castelvedere, 52, a lecturer at the University of Suffolk who led an MA course in English and creative writing, was found dead on the kitchen floor of their home on June 1 last year

Emergency services on the scene in Colchester in June, 2022

Police at the scene after Dr Castelvedere, 52, was found dead on the kitchen floor

Detective Chief Inspector Ant Alcock, of the Kent and Essex serious crime directorate, said afterwards: 'Ertan Ersoy is a clever, manipulative and calculated man, but his defence was based on a lie which was found out.

'He claimed he had an abnormality of mental functioning that substantially affected his judgment and self-control, this abnormality was described by experts as mild to moderate depression which the jury did not agree was sufficient to reduce his conviction to manslaughter.

'He was a man who sought to control his wife's life and that ultimately culminated in a cruel and brutal attack in June last year.

'As an investigation team, we are very aware that no verdict will ever bring Antonella back but we hope that the jury's decision will be of some comfort to them.'

Ersoy is due to be sentenced at Chelmsford Crown Court on Friday.
A billboard for a flooring shop in South-East England featuring a woman in heels has been taken down after a sexual assault charity accused it of 'perpetuating the culture of rape'.

Garage Floors Direct in Manningtree, Essex, put up an advert showing a woman kneeling in a 'tiny dress and high heels' in a garage, captioned with the slogan: 'It's so easy to lay.'

It prompted the charity Suffolk Rape Crisis to write an open letter to the shop and poster company Billboard Media demanding that the 'sexualised' advert be taken down, claiming it fuelled 'the perpetuation of violence' towards women.

The poster was removed less than 24 hours later, with bosses at the shop saying they acted 'as soon as we were made aware of it causing offence'.

It had been posted on the Whitehouse roundabout in Ipswich, next to adverts for the Wyvernwood family theme park in Alresford and Ipswich School.

The poster for Garage Floors Direct showed a woman in a dress and heels and was captioned: 'It's so easy to lay'

It was posted next to billboards for the Wyvernwood family theme park and a public school

Suffolk Rape Crisis published an open letter to the shop and poster firm Billboard Media, accusing the ad of 'perpetuating the culture of rape'

In its open letter to the shop, Suffolk Rape Crisis suggested that its advert carried a double-entendre that played 'into archaic stereotypes that perpetuate the culture of rape'.

The letter read: 'We have some questions...what's easy to lay? The sexualised woman in a tiny dress and high heels? Or is the floor so easy to lay, even a woman could do it?

'We'd be very interested to know what the strategy behind this advertising campaign is, what standards have been applied to approve this advert and what Wyvernwood and Ipswich School would think being placed next to such [an] advertisement.

'Adverts like yours affect how women feel about themselves, how women are treated by the police and the justice system and by wider society.

'This advert is playing into archaic stereotypes that perpetuate the culture of rape.

'Your advert supports the idea that women's bodies are commodities to be used.

'Although we understand that your intent may have been light-hearted, it is crucial to emphasise that these seemingly harmless acts of discrimination against women fuel the acceptance of their mistreatment and the perpetuation of violence towards them.'

It concluded: 'Take it down.'

Suffolk Rape Crisis shared images of the billboard on X, formerly Twitter, at 2pm on Wednesday. Less than a day later, at 11am on Thursday, the advert had been pulled.

The charity added: 'We're super happy to share that the billboard has now been removed.'

In a statement given to BBC News, Garage Floors Direct said: 'We have had the billboard removed as a matter of urgency as soon as we were made aware of it causing offence.'

MailOnline has contacted Billboard Media for comment.

The news came as social media users debated older adverts that deployed allegedly sexist marketing tactics.

TikTok users recently discussed whether adverts for the Yorkie chocolate bar, which used the slogan 'It's Not For Girls', would be made in 2023 after first airing 20 years ago.
Ioan Gruffudd's ex-wife Alice Evans vowed today to 'tell her truth' amid a bitter court battle with the actor over their daughters.

The warring Hollywood stars are locked in an acrimonious battle for custody over their young children Ella and Elsie after Gruffudd left Evans in 2021 after 14 years of marriage.

In August, a Los Angeles judge granted the Fantastic Four actor's request for the appointment of a child psychiatrist to referee the increasingly bitter battles over the two girls, aged 13 and nine.

102 Dalmatians star Evans had vehemently opposed the move, claiming that it was unnecessary and that Gruffudd had not seen or called his daughters in almost three months.

Now, in an Instagram post which shows Elsie playing in a swimming pool, Evans vowed to reveal all about what she claimed had been a campaign of harassment.

She wrote: 'Posting this moment of joy (which I share with my kids every single day) because I am about to tell my truth about the harassment I have been on the receiving end of for two years now. I cannot sit here and be maligned and lied about on a permanent basis.'

The couple divorced this year, but the issues of spousal and child support as well as child custody still need to be resolved.

Alice Evans and Ioan Gruffudd pictured in 2001 during happier times

Evans posted on Instagram saying she was about to 'tell her truth'

The actress uploaded an Instagram video showing one of her daughters playing with a lilo

Fantastic Four star Ioan Gruffudd won a court victory in August against his ex-wife in their bitter tug of war over custody of their two young daughters

It follows the judge's ruling, which came after Gruffudd filed a new 34-page written document - found by DailyMail.com - in which he blasted Evans, accusing her of calling daughter Ella a 'f***ing b****' and telling the teen she 'would be getting a new father soon'.

Evans has denied all her ex's 'abuse' allegations.

In a declaration to the court, Gruffudd described Evans's latest statements opposing the evaluator and criticising him as 'false or grossly misleading'.

He said: 'Circumstances with our daughters Ella and Elsie, and my relationship with them are not as Alice describes.

'Alice has stated in her own words in multiple postings on social media that I have been trying to get at least 50/50 custody of Ella and Elsie and that she does not want this and/or is actively working to preventing it.

'I believe it is imperative that a specific evaluator be appointed at the hearing on August 17 in order to avoid further and potentially significant delays in getting this important process started.'

Gruffudd pointed out that although 'Alice argues that no child custody evaluation is necessary,' the girls' court-appointed attorney and their most recent therapist both support appointing an evaluator.

And he added the therapist wrote: 'I feel that it would be in the best interest of your daughters for Elsie to continue psychotherapy with me and Ella to be evaluated by a child psychiatrist.'

Gruffudd expressed concern that Evans has taken Elsie out of the school she'd been in since kindergarten and placed her in a new one, defying a court order preventing her changing the kids' schools without his agreement. 'I did not agree,' he said.

Talking again about the 'serious emotional harm' he believes Evans is inflicting on their daughters, Gruffudd went on, 'Alice regularly berated, verbally abused and threatened me during our marriage and after separation, often in the presence of Ella and/or Elsie.

Alice Evans with their two daughters, Ella and Elsie, with whom she says she shares joyful moments every day

Gruffudd has been dating Bianca Wallace since his separation from Evans in 2021

'Among other things, Alice told me she had been miserable for years and wanted a divorce, attacked my appearance and my career, threatened to call the police on me and told Ella she would be getting a new father soon.

'I believe it was unhealthy and distressing to the girls to witness this behavior and I believe Alice's conduct was abusive not only to me, but to the girls as well.'

Gruffudd - now with 31-year-old girlfriend Bianca Wallace - recounted an incident on Ella's 11th birthday when 'Elsie sent me a video of Ella arguing with Alice. Ella said she was upset because Alice had broken her promise not to drink alcohol and she begged Alice to stop bringing me up in every conversation.

'Alice screamed at Ella and called her a "f***ing b***h" and Ella screamed at Alice, "Just be a mother!".'

He added, '(Alice) has made thousands of disparaging, abusive and threatening posts about me since we separated.'

Evans has denied all his 'abuse' allegations and has not responded - so far - to Judge Freeman Stinn's latest ruling against her.

Gruffudd - who met Evans when they co-starred in the 2000 Disney movie, 101 Dalmatians - filed for divorce in March 2021, shortly after the blonde actress claimed on social media that her husband of 14 years was walking out on her and their two daughters.

MailOnline has contacted representatives for Evans and Gruffudd for comment.
Witnesses to the murder of John Lennon will speak about the incident for the first time in a new documentary about the night he was killed.

The Beatles legend was shot dead at the age of 40 by unhinged fan Mark Chapman outside his home in New York City in 1980.

A new documentary on the murder by Apple TV+ titled 'John Lennon: Murder Without a Trial' will reveal previously unseen crime scene photographs that shed light on the death.

Some of Lennon's closest friends will provide their accounts and it will feature the first on-screen interview with one of Chapman's defence lawyers.

The police officers who were first to the scene of the killing, the medics who tried to save Lennon and the detective who investigated the murder will also feature.

John Lennon was shot dead at the age of 40 by unhinged fan Mark Chapman outside his home in New York City in 1980

Mark David Chapman, the man who shot and killed John Lennon outside his Manhattan apartment building in 1980

A crowd gathered outside the building Lennon lived in after he was shot dead in 1980

Producers secured access to the New York City police department, the Board of Parole and the district attorney's office documents for the three part documentary, expected to air later this year.

It will aim to explore the effect Lennon's had across society. The series is produced by 72 Films and narrated by Kiefer Sutherland. MailOnline has contacted Apple TV+ for comment.

It comes after Sir Paul McCartney told how he would have been wracked with guilt if he had not repaired his friendship with Lennon before he was murdered.

John left The Beatles in 1969 and he had become embroiled in legal battles over the band's back catalogue which caused tension between him and his former song-writing partner Sir Paul, now 81.

John Lennon during a press conference in New York on May 13, 1968

They got their friendship back on track in the mid 1970s and Sir Paul spent time at the home John shared in New York with his second wife Yoko Ono.

But Sir Paul admits he would have been devastated if he had not had the chance to repair the cracks in his relationship with John before he was killed.

Sir Paul said on the McCartney: A Life in Lyrics podcast: 'In the end it was something I was very glad of, when he got murdered, that I'd had some really good times with him before that happened.

'It would have been the worst thing in the world had he just been killed and we still had a bad relationship. That would have been a big guilt trip for me.

'Luckily, we were friendly, we talked about how to bake bread.

'You've got to remember I sued him in court, I sued his friends from Liverpool, life-long friends, in court. There's a lot of getting over that has to be done.'

The man who gunned down Lennon outside his New York City apartment building in 1980 told a parole board that he knew it was wrong to kill the beloved former Beatle, but that he was seeking fame and had 'evil in my heart.'

Chapman made the comments to a board that denied him parole for a twelfth time, citing his 'selfish disregard for human life of global consequence'.

Chapman, in a transcript released by state officials in 2022, said the decision to kill Lennon was: 'My big answer to everything. I wasn't going to be a nobody, anymore.'

'I am not going to blame anything else or anybody else for bringing me there,' Chapman told the board.

'I knew what I was doing, and I knew it was evil, I knew it was wrong, but I wanted the fame so much that I was willing to give everything and take a human life.'

Chapman killed Lennon on the night of December 8, 1980, as he and Yoko Ono were returning to their Upper West Side apartment.

Earlier that day, Lennon had signed an autograph for Chapman on a copy of his recently released album, 'Double Fantasy.'

Chapman told the board: 'This was evil in my heart. I wanted to be somebody and nothing was going to stop that.'
A couple who were exiled from their local wine society by 'nimby' neighbours are being forced to sell their 1.5million home to pay the 150,000 legal bill they racked up while battling them in court.

Yoga teacher Emma McGuinness, 41, and her catering boss husband Terence McGuinness, 45, will have to pay the 'life-changing' sum following a planning dispute that divided their 47-house enclave of The Ridgeway in Oxshott, Surrey.

The couple locked horns with neighbours living around their sprawling four-bedroom home, Birch Mead, after they announced plans to demolish it to make way for two new houses. They planned to live in one, and the other was for Mrs McGuinness' poorly fathe.

But they claimed they were 'shunned and ostracised' by some neighbours on the private estate over the plans.

Mr McGuinness said the couple 'lost touch' with some in the community over the plans, with his wife no longer taking part in the wine society, chats at the gate or summer picnics.

Terence and Emma McGuinness are facing a 'life-changing' 150,000-plus court bill following a planning row with their neighbours

The couple's home, Birch Mead, became the centre of a court row with neighbours who disagreed with their plan to knock it down to build two new houses

They were sued by the residents' company that owns the private roads accessing the estate - Ridgeway (Oxshott) Management Ltd (ROML) - which sought an injunction banning them from using their roads to carry out the build.

They lost their case in August and now, after another hearing at Central London County Court, have been handed the lawyers' bills for the entire dispute, thought to be more than 150,000.

READ MORE - Tony and Cherie Blair win their two-year planning row with a conservation charity to build on the grounds of their mansion Advertisement

Their barrister, George Woodhead, urging Judge Simon Monty KC to minimise the amount they would have to pay, said the dispute and its costs would result in them having to sell up and leave.

'What happened in August was very upsetting for my clients,' he said. 'I'm representing a family for whom the costs liability is going to be life-changing.

'My clients are selling their property to cover the costs. They are seeking to sell their property as a result of this litigation, and not just in regard to the costs.'

Mrs McGuinness was formerly a competitive figure skater, but has now carved out a successful career as a teacher of trendy Bikram 'hot' yoga.

Her husband has a background in acting and drama, having trained at London's Central School of Speech and Drama, where Mrs McGuinness was also a student, but is now sales director at a catering firm.

During the trial in August, the court heard the couple already had planning permission to level their existing family home - which is valued online at around 1.5million - and build two new ones.

However, the residents' company - whose directors and shareholders are made up of neighbours on the estate - argued that conditions of sale and access rights restrict owners to 'one plot one house' and that a two-house project would cause mayhem on the 'idyllic and secluded' private estate.

The couple insisted their plans were not about making money or creating a luxury home but to ensure that Mrs McGuinness's frail father could live next door where they could look after him

Mrs McGuinness, 41, was formerly a competitive figure skater, but has now carved out a successful career as a teacher of trendy Bikram 'hot' yoga

The couple insisted their plans were not about making money or creating a luxury home but to ensure that Mrs McGuinness's frail father could live next door where they could look after him.

Her father, Simon Barnett, who formerly worked for King Charles before retiring, suffers from chronic ill health and wants to move with his wife to live by his daughter and her family.

Mr Woodhead, accused some members of the residents' company of 'nimbyism' and 'hypocrisy' in blocking the McGuinness's project when other work has been allowed.

Giving evidence, Mr McGuinness said he and his family had 'lost touch with people' and felt 'ostracised' due to discord over their plans, whereas before they had mingled freely on the estate where they had lived for ten years.

However, the company's barrister, Miriam Seitler, pointed out that socialising had been curtailed in recent years due to Covid, also noting that Mr and Mrs McGuinness had been invited to Jubilee and Coronation street parties.

Mr McGuinness agreed they had gone to both events, explaining in relation to the Jubilee party: 'we made a point of wanting to go because I don't think this is a personal issue and we wanted to be there because we felt we should be.

'But all that day, I was watching to make sure that Emma wasn't on her own - and it wasn't what it should have been.'

The barrister said that no one had stopped the couple socialising, but Mr McGuinness replied: 'What I'm talking about is things like Emma no longer being part of the wine society and not mixing like she did - not having conversations at the gate and not having summer picnics with people.

Mrs McGuinness, whose father, Simon Barnett, suffers from chronic ill health

'That's the real relationship which has stopped, and that's because of the way that this has been handled.'

He added: 'Certainly we felt ostracised. The last two years have been extremely difficult for us.'

In August, Judge Monty ruled against the couple, saying that the conditions of sale were 'limited to the use of the plot for a single dwelling house'.

He added: 'I was particularly struck by the genuinely held views of the residents, supported by ROML itself, that the "one plot, one house" principle is of great importance to them'.'

While some of the McGuinnesses' neighbours had supported their plans, more than eight out of ten of those on the estate opposed them, said the judge, noting that the couple had bought their home 'with their eyes wide open' and in full knowledge of the restrictions on development.

'In my judgment, they bought Birch Mead knowing that there were restrictions in place - and if properly advised they would have been told that they could not apply to remove them - and they should be held to their bargain,' he said.

In a hearing last week in which he argued that the couple's legal bill should be reduced, their barrister Mr Woodhead argued that the case did not need to go to trial and should have been settled.

The couple had offered 80,000 to settle the dispute, but the company had refused to go to mediation, he said.

During the trial in August, the court heard the couple already had planning permission to level their existing family home - which is valued online at around 1.5m - and build two new ones

'The parties should in a neighbours' dispute, and that is essentially what this is - explore alternative dispute resolution,' he said.

'This is a neighbours' dispute - tense, emotive and perfectly resolvable in alternative dispute resolution.

'The claimant has made no offers or attempts to settle this matter pre-trial.

'Alternative dispute resolution would have cost around 14,000. This is now a dispute which has cost 140,000 - ten times that - just on the claimant's side.'

He asked the judge to make the couple pay only half of the company's 140,000 costs bill.

Judge Monty said: 'The defendants, who lost hands down and now want a 50 per cent costs discount.

'The claimant's view was, ''It doesn't matter what you offer us, it's a point of principle and we are going to court''.

'The defendants lost. This is a dispute that had no reasonable prospect of settlement in mediation. It seems to me the claimant should have the whole of its costs.'

The judge ordered the couple, who have already paid 30,000, to pay another 25,000 up front ahead of a full assessment of the company's legal bills.

They will also have to foot their own lawyers' bills, which were not revealed in court, but are substantial.

The judge said that, as the result of losing their fight, the couple had 'accepted an undertaking that they will not develop the property by demolishing and building two properties'.

'If they are found to be in breach of that undertaking, they are likely to be found in contempt of court,' he concluded.
She claimed it was a 'personal choice' and ultimately resigned in November 2021

Ijeomi Onyebalu had worked at Gascoigne Primary School in Barking since 2015

A primary school teacher who claimed she was discriminated against by her school after being told to take Covid tests and wear a face mask at the height of the pandemic has lost her legal battle.

Ijeomi Onyebalu refused to comply with the school's policies of testing twice a week and covering her face - reasoning that it was a 'personal choice' that didn't require any justification.

Despite pleas from the headteacher for her to 'pull together' with other members of staff for the safety of students, 'uncooperative' Ms Onyebalu once again refused, an employment tribunal has heard.

Judge Benjimin Burgher dismissed Ms Onyebalu's claims of unlawful discrimination and concluded she had 'disregarded anyone but herself' in her decision not to take Covid tests or wear a mask.

The tribunal, held in east London, heard Ms Onyebalu started working at Gascoigne Primary School, in Barking, London, in November 2015.

School teacher Ijeomi Onyebalu has lost her legal battle after she claimed she was discriminated against by her school after being told to take Covid tests and wear a face mask at the height of the pandemic (pictured, Gascoigne Primary School, in Barking, London)

The primary school had decided to follow government guidance by suggesting face masks be worn and staff take tests twice a week upon their return in March 2021.

Teachers were notified in December 2020 about these measures and told while testing was 'voluntary', they were 'expected' to do it.

Between June 2020 and March 2021, Ms Onyebalu attended school without testing, wearing a mask or a face covering and failed to provide a specific reason for not complying.

In September 2020, she wrote to headteacher Joanne Preston stating she was 'exempt' from wearing a mask but that it was a 'personal choice' that didn't require justification.

In February 2021, Ms Preston wrote to her saying 'all colleagues should pull together and place our children and their education at the forefront'.

After insisting she wouldn't conform to the school's policy, Ms Onyebalu was told not to return to work on March 8.

In September 2021, she was invited to a disciplinary meeting for refusing to participate in asymptomatic testing or wear a mask and was subsequently handed a final written warning for 18 months.

Judge Benjimin Burgher ultimately dismissed the teacher's claims of unlawful discrimination and concluded Ms Onyebalu had 'disregarded anyone but herself' in her decision not to take Covid tests or wear a mask (pictured, Gascoigne Primary School)

In November, Ms Onyebalu resigned and took her claims of unlawful victimisation to the employment tribunal where they were dismissed.

Judge Burgher said: '[Ms Onyebalu] had an agenda to seek to undermine the school's asymptomatic testing and face mask policy.

'The tribunal concludes that she disregarded anyone but herself during the difficult time that the school and society as a whole was facing.

'This is underlined by her comments that she was not at the school to make other people comfortable.'

The panel acknowledged while Ms Onyebalu was entitled to 'fundamentally disagree' with the school's policy, she would have to face the consequences of doing so.

Dismissing her claims of discrimination and victimisation, the judge added: '[She] adopted an obtuse and uncooperative standpoint and the tribunal conclude that the school sought to manage her with incredible patience and diligence.

'The [school] could not be criticised by deciding to take steps to seek to protect the health and well-being of its pupils, staff and parents.'
Since Hamas launched its ruthless attacks on Israeli towns and cities on October 7, Israel's Defence Forces have been fighting a battle on two fronts.

The IDF is conducting a non-stop bombardment of Hamas in the Gaza Strip as it masses troops and heavy armour ahead of a ground invasion to the south, all while fending off rocket attacks from Hezbollah in Lebanon to the north.

But now, after the United States expanded its military support for Tel Aviv in the wake of Hamas' attacks, the Jewish state's most fearsome foe has warned it could soon enter the fray.

Iran on Thursday threatened 'uncontrollable consequences' should the US continue to support Israel, with foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abhollahian declaring: 'If the genocide in Gaza continues, (the US) will not be spared from this fire.'

The Islamic Republic is vehemently opposed to Israel and has issued scathing criticisms of the IDF's bombing campaign of Gaza, which has seen thousands of Palestinians killed in the past three weeks.

Tehran is also the chief backer of both Hamas and Hezbollah - but these are just some of the powerful militias that have been propped up by Iranian money, weapons and military training in recent decades.

Now, as fears grow that continued fighting between Israel and Hamas could ignite a much wider conflict to engulf the whole region, MailOnline takes a look at the most heavily armed and dangerous proxies Iran has cultivated throughout the Middle East.

Tehran is the chief backer of both Hamas and Hezbollah - but these are just some of the powerful militias that have been propped up by Iranian money, weapons and military training in recent decades

Members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) force attend a rally marking the annual Quds Day, or Jerusalem Day, on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan in Tehran, Iran April 14, 2023

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) troops fire a missile

This photo provided by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), shows its soldiers taking part in military exercises

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting. Khamenei warned that Israel's continuing offensive in Gaza would cause a violent reaction across the region

Hezbollah (Lebanon)

Hezbollah has in recent years emerged as a potent force in the Middle East, boasting a multifaceted arsenal and diverse military capabilities that pose a considerable threat to Israel.

The Lebanese political and military group emerged in the early 1980s as a response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and officially announced its existence in 1985 with the release of its first manifesto.

Initially the group was a large but informal conglomeration of Shia Muslims in Lebanon who were spurred on by Iran's Islamic Revolution in the 1970s, which culminated in the overthrow of the Shah and the establishment of the Islamic Republic by Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini.

Tehran, seeing the potential to turn the rebelling Shia group into a fearsome ally, instructed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to instruct, train and finance them.

The group adopted the name Hezbollah - which translates to 'Party of God' - with the primary goal of resisting Israeli occupation in Southern Lebanon.

The Iranian connection has remained a defining aspect of Hezbollah's identity, and the nature of the group's multifaceted setup as a political party and armed militia allow it to wield considerable influence.

In addition to the array of small arms, machine guns and tens if not hundreds of thousands of rockets at its disposal, Hezbollah boasts a range of anti-tank and anti-air systems, a fleet of thousands of drones, and dozens of tanks and armoured vehicles.

Like Hamas, Hezbollah also has an extensive tunnel network along the Lebanese-Israeli border which serves as a strategic asset for clandestine movement, storage, and surprise attacks.

In 2021, the group claimed to have 100,000 active fighters - though Israel's Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) says the number is half that. INSS says the group's arsenal counts 150,000 to 200,000 rockets and missiles, including 'hundreds' of precision rockets.

The overwhelming majority of Hezbollah's military hardware is Soviet or Iranian made, and the group has either purchased or received donations of weapons and munitions from their Iranian backers, the government of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, and China.

Fighters from the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah carry out a training exercise in Aaramta village in the Jezzine District, southern Lebanon, Sunday, May 21, 2023

Fighters from the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah

Hezbollah militants are seen standing alongside artillery weapons

Hamas (Palestine/Gaza)

Hamas, ruler of the Gaza Strip since 2007, formed under circumstances similar to those of Hezbollah - though it only became an ally of Iran several years after its creation.

The group was born from the Muslim Brotherhood - a Sunni Islamist organisation that originated in Egypt but spread throughout the Arab world following the Six Day War in 1967 when Israel gained control of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza Strip, and the Golan Heights, displacing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and angering the Arab nations surrounding it.

Twenty years later came the First Intifada - a mass uprising of Palestinians against Israel, which saw members of the Muslim Brotherhood and other more hardline Islamist elements work to consolidate a militia.

They felt the Palestinian Liberation Authority - Palestine's leading political movement, and its leading faction Fatah - was ineffective in its diplomatic efforts. Instead, they wanted to take the fight to Israel via a militarised wing while remaining a politically engaged organisation to create an Islamic state within Palestine.

As the group's power and influence grew through the 1990s, Tehran sought to cultivate Hamas as a strategic ally.

Though religious differences between Iran's Shia theocracy and Hamas' Sunni Islam exist, their shared opposition to Israel motivated Tehran to provide financial aid, delivery of weapons and military training

Militarily, Hamas does not measure up to Hezbollah, but the group has shown it can leverage guerrilla warfare tactics that could make any ground assault dangerous for Israeli troops.

Hamas has 15,000 to 20,000 fighters, the International Institute for Strategic Studies estimates. Israel puts the number higher, at up to 30,000 fighters, while some estimates have suggested as many as 40,000 fighters are ready in Gaza.

Hamas' militia is well armed, with troop armouries stocked with a range of assault rifles, heavy machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and anti-tank weapons, as well as longer-range sniper rifles.

They have heavy weapons obtained from across the Middle East - particularly Iran, Syria and Libya - and has also sourced handguns and assault rifles from China and other regions.

It also has a variety of locally made, improvised explosives and Western sources say enough drones, mines, anti-tank guided missiles, grenade launchers and mortar shells to hold out for a long period, though precise figures are unavailable.

Gunmen from the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, during an anti-Israel military march in Gaza City

Palestinian militants from Hamas ride on a truck with their weapons. They are seen holding an AK-47 assault rifle and an RPG

Members of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, parade on a truck with rockets in a street in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip

Houthi Rebels (Yemen)

The Houthi rebel movement is an Iranian-backed Shia group waging a bitter war against the Sunni Yemeni government, which is backed by a multinational coalition led primarily by Saudi Arabia.

The Houthi rebel movement began in the 1990s but was formalised in 2004, one year after the US invasion of Iran.

Named after Zaidi Shia cleric and founder Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi, the rebel group was initially composed of Muslims belonging to a the Zaidi branch of Shia Islam that was largely marginalised in Yemen.

Houthi rebels were initially committed to fighting perceived oppression in the country, and later took on a second goal of fighting Western influence in the Middle East after the Yemeni government voiced support for the US' war in Iraq.

The Houthis launched several insurgencies against Yemen's government throughout the 2000s and early 2010s but the conflict quickly spiralled out of control in 2014 after the rebels took control of the capital Sanaa and overthrew the government, triggering a Saudi led-military intervention that has seen the two sides battle tooth and nail ever since.

Iran and Saudi Arabia are major rivals, separated by religious sectarianism and desire for greater regional influence. Iran's financial and military backing for the Houthis is believed to have begun in the late 2000s, with Houthi officials confirming in 2015 that Tehran was directly supporting the group.

The group, which is hundreds of thousands strong, is extremely well armed and proficient in the use of conventional arms, cruise and ballistic missiles, and drones.

Unlike Hezbollah and Hamas, the Houthis do not count Israel as their biggest foe, but have expressed considerable anti-Jewish sentiments and in the wake of Israel's retaliatory attacks on Gaza fired several missiles which were intercepted by a US warship.

Houthi fighters shout slogans during a military parade in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, in Sana'a, Yemen, 12 October 2023

Houthi fighters shout slogans while marching during a military parade

Senior Houthi leader Muhammad Ali al-Houthi gives a speech during a rally showing support to Palestinian Islamic factions, in Sana'a, Yemen, 07 October 2023

Kata'ib Hezbollah (Iraq)

Kata'ib Hezbollah (KH), also known as the Hezbollah Brigades, is a Shia militia that constitutes one of the largest members of the Popular Mobilisation Forces - an umbrella organisation made up of several armed groups based in Iraq.

The militia, formed of various Iranian factions, began assembling as early as 2003 amid the US invasion of the Iraq and the subsequent toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime, but was formally established and became a prominent force in 2007 when it began directly attacking US troops.

KH was and continues to be heavily influenced by Iran's IRGC which recruited, trained, armed and financed its fighters, and is closely ideologically and strategically aligned with the Islamic Republic.

The US quickly designated KH a terrorist organisation in 2009 after coalition forces came under several attacks - but KH diverted much of its resources from fighting Western troops to quell the rise of ISIS through the 2010s until the extremists were largely defeated in 2017, while other elements of the group participated in the Syrian civil war fighting on the side of the Russia and Iran-backed government of Bashar al-Assad.

After ISIS was crushed, however, KH wasted no time in shifting its focus back to US troops, with the warring sides trading strikes.

The group is believed to have had as many as 30,000 fighters during the 2010s - though KH lost much of its notoriety in 2020 after agreeing a ceasefire with remnants of US forces still in Iraq.

But now, a new group known as Alwiyat al-Waad al-Haq (AWH) has threatened more violence against US and Israeli targets.

'After the Zionists and their followers persisted in exterminating our people in Palestine, and as we witness today the killing, displacement, and destruction of the rights of the patient and mujahid Palestinians, now we stress that our patience has limits, and we announce the good news to honourable people that we consider the American bases in Kuwait and the [United Arab] Emirates to be legitimate targets in response to the crimes of the Zionists and Americans, and as revenge for our beloved Palestinian martyrs,' a statement given earlier this month read.

According to The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a US think tank, AWH is a mere facade group that is controlled entirely by KH and the IRGC.

Members of Iraq's Kata'ib Hezbollah paramilitary group

National Defence Forces (Syria)

Iran's intervention in the Syrian Civil War played a pivotal role in supporting Bashar al-Assad's government throughout the conflict, which was ignited in 2011 amid the Arab Spring uprisings.

When war broke out in Syria, Iran committed its support to the Assad regime and was hell bent on backing the Syrian Arab Army, given Syria's strategic importance and the shared anti-Israel stance of both nations.

As Syria's government troops began to wilt under the pressure of rebel forces a year into the conflict, the National Defence Forces (NDF) were formed, bringing together Syrian volunteers and foreign fighters into a paramilitary organisation sworn to support the Assad government.

Iran provided substantial support to the NDF, funding its operations, organising heavy weapons shipments and launching a mass recruitment programme that drummed up tens of thousands of troops from Syria, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Iranian advisors and trainers from the IRGC also worked closely with NDF forces, running training camps in Iran and Syria to impart their military expertise and continue their programme of ideological indoctrination.

Thanks in no small part to the Iranian-backed NDF as well as Russia's military intervention, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad remains in power.

The war has utterly devastated Syria, resulting in some 5 million refugees and more than 7 million internally displaced civilians according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

Syria has also become a hotbed for the production and distribution of drugs, with a state-sponsored programme of illicit drug manufacturing propping up the ailing economy.

Al-Assad's government has in turn aided Iran to bolster the military supplies of its proxies, selling large numbers of rockets to Hezbollah.
A tourist has died and three left injured after a glass walkway shattered at a popular beauty spot in Indonesia.

The tragedy struck while 11 tourists from Cilacep, Central Java, were crossing the Geong bridge around 10am on Wednesday, some 30ft (10m) off the forest floor.

Two fell through the glass into the Limpakuwus Pine Forest below, where one was later declared dead. The other sustained minor injuries.

Two more were thrown by the sudden collapse and managed to cling on to the frame, shown in video footage being helped off the bridge by brave onlookers.

Police are now investigating the incident and have set up a crime scene amid claims the attraction's management overlooked complaints about the bridge's safety.

People rushed to pull up one tourist who appeared to have fallen through the shattered glass

Video shot nearby shows a tourist struggling to climb back up immediately after the glass walkway shattered earlier this week.

The camera refocuses to show the body of another unnamed tourist below, having fallen through the glass.

Above, onlookers rush to help the trapped tourist before helping them off the bridge.

Out of view, ten of the tourists made a lucky escape with only three sustaining minor injuries.

Ekop Purnomo, chairman of the Limpakuwus Pine Forest Cooperative, was revealed to have contacted The Geong's manager in April when the bridge opened, seeking a safety evaluation.

He said he approached The Geong's manager after receiving complaints on social media, raising concerns about how safe the bridge would be.

Purnomo claimed as many as five per cent of visitors shared complaints online.

He added that the manager of the bridge chose not to attend the meeting to review standards, instead sending a representative.

'There was no discussion. We only left a message,' he said on Wednesday.

Purnomo agreed to close the forest - which is managed separately from the bridge - at the request of local police while the investigation continues.

Suranta Sitepu confirmed the casualties on Wednesday.

Brave onlookers help a stranded tourist to safety after the Geong bridge in Indonesia shattered

Officers from the Central Java Forensic Laboratory investigate the broken bridge in the Limpakuwus Pine Forest

In 2021, a tourist was left clinging on for dear life after the glass panels of a 330-ft high bridge in China were damaged in strong winds.

The glass-bottomed bridge is located at a resort built into the Piyan Mountain in the Chinese city of Longjing.

A terrifying image purportedly showed a man clinging onto the railing after winds of up to 90mph blew away some of the glass panels on Friday.

According to a report in the Straits Times, the man was stuck on the bridge for a brief period.

He crawled to safety, guided by firefighters, police, and forestry and tourism workers.
Rishi Sunak has been warned China could send 'very nasty, dodgy people' to Britain next week after he invited the communist state to his Artificial Intelligence summit.

Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith continued a backlash against the Prime Minister's decision to allow representatives from Beijing to attend the gathering.

The ex-Cabinet minister cautioned that China 'poses the single biggest threat' to the West in the development of AI.

Mr Sunak is hosting an AI safety summit at Bletchley Park, the famous home of Britain's Second World War code-breakers, on Wednesday and Thursday.

But the PM risks being left red-faced amid reports a string of global leaders - such as US President Joe Biden, Germany's Olaf Scholz, France's Emmanuel Macron and Canada's Justin Trudeau - will not be in attendance.

A senior Cabinet minister this morning denied it was 'embarrassing' that some world leaders would not be making the trip to Britain.

Rishi Sunak has been warned China could send 'very nasty, dodgy people' to Britain next week after he invited the communist state to his Artificial Intelligence summit

The Prime Minister is hosting an AI safety summit at Bletchley Park, the famous home of Britain's Second World War code-breakers, on Wednesday and Thursday

Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith continued a backlash against the Prime Minister's decision to allow representatives from Beijing to attend the gathering

The PM risks being left red-faced amid reports a string of global leaders - such as US President Joe Biden (right) and France's Emmanuel Macron - will not be in attendance

Mr Sunak hopes the gathering will see countries and businesses consider the risks of AI ahead of more powerful generations of the technology being released next year.

There are also planned talks on how the dangers of AI can be mitigated through international cooperation.

But ex-PM Liz Truss has demanded that Mr Sunak, her successor in No10, rescind his invitation to China as she blasted Beijing's 'cavalier attitude' to international laws.

And, speaking to Sky News last night, Sir Iain insisted Ms Truss was right to warn about China's involvement at the summit.

'The real problem here right now is that I'm convinced that Rishi Sunak will not re-examine this because the Foreign Office don't want him to do, the Foreign Secretary (James Cleverly) doesn't want to do.

'And they've set this up. The key question is now, who are they sending over? And there are some very, very nasty, dodgy people that are running this area in China.'

Sir Iain, who has been sanctioned by Beijing over his outspoken criticism of human rights abuses in Xinjiang, warned that 'China poses the single biggest threat to us in this area'.

'They are the world leaders in AI and they're the world leaders in genomics,' he added.

'They forcibly extract genes from people in Xinjiang. They abuse people and they steal that data.

'So the problem we've got right now is that there's a country that has already set the pattern in a dominant position as to where they want to be.

'And that genomics coming together with AI is the bit that simply won't be properly discussed at this conference because it's there where China poses a very big threat.'

Sir Iain said the 'big threat' from inviting China to the summit is that they 'get into this meeting and of course make sure that there isn't really any great new set of rules or observances that should be made because they don't suit China'.

Mr Biden is confirmed not to be attending the Bletchley Park gathering, with US vice-president Kamala Harris attending instead.

Meanwhile, the Politico website reported that Mr Macron will also definitely not be attending, while Mr Trudeau and Mr Scholz were also unlikely to attend.

But Education Secretary Gillian Keegan denied it was embarrassing that some senior world leaders may not be attending.

'I dont think so,' she told LBC. 'I think the most important thing actually for the safety summit is to make sure weve got the people who are really knowledgable about AI as well.

'So yes, therell be some of the leaders but it will also be teams of people that are really aware of AI and also the risks of AI.'
A gynaecologist accused of mutilating his virgin wife's vagina after he was unable to have sex with her on their honeymoon is facing trial in Germany.

The medic, 54, and his 35-year-old wife had only recently married before travelling to a luxury hotel in Dubai in April, 2019.

But once in the hotel room, he failed to have sex with her, and in a furious rage allegedly blamed her and decided to 'operate' to solve the problem himself.

He allegedly grabbed a pair of scissors and pierced his terrified wife's hymen and cut part of it away.

Braunschweig district court in Lower Saxony, Germany, was told his wife had kept the savage attack a secret because her husband had threatened to divorce her, and because of the risk of being ostracised by their families.

The 54-year-old medic allegedly grabbed a pair of scissors and pierced his terrified wife's hymen and cut part of it away (File Photo)

The gynaecologist and his wife both come from migrant families but were born in Germany.

She told the police that she then continued to keep it a secret for four years before finally deciding to reveal details of the horrific attack to the police.

Prosecutors have charged the medic with mutilation of female genitalia and grievous bodily harm.

The trial is set to begin on November 6.

It comes as a woman was found guilty of assisting the female genital mutilation of a three-year-old British girl during a trip to Kenya, becoming the first person to be convicted in England of committing the crime overseas.

In a landmark case Amina Noor, 39, was convicted by jurors at the Old Bailey yesterday morning of aiding the horrific procedure during a trip to the African country in 2006.

The judgement has been hailed by prosecutors, who said the case 'will hopefully encourage potential victims and survivors of FGM to come forward, safe in the knowledge that they are supported'.

The court heard that Noor had taken the little girl to a 'clinic' via tuk-tuk where she was asked to wait outside a private house as the child was mutilated.

Her crime only came to light years later in November 2018 when the victim, then 16, told her English teacher what had happened.
Union bosses are demanding new rules on barring MPs from Westminster if they are arrested after Tory ex-minister Crispin Blunt was quizzed on suspicion of rape.

Dave Penman, general secretary of the FDA union for civil servants, and Mike Clancy, general secretary of the Prospect union for parliamentary staff, renewed calls for authorities to be given the power to exclude MPs.

Mr Blunt, the long-serving MP for Reigate, last night named himself as the MP arrested in connection with an allegation of rape.

He said he was 'confident' a police investigation 'will end without charge'.

The 63-year-old has been suspended by the Tories and asked by Conservative chief whip Simon Hart to stay away from Parliament during the process.

But Mr Penman questioned why Mr Blunt's absence from Westminster would be a voluntary agreement and not something that could be enforced by parliamentary authorities.

Crispin Blunt, the long-serving MP for Reigate, last night named himself as the MP arrested in connection with an allegation of rape

His arrest has prompted renewed calls for parliamentary authorities to be given the power to exclude MPs from Westminster

In a statement on social media, Mr Blunt said he was 'confident' a police investigation 'will end without charge'

FDA general secretary Dave Penman questioned why Mr Blunt's absence from Westminster would be a voluntary agreement and not something that could be enforced

Posting on X, formerly known as Twitter, Mr Penman wrote: 'Even though he's been arrested in relation to a very serious crime, Crispin Blunt is still essentially free to roam the parliamentary estate.

'No other employer in the country would be in a situation where they could not exclude someone who was arrested under such circumstances.'

Mr Penman noted how a report by the House of Commons Commission, published in June, had made proposals for excluding MPs should parliamentary authorities be 'presented with credible allegations of sexual or violent offending by the police at any point in the criminal justice process'.

'There is no good reason why these shouldn't be implemented as soon as possible,' the FDA general secretary said of the findings by the Commission, which is chaired by Commons' Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle.

'Once again we call on the Leader of the House (Penny Mordaunt) to bring forward an urgent vote on this issue and parliamentarians themselves to recognise the responsibility they have to protect the staff and visitors for whom Parliament is ultimately a workplace like any other.'

Labour MP Stella Creasy supported Mr Penman's call, adding on X: 'Dave is right.

'It's nearly a year since first talked of risk based exclusion policy and still no sign of it to address concerns Parliament isn't a safe workplace.'

Mr Clancy said: 'How many more cases like this will it take for action to be taken to protect staff and visitors on the parliamentary estate?

'The Leader of the House must bring forward a vote on excluding MPs under investigation for violent and sexual offences from accessing the parliamentary estate as soon as Parliament returns.'

MPs debated the commission's report in the House of Commons prior to their summer break from Westminster.

The commission is now refining their proposals following the views put forward by MPs in that debate, with a Commons vote set to be held once the commission has reached an agreed position on the plans.

The House of Lords is developing its own policy.

Mr Blunt last night identified himself as the man that Surrey Police detained in Horley on Wednesday morning - on suspicion of rape and the possession of controlled substances - before his release on conditional bail.

He said in a statement: 'It has been reported that an MP was arrested yesterday in connection with an allegation of rape. I am confirming that MP was me.

'The fact of the arrest requires a formal notification of the Speaker and then my Chief Whip.

'I have now been interviewed twice in connection with this incident, the first time three weeks ago, when I initially reported my concern over extortion.

'The arrest was unnecessary as I remain ready to co-operate fully with the investigation that I am confident will end without charge.

'I do not intend to say anything further on this matter until the police have completed their inquiries.'

Mr Blunt served in the Ministry of Justice as the minister responsible for prisons and probation between 2010 and 2012.

The police were unable to say if the controlled substances were drugs, as tests are being carried out.

The Conservative Party has declined to comment on his arrest, first reported by The Sun.

Mr Blunt is the latest in a string of sitting MPs to be arrested on allegations of sexual offences.

Back in May 2022, it emerged that a Tory MP in his 50s had been arrested on suspicion of indecent assault, sexual assault, rape, abuse of position of trust and misconduct in public office.

The Tory whips' office said at the time that the MP had been asked not to 'attend the Parliamentary estate while an investigation is ongoing'.

The latest extension to his bail is to mid-February.

One Conservative MP was arrested on suspicion of rape in 2020. He was never identified and police took no further action after an investigation.

On Thursday, a police spokesman said: 'We can confirm a man was arrested yesterday morning in Horley on suspicion of rape and possession of controlled substances.

'He has been released on conditional police bail pending further inquiries.'
Two men captured on CCTV footage are wanted by police as they search for who gunned down a notorious Sydney drug lord.

Alen Moradian, 48, was shot dead on June 27 while sitting in his car near the busy Bondi Junction shopping precinct in Sydney's east.

The killing sparked a spate of tit-for-tat shootings and gang violence across Sydney.

Footage of two men, described by police as being of African appearance and of tall, slim build, has been released as detectives look for those who carried out the execution.

Alen Moradian, 48, was shot dead on June 27 while sitting in his car near the busy Bondi Junction shopping precinct in Sydney's east

One man can be seen wearing a navy-blue hooded jumper and tracksuit pants with black and white sneakers.

The other wears a black hooded jumper and tracksuit pants with black sneakers.

Police have appealed for anyone who knows their identities or whereabouts to come forward.

Last month, two men were charged over Moradian's murder.

Police allege a 42-year-old man was the 'mastermind' behind the shooting, which they believe was motivated by an outstanding debt.

Footage of two men, described by police as being of African appearance and of tall, slim build, has been released as detectives look for those who carried out the execution

A 31-year-old man was also charged and stands accused of helping to co-ordinate the brazen daylight attack.

Both men cannot be named for legal reasons.

Detective Chief Superintendent Jason Weinstein previously said police did not believe the two men were the gunmen and were searching for who pulled the trigger.

'The allegations are that the 42-year-old-male and the 31-year-old male themselves did not carry out the act,' he said.

'They gave the imprimatur, they gave the go ahead or the instructions for it to occur.'

Det Supt Weinstein confirmed half a million dollars was owed to an organised crime entity.

'Those two individuals themselves were not owed the money but other entities within organised crime were,' he said.

Police set up a task force in July to target gun violence and organised crime gangs after a spate of public shootings which followed Moradian's murder.
She was placed in ICU for two days

An Australian woman's holiday to Bali has turned into a nightmare after she fell four stories off a balcony, landing her in the ICU.

Sharni Jeffs, from Melbourne, was on the first day of her trip on Tuesday when she fell from her hotel balcony and landed on the concrete below.

She suffered a fractured skull and broke her back in two places before being rushed to hospital, where she was treated in intensive care for two days.

Sharni Jeffs, from Melbourne, was on the first day of her trip to Bali on Tuesday when she fell from her hotel balcony and landed onto the concrete below

Her mother, Alida Jeffs, said the family, along with her daughter's boyfriend Josh, had gone out for dinner on the night of the accident.

She said when they got back to the hotel, Josh realised he'd lost his wallet and began retracing his steps and headed back to the lobby.

'When he was in the lobby looking for it, Sharni went to the balcony to look where he was and fell over the edge. Josh saw her fall and immediately went to help her,' Ms Jeffs told Daily Mail Australia.

She said her daughter is 'on very strong pain relief' as she recovers in hospital.

'She cannot sit up as yet,' Ms Jeffs said.

'We still have no idea when she will be cleared to fly home or how she will sit on a plane for six hours.'

Sharni suffered a bleed on her brain which has since been controlled. Fortunately the breaks in her back did not cause any damage to her spinal cord

Sharni suffered a bleed on her brain which has since been controlled. Fortunately the breaks in her back did not cause any damage to her spinal cord.

The family have since set up a GoFundMe to help cover Sharni's ongoing medical treatment.

Sharni will need to be cleared by a neurologist before she can fly home, which could mean she has to stay in hospital for longer.

Her mother confirmed the family is paying for all medical costs up front.

Ms Jeffs said her daughter is covered by travel insurance provider 1Cover but claims they have not given any assistance so far.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted 1Cover for comment.
This is the astonishing moment a Brazilian Uber driver delivers a baby on the back of her car and then doesn't even charge for the journey.

Iara Alencar dos Santos told how she became an amateur obstetrician 'in a matter of seconds'.

The 30-year-old accepted a four mile journey to take a woman and her mother-in-law from her home to a hospital.

It was only when she arrived at the pick-up point in Brasilia, Brazil, that she realised her passenger was eight months pregnant. During the drive, Sandy, 21, unexpectedly went into labour.

Footage shows Iara's incredible reaction when Sandy gave birth on the backseat on Monday.

Iara Alencar dos Santos assisting Sandy after giving birth

Uber driver Iara Alencar dos Santos holding the baby

'It's out', the new mother shouts, as Iara asks 'What's out, girl?'.

Sandy then replies: 'The head!'

Iara can be heard saying, 'My God in heaven,' as she quickly stops the car to help the mother and her mother-in-law.

Sandy can be seen on the backseat giving birth before Iara carries the crying baby in her arms in a joyful moment, giving the mother time for some much-needed rest.

'I went from being a driver to an obstetrician in a matter of seconds,' Iara, who gave birth to her son by C-section, told local media.

'I knew she was in pain but I didn't know the birth would be so fast.

'We never imagined that we wouldn't have time to get to the hospital because it was so close. But the baby didn't want to wait...'

Iara with her mother Sandy and the baby

Sandy can be seen arching over on the backseat to give birth

Iara then takes over and carries the crying child, giving the mother some much-needed rest

Iara cradling the newborn while the mother watches over the child

Iara looks very pleased to have been a part in the unexpected delivery

It only took minutes for little Yure Adrian to come into the world.

The trio were just yards from the hospital when Iara stopped the car, honking the horn to alert the medics.

The cord was reportedly around the baby boy's neck, with the driver carefully unwrapping it from the newborn.

She says she 'didn't feel fear' and is 'still in ecstasy' over the incredible moment.

Doctors later came out to cut the cord while it was still in Iara's hand, with the newborn peeing all over her clothes.

Sandy and Yure were then admitted to the hospital and Iara was free to leave.

The baby. The mother and son are both reported to be doing well

The baby. Dad Michael Adrian, 31, who had already left for work when the drama unfolded, told local media he was grateful for Iara's help

She's since been told that both mother and son are doing well.

Sandy, who also has a toddler daughter, has already been discharged.

Dad Michael Adrian, 31, who had already left for work when the drama unfolded, told local media he was grateful for Iara's help.

He said: 'For me, it's touching the compassion she had for my wife. I have no words.

'I think it was a Godsend, this driver, because not everyone has that kind of compassion.

'The car got dirty, and she didn't even want to charge for the trip.'

Yure is expected to be discharged in the coming days.

Michael added: 'I'm already eager to order an Uber to leave the hospital.'
A convicted murderer who was awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal for fighting a would-be suicide bomber with a narwhal tusk says he was made to feel 'punished' by prison bosses after tackling the attacker while on day release.

Steve Gallant was spending his first day outside prison in 14 years on November 29, 2019, when convicted terrorist Usman Khan began attacking people at Fishmongers' Hall next to London Bridge, stabbing two to death with knives.

Mr Gallant, who was serving a life sentence with a minimum term of 17 years for the murder of firefighter Barrie Jackson, leapt into action and was seen challenging Khan with the tusk in footage that rapidly went viral online.

But the have-a-go-hero says he considered suicide after he was locked up in a more secure prison compound upon his return to jail - because bosses feared he was more likely to commit violence after the attack.

Speaking to Andy Coulson's Crisis What Crisis? podcast, Mr Gallant says he was handcuffed and transferred from open prison to a Category B jail, which has less freedom than an open facility.

Steve Gallant - seen here receiving his Queen's Gallantry Medal - was serving a life sentence for murder when he confronted terrorist Usman Khan on London Bridge on November 29, 2019

Mr Gallant (second right) takes on Usman Khan (right) along with John Crilly (wielding the fire extinguisher) and Darryn Frost (left, also carrying a narwhal tusk)

Usman Khan, who had spent time in jail after being convicted of terrorism offences, was shot dead by police after the attack

Mr Gallant walks out of the Learning Together event at Fishmongers' Hall as he runs to take on Usman Khan

He told the podcast: 'I was thrown in handcuffs and taken to the prison next door, which is a Cat B closed prison. I felt Id done something positive and yet I was being punished for it.

'I was probably suffering from trauma due to that event [on the bridge]. Once I stepped back into that closed prison, it just came over me like a dark cloud.

'I did have suicidal thoughts and Ive never had them before. I was thinking to myself, "Do I have to end it? Is that the answer to this?"'

Gallant, who was raised in East Hull, was jailed in 2005 for murdering firefighter Barrie Jackson after, he claims, Jackson attacked his partner.

Jackson is thought to have been bludgeoned with a hammer, kicked and punched to death, according to appeal documents. Gallant has since expressed regret over resorting to violence.

He was initially locked up at Category A Frankland prison, later being moved to Category B Gartree jail.

Later in his sentence he was transferred to a Category D open prison, Spring Hill in Buckinghamshire - where he was locked up at the time of his fateful trip to London.

Khan was wielding two 8in knives strapped to his hands with tape and was wearing a fake suicide vest when he began attacking people at an event at Fishmongers' Hall run by Learning Together, a Cambridge University rehabilitation programme for prisoners.

Saskia Jones and Jack Merritt, a rehabilitation worker whom Gallant had met in prison, died in the attack after Khan stabbed each of them. He attacked Merritt in the toilets and Jones moments later after walking out of the bathroom.

Despite being told to stay put by his prison escort, Gallant, along with fellow have-a-go heroes John Crilly and Darryn Frost - who also wielded a narwhal tusk, wrestled Khan to the ground on London Bridge before police arrived on the scene.

The terrorist was shot dead by armed officers in what was later justified to be a lawful act - after he had told them he had a bomb.

Gallant's bravery, however, was not recognised by prison bosses - who saw fit to send him to a tougher jail, believing that his actions that day against Khan demonstrated a continued willingness to engage in violence.

He was initially taken back to Spring Hill open prison, but amid social media speculation about the identity of those who tackled Khan, Gallant issued a statement via his lawyer identifying himself as one of those responsible.

Prison rehabilitation worker Jack Merritt (right, pictured with Steve Gallant) died in the attack after he was stabbed by Usman Khan

Saskia Jones was stabbed to death by Usman Khan during the London Bridge attack

A court sketch of Steve Gallant speaking during the 2021 inquest into the London Bridge attacks

Steve Gallant shakes the hand of the Princess Royal during the ceremony in which he was awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal last month

READ MORE: Four convicted terrorists recalled to prison after failing lie detector tests introduced after London Bridge attack Advertisement

In response, prison bosses moved him from Spring Hill to next-door HMP Grendon, a Category B prison  described by podcast host Coulson as a 'punishment' for his good deed.

After he was moved into tougher prison accommodation, Gallant said he began to experience suicidal thoughts, and became desperately worried that his 14 and a half years of rehabilitation were about to go to waste after he tried to protect others.

After he appealed to his local MP, Karl Turner, for help, the politician raised it in Parliament and wrote to then prime minister Boris Johnson for help.

On January 8, 2020, Mr Turner asked Mr Johnson to 'congratulate and pay tribute to Steven for his bravery that day, which no doubt saved lives'.

Mr Johnson replied: 'I am lost in admiration for the bravery of Steven Gallant, and indeed of others who went to the assistance of members of the public on that day and fought a very determined terrorist.

'Obviously, it is not for the Government to decide these things, but it is my hope that that gallantry will in due course be recognised in the proper way.'

Gallant was sent back to the open prison, was able to resume rehab as a university student and in due course was granted mercy by Royal Prerogative. Parole board officials reduced the tariff on his sentence.

In an extract from his book The Road To London Bridge, serialised in the Mail, Gallant explained how his blood was 'loaded with adrenaline' as he confronted Khan, a former prisoner who had taken part in the Learning Together education programme.

He wrote: 'I knew I had to slow him. The only weapon to hand was a narwhal tusk. Usman came swinging his knives towards me. I hit him hard  but it seemed to have little effect.

'I struck out again, missing by a whisker. His knives came close and then: Crunch! I hit him hard across the shoulder, snapping the tusk.

'He burst into the street, heading to London Bridge. I went after him. The streets were busy. "Get back!" I shouted. "Its a terrorist!"'

Gallant told the podcast that much of his upbringing involved 'solving issues through violence', adding that he suffered at the hands of an abusive stepfather.

The killer was later awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal in what would come to be Queen Elizabeth II's final issue of the awards. He insists, however, that he is no hero.

He added: 'Clearly what I did that day was a very brave thing, and I think it's important people should be recognised for those sort of things.

'But going back to my past, I knew it was going to be a tricky and difficult thing for officials to do, but they did it and I'm pleased they found the courage to say, "We're going to recognise you and take any public flak with that".'

He added: 'The medal for me doesn't just represent bravery - it represents change, the possibility of change. No matter where you've been in life, no matter what you've done, there's always hope.'

Listen to Andy Coulson's Crisis What Crisis? podcast
A patient who was with the same GP for a staggering 77 years before he abruptly called it quits one morning after hearing he was the 32nd caller in the queue.

Gwyn John, 78, hung up feeling frustrated and instead booked a private appointment at a new National Health Service (NHS) GP surgery.

The widower from Vale of Glamorgan said he now feels 'refreshed' after leaving Llantwit Major & Coastal Vale Medical Practice.

The Welsh government said it was 'disappointing' to hear of people have difficulty accessing GP services.

Llantwit Major & Coastal Vale Medical Practice said Mr John's wait time was 'not typical' and the number of calls fluctuated day-to-day.

Gwyn John, 78, hung up feeling frustrated and instead booked a private appointment at a new NHS GP surgery

Llantwit Major & Coastal Vale Medical Practice said Mr John's wait time was 'not typical' - and the number of calls fluctuated day-to-day

Gwyn said: 'I'd been with that GP surgery 77 years and ten months.'

He also used to book in regular appointments for his wife Gloria, who had dementia, at the surgery before she died two years ago.

'When my wife was alive, I couldn't take chances, I had to hold on in the queue,' he continued.

'But if she needed me, I wouldn't hesitate, that phone would go down and I would have to start again.'

Gwyn explained he would only book same-day appointments by calling between 8am to 9am or by filling in an online form.

Gwyn also used to book in regular appointments for his wife Gloria, who had dementia, at the surgery until she died two years ago

Age Cymru said many older people reported having to call their GP back the following day if they were unable to get through to the surgery.

The charity found 72 per cent of the 1,200 people who responded to its survey had a negative experience accessing GP services.

It comes after GP leaders said there was growing concern about the financial health of practices.

Dr Gareth Oelmann, Chair of British Medical Association Cyrmu Wales's GP Committee, said the situation would get worse unless the Welsh government could commit to a 'rescue package'.

He said: 'The unsustainable pressure facing GPs is felt up and down the country.

'We have heard from GPs who have been unable to recruit permanent staff for years on end, examples of extreme burnout causing hospitalisation and a rising number of surgeries having to close their doors as they struggle with bills and staffing expenses, leaving thousands of patients having to be treated elsewhere.'
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Maine gunman Robert Card was 'obsessed' with cornhole and had recently been fired from a job at a recycling plant when he carried out Wednesday's shooting.

In a video taken last year and obtained by Inside Edition today, Card is happy and chats jovially with friends at a different cornhole tournament.

It was before his 'acute' mental health episode that his family say led to him hearing voices and behaving 'schizophrenically'. Colleagues said he had begun behaving 'violently' and erratically at work.

On Wednesday night, he shot and killed 18 people at a bowling alley and bar in Lewiston, Maine. Now, he is on the run after abandoning his car and a rifle at a boat ramp in nearby Lisbon.

Cops last night released an arrest warrant that said he would be charged with at least eight counts of murder, but sources told CNN on Friday that federal prosecutors are weight criminal charges before he's even arrested.

Armed police units raced towards the Maine shooter's sister's house on Friday as the search for him continued with dive teams scouring rivers and hundreds of other cops going door-to-door to track him down.

The armed units raced towards his sister's home shortly before noon. It's unclear what prompted the flurry of activity, or if anything has been found.

Despite an influx of hundreds of FBI agents, state troopers and local police officers, law enforcement remains completely in the dark when it comes to finding him.

A video shows killer Robert Card playing cornhole - a game he was 'obsessed with' - last year before the rampage on Wednesday night

Law enforcement continue a manhunt in the aftermath of a mass shooting, in Durham, Maine, Friday, October 27

Law enforcement officers temporarily detain people as a manhunt continues in the aftermath of a mass shooting, in Durham, Maine, Friday, Oct. 27, 2023

Law enforcement personnel use an underwater robot to search the waters of the Sabattus and Androscoggin rivers

Law enforcement officials conduct a manhunt for suspect Robert Card following a mass shooting on October 27

Now, terrified residents in Lewiston and surrounding towns are rushing to arm themselves.

'It's a mad house,' said Trevor Brooks, who works at 3 Cousins Firearms, a store just 1.3miles from the bar where Card unleashed terror.

Card's sister-in-law, Katie O'Neill today released a statement to say the family is 'heartbroken'.

'We are absolutely heartbroken. This is beyond belief.

'We are doing all we can with law enforcement, giving all information we can.

'Our hearts and prayers are constantly with these poor families, we will not be making further statements at this time,' O'Neill said in a statement to CNN.

'As soon as you start yelling, I am done,' Sauschuck said, after saying the police would not be 'rushed'.

He refused to answer questions about the specifics of a suicide note left by Card for his son, and also refused to confirm whether the suspect's family was assisting in the investigation.

Heavily armed law enforcement personnel search an area, two days after a mass shooting, in Monmouth, Maine

Law enforcement officials conduct a manhunt for suspect Robert Card following a mass shooting on October 27, 2023 in Monmouth

At a briefing today, Commissioner for Maine Public Safety Michael Sauschuck said police 'clearly' did not know where Card was and became frustrated with journalists as they demanded answers to questions

Law enforcement personnel approach a home in Monmouth, Maine, on October 27, 2023, in the aftermath of a mass shooting in Lewiston

Law enforcement personnel search a wooded area in Monmouth, Maine, on October 27, 2023

Ghost-town Lewiston: Schools, stores and most businesses in Lewiston remain closed today while police search for Robert Card

Card, a US Army reserve soldier, launched the initial attack at a bowling alley (pictured) at around 6.56pm then struck again at bar and restaurant four miles away just 12 minutes later

This is how the shooting unfolded in Lewiston, Maine, on Wednesday night. Card remains on the run, but his vehicle was found at a boat launch in Lisbon

Card's vehicle - a white Suburu station wagon - was found at a boat ramp on the Androscoggin River. Today, divers will begin searching the water for any sign of him.

Card, 40, was described by relatives as being 'schizophrenic'

'Clearly we don't have him in custody... we don't want to wait too long and the river is a big piece of this, his car was located there. So we want to make sure we're checking it and using our expertise and resources.'

A power company that operates two dams in the river have agreed to slow the current to facilitate an easier search for dive teams.

Card lived in the small town of Bowdoin, close to homes owned by his parents and his brother and sister-in-law.

One neighbor told The Messenger that the Card family's arrangement was 'basically a compound', and he and his relatives were all 'gun-toting enthusiasts'.

'They would shoot guns all the time, you could hear them every day after school. It was like clockwork,' said Liam Kent.

He said he once saw Card 'covered in blood with a gun on his back, a giant grin on his face' after going deer hunting.

Divers prepare to search the Androscoggin River in Lisbon Falls, Maine, on October 27, 2023, in the aftermath of a mass shooting

Law enforcement personnel use an underwater robot to search the waters of the Sabattus and Androscoggin rivers, two days after a mass shooting, in Lisbon, Maine

A law enforcement official sets up a drone as they conduct a manhunt for suspect Robert Card following a mass shooting on October 27, 2023 in Monmouth

A home, which was searched overnight, is seen in the early morning, two days after a mass shooting, in Bowdoin, Maine, USA, 27 October 2023

The boat launch in Lisbon is where officers are focusing their search today. The suspect's car was found there on Wednesday night

The bar was the second shooting location. A group of deaf friends were there participating in a corn hole tournament

An aerial view of the scene surrounding the Bowling Alley, where seven were shot dead in the first stage of the attack

Marko Galbreath, a former Florida police sergeant and SWAT team member, told DailyMail.com that Card could have traveled anywhere - and the whole country must be vigilant.

He is understood to have studied engineering at the University of Maine between 2001 and 2004

'He could still be in that area, planning to have a shootout with police, planning to commit suicide, planning to commit another attack.

'Or, you know what, he could be in Texas right now. We have no idea.

'If he planned it out well enough, he could very well be far from that area right now,' said Galbreath, who provides active shooter response training through his company T4Tactics.

'We need to tell the entire country that until this guy is captured, we need to use due diligence.'

He added: 'He could have shaved, he could have put on a wig, he may change his appearance.

He he may not look like what people think he looks like, so we need to really watch.'

Galbreath added that Card's military training would have also provided a survival 'skillset and mindset' which would have taught how to 'live in an environment that's not comfortable'.

Card is believed to have joined the military reserve in 2002.

The Card family home in Bowdoin is pictured above. It is the suspect's last known address

A bulletin sent to police across the country after the attack said Card had been committed to a mental health facility for two weeks this past summer after 'hearing voices and threats to shoot up' a military base.

A US official said Card was training with the Army Reserve's 3rd Battalion, 304th Infantry Regiment in West Point, New York, when commanders became concerned about him.

Galbreath said Card's history of mental illness meant he could have taken his own life somewhere secluded to 'keep the fear going' among the public.

Robert Carlson, a law enforcement officer and firearms instructor who founded the Brave Defender Training Group in Memphis, told DailyMail.com that Card's military history means he has 'the same, if not even a possibly higher level of, training and experience as the responding officers'.

'It does most significantly add an increased level of danger when you have somebody that has some sort of level of training or familiarity with tactics and weapons,' he said.

Carlson said it is important law enforcement provide information so that 'that the public is aware of not only their risk, but also so that they can aid law enforcement in attempting to identify or spot that individual'.

The search has included forests, waterways and small towns around the rural areas in Maine where the shootings took place.

Schools, doctor's offices and grocery stores closed and people stayed behind locked doors in cities as far away as 50 miles from the scenes of the shootings.

On Thursday evening at 7:20pm, FBI agents were heard using a bullhorn outside a house and saying: 'Come out with your hands up.'

It was unclear who they were talking to, if anyone.

Card, his parents and his brother and sister-in-law all live in the area.

The police began withdrawing at 8:42pm, and by 9pm the final convoy - among them Maryland State Police - exited the scene. A helicopter, from New Hampshire State Police, also left.

A series of four loud bangs were heard on Thursday evening near this Bowdoin, Maine home connected to Robert Card. Police have not yet confirmed what the noises were or who was home

The agents, using a bullhorn, had told a person to come towards them, and asked if anyone else was inside. Helicopters were overhead, and drones.

It was unclear if anyone was inside the house.

Connor Clemente, a reporter with local news channel WMTWTV, said he heard the FBI ordering Card himself to come out of the house.

He tweeted that he heard: 'Robert Card, you're under arrest. We know you're inside, come out with your hands up, we don't want anyone to get hurt.'

Maine state police said that the orders to 'come out with your hands up' were 'standard', and refused to comment on who was inside.

'The announcements that are being heard over a loud speaker are standard search warrant announcements when executing a warrant to ensure the safety of all involved,' said Shannon Moss, a spokesman for Maine state police.

'It is unknown whether Robert Card is in any of the homes law enforcement will search.

'Law enforcement officials are simply doing their due diligence by tracking down every lead in an effort to locate and apprehend Card.'

Card, 40, has been on the run since murdering 18 people on Wednesday night in Lewiston, 15 miles from his Bowdoin home.

His abandoned car was found on Wednesday night seven miles from Lewiston, near the town of Lisbon.

A Maryland TAC team walk out out of a field after law enforcement surrounded a property in Bowdoin, Maine, believed to be connected to Lewiston shooting suspect Robert Card

Law enforcement vehicles leave the area near a home connected to mass-shooting suspect Robert Card in Bowdoin, Maine on Thursday at 6:20pm. They were back around an hour later

An armored vehicle is seen leaving the property connected to the Card family on Thursday night

An aerial view of law enforcement personnel at the Schemengees Bar & Grille Restaurant after deadly mass shootings in Lewiston, Maine

His sister told law enforcement officials the 40-year-old Army reserve firearms instructor could have targeted Schemengees Bar and Grille and Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley in Lewiston in the hope of finding his ex, ABC reported.

Court documents show his ex-wife filed for divorce in 2007 and they were granted joint custody of their child - though it's unclear whether she is his most recent ex.

Card is still on the run and considered armed and dangerous after he carried out the year's deadliest shooting at around 7pm on Wednesday. It's feared he may have fled on a boat he owns.

Ryan Koroknay, a spokesman for the Coast Guard, said a response boat crew has been dispatched from Boothbay Harbor, and a fixed wing plane from Cape Cod is also assisting with search efforts.

Card owns a 12-foot Sea Doo Jet Ski and previously registered a 15-foot Bayliner boat, The Sun Journal reported.

Koroknay would not say whether the Coast Guard was looking for any particular vessel.

Opening fire with an AR-15-style rifle, the gunman killed at least 18 people while injuring 13 more before fleeing. As the multi-agency search for the armed fugitive enters its 22nd hour, cops have also uncovered a cryptic note at his Bowdoin home.

Four law enforcement sources told NBC New York that police are poring over the meaning of the letter.

Card was training with his unit in the Army Reserve's 3rd Battalion, 304th Infantry Regiment at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in New York in July, when his military commanders said they observed him acting erratically.

In an updated statement, a U.S. Army spokesperson said Card was not trained as a firearms instructor, as police had originally reported.
A Maine councilman has told how his son was shot dead after he tried to stop mass shooter Robert Card's massacre at a bar with a butcher knife.

Leroy Walker said his son Joseph, who managed Schemengees Bar & Grille in Lewiston, used his last moments to try to save lives before he was gunned down.

'My son picked up a butcher knife and went after the gunman to try to stop him from killing other people,' the city councilman said. 'That's when he shot my son to death. He tried to save some more lives, and he ended up losing his life.'

Speaking on CNN on Friday morning, he added: 'I'm very proud of my son. I know that definitely he would do this all over again if this was to happen. All my life and all my son's life, we have faced many other things that have been crazy at times in life.'

Walker Sr said the bar served as a meeting place for members of the community, who consider each other family.

We are starting to learn more details about the 18 people whose lives were taken in the Lewiston, ME shootings. @jasoncarrollcnn reports: pic.twitter.com/LgmPDezFih  CNN This Morning (@CNNThisMorning) October 27, 2023

Joseph Walker (pictured), 57, was the son of Auburn City Councilor Leroy Walker and manager of Schemengees Bar & Grille in Lewiston

'My son picked up a butcher knife and went after the gunman to try to stop him from killing other people.,' city councilman Leroy Walker (pictured) said

Walker Sr went on to explain that despite his grief he does not harbor anger towards the shooter. The father and son are pictured together

Leroy Walker said his son Joseph, who managed Schemengees Bar & Grille in Lewiston

The bar manager reportedly used his last moments to try to save lives before he was killed by the gunman

'This place brings thousands of people in a year. And Joe is usually the first face they see coming through the door and the last one they see going out the door. It's going to be hard for a lot of people,' Walker said through tears.

'For myself and my family and his wife and grandchildren, stepchildren, they are a loving family.'

Walker Sr went on to explain that despite his grief he does not harbor anger towards the shooter.

'You have to put that part of it out of your mind. You have to let the law do whatever needs to be done,' he said. 'If this person was at the time in his right mind, I believe he would have been a loving person just like we are.'

Shooting suspect Card, 40, remains on the run more than 24 hours after the rampage on Wednesday.

The rampage has left at least 18 people dead and 13 more injured, meaning it is believed to be the deadliest mass shooting of 2023. The shooting is the 34th mass killing involving more than four victims in the US this year.

Hundreds of law enforcement officers are searching for Card- a petroleum supply specialist who received psychiatric treatment this summer after he reported hearing voices and having thoughts about hurting other soldiers.

Law Enforcement officials continue their investigation at the Schemengees Bar

Law enforcement officers, right, stand near armored and tactical vehicles, center, near a property on Meadow Road, in Bowdoin, Maine, on Thursday night

FBI agents staged a dramatic raid on a family property on Thursday night but Card remains on the run - as experts warned that the deer hunter and Army reservist was well equipped to survive in the wild, and could even be planning a new attack.

The Canada Border Services Agency has issued an 'armed and dangerous' alert to its officers along the Canada-U.S. border as the search for entered its second day on Friday.

Survivors and bereaved family members have begun speaking out following the bloody massacre at Schemengees Bar and Grille and Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley in Lewiston, the state's second city.

Maine Police Colonel William G. Ross said that seven of the victims were found at the Just-In-Time bowling alley: one female and six males, all suffering apparent gunshot wounds.

Another eight victims were found at Schemengees Bar and Grille: seven males were discovered inside and one outside, all also with apparent bullet wounds.

Many more people were rushed to area hospitals, where some were pronounced dead.

Bill Young and his 14-year-old son Aaron were shot and killed at the Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley, Bill's brother Rob Young said.

Before learning of their deaths, Rob had flown from Baltimore to Lewiston on Thursday to help his sister-in-law in her frantic search for information after the pair had not been heard from since Wednesday when they went bowling.

Young joined Bob Violette, 76, who was also killed in the massacre that erupted inside Just In Time Recreation bowling alley, formally known as Sparetime, and Schemengee's Bar and Grille, according to his daughter-in-law Cassandra.

Tricia Asselin, 53, who worked at the bowling alley, was also confirmed in the harrowing hours after the senseless massacre.

Bryan MacFarlane, 40, who was playing cornhole with his deaf friends, Arthur Strout, 41, and Ron Morin were also confirmed dead by family and friends.

Peyton Brewer-Ross, 40, and Steve Vozzella, 45, were also identified as victims by their family, friends, and colleagues.

The manager of the bowling alley, 34-year-old Tom Conrad, was also confirmed dead.

It emerged on Thursday Card may have been searching for his ex at the bowling alley and bar where he opened fire.

And police sources told ABC News that he left a suicide note addressed to his son.

The note did not give a motive for the mass shooting, the sources said.

Court documents show his ex-wife filed for divorce in 2007 and they were granted joint custody of their child - though it's unclear whether she is his most recent ex.
A 17-year-old boy has been charged with murder after a woman was stabbed to death inside a home.

The teenage boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was arrested after Mandy Barnett, 60, was attacked on Monday, October 23, at a property in Leeds, West Yorkshire.

Police arrived at a house in Prince Edward Grove on the west side of the city after 11.08, after paramedics found Ms Barnett gravely wounded>

West Yorkshire Police have now confirmed that the boy they arrested has been remanded in custody after formal charges were brought against him.

Today, Ms Barnett's family released a photograph of her in tribute and asked for privacy while they grieve.
Leigh Sales has revealed the furious note ABC Chair Ita Buttrose left on her car after she nicked her office parking space.

The former 7.30 host said she was running late for an important interview in 2020 when she pulled her car into the national broadcaster's parking lot only to find it full.

With no time to waste, Sales decided to park in the spot reserved for Ms Buttrose - who then left a very stern note behind.

Leigh Sales has revealed the furious note ABC Chair Ita Buttrose left on her car after she nicked her office parking space

The note Ms Buttrose left on Sales' car now hangs on a wall behind the TV presenter's desk

'Please DON'T park in my car spot again,' the letter read, Sales recounted at the Andrew Olle Media Lecture in Sydney on Friday night.

The veteran journalist told the audience that Ms Buttrose had also left her business card attached to the note.

'There was that famous Ita signature and date. In the top left-hand corner was stapled a business card that read Ita Buttrose AC OBE,' she said.

Sales later confessed after security were instructed to find the culprit.

The letter has since been framed and now hangs above Sales' desk.

'I've been sitting on that anecdote for three years, waiting for the perfect moment to tell it publicly because I knew it was a great story,' she told the crowd.

'Journos are often accused of bias and actually, I agree. Real journalists all do share a bias...towards the cracking story.'

Ms Buttrose, who has been at the helm of the ABC since her appointment as Chair in 2019, announced in August she would be stepping down from the post

Sales, a triple Walkley award winner, was the host of the ABC's flagship current affairs program 7.30 for more than a decade before she stepped down in June last year.

Previously, she hosted Lateline for three years and spent several years as the ABC's Washington Correspondent following 9/11.

She returned to television screens this year and is currently the host of Australian Story.

Ms Buttrose, who has been at the helm of the ABC since her appointment as Chair in 2019, announced in August she would be stepping down from the post.

Her term concludes in March 2024.
The belongings of a woman who vanished in the Kakadu National Park have been found, as her family desperately await answers having last heard from her more than a week ago.

Jessica Louise Stephens, 35, last spoke to her family on October 19, and remains missing in the Northern Territory national park near Nourlangie Rock where she'd been camping.

Ms Stephens' car has been found, while several personal items have also been uncovered during the search, police said.

Temperatures are expected to soar into the 40s this weekend with search crews holding deep concerns for the missing camper.

'The personal items were found quite a way from the track,' NT Police Senior Sergeant Steven Langdon said.

'But at this stage we haven't found anything else.'

Jessica Louise Stephens, 35, last spoke to her family on October 19, and remains missing in the Kakadu National Park near Nourlangie Rock where she'd been camping

Ms Stephens is believed to have camped near Nourlangie Rock

Over five days a total of 30 rangers, 14 police officers, two helicopters and drones have scoured a 140 square kilometre area hoping to track down Ms Stephens.

'It is a race against time,' Sen Sgt Langdon said.

'The terrain is incredibly difficult, incredibly slow to search, and takes a while to search through the crevices and rocks.'

Ms Stephens' mother revealed her daughter had recently been discharged from a mental health ward at the Darwin Royal Hospital.

Kakadu is one of Australia's largest national parks and covers almost 20,000 square kilometres of land.

Police are appealing for anyone with information on Ms Stephens' whereabouts to contact them immediately.

More than 10,000 crocodiles live in Kakadu which makes up roughly 10 per cent of the species' population in the Northern Territory.
A paramedic pronounced a 70-year-old woman dead despite her heart still beating because he did not want to perform CPR on muddy ground flecked with bird poo, a tribunal has heard.

Rick Clark was among four paramedics called to Lake Victoria in Maryborough, Victoria, in 2020 when the woman collapsed on a bench, the Melbourne City News reported.

The woman was reportedly conscious and responsive but then began making 'incomprehensible sounds'.

She later died.

Mr Clark told colleagues that he 'didn't think it was really worth starting' resuscitation, according to documents filed at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

A paramedic pronounced a 70-year-old woman dead despite her heart still beating because he did not want to perform CPR on muddy ground flecked with bird poo, a tribunal has heard (file picture)

One of his colleagues replied that it didn't 'feel right' not to attempt to save the woman, however an internal investigation found Mr Clark told a clinician that there was a 'consensus' to not attempt CPR.

'The consensus was to call it because we're not going to start CPR,' Mr Clark said, before telling a radio dispatcher to cancel other crews that were on the way.

The paramedic said he also decided against CPR because the woman was overweight and the nearby ground had bird poo on it, the tribunal heard.

Mr Clark also cancelled other crews sent to help, telling a radio dispatcher 'we're not going to atttempt this'.

The tribunal was also told that Mr Clark later told investigators that he did not regret his actions and would do the same again in similar circumstances.

Rick Clark was among four paramedics called to Lake Victoria in Maryborough, Victoria, in 2020 when the woman collapsed on a bench

Lawyers for the Paramedicine Board of Australia said Mr Clark had a 'lack of remorse' and that he knew his actions would lead to the woman's death.

Mr Clark's lawyers argued that the other paramedics on the scene that day were also partly to blame, adding that he now 'accepts his role in the outcome'.

The paramedic was suspended from work shortly after the woman's death and that he had stopped working in healthcare.

In its decision, the tribunal stated Mr Clark 'would still pose an unacceptable risk to the public if he sought to return as a paramedic'.

The tribunal banned him from being registered as a paramedic for five years. He is also banned from providing health care - including first aid - for the same length of time.

An inquest was not held into the woman's death.
A young mom with a history of addiction was found dead on a barge on the Mississippi River after being arrested for begging to go to a psych ward just days before.

The body of 22-year-old Hailey Silas was found on a barge in the Mississippi River on October 21 and her death remains a mystery, Shelby County Sheriff's Office said.

Silas, a mom to a four-year-old son, was arrested and taken into custody on October 15 after repeatedly calling the police and begging them for help because she was 'scared'.

She told the cops that she was having a 'panic attack' and pleaded with them to take her to a psych ward. Silas's sister revealed that the 22-year-old had a history of addiction and said they both had a troubled upbringing.

Silas's body was mysteriously found over 400 miles away from where she made the call. Chief Deputy Anthony Buckner called the death investigation 'extremely unusual' on Monday.

A young mom with a history of addiction was found dead on a barge on the Mississippi River after being arrested for begging to go to a psych ward just days before (Pictured: Hailey Silas, 22)

Silas, a mom to a four-year-old son, was arrested and taken into custody on October 15 after repeatedly calling the police and begging them for help because she was 'scared' (Pictured: Silas with her 4-year-old son)

Hailey Silas was originally from Oklahoma. She had attended Wellston High School and gave birth to her son four years ago with her now ex partner Cesar Perez. Perez said in a Facebook tribute: 'You will forever hold a special place in my heart through the good times and the bad times we always overcame anything'

Silas had made her desperate 911 calls from a gas station opposite the Southland Casino in West Memphis, Arkansas. She was arrested for her 'false alarm' police calls and given a suspended sentence

The dead body was found by workers during a routine inspection of the barge on the Mississippi River that falls in between the Tennessee and Arkansas border.

She had made her desperate 911 calls from a gas station opposite the Southland Casino in West Memphis, Arkansas.

She was arrested for her 'false alarm' police calls and given a suspended sentence, according to records.

Arkansas court documents revealed that Hailey plead guilty to the Class A misdemeanor on October 18 after appearing in a West Memphis courtroom.

The police took Silas to the station and she was 'scared and confused', according to WREG, she asked to talk to her mom and dad and begged to be taken to a 'psych ward'.

Hailey Silas was originally from Oklahoma. She had attended Wellston High School and gave birth to her son four years ago with her now ex partner Cesar Perez.

Perez said in a Facebook tribute: 'You will forever hold a special place in my heart through the good times and the bad times we always overcame anything

'Even though we both decided it was best to split up 3 months ago I still thought about you everyday I still loved you and now I sit here with this heart ache.

'Finding out you are no longer with us my heart is shattered completely but I promise you I got our baby boy down here I'll do everything I can for my son please watch over us Hailey we love you so much.'

Silas's mom - LaRena Darrow - was heartbroken by the news of her daughter's tragic death. She said: 'She was an amazing mother. My grandson is missing out on such a wonderful person. She was such an angel.

'I dont want to think about my baby being hurt like that and nobody being there to save her or being there to help her.

The body of 22-year-old Hailey Silas was found on a barge in the Mississippi River and her death remains a mystery (Pictured: Mississippi barge)

Silas's body was mysteriously found over 400 miles away from where she made the desperate 911 calls

Silas's older sister Daisy opened up in a GoFundMe page about the 22-year-old's previous struggles with addiction and their troubling childhood

Her mother said Silas hadn't been acting strangely in the lead-up to her peculiar death. She said: 'I had spoken with her Thursday night and she had sent me a couple pictures of her on a bridge and she looked so happy. And she was about to go sing karaoke and that was the last time I talked to her.'

Her mother also claimed that someone else had Silas's phone - alleging that when she called the number an unknown voice answered the phone.

Darrow responded to the caller, saying: This is my daughters profile, what are you doing on it?

The unknown man said: Well, Im sorry, Hailey doesnt have a phone anymore.'

Silas's older sister Daisy Rys created a GoFundMe for Hailey. She wrote: 'Hailey was my little sister she was 22 and I'm 24, she left a 4 year old perfect little angle who had the best mom in the entire world while she was there, so patient, so understanding, so beautiful inside and out.

'Whoever IS responsible for this will have their day of judgement. Hailey and I basically raised ourselves, we always motivated one another no matter what was going on inside!

'We both endured trauma growing up only at different times witch led us both into addiction.

'Her addiction took her away from everything she loved the most and most important what she was the best at which was being that little boys mommy.

'She was my inspiration having my own son, she was the most affectionate person I know, the most thoughtful she didn't deserve this above all people this sweet, kind, and was beyond beautiful inside and out.'
Survivors of Hurricane Otis linked the Mexican government's slow response to an interest in restoring the city's infrastructure for its booming tourism industry

Residents in Acapulco have taken to looting supermarkets and malls in search of basic goods

Opportunistic Acapulco residents have been spotted looting businesses en masse - robbing stores of items like electronics and homeware items, just a day after Hurricane Otis devastated the resort town in Mexico.

While some survivors of the Category 5 storm were seen ransacking bottled water, toilet paper and food out of multiple department stores, including Sam's Club and Walmart, others were seen making off with items far from essential.

Shocking footage shows some making the most of the devastation by stealing electronic goods and homeware appliances - despite being left without power, as the National Guard simply but did nothing to stop them.

Residents in the coastal city, once known for its beachside glamour, have become increasingly worried that the government is focusing the city's infrastructure  the economic engine  instead of providing help to the neediest.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador indicated during his daily press briefing Friday there are no plans to put a curfew into place.

'We have to get Acapulco back on its feet as soon as possible, until the situation is normalized,' Lopez Obrador said.

Residents loot a supermarket in Acapulco, Mexico, on Thursday, just a day after Hurricane Otis made landfall in the resort city, where 1 million people were left without electricity and water. The storm killed 27 people across the state of Guerrero

Locals used torches as a guide through the carnage at a supermarket in Acapulco, Mexico

People collect groceries in a looted supermarket as they desperately take supplies while others took more than the essentials

A Mexican National Guard soldier tries to stop people who are carrying away items like toilet paper and beans that they took from a store inside a shopping mall on Thursday, a day after Hurricane Otis ripped through Acapulco, Mexico

Brown floodwaters extended for miles in some areas. Many residents were taking basic items from stores to survive

Hurricane Otis made landfall in the state of Guerrero on Wednesday with winds that topped 165 miles per hour, making it the strongest on record for a landfalling Eastern Pacific tropical cyclone.

The storm killed 27 people across the state and at least four people, including three Navy personnel, are still missing.

Flora Contreras Santos, a housewife from a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of the city, sought help in looking for a 3-year-old girl who was swept away from her mother in a mudslide. She went from soldier to soldier trying to interest any one of them in the tragedy that occurred on her street at the height of the storm.

'The mountain came down on them. The mud took her from the mothers arms,' Contreras said. 'We need help, the mother is in bad shape and we cant find the girl.'

The Guerrero government said that 95 percent of business in the state were damaged by the hurricane, leaving police and national guardsmen outnumbered as residents raided the stores.

Ricardo Diaz, a self-employed laborer, stood Thursday with two fistfuls of live chickens he clutched by their legs. A chicken company had given him the chickens, Diaz said.

Residents survey the destruction around Acapulco's Diamond Zone on Friday after it was slammed by Hurricane Otis, which carried winds that topped 165 miles per hour

Satellite images shows before (top) and after (bottom) pictures of Arena GNP Seguros Stadium in Acapulco after Hurricane Otis made landfall Wednesday as a Category 5 storm

Satellite overview of the Krystal Hotel and beachfront before (top) and after (bottom) Hurricane Otis made landfall in the resort city of Acapulco

A woman nearby pushed an office chair loaded with artificial Christmas wreaths and toilet paper through the streets. Diaz looked on in dismay as people carried armfuls of goods out of a damaged store.

'Theyre going to close these stores and that hurts Acapulco,' Diaz said.

Acapulcos police chief Luis Enrique Vazquez Rodriguez said Thursday they could do little to stop people from emptying local stores or speed up traffic caused by mud and fallen trees, which has left much of the city paralyzed.

'We dont have the capacity to stop looting because theres so many people,' he said. 'This is a completely extraordinary situation.'

The Category 5 storm brought floods and sustained winds of 165 miles per hour, with damage seen to balconies and roofs in the video

Due to the intense winds that Otis brought with it, it is now on record as the strongest landfalling Eastern Pacific tropical cyclone

Aerial footage of Hurricane Otis' destruction showed the beach resort waterfront completely ruined, with debris littering resorts and apartment buildings alike.

Entire walls of beachside high rises were ripped clean off. Hundreds of thousands of homes remained without electricity. People lacking even the most basic resources were emptying stores out of everything from food to toilet paper.

Miguel Angel Fong, president of the Mexican Hotel Association told the Associated Press that 80 percent of the city's hotels were damaged.

Guerrero Governor Evelyn Salgado said that free transportation would be provided for tourists looking to leave Acapulco.

Acapulco International Airport reopened Friday morning and Aeromexico, Viva Aerobus and Volaris were providing service to fly tourists to Mexico City.

However, dozens of desperate tourists, tired of waiting for buses out of the city, walked along the narrow sidewalks through the long car tunnel under the mountain dividing the port from the rest of the city. They pulled suitcases and some carried children.

Debris litters a beach on Thursday, a day after Hurricane Otis ripped through Acapulco, Mexico, as a Category 5 storm. At least 80 percent of the city's hotels were damaged

The disastrous weather front was centered about 55 miles south-southeast of Acapulco, and its ruinous effects were also moving north-northwest at 9 miles per hour

Many of the once-sleek beachfront hotels in Acapulco looked like toothless, shattered hulks a day after the Category 5 storm made landfall Wednesday

The disastrous weather front was centered about 55 miles south-southeast of Acapulco, and its ruinous effects were also moving north-northwest at 9 mph.

Otis turned from mild to monster in record time, and scientists were struggling to figure out how and why they didnt see it coming.

Brown floodwaters extended for miles in some areas. Trees were toppled and power lines were left lying in brown floodwaters that extended for miles.

Resulting destruction delayed a comprehensive response by the government, which was still assessing the damage along Mexico's Pacific coast, and made residents desperate.

Many of the once-sleek beachfront hotels in Acapulco looked like toothless, shattered hulks a day after the Category 5 storm blew out hundreds - and possibly thousands - of windows.

While some 10,000 military troops were deployed to the area, they lacked the tools to clean tons of mud and fallen trees from the streets.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador toured an area of the city on Thursday and said that Otis toppled every power-line pole in the region.

This has left most of the city's one million residents without electricity, and the municipal water system was also shut down.

The President said: 'The people sheltered, protected themselves and that's why fortunately there weren't more tragedies, loss of human life.'

A woman is helped across a highway blocked by a landslide triggered by Hurricane Otis, near Acapulco

Tourism infrastructure on the beach lays in shambles after Hurricane Otis made landfall

Many residents were taking basic items from stores to survive. Others left with pricier goods, in widespread rampages through the area's stores

The early images and accounts were of extensive devastation, toppled trees and power lines lying in brown floodwaters that extended for miles

A damaged car lays on a street divider in Acapulco, Mexico, on Thursday

People carry away a mattress, a television monitor and a bicycle from a store at a shopping mall in the Mexican coastal city of Acapulco

One victim is a solider who died after a wall inside his home collapsed on him, the president said.

Juan Pablo Lopez, 26, had been talking to his wife when their call was cut off early Wednesday as Otis made landfall.

She had returned to Acapulco to be with her family and give birth to their son a month ago. Lopez was at home in Cancun.

With no information coming in, he created an online chat with friends and family from and invited friends who has emigrated to the U.S. to add fellow locals.

He said: 'I'm very worried for my newborn son. We started to cross-reference information, to share what we found, almost like a WhatApp newspaper.'

A damaged car sits under a fallen tree and utility pole on a road next to Acapulco International Airport

Forecasters and meteorologists are baffled at how they did not see Otis' catastrophic path coming

A woman walks carries a mirror looted from a furniture store on Wednesday after the storm made landfall

It took nearly all day Wednesday for authorities to partially reopen the main highway connecting Acapulco to the state capital Chilpancingo and Mexico City

Hundreds of trucks from the government electricity company arrived in Acapulco early Wednesday, but seemed at a loss as to how to restore power.

Forecasters and meteorologists are baffled at how they did not see Otis' catastrophic path coming.

The city was warned it would just be a tropical storm, but the usually-reliable computer models failed to predict its explosive intensification.

University of Miami hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy said: 'It's one thing to have a Category 5 hurricane make landfall somewhere when you're expecting it.

'But to have it happen when you're not expecting anything to happen is truly a nightmare.'

MIT atmospheric sciences professor and hurricane expert Kerry Emanuel said that 'the models completely blew it.'

McNoldy said there may be a mystery ingredient that scientists just don't know right now, but water is key.

The surface waters off the Mexican coast were warm but 'not crazy warm,' said University at Albany atmospheric scientist Kristen Corbosiero. Bennan and McNoldy said those waters were maybe 1 or 2 degrees above normal.

Below that, the water was much hotter than usual 'and there's just a ton of fuel out there right now,' McNoldy said.

Still, the storm didn't linger and feed on that, which would be expected in rapid intensification, Brennan added.

Jakob Sauczuk was staying with a group of friends at a beachfront hotel when Otis hit. 'We laid down on the floor, and some between beds.'

A looter carries goods stolen from a supermarket as residents deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Otis

Bottled drinking water was whipped off the shelves which appeared to have been raided

People were seen filling up bags and taking whatever was left, walking through puddles of water to access supplies

Destroyed goods were strewn across the floor of a store following the destructive weather event

A man collects groceries in a looted supermarket which appears to be in total disarray

People leave with goods after looting a local supermarket in the aftermath of Hurricane Otis

A woman leaves with bags of diapers from an Acapulco supermarket, just one of many that have been ransacked by desperate residents awaiting for the government to respond

Pablo Navarro, an auto parts worker who was lodged in temporary accommodations at a beachfront hotel, thought he might die in his 13th story hotel room.

'I took shelter in the bathroom, and thankfully the door held,' said Navarro. 'But there were some room where the wind blew out the windows and the doors.'

It took nearly all day Wednesday for authorities to partially reopen the main highway connecting Acapulco to the state capital Chilpancingo and Mexico City.

The vital ground link allowed dozens of emergency vehicles, personnel and trucks carrying supplies to reach the battered port.

Acapulco is at the foot of steep mountains - where luxury homes and slums alike cover the hillsides with views of the Pacific Ocean.

Once drawing Hollywood stars for its nightlife, sport fishing and cliff diving shows, the port has in recent years fallen victim to competing organized crime groups that have sunk the city into violence.

This has in turn driven many international tourists to the Caribbean waters of Cancun and the Riviera Maya or beaches farther down the Pacific coast in the state of Oaxaca.

Lopez Obrador noted that Otis was a stronger hurricane than Pauline, which hit Acapulco in 1997, destroying swaths of the city and killing more than 300 people.
Crow is the same controversial GOP megadonor known for lavishing Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife Ginni with expensive gifts

Minnesota Representative Dean Phillips received financial support in his run for Congress from Harlan Crow  the same controversial GOP megadonor who lavished Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas with expensive gifts.

DailyMail.com can reveal that Crow gave the maximum $2,800 contribution to Phillips' congressional campaign in 2019, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Phillips, the three-term moderate Democrat from a Minneapolis suburb, is set to declare his campaign for president against Joe Biden Friday in Concord, New Hampshire, after stepping down earlier this month from the House Democratic Leadership.

Even in the run-up to his announcement, he's faced criticism from some in his own party who fear he could weaken Biden by siphoning Democratic votes and diverting his attention from the general election, likely against Trump.

The Crow contribution will inevitably add to the fodder, with insiders already blasting Phillips' decision to accept support from a Republican influencer known for mischievously donating to third party candidate Cornel West's presidential campaign, giving Clarence Thomas and his wife Ginni expensive gifts, and for collecting Nazi artifacts including a signed copy of Hitler's Mein Kampf.

Dean Phillips will launch a Democratic primary challenge against President Joe Biden on Friday

DailyMail.com can reveal Harlan Crow gave the maximum $2,800 contribution to Phillips' congressional campaign in 2019

'Can't say I'm shocked that the multimillionaire gelato maker who represents a lily-white district in Minnesota would have no problem accepting max out donations from the dude who collects Nazi memorabilia and funds insurrectionist Ginni Thomas' social life,' a democratic strategist with ties to Biden world told DailyMail.com. 'Godspeed to this man in South Carolina.'

West, a progressive activist, came under scrutiny last week when it was revealed that Crow gave him the maximum $3,300 contribution in August, seeing the then Green Party candidate as a potential left-wing spoiler.

Clarence Thomas came under fire for accepting lavish gifts from Harlan Crow

West, now running as an independent, cowed to pressure and returned the donation. He took a shot at the pro-Israel community as he explained his reluctant decision on Friday.

'How sad that perceptions so quickly triumph over truth in our decadent culture,' the professor wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. 'This holds in our major catastrophe in the Middle East where the rich humanity of Palestinians is rendered invisible. It also holds at home in the minor scandal about Harlan Crow's donation to my campaign.

'He is a staunch anti-Trump Republican who has 'Never Forget' collections of tyrants (Stalin, Mao, Hitler and many others) and patriotic collections of Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln,' West continued. 'Does this disqualify him from contributing to my campaign? Most people holler yes, I say no. As a jazzman, I listened and decided to give the money back to brother Harlan  but still state the truth!'

Reports show the Texas billionaire also gave to Republican presidential candidates Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley and Chris Christie, and met with representatives from those campaigns at a donor conference in Dallas earlier this month.

Crow has also contributed to certain Democrats who've blocked much of Biden's agenda, including Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.

Phillips will announce his campaign Friday in the State House Plaza, an event that coincides with the deadline to file for a presidential run in the state.

The 54-year-old previously worked in corporate marketing and branding. His grandmother was Pauline Esther Phillips, better known as the advice columnist Dear Abby.

Crow mischievously donated to third party candidate Cornel West's presidential campaign

Crow is the same controversial GOP megadonor known for lavishing Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife Ginni with expensive gifts

Fellow Democrats in Washington and New Hampshire have already expressed their disdain at his candidacy.

'New Hampshire voters are not going to cut off their nose to spite their face,' Terry Shumaker, a former ambassador and veteran of multiple Democratic presidential campaigns in New Hampshire, recently told Politico 'New Hampshire Democrats and Independents recognize that Biden has done a really good job.

'Phillips can try [to exploit the calendar], but he should've started six months ago. Frankly, I think it's too late.'

Last month, Phillips teased a campaign on campaign strategist Steve Schmidt's podcast The Warning, stating: 'I'm concerned that there is no alternative.

'I'm concerned that something could happen between now and next November that would make the Democratic Convention in Chicago an unmitigated disaster,' he added.

Biden has yet to face a serious challenge from his own party despite his age, alarm among Democrats at his recent gaffes, and voters saying they'd like an alternative.

Biden is currently facing Democratic challenges from self-help author Marianne Williamson.

Phillips will announce his campaign Friday in the State House Plaza, an event that coincides with the deadline to file for a presidential run in the state

Biden has yet to face a serious challenge from his own party despite his age and voters saying they'd like an alternative

Environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had been running for the Democrats but announced earlier this month he would now run as an Independent.

Neither is presenting a strong challenge in the polls even as voters say they'd like a different choice.

Polls show voters are concerned about Biden's age. At 80, he is the oldest president in U.S. history. If he won a second term, he would be 86 when it was completed.

A Wall Street Journal poll this summer showed 75 percent of voters think Biden is too old to run for a second term, including a whopping two-thirds of Democrats.

Biden has joked about his age. He's also argued it means he has the experience to do the job.

'A lot of people seem focused on my age. Believe me, I know better than anyone,' he said at a fundraiser in New York recently. 'When this nation was flat on its back, I knew what to do.

'I am more optimistic about the future of this country than in the 800 years I've served,' he added to laughter.
Those charged in the infamous Alabama riverfront brawl that occurred in August will stand trial today and also learn their fates, according to reports.

Allen Todd, 24; Mary Todd, 21; Reggie Ray, 42; Richard Roberts, 48; and Zachary Shipman, 26, have been charged for their roles in the fracas, which many believe to have been racially motivated.

The Todds and Shipman are facing one count of third-degree assault while Roberts is facing two counts of third-degree assault with Ray facing a disorderly conduct count.

The trial will take place Friday with the judge expected to rule by the end of the day, reports CNN. All five are being tried separately.

The four white boaters, who police said were filmed hitting or shoving a Black riverboat captain in Montgomery, pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor assault charges at Montgomery Municipal Court in September.

Allen Todd and Richard Roberts were also charged

Mary Todd, 21, turned herself in last month along with her boyfriend Zachary Shipman

Reggie Ray is facing disorderly conduct charges in the case

Ray, who police said was filmed swinging a folding chair and hitting people in the subsequent melee, pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct charges.

Videos of the brawl were widely shared on social media and spawned a multitude of memes, jokes, parodies, reenactments and even T-shirts.

Richard White, a lawyer representing one of the white boaters, told WSFA that he wants to make sure his client is treated fairly given the national attention.

Montgomery Police Chief Darryl Albert told reporters in August that the brawl began when the owner of a pontoon boat refused to move from a docking spot designated for the city-owned Harriott II riverboat.

The riverboat co-captain took a smaller vessel to shore to move the pontoon boat so the Harriott II could dock and let its 200 or so passengers disembark.

Videos of the brawl showed the participants largely divided along racial lines. Several white men punched or shoved the Black riverboat co-captain after he took a separate vessel to shore and tried to move their pontoon boat.

The white boaters' private vessel was docked in a spot designated for the city-owned Harriott II riverboat, on which more than 200 passengers were waiting to disembark.

The videos then showed mostly Black people rushing to the co-captain's defense, including a Black teenage riverboat crew member who swam to the dock.

A woman at the Alabama riverfront brawl says she heard a white attacker say 'F**k that n*****' to the black deckhand at the center of the shocking incident

Four of the people who have been charged so far are shown sitting on the dock in handcuffs

The videos also showed the ensuing brawl that included a Black man hitting a white person with a folding chair.

Jim Kittrell, the captain of Harriott II, told The Daily Beast that he thought race might have been a factor in the initial attack on his co-captain, but the resulting melee was not a 'Black and white thing.'

'This was our crew upset about these idiots,' Kittrell also told WACV radio station.

He later explained that several members of his crew, seen confronting the pontoon boat party after the riverboat docked, 'felt they had to retaliate, which was unfortunate.'

'I wish we could have stopped it from happening but, when you see something like that, it was difficult. It was difficult for me to sit there in the wheelhouse watching him being attacked,' Kittrell told the station.

Major Saba Coleman of the Montgomery Police Department said in August that hate crime charges were ruled out after the department consulted with the local FBI.

But several observers noted the presence of a hate motivation, or lack thereof, on the part of the pontoon boat party was not why the event resonated so strongly.

'All these individuals having smartphones and cameras have democratized media and information. In the past, it was a very narrow scope on what news was being reported and from what perspectives,' NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson said.

The technology, Johnson added, 'opened up an opportunity for America as a whole to understand the impact of racism, the impact of violence and the opportunity to create a narrative that's more consistent with keeping African Americans and other communities safe.'
A Massachusetts mom accused of strangling her three children to death while suffering with post-partum psychosis sat in a wheelchair during a hospital court hearing.

Lindsay Clancy, 33, was charged with the murders of her five-year-old daughter Cora, three-year-old son Dawson, and seven-month-old son Callan in the basement of their home in Duxbury on January 24.

She had begged doctors for help before the deaths - and she cut her own wrists then jumped from a top floor window of the family's home following the ordeal and tore her spinal cord.

Clancy appeared in front of a judge on Thursday at state-run psychiatric treatment facility Tewksbury State Hospital, where she has been hospitalized since the spring.

She pleaded not guilty and a judge ruled for her to be held without bail and committed to psychiatric care because she is 'at imminent risk of self-harm'.

Massachusetts mom Lindsay Clancy, accused of strangling her three children to death while suffering with post-partum psychosis, sat in a wheelchair during a hospital court hearing

She was charged with murders of her five-year-old daughter Cora, three-year-old son Dawson, and seven-month-old son Callan in the basement of their home in Duxbury on January 24

Clancy begged doctors for help before the deaths - and she cut her own wrists then jumped from a top floor window of the family's home following the ordeal, her spinal cord

Clancy, dressed in all black, wore a blue surgical mask over her nose during the hearing which lasted around 30 minutes. She was sat on a large table facing the prosecutor.

Judge William F. Sullivan ordered that Clancy be held without bail and committed to psychiatric care at Tewksbury Hospital for six months.

He found her at imminent risk for self-harm' after Dr. Karin Towers, a forensic psychiatrist reported during the arraignment that Clancy is experiencing 'unbearable depression and trouble getting through each day'.

'It is my opinion that she does require ongoing psychiatric hospitalization,' Towers said after she examined Clancy earlier that morning.

Clancy's next court date has been scheduled for December 15.

Prosecutor Jennifer Sprague provided additional details about the events of January 24, during which a fitness watch tracing Clancy's path from the basement - where she alleged strangled her children with exercise bands - to the second floor.

Investigative affidavits showed the mother cut her wrists and neck before jumping from the second-floor window.

Sprague said the curt were 'superficial' and did not require stitches, carrying doubt on how serious Clancy's suicide attempt was. She added that the wounds were not bleeding by the time her husband had found her.

Sprague mentioned that Clancy appeared to know who she is, emphasizing that there were 'no hallucinations or delusions' in Clancy's notes, where she documented her life and the lives of her children.

Clancy's defense attorney, Kevin Reddington, countered Sprague's argument by saying he 'was able to see the blood that was on the floor, on the wall, on the windowpane' from his client's wounds, in contrast to what Sprague described as a 'dinky cut.'

Clancy allegedly attacked and killed her three children Cora Clancy, 5, Dawson Clancy, 3, and 8-month-old Callan Clancy

A court document obtained by DailyMail.com Tuesday revealed that she allegedly researched methods of killing before she strangled her three children to death and attempted to take her own life.

The mother, a labor and delivery nurse, then attempted to take her own life which left her paralyzed from the waist down. She remains in hospital even going as far as to address the court from a hospital bed.

The unsealed affidavit showed that investigators obtained a warrant for her electronic devices, where Clancy would journal about her mental health and feelings about children, but also 'researching ways to kill.'

Clancy was suffering severe postpartum depression and had been prescribed an 'over the top' cocktail of pills that her forgiving husband Patrick Clancy believes are to blame for the tragedy.

The investigators took bottles of diazepam, amitriptyline and trazodone, all antidepressants, from Clancy's home on January 25. All three had been prescribed to her within the last 16 days.

It's also revealed that Clancy's husband, Patrick, was in the basement when police had arrived to check on Lindsay and knew 'something was wrong because his children would not wake up.'

He approached the police and started screaming: 'She killed the kids!' as he made the discoveries, finding two of his children with band around their necks, turning their faces 'blue and purple.'

Authorities did a full search on the home and went through home cameras, receipts, a CVS bag containing a child's laxative Lindsay had asked Patrick to buy, the murder weapons, the knife and several notebooks.

The books included a more full list of medications Lindsay was being prescribed: Zoloft, Valium, Trazodone, Ativan, Klonopin, Prozac and Seroquel. It did not appear she had been given all of these at the same time.

Post partum psychosis is defined by the National Institutes of Health as the severest form of mental illness in that category, and is characterized by extreme confusion, loss of touch with reality, paranoia, delusions, disorganized thought process, and hallucinations.'

It usually occurs within the first six weeks after giving birth and 'warrants immediate medical and psychiatric attention and hospitalization if the risk of suicide or filicide exists.'

Clancy's lawyer, Kevin J Reddington, previously told a judge that the drugs she had been prescribed left her feeling feeling like a 'zombie'.

A chilling audio of the 911 dispatch call made by Patrick that night reveals the extent of the horror.

Clancy was suffering severe postpartum depression and had been prescribed an 'over the top' cocktail of pills that her forgiving husband Patrick (second from left) believes are to blame for the tragedy

The tragedy occurred on January 24 at the family home at 47 Summer Street in Duxbury

A well-wisher visits the makeshift memorial that grew in front of the family's Duxbury home

Patrick found his wife lying outside their home after returning from collecting takeout food for the family.

As first responders arrived on scene and tended to his wife, Patrick could be heard screaming in the home's basement.

There he found the children unconscious and blue with exercise bands around their necks.

The state's chief medical examiner would declare the two older children had died of asphyxia, while little Callan had died from complications from asphyxia.

Clancy was arraigned on February 7 from her Brigham and Women's Hospital bed.

'One of the major issues here is the horrific overmedication of drugs that caused homicidal ideation, suicidal ideation' Reddington said in February.

'They [Lindsay and her husband Patrick] went to doctors repeatedly saying 'please help us.'

Patrick (pictured with his kids) found his wife lying outside their home after returning from collecting takeout food for the family

'The real Lindsay was generously loving and caring towards everyone - me, our kids, family, friends, and her patients' Patrick said of his wife

'This was turning her into a zombie...the medications that were prescribed were over the top, absolutely over the top.

'She had medical care and treatment on a regular basis. And her husband was very proactive in trying to protect her and help her with the doctors' medication she was prescribed.

'They went through hell  and they didn't come back,' he said.

In a GoFundMe message to friends and strangers who have raised $1million for him, he said: 'I want to ask all of you that you find it deep within yourselves to forgive Lindsay, as I have.

'The real Lindsay was generously loving and caring towards everyone - me, our kids, family, friends, and her patients.

'The very fibers of her soul are loving. All I wish for her now is that she can somehow find peace.'
A Moroccan man accused of stabbing a pensioner to death in the street in an attack 'motivated by terrorism' attacked the two police officers interviewing him, a court heard.

Ahmed Alid, 44, allegedly plunged a large knife into 70-year-old Terrence Carney after he used a cashpoint machine in Tees Street, Hartlepool, on 15 October.

Mr Carney was stabbed to the chest and neck and died from his injuries at the scene.

Alid was charged with murdering Mr Carney and attempting to murder his housemate Javed Nouri earlier that day. Mr Nouri suffered non life-threatening injuries.

Alid was charged with murder and attempted murder following an investigation by Counter Terrorism Policing North East and Cleveland Police.

Forensics on the scene at Wharton Terrace in Hartlepool earlier this month

He is also now charged with assaulting emergency workers while being interviewed on 16 October.

Alid appeared at the Old Bailey today via video-link from HMP Frankland assisted by an Arabic interpreter.

He will next appear for a plea and trial preparation hearing on 16 February.

A provisional three week trial before a High Court judge is set for 10 April at Teeside Crown Court.

Prosecutor Ben Lloyd earlier said: 'The offending took place in the early hours of 15 October and just after 4.45am the police received a report of an ongoing fight at a house at Wharton Terrace in Hartlepool.

'There were reports of lots of shouting, screaming and males fighting with a knife.

'Police attended the address and found that Javid Nouri had sustained stab wounds to his chest, legs and mouth and he explained that he'd been stabbed by his housemate, this defendant, who then left the address with a knife.

'Police searched the local area and discovered a second victim on a nearby street.

Deputy Chief Constable Victoria Fuller from Cleveland Police said: 'I am extremely proud of the bravery of the attending officers, that enabled the incident to be dealt with swiftly'

'That individual had suffered stab wounds, first aid was administered but he sadly died at the scene. He was identified as Mr Terrence Carney.

'The defendant was located nearby in possession of a large knife which was stained in blood and the defendant had blood on his clothing and injuries to his hands.

'Although the investigation is ongoing police at this time consider the offending to have been motivated by terrorism.'

Alid, of Hartlepool, is charged murder, attempted murder and two counts of assaulting an emergency worker.

Detective Chief Superintendent James Dunkerley, Head of Counter Terrorism Policing North East said: 'We are satisfied that this was an isolated incident and are not seeking anyone else in connection with this matter.

'We are grateful for the support and understanding of the local community during this investigation, which has caused understandable concern among local people.'

Deputy Chief Constable Victoria Fuller from Cleveland Police said: 'I am extremely proud of the bravery of the attending officers, that enabled the incident to be dealt with swiftly.

'Our thoughts remain with the family of Mr Carney, and the second man involved in Sunday's incident.'
A Louisiana coroners office has identified seven of the eight dead victims killed in one of the deadliest interstate highway pileups.

The St. John Parish Coroners Office was able to identify seven victims three days after a 'super fog' of smoke from marsh fires and dense fog caused massive pile-ups across the I-55 highway.

The pileup had left eight people dead and another 63 injured.

Two of the identified people are Nakia Gaines, 49 and his six-year-old son Mason, who were on their way to school when tragedy struck.

Two of the identified people are Nakia Gaines, 49 and his six-year-old son Mason, who were on their way to school when tragedy struck

Another person who has been identified is Qutub Singh Negi, 40, an executive chef at an Indian restaurant in Kenner, Louisiana

Friends of Gaines told WDSU.com that the New Orleans father had five other daughters and owned a t-shirt and merchandise business called American Trapp Star.

His best friend, Damien 'Shawt' Lundy said: 'Nakia as a person. Everyone in the community knows him as a standup guy. He was a motivator. I have received so many calls from people. He sowed good seeds in their lives. Just from his words and his energy. That's the energy he left here.'

Another person who has been identified is Qutub Singh Negi, 40, an executive chef at an Indian restaurant in Kenner, Louisiana. He was on his way to work on the fateful day.

Negi is survived by his wife, his 14-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter.

One of his friends, Raj Pannu told nola.com: '[Negi's wife] just cannot understand why it had to happen to him. They just celebrated their 15th wedding anniversary.'

Fernando Francisco DeMoraes, 50, (left) and Jose Elias Valle, 36, (right) were traveling in a box truck to work on their next construction site when they veered out of their lane to avoid hitting a vehicle. Instead, they ended up running into an 18-wheeler that had stopped in front of them

The coroner's office also identified two Chalmette men as victims.

Fernando Francisco DeMoraes, 50, and Jose Elias Valle, 36, were construction workers traveling in a box truck to work on their next site when they veered out of their lane to avoid hitting a vehicle.

Instead, they ended up running into an 18-wheeler that had stopped in front of them.

DeMoraes is from Brazil and is survived by his sick wife, and Valle who is from Honduras is survived by his 12-year-old daughter.

James Fleming, 87, from Lake St. Louis was also one of the victims that has been identified. He is survived by his 54-year-old daughter.

The last victim that was identified is 21-year-old Corinne Anna Hebert. She was a student at Aveda Institute in Hammond and was studying to be an esthetician.

Hebert is survived by many family members including her parents, brother and sister-in-law.

The last victim that was identified is 21-year-old Corinne Anna Hebert. She was a student at Aveda Institute in Hammond and was studying to be an esthetician

Drone footage and videos showed apocalyptic scenes from the aftermath of the wrecks showed a long stretch of mangled and scorched cars on Interstate 55 near New Orleans

Responders are seen near wreckage in the aftermath of a multi-vehicle pileup on I-55 in Manchac

At the time of the pileup, drone footage and videos showed apocalyptic scenes from the aftermath of the wrecks showed a long stretch of mangled and scorched cars near New Orleans.

Vehicles were crushed, rammed under one another and flames engulfed some. Many people initially stood on the side of the road or on the roof of their vehicle looking in disbelief at the disaster, while others cried out for help.

Piles of disformed cars, heaped on top of one another as firefighters trudged through the debris, remained on the interstate as the sun set.

Hours after the crashes, the smell of burnt wreckage still wafted in the area.

While many were transported to the hospital, with injuries ranging from minor to critical, others sought medical aid on their own, authorities said.

Gov. John Bel Edwards asked for prayers 'for those hurt and killed' and issued a call for blood donors to replenish dwindling supplies.

At least seven people were killed Monday after a 'super fog' of smoke from south Louisiana marsh fires and dense fog caused multiple massive car crashes involving a total of 158 vehicles

On social media, the National Weather Service said there were multiple wetland fires in the region.

Smoke from the fires mixed with fog creates a 'superfog' and visibility improves as the fog lifts, according to the agency.

Several schools in and near New Orleans had announced class cancellations or delayed openings due to the smoke and fog.

Smoke from the Bayou Sauvage Urban National Wildlife Refuge was thick enough that the city announced locations where free masks could be picked up in eastern New Orleans and in the Algiers neighborhood on the west bank of the Mississippi River.
People are not agreeing with his touristy choices

A user on TikTok made a list of the three best places to live in your 20s - and many viewers are debating his choices.

Content creator Taylor Offer says he has lived in almost every major city in America and previously made a video listing his least favorites.

Offer's new list shares the cities he has credited as the best in America for people in their 20s to live: Los Angeles, Austin, and New York City.

These famed cities have been known to host popular events and include some of the biggest tourist attractions in the world.

Some of the reasons behind his favorite cities include weather, activities, and the personalities of each location's residents.

Taylor Offer has said he's lived in almost every major US city. He states that the top three cities for people in their 20s to live in is Los Angeles, Austin, and New York

Los Angeles a popular California town with a population of four million, and is also a popular film, television, and award show location

According to Offer, his third favorite town is Los Angeles - his current California living location that has a population of almost four million.

He said: 'The weather is amazing year round, lot of cool opportunities, but it kind of fell off post COVID.'

The content creator admitted that, 'West Hollywood turned into a s*******' after people moved out of state as a result of the pandemic.

He then stated that those who live in LA, 'have to live in Venice or Silver Lake.'

'There's a couple good pockets of LA - it's not what it used to be, so it's number three,' he concluded.

Offer gave multiple reasons as to why Austin is the second best city to live in while in your 20s He calls Austin an, 'amazing great place' to live, complimenting its people and walkability

Austin is home to several headquarters and regional officers of Fortune 500 companies, and it is also the home for the annual SXSW Conference and Festivals

His second favorite city is Austin, which is the capital of Texas and the location of several headquarters and regional offices of Fortune 500 companies.

Offer stated: Austin is amazing - great place, great people, everyone's super friendly...'

'Everything's walkable, everyone's talkable, there's so much activities,' he continued.

The content creator also admitted that Austin's weather, 'sucks a couple months of the year,' but other than that, it's 'amazing.'

He concluded that New York was the best city to live in while in your 20s despite the many negative sides of being there

Some of the negatives he mentioned in this video involve its expenses, weather, and street environments

New York City is a popular tourist town with a population of over 8 million people. News programs such as The Today Show and Good Morning America are based in the area

He then named New York City as his favorite, and also got into the many negatives about the location.

Offer stated: 'I know there's a lot of negatives about New York City. It's cold, it's hot, the weather's horrible.'

He continued: 'It smells like trash everywhere, there is trash everywhere, there's mice everywhere, it's expensive - outside of all that, New York City is the best place to live in your 20's in the US.'

The TikToker put the negative statements aside, and began listing the positives that the city has to offer.

'There's so much to do, you will meet so many people, you'll have so much fun, you'll be so tired all the time... and you're gonna hate it, but you're gonna love it so much,' said Offer.

Several people on TikTok have been critical of Offer's choices since posting the video, but there have been occasional statements from people agreeing with him

Users on TikTok had a field day with Offer's his choices.

Many of them disagreed with Offer's choices, and threw Chicago into the mix of favorites.

One person said: 'If i had to live in a big city it would be chicago. Many things to do and much more beautiful than nyc.'

Another person said: 'Love everyone in here defending the Chi. Dude must've never been.'

People also mentioned how Austin is 'unwalkable,' questioning why it would be listed as a favorite.

A user commented: 'austin???? this literally isnt true????'

One Californian voiced his opinion over Los Angeles and said: 'San Diego over la. And I'm from la.

Some TikTokers did agree with the list, highlighting Los Angeles and New York as their top picks.

A person commented: 'If in the USA.. You gotta live in LA or NYC, otherwise what are you doing with your life?'
A Seattle homeowner is facing five more months of sleeping in his van while his deadbeat tenant continues to occupy his three bedroom, two bathroom property without paying rent.

Jason Roth must wait until March 2024 for a court hearing to attempt to evict his tenant Kareem Hunter, who is months behind on rent, and was illegally listing the home as a short-term rental on Airbnb for $434 a night.

King County housing court has an extreme backlog of more than 600 eviction cases, pushing Roth's case past the point of the tenancy length of the property, worth $621,000 according to Zillow estimates.

Roth alleges that Hunter has only paid $1,000 of the $30,000 he owes in back rent since he moved into the 1,720 square foot property in March.

When Roth purchased the home in 2016, he fixed it up and began renting out rooms to friends for an affordable price. However, in 2023 he decided to rent out the entire house to make extra money for pilot school, moving into a small apartment to make room for Hunter.

Jason Roth (pictured) must wait until March 2024 for a court hearing to attempt to evict his tenant Kareem Hunter

The three bedroom, two bathroom Seattle property is worth $621,000 according to Zillow estimates.

Kareem Hunter (pictured) is months behind on rent, and was illegally listing the home as a short-term rental on Airbnb for $434 a night.

However, Roth's bills eventually became too much for him to afford, and he moved into his van.

Meanwhile, Hunter was skipping out on rental payments and making extra cash renting out living space in Roth's house on Airbnb.

'I'm sick of sleeping in my van and on couches. I just want to be back in my house' Roth told KIRO 7.

On Friday 20 October Roth took Hunter to court for the first hearing, but as is customary a continuance was issued.

However, the backlog meant to date was set for March 12, 2024 by King County Commissioner Mark Hillman.

In the meantime Roth is still making mortgage payments for his Rainer Valley home and paying for pilot school.

'There's so many things in place for the city to get people housing in the winter, but I am a homeowner who's not going to have that, ' said Roth.

Adding: 'The court hearing is past the date of the end of the lease, and he'll be in there past the release date. It's just crazy,' he said.

A Seattle homeowner is facing five more months of sleeping in his van while his deadbeat tenant continues to occupy his three bedroom, two bathroom property without paying rent

In the meantime Roth is still making mortgage payments for his Rainer Valley home and paying for pilot school

Hunter (right) who received a free lawyer (left) through the King County Bar Association's Housing Justice Project told KIRO 7 he had permission to run an Airbnb

Hunter, who received a free lawyer through the King County Bar Association's Housing Justice Project told KIRO 7 he had permission to run an Airbnb.

Airbnb has now suspended the listing but Roth believes Hunter was generating at least $2,000 a month from the income.

The tenant also explained that he believes there's more information that will be revealed, saying 'once all the facts come out, you'll see that.'

'It's frustrating, extremely frustrating. It's something I can't fully wrap my head around,' Roth said.

'I do come here often just to look at my house, and miss it and wish I could be in it,' he said.

Adding: 'I'm on my own, which to me might be the worst part because there's always going to be people who abuse the system and scam.

'But the city should be there to recognize when that's happening. And nobody's been able to provide me any tangible assistance, anything significant.'
Passengers had to be evacuated from the P&O cruise Iona after the battery on a mobility scooter exploded and burst into flames - just days before the ship joined search efforts for crew members onboard the doomed Verity cargo boat.

The blaze broke out in the vessel's central hub area at about 5pm on Saturday while the Iona was still docked in Southampton, southwest of London.

Footage from the multi-level atrium shows flames flickering on the balcony as fire alarms sound and confused passengers gather on the ground floor.

A single scream can be heard following a loud bang and a bright flash of light.

An elderly man on crutches is seen being guided out of the atrium as tense crew members make phone calls and prepare to evacuate passengers.

A P&O spokesperson said: 'There was a fire in Iona's atrium which was caused by a lithium battery on a mobility scooter.

'Thankfully it was swiftly extinguished by our fire detection systems.'

A passenger on the Iona, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Mirror the fire had been sparked by a lithium battery on a mobility scooter.

Passengers on P&O cruise the Iona were evacuated from the ship on Saturday after a lithium battery on a mobility scooter exploded and burst into flames (pictured, an elderly man is escorted off the balcony of the ship's atrium by fellow passengers)

Footage from the Iona's multi-level atrium shows flames flickering on the balcony as fire alarms sound and confused passengers gather on the ground floor (pictured)

'The atrium had to be evacuated and crew worked hard to get everything back to normal. The battery was left in Southampton,' he said.

'It was more smoke than a fire.'

The passenger praised P&O staff for remaining calm throughout the ordeal.

'They [P&O) have been superb and the crew have worked tirelessly to make our cruise amazing and safe during some very difficult situations,' they said.

It's understood the fire only caused minimal delays and that after a day at sea the ship arrived in Hamburg, Germany, where it docked for some time.

In the early hours of Tuesday, the Iona responded to distress calls from the Verity after it crashed into fellow cargo vessel the Polesie and sunk in the North Sea.

Of the seven crew onboard, one died and two others were pulled from the water. Four remained missing when the search was called off on Thursday.

Also involved in the search were vessels 'Hermann Marwede' and 'Bernhard Gruben'.

The blaze broke out in the vessel's central hub area at about 5pm on Saturday while the Iona was still docked in Southampton, southwest of London (pictured, passengers prepare to evacuate the cruise ship after a fire broke out in the vessel's atrium)

In the early hours of Tuesday, the Iona responded to distress calls from the Verity after it crashed into fellow cargo vessel the Polesie and sunk in the North Sea. Pictures show a spotlight aimed at the water as the search operation got underway before dawn

The Iona, which had a doctor and paramedics onboard, was called to help after the Verity collided with the Polesie 14miles south-west of the German island Helgoland.

Footage from the deck of the cruise shows a large spotlight aimed at the water as the search got underway before dawn on Tuesday.

The cruise then continued to scheduled stops in Rotterdam and Bruges in Belgium.
Here is what happened to one Israeli family three weeks ago today, on the morning of Saturday, October 7, at their home on a kibbutz in south Israel. I am relying on the evidence of reputable journalists who have seen the footage and who believe it to be incontrovertible.

At about 6am we see the father emerge from sleep. He is clearly frightened by the gunfire he can hear outside. He grabs his two young sons, both of whom appear to be under ten, and for a few moments they mill around in panic, all three still in their boxer shorts.

They go to the front door and then retreat because it seems too dangerous outside  until the father decides to make a break for it. They rush for a shelter but before they have time to seal themselves inside, a Hamas terrorist jumps over the wall and throws a grenade in after them.

There is a blinding flash in the shelter. The father comes out and dies in a pool of blood. His badly injured sons follow, stepping over their fathers body.

The scene cuts to the kitchen. The boys are on the floor. The terrorist is getting a drink from the fridge. He first takes some cold water, then drops the jug and finds some cola, which he chugs back.

One boy sets up a piteous wail: Why am I alive? Why are we alive? Brother, this is not a prank, our father is dead. Then they discuss the other childs badly bleeding eye. He cant see, he says; and that is the last we see of them.

The October 7 massacre was among the most sickening and depraved events in all the history of human cruelty, writes BORIS JOHNSON. Pictured, Israeli police officers evacuate a woman and child from a site hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, southern Israel

We are reflexively treating Hamas, pictured, and Israel as two belligerent parties in an ancient quarrel, where there are faults on both sides; and we are therefore ignoring, or minimising, what actually happened

We dont know what happened to the boys. All this was on a 43-minute compilation of footage  from CCTV, from Hamas bodycams, first-responder cameras, and so on. It was shown a few days ago, by the Israeli government, to dozens of experienced international journalists, and it was by no means the most horrific episode.

They saw a young girl  maybe seven years old  being chased under a desk, and then shot at point-blank range.

They saw people being tortured, burned, beheaded. Members of the audience were seen to retch involuntarily, to weep and to beg Make it stop.

There is a reason why these images do not appear in papers such as this one. They are simply too gruesome, and they are not published because these victims are innocent human beings who in their lives had beauty and grace and worth, and who do not deserve to be exhibited to the world in the final extremities of their suffering.

But we know enough, far, far more than enough. We know that the October 7 massacre was among the most sickening and depraved events in all the history of human cruelty. So it is incredible that in the three weeks since the murder of 1,400 Jews we seem  in Britain and around the world  to have lost all moral clarity.

A fog has descended. We have forgotten which way is up. We are reflexively treating Hamas and Israel as two belligerent parties in an ancient quarrel, where there are faults on both sides; and we are therefore ignoring, or minimising, what actually happened.

At one point in the film a young Hamas terrorist can be seen ringing his parents in Gaza. I have killed ten Jews today, he boasts, as they weep for joy. I am a hero! I have killed ten Jews!

Who is this young man  boasting about killing innocent and defenceless people?

He is a member of Hamas, and Hamas is the government  I repeat, the government  of Gaza. This jihadi didnt just go on a casual anti-Semitic shooting spree. He was part of a long-meditated and deep-laid plan to kill as many Jews as possible, in circumstances as humiliating and degrading as possible; and that plan was devised by Hamas, the government of Gaza.

These are the very same people whose casualty statistics are spouted so trustingly by the BBC; the same people who claimed that it was an Israeli bomb that killed those poor people at the hospital  an assertion that turned out to be a lie.

Now we are told that we must listen to Hamas when they protest that Gaza is running out of fuel (which also seems to be doubtful when you look at Hamas fuel stocks), and now more and more people are calling for a ceasefire, as if this was a war between two powers that basically respect the Geneva Conventions on the laws of war.

It is no such thing.

This is now an attempt by a decent, civilised and democratic society to deal with an Islamist death cult.

We grieve for the innocent Palestinians who are losing their lives  and so do Israelis. But it is Hamas that has thrust those victims in the line of fire. Pictured, an Israeli airstrike on Gaza

On the one side  it can never be said too often  we see Israeli Defense Forces that are trying to minimise civilian casualties.

On the other side, Hamas terrorists who want to maximise civilian casualties, and who brag about how many Jews they have killed and maimed and raped.

We grieve for the innocent Palestinians who are losing their lives  and so do Israelis. But it is Hamas that has thrust those victims in the line of fire.

What has gone wrong with us that we cannot see it?

Shame on broadcasters for refusing to call Hamas terrorists. Shame on those tens of thousands of people, in this country, who took to the streets after the October 7 massacre to show their support  for the Palestinians!

What message do you think you are sending to Hamas, all you who wave your Palestinian flags, your disgusting Nazi-era banners with images of the Star of David being thrown in the bin?

You are effectively sending a message of support, and that means, I am afraid, that you are giving succour and encouragement to the baby-killers of Hamas.

If you say that it is all relative, and that there are faults on both sides, then again I am afraid you are failing to think clearly, and you are making a moral equation between deeds that cannot be equated, between terrorism and self-defence.

I want a two state-solution, and I will continue to work for it, and for peace.

I want the Palestinians to have their own homeland  though you have to wonder how the Israelis will ever trust them to make it work after the catastrophic consequences of letting Hamas run Gaza.

If you step back and look at the broad sweep of post-war history, you also have to wonder why this is the one territorial dispute that continues to excite such viciousness and such hatred.

Think of the colossal movements of people around the world after 1945, the tens of millions who were turned into refugees as the maps were re-drawn.

Why has this question proved so insoluble? Is it just Israeli intransigence? Or is it also the recurring virus of anti-Semitism that continues to be so prevalent, not just in the Middle East but around the world?

After the horrors of the early 20th century, the international community had no choice. We had to create a homeland, in Palestine, where Jewish people could feel safe.

After some of the responses to the October 7 massacre  including, I am sad to say, in the UK  I am more glad than ever that we did.

It is plain that Israel is agonising about how to deal with Gaza, whether and how to launch a ground attack.

We must pray for restraint and proportionality. We must pray for the minimum loss of civilian life. We must pray that Israel has the wisdom not to set up another cycle of hatred and revenge.

But please can we stop equating Hamas and Israel, because that ubiquitous tendency to moral equivalence is wrong; it is sick; and it is doing the terrorists work for them. We need to snap out of it.
Keir Starmer is facing a major Labour rebellion over the bloody fighting in Gaza today as a trio of party big-hitters broke cover to join demands for a ceasefire.

Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, this afternoon joined his London counterpart Sadiq Khan and Scottish party leader Anas Sawar in supporting an end to the fighting that has claimed thousands of lives.

They are the most high-profile figures to challenge the party leader, who is so far backing calls for a 'humanitarian pause' to allow aide into Palestine, but insisting Israel has a right to take action to defeat Hamas.

It has sparked a full-scale Labour battle, with a quarter of his MPs joining Mr Khan in calling for an end to fighting to let aid into the besieged enclave.

Last night it was revealed MPs have been offered increased security after facing direct threats from constituents who have labelled them 'traitors' and 'backstabbers'.

But the leadership and Sir Keir's other allies are resisting pressure to alter their position, despite claims it is costing the party Muslim votes.

In a statement also signed by deputy mayor Kate Green - a former Labour frontbencher - and 10 leaders of Manchester councils, Mr Burnham called for a ceasefire by both sides.

'We recognise that Israel has the right to take targeted action within international law to defend itself against terror attacks and terrorist organisations and to rescue hostages,' he said.

'We also have profound concerns about the loss of thousands of lives in Gaza, the displacement of many more and widespread suffering through the ongoing blockade of essential goods and services. It is vital that urgent support and humanitarian aid is allowed into the area.'

Andy Burnham the mayor of Greater Manchester (top), this afternoon joined his London counterpart Sadiq Khan (right)and Scottish party leader Anas Sawar (left) in supporting an end to the fighting that has claimed thousands of lives.

In a statement also signed by deputy mayor Kate Green - a former Labour frontbencher - and 10 leaders of Manchester councils, Mr Burnham called for a ceasefire by both sides.

The Labour leader has only gone so far as to call for 'humanitarian pauses' to allow aid into the besieged territory

Mr Khan had earlier launched a direct challenge to Sir Keir's authority as he backed demands for a full ceasefire in Gaza.

The London mayor became the most high profile figure to back calls for a complete break in fighting between Israel and Hamas that has claimed thousands of lives since the Palestinian terrorists' brutal raid.

In a video posted online this morning the London mayor said: 'Thousands of innocent civilians have already been killed in Israel and Gaza. With the humanitarian crisis set to deteriorate even further, I'm calling for a ceasefire.'

What did Keir say in his LBC radio interview? Labour's row over the Middle East crisis has centred on Sir Keir Starmer's comments in a radio interview with LBC's Nick Ferrari on October 11. Sir Keir appeared to suggest Israel had the right to besiege Gaza by cutting off power and water to the territory. But the Labour leader has since sought to clarify his position and said he has never backed Israel's right to cut off supplies. Here's what was said in the LBC interview: Ferrari: 'Sir Keir Starmer, what is a proportionate response in your view?' Sir Keir: 'I think the first thing I have to say is responsibility lies with Hamas. 'This is coldblooded murder of men, women, even children. It is terrorism, and Israel has the right to defend herself. 'And there are ongoing situations with hostages, and Israel has the right to do everything that it can to get those hostages back safe and sound. 'And therefore I'm very clear, Israel must have that, does have that right to defend herself. And Hamas bears responsibility.' Ferrari: ' A siege is appropriate? Cutting off power, cutting off water, Sir Keir?' Sir Keir: 'I think that Israel does have that right, it is an ongoing situation  obviously, everything should be done within international law but I don't want to step away from the sort of core principles that Israel has a right to defend herself and Hamas bears responsibility for these terrorist acts. 'And I would call on all responsible states, particularly Middle East responsible states, to call this out for what it is, and to stand with the world in condemning, utterly condemning, these actions by Hamas.' Advertisement

And Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar this afternoon added his weight to the call with his own ceasefire demand.

At least one shadow minister has been accosted at home by a constituent demanding answers over Labour's refusal to call for a ceasefire, The Times reported.

Leftwing figures have also been circulating claims that the row could cost the party seats with large Muslim communities.

But shadow environment secretary Steve Reed today said that while the only long-term solution to the crisis was political, rather than military, Israel had the right to take action.

'What I would say to colleagues is if this attack that Israel suffered had been on the UK, if it had been on the US, our state, the United States and our state would have sought to defend ourselves to protect our citizens by dismantling the capability of a terrorist organisation that carried it out,' he told Sky News.

'That applies to Israel too, they have the right under international law to do that.'

Meanwhile former Labour shadow minister Lord Walney told the Jewish Chronicle: 'Now, when the issue is standing with Israel against the most grotesque anti-Semitic butchery imaginable, it would be inexcusable for anyone in Labour to use the threat of ''losing Muslim votes'' to pressure Sir Keir Starmer to change his position.'

Frontbenchers say there is a 'real fear' that a 'lone wolf' could be pushed over the edge by the continuing tensions and commit an act of terror.

Yesterday the party's chief whip, Alan Campbell, wrote to MPs acknowledging the 'heightened security concerns', adding: 'I know this has been a very difficult period for colleagues and we appreciate the pressure that you are under as a leader in your community.'

A separate email from John Cryer, the party's chairman for security and wellbeing, said MPs' local police forces should be in contact to discuss heightened security.

More than four Labour frontbenchers are now on resignation watch amid fears the party could reach 'breaking point' over Sir Keir Starmer's stance on Gaza.

Pressure has continued to build on the Labour leader to shift his position on the conflict, holding crisis talks with Muslim MPs on Wednesday amid reports that some were considering resigning.

Shadow faith minister Sarah Owen is among the Labour frontbenchers said to be on resignation watch. Her Luton North constituency has a large Muslim population.

It is feared by senior Labour figures that shadow Cabinet Office minister Rachel Hopkins, who represents neighbouring Luton South, might also jump ship.

Yesterday shadow minister Imran Hussain became the first frontbencher to sign a motion demanding an immediate ceasefire and an 'end to the total siege of Gaza'.

The Early Day Motion is now signed by 39 Labour MPs, while a further six have publicly called for a ceasefire.

Shadow environment secretary Steve Reed today said that while the only long-term solution to the crisis was political, rather than military, Israel had the right to take action.

Parents and children bring teddy bears and other soft toys representing children killed in Gaza, to the gates of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in London at a protest organised by Parents for Palestine calling for the UK government to withdraw its support for Israel.

Bradford East MP Mr Hussain lined up alongside 38 other Labour MPs who are backing the parliamentary motion calling for 'an immediate de-escalation and cessation of hostilities' in the Palestinian territory.

The 45-year-old, who backed Jeremy Corbyn to become Labour leader in 2015, last night posted on social media from a meeting with the Palestinian ambassador, Husam Zumlot, in Parliament.

Mr Hussain was elected in Bradford East in 2015, having been beaten in neighbouring Bradford West in a 2012 by-election by George Galloway.

He nominated Mr Corbyn to become leader and was later shadow minister for justice and for international development in his Cabinet.

Last night he tweeted a picture from a meeting with Mr Zumlot, writing: This is the #Gaza update we received from the Palestinian Ambassador Husam Zumlot this evening.

'Over 6,000 Palestinians killed. Disease spreading through contaminated water. Incubators on the brink of shutting off.'

That followed an attack on Foreign Secretary in a Commons debate on Tuesday, when he said: 'Since I raised this question with the Prime Minister last week, indiscriminate airstrikes and a total siege blocking food, water and medical supplies have killed thousands of innocent Palestinian men and women and more than 1,000 children.

'Let us be absolutely clear in this House: this is now beyond a humanitarian catastrophe. Even as we stand here today, innocent blood continues to be spilt on the streets of Gaza, and mosques, churches, schools, hospitals, bakeries, water plants and homes continue to be flattened by the Israeli military.

'I have a very simple question for the Foreign Secretary. Just what will it take? How many thousands of innocent Palestinians must be slaughtered before this Government condemn the brutality and bloodshed?'

The Labour leader has only gone so far as to call for 'humanitarian pauses' to allow aid into the besieged territory (Pictured: Pro-Palestinian protesters march through London)

Last night a voting sentiment survey showed Labour support among Muslim voters dropping from 71 per cent at the 2019 election to just five per cent currently

The Early Day Motion is now signed by 39 Labour MPs, while a further six have publicly called for a ceasefire.

The Labour leader has only gone so far as to call for 'humanitarian pauses' to allow aid into the besieged territory. Scores of his own backbenchers are now 'fuming' over his unwillingness to listen.

However, the divisions within the party could be greater than previously thought, with more than just four frontbenchers said to be considering their future. A senior Labour figure told the Mail: 'There are a lot more than four frontbenchers on resignation watch after this. It's not just the ones reported.

'Keir can't be complacent because he's won a few by-elections. It's become really tough in our constituencies - this is proving bigger than the Iraq War response.'

'People are p****d off and really upset  most MPs feel like they got nothing from the meeting when they saw the statement after.

'They're asking why, after the Government have followed Labour on policy for everything else, are we now copying whatever Rishi says on Gaza,' a source familiar with discussions said last night.

'There will be a breaking point soon enough. And once one person goes, others will follow like dominoes.'

More than 250 councillors have written to Sir Keir to urge him to back a ceasefire, while frontbencher Yasmin Qureshi defied the leadership by asking Mr Sunak if he would back the policy during Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday.

Last night a voting sentiment survey showed Labour support among Muslim voters dropping from 71 per cent at the 2019 election to just five per cent currently.
Drug dealers in San Francisco could now face murder charges over deaths from opioid overdoses as the city attempts to crackdown on its growing drug crisis.

Law enforcement agents in San Francisco and California have teamed up to set up a task force which will finally address the city's open-air drug market and hold drug dealers accountable.

Governor Gavin Newsom, Mayor London Breed, San Franciscos district attorney Brooke Jenkins and police chief Bill Scott announced plans on Friday to begin investigating opioid-related deaths as homicides and could bring charges starting next year.

'The opioid crisis has claimed too many, and fentanyl traffickers must be held accountable including, as appropriate, for murder,' Newsom said.

It comes as San Francisco is on track to record it's highest-ever number of drug overdose deaths this year.

Drug dealers in San Francisco could now face murder charges over deaths from opioid overdoses as the city attempts to crackdown on its growing drug crisis

Law enforcement agents in San Francisco and California have teamed up to set up a task force which will finally address the city's open-air drug market and hold drug dealers accountable

San Franciscos district attorney Brooke Jenkins (pictured), Governor Gavin Newsom , Mayor London Breed and San Francisco police chief Bill Scott announced plans on Friday to begin investigating opioid-related deaths as homicides and could bring charges starting next year

The new task force will include the San Francisco Police Department, San Francisco District Attorneys Office, the California Highway Patrol and the California National Guard.

It was investigate fatal overdoses using the same evidence-gathering procedure and techniques as homicide cases.

But murder charges won't be brought to all of them and authorities will focus on opioid cases which provide them with enough evidence to trace back the drugs to the dealer where homicide or other charges are brought against them.

The task force is expected to begin operations early next year but it is not clear how much it will cost.

Governor Newsom previously announced in April that the California Highway Patrol and National Guard would help law enforcement officers in San Francisco take action against the rampant open-air drug dealing.

But critics see the focus on arresting street drug dealers as a return to 'war-on-drugs- policies which have failed in the past and won't help those struggling with addiction.

They have argued that the city's drug crisis should be treated like a public heath emergency as it is hard for those suffering from addiction to find the right treatment.

Newsom believes he has been forced to bring harsher consequences as the number of drug-related deaths continues to spiral.

'This task force is fighting for those affected by this crisis  for victims and loved ones who deserve peace,' he said.

'Working together, we will continue providing treatment and resources to help those struggling with substance use  and secure justice for families who have lost loved ones.'

San Francisco has struggled with an overdose epidemic partially driven by the spread of the synthetic opioid fentanyl

Open-air drug markets, overdose deaths, prolific shoplifting and violence have characterized San Francisco's 'doom loop' as companies shut stores and tech employees work from home

More than 849 people are expected to die of drug overdoses in 2023, on pace to exceed the current record of 720 deaths in 2020

Police and prosecutors have been calling for harsher consequences to drug dealing which has plagued cities across California.

A dealer in Placer County was convicted of second-degree murder this year after a 15-year-old girl died from fentanyl.

Local prosecutors described this as the state's first conviction of its kind.

While Santa Clara County prosecutors charged a 16-year-old with murder in another death caused by fentanyl last year.

San Francisco District Attorney Jenkins said last year that she would consider charging fentanyl dealers with murder in overdose cases.

She said the new task force would give the city a 'deeply necessary investigative ability' by allowing it to look at overdose death investigations in the same way as homicides.

'Now, working together we will be able to investigate fatal fentanyl overdoses where evidence may be collected to establish a connection to the person who provided the drugs that killed someone so that they can possibly be charged with murder,' she said.

'Drug dealers and traffickers have caused the death of far too many individuals in our community and this new tool will give us a better chance to hold them accountable for the true dangerousness of their conduct.'

Mayor Breed said: 'Fentanyl is deadlier than any drug we've ever seen on our streets.

'We must treat the trafficking and sale of fentanyl more severely and people must be put on notice that pushing this drug could lead to homicide charges.'

Authorities have made 364 arrests related to drug dealing since May and 82 of them have involved fentanyl and around 18.5 kilograms of fentanyl has been seized.

California Governor Gavin Newsom believes he has been forced to bring harsher consequences as the number of drug-related deaths continues to spiral

San Francisco Police led by chief Bill Scott (right) have attempted to shut down drug markets in the hard-hit Tenderloin and SoMa areas of the city where Mayor London Breed (left) declared an official state of emergency in December 2021

Fentanyl related deaths and other overdoses are spiking in San Francisco once again

San Francisco's overdose deaths continue to rise with an additional 54 deaths in September, with 48 of them involving fentanyl.

August was the deadliest month since 2021 with 84 deaths, 66 involving fentanyl.

More than 849 people are expected to die of drug overdoses in 2023, on pace to exceed the current record of 720 deaths in 2020 when substance abuse treatment programs were forced to reduce capacity or shut down during the pandemic.

The city has struggled with an overdose epidemic partially driven by the spread of the synthetic opioid fentanyl, which is up to 50 times more potent than heroin and lethal even in very small doses.

Open-air drug markets, overdose deaths, prolific shoplifting and violence have characterized the coastal city's 'doom loop' as companies shut down stores and tech employees opt to work from home.

San Francisco Police have attempted to shut down drug markets in the hard-hit Tenderloin and SoMa areas of the city where Mayor Breed declared an official state of emergency in December 2021.

Most deaths by accidental overdose have been by men, and around 70 percent of the deaths in 2020 were men between the ages 35 and 64

A map reveals the major businesses which have left, or plan to leave, San Francisco in recent months

Fentanyl was involved in 73 percent of accidental overdose deaths in 2020, most often in combination with other drugs.

The synthetic opioid, which is manufactured in labs, is 'often added to other drugs because of its extreme potency, which makes drugs cheaper, more powerful, more addictive and more dangerous,' according to the CDC.

Hundreds of fentanyl crime bills were introduced in 46 states in the 2023 legislative session.

Lawmakers in Virginia coded the drug as 'a weapon of terrorism'. The sale or manufacture of less than five grams of fentanyl in Iowa is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Texas and Arkansas joined 30 states including Wyoming, Pennsylvania and Colorado which have a drug-induced homicide statute that even allow for murder prosecutions of people who socially share drugs which contain a lethal dose of fentanyl.
Brazilian authorities are investigating the disappearance of an actor and model who was last seen walking out of his home in the southeastern city of Sao Paulo.

Surveillance camera footage shows Ricardo Merini, 37, arriving at his residence in the Bela Vista neighborhood last Saturday at 9:47pm and then leaving the apartment at 11:36pm.

News outlet G1 reported he had arrived from a trip in Chapeco but never showed up to meet a friend.

'(He) got ready to meet a friend who was a few minutes away on foot from where he lives. He left on foot, but didn't reach that friend,' Fernanda said.

Brazilian actor and model Ricardo Merini disappeared last Saturday after he left his condominium in Sao Paulo, Brazil, to meet with a friend

Surveillance camera shows the moment Ricardo Merini arrived at his apartment

Authorities located Ricardo Merini's cellphone in the Sao Paulo neighborhood of Jaguare

Fernanda added that Merini was chatting with his friend via text message before he went missing.

The Sao Paulo Public Security Secretariat said in a statement that Homicide and Personal Protection Department's missing person's unit is handling the case.

The department director, Ivalda Alexio, said that because Merini was not reported missing until Tuesday, authorities had lost three critical days that would have been dedicated to his search.

'There are three days of images that we could have captured, three days of what happened on the way he left the apartment with his cell phone in his hand and went, according to another friend, to meet a colleague, where he never arrived. These three days harm the investigation,' Alexio said.

Alexio said that a search of Merini's apartment showed that no items were stolen.

Investigators pinged his cellphone to Jaguare, a neighborhood on the west side of Sao Paulo, and have requested phone records from the mobile carrier.

Alexio added that they will be looking into text messages and would be interested in gaining access to his WhatsApp account, but acknowledged that it would be 'difficult' to do so.

They have also done a through search of hospitals, but have still not located him. Authorities are looking into dating apps that Merini may have used.

Police have canvassed hospitals in Sao Paulo in hopes of locating Brazilian actor and model Ricardo Merini, who has been missing since last Saturday

Ricardo Merini has appeared in three movies and a theatrical play

Witnesses told investigators that he didn't have any problem with friends or residents in the condominium.

Merini attended the Cecilia Helena School, where he studied performing arts.

He appeared in three films, Noite na Taversa (2015), Asco (2015) and O Coracao do Principe (2015).

Merini also played a role in the theatrical play, Terro and Missery in the Third Reich (2012).
April Zoglauer, 21, was T-boned by two males who allegedly fled the scene

The baby of a pregnant woman who was tragically killed in a hit-and-run has died after being delivered by an emergency C-section.

April Zoglauer, 21, shockingly passed away after being involved in a hit-and-run with a stolen SUV.

The pregnant California pre-school teacher was struck by a driver in a stolen white 2013 Hyundai and rushed to a local hospital where she was pronounced dead.

Zoglauer was 27 weeks pregnant and her baby was due to be born on January 25 - but had to be delivered urgently through an emergency C-section.

The baby boy - Devontae Aaron Zoglauer - managed to survive for 24 hours after the crash but died on Wednesday night after the devastating series of events.

April Zoglauer, 21, shockingly passed away after being involved in a hit-and-run with a stolen SUV - the pregnant California pre-school teacher was struck by a driver in a stolen white 2013 Hyundai and rushed to a local hospital where she was pronounced dead

The other driver involved was heading southbound in the stolen vehicle when they allegedly T-boned Zoglauer's car before taking off. Two 'unknown males' were thought to be in the car, the San Jose Police Department said

Zoglauer was driving eastbound in a 2008 black Nissan sedan on Blossom Hill Road, near Winfield Boulevard by the Westfield Oakridge shopping mall, at around 8:40 pm on Tuesday.

The other driver involved was driving southbound in the stolen vehicle when they allegedly T-boned Zoglauer's car before taking off.

Two 'unknown males' were thought to be in the car, the San Jose Police Department said.

The fateful car crash is still under investigation and it's currently unclear who had the green light in the situation.

After being rushed to hospital - the body of the driver was identified by the the Santa Clara Medical Examiner as April Zoglauer, 21, of San Jose.

Zoglauer was a beloved teacher at the Play'N'Learn Preschool in San Jose. She had started working at the pre-school as a teenager after volunteering there for years.

The co-owner of the Play'N'Learn said: 'Her job was just to love on them, and she was good at it.

'Honestly, I've been doing this for 27 years, and I've never had somebody else who could do that job. Not the way she could do it.

'She was a blessing. She meant everything to us.'

Zoglauer was 27 weeks pregnant and her baby was due to be born on January 25 - but had to be delivered urgently through an emergency C-section. The baby boy - Devontae Aaron Zoglauer - managed to survive for 24 hours after the crash but died on Wednesday night after the devastating series of events

After being rushed to hospital - the body of the driver was identified by the the Santa Clara Medical Examiner as April Zoglauer, 21, of San Jose

Friends of Zoglauer said that just hours before the crash she was talking excitedly about the future as she finished work on Tuesday evening, according to the Mercury News.

She was about to accompany a disabled woman who she often cared for in the evenings on a trip to Hawaii - where she joked that she would spend her spare time relaxing on the beach.

The pre-school's director Angie Loza said that Zoglauer's pregnancy was a joy for all of them because she had grown up at the school and they'd all known her for a very long time.

Lariz said that the children attending the pre-school had also gotten excited about the new baby - and they had frequently asked questions about when they could see and hold him.

Now teachers and parents have to tragically explain to the young children that they never will.
First comes the phone, thrust through the steel bars and twisted one way and then the other as its camera scans for Border Patrol officers.

Then comes the clanging, as the bars  already cut with an acetylene torch  are forced apart.

Only then come the people. Man, woman, child, woman, child, child, man, man, woman.

Eight bodies emerge on to American soil beside Donald Trump's border wall in Arizona. They bear right, armed with instructions on how to find Border Patrol officers and hand themselves in.

While President Joe Biden focuses on high stakes Middle Eastern diplomacy and another crisis threatening to engulf his administration, it is business as usual along the southern border.

DailyMail.com witnessed at least 550 people crossing into Arizona in little more than an hour on Thursday evening in just one small patch of the border with Mexico

With the sun setting on Thursday evening, groups of as many as 150 young men made their way through the cactus-filled desert.

In little more than an hour, at least 550 people came through the wall close to the little border post at Lukeville, two-and-a-half hours south-west of Tucson. Some came in small family groups, others in processions so huge that the trudging feet threw a plume of dust into the air.

Business as usual for the migrants, the cartels who own the other side of the frontier, and for the weary Border Patrol agents whose only job now is to process paperwork and radio for buses to pick up the new arrivals.

'None of us signed up to be Uber drivers or babysitters,' said an agent in the sector who spoke on condition of anonymity.

'This isn't what we joined for. We signed up for enforcement not administration.'

That is not to say the job is easy.

Two days ago, agents got into a firefight with coyotes  the nickname for people smugglers. And with the sun getting low in the sky, the agent was getting reports of three people on the other side of the border with 'long guns.'

Morale, he said, was crashing. Nine supervisors had left Ajo Station, his section, since January.

'You see people getting out to go to investigative agencies,' he said.

A coyote uses a mobile phone to scan up and down the border wall in Arizona as he prepares to send a group of migrants on to U.S. soil in a well-organized operation

Border Patrol agents say they are powerless to do anything other than babysit the arrivals. This spot is close to the legal crossing point at Lukeville in Ajo station

His work done, the coyote stands brazenly on U.S. soil. The opened strut can be seen in the foreground, at the point where migrants were able to enter

Meanwhile, the arrivals keep arriving. On Thursday they included people from Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Nepal, India, and Pakistan.

The routes are well-worn by now. From Senegal to Morocco to Spain to Ecuador to Colombia to Mexico City and north by bus, for example.

And the stories are just as well worn. The night's big contingent from India all told a similar story, rehearsed on the 15 or so days traveling.

'It's the political thing,' said 22-year-old Dhruv Patel, as he described how people from politically connected families like his face the constant threat of kidnap.

'Threatening calls,' said another young man in his group.

'Criminality,' said a third.

A little further from the border, a crowd of people walked towards a Border Patrol facility

The arrivals included people from from Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Nepal, India, and Pakistan.

The temperature cooled to a pleasant 75F as the sun disappeared behind the wall, easing conditions for crossers in one of the least hospitable areas of the country.

With that comes a record number of migrant detentions last month. Data released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection revealed there were 269,735 encounters at the southern border in September, beating last December's record, and bringing the total for 2023 so far to 2.47 million.

The Biden administration has tried to respond. It announced recently that it would grant temporary legal status for nearly 500,000 Venezuelans already in the United States on July 31, while at the same time promising to deport those who arrived illegally after that date and failed to get asylum.

And the deportation flights to Venezuela have begun as part of a diplomatic thaw with the government of Nicolas Maduro.

That might bring temporary respite, said Chris Clem, former chief patrol officer in nearby Yuma sector, but does not change the overall trend.

'It's a couple of hundred people a day, that's a drop in the bucket,' he said.

'Until there's a significant policy shift, until there is a significant focus on reestablishing our border security as a priority, I think we're gonna suffer and morale will suffer.'

CBP's total encounters along the border in September were 269,735, bringing the total number of encounters for the recently concluded 2023 fiscal year (black line) to 2.48 million

Border Patrol agents say they are powerless to do anything other than order buses to take the migrants on to processing facilities

At times the numbers were so big that the trudging feet kicked up clouds of dust

The conflict in the Middle East, he added, could have offered the Biden administration a solution but instead it has become a way to distract from the problems at the border.

What's happening in the Middle East, in Russia, and with China, that could have been the for reinforcing our border security efforts,' he said.

'Not because President Trump wanted to do it, they could have said there was a real national security interest in doing it now.'

In the meantime, nothing will change so long as there is a clogged immigration system that means arrivals are pretty much free to enter the country while waiting years for their court hearings, say the men and women charged with patroling the border.

'I'd send them straight back,' said an agent working in neighboring Yuma sector. 'There's no real penalty for anyone coming in illegally.'
Mike Johnson, the new Republican House Speaker, claimed that legalizing same-sex marriage would lead to people marrying their pets and pedophiles seeking the same rights to wed children.

Johnson made the argument in a local newspaper column as he supported a legal amendment blocking same-sex marriage in Louisiana in 2004.

It was one of a series of public statements he made at the time which now threaten to overshadow his election to the speakership.

Some Republicans were caught off guard by the comments which resurfaced as Johnson triumphed on Wednesday, three chaotic weeks after the historic ousting of his predecessor Kevin McCarthy.

Mike Johnson (R-LA) takes the oath as Speaker of the House

Mike and Kelly Johnson as a young couple

Johnson wrote a series of opinion articles in The Shreveport Times in the mid-2000s when he was a lawyer representing the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian advocacy group, which was campaigning against legalization of same-sex marriage.

On September 12, 2004 he wrote: 'If we change marriage for this tiny, modern minority, we will have to do it for every deviant group.

'Polygamists, polyamorists, pedophiles, and others will be next in line to claim equal protection. They already are.'

Johnson added: 'There will be no legal basis to deny a bisexual the right to marry a partner of each sex, or a person to marry his pet.

'If everyone does what is right in his own eyes, chaos and sexual anarchy will result.'

He added that 'homosexual relationships are inherently unnatural' and that 'society cannot give its stamp of approval to such a dangerous lifestyle.'

The future Speaker wrote that the 'our entire democratic system (is) in jeopardy by eroding its foundation.'

In a similar, earlier column on February 22, 2004 he argued against same-sex marriage because it would lead to transsexual marriage.

He wrote: 'If activist judges can reject thousands of years of history and legitimize homosexual marriage, then transsexual and group "marriages" of every sort must logically follow.'

As he argued his case Johnson cited the infamous incident, three weeks earlier, when pop star Janet Jackson inadvertently bared her breast during the Super Bowl half-time show.

He wrote: 'If you were shocked by the moral lapses at the Super Bowl, you ain't seen nothing yet.'

In 2004 Mike Johnson said legalizing same-sex marriage would be much more shocking than the exposing of Janet Jackson's breast at the Super Bowl half-time show

Mike and Kelly Johnson

He went on to describe same-sex marriage as the 'dark harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy that could doom even the strongest republic.'

The following year he wrote: 'Your race, creed, and sex are what you are, while homosexuality and cross-dressing are things you do. This is a free country, but we dont give special protections for every persons bizarre choices.'

In another column he wrote that 'by closing bedroom doors' and allowing people to engage in homosexual activity the courts were 'opening a Pandoras box, he added.

Earlier, in February 2003, Johnson wrote the Alliance Defense Fund's legal submission opposing a Supreme Court ruling in the case of Lawrence v. Texas.

That ruling overturned state laws which had criminalized homosexual activity by consenting adults.

Over 45 pages he argued that homosexual activity should be criminalized because it was a public health concern, and cited various studies.

He said: 'States have many legitimate grounds to proscribe same-sex deviate sexual intercourse.'

Johnson added that by 'closing these bedroom doors' and allowing people to privately engage in homosexual activity, the courts had 'opened a Pandoras box.'

He wrote that 'all' gay people were 'capable of changing their abnormal lifestyles' and there is 'clearly no "right to sodomy" in the Constitution.'

An article written by Mike Johnson in 2004

Johnson faced immediate criticism over his two-decade old comments from gay rights campaigners and Democrats.

As he was voted in to to the speakership Democrat congresswoman Angie Craig of Minnesota, one of the few openly gay members of Congress, shouted: 'Happy wedding anniversary to my wife!'

There has been little criticism from Republicans, who have united around Johnson after failing for weeks to agree on a new Speaker.

Johnson was asked about his comments in an interview with Fox News on Thursday night.

He told Sean Hannity: 'I dont even remember some of them.'

The new Speaker added: 'Go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it. Thats my worldview. Thats what I believe, so I do no apologize for it.

'I also genuinely love all people regardless of their lifestyle choices. This is not about the people themselves. I am a Bible-believing Christian.'

Mike Johnson speaks to Sean Hannity on Fox News

Johnson said he had been a religious liberty defense lawyer and had been 'called to defend those cases in the courts.'

Ultimately, in 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in all 50 states.

This week, Johnson made clear he is a 'rule of law guy' and respected the law of the land.

He said: 'I made a career defending the rule of law, I respect the rule of law.'
Bankman-Fried faces 115 years behind bars if he's found guilty of fraud and conspiracy

The founder of FTX denied stealing $10billion from customers as he took the risky decision to testify in his fraud trial today.

Sam Bankman-Fried admitted that he made some 'large mistakes' and said 'a lot of people got hurt' when the crypto exchange collapsed last November.

He blamed 'significant oversights' in risk management but claimed he never took anyone's money.

Asked what he knew about crypto, Bankman-Fried said 'basically nothing.'

He said: 'I knew a bitcoin was digital, you could trade it on website. I knew there were other crypto currencies, I had absolutely no idea how they worked.'

But Bankman-Fried looked at the opportunities to make money and went ahead.

Facing 115 years in jail, Bankman-Fried decided to testify after being blamed for the collapse of FTX by its top three former employees who have all testified against him.

Sam Bankman-Fried was back on the stand on Friday to testify in his own defense after being blamed for the collapse of FTX

He admitted to making some 'large mistakes' and said 'a lot of people got hurt' but blamed 'significant oversights' in risk management

The exchange was worth $32billion at its peak and Bankman-Fried appeared on the cover of Forbes magazine which touted him as the future of finance.

But the 'house of cards' came crashing down in November last year crypto prices tumbled amid fears of a recession.

Bankman-Fried, 31, was arrested at his penthouse in the Bahamas - where FTX was based - and extradited to the US to face trial.

Prosecutors claimed he 'lied to the world' and blew $10billion on real estate purchases, political donations and by paying himself vast sums of money.

Kicking off his testimony, Bankman-Fried's lawyer Mark Cohen asked him what his 'vision' for FTX was.

He replied: 'We thought that we might be able to build the best product on the market.'

Bankman-Fried said it was to 'combine elements from traditional financial products' with crypto and 'move the ecosystem forward.'

Cohen asked: 'Did it turn out that way?'

Bankman-Fried said: 'No. It turned out basically the opposite of that. A lot of people got hurt', adding that customers lost their money.

Cohen asked: 'Did you defraud anyone?'

Bankman-Fried said: 'No I did not.'

Cohen asked: 'Did you take customers' funds?'

Bankman-Fried said: 'No.'

Cohen asked: 'Did you make any mistakes along the way?'

Bankman-Fried said: 'I made a number of small mistakes and a number of large mistakes.

'By far the biggest mistake was we did not have a dedicated risk management team. We had a number of people who were involved to some extent but no one dedicated to it and there was significant oversights.'

The exchange was worth $32billion at its peak and Bankman-Fried appeared on the cover of Forbes magazine which touted him as the future of finance

Bankman-Fried faces 115 years behind bars if he's found guilty of fraud and conspiracy

SBF appears front and center of a group picture with his arm around Caroline Ellison as men in curly wigs  believed to be mocking his signature hairstyle  pose around them. They're pictured with FTX co-founder Gary Wang (left)

Bankman-Fried told the court that he and Alameda chair Caroline Ellison ended their romantic relationship because he couldn't dedicate his time to her.

'I didn't have the time or the energy to put in what I think she wanted from a relationship,' Bankman-Fried said. 'It wasn't the first time that I had that problem,'

Ellison, who has cut a plea deal with prosecutors to testify against her ex-boyfriend, said earlier in the trial that they split because she wanted more from the relationship.

Speaking clearly in a nasal voice, Bankman-Fried described how he grew up in Palo Alto, California, home to major tech companies like Meta, and studied at MIT.

While living there he met Gary Wang, who he would later co-found FTX with.

Bankman-Fried told the court that he lived in a 'nerdy' frat house with 25 other people where nobody drank.

After graduating he worked at Jane St Capital and in 2017 started Alameda Research, the precursor to FTX which would become FTX's sister company.

Bankman-Fried said he knew 'basically nothing' about crypto but looked at the opportunities to make money and thought they were 'so large I wasn't sure I even believed it'.

The beginnings were scrappy and they rented out an Airbnb in Berkeley, California for their office.

Bankman-Fried said that it was listed as a two bedroom home but they used the attic as a third bedroom and the living room as a fourth bedroom as it had a couch.

The rest of the home was the office which they 'packed with desks and computers and boxes from Amazon'.

'Eventually we had to start dealing with the cardboard box problem pretty soon', Bankman-Fried said.

The name 'Alameda Research' was because Berkeley is in Alameda County and because they wanted to be 'under the radar' and so not alert competitors to what they were doing

Bankman-Fried said: 'I didn't want to call it Sam's crypto trading firm. It was far better than the internal name which was Wireless Mouse'.

Bankman-Fried was asked about what happened to the money deposited with Alameda, which then appeared in their FTX wallets.

FTX had this arrangement because it was initially unable to get its own bank accounts, the court has heard.

Bankman-Fried said: 'I wish I had a better understanding than I did'.

Asked if FTX had the money, Bankman-Fried said: 'I wasn't entirely sure what was happening.

'What I believed was that either the funds were just being held in a bank account, not used or moved, or that they were being sent to FTX in one way or another or Alameda was borrowing funds and using them'.

Bankman-Fried said that he thought FTX's risk management systems were 'better' than other crypto exchanges.

He told the jury it was something he had put a 'lot of thought and time in to'.

The star witness for the prosecution has been Caroline Ellison, Bankman-Fried's ex-girlfriend who ran Alameda Research, FTX's sister company

FTX co-founder and former chief technology officer Gary Wang has taken a plea deal and testified earlier this month

Nishad Singh (pictured arriving at court with girlfriend Claire Watanabe) testified that the company spent millions on celebrity partnerships in early 2022 - as prosecutors attempted to show how Bankman-Fried squandered customer money to boost his stature

Wang was one of the three employees and he was soon followed by Caroline Ellison and Nishad Signh, the three who have testified against Bankman-Fried during the trial.

They eventually rented an office space and then moved Alameda to Hong Kong because it felt like there were more opportunities there.

In 2019, Bankman-Fried spoke with Wang about starting their own crypto exchange and they founded FTX, he told the court.

Bankman-Fried said that when he founded FTX in 2019 he gave himself just a 20 percent chance of lasting beyond a few months.

He said that he initially planned to sell the exchange to a rival company because he had no idea how to attract customers.

But after a few friends signed up word spread 'organically' and on social media and more and more people signed up.

By 2019 the daily trading volume was tens of millions of dollars a day and by 2022 that number had reached $10bn - $15bn a day.

Bankman-Fried has denied 13 counts between 2019 and 2011 including wire fraud, money laundering and violations of campaign finance laws.
Several LGBTQ phrases have been massively increasing since since 2004 across the US, and the states with the highest search volume is shocking.

A recent analysis conducted by Cultural Currents indicates that phrases such as 'Am I gay' and 'Am I lesbian' have risen in search volume by 1,300% - it's highest being in Utah.

The study concluded that the searches: 'Am I gay,' 'Am I lesbian' and 'Am I trans' have been searched the highest in Utah since May.

Studies also show that Oklahoma had the highest search volume for the phrase, 'How to come out,' followed by West Virginia and Mississippi.

Nonbinary is vastly low in search volume, but has been high in Vermont since last May. It is unclear whether this search query is due to Vermonters' curiosity about their own status or their desire to learn more about what the term means.

Studies have shown that LGBTQ phrases continue to be on the rise with phrases such as 'Am I gay' and 'Am I lesbian' rising in search volume by 1,300%

Utah, known for its beliefs in conservative values, is the state in which the phrases 'Am I gay,' 'Am I lesbian' and 'Am I trans' have been searched the highest

Oklahoma currently leads the search volume with the phrase, 'How to come out,' with 100 searches

Utah is currently ranked number six on Cultural Currents list of the most culturally conservative states in America.

It also the third state that best exemplifies a traditional family - a mom, dad, and one or more biological or adopted children.

Reports think it has to do with their 'conservative social values,' and how the questions might be driven by 'the conflict between personal feelings and societal expectations.'

What might also play a role in this is the Pornhub ban implemented in Utah last May that requires the website to verify ages of its visitors.

West Virginia is currently ranked second in the most search volume for the phrase, 'How to come out' Mississippi has been ranked third in the most search volume for the phrase, 'How to come out'

Pride Month is celebrated every June throughout the US. Oklahoma held Tulsa Pride and Oklahoma City Pride to celebrate this year

Although Oklahoma was ranked the number one in the search volume for the phrase: 'How to come out,' it actually tied with West Virginia, both reaching maximum searches of 100.

Mississippi was an extremely close third with 96 searches of the phrase, while Louisiana and Kentucky ranked fourth and fifth with 92 searches each.

'How to come out' is said by Cultural Currents to be the 'most poignant' term, and that it could mean 'a more challenging environment for self-disclosure of identity.'

Like Utah, all four states mentioned above lean more toward the conservative side, and are mainly republican states.

The phrase: 'Am I nonbinary?' did not receive enough data to provide results, but term nonbinary did.

Vermont is the top state with 100 searches, while Oregon and Maine place second and third at 88 and 85 respectively.

The only republican state ranked in the top five of the nonbinary search volume is Montana at 77.
Nearly half of Israelis want their government to delay a ground invasion of Gaza, according to a new poll which will pile pressure on beleaguered Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

A week ago, two thirds of those in Israel favoured an extensive invasion, yet now only 29 per cent want the Israel Defence Force (IDF) to go in immediately, while 49 per cent prefer to wait.

The dramatic shift came as fears grew of the Gaza crisis turning into a wider conflict after US warplanes launched air strikes on Iran-linked militant bases in Syria overnight.

The Israeli Army meanwhile, launched its second incursion in successive nights into Gaza in a preparatory move for a ground invasion, targeting the extensive tunnel network from where Hamas terrorists could emerge.

The new mood of caution in Israel is down to Hamass release of four hostages of the total of at least 233 men, women and children they abducted during the terrorist groups murderous rampage on October 7 which left 1400 people dead.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu is under more and more pressure to delay the ground invasion of Gaza

Gaza has been pounded by Israeli missiles for nearly three weeks straight, leading to civilian deaths

Just 29% of Israelis surveyed said they wanted an immediate ground offensive against the Gaza Strip

Since then Israel has unleashed a round-the-clock bombing campaign directed at Hamas in Gaza, but which has also killed thousands of Palestinians.

In the survey of 522 Israelis by right-leaning daily newspaper Maariv, only 29 per cent wanted the Army to escalate to a large-scale ground offensive immediately, with 49 per cent saying it would be better to wait.

It is almost certain that the developments on the matter of the hostages, which is now topping the agenda, have had a great impact on this shift (in opinion), Maariv wrote.

Hamas says around 50 hostages have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza. One ex-hostage said she had been held, along with at least two dozen others, in an underground Hamas tunnel and bunker complex that is a focus of Israel's offensive.

Three people were wounded, one moderately and two lightly in a new round of Hamas rocket attacks on Israel when one missile hit an apartment in Tel Aviv as Israelis prepared for the Friday night beginning of the Jewish Sabbath.

IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari has said there is 'concrete evidence' to suggest Shifa hospital in Gaza City is a Hamas base of operations

A smoke plume ascending following Israeli bombardment over the northern Gaza Strip near Israel's southern city of Sderot on October 27, 2023

Palestinians wounded are brought to receive medical care at Al-Shifa Hospital after Israeli airstrike on El_Nasan building in Gaza City, on October 27, 2023

Israeli comedians mock BBC reporting of hospital bombing in Gaza Advertisement

In Syria the US deployed a pair of F-16 fighter-bombers overnight to attack a weapons storage facility and an ammunition plant near Abu Kamal - both of which were allegedly run by Irans Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The strikes were not connected to the Israel-Hamas war, the Pentagon insisted, but they came just hours after Iran's Foreign Minister said the United States will 'not be spared from this fire' if Israel continues to attack Hamas - leading analysts to conclude the strikes were a blatant warning to Iran not to take advantage of the regional turmoil.

In the wake of the strikes, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov ruled out any risk of Russia being drawn into the conflict but said the strikes would further stoke tensions across the region.

'This is very bad,' he said.

Smoke and fire rise from a levelled building as people gather amid the destruction in the aftermath of an Israeli strike on Gaza City on October 26, 2023

Smoke and fire rise from buildings as people gather amid the destruction in the aftermath of an Israeli strike on Gaza City on October 26, 2023

The U.N. agency providing aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza has warned it may have to shut down operations shortly if no fuel reaches the enclave, amid an increasingly desperate need for shelter, water, food and medical services.

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said it urgently needed fuel to maintain life-saving humanitarian operations in the Islamist Hamas-ruled enclave that has been under Israeli bombardment for almost three weeks.

If fuel is not received into Gaza, UNRWA will be forced to significantly reduce and in some cases bring its humanitarian operations across the Gaza Strip to a halt. The coming 24 hours are very critical, it said.

Israel has refused to let in fuel with aid shipments, saying it could be seized by Hamas.

More than 613,000 people made homeless by the war between Israel and Iran-backed Hamas are sheltering in 150 UNRWA facilities across the shattered territory, one of the world's most densely populated places.
The leader of an organised kidnap gang that tortured victims with knives and boiling water to get them to hand over cash and jewellery has been caged for 25 years.

'Dangerous' Fortune Lawson, 27, 'terrified' his victims with his disgusting extortion scheme.

Mohamed Saroya was kidnapped outside his home in London by the gang in November 2018 after he was seen wearing a Rolex watch in a Snapchat photograph and was lured into meeting Lawson on the pretence of discussing cannabis.

Judge Daniel Williams said that was nothing but a 'ploy', with Lawson, along with two others, instead intent on kidnapping and torturing Mr Saroya until the watch and a ransom was handed over.

Pictured, Fortune Lawson, 27, who is the leader of the kdnap gang. He is said to have planned the kidnappings like 'military operations'

Arnold Fumumeya, 27, was convicted of two counts of kidnap, three counts of false imprisonment, one count of blackmail relating to two victims

The victim was terrorised for eight hours including being stabbed multiple times, his eyes gouged and having boiling water with sugar in it poured on his abdomen and groin, Cardiff Crown Court heard on Friday.

Mr Saroya was forced to call family members to arrange for money and the Rolex to be handed over before being released.

The court heard he was found by his cousin and his brother in a car park near Kenton railway station but he could not get in the car because of his 'most dreadful' injuries.

He was taken to Northwick Park Hospital where he spent five days having treatment for injuries including stab wounds to his arm and back, burns to his thighs, arm and knee and cuts and bruises, and had to undergo surgery three months later.

Judge Williams said Lawson had 'muscle' to carry out the kidnapping, and 'gophers' on hand to collect the cash.

He said: 'Mr Saroya had to go to hospital many times. The agony he endured is unimaginable.

Undated handout photo issued by South Wales Police of a bedroom at a Cardiff flat where one of the victims was tortured

Pictured, a gun used by the gang to scare those they had kidnapped. Eight other members of the gang - all having been involved in at least one of three plots - were also sentenced

'The extent of the torture broke him completely. It will change him and his family forever.'

Judge Williams said Lawson considered himself 'untouchable' and relocated to Cardiff where he ran a food business and had a girlfriend, but he 'didn't care about either'.

In December 2020, Lawson struck again, kidnapping another victim, Ledio Ibrahimi on the pretence of smoking cannabis together.

Instead, he took him to a flat in the city and waterboarded and beat him and threatened him with guns and knives and an 'attack dog'.

Mr Ibrahimi was forced to call a friend to arrange for 50,000 to be handed over, but the friend called South Wales Police to report a 'life or death situation' and unbeknownst to the kidnappers, hostage negotiators were monitoring phone calls.

The victim was taken to another stronghold in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, where the horrifying ordeal continued before he was eventually rescued by armed police, who found him with cable ties on his wrists 'shaking and crying'.

DNA evidence obtained from blood found in the Cardiff flat led police to identify another victim, Halim Vladi, who had also been held against his will and repeatedly assaulted at the same address.

Eight other members of the gang - all having been involved in at least one of the three plots - were also sentenced on Friday at the same court.

Davood Assadpour, 33, and Micaiah Marley, 30, were jailed for 15 years; Arnold Fumemeya and Alexis Mutesa, both 27, for 13 years; Gideon Lawson, 24, for 12 years; Ahmed Omar, 29, for nine years; Stephen Isaac, 66, for six years; and Denis Delishaj, 34, for eight years, as well as eight months for having a phone in prison.

Assadpour 'positioned himself as the professor' of the gang and played a leading role in the torture of one of the victims, judge Williams said, and bragged about being 'Robin Hood' to a prison guard.

Marley also played a leading role, threatening one of the victims with a gun and a sword, as did Fortune Lawson's brother Gideon.

Fumumeya and Mutesa were the 'muscle' who transported one of the victims from Cardiff to Hemel Hempstead.

The court heard Delishaj played a 'significant role' in blackmailing Mr Ibrahimi, and while he was not part of the kidnap or torture, he was 'at the other end of the phone' while it was taking place and acted as a translator and ransom negotiator to relay Lawson's 'vile demands'.

Omar acted as a 'lookout' outside the Cardiff flat and 'knew exactly' what the rest of the gang were doing inside, judge Williams said.

Isaac provided his flat in Hemel Hempstead as a 'base' for the torture in return for drugs.

Judge Williams praised South Wales Police for their 'painstaking work' in bringing the criminal gang to justice and noted the bravery of the victims in coming forward.

Detective Superintendent Darren George, head of South Wales Police Major Crime Investigation Team, said: 'This has been one of the UK's most complicated kidnap investigations in recent times and it has taken nearly three years to convict these nine individuals.

'We hope our investment into this crime and sentences handed down send a clear message to those intent on bringing this sort of violence to our streets.

'We will relentlessly pursue you with everything at our disposal and you will go to jail.'

One of the knives used by the gang to threaten terrified victims into handing over money and jewellery

Jenny Hopkins, Chief Crown Prosecutor, CPS Cymru-Wales, said: 'The torture suffered by the victims in this case is almost beyond belief. In their pursuit of money, those responsible were seemingly willing to inflict maximum suffering.

'The ringleader and mastermind, Fortune Lawson, planned the extortions like military operations. He targeted men who trusted him and who he had identified as possessing high-value goods or significant amounts of money.

'Others in the gang had varying roles - but each was aware of the terrifying ordeal the victims were being put through. They all took steps to avoid being implicated, including wearing masks, balaclavas and gloves.

'Thankfully these dangerous and violent men have now been brought to justice, but the suffering of the victims and the impact of their injuries goes on.

'I want to express my utmost gratitude to the victims for their courage in making statements and giving evidence in this case which ultimately enabled us to secure convictions.'

Gang leader Fortune Lawson was convicted of two counts of kidnap, three counts of false imprisonment, one count of blackmail relating to two victims. Also convicted of one count of kidnap and one count of false imprisonment in relation to a third victim.

Meanwhile, Arnold Fumumeya was convicted of two counts of kidnap, three counts of false imprisonment, one count of blackmail relating to two victims and Alexis Mutes was convicted of two counts of kidnap, three counts of false imprisonment and one count of blackmail relating to two victims.

Also, Davood Assadpour was convicted of two counts of kidnap, three counts of false imprisonment and one count of blackmail relating to two victims. Micaiah Marley was convicted of two counts of kidnap, three counts of false imprisonment and one count of blackmail in relation to two victims.

Gideon Lawson was convicted of two counts of kidnap, three counts of false imprisonment and one count of blackmail relating to two victims and Ahmed Omar was convicted of two counts of kidnap, two counts of false imprisonment and one count of blackmail relating to two victims.

And Denis Delishaj was convicted of one count of blackmail (relating to one victim) and one count of possessing a mobile phone in prison without authorisation while Stephen Isaac was convicted of two counts of kidnap, three counts of false imprisonment and one count of blackmail relating to two victims.
Ron DeSantis called for the destruction of Iran's economy after two Iranian-controlled sites in eastern Syria were hit by U.S. airstrikes in the early hours of Friday in retaliation for a flurry of attacks against U.S. bases in Syria and Iraq.

'You tighten all the financial screws on Iran. You know, our goal should be the destruction of the Iranian economy,' the Florida governor and Republican presidential contender told an audience at the Heritage Foundation in Washington D.C.

'If you do that, they are not going to be able to fund Hezbollah, Hamas and are not going to be able to help Russia,' he argued.

DeSantis was giving what his campaign billed as a major foreign policy address. In his remarks, he railed against President Joe Biden, claiming 'the Biden foreign policy is rudderless weak, misguided and solicitous of America's adversaries.'

Ron DeSantis gave a major foreign policy address at the Heritage Foundation in Washington D.C. on Friday

The Florida governor blasted the president for not doing enough to counter China's influence in the Indo-specific and accused Biden of enriching and empowering Iran 'with sanctions relief that has fueled the Hamas attacks that has fueled what Russia is doing in Europe.'

'Biden has enriched them intentionally. And it's had disastrous consequences,' he said of Iran.

Some conservatives accuse the Biden administration of enriching Iran through waving a sanction on $10 billion frozen in Iraq and allowing the money to be deposited in Iranian bank accounts in Oman.

The Biden administration argues it has taken economic actions to stop Iran's influence and outreach.

'We have never been blind to Iran's destabilizing behaviors and the threats they pose in the region since coming into office,' said White House spokesman John Kirby earlier this week.

'That's why we have added additional sanctions regimes  40 of them since we came into office, 30 in just the last year alone. That's why we bolstered our military presence in the region.'

He added that 'we are not blind to the fact that they continue to support groups like Hamas and Hizballah and these militia groups in Iraq and in Syria that have been recently, over the course of the last weekend, attacking some of our facilities and our troops as well as our diplomats.'

In the early morning hours of Friday, the Pentagon sent two F-16 fighter jets to attack a weapons storage facility and an ammunition plant near Abu Kamal.

Both sites were run by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Pentagon said.

The Pentagon said the strikes were not connected to the Israel-Hamas war, but designed to send a warning to Iran not to take advantage of the regional turmoil.

'These strikes were very much done in self-defense. As you know, our forces and facilities had come under a range of attacks, rocket attacks, largely by these proxy groups, but they're backed by Iran, in Iraq and in Syria,' Kirby told ABC's Good Morning America on Friday morning.

Iran's Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, said at the United Nations on Thursday that if Israel's offensive against Hamas does not end, the United States will 'not be spared from this fire'.

There was no report of any casualties in the 4:30am strike, and a U.S. official told Voice of America's Jeff Seldin that the locations were chosen because there were no civilians present.

It is the first time since March that the Biden administration has authorized strikes against Iranian-linked targets in Syria and Iraq, and comes after a series of assaults beginning on October 17.

The attacks against multiple U.S.-controlled sites in the region resulted in minor injuries to 21 U.S. service members, and the death of an American contractor, who died from a heart attack during one attack.

America strikes back: US warplanes conduct airstrikes against Iranian proxy forces in Syria in retaliation for attacks against US troops in Middle East

The United States has 2,500 troops in Iraq, and 900 more in neighboring Syria.

The U.S. personnel are there to advise and assist local forces in combating Islamic State, which in 2014 seized swathes of territory in both countries.

On Tuesday, an Iranian proxy group in Iraq said it would expand attacks on U.S. bases in the region.

President Biden on Wednesday warned Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei not to attack U.S. forces in the region, and said there would be consequences.

'My warning to the Ayatollah was that if they continue to move against those troops, we will respond,' said Biden.
Israeli troops could be planning to disable Hamas tunnels and trap the terrorists underground using innovative 'sponge bombs'.

How to deal with concealed fighters hiding in the myriad of tunnels under Gaza will be one the main concerns for the Israel Defence Force (IDF) when they begin their long-promised ground offensive into the besieged city.

And according to some reports, a secret new weapon dubbed the 'sponge bomb' could see deployment for the first time.

Based around a liquid emulsion, the chemical compound can be dropped into a tunnel before rapidly expanding and hardening, potentially trapping attackers down alleys or securing safe routes for Israeli commandos while searching for hostages.

How Israeli sponge bombs could be used to trap Hamas terrorists in tunnels underground

How to deal with concealed fighters hiding in the myriad of tunnels under Gaza will be one the main concerns for the Israel Defence Force (IDF) when they begin their long-promised ground offensive into the besieged city

Hamas terrorists sitting in tunnels underneath Gaza which the IDF will try to neutralise with 'sponge bombs'

Troops are said to have used the handheld devices at the Israeli military's 'mini Gaza', a mock-up of the urban warren where they will soon be expected to fight constructed at the Urban Warfare Training Center in the Negev desert.

According to the Telegraph, the bombs feature a metal partition separating the two volatile liquids, which immediately react when they touch.

The material is said to be so hazardous that Israeli troops were blinded during practise sessions.

Foam and even slime have often been considered for their potential military utility, but results have been modest.

A fighter holding a rocket propelled grenade launcher climbs out of a Gaza tunnel

A general view shows the interiors of what the Israeli military say is a cross-border attack tunnel dug from Gaza to Israel, on the Israeli side of the Gaza Strip border

The estimate that the tunnels stretch hundreds of kilometres is widely accepted by security analysts, even though the blockaded coastal strip is only 40km (25 miles) long

American troops used guns shooting ultra-sticky foam as a non-lethal way to disable rioters while on deployment in Somalia in the mid-1990s, although results are said to have been mixed.

However, any weapon, no matter how experimental, could be crucial if Israel does indeed intend to enter the tunnels.

The estimate that they stretch hundreds of kilometres is widely accepted by security analysts, even though the blockaded coastal strip is only 40km (25 miles) long.

And while Hamas is naturally secretive about their networks, the recently released Israeli hostage Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, said: 'It looked like a spider's web, many, many tunnels', adding: 'We walked kilometres under the ground.'
Villagers have become 'housebound' after a major diversion caused a massive traffic gridlock with motorists spending around an hour and a half just to drive half a mile.

A diversion caused by gas works road closure has left a narrow country lane with room for just one vehicle as the sole route between the village and several caravan parks.

Now, chalet owners in the rural village of Eastchurch on Kent's Isle of Sheppey are facing 'nightmare' traffic standstills which are set to continue until nearly Christmas.

Some furious residents are so put off by the traffic they have given up on even trying to go to the shops for fear of being stuck in their cars for hours on end.

Kent County Council (KCC) gave permission for the narrow country lane to become a funnel for traffic after gas company SGN began digging up another part of Warden Road, by the Eastchurch Church Of England Primary School, at the beginning of the week.

Photos from local residents show lorries completely filling the tiny country lane with no room for other cars to pass

Local resident Dennis Moyce hasn't even attempted to leave his home since the works began, having heard how brutal the traffic was.

He worries what would happen if someone were to suffer a health emergency whilst the works are on, as it would take forever for an ambulance to get through.

The 71-year-old added that the situation is bound to get worse once schools resume next week.

The retired welder explained: 'Because of the part of Warden Road that is closed, people living in or visiting Shurland Dale Holiday Park have Plough Road as the only option to get in and out of the village.

'Lorries trying to get to the caravan parks and businesses down Plough Road are getting stuck down this tiny country lane and blocking the only route to the village.

'There is not a chance for residents to get out when this happens. It is ridiculous and absolute chaos.'

Residents worry that the problem will be worse once children are back at school. Pictured, a Google Street View outside Eastchurch Primary

The closures first began on Warden Road on Monday, October 23, and work is not estimated to be completed until November 26. Pictured, Google Street View of the road

Photos from local residents show lorries completely filling the tiny country lane with no room for other cars to pass.

KCC has made an order to temporarily prohibit through traffic on parts of various roads in the village to allow gas main replacement works to be carried out.

The closures first began on Warden Road on Monday, October 23, and work is not estimated to be completed until November 26.

Although there is a long diversion, those living in a nearby caravan park say the country lanes simply cannot cope with the amount of traffic.

'I was going to head out to the shop on Wednesday, but after seeing my neighbours leave and come back shortly after as there was nowhere for them to go, I decided to leave it,' Mr Moyce continued.

'I haven't even tried, as I know it's impossible to get through if there are lorries going along Plough Road.

'All types of traffic are getting stuck. There was a caravan blocking the road at one point and, on another occasion, a lorry had to move onto a field to let traffic past.

'My friend was stuck in the queue for a little less than an hour and a half just to travel 0.5 miles down the road.

'It's absolutely crazy to give us access to our homes through one country lane.

'Next week the kids are back to school and the gas works are right next to the school.

'It's going to be an absolute nightmare, it's dangerous.

'If someone was to have a heart attack in one of the caravan parks they'd die as an ambulance wouldn't be able to get here.

'A fire truck or an ambulance just would not be able to get through and that means someone could die.

'Perhaps they could have had temporary traffic lights instead, or done the work at night.

'To get to Leysdown, which is six miles away, I had to drive the 12-mile diversion and then the 6-mile trip to Leysdown.

'That is 18 miles altogether. It's ridiculous, we don't want to go out.'

After work is completed by SGN along Warden Road, the High Street will be closed for two weeks from Monday, October 30, and the closure between the junction with Warden Road to the junction with Leysdown Road, is set to last until just before Christmas (until December 18).

The closures are said to be required for the safety of the public and workforce while gas main replacement works are undertaken by SGN.

Bradley Barlow, a spokesman for the gas distribution company, said: 'We're upgrading our gas network in the Warden Road area of Eastchurch, replacing our old metal gas mains and services with new plastic pipe.

'This essential work will ensure the local community continues to receive a safe and reliable gas supply.

'In consultation with KCC our contractor, WCB Utilities, who will be completing this project on our behalf, started work in Warden Road earlier this week. Our project is expected to last for approximately eight weeks.

'Due to the position of the pipes in the road and for the safety of everyone around our worksite, we need to temporarily close some of the roads around our work area.

'While the roads are closed, signed diversions will be in place and access will be kept for residents and businesses, which have been agreed with KCC.

'We understand people can get frustrated by roadworks and so we only use traffic management measures we feel are efficient enough to complete these works safely for ourselves and the public.'
A 15-year-old girl developed septic shock after she was bitten by a tropical ant species that had invaded her council home.

Rayanne Turay, from Wandsworth, is being treated in a West London hospital after a painful bite under her armpit became infected.

Her mother, Jordann Griffiths, told Sky News that she had complained a few months ago about an infestation of Pharaoh ants in their home, which are generally found in Britain within heated buildings.

Despite efforts to eradicate the pests, the ants have remained at their home.

She added that the family has additionally experienced damp, mould and disrepair issues at their council home over the last 15 years.

Rayanne Turay, from Wandsworth, is being treated in a West London hospital after a painful bite under her armpit from a Pharoah ant became infected

The teenager is now said to be 'traumatised' and does not want to return to her council home

Jordann Griffiths, mother of Rayanne, said they have complained to Wandsworth Council about their Pharoah ant infestation

Mrs Griffiths said the hospital had confirmed from a swab of the infected area that an abscess had developed as a result of an ant bite.

READ MORE: Woman went to doctors complaining of incessant clicking and rustling noise and is told a SPIDER was living in her ear Advertisement

She said her daughter, who is being treated at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, is now 'traumatised' and does not want to return home.

'She doesn't even want to see this place. It was very scary for her. It was scary for me and scary for her dad and people to see her the way she was.'

Housing campaigner Kwajo Tweneboa said Mrs Griffiths had contacted him about the situation and said that he found the case 'quite shocking'.

He said: 'If things were a lot worse and it didn't turn out to how it's played out, it could have been a lot worse for her and her daughter.'

A Wandsworth Council spokesperson said: ' This is obviously a distressing set of circumstances and we sincerely hope this young person makes a swift and full recovery.

'We are aware of a Pharoah ant infestation at this resident's property and using a pest control contractor we have treated the property three times over the summer and will continue to repeat the treatments until the problem has been dealt with.

'A number of repairs to the property are also in hand and while we carry out these repairs and treatments we are offering the resident alternative accommodation so this situation can be resolved as quickly as possible.'

Rayanne took a turn for the worse after a bite in her armpit developed into an infected abscess
Hamas will feel Israel's 'wrath', a top political adviser to Benjamin Netanyahu warned as Israeli warplanes tonight unleashed airstrikes of 'unprecedented' intensity across all parts of the Gaza strip.

The relentless bombardment came as Israeli defence chiefs confirmed IDF troops were 'expanding operations' across the enclave, in a move military experts say signalled the impending full-scale ground invasion of the territory.

Ahead of the onslaught, Palestinian civilians were warned by the IDF to flee to the south of Gaza, before missiles then slammed into the Hamas-controlled region, razing buildings to the ground and bathing the skyline in an apocalyptic orange glow, as fire raged.

The bombing, which observers described as much more ferocious and louder than previous days, coincided with electricity and communications blackouts in much of the besieged enclave.

According to one report the Israelis even unleashed 'bunker buster' concussion missiles to try and destroy the extensive Hamas tunnel network under Gaza.

IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari telling reporters at a press conference today: 'In recent hours we have increased the attacks in Gaza.

'The air force widely attacks underground targets and terrorist infrastructure, very significantly.

'In continuation of the offensive activity we carried out in the last few days, the ground forces are expanding the ground activity this evening.'

Speaking to MSNBC, Israeli political adviser Mark Regev claimed Hamas will pay for what he said were its crimes against humanity.

Gaza was bathed in an apocalyptic orange glow as fires raged after a relentless bombardment

Huge plumes of smoke could be seen rising across the Hamas-controlled territory

The strikes have almost completely Gaza's telecommunications infrastructure

Communication from Gaza were reportedly cut in the bombardment (pictured)

IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari (pictured) said a press conference today: 'In recent hours we have increased the attacks in Gaza. The air force widely attacks underground targets and terrorist infrastructure, very significantly'

He told Fox News in a separate interview tonight that the Gaza Strip would look 'very different' after 'this is over.'

He told Fox News tonight: 'We are beefing up the pressure on Hamas. We're increasing the pressure that they're under. Our military operations are underway.

'They will continue to be on the receiving end of our military blows until we have dismantled their military machine and dissolve their political structure in Gaza. When this is over, Gaza will be very different.'

The IDF said tonight it was expanding its bombardment campaign against Gaza, and was 'working powerfully in all dimensions' to achieve its military goals.

Hamas returned fire with a 'salvo' of rockets, though it not known how many were caught by Israel's Iron Dome defence system.

The terror group also called on those in the West Bank and '1948 territories' - a term used by Palestinians meaning Israel in reference to when it was founded - to take up arms as Israel's ground invasion begins.

Hamas reportedly said that it held Israel, the US and Western nations which support Israel 'fully responsible for the series of heinous massacres' against the people of Gaza

It was not clear whether the latest development in the bloodiest conflict between Hamas and Israel was a threat of a full invasion or a bigger but similar 'probe' to those launched on Wednesday and Thursday nights, with the troops returning by dawn.

Former General Wesley Clark, former NATO Allied Commander told CNN he believed the operation was a preparatory 'softening up' operation, rather than the full-scale invasion, adding that each probe yielded vital intelligence about how the Hamas defenders reacted.

Video footage of the 'unprecedented' bombing campaign saw Gaza's night sky light up bright orange, as the explosion was heard from miles away.

The increased bombardment campaign saw fires being set across the city, billowing thick smoke into the night sky.

The Hamas government said the Israel bombardment campaign 'cut communications and most of the internet' across the Gaza Strip, and accused the IDF of taking the measure 'to perpetrate massacres with bloody retaliatory strikes from the air, land and sea.'

Gaza has been bombed nonstop for nearly three straight weeks

Hamas accused Israel of increasing its missile strikes to 'perpetrate massacres with bloody retaliatory strikes from the air, land and sea'

Gaza has tonight been bombed by Israeli airplanes, following an increased bombardment campaign by the IDF

Several Palestinian telecoms providers announced 'the total cut of all communication services and internet' in the territory, leaving the hundreds of thousands of civilians in a communications blackout.

Global internet monitor NetBlocks reported 'a collapse in connectivity in the Gaza Strip,' citing live network data.

NGOs working in Gaza have claimed the move may be deadly for the enclave's citizens, with the Palestinian Red Crescent, the main emergency service in Gaza, saying it was cut off from its operations room in the strip because of the internet blackout.

It said in a statement tonight: 'We are deeply concerned about the ability of our teams to continue providing their emergency medical services, especially since this disruption affects the central emergency number '101' and hinders the arrival of ambulance vehicles to the wounded and injured.'

Hamas returned fire with a 'salvo' of rocket fire, though it is not known whether these were effective

The Hamas rockets have been intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome defence system

The group's director Marwan Jilani, told Al Jazeera that it lost contact with its Gazan team several hours ago.

'We're extremely worried and concerned for our colleagues,' he said.

'Apart from the humanitarian catastrophe that has been happening before the world's eyes the last few days, we are now facing a total darkness. We don't know what's happening.

'We're really scared and we're shaken to the core.'

ActionAid, an NGO that works to alleviate poverty across the world, said it was gravely concerned that it has lost contact with its team in Gaza.

The charity said in a statement: 'We are gravely concerned for their safety and that of all the people of Gaza as signs grow of a major land escalation following almost three weeks of bombardment.

'We urgently call for the restoration of communication channels, as this is not only a matter of principle but also one of practical necessity.'

Oxfam said it was 'deeply concerned' with tonight's developments in Gaza, 'especially the total loss of communication' in the Strip.

The NGO called for a ceasefire 'to protect innocent lives.'

The Palestinian death toll passed 7,300 as Israel launched waves of airstrikes

NGOs have already said that Israel's latest bombardment campaign may be deadly for Gazans

Several NGOs have said they cannot communicate with their Gazan colleagues

The IDF said tonight it was expanding its bombardment campaign against Gaza

Former General Wesley Clark, former NATO Allied Commander told CNN he believed the operation was a preparatory 'softening up' operation

Israel says it is expanding its ground operation tonight

Witnesses said the Israeli forces unleashed artillery and tank fire on Gaza as well as the 'unprecedented' airstrikes

Witnesses said the Israeli forces unleashed artillery and tank fire on Gaza as well as the 'unprecedented' airstrikes.

IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari highlighted the Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City earlier today, claiming that it was being used as a Hamas command and control facility and added: 'We continue with our efforts to identify and intercept terrorist cells all the time.'

Hamas denied they were using the hospital.

The IDF has warned that Gaza hospitals that are being used 'terror facilities' by Hamas may soon lose rights afforded to them under international law.

IDF spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner told Sky News: 'We've been telling people to leave the north of the Gaza Strip, and we've made several calls to the al Shifa hospital.

'Those calls have not been responded to and are not being adhered to.

'Now we understand why - because Hamas is preventing people from moving, Hamas is limiting their capability.

'If these actions continue from hospitals under certain conditions, indeed hospitals could lose their protections that they're entitled to.'

The IDF's position was condemned by international watchdog Human Rights Watch.

The UN overwhelming voted to call for a humanitarian truce between Israel and Hamas, a move that was condemned by Israel officials

An Israeli armoured personnel carrier is pictured moving into position near Gaza tonight

Flares fired by the Israeli army light up the sky east of Khan Yunis on the southern Gaza Strip on October 27

Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, condemned Israel's current position on the rights afforded to Gaza hospitals under international law.

He said: 'The Israeli army statement on Gaza hospitals raises grave concerns for the safety of patients and medical workers.

'If accurate, the use of medical facilities by Palestinian armed groups for military operations is alarming and violates the laws of war.

'But hospitals have special protections that they only lose if being used to "commit acts harmful to the enemy," and after due warning. Doctors, nurses, and ambulances have to be permitted to do their work and be protected in all circumstances.'

The new upsurge against Gaza in violence came as the foreign minister of neighbouring Jordan accused Israel of launching its long-anticipated ground war against Gaza, adding that the consequence of this will be a 'humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions.'

The international community today overwhelmingly appealed for a humanitarian truce between Israel and Hamas, as the UN's general assembly voted through a resolution in New York.

The resolution also called for 'the immediate and unconditional release of all civilians who are being illegally held captive,' though it does not name Hamas as the captor.

But the move was condemned by Gilad Erdan, Israel's envoy to the world body, who accused the UN of supporting 'Nazi terrorists', referring to Hamas.

He said the international body had no legitimacy or relevance, and added that the only way to destroy Hamas was to 'root them out of their tunnels and destroy their subterranean city of terror.'

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urgently appealed for more aid deliveries to be allowed through to Gaza from Egypt.

'The humanitarian system in Gaza is facing a total collapse with unimaginable consequences for more than 2 million civilians,' Guterres said in a statement.

In the occupied West Bank, more than 110 Palestinians have been killed in violence and Israeli raids since the war's start three weeks ago

More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, mostly civilians slain during the initial Hamas attack

But despite this, the United States said it supports a pause in Israeli military operations in Gaza to get humanitarian aid, fuel and electricity to civilians there.

White House spokesman John Kirby said on Friday that if getting hostages out of Gaza requires a localised temporary pause, then the United States is in support of that.

He added: 'We're not drawing red lines for Israel. We're going to continue to support them.

'Since the very beginning we have, and will continue to have, conversations about the manner that they are doing this.'

British political figures reacted to the news of the IDF's increased bombardment campaign.

Scotland's First Minister Humza Yousaf, whose parents-in-law are still trapped in Gaza, wrote today in a post to X, formerly Twitter:

'Gaza is under intense bombing. Telecommunications have been cut.

'We can't get through to our family who have been trapped in this war zone for almost 3 weeks.

'We can only pray they survive the night. How many more children have to die before the world says enough?'

Layla Moran, MP for Oxford West & Abingdon, and the Liberal Democrats' spokesperson for FCDO & Science, Tech and Innovation, said in a post to X, formerly Twitter: 'Fresh hell looks to be unleashed tonight.

'We need to create an international movement for a lasting peace as remote as it may feel. These scenes must never be repeated.'

The MP said in a previous post minutes before: 'Every night I go to sleep afraid of what new heart-wrenching developments I am going to wake up to. But tonight, I may not be able to sleep at all. Please let me be wrong.'

The Palestinian death toll passed 7,300 as Israel launched waves of airstrikes in response to the bloody Hamas rampage in southern Israel on October 7.

The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza, which tracks the toll, released a detailed list, including names and ID numbers on Thursday.

In the occupied West Bank, more than 110 Palestinians have been killed in violence and Israeli raids since the war's start three weeks ago.

More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, mostly civilians slain during the initial Hamas attack.

In addition, 229 people, including foreigners, children and older adults, were taken by Hamas during the incursion and remain in captivity in Gaza.So far, four hostages were released earlier.

More to follow.
He's been charged as an adult in court and did not appear at his first hearing

Derek Rosa, who allegedly stabbed his mother to death, has had his mugshot released by Miami-Dade Corrections & Rehabilitation

A 13-year-old Florida boy who allegedly stabbed and killed his mother while his 14-day old baby sister lay in a crib next to her has had his mugshot released.

Derek Rosa, from Hialeah, Florida, is accused of savagely murdering his mother, Irena Garcia, 39, in her bedroom last Thursday.

When responding officers arrived on scene Garcia was lying dead with multiple stab wounds to the neck as her new born daughter lay unharmed nearby her.

Rosa appeared stoic in the mugshot, his eyes deadpan, after he was slapped with a first degree murder charge.

The young teen will be tried as an adult and did not appear at his first hearing in court today. He's being held at the Miami-Dade Corrections & Rehabilitation facility.

13-year-old Derek Rosa, who allegedly stabbed and killed his mother while his 14-day-old baby sister lay in a crib next to her has had his mugshot released

Rosa's mother, Irena Garcia, 39, had just given birth to his younger sister two weeks before. The baby was found lying beside her dead body, unharmed

Rosa's father and grandmother appeared on behalf of the juvenile in court on Friday with the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office officials confirming a grand jury has formally charged him.

Emotional pleas emphasizing support for the young boy were heard in court with his father making the case that the incident was out of character.

'It's very unfortunate that this tragedy occurred,' said his father, 'but this child is very humble, very peaceful and no one could imagine that this would ever happen.'

Rosa has been ordered to be held without bond and transferred to the Metro West Detention Center.

He'll remain there until the judge reviews the defense's request to return the 13-year-old to juvenile custody.

Lt. Eddie Rodriguez, a spokesperson for the Hialeah Police Department, told WPLG-TV the honors student called 911 just after 11.30pm to report that he had 'just murdered his mother.'

A copy of the dispatch call was also released by police a few days before the first hearing.

Rosa allegedly told the dispatcher that he took pictures of his dead mother and sent them to friends

Rosa posed with his mother and stepfather in matching outfits for a maternity photo shoot

In the transcript, the dispatcher can be heard asking Rosa, 'Why did you kill your mom?' but no response was recorded.

Rosa allegedly told the dispatcher that he'd taken pictures of his dead mother and sent them to his friends.

He is heard saying: 'I took pictures and I told my friends about it. Is that bad?'

Police are yet to confirm the existence of pictures or messages to Rosa's friends.

Its been claimed he also said that he was 'very sad' and wanted to 'shoot himself with a gun.'

Police believe the boy had waited until his mother had fallen asleep and then stabbed her multiple times.

Rosa is an honor student at iMater Charter Middle/High School.

Lieutenant Rodriguez said it was 'not what you'd think or expect walking into that home or seeing that crime scene.'

Footage from the scene showed the boy walking out of the apartment as he was taken into police custody.

One neighbor, Lazaro Rodriguez, said: 'I was shocked, just shocked by the news.

'He was always with his mom, calm, he would help her carry packages or shopping bags.

'I never saw anything abnormal with him. I don't know what could've happened.'

Rodriguez told Local 10 News last week that the boy had no history of mental health issues and police had not been to the family's apartment before.

He said: 'Neighbors don't know of any problems inside the home. So this has detectives and us dumbfounded.'

Rosa lived in the apartment with his mother, newborn sister and his stepfather, who works as a truck driver - all of whom he reportedly got along well with.

Rosa was taken into custody by police on October 12. A copy of the 911 dispatch call was released by police this week

The block of flats where Rosa lived in Florida with his family

Rosa was alone in the apartment with his baby sister and their mother on Thursday evening. His stepfather was reportedly away in Georgia at the time.

Other family members were seen arriving at the apartment after Rosa was taken into custody.

A photo of the family shared by local news outlets just before Garcia gave birth shows Rosa and his stepfather in matching light pink polo shirts and khakis, lovingly cradling Garcia's baby bump.

Officials said his baby sister is now with their grandmother. Rosa is set to face a judge in an arraignment hearing next week.
Cornell University is set to pay out $3million to students after it shifted to virtual learning in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The private Ivy League university settled a lawsuit which alleged it failed to adequately reimburse those impacted by the decision to move all aspects online.

It was filed in 2020 by Cornell students who accused the institution of 'breaching a contract' and 'unjust enrichment'.

They claimed the transition to online classes deprived many people of in-person teaching, access to campus facilities and extra programs they had paid for.

The $3million will be shared between the roughly 24,000 students enrolled in an in-person degree program during the Spring 2020 semester- although each person will likely get no more than $100.

Cornell University is set to pay out $3million to students after it shifted to virtual learning in response to the coronavirus pandemic

The private Ivy League university, led by president Martha E. Pollack, settled a lawsuit which alleged it failed to adequately reimburse those impacted by the decision to move all aspects online

Students claimed the transition to online classes deprived many people of in-person teaching, access to campus facilities and extra programs they had paid for

Cornell canceled in-person classes in the middle of March 2020 and ordered students to leave its campus by the end of the month.

But it did not refund part of their tuition and other fees despite pleas and petitions to do so.

The university agreed to pay the settlement but has denied any allegations of wrongdoing and said there was 'no finding of liability in any court'.

Joel Malina, vice president for university at Cornell told The College Fix: 'Cornell is pleased to have reached this settlement, which both sides believe is in the best interests of all parties.'

Students who are eligible for a portion of the settlement don't have to do anything to receive payment, the legal notice posted on the university newspaper Cornell Chronicle said.

The payment will be delivered by mail or electronically and those who want to opt out or object to it have until November 9 to respond.

The settlement has only received preliminary approval and a final approval hearing has been scheduled for December 13.

The $3million will be shared between the roughly 24,000 students enrolled in an in-person degree program during the Spring 2020 semester- although each person will likely get no more than $100. Pictured: A virtual landscape architecture lesson

The university agreed to pay the settlement but has denied any allegations of wrongdoing and said there was 'no finding of liability in any court'

If it is approved, costs to cover litigation and other fees will be deducted from the settlement first.

Cornell Law professor Kevin Clermont said people should not 'infer failure simply from the small individual payout'.

He added that the significance lies more in '[deterring] future bad behavior by persons in the defendants situation.'

Around eight in 10 of undergraduate students in America had some or all of their classes moved online in Spring 2020.

It has been argued that the settlement Cornell has reach could set a precedent with students at other universities and encourage other lawsuits related to virtual learning.

Cornell decided to bring back students to campus for in-person instruction in the fall of 2020.

Its president Martha E. Pollack said at the time that it would welcome students back to campus - an option she said is best not only for their education, but also public health.

The Ivy League university decided that compared with holding classes only online, residential learning would be safer for students and the wider community because it can ask students to participate in a screening program to detect and contain any spread of the coronavirus.

DailyMail.com has contacted Cornell University for comment.
Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf has said he and his wife are unable to get through to family members trapped in the Gaza Strip amid a huge expansion in ground operations by Israel as it launches an offensive against terror group Hamas.

Taking to social media on Friday night, Mr Yousaf said that telecommunications into the region have been cut, leaving them unable to know if his wife's family, including her parents, are alive.

This statement was echoed by local telecoms firms as they said all internet and mobile service had gone, amid some of the heaviest bombardment of the Gaza Strip by Israel yet.

Israel has been warning of an imminent ground offensive for weeks after Hamas launched a brutal surprise assault into Israeli territory, killing at least 1,400 people, most of whom were civilians.

Its chief military spokesperson confirmed air and ground operations would be significantly stepped up overnight as it continues its response to the attacks, which the Hamas-led Palestinian health ministry so far says has killed at least 7,300 people.

Hamas responded and said it is 'ready' for an Israeli offensive.

Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf has said he and his wife are unable to get through to family members trapped in the Gaza Strip

Taking to social media on Friday night, Mr Yousaf said that telecommunications into the region have been cut

Writing on X, formerly Twitter, Mr Yousaf said on Friday: 'Gaza is under intense bombing. Telecommunications have been cut.

'We can't get through to our family who have been trapped in this war zone for almost 3 weeks. We can only pray they survive the night. How many more children have to die before the world says enough?'

Mr Yousaf has been vocal in calling for an immediate ceasefire and increasing humanitarian support into the besieged region.

Earlier this week he revealed that his in-laws don't know 'whether they are going to make it from one night to the next'.

He said on Monday that Elizabeth El-Nakla and her husband Maged  the parents of Mr Yousaf's wife Nadia - have been left with just six bottles of drinking water between 100 people.

'They're really living in a situation that my mother-in-law describes as torture,' Mr Yousaf said.

'The whole night there will be missiles, rocket fire, drones  they don't know whether they are going to make it from one night to the next.

'They're down to six bottles of clean drinking water in a house of 100 people including a two-month-old baby, she tells me.'

Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran, who has relatives trapped in Gaza, said on Friday she faced a sleepless night over her fears for them

Explosions in the northern Gaza Strip pictured overnight on Friday

An Israeli military spokesperson said ground activities are being expanded tonight

According to the Palestinian health ministry, at least 7,300 people are known to have died

Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles have been amassing along the Gaza border for weeks

Nadia's parents previously recorded what they described as a 'final' video message, recounting their fears that they would not survive a ground assault by the IDF.

As news of the suspected offensive broke, Mr Yousaf's SNP Westminster leader tweeted: 'If accurate, and a ground incursion is about to occur, itd be inconceivable for the doors of the UK Parliament to remain shut.

'With UK citizens trapped in Gaza and potential for huge regional and international impact, a recall would have to take place to press for a ceasefire.'

Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran, who also has family trapped in Gaza, said on Friday night she was facing a sleepless night over her fears for her family and the wider Palestinian people.

She said: 'Every night I go to sleep afraid of what new heart-wrenching developments I am going to wake up to. But tonight, I may not be able to sleep at all. Please let me be wrong.'

In a recent interview about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza with Richard Madeley, he was heavily criticised for asking whether her family had prior knowledge of the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.

International aid charities are also unable to contact their volunteers on the ground.

In a statement released on social media, Oxfam said: 'Gaza [is] facing total communication blackout as on ground and air offensive intensifies.

'Oxfam is deeply concerned about the situation, especially the total loss of communication with Gaza. We demand a #CeasefireNOW to protect innocent lives.'

International charity ActionAid, which has bases in the UK and around the world, said it is 'gravely concerned' for the safety of their colleagues.

In a statement a spokesperson said: 'Tonight, we have lost all contact with our colleagues in Gaza.

'We are gravely concerned for their safety and that of all the people of Gaza as signs grow of a major land escalation following almost three weeks of bombardment.

'We urgently call for the restoration of communication channels, as this is not only a matter of principle but also one of practical necessity.

'The blackout isolates the population, making it nearly impossible for them to seek help, share their stories, or maintain contact with loved ones.

A salvo of rockets are fired from Gaza City towards Israel on Friday night

Charities say they are unable to get in touch with humanitarian volunteers as airstrikes continue

'This isolation deepens the suffering of those already enduring a dire humanitarian crisis amidst an increase in the aerial bombardment of civilians. A population that has already suffered so much is now under even more threat. We urgently reiterate our calls for a ceasefire.'

Palestine's Red Crescent added it was 'extremely worried and concerned' for its colleagues.

Despite the concerns, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly reaffirmed the UK government's support for Israel on Friday.

In a statement released on social media he said: 'Israel is expanding their military campaign against Hamas.

'The UKs top priority remains the safety of British nationals in Gaza and the region.

'We support Israels right to self defence, in line with IHL [international humanitarian law], and continue to push for the protection of Palestinian civilians.

Mr Cleverly's comments came shortly before the UN General Assembly passed a resolution calling for a 'humanitarian truce'.

'In the last hours, we intensified the attacks in Gaza,' Israeli Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told a televised news briefing, raising expectations that the long-anticipated ground invasion of Gaza may be beginning.

He said the air force was conducting extensive strikes on tunnels and other infrastructure.

'In addition to the attacks carried out in the last few days, ground forces are expanding their operations tonight,' he said.

An advisor to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu later added that Hamas would 'feel our wrath'.

Charities have lost contact with their aid workers as bombing intensifies

Palestinians injured in Israeli air raids arrive at Nasser Medical Hospital on October 27

Israeli forces have massed outside Gaza, where Israel has been conducting an intense campaign of aerial bombardment since a deadly October 7 attack on Israel by the Islamist movement Hamas.

Earlier on Friday, Palestinian mobile phone service provider Jawwal said that services including phone and internet had been cut by heavy bombardment.

A statement from the Palestine Red Crescent Society said it had completely lost contact with its operations room in Gaza and all its teams operating on the ground.

Israel has said has been preparing a ground invasion, but has been urged by the U.S. and Arab countries to delay an operation that would multiply the number of civilian casualties in the densely populated coastal strip and might ignite a wider conflict.

A ground invasion would markedly escalates Israel's campaign of retribution for the deadly Hamas attack of October 7.

Such an operation would exacerbate what aid groups call a humanitarian crisis in Gaza following days of aerial bombardment that Hamas health authorities say have killed more than 7,000 Palestinians.

That followed a shock attack by hundreds of Hamas gunmen, who rampaged through Israeli communities close to the Gaza Strip, killing 1,400 people and dragging more than 200 into captivity.

Concerns about a risk of a wider Middle East conflict have risen in recent days with the U.S. dispatching more military assets to the region as Israel pummelled targets in Gaza and Hamas supporters in Lebanon and Syria.

Israeli leaders have vowed to wipe out Hamas, the Islamist movement that has run Gaza since 2007, and kill the leaders and planners of the Oct. 7 assault, undeterred by pleas from humanitarian agencies to spare the civilian population.

Much of the infrastructure of Gaza, which has been living under blockade by Israel and Egypt since 2007, has been shattered by the Israeli bombing.

This is a breaking news story and is being updated.
Gomas is looking for the best 'crazy plane lady' costume

The iconic crazy plane lady Tiffany Gomas is giving away free first class flights for the best 'crazy plane lady' Halloween costume.

Tiffany Gomas, 38, was the woman behind the shocking 'that motherf***er back there is not real' airplane meltdown back in July.

The Dallas marketing executive is now offering free flights to the people who put together the best 'crazy plane lady' costume for Halloween - in honor of her own famous tirade.

Gomas uploaded a video on X (formerly known as Twitter) where she referenced a Halloween costume inspiration article by the New York Post which featured the 'not real plane woman'.

It's unclear whether the marketing genius's costume contest is sponsored or in affiliation with a certain airline, but she tagged Delta, United and Southwest Airlines in her social media post.

The iconic crazy plane lady Tiffany Gomas is giving free first class flights out for the best 'crazy plane lady' Halloween costume

The Dallas marketing executive is offering free flights to the people that put together the best 'crazy plane lady' costume for Halloween - in honor of her own famous tirade

The marketing executive was clutching a $1,900 Goyard bag for her on-board luggage at the time of her airplane tirade

She said: 'Hey guys, once again the New York Post came for me - so I'm coming for you... Let's have a little fun with it.

'I wanna see your best rendition of this fit and I will choose three of my favorite lookalikes and then we will all choose a winner.

'The winner will then receive two first class tickets either on Delta, United, or priority passes on Southwest. Happy Halloween!'

The Halloween 'costume' would be based on Gomas's stylish plane outfit that she wore at the time of her episode.

Gomas opted for tight ripped blue skinny jeans for the flight which she paired with a very tight black cropped tank top.

The marketing executive was clutching a $1,900 Goyard bag for her on-board luggage.

She had her hair tied back in an extremely tight low bun and completed her look with flashy gold bracelets.

Her outfit hinted at the glamour life she leads. Gomas heads up her own marketing firm, and is living in a $1.6million luxury four-bedroom property that boasts a swimming pool.

Gomas uploaded a video on X (formerly known as Twitter ) where she referenced a Halloween costume inspiration article which featured the 'not real plane woman'

Her plane outfit hinted at the glamour life she leads. Gomas heads up her own marketing firm, and is living in a $1.6million luxury four-bedroom property that boasts a swimming pool

Gomas instructed those who wanted to participate in the contest to post their costumes with the hashtag #TMFINR and said that the winner will be revealed on November 4.

The July 2 viral incident happened on Flight 1009 from Fort Worth to Orlando, Florida.

After she claimed her relatives had stolen her AirPods, Gomas began to say the airplane was not safe and would not make it to its destination.

Official documents say she was not willing to leave the plane and had to be removed by American Airlines staff following the outburst, as broken by journalist Bree A. Dail on Substack and first reported by the New York Post.

Gomas's bizarre tangent delayed travelers for hours after she 'started claiming the aircraft was not safe and did not want the aircraft to leave due to her believing it would not make it to its destination,' according to the complaint from July 2.

Passengers on the plane were forced to deplane and go through security screening again as a precaution.

'TSA personnel arrived at the scene to conduct a full rescreening of the aircraft,' the police report states.

At the time of the original incident on July 2 Gomas was issued a ticket for criminal trespass notice but refused to sign it - she was never arrested

Gomas has become an internet sensation and meme for claiming that the person on the plane was 'not real' and accusing her relative of stealing her AirPods

Gomas was eventually escorted to the non-secure area of the airport - but then attempted to get back in through TSA screening several times, per the report.

But when officers with the Dallas-Fort Worth Department of Public Safety arrived, an 'extremely distraught' Gomas refused to speak to them and she tried to get back on the plane.

Police then tracked her to a terminal curb where she was waiting for an Uber.

Gomas was issued a ticket for criminal trespass notice but refused to sign it. She was never arrested.
Hamas has called on Palestinians in the West Bank to 'mobilise' in support of Gaza.

The terrorist group called on those in the West Bank and '1948 territories' - a term used by Palestinians meaning Israel in reference to when it was founded - to take up arms as Israel's ground invasion begins.

Hamas reportedly said that it held Israel, the US and Western nations which support Israel 'fully responsible for the series of heinous massacres' against the people of Gaza, Al Jazeera reports.

It called on Arab nations and and the international community to immediately take action to prevent 'crimes and massacres' against Palestinian people, and a top official has said it is 'ready' for Israel's ground invasion.

Crowds of hundreds of people in the city of Ramallah, on the West Bank chanted 'If you have a rifle... you should either kill a Jew or give it to Hamas,' according to video from Palestinian news agency Shehab.

Hamas has called on Palestinians in the West Bank to 'mobilise' in support of Gaza. Pictured: Palestinian youths waving Hamas flags clash with Israeli Defence Forces during skirmishes at a checkpoint today

Crowds of hundreds of people in the city of Ramallah, on the West Bank chanted 'If you have a rifle... you should either kill a Jew or give it to Hamas'

Protesters using slingshots throw rocks at Israeli forces as Israeli forces intervene a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Ramallah

People holding Palestinian flags, gather to hold a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Ramallah, West Bank today

Ex-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn tonight called for a ceasefire in the region, writing on X, formerly Twitter: 'People in Gaza are dying in the darkness.

This unthinkable horror cannot be undone  and history will not forgive those who refused to treat Israeli and Palestinian lives with equal worth.

'Please, we need a ceasefire, now.'

Ally Diane Abbott made a similar call, and criticised the stance of Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer: 'Over 7,000 Palestinians have died in Gaza in recent weeks. But still Keir Starmer will not call for a ceasefire #Gaza_Genocide.'

This comes as Israeli warplanes tonight unleashed airstrikes of 'unprecedented' intensity across all parts of the Gaza strip.

The aerial onslaught, which observers described as much more ferocious and louder than previous days, coincided with electricity and communications blackouts in much of the besieged enclave, sparking fears that a full-scale Israeli ground invasion could be imminent.

Israeli army positions close to the Gaza border on October 26 in Southern Israel

According to one report the Israelis even unleashed 'bunker buster' concussion missiles to try and destroy the extensive Hamas tunnel network under Gaza.

Israel's military appears to confirmed the reports, with IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari telling reporters at a press conference today: 'In recent hours we have increased the attacks in Gaza.

'The air force widely attacks underground targets and terrorist infrastructure, very significantly.

'In continuation of the offensive activity we carried out in the last few days, the ground forces are expanding the ground activity this evening.'
Three others have been charged along with the couple over the August brawl

She turned herself in last month alongside boyfriend Zachary Shipman, 26

A woman involved in a viral brawl on an Alabama boat dock has been sentenced to anger management classes after pleading guilty to harassment.

Mary Todd, 21, entered a guilty plea as part of a prearranged plea agreement, and has 90 days to complete the program while also facing costs from her court case.

She was among five people involved in the August melee to face charges, alongside Allen Todd, 24; Reggie Ray, 42; Richard Roberts, 48; and Zachary Shipman, 26.

Todd, Ray and Shipman had their cases continued on Friday, while Roberts is still waiting for his case to be heard.

Todd and Shipman are facing one count of third-degree assault, while Roberts has been charged with two counts of third-degree assault, and Ray is facing a charge of disorderly conduct.

Mary Todd, 21, was sentenced to anger management classes on Friday

Richard Roberts is pictured leaving the Montgomery Municipal Court in Montgomery, Alabama, on Friday

Zachary Shipman, 26, turned herself in last month along with his girlfriend Todd, but had his case continued on Friday

Allen Todd and Richard Roberts were also charged

Reggie Ray is facing disorderly conduct charges in the case

In September, the four white boaters pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor assault charges, after police said they were filmed hitting or shoving a Black riverboat captain that triggered the fighting.

The manic brawl was widely circulated after multiple pieces of shocking footage were shared by stunned onlookers.

Many remarked that the fighting appeared to be racially motivated, with members of either side dividing along racial lines and subsequently blaming the other for the outburst in the aftermath.

Ray, who was seen in footage violently swinging a folding chair into a woman and striking several people in the subsequent melee, previously pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct charges.

The moment he used the chair became part of a wider mania over the viral video, which spawned numerous memes, parodies and even merchandise.

Millions of viewers chimed in on the fighting after it found internet fame, with Richard White, a lawyer representing one of the white boaters, telling WSFA that he is fighting to ensure his client is treated fairly given the national attention.

LEFT: Jim Kittrell, the captain of the Harriott II Riverboat that was attacked, is pictured at court on Friday. RIGHT: Roshein Carlton, 40, who was the galley supervisor on the boat

Four of the people who have been charged so far are shown sitting on the dock in handcuffs

A woman at the Alabama riverfront brawl says she heard a white attacker say 'F**k that n*****' to the black deckhand at the center of the shocking incident

The brawl was ignited when the owner of a pontoon boat refused to move from a docking spot designated for the city-owned Harriott II riverboat, Montgomery Police Chief Darryl Albert told reporters in August.

This led the riverboat captain to take a smaller vessell to the shore to move the pontoon boat himself, in order to let the approximately 200 people on board to disembark.

The move appeared to send members of both parties into a frenzy, with footage showing they appeared to separate largely along racial lines.

Several white men punched or shoved the Black riverboat co-captain after he took the separate vessel to shore, which led a black teenage boat crew member to rush to the co-captain's defense after swimming to shore.

Jim Kittrell, the captain of Harriott II, told The Daily Beast that he thought race might have been a factor in the initial attack on his co-captain, but the resulting melee was not a 'Black and white thing.'

'This was our crew upset about these idiots,' Kittrell also told WACV radio station, later adding that they 'felt they had to retaliate, which was unfortunate.'

'I wish we could have stopped it from happening but, when you see something like that, it was difficult. It was difficult for me to sit there in the wheelhouse watching him being attacked,' Kittrell told the station.

Despite some alleging that race may have been a factor, Major Saba Coleman of the Montgomery Police Department said in August that hate crime charges were ruled out after the department consulted with the local FBI.
When Education Secretary Gillian Keegan let rip with some particularly salty language on live television last month, her Catholic mother, Jackie, gave her a thorough dressing down.

'I didn't realise I was live,' says Gillian, who was caught in a hot-mic moment complaining to an ITV crew about not being thanked for doing a 'f***ing good job' and criticising others for being 'sat on their a***' after a grilling over the crumbling concrete crisis in our schools.

'All my family tends to swear a bit,' she says. 'You never direct it at anyone. It's just part of the language. I normally use it rhetorically but, of course, you don't expect to get caught.

'My mum told me off for using choice language on television  it's a family brand thing  so I did apologise.'

Gillian Keegan (pictured) is from the sort of proud, Labour-supporting, Scouse (her word) family that was short of money but rich on love

Elected in 2017 under Theresa May's leadership, Gillian has served under four Conservative leaders. Rishi is her favourite. Pictured: Gillian Keegan, Michael Keegan and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak

'My mum told me off for using choice language on television  it's a family brand thing  so I did apologise'. Pictured: Gillian with her parents Jacqui and Duncan

Gillian, who was caught in a hot-mic moment complaining to an ITV crew about not being thanked for doing a 'f***ing good job' and criticising others for being 'sat on their a***' after a grilling over the crumbling concrete crisis in our schools

Gillian, 55, who has a sister, Geraldine, brother Marcus and enough Catholic first cousins in her home town of Knowsley, Merseyside, to form several church choirs, says this with the sort of sparkle in her eye you can't help but warm to. I suspect she doesn't really give a fig.

'I was meeting the Archbishop of Canterbury a few days later,' she says. 'I asked him if he swore. He said he did.'

Gillian is the sort of no-nonsense person who, I'm sure, doesn't lose too much sleep over offending those who, as she says, 'have a go at you or pull your leg', particularly members of the shadow cabinet who pilloried her following her asterisk-laden rant.

There is, she knows from her own experiences, more that matters in life than the Punch and Judy politics of the chamber.

She is, she says, 'blessed' to be married to Michael, a technology executive, and to have two stepsons  Charlie, 28, and Max, 26  whom she's known since they were four and two.

'I adore them. They adore me,' she tells me. 'I'm always grateful for what I have . . .' The sentence hangs. She looks at me.

'I didn't have my own children. I tried, but I wasn't successful.'

It is the first time Gillian has spoken about her inability to have children. She's not seeking pity, but you feel for her. 'It was [painful] at the time  of course it was,' she confides.

'Also, IVF is quite painful. I've done that a few times. When I got to the end of the process, just before I was 39, the doctor said to me: 'You know there's less than a one per cent chance you'll be successful?'

'Seriously, what would I do in life when there's less than a one per cent chance of being successful? I'd tried IVF several times.

Pictured: Gillian Keegan with her parents Jacqui and Duncan in 2014, celebrating her mother's birthday

She and her husband have homes in France, Spain, London and West Sussex. Pictured: Ms Keegan and her husband Michael on their wedding day in July 2006

'Funnily enough, several years later I'm stood on a stage at St Helens [where she was the Conservative candidate at the 2015 General Election for a seat Labour has held since 1945], thinking: 'I've got a zero per cent chance of being successful.' '

Gillian smiles as she tries to lighten the mood. 'I'm blessed with my stepchildren,' she says. 'Children are so delightful. They're sponges, right? They can learn such a lot.

'When you go into some really good nurseries  we've got one in Chichester [her constituency since 2017], a maintained nursery  and you see the difference they're making to children.'

This week, Gillian announced plans for additional childcare support for children aged from nine months old, which could save working parents using 30 hours up to 6,500 a year.

Families who have children at primary school will also be able to access 'wraparound' childcare from 8am to 6pm.

'Children are all the same, but their outcomes can be massively changed by some of the early years experiences, so that's the focus really,' Gillian says.

'They're precious. Life is so precious. I suppose there is a thing that, if you haven't been able to have your own children, you realise just how precious having them is.'

Gillian is from the sort of proud, Labour-supporting, Scouse (her word) family that was short of money but rich on love.

Her father, Duncan, who worked as an office manager in construction, told her: 'The only thing you're going to inherit is a funeral bill, so you going to have to work to earn everything yourself.'

At 13, she worked in an indoor market to earn pocket money, before leaving school aged 16 to start an apprenticeship in a car factory. Today, she refers to it as her 'golden ticket'.

'I've never expected anything from anyone,' Gillian says. 'I've always known that I'm going to have to pay for it myself, and I've been happy to do that.'

She gained a degree in business studies during her apprenticeship and, later, graduated as a master of science in strategy and leadership from the London Business School.

Today, there's a Rolex watch on her wrist and a gorgeous 2,600 Bottega Veneta bag by her chair. She and her husband have homes in France, Spain, London and West Sussex, and she wears her watch  a 50th birthday present from Michael  with pride, despite being accused of 'flaunting' it during the teachers' strikes earlier this year.

'I'll never not wear it again,' she says, pushing back her cuff to show me the 10,000 Rolex.

She can't really make her mind up whether she's been 'picked on' because of inverted snobbery, or if it's the politics of envy.

'Is it because I'm from Liverpool? With Labour, it's about who's got something and how can I get it.'

Take Labour's plan, spearheaded by shadow education minister Bridget Phillipson, to impose VAT on private schools. Prime Minster Rishi Sunak has accused Sir Keir Starmer of stoking a 'class war' in a move that will 'punish' affected parents.

'I think it's a bad policy,' says Gillian, who happily admits that both of her stepsons were educated privately. 'I went to a comprehensive school and never sat worrying about anyone who was getting a private education.

'This policy sets out to punish what they see as privilege. It doesn't understand aspiration, and it's ill thought through.'

She met Michael through work in the 1990s. 'He's a very special person. I think it's because he was brought up by a single mum'

Gillian was persuaded to enter politics after a 'random' meeting at the theatre in 2014, when she was introduced to Tory peer Baroness (Anne) Jenkin

She explains that, contrary to an analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies which estimates the rise in fees will lead to only a five per cent reduction in pupil numbers, a survey of actual parents estimates 20 per cent will be forced to take their children out the private system.

'Most of us couldn't name more than 20 independent schools. There are 2,350 of them; 2,300 include cathedral schools, special schools with facilities for educational needs, music and drama schools. They're specialist schools that are all doing a great job.

'The average private school is about 15,000 a year, and there are parents who, for many reasons, have decided they want to spend their money on their child's education. For many, it's only just affordable. A 20 per cent increase on anything is difficult.

'It won't work. Many of these schools will close and the kids will then, obviously, be educated in the state sector.

'Labour is framing this as removing a tax break when, actually, it's the parents paying for private education who are removing themselves from the state tax burden. It's just a bizarre, warped way of looking at the world, but you find that time and again with Labour.'

You can see the frustration on Gillian's face. She reels off the statistics of everything the Conservatives have achieved since taking office: a rise from 68 per cent to 88 per cent in good to outstanding schools; more than 15,000 academy trust or free schools that have been brought out of local authority control; reforming GCSEs.

Which is all well and good, but what about the crumbling concrete in our schools?

Gillian was roundly criticised for being on holiday at her Spanish villa at the beginning of last month when the Government announced that reinforced concrete (RAAC) was a hazard and children were banned from buildings in more than 100 schools.

'There were 52 schools we'd already closed without any media fuss because they were ranked critical,' says Gillian, pointing out that successive Education Secretaries were aware of a problem but had, well, sat on their a***.Then three incidents happened with ceilings that had been rated non-critical.

'I went to one school and they were making a ceiling safe. I said: 'Do you mind me asking who'd usually be in this classroom?'

'They pointed at the kids playing outside from reception year. They were literally dots. I looked at the ceiling and thought: 'I'll never regret this decision.' I said: 'We need to send in the engineers.'

'I wasn't allowed a holiday over the summer because I had to deal with the industrial action, then the A-levels and GCSEs [results].

'I'd planned to go on August 25. It's my dad's birthday on the 26th, and I take my parents on holiday every year. We do a big thing for his birthday. He had a stroke a few years ago and I love him to bits. So I took my laptop and chaired meetings from there every day.

'It was a Bank Holiday weekend when we decided it was looking as if we'd have to close [some schools]. I knew we couldn't have all the schools running around looking for Portakabins and surveyors fighting each other for them. We needed to operationalise it. So, I had a couple of days with my family and came back.'

Listening to her, you wonder what on earth persuaded Gillian to enter politics. She had a hugely successful 28-year career in the business world  holding senior positions in various sectors, including chief marketing officer for Travelport  with a vast office in Madrid, before standing for election and was, to say the least, driven. Indeed, her first marriage ended because of work.

'I was 26 when I got married,' she says, speaking about it for the first time. 'It lasted for about four or five years. I suppose he wanted something different. I was always interested in my career .

'I think, fundamentally, he wanted someone who'd mould themselves more around him.

'As I got older, that was getting more clear. I just thought 'best to cut your losses before you have a family and your life changes'.'

She met Michael through work in the 1990s. 'He's a very special person. I think it's because he was brought up by a single mum.

'His dad [the late Tory MP Denis Keegan, who was married three times] left his mum a bit high and dry when Michael was six or seven. She had to provide for everything, so he was brought up with that kind of work ethic. She was Woman of the Year in 1969, so quite an extraordinary woman.'

Gillian was persuaded to enter politics after a 'random' meeting at the theatre in 2014, when she was introduced to Tory peer Baroness (Anne) Jenkin.

She invited Gillian to tea at the House of Lords where 'she made me see I had something to offer. She was looking for more women in politics  Conservative women  and for more businesswomen'.

Gillian adds: 'She also loved the fact I had a working-class background, that I was from Liverpool and a Labour-supporting family but I had my own views. Now, if people try to put me down, I'll say: 'You do know I've been patronised by far better people than you'.'

Elected in 2017 under Theresa May's leadership, Gillian has served under four Conservative leaders. Rishi is her favourite.

'Definitely,' she says. 'He's similar to me. We've both worked in the business world. We're both here to get stuff done  not just announce things or say things, but to actually deliver things.

'Every night I like to go home, wash my face, look at myself and think, 'You made the right decision.' I think being in government is about doing something for the right reason, being brave enough to take long-term decisions even if you won't get the credit for them, and to take them even if they're not popular.

'I find it astonishing where everyone's falling out because they have a different political view. My family have always been Labour. I've voted Conservative since I was 19, but we get on like a house on fire. When I was campaigning in St Helens [in 2015] my cousins came out, sometimes in their rollers, to help me. Blood's thicker than water.'
Giraldi was made to forfeit his Oklahoma Bar License and is never allowed to hold public office again

A former Oklahoma prosecutor has been jailed for 30 months for trading sexual favors in exchange for legal help and providing drugs.

Daniel Giraldi, 45, who was moonlighting as a thug named 'Vegas G' provided drugs and performed favorable legal actions that benefitted defendants in exchange for sex.

This would include actions such as dismissing charges, eliminating traffic violations and reducing bond amounts.

Giraldi was charged with bribery of a public official, interstate travel in aid of racketeering, possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance and use of a communication facility in furtherance of drug trafficking by federal prosecutors in 2022.

Daniel Giraldi, 45, who was moonlighting as a thug named 'Vegas G' provided drugs and performed favorable legal actions that benefitted defendants in exchange for sex

He entered a plea agreement soon after being arrested and was found guilty of one count of possession of Oxycodone with intent to distribute and four counts of honest services fraud

Soon after, he entered a plea agreement and was found guilty of one count of possession of Oxycodone with intent to distribute and four counts of honest services fraud.

He also admitted to 'defrauding the citizens of Oklahoma and the Ottawa County District Attorney's Office of their right to honest and faithful services that he owed to them as an Assistant District Attorney, stating that he took bribes in exchange for corrupt official acts that benefitted defendants' under the plea agreement.

The US Attorneys Office states that the crimes were committed between February 2019 till his arrest in April 2022.

The agreement made Giraldi relinquish and forfeit his Oklahoma Bar License and agree to never apply for reinstatement to the Oklahoma Bar.

He will also never be allowed to hold any public office or any position of public trust within Oklahoma.

Giraldi was sentenced to 30 months of prison time and three years supervised probation once released, this week.

U.S. Attorney Clint Johnson said: 'As a public servant to the people of Ottawa County, Daniel Giraldi disgraced the office of Assistant District Attorney.

'He had a duty to act with integrity and competence. Instead, he violated the law and the trust placed in him by the District Attorney. Investigators were unyielding in their pursuit of justice in this case, thus ensuring Giraldi's conviction..'

U.S. Attorney Clint Johnson said: 'As a public servant to the people of Ottawa County, Daniel Giraldi disgraced the office of Assistant District Attorney;

An FBI agent who specializes in drug trafficking investigations wrote in a court affidavit that 'Giraldi was known to accept sexual favors from women in return for helping his client's associates and as payment for services rendered'

A thorough investigation of the cases he presided over has not yet been ordered, and it is not yet known how many victims have been impacted by his conduct

Before becoming the assistant DA, Giraldi was a criminal defense attorney. One of the people he represented then, Bryan Young, nicknamed him 'Vegas G.'

An FBI agent who specializes in drug trafficking investigations wrote in a court affidavit that 'Giraldi was known to accept sexual favors from women in return for helping his client's associates and as payment for services rendered'.

Once his criminal activities began to come to light, the FBI made an elaborate plan to arrest him red-handed.

Last year, a woman who was the FBI's confidential informant contacted Giraldi as he was leaving the Ottawa County Courthouse.

The woman asked Giraldi to help with her and another woman's child custody case, which he dismissed.

In vulgar terms, he reminded the woman they had sex 'across from the courtroom, the FBI agent wrote in the court affidavit. He was referencing the dismissal of her previous cases in exchange for sex when he brought this up.

The federal agency was secretly recording the entire conversation.

Giraldi later sent the woman texts explaining that he was in the mood for sex. He told her they could 'always meet up at the courthouse like we used to' and 'I will help you.'

On April 14, 2022, the woman texted him and offered him sex every week for a year if he pushed the other woman's court date off a couple of weeks.

'I'll make your day,' he texted back.

During a phone call the FBI had recorded the same day, the woman asked Giraldi to use his position as an assistant DA to search for any outstanding arrest warrants she might have against her.

The pair also kept texting back and forth about an impending sexual encounter and at some point in the conversation, she asked him to bring Xanax with him.

'Yes dork . . .Maybe I'll want something extra in return,' he texted back.

On the morning of their meeting, the woman directed Giraldi to a home in Quapaw where the FBI confronted him as soon as he pulled out his bag of drugs.

A thorough investigation of the cases he presided over has not yet been ordered, and it is not yet known how many victims have been impacted by his conduct.
Four children who were found buried under the mudslide caused by Hurricane Otis were laid to rest in Acapulco, Mexico, on Friday.

The victims, between the ages of 2 and 10, are among fatalities that have been confirmed by the Mexican government.

Isaias Nava, 6, was found dead inside his home in the Acapulco neighborhood CNC, where he lived with his parents and younger sibling.

The other three victims were identified as Rodolfo Reyes, 5; Jose Guerrero, 10, and one-year-old Jesus Mujica.

Josue Nava cries over the coffin containing the body of his son, six-year-old Isaias Nava, who was found dead inside the family home where he was trapped under mud as a result of Hurricane Otis. Nava's son was laid to rest on Friday. The Category 5 storm killed 27 people, including four children in Nava's neighborhood

Hurricane Otis caused some destruction at Acapulco International Airport although the runway didn't suffer any damages, according to Mexico Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval. The airport was taking in commercial airline flights that brought in doctors from Mexico City and then returned to the capital with tourists and local residents

Members of the Army remove debris left by the passage of Hurricane Otis at the Acapulco's International Airport in Acapulco on Friday

Navas' mother, Angela Rojas, told El Universal that her son got trapped inside the residence, which was constructed with wood and destroyed by the ravaging Category 5 hurricane.

She recalled attempting to rescued him and only managed to rescue her youngest son, Abraham Nava.

'He was trapped between mud and dirt, I couldn't save him,' Rojas said.

Friends and family members gather around noon Friday at a home in the Voz de la Montana neighborhood and held a viewing prior to the burial service.

Isaias Nava, his mother shared, was looking forward to participating in a folkloric dance recital that had been scheduled to take place this week at the Otilio Montano School, where he was a first grader.

'We had already bought him his hat and suit,' Rojas said. 'He was going to dance and he was happy because he was already going to primary school, he only entered in August.'

Her distraught husband, Josue Nava, blamed himself for having remained stuck in his taxi while Hurricane Otis made landfall.

'Farewell, my beautiful son,' he wailed. 'Forgive me, papa, I failed you.'

Satellite images shows before (top) and after (bottom) pictures of Arena GNP Seguros Stadium in Acapulco after Hurricane Otis made landfall Wednesday as a Category 5 storm

A Mexican National Guard soldier tries to stop people who are carrying away items like toilet paper and beans that they took from a store inside a shopping mall on Thursday, a day after Hurricane Otis ripped through Acapulco, Mexico

People walk away with items taken from stores after Hurricane Otis ripped through Acapulco, Mexico, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. Many residents were taking basic items from stores to survive. Others left with pricier goods, in widespread rampages through the area's stores. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

Hurricane Otis made landfall in the state of Guerrero on Wednesday with winds that reached 165 miles per hour - the strongest on record for a landfalling Eastern Pacific tropical cyclone.

The storm knocked out electricity and access to fresh water across the resort city of Acapulco, home to 1 million residents.

At least four military personnel were still missing as of Friday, according to the Mexican government.

Desperate families searching for loved ones that they have not heard from since Wednesday made missing posters Friday and joined online groups in hopes of finding them.

Residents joined together by neighborhood using online messaging platforms. On Thursday there were some 1,000 people in 40 chats, which grew in number through the day.

Late Thursday, Guerrero state Governor Evelyn Salgado followed their lead, urging people to send messages to government WhatsApp accounts about the missing.

Many of the once-sleek beachfront hotels in Acapulco looked like toothless, shattered hulks a day after the Category 5 storm made landfall Wednesday

A child stands at the entrance of his damaged home on Thursday after Hurricane Otis ripped through Acapulco, Mexico

A woman holds a baby next to some goods taken from stores on Thursday, a day after Hurricane Otis slammed through Acapulco. The Category 5 storm killed 27 people in the state of Guerrero, where the popular resort town is located

Norma Manzano spent a day debating whether to make a digital missing poster, like so many people have done, for her two brothers, whom she had not heard from since shortly after Otis made landfall early Wednesday.

Manzanos brothers had driven to Acapulco from Mexico City last weekend with three co-workers to build an installation for an international mining conference in a big hotel. The bachelors - 31-year-old Victor Manuel Manzano and 38-year-old Alejandro Manzano - are hard-working jokesters, their sister said.

They were staying in an AirBnB rental in Acapulco's Diamond Point district, a seaside area hit hard by the storm and flooding.

She missed a phone call from Alejandro around 2am Wednesday, about an hour after Otis made landfall. She awoke an hour later and saw the missed call and a number of increasingly frantic messages.

'He sent me a lot of messages that it was really bad, that the windows were breaking, that they tried to put mattresses against the windows, and he told me `Im sending you my location so that if something happens you know where we are,'' Norma Manzano said.

That was the last message.

'I feel so powerless not being able to do anything,' she said.

Defense Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval announced Friday that the official number of 27 dead and four missing had not changed but some in Mexico were skeptical of official tolls because the city remains largely cut off. Some local media have reported that there were bodies in the city that had not yet been recovered.

An 'air bridge' between Acapulco and Mexico City was established with planes carrying medical personnel landing at Acapulco International Airport and departing with tourists. The city's military air base would receive all material aid flights and also carry evacuees back to the capital. Some 120 buses would also carry people out of the badly damaged city.

Debris litters a beach on Thursday, a day after Hurricane Otis ripped through Acapulco, Mexico, as a Category 5 storm. At least 80 percent of the city's hotels were damaged

People carry away a mattress, a television monitor and a bicycle from a store at a shopping mall in the Mexican coastal city of Acapulco

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was slammed by residents after he told reporters during his daily morning press briefing that the death toll was not that all important.

'The number of people who lose their lives should not be so significant, it is still something quantitative,' he said in Spanish. 'A person who loses their life is something regrettable, I do believe that we were lucky, nature, the creator, protected us even with fury of the hurricane, since apparently we still have to wait to have all the information about the missing people, those who have already been confirmed dead.'

Lopez Obrador added that while the deaths lamentable, 'there were not so many in the face of a phenomenon so strong, so shocking, a Category 5 hurricane that does not enter uninhabited (areas), (it) entered through the bay, where 800,000 to 1 million people live. So, yes, there is a lot of material damage, but fortunately we are not registering many losses of human lives.'

Mexico City lawyer Uriel Gomez took the president to task and considered his comments heartless.

'We had luck? You are insensitive,' he wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Another user, Karina Perez, accused the Lopez Obrador administration of mishandling the situation.

'It doesn't matter if it's one or hundreds, for those who lost a loved one to the hurricane it matters the same,' Karina Perez wrote on the social media site. 'Their lack of ability to govern and deal with disasters like this leaves us with no doubt that they are incompetent.'

Restless residents had been spotted since Thursday looting businesses, running out with basic items like water, food and toilet paper while others marched off with goods that were not so essential, like electronic good and homeware appliances in response to what they deemed was a delayed reaction by the government to send in aid.

In some instances, national guardsmen stood and watched and residents walked in and out of malls and supermarkets in devastated resort town, once a famous destination for the Hollywood elite.

People have become increasingly worried that the government is focusing the city's infrastructure  the economic engine  instead of providing help to the neediest.

'We have to get Acapulco back on its feet as soon as possible, until the situation is normalized,' Lopez Obrador said.
A woman from Ohio has been charged with the murders of four men she allegedly met for sex before fatally drugging them and robbing their belongings.

Rebecca Auborn, 33, is facing a total of 28 charges over the separate killings which happened between December 13 and June 17.

She is accused of meeting up with men for sex at hotels in northeast Columbus, giving them lethal doses of fentanyl and stealing from them.

Four out of five of her alleged victims died of overdoses and one man survived but authorities have refused to publicly identify them. Investigators believe there are more victims out there.

Auborn is being held in Franklin County jail and an arraignment is scheduled for 9am on Monday.

Rebecca Auborn, 33, has been charged with the murders of four men she allegedly met for sex before fatally drugging them and robbing their belongings

She is accused of meeting up with men for sex at hotels in northeast Columbus, giving them lethal doses of fentanyl and stealing from them

Auborn has been charged with four counts of murder, four counts of involuntary manslaughter, five counts of aggravated robbery, five counts of felonious assault, five counts of corrupting another with drugs, one count of tampering with evidence and four counts of trafficking in drugs.

The first attempted overdose of a victim is said to have occurred on December 13 but he survived.

But four other victims died from overdoses on January 15, April 1, April 13 and June 16.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost shared news of her indictment on Wednesday and warned: 'Dont buy sex in Ohio  it ruins lives and could cost you yours.'

He believes Auborn meets the criteria for a serial killer because the four deaths she is accused of follow a similar pattern.

'For me, if youve got somebody that has a series of killings that are separated in time, theyre a serial killer,' Yost told the Columbus Dispatch.

'We have the same MO here.

'Ive never seen a case similar to this in my career, and having talked to colleagues, they haven't seen this kind of thing.

The suspect had already been indicted and pled not guilty to murder and drug-related charges in September over the overdose of the man who died in January- 30-year-old Joseph Crumpler.

But this case has now been included in the new indictment filed on Wednesday which had redacted the names of the victims.

Court records indicate that she admitted to detectives on March 31 that she put fentanyl in a man's crackpipe and that she knew he was overdosing when she left the hotel room and took his car and debit card.

The investigation remains ongoing, according to the attorney generals office and investigators are focusing on her activities in northeast Columbus between between December of last year and August 2023.

It is being focused on the area between Interstate 71, Ohio 161, Cleveland Avenue and East 17th Avenue as officers search for more possible victims.

'These indictments are a result of our close collaboration with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation,' Columbus Division of Police Chief Elaine Bryant said.

'The Columbus Division of Police remains dedicated to ensuring justice for all victims and their families affected by the actions of a single individual.'

Auborn, who has at least one child and had a daughter who died in 2016 at just 18 days old, had no prior criminal history.

The first hearing on the charges against her was supposed to take place on Friday but this was postponed until Monday.

Anyone with information relating to any overdose deaths between December and August has been asked to contact the police's homicide tip line.

While anyone who has interacted with her has been asked to come forward without any fear of prosecution if they solicited sex.
Her career as a TV broadcaster has been flying high for more than three decades.

But Lorraine Kelly has revealed she would rather have reached the sky as an RAF fighter pilot.

The TV presenter said her dream of joining the forces was shot down by her schools careers officer.

She said the teacher chortled when she revealed she aspired to join the military, fly jets, and engage in air combat.

The 63 year old ended up working at a newspaper in Glasgow and went on to forge a successful career in TV, hosting her own show on ITV since 2010.

Lorraine has been in broadcasting for more than three decades but it could have been very different

Speaking on the Rosebud podcast, Ms Kelly said: My real ambition was to be a fighter pilot for the RAF - thats what I really wanted to do.

But obviously I was a girl and back then when I told the careers officer, he chortled frankly.

Then I thought Id go to uni, I didnt really know what I wanted to do.

I was supposed to do Russian and English and I didnt.

Ms Kelly instead was successful in applying for a reporter role at East Kilbride News, where she worked for four years.

The TV star realised her military ambitions in part by helping promote Armed Forces Day  flying in a Royal Navy helicopter after setting off from RAF Leuchars in Fife

I saw it in the local paper, I applied for it and I was so lucky to get that job, she added

I dont know how I managed it.

I loved it, I was so lucky, I had my own page towards the end and I was there for about four and a half years.

I had so much to learn and I learned so much every day.
Republican Sen. Mitt Romney laughed at former President Donald Trump and called him a 'whack job' after the ex-president and 2024 hopeful spent Monday morning bashing him on Truth Social.

Romney is the subject of a new biography by The Atlantic's McKay Coppins entitled Romney: A Reckoning, where he gives another warning about Trumpism, after voting to convict Trump at both impeachments.

The Utah senator mouthed off to Coppins about Trump and other Republican leaders, which prompted the ex-president to take to Truth Social and call Romney 'a total loser that only a mother could love,' among other insults.

Coppins was speaking to Vanity Fair's Brian Stelter Thursday for an episode of the Inside the Hive podcast and revealed Romney's response to Trump's rant.

'I sent that statement to Mitt and hold on, I want to, I'll just pull up the text,' Coppins said. 'He wrote back, "Ha, ha, ha. He's such a whack job." So Mitt kind of enjoyed Trump's reponse.'

Former President Donald Trump (left) went on a rant after hearing some of the comments Sen. Mitt Romney (right) told biographer McKay Coppins. Romney responded by calling Trump a 'whack job'

Trump was headed to New Hampshire Monday to get his name officially added to the GOP primary ballot when he dedicated several Truth Social posts to Romney, mistakenly saying that the Utah senator and 2012 GOP presidential nominee had penned an autobiography.

McKay Coppins interviewed Romney for his new biography and the Utah senator didn't hold back

'Mitt Romney, a total loser that only a mother could love, just wrote a book which is, much like him, boring, horrible, and totally predictable,' Trump said. 'I am very proud to be the one who forced this Left Leaning RINO out of politics.'

'He wanted to run sooo badly, but knew he couldnt win in the great State of Utah without my Endorsement and Support, so he QUIT,' the ex-president added.

Romney announced last month that he would not seek another Senate term.

His resistance to Trump has politically hurt him in his adopted red state.

Romney previously served as the governor of Massachusetts before running for office in Utah, a state where he has a home and was able to capitalize on his Mormon faith.

'His crummy book says nothing good about anybody, other than RINO Paul RINO, who may be worse, and even dumber, than Mitt himself,' Trump continued, referencing former House Speaker Paul Ryan, who had served as Romney's 2012 running mate.

In the book, Romney has negative things to say about the top-tier of Republicans in politics, despite being the one-time leader of the party, as the 2012 White House nominee.

He said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had 'no warmth at all' and when posing for photos with Iowa voters 'looks like he's got a toothache.'

Romney said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was a 'smug know-it-all' and called out former Texas Gov. Rick Perry for his 'prima donna, low-IQ personality.'

Former GOP Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum was 'sanctimonious, severe and strange.'

He said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was 'indulgent of Trump's deranged behavior over the last four years, but he's not crazy.'

Trump spent Monday morning bashing Romney over the book saying he was 'a total loser that only a mother could love' and crediting himself for driving the Utah senator out of politics

Trump also repeatedly pointed out how Romney auditioned to be his secretary of State just weeks after the 2016 election, even posting video and quoting what Romney said after their dinner meeting in New York

As for Trump, Romney said that he was 'unquestionably mentally unstable, and he is racist, bigoted, misogynistic, xenophobic, vulgar and prone to violence.'

In his Truth Social posts, Trump repeatedly brought up the fact that Romney had auditioned to be his secretary of State.

'Does he mention his late night dinner with me at Trump International Hotel when he begged to be Secretary of State, then giving GLOWING COMMENTS about DJT at a follow up News Conference?' Trump mused. 'I didn't give him the job, NOR DID I EVER INTEND TO. I JUST WANTED TO PROVE A POINT, THAT MITT ROMNEY IS, & ALWAYS HAS BEEN, A LIGHTWEIGHT JOKE!'

In another Truth Social post, Trump shared a video of Romney talking to reporters after their post-election November 2016 dinner at Jean-Georges restaurant in New York City.

Trump quoted 'Mitt "The Loser" Romney' saying that he had a 'wonderful evening with President Trump' calling it enlightening, and interesting, and engaging.'
Eurovision Song Contest presenter Hannah Waddingham will host the Prince of Wales's Earthshot Prize ceremony, it has been announced.

The Ted Lasso star, 49, was a big hit with audiences when she presented the singing competition earlier this year, so it will be seen as something of a coup that William has managed to secure her services.

It was also revealed Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett will be among the stars at the ceremony in Singapore on November 7.

Now in its third year, the Earthshot Prize awards the winners of five categories 1million each so they can scale up their environmental innovations.

Among the 15 finalists are ENSO, a British company which has created a more efficient electric vehicle tyre that sheds fewer particles.

Eurovision Song Contest presenter Hannah Waddingham will host the Prince of Wales's Earthshot Prize ceremony, it has been announced

It was also revealed Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett, pictured, will be among the stars at the ceremony in Singapore on November 7

The then-Prince of Wales meeting the family of Australian zookeeper Steve Irwin (left-right) Robert, Terri and Bindi in 2018

Ms Blanchett, 54, who is a member of the judging panel, said: 'The Earthshot Prize is again highlighting and incentivising courageous and inventive solutions.

'We don't have time for inaction and despair, and the incredible climate solutions from around the globe are cause for genuine hope.

'The climate solutions showcased by the prize are wildly exciting - exciting because they are so simple, so possible, and so inevitable.'

Robert Irwin, the son of the late wildlife conservationist Steve Irwin, will also join a host of stars announcing the winners.

Other big names include actors Lana Condor and Nomzamo Mbatha, during the Prince of Wales' event on November 7, aimed at recognising solutions to 'repair' the planet.

Steve Irwin was an Australian zookeeper and popular television personality whose shows about wildlife caught the imagination of audiences in his homeland and across the globe before he died in 2006 after being stabbed by a stingray.

Robert Irwin, pictured, the son of the late wildlife conservationist Steve Irwin, will also join a host of stars announcing the winners

Prince William, along with celebrity supporters of Earthshot, is expected to fly to Singapore by a commercial, not private flight

His children, Robert and Bindi Irwin, have continued his legacy - working in wildlife conservation and appearing on television shows.

William held his first Earthshot Prize awards ceremony at London's Alexandra Palace in 2021, with Boston hosting the event last year - an ambitious project which each year presents five category winners with 1 million each to scale up their environmental ideas.

Among the 15 finalists are ENSO, a British-based company which has created a more efficient electric vehicle tyre that sheds less particles, while Sea Forest from Australia has developed a seaweed-based livestock feed to reduce the planet-warming methane emissions from cattle and sheep.

Prince William, along with celebrity supporters of Earthshot, is expected to fly to Singapore by a commercial, not private flight, and other measures will be in place, say organisers, to make the event as sustainable as possible.

During his four-day trip to Singapore, which begins on November 5, the prince will take part in 'Earthshot Week', a series of events bringing together businesses and investors with past winners and current finalists to accelerate their solutions.

The Prince of Wales will take part in dragon boating, meet Singaporeans to learn how they are working locally to protect the planet and the 15 finalists will take part in a 'fellowship' retreat that will give them networking opportunities.
The UN has overwhelmingly demanded a humanitarian truce between Israel and Hamas, amid an increased and 'unprecedented' bombardment campaign by Israel against the Gaza Strip.

The United Nations General Assembly in New York on Friday voted 120 to 14 to adopt the non-binding resolution, calling for an 'immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities' in the bloodiest conflict between Hamas and Israel in decades.

The resolution, which 45 states abstained from voting on, also called for the 'the immediate and unconditional release of all civilians who are being illegally held captive', though it did not name Hamas as the captors.

The General Assembly also 'firmly rejects any attempts at the forced transfer of the Palestinian civilian population.'

The resolution infuriated Israel, with its envoy to the UN, Gilad Erdan, accusing the international community of supporting 'Nazi terrorists', referring to Hamas.

The United Nations General Assembly on Friday voted 120 to 14 to adopt the non-binding resolution

Israel has launched an increased bombing campaign against the Gaza Strip tonight

Hamas sent back a 'salvo' of rockets, though the damage caused by this is not currently known

Israel has stepped up its bombing campaign against Gaza

He said the international body had no legitimacy or relevance, and added that the only way to destroy Hamas was to 'root them out of their tunnels and destroy their subterranean city of terror.'

Among those voting against the bill were Israel and the US, which today said it supports a pause in Israeli military operations in Gaza to get humanitarian aid, fuel and electricity to civilians there.

White House spokesman John Kirby said on Friday that if getting hostages out of Gaza requires a localised temporary pause, then the United States is in support of that.

He added: 'We're not drawing red lines for Israel. We're going to continue to support them.

'Since the very beginning we have, and will continue to have, conversations about the manner that they are doing this.'

The successful bill came alongside a failed Canada-backed amendment that would've included a rejection and condemnation of 'terrorist attacks by Hamas... and the taking of hostages.'

It failed to get the two thirds majority needed, instead garnering 88 votes in favour, 55 against and 23 abstentions.

Israel and the UN have butted heads ever since the deadly Hamas attacks on October 7.

IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari (pictured) said a press conference today: 'In recent hours we have increased the attacks in Gaza. The air force widely attacks underground targets and terrorist infrastructure, very significantly'

Hamas accused Israel of increasing its missile strikes to 'perpetrate massacres with bloody retaliatory strikes from the air, land and sea'

Gaza has been bombed nonstop for nearly three straight weeks

This week, it stopped issuing visas to UN officials after taking offence to remarks made by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that suggested Israel was partly to blame for the deadly October 7 attacks.

Erdan told Israeli media at the time: 'Due to his remarks we will refuse to issue visas to UN representatives.

'We have already refused a visa for Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths. The time has come to teach them a lesson.'

Following the comments, which Guterres said were taken out of context and mis-characterised, Israel's foreign minister Eli Cohen cancelled a meeting with him.

It was also reported that Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has refused to take several calls from Guterres since Hamas attacked earlier this month.
Has wokeism jumped the shark? In other words, have the radical Leftists who for years have exercised increasing power in our universities finally gone too far?

I dare to hope so. The recent disgraceful responses to the attacks on Israel that we have seen  from American university campuses to the streets of London and Sydney  have dramatically increased awareness that something is rotten in the state of higher education in the English-speaking world.

Some of us have been battling against the ideological takeover of academia for close to a decade. Each year, we have been getting better organised. But we have struggled to convince people in the real world just how bad things are.

The past three weeks may finally have changed that.

The expression 'jump the shark' was coined in 1977 when the scriptwriters of long-running comedy series Happy Days  into their fifth series and getting short of ideas  tried to pep up the storyline by having the main character, Fonzie, preposterously jump over a shark while on water-skis.

'It is only now people outside academia are noticing - The campus Left's response to the attacks of October 7 was equally far-fetched and over-the-top  but immeasurably more offensive'

The campus Left's response to the attacks of October 7 was equally far-fetched and over-the-top  but immeasurably more offensive.

Let's remind ourselves what happened three weeks ago. Two Gaza-based terrorist groups inspired by Islamist ideology, committed to the destruction of the state of Israel and backed by at least one government, staged a trailer for a second Holocaust. In their savagery, they exceeded even the horrors perpetrated by the Russian butchers of Bucha in Ukraine.

More than 1,400 Israelis were killed, including children and even babies. More than 200 were kidnapped.

The idea Israel should do nothing in response to this outrage  other than ensure the flow of aid into Gaza  defies both human emotion and strategic sense. Only those wearing ideological blindfolds cannot see that.

Yet this seems to be the approach of some academics and student groups in a great many universities, not least in Britain.

Dr Kate Davison, a self-described 'queer historian of sexuality, psy-sciences & Cold War', who is also a lecturer in history at Edinburgh, not only tweeted that 'Palestine & trans human rights are the litmus test and most of you are failing half of it', but also expressed support for a statement by faculty members at Berzeit University  an institution in the West Bank  which celebrated the Hamas attacks as 'guerilla war tactics' by 'resistance fighters'.

Dr Sarah Liu, a senior lecturer in gender and politics, also at Edinburgh, liked a tweet on October 7 that asked: 'Did some people just think Palestine had to like file paperwork or something to be freed [?] this is what oppressed fighting the oppressor looks like.'

Edinburgh is by no means exceptional. 'Special message to some of the 'decolonisers' in academia, young and old,' tweeted Priyamvada Gopal, professor of postcolonial studies at Cambridge. 'It isn't just about returning bronzes. That's the easy bit.'

Londoners bracing themselves for another pro-Palestinian demonstration today may be interested to know that six of the patrons of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, organisers of the demo, are academics based at Bradford, Exeter, London, Oxford and Surrey.

None of this should come as surprise, for it is the culmination of many years of infiltration of our universities by the radical Leftist ideology known as 'wokeism'.

But it is only now people outside academia are noticing. In the U.S., elite universities are experiencing a significant backlash against their response to the Hamas outrage.

Like all cults and sects, the woke have their own idiosyncratic language and rituals

More than 30 Harvard student groups, for instance, published an abhorrent statement saying they held 'the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence'.

Harvard's leadership issued a bromide statement calling on the academic community 'to deepen our knowledge of the unfolding events and their broader implications for the region and the world' and 'to modulate rather than amplify the deep-seated divisions'.

It was a response clearly crafted to appeal to Harvard's overwhelmingly liberal student body and faculty.

The leadership had forgotten that Harvard's true target market is the very small proportion of hugely successful alumni who give the university the largest donations. They soon reminded Harvard's president, Claudine Gay.

Bill Ackman, founder of the hedge fund Pershing Square, demanded the students who had defended Hamas be named so that he and others could be sure not to hire them.

Citadel chief executive Ken Griffin, who earlier this year donated $300 million to Harvard's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, was among the donors who called Gay, urging her to issue a stronger statement. She hastily did, but the damage had been done.

Similar revolts by donors have erupted at universities from Pennsylvania to Stanford. Marc Rowan, chief executive of private equity giant Apollo and an alumnus of the university, demanded its president, Elizabeth Magill, and chair of the board of trustees, Scott Bok, resign over their failure to condemn Hamas.

He called on his fellow alumni to cut their donations to 'UPenn' to just $1 until Magill and Bok stepped down.

At Stanford, the university where I work, there have been several pro-Palestinian demonstrations in recent weeks, including one organised by Stanford Students for Justice in Palestine. Anti-Israel graffiti has been chalked on campus pavements. But the most shocking episode occurred in a classroom just days after the attacks, when  according to student testimony in the San Francisco Chronicle  a lecturer blamed the conflict on Zionists, said Hamas's actions were 'resistance,' asked Jewish students to raise their hands, and then separated them from their belongings, saying he was simulating what Jews were doing to Palestinians.

The lecturer, Ameer Hasan Loggins, then asked how many Jews had died in the Holocaust. When students answered with six million, Loggins retorted, 'Yes. Only six million,' arguing that the number of victims of colonialism was larger.

'Woke' originated as African-American slang, but is now defined in the dictionaries as 'aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice)'

He proceeded to ask every student to say where their ancestors were from, labelling each a 'coloniser' or 'colonised,' depending on their answer. When one said they were from Israel, the lecturer responded: 'Oh, definitely a coloniser.'

If that strikes you as outrageous, you have clearly missed the fact that such thinking is rife throughout the Anglosphere academy.

'Wokeism' covers a multitude of sins. The academic Left is a much more complex coalition nowadays than it was back in the 1930s, when Cambridge had its covert cadre of card-carrying Communists, or the 1980s, when Oxford snubbed Margaret Thatcher by refusing her an honorary degree.

Although Marxist socialism is still part of the package, class warfare and anti-imperialism co-exist (at times uneasily) with a variety of other ideologies based on alternative forms of identity, such as race ('critical race theory' or 'anti-racism') and gender (the ever-growing abbreviation LGBTQIA+ now stands for 'lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, and others').

'Woke' originated as African-American slang, but is now defined in the dictionaries as 'aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice)'.

Like all cults and sects, the woke have their own idiosyncratic language and rituals. These include stating one's 'preferred pronouns' at every opportunity and acknowledging whenever possible that one is meeting on land expropriated from indigenous peoples.

In marked contrast to conventional scientific understanding, race is an essential, unalterable attribute (you're either BIPOC  black, indigenous, and other people of colour  or you're incurably white), but gender is almost infinitely fluid. In each case, there is a hierarchy, determined mainly by the extent to which your assigned minority were 'victimised' and 'marginalised' by the white, cisgender colonisers.

This 'intersectionality' produces some very strange bedfellows. 'Free Palestine is a Feminist Issue', according to a meme I saw last week; 'it's a Reprodutive [sic] Rights Issue, it's an Indigenous Rights Issue, it's a Climate Justice Issue, it's a Queer Rights Issue, it's an Abolitionist issue'. Quite how queer rights activists would fare if they travelled to Gaza to join in the fight for freedom is unclear, given Hamas's implacable commitment to sharia law.

But the woke have never worried much about the difficulty of aligning themselves with Islamists. After all, words and silence can both be violence in their world, but terrorism is just 'what oppressed fighting the oppressor looks like'  and the constraints of logic must be just another manifestation of white supremacy.

There are four reasons this confused ideology has established itself in so many universities.

First, an older generation of soggy liberal professors could not resist appointing and promoting younger radicals, naively equating their illiberal outlook with their own youthful idealism.

Second, various policies of affirmative action  designed to increase the proportion of female and non-white students and teachers in universities  had the unintended consequence of reducing intellectual diversity.

Third, as universities institutionalised policies such as the promotion of equity, diversity and inclusion and the decolonisation of this or that curriculum, bureaucracies sprang up that were swiftly staffed by woke believers.

Finally, a coalition formed between woke students, professors and administrators, who discovered there were almost no limits on the methods they could use to attack the surviving conservatives in their institutions.

Anonymous letters of denunciation, cancellation campaigns on social media, the bearing of false witness, public mobbings, and extra-legal investigations  I have seen all of these used against professors who dared to resist the woke cultural revolution.

For those of us determined not to surrender higher education in its entirety to wokeism, there has until now been little alternative but to organise for self-defence. True, there are a few institutions that remain intact  for example, the Hoover Institution, of which I am a fellow, and the University of Buckingham  but they are too few in number. That is why we have been busy founding new ones.

This has been the work of many hands. My good friend, New York University psychologist Jonathan Haidt, established Heterodox Academy as a hub for research and collaboration on the issues of academic freedom. After I called for a 'NATO for professors' in 2019, a group led by Robert George at Princeton established the Academic Freedom Alliance.

Two years ago, Pano Kanelos, Joe Lonsdale, Bari Weiss and I announced the creation of a university in Austin, Texas, dedicated to the 'fearless pursuit of truth'.

Here in the UK, Toby Young led the charge by founding the Free Speech Union. It has recently been reinforced by Alumni for Free Speech and  launched earlier this month  the Committee for Academic Freedom.

The latest British initiative kicks off on Monday with the inaugural meeting of the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC), which aims to bring together defenders of western civilisation from the U.S., the UK and Australia.

In the words of ARC's founder, Lady (Philippa) Stroud: 'Corrosive cultural criticism in recent decades has left the coherence of our cultural stories hanging by a thread. Our lack of a common narrative has left us feeling disillusioned and disempowered . . . our institutions have huge value . . . but we no longer trust them.'

A major reason why is that our higher education system  through which half of young Britons pass  has to such a shocking extent been captured by people who hate our culture and institutions.

In short, we are living through a wave of institution-building that has the makings of an anti-woke counter-revolution. The challenge remains to persuade potential supporters outside academia that our efforts are worthwhile.

Up until this month, the response of many people who graduated from university in the 1980s or 1990s has been something along these lines: 'Well, universities are always Left-leaning, aren't they? And there's always a minority of students who take ridiculous political positions. They'll soon grow out of them. After all, we did!'

This is the kind of complacency that has made it so easy for one university after another to be captured by the ideologues and their appeasers. The reality is that this isn't the way universities were when I was an undergraduate.

In those distant days, 40 long years ago, academic freedom was at its zenith, as was intellectual diversity. More importantly, the people who ran universities did not regard themselves as political activists or social engineers.

Perhaps I am naive, but I think there is a chance that the academic Left's deranged response to the October 7 attacks on Israel  their reckless jumping of the shark with overt celebrations of terrorism and anti-Semitism  may finally have roused the complacent from their torpor. If those you pay for these institutions revolt, as they are doing in the U.S., they may be forced to change course.

Ultimately, western civilisation will be rescued from the mind virus of wokeism only if we are as organised as the Left has been for years.

The grim alternative is that every institution eventually succumbs to the motley pathologies of anti-racism, trans activism and Islamism that travel in the Trojan horse marked Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.
Pope Francis has led special Friday evening prayers in St Peter's Basilica for a world 'in a dark hour' and in 'great danger' from what he described as the folly of war.

Francis delivered his remarks in the form of a prayer to the Virgin Mary and did not mention by name the conflict that exploded when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on October 7 and Israel retaliated by sealing off the Gaza Strip and battering the Palestinian territory with air strikes.

The religious leader said he was praying for 'especially those countries and regions at war' and he pleaded with Mary to 'take the initiative for us, in these times rent by conflicts and laid waste by the fire of arms'.

'This is a dark hour,' Francis said in a subdued voice, in his remarks in the basilica.

Since the Israel-Hamas war started three weeks ago, Francis has appealed for the release of hostages taken by Hamas and for civilians in the Gaza Strip to be spared from warfare.

Francis delivered his remarks in the form of a prayer to the Virgin Mary and did not mention by name the conflict that exploded when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel

The religious leader said he was praying for 'especially those countries and regions at war'

The aerial onslaught came with a warning from the IDF to Palestinian civilians still living in Gaza to move south as soon as possible, amid fears that the long-awaited ground invasion of the enclave may take place within hours

The bombing, which observers described as much more ferocious and louder than previous days, coincided with electricity and communications blackouts in much of the besieged enclave

He has also decried the massacre by Hamas of civilians in Israel, at a music concert and in their homes.

The pope has also pressed for humanitarian aid to head off what he said would be a 'catastrophe' for civilians after Israel cut off supplies of food, water and fuel into the Gaza Strip following the deadly Hamas incursion.

It comes as a top political adviser to Benjamin Netanyahu warned Hamas will feel Israel's 'wrath tonight' as the Jewish nation's warplanes unleashed airstrikes of 'unprecedented' intensity across all parts of the Gaza strip and announced it was 'expanding' its ground forces' operations.

The aerial onslaught came with a warning from the IDF to Palestinian civilians still living in Gaza to move south as soon as possible, amid fears that the long-awaited ground invasion of the enclave may take place within hours.

The bombing, which observers described as much more ferocious and louder than previous days, coincided with electricity and communications blackouts in much of the besieged enclave.

The IDF said tonight it was expanding its bombardment campaign against Gaza, and was 'working powerfully in all dimensions' to achieve its military goals.

Hamas returned fire with a 'salvo' of rockets, though it not known how many were caught by Israel's Iron Dome defence system.

The terror group also called on those in the West Bank and '1948 territories' - a term used by Palestinians meaning Israel in reference to when it was founded - to take up arms as Israel's ground invasion begins.

Since the Israel-Hamas war started three weeks ago, Francis has appealed for the release of hostages taken by Hamas and for civilians in the Gaza Strip to be spared from warfare

The pope has also pressed for humanitarian aid to head off what he said would be a 'catastrophe' for civilians after Israel cut off supplies of food, water and fuel into the Gaza Strip following the deadly Hamas incursion

The IDF said tonight it was expanding its bombardment campaign against Gaza, and was 'working powerfully in all dimensions' to achieve its military goals

During today's basilica service, Francis deplored that the human family 'has strayed from the path of peace, preferred Cain to Abel, and lost the ability to see each others as brothers and sisters dwelling in a common home'.

He was referring to the Biblical account of two brothers, one who fatally turns against the other.

'Intercede for our world, in such turmoil and great danger,' the pope prayed.

Francis also prayed that people will learn to care for 'each and every human life - and to repudiate the folly of war, which sows death and eliminates the future.'

His prayers included one for hearts 'imprisoned by hatred' as well as an appeal for national leaders to seek paths of peace.

He further prayed for a reconciliation for those who are 'seduced by evil, blinded by power and hate'.

Francis offered no formula for how to defuse the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict that flared again this month and has fuelled anxiety of a wider, regional war developing in the Middle East.

But in a Thursday phone conversation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Francis expressed hope, according to the Vatican's readout of the call, for two states and a special statute for the city of Jerusalem, with its several sites sacred to faithful of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Francis also prayed that people will learn to care for 'each and every human life - and to repudiate the folly of war, which sows death and eliminates the future'

The international community today overwhelmingly appealed for a humanitarian truce between Israel and Hamas, as the UN's general assembly voted through a resolution in New York

NGOs working in Gaza have claimed the move may be deadly for the enclave's citizens, with the Palestinian Red Crescent, the main emergency service in Gaza, saying it was cut off from its operations room

Francis has also repeatedly invoked peace for Ukraine since Russia invaded the eastern European country in February 2022.

Several Palestinian telecoms providers announced 'the total cut of all communication services and internet' in the territory, leaving the hundreds of thousands of civilians in a communications blackout.

Global internet monitor NetBlocks reported 'a collapse in connectivity in the Gaza Strip,' citing live network data.

NGOs working in Gaza have claimed the move may be deadly for the enclave's citizens, with the Palestinian Red Crescent, the main emergency service in Gaza, saying it was cut off from its operations room in the strip because of the internet blackout.

ActionAid, an NGO that works to alleviate poverty across the world, said it was gravely concerned that it has lost contact with its team in Gaza.

Oxfam said it was 'deeply concerned' with tonight's developments in Gaza, 'especially the total loss of communication' in the Strip.

The NGO called for a ceasefire 'to protect innocent lives.'

The international community today overwhelmingly appealed for a humanitarian truce between Israel and Hamas, as the UN's general assembly voted through a resolution in New York.

The resolution also called for 'the immediate and unconditional release of all civilians who are being illegally held captive,' though it does not name Hamas as the captor.
Off-duty police officers at a shooting range near the bowling alley where Robert Card opened fire on Wednesday night were on the scene one minute after the first 911 call - yet still Card managed to slip away and attack a second venue.

Four plain-clothes police officers heard the call come in on Wednesday night, and were at the site in a minute and a half, said Mike Sauschuck, commissioner of the state's Department of Public Safety.

One minute after the first officers arrive, eight more show up.

'Officers are required to qualify a certain number of times a year,' said Sauschuck, addressing a press conference on Friday evening.

'So in this particular incidence the officers were in plain clothes, they were shooting at a range right around the corner.

Mike Sauschuck, commissioner of the state's Department of Public Safety, on Friday evening announced that the shelter-in-place order has been rescinded

Maine police on Friday published photos of all of the 18 victims of Wednesday's massacre

Robert Card, 40, is an Army Reservist stationed out of the city of Saco

'The call comes in. They hear that, and they just respond. Which speaks to the fact that, when these things happen, everybody is going: you could be a detective, the chief is bailing out of the station, everybody goes.

'And being Lewiston officers they go, well, we know where that is.

'And they get in the car, and immediately go to Spare Time, to help wherever they can. So that cuts two and a half minutes from the initial response.

'We are very, very lucky that the officers were that close as I think you save lives when the response is that quick.'

Card remains on the loose, but on Friday night Maine lifted the shelter-in-place order - but with Card still on the loose residents were warned to 'remain vigilant'.

Maine state police on Friday afternoon said that the search for Card, an Army reservist and avid hunter, was continuing, with a focus on Friday on an area of the Androscoggin River. The search crew will remain on the river until nightfall, and resume their work on Saturday.

Card is accused of shooting dead 18 people on Wednesday night at a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston, Maine, in a possible attempt to kill an ex. All 18 were named by police on Friday night.

The shelter-in-place order which was in place for Lewiston; Bowdoin, where Card, his parents and brother live; and Lisbon, where his car was abandoned, has been lifted.

But hunting in the area remains prohibited. The hunting season begins on Saturday.

Colonel William G. Ross, chief of the Maine state police, bows his head in a moment of silence on Friday evening for the victims of Robert Card

'Businesses may choose to open or remain closed,' said Mike Sauschuck, commissioner of the state's Department of Public Safety, adding that locals should 'remain vigilant'.

'Are we doing more harm than good in keeping people away from their doctors, their clinics, their schools? But we have to ask the people we serve what they want.

'We don't come to those decisions to go into the order, or come out of it, lightly. But we do appreciate all the input, in so far as, what does it mean, how does it impact me.'

Police said around 500 tips have been sent in so far, but Card's whereabouts are unknown.

His car was found abandoned in the town of Lisbon on Wednesday evening, less than two hours after he began his rampage.

Asked whether he had been seen since he left the scene of the last shooting at 8pm on Wednesday, a spokesman for Maine state police said: 'We have not seen him. Law enforcement has not seen him in the last two days.'

Card, a keen hunter and fisherman, is understood to have studied engineering at the University of Maine between 2001 and 2004

Card, a US Army reserve soldier, launched the initial attack at a bowling alley (pictured) at around 6.56pm then struck again at bar and restaurant four miles away just 12 minutes later

The 40-year-old remained at large on Friday evening after murdering 18 people and injuring more than a dozen others on Wednesday night

Law enforcement personnel approach a home in Monmouth, Maine, on October 27, 2023, in the aftermath of a mass shooting in Lewiston

Law enforcement personnel use an underwater robot to search the waters of the Sabattus and Androscoggin rivers

Divers prepare to search the Androscoggin River in Lisbon Falls, Maine, on October 27, 2023, in the aftermath of a mass shooting

Law enforcement personnel use an underwater robot to search the waters of the Sabattus and Androscoggin rivers, two days after a mass shooting, in Lisbon, Maine

Law enforcement officials conduct a manhunt for suspect Robert Card following a mass shooting on October 27

Law enforcement officers temporarily detain people as a manhunt continues in the aftermath of a mass shooting, in Durham, Maine, on Friday

The boat launch in Lisbon is where officers are focusing their search today. The suspect's car was found there on Wednesday night

Divers were searching the Androscoggin River near Lisbon boat dock, where Card kept a boat.

Card owns a 12-foot Sea Doo Jet Ski and previously registered a 15-foot Bayliner boat, The Sun Journal reported.

Ryan Koroknay, a spokesman for the Coast Guard, said on Thursday a response boat crew has been dispatched from Boothbay Harbor, and a fixed wing plane from Cape Cod is also assisting with search efforts.

Koroknay would not say whether the Coast Guard was looking for any particular vessel.

On Friday evening, Sauschuck said: 'They are still out there right now. They will be there as long as they can, with the light.'

He said the river search would continue on Saturday.

Police have been working with Brookfield, the owners of two nearby dams, to slow the current of the river for personnel conducting the search, Sauschuck said.

'We're not going to finish that search this evening,' he said.

'Tomorrow we'll have additional dive resources from out of state, and in state. We'll have assets there tomorrow. They did flyovers and sonar searches.'

Card, described as 5'11 and 230lbs, was last seen wearing a brown hooded sweatshirt and brown cargo pants.

He is known to have mental health problems and was sectioned over the summer for two weeks after saying he heard voices, and wanted to open fire on his Army reserve base.

His sister-in-law Katie Card said he had an 'acute' episode, describing him as someone who was normally peaceful and friendly.

Police on Thursday evening searched homes belonging to Card's parents and brother, and at one point used a bullhorn to shout: 'Come out with your hands up, you are under arrest.'

But on Friday they confirmed Card was not there.

Investigators found a suicide note at a home associated with Card on Thursday that was addressed to his son.

The letter did not give a specific motive for the shooting, but it is believed he could have been searching for an ex partner.
High Court ruled in his favour after he claimed he was a 'dead man walking'

A former KGB double agent can take legal action against the National Crime Agency (NCA) after accusing it of wrongly disclosing his new identity, the High Court has ruled.

Boris Karpichkov - his former name - alleges he received death threats after his new name and address were given to the Latvian authorities by the UK's law enforcement agency.

The ex-KGB major maintains he is a 'dead man walking', claiming the Russian state gained knowledge of his new identity and that threats written in Russian were sent to his home.

In a High Court judgment on Friday, Master Victoria McCloud ruled against the NCA's bid to strike out the claim or request a summary judgment, and said Mr Karpichkov's case, subject to any appeal, can proceed.

Mr Karpichkov - whose current name cannot be made public and did not appear in the ruling - is claiming damages for breaches under the Data Protection Act 2018 and for misuse of his private information.

Ex-KGB double agent Boris Karpichkov (pictured) - his former name - can take legal action against the National Crime Agency (NCA) after accusing it of wrongly disclosing his new identity, the High Court has ruled

Boris Karpichkov - his former name - alleges he received death threats after his new name and address were given to the Latvian authorities by the NCA (central London HQ pictured)

He worked for the Russian security services for many years and within the Latvian security services before moving to the UK in 1998 as an asylum seeker with his family, eventually being granted British citizenship and a new identity.

The ruling showed that in a previous British court hearing he was found to be in a 'unique position to confirm past collaboration by high-ranking Latvian officials with the KGB'.

He was also 'likely to be considered a threat to the Russian intelligence services by virtue of his work as a double agent for the Latvian LSP and against Russian state interests and by his on-going outspoken criticism of Russia.. ... (his) life has been at risk since these allegations were first brought...'

Mr Karpichkov alleges that in 2006-7, before the disclosures in the case, he may have also been the victim of a possible chemical or biological attempt on his life.

Latvia attempted to extradite him from the UK, but the High Court quashed a decision agreeing to this, ruling his life would be in danger from 'underworld/rogue government elements if he were returned or extradited'.

In 2018 amid a second extradition attempt, the NCA gave the Latvian authorities Mr Karpichkov's new identity, after which he alleges he began to receive anonymous threats, and in 2019 they received his address, the judgment said.

The NCA argues it had to disclose Mr Karpichkov's new name and address, which happened pre-Brexit, due to laws governing exchange of information between EU states relating to criminal suspects.

In dismissing the NCA's application, Master McCloud said it was arguable that the NCA should have considered whether the disclosures were truly required by law after taking into account Human Rights and EU Charter provisions.

In a High Court (pictured) judgment on Friday, Master Victoria McCloud ruled against the NCA's bid to strike out the claim or request a summary judgment, and said Mr Karpichkov's case, subject to any appeal, can proceed

Mr Karpichkov, who defected from Russia, told The Sun in May last year that Putin was 'insane' and becoming 'obsessed by paranoid ideas'.

'He sees literally everyone, including those inside the Russian security services and even inside his close inner circle, to be 'traitors'', he said.

Putin may be keeping those closest to him unaware of his health difficulties, in under to maintain his strongman image, Karpichkov at the time.

'He is so suspicious and so obsessed with his paranoia ideas that he can be now compared with Stalin tyrant,' he added.

And the former spy claimed in 2018 that he was warned by the Russian Secret Service that spy Sergei Skripal would be poisoned before the Salisbury attack that year.

Boris Karpichkov said at the time that he was on an eight-man hitlist which included Mr Skripal, 66, who was attacked with a nerve agent last week in Salisbury.

Mr Karpichkov, who claimed two have suffered two chemical attacks, said he was told about the plot in a threatening 'burning telephone' call.

A National Crime Agency spokesperson said: 'The NCA is aware of the judgment. It would not be appropriate to comment further while legal proceedings are ongoing.'
At least 200 pro-Palestine and Jewish protestors were arrested in NYC on Friday night after storming Grand Central to demand a ceasefire - as Israel launched an 'unprecedented' bombing campaign on Gaza and stepped up ground operations.

Footage of protestors clashing with police surfaced in the wake of the event organized by members of the Jewish Voice for Peace.

The group describe themselves as being the 'largest progressive Jewish anti-Zionist organization in the world' predominantly consisting of people from the Jewish faith.

Protestors at the 'historic sit-in' on the main concourse of the iconic Manhattan station could be heard chanting: 'No more weapons, no more war. Ceasefire is what we're fighting for.'

Other footage also showed a large crowd attempting to enter the station but being held back by NYPD officers trying to subdue the situation.

Signs were hung around the concourse, with one reading: 'Palestinians should be free.'

Protestors could be heard chanting: 'No more weapons, no more war. Ceasefire is what we're fighting for'

Members of the Jewish Voice for Peace said they are hosting a 'historic sit-in' on the main concourse of the iconic station in Manhattan

Others said: 'Mourn the dead, and fight like hell for the living' and another called for an immediate ceasefire in the region.

Jewish Voice for Peace issued a statement on their intended protest, saying: 'In the last two weeks, over 7,000 Palestinians and 1,400 Israelis were killed.

'Every bomb dropped on Gaza threatens the lives of 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza and 200 Israeli hostages. The only way to save lives [is] through an immediate ceasefire.'

Subsequent videos emerged showing officers attempting to disperse the crowds inside the station, as well as some people being escorted out in handcuffs.

The New York Police Department said at least 200 people had been arrested, while protest organizers put the number at more than 300.

The Metropolitan Transit Authority have had to close Grand Central Terminal due to the demonstration.

According to one social media user, police had made an announcement that those who remained sitting risked being arrested.

A video of those who had been arrested has since surfaced on social media, showing a long line of protestors in cuffs and being held by officers as they leave the station.

After the protest started earlier tonight, Jewish Voice for Peace encouraged others to join them.

In a post to social media, the group said: 'In the midst of a massive bombarding onslaught on Gaza, hundreds of Jews and friends are taking over Grand Central Station in a historic sit-in calling for a ceasefire.

'Come join now! The location of this demonstration is the main concourse at Grand Central Station.'

Breaking: The NYPD has arrested hundreds of Jewish anti-war activists.



Despite their arrests, they are in good spirits ( sound on) pic.twitter.com/2P0VFMKB94  Alan MacLeod (@AlanRMacLeod) October 28, 2023

Footage has also emerged showing a large crowd attempting to enter the station, but are being held back by NYPD officers

The Metropolitan Transit Authority have had to close Grand Central Terminal due to the demonstration

After the protest started earlier tonight, Jewish Voice for Peace encouraged others to join them

According to one social media user, police had made an announcement that those who remained sitting risked being arrested

Subsequent videos have emerged showing officers attempting to disperse the crowds inside the station, as well as some being arrested

The Big Apple, which has the biggest Jewish population in the world outside of Israel, has been a hotbed for protests since the conflict started earlier this month.

Earlier Thursday, thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched from Wall Street to City Hall to protest against U.S. weapons manufacturers and investment companies and dozens of others have raged across the country and world.

Mayor Eric Adams said on Thursday that 233 people have been arrested at the over 100 protests and rallies held in the city.

New York's Jewish community is also being being warned to stay away from a rally planned to take place in Brooklyn on Saturday as a matter of safety.

'Jews should definitely avoid the area,' COLlive.com reported, citing a security source. 'There's no intel at this time in which direction the protest will head. Locals should definitely stay away from Eastern Parkway in that area.'

Jewish Voice for Peace had also taken over a US Congress building last week to demand a ceasefire.

At least a hundred protesters occupied a building of the US Congress urging lawmakers and Joe Biden's administration to push for a ceasefire in Gaza.

The group Dressed in black T-shirts emblazoned with the words 'Jews say cease fire now' and 'Not in our name'.

'Jews say ceasefire now' reads shirts on the backs of the protestors

The activists sat clapping and singing on the floor in the rotunda of the Cannon House Office building and held up large banners that read 'Ceasefire' and 'Let Gaza Live'.

Capitol police said protests are not allowed inside the building and several demonstrators were arrested.

This latest protest inside Grand Central comes as a top political adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned 'Hamas will feel Israel's wrath'.

Palestinians have been warned by the IDF to flee to the south of Gaza as missiles bombarded the region, razing buildings to the ground.

The bombing, which observers described as much more ferocious and louder than previous days, coincided with electricity and communications blackouts in much of the besieged enclave.

According to one report the Israelis even unleashed 'bunker buster' concussion missiles to try and destroy the extensive Hamas tunnel network under Gaza.

IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari telling reporters at a press conference today: 'In recent hours we have increased the attacks in Gaza.

'The air force widely attacks underground targets and terrorist infrastructure, very significantly.

The strikes have almost completely decimated Gaza's telecommunications infrastructure

'In continuation of the offensive activity we carried out in the last few days, the ground forces are expanding the ground activity this evening.'

The IDF said it was expanding its bombardment campaign against Gaza, and was 'working powerfully in all dimensions' to achieve its military goals.

Hamas returned fire with a 'salvo' of rockets, though it not known how many were caught by Israel's Iron Dome defense system.

The terror group also called on those in the West Bank and '1948 territories' - a term used by Palestinians meaning Israel in reference to when it was founded - to take up arms as Israel's ground invasion begins.

Hamas reportedly said that it held Israel, the US and Western nations which support Israel 'fully responsible for the series of heinous massacres' against the people of Gaza.
A giant UFO pictured over Chile in 2010 has been described as genuinely unidentified by alien hunters.

The image appeared to show a glowing orange object hidden behind the clouds and was taken by a family picnicking in the Andes Mountains in 2010.

The National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena (NARCAP) investigated the sighting the same year, but scientists are reopening the case as part of a new documentary that attempts to prove or debunk strange phenomena.

An expert in physics from the University at Albany said: 'This object is truly unidentified, so it is a genuine UFO.'

A photo snapped by a family picnicking at the Andes Mountains in 2010 that appears to capture a 'massive saucer-shaped object' has been re-analyzed by scientists to determine if it was a UFO or simple camera effects

The only evidence of the sighting is a July 2010 report that describes the exterior boasting a red and white woven pattern with a large region of straight individual lines along the bottom - and the 'disc' could be up to 200 feet long

The image was taken during the day on a Sunday, which shows the sun shining through white clouds and a band of reddish clouds to the left, encasing a glowing 'solid' orange object with 'interesting surface details,' according to the NARCAP report.

The image's story dates back to February 14, 2010, when a couple and their one-year-old daughter spent the day at the El Yeso Reservoir.

The mother snapped 16 photos of the stunning valley and sky above, and upon returning home, she noticed the reddish clouds with the object.

The Chilean government shared the photo with NARCAP, an advisory of aviation professionals investigating UPAs and aviation safety.

Ted Roe, head of the organization, conducted a lengthy analysis of the image, publishing a 23-page report on July 2, 2010.

Roe was featured on 'The Proof is Out There' where he said: 'This study resolves that this is in fact an external anomaly.

The image's story dates back to February 14, 2010, when a couple and their one-year-old daughter spent the day at the El Yeso Reservoir. The mother snapped 16 photos of the stunning valley. Pictured is one of the images taken that day

The report states that a portion of the UAP appears to be obstructed by the cirrus or cirrocumulus clouds, making it difficult to assess the true size of the UAP. However, NARCAP believes the object could span more than 200 feet long

'It does not appear to be inserted in the photograph, so we're left with an unidentified aerial phenomenon.'

The case, however, went cold after the report was quietly released in July.

The sighting was featured on The History Channel's 'The Proof is Out There,' where experts determined that no camera effects are associated with the 'blob' and concluded the object is 'a genuine UFO' -saying 'we are getting closer to the truth.'

'The Proof is Out There' is a non-fiction series that brings in experts to investigate videos and images of bizarre sightings captured by the public.

Tony Harris, the show's host, told DailyMail.com: 'I think in a lot of these cases can be explained, but the beauty of the show is that by doing the work, we are weeding out the nonsense.

'We are getting closer. Through the process of taking a look at things like the Andes UAP, having the experts take a look at it and coming to the conclusion that they cannot identify it [is a] ding ding ding [moment].

'I think that is a step closer. If we can't identify it with the crew we have on board, professors from acclaimed universities and theoretical physicists, I think that means we are getting closer to something.'

Experts investigated the image under red, green and blue factors to see how the light may have been distributed

The red and green wavelengths contributed more detail and outline definition to the UAP

The upper edge of the object could be seen in each of the three hues 'as if some source of light is illuminating it'

The report states that a portion of the UAP appears to be obstructed by the cirrus or cirrocumulus clouds, making it difficult to assess the true size of the UAP.

However, NARCAP believes the object could span more than 200 feet long.

Roe also investigated the image under red, green and blue factors to see how the light may have been distributed.

The red and green wavelengths contributed more detail and outline definition to the UAP than the blue, but the upper edge of the object could be seen in each of the three hues 'as if some source of light is illuminating it,' reads the report.

READ MORE: Ring is offering a $1 million reward for video footage of aliens captured using its doorbell camera The deadline is November 3 at 11:59 pm ET, and submissions will be analyzed by a 'Space and Extraterrestrial Expert.' Advertisement

An investigation into pixel distortion was also conducted, which enlarged the image to the point where individual pixels were apparent to see if they may have been created or pasted into the sky.

Roe concluded in the report that 'no such distortions in luminosity or spatial displacement were discovered suggesting that the UAP was present when the photograph was taken.'

Now, 13 years later, the mysterious case in the Andes has been re-opened for another look.

'The Proof is Out There' episode features astronomer and video effects designer Mark de Antonio explaining that the strange formation could be the result of the prism effect.

The effect occurs when the sun hits ice crystals in the atmosphere, creating a stunning rainbow.

'And that is what we are seeing [in the image], in my view,' de Antonio said.

'When you divide the image in half, you have the sun [on one side] and the object [on the other.

The distance from that center frame to the object is the same. The likelihood is very small that an object is going to be the exact same distance from the sun unless there is a lens flare.'

Lens flares are when bright lights hit the camera lens, creating artifacts - but not all experts agree with de Antonio.

Meteorologist Juan Hernandez with the National Weather Service said: 'Although I am not a photography expert, it does not seem like we are looking at a camera artifact effect.

He points to the orange spot in the clouds, noting no explanation for why it is there.

Most artifacts appear as lines, but the UAP is a disc shape.

'The likely explanation towards a reddish hue in any cloud would be a setting sun, but it is the middle of the day,' said Hernandez.

Another expert, physicist Matthew Szydagis with the University of Albany, also sides with Hernandez.

'I agree with the conclusion of the NARCAP report, which suggested that this object is truly unidentified, so it is a genuine UFO.'

Harris told DailyMail.com that the verdict does not mean it is aliens.

'It means just what it says 'undefined,'' he said.

'We felt comfortable going on the air and saying exactly what it is.

'The Proof is Out There' is currently in its fourth season.

'The thing about our show, we stay on these clips and try to identify them even if it is outside of the show,' said Harris, suggesting that the truth of the Andes Mountain UAP could officially be concluded.
Apple released its iOS 17.1 update last night, containing several important bug fixes and security updates, as well as improvements to AirDrop, StandBy and Apple Music.

While many iPhone users rushed to install the update, new reports may have you delaying the download.

Several users claim that the update is ruining their battery life, with reports of charge draining within hours.

'After updating iOS 17.1, my battery on iPhone 13 Pro is draining fast,' one user tweeted, while another vented: 'iOS 17.1 sucks.'

Here's what to do if you've downloaded the update and have noticed your battery life dwindling.

Several users claim that the update is ruining their battery life, with reports of charge draining within hours

READ MORE: Apple releases urgent iOS 17.1 security update Advertisement

Taking to Twitter, one user who had downloaded the update wrote: 'Idle Battery drain on iOS 17.1 on the iPhone 15 is insanely high.

'I know its a huge update and will require a couple of charge cycles to settle in, but it feels way higher than the previous updates.'

Another wrote: 'My brand new phone battery is getting bad. 1% going every 7 mins. IOS 17.1 sucks. FIX IT BEFORE YOU LOSE CUSTOMERS AND GET HATE!'

And one vented: 'Worst experience ever this year, after updating to iOS 17.1 my iPhone battery is draining like crazy. WTF is happening to apple?!'

Thankfully, it's unlikely that the battery issues are here to stay.

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, a researcher at ZDNet, explained: 'Installing a new OS on an iPhone triggers a lot of stuff to go on in the background, from indexing to recalibrating the battery, and this can go on for hours or even days.

'Not only does this consume power, but the battery recalibration can give the impression that the battery is draining more rapidly when in fact it isn't.

'Add to this the dual factor of a lot of app updates happening following a new release, combined with a lot of new features available that may put more drain on an older handset.'

If you're worried about your iPhone battery and it's been a few days since you updated to iOS 17.1, Mr Kingsley-Hughes advises checking your battery health.

One wrote: 'My brand new phone battery is getting bad. 1% going every 7 mins. IOS 17.1 sucks. FIX IT BEFORE YOU LOSE CUSTOMERS AND GET HATE!'

One vented: 'Worst experience ever this year, after updating to iOS 17.1 my iPhone battery is draining like crazy. WTF is happening to apple?!'

Taking to Twitter, one user who had downloaded the update wrote: 'Idle Battery drain on iOS 17.1 on the iPhone 15 is insanely high

He added: 'If you go to Settings > Battery > Battery Health and the message is that it is good for Peak Performance Capability, then it's either just the normal stuff going on, or a bug.'

While the battery issues might put you off, Apple is urging iPhone users to download the update for security reasons.

'This update introduces the ability for AirDrop transfers to continue over the internet when you step out of AirDrop range,' Apple explains.

'This release also includes enhancements to StandBy and Apple Music, as well as other features, bug fixes and security updates for your iPhone.'

The update also addresses concerns about the radiation levels produced by the iPhone 12.

Last month, the tech giant was ordered to stop selling the iPhone 12 in France after tests showed the model produced radiation levels above the EU safety threshold.

Apple was also told to fix existing smartphones via an update or recall every iPhone 12 ever sold in the country.

Jean-Noel Barrot, France's digital minister, played down fears that the radiation levels detected were a cancer risk, but the announcement reignited the debate about the safety of mobile phone use.

'iOS 17.1 includes an update for iPhone 12 for users in France to accommodate this specific test protocol that requires reduced power when off-body on a static surface,' Apple explained.

'iPhone 12 will no longer increase the allowed power when the off-body state is detected, such as while it is sitting on a table.'
It's full-speed ahead for Russia's independent space program, despite corruption scandals and international turmoil, President Vladimir Putin told space industry officials Thursday in a televised meeting.

The first module of Russia's new orbital platform  arguably yet another sign of the dark and less cooperative new era in space that is set to follow the end of the International Space Station (ISS) in 2030  should launch in 2027, Putin said.

'As the resources of the International Space Station run out,' Putin said, 'we need not just one segment, but the entire station to be brought into service.'

The Russian president also vowed to continue the country's lunar program despite the catastrophic crash landing of Russia's Luna-25 craft this August on the moon's south pole.

'It's a pity ... It is a negative experience,' Putin said. 'But it will be used in the future to avoid any mistakes.'

Since it began in 1988, the ISS has served as a model of international scientific cooperation, between the United States, Europe, Russia and others.

But Moscow's current plans to continue its participation in the now 25-year-old ISS until 2028, Putin said, was a only temporary measure.

The first module of Russia's new orbital space station  one sign of the dark and less cooperative new era in space set to follow the end of the International Space Station (ISS) in 2030  will launch in 2027, Putin told space industry officials Thursday in a televised meeting

The Russian president also vowed to continue the country's lunar program despite the catastrophic crash landing of Russia's Luna-25 craft this August on the moon's south pole. 'It is a negative experience,' Putin said. 'But it will be used in the future to avoid any mistakes'

Moscow's current plans to continue its participation in the now 25-year-old ISS until 2028, Putin said, was a only temporary measure. Above, Putin at Thursday's space meeting

Yuri Borisov, head of the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, endorsed Putin's position as a means of maintaining the country's capabilities in manned space flight.

'The ISS is getting old and will come to an end,' Russian agencies quoted him as telling reporters.

'If we don't start large-scale work on creating a Russian orbital station in 2024,' Borisov continued, 'it is quite likely that we will lose our capability because of the time gap.'

'The ISS will no longer be there and the Russian station won't be ready.'

Putin emphasized in Thursday's televised meeting that the new station had to 'consider all advanced achievements of science and technology and have the potential to take on the tasks of the future.'

He said the development of the new space station would proceed 'all in good time.'

A little over one year ago, Russian space agency Roscosmos showed off a model of the country's planned new space station - above - which will have four modules in its first phase

The planned Russian space station will eventually expand to six modules and a service platform, the country said, once it fully leaves the ISS. But unlike the ISS, the orbital platform is not designed to be constantly staffed. Cosmonauts will stay for only two periods each year

In his remarks yesterday, Putin further elaborated that he had been fully informed about the technical mishaps that led to the crash landing of the Luna-25 craft in August on the moon's south pole.

The incident, which occurred during pre-landing maneuvers over the lunar surface, served to highlight funding problems, corruption scandals and other setbacks that have trailed a space program that was once the pride of the country.

Mikhail Marov, 90, a top astronomer who was a key consultant on the failed space expedition was rushed to hospital following Luna-25's crash, suffering a 'sharp deterioration' in his health.

Marov's health condition arose after he called for an investigation into the failure of the expedition, Russia's first lunar probe in 47 years.

'We will of course be working on this. The lunar program will continue,' Putin said. 'There are no plans to close it.'

'Mistakes happen,' the Russian president added. 'This is such a complex activity.'

Putin also advised the assembled space experts to resolve problems with salaries, which he implied are too low in Russia's space industry, in an effort to attract foreign space specialists  as well as to stoke new interest from the private sector

Putin also advised the assembled space experts to resolve problems with salaries, which he implied are too low in Russia's space industry, in an effort to attract foreign space specialists  as well as to stoke new interest from the private sector.

But, while Roscosmos chief Borisov said that the next moon launch might be moved forward to 2026 from 2027 as now planned, the new space base remains the main priority for the space agency.

Interfax, citing an unnamed industry source, reported that Russia's new space station would cost $6 billion. And, when completed, the base will be able to accommodate up to four cosmonauts and scientific equipment.

'The aim is for there to be no gaps,' Putin said, 'for the work to keep pace with the depletion of the ISS's resources.'
Archaeologists believe they are one step closer to confirming the resting place of Noah's Ark.

A team excavating a geological formation in Turkey has aged rock and soil samples they believe contain ruins of the vessel, which puts the site at the same time the Bible puts the Great Flood 5,000 years ago.

The project began in 2021 and is ongoing, but the initial analysis determined samples to contain clayey and marine materials and seafood.

According to the researchers, these results mean human activity was present on the boat-shaped mound between 5500 and 3000 BC.

A team excavating a geological formation in Turkey has aged rock and soil samples they believe contain ruins of the vessel, which puts the site at the same time the Bible puts the Great Flood 5,000 years ago

In the Bible, God commands Noah to build a vast ship, the ark - capable of saving himself, his family and a representation of the world's animals

The Bible claims the ark settled on the 'mountains of Ararat' in Turkey following a 150-day flood that drowned the Earth and every living thing on it that was not housed inside the wooden ship.

The geological formation located in Dogubayazt district of Agr has been a potential site since it was discovered in 1956.

The mountain is the highest peak in Turkey, standing 16,500 feet tall and carved out like an ark would be.

The vessel was said to measure '300 cubits, 50 cubits, by 30 cubits', which translates to up to 515 feet long, 86 feet wide and 52 feet high.

A team of experts led by Istanbul Technical University (ITU), Andrew University, and Agr Ibrahim Cecen University (AICU) have been working at the site for nearly one year, collecting samples they believe hold the key to confirming the Biblical story.

The geological formation located in Dogubayazt district of Agr has been a potential site since it was discovered in 1956 (pictured)

The first portion of their work began in December 2022, when they collected 30 samples of rock and soil fragments that the ITU laboratory analyzed. Pictured is the team walking inside the formation to collect rocks and soil

The first portion of their work began in December 2022, when they collected 30 samples of rock and soil fragments that the ITU laboratory analyzed, Arkeonews reports.

AICU Vice Rector Professor Faruk Kaya said: 'According to the first findings obtained from the studies, there have been human activities in the region since the Chalcolithic period between the years 5500 and 3000 BC.

'It is known that the flood of Prophet Noah went back 5,000 years ago.

'In terms of dating, it is stated that there was life in this region as well. This was revealed in the laboratory results.

'It is not possible to say that the ship is here with the dating. We need to work for a long time to reveal this.'

The Bible claims the ark settled on the 'mountains of Ararat' in Turkey following a 150-day flood that drowned the Earth and every living thing on it that was not housed inside the wooden ship

However, Dr Andrew Snelling, a young Earth creationist with a Ph.D. from the University of Sydney, had previously said that Mount Ararat could not be the ark's location because the mountain did not form until after the flood waters receded.

Although considered a historical event, most scholars and archaeologists do not believe in literally interpreting the Ark story.

In the Bible, God commands Noah to build a vast ship, the ark - capable of saving himself, his family and a representation of the world's animals.

The wickedness and corruption of man spurred God's vows to send a great cleansing flood.

Deeming Noah to be the only righteous man worth saving, God commands him to build a vast ship.

According to the Bible, when Noah has completed his task, and God has sent 'two of every sort' of animal to the Ark, the flood waters rise until all mountains are covered, and life (except fish) is destroyed.
THREE LITTLE BIRDS

Sundays, ITV1 & ITVX

Rating:

Sir Lenny Henry has admitted he had a few project knockbacks prior to creating his new six-part drama, Three Little Birds.

He confided in the brilliant Russell T Davies (Doctor Who, A Very English Scandal, It's A Sin), who urged Lenny to explore a subject he was passionate about  before smartly jumping on board as a producer.

In many respects, I'm surprised it took Henry quite so long. Though 'inclusive' drama is necessarily at the top of every exec's to-do list, I can't imagine any time in, say, the last 20 years when a story directly inspired by Henry's mother and her friends wouldn't have been a box-ticker.

Suffice to say Henry has created a warm-hearted look at the struggles, strength and stoicism of his parents' 'Windrush Generation' of Jamaican immigrants.

As it gently unfolds at a pace that feels appropriate for a drama set in the late 50s, there's plenty to love about this stylish and beautifully acted piece.

From left: Hosanna, Leah and Chantrelle. Sir Lenny Henry has admitted he had a few project knockbacks prior to creating his new six-part drama, Three Little Birds

The Three Little Birds are Leah Whittaker (Rochelle Neil, star of The Nevers and Guilt), escaping a violent husband in Jamaica but forced to leave her three children behind as she attempts to build a new life for them; Leah's star-struck little sister Chantrelle (Saffron Coomber  Small Axe, Strike), who dreams of becoming a movie star while working as a nanny in Borehamwood, Herts (which does at least have film studios); and their friend Hosanna (newcomer Yazmin Belo), the very proper, very Christian daughter of a pastor, whom it's hoped will fall for their brother, Aston (Dodger's Javone Prince).

Chantrelle is not cut out for service and inevitably struggles with her employers' casual racism. Up in the Midlands, Hosanna isn't exactly smitten with Aston, not least because he doesn't remotely resemble the photo she's been carrying (which looks suspiciously like the young Harry Belafonte). And when Leah starts to fall for dashing Shelton (Bobby Gordon), we wonder when she'll admit to being a married mum-of-three.

Kathryn Flett, pictured, has this week enjoyed ITV's Three Little Birds but says there is a 'lack of nuance'

If I have a major criticism, it's that there's a lack of nuance. Instead of being either predictably vile racists (cue pursed-lipped British landladies, curtain-twitching alongside their 'No Blacks, No Irish, No Dogs' signs) or the most generous, kindly folk ever, I suspect the majority of ordinary working-class white Brits felt a mild curiosity and vague warmth towards their new Caribbean neighbours. They had, after all, been recruited to help rebuild beleaguered post-war Britain.

However, mild curiosity and vague warmth do not a pacy drama make. So, yes, while there are a few tired tropes and predictable cliches, that's OK; this is feel-good Sunday night telly, after all.

AT 97, SIR DAVID'S STILL DELIVERING

PLANET EARTH III

Sundays, BBC1

Rating:

It's wonderful to have the 97-year-old international super-treasure Sir David Attenborough back in front of the camera; for the past several years he's mostly delivered only voiceovers

It's wonderful to have the 97-year-old international super-treasure Sir David Attenborough back in front of the camera; for the past several years he's mostly delivered only voiceovers.

The original Planet Earth  the first-ever nature documentary to be filmed in HD, fact fans  is now 17 years old (the second series is seven) so that famous voice is inevitably a little more tremulous, but Attenborough is still a surprisingly powerful on-camera presence.

The first episode of this new eight-parter focused on just a few of the world's million-odd miles of coastline.

From Australia to South Africa via the Arctic, Namibia, Argentina, Canada and Mexico, we followed seals, sharks, whales, lions, snakes, turtles  and captivating sea angels and sea butterflies, which look like computer-generated anime. There were even a few fish, too (personal fave: the archer fish, which spits 'jets of water, like arrows').

The final ten minutes effectively explained how filming technology has evolved. While watching the Great Barrier Reef's green turtles struggling against rising sea levels and temperatures, Sir David casually reminded us (against a backdrop of black-and-white archive footage), 'I was one of the first people to film on Raine Island, back in 1957 I was 31 and it was here that I first met a green turtle.' Short of Charles Darwin, I can't think of anyone else whose lifetime eco-legacy will have been more extraordinary.

KUDOS TO KIRSTIE!

Pictured: Location, Location, Location presenters: Kirstie Allsopp and Phil Spencer. With Phil's help and a million-quid budget, the first episode of this new series saw entrepreneur Amy and family looking to relocate

After 23 years we've seen every possible house-buying permutation on Location, Location, Location (Wed, Ch4). Or have we? With Phil's help and a million-quid budget, the first episode of this new series saw entrepreneur Amy and family looking to relocate. Kirstie's challenge was finding Devonians Glen, Natalie and son Barnaby that 'forever' home. Amazingly, she found it on the first viewing and secured it at the right price. Kudos to Kirstie; we were welling up too.
The Killer (15, 118 mins)

Verdict: Trigger-happy thriller

Rating:

Cat Person (15, 118 mins)

Verdict: I hate to be a sourpuss, but...

Rating:

Fifty years have passed since the release of The Day Of The Jackal, Fred Zinnemann's gripping adaptation of the novel by Frederick Forsyth.

So film buffs, or more likely assassin buffs, will find a pleasing symmetry in The Killer, which begins with a hitman preparing for a job in Paris.

That's where Edward Fox's title character in the 1973 thriller got his shot at the French president, Charles de Gaulle. And in The Killer, it's where Michael Fassbender's title character spends days staking out a swanky penthouse, waiting in the rented apartment opposite for a clear line of sight to his target, a man who might be a politician, an oligarch or a master criminal. We never find out.

I first saw this Netflix production  which opens in cinemas today before streaming from next Friday  at this year's Venice Film Festival.

Afterwards, opinions were sharply divided between those who thought the opening scenes deadly dull and those, like me, who were absorbed.

Michael Fassbender's title character spends days staking out a swanky penthouse, waiting in the rented apartment opposite for a clear line of sight to his target

Even though David Fincher's film doesn't quite deliver on its early promise, it playfully chronicles the tedious side of an occupation imbued, if only by the movies, with excitement and even glamour.

As with The Jackal, we never learn the assassin's real name, yet still we can relate to the character as he goes about the mundane side of his business.

It's very smartly done, letting us in on his thoughts as day after day, night after night, he goes to sleep, wakes up, listens to the greatest hits of The Smiths, and then goes out onto the street as anonymously as he can, choosing the guise of a German tourist.

'No one wants to interact with a German tourist,' he rationalises. 'Parisians avoid them like the rest of the world avoid street mimes.'

The high-performance rifle, it emerges, is not his favourite tool. He refers to assassination by bullet as one of his 'Annie Oakley jobs', and ponders wistfully on the way he used to do it  with slow poison or 'a nice quiet drowning'. With that and other witty lines, we do seem to be set for something special from Fincher and screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker, who worked together on the hit 1995 serial-killer thriller Se7en.

Tilda Swinton plays an enigmatic gun-for-hire in The Killer

Yet The Killer gradually lets us down, just as our Morrissey-loving assassin lets himself down by, erm, missing. Heaven knows, he's miserable now.

And more significantly, he's in danger, as all hell breaks loose and he's chased around Paris, finally making it to the airport where he uses one of his many fake passports to scarper.

By the way, his aliases are all fictional screen characters such as Oscar Madison, Archie Bunker, Lou Grant and Sam Malone.

It is one of this film's many whimsical flourishes that doesn't stand up to scrutiny, for why would a man so intent on keeping the lowest possible profile, so dedicated to his craft that he keeps whispering pseudo-philosophical aphorisms he's picked up, such as 'empathy is weakness', use an alias that might attract the attention of anyone moderately cine or telly-literate?

Anyway, the silliness intensifies as he discovers that whoever ordered the hit that he botched now wants him dead instead.

When a pair of assassins, one male and one female, come looking for him, the hunter becomes the hunted... and later turns hunter again, setting up one very good fight scene in the Louisiana swamplands (as in all films of this type, the lead character skips around the world like a turbo-charged Michael Palin).

It is followed by a highly improbable encounter in a restaurant with the hitwoman, played by none other than Tilda Swinton. Splendid though she is as an enigmatic gun-for-hire, and good as Fassbender is throughout, it has long since become clear that The Killer, while inviting us to take it seriously, never quite earns that degree of respect. But it's very watchable.

Cat Person isn't, really. It has its moments and boasts a classy performance by Britain's own Emilia Jones (daughter of Aled) as an American sophomore student, but it's a story of sex and sexual politics that falls over itself trying to be a thriller, and ultimately isn't a particularly plausible one.

Jones plays Margot, whose relationship with the significantly older Robert (played by Nicholas Braun  hapless cousin Greg in the TV hit Succession) develops through a series of text messages. But texting is a shaky base for romance.

Susanna Fogel's film, adapted from a short story that created a tremendous stir when it was published in The New Yorker six years ago, duly hints that Robert might be a creep, a stalker or even a killer.

And not only that, but he might even be a dog guy... who only pretends to love cats.

Emilia Jones plays Margot, whose relationship with the significantly older Robert (played by Nicholas Braun  hapless cousin Greg in the TV hit Succession) develops through a series of text messages

Susanna Fogel's film, adapted from a short story that created a tremendous stir when it was published in The New Yorker six years ago, duly hints that Robert might be a creep, a stalker or even a killer

Margot isn't sure, dumping him mainly because he's hopeless in bed. From that point on, the tension is artificially inflated, but then it's been like that from the start, when Margot keeps walking back to her room on a busy college campus through spookily deserted streets, presumably on the basis that it's after midnight and the other students are perforce all indoors.

It's a shame, really, because the film has plenty of valid stuff to say, building on the hyperbolic Margaret Atwood quote captioned at the start: that men are afraid women will laugh at them, and women are afraid that men will kill them.

It's just not quite clever enough to carry it off.

Boo! The creepy characters lurking at your cinema

Of all the screen adaptations of Robert Louis Stevenson's famous 1886 novella, Doctor Jekyll (15, 90 mins, HHIII) is one of the stranger ones, starring Eddie Izzard as a scarlet lipsticked billionaire recluse called Nina Jekyll, who has a psychotic alter ego: Rachel Hyde.

Dr J needs a carer, so hires a young guy fresh out of prison, desperate for a job. This is Rob, whose full name, in one of the script's sillier twists, turns out to be... Robert Louis Stevenson. Still, Rob is very nicely and believably played by Scott Chambers.

Of all the screen adaptations of Robert Louis Stevenson's famous 1886 novella, Doctor Jekyll (15, 90 mins, HHIII) is one of the stranger ones, starring Eddie Izzard as a scarlet lipsticked billionaire

Izzard works hard enough but always seems to be play-acting, and even the fine actress Lindsay Duncan is more than a little hammy as a forbidding, Mrs Danvers-style estate manager

Five Nights At Freddy's (15, 110 mins, HHIII) is the other horror release ahead of Halloween

Alas, the same isn't true of either Jekyll or Hyde. Izzard works hard enough but always seems to be play-acting, and even the fine actress Lindsay Duncan is more than a little hammy as a forbidding, Mrs Danvers-style estate manager.

At least she's putting the ham in Hammer Horror, though, for this film, directed by the aptly named Joe Stephenson, marks the rebirth of the venerable brand, founded in 1934, following major investment from the even more aptly named tycoon John Gore.

Five Nights At Freddy's (15, 110 mins, HHIII) is the other horror release ahead of Halloween. Inspired by the video game of the same name, it begins as a decent psychological thriller about a security guard (Josh Hutcherson) down on his luck, haunted by the abduction of his young brother years earlier.

But it descends into slasher nonsense, as the child-abduction story merges with that of murderous animatronic rabbits and teddy bears. Five Nights At Freddy's is four nights too many.

Also showing...

Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allows (15, 104 mins)

Rating:

Typist Artist Pirate King (12A, 108 mins)

Rating:

Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allows takes its name from the 1955 Douglas Sirk film made at the peak of Hudson's popularity, a year after Magnificent Obsession, also directed by Sirk, turned him into a major movie star.

Cleverly using clips from Hudson's films to refer to what was happening in his private life, Stephen Kijak's excellent documentary tells the fascinating story, as relevant today as ever, of how the Hollywood machine went to work on Hudson. At 29 he was compelled to marry his agent's secretary so that his homosexuality could be kept from an adoring public.

Cleverly using clips from Hudson's films to refer to what was happening in his private life, Stephen Kijak's excellent documentary tells the fascinating story

Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allows takes its name from the 1955 Douglas Sirk film made at the peak of Hudson's popularity

Typist Artist Pirate King is Carol Morley's drama about the Sunderland-born artist Audrey Amiss, brilliantly played by Monica Dolan

The tragic irony of his story is that, after working so hard for so long to conceal his sexuality, his Aids-related death, aged 59, helped to triple funding for research into the illness. In death he became a gay icon.

But there is much more to this film than Hudson's sexuality. It reminds us what a huge star he was, and indeed what a fine actor, while also dishing up some choice gossip. For instance, there was no love lost between him and the bisexual James Dean when they made Giant (1956) together, evidently because of Hudson's rebuffed private advances. For anyone interested in that golden era of Hollywood, it's compelling stuff.

So, in a very different way, is Typist Artist Pirate King, Carol Morley's drama about the Sunderland-born artist Audrey Amiss (brilliantly played by Monica Dolan), whose fragile mental health (as in the case of so many artists through the centuries) actually fuelled her creativity.

Morley invents a road-trip back to her native Wearside made by Amiss and the long-suffering social worker (Kelly Macdonald) whose job it is to check in on her, but is manoeuvred into driving her the length of the country. It's whimsical, funny and sad.
Duran Duran: Danse Macabre (Tape Modern)

Verdict: A monster mash

Rating:

James Blunt: Who We Used To Be (Atlantic)

Verdict: Heartfelt return

Rating:

The last time Duran Duran made an album of cover versions, 1995's Thank You, it was described by music mag Q as the worst LP of all time.

Even the group admitted that the lamentable record  which ruined songs by Lou Reed, The Temptations and Elvis Costello  was commercial suicide and, unusually for one of their releases, it didn't even make the Top Ten.

Their latest effort, Danse Macabre, is certainly an upgrade. A Halloween-themed affair, it has a freshness and sense of fun that was missing on Thank You. Furthermore, it's not solely a covers collection. There are three new numbers dotted among the hits made famous by others and souped-up versions of Duran Duran fan favourites.

The album has its roots in a Halloween concert the band played last year in Las Vegas, where they donned gothic costumes and performed on a stage decorated with skeletons and tombstones. Alongside familiar hits, including Planet Earth and Hungry Like The Wolf, frontman Simon Le Bon sang The Rolling Stones' Paint It Black and Siouxsie And The Banshees' Spellbound.

Tapping into the theatrical spirit of that show, they made Danse Macabre quickly, with long-term collaborator Joshua Blair producing. Given the Birmingham band's reputation for silliness and excess, one might have expected them to go for a Yuletide album, so the decision to celebrate the nightmare before Christmas is intriguing.

The last time Duran Duran made an album of cover versions, 1995's Thank You, it was described by music mag Q as the worst LP of all time

Their latest effort, Danse Macabre, is certainly an upgrade

There are notable cameos. New song Black Moonlight features Nile Rodgers on guitar and the emotional return of former member Andy Taylor. The latter, who first joined the band as a guitarist in 1980, has been receiving treatment for prostate cancer. He also contributes impressively to eerie updates of 1980s deep cuts Night Boat and Secret Oktober 31st.

Of the other new songs, the quirky title track is blighted by some woeful rapping from Le Bon ('zombie in the bathroom, nuns in the bed get dirty up on the danse macabre'), but closing track Confession In The Afterlife, with Nick Rhodes' arty keyboards to the fore and Le Bon singing superbly, is a spooky ballad that fits the Halloween brief perfectly. The covers, while never as wretched as those on Thank You, are still pretty hit and miss. There's a heavy-handed take on Billie Eilish's Bury A Friend and a version of The Specials' Ghost Town. Duran Duran and the latter band both formed in the West Midlands in the late 1970s, with ska pioneers The Specials hailing from Coventry, but any connection between them should have ended there and then.

Duran Duran can pick a great song, though. Maneskin bassist Victoria De Angelis guests on an affectionate makeover of the Talking Heads' Psycho Killer, and the band pay homage to their clubland roots in covering French producer Cerrone's 1977 disco hit Supernature. Paint It Black and Spellbound  two of the songs played in Vegas  are energetically reshaped. 'It's about a mad Halloween party,' says Le Bon of an album that's chilling only in places. Trick or treat? It's neither fiendishly good nor a horror show.

Considering he's widely regarded as a one-hit-wonder, James Blunt has done well to keep a high profile nearly two decades after his debut album, Back To Bedlam, sold 11 million on the back of the chart-topping (highly irritating) mega-hit You're Beautiful.

Without dramatically changing his sound, he's now on his seventh album and showing no sign of slowing down. Who We Used To Be ticks all the usual boxes. It's dominated by anguished ballads and mid-tempo tunes adorned by guitar and piano.

Blunt, 49, has just published a bawdy memoir, Loosely Based On A Made-Up Story. He also maintains a waggish social media presence, but says he finds it easiest to express himself in song.

Parts of the memoir, he admits, are fictional. It's on his records that he bares his soul and he digs deep here, addressing love and grief with disarming directness.

Blunt, 49, has just published a bawdy memoir, Loosely Based On A Made-Up Story

On Saving A Life, he sings of a friend who is battling addiction. On The Girl That Never Was, he details his sorrow at the devastating loss of an unborn child. When he was making Back To Bedlam in California in 2003, Blunt lodged with Star Wars actress Carrie Fisher. They remained close, and Fisher was godmother to his eldest son.

On Dark Thought, Blunt examines his feelings on returning to the gates of her LA home after her death in 2016. 'I drove up the hill just to say goodbye, but all I found was a For Sale sign,' he recalls, movingly.

There are moments of levity. On I Won't Die With You, he chastises an ex-lover for embracing the more boring aspects of adult life ('kids and bills') while he's still out partying, and there's even a stab at electronic dance on Some Kind Of Beautiful. 'Here I am, and I feel that rhythm,' he sings, not all that convincingly it must be said. For those craving the heart-on-sleeve Blunt of old, however, there's plenty to admire.

Both albums are out today. James Blunt starts a tour on March 30, 2024, at First Direct Arena, Leeds (ticketmaster.co.uk).
Robert Irwin was left red-faced this week after he hilariously mispronounced 'I'm A Celebrity' while appearing on TV.

The conservationist, 19, was on Celebrity Gogglebox discussing his new gig as co-host of the hit reality show, and awkwardly fumbled the title.

'I'm a celedebrity, get me.... I said it wrong! I'm a cedebrity,' Robert began.

'I'm gonna be a great host, I can't even say the title of the show,' he joked.

Robert's mother Terri, 59, and sister Bindi, 25, quickly burst into laughter over his amusing blunder.

The Irwins featured on Gogglebox's celebrity iteration alongside stars such as Carrie Bickmore, Fifi Box and Dave Hughes.

Earlier this week, Robert was announced as Dr. Chris Brown's replacement co-host of Channel Ten's I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here alongside Julia Morris.

Daily Mail Australia can now reveal the wildlife warrior is set to pocket almost half a million dollars for his month-and-a-half-long foray into the wilds of South Africa.

Robert Irwin (pictured) was left red-faced this week after he hilariously mispronounced ' I'm A Celebrity ' while appearing on TV

The conservationist, 19, was on Celebrity Gogglebox discussing his new gig as co-host of the hit reality show, and awkwardly fumbled the title. Pictured: Robert with his sister Bindi and mother Terri

According to a well placed source at Channel 10, Irwin 'will earn over $430,000' from his six-week stint in the jungle, and they think he will be 'worth every cent'.

Given Robert's magnetic appeal and the adoration he commands from fans around the globe, the investment is poised to pay off handsomely for the network.

'His pairing with the witty and ever-entertaining Julia [Morris] has all the makings of a dynamic duo, promising viewers an unforgettable experience,' said the source.

'I'm a celedebrity, get me.... I said it wrong! I'm a cedebrity. 'I'm gonna be a great host, I can't even say the title of the show,' Robert joked

Back in April, it was revealed that celebrities starring on the popular series are getting paid between $35,000 and $300,000.

Leading the pack is former rugby player and Bachelor star Nick 'Honey Badger' Cummins reportedly pocketed between $250,000 to $300,000.

The next top billed star for 2023 was Kerri-Anne Kennerely, with the Aussie TV legend taking home $180,000 for her time in the jungle before she quit dramatically after just four days.

The network had a hard task replacing popular Dr Chris Brown, with casting impressed with Robert's natural charm in the audition.

Earlier this week, Robert was announced as Dr. Chris Brown's replacement co-host of Channel Ten 's I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here alongside Julia Morris
Hailey Bieber was spotted en route to a meeting in Beverly Hills on Thursday afternoon.

The model, 26  who recently dished on her and her husband Justin Bieber's VERY different style choices  looked preppy chic as she exited her $400,000 Lamborghini Urus with a security guard in tow.

She rocked a black Prada miniskirt that was just barely visible from under her oversized red, white and navy blue polo shirt.

The Rhode founder strolled through the parking lot in black ballet flats worn with bright white socks.

To complete the look, Hailey threw on a pair of stylish $420 Yves Saint Laurent sunglasses and carried a black leather YSL purse with shiny gold hardware.

Preppy chic: Hailey Bieber looked preppy chic in a black Prada miniskirt that was just barely visible from under her oversized red, white and navy blue polo shirt as she arrived for a meeting in Beverly Hills on Thursday

YSL darling: To complete the look, Hailey threw on a pair of stylish $420 Yves Saint Laurent sunglasses and a black leather YSL purse with shiny gold hardware

Her shoulder-lengthy dirty blonde hair was straightened and she rocked her go-to soft glam makeup.

Hailey models for YSL and recently lent her image to the luxury brand's Fall 2023 campaign, which was unveiled in late August.

Along with her modeling ventures, Hailey has a very successful skincare company.

She launched Rhode in June 2022 with three products: a serum, moisturizer and a peptide lip treatment that instantly sold-out.

At the time Hailey explained that she launched the trio for consumers seeking to achieve a 'glazed and dewy' look.

Last month, she expanded the line's lip range by releasing four new lip tint shades.

She also revealed that Rhode is now available to purchase in France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Spain.

Hailey is married to pop superstar Justin Bieber, 29.

The couple wed back in 2018 at a courthouse in New York City and celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary in September.

Earlier this week, Justin and Hailey enjoyed a double date with Kylie Jenner's BFF's Stassie Karanikolaou and her TikTok star boyfriend Jaden Hossler.

They grabbed dinner at the celeb hot spot Funke in Beverly Hills where Kim Kardashian's 43rd birthday was recently held.

In a new interview with GQ Hype, Hailey finally spilled the beans on why she and Justin's often clash  with the model often opting for glamour while Justin prefers to keep things comfy and casual.

'It's so funny because I see so many people talk about this,' she said, adding that they dress like they're from 'two separate planets.'

Go-to girl: Hailey models for YSL and recently lent her image to the luxury brand's Fall 2023 campaign, which was unveiled in late August; seen at the YSL runway show in September

Founder: Along with her modeling ventures, Hailey has her own very successful skincare company, Rhode

Pop of color: Last month, she expanded the line's lip range by releasing four new lip tint shades

Lovebirds: Hailey is married to pop superstar Justin Bieber, 29; seen on October 12

Revealing how Justin typically gets ready first, Hailey continued: 'He may want to wear baggy sweats to dinner, and I might want to wear a tiny little dress just because that's how I'm feeling.

'We can't sit there and be like, "So I'm going to wear this and you're going to wear this."'

She also touched on the pregnancy rumors that have been swirling for the past year after she previously admitted to wanting kids 'so badly.'

'I can't be bloated one time and not be pregnant?'

Hailey added it was 'disheartening' to read people's comments about her body.

She said: 'It would be a lie if I was like, 'Oh, yeah, I don't give a s***'
Ella Morgan put on a racy display as she joined Georgia Harrison and Molly Smith at PrettyLittleThing's Halloween party in London on Thursday.

The MAFS UK contestant, 29, wore a racy lingerie set with a strappy bra and bottoms, complete with angel wings.

She completed her costume with opaque stocking and towering heels as she channeled her inner Victoria's Secret Angel.

Attending the Haunted Mansion event hosted by GK Barry, Georgia opted for an early 2000s look, with a bra top, fur bomber jacket and ruched mini skirt.

Molly, 29, wore a leopard print bandeau top with a matching fur mini skirt and gloves.

Celebrations: Ella Morgan, 29, put on a racy display at PrettyLittleThing's Halloween party in London on Thursday

Party: She was joined by Georgia Harrison (L) and Molly Smith (R) at the event that was hosted by GK Barry

Smiles: The MAFS UK contestant wore a racy lingerie set with a strappy bra and bottoms, complete with angel wings

The Love Island star completed her wild look with some thigh-high boots and cat ears.

Elsewhere, Jessie Wynter, 27, and her boyfriend Will Young, 24, took inspiration from Toy Story with their couple's costume.

The personal trainer mirrored the cowgirl doll, also called Jessie, in a yellow crop top, with black hot pants and cow print boots.

Farmer Will channeled Woody as he wore a checked shirt and jeans, complete with a tan cowboy hat.

Also in attendance was Claudia Fogarty, 29, and Samie Elishi, 23, who dressed as The Men In Black complete with a fun blow up alien.

Ella's outing comes after Married At First Sight UK fans were left seething when she and JJ Slater made a bombshell return as a new couple in Wednesday's episode.

The pair were both originally matched up with different spouses, but soon formed a connection and cheated on their partners together.

Their original partners Nathaniel Valentino and Bianca Petronzi both quit the series, while JJ also walked out and Ella was told she couldn't stay as a single person on Monday.

However, just days later, Ella and JJ made a bombshell return to the show as they surprised the other newlyweds at the couple's retreat, provoking mixed reactions.

Pose: She completed her costume with opaque stocking and towering heels as she channeled her inner Victoria's Secret Angel

Vintage: Attending the Haunted Mansion event hosted by GK Barry, Georgia opted for an early 2000s look, with a bra top and ruched mini skirt

Wild: Molly, 29, wore a leopard print bandeau top with a matching fur mini skirt and gloves

Fancy dress: TOWIE's Chloe Brockett also opted for a leopard print costume as she stepped out in a leotard

Cute: Elsewhere, Jessie Wynter, 27, and her boyfriend Will Young, 24, took inspiration from Toy Story with their couple's costume

Adorable: They posed for a series of fun photos at the event

Western: The personal trainer mirrored the cowgirl doll, also called Jessie, in a yellow crop top, with black hot pants and cow print boot covers

Movie: Also in attendance was Claudia Fogarty, 29, and Samie Elishi, 23, who dressed as The Men In Black complete with a fun blow up alien

Secret agents: The duo wore black sunglasses to complete their costumes

Sultry: Olivia Hawkins opted for a PVC mini dress and fishnet tights

Bash: Dani Imbert slipped into a velvet bodysuit for her bunny costume

Country: Ella Thomas also went for a Western look in a metallic cow girl costume

Iconic: Indiyah Polack wore a Playboy bunny costume

Style: Dami Hope seemed to not get the memo as he chose to not wear a costume

Pals: Molly was later joined by Arabella Chi at the bash

Cat woman: Arabella wore a PVC two-piece with glove and boots

Party! Tyrique Hyde, Georgia, Claudia, and Rachel Leary (L-R) appeared to be having a good night

Presenter: The event was hosted by GK Barry who arrived in a PLT taxi

Halloween: She looked incredible in a velvet bodysuit

Fairytale: Sharon Gaffka dressed as Little Red Riding Hood

Cat: Lucinda Strafford opted for a feline look

While some couples appeared thrilled to see them, others were left fuming, with Erica Roberts making her feelings very clear to Ella.

And fans also expressed their anger the couple were allowed to return to the E4 show, claiming it went again the 'spirit' of the experiment, which sees couples tie the knot at their first meeting.

Some viewers also fumed that Bianca should have been the one to return with a brand new spouse rather than Ella and JJ re-entering the show as a new couple.

Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, one fumed: 'NOPE bringing Ella & JJ back just shows it ok to cheat Bianca and Nathaniel are the one who should have come back with new partners chosen for them do better.'

Another said: 'The #MAFSUK Judges are a joke when they allow the cheating couples to re-enter, eliminates the experiment part completely!! Basic attempt at viewing figures, but makes the show basic.'

The dramatic moment saw Ella and JJ walk into the couple's retreat holding hands, before separately surprising the brides and grooms with their arrival.

The couples had been enjoying quality time apart when the pair made their grand arrival, leaving some of the other contestants completely stunned.

Ella said 'I'm back b*****es!' as she surprised the group, with everyone rushing to hug her apart from Erica and Adrienne Naylor, who both remained seated.

Taking to camera, Erica fumed: 'What is she doing here? This is absolute bulls**t.'

'It's p***ing me off that Ella's just come back in here, wife swapping, husband swapping, I'm not into it,' she added.

The brides did not shy away from making their opinions known, with Ella defending her decision to re-enter the experiment, rather than date in the outside world.

Ella said: 'We both need the experts' advice to see if we are a match who should be together. We met up with Charlene and she was like we are compatible.'

Yeehaw: Kodie Murphy and Mal Nicol dressed as a cow boy and a tiger

Classic: Ellie Spence wore a black lace-up mini dress

Yay! Megan Welsh and Molly Mcfarlane wore matching cheerleader costumes

Party: Emily Faye Miller wore a risque cut-out top

Glitzy: Mia Sully dazzled in a sequinned bodysuit

They're back! Ella's outing comes after Married At First Sight UK fans were left seething when she and JJ Slater made a bombshell return as a new couple in Wednesday's episode

Return: Ella and JJ were both originally matched up with different spouses, but soon formed a connection and cheated on their partners together, and have now re-joined as a new couple

'I want you guys to see that there is something there. I'm so happy I feel like my experiment actually starts now,' she added.

Laura, who defended Nathaniel amid the cheating drama, told Ella: 'For me, I just want to put that out there and say, I would never deny someone love ever... I'm sorry if you feel like me standing with Nathanial was against you, it wasn't.'

Ella said: 'The heart wants what it wants, and I can't help how I feel. I was selfish and I know people were hurt along the way and I don't like that... I have to go with my heart.'

'It's such a big risk to do what we've done and for me the risk was 100 per cent worth it because I've found what I always wanted,' she insisted.
Charlotte Dawson looked cheerful on Thursday as she stepped out in Manchester for the first time since her baby son Jude had to be rushed to hospital.

The former Ex On The Beach star, 31, cuddled the three-month-old, who was dressed in an adorable white teddy bear suit, before lifting him up into the air.

She was also joined by her eldest son, Noah, two, and cut a glamorous figure in her neutral toned outfit.

Charlotte sported a pair of figure-hugging grey leggings and a matching zip-up top, with beige platform UGG boots.

She wrapped up from the cold in a stylish tan trench coat and toted a cream Yves Saint Laurent handbag.

Doing much better: Charlotte Dawson looked cheerful on Thursday as she stepped out in Manchester for the first time since her baby son Jude had to be rushed to hospital

Doting mother: The former Ex On The Beach star, 31, cuddled the three-month-old, who was dressed in an adorable white teddy bear suit, before lifting him up into the air

Looking good: She was also joined by her eldest son, Noah, two, and cut a glamorous figure in her neutral toned outfit

The reality star wore a full face of bronzed make-up and styled her brunette tresses in bouncy waves.

She beamed happily as she pushed her pram along and hid her eyes behind a pair of oversized sunglasses.

Charlotte appeared to be in much higher spirits after a traumatic start to the month, when Jude caught RSV Bronchitis.

She took to her Instagram to share how thankful she was to have trusted her instinct after an initial doctor had turned them away thinking it was just a cold.

Charlotte posted a picture of herself cradling her little one close to her chest and holding his hand.

She captioned the post: 'Trust your motherly instinct. I might be absolutely exhausted but I knew something wasn't right & it wasn't.

'Our beautiful boy has RSV bronchitis after just saying he had a cold to go home and rest from the doctors.

'Thank god we went up to hospital at the right time and the nurses and doctors have been amazing got him straight on oxygen and we will be here until next week, but we are in the right place & in safe hands.

Stylish: Charlotte sported a pair of figure-hugging grey leggings and a matching zip-up top, with beige platform UGG boots and oversized sunglasses

Trendsetter: She wrapped up from the cold in a stylish tan trench coat and toted a cream Yves Saint Laurent handbag and she beamed happily as she pushed her pram

'Thank you for all your messages love you all, just got to focus on him getting better now so scary when they are so little & seeing him with all these tubes on him don't want to let go of him.'

According to the NHS, Bronchiolitis is caused by a viral infection, usually the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

RSV is very common and spreads easily in coughs and sneezes. Almost all children have had it by the time they're two.

The TV personality then took to her stories to update her followers on what's been going on.

With Jude feeding on her breast, Charlotte joked: 'He just loves being on mummies boobies, on the udders.'

After thanking her fans for all their kind messages, she went on to say: 'Obviously last night was just very scary and traumatic and very emotional.'

She told her followers how she had taken Jude to the doctors earlier in the week, but they told her he was a bit chesty, but nothing major.

They reassured her he would be fine and to keep her eye on him, but to give them a ring if she was worried.

Scary: Charlotte appeared to be in much higher spirits after a traumatic start to the month, when Jude caught RSV Bronchitis

Opening up: She took to her Instagram to share how thankful she was to have trusted her instinct after an initial doctor had turned them away thinking it was just a cold

Love: Taking to Instagram the TV personality told her followers to 'trust your motherly instincts' and that her focus now is to get her little one better

She then went on to say that on Tuesday night Jude started screaming. She told her followers: 'I just knew some wasn't right, it's a mother's instinct, you just know something's not right. He was doing this proper screaming.

'On the Wednesday night the screaming started again like he was in loads of pain and I just just knew it wasn't right and it wasn't like Jude at all.

'I kept sending Matthew voice notes because he was in the other room and I woke him up and I was like look something's not right here.'

Charlotte took Jude to the doctors again, who told her it could be colic, but that his chest was clear and to go home.

They added if she was really worried she could take him to the hospital but would be waiting a while.

Charlotte brought Jude home and then went on to say: 'The wheezing started, he couldn't breathe, he was deteriorating massively and still wouldn't feed on me.'

She said she then decided to take him to hospital and said: 'The nurses said, "Thank God you've come now because his oxygen levels are so low". They saw me straight away, they were so good with me.

'His colouring was grey. A horrible, horrible colour. His eyes are all puffy and red and then they took us straight up to the ward and did an X-ray on him. Obviously he had to have bloods and everything. It was traumatic.

Scary: She explained some of Jude's symptoms included screaming and when he couldn't breathe and was wheezing she took him to the hospital where blood tests revealed the result

On the mend: The star reassured fans that she's seen a change in her little one since coming to the hospital but that he's still struggling with his breathing

Working: Whilst telling her story, Charlotte joked that she was like 'Daisy the chuffing cow' from pumping all her milk

'It's just horrible seeing all these tubes in your baby's face and even though it's helping him obviously, and we're in really safe hands here, it's just so hard and I had to go out of the room a couple of times.'

Charlotte then said how the tests revealed Jude had RSV bronchitis and because he is so young they would be in hospital for the next few days.

The star reassured fans that she's seen a change in her little one and has even had a couple of smiles from him, but that he's really struggling with his breathing.

'He's feeding on me which is amazing and on the tube, so I'm pumping away. I'm like Daisy the chuffing cow here!' she joked.

The star, who is the daughter of the late comedian Les Dawson, told how she 'can't cope with how scary it's been'.

Charlotte shares her two sons Noah and Jude with her rugby player fiance Matt Sarsfield.
Brisbane radio host Terry Hansen has announced his shock departure from KIIS FM's Robin, Terry & Kip breakfast show.

Terry told listeners on Friday, he would be leaving radio to focus on his career as a comedian.

'Almost exactly 20 years since I first joined KIIS 97.3, I have decided to hang up my tonsils for the last time. I promise,' he said.

'I want to thank everyone inside and outside the studio, especially our listeners, for an amazing 20 years (with a brief hiatus)!'

Terry previously took a break from radio to travel with his brother and said that this allowed his co-hosts Robin Bailey and Kip Wightman to 'develop their double act'.

Bombshell resignation from KIIS breakfast radio show as longtime host announces departure after 20 years

'ARN's generous offer to let me go walking in Spain with my brother created the perfect opportunity for Robin and Kip to do their thing without the interruption of my obvious hilarity,' he continued.

'It also made me realise there's no need to return and disrupt that transition just for the sake of a long goodbye.'

Terry revealed his plans to return to the stage and focus on his comedy.

'Those who know me know my love for live performance, whether stand-up comedy or theatre,' he said.

'I'm literally going back on the stage after two decades, and already have several exciting projects in the works.

'See you around town or across the country soon.'

Brisbane radio host Terry Hansen has announced his shock departure from KIIS FM's Robin, Terry & Kip breakfast show

It comes after KIIS Sydney breakfast hosts Kyle Sandilands and Jackie 'O' Henderson triumphed in the sixth radio ratings of the year.

KIIS FM's The Kyle and Jackie O Show beat 2GBs Ben Fordham in Sydney, gaining a massive 14.7 per cent audience share (up 0.8 per cent from last year).

Fordham's show was down 0.4 per cent, bring in a total share of 14.2 per cent.

The survey also saw ABC Sydney inch ahead of WSFM 101.7's Amanda Keller and Brendan 'Jonesy' Jones to become the third highest rated breakfast show.

Hosted by James Valentine, ABC's Sydney Breakfast rose 0.8 points with a 8.6 per cent share, while Jonesy and Amanda scored a 8.5 per cent share, dropping 0.3 points from the last survey.

Nova's Fitzy & Wippa with Kate Ritchie climbed 0.4 points, gaining a 7.3 per cent audience share.
The Confessions (Lyttelton, National Theatre)

Verdict: Wizard from Oz

Rating:

Cowbois (Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon)

Verdict: The mild bunch

Rating:

What a poignant and arresting new play they've brought into the National Theatre. The Confessions is a fanfare for the common woman, by the Paris-based British writer and director Alexander Zeldin. It is based on his mother's account of her life, starting in Australia and ending in London.

She is played here as an ordinary woman, Alice, growing up in post-war suburbia. She flunks university, marries sweet but dull Graham to please her parents, falls in with a set of seemingly free-thinking bohemians, returns to university to study art history, is assaulted by a lecturer, moves to Florence and then winds up alone in London where she meets a bashful Holocaust survivor, Jacob, in the British Library.

In some ways the everyday epic is a very conventional view of the post-war period, charting sexual revolution and counter-revolution.

But it's also a kooky, tender and sometimes alarming account of casual cruelty and love. Zeldin shows life as a higgledy-piggledy ramble of dead ends and twists. It is also moving in its moments of separation and loss  particularly a scene with Alice's mother, and another where the older Alice forces her attacker to strip off with her after the assault.

Most striking, though, is the acting. Zeldin's staging features a sadder, older Alice (Amelda Brown) and a younger, tenacious version (Eryn Jean Norvill) often on stage at the same time, quietly taking stock of their life.

The Confessions is a fanfare for the common woman, by the Paris-based British writer and director Alexander Zeldin

Other sharply drawn characters include Alice's misguided but well-meaning parents, her timid husband, the brash bohemian set (including a Germaine Greer-like rad fem) who seem to promise liberation, and fellow lost soul, Jacob (Brian Lipson), who had given up hope of finding love.

There's a refreshing directness about the acting, with the cast doubling up in multiple roles and involving the audience by using auditorium entrances and sometimes addressing us directly.

We are steeped in Alice's life, but we're also kept aware of the show's artifice, with Zeldin exposing the stage machinery and actors glimpsed back stage like ghosts.

All this makes the action feel like fleeting memories  present, yet out of reach. It's quietly touching and hugely life-affirming.

Meanwhile, at the RSC, you can see a Disney-brained confection about non-binary cowboys (hence the misspelt title). Charlie Josephine's deliberately anachronistic comedy is set in a small town in the Midwest that's lost most of its menfolk to the gold rush. Most, but not all.

Still at large is America's most wanted man, the outlaw Jack Cannon (Vinnie Heaven), who in his Elvis get-up is all things to all gender dissidents: activist, doctor, outlaw, rock star, fashion stylist and self-sacrificing Christ figure.

Meanwhile, at the RSC, you can see a Disney-brained confection about non-binary cowboys (hence the misspelt title)

Charlie Josephine's deliberately anachronistic comedy is set in a small town in the Midwest that's lost most of its menfolk to the gold rush

Why the action fuses the 19th and 21st centuries is anyone's guess. Perhaps to make it impenetrable to reason. Or perhaps to secure a setting where there are people who'll disagree with the characters' demands to be free to choose who they love and how they dress.

In modern Britain these rights are guaranteed by law. Even so, there isn't a cowboy accent to be had and it's spoken in tuneless modern street idioms.

In the absence of drama, Josephine and Sean Holmes's near three-hour production turns to the odd country and western song, and half-cooked hoedown.

Obviously Heaven's Jack is no John Wayne, but he could still use a little more stage charisma.

And as Jack's tragically straight, beloved barmaid, Sophie Melville is a powerhouse actor who's wasted in a role that's all but silent in the second half.

Paul Hunter lays on some classy clowning as the drunken sheriff, but with the sort of shoot-out at the end that I used enjoy when playing cowboys and Indians at the age of six (only here with deafening pistols), it's a production that's simply too pleased with itself to require an audience.

Need a second chance? Try the sarnie of salvation

BY GEORGINA BROWN

Clyde's (Donmar Warehouse)

Verdict: Comfort food

Rating:

Elephant (Bush Theatre, London)

Verdict: Powerful vibrations

Rating:

At one delicious level, Lynn Nottage's Clyde's is a eulogy to the humble sandwich, variously described here as 'a complete meal you can hold between your fingers', 'a democratic meal', a perfect balance of ingredients which can recreate a memory or a desire. A great sandwich can even say: 'I love you.'

Everyone who works in Clyde's, a rundown truck-stop cafe in rust-belt Philadelphia, has done time. Including the owner, Clyde. But far from being a Sir John Timpson-style philanthropist dedicated to giving ex-cons a second chance, Gbemisola Ikumelo's Clyde is a cleaver-wielding dragon: a kick-ass dominatrix in leather trousers and snakeskin stiletto boots, screeching at her staff of 'nobodies' and 'morons' that she 'don't do pity'.

There's nothing mouth-watering about the lump of processed cajun chicken, sprinkled with peppers, iceberg lettuce and mayo, then squashed between wedges of white Wonderloaf, that they frantically throw together in this purgatorial kitchen.

Everyone who works in Clyde's, a rundown truck-stop cafe in rust-belt Philadelphia, has done time

But occasionally, when there's a lull, kitchen manager Montrellous (Giles Terera) whips up a fantasy sandwich: lobster on a toasted potato roll, with roasted garlic and truffle mayo. In a few spellbinding seconds, he conjures a world of infinite possibilities, worth salivating over.

Nottage's award-winning play, Sweat, exposed the devastating unemployment, anger and despair that was the consequence of de-industrialisation in modern America.

Clyde's continues those themes but also dares to suggest there is an escape  real redemption  through friendships, through working 'thoughtfully' and finding that magic ingredient which makes all the difference, in a sandwich and in life itself.

For there is little action in this fizzing, funny play but for the development of superbly drawn characters, each haunted by their crimes, tentatively opening up, revealing themselves, learning to trust and even to love.

There is no better acting to be seen in London than in Lynette Linton's stunning production.

Ronke Adekoluejo's Tish, who stole medication for her daughter's seizures, 'got greedy', nicked Oxy and got caught, sparks and flickers as if running on electricity. By contrast, Terera's saintly Monty remains a quietly mesmerising mystery until almost the end.

Whoever imagined a sandwich of salvation?

In Anoushka Lucas's high-charged monologue, sliding in and out of song, the elephant in the room is Lylah's piano.

Its notes are made of ivory wrenched from the soft jaws of murdered elephants, carried by enslaved people across colonised countries, transported in ships made of mahogany from forests on Caribbean islands, cleared and turned into plantations by African hands. Not something many have considered. You will now.

When she was seven, the window of Lylah's parents' council flat (in a tiny terrace in Hammersmith) had to be removed to get the piano into the living room  where her parents slept.

At the posh school Lylah attends on a huge bursary from the French government, sorted by her French-Cameroon mother, where she is teachers' pet because she is 'special', clever, compliant, she learns lots of words for living-room (sitting-room, drawing-room) but none for one which is also a bedroom.

In Anoushka Lucas's high-charged monologue, sliding in and out of song, the elephant in the room is Lylah's piano

Lylah's Anglo-Indian dad says she gets her freckles from her redheaded Dorset grandfather. A schoolmate says her skin is brown because she hasn't a bathroom. Her black cousins think she talks weird.

Under Jess Edwards's expert direction, Lucas tells Lylah's story, sitting at the piano, sprawling over it or standing high upon it, as the turntable stage slowly revolves and she boldly challenges the gaze of the audience.

Welcomed as 'exotic' in a white, well-behaved, middle-class world, she thought she was exactly the same as the others, playing the piano, going to Oxford. Until she decides to become a recording artist and agents want to cut her up into marketable parts, 'like a tusk', toning down her posh accent and emphasising her working-class, black and Asian bits because 'nobody here knows how to market a middle-class brown person'.

Lylah explodes in a heartfelt, furious outburst in which she recognises the history she shares with her piano: 'a beautiful object, made out of a dead ****ing elephant'.

A potent, painful drama about white-washing, exquisitely executed.

Puccini's endangered Swallow soars again

BY TULLY POTTER

La Rondine (Leeds Grand Theatre)

Verdict: An enjoyable production, well executed

Rating:

In setting out to write a Viennese-style light opera, Giacomo Puccini was going outside his usual remit, and La Rondine ('the swallow') has become the endangered bird among his mature works.

The Great War scuppered his scheme to present it in Vienna, but the original intention remains in the waltz rhythms and some light-hearted scenes. The one hit number is Che il bel sogno di Doretta, beautifully sung here by Galina Averina as Magda, and the final passionate duet comes almost too late to affect us.

Echoes of La Traviata, though not so tragic, are inescapable and French tenor Sebastien Gueze is thoroughly convincing as Ruggero, who falls for Magda's slightly shopworn charms; he and Averina provide some splendid, memorable singing.

The one hit number is Che il bel sogno di Doretta, beautifully sung here by Galina Averina as Magda (pictured), and the final passionate duet comes almost too late to affect us

Although this is one of Opera North's 'green' stagings  meaning scenery and so on from previous productions has been re-used  there is certainly no feeling of cheapness

As in Die Fledermaus, we get a secondary tenor-soprano pairing and Elgan Llyr Thomas and Claire Lees are ideally cast as the poet Prunier and Magda's flighty maid Lisette. Philip Smith is suitably stuffy as Magda's 'protector', Rambaldo.

Subsidiary characters are excellently acted and sung, and even the dancing is good, so at every point the best possible case is made for the piece.

Although this is one of Opera North's 'green' stagings  meaning scenery and so on from previous productions has been re-used  there is certainly no feeling of cheapness.

Set designer Leslie Travers has worked wonders, as has his costume counterpart Gabrielle Dalton, and director James Hurley marshals all his on-stage forces at the Leeds Grand Theatre with assurance.

Conductor Kerem Hasan seems to comprehend the tricky style of La Rondine well, so it does not fall down the cracks between opera and operetta, and he handles both orchestra and chorus sympathetically.

I wish I could write that La Rondine is a masterpiece. It is not. But in this wholehearted presentation, it deserves to gain many new fans.

La Rondine will have a short tour after Leeds. For dates and venues visit operanorth.co.uk
Blac Chyna says she was kicked out of her ex-fiance Tyga's house, after he began having an affair with an 'underage' Kylie Jenner.

The mother-of-two, 35  who dated the Stimulated rapper, 33, from 2011 to 2014  discussed their tumultuous split during her appearance on the The Viall Files podcast, with host Nick Viall Thursday.

'I feel like it ran its course and then he started talking to Kylie at the time, which she was like, 16 or something,' Chyna explained.

'Yeah, I was engaged and stuff, so thats kind of what ended it,' Chyna - who's currently in an ugly custody battle with the hip hop star - added.

The born again Christian reveled that she found out about Tyga's rumored affair with the lip kit mogul, 26, from 'the Internet.'

Kicked out: Blac Chyna, 35, says she was kicked out of her ex-fiance Tyga's, 33, house, after he began having an affair with an 'underage' Kylie Jenner, 26

Yikes: 'I feel like it ran its course and then he started talking to Kylie at the time, which she was like, 16 or something,' Chyna said about why the engagement ended; Tyga and Kylie in 2016

The former Only Fans star - who shares 11-year-old son King Cairo with Tyga - said that when Tyga's friends packed her stuff, she began to take the allegations seriously.

'It was actually when Tygas friends threw me outside of his house. Yeah, they packed my stuff up and put it in my, well, his truck at the time.'

'Packed it right on up and packed in the G wagon that he had given to me at the moment.'

The TV personality - whose birth name is Angela Renee White - added that her former friendship with Kim Kardashian made things more complex.

'Me and Kim, we were really good friends. I was on her show and all this stuff like that. We lived in the same community.'

'And then her little sister started talking to Tyga, which was kinda crazy because she was underage and then everybody came at me and started attacking me.'

'It's like, nobody's seen the betrayal that was going on behind my back.'

'Kim, and then her little sister, who she has no control over, started talking to my fiance and then I get attacked. And its like, how does that work?'

Tumultuous: The mother-of-two discussed their tumultuous split during her appearance on the The Viall Files podcast, with host Nick Viall Thursday

How it ended: The former Only Fans star - who shares 11-year-old son King Cairo with Tyga - said Tyga's friends packed her stuff and threw her out of his house amid his affair

Complex: She added that her former friendship with Kim Kardashian made things more complex: 'Her little sister started talking to Tyga, which was kinda crazy because she was underage and then everybody came at me and started attacking me'

Attacked: 'Kim, and then her little sister, who she has no control over, started talking to my fiance and then I get attacked. And its like, how does that work?' she questioned

As they were: Tyga and Kylie went official with their relationship in March 2015 - shortly after his split from Chyna. The pair later broke up in 2017; seen in 2016

She said her suspicions about the Kardashians were further heightened when their brother, Rob Kardashian, 36, suddenly reached out to her in 2016.

'What makes it even more wild is the thing with me and Rob after that. Because Rob hit me up on the DM, and its like, "OK, what do yall want now?"'

'It was like, "What are yall trying to do to me now? Why is your brother in my DM?" And then I started talking to him and Im like, "OK, this guy is actually really cool,"' she explained.

'We just fell in love and we had Dream,' she said of their daughter.

The couple got engaged in April 2016 and welcomed their daughter, Dream Kardashian, now six, a few months later, in November 2016.

The pair split up a year later.

Chyna said she's not opening up about the situation so that people can hear her side: 'I never used to talk about these things, but Im like, "You know what, I think Im kind of done with all that and I feel like people need to hear my side."'

Rumors about Kylie and Tyga's romance started swirling in 2014, when she was 17 and he was 24. They went official with their relationship in 2015 - shortly after his split from Chyna.

Jenner and the rapper broke up for good in April 2017.

Chyna is currently in the middle of an ugly custody battle with Tyga over their son King, and said she needs monetary assistance from her ex to fund her fight, as per TMZ.

Chyna wants legal and physical custody of their son. Meanwhile the rapper has recently requested sole custody of their child.

Custody battle: Chyna is currently in the middle of an ugly custody battle with Tyga over their son King Cairo; the former pair seen in 2014

Her world: Aside from King, she also shared six-year-old daughter Dream with Kylie's half-brother, Rob Kardashian, 36

Complicated family: The couple got engaged in 2016 and welcomed their daughter a few months later, in November 2016. They split up a year later; seen in 2016

The reality star reportedly has just 24 hours a week to spend with King, but Chyna claims Tyga has been interfering with the short amount of time she does have with their son.

Chyna also claims Tyga has been withholding direct communication with her and other essential information.

She alleges that the rapper refuses to speak directly with her, and will not disclose his contact information or provide her with the address where King is residing.

But sources connected to the situation have refuted several of Chyna's claims.

The insiders have told TMZ that Chyna is aware of where her son lives. They also add that Tyga has been funding their son's private school tuition, medical bills, and the bulk of the day to day living expenses.
Vanessa Hudgens recently celebrated her upcoming nuptials with her gal pals in Aspen, Colorado.

The actress, 34, took to Instagram on Thursday to share a series of black-and-white photos of herself and six of her friends at her French-inspired, funeral-themed bachelorette party.

She was dressed in a gothic-style wedding dress and monogrammed veil while her girlfriends dressed in all-black to fit the French bachelorette theme of mourning her single life.

In the photos, the former Disney star  who recently shut down rumors and fan speculation about whether or not she is pregnant  donned a low-cut, vintage slip dress and accessorized with a star crown.

Underneath the crown, she styled her raven black tresses in a chic, slicked back bun.

Bride-to-be: Vanessa Hudgens recently celebrated her upcoming nuptials with her gal pals in Aspen, Colorado

Dressed in white: The actress, 34, took to Instagram on Thursday to share a series of black-and-white photos of herself and six of her friends at her French-inspired, funeral-themed bachelorette party

For an additional touch of glamour, she also donned sheer, white opera gloves and white leather boots.

The Spring Breakers star was spotted showing off the massive diamond sparkler on her ring finger from her fiance, MLB star Cole Tucker, as well as a pair of chunky teardrop earrings.

She looked glamorous in sultry makeup featuring a smoky eye and a sharp winged eyeliner look.

Her close friend, Sarah Hyland, 32, also shared a series of photos from the bachelorette where they celebrated Hudgens and her engagement.

The Modern Family actress, who donned a black tea dress and a fur coat, wrote in her caption, 'Dress code: All Black for the Bride in White'.

For a more dramatic appearance, she also accessorized with a mesh veil headpiece, cat-eye sunglasses and dark lipstick.

At one point, the ladies also went outside to continue their photoshoot in what appeared to be a park.

Hudgens bundled up in a white trench coat and could be seen sitting on top of the table of a park bench and posing with a sultry smolder.

Gothic-style bachelorette: She was dressed in a gothic-style wedding dress and monogrammed veil while her girlfriends dressed in all-black to fit the French bachelorette theme of mourning her single life. In the photos, the former Disney star donned a low-cut, vintage slip dress and accessorized with a star crown

So chic: Underneath the crown, she styled her raven black tresses in a chic, slicked back bun

Her gal pals: At one point, the ladies also went outside to continue their photoshoot in what appeared to be a park. Hudgens bundled up in a white trench coat

Her supporting ladies: Her bachelorette group comprised of her younger sister Stella Hudgens, Hamilton star Morgan Marcell, Barbie actress Alexandra Shipp, and actress Laura New

Best friend: Her close friend, Sarah Hyland , 32, also shared a series of photos from the bachelorette where they celebrated Hudgens and her engagement

Funeral-themed party: In one photo, Hudgens could be seen sitting on top of the table of a park bench and posing with a sultry smolder

Moody scene: The Modern Family actress, who donned a black tea dress and a fur coat, wrote in her caption, 'Dress code: All Black for the Bride in White'

Fun snaps: For a more dramatic appearance, she also accessorized with a mesh veil headpiece, cat-eye sunglasses and dark lipstick

Her bachelorette group comprised of Hyland, her younger sister Stella Hudgens, Hamilton star Morgan Marcell, Barbie actress Alexandra Shipp, and actress Laura New.

The pals dressed up in red and white baseball jerseys in photos shared Friday.

Hudgens' shirt had the word 'Bride' on the front of the shirt.

The name 'Tucker' and the number three was on the back and 'Mrs.' was embroidered on the sleeve of the top that was long enough to be a dress.

The ladies donned furry bucket hats and sunglasses as they enjoyed their final hours at the mountain retreat.

Maroon bells: ' Maroon bells. Didnt want to leave,' the actress wrote next to a photo carousel Friday

The pals dressed up in red and white baseball jerseys in photos shared Friday. Hudgens' shirt had the word 'Bride' on the front of the shirt. The name 'Tucker' and the number three was on the back

MRS: A sparkly 'Mrs.' was embroidered on the arm of the Downtown Owl star's jersey

'Maroon bells. Didnt want to leave,' she wrote next to the post.

Earlier this year in February, Hudgens got engaged to the Colorado Rockies shortstop and outfielder.

The couple first sparked dating rumors in November 2020 when they were spotted holding hands in public in Los Angeles.

During a May 2021 appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show, she revealed that she made the first move after they met on a Zoom meditation group call.
Kyle Sandilands is said to have disappeared and undergone a 'rebellious' phase after his first marriage to Tamara Jaber failed in 2010.

The revelations were made about the 52-year-old radio star in a feature for the Australian Financial Times 'Young Rich' issue.

Jackie 'O' Henderson, Kyle's longtime colleague and co-host of The Kyle and Jackie O Show, was interviewed in the profile and shed light on this dark period of her workmate's life.

According to Henderson, Sandilands' life took a tumultuous turn following his separation from his first wife, Tamara Jaber, in 2010.

The colleagues had spent weekends together for years, but after the split, Sandilands seemed to go off the deep end.

Kyle Sandilands is said to have disappeared and undergone a 'rebellious' phase after his first marriage to Tamara Jaber failed in 2010. Both pictured 2007

After the couple's split, Sandilands seemed to go off the deep end. Pictured 2006

He disappeared on weekends, frequenting nightclubs in Kings Cross constantly and formed relationships with new, often controversial acquaintances.

Notable figures in his new circle included the nightclub identity John Ibrahim, former luxury car dealer Nasser Elkordi, and convicted drug dealer Simon Main.

'He obviously, I would say, rebelled in every way possible,' Henderson remarked.

He disappeared on weekends, frequenting nightclubs in Kings Cross constantly and formed relationships with new, often controversial acquaintances. Kyle and Tamara pictured in 2005

Interestingly, both Main and Ibrahim served as groomsmen at Sandilands' wedding to his current wife, Tegan Kynaston, 37.

It comes as Kyle admitted just a few weeks ago that he 'never recovered emotionally' from his marriage to Jaber.

The radio star said he was distraught after his ex wife once rated their sex 'two out of ten.'

Jaber, 40, (right) is expecting her first child with fiance Billy Kokkinis (left)

'I never recovered emotionally' admitted the father-of-one during a recent Kyle and Jackie O Show.

While he didn't name Tamara, he did specify the damaging incident occurred during his first marriage, which ran from 2008 until 2010.

Jaber recently revealed she's expecting her first child with fiance Billy Kokkinis.

Tamara was previously engaged to San Francisco-based lawyer Eduardo Roy, but the pair appear to have ended things at the beginning of 2021.

Tamara's engagement news came one week after her ex-husband Kyle welcomed his first child, a son named Otto, with now-wife Tegan Kynaston.
A popular model and influencer has recalled the terrifying moment she thought she contracted a sexually transmitted infection after riding a mechanical bull.

TikTok sensation Alix Earle, 22, explained she continuously rode the bull at a bar in America, which led to a huge scare the following day.

'I'm in my skirt, flying around. I rode that bull probably like 20 times that day, thinking it was the coolest thing anyone has ever seen,' she said.

'Then I go home and when I wake up the next morning I'm looking and my legs and there are all these bumps. Oh my God, I have the bull riding STD.'

Alix's ordeal caught the attention of Outspoken the Podcast hosts Amy, Sophie & Kate Taeuber, who offered their own theory about what happened.

TikTok sensation Alix Earle (pictured) has recalled the terrifying moment she thought she contracted a sexually transmitted infection after riding a mechanical bull

'I'm going to have a wild guess here, the bumps are irritation from riding the bull so much, not an STI,' Sophie guessed and her sisters confirmed she was right.

Earle said she quickly contacted her nursing student friend for help and fortunately the situation was quickly cleared up.

'It's was just rug burn,' a relieved Earle said.

She explained she continuously rode the bull at a bar in America, which led to a huge scare the following day

It comes after Earle went viral for her unbelievable transformation, which led to multiple accusations she had gone under the knife in order to alter her appearance.

Back in August, Earle dealt with rampant plastic surgery rumors on TikTok, shutting them down by joking: 'I genuinely think I got a nose job in my sleep.'

Now the Miami-based influencer is facing allegations of undergoing cosmetic procedures yet again, after sharing a now-viral TikTok showing off her new driver's license photo alongside her old one.

'I'm in my skirt, flying around. I rode that bull probably like 20 times that day, thinking it was the coolest thing anyone has ever seen,' she said. 'Then I go home and when I wake up the next morning I'm looking and my legs and there are all these bumps. Oh my God, I have the bull riding STD

Earle captioned the video, '17 to 22 yrs old. WTH?' while the popular social media sound, 'Imagine the day they see you again and you are just, well, better,' played in the background.

She then explained her dramatic transformation was due to a combination of puberty and lip filler.

Despite denying the rumors about getting surgery on her face, the blonde bombshell has been open about getting a breast augmentation, lip filler, and Botox.
Gerry Turner had some tough decisions to make at the final rose ceremony after three of the women told him they were falling in love with him on Thursday's episode of The Golden Bachelor on ABC.

'These roses mean that I'm asking to come into your homes,' Gerry, 72, said. 'I'm asking to meet your family. And so I spent pretty much a sleepless night wondering what I was going to do, and believe me, I know that I have the responsibility right now of holding your hearts in my hands.'

When the episode started, there were six women remaining but only three of them would make it to the hometowns.

Host Jesse Palmer walked into the house and told the women there would be a once-in-a-lifetime magical one-on-one date and an exciting group date. Faith Martin, 61, a high school teacher from Benton City, Washington, screamed when she learned she would be going on the individual date. The other women hugged and congratulated her.

Gerry - who recently posed with Kris Jenner - picked her up in a jeep and drove her to an airfield where there was a helicopter waiting.

Decisions: Gerry Turner had some tough decisions to make at the final rose ceremony after three of the women told him they were falling in love with him on Thursday's episode of The Golden Bachelor on ABC

Roses: 'These roses mean that I'm asking to come into your homes,' Gerry, 72, said. 'I'm asking to meet your family. And so I spent pretty much a sleepless night wondering what I was going to do, and believe me, I know that I have the responsibility right now of holding your hearts in my hands'

Only three: When the episode started, there were six women remaining but only three of them would make it to the hometowns

Jeep: Gerry picked her up in a jeep and drove her to an airfield where there was a helicopter waiting

'This is the craziest thing I have ever done,' Faith said. 'I am so adventurous but also, I am really afraid of heights.'

'You are going to conquer a fear today,' Gerry said.

They flew over the mansion and the women in the pool waved.. Leslie was upset that she wasn't picked for the date.

'I think it's harder because I'm falling for him and for women our age to meet someone like that, it's really hard,' Leslie said in a confessional. 'I don't want to get my heart broken again.'

Faith and Gerry kissed and then the helicopter landed on a yacht.

'That was amazing!' Faith said.

Once on the yacht, they toasted with champagne and kissed.

'At this moment, I don't think anything could be better than what I'm experiencing right now,' Gerry said.

Craziest: 'This is the craziest thing I have ever done,' Faith said. 'I am so adventurous but also, I am really afraid of heights'

Leslie: 'I think it's harder because I'm falling for him and for women our age to meet someone like that, it's really hard,' Leslie said in a confessional. 'I don't want to get my heart broken again'

Landed: Faith and Gerry kissed and then the helicopter landed on a yacht

Kissed: Once on the yacht, they toasted with champagne and kissed

Back at the house, Leslie Fhima, 64, a fitness instructor from Golden Valley, Minnesota, was crying. She said maybe she was taking it harder because her past relationships hadn't been secure.

Gerry told Faith that he liked that she did so many adventurous things and that she sang.

'You melted my heart,' Gerry said.

Faith shared her childhood was untraditional and she lived for a time as a homeless team. She said she didn't have a mother and a father but was able to create a successful life for herself and have wonderful children despite that trauma.

'What it appears to me that you bring to the table is something I've never experienced and that is what is so special about you,' Faith said. 'And that's what I'm looking for.'

Gerry said he wanted someone who had that deep emotional attachment and someone who would have his back. Faith said she was scared.

'I'm really intrigued with her as a person, ' Gerry said in a confessional.

Gerry reached and picked up the rose.

Hard: Back at the house, Leslie Fhima, 64, a fitness instructor from Golden Valley, Minnesota, was crying. She said maybe she was taking it harder because her past relationships hadn't been secure

Chlidhood: Faith shared her childhood was untraditional and she lived for a time as a homeless team. She said she didn't have a mother and a father but was able to create a successful life for herself and have wonderful children despite that trauma

Rose: Gerry reached and picked up the rose

'Faith you are as beautiful as this rose and with all the things we've talked about will you accept this rose?' Gerry said.

Faith hugged him and said yes.

'I feel every time I see you I fall deeper and deeper,' Faith said. 'I feel like this is super special.'

'This is an amazing feeling,' Gerry said.

Faith and Gerry got into the hot tub and kissed.

'I think she could be the one,' Gerry said in a confessional.

Faith returned from to the house carrying a rose. The other women said they wanted to know about her date. Faith told them about the helicopter and the yacht.

'I was fine up until the hot tub,' Ellen Goltzer, 71, a retired teacher from Delray Beach, Florida, said. 'Hot tub on the Bachelor is serious. '

Special: 'I feel every time I see you I fall deeper and deeper,' Faith said. 'I feel like this is super special.'

Hot tub: Faith and Gerry got into the hot tub and kissed

Ellen was determined to get the rose at the group date. For the group date, the women met Gerry at the Santa Monica Pier.

Gerry told them he wanted them to let out their inner child and to have fun. They played Whac-A-Mole, ring toss, ate cotton candy and rode on the rides.

'We had the time of our lives,' Theresa said. 'I felt like a kid.'

Theresa planned to tell Gerry that she was falling in love with him.

'It's been 52 years since I told a man I was falling in love with them,' said Theresa Nist, 70, a financial services professional from Shrewsbury, New Jersey, in a confessional. 'There is so much on the line tonight.'

Theresa pulled Gerry aside and told him that he made her feel so comfortable and told him it would mean the world to her for him to meet her family. Gerry told him that they had a connection from the start.

'I don't want you out of my life, Gerry,' Theresa said. 'I feel like I can't live without you now. I'm really falling in love with you and I think we could work.'

'We could work,' Gerry said. 'We have so much in common.'

Group date: Ellen was determined to get the rose at the group date. For the group date, the women met Gerry at the Santa Monica Pier

Whac-A-Mole: Gerry told them he wanted them to let out their inner child and to have fun. They played Whac-A-Mole, ring toss, ate cotton candy and rode on the rides

Theresa: Theresa pulled Gerry aside and told him that he made her feel so comfortable and told him it would mean the world to her for him to meet her family. Gerry told him that they had a connection from the start

'I would go on any roller coaster for you,' Theresa said.

The two kissed.

Leslie was afraid she would get hurt but told Gerry how much she enjoyed their one-on-one date. Leslie told Gerry she had been cheated on many times and when she wasn't chosen it brought up feelings. She started crying and Gerry hugged her.

'I got you,' Gerry said.

'I'm crazy about you,' Leslie said.

Gerry said he felt such joy on their one-on-one date and felt so protective. Leslie said she appreciated how he kept looking back for her and told him no one does that for her.

'I will,' Gerry said.

'I'm falling in love with you,' Leslie said.

Cheated: Leslie was afraid she would get hurt but told Gerry how much she enjoyed their one-on-one date. Leslie told Gerry she had been cheated on many times and when she wasn't chosen it brought up feelings. She started crying and Gerry hugged her

Appreciated: Gerry said he felt such joy on their one-on-one date and felt so protective. Leslie said she appreciated how he kept looking back for her and told him no one does that for her

'You're my girl,' Gerry said.

Ellen also felt that she was falling in love with Gerry. The two went on a roller coaster together. She hoped he was feeling as strongly about her that she felt about him. Gerry told her he had strong feelings for her.

'I am absolutely falling head over heels in love with you and I can't wait to have my children, my best friend,Roberta, I know that they would adore you as much as I do,' Ellen said. 'Because you are a man of character and not too bad on the eyes.'

'It touches me deeply to hear you say that,' Gerry said.

The two kissed.

'You're terrific,' Ellen said.

'So are you,' Gerry said.

'If I don't get the rose tonight I'll be devastated,' Ellen said in a confessional.

Ellen falling: Ellen also felt that she was falling in love with Gerry. The two went on a roller coaster together. She hoped he was feeling as strongly about her that she felt about him. Gerry told her he had strong feelings for her

Touches: 'It touches me deeply to hear you say that,' Gerry said

Kissed: The two kissed

At the end of the night, Gerry picked up the group date rose and then threw it back down and said 'I can't do this.' Gerry said he wanted to take one more day to get a little bit more clarity.

'It's okay I waited long enough,' Ellen said in a confessional. 'Seven years, it's a long enough time. I can wait one more day.'

Tensions were high at the final rose ceremony. Gerry told them he spent a sleepless night wondering what he was going to do and knew he was holding their hearts in his hands.

Gerry handed out the first rose to Leslie.

'I'm very nervous,'Theresa said in a confessional. 'My heart is beating out of my chest. I came here looking for love and I have found it. I could see us having a really good life together.'

Gerry gave the final rose to Theresa.

'My god I'm going to faint,' Ellen said when she didn't get a rose.

Ellen, Susan Noles, 66, a wedding officiant from Aston, Pennsylvania, and Sandra Mason, 75, a retired executive assistant from Doraville, Georgia, didn't get roses and were sent home. Gerry hugged them goodbye. He told Ellen he was so sorry and then walked her out. Ellen started crying.

Ellen goes home: Ellen, Susan Noles, 66, a wedding officiant from Aston, Pennsylvania was sent home

Sandra: Sandra Mason, 75, a retired executive assistant from Doraville, Georgia also didn't get a rose

No rose for Ellen: Ellen also didn't get a rose as Gerry told Ellen he was so sorry and then walked her out. Ellen started crying

'I hope you stay positive because that's you,' Gerry said.

Ellen hugged him and said she had to go.

'It was really a shock truthfully,' Ellen said in a confessional. 'I wasn't expecting it. I was falling in love with him. I just thought he was the one.'

Ellen said the experience was still one of the best in her life and has given her more optimism about life.

The Golden Bachelor will return next Thursday on ABC.
She rose to fame in the fashion industry after starring on Australia's Next Top Model.

And Jordan Simek showed just why as she attended a Rakija tasting event at Hubert restaurant in Sydney on Wednesday evening.

The blonde bombshell looked stunning in a little black off-the-shoulder dress by the House of CB.

The statuesque stunner let the frock do the talking by wearing no accessories, and boosted her already statuesque height with a pair of tan heels.

Jordan attended the event with her new partner Jackson to celebrate Australian award-winning Rakija brand, DNA Distillery.

Australia's Next Top Model star Jordan Simek attended a Rakija tasting event at Hubert restaurant in Sydney on Wednesday evening

She looked positively glowing in a bronzed makeup palette with a bold red lip.

Jordan starred in the tenth and final season of Australia's Next Top Model alongside judges Jennifer Hawkins, Alex Perry and Cheyenne Tozzi.

She recently shared her battle with severe acne and the 'secret' weapon that has cleared up her skin and redness and left her with 'glassy smooth' complexion in just six months.

The blonde bombshell showed off her tanned and toned pins in a little black off the shoulder dress by the House of CB

Jordan attended the event with her new partner Jackson to celebrate Australian award-winning Rakija brand DNA Distillery

She's been using The Secret Skincare after 'gatekeeping' her routine for a while - and the results speak for themselves.

Started by Perth-based Skin Clinic owner Dr Clara Hurst and General Practitioner Dr Deb Cohen-Jones in 2018, the prescription skincare range has been responsible for countless astounding transformations thanks to its powerful active ingredients.

'My skincare journey has been a work in progress for some time but it's safe to say I have never been happier with how my skin look and feels today,' Jordan wrote next to a snap of her flawless complexion.

'I stumbled across The Secret through a friend as I had given up and tried everything to fix my face. I for one truly understand the repercussions problematic skin and damage it can have to your overall self confidence.'

'If you have been looking for a sign to try new skincare here it is. Your skin will thank me later, I promise,' she said.

Jordan's described her skin as 'maddeningly temperamental' as it was smooth and clear some days and textured and inflamed other days.

Once she started using the products - the Cellular Repair Night Cream ($200), the Day Brightening Elixir (Sensitive, $200) and the Eye Serum - her skin went through a purging phase before seeing any results.
Cassidy McGill has caused a stir with yet another one of her provocative fashion choices.

The former Love Island Australia contestant, 28, took to Instagram on Thursday to show off her extremely tight latex dress.

Posing outside by a white wall which accentuated the black figure-hugging frock, the reality star-turned-influencer put her stunning curves on show in the attire.

The skintight dress looked painted on as it ran the length of her shoulders to her ankles.

Cassidy completed the look with matching black shoes and a sparkling, studded statement clutch.

Love Island Australia star Cassidy McGill took to Instagram on Thursday to show off her extremely tight latex dress

Posing outside by a white wall that accentuated the black figure-hugging frock, the reality star-turned-influencer put her stunning curves on show in the attire

She captioned the images she shared with 'like a glove', referring to the very tight fit.

Commenters were thrilled with the saucy new look from Cassidy.

'ICONIC,' wrote one, while another commented 'you are so stylish,' and another joked 'I bet putting it on was a bit of a stretch. Would hope you have a zipper on that. Good luck in getting that off lol.'

The skintight dress looked painted on as it ran the length of her shoulders to her ankles

She captioned the images she shared with 'like a glove', referring to the very tight fit

It comes after Cassidy was slammed for her sartorial boundary-pushing earlier this year while visiting Milan, Italy.

On a lavish holiday in Europe, she posted a carousel of photos on Instagram of her trip to the fashion capital.

While sight-seeing, she flaunted her ample cleavage in a black bra paired with a low-waisted white maxi skirt.

It comes after Cassidy was slammed for her sartorial boundary-pushing earlier this year while visiting Milan, Italy

While sight-seeing, she flaunted her ample cleavage in a black bra paired with a low-waisted white maxi skirt

One photo showed her dancing in the revealing outfit outside the historic Milan cathedral.

Another showed her posing inside a popular indoor shopping mall.

The influencer captioned the snaps: 'Milan for 40 hours in my glorified bra !!!'

One angry person mistakenly thought Cassidy went inside the cathedral in the scant ensemble and wrote: 'Wait. She went into a church with just a bra and a skirt?'

It was later clarified she was wearing the outfit inside famous shopping mall, Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II.

While another said: 'Apparently a bra can pass as a top in Italy'

And a third wrote: 'And you haven't been arrested yet xx'.

However many of Cassidy's fans said they liked her outfit.

One fan wrote: 'Men can walk around with no shirts I don't see a problem with your top! :)'

And another said: 'Glorified bra or not you still look stunning. Milan looks amazing! The mozzarella stick looks yummyyy'.
Ronnie Ortiz-Magro apologized and asked his former roommates to be truthful with him about how they felt on Thursday night's Jersey Shore: Family Vacation on MTV.

'We all loved you Ron but you turned into a person that we had no idea who you were anymore,' Deena Cortese, 36, said.

'I don't think any of us wanted to see you hit rock bottom but at the same time we all just had to protect ourselves,' Jenni 'JWoww' Farley, 37, said. 'Because as great as you are with us when we're in a house together or on vacation together, it was always what happened outside the house. And are we going to wake up one day and see you on TMZ again?'

Nicole 'Snooki' Polizzi, 35, said she worried that they would turn on the news one day and he would be dead.

'It makes me cry because we were really close,' Snooki said, unable to hold the tears back any longer.

Ronnie apologizes: Ronnie Ortiz-Magro apologized and asked his former roommates to be truthful with him about how they felt on Thursday night's Jersey Shore: Family Vacation on MTV

Snooki cries: 'It makes me cry because we were really close,' Snooki said, unable to hold the tears back any longer

'It's hard hearing what my roommates had to say,' Ronnie said in a confessional. 'It sucks that I made them feel this way. I have to take accountability for my actions and hope that we can move forward.'

Mike 'The Situation' Sorrentino, 41, told him that he had to continue to do the right thing to earn everyone's trust back.

'I believe everyone deserves a second chance but you have to want that second chance and you've got to put that effort in,' Mike said in a confessional.

'I appreciate you guys listening to me,' Ronnie said.

The episode titled Frozen Pizza and Margaritas Ronnie seeing his former close friends for the first time in two years. Nicole 'Snooki' Polizzi, 35, said they were there for him after the first incident but then after the second one they started to see a pattern. Deena said she just felt like she needed to remove herself.

Mike said they should all do a confessional together. Meanwhile, Sammi 'Sweetheart' Giancola, 36, and her new boyfriend Justin May went out to lunch together.

'I have nothing to say to Ron,' Sammi said.

Deena asked Ronnie how he would feel about seeing Sammi again. Ronnie said eventually they would have to have a conversation.

It's hard: 'It's hard hearing what my roommates had to say,' Ronnie said in a confessional. 'It sucks that I made them feel this way. I have to take accountability for my actions and hope that we can move forward'

Mike: Mike 'The Situation' Sorrentino, 41, told him that he had to continue to do the right thing to earn everyone's trust back

Second chance: 'I believe everyone deserves a second chance but you have to want that second chance and you've got to put that effort in,' Mike said in a confessional

Pattern: Nicole 'Snooki' Polizzi, 35, said they were there for him after the first incident but then after the second one they started to see a pattern

Nothing: 'I have nothing to say to Ron,' Sammi said

'Hopefully she can remember that at the end of the day we were together for eight years,' Ronnie said in a confessional.

Paul 'DJ Pauly D' DelVecchio , 43, said his daughter was going to be 10. Ronnie said he got full custody of his daughter.

'Yes, he's f***ed up his life,' Angelina Pivarnick, 37, said in a confessional. I'm not giving him a pass at all. None of us are perfect but I gotta give Ron a lot of credit here for coming in and talking to everybody today.'

'We have to give him a chance,' Angelina said.

'We're not a**holes,' Snooki said.

Angelina then told Snooki she wanted them to have a conversation.

'I feel like Angelina is always hurt,' Snooki said in a confessional. 'We don't need to have this conversation.'

'What Jenny said was very hurtful,' Angelina said. 'That hurt me to the core.'

No pass: 'Yes, he's f***ed up his life,' Angelina Pivarnick, 37, said in a confessional. I'm not giving him a pass at all. None of us are perfect but I gotta give Ron a lot of credit here for coming in and talking to everybody today'

Always hurt: 'I feel like Angelina is always hurt,' Snooki said in a confessional. 'We don't need to have this conversation'

Hurtful: 'What Jenny said was very hurtful,' Angelina said. 'That hurt me to the core'

'Girl, Jenny doesn't want to do this,' Snooki said in a confessional.

Angelina started to talk to Jenni about how upset she was.

'I thought it was about Ron,' Jenni said.

'You really don't like me I guess,' Angelina said. 'Just say the truth.'

'No,' Jenni said.

'Ok,' Angelina said.

Snooki got up from the table and went to the kitchen to make frozen pizza.

'When you are angry you go for the jugular,' Jenni said.

Upset: Angelina started to talk to Jenni about how upset she was

Ron: 'I thought it was about Ron,' Jenni said

Don't like: 'You really don't like me I guess,' Angelina said. 'Just say the truth'

Angry: 'When you are angry you go for the jugular,' Jenni said

Angelina said her feelings were hurt. Deena grabbed a bottle of champagne and went outside because she didn't want go get involved. Jenni told Angelina she was just being transparent and didn't want to deal with the 'bullsh**.'

'What makes you not like me?' Angelina asked.

'It's just drama,' Jenni said. 'It's everyone else's fault but my own.'

Jenni told Angelina she kept talking about her to keep the drama going.

'Not trying to make you look bad,' Angelina said.

'Yes you are but I don't give a f** anymore,' Jenni said.

Snooki put the frozen pizzas in the oven and then started making a charcuterie plate for everyone.

'I'm trying to eat my feelings away,' Snooki said in a confessional.

Not like: Angelina said her feelings were hurt. Deena grabbed a bottle of champagne and went outside because she didn't want go get involved. Jenni told Angelina she was just being transparent and didn't want to deal with the 'bullsh**'

Drama: 'It's just drama,' Jenni said. 'It's everyone else's fault but my own'

Not trying: 'Not trying to make you look bad,' Angelina said

Outside the men played corn hole and Deena spoke to Ronnie. Ronnie said the things he did he regrets and there was no drama now in his life.

'We don't have to be friends,' Angelina said.

'Perfect,' Jenni said. 'I would rather go in the microwave right now and blow my f***ing head off than deal with this.'

'This is a great day,' Snooki said.

Jenni told Angelina she was tired of pretending to be her friend.

'It's fine, let's just coexist,' Angelina said.

Snooki called Sammi to check in on her. Ronnie walked and Snooki went out of the room.

'I have nothing to say to Ron,' Sammi said in a confessional. 'That was just some guy I dated in my 20s at this point.'

Cornhole: Outside the men played corn hole and Deena spoke to Ronnie. Ronnie said the things he did he regrets and there was no drama now in his life

Ronni told Snooki that he was single and that was better for him.

'I think I'm going to be single Ronnie for a very long time,' Ronnie said.

Snooki asked him how he would feel seeing Sammi again.

'I'll be fine,' Ronnie said. 'It's been seven years. I have a kid.'

Snooki said it could be a lot when he sees her. Ronnie said he was happy that she found someone. Jenni went outside and said she told Angelina she didn't want to be her friend.

Sammi came back to the hotel but didn't know how long Ronnie would be staying. Snooki said she wanted to run to the bar downstairs and asked who was coming. Angelina and Deena joined her and the producer and camera crew ran after them to stop.

Mike had all this food delivered to the suite while Snooki, Angelina and Deena did shots at the bar.

'These girls are so fun when Jenni's not around,' Angelina said.

Single: Ronni told Snooki that he was single and that was better for him

Long time: 'I think I'm going to be single Ronnie for a very long time,' Ronnie said

Mike brought his wife Lauren some food to her room and told her that things with Ronnie went well. He said Ronnie was honest and even bought notes.

'I said listen we can't go back and change the beginning,' Mike said. ' But we can start where we are now and change the ending.'

Mike said he had gone through some tough times in life, pulled through it and now wanted to help others do the same.

'You did a good job honey,' Lauren said.

Jersey Shore:Family Vacation will return next Thursday on MTV.
The Great Australian Bake Off has given its late star Cal Wilson a salute during the Foxtel Upfronts on Thursday.

Producers of the streaming hit paid a touching tribute to Wilson, who died suddenly aged 53 while filming the latest season of the cooking show.

A beautiful photo of a smiling Wilson was projected on to a large screen during the launch, which announced that the Great Australian Bake Off would be returning to screens in 2024.

The picture, which which was captioned, 'In memory of Cal Wilson - 1970-2023', was later shared to X [Twitter].

Wilson will feature in the new season alongside co-host Natalie Tran and judges Rachel Khoo and Darren Purchese reports TV Tonight.

The Great Australian Bake Off has given its late star Cal Wilson a salute during the Foxtel Upfronts on Thursday. Pictured: Producers of the streaming hit paid a touching tribute with this pic of Wilson, who died suddenly aged 53 while filming the latest season

New Zealand born Wilson died earlier this month of a rare and aggressive cancer, just four weeks after taking herself to hospital with worrying lower back pain

New Zealand born Wilson died earlier this month of a rare and aggressive cancer, just four weeks after taking herself to hospital with worrying lower back pain.

The Melbourne-based stand up comedian is survived by her husband Chris Woods and 14-year-old son Digby.

Wilson was filming The Great Australian Bake Off for Foxtel in Sydney in September when she began to feel ill.

When she began to feel ill she checked herself into hospital, her management told Daily Mail Australia.

Wilson will feature in the new season alongside co-host Natalie Tran and judges Rachel Khoo and Darren Purchese reports TV Tonight

They confirmed she had suffered a rare form of cancer but declined to discuss her symptoms.

It comes after Foxtel offered a preview of what viewers can look forward to seeing next year at their Upfronts showcase.

Colin From Accounts will be getting a season two.

Selling Houses Australia, and Gogglebox will also return.

The network also announced the launch of docu-soap Billion Dollar Playground, which takes viewers into the uber wealthy world of high-end vacation rentals
She grills up and coming business owners on the financials of their companies every week on BBC's Dragon's Den.

But all is not well at Sara Davies' own company Crafter's Companion which is more than 1million in the red.

In notes to the accounts for the year to March 2022, the directors describe the period as 'challenging', noting that one major customer went into administration and that the effects of Covid continue to affect the business.

High freight costs and tariffs on Chinese imports have also had an impact.

The company's auditors say: 'The group and the company has suffered from reduced sales orders post year end and is in breach of banking covenants.

Financials: All is not well at Sara Davies' company Crafter's Companion which is more than 1million in the red

Difficulties: In notes to the accounts for the year to March 2022, the directors describe the period as 'challenging', noting that one major customer went into administration

'As stated  these events or conditions indicate that material uncertainty exists that may cast doubt on the group and company's ability to continue as a going concern.'

A loan was taken out to prop up Crafter's Companion in July 2023. Accounts show a loss for the year of 1.27 million, compared with the previous year's 231,000 profit.

Sara joined Dragons' Den in 2019, when she was only 35, becoming the youngest dragon.

Crafter's Companion was founded when she was a university student and spotted a gap in the market for an envelope-making tool which could be used by card makers.

She designed the gadget and had a local joiner make them from MDF. The company now employs more than 190 staff.

Davies has won more than 25 business awards and in 2016 was recognised for services to the economy with an MBE.

She appeared on Strictly Come Dancing in 2021 and this year was a judge on The Ultimate Wedding Planner for the BBC.

A spokesperson said: 'Whilst these are incredibly challenging trading times, there is significant confidence in Crafter's Companion; hence the financial investment. This will support the company's next stage of growth without passing any cost on to the consumer.'
James Argent sang at Olivia's La Cala in Marbella, on Thursday night.

The former TOWIE star, 35, displayed his 14 stone weight loss in a salmon pink shirt and white chinos while schmoozing with female fans at the restaurant.

Arg, who lost the staggering amount of weight after undergoing life-saving gastric sleeve surgery, danced around with punters enjoying dinner at the venue.

The reality star looked dapper in his pink shirt and white trousers, which he teamed with a smart pair of grey slip-on trainers.

Arg was the centre of attention, belting out hit songs for adoring fans while smiling for selfies on the dance floor.

Ladies' man: James Argent, 35, displayed his 14 stone weight loss in a salmon pink shirt and white chinos while schmoozing with female fans at Olivia's La Cala in Marbella, on Thursday

Party time: The former TOWIE star danced around with punters enjoying dinner at the venue

Looking good: Arg. who lost the staggering amount of weight after undergoing life-saving gastric sleeve surgery (Pictured right in 2021)

It comes after James recalled suffering with psychosis which left him convinced that the walls in his house were caving in as he discussed his cocaine addiction.

The ex-TOWIE star has been open about his struggles with cocaine addiction in the past, and has now candidly detailed hitting 'rock bottom' before getting clean.

Speaking on the Cabin Recovery Podcast, James told how his drug use went from being 'recreational' at the height of his TOWIE fame to something much darker.

He candidly detailed suffering with paranoia and psychosis in the midst of his cocaine addiction, telling how he would lock himself in his room for days on end.

James recalled one incident where he 'barricaded' himself in his room and became convinced the walls of his house were 'caving in' while suffering with psychosis on a four-day cocaine bender.

Speaking to host and recovering drug addict Hunter Michael Shepard, he said: 'Over two years ago, it got that bad when I was literally having, I was picking up and I was continually picking up and using, and I didn't have a wink of sleep for four days straight.

'In my house, doors locked, barricading myself in my room, ultimate paranoia and psychosis. I used to think that the walls in my house were caving in.

'I'll be honest with you, I've never really told anyone this, but for days I'd be holding my head like this in my room, crying and screaming, thinking the ceilings were going to cave in on me.'

Fan favourite: Arg was the centre of attention, belting out hit songs for adoring fans while smiling for selfies on the dance floor

Stylish: The reality star looked dapper in his pink shirt and white trousers, which he teamed with a smart pair of grey slip-on trainers

James said he would take cocaine alone in his home at the height of his habit as he bravely reflected on his struggles with psychosis and the dark moments of his addiction.

He said: 'I would sit there for hours on my phone on selfie mode, taking videos and pictures for hours because I was adamant in my head that my nose was going to cave in.'

He heartbreakingly told how he was left not wanting to live, adding: 'I never ever contemplated suicide, I never planned on taking my own life, I remember sitting there sometimes, almost praying to God saying take me now.'

Recalling another dark moment amid his addiction, James told how he once woke up at the bottom of his staircase covered in blood, but was too weak to stand up after not eating in days.

'I remember waking up at the bottom of my staircase, with blood pouring down my face, like where am I? What am I doing? Screaming for help, but there was nobody around,' he said.

'I was in such a bad physical condition that I couldn't really stand up. I hadn't eaten for days on end.'

The TV personality admitted he hit 'rock bottom' when he woke up in hospital on Christmas Day 'fighting for his life' after an overdose, with no family or friends around him, and realised he had 'lost everything'.

James said he knew in that dark moment that he needed to get sober, admitting he now thinks he needed to hit 'rock bottom' for him to accept that he was in need of help.
Married At First Sight UK's Luke Worley threatened 'if you upset my wife you will know about it' in a now-deleted Instagram post which has been condemned by Channel 4.

Luke, 30, urged viewers of the E4 reality series to watch the episode on Monday night which will see him 'slap' Jordan, 26, while also branding his co-star a 'p***y'.

Using the hash tag, 'chat s***, get banged', Luke warned anyone against coming between him and his wife Jay Howard, who was seen in tears at the end of Thursday evening's instalment.

The contestant was seen furiously banging on the door of Jordan's apartment in a clip which aired on Thursday as the channel previewed the fight which bosses say 'will be addressed on the show'.

MailOnline exclusively revealed that Luke was axed from the programme after using violence against Jordan, who he repeatedly clashed with over their differences in opinion.

Married At First Sight UK's Luke Worley threatened 'if you upset my wife you will know about it' in a now-deleted Instagram post which has been condemned by Channel 4 (pictured Luke Worley and Jay Howard)

Luke urged viewers of the E4 reality series to watch the episode on Monday night which will see him 'slap' Jordan, while also branding his co-star a 'p***y' (pictured Jordan Gayle and Erica Roberts)

He was seen furiously banging on the door of Jordan's apartment in a clip which aired on Thursday as the channel previewed the fight which bosses say 'will be addressed on the show'

Bosses have reprimanded Luke over the 'aggressive language' he used on Instagram, saying that they have 'raised the matter with the cast member concerned'

And now Channel 4 have issued a statement to MailOnline saying the broadcaster has a 'zero-tolerance policy towards violence' and they had no choice but to 'remove' Luke from the experiment.

Bosses have also reprimanded Luke over the 'aggressive language' he used on Instagram, saying that they have 'raised the matter with the cast member concerned'.

Luke was left furious after discovering that Jordan had badmouthed him to his wife while he was absent from the show's latest dinner party.

Due to health concerns, Luke made an abrupt exit from filming the episode and subsequently didn't have any contact with Jay, who stayed in a separate room until the following morning.

After learning that Jordan had disagreed with Luke saying he could get away with cheating on Jay because of her kindhearted nature, he stormed into his apartment to confront his rival.

Jordan and his wife Erica Roberts were shocked to hear Luke knocking as the fight between the pair was teased on Thursday.

A Channel 4 spokesman told MailOnline: 'The wellbeing of cast and crew is our utmost priority at all times throughout production and beyond.

'We have a zero-tolerance policy towards violence and we take any behaviour of this nature very seriously. We took prompt action as soon as this incident occurred, and Luke was subsequently removed from the experiment. This will all be addressed in Monday's episode.'

After learning that Jordan had disagreed with Luke saying he could get away with cheating on Jay because of her kindhearted nature, he stormed into his apartment to confront his rival

Jordan and his wife Erica Roberts were shocked to hear Luke knocking as the fight between the pair was teased on Thursday

Luke and Jordan have struggled to see eye to eye during filming of the E4 series, arguing over their differences in opinions, which finally comes to a head on Monday night's show

In the early hours of Friday morning, following PrettyLittleThing's Halloween party which Luke attended along with some of his co-stars, he took to social media to slam Jordan once more.

He wrote: 'If you upset my wife you will know about it... Tune in on Monday to see me slap Jordan the p***y. '#chats**tgetbanged'

Insisting that they urge every one of their cast members 'to treat each other with respect,' Channel 4 added: 'We do not condone any form of violence, or aggressive language, and have raised the matter with the cast member concerned.'

In the build up to their altercation, which saw Luke removed from the process, the Essex salesman has also ridiculed Jordan over his Jack Grealish hairstyle.

In a video shared to Instagram, Jordan claimed that Luke had been trying to defend his behaviour in light of recent scenes.

Hitting back and referring to Jordan as Mr Wish Grealish, Luke said: 'So, it looks like you can't take my name out of your mouth, and you want to keep dragging this on. Me defending myself this week...

'Mate, do not forget what you have done and what people will see this week coming.

You are going to be outed... my mask is slipping... Your wig is slipping.

'I am telling you now people are going to see your true colours and see what you did to make a vulnerable girl upset. You wait until their husband is not there to upset them.'
Georgia Harrison has credited Ed Balls for taking her from a 'reality star to a campaigner.'

Speaking on Friday's Good Morning Britain, the Love Islander, 28, praised the former labour politician, 56, turned TV presenter for helping her following the revenge porn ordeal she was put through by her ex Stephen Bear.

In a pre-recorded message played for Georgia, Ed told her: 'It's your determination, your passionate, your experience, your absolute mission to change things for other people that would make you a totally brilliant politician. You've got to do it.

'I can tell you, there'd be so many who'd love to help you, from all sides of politics. You've just got to ask.'

Georgia then discussed her political career plans as she admitted: 'I'm so so grateful to Ed it really was him who took me from a reality star to a campaigner.

Grateful: Speaking on Friday's Good Morning Britain , Georgia Harrison, 28, has credited Ed Balls, 56, for taking her from a 'reality star to a campaigner'

Jailed: Reality star Stephen, 33, was sentenced to 21 months in jail in March after he secretly filmed a sexual encounter with Georgia on CCTV in his garden and then uploaded it online

Big backer: In a pre-recorded message played for Georgia, Ed told her: 'It's your determination and passionate that would make you a totally brilliant politician'

'Potentially I would like to work in politics. I think it would be good especially for someone my age to be pursuing that. From Love Island to parliament.'

Georgia was a victim of revenge porn in 2020 after her ex-boyfriend Stephen Bear uploaded CCTV footage of them having sex to an OnlyFans pan.

Bear is currently serving a 21-month prison sentence after being found guilty of voyeurism and two counts of disclosing private, sexual photos and films.

Georgia and ex-boyfriend Bear got to know each other through the reality television and influencer circuits, and then started a relationship.

But they broke up and hadn't spoken for a year when she met up with him after an invite 'for a cup of tea' and it ended up with them having lunch and then having sex.

Three months later he posted footage of their intercourse on OnlyFans before it went viral on the internet.

Georgia later launched a campaign calling for tougher measures against those who share explicit content without consent.

Revenge porn was criminalised in 2015 but before June this year prosecutors had to prove an intent to cause humiliation or distress, but this clause has now been removed.

From Love Island to parliament? Georgia then admitted: 'Potentially I would like to work in politics. I think it would be good especially for someone my age to be pursuing that'

Ex TOWIE star Georgia has been calling for better online protections for people and pushing for the Online Safety Bill.

And now she wants to launch a career in politics after helping to change revenge porn laws.

Georgia told The Sun: 'I had serious conversations with a couple of Labour MPs about if I could run for Essex, and they said it would be possible.

'They told me to go away and think about it. They said if I was being serious about running for an MP it is something that they would support me with.

'I think also for little girls growing up seeing someone like me running for an MP would be quite inspiring. We need more normal people going into politics.'
"Misleading" to say China, U.S. entering a Cold War: Joseph Nye

Xinhua) 10:48, October 27, 2023

BEIJING, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- World-renowned U.S. political scientist Joseph Nye said it's "misleading" to say that China and the United States are entering a new Cold War, as the two countries have great economic, social and ecological interdependence.

Addressing a recent think tank forum in Beijing, Nye, Harvard University's distinguished service professor, emeritus and former dean of the Kennedy School of Government, stressed that China and the United States are much more closely linked than the United States and the former Soviet Union during the Cold War.

"I think the metaphor of the Cold War misleads us," Nye said. "If you look back at the real Cold War, you'll notice there was military interdependence between the United States and the Soviet Union, but almost no economic interdependence and very little social interaction."

"Whereas if you look at the relationship between the United States and China today, there's enormous economic interdependence, and there's also social interdependence," he added.

Nye spoke at the 8th China Global Think Tank Innovation Forum, jointly held by the Center for China and Globalization and the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries.

The professor cited what he called "ecological interdependence" concerning issues like pandemics and climate change, "which were not major problems during the real Cold War."

As the world faces a rise in transnational threats, the stakes are higher for China and the United States to cooperate, according to Nye.

"We have to think of how do we reconcile both competition and cooperation at the same time. Because if we fail to do that, we're going to all suffer, not just the United States and China, but the world climate and the world economy," Nye warned.

Nye listed global pandemics, climate change, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the application of Artificial Intelligence to military affairs as common issues that both countries must deal with together.

To better cooperate, Nye hinted that the two countries need to work on a more equal footing.

"The idea that we have to cooperate on climate change strikes me as another example of 'power with' rather than 'power over,'" Nye said.

(Web editor: Tian Yi, Liang Jun)
He recently shared their plans to settle down and start an family.

And Ed Westwick and his model girlfriend Amy Jackson put on another cosy display as they attended the UK premiere of Deep Fear at the Ham Yard in London on Thursday.

The Gossip Girl sensation, 36, looked suave in a dark green suit jacket and matching trousers, teamed with a white shirt - making an appearance for his upcoming mystery-thriller movie.

He beamed next to his beloved partner Amy, 31, who looked stunning in an all-black ensemble.

The English model - known for her appearance in several Indian films - oozed class in a black turtleneck midi dress and matching double-breasted oversized blazer.

Couple: Ed Westwick cosied up to his model girlfriend Amy Jackson as the couple attended the UK premiere of Deep Fear at the Ham Yard in London on Thursday

Star of the night: The Gossip Girl sensation, 36, looked suave in a dark green suit jacket and matching trousers

The White Gold star and Amy also sizzled under the spotlight as they attended the post-screening drinks reception.

The model beamed next to her dad Alan, 65, as they put on a sweet display.

The English bombshell was also captured posing up alongside Swedish-born film director Erica Bergsmeds.

Directed by Marcus Adams, Deep Fear will unfold the story of a solo yacht trip which takes a terrifying turn when a woman encounters three drug traffickers clinging to the shattered remains of a boat.

In a nail-biting plot twist, they soon force her to dive into shark-infested waters to retrieve kilos of cocaine from the sunken wreck.

It comes after Ed has confirmed that he has future plans for children and marriage with Amy.

The actor - best known for his role as Chuck Bass - said 'yes! One hundred per cent' when he was asked if marriage and children were on his agenda.

He explained that because of his parent's perfect marriage, he now idolises their relationship and hopes to have the same kind of support in his own.

Wow! He beamed next to his beloved partner Amy, 31, who looked stunning in a total black ensemble

Stunner: The English model - known for her appearance in several Indian films - oozed class in a black turtleneck midi dress and matching double-breasted oversized blazer

Glam queen: The former Miss Teen World added also towered herself in a pair of stylish matching PVC knee heel boots

Dazzling: The actress accessorised with gleaming small hoop pendant earrings, as she kept the accessories to a minimum

Stunner: Amy styled her chocolate locks in a high braid with a side parting, and donned thick eyeliner as well as a glamorous rouge lipstick

Beaming: The lovebirds appeared in their highest spirits as they put on a cheerful display for the camera, while laughing and smiling

Looking good: The pair seemed to enjoy their night at the red carpet event

Strike a pose! The White Gold star and Amy also they attended the post-screening drinks reception

Lovebirds: The pair sizzled under the spotlight

Doting dad: The model beamed next to her dad Alan, 65, as they put on a sweet display

Pals: The English bombshell was also captured posing up alongside Swedish-born film director Erica Bergsmeds

Ed and Amy have looked besotted on social media ever since they went public about their relationship.

When asked about the prospect of marriage and children in an interview with Hello! magazine, Ed said: 'Yes! One hundred per cent. I grew up in a wonderful household where my mum and dad were married.

'My parents loved each other fiercely right up to the end. I idolised them and their relationship. Just that kind of support!'

The actor went on to explain that his father died 10 years ago and his mother passed away in September 2022.

Ed's mother died from Mesothelioma - a type of cancer caused by asbestos.

The star said while he cannot talk to his parent, he knows she is still there with them.

'I remember her hands or her shoulders, which I'd touch. I have her voice notes and clips of videos of her', he added.

'I miss her enormously, but I try to think about the future to stay positive, like marriage and kids and all of that.'

I do: It comes after Ed has confirmed that he has future plans for children and marriage with Amy after going public with their romance in February 2022

Cute: Amy was previously in a relationship with George Panayiotou, with the pair welcoming a son, Andreas, in 2019. They broke things off in 2021 before dating Ed began later that year

Rumours about Ed and Amy began circulating in February 2022, but they reportedly started seeing one another romantically in December 2021.

They met at Saudi Arabia's Red Sea International Film Festival last December - where they were snapped chatting together at a screening during the closing ceremony.

Amy has starred in a string of Indian films, predominantly in Tamil, Hindi, and Telugu languages - after auditioning for one in London in a twist of fate.

She was previously in a relationship with hotelier George Panayiotou, with the pair getting engaged in January 2019 and welcoming a son, Andreas, four, that September.

They broke things off in 2021 before her relationship with Westwick began later that year.

Meanwhile, Westwick previously dated South African model and influencer Tamara Francesconi for two years before also separating in 2021.
Hit Australian series Colin from Accounts is set to return for a second season on Foxtel/Binge in 2024.

The romantic comedy drama, which stars Patrick Brammall and Harriet Dyer, led the streaming giants Upfronts preview on Thursday.

Also returning to Binge next year for a second season will be much-loved actor Sam Neill in a new series of the hard-hitting court room drama The Twelve.

Frances O'Connor will join Neill for The Twelve 2, in which the Jurassic Park actor will reprise his Logie nominated role as barrister Brett Colby.

Few story details of the new series have been released, but it's understood that the plot will centre on a high profile murder trial.

Hit Australian series Colin from Accounts is set to return for a second season on Foxtel/Binge in 202. Pictured: Stars Patrick Brammall and Harriet Dyer

Among the new dramas announced in the Binge/Foxtel Upfronts at Cockatoo Island in Sydney on Thursday was a feature film based a cult tune by songwriter Paul Kelly.

Inspired by the 1996 ballad How to Make Gravy, which tells the story of a convict who longs to be with his family at Christmas, the movie will star Hugo Weaving and 35-year-old French actress and journalist Agathe Rouselle.

The cast will also include acclaimed Snowtown actor Daniel Henshall and The Great Gatsby's Kate Mulvany.

The High Country is another new series fans can look forward to on Binge in 2024.

Also returning to Binge next year for a second season will be much-loved actor Sam Neill (pictured) in a new series of the hard-hitting court room drama The Twelve

Among the new dramas announced in the Binge/Foxtel Upfronts on Thursday is a feature film based on Paul Kelly's song How To Make Gravy. Pictured: Paul Kelly

Set in the wilderness of Victoria's rugged hill country, the eight-part crime series stars Wentworth's Leah Purcell and Mystery Road's Aaron Pedersen.

Meanwhile, Asher Keddie is set to play a character based on Australian media mogul Mia Freedman in the 8-part comedy-drama Strife.

Based on Freedman's 2017 memoir Work, Strife, Balance the series will premiere on December 6, with all episodes dropping at once.

Among the favourites returning to Binge in 2024 will be a new season of Gogglebox Australia and Celebrity Gogglebox.

Among the favourites returning to Binge in 2024 will be a new season of Gogglebox Australia and Celebrity Gogglebox. Pictured: Carrie Bickmore

There will also be a new season of Selling Houses Australia with hosts Andrew Winter, Wendy Moore and Dennis Scott.

Meanwhile, among the high-profile international series on offer on Binge next year will be a fourth season of the critically acclaimed smash hit crime drama True Detective.

Starring Oscar winner Jodie Foster, True Detective: Night Country deals with an investigation into the disappearance of six men from a research station in Alaska.

The series is set to drop on Binge on January 15.
Rebecca Loos has told how she suffered a 'rough night' after being struck down with a case of food poisoning.

The Dutch glamour model took to her Instagram Stories on Thursday and shared a photo of herself lying down with her eyes clothes.

She captioned the post: 'Food poisoning is the worst! Been out all day after a rough night spent mostly in the bathroom!'

The former reality TV star later shared a video of herself going for a walk on the beach and informed her followers she had recovered.

She said: 'Good morning guys. I'm out of my cave, out of my room, feeling much better. Came down for a lovely morning beach walk.

Sick: Rebecca Loos has told how she suffered a 'rough night' after being struck down with a case of food poisoning

Out an about: The former reality TV star later shared a video of herself going for a walk on the beach and informed her followers she had recovered

'Enjoying the last of this, we're heading home today. It's going to be great to see the family. I'm so glad I'm better for the journey.

'Thank you for all your well wishes, all your support, talk to you later.'

Rebecca hit the headlines in 2004 after she allegedly had an affair with David Beckham while working as his family's PA.

Victoria and David have been married since 1999 - but it is almost 20 years since his former aide detonated a media frenzy like no other when she went public with details of their relationship.

It didn't draw much of a response from Beckham at the time. So not for a second did she think he would address the subject  albeit obliquely  after so long in his BECKHAM documentary.

But Rebecca has since broken her silence and is attempting to put the scandal behind her, saying she is now 'happily married'.

Rebecca's husband Sven is a Norwegian doctor. The pair met while he was working behind the scenes as a medic on 71 Degrees North in 2008.

Per his LinkedIn, he is a dedicated physician with the Royal Norwegian Air Force, serving as a Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) and Search and Rescue (SAR) specialist since 2016.

She said: 'Thank you for all your well wishes, all your support, talk to you later'

Controversy: Rebecca hit the headlines in 2004 after she allegedly had an affair with David Beckham while working as his family's PA

Happy: Rebecca is now happily married to her husband Sven Christjar Skaiaa, who she claimed is 'nothing like' David Beckham

He now lives in Norway, and his wife frequently shares pictures of them on social media, enjoying nature and outdoor activities.

Rebecca previously said: '[Sven and I] are as madly in love as we were the day we met and I am so proud of him. We are an excellent team. I'm totally supportive of everything he does.'

Rebecca claimed that people thought she was 'mad' for diving head first into a relationship with a man she 'hardly knew'.

'But look at everything I have now, I am so happy. I have no regrets, I am so happy with my life now. But many people are so afraid of change,' she said.

'Change is good, change is how you learn, people should just f**king go for it.'

The couple now have two sons Magnus, 13 and Liam, ten.

The pair's tiny hamlet in the Norwegian Mountains, where they live with their children, is so remote that it is a three-hour drive from the nearest airport and a two-hour drive to the nearest hospital.
Newly single Hugh Bonneville enjoyed a girls' night out with actresses Tamzin Outhwaite and Julie Graham following his SPLIT from his wife of 25 years.

The Downton Abbey star, best known for playing Lord Grantham, was seen smiling and laughing in Instagram snaps posted by Julie, during his fun evening with pals.

The 59-year-old beamed from ear to ear in the Instagram snaps, less than a month after he confirmed he has split from his wife of 25 years Lulu Williams.

Fooling around, the gang headed out to watch Tamzin star in her production of Noises Off at the Haymarket Theatre.

Also joined by Angela Griffin and her husband Jason Milligan and actors Rachael Stirling and Owain Arthur, Hugh appeared to be letting his hair down as he messed around posing in snaps.

Night out: Hugh Bonneville, 59, let loose for a girls' night out as he was seen cosying up to actresses Julie Graham and Tamzin Outhwaite and Angela Griffin, less than a month after the SPLIT from wife of 25 years Lulu Williams (Tamzin, Julie and Angela Griffin, pictured L-R)

Heartbreak: Hugh and Lulu confirmed the split at the end of September, just days after appearing at the wedding of his Downton Abbey co-star Michelle Dockery alone, (pictured in 2019)

Julie, who is best known for her role in The Bill, captioned the post: 'Fun night watching our @glamzin being super brilliant in Noises Off at the Haymarket Theatre... Total hoot'.

She was seen beaming in snaps alongside Hugh, Tamzin and Angela as they cosied up together for a friendly intimate snap.

Hugh was also seen posing with Tamzin as she gave the camera a cheeky pout while taking the actor's arm.

Commenting on the post, the New Tricks actress, 52, wrote: 'I love you so much Jules! Thank you for coming Everything hurts from laughing'.

The outing comes less than a month after he confirmed he and Lulu had split, just days after appearing at the wedding of his Downtown Abbey co-star Michelle Dockery alone.

The couple had been a common sight together on the red carpet, with Lulu regularly accompanying her husband to premieres and film sets.

They were last seen together in public at the Old Vic Theatre in London for a gala in April.

However, it seems the split has not been smooth sailing, with a source revealing: 'It is clear that Lulu feels as if 20-odd years of marriage counts for nothing.'

Whale of a time: Hugh was also joined by Angela (L) and her husband Jason Milligan and actors Rachael Stirling (middle) and Owain Arthur, as he messed around posing in snaps

Having a laugh: The gang headed out to watch Tamzin star in her production of Noises Off at the Haymarket Theatre

Pals: Hugh was also seen posing for snaps with the ladies as he flashed a big smile for the camera

Great times: Julie shared the snaps on Instagram as she gushed over the fantastic night

Happy: Tamzin was over the moon that her friends came to watch her play

Lulu often accompanied her husband to premieres and film sets and her recent absence sparked rumours the pair were having troubles.

The heartbreak comes just five years after the couple renewed their vows at Graceland chapel in Las Vegas.

Lulu reportedly broke down in tears at the pub as she told friends that the Downtown Abbey star had sat her down and abruptly ended their 25-year marriage.

'She got incredibly emotional talking about the break-up,' one local revealed last night.

It isn't known if there is a new lady in his life but those close to Ms Williams have spoken in support of her, with one saying: 'It's clear that Lulu feels as if 20-odd years of marriage counts for nothing.'

It's over: Lulu often accompanied her husband to premieres and film sets and her recent absence sparked rumours the pair were having troubles (pictured at the House Of Fraser British Academy Television Awards in 2016)
Maya Jama's grandmother cheekily told her over Facetime that the star needs to 'eat more' and that she 'looks like an old lady'.

The TV personality, 29, shared an adorable snap of her having a catch up over a video chat with her grandmother.

She showed off her pearly white smile as she grinned from cheek to cheek in a white T-shirt.

Her grandmother, or as Maya calls her 'Ayeyo' (Somalian for nan), looked was pictured playfully grinning at her savage comments towards the star.

The snap was captioned: 'Love my nan/Ayeyo. Most wholesome yet no filter. She told me I need to eat more an I look like an old lady and was being dead serious.'

Cute: Maya Jama's shared an adorable snap of her having a gab over a video chat with her grandmother as she showed off her pearly white smile as she grinned from cheek to cheek

The Love Island presenter shared the screenshot on her Instagram Stories to her 3million followers.

Maya rarely keeps her fans updated about her nana as she only revealed to her following in 2021 that her grandmother immigrated from Somalia.

Sharing a black and white family photo with her nan at the end, Maya reveals that she thinks her family may have been the first Somalian immigrants in Bristol.

She wrote alongside the throwback snap: 'Had to wheel this one up. Proper look like my Nan.'

She also shared a snippet of their immigration story from Somalia alongside the picture.

Maya wrote: 'Real g's immigrated from Somalia and built a life for themselves, started working started a family, bought a house.

'Pretty sure they were one of the first Somali families in Bristol.'

The snap comes after her rekindled lover Stormzy revealed that he is ready to propose to Maya.

Lookalikes: Maya previously shared a throwback picture of herself and her lookalike nan as she wrote a note about her relatives' immigration story from Somalia

The grime star has reportedly told pals' he's 'determined' to show his commitment to the presenter after winning her back following their split in 2019.

Maya and Stormzy ended months of speculation by confirming that they were well and truly back together after jetting to Greece for a romantive getaway.

A source told The Sun: 'Stormzy knows how lucky he is to have gotten back, and he's determined not to lose her again.'

He wants to make her his wifey for lifey. He's telling his mates this is it for him now, he's found the one.'
Lucy Boynton cut a glamorous figure as she got stuck into filming the ITV drama Ruth in Hampstead on Friday, based on the story of Ruth Ellis.

The show tells the story of Ruth Ellis who was executed aged just 28 in 1955 after killing her abusive lover, racing driver David Blakely.

The actress, 29, was pictured shooting scenes outside 29 Tanza Road, the house where her lover David Blakely was staying on the night she conducted the murder.

She shot Blakely repeatedly outside the Magdala pub in Hampstead, north London with one bullet ricocheting off the pavement and injuring a passer-by.

Lucy, who is playing Ruth in the drama, wore her platinum blonde locks in a bouncy blowdry look and slipped into a casual attire for filming.

On set: Lucy Boynton, 29, cut a glamorous figure as she got stuck into filming the ITV drama Ruth in Hampstead on Friday, based on the story of Ruth Ellis

Spooky: The actress was pictured shooting scenes outside 29 Tanza Road, the house where Ruth was staying on the night she conducted the murder of her lover David Blakely

Getting into character: Lucy (left) debuted a bleached bob as transformed into Ruth (right) - the last woman to hang in the UK

For another scene, Lucy donned a leopard print collard jacket with a pop of red lipstick, and stood next to 1950's cars.

Lucy was spotted walking through the streets from location to location in her casual attire.

The drama, which has been written by Kelly Jones, is set in 1955 and will premiere on ITV1 and be available for streaming on ITVX.

Lucy said: 'Ruth Ellis' story is a fascinating one. Both she and this complex case have always evoked a strong reaction.

'With Kelly's insightful scripts I'm looking forward to bringing a new perspective to both familiar audiences as well as those who are unaware of her mark on British history.'

The drama will see Ellis as a young nightclub manageress, her abusive relationship with Blakely, and her subsequent arrest, trial and the legal fight to reprieve her.

Ellis was hanged by famous hangman, Albert Pierrepoint, in Holloway Prison, aged just 28 in 1955.

The four-part series is described as 'a compelling legal and emotional rollercoaster' and is based on Carol Ann Lee's acclaimed biography A Fine Day for Hanging: The Real Ruth Ellis Story.

Chic: Lucy, who is playing Ruth in the drama, wore her platinum blonde locks in a bouncy blowdry look and slipped into a casual attire for filming

Upcoming drama: The show tells the story of Ruth Ellis who was executed aged just 28 in 1955 after killing her abusive lover, racing driver David Blakely

Set in the 50s: She shot Blakely repeatedly outside the Magdala pub in Hampstead, North London with one bullet ricocheting off the pavement and injuring a passer-by

Character: Lucy was spotted walking through the streets from location to location in her casual attire

The story of Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Britain Model Ruth Ellis shot her ex-boyfriend - racing driver David Blakely - outside a pub in Hampstead, North London, cutting his life short when he was just 26. The nightclub hostess, then 28, claimed sole responsibility for the killing after he left the Magdala in April 1955, telling the Old Bailey: 'It was obvious that when I shot him I intended to kill him.' Ten days before the killing, Ellis had suffered a miscarriage after Blakely, the baby's father, punched her in the stomach. The case has become one of the most famous in British legal history and was made into a film, Dance With A Stranger, starring Miranda Richardson. Ellis's daughter Georgie died in 2021 of cancer, aged 50, still hoping that her mother would be cleared. She had told the Daily Mail: 'She was not in her right mind the night Blakely died. She'd suffered a miscarriage, was taking sedatives and she'd had a lifetime of men being cruel to her.' It took a jury at the Old Bailey just 23 minutes to convict Ellis of murder. She was hanged at Holloway prison in July 1955. Murder: Ellis shot Blakely (left) after tracing him to the Magdala on April 10, 1955 and was arrested at the scene by an off-duty policeman Advertisement

An ITV spokesperson said of the drama: 'The powerful mystery of what compelled Ruth Ellis to take the life of the man she was in a passionate but toxic and volatile relationship with will reveal that there was more to this crime of passion than Ruth was prepared to say.

'Her silence, and resistance to speak of what happened between her and dashing racing driver, Blakely, is far more complex than she admitted.

'Ruth's solicitor, the low-status but intelligent and sensitive John Bickford, starts to realise some of what she has suffered and believes they must make a case for provocation.

'With stakes that could not be higher, literally life or death, Bickford begins his own investigation and uncovers details that could have saved her life had those facts been aired in court.'

Filming: Lucy played the scene along actors playing Anthony and Carole Findlater with their baby outside their house

Costume change: Lucy slipped into another outfit and sported a classy oversized jacket with a matching leopard print handbag

Drama: Lucy pictured as Ruth on set with a co-star

Filming: For another scene, Lucy donned a leopard print collard jacket with a pop of red lipstick, and stood next to 1950's cars
Big Brother contestant Zak Srakaew has opened up about having two near-death experiences as a child.

The Thai model, 28, revealed to Johnny Seifert on Secure The Insecure Podcast that he 'escaped death' many times when he was just a toddler.

Zak, who was the second evictee from the Big Brother house, said he was the victim of a traumatising dog attack and almost died when he was 'bit up by a Rottweiler'.

He said at the time he was just a toddler and when his mother found him, he was covered in blood.

He said: 'I actually walked over to this puppy, and I started picking the puppies up, started playing with them. The mother, she was out, I don't know, looking for food, doing whatever.

NDE: Big Brother, 28, contestant Zak Srakaew has opened up about having two near-death experiences as a child

Hard: The Thai model revealed to Johnny Seifert on Secure The Insecure Podcast that he 'escaped death' many times when he was just a toddler

'She's then came back, she sees me playing with the puppies, boom, she's then launched herself and grabbed me by the head and started yanking me all over the place, left, right, and centre.

'My mum and all the other people around the village tried to come to split up their dog, and they managed to split the dog up. You know, my mum's grabbed me, she's picked me up. I was covered in blood. Um, my mum said all that time you still weren't even crying and you just sat there, blood is dripping down your face.'

Zak explained that when he was driven to a local hospital in Thailand, they were told the 'operation was going to be too big'.

He was warned by the hospital that if he lost any more blood, he 'could potentially die'.

'My mum didnt have the money to get the operation done, she did a few cars, she sold some stuff back at home. The operation cost her pretty much everything she owed, everything she had,' he added.

'She then got the operation, you know, stitched me up and that, and, they said, you know, if you would've came, you know, a couple of hours later, you probably would've lost him.'

But this isn't the only close call with death as Zak also nearly lost his life when he was hit by a motorbike.

When he was a toddler, the TV personality was playing in the middle of the road with his favourite toy car.

Dog attack: Zak, who was evicted from the Big Brother house in episode 12, said he was the victim of a traumatising dog attack and almost died when he was 'bit up by a Rottweiler'

Hard times: Zak said that his mother did not have much money so the 'operation cost her pretty much everything she owed, everything she had'

The vehicle shot round the corner and hit him while he was playing.

Zak said: 'It's must have been going about 60, 70 miles per hour. It's hit me. I've gone into the air. I've come down.

'My mum said like, you had cuts on your arms, you had cuts on the side of your face, your blood was dripping. She said you should literally walk back to your car.

'I mean, walk back to your toy car and pick it up and come and play with it whilst blood was dripping down you and you didn't pay attention to the pain you was having.'

Zak became the second person to be evicted from the house last week after he went head-to-head in the public vote against food writer Harry, 25, with the eviction result leaving some show fans unimpressed.

In his first interview after leaving the house on Big Brother: Late & Live, Zak said it was 'nerve-wracking' but he was happy to hear 'people cheering' as he departed the house into a live studio audience.

'I've had quite a few conflicts here and there... Henry has not had any conflicts in the house. I was talk of the house for the few days before the nominations,' he told presenters AJ Odudu and Will Best.
Kristen Stewart's first kiss was memorable, but not necessarily special.

The 33-year-old explained that like many young stars, her first kiss was 'on screen' in a game of Clubhouse Quickie Thursday on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen.

The Twilight star, who once saw a ghost in her bedroom, was on the show to promote her latest project, Living for the Dead.

When it came to puckering up for the first time, Kristen said it was a stressful experience.

'Its not like we were literally making out,' the former child star explained of the scene in the 2004 film Undertow. She was a teenager at the time.

Freaking out: Kristen Stewart, 33, revealed that her first kiss was memorable, but not special. 'I was so nervous, I was freaking out,' she said

'It was a bit of a peck, but I was 13 or 14,' she added.

Her co-star in the on-screen love scene was Jamie Bell, 37.

Andy pointed out that the Billy Elliot star was 'so sweet and so cute.'

Kristen agreed, but said, 'I was so nervous, I was freaking out.'

'And then the director, he could tell I was just red and f***ing non-responsive. And he was like, "Its just little butterfly kisses,"' and I was like, "That didnt help! Whatever that means, I dont understand it!"'

The star who was styled in a black and white houndstooth plaid jacket over a black top and shorts with ankle boots, joked that she was 'in therapy' after the teenaged buss, but that she and her former co-star, who is happily married to Kate Mara, were still friends.

'Yes, I love Jamie,' she said.

The actress, who is happily engaged to actress and writer Dylan Meyer, shed a bit of light on her own pending nuptials, indicating that she's reached out to see if Food Network star Guy Fieri could officiate.

First kiss: Kristen's first kiss was on screen with co-star Jamie Bell in the film Undertow. 'The director, he could tell I was just red and f**king non-responsive,' she explained

Game: Kristen made the revelations during a game of Clubhouse Quickie Thursday on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen. The star joked that she was 'in therapy' after the teenaged buss, but that she and her former co-star, were still friends

She said the Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives team had been in contact with her.

When asked why she chose Guy to conduct the ceremony, the star who styles her hair in a sort of mullet replied, 'Oh, we have a lot of, like, similar fashion sense and hair.

'Also, I think he just seems like a really nice dude, and he marries a lot of queer people.

'They reached out and they were like, "You know, we are down for this,"' she explained.

'And I was like, "Me too, but also, like, I'm bad at planning stuff. So, I'll hit you up soon."'

Wedding plans: Kristen is engaged to writer and actress Dylan Meyer. The Twilight star would like Guy Fieri to officiate their wedding, if they do something formal. 'He just seems like a really nice dude, and he marries a lot of queer people,' she said

New show: Kristen was on WWHL to promote her new show Living for the Dead. She is an executive producer on the Hulu series featuring five queer ghost hunters as they investigate famed haunted locations around the United States

On the other hand, Kristen indicated she and her intended might just have their own DIY wedding.

'I think we're probably just going to marry each other,' she added, 'and then call Guy and say, "You were here in spirit, babe."'

As for her new show, Living for the Dead, the Oscar nominee is executive producing the reality series featuring five queer ghost hunters as they investigate famed haunted locations around the United States.

'My best friend came up with the idea,' she explained.

'We were having a brunch and wasn't even part of this conversation, I just heard him go "imagine like a gay ghost hunting show" and I could just hear this, sort of like squealing, and I went "wait, I want to watch that," and he was like, 'no, I'm saying we should make that."'

Living for the Dead debuted on Hulu October 18.
The legal dispute involves Jamie's demand for Britney to pay attorneys fees he incurred connected with the conservatorship

Britney Spears' lawyer reportedly sent an email to her father Jamie Spears' lawyer in an effort to open negotiations for settlement in their ongoing legal dispute.

Mathew Rosengart, who reps the 41-year-old pop star, fired off the correspondence, which pointed out that Jamie was in poor health and that it 'might be an appropriate time to acknowledge his alleged misdeeds during the conservatorship,' according to a report by TMZ on Friday.

Jamie's acknowledgement would include paying Britney an unspecified amount to end the legal dispute, which involves Jamie's demand for Britney to pay attorneys fees he incurred connected with the conservatorship, per the outlet.

Rosengart's email reportedly detailed several allegations against Jamie, including he orchestrated the illegal surveillance of her phone.

The legal team for Jamie disputed the allegation, according to TMZ.

Legal battle: Britney Spears ' lawyer reportedly sent an email to her father Jamie Spears' lawyer in an effort to open negotiations for settlement in their ongoing legal dispute; seen in 2019

Mathew Rosengart, who reps the 41-year-old pop star, fired off the correspondence, which pointed out that Jamie was in poor health and it 'might be an appropriate time to acknowledge his alleged misdeeds during the conservatorship'

TMZ also reported that Rosentgart 'never filed a lawsuit claiming illegal surveillance and the statute of limitations lapsed more than a year ago.'

The case is set to go to trial in May, almost three years after the dissolution of Britney's conservatorship, which ended in November 2021.

The conservatorship began when Jamie took control of his oldest daughter's life and finances in 2008 after some highly publicized mental health struggles which included her infamously shaving her head.

It started as a temporary arrangement, but became permanent by the end of the year.

In the years that followed, Britney was deemed well enough to work in what the former estate conservator called a 'hybrid business model' in court papers, but not well enough to control her personal life.

The estate controlled who her friends were, where she could go and 'logged her every purchase down to a drink from Starbucks,' according to The New York Times.

Britney also told the court she had been forced to use birth control and take medication against her will.

During one court appearance, she told the judge, 'Ma'am, my dad and anyone involved in this conservatorship, and my management, who played huge roles in punishing me when I said 'No' [to going on tour]  Ma'am, they should be in jail.'

Plea deal: Jamie's acknowledgement would include paying Britney an unspecified amount to end the legal dispute, which involves Jamie's demand for Britney to pay attorneys fees he incurred connected with the conservatorship; from left, dad, Britney, brother and mom

Trial: The case is set to go to trial in May, almost three years after the dissolution of Britney's conservatorship, which ended in November 2021

Britney made headlines in regards to her father a year ago, when she took to Instagram saying, 'I really felt like my dad was trying to kill me and I hope he burns in f***ing hell.'

Jamie has kept a relatively low profile after he was suspended as the head of the conservatorship in September 2021, a move made permanent two months later.

It comes after DailyMail.com exclusively revealed that Jamie is now living with his other daughter Jamie Lynn Spears after his battle with alcoholism.

His parenting shortfalls and struggle with alcohol have previously been documented in his Jamie Lynn's 2021 memoir, Things I Should Have Said, and that of his ex-wife, Lynne.

Earlier this month, it was reported that Jamie would not be reading Britney's memoir, The Woman In Me.
Jonnie Irwin shared a sweet snap with his wife Jess as the two enjoyed lunch on Friday.

Heading out to mark his wife's birthday the star shared a lovely selfie of the pair on Instagram as they wrapped up warm in the autumn sun.

The TV presenter, who is battling terminal cancer, looked to be in good spirits as he donned a thick khaki scarf and grey flat cap.

Meanwhile Jess, 40, added a pop of colour as she wrapped up in a pink scarf and white turtleneck jumper.

Jonnie, 49, revealed in November that his cancer had spread from his lung to his brain after initially being diagnosed in 2020.

Couple time: Jonnie Irwin, 49, enjoyed lunch out with wife Jess as he celebrated his other half's birthday on Friday after announcing return to TV amid cancer battle

The TV presenter captioned the post: 'Birthday lunch with my Favourite. #love #birthday #belter #lobsterravioli'.

Jonnie was flooded with support as fans took to the comments to send their love to the couple.

One wrote: 'You're looking Swell Jonny we can tell Jonny .Happy birthday to Jess she's a belter and gorgeous have lovely meal lots love both xxx'.

Another added: 'You are looking so well just now....keep the pressure on that effing disease'.

Other rushed to wish Jess a happy birthday as they commented: 'Happy Birthday enjoy both of you', while another added 'Have great birthday celebrations!'

The couple are parents to four-year-old son Rex and two-year-old twins Rafa and Cormac.

The birthday celebrations come after Jonnie confirmed earlier this month that he will return to TV screens.

He revealed he is returning to British TV to film a home renovation programme for BBC Morning Live in Newcastle.

Family: The couple are parents to four-year-old son Rex and two-year-old twins Rafa and Cormac

Well wishes: Jonnie was flooded with support as fans took to the comments to send their love to the couple

Taking to Instagram to announce the news, he wrote: 'So good to be back filming for @bbcmorninglive.

'Weve just shot to short films about renovating your home and what to look out for.

'I think my smug smile betrays the lack of a massive commute for once and the extra couple of hours I got in my scratcher as we filmed in Newcastle Upon Tyne.

'Ill let you know when they are due to go out, when I know myself.'
Arnold Schwarzenegger is not engaged to longterm partner Heather Milligan after the physiotherapist was seen wearing a ring on her wedding finger in London this week.

The Terminator star, 76, stepped out with Milligan, 48, at private members' club Annabel's in the UK capital on Tuesday.

Milligan flaunted her ageless figure as she opted for a total black with top and elegant trousers - but all eyes swiftly went to a dazzling ring on her finger.

However, sources have confirmed to TMZ that Arnold and Heather are not engaged.

Arnold was previously married to Maria Shriver, 67, but the pair split in 2011 after it emerged the star had fathered a son Joseph Baena with their housekeeper Mildred Baena.

Happy couple: Arnold Schwarzenegger is not engaged to longterm partner Heather Milligan after the physiotherapist was seen wearing a ring on her wedding finger in London this week

Bling: However, sources have confirmed to TMZ that Arnold and Heather are not engaged

His divorce from Maria was finally completed in 2021.

Arnold and Heather have been dating since 2013.

He also has four children with his ex-wife: daughters Katharine, 33, Christina, 31, and sons Patrick, 29 and Christopher, 25.

While it was difficult to navigate initially, the longtime leading man has since established a relationship with Baena, who has turned out to follow in his dad's footsteps with his love of weightlifting, and exercise in general, and his passion for acting.

In London the former bodybuilder graced the stage for an Evening With Arnold Schwarzenegger presented by Fane - where he chatted to Jake Humphrey.

During the event the Total Recall star promoted and discussed his new book Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life.

The former Governor of California looked in his highest spirit while taking to stage.

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 to People about the book earlier in the month, 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.

Arnold 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 added 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.'

Cute couple: The Terminator star, 76, stepped out with Milligan, 48, at private members' club Annabel's in the UK capital on Tuesday

Dad of five: The action icon, 76 - shares four children- Katherine, 33, Christina, 31, Patrick, 30 and Christopher, 26 with ex Maria Shriver

Family: The actor also has a son Joseph Baena, 25, who was the result of an extramarital affair he had with his family's former housekeeper Mildred Patricia 'Patty' Baena

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 the actor'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.'
Tony Danza looked dapper as he stepped out in New York City this week.

The 72-year-old Who's The Boss? actor was handsome in a black suit with a blue button down shirt.

The And Just Like That actor's salt and pepper hair was on the longish side on Tuesday, and he was clean shaven.

It was the first time the veteran star was seen since John Stamos, 60, claimed he caught Tony in bed with his former Playboy model girlfriend in the 1980s in his new memoir If You Would Have Told Me.

The Taxi star hasn't made any comments about the allegations, but the former girlfriend has.

Dapper: Tony Danza, 72, looked dapper as he stepped out in New York Tuesday, wearing black suit with a blue button down shirt. The Who's the Boss star's salt and pepper hair was on the longish side and he was clean shaven

Teri Copley, 62, told People she remembered the incident differently.

'I wondered, "What was John doing there?" because we had broken up,' she told the outlet of the 1985 interlude.

'He just looked at me and shook his head, and walked away,' the former nude model said.

On the Howard Stern Show, the Full House star reacted to her comments saying, 'She came out yesterday or I think the day before and said we were broken up.

'I dont think she told me that,' adding, 'I was busted up, man.'

Teri, who is now a born-again Christian, hasn't made any posts on Instagram since June 2021, but fans of the Big Shot star have made critical comments on her account.

'Where was the Holy spirit while you cheated on your boyfriend and slept with Tony Danza? Ew. Stamos is like a greek God compared to Danza. What the heck?' wrote one troll on Thursday.

'Tony Danza!?? Really?' wrote another hater.

Sighting: It was the first time the Taxi star was seen since allegations in John Stamos' memoir, If You Would Have Told Me, that he caught Tony in bed with his former girlfriend in 1985

Dating: John Stamos and Teri Copley dated from 1984-85 (Pictured in Hollywood in April 1985)

Tony dated the former Playboy model for a while after she broke up with Stamos. He has made no comment on the cheating allegations (Pictured in Los Angeles in 1986)

No such accusations have been made on the Rumble voice actor's account.

The Fuller House star said he included the incident in his memoir 'to highlight some of the relatable issues' from his life.

'People thought like, "whos going to cheat on Stamos?" Well, its happened more than once,' he penned in the tome.

Criticism: Teri, who is now a born-again Christian, hasn't made any posts on Instagram since June 2021, but fans of the Big Shot star have made critical comments on her account. 'Ew. Stamos is like a greek God compared to Danza. What the heck?' wrote one critic Thursday

Best seller: Since its release Tuesday, the memoir is already a best seller on Amazon. It ranks number 39 in all book sales, and it's in second place in the memoir category, right behind Britney Spears' The Woman in Me

'The real reason why I put that story in there was to, well, to be relatable, but also the end of the story was this: I remember walking in and I see them, and was like, "Im gonna kick this guys ass." Then I kind of saw his abs and Im like, "Im gonna run,"' he wrote.

The memoir is already a best seller on Amazon.

It ranks number 39 in all book sales, and it's in second place in the memoir category, right behind Britney Spears' The Woman in Me.

Both books were released on Tuesday.
The View's Sara Haines has been accused of 'bullying' her co-host Sunny Hostin after the two became embroiled in a heated debate about gun laws on Friday.

Referring to gunman Robert Card, who slaughtered 18 people using an AR-15-style rifle in Maine on Wednesday night, Sara, 46, said she would 'love to see an assault weapons ban' before stating that people with mental health issues should not own guns.

'There's no actionable steps to fix the epidemic in this country on mental health, but we can keep guns out of their hands,' the mother-of-three argued, leading Sunny, 55, to express her concerns about 'stigmatizing people with mental health'.

Sara fumed: 'This shooter had been flagged to the law enforcement by his family, he had been institutionalized for telling people he was gonna go shoot at a reserve base. When someone tells you what they're going to do, believe them!

The View's Sara Haines has been accused of 'bullying' her co-host Sunny Hostin

Sunny, 55, butt heads with Sara, 46, on Friday's show as they discussed people with mental health issues being able to buy and own guns

Ana Navarro (right) tried to share her thoughts but Sara kept speaking over her co-hosts

'Every mass shooter we've had has left steps along the way. I believe in red flag laws and most of the country does. We believe in background checks. But it was designed by a pro-gun organization and the yellow flag law insists you see a doctor.

'That creates a bigger impediment to actually getting someone flagged, whereas 80 per cent of voters approve the police taking the power of that weapon temporarily.'

Speaking calmly, Sunny replied: 'To respond to you, Sara... I hear what you're saying and there were signs that this guy should not have had a gun, just like I believe people who are domestic violence offenders should not have guns...

'But I'm kind of worried about stigmatizing people with mental health because when you look at the statistics, people that suffer from mental health are much more likely to be the victim of a violent crime, rather than the opposite...'

Unable to contain her frustrations, Sara interjected: 'I'm not going to jump on you... I know this answer though. I have mental illness problems, I have anxiety problems, I have depression problems.

'I'm not saying everyone that's ever gone to a therapist or on medication... he was hearing voices that were telling him what to do, I think everyone in this room can agree that's a mental problem.

After Alyssa Farah Griffin stated that Card has schizophrenia, Sunny added: 'But not every schizophrenic is violent.'

Sara butted in: 'This schizophrenic told people he was gonna go shoot up a base, so he told us!'

Sara mentioned her own 'mental illness problems' and her 'depression' as she argued her point

One person accused Sara of being 'rude' and claimed she was 'bullying' mom-of-two Sunny

Sunny argued that 'not every schizophrenic is violent'

'That's different, Sunny responded as Sara clapped back: 'And it's important to notice those details.'

Keen to calm the tension, moderator Joy Behar, 81, shut it down and said: 'We gotta go, sorry.'

As the show cut to a commercial break, Sunny was heard saying: 'I don't like the mental health angle all the time.'

Viewers tuning in at home were not impressed with Sara and criticized her behavior.

One accused her of 'bullying and [being] rude,' adding: 'Mental illness should be addressed by the panel more civilly. Guns are the problem. Mental illness is mere a component of the issue.'

A second person posted: 'MY GOD CAN SUNNY EVER FINISH HER POINT!!! This ish is getting beyond annoying.'

A third viewer commented: 'Geez Sarah stfu and let Sunny speak. My goodness.'

A fourth agreed and posted: 'OMG! Sarah should just stfu and let Sunny finish!!'

Someone else claimed: 'Every time when Sunny makes valid points, they always cut her off.'

A different viewer echoed this point of view and added: 'AGAIN, they cut @sunny off whenever she speaks up for the underrepresented and disenfranchised!!! Mental health is NOT the fking issue. Guns are!'

Police in Lewiston, Maine, are hunting for gunman Robert Card who killed at least 18 people on October 25

The gunman opened fire using an AR-15-style rifle at a bowling alley and a local bar

Others jumped to defend the TV host, with one writing: 'So Sunny could spread her ignorance about mental illnesses to counter Sara's unrelated point? No thanks. Keep talking Sara. No more letting ignorance thrive.'

Another person wrote: 'I like Sunny, but she brings up not stigmatizing people with mental illness all the time, and it shuts down the conversation. Mental health is wide-ranging, and its not stigmatizing to acknowledge that some folks with mental illness should NOT have access to guns.'

On Thursday, it emerged that Maine massacre gunman, Card - who still hasn't been found - had spent two weeks in a mental health facility over the summer after 'hearing voices'.

Card is from Bowdoin, Maine - a town with a population just over 3,000 - and is a 'highly skilled' Army 'petroleum supply specialist' who enlisted in December 2002. He has had no combat deployments.

The shooter, who police have warned is 'armed and dangerous', is a 1st Class Sergeant, and has been awarded the Army Achievement Medal, Humanitarian Service Medal, National Defence Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon and two Army Reserve Component Achievement medals.

Card, who reportedly has ties to Massachusetts, grappled with mental health issues, recently reporting 'hearing voices' and threatening to shoot up a military training base.
Danni Baird of Southern Charm fame has announced she is expecting her first child with husband Nicholas Volz.

The 39-year-old former reality television personality  who called off her wedding to Todd Baldree in 2017  shared the news via Instagram on Thursday.

Engaging with her over 300K followers via a heartfelt birthday tribute to her spouse, she wrote, 'Wishing the happiest of birthdays to this handsome Daddy-to-be @nicholas.volz.'

The Charlotte-based artist added, 'I cant imagine sharing this incredible journey with anyone other than you. I love you and have a suspicion that 39 just may be your best year yet xo.'

Included in a carousel of images was a snapshot of her holding a copy of her sonogram.

Parents-to-be: Danni Baird of Southern Charm fame has announced she is expecting her first child with husband Nicholas Volz

News: The 39-year-old former reality television personality  who called off her wedding to Todd Baldree in 2017  shared the news via Instagram on Thursday

Baird's frosty blonde hair flowed over her chest as she showed off her burgeoning baby bump while wearing a blue dress.

She flashed a toothy grin while posing alongside Nicholas and friends.

Baird had not previously shared photos of Volz on her Instagram grid, keeping their relationship private.

She was not a full-time cast member on the Bravo TV series, but made multiple appearances between seasons 2014 and 2021.

Baird made headlines in July 2017 after calling off her wedding two weeks before the event.

Shortly after, she was spotted vacationing in Cancun, Mexico, with Stassi Schroeder of Vanderpump Rules, who had also recently gotten out of a relationship.

The following year Danni revealed to The Daily Dish about her ex Baldree: 'The main reason is I had temporarily moved to Greenville [in South Carolina] where his kids live and where his main residence is, which is about three hours away from Charleston.

'I just wasnt happy. I wasnt working. We had this vision that I would be able to do all this artwork, and it was just too chaotic.'

Bundle of joy: Included in a carousel of images was a snapshot of her holding a copy of her sonogram

Exciting: Engaging with her 306,000 followers via a heartfelt birthday tribute to her spouse, she wrote, 'Wishing the happiest of birthdays to this handsome Daddy-to-be @nicholas.volz'

Recalling the aftermath of the split, she detailed, 'It was traumatizing for a couple months.

'But you get to a point where you can recognize somebodys strengths, and you can recognize somebodys faults, and theyre not your own.'

She continued reflectively, 'And I just value the things that I love about him, and I just choose to keep that close to my heart.'

The mom-to-be added at the time: 'Obviously, it was heartbreaking. It probably did take me a good four months to start talking to him again. But we were engaged. We were about to be married. It was a big jump.'
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Joey King had a great time in Europe during her honeymoon.

The Kissing Booth actress shared a video from the getaway to Instagram on Friday that revealed all the good times she experienced with her husband Steven Piet.

The 24-year-old Bullet Train star showed off her toned figure in a one-piece black swimsuit as she kissed her 32-year-old spouse when in Italy.

They went all over the country, spending time in Lake Como, Capri and Naples.

King was also seen modeling gold jewelry from Pomellato while in Rome. 'Roma + my @pomellato jewelry = my new personality,' wrote the new spokesperson in her Instagram caption as she wore a cream colored blouse and black sunglasses.

The lovebirds tied the knot in Spain in September.

Kissing in Capri! Joey King had a great time in Europe last month. The Kissing Booth actress was seen on her honeymoon in Italy with her new husband Steven Piet in new images shared to her Instagram account

Cheeky chick: Here is a look at King's toned body as she wore a swimsuit on a boat

The love is real: The pair could not keep their hands off each other as they looked out at the boats

The couple were seen all over Italy.

They enjoyed swimming in Lake Como, in Northern Italys Lombardy region, is an upscale resort set against the foothills of the Alps.

The lake has three slender branches that meet at the resort town of Bellagio.

At the bottom of the southwest branch lies the city of Como, home to Renaissance architecture and a funicular that travels up to the mountain town of Brunate.

They were also on the beach on the island of Capri, an island in Italys Bay of Naples, is famed for its rugged landscape, upscale hotels and shopping, from designer fashions to limoncello and handmade leather sandals.

And the lovebirds enjoyed pizza in the pizza capital of the world, Naples, which is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan.

On September 3, the looker tied the knot with Piet, while on the island of Mallorca in Spain.

Only their closest family and friends were in attendance.

This week several of her glam team members shared new images from the coastline nuptials which were overseen by Alison and Bryan with floral arrangements by Putnam Flowers and music from Dart Collective.

Capri days: The 24-year-old Bullet Train star showed off her toned figure as she wore her hair down and wet

Brave gal: She was seen jumping off the rocky coastline in Italy

Swimming sensation: And the camera followed her into the water where she flashed two peace signs

King is queen: That is Joey as she relaxed on a floating JBay.Zone raft

Coastal views: Joey relaxed by a rocky coastline as they wore designer sunglasses

The Kissing Booth actress looked sensational in a strapless Oscar de la Renta gown with long drop diamond earrings.

Her hair was done by Dimitris Giannetos, styling by Jared Eng of JustJared fame, makeup by Allan Avendano and nails by Thuy Nguyen. King looked stunning in the images. In one she was the perfect bride with a white veil on.

The couple are now enjoying their honeymoon in Lake Como, Italy.

Guest included Sabrina Carpenter, Michelle Williams, and AnnaSophia Robb with her husband Trevor.

Joey said on Instagram: 'In life, what more can we ask for than to go to sleep next to someone thinking you cant wait to do it all over again tomorrow.'

Steve said of the wedding day: 'Only in this moment can we discover that which is timeless.'

She was walked down the aisle by her mother, Jamie King, and her grandmother.

Her glam team wished her well too.

Jared shared: 'Memories to last a lifetime. The most beautiful bride. Cutest of couples. Stunna wedding weekend.'

He posted a video where Joey was seen being walked down the aisle, and the clip also shared Joey holding hands with Steven.

'JOEY - I couldn't describe how happy I am for you @joeyking ! My little sister got married WOOHOOOOO Congratulations Joey and Steven love u both to the moon n back :)' Giannetos wrote on Instagram of a picture of King's wedding hair.

Rome is for lovers: King was also seen modeling gold jewelry while in Rome. ' Roma + my @pomellato jewelry = my new personality,' wrote the new spokesperson in her Instagram caption as she wore a cream colored blouse and black sunglasses

Dimitries also works with Kourtney Kardashian, Justin Bieber, Priyanka Chopra.

Manicurist Thuy added, 'Mrs. JOEY & Mr. STEVEN PIET ' and in another post said, 'JOEY. Words arent enough, but I will try. From the moment we met until this past weekend, you have been nothing shy of perfection.

'Your beauty, inside and out, shines a radiant light to all that you surround yourself with. Your heart, your words and your companionship is something I hold so close. You are a dream girl. You are as beautiful as they come. And you are a literal angel on earth. I love you & congratulations sweet girl xoxo, T.'

They said 'I do' at the La Fortaleza, a 22-acre estate in Mallorca, Spain built in the 1600s. The ceremony overlooking the fortress' lower-terrace swimming pool.

The had a five tier cake that was banana dulce de leche flavor.

King told Vogue the wedding was an 'unforgettable moment.'

'We truly felt so perfectly present, and soaking in every detail was pure magic,' she shared. 'The best part was seeing all our friends who didn't know each other just melting into one another and instantly connecting.

'We are surrounded by the best people, and seeing them all together was infectiously joyous,' she added.

Piet wore a suit by Italian designer Brunello Cucinelli.

He popped the question in Joshua Tree to celebrate their three-year dating anniversary.

'We went on a walk in the freezing-cold weather, and Steven described the surroundings as perfectly imperfect,' Joey shared with Vogue.

In old Napoli! There were also seen walking the streets in Naples which is Italy's third largest city

Manga: Neapolitan pizza, also known as Naples-style pizza, is a style of pizza made with tomatoes and mozzarella cheese. The tomatoes must be either San Marzano tomatoes or Pomodorino del Piennolo del Vesuvio, which grow on the volcanic plains to the south of Mount Vesuvius

He liked the pizza too: Steven was seen digging into a local pie

'We stopped to take some photos together, and before I knew it, I was getting a tug on my jacket. I turned around, and Steven was on one knee. He said some of the most beautiful things, and we were both crying. We kept the news to ourselves for one day, just absorbing it together before we shared it with anyone.'

They both wanted to get married outside of the US.

'We were looking for something unique and private and that felt grand yet intimate at the same time,' Joey explained to Vogue.

'We found La Fortaleza in Mallorca, and it feels like the Spanish version of The Great Gatsby. Its historic without being dated. It felt timeless, the same way we feel about our love for each other. And finding it was all thanks to our wonderful wedding planners Alison Bryan Destinationsthey nailed it and found us the venue of our dreams.'

She had four looks for her wedding.

And she was thrilled to have her team with her: 'Im so lucky to have my team that Ive been working with for so many years be part of this day. It means the world!'

Gorgeous girl as a bride: King looked beautiful on her wedding day in Spain in images shared by her glam team

I do, I do, I do: On September 3, the 24-year-old tied the knot with Piet while on the island of Mallorca in Spain

The couples friend Erik officiated, and Sabrina Carpenter sang her down the aisle.

Stevens nieces and nephew and Joeys grandmother did readings.

'Between that and hearing Stevens vows and being able to read mine to him. Nothing couldve made this moment better,' she added.

'Also might I add, it was raining heavily right before the ceremony, and somehow the sun shone right as guests arrived. We were truly the luckiest people.'

At the reception 'there were tears everywhere,' Joey said.

'And then the food and drinksoh, God, the food and drinks. It was unreal! The Jesse Jamess Usualnamed after our beloved dogwas the most delicious spicy marg, and the beef cheeks were truly a highlight for me.'

Their first dance to Cat Powers Sea of Love.

'It was magical. Looking at my perfect husband while dancing to this perfect song was a dream,' said King.

Then they jumped in the swimming pool.
Princess Andre celebrated her seven month anniversary with her boyfriend on Thursday.

The 16-year-old took to her Instagram story to share a loved-up snap with her boyfriend to mark the milestone.

In recent weeks, the daughter of Katie Price and Peter Andre has been sharing sweet snaps of herself with her beau with her 668k followers.

In her latest post, Princess shared a snap of herself and her boyfriend standing opposite each other wearing similar trainers.

Princess's boyfriend wrote '7 months @officialprincessandre' alongside a heart emoji, and Princess reposted the sweet snap and captioned it with 'Happy 7 months'.

Sweet: Princess Andre celebrated her seven month anniversary with her boyfriend on Thursday

Anniversary: The 16-year-old took to her Instagram story to share a loved-up snap with her boyfriend to mark the milestone

It comes after Princess took to social media earlier this month to take part in a Q&A, with one of her followers asking about her relationship.

One fan asked her on Instagram: 'How are you and your boyfriend?', to which the star was more than happy to reply.

Princess posted a sweet selfie and said: 'We're really good thank you.'

The aspiring model and influencer first went public with her romance when she invited her boyfriend along to her mother Katie's 45th birthday celebrations in Brighton in May.

However, her dad Peter admitted he was 'struggling' with the news.

He told Woman magazine: 'Im not happy about this at all. Im struggling beyond belief, but thats life. Weve had many chats. I have very strict rules in my house.'

'I had this rule that would never have a boyfriend until she was 38, and now shes 16 and shes talking about boys!'. He admitted

Peter, however, also admitted that his wife Emily, has helped him come to terms with his eldest daughter having a boyfriend.

He admitted: 'Emily really made me realise that I cant treat her differently to how I treated Junior at that age.'

Protective: However, her dad Peter Andre admitted he'struggled' with the news initially

Since finishing school in June, Princess has been attending numerous events and is also due to go on tour with her mother.

Taking to Instagram, the pair posted a sweet video together to promote their makeup masterclass which they are taking across the UK.

Appearing in the video together, Princess said: 'Come and join us at our masterclass', as Katie explained: 'We're doing it together, mother and daughter'.

Excited for the tour, the pair cried in unison: 'We can't wait'.

Katie captioned the snap: 'Me & Princess can't wait to meet you all this autumn winter for an evening filled with makeup. VIP and Standard tickets available on www.KatiePriceMerch.com UK, Ireland & Northern Ireland dates just added xx see you soon!'

Princess shared her future career plans in August after revealing she 'didn't pass all' of her GCSE exams.

She live-streamed herself finding out that she had passed three out of seven of her GCSEs earlier this month.

Princess recently took to her Instagram Stories to share what she is planning to do now she has left school, admitting she is 'excited' about her next steps.

The teenager - who is already signed to fashion brand PrettyLittleThing - told how she hopes to do social media and beauty training as a career.

When asked what her plans are, she replied: 'I'll be doing social media and private beauty training xx sooooo excited.'

Elsewhere in the 'ask me anything' Q&A, Princess was also asked if she was going to 'get anything done' when she turns 18 years old in two years' time.

Princess replied: 'Surgery wise no, I would stay natural x.'
Robin Quivers, Howard Stern's longtime on-air co-host, opened up to People about living with endometrial cancer for 11 years.

'I feel fine. Its been 11 years of dealing with this  and Im still here,' she told the publication in a new interview.

The radio personality was diagnosed with endometrial cancer in 2012 after she had trouble urinating and felt strangely fatigued.

'It was painful, it was scary, it was bizarre,' she recalled.

But at first 'nobody was able to diagnose it,' the 71-year-old media figure stated.

Candid: Robin Quivers, Howard Stern 's longtime on-air co-host, opened up to People about living with endometrial cancer for eleven years; pictured in 2018

Her story: The radio personality was diagnosed with endometrial cancer in 2012 after she had trouble urinating and felt strangely fatigued; pictured with Stern in 2001

The Baltimore, Maryland native sought the expertise of a gynecologist and a gastroenterologist.

She was given a series of CT scans, MRIs and biopsies, all which delivered inconclusive results.

'They told me, "We really dont know what this is. We cant identify it without going in and getting it,"' she explained.

It was later figured out that a 'grapefruit-size mass' had been 'resting on every organ in her pelvic area.'

Quivers required a hysterectomy followed by 'hours of meticulously scraping off layers of tissue and not destroying [whatever] organ it had been touching.'

Test results, plus feedback from a new group of medical professionals, revealed she had a rare form of stage 3C endometrial cancer, which lines the uterus.

It is the most common gynecological cancer in the United States, the American Cancer Society notes, with an estimated 66,000 women diagnosed annually, per People.

After surgery, Robin underwent radiation and chemotherapy for over a year.

Perseverance: 'I feel fine. Its been 11 years of dealing with this  and Im still here,' she told the publication in a new interview; pictured in 2015

Thriving: 'Im interested in everybody having a fuller life, more options and knowing whats possible,' she noted, adding that she now travels more and has implemented healthy lifestyle changes; pictured in 2018

Throughout the process, Robin said her close friends 'just surrounded me and made this network to take care of me. I never had to ask for anything. It was just overwhelming.'

'I was pretty tired, but I felt fine,' she remembered of her six rounds of chemotherapy and six weeks of radiation. She was cancer-free for three years before it came back and spread to her lymph nodes in 2016.

'Its never been a huge problem,' she told the outlet. 'When its shown some growth, then we have to manage that.' Robin now undergoes immunotherapy infusions intermittently. 'When youre in and out of treatment, youre always recovering and trying to get back to where you were.'

'Im interested in everybody having a fuller life, more options and knowing whats possible,' she noted, adding that she now travels more and has implemented healthy lifestyle changes.
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Kylie Jenner proved she can make any outing a personal runway show when she was spotted in Los Angeles on Friday.

The makeup mogul, 26, looked like a supermodel as she was seen arriving for a business meeting in the tony LA town of Woodland Hills.

Rocking a pair of low-rise faded denim, the mother of two showed off her sculpted waist with aplomb.

She paired the casual yet chic look with a black leather motorcycle jacket that cut just below her chest, giving a peek at her toned abs.

Her trademark raven tresses were kept long and loose as she made her made across a parking lot and onto the sidewalk.

Supermodel: Kylie Jenner looked like a supermodel as she was spotted arriving for a business meeting in the tony LA town of Woodland Hills

Big news: The outing comes after it was announced Kylie would be featured on the latest Treehouse of Horror episode of The Simpsons

Chic style: She paired the casual yet chic look with a black leather motorcycle jacket that cut just below her chest, giving a peek at her toned abs

The outing comes after it was announced Kylie would be featured on the latest Treehouse of Horror episode of The Simpsons.

The Halloween-themed specials have become a cult hit for the long-running animated series.

Kylie will be playing a 'secret member of a covert force of enlightened techno-geniuses' on the November 5 episode.

One of the show's writers, Brian Kelley, said in a statement: 'Longtime Kylie fans wont be surprised to find out that she plays a secret member of a covert force of enlightened techno-geniuses who keep the digital universe safe for us mere mortals to use. Who else could she be?'

According to Variety, the reality star, Jimmy Fallon, and Rob Gronskowski are members of the 'illuminati of the crypto universe' in the spooky Simpsons chapter.

'We wrote her some pages, and I think its a good fit. She was up for it and game to be made fun of as a celebrity shill,' showrunner Matt Selman told the outlet.

The news also follows Kylie's fun girls' night out with her sister Kendall Jenner and their BFF Hailey Bieber to celebrate Kyle's new clothing line, Khy.

The three gorgeous ladies showed up to the shindig in Hollywood rocking all black leather ensembles.

Stunner: Rocking a pair of low-rise faded denim, the mother of two showed off her sculpted waist with aplomb

Her style: Her trademark raven tresses were kept long and loose as she made her made across a parking lot and onto the sidewalk

Spooky fun: Kylie will be playing a 'secret member of a covert force of enlightened techno-geniuses' on the November 5 episode

Costars: The reality star, Jimmy Fallon, and Rob Gronskowski are members of the 'illuminati of the crypto universe' in the spooky Simpsons chapter

They also shared clips from the launch to their respective Instagrams, as they showed off their incredible ensembles.

Kylie partnered with independent label Namilia's founders Nan Li and Emilia Pfohl for Khy's first collection.

Sources familiar with Jenners brand told DailyMail.com that she is 'looking forward to continuing to partner Khy with designers and brands like she did with her first collection with European brand Namilia  and bringing beautiful original designs with that brand's aesthetic to more people.'

The new designs: Jenner shared the new looks from her clothing line Khy this week

Big night: The news also follows Kylie's fun girls' night out with her sister Kendall Jenner and their BFF Hailey Bieber to celebrate Kyle's new clothing line, Khy

Cheers! The ladies shared clips from the launch to their respective Instagrams, as they showed off their incredible ensembles

Kylie announced her new fashion project via her Instagram on Tuesday, with a sizzling snap captioned, 'meet khy.'

In the photo the reality TV star  who's currently dating actor Timothee Chalamet  was seated on the floor, wearing a long black leather trench coat with undone zippers on the sides showing off her toned legs.

She told WSJ: 'Creatively I have such a strong vision of what I want to look like and what I want to do and what I want to wear. Theres really no one telling me what to do.'
No event suffered by the Royal Family has been more harrowing than the assassination of Lord Mountbatten in 1979, the victim of a 50lb IRA bomb as he and members of his family went lobster-potting off Ireland's north-west coast.

But there seems scant chance of the late earl  King Charles's beloved great uncle  being allowed to rest in peace. For I can disclose that the producers of a Channel 4 documentary  alleging Mountbatten was embroiled in a notorious sexual abuse scandal  have themselves become victims of a series of disquieting events.

One of the producers, Des Henderson, explains that the programme, Lost Boys: Belfast's Missing Children, concerns the city's Kincora Boys' Home, to which, he claims, there is 'no doubt Mountbatten is linked'.

Claims: Producers of a Channel 4 documentary  alleging Lord Mountbatten was embroiled in a sexual abuse scandal  have themselves become victims of a series of disquieting events

One of the producers, Des Henderson, explains that the programme, Lost Boys: Belfast 's Missing Children, concerns the city's Kincora Boys' Home (pictured), to which, he claims, there is 'no doubt Mountbatten is linked'

While interviewing people, Henderson received two threatening phone calls at his office. One warned him to be 'careful'; the other was more explicit. '[The caller said]: 'I really do want to warn you about looking into this stuff. There are all kinds of things that could happen, if you dig too deep.'

The following week, Henderson returned to his home, a remote building close to Northern Ireland's north-east coast. It had been burgled.

He believes it wasn't an opportunistic break-in. 'They drove down a narrow lane behind my house, into a field, and climbed over my back wall,' Henderson tells me. The intruders 'ransacked' the house. Yet only one thing was taken.

'A desktop computer,' says Henderson, who, after reporting the break-in, mentioned it to a local farmer. 'He said in all his life there'd never been a burglary.'

None of this surprises one contributor to the documentary, literary agent and author Andrew Lownie, who says that government agencies have kept an eye on him ever since he started investigating Mountbatten.

'They've monitored job applications I've made,' he tells me at Wimbledon BookFest, 'and court cases I'm involved in.'

He adds: 'It's taken Channel 4 years to get this documentary off the ground. I've been talking to them since 2019 and they get nervous and they back off. It's only because one of Mountbatten's victims is bringing a case in the high court in Belfast that they've now been encouraged to go on.'
Ever since Britney Spears was released from her strict conservatorship two years ago, pop music's erstwhile princess has been on a mission to free herself of the past and show the world who she really is.

No longer an indentured slave to her father, instead of performing sell-out shows in Las Vegas, she now performs for her 42 million followers on Instagram, to a mixed reception.

Her posts are, to put it bluntly, rather worrying, ranging from the obscene to the bizarre to the deeply disturbing.

One minute she's playing with her dogs, the next she's trying on ever tackier outfits, the next she's gyrating in her smallest of smalls, fixing the camera with a haunting thousand-yard stare.

Recently she posted a video of herself dancing with a pair of knives in what (after countless followers professed concerns) she later explained was a tribute to Shakira's performance at this year's MTV Video Music Awards.

The publication this week of her memoir, The Woman In Me, is designed in some ways to take the reader through the looking glass

That fundamental lack of emotional foundation meant that everything she achieved was, ultimately, built on sand, bound to come crashing down, as it inevitably did

And it's true: Shakira did incorporate knives into her glitzy, provocative stage act. But Britney's interpretation felt more than a little unhinged.

There was something deeply disturbing about this once seemingly unstoppable young woman, famous for bringing a python on stage at the same awards event almost 20 years ago, now playing with kitchenware on her own in an empty mansion.

Many have started to question whether that infamous conservatorship  lifted in large part thanks to a grassroots campaign by her loyal legion of fans  was in place for a good reason.

The publication this week of her memoir, The Woman In Me, is designed in some ways to answer that question; to take the reader through the looking glass and show the world Britney's story not from the perspective of her handlers, her exes, her family or the media, but her own emotions and experiences. And I have to say, it's compelling stuff.

Even if you're not a fan of her music, there's no denying Britney has her place in the cultural landscape of the 21st century.

Her debut album, Baby One More Time, released in 1999 when she was just 16, made her the best-selling teenage artist of all time; the video for the single  a Lolita-like interpretation of teenage lust  pushed all the boundaries

Her debut album, Baby One More Time, released in 1999 when she was just 16, made her the best-selling teenage artist of all time; the video for the single  a Lolita-like interpretation of teenage lust  pushed all the boundaries.

Her subsequent stratospheric rise and spectacular fall from grace is a modern parable about the perils of fame. You might not like her, but you can't ignore her.

Now this book reveals a part of Spears that we have never really glimpsed. Pretty much every ounce of her flesh has been on display since she was a child.

Pretty much every ounce of her flesh has been on display since she was a child. But here we see into her mind  and also, I think, her heart

But here we see into her mind  and also, I think, her heart.

It's a peculiar combination of teenage diary and misery memoir, written in a blunt, almost matter-of-fact style by someone who often seems oddly detached from the narrative, as though observing herself from afar.

There's a hardness to this version of Spears that I had not expected, an anger that seethes throughout, completely at odds with the giggly, girlish persona she so often portrays.

She is succinct and to the point, business-like almost, even in her most explosive or emotional moments.

There is surprisingly little self-pity. She is in many ways as tough on herself for her own failings as she is on others.

And it may come as some surprise  it certainly surprised me  to discover that she is very far from the slightly vacuous pop bimbo she was cast as for all those years. This Britney is as sharp as a tack, intuitive, highly perceptive.

Jamie Spears, now 71, does not exactly cover himself in glory in this account. Indeed, it's clear that so much of Britney's psychosis over the years, her depression, her disastrous romantic relationships and, I dare say, her highly sexualised early image too  this half-child, half-sex-kitten thing  was informed by her father

She has no illusions about the people in her life, or their motives. She knows exactly where she is in her head. And she's taking no prisoners.

She was not, of course, always this way. By her own admission, she was a people-pleaser, someone who desperately wanted to be liked, loved and appreciated.

Her father's drunken rages, her mother's bitterness and resentment, their lack of parental responsibility and general incompetence: it's hard not to conclude that she grew up in an atmosphere of toxic chaos

It's a trait a lot of women have in common. It's partly a product of our conditioning, but in Spears's case it was deeply rooted in her relationship with her father.

Ah, her father. Jamie Spears, now 71, does not exactly cover himself in glory in this account.

Indeed, it's clear that so much of Britney's psychosis over the years, her depression (because she was, as she herself says, so often 'in a dark place'), her off-beam behaviour, her disastrous romantic relationships and, I dare say, her highly sexualised early image too  this half-child, half-sex-kitten thing  was informed by her father.

Much of the publicity surrounding this book has focused on the more sensational revelations: her abortion aged 19, Justin Timberlake dumping her by text message, the public meltdowns, her own infidelities.

But in fact the real meat is in what she reveals about him, as well as her relationship with her mother.

Reading about her early years, it's impossible to see her family as anything other than deeply dysfunctional. Indeed, even without the huge pressures of pop stardom, the chances of Spears not going off the rails would have been slim.

Her father's drunken rages, her mother's bitterness and resentment, their lack of parental responsibility and general incompetence: it's hard not to conclude that she grew up in an atmosphere of toxic chaos.

Waiting tables in a seafood restaurant, aged nine, to plug the gaps in the family's finances; driving (and crashing the car) aged 13; drinking cocktails with her mother aged 14. It's a litany of neglect.

One memory, to which she repeatedly returns, is of being scared to get in the car with her father because his behaviour was so erratic.

She never felt safe around him, never felt the security and stability that she, like all children, craved.

That fundamental lack of emotional foundation meant that everything she achieved was, ultimately, built on sand, bound to come crashing down, as it inevitably did.

Like so many children of destructive parents, Britney ended up taking on the role of the parent herself very early on, before she was even into her teens.

That fundamental lack of emotional foundation meant that everything she achieved was, ultimately, built on sand, bound to come crashing down, as it inevitably did.

Just as her pop persona projected a disturbing combination of the childlike and the adult, in her real life she was also called to inhabit adult roles, to assume responsibility far too young.

Her precociousness  and ambition  was in large part a product of necessity.

Her talent was her parents' ticket to a better life, and the only part of their daughter the Spearses ever nurtured or encouraged.

To her mind, they treated her like some sort of pop Cinderella, her siblings enjoying the fruits of her labour while she sweated it out on stage night after night. Pictured: Britney with her father Jamie, brother Bryan, sister Jamie-Lynn and mother Lynne

And it worked. By the time she was 20 she had bought them a home, cleared her father's debts (at one point he was declared bankrupt) and was funding a pampered, privileged upbringing for her brother Bryan and younger sister, Jamie Lynn.

If everything she says is true, there are no two ways about it: Mr and Mrs Spears came to regard their eldest daughter as little more than a cash cow from a very early age.

Jamie paid himself vast sums of her money; when she was at her lowest ebb her mother published a book about her. Not only do they come across as apparently indifferent to their daughter's suffering, they also seemed to exploit it, capitalising on her weakness to line their own pockets.

Or, at least, that's very much how Britney sees it. To her mind, they treated her like some sort of pop Cinderella, her siblings enjoying the fruits of her labour while she sweated it out on stage night after night.

And when the going got tough, they just got nasty; just kept milking her, down to the very last drops. 'No matter how many fans I had in the world,' she writes, 'my parents never seemed to think I was worth much.'

And yet still, like all abused children who crave a few crumbs of comfort, she kept trying to win their approval, and in particular that of her absent, drunken failure of a father.

There she was, a bestselling artist, a global pop phenomenon, and all he could do was tell her she was too fat.

'Feeling like you're never good enough is a soul-crushing state of being for a child,' she writes.

'He'd drummed that message into me as a girl, and even after I'd accomplished so much, he was continuing to do that to me.'

Gaslighting on an industrial scale, fuelled no doubt by his own feelings of inadequacy, which culminated in Jamie eventually gaining full control over every aspect of his daughter's life, from the medications she took  including lithium, which made her feel drunk and befuddled  to what contraception she used for 13 years. It's clear that she feels violated, and when your read the stark details of the arrangement, it's hard not to agree with her.

'I became a robot,' she writes. 'But not just a robot  a sort of child-robot. I had been so infantilised that I was losing pieces of what made me feel like myself 13 years went by with me feeling like a shadow of myself.

'I think back now on my father and his associates having control over my body and my money for that long and it makes me feel sickI didn't deserve what my family did to me.

'I wanted a dad who would love me as I was  somebody who would say, 'I just love you. You could do anything right now. I'd still love you with unconditional love.' '

This desire to be loved, a desire never satisfied, inevitably plays out in her romantic relationships.

The two most significant men in her life, Timberlake and Kevin Federline, her second husband (although she was married to her first for less than three days) and father to her two children, also failed her.

Timberlake cheated on her, allegedly pushed her into having an abortion, dumped her by a two-word text  and then made a bestselling single (Cry Me A River) slut-shaming her.

Timberlake cheated on her, allegedly pushed her into having an abortion, dumped her by a two-word text  and then made a bestselling single (Cry Me A River) slut-shaming her

The backlash against her was phenomenal: at one point she recalls going to an LA Lakers game and the entire stadium booing her.

And yet one of the most heartbreaking passages in the book is Chapter 13, the smallest and saddest little chapter you will ever read. Barely two pages long, it is a bittersweet eulogy to her love for him.

Federline was an even trickier piece of work. He already had one child and another on the way with his ex (all of whom he unceremoniously dumped) when he turned his attentions to a bruised, vulnerable Britney, clearly spotting his opportunity to piggy-back on her fame.

Arguably little more than a straightforward lothario, Federline is the one who finally drove her over the edge by taking her children  the youngest aged just five months  from her.

In both cases, she tried her hardest to create the perfect family she never had. She talks about her life with Timberlake ('so in love with him it was pathetic', always apologising for wanting to be happy), sharing a 'gorgeous, airy two-storey house with a tile roof and a swimming pool out back' in Orlando, Florida.

After their split, she says how much she missed not just him but also his family. 'Justin's family had been the only real, loving family I had,' she writes. 'I thought of them as home.

'My mom would come out and visit us every once in a while, but she's not who I went home to, ever.' That bit really struck me; how she felt more at home with her ex-boyfriend's relatives than her own.

With Federline, she turned a blind eye to his other family, to his partying, to his absurd pretentions, to the fact that he was clearly using her to further his own ambitions.

As she admits herself, she was played. 'That's one thing Justin and Kevin ruined about me,' she writes. 'I used to trust people. But after the break-up with Justin and my divorce, I never really did trust people again.'

But I suppose ultimately the question is this: do we trust Britney? Do we trust this, her version of events?

After all, she has spoken out before about certain moments, such as the infamous interview in 2003 with Diane Sawyer, which she claimed she was forced into doing by her father.

He, via his lawyer, denied any involvement, adding: 'Mr Spears has no idea what Ms Spears is talking about. Jamie never set

up any interview with Diane Sawyer and was not present for any such interview.

'He had nothing to do with Britney's career at this point and was completely uninvolved in this interview.

'Jamie loves Britney very much, wishes Britney nothing but the best and hopes that she continues to seek the help that she needs to stay safe and healthy.'

Looking at her latest Instagram posts  a picture of her stark naked, another video in which she pulls her shorts down provocatively  it's hard to know.

'Perhaps she does need help. She's certainly not helping herself with these bizarre and disturbing behaviours.

The angry but often very clear-sighted woman who emerges from these pages feels very different to the hollow-eyed attention-seeker on my screen.

'The Britney of the book is full of self-knowledge, some might even say wisdom. Many of her experiences  those beyond the spotlight, that is  will resonate with her readers. But is this the real Britney?

I have a feeling we will never truly know. And the tragedy is that neither, perhaps, will she. But one thing I will say: if any of us had been what she's been through, perhaps we too would be dancing with knives.

THE WOMAN IN ME by Britney Spears is out now (Gallery UK, 25)
Love Island star Davide Sanclimenti has spoken out about the reason why he split from Ekin-Su Culculoglu.

The couple recently rekindled their romance after announcing very publicly they had split in June after 11 months together.

And now, Davide, 28, has revealed his relationship with Ekin-Su, 29 broke down after they failed to see eye-to-eye on various issues and that a temporary separation was 'needed'.

'It's a lovely feeling being with Ekin, we probably broke up more publicly but never privately because we have always been in touch and the love between me and Ekin has always been there', he told The Sun.

'Breaking up may happen to people but it never actually happened to us, we never properly privately broke up, it was more to do with the public pressure and we were having some tough months.'

Rekindled romance: Love Island star Davide Sanclimenti has spoken out about the reason why he split from Ekin-Su Culculoglu (the couple pictured together on Thursday night)

The truth: Davide, 28, has revealed his relationship with Ekin-Su, 29 broke down after they failed to see eye-to-eye on various issues

The couple sent tongues wagging when, not long after their break-up, they were spotted leaving the ITV summer party together in July.

The pair were spotted getting into the same cab, however, they decided to keep their rekindled romance under wraps during the time.

Davide explained why the couple wanted to keep their relationship on the down-low and claimed there were some things they needed to work on before going public again.

He added: 'Of course there were some things that both of us wanted to work on. Nor me nor Ekin were perfect in the relationship and probably needed to have a bit more communication and now I don't regret nothing that happened because I feel stronger and I feel we understand each other.'

Davide said he feels since reuniting they have become stronger and that everything 'happens for a reason'.

At the time of their split Davide took to Instagram to announce their break-up.

It happened just days after the couple attended the premiere of Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny together.

Davide wrote: 'Ekin-Su and I are no longer together. I am grateful for the memories and opportunities we shared together and I wish her nothing but the best.

Split! The Love Island couple split back in June after 11 months together. Davide took to Instagram at the time to share the sad news with his followers

'I would like for everybody to respect this decision during this difficult time. I will continue to support Ekin in anyway possible.'

Ekin-Su and Davide were crowned the winners of Love Island in 2022 after a turbulent romance.

Sources also claimed the pair jetted off on a make-or-break trip to Amsterdam, but struggled to get their relationship back on track.

A source told The Sun: 'They haven't been getting along for quite some time and they really tried to make it work, but despite their best efforts, they've decided to call it quits.'

Davide also hinted that his relationship with Ekin-Su was on the rocks, when he posted a shirtless snap hinting that he could be heading back to the Love Island villa.

Drama! It comes after In April, Ekin-Su was said to be left 'fuming and upset' after finding messages and pictures from two models on Davide's phone

He captioned his post: 'Guess who's coming back.'

It comes after earlier this year Davide admitted that he and Ekin-Su faced 'struggles' with their relationship.

In April, Ekin-Su was said to be left 'fuming and upset' after finding messages and pictures from two models on Davide's phone.

The Italian businessman spoke candidly about their relationship in an interview with The Sun, in which he reflected on the realities of their life in the spotlight.

He said: 'Me and Ekin-Su had our struggles due to our public positions and we still have them sometimes.

'If there's something that I would change or would have done differently [with Ekin-Su in the villa] maybe I would have taken things a bit more slowly.'

Davide went on to say that despite this the couple are still very much in the throes of romance, particularly because they have the 'same background.'

'The best thing about dating Ekin-Su is that we understand each other - not just because we are literally the same person,' He went on. 'She is my copy-paste.'
Rachel Zegler channels Snow White in a first look image released by Disney in promotion of the controversial remake.

The fairytale is being brought back to the big screen in live-action form, and fans were finally given an official glimpse at the upcoming film in a new promotional image.

The photo captures Rachel, clad in Snow White's iconic gown, with the seven dwarfs.

The dreamy image sees Zegler, 22, and the others gathered inside a sunlit cottage.

Snow White, a remake of Walt Disney's 1937 animated feature film Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs, has not been without controversy since filming began.

Rachel Zegler's transformation into Snow White has been made complete in a first look image released by Disney

When the casting for the film was revealed, the Latina actress was met with criticism and disgraceful racist trolling for not being a traditionally 'fair' German princess.

However Zegler hit back at critics who who questioned her casting as the historically white character on social media, writing in a since-deleted tweet: 'yes i am snow white no i am not bleaching my skin for the role.'

The upcoming movie also faced backlash from actor Peter Dinklage, who has a common form of dwarfism known as achondroplasia, after he slammed the studio for remaking the backward film that reinforces stereotypes.

'Literally no offense to anyone, but I was a little taken aback when they were very proud to cast a Latina actress as Snow White  but youre still telling the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,' Peter previously told Marc Maron on his WTF podcast.

'Take a step back and look at what youre doing there. It makes no sense to me. Youre progressive in one way and youre still making that f***ing backward story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together, what the f*** are you doing man?'

Disney said the film, which is still years from release, will have cultural consultants, just like its life-action remakes of Aladdin and Mulan did.

The studio also claims it has been working on reimagining the dwarf characters since its earliest production stages.

Peter was promoting his new movie Cyrano on the podcast with Maron where they were discussing 'wokeness' when he discussed the Snow White reboot.

The film, a remake of Walt Disney's 1937 animated feature film Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs, has not been without controversy since filming began

'Have I done nothing to advance the cause from my soap box? I guess Im not loud enough,' Peter questioned.

He added he didn't know what studio was remaking Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, but he recalled, 'they were so proud of it.'

'All love and respect to the actress and all the people who thought they were doing the right thing. But I'm just like, what are you doing?' he added.

In a statement released in response to Dinklage, the company said it had been consulting with members of the dwarfism community throughout the early stages of production.

'To avoid reinforcing stereotypes from the original animated film, we are taking a different approach with these seven characters and have been consulting with members of the dwarfism community,' a spokesperson said.

Beloved film: The original animated film was released in 1937

'We look forward to sharing more as the film heads into production after a lengthy development period.'

Zegler addressed complaints the film was trying to be politically correct in an interview with Vanity Fair last year, saying the story needed refreshing.

People are making these jokes about ours being the PC Snow White... yeah, it is - because it needed that, she said.

The live-action adaptation of Snow White is scheduled to make its premiere in theaters in the U.S. on March 21, 2025, according to IMDb.
Love Island Australia host Sophie Monk has revealed the surprising things that make her butt heads with her husband Joshua Gross.

Ahead of the premiere of the dating show on Monday, the 43-year-old spoke to 9Honey about how television affects her relationship.

Monk says that when watching dating shows like Love Island, she often argues about the behaviour of the contestants with Joshua.

'We sit and argue and he's like, "I'm right on this!" Once it gets you chatting, you know it's a good show.'

'It's like MAFS, my husband and I fight about that like, "That's so not right!"' she added.

Love Island Australia host Sophie Monk has revealed the surprising things that make her butt heads with her husband Joshua Gross. (Pictured together)

Monk says that when watching dating shows like Love Island, she often argues about the behaviour of the contestants with Joshua

Additionally, Sophie shared her thoughts on the exciting news that Kirra Schofield, the sister of the well-known Married At First Sight star Bronte, will be joining the Villa this season.

'If you're looking for a show to get addicted to in a positive way, then Love Island Australia is the one,' Sophie said.

The former pop star is recently married, after walking down the aisle with Josh last year.

The couple exchanged vows at their NSW Central Coast home after eloping together.

The former pop star is recently married, after walking down the aisle with Josh last year

'I HAVE A HUBBY!' she announced via Instagram at the time.

'We eloped-ish at home. I can't believe I met him on a plane! It's crazy. Best flight of my life! I really do believe everything happens for a reason.

'I love you @joshuargross thanks for putting up with how messy, disorganised and lazy I am.'

She continued, 'You're my best friend in the world AND you are welcome for how hilarious my jokes are and how I absolutely smash you in Xbox F1! We're both lucky.'

The married couple announced their engagement on January 15, 2021, via social media, after first meeting in August 2018 when they were sat next to each other in business class on a plane.

They shared a kiss mid-air, and have been together ever since.

The married couple announced their engagement on January 15, 2021, via social media, after first meeting in August 2018 when they were sat next to each other on a flight

After giving up on Hollywood and moving back to Australia in 2015, Sophie has had a successful career as a TV host, presenting Beauty and the Geek and Love Island for Channel Nine.

Before returning home, Sophie notched up some impressive credits, starring in Date Movie in 2006 alongside Alyson Hannigan and Jennifer Coolidge.

Earlier this year, the former pop star returned to the big screen, filming the tongue-in-cheek thriller Zombie Plane alongside '90s American rapper Vanilla Ice.
Kendall Jenner looked ready to sit in the cockpit as she donned a stylish flight suit just a day after partying it up alongside Hailey Bieber to celebrate the launch of sister Kylie's Khy clothing line.

The 27-year-old catwalk queen donned a much more relaxed ensemble as she headed to a meeting in Beverly Hills on Friday morning.

She teamed the dark one-piece jumpsuit with a pair or red and white striped heeled booties which resembled candy canes.

The stunner accessorized the look with a black leather belt with a large gold buckle and a white Bottega Veneta bag.

Kendall Jenner looked ready to sit in the cockpit as she donned a stylish flight suit just a day after partying it up alongside Hailey Bieber to celebrate the launch of sister Kylie's Khy clothing line

Her signature raven-colored tresses were worn down as she showcased her natural looks with complementary make-up

Just a day prior Kylie Jenner stunned on Thursday as she stepped out for dinner with her sister Kendall and gal pal Hailey Bieber to celebrate her new clothing brand.

The makeup mogul, 26, sizzled in a faux black leather look, from her new fashion line Khy, featuring a halter zip-up black top that gave a peek at her toned midriff.

The mother-of-two teamed the sexy top with matching black pants and strappy heels.

She also recruited her sister Kendall to model her fashion, with the runway sensation wowing in a sleeveless skintight black leather dress from Khy, and a pair of black heels.

Hailey, 26, kept up with the Jenners, sporting a zip-up black leather mini dress adorned with silver zippers - also from her friend's label - and a black turtleneck bodysuit underneath.

Kylie wore her raven tresses in bouncy curls for the night.

As for glam, the lip kit guru sported a matte pink pout, glowing bronze eyeshadow, and a touch of blush on the apples of her cheeks.

The 27-year-old catwalk queen donned a much more relaxed ensemble as she headed to a meeting in Beverly Hills on Friday morning

She teamed the dark one-piece jumpsuit with a pair or red and white striped heeled booties which resembled candy canes

She let the rocker chic look speak for itself, keeping light on accessories, with only a delicate bracelet and a black purse in her hand.

Her sister also kept her accessories to a minimum, holding a black clutch and wearing a silver bracelet for the night out.

Bad Bunny's girlfriend paired the outfit with black tights, and had her black strands pinned into a chic updo.

Hailey also sported a pair of black tights, and spruced up her look with gold hoops and a pair of 90's style sunglasses.

She had her blonde tresses pulled into a slicked bun for the dinner.

Kylie's best friend Anastasia 'Stassie' Karanikolaou, 26, also joined in on the fun.

The Instagram model wore a cropped black jacket over a black tee, and matching black leggings. She paired the outfit with pointed-toe black heels.

A number of her other pals also joined in, including Yris Palmer who rocked a busty black mini dress. Her friend Carter Gregory also made it to the dinner in a black top and leather pants.

All the ladies also shared clips from the event to their respective social media platforms, as they showed off their edgy outfits and enjoyed the night together.

Kylie shocked fans on Tuesday with the announcement that she was expanding her empire with the 'affordable' clothing line.

Girls' night out! Just a day prior Kylie Jenner stunned on Thursday as she stepped out for dinner with her sister Kendall and gal pal Hailey Bieber

Sizzling! The makeup mogul, 26, sizzled in a faux black leather look, from her new fashion brand Khy, featuring a halter zip-up black top that gave a peek at her toned midriff

Stunner: She wore her raven tresses in bouncy curls for the night out

Wow factor: The mother-of-two teamed the sexy top with matching black pants and strappy heels

New venture: Kylie will begin selling Khy products on the brand's website starting on November 1

Adjustment: She adjusted her shades while strutting down the street

Price range: Her collection, designed with an accessible price for consumers, will range from $48 to $198

Size inclusive: Sizes will range from XXS to 4X

From the back: Kylie's top closed with two straps on the back

Khy models: Kylie recruited her sister, 27, and friend, 26, to model designs from her new clothing label, Khy

Proud sister: Kendall wowed in a sleeveless skintight black leather dress from Khy, and a pair of black heels

But the upcoming fashion launch hasn't gone off without a hitch, as Jenner has been accused of copying designer Betsy Johnson's ideas for her line.

Johnson - not to be confused with American fashion icon Betsey Johnson - claims the concepts were copied from her label, Products.

Taking to Instagram on Wednesday to blast Jenner, Johnson wrote: 'We emailed Kylie and all her team @products.ltd concept and language and a line sheet 6 MONTHS AGO.'

'INTERESTING CONCEPT KYLIE: INTERESTING. Thanks for the co-sign  F**k your support.'

Johnson also took a swipe at Jenner's privileged upbringing as she shared a screengrab of her current 50,000 ($60,000) student debt and penned: 'While I stare @ my student debt.

'Worked my a** off for this. Like so many other working class kids who bust their a** for expertise they werent born into to realise their ideas.'

Jenner partnered with independent label Namilia's founders Nan Li and Emilia Pfohl for Khy's first collection, with Johnson slamming both Jenner and Namilia's alleged copying of her ideas as a 'trash move.'

Lengthy: The Vogue cover girl's tight gown was cinched in the middle

Minimum: The runway sensation also kept her accessories to a minimum, holding a black clutch and wearing a silver bracelet for the night out

Classy: Bad Bunny's girlfriend paired the outfit with black tights, and had her black strands pinned into a chic updo

On arrival: Kendall and Hailey walked together as they made their way to the famed Italian eatery

Good spirits: The girls looked in good spirits as they joined Kylie at the celebratory dinner

Keeping up with the Jenners! Hailey sported a zip-up black leather mini dress adorned with silver zippers, also from her friend's label, with a black turtleneck bodysuit underneath

Epitome of style: Hailey also sported a pair of black tights, and spruced up her look with gold hoops and a pair of 90's style sunglasses

Blondie: She had her blonde tresses pulled into a slicked bun for the dinner

Close friends: Kendall and Hailey held hands on their way in

Longtime friends: Justin Bieber's wife has been longtime friends with the Kardashian/Jenner family

Chatting it up: The girls chatted it up on their way in

Stay close! Hailey stayed close to Kendall as she navigated the sidewalk in her heels

Leggy! Hailey showed off her endless legs in the sizzling mini dress

Leaving: Kendall was pictured leaving after the event

Departing: Hailey kept her sunglasses on as she departed the dinner

Sources familiar with Jenners brand told DailyMail.com that she is 'looking forward to continuing to partner Khy with designers and brands like she did with her first collection with European brand Namilia  and bringing beautiful original designs with that brand's aesthetic to more people.'

DailyMail.com has contacted Jenner's representative for comment.

Jenner posed up in a $198 faux leather trench coat for a shoot to promote her brand, with Products also doing a version of an oversize trench and Namilia selling a similar faux leather 'Underworld' trench for $290.'

Kylie will begin selling Khy products on the brand's website starting on November 1.

Kylie announced her new fashion project via her Instagram on Tuesday, with a sizzling snap captioned, 'meet khy.'

In the photo the reality TV star  who's currently dating actor Timothee Chalamet  was seated on the floor, wearing a long black leather trench coat with undone zippers on the sides showing off her toned legs.

She told WSJ: 'Creatively I have such a strong vision of what I want to look like and what I want to do and what I want to wear. Theres really no one telling me what to do.'

However, the initial reactions from social media users weren't encouraging, as the Kardashians star was hit with a wave of complaints about the brand's supposedly cheap price point.

BFF: Kylie's best friend Anastasia 'Stassie' Karanikolaou, 26, also joined in on the fun

All black: The Instagram model wore a cropped black jacket over a black tee, and matching black leggings

Kylie's inner circle: Her friend Carter Gregory also made it to the dinner in a black top and leather pants

Although some of the items were reportedly set to be sold for lower prices than similar competitors, her fans and critics balked at some of the most expensive items in the line, which will supposedly max out around $200.

Beyond complaints about the prices, some fans were upset by the the reality star's alleged lack of inspiration when it came to her designs.

As evidence of both a lack of originality and inflated prices, some fans spied a pair of Khy gloves that Kylie wore in a Wall Street Journal piece announcing the venture, which were nearly identical to a pair of gloves sold on Amazon for nearly half what she is charging.

'Affordable lol,' wrote one poster on X (formerly Twitter), which summed up the mood of many users.

Another person simply added: 'And to her, what is "affordable?" Lol.'

However, it wasn't clear if everyone complaining about the prices had dug through to see prices.

Others saw her debuting the line in the Wall Street Journal as evidence that she was releasing something far from an 'affordable' clothing line.

Another common complaint was that Kylie was trying to imitate other celebrity fashion brands, in particular the dark minimalist style of The Row, which was founded in 2006 by Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.

TikTok: Kylie also shared a TikTok clip from the night

All angles: She struck a pose next to a 'Khy' sign at the start of the video

A glass of wine: Meanwhile in the next shot Kendall and Hailey were seen enjoying a glass of wine

Taking the plunge! Yris showed off her busty dress

Cute: Kendall also modeled the look on her Instagram Stories

Showing off: She proudly showed off her sister's fashion vision

Close-up: Hailey also shared a video from the night as she showed off her flawless makeup

One poser wrote that Kylie didn't put in 'the time and effort' that the Olsen twins did to become 'one of the most respected brands in fashion.'

Others speculated that Kylie was trying to beat Sofia Richie to the release of her own fashion line.

Her collection, designed with an accessible price for consumers, will range from $48 to $198.

Sizes will range from XXS to 4X.

Though Jenner is most known for her makeup empire, she has previously collaborated with her sister Kendall for a fashion line with PacSun back in 2012.
Former Big Brother sensation Alex Sibley revealed he gave driving lessons to his former housemate Jade Goody's son Bobby Brazier.

The former model, 44, appeared in the third series of the hit reality show alongside the Strictly star's mum, Alison Hammond and eventual winner Kate Lawler. Jade sadly died from cervical cancer in 2009 aged 27.

Nearly two decades after their Big Brother stint, Alex recalled he found himself spending time with Bobby, 20, back in the day.

I gave Jades son Bobby a driving lesson two or three years ago, he told Simon Gross on his weekly show Big Brother Extra.

He didnt know who I was until I told him I was with his mother in the Big Brother house.

Unexpected: Former Big Brother sensation Alex Sibley revealed he gave driving lessons to his former housemate Jade Goody 's son Bobby Brazier, who didn't know who he was (pictured Alex and Jade in 2002)

Back in the day:Bobby has become a household name thanks to his time on EastEnders and on Strictly Come Dancing - (pictured on Lorraine on Wednesday)

He went on explaining: Paul, a friend of mine, told Bobby that I could take him around for a driving lesson because his dad (Jeff Brazier) wasnt keen to take him.'

We went for a drive had lunch in Loughton on the way back. He started to loosen up and started to ask me who I was.

I told him that I was in Big Brother with his mum Jade. He asked me if I liked his mum, I said yes but it seemed Bobby didnt want to talk further about Big Brother.

It comes after EastEnders heartthrob Bobby made a cheeky comment on one of Dianne Buswell's Instagram posts on Monday night - hours before he declared his love for her on Lorraine on Tuesday

The actor and professional dancer Dianne 34, are coupled up in the latest series of BBC's Strictly Come Dancing and she is currently in a relationship with Joe Sugg, 32.

Memories: Paul, a friend of mine, told Bobby that I could take him around for a driving lesson as his dad ( Jeff Brazier ) wasnt keen to take him. We went for a drive had lunch in Loughton on the way back. He started to loosen up and started to ask me who I was,' the former Big Brother star said (pictured Alex in 2002)

Blunt: Alex revealed: It seemed Bobby didnt like the cameras following him round as a young child' (Jade pictured with Bobby at Waterstones in 2006 - she sadly died in 2009)

Fans have been quick to laud the close friendship between the two - as Dianne called Bobby her 'rock' after he supported her through a difficult few weeks culminating in a tearful appearance on Strictly.

Taking to Instagram, Dianne posted a photo of the two with the caption: 'Forgot I had this pic its so cute. From way back in Week 1 dancing our foxtrot!

'What has been your favourite Bobby and Di dance so far?'

Bobby soon commented on the post: 'Go to bed, early rise tomorrow.'

The pair then appeared on ITV's Lorraine on Tuesday morning where they discussed their close bond and hectic work schedule.

Bobby explained to stand-in host Christine Lampard: 'We spend so much time together [in rehearsals] all day every day together.'

Dianne then chimed in: 'So if we didn't like each other, that would be an issue!'

Special bond: Bobby has been winning hearts as a contestant on Strictly joked on Lorraine on Tuesday about his bond with professional dancer Dianne Buswell: 'There are times when I don't like you, but then there are times that I love you'

Support: Dianne has called Bobby her 'rock' after he supported her during a tearful appearance on the BBC dancing contest

Bobby joked: 'There are times when I don't like you, but then there are times that I love you.'

Christine then asked Bobby if Dianne 'cracks the whip a bit too much' and Bobby said: 'Yeah I think I'm getting better at working harder.

'You're rubbing off on me in certain ways and I'm rubbing off on you in certain ways and I think that's why last week went so well.'

Dianne added: 'We're starting to understand each other a bit more, I even had to ask him for a break last week and he said, "No."'

'He's working really, really hard and it shows because it was a beautiful dance. We loved it so much and long may it continue.'

On the show's Halloween theme last week, Dianne said: 'Bobby's hips are back!' We saw a lot of hip action in the Samba and we're going to see more hips this week.'

Bobby laughed: 'They [the hips] did surprisingly well.'

Dianne is currently balancing her busy Strictly schedule with spending time with YouTuber boyfriend Joe with whom she was partnered on the 2018 series.

She shared an adorable insight into their relationship over the weekend as she shared a picture of Joe taking her to the station in his dressing gown - showing their dedication to prioritise their relationship during rehearsals.

A grateful Dianne snapped a picture of Joe in the car, writing: 'Bless him waking up to take me to the station in my pyjamas.'

Dianne and Bobby, who scored 32 out of 40 on Saturday for their Viennese Waltz to JVKE's Golden Hour, have had a turbulent time over the past few weeks.

Dianne worried fans during a tearful appearance on the show in second-most recent episode, holding back tears as she chatted to Claudia Winkleman after the performance.

She said of Bobby during the chat: 'He has just been a massive rock this week, so thank you,' before her voice then broke as she leant into his chest and hugged him.

And after a week of speculation she has now finally addressed the moment, sadly revealing that her father Mark - who lives in Bunbury, Australia - is unwell.

In a Q&A on her YouTube channel she said: 'I thought I would be very upfront and honest with you all.

'Last week I got some news about my dad's health and I won't go into detail, but obviously that affected me.

'Being away from home and not being able to support and help your family in a time of need is quite a difficult thing so I did struggle a little bit last week in terms of that.'

While Dianne's family had plans to head to the UK for Christmas and watch her on Strictly, she said that wouldn't be happening now.

She told how instead she is planning to go home to Australia at the end of the year.

Dianne continued: 'There is a little road ahead for my dad but I believe 100% he is going to be fine and we are all going to get through it together.'

Honest: Dianne recently revealed the real reason behind her tearful Strictly appearance which sparked concern with her fans

She then asked fans to give her dad 'a little thought or prayer', which she would 'greatly appreciate'.

The emotional star went on: 'My dad is the sweetest, kindest man you will ever meet and the one thing he really wants is for me to keep going and to keep dancing my little heart out and doing what I love because that makes him the absolute proudest.

'Regardless if I go home with a glitterball or not I will still go home and have a hot Christmas.'
She's long been known for her chic dress sense.

And Helena Christensen showed off her effortless sense of style as she enjoyed a low-key stroll in New York City on Thursday.

The Danish model, 54, paired her pink T-shirt with a button-up denim midi skirt and completed the outfit with an ombre pair of double-bridge sunglasses and sensible green flats.

The mother-of-one also carried a chic multicoloured vintage Chanel hand bag with a beautiful bold flower on its flap.

Helena was seen engaging in conversation on the phone during her walk through the Greenwich village.

Beautiful: Helena Christensen, 54, showed off her effortless sense of style as she enjoyed a low-key stroll in New York City on Thursday

Casual: The Danish model paired her pink T-shirt with a button-up denim midi skirt and completed the outfit with an ombre pair of double-bridge sunglasses and sensible green flats

It comes after Helena paid tribute to only child Mingus Lucien Reedus, 23, her son with former flame, American actor Norman Reedus, whom the model dated between 1998 and 2003.

She posted a photo of him and captioned it with a purple heart.

The former Victoria's Secret Angel also shared a graphic comparing the number of mass shootings in the US, versus other countries.

Helena, who revealed her age-defying figure last month when she posed nude with Cindy Crawford and other modeling icons for the cover of Vanity Fair, wore an intriguing halter dress with its dual straps holding up two metal bars, which in turn held up the rest of her dress.

Alongside her work, Helena is currently an ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

The mother-of-one has made two trips to Colombia on behalf of UNHCR in Vogue, the first being in 2015.

After her returned from her second trip in September, Helena wrote a piece in Vogue about her experiences.

She wrote: 'Last month, when UNHCR asked me to return to Colombia, I immediately agreed. Since I was on Colombian soil for the first time, more than 2.4 million refugees from Venezuela have arrived.'

Sweet talk: Helena was seen engaging in conversation on the phone during her walk through the Greenwich village

Accessorise: She completed the outfit with an ombre pair of double-bridge sunglasses and sensible green flats

Mummy's boy: On Instagram, Helena paid tribute to only son Mingus Lucien Reedus, 23, by posting a photo of him underneath a purple heart

Helena finished with a request: 'I invite you to show support and solidarity...for all the people who have been forcibly displaced in the world.'

On Instagram, she said: In Colombia there are 6.8 million people internally displaced by violence and persecution.

'UNCHR works in hard-to-reach areas across Colombia which makes a difference for the communities affected by forced displacement.'
Los Angeles has the highest rate of retail crime, new figures show

Downtown San Francisco has developed a reputation as a breeding ground for theft in recent years.

But it appears the Golden City is not actually America's shoplifting capital. Instead, Los Angeles had the highest rate of 'organized retail crime' for the fifth consecutive year in 2022, according to a report by the National Retail Federation (NRF).

The research contains insights from 177 brands which accounted for $1.6 trillion annual sales in the US in 2022.

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 those losses accounted for by theft, it means firms shoplifters stole approximately $78.4 billion.

A report by the National Retail Federation (NRF) found Los Angeles had the highest rate of 'organized retail crime ' for the fifth consecutive year

San Francisco came in second place and was followed by Houston, TX, New York City, NY, Seattle, WA, and Atlanta, GA.

Sacramento, CA, and Chicago, IL came in joint seventh place. The top ten was rounded out by Denver, CO, Miami, FL, and Albuquerque, NM, which were all tied. The study did not specify how many incidents of crime each city had seen.

Retailers have always been vulnerable to shopliftings but there has recently been an emergence of coordinated and organized robberies at stores.

The NRF report confirms that the trend is largely being driven by major metro areas. The top five locations are also Democrat-led areas.

It has led to a drastic pushback from stores, with the likes of Target and CVS locking up their products to deter shoplifters.

A recent investigation by Inside Edition found that shoppers are now being forced to wait as long as 40 minutes for employees to come and unlock items from glass casings.

What's more, many retailers are abandoning crime-ridden cities as rampant theft makes them no longer viable.

A report earlier this year found that the number of retailers in San Francisco's Union Square area had been slashed from 203 in 2019 to 107.

It found that shrink, the total losses incurred by retailers, rose by $20 billion in a year to an eye-watering $112.2 billion last year. And with up to 70 per cent of those losses accounted for by theft, it means firms shoplifters stole approximately $78.4 billion

And earlier this month, Target announced it was closing nine stores across major cities amid soaring theft.

According to the NRF, shoplifters also appear to be becoming more violent. 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.'
Forty degrees of fever, vomiting, loss of consciousness and intensive care. The report from the head doctor of the prison administration, dated October 24, concerning the state of health of Senegalese opponent Ousmane Sonko, is more worrying than what the authorities had previously let appear. Arrested at the end of July, notably for calling for insurrection and endangering state security, the detainee resumed his hunger strike on October 17 to contest his incarceration, after having already been admitted to intensive care in August .

According to the correspondence from Colonel Abdoulaye Diagne, director of the prison administration, addressed to the Minister of Justice, Aissata Tall Sall, which leaked Thursday, October 26 to the press, he makes delusional and incoherent comments. The same evening, the public prosecutor reacted by announcing in a press release the opening of an investigation to identify the authors of this publication. In addition to the violation of the detainee's rights, these particularly serious facts constitute a whole range of offenses relating to the dissemination of personal data. 

Catastrophic state of health

These communications make it possible to establish that the Senegalese authorities are informed in every detail of their situation (). We warn the leaders of Senegal: their responsibility is engaged. In the event of an incident, there will be no impunity, his French lawyer, Juan Branco, spoke on October 26 on X (ex-Twitter).

The State does not dispute the content of this document. This means that he was aware of the catastrophic state of health of Ousmane Sonko, adds Me Bamba Cisse, lawyer for the leader of the African Patriots of Senegal for Work, Ethics and Fraternity (Pastef), dissolved July 31. Reacting to the prosecutors press release, the council considers that the question of the investigation is a backlash. My client is not asking for his personal data to be protected by the State, he insisted.

Lawyers and relatives of Ousmane Sonko have been warning about his state of health for several days already. Me Cire Cledor Ly announced on October 23 that he had fallen into a coma before regaining consciousness the same day. I have a special permit to go see Ousmane Sonko, but I was not able to visit him given his fragile state of health, testifies Amadou Ba, member of the opponents cabinet.

Avalanche of legal proceedings

Candidate for the February 2024 presidential election, Ousmane Sonko accuses the president, Macky Sall, of wanting to exclude him from the vote through repeated legal proceedings. Sentenced to two years in prison for corruption of youth in his absence, on June 1, the leader of Pastef was removed from the electoral lists. The decision was annulled by a judgment of the court of Ziguinchor, a city in the south of the country of which he is mayor, but this annulment has not yet been applied. The general directorate of elections still refuses to distribute its sponsorship forms, used to collect the signatures necessary to validate a candidacy, judging that the decision is "not final", since the State's lawyers have filed an appeal before the Supreme Court.

Another sword of Damocles hangs over Ousmane Sonko's head: the Supreme Court must soon rule definitively on his six-month suspended prison sentence handed down on appeal of the defamation trial brought by the Minister of Tourism, Mame Mbaye Niang, which could cause him to lose his civil rights.

King or kingmaker

Despite these difficulties, Birame Khoudia Lo, deputy secretary general of Pastef, maintains that Ousmane Sonko remains their one and only party candidate for the presidential election of February 2024. We are fighting to have the sponsorship forms, because he has been unjustly and arbitrarily arrested and removed from the electoral rolls. He will be king or kingmaker, he continues, while assuring that the party does not have a plan B.

Five other members of Pastef have however collected sponsorship forms, including El Malick Ndiaye, Abass Fall, Birame Souleye Diop, Bassirou Diomaye Faye and Guy Marius Sagna, MP currently on tour in Europe. None of them has declared themselves a candidate, but they could theoretically take the plunge if the party changed strategy.

For the moment, Pastef is asking its supporters to keep their sponsorships and wait for instructions, until all possible recourses are exhausted to restore his civil rights to Ousmane Sonko with a view to participating in the presidential election. Even if another candidate represents Pastef in 2024, it will be a transitional candidate and president. From the hospital, Ousmane Sonko gives his instructions, which we respect, says Baba, a young activist from Pastef, for whom Guy Marius Sagna would be the most legitimate alternative solution.
One97 Communications, which owns the Paytm brand, on Friday announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary Paytm Payment Services Limited (PPSL) has signed a pact with Startup Bihar to promote the state's startup ecosystem.

Under the memorandum of understanding (MoU), PPSL will help startups grow their businesses with the Paytm Startup Toolkit, which offers solutions in payments, payouts, banking, and distribution. Paytm Startup Toolkit will aid, simplify, and accelerate business ventures of youth in their early stages of growth, One97 Communications Limited said in a release.
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As Israel-Hamas conflict rages, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday spoke to his Omani counterpart Badr Albusaidi and discussed the ongoing crisis in West Asia that was triggered by the unprecedented attacks on the Israeli cities by Hamas militants on October 7.

In a post on X, Albusaidi said he emphasised the critical need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Jaishankar described the conversation as good.

A good conversation with Omani Foreign Minister @badralbusaidi. Discussed our bilateral relations and exchanged views on the crisis in West Asia, Jaishankar said in a post on X.

Albusaidi said respecting international law is an obligation for all.

I emphasised the critical need for an immediate cease fire in #Gaza and a good flow of humanitarian aid. Respect for international law is an obligation for all to save thousands of civilian lives. Stop the war now, he said. An increasing number of Arab countries have been pitching for a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel.

In the past few days, Jaishankar had discussed the situation in West Asia with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and his counterpart from the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

It may be mentioned here Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 23 spoke to Jordans King Abdullah-II and the two leaders shared concerns regarding terrorism, violence and loss of civilian lives in the backdrop of the ongoing conflict. Modi said concerted efforts are needed for an early resolution of the security and humanitarian situation.

Spoke with His Majesty @KingAbdullahII of Jordan. Exchanged views on the developments in the West Asia region. We share concerns regarding terrorism, violence and loss of civilian lives. Concerted efforts needed for early resolution of the security and humanitarian situation, he said in a social media post.

Incidentally, Prime Minister Modi on October 19 spoke to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

During their conversation, Modi said India would continue sending humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians. He also conveyed his condolences on the loss of civilian lives in the Gaza Strip due to the bombing at a hospital.

Shared our deep concern at the terrorism, violence and deteriorating security situation in the region. Reiterated Indias long-standing principled position on the Israel-Palestine issue, Modi said after speaking to Abbas.

In a post soon after Hamas launched 5,000 rockets at Israel in 20 minutes and began a multi-pronged attack by land, air and sea on October 7, Prime Minister Modi had said he was deeply shocked by the news of terrorist attacks in Israel and expressed Indias solidarity with the country in the difficult hour.

Modi reiterated his support for Israel on October 10, when he had posted that Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had called him and given him an update on the deadly conflict.

I thank Prime Minister @netanyahu for his phone call and providing an update on the ongoing situation. People of India stand firmly with Israel in this difficult hour. India strongly and unequivocally condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, Modi posted on X.

Speaking at the G20 Parliamentary Speakers Summit in New Delhi the same week, Prime Minister Modi said terrorism anywhere in the world and in any form was against humanity and emphasised that it was time for peace and brotherhood.

Calling for the world to move forward with a human-centric approach, he also said conflicts and confrontations in any part of the world impact everyone and do not benefit anyone.

India on October 22 sent more than 38 tonnes of relief material including medicines and medical equipment for the people of Palestine.
As temperatures plummet and the air gets dense, the countrys financial and political Capitals, Mumbai and Delhi, are reeling under the worst air pollution in years for the month of October.

While Mumbai is witnessing air pollution levels worse than that of Delhi, the latter is facing a spike in pollution caused by construction activities and vehicular pollution, resulting in high PM2.5 levels.

Stubble burning in neighbouring States and slow wind speed has just added to the agony of Delhi residents as they gasp for breath due to a decline in air quality over the past three weeks.

Delhis average air quality index (AQI) stood at 261, worsening from 256 on Thursday, 243 on Wednesday, and 220 on Tuesday. The AQI was recorded at Anand Vihar (326), Burari (305) and Shadipur (304), Nehru Nagar ( 337), ITO (245), Vivek Vihar ( 263), Lodhi Road (225).

Delhis air quality turned very poor on Sunday for the first time since May, mainly due to a drop in temperature and wind speed, which allowed pollutants to accumulate.

According to Air Quality Early Warning System for Delhi, the citys air quality is likely to deteriorate to the very poor category on Saturday, primarily due to slow wind speed and a dip in temperatures. While Delhi is facing a sharp decline in air quality in the coming days, crucial data that helped the government prepare a strategy to mitigate the air pollution problem is missing.

The Ministry of Earth Sciences System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research, which provided data about the contribution of smoke from farm fires to Delhis air pollution, has not been providing updates, and associated officials are unaware of the reason.

Similarly, data from the Decision Support System, a numerical model-based framework capable of identifying sources of particulate matter pollution in Delhi, isnt accessible to the general public.

As Delhis air quality turned poor, the Commission of Air Quality Management (CAQM) enforced the second phase of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), a set of measures in Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) to combat the deteriorating air during winter months.

Divided into four stages, these emergency curbs are imposed only when air pollution touches a certain mark. From November 1, only CNG, electric and BS-VI diesel buses will be allowed to operate in Delhi and NCR.

As part of the strategy, all public transport services, including the Delhi Metro and electric bus services, have been instructed to increase their frequency to curb vehicular emission. The Delhi Government may ask civic bodies to increase parking fees to discourage private vehicles.

Despite a reduction from 2022, cases of stubble burning are expected to peak between October 27 and November 15.

Delhis air pollution peaks during November 1-15 every year when stubble burning incidents in Punjab and Haryana is at its peak, according to an analysis by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC).

The Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi Government has identified 21 pollution hotspots and has listed a host of measures but a significant fall in pollution is yet to be seen.

The Delhi Government had launched a 15-point action plan to mitigate air pollution in the capital during the winter season, with a strong emphasis on addressing dust pollution, vehicular emission and open burning of garbage.

Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai has stated that the next two weeks are crucial for the city because of upcoming festivals like Diwali.

Farm fires in neighbouring States are other reasons of concern. Experts said a mix of factors like vehicular and industrial emissions, dust and weather patterns make Delhi the worlds most polluted capital.

The burning of crop stubble, which is also a major source of pollution, has not picked up speed yet in the regions near Delhi but it is expected to intensify in the coming days.

Northwest winds coming from these States will also pick up speed gradually, carrying smoke from stubble burning into Delhi, according to air quality forecast agency SAFAR.

A study led by researchers from IIT-Delhi has concluded that biomass burning emissions, rather than fireworks, drive the poor air quality in Delhi during the days following Diwali.

The IIT Kanpur study said vehicular pollution, dust pollution and industrial emission are some of the biggest contributors of Delhis deteriorating air quality.

When it comes to Mumbai, the primary cause of pollution is believed to be the dust arising from construction sites. The air quality in Mumbai remained in the moderate category with AQI at 105 on Friday. Earlier this week, Mumbai was among the most polluted metros in the world. The authorities in both cities have announced measures to curb air pollution. Presently, around 6,000 sites in Mumbai are witnessing construction.

Other causes of air pollution are climate change, road dust and its displacement, open burning of solid waste and garbage, and industries that include those using Ready Mix Concrete (RMC) plants and casting yard plants. Haze and smog blanketed skylines in Mumbai last week, with the AQI reaching beyond 300 in some parts of the city.

Experts have blamed the dust due to roads and construction activities and smoke from vehicles for the high pollution levels in the financial capital of the country. A 2020 study by NEERI and IIT-B stated that road or construction dust is the main source of air pollution in Mumbai as there is a heavy concentration (about 71 per cent) of the particulate matter in Mumbais air. The remaining comes from industrial and power units, airports, and garbage dumps.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday directed his Home Minister to prepare a plan to "appoint" civil defence volunteers as home guards and depute them as marshals in public transport buses in Delhi. The civil defense volunteers working as bus marshals are protesting against the government for their pending wages of several months.

The chief minister said the bus marshals have also helped in mitigating pickpocketing and other petty crimes on the buses. Kejriwal further said that the arbitrary removal of bus marshals will jeopardize their financial well-being since they come from very humble backgrounds. The Chief Minister asked Home Minister Kailash Gahlot for the prompt formulation of plans regarding the same.

In a letter written to Home Minister Kailash Gahlot regarding the importance of bus marshals, the chief minister said the government should develop a plan to appoint them only as home guards and continue them as bus marshals unless there is any specific complaint against any individual. These civil defence volunteers come from very humble backgrounds and it will put their families in severe financial crisis if they are suddenly removed. So, if we appoint the same set of people as home guards and put them on bus marshal duty, on one hand, the government will get experienced people and on the other hand, their jobs will continue. Please prepare a plan accordingly, Kejriwal said in the note.

Taking cognizance of the legality of this decision in mind, the Chief Minister stated, "Legal objections have been raised about the continuation of civil defence volunteers as bus marshals. It has been said that civil defence volunteers cannot be engaged in regular duties and that they can be called only during any disaster. Therefore, it has been suggested that home guards be appointed bus marshals instead of civil defence volunteers."

"I have separately proposed to LG that civil defence volunteers should be continued as bus marshals till adequate number of home guards are appointed in their place. If the bus marshals are suddenly removed, it will not be good for the safety of women travellers," the chief minister said, according to the note.

Since the existing civil defence volunteers who are working as bus marshals have the required experience a plan should be developed to appoint them only as home guards and continue them as bus marshals, unless there is any specific complaint against any individual, the chief minister.

"So, if we appoint the same set of people as home guards and put them on bus marshal duty, one one hand the government will get experienced people and on the other hand their jobs will continue," said the note.

Earlier, on September 3, Revenue Minister Atishi had ordered the Principal Secretary, Revenue, to release the salaries of civil defence volunteers and bus marshals within a week. However, even after the minister's order, their salaries have not been disbursed till date. This issue has arisen since the introduction of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Act 2023, and despite the minister's orders, they are not being paid. The lack of salaries has created financial difficulties for civil defence volunteers and bus marshals. The civil defence volunteers have not been paid their salaries since April this year.

The Bus Marshals scheme was introduced by the Transport Department, GNCTD in 2015 to improve women's safety in public buses in Delhi. Under the scheme, civil defence volunteers and home guards referred to as Bus Marshals are deputed in DTC and cluster buses and recruited by the Department of Revenue and the Directorate General of Home Guards respectively.
Delhi Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj on Friday alleged a conspiracy was being hatched to stop the Government's "Dilli Ke Farishtey" scheme, under which the government pays the bills of accident victims. He alleged that a few officials had conspired to stop the AAP Government's scheme of providing free treatment to accident victims with payments not being made to private hospitals for nearly a year.

He said that he has written to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to take action against the officials concerned.

"The payments are made to private hospitals at government rates. But for the last one year or so, payments have not been released to private hospitals. There is a conspiracy by certain officers to stop the scheme," he alleged in a press conference.

Revealing another critical piece of information related to this conspiracy, the Health Minister explained that in January 2023, when the Health Department brought to the notice of Deputy CM Manish Sisodia that Delhi government is owed approximately Rs 24.5 crores by private hospitals in Delhi, the Deputy CM wrote a letter to the Director-General of Health Services (DGHS) on January 24, 2023, asking for information about when these outstanding dues would be paid.

He requested that a timeline be provided to him. Surprisingly, no response was given to the Deputy CM.

As soon as he received information about this, he called a meeting on April 21, 2023, concerning this matter. Both the Health Secretary and DGHS, Mr. Nutan Mundeja, were present at this meeting. Shockingly, when he asked the officials in the meeting how much money private hospitals and laboratories owed by the Delhi government, he was officially told that no dues were pending, and all details are there in the minutes of the meeting.

A few days after this meeting, representatives of some private hospitals came to him and disclosed that the Delhi government owed crores of rupees to several private hospitals.

Upon receiving this information, he instructed Health Secretary Dr. S.B. Deepak Kumar to issue a show-cause notice to DGHS and inquire into the reasons for the incorrect information provided regarding the outstanding payments to private hospitals.
In a major boost to Barapullah Elevated Road Project between Sarai Kale Khan and Mayur Vihar, Delhi Lt Governor(LG) Vinai Kumar Saxena on Friday approved acquisition of 0.63 hectares of land in village Nangli Razapur near Sarai Kale Khan in south-east district for construction of piers.

The project has been stalled for more than six years due to acquisition of small parcels of land for the project.Saxena also directed the Chief Secretary that if there is any further delay, responsibility should be fixed on officers / officials behind it and action should be taken.

The LG asked for the concerns expressed by him on file to be brought to the notice of the Chief Minister and the Minister-in-charge.Saxena, is the designated competent authority as per the the Right to Fair. Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, while approving the proposal for acquiring the said land has expressed his displeasure over the delay in the project due to inaction on part of officers, officials said here.

The LG also noted that the project work was started without having requisite land parcels in hand and no concrete efforts were made by the authorities for timely acquisition of required land parcels, thereby affecting this project of immense public importance aimed at improving connectivity and decongesting traffic. What is even more outstanding is the fact that despite land not being in possession and the future implementation of the project being in jeopardy thereof, hundreds of crores of public fund was spent in construction of the project, Saxena noted.

He asked to identify individuals / officers / engineers, right from the project planning stage and further, so that responsibility could be fixed for this serious misdemeanour that resulted in non-completion of the project even after six years of its deadline and subsequent losses to the exchequer by way of cost overruns. He has asked for this exercise to be undertaken at the earliest and report thereof to be submitted to the LG Secretariat for further necessary action.

I am surprised that the project work was started without having requisite land parcels in hand, said the LG.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday arrested West Bengal minister Jyotipriyo Mallick in a money laundering case linked to an alleged multi-core ration distribution scam in the state, officials of the central agency said.

The minister was apprehended under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in the early hours of Friday following over 17-18 hours of questioning, they said.

ED officials said Mallick was taken from his home in the Salt Lake area on the outskirts of Kolkata to the central agency's office here around 3.30 am.

He will be produced before a local court where the ED will seek his custody, they said.

Mallick, who is a diabetic patient and has several other ailments, was taken to an ESI hospital in Joka in the southern part of the city, where he is undergoing medical tests, an ED officer said.

"Medical tests of the state minister are being conducted. These are routine tests. We will take him to the court where we will seek his custody, the ED officer told PTI.

"I am a victim of a great conspiracy," the TMC minister said after being arrested by ED in connection with the alleged ration distribution scam.

Mallick also alleged that the "conspiracy was hatched by the BJP and its leader Suvendu Adhikari", a former colleague in the TMC party.

"It is a conspiracy. The BJP is actively engaging in plotting nefarious schemes against us," said Mallick, who is currently state forest minister and previously held the portfolio of food and supplies.

The ED had earlier arrested a confidant of the minister Bakibur Rahman whose remand is ending this week.

Sources said that the central agency may seek to confront the two with each other's version of events in the case.

Mallick's arrest is the second instance of a TMC cabinet minister being apprehended by central agencies in connection with corruption cases.

Last year, former state minister Partha Chatterjee was arrested by the ED in a case related to a school job scam.

The agency had launched searches at Mallick's residences on Thursday. It also raided his ancestral house on Amherst Street in central Kolkata. The alleged scam pertains to reported irregularities in the public distribution system and also in the distribution of food grains during the Covid lockdowns.

Earlier on Thursday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee threatened to file a police complaint if anything happened to Mallick during the questioning as he was unwell and had several medical ailments.

Banerjee also termed the raids by the ED against opposition leaders as "a dirty political game" by the BJP.

The Trinamool Congress, which had previously termed the raids at Mallick's residence as "vendetta politics", is yet to issue an official response following his arrest.

Asked about Mallick's arrest, state Food and Supplies Minister Rathin Ghosh said, "It won't be right to draw any conclusion now when the investigation is still on. Let the investigation be over."

Party leader and state minister Shashi Panja also criticised the raids at Mallick's residences, asserting that "this is an attack on the culture of Bengal at the time of 'Bijoya Dasami' and is nothing but vendetta politics".

In response to the arrest of the state minister, the BJP said it was "expected" considering the pace of the investigation in the case.

BJP state spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said, "The arrest was anticipated after the revelations made by one of his associates, who was apprehended a few days ago. It has once again been proven that the TMC is deeply mired in corruption."

Taking to X, formerly, Twitter, leader of the opposition Suvendu Adhikari said, "Henceforth, the meeting of the state cabinet will be convened inside the jail."

In the past one year, two other MLAs and TMC Birbhum district president Anubrata Mondal have been arrested in connection with school job scams and cattle smuggling cases by central agencies.
West Bengal minister Jyotipriya Mallick, who was arrested on Friday in a money laundering case linked to an alleged multi-crore ration distribution scam, fainted inside an overcrowded courtroom when he was produced there by Enforcement Directorate (ED) officers, an official said.

The state forest minister collapsed after fainting during hearing inside the court, the official added.

Mallick was then escorted out of the courtroom to a balcony and given water to drink, he said.
Allied Properties Real Estate Investment Trust (OTCMKTS:APYRF  Get Free Report) and Corporate Office Properties Trust (NYSE:OFC  Get Free Report) are both real estate companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings and valuation.

Dividends

Allied Properties Real Estate Investment Trust pays an annual dividend of $1.06 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.1%. Corporate Office Properties Trust pays an annual dividend of $1.14 per share. Allied Properties Real Estate Investment Trust pays out 52.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Corporate Office Properties Trust pays out 67.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Corporate Office Properties Trust has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Allied Properties Real Estate Investment Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

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Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Allied Properties Real Estate Investment Trust and Corporate Office Properties Trust, as provided by MarketBeat.

Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score Allied Properties Real Estate Investment Trust 0 1 1 0 2.50 Corporate Office Properties Trust 0 2 1 0 2.33

Insider & Institutional Ownership

Allied Properties Real Estate Investment Trust presently has a consensus price target of $46.07, suggesting a potential upside of 295.80%. Corporate Office Properties Trust has a consensus price target of $29.00, suggesting a potential upside of . Given Corporate Office Properties Trusts higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Corporate Office Properties Trust is more favorable than Allied Properties Real Estate Investment Trust.

45.4% of Allied Properties Real Estate Investment Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.9% of Corporate Office Properties Trust shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Allied Properties Real Estate Investment Trust and Corporate Office Properties Trusts net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets Allied Properties Real Estate Investment Trust N/A N/A N/A Corporate Office Properties Trust 27.43% 10.93% 4.49%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Allied Properties Real Estate Investment Trust and Corporate Office Properties Trusts gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

Gross Revenue Price/Sales Ratio Net Income Earnings Per Share Price/Earnings Ratio Allied Properties Real Estate Investment Trust N/A N/A N/A $2.03 5.73 Corporate Office Properties Trust $739.03 million 0.00 $173.03 million $1.69 N/A

Corporate Office Properties Trust has higher revenue and earnings than Allied Properties Real Estate Investment Trust. Corporate Office Properties Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Allied Properties Real Estate Investment Trust, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Corporate Office Properties Trust beats Allied Properties Real Estate Investment Trust on 8 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Allied Properties Real Estate Investment Trust

(Get Free Report)

Allied is a leading owner-operator of distinctive urban workspace in Canada's major cities. Allied's mission is to provide knowledge-based organizations with workspace that is sustainable and conducive to human wellness, creativity, connectivity and diversity. Allied's vision is to make a continuous contribution to cities and culture that elevates and inspires the humanity in all people.

About Corporate Office Properties Trust

(Get Free Report)

COPT is a REIT that owns, manages, leases, develops and selectively acquires office and data center properties. The majority of its portfolio is in locations that support the United States Government and its contractors, most of whom are engaged in national security, defense and information technology (IT) related activities servicing what the Company believes are growing, durable, priority missions (Defense/IT Locations). The Company also owns a portfolio of office properties located in select urban submarkets in the Greater Washington, DC/Baltimore region with durable Class-A office fundamentals and characteristics (Regional Office Properties). As of June 30, 2023, the Company derived 90% of its core portfolio annualized rental revenue from Defense/IT Locations and 10% from its Regional Office Properties. As of the same date and including 24 properties owned through unconsolidated joint ventures, COPT's core portfolio of 192 properties encompassed 22.9 million square feet and was 95% leased.

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Sigma Planning Corp grew its position in shares of British American Tobacco p.l.c. (NYSE:BTI  Free Report) by 68.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 24,278 shares of the companys stock after purchasing an additional 9,829 shares during the quarter. Sigma Planning Corps holdings in British American Tobacco were worth $806,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of BTI. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. grew its holdings in shares of British American Tobacco by 1.6% in the 1st quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 18,028 shares of the companys stock worth $633,000 after acquiring an additional 281 shares during the last quarter. Meridian Investment Counsel Inc. grew its holdings in shares of British American Tobacco by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Meridian Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 38,412 shares of the companys stock worth $1,349,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Excalibur Management Corp grew its holdings in shares of British American Tobacco by 3.2% during the first quarter. Excalibur Management Corp now owns 10,151 shares of the companys stock valued at $357,000 after buying an additional 314 shares in the last quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of British American Tobacco by 3.3% during the first quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 11,597 shares of the companys stock valued at $407,000 after buying an additional 369 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Insigneo Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in shares of British American Tobacco by 7.4% during the first quarter. Insigneo Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,884 shares of the companys stock valued at $211,000 after buying an additional 406 shares in the last quarter. 7.56% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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British American Tobacco Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE BTI opened at $29.64 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $31.84 and a 200 day simple moving average of $33.07. British American Tobacco p.l.c. has a 52 week low of $29.55 and a 52 week high of $42.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.58.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. StockNews.com assumed coverage on British American Tobacco in a report on Thursday, October 5th. They set a buy rating on the stock. Argus downgraded British American Tobacco from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Friday, September 1st. Finally, Citigroup assumed coverage on British American Tobacco in a report on Monday, September 25th. They set a buy rating on the stock. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat, British American Tobacco presently has a consensus rating of Hold.

View Our Latest Analysis on BTI

About British American Tobacco

(Free Report)

British American Tobacco p.l.c. engages in the provision of tobacco and nicotine products to consumers worldwide. It offers vapour, tobacco heating, and modern oral nicotine products; combustible cigarettes; and traditional oral products, such as snus and moist snuff. The company offers its products under the Vuse, glo, Velo, Grizzly, Kodiak, Dunhill, Kent, Lucky Strike, Pall Mall, Rothmans, Camel, Natural American Spirit, Newport, Vogue, Viceroy, Kool, Peter Stuyvesant, Craven A, State Express 555 and Shuang Xi brands.

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Shares of Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS  Get Free Report) have been assigned an average recommendation of Hold from the eight analysts that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is C$58.04.

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on Fortis from C$59.00 to C$58.50 and set a market perform rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 8th. CIBC dropped their price objective on Fortis from C$59.00 to C$58.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 19th. Credit Suisse Group dropped their target price on Fortis from C$61.50 to C$60.50 in a research report on Thursday, August 24th. Scotiabank dropped their target price on Fortis from C$58.00 to C$57.00 and set a sector perform rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 16th. Finally, TD Securities dropped their target price on Fortis from C$65.00 to C$63.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 3rd.

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Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on FTS

Fortis Stock Performance

Shares of FTS opened at C$55.52 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 127.31, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.36. Fortis has a one year low of C$49.82 and a one year high of C$62.00. The firm has a market capitalization of C$27.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.76, a PEG ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.23. The business has a fifty day moving average of C$53.77 and a 200 day moving average of C$56.19.

Fortis (TSE:FTS  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 2nd. The company reported C$0.62 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of C$0.61 by C$0.01. The firm had revenue of C$2.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of C$2.63 billion. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.20% and a net margin of 12.82%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Fortis will post 3.1707596 EPS for the current year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 1st. Investors of record on Friday, November 17th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 16th. This is a positive change from Fortiss previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. Fortiss dividend payout ratio is 79.73%.

Fortis Company Profile

(Get Free Report

Fortis Inc operates as an electric and gas utility company in Canada, the United States, and the Caribbean countries. It generates, transmits, and distributes electricity to approximately 443,000 retail customers in southeastern Arizona; and 102,000 retail customers in Arizona's Mohave and Santa Cruz counties with an aggregate capacity of 3,328 megawatts (MW), including 68 MW of solar capacity and 250 MV of wind capacity.

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Brown Advisory Inc. purchased a new stake in Penske Automotive Group, Inc. (NYSE:PAG  Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 1,307 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $218,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Ten Capital Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Penske Automotive Group in the first quarter valued at $32,000. C M Bidwell & Associates Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Penske Automotive Group during the first quarter valued at about $36,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Penske Automotive Group by 24.2% during the second quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 313 shares of the companys stock valued at $52,000 after buying an additional 61 shares during the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new position in shares of Penske Automotive Group during the second quarter valued at about $55,000. Finally, MetLife Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Penske Automotive Group during the first quarter valued at about $58,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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Insider Buying and Selling at Penske Automotive Group

In other Penske Automotive Group news, President Robert H. Kurnick, Jr. sold 10,997 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.12, for a total value of $1,826,821.64. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 36,181 shares in the company, valued at $6,010,387.72. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, Director John Barr sold 3,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $163.49, for a total value of $490,470.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 712 shares of the companys stock, valued at $116,404.88. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, President Robert H. Kurnick, Jr. sold 10,997 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.12, for a total transaction of $1,826,821.64. Following the completion of the sale, the president now directly owns 36,181 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,010,387.72. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 51.70% of the companys stock.

Penske Automotive Group Stock Up 2.2 %

Penske Automotive Group stock opened at $145.52 on Friday. Penske Automotive Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $104.09 and a fifty-two week high of $180.84. The stock has a market cap of $9.79 billion, a PE ratio of 8.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 1.21. The firms 50-day simple moving average is $159.26 and its 200 day simple moving average is $156.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.24 and a current ratio of 1.01.

Penske Automotive Group (NYSE:PAG  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 26th. The company reported $4.41 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.98 by $0.43. The business had revenue of $7.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $7.20 billion. Penske Automotive Group had a net margin of 3.97% and a return on equity of 26.52%. The firms revenue for the quarter was up 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $4.93 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Penske Automotive Group, Inc. will post 16.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Penske Automotive Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 10th will be paid a $0.79 dividend. This represents a $3.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.17%. This is a boost from Penske Automotive Groups previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 9th. Penske Automotive Groups payout ratio is presently 17.09%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Benchmark reiterated a buy rating and set a $196.00 price objective on shares of Penske Automotive Group in a report on Thursday. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Penske Automotive Group in a report on Thursday, October 5th. They set a hold rating for the company. Stephens cut shares of Penske Automotive Group from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $156.00 to $185.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 19th. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Penske Automotive Group from $175.00 to $205.00 in a report on Thursday, July 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Penske Automotive Group from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an underweight rating in a report on Thursday, October 12th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $167.60.

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About Penske Automotive Group

(Free Report)

Penske Automotive Group, Inc, a diversified transportation services company, operates automotive and commercial truck dealerships in the United States and internationally. The company operates through four segments: Retail Automotive, Retail Commercial Truck, Other, and Non-Automotive Investments. It operates dealerships under franchise agreements with various automotive manufacturers and distributors.

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Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. trimmed its position in shares of HF Sinclair Co. (NYSE:DINO  Free Report) by 4.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 11,403 shares of the companys stock after selling 500 shares during the period. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc.s holdings in HF Sinclair were worth $589,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Signaturefd LLC raised its position in shares of HF Sinclair by 9.2% during the 1st quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 2,963 shares of the companys stock valued at $143,000 after purchasing an additional 249 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI increased its holdings in HF Sinclair by 4.5% in the 1st quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 6,739 shares of the companys stock valued at $326,000 after acquiring an additional 288 shares during the last quarter. Cullen Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in HF Sinclair by 3.9% in the 1st quarter. Cullen Capital Management LLC now owns 7,782 shares of the companys stock valued at $376,000 after acquiring an additional 290 shares during the last quarter. Atlas Capital Advisors LLC increased its holdings in HF Sinclair by 11.2% in the 4th quarter. Atlas Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,898 shares of the companys stock valued at $150,000 after acquiring an additional 292 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. increased its holdings in HF Sinclair by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 58,510 shares of the companys stock valued at $3,150,000 after acquiring an additional 297 shares during the last quarter. 89.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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Insider Activity at HF Sinclair

In related news, EVP Valerie Pompa sold 5,000 shares of HF Sinclair stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.89, for a total transaction of $284,450.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 20,217 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,150,145.13. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.35% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

DINO has been the topic of a number of research reports. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of HF Sinclair from $70.00 to $65.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of HF Sinclair from $62.00 to $61.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 5th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of HF Sinclair from $68.00 to $67.00 in a research note on Monday, October 9th. BMO Capital Markets started coverage on shares of HF Sinclair in a research note on Thursday, October 5th. They issued an outperform rating and a $65.00 price objective for the company. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of HF Sinclair from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 8th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, HF Sinclair presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $62.54.

Check Out Our Latest Analysis on DINO

HF Sinclair Price Performance

DINO stock opened at $54.11 on Friday. HF Sinclair Co. has a 12 month low of $37.12 and a 12 month high of $66.19. The company has a current ratio of 2.32, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $56.62 and a 200 day moving average price of $49.74. The stock has a market cap of $9.80 billion, a PE ratio of 4.59, a P/E/G ratio of 0.61 and a beta of 1.36.

HF Sinclair (NYSE:DINO  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The company reported $2.60 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.33. HF Sinclair had a net margin of 6.87% and a return on equity of 24.58%. The firm had revenue of $7.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $7.38 billion. Equities research analysts anticipate that HF Sinclair Co. will post 10 earnings per share for the current year.

HF Sinclair Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 6th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 17th were issued a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 16th. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.33%. HF Sinclairs payout ratio is 15.28%.

About HF Sinclair

(Free Report)

HF Sinclair Corporation operates as an independent energy company. It produces and markets gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, renewable diesel, specialty lubricant products, specialty chemicals, specialty and modified asphalt, and others. The company also owns and operates refineries located in Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming; and markets its refined products principally in the Southwest United States and Rocky Mountains, Pacific Northwest, and in other neighboring Plains states.

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Shares of Invesco Ltd. (NYSE:IVZ  Get Free Report) have been assigned an average recommendation of Hold from the nine ratings firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $16.48.

A number of research firms have recently commented on IVZ. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Invesco from $17.00 to $19.00 in a report on Friday, July 21st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price objective on shares of Invesco from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a hold rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 11th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Invesco from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on shares of Invesco from $15.50 to $14.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on shares of Invesco from $17.00 to $15.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 10th.

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Insider Buying and Selling at Invesco

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Invesco

In other Invesco news, major shareholder Invesco Realty, Inc. purchased 2,800,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 5th. The stock was bought at an average price of $25.00 per share, for a total transaction of $70,000,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 853,400 shares in the company, valued at $21,335,000. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link . Corporate insiders own 2.00% of the companys stock.

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of IVZ. OLD Mission Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Invesco during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC bought a new position in Invesco during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $29,000. Money Concepts Capital Corp boosted its stake in Invesco by 150.1% during the 4th quarter. Money Concepts Capital Corp now owns 1,688 shares of the asset managers stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 1,013 shares during the last quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC bought a new position in Invesco during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $35,000. Finally, Quilter Plc bought a new position in Invesco during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $38,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.27% of the companys stock.

Invesco Price Performance

Shares of Invesco stock opened at $12.90 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 28.81 and a quick ratio of 5.15. Invesco has a fifty-two week low of $12.48 and a fifty-two week high of $20.56. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $14.48 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $15.74. The company has a market cap of $5.79 billion, a PE ratio of 9.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 1.40.

Invesco (NYSE:IVZ  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 24th. The asset manager reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts consensus estimates of $0.35. Invesco had a net margin of 14.50% and a return on equity of 6.83%. The firm had revenue of $1.10 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.09 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.34 EPS. The businesss revenue was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Invesco will post 1.48 EPS for the current year.

Invesco Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 4th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 10th will be given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.20%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 9th. Invescos payout ratio is presently 61.07%.

About Invesco

(Get Free Report

Invesco Ltd. is a publicly owned investment manager. The firm provides its services to retail clients, institutional clients, high-net worth clients, public entities, corporations, unions, non-profit organizations, endowments, foundations, pension funds, financial institutions, and sovereign wealth funds.

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Shares of National Storage Affiliates Trust (NYSE:NSA  Get Free Report) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of Reduce from the ten ratings firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $36.88.

NSA has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of National Storage Affiliates Trust from $42.00 to $32.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, September 21st. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of National Storage Affiliates Trust in a research report on Thursday, October 5th. They set a hold rating on the stock. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on shares of National Storage Affiliates Trust from $40.00 to $35.00 and set a hold rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, August 29th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of National Storage Affiliates Trust from $41.00 to $36.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 24th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut shares of National Storage Affiliates Trust from a buy rating to a hold rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $47.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Tuesday, August 8th.

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Institutional Inflows and Outflows

National Storage Affiliates Trust Stock Performance

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Centaurus Financial Inc. raised its holdings in shares of National Storage Affiliates Trust by 111.9% in the 1st quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. now owns 130,226 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $5,441,000 after buying an additional 68,763 shares during the period. Truist Financial Corp lifted its stake in National Storage Affiliates Trust by 44.3% during the 1st quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 51,383 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $2,147,000 after acquiring an additional 15,772 shares in the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new position in National Storage Affiliates Trust during the 1st quarter worth about $216,000. Moseley Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in National Storage Affiliates Trust by 4.9% during the 2nd quarter. Moseley Investment Management Inc. now owns 25,102 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $874,000 after acquiring an additional 1,162 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Gilman Hill Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in National Storage Affiliates Trust by 22.4% during the 1st quarter. Gilman Hill Asset Management LLC now owns 12,575 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $525,000 after acquiring an additional 2,300 shares in the last quarter. 83.63% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

NSA opened at $28.77 on Friday. National Storage Affiliates Trust has a 12-month low of $28.09 and a 12-month high of $44.78. The company has a market cap of $2.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.66, a PEG ratio of 5.85 and a beta of 0.71. The companys 50 day moving average is $32.39 and its 200 day moving average is $34.88. The company has a current ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.78.

National Storage Affiliates 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 $0.56 dividend. This represents a $2.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 14th. National Storage Affiliates Trusts dividend payout ratio is currently 215.39%.

National Storage Affiliates Trust Company Profile

(Get Free Report

National Storage Affiliates Trust is a real estate investment trust headquartered in Greenwood Village, Colorado, focused on the ownership, operation and acquisition of self storage properties predominantly located within the top 100 metropolitan statistical areas throughout the United States. As of June 30, 2023, the Company held ownership interests in and operated 1,117 self storage properties located in 42 states and Puerto Rico with approximately 72.8 million rentable square feet.

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Sigma Planning Corp decreased its holdings in shares of VMware, Inc. (NYSE:VMW  Free Report) by 24.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,567 shares of the virtualization software providers stock after selling 1,823 shares during the quarter. Sigma Planning Corps holdings in VMware were worth $800,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in VMW. Handelsbanken Fonder AB grew its stake in shares of VMware by 7.7% in the first quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 34,030 shares of the virtualization software providers stock worth $4,249,000 after purchasing an additional 2,429 shares in the last quarter. Graypoint LLC acquired a new stake in shares of VMware in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $219,000. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. bought a new position in shares of VMware in the first quarter valued at approximately $204,000. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of VMware by 491.4% during the first quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 4,116 shares of the virtualization software providers stock valued at $514,000 after acquiring an additional 3,420 shares during the period. Finally, State of Alaska Department of Revenue bought a new stake in VMware during the second quarter worth approximately $2,820,000. Institutional investors own 46.70% of the companys stock.

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VMware Price Performance

VMW stock opened at $146.31 on Friday. VMware, Inc. has a one year low of $108.97 and a one year high of $181.14. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $164.46 and a two-hundred day moving average of $148.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $63.18 billion, a PE ratio of 44.20 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.71.

Insider Buying and Selling

VMware ( NYSE:VMW Get Free Report ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 31st. The virtualization software provider reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.71 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $3.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.45 billion. VMware had a net margin of 10.48% and a return on equity of 113.34%. The firms quarterly revenue was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.99 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that VMware, Inc. will post 4.92 earnings per share for the current year.

In other news, EVP Jean Pierre Brulard sold 4,966 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.10, for a total value of $879,478.60. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 76,832 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,606,947.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 40.30% of the companys stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on VMW shares. UBS Group lifted their price target on VMware from $180.00 to $182.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Friday, September 1st. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of VMware in a research report on Thursday, October 5th. They issued a strong-buy rating on the stock. Monness Crespi & Hardt cut shares of VMware from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a research note on Monday, August 28th. Mizuho increased their target price on shares of VMware from $158.00 to $165.00 in a research note on Friday, September 1st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of VMware from $140.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a market perform rating in a report on Friday, September 1st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $160.25.

Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on VMware

VMware Company Profile

(Free Report)

VMware, Inc provides software solutions in the areas of modern applications, cloud management and infrastructure, networking, security, and workspaces in the United States and internationally. It offers VMware multi-cloud solutions, including VMware vSphere, a data center infrastructure that provides the fundamental compute layer; and vSAN and VxRail, which offers holistic data storage and protection options to applications running on vSphere; as well as VMware Cloud Foundation, a cloud platform that combines its vSphere, vSAN, and NSX with VMware Aria Cloud Management into an integrated stack that delivers ready cloud infrastructure for private and public clouds.

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Want to see what other hedge funds are holding VMW? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for VMware, Inc. (NYSE:VMW  Free Report).

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Former chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu. (DC Image)

Kakinada: Imprisoned former chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has sought from Special Judge for SPE (Special Police Establishment) and ACB cases-Cum-III Additional District Judge of Vijayawada foolproof security arrangements in and around the Central Prison in Rajamahendravaram, in commensurate with the Z category security cover provided to him owing to the threat to his life in jail from leftist wing extremists and those accused under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPA).

Naidu informed the ACB court that certain untoward incidents have occurred in and around the Central Prison in Rajamahendravaram in the recent past, which could endanger his life and limb despite being a Z category protectee.

He pointed out that when he had been sent to the Judicial Remand on the intervening night of September 10/11, some persons had unauthorisedly videographed and photographed him while entering the prison. Footage from within the prison complex has also been leaked and widely circulated on social media platforms. This shows that the security is lax, he contended.

The former chief minister pointed out that an anonymous letter has been received by East Godavari district superintendent of police stating left-wing extremists are planning to assassinate him in jail. However, police authorities have till now not made any attempt to enquire about the veracity of the said letter nor have taken steps to avert any unforeseen incident.

Naidu pointed out that a remand prisoner in an NDPS case from S. Kota village had been found roaming in the prison with a pen camera, capturing pictures of the prisoners inside. He said 750 of 2,200 prisoners lodged inside the Central Prison have been charged with NDPS offences, who pose a grave threat to his security.

He further said it came to his notice that a drone had been flown over the Central Prison, Rajamahendravaram, by some unidentified people to capture his movements with a sinister design. Another drone had been flown over the main gate of the Central Prison on October 6 to capture the images of his family members.

The former CM said despite such alarming instances, police have not taken any counter measures.

He pointed out that when YSRC assumed power, it had scaled down Naidus security cover with effect from June 6, 2019. It had been restored on June 25, 2019 following the intervention of AP High Court.

Chandrababu Naidu has cited date-wise examples of untoward incidents against him:

* 28-11-2019: Ruling party cadres pelted stones and chappals, among others, at his bus.

* 4-11-2022: Stones had been hurled against him when he visited Nandigama. His chief security officer sustained injuries.

* 21-4-2023: His NSG commando received bleeding injuries when stones had been thrown at him when he toured Yerragondapalem in Prakasam district.

* 4-8-2023: YSRC cadres brutally attacked TD workers when he was on tour of irrigation projects in Annamayya district. But police booked a case against him under section 307.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses during an event at Tulsi Peeth, in Chitrakoot district, Madhya Pradesh, on Friday. (Image: PTI)

Bhopal: Describing Sanskrit as the language of Indias progress and identity, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that only people with slave mentality tend to be hostile to Sanskrit.

Addressing a gathering at the Tulsi Peeth at Chitrakoot in Madhya Pradesh, Modi said many languages had taken birth and later disappeared, but Sanskrit remains eternal.

"Time refined Sanskrit, but could never pollute it. The mature grammar of Sanskrit lies in the base of this permanence", he added.

He recounted how efforts were made to destroy culture and heritage of India during the 1,000 years of slavery, and said that the slave mentality had led to the alienation of Sanskrit language from the people.

He observed that knowing one's mother tongue was praiseworthy in the foreign countries, but it was not the case in India.

"Sanskrit is not only language of traditions, it is also the language of our progress and identity," Modi said.

Modi performed puja at "Kanch Mandir in Tulsi Peeth, a religious and social service institution at Chitrakoot, established by Jagadguru Rambhadracharya in 1987. Tulsi Peeth is one of the leading publishers of Hindu religious literature.

Modi released three books, Astadhyayi Bhashya, Ramanandacharya Charitam and Bhagwan Shri Krishna ki Rashtraleela on the occasion.

Earlier addressing a function organised by Sadguru Seva Sangh Trust in Chitrakoot to mark the centenary birth year celebration of late Arvind Bhai Mafatlal, Modi described Chitrakoot as the divine land for being linked to Lord Ram, his wife Sita and brother Lakshman. Modi also offered prayers in the famed ancient shrines of Raghuveer and Janaki.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah. (Photo by S. Surender Reddy)

Hyderabad: At the time the Parliamentary standing committee is scheduled a meeting to adopt new laws in Delhi on Friday, the Union Home Minister Amit Shah today stressed the need to implement new Laws such as the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023 and the Bharatiya Sakshya Bill 2023 replacing the existing Indian Penal Code (IPC), Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and the Indian Evidence Act.

The Union Home Union Minister reviewed the passing out parade of the 75 batch of IPS probationers at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy (SVP NPA) here on Friday.

Speaking on the occasion, Amit Shah said that the IPS probationers, who finished training at the National Police Academy, will have to implement new laws which are being implemented by the governments. The governments would introduce new technology in the regular policing system to combat cyber offences, and criminals.

The Police technology would play a major role and the police would face bigger challenges with cyber-crime and terrorism. The government would not tolerate terrorism activities.

"The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023 and the Bharatiya Sakshya Bill 2023 replacing the existing Indian Penal Code (IPC), Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and the Indian Evidence Act. The government is keen to introduce such Acts in India and the passing out IPS probationers must implement such Laws for better policing in the country," Amit Shah said.

The Union Home Minister also stated that several organized crimes, crypto currency, fake currency, hawala transactions, Inter-state offenders, narcotic substances peddling are posing a major challenge for the country and the regular policing system must transform toward police technology to prevent such illegal activities in the country.



"The ensuing 25 years (Amrit Kaal) will create the nation as a superpower country in terms of developments and India will stand top in the world. The police system will get more changes and new Acts, technology and regular policing to serve better for the people," Amit Shah said.

Stating that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi gives top priority for women empowerment, the Union Home Minister praised Anushtha Kalia of Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territories cadre for standing top place in a training session held at National Police Academy.

A total 175 IPS probationers of 75th batch Regular recruit (RR) have participated in passing out parade held at the NPA. Of the 175, 34 probationers were women and 155 were men and 20 were foreigners. Five probationers from Nepal, Six from Royal Bhutan and Five from Maldives and four from Mauritius.

The IPS probationer Anushtha Kalia received Sword of Honour from Union Home Minister for standing top in all over training in the police academy.

Later, Amit Shah inaugurated FitRise 75 at the stadium of the academy for running practice. A total of 4 lakh people including staff of NPA registered as members for seeking participation in the programme. The 74 batch IPS probationers have participated in the programme.
Retired Indian Navy commander Sugunakar. (DC)

Visakhapatnam: Retired Indian Navy commander Sugunakar's brother-in-law Kalyan Chakravorty said their only hope now is Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Sugunakar is among the eight ex-Navy personnel whom a Qatari court has sentenced to death for espionage.

Speaking to the media, his family members expressed confidence that the government of Qatar will release the naval personnel immediately if Narendra Modi takes initiative in the case.

Ministry of External Affairs has expressed shock over the sentencing. It said it is awaiting the detailed judgement in the matter.

Sugunakar's family says accusation of espionage in Qatar is misinformation. The ex-commodores brother-in-law told media that Sugunakar, who served in the Indian Navy till 2013, had gone to Doha in 2018 for earning his livelihood. He had been arrested 14 months ago.

A Qatar court sentenced Sugunakar and seven others to death on Thursday.

Family members of Sugunakar have urged the Prime Minister to immediately intervene in the matter.
Decongesting roads, providing better public transport systems, reducing air, sound and water pollution, addressing civic issues like water scarcity, and drainage issues, and improving gender sensitisation among people are some key issues that are on the top of minds for voters, who are working with technology companies in Hyderabad.(Image: Representational)

Hyderabad: Decongesting roads, providing better public transport systems, reducing air, sound and water pollution, addressing civic issues like water scarcity, and drainage issues, and improving gender sensitisation among people are some key issues that are on the top of minds for voters, who are working with technology companies in Hyderabad.

With around 90 lakh voters electing 24 legislators in GHMC limits, techies play a decisive role in swinging the balance in tightly contested polls, which the upcoming Assembly elections are expected to be.

"The political leadership needs to work towards decongesting Hyderabad if they want to make the city as well as the state better," said Manisha Kashyap, an employee with a tech company.

"Development happens only at Jubilee Hills, Hitec City, and Cyberabad. Hyderabad or Telangana does not confine merely to these localities. Concentration of big companies in these localities forces people from all corners to commute there, creating unnecessary congestion," she told Deccan Chronicle.

Another employee V.K. Ramana felt that development should extend beyond Hyderabad to smaller cities. "Focusing solely on Hyderabad doesn't address the broader issues. A balanced urbanisation can alleviate many problems including water scarcity, drainage issues, pollution and so much more," he said.

Commuting seems to be their second biggest issue that IT employees are facing in Hyderabad.

"We require smart and logical traffic diversions that don't worsen traffic problems. Illogical diversions and bottlenecks make commuting a nightmare. Efficient traffic management is essential. Hyderabad Metro is always overcrowded, particularly the Blue Line, right from Raidurgam. We need better public transport including a bigger fleet of buses to ease the daily commute for lakhs of employees," said Lionel Asher.

Umesh Kumar, a senior seller support associate at an IT company, said better working hours are vital as many companies force employees to work on their days off, provide improper compensation, and have no prescribed timings. "Unlawful contracts with lengthy notice periods need to be addressed. We need a dedicated team to address working-class grievances. Existing employee unions often fall short in safeguarding our rights," he said.

Adding to the same, S Sowjanya, an investigation specialist at a top tech giant in the city, noted that competent married women should be hired with the same enthusiasm as unmarried women or married men. "Fear of maternity leaves or quitting shouldn't hinder their employment. We need stronger safeguards and support," she insisted.

"Mental health and gender sensitisation policies should extend beyond the workplace, encompassing law enforcement, bureaucracy, political leaders, and party members," another employee Madhav P. stressed.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah addressing a public meeting at Suryapet says "Being family-based parties, neither the BRS nor the Congress can develop Telangana.(Image: PTI)

Hyderabad: Pivoting the BJPs election campaign in Telangana to the Backward Classes (BC), Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Friday that his party would make a BC community leader Chief Minister of the state if voted to power.

Addressing a public meeting at Suryapet, Shah said, "Being family-based parties, neither the BRS nor the Congress can develop Telangana; only the BJP can do that. While KCR works to make his son CM, Sonia (Gandhi) is only interested in making Rahul (Gandhi) PM of the country. But it is the BJP which works for the welfare of the poor."

The announcement by the BJP to make a BC candidate the CM seems to mark a shift in its strategy. It has given tickets to 20 BC community candidates out of the 52 that were announced in its first list.

Flaying Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao for unfulfilled promises, Shah said, "He failed to keep his word to make a Dalit the CM. The promise to give three acres of land to Dalits was not kept. The promises to allot Rs 50,000 crores for the welfare of SCs and Rs 10,000 crores for weaker sections were not kept. The credit for forming a BC commission and giving it full status goes to the BJP."

Reeling out details of what the BJP-led Centre had done for Telangana, the Union minister said the Narendra Modi government has announced Sammakka-Saralakka University for tribals and turmeric board to help farmers get a better price.

"We reconstituted the Krishna water disputes tribunal to reallocate water. We have been giving Rs6,000 crores to farmers as part of the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi every year. We are ensuring clean drinking water through the Jal Jeevan Mission. We worked to protect the self-respect of women by building toilets. We are giving five kgs of rice free of cost," he said.

Shah said a new temple is being built for Lord Rama in Ayodhya, where the idol has been lying in a tent for 550 years, and asked the people to vote for BJP candidates as part of making Modi the PM again.

Addressing the meeting, Union minister and BJP state president G. Kishan Reddy said the party would build an industrial corridor between Hyderabad and Vijayawada if it came to power. "The Centre has spent Rs1.2 lakh crores for developing highways and laying six-lane roads in Telangana. It is the Centre which is funding the panchayats and municipalities."

Recalling that Suryapet was the centre for the struggle against the Nizam government, Kishan Reddy said the credit for observing Hyderabad Liberation Day in the state went to Amit Shah.

"Once we win, we will provide free health and education facilities to people. A crop insurance scheme will be implemented in which both land-owning farmers and tenant farmers will be included. The party will make special efforts to root out corruption. Unlike the CM who stays in the farmhouse, we will be at the service of the people," Kishan Reddy said.

Referring to comments Rahul Gandhi, said, "He does not know the history of the Telangana struggle and does not have an understanding of peoples aspirations. He only reads the script written by others. The Congress is the B-team of the BRS. It is the BRS and the Congress which have had alliances. Rahul had run the previous government by remote control."

Party Rajya Sabha member and OBC Morcha president Dr K. Laxman, welcoming the announcement of a BC community Chief Minister, said, "This is a good announcement for the people of Telangana. There is no chance for BCs to come up politically in the BRS and the Congress."

Earlier, K.S. Yesuratnam, a former BRS MLA, joined the party. "Ratnam is a Dalit leader who has secured a special place for himself in the heart of Telangana people," Kishan Reddy said.

Present at the event were Zafar Islam, Premender Reddy, party candidate Gudur Narayana Reddy (Bhongir), Kankanala Niveditha Reddy (Nagarjunasagar) Jathoth Hussain Naik (Mahbubnagar) and Kadiyam Ramachandraiah (Thungathurthy).
MLA Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy who quit the BJP on Thursday, and joined the Congress on Friday will contest from Munugode. (Image: DC)

New Delhi: The Congress unveiled its highly anticipated second list of candidates for the forthcoming Telangana State Assembly elections, presenting 45 names in a strategic move to bolster its campaign.

The announcement came on Friday following a meticulous deliberation by the party's central election committee, headed by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge.

Former MLA Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy, who quit the BJP on Thursday, and joined the Congress on Friday, will contest from Munugode. Komatireddy had expressed his willingness to contest against Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao in Gajwel, along with Munugode.

The Congress is leaving no stone unturned to secure a strong foothold in the state assembly. The Central Election Committee (CEC), led by Mallikarjun Kharge, worked diligently to finalise the selection of candidates, taking into consideration various factors.

Party sources said that the third and final list will be released by November 2, following which the process of filing nominations for the Assembly polls will commence on November 3.
Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao asked people to compare the 10 years of BRS rule with that of 50 years of the Congress regime in terms of development and take a wise decision while casting their votes on November 30. (Image: Twitter)

Khammam, Warangal: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Friday cautioned the people that the Congress would abolish welfare schemes such as Rythu Bandhu, Dalit Bandhu and free power to farmers, if it was voted to power.

Addressing public meetings in Khammam, Mahbubabad and Wardhannapet on Friday, Rao said, "If the Congress comes to power, then it will say Ram Ram to Rythu Bandhu and Jai Bhim to Dalit Bandhu, and there will no power supply for 24 hours in the state."

The BRS president alleged that former TPCC president Uttam Kumar Reddy had claimed that the Rythu Bandhu was a "waste scheme" and that the government was wasting public money by implementing this scheme, while TPCC president A. Revanth Reddy said there was no need to supply 24 hours of free power to the farming sector and only three hours was enough.

The Chief Minister asked people to compare the 10 years of BRS rule with that of 50 years of the Congress regime in terms of development and take a wise decision while casting their votes on November 30.

He lashed out at Tummala Nageswara Rao and Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, who quit the BRS and joined the Congress. Rao alleged that some of the leaders who were changing political parties frequently for their own benefit were offering money to purchase the votes.

Some other Congress leaders were insulting the people of the ST community saying that they can grab their votes easily just by giving them Rs 1,000 per vote and gudumba (booze) to drink.

"They are even challenging that they will not allow the BRS MLAs to step into the Assembly. Earning money by lobbying and executing contracts, the Congress leaders are talking proudly. But people should think wisely which party will work for their welfare and must teach a fitting lesson to such leaders without falling prey to them," Rao said.

"Even though Tummala was defeated by Puvvada in 2014, it was the BRS which gave him an election ticket and made him a minister. After joining the Congress, Tummala is blaming the BRS. It is the Tummala who betrayed the BRS, the party did not betray him," Rao added.

Rao said no government either in the state or at the Centre had thought about the well-being of the farming sector in the way the BRS had. "The BRS government is the only one which implemented Rythu Bandhu and Rythu Bima for the welfare of the farmers. Even agricultural scientists like Dr M.S.Swaminathan and the United Nations appreciated the Telangana government for implementing the Rythu Bandhu," the Chief Minister said.

With providing all benefits along with supplying power for 24 hours and keeping check on fake seeds, the Chief Minister said that the BRS government had transformed Telangana into the second largest paddy production state in the country after Punjab.

"The Prime Minister and Chief Ministers of many other states have never thought of implementing a scheme like the Dalit Bandhu scheme, under which the poor Dalit families will get Rs 10 lakh for their economical development," he said.

Speaking at a public meeting in the Mahbubabad assembly segment, Rao said that the BRS government transformed thandas (hamlets) into panchayats so that the Lambada people could govern themselves. "We distributed pattas (title deeds) of around 20,000 acres of Podu land to the farmers along with lifting all the cases which were registered against the Podu land farmers and also enrolled them for Rythu Bima," the BRS chief said.

The CM stressed on the crucial role played by the Dharani land registration portal, and said that every year the state government had been giving `15,000 crore to farmers without any middlemen using the data from the portal.

"Congress leaders say that they will abolish Dharani portal if they are voted to power. If Dharani was abolished, middlemen will come. The BRS government has transferred the administrative powers on ownership of lands to farmers themselves with the introduction of Dharani. People should now decide whether they want to forego their powers on their lands given by the BRS government, he said.

For giving three phase electricity to the people of Gondu, Koya adivasi living in gudems and Lambada people living thanda and panchayats in the rural areas, the BRS government has taken up works investing Rs 300 crore, he said.
Eight former Indian Navy personnel have been handed death penalty in Qatar. (DC Image/V. Kamalakara Rao)

A local court in Qatar handing down the death penalty to eight former officers of the Indian Navy who were employed there in critical sectors on charges of espionage is sure to test the nerves of the government given the sensitivities involved in the case and Indias claims of an ascendancy in its stature of late.

The eight persons now convicted were reportedly working for a private company which serves the Qatari security establishment. Apparently, the government here has no direct involvement in what these former defence personnel, or for that matter, an Indian citizen, would do abroad. However, Indias mission in the friendly country was constantly engaged in the case, as per reports.

India and Qatar are two prominent players in the current global stage. India, from Independence, was respected not for its financial or military powers but as a spokesperson of the Third World and wielded a moral authority. The Non-Aligned Movement was a smart way of asserting the identity of the developing world and exerting soft power and India played a key role in its formation and development. India today is the worlds most populous nation and is an economic and military power. The negotiating skills India acquired from the times of NAM have helped it navigate tricky situations, including the war in Ukraine and the G-20 summit, while upholding the national interest.

Qatar is one of the tiniest nations with hardly a population of three million  its citizens make up only one eighth of its populationand is also one of the richest, making it a prominent regional and global player. The soft power it wields is due to its huge reserves of natural gas, its presence in the media space and the ability to call political shots in the region. Like the India of the initial decades, it keeps every power bloc in good humour. The country which hosts a US military base often appears as mediators on behalf of militant and religionist outfits such as the Taliban and Hamas. It may be noted that there are critics who allege that Qatar is capable of triggering political instability in the region, and the Jasmine Revolution which sought "installation of democracy" in the Arab world had its tacit support. There are even critics who claim that the country torpedoes peace initiatives in West Asia as long as it is not a part of it. A reading linking the charge of espionage for Israel and the recent developments in Gaza is also possible.

India will have to sit with Qatar on equal terms given the power equations and the fluid political climate in the region. That India has historic ties with Arab nations, that it is a big customer of Qatars natural gas and that close to seven lakh Indians work there should factor in helping the Indian government get an entry into a case which is essentially decided by the judiciary there. India will have to pull every lever and put to use every layer of friendship in the region to get its citizens off the gallows.
Danaher (NYSE:DHR  Get Free Report) had its price objective cut by investment analysts at Citigroup from $265.92 to $240.00 in a note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a buy rating on the conglomerates stock. Citigroups price target would suggest a potential upside of 23.91% from the companys previous close.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of Danaher from $300.00 to $260.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 17th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Danaher from $260.00 to $292.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 26th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Danaher from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 25th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Danaher from $250.00 to $240.00 and set a hold rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 26th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of Danaher from $285.00 to $247.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 3rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Danaher has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $257.73.

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Danaher Stock Performance

DHR opened at $193.69 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $143.01 billion, a PE ratio of 24.42, a PEG ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.81. Danaher has a twelve month low of $183.24 and a twelve month high of $281.54. The firms 50-day moving average price is $237.31 and its 200 day moving average price is $240.40. The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 1.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 24th. The conglomerate reported $2.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.19. The firm had revenue of $6.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.60 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 20.01% and a return on equity of 13.87%. Danahers quarterly revenue was down 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.56 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Danaher will post 8.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Danaher news, SVP Jose-Carlos Gutierrez-Ramos sold 590 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.54, for a total transaction of $147,818.60. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 6,939 shares in the company, valued at $1,738,497.06. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 11.10% of the companys stock.

Institutional Trading of Danaher

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. AXS Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of Danaher by 1.4% during the second quarter. AXS Investments LLC now owns 2,780 shares of the conglomerates stock worth $667,000 after buying an additional 39 shares during the period. Plimoth Trust Co. LLC increased its stake in shares of Danaher by 2.4% during the second quarter. Plimoth Trust Co. LLC now owns 1,720 shares of the conglomerates stock worth $413,000 after buying an additional 40 shares during the period. AM Investment Strategies LLC increased its stake in shares of Danaher by 1.5% during the first quarter. AM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 2,728 shares of the conglomerates stock worth $687,000 after buying an additional 41 shares during the period. Silver Oak Securities Incorporated increased its stake in shares of Danaher by 4.3% during the first quarter. Silver Oak Securities Incorporated now owns 1,013 shares of the conglomerates stock worth $255,000 after buying an additional 42 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of Hawaii increased its stake in shares of Danaher by 0.3% during the second quarter. Bank of Hawaii now owns 12,578 shares of the conglomerates stock worth $3,019,000 after buying an additional 42 shares during the period. 76.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Danaher Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Danaher Corporation designs, manufactures, and markets professional, medical, industrial, and commercial products and services worldwide. The Biotechnology segments offers bioprocess technologies, consumables, and services; lab filtration, separation, and purification; lab-scale protein purification and analytical tools; reagents, membranes and services; and healthcare filtration solutions.

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HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA  Get Free Report) had its price target decreased by analysts at Citigroup from $324.00 to $279.00 in a research report issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a buy rating on the stock. Citigroups price objective suggests a potential upside of 25.78% from the companys current price.

A number of other analysts have also commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on HCA Healthcare from $275.00 to $267.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 20th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an overweight rating and issued a $315.00 price target on shares of HCA Healthcare in a research note on Thursday, September 14th. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their price target on HCA Healthcare from $345.00 to $294.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 10th. VNET Group restated a maintains rating on shares of HCA Healthcare in a research note on Wednesday, June 28th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an outperform rating and issued a $315.00 price target on shares of HCA Healthcare in a research note on Wednesday, September 13th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $298.09.

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Check Out Our Latest Analysis on HCA

HCA Healthcare Stock Down 1.6 %

HCA stock opened at $221.81 on Wednesday. HCA Healthcare has a twelve month low of $207.24 and a twelve month high of $304.86. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 103.06. The firm has a market cap of $60.33 billion, a PE ratio of 10.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.62. The business has a 50 day moving average of $256.35 and a 200 day moving average of $271.59.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA  Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 24th. The company reported $3.91 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $3.97 by ($0.06). The business had revenue of $16.21 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.77 billion. HCA Healthcare had a return on equity of 2,040.32% and a net margin of 9.05%. On average, research analysts forecast that HCA Healthcare will post 18.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at HCA Healthcare

In other news, SVP Kathleen M. Whalen sold 2,916 shares of HCA Healthcare stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.00, for a total value of $787,320.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 10,250 shares of the companys stock, valued at $2,767,500. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other HCA Healthcare news, SVP Kathleen M. Whalen sold 2,916 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.00, for a total transaction of $787,320.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 10,250 shares of the companys stock, valued at $2,767,500. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Jeffrey E. Cohen sold 1,500 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.00, for a total value of $405,000.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,414 shares in the company, valued at $1,191,780. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 9,620 shares of company stock valued at $2,592,820. 1.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Conning Inc. grew its stake in shares of HCA Healthcare by 3.6% during the third quarter. Conning Inc. now owns 1,435 shares of the companys stock valued at $353,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Catalyst Financial Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of HCA Healthcare by 21.0% during the third quarter. Catalyst Financial Partners LLC now owns 887 shares of the companys stock valued at $218,000 after buying an additional 154 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of HCA Healthcare by 42.2% in the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 43,852 shares of the companys stock valued at $10,787,000 after purchasing an additional 13,019 shares during the period. Waldron Private Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in shares of HCA Healthcare by 62.0% in the third quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,040 shares of the companys stock valued at $501,000 after purchasing an additional 781 shares during the period. Finally, IFM Investors Pty Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of HCA Healthcare by 3.2% in the third quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 43,133 shares of the companys stock valued at $10,610,000 after purchasing an additional 1,323 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 62.73% of the companys stock.

HCA Healthcare Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

HCA Healthcare, Inc, through its subsidiaries, provides health care services in the United States. It operates general and acute care hospitals that offers medical and surgical services, including inpatient care, intensive care, cardiac care, diagnostic, and emergency services; and outpatient services, such as outpatient surgery, laboratory, radiology, respiratory therapy, cardiology, and physical therapy.

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Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lifted its holdings in Crown Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CCK  Free Report) by 28.2% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,870 shares of the industrial products companys stock after buying an additional 1,952 shares during the quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLCs holdings in Crown were worth $771,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Crown by 1.1% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 735,554 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $60,838,000 after buying an additional 7,953 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Crown by 0.7% in the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 40,019 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $3,310,000 after buying an additional 271 shares during the last quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue acquired a new stake in Crown in the second quarter worth about $1,293,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in Crown in the first quarter worth about $1,007,000. Finally, Arizona State Retirement System increased its position in Crown by 1.7% in the first quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 34,871 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $2,884,000 after purchasing an additional 574 shares during the period. 95.18% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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Crown Trading Up 2.3 %

NYSE:CCK opened at $81.13 on Friday. Crown Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $66.76 and a fifty-two week high of $96.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.21, a current ratio of 1.13 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.78 billion, a PE ratio of 19.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 1.10. The businesss 50-day simple moving average is $86.82 and its 200-day simple moving average is $85.71.

Crown Announces Dividend

Crown ( NYSE:CCK Get Free Report ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 24th. The industrial products company reported $1.73 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.73. The business had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $3.23 billion. Crown had a return on equity of 26.84% and a net margin of 4.17%. Crowns revenue for the quarter was down 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.46 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Crown Holdings, Inc. will post 6.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 22nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 8th will be paid a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.18%. Crowns payout ratio is 22.70%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on CCK shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Crown from $88.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Thursday, August 10th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on Crown from $123.00 to $122.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 18th. Barclays lowered their price objective on Crown from $110.00 to $100.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Crown from $86.00 to $74.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 19th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Crown from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report on Tuesday. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Crown has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $101.33.

Check Out Our Latest Stock Report on CCK

Insider Transactions at Crown

In other news, VP Christy L. Kalaus sold 1,914 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.67, for a total transaction of $173,542.38. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 7,500 shares in the company, valued at approximately $680,025. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, COO Gerard H. Gifford sold 9,784 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.24, for a total transaction of $902,476.16. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 123,399 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,382,323.76. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Christy L. Kalaus sold 1,914 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.67, for a total value of $173,542.38. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 7,500 shares in the company, valued at $680,025. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.90% of the companys stock.

Crown Company Profile

(Free Report)

Crown Holdings, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, supplies rigid packaging products in Pennsylvania and internationally. It operates through Americas Beverage, European Beverage, Asia Pacific, and Transit Packaging segments. The Americas Beverage segment manufactures recyclable aluminum beverage cans and ends, glass bottles, steel crowns, and aluminum caps.

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Invesco (NYSE:IVZ  Get Free Report) had its price target boosted by stock analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $15.00 to $15.50 in a report released on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a neutral rating on the asset managers stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co.s price target points to a potential upside of 20.16% from the stocks previous close.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on the company. StockNews.com initiated coverage on Invesco in a report on Thursday, October 5th. They issued a sell rating for the company. Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of Invesco from $19.00 to $15.75 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research note on Monday, September 25th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Invesco from $17.00 to $19.00 in a report on Friday, July 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on Invesco from $15.50 to $14.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Invesco from $19.00 to $16.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $16.48.

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Invesco Stock Up 2.5 %

Shares of NYSE IVZ opened at $12.90 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $14.48 and a 200 day simple moving average of $15.74. The firm has a market cap of $5.79 billion, a PE ratio of 9.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 1.40. Invesco has a 1 year low of $12.48 and a 1 year high of $20.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 28.81 and a quick ratio of 5.15.

Invesco (NYSE:IVZ  Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 24th. The asset manager reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.35. The business had revenue of $1.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $1.09 billion. Invesco had a return on equity of 6.83% and a net margin of 14.50%. The firms revenue was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.34 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Invesco will post 1.48 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Invesco

In related news, major shareholder Invesco Realty, Inc. purchased 2,800,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 5th. The stock was bought at an average price of $25.00 per share, for a total transaction of $70,000,000.00. Following the purchase, the insider now directly owns 853,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,335,000. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 2.00% of the companys stock.

Institutional Trading of Invesco

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Handelsinvest Investeringsforvaltning purchased a new stake in shares of Invesco during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $2,759,000. Strs Ohio lifted its stake in shares of Invesco by 25.7% during the 3rd quarter. Strs Ohio now owns 102,532 shares of the asset managers stock valued at $1,488,000 after buying an additional 20,966 shares in the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its stake in Invesco by 45.7% during the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 774,384 shares of the asset managers stock valued at $11,244,000 after acquiring an additional 242,836 shares in the last quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC grew its stake in Invesco by 4.4% during the third quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 20,127 shares of the asset managers stock valued at $292,000 after acquiring an additional 843 shares in the last quarter. Finally, New York State Teachers Retirement System grew its stake in Invesco by 9.1% during the third quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 451,721 shares of the asset managers stock valued at $6,559,000 after acquiring an additional 37,811 shares in the last quarter. 66.27% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Invesco

(Get Free Report)

Invesco Ltd. is a publicly owned investment manager. The firm provides its services to retail clients, institutional clients, high-net worth clients, public entities, corporations, unions, non-profit organizations, endowments, foundations, pension funds, financial institutions, and sovereign wealth funds.

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New York State Teachers Retirement System bought a new stake in shares of Primo Water Co. (NYSE:PRMW  Free Report) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 14,018 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $176,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. BlackRock Inc. raised its holdings in Primo Water by 24.7% in the third quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 11,600,023 shares of the companys stock worth $145,580,000 after purchasing an additional 2,296,515 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in Primo Water by 9.8% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 11,581,085 shares of the companys stock worth $165,030,000 after purchasing an additional 1,031,066 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Primo Water by 4.5% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,977,201 shares of the companys stock worth $137,764,000 after purchasing an additional 470,410 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its holdings in Primo Water by 3.3% in the first quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 5,466,541 shares of the companys stock worth $83,911,000 after purchasing an additional 176,290 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its holdings in Primo Water by 11.4% in the first quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 4,420,429 shares of the companys stock worth $67,854,000 after purchasing an additional 453,209 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.87% of the companys stock.

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Primo Water Trading Down 1.0 %

Primo Water stock opened at $13.15 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.62. Primo Water Co. has a one year low of $12.27 and a one year high of $16.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.11 billion, a PE ratio of 24.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.05. The businesss fifty day moving average is $14.28 and its 200 day moving average is $13.87.

Primo Water Dividend Announcement

Primo Water ( NYSE:PRMW Get Free Report ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 10th. The company reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.02. Primo Water had a return on equity of 7.96% and a net margin of 3.81%. The company had revenue of $593.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $586.22 million. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Primo Water Co. will post 0.75 EPS for the current year.

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 7th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 24th were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 23rd. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.43%. Primo Waters dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 59.26%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on PRMW shares. TD Securities increased their price objective on Primo Water from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Friday, August 11th. StockNews.com began coverage on Primo Water in a research note on Thursday, October 5th. They issued a strong-buy rating on the stock. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Primo Water from $18.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Friday, August 11th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $20.33.

View Our Latest Stock Report on PRMW

Primo Water Company Profile

(Free Report)

Primo Water Corporation provides pure-play water solutions for residential and commercial customers. It offers bottled water, water dispensers, purified bottled water, self-service refill drinking water, premium spring, mineral water, sparkling and flavored water, filtration equipment, and coffee. The company offers its products under the Primo, Alhambra, Crystal Rock, Mountain Valley, Deep Rock, Hinckley Springs, Crystal Springs, Kentwood Springs, Mount Olympus, Pureflo, Sierra Springs, Sparkletts, and Renu brands in the United States; Canadian Springs, Labrador Source, and Amazon Springs brands in Canada; and Decantae, Eden, Eden Springs, Chateaud'eau, and Mey Eden brands in Europe and Israel.

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Polaris (NYSE:PII  Get Free Report) had its price objective cut by research analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from $121.00 to $108.00 in a research report issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a sector perform rating on the stock. Royal Bank of Canadas price target suggests a potential upside of 26.64% from the companys previous close.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on the company. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on Polaris from $140.00 to $125.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 4th. Roth Mkm decreased their price target on Polaris from $122.00 to $95.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Polaris from $110.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a market perform rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 26th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Polaris from $120.00 to $103.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Polaris in a research report on Thursday, October 5th. They set a hold rating for the company. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Polaris currently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $111.77.

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Check Out Our Latest Research Report on PII

Polaris Stock Performance

PII opened at $85.28 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $4.83 billion, a PE ratio of 8.34 and a beta of 1.67. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24. Polaris has a 1 year low of $84.69 and a 1 year high of $138.49. The stocks 50 day simple moving average is $103.65 and its 200-day simple moving average is $112.47.

Polaris (NYSE:PII  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 24th. The company reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts consensus estimates of $2.71. The business had revenue of $2.25 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $2.26 billion. Polaris had a return on equity of 51.02% and a net margin of 6.57%. Polariss quarterly revenue was down 3.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.25 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Polaris will post 9.8 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Polaris

In other news, Director Kevin M. Farr sold 3,225 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $133.28, for a total transaction of $429,828.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 14,645 shares of the companys stock, valued at $1,951,885.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Robert Paul Mack sold 8,312 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Monday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.00, for a total value of $1,080,560.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 28,356 shares of the companys stock, valued at $3,686,280. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Kevin M. Farr sold 3,225 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $133.28, for a total transaction of $429,828.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 14,645 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,951,885.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 2.75% of the companys stock.

Institutional Trading of Polaris

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in PII. D.A. Davidson & CO. lifted its position in shares of Polaris by 13.6% in the first quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 2,510 shares of the companys stock worth $264,000 after purchasing an additional 301 shares in the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers grew its stake in shares of Polaris by 0.4% in the first quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 152,648 shares of the companys stock valued at $16,077,000 after buying an additional 572 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS grew its stake in shares of Polaris by 10.5% in the first quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 20,905 shares of the companys stock valued at $2,202,000 after buying an additional 1,993 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. grew its stake in shares of Polaris by 0.3% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 4,803,771 shares of the companys stock valued at $505,933,000 after buying an additional 13,281 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Great West Life Assurance Co. Can grew its stake in shares of Polaris by 8.9% in the first quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can now owns 33,033 shares of the companys stock valued at $3,575,000 after buying an additional 2,692 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.36% of the companys stock.

About Polaris

(Get Free Report)

Polaris Inc designs, engineers, manufactures, and markets powersports vehicles worldwide. It operates through three segments: Off-Road, On-Road, and Marine. The company offers off-road vehicles (ORVs), including all-terrain vehicles and side-by-side vehicles; military and commercial ORVs; snowmobiles; motorcycles; moto-roadsters, quadricycles, and boats; and aftermarket parts and apparel.

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Snap (NYSE:SNAP  Get Free Report) had its price target upped by research analysts at Morgan Stanley from $6.50 to $7.00 in a report released on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an underweight rating on the stock. Morgan Stanleys target price would suggest a potential downside of 24.65% from the companys previous close.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Snap from $7.00 to $8.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Monday, July 17th. UBS Group decreased their target price on Snap from $14.00 to $12.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 26th. Credit Suisse Group raised their target price on Snap from $11.00 to $16.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Monday, July 17th. HSBC began coverage on Snap in a research note on Tuesday, September 26th. They issued a reduce rating and a $7.50 target price for the company. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Snap from $8.00 to $13.00 in a research note on Friday, July 21st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Snap presently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $10.46.

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Snap Stock Performance

NYSE:SNAP opened at $9.29 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $15.08 billion, a PE ratio of -10.80 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $9.26 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $10.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50, a quick ratio of 5.16 and a current ratio of 5.16. Snap has a fifty-two week low of $7.86 and a fifty-two week high of $13.89.

Snap (NYSE:SNAP  Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 24th. The company reported ($0.21) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of ($0.24) by $0.03. The business had revenue of $1.19 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.11 billion. Snap had a negative net margin of 29.99% and a negative return on equity of 43.97%. Research analysts anticipate that Snap will post -0.81 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Poppy Thorpe sold 4,921 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.17, for a total transaction of $45,125.57. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 46,264 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $424,240.88. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, General Counsel Michael J. Osullivan sold 13,000 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Friday, September 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.75, for a total transaction of $113,750.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 482,584 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $4,222,610. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Poppy Thorpe sold 4,921 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.17, for a total value of $45,125.57. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 46,264 shares in the company, valued at approximately $424,240.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 537,906 shares of company stock valued at $5,131,337. Company insiders own 22.68% of the companys stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. BOKF NA purchased a new position in shares of Snap during the 1st quarter valued at $28,000. ICA Group Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Snap during the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Snap by 75.0% during the 3rd quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 3,500 shares of the companys stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 1,500 shares during the period. Cascade Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Snap during the 1st quarter valued at $35,000. Finally, Fiduciary Alliance LLC bought a new stake in shares of Snap during the 2nd quarter valued at $35,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 44.37% of the companys stock.

Snap Company Profile

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Snap Inc operates as a technology company in North America, Europe, and internationally. The company offers Snapchat, a visual messaging application with various tabs, such as camera, visual messaging, snap map, stories, and spotlight that enable people to communicate visually through short videos and images.

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A group of Derry campaigners have succeeded in getting goods manufactured in Israel taken off the shelves in the city's Home Bargains store.

Derry Irish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign (DIPSC) met with the store's management to explain its position and inform them that the group was planning a protest outside the store.

However, it was agreed that Dead Sea products and other Israeli goods would be removed. Stock that arrived after the meeting will also be kept in the storeroom.

DIPSC member Catherine Hutton said it is a win for the group in line with the Boycott Divest Sanction (BDS) movement.

We had been in and we had noticed that there were Dead Sea products and wipes, toilet wipes and beauty products [from Israel] on the shelves, she said.

We decided we were going to try and get them removed or at least inform people so they could stop buying them.

We spoke to the management in Home Bargains and asked them to remove the products and said we intended to come down and protest. Following on from that they agreed to take the products off the shelves and keep them in the store room.

Hopefully that'll be it and they will not put them back on the shelves. But we see this as us achieving a result in terms of BDS without causing any trouble. Sometimes people think it's aggressive tactics but it's not. We just went there and spoke to them and we've highlighted and we've informed people. So we see that as being very successful.

Ms Hutton said BDS is a peaceful method of resistance with roots in Ireland and South Africa.

The model is based on the approach that was taken towards South Africa and its core of nonviolence. It revolves around peace and trying to affect change through nonviolent means

Boycott is a term that originated in Ireland. It's a tactic that has been used for a very long time and it has been effective.

BDS was set up in 2005 and it was basically a call from Palestinian civil society organisations, trade unions, community and voluntary justice groups around the world to support their struggle against apartheid, oppression, occupation.

Ms Hutton explained that the three levels, boycotts, divestments and sanctions take aim at the profitability of the occupation of Palestine and by anyone.

On a ground level boycott is really the main tactic that we as individuals can use. We can make a choice and say we're not buying Israeli products and if enough people do it, it will create change because companies will look and say 'these products aren't selling so we'll not bother stocking them anymore'.

The Divestment and Sanctions part is a bit higher level where you're pushing universities and big institutions to divest from pension funds that have money invested in Israeli banks.

At the top level, Sanctions, is something that we have to push our governments to impose like they did with South Africa, sanctions on assets initially, financial assets, and also Military Arms embargoes.

It's happening with Russia over Ukraine. So you can see from that angle, that's how it works. You try to cause financial pain to the economy to push for change.

She said the movement tries to pick its battles based on how much they impact the lives of Palestinians and how realistic a result is.

The BDS movement's website has a list of what they call their 'main targets' for boycotts, divestment, and sanctions. People think, mistakenly, that there's this huge list like you have to boycott Apple for iPhones because some of their parts are made in Israel but that's not the case.

Ultimately, as Omar Barghouti, the founder of the BDS movement told us on Monday night, you have to target the things that have the most chance of success like Puma, Axa Insurance, those kinds of companies that are really, really complicit in the occupation, that are involved in providing assistance to the Israeli Army, that are invested in illegal settlements. They're the main targets on a global scale.

According to Ms Hutton, there are many stores in Derry that stock products from Israel. The Derry IPSC group regularly posts updates on which shops sell these goods.

When it comes to your insurance and stuff like that you can make a choice and avoid something and everything builds and everything helps. We can see through our communication and negotiation with Home Bargains what we've done, it may be small, it may be local but it all adds up.

Following their success the activists have cancelled the protest they planned outside Home Bargains. Instead they will host a rally on Sunday, 29th October, focusing attention on the humanitarian crisis inflicted on Gaza.

Home Bargains said no one was available for comment.
The Irish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) Derry has welcomed Derry City and Strabane District Council's call for the immediate expulsion of the Israeli Ambassador from Ireland, in response to ongoing violence and oppression in Palestine.

Speaking to Derry Now, the group's chairperson, Catherine Hutton said: "We welcome the principled stand taken by our council in regards to this.

"Derry IPSC has organised a rally at Free Derry Corner on Sunday (October 29) at 3.00pm to call for an end to the genocidal policies of the Israeli State.

"The situation in Gaza is dire. At the time of writing almost 7000 Palestinians have lost their lives this year as a result of actions by the Israeli military. We are witnessing ethnic cleansing on an industrial scale. The IPSC supports the calls for an immediate ceasefire but we reject any notion that there is a war between comparable armies.

Israel is a nuclear power. It has one of the largest armies in the world. Almost every weapon they have in their armoury comes from the US or Britain.We reject the notion that Israel is engaged in a legal right of self defence. Under international law there is no clauses for vengeance, collective punishment, or ethnic cleansing," said Ms Hutton.

Catherine Hutton added that the actions of the Israeli State were "genocidal and the countries supporting them are breaking international humanitarian law".

She added: "The powerful have chosen their side. They take the side of the oppressor therefore it is ever more crucial for ordinary people to come out to support the oppressed.

"We must and will stand for Gaza. We support international law and call on the International Criminal Court to move against Israel and her allies for their egregious breaches of it.

"Derry people know right from wrong. We know what it is like to be oppressed. To have our loved ones gunned down. We are all Palestinians."
Derry Halloweens bursting programme of events doesnt just end at the Awakening of the Walled City. Festival goers can continue the celebrations into the night with this years After Dark programme.

Haunting melodies and tantalising tunes will keep you entertained into the wee hours, with a few spooky surprises along the way.

For those who are brave enough to enter, Echo Echo Studios on Magazine Street has been taken over by MIRA, a medical institution conducting research on a child who isnt what they seem.

Described as a terrifying psychological horror experience, this immersive experiment uses live actors, 360 sound and lighting effects for audiences up to 24 people at a time.

The Experiment is running from the 27th to the 30th October with shows from 6pm until 10pm daily. Not for the faint-hearted and admission is strictly for 14 years and over due to the graphic nature.

If that wasnt enough, spook-lovers will be treated to another spine-tingling treat at the Black Hall. Situated in Derrys historic St Columbs Hall, there will be plenty of thrills and chills awaiting those daring to enter. The Black Hall will be open from the 27th until the 31st October.

Time to chill-out after all the horror, Sandinos have a spooky line-up of events going on over the Halloween festival, including a Nightmare on Foyle Street on Saturday 28th October.

Music-lovers can enjoy local acts including Cherym, Parker and Tomcat as they takeover Sandinos main upstairs venue with their Pre-Halloween Party.

The festival-favourite venue will then host their famous Halloween Party on 31st October with prizes for the best dressed on the night.

The Candlelight Concert brings the magic of a live, multi-sensory musical experience to awe-inspiring locations like never seen before in Derry.

The 60-minute concerts bring the music of Halloween alive under the gentle glow of candlelight in the atmospheric venue of St Columbs Cathedral.

The talented Arco String Quartet will treat ticket-holders to famous spooky tunes including The Phantom of the Opera, Beetlejuice, the Rocky Horror Picture Show and The Addams Family. The Candlelight Concert will take place on Saturday 28th October at 4pm, 6:30pm and 9pm.

Other treats for the grown-ups include the Gothic Organ Performance in the citys famous Guildhall. Count Dracula will be playing gothic music on Halloween night from 9pm that will be sure to send you into the night with a spooky fright.

The Playhouse Derry brings you The Ballads of the Bones  a mystical journey through a collection of ghostly and supernatural folk songs, chants and ballads from Ireland, Scotland and England.

Promising to unearth the dark and fantastical tales of enchantment, love, betrayal and death through story-telling and new arrangements of traditional songs, this is not to be missed.

Performances are set to take place on Saturday 28th October at 3pm and 8pm, and on Sunday 29th October at 8pm.

Jika Jika will host another incredible line-up of DJs, following a successful Halloween Pre-Party earlier in the month with Fat Boy Slim. The Haunted Warehouse brings you the biggest Halloween rave experience in the city with Derry favourites Dense & Pika returning for the first time in almost 4 years. Joining them on the night will be Belfast DJs IMNOTYOURMATE, Groove67 (Exile Trax), Ryan Morton and Robert McCobb on Tuesday 31st October in the Unit 8 Warehouse.

Jacqueline Whoriskey, Festival and Events Manager at Derry City and Strabane District Council, encouraged adults to check out the After Dark Music Trail as part of this years festival.

We understand thousands of people come to the city to celebrate Derry Halloween, and we want to create the best experience we can while they are visiting.

"We love to offer the After Dark programme for those who want to continue the celebrations into the night, and we are confident we can create an unforgettable night out with our immersive experiences and incredibly talented local musicians.

"Whether you want to enjoy the delicate tones of the Candlelight Concert or get the fright of your life at the Black Hall, there is something for everyone to enjoy.

Derry Halloween is being delivered by Derry City and Strabane District Council, with support from Tourism Northern Ireland, BT and The Executive Office.

Check out the Derry Halloween After Dark programme here: www.derryhalloween.com/whats-on-calendar/live-music

For ticketed events, please visit www.derryhalloween.com/tickets to purchase.

Find out more about the full Derry Halloween programme at www.derryhalloween.com
A senior business delegation led by US Special Envoy to Northern Ireland for Economic Affairs, Joseph P. Kennedy, III, visited the North West this week as part of their wider Northern Ireland itinerary.

They were hosted by the Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council Cllr Patricia Logue to a Business Lunch at the Guildhall that was attended by over 40 delegates from the US, local partners and stakeholders including representatives from Ulster University, the North West Regional College, Londonderry Chamber of Commerce, City Centre Initiative and neighbouring Donegal County Council.

A significant number of globally focused local businesses and international investors who are located in the NorthWest region were also in attendance alongside Jayne Brady, Head of the Civil Service and representatives from the U.S. Department of State and Invest NI.

Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council, Cllr Patricia Logue said she was delighted to welcome the delegation to the Guildhall. She said the visit was an important occasion for the North West region to promote and sell its compelling and unique investment opportunity.

She said: This high-profile delegation offered us an opportunity to promote the NorthWest regions unique location as a cross border city region with access to both the EU and UK markets, with a dynamic talent and skilful population thanks to our strong university and further and higher education provision and our unique approach to developing a skilled workforce for business.

"We were also able to promote the flexibility of our people, our rich culture and heritage and the quality of life for people living here.

The focus of the business lunch was for U.S. investors and local NorthWest businesses to engage in ideas and experiences and to showcase our rich tourism, culture and heritage and unique business offering.

"The delegation was impressed by the strong collaboration and partnership that exists between all our business sectors and the supportive environment that is available here for investors.

The event was an opportunity for companies from a diverse range of sectors including Fintech, digital, creative, advanced manufacturing and life and health sciences to network and engage with one another.

In addition to getting an update on the regions City and Growth Deal and wider strategic projects from Derry City and Strabane District Councils Chief Executive, the delegation heard contributions from a range of US companies who have invested in the area such as Seagate and Allstate NI, as well as from local leading businesses like NuPrint, FAST Technologies, Alchemy and Access Elemental, before taking a tour of the Guildhall and viewing the John Hume Nobel Peace Prize and a walking tour of the historic City Walls and the Peace Bridge.

The Mayor concluded that the visit reflected the continued commitment of Special Envoy Joseph P. Kennedy III to showcasing the North West as an attractive location for US investors

The delegation arrived in Northern Ireland on October 24 for a number of days to meet local business leaders, established US investors and politicians and took time visit key tourist attractions.
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The Irish Anti-Apartheid Campaign for Palestine (IAAC-P) has made an urgent call for an "immediate ceasefire by all parties in the occupied Gaza Strip and Israel to prevent further loss of civilian lives".

IAAC-P is a coalition of 23 Irish civil society organisations representing a collective membership of over one million people across the island.

In a statement to Derry Now, it said: "We mourn, without reservation, the taking of all civilian life, in Gaza, in Israel and across the occupied Palestinian territory; and we condemn all unlawful acts which deliberately target or recklessly endanger civilians, including all acts of collective punishment against a population under siege.

"We also make an urgent call for an immediate ceasefire by all parties in the occupied Gaza Strip and Israel to prevent further loss of civilian lives and to ensure access to life-saving aid for people in Gaza amidst an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.

"Drawing on evidence gathered over decades by the United Nations and international and local human rights organisations, it is recognised that Israel imposes an institutionalised regime of oppression, discrimination and domination over Palestinians across all the territory under its effective control, between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea, and among Palestinian refugees. This is apartheid, and it is a crime against humanity in international law.

"Since 1948 millions of Palestinians have been forcibly removed and transferred; they have had their lands confiscated and their homes demolished; they have been imprisoned without trial, and forced to live in isolated and fragmented enclaves with limited freedom of movement."

It added that successive Israeli governments had transferred more than 700,000 settlers onto occupied Palestinian territory in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and had created separate legal and administrative systems for Palestinians and Israelis.

"They have also denied nationality and citizenship to millions of Palestinians," said IAAC-P.

"Gaza is the most extreme manifestation of Israels apartheid regime of racial domination, territorial fragmentation, forcible transfer, segregation and exclusion. The international community, particularly the United States and the European Union, has failed over decades to provide the Palestinian people with a genuine path to justice and equality.

"The near-total support for Israel and its policies has been disastrous for Palestinians, and indeed for Israelis. It is time for honesty: we must no longer enable the dispossession and suffering of the Palestinian people. Those with the power to do so must, instead, and as a matter of urgency, create a political process leading to an end to decades of injustice and violence which has been imposed on the Palestinian people.

"In the current crisis, we call on the Government to redouble its efforts to bring an end to war in Gaza. We call on our representatives to stand by the Secretary General of the United Nations in his recognition of the root causes of the current conflict; we call on them to ensure the International Criminal Court investigates as a matter of urgency all potential war crimes arising from the current hostilities; and more immediately to facilitate the urgent delivery of life-saving humanitarian aid to the besieged population of Gaza.

"Beyond this, every effort must be made to seek a long-term political solution for Palestinians and Israelis. Anything less will only lead to constant war and the ongoing destabilisation of an entire region. The Palestinian people have endured decades of suffering. We must not continue to fail them.

"Peace, for Palestinians and Israelis, is only possible through justice for the Palestinian people."
A judge at Derry Crown Court has said that anyone convicted of dealing drugs in the city will receive a custodial sentence.

Judge Neil Rafferty KC was speaking as he imposed a prison sentence on Joseph McMullan (35) of Kavanagh Court in Derry who admitted driving and drug charges.

The court heard that on October 1, 2022 police observed McMullan driving a motorbike along a pavement in the Galliagh area.

He swerved away from police although the court heard the motorbike was 'a ramshackle' affair not capable of great speeds.

He was charged with dangerous driving as there were children in the area at the time.

McMullan was detained and drugs were found on him as well as a sum of money.

Following his arrest the defendant told police 'I am very sorry, I was trying my best I do not want to go back to prison.'

Judge Rafferty said that McMullan had seven previous convictions for drug offences and 'an atrocious driving record' with 85 road traffic convictions.

The judge said he wanted 'the message to be clear anyone dealing drugs in the city is getting a custodial sentence.'

He said that there was 'a significant problem' with class A, B and C drugs in the city and people had the impression that because class C drugs were prescription drugs they were safe.

He added that drugs like Pregablin were 'far from safe.'

Judge Rafferty said many of these drugs were manufactured in Asia and sold on the lack market and it was 'Russian roulette' as to what was in them.

He said he 'noted with grief' that there have been a number of fatalities which he described as 'young lives wasted and futures destroyed'.

McMullan was sentenced to two years in prison with half to be served in custody and half with formal supervision.

He was also disqualified from driving for three years.
The final episode of Julia Bradburys Irish journey will feature Derry this weekend.

The four-part series, fronted by TV presenter Julia Bradbury, will air on Channel 4 this weekend (Saturday, 28 October).

Called Julia Bradburys Irish journey, it is supported by Tourism Ireland and is expected to be seen by a wide audience of viewers across GB.

In the series, viewers see the presenter exploring and experiencing our spectacular landscape, rich culture and history and, of course, our people. In this weekends episode, viewers will see Julia in the walled city of Derry. She meets local tour guide Charlene McCrossan, who tells Julia all about the citys history.

She also visits Brook Hall Estate, where she chats with estate manager David Gilliland and slow food entrepreneur Emily McCorkill. Emily and David are inviting locals and our overseas visitors to come and enjoy mindfulness days in the beautiful grounds of Brook Hall Estate.

Julia goes foraging for some edible flowers with Emily and ends with a spot of yoga by the river.

Julie Wakley, Tourism Irelands Head of Great Britain, said: Tourism Ireland was delighted to support the production of this new four-part TV series, Julia Bradburys Irish Journey. With a wide audience across GB set to watch the series, its an excellent way to shine a spotlight on the walled city of Derry and some of the many great things to see and do on a short break or holiday in Northern Ireland.

Publicity and broadcasts like this are a key element of Tourism Irelands programme of promotional activity, to encourage travellers in GB, and elsewhere around the world, to put Northern Ireland on their holiday wish-list.
Education leaders have met to discuss the significant budgetary challenges facing the sector in Northern Ireland.

Permanent Secretary of the Department of Education (DE) Dr Mark Browne and the chairman of the board of the Education Authority (EA), Barry Mulholland, talked about the pressures facing education.

The meeting on Thursday was also attended by EA board members as well as senior DE and EA officials.

Northern Ireland has been without a devolved government for over a year due to the DUPs boycott of powersharing institutions in protest against post-Brexit trading arrangements.

In the absence of a devolved executive, the budget for Northern Ireland was set by Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris, and decisions on budget allocation are to be taken by permanent secretaries in the absence of ministers.

The budget set by Mr Heaton-Harris left a funding gap in the hundreds of millions for a number of Stormont departments.

Following the meeting, Dr Browne said he is aware of the challenges that the education sector is facing amid inadequate funding.

I remain extremely conscious of the significant challenges facing the education system in terms of the current financial situation, ongoing industrial action, inadequate school estate funding and rising numbers of pupils with Special Educational Needs, he said.

With a funding gap in the region of 300m in 2023-24, and despite taking some very difficult decisions, it will not be possible to live within our existing budget.

It will also once again be impossible to offer pay awards to our hard-working staff as, within the current budget, it is simply unaffordable.

This is not an acceptable position. Our teachers and staff deserve to be paid at a fair level for the outstanding job they do in very difficult circumstances.

I remain very concerned that the quality of education and outcomes for children and young people will continue to suffer without additional significant investment in education services and transformation, along with a sustainable funding model for the long term.

Mr Mulholland said there were pressures on the EAs budget.

There has been a chronic underfunding in education over the last 10 years and we remain very concerned about the impact the unprecedented financial pressures are having on our schools, staff and ultimately our children and young people, particularly the most vulnerable, he said.

It is essential that as a society we value and invest in the education of our children and young people and in future generations to come.

We would therefore echo the Permanents Secretarys support for fair pay for all teaching and non-teaching staff and would strongly repeat our call for sustained investment and continued transformation of services.
Northern Ireland will not be able to fully capitalise on the benefits of a US trade visit to the region until it has a functioning Assembly, Alliance Party MP Stephen Farry has said.

Mr Farry said that political stability will always be a consideration for some business leaders looking to invest.

The high-powered delegation of US business leaders, led by special envoy Joe Kennedy, was in Northern Ireland for several days this week.

The delegation included New York state comptroller Thomas P DiNapoli, president and chief financial officer of the Coca-Cola Company John Murphy, chief executive of Alteryx Mark Anderson and Marcie Frost, chief executive of CalPERS.

The visit had been announced by US President Joe Biden when he visited Belfast earlier this year.

However, it took place against the backdrop of the ongoing Stormont stalemate, with the DUP locked in negotiations with the UK Government over post-Brexit trading arrangements.

Mr Farry told the BBCs The Nolan Show: Some businesses will make decisions around Northern Ireland based on the pure economic fundamentals, for others the issue around political stability and access to ministers will be a consideration.

Often we are in competition with other parts of the world for these investments and we have to recognise we will score down on certain aspects until we sort out our political situation.

The North Down MP said the lack of an executive meant Northern Ireland ministers were not able to sell the region around the world.

He said: Political stability is an issue for many but also having surety that politicians are in charge and can take the decisions around the skills pipeline.

It is far from ideal because we have a unique opportunity, it is not every part of the world which gets a high-powered US delegation put together.

While we can take it so far for some businesses we cant get it over the line until we have an Assembly and an executive in place.

It was not a wasted opportunity but it was an opportunity we couldnt fully capitalise on.

Ulster Unionist leader Doug Beattie said he believed there was confusion among the investors over the political logjam in Northern Ireland.

He told the BBCs Good Morning Ulster programme: I think when you speak to investors they understand how politics can be complicated, they understand how Northern Ireland politics is even more complicated, but they also looked and saw political leaders here in Northern Ireland walking together, talking together.

I think there was a degree of confusion, we can do all this, we can say all this, why cant we just get back into government.

We were all saying the same thing, the economy is important, and yet we cant get ourselves into a room to govern.

I think there is confusion with investors when they look at us.
A tribunal panel in a fitness to practise hearing into a neurologist at the centre of Northern Irelands largest recall of patients has retired to consider its findings.

Earlier, the tribunal chairman said the case could proceed despite the legal representative of Belfast-based consultant Dr Michael Watt withdrawing from the hearing.

A lawyer for Belfast-based Dr Watt said the tribunal was willing to embrace an increased risk to his clients mental health by going ahead and added that the hearing would only serve to mollify the public clamour that is resounding in the case.

However, chairman Neil Dalton said the hearing would exercise its discretion to proceed without Dr Watt.

The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) is carrying out the fitness to practise hearing.

In 2018, more than 4,000 of the neurologists patients attended recall appointments amid concerns over his clinical practice.

A previous MPTS tribunal granted Dr Watt voluntary removal from the medical register.

However, the High Court in Belfast quashed that ruling due to concerns it was not sufficient to protect the public.

The three-person tribunal began its new hearing last month, when it was told a performance report into Dr Watt in 2018 found that he repeatedly failed to make correct diagnoses.

Resuming the tribunal on Friday, Mr Dalton said they had heard evidence and a number of submissions in private and the hearing would now proceed in public session.

However, Dr Watts barrister Matthew McDonagh said there were concerns about his clients serious mental health condition.

He added: The tribunal has accepted, as indeed the previous fitness to practise tribunal accepted, that the continuation of this hearing in public presents a real risk to Dr Watts mental health.

The tribunal is willing to embrace the increased risk to Dr Watts serious mental health condition by proceeding in this way.

Those risks have been confirmed by both the General Medical Council and the defence expert witnesses who have given evidence before you.

The defence team are not willing to embrace that risk.

Mr McDonagh said his clients condition had prevented the defence from challenging the performance report.

He added: Dr Watt fears that the extensive opprobrium that the General Medical Council (GMC) and MPTS have encountered may be a factor that has impacted their present approach to this case.

Dr Watt believes the present hearing only serves to mollify the public clamour that is resounding in this case.

He added: Further iterations of this case and the frenzied media cycle may satiate the public clamour but will serve no legitimate purpose and will increase the risk to Dr Watt.

Mr McDonagh said his instructions were to withdraw an application for voluntary erasure of his client from the medical register and to withdraw from the proceedings.

Representing the GMC, Charles Garside KC said the tribunal would have to make a decision on whether to continue with the hearing while it was uncontested.

He said: Fairness includes fairness to the public and fairness to the GMC.

In this case the doctor has made a decision with full advice and knowledge of what the implications may be.

Public interest requires that these proceedings are dealt with as expeditiously as possible, so both the public and Dr Watt know what the outcome of them will be.

In my submissions the balance of fairness is in favour of the tribunal continuing with this hearing.

After considering the submission, Mr Dalton said the tribunal would exercise its discretion to proceed.

The tribunal later heard evidence from Dr Paul Wilson and Dr Trevor Pickersgill, who were assessors in the 2018 performance report.

Dr Watt had been a consultant neurologist at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast but ceased clinical practice in 2017.

He was interviewed three times for the GMC assessment report the following year.

The tribunal previously heard that the report stated Dr Watts performance was found to be deficient, he was not fit to practise and should cease practice.

The report said there was a persistent failure to take adequate histories from patients and carry out clinical examinations.

It also stated there was persistent and repeated failure to make correct diagnoses, resulting in patients receiving inappropriate management which included drugs with serious and toxic side effects.

It also said there was use of idiosyncratic diagnostic criteria, leading to patients receiving unnecessary invasive treatment.

Making closing submissions, Mr Garside said the tribunal had heard nothing in evidence to contradict the performance report.

Mr Dalton said the panel would retire and deliver its findings on Wednesday.
HIGHLIGHTS Elon Musk wants to make X as the centre of your financial world.

He expects the finance-related features to launch by the end of next year.

This vision aligns with Musk's goal of transforming X into an "everything app."

Elon Musk wants to make X (formerly Twitter) as the core of your financial world, managing all aspects of your financial life. He anticipates those features to be available by the end of next year. This vision aligns with Musks goal of transforming X into an everything app.

During an all hands call with X employees, Musk said that people will be surprised with just how powerful it is, reports The Verge.

Also read: Elon Musks X releases early version of audio & video calls: Know more

When I say payments, I actually mean someones entire financial life, Musk told employees. He further said, If it involves money. Itll be on our platform. Money or securities or whatever. So, its not just like send $20 to my friend. Im talking about, like, you wont need a bank account.

Also read: Elon Musk says X, formerly Twitter, might charge all users a small monthly payment

On the other hand, X CEO Linda Yaccarino said that the company envisions this evolving into a full opportunity in 2024. Also, Musk said, It would blow my mind if we dont have that rolled out by the end of next year.

Musk has talked about his idea to transform X into a financial centre in the past. He even changed the name of Twitter after his dot-com-boom-era online bank, X.com, which later merged with PayPal, the report said.

He once mentioned that this platform would provide things like high-yield money market accounts, debit cards, checks, and loans. The aim was to enable people to send money globally quickly and in real-time.

Musks aim to transform X into a comprehensive financial services hub aligns perfectly with his vision of turning the platform into an everything app.

However, getting users to trust X with their entire financial life will not be an easy task.
HIGHLIGHTS Xiaomis new Android skin, HyperOS was also rolled out today with the smartphones.

It is also one of the first smartphones that pack the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset.

Another exciting feature of the Xiaomi 14 series is the Leica Summilux Lens

Successor to the Xiaomi 13 series, the Xiaomi 14 series has finally arrived today in China. From the first look, the Xiaomi flagship smartphone looks bougie. The Xiaomi 14 series packs a lot of new interesting features. Here we are going to talk about the top three features that make the Xiaomi 14 series stand out. Read along to know more.

As you must be aware, the Xiaomi 14 series offers two smartphones: the Xiaomi 14 and the Xiaomi 14 Pro. Both of these smartphones were unveiled today in China. Out of the many features that these smartphones offer, the key features that stand out are  HyperOS, cutting-edge Leica camera lens, and Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. These specifications make these flagship smartphones by Xiaomi top-notch. Lets now discuss them in detail.

Also read: Xiaomi 14 series will be powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3: Launch date revealed

HyperOS

Along with the smartphones, Xiaomis new Android skin, HyperOS was also rolled out today. In addition to Android, it is also based on the self-developed Vela system. Xiaomi is ready to bid adieu to MIUI and is switching to HyperOS. HyperOS debuts with the Xiaomi 14 series. Both the Xiaomi 14 and the Xiaomi 14 Pro run on HyperOS. This new OS offers a more visually appealing and modern look. But then at the same time, when compared to MIUI 14, the HyperOS is quite similar. We do get an improved Control Center, new lock screen clocks, wallpapers, and new editing options for font style, wallpaper effects, and more for the widgets and other options on the lock screen. Along with that, there is also a new UI for the camera app, dialer, and weather. Well, some people suggest that this closely resembles iOS 17.

Snapdragon 8 Gen 3

Xiaomi 14 is not only the first smartphone to carry HyperOS but it is also one of the first smartphones that pack the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset. This is the newest flagship chipset from Qualcomm. Apart from Xiaomi, we could spot the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset on iQOO 12, Realme GT 5 Pro, OnePlus 12, Vivo X100+, OPPO Find X7 series, Samsung Galaxy S24 series, a new Motorola flagship, ASUS ROG series in the future.

Also read: Xiaomi 14 Pro design revealed from all angles through renders: Check whats expected

Leica Summilux Lens

Another exciting feature of the Xiaomi 14 series is the Leica Summilux Lens. It seems that the Xiaomi 14 series is all about the firsts, it is the first smartphone to carry the Leica Summilux Lens which has been designed specifically for smartphones by the German brand. It is called the best in the segment for smartphone photography and Xiaomi promises an exhilarating photography experience.

It seems like Xiaomi did take the word flagship way too seriously with the Xiaomi 14 series. I am high-key waiting for the smartphone to drop in India so that I can try it and find out if it fits its claims of being the best in so many segments.
Can generative AI save the smartphone industry?

Although it's unlikely for smartphone applications to have a turnaround in 2023, generative AI has certainly offered the entire supply chain a glimmer of hope. Both end-user brands and smartphone SoC makers are focusing their technology development on so-called generative AI applications and are fully promoting related visions.

At the Snapdragon Summit, Qualcomm made it very clear that the upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is made for generative AI. It can be foreseen that generative AI will be a competition hot zone between Qualcomm and MediaTek in the future.

In fact, Qualcomm has been actively promoting the trend of introducing generative AI into edge devices since the first half of 2023. A key part of its promotion is that Stable Diffusion can be operated on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 in offline mode. However, for the consumer market, a single generative AI application is not enough to convince users to buy in.

Naturally, Qualcomm realized this as well. At the Snapdragon Summit, it proposed various generative AI application models. Among them, seeking professional advice through voice assistants is the most intuitive and prominent application.

Besides Stable Diffusion, which can generate AI images based on text inputs, the performance of the Photo Expansion feature has also received a lot of attention. This feature uses AI to simulate the existing photo's scenario and expand the photo's content.

The generative AI competition on smartphone SoCs encompasses both hardware and software aspects. In terms of hardware, the focus is on the design capabilities of overall and individual module architectures. Figuring out a way to operate with lower power consumption and more efficient memory usage will be the most significant challenge and main battleground for the smartphone SoC industry.

As a result, both Qualcomm's NPU and APU are expected to become increasingly important. The operational efficiency of the AI computing core and other cores such as the CPU, GPU, and sensor cores will also be a decisive factor in the design.

Sources familiar with the smartphone supply chain pointed out that for the past several years, the selling points of the smartphone market have been centered around gaming and photography features. Even when AI features were introduced, they were mainly there to enhance gaming and photography performance. However, generative AI applications could cause a significant change in the mobile device user experience.

Qualcomm CEO Christiano Amon believes that generative AI will redefine all personal mobile devices. The previously app-centered usage scenarios will instead be centered around AI operations, providing notifications, reminders, and consultations tailored to individual needs. These functions will allow consumers to truly realize the practical benefits of AI. He also predicted that generative AI would be the savior of the entire smartphone mobile industry.

However, in addition to having sufficient computing power on the hardware side, as well as optimizing power consumption and memory usage, the collaboration and joint development between software companies and AI model suppliers are equally as important. Major IC design companies admitted that in the era of generative AI, software technology is likely more important than hardware technology.

Qualcomm indeed has the advantage on the software side. From Microsoft, Google, and Meta to Chinese AI model suppliers and startup teams developing generative AI applications, they all have collaborated with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. For competitors such as Apple and MediaTek, they'll likely face a lot of pressure in the AI sector in the future.
Cisco teams up with Nvidia to unveil next-gen Webex AI assistant, merging RMM and LLM capabilities

Cisco has recently shone a spotlight on Webex's advanced features, unveiling a fresh lineup of collaboration devices that harness the capabilities of Nvidia's accelerated computing and AI engine. This innovative integration is poised to revolutionize hybrid meetings.

The discussion touched upon Webex's generative AI model, known as Real-Time Media Models (RMMs). Cisco emphasized that RMMs represent unique and proprietary technology designed for handling real-time audio and video. It distinguishes itself from traditional Language Models (LLMs), which are more text-centric, by addressing real-time voice and media.

Cisco's collaboration with Nvidia, particularly its use of Nvidia chipsets in Webex devices, was highlighted. This partnership has been instrumental in enabling AI capabilities, making Webex devices capable of performing complex AI functions.

The newly launched Webex AI Assistant has the potential to change message tone and provides recommended changes to tone, format, and phrasing in Webex Messaging and Slido. A user can ask Webex AI Assistant to summarize messages from their boss within a space containing messages from other colleagues. Organized into chapters and highlights, Meeting Summaries assist users in catching up on missed portions of meetings or entire meetings in real-time and provide summaries of what they missed, thus helping people stay updated by recapping unread messages or reviewing space activity.

Webex AI Codec was detailed extensively. The platform utilizes AI to enhance audio quality in real-time communication, irrespective of available bandwidth. AI technology eliminates background noise during capture, reconstructs lost data during transport, and proactively predicts network conditions to adapt to available bandwidth. Similarly, Webex will apply machine learning techniques to improve video quality through Super Resolution, ensuring high-definition meetings with exceptional video quality regardless of bandwidth conditions.

Addressing market competition, Sandeep Mehra, Managing Director of Collaboration Sales for APJC at Cisco, acknowledged the challenges posed by other collaboration platforms such as Zoom, Teams, and Google Meet. However, he emphasized that innovation, affordability, and partnerships have been vital in helping Webex regain market share.

Webex currently supports real-time translations in 13 spoken languages, which can be further translated into 108 text languages. The platform provides support for Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and Hindi in the Asia Pacific, Japan, and Greater China regions.
Electromagnetic waves applications offer entrepreneurial opportunities, says PIDA chair

Where to find entrepreneurial opportunities? They can be found from electromagnetic waves, especially at the application level, where different wavelengths can be utilized at different times for different application extensions, thus further stimulating entrepreneurial inspiration, according to Kenneth Tai, chairman of the Photonics Industry & Technology Development Association (PIDA).

As a renowned entrepreneur and venture capitalist in Taiwan, Tai is among founders of Acer and now also chairs InveStar Capital. He also served as chairman at Chief Telecom and Richtek Technology.

During the PIDA-organized OPTO Taiwan 2023, held October 25-27 at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center, Tai said electromagnetic waves provide an important direction for exploring entrepreneurship opportunities. He continued that electromagnetic waves have a a wide spectrum, and can be broadly categorized into different bands, such as radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet rays, X-rays, and gamma rays, which can be used in a large number of application fields.

In modern life, wireless televisions, wireless broadcasts, mobile communications, meteorological satellites, satellite positioning systems, intelligent transportation systems, and X-ray machines all have to use electromagnetic waves of different frequencies, which not only provide convenience in life, but also promote different types of commercial activities and industrial development. As such, it is evident that electromagnetic waves have played an indispensable role in the scientific and technological life, according to Tai.

Under high-speed transmission, Tai is optimistic about the development of low-earth-orbit satellites. He also believes that Taiwan has great advantage in developing silicon photonics, one of the highlights of the OPTO Taiwan 2023 and attracting a record number of attendees at a related forum.

Co-packaged optics

Tai pointed out that the industry currently uses silicon chips to produce computing components, but if optical waveguides can be integrated in the future to enable silicon chips to simultaneously process both electrical and optical signals, it will not only reduce the mass production cost but also boost the chip performance. In this regard, co-packaged optics (CPO) uses silicon photonics as a platform to package all electrical and optical signals and components, unlike traditional packaging focusing on electrical ICs.

Since silicon photonics is an extension of silicon, Taiwan has an absolute advantage in mass production due to the semiconductor cluster effect. Tai believes that silicon photonics will become an important technology platform in the future, and related industry players will have great opportunities for market development.

Tai stressed that Taiwan is the place with the highest density of electromagnetic wave application in the world, and is also a real "silicon" valley. OPTO Taiwan used to focus on displays in the past, but in 2023 it also highlights SiC and GaN compound semiconductors and silicon photonics, aiming to extend the main axis of the exhibition to the applications of both electromagnetic and optical waves.

However, to keep up with the development of forward-looking technologies, basic science is still needed as a foundation. Tai pointed out that in terms of basic science, physics, chemistry and materials are indispensable, and in terms of applications, mathematical abilities should be strengthened. Therefore, he disclosed, PIDA has also initiated a STEM creativity contest in high schools in the hope of sowing the seeds of applied science and technology among young students.
Village in northwest China's Ningxia undergoes green transformation

Longwangba village in northwest Chinas Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in the old days. (Photo provided by Longwangba Village Committee)

The transformation of Xihaigu, once labeled by the World Food Programme as one of the "most unfit places for human settlement" in the 1970s, into a verdant and beautiful land is the thing that impressed me the most during my recent trip to northwest Chinas Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

Below you can see some old and new images documenting Longwangba village's () transformation from a wasteland into an ecotourism destination.

All of the locals are now out of poverty, and several have opened their own village inns. Chinas environmental protection and poverty alleviation efforts have made the villagers lives better.

Longwangba village is now an ecological tourism spot. (Photo provided by Longwangba Village Committee)

Wang Lyurui, 48, a resident of Longwangba village for nearly three decades. (Photo/Chizao)

Wang Lyurui, 48, has been a resident of Longwangba village for nearly three decades. She is an illiterate woman who used to live in poverty.

After the local environment changed, Wang refurbished her ancient house and turned it into an inn that offers ecotourism and her homemade vinegar. Her life has become more prosperous and comfortable as a result of the increase in income.

With the assistance of the local government and through her own efforts, all four of her children attended university, making up for her regret of not being able to read and write.

Wang is now the owner of a two-story village inn with eight rooms.

Like many local youths, Zhang Xuxu, 29, is back home and is now a business leader. (Photo/Chizao)

Zhang Xuxu, 29, was born and raised in Longwangba village and is now the manager of one of the village's 45 inns.

Zhang remembered how, when she was a child, her village was frequently overwhelmed by sandstorms and drought. Because there was no running water in the village, its residents had to walk two hours with buckets to the nearby reservoir to fetch water. The mountains had few trees, and the bushes and grass were used as fuel by the locals.

While local living standards have improved in recent years as a result of poverty alleviation initiatives, the villagers and the government have begun planting trees to make their hamlet more liveable.

"There are 407 households in our village, with a total population of 1,861 people. The majority of us have benefited from local ecotourism," she explained.

Zhang and many other young locals who previously worked in big cities to escape poverty have now returned to their hometown to start their own businesses.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Wu Chengliang)
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Latest US sanctions drive China to review chiplet capabilities as the way forward

Following the US sanction updates against Chinese semiconductor development on October 17, which established Total Processing Performance and Performance Density as the new parameters to restrict Chinese advanced computing and AI developments, China's advanced packaging and chiplet sectors have also come under radar. As the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) pointed out, the performance density parameter prevents China from circumventing restrictions by "simply purchasing a larger number of small datacenter AI chips which, if combined, would be equally powerful as restricted chips."

Pursuing Moore's Law will lead to performance gap

Not surprisingly, the move has pushed Chinese semiconductor industry to accelerate the development of an indigenous chiplet ecosystem. During a October 25 event hosted by Xpeedic Technology, a Shanghai-based EDA and SiP design solution provider, industry representatives convened to examine the current state of Chinese chiplet development.

Noting the recent surge of generative AI and large language models (LLM), Lin Feng, founder and CEO of Xpeedic, indicated that if Chinese semiconductor development merely follows the path of Moore's Law, there will be a major performance gap to meet the need of AI computing. "We wouldn't be able to address the gap through increasing transistor density or packaging density, as it requires solution at a deeper level," said Lin, who believes that traditional system on a chip (SoC) is giving way to System of Chiplets, thus leading to better yields, lower costs, shorter time to market, and overcoming lithography reticle limit. Noting the success cases of AMD and Apple's chiplet developments, Lin regards "EDA + IP + Packaging" to be the formula of success in the sector.

Interconnect standard fundamental, but co-design is the real key

Wu Feng, a chief engineer from ZTE Corp specialized in high-speed interconnect technology, in turn highlighted the three current barriers faced by Chinese chiplet development, including that it cannot replace advanced processing technology, its interconnect standard needs further standardization, and its costs have to improved. The ZTE engineer also pointed out that packaging, die-to-die (D2D) interconnect and system-level co-design are the key chiplet technologies to be strengthened, especially when it comes to D2D standardization efforts that are deemed fundamental to ecosystem building. Though D2D standardization and packaging are foundational, Feng believes that chiplet architecture and the realization of design are the true keys to Chinese chiplet industry's competence, especially chiplet co-design, simulation and verification. In this context, a corresponding EDA ecosystem is a key battleground.

At the event, Yao Li, head of Unisoc's packaging design department, also showcased the company's ambition to use chiplet platform on multiple applications, including smartphones, automotive dual-channel modules, automotive Flip-Chip Ball Grid Array (FCBGA), and display FCBGA. In terms of various advanced packaging technologies, Yao observes that the consumer electronics sector in China often require Flip Chip Chip Scale Packaging (FCCP) and Wafer Level Chip Scale Package (WLCSP). In comparison, industrial applications mainly require SiP and FCBGA.

Reference points for future breakthrough?

Regarding China's path forwards amid the latest US sanctions, Yin Shouyi, Vice Dean of Tsinghua University's School of Integrated Circuits, summarized several different ways of chip innovation merging computing architecture and advanced packaging. Yin mentioned several efforts as reference points for such endeavors, including the dataflow processing chip represented by Google TPU and Samsung's effort to integrate Processing-in-Memory (PIM) and High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), Yin also referred to wafer-level chips such as Tesla Dojo, and Intel's 3D-stacked Ponte Vecchio as references for Chinese advanced packaging development.
Pupils from the two 4th classes, Spideoga and Smolaigh, at St Francis NS Blackrock held a sponsored Sleep Out in October, in aid of the Dundalk Simon Community, raising over 5,700 which they proudly presented to the charity on Friday.

Having studied the topic of homelessness, and from an informative visit from Yvonne and Laura from Dundalk Simon Community, the children learned about the different types of homelessness, its impact and how it is a huge problem across Ireland and in our own community.

The children particularly focused on the person behind the homeless person and how it could happen to any one of us, a spokesperson for St Francis NS said.

They learned about the supports available and the wonderful and life-changing work charity organisations such as The Dundalk Simon Community provide and how we can support them.

The children did themselves and their school proud by challenging themselves to experience what it is like to sleep rough in order to raise awareness on the topic of homelessness and to raise vital funds for Dundalk Simon Community.

Before settling down outside for the night, the children investigated where would be the best place to sleep, the most suitable and accessible materials to create shelters from and how to optimise these materials in order to keep as warm, dry and comfortable as possible.

Speaking after the event, Deputy Principal and class teacher, Elaine O'Rourke said: "It was a fun and positive learning experience that the children took on with reverence and an understanding of all we have to be thankful for.

We are aware that we, as a society, cannot ignore the problem of homelessness.

We acknowledge how our contribution, however small, can help make change for the better.

"In total, 45 children took part and those unable to attend the sleepout at the school participated from home instead, by giving up their comfortable bed and sleeping on the floor."

They were supervised by the class teachers, Elaine O'Rourke and Megan Glynn, Special Needs Assistant Suzanne OHare and the school principal, Oreena Lawless.

After their sleepout they were visited in the classroom by Barry Gallagher from RTE News2day programme, who filmed a piece with the children for a news story which was broadcast later the same day.

Mrs O'Rourke went on to thank Yvonne from The Dundalk Simon Community for coming in to speak with the children.

"The information they presented and sharing of your experiences added reality and greater depth to our study on homelessness."

She also wished to acknowledge the support of the Dundalk Lions Club, along with the parents and the St. Francis NS Board of Management for supporting the fundraiser and allowing them to use the school premises and facilities.

Finally, a special thank you was given to School Principal, Oreena Lawless joining the pupils and teachers for the overnight Sleep Out.
Dundalk district court has heard how a retired history lecturer, whose car was rear-ended by a lorry on the M1, had braked sharply near a motorway junction.

Sylvia Anginotti (74) with an address at Ashurst Drive, Sheffield was prosecuted for dangerous driving arising out of the incident at Ballyhattin on July 28th last year.

The collision was reported around 8.45pm and footage from the lorry showed the Fiat 500 driven by the defendant, coming to a complete stop in front of the cab, just north of Junction 18.

It blocked the lane and hard shoulder and the lorry driver could not avoid a collision.

The front seat passenger was taken to hospital.

The Defence barrister said his client "had a bit of a brain freeze and braked too sharply".

He explained Ms. Anginotti is a retired history lecturer who was going to Carlingford to research a book about a family there and had spent a number of decades as a local public representative in Sheffield.

Judge Eirinn McKiernan reduced the charge to careless driving and imposed a 300 fine, saying she would exercise her discretion and not disqualify Ms. Anginotti from driving.
FROM humble beginnings, born in a one-room flat in Wolfe Tone Street, Mike Bowen has forged a career as an insurance broker in Melbourne, become a published author, a songwriter, and is the inventor of the biggest money-spinner in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest - televoting.

Not bad at all!

I was born just off Cathedral Road on the Northside of Cork, Mike told me on a visit home recently - his 60th time since emigrating to Australia.

I am treated like a king here, says Mike of the Maldron Hotel, a familiar haunt when he is in town.

I always get an enormous welcome from my old friend, hotel manager, Joe Kennedy.

Mike, whose parents were Liza and Mick, spent a lot of time in that neck of the woods growing up.

I was very often in the North Infirmary with pneumonia or bronchitis, he says.

My dad was an alcoholic and my mother suffered from TB.

They were difficult times and my sister, Breda, and I often looked to the kind nuns for help, or wed go to City Hall with Aunt Mary for help.

Mary had a saying that Mike always remembers, You might have been born in sh*t, but you dont have to live in sh*t. You have a choice.

Mike, despite being dyslexic, strove to better himself and one of his first jobs was as a travelling salesman in Munster, before joining Gael Linn in Kerry as manager.

When two relationships Mike had didnt work out, he decided to go Down Under.

Being brought up on the Northside gave him resilience and determination. What was life like growing up in Cork city in the years after World War II?

It was a cold and hungry time for a lot of families and Im sure ours was only one of many that struggled to stay warm and fed, says Mike, born in 1949.

My mother was always in ill-health, spending long periods of time in sanatoriums.

She had tuberculosis and, in her absences, Breda and I were left to fend for ourselves because Mick was unable to come home due to his drunken state on many a night.

Breda and I were two lost souls; no money, no food, no heat, and an army-issued overcoat full of fleas for bedclothes.

Times were tough.

When my mother was not in hospital, she would sometimes take me with her to the Vincent de Pauls looking for food vouchers and then on to other charities.

Having gone through those experiences in my childhood, I am a great admirer and supporter of Catriona Twomey and Penny Dinners.

A Time Of Secrets, by Mike Bowen

In his new biography, A Time Of Secrets, Mike paints a picture of the Northside, complete with unique characters and relationships.

Yes, Gurranabraher was a wonderful place for a fertile mind, he says. It gave me my foundation, it gave me my strength.

There, I learned to become streetwise among my peers who taught me better than any university professor.

I learned dignity and respect for those around me and I also learned there was much that was kept from me.

After just picking a destination from the flight information at Heathrow Airport, Mike decided on Melbourne to seek his fortune and make good.

I remembered where the great athlete, Ronnie Delany, won Olympic gold for Ireland in 1956, he says.

Armed with the attributes of a true Northsider, he tells me how he landed his first job.

I knew nobody, only the people I met, says Mike. I applied for my first sales job with Mazda. They made light-bulbs in Ireland. I got a shock when I realised Mazda was a car dealership!

Ray, the manager of the car dealership, was not impressed. But he changed his mind.

I made a deal with Ray and told him Id work a week with no pay and if I didnt sell a car, I would walk away.

That didnt happen.

I ended up being the most successful salesman in Mazda and worked there for eight or nine years, says Mike.

I built relationships and made good contacts.

Despite being dyslexic, Mike joined insurance company AMP after doing his exams and qualified as an insurance planner, helping expand the business with two other partners who grew other agents.

Mike was on his way to the Big Time. And he was on his way home.

I came home to Ireland, to Dunquin, to write music and poetry. I wrote profusely - and I had come back as a better person.

Mikes recordings went towards helping good causes like Hand In Hand, that support children with cancer, and he recorded a song which he wrote about the children of Northern Ireland.

In 1990, Mike entered a song for the national song contest, Say That You Love Me, sung by Fran Meen. He and his business partner Alan Sheratt, planned to make the Eurovision Song Contest a world event and include countries such as Australia.

Mike, with a love of music and song, did his research, exploring all avenues.

My insertion into the music industry brought me to the presidency of the Australian Songwriters Association INC, where I stayed for some years, says Mike.

And in turn, with Alan, my business partner, that opportunity led us through the doors of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) in Geneva, via Liam Miller and RTE, to work on changing and revamping the structure of the Eurovision Song Contest.

We worked for almost three years behind the scenes with the EBU, to revamp the stale and tired Eurovision format. Our main plan was to make it a world event and include countries like Australia, New Zealand, and the Far East (members of the EBU). Ambition fulfilled.

Australia has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest eight times since its debut in 2015.

In A Time Of Secrets, we discover what made Mike and how his impoverished upbringing in Corks Northside helped him rise to great heights in life, fulfilling his ambitions.

We are transported back to the ballrooms of romance, the innocent relationships that were formed, and their consequences.

Yes, I have come a long way from having patches on the arse of my trousers, says Mike, who only has one lung.

I have been privileged in so may ways; to have the foresight to grasp opportunities and work hard, to have the love and support of some magic people who helped me on my way, and I thank God for the good sense not to bear grudges and carry chips on my shoulder.

Everyone needs an angel on their shoulder.

A Time Of Secrets is dedicated to my Aunt Mary, says Mike. She was my own angel on earth - who unknowingly was my lifes expedition leader. No-one can possibly climb Mount Everest on ones own.

Aunt Mary offered me encouragement and showed unshakable belief in my abilities when nobody else did.

Mike is proud of his name and of the place where he came from.

Ill wear the name Mike Bowen until the end of my days, like a badge of honour, as Aunt Mary would wish.

Does he ask anything else of life?

I ask you that you dont dislike me for what Im not, but like me for what I am.
TDs in Corks North Central have called on the government to lay clear what is being done for renters in Cork city and its suburbs.

Sinn Fein TD Thomas Gould and People Before ProfitSolidarity TD Mick Barry were speaking following the publication of the latest Simon Communities Locked Out Report.

The study shows that in September, there were 44 properties to rent on average in Cork city and its suburbs with no properties available within the HAP thresholds.

The most recent Locked Out of the Market snapshot study was undertaken over three consecutive days, on September 18, 19, and 20.

The report tracks the number of properties advertised to rent within the Department of Housing, Local Government, and Heritage (DHLGH) Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) limits.

In Cork, details were gathered from Daft.ie for Cork city centre and its suburbs.

The study showed that in eight of the 16 study areas across Ireland, there were no properties available to rent through HAP in any household category within standard or discretionary HAP limits, including in Cork city centre and Cork city suburbs.

In Cork city centre, there was an average of 23 properties to rent each day, while in the suburbs, there was an average of 21 properties available to rent over the course of the study period.

Today, the Simon Communities of Ireland published the Sept 2023 Locked Out of the Market Report. This report found only 27 properties available within standard/discretionary HAP limits nationwide. This is the lowest number recorded across the 31 Locked Out of the Market studies. pic.twitter.com/3C24g07gBx  Simon Communities (@SimonCommunity) October 25, 2023

Monthly rents in the city centre ranged from 1,600 to 2,000 for one-bedroom properties, 1,587 to 2,600 for two-bedroom properties, and 1,580 to 3,458 for three-bedroom properties available over the three-day study period.

In the suburbs, there was only one one-bedroom property during the study which was 1,450.

Rent for two-bedroom properties ranged from 1,439 to 2,229 and rent for three-bedroom properties ranged from 1,438 to 2,800.

According to Daft.ie, average rents in Cork County rose 8.8% in the last year and now sit at 1,410 (Q2 2023).

Deputy Gould described the studys findings as one which paints a stark picture for families and individuals searching for accommodation.

While the government were busy preparing a budget that will do nothing to help ordinary renters, people in Cork city and suburbs were faced with barely any available properties and rents ranging from 1,450 to 3,458. That is far beyond the means of most ordinary workers and families, he said.

There was only one one-bedroom property in the city suburbs in September. This leaves young people or those who dont need additional bedrooms, forced into house shares or, as is becoming the norm, to stay in their parents bedrooms for years on end.

Without a single property within the HAP threshold for the entire month of September in Cork city or suburbs, it couldnt be any clearer that this government have failed on housing. Speaking to The Echo about the studys findings, People Before ProfitSolidarity TD for Cork North-Central, Mick Barry, said: "No government which allows rents on a one-bedroomed property in Cork city centre to be somewhere between 20,000 and 25,000 a year deserves to stay in office.

Rent controls which actually cut rent should be introduced. If landlords don't like that and exit the market, the State should buy the properties and provide accommodation at reasonable rates".
THE head of a Cork charity is calling for additional measures to tackle the student accommodation crisis following the introduction of a multimillion-euro fund to deal with the crisis.

Caitriona Twomey from Cork Penny Dinners said she welcomes efforts by the Government who announced a 434m scheme to address the issue. However, she added that many college students will remain in dire situations if rents continue to exist at their current level.

Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris said any projects funded through the 434 million euro scheme will offer rents below the market rate.

The scheme, provided through the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Housing Finance Agency (HFA), are set to provide universities with cost loans over extended time periods.

The initiative comprises a 40-year 200 million euro loan from the EIB, with the state HFA supplementing the rest.

Meanwhile, Ms Twomey, who heads the Cork Penny Dinners charity, said she is having to distribute emergency packs to college students foregoing meals to pay their rent. They include enough necessities to get the recipient through the day including sandwiches, soup, tea and bottles of water.

I welcome this but Im also conscious that there is a cold Winter ahead and that more needs to be done", she told The Echo.

"Some students are coming into Cork Penny Dinners daily. They are going into college five days a week and need to find a way to survive. Our survival bags mean they have enough food to last them the next 24 hours. They are trying to study and do well in life and this should be encouraged. Instead, this is the way they are having to live. Some students have spoken to us about the huge burden this has been on their parents.

She added that the majority are very open about their situations.

They dont feel like they have to hide. Its better than it used to be in that respect. So many people are in the same boat that they dont feel the need to hide it anymore. A lot of them have signed up to volunteer and have been a huge help to us. In many ways, we help each other.

She described the living conditions some students are enduring as "atrocious".

They are living in atrocious conditions. Some of them have difficulty in asking for help and are not even sure how they phrase the question when emailing us.

Isabel Power from Cork Student Housing Co-operative- a group of students and alumni from third-level institutions in Cork city also praised the efforts of the government. However, she expressed her wishes to garner more support for alternative models. The CSHC is currently working to provide not-for-profit student accommodation through the co-operative model of mutual aid, self-help, solidarity and democracy.

If there is any way that we could access the fund we would love to see that made possible", Ms Power said.

COOPERATIVE

"We are still looking for investors people who would like to help us get our student cooperative off the ground. If we could access this fund it would be fantastic but even just seeing that it is available is good news. I hope that it can be turned around quickly because I am talking to students who still havent found accommodation for this year even though its now the end of October.

"A lot of them are staying in B&Bs or are in precarious situations. It is important that accommodation is fairly priced. The precarious housing situation is really stressful for students. Usually, they accept the first offer they get even if its unsuitable".

She reiterated the impact the housing crisis is having on students.

It is pushing students to the limit financially especially those students who dont have financial aid from families, she said.

They are having to take up extra jobs and work extra hours whilst also doing their college course. Thats just extremely stressful. I know this from chatting to students. A lot of students are struggling and we are in dire need of fairly priced accommodation.

"What we are about is bringing the sense of community back into student accommodation. Id be interested to see if there would be any opportunities for our group to access funding and get the idea off the ground. Maybe there is an opportunity there to create a cooperative model.
A CORK gym is busy undergoing a major facelift that will ensure state-of-the-art workout equipment and changing facilities for all who attend.

One L1fe Fitness opened its doors in Cork in 2019.

Despite the major challenges that have faced businesses over the past four years or so, the fitness club has gone from strength to strength, and now boasts two locations in the heart of Cork city.

The One L1fe Fitness gyms can be found opposite the Opera House or opposite the Cork College of Commerce.

With top class equipment and a wide range of classes on offer, both locations really have something for everyone.

Speaking to The Echo, One L1fe Fitness group business manager, Veronica Spillane, reflected on the gyms journey over the past four years.

She also recalled some of the businesss major achievements and milestones, as well as the challenges overcome by staff and patrons alike.

Veronica also provided an update on ongoing renovation works at the South Terrace One L1fe Fitness location - an exciting project for both staff and those who regularly attend the gym.

One L1fe Fitness opened its doors January 2019, Veronica explained, adding that the concept was the latest brainchild of the Kenny brothers who have long been involved in the fitness industry in Ireland.

Greg Kenny was responsible for bringing the Energie franchise to Ireland over ten years ago and owned Fit4Less franchises before going it alone and creating the One L1fe brand with his brother Jack Kenny, she explained further.

Together, with myself in charge of the businesses day to day, they now run two One L1fe clubs in Cork city. One L1fe Fitness currently boast around 15 staff members across both locations, offering a wide range of classes and supports such as personal training and much, much more.

We offer the best fitness classes and gym service in Cork City with a special focus on the regular person looking to get fit without punishing themselves, Veronica explained.

For us, its all about balance: train hard but enjoy a few pints and a take away at the weekend if you want.

Hayleigh Keelan and Harrsha Paliwal, One L1fe Fitness Mulgrave Road, Cork.

We are completely against the hard core fitfam lifestyle, and want our members to enjoy training with us, she added.

We are all for inclusivity not exclusivity - fitness should be for everyone. Looking back on the last four years, Veronica said that a number of highlights stand out but added that the main one is actually currently ongoing.

We have had so many different accomplishments and have the most incredible, diverse and talented team, but our main highlight right now is the massive refurbishment project being undertaken in our South Terrace club, she explained.

We have demolished our locker rooms completely and are currently installing luxury changing facilities and a second floor.

Not to mention we have bought a huge amount of brand new state of the art Gymleco equipment, she added, highlighting the training equipment developed by one of Europes foremost providers of fitness equipment.

South Terrace is going to be the most beautiful club in Cork city in just under two months time. Like every business across Cork and further afield, One L1fe Fitness was thrown a curveball in 2020 in the form of the covid-19 pandemic, which had an unprecedented impact on business across Ireland and the world.

However, Veronica said that a loyal group of members stuck with One L1fe Fitness throughout the difficult period, encouraging staff and management alike.

Everyone found Covid difficult but we have a loyal group of incredible members who have stuck with us for years so they made it easier to get through tougher periods, she explained.

Looking to the future, Veronica said that, for now, the focus is on completing the renovation works at South Terrace and ensuring a new state-of-the-art fitness facility for Cork city.

However, she added that other plans are in the pipeline, but could not be drawn on the exact details just yet. We have the huge renovation project which is running like clockwork thanks to the incredible construction company we are using, Kore Fit Out, Veronica explained.

The rest of our plans are top secret so youll have to keep your eyes peeled on our social media for updates on future plans and projects.

For more information on new developments and the classes or membership options on offer, go to @one_life_fitness_ on Instagram.
Its the most wonderful time of the year! No, not Christmas, I am of course talking about the jazz festival. Its a weekend where many of us music fans wish we could clone ourselves, as there is so much on. Many of our musicians and DJs will be so flat out working they wont even get to see half of the shows theyd like to see, but its always great working in Cork when its at full tilt and its undoubtedly the place the be this weekend.

Many of the best shows are sold out but theres many more with tickets still available and Im just gonna highlight a few of my personal favourites this week. The Jazz festival reaches its 45th year in style and music has evolved a lot in those years too. The whole industry has changed and where once the masses bought records and tapes, we now live in a world where streaming is the principal method of accessing music. Its much harder to make a living from music which is more widely available and accessible than ever before, but Id also argue that people in Cork and elsewhere are probably more knowledgeable about music culture too.

At the end of the 70s there were music magazines and radio but now we have podcasts, playlists, talks, and even exhibitions. We probably have a deeper music culture now and we thankfully still have record shops too. Im very honoured to have helped put together an exhibition in St Peters Cork this weekend, alongside ChoiceCuts, celebrating the special relationship between hip-hop and jazz. Many of us still buy records, and the cover art and design and whole creative process is important to celebrate too. Ill speak of that momentarily, but first up lets talk about some of the big shows this weekend!

The Pharcyde and Souls of Mischief show in Cork Opera House is sold out for ages and a big highlight. These two groups illustrate that jazz and hip-hop relationship better than most, and they both have great music catalogues packed with hits. In Cork clubs, tracks like Runnin, 93 till Infinity, Passin Me By and more, were all huge anthems and still are, and they are both groups who always represented hip-hop culture with integrity and style. If you are lucky enough to have bagged some tickets, you are in for a treat!

This years jazz festival welcomes a lot of artists from the 90s and 2000s to Cork, but there is great contemporary jazz here too. Macy Gray, Corinne Bailey Rae, Morcheeba and even old school legends like Fred Wesley are in town, but weve also got Max Exodus, Corks Boolaboom, Five to Two, Amaro Freitas, Vieux Farka and lots lots more. DJ legends who have always had a special relationship with Cork will also visit, and its great to see Luke Unamomber, Mr Scruff, Giles Peterson and others on the bill.

All were influential in helping bring a more modern jazz dance sound to our ears and we cant forget our own DJs too; Shane Johnson and Jamie Behan play Cork City Hall while Sunday Times do Aye. New school domestic acts include Negro Impacto, projective, Sam Healy, DeCarteret, QBanaa, Zaska, Melina Malone, 1000 Beasts, Fizzy Orange, Uly, JarJarJR, Kean Kavanagh and Yenkee, but this is only the tip of the iceberg.

In St Peters myself and ChoiceCuts have assembled an exhibition celebrating the relationship between hip-hop and jazz. Much of my generation got into jazz through hip-hop, and we got to love the old records as much as the newer ones we were buying in the 90s and beyond. But now theres a new generation of jazz artists who grew up on hip-hop. Saxophonist Kamasi Washington says it best: Weve grown up alongside rappers and DJs, weve heard this music all our life. We are as fluent in J Dilla and Dr. Dre as we are in Mingus and Coltrane.

This exhibition will feature hip-hops rich history from a jazz perspective, and its family friendly and free. It runs in St Peters all weekend and there will be DJ sets, performances, talks, workshops, breakdance jams, graffiti and lots more.

Overall, theres loads on in Cork. The City will be jumping and hopefully well all catch some memorable shows!
I would say that when Im making an album the main thing for me is trying to capture a certain mood or atmosphere.

Since the release of his debut album in 2008, British trumpeter, composer and band leader Matthew Halsall has made mood a hallmark of his work with each album feeling like a cohesive document. It transpires that there is a substantial reason for this. For a long while now, Halsall has approached the writing of each album with a specific conceptual framework, one that draws inspiration from his immediate environment.

This approach goes back to his fourth album, 2012s Fletcher Moss Park, which was conceived in that very park in Manchester. Thats not to say he didnt have clear ideas for his albums up to this point. The preceding album, On the Go, was inspired by the recordings of American players in Paris in the 60s and was very tied into the cinema of the time, such as Herbie Hancocks soundtrack to Bertrand Taverniers Round Midnight and Miles Davis work on Louis Malles Lift to the Scaffold.

I was thinking of being in Paris in the 60s, almost in a black and white cinema world, reveals Halsall.

But then Fletcher Moss Park was very much full colour and real life and absorbing everything around me and the sort of sense of freedom and freshness. It was all written in spring, as well, which is a nice, beautiful time of year to make music.

Bringing headphones, a laptop and a little keyboard, Halsall would visit the park at dawn and would sit and compose for about three or four hours, just after sunrise when the dawn chorus was happening. All the music on that album was composed in that park. And theres a unique sound to that record that I dont think I would have made anywhere else.

His latest album, An Ever Changing View, as the title suggests, sees a continuation of that approach.

Im definitely trying to capture musically the things Im seeing when I was composing, he acknowledges.

Because I was composing in specific locations with views of the sea and countryside and mountains and forests. And there was very specific ideas in my mind of what I wanted to achieve. Like this almost landscape painting through music, through audio and sound, when I made the new album. And I quite liked the idea of this sort of lifestyle of landscape painter where you set up somewhere beautiful and sit for hours and hours and just enjoy the scenery and try to capture it. Instead of a paintbrush, for me it was microphones and various instruments to capture that.

He adds: I really like composing in different locations. I find I make music in a very different way where you can put me in ten different places and Ill come up with different types of music because I react to the space and the scenery around me a lot when Im composing.

Matthew Halsall performs in Cork on Friday and Saturday.

His previous album, 2020s Salute to the Sun, proved he didnt necessarily need a view before him. He could travel in his imagination online.

I was listening to field recordings of tropical rainforests and jungles on YouTube whilst composing in Manchester, he shares. It was quite entertaining for me looking out the window and it was miserable grey skies and pouring down rain. But I would close my eyes and put my headphones on and I was suddenly transported to this sort of exotic tropical jungle space and then I started to think about how I could create music that was within that space rather than the space I was in in Manchester.

I think theres something in the idea that when you put headphones on and close your eyes music can take you to really magical places. I found that all the way through my life, listening to loads and loads of different albums I found that they really give me atmospheres and feelings.

Actually incorporating field recordings into his music was something he avoided until now with An Ever Changing View. Accompanying the flurry of strings on the album prologue Tracing Nature is the sound of birdsong and running water. The gentle lapping of waves arrives at the end of Mountains, Trees and Seas and more bird song is featured on the interlude track Field of Vision. But the album also finds him giving himself a good shaking up.

I just felt that this record was one I wanted to be the most playful it could possibly be and the most free and open as I could be, so on this new album I play a lot more instruments. On all my other albums I compose the music, but I dont actually play anything other than the trumpet. On this new album, on some of the tracks, I play the piano. On some of them I play things like the celeste and glockinspiels. I play the kalimba. I play the flute, loads of percussions.

It was a real journey of complete freedom and playfulness and not worrying about how we were going to play this music live or how difficult it was going to be to record over the top of some of the foundations that I had created. I just didnt worry about anything. I just went on a journey and luckily everything went really smoothly on the journey. The band loved playing over the top of all the foundations Id laid down. And it was really good fun.

Every child is an artist... its how you continue to be an artist as you grow older

I remember this Picasso quote that had been very much sticking in my mind throughout the journey of this album, which is that every child is an artist. Its how you continue to be an artist as you grow older. And I wanted to find that sort of inner child that was an artist and had complete freedom and creativity. You know the older you get the more you think you know and the more restrictions you put in place when youre making music.

I was saying to someone the other day that when I put my hands on the piano, when I go to play piano, my hands almost automatically create shapes that Ive learned over the course of my life and I wanted to use instruments and to think of making music completely from scratch again. So thats why I used things like 17 note kalimba and things that basically I didnt have a preconceived idea of how I was going to make the music.

As ever, the results are stunning, producing a typical beautifully balanced, unshowy and meditative listen. Perhaps his trumpet playing feels a little more foregrounded on An Ever Changing View, despite playing so many other instruments on the record. Even so, its as remarkably restrained and measured as it is on his previous output. Matthew Halsalls name may be on all his records, but it never feels like its just about him. His trumpet always sits tastefully among the other instruments.

I grew up in the big band world and Ive never been that fashy lead trumpet player that blasts out really high notes, he insists.

When Im playing and practising trumpet, and I practise a lot and I really enjoy developing and growing and thinking, but even when I practise playing high I dont particularly enjoy the end product.

Ive got a specific sweet spot within the trumpet and the way I use it that I think is the pitch I want to play at and Im happy with and enjoy listening to.

Matthew Halsall plays the Everyman Theatre on Friday, October 27, at 10pm, and Saturday, October 28, at 2pm.
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.

Cracks from an earthquake along Highway 178 from Ridgecrest to Trona in California on July 4, 2019. FREDERIC J. BROWN / AFP via Getty Images

Earthquakes have historically been difficult to predict due to the lack of clear patterns and the fact that the moving and colliding of tectonic plates occurs over long periods. If they were able to be better predicted, many injuries and deaths could be avoided.

Now, an international team led by scientists from the Jackson School of Geosciences at The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) has successfully isolated a pattern of foreshock tremors in a lab, a press release from UT Austin said. Knowing what this group of smaller tremors that precedes an earthquake looks like offers hope for future forecasts.

If were ever going to predict or forecast earthquakes then we need to be able to measure, characterize, and understand whats happening right before the earthquake, said study lead Chas Bolton, who conducted the research while a postdoctoral fellow at the UTs Institute for Geophysics (UTIG), in the press release. Bolton is currently a research associate at UT Austins Bureau of Economic Geology. UTIG and the bureau are both part of the Jackson School of Geosciences.

The study, Foreshock properties illuminate nucleation processes of slow and fast laboratory earthquakes, was published in the journal Nature Communications.

Now that the research team has identified a pattern of foreshock tremors, they will replicate them in the real world. Bolton will begin that work in Texas, where the hope is to isolate patterns that are similar from measurements made by TexNet, the states seismological network, according to the press release.

Earthquakes happen in irregular cycles, making it difficult to know when or where the next one may strike. Although seismic records show that tremors and other geological movements occur before large earthquakes, earthquake faults produce as many random rumbles as meaningful tremors, the press release said.

For a long time, scientists have sought to find clues to help predict earthquakes. Bolton approached this problem by sifting through the seismic noise of lab-generated earthquakes to search for patterns.

Using a miniature fault made at a Penn State lab, the research team measured the earthquake cycles it produced. During their experiments, the two-inch-long fault produced a pattern of increasingly strong tremors that got closer together as the simulated earthquake approached. This pattern was different from those of slower or weaker earthquakes.

Bolton said the pattern was significant because it meant the tremors were connected to the main earthquake.

It gives you a physical explanation for whats controlling the foreshocks, Bolton said.

It also provides a pattern for researchers to watch out for in the real world.

Detecting these patterns wont be as straightforward with deep faults that span hundreds of miles. However, co-author Demian Saffer, director of UTIG, said the findings highlight the importance of connecting seismic monitors to real-world faults in order to detect subtle shifts in the Earth.

If we really want to detect these precursory phenomena, we need sensors and long-term observatories that can monitor these creaks and groans to tell us how the fault is behaving in the lead-up to failure, Saffer said in the press release.

Currently, Bolton is using an artificial fault that is three feet long at UTIG, which he said will aid in better understanding how the pattern could happen in nature. He is conducting these experiments in addition to his research at TexNet, where he will be looking at tremor sequences associated with earthquakes with a magnitude greater than five. He said he expects results within the next year.
Chinese research vessel Xuelong,logan paul betting odds or Snow Dragon, left the southern port city of Guangzhou on Monday for an expedition in Antarctica, the State Oceanic Administration announced.

During the 162-day trip, the team on board the icebreaker is expected to conduct comprehensive research and evaluation of the Antarctic mainland environment as well as its surrounding waters.

The journey is the countrys 29th scientific expedition to Antarctica.

A significant part of the mission will also include looking for a location for the countrys fourth station in the region and second-phase construction of the Kunlun Station.

A polar scientific expedition is an important realm where our country seeks to ensure its national interests, and its also closely related to the global climate, eco-environment, the future development of human society and other major topics, said Liu Cigui, head of the administration, at the launch ceremony.

Xuelong is expected to cover 27,000 nautical miles before returning to Shanghai in April, 2013.

China launched its first expedition to the Antarctic in 1984 and has established three stations there, including Changcheng, Zhongshan and Kunlun.

Xinhua

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"Positive move for the Island" says bakery following acquisition

A bakery on the Island says they are looking forward to the future.

Ross Bakery has been acquired by Robinsons.

The company has announced plans to build and open a new bakery early next year.

In a statement, Ross Bakery said: "We are very excited to be going on this journey with Robinsons, they have been a big supporter of the bakery over the years and are of huge importance to the local food scene here on the IOM. This is a really positive move for the Island."

"It will be business as usual while we build the new bakery so expect to see the bread in all the usual places as normal."

The bakery was opened five years ago in Ballasalla.
MHK to question how Seafarers' Charter will be monitored

An MHK will question the Minister for Treasury about the Steam Packet Company in next week's House of Keys sitting.

Douglas Central MHK Chris Thomas will ask the Minister for Treasury how the recently introduced Seafarers' Charter applies to employment in the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company group; and how compliance with the standards in this charter will be monitored.

Mr Thomas will also ask whether the Manxman can be used for sailings to Dublin.

The house will sit next Tuesday at 10am.
Young nature writers recognised for Biosphere adventures



Pic: Dr Michelle Haywood MHK, Member of DEFA with responsibility for Environment, with, from left, Rob Fisher from MOS, Leigh Morris from Manx Wildlife Trust and Dr Richard Selman from DEFA, and with winners and runners up in the Young Nature Writer competition 2023. From left, Austin Rogerson; overall winner Kayleigh Cannon; River Kelly-Brown; Poppy Christian; Liam Cannon. Best bird entry winner Delta Baptist was unable to attend the presentation.

The winners of a competition that encourages young people to explore their Biosphere and write about the nature on their doorstep have been unveiled.

8-year-old Kayleigh Cannon's account of a summer day at Scarlett that included a hand-drawn map earned her The Young Nature Writer 2023, and ten-year-old Delta Baptist's descriptive account of a boat trip to the Calf of Man bird observatory earned her the 'Best Bird' winner.

Austin Rogerson's tale of a gull stealing his chips, which carried a serious message about the importance of birds, was also commended by judges as the runner-up in the 'Best Bird' entry.

Dr. Michelle Haywood MHK, who helped to judge this year's entries, said: Connecting people with nature and encouraging them to understand it, enjoy it, and take care of it, is a major role of a UNESCO Biosphere. Congratulations to all the winners, but everyone that took part and wondered at the natural world is a winner for me.

The 2024 competition will launch in the spring.
Strategy to have 3,000 more Manx speakers by 2032

During a Ministerial meeting of the British-Irish Council held in Jersey earlier this month, Claire Christian MHK cited The Manx Language Strategy 2022-2032 which aims to increase Manx speakers by 3,000 from approximately 2,000 to 5,000 by 2032.

Political member for Education, Sport and Culture, Claire Christian MHK, represented the Isle of Man at the conference, using the platform to reinforce a commitment to the Manx language.

The Conference focused on the Indigenous, Minority and Lesser-Used Languages work sector, and was a crucial platform to raise awareness of linguistic diversity.

Ministerial delegates representing the UK, Isle of Man, Jersey, Ireland, Scotland and Wales were in attendance. The delegates discussed the 2023 policy report and approved a Forward Work Plan to guide activities up to 2026.

Manx is now offered as a curricular option in all primary and secondary schools, including the Teisht Chadjin Ghaelgagh (GCSE equivalent) and the Ard-Teisht Ghaelgagh (A-Level equivalent).

As part of the Forward Work Plan, The Isle of Man, in collaboration with the Northern Ireland Executive and the Welsh Government, will lead efforts to develop a Linguistic Infrastructure. This includes a focus on dictionaries, corpus search technology, place names, machine translation, and future AI advancements.
Two new senior appointments for PwC



Janet Donnelly and Colin Manley

Professional services firm, PwC Isle of Man, has appointed Janet Donnelly as Chief People Officer and Colin Manley as Actuarial Director in two new senior roles.

As Chief People Officer (CPO), Janet will lead the firms people strategy and support its continuous transformation and people development journeys.

Janet has a depth of knowledge in human resources (HR) strategy, employee value proposition and employee engagement, having gained experience across different territorial cultures, and varying legal and regulatory jurisdictions.

Colin has more than 20 years of experience in senior positions within life and non-life insurance companies and regulatory bodies including the Isle of Man Financial Services Authority where he oversaw the insurance, pensions, and trust and company service provider sectors.

Nicholas Halsall, Territory Senior Partner at PwC Isle of Man, commented: Janet and Colins appointments are a significant enhancement to PwC Isle of Mans leadership team of seven partners and eleven directors, and I am delighted to welcome them at what is a truly transformative time for our business.

Alongside the senior appointments, the Isle of Man firm promoted twenty-three people from July 1, 2023, across manager, senior associate and associate grades and in all lines of service.
$460,000 prize up for grabs at chess event

Three of the world's top chess players are among favourites to win the 114-player Fide Grand Swiss Chess event.

The event in Douglas will see the winner walk away with a $460,000 prize.

Two places in the 2024 Candidates, and a potential challenge to Chinas world champion Ding Liren, are also at stake.

It's running until 6 November with players from 45 countries competing at the Villa Marina.
Vice president Prabhakar Raghavan testified Friday that Google paid $26.3 billion in 2021 for the purpose of maintaining default search engine status and acquiring traffic, Bloomberg reports. It's likely the lions share of that sum went to Apple, which it has showered with exorbitant sums for many years in order to remain the default search option on iPhone, iPad and Mac.

Raghavan, who was testifying as part of the DOJ's ongoing antitrust suit against the company, said Googles search advertising made $146.4 billion in revenue in 2021, which puts the $26 billion it paid for default status in perspective. The executive clarified that default status was the most costly part of what it pays to acquire traffic.

Raghavan didnt mention how much of the $26.3 billion went to Apple. But CNBC reports that an estimate from private wealth management firm Bernstein ballparked that Google could pay Apple up to $19 billion this year for the default privilege.

A slide shown in court revealed that, in 2014, Google brought in $47 billion in search revenue while paying $7.1 billion for default status. Raghavan testified that Googles overall default search engine payments nearly quadrupled from 2014 to 2021, while its search advertising revenue (roughly) tripled.

Google objected to making the figures public, arguing it would hurt its ability to negotiate future contracts. Judge Amit Mehta, overseeing the case, disagreed.
In this dizzy world of digital tricks and image manipulation where you can erase objects and alter images with a smartphone swipe, Leica wants photos taken on its camera to leave a digital footprint, known as a Content Credential. The M11-P also has a 60-megapixel sensor, and the typical understated layout and Leica styling.

Content Credentials capture metadata about the photograph  like the camera used, location, time and more and locks those in a manifest that is wrapped up with the image using a cryptographic key. Those credentials can be verified online and whenever someone subsequently edits that photo, the changes are recorded to an updated manifest, bundled with the image and updated in the Content Credentials database.

Users can click on an icon to pull up all of this historical manifest information, and is being described as a "nutrition label" for photographs.

 Mat Smith

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Engadget

On All Hallows Eve eve, Apple is hosting another event. This one is dubbed Scary Fast, which is a good indicator that Apple will have some powerful new hardware (or chips) to show off. It's been nearly 17 months since Apple's M2 system on a chip (SoC) debuted. With many chip rivals following an annual cadence for their chipsets, it may be time for the M3.

Most rumors suggest a new iMac, possibly powered by the new chip, and the 24-inch iMac is well overdue for a refresh. Or maybe the company will scare us all with even more subscription price increases.

Continue reading.

For now, its only headed to China.

Xiaomi

Xiaomi has only just introduced its 13T phone series outside of Asia, and the company is already revealing more flagship phones back in China. The Xiaomi 14 Pro has a 6.73-inch screen offering an industry-leading peak brightness of 3,000 nits and variable refresh rate from 1Hz to 120Hz. Its main camera has a variable aperture ranging from f/1.42 to f/4.0, a telephoto camera capable of 3.2x zoom, and a 50-megapixel f/2.2 camera for ultra-wide shots. Xiaomi 14 Pro starts from 4,999 yuan (around $680) but if you want the titanium edition, it'll cost you 6,499 yuan (around $890).

Continue reading.

It could implement minimum play thresholds.

Spotify's royalty model will get a massive revamp next year to give "working artists" a bigger cut. Its planning three changes, starting with establishing a minimum number of annual streams a track must reach to generate royalties. While these tracks make up a tiny percentage of music on the platform, their royalties still cost Spotify tens of millions of dollars a year. The second change is detecting illegal activity, like using AI tools to repeatedly stream tracks and artificially boost play counts. The third part is aimed at "non-music noise content," such as white noise and binaural beats. Many noise tracks on Spotify are only 31 seconds long because the platform pays for every play over half a minute. The listener then naturally leads onto another track, and possibly another royalty check. But not for much longer.

Continue reading.
Exactly one year has passed since Elon Musk, fresh off a months-long legal battle that forced him to buy the company, strolled into Twitter headquarters carrying a sink.

At the time, we werent entirely sure what to expect. But there were no shortage of predictions  including from us at Engadget  about just how messy and chaotic Twitter might become under Musks leadership. Ive spent the last week revisiting many of those stories, and Ive been struck by how, for a famously erratic CEO, just how predictable many aspects of his takeover have been.

Before the acquisition closed, Musk spent months talking, tweeting and texting about his plans for the platform. Many of those early statements, like promises to relax moderation rules and to create an edit button, have actually happened.

But as is so often the case with Musk, even the most predictable of his decisions have played out in unexpected ways.

Amnesty for Donald Trump and other banned accounts

Of all of Musks plans for Twitter, one that drew the most headlines was his intention to restore Donald Trumps account. (He went as far as calling the original ban a morally bad decision.) While Musks biographer claims he had some second thoughts about the matter, he opted to reinstate the former president following the result of a poll from his Twitter account.

What many may not have fully anticipated was just how many former offenders Musk was willing to allow back on the platform. Despite his initial promise that Twitter cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, Musk decided to offer general amnesty to more than 12,000 previously-banned accounts, including a number of neo-Nazis.

The slow death of content moderation (and Twitters ad business)

It was no secret that Musk wanted to loosen Twitters content moderation rules. Before his takeover, he suggested that he was in favor of allowing all speech that was legal. While many pundits predicted advertisers could be wary of Musks more permissive approach, its hard to overstate just how dire the companys ad business has become over the last year.

A majority of major advertisers have stopped buying ads on the platform, despite CEO Linda Yaccarinos rosier (and misleading) suggestions otherwise. Musk himself has admitted ad revenue has dropped at least 50 percent. And The Wall Street Journal reported this week that the banks that financed Musks Twitter deal are expecting to lose hundreds of millions of dollars as its become nearly impossible for them to offload the debt.

More transparency

One area that gave even some Musk critics a little bit of optimism was his insistence, prior to the acquisition, that he would bring a new level of transparency to the platform. He vowed to open-source the companys recommendation algorithm, and pull back the curtain on the dreaded shadowban.

In some respects, hes followed through. Code for the companys main recommendation algorithm is on Github. X has also previewed alerts that will notify users when their accounts have been restricted from search and other areas of the service.

But those efforts may also be more shallow than what some had hoped for. Publishing the algorithm didnt actually reveal much about the inner workings of the platform, according to those who have studied it. Users still have very little insight into how posts are prioritized or how accounts not belonging to Elon Musk can expand their reach.

At the same time, Musk has taken a number of steps that have dramatically reduced outsiders ability to understand how information spreads on X. Musk dismantled the companys previously open and accessible APIs in favor of tools that now cost tens of thousands of dollars a month for much more limited insights. Paywalling has had a devastating impact on researchers, the vast majority of whom can no longer afford to access the limited data that is available via Xs API.

But wait, I can already hear a few people screaming from the comments, wHaT aBoUt ThE tWiTteR fiLeS? Surely, that is transparency?

While Musks decision to selectively leak the messages of former employees was unprecedented and potentially illegal, the truth is that the so-called Twitter Files didnt actually reveal all that much about how Twitter operated. And the companys own lawyers have refuted, in court, that the details within them are proof of any kind of government censorship or overreach.

Moreover, the disclosures themselves werent all that transparent. Partial documents were only provided to a couple of writers  handpicked by Musk  who only published snippets of Slack messages, emails and screenshots from Twitters internal tools. The underlying documents have still not been released in their entirety, or provided to other media outlets for dissemination. Even Jack Dorsey said it would have been better, and more transparent, to release everything Wikileaks style for all to see, rather than selectively tweeting out bits and pieces.

X and the everything app

Shortly before his takeover, Musk tweeted that buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app. At the time, many people assumed Musk was talking about emulating WeChat, which in China is used for almost all facets of daily life from shopping to messaging to banking.

However, one year later, its still not entirely clear what he means or how the service formerly known as Twitter will transform itself into something resembling an everything app. There are some signs of change: He and CEO Linda Yaccarino have said they want to add banking and other financial services to X. The platform has also introduced new features like video calling and is planning on adding live shopping.

The WeChat comparison breaks down, however, when you consider that, while WeChat is unquestionably the most dominant app in China, Twitter is, at best, the sixth-most popular social media app in the US. And the apps usage has been sharply declining for the last year. There may be room to expand the types of features offered on X, but its not clear theyll result in a significant boost in popularity or engagement.

The existential threats to Twitter

If you had told me a year ago that Musks decisions would be so unpopular it would lead to a mass exodus from the platform, I wouldnt have been surprised. Threatening to rage-quit Twitter over even the most minor of changes is a time honored tradition.

But if you had told me that in less than a year, there would be a surge in upstart alternatives that are starting to feel like viable challengers, I would have been less credulous. And if you had told me that, a year later, the strongest-looking challenger was a fediverse-compatible platform created by Meta, I definitely wouldnt have believed it.

But, with a year of hindsight, it strikes me that perhaps the most significant part of Musks legacy so far is not what hes done to the service previously known as Twitter, but the wave of new platforms inspired by his actions.

Bluesky, previously a backwater Twitter offshoot, has surged to a million users, despite still being an invitation-only network. Mastodon and the fediverse, both of which predate Musks takeover, are more popular than ever. And Meta, which has a previously dismal track record at building its own apps (not called Facebook) that people like, has managed to make Threads into a viable (if flawed) alternative.

None of these are perfect replacements for what old Twitter was, at its best. And they may not be able to sustain their momentum for years to come, but Musks chaotic takeover of Twitter has ushered in what many believe to be a new era of social media. It feels increasingly possible that we may look back at the end of Twitter and the rise of X as a boon for a better version of social media.
In Deepa Dhanrajs film, We Have Not Come Here to Die (2018), which follows the events after Rohith Vemulas death on the campus of the University of Hyderabad, there is an unforgettable scene in which Ambedkarite students and Vemulas friends storm the science building demanding accountability from the vice chancellor, who is also a scientist. The camera notes the stand-off as disaffected science students murmur that Vemula was no brother of theirs. Outside, a student expresses annoyance at the interruption of her research. The scene calls to mind the anti-Mandal agitations led by medical students against caste reservations, and both beg the question: Does disciplinary training preclude fraternity and social conscience? It is a question we might associate with the debate between Karl Popper and the Frankfurt School (Adorno et al 1977). The Frankfurt Schoolknown for critical theoryattempted a practical theory of society in the wake of fascism in Europe, while Poppers critical empiricism and his falsification principle turned away from the deterministic outlook of Marxism in his time. This debate demonstrated that for both the sciences and the social sciences, knowledge cannot avoid value judgments, whether in subjecting empirical questions to scientific investigation or by proceeding with a philosophical view of the social totality.

Science in the Field
Anuradha M Chenoys account of Russias war on Ukraine (EPW, 9 September 2023) is a strikingly incomplete jumble of tendentious pro-Russian talking points masquerading as a representative overview of the position.

The central error Chenoy makes is to deny Russia and Ukraine political and ethical agency. Chenoy never asks what the Ukrainian people want. The author could claim that her wishes are irrelevantto Chenoy, after Euromaidan, Ukraine became a bastion of permanent hostility towards Moscow (p 24). That elision is only tenable by ignoring the subsequent victory of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a Russian-speaking moderate who advocated negotiations with Moscow, over the far more Europhile Petro Poroshenkoa proof of survival of competitive electoral democracy in Ukraine, in contrast to Russia. Similarly, Chenoy ignores earlier Russian freedom of action. Once, most Ukrainians probably were happy to live in a strategically neutral state, economically integrated both with Russia and the European Union (EU). The first polls indicating a wish to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization occur only after the Russian military intervention in February 2014. That intervention and earlier pressure on Viktor Yanukovych to halt economic integration with the EU were mistakes that the Kremlin need not have made.
Internacional

Corea del Norte confirma el cierre de sus embajadas en Espana, Angola y Uganda por "eficiencia diplomatica"
From: Carol M. Swain -- Political Scientist and Commentator For Immediate Release: Dateline: Nashville , TN Thursday, October 26, 2023

Moms on a Mission Podcast is thrilled to host Dr. Carol Swain who went from abject poverty and dropping out of school at a young age to obtaining five degrees and earned an early tenure at Princeton and full professorship at Vanderbilt where she was a professor of political science and law. Dr. Swain discusses her new book, The Adversity of Diversity- How Real Unity Training Can Promote Healing in a Post-Affirmative Action World and educates us about how DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) does not actually mean what those words actually mean. She expounds saying that it is a derivative of Affirmative Action and Affirmative Action programs started shortly after The Civil Rights Act of 1964 not even giving The Civil Rights Act a chance to work. She warns CEOs that with the Supreme Court striking down Affirmative Action programs in colleges, a precedent has now been set and businesses will possibly now be experiencing lawsuits. She concludes by talking about her new consulting company called, Carol Swains Real Unity Training Solutions where she helps assist companies with customizable real unity models. ABOUT CAROL M. SWAIN Carol Swain (Ph.D.) is an award-winning political scientist and former tenured professor at Princeton and Vanderbilt Universities. She is the author or editor of 10 books, including Be The People: A Call to Reclaim Americas Faith and Promise and The New White Nationalism in America: Its Challenge to Integration.


Locked-up reality star Todd Chrisley has allegedly been given the wrong medication at FPC Pensacola in Florida, which his team says is another example of the inhumane prison system.

According to Todds attorney, Jay Surgent, his client was given medication intended for another inmate. The medical department is in shambles, Surgent told RadarOnline.com, claiming not only was Todd given the wrong medication, but another inmate was inadvertently given insulin.

The administration of this medicine rendered them unconscious and they were rushed to the hospital, Surgent said of the inmate who supposedly received insulin.

These types of mix-ups and mistakes are inexcusable and just another indication of how terrible these conditions are and have become, he added.

Todd and his wife, Julie Chrisley, were convicted of bank and tax fraud last year and sentenced to a combined 19 years in federal prison. Todd was sentenced to 12 years (recently reduced to 10) at FPC Pensacola, while Julie was given seven years (reduced to just over 5) at Federal Medical Center Lexington in Kentucky.

In recent months, the Chrisleys attorney and their children, Savannah and Chase Chrisley, have spoken out about alleged inhumane conditions Todd and Julie have been facing behind bars. This included claims such as no working air conditioning or ice machines during extreme heat and snakes slithering on the floor.

This summer, when the heat index in Florida was well over 100 degrees, the Navy base where the prison is located had a black flag warning, which required no movement outside for military staff and personnel, Surgent told RadarOnline.

The US Navy leadership had determined that the temperatures were unsafe for outdoor movement and activities, he continued. However, the inmates that work on the base to do mowing, weeding and general landscaping, maintenance and manual labor, those inmates were required to work in spite of the unsafe and truly dangerous conditions.

Surgent also claimed that Muslim inmates are regularly being denied access and opportunity to participate in their faith-based worship services as the leadership at FPC Pensacola have decided these inmates should be required to work during their scheduled worship times.

He also alleged FPC Pensacola does very little rehabilitation, adding not a single person has received their GED from that institution in the last three years. Not a single one.

Surgent added that Todd, who has apparently been teaching finance classes to his fellow inmates, is focused and determined to create real, lasting systemic change within the US Justice System and particularly within the American Prison System.

More Headlines:
The suspect in a mass shooting that killed 18 people in the US state of Maine has been found dead, the state's governor said Friday, ending a two-day manhunt that mobilized hundreds of law enforcement agents and set jittery residents of the northeastern state on edge.

Robert Card, a 40-year-old Army reservist, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and his body was discovered at 7:45 pm (2345 GMT), Maine public safety commissioner Mike Sauschuck said.

Card is believed to be the perpetrator of a rampage on Wednesday evening that left 18 people dead and 13 others wounded in a bowling alley and a bar-restaurant in this hard-scrabble city.

"I'm breathing a sigh of relief tonight knowing that Robert Card is no longer a threat to anyone," governor Janet Mills told a hastily called news conference.

The sentiment was echoed by US Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who said on X, formerly Twitter, that President Joe Biden called her "to tell me the perpetrator of the heinous attacks in Lewiston had been found."

Biden said the mass shooting brought "a tragic two days -- not just for Lewiston, Maine, but for our entire country."

"I will continue to do everything in my power to end this gun violence epidemic. The Lewiston community  and all Americans  deserve nothing less," Biden said in a statement released by the White House.

Authorities on Friday identified the victims, ranging from a husband and wife in their 70s, to a 14-year-old boy killed alongside his father.

The killing spree in a bowling alley and bar-restaurant marked the deadliest mass shooting in the US this year.

Card's body was found in Lisbon Falls, southeast of Lewiston near the Androscoggin River, authorities said. US media said his body was found near a recycling center that was Card's place of employment before he lost his job there.

Roads leading to the site were blocked by police Friday evening, an AFP journalist saw.

Sauschuck said he could not immediately say when Card shot himself.

The shooting -- and Card's fugitive status -- had brought dread to southern Maine over the past two days. Authorities had described Card as "armed and dangerous."

Earlier Friday, authorities said they were chasing down more than 530 tips and leads on Card's possible whereabouts.

Card is an army reservist, but had not been deployed in any combat zone. US media reported that he had recently been sent for psychiatric treatment after he said he was hearing voices.

This latest shooting is one of the deadliest in the United States since 2017, when a gunman opened fire on a crowded music festival in Las Vegas, killing 60 people.

Earlier Friday, law enforcement agents deployed along the Androscoggin River -- near where Card's white SUV was found -- and divers using sonar entered the river to look for evidence -- or a body.

Hours before the break in the case, Sauschuck announced the lifting of a lockdown in the area around Lewiston that had shuttered schools and businesses.

Lewiston residents voiced anxiety over how the search for Card would play out.

"Uneasy," Lewiston resident Jeremy Hiltz told AFP when asked how he felt. "It's a small community. When something like this happens, everybody knows somebody" affected.

He said a number of intersecting social crises have afflicted Lewiston, a city of some 38,000 inhabitants.

"This community itself has been devastated by addiction and housing crisis and poverty ... So to put this on top of it, it's really just a devastating situation for us," Hiltz said.

An education center for the deaf and hard of hearing, located on a small island 45 minutes drive south of Lewiston, was particularly hard-hit by the tragedy.

Among those killed at the Schemengees bar-restaurant -- where the killer appeared after the rampage at the bowling alley -- were four men with ties to the school, as former students, educators or parents, Karen Hopkins, the school's director, told AFP.

"It's a heavy time. Our community is shattered right now," she said.

acb/tjj/jh/sn
Editor's note: In our print edition, the wrong photo was posted with the obituary for Mr. Lindseth. The Sun Times deeply regrets the error and apologizes to both families.

David B. Lindseth, a devoted father, veteran, and lifelong Montanan, passed away on October 11, 2023, surrounded by his family. He was born on February 10, 1949, to Albert Bully O. Lindseth and Agnes R. Mutch, and his journey through life touched the hearts of many.

Daves story is one of dedication and unwavering commitment. He graduated from Choteau High School in 1968, a milestone that marked the beginning of his lifelong love affair with Montana. He met Norma in Green River, Utah, and they would marry in 1972 in Choteau. They built a life and family, being married for 28 years. Dave remarried Roselee Winchel, they shared joy and companionship into his later years. Over the years, Dave and his family called many places in Montana home, including Fort Benton, Craig, Augusta, Box Elder, Sun Prairie, and Brady. Although Davids family lived in many places, Choteau was always home.

Dave was a man of the land, a farmer and rancher through and through. His connection to the earth was evident in the way he cared for the land and the livestock. He was a true steward of the country side and took pride in his work.

Daves passion for mechanics led him to Wyoming Tech, where he honed his skills in diesel mechanics. These skills would help him in his 25 years at the Montana Department of Transportation.

His service extended beyond the farm and the highways of Montana, as he proudly served in the United States Army and the Montana National Guard for 30 years, displaying the same dedication to his country as he did to his land. His time in the military instilled in him a sense of duty and camaraderie that would be a cornerstone of his life.

In addition to his agricultural and mechanical pursuits, Dave was a dedicated member of various organizations. He was a strong advocate for veterans and was an active participant in the Vets for Vets Stand Down Program, a testament to his commitment to the well-being of his fellow veterans. His memberships in the American Legion and VFW reflected his unwavering support for those who had served alongside him.

Dave was a man of diverse interests. He had a deep appreciation for livestock, auctioneering, classic cars and trucks, guns, horse racing, youth sports, garage sales and was a collector of fine antiques.

David was preceded in death by his parents, Albert Bully and Agnes Lindseth; sister Clara Bell Lindseth; brother, Patrick Lindseth, sisters, Maeve Lindseth and Andrea Lindseth

Dave leaves behind son, Jarrod (Laura) Lindseth; daughter, Kim Lindseth; granddaughters, Ava Lindseth, Harpar Lindseth, Michelle Winchell, Monique Standing Rock and Neferti Standing Rock;and brother, Albert O. Lindseth.

A legacy of generosity and helping those in need. He will be remembered for his steadfastness, his sense of duty, and his welcoming smile. Daves memory will continue to live on in the hearts of his family, friends, and the countless lives he touched throughout his journey.

A celebration of Daves life will be held on October 28th at 11:00 am in Trinity Lutheran Church in Choteau. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to Vets4Vets in Daves honor.

Condolences to the family may be shared at www.frontierfuneralhome.com
James Jim Ross, passed away on October 5, 2023, at the age of 77. He was born on April 12, 1946, to proud parents John Ross and Ina (Wolfinbarger) Vigan, marking the beginning of a life filled with adventure, achievement, and an unyielding love for family and the great outdoors.

Jims journey through life took him on a remarkable path. Being born in California his family returned to Choteau, Montana where he would spend his school years. It was there that he began to nurture his love for the natural world, a passion that would shape the rest of his life. Jim later ventured to Bellevue, Washington, before eventually returning to the embrace of Choteau, the place that held a special spot in his heart.

Jims dedication to serving his country was evident when he enlisted in the United States Navy, where he displayed unwavering commitment and courage. His service to his nation was a testament to his deep sense of duty and patriotism.

One of Jims proudest achievements was becoming the World Champion in Archery in 1986. His remarkable skill with a bow and arrow brought him numerous accolades and the admiration of his peers. Jims dedication and passion for archery inspired others, and he served as a role model to aspiring archers around the world.

Beyond his accomplishments, Jim was known for his love of the outdoors. He had a natural affinity for the wilderness and found solace in the beauty of nature. Fishing, camping, and hunting were among his favorite activities, and he cherished the moments spent in the company of family and friends in the great outdoors. His enthusiasm for these pursuits was infectious, and he shared his knowledge and love for nature with those fortunate enough to accompany him on his adventures.

Jim had an exceptional talent for culinary arts and was renowned for his skills in the kitchen. He enjoyed cooking and canning, creating mouthwatering dishes that brought joy to the hearts and stomachs of those he loved. His kitchen was a place of warmth and laughter, where the delicious aroma of his cooking welcomed all who entered.

One of Jims simple pleasures in life was going on long drives to explore the countryside. Whether it was a leisurely drive through the mountains or a spontaneous road trip, he relished the freedom of the open road and the beauty of the world passing by his window. Jim also had a soft spot for cats and shared his home with many feline companions over the years.

Above all, Jim cherished his family. He was a loving husband to his wife, a devoted father to his children, and a doting grandfather to his grandchild. His family was the center of his universe, and he showered them with love, support, and wisdom.

In his passing, Jim leaves behind son, Michael; daughter, Becky; brothers John and David; sisters Donna and Pam; and grandson Jacob.

Jim was preceded in death by wife, Sherry and son, Jimmy Ross Jr. A Graveside Memorial Service will be held in Darby, MT May 11, 2024. Condolences to the family may be shared at www.frontierfuneralhome.com.
A Yellowstone wolf (Courtesy NPS/Jacob W. Frank)

Montana has released the draft of its first updated gray wolf conservation and management plan in 20 years, along with a draft environmental impact statement, and is asking for public input on the plans and holding regional public meetings in December.

The conservation and management plan and draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) were the product of Gov. Greg Gianfortes directive in January that Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks come up with a new plan 20 years after the original plan was put in place, and after the 2021 legislature directed the state to reduce Montanas wolf population and allowed for more types of hunting and trapping to be used to take the animals.

Montana reduced the quota of wolves that could be harvested this current season to 313, down from 450, as FWP cited a slight decline in the states wolf population over the past two years. Thus far, 33 wolves have been killed by hunters and trappers, according to state data.

Perhaps the biggest prong of the draft management plan and DEIS is how FWP plans to manage wolf populations and newly added requirements from the legislature, and signed by Gianforte, under his administration.

The wolf population in the northern Rocky Mountains, including Montana, increased steadily in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and since Montana took over management of the species in 2011, it has adhered to federal recovery goals of having at least 150 wolves and 15 breeding pairs in Montana.

That was about the estimated population size of Montanas wolves in 2004, and FWP says the population has remained at least six to eight times that since 2011, between 1,087 and 1,260 wolves in about 190 packs from 2011 to 2022 despite between 166 and 327 wolves being killed each year after both hunting and trapping became legal in 2012. The state says hunters and trappers have never killed more than 15% of Montanas wolf population in a year.

FWPs draft plan and DEIS says that wolf population counting and estimation methods have changed since the 2003 plan was put together, and it now uses what is called an integrated patch occupancy model (iPOM) to monitor population sizes and where the wolf packs are located that it will use moving forward instead of radio collars and visual surveys.

The model uses hunter surveys, known locations via radio collars, and other habitat factors to predict the number of packs, and the number of wolves in each pack, in various areas.

FWP will use iPOM to monitor wolves until better science-based methods become available and are practical with implementable strategies across the vast portion of Montana occupied by wolves, FWP said in the draft plan.

The department said monitoring wolves in the former fashion across 25,000 square miles was expensive, cumbersome, and unrealistic. But it also said it might return to those strategies if the wolf population declines too much, though it notes that wolves have become more difficult to collar once people could hunt and trap them.

The draft plan says the state wants to be cautious in both following the 2021 legislatures directive that the Fish and Wildlife Commission establish hunting and trapping seasons with the intent to reduce the wolf population in this state to a sustainable level and adhering to federal requirements.

The department believes that keeping the baseline of 450 wolves will certainly ensure there are 15 breeding pairs in Montana even when the population sizes are only estimated.

Because the wolf population is considerably greater than the federal recovery threshold, there remains a great deal of flexibility to both reduce the wolf population and still maintain a sustainable population, the draft plan says.

Research data presented by FWP in the document estimates between 305 and 437 wolves would be needed to support 15 breeding pairs. The plan explicitly does not set a cap on the number of wolves in Montana.

The challenge is balancing conflicting values and addressing the diverse needs of wolves and humans in the context of the Legislative directive, the draft plan says. But it says that if the wolf population declines enough to where it starts approaching 450 wolves, the department would recommend the Fish and Wildlife Commission shift strategies and likely end the wolf hunting and trapping seasons until the population recovers.

The document says that FWP has no plan for restricting wolves territories in Montana, and that those territories will likely change slightly over the years based on human populations, the abundance of deer and elk in various areas, and how packs change.

The draft plan also says that FWP believes that at least 25% to 30% of the current wolf population would have to be killed to cause negative population growth to reach 450, and repeatedly says that the states wolf population has recovered and has been mostly stable for the past several years despite the hunting and trapping, which are the main causes of wolf mortalities in Montana.

Recommendations made by FWP for certain harvest strategies stem from laws and policies, given wolf population estimates and trends, as well as hunter and trapper success rates, the plan says. If liberalized harvest is determined the pose a risk to long-term population persistence, then the FWP recommendation may shift to be more conservative.

The draft plan estimates that if between 450 and 700 wolves are killed over a five-year period and other human-caused mortalities, like car crashes, remain steady, the population would approach the 450-wolf threshold, and any higher human-caused mortality would force a reduction in harvests for 1-3 years.

The draft plan reports a relatively low mortality rate for deer, elk and moose due to wolves in various regions of western Montana, and says wolf depredation of cattle and sheep in Montana has sharply declined, from 233 in 2009 to 100 or fewer each year from 2014-2022  possibly due in part to the expansion of nonlethal deterrents.

The DEIS option preferred by FWP essentially expands on current management and conservation plans, and would continue to allow for hunting and trapping.

The document says it rejected two other alternatives  one that would have allowed wolves to manage themselves by eliminating hunting and trapping seasons, which FWP said was both in violation of Montana law and impractical and unreasonable, and a second that would have eliminated wolves, which was also dismissed as being impractical and biologically harmful.

Some Montana groups in the few days since the plan was released have balked at it, saying they believe the state might up the quotas for each season and try to get closer to the minimum threshold. Several also called for a citizen advisory board to have more input on the plan, as was the case for the 2003 plan.

The department has opened a public comment portal for the public to comment on the plans through Dec. 19.

It is also hosting six public meetings across the state in December at which FWP regional commissioners and staff will discuss the plans and answer questions, the department said:

Region 1  Kalispell, Dec. 7, 6-8 p.m., FWP Office, 490 N Meridian Road

Region 2  Missoula, Dec. 13, 6-8 p.m., FWP Office, 3201 Spurgin Road

Region 3  Bozeman, Dec. 5, 6-8 p.m., FWP Office, 1400 S 19th Avenue

Regions 4 and 6  Great Falls, Dec. 4, 6-8 p.m., FWP Office, 4600 Giant Springs Road

Regions 5 and 7  Billings, Dec. 6, 6-8 p.m., FWP Office, 2300 Lake Elmo Drive

Virtual Meeting  Dec. 12 (visit fwp.mt.gov/aboutfwp/public-comment-opportunities/draft-wolf-mgmt-plan for login information.)

The post Montana releases draft of first wolf management plan update in 20 years appeared first on Daily Montanan.
EDISON, Ohio  After touring corn fields and ethanol processors in Ohio, Ghanas Deputy Minister of Energy is seeing new possibilities for ethanol in his own country. William Aidoo was one of eight visitors from Africa and Europe who participated in an ethanol industry trade tour in Ohio Oct. 19 and 20.

Its been an eye-opener for me and my team, he said.

The Ohio Corn and Wheat Growers Association hosted the group of government officials and business leaders. The tour followed the U.S. Grains Councils Global Ethanol Summit held earlier in the week in Washington, D.C. Ten other groups also toured farms and facilities in other ethanol-producing states.

In Ohio, the tour group visited the farm of Richard, Rob and Bill Thompson near Wilmington and the Linder familys farm near Edison. The group also toured ethanol retailers and processors.

John Linder, a board member for the Ohio Corn and Wheat Growers Association, farms with his wife, Cheryl, and his brother, Mike. He explained to the tour group how the growth of ethanol production in the state has improved profitability for his familys farm by creating more local market outlets and improving basis prices.

Ethanol production benefits the states overall economy as well by adding value to the corn crop and generating jobs.

Ohio does something Im very proud of, he said. Ohio does value-added very well.

Promoting development. In an interview, Linder added that the tour is helping promote exports of U.S. ethanol while also helping countries like Ghana develop their own ethanol industries.

Developing nations are a long way from being self-sustained, he said. So, teaching them how to use our products and improve their quality of life doesnt directly reduce their import needs. Instead, helping other countries build their own ethanol industries gives them stronger local economies, he said. They have to have an economy that creates jobs and money in order to buy.

Implementing a hybrid model that includes both ethanol imports and the development of ethanol production capacity could help developing African countries move toward sustainability, according to Jack Bardakjian, group general manager for Gapuma Ltd. Gapuma is a procurement and logistics company based in the U.K. which has built trading partnerships with more than 30 countries in Africa. Bardakjian said he attended the Global Ethanol Summit and Ohio ethanol industry tours to better understand how the U.S. is developing its ethanol industry.

Transferring American technology to countries in Africa could help them develop their own ethanol industries, but many countries currently lack agricultural capacity to produce crops for ethanol, Bardakjian said.

Certain parts of Africa dont have enough farming potential at present to use ethanol as a fuel blend, so what they rely on is U.S. imports, he said.

Its important for the African countries he deals with to move toward their own sustainable production of ethanol for the benefit of their own economies and also to safeguard supplies, Bardakjian said. For instance, hes concerned that American ethanol export capacity could be limited by an increase in demand for sustainable aviation fuel. In many African nations, the cost of energy is more of a market driver for ethanol than environmental concerns, he said.

Instead, those countries are looking at how ethanol can help reduce the cost of fuel. Nigeria, for instance, recently eliminated fuel subsidies, which caused a three-fold increase in fuel prices.

You can imagine the impact thats having on people who are earning the equivalent of $100 a month, Bardakjian said.

In Ghana, both fuel prices and environmental concerns are contributing to increased interest in ethanol, said Aidoo. The country has a tiny carbon emissions footprint compared to more industrialized countries, he pointed out. The whole of Africa, our contribution is about 3.5%.

Even so, Ghana is working toward a goal of 10% ethanol fuel by 2030. Currently, ethanol is used in Ghana only as industrial fuel, not for motor vehicles. Making blended fuels available for vehicles would help reduce costs for consumers, he added.

As Deputy Minister of Energy, Aidoo hopes to convince other officials in his country to establish a framework to support ethanol production in Ghana. For instance, hed like to require companies that import ethanol to also invest in local processing and feedstock production.

My hope is that any company that will be licensed to import ethanol must prove that they have invested in the production of corn or cassava in Ghana in order for them to continue to sustain their license, he said.

Development of an ethanol industry in Ghana must start with increased production of corn and cassava as feedstock, Aidoo stressed. Otherwise ethanol production would cut into the countrys food supply. We will be ramping up the production of corn and cassava purposefully for ethanol and at the same time bringing in some ethanol from abroad.
A decision to allow badger culling in Northern Ireland has been ruled unlawful in the High Court, with a union calling the move a 'major blow' to farmers.

In a judgment handed down this week, it was ruled that the 2021 consultation into the decision to allow the cull of up to 4,000 free-roaming badgers a year was unlawful.

The resulting decision to control the spread of bTB by allowing farmer-led groups to shoot badgers was also unlawful and the policy has been quashed.

The legal challenge to the Department of Agriculture (DAERA) was brought on by Wild Justice and Northern Ireland Badger Group (NIBG).

The Judge, Mr Justice Scoffield, agreed with anti-culling campaigners that the 2021 DAERA consultation did not meet the requirements for a lawful consultation.

He said DAERA had "failed to comply with the requirements of a fair and lawful consultation by failing to provide consultees with sufficient information about the basis for its proposed decision to permit themto engage meaningfully with the departments thinking."

The Ulster Farmers Union (UFU) said the ruling would be a 'major blow' for Northern Ireland's livestock farmers, as levels of bovine TB reached record levels in April.

The union warned that it could now 'take years' before the issue of TB reservoir in wildlife was addressed.

UFU president David Brown said: "Farm families have been on their knees due to this disease for generations, and they are desperate for a successful strategy that will tackle TB in all its hosts ensuring healthy cattle and healthy wildlife.

This setback is the last thing our members needed. Its vital that in moving forward DAERA learns from this outcome, and that they reevaluate and amend their process in line with the Judges comments to get this over the line next time around.

"We will continue to work with DAERA and other stakeholders to move past this to deliver a sustainable and workable solution to protect cattle and wildlife from this disease.

Following the ruling, Wild Justice said: We are obviously thrilled that DAERAs policy to allow a non-selective cull of badgers by farmer-led groups has been quashed.

"DAERA may try again to implement a similar policy and we stand ready to challenge any proposal that fails to comply with due consideration of not just public law, but also of the scientific evidence and welfare aspects associated with such action."

It comes after the NFU recently asked the UK government to keep wildlife control as an option in battling bovine TB after Labour confirmed it would ban culling.

The union met with Lord Benyon, Minister of State for Defra, to stress the need for the governments continued bTB eradication strategy to be based on 'sound scientific evidence'.
Female chimpanzees go through the menopause.

Female chimpanzees go through the menopause

A new study has discovered signs of major hormonal changes in a group of older wild primates in Uganda.

However, the findings have baffled scientists as it previously been thought that only humans and certain types of whales lived for many years after losing the ability to reproduce.

The team studied 185 female chimpanzees at the Kibale national park between 1995 and 2016 and found that the probability of the primates giving birth fell after the animals reached the age of 30, with no births occurring at all in those aged above 50.

Despite this, 16 females lived beyond that age.

The experts also analysed urine samples from 66 female chimpanzees that revealed hormonal changes with age similar to those seen in humans during the menopause.

Dr. Kevin Langergraber, co-author of the study at Arizona State University, said: "It is not obvious how selection can favour the extension of lifespan past the point at which individuals can no longer reproduce."
A woman is a mother to 22 children at the age of 26.

Kristina Ozturk has 22 children and wants lots more (c) Instagram

Kristina Ozturk, a Russian who lives in neighbouring Georgia, has welcomed 21 of the kids via surrogate and 20 have been born in the space of a year.

She claims that she wants 105 biological children with her millionaire husband Galip, 58, - although he was sentenced to eight years in prison earlier this year after being found guilty of illegal purchase and possession of drugs.

A video on her Instagram account shows that all but two of the children were born in 2020, with the eldest, Victoria, born in 2014 from a previous relationship and the youngest, Olivia, arriving in January 2021.

The clip shows all of the children reeling off their names and dates of birth.

Kristina captioned the post: "Meet the Ozturk family!

"You have asked many times to make a video for you with the names and ages of the children. I heard you, I made a video with dates of birth..."
Walking is almost as good as Viagra for erectile dysfunction.

Walks can help with erectile dysfunction

It has been discovered that regular exercise gives men a similar bedroom boost to taking the little blue pills.

A new study reviewed 11 trials involving about 1,100 men. Of those, about 600 were put on exercise programmes involving 30 to 60-minute sessions at least three times per week.

Their erections were then measured on a standard scale of six to 30 and men with severe erectile dysfunction noticed a five-point improvement on average.

Dr. Mohit Khara, of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, said: "Exercise may serve as a managing erectile dysfunction.

"Health care providers should consider recommending regular aerobic exercise as low-risk nonpharmacologic therapy for men experiencing difficulties."
Blac Chyna has claimed Tyga cheated on her with an allegedly underage Kylie Jenner.

Blac Chyna says Tyga kicked her out of their house once she found out he was cheating on her

The 35-year-old model - whose real name is Angela White - admitted her three-year romance with the 'Chosen' rapper had already "ran its course" before she found out he was messaging the reality TV star in 2014, but she revealed the shocking end to their relationship came when the 33-year-old musician's friends "threw [her] out" of his house.

Speaking to Nick Viall on 'The Viall Files' podcast, Chyna - who has 11-year-old son King Cairo with Tyga - said: I feel like it ran its course and then he started talking to Kylie at the time, which she was like, 16 or something.

Yeah, I was engaged and stuff, so thats kind of what ended it.

It was actually when Tygas friends threw me outside of his house.

Yeah, they packed my stuff up and put it in my, well, his truck at the time.

Packed it right on up and packed in the G wagon that he had given to me at the moment.

Chyna's friendship with Kim Kardashian become more difficult once the rapper began seeing the TV star's half-sister.

She explained: Me and Kim, we were really good friends. I was on her show and all this stuff like that.

We lived in the same community.

And then her little sister started talking to Tyga, which was kinda crazy because she was underage and then everybody came at me and started attacking me.

Its like, nobodys seen the betrayal that was going on behind my back.

Kim, and then her little sister, who she has no control over, started talking to my fiance and then I get attacked. And its like, how does that work?

After their messy relationship ended, Chyna then dated Kim's brother Rob Kardashian - the father of her six-year-old daughter Dream - in 2016, though the couple would break it off the next year.

Speaking to Los Angeles Power 105.1 The Breakfast Club, Tyga previously revealed that he had warned Rob not to date her, but admitted that his friend did not listen to the rappers advice because love blinds you.

He said: Chyna just got a different mentality. She really is a good person, but shes been through a lot in her life, and she really didnt have people to help guide her[Rob is] coming from a whole different world.

He dont know how she moves and how she thinks. When youre in love and when you dont care what nobody else thinks, love like blinds you.
BTS star V has reassured fans he is safe after his alleged stalker was arrested.

BTS star V's alleged stalker was arrested on Thursday

A female in her twenties was apprehended for breaking the East Asian countrys anti-stalking act for loitering outside his apartment building before following him into the building's parking area on Thursday (26.10.23), South Korean news outlet KBS reported.

The unnamed woman also allegedly got into the elevator V was in and handed over a marriage certificate.

Her details were all over the document and police were able to track her down through the information.

According to the outlet, it's not the first time the individual has allegedly stalked the K-pop star.

The group's label, Big Hit Music, told the publication: "We are responding with a no-tolerance policy to stalking crimes that disturb our artists personal life and threaten their safety."

And in an update on Weverse, V posted alongside a selfie sunning himself: Im all good - Dont worry."

Meanwhile, V's bandmate Jungkook recently clarified that his only girlfriend is his fans.

The 26-year-old megastar dismissed speculation about his personal life, insisting he is too focused on his career to find time for romance and doesn't need a partner because he has the love and support of the BTS 'ARMY'.

During a live broadcast on Stationhead, he said: I want to address something because Ive been seeing comments about it - I dont have a girlfriend.

Im not currently dating anyone. I just want to focus on my work now, so I dont feel the need to have one. I dont have a girlfriend, so please stop talking about it.

Right, my girlfriend is ARMY. I just have ARMY now. Stop talking about it. Ah [now that Ive said it], it felt exhilarating. I only have ARMY now, so dont worry. Im only looking at ARMY now, so really, dont worry, okay?..

"ARMYs please spread this in English until far far away... You're gonna tell people that I'm your boyfriend if they ask? Okay, do it! tell them I'm your boyfriend or friend or older or younger brother or family."
The landlocked country of Nepal hosts many doable treks for every fitness level, inclination and enthusiasm



We have mixed feelings about Mount Everest. Recent reports show that too many unprepared climbers are attempting to climb the highest mountain in the world above sea level  with traumatic and often tragic results. Experienced mountaineers have written about the challenges and potential trauma that you can encounter on the way up to the summit. It is life changing in both a good way and a bad way. Of course, we are not dissing the achievements of those who have summited; theirs is the glory, but it is very hard won, and the climb must be taken only by those who are fit, mentally and physically, for the challenges.





Not everyone should try to summit Mount Everest





For the rest of us, Nepal has a set of perfectly enjoyable treks that will not put life and limb to the test. Some of these require no training at all, some can be done with kids and older people. All you need is to be moderately fit, and to take into account the added challenge of the high elevation. It makes sense to go with a guide and group, because a local guide will be able to modify the itinerary to the abilities of the group and help with suitable accommodation if needed. Additionally, if you go with a tour operator, porters will carry your gear, so all you will need to tote is a day pack and your camera.



Here are two easy treks in Nepal to consider



The Ghorepani and Poon Hill Trek (main image)

Great for beginners who would like to try an easy multi-day hike, this 12 mile+ hike over one to four days is known to be one of the easiest hiking routes in Nepal. You can do just a single day but, knowing that you will be crossing wildflower-dotted valleys and strolling through forests of massive oak, you might be tempted to extend. If you do, you will stay in villages or small towns. Expect to catch a stunning sunrise from Poon Hills summit; this is also known as the Annapurna Sunrise Hike for a reason. This trek reaches an elevation of 4,750+ feet.









Trek To Shivapuri Peak

Set in Shivapuri National Park (above), just 30 minutes from Kathmandu, this trek is great if you want an easy one-day activity or a quick overnight one. You will climb to a height of almost 3,000 feet above sea level and you can be sure that your heart will be soothed by the sound of birdsong, bubbling streams and chattering monkeys as you follow the (mostly) well-marked trail.





Images: Shutterstock





Also Read: Skip Bentota! Bookmark The Beach In Sri Lanka With Your Name On It!
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is offering Cambodia a conducive platform for structural economic transformation and diversifying from more concentrated textile and garment exports, according to a study carried out by Jakarta-based Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA).

RCEP will accelerate global value chain (GVC) effects and regional integration through the simplification of the rules of origin. It will facilitate business activities in GVCs in terms of the movement of goods. Under RCEP, there is an agreement for a single Restrictiveness of Rules of Origin (ROO) framework that could be applied across the 15 member countries in RCEP, the research paper, titled Potential Impact of RCEP and Structural Transformation in Cambodia noted.

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership is offering Cambodia a conducive platform for structural economic transformation and diversifying from textile-garment exports, a study by Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia in Jakarta found. The agreement will play a key role in the country's dream of turning a high-income country by 2050.

Current studies highlight that the co-sharing rule is less restrictive across other forms of ROO rules and regulations. RCEP allows for a co-sharing rule under the ROO framework, it said.

Businesses under RCEP need to show that a product has the regional value content level of 40 per cent or has undergone a change in tariff heading at the four-digit HS code level classification.

The single ROO framework under RCEP will have important implications for GVC activities in the region in terms of greater intra-industry trade and investment, and it is likely to create more value-added activities in the region. RCEP also includes a flexible provision for an ROO framework in terms of tariff differentials, where an importing party applies different tariff treatments for the same originating good, the paper said.

The agreement will play a key role in the countrys dream of turning a high-income country by 2050, it said.

Comparative advantage analysis for China, Japan, and South Korea shows that Cambodias exports to CJK are in consumer final products, which are labour-intensive in terms of cut, make, and trim in clothing exports.

It is important to develop more functional service activities in garments and export such as branding, marketing, and sourcing that will allow the textile and garment industry in Cambodia to move up the value chain, the study report was quoted as saying by a Cambodian news outlet.

Hong Kongs entry into RCEP will be a game changer for Cambodias economic growth plans, it added.

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The Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival is back this year after a three-year hiatus, and the lineup of Indian films is sure to excite every cinephile. It includes classic titles from the New Wave cinema movement in 1970s Kerala, internationally acclaimed films, world premieres, and more. You can catch these cinematic delights at a theatre near you from October 25 to November 5.Here are some of the Indian films that you can watch:

Pushtaini

Director: Vinod Rawat

Pushtaini revolves around Bhuppi, a struggling actor entangled in an embarrassing scandal, yearning to grasp his final shot at stardom. He's compelled to return to his hometown and confront his past, embarking on a journey through the mountains where he encounters strangers and unforeseen adventures, all while remaining oblivious to what the journey holds for him.

Stolen

Director: Karan Tejpal







The film portrays the collision of multiple facets of India at a railway station, where an infant is abducted from the side of a sleeping mother. This thought-provoking movie was recently showcased at the BFI London Film Festival.



Sthal

Director: Jayant Digambar Somalkar

Against The Tide is the sole documentary chosen from among 14 feature films in the South Asia Competition section. This 97-minute film, presented in Koli, Marathi, and Hindi languages, tells the story of two friends, both indigenous Koli fishermen in Mumbai, who find themselves pushed to desperation due to a declining sea. As the sea's resources wane, their friendship starts to fracture, and they choose divergent paths to support their struggling families.



Aatmapamphlet

Director: Ashish Avinash Bende

Sthal (A Match) delves into the tradition of arranged marriages in rural India, where the relentless pursuit of a girl's marriage takes precedence over the basic necessities of life. The story is narrated from the viewpoint of a young girl, Savita, shedding light on patriarchy, colorism, and deep-seated social issues in society.Director: Hansal MehtaThe Buckingham Murders, featuring Kareena Kapoor Khan in the lead role, revolves around a British-Indian detective coping with the recent loss of her child. Her assignment is to investigate the murder of a 10-year-old child in Buckinghamshire.Director: Fazil RazakThadavu (The Sentence) stands as the sole Malayali film to be featured at the JIO MAMI Mumbai Film Festival 2023. The film compellingly portrays the challenges faced by Geetha, who is alone, terminally ill, and without employment, making it impossible for her to afford the necessary medical treatment. In desperation, she hatches a plan to commit a crime, as incarcerated individuals receive free medical care.Director: Dibakar Das RoyDilli Dark is a 100-minute dark comedy film presented in Hindi, English, Yoruba, and Pidgin languages. The story revolves around a Nigerian boy living in New Delhi who aspires to pursue an MBA and establish his life in India. However, his part-time job leads him to lead a dubious double life in a city known for its challenges for outsiders.Director: Sarvnik KaurAatmapamphlet is a coming-of-age film that follows a boy's journey as he seeks to confess his love to his first crush. This film earned a selection at the Berlin International Film Festival.Director: Vikramaditya MotwaneIndi(r) a's Emergency is a three-part documentary series that delves into one of the most contentious chapters in post-Independence Indian history, spanning from 1975 to 1977 when Indira Gandhi imposed a nationwide state of emergency. This period was marked by severe restrictions on civil liberties and press freedom, along with the cancellation of elections.Director: Aparna SenThe Rapist, featuring Konkona Sen Sharma in the lead role, revolves around a middle-class academic who confronts her rapist, seeking an explanation for his actions.
Anyone who has ever had the rare privilege of watching Kalki Koechlin, best known for her roles in Dev.D and Margarita With A Straw, among other films, in a theatre play will tell you that when the spotlight hits her, its impossible not to get mesmerised by her presence. So her latest role in theatre director Pushan Kripalanis film Goldfish seems like the perfect project for her acting prowess to shine. The film sees her at her most vulnerable as a young woman navigating her relationship with her mother, who suffers from Alzheimers. For Kalki, this came at an interesting trajectory in her life. The actress opened up about finding a balance between her personal and professional lives on a Zoom call all the way from Spain...While filming Dev.D you could wake me up in the middle of the night and I would know my lines. I would be able to say them; I was so nervous about lines. Now Im much more concerned with the meaning of the lines, so its not so much about getting the right words. Its about getting the meaning across and that helps a lot. Of course, language has helped. Getting a proper Hindi teacher, to be able to speak properly, helps a lot. I also know that it's healthy for me to counter whatever I'm doing. So if I'm playing an intense role, then after I get home, I need to shake that off and go for a swim, do some exercise, or even just watch a light show. Something that will just change my energy. I started understanding the need to balance it out.It depends on each and every character because some are light. With Aditi in Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani, there was no process. I just worried about how my hair looked. It was more about bonding with my co-stars than any hard-core process. All four of us (Deepika Padukone, Ranbir Kapoor and Aditya Roy Kapur) were hanging out a lot. We were having dinners together, going for walks in the mountains together, and stuff like that. That was the important thing. For me something like Margarita was completely different. For six whole months, I stayed in a wheelchair and just practised with it. I also practised the speech and how the muscles would move. I went so deep into it, even physically, that I started having problems. I had a backache. In this case for Goldfish, my director gave me a bunch of research material in terms of the accentgetting the right kind of British accent and wearing certain kinds of outfits. It was also about this British attitude of keeping everything inside. Shes from a culture where you hide things and bottle them up. So that was an important feedback from him. I can go on and on, but each and every character has a journey.Honestly, I was already a fan of Pushan Kripalani. Ive told him that whenever you do anything, Id like to work with you. He said, Oh yes, I have a perfect role for you. Its about a mother-daughter relationship and its beautiful. Unfortunately, I have no money. And I don't know when I'll make it. That was pre-pandemic, and it took about four years for him to call me back and say, Okay, I found a producer and they want to start shooting yesterday, so lets go! He's the main reason. I cried when I read the script. We don't often see these kinds of subjects. We view them as hopeless or dark, but this is a hopeful film, and it has forgiveness in it. Thats what makes you cry more, because when you can't hold the anger anymore, the sadness comes out.We were shooting in London during a COVID-19 wave. We were insulated with only a small crew and the actors. We shot the whole film in less than a month. Our DOP had a three-camera set-up, so we always had one camera on Deepti Naval, one camera on me and another camera taking the whole scene. We would do the whole scene without any cuts. It was almost like we were doing a play. It was exciting, and intense.I was given the name of a British actress and was watching all her interviews and listening to her. I remember mimicking and getting that accent right. And other than that, Pushan didnt give me too much. He gave me a lot of stories because Pushan and the writer Argya Lehri, who had written the script together, both had family members who had dementia; actually, Deepti Ma'am's mother also had it. They gave me some strong anecdotes. Having that background and the real stories around me was helpful.He came on board after the film was finished. It went to the Busan Film Festival and he came to watch our film. He loved it and said, I'd love to support it, and we were, of course, thrilled. We need all the help we can get for these small films. He can recognise a good movie when he sees it.You shouldnt think when youre acting. All your thinking should have happened before. Thats why you prepare. You find out how this character will respond. What words would she choose to use in this situation? All that preparation happens before. But the day when youre doing that scene where you have to break down, get angry, smash something against the wall, or anything, you just have to react. It's all about what the other person in front of you is saying and doing, and youre just giving it back or reacting in whichever way. It's about being in the moment, and believing it. You believe you're in that situation. Youre no longer Kalki; youre Anamika and you're pissed off at your mother because shes insane. Thats it.Oh my God. I dont think I'll ever get to that stage with my mother when I'm fighting with her. Because shes so cute. I love her so much and shes so adorable. Why would I fight with her like I did in the film? Now that I'm a mother, I have become much more sensitive to what she had gone through. Because that mothers love in the beginning, no matter how tough she might have been or whatever, still gave everything for you to be alive today. It's just very moving to be a mother and then play a daughter in this situation. It definitely adds a lot of layers to the film.I don't know if motherhood has changed me. But its made me question who I was before and maybe just reminded me of the things that are important to me. You're just a slave to this little child, crying 24/7. You start getting reminded of what matters in this life. And thats just a wonderful feeling to know and to have that again. You have always been unafraid to speak your mind and do your own thing. Do you think it's important for celebs to be their unfiltered selves off-screen? We dont know what everybody is going through. There are times when I need to be quiet too, and I can't put it out there on social media. I need to just be in therapy or stare at the ceiling. There are times when you need to absorb what you're going through. And there are other times when youve healed from it. Usually, when you've healed from it, you can share it with others. As human beings, if we don't share our journeys, then we're never going to know that there are other people going through the same thing. But everybody has to find their own time and space to do it.It's fun because you already know the familiar habits that this character has. Sometimes I just go back and look at some of the scenes from the first season just to remember that she had this problem or that issue. I also got the chance to play with the whole pregnancy thing. Since I had experienced pregnancy, I was like, Oh, I know I'm going to be hungry all the time or I'm going to be sick all the time. So, adding those little things was fun.I wish I had his confidence. He really knows what he wants. I always second-guess myself. He's a fantastic actor, and hes somebody with whom I can feel very present when we work together. We're just going to be playing a match of tennis. You know the persons going to hit that ball back and it's great to have that because sometimes you hit that ball and it just falls; nobody is sending that ball back. So I don't have that problem with him.
In a significant upcoming event scheduled for October 28 in Mumbai, the multi-talented actress Richa Chadha is set to receive a distinguished accolade from the French government and the Consul General of France to India.During this special ceremony, Richa will be bestowed with the prestigious Chevalier Des Arts et des Lettres, one of the highest distinctions presented by the French government to individuals in the domains of cinema, arts, and fashion on a global scale.This recognition places her in the illustrious company of iconic stars such as Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, and Academy Award winner Guneet Monga, acknowledging her exceptional contributions to the world of cinema.The ceremony is slated to coincide with the forthcoming MAMI film festival. Reacting to the honour, Richa said, It is truly an overwhelming and humbling moment for me to be recognised by the French government and the Consul General of France to India with the prestigious Chevalier Des Arts et des Lettres award. To stand in the esteemed company of legends such as Shah Rukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is a testament to the power of storytelling and the impact cinema can have on bridging cultures and societies.She further added, My journey in the film industry has been nothing short of a roller-coaster ride, filled with challenges, triumphs, and invaluable lessons. Receiving this honour is not just a personal achievement; it is a recognition of the collective efforts of everyone who believed in my vision, from my family and friends to my mentors and collaborators. This accolade reaffirms my belief that storytelling knows no boundaries, and it is my responsibility as an artist to contribute meaningfully to the global dialogue.Concluding her statement, she said, Thank you to the French government and the Consul General of France to India for this honour, which only motivates me to strive for excellence and make a positive impact on the world through my work."
critic's rating: 4.0/5

Vidhu Vinod Chopra's 12th Fail tells the story of a UPSC aspirant. The film is based on Anurag Pathak's novel of the same name, which is about IPS officer Mohan Kumar Sharma's journey. The film is unlike anything else which the director has either directed or produced. Yes, 3 Idiots does come close to, because that too talked about the importance of education, but both films are very dissimilar in treatment. The Raju Hirani directoral was more or less a comedy, with life lessons thrown in. This is more of a documentary encapsulating one mans determination and fortitude. But Mohan Kumars struggles arent his alone. They symbolise the hardships faced by thousands of underprivileged students who sit in the competitive exams in order to rise themselves above the morass of mediocrity. Such is our system that only a few handful manage to crack it each year. Failure means a life spent in drudgery, a life of uncertain future, whereas success in it guarantees a better lifestyle for sure. Some, like our protagonist here, dont hanker after it just for the sake of their own betterment. They want the society as a whole to benefit from them becoming exemplary IAS and IPS officers.



The film is called 12th Fail because the protagonist doesnt resort to cheating, as is done by all his fellow students, to pass his exams. Because a strict police officer, Dushyant Singh (Priyanshu Chatterjee), has asked him not to as a repayment for helping him. Mohan (Vikrant Massey) takes the lesson to heart and sets about becoming an honest officer himself. However, he lacks the means to do so. His father has been unjustly removed from his government job and has been fighting a court case against it for years. His elder brother does odd jobs to make ends meet. They are so poor that they dont have anything left to sell to ward off a hand-to-mouth existence. Circumstances lead him to Delhi, where he finds work in a library. He works there during the day and reads books during the night. Later, hes fired from there and takes to running a flour mill. He lives in a dingy room, working 14 hours a day, studying the rest of the time, going by just three hours of sleep. He manages to clear the first exam but fails in the subjective paper, as he lacks the training. The kindness of friends coming in handy here. A failed aspirant who runs a tea stall helps him out by taking care of his lodging and boarding. And the love of his life Shraddha Joshi (Medha Shankar) supports him emotionally and also lends him notes. He cracks the mains too in his last and fourth attempt. The only hurdle now is the interview, where he impresses an sceptical interview board by quoting BR Ambedkars maxim, Educate, Agitate, Organise. He tells them he wants to be the best police officer he can be in order to change the system from within and inspire others in turn.



As said earlier, this feels like more of a documentary than a work of fiction. Theres no overt dramatisation of events here. What we have is a documentation of human struggle. Our hero doesnt overcome his hardships by some miracle but by constantly getting up after failing. Hes not ranting against the system doing so but just trying his hardest to believe in an ideal and imbibing it. It does contain a love story but the hero and the heroine dont run around trees singing songs or get physical at the first available moment. Its a romance based on faith and commitment and yearning. It knows its realities, its boundaries. Vidhu Vinod Chopra has made a technically excellent film. Be it cinematography, editing, sound, costume and production design or writing, everything is above par. The rattle of the flour mill hurts your ears, the nimbus of the 20 watt bulb by which Mohan studies waters your eyes and you feel his shame of wearing the same set of clothes everyday.



Vikrant Massey has been aptly cast as the protagonist. His sense of commitment to the film is akin to that of real-life Mohan Sharma. Vikrant reportedly lost 12 kgs to look like a 12th class student in the first half, then gained seven kgs as the film progressed to look older. Hes so steeped in the role that you dont believe youre watching an actor essaying a character. The actors expressive eyes convey everything from hurt, despair, anger and finally elation, in varying degrees. Hes known for his dependable performances but this is easily his best performance so far. Medha Shankar plays Shraddha Joshi with poise and confidence. Her performance compliments Vikrants and adds to the film.



Watch the movie for the positive message it conveys, for its powerful story and superlative performances by Vikrant Massey and the entire cast. It marks the comeback of Vidhu Vinod Chopra as a director. Lets hope he continues to invest in such real stories.

Trailer : 12th Fail
critic's rating: 4.0/5

The Osage Indian murders were a series of murders of Osage Native Americans in Osage County, Oklahoma, during the 1910s30s. American journalist David Grann investigated the case for his 2017 book, Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI. The book is the basis for the present film. In 1897, oil was discovered on the Osage Indian Reservation in Oklahoma.. As part of the process of preparing Oklahoma for statehood, the federal government allotted 657 acres to each Osage on the tribal rolls in 1907. The film depicts the greed of white Amercans in all its varying hues. The white citizens are resentful of the wealth being distributed to the natives. They resort to the tactic of getting married to Native American women and then killing them, thus gaining the title to the land deed. Some resort to outright murder, while others let poison do the dirty work. The 1921 brutal murder of Anna Brown brought into fray the newly formed Federal Bureau of Investigation. The resultant enquiry led to the arrest of the mastermind William King Hale and his nephew, Ernest Burkhart in 1926. Burkhart later turned state's witness and gave evidence against his uncle. Ernest had married Mollie Kylie, wealthy native women at the behest of his uncle. After the marriage, her relatives started dying under mysterious circumstances. First to go was Minnie Smith, who died of probable poisoning, another sister, Rita Smith and her husband were killed by explosion, while Mollie herself was being poisoned through her insulin injections. The title is a metaphor for smaller flowers dying when taller plants take over. This usually happens during May, thats when Anna Brown was killed.

In the film, Robert De Niro plays William King Hale, while Leonardo DiCaprio plays his nephew, Ernest Burkhart. Lily Gladstone, who has Native American blood, plays Mollie Burkhart. Ernest is presented as being a simple minded ex-soldier who has returned from World War 1 and is in need of occupation. His brother Byron (Scott Shepherd), was already working with their uncle. The three, over the years, conspired to kill as many Native Americans as possible, through professional hunters and hitmen, making sure that their direct involvement was kept to the minimum. When the investigation took place, Hale was able to bump off several key witnesses and participants. However, it was the testimony of his nephew which finally condemned him.

The film depicts the tragedy in all its visceral glory, sparing the viewer nothing of the horror. Its a three-and-a-half hour film, which flows at its own pace. At one level, the whites are shown to be god-fearing, church going men and women, who are more than happy to rub shoulders with their rich, Native American neighbours. But as time goes by, we see their true faces. Its a war of a community against the other, a mini-genocide, with the entire white populace guilty of being perpetuators. Hale might be the face of this evil but this cankerous roots lie at the heart of everyone white person in the community. There is a chilling scene in the film where a gathering of prominent white men and women put pressure on Ernest not to testify against his uncle. Every person in the room is a killer to some degree but dont see their actions as crime, believing that white people have a God-given right to rule the other races. Another horrifying set of scenes involve the slow poisoning of Mollie. She has diabetes and her own husband is mixing poison in the insulin and injecting it to her. Its betrayal and deception played out at so many levels.

Martin Scorsese, who famously ranted against the so-called degradation of cinema, had a point to prove about what proper cinema should be and has answered his critics through this film. Given the length of the film, he does grow self-indulgent at times, though you never feel bored, given the human drama being unfolded. Why he deviated from the whodunit, investigative viewpoint of the book beats us. The linear progression jars your interest at times. Also, given the fact that the film shows crime against the Native Amercians, shouldnt the film be told from their point of view, rather than that of the white villains? Molly should have been the centre of it all, than Ernest, though you cant expect your top-billed star to take a back seat. The actual investigation reportedly took place over a period of two years but here, it is hurried along and looks forced.

The movie is supposedly shot using film cameras, giving them an old world quality, reminiscent of John Hustons films. The daylight photography is a treat to watch and even the night scenes, shot mostly in true light, have a picturesque quality to them. For example, the scenes depicting Mollys illness, where she lies sweat-drenched in a room lit by oil lamps lend a poignant touch to the proceedings. The background score too is phenomenal, so is the sound design.

Scorcese has chosen his actors with care. Robert De Niro is spot on as Hale. Hes the perfect godfather figure to the community, playing everyones friend but secretly coveting their wealth. This Jekyll and Hyde personality has been perfectly brought to life by the consummate actor. Lily Gladstone is cast as the perfect Native American beauty. She doesnt have robust expressions but her eyes say it all. The tragedy reflected in them as she catches on to her husbands lie is almost haunting. Apart from perhaps De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio is said to be Scorceses favourite actor. This is the sixth collaboration between them, and the actor does full justice to his directors confidence in him. He is shown to be a simple individual at first, then slowly gets addicted to a life of crime, indulging in robbery and gambling and doesnt bat an eye even when it comes to arranging murders. The actor brings out the remorse and guilt of his character admirably in the scene where he breaks down in jail after hearing of his younger daughters death. Its a scene which punches you in the gut, and you feel the impact long after you have left the theatre. On the other hand, one also feels DiCaprio is paying homage to such actors as Marlon Brando and Paul Muni in the latter half, especially in portions where hes jailed and asked to testify. He isnt just himself in those scenes but represents a wealth of actors specialising in tragedy, who have graced American cinema.

Watch the film for its true-to-life depiction of one of the harshest chapters of American history. And also for the wealth of acting talent displayed by all.

Trailer : Killers of the Flower Moon
Dunki First Review: Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan, who is currently basking in the glory of his two consecutive blockbusters with Pathaan and Jawan, is gearing up for his third cinematic offering of 2023, titled Dunki.

Directed by Rajkumar Hirani, this comedy-drama promises an offbeat take on the world of illegal immigration, with a quirky twist known as the 'Donkey Flight.' The film is set to grace the silver screens on December 22.

BOMAN IRANI REVIEWS SHAH RUKH KHAN'S DUNKI

Adding to the anticipation, Boman Irani, who portrays a London-based lawyer in the film, shared the first review of the film and hinted at another massive success. His review has left the fans excited about what could potentially be another 1000-crore blockbuster.

Boman, who graced the inauguration of the new complex of CINTAA in Mumbai spoke about his upcoming projects with media, Dunki being one of them. Talking about the film, the veteran actor revealed that he has already watched the early draft of Dunki and it 'has turned out very well'.

He was quoted as saying, "#Dunki has turned out very well & is going to be #ShahRukhKhan's Hat-Trick..It is a very unusual subject & it's as or even more entertainingas a RajkumarHirani film is..You will enjoy it..It will make you think about something.Make you understand life and concepts."

#Dunki has turned out very well & is going to be #ShahRukhKhans Hat-Trick..It is a very unusual subject & it's as or even more entertainingas a RajkumarHirani film is..You will enjoy it..It will make you think about something.Make you understand life and concepts.: Boman Irani pic.twitter.com/u30auRXqm4  Sourav Srkian Das (@SrkianDas04) October 25, 2023

Boman Irani - "#Dunki is an unusual subject; it's a movie in the style of #RajkumarHirani, and it's highly entertaining. It will make you contemplate, help you understand life and its concepts. You're going to thoroughly enjoy and love it." #ShahRukhKhan #Swades 2.O pic.twitter.com/LkePXaEoLu     (@RhythmOfAsh) September 15, 2023

ABOUT DUNKI

Meanwhile, Shah Rukh Khan's this year releases, 'Pathaan' and 'Jawan,' shattered global box office records and crossed the coveted 1000-crore mark. Now, if 'Dunki' manages to replicate this feat, Shah Rukh Khan will become the first Bollywood actor to deliver three 1000-crore hits in a single year.

The star-studded ensemble cast of 'Dunki' included Taapsee Pannu, Dia Mirza, Dharmendra, Satish Shah, Parikshit Sahni, and Vicky Kaushal, who makes a special cameo appearance.
Ranveer Singh-Deepika Padukone's KWK 8: In a recent episode of Koffee With Karan Season 8, Bollywood's power couple, Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh, opened up about their relationship, marriage, and the story behind their dreamy wedding.

Their candid revelations have sparked a social media frenzy, with some netizens mocking Ranveer Singh and comparing him with Hollywood actor Will Smith.

During the show, Deepika Padukone revealed that when she and Ranveer Singh first met, they hadn't committed to each other and were in a phase where they were free to explore other connections. She candidly stated, "I didn't commit until he (Ranveer) proposed to me."

However, this revelation has triggered a wave of criticism on social media. The video clip from Koffee With Karan was even shared on Reddit where it garnered

A user wrote, "They wanted to break in to the virat Anushka market ended up in jeda will smith market lol." Another user wrote, "Did we just found bollywood's Jada Pinkett & Will Smith?" "i swear these dudes just pulling a jada and will smith shit to get clicks." "Bechara ranveer ko open marriage me hai esa bol bol ke badnam kar rakah hai yaha toh jada-will wala mamla chal raha hai, bechara ranveer," read one more comment on the sub.

Meanwhile, netizens have also pointed to an old video from a previous season of Koffee With Karan wherein Deepika said she takes relationships seriously and called her a 'hypocrite'. Pointing to the video, a user commented, "Ladies and Gentlemen, the Biggest Hypocrite of our Generation #DeepikaPadukone."

Another user wrote, "the time when she was saying that she can't do casual dating was the time was she was casually dating chings oh my malpika."

Interestingly, during the rapid-fire segment, when KJo asked Ranveer, "In a love triangle featuring you and Deepika, which male actor would you not mind being cast as the third character", the actor said that he wants to remake Sangam with him, Deepika, and Ranbir Kapoor.
Bigg Boss 17 update: Ankita Lokhande and Vicky Jain's arguments have set several tongues wagging. While the two lovebirds are playing a dignified game as individuals, they have not been able to showcase their bright side as a couple in Salman Khan's show. From engaging in fights to not having the same opinion, Ankita and Vicky have grabbed eyeballs with their antics.

In yesterday's episode, Ankita Lokhande complained that she felt lonely despite Vicky Jain's presence. She shared her thoughts with her husband following which he used certain words that didn't go down well with the netizens.

A former Bigg Boss contestant expressed her displeasure over Vicky Jain's actions and accused him of 'humiliating and insulting' his wife on national television. We are talking about Devoleena Bhattacharjee. Without mentioning names, she shared a cryptic post but the fans were quick enough to notice that it was directed at Vicky.

"Husband/Wife ka mann mutau chalta rehta hai. But humiliating , insulting your wife every damn day is not at all entertaining nor it cant be a part of game. #BB17," the Saathiya actress tweeted.
Lavanya Tripathi & Varun Tej Fly To Tuscany, Italy Photo Credit: Gallery

The soon-to-be-married Tollywood couple Varun Tej and Lavanya Tripathi, who was spotted in Hyderabad visiting the ace designer's studio for final sessions of fitting for their wedding outfits, jetted off to Tuscany, Italy in the wee hours on October 27.

Lavanya Tripathi & Varun Tej Fly To Tuscany, Italy

The lovebirds are accompanied by the actor's sister Niharika Konidela and his father Naga Babu at the airport, where they are papped. All of them, especially the bride and groom wore comfortable clothing and Lavanya Tripathi added a dash of luxury by sporting an insanely expensive shawl from Louis Vuitton.

The wedding is going to be held on November 1 amid about only 50- 70 people in attendance from immediate families and important friends. The duo designed their wedding out of their vacations and at their favourite place, reportedly.

According to the available information, the wedding festivities of the Tollywood couple are set to kick-start with a glitzy glamorous cocktail night on October 30th. Then follows the traditional Mehendi and Haldi ceremonies, which are reportedly going to be held during the night of October 31.

Lavanya Tripathi & Varun Tej Jet off Photo Credit: Internet

Stars To Touch Down At Tuscany For The Wedding Festivities

All the mega heroes, Chiranjeevi, Ram Charan, Sai Dharam Tej, Vaisshnav Tej, and others have taken a week-long break from shooting commitments to ensure that they turn up for the wedding of Varun Tej and Lavanya Tripathi.

Allu Arjun, his wife Sneha Reddy, father Allu Aravind, and his wife, Arjun's two children Ayaan, and Arha, along with his brothers Allu Bobby and Allu Sirish are going to take part in the wedding.

Megastar Chiranjeevi with his entire family including his wife Surekha, two daughters Sreeja and Sushmita, their children, and Ram Charan with Upasana and Klin Kaara are packing their bags to fly. Ram Charan and Upasana flew to Italy just a couple of days before, for a personal holiday with friends.

The new couple will throw a huge star-studded reception in Hyderabad for the film fraternity and their close friends. The reception invitations have been sent out already and it will be taking place at N Convention on November 5. The wedding card has the names of the bride and groom's grandparents, parents, along with Chiranjeevi, and Ram Charan. Reportedly, Ram Charan and Upasana, who flew to Italy beforehand are looking into the arrangements.
The global advanced wound care and closures market is experiencing growth due to an increase in prevalence of chronic wounds, rise in geriatric population, and technological advancement in wound care and closures.

PORTLAND, Ore., Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Advanced Wound Care And Closures Market By Type (Advanced Wound Closures and Advanced Wound Care), By Application (Burns, Ulcers, and Others) By End User (Hospitals, Clinics and Nursing Homes, and others): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2022-2032." According to the report, advanced wound care and closures industry was estimated at $19.5 billion in 2022, and is anticipated to hit $32.9 billion by 2032, registering a CAGR of 5.4% from 2023 to 2033.



Request Sample of the Report on Advanced Wound Care and Closures Market Forecast 2032- https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/94

Advanced wound care and closure methods are specifically developed to address and treat both chronic and acute wounds. Products like staples,sutures, adhesive tapes, sealants, and tissue adhesives serve as effective options for closing wounds securely. Additionally, advanced wound care products, including alginates, foam dressings, and hydrocolloids, create a moist environment around the wound, promoting faster healing. These advanced wound care and closure techniques are used for wound management in a range of healthcare settings, including specialized clinics, hospitals, and even in the comfort of one's own home through homecare services.

Prime determinants of growth

Increase in the prevalence of chronic wounds such as pressure ulcer, diabetic foot ulcer and others, and increase in surgical procedures drive the growth of the advanced wound care and closures market. However, high cost of advanced wound care products is hampering the advanced wound care and closures market growth. On the contrary, increase in new product launches and technological advancement in the advanced wound care and closures are expected to offer remunerative opportunity for expansion of the advanced wound care and closures market during the forecast period.

Report coverage & details:

Report Coverage Details Forecast Period 2023-2032 Base Year 2022 Market Size in 2022 $19.5 billion Market Size in 2032 $32.9 billion CAGR 5.4 % No. of Pages in Report 275 Segments covered Type, Application, End User, and Region Drivers Increase in Incidences of chronic wounds Technological advancements in wound care management products Increase in number of surgical procedures Opportunity Rise in new product launches Restraint High cost of advanced wound care and closures



Economic Downturn Analysis: Impact of Recession in 2023 on the Advanced Wound Care and Closures Market

In the economic recession, advanced wound care and closures market is driven by s surge in incidence of chronic wounds, increase in surgical procedures, and adoption of newly launched wound care products table.

However, increased manufacturing and operating costs, shortage for raw materials, and fluctuations and adverse movement in shipping cost impact the advanced wound care and closures market growth.

Want to Explore More, Connect to our Analyst- https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/connect-to-analyst/94

The advanced wound care segment to maintain its leadership status throughout the forecast period

Based on type, the advanced wound care segment held the highest market share in 2022, accounting for more than half of the advanced wound care and closures market revenue, and it is projected to manifest the highest CAGR of 5.6% from 2023 to 2032, owing to increase in demand for advanced dressings such as foam dressings, silver dressings, and others and technological advancement in advanced wound care.

The ulcers segment to maintain its leadership status throughout the forecast period

Based on application, the ulcer segment held the highest market share in 2022, accounting for more than half of the advanced wound care and closures market revenue, and it is projected to manifest the highest CAGR of 5.7% from 2023 to 2032, owing to rise in prevalence of diabetes, pressure ulcer, and surge in geriatric population that are more susceptible to acquire chronic wounds.

The hospitals segment to maintain its leadership status throughout the forecast period

Based on end user, the hospital segment held the highest market share in 2022, accounting for more than half of the advanced wound care and closures market revenue, and it is projected to manifest the highest CAGR of 5.6% from 2023 to 2032, owing to increase in surgical procedures and surge in hospitalization of patient for the treatment of chronic wounds.

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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 more than two-fifths of the global advanced wound care and closures market revenue, owing to high prevalence of chronic wounds, availability of advanced wound care and closures, and strong presence of market key players. However, the Asia-Pacific region is expected to witness the fastest CAGR of 6.2% from 2023 to 2032, owing to development of medical technology industry, high prevalence of diabetes, and increase in adoption of advanced wound care and closures.

Leading Market Players: -

3M Company

B. Braun SE

Baxter International Inc.

Coloplast

Convatec Group plc

Essity Aktiebolag AB

Integra LifeSciences Holdings Corporation

Johnson & Johnson

Medtronic plc

Smith and Nephew plc.

The report provides a detailed analysis of these key players of the advanced wound care and closures market. These players have adopted strategies such as product launch, acquisition, and agreement to increase their market share and maintain dominant shares in the 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.

Comprehensive Healthcare Industry Research Studies:

Proton Therapy Market - Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2022-2032

Non Small-Cell Lung Cancer Market- Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2022-2032

Allergy Diagnostics Market - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2022-2032

Gas Chromatography Market- Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2022-2032

Electrophoresis Market - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2022-2032

About Allied Market Research:

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" 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 domains. AMR offers its services across 11 industry verticals including Life Sciences, Consumer Goods, Materials & Chemicals, Construction & Manufacturing, Food & Beverages, Energy & Power, Semiconductor & Electronics, Automotive & Transportation, ICT & Media, Aerospace & Defense, and BFSI.

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View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/advanced-wound-care-and-closures-market-to-reach-32-9-billion-globally-by-2032-at-5-4-cagr-allied-market-research-301969199.html
Export deals totaling over 12 bln USD inked in first phase of Canton Fair

Xinhua) 10:52, October 27, 2023

BEIJING, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- Export deals worth 12.33 billion U.S. dollars were signed offline during the first phase of the 134th China Import and Export Fair (Canton Fair), which concluded on Oct. 19, an official of the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said on Thursday.

More than half of the export deals were from Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) partner countries, MOC spokesperson Shu Jueting told a press conference.

As of Wednesday, more than 150,000 overseas buyers from 214 countries and regions have attended the Canton Fair, already surpassing the total recorded at the fair's last session, Shu said.

Some 96,000 buyers were from BRI partner countries, accounting for 64.1 percent of relevant attendees, according to the spokesperson.

Launched in 1957 and held twice yearly, the fair is considered a major gauge of China's foreign trade.

(Web editor: Tian Yi, Liang Jun)
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - October 26, 2023) - Benz Mining Corp. (TSXV: BZ) (ASX: BNZ) (Benz or the Company) is pleased to advise that is has made the final payment of $1,725,000, of which $1,350,000 was paid in cash and the balance by the issuance of 1,237,216 shares, to Fury Gold Mines Limited to acquire a 75% interest in Eastmain Gold Project and a 75% interest in both the Ruby Hill West and Ruby Hill East properties.

This payment is in accordance with the terms of the Option Agreement dated August 7, 2019, as amended on April 30, 2020 (the Option Agreements), between Benz and Eastmain Resources Inc (renamed Fury Gold Mines Limited). The shares will be subject to a four month hold period and acceptance of the TSX-V. The issue of shares will fall within the Company's 15% placement capacity under ASX Listing Rule 7.1.

Under the Option Agreements, Benz also has an option to acquire the remaining 25% (for a total interest of 100%) in the Eastmain Gold Project and the Ruby Hill West and Ruby Hill East properties located in the James Bay District, Quebec. For additional information on the Option Agreements, please see Benz's news releases dated August 9, 2019 and April 30, 2020.

This announcement has been authorised for release by the Board of Benz Mining Corp.

For more information please contact:

Evan Cranston

Executive Chairman,

Benz Mining Corp.

Telephone: +61 8 6143 6702

Email: info@benzmining.com

Dannika Warburton

Principal

Investability Partners

Email: benzmining@investability.com.au

Telephone: +61 401 094 261

About Benz Mining Corp.

Benz Mining Corp. (TSXV: BZ) (ASX: BNZ) brings together an experienced team of geoscientists and finance professionals with a focused strategy to unlock the immense mineral potential of the Upper Eastmain Greenstone Belt in Northern Quebec, which is prospective for gold, lithium, nickel, copper, and other high-value minerals. Benz is earning a 100% interest in the former producing high grade Eastmain gold mine, Ruby Hill West and Ruby Hill East projects in Quebec and owns 100% of the Windy Mountain project.

At the Eastmain Gold Project, Benz has identified a combination of over 380 modelled in-hole and off-hole DHEM conductors over a strike length of 6km which is open in all directions (final interpretation of some of the conductors still pending).

In 2021, Benz confirmed the presence of visible spodumene in a pegmatite at the Ruby Hill West Project, indicating lithium mineralisation which Benz intends to further explore in 2022.



Benz tenure over Upper Eastmain Greenstone Belt on simplified geology.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/1818/185418_f1ca6bfc84b5c97e_001full.jpg

About Eastmain Gold Project

The Eastmain Gold Project, situated on the Upper Eastmain Greenstone Belt in Quebec, Canada, currently hosts a NI 43-101 and JORC (2012) compliant resource of 1Moz at 6.1g/t gold (Indicated: 384koz at 9.0g/t gold, Inferred: 621koz at 5.1g/t gold). The existing gold mineralisation is associated with 15-20% semi-massive to massive pyrrhotite, pyrite and chalcopyrite in highly deformed and altered rocks making it amenable to detection using electromagnetic techniques. Multiple gold occurrences have been identified by previous explorers over a 12km long zone along strike from the Eastmain Mine with very limited but highly encouraging testing outside the existing resource area.

About Ruby Hill West Lithium Project

The Ruby Hill West Lithium project is a surface occurrence of spodumene bearing pegmatite within the Ruby Hill West project, located 50km due west of the Eastmain exploration camp. The occurrence was first sampled in 2016 by Eastmain Resources and then by Quebec government geologists in 2018. Only limited sampling was conducted by both groups.

In March 2022 Benz conducted a drilling program at the Ruby Hill West lithium pegmatite prospect and reported a 31.2m at 0.9% Li2O interval of visible spodumene rich pegmatite in the drilling (ASX & TSX-V releases dated 29 April 2022 "Multiple spodumene pegmatites intersected at Ruby Hill West")

Competent Person's Statement: The information in this announcement that relates to historical exploration results was first reported to the ASX in accordance with ASX Listing Rule 5.7. The Company confirms that it is not aware of any new information or data that materially affects the information included in the original market announcements.

The mineral resource estimate in this announcement was reported by the Company in accordance with ASX Listing Rule 5.8 on 24 May 2023. The Company confirms it is not aware of any new information or data that materially affects the information included in the previous announcement and that all material assumptions and technical parameters underpinning the estimates in the previous announcement continue to apply and have not materially changed.

Forward-Looking Information: Certain statements contained in this news release may constitute "forward-looking information" as such term is used in applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-Looking information is based on plans, expectations, and estimates of management at the date the information is provided and is subject to certain factors and assumptions, including, that the Company's financial condition and development plans do not change because of unforeseen events and that the Company obtains regulatory approval. Forward-Looking information is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause plans, estimates and actual results to vary materially from those projected in such forward-looking information. Factors that could cause the forward-looking information in this news release to change or to be inaccurate include, but are not limited to, the risk that any of the assumptions referred to prove not to be valid or reliable, that occurrences such as those referred to above are realized and result in delays, or cessation in planned work, that the Company's financial condition and development plans change, and delays in regulatory approval, as well as the other risks and uncertainties applicable to the Company as set forth in the Company's continuous disclosure filings filed under the Company's profile at www.sedarplus.ca. The Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements, other than 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 ACCURACY OR ADEQUACY OF THIS RELEASE.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/185418
BEIJING, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- A ferry, carrying 70 railway caravans and nearly 20,000 tonnes of steel, departed from pier 11 of Longkou Port in east China's Shandong Province and headed for Bangladesh recently, which marks the first railway caravan exported to Bangladesh via Longkou Port this year.

The goods shipped this time are mainly used for the construction of a large-scale local government project in Bangladesh, and it is learned that other seven batches of railway caravans will be transported from Longkou Port to Bangladesh before the end of the year.

In order to ensure the efficient and smooth customs clearance of this ship, Longkou set up a special service group, which got into contact with the agency enterprises in advance to learn the needs of the ship in detail. Loukou formulated special service support plans based on the ship's navigation plan, port operation arrangement, personnel needs and cargo loading and unloading risks, guaranteeing the safety and orderliness of the ship while in port.

Besides, Longkou border inspection station provided an all-weather appointment customs clearance service for the ship, minimizing the time for ship customs clearance and helping reduce customs clearance cost. This series of convenient and efficient service measures have won unanimous praise from shipping owners and agency companies.

Original link: https://en.imsilkroad.com/p/336779.html

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/xinhua-silk-road-shandongs-longkou-takes-multiple-measures-to-help-railway-caravan-export-to-bangladesh-301969613.html
A step-by-step guide to a smooth and blessed Umrah

DHAKA, Bangladesh, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- With a vision to make the process of Umrah easier for Muslims around the world, the globally popular instant messaging platform, imo, has integrated an Umrah Guide feature within its app earlier this month. With an array of sub-features, this new addition is designed to help pilgrims with information regarding the Umrah processes through Umrah tips, location based services, communication opportunities for pilgrims, and more.

Elderly Umrah pilgrims sometimes suffer from illnesses or discomfort while performing the pilgrimage which can be physically demanding especially during the summer months. Additionally, many first timers and even regulars happen to miss or be unaware of parts of the process, seeking details on how to perform Umrah or Hajj accurately-as a solution, imo has introduced the Umrah Guide feature specifically designed for Muslims embarking on the Journey Makkah to perform Umrah. It includes a step-by-step guide explaining the processes to follow while providing elaborate Umrah tips. It also carries in-depth information on Umrah ritual locations, illustrated through a satellite map for clear guidance. Beginning from November, this feature will allow visitors to share their locations with loved ones, ensuring a safer journey. Moreover, for the pilgrims having trouble connecting to family and friends at home, imo serves quality communication services across different countries, including the ones with weak network conditions. Consequently, this enables the Umrah pilgrims to stay connected throughout this blessed period.

The features within the Umrah Guide include Umrah Smart Assistant, Explanation of Umrah, Step-by-step, Umrah Location Guide, Location Sharing with Family, and International Calling Service that is suitable for weak networks, allowing users to save data while making voice and video calls free of charge. To utilize these features, the user needs to find the Umrah service channel on the imo App and click on it to enter the Umrah Guide. In the Umrah Guide, the Umrah Map is displayed at the top, and the corresponding Umrah Steps are shown at the bottom.

Mehran Kabir, Business Director of imo Messenger, said, "Umrah is an extremely special pilgrimage for Muslims around the globe. We have come up with this feature with the aim of providing assistance to our Muslim users looking to embark on this blessed journey. With the Umrah tips and guides available on imo, I believe our users will be able to perform Umrah more conveniently while sharing the experience with their loved ones back at home."

For more information, please click the link https://imo.im/blog/imo-introduces-Umrah-Guide-feature-for-Muslims-worldwide-en?lang=en&force=true.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/imo-introduces-umrah-guide-feature-for-muslims-worldwide-301968956.html
Which countries are ranked the most competitive-and by what criteria?

Washington, DC, Oct. 26, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --





Geopolitical Tensions Reshape Global Competitiveness:

Insights from the 2023 IPS Rankings

Which countries are ranked the most competitive-and by what criteria? And why should competitiveness be an international concern?

On October 26, 2023, two internationally known Swiss-based organizations organized the Global Conference on National Competitiveness and Nation Brand 2023 to address these questions.

The national competitiveness rankings of 62 economies were released at the Global Conference at 10:00 am CET (4:00 am EDT).

The Global Conference's organizers are the Institute for Industrial Policy Studies Switzerland (IPS-S) and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), with Institute for Policy & Strategy on National Competitiveness (IPSNC) and the Institute of Nation Brand Promotion as hosts. Sponsors include aSSIST University, Franklin University Switzerland, Kyung-In Broadcasting Co., and The Washington Times.

"We believe that the insights garnered from this conference will be invaluable to scholars, practitioners, and policymakers, offering a deeper understanding of national competitiveness and sustainable growth strategies," said Dr. Dong-sung Cho, professor emeritus of Strategy at Seoul National University and chair of the IPS-S.

Tracking Nations' Competitiveness

A nation's competitiveness matters because it is a gauge for the sustainability of its economic growth and prosperity. It also signals how well a nation will handle unforeseen challenges and other situations in which adaptability is required.

Nations of the world constantly compete to be the most prestigious in areas of self-governance, security, and economic stability-and attractiveness for tourism, investment, consumers, foreign students, and ability to host major events, including those at global levels.

Since 2000, IPS has been publishing the National Competitiveness Research by conducting statistical analysis for more than 60 economies. It uses 98 criteria in measuring a nation's competitiveness. Among these, 57 criteria are hard data and the other 41 criteria are soft data.

The two authors of the IPS national competitiveness research, Dr. Cho and Dr. Hwy-chang Moon (professor emeritus of Seoul National University Graduate School of International Studies), explained that they could see limitations in other competitiveness ranking systems.

Dr. Cho developed the "9-Factor Model," which assesses a nation on four physical factors, four human factors, and also chance events.

Physical factors refer to factor conditions, demand conditions, related industries, and business context. The human factors refer to workers, politicians and administrators, entrepreneurs, and professionals.

By analyzing these elements, plus factoring in unexpected conditions or opportunities for growth, the governments of the 62 countries can understand where they stand and tailor national strategies to improve their respective rankings.

The IPS Difference

Three major global institutions annually publish national competitiveness ranking reports: the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), the World Economic Forum (WEF), and IPS Switzerland. Each has its own unique focus. IMD defines competitiveness as a nation's ability to create and sustain a competitive business environment. WEF concentrates on a collection of institutions, policies, and factors that dictate a country's level of productivity. IPS, on the other hand, emphasizes the key determinants that enhance national prosperity by making strategic use of available resources. As such, the IMD report is particularly valuable for multinational corporations looking for investment opportunities, the WEF report serves as a useful reference for local firms, and the IPS report offers valuable insights for policymakers of countries and regions.

Based on its research, IPS-S and UNITAR release two national competitiveness rankings-one based on cost strategies and the other on differentiation strategies. This is because the competitiveness of countries can differ even if they have similar levels of endowed resources.

Also, when each of the two strategies is applied to countries, important differences in national competitiveness are highlighted.

For instance, Canada, Australia, United Arab Emirates, China and New Zealand were the top five in 2023 IPS cost strategy rankings. This refers to how well their businesses offered the best value for lowest costs while achieving corporate sustainability, growth, and a stable workforce and production.

However, according to the 2023 IPS differentiation strategy rankings, Denmark, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Finland and Singapore ranked the highest. Differentiation refers to a nation's businesses that offer distinctive and/or superior products with extra value and brand recognition.

The two completely different ranking results from 2023 show the relevance of the two types of strategy rankings. It implies that the competitiveness of a country can depend on its strategic choices and resource allocations. It also implies that if a country understands its competitiveness factors, it can improve its ranking based on those choices and allocations.

Countries Partnering With Countries

For example, when China was assessed on the cost strategy, it ranked 4th in the world, but when assessed according to the differentiation strategy, its ranking dropped to 19th.

In contrast, when the US was viewed through the cost strategy, it ranked 12th. But when viewed under the differentiation strategy, it rose to 6th.

Meanwhile, Denmark, which was ranked 1st on the differentiation assessment, was 7th on the cost strategy ranking.





According to a statement by UNITAR, IPS-S, and the Taylor Institute of Franklin University Switzerland, this suggests that "a cost strategy is appropriate for countries with rich resources, whereas a differentiation strategy is more suitable for developed countries that are capable of producing higher-quality products."





The three Swiss organizations noted that countries could improve their national competitiveness levels by working with other countries.

They gave the example of South Korea and Switzerland, which are 5,600 miles apart. Switzerland is known for its professional expertise on intellectual property rights and its array of unique, well-branded products. South Korea is known for its energetic entrepreneurs, networking base, and expertise in communications and electronics. "Hence, both countries can cooperate and share strengths and create synergies for improving their national competitiveness," noted the Swiss organizations.
- RVO is the third indication for Vabysmo, in addition to wet, or neovascular, age-related macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema -

- Approval is based on two Phase III studies demonstrating early and sustained vision improvements that were non-inferior to aflibercept -

- Vabysmo also demonstrated rapid and robust drying of retinal fluid -

- Additional U.S. label update across indications includes information on rare post-marketing reports of retinal vasculitis and/or retinal vascular occlusion; reporting rate is in line with other broadly used intravitreal treatments

Genentech, a member of the Roche Group (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Vabysmo (faricimab-svoa) for the treatment of macular edema following retinal vein occlusion (RVO). RVO is the third indication for Vabysmo, in addition to wet, or neovascular, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and diabetic macular edema (DME). Together, the three retinal conditions affect around 3 million people in the U.S. and are among the leading causes of vision loss.

"Vabysmo is a new treatment option for RVO that can help people preserve and improve their vision, with the added benefit of retinal drying," said Levi Garraway, M.D., Ph.D., Genentech's chief medical officer and head of Global Product Development. "The efficacy and safety profile of Vabysmo has been well established in global clinical trials and is reinforced by a growing breadth of real-world evidence, with hundreds of thousands of people treated."

Vabysmo is the first and only bispecific antibody approved for the eye. Today's approval in RVO is based on positive results from the global Phase III BALATON and COMINO studies that demonstrated monthly treatment with Vabysmo provided early and sustained improvement in vision in people with branch and central RVO, meeting the primary endpoint of non-inferior visual acuity gains at 24 weeks compared to aflibercept. This was further supported by data showing Vabysmo achieved rapid and robust drying of retinal fluid. In BALATON and COMINO, Vabysmo was generally well tolerated and the safety profile was consistent with previous trials. The most common adverse reaction was conjunctival hemorrhage (3%). Safety results were consistent across study arms.

Information has also been added to the Warnings Precautions section of the U.S. label based on rare post-marketing cases of retinal vasculitis and/or retinal vascular occlusion, typically in the presence of intraocular inflammation. The reported rate of retinal vasculitis with vascular occlusion is 0.06 per 10,000 injections, in line with real-world reported frequencies of other broadly used intravitreal treatments for people living with wet AMD, DME and RVO.

To date, Vabysmo is approved in more than 80 countries around the world for people living with wet AMD and DME, with approximately 2 million doses distributed globally.

About Retinal Vein Occlusion (RVO)

RVO is the second most common cause of vision loss due to retinal vascular conditions. It affects more than 1 million people in the U.S., mainly those aged 60 or older, and can lead to severe and sudden vision loss. The level of angiopoietin-2 (Ang-2) is elevated in RVO and it is thought that increased Ang-2 expression drives disease progression. RVO typically results in sudden, painless vision loss in the affected eye because the vein blockage restricts normal blood flow in the affected retina, resulting in ischemia, bleeding, fluid leakage and retinal swelling called macular edema. Currently, macular edema due to RVO is typically treated with repeated intravitreal injections of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor therapies. There are two main types of RVO: branch retinal vein occlusion, which affects an estimated 887,000 people in the U.S. and occurs when one of the four smaller branches of the main central retinal vein becomes blocked; and central retinal vein occlusion, which is less common, affecting an estimated 265,000 people in the U.S., and occurs when the eye's central retinal vein becomes blocked.

About the BALATON and COMINO Studies

BALATON (NCT04740905) and COMINO (NCT04740931) are two randomized, multicenter, double-masked, global Phase III studies evaluating the efficacy and safety of Vabysmo (faricimab-svoa) compared to aflibercept. For the first 20 weeks, patients were randomized 1:1 to receive monthly injections for six months of either Vabysmo (6.0 mg) or aflibercept (2.0 mg). From weeks 24 to 72, all patients received Vabysmo (6.0 mg) up to every four months, using a treat-and-extend dosing regimen.

The BALATON study was conducted in 553 people with branch retinal vein occlusion. The COMINO study was conducted in 729 people with central retinal or hemiretinal vein occlusion. The primary endpoint of each study was the change in best-corrected visual acuity from baseline at 24 weeks. Secondary endpoints (weeks 0-24) included change in central subfield thickness and drying of retinal fluid, from baseline over time up to week 24. Secondary endpoints (weeks 24-72) were treatment durability at 68 weeks and continuation of weeks 0-24 endpoints.

About the Vabysmo (faricimab-svoa) Clinical Development Program

Genentech has a robust Phase III clinical development program for Vabysmo. The program includes AVONELLE-X, an extension study of TENAYA and LUCERNE, evaluating the long-term safety and tolerability of Vabysmo in wet, or neovascular, age-related macular degeneration (AMD), and RHONE-X, an extension study of YOSEMITE and RHINE, evaluating the long-term safety and tolerability of Vabysmo in diabetic macular edema (DME). Genentech has also initiated several Phase IV studies, including the ELEVATUM study of Vabysmo in underrepresented patient populations with DME, the SALWEEN study of Vabysmo in a subpopulation of wet AMD highly prevalent in Asia, as well as the VOYAGER study, a global real-world data collection platform. Genentech also supports several other independent studies to further understand retinal conditions with a high unmet need.

About Vabysmo (faricimab-svoa)

Vabysmois the first bispecific antibody approved for the eye. It targets and inhibits two signaling pathways linked to a number of vision-threatening retinal conditions by neutralizing angiopoietin-2 (Ang-2) and vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF-A). While research is underway to better understand the role of the Ang-2 pathway in retinal disease, Ang-2 and VEGF-A are thought to contribute to vision loss by destabilizing blood vessels, which may cause new leaky blood vessels to form and increase inflammation. By blocking pathways involving Ang-2 and VEGF-A, Vabysmo is designed to stabilize blood vessels.

Vabysmo U.S. Indications

Vabysmo (faricimab-svoa) is a prescription medicine given by injection into the eye, used to treat adults with neovascular (wet) age-related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic macular edema (DME) and macular edema following retinal vein occlusion (RVO).

Important Safety Information

Contraindications

Vabysmo is contraindicated in patients who have an infection in or around their eye, have active swelling around their eye that may include pain and redness, or are allergic to Vabysmo or any of the ingredients in Vabysmo.

Warnings and Precautions

Injections like the one for Vabysmo can cause an eye infection (endophthalmitis) or separation of layers of the retina (retinal detachment). Patients should seek medical care if they experience increasing eye pain, vision loss, sensitivity to light, or redness in the white of the eye.

Vabysmo may cause a temporary increase in pressure in the eye (intraocular pressure), which occurs 60 minutes after the injection.

Although not common, Vabysmo patients have had serious, sometimes fatal, problems related to blood clots, such as heart attacks or strokes (thromboembolic events). In clinical studies for wet AMD during the first year, 7 out of 664 patients treated with Vabysmo reported such an event. In DME studies from baseline to week 100, 64 out of 1,262 patients treated with Vabysmo reported such an event. In clinical studies for RVO during 6 months, 7 out of 641 patients treated with Vabysmo reported such an event.

Retinal vasculitis and/or retinal vascular occlusion, typically in the presence of intraocular inflammation, have been reported with the use of Vabysmo. Healthcare providers should discontinue treatment with Vabysmo in patients who develop these events. Patients should be instructed to report any change in vision without delay.

Adverse Reactions

The most common adverse reactions (=5%) reported in patients receiving Vabysmo were cataract (15%) and blood on the white of the eye (conjunctival hemorrhage, 8%). These are not all the possible side effects of Vabysmo.

Pregnancy, Lactation, Females and Males of Reproductive Potential

Based on how Vabysmo interacts with your body, there may be a potential risk to an unborn baby. Patients should use birth control before their first injection, during their treatment with Vabysmo, and for 3 months after their last dose of Vabysmo.

It is not known if Vabysmo passes into breast milk. Patients should talk to their healthcare provider about the best way to feed their baby if they receive Vabysmo.

Patients may report side effects to the FDA at (800) FDA-1088 or http://www.fda.gov/medwatch. Patients may also report side effects to Genentech at (888) 835-2555.

Please see additional Important Safety Information in the full Vabysmo Prescribing Information or visit https://www.Vabysmo.com

About Genentech in Ophthalmology

Genentech is researching and developing new treatments for people living with a range of eye diseases that cause significant visual impairment and blindness, including wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic macular edema (DME), diabetic retinopathy (DR), geographic atrophy (GA) and other retinal diseases.

About Genentech

Founded more than 40 years ago, Genentech is a leading biotechnology company that discovers, develops, manufactures and commercializes medicines to treat patients with serious and life-threatening medical conditions. The company, a member of the Roche Group, has headquarters in South San Francisco, California. For additional information about the company, please visit http://www.gene.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231026325211/en/

Contacts:

Media Contact:

Shirley Dang (650) 467-6800



Advocacy Contact:

Jenee D. Williams (650) 303-2958



Investor Contacts:

Loren Kalm (650) 225-3217

Bruno Eschli +41 61 687 5284
Tron DAO

Justin Sun and TRON DAO Celebrated at Dubai's Prestigious 2023 Blockchain Life Awards



27-Oct-2023 / 07:15 CET/CEST

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.





Justin Sun and TRON DAO Celebrated at Dubai's Prestigious 2023 Blockchain Life Awards

NEWS RELEASE BY TRON DAO

Geneva, Switzerland | October 26, 2023 01:15 PM Eastern Daylight Time

Geneva, Switzerland / October 26, 2023 / - TRON , a leading name in the blockchain space, is proud to attend the Blockchain Life Awards 2023 . The event, held on October 25th in Dubai, saw TRON's founder, Justin Sun , being awarded the prestigious title of "Crypto Entrepreneur of the Year", and the TRON network itself securing the coveted "Layer-1 Solution of the Year" award.

TRON's Advancements in the Blockchain Sector

Under the guidance of various contributors including Justin Sun, TRON has demonstrated steady progress in the blockchain industry. As a Layer-1 solution, TRON has held its own amidst formidable platforms while continuing to enhance their ecosystem. The TRON network has reached impressive metrics : a robust user base of over 190 million total user accounts, a total value locked (TVL) of more than $17.90 billion, over 6.61 billion transactions conducted, and nearly 1.8 million average daily active users in the past month. These milestones are a testament to the collective efforts of the TRON community and their commitment to enhancing decentralized solutions. The continued growth and recognition are not just achievements but also an inspiration to innovate and serve the broader crypto community.

About the Blockchain Life Conference

Dubai's Blockchain Life Conference stands as a global confluence for crypto aficionados. Attracting over 7,000 delegates from 120 countries, the event has become a cornerstone for sharing ideas, knowledge, and the future of blockchain technology. With more than 80 industry luminaries sharing invaluable insights on upcoming market trends and global strategies, the conference facilitates a deep dive into the crypto world.

Additionally, the event showcased an impressive expo with over 100 of the world's leading blockchain and crypto companies. One of its major highlights was the Startup Pitch session, where innovative projects got a chance to present their ideas before an elite audience and the gathered attendees. Quick networking sessions and other formats were available to ensure attendees could maximize their experience. The day was wrapped up with a legendary afterparty at Sky 2.0, Dubai's iconic club, creating an unforgettable experience for attendees.

Sergei Khitrov, Founder of the Blockchain Life Forum in Dubai, commented "Justin Sun and TRON's victories underscore its undoubted prowess and potential in the blockchain space. The awards serve as a testament to the network's resilience, innovation, and promise." The Blockchain Life Awards 2023 heralds a new era for Justin Sun and TRON, one of continued dominance, innovation, and service to the global crypto community.

About TRON DAO

TRON DAO is a community-governed DAO dedicated to accelerating the decentralization of the internet via blockchain technology and dApps.

Founded in September 2017 by H.E. Justin Sun, the TRON network has continued to deliver impressive achievements since MainNet launch in May 2018. July 2018 also marked the ecosystem integration of BitTorrent, a pioneer in decentralized Web3 services boasting over 100 million monthly active users. The TRON network has gained incredible traction in recent years. As of October 2023, it has over 192.00 million total user accounts on the blockchain, more than 6.61 billion total transactions, and over $17.90 billion in total value locked (TVL), as reported on TRONSCAN.

In addition, TRON hosts the largest circulating supply of USD Tether (USDT) stablecoin across the globe, overtaking USDT on Ethereum since April 2021. The TRON network completed full decentralization in December 2021 and is now a community-governed DAO. Most recently in October 2022, TRON was designated as the national blockchain for the Commonwealth of Dominica, which marks the first time a major public blockchain partnered with a sovereign nation to develop its national blockchain infrastructure. On top of the government's endorsement to issue Dominica Coin ("DMC"), a blockchain-based fan token to help promote Dominica's global fanfare, seven existing TRON-based tokens - TRX, BTT, NFT, JST, USDD, USDT, TUSD, have been granted statutory status as authorized digital currency and medium of exchange in the country.

TRONNetwork | TRONDAO | Twitter | YouTube | Telegram | Discord | Reddit | GitHub | Medium | Forum

Contact Details

Hayward Wong

press@tron.network

Company Website

https://trondao.org/

TRON DAO Media Channels

VISIT TWITTER VISIT YOUTUBE

Dissemination of a CORPORATE NEWS, transmitted by EQS Group.

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.




GotlandRing, the world's most sustainable race circuit, will grace the cover of the British motor magazine BBC TopGear this November. The circuit will also be featured on a whopping 63 pages in the issue.

Additional race track content will be showcased on TopGear's digital platforms, reaching millions of subscribers and followers worldwide.

The world-renowned motor media brand visited GotlandRing earlier this autumn and hosted its greenest Speed Week to date at the race circuit at the end of August 2023.

TopGear's production at GotlandRing was their largest of the year and included a team of 16 journalists, photographers, and videographers, who all visited the Swedish race facility.

The trip resulted in an in-depth feature of GotlandRing and its new 7.3-kilometer configuration as well as a unique cover that displays TopGear's famous TV character "The Stig" alongside 15 exotic cars placed in front of the circuit's most famous turn, "Havren Sky," named after the circuit architect and founder of GotlandRing, Alec Arho-Havren. The turn is renowned for offering a controlled "low-flying" experience, often taken in a "Porsche Taycan RingTaxi", which is a popular EV experience for circuit visitors.

This autumn, GotlandRing also celebrated its 20th anniversary, which coincided with TopGear's visit.

To buy, order or download the November edition of TopGear Magazine, click here.

About GotlandRing

GotlandRing, built in 2003, is the world's most sustainable race circuit as well as the longest circuit of modern standard. The 4.53 mile (7.29 km) island-based race and test circuit is located within the Eco-Region of Gotland, which is the most popular tourist destination in Sweden. As of August 2023, the complex also offers EV supercharging with 100 percent renewable energy. GotlandRing and its strategic partner World Ecological Forum are also the initiators behind the SmartRoad Gotland project, the world's first electric road system with dynamic charging on a public road. The project was realized in cooperation with Electreon and the Swedish Transport Administration between 2019 and 2023. For more information, go to gotlandring.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231026538133/en/

Contacts:

Jenny Harler

+46 (0)73-904 85 85

jenny.harler@scencia.com
STOCKHOLM, SE / ACCESSWIRE / October 27, 2023 / Bambuser AB (STO:BUSER)(FRA:5JL) Bambuser reports Q3 2023 ARR of SEK 123 million, representing a year over year decline of 13% at constant exchange rates ("CER"). The Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow continue to improve. The cash balance closed at SEK 291.6 million, which is sufficient to take Bambuser to positive cash flow.

The Adjusted EBITDA margin improved by 6%p. year over year (y/y). The free cash flow margin also improved by 15%p. y/y.



Bambuser signed several new contracts with enterprise customers across all markets in the quarter, including Mini Cooper (BMW Group) and Beam Suntory (a premium spirits company). The Company further renewed and expanded its partnership with the LVMH Group, encompassing brands like RIMOWA and Guerlain.



Q3 2023 Key highlights

ARR of SEK 123.0 million, -13% y/y at constant exchange rates ("CER").

Net Sales of SEK 43.7 million (48.0) with SaaS revenue growth of +1% y/y.

Adjusted EBITDA of SEK -25.2 million (-34.6), representing a -53% margin and a 6%p. margin improvement vs. Q3 2022.

Free Cash Flow of SEK -33.6 million (-43.9), representing a -77% FCF margin and a 15%p. margin improvement vs. Q3 2022.

End of quarter Cash Balance of SEK 291.6 million (401.0), which is sufficient to take Bambuser to positive cash flow.

Significant improvement in churn, with a 60% reduction in absolute numbers q/q.

Bambuser initiates strategic review of its influencer marketing unit Relatable, which may include a full sale of the business.

The full Q3 2023 report is published at https://ir.bambuser.com/report-archive

About Bambuser

Bambuser is the world's leading video commerce company with the largest customer base in its industry. More than 350 brands from 40+ countries leverage Bambuser's best-in-class solutions.

Bambuser is truly global with headquarters in Stockholm and offices in New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, Turku, and Dubai. The company's rapidly growing team speaks more than 40 languages and 62% of its senior management is female. Founded in 2007 as a livestreaming pioneer, trusted by the world's leading news agencies, Bambuser pivoted to Live Shopping in 2019, leveraging its legacy as the industry leader in video-first technology. For more information, please visit www.bambuser.com .

Certified Adviser

Contact information

Corporate Communications, Bambuser AB

+46 8 400 160 00 | ir@bambuser.com

Certified Adviser

Erik Penser Bank AB

This information is information that Bambuser AB is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact persons set out above.

This information is information that Bambuser AB is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact persons set out above, at 2023-10-27 08:00 CEST.

Attachments

Bambuser Q32023 InterimReport

SOURCE: Bambuser AB

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/797079/q3-2023-bambuser-continues-to-improve-profitability-and-cash-flow
Safehouse announces its newest foray into the world of trading education, focusing on leveraging institutional knowledge to upskill retail traders in technical analysis. Alongside this, the brand adds a thrilling dimension by concurrently running a Lamborghini Super Trofeo racing team.

Singapore, Singapore--(Newsfile Corp. - October 27, 2023) - Trading has often been perceived as an exclusive domain where a selected few have the advantage of institutional insights. Bridging this gap and making institutional trading knowledge accessible to the masses, Safehouse unveils its top-tier trading education platform. This strategic move positions the brand as an avant-garde institution aiming to democratize high-level trading education.





Safehouse Launches Premier Trading Education Platform, Democratizing High-Level Trading Education



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Safehouse's platform encapsulates rich content, expert insights, and interactive modules tailored to help retail traders not only understand but master the intricate details of technical analysis. Safehouse has innovatively adapted the popular gaming community platform, Discord, to serve the trading community. This modern approach allows Safehouse to offer live market updates and ideas, insightful educational content, and a unique weekly live session where experts demonstrate real-time educational navigation of market openings.

While there are countless platforms offering trading education, Safehouse sets itself apart with its commitment to quality and authenticity, ensuring that users receive information synonymous with what experts in leading financial institutions leverage.

Weiliang Ni, Co-Founder of Safehouse, shared his insights on the new platform: "Our goal was to eliminate the overwhelming clutter that newcomers often face and replace it with streamlined, clear, and actionable content. We've essentially housed the institutional knowledge that was once reserved for a few, making it accessible to anyone eager to delve into the world of trading."

Beyond its education-centric endeavors, Safehouse boasts an electrifying presence in the world of motorsports. The brand runs a Lamborghini Super Trofeo racing team, symbolizing speed, precision, and excellence - values that Safehouse resonates with deeply. Furthermore, the high performance racing car is driven by Weiliang, the Safehouse Co-founder himself. This racing endeavor serves as a testament to Safehouse's commitment to performance and the relentless pursuit of excellence, both on the racetrack and the trading floor.

The synergy between high-stake trading and high-speed racing is evident. Both realms demand focus, accuracy, and a hunger for success. By aligning with the Lamborghini Super Trofeo racing team, Safehouse not only strengthens its brand identity but also offers a unique blend of excitement and education, positioning itself distinctively in the market.

For those interested in beginning their trading journey with a trustworthy guide, Safehouse is set to become the go-to platform. Traders can also get a taste of adrenaline by following the brand's Lamborghini Super Trofeo racing escapades.

To explore Safehouse's educational platform and gain unparalleled insights into the world of technical analysis, visit https://successrepeated.com/.

Contact Info:

Name: Choi Song-Ah

Email: help@sfhs.co

Organization: Safehouse

Address: Singapore

Website: https://successrepeated.com/

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/185342
In diesem Report stellen wir Ihnen 3 Top-Aktien aus dem Energie-Sektor vor, die Sie unbedingt auf Ihre Watchlist setzen mussen. Lassen Sie sich diese kostenlose Analyse nicht entgehen!

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.
In diesem Report stellen wir Ihnen 3 Top-Aktien aus dem Energie-Sektor vor, die Sie unbedingt auf Ihre Watchlist setzen mussen. Lassen Sie sich diese kostenlose Analyse nicht entgehen!

BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - Aircraft engine manufacturer MTU Aero Engines AG (MTUAY.PK) Friday reported a loss before interest and taxes of 410 million euros for the 9-month period, compared with earnings of 331 million euros in the same period a year ago. The company said its figures were affected by exceptional charges of about 1 billion euros for the Geared Turbofan inspection program. Excluding one-time items, the company posted adjusted earnings before interest and taxes or EBIT of 597 million euros, higher than 448 million euros last year. MTU Aero Engines incurred a net loss of 312 million euros or 5.86 cents per share for the period compared with net profit of 212 million or 3.97 cents per share in the previous year. Adjusted net income was 438 million euros at end-September, an increase of 37% from last year. Revenue for the 9-month period declined to 3.653 billion euros from 3.818 billion euros a year ago. Adjusted revenue, however, increased to 4.610 billion euros from 3.818 billion euros in the previous year. Copyright(c) 2023 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Triple-Digit Surge Highlights Baden Bower's Innovative Business Model Amidst Industry's Slower Growth

Key Takeaways:

Baden Bower, a global leader in public relations, reports a 685% YoY increase in top-line sales.

The firm's unique publicity model disrupts traditional PR practices.

The global PR market is forecasted to reach $133.82 billion by 2027.

New York, New York--(Newsfile Corp. - October 27, 2023) - In a year when the global PR industry is poised for single-digit growth this year, Baden Bower has surpassed expectations with a 685% YoY revenue surge. This exponential growth is a testament to the firm's disruptive approach in a sector where many traditional agencies hit a cap on their compound annual growth rates.

Baden Bower PR Agency Reports 685% YoY Revenue Growth, Outpacing Industry CAGR of 6%

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Defying the industry's average 2-5% CAGR, Baden Bower's internal data reveals a 685% YoY spike in revenue. The firm attributes this success to its innovative PR model, which is significantly different from incumbents. The firm assures clients spots on major news platforms as part of its unique selling proposition. "Press releases are evolving, not becoming obsolete," says CEO AJ Ignacio. "We back our model with a refund policy that ensures complete protection for our global clientele."

Baden Bower's unique strategy has attracted a diverse clientele, from start-ups to listed companies. With flexible monthly, the firm appeals to a wide array of businesses, including e-commerce businesses and traditional brick-and-mortar retailers.

AJ Ignacio, who serves as both CEO and the head journalist, has played a pivotal force behind the company's upward growth trajectory. With a keen understanding of the rapidly evolving digital landscape, he has steered the firm to become a tech-savvy PR agency that specializes in delivering impactful publicity.

"We're not just another PR agency; we understand the intricate nuances that make publicity effective in today's digital age," Ignacio states emphatically. Under his leadership, the company has expanded its footprint globally, aligning its operations with industry forecasts.

According to market predictions, the global PR market is expected to soar to an impressive $133.82 billion by the year 2027. By strategically positioning the company in international markets, AJ Ignacio ensures that the firm is well-poised to capitalize on this anticipated growth, further solidifying its reputation as a leader in the PR industry.

"We aim to continue disrupting traditional PR models," Ignacio concludes, outlining the firm's ambitious future plans.

About Baden Bower

Baden Bower is a global PR agency specializing in guaranteed placements in top-tier publications and provides global, international media publicity and reach.

Contact Info:

Name: AJ Ignacio

Email: sales@badenbower.com

Organization: Baden Bower

Website: http://www.badenbower.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/185325
BEIJING, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Bank of Communications Financial Leasing Co., Ltd. (BOCOM Leasing), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bank of Communications, has contributed to Belt and Road cooperation through serving the aviation and shipping sector with fruitful results as this year marks the 10th anniversary of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

In the aviation leasing sector, BOCOM Leasing has served 18 aviation customers in Belt and Road countries and regions as of September 2023, with a cumulative placement amount of nearly 30 billion yuan, and the balance of related leasing assets amounting to 23.5 billion yuan. The company has worked closely with Flydubai, Korean Air, Wizz Air, Etihad Airways, among others.

In the field of shipping leasing business, the company has established cooperative relationships with 29 clients such as Pacific International Lines (PIL) from seven Belt and Road countries and regions. BOCOM Leasing has placed nearly 50 billion yuan in shipping projects in Belt and Road countries and regions as of September 2023, with the balance of related shipping leasing assets reaching 40 billion yuan.

In the meantime, the company has actively practiced the concept of green development and increased the financing and delivery of green and low-carbon new technology aircraft models along with the advancing of the high-quality Belt and Road cooperation.

In 2022, BOCOM Leasing realized the delivery of the first aircraft using sustainable bio-jet fuel by a leasing company in China. Its green aircraft proportion reached 41 percent as of the end of September.

In terms of shipping, the company has continued to increase the proportion of environmentally friendly green ship types in its fleet, and has increased the investment in green financing. The six 24,000 TEU container ships delivered this year, for example, adopt new green, energy-efficient technology, which can effectively reduce the total energy consumption of the ships and reduce carbon emissions.

According to the Q2 ranking released by the third-party consulting firm Cirium on global aviation leasing companies, BOCOM Leasing ranked 10th internationally in terms of the size of its aviation leasing assets and the second among domestic leasing companies.

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PARIS, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- At the Broadband World Forum (BBWF) 2023, the Huawei FTTO (Fiber To The Office) solution won the Outstanding POL Use Case Award, which is a testament to how well Huawei's solution has been received by the passive optical LAN (POL) industry.

As carbon neutrality gains more attention worldwide, fiber-in copper-out becomes an ideal choice for enterprise campus networks. Today, it is widely accepted that all-optical campus networks are the foundation for building smart campus networks. As a leader in the all-optical campus network market, in 2018, Huawei launched the FTTO solution. This solution extends optical fibers from extra-low voltage (ELV) rooms to each room, desktop, and device, enabling one optical network to carry all campus applications.

At HUAWEI CONNECT 2023, Huawei launched the FTTO 2.0 solution for campus scenarios. Underpinned by key technologies of XGS-PON Pro and Wi-Fi 7, this solution realizes 12.5G/25G to rooms, 2.5G/10G to access points (APs), and 2.5G to desktops. Compared with the initial FTTO solution, FTTO 2.0 has significant improvements in both performance and functions. For example, it features an ultra-bandwidth and simplified architecture, as well as high quality and high energy efficiency, fully meeting industry customers' requirements for building green 10G campus networks. At Mobile World Congress 2023, Huawei released the industry's first 50G POL prototype.

Huawei's FTTO solution has been put into large-scale commercial use around the world. To date, more than 6000 enterprise customers have chosen the Huawei FTTO solution, covering industries such as education, healthcare, and hospitality. According to IDC's China POL Market Report 2022 H2, Huawei's POL market share in China has ranked No. 1 for four consecutive years.

Gu Yunbo, President of the Enterprise Optical Domain of Huawei Optical Business Product Line, said, "Huawei is committed to providing the most advanced and green optical campus network solutions and products for global enterprise customers. This award won by the Huawei FTTO solution not only proves the excellence of the solution, but is also a testament to Huawei's innovation power and market leadership in the optical campus network field. In the future, Huawei will continue to work with customers and partners to promote the commercial deployment of green 10G optical campus networks with more innovative technologies."

For more information about Huawei FTTO solution, visit:

https://e.huawei.com/en/solutions/enterprise-optical-network/campus-optix

CONTACT: hwebgcomms@huawei.com

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Takayoshi Futae, President & CEO, JCB Co., Ltd.



Panel Discussion by Mr. Chakrabarty, Mr. Mohanty, Mr. Tay, and Mr. Tanaka

TOKYO, Oct 27, 2023 - (JCN Newswire) - JCB Co., Ltd., Japan's leading international payment brand held the 17th JCB World Conference in Okinawa, Japan on October 25 and 26. The conference brought together over 300 participants from 186 companies, primarily JCB Card issuers and merchant acquirers, representing 21 countries and regions.The conference served as a platform for sharing insights on evolving payment technologies through digitalization and business models utilizing Japanese content with partners from various countries and regions. The event was also an opportunity to strengthen partnerships further, especially in Okinawa, a location that showcases the recovery of tourism post the COVID-19 pandemic.The keynote address was delivered by Mr. Joichi Ito, co-founder, board member, and chief architect of Digital Garage, Inc., and President of Chiba Institute of Technology, focusing on "The Emerging web3 World Order.". In Session 1, topics centered around the evolution of payment technology through digitization, featuring speeches by Mr. Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief Fintech Officer of The Monetary Authority of Singapore, and Mr. Joel Tay, CEO of Soft Space Sdn. Bhd, discussing the potential brought by advancements in payment solutions. Session 2 included talks by Mr. Hajime Tabata, CEO of JP UNIVERSE Inc., and Mr. Tim Kuo, President of Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank, on the fusion of gaming and business using Japan's captivating content and card launch examples centered around Japan's themes, sharing insights on business models utilizing Japanese content and JCB's initiatives.About JCB World ConferenceThe conference, held approximately every two years since 1988, aims to share JCB's strategy with partners from around the world and strengthen partnerships further. Previous conferences were held in cities such as Tokyo, Kyoto, Vienna, San Francisco, Bali, Taiwan, and Hawaii. The event was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and was held this year, marking the first time in four years.About JCBJCB is a major global payment brand and a leading credit card issuer and acquirer in Japan. JCB launched its card business in Japan in 1961 and began expanding worldwide in 1981. Its acceptance network includes about 43 million merchants around the world. JCB Cards are issued mainly in Asian countries and territories, with more than 154 million cardmembers. As part of its international growth strategy, JCB has formed alliances with hundreds of leading banks and financial institutions globally to increase its merchant coverage and cardmember base. As a comprehensive payment solution provider, JCB commits to providing responsive and high-quality service and products to all customers worldwide. For more information, please visit: www.global.jcb/en/ContactAyaka NakajimaCorporate CommunicationsTel: +81-3-5778-8353Email: jcb-pr@info.jcb.co.jpThe 17th JCB World Conference ProgramTitle: JCB Strategy "Transforming Payments & JCB"Company Name & Job Title: President and CEO, JCB Co., Ltd. & Chairman, JCB International Co., Ltd.Name: Takayoshi FutaeTitle: Keynote Address "The Emerging web3 World Order"Company Name & Job Title: Co-founder, board member, and chief architect of Digital Garage, Inc.& President of Chiba Institute of TechnologyName: Joichi ItoTheme Session I:Title: Theme Speech "Future of Financial Services"Company Name & Job Title: Chief Fintech Officer, The Monetary Authority of SingaporeName: Sopnendu MohantyTitle: Theme Speech "Contactless - Mobile Payment Technologies of Today and Tomorrow"Company Name & Job Title: CEO, Soft Space Sdn. Bhd.Name: Joel TayTitle: JCB Speech "Creating the Future of Commerce"Company Name & Job Title: Executive Fellow, JCB Co., Ltd.EMVCo Executive Committee memberName: Junya TanakaTheme Session II:Title: Theme Speech "Let's make the world more creative with the power of games"Company Name & Job Title: CEO, JP UNIVERSE Inc.Name: Hajime TabataTitle: Theme Speech "Taiwan Pioneering Credit Cards for Japan Travel - Fubon J Card"Company Name & Job Title: President, Taipei Fubon Commercial BankName: Tim KuoTitle: JCB Speech "JCB Initiatives: Japan as a Destination for Unique Experiences"Company Name & Job Title: President & CEO, JCB International Co., Ltd.Name: Yoshiki KanekoSource: JCBCopyright 2023 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved.
In diesem Report stellen wir Ihnen 3 Top-Aktien aus dem Energie-Sektor vor, die Sie unbedingt auf Ihre Watchlist setzen mussen. Lassen Sie sich diese kostenlose Analyse nicht entgehen!

BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - German stocks were seeing modest gains on Friday as investors assessed the outlook for growth and earnings amid escalating tensions in the Middle East. The benchmark DAX was up 58 points, or 0.4 percent, at 14,789 after losing 1.1 percent in the previous session. The euro traded lower against a basket of major rivals, a day after the European Central Bank kept rates steady as expected. MTU Aero Engines rose about 1 percent after the aircraft-engine manufacturer reported higher adjusted sales and earnings for the third quarter and confirmed guidance for the year. Covestro rallied 2 percent. The plastics and chemicals maker said that it is in talks with suitor Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) over a takeover approach. Copyright(c) 2023 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
PUNE, India, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Infinium Global Research, a prominent player in the field of market research, is thrilled to announce the release of its latest report on the Emergency Department Information System (EDIS) Market. This comprehensive report provides an extensive analysis of segments and sub-segments within the global and regional EDIS market, while shedding light on the impact of key drivers, restraints, and macro indicators over both short-term and long-term perspectives. The report offers a comprehensive presentation of trends, forecasts, and dollar values in the global EDIS market. The global emergency department information system market was valued at USD 835.52 Million in 2022 and is expected to reach USD 2528.59 Million by 2030 and grow at a CAGR of 12.92% over the forecast period.

To Know More Request a Sample of this Report: https://www.infiniumglobalresearch.com/market-reports/sample-request/1380

The Emergency Department Information System Market is a vital component of healthcare information technology, offering specialized software solutions designed to manage and automate the operations of emergency departments in hospitals and healthcare facilities. These software systems are tailored to address the unique requirements and challenges faced by emergency departments, where critical and timely patient care is paramount. EDIS software plays a crucial role in monitoring patients from the moment they arrive at the emergency department, encompassing the recording of patient demographics, chief complaints, and triage status.

EDIS systems often incorporate tools to assist in the triage process, enabling healthcare providers to prioritize patients based on the severity of their conditions. The primary objective of an EDIS is to enhance the efficiency and quality of care in emergency departments, ensuring vital information is readily accessible, streamlining patient care procedures, and enabling accurate and easily accessible documentation. These systems empower healthcare providers to make faster and more well-informed decisions in emergency situations, leading to enhanced patient outcomes.

Drivers and Growth Factors

The EDIS market is driven by the increasing elderly population and a rise in insured individuals, both of which require more frequent healthcare, particularly during emergencies, leading to a surge in emergency department visits. This increased patient load necessitates the adoption of effective EDIS solutions to handle the influx. Moreover, the growth in healthcare expenditure, the widespread use of data-driven technologies, and the enforcement of the HITECH Act after February 2009 in North America are contributing to the expansion of the EDIS market. Rising healthcare costs are often associated with higher patient numbers, driven by factors like aging demographics and the prevalence of chronic diseases, placing greater demands on emergency departments.

The HITECH Act encourages the interoperability of Electronic Health Records (EHR), ensuring that patient data can be efficiently shared and accessed across various healthcare settings, a critical capability during emergencies. However, challenges such as a shortage of skilled healthcare workers, substantial upfront and ongoing costs, and concerns about patient safety may act as barriers to market growth. Nonetheless, the increasing adoption of telemedicine and virtual healthcare services presents promising opportunities for the EDIS market's growth.

Leading Regions and Market Segmentation

North America is expected to maintain the most significant market share in the upcoming forecast period. With a well-developed and advanced healthcare infrastructure, North America provides a strong foundation for the adoption of EDIS solutions. Healthcare organizations in the region are known for their early adoption of innovative technologies to enhance patient care, improve efficiency, and comply with regulatory requirements. Meanwhile, the Asia Pacific (APAC) region emerges as the fastest-growing market. The region's rapidly growing population directly correlates with increased demand for healthcare services, including emergency care.

The report on the global emergency department information system market covers various segments, including application and deployment. Companies profiled in the report include Oracle, EPOWERdoc, MEDHOST, Medical Information Technology, Inc., Medsphere Systems Corporation, The T System, Inc., Wellsoft (acquired by Medsphere Systems Corporation), MCKESSON CORPORATION, evident.com, and Allscripts/Veradigm.

Enquire Here Get Customization & Check the Discount for the Report @ https://www.infiniumglobalresearch.com/market-reports/customization/1380

Table of Content

Chapter 1. Preface

1.1. Report Description

1.2. Research Methods

1.3. Research Approaches

Chapter 2. Executive Summary

2.1. Emergency Department Information System Market Highlights

2.2. Emergency Department Information System Market Projection

2.3. Emergency Department Information System Market Regional Highlights

Chapter 3. Global Emergency Department Information System Market Overview

3.1. Introduction

3.2. Market Dynamics

3.2.1. Drivers

3.2.2. Restraints

3.2.3. Opportunities

3.3. Porter's Five Forces Analysis

3.4. IGR-Growth Matrix Analysis

3.4.1. IGR-Growth Matrix Analysis by Application

3.4.2. IGR-Growth Matrix Analysis by Deployment

3.4.3. IGR-Growth Matrix Analysis by Region

3.5. Value Chain Analysis of Emergency Department Information System Market

Chapter 4. Emergency Department Information System Market Macro Indicator Analysis

Chapter 5. Company Profiles and Competitive Landscape

5.1. Competitive Landscape in the Global Emergency Department Information System Market

5.2. Companies Profiles

5.2.1. Oracle

5.2.2. EPOWERdoc

5.2.3. MEDHOST

5.2.4. Medical Information Technology, Inc.

5.2.5. Medsphere Systems Corporation

5.2.6. The T System, Inc.

5.2.7. Wellsoft (acquired by Medsphere Systems Corporation)

5.2.8. MCKESSON CORPORATION

5.2.9. evident.com

5.2.10. Allscripts/Veradigm

Chapter 6. Global Emergency Department Information System Market by Application

6.1. Computerized Provider Order Entry

6.2. Clinical Documentation

6.3. Patient Tracking & Triage

6.4. E-prescribing

6.5. Others

Chapter 7. Global Emergency Department Information System Market by Deployment

7.1. On-premise

7.2. On Cloud Basis

Chapter 8. Global Emergency Department Information System Market by Region 2023-2030

8.1. North America

8.1.1. North America Emergency Department Information System Market by Application

8.1.2. North America Emergency Department Information System Market by Deployment

8.1.3. North America Emergency Department Information System Market by Country

8.1.3.1. The U.S. Emergency Department Information System Market

8.1.3.1.1. The U.S. Emergency Department Information System Market by Application

8.1.3.1.2. The U.S. Emergency Department Information System Market by Deployment

8.1.3.2. Canada Emergency Department Information System Market

8.1.3.2.1. Canada Emergency Department Information System Market by Application

8.1.3.2.2. Canada Emergency Department Information System Market by Deployment

8.1.3.3. Mexico Emergency Department Information System Market

8.1.3.3.1. Mexico Emergency Department Information System Market by Application

8.1.3.3.2. Mexico Emergency Department Information System Market by Deployment

8.2. Europe

8.2.1. Europe Emergency Department Information System Market by Application

8.2.2. Europe Emergency Department Information System Market by Deployment

8.2.3. Europe Emergency Department Information System Market by Country

8.2.3.1. Germany Emergency Department Information System Market

8.2.3.1.1. Germany Emergency Department Information System Market by Application

8.2.3.1.2. Germany Emergency Department Information System Market by Deployment

8.2.3.2. United Kingdom Emergency Department Information System Market

8.2.3.2.1. United Kingdom Emergency Department Information System Market by Application

8.2.3.2.2. United Kingdom Emergency Department Information System Market by Deployment

8.2.3.3. France Emergency Department Information System Market

8.2.3.3.1. France Emergency Department Information System Market by Application

8.2.3.3.2. France Emergency Department Information System Market by Deployment

8.2.3.4. Italy Emergency Department Information System Market

8.2.3.4.1. Italy Emergency Department Information System Market by Application

8.2.3.4.2. Italy Emergency Department Information System Market by Deployment

8.2.3.5. Rest of Europe Emergency Department Information System Market

8.2.3.5.1. Rest of Europe Emergency Department Information System Market by Application

8.2.3.5.2. Rest of Europe Emergency Department Information System Market by Deployment

8.3. Asia Pacific

8.3.1. Asia Pacific Emergency Department Information System Market by Application

8.3.2. Asia Pacific Emergency Department Information System Market by Deployment

8.3.3. Asia Pacific Emergency Department Information System Market by Country

8.3.3.1. China Emergency Department Information System Market

8.3.3.1.1. China Emergency Department Information System Market by Application

8.3.3.1.2. China Emergency Department Information System Market by Deployment

8.3.3.2. Japan Emergency Department Information System Market

8.3.3.2.1. Japan Emergency Department Information System Market by Application

8.3.3.2.2. Japan Emergency Department Information System Market by Deployment

8.3.3.3. India Emergency Department Information System Market

8.3.3.3.1. India Emergency Department Information System Market by Application

8.3.3.3.2. India Emergency Department Information System Market by Deployment

8.3.3.4. South Korea Emergency Department Information System Market

8.3.3.4.1. South Korea Emergency Department Information System Market by Application

8.3.3.4.2. South Korea Emergency Department Information System Market by Deployment

8.3.3.5. Australia Emergency Department Information System Market

8.3.3.5.1. Australia Emergency Department Information System Market by Application

8.3.3.5.2. Australia Emergency Department Information System Market by Deployment

8.3.3.6. Rest of Asia-Pacific Emergency Department Information System Market

8.3.3.6.1. Rest of Asia-Pacific Emergency Department Information System Market by Application

8.3.3.6.2. Rest of Asia-Pacific Emergency Department Information System Market by Deployment

8.4. RoW

8.4.1. RoW Emergency Department Information System Market by Application

8.4.2. RoW Emergency Department Information System Market by Deployment

8.4.3. RoW Emergency Department Information System Market by Sub-region

8.4.3.1. Latin America Emergency Department Information System Market

8.4.3.1.1. Latin America Emergency Department Information System Market by Application

8.4.3.1.2. Latin America Emergency Department Information System Market by Deployment

8.4.3.2. Middle East Emergency Department Information System Market

8.4.3.2.1. Middle East Emergency Department Information System Market by Application

8.4.3.2.2. Middle East Emergency Department Information System Market by Deployment

8.4.3.3. Africa Emergency Department Information System Market

8.4.3.3.1. Africa Emergency Department Information System Market by Application

8.4.3.3.2. Africa Emergency Department Information System Market by Deployment

More Insights on this report, Speak to Our Analyst: https://www.infiniumglobalresearch.com/market-reports/enquiry/1380

Reasons to Buy this Report:

=> Comprehensive analysis of global as well as regional markets of emergency department information system.

=> Complete coverage of all the product types and application segments to analyze the trends, developments, and forecast of market size up to 2030.

=> Comprehensive analysis of the companies operating in this market. The company profile includes an analysis of the product portfolio, revenue, SWOT analysis, and the latest developments of the company.

=> Infinium Global Research- Growth Matrix presents an analysis of the product segments and geographies that market players should focus on to invest, consolidate, expand, and/or diversify.

About Infinium Global Research:

Infinium Global Research is a business consulting and market research firm; a group of experts that caters to fulfilling business and market research needs of leading companies in various industry verticals and business segments. The company also serves government bodies, institutes, and non-profit/non-government organizations to meet their knowledge and information needs.

Through our information services and solutions, we assist our clients to improve their performance and assess the market conditions to achieve their organizational goals. Our team of experts and analysts are engaged in continuously monitoring and assessing the market conditions to provide knowledge support to our clients. To help our clients and to stay updated with the advances and inventions in technology, business processes, regulations, and the environment, Infinium often conducts regular meets with industry experts and opinion leaders. Our key opinion leaders are involved in monitoring and assessing the progress in the business environment, so as to offer the best opinion to our clients.

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VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / October 27 , 2023 / iMetal Resources Inc. (TSXV:IMR)(OTCQB:IMRFF)(FRANKFURT:A7V) (" iMetal " or the " Company ") is excited to report the discovery of a new gold showing at the Company's Gowganda West project, which lies within the prolific Abitibi Greenstone Gold Belt. Sampling of outcrops located during the recently announced Digitally Enhanced Prospecting (DEP) (See 2023-Sep-26 News Release) has returned 5.58 g/t gold from an outcrop chip sample, among numerous anomalous gold hits.

Saf Dhillon, Chief Executive Officer, stated: "We are thrilled with another new gold discovery in a previously unexplored area at Gowganda West. We recently announced 48.5m of 0.85 g/t Au in hole IMGW-23-04 from a new zone during our Spring drill program, continuing to demonstrate the prospectivity of the Property. Clearly our DEP survey has resulted in an increase of our mineralization footprint, as we had hoped. This and other results will help guide future exploration-targeted drill programs on the Property."

The Company is continuing to review the first batches of results from DEP-aided sampling returned from ALS Laboratories in Sudbury. The sample was reviewed by the Company's VP of Exploration, Scott Zelligan, both in specimen before submittal and in the field upon receipt of the positive result.

Scott Zelligan, P. Geo, VP Exploration, stated: "The 5.58 g/t gold sample is a very positive result lying off-trend to the west from our previous work, in a geologically prospective area. Nearby dikes and a regional fault with associated sheared structures observed in surface outcrop are consistent with mineralization in the area, including Aris Mining's Juby Deposits. Follow-up sampling has been conducted to further assess the area."

Waring Minerals Inc. has been engaged to perform DEP programs at Gowganda West. UAV LiDAR was flown in order to locate outcrops on the property for the purposes of sampling and mapping. The DEP results will be combined with previous IP, VTEM, and drilling results to guide the next stage of exploration which will include follow-up drilling programs. Surface samples have been reviewed by company geologists and select samples have been submitted to ALS Laboratories in Sudbury for analysis.

Gowganda West is an exploration-stage gold project about 100 km south-southeast of Timmins, Ontario; contiguous to Aris Mining's Juby Project in the Shining Tree Camp of the southern part of the Abitibi Greenstone Gold Belt; and also contiguous to the Knight project that is part of the Strategic Partnership between Orecap Invest Corp. and Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. iMetal recently completed a 2,611 m drilling program in the fall of 2022 which intersected a new gold trend and resulted in the company announcing it's first 'Discovery Hole' (See NR dated June 6 th , 2023). The Property also has multiple-ounce grab samples from trends that have yet to be drill tested. iMetal cautions that grab samples are select samples and not necessarily indicative of similar mineralization on the Property.

The scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Scott Zelligan, P. Geo (Ontario), VP Exploration of iMetal and a qualified person as defined in National Instrument 43-101.

Figure 1 - Plan Map of Gowganda West showing Sample Locations and New Interpretations

Table 1 - DEP Sampling Significant Results (NAD83 UTM Zone 17N)

Sample # Easting Northing Au (g/t) F471838 502882 5268834 1.19 F471870 502412 5269931 0.20 F471878 502268 5269331 0.30 F471875 502051 5265295 0.10 F471876 502051 5265295 5.58

Note: all samples are grab samples and the Company cautions grab samples are selective by nature and are not necessarily indicative of similar mineralization on the property. These are the highlight samples from a total of 77 grab sample results received to date.

About iMetal Resources Inc.

iMetal is a Canadian based junior exploration company focused on the exploration and development of its portfolio of resource properties in Ontario and Quebec. The Flagship property Gowganda West, is an exploration-stage gold project with a recent discovery hole of 48.5m at 0.85 g/t gold that borders the Juby Deposit and is located within the Shining Tree Camp area in the southern part of the Abitibi Greenstone Gold Belt about 100 km south-southeast of the Timmins Gold Camp. The 665-hectare Kerrs Gold deposit comprises a series of gold-bearing pyritized quartz vein replacement breccias with a 2011 historic resource, 90 kilometres ENE of Timmins. The 220-hectare Ghost Mountain property, 42 kilometres NE of Kirkland Lake, lies 5 kilometres W of Agnico Eagle's Holt and Holloway Mine.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS ,

Saf Dhillon

President & CEO

iMetal Resources Inc.

info@imetalresources.ca

Tel. (604-484-3031)

Suite 550, 800 West Pender Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6C 2V6.

https://imetalresources.ca

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release may include forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. All statements within, other than statements of historical fact, are to be considered forward looking. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include results of exploration, variations in results of mineralization, relationships with local communities, market prices, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. There can be no assurances that such statements will prove accurate and, therefore, readers are advised to rely on their own evaluation of such uncertainties. We do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required under the applicable laws.

SOURCE: iMetal Resources, Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/796945/imetal-resources-discovers-new-gold-showing-at-gowganda-west
FREYR Battery (NYSE: FREY) ("FREYR"), a developer of clean, next-generation battery cell production capacity, will publish a press release detailing third quarter 2023 results and conduct a conference call on November 9, 2023.

The third quarter 2023 press release will be issued by 6:00 am U.S. Eastern Standard Time (12:00 pm Central European Time). The conference call is scheduled to begin at 8:30 am Eastern Standard Time (2:30 pm Central European Time).

To access the conference call, listeners should contact the conference call operator at the appropriate number listed below approximately 10 minutes prior to the start of the call.

Participant conference call dial-in numbers:

United States (646) 307-1963

United Kingdom +44.20.3481.4247

Norway +47.57.98.94.30

Denmark +45.32.74.07.10

Spain +34.910.489.958

Germany +49.69.589964217

Sweden +46.8.505.246.90

The participant passcode for the call is: 4087726

A webcast of the conference call will be broadcast simultaneously at https://app.webinar.net/5jKboYkzdeO on a listen-only basis. Please log in at least 10 minutes in advance to register and download any necessary software.

A replay of the webcast will be available at https://ir.freyrbattery.com/events-and-presentations/Events-Calendar/default.aspx

About FREYR Battery

FREYR Battery aims to provide industrial scale clean battery solutions to reduce global emissions. Listed on the New York Stock Exchange, FREYR's mission is to produce clean battery cells to accelerate the decarbonization of energy and transportation systems globally. FREYR has commenced building the first of its planned factories in Mo i Rana, Norway and announced potential development of industrial scale battery cell production in the United States. To learn more about FREYR, please visit www.freyrbattery.com

Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

All statements, other than statements of present or historical fact included in this press release, including, without limitation, statements regarding the results of our unit cell testing program; the continuation of our unit cell production; the achievement of forthcoming milestones for process automation; and the timing to commence fully automated production at the CQP are forward looking statements.

These forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the expected results. Most of these factors are outside FREYR's control and are difficult to predict. Additional information about factors that could materially affect FREYR is set forth under the "Risk Factors" section in (i) FREYR's Registration Statement on Form S-3 filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on September 1, 2022 and (ii) FREYR's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022 that was filed with the SEC on February 27, 2023, available on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231027045641/en/

Contacts:

Investor contact:

Jeffrey Spittel

Vice President, Investor Relations

jeffrey.spittel@freyrbattery.com

Tel: (+1) 281-222-0161

Media contact:

Katrin Berntsen

Vice President, Communication, FREYR

katrin.berntsen@freyrbattery.com

Tel: (+47) 920 54 570
All companies, regardless of size or industry, are vulnerable to cyber threats like phishing scams, ransomware attacks, and data breaches, according to Prism Global Group.

LONDON, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- In today's digital age, the threat of cybercrime looms large over businesses and individuals alike. The need for robust cybersecurity solutions has never been more critical as the world becomes increasingly interconnected. To stay ahead of the curve, organisations must take proactive steps to protect their digital assets from malicious attacks.

Most companies that investors are looking at are proactive and vigilant in addressing cybersecurity threats. Cybersecurity must be prioritised, as it serves as an intelligent investment, safeguarding the firm's assets and reputation and ensuring long-term success.

Alev Dover, CEO of Prism Global Group, stated: "Cybersecurity is a significant concern for businesses of all sizes and industries. Threats like data breaches, ransomware, and scams can lead to financial losses, reputation damage, and legal responsibility. Protecting your business against these threats is crucial.

Prism has identified five effective strategies to enhance cybersecurity. When investors look at the company that they wish to invest in, these controls are a helpful list to check against:

1. Is the firm regularly testing their defences and ensuring they are prepared for any possible situation?

As technology advances, the potential for security breaches increases. With each new addition to a company's systems, such as users, applications, devices, and acquisitions, the complexity of cybersecurity grows. Therefore, organisations need a regular process that identifies security gaps, vulnerabilities, and loopholes before they lead to major incidents.

2. How is the firm implementing identity and access management systems?

To keep daily operations running smoothly and protect sensitive information from unauthorised access, it's crucial to have a system that allows for appropriate data access to prevent internal breaches. Data breaches are caused by insider threats like misusing privileged access, weak or stolen passwords, unpatched applications, malware, social engineering, and physical attacks. To protect against both external and internal threats, it's crucial that the firm has a robust data security program in place to safeguard sensitive data.

3. Does the firm conduct regular cybersecurity awareness training?

Equipping employees with cybersecurity knowledge and best practices is essential to defend against phishing and social engineering attacks. Providing education on identifying these types of attacks and understanding what information should not be shared is crucial. Every individual within an organisation can play a significant role in maintaining cybersecurity.

4. What Network Monitoring measures are in place?

Effective network security monitoring services safeguard organisations against potential security threats. By providing constant surveillance, these services enable prompt identification and response to suspicious activities, thus minimising the risk of a significant breach. To ensure maximum protection, it is crucial to have trained professionals monitoring the business network for any unusual behaviour that may indicate a potential attack.

5. Who at the firm is responsible for device discovery & continuous policy enforcement?

To improve network security, teams can identify and evaluate endpoints for vulnerabilities. If any issues are found, steps can be taken to address them, such as separating insecure endpoints from the rest of the network, and the problem can be quickly discovered and fixed if a resource violates established security policies. Newly installed devices that match a particular device profile with an active policy are also automatically protected.

Dover concluded: 'From reading industry research and talking with our investment networks we can conclude that significant cybersecurity breaches cause material, short term declines in stock price and market share. These analyses are based on reviewing publicly disclosed breaches and tracking stock price post-breach.

Our company's equity investment platform and products are highly secure in terms of cybersecurity. This assurance enables us to instil confidence for all our clients and the financial markets when they make long-term investment decisions. We maintain strict controls that undergo regular reviews to ensure the utmost security.

Notes to editors

About Prism Global Group

Prism Global Group is an innovator of a new equity orientated financial infrastructure.

The company was established in Sydney and has expanded its international footprint under CEO Alev Dover. PRISM moved its global HQ to London in 2022.

This disclaimer is for Prism Global Group Plc (Reg No: 14476793), Prism Global Group Ltd (ACN 630 730 415), Prism Global (UKEUR) Ltd (Reg No 13579812), Prism Operations Australia Pty Ltd (ACN650 476 378) and Prism Securities Australia Ltd (ACN 650 488 136) and any other associated entities referred to collectively as 'Prism'.

Prism Operations Australia Pty Ltd is a Corporate Authorised Representative (authorised representative number: 1292289) of Sanlam Private Wealth Pty Ltd ("Sanlam") which is the holder of an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFS Licence No. 337927).

Prism Global (UKEUR) Ltd (FRN: 999737) is an Appointed Representative of Sapia Partners LLP which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN: 550103) as an arranger for investments only. For avoidance of doubt, Prism Global (UKEUR) Limited does not manufacture or issue investments, and only arranges for deals in investments issued by Prism Group companies.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/top-5-questions-to-cover-on-cybercrime-when-looking-at-equity-investing-301970038.html
TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / October 27, 2023 / Predictmedix AI Inc. (CSE:PMED)(OTCQB:PMEDF)(FRA:3QP) (the "Company" or "Predictmedix"), has just returned from a fruitful month of international endeavors, during which the company achieved significant milestones in corporate development.

Throughout its overseas venture, Predictmedix AI has made remarkable strides, reinforcing its commitment to innovation and excellence. These advancements encompass various domains and include:

Strategic Alliances: Predictmedix AI has initiated multiple partnerships designed to drive business development across diverse verticals, with a strong focus on the healthcare sector. These partnerships are poised to redefine how AI-driven solutions impact the industry and beyond.

Government Collaborations: Building on its commitment to regulatory alignment and government initiatives, Predictmedix AI has established vital partnerships with key government organizations to promote innovation and compliance.

Enhanced Healthcare Engagement: During its overseas tenure, Predictmedix AI continued to deepen its engagement within the healthcare sector, demonstrating its ongoing dedication to transforming patient care and diagnosis using state-of-the-art AI technologies.

Diversified Opportunities: Predictmedix AI has explored new opportunities in non-healthcare verticals, further expanding its footprint and leveraging its AI expertise to contribute to various industries.

Key Talent Acquisition: The company has recruited key individuals with exceptional skills and experience, strategically enhancing the team to accelerate business development efforts.

Certifications for Healthcare: In response to client requirements for commercial orders, Predictmedix AI is actively pursuing Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) certifications to ensure the quality and compliance of its healthcare solutions.

Dr. Rahul Kushwah, COO of Predictmedix AI, expressed his enthusiasm: "Our overseas campaign has provided a unique platform to reaffirm our unwavering commitment to innovation, regulatory alignment, and the relentless pursuit of excellence, including many confidential discussions and arrangements. As situations continue to evolve, we will make appropriate disclosures."

Predictmedix AI is also pleased to confirm the company has established a corporate address in the San Francisco, USA.

These corporate developments emphasize Predictmedix AI's mission to revolutionize AI applications across various verticals, establishing the company as a global leader in advanced AI technologies.

The Company has also entered into agreements with two consultants who have provided services to the Company related to the development of the Company's technologies. As consideration for the services, the Company will issue 1,000,000 common shares to each consultant, for a total issuance of 2,000,000 common shares.

About Predictmedix AI Inc.

Predictmedix AI Inc. (CSE:PMED)(OTCQB:PMEDF)(FRA:3QP) is an emerging provider of rapid health screening and remote patient care solutions globally. The Company's Safe Entry Stations - powered by a proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) - use multispectral cameras to analyze physiological data patterns and predict a variety of health issues including 19 physiological vital parameters, impairment by drugs or alcohol, fatigue, or various mental illnesses. Predictmedix AI's proprietary remote patient care platform empowers medical professionals with a suite of AI-powered tools to improve patient health outcomes. To learn more, please visit our website at www.Predictmedix.com or follow us on Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn.

Public Relations Contact

For further media information or to set up an interview, please contact:

Nelson Hudes

Communications International (905) 660 9155

Nelson@hudescommunications.com

Dr. Rahul Kushwah (647) 889 6916

Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Information:

This news release may contain forward-looking statements and information based on current expectations. These statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results of the Company. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those implied by such statements. Although such statements are based on management's reasonable assumptions, there can be no assurance that such assumptions will prove to be correct. We assume no responsibility to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances. The Company's securities have not been registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or applicable state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold to, or for the account or benefit of, persons in the United States or "U.S. Persons", as such term is defined in Regulations under the U.S. Securities Act, absent registration or an applicable exemption from such registration requirements. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in the United States or any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. Additionally, there are known and unknown risk factors which could cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any Page 4 of 4 future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information contained herein, such as, but not limited to dependence on obtaining regulatory approvals; the ability to obtain intellectual property rights related to its technology; limited operating history; general business, economic, competitive, political, regulatory and social uncertainties, and in particular, uncertainties related to COVID-19; risks related to factors beyond the control of the Company, including risks related to COVID-19; risks related to the Company's shares, including price volatility due to events that may or may not be within such party's control; reliance on management; and the emergency of additional competitors in the industry.

All forward-looking information herein is qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement, and the Company disclaims any obligation to revise or update any such forward-looking information or to publicly announce the result of any revisions to any of the forward-looking information contained herein to reflect future results, events or developments, except required by law.

Disclaimer: "The Company is not making any express or implied claims that its product has the ability to diagnose, eliminate, cure or contain the COVID-19 (or SARS-2 Coronavirus) at this time.

THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE HAS NOT REVIEWED NOR DOES IT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

SOURCE: Predictmedix AI Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/797015/predictmedix-ai-accelerates-corporate-expansion-during-month-long-international-campaign
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - October 27, 2023) - Mindset Pharma Inc. (CSE: MSET) (FSE: 9DF) (OTCQB: MSSTF) ("Mindset" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that further to its press releases of August 31, 2023, September 22, 2023 and October 19, 2023, Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. ("Otsuka"), through its wholly-owned subsidiary Otsuka America, Inc. ("OAI") has acquired all of the issued and outstanding common shares (each, a "Common Share") in the capital of the Company pursuant to an arrangement (the "Arrangement") under Division 5 of Part 9 of the Business Corporations Act (British Columbia) carried out pursuant to an arrangement agreement dated August 31, 2023, between the Company, OAI and 1435816 B.C. Ltd. (the "Arrangement Agreement").

Pursuant to the terms and conditions of the Arrangement Agreement, all holders of outstanding Common Shares are entitled to receive CA$0.75 in cash for each Common Share held immediately prior to the effective time of the Arrangement.

As previously announced, the Arrangement was approved by shareholders of the Company at its special meeting of shareholders held on October 19, 2023 and by the Supreme Court of British Columbia on October 25, 2023.

All registered shareholders of the Company must complete, sign, date and return the letter of transmittal, which has been previously mailed and is available under the Company's SEDAR+ profile at www.sedarplus.ca with accompanying Common Share certificate(s) and DRS advice-statement(s), as applicable, to Computershare Investor Services Inc. as soon as possible, if they have not already done so. Non-registered shareholders should contact their broker or other intermediary for instructions and assistance in receiving the consideration in respect of their Common Shares.

With the completion of the Arrangement, the Common Shares will be delisted from the Canadian Securities Exchange on October 27, 2023 and from the OTCQB Venture Market and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange shortly thereafter. The Company has applied to cease to be a reporting issuer under applicable Canadian securities laws.

About Mindset Pharma Inc.

Mindset Pharma Inc. is a drug discovery and development company focused on creating optimized and patentable best-in-class innovative next-generation psychedelic medicines to treat neurological and psychiatric disorders with unmet needs. Mindset was established in order to develop next-generation pharmaceutical assets that leverage the breakthrough therapeutic potential of psychedelic drugs. Mindset is developing several novel families of next-generation psychedelic compounds, as well as an innovative process to chemically synthesize psilocybins in addition to its own proprietary compounds. The company has had a co-development agreement with the MSRD, a member of the Otsuka Pharmaceutical family of companies, covering multiple drug development programs. For further information on Mindset, please visit our website at www.mindsetpharma.com.

For further information on Mindset, please visit our website at www.mindsetpharma.com.

For more information, please contact:

Company Contact:

James Lanthier, CEO

Email: jlanthier@mindsetpharma.com

Jason Atkinson, Corporate Development

Email: jatkinson@mindsetpharma.com

Phone: 416-479-4094



Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this news release constitute forward-looking information under applicable Canadian, United States and other applicable securities laws, rules and regulations, including, without limitation, statements with respect to the delisting of Common Shares from the CSE, OTCQB and FSE and the Company's application to cease to be a reporting issuer. These statements relate to future events or future performance. The use of any of the words "could", "intend", "expect", "believe", "will", "projected", "estimated" and similar expressions and statements relating to matters that are not historical facts are intended to identify forward-looking information and are based on Mindset's current beliefs or assumptions as to the outcome and timing of such future events. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as Mindset's actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from Mindset's expectations include risk factors as detailed from time to time and additional risks identified in Mindset's filings with Canadian securities regulators on SEDAR+ in Canada (available at www.sedarplus.ca). Various assumptions or factors are typically applied in drawing conclusions or making the forecasts or projections set out in forward-looking information. Those assumptions and factors are based on information currently available to Mindset. The forward-looking information contained in this news release is made as of the date hereof and Mindset undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. Because of the risks, uncertainties and assumptions contained herein, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The foregoing statements expressly qualify any forward-looking information contained herein.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/185365
5/5/5 Benchmark emphasizes the need to detect, triage, and respond to attacks at cloud speed

SANS CyberFest 2023 - Sysdig, the leader in cloud security powered by runtime insights, today released at SANS CyberFest 2023 the 5/5/5 Benchmark for Cloud Detection and Response, a new framework that outlines how quickly organizations should detect, triage, and respond to attacks in the cloud. Operating securely in the cloud requires a mindset shift in regard to time, and with that, cloud security programs need to hold themselves to a modernized benchmark: five seconds to detect, five minutes to correlate insights and understand what's happening, and five additional minutes to respond. Recent findings by the Sysdig Threat Research Team published in the 2023 Global Cloud Threat Report note that, after discovering an exploitable target, malicious actors require less than 10 minutes to execute an attack.

Download the 5/5/5 Benchmark for Cloud Detection and Response.

Cloud attacks are swift and sophisticated, requiring robust threat detection and response programs that move at the speed of the cloud. On-premises attacks take 16 days on average and antiquated frameworks challenge security teams to respond to a breach within 60 minutes, which is simply insufficient for the cloud. Bad actors are exploiting the automation and scale of the cloud, along with new techniques, to accelerate all stages of an attack and inflict damage within minutes. The 5/5/5 Benchmark guides organizations to detect and respond to cloud attacks faster than adversaries can complete them.

The Challenge

Detect threats within five seconds. Organizations should be able to gather detection signals from their cloud security tools in real time to ensure visibility into ephemeral assets.

Organizations should be able to gather detection signals from their cloud security tools in real time to ensure visibility into ephemeral assets. Correlate and triage within five minutes. Teams should be able to gather full context for all correlated signals within five minutes of receiving the first relevant alert.

Teams should be able to gather full context for all correlated signals within five minutes of receiving the first relevant alert. Initiate a response within five minutes. Organizations should be able to initiate a tactical response within five minutes of confirming that an attack is in progress.

What people are saying

"People are always looking for security metrics, especially when the industry evolves into new operating models. We have plenty of 'best practices,' but no real way to quantify cloud security agility until now," said Anna Belak, Director, Office of Cybersecurity Strategy at Sysdig. "The 5/5/5 Benchmark, built in partnership with our customers, industry analysts, and the Sysdig Threat Research Team, sets a new standard for operating securely in the cloud."

"As organizations move to the cloud, traditional on-premises security standards become outdated and too slow. In the cloud, both innovation and attacks happen quickly companies need security tools, processes, and standards designed to operate at the speed of cloud-native environments," said Phil Bues, Research Manager for IDC Cloud Security.

"I don't want to know 15 minutes after someone breached my system. I need to know instantly so that we can shut it down before the blast radius expands," said Kuldeep Tomar, Head of Information Security at India's leading digital skill games company and 5/5/5 Benchmark Advisor. "To move at the necessary speed, you need to not only be alerted to the right things, but also respond appropriately. Having a benchmark gives us a goal to hold ourselves to."

About Sysdig

In the cloud, every second counts. Attacks move at warp speed, and security teams must protect the business without slowing it down. Sysdig stops cloud attacks in real time, instantly detecting changes in risk with runtime insights and open source Falco. Sysdig correlates signals across cloud workloads, identities, and services to uncover hidden attack paths and prioritize real risk. From prevention to defense, Sysdig helps enterprises focus on what matters: innovation. Sysdig. Secure Every Second.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231027763025/en/

Contacts:

Damon Weinhold

damon.weinhold@sysdig.com
EQS-News: Marley Spoon Group SE / Key word(s): Corporate Action

Marley Spoon Group SE: Lodgment of Prospectus for Subsequent Direct Tender Offer to remaining CDI holders of Marley Spoon SE



27.10.2023 / 13:04 CET/CEST

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.





Berlin/Luxembourg, 27 October 2023: Marley Spoon Group SE ("MSG") announces that MSG has today lodged with the Australian Securities and Investment Commission ("ASIC") its prospectus relating to the Subsequent Direct Tender Offer for the acquisition of Marley Spoon CDIs from the remaining CDI holders of Marley Spoon SE ("Marley Spoon"), an 84.54% subsidiary of MSG and leading global subscription-based solutions provider for home cooking, as foreshadowed by MSG in the context of the Business Combination with Marley Spoon on April 25, 2023.

The offer for the Subsequent Direct Tender Offer is expected to open after the exposure period for the prospectus, which will end on 3 November 2023, unless extended by ASIC by up to a further seven days.

Opening of the Subsequent Direct Tender Offer will be announced by MSG in line with applicable laws and legislation.

For further information, please visit: https://ir.marleyspoongroup.com/

Investor Inquiries:

ir@marleyspoon.com

Marley Spoon Group SE

9, rue de Bitbourg

L-1273 Luxembourg



About Marley Spoon

Marley Spoon Group SE, through its subsidiary Marley Spoon SE, is a global direct-to-consumer (DTC) meal-kit company. Our Vision is to "Build a better everyday, just for you, just right". We started Marley Spoon in 2014 to help our customers to cook for their families and deal with their busy lives. We also felt there should be a more sustainable way to cook at home, reducing food waste that traditional supermarket supply chains generate. Marley Spoon currently operates various brands in three regions: Australia, the United States, and Europe (Austria, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands). Our meal-kit brands, Marley Spoon, Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon, and Dinnerly, bring pre-portioned fresh ingredients with tasty and simple recipes and other eating solutions reliably to our customers every week. Our customers just decide what to eat, when to eat, and leave behind the hassle of grocery shopping. Chefgood is our direct-to-consumer ready-to-heat (RTH) service that offers premium-priced, high-quality, healthy, and nutritious RTH meals and eating solutions for our wellness and health-focused customers.

Important Notices

This announcement does not constitute an offer or invitation to accept any securities. Securities offered under the prospectus are public shares in MSG. A copy of the prospectus will be available to Marley Spoon CDI holders at ir.marleyspoongroup.com. Offers of those securities will be made in, or accompanied by, a copy of the prospectus. Marley Spoon CDI holders should consider the prospectus in deciding whether to acquire the securities. Any Marley Spoon CDI holders who want to acquire the securities will need to complete an application form that will be in or will accompany the prospectus. Participation in the Subsequent Direct Tender Offer may be restricted for Marley Spoon CDI holders in certain jurisdictions.

27.10.2023 CET/CEST Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by EQS News - a service of EQS Group AG.

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.



The EQS Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases.

Archive at www.eqs-news.com


PRESSRELEASE

AC Immune Clinical Data Published in Nature Communications Show Alpha-Synuclein PET Tracer ACI-12589 Has Potential as Neurodegenerative Disease Diagnostic

ACI-12589 1 delivers the first element of a precision medicine approach by enabling early and accurate diagnosis of a-syn pathology in certain diseases

delivers the first element of a precision medicine approach by enabling early and accurate diagnosis of a-syn pathology in certain diseases Clinical trial of ACI-12589 showed a specific and reproducible retention pattern in patients with MSA, a rare and difficult-to-diagnose neurodegenerative disease

ACI-12589 promises to catalyze accelerated development and targeted treatment of MSA and other a-synucleinopathies such as genetic Parkinson's disease (PD)





Lausanne, Switzerland, October 27, 2023 - AC Immune SAshowing the ability of an alpha-synuclein (a-syn) positron emission tomography (PET) tracer to identify patients with multiple system atrophy (MSA).

The clinical trial of AC Immune's wholly owned experimental a-syn PET tracer ACI-12589 was led by the team of Oskar Hansson MD, PhD, at Lund University and Skane University Hospital, in collaboration with associates at InviCRO LLC, with the support of a grant from The Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) for Parkinson's Research.

The Nature Communications paper describes the first-in-human trial of ACI-12589 comparing healthy control subjects to patients with a-synucleinopathies and other neurological diagnoses. It concludes that ACI-12589 showed a specific and reproducible retention pattern in patients with MSA, indicating that the PET tracer could enable earlier, more accurate diagnosis of MSA and potentially, more precise monitoring of disease progression and responses to new a-syn targeted therapeutics in development.

Dr. Andrea Pfeifer, CEO of AC Immune SA, commented: "We are proud to have this paper showing the first-ever live images of a-syn in a living human brain published in the prestigious peer-reviewed journal, Nature Communications. The data demonstrate that ACI-12589 could be an important diagnostic tool to identify, characterize and track the progression of a-syn pathology in MSA and evaluate the impact of therapeutic interventions. As the first imaging agent for a-syn, ACI-12589 represents a major step towards achieving AC Immune's ambition of developing precision medicine for neurodegenerative diseases. We are grateful to our talented collaborators at Lund University and Skane University Hospital and the MJFF for its continuing support for this important work."

Dr. Marie Kosco-Vilbois, Chief Scientific Officer of AC Immune, added: "Accurately detecting a-syn in the living brains of patients is paramount, particularly in view of the challenges of diagnosing the serious diseases related to pathological a-synuclein aggregates. We are encouraged by this first success in MSA and look forward to expanding the potential clinical applications of this tracer, and others emerging from the AC Immune platform."

1 For PET imaging, ACI-12589 is radiolabeled with 18F, denoted as [18F]ACI-12589

About AC Immune's a-synuclein PET tracer program

AC Immune is currently evaluating the use of [18F]ACI-12589 in longitudinal studies for MSA, and for the detection of a-syn in other diseases such as genetic PD. Further building on this success, the Company is developing additional a-syn PET tracers for Parkinson's disease (PD) using its Morphomer technology platform. It is anticipated that these will enter clinical development in the very near future.

AboutACImmuneSA

AC Immune SA is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that aims to become a global leader in precision medicine for neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and NeuroOrphan indications driven by misfolded proteins. The Company's two clinically validated technology platforms, SupraAntigen and Morphomer, fuel its broad and diversified pipeline of first- and best-in-class assets, which currently features sixteen therapeutic and diagnostic programs, five of which are currently in Phase 2 clinical trials and one of which is in Phase 3. AC Immune has a strong track record of securing strategic partnerships with leading global pharmaceutical companies including Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, Eli Lilly and Company, and others, resulting in substantial non-dilutive funding to advance its proprietary programs and >$3 billion in potential milestone payments.

SupraAntigen is a registered trademark of AC Immune SA in the following territories: AU, EU, CH, GB, JP, RU, SG and USA. Morphomer is a registered trademark of AC Immune SA in CN, CH, GB, JP, KR, NO and RU.

The information on our website and any other websites referenced herein is expressly not incorporated by reference into, and does not constitute a part of, this press release.

Forfurtherinformation,pleasecontact:





Head of Investor Relations & Corporate Communications

Gary Waanders, Ph.D., MBA

AC Immune

Phone: +41 21 345 91 91

Email: gary.waanders@acimmune.com (mailto:gary.waanders@acimmune.com)





U.S. Investors

Corey Davis, Ph.D.

LifeSci Advisors

Phone: +1 212 915 2577

Email: cdavis@lifesciadvisors.com (mailto:cdavis@lifesciadvisors.com)





International Media

Chris Maggos

Cohesion Bureau

Phone: +41 79 367 6254

Email: chris.maggos@cohesionbureau.com (mailto:chris.maggos@cohesionbureau.com)































Forwardlookingstatements

This press release contains statements that constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Forward-looking statements are statements other than historical fact and may include statements that address future operating, financial or business performance or AC Immune's strategies or expectations. In some cases, you can identify these statements by forward-looking words such as "may," "might," "will," "should," "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "projects," "potential," "outlook" or "continue," and other comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs and involve significant risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, developments and business decisions to differ materially from those contemplated by these statements. These risks and uncertainties include those described under the captions "Item 3. Key Information - Risk Factors" and "Item 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects" in AC Immune's Annual Report on Form 20-F and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward- looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and AC Immune does not undertake any obligation to update them in light of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable law. All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement.

Attachment
TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Sungrow, the global leading inverter and energy storage system supplier, introduced its latest innovative solar-plus-storage renewable energy solutions covering utility-scale, C&I and residential scenarios during Uzenergy Expo 2023.

As one of the largest producers and sellers of fossil energy in Central Asia, Uzbekistan is taking active actions to eliminate fossil energy in domestic food and move towards a future-oriented path of sustainable energy development. The Uzbek government has decided to increase the proportion of domestic sustainable energy in total energy supply sources from the current 8% to 25% by 2030. Sungrow hopes to accelerate Uzbekistan's energy transition with its innovative products and solutions.

Innovative technologies to support utility-scale solar power plants' development

Sungrow showed the "1+X" modular inverter and SG320HX-20 string inverter during the expo. It is noted that the "1+X" modular inverter is an innovative product that combines the advantages of central and string inverters. The modular inverter combining eight units can provide a capacity of 1.1 MW per unit and a maximum capacity of 8.8 MW, creating a flexible configuration in complex scenarios.

For energy storage systems, the new generation of PowerTitan attracted audiences' attention. It is a professional integration of Sungrow's power electronics, electrochemistry, and power grid support technologies. PowerTitan 2.0 adopts a higher density of 314Ah, with 5MWh batteries housed in 20-ft container, making energy storage more efficient and safer. Impressively, PowerTitan has already secured global contracts exceeding 13GWh.

Comprehensive solutions with power optimizer to expand C&I clean power utilization

In the process of vigorously developing renewable energy in Uzbekistan, the energy transition of industrial parks and commercial buildings is an important part. Sungrow offers a full range of renewable energy solutions for the C&I sector, including the SG125CX-P2&SG25-50CX-P2 string inverters, the PowerStack ESS, the SP600S power optimizer and the digital O&M platform iSolarCloud. With an all-inclusive solution, commercial and industrial buildings can systematically harness clean energy.

User-friendly residential solutions offer a novel home energy option

Traditional households mainly use grid electricity, but clean energy has become an increasingly popular choice for households. Sungrow's 3-6kW hybrid and 2-20kW on-grid inverters and SBH batteries can meet families' diverse demands. Also compatible with power optimizers and iSolarCloud, Sungrow's cutting-edge residential solutions are ultra-safe, highly efficient, easy to install and manage. When there is a power outage, it can seamlessly switch to solar power stored in the batteries within 10ms. And an appliance-level design ensures the safety and noise-free life of your family.

During the expo, the "Sunity Night: Green Power For All" ceremony, hosted by Sungrow and Get Green Energy Trade, was a resounding success in Tashkent. Alimukhameddov Aziz Khusanovich, Director of the National Research Institute for Renewable Energy Sources under the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Uzbekistan was invited to deliver the opening speech. Government officials, Tashkent State University of Economics and Tashkent State Technical University participated in the panel discussion to share insights about the sustainable economy.

"Uzbekistan's enormous potential for clean energy development is evident. With 26 years of industry experience and cutting-edge technology at our disposal, Sungrow has won 2.4GW of contracts in Uzebekistan this year. Sungrow will always commit to providing top-tier renewable energy products and customized services for Uzbekistan. Moreover, we place great importance on fostering strong partnerships with local companies. As of now, we've established a promising collaboration with the local distributor, Get Green Energy Trade LLC, and we look forward to working hand in hand for the future development of renewable energy in Uzbekistan," said Sophia Zhang, Head of Sungrow Central Asia.

About Sungrow

Sungrow Power Supply Co., Ltd. ("Sungrow") is the world's most bankable inverter brand with over?405?GW installed worldwide as of?June?2023. Founded in 1997 by University Professor Cao Renxian, Sungrow is a leader in the research and development of solar inverters with the largest dedicated R&D team in the industry and a broad product portfolio offering PV inverter solutions and energy storage systems for utility-scale, commercial & industrial, and residential applications, as well as internationally recognized floating PV plant solutions, NEV driving solutions, EV charging solutions and renewable hydrogen production systems. With a strong 26-year track record in the PV space, Sungrow products power over 150 countries worldwide.?For more information about Sungrow, visit www.sungrowpower.com.

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UK tech boss warns that banks must stop repeating common errors if they are to meet their digital goals

CAMBRIDGE, England, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Zenoo CEO Stuart Watkins has warned that banks are repeating the same mistakes in digital transformation at a crucial time for the industry.

Companies like TransUnion, Experian and Refinitiv have Zenoo's platform embedded in their service offering and CEO Watkins is warning that many banks are still failing in three essential key areas by failing to understand evolving customer expectations; failing to use local expertise to navigate different markets and their particular customer expectations; and failing to adequately communicate the necessity of collecting extensive customer information - leading to mistrust and application abandonment.

At the forefront of these three key issues is the onboarding process which represents every new customer's first full digital interaction with the bank.

Watkins says: "The primary problem banks will face if they get digital transformation wrong is the potential loss of customers and market share. Consumers are becoming more willing to switch providers if they encounter friction in the onboarding process and we know the industry has a major issue with abandonment rates. Banks must ensure that the digital onboarding process is user-friendly, efficient, and effectively communicates the necessity of data collection. The whole process has to be efficient and straightforward for customers."

Integration with existing electronic identification methods and offering customers choices for identification are also essential components of success as banking has a unique regulatory environment with compliance requirements, especially in the context of KYC (Know Your Customer) and AML (Anti Money Laundering) regulations, demanding thorough identity and background checks.

This all results in a more complex and data-intensive onboarding process compared to many other industries.

Watkins adds: "Consumer expectations for digital experiences in banking are exceptionally high, necessitating a delicate balance between innovation and compliance. Banking has to get this right and right now."

About Zenoo

Zenoo specialises in the remote onboarding of customers for international companies to help them improve their conversion rates, breaking down barriers and making it easier for their customers to open accounts online.

Visit partner.zenoo.com for further information.

Media enquiries

Contact Bruce Ackland on +44 7884 076548 or email backland@wavelengthgroup.com

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/banks-making-the-same-mistakes-with-digital-transformation-301970086.html
Nextech3D.ai is Leveraging its Relationship with Amazon to Bring Select Customers Onto Seller Central

TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / October 27, 2023 / Nextech3D.AI (OTCQX:NEXCF)(CSE:NTAR)(FSE:EP2), a Generative AI-Powered 3D model supplier for Amazon, P&G, Kohls and other major e-commerce retailers has signed an expansion 3D modeling contract with Vornado Air LLC, a leading American company that specializes in manufacturing and marketing air circulators, air purifiers, heaters, and humidifiers. Nextech3D.ai was given select access to Amazon's seller central to bring certain customers' 3D product models onto the Amazon e-commerce marketplace. The Company is pleased to leverage its 3D modeling expertise in support of both Amazon and its valued customers, and sees significant growth potential with both.

Vornado Air LLC is a repeat 3D model customer, who has signed and completed 5 expansion contracts for additional 3D models with the Company. Nextech3D.ai has created over 100 models for Vornado Air thus far, all of which are live on Amazon and on the Vornado website. Vornado Air has also requested the creation of additional 3D models which are exclusive products for Costco and Best Buy.



This deal builds upon yesterday's significant announcement that Nextech3D.ai signed an enterprise 3D modeling contract with Kabbani Furniture, considered the number one furniture seller and manufacturer in Egypt.

As previously stated, Nextech3D.ai is a 3D model supplier for Amazon, as the e-commerce giant is in full swing in the transition from static 2D product images to 3D models.

In an article titled "5 Technology Predictions for 2023 and Beyond", Peter Vogels (Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Amazon) made a bold statement about 3D models and the future of e-commerce. "Static 2D product images on the internet will become a thing of the past, replaced by 3D models that you can pick up, rotate, and place in your living room as seamlessly as you can see them in a web browser today."

Nextech3D.ai is making it possible to create photo-realistic 3D models as digital replicas of real-world products at scale for large enterprise customers and e-commerce giants like Amazon in the global $5.5 trillion dollar e-commerce market

Try it yourself - Existing Vornado 3D product Models on Amazon

Open the link, click the 3D product model to spin and rotate. Open on your mobile device to view it in your space with augmented reality.

Vornado MVH Vortex Heater

https://www.amazon.com/Vornado-Whole-Vortex-Heater-Black/dp/B00MB4BQ0G?th=1

Vornado Velocity 1 Personal Space Heater

https://www.amazon.com/Vornado-Velocity-Humidifier-Notification-Capacity/dp/B08B44MWW8

Vornado AVH10 Vortex Heater

https://www.amazon.com/Vornado-AVH10-Vortex-Heater-with-Auto-Climate-Control

Vornado Velocity 3R Whole Room Space Heater

https://www.amazon.com/Vornado-Velocity-Humidifier-Notification-Capacity

About Vornado

Vornado Air LLC is a leading American company that specializes in manufacturing and marketing air circulators, air purifiers, heaters, and humidifiers. Founded in 1989, Vornado has been dedicated to improving indoor air quality through its innovative and high-quality products that provide efficient and effective air circulation, filtration, heating, and humidification.Vornado's commitment to providing quality products has made it a well-respected brand in the air quality industry and a go-to for those seeking to improve their indoor air quality. Learn more: https://www.vornado.com/home

Recent News

Nextech3D.ai Signs New 3D Modeling Contract with Top Luxury Furniture Company Kabbani Furniture

Nextech3D.ai Launches Augmented Reality Games In Its New AR Powered Mobile App for Trade Show Organizers

Nextech3D.ai Launches Revolutionary Augmented Reality Wayfinding Mobile App For Trade Shows and Event Organizers

Nextech3D.ai Provides Business Updates On Its Business Units Powered by ?AI, 3D, AR, ?and ML

Sign up for Investor News and Info -Click Here

About Nextech3D.ai

Nextech3D.ai or the "Company," (OTCQX:NEXCF)(CSE:NTAR)(FSE:EP2), is a versatile augmented reality and AI technology company that utilizes its proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) to craft immersive 3D experiences at scale for E-COMMERCE. The Company's primary focus lies in creating high-quality 3D WebAR photorealistic models for Amazon and various other online retailers. Nextech3D.ai has adopted a unique approach to creating shareholder value beyond its operating business of creating 3D models.

The Company also develops or acquires disruptive AI-technologies, which are subsequently spun out to shareholders as standalone public companies. This spin-out strategy allows Nextech3D.ai to issue stock dividends to its shareholders while maintaining significant ownership in the public spin-out, without dilution to the parent company Nextech3D.ai.

Notably, Nextech3D.ai successfully spun out "ARway," (OTCQB:ARWYF)(CSE:ARWY)(FSE:E65 ) its spatial computing platform, as a standalone public company on October 26, 2022. The Company retains a 49% stake with 13 million shares in ARway Corp. while distributing 4 million shares to Nextech shareholders.

Similarly, Nextech3D.ai accomplished its second spin-out launching Toggle3D.ai, (OTCQB:TGGLF)(CSE:TGGL)(FSE:Q0C ) an AI-powered 3D design studio aimed at competing with Adobe. The Company retains a 44% stake with 13 million shares in Toggle3D.ai Corp.

To learn more, please follow us on Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook, or visit our website: https://www.Nextechar.com.

For further information, please contact:

Investor Relations Contact

Julia Viola

investor.relations@nextechar.com

Nextech3D.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. Nextech 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: Nextech3D.ai

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/796931/nextech3dai-signs-3d-model-expansion-contract-with-vornado-air-llc-bringing-its-3d-models-onto-amazons-seller-central
PolyMet's Unconflicted Board of Directors recommends Minority Shareholders vote FOR the Arrangement

Both leading independent proxy advisors, ISS and Glass Lewis, recommend shareholders vote in favor of the transaction

Shareholders are encouraged to vote in advance of the proxy deadline on October 30, 2023, at 12:00 p.m. (Eastern Time)

Shareholders who have questions or need assistance with voting their shares can contact Laurel Hill Advisory Group at 1-877-452-7184 or by e-mail at assistance@laurelhill.com

St. Paul, Minnesota--(Newsfile Corp. - October 27, 2023) - PolyMet Mining Corp. (TSX: POM) (NYSE American: PLM) ("PolyMet" or the "Company") is reminding shareholders to vote FOR the plan of arrangement (the "Arrangement") with Glencore AG ("Glencore") whereby, among other things, Glencore will acquire the approximately 17.8% of the issued and outstanding common shares of PolyMet that Glencore does not currently own (the "Minority Shares") in exchange for US$2.11 per share. More information about the Arrangement can be found in the Company's management information circular filed under the Company's SEDAR+ and EDGAR profiles on October 2, 2023, and also available on PolyMet's website, at https://polymetmining.com/investors/news/special-meeting/.

PolyMet will be holding a special meeting of shareholders (the "Meeting") on November 1, 2023, at 9:00 a.m. (Pacific time) for the Company's shareholders ("Shareholders") to approve the Arrangement. The Meeting will be a hybrid meeting, held in person at Farris LLP, 2500 - 700 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, British Columbia V7Y 1B3 and online via live webcast. Shareholders will be able to participate and vote at the Meeting online regardless of their geographic location at www.virtualshareholdermeeting.com/PLM2023SM.

Voting is easy, and important - Vote FOR the Arrangement TODAY

Shareholders are encouraged to vote their shares well in advance of the Meeting, and in any case by no later than 12:00 p.m. (Eastern Time) on October 30, 2023, being the proxy cut-off for the Meeting. Shareholders can vote online at www.proxyvote.com, or via telephone or mail by following the instructions received in the meeting materials mailed to Shareholders earlier this month. Given the short timeframe until the proxy voting deadline, PolyMet recommends Shareholders vote online or by phone to ensure their vote can be received and tabulated before the deadline.

Shareholder Questions

Shareholders who have questions or need assistance voting their shares should contact PolyMet's strategic shareholder advisor and proxy solicitation agent, Laurel Hill Advisory Group, at 1-877-452-7184 (toll-free within North America) or at 1-416-304-0211 (outside of North America) or by email at assistance@laurelhill.com.

* * * *

About PolyMet

PolyMet is a mine development company holding a 50% interest in NewRange Copper Nickel LLC, a joint venture with Teck Resources. NewRange Copper Nickel holds the NorthMet and Mesaba copper, nickel, cobalt and platinum group metal (PGM) deposits, two globally significant clean energy mineral resources located in the Duluth Complex in northeast Minnesota. The Duluth Complex is one of the world's major, undeveloped copper, nickel and PGM metal mining regions. NorthMet is the first large-scale project to have received permits within the Duluth Complex; however, legal challenges contesting various aspects of NorthMet federal and state permits and decisions are ongoing. For more information: www.polymetmining.com

For further information, please contact:

Media

Bruce Richardson, Corporate Communications

Tel: +1 (651) 389-4111

M: +1 (651) 964-9729

Email: brichardson@polymetmining.com

Shareholder Communications

Laurel Hill Advisory Group

North American Toll Free: 1-877-452-7184 (or 416-304-0211 for shareholders outside North America)

Email: assistance@laurelhill.com

PolyMet Disclosures

This news release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, which include all statements that do not relate solely to historical or current facts, such as statements regarding PolyMet's expectations, intentions or strategies regarding the future, including strategies or plans as they relate to the Arrangement. Forward-looking statements are frequently, but not always, identified by words such as "expects," "anticipates," "believes," "intends," "estimates," "potential," "possible," "projects," "plans," and similar expressions, or statements that events, conditions or results "will," "may," "could," or "should" occur or be achieved or their negatives or other comparable words. Forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect management's expectations or beliefs regarding future events including, but not limited to, statements with respect to the Arrangement, including the anticipated timing of the Special Meeting and of the completion of the Arrangement, and other statements that are not historical facts. Because such statements are based on expectations as to future results and are not statements of fact, actual results may differ materially from those projected and are subject to a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties, including: (i) uncertainties relating to the ability of the parties to receive in a timely manner and on satisfactory terms, the necessary shareholder approval (including the minority approval), and final court approval; (ii) risks relating to the ability of the parties to satisfy, in a timely manner, the other conditions to the completion of the Arrangement, and other expectations and assumptions concerning the Arrangement; (iii) risks and uncertainties relating to present and future business strategies; and (iv) local and global economic condition risks. The anticipated dates indicated may change for a number of reasons, including the inability to receive, in a timely manner, the necessary shareholder (including the minority approval) and final court approval, the necessity to extend the time limits for satisfying the other conditions to the completion of the Arrangement or the ability of the Board of Directors to consider and approve, subject to compliance by the Company of its obligations in this respect under the agreement providing for the Arrangement, a superior proposal for the Company. All such factors are difficult to predict and are beyond PolyMet's control. While the list of risks and uncertainties presented here is, and the discussion of risks and uncertainties to be presented in the information circular will be, considered representative, no such list or discussion should be considered a complete statement of all potential risks and uncertainties. Unlisted factors may present significant additional obstacles to the realization of forward-looking statements. Consequences of material differences in results as compared with those anticipated in the forward-looking statements could include, among other things, business disruption, operational problems, financial loss, and legal liability to third parties and similar risks, any of which could have a material adverse effect on the completion of the Arrangement and/or PolyMet's consolidated financial condition and results of operations. In light of the significant uncertainties in these forward-looking statements, PolyMet cannot assure you that the forward-looking statements in this communication will prove to be accurate, and you should not regard these statements as a representation or warranty by PolyMet, its directors, officers or employees or any other person that PolyMet will achieve its objectives and plans in any specified time frame, or at all.

The forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. PolyMet undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.

Specific reference is also made to risk factors and other considerations underlying forward-looking statements discussed in the Circular under the heading "Risk Factors", PolyMet's most recent Annual Report on Form 40-F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022, and in our other filings with Canadian securities authorities and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Annual Report on Form 40-F also contains the Company's mineral resource and other data as required under National Instrument 43-101.

No regulatory authority has reviewed or accepted 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/185381
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - October 27, 2023) - PharmaDrug Inc. (CSE: PHRX) (OTC Pink: LMLLD) ("PharmaDrug" or the "Company"), is pleased to announce that it has entered into a definitive agreement (the "Acquisition Agreement") dated October 27, 2023 pursuant to which PharmaDrug will acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of privately-held Securedose Synthetics Inc. ("SecureDose"), to be effected by way of a three-cornered amalgamation between Pharmadrug, SecureDose and a wholly-owned subsidiary of PharmaDrug (the "Proposed Transaction"). Following completion of the Proposed Transaction SecureDose will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of PharmaDrug. It is anticipated that the Proposed Transaction will be completed in early November, 2023. The Proposed Transaction is an arm's length transaction.

About SecureDose

SecureDose is a private Pharmaceutical Research and Development company focused on the development of synthetic formulations of currently existing drugs for potential commercialization and distribution. SecureDose currently has $750,000 CAD in cash and no debt outstanding. The Company decided to acquire SecureDose in order to complement its current focus by adding the capability to develop its own formulations that could potentially reach commercialization in a shorter time frame than traditional full cycle biotech programs.

Robert Steen, CEO and Chairman of PharmaDrug commented, "We are extremely excited to sign the agreement to acquire SecureDose. With the cepharanthine program now back in full swing, the Company believed it made sense to acquire a company whose core competency is the development of synthetic formulations. This could give PharmaDrug the capability to develop formulations of existing drugs that don't necessarily require separate efficacy studies and potentially provide commercialization and revenue opportunities in a much shorter time frame."

Terms of the Agreement

Pursuant to the terms of the Acquisition Agreement, each issued and outstanding share of SecureDose (a "SecureDose Share") will be exchanged for one common share in the capital of the Company (a "PharmaDrug Share"). It is expected that at the time of the closing of the Proposed Transaction, SecureDose will have 31,500,000 SecureDose Shares issued and outstanding together with 7,500,000 common share purchase warrants ("SecureDose Warrants") and 525,100 finder warrants (the "Finder Warrants").

The SecureDose Warrants will entitle the holders thereof to acquire one SecureDose Share at a price of $0.10 at any time on or before the September 22, 2025 and the Finder Warrants will entitle the holder thereof to acquire one SecureDose Share at a price of $0.10 at any time on or before September 22, 2025 and (ii). Each SecureDose Warrant and Finder Warrant will, following completion of the Proposed Transaction, entitle the holder thereof to acquire PharmaDrug Shares in place of SecureDose Shares.

Prior to the completion of the Proposed Transaction Pharmadrug will have 51,383,487 PharmaDrug Shares outstanding and after the completion of the Proposed Transaction it will have 82,883,487 PharmaDrug Shares outstanding. Following completion of the Proposed Transaction the security holders of SecureDose immediately preceding the Proposed Transaction will hold approximately 38% of the outstanding PharmaDrug Shares (43% on a partially diluted basis, giving effect to the conversion of the SecureDose Warrants and Finder Warrants). The Proposed Transaction will not result in a change of control of Pharmadrug.

It is expected that all PharmaDrug Shares (including PharmaDrug Shares issued upon conversion of SecureDose Warrants and the Finder Warrants) issued pursuant to the Proposed Transaction, except those issued to U.S. persons, will be freely tradable under applicable Canadian securities legislation.

The Acquisition Agreement contains representations, warranties, covenants and conditions typical for a transaction of this nature. The Proposed Transaction is subject to, among other things, receipt of all applicable shareholder and regulatory approvals, the final approval of the Canadian Securities Exchange and the satisfaction of customary closing conditions, including the conditions described below.

A copy of the Acquisition Agreement will be filed by PharmaDrug with the Canadian securities regulators and will be available for viewing on the Company's profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. A description of the Acquisition Agreement will also be set forth in the material change report to be filed on SEDAR.

Conditions to the Proposed Transaction

Completion of the Proposed Transaction is subject to certain conditions precedent including, among other things:

the receipt of all required approvals by the respective boards of directors of PharmaDrug and SecureDose (approval of PharmaDrug shareholders will not be required);

the receipt of approval of the Proposed Transaction by shareholders of SecureDose;

the receipt of all required consents, approvals and authorizations of any regulatory authorities, including, without limitation, the Canadian Securities Exchange;

each of the parties shall have complied with each of its obligations, covenants and agreements in the Acquisition Agreement;

there shall be no material adverse effect with respect to either of PharmaDrug or SecureDose;

the receipt of all required consents and approvals of third parties.

Management and Board of Directors

The Company does not anticipate reconstituting its Board of Directors in connection with the Proposed Transaction nor will there be any changes to the Chief Executive Officer or Chief Financial Officer. Together, the CEO and CFO will continue to oversee general corporate activity as well as the integration of SecureDose into the combined corporate strategy.

Unrelated to the Proposed Transaction, Al Quong has resigned as a director of PharmaDrug effective immediately to pursue other ventures. We thank him for his past contribution to PharmaDrug and wish him well with all his future endeavours. Paul McClory will replace Mr. Quong as the Chair of the Company's audit committee and Nikolai Vassev will join the audit committee.

About PharmaDrug Inc.

PharmaDrug is a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the research, development and commercialization of controlled-substances and natural medicines such as psychedelics and previously approved drugs. PharmaDrug owns 51% of Sairiyo Therapeutics ("Sairiyo"), a biotech company that specializes in researching and reformulating established natural medicines with a goal of bringing them through clinical trials and the associated regulatory approval process in the US and Europe. Sairiyo is currently developing its patented reformulation of cepharanthine, a drug that has shown substantial third party validated potential for the treatment of infectious disease (including Covid-19) and rare cancers. Sairiyo is also conducting R&D in the psychedelics space for the treatment of non-neuropsychiatric conditions.

For further information, please contact:

Robert J. Steen, Chairman and CEO

robsteen57@gmail.com

(416) 400-7086

Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Information:

THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE HAS NOT REVIEWED NOR DOES IT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

This news release may contain forward-looking statements and information based on current expectations. These statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results of the Company. Forward looking statements in this press release relate to the potential to complete the Proposed Transaction and the timing thereof, the integration of the Securedose business, the ability achieve the anticipated benefits of the Proposed Transaction and the development of the Company's business. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those implied by such statements.

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; the actual results of the Company's future operations; competition; changes in legislation affecting the Company; the ability to obtain and maintain required permits and approvals, the timing and availability of external financing on acceptable terms; lack of qualified, skilled labour or loss of key individuals..

A description of additional risk factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking information can be found in the Company's disclosure documents on the SEDAR+ website at www.sedarplus.ca. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. 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. 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.

The Company's securities have not been registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or applicable state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold to, or for the account or benefit of, persons in the United States or "U.S. Persons", as such term is defined in Regulations under the U.S. Securities Act, absent registration or an applicable exemption from such registration requirements. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in the United States or any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

Forward-looking information contained in this press release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking information contained in this press release represents the expectations of the Company as of the date of this press release and, accordingly, are 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.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/185395
Calgary, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - October 27, 2023) - North Peak Resources Ltd. (TSXV: NPR) (the "Company" or "North Peak") launched its drilling campaign this week at its Prospect Mountain property in Eureka, Nevada (the "Property" or "Prospect Mountain") following completion of planned geophysical surveys and geochemical sampling programs and the receipt of necessary approvals. These surveys and sampling programs were undertaken over the summer months to define both surface and underground drilling targets across the potential CRD (Gold, Silver, Lead and Zinc) and Carlin (Gold and Silver) style mineralization Prospect Mountain might host beneath its extensive system of shafts and mine workings.

This first Phase of Drilling will consist of approximately 6600 feet (2012m) starting from the Diamond mine portal and targeting multiple intersections of the roughly 2-km long conductive anomaly, located directly beneath the old oxide gold, silver, lead and zinc historical stopes of the Diamond mine, that was located by the helicopter magnetotelluric (MT) survey carried out in June (see Figures 1 & 3). A comprehensive gravity survey and drone based magnetic survey followed in July and August and the results of these two surveys were used to help develop the exploration model and drill targets. A limited Induced Polarisation (IP) survey carried out in September yielded a very strong chargeability IP anomaly that overlaps and extends upwards from the MT anomaly into the old workings area gives strong support to the MT anomaly (see Figure 1).

"The team have developed a drilling plan that will target the heart of both the IP anomaly and the MT anomaly, and it can be carried out from a practical location near the mine's infrastructure," said Brian Hinchcliffe, North Peak's CEO. "Our Property sits in the center of the largely north south mineralized Eureka Camp (see Figure 2) and the drilling will be aimed due west beneath the old mining workings and towards the massive MT target sitting just beneath the camp's water table."

Magnetotellurics is a passive electromagnetic system designed to measure resistivity/conductivity of the Earth and is especially useful for penetrating to deeper levels than comparable geophysical methods. The aim of the survey was to look for conductors beneath the water table that potentially represent the sulphide equivalents of the Prospect Mountain oxide mineralization. The 220-line km survey was conducted by Expert Geophysics Limited and flown at 100m line spacing using their Mobile MT system (see Figure 3).

The rocks surrounding the old oxide workings within the Hamburg and Eldorado Dolomites are highly resistive with no conductivity. Directly beneath the deepest part of the Property workings, at the level of the projected water table is a discrete > 2km long conductive body that plunges to the southeast. The strongest part of the anomaly sits directly beneath the largest bodies of historical workings on the Property, around the Shaft 1 area. While factors other than sulphides, such as graphitic shales and saline ground water, can cause conductivity, the groundwater tested on the Property is not known to be saline and there are no graphitic shales projected to be in the area beneath the historical mines on the Property. This increases the likelihood that the conductive anomaly is caused by sulphides and it is of a different character to the large formational anomalies highlighted by the survey to the west of the Sharp/Cave Canyon fault that are more likely to be related to lithology. The very strong IP chargeability anomaly overlaps the MT anomaly and extends to the depth limits of the IP survey indicating both anomalies are caused by the same source giving added weight to the interpretation.

Figure 1: East-West section of Diamond Mine Tunnel, with North Peak drill holes at Portal entrance, combining IP, Mobile MT, Gravity and Soil sampling data overlaid on Geological Section, (Nolan 1962)

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/9875/185447_81cc751cc4f5794b_002full.jpg

Figure 2: Long Section looking west of Eureka Camp from Prospect Mountain peak to Archimedes pit

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/9875/185447_81cc751cc4f5794b_003full.jpg

Figure 3: Long Section looking west showing historical workings and MT anomalies after 3D inversion

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/9875/185447_81cc751cc4f5794b_004full.jpg

Mr. Mike Sutton, P.Geo., a Director of the Company, is the Qualified Person, as defined under National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, who reviewed and approved scientific and technical disclosure in this news release.

The Qualified Person has not reviewed the mineral tenure, nor independently verified the legal status and ownership of the Property or any underlying property agreements.

About Prospect Mountain

The Property lies in the Battle Mountain Eureka trend, in an area known as the Southern Eureka Gold Belt, where three styles of mineralization have been identified, gold, silver Carlin style mineralization, Carbonate Replacement gold, silver, lead, zinc mineralization (CRD) and carbonate hosted Porphyry Related Skarn lead, zinc and gold mineralization associated with cretaceous intrusions. At the Property, the CRD mineralization is heavily oxidized to depths of at least 610m (2000ft) below the top of the ridge line.

A Plan of Operations is in place which covers part of the Property (totalling 81 acres) and entitles an operator to pursue surface exploration, underground mining of up to 365,000 tons per annum and certain infrastructural works. It includes a permit to extract water from a well and to build water containment facilities.

About North Peak

The Company is a Canadian based gold exploration and development company that is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "NPR". The Company is focused on acquiring historic sites, with low cost producing gold and other metals properties, with near term production potential and 8+ year mine life in the northern hemisphere.

The Company recently acquired an initial 80% interest in the Prospect Mountain Mine complex in Eureka, Nevada (see the Company's May 4 and 23, 2023 and August 25, 2023 press releases).

The Company can give no assurances at this time that its properties and interests will fulfil the Company's business development goals described herein. Trading in the securities of the Company should be considered highly speculative.

For further information, please contact:

Brian Hinchcliffe, CEO

Phone: +1-647-424-2305

Email: info@northpeakresources.com

Website: www.northpeakresources.com

Chelsea Hayes, Director

Phone: +1-647-424-2305

Email: info@northpeakresources.com

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS: This news release includes certain "forward-looking statements" under applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, timing and completion of any drilling and work programs on the Property, estimates of mineralization from drilling and geophysical surveys, geological information projected from sampling results and the potential quantities and grades of the target zones, the potential for minerals and/or mineral resources and reserves, and statements regarding the plans, intentions, beliefs, and current expectations of the Property and the Company that may be described herein. Forward-looking statements consist of statements that are not purely historical, including any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Such information can generally be identified by the use of forwarding-looking wording such as "may", "expect", "estimate", "anticipate", "intend", "believe" and "continue" or the negative thereof or similar variations. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are based will occur.

By their nature, forward-looking statements involve numerous assumptions, known and unknown risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, that contribute to the possibility that the predictions, estimates, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statements will not occur. These assumptions, risks and uncertainties include, among other things, the state of the economy in general and capital markets in particular, accuracy of assay results, geological interpretations from drilling results, timing and amount of capital expenditures; 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, as well as those risk factors discussed or referred to in the Company's Management's Discussion and Analysis for the year ended December 31, 2022 and the quarter ended June 30, 2023, available at www.sedarplus.ca , many of which are beyond the control of the Company. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release. Except as required by law, the Company disclaims any intention and assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Additionally, the Company undertakes no obligation to comment on the expectations of, or statements made by, third parties in respect of the matters discussed above.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/185447
President of Markel Specialty, Sanders has spent 42 years in the industry

Effective December 1, the following appointments will be made Alex Martin will become President, Markel Specialty Brian Costanzo is named Chief Financial Officer, Markel Guenter Kryszon is named Chief Underwriting Officer, Markel Specialty; Ryan Oosterheert is named Chief Operations Officer, Markel Specialty



RICHMOND, Va., Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Markel, the insurance operations within Markel Group Inc. (NYSE: MKL), announced today that Bryan Sanders, President of its Markel Specialty division, plans to retire by December 31, 2024. Effective December 1, 2023, Sanders will transition to the role of Chairman, Markel Specialty, and Alex Martin, currently Markel's Chief Financial Officer, will become President, Markel Specialty, reporting to Bob Cox, President, Global Insurance Operations. Brian Costanzo, currently senior vice president and Chief Accounting Officer for Markel Group Inc., will become Chief Financial Officer of Markel, reporting to Jeremy Noble, President, Markel.

"Bryan Sanders is retiring after a highly successful insurance career spanning four-plus decades, during which he has led several major initiatives that have transformed our US and Bermuda operations to best meet the needs of our clients," said Jeremy Noble. "Thanks to Bryan's leadership and the extensive industry relationships he has built, and with a strong team in place led by Alex Martin, Markel Specialty is well positioned to continue to build on our solid brand and reputation, as well as deliver against our long-term profitable growth ambitions."

Sanders, who joined Markel in 2013 as part of the Alterra Capital Holdings, Ltd. acquisition, has more than 42 years in the insurance industry. Before assuming his current position in 2020, he served as President of Markel Wholesale from 2014 to 2017, and President of Markel Assurance from 2018 to 2020.

"Serving as President of Markel Specialty has been an honor, and I am committed to working with Alex and the Markel Specialty leadership team to achieve a seamless transition as we continue to execute on our strategic priorities and plans," Bryan Sanders said. "I look forward to helping the team build on our progress so far, including our strong industry relationships and our outstanding positioning in the marketplace."

Martin has been with Markel for 17 years and has held management positions in operations, underwriting, business development, strategy and finance. He has extensive experience in leading transformation and building high-performing teams, including achieving operational efficiency and process improvement while leveraging technology, harnessing data and improving executional capabilities.

"Bryan Sanders and his team have built an incredible franchise in the marketplace, and I'm committed to working with him to achieve a seamless transition," Alex Martin said. "I leave the Finance function in good hands with Brian Costanzo and the Finance leadership team. Brian is extremely well qualified to take the Finance function forward at Markel. I look forward to working with my colleagues across Markel Specialty as we add value to our clients by delivering exceptional products and first-class service."

Costanzo has been with Markel for 14 years. He has held a variety of leadership roles within Finance and has played a key role in leading strategic efforts within Finance in regard to operational efficiency, actuarial transformation, technology and data.

Additionally within Markel Specialty, Guenter Kryszon has been named Chief Underwriting Officer and Ryan Oosterheert has been named Chief Operations Officer. Both will report to Martin.

Kryszon has been with Markel since 2019 and brings extensive experience driving growth and profitability through initiatives relating to portfolio optimization, climate change and environmental, social and governance matters. As Chief Underwriting Officer for Markel Specialty, he will lead and direct overall underwriting strategy and operations and product development across all product lines within Markel Specialty.

Oosterheert, who has been with Markel since 2019, brings more than 20 years of industry experience across underwriting and product management, strategy and operations. She has led Markel's global strategy team and has played an integral role in working across the organization on strategy, data, technology and operations efforts.

"We are grateful to Bryan Sanders for his many contributions, including his support for developing an outstanding leadership team at Markel-one that reflects the strength of our people-powered culture," Jeremy Noble added. "This thoughtful and intentional transition speaks to the depth of talent within Markel. With an exceptional set of leaders across our business, I am extremely optimistic that we will further strengthen our position in the marketplace, as well as execute on our continued transformation as we build the leading global specialty insurer."

About Markel

We are Markel, a leading global specialty insurer with a truly people-first approach. As the insurance operations within the Markel Group Inc. (NYSE: MKL), we operate the Markel Specialty, Markel International, and Markel Global Reinsurance divisions, as well as State National, our portfolio protection and program services operations, and Nephila, our insurance-linked securities operations. Our broad array of capabilities and expertise allow us to create intelligent solutions for the most complex risk management needs. However, it is our people-and the deep, valued relationships they develop with colleagues, brokers and clients-that differentiates us worldwide.

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GMAC's annual survey reveals new shifts in the underlying expectations of applicants

RESTON, Va., Oct. 27, 2023released today by the Graduate Management Admission Council). GMAC, a global association representing leading business schools, published findings from the 2023 survey results to provide data and insights to better understand current trends in applications to graduate management education (GME) programs.

Specifically, the decline in applications have centered around those to more selective programs, driving a dip in total global applications while their somewhat selective counterparts reported growth in their applications. Many candidates are still interested in more traditional, competitive full-time programs, but online, hybrid, or evening options were much more likely to report application growth. Interestingly, applicants seeking out top-ranked programs may not necessarily be looking for the same flexibility as the others, but many candidates are more willing to sacrifice prestige for flexibility.

"As post-pandemic attitudes toward work continue shifting and preferences for educational offerings continue evolving, the business school community as a whole is quickly adapting," said Joy Jones, CEO of GMAC. "From degreed programs to new certificates, concentrations, executive education, and micro-credentials, there is a wealth of options appealing to a wide spectrum of candidates in different stages of career and life. It serves as a testament to how business schools rise to the challenge to meet the needs of today's business school aspirants who will undoubtedly benefit from graduate business education."

Other Key Findings:

U.S. and regional trends reflect shifts in international and domestic applications.

While flexibility in delivery methods played an important role in driving the global application trends, in the United States, the international and domestic compositions of program volume turned out to be the key drivers behind the growth seen among their GME programs. After several challenging years with the domestic pipeline-especially after applications leveled off following the pandemic-more U.S. programs reported growth in domestic applications than declines in 2023. In fact, besides the increase seen in 2020 related to the pandemic, the number of U.S. programs reporting application growth reached a decade-long high in domestic applications.

While more than half of the programs in the U.S. experienced growth despite a small dip in overall applications, their counterparts in Europe, Asia, and the Pacific Islands were not as fortunate. Most European programs have faced declining applications over the past three years, with a significant drop (13 percent) in total international applications in 2023. Similarly, programs in Asia and the Pacific Islands have experienced two years of relative application declines, but with a pronounced drop (8 percent) in total domestic applications in 2023.

Applications among women continue to stagnate across degree types and regions.

Over the past five years, the share of female applicants in the U.S., Europe, Asia, the Pacific Islands, Canada and Latin America has hovered around two-fifths. Even though GMAC's Prospective Students Survey indicates that women tend to be more interested in flexible, online, and hybrid programs, the share of women applying to online, hybrid, weekend, and evening programs is still roughly two-fifths. One silver lining lies in the share of women applicants in the executive MBA. While it is comparatively smallest at 32 percent, most of these programs saw growth in their applications from female candidates in 2023.

"It is encouraging to see more women in executive positions pursue advanced business education that could help strengthen them as leaders in the workplace," said Ana Maria Zermeno Padilla, director of academic experience and operations of EGADE Business School at Tecnologico de Monterrey and a GMAC Board member. "There is still much work to be done to appeal to women, especially those earlier in their careers, to take advantage of what graduate business degrees, particularly those with online and flexible modules, could offer."

Applications from underrepresented U.S. populations hit post-pandemic peak and top pre-pandemic levels.

Since 2014, most U.S. GME programs reported either stability or growth in their applications from underrepresented U.S. populations. Similar to broader U.S. and global trends, applications from these candidates surged alongside the pandemic until 2021 and 2022 when a majority of programs reported declines in applications as the pandemic-related increases leveled off. This year's survey result, however, shows that 47 percent of U.S. programs reported growth in applications from underrepresented U.S. populations, rebounding by a whopping 18 percentage point from a 10-year low in 2022 and even higher than the pre-pandemic years.

"In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on race-conscious admissions, business schools are reexamining their recruitment efforts and admissions strategies to continue enrolling a student body that reflects the diversity of the country and their pool of applicants," said Sabrina White, vice president of school and industry engagement at GMAC. "As the graduate business school community prepares for impending shifts in how U.S. programs evaluate the experiences of applicants from underrepresented racial and ethnic backgrounds, we hope sharing the data reported by schools over the past decade can help serve as a foundation for how current efforts have - or have not - been effective."

About the Survey

GMAC's ApplicationsTrends Survey is the largest and most widely cited survey of its kind, serving the graduate management education community for the past quarter of a century. The 2023 survey collected data on applications received by GME programs for the 2023-2024 academic year. Between June and August, 893 programs at 247 business schools worldwide provided responses. Participating programs are located in 32 countries, including 37 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, and reflect the growing diversity of global GME offerings. The total sample includes 413 MBA programs, 456 business master's programs, five postgraduate programs (PGP), and 19 doctoral programs. More details about this year's participating programs can be found in the participant profile section of the report.

About GMAC

The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) is a mission-driven association of leading graduate business schools worldwide. GMAC provides world-class research, industry conferences, recruiting tools, and assessments for the graduate management education industry as well as resources, events, and services that help guide candidates through their higher education journey. Owned and administered by GMAC, the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) exam is the most widely used graduate business school assessment.

More than 12 million prospective students a year trust GMAC's websites, including mba.com, to learn about MBA and business master's programs, connect with schools around the world, prepare and register for exams and get advice on successfully applying to MBA and business master's programs. BusinessBecauseand GMAC Toursare subsidiaries of GMAC, a global organization with offices in China, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

To learn more about our work, please visit www.gmac.com

Media Contact:

Teresa Hsu

Sr. Manager, Media Relations

Mobile: 202-390-4180

thsu@gmac.com
Shipment of Kickstarter orders begins October 30, 2023

SHENZHEN, China, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Khadas, an emerging technology company that designs and manufactures cutting-edge computing and electronic devices, completed a 60-day Kickstarter campaign, raising $697,988. As of October 23rd, 555 backers pledged support for the next-gen modular computing experience offered by Khadas Mind. The product is now available on Khadas' official shop and major e-commerce platforms like Amazon.

Since its debut, Khadas Mind has garnered acclaim for its portability, high performance, modular expandability, and versatile transition capabilities. It was recognized as the "Favorite Product of September 2023" by XDA Developers, commenting that it is "redefining the mini-PC", among other endorsements from leading technology publications like TechRadar Pro and NotebookCheck. Impressed by the unique concept, over 35% of the backers have opted for the All-in-one Combo, which includes Mind, Mind Dock, and Mind Graphics.

Earning Trust through a Consumer-Centric Approach

Khadas has gained trust from consumers as the company is committed to providing assurance to both backers and future customers.

Khadas has committed to arranging shipment and local delivery for the first batch of the Khadas Mind and Mind Dock immediately after the Kickstarter campaign, which are scheduled to ship from the factory on October 30th, with local delivery to be organized as soon as all the backers' information has been collected. The delivery of the Mind Graphics is scheduled for early June 2024.

Furthermore, Khadas is now offering a 3-year warranty to all backers for their support at the early crowdfunding stage. For customers who purchase products through official Khadas channels, the warranty period is extended from 1 year to 2 years.

Khadas Mind: Enabling the Era of Modular Computing

Khadas Mind, at just 0.99lbs, boasts a portable design and outstanding performance with the 13th Gen Intel Core i7-1360P processor, reaching up to 5.0GHz turbo boost with 12 cores and 16 threads. The proprietary Mind Link interface enables infinite possibilities by integrating Khadas Mind with other modules in the ecosystem. Plus, a 5.55Wh standby battery provides up to 25 hours of sleep mode, ensuring flexible mobility across different scenarios.

When using Khadas Mind as a standalone unit, it offers sufficient power to boost your productivity in the office. As a gateway to expanded capabilities, when paired with Khadas Mind, the Mind Dock eliminates the hassle of cable management, allowing users to switch across various work sites. Intensive designing or gaming tasks can be handled effortlessly with Mind Graphics powered by the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060Ti.

As the Khadas Mind ecosystem expands, users can anticipate more modules and accessories to cater to diverse user needs and preferences. For more information, please check out: https://www.khadas.com/mind.

About Khadas

At Khadas, we strive to fuel the imagination and enhance the productivity of global communities, including makers, developers, and visionaries. Since the establishment of Khadas brand in 2016, we are committed to designing and manufacturing cutting-edge computing and electronic devices as well as accessories for consumers and businesses worldwide.

By continuously investing in technology development, Khadas has distinguished itself in the industry and garnered the trust of users across various countries and regions, including America, Europe, China, India and Southeast Asia. With an extensive product portfolio encompassing ARM-based single board computers (SBC), portable computing devices, and high-fidelity audio solutions, complemented by a wide range of accessories, we are actively moving along a positive trajectory on a global scale.

Khadas has established significant partnerships with prominent industry leaders, including Google and Intel, resulting in the integration of our products and solutions into projects at the forefront of innovation.

Discover more about Khadas here.

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YULIN, China, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Recently, approximately a thousand guests and merchants from the spice and condiment industries around China convened in the city of Yulin, Guangxi for the 2023 China-ASEAN Expo Spices Exhibition, where they joined by more than 200 investors and buyers from nations such as Indonesia, Vietnam and India.

Adopting a digitized method to create the "bellwether" and "barometer" of high-quality development of the Chinese spice industry has emerged as an innovative pathway in Yulin's pursuit of "optimization and excellence", according to the Publicity Department of Yulin Municipal Government. The Xinhua-Yulin Spice Price Indices Operation Report, jointly composed by Xinhua China Economic Information Service and Yulin Municipal People's Government, was officially launched during this year's Spices Exhibition.

Guangxi region is one of China's major spice producers, while its city of Yulin has been dubbed "Capital of Medicines in the South" and "Capital of Spices in the South", serving as one of the major growers and distributors of spices in Southeast Asia. There are more than 200 types of commonly found spices in the world, over 160 of which are traded in Yulin. Statistics indicate that there are some 800 businesses engaged in the production and sales of spices in the city of Yulin, more than 100,000 are employed in the industrial chain, and 80% of the country's spices are traded here and distributed from here.

At China's biggest tier-one spice exchange, the Yulin International Spice Exchange, the varieties of spice products are simply astonishing. In 2022, transactions in the Exchange amounted to 26 billion yuan, and the figure this year is projected to reach 40 billion yuan. Every day, spices from around the world are assembled here, then transported by way of logistics to various provinces, regions and municipalities throughout China, and numerous markets around Southeast Asia and Africa. Li Hai, General Manager of the Yulin Fuda Spice Exchange Digital Science and Technology Co., Ltd., remarked: "Around more than 50% of spices found in Yulin are imported from Southeast Asia, then distributed to the secondary markets across the country through the Yulin Exchange."

The coming into effect of the RCEP has made it easier for food products from the same source to clear customs, while taxes on a wide range of spice products have been lowered, further promoting the imports and exports of spices.

Following the commencement of Phase I and Phase III of the project, the Yulin International Spice Exchange is set to be renamed "Yulin International Spice Logistics Port", and the city of Yulin is going to quicken its step in creating a world-class spice trade and distribution center.

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Caption: The Xinhua-Yulin Spice Price Indices Launch Ceremony on September 19

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Management to Host Conference Call Tuesday, October 31, at 5 p.m. ET

Expected to be immediately accretive

Adds $4.2 million of annual unaudited revenue and $1.8 million of annual unaudited adjusted EBITDA

Capital light, recurring revenue business in stable and growing market

Latest acquisition under the Kingsway Search Xcelerator platform

CHICAGO, IL / ACCESSWIRE / October 27, 2023 / (NYSE:KFS) Kingsway Financial Services Inc. ("Kingsway" or the "Company") today announced the acquisition of Digital Diagnostics Imaging, Inc. ("DDI"), a provider of fully managed outsourced cardiac monitoring telemetry services for $11.0 million in an all-cash transaction funded with $5.4 million in cash on hand and $5.6 million in debt financing. Management will host a conference call Tuesday, October 31, at 5 p.m. ET to discuss the transaction.

J.T. Fitzgerald, Kingsway President and CEO, said, "The DDI business is a great fit for our growing Xcelerator portfolio. DDI has established itself as a trusted partner to its customers through its focus on a dependable, high-quality service offering and our focus will be to continue to deliver exceptional value to DDI's customers. Peter Dausman, the Operator-in-Residence for this transaction, will transition into the CEO role for DDI, while the Founder, Thomas Corney, will remain as an advisor during a transition period. We are excited to welcome the DDI team to the Kingsway family."

Digital Diagnostics Imaging (ddimagingusa.com/about-us/) provides fully managed outsourced cardiac monitoring telemetry services to long-term acute care ("LTAC") and inpatient rehabilitation hospitals ("IRHs") throughout the U.S. The business enables remote access to client hospital telemetry systems from an outsourced monitoring station ensuring that a patient's ECG is continuously under watch. All technicians are certified by nationally-recognized organizations. DDI has been operating for over 10 years and currently has a presence in 42 states.

Peter Dausman, Kingsway Operator-in-Residence and newly appointed CEO of DDI, said, "DDI is a dominant player in remote cardiac monitoring with a solid reputation and strong customer referrals that fuel a growing pipeline of new opportunities. Importantly, its business has a high level of recurring revenue, is scalable and operates in a stable, growing market. In assessing this acquisition, it became clear that DDI is the industry standard for outsourced telemetry. I am eager to work with the team to learn more and with a disciplined approach, take this business to the next level."

Thomas Corney, former CEO of DDI, said, "My wife Marissa and I are pleased to transition our business to Peter and the team at Kingsway. Kingsway's approach to business and its care for customers and employees align directly with the values that are core to everything we do at DDI. Over the last decade we have grown this business from a start-up to more than $4 million in annual revenue. We have long been recognized both for the services we provide and the care we give our customers. We are confident Peter and his team will continue this legacy."

The transaction was structured as a purchase of all of the issued and outstanding shares of capital stock of DDI. Financing was provided by Signature Bank (Illinois). Holland & Knight LLP served as legal counsel to Kingsway, and Sichenzia Ross Ference Carmel LLP served as legal counsel to the sellers in connection with the transaction.

Conference Call Information

Date: Tuesday, October 31, 2023

Time: 5 pm Eastern Time

Toll Free: 877-545-0523; Code: 514969

International: 973-528-0016; Code: 514969

Live Webcast Link: https://www.webcaster4.com/Webcast/Page/2928/49393

Conference Call Replay Information

Toll Free: 877-481-4010

International: 919-882-2331

Replay Passcode: 49393

Replay Webcast Link: https://www.webcaster4.com/Webcast/Page/2928/49393

About the Company

Kingsway is a holding company that owns or controls subsidiaries primarily in the extended warranty and business services industries. The common shares of Kingsway are listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the trading symbol "KFS."

The Company serves the extended warranty industry through its operating subsidiaries IWS (iwsgroup.com), Penn Warranty (pennwarranty.com), Preferred Warranties (preferredwarranties.com) and Trinity Warranty Solutions (trinitywarranty.com).

The Company serves the business services industry through its operating subsidiaries CSuite (csuitefinancialpartners.com), Ravix (ravixgroup.com), Secure Nursing Service (securenursing.com), SPI Software (spisoftware.com) and Digital Diagnostics, Inc (ddimagingusa.com/about-us/).

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may include "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that are not historical facts and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expected and projected. Words such as "expects," "believes," "anticipates," "intends," "estimates," "seeks" and variations and similar words and expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements; however, the absence of any such words does not mean that a statement is a not a forward-looking statement. Such forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance, but reflect Kingsway management's current beliefs, based on information currently available. A number of factors could cause actual events, performance or results to differ materially from the events, performance and results discussed in the forward-looking statements. For information identifying important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements, please refer to the section entitled "Risk Factors" in the Company's 2022 Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent Form 10-Qs and Form 8-Ks filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as expressly required by applicable securities law, 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.

Additional Information

Additional information about Kingsway, including a copy of its Annual Reports can be accessed on the EDGAR section of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's website at www.sec.gov, on the Canadian Securities Administrators' website at www.sedar.com, or through the Company's website at www.kingsway-financial.com.

For Media Inquiries:

Hayden IR

James Carbonara

(646) 755-7412

james@haydenir.com For Business Development Inquiries: Kingsway Financial Services Inc.

Charles Joyce

(312) 766-2155

cjoyce@kingsway-financial.com

SOURCE: Kingsway Financial Services, Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/797011/kingsway-announces-11-million-acquisition-of-digital-diagnostics-imaging-inc
GUIYANG, China, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- A large harvest has been achieved in Guizhou Province, southwest China thanks to hardworking agricultural technicians. Their efforts have paid off. Since the start of this year, agricultural technicians have been encouraged to innovate and start businesses in rural areas.

Almost 10,000 have demonstrated grain and oil production techniques at the grassroots level and aided in reaching production goals, according to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of Guizhou Province.

These technicians trained nearby farmers in rice and corn growing techniques that increase yield. Their instruction led to a record high in grain harvests across numerous regions in Guizhou Province, providing a dependable technical support for agriculture.

Guizhou aims to cultivate 41.7 million mu (approximately 2.78 million hectares) of grain and yield 11.2 million tons of grain this year, completing planting tasks as planned.

Under the guidance of Zeng Tao, the high-yield rice fields of the 100 mu demonstration saw an average yield of 857.53 kg per mu for both Chen Zhixing's and Wu Daxiu's teams. The highest dry grain yield was 918.88 kg per mu.

On September 26th, the average yield of the 1,000 mu high-yield rice demonstration fields was measured in Maoba Village, Shiban Town, Bozhou District of Zunyi City. It reached 643.07 kg per mu, surpassing the local average yield.

In Xiaojia Village, Baiyun Town of Pingba District, Agricultural Technician Zhang Qingjiang provided a demonstration service to cultivate 500 mu of rice, and also took charge of the project to cultivate 120 mu of rice by ordinary blanket seedling and mechanised cultivation. Following acceptance testing on September 28th, the average yield in the demonstration area reached 553 kg per mu. This signifies an increase of almost 60 kg compared to the previous three-year average.

On September 15, Wang Lixin's team tested the production of 100 mu of corn field in Bijie City. Local experts chose three lands at random. The field produced an average of 912.56 kg per mu, which exceeded the previous target goal by 14%.

Through the "Helping to achieve production targets" and "Providing agricultural services" initiative, agricultural technicians have transformed the experts' demo fields into farmers' fields by providing agricultural services that help achieve production goals. They have also improved high-yield plant varieties to high-yield and high-quality varieties. Furthermore, the experts' unified management has shifted to scientific management for farmers.

The latest and most helpful technologies are taken to the forefront, enabling farmers to comprehend them, become skilled in their use, put them into practice, in order to conquer farming challenges, prevent crop and pest disaster, and safeguard the food supply of Guizhou province.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/agricultural-technicians-help-large-harvest-achieved-in-sw-chinas-guizhou-301970178.html
HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM / ACCESSWIRE / October 27, 2023 / Thien Moc Huong, a Vietnamese agarwood jewelry brand, was honored by the Vietnam Union of UNESCO Associations with the "Vietnamese Identity Brand Positioning Global Value" award. The award recognizes Thien Moc Huong's commitment to promoting Vietnamese culture and heritage through its products and services.





Thien Moc Huong Receives UNESCO Award

Thien Moc Huong receives UNESCO award.





The "Vietnamese Identity Brand Positioning Global Value" is an award organized by the Vietnam Union of UNESCO Associations in collaboration with the Global Trade & Technology Council India (GTTC India). To achieve this award, brands must have prestige, high creative spirit, and innovation as well as contribute to economic development and spread of Vietnamese cultural values.

The event took place to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the Vietnam Union of UNESCO Associations and the over 50-year history of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and India. This event facilitated cultural exchange and commercial collaboration between businesses from both countries, with over 80 individuals and businesses meeting the criteria and receiving awards.

In August 2023, the "Vietnamese Identity Brand Positioning Global Value" award is a prestigious recognition of Thien Moc Huong's achievements. The award is presented to brands that are making a significant contribution to the promotion of Vietnamese culture and heritage on the global stage.

"We are honored to receive this award from the Vietnam Union of UNESCO Associations," said Cao Thanh Hai, founder and CEO of thienmochuong.com. "Thien Moc Huong products are handmade by skilled artisans using traditional Vietnamese techniques. As agarwood is a precious wood that has been used in Vietnamese culture for centuries for its medicinal and aromatic properties, Thien Moc Huong uses agarwood to create a variety of jewelry products, including agarwood bracelets, necklaces, accessories, and perfume. We believe that our products are more than just jewelry; they are a way to connect people with Vietnamese culture and traditions."

About Thien Moc Huong Agarwood Jewelry:

Thien Moc Huong Agarwood Jewelry is one of the leaders in the agarwood jewelry industry in Vietnam. The company's products are sold in over 20 countries around the world with more than 100,000 customers.

In the Ship for Southeast Asian and Japanese Youth Program (SSEAYP) in 2017 and 2018, Thien Moc Huong was selected as a gift representing Vietnam and presented to over 10 heads of state and more than 30 international delegation leaders in various countries.

Thien Moc Huong's mission is to preserve and spread the unique cultural value of Vietnamese agarwood, all for the goal of becoming the international agarwood brand - the brand representing Vietnam and satisfying demanding customers around the world.

Contact Thien Moc Huong:

https://tmhagarwood.com/

admin@thienmochuong.com

(+84)933348368

Contact Information

Tue Nguyen

SEO Leader

seoteam.tmh@gmail.com

0933348368

SOURCE: Thien Moc Huong Agarwood Jewelry

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/796684/the-vietnam-union-of-unesco-associations-honors-thien-moc-huong-as-vietnamese-identity-brand-positioning-global-value
LONDON, UK / ACCESSWIRE / October 27, 2023 / EW Healthcare Partners announced that it has acquired a c. 25% minority stake in Boiron Developpement, an entity formed for the purposes of launching a tender offer for the Boiron Group, in partnership with the Boiron Family, at a c. 875 million enterprise value. As part of this transaction, the Boiron family has transferred its 70% stake in the Boiron Group to Boiron Developpement, together with the Boiron employee fund for c. 5% of the capital.

Boiron is a French pharmaceutical company focused on natural medicine, founded in 1932 by pharmacists Jean and Henri Boiron. The company is built around homeopathy and has spearheaded the industry's global development.

Boiron today is the global market leader in homeopathy and a leading global player in natural medicines, with 2022 revenues of 534M. The company offers a diversified portfolio of natural, innovative, science-based, and personalized pharmaceutical products. Over 50% of Boiron's sales are realized outside of France. Boiron benefits from an integrated value chain from registration to distribution, including in-house manufacturing, with the company currently present in 50 countries globally through 23 subsidiaries and 30 distributors. Boiron has also established a strong footprint in the U.S. with 120M in U.S. revenue, with a large portion of products sold through the e-commerce channel.

EW Healthcare Partners is excited to partner with the Boiron family to help further accelerate the company's growth, by expanding the company's offering into additional healthcare verticals and capitalising on the existing platform to launch additional products, in particular in the U.S.

About EW Healthcare Partners ("EW")

With over $2 billion of capital raised since 2014, EW Healthcare Partners seeks to make growth equity investments in fast-growing commercial-stage healthcare companies in the pharmaceutical, medical device, diagnostics, and technology-enabled services sectors in the United States and in Europe. EW Healthcare Partners has a singular commitment to the healthcare industry and has been a long-term investor in numerous healthcare companies, ranging across sectors, stages and geographies. The team of senior investment professionals, operating partners and advisors is based in New York, London and Houston. https://www.ewhealthcare.com

Contact Information

Anne DeMaret

Investor Relations

ademaret@ewhealthcare.com

(281) 528-1956

SOURCE: EW Healthcare Partners

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/797118/ew-healthcare-partners-acquires-stake-in-boiron-group-a-leader-in-natural-medicine
DUBAI, UAE / ACCESSWIRE / October 27, 2023 / Established in 2022 by Andrey Elinson, Inweasta has rapidly evolved into an international business with a robust presence in prominent cities such as Dubai, Hong Kong, and Istanbul. The company's range of services is both comprehensive and continuously expanding. Catering to the financial and industrial sectors, the company offers an extensive array of consulting, legal, and investment solutions. The group's core competencies encompass investment strategies, cross-border dispute resolution, litigation funding, and distressed asset management.

Andrey Elinson, the Managing Partner of a prominent European private equity firm and litigation funder A1, has announced his departure from the company and redirected his focus towards Inweasta, his personal investment venture located in Dubai.

Andrey Elinson's departure from A1 and his subsequent dedication to Inweasta signify more than just a shift in professional allegiance; It underscores his profound belief in the company's mission and its boundless potential. Elinson expressed: "As I embark on this new chapter with Inweasta, I'm driven by the wealth of knowledge and experience I've gained in executive roles. Inweasta, with its adept team and ambitious vision, provides the perfect platform to harness that expertise. Over the next five years, we aim to evolve Inweasta into a dynamic international powerhouse, leveraging our seasoned team to deliver cutting-edge solutions and services, setting new standards in our industry."

Andrey Elinson's professional track record, spanning two decades, is a testament to his expertise in private equity, strategic business development, and corporate management. In 2018, Elinson became a managing partner at A1, a prominent private equity firm and international litigation funder. Preceding this, in 2014, he held the position of Director of Assets Management at the Alfa Group Consortium, a major Russian business entity. From 2007 to 2014, Andrey Elinson devoted seven years to Basic Element, one of Russia's largest industrial conglomerates, initially serving as the Director of Corporate Governance and Internal Control, and later advancing to the role of Deputy CEO.

Throughout his career, Elinson held positions on the boards of directors of various prominent companies, including AlfaStrakhovaniye, Ingosstrakh, Rosvodokanal, and En+ Group. In 2016, Andrey Elinson became a Member of the Supervisory Board of X5 Retail Group, one of Russia's largest retail operators. However, in 2020, he retired as a member of the Supervisory Board of X5 Retail Group. He also served as a member of the supervisory board of the Alfa Group Consortium and A1 Investment Holding, all of which he departed from by 2020. His departure from A1 signifies his exit from all appointed roles, redirecting his focus exclusively to his personal investment enterprise. As the founder, Andrey Elinson dedicates special focus to Inweasta, ensuring a hands-on approach to its growth and success. In return, the company places substantial trust in Elinson's well-established reputation and the professionalism exhibited by the entire team. The Inweasta team has outlined ambitious strategic goals for the upcoming five years, harnessing decades of combined experience to pioneer new industry benchmarks and propel innovation forward.

About Inweasta

Inweasta is an international group of companies launched in 2022. The company specializes in investments, cross-border disputes resolution, litigation funding and distress assets management.

Inweasta provides full range of services related to a resolution of complex disputes and situations:

Litigation Funding

Cross-border Litigation Management

Investments in Distressed Assets

Corporate Finance and Debts Restructuring

Inheritance Structuring and Protection

Mediation of Disputes

Having legal, financial, investments, security, PR and other competences in-house gives Inweasta the ability to work efficiently on complicated projects that require multiple competences being applied.

For comprehensive information about Inweasta's trajectory under the adept leadership of Andrey Elinson or for any further queries, please reach out using the following contact information.

Contact Information:

Name: Annie Chan Wai Kwan

Email: contact@inweasta.com

SOURCE: Inweasta

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/797133/andrey-elinson-departs-a1-for-his-own-investment-venture-inweasta
TEL AVIV, Israel, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- StickIt Technologies Inc. (the "Company" or "StickIt") (CSE: STKT). A parent company of the Israeli technology and cannabinoid company StickIt Ltd., the developer exclusivity & patent protected of "Cannabis Sticks" is pleased to announce that its shares start trading on the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) under the ticker symbol "STKT". Company's CSE listing statement was filed on StickIt's CSE portal and under the Company's profile on SEDAR+.

Founded in 2019, StickIt Ltd. Developed a line of products as toothpick-sized products inserted into any cigarette to provide the smoker with a functional experience with CBD, CBG, HHC or other cannabinoids. StickIt can be tucked into any smokable including Hemp cigarettes, CBD cigarettes, tobacco cigarettes, pre-rolls, herb cigarettes, spice cigarettes and cannabis smokeballs. StickIt's product come in a wide range of tastes and flavors, as the Stickit technology allows for adding terpenes and to the finished product. Products can be adjusted and produced with different concentrations of cannabinoids like CBD, THC, and CBG according to any local regulation. Endless flavors and aromas can also be added to specifically appeal to local consumers and allow any commercial, cultural or marketing adjustments to be easily made at any destination country.

StickIt is currently in the process of developing other line of products for nonsmokers' industry. The Company develops a unique cold drinking straw containing cannabinoids a functional experience with CBD, CBG, HHC for non-smoking users. In addition, the Company is developing a hot drink shaker stick containing cannabinoids with functional experience with CBD, CBG, HHC for non-smoking users.

"StickIt is a unique company in the cannabis industry, we are excited to become a public company listed on CSE and to share our products and our vision with our new investors" said Eli Ben Haroosh, CEO of StickIt. "We plan to be at the forefront of the technological development of the global cannabis industry," concluded Mr. Ben Haroosh.

Stickit primary assets consist of patents and patent applications related to plant extracts, therapeutic compounds in smoking utensils, and honey complexes. StickIt have already patents granted in USA, Europe, Israel and Canada. The Extra-C stick is created through a unique proprietary process, resulting in condensed cannabis oil presented in a toothpick-like matrix, allowing for the easy conversion of regular cigarettes into cannabis or hemp cigarettes.

StickIt operates from key facilities situated in Dalton, Northern Israel, these facilities are central to the company's research, development, and manufacturing operations.

Stickit's operating model is to establish joint ventures in countries around the world where recreational cannabis is permitted. Each licensee/joint venture partner will establish a production facility in which they will add the cannabis content to sticks produced and supplied by Stickit. As part of those arrangements StickIt is expected to provide the joint venture with the know-how required to manufacture the finished product. The licensee/joint venture partner will produce the finished product, adding cannabis to the raw materials provided by StickIt, and will sell them either directly to the points of sale or through distributors The licensee is expected to pay a setup fee by investing the funds necessary to set up the local production facility. Each licensee will have exclusive rights to produce and market Stickit products in their designated territory

On behalf of the Board of Directors

Eli Ben-Haroosh, CEO

For further information please contact

Mr. Eli Ban-Haroosh at info@stickit-labs.com ; 972-549671720

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 press release should not be considered a comprehensive summary of the Company's listing and business operations. Additional information required by applicable securities laws and the Canadian Securities Exchange is included in the Company's non-offering prospectus dated October 24, 2023 and was included in the CSE Form 2A listing statement for the Company dated October 25, 2023. Trading in the securities of StickIt should be considered highly speculative and readers should refer to the listing statements of StickIt for further information.

Forward Looking Statements

This news release includes certain statements and information that constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. All statements in this news release, other than statements of historical facts, are forward-looking statements. The Company provides no assurance that forward-looking statements and information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements or information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements, other than as required by law. More detailed information about potential factors that could affect financial results is included in the documents filed from time to time with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities by StickIt. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward looking statements.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2258883/Stickit_Logo.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2258884/Eli_Stickit.jpg

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/stickit-technology-shares-starts-trading-on-the-cse-today-october--27-2023-301969250.html
ADLER Group S.A.

Societe anonyme 55, Allee Scheffer, L-2520 Luxembourg,

Grand Duchy of Luxembourg RCS Luxembourg: B197554

(the "Company") CONVENING NOTICE The shareholders of the Company are invited to participate in the General Meeting of Shareholders (the "GM" or the "General Meeting") to be held on Monday, 27 November 2023 at 12 noon CET at Le Royal Hotel, 12, Boulevard Royal, L-2449 Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg in order to deliberate on the items of the agenda set out below.

PARTICIPATION TO THE GENERAL MEETING MUST BE CONFIRMED BY

MIDNIGHT CET ON MONDAY 13 NOVEMBER 2023.SHAREHOLDING CONFIRMATION CERTIFICATES AND PARTICIPATION,

PROXY AND VOTING FORMS MUST BE PROVIDED BY

MIDNIGHT CET ON WEDNESDAY 22 NOVEMBER 2023.QUESTIONS FROM SHAREHOLDERS RELATED TO ITEMS ON THE AGENDA SHOULD BE RECEIVED BY

MIDNIGHT CET ON WEDNESDAY 22 NOVEMBER 2023.

Listed shares International Securities Identification number (ISIN): LU1250154413 Unlisted shares International Securities Identification number (ISIN): LU2615168379

AGENDA AND PROPOSED RESOLUTION OF THE GM 1. Presentation of the special report of the board of directors of the Company (as required pursuant to Article 441-7 of the Luxembourg law of 10 August 1915 on commercial companies, as amended) on any transaction, since the last general meeting of the Company, in respect of which any of the directors declared to have an interest conflicting with that of the Company. No resolution required. 2. Approval of the appointment, as recommended by the board of directors, of AVEGA Revision S.a r.l. as the approved statutory auditor/approved audit firm to perform the statutory audit of the standalone annual accounts and consolidated financial statements of the Company for the financial year ended 31 December 2022 with such engagement to last until the later of the annual general meeting of the Company to take place in 2024 or such other general meeting to take place in 2024 at which theaudited financial statements for the financial year ended 31 December 2022 and the financial year ending 31 December 2023 are submitted for approval. Draft resolution (GM Resolution I) The General Meeting approves the appointment, as recommended by the board of directors, of AVEGA Revision S.a r.l. as the approved statutory auditor/approved audit firm to perform the statutory audit of the standalone annual accounts and consolidated financial statements of the Company for the financial year ended 31 December 2022 and the financial year ended 31 December 2023, with such engagement to last until the later of the annual general meeting of the Company to take place in 2024 or such other general meeting to take place in 2024 at which the audited financial statements for the financial year ended 31 December 2022 and the financial year ending 31 December 2023 are submitted for approval,. Comment of the board of directors: The General Meeting is reminded that on 29 June 2022 the Company, announced the launch of a tender process for the mandate of approved statutory auditor (reviseur d'entreprises agree) to audit its standalone annual accounts and consolidated financial statements for the financial year ending 31 December 2022. The deadline for the auditors/ audit firms to express their interest in the tender was 13 July 2022. No auditor/ audit firm expressed their interest in the tender. Since the close of that audit tender process, the Company approached, discussed with and offered the mandate to, multiple international auditing firms. Finally, AVEGA Revision S.a r.l., an approved statutory auditor (reviseur d'entreprises agree) has confirmed its willingness to accept the mandate of auditing the standalone annual accounts and consolidated financial statements of the Company for the financial year ended 31 December 2022 and for the financial year ending 31 December 2023, subject to approval of the General Meeting of the Company. As the mandate in respect of the financial year ending 31 December 2023 would be a renewal of an existing engagement with the same auditor, there is no requirement to launch an audit tender process in respect of the financial year ending 31 December 2023. The qualifications, expertise and track record of AVEGA Revision S.a r.l. have been thoroughly evaluated by the audit committee of the Company; the board of directors believes the appointment of AVEGA Revision S.a r.l. will greatly benefit the Company and in accordance with the recommendation of the audit committee, recommends to the General Meeting to vote in favour of adopting the draft resolution set out above. I. AVAILABLE INFORMATION AND DOCUMENTATION The following information is available on the Company's website, https://ir.adler-group.com, in the segment "Corporate Governance"> "General Meeting" > "General Meeting 2023" and at the Company's registered office in Luxembourg as from a date no later than the date of publication of the convening notice in the Luxembourg Official Gazette (Receuil Electronique des Societes et Associations) and in the Luxembourg newspaper Tageblatt:-  this convening notice for the GM;  the total number of shares and voting rights as at the date of this convening notice;  the participation, proxy and voting form for the GM (the "Participation,Proxy and Voting Form" or the " PPV Form"); and  Form of a Shareholding Confirmation Certificate (as defined below).

Shareholders may obtain a copy of the full text of any document to be made available by the Company at the GM and the draft resolution proposed to be adopted by the GM upon request by post (see contact details in Section VII below) or by e-mail to anmeldestelle@computershare.de to Computershare Deutschland GmbH & Co KG, in its capacity as mandated agent of the Company ("Computershare"). II QUORUM AND VOTING The GM will validly deliberate on its agenda regardless of the number of shareholders present or of the number of shares represented. Resolutions relating to these agenda items will be adopted by a simple majority of the votes validly cast by shareholders present or represented. Each share is entitled to one vote. III. ISSUED SHARE CAPITAL, TOTAL NUMBER OF SHARES AND VOTING RIGHTS On the date of publication of this convening notice: (i) the issued share capital of the Company amounts to EUR 188,016.37; (ii) the total number of shares composing the share capital of the Company is 151,626107dematerialised shares without a nominal value; and (iii) the total number of voting rights attached to the shares composing the share capital of the Company is 151,626,107voting rights. IV. RIGHT OF SHAREHOLDERS TO ADD ITEMS TO THE AGENDA

OR TO TABLE ALTERNATIVE RESOLUTIONS Shareholders holding individually or collectively at least 5% of the issued share capital of the Company have the right (a) to add new items on the agenda of the GM and/or (b) to table draft resolutions regarding items included or to be included in the agenda of the GM. Such requests must be in writing and sent to Computershare by post (see contact details in Section VII below) or by e-mail to anmeldestelle@computershare.de. They must be accompanied by a justification or a draft resolution to be adopted at the GM. They must also indicate the postal or electronic address at which the Company or Computershare (as the Company's agent) may acknowledge receipt of these requests. The requests must be accompanied by proof (in the form of a certificate issued by the bank, the custodian, professional securities' depositary or the financial institution where the shares are on deposit) that the shareholder(s) hold the required number of shares on the date of the request (i.e. at least 5%). The new agenda points/draft resolutions will only be considered by the GM if the requesting shareholder(s) holds the requisite number of shares also on the Record Date (as defined below). Any such request and accompanying documents from shareholders must be received by Computershare (in the manner as described above), not later than the 22nd day before the GM (i.e. not later than Sunday, 5 November 2023). The Company or Computershare as the Company's agent, shall acknowledge receipt of any such requests within 48 hours of receipt. The Company shall publish a revised agenda at the latest on the 15th day before the GM (i.e. by Sunday 12 November 2023). V. RIGHT TO ASK QUESTIONS Every shareholder has the right to ask questions concerning items on the agenda of the GM. The Company will respond to such questions on a best efforts basis subject to the measures which it may take to ensure the identification of shareholders, the good order of the GM and its preparation and the protection of confidentiality and the Company's business interests. The Company may provide one overall answer to questions having the same content. Where the relevant information is available on the Company's website in a question and answer format, the Company shall be deemed to have answered the questions asked by referring to its website. For the sake of the good order of the GM and to facilitate the Company providing comprehensive answers to questions raised, questions of shareholders concerning items on the agenda of the GM, should be received by Computershare by midnight (24:00 CET) on Wednesday, 22 November 2023 by post (see contact details in Section VII below) or by e-mail to anmeldestelle@computershare.de. Answers will be provided by the Company either during the GM (as applicable) or on the Company's website in a question and answer format. VI. PARTICIPATION TO THE GM The rights of shareholders to participate at the GM and exercise voting rights are subject to such shareholders being shareholders of the Company at midnight (24:00) CET on Monday, 13 November 2023 (the "Record Date", i.e. the day falling fourteen (14) days before the date of the GM). In order to participate in the GM, a shareholder must:- (i) indicate his/her/its intention to participate in the GM at the latest by 24:00 CET on Wednesday, Monday, 13 November 2023, the Record Date. This confirmation of participation shall be given to Computershare in writing (by e-mail to anmeldestelle@computershare.de or by post (see contact details in Section VII below)) or by a shareholder directly or someone on his/her/its behalf; (ii) procure that a Shareholding Confirmation Certificate is received by Computershare at the latest by midnight (24:00 CET) on Wednesday, 22 November 2023. This "Shareholding Confirmation Certificate" must indicate the shareholder's name and the number of Company shares held at midnight, (24:00) CET on the Record Date. The Shareholding Confirmation Certificate shall be issued by the bank, the professional securities' depositary or the financial institution where the shares are on deposit. A template form can be downloaded from the Company's website, https://ir.adler-group.com, in the segment "Corporate Governance" > "General Meeting" > "General Meeting 2023"; and (iii) complete and return a PPV Form and as described here below, depending on whether the shareholder is participating to the GM:- a. by attendance in person, he/she/it must complete and sign the PPV Form, excluding section 2, 3, 4 and 5 and return that form to Computershare at the latest by midnight (24:00 CET) on Wednesday, 22 November 2023 (together with the Shareholding Confirmation Certificate mentioned above). He/she/it must attend the GM and identify himself/herself with a valid identification card; or b. by appointing Computershare as proxyholder or another proxyholder of his/her/its choice to exercise his/her/is voting rights as the relevant proxyholder deems fit, he/she/it must complete and sign the PPV Form, excluding section 1, 3, 4 and 5 and return that form to Computershare at the latest by midnight (24:00 CET) on Wednesday, 22 November 2023 (together with the Shareholding Confirmation Certificate mentioned above). A proxy holder must attend the GM and identify himself/herself with a valid identification card; or c. by appointing Computershare as proxyholder or another proxyholder of his/her/its choice to exercise his/her/is voting rights according to explicit instructions, he/she/it must complete and sign the PPV Form, excluding section 1, 2 and 4 and return that form to Computershare at the latest by midnight (24:00 CET) on Wednesday, 22 November 2023 (together with the Shareholding Confirmation Certificate mentioned above); d. by voting by correspondence, he/she/it must complete and sign the PPV Form, excluding section 1, 2 and 3 and return that form to Computershare at the latest by midnight (24:00 CET) on Wednesday, 22 November 2023 (together with the Shareholding Confirmation Certificate mentioned above).

The PPV Form can be downloaded from the Company's website, https://ir.adler-group.com, in the segment "Corporate Governance"> "General Meeting" > "General Meeting 2023". VII. CONTACT DETAILS COMPUTERSHARE The contact details of Computershare, as the agent duly mandated by the Company to receive confirmations of participation to the GM and to receive the Shareholding Confirmation Certificates, the Participation, Proxy and Voting Forms, questions on the agenda of the GM, proposals of additional agenda items and proposed resolutions pursuant to this convening notice are as follows:- ADLER Group S.A. c/o Computershare Operations Center Postal address: 80249 Munchen E-mail: anmeldestelle@computershare.de VIII. PROCESSING OF PERSONAL DATA For information on the processing of personal data in connection with the GM, we invite you to consult the Company's Data Protection Notice, which can be found on the Company's website, https://ir.adler-group.com, in the segment "Corporate Governance"> "General Meeting" > "General Meeting 2023". Signed on 23 October 2023 The Board of Directors Prof. Dr. A. Stefan Kirsten

(Chairman)
Papendrecht, 27 October 2023

Boskalis has signed a contract with Dutch shipbuilding company Royal IHC to build a large state-of-the-art trailing suction hopper dredger. The award of the contract follows an extensive design phase. The vessel will have a hopper capacity of 31,000 m3 and will be built at the IHC yard in Krimpen aan den IJssel, the Netherlands, over the next few years.

?Artist's impression of the new Boskalis trailing suction hopper dredger

The new vessel will be one of the largest trailing suction hopper dredgers in the Boskalis fleet. Noteworthy features of the energy-efficient vessel design include the full diesel-electric installation and propulsion via Azipods. These technological innovations, combined with the optimized underwater hull design and an advanced automation system, will contribute to a significantly lower fuel consumption.

The vessel is also being prepared for the use of (green) methanol as an alternative fuel. The methanol plant and storage tanks on board make this switch possible. Furthermore, the dual fuel main engines are equipped with two-stage turbos and can be powered by both conventional fuels and more sustainable alternatives such as biodiesel and methanol, providing for a substantial reduction of CO 2 emissions.

With a double suction pipe equipped with underwater pumps and two discharge pumps with a combined discharge capacity of 15,000 kW, the new trailing suction hopper dredger is well suited to dredging material and discharge this over long distances to a reclamation site. This powerful performance also contributes to increased efficiency of the dredging process.

The new vessel is expected to enter service in mid-2026. Thanks to its advanced design and state-of-the-art technology, this vessel marks a significant step in making Boskalis' dredging fleet more sustainable.





The working of a trailing suction hopper dredger

A trailing suction hopper dredger is a vessel used to extract and transport sand or sediment by dragging a trailing head attached to a long suction pipe (2) with water jets (1) while travelling over the seabed, as a result of which the material to be dredged is loosened in front of the suction head. Large centrifugal pumps transport the dredged material to the hopper (3) from where it is later deposited (through bottom doors) (4) or discharged (through a pipeline or sprayed - rainbowed - across the bow) (5) to a reclamation area. Applications of the hopper dredger include the deepening and maintenance of ports and waterways and protecting coastlines from erosion and the effects of climate change.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

Martijn L.D. Schuttevaer

press@boskalis.com

T +31 786969310

This is an English translation of the Dutch press release. In the event of any disparity between the Dutch original and this translation, the Dutch text will prevail.

Boskalis is a leading global services provider operating in the dredging, maritime infrastructure and maritime services sectors. The company provides creative and innovative all-round solutions to infrastructural challenges in the maritime, coastal and delta regions of the world. With core activities such as coastal defense, riverbank protection and land reclamation Boskalis is able to provide adaptive and mitigating solutions to combat the effects of climate change, such as extreme weather conditions and rising sea levels, as well as delivering solutions for the increasing need for space in coastal and delta regions across the world. The company facilitates the development of offshore energy infrastructure, including renewable wind energy. Boskalis is furthermore active in the construction and maintenance of ports, waterways, access channels and civil infrastructure, thus helping to facilitate trade flows and regional socio-economic development. In addition, Boskalis is a global marine salvage expert and has a strategic partnership in terminal services (Smit Lamnalco). With a versatile fleet of more than 600 vessels and floating equipment and approximately 10,000 employees, including associates, Boskalis is creating new horizons around the world.

This press release can also be found on our website www.boskalis.com.

Attachments
NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES

VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / October 27, 2023 / Lincoln Gold Mining Inc. ("Lincoln" or the "Company") (TSXV:LMG) is pleased to provide an update on its proposed acquisition of the Bell Mountain project (the "Project") from Eros Resources Corp. ("Eros"). Further to the Company's news release dated August 10, 2023, the Company and Eros entered into a non-binding letter of intent pursuant to which the parties agreed to negotiate the terms of a definitive agreement providing for the acquisition of the Project by the Company.

The Company remains committed to advancing the transaction and is working diligently with Eros to settle the terms of the definitive agreement. We are encouraged by the recent progress in negotiations and remain confident that an agreement will be finalized shortly.

The proposed acquisition is aligned with Lincoln's commitment to responsible and sustainable mining practices while maximizing shareholder value. Given the Project's proximity to the Company's Pine Grove project, one team of personnel could operate both properties and only one recovery plant would be needed.

Please refer to the Company's news release dated August 10, 2023 for additional details regarding the Project and the Company's strategic vision for the proposed acquisition.

About Lincoln

Lincoln Gold Mining Inc. is an advanced-stage gold mine exploration and development company holding a 100% interest in the Pine Grove Gold Project, in the Walker Lane structural zone of western Nevada. The Company has prepared a preliminary economic assessment of the Pine Grove Gold Project pursuant to National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

Lincoln holds its interests in the US projects through its wholly owned subsidiaries, Lincoln Resource Group Corp. and Lincoln Gold US Corporation, both Nevada corporations.

For more information, please contact Paul Saxton, President and CEO of the Company.

On behalf of Lincoln Gold Mining Inc.

Paul Saxton

President and CEO, Lincoln Gold Mining Inc.

Tel: (604) 688-7377

Email: saxton @ lincolnmining.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.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains certain statements and information that may constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are often identified by terms such as "will", "may", "should", "anticipate", "expects" and similar expressions. All statements in this news release, other than statements of historical facts, are forward-looking statements and contain forward-looking information, including without limitation, statements relating to: the proposed acquisition of the Project; the expectation that the Company and Eros will be able to settle the terms of a definitive agreement providing for the acquisition of the Project, and the anticipated timeline on which the parties may settle such agreement; and the anticipated impact of the proposed acquisition on the Company. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and 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 include those relating to the Company's ability to settle the terms of the definitive agreement and the ability of the Company to do so on its anticipated timeline and other risks detailed from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulators.

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, including, without limitation, the Company not being able to settle the terms of the definitive agreement or not being able to do so on an acceptable timeline and the risk that the Company may not obtain approval of the TSX Venture Exchange or other necessary regulatory approval of the transaction if a definitive agreement is entered into. 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 will not update or revise publicly any of the included forward- looking statements unless as expressly required by applicable law.

SOURCE: Lincoln Gold Mining Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/797143/lincoln-provides-update-on-proposed-acquisition-of-the-bell-mountain-project-from-eros-resources-corp
McGraw to Depart Otis Worldwide Corporation Board

FARMINGTON, CT / ACCESSWIRE / October 27, 2023 / Otis Worldwide Corporation (NYSE:OTIS), the world's leading company for elevator and escalator manufacturing, installation and service, announced today that Tom Bartlett and Jill Brannon have been appointed to its Board of Directors, effective October 27, 2023.

Bartlett is President and Chief Executive Officer of American Tower Corporation. Brannon is Executive Vice President and Chief Sales Officer at FedEx Corp.

"We are pleased to welcome Tom and Jill to the Otis Worldwide Corporation Board of Directors," said Judy Marks, Otis Chair, CEO & President. "Tom's vast experience in technology and management of real estate dedicated to global wireless infrastructure, and Jill's leadership delivering global services, make them outstanding additions to support our growth strategy and momentum. I look forward to working with Tom and Jill as together we help Otis build a taller, faster, smarter world."

Prior to joining American Tower in 2009 as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Bartlett had a 25-year career at Verizon Communications and its predecessor companies and affiliates. Bartlett previously served on the Board of Directors of Equinix, Inc. He is a member of the World Economic Forum's Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) Board of Governors, the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trust (NAREIT) Executive Committee, and the Business Roundtable.

"It is a privilege to join the Otis board of directors and support the company's mission to be a world-class, customer-centric, service-oriented company," said Bartlett. "I'm eager to support the ongoing programs and innovation that deliver value and meet the unique and evolving needs of Otis' stakeholders around the world."

Brannon has more than three decades of global experience at FedEx. In addition to her role as Chief Sales Officer, Brannon serves on the company's Strategic Management Committee, a select group of the company's top leadership that sets the strategic direction for the enterprise. She has previously held positions leading sales in Europe, Middle East, the Indian Subcontinent and Africa, and in operations, marketing, and strategic planning and analysis. Since 2022, Brannon has served on the advisory board of directors for European Transport Solutions SARL, Luxembourg. She previously served on the boards of the US-ASEAN Business Council and the International Children's Heart Foundation.

"It is an honor to join Otis - the global leader in the industry it founded 170 years ago," said Brannon. "I look forward to bringing my decades of experience and insights gained serving in various global roles to support the Board as we oversee the company's long-term strategy and help ensure its future success."

Harold (Terry) W. McGraw III has announced he will retire from the Otis Worldwide Corporation Board of Directors, effective December 7, 2023. He was an inaugural member of the Otis Board, when the company separated from its previous parent and listed as an independent company on the New York Stock Exchange in April 2020. McGraw served on the Compensation and Nominations and Governance Committees.

"I would like to thank Terry for his contributions and guidance as we navigated Otis through the spin and in our three and one-half years as a public company. He has been a valuable advisor to Otis and to me personally," said Marks.

With the additions of Bartlett and Brannon, and the retirement of McGraw, the Otis Board will have 11 members. Bartlett will join the Audit and Compensation Committees. Brannon will join the Board's Audit and Nominations and Governance Committees.

To learn more about Otis and its Board of Directors, visit www.otis.com.

About Otis

Otis is the world's leading elevator and escalator manufacturing, installation and service company. We move 2 billion people a day and maintain approximately 2.2 million customer units worldwide, the industry's largest Service portfolio. Headquartered in Connecticut, USA, Otis is 69,000 people strong, including 41,000 field professionals, all committed to meeting the diverse needs of our customers and passengers in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide. For more information, visit www.otis.com and follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter @OtisElevatorCo.

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Otis Worldwide Corporation on 3blmedia.com.

Contact Info:

Spokesperson: Otis Worldwide Corporation

Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/otis-worldwide-corporation

Email: info@3blmedia.com

SOURCE: Otis Worldwide Corporation

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/797145/tom-bartlett-and-jill-brannon-appointed-to-otis-worldwide-corporation-board-of-directors
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JERUSALEM (dpa-AFX) - The United States has launched retaliatory air strikes targeting weapons and ammunition storage facilities used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and affiliated groups in eastern Syria. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement that this was in response to a number of drone and rocket attacks carried out by pro-Iranian militias against U.S. military bases in Iraq and Syria recently. These precision self-defense strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on October 17, Austin said. One U.S. contractor died and 21 U.S. troops were injured in these attacks, according to him. Austin said the aerial strikes were conducted as directed by President Joe Biden 'to make clear that the United States will not tolerate such attacks and will defend itself, its personnel, and its interests'. The Defense chief warned that such counter attacks will continue if 'Iran's proxies' target U.S. forces again. Austin made it clear that these narrowly tailored strikes in self-defense were intended solely to protect and defend U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria, and are distinct from the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, and do not constitute a shift in Washington's approach to the Israel-Hamas conflict. Earlier, the Pentagon said U.S. and coalition forces were attacked a dozen times in Iraq and four times in Syria 'by a mix of one-way attack drones and rockets'. 'We know that these groups are affiliated with Iran,' Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said at a news conference. He announced that the U.S. is deploying about 900 troops to the Middle East to support regional deterrence efforts and further bolster U.S. force protection capabilities. 'I won't talk specific deployment locations for these forces, I can confirm that they are not going to Israel,' he told reporters. Copyright(c) 2023 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Fairfax County, Virginia--(Newsfile Corp. - October 27, 2023) - Global cloud-led, data centric software company, NetApp celebrated the grand opening of its new U.S. Public Sector headquarters in the Boro Tower in Tysons on October 18, 2023. NetApp chose to keep its U.S. Public Sector headquarters in Fairfax County, moving into a new, 24,000 square-feet office space. With more than 12,000 employees world-wide, San Jose, California-based NetApp was founded in 1992, with the Fairfax County-based U.S. Public Sector offices opening in 2000.

"We have been in Fairfax County for many years, and we chose it as the headquarters of our U.S. Public Sector organization for about four reasons," said NetApp CEO George Kurian. "The first is talent. It has a large talent pool, both in the private sector as well as, veterans and other public sector employees who form an important part of NetApp workforce. About 12 percent of our workforce are veterans, and we love having that deep talent pool. Second is there is a technology cluster here. So, many of our partner companies work here, operate here, and so it makes doing joint work with them easier. The third, of course, it that it is well-situated geographically with access to both public sector organizations in Washington, D.C., as well as state and local government organizations here. And then the last is, that it is a great place to do business and a great place to live for our employees. So, we are excited to be here."

The President of NetApp U.S. Public Sector Michelle Rudnicki added:

"This is a great location for us because of not only access to our customers but the great talent pool that we have in this area. Being a public sector business, we serve the federal government as well as people across the country. But this really is our center of gravity. We have great access to downtown D.C., which is the headquarters for most of the federal agencies. And Fairfax County hosts most of the large systems integrators that work with federal government. So, we have easy access to them," Rudnicki continued. "Northern Virginia really forms a great ecosystem for us of reseller partners, as well as systems integrator partners and other technology partners where we can really come together, work with our government customers to help them serve their mission."

A live-work-play development in the heart of Fairfax County, the Boro is located just steps from the Greensboro Metrorail Station along the Silver Line, and just minutes away from the Dulles International Airport. Speaking at the grand opening event, Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeffrey C. McKay said:

"It is great to be here with NetApp celebrating this momentous occasion. And The Boro is a place where people want to come. People want to return to work in environments like this."

McKay added that the strong local economy attracts companies to move to and expand in Fairfax County.

"We at the county-level know what a great economy we have here," McKay said. "The idea that we are sitting in one of the places in the United States that has more business establishments today than we had before COVID hit speaks to our resilience and speaks to the investments we make in infrastructure, things like the (Metrorail) Silver Line, and a world class public education system, like we have in Fairfax County Public Schools. These are investments that pay dividends and are the reason why companies want to be in Fairfax County."

Noting Fairfax County's strategic location next to the U.S. federal government, McKay added:

"I am so glad that NetApp has such a strong partnership with our defense industry, with other private sector defense partners, and in supporting our veterans."

With more than 300 employees in Tysons, NetApp U.S. Public Sector is currently growing. Click here to find out about career opportunities, including internships, entry-level careers and opportunities for veterans and military spouses. To find out about NetApp's diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging program, click here.





Cannot view this video? Visit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMUQVDmr0eE

###

About Fairfax County Economic Development Authority (FCEDA)

FCEDA promotes Fairfax County as one of the world's top locations for business and talent, and offers site location and business development assistance, and connections with county and state government agencies, to help companies locate and expand in Fairfax County. FCEDA is headquartered in Tysons, Fairfax County's largest business district, and maintains offices in key global business centers: Bangalore/Mumbai, Berlin, London, Los Angeles, Seoul, and Tel Aviv. For more information about FCEDA, visit www.fairfaxcountyeda.org, or follow us on LinkedIn, X, Facebook and YouTube.

Fairfax County Economic Development Authority

Media Contact: Anna Nissinen

Vice President, Marketing and Communications

Email: anissinen@fceda.org

NetApp

Media Contact: Kenya Hayes

Head of Global Media, Public Relations & North America Communications

Email: kenya@netapp.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/185372
LONDON, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Stability AI, the UK's leading generative AI firm and a British AI unicorn headquartered in London, is pleased to contribute to the upcoming AI Safety Summit hosted by the UK Government at Bletchley Park.

Emad Mostaque, founder and CEO of Stability AI, and Ben Brooks, Head of Public Policy at Stability AI, will participate in the summit.

Emad Mostaque, CEO of Stability AI said, "As the leading British generative AI company, Stability AI is honoured to participate in the upcoming AI Safety Summit. The UK has a once in a generation opportunity to become an AI superpower and ensure that AI benefits all, not just big tech. Open technology is driving a wave of grassroots innovation in the UK and around the world that will greatly benefit economic growth and which is helping to promote transparency and competition in AI.

At this Summit, we will share our experience as a developer of the most popular generative AI models across image, language, code, audio, 3d, and video. We will encourage the Government and other policymakers to commit to supporting AI safety right across the ecosystem, from corporate labs to everyday researchers and from long-term threats to short-term risks to keep Britain safe and competitive.

We believe this is best achieved through a shared vision of the positive transformation this technology will unleash as well as a clear understanding of the emerging risks, so that we can innovate with integrity and align our efforts and systems to ensure our safety and security."

About Stability AI

Stability AI is a global company, headquartered in London, working to activate humanity's potential through artificial intelligence (AI). Today, Stability AI develops a range of generative AI models for image, language, audio, and video. With appropriate safeguards, these models are shared openly to promote transparency and competition in AI. Stability AI's flagship model, Stable Diffusion, is a family of open-source image models that powers up to ~80% of AI-generated imagery; their open-source language models have been downloaded over six million times; and their audio model, Stable Audio, was recently listed on the TIME Best Inventions of 2023.

Stability AI is committed to the safe development and safe deployment of open models. To that end, Stability AI has joined the White House Voluntary AI Commitments and participated in the first large-scale public evaluation of AI models announced by the White House. Stability AI recently testified in the UK Parliament and the US Congress , and engages widely with researchers and governments around the world as they consider the future of AI oversight.

About the AI Safety Summit

The AI Safety Summit 2023 is a major global event that will take place on the 1 and 2 November at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire. The summit will bring together international governments, leading AI companies, civil society groups and experts in research to consider the risks of AI, especially at the frontier of development, and discuss how they can be mitigated through internationally coordinated action.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2204777/Stability_AI_Logo.jpg

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/stability-ai-participating-in-the-uk-governments-ai-safety-summit-301970223.html


BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - A flight carrying humanitarian assistance to the people in Gaza has left Copenhagen Friday.



The flight, with 51 tons of medicines, medical items, and education supplies on behalf of UNICEF on board, will land in Egypt to be transported to Gaza.



The flight is part of 6 upcoming flights of the European Union humanitarian air bridge operation transporting essential supplies provided by partners for fast deployment to the field.



The EU is funding the total cost of all flights and supporting the coordination of operations under the European Humanitarian Response Capacity.



The upcoming flights are scheduled to be rolled out along the next two weeks. Besides UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Food Program (WFP), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) will be partnering to provide the humanitarian cargo to the needy.



The situation in Gaza is dire and keeps deteriorating with only marginal amount of aid items have been allowed in through an Egyptian crossing point.



Israel is not permitting fuel to cross the border saying that Hamas will misuse it.



Janez Lenarcic, the European Commissioner for Crisis Management, urged all involved parties to let aid trucks move without further delay.



'To alleviate the suffering of the people in the Gaza Strip in these extremely difficult times it is imperative that full, unrestricted and safe humanitarian access into Gaza is granted,' she said.



Under its humanitarian air bridge operation, the European Union sent two flights in aid of Gaza last week. A total of 56 tons of supplies have so far been transported by UNICEF to the thickly populated enclave.



Copyright(c) 2023 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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Calgary, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - October 27, 2023) - FluroTech Ltd. (TSXV: TEST) (OTC Pink: FLURF) ("FluroTech" or the "Company") announces that effective October 30, 2023 the Company's listing on the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV") will be transferred to the NEX Board of the TSXV (the "NEX"). The listing transfer is being made as a result of FluroTech not meeting the requirements of a Tier 2 company in accordance with TSXV Policy 2.5 - Continued Listing Requirements and Inter-Tier Movement.

The trading symbol for the Company will change from TEST to TEST.H. The Company name has not changed, there has been no change to its CUSIP number, and no consolidation of capital has occurred. The Company continues to review strategic opportunities that will qualify the Company to return to the TSXV.

For further information please contact:

Contact Information

FluroTech Ltd.

Danny Dalla-Longa, CEO

601, 256 Stewart Green SW

Calgary, AB T3H 3C8

Email: info@flurotech.com

Phone: (403) 680-0644

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of 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. In this news release, forward-looking statements relate, among other things, to the transfer of the Company from the TSXV to the NEX. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to: general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; and the delay or failure to receive board, shareholder, court or regulatory approvals, including approval from the TSXV. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release. Except as required by law, the Company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change, except as required by law.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy of this release.

Not for distribution to United States newswire services or for dissemination in the United States. Any failure to comply with this restriction may constitute a violation of U.S. securities laws.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/185458
LONDON, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Filippo Berio, the 156-year-old Italian brand and the UK's favourite olive oil has a dedicated tradition of quality, innovation and sustainability, and a new report issued by its parent company, Salov Group, provides evidence of the brand's continued progress and commitment. Released 19th October, its latest Sustainability Report notes key investments in projects to improve production efficiency, material sourcing and product packaging as well as in research to enhance energy savings, quality markers and agronomic methods. Results include measurable reductions in energy consumption, water withdrawal, emissions and waste. Additionally, it lays the groundwork for future endeavours through the company's newly defined Sustainability Plan.

"At Salov, we firmly believe in the need for continuous improvement across all areas that impact our business and those around us, from fair and responsible innovation to sustainable models of production and consumption," said Fabio Maccari, CEO of Salov. "We come from more than 150 years of history with the Filippo Berio brand, and it is our intention to extend its commendable tradition of caring for product, people and place."

Improvement in environmental impacts

The report documents gains across sustainability measures. The company reported a 3.4% decrease in energy consumption, an 8.6% decrease in total water withdrawal, a 6.7% decrease in direct emissions of climate-changing gases, and a 5.0% decrease in total waste production  all in comparison to the previous year.

Materials sourcing plays significant role

Noted in the report is its focus on waste reduction through the use of recycled and recyclable materials as well as sustainably sourced materials. In 2022, 46.5% of all materials used were recycled. Additionally, Salov and Filippo Berio turn to suppliers certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) to source paper for boxes and bottle labels.

Planning for a sustainable future

In recognition of the need to integrate sustainability throughout the organisation, Salov published in 2022 in its first-ever Sustainability Plan. The plan is founded on four pillars: supply chain control; employee protection and human capital development; responsible communication; and quality, research and innovation.

The Sustainability Plan will be instrumental to Filippo Berio and its promise of enduring quality. In 2022, for example, the company embarked on a research project, coined Long Life Oil. In collaboration with the Region of Tuscany as well as other companies and institutions, the research project explores innovative technologies that may be applied to maintain the analytical and organoleptic characteristics of olive oil over a longer period of time.

Compilation of Sustainability Report 2022

Sustainability Report 2022 is the second edition of Salov's publication, which is released every other year, and compares results from the years 2020, 2021 and 2022. It was prepared according to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Sustainability Reporting Standards, and it was subject to validation by an independent third party in SGS. It was officially presented to the company's top management at Villa Filippo Berio, which serves as an open-air research centre and blends the brand history with present initiatives and hopes for the future.

Sustainability Report 2022 is available for download and viewing at https://filippoberio.com/sustainability/.

About Filippo Berio:

The Filippo Berio brand has been committed to creating high-quality olive oil for 156 years. Founder Filippo Berio set forth exceptional standards of olive oil production that are still rigorously followed today, with each bottle sold bearing his signature as a seal of the finest olive oil and the brand's promise of quality. From distinctive olive oils to a selection of specialty pestos, wine vinegars, balsamic vinegars and glazes, all featuring the finest ingredients and high production standards, the Italian brand focuses on creating great-tasting and accessible products. The brand is currently sold in more than 75 countries. Filippo Berio is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Salov Group, based in Lucca, Italy. For additional information, please visit filippoberio.com

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2259731/Filippo_Berio.jpg

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2259730/Filippo_Berio_Logo.jpg

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/filippo-berio-highlights-its-dedication-to-quality-innovation-sustainability-in-its-new-sustainability-report-301970321.html
Finsbury Growth & Income Trust Plc - Transaction in Own Shares

PR Newswire

LONDON, United Kingdom, October 27

For immediate release

27 October 2023

FINSBURY GROWTH & INCOME TRUST PLC

(the "Company")

MARKET PURCHASE OF COMPANY'S OWN SHARES

The Company announces that it has today purchased 89,784 of its own shares ("Ordinary Shares") at a price of 791.67 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 22,682,778; 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 202,308,525.

The figure of 202,308,525 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
KANSAS CITY, Mo., Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Kansas City Life Insurance Company recorded net income of $4.6 million or $0.47 per share in the third quarter of 2023 compared to net income of $4.3 million or $0.45 per share in the third quarter of 2022. Net income totaled $5.8 million or $0.60 per share in the first nine months of 2023, up from $1.1 million or $0.12 per share in the first nine months of 2022.

The results for the third quarter of 2023 reflected higher insurance and investment revenues compared to the third quarter of 2022. In addition, policyholder benefits and amortization of deferred acquisition costs were lower compared to the prior year. Partially offsetting these improvements were increases in interest credited to policyholder account balances and operating expenses.

The improvement in the first nine months of 2023 compared to one year earlier was largely due to increases in insurance and investment revenues and lower amortization of deferred acquisition costs. Partially offsetting these were increases in policyholder benefits and operating expenses.

Kansas City Life Insurance Company (OTCQX: KCLI) was established in 1895 and is based in Kansas City, Missouri . The Company's primary business is providing financial protection through the sale of life insurance and annuities. The Company operates in 49 states and the District of Columbia . For more information, please visit www.kclife.com.

Kansas City Life Insurance Company

Condensed Consolidated Income Statement

(amounts in thousands, except share data)







Quarter Ended

September 30

Nine Months Ended

September 30





2023

2022

2023

2022 Revenues

$ 122,626

$ 119,998

$ 372,547

$ 353,808 Net income

$ 4,599

$ 4,315

$ 5,821

$ 1,124 Net income per share, basic and

diluted

$ 0.47

$ 0.45

$ 0.60

$ 0.12 Dividends paid

$ 0.14

$ 0.14

$ 0.42

$ 0.55 Average number of shares

outstanding



9,683,414



9,683,414



9,683,414



9,683,414



























SOURCE Kansas City Life Insurance Company
The announcement is expected to contribute to increased foreign investment and job creation in the country

PANAMA CITY, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- In a momentous decision with positive implications for the international financial community and Panamanian economy, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) today excluded Panama from its grey list. This announcement comes following an FATF plenary meeting, held in Paris, France, in which it was determined that the Republic of Panama has strengthened its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing prevention system and implemented substantial regulations and actions that have allowed the country to take an important step forward in international transparency.

In response to Panama's removal from the FATF grey list,Panama's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Janaina Tewaney, released the following statement:

"After being added to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list in June 2019, our administration took office in July of the same year with a firm commitment to fostering a more robust framework to fight money laundering and terrorist financing, and nurture a more transparent financial system. Since then, Panama has successfully implemented several strategic measures aimed at consolidating our legislative and regulatory framework to reinforce the fight against money laundering and enhance the transparency of our financial system according to international standards. Today, these substantial efforts have been recognized by the international community with the successful removal of Panama from the FATF grey list, an endeavor many years in the making."

Benefits both nationally and internationally include:

Increased foreign investment and job creation: With the recognition of the progress made in preventing money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism implemented by the country, foreign investment is expected to increase, which will boost tourism, trade and the creation of new and more jobs, as well as opportunities in the country. More accessible lines of credit: Cheaper and expanded lines of credit will benefit individuals and businesses seeking financing. Improved banking correspondents and international relations: It will lead to a significant improvement in the relations between Panama's local banks and their international correspondents. The basic links required for financial operations will be strengthened. Less pressure on the financial system: With the removal of the pressure associated with special reviews, Panama's financial system can operate more effectively and with greater confidence. Benefits for the insurance and securities industry: Panama's removal from the grey list will attract the world's leading reinsurers, who will be able to establish themselves in Panama and serve the Latin American market.

Panama's removal from the FATF grey list represents a crucial milestone in the country's economic development. Minister Tewaney further commented on the future implications of the decision for Panama, stating:

"Panama's removal from the grey list solidifies Panama as an attractive, stable and safe destination for foreign investment. Panama boasts a track record second to none in the region in building critical business sectors from financial services to the maritime industry to logistics and shipping. As one of the leading investment destinations in Latin America, Panama welcomes the continued interest of international businesses from a wide variety of sectors. President Cortizo's administration remains committed to maintaining a legacy of the highest international standards for the benefit of all Panamanians and the international community."

For additional details on the announcement, including actions carried out, please refer to the Ministry of Economy and Finances' press release here.

For media inquiries, please contact Kate Cigna at kate.cigna@edelmanega.com

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/panama-officially-removed-from-fatf-grey-list-301970505.html
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - October 27, 2023) - Evocati Capital Resources Inc. (TSXV: EVOC.P) (the "Company" or "Evocati"), a Capital Pool Company ("CPC") under TSX Venture Exchange ("TSXV") Policy 2.4 - Capital Pool Companies (the "CPC Policy"), is pleased to announce results of the Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on October 25, 2023 and subsequent changes to the Management Team.

Denis Flood, who was one of the founding board members, will replace James Lill as CEO of Evocati as of the date of this press release. Mr. Flood is a mining engineer with extensive experience within the mining industry and the board is confident in his ability to identify a Qualifying Transaction that leverages Evocati's skill set. The Board of Directors would like to thank Mr. Lill for his service as CEO of Evocati since its inception. During these past two years Mr. Lill was directly responsible for navigating the company through the CPC process, including completing the initial public offering. Mr. Lill will continue to serve on the Board of Directors of Evocati.

All resolutions proposed by the Board of Directors and management of the company in the Annual General Meeting passed with an overwhelming majority.

The company would like to thank its shareholders for their continued support.

About Evocati

Evocati was incorporated under the Business Corporations Act (Ontario) on September 17, 2021, and its head office and registered office is located in Toronto, Ontario. The common shares of Evocati ("Evocati Shares") are listed for trading on the TSXV under the stock symbol EVOC.P and Evocati is a reporting issuer in Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Ontario.

Evocati currently has 11,200,000 Evocati Shares issued and outstanding and securities exercisable or exchangeable into 1,620,000 Evocati Shares, being: (i) 1,120,000 stock options issued under Evocati's stock option plan; and (ii) 500,000 broker warrants. There are no other securities of Evocati issued and outstanding and Evocati has not commenced commercial operations and has no assets other than cash.

For further information contact:

Denis Flood P. Eng., CEO

Evocati Capital Resources Inc.,

p: (905) 418 - 3534

e: denis.flood@evoc.rocks

Cautionary Notes

Investors are cautioned that trading in the securities of a CPC should be considered highly speculative.

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.

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES 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/185523
Her Campus Media, a Boston, MA-based media portfolio for college women and Gen Z, acquired Zfluence, a Boston, MA-based platform connecting brands with young content creators.

The amount of the deal was not disclosed.

This new addition to the Her Campus Media family reinforces its position as the preferred Gen Z marketing solution for leading brands, powering authentic and organic collaborations between companies and the Gen Z demographic.

Led by Ava McDonald, Founder and CEO, Zfluence provides a marketing platform that connects brands and the influential Gen Z consumers who love them. It enables brands to engage in and practice authentic brand advocacy and empowers Gen Z consumers, who seek alignment with the brands they support, to participate in building the brands they love. The company addresses the Gen Z demographics emphasis on authenticity as a core value, enabling companies to leverage the genuine insights and influence of their genuine Gen Z fans to attract new Gen Z consumers. Using the Zfluence platform, brands connect with their genuine Gen Z fans and mobilize them in a variety of ways, from posting authentic content on Instagram and TikTok and participating in brainstorming sessions to wearing branded merchandise on campus.

Led by CEO Stephanie Kaplan Lewis, Her Campus Media is a media portfolio for college women and Gen Z, and reaches readers and social followers across its family of brands, including Her Campus, Spoon University, College Fashionista, InfluenceHer Collective, and Generation Hired, with a curated network of 50,000+ influencers and ambassadors across 1,500+ colleges. Leveraging its digital, social, experiential, influencer and on-campus reach, Her Campus Media provides marketing programs that drive consumer engagement and loyalty for brands.

FinSMEs

26/10/2023
After stealing the show at the Venice Film Festival, Abhishek Banerjee-starrer Stolen is now all set to be screened at Jio MAMI Mumbai International Film Festival.

Interestingly, ahead of the screening, the makers unveiled a riveting clip from the film, which follows the aftermath of the abduction of an impoverished mothers five-month-old child, as wealthy brothers Gautam and Raman become involved in a harrowing journey to help her.

The clip provides viewers with a brief but intense look into the films darker depths.

Sharing his thoughts about the released asset and the film as a whole, Abhishek said, This was the most painful scene for me, not physically but emotionally. The question that stayed with me after the filming was  how can humans be so cruel to humans? Are we not from the same team? Stolen posed a lot of these questions for me and answered them alike.

He added, The makers have created a gripping cinematic journey with a thought-provoking narrative based on true events. Its a raw, intense and authentic film that keeps you on the edge. We hope that the film will get your hearts racing.

Stolen is directed by Karan Tejpal and produced by Gaurav Dhingra of Jungle Book Studio. It co-stars Shubham and Mia Maelzer in key roles.

The actor is also gearing up for Apurva, which will stream on Disney Plus Hotstar from November 15.

Talking about that, he said, This is one of the most fearsome characters Ive played so far and to bring the necessary level of evil and menace in each scene was quite challenging but it was a great journey working with such an exemplary team! I am very excited for audiences to watch Apurva from 15th November on Disney+ Hotstar.

With added inputs from agencies

Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,

India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Language: Hindi

Director: Sarvesh Mewara

Cast: Kangana Ranaut, Varun Mitra, Ashish Vidyarthi, Anshul Chauhan

Unlike Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl, Kangana Ranauts Tejas is not based on a real character. The movie takes time to pick up and it actually does in the second half and that too gradually. Kanganas performance is gripping and she has mastered the tough drills of an air force officer with perfection.

Tejas clearly shows right from the beginning, that those who are brave enough to disregard rules can do well in life. Not just that, if you are sure of your abilities, you really dont need to toe what your seniors have to say to be successful in a mission. Abiding by the rules can probably help in your promotions and being a yes man is a diplomatic play, but to succeed in a mission you just need to follow your heart and be thorough in your subject. And be so good at your work, that your seniors will bow down and say, This is the man and in the case of Tejas movie, This is the woman. When Tejas prepares herself for the first solo trial sortie, she just doesnt see the runway, but the path that will fly her up to serve the nation.

As the film pickups, we see Tejas (Kangana Ranaut) goes on a mission to rescue an Indian spy. Again she was not the first choice, though it was she who was able to track down the location of the spy, who happened to be her academy friend. When she was rejected from this mission on the grounds of being a woman considering it was a dangerous terrain, she didnt give up. She fought for it and was able to convince her seniors and the mission was named Mission Tejas.

Tejas is every womans story, who struggles every single day to prove her worth. Tejas (Kangana Ranaut) is not only a brilliant fighter pilot, but a true patriotic officer who has mastered the skills of detecting clues which even the Indian intelligence agencies were unable to catch. The film shows Pakistani army officials to be extremely foolish, which gets a little unrealistic.

The film has all the Bollywood masala required for a successful theatrical release, but in a much toned down manner. Nobody can ignore the presence of Kangana on screen. Brilliant at her craft and a dedicated actress, she knows her work well. And not just Kangana, Tejass co-pilot Afia played by Anshul Chauhan needs a mention too. She brings out the fun side of her character when the film is moving towards a serious turn.

Now, what didnt work for the film is that it lacked research and fine technicalities. When you are attempting a movie on Indian armed forces, one needs to be slightly more careful. Most of the fighter plane drills and the air- fight visuals looked like a poorly made video game. And thats when I felt like calling out, Come on Bollywood Indian Air Force deserves more!

The film tried to touch upon too many things including the Mumbai terrorist attack. An air combat thriller could have been more engaging, had the makers not lost focus. Another thing, I understand that the filmmaker was obsessed in giving Kangana the centre stage, but the other actors like Varun Mitra, Ashish Vidyarthi and Anshul Chauhan could have been given more screen time. They are brilliant craftsmen too, but not enough justice was done to their craft by giving them not enough meat to their characters and very limited screen time.

Rating: 3 out of 5

WATCH Tejas trailer here:

Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,

India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Sana Raees Khan, Aryan Khans lawyer in the drugs case of 2021 is currently one of the contestants on Bigg Boss 17. However, she has landed herself in trouble as social media influencer Faizan Ansari has filed a 10-crore defamation case against the contestant.

She calls herself a criminal lawyer, but she herself is a fraudster and a criminal. Forget fighting his case, she has never met Aryan or Shah Rukh Khan in her dreams also, Ansari told the media.

Who is Sana Raees Khan and what is the issue?

Khan is a criminal lawyer by profession and was Shah Rukh Khans son Aryan Khans lawyer in the Mumbai Cruise Drugs Case in 2021. Owing to her participation on the show, Ashutosh Dubey, who is a prominent lawyer at the Bombay High Court, has raised an objection. He says this amounts to breach of the rules set forth by the Bar Council. He has filed an official complaint with the Bar Council of India.

Taking to X, Dubey shared a copy of the letter and wrote, I have formally notified the Bar Council of India that Advocate Sana Raees Khan has participated as a contestant in the reality show Bigg Boss 17 which is violation of Bar Council Rules. According to rules 47 to 52 of the Bar Council of India Rules, advocates are prohibited from engaging in any other employment to generate income. Additionally, section 49(1)(c) of the Advocates Act, 1961 restricts practicing advocates from pursuing full-time employment in other fields.

I have formally notified the Bar Council of India that Advocate Sana Raees Khan has participated as a contestant in the reality show Bigg Boss 17 which is violation of Bar Council Rules. According to rules 47 to 52 of the Bar Council of India Rules, advocates are prohibited pic.twitter.com/sbz5JKVtFm  ADV. ASHUTOSH J. DUBEY  (@AdvAshutoshBJP) October 17, 2023

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Kangana Ranauts film Tejas releases in cinemas today. But ahead of the release of the film, the actress was giving an interview to Times Now and spoke about her marriage plans. She revealed, Every girl dreams of her marriage and of having a family. I am a completely family person, it is very important to me. I want to be married and have a family and it will happen before five years. It will be good if it is a mix of arranged and love marriage.

On her past relationships

You wont always get success in relationships. And you will be lucky if you dont get that success at a young age and that happened to me. I was so determined to make that thing work that if it would have continued, I have would have given all my years to it. Luckily that relationship didnt work for me at that time. I think God protected me, but this perspective comes very late in life.

Kangana meets Israels ambassador

While Kangana has been taking the film on different platforms, right from, television shows to the Ministry Of Bharat, now she has reached the Israel embassy. Recently, the actress went on to meet the Israel ambassador to India, Naor Gilon. Looking at the devastating condition in Israel, it was indeed a courageous move from the actress to support the nation and strengthen the relations of both countries.

Sharing some pictures on social media, the actress wrote- Today the whole world, especially Israel and India are fighting their war against terrorism. Yesterday when I reached Delhi to burn Ravana, I felt the Israel Embassy should come and meet those who are defeating terrorists like todays modern Ravana Hamas. The way young children and women are being targeted is heart wrenching. I have full hope Israel will win this war against terrorism.

Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,

India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
We are deeply shocked by the verdict of death penalty and are awaiting the detailed judgment. We are in touch with the family members and the legal team, and we are exploring all legal options.

This was the statement put out by the Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday (26 October) after Qatar handed down a death sentence to the eight former Indian Navy personnel working there.

The MEA has vowed to explore all legal options in the case, which dates back to August last year when the eight former officers with unblemished records  Captain Navtej Singh Gill, Captain Saurabh Vasisht, Commander Purnendu Tiwari, Captain Birendra Kumar Verma, Commander Sugunakar Pakala, Commander Sanjeev Gupta, Commander Amit Nagpal, and Sailor Ragesh  were arrested in the dead of night by the Qatars State Security Bureau, their spy agency.

The entire matter is shrouded in secrecy with even the charges that have been levelled against them to be revealed. However, some media reports say that they have been accused of spying for Israel on Qatars advanced submarines.

As India scrambles to get the veterans off the noose, we take a closer look at the ordeal they have endured until now.

Uncertainty and solitary confinement

Prior to the arrest, the eight veterans were working at Al Dahra Global Technologies and Consultancy Services, a defence services provider company, after securing voluntary retirements from the Indian Navy.

According to the old website of Al Dahra, the company provided training, logistics and maintenance services to the Qatari Emiri Naval Force (QENF). However, the website is now revamped and the company name changed to Dahra Global and it no longer boasts any connection with the QENF.

The owner of the company was an Omani national, Khamis al-Ajmi, a retired squadron leader of the Royal Oman Air Force. Al-Ajmi too was jailed along with the eight Indians, but he was released in November 2022.

On the night of 30 August 2022, the former naval personnel were arrested by Qatars State Security Bureau on undeclared charges. After their arrest, they were then placed in solitary confinement, led to speculation that they had been detained in connection with a security-related offence.

It was only after almost a month that the veterans were allowed to call their families and loved ones through a single phone call and on 3 October last year, the first consular access was granted.

They were granted a second consular access in the month of December during which it was revealed that they were being treated with civility. It was only after this that their families were allowed either weekly visits or phone conversations as well.

Speaking of their ordeal, Meetu Bhargava, the sister of Commander Purnendu Tiwari had told The Print, My brother is a senior citizen and has multiple medical issues. At the age of 63, he has been put in solitary confinement. I cant even imagine what mental trauma he must be going through.

Navdeep Gill, the brother of arrested veteran Captain Navtej Singh Gill, also told The Print, These officers dont deserve to go through this.

Its important to note here that even when the trial against the eight began on 29 March this year, they continued to be kept in solitary confinement. It was only on 4 August  nearly a year since they were arrested  that they were moved out of isolation and lodged on a twin sharing basis in Doha.

A source speaking to New Indian Express had said that the move brought some respite to the veterans as they have someone to talk to.

It has also been reported that family members filed a mercy petition with Qatars Emir seeking their pardon.

Also read: Why 18 December may be a key day in ex-Indian Navy personnel case in Qatar

Governments aid

And while the veterans have been languishing in prison, the government has extended all aid and help to get them out and reunite them with their loved ones. In fact, they filed at least eight bail pleas to the Qatari government, but all of them were rejected.

Also as part of their support to the veterans, the Indian government has been providing legal aid to them. Interestingly, Indias mission in Qatar experienced an exponential 11,254% rise in expenditure for legal assistance compared to last year, which could be linked to this case.

Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan in July in a written reply to Parliament gave a detailed break-up of the funds utilised from the Indian Community Welfare Fund (ICWF) by each of the 119 Indian diplomatic missions and consulates around the world from 2019 till June 2023.

The data revealed that expenditure of the Indian mission in Doha on financial assistance in 2019 was Rs 1.87 lakh. After a dip to just about Rs 26,000 in the pandemic year of 2020, it bounced back to Rs 1.79 lakh the next year. Then, it increased sharply to Rs 7.4 lakh within one year in 2022. But in just six months of this year, the Indian embassy in Doha has spent a whopping Rs 8.41 crore.

Now that the Ministry of External Affairs is awaiting the detailed judgment in the case, many believe that talks may have already begun with the Qatari side. We attach high importance to this case and have been following it closely. We will continue to extend all consular and legal assistance. We will also take up the verdict with Qatari authorities, the MEA said in a statement.

A test of diplomacy

The case shrouded in mystery  charges are still to be made public  and the now death sentence for the eight veterans will be a true test for Indian diplomacy.

India, however, shares a good relationship with Qatar. Since 2008, the ties have been blossoming; in 2015, the Qatari Emir, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani, visited India and in the following year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi went to Doha.

Moreover, in 2021, India was among the top four export destinations for Qatar, and is also among the top three sources of Qatars imports. The bilateral trade is valued at $15 billion, which is mostly LNG and LPG exports from Qatar worth over $13 billion.

Defence cooperation is also high among the two nations; it has been officially described as a pillar of Indian-Qatar ties.

It is left to be seen if India is able to secure the release of the eight naval veterans or will this matter go the Kulbhushan Jadhav way?

With inputs from agencies
Friday is here at last and many are already fervently planning their weekend.

But before you take that much-deserved break, heres a quick look at the events that are expected to make the news today.

First, we have Chinas foreign minister in Washington where he will conduct a slew of high-profile meetings including with US president Joe Biden.

Meanwhile, the Gujarat High Court is set to hear a bail plea in the Morbi bridge collapse case.

Prime MInister Narendra Modi is set to inaugurate the 7th edition of Asias largest tech forum.

Delhi is set to publish a draft version of the electoral rolls for all 70 Assembly constituencies.

And across the border, the beleaguered Imran Khan will go on trial for allegedly leaking the contents of a classified cable.

Lets take a closer look at todays big-ticket items:

Wang Yi in Washington

All eyes are on Washington as Chinas powerful foreign minister Wang Yi continues his long-awaited visit.

While Wang is set to meet NSA Jake Sullivan and even speak with President Joe Biden, myriad questions abound.

Will China come to Washingtons aid to curtail the possible spread of the conflict between Hamas and Israel?

Will the trip lay the groundwork for an in-person meet between Wangs boss Xi and Biden in the offing?

Keep watching this space.

Gujarat HC hears bail plea in bridge collapse

On 30 October last year, 135 people were killed and 56 injured after a bridge collapse in Gujarats Morbi.

The court is hearing the plea of Jaysukh Patel, the managing director of the Rajkot-headquartered Oreva Group  the company that was responsible for the maintenance and operation of the bridge.

The Gujarat governments Special Investigation Team (SIT) had in its report listed serious operational and technical lapses by the Oreva Group.

The bridge collapse was a result of lapses at the administrative level to follow due procedure as per government norms, and also due to technical incompetency to repair the bridge and test it before opening it to the public, the SIT stated in its report.

PM Modi to inaugurate India Mobile Congress

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the 7th Edition of the India Mobile Congress at New Delhis Pragati Maidan.

The India Mobile Congress is the largest telecom, media, and technology forum in Asia.

Over 1 lakh participants from 22 countries, including approximately 5,000 CEO-level delegates, 230 exhibitors, 400 startups, and various stakeholders are expected to attend.

Modi will confer awards upon 100 5G Use Case Labs established in educational institutions across India.

This is part of the 100 5G labs initiative  which looks to harness the potential of 5G technology by promoting the development of 5G applications tailored to Indias unique requirements and global demands.

Delhi to publish draft electoral rolls

The integrated draft electoral roll is slated to be published today.

This, after the schedule of Special Summary Revision of electoral rolls in all 70 Assembly constituencies of Delhi were revised.

Poll authorities in July had launched a month-long voter registration campaign in Delhi, which entailed house-to-house verification by booth-level officers.

The Delhi Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) had earlier announced that the final roll will be published on 5 January.

Imrans cipher case trial begins

Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khans trial in the official secrets acts case is set to begin today.

Imran has been accused of leaking a top-secret cable sent to Islamabad by Pakistans ambassador to Washington.

Imran has alleged that the cable is proof of a US conspiracy to get the Pakistani military to overthrow his government.

Imran has claimed the contents of the cable were reproduced in the media from other sources.

He has also said that he has been indicted in haste and that there seems to be a rush to frame charges and conclude the trial.

Imran was forced from office after losing the 2022 no-confidence vote and he then led protests against the government to push for an early general election, and against the military, which he accused of trying to sideline him.

This day in history: Elon Musk takes over Twitter

Its been a whole year since Elon Musk took over Twitter.

Remember this?

Entering Twitter HQ  let that sink in! pic.twitter.com/D68z4K2wq7  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 26, 2022

While the worlds richest man purchasing arguably the most influential social media platform on the planet still hasnt sunk in for many, no one can argue that Twitter  sorry X  hasnt irrevocably changed.

Whether thats for better or worse largely depends on your mileage.

Ex-president KR Narayanans birth anniversary

Indias first Dalit president KR Narayanan was born on this day in 1920.

Or was he?

Actually, his uncle who accompanied him to school on the day of his admission forgot his real birthday  4 February, 1921  and arbitrarily chose 27 October, 1920 for the official record.

The diplomat-turned-politico was asked to join the Congress by Indira Gandhi.

He became president in 1997 after garnering support from all major political parties. Narayanan also served as vice-president in 1992.
Death and destruction in Gaza continues as the Israel-Hamas conflict entered the 21st day (on 27 October). In the past couple of days, Israel intensified airstrikes and hundreds of buildings have turned into rubble. The escalation has resulted into the lose of numerous lives including children, women, and elderly.

How many Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip?

No one can answer this. With Israel besieging and bombing territories on a never-before-seen scale, arriving at the right figure is difficult.

Cell service is spotty. Internet and power services are out. Airstrikes have pulverised roads and levelled neighbourhoods, slowing rescue work.

Doctors scribble on notepads in overflowing morgues and hospital halls, struggling to account for bodies trapped under rubble and tossed in hastily dug mass graves. The chaos has added to the likelihood of errors.

Yet the Gaza-based Ministry of Health  an agency in the Hamas-controlled government  continues to tally casualty numbers. It released its first detailed report on the casualties Thursday, giving names, ID numbers, ages and gender for Palestinians it says have been killed. The total toll is 7,028 Palestinians, including 2,913 minors, according to the ministry.

Also Read: Israels biggest challenge in Gaza: A spiders web full of booby traps

The ministry is the only official source for Gaza casualties. Israel has sealed Gazas borders, barring foreign journalists and humanitarian workers. The AP is among a small number of international news organisations with teams in Gaza. While those journalists cannot do a comprehensive count, theyve viewed large numbers of bodies at the sites of airstrikes, morgues and funerals.

The United Nations and other international institutions and experts, as well as Palestinian authorities in the West Bank  rivals of Hamas  say the Gaza ministry has long made a good-faith effort to account for the dead under the most difficult conditions.

The numbers may not be perfectly accurate on a minute-to-minute basis, said Michael Ryan, of the World Health Organisations Health Emergencies Program. But they largely reflect the level of death and injury.

In previous wars, the ministrys counts have held up to UN scrutiny, independent investigations and even Israels tallies.

But an outlier is the ministrys death toll from an explosion at al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City last week.

There were conflicting accusations of who was responsible, with Hamas officials blaming an Israeli airstrike and Israel saying it was caused by an errant rocket launched by Palestinian militants. US and French intelligence services also concluded it was likely caused by a misfired rocket. An AP analysis of video, photos and satellite imagery, as well as consultation with experts, showed the cause was likely a rocket launched from Palestinian territory that misfired and crashed. However, a definitive conclusion couldnt be reached.

There have also been conflicting accounts of the explosions death toll. Within an hour, Gazas ministry reported 500 Palestinians killed, then lowered that to 471 the next day. Israel says the ministry inflated the toll. American intelligence agencies estimate 100 to 300 people killed, but havent said how they arrived at the numbers.

The confusion has called into question the ministrys credibility in the Hamas-ruled territory.

Heres a look at how Gazas health ministry has generated death tolls since the war started.

How does the ministry arrive at a death toll?

Gazas most widely quoted source on casualties is Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra. From an office at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, al-Qidra receives a constant flow of data from every hospital in the strip.

Hospital administrators say they keep records of every wounded person occupying a bed and every dead body arriving at a morgue. They enter this data into a computerised system shared with al-Qidra and colleagues. According to screenshots hospital directors sent to AP, the system looks like a colour-coded spreadsheet divided into categories: name, ID number, date of hospital entry, type of injury, condition.

Names arent always available, al-Qidra said. He and colleagues face disruptions because of spotty connectivity but say they call to double-check the numbers.

The ministry collects data from other sources, too, including the Palestinian Red Crescent.

Every person entering our hospital is recorded, said Atef Alkahlout, director of Gazas Indonesian Hospital. Thats a priority.

The ministry releases casualty updates every few hours, providing the number of dead and wounded with a breakdown for men, women and minors. The ministry generally doesnt provide names, ages or locations of those killed. That information comes from reporters on the ground or the Hamas-run government media office.

But Thursday, in response to US doubts over its figures, the ministry released a 212-page report listing every Palestinian killed in the war so far, including their names, ID numbers, ages and gender. A copy of the report shared with the AP names 6,747 Palestinians and says an additional 281 bodies have not yet been identified. The list did not provide a breakdown by location.

Also Read: Polite, wanted to talk politics: The shocking stories of Hamas revealed by freed hostage

The ministry never distinguishes between civilians and combatants. That becomes clearer after the dust settles, when the UN and rights groups investigate and militant groups offer a tally of members killed. The Israeli military also conducts post-war investigations.

The Health Ministry doesnt report how Palestinians were killed, whether from Israeli airstrikes and artillery barrages or other means, like errant Palestinian rocket fire. It describes all casualties as victims of Israeli aggression.

That lack of transparency has drawn criticism.

When the Hamas health agency comes out with the numbers, take it with a pinch of salt, Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht, Israeli military spokesman, said in a briefing Thursday. But he repeatedly declined to offer any alternative number of Palestinian casualties.

Israel says more than 1,400 civilians and soldiers were killed and over 200 hostages seized when Hamas invaded Israel. The army has identified 309 of those killed as soldiers so far.

Who works in the ministry?

Hamas, as Gazas ruling authority, exerts control over the Health Ministry. But its different than political and security agencies that Hamas runs.

The Palestinian Authority, which controlled Gaza before Hamas overran the area in 2007, retains power over health and education services in Gaza, though its based in the occupied West Bank. The ministry is a mix of recent Hamas hires and older civil servants affiliated with the secular nationalist Fatah party, officials say.

The Fatah-dominated authority that administers Palestinian cities in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has its own health ministry in Ramallah, which still provides medical equipment to Gaza, pays Health Ministry salaries and handles patient transfers from the blockaded enclave to Israeli hospitals.

Health Minister Mai al-Kaila in Ramallah oversees the parallel ministries, which receive the same data from hospitals. Her deputy is based in Gaza.

The Ramallah ministry said it trusts casualty figures from partners in Gaza, and it takes longer to publish figures because it tries to confirm numbers with its own Gaza staff.

Also Read: Israel-Hamas war: The belligerents and their military strengths

Hamas tightly controls access to information and runs the government media office that offers details on Israeli airstrikes. But employees of the Health Ministry insist Hamas doesnt dictate casualty figures.

Hamas is one of the factions. Some of us are aligned with Fatah, some are independent, said Ahmed al-Kahlot, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza. More than anything, we are medical professionals.

What is the track record from past wars?

Throughout four wars and numerous bloody skirmishes between Israel and Hamas, UN agencies have cited the Health Ministrys death tolls in regular reports. The International Committee of the Red Cross and Palestinian Red Crescent also use the numbers.

In the aftermath of war, the UN humanitarian office has published final death tolls based on its own research into medical records.

In all cases the UNs counts have largely been consistent with the Gaza Health Ministrys, with small discrepancies.

 2008 war: The ministry reported 1,440 Palestinians killed; the UN reported 1,385.

 2014 war: The ministry reported 2,310 Palestinians killed; the UN reported 2,251.

 2021 war: The ministry reported 260 Palestinians killed; the UN reported 256.

While Israel and the Palestinians disagree over the numbers of militants versus civilians killed in past wars, Israels accounts of Palestinian casualties have come close to the Gaza ministrys. For instance, Israels Foreign Ministry said the 2014 war killed 2,125 Palestinians  just a bit lower than the ministrys toll.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel has killed thousands of militants in the current war, without offering evidence or precise numbers.

In graphics | What is Israels military strength? What weapons does it use?

International news agencies, including AP, as well as humanitarian workers and rights groups, have used the ministrys numbers when independent verification is impossible.

These figures are professionally done and have proven to be reliable, said Omar Shakir, Human Rights Watchs Israel and Palestine director, adding he remained cognisant of different blind spots and weaknesses such as the failure to distinguish between civilians and combatants.

What about the hospital blast?

Less than an hour after images of the explosion surfaced on social media, the ministry reported that 200 to 300 people had been killed at al-Ahli Hospital. A half-hour later, the ministry put that toll at a staggering 500. The next day, it revised the number down to 471, without releasing details.

Western intelligence agencies said they believed the toll was considerably lower.

US president Joe Biden said he had no confidence in the accuracy of the ministrys reporting. However, the US governments annual human rights assessments from the region frequently cite the Gaza ministry.

Gazas Health Ministry stands by the 471 figure and includes it in the total death toll. When asked about conflicting accounts, authorities emphasise the difficulties of their work and vigorously deny any fabrication.

We had a uniquely hard time because the bodies were so dismembered, body parts were everywhere, Health Ministry official Mehdat Abbas said.

With inputs from AP
Israel is angry with its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They blame him for failing to prevent the Hamas attack. They are protesting his handling of the Hamas hostage crisis.

I want Benjamin Netanyahu and all his people to go home because theyve abandoned residents of the south and theyre not interested in the lives of residents there and instead theyre obsessed with small politics, protester Monica Levy told The Times of Israel.

Others have criticised Netanyahu for not reaching out to the families of those taken hostage.

Israelis feel the Hamas strike exposed a domestic leadership debacle, with two-thirds preferring anyone other than Netanyahu to be the countrys next prime minister, as per a new poll reported by Haaretz.

The government is completely incompetent

While the military is launching unrelenting airstrikes in Gaza that have killed thousands of Palestinians, and hundreds of thousands of Israeli troops are massing for a possible ground offensive, government infighting and lack of help for those in need have left traumatised survivors to mourn on their own and volunteers  many of whom spent the past year protesting the government  to take on recovery efforts.

It has to be clear. The government is completely incompetent, said Ruvi Dar, a clinical psychologist and Tel Aviv University professor who has been counselling survivors evacuated from their homes.

Any support that the refugees are getting right now is completely grassroots. Absolutely nothing by the state, he said, adding that even volunteers hotel rooms are paid for by nonprofit groups.

The backdrop to the outcry is the long-running and contentious plan by Netanyahu and his far-right government to sharply curtail the power of the nations judiciary, which sparked months of protests and consumed the Cabinet and the nation.

Many believe the government neglected basic functions while it focused its efforts on attacking the Supreme Court, which it accused of being liberal and interventionist.

Critics have accused Netanyahu of recklessly ignoring a raft of issues. The police force is understaffed, and the military was caught off guard on Israels southern flank as forces were more heavily stationed in the occupied West Bank, home to half a million settlers. The government did little to address the spiralling cost of living and rampant killings in Israels own Arab communities, while ultra-Orthodox Jewish and pro-settlement coalition partners have received billions of dollars for pet projects.

Government offices havent been functioning for a year now, so obviously they cant cope with emergency situations. They wasted a whole year on nonsense, Arnon Bar David, head of Israels Histadrut trade union, told Army Radio.

Also Read: Why India has not designated Hamas as a terrorist organisation

The government faced public wrath almost immediately after being caught by surprise by the 7 October Hamas attack that killed more than 1,400 people, the vast majority civilians. It took hours for the stunned military to respond and send troops to counter-attack, a chaotic response that foreshadowed the governments dysfunction.

Some government ministers have been blocked by residents from visiting attacked communities and others have been screamed at while visiting the wounded at hospitals.

Standing just feet from Economy Minister Nir Barkat, Ophir Shais eulogy for his brother, Yaron, turned into a furious attack on the government.

You abandoned the soldiers of the IDF. You abandoned the people who live along the Gaza border. You abandoned the state of Israel. You abandoned my beloved brother. I expect you all to take responsibility and resign immediately after the war ends, he said.

I wont forget, and I wont forgive. I promise to hunt you down forever.

Also read: Amid the Israel-Hamas war, how Benjamin Netanyahu is losing the battle at home

Even after the initial massacre, the government was slow to respond and appeared in disarray. Israels public diplomacy minister, meant to serve as a spokeswoman to the international media, quit in a huff after her responsibilities were turned over to other ministries.

Netanyahus approval ratings have hit rock bottom

Polls show Netanyahus already plunging popularity has collapsed. While other members of the government and the heads of the army and the Shin Bet security service have apologised and taken responsibility for the attack, Netanyahu said nothing of the sort for weeks. Only Wednesday night, 18 days after the attack, did he come close to accepting some responsibility.

This failure will be investigated thoroughly. Everyone will need to provide answers, myself included, but all of this will happen only after the war, he said in a brief nationwide address.

Netanyahu also boasted of government assistance for victims, including mass evacuations from hard-hit border communities. We will not leave anyone behind, he said.

But Netanyahu has not publicly visited the wounded in hospitals, consoled traumatised evacuated families or gone to a funeral for any of those killed. He has made several public statements, mainly as he greeted world leaders offering support, and he has visited soldiers in the field. But he has not taken questions from Israels famously combative media.

Asked for comment, a senior Israeli official said the prime minister met with families and is fully focused on winning the war. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the media.

With over 200 people being held captive by Hamas militants in Gaza, he did not meet with any of their families until more than a week after the attack  two days after US president Joe Biden spoke to families of US citizens being held.

Meanwhile, Israeli media has reported about a string of government turf wars holding up assistance to victims families and evacuees displaced from their homes.



For two days after the attack, the government wasnt functioning. We didnt get any help, said Yossi Keren, who became head of the regional council in Shaar HaNegev, where many of the attacks took place, after his predecessor was killed confronting Hamas gunmen.

Most residents have evacuated, and their needs  everything from getting schooling for children to replacing computers families left behind  are enormous, he said. The government response is slowly getting better, though he remains wary.

If the government wont step in, the crisis will be bigger. Much bigger, Keren said.

Danny Danon, a senior member of Netanyahus Likud Party, acknowledged the governments shortcomings.

The government agencies were not capable of dealing with the numbers. So, it took them some time to come back and to set up and provide the proper services, he said. Certainly, its legitimate for the families to express their pain and criticism.

He said there would be an inquiry into what went wrong after the war, but right now Israel must remain focused on defeating Hamas. Netanyahu is very mission-oriented now in the war effort, he said.

Gideon Rahat, a political science professor at Hebrew University, said the dysfunction was a result of a bloated, divisive government that demonised and then pushed out many respected bureaucrats who would have been competent to handle an emergency.

When you are a populist government and all you do is talk and tweet and write posts instead of doing real things, when you are needed you dont know what to do, he said.

That vacuum in the current crisis has been filled by the governments sworn enemies, opponents of the judicial overhaul who had mobilised tens of thousands of protesters for weekly demonstrations against the overhaul plan.

Less than 12 hours after the 7 October attack, they sent teams of medical volunteers to hospitals to help with the wounded and deliver food to their families, said Oren Shvill, one of the groups organisers. The next day, they started evacuating families and pairing them up with host families.

Really fast, we managed to transform our organisation from protesting to civilian aid, he said. Everything we asked for, people just jumped on the mission.

Now, they have 15,000 volunteers a day coordinated from logistics centres in Tel Aviv, near Gaza and in the north, where the army is fighting Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, he said. And theyve been lauded as heroes in Israel.

Also Read: Why is Israel attacking south Gaza after ordering civilians to go there?

They helped locate missing people; sent equipment to soldiers called to the Gaza border; shipped donated food, clothes, toys and medicine to the evacuees; and began coordinating an informal public relations operation for the country, Shvill said. They sent teachers and therapists to the evacuees hotels and set up operations there to answer their questions.

This week, they began sending volunteers to milk cows, pick tomatoes and cucumbers and plant potatoes at abandoned farms in the south.

Everything we are doing should have been done by the government, he said.

With inputs from AP
The National Capital Region (NCR) and Delhi see declining air quality as winter approaches.

This is because of crop residue or stubble burning in neighbouring states like Punjab and Haryana.

For the next four to five days, Delhis air quality is expected to fluctuate between the poor and very poor categories, according to the Centers Air Quality Early Warning System.

The National Green Tribunal listed stubble burning in Punjab throughout the autumn as one of the biggest contributors to pollution in NCR, according to Times Now. However, there has been a notable decrease in stubble-burning incidents in Haryana. As per official data, the state has experienced a drop of approximately 36 per cent in farm fires this year.

Hiren Jethva, Senior Research Scientist at Morgan State University NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre told NDTV, I was surprised to see that the fires in Punjab and Haryana have been lowest. We have never seen such low farm fires trend. There could be two reasons  the burning season has been delayed for some reason. It seems rainfall was in excess in Haryana and Punjab this July and August, which destroyed some crops. I am a bit afraid the (burning) season has been delayed, and we havent seen the big fires, likely to happen in the coming two weeks.

Utilising data shared by NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which has been monitoring the situation for several years now, we examine the farm fire scenario in the northern region of India.

All creatives designed by Network18
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, goes the famous adage. However, if you are Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy several hours of work will make you a good employee.

The 77-year-old entrepreneur in a podcast said that Indias work culture needed to change and youngsters should be prepared to work for 70 hours a week if the country has to compete effectively on the global stage.

Indias work productivity is one of the lowest in the world. Unless we improve our work productivity, unless we reduce corruption in the government at some level, because we have been reading, I dont know the truth of it, unless we reduce the delays in our bureaucracy in taking this decision, we will not be able to compete with those countries that have made tremendous progress, the Infosys founder said.

So therefore, my request is that our youngsters must say this is my country. Id like to work 70 hours a week, he added.

Unsurprisingly, Murthys comments have evoked a huge controversy with not just the common man speaking up, but even CEOs chiming in.

As the row continues over Murthys 70-hour week, we take a close look at what CEOs are saying, which countries have the longest workweek and what studies reveal on productivity.

CEOs speak up

Murthys comments came during a podcast called The Record by 3One4 Capital. In his conversation with Mohandas Pai, the Infosys founder stated that to compete with nations like China, Indian youngsters needed to work extra hours, similar to what Japan and Germany did after World War II.

He added that Indias culture needs to shift towards discipline, hard work, and determination. We need to be disciplined and improve our work productivity. I think unless we do that, what can poor government do? And every government is as good as the culture of the people. And our culture has to change to that of highly determined, extremely disciplined, and extremely hard-working people.

Notably, this is not the first time that Murthy has called for longer work hours. In 2020, he had called on professionals to work longer  60 hours a week  for the next two-three years to revive the economy post the COVID-19 pandemic.

Its not a wonder that his comments went viral and people started commenting on it; even entrepreneurs responded to the Infosys founder comments.

Ola Cabs co-founder Bhavish Aggarwal seconded Murthys viewpoint and said its our moment to go all in and build in one generation what other countries built over many generations.

Totally agree with Mr Murthys views. Its not our moment to work less and entertain ourselves. Rather its our moment to go all in and build in 1 generation what other countries have built over many generations! https://t.co/KsXQbjAhSM  Bhavish Aggarwal (@bhash) October 26, 2023

Globally too, there have been calls by some CEOs, asking employees to work longer. X owner Elon Musk in the months after purchasing the social media platform had asked people to work absurdly long hours. A CNBC report quoting a source who works at the site had said, Managers at Twitter have instructed some employees to work 12-hour shifts, seven days a week.

The Tesla CEO has also revealed that he works 120 hours a week. My workload went up from about 70 to 80 hours a week to probably 120. Go to sleep, I wake up, work, go to sleep, work, do that seven days a week, he said during the interview.

Chinas Jack Ma, who founded Alibaba, had in the past endorsed the controversial 996 rule  working from 9 am to 9 pm six days a week.

Back at home, Bombay Shaving Companys CEO Shantanu Deshpande had also asked freshers to prioritise work for 18 hours a day for at least four-five years last year, attracting much criticism from the workforce.

However, not all CEOs are on the same page. Ronnie Screwvala, upGrad founder, said on X: Boosting productivity isnt just about working longer hours. Its about getting better at what you do - Upskilling, having a positive work environment and fair pay for the work done. Quality of work done > clocking in more hours.

Boosting productivity isn't just about working longer hours. It's about getting better at what you do - Upskilling, having a positive work environment and fair pay for the work done. Quality of work done > clocking in more hours https://t.co/mbEQA0TriA  Ronnie Screwvala (@RonnieScrewvala) October 26, 2023

The long, long work hours

Currently, Indias labour codes mandate that workers put in eight hours a day, capping the weekly work hours at 48. Despite this, global data shows that India is among the most overworked country, ranking fifth in the world among countries with long working hours in 2019.

Also read: Thai media worker dies of overworking: How exhaustion can kill you

Compare this to other countries  the United States works roughly 36.4 hours weekly, South Korea 37.9 hours, China 46.1, Russia 37.8. Interestingly, the United Arab Emirates has the longest workweek, clocking a whopping 52.6 hours. The Gambia clocks in second with 50.8 hours average per week per employed person, while Bhutan is third with 50.7 hours average per week per employed person.

On the other end of the spectrum is Vanuatu with 24.7 hours. Kiribati, Mozambique, Rwanda and Austria (29.5 hours) are the other countries with shortest workweeks.

On an average, most workplaces across the globe mandate a 40-hour week. But this was not always the case. The makings of the 40-hour workweek started in the 19th Century. In 1926, Henry Ford popularised the 40-hour workweek after he discovered through his research that working more yielded only a small increase in productivity that lasted a short period of time. And in 1940, it became the law in the US.

Lesser hours, more productivity

While Narayana Murthy may ask youngsters to work longer, science doesnt support him.

Research has revealed that productivity falls sharply after 50 hours per week, and drops off a cliff after 55 hours. Additionally, not taking at least one full day off per week leads to lower hourly output overall.

Also read: What new research reveals about the future of work from home

Another research has revealed that five hours is about the maximum that most of us can concentrate hard on something. This was even put to the test by Tower Paddle Boards CEO Stephan Aarstol. In 2015, the business adopted a five-hour working day, with employees working from 8 am to 1 pm with no breaks and, because employees became so focused on maximising output in order to have the afternoons to themselves, turnover increased by 50 per cent.

Speaking to WIRED, he was quoted as saying: The warehouse guys were rolling their eyes when we first rolled this out, but the biggest gains were actually there. It had taken them five minutes per package to ship before, but within a few weeks they had got that down to less than three minutes. They were doing stuff that real productivity experts would do. I told them they had a constraint and it forced them to creatively think.

However, not all jobs are suitable to compressed working hours.

Scientists do, however, agree that the ideal daily working time is around six hours, and more concentrated in the morning.

May be its time entrepreneurs like the Infosys founder and others  Elon Musk  follow the science and let staff work five hours. Whatever others say, we are all for it!

With inputs from agencies
A number of drone attacks on US bases in Syria and Iraq, coming in the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war, are raising fears about a war breaking out across the region.

According to the Pentagon, 21 servicemen have reported minor injuries and one civilian contractor died of a heart attack in attacks from Iran-backed groups that began on 17 October.

On Friday, the US hit back by striking weapons and ammunition facilities in Syria used by Irans Revolutionary Guard Corps and militia groups after an order from President Joe Biden.

Lets take a closer look at how tensions are raising fears of war breaking out in the region.

What happened?

Iran-backed groups are continuously attacking US and coalition troops in Iraq and Syria.

The White House on Monday said the US had recorded an uptick in rocket and drone attacks by Iranian-backed proxy groups against military bases housing US personnel in Iraq and Syria.

It added that it is deeply concerned about the potential for any significant escalation of these attacks in the days ahead.

Iran backs a number of outfits in the region including Islamic Jihad, Hamas, and Hezbollah.

According to Reuters, there have been at least 19 attacks on bases.

NBC News quoted Pentagon press secretary Brigadier General Pat Ryder as saying the strikes were a mix of one way attack drones and rockets.

The 21 US military personnel suffered minor injuries, but all have since returned to duty.

Time Magazine reported that the Islamic Resistance in Iraq put up a number of videos on Telegram of drones flying into the desert sky.

The videos are accompanied by texts that warn of more strikes and asking the public to keep away from military bases.

While the outlet could not confirm the veracity of the videos, it cited metadata as showing that the videos matched the days when US bases were attacked.

While the Pentagon has no proof Iran directly ordered the attacks, a senior official told Time Magazine, Its fair to say when you see this uptick in activity and attacks by many of these groups, theres Iranian fingerprints all over it.

While the number of groups backed by Iran in the region remains unclear, Time Magazine quoted experts as saying it falls between 10 and 20.

Theres at least 10 or 20, if not many more groups between the Iraq-Syria border alone, Behnam Ben Taleblu, an Iran expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the outlet.

A source told CNN that Tehrans influence over the groups cannot be denied but that whether these groups are acting on their own remains an open question.

The US, which has backed Israel but called for humanitarian aid for Gaza, has warned of more strikes if the Iran-backed groups dont halt their attacks.

Unacceptable and must stop

The US air strikes took place at roughly 4:30 am on Friday near Abu Kamal, a Syrian town on the border with Iraq, and were carried out by two F-16 fighter jets using precision munitions, a US defence official said.

These precision self-defence strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against US personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on 17 October, US defense secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement.

These Iranian-backed attacks against US forces are unacceptable and must stop, Austin said.

Biden has sent a rare message to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warning Tehran against targeting US personnel in West Asia, the White House said earlier on Thursday.

My warning to the ayatollah was that if they continue to move against those troops, we will respond, and he should be prepared, Biden was quoted as saying by Al Jazeera.

The US president added that it has nothing to do with Israel.

There was a direct message relayed. Thats as far as Im going to go, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters, declining to say how it was delivered.

What we want is for Iran to take very specific actions, to direct its militias and proxies to stand down, a senior US defence official said.

The United States did not coordinate the air strikes with Israel, the official added.

Austin also sought to distance the strikes against facilities used by the IRGC in Syria from the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas members in Gaza.

These narrowly tailored strikes in self-defence were intended solely to protect and defend US personnel in Iraq and Syria, he said.

They are separate and distinct from the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, and do not constitute a shift in our approach to the Israel-Hamas conflict, he added.

The United States has sent warships and fighter aircraft to the region over the last three weeks. On Thursday the Pentagon said about 900 more US troops have arrived in West Asia or are heading there to bolster air defences for US personnel.

Iran, meanwhile, has said it cannot stand idly by while Israel bombs Gaza.

Irans foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian warned at the United Nations on Thursday that if Israels retaliation against Palestinian militants Hamas in the Gaza Strip doesnt end then the United States will not be spared from this fire.

CNN quoted Amirabdollahian as saying that the region is currently a powder keg.

Any miscalculation in continuing genocide and forced displacement can have serious and bitter consequences, both in the region and for the warmongers, Abdollahian warned.

If crimes against humanity do not stop immediately, there is the possibility at any moment that the region will go out of control, he added.

What do experts say?

That Washington is walking a tightrope.

Speaking to The Guardian, Charles Lister, director of the Syria and countering terrorism and extremism programmes at Washingtons Middle East Institute said: The US has now had two dozen soldiers injured. In any other conditions it would have responded but its hands are tied because it does not want to be blamed for escalating. The US government is very concerned that we are walking into a regional crisis.

The attacks show that Iran has an extensive network of well-armed, aggressive and well-coordinated proxies across the region which it has established for exactly this scenario. They are currently testing redlines but not pushing too hard. They are putting the onus on the US to respond.

Tobias Borck, a senior research fellow in Middle East security studies at Londons Royal United Services Institute, warned that Iran was literally playing with fire.

What we are seeing is the next level out from the Gazan war. This is all carefully calibrated to show solidarity. Iran is saying: we see the aircraft carriers but we are not scared and we can hurt you too. It is incredibly dangerous, Borck added.

A lot of people want to understand it as Tehran pulling the strings but  actually these are partners who share a worldview and ideology. One element is claiming the mantle of leading the opposition to a western-imposed order in the region.

Afshon Ostovar, an associate professor at the Naval Postgraduate School, told Time Magazine, You dont launch rockets and missiles and armed drones into populated areas such as bases without a willingness to kill.

And if youre going to commit lethal attacks, the escalatory ladder or dynamic that follows is never a sure thing.

Ryder warned that things might get worse.

What we are seeing is the prospect for more significant escalation against US forces and personnel across the region in the very near term coming from Iranian proxy forces, and ultimately from Iran, Ryder was quoted as saying by NBC News.

We always reserve the right to defend ourselves and we will never hesitate to take action when needed to protect our forces and our interests overseas, he added.

With inputs from agencies
What lies in wait for Israeli ground troops in Gaza, security sources say, is a Hamas tunnel network hundreds of kilometres long and up to 80 metres deep, described by one freed hostage as a spiders web and by one expert as the Viet Cong times 10.

The tunnels, called the Gaza metro by Israel, are of vital importance for Hamas on both offensive and defensive levels. Hamas use them to smuggle and store weapons while avoiding detection, adding to the enormous difficulties of fighting in a congested urban area.

According to a Hamas spokeswoman, as reported by Axios, at least some of the hostages abducted in the 7 October terrorist attack were being held in tunnels, complicating the scheduled operation.

While the ground operation is yet to begin, Israel has called up 300,000 reservists, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu predicting a long and difficult war.

Challenge for Israel

If Israel undertakes a ground attack in the coming days, it will have to contend with Hamas complex network of tunnels beneath the Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian Islamist group has different kinds of tunnels running beneath the sandy 360-sq-km coastal strip and its borders  including attack, smuggling, storage and operational burrows, Western and West Asia sources familiar with the matter said.

The United States believes Israels special forces will face an unprecedented challenge having to battle Hamas militants while trying to avoid killing hostages held below ground, a US official said.

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin noted that Iraqs nine-month-long battle to retake the city of Mosul from Islamic State might prove to have been easier than what awaits the Israelis  likely to be a lot of IEDs (improvised explosive devices), a lot of booby traps, and just a really grinding activity.

Even though Israel has invested heavily in tunnel detection  including a sensor-equipped underground barrier it called an iron wall  Hamas is still thought to have working tunnels to the outside world.

After the last round of hostilities in 2021, Hamass leader in Gaza, Yehya Al-Sinwar, said: They started saying they destroyed 100kms of Hamas tunnels. I am telling you, the tunnels we have in the Gaza Strip exceed 500kms. Even if their narrative is true, they only destroyed 20 per cent of the tunnels.

Its like a spiders web

There has been no corroboration of the comment by Sinwar, who is thought to be hiding underground ahead of an expected Israeli ground offensive.

But the estimate of hundreds of kilometres is widely accepted by security analysts, even though the blockaded coastal strip is only 40km (25 miles) long.

With Israel in full control of Gazas air and sea access and 59km of its 72km land borders  with Egypt 13km to the south  tunnels provide one of the few ways for Hamas to bring in weapons, equipment and people.



While it and other Palestinian groups are secretive about their networks, recently released Israeli hostage, 85-year-old Yocheved Lifshitz, said: It looked like a spiders web, many, many tunnels, adding: We walked kilometres under the ground.

Hamas believes that with Israels overwhelming aerial and armoured military superiority, tunnels are a way to cut some of those advantages by forcing Israels soldiers to move underground in cramped spaces the Hamas fighters know well.

Also Read: Polite, wanted to talk politics: The shocking stories of Hamas revealed by freed hostage

An Israeli military spokesperson said on Thursday: I wont elaborate on the number of kilometres of tunnels but it is a high number, built under schools and residential areas.

Urging the United Nations Security Council to intervene, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has called for an immediate cessation of aggression on Gaza and moves toward a political solution instead of military and security solutions.

Underground city

Israeli security sources say Israels heavy aerial bombardments have caused little damage to the tunnel infrastructure with Hamas naval commandos able to launch a seaborne attack targeting coastal communities near Gaza this week.

Although we have been attacking massively for days and days, the (Hamas) leadership is pretty much intact, as is the ability to command and control, the ability even to try and launch counter attacks, said Amir Avivi, a former brigadier general whose senior positions in the Israeli military included deputy commander of the Gaza division, tasked with tackling tunnels.

There is a whole city all over Gaza underneath with depths of 40-50 metres. There are bunkers and headquarters and storage and of course they are connected to more than a thousand rocket launching positions.

Other sources estimated depths of up to 80 metres.

One Western security source said: They run for miles. They are made of concrete and very well made. Think of the Viet Cong times 10. They have had years and lots of money with which to work with.

Another security source, from one of Israels neighbouring countries, said Hamass tunnels from Egypt remain active.

The supply chain is still intact these days. The network involved in facilitating co-ordination are some Egyptian military officers. It is unclear if there is knowledge of this by the Egyptian army, he said.

A small number of narrower, deep, smuggling tunnels were still operating until recently between Egypt and Gaza, according to two security sources and a trader in the Egyptian city of El Arish, but they had slowed to a near-halt since the Israel-Hamas war started.

Egyptian officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On Wednesday, Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said while inspecting military units in Suez that the armys role was to secure Egyptian borders.

Long game

Hamas was created in Gaza in 1987 and is thought to have begun digging tunnels in the mid-1990s, when Israel granted Yasser Arafats Palestine Liberation Organisation some degree of self-rule in Gaza.

The tunnel network is a key reason why Hamas is stronger in Gaza than in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where Israels settlements, military bases and monitoring devices make it harder to get anything in from Jordan.

In graphics | What is Israels military strength? What weapons does it use?

Tunnelling became easier in 2005 when Israel pulled its soldiers and settlers out of Gaza, and when Hamas won power in a 2006 election.

Shortly afterwards Hamass military wing, the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, captured Gilad Shalit and killed two other Israeli soldiers after burrowing 600 metres to raid the Kerem Shalom base on the Gaza border.

A year later Hamas launched a military strike against Arafats forces in Gaza using tunnel-mounted attacks.

Although the military tunnels remained off-limits to outside eyes, during that era Gaza smugglers would show off their scarcely concealed commercial tunnels under the Rafah border.

These were around three feet (one metre) wide and used winch motors to haul goods along the sandy tunnel floors in hollowed-out petrol barrels.

One Rafah tunnel operator, Abu Qusay, said a half-mile tunnel took three to six months to dig and could yield profits of up to $100,000 (Rs 83.21 lakh) a day. The most profitable item was bullets, bought for $1 (Rs 83.22) each in Egypt and fetching more than $6 (Rs 499. 28) in Gaza. Kalashnikov rifles, he said, cost $800 (Rs 66,571) in Egypt and sold for twice that.

In 2007 the military wing is thought to have brought its commander Mohammed Deif into Gaza through a tunnel from Egypt. Deif was the mastermind behind Hamass deadly 7 October attack into Israel, which killed 1,400 people and hostages were taken.

Tunnel hunting

Professor Joel Roskin, a geomorphologist and geologist with Israels Bar-Ilan University said it was difficult to map the tunnel network accurately from the surface or space, adding highly classified information was essential for 3D mapping and imagery visualisation.

Among the elite units tasked with going underground is Yahalom, specialist commandos from Israels Combat Engineering Corps known as the weasels, who specialise in finding, clearing and destroying the tunnels.

Earlier this week Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Yahalom fighters, telling them: I rely on you, the people of Israel rely on you.

Israeli sources said what awaits them is formidable and they faced an enemy that has regrouped and learned from previous Israeli operations in 2014 and 2021.

Also Read: Israel-Hamas war: The belligerents and their military strengths

There are going to be a lot of booby traps. They have thermobaric weapons that they didnt have in 2021, which are more lethal. And I believe they acquired a lot of anti-tank weapon systems that are going to try to hit our APCs (armoured personnel carriers), tanks, said Amnon Sofrin, a former brigadier general and former commander of the Combat Intelligence Corps.

Sofrin, who was also previously head of the intelligence directorate with Israels Mossad spy agency, said Hamas would also be trying to kidnap soldiers.

Daphne Richemond-Barak, professor at Israels Reichman University and author of the book Underground Warfare, said the conflicts in Syria and Iraq had changed the situation.

What the IDF (Israeli military) is likely to face inside the tunnels is also all of the experience and all of the knowledge that has been gained by groups like ISIS (Islamic State) and has been  passed on to Hamas.

With inputs from Reuters
Maldives new president-elect wants Indian troops to leave his country.

Mohamed Muizzu told Bloomberg negotiations for the same have begun for New Delhi to dispense with its military presence in Maldives.

Muizzu, who defeated President Ibrahim Solih in the polls last month, had vowed to remove Indian troops from his country and to put Male first.

But why does Muizzu want Indian troops to leave? And what does this mean for New Delhi?

Lets take a closer look:

Why does he want Indian troops to leave?

Muizzu told Bloomberg he intends to make his nation fully independent and that Maldives wants a bilateral relationship thats mutually beneficial.

Muizzus party, the Peoples National Congress, is thought to be heavily pro-China.

Muizzu had made a pre-poll promise to get Indian troops out of Maldives.

Muizzus main campaign theme was about an alleged threat to the Maldives sovereignty by some Indian military personnel on an island, part of the partys years-long India out strategy.

Muizzu told his supporters gathered Monday night at a celebration of his election victory that he wouldnt stand for a foreign military staying in the Maldives against the will of its citizens.

The people have told us that they dont want foreign military here, he said.

He told the BBC days ago that he meet the Indian ambassador after his win and told him very clearly that every single Indian military personnel here should be removed.

India has for long has had a presence in the Maldives  which comprises 1,200 coral islands in the Indian Ocean, located by the main shipping route between the East and the West.

India in 1988 under then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi thwarted a coup in the Maldives through Operation Cactus Maldives after then president Abdul Gayoom made a plea for help.

The daring operation saw India dispatch 300 troops from Agra in quick time and restore the government in hours.

Indias actions won plaudits in the West including from leaders such as Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.

While India withdrew its troops after the situation returned to normal, it left a small force to avoid a repeat.

While the number of Indian troops currently in the Maldives remains unknown  a Bloomberg estimates it at a meagre 70  critics say the secrecy behind the agreement between the two governments regarding the placement of military personnel and their role has led to suspicion and rumour.

Known activities of the Indian military include operating two helicopters donated by India and assisting in the rescue of people stranded or faced with calamities at sea.

Around 70 Indian military personnel maintain New Delhi-sponsored radar stations and surveillance aircraft. Indian warships help patrol Maldives exclusive economic zone.

Muizzu said in the interview he had already begun negotiations with the Indian government on removing its military presence, calling those talks very successful already.

What does this mean for New Delhi?

This is a huge blow for New Delhi  which is locked in a battle with China for influence in the region.

The Maldives presidential runoff election Saturday was seen as a virtual referendum on which of the regional powers would have the biggest influence on the archipelago.

Muizzu told BBC he wanted to review all existing agreements signed with New Delhi.

We dont know whats in there. Even in Parliament, some of the MPs during the debates said that they didnt know whats in there. I am sure we will find it out, Muizzu said.

Relations between India and the Maldives had deteriorated in 2018 after a slew of incidents including Maldives has asked India to take back one of two naval helicopters New Delhi had gifted it and turning down Indias offer to participate in the biennial naval exercise.

However, India and Maldives ties recovered under President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih  as the pattern of successive governments leaning either toward New Delhi or Beijing continued.

Solih, who succeeded Yameen in 2018, was unable to fend off allegations by Muizzu that he had allowed India an unchecked presence in the country.

Solih had 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.

Solih insisted to BBC that such fears are overblown.

There are no militarily active overseas personnel stationed in the Maldives. Indian personnel currently present in the country are under the operational command of the Maldives National Defence Force, Solih said.

The Maldives, meanwhile, under ex-president Abdulla Yameen, had tilted towards China.

Maldives joined Chinas Belt and Road initiative which is meant to build railroads, ports and highways to expand trade  and Beijings influence  across Asia, Africa and Europe.

Beijing, which views Maldives as a major participant in its 21st Century Maritime Silk Road plan in the Indian Ocean, in turn made heavy investments in the island nation.

As per BBC, Beijing has given Male hundreds of millions of dollars as loans and for infrastructure and development projects.

Balance tilts back towards China

Muizzus win tilts back the balance of the extended tug-of-war between China and India for influence over the Indian Ocean.

Both Asian powerhouses have invested heavily in upgrading Maldives infrastructure and extended loans, as they compete with each other.

Now, it seems a figure sympathetic to Beijing is back in charge in Male.

However, Muizzu insisted to Bloomberg he would not countenance troops from other nations on his countrys soil.

It no way indicates that Im going to allow China or any other country to bring their military troops here Muizzu was quoted as saying.

We want assistance, cooperation with all the countries, Muizzu claimed to Bloomberg. He insisted his nation was too tiny to choose sides in a geopolitical rivalry between bigger nations.

Maldives first, Muizzu added, echoing a famous figure in the United States.

Thats, I think, something that can be easily understood.

I am a pro-Maldives person. For me, Maldives comes first, our independence comes first Muizzu added as per BBC. I am not pro or against any country.

Yameen was transferred Sunday from prison to house arrest, already fulfilling one of Muizzus campaign promises before he officially takes office on 17 November.

A piece in ORF argued that Maldives will likely try to establish closer relations for Beijing and deepen Chinas investment in infrastructure and connectivity projects while keeping in mind New Delhis concerns.

Nevertheless, one is likely to see a continuation of the China-India political competition in Maldives, as it has been in the rest of the Indian neighborhood. In this instance, China may have taken a slight advantage, but Male surely recognizes that it is also not in Maldives interest to put all its eggs in Beijings basket, the piece concluded.

India plays it cool, China celebrates

India, meanwhile, has played it cool.

We look forward to constructively engaging with the incoming administration and discussing ways to enhance our relationship further, MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said last week.

BBC quoted Chinese president Xi Jinping as saying he gave 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.

With inputs from agencies
A communal clash broke out on Friday in Chhapra town of Bihar while a religious procession was being taken out, prompting the state home department to use emergency provisions under the Indian Telegraph Act to enforce the suspension of internet services till 6 PM Sunday to prevent escalation.

The trouble erupted in the Bhagwan Bazar locality of Chhapra, which is the headquarters of Saran district when a procession for the immersion of Goddess Durgas idols was being taken out, said a senior police official.

During the procession, DJ was being played at full blast. In protest, some anti-social elements threw stones. The situation was brought under control after police reached the spot and took charge of visarjan (immersion of idols), the district police told PTI.

Heavy deployment of police was in place and troublemakers were being identified with the help of video footage for further action.

Meanwhile, the state home department said it received inputs that in the affected areas, anti-social elements were using the internet to relay objectionable content which could disturb communal harmony and result in damage to life and property.

Restrictions will be effective across the Sadar Sub Division of Chhapra where sharing of all types of messages and pictorial content through online sites shall remain suspended for the period, the department added.

With PTI inputs.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday said all state government employees will have to seek permission for a second marriage even if their religions allow it.

The Assam government in a recent order had barred its employees from marrying another person if the spouse is alive and warned of punitive action if they indulged in bigamy.

This is an old circular. An Assam government employee, from the point of view of our service rules, is not entitled to enter into a second marriage.

However, if some religion allows you to enter into a second marriage, even then on the basis of the conduct rules, you have to seek permission from the state government. Now, the state government might give you (permission), may not give you, Sarma told reporters here.

He said the government often gets cases where after the death of an employee, both wives fight for pension.

We find it very difficult to settle those disputes. Many widows are deprived of their pensions because of conflicting claims. This rule was there earlier, we did not enforce it. Now, we have decided to enforce it, Sarma said.

The chief minister said a person can go for a second marriage.

But a government employee will have to seek the state governments permission before the second marriage irrespective of whether he is a Hindu or a Muslim. It has to come on the records of the state government, he added.

Sarma asserted that this rule was not framed by the BJP-led government, but it was enacted by the Congress government earlier.

An Office Memorandum (OM) by the personnel department on October 20, which did not mention about the divorce criterion, instructed employees to get the governments permission before marrying another person if the spouse is alive.

The notification, issued by the personnel additional chief secretary Niraj Verma, came to light on Thursday.

It said guidelines have been issued as per the provisions of Rule 26 of The Assam Civil Services (Conduct) Rules 1965.

In the context of the above provisions, the disciplinary authority may initiate immediate departmental proceedingfor imposition of major penalty, including compulsory retirement, the order said.

It termed such a practice as gross misconduct on the part of a government servant having large bearings on society.

The OM further asked authorities to also take necessary legal steps whenever such cases are detected.
Notwithstanding the show-cause notice by the Election Commission for his alleged communally charged statements, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday defended his speech and said it was a legitimate criticism of Chhattisgarh Minister Mohammed Akbar.

The Election Commission on Thursday slapped a show-cause notice to Sarma for prima facie violation of the Model Code of Conduct and asked him to respond by 30 October evening.

Congress has withheld the material information from the Honble Election Commission that Mohammed Akbar is their candidate from Kawardha Constituency. Therefore legitimate criticism of a candidate does not amount to communal politics, Sarma said in a post on X.

The senior BJP leader asserted that the Congress will have to face the legal consequence of not revealing the crucial fact in their representation.

I have full faith in the collection (sic) wisdom of the Honble Election Commission, he added.

The Assam chief minister was reacting to a post on the microblogging site by Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh, who termed the BJP leader a serial offender and hoped that the poll watchdog will take this case to its logical conclusion.

Sarma made the remarks targeting Akbar during the assembly poll campaign on October 18 in Kawardha in Chhattisgarh.

In a speech in Kawardha in Chhattisgarh on October 18, Sarma had taken a controversial dig at Akbar saying that the land of Mata Kaushalya will get defiled if Akbar isnt sent off.

If one Akbar comes to some place, he calls 100 Akbars. So, send him off as soon as possible, otherwise the land of Mata Kaushalya will get defiled, he had said.

Mata Kaushalya, the mother of Lord Ram, is believed to hail from what is modern-day Chhattisgarh.

The Congress on Wednesday filed a complaint with the Election Commission against Sarma for his remarks against Akbar.

The party had alleged that Sarmas remarks showed a clear-cut intention to incite sections of society against one another.

While issuing the notice to Sarma, the Election Commission reminded him of a provision in the poll code which states that no party or candidate shall include in any activity which may aggravate existing differences or create mutual hatred or cause tension between different castes and communities, religious or linguistic.

Elections to the 90-member Chhattisgarh assembly will be held in two phases  on 7 and 17 November.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday spoke to his Omani counterpart Badr Albusaidi and discussed the ongoing crisis in West Asia that was triggered by the unprecedented attacks on the Israeli cities by Hamas militants on October 7.

In a post on X, Albusaidi said he emphasised the critical need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The external affairs minister described the conversation as good.

A good conversation with Omani Foreign Minister @badralbusaidi. Discussed our bilateral relations and exchanged views on the crisis in West Asia, Jaishankar said in a post on X.

Albusaidi said respecting international law is an obligation for all.

I emphasised the critical need for an immediate cease fire in #Gaza and a good flow of humanitarian aid. Respect for international law is an obligation for all to save thousands of civilian lives. Stop the war now, he said.

An increasing number of Arab countries have been pitching for a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel.

Previously, Jaishankar had discussed the situation in West Asia with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and his counterpart from the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

More than 1,400 people were killed in the unprecedented attacks on Israel by Hamas on October 7. Hamas has held more than 220 people hostage in Gaza.

According to authorities in Gaza, around 6,500 people have been killed in retaliatory strikes by Israel.

There has been mounting global concerns over the plight of civilians in Gaza in view of Israels punitive air strikes.

India on October 22 sent more than 38 tonnes of relief material including medicines and medical equipment for the people of Palestine.
Security forces on Thursday killed five LeT terrorists making an infiltration bid across the LoC in Kupwara district and responded befittingly to unprovoked firing by Pakistan Rangers along the International Border in Jammu, officials said.

A Border Security Force (BSF) jawan and four civilians were injured as the Pakistani troops targeted five Indian posts along the IB in the Arnia and R S Pura sectors at night, a senior official said.

The ceasefire violation in the Arnia sector came hours after a joint operation by police and the Army along the Line of Control in the Machhil sector of Kupwara.

The senior BSF official said the Pakistan Rangers opened unprovoked firing at the Indian posts around 8 pm and Indian troops retaliated befittingly.

The injured jawan was shifted to the GMC Hospital in Jammu for specialised treatment, he said, adding that the exchange of fire was going on intermittently.

Senior BSF officers were rushing to the spot, officials said.

According to sources, Pakistan Rangers also fired mortar shells on civilian areas, triggering panic among the border population. Some of the areas that reportedly came under fire include Arnia, Suchtgarh, Sia, Jabowal and Treva.

In the Machhil sector operation, five Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) terrorists were killed as security forces foiled their infiltration bid along the Line of Control (LoC).

A huge cache of arms and ammunition, including five AK series rifles and other incriminating materials, were recovered from the site of the gunfight, officials said.

Additional Director General of Police Kashmir Vijay Kumar said five terrorists have been killed in the operation so far.

Based on an intelligence input generated by Kupwara Police, an infiltration bid was successfully foiled in a joint operation launched by Police and Army along the Line of Control in the Machhil sector of Kupwara district. In this swift and coordinated operation, five terrorists were neutralised, a police spokesperson said.

He said the joint party launched the operation during the intervening night of October 25-26 at the Sardari Nar area along the LoC.

Besides, multiple ambushes were laid by the joint teams along the LoC. Today, the joint team observed the movement of terrorists in the thick dense forests of the area who taking advantage of the difficult terrain infiltrated our side. Employing meticulous tactics, the terrorists were intercepted who fired indiscriminately upon the joint team. The fire was retaliated, leading to the elimination of five unidentified terrorists linked with proscribed terror outfit LeT, the spokesperson said.

He said the identification of the slain terrorists is being ascertained.

All the recovered materials have been taken into case records for further investigation. In this regard, police have registered a case under relevant sections of law and an investigation has been initiated. Extensive search of the area is being carried out and further details if any will be shared accordingly, the spokesperson added.

While officials maintain that infiltration attempts have come down significantly, attempts by terrorists to sneak into Indian territory have continued this year.

Two terrorists were killed in a failed infiltration bid four days ago in the Uri sector. A total of 11 infiltrators were shot dead in June  four of them in the Macchil sector and five in the nearby Jumagund area of the Keran sector.
During his visit to poll-bound Madhya Pradeshs Chitrakoot, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the Ram Temple in Ayodhya was on the verge of completion and that he felt it was a great privilege for him to receive an invitation for the consecration ritual of the temple.

Speaking at a public event at Tulsi Peeth of Jagadguru Rambhadracharya, PM Modi said that in the thousand years of slavery, various attempts were made to uproot India in different ways and one of these was the complete destruction of Sanskrit.

Though we gained independence, some individuals still harbour antipathy towards Sanskrit. If someone discovers a forgotten language script, such people celebrate it, but they do not respect Sanskrit, which has existed for thousands of years. If people in other countries know their mother tongue, they appreciate it, but these individuals consider knowing Sanskrit as a sign of backwardness, PM Modi said.

The prime minister added that those with this mind-set have been losing for the past thousand years and will not succeed in the future also. Sanskrit is not just a language of traditions; it is also a language of our progress and identity, he said.

The PM also praised Hindu spiritual leader Jagadguru Rambhadracharya, who was present at the event for his contribution to Ram Mandir. The Ram Temple for which you have contributed so much is on the verge of completion. Just two days ago, I received an invitation to participate in the Pran Pratishtha ceremony at the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Tirth Kshetra Trust in Ayodhya. I consider it a great privilege, PM Modi said.

This is PM Modis second visit to the poll-bound state in five days, following a trip to Gwalior, and the fourth in less than a month.

The prime minister has been making frequent visits to the state to boost BJPs prospects in the upcoming Assembly elections, where the party is hopeful of beating a strong anti-incumbency wave against the ruling BJP government.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Friday called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and reiterated his support amid conflict with Russia.

Sunak said that the UKs support remains unshakable adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin will fail.

Good conversation with President @ZelenskyyUa this morning on the latest military situation and the importance of getting grain out of Ukrainian ports. Our support for Ukraine and the defence of its freedom remains unshakeable. As I said earlier this week: Putin will fail, Sunak posted on X (formerly Twitter).

Zelenskyy appreciated Sunaks support and discussed further defence cooperation with the UK including missiles and anti-drone capabilities.

I spoke with @RishiSunak. The United Kingdoms support for Ukraine remains unwavering. I greatly appreciate it, Zelenskyy posted on X.

I spoke with @RishiSunak. The United Kingdoms support for Ukraine remains unwavering. I greatly appreciate it. I updated Rishi on Russian attempts to encircle Avdiivka. Our warriors stopped them and inflicted heavy losses on the enemy, who lost at least a brigade of personnel.  Volodymyr Zelenskyy /   (@ZelenskyyUa) October 27, 2023

The Ukrainian President updated the UK PM about the Russian attacks in Avdiivka and the progress in Ukraines grain corridor at the Black Sea.I updated Rishi on Russian attempts to encircle Avdiivka. Our warriors stopped them and inflicted heavy losses on the enemy, who lost at least a brigade of personnel. We discussed further defence cooperation, particularly more missiles and anti-drone capabilities for Ukraines air defence, Zelenskyy said.

He added, I informed Rishi of Russias actions in the Black Sea, which put civilian navigation at risk. Ukraines grain corridor will continue to work, despite all difficulties.

The two leaders also discussed the situation in the Middle East and agreed that stopping the escalation is in the best interests of the global community.
Punjab has reported a 50 per cent drop in farm fires so far in the ongoing paddy harvesting season even as the state on Friday saw 766 such incidents, highest in a single day this season.

From September 15 till October 27, the state witnessed a total of 4,088 farm fire incidents as against 8,147 such cases in the corresponding period last year, as per Ludhiana-based Punjab Remote Sensing Centres data. The state had reported 6,742 farm fires during the same period in 2021.

Out of 766 farm fires witnessed on Friday, Tarn Taran reported a maximum 104 crop residue burning incidents, followed by 98 in Sangrur, 97 in Patiala and 76 in Amritsar.

On the same day in 2021 and 2022, the state had seen 279 and 1,111 farm fires respectively.

Out of the total 4,088 farm fires reported so far, Amritsar constituted the bulk of crop residue burning cases at 1,001, followed by 503 in Patiala, 490 in Tarn Taran and 338 in Sangrur, as per the data.

With about 31 lakh hectares of paddy area, Punjab produces around 180-200 lakh tonne of paddy straw every year and of which 120 lakh tonne was being managed through in-situ (mixing crop residue in fields) and ex-situ (using stubble as fuel) management methods. Paddy harvesting is currently underway in the state.

Paddy straw burning in Punjab and Haryana is considered one of the reasons behind the alarming spike in air pollution levels in the national capital region in October and November.

As the window for wheat, a Rabi crop, is very short after paddy harvest, some farmers set their fields on fire to quickly clear off the crop residue for sowing of the next crop.

The state recorded 49,922 fire events in 2022, 71,304 in 2021, 76,590 in 2020, 55,210 in 2019 and 50,590 in 2018 with many districts including Sangrur, Mansa, Bathinda and Amritsar witnessing large number of stubble burning incidents.

Last year, Punjab had seen a 30 per cent drop in stubble burning as compared to the year 2021.

Before the start of the harvesting season, the state agriculture department had sanctioned 24,000 crop residue management (CRM) machines in the state to check stubble burning incidents. Currently, the state has 1.35 lakh crop residue management machines.
In the wake of a harrowing Hamas attack, the world found itself grappling with the haunting images of innocent lives lost. Among the distressing scenes, it was the heart-wrenching sight of children becoming unintended casualties in the crossfire that left an indelible mark on our collective consciousness. As we confront this stark reality, we must ask ourselves: Can humanity endure such senseless suffering, and how can we strive for a world where the innocence of children is never tarnished by the horrors of conflict?

As the world called out for peace in unison, a disconcerting ripple emerged from our own neighbourhood. A voice, rather unexpected, echoed a perilous path of jihad against India. The source of this controversy? None other than Nawaz Shareefs son-in-law, the retired Captain Safdar Awan, a prominent figure in the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz).

It was a crisp evening in Rawalpindi on 15 October when Awan took the stage, unaware of the storm his words would unleash. In a rally that should have been a platform for unity and healing, Awans remarks seemed to dance dangerously close to endorsing activities that could be construed as encouraging terrorism. Urging his Muslim brothers to prepare for a Jihad against India and invoking the ominous call for Ghazwa-e-Hind (the conquest of India), Awans words sent shockwaves through the already tense atmosphere.

This wasnt just a political figure making a statement; this was a mindset echoing sentiments reminiscent of groups like Hamas. In this ideology, non-Muslims are labelled as kafir, and the establishment of an Islamic regime is considered the ultimate goal. Whether its Jews in the case of Hamas or Hindus in Pakistan, they are seen as adversaries in a grand narrative of conflict. The tale of Captain Safdar Awans controversial remarks is a cautionary onea reminder that the words of leaders can either fan the flames of discord or breathe life into the flickering embers of peace. The world watches, hopeful for a chapter where swords are turned into plowshares, and the call for Ghazwa-e-Hind is replaced with a chorus of voices advocating for a Ghazwa-e-Aman, a conquest of peace.

In Pakistan, voices of solidarity with the Palestinian people are growing louder, marked by rallies expressing unwavering support. Its noteworthy, however, that Pakistan now champions itself as a strong advocate for the Palestinian cause, drawing a parallel with the Kashmiri struggle. Yet, a closer look reveals a stark contrast. In the case of Kashmir, its the Kashmiri Pandits who often go overlooked, their plight fading into the pages of history.

Picture this: In the tumultuous landscape of the Israel-Palestine conflict, there are two fundamental truths that demand our attention. On one side, theres Hamas, a militant Islamist movement, and on the other, Israel, proudly standing as a democratic nation. The recent barbaric attack by Hamas leaves no room for ambiguityits an outright terrorist act. Yet, as the tale unfolds, it becomes crucial to recognise the ethical high ground that a modern state like Israel is expected to uphold. Bound by rules and laws, Israel is held to a higher standard, a standard that sets it apart from the very terrorists it contends with. Governed by established rules and laws, Israel is held to a loftier standard; otherwise, it risks blurring the line that distinguishes it from a terrorist organisation.

In Gaza, Israeli airstrikes persist, and the death toll keeps climbing. Israel claims it takes precautions to avoid civilian casualties, but the mounting Palestinian fatalities challenge that assertion. In a recent incident involving a church, Israel acknowledges its involvement but argues it didnt directly hit the church. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) say they targeted a Hamas command centre, causing an explosion that damaged the church. Regardless of the details, the tragic loss of life on both the sides and destruction remains deeply concerning.

Now, lets journey to another realm, where comparisons between India and Israel attempt to draw parallels in their responses to such attacks. But heres the twistin this storytelling, each nation is a unique character, navigating its own intricate plot. India, facing threats from groups akin to Hamas, takes a divergent path. Unlike Israel, criticised for settlements and occupation, Indias approach in Kashmir since 2019 seeks historic peace and prosperity.

As we delve deeper into this narrative, India used to find itself grappling with a situation reminiscent of Gaza. Extremists in Kashmir embrace the Intifada model, mirroring the resilience of Palestinian resistance with tactics like stone-pelting protests. The Indian state, though not flawless, successfully ushers in peace and resolution. The data reveals a compelling storya commendable 92 per cent decrease in stone-pelting incidents post-370, and a significant drop in civilian casualties and injuries during law and order situations. The statistics tell a compelling story: during the pre-370 period, there were a staggering 5050 incidents of stone-pelting, a number that significantly dwindled to 445 post-370a commendable 92 per cent decrease. Between 5 August 2016 and 5 August 2019, 124 civilians lost their lives in protests and stone-pelting incidents. However, in the last four years, not a single tragic incident of this nature occurred, signifying that no children of lesser Allah have perished. Furthermore, instances of civilians losing their lives during law and order situations dropped from 132 in the pre-370 era to a notable zero in the post-370 perioda striking 100 per cent decrease. This reduction underscores dedicated efforts to minimise collateral damage during security operations, with a staggering 99 per cent decrease in injured civilians in law and order situations. In the last two years alone, the Union Territory has attracted investment proposals totalling Rs 81,122 crore, a sharp contrast to the cumulative private investments of Rs 14,000 crore that J&K had garnered since Independence. Notably, the UT witnessed a substantial influx of 1.88 crore tourists last yeara commendable figure for any region. Anticipating further growth, the administration foresees surpassing the two-crore tourist mark this year.

Oh, how endlessly convenient it is to lay all the blame at the feet of one individual in this vast nation! For how long, I wonder, shall we continue this theatrical charade of playing the perpetual victim? Amidst the sea of statistics and accusations, let us not forget the narrative that paints a portrait of a leader ceaselessly toiling, not for personal glory, but for the peace and prosperity of an entire community and nation. India, in the face of unrelenting challenges, stands like a mighty fortress against the tide of terrorism, unyielding in its rejection of oppression, and fervently dedicated to seeking resolutions that defy the very notion of surrendering to threats. Indeed, it is a marvel to witness such unwavering commitment to a higher cause.

Let us be unequivocal: India stands as an unyielding sentinel against the forces of terrorism, and we vehemently disavow any oppression against innocent civilians. Our nation is resolute in its unwavering dedication to fostering peace and tirelessly seeking solutions, firmly standing against the tide of threats. Prime Minister Modi, delivering a message of staunch support for Israel in the fight against terrorism, etched history with his momentous visit to the occupied West Bank city of Ramallahan unprecedented move, marking him as the first Indian prime minister to do so. This action exemplifies Indias steadfast support for the Palestinian state, underscoring the core of our moral stance. Our commitment to justice and peace transcends rhetoric; it manifests in concrete actions, and our resolve remains unshaken.

The author is a final year LL.B student at O.P Jindal Global University and is a Bachelors in Global Affairs from the same university. She writes articles on womens rights, technology and law. 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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In April 2023, an explosion near the newly built astroturf near the Kargil airport killed an 8-year-old boy and injured two of his compatriots. The object that exploded seemed like an old piece of metal scrap that the boys happened to unknowingly play with. Another similar incident occurred in a scrap dealers shop in Kargil in August 2023. Three individuals died and 11 others sustained injuries following the explosion by a suspicious object amidst the scrap. Incidents like these are not new to Ladakh and despite continuous efforts, the menace of Unexploded Ordnances, or UXOs, have continued for long. What are UXOs, how do they impact civilian life and how threatening they are  these questions can be fully answered only once the threat and its intensity are felt in person. Ladakhs continuous wars offer some background to the same.

Bordering China and Tibet, Ladakh forms the northernmost frontier of the Indian territory. Subsequently, it has experienced consecutive wars since Independence, with impacts of the same still being felt. The war of 1971 and particularly the 1999 Kargil War has had lasting impacts in the region in the form of UXOs, frequently threatening civilian life in the region. UXOs are remnants of explosives or munitions that were either fired or placed during wartime or training exercises but failed to detonate. These lethal remnants can remain dormant for decades, until unwitting civilians, often children, stumble upon them, triggering catastrophic explosions. The prevalence of UXOs is not unique to Ladakh; it plagues regions worldwide scarred by large-scale military conflicts or frequent military exercises. Understanding the true gravity of this menace requires experiencing the treacherous terrain and the unpredictable locations where these deadly devices are concealed.

A personal encounter with Ladakhs UXOs

My recent visit to Kargils Kurba Thang, as part of a research project, introduced me to the harrowing reality of UXOs in Ladakh. Over the past six months, the region has been rocked by two major incidents resulting from UXO explosions. While the Indian Armys Forever in Operations 8 Mountain Division has been engaged in ongoing sanitisation efforts for years, local awareness has gained momentum following these tragic events. Specially trained soldiers from the Engineer Regiment tasked with bomb disposal and demining work tirelessly alongside village administrations, the Kargil Police and the local population.

Challenges of UXO sanitisation in Ladakh

These operations are fraught with practical challenges. The regions snow-peaked mountains often conceal UXOs on their slopes, making access difficult. Additionally, the high-altitude, low-oxygen terrain further complicates the demining process. Ladakhs grasslands, historically used by native herder communities known as Bakerwals for cattle grazing, pose another challenge. Initial incidents occurred due to the unawareness of UXOs, but awareness has since increased. However, the drifting of UXOs, propelled by melting snow and natural forces along the slopes, remains a pressing concern. This phenomenon undermines the certainty of a sanitized area, turning well-established walking tracks into potential death traps.

Scrap dealers and the UXO dilemma

Another troubling aspect is the role of scrap dealers in handling UXOs. Because UXOs often contain metal, some scrap dealers unknowingly accumulate them, seeking to sell them for extra profit. Many of these dealers are non-locals with limited awareness of the dangers posed by UXOs, although recent incidents have led to increased awareness in this regard.

Steps taken for safety

Efforts have been made to enhance safety in the region. Signboards warning of UXO presence have been strategically placed at suspected locations, offering a degree of protection to the public. Timely responses from the Sappers and increased reporting by the local population have contributed to making the region safer to navigate.

From my interaction with responsible officers as well as locals, I gathered that village administration (particularly Sarpanches) are taking the lead in ascertaining awareness among civilians. When a UXO is spotted, it is immediately reported to the village elders, who in turn contact the Sappers for swift action. If found in uninhabited areas, UXOs are detonated on the spot, or ex-situ detonation is carried out to ensure civilian safety. We have tried putting together a documentary aimed at increasing awareness about this pressing issue is currently in the works and shall be out soon.

A joint effort for safety

The stories of a grieving father who lost his 8-year-old son, a grandfather whose grandson remains hospitalised and the dedicated soldiers of the Engineers Regiment, who risk their lives to prevent further casualties, underscore the urgency of addressing Ladakhs UXO problem. This is a collective effort that requires collaboration from all stakeholders. As one local aptly put it, One Bakerwal who rears his sheep on the slopes would tell you more about UXOs than anybody else. They need to be the main source of information in this battle.

In conclusion, Ladakhs wars may have faded from headlines, but the remnants they left behind continue to haunt the region. The menace of UXOs demands our unwavering attention and concerted efforts to ensure the safety of Ladakhs resilient population, who have endured the perils of war for far too long.

The author is a research associate with the Centre for Indian Knowledge Systems, Chanakya University, Bengaluru. She has previously worked with Centre for Land Warfare Studies, Indian Army. Her research is primarily focused on Cognitive Warfare. 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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On 7 October 2023, Israels 75-year history will be marked as its darkest day. Hamass unprecedented aggression shattered the myth of its infallible intelligence apparatus and compelling deterrence. A nation that has faced an existential crisis since its creation on 14 May 1948 and successively defeated the Arab designs to wipe it off the global map suffered an ignominious humiliation at the hands of a terrorist outfit. This was a rude shock.

Half a century ago, on 6 October, 1973, the day of Yom Kippur, Israel was surprised when Egypt and Syria launched a coordinated offensive across the Suez Canal and the Golan Heights, respectively. It fought back with tremendous resilience, tilting the balance in a little over two weeks. This time, its a Non-State Actor (NSA) that has forced Israel into an entirely different conflict, which is set to be a long-drawn affair.

The Al Aqsa Flood, launched by Hamas on 7 October, 2023, was a thoroughly planned operation, evident from its timing, scale, and methodology. The politico-military objectives were to bring the Palestine issue back to the centre stage, dispel the fallacy of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) invincibility, garner support from the Muslim world and impede the process of Arab nations reproachment with Israel, especially following the Abraham Accords in 2020.

The Hamas attack was marked by a fierce rocket barrage and a multi-mode insertion of assaulting elements that managed to inflict over 1,400 fatal casualties including a large number of security forces personnel besides taking some 220 hostages. Its next phase envisages engaging in unconventional warfare in densely populated areas by luring the IDF to launch a ground offensive into Gaza making the venture highly cost prohibitive.

The Israeli response was swift with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declaring a state of war. Operation Iron Sword was launched to quickly restore the adverse situation and surround Gaza, alongside the establishment of a sea blockade. In addition, 300,000 reserves were mobilised and special forces, Sayeret Matkal commandos, were inducted into the war zone to shape the battlefield for operations in Gaza including hostage rescue missions.

With the aim of neutralising Hamas, the IDF has planned to execute the Gaza offensive in three phases. Phase one, which is currently underway, seeks to destroy Hamas infrastructure to weaken its fighting potential. Phase two entails clearing Hamas pockets of resistance and is expected to be a prolonged one. The third phase envisions Israels complete withdrawal from Gaza after establishing new governance and security apparatus. To avoid civilian casualties, the Israeli government gave an ultimatum to Gazans to relocate from the north to the south, where over a million people crossed over Wadi Gaza. As anticipated, Hamas is trading the release of hostages in return for essential relief materials.

The battle of Gaza is bound to be bloody one given that Hamas has fortified the area with elaborate network of underground tunnels-referred to as Metro System. Hamas aims to engage Israeli forces into close quarter combat and employ civilians as human shields. With around 20,000 fighters, Hamas has the capacity to fight a prolonged guerilla war.

Israels topmost priority is to target the Hamas leadership and destroy its fighting potential, employing ultra-high-tech precision-guided munitions, bunker-bursting bombs like the GBU-28 and laser weapons. With the war now in its third week, over 6,000 people have reportedly been killed and nearly three times as many have been injured in Gaza. The intensity of the Israeli shelling of Gaza has reached a level never before witnessed in recent times.

The Israel-Hamas war is gradually turning into a multi-front conflict. Hezbollah is keen to draw Lebanon into the fight, evident from the intensity of exchanges of fire with the IDF, the deadliest since the 2006 skirmish. Iran-aligned Houthis are also active, launching missiles and drones from Yemen towards Israel, with a few intercepted by an American navy destroyer last week. In Syria and Iraq, where the US maintains 2,500 and 900 troops, respectively, its military installations have come under drone attacks lately. According to the Deputy Commander of the Iran Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Axis of Resistance (Iran-backed militias in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Lebanon) is ready to strike Israel from multiple fronts in case it invades Gaza.

The ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas has wider ramifications as the global community stands fiercely divided on the issue. The US and the West stand with Israel and strongly condemn the Hamas barbaric attack. President Joe Biden, during his visit to Tel Aviv on 18 October, 2023, confirmed Americas unwavering solidarity. However, he did caution Prime Minister Netanyahu to exercise restraint and hold off on the ground offensive until the US has deployed its assets. As of now, 11 US warships are in the Mediterranean, with 2,000 marines already inside Israel and another 15,000 troops ready for deployment.

On the other hand, China, along with Russia, are ardent supporters of Hamas and Palestine. President Xi Jinping has termed Israeli actions well beyond the norms of self-defence. Russias detente with Israel appears to be virtually over. The war in the West Asia suits Moscow and Beijing as it distracts Washington from Ukraine and the Western Pacific. India has taken a nuanced position, while condemning Hamas terrorist actions; it has also supported Palestine and a two-nation solution. With deep strategic interests in this region, which include energy security, a large expat community, membership in the I2U2 (Israel, India, UAE, USA) grouping, and the proposed IMEEC (India, West Asia, Europe Corridor), India has high stakes in the stability of the region.

Within West Asia, Muslim unity is evident as the Islamic world wholeheartedly backs Hamas. Major Arab nations, including Saudi Arabia and Egypt, have called for an immediate cessation of hostilities, while Qatar has supported Hamas. An important meeting of the heads of Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority with President Biden during his recent visit to Israel was scuttled in the wake of the bombing of Al Ahli hospital in Gaza, which was attributed to Israel. However, Biden gave a clean chit to Israel, implicating the other side in the heinous act.

As a sequel to the Israel-Hamas conflict, the US exit strategy from West Asia stands stalled. The region is bound to be the scene of intense inter-power rivalry in the quest for strategic balance. Willy-nilly, the geopolitical architecture of the West Asia is set for a makeover.

The author is a war veteran, currently Professor Strategic and International Studies. 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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In the digital age, the path to becoming an expert has evolved significantly. Traditional notions of expertise often involve obtaining a degree or years of rigorous research. However, today, the landscape is changing rapidly with social media accounts and a good phone camera being all it takes to claim the title of an expert. These modern-day experts are known as influencers, but what happens when their influence extends to matters as crucial as health or finances?

Consequences of misleading influence

Recent developments in India shed light on the challenges and consequences associated with financial influencers. Indian regulators have initiated a crackdown on these individuals aimed at curbing misleading practices and protecting the interests of the public.

Case of Mohammed Ansari

One influencer who recently faced the consequences of his actions is Mohammed Ansari. Ansari operated a popular YouTube channel known as Baap of Chart, boasting approximately 4,50,000 subscribers along with 83,000 followers on Twitter. However, Indian regulators have banned him from accessing Indias securities market and imposed a hefty fine of Rs 17 crore (around two $2 million).

Deceptive practices unveiled

Ansaris crime was not simply being an influencer; it was the deceptive practices he employed. While claiming to offer valuable financial advice, he misled his followers by promising profits of 20 to 30 per cent. In reality, Ansari had incurred significant losses since 2021, totalling around Rs 3 crore. What made matters worse was that his stock recommendations were disguised as educational courses1 for which he charged his audience resulting in regulatory scrutiny.

Not an isolated case

Ansaris case is not an isolated one. Indian regulators have been cracking down on multiple financial influencers including PR Sundar who also provided investment tips on social media. The consequences of his actions included a one-year ban on securities trading and fines amounting to Rs 6 crore.

Legal perspective

The reason behind this stringent regulatory action lies in the legality of these financial influencers activities. Not everyone can provide formal investment advice to the public such as recommendations on stocks or assets. Only registered entities like stockbroking firms and mutual funds have this privilege. The financial influencers in question are not registered making their advice illegal according to Indian regulators.

Vested interests

One might wonder about the distinction between influencers and well-intentioned friends or family members who share financial advice. The critical difference is that influencers may have a vested interest in the advice they offer. They might receive commissions from brokerage firms, referral fees or other undisclosed incentives, which could cloud their objectivity. Furthermore, the educational qualifications and experience of these influencers remain largely unknown leaving followers at a disadvantage.

Impact of manipulation

These influencers are suspected of promoting stocks in exchange for personal gains, which, if true, is illegal and can manipulate the markets. With millions of followers, the potential impact of their recommendations on stock prices is significant. Consequently, Indian regulators are proposing that financial influencers register themselves, eliminating the possibility of commissions or kickbacks.

Influence of educational content

However, not all influencers are pleased with these regulatory measures. Some argue that they are merely educators providing valuable information on topics like taxes or the stock market. They assert that they should not be lumped together with those engaged in deceptive practices.

Role of personal responsibility

Ultimately, the responsibility does not lie solely with the governments regulation. Individuals must exercise caution and scepticism when considering financial advice from influencers. It is crucial to conduct independent research, read extensively and critically analyse online content. Each person should ask themselves whether the advice makes sense and aligns with their financial goals.

While a social media presence and a good phone camera may enable someone to become an influencer, credibility in financial matters still depends on traditional sources of expertise. Education, experience and official recognition remain crucial elements in determining who can be trusted to provide sound financial advice. As users, it is our duty to be vigilant and discerning, not solely relying on government regulations to protect our financial interests.

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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After 20 days of the Israel-Hamas war, the wait continues for a ground invasion. There is a reason we keep coming back to it: to the ground invasion, because the stakes could not be higher for Gaza; a ground invasion would be deadly, possibly resulting in thousands of more deaths; and for Israel, it would be a political gamble.

An invasion could plunge them into a wider war; it may even reverse the Arab-Israeli peace process. So a lot hinges on this invasionwhen it happens, how it happens, and how long it lasts. The delay itself is a telling story; it means Israel is concerned about something, and we dont know what. It could be the political fallout, or it could also be a military issue. Whatever the reason, there has been a delay, but the question is: Could the delay lead to an eventual cancellation? Could Israel decide not to invade?

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu still seems keen; he said the IDF is preparing for the ground operation, but as for the timing, he didnt say much.

We have already killed thousands of terrorists and this is only the beginning. simultaneously, we are preparing for a ground invasion. I will not elaborate on when, how or how many. I will also not elaborate on the various calculations we are making, which the public is mostly unaware of and that is how things should be, said the Israeli Prime Minister.

I want to be clear, the timing of the militarys operation, the timing is determined by consensus by the war cabinet. Together with the chief of staff and the cabinet we are working to ensure the ideal conditions for our troops for the next operations, he added.

So the plan is still on. Israel is just waiting for the right time. Can anyone force Netanyahu to reconsider? Well, attempts were made at the United Nations Security Council, and two rival proposals were on the table. The first was from the United States; it called for a humanitarian pause in the fighting, and dont mistake this for a ceasefire; a pause and a ceasefire are technically different. Either way, it was shot down, and both China and Russia voted against it.

What we oppose is that the draft text attempt to establish a new narrative on the Palestinian-Israeli issue, ignoring the fact that the Palestinian territories have been occupied for a long time and avoiding evading the fundamental issue of independence, statehood for the Palestinian people, said Zhang Jun, Chinese Ambassador to the UN.

Then it was Russias turn, their resolution had three points: A ceasefire, a condemnation of the Hamas attack, and a condemnation of Israels attack on civilians. This resolution was also defeated.

Colleagues, the United States could not support yet another Russian resolution that was put forward with no consultation that failed to reflect the realities on the ground. It is disappointing that Russia would rather try and score political points and further divide this council than address the current, urgent needs of Israelis and Palestinians, said Robert A Wood, alternate representative of the US for special political affairs in the UN.

Thats the UN security council for you, divided, politically motivated, and frankly, useless. So no hope there, meanwhile, the situation on the ground continues to get worse.

For days, Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire, some border towns have been evacuated, and Syria has also been struck, so the possibility of a two-front war is increasingly real.

But the assessment from Moscow is even worse, President Vladimir Putin has spoken about the war, he says it could go beyond West Asia. Now, thats a worrying prospect, it looks highly unlikely right now, but even the possibility should ring alarm bells.

Now, going forward, Israel will face one major challenge, and thats global support. Most countries rallied behind Israel after the attack on 7 October, but now, its pretty lukewarm.

If it is a massive ground invasion which puts civilian lives at risk , then I think that it is a mistake, and it is a mistake for Israel as well. Because it doesnt protect Israel in the long-term, said Emmanuel Macron, the French president.

The problem here is the following: Its not a war, its a genocide that has killed almost 2,000 children that have nothing to do with war, they are victims of this war, said Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

A legitimate goal could be to ensure Israels security, could be dismantling the military capacity of hamas, but what Israel is doing is not that. What Israel is doing is punishing an entire Palestinian population or what Hamas has done, said Francesca Albanese, special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.

So support is dwindling, and among Muslim nations, opposition is hardening, like in Turkiye, President Erdogan was keen on playing peace-maker, reports say, he asked Hamas leaders to leave his country, he also asked Palestinians to stop harassing Israeli civilians. But not anymore, Erdogans latest comments show a u-turn. He says, Hamas is not a terrorist group, if he stopped there, he could have salvaged the situation, but Erdogan didnt, he also said, Hamas is a liberation group.

Hamas is not a terrorist organisation but a liberation group, a group of Mujahadeen that is fighting to protect its soil and its citizens, said Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan.

Dear brothers, we had good intentions but Israel took advantage of our good intentions. We had a plan to go to Israel, but its cancelled. we did not go, said Erdogan.

So, Erdogan had plans to visit Israel, but now, those plans have been dropped. It is a classic Erdogan play, when the global sentiment was with Israel, he talked about peace, when the sentiment shifted, he dumped Israel. He started praising Hamas instead.

But the problem is: It is not just Turkiye. Most Muslim nations have ganged up on Israel, we are talking about major regional players here, some of them are Israels neighbours, so why is Netanyahu burning bridges with them? Because right now, only one countrys support matters for Israel, and thats America.

The US can give Israel weapons. The US can give them political and diplomatic cover, Washington can also pressure them to stop fighting, it has always been like that, just think back to all Israel-Palestine wars in this century. Israel goes on a rampage, the US tolerates it for a while but eventually they say: Thats enough, time for a ceasefire, and so far President Joe Biden has not reached that point.

Israel has the right, and I would add, a responsibility to respond to the slaughter of their people. and we will ensure Israel has what it needs to defend itself against these terrorists. Thats a guarantee, said US president Joe Biden.

Theres no going back to the status quo as it stood on 6 October. That means ensuring Hamas can no longer terrorise Israel and use Palestinian civilians as human shields. It also means that when this crisis is over, there has to be a vision of what comes next, he said.

There was more evidence of that support. For three weeks, the US has been trying to elect a new speaker. Three lawmakers tried, but all three were rejected, but on Wednesday, it was a fourth time lucky, and the Republicans elected Mike Johnson to be speaker. Guess what his first move was? To pass a resolution supporting Israel. Imagine that there are three weeks of deadlock and dozens of domestic issues pending. What does the new speaker do? He passes a resolution for Israel and tells you how deep and bipartisan this relationship ismaybe not all the time, but at times of war, it is definitely there. And that is the biggest assurance for Israel; its their cue to go after Hamas.

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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Xi Jinpings recent actions and decisions have raised many questions as he avoided the limelight. Skipping the G20 Summit and sacking ministers without explanation, he left the world wondering about his intentions. However, he has now broken his silence and chosen to address Chinas economic challenges.

Xi Jinpings unprecedented move: A visit to Chinas central bank

In a significant departure from his usual pattern, Xi Jinping visited Chinas central bank marking a pivotal moment in his presidency. Accompanied by his top team, this visit is being called a first, shedding light on the Chinese presidents focus on the economy.

Chinas economic woes: A growing crisis

Chinas economy is grappling with a range of issues including a job crisis, high unemployment, nervous businesses and debt-ridden local governments. Despite Beijings efforts to address these challenges, the economy remains on shaky ground leaving investors hoping for intervention.

Xi Jinpings message: Zero tolerance for economic slowdown

During his visit to the central bank, Xi Jinping sent a clear message that he will not tolerate an economic slowdown. He also made a significant announcement about changes to the government budget involving the issuance of new bonds worth a substantial amount.

A rare budget adjustment: Chinas historical context

China rarely revises its budget even during crises such as the pandemic. The last time a similar budget adjustment occurred was in 2008 following the devastating Sichuan earthquake. Now, 15 years later, Chinas economic challenges are being compared to an earthquake prompting President Xi to revise the budget.

Debt as a solution: A controversial approach

Chinas local governments are weighed down by over $7 trillion in debt and Xis offer of $137 billion is seen as inadequate to alleviate their financial struggles. While it provides some relief, it is unlikely to solve their problems raising concerns about the sustainability of Chinas debt-driven approach.

Sound policy interventions needed

Local governments are under tremendous stress and relying on more debt is not a sustainable solution. China needs sound policy interventions to revive the economy and ensure stability rather than continuing to borrow its way out of the crisis.

Leadership shake-up: Xis sudden decision

In a surprising move, Xi removed his finance minister, Liu Kun, and appointed technocrat Lan Foan to handle the local government debt crisis. Lan Foan, now chief for finance, faces the challenge of creating a plan to address this pressing issue amid a climate of uncertainty regarding ministerial appointments.

As China grapples with economic turbulence, President Xis visit to the central bank and the governments budget adjustments reflect a new approach to addressing the countrys economic challenges. The effectiveness of these measures and their ability to sustain economic stability will be closely watched as China navigates its path forward in a complex global economy.

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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Hong Kongs birth rate is among the lowest in the world. This is a crisis. Chinas Special Administrative Region wants to throw money at the problem. New parents will get about 2,500 US dollars for having a baby. If you think this is a baby bribe, youre not wrong.

The handout seems generous. But it falls short. In fact, it barely covers a months rent in Hong Kong. Even so, will giving cash handouts help?

Research says that yes, money is helpful, but it doesnt spur a meaningful increase in birth rates because a few thousand dollars will not solve the problems. The rising cost of living, the added cost of child care, a lack of family-friendly policies, workplace discrimination against mothers, a culture of overwork, and a poor standard of living You cant fix all of this with 2500 dollars.

So whats the solution?

Effective problem-solving, not throwing money, pro-family policies, change in social attitudes, and financial support are the solutions. If Hong Kong wants a sustained increase in its birth rate, it needs a holistic approach. You cant check out of this baby problem by throwing a cheque at it.
The outrage over a Qatar court handing the death penalty to eight Indian ex-Navy personnel is deafening and understandable.

Qatar has for the last few years acted like a wannabe caliphate and an Islamist sanctuary. It hosts terror inciter Zakir Naik while coming after Nupur Sharma for quoting the Hadiths. Zakir is just one species in the entire menagerie of terrorists that Qatar hosts, from Taliban mullahs to Hamas leaders. Even fellow Arab nations like Saudi Arabia and UAE treat it with deep distrust.

But statecraft is a bit different from batting in the slog overs.

More than 8 lakh Indians work in Qatar. It is the 7th largest exporter of oil to India at 14,000 barrels a day. Qatar and the United States are strategic allies, designated as a major non-NATO ally.

It is neither easy nor wise to up and leave one fine day in international relations. There are webs connected with other webs of influence, veils behind veils of motives, leverage and negotiations. Even though Indias military expenditure of $66 billion is 10 times more than Qatars and it has 20 times more active defence personnel, it cannot act recklessly. Timing and place of any diplomatic action make the difference between victory and defeat.

So, why has Qatar chosen to create this situation with India now?

First, the timing and allegations are interesting. Qatar has accused the eight Indian former navy officers of spying for Israel. Why now? Does it have to do with the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict and Indias increasingly open support for Israel? Does it want to embarrass India on the world stage showing its citizens as Israeli spies?

If it is to bring India back to its old, unquestioning pro-Palestine position, that is not going to happen. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was among the first world leaders to unequivocally condemn Hamass barbaric attack on the Israeli kibbutz. But later, India clarified that its old position on a two-state solution is unchanged and it has also dispatched substantial humanitarian aid for the civilian victims in Gaza.

If that is what Qatar wanted, we may see a pardon to the eight accused soon.

However, the second possibility is that Qatar wants to derail the Abraham Accords between the UAE and Israel, Saudis imminent step of joining it, and Indias growing closeness with the nascent Israel-UAE-Saudi axis. If completed, that axis will severely curb Qatars influence in the Middle East.

Third, Qatar perhaps views the India-Middle East-Europe economic corridor with suspicion and resents that its friends like China, Turkey and Pakistan have not been invited to play.

Fourth, the fact that India has severely clamped down on Islamist funding from the Gulf through shadowy NGOs and charities does not endear it to Qatar. The Israeli spy allegation and death penalty could be pressure tactics to make India open those taps again.

Fifth, the fear that India is getting more assertive, coupled with Justin Trudeaus bizarre and unsubstantiated claims of India-backed hits on foreign soil, could have made the Five Eyes (the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) nervous, especially with New Delhi ousting 41 Canadian diplomats to restore parity of numbers. Pakistan keeps complaining about R&AW actions on its land. Qatar, a close US ally, could be used to send a message.

Whatever the reason, the current impasse smells of a bargaining chip. It will be surprising if the eight Indian men are executed instead of being used as pawns in a larger negotiation.

The author is contributing editor, Firstpost. 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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In a diplomatic mystery that has baffled many for months, eight Indian Navy veterans find themselves imprisoned in Qatar, facing a grim fate  the death penalty. The lack of transparency surrounding their arrests, charges and trial has raised questions about the circumstances that led to this dire situation.

Timeline of events

These eight veterans were employed at a defence company called Dahra Global Technologies owned by a retired Squadron Leader of Omans Air Force. What raises suspicion is the transformation of the companys website, which once claimed to have deals with Qatars navy but now omits any such information.

The veterans were arrested on 30 August, 2022 under the cover of darkness, picked up by Qatars State Security Bureau, their spy agency. What adds to the intrigue is that the Indian Embassy was not informed about the arrests. It was only on 30 September that the veterans were allowed a brief phone call to their families and on 3 October, an Indian diplomat finally visited them, more than a month after their arrest.

The trial began this year, with the first hearing on 29 March and the most recent one on 3 October. The Indian government confirmed these events and also anticipated a verdict this month.

Unanswered questions

Perhaps the most perplexing aspect of this case is the lack of information regarding the charges against these eight men. Indias Ambassador to Qatar and the Deputy Chief of Mission met them in prison and they had legal representation in court indicating that the Indian government knows the charges. However, this information has not been shared with the public leaving both the families and the general public in the dark.

Sensitive diplomacy

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar referred to this case as a sensitive issue in Parliament sparking speculation about its nature. With eight former military men involved, a dubious defence firm, a clandestine arrest and a secretive trial with swift justice accusations of espionage have surfaced. Some reports suggest that these veterans were spying for Israel, but this remains unconfirmed. Speculation does not help in understanding the true nature of this case.

Diplomatic challenge

India and Qatar have historically enjoyed strong relations. The Indian diaspora in Qatar is substantial, bilateral trade is significant and defence cooperation has been ongoing since 2008. Indian warships have been deployed to Qatar and joint military exercises have taken place. Despite this robust relationship, the case of these eight veterans remains unresolved.

A diplomatic solution

As reports indicate, India invited the Emir of Qatar to visit last year, but Qatar has yet to respond. This situation poses a considerable diplomatic challenge for New Delhi requiring goodwill, political capital and discreet diplomacy. Qatari law allows the Emir to pardon convicts typically on Qatars National Day, which falls on 18 December. It is hoped that a resolution may come at the highest diplomatic level.

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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Samajwadi Party leader Rajesh Kashyap Friday claimed that he has been threatened over phone not to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and said he has filed a police complaint in the matter.

Police said that based on the complaint, an FIR has been registered and investigations are on.

I got a phone call on October 18, with the caller telling me not to contest the coming Lok Sabha elections. I received a similar call on October 19. It was followed by dozens of such calls following which I informed the police, Kashyap told PTI.

The Samajwadi Partys district unit president Tanveer Khan said Kashyap is a possible candidate for the Shahjahanpur Lok Sabha (reserved) seat.

Kashyap is preparing for the Lok Sabha elections and his public relations campaign is underway. Some unknown persons called him on the phone telling him not to contest the election and threatened him, Khan said, adding the party has demanded security for Kahsyap.

Circle Officer (City) B S Veer Kumar said that based on the complaint of Rajesh Kashyap, a report has been registered under IPC sections 506 (criminal intimidation) and 507 (criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication) and efforts were on to trace the mobile number from which the threatening call was made.

Investigations in the matter are underway, he added.
The BJP in Kerala on Friday criticised Congress Working Committee (CWC) member and Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor for his participation in the Indian Union Muslim Leagues rally supporting Palestine, labelling it a pro-Hamas event.

A day after tens of thousands of IUML supporters hit the streets of Kozhikode, expressing solidarity with the people of war-ravaged Palestine, BJP state president K Surendran expressed concern that the conflict was being used to fuel communal tensions in the state.

The IUML rally in Kozhikode was pro-Hamas, and anti-national slogans had been raised throughout the programme, he alleged in a press conference here.

The BJP leader alleged that Tharoors participation in the rally, given his previous role as a UN diplomat, goes against the countrys established stance on the issue.

Surendran claimed that Tharoors attendance at the rally was a move to garner votes from communal groups, calling it an act of treason to support Hamas, which, according to him, backs anti-Indian forces.

He also accused Tharoor of trying to exploit communal polarisation ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

It has now become clear that what they want is votes, not peace, Surendran said.

The BJP leader also accused senior IUML leader and MLA M K Munner of equating Hamas terrorists with freedom fighters like Subhash Chandra Bose and Bhagat Singh.

Earlier in the day, a leader of the ruling CPI(M) criticised Tharoor for his speech at the IUML rally, alleging that some of his remarks leaned towards Israel and that he failed to acknowledge it as a terrorist nation.

CPI(M) leader M Swaraj levelled the allegation against the Congress leader, referring to his remarks in his speech in which he, in unequivocal terms, condemned the attack carried out by Palestinian armed group Hamas in Israel on October 7, describing it as an act of terror.

Tharoor responded to the social media backlash from pro-Hamas groups and some Left activists, emphasising his long- standing support for the people of Palestine and clarifying that one sentence from his speech was being taken out of context.

The IUML, a key ally of the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) in Kerala, organised a huge rally in Kozhikode on Thursday condemning the reported indiscriminate killings in the Israeli attack on Gaza.

Tharoor, as the chief guest, condemned the ongoing war, terming it one of the most distressing human rights catastrophes witnessed over the past 19 days.
Google is introducing a new feature called About this image in its search results to assist users in verifying the origins of images they discover online.

While the feature was initially introduced earlier this year, it is now being rolled out to a wider user base. Google has confirmed that this new feature is available to English language users globally.

When users encounter an image in Google Search or Google Images, they can access the About this image feature by clicking on the three-dot menu associated with the image. Selecting About this image provides users with vital background information and context about the image.

Users can determine when Google Search first detected the image or similar images. It also reveals whether the image was previously published on other websites, helping to rectify situations where an older image is inaccurately associated with a recent event.

Users will also be able to see usage and descriptions by other sites. This allows users to explore how other web pages utilize the image and what they say about it. It includes information from news sources and fact-checking websites, aiding users in evaluating claims made about an image and offering different viewpoints and evidence from various sources.

Where available, users can access additional information like the metadata added to the image by its creators or publishers. This information may indicate whether the image was generated or modified by artificial intelligence (AI). Images created by Googles AI will contain this information in the original file.

The introduction of the About this image tool aligns with Googles ongoing efforts to combat misinformation on the internet. According to a 2022 Poynter study, a significant portion of people, around 62 per cent, believe they encounter misinformation daily or weekly. The About this image tool aims to provide users with the means to swiftly assess content and gain a better understanding of the context of the images they encounter.

Its worth noting that while this feature can be a valuable tool for verifying the source of an image, it relies on users actively taking steps to do so. The About this image feature empowers users to make informed decisions when they encounter images that appear suspicious or out of context, contributing to a more reliable online experience.
Googles Head of AI in the UK, Demis Hassabis, has drawn a parallel between the risks associated with artificial intelligence (AI) and the global challenges posed by climate change. In an interview with The Guardian, Hassabis expressed concerns about the potential development of a superintelligent AI system that could go rogue and engage in malicious activities, including the creation of bioweapons.

Hassabis emphasized the need to take AI risks seriously, similar to addressing climate change. He highlighted the delay in coordinating an effective global response to climate change and its consequences, emphasizing that society cannot afford the same delay in dealing with AI.

While acknowledging the positive potential of AI in various sectors, Hassabis called for the establishment of an independent governing body for AI, similar to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This perspective is also shared by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

In response to these concerns, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic jointly announced a $10 million AI Safety Fund. The fund is intended to support research aimed at developing tools to effectively test and evaluate advanced AI models.

Hassabis welcomed this initiative and expressed that the AI community is at a pivotal moment in history.

However, its worth noting that despite the public discussions and actions related to AI safety and ethics, there have been instances of controversy within the AI community. In 2020, Google fired renowned AI ethicist Timnit Gebru and AI researcher Margaret Mitchell, citing that their co-authored paper didnt meet the companys publication standards. The paper highlighted several risks associated with AI, including environmental impact, potential impacts on marginalized communities, biases in training data, difficulties in auditing large datasets, and the potential for AI to deceive people.

The complex relationship between AI development, ethical concerns, and the pursuit of superintelligent AI systems underscores the ongoing debate within the AI industry.
In a significant move that underscores Indias growing importance in the global smartphone manufacturing landscape, Tata Group is all set to initiate the production of iPhones on Indian soil. This development comes on the heels of Tatas acquisition of Wistrons operations, a strategic move aimed at catering to both the domestic and international markets.

The announcement was made by the Union Minister of State for Electronics & Technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who took to X to share this groundbreaking news.



Wistron Corp., the former operator, held a pivotal Board of Directors Meeting on the same day, during which they granted approval for their subsidiaries, SMS InfoComm (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. and Wistron Hong Kong Limited, to enter into a Share Purchase Agreement with Tata Electronics Private Limited (TEPL).

This agreement involves the sale of Wistron Corp.s entire indirect stake in Wistron InfoComm Manufacturing (India) Private Limited (WMMI) and carries a preliminary estimated transaction price of approximately $125 million (equivalent to NTD3.89 billion).

While this deal awaits the confirmation and mutual signing of the relevant agreements by all parties, it will then proceed through the necessary approval channels. Following the finalization of the transaction, Wistron will make the required announcements and filings, adhering to the applicable regulatory requirements.

Indias increasing significance in Apples global manufacturing strategy can be attributed to Prime Minister Narendra Modis financial incentives to boost local production and Apples decision to diversify its supply chain beyond China, especially amid the ongoing trade tensions between Washington and Beijing.

Earlier this year, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal revealed that Apple had exported $5 billion worth of goods from India in 2022, emphasizing the companys plans to produce 25 percent of global iPhone units in India over the next four to five years.

This acquisition of the Wistron Corp factory in Karnataka by Indias largest conglomerate marks the culmination of nearly a years worth of negotiations. Additionally, Tata Group has been producing iPhone chassis, the metal framework of the device, at its sprawling facility in Tamil Nadu.
In a significant move aimed at addressing the inherent perils of AI, the United Kingdoms Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, unveiled a groundbreaking plan to establish the worlds first AI safety institute. This announcement comes as the UK prepares to host the inaugural AI global safety summit, scheduled for next week.

Speaking in London on Thursday, Sunak emphasized the urgency of addressing the dangers and fears associated with AI technology. Among the foremost concerns are the potential ease of developing biological weapons and the risk of AI systems spiralling out of human control.

The AI safety institute will be tasked with a comprehensive examination of AI-related risks, spanning from societal issues like bias and misinformation to the most extreme threats. Importantly, the findings and insights derived from this initiative will be shared worldwide, promoting a collaborative global approach to AI safety.

Prime Minister Sunak has consistently underscored the significance of addressing AIs impact on society and the imperative of mitigating its risks since assuming office last year.

In a related commitment, Sunak pledged an additional 100 million (114 million) of investment in AI, particularly for research into diseases such as cancer and dementia.

With this ambitious endeavour, Britain aims to cement its position as a global leader in AI technology, rivalling established players like the United States, China, and the European Union.

Sunak remarked, I believe nothing in our foreseeable future will be more transformative for our economy, our society, and all our lives than this technology. But in this moment, it is also one of the greatest tests of leadership we face.

The United Kingdom is set to host the upcoming global AI safety summit, which will convene from November 1 to 2 in Bletchley Park, located in southern England and known for its historical significance as the secret base of Britains World War II codebreakers.

Approximately 100 participants, including political leaders such as US Vice President Kamala Harris, AI experts, and representatives from leading tech companies, are expected to participate in the summit. Discussions will revolve around the regulation of AI, its impact on cybersecurity, and potential threats like the development of bioweapons and its influence on elections.

Rishi Sunak concluded with a stark warning, Get this wrong, and AI could make it easier to build chemical or biological weapons. And in the most unlikely but extreme cases, there is even the risk that humanity could lose control of AI completely.
The US International Trade Commission has issued an order that could potentially prevent Apple from importing its Apple Watches into the United States. This action comes after the ITC determined that the devices infringe upon the patent rights of medical technology company Masimo related to light-based technology for reading blood-oxygen levels.

The ruling, which upholds a decision made by a judge in January, does not have an immediate impact, as it is subject to presidential review and could also face potential appeals in the legal process. The situation may evolve as it undergoes further review and legal proceedings.

President Joe Bidens administration will have 60 days to decide whether to veto the import ban based on policy concerns before it goes into effect. Presidents have rarely vetoed bans in the past.

Apple can appeal the ban to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit after the review period ends.

Masimo has wrongly attempted to use the ITC to keep a potentially lifesaving product from millions of US consumers while making way for their own watch that copies Apple, an Apple spokesperson said. While todays decision has no immediate impact on sales of Apple Watch, we believe it should be reversed, and will continue our efforts to appeal.

Masimo Chief Executive Officer Joe Kiani said the decision sends a powerful message that even the worlds largest company is not above the law.

The ITC decision did not specify which models of Apple Watches would be affected by the ban. Masimos 2021 complaint said the 2020 Apple Watch Series 6, the first model with blood-oxygen monitoring capabilities, infringed its patents.

Masimos complaint said the infringing Apple Watches were made in China. Apple has since shifted some of its Apple Watch production to Vietnam.

The ITC case is part of an intellectual property fight between Apple and Masimo that spans several jurisdictions.

Irvine, California-based Masimo has accused Apple of stealing its technology and incorporating it into several Apple Watch models. A jury trial on Masimos allegations in California federal court ended with a mistrial in May.

Apple has separately sued Masimo for patent infringement in federal court in Delaware. It has called Masimos legal actions a manoeuvre to clear a path for its own competing smartwatch.

Apple is also facing an Apple Watch import ban in a separate patent dispute with medical technology company AliveCor. The ITC issued a ban in February but placed it on hold during related proceedings over the validity of AliveCors patents.

Apples wearables, home and accessory business, which includes the Apple Watch, AirPods earbuds and other products, brought in $8.28 billion in revenue during the third quarter of 2023, according to a company report.
As many as 49 per cent of Israelis want their forces to hold off any invasion of Gaza. In a poll published on Friday, these people of Israel said, it would be better to wait.

The poll published on Maariv newspaper indicates a possible decline in support for the planned next stage of the counter-offensive against Hamas terrorists holding some 233 hostages.

In the poll, Israelis were asked if the troops should immediately escalate to a large-scale ground offensive, 29 per cent of Israelis agreed, while 49 per cent said it would be better to wait and 22 per cent were undecided.

Maariv polled a representative sample of 522 adult Israelis. The margin of error was 4.3 per cent, the newspaper said.

The latest result was in contrast with October 19 poll that found 65 per cent supported for a major ground offensive.

From a breakdown of the answers, it emerges that there is no division in accordance with political camp or demographics, and that it is almost certain that the developments on the matter of the hostages, which is now topping the agenda, have had a great impact on this shift (in opinion), Maariv wrote.

Israel vowed to annihilate Hamas in response to the Palestinian Islamists killing and kidnapping spree on October 7, and has been stepping up tank and infantry raids in concert with heavy shelling of the enclave.

Over the last week, Hamas freed four hostages and efforts are being made by regional mediator countries to arrange a larger-scale release.

With inputs from agencies
Another eight trucks carrying food, medicine and water are expected to cross into the Gaza Strip on Friday, a senior United Nations official said, as a combination of technical, political and security issues were hindering deliveries.

We have gotten in approximately 74 trucks. Were expecting another eight or so today, Lynn Hastings, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, told reporters in Geneva.

Hastings said detailed negotiations were taking place with Israel in a bid to secure more humanitarian crossings in the densely populated enclave, which has been hit by unrelenting air strikes that have killed thousands in response to surprise attacks by Hamas gunmen on October 7.

In addition to the technical issues and the security issues, there are political issues as well, Hastings said. And theres a certain amount of pressure on the government of Israel in terms of its domestic politics.

There is still no agreement to get fuel into Gaza, and the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency has said the absence of fuel was jeopardising life-saving humanitarian operations there.

Officials are also grappling with the issue of deciding how to distribute the scant aid.

We are aware of the 1,000 patients that require dialysis and over 100 children and babies that are in incubators, so we do our best to try and make the prioritisation in accordance with the greatest needs, Hastings said.
A ban on alcohol came into force around Tokyos tourist hotspot Shibuya on Friday in an attempt to discourage raucous Halloween gatherings a year after a deadly tragedy in South Korea.

Nearly 160 people were crushed to death in a narrow alleyway in Seoul on 29 October, 2022 after tens of thousands of people poured into the Itaewon neighbourhood for holiday festivities.

In Tokyo, tens of thousands of people, Japanese and foreign alike, have thronged the narrow streets around Shibuya in past years, many dressed up in Instagram-ready zombie costumes.

The crowds have slowed down emergency services attempting to reach people in need.

Were extremely concerned accidents similar to the fatal case in Itaewon in Seoul last October could happen anytime, the districts mayor Ken Hasebe said this month.

Ahead of this weekend, a video released by authorities in Japanese and English focused also on the annoyances caused to locals such as vandalism, litter and noise.

This Halloween night everyone should stay away from Shibuya. Some people live in Shibuya, the video message says.

Violence. Drinking on the street. Smoking on the street. Traffic violation. You cant choose how your actions will affect others.

Billboards have been put up and a famous statue of Hachiko the faithful dog that is a popular meeting place outside Shibuya Station was also set to be covered up with a temporary enclosure.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinas top diplomat Wang Yi reconvened for a second day of meetings on Friday as the two rival powers discuss how to manage differences while laying groundwork for an expected summit between President Joe Biden and his counterpart Xi Jinping.

Wang arrived at the State Department late on Thursday and held a meeting with Blinken followed by a dinner. The two diplomats engaged again on Friday morning, sitting across from each other at a wide table with their senior aides before journalists were ushered out of the closed-door meeting.

Wang is set to head to the White House and meet with U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan later on Friday. He is also expected to speak with Biden, although it is unclear how substantial their interaction will be.

Wangs three-day visit is the latest in a flurry of diplomatic engagements between China and the US, and the trip primarily is to prepare for an expected Xi-Biden summit in November on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders meeting in San Francisco. China has yet to announce whether Xi will attend.

The Israel-Hamas conflict has added a fresh dynamic to the testy relationship between the superpowers, and Washington is hoping Beijing can use its influence with Iran to prevent an escalation into a wider war in the Middle East.

On Thursday, Wang told Blinken that the two countries have disagreements and need in-depth and comprehensive dialogue to reduce misunderstandings and stabilize ties. Not only should we resume dialogue, the dialogue should be in-depth and comprehensive, Wang said, speaking through an interpreter.

The Biden administrations priority with Beijing has been to prevent intense competition between the two largest economies and disagreements on a host of issues  including trade, Taiwan, human rights and the South China Sea  from veering into conflict.

However, while both Beijing and Washington have spoken about looking for areas where they can work together, and Xi said on Wednesday that China was willing to cooperate on global challenges, experts do not expect immediate progress.
A Chinese fighter jet came within 10 feet of an American B-52 bomber during its flight over the South China Sea, nearly causing an accident, the US military said. This incident underscored the risk of mishaps as both nations compete for influence in the region.

China has been asserting its claims over the majority of the South China Sea as its territorial waters, a stance rejected by the U.S. and other nations that rely on this expansive ocean for shipping purposes.

We are concerned this pilot was unaware of how close he came to causing a collision, the military said.

Chinas Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but in a similar incident in May, the Chinese government dismissed American complaints and demanded that Washington end such flights over the South China Sea.

Chinas claims have led to longstanding territorial disputes with other countries in the South China Sea, one of the worlds busiest trade routes. A Chinese coast guard ship and an accompanying vessel last week rammed a Philippine coast guard ship and a military-run supply boat off a contested shoal in the waterway.

Following that incident, President Joe Biden renewed a warning that the U.S. would be obligated to defend the Philippines, its oldest treaty ally in Asia, if Filipino forces, aircraft or vessels come under armed attack. He spoke in a news conference with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday at the White House.

China reacted by saying the U.S. has no right to interfere in Beijings disputes with Manila.

The U.S. defence commitment to the Philippines should not undermine Chinas sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea, nor should it support the illegal claims of the Philippines, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Thursday in a news conference in Beijing.

The U.S. and its allies regularly conduct maritime maneuvers in the South China Sea, and also regularly fly aircraft over the area to emphasize that the waters and airspace are international.

The B-52 was lawfully conducting routine operations over the South China Sea in international airspace when it was intercepted by the J-11 on Tuesday, the U.S. military said.

Intercepts are common, with the U.S. saying that there have been more than 180 such incidents since the fall of 2021.

They are not often as close as Tuesdays incident, however, and with tensions already high between Beijing and Washington, a collision would have had the potential to lead to an escalation.

The U.S. military said in its statement that the incident will not change its approach.

The U.S. will continue to fly, sail and operate  safely and responsibly  wherever international laws allow, the military said.

Meanwhile, South Korean and US troops have started live-fire exercises this week to hone their ability to respond to potential Hamas-style surprise artillery attacks by North Korea, South Koreas military said Friday.

The two forces regularly conduct live-fire and other training, but this weeks drills come after Hamas Oct. 7 assault on Israel raised security jitters in South Korea, which shares the worlds most heavily fortified border with rival North Korea.

Experts say the Norths forward-deployed long-range artillery guns can fire about 16,000 rounds per hour in the event of a conflict, posing a serious threat to Seoul, which is about 40-50 kilometres (25-30 miles) from the border.

The three-day firing exercises, which began Wednesday, involved 5,400 South Korean and U.S. soldiers, 300 artillery systems, 1,000 vehicles and air force assets, according to South Koreas military.

In a simulated response to the enemys (possible) Hamas-style surprise artillery attacks, the exercises practised strikes designed to remove the origins of the enemys long-range artillery provocations at an early date, South Koreas Ground Operations Command said in a statement.

North Korea didnt immediately react to the drills. It typically views major U.S.-South Korean military training as invasion rehearsals and responds with missile tests.

South Korea and the United States have been expanding their regular military drills in the face of North Koreas advancing nuclear program. Since last year, North Korea has carried out more than 100 missile tests, some of them simulated nuclear attacks on South Korea and the U.S.

With inputs from AP.
Former British prime minister Boris Johnson said on Friday he would join television station GB News, adding another media role to his job as a columnist for the Daily Mail newspaper.

Im going to be giving this remarkable new TV channel my unvarnished views on everything from Russia to China, the war in Ukraine, how we meet all those challenges, to the huge opportunities that lie ahead for us, Johnson said on X.

GB News said Johnson would work as a presenter, programme maker and commentator starting in early 2024 and would play a key role covering Britains next national election, which is expected next year, as well as elections in the United States.

The TV channel launched in 2021 with a mix of news, opinion and analysis that is more similar to US networks such as Fox News than other British broadcasters. Britains broadcasting watchdog has ruled the station breached impartiality rules on various occasions.

Johnson, who was the main political leader behind the movement to take Britain out of the European Union, became prime minister in 2019 and won a large majority in an election later that year. But he resigned in 2022 after a string of scandals which cost him the support of many Conservative Party lawmakers.

Johnson, who worked as a journalist before entering politics, began writing columns for the Daily Mail in June.
EU summit focuses on conflicts in Middle East, Ukraine

Xinhua) 10:53, October 27, 2023

President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola attends a press conference during the EU summit in Brussels, Belgium, on Oct. 26, 2023. European Union (EU) leaders meet here on Thursday and Friday in a planned European Council summit, focusing on the conflicts between Israel and Hamas and between Ukraine and Russia. (Xinhua/Zhao Dingzhe)

BRUSSELS, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- European Union (EU) leaders meet here on Thursday and Friday in a planned European Council summit, focusing on the conflicts between Israel and Hamas and between Ukraine and Russia.

The summit is the first in-person meeting of the EU's 27 national leaders since the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) on Oct. 7 showered Israel with thousands of rockets in a rare surprise attack. In response, Israel launched massive airstrikes on Gaza and imposed punitive measures, including power outages.

The summit participants are expected to discuss the unfolding situation in the Middle East, which has sparked disagreements within the bloc over how to handle it.

"The conflict in the Middle East is a tragedy," European Council President Charles Michel said in a press release ahead of the summit, adding that "the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to be of grave concern."

"We need to discuss, firstly, how to urgently ensure the effective delivery of humanitarian aid, and access to the most basic needs. Secondly, we must engage, in a united and coherent front, with partners to avoid a dangerous regional escalation of the conflict. Furthermore, relaunching the peace process based on the two-state solution is the only way forward. Lastly, we should address the effects of this conflict in the European Union - this includes looking at its implications for the cohesion of our societies, our security and migratory movements," he said.

The summit participants will also discuss the EU's continued support for Ukraine. "I would like us to address in particular ways to accelerate the delivery of military support," Michel said in the release.

The EU's long-term budget, the economy, migration and external relations are also on the agenda.

Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo (L), President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola (C) and President of Romania Klaus Werner Iohannis (R) talk during the EU summit in Brussels, Belgium, on Oct. 26, 2023. European Union (EU) leaders meet here on Thursday and Friday in a planned European Council summit, focusing on the conflicts between Israel and Hamas and between Ukraine and Russia. (Xinhua/Zhao Dingzhe)

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban speaks to media as he arrives for the EU summit in Brussels, Belgium, on Oct. 26, 2023. European Union (EU) leaders meet here on Thursday and Friday in a planned European Council summit, focusing on the conflicts between Israel and Hamas and between Ukraine and Russia. (Xinhua/Zhao Dingzhe)

President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen arrives for the EU summit in Brussels, Belgium, on Oct. 26, 2023. European Union (EU) leaders meet here on Thursday and Friday in a planned European Council summit, focusing on the conflicts between Israel and Hamas and between Ukraine and Russia. (Xinhua/Zhao Dingzhe)

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas (L) talks with President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen during the EU summit in Brussels, Belgium, on Oct. 26, 2023. European Union (EU) leaders meet here on Thursday and Friday in a planned European Council summit, focusing on the conflicts between Israel and Hamas and between Ukraine and Russia. (Xinhua/Zhao Dingzhe)

European Council President Charles Michel is pictured as he attends the EU summit in Brussels, Belgium, on Oct. 26, 2023. European Union (EU) leaders meet here on Thursday and Friday in a planned European Council summit, focusing on the conflicts between Israel and Hamas and between Ukraine and Russia. (Xinhua/Zhao Dingzhe)

Spain's acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez arrives for the EU summit in Brussels, Belgium, on Oct. 26, 2023. European Union (EU) leaders meet here on Thursday and Friday in a planned European Council summit, focusing on the conflicts between Israel and Hamas and between Ukraine and Russia. (Xinhua/Zhao Dingzhe)

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte arrives for the EU summit in Brussels, Belgium, on Oct. 26, 2023. European Union (EU) leaders meet here on Thursday and Friday in a planned European Council summit, focusing on the conflicts between Israel and Hamas and between Ukraine and Russia. (Xinhua/Zhao Dingzhe)

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen arrives for the EU summit in Brussels, Belgium, on Oct. 26, 2023. European Union (EU) leaders meet here on Thursday and Friday in a planned European Council summit, focusing on the conflicts between Israel and Hamas and between Ukraine and Russia. (Xinhua/Zhao Dingzhe)

(Web editor: Tian Yi, Liang Jun)
Ella Ben Ami has the same nightmare almost every night: her mother, kidnapped by Hamas from kibbutz Beeri in southern Israel, is lying on the ground, her hands bound, without water or food.

Since October 7, its been like a single day that never ends. I have never felt such a feeling of helplessness, said the 23-year-old, whose father was also kidnapped.

That day, hundreds of Hamas fighters poured in across the heavily fortified border from the Gaza Strip, shooting, burning and mutilating to death some 1,400 people in southern Israeli communities, mostly civilians, according to Israeli authorities.

Israel has responded with a withering aerial bombardment that has so far killed more than 7,000 people in the impoverished Gaza Strip, mainly civilians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Ive lived like the living dead ever since, Ben Ami said, gazing into the distance on a hotel terrace, where she and about 900 other Beeri residents have been evacuated.

Barricaded in a safe room with her boyfriend for 18 hours, she helplessly received first-hand updates on her phone from her father as her parents were abducted.

Almost every family has lost someone. Nobody can comprehend that there are so many people that we wont see again, said Ben Ami, who had only ever lived in the tight-knit community in the south of Israel.

The management of the kibbutz has been able to identify 85 of those killed in Beeri, while 32 were unaccounted for, including presumed hostages.

Nearly three weeks after the attack, during which Hamas gunmen swarmed through the communities surrounding the Gaza Strip and killed men, women, children and infants, the survivors are struggling to deal with the psychological fallout.

 Collective trauma 

Israeli mental health specialists have been overwhelmed by the sheer number of those traumatised by the attacks.

The Israeli health ministry announced on Tuesday a recruitment plan to help deal with what it called an unprecedented event in terms of mental health.

We were not prepared for a tragedy on this scale. We had to act very quickly to respond to multiple needs, said Merav Roth, a psychoanalyst and professor at the University of Haifa.

Every age group has been affected, from babies to the elderly, continued Roth, who has supervised the work of psychologists volunteering to offer support to the survivors of Beeri.

The traumas are extremely diverse, from people confined to a shelter for 20 hours with constant shooting, to those whose loved ones were kidnapped or whose wife and children were massacred.

In the case of the kibbutzim, the individual trauma was compounded by the collective trauma of a community that trusted in the state and the army and now feels abandoned, she said.

Beeris former residents wandered around the hotel, most of them idle, between the lobby, the swimming pool, the lawns and the immense patio that has been converted into an assistance centre where dozens of volunteers were gathered.

Psychologists received patients for individual consultations in screened off areas, while another space was reserved for massages. In one corner, donated clothes both old and new were neatly folded or displayed on hangers for the dozens who were forced to leave their homes with almost nothing.

In one aisle, by the exit to a conference room transformed into a space for shiva  the traditional Jewish mourning period  young children played among Lego boxes, fabric dollhouses and small, brightly coloured tables covered with colouring sheets and marker pens.

 Wake up from this nightmare 

Celina Rozenblum, a psychotherapist from the humanitarian group IsraAid which specialises in urgent care, watched on.

Usually, we operate overseas. Its challenging to restore a sense of security while we are still at war, she said. But my presence is important so that they dont feel alone.

However, rather than seeking help, many of the hotel residents have remained holed up in their rooms, unable or unwilling to leave. Among them is Saar Rons 14-year-old daughter May.

The mother and daughter survived the Hamas assault and the burning of their home.

But Ron, 46, who was injured in the hip by a gunshot, said she did not want to receive psychological help because she did not feel understood by those who did not experience the attacks.

The psychologists tell us that we are lucky to be alive and that we will rebuild, but we are not really alive, she said.

I feel like an empty shell. It is impossible to understand the scale of the atrocities that befell people. I am waiting to wake up from this nightmare, she added.

Curled up on a bench in the lobby of the hotel, she said she was especially worried for her daughter.

They wounded her mother, they burnt down her house. She almost suffocated in the flames, she said.

For 20 hours, all she heard was the screams in Arabic of people who had come to kill us. Three of her friends were murdered.

How can a child of 14 get through something like this? she asked, her eyes welling up with tears.
According to a member of a Hamas team visiting Moscow, the Palestinian Hamas party that rules Gaza cannot release prisoners taken during its onslaught on Israel unless a ceasefire is agreed upon.

According to Abu Hamid, Hamas required time to find all of individuals who had been carried from Israel to Gaza by various Palestinian factions in a Hamas attack on Oct. 7.

They seized dozens of people, most of them civilians, and we need time to find them in the Gaza Strip and then release them, Hamid said.

According to Kommersant, he stated that a peaceful setting was required to do this operation. According to Hamas, around 50 hostages were murdered in Israeli air strikes on Thursday.

Israel has requested Russia to deport a visiting Hamas group, describing their invitation to Moscow as deplorable.

Russia has relations to all of the Middle Easts major players, including Israel, Iran, Syria, the Palestinian Authority, and Hamas.

It has frequently blamed the current crisis on a failure of US diplomacy, and has called for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, as well as the beginning of peace talks.
Irans Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has warned the US that it will not be spared from the fire if it continues to back Israel and provide it with military aid.

Speaking at an emergency special session of the United Nations General Assembly on the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, Abdollahian reiterated that both Gaza and the West Bank belong only to Palestinians.

No institution or country has the right or can give any part of this land to another person or group, he said.

I say frankly to the American statesmen, who are now managing the genocide in Palestine, that we do not welcome (an)expansion of the war in the region. But if the genocide in Gaza continues, they will not be spared from this fire, he told a meeting of the 193-member General Assembly.

Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas, which rules Gaza, in retaliation for an Oct. 7 attack that killed 1,400 people and saw hundreds taken hostage. Israel has struck Gaza from the air, imposed a siege and is preparing a ground invasion. Palestinian authorities say more than 7,000 have been killed.

Meanwhile, the US on Friday struck down two Iranian-backed facilities in Iran in response to attacks on American troops in the past week.

These precision self-defense strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against US personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on October 17, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement.

With inputs from Reuters
Approximately 900 US troops have been deployed or are being deployed to the Middle East amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, Pentagon spokesperson Brigadier General Pat Ryder said on Thursday, CNN reported.

He stated that deployed or deploying units include Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery from Fort Bliss Texas, Patriot batteries from Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and Patriot and Avenger batteries from Fort Liberty, North Carolina.

Addressing a press briefing, Ryder said, I can confirm that since our initial Force posture announcement approximately 900 troops have subsequently deployed or are in the process of deploying to the US Central Command area of responsibility these include forces that have been on prepared to deploy orders and which are deploying from the continental United States.

Ryder did not reveal the specific deployment location for these forces. However, he noted that these forces were not heading to Israel and they were intended to support regional deterrence efforts and further bolster US force protection capabilities.

Deployed and deploying units include a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery from Fort Bliss Texas, Patriot batteries from Fort Sill, Oklahoma, Patriot and Avenger batteries from Fort Liberty, North Carolina, and associated air defence headquarters elements from Fort Bliss and Fort Cavazos Texas while I wont talk specific deployment locations for these forces I can confirm that they are not going to Israel and that again they are intended to support regional deterrence efforts and further bolster US force protection capabilities, Ryder said.

The Pentagon official added that between 17 and 26 October, US and coalition forces were attacked at least 12 separate times in Iraq and four separate times in Syria by a mix of one-way attack drones and rockets.

He announced that the US is planning to provide the two US iron dome systems to Israel to help further bolster its defence capabilities.

I can confirm that in addition to the iron dome interceptors were flowing to Israel. Were also planning to provide the two US iron dome systems currently in our inventory to Israel to help further bolster their air defence capabilities and protect citizens from rocket attacks for operation security reasons Im not going to discuss shipment timelines or delivery dates and well defer to Israel to make any announcements regarding future deployment and use of these systems, Ryder said.

His remarks come after the Pentagon put roughly 2,000 US troops on prepare-to-deploy orders last week, which US Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh had said were focused on providing air defence, security, logistics, medical, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and transportation support, according to a CNN report.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin has spoken with Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and discussed the need to facilitate humanitarian aid into Gaza and to ensure the protection of civilians.

Today I spoke with Israeli Minister of Defense Gallant. We discussed the need to facilitate humanitarian aid into Gaza and to ensure the protection of civilians. I expressed the US commitment to deterring escalation, and our hope for the release of the remaining hostages, the US Defence Secretary posted on X on Thursday.

A readout by the US Department of Defense stated, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III spoke with Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant today to receive updates on Israels operations to restore security following the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack.

The department said Austin reiterated his appreciation for Israels role in facilitating humanitarian aid convoys into Gaza and repeated his calls for Israel to ensure the protection of civilians.

The two leaders acknowledged the release of two hostages on October 23 and called for the release of the remaining hostages, the statement read.
Fighting raged in Gaza Friday nearly three weeks after Hamas militants attacked Israel from the Palestinian territory and, according to Israeli officials, killed at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians.

Since 7 October, the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip says more than 7,000 people have been killed in Israels retaliatory strikes on the besieged territory, mainly civilians and many of them children.

Here are five key developments from the past 24 hours:

Many more will die

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees on Friday issued a dire warning over the humanitarian situation as a result of the ongoing Israeli siege of Gaza.

As we speak people in Gaza are dying, they are not only dying from bombs and strikes, soon many more will die from the consequences of (the) siege imposed on the Gaza Strip, said UNRWA commissioner-general Philippe Lazzarini.

He called for meaningful and uninterrupted aid to the coastal territory as he confirmed 57 of the agencys staff had been killed during the war.

Ground forces incursion

Israels army said Friday its infantry backed by fighter jets and drones carried out a targeted raid in central Gaza, its second incursion in as many days.

The IDF identified and struck numerous terror targets, including anti-tank missile launch sites, military command and control centres, as well as Hamas terrorists, it said, adding troops exited the area at the end of the activity.

The incursions come after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated this week that Israel was preparing for a ground offensive.

US-Iran tensions

The United States on Thursday warned Iran against any escalation as it struck facilities in Syria it says were used by Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and others.

The precision self-defence strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against US personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.

The strikes followed a direct warning Thursday from President Joe Biden to Irans supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei against the strikes on US troops, the White House said.

The United States has moved two aircraft carrier groups near Israel since the Hamas attacks in what it says is a bid to deter Iran and its proxies, including Lebanons Hezbollah, from broadening the conflict.

Drone falls in Egypt

Six people were lightly injured when an unidentified drone fell on the Egyptian town of Taba near the border with Israel on Friday, the army said.

The army spokesman said the drone crashed into a building next to Taba hospital, in the Red Sea town of the same name, across from the Israeli resort of Eilat.

Gaza war dead debate

Hamas on Thursday released a list of almost 7,000 names of people it said had been killed in Israeli strikes, after US President Biden had cast doubt on its figures.

The Palestinian Islamist group also said almost 50 Israeli hostages held in Gaza had been killed in Israeli bombing raids on the Palestinian territory.

UNRWAs Lazzarini weighed in on the discussion on Friday, saying the Gaza health ministrys figures had proven credible in past conflicts.
Hamas which has been holding up over 224 hostages since its October 7 onslaught, has said it needs time to locate all the captives before they can release them.

During his visit to Russia, a Hamas official named Abu Hamid told Russias semi-official Kommersant news that the terror group has always been willing to release civilians held under them but need time to find them.

He further said that apart from Hamas, other organisations are holding people hostage and that a ceasefire is required to allow them to carry out a search to find the hostages and eventually release them.

Meanwhile, the terror group said Thursday that Israeli strikes on Gaza have killed almost 50 of the hostages.

The groups armed wing made the claim, which AFP could not immediately verify, after Israel sent tanks, troops and armoured bulldozers into the enclave in a targeted raid overnight that the military said destroyed multiple sites before withdrawing.

(Ezzedine) Al-Qassam Brigades estimates that the number of Zionist prisoners who were killed in the Gaza Strip as a result of Zionist strikes and massacres has reached almost 50, the group said in a statement on its Telegram channel.

On the other hand, Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Herzog said that Israel is giving an opportunity for Gaza terror groups to release people under their captivity.

Israel is giving an opportunity for the hostages to be released. We are obviously calling for the immediate unconditional release of all of them, Herzog told Army Radio.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) on Friday said its fighter jets struck three senior Hamas operatives in the Daraj Tuffah Battalion. The IDF said the battalions operatives played a significant part in Hamass attack on Israel.

A post on the official handle of the Israel Defence Forces on X stated, IDF fighter jets struck 3 senior Hamas operatives in the Daraj Tuffah Battalion. The battalions operatives played a significant role in the invasion and murderous attack against Israel on October 7, and is considered to be the most significant brigade of the Hamas terrorist organisation.

Meanwhile, the Israeli Air Forces said the Hamas operatives were eliminated under the precise intelligence guidance of the Israel Security Agency Shin Bet.

The IDF, under the precise intelligence guidance of the Shin Bet and the Amman, eliminated the commander of the Darj Tafah battalion of the terrorist organization Hamas, Rafat Abbas, his deputy, Ebrahim Jedeva, and the commander of combat and administrative assistance, Tarek Maruf, using fighter jets. All three are terrorists. Veterans of the organization who participated in previous campaigns against Israel, the Israeli Air Force posted from its official handle on X

The Darj Tafah Battalion is a battalion in the Gaza City Brigade, which is considered the most significant brigade of the terrorist organization Hamas. The battalions terrorists took a significant part in the murderous massacre on October 7, the Israeli Air Force added in its post.

On Thursday, the IDF said the deputy head of Hamass intelligence directorate, Shadi Barud, had been killed in an aerial strike.

According to IDF, he was involved in the planning of Hamass October 7 attack on Israel.

The IDF posted from its X handle, Shadi Barud, Deputy Head of Hamas Intelligence Directorate has been eliminated by an IDF aerial strike. He took part in the planning of the October 7 massacre and countless other deadly attacks carried out against Israelis. We will continue to strike and eliminate Hamas leaders and operatives responsible for the barbaric attacks.

Meanwhile, a rocket launched from the Gaza Strip has landed near a highway near Rehovot in central Israel, setting fire to a utility pole. Reports of widespread power outages in the area have emerged.

According to medics, no physical injuries have been caused, The Times of Israel reported.

On Thursday, IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the Israel Defence Forces will continue ground raids into Gaza in the coming days to prepare for the next stages in the ongoing conflict against Hamas, according to CNN.

Hagari noted that the aim of Israels ground operations is to kill Hamas terrorists, lay the foundations for an all-out invasion and neutralise explosive devices and reconnaissance posts, CNN reported.

His remarks come after the IDF conducted a targeted raid overnight in northern Gaza using tanks.

He said the IDF continues to conduct strikes against Gaza from air and sea, and is focusing on killing senior Hamas commanders and the infrastructure of Hamas.
The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Friday rejected Pakistans former Prime Minister Imran Khans pleas for bail and cancellation of the FIR in the cipher case.

The verdict was announced by IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq, which was reserved on October 16 after both sides were completed.

During the hearing earlier this month, Imran Khans counsel, Sardar Latif Khosa, said an FIR could not be registered against the PTI chief since the federal Cabinet of the former prime minister declassified the cipher.

He also said the ex-premier enjoyed immunity as provided in Article 248 of the Constitution which protects the president, governor, prime minister, federal minister, minister of state, chief minister and provincial minister for their act done or purported to be done.

Khan and his close ally ex-foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi were on Monday indicted by the special court on charges of leaking state secrets and violating the laws of the country.

Khan was arrested in August 2023, after a case was filed against him for allegedly violating the Official Secrets Act by disclosing a secret diplomatic cable (cipher) sent by the countrys embassy in Washington in March last year.

On September 30, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) filed the charge sheet against Khan and Qureshi who signed its copies.

The FIA invoked in the charge sheet sections 5 and 9 of the Official Secrets Act which may lead to a death sentence, or two to 14 years imprisonment if convicted. Khan, who served as prime minister of Pakistan from August 2018 to April 2022, is accused of misuse the contents of the cipher to build a narrative that his government was ousted due to a foreign conspiracy hatched by the US, a charge denied by Washington.

The charge sheet added that Qureshi aided and abetted Khan and therefore was liable for the act in the same manner.

More than 150 cases have been registered against Khan since his ouster from power in April last year.

Khan was ousted through a vote of no-confidence in April 2022. He was incarcerated on August 5 this year, after an IHC sentenced him to three years in prison in the Toshakhana case. He was lodged in the Attock District Jail to serve his prison term.

Later, his sentence was suspended by the IHC, but then he was arrested in the cipher case and remained in the Attock jail on judicial remand. He was later shifted to Adiala jail.

With inputs from agencies
Over 200,000 minors may have been sexually abused in Spain by the Roman Catholic clergy since 1940, according to an estimate by an independent commission published Friday.

The report did not give a specific figure but said a poll of over 8,000 people found that 0.6 per cent of Spains adult population of around 39 million people said they had suffered sexual abuse by members of the clergy when they were still children.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has dismissed the possibility of putting off upcoming polls, assuring the public that a schedule will be issued once the delimitation of constituencies is finalised.

Political circles in Pakistan have been buzzing in recent months over the general elections slated early next year. While some parties, including the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F), a member of the last ruling coalition, have asked for deferring the polls, others like another coalition member Peoples Party of Pakistan (PPP) have called for carrying on the democratic exercise in time.

After the publication of the delimitation of constituencies, the election schedule will be announced. There is no chance of a delay in the elections, an ECP statement quoted a saying by Geo TV.

The official further assured that all necessary preparations for the elections have been completed.

The spokesperson elaborated on the delimitation process, noting that the first phase has already been concluded, and the second phase will be finalised following the examination of objections to the preliminary delimitations. The ECP will commence hearings on these objections from 30-31 October, with a final list of constituencies set to be published by 30 November.

The spokesperson emphasised, The election schedule will be announced after the final publication of constituencies. There is no ambiguity in the Election Commissions decisions.

This announcement by the ECP follows recent comments by President Dr Arif Alvi, casting doubts about the general elections taking place in January next year. However, he emphasised the importance of conducting transparent elections when they are eventually scheduled.

Political analysts have also voiced concerns regarding potential delays in the polls, noting that no political party appears to be in election mode, and some have cited concerns about the challenging winter weather conditions that could affect the polling process.

The political landscape in Pakistan has been marked by uncertainty since the removal of the Imran Khan government through a no-confidence motion in April 2022. Subsequently, a coalition government took over and dissolved the National Assembly on 9 August of this year. With the premature dissolution of national and provincial assemblies, the ECP is constitutionally obligated to hold elections within a 90-day period, meaning the polls should take place no later than 6 November.

However, the ECP cited the need to redraw boundaries ahead of the elections, as approved by the Council of Common Interest (CCI) following the census. Consequently, holding elections within the stipulated time frame was deemed unfeasible.

Several key political parties, including Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), have urged the commison to expedite the electoral process to alleviate the ongoing uncertainty in the country.

In September, ECP announced general elections would take place in the last week of January 2024. Additionally, in the same month, the ECP released a provisional report on the delimitation of constituencies based on the recently completed census, bringing Pakistan a step closer to the long-anticipated general elections.
Pakistans incarcerated former prime minister Imran Khan has claimed yet another attempt on his life may be made through slow poisoning in jail because he has refused to leave the country.

Since I wont agree to leave my country, there is, of course, a danger they (a reference to powerful quarters of the country) will try to make (yet) another attempt on my life while I am in jail. Such an attempt could also be through slow poisoning, Khan said in his message shared by his family and posted from his X account on Friday.

            24  2023         ! Related Articles Former Pakistan PM Imran Khan indicted in leaked documents case Pakistan: Imran Khan faces trouble in official secrets case                                 Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) October 27, 2023

Khan, 71, has been in Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi in the Cipher case.

Stating that at the moment, he is physically fit, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chief added: I would know if my body was experiencing change from weakness. But they have already made two public attempts to take my life.

Khans claim through the X post comes on a day when a court in Pakistan rejected his petitions seeking bail and cancellation of the first FIR in the cipher case. Khan was arrested in August after a case was filed against him for disclosing a secret diplomatic cable (cipher) sent by the countrys embassy in Washington in March last year.

A special court in Pakistan on Monday indicted him along with his close ally and former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in the case.

Further claiming that all the cases against him are completely bogus and politically motivated, Khan said, those cases have been concocted only to keep me in jail for certain (time) till after the elections or maybe much longer beyond the elections.

He said during the last few days, the country has witnessed a total mockery of the law and repeated an accusation he has often levelled against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo and three-time premier Nawaz Sharif.

All that is happening today is not just an execution of a London plan, the post on X said, adding, a London agreement was signed between a cowardly fugitive & a corrupt criminal and his facilitators (a reference to the elements in the military establishment). The only way a convicted criminal (Sharif) could be allowed to return to politics with a clean chit is by destroying State institutions. And hence, what we are witnessing is a complete collapse of our justice system, Khan further said in the X post.

Sharif returned to Pakistan on October 21 after four years of self-exile in London.

Khan said the growing political awareness and increasing resistance against closed-room conspiracies in his nation scares them. Our struggle is entering its decisive phase. You will have to fight for your own rights and your countrys freedom. I have directed my lawyers and party office bearers to hold conventions all over the country and also commence the campaign for whenever elections are held, Khan urged as he concluded the post.

Earlier on May 2 this year, Khan had told the Lahore High Court (LHC) that a third assassination attempt had been hatched against him and sought to quash all political cases against him, saying regular court appearances would endanger his life.

The statement to the court came months after the November 3, 2022 gun attack on his rally in the Wazirabad area (some 150 kms from Lahore) in which he suffered bullet injuries to his leg.
Stating that the Palestinian people have the legitimate right to defend themselves against Israel even through armed struggle, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian called for an end to the ongoing Israeli actions in Gaza Strip.

The genocide in Gaza must stop immediately, the forced displacement of the people of Gaza must stop immediately, Abdollahian said during his address at the special session of the UN General Assembly.

Referring to Hamas and the 7 October attacks, he stated that the history of the Palestinian issue is around 80 years and trying to reduce its dimensions to just one attack and just one Palestinian liberation group is a big lie.

Abdollahian said, According to the international law and hundreds of resolutions of this very assembly the entire land of Palestine is an occupied land and because of this, the Zionist regime is recognized as an aggressor and an occupier. The Palestinian nation like any other nation under occupation has an indisputable and inherent right of self-determination and has the right to directly and freely decide its independence and create an independent government to decide for itself.

Palestine, as a nation under occupation has the legitimate right to resist occupation including all available methods including armed struggle. Therefore, the recent hypocritical actions to introduce the struggle as a terrorist action will not deceive the free nation, he added.

The Iranian Foreign Minister also slammed the US for its support to Israel and called its actions as clear violation of the charter.

The United States of America as the unwavering supporter of the occupier regime is the main cause of the failure of the United Nations, especially the Security Councilthe actions of the United Statesare a clear violation of the charter and international legal obligations of that country, he further said.
Israel says there are 222 people as hostages in Gaza captured by Hamas following its unprecedented attack on October 7. The war-struck West Asian nations have now moved to Qatari mediators, saying it is prepared to give something in exchange for the release of a significant number of those held captive by the Palestinian terrorist group.

This came a day after Hamass armed wing claimed that almost 50 Israeli hostages held by its operators in the Gaza Strip have been killed since Israel started bombarding the Palestinian territory.

A report by the Kan public broadcasters citied an unnamed political source saying Israel has informed Qatari mediators that it is prepared to give something in exchange for Hamas releases hostages from Gaza.

The source, however, did not specify what Israel would be willing to offer.

Meanwhile, Jerusalem has also rejected proposals that required it to allow fuel into Gaza due to fears that it will be used by Hamas.

Israel has publicly been insisting that the hostages must be released unconditionally, however, it is unclear if they gave anything in exchange for the release of the first four hostages over the past week.

As per reports by Kan, Israel passed along its red lines for the negotiations to the Qatari mediators.

The Palestinian terrorist group has reportedly been seeking the entry of fuel into Gaza as well as the release of security prisoners from Israeli jails along with a ceasefire.

The report also quoted the political source saying a major development is possibly in the talks and would soon be unfolding.

With inputs from agencies
Amid the ongoing war in Israel, Hamas representatives have flown to Moscow to discuss the conflict and ways to stop Zionist crimes supported by the United States and the West.

Hamas delegation, led by the head of the terror groups International Relations office, Musa Abu Marzouk, met Russias deputy foreign minister, Mikhail Bogdanov.

The meeting was also attended by Ali Bagheri Kani, the deputy foreign minister of Hamas chief sponsor, Iran.

Hamas praises Putin

Hamas delegation also praised the position of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the efforts of Russian diplomacy.

As per reports, Bogdanov, who is also Putins special envoy to West Asia, has expressed Russias support for the rights of the people of Palestine. He also spoke of his countrys efforts to achieve a ceasefire and open humanitarian corridors in Gaza.

Israel slams Russia

Russia was slammed by Israel for hosting representatives of Hamas amid growing Jerusalems public frustration with Moscow.

In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lior Haiat said: Hamas is a terrorist organization worse than ISIS.

Israel sees the invitation of senior Hamas officials to Moscow as an obscene step that gives support to terrorism and legitimises the atrocities of Hamas terrorists, the Israels Foreign Ministry said, calling on Moscow to immediately expel the leaders of Hamas.

The hands of senior Hamas officials are stained with the blood of over 1,400 Israelis who were slaughtered, murdered, executed and burned, and they are responsible for the kidnapping of over 220 Israelis including babies, children, women and the elderly, the Israels Foreign Minister spokesperson added.

Recently, Russia submitted a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire that did not mention Hamas, and was, therefore, voted down by the US, UK, France and others.

Moscow has backed Israels right to defend itself, but has blasted the country for employing cruel methods in its campaign against Hamas.

Israel-Palestine war broke out when Hamas launched an unprecedented ground, air and sea assault from the Gaza Strip on the Jewish state on October 7.

With inputs from agencies
Anticipating a potential Hamas-style surprise attack from North Korea, South Korean and US troops have begun conducting live-fire exercises to prepare themselves for a counteroffensive.

Although the two forces regularly conduct live-fire and other training exercises, this weeks drills come after Hamas unprecedented attacks against Israel on October 7 that raised security jitters in South Korea, which shares the worlds most heavily fortified border with rival North Korea.

Experts say the Norths forward-deployed long-range artillery guns can fire about 16,000 rounds per hour in the event of a conflict, posing a serious threat to Seoul, which is about 40-50 kilometers (25-30 miles) from the border.

The three-day military exercise which began on Wednesday included 5,400 South Korean and US soldiers, 300 artillery systems, 1,000 vehicles and air force assets, according to South Koreas military.

In a statement, South Koreas Ground Operations Command said, In a simulated response to the enemys (possible) Hamas-style surprise artillery attacks the exercises practiced strikes designed to remove the origins of the enemys long-range artillery provocations at an early date.

South Korea and the United States have been expanding their regular military drills in the face of North Koreas advancing nuclear program. Since last year, North Korea has carried out more than 100 missile tests, some of them simulated nuclear attacks on South Korea and the US.

With inputs from AP
Maldives has started negotiations with India to remove its military presence, President-elect Mohamed Muizzu said in an interview to Bloomberg News on Friday, as New Delhi and Beijing both vie for influence in the region.

Removing Indian troops was a key campaign pledge by Muizzu, who ousted President Ibrahim Solih last month.

Around 70 Indian military personnel maintain New Delhi-sponsored radar stations and surveillance aircraft. Indian warships help patrol Maldives exclusive economic zone.

Muizzu said in the interview he had already begun negotiations with the Indian government on removing its military presence, calling those talks very successful already.

We want a bilateral relationship thats mutually beneficial, Muizzu told Bloomberg, adding that Indian soldiers would not be replaced by troops from other countries.

Asking India to remove military personnel in no way indicated that Im going to allow China or any other country to bring their military troops here, he said.

Muizzus win extends the tug-of-war between China and India for influence over the Indian Ocean.

Successive governments have tilted either toward India or China. Both Asian powerhouses have invested heavily in upgrading Maldives infrastructure and extended loans, as they compete with each other.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 is starting to boost defence contractors revenues, as customers such as the US government restock supplies shipped to Ukraine and countries around Europe arm themselves with an eye on Moscows aggressions.

US defence contractors such as Lockheed Martin (LMT.N), General Dynamics (GD.N) and others expect that existing orders for hundreds of thousands of artillery rounds, hundreds of Patriot missile interceptors and a surge in orders for armoured vehicles expected in the months ahead will underpin their results in coming quarters.

New contracts to supply Ukraine directly  or backfill US weapons sent to Ukraine  were signed late last year, and now revenue is flowing to the big defence contractors. Lockheed, General Dynamics and RTX (RTX.N) all reported better than expected results over the past several days, and executives expect both the conflict in Ukraine and Israels war with Palestinian militant group Hamas to drive up near-term demand.

Weve gone from 14,000 (artillery) rounds per month to 20,000 very quickly. Were working ahead of schedule to accelerate that production capacity up to 85,000, even as high as 100,000 rounds per month, Jason Aiken, General Dynamics chief financial officer, said on a call with Wall Street analysts on Wednesday.

And I think the Israel situation is only going to put upward pressure on that demand.

The General Dynamics Combat Systems unit, which makes armoured vehicles, tanks and the artillery Ukraine uses, saw its revenue rise almost 25% versus the same period a year ago.

RTX, which makes AMRAAM rockets used in Ukraine, said on Tuesdays earnings call with Wall Street analysts it has received $3 billion of orders since Russias February 2022 invasion that are related to replenishing Ukraine and US war stocks, and the company expects more.

Third-quarter sales for Northrop Grummans (NOC.N) Defence Systems segment rose 6% on high demand for ammunition and rocket motors used in guided multiple-launch rocket systems (GMLRS), which play a crucial role in supporting Ukraines defence efforts against Russian forces.

This is part of a global trend. Swedens Saab (SAABb.ST) raised its full-year sales outlook on Thursday on the back of strong defence demand and Germanys Rheinmetall (RHMG.DE) said third-quarter profit jumped on strong demand for weapons and ammunition.

During his latest request for $106 billion in new funds for Ukraine, Israel, the Indo-Pacific region and border enforcement, U.S. President Joe Biden on Oct. 20 said some of the supplemental request would go to companies that backfill production of U.S. weapons sent abroad. Biden mentioned Patriot missiles made in Arizona, and artillery shells manufactured in 12 states across the country, naming Pennsylvania, Ohio and Texas.

To be sure, executives from several defence firms at a recent trade show cautioned that a lack of skilled labour and supply chain issues continue to hamper companies capacity to fill orders.

The supply chain, to be completely candid with you, remains, and I think we expect to remain what I call fragile, General Dynamicss Aiken said on the earnings call, as the company said it was cutting its forecast for 2023 business jet deliveries. I dont think thats going to get back to what we saw pre-pandemic for the foreseeable future.

Lockheed on October 17 said supply and labour disruptions are affecting divisions like aeronautics, which makes the advanced F-35 fighter jet, due to the need for processor assemblies, solid-rocket motors, castings and forgings.
The United Nations said Friday that uninterrupted aid was needed in Gaza after nearly three weeks of Israeli bombardment in retaliation for Hamas attacks this month that has triggered a humanitarian crisis in the besieged Palestinian territory.

Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general for UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said meaningful and uninterrupted aid was needed for the Gaza Strip, calling the trickle of aid entering the area crumbs.

The current system in place is geared to fail. What is needed is meaningful and uninterrupted aid flow. And to succeed, we need a humanitarian ceasefire to ensure this aid reaches those in need, Lazzarini told reporters in Jerusalem during a press conference.

The commissioner also confirmed 57 of the agencys staff had been killed during the war.

At least 57 colleagues of mine are confirmed killed, said Lazzarini. Wonderful people who have just dedicated their lives to their communities.

Lazzarini also weighed in on a controversy over the civilian death toll given by the Hamas-run health ministry in the territory, saying their figures had proven credible during past conflicts.

In the past, the five, six cycles of conflict in the Gaza Strip, these figures were considered as credible and no-one ever really challenged these figures, he told reporters.

On October 7, throngs of Hamas gunmen poured from Gaza into Israel, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 224 more, according to Israeli officials.

In retaliatory Israeli air and artillery strikes, at least 7,028 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip, including 2,913 children, according to figures released by the Hamas-controlled health ministry.

The fatalities in Gaza are the highest there since Israel unilaterally withdrew from the Palestinian territory in 2005.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said Friday that the death toll given by the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza had proved to be credible in previous conflicts after Washington raised doubts about figures from the current war.

In the past, the five, six cycles of conflict in the Gaza Strip, these figures were considered as credible and no-one ever really challenged these figures, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told reporters in Jerusalem.

The war erupted on October 7 after Hamas militants stormed across the Gaza border, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and snatching 229 hostages in the worst bloodshed in Israels history.

Israel has struck back with a relentless bombing campaign which Gazas health ministry says has killed 7,028 people, mostly civilians, among them 2,913 children.

Lazzarini said 57 UNRWA staff had been killed since the conflict began, explaining how the agencys toll reflected the broader casualty rate in Gaza.

He suggested the ratio of UNRWA staff killed to the total number of agency workers was in line with the ratio of Gazans killed to the territorys overall population, as provided by the health ministry.

We have more or less the same percentage, he told journalists in Jerusalem.

His comments came just days after US President Joe Biden said he had no confidence in the figures provided by Gazas health ministry.

I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed. Im sure innocents have been killed, and its the price of waging a war, he told a White House press conference on Wednesday.

A day later, the health ministry responded by releasing the names, identity card numbers, gender and age of almost 7,000 of those killed in Gaza.

We have decided to announce the details of the names to the whole world so that the truth is known about the genocide perpetrated by the Israeli occupation against our people, the ministry said.
US President Joe Biden ordered strikes on two facilities in Syria following attacks on US troops in the past week, the Pentagon said, warning the US will take additional measures if attacks by Irans proxies continue.

US forces have been hit more than a dozen times in Iraq and Syria in the past week by what Washington suspects are Iran-backed groups. Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Lebanons Hezbollah are all backed by Tehran.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said at the United Nations on Thursday that if Israels offensive against Hamas did not stop, the United States would not be spared from this fire.

The US military carried out strikes on Thursday against two facilities in eastern Syria used by Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and groups it backs, the Pentagon said.

These precision self-defense strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against US personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on October 17, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement.

These Iranian-backed attacks against US forces are unacceptable and must stop, Austin said.

Biden has sent a rare message to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warning Tehran against targeting US personnel in the Middle East, the White House said earlier on Thursday.

Israel said on Friday military raids into Gaza were preparing the next stage of the operation, amid fears that a ground invasion of the Palestinian enclave could spark a wider Middle East conflict.

Israel has bombarded the densely populated Gaza Strip following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israeli communities. Israel says Hamas killed some 1,400 people including children, and took more than 200 hostages, some of them infants and older adults.

The Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry said on Thursday that 7,028 Palestinians had been killed in the retaliatory air strikes, including 2,913 children.

Reuters could not independently verify the tolls.

A missile launched as part of fighting between Hamas and Israel struck an Egyptian resort town about 220 km (135 miles) from the Gaza Strip early on Friday, Egypts Al Qahera News reported, citing sources.

The missile hit a medical facility in Taba, injuring at least six people, Al Qahera TV reported. A witness in Taba confirmed hearing an explosion and seeing smoke rising, but Reuters was not immediately able to identify the blasts source.

Taba straddles Egypts border with Israels Red Sea port of Eilat. Israels military said it was aware of a security incident outside its borders.

Reuters was not immediately able to confirm the reports.

ISRAEL SAYS HITS SENIOR HAMAS COMMANDERS

Israel said on Friday that its fighter jets had struck three senior Hamas operatives in the Daraj Tuffah Battalion, part of the Gaza City Brigade. Israel said the three commanders had played a significant role in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

There was no official announcement by Hamas.

Palestinian militants clashed with Israeli troops in at least two areas of the Gaza Strip on Friday, Hamas-affiliated media reported.

Israeli military vehicles raided the central area of Al-Bureij and troops were clashing with militants near the border there, the reports said. In the south, in a border area near the town of Rafah, Hamas militants were trading fire with Israeli troops, according to the reports.

Reuters was unable to immediately confirm the reports.

As the plight of Palestinian civilians grows more desperate, the issue of whether to have humanitarian pauses or ceasefire agreements in the Hamas-run coastal enclave will come before the 193-member UN General Assembly on Friday in a draft resolution submitted by Arab states calling for a ceasefire.

Unlike in the Security Council where resolutions on Gaza aid failed this week, no country holds a veto in the General Assembly. Resolutions are non-binding but carry political weight.

To say that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is catastrophic is an understatement. Everything that is needed to sustain life is missing or dwindling by the hour in Gaza, said Mamadou Sow, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross regional delegation.

More than 613,000 people were estimated to have been made homeless by the Israeli bombardment of Gaza and were being sheltered by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.

US SENDS MORE TROOPS TO REGION

Governments in the West and the Middle East are concerned about a wider regional conflict developing if Israel continues its bombardment of Gaza or mounts a ground invasion in response to the surprise attack by Hamas.

Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah have already exchanged fire and Israel has targeted Syrian army infrastructure and airports.

The United States has sent warships and fighter aircraft to the region over the last three weeks. On Thursday the Pentagon said about 900 more US troops have arrived in the Middle East or are heading there to bolster air defences for US personnel.

For Israels part, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, asked at a press conference about the possibility of a confrontation with Iran, said Israel has no interest in expanding the war.
The US has issued a fresh round of sanctions on entities linked to Hamas to cut off its funding.

US Treasury Departments Office of Foreign Assets Control said in a statement that the new sanctions highlight Irans role in providing financial, logistical and operational support to Hamas and include a Hamas representative in Iran and members of Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard.

Todays action underscores the United States commitment to dismantling Hamass funding networks by deploying our counterterrorism sanctions authorities and working with our global partners to deny Hamas the ability to exploit the international financial system, the department said.

Among those who have been hit with the new sanctions include Khaled Qaddoumi, described as a liaison between Hamas and the Iranian government; and Ali Morshed Shirazi and Mostafa Mohammad Khani. Apart from this, some officials of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force have also been accused of training Hamas terrorists.

The organisation that has been targeted by the US includes the Iranian Bonyad Shahid, also known as the Martyrs Foundation.

Earlier this week, the US joined Gulf nations including Saudi Arabia and Qatar to target a secret Hamas portfolio that is believed to be valued at least hundreds of millions of dollars.

US officials have stepped up efforts to pinpoint the Hamas portfolio along with Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations.
Two rockets were targeted in Israels capital Tel Aviv on Friday in span on half-an-hour.

Reports of another rocket impact in Tel Aviv, in the Jaffa area pic.twitter.com/oThLVRKVcN  Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) October 27, 2023

The first rocket hit a building in Tel Aviv. At the time of filing this report, three people, including 20-year-old man, were injured in the rocket attack in Israel.

Reports of a direct rocket impact in Tel Aviv pic.twitter.com/eoL397rpTC  Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) October 27, 2023

Hamas takes responsibility

Hamas Al-Qassam Brigades claimed responsibility for the second barrage to target the Tel Aviv area in under half an hour, after also claiming the first.

The Al-Qassam Brigades has renewed bombing Tel Aviv in response to Zionist massacres against civilians, it said.

Video of the rocket attacks in Tel Aviv showed smoke rising from a building with a large fireball going up.

Meanwhile a report by Channel 12 said at least eight other rockets were intercepted. The interceptions were captured by several TV cameras.

Footage shows the moment of the rocket impact in Tel Aviv pic.twitter.com/BnyWYeDRgd  Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) October 27, 2023

Rocket sirens were sounded in the Tel Aviv area, including suburbs of the city.

Rocket sirens were also sounded in Ashdod.

Reports of a direct rocket impact in Tel Aviv pic.twitter.com/eoL397rpTC  Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) October 27, 2023

The attack appeared to be the first outside the immediate area abutting Gaza since Thursday night.

After the first rocket attack, sirens were later sounded for the second time in a day in Tel Aviv and the Shfela (Judean lowlands) area southeast of the city.

Suburbs east of Tel Aviv were also included in the alert.

More details are awaited
Google Maps is introducing AI-driven updates to enhance user experiences and promote sustainable travel choices. From Immersive View for routes to Lens in Maps, improved navigation, and electric vehicle charging details, Google Maps is elevating its travel assistance capabilities.

Immersive View for Routes

Google Maps introduces Immersive View for routes, revolutionizing trip planning. This feature allows users in select cities to visualize their entire journey in a multidimensional view. It provides detailed turn-by-turn directions, and offers a time slider to plan around traffic and weather conditions, ensuring a seamless travel experience.

Lens in Maps Expands

Lens in Maps, previously known as Search with Live View, now covers over 50 new cities. This AI-driven feature helps users quickly orient themselves in unfamiliar places. By simply tapping the Lens icon, users can access information about nearby ATMs, transit stations, restaurants, coffee shops, and stores, making exploration easier.

Enhanced Navigation Map

Google Maps enhances its navigation map with more realistic building representations for improved orientation in urban areas. It also includes advanced lane details for highway driving.

Real-time data about HOV lanes in the U.S. and AI-powered speed limit information in Europe will provide more accurate route planning.

Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Information

EV drivers will now have comprehensive charging station information, including compatibility and charger speed. This feature minimizes charging anxiety by indicating the last usage of chargers, preventing unnecessary stops at inactive stations. This information will be available to developers on Google Maps Platform.

New Search Features

Search in Google Maps is getting smarter. Users can now search for specific items or activities and receive photo-first results based on billions of community-shared photos. Additionally, thematic place suggestions and results for activities and dining will be available, offering inspiration for those spontaneous adventures.

Availability

These AI-powered updates are set to roll out in stages. Immersive View for routes will start in select cities including Amsterdam, Barcelona, Dublin, and more on Android and iOS.

Lens in Maps will expand to over 50 new cities. The enhanced navigation map will be introduced in 12 countries, including the U.S. and Europe. EV charging information will be available globally on iOS and Android.

New search features will roll out in France, Germany, Japan, the U.K., and the U.S., with global expansion planned. These updates aim to make Google Maps an even more valuable travel companion, ensuring users have the information they need to confidently plan and navigate their journeys.
Welcome to my genealogy blog. Genea-Musings features genealogy research tips and techniques, genealogy news items and commentary, genealogy humor, San Diego genealogy society news, family history research and some family history stories from the keyboard of Randy Seaver (of Chula Vista CA), who thinks that Genealogy Research Is really FUN! Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2006-2023.
HMD Global to Launch Its Own Smartphone Brand in India First News oi -Kabir Jain

HMD Global, recognized as the manufacturer of Nokia smartphones, is preparing to introduce its very own brand of smartphones in India. In an interview with ET Telecom, Ravi Kunwar, HMD Global's Vice President for India and Asia Pacific, confirmed this development.

The launch is anticipated to take place in the first half of 2024, with India as the primary focus for the company's endeavors. HMD Global is set to manufacture all its devices in India and explore exporting them to other markets.

HMD's Evolution into its Own Brand

This move aligns with an announcement made by Jean-Francois Baril, the Co-founder, Chairman, and CEO of HMD Global, earlier this year on LinkedIn. He indicated that the company would venture into launching its own HMD-branded smartphones, marking an evolution from manufacturing Nokia phones to creating an independent brand. Importantly, HMD's branded smartphones will coexist alongside Nokia devices in the company's product portfolio, with new partners joining the venture.

Ravi Kunwar reaffirmed this strategy, revealing that HMD Global intends to introduce its own line of HMD-branded devices in the first half of 2024. This product lineup will encompass smartphones, tablets, feature phones, and IoT devices, forming a comprehensive ecosystem. While the Nokia portfolio caters to various consumer segments, the HMD-branded products will target different demographics.

India: A Priority Market for HMD's Brand

India holds a pivotal role in HMD's global strategy. It will serve as the launchpad for HMD-branded devices, making their debut in India before reaching international markets. Kunwar emphasized the importance of India in HMD's vision, driven by the substantial consumer market and the promising performance in the country.

HMD Global has been actively manufacturing most of its smartphone models in India for the past three years. This involves partnerships with prominent companies like Foxconn, Dixon Technologies, and Lava International. The recent export of Nokia feature phones from India, particularly the Nokia 105 priced under 1,000, has established India as a significant export hub.

Kunwar reiterated the company's commitment to the "Make in India" initiative, leveraging the benefits provided by the Indian government to facilitate exports. HMD aspires to utilize its contact manufacturers in India to create a strong export base for its products.

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Canada allocates funding for partners responding to urgent needs stemming from the crisis in Gaza Strip, West Bank, Israel and neighbouring areas

Global Affairs Canada

News release

October 25, 2023 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada

Today, the Honourable Ahmed Hussen, Minister of International Development, announced that Canada is allocating an initial $10 million in funding for humanitarian assistance to address urgent needs stemming from the crisis in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Israel and neighbouring areas. This funding supports United Nations and Red Cross appeals and will help Canada's partners to provide food, water, emergency medical assistance, protection services and other life-saving assistance. The funds are being allocated as follows:

Canadian Red Cross: $2.5 million

UNICEF: $1 million

United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East: $3.5 million

World Food Programme: $2 million

World Health Organization: $1 million

Canada remains steadfast in its call for compliance with international humanitarian law; the safety and well-being of civilians must be a top priority. Canada continues to urge all parties to actively facilitate the rapid, sustained and unimpeded access of essential humanitarian relief to civilians in need, underscoring our collective responsibility to uphold the principles of humanity, dignity and protection for all.

Quotes

"Canada welcomed the news of humanitarian assistance being delivered to civilians in Gaza through the Rafah crossing. However, the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains dire and for Canada's assistance to reach those who urgently need help, the rapid, sustained and unimpeded access of humanitarian relief is essential." - Ahmed Hussen, Minister of International Development

Quick facts

Canada has announced that it is providing $60 million in funding for humanitarian assistance in response to the crisis.

Further funding allocations for specific partners will be determined in the near future.

Canada provides its funding for humanitarian assistance based on need and through experienced and trusted humanitarian organizations that have the necessary on-the-ground operational capacity to respond.

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Statement by the Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan on indiscriminate attacks on civilian facilities and infrastructure

UNOCHA - United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

(Port Sudan, 25 October 2023) -- The Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan Clementine Nkweta-Salami has expressed deep concern over continued reports of attacks against civilian infrastructure as brutal fighting continues across Sudan.

"I am deeply concerned that facilities that are necessary for the functioning of basic services including water, sanitation, and health care, are under attack in Sudan," the Humanitarian Coordinator said.

In October alone there have been several incidents. On 9 October, shells struck Al Nao hospital, one of the last functioning hospitals in Omdurman, killing two people and injuring five others at a time when medical personnel were attending to patients. Four other shells exploded near the hospital, killing two more people.

This is only the latest such attack. Since 15 April, the World Health Organization has verified 58 attacks on the health care system resulting in 31 deaths and 38 injuries - an average of ten attacks per month. More than 70 per cent of health facilities in conflictaffected states are non-functional, severely limiting access to health care for millions of innocent civilians.

On 21 October, the Al Manara water treatment plan in Omdurman was fired on leading to the temporary stoppage of the water supply. This kind of disruption is extremely worrying given the ongoing cholera outbreak in Khartoum State and other parts of the country. Furthermore, a damaged water plant not only disrupts the supply for days but could also result in a prolonged crisis that affects agriculture, industry, and daily life.

"Over the past six months, I have repeatedly called on the Sudanese Armed Forces, the Rapid Support Forces, and all parties to Sudan's conflict to protect civilian infrastructure. International Humanitarian Law is clear in this regard. All parties to armed conflict must take constant care to spare civilian objects, including humanitarian personnel and assets, and essential infrastructure. These attacks must stop," she emphasized.

The Humanitarian Coordinator added: "The conflict has caused untold suffering in Sudan at a scale never seen before. Human dignity has gone out the window, and little is sacred anymore, not even hospital wards full of sick and wounded children. I implore the parties, yet again: end this terrible agony by silencing the guns".

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USS Jack H. Lucas (DDG 125) Arrives at Homeport in San Diego

US Navy

25 October 2023

From Ensign Sarah Beauchamp

SAN DIEGO, Ca -- The first Flight III Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, USS Jack H. Lucas (DDG 125), arrived at its new homeport in San Diego Oct. 25.

The Navy commissioned Jack H. Lucas, Oct. 7, 2023, during a ceremony in Tampa, Florida under the leadership of Carrier Strike Group 11. The destroyer is assigned to U.S. 3rd Fleet.

"I am so proud of all of the Sailors of Jack H. Lucas, who truly embody the indestructible mindset of the namesake," said Capt. Brett Oster, commanding officer of Jack H. Lucas. "They have worked tirelessly on all qualifications and certifications, setting the bar and allowing the ship to arrive in San Diego to reunite with family and friends on schedule."

The crew of the Jack H. Lucas successfully completed a safe voyage from Pascagoula, Mississippi, to Tampa while executing critical evolutions to include navigation check ride, engineering drills, and a missile launch using the latest ship-based radar and weapons systems. The ship and crew were welcomed by thousands of guests who were given the opportunity to tour the vessel in anticipation of the commissioning ceremony.

The commissioning ceremony was attended by more than 5,000 guests including family and friends of the crew, the local community of Tampa Bay, and distinguished officials. This event marked a significant milestone for the vessel and her crew and served as a testament to their dedication and hard work.

Following commissioning, the ship continued its journey to the Pacific Ocean by successfully transiting the Panama Canal and making stops in Rodman, Panama and Manzanillo, Mexico.

"I am immensely proud of our incredibly talented crew, taking the ship underway a week before conducting two sea and anchors in Tampa and completing a skillful Panama Canal transit while en route to our homeport San Diego," said Cmdr. Matthew Kleine, executive officer of Jack H. Lucas.

Upon arrival to San Diego, Jack H. Lucas was given a warm welcome from 300 friends and family members as it pulled into its new homeport for the first time. The reception was a testament to the strong bonds forged between the crew and their loved ones throughout their voyage.

In the coming year, the ship will undergo a series of rigorous tests to evaluate its combat readiness and effectiveness. These tests will serve as a critical assessment of the vessel's combat capability and will ensure that the Flight III variant destroyer is ready to serve in the Navy.

Built by Huntington Ingalls Industries in Pascagoula, Mississippi, Jack H. Lucas was launched on June 4, 2021, and delivered to the U.S. Navy March 26, 2022. The ship was commissioned in Port of Tampa, Florida on Oct. 7, 2023, and then transited to her homeport at Naval Base San Diego, California.

Arleigh Burke-class Destroyers are the backbone of the U.S. Navy's surface fleet. These highly capable, multi-mission ships conduct a variety of operations, from peacetime presence to national security providing a wide range of warfighting capabilities in multi-threat air, surface, and subsurface.

An integral part of U.S. Pacific Fleet, U.S. 3rd Fleet operates naval forces in the Indo-Pacific and provides the realistic, relevant training necessary to execute our Navy's role across the full spectrum of military operations - from combat operations to humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. U.S. 3rd Fleet works together with our allies and partners to advance freedom of navigation, the rule of law, and other principles that underpin security for the Indo-Pacific region.

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What is right and what is wrong is not determined by who has the stronger arm or a louder voice -- China's top diplomat

Xinhua) 10:55, October 27, 2023

WASHINGTON, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here Thursday that what is right and what is wrong is not determined by who has the stronger arm or a louder voice, but by whether one behaves in a way that is consistent with the provisions of the three China-U.S. joint communiques, with international law and the basic norms of international relations, and with the trend of the times.

Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks when he and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken briefly appeared in front of the press before they held a meeting.

(Web editor: Tian Yi, Liang Jun)
Kosovo/Serbia: Press remarks by High Representative Josep Borrell after meetings with President of Serbia and Prime Minister of Kosovo

European External Action Service (EEAS)

26.10.2023

Brussels 26 October 2023

EEAS Press Team

Check against delivery!



We are very much concerned by the impasse of the normalisation process between Kosovo and Serbia, and the recent terrorist attacks, that we have condemned again in the meeting, that today we had separately with Prime Minister [of Kosovo Albin] Kurti, together with [French] President [Emmanuel] Macron, the [German] Chancellor [Olaf] Scholz, Prime Minister [of Italy Giorgia] Meloni; and after with [Serbian] President [Aleksandar] Vucic in order to discuss with them the situation, displaying once again that the only way forward is the normalisation with the Dialogue, that the European way - it requires normalisation of the relationship between the two of them.

There is a great obstacle which is the establishment of the Association of municipalities of Serbian majority in the north of Kosovo. And in order to help the two parties to reach an agreement, we all together, we presented a new European serious and balanced proposal for the establishment of this Association of Municipalities and insisted on the parties to take this occasion, which would be a great leap forward in the normalisation process, and to avoid the new spirals of violence.

But unhappily, the parties were not ready to agree on that without preconditions, that there were unacceptable by the other party. At the end, we require the parties to sincerely engage in the normalisation process. That can only be done in the framework of the Dialogue, because it is the only way for them to advance on their European path.

We will continue insisting and working in order to get an agreement. But today, unhappily, it has not been possible without, as I said, preconditions from each party that were unacceptable for the other.



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European Council: Press remarks by High Representative Josep Borrell upon arrival

European External Action Service (EEAS)

26.10.2023

EEAS Press Team

Check against delivery!

Hello,

I am coming late to the EUCO [European Council] because I am coming from another meeting with [the leaders of] Kosovo [Prime Minister, Albin Kurti] and Serbia [President Aleksandar Vucic].

You know that today the EUCO [European Council] will focus on Ukraine as always, because Putin continues fighting, continues this war, and we have to continue supporting Ukraine. The discussion will be about the long-term commitments on the security, and how we continue supporting Ukraine militarily and financially.

The other issue - is certainly the situation in the Middle East, where we will have to continue with our position which was stated at the last informal European Council, saying that certainly, strong condemnations of the Hamas terrorist attack, the right to defend of Israel in accordance with the international law and humanitarian law. We will discuss about the humanitarian pauses in order to make the humanitarian aid being able to come into Gaza and to relaunch the political process, looking for a solution which can avoid other bursts of violence and look for a two-state solution to be implemented.

I am coming from [the meeting with the leaders of] Kosovo/Serbia; work is ongoing, maybe I will have to leave the EUCO meeting and try to sit again with the two leaders of Kosovo and Serbia to try to see if we can find a solution inside the [Belgrade-Pristina] Dialogue. There is no other solution. The European path of Kosovo and Serbia goes through this Dialogue in order to normalise their relations.

There are other crises; we do not have to forget other crises. The Sahel crisis, for example. I am going to fly to Africa.

We do not have to forget other crisis, we have to pay attention to what is happening in the Sahel, but certainly, the most important attention will be paid to Ukraine and the Middle East, and Serbia/Kosovo.

Q&A

Q. would you confirm ( inaudible ) ceasefire rather (  inaudible ) humanitarian pauses?

We started to discuss about that at the Foreign Affairs Council. On the resolution which has been voted at the United Nations, none has been approved but there were reference to that. On the conclusions of the [European] Council there will be the position that the leaders will adopt.

Q. Do you have any plan to stop the ground operation into Gaza. What is the EU position?

I cannot tell you the result of the meeting. I told you what we are going to discuss.

Link to the video: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-248502





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Gulf of Guinea: EU and India carry out joint naval exercise

European External Action Service (EEAS)

26.10.2023

EEAS Press Team

India and EU ships conducted joint activities in the Gulf of Guinea, in an effort to reinforce maritime security cooperation in support of the region.

On 24 October, the European Union (EU) and India conducted their first joint naval exercise in the Gulf of Guinea. The exercise followed the third meeting of the EU-India Maritime Security Dialogue on 5 October in Brussels.

During the exercise, Indian Naval Ship Sumedha, an Offshore Patrol Vessel of the Indian Navy, was joined by three EU Member States' ships in the Gulf of Guinea: Italian Ship Foscari of the Italian Navy, French Ship Ventose of the French Navy, and Spanish Ship Tornado of the Spanish Navy. The four ships practiced a series of tactical manoeuvers in international waters off the coast of Ghana, including a boarding exercise, a flying exercise using the helicopters embarked on French Ship Ventose and Indian Naval Ship Sumedha, and transfer of personnel between ships.

This exercise was followed by a knowledge sharing session in Accra, which built on the joint experience at sea to improve operational know-how. The session also helped deepen ties between Ghanaian officials and representatives of the Indian, EU and EU Member States missions to Ghana.

These activities underlined the shared commitment of India and the EU to supporting coastal States and the Yaounde Architecture in ensuring maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea. They reflected the breadth and dynamism of EU-India cooperation on maritime security, and signalled the common determination to uphold the United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).





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Daily Recap: Hamas - Israel War October 26th, 2023 (19:00) - Day 20

IDF Press Release

Official IDF Daily Update

26.10.23

IDF

Summary

Field Notes: Lt. Col. Richard Hecht shares updates thoughts on the ongoing rocket fire from Gaza towards the Israeli homefront

Key Links: Video footage of IDF activity in Gaza, footage of the initial combat defending the community of Be'eri, and more

Arena overview, including more on the IDF's armored activity in Gaza last night, the targeting of a Hamas deputy commander, updates on the northern border and more

Field Notes from Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, IDF Spokesperson to International Media

At about 1:31 pm, air raid sirens went off in cities across the country, including in Tel Aviv. It's strange how routine a terrorist organization shooting rockets indiscriminately at civilians can become.

After over twenty years of experience with Hamas rockets, Israel has adapted. Building codes in new buildings require a bomb shelter. Israel built the Iron Dome, a tech masterpiece that shoots rockets out of the air. It's easy to forget, to sigh, and to head to a bomb shelter. In some places, many times a day.

Over 7,000 rockets have been fired at Israel this war. Casualties remain low but this terrorism isn't just an inconvenience. Hamas is a sophisticated terrorist organization with military-like capabilities. Yesterday, rockets were fired over 130 miles from Gaza. An apartment building was hit in Rishon LeTzion. Cameras show the family leaving for the communal bomb shelter, baby in arms, only seconds before the building was slammed by a rocket. People have been killed from these rockets. It is a real threat. It is terrorism.

So we choose to invest in protection. In bomb shelters, in public training and in active missile defense. But this is all in response to Hamas' choice. A choice to invest in rockets. A choice to invest in terror.

As I've said so many times, this isn't a war we started. But it is a war to defend our peopleand it is a war we will win.

Key Links

A video clip of an IDF naval strike on a Hamas Surface to Air missile launch post in the Khan Yunis, deliberately located near a mosque and a kindergarten.

Video of the IDF's activity in the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday night

Recording of a phone call between an IDF soldier and a resident of Gaza in which the resident reiterates that Hamas continues to prevent civilian evacuation towards southern Gaza. (Link and transcript)

Security camera footage of IDF special forces fighting Hamas terrorists and evacuating residents in Be'eri - see below

Event Overview

Southern Arena

As part of the IDF's ongoing response to Hamas' October 7th attacks, and in preparation for further intensification, IDF troops carried out a limited operation in the territory of the Gaza Strip. This operation was larger than the prior operations across the fence that were conducted since the war started and included armored forces under the command of the Givati Brigade. The operation aimed to eliminate terrorists and infrastructure and also included engineering work to prepare for expanded operations. In parallel, the IDF completed work on clearing explosives from near the security fence while rehabilitating the IDF's surveillance network around the Gaza Strip.

In parallel, the IDF continues to target terrorist infrastructure across the Gaza Strip. Strikes were carried out across over 250 sites in Gaza, including operational command centers, tunnel shafts, and rocket launchers positioned in civilian areas. As part of the IDF's ongoing targeted strikes on senior and operational commanders, IDF fighter jets, killed the Commander of Hamas' Northern Khan Yunis Rockets Array, Hassan Al-Abdullah. The IDF and ISA killed the Deputy Head of Hamas' Intelligence Directorate, who was responsible for planning the October 7th massacre together with Yahya Sinwar. In addition, leveraging precise IDF and ISA intelligence, IDF fighter jets struck the Deputy Head of the Hamas' Intelligence Directorate, Shadi Barud. In his previous role as the Head of the Fire Control Center in Hamas' Operations Unit, Barud planned the barbaric October 7th attacks together with Yahya Sinwar.

As another example of Hamas' sophisticated military capabilities, as well as the IDF's ability to target them, the Israeli navy targeted a Hamas surface-to-air missile launch site in the Khan Yunis area. The post was located in close proximity to a mosque and kindergarten.

Hamas continues to systematically use the civilians of Gaza as human shields, preventing them from evacuating to the south. They use a variety of methods including roadblocks, threats and even violence.

Northern Arena

As part of their ongoing attempts to deflect IDF attention from Gaza, Hezbollah attacks on Israel continued, including shots fired yesterday into Moshav Dovev. An Israeli Air Force aircrfat targeted the cell.

Other attacks included a terrorist unit firing an anti-tank missile at IDF soldiers near Avivim as well as a terrorist unit in the area of Arab al-AramsheIn. A surface-to-air missile (SAM) was fired from Lebanon at an IDF UAV but was intercepted by the Israeli Aerial Defense Array. In response, the IDF struck these terrorist units. In total, over the last day, the IDF eliminated 5 terrorist cells of Hezbollah terrorists who tried to fire into our territory

Homefront

Rockets attacks from the Gaza strip to Israeli communities continue throughout the day towards the area around the Gaza strip and central israel, including sirens in the great Tel Aviv earlier. This followed even longer range rockets fired at the Carmel (+100 miles) and Eilat (+130 miles) the day before. On Wednesday evening a a building in Rishon Le'zion suffered a direct hit from a Gaza rocket.

To date, over 250,000 Israelis have been evacuated from the Gaza surrounding area and the northern border to safer locations. The families of 309 IDF fallen soldiers and 224 hostages have been notified. Over 100 people remain unaccounted for.

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IDF and ISA Targets Deputy Head of Hamas' Intelligence Directorate

IDF Press Release

Hamas - Israel War

26.10.23

IDF

Joint IDF and ISA announcement: The IDF and ISA killed the Deputy Head of Hamas' Intelligence Directorate, who was responsible for planning the October 7th massacre together with Yahya Sinwar Based on precise IDF and ISA intelligence, IDF fighter jets struck the Deputy Head of the Hamas' Intelligence Directorate, Shadi Barud. In his previous role as the Head of the Fire Control Center in Hamas' Operations Unit, Barud planned the barbaric October 7th attacks together with Yahya Sinwar. Barud had previously served as Hamas' battalion commander in Khan Yunis and was responsible for planning numerous terror attacks against Israeli civilians. Following this, Barud held several positions in Hamas' military intelligence, and was responsible for information security. Until today, he was responsible for intelligence relations for Hamas.

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Secretary General meets Prime Minister of Moldova and reaffirms longstanding partnership

NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

26 Oct. 2023

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg welcomed the Prime Minister of Moldova Dorin Recean to NATO Headquarters on Thursday (26 October 2023). He praised NATO and Moldova's 30-year-long partnership and called on Russia to withdraw its troops from Moldova's territory.

"Moscow continues to apply pressure on Moldova", the NATO Secretary General said. "Including energy blackmail and disinformation with the aim of destabilising your society and undermining your democracy."

At the Vilnius Summit Allies had agreed on continuing to step up NATO's longstanding practical and political cooperation with Moldova. "This will also help you on the path towards EU membership", Mr. Stoltenberg said. He thanked Moldova for contributing to the KFOR peacekeeping mission in Kosovo. "Stability in the Western Balkans matters for all of us."

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Secretary General welcomes Prime Minister of Cabo Verde to NATO Headquarters

NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

26 Oct. 2023

Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg welcomed Prime Minister Ulisses Correia e Silva of Cabo Verde to NATO Headquarters on Thursday (26 October 2023).

Noting that NATO and Cabo Verde "share the same values of freedom, democracy, and human rights," Mr Stoltenberg said that NATO is stepping up cooperation with partners "to defend our values and the rules-based international order". He underlined that NATO already has partners in North Africa and is strengthening cooperation with the African Union to address common challenges, including terrorism, climate change, and small arms proliferation.

The Secretary General welcomed Cabo Verde's clear stance on Ukraine, including through votes at the UN General Assembly. He said that Russia's war of aggression on Ukraine, instability in the Middle East and the ongoing threat of terrorism "remind us that our security is not regional, it is global" and that "what happens in Europe matters for Africa, and what happens in Africa, matters for Europe".

In 2006 Cabo Verde hosted the NATO exercise Steadfast Jaguar in Flamingo Bay on the island of Sao Vicente. This major exercise involving more than 7,000 troops tested the ability of NATO's rapid response force to carry out missions anywhere at any time.

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Statement by H.E. Mr Jalil Abbas Jilani Foreign Minister of Pakistan at the Meeting of SCO Council of Heads of Government (CHG) 26 ctober 2023, Bishkek

Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Kyrgyz Republic,

Mr Akylbek Japarov

Heads of Government of SCO Member, Observer and Guest States

SCO Secretary General Zhang Ming,

Director SCO RATS Executive Committee Ruslan Mirzaev,

Heads of international organizations,

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

NI HAO and DOBRE OOTRA!

It is a pleasure to be in the beautiful city of Bishkek and to be hosted by the Honorable Prime Minister of the Kyrgyz Republic H. E. Akylbek Japarov. I thank you, Excellency, for your warm, generous, and traditional Kyrgyz hospitality shown to me and my delegation as well as for the excellent arrangements made for our meeting.

Under your able and dynamic stewardship during 2022-23, SCO Council of Heads of Government has achieved admirable and significant progress. As the succeeding Chair, Pakistan will continue to support the existing mechanisms and welcome new initiatives.

Excellencies,

Pakistan is committed to the 'SHANGHAI SPIRIT' that stands for mutual trust and respect for shared prosperity and development. Shanghai spirit anchors our collective efforts in the face of great transformation in the geo-political and geo-economic arenas.

SCO represents the collective voice and aspirations of over 40% of the global population. As leaders of SCO, it is our fundamental responsibility to fulfill the aspirations of our people for durable and sustainable peace, security and economic development.

Excellencies,

During Pakistan's Chair of CHG, top priority will be accorded to fostering cooperation in critical and practical areas. These include enhancing connectivity and transport links, youth empowerment, investment in key sectors with high regional potential, such as agriculture, mining, minerals, energy, and information technology. Alongside, Pakistan will continue to strengthen cooperation in the fields of education and poverty alleviation.

SCO is the key platform for taking the vision of Eurasian connectivity to the next level. Pakistan's location at the crossroads of South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East makes it an ideal trade conduit. Investing in our collective connectivity capacities is crucial to advancing our shared vision for an economically integrated region. In this context, Pakistan plans to host a Conference on TRANSPORT CONNECTIVITY FOR REGIONAL PROSPERITY.

China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a force multiplier for regional connectivity. Lack of connectivity is an impediment to regional trade, investment and development. CPEC does not only connect Pakistan to its neighbour China but also offers all SCO Member States a chance to invest in our shared future and full regional economic integration.

Excellencies,

SCO Business Council and SCO Interbank Association can play a vital role in fostering economic and commercial cooperation among SCO Member States, through strengthening interaction among entrepreneurs and promoting people-to-people contact. The Council and the Association can also facilitate investment in areas of mutual benefit for all SCO Member States.

To advance these objectives and bolster connections among businessmen and industrialists from SCO Member States, Pakistan proposes to host SCO BUSINESSMEN CONFERENCE.

Excellencies,

Transformation in the global political and economic orders has been accelerated by the digital and information revolution. To equip our next generations with the required tools and skill-sets to navigate these revolutionary trends, we should be proactive and pre-emptive.

In this regard, empowerment of our youth is of foremost importance. It is imperative that we further develop our strengths and address our weaknesses in a timely fashion. Our policies of today can harness the tremendous human potential of our region. In this vein, Pakistan proposes to host a Conference on YOUTH EMPOWERMENT THROUGH DIGITAL ECONOMY.

Excellencies,

Regardless of varied stages of economic development, all SCO Member States are still faced with challenges related to poverty and food security. We can overcome these challenges through common efforts and by learning from each other's experiences.

We are confident that under Pakistan's permanent chairmanship of the Special Working Group on Poverty Alleviation, significant impetus can be provided to our collective endeavors aimed at improving the living standards of our people.

We are currently in the planning stages of hosting the inaugural session of the SPECIAL WORKING GROUP ON POVERTY ALLEVIATION, focused on Leveraging Digital Technologies to Enhance Social Safety Nets in SCO Member States.

Excellencies,

Sustainable economic development cannot be guaranteed without durable peace and security. Ensuring stability in Afghanistan is imperative for safeguarding peace and stability of our region.

SCO-AFGHANISTAN CONTACT GROUP can play an important role in this regard. Reviving the Contact Group can foster dialogue and meaningfully assist the Afghan authorities in overcoming their economic challenges and building their counter-terrorism capacities.

Excellencies,

Climate-induced disaster threatens humanity's survival and demands global solidarity for a global response. Pakistan is committed to working for a sustainable and nature positive world that we owe to our future generations. SCO, as the most significant regional organisation, is well placed to become the pioneer of multilateral practical cooperation for dealing with emergency situations.

To tap on this mutually beneficial potential of our Organisation, Pakistan plans to host a meeting on PREVENTION AND RESPONSE TO EMERGENCY SITUATIONS.

Excellencies,

Over the past twenty years, we have built a strong foundation for SCO's development cooperation matrix. However, implementation of many critical projects and initiatives have yet to see the light of the day.

As the incoming Chair of CHG, Pakistan's aim will be to make the organization more action-oriented. In pursuit of this goal, we eagerly anticipate the collaboration and support of the SCO Secretariat and our esteemed Member States in devising a robust IMPLEMENTATION AND MONITORING MECHANISM. The mechanism could serve as an instrumental tool for tracking progress across a diverse array of socio-economic sectors.

Excellencies,

SCO is neither a forum for political point-scoring nor is it mandated to resolve bilateral or trilateral issues. Bringing controversial and disputed issues to SCO can undermine the achievements of SCO for almost quarter of a century. Keeping SCO free from myopic domestic political considerations and making it work for our region's shared future are our collective responsibilities.

I wish to congratulate the heads of SCO's permanent bodies, Secretary General Zhang Ming and Director Ruslan Mirzaev, for their able guidance to ensure pursuit of our common goals without any harmful politicization of the Organisation.

Excellencies,

Pakistan considers it a matter of honour and trust to be the Chair of this important forum. It will be our endeavour during the period of our Chair to accommodate all forward-looking initiatives that promote development of the SCO region. Pakistan looks forward to an active and a positive participation of all Member States to realise our regional potential.

Before concluding, I would like to commend the hard work and dedication of the National Coordinators and all experts in various formats, who helped in finalizing the documents and decisions that will be adopted or signed today.

In conclusion, let me reaffirm Pakistan's unwavering support and commitment to the Shanghai Spirit in addressing our common challenges and advancing SCO's goals and objectives of peace, prosperity, stability and connectivity of the SCO region.

I thank you for your attention.

***

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China urges 'fair' investigation into Baltic pipeline damage

Finland alleges a Hong Kong container ship damaged the Balticconnector gas pipeline with its anchor.

By RFA Staff 2023.10.26 -- China has said it will stand "ready to provide necessary assistance" to the investigation into Finland's claims a Hong Kong vessel may have damaged a natural gas pipeline.

Finnish police said on Tuesday the Balticconnector pipeline between Finland and Estonia was likely damaged by an anchor as "on the seabed, a 1.5 to 4 meter-wide dragging trail is seen to lead to the point of damage in the gas pipeline."

The investigators said they found the anchor just a few meters from the gas pipeline damage point. They said the anchor may have belonged to the Chinese container vessel Newnew Polar Bear which was sailing through the area at around 1:20 a.m. local time on Oct. 8, 2023 when the pipeline was reported damaged.

The police focused their suspicion on the ship as until now, they "could not visually confirm that both front anchors of the vessel were in their place."

Newnew Polar Bear is a Chinese-owned and Hong Kong-registered commercial ship.

The vessel "was contacted several times, but they were not willing to cooperate," they said, adding that help is needed from the Chinese authorities for the investigation to continue.

In Beijing, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said China maintains "unimpeded communication with parties including Finland" over the incident, which is still under investigation, and "stands ready to provide necessary assistance in accordance with international law."

Mao Ning told reporters on Wednesday that the Chinese government hopes "relevant parties will follow the principles of being objective, fair, just and professional and find out what happened soon."

Earlier this week, Mao said the Chinese vessel was "sailing through relevant waters normally when the incident occurred. Due to the rather bad conditions at sea, it didn't detect anything abnormal."

Finland's National Bureau of Investigation has published a photo of the broken anchor that investigators retrieved from the seabed.

The next step would be to confirm that it came from the Chinese container vessel and determine if the damage was an accident or intentional, said Carl Schuster, a retired U.S. Navy captain turned maritime analyst.

"If evidence of the Newnew Polar Bear's involvement surfaces, then the captain will try to claim it was an accident but that is not likely unless the evidence is conclusive," Schuster told RFA.

Cable cutting

The Estonian government has said it is investigating two incidents that might also be linked to the Newnew Polar Bear, in which a telecoms cable connecting Finland and Estonia and another between Sweden and Estonia, were damaged.

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas was quoted in the domestic media as saying that there are reasons to believe that the three incidents are related, but "it is too early to reveal sensitive information."

Some observers recall that Chinese ships were accused of damaging communications cables before.

In April, Taiwan's National Communications Commission blamed two Chinese ships for cutting two undersea internet cables connecting Taiwan island and the outlying islands of Matsu, leading to 50 days of no, or very limited internet access, there.

The same cables have been damaged 27 times since 2017 by Chinese sand dredging and fishing boats, some cut by ships' anchors, Taiwanese authorities said.

RFA analyzed automatic identification system data provided by ship-tracking website MarineTraffic and found that at around 1:00 a.m. on Oct. 8, the Newnew Polar Bear was approaching the site of the Balticconnector pipeline.

During the course of one hour or so, the Newnew Polar Bear slowed down to under 11 knots before picking up again, but did not stop.

Besides the Chinese ship, a Russian flag bearer - the nuclear-powered cargo ship Sevmorput - was also seen at the scene, sailing at a higher speed.

Norwegian seismology institute NORSAR reported blast-like waves near the pipeline at the time.

What does Russia say?

NewNew Polar Bear was renamed and registered in Hong Kong in June. Immediately prior to this, the ship sailed under the name Baltic Fulmar flying the Cypriot flag.

Newnew Polar Bear and four other ships owned by China's Hainan Yangpu Newnew Shipping Co. began transporting cargo between Russia and China using the Northern Sea Route along Russia's Arctic coast in July. The route was previously not operational because of the ice.

Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom is believed to assist the Chinese shipping line with nuclear-powered icebreakers, reducing the transit time between Russia's St Petersburg and China's Shanghai to less than a month, compared to 45-50 days if using the route through the Suez Canal.

Sevmorput is part of the Rosatom-owned nuclear icebreaker fleet, the only such fleet in the world.

The Northern Sea Route is one of the strategic priorities of cooperation between the Russians and the Chinese, and Newnew Polar Bear reflects this close collaboration.

But Russian netizens have posted photos of the vessel flying the Russian flag at port calls, such as on Oct. 6 in Baltiysk, Kaliningrad's region. This left watchers puzzled.

"It is not legal under international law for the ship to fly a Russian flag unless its registration was changed to Russia. There is no evidence it has changed its registration," said maritime analyst Carl Schuster.

"A commercial vessel must fly the flag of its country of registration although it may have a logo of its country of ownership painted on its superstructure," he added,

So far, as the suspicion is not directed at Russia, Russian official channels have yet to comment on the case.

Yet on social media platforms, Russian analysts and observers have been talking about what they call "the West attempting to block traffic from China to Russia and Europe."

"Perhaps the West understands that this traffic can increase massively in the near future - both from the Baltic and along the Northern Sea Route," one of Russia's well known Sinologists, Nikolai Vavilov, wrote on his Telegram platform.

Beijing's plans for Taiwan or the war in the Middle East may be the factors that China wanted to redistribute "traffic from the Indo-Pacific to the Northern route," Vavilov said.

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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N Korea claims Israel bombed Gaza hospital under US 'patronage'

This is the second time in a week that Pyongyang has criticized Washington over the Israel conflict.

By Taejun Kang for RFA 2023.10.26 -- North Korea's foreign ministry accused Israel of bombing a hospital in the Gaza Strip, claiming it had openly committed a war crime "under the undisguised patronage of the United States."

"Israel's bombing of health facilities, which international law requires to be protected as a matter of priority in peacetime and wartime, is an unimaginable war crime and a crime against humanity," said the ministry spokesperson as cited by the North's state-run Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) on Oct. 26.

"What cannot be overlooked is that these crimes were committed with the blatant patronage of the United States," said the spokesperson, adding that "the U.S. shipped Israel massive amounts of munitions and sent two carrier strike groups into Middle Eastern waters, giving Israel the green light to slaughter Palestinians with impunity."

The spokesperson also accused the U.S. of being an "accomplice" of Israel.

"The fact that the U.S. covered up Israel's criminal behavior immediately after the hospital bombing, with the lame excuse that the attack was carried out by forces other than Israel, shows that the U.S. is a silent accomplice to Israel's murderous rampage."

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said last week that 471 people were killed in an explosion at Al-Ahl al-Arabi Hospital on Oct. 17. According to Palestinians and Arab nations, an Israeli airstrike destroyed the hospital.

But Israel said the explosion was caused by a failed missile launch by Hamas, a Palestinian militant Islamic Jihad group. The group has denied responsibility.

A U.S. official stated on Oct. 25 that U.S. intelligence officials have "high confidence" that the explosion was caused by a Palestinian rocket that broke up mid-flight, and not by Israel.

The mortality toll and number of injuries from the hospital explosion are still unknown, according to U.S. officials.

This is the second time in a week that Pyongyang has criticized the U.S. over the Israel conflict, coinciding with its recent efforts to form an anti-American "united front."

Early this week, North Korea blamed the Israel-Palestine conflict on the U.S. by saying that the Middle East conflict was a "tragedy created entirely by the U.S."

"The U.S. has turned a blind eye to Israel, its illegal occupation of Palestinian territories, continuous armed assaults, civilian casualties, and the expansion of Jewish settlements," said KCNA in a separate report on Monday.

At that time, KCNA made no mention of the Hamas attack that triggered the conflict or Washington's mediation efforts to deter Israel from deploying ground forces in Gaza.

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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UN: World on brink of environmental tipping points

Asia Pacific is a hot spot for several looming risks with irreversible impacts, researchers say.

By Subel Rai Bhandari for RFA 2023.10.26 -- Extreme environmental events are increasingly interconnected and edging humanity perilously closer to a series of catastrophic tipping points, where the consequences of inaction could prove irreversible, new United Nations research has warned.

The cumulative effects of climate change and the unsustainable utilization of natural resources have pushed humanity to the brink of confronting six interconnected tipping points, including escalating rates of extinction, groundwater depletion, glacial melting, extreme heat, space debris, and uninsurable future, the U.N. University's Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) said Wednesday in the report "Interconnected Disaster Risks 2023."

"As we indiscriminately extract our water resources, damage nature and biodiversity, and pollute both Earth and space, we are moving dangerously close to the brink of multiple risk tipping points that could destroy the very systems that our life depends on," said Zita Sebesvari, lead author and deputy director of UNU-EHS.

"Additionally, we also lose some of our tools and options to deal with future disaster risk."

The U.N. report cautioned that the potential extinction of one million plant and animal species within a few decades could lead to a domino effect of extinction among species dependent on them, increasing the risk of ecosystem collapse.

The report said that groundwater depletion, critical for over 2 billion people and crucial for agriculture, is approaching a tipping point.

Over 70% of groundwater is used for agriculture. As more aquifers are depleting faster than they can be replenished, it threatens food production systems, the report said.

Additionally, the runoff from melting glaciers is expected to decrease in the future.

The researchers also issued a stark warning regarding the escalating danger of space debris, cautioning that collisions in space could render Earth's orbit "unusable," jeopardizing future space activities, including satellite monitoring of environmental threats.

Another critical tipping point highlighted in the report relates to increasing climate-related hazards, making insurance increasingly unaffordable.

Hot spot Asia should pay attention to tipping points

The Asia Pacific region is a hot spot for several risk tipping points, Sebesvari and Caitlyn Eberle, a senior researcher and co-lead author for the report, said. Some countries in the Asia Pacific region are hot spots for unbearable heat and groundwater depletion risks.

"A specific challenge is that some places in the Asia Pacific may experience several tipping points simultaneously," they said, adding the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan and India are hotspots for groundwater depletion and unbearable heat, while Pakistan and India are also facing the impacts of melting glaciers.

"For the risk tipping point groundwater depletion, India, China, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia belong to some of the largest groundwater users globally," the authors told Radio Free Asia in an email interview.

India tops the world in groundwater usage, surpassing the United States and China combined, while Pakistan has the highest water consumption per unit of GDP.

Global warming has caused glaciers worldwide to melt twice as fast as they did in the past two decades.

Over 90,000 glaciers in the Himalayas, Karakoram, and Hindu Kush mountains are nearing a critical point. This tipping point means they will produce less freshwater, jeopardizing the lives of about 870 million people who rely on them, as per the report.

The two authors also pointed out several "accelerating extinctions" from the Asian Pacific region, including Javan Tiger in Indonesia, which was last seen in 1976 and declared extinct in 2003 mainly due to habitat destruction.

In Malaysia, mangroves are critically endangered due to pollution, which could further impact habitat loss for other species and ecosystems.

Climate models suggest that wet bulb temperature (WBT) above 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) will regularly be exceeded in the next 30 years in places like South Asia, the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, and within 50 years for Eastern China and Southeast Asia, the duo said.

A 35 C WBT signifies a dangerous mix of high temperature (40 C) and 75% humidity, putting human health at risk. At this point, an unaided healthy person can only survive for six hours because they can't effectively cool down by sweating.

China faces a dichotomy

Sebesvari and Eberle said that China has been re-imagining cities by including more green areas, which not only help to decrease urban flooding but also lower urban heat.

"However, China is a hotspot for groundwater extraction, for species extinction and contributes increasingly to space junk in the orbit," they told RFA. "In terms of reducing climate risks to avoid tipping points, China faces a dichotomy."

"While they are global leaders in the renewable energy transition (hosting nearly half of the world's total operating wind and solar capacity), they are at the same time the world's largest per capita emitter of CO2, quadrupling the number of new coal power projects between 2021 and 2022," they added.

In 2022, China was the top coal consumer, producer, and importer worldwide, with significant oil and gas consumption, making it the leading global CO2 emitter, responsible for a third of total emissions.

The country's total CO2 emissions last year amounted to a staggering 12.1 gigatons, two-thirds of which originated from using coal in electricity generation and industrial processes, resulting in 25% of global energy-related emissions.

China will retain its status as "the largest emitter in the world in 2050," the Paris-based International Energy Agency said in a report Tuesday.

China's 2021 Space White Paper highlights the importance of reusable rockets. The Long March 9, China's super heavy rocket, is being redesigned for reusability and is set to launch by 2030.

"However, there is a limited amount of objects that can orbit safely in space and the risk of crashes is already imminent," the two authors said.

The report also presents a new framework for addressing risk tipping points through "Avoid" and "Adapt" solutions. These solutions involve either delaying the progression or fundamentally transforming systems to be more resilient.

Human-induced climate change is causing extreme heat waves that could become lethal in some areas. An Adapt-Delay solution installs air conditioners to delay the danger, while an Avoid-Transform solution focuses on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting low-carbon living to prevent the tipping point.

The report was released ahead of next month's COP28 climate conference in Dubai, where world leaders are meeting to discuss and take action on global climate change issues.

"Real transformative change involves everyone," said Sebesvari. "The report serves as a timely reminder before the U.N. Climate Conference that we must all be part of the solution."

Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.

Copyright 1998-2023, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036. For any commercial use of RFA content please send an email to: mahajanr@rfa.org. RFA content 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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Hamas uses N Korea, Iran arms in its Israel assault, military says

About 10% of weapons came from N Korea while 5% were from Iran: Israeli official.

By Lee Jeong-Ho for RFA 2023.10.26 -- Hamas has used weapons sourced from North Korea and Iran to target Israel, the Israeli military said, supporting Radio Free Asia's earlier report on the alleged arms connection between the North and Hamas.

Hamas used Iranian-made mortar rounds and North Korean rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) in its attack against Israel on Oct. 7, the Israeli military stated during an official media tour Thursday, as reported by AFP.

"I think about five to 10 percent of the weapons here [were] made in Iran," an Israeli military official, who asked for the condition of anonymity, was cited as saying. "And 10% [are] North Korean. The rest of it was made inside the Gaza Strip."

"I think the most surprising thing was the amount of weapons that they brought inside Israel," the official added.

Earlier this month, RFA reported on the potential use of North Korean weapons by Hamas militants. RFA's thorough analysis was based on a video that displayed a man holding what seemed to be North Korean-made rocket launchers.

Following the report, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed the findings, with its intelligence indicating a military connection between North Korea and Hamas.

The latest confirmation from Israel followed as Pyongyang has been issuing statements, blaming the United States in the Middle East conflict. The conflict was a "tragedy created entirely by the United States," North Korea's official Korea Central News Agency said on Monday, claiming that Washington "has turned a blind eye to Israel, its illegal occupation of Palestinian territories, continuous armed assaults, civilian casualties, and the expansion of Jewish settlements."

The move is widely seen as the North's attempt to bolster its anti-American coalition, which could potentially strengthen its leverage against the U.S. and its allies. Over the past few weeks, North Korea's foreign policy has shown signs of a larger strategy at play. From supporting Hamas to bolstering ties with Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, Pyongyang appears keen on crafting a united front against Washington.

The strategy appears to bear results by aligning those opposed to U.S. policy. Last week, a portrait of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was displayed at an anti-U.S. protest in the West Bank, underscoring the deep sentiments of the Palestinian people against the U.S.

The Oct. 7 attack, in which North Korean and Iranian weapons are used, killed over 1,400 individuals in Israel, primarily civilians, according to an official figure. In response, Israel has launched airstrikes that have led to approximately 7,000 deaths from the Palestine side, with the majority also being civilians, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry.

Casualties are anticipated to increase on both sides as Israel's military announced on Thursday that it had conducted a ground operation in the Gaza Strip. The Israel Defense Forces reported that its tanks and infantry units "struck numerous terrorist cells, infrastructure and anti-tank missile launch posts" before withdrawing to Israeli territory.

Edited by Elaine Chan and Taejun Kang.

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Hamas Delegation Discusses Release Of Hostages, Cease-Fire With Russian Officials In Moscow

By RFE/RL's Russian Service October 26, 2023

The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed on October 26 that a delegation from the militant group Hamas visited Moscow to discuss the situation in the Gaza Strip, prompting a rebuke from Israel.

"I can say and confirm that representatives of the Palestinian movement are visiting Moscow," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing.

The deputy foreign minister of Iran, Ali Bagheri Kani, also visited Moscow on October 26, Zakharova added.

The visit of the Hamas delegation was reported earlier on October 26 by RIA Novosti, quoting a source in the Palestinian delegation. The delegation is headed by Hamas political leader Abu Marzuk, according to RIA Novosti and TASS.

The Foreign Ministry said later in a statement that it discussed the release of hostages in the Gaza Strip and the evacuation of foreigners, including Russian nationals, with a Hamas representative.

The statement said the talks emphasized "the need for a cessation of hostilities in and around the Gaza Strip and the prompt provision of humanitarian assistance to the affected Palestinian population."

The diplomats also reaffirmed a shared commitment by Moscow and Tehran to "continue close coordination of efforts in the interests of stabilizing the situation in the Middle East."

Hamas praised the efforts of Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Ministry to end what it called "the crimes of Israel that are supported by the West," according to a statement quoted by RIA Novosti.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry Israel reacted angrily to the visit, calling Russia's invitation to the Hamas delegation "deplorable" and saying the organization is worse than Islamic State.

"The hands of senior Hamas figures are covered with the blood of more than 1,400 Israelis who were slaughtered, murdered, executed and burned, and they are responsible for the abduction of more than 220 Israelis, including babies, children, women and the elderly," the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Concern for the hostages has been growing and only increased after a spokesman for Hamas's armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, said about 50 captives had been killed in Gaza due to Israeli strikes, which the militant organization says have killed 7,000 Palestinians. The spokesman gave no further details.

The U.S. State Department said Washington knows a significant number of people have died in Gaza but does not have independent confirmation of numbers, adding that it does not trust the figures released by Hamas.

Spokesman Matthew Miller also commented on the Hamas delegation's visit to Moscow, saying that the United States has seen Russia play no productive role in the Middle East crisis.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, asked about the delegation visiting Moscow, said this is not a time to be supporting Hamas.

With reporting by Reuters and AP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-hamas-visit-moscow- hostages-cease-fire-israel/32655507.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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Leaders of Serbia, Kosovo End Talks In Brussels With No Sign Of Progress On Normalizing Relations

By RFE/RL's Balkan Service October 26, 2023

The leaders of Serbia and Kosovo ended their separate talks with European leaders on October 26 with no sign of progress despite efforts from France, Italy, and Germany to help them bridge their differences and start the process of enacting an agreement they endorsed several months ago.

Shortly after a series of meetings in Brussels ended, Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic began trading blame for the lack of progress.

A statement from the government of Kosovo said Kurti is ready to sign the Basic Agreement for the normalization of relations with Serbia reached in February, but the other side is not.

The statement said that Vucic refused to sign the agreement and asked for an accompanying letter to be accepted, which Kosovo said practically annuls the principles of the Basic Agreement and the terms of other proposals.

It added that "only a signature means acceptance and guarantees enforcement."

A sticking point has been Article 7 of the Basic Agreement, which refers to the formation of an Association of Serb-Majority Municipalities in Kosovo.

Kurti adviser Jeton Zulfaj confirmed on X, the social media network formerly known as Twitter, that the Kosovo side had accepted the proposal on the creation of the association.

"It is clear that Serbia does not want the normalization of relations with Kosovo nor self-management for Kosovo Serbs," Zulfaj added.

But Vucic said there was "no question of signing or not signing" at the Brussels meeting and asserted that "someone is playing games to shift the blame on the other side."

Vucic added that Serbia wants to implement all the agreements signed with the authorities in Kosovo.

He said that when he met on October 21 in Belgrade with EU officials he received a paper that represents "a good basis for the future."

That paper refers exclusively to the formation of the Association of Serb-Majority Municipalities, but he said he could not talk about the details.

He added that Serbia is "ready" for the formation of the association, but it does not accept Kosovo's membership in international organizations, including the United Nations, nor its independence.

Kurti and Vucic met separately in Brussels with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. The EU's foreign policy, Josep Borrell, also attended the meetings, which are part of a major push to get Belgrade and Pristina to set aside decades of differences.

EU foreign affairs spokesman Peter Stano said ahead of the talks that they would be held in "support of going back to the dialogue" on normalization of ties.

"The message of the EU is that we expect both sides, Serbia and Kosovo, to return immediately and without obstacles to the obligations arising from the dialogue, to work immediately to reduce tensions and restart the dialogue," he added.

Vucic and Kurti's visits to Brussels came after an EU envoy, as well as diplomats from the United States, France, Germany, and Italy, visited both Belgrade and Pristina last week and presented a plan for the normalization of relations based on the previous agreement from February.

Details on the plan are not public, but Stano has said that it contains a "modern European proposal" for a statute of an association of Serb-majority municipalities in Kosovo.

The formation of the association, tasked with representing Serb-majority communities in Kosovo, was agreed in 2013 between Pristina and Belgrade. But it has not been established since then and Kurti has opposed the idea, insisting on formalizing Kosovo's recognition first.

Vucic said ahead of the meetings that "most of the powerful Western countries" had already recognized Kosovo's independence and that "they will only look for ways to convince Serbia to agree" to recognize it.

Vucic added that Serbia's position had become even more difficult after the attack last month when some 30 armed Serbs stormed the village of Banjska in Kosovo's predominantly ethnic Serbian north and barricaded themselves in a Serbian Orthodox monastery. Police recaptured the monastery after a shoot-out in which three attackers and a Kosovar police officer were killed.

The clashes were among the worst since Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008.

Kosovo has accused Serbia of orchestrating the "act of aggression" and claims that Belgrade intended to annex northern Kosovo after the attack. Serbia denied the allegations and said it suspected an ethnic Serb leader from Kosovo, Milan Radoicic, was responsible for the clashes.

The leaders of the bloc's 27 members were expected to express "concern" about the security situation in northern Kosovo at their summit, according to the draft conclusions, seen by RFE/RL.

The document, which is not final and is yet to be approved by EU leaders, condemns the attack in Banjska, calls for the perpetrators to be brought to justice, and for Serbia to "fully cooperate."

Even before the attack, relations between Serbia and its former province had been strained.

In February, the two sides accepted an EU proposal for the normalization of relations that envisions Serbia not questioning the territorial integrity of Kosovo and with Pristina providing a certain level of self-governance for Serb-majority municipalities, including by establishing the association.

But this agreement was never implemented after clashes erupted in northern Kosovo in late May following municipal elections that were boycotted by local Serbs.

Serbia and its former province of Kosovo have been at odds for decades. Their 1998-99 war left more than 10,000 people dead.

Both Serbia and Kosovo hope to join the European Union but their difficult relations have disrupted progress toward accession. Brussels has made normalizing ties a condition of moving forward with their membership bids.

With reporting by AP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/kosovo-serbia-talks- brussels-normalizing-relations-kurti-vucic/32654991.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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Armenia's Pashinian Hopes For Peace Deal With Azerbaijan 'In The Coming Months'

By RFE/RL's Armenian Service October 26, 2023

YEREVAN -- Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian says Yerevan and Baku are working on a peace deal that could be signed "in the coming months."

Speaking on October 26 at a forum in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, with the prime ministers of Azerbaijan and Georgia in attendance, Pashinian said the agreement would include the mutual recognition of each other's territorial integrity and border delimitation talks on the basis of the 1991 Alma-Ata Declaration.

"We are currently working on a draft peace and relations settlement agreement with Azerbaijan, and I hope this process will be successfully completed in the coming months," Pashinian said.

"We hope to sign a peace and relations agreement with Azerbaijan in the coming months based on these principles," he added.

Baku and Yerevan were locked in a conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh for decades. Armenian-backed separatists seized the mainly ethnic Armenian-populated region from Azerbaijan during a war in the early 1990s that killed some 30,000 people.

Diplomatic efforts to settle the conflict brought little progress and the two sides fought another war in 2020 that lasted six weeks and left more than 2,000 soldiers dead on each side before a Russian-brokered cease-fire, resulting in Armenia losing control over parts of the region and seven adjacent districts.

Azerbaijan then staged a lightning offensive in September to regain control of Nagorno-Karabakh, triggering the flight of more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians -- virtually the entire population -- to Armenia.

Armenia describes their flight as ethnic cleansing driven by the threat of violence, but Azerbaijan says the Armenian civilians left voluntarily even though they were welcome to stay in Nagorno-Karabakh and be integrated into Azerbaijani society.

Pashinian reaffirmed Armenia's readiness to open, reopen, reconstruct, and build regional communications.

"I hope that in the near future there will be developments in the direction of opening the border between Armenia and Turkey for citizens of third countries and holders of diplomatic passports, which will also bring a positive impulse to the entire region," Pashinian said in Tbilisi.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/armenia-pashinian-no- advantage-russian-military-bases/32653937.html

Copyright (c) 2023. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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"We will intensify our efforts aimed at meeting Gazan people's urgent needs"

Presidency Of The Republic Of Turkey

26.10.2023

Speaking at the 8th Meeting of the Family Council, President Erdogan said: "We will further intensify our efforts aimed at meeting the urgent needs of the Gazan people. Since October 7, we have been continuing our diplomatic talks at every level while endeavoring to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza."

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made a speech during the 8th Meeting of the Family Council at Bestepe Nation's Convention and Culture Center.

Noting that one of the areas that the global conscience must take action in is Gaza, President Erdogan said: "Under the pretext of the shock they experienced, the Israeli administration has since October 7 been conducting a merciless massacre against our Palestinian brothers and sisters.

"THE BIGGEST VICTIMS ARE WOMEN AND INNOCENT CHILDREN"

"I have called on the Catholic world through Pope Francis this morning. The Israeli forces have been bombing mosques, churches, schools, market places, and even hospitals. Over 6 thousand brothers and sisters of ours, most of whom were children and women, have thus far died a martyr's dead in the Israel's attacks on Gaza and Ramallah. Also 17 thousand people, most of whom are once again children and women, have been injured. Over 12 thousand tons of bombs have so far been dropped over 2.3 million people who have been struggling to hold on to life within a totally-encircled 360-square-kilometer narrow area of land. America is there, Europe is there, they are there with all their means, and they pay visits there separately. Almost half of the houses in Gaza have either been damaged, collapsed or become unusable. According to the UN, 600 thousand Gazan people have been displaced. The UN teams are currently planning, intending to leave the place at any moment."

"As is the case in all wars, the biggest victims here have been women and innocent children once again, and they continue to be so," President Erdogan noted, and added: "Is it possible to remain unresponsive to the reports and photographs from Gaza? No act, no matter how traumatic it is, legitimizes such a brutality. The attacks on Gaza have already exceeded the limit of self-defense and turned into oppression, atrocity, massacre and brutality. What is saddening is that the uncivilized who pretend to be civilized merely watches this brutality."

"HOW MANY MORE CHILDREN HAVE TO DIE IN ORDER FOR THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION TO MAKE A CALL FOR CEASEFIRE?"

Reminding that the European Commission announced yesterday that they could not call for a ceasefire at the moment, President Erdogan stressed: "All western countries, as if acting in concert, provides unconditional support to the attacks instead of calling on the Israeli administration to act with commonsense. Those who pontificate about human rights and freedoms when it comes to rhetoric, have for 19 days been ignoring the 'right to live' of oppressed Gazan people."

President Erdogan continued as follows: "They are openly showing which lobbies they serve by sending aircraft carrier and warships instead of aid ships. We have known you well enough, and will continue to know. This is called hypocrisy, this is called adding fuel to fire. Let me hereby ask: How many more children have to die in order for the European Commission to make a call for ceasefire? How many more tons of bombs have to be dropped to Gaza in order for the United Nations Security Council to take action? How many more women, children and elderly have to lose their lives in order for western organizations to say 'No' to the massacre? How many more colleagues of them have to be targeted by bombs in order for international media outlets to write, tell or report the truth? How much time do we have to wait in order to end this crisis that has turned our region into a quagmire?"

Underscoring that the blame for every innocent person wrapped in white shroud is on those who allow all this with their hesitant attitudes as well as those who drop the bombs, President Erdogan said: "All, from media outlets that betray all principles in order to justify crimes against humanity to international organizations that persistently ignore the massacres, share the responsibility for the ongoing brutality in Gaza and on Palestinian lands."

"WE ARE ENDEAVORING TO DELIVER HUMANITARIAN AID TO GAZA"

President Erdogan further noted: "We will further intensify our efforts aimed at meeting the urgent needs of the Gazan people. Since October 7, we have been continuing our diplomatic talks at every level while endeavoring to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza. We have thus far sent 10 planeloads of aid supply to Al-Arish Airport in co-operation with Egyptian officials. Lastly, yesterday we sent the generators that Gaza needed the most."

Pointing out that Turkiye has also dispatched 25 healthcare personnel as well as medical supplies to Egypt, President Erdogan went on to say: "The aid supplies we have sent to Egypt in order for them to reach Gaza exceeds 200 tons. We are working with brotherly Egypt to deliver the aid to Gazan people. We stand ready to provide all kinds of aid, from building field hospitals to bringing the injured to our country for treatment. We will inshallah send our civilian aid ship, preparations of which is underway, to the region once the conditions allow. We stand ready to provide all kinds of medical, psychological and other support to children affected by the attacks."

Drawing attention to relevant ministries' works carried out under the auspices of First Lady Emine Erdogan, President Erdogan said: "In addition to all this, we as Turkiye will never hesitate to take on responsibility as to heal the wounds rapidly and prevent the humanitarian tragedy."

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We urge the Security Council to renew the mandate for the UN Mission in the Central African Republic: UK statement at the UN Security Council.

Statement by Ambassador James Kariuki at the UN Security Council meeting on the Central African Republic.

26 October 2023

President.

Let me thank SRSG Rugwabiza for her briefing. I welcome the participation of Foreign Minister Baipo Temon and the Under Representative of Angola at this meeting. Let me first emphasise our continued appreciation for MINUSCA's peacekeepers as they seek to fulfil their mandate in challenging circumstances. The Mission's improved cooperation with the CAR authorities highlights the importance of effective leadership in pursuing efforts to stabilise the country after decades of conflict.

The UK welcomes the positive progress outlined by the Secretary-General in the latest report. This includes improved border management policy, more inclusion of women in political processes and achieving milestones in disarmament, demobilisation, repatriation and reintegration operations. Now is the time to build on these achievements on the path to peace and stability.

First, CAR authorities must de-conflict its security partners, ensure they abide by international law and end impunity for human rights violations they commit. Wagner Group's systematic human rights abuses and spread of mis and disinformation are not the solution to the multifaceted challenges in CAR. They only serve to strengthen the narrative of armed groups.

Second, all parties in CAR must recommit to the Political Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation, to ensure a long-term solution to the conflict can be realised. We call on the Government to redouble its efforts to facilitate inclusive dialogue and implement the joint roadmap with all political actors and armed groups. MINUSCA's role in providing good offices and supporting the peace process continues to be crucial.

Third, conducting local elections remains important for extending democratic local governance and fulfilling the decentralisation required for sustainable peace. With the support of MINUSCA, CAR authorities must fufil their commitment to local elections in 2024.

In conclusion, President, we urge the Council to renew MINUSCA's mandate with the provisions necessary to allow the mission to further increase its effectiveness. The UK fully supports the Mission in supporting the extension of state authority through joint operations with the CAR military, enabling access to basic services, improving mission capacity, supporting local elections and promoting human rights.

Thank you.



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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

26 October 2023

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today's noon briefing by Stephane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

** Press Briefings

All right, good afternoon!

As we told you, in a short while I will be joined by the Secretary-General, who will be here to announce the members of his Advisory Board on Artificial Intelligence.

He will be accompanied by his Envoy on Technology, Amandeep Singh Gill; the Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, Ilze Brands Kehris; and we will be joined virtually by colleagues from UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and UN University.

The Secretary-General will make a statement, but he will not take questions, the others will remain behind to speak on AI.

** Gaza

I want to give you a humanitarian update on Gaza. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that  over four consecutive days, from Saturday through Tuesday  62 trucks travelled through the Rafah crossing from Egypt into Gaza, carrying water, food and medical supplies. Most of this aid has already reached hospitals, ambulances, and internally displaced persons (IDPs). However, the daily average of trucks allowed into Gaza prior to the hostilities was about 500.

Fuel, which is desperately needed to run backup generators, remains banned, still unable to get into Gaza. As a result, the UN Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, has almost exhausted its fuel reserves and began significantly reducing its operations.

An estimated 1.4 million people in Gaza are internally displaced, with some 629,000 sheltering in 150 UNRWA-designated emergency shelters.

Overcrowding is a growing concern, as the average number of IDPs per shelter has now reached 2.7 times their designated capacity of each shelter.

Water supply through the network in areas south of Wadi Gaza has temporarily improved. This happened after UNRWA and UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund) managed to deliver small quantities of fuel they had retrieved from their existing reserves to key facilities. However, the available fuel in these facilities will be exhausted, fairly soon, and the supply of piped water is expected to cease again.

Earlier today, Lynn Hastings, our Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, issued a statement, in which she said among other points, she stressed that the conduct of armed conflict, anywhere, is governed by international humanitarian law.

This means that civilians must be protected and have essentials to survive, wherever they are and whether they choose to move or stay. She added that it also means that hostages  all hostages  must be released, immediately and unconditionally.

** Lebanon

Moving north to Lebanon, our colleagues at the UN Peacekeeping Mission in South Lebanon (UNIFIL) tell us that they remain in continuous contact with authorities on both sides of the Blue Line to urge restraint and respect for Security Council resolution 1701.

The Mission reports that, earlier today, it detected firing between Lebanese territory and Israel, near Blida and near Aytaroun.

They have also been working together with Lebanese authorities to extinguish fires burning near Alma ash-Shaab as a result of the exchange of fire along the Blue Line. These fires, which resulted from the exchange of fire, are occurring in mine fields  which as one can easily imagine are very, very difficult fires to put out.

** Central African Republic

Back here, in the Security Council this morning, the Security Council heard a briefing from Valentine Rugwabiza, the Head of our peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic  MINUSCA.

She said the Mission has continued its work to optimize its efficiency to protect civilians, provide security for humanitarian assistance, support local conflict mediation and reconciliation and facilitate the decentralization and implementation of the political peace process.

Also, she noted that the period that just ended was dominated by persistent challenges, aggravated by an increase in humanitarian needs due to influx of refugees from Chad and Sudan.

The SRSG (Special Representative of the Secretary-General) reiterated that the implementation of the peace agreement remains key for a return to peace and sustainable development in the Central African Republic and called for renewed attention to an inclusive dialogue with political opposition and armed groups.

** Sudan

Turning to Sudan, the Humanitarian Coordinator there, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, says she is deeply concerned by continued reports of attacks against civilian infrastructure, noting that "even hospital wards full of sick and wounded children are not safe" from conflict.

Since the start of the war in April, the World Health Organization (WHO) has verified 58 attacks on health care, and as a reminder, more than 70 per cent of health facilities in conflict areas in Sudan are now out of service. Seventy per cent.

Over the weekend, the water supply in Omdurman in the State of Khartoum was temporarily suspended after a water treatment centre came under fire.

Our colleagues on the ground say that this is extremely worrying, given the ongoing cholera outbreak in Khartoum State and other parts of the country.

More than 1,600 suspected cholera cases  including about 67 deaths  have been reported in Sudan, and we and our partners are scaling up our response to the outbreak. And it goes without saying that, also in Sudan, international humanitarian law must be respected, and civilians must be protected.

** Ukraine

Turning to Ukraine: The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) today published a Rapid Environmental Assessment of the Kakhovka Dam Breach. The report notes that the breach of the Kakhovka dam in June of this year is a far-reaching environmental disaster that goes beyond Ukraine's borders; the magnitude of which might not be clear for years or even decades to come.

According to the assessment, while the flooding downstream caused considerable environmental loss and damage, the situation upstream of the dam is even more significant. The report points out that the events led to the release of chemical pollutants, including machine oil and liquid fertilizer, as a significant number of sites storing chemicals were located in the flood zone. This could negatively impact fauna and flora, as well as residents, in the affected area. More information in the interweb.

** Venezuela

I was asked by one of your colleagues about the situation in Venezuela, and I can say that the Secretary-General is closely following developments in Venezuela. He calls on the authorities to guarantee full adherence and respect for the political and electoral rights of its citizens. And he reiterates his call to implement in good faith the partial agreement on the promotion of political rights and electoral guarantees for all, that was signed in Barbados just a few days ago on 17 October.

Before we go to the SG, if you have some questions, I will do my best in an effort to answer them.

** Questions and Answers

Spokesman : Madame?

Question : Me?

Spokesman : Well

Question : Am I the only one? Okay.

Spokesman : Yeah. You are a Madame. Yeah.

Question : My question is, you said that the UN is currently using existing reserves of fuel in Gaza. And you also said that the 62 trucks, the resources in the trucks have managed to reach hospitals. Am I correct in saying that it was the fuel within your reserves that helped to transport those?

Spokesman : Yes. Exactly. Yeah.

Question : Okay. Then my next follow-up question is, you said that the reserves are going to be exhausted soon. Do you know how much fuel you have left?

Spokesman : I don't have an exact number of gallons. What I can tell you is that our colleagues at UNRWA have been rationing and restricting the fuel supplies to try to kind of squeeze the last drop. So, it's hard to give you an end date, but we're talking very short amount of time.

Question : So, UNRWA tweeted earlier that they tweeted about 20 hours ago that tonight, they may have to halt all the operations due to fuel. Do you know is there a clock? Do you know [cross talk]

Spokesman : No. I mean, they're really literally trying to I mean, it's as if you're trying to squeeze a lemon and trying to squeeze every last drop.

Correspondent : Okay. Thank you.

Spokesman : Okay. Yes, Ephrem.

Correspondent : Well, I'm number 2 today in this area. Thanks, Stephane.

Spokesman : Sorry?

Correspondent : I said I'm number 2 today. This has never happened.

Spokesman : Well, because you sit in the back. Ephrem, if you sat in the front, people would call it's a matter of positioning. Nothing else matters in my eyesight.

Question : Okay. Thank you. Today, Switzerland announced that it's cutting funding for more than 10 Israeli and Palestinian organizations who are prominent in advocacy of international humanitarian law. Many prominent advocates in the world have said that any attempt to connect these organizations to terrorism is  I'm not going to use the word  but is not credible. Do you have any comment on this move?

Spokesman : No, I mean, I'll take a look. I was not aware of the report. Jordan, and then I'll come back to the room.

Question : Today during the General Assembly session on Palestine, the Iranian Foreign Minister stated that he's willing to do, like, he's going to, like, try to release the hostages. With Qatar, they will be going to Iran. And then he also mentioned that has to be also in relation and taken into consideration that there are 6,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails. What is your position on that?

Spokesman : Look, our position is that the hostages need to be released unconditionally. And unconditionally means without condition, full stop. And I think it's very important that all those Member States that have an opportunity to play a positive role, do so.

Question : Steph, a follow-up. Do you also call for Israel to release the 1,200 Palestinians that were taken from West Bank in the last three weeks to Israeli jail? Would you call also to be released as the UN?

Spokesman : We have repeatedly  and you could look at all the reports and statements have been issued  called for people who have been held in administrative detention to be either charged or released.

Question : Unconditionally  can you use the same term?

Spokesman : I've answered your question on both these issues. I see somebody waving their hand. I think it's Caitlin, but I know

Correspondent : It's Caitlin.

Spokesman : Oh, it is Caitlin. I'm sorry. You're sitting even further away than the others so

Correspondent : That's deliberate.

Spokesman : Yeah.

Question : Stephane, I just wanted to clarify. Sorry if you mentioned this earlier, but you were speaking very fast. How many trucks have crossed into Gaza today through Rafah?

Spokesman : Sorry. Today, what I said, and I apologize for speaking too quickly, 62 trucks travelled through the Rafah crossing from Saturday to Tuesday. Given the complexity of the situation on the ground, we have a bit of an information lag about the numbers that may have happened either yesterday or today. So as soon as we have information to share, we have, in terms of the information we have here in New York, that's what I have.

Question : Okay. But do you have an understanding that there was aid that crossed since Tuesday?

Spokesman : I'm trying to get more detail to sharpen my understanding.

Correspondent : Okay. Thank you.

Spokesman : Thank you.

Question : Again, Steph, on Gaza, do you have any comments on reports that Israel is refusing visas to UN officials?

Spokesman : I mean, we've said today, we're continuing to engage through the normal channels with Israeli officials in order to get the visas that are needed for UN staff.

Question : Can I ask a clarification? If UN staff are on diplomatic passports, do they still need visas?

Spokesman : That is a great misunderstanding about what a diplomatic passport is. First of all, UN staff have what we call LPs, laissez-passers. It requires visa. I mean, when you travel on a UN ID, in most countries, you need a visa. It doesn't give you and we don't in general terms, the UN cannot go into a place without the consent of the Government. So, it's not like an ID you wave through; if only. Dezhi?

Question : So, two questions. First one is on Middle East. Today, nine Arab countries' foreign ministers released a joint statement. In that statement, they said that the right to self-defend, which is prescribed by the UN Charter, cannot be an excuse to violate international law and international humanitarian law. Does the Secretary-General agree on that?

Spokesman : I mean, I would refer you to the very, I think, clear words that the Secretary-General delivered in the Security Council, two days ago and again, yesterday. Member States have their opinion and the Secretary-General's opinion was laid out in those remarks.

Question : And total irrelevant question.

Spokesman : You don't need to ask an irrelevant question.

Question : The Russian Duma because nobody is asking this. The Russian Duma actually passed a law to de-ratify the CTBT, the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Do you have any comments on that?

Spokesman : Well, I mean, that's not an irrelevant question, where obviously we've seen what's happened in the Duma, and I think we've been expressing very clearly our concern about the wrong I'd say the wrong direction issues related to nuclear disarmament have been taken globally. Okay. We will be back here in seven minutes.

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Israel-Palestine: Gazans 'left with nothing but impossible choices'

26 October 2023 - Day 19 of the Gaza conflict comes on the heels of the deadliest 24 hours so far amid hospitals shutting down, while UN humanitarians reiterated urgent calls on Thursday for all civilians to be protected and hostages released.

UPDATED: Reports of an overnight Israeli military incursion using tanks in northern Gaza followed another series of calls by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) for civilians in Gaza City to evacuate - warnings which "make no difference" because "people have nowhere to go or are unable to move", according to the UN's top humanitarian official in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Lynn Hastings.

'Nowhere is safe'

"When the evacuation routes are bombed, when people north as well as south are caught up in hostilities, when the essentials for survival are lacking, and when there are no assurances for return, people are left with nothing but impossible choices", she said, insisting that "nowhere is safe in Gaza".

Ms. Hastings appealed for the protection of civilians in armed conflict and reiterated calls for the immediate and unconditional release of the more than 220 people held captive by Hamas since the group's deadly incursion into Israel on 7 October.

That terror attack left more than 1,400 dead, drawing widespread and immediate condemnation from top UN officials including UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Medical support for hostages

Little is known about the status of the captives, and after meeting with some of their families on Wednesday UN health agency WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that "there is an urgent need for the captors of the hostages to provide signs of life, proof of provision of health care and the immediate release, on humanitarian and health grounds, of all those abducted".

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) should be granted immediate access to the hostages to understand their health status, and WHO stands ready to provide the ICRC with health support for the hostages, he said.

"I committed, on behalf of WHO, to do all we can to support the health and humanitarian needs of those being held captive," Tedros insisted.

Record death toll

Meanwhile the heaviest death toll yet from Gaza was reported on Wednesday by the Hamas-run Ministry of Health, which said that 756 were killed, including 344 children, bringing total fatalities in the territory to 6,547 since the start of Israel's retaliation for Hamas' attacks on 7 October.

With bombardments continuing, according to Gaza's de facto authorities, some 1,600 people including 900 children have been reported missing and may be under the rubble.

Bodies in tents

UN humanitarian affairs coordination office OCHA said that while visiting a hospital in Gaza, UN personnel saw hundreds of wounded men, women and children.

"Many of them were unconscious, with open wounds - lying on beds, stretchers and on the floor - with limited medical attendance," while tens of dead bodies were being kept in a tent in the yard because morgues are full, the UN office said.

The ongoing fuel blockade and lack of water, medical supplies and personnel are forcing hospitals to wind down operations, OCHA said. Humanitarians also warned that people were resorting to drinking saltwater which posed "immediate health risks".

As of Wednesday the UN World Food Programme (WFP) estimated that "current supplies of essential food in Gaza are sufficient for about 12 days".

Convoy lifeline

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on Thursday that over four consecutive days, from Saturday through Tuesday, 62 trucks traveled through the Rafah crossing from Egypt into Gaza, carrying water, food and medical supplies, the UN Spokesperson announced at the regular noon briefing.

"Most of this aid has already reached hospitals, ambulances, and internally displaced persons (IDPs). However, the daily average of trucks allowed into Gaza prior to the hostilities was about 500", said Stephane Dujarric.

An estimated 1.4 million people in Gaza are internally displaced, with some 629,000 sheltering in 150 UNRWA-designated emergency shelters.

Water supply through the network in areas south of Wadi Gaza has temporarily improved, he said, after UNRWA and UNICEF managed to deliver small quantities of fuel they had retrieved from their existing reserves to key facilities.

"However, the available fuel in these facilities will be exhausted, fairly soon, and the supply of piped water is expected to cease again."

Lebanon border: Firing continues

The UN peacekeeping Mission in South Lebanon (UNIFIL) remains in continuous contact with authorities on both sides of the Blue Line - the unofficial frontier between Israel and south Lebanon - "to urge restraint and respect for Security Council Resolution 1701", Mr. Dujarric said.

The Mission reported that earlier today, it detected firing between Lebanese territory and Israel, near Blida and near Aytaroun.

"They have also been working together with Lebanese authorities to extinguish fires burning near Alma ash-Shaab, as a result of the exchange of fire along the Blue Line."

Inaction on Security Council

On Wednesday night in New York, the Security Council failed once again to find consensus over even a unified call for a humanitarian ceasefire.

The head of UN Palestine refugee agency UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, whose agency has now lost at least 35 staff members during the ongoing Israeli bombardment, said in an opinion piece published on Thursday morning that "history will ask why the world did not have the courage to act decisively and stop this hell on Earth."

UN refugee agency (UNHCR) chief Filippo Grandi tweeted that the work aid workers are doing in Gaza "is nothing short of heroic", calling for UNRWA to get the resources it needs "because not only is it a lifeline for thousands but it also represents one of the last shreds of humanity amidst the devastation."

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International support critical to forge lasting peace in Central African Republic

26 October 2023 - Progress has been made in advancing a 2019 peace agreement in the Central African Republic (CAR) but the support of the international community is still vital, the UN Special Representative Valentine Rugwabiza told the Security Council on Thursday.

Ms. Rugwabiza, who also heads the UN Mission in the country, MINUSCA, presented its latest report covering developments in the wake of the 31 July constitutional referendum.

She said MINUSCA continues to support Government efforts to "decentralize" the peace process with armed groups, including recent initiatives to extend state presence in areas that have been stabilized through the Mission's assistance.

"The strength and commitment of international financial partners and development actors in this regard remains central in order to build on the security gains that were so dearly obtained, be that through investments or stabilization programmes aimed at providing basic services, or through socio-economic lasting subsistence measures for the population," she said, speaking through an interpreter.

Government commitment

Ms. Rugwabiza also welcomed President Faustin Toudera's renewed commitment to speeding up implementation of the peace agreement, as expressed in his remarks to the UN General Assembly last month.

National ownership was again on display at a meeting to review the peace process, convened last Monday with the guarantors and facilitators of the accord and its joint roadmap.

The meeting highlighted the disbanding of nine signatory armed groups and their various wings, progress on DDR (disarmament demobilization and reintegration), security sector reform, border management, among other issues, and she said it was essential to build on this momentum.

Plans for local elections starting in October 2024 have also resumed, providing an opportunity to both step up resource mobilization and revise the electoral code in line with the new Constitution.

Volatile security situation

Meanwhile, the security situation remains volatile in certain areas outside the capital, Bangui, particularly in border regions.

MINUSCA has been strengthening operations in the prefectures of Upper Kotto and Vakanga to better protect civilians and deter threats by armed groups.

In Upper Mbomo, UN peacekeepers also facilitated their first joint deployment with the national defence forces to an area where they were previously absent, following an intensification in clashes between the UPC armed group and a new militia called Azande Ani Kpi Gbe.

War and peace

Ms. Rugwabiza said the militia this month informed MINUSCA of its decision to declare a ceasefire, join the DDR process and promote social cohesion.

"These results once again illustrate the effectiveness of concerted efforts, even if much remains to be done, including with regard to strengthening the capacities of national security and defense institutions," she said.

Recent months have also seen the facilitation of the voluntary repatriation of former combatants from the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) after more than 15 years in Upper Mbomo, where they presented a real and ongoing threat to civilians.

Similarly, she also welcomed an agreement signed in September between the CAR and South Sudan which should help boost coordinated response to cross-border threats.

The reporting period also saw an influx of refugees from Chad and war-torn Sudan, creating significant challenges and increasing humanitarian needs.

Critical shortfalls at MINUSCA

Turning to MINUSCA itself, Ms. Rugwabiza reported that the mission has been reconfiguring its security arrangements to optimize effectiveness. This includes reducing the number of operational temporary bases and improving living and working conditions, particularly for staff deployed in remote areas.

"In order to preserve the values of the United Nations and maintain the trust of the population everywhere that we operate, MINUSCA will continue to strengthen prevention and risk management of risks of sexual exploitation and abuse by working with the country team at the United Nations in order to assist victims that have been identified," she said.

Increased surveillance has resulted in a reduction of new cases reported this year, and efforts will be increased in line with the UN's zero-tolerance policy for sexual exploitation and abuse, she added.

MINUSCA also faces critical gaps in air and land transport capacity, and in supply chain, inhibiting mobility. The situation is affecting the well-being, safety and security of peacekeepers, and also operational response.

For example, convoys can take up to several weeks just to travel from the capital to the northeast. Furthermore, most roads are impassable during the rainy season, which lasts seven months.

Ms. Rugabizwa said MINUSCA is planning to implement recommendations made in a recent global assessment of logistical capacity "if we are given the budget", appealing to the Council for support.

She also paid tribute to the sacrifice of UN peacekeepers serving at the Mission, noting that three 'blue helmets' have been killed in "land transport accidents" this month alone.

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The Humanitarian Coordinator in the DRC calls to maintain the humanitarian space amidst growing violence against civilians

UNOCHA - United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Kinshasa, 25 October 2023 -- Humanitarian sources have reported that more than twenty civilians were killed, and several others wounded in an armed attack on the population of Oicha, in the territory of Beni, on 23 October. This tragic event forced several thousand people to flee their homes.

The Humanitarian Coordinator in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Bruno Lemarquis, expressed his deep concern at this escalation of violence against civilians in North Kivu province. "No words can express my concern at the loss of life and the immense suffering that the people of North Kivu province have endured for several years. I express my sincere condolences and solidarity to the families of the victims. The humanitarian community remains mobilized to ensure that the injured receive the care and assistance for their speedy recovery," said Mr. Lemarquis.

In addition to the human cost of this tragic event, the attack also disrupted humanitarian operations.

Two vehicles of a humanitarian NGO were set on fire by angry demonstrators, as were three lorries of humanitarian cargo carrying vital food aid, forcing many organizations to suspend their activities in Oicha. More than 140,000 vulnerable people have been deprived of vital humanitarian assistance.

As a result of the growing insecurity in several areas of North Kivu province, thousands more people are now cut off from the dearly needed assistance. Since the beginning of October, armed violence in the Masisi and Rutshuru territories has displaced nearly 200,000 people in two weeks.

Due to ongoing insecurity, humanitarian actors face severe constraints in accessing many areas densely populated by displaced people.

Humanitarian space must be maintained so people fleeing the violence can get assistance. "I call on all parties to ensure the protection of civilians and the right of the affected to humanitarian assistance, in line with International Humanitarian Law, and in cooperation with relief efforts to mitigate the immense human suffering. This is all about saving the lives of hundreds of thousands of people," the Humanitarian Coordinator added.

Despite the extremely volatile operational context, humanitarian actors have maintained their presence on the ground and continue to scale up the humanitarian assistance to 3 million vulnerable people in North Kivu. By 2023, humanitarian actors are targeting 10 million people in need of emergency humanitarian assistance nationwide.

26 October 2023



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UNRWA Situation Report #15 on the situation in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem (all information valid as of 25 October 2023 at 18:00 local time)

UNRWA

26 Oct 2023

Key Points

The Gaza Strip

Some 629,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) are sheltering in 150 UNRWA installations across the Gaza Strip. Another UNRWA staff member has been killed, bringing the total to 39 staff killed since 7 October.

In the last 24 hours, three schools sustained collateral damage due to nearby strikes. One IDP was killed in one of the impacted schools, while 15 suffered minor injuries in another.

Fuel continues to be urgently needed to maintain vital humanitarian operations. Current stocks are almost completely exhausted, forcing life-saving services to come to a halt. This includes the supply of piped water as well as fuel for the health sector, bakeries, and generators.

The West Bank, including East Jerusalem

On 25 October, three Palestine Refugees were killed, and 21 additional people injured by an alleged Israeli Security Forces (ISF) airstrike in Jenin refugee camp. The strike occurred in the proximity of an UNRWA school. No damage was reported to the installation.

Overall Situation

The Gaza Strip

According to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, more than 6,546 people have been killed since 7 October, including 2,704 children, 1,584 women and 364 elderly persons. A further 17,439 people have been injured. This is in addition to 1,600 reported missing, presumably under the rubble of destroyed buildings, including 900 children.

Overall, nearly 1,400 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed in Israel, according to the Israeli authorities, the vast majority on 7 October (OCHA).

Nearly 469,000 persons are sheltering in 93 UNRWA premises in Middle, Khan Younis and Rafah areas, an increase of almost 16,000 IDPs over the past 24 hours. While the number of IDPs continues to increase, the availability of vital assistance remains severely constrained and inadequate to meet the mounting needs.

The West Bank, including East Jerusalem

Seventeen persons were detained during an ISF search and arrest operation in Kalandia refugee camp, north of Jerusalem. A 16-year-old boy was also reportedly killed during the same operation.

The total number of Palestinians from Gaza previously working/located in Israel, and currently relocated to the West Bank has now risen to over 5,300 individuals who are facing food security, shelter, and cash assistance needs.

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AFWERX Prime, FAA agree to share flight-test information

Published Oct. 26, 2023

By Tim Tresslar

Air Force Research Laboratory Public Affairs

DUKE FIELD, Fla. (AFNS) -- AFWERX Prime and the Federal Aviation Administration announced they have agreed to share flight-test data to accelerate the safe integration of Advanced Aircraft Mobility platforms into the National Airspace System Oct. 25.

The memorandum of understanding will also support AFWERX Prime's efforts to advance the integration and maturation of AAM, including the electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft and autonomous systems industries. Prime, a division within AFWERX, aims to accelerate emerging commercial markets by leveraging government resources for rapid and affordable fielding, benefiting both the commercial industrial base and U.S. military capabilities.

The agreement was signed by Col. Elliott Leigh, AFWERX director and chief commercialization officer for the Department of the Air Force, and John Maffei, the FAA's acting director of Portfolio Management and Technology Development, during an event at Duke Field, Florida.

Leigh noted that, during the past three years, AFWERX has awarded more than $345 million in contracts to 36 developers of electric aircraft and related technologies as part of the national AAM strategy. With the DAF investments, certifications, limited partnership agreements and testing, this effort has generated more than $11 billion in commercial investment in the AAM sector.

According to Leigh, now is the time to redouble these efforts not only with the FAA but also with other federal partners in this space.

"With this MOU and the ongoing AAM Interagency Working Group, we are accelerating a breakthrough in electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft," Leigh said. "We are driving progress in propulsion technology, in manufacturing and materials, and in test and safety for a novel class of air vehicles. Keeping this effort rooted in the United States, building our national security and accelerating innovation for our Airmen and Guardians are all crucial for the Air Force, and we are humbled to be a part of this historic effort. I am excited about this industry's direction and the Air Force's role in shaping it."

The MOU will enable the DAF, AFWERX and the FAA to exchange data and share capabilities and expertise needed to test these technologies. The data will inform FAA certification efforts, policy, standards and future airspace integration requirements.

"A new era of aviation is taking off and safe and efficient operations require collaboration," Maffei said. "This data will help inform FAA certification efforts, policies, standards and future airspace integration requirements."

The new agreement showed the continued commitment by the Defense Department and the FAA to ensure all aviation conducted in the NAS meets the highest levels of safety and security, said Darshan Divakaran, AFWERX head of Airspace Innovation and Prime Partnerships. The NAS is a complex system composed of aircraft, airports, airspace, communication, individual pilots, policies, navigation and regulations working in these areas.

Divakaran added that the agreement establishes a unique approach to integrated testing and data sharing that will not only ensure airspace safety, but also help accelerate development of U.S.-built aircraft, supporting infrastructure and regulatory policy needed for successful integration of AAM.

"This MOU is a big step for the future of AAM and provides industry and investors the confidence needed to accelerate forward," Divakaran said. "This partnership validates why the DoD created the AFWERX Agility Prime program to focus on AAM and dual-use technology."

In July, the FAA released an implementation plan detailing the steps it and others will need to take to safely enable advanced air mobility operations in the near term. The "Innovate28", or I28, plan includes various components and the sequence they will follow for operations to reach scale at one or more sites by 2028.

FAA officials added the partnership with AFWERX and the MOU supports the I28 initial entry into service objectives and future phases as defined in the FAA Urban Air Mobility Concept of Operations.

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Israeli Military Says Troops Conducted Ground Operation in Gaza Strip

By VOA News October 26, 2023

Latest developments:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is "preparing for a ground invasion" of Gaza.

About 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, mostly civilians in the initial Hamas attack on October 7.

At least 6,546 people, the majority are women and children, a number that some U.S. and Israeli officials question.

Israel's military said Thursday it carried out a ground operation in the Gaza Strip, where for nearly three weeks Israeli forces have been conducting airstrikes targeting Hamas militants.

The Israel Defense Forces said its tanks and infantry "struck numerous terrorist cells, infrastructure and anti-tank missile launch posts" before returning to Israeli territory.

The IDF said the operation was done to prepare "for the next stages of combat."

Israeli officials have pledged to ensure Hamas can no longer carry out attacks that threaten Israel following its October 7 massacre of about 1,400 people, mostly civilians.

The death toll in Gaza has reached at least 6,546 people, the majority are women and children, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

The Israeli military has called up 300,000 reservists and stationed troops near the Gaza border.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a televised statement Wednesday, said Israel was "preparing for a ground invasion. I will not elaborate on when, how or how many."

Benny Gantz, a retired general and member of Netanyahu's war Cabinet, said any ground offensive would be only "one stage in a long-term process that includes security, political and social aspects that will take years."

"The campaign will soon ramp up with greater force," he said.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel has no interest in expanding the war front beyond Gaza, although it is prepared to fight Iranian-backed Hezbollah fighters based in Lebanon.

"We are waging war on the southern front against Hamas, prepared for any development in the north. Hezbollah is suffering many losses," Gallant told reporters.

One U.S. lawmaker, Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland, who was part of a congressional delegation that recently visited Israel, said it was up to Israeli leaders to decide when to launch any ground invasion into Gaza.

"We have not called for a delay," Cardin told VOA. "I think every day, we think it's going to be that day or night or the next day. So, Israel is going to do when they want to do it. It is their judgment."

"It was clear to all of us that Hamas is evil," Cardin said. "That they are comparable to ISIS, that their objective is to prevent a Jewish state from existing in the Middle East. They believe it's right to execute Jews that pose no threat to them and have taken a page out of the Nazi book. And I think we all agreed that they have to be taken down  that there is no future for the Palestinians with Hamas in Gaza."

Meanwhile, the United Nations humanitarian aid agency said that from last Saturday through Tuesday, 62 trucks with water, food and medical supplies traveled through the Rafah crossing at the Egyptian border into Gaza. But that total was far short of the daily average of 500 trucks allowed into Gaza before the hostilities.

Israeli authorities have continued to ban fuel transports into Gaza for fear Hamas militants will take it for their own use. UNRWA, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, said it has almost exhausted its fuel reserves and begun to significantly reduce its operations.

About 1.4 million people in Gaza are internally displaced, with some 629,000 staying in 150 UNRWA-designated emergency shelters. Officials are worried about overcrowding, with the average number of displaced people per shelter now 2.7 times their designated capacity.

Congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson contributed to this report. Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.

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Gaza Journalist Continues Reporting After Family Dies in Israeli Airstrike

By Liam Scott October 26, 2023

One day after his family was killed in an Israeli airstrike, Al Jazeera's Gaza bureau chief Wael al-Dahdouh was back reporting on air.

Late Tuesday, Dahdouh's wife, son and daughter were killed in an airstrike that struck their house in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza.

They had moved there following Israel's warning on Oct. 13 for those in the northern half of the territory to leave for the south. Dahdouh's grandson and eight other extended family members were also killed in the attack.

The tragedy underscores the risks facing journalists covering the war between Israel and Hamas, which was sparked after the militant group invaded southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing more than 1,400 people.

Following the airstrike, Al Jazeera aired footage showing Dahdouh entering the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah on Wednesday to see his dead wife, son and daughter in the morgue.

"What happened is clear. This is a series of targeted attacks on children, women and civilians. I was just reporting from Yarmouk about such an attack, and the Israeli raids have targeted many areas, including Nuseirat," Dahdouh told Al Jazeera on his way out of the hospital.

Al Jazeera "strongly condemns the indiscriminate targeting and killing of innocent civilians in Gaza, which has led to the loss of Wael al-Dahdouh's family and countless others," the Qatari network said in a statement.

Youmna ElSayed, an Al Jazeera correspondent in Gaza, told the broadcaster, "It's heartbreaking to be reporting about Wael's family and to see how broken he is. He calms everyone. He speaks to us like a big brother, not just a bureau chief."

As of Thursday, at least 27 journalists have been killed in the war, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ. Among them, 22 were Palestinian, four were Israeli, and one was Lebanese.

"I've got to give credit to a lot of journalists who are very brave and trying to cover this. The world needs to see what's happening," James Cunningham, the former U.S. ambassador to Israel, told VOA.

Journalists in Gaza are facing particularly high risks, CPJ said, due to Israel's airstrikes and the threat of a looming Israeli ground invasion. The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said Thursday that more than 7,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began.

"The main challenge for journalists covering the military confrontation in Gaza is their own safety  being killed while covering airstrikes or clashes," Sherif Mansour, CPJ's Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, told VOA.

"Journalists in Gaza have paid and continue to pay unprecedented tolls and face exponential threats," Mansour later added.

Spotty internet connections and unreliable electricity access exacerbate the challenges facing reporters in Gaza, VOA reported shortly after the war began.

Last week, the Israeli government approved emergency regulations that may lay the groundwork for blocking Al Jazeera in Israel.

The regulations "will allow the cessation of activities of a foreign broadcasting organization that harms the security of the state, for the duration of the war," the Communications Ministry said, according to The Jerusalem Post.

Shloma Karhi, the communications minister, called Al Jazeera "a propaganda mouthpiece" for Hamas.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, meanwhile, has asked the Qatari prime minister to bridle Al Jazeera's rhetoric about Gaza. Al Jazeera is funded by the Qatari government but operates independently.

Al Jazeera did not immediately reply to VOA's request for comment.

Press freedom groups have urged Israel to refrain from closing Al Jazeera. "A plurality of media voices is essential in order to hold power to account, especially in times of war," CPJ's Mansour said in a statement.

"Shutting that agency down and removing them would be a very chilling step for freedom of expression and the media in the region that would open the floodgates to other kinds of restrictions," Quinn McKew, executive director of the free expression group Article 19, told VOA.

The liberal Israeli newspaper Haaretz lambasted the regulations in an editorial over the weekend, saying, "The state should not be authorized to decide for the public which information it can be exposed to, as is done in countries such as China and Iran."

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Analysis: Qatar's Complex Role Seen as Critical to US Foreign Policy

By VOA News October 26, 2023

Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said this week that negotiations on the release of the hostages captured by Hamas were progressing. With most of the more than 200 hostages still captive or unaccounted for, and Gaza quickly running out of food, water and electricity, international pressure is building on the Persian Gulf state to help secure their release.

Qatar's working relationship with Hamas and its October 7 statement holding Israel fully responsible for the escalation of violence have prompted public furor in the United States, yet analysts see the emirate as an important player in efforts to mediate the conflict.

Qatar's leaders have been key to securing the release of Israeli hostages. Qatari officials helped broker a deal for Monday's release of two Israeli women held by Hamas  days after it negotiated the release of mother-daughter pair Judith and Natalie Raanan.

Qatar has long enjoyed good relations with the U.S. The gas-rich emirate hosts a large U.S. military presence, one of the biggest in the region, at Al Udeid Air Base. The base was built by the Qataris in 1996 and received U.S. acknowledgement in 2002 when then-Vice President Dick Cheney visited.

U.S. relations with the country date to 1972 and center on issues of regional security, energy and education. Qatar cooperates with the U.S. military in conducting counterterrorism and countering violent extremism, running operations as far away as the Horn of Africa.

Following the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, Qatar's role in coordinating the safe exit of tens of thousands of people  including U.S. citizens and contractors  was invaluable to the American government.

Nearly 40% of all evacuees were taken out via Qatar. In the years leading up to the Taliban takeover, Qatar played a pivotal role in hosting meetings between U.S. officials and members of the Taliban in the capital, Doha, chaired by U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad. While the talks ultimately failed, they demonstrated the reliance the U.S. places on Qatar as a key intermediary.

For these and other efforts, U.S. President Joe Biden designated Qatar a major non-NATO ally in March 2022.

"I am making this designation in recognition of Qatar's many years of contributions to U.S.-led efforts in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility and in recognition of our own national interest in deepening bilateral defense and security cooperation with the state of Qatar," the president wrote in a letter to Congress.

More recently, Qatar facilitated the release of five American prisoners held in Iran, as well as the release of Ukrainian children held by Russia.

An established record

Qatar began to carve out its role as a credible mediator years ago.

In 2008, when Hezbollah took over key infrastructure installations in Lebanon, including the airport and major seaports, it was Qatar that brought the Shiite group and its Western-backed opponents to the negotiating table. The talks resulted in the Doha Agreement, which prevented the crisis from escalating and plunging Lebanon into another civil war.

Qatar's working relationships with traditional U.S. adversaries such as Iran and Russia  or nonstate groups like Hamas and the Taliban  have made it an invaluable partner for the U.S. and other Western countries.

"Qatar has been a very close partner to the United States on a broad range of issues that are crucial to both of our countries and to this region  from working together on evacuating Americans, Afghans and others from Afghanistan, to cooperating very closely in responding to humanitarian emergencies, like the devastating earthquakes in Turkiye and in Syria," U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters at a press conference in Doha on October 13.

Analysts say the ability of Qatar to maintain good relations with both nonstate armed groups and state actors such as Russia and Iran, while still being a strategic partner to the United States, will continue to enhance its importance on the global stage.

"Qatar is framing this achievement  and associated praise from the U.S.  as proof that it is correct in its strategy of keeping communication lines open with multiple opposing actors. Its role in the current conflict is giving its geopolitical ambitions a boost," Lina Khatib, director of the SOAS Middle East Institute at SOAS University of London, wrote in an article this week for Barron's. She is also an associate fellow at Chatham House.

Others say connections with groups like Hamas will bring greater scrutiny to Qatar, the world's third-largest natural gas exporter and home to just 300,000 citizens.

"It's a double-edged sword, and the Qataris need to have the right message, because although the Americans have expressed gratitude and they're earning brownie points from the U.S., their image is getting bruised," Mehran Kamrava, professor of government at Georgetown University Qatar, said in an interview with the Financial Times.

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Deploying additional support

27 October 2023

The Australian Government has deployed additional ADF personnel and aircraft to the Middle East as part of Operation Beech.

Operation Beech is Defence's support to the Australian Government response to the Hamas-Israel conflict.

Deploying in a non-combat role, Australian Army personnel from Townsville and Brisbane, and two Royal Australian Air Force C-130J aircraft from Sydney, will join a C-17A Globemaster heavy transport aircraft and the ADF contingent already in the region.

The deployment of Australian aircraft and supporting Defence personnel is a precautionary measure to support whole-of-Australian Government contingency planning and delivery of support to Australian citizens and approved foreign nationals, in the region, if required.

The ADF contingent provides the Australian Government the additional capabilities to assist Australian citizens and approved foreign nationals should the security situation deteriorate in the region.

More than 800 Australians have now been airlifted from Israel since the first Australian Government-assisted departure flight on October 13.

Australians in the region who are seeking Australian Government support should register via DFAT's Crisis Portal or by calling the 24-hour Consular Emergency Centre on +61 2 6261 3305 (from overseas) or 1300 555 135 (from within Australia).

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade will continue to provide updates to registered Australians.

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Operation Iron Swords - Day 21 - 27 October 2023

Palestinian armed group Hamas launched thousands of missiles at Israel and deployed its militants to infiltrate Jewish settlements near the countrys border with Gaza on 07 October 2023. The 1,200 Israelis killed on the first day would be the equivalent of 36,000 Americans killed in an attack, as a proportion to Israels population of 9.3 million people (compared to 332 million in the USA). Israeli President Isaac Herzog stated: Not since the Holocaust have so many Jews been killed in one day". PM Netanyahu stated "On October 7th, Hamas murdered 1,400 Israelis. Maybe more. This is in a country of fewer than 10 million people. This would be equivalent to over 50,000 Americans murdered in a single day. Thats twenty 9/11s. That is why October 7th is another day that will live in infamy."

More than 1,400 Israelis were killed as a result of resistance attacks, including 309 soldiers and officers, according to what was announced by the Israeli army, which also acknowledged the presence of at least 224 prisoners held by Palestinian factions.

Israel's war on Gaza, now in its 21st day, is the deadliest of the five Gaza wars, with over 7,000 Palestinians killed so far  more than three times the number killed in the six-week-long war in 2014. Ashraf al Qidra, a ministry spokesman, said during a news conference: "The death toll from the Israeli aggression on Gaza has reached 7,326, including 3,038 children, 1,726 women, and 414 elderly individuals. In addition, 18,484 citizens have been injured since Oct 7." The spokesman said "We received reports of 1,700 missing people, including 940 children still under the rubble".

Authorities in Palestine's Gaza enclave said that at least 2,000 people are reportedly under the rubble of destroyed buildings. They said 29,000 houses had been completely flattened by Israel in its "indiscriminate land and air strikes" since October 7. Israeli air strikes have ravaged swaths of besieged Gaza  leaving it looking like a wasteland from space.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said the death toll given by the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza had proved to be "credible" in previous conflicts after Washington raised doubts about figures from the current war. "In the past, the five, six cycles of conflict in the Gaza Strip, these figures were considered as credible and no one ever really challenged these figures," UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told reporters in Jerusalem.

Many forces of the IDF, the Shin Bet and the Israel Defense Forces arrested wanted persons suspected of involvement in terrorist activities and confiscated weapons in many locations throughout the Judea and Samaria Division. As part of the forces' activity in the sector, 36 wanted persons were arrested, of which 17 were Hamas operatives.

Some reports claim over 10,000 Palestinian prisoners are held in Israeli jails. Before October 7, the number of Palestinians detained in Israeli jails was a round 5,200, including more than 1,000 held under Israels administrative detention policy. The controversial policy allows Israeli authorities to detain anyone for six months without charge or trial, which can be extended indefinitely. Israeli raids in the occupied West Bank have led to the arrests of dozens of Palestinians and the number held in Israeli jails has more than doubled since the Hamas attack on October 7.

The Israeli army said that it informed the families of at least 229 people - both military and civilian - that their children were being held in Gaza. So far, since the beginning of the war, approximately 1,030 wanted persons had been arrested throughout the Judea and Samaria Division and the Bekaa and Emekim Division, over 670 of whom are affiliated with Hamas.

UN and other international agencies say there can be small discrepancies between the final casualty numbers and those reported by the Gaza health ministry straight after attacks, but that they broadly trust them. We continue to include their data in our reporting and it is clearly sourced, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement to Reuters. It is nearly impossible at the moment to provide any UN verification on a day-to-day basis.

Its worth noting that the numbers that are coming out since October 7th are generally consistent or within logic for the scale of killings one would expect, given the intensity of bombardment in such a densely populated area, Omar Shakir,Israel and Palestine Director at Human Rights Watch, said. Those numbers are in line with what one might expect, given what were seeing on the ground through testimony, through satellite imagery and otherwise, he told Reuters.

The Russian newspaper "Kommersant" quoted a statement by a member of the Hamas delegation in Moscow, in which it was indicated that the movement would not release the detainees, except after reaching a ceasefire agreement. The newspaper quoted that member as saying that Hamas needs time to determine the location of all those transferred by various Palestinian factions from Israel to Gaza, in the current October 7 attack. Al Jazeera's correspondent had quoted Israeli media as saying that Tel Aviv would consider the possibility of bringing fuel into the Gaza Strip, if a serious deal was offered to release a large number of detainees held by Hamas and other resistance factions.

Sources told Al Jazeera that negotiations were progressing rapidly to achieve a ceasefire agreement and a prisoner exchange deal between Israel and the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ) with Qatari mediation. At the same time, the American CNN network reported from what it described as diplomatic sources familiar with the negotiations that significant progress had been made in the negotiations to release the Israeli detainees, but there are still outstanding issues. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby also told ABC that Washington is still working with its partners to release all detainees. This came after Israeli sources said that Tel Aviv informed the mediators of its willingness to offer a price in exchange for the release of a large number of Israeli detainees in the Gaza Strip.

The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian truce between Israel and Hamas and demanding aid access to Gaza. A total of 120 countries voted in favour of the resolution, 14 countries voted against including Israel and the United States, while 45 others abstained. Among the abstentions was Canada, which had introduced an amendment that would have more explicitly condemned Hamas for its October 7 terrorist attack on Israel and demanded the immediate release of hostages seized by the group.

For two nights straight, the Israel Defense Force launched targeted raids inside Gaza, saying that these are in preparation for an expected ground invasion. Amid fears over an imminent full-scale incursion, the international community continued to dissuade Israel, saying this would be a humanitarian disaster. Israel's ground operation seemed to have come a step closer, following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's statement on 25 October 2023, that the country was "getting ready" for a ground invasion.

The IDF spokesperson revealed that fighters of the 13th Fleet carried out a targeted raid from the sea in the south of the Gaza Strip during the night. As part of the operation, the forces destroyed terrorist infrastructures of the terrorist organization Hamas and operated in a compound used by the organization's naval commando forces. Additional vessels of the navy and aircraft took part in the attack. The troops left the area upon completion of the mission.

Infantry, armor and engineering forces under the command of Gesh (36) and accompanied by IDF helicopters and helicopter gunships raided the center of the Gaza Strip in the last day. As part of the raid, IDF aircraft and artillery attacked targets of the terrorist organization Hamas in the Sajaya neighborhood and throughout the Gaza Strip. As part of the operation, the forces attacked dozens of terrorist targets, including positions for launching anti-tank missiles and operational headquarters, as well as terrorists of the terrorist organization Hamas. The forces left the area at the end of the mission and there were no casualties to IDF forces.

One expert, Paik Seung-hoon, told Arirang TV, that as Israel's goal is to eliminate Hamas, the real question is what comes next. "There are three options. One is that the Israeli Defense Force will stay there as long as possible until it can build up peace and stabilize the area. The second option is, it could build an interim government within the Gaza Strip, which could substitute for Hamas. Thirdly, Israel and the United States could bring in government from the West Bank."

Paik said that as Israel can not trust Al-Fatah, nor has it decided on who should be the new government in Gaza, the best option is for it to proceed with the war, and occupy Gaza until it removes Hamas's ability to rule there. However, according to the professor, the United States is against Israel's occupation of Gaza, as that could provoke another conflict in that, the longer it stays the greater the collateral damage that will happen, giving an excuse for Hezbollah or the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to attack Israel.

The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ), announced on Friday that it had thwarted an attempt to land Israeli forces on the Rafah beach in the southern Gaza Strip, and directed missile strikes at Tel Aviv, leaving 3 Israelis wounded. The Al-Qassam Brigades said - in a statement - that its fighters discovered the landing attempt that took place at dawn today, and clashed with the Israeli force, which required the intervention of the Israeli Air Force, which saved the force, and it fled towards the sea, leaving behind a quantity of ammunition. Al-Qassam's statement came shortly after the Israeli army announced that it carried out a new incursion into the Gaza Strip last night.

Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said that joint Israeli army forces carried out a raid inside Gaza, which ended successfully. Hagari added that the army maintains high readiness to deal with every emergency, as he put it. Before that, the Israeli army published a statement in which it said that infantry forces and the engineering and armor units led by the Gash 36 formation participated in the operation, in addition to drones and military helicopters.

An opinion poll of a random sample of Israelis showed that 49% of those who participated in it believe that the ground operation against the Gaza Strip should be delayed, and they believe that Benny Gantz, leader of the National Unity Party and minister in the Israeli emergency government, is most suitable for the position of prime minister. According to the Israeli newspaper Maariv, about 29% of the 522 participants in the survey said that they support immediate ground entry, while 22% do not have a specific answer. Compared to last week's poll, in which the newspaper noted that 65% supported a large-scale ground operation in the Gaza Strip. The newspaper attributes this change in the Israelis' attitudes to the developments that occurred this week regarding the issue of prisoners held by the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ), which rose to the top of the agenda, according to its description. The poll revealed a sharp collapse in the popularity of the Israeli " Likud " Party, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, in contrast to a significant rise for the "National Unity" Party, where Benny Gantz outperforms Netanyahu by 49% compared to 28%.

In a brief statement, less than 48 hours after the start of the fiercest rounds of operations against the Gaza Strip, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant announced that he had ordered the army not to allow fuel, food, or water to enter Gaza, and said that there will be no electricity soon.

The Egyptian authorities announced the allocation of Al-Arish Airport in North Sinai Governorate to receive emergency international aid to Gaza. As of October 24, the airport will receive a total of 34 planes loaded with 748.4 tons of medical and food aid and urgent relief materials. . Three ambulances and 19 doctors also arrived, according to data issued by the Egyptian Red Crescent, which is charged with receiving, storing, and bringing international aid into the Gaza Strip in coordination with the Egyptian authorities, the United Nations, and the occupation, with American mediation.

The first international aid convoys crossed through the Rafah crossing, which included 20 trucks, into the Gaza Strip on October 21, and the convoys continued to enter daily after that, and reached 4 convoys until the 24th of the same month, with a total of 74 trucks, after being subjected to inspection. As the conflict continued to escalate, there were now 2.2 million people in dire need of food. Before the hostilities, 104 trucks were delivering food daily to the besieged Gaza Strip, that is, one truck every 14 minutes. Despite allowing 62 A truck loaded with aid entered southern Gaza through the Rafah crossing. Since the weekend, only 30 trucks had food supplies.

This aid is not sufficient to cover the dire needs in Gaza, as it is delivered exclusively to UNRWA, and is limited to the south of the Gaza Strip, depriving areas in the north of the Gaza Strip that are threatened with displacement and continuous bloody bombardment. On the morning of October 24, the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced in its morning briefing that 12 hospitals and 32 medical centers had been out of service due to Israeli bombing and the running out of fuel, before the Ministry of Health announced in the afternoon of the same day that the entire health sector in the Gaza Strip had collapsed.

The British newspaper "The Times" published a report that began by accusing aid agencies of Israel of using famine as a weapon of war, with the number of aid convoys to Gaza declining, and residents complaining of the increasing shortage of food and water. The newspaper pointed out that the number of trucks allowed through the Rafah border crossing in Egypt had decreased to 8 or 10 trucks per day, according to UN officials. This means that the supplies that arrived last week are much less than what is usually delivered within 24 hours, since US President Joe Biden negotiated progress on aid during his visit to Israel.

The relief agency also reported that bakeries were bombed in Israeli air strikes. ActionAid said in a statement, Before the planned ground attack from Israel, famine is being used as a weapon of war, as bakeries remain targets of indiscriminate bombing and face severe fuel shortages. For its part, Oxfam said that only 2% of the usual food supplies have been delivered to Gaza since the borders were closed at the beginning of the crisis.

Following a European summit in Brussels, French President Emmanuel Macron called for a humanitarian truce in Gaza to ensure humanitarian aid reaches civilians and the release of Israeli detainees. Macron said, in a press conference, that several European countries are looking forward to building a humanitarian alliance, referring to talks taking place with Cyprus and Greece in this regard. He added that Cyprus could be a base for humanitarian operations.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said that the European Union Council accepted Spain's proposal to hold a peace conference in Madrid within 6 months. Sanchez pointed out during a press conference in Brussels that his country pushed during the European summit to demand an immediate ceasefire, but some countries opposed the proposed wording. He added that instead, the European Union countries agreed to call for a humanitarian truce and open humanitarian corridors, and the Union also accepted the proposal to hold a peace conference, which includes a new effort to revive the two-state solution.

Russia clarified its position on inviting the delegation of the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ) to visit Moscow, explaining that it maintains channels of communication with all parties to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This statement came after Israel expressed its dissatisfaction with Moscow's invitation to Hamas, and described the visit as "unfortunate." Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the delegation met with representatives of the Russian Foreign Ministry, but they did not meet with President Vladimir Putin. Peskov stressed that Moscow will continue its dialogue with Israel. Peskov added to reporters, "We see it as necessary to continue our contacts with all parties, and of course we will continue our dialogue with Israel"

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Russo-Ukraine War - 26 October 2023 - Day 610

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 despite Russia's official rejection of recent reports, it is almost certain that North Korean munitions have now reached ammunition depots in western Russia. These depots support Russian military operations in Ukraine.

If North Korea sustains the recent scale and pace of military-related shipments (more than 1,000 containers over the last several weeks), it will be on course to become one of Russia's most significant foreign arms suppliers, alongside Iran and Belarus.

It is currently unclear what Russia has agreed to provide North Korea in return. It is unlikely the full package has been finalised; it was highly likely one of the primary discussion topics during recent senior level Russian visits to North Korea. It will likely include a mixture of financial compensation, other economic support, the provision of military technology, and cooperation on other high technology areas, such as space.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that during the day of October 26, there were 45x combat engagements. Russian forces launched a total of 14x air strikes and 12x MLRS attacks at the positions of Ukrainian troops and various settlements. Unfortunately, the attacks injured and killed civilians. Private houses and other civilian infrastructure were destroyed and 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, continues to conduct sabotage and reconnaissance activities and increases the density of minefields along the state border of Ukraine. The settlements of Nova Huta, Volfyne and Pozhnya (Sumy oblast) suffered artillery and mortar fire of the Russian occupiers.

Kup'yans'k axis: Russian forces conducted unsuccessful assault operations in the vicinities of Syn'kivka, and Ivanivka (Kharkiv oblast). The Russian invaders fired artillery and mortars at the settlements of Dvorichna, Syn'kivka, Kyslivka, Berestove, Ivanivka (Kharkiv oblast).

Lyman axis: the Russian invaders did not conduct any offensive (assault) actions and continue to regroup their troops. The Russian occupiers fired artillery and mortars at the settlements of Nevs'ke, Bilohorivka (Luhansk oblast), and Sivers'k, Spirne (Donetsk oblast).

Bakhmut axis: the Ukrainian defenders repelled 4x Russian attacks in the vicinities of Bohdanivka and Khromove (Donetsk oblast). Russian forces also tried to regain the lost ground near Klishchiivka and Andriivka, where Ukrainian defenders repelled 7x attacks. Around 15x settlements came under artillery and mortar fire, including Orikhovo-Vasylivka, Novomarkove, Bohdanivka, Chasiv Yar, Predtechyne, Bila Hora (Donetsk oblast).

Avdiivka axis: Russian forces conducted unsuccessful assault operations in the vicinities of Avdiivka, Stepove, Tonen'ke, Sjeverne (Donetsk oblast). The Ukrainian defenders repelled 14x Russian attacks in the area. The Russian invaders fired artillery and mortars at more than 10x settlements, including Ocheretyne, Novobakhmutivka, Berdychi, Tonen'ke, Opytne (Donetsk oblast).

Mar'inka axis: Russian forces conducted assault operations with air support in the vicinities of Mar'inka and Novomykhailivka (Donetsk oblast), to no success. The Ukrainian defense forces repelled 13x Russian attacks in the area. Around 10x settlements in Donetsk oblast, including Oleksandropil', Krasnohorivka, Heorhiivka, Mar'inka, Pobjeda, were under artillery and mortar fire of the Russian occupiers.

Shakhtars'ke axis: Russia maintains its military presence and regroups its forces. Also, the Russian adversary launched an air strike near Staromaiors'ke (Donetsk oblast). Around 10x settlements, including Vodyane, Vuhledar, Prechystivka, Zolota Nyva, Blahodatne, Urozhaine (Donetsk oblast), came under artillery and mortar fire.

Zaporizhzhia axis: Russian forces did not conduct any offensive (assault) actions and continues to regroup its troops. More than 20x settlements, including Levadne, Malynivka, Hulyaipole, Novoselivka, Orikhiv, P'yatykhatky (Zaporizhzhia oblast), came under Russian artillery and mortar fire.

Kherson axis: Russian forces launched air strikes in the vicinities of Odradokam'yanka, Mykolaivka, Ol'hivka, Tyahynka, Ivanivka (Kherson oblast). The settlements of L'vove, Tyahynka, Mykil's'ke (Kherson oblast) came under Russian artillery and mortar fire.

At the same time, the Ukrainian defense forces continue offensive operations in the Melitopol axis, offensive (assault) operations in the Bakhmut axis, inflicting losses in manpower and equipment on the Russian occupation forces, and exhausting Russian forces along the entire front line.

During the day of October 26, Ukrainian Air Force launched 1x air strike on the concentrations of troops, weapons and military equipment, and 1x air strike on an air defense system of the Russian invaders.

The missile troops hit 1x concentration of troops, weapons and military equipment and 1x artillery systems of the Russian occupiers.

The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported that in Kupyansk direction (https://t.me/mod_russia/31837), units of the Zapad Group of Forces in cooperation with aviation, artillery and heavy flamethrower systems repelled six attacks of assault groups of the AFU 41st, 54th, and 67th mechanised, and 68th Jaeger brigades near Sinkovka (Kharkov region), and Sergeyevka (Lugansk People's Republic).

Up to 225 Ukrainian troops, one tank, two armoured fighting vehicles, two motor vehicles, and one Gvozdika self-propelled artillery system have been eliminated.



In Krasny Liman direction (https://t.me/mod_russia/31838), well-coordinated actions of the Tsentr Group of Forces, aviation strikes and artillery fire repelled four attacks launched by assault groups of the 24th and 67th mechanised brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces near Chervonaya Dibrova, Petrovskoye (Lugansk People's Republic), and Torskoye (Donetsk People's Republic).

The enemy losses amounted to over 120 Ukrainian troops, two infantry fighting vehicles, and one Akatsiya self-propelled artillery system.



In Donetsk direction (https://t.me/mod_russia/31839), units of the Yug Group of Forces supported by aviation and artillery repelled one attack of an AFU assault detachment near Bogdanovka (Donetsk People's Republic).

In addition, strikes were delivered at enemy manpower and hardware near Andreyevka, Kleshcheyevka, and Vasyukovka (Donetsk People's Republic).

The enemy lost up to 295 Ukrainian personnel, one tank, five armoured fighting vehicles, as well as two motor vehicles.

In counter-battery warfare, the Russian troops hit one U.S.-made M777 artillery system, one Msta-B howitzer, and one Czech-made Dana self-propelled artillery system.



In South Donetsk direction (https://t.me/mod_russia/31840), units of the Vostok Group of Forces, helicopters, and artillery inflicted fire damage on manpower and hardware clusters of the AFU 72nd mechanised, 58th motorised infantry brigades, and 118th and 128th territorial defence brigades near the city of Ugledar, Urozhaynoye, Staromayorskoye, and Nikolskoye (Donetsk People's Republic).

The enemy losses were up to 100 servicemen, and two armoured fighting vehicles. In counter-battery warfare, the Russian troops hit one U.S.-made M777 artillery system, one Akatsiya self-propelled artillery system, and two D-20 howitzers.

In Zaporozhye direction (https://t.me/mod_russia/31841), one attack launched by an assault detachment of the AFU 65th Mechanised Brigade near Rabotino (Zaporozhye region) was repelled by the Russian Group of Forces, air strikes, and artillery fire during the day.

The enemy has lost up to 85 Ukrainian personnel, three tanks, with two Leopard tanks among them, four armoured fighting vehicles, and two motor vehicles.

In addition, in the course of counterbattery warfare, one U.S.-made M777 artillery system, one D-20 howitzer, as well as one U.S.-made M119 howitzer were neutralised.



In Kherson direction (https://t.me/mod_russia/31841), over 25 Ukrainian servicemen, three motor vehicles, and one Msta-B howitzer of the enemy have been neutralised by fire.

One AFU ammunition depot was wiped out close to Orlovshchina (Dnepropetrovsk region).



Operational-Tactical and Army aviation, unmanned aerial vehicles, and Missile Troops and Artillery of the Russian Groups of Forces have engaged AFU manpower and hardware in 128 areas during the day.

Also, three command posts of the 67th and 72nd mechanised brigades of the AFU and the 31st Operational Brigade of National Guard were hit near Serebryanka and Novomikhailovka (Donetsk People's Republic).



Air defence systems intercepted six HIMARS and GLSDB projectiles.

Moreover, 27 unmanned aerial vehicles were shot down near Topolevka, Kremennaya (Lugansk People's Republic), Mirnoye, Inzhenernoye, Zolotaya Polyana (Zaporozhye region), Chaplinka, Sagi (Kherson region).



In total, 515 airplanes and 253 helicopters, 8,298 unmanned aerial vehicles, 441 air defence missile systems, 12,950 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, 1,169 combat vehicles equipped with MLRS, 6,888 field artillery guns and mortars, as well as 14,672 units of special military equipment have been destroyed during the special military operation.

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DHS Doubles Down CBP Efforts to Continue to Combat Fentanyl and Synthetic Drugs

Release Date: October 26, 2023

SAN DIEGOA -- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), today released an updated, comprehensive approach within its mission set to continue to fight the national opioid epidemic that has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans and impacted countless lives, families, and communities. As the unified border entity under DHS, this CBP strategy complements the Department's strategic plans, and advances President Biden's Unity Agenda Strategy to beat the overdose epidemic.

Troy A. Miller, CBP's Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Commissioner, unveiled the updated strategy alongside federal, state, and local law enforcement partners at a news conference in San Diego today. Concurrently, CBP senior leadership also led a kickoff meeting with state and local law enforcement partners for Operation Apollo, a joint regional operation that flows from the updated strategy. As the largest law enforcement agency in the United States, CBP is uniquely positioned to detect, identify, and seize illicit drugs from entering the country and preventing these deadly substances from entering our communities and taking lives.

"The Department of Homeland Security is combating the scourge of fentanyl and other illicit synthetic narcotics with every tool at our disposal," said Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas. "We have stopped more fentanyl in the last two years than in the previous five years combined and continue to optimize our intelligence and field operations to stop these deadly substances from hitting our streets. At the same time, we are cracking down on the ruthless cartels and criminal organizations that are responsible. CBP plays a critical role, working together with our federal, state, and local partners, and this strategy builds on the tremendous talent of a workforce fiercely dedicated to protecting the American people. The scope of the fentanyl challenge our country faces underscores the need for Congress to provide CBP with the additional resources, equipment, and personnel required to continue this critical work, as outlined in the Administration's supplemental budget request."

"In my thirty years as a customs official, the trafficking of synthetic illicit drugs like fentanyl is one of the toughest, most daunting challenges I have ever seen. Through this updated strategy, we will channel the incredible efforts of the men and women of CBP to keep this and other drugs out of the country," said CBP Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Commissioner Troy Miller. "CBP's modernized Strategy brings the unique, formidable, and wide-ranging capabilities and authorities of CBP to bear on the illicit synthetic drug trade and build capacity and collaboration with our partnersadomestic and internationalato ensure the safety of the American people. As the nation's frontline, CBP is uniquely positioned to lead the federal government's efforts to combat fentanyl."

The CBP Strategy to Combat Fentanyl and Other Synthetic Drugs, drives a whole-of-CBP approach that feeds into the work taking place all across DHS as we lead interagency efforts against illicit synthetic narcotics.

This 2023 strategy aligns resources, enhances partnerships, and builds on the successful enforcement intelligence and data-drivenA operationsA CBP has executed this year, while leveraging CBP's vast expertise and data holdings to disrupt the transnational criminal organizations responsible for the illicit production, distribution, and trafficking of illicit fentanyl, its analogues, and other synthetic drugs in the United States. This strategy is aligned with President Biden'sA National Drug Control Strategy, building on CBP's unique customs and enforcement authorities at ports of entry and along our borders and complementing other DHS efforts including the Homeland Security InvestigationsA (HSI) strategy to combat illicit opioids.

The updated Strategy aligns CBP's work around four key goals:

Promote collaboration and information-sharing to combat illicit synthetic drug networks.

Produce actionable intelligence for targeting illicit synthetic drug networks.

Conduct coordinated and unified intelligence and data-driven operations to target the production, trafficking, and distribution of illicit synthetic materials.

Promote safe handling, protocols, and educational materials to protect the CBP workforce, families, and communities.

This update focuses on an ever-changing threat landscape and the proliferation of synthetic narcotics. It not only focuses on fentanyl and its analogues, but also methamphetamine and otherwise legal precursors which are increasingly being used for illicit purposes such as the production of fentanyl and its analogues.

CBP's combination of interdiction and intelligence capabilities, complemented by its border search authorities, scientific services, non-intrusive inspection equipment, and canine detection teams, places it at the forefront of the U.S. government's efforts to combat the fentanyl crisis. CBP will continue to collaborate with domestic and international partners to thwart the flow of illicit fentanyl by enhancing information-sharing efforts, producing actionable intelligence, targeting the synthetic supply chain, and protecting CBP's personnel and canines from exposure to fentanyl.

As an immediate first step in implementing the updated Strategy, today CBP is also announcing Operation Apollo: a Southern California counter-fentanyl joint operation, with a focus on intelligence collection. The CBP-led operation will concentrate law enforcement efforts on disrupting drug and chemical supply, collecting and sharing intelligence, and leveraging valuable partnerships. Participating agencies, led by CBP, include state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies and fusion centers from the initial target areas of operation in San Diego, Imperial, Orange, Los Angeles, and Riverside counties, as well as federal agencies from within DHS including Homeland Security Investigations, and other federal agencies that have a nexus to narcotics trafficking as well as the intelligence community.

CBP-led Operation Apollo will build on previous actions to further strengthen enforcement intelligence on trafficking networks in Southern California, including the routes used and their operational logistics.A As synthetic drugs continue to devastate individuals across the United States, the operation will also look to uncover and better understand the tactics, techniques, and procedures utilized by transnational criminal organizations to procure, produce, store, and transport fentanyl and fentanyl-related materials throughout the country.A Partners will identify key indicators that lead to information that law enforcement can act on to disrupt drug supply in American communities.

Fentanyl production was limited to China when CBP's previous Strategy to Combat Opioids was developed in 2018. However, fentanyl production has since expanded to other source countries like Mexico and numerous transit countries around the globe, making it more challenging to stem the flow of illicit drugs into the United States. This problem is compounded by the fact that many precursors are used for legitimate purposes and may be legally imported and exported, making it difficult to disrupt the movement of these chemicals. By targeting suspicious locations and recipients that demonstrate patterns of illicit activity, CBP can disrupt the supply chain of illicit fentanyl and its analogues, methamphetamine, and other synthetic drugs.

CBP will continue to build on previous work as the frontline against fentanyl, to adapt to new changes from transnational criminal organizations, and to leverage new information.A Earlier in 2023, CBP and partners announced the results ofA Operation Blue Lotus and Operation Four Horsemen, focused on interdicting finished fentanyl product along the Southwest border of the United States. Just last month, CBP wrapped Operation Artemis, focused on stopping precursors and other means of production from entering the United States.

In four months of operation, CBP's Operation Artemis led to over 900 seizures, including:

Over 13,000 pounds of fentanyl precursor chemicals,

Over 2,590 pounds of non-fentanyl precursor chemicals

142 pill presses and 325 pill molds

More than 270 pounds of fentanyl pills and powder, and more than 210 pounds of Xylazine

More than 1,160 pounds of methamphetamine

And over 11,230 pounds of other finished synthetic drugsA A

The CBP Strategy to Combat Fentanyl and Other Synthetic Drugs can be found at CBP.gov.

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Secretary Antony J. Blinken at a State Luncheon in Honor of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese

US Department of State

Remarks

Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State

Benjamin Franklin Room

Washington, D.C.

October 26, 2023

SECRETARY BLINKEN: Well, good afternoon, everyone. And welcome to the State Department. Prime Minister Albanese, Ms. Haydon, it is wonderful to have you with us here today. My wife Evan and I are delighted. Please take a seat. Thank you. Thank you, Kevin, for the protocol tip. (Laughter.) We are so delighted to welcome you both - to welcome all of our friends from Down Under to the top of the State Department. (Laughter.)

I think as we all saw and heard so clearly yesterday, the prime minister is a true partner and true friend to the United States and to President Biden. (Applause.) I've had the opportunity since the prime minister has been in office to admire up close his remarkable combination of strength, empathy, and decency. One couldn't ask for more in a partner and a friend. And I know that Jodie equally shares those traits - your remarkable work now particularly in trying to deal with cancer, something so close to President Biden's heart as you know. And we're grateful to you for your friendship as well.

Now, there are few things that - for most public officials virtually everything is known and out in public, but I want to share one thing that may not be so well known to the American audience here today. Maybe it's known to the Australians. The prime minister and I have a deep, shared affection for music. When it comes to the prime minister, he's also known, besides prime minister, as DJ Albo. (Laughter.) He's known to spin a mean disc, and maybe they'll be an opportunity at some point later to hear that.

I especially also want to thank our partners, our friends, our cohosts today, the Vice President - Vice President Harris - and Doug Emhoff. (Applause.) It is - it's especially fitting because the Vice President has been such a strong leader in our foreign policy, particularly in the IndoaPacific since the start of this administration as well, of course, in response to the current crisis in the Middle East.

And our Second Gentleman, Doug Emhoff, who has led our efforts to combat antisemitism and other forms of bigotry at home and around the world, something that could not be more urgent in this moment. Thank you, Doug. (Applause.)

It's also wonderful to see members of Congress, members of the President's Cabinet here with us today. I know the prime minister had a very good session on Capitol Hill a short while ago. We're grateful for that. And it's good to be with so many friends, especially in the midst of tremendous pain and loss, at home as well as around the world.

Our hearts are, of course, with loved ones and people who were killed in the horrific shooting last night in Lewiston, Maine along with the many who were injured. We wish them the speediest of recoveries. And I know the Vice President shares this sentiment and will speak to it as well.

I have to tell you, this lunch today is particularly meaningful for me on a personal level. My late stepfather, Samuel Pisar, survived the horrors of the Holocaust. He was one of 900 schoolmates in Bialystok, Poland. He's the only one who survived. And after enduring Treblinka, Dachau, Majdanek, and Auschwitz, he found refuge with aunts and uncles who had gone to Australia from Poland before the war. For him, Australia was truly a lucky country. He met teachers who inspired him, mentors who guided him. He rekindled his passion for life, for intellectual pursuits, and for the future that he'd ultimately build here in the United States. He was, in many ways, as he used to tell us, reborn in Australia. And last year I had the opportunity to visit the University of Melbourne, where he studied, so there's been a profound bond between my family and Australia going back as long as I can remember.

And I think his experience speaks in just one unique way to the kinship between our countries that goes back to our earliest days. Our first interactions in the 1790s consisted primarily of American ships delivering enormous quantities of spirits to very thirsty Aussies. (Laughter.) Now that's a tradition that we hope to maintain this afternoon. (Laughter.)

By the middle of the 20th century, as our relationship deepened and we cemented our formal alliance, Prime Minister Robert Menzies would observe that "Australia and America share an affinity that reaches our souls." Now, we might view different constellations at night, but the United States and Australia see the world in much the same way.

We're both nations of immigrants. We've braved unforgiving oceans to get there. We're both fierce believers in democracy, equality, opportunity, for all of our citizens, and in the need to keep working - day in, day out - to actually make those ideals real. That affinity is why our militaries have stood side-by-side for so many years, from the Coral Sea to Kandahar, why our companies invest in each other's economies, why our researchers and Fulbright scholars flock to each other's shores.

And as we inaugurate a new era of our strategic cooperation, our own alliance continues to evolve to meet the challenges and seize the opportunities of this time. We're advancing peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific and well beyond, rooted in a shared commitment that we have to a world that's free, that's open, that's secure, that's prosperous. We're updating our defense posture in Australia. We're strengthening and weaving together partnerships across the region, including the Quad, including AUKUS, as well as demonstrating our strong support for institutions like ASEAN and the Pacific Islands Forum.

And we're upholding the principles at the heart of the United Nations Charter, in Ukraine where they're challenged, where Australia continues to be the largest non-NATO contributor to Ukraine's defense.

We're also building an innovation alliance for the 21st century, from shaping the future of AI and quantum technologies, to laying new undersea cables, to deepening our partnership in outer space.

We know that central to every single one of these initiatives, every single one of these partnerships, are people - bound by shared history, heritage, culture. I've had the wonderful privilege of experiencing this on several visits Down Under over the years.

We see the deep ties between us in this country as well. Australia - and we thank you, again - has given us Nicole Kidman and Margot Robbie - (laughter) - not to mention not one, not two, but three Hemsworth brothers. (Laughter.) Nick Cave performed in Washington just last month. D.C. residents pop into Bluestone Lane to stay caffeinated. Countless American children have shared bellyaching laughs while watching Bluey, and I can speak directly to this in the case of my own kids. (Laughter.)

Every single day, in so many different ways, in so many different pursuits, we're reminded that we're joined together. And precisely because of our partnership, even in challenging times - indeed, especially in challenging times, as the prime minister said yesterday - there is profound cause for hope.

So, if we could start by raising a glass to two great mates and to the future that we will continue to write together. Cheers, everyone! Cheers!

And now it is my great pleasure and great honor to introduce the Vice President of the United States. (Applause.)

(The Vice President makes remarks.)

PRIME MINISTER ALBANESE: Well, thank you so much for that very generous introduction. To the Vice President, to the Secretary of State: It is a wonderful opportunity for me to be back here at the State Department. And I also welcome and acknowledge all of the members of cabinet and members of Congress and Senate who are here, and my Australian friends who have traveled to be with us here.

I do want to also begin by passing on my condolences to those affected by the shooting in Maine. Indeed, it is the case that we look every time there is one of these events and are grateful that Australia did act in a bipartisan way after the Port Arthur massacre in Australia. And my heart goes out to those who will be grieving today.

We do meet at a time when our world faces a set of profound challenges. Far and wide, we're confronted by threats to peace and tests of the international rules-based order. And here in the United States, we can see the weight of global leadership that your great nation carries.

I came to Washington this week to continue the work of facing our alliance to the future: strengthening our economic partnerships in cloud computing, innovation, and through a new Technology Safeguards Agreement that we'll sign at this lunch; working with President Biden to turn the Climate and Clean Energy Compact we signed together in May into a commercial reality, with new progress on critical minerals and supply chains.

But above all, in these challenging times I stand here in Washington as the leader of America's steadfast ally. That's what the friendship between our nations means. We stand together in the cause of peace. We work together to build a more free, stable, and prosperous world.

Eight decades ago, Australia looked to America when our own need was most dire. We recognize the world is looking to you, now, and we know it does not look in vain. American leadership will meet this moment. And as allies, we will face the future together.

Ladies and gentlemen, it remains a remarkable tribute to your nation, including many people who worked from this very building, that in the aftermath of the Second World War America did not seek to rebuild a world governed by strength of arms, fear of force, or the will of one great power. Instead, as President Truman said, you sought "a just and lasting peace," understanding that peace would only last so long as it was just. That is why your forebears worked with ours to give life and shape to the United Nations: to help build a post-war world of rules and rights, of essential freedoms and basic fairness; where every country, large and small, could shape its own destiny and liberty of every individual is recognized; where peace is secured not solely by the presence of the great powers, but by the sovereign acts of middle powers and small nations and the collective responsibility of the international community.

Of course, that vision and those values have not gone unchallenged. We see this now in Ukraine, where Russia's illegal and immoral invasion seeks to subjugate an independent nation and oppress a free people. Australia may be half a world away from Ukraine, but we are proud to be one of the largest contributors to its military and humanitarian needs. (Applause.)

We stand with Ukraine to support its courageous people, but also to defend a fundamental principle: the right of every sovereign nation to peace and security, and the responsibility of every sovereign nation to respect the rules that hold the world together, be it in Europe, in the Indo-Pacific, or indeed the Middle East.

Australia unequivocally condemns the atrocities committed by Hamas and the destruction that their acts of terror have inflicted on innocent lives in Israel and in Gaza. And we stand with our international partners in calling for access to lifesaving humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza.

In my time here, I've had the opportunity to personally thank the President for the courage and the leadership that he has shown. As a true friend of Israel, not only did he stand by them in this terrible time, he offered wisdom as well as solace, calling for all parties to allow safe, unimpeded, and sustained humanitarian access and safe passage for civilians. And the President used the power of his office to assert an undeniable principle: that every innocent life must be protected, Israeli and Palestinian. That is American leadership in action. Generations of this leadership have been instrumental in shaping a world which is more prosperous, more open, more free, and more interconnected than any of our forebears could have imagined. Australia has benefitted from this, and Australia has helped to build it.

From my first day in office when I flew to Japan to take part in the Quad, the government I lead has made it a priority to reinforce the architecture of our region, investing in our capabilities and investing in our relationships; strengthening our vital links with Japan and Korea as a proven economic security and energy partner; deepening our engagement with Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam, and across Southeast Asia; taking our strategic partnership with India to a new level, both bilaterally and through the Quad; strengthening the bond that we share with our Pacific Islands family, where for more than half a century Australia has been the region's single-largest economic and development partner; investing in our multilateral engagement, the Pacific Islands Forum, ASEAN, and the East Asia Summit, and as founding members of APEC, the G20, and of course the United Nations.

Because as a constructive middle power with global interests, we understand the value and importance of dialogue. Which is why Australia strongly supports the Biden administration's efforts to maintain those open lines of communication between the United States of America and the People's Republic of China.

As a great American president and the father of the current U.S. ambassador to Australia proved 60 years ago during the Cuban crisis, the true measure of a superpower's strength is the ability to pull the world back from the brink of conflict. Once again, that has become the test of our time. China has been explicit: It does not see itself as a status-quo power. It seeks a region and a world that is much more accommodating of its values and interests. This is where it is the responsibility of every nation that has benefitted from the stability and prosperity of the international rules-based order through the last three-quarters of a century to work together and protect it, securing the sovereignty that confers every nation's right to determine its own destiny, protecting the freedom of navigation which is central to our shared prosperity, upholding the human rights which are central to every individual's life and liberty, and working together to maintain peace - not just in the Taiwan Strait, but wherever it is at risk.

This means investing in our capabilities to prevent competition escalating into conflict, and investing in our relationships to maintain the dialogue that safeguards stability. And this is where Australia, just like the United States, has been working to stabilize our relationship with China. We're very clear-eyed about this. We're two nations with very different histories, values, and political systems. Australia will always look to cooperate with China where we can, but we will disagree where we must, but continue to engage in our national interest. Our approach has been patient, calibrated, and deliberate, and that will continue when I visit Beijing and Shanghai next month.

Secretary Blinken, you and so many of your colleagues today devote your energy and intellect to building a more stable and secure world. And it's been an incredible privilege to meet with you and with Vice President Harris in so many - so many - parts of the world, and I'm glad it's finally here in the United States. (Laughter.)

I have, of course, met with Secretary Blinken in Australia and I look forward to welcoming you, Vice President Harris, to Australia at some future time.

This is absolutely critical, because striving for peace is hard work. It demands new effort and new resources, new creativity, and new resolve. But whenever we consider the costs, the obstacles, or the difficulties of this course, we only need to consider the counterfactual, the alternative. Because the closing off of economies, the collapse of diplomacy, the cutting of ties, the burden of conflict, and the devastation of war are catastrophic for the world. That elemental understanding was the basis of the alliance that the United States of America and Australia signed 72 years ago.

Ours was not a pact against a mutual enemy. It was a pledge to a common cause. These were the words to which we put the names of our great nations: "Reaffirming a [our] desire to live in peace with all peoples and all Governments, and desiring to strengthen the fabric of peace in the Pacific Area." And it is in this same spirit that Australia has struck the new trilateral AUKUS agreement with the United States and the United Kingdom - a decision we have taken that is anchored in our own national sovereignty, but is also in the sovereign national interests of the U.S. and the UK.

From early on in the next decade, Australia will take delivery of U.S. Virginia-class, conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines. This will be the first time in 65 years, and only the second time in history, that the U.S. has shared your nuclear propulsion technology. It speaks for the intersection of our interests, the deep trust underpinning our alliance, and the reality of the world in which we live. And up on the Hill this morning, I was struck by just how supportive on a bipartisan way across Congress and the Senate there is for AUKUS. This is an unprecedented level of partnership conceived for a time of unprecedented challenge. This technology offers Australia a new level of deterrence and a new capacity to contribute to the stability of our region and the security of our partners.

For Australia, the rationale for AUKUS is straightforward: We want to contribute to strategic equilibrium in the Indo-Pacific. We're not looking for conflict; we are seeking to prevent it, making it crystal clear to any aggressor that the risk of conflict far outweighs any potential benefit. And the past few weeks have reminded us all that American leadership often means walking a lonely road and shouldering a heavy burden. As a friend, Australia walks beside you, and as an ally, we help you carry the weight, especially when the going gets tough.

Of course, there will always be more challenges here at home that seem more pressing, more relevant, and more real than the concerns of other nations far away. It is natural - indeed, it is understandable - for some to greet any new call for American global engagement with, "Why us? Why now? Why there? Why again?" But the promise of America has never been fulfilled in isolation. The greatness of America has never been confined to your borders. The people of Australia are not looking for a free ride. We're a middle power and we're a leader in our own region, and Australians always pay our way. We pull our weight, we do our part. We always have, we always will.

That's one of the points that I was making today to key members of the House and the Senate in person. The AUKUS bills before Congress represent a multi-billion-dollar boost to America's industrial base and a game-changing manufacturing opportunity for Australian workers. It will mean Australians and Americans can work and train side-by-side in allied shipyards. And beyond submarines, AUKUS will enable seamless cooperation between our two nations in defense science, technology, and industry to help meet the new strategic challenges of our time.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is not my first time in this famous building. In my mid-20s, I was invited to take part in a State Department program. Obviously, the U.S. Intelligence Community saw something in me that, at the time, others didn't back home. (Laughter.) But well chosen. (Laughter.)

I asked to see the different ways that groups here interacted with American democracy. I got the full spread: the Sierra Club, from Planned Parenthood to the National Rifle Association. I got to see in a six-week visit the full length and breadth of your great nation. Yet for all of the diversity of views and arguments across the different issues that I saw during that visit, there was also a unifying belief, a sense that ideas mattered and participation mattered - showing up, taking part, making a case. It spoke for a common faith in the power of people and also a shared respect for the responsibility of government.

Those are the founding principles of both of our democracies. They are ideals that the United States and the State Department seeks to share with people from every part of the world - citizens who want to help to solve the humanitarian challenges their nation are facing; people who want the world to act on climate change, people who want to see the jobs and prosperity of new economic growth across their society in a shared way, so we have economies that work for people, not people working for economies; and people who believe, as we all do, that the best way of achieving these goals is a system where representatives derive their power from the consent of the governed.

Of course, this is not easy, and it's not predictable. But only dictatorships pretend to be perfect. Democracies are proud to be human. We serve a work in progress, a continuing search for a more perfect union, a shared desire to build a better world. And that's why all of us know that preserving democracy isn't just a matter of celebrating it. We have to nurture it, nourish it, strengthen it, renew it, and, yes, defend it, making sure that it has practical meaning for the people it serves and making sure it is ready for the future it seeks to shape.

Everything that is true for our democracies is also true for our alliance. In a time of conflict, uncertainty, and rapid change, there's always the temptation for nations, democracies, and citizens to look back, to search for reassurance instead of seeking renewal. But as important as our rich history is, our alliance is firmly focused on the future, advancing the vital interests that we share, and building on the universal values that we hold: democracy and peace, freedom and fairness. They are our North Star, our Southern Cross. They bring us together. They light our way and they can still light the world. This is why ours is an alliance with a bright future, because it is an alliance for a better future.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to conclude with a toast, to thank the Vice President and the Secretary, but to toast our friendship between our great two nations. To the people of America, the people of Australia, and to an alliance for the future.

(Toast.)

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Secretary Antony J. Blinken at a Signing Ceremony for the U.S.-Australia Technology Safeguards Agreement

US Department of State

Remarks

Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State

Treaty Room

Washington, D.C.

October 26, 2023

SECRETARY BLINKEN: Well, good afternoon, everyone. Prime Minister Albanese, thank you for your leadership in the Indo-Pacific and indeed around the world. Grateful to you and grateful to Ambassador Rudd, my good friend, Ambassador Kennedy here with us today, Assistant Secretary Eliot Kang, for their exceptional work to expand the partnership between the United States and Australia.

For more than six decades, our nations and our people have worked together to explore space. In May, the prime minister and President Biden announced that our countries had negotiated a Technology Safeguards Agreement for our commercial space industries, and today we're about to sign that agreement.

Once it enters into force, American companies will be able to complete space launches from Australia while keeping their technology secure and adhering to our international nonproliferation commitments. In Australia, American companies will have access to more high-quality launch sites so that they can increase the frequency of their operations. They'll be closer to the equator, where the Earth spins the fastest, so their rockets get an extra boost and use less fuel. And of course, Americans will gain some brilliant Australian colleagues.

By opening new doors for the private sector, we'll grow investment between our countries and help create good-paying jobs in both countries. And we'll also help provide more opportunities for American and Australian firms to continue innovating, and innovating together. Whether they're using satellites to make GPS navigation more accurate or developing spacecrafts to study the universe, these companies will help shape the future for our people, and for our planet, for decades to come.

And now, it's a pleasure to turn it over to Ambassador Rudd, Assistant Secretary Kang to sign the agreement. Gentlemen, over to you.

(The agreement was signed.)

Now it's official. Thank you. (Applause.) Thanks to everyone who worked on it. (Applause.)

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Australia Unveils $1.25 Billion Critical Minerals Plan

By Phil Mercer October 26, 2023

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a plan to mine and process critical minerals during an official visit to the United States.

Australia's government wants to attract investment from U.S. companies and reduce reliance on China, which currently dominates the critical minerals sector.

The Canberra government says without mining more critical minerals, Australia will not reach its target of net zero emissions by 2050.

The $1.25 billion fund announced in Washington by Albanese will help to provide low-interest loans to mining and processing companies in partnership with U.S. investors.

Critical minerals include lithium, cobalt, manganese and rare earths. These minerals are used in cell phones, batteries, wind turbines, solar panels and parts for electric vehicles. They are also needed for defense technology.

Australia has large reserves of many of the minerals. Canberra and Washington want to reduce the market dominance of China, which has had a near-monopoly in the sector.

Australian officials have stressed that a "sustainable and reliable supply of critical minerals is vital to supporting the Australian and United States' manufacturing sectors."

Speaking from Washington, Madeleine King, Australia's minister for resources, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. Thursday that reducing reliance on China is a priority.

"Many countries outsource its [sic] mining capacity to China and they have invested in that; they have developed their processing facilities while the rest of the world has not done so," King said. "I think the pandemic showed us that there is a vulnerability in each of our economies when we rely a for any product, I might add a when we rely on one supplier of a particular commodity. And that obviously applies to critical minerals."

The funding plan was announced ahead of the first meeting of the Australia-United States Taskforce on Critical Minerals, which is part of Albanese's four-day U.S. visit.

Albanese is also seeking to shore up congressional support for the AUKUS trilateral accord announced in September 2021 with the United States and Britain that would give Australia access to nuclear-powered submarines for the first time.

The U.S. Congress is yet to pass several pieces of legislation needed to move the multibillion-dollar pact forward.

Australia has deep historic ties to the United Kingdom, while China is, by far, its biggest trading partner. But Australia's relationship with the U.S., including a military accord signed in the early 1950s, underpins the country's sense of security.

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Remarks by Vice President Harris, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia at State Luncheon

October 26, 2023

U.S. Department of State

Washington, D.C.

12:47 P.M. EDT

SECRETARY BLINKEN: Well, good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the State Department.

Prime Minister Albanese, Ms. Haydon, it is wonderful to have you with us here today. My wife, Evan, and I are delighted a please take a seat. Thank you. Thank you, Kevin, for the protocol tip. (Laughter.)

We are so delighted to welcome you both, to welcome all of our friends from Down Under to the top of the State Department. (Laughter.)

I think, as we all saw and heard so clearly yesterday, the Prime Minister is a true partner and true friend to the United States and President Biden. (Applause.)

I've had the opportunity since the Prime Minister has been in office to admire up close his remarkable combination of strength, empathy, and decency. One couldn't ask for more in a partner and a friend.

And I know that Jodie equally shares those traits a your remarkable work now, particularly in trying to deal with cancer, something so close to President Biden's heart, as you know. And we're grateful to you for your friendship as well.

Now, there are a few things that a for most public officials, virtually everything is a is known and out in public. But I want to share one thing that may not be so well known to the American audience here today. Maybe it's known to the Australians.

The Prime Minister and I have a deep shared affection for music. When it comes to the Prime Minister, he's also known, besides "Prime Minister," as "DJ Albo." (Laughter.) He's known to spin a mean disc. And maybe there'll be an opportunity at some point later to hear that.

I especially also want to thank our partners, our friends, our co-hosts today: the Vice President, Vice President Harris, and Doug Emhoff. (Applause.)

It is a it's especially fitting because the Vice President has been such a strong leader in our foreign policy, particularly in the Indo-Pacific, since the start of this administration, as well, of course, in response to the current crisis in the Middle East.

And our Second Gentleman, Doug Emhoff, who has led our efforts to combat antisemitism and other forms of bigotry at home and around the world. Something that could not be more urgent in this moment. Thank you, Doug. (Applause.)

It is also wonderful to see members of Congress, members of the President's Cabinet here with us today. I know the Prime Minister had a very good session on Capitol Hill a short while ago. We're grateful for that.

And it's good to be with so many friends, especially in the midst of tremendous pain and loss at home as well as around the world.

Our hearts are, of course, with loved ones of people who were killed in the horrific shooting last night in Lewiston, Maine, along with the many who are injured. We wish them the speediest of recoveries. And I know the Vice President shares this sentiment and will speak to it as well.

I have to tell you, this lunch today is particularly meaningful for me on a personal level. My late stepfather, Samuel Pisar, survived the horrors of the Holocaust. He was one of 900 schoolmates in Bialystok, Poland; he's the only one who survived.

And after enduring Treblinka, Dachau, Majdanek, and Auschwitz, he found refuge with aunts and uncles who had gone to Australia from Poland before the war.

For him, Australia was truly a lucky country. He met teachers who inspired, mentors who guided him. He rekindled his passion for life, for intellectual pursuits, and for the future that he'd ultimately build here in the United States. He was, in many ways, as he used to tell us, reborn in Australia.

And last year, I had the opportunity to visit the University of Melbourne, where he studied. So, there's been a profound bond between my family and Australia going back as long as I can remember. And I think his experience speaks in just one unique way to the kinship between our countries that goes back to our earliest days.

Our first interactions in the 1790s consisted primarily of American ships delivering enormous quantities of spirits to very thirsty Aussies. (Laughter.) Now, that's a tradition that we hope to maintain this afternoon. (Laughter.)

By the middle of the 20th century, as our relationship deepened and we cemented our formal alliance, Prime Minister Robert Menzies would observe that Australia and America share an affinity that reaches our souls.

Now, we might view different constellations at night, but the United States and Australia see the world in much the same way.

We're both nations of immigrants. We braved unforgiving oceans to get there. We're both fierce believers in democracy, equality, opportunity for all of our citizens, and in the need to keep working day in, day out to actually make those ideals real.

That affinity is why our militaries have stood side by side for so many years, from the Coral Sea to Kandahar; why our companies invest in each other's economies; why our researchers and Fulbright Scholars flock to each other's shores.

And as we inaugurate a new era of our strategic cooperation, our own alliance continues to evolve to meet the challenges and seize the opportunities of this time.

We're advancing peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific and well beyond, rooted in a shared commitment that we have to a world that's free, that's open, that's secure, that's prosperous.

We're updating our defense posture in Australia. We're strengthening and weaving together partnerships across the region, including the Quad, including AUKUS, as well as demonstrating our strong support for institutions like ASEAN and the Pacific Islands Forum.

And we're upholding the principles at the heart of the United Nations Charter in Ukraine where they're challenged, where Australia continues to be the largest non-NATO contributor to Ukraine's defense.

We're also building an Innovation Alliance for the 21st century, from shaping the future of AI and quantum technologies, to laying new undersea cables, to deepening our partnership in outer space.

We know that central to every single one of these initiatives, every single one of these partnerships are people bound by shared history, heritage, culture.

I've had the wonderful privilege of experiencing this on several visits Down Under over the years.

We see the deep ties between us in this country, as well. Australia a and we thank you again a has given us Nicole Kidman and Margot Robbie a (laughter) a not to mention not one, not two, but three Hemsworth brothers. (Laughter.)

Nick Cave performed in Washington just last month. D.C. residents pop into Bluestone Lane to stay caffeinated. (Laughter.) Countless American children have shared belly-aching laughs while watching "Bluey" a and I can speak directly to this in the case of my own kids. (Laughter.)

Every single day, in so many different ways, in so many different pursuits, we're reminded that we're joined together. And precisely because of our partnership, even in challenging times a indeed, especially in challenging times, as the Prime Minister said yesterday a there is profound cause for hope.

So, if we could start by raising a glass to two great mates and to the future that we will continue to write together.

(Secretary Blinken offers a toast.)

Cheers, everyone. Cheers.

PRIME MINISTER ALBANESE: Cheers.

SECRETARY BLINKEN: And now it is my great pleasure and great honor to introduce the Vice President of the United States. (Applause.)

VICE PRESIDENT HARRIS: Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

First and foremost, I want to thank, among friends, our Secretary of State. You have all witnessed his career over many years a dedicated career to our country and to our values and principles. And, most recently, you have been extraordinary in terms of your fortitude, your commitment, your integrity, and your stamina a (laughter) a to stand for what is right and to represent our country in the most important and noble way.

Can we please applaud our Secretary? (Applause.)

And to, then, our Secretary Blinken, Ms. Evan Ryan, Doug and I are honored to co-host this luncheon with you and to welcome, of course, the Prime Minister of Australia and our dear friend, Prime Minister Albanese.

Mr. Prime Minister, it is good to see you again. Yesterday, the day before, and after getting together in Tokyo, Bangkok, and Jakarta this past year. (Laughter.) We've spent some time together.

I also want to welcome the members of the United States Congress who are here, the members of the President's Cabinet who are here, and all of our distinguished guests.

As the Secretary said, before I address why we are convened here today, I will address the tragic events that happened last night in Maine.

Last night, Lewiston became yet another community torn apart by senseless gun violence. Once again, routine gatherings a this time at a bowling alley and a restaurant a have been turned into scenes of horrific carnage.

Doug and I mourn for those who were killed. We pray for those who are injured and grieve with so many whose lives are forever changed and impacted by what happened.

The Biden-Harris administration will continue to provide full support to local authorities. And as we gather details, we must continue to speak truth about the moment we are in.

In our country today, the leading cause of death of American children is gun violence. Gun violence has terrorized and traumatized so many of our communities in this country. And let us be clear, it does not have to be this way, as our friends in Australia have demonstrated.

And with that then a (applause) a and with that then, I will turn to the Prime Minister's state visit.

I believe, as do most of us, that the strength of the relationship between nations is much like the strength of the relationships in our personal lives. It requires trust, candor, and follow-through. It is born out of shared experiences, shared tests, and triumphs. And it is sustained through mutual respect, mutual interest, and mutual admiration. And although a great distance may separate us, the bond of friendship draws us forever close.

Prime Minister Albanese, Australia is a dear friend to the United States of America. The bond between our nations was solidified and strengthened in times of global turmoil, where freedoms that define each of our nation were at stake: from the arrival of U.S. naval ships in Sydney Harbor in 1908, to American and Australian troops breaking open the Western Front in World War One; from General MacArthur's arrival in Australia, after Darwin was under attack during World War Two, to the Battle of the Coral Sea, as mentioned by the Secretary; and from the hilltops of the Korean Peninsula to the beaches of central Vietnam. And when America was attacked on 9/11, Australia, again, stood with us.

As some may remember, Australian Prime Minister Howard was here in Washington, D.C., on that tragic day, and bore personal witness to the smoke rising from the Pentagon.

In a demonstration of Australia's solidarity, the following day, he grieved alongside Americans at the United States Capitol and later at the National Cathedral. And days later, importantly, Australia invoked for the first time the ANZUS Treaty and then sent Australian soldiers to fight alongside American troops against al Qaeda terrorists.

The United States is forever grateful that Australia stood with us through some of our greatest challenges and toughest moments. Our friendship runs deep. It exists between our people, our governments, and our leaders.

And then, on a personal note, Prime Minister: Throughout our discussions, I have enjoyed that we share quite a similar perspective on a number of issues. For example, we have both talked about and fought for the benefit of workers, the LGBTQ+ community, the Indigenous People of our lands.

And you and I agree that the climate crisis is indeed an existential crisis, and we have discussed extensively the work that we can do together a our first discussion being in Tokyo.

Thank you, I want to say, in particular, for taking extraordinarily bold and courageous steps from the moment you took office to address this issue. I do believe that this leader has the ambition that is necessary to meet the crisis at this moment.

I also thank you for your leadership and that of President Biden, where together we are accelerating the clean energy transition, investing in critical mineral supply chains, and growing our economies.

As a daughter of California, I also must tell you that the firefighters in my home state are immensely thankful to the Australian firefighters who have come to their aid to help battle this crisis. (Applause.)

And as the President said last night in his toast: As members of the Indo-Pacific, our nations also share a commitment to a free and open region, which is reinforced by our historic AUKUS partnership, the Quad, and our work together in the Pacific Islands in Southeast Asia.

Last month, you and I were in Jakarta at the international summit that included 17 heads of Indo-Pacific nations. And your partnership, Mr. Prime Minister, was critical in that room. You spoke eloquently and clearly about the importance of international rules and norms, which of course are critical to our societies, both in terms of our security and prosperity. You spoke about ensuring democratic values and that they shape the future of this region.

And last year, you and I, together with other global leaders, were in Bangkok to work on and in common cause what we must do to level the economic playing field for our businesses and our workers.

There, you were also among a handful of leaders that I convened hours after North Korea's launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile. We discussed a coordinated response. And I appreciate, again, how in that small room, you spoke with great clarity and conviction about condemning North Korea's destabilizing activities.

And as the chair of the National Space Council, I'm particularly proud of our strong partnership in outer space. And importantly, with the support of Australia, the United States has been able to advance rules and norms for space, including the Artemis Accords.

I will also publicly thank you for joining the commitment that we announced to not conduct direct descent anti-missile testing. And today, as part of this visit, our governments will sign a new agreement that will strengthen our commercial space partnership.

In closing then, all this work together demonstrates a simple fact: Throughout our long and shared history and throughout the Biden-Harris administration, Australia has been a true and steadfast friend to the United States. And I know we will strengthen the relationship in the months and years ahead.

I thank you for your lader- a leadership, and I will raise the glass and ask everyone to join as we raise the glass to the Prime Minister.

(The Vice President offers a toast.)

Thank you.

AUDIENCE: Hear! Hear!

VICE PRESIDENT HARRIS: (Applause.) And now it is my honor to introduce Prime Minister Albanese. (Applause.)

PRIME MINISTER ALBANESE: Well, thank you so much for that very generous introduction.

To the Vice President, to the Secretary of State, it is a wonderful opportunity for me to be back here at the State Department. And I also welcome and acknowledge all of the members of the Cabinet, and members of Congress and Senate who are here, and my Australian friends who've traveled to be with us here.

I do want to also begin by passing on my condolences to those affected by the shooting in Maine. Indeed, it is the case that we look every time there is one of these events and are grateful that Australia did act in a bipartisan way after the Port Arthur massacre in Australia. And my heart goes out to those who will be grieving today.

We do meet at a time when our world faces a set of profound challenges. Far and wide, we're confronted by threats to peace and tests of the international rules-based order. And here in the United States, we can see the weight of global leadership that your great nation carries.

I came to Washington this week to continue the work of facing our alliance to the future, strengthening our economic partnerships in cloud computing innovation and through a new Technology Safeguards Agreement that we'll sign at this lunch.

Working with President Biden to turn the Climate and Clean Energy Compact we signed together in May into a commercial reality, with new progress on critical minerals and supply chains.

But above all, in these challenging times, I stand here in Washington as the leader of America's steadfast ally. That's what the friendship between our nations means. We stand together in the cause of peace. We work together to build a more free, stable, and prosperous world.

Eight decades ago, Australia looked to America when our own need was most dire. We recognize the world is looking to you now. And we know it does not look in vain. American leadership will meet this moment. And as allies, we will face the future together.

Ladies and gentlemen, it remains a remarkable tribute to your nation, including many people who worked from this very building, that in the aftermath of the Second World War, America did not seek to rebuild a world governed by strength of arms, fear of force, or the will of one great power. Instead, as President Truman said, you sought a just and lasting peace, understanding that peace would only last so long as it was just.

That is why your forebears worked with ours to give life and shape to the United Nations, to help build a postwar world of rules and rights, of essential freedoms and basic fairness; where every country, large and small, could shape its own destiny and the liberty of every individual is recognized; where peace is secured not solely by the presence of the great powers, but by the sovereign acts of middle powers and small nations, and the collective responsibility of the international community.

Of course, that vision and those values have not gone unchallenged. We see this now in Ukraine, where Russia's illegal and immoral invasion seeks to subjugate an independent nation and oppress a free people. Australia may be half a world away from Ukraine, but we are proud to be one of the largest contributors to its military and humanitarian needs. (Applause.)

We stand with Ukraine to support its courageous people, but also to defend a fundamental principle: the right of every sovereign nation to peace and security, and the responsibility of every sovereign nation to respect the rules that hold the world together, be it in Europe, in the Indo-Pacific, or indeed the Middle East.

Australia unequivocally condemns the atrocities committed by Hamas and the destruction that their acts of terror have inflicted on innocent lives in Israel and in Gaza. And we stand with our international partners in calling for access to lifesaving humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza.

In my time here, I've had the opportunity to personally thank the President for the courage and the leadership that he has shown. As a true friend of Israel, not only did he stand by them in this terrible time, he offered wisdom as well as solace a calling for all parties to allow safe, unimpeded, and sustained humanitarian access and safe passage for civilians.

And the President used the power of his office to assert an undeniable principle that every innocent life must be protected a Israeli and Palestinian. That is American leadership in action.

Generations of this leadership had been instrumental in shaping a world which is more prosperous, more open, more free, and more interconnected than any of our forebears could have imagined. Australia has benefited from this, and Australia has helped to build it.

From my first day in office when I flew to Japan to take part in the Quad, the government I lead has made it a priority to reinforce the architecture of our region a investing in our capabilities and investing in our relationships; strengthening our vital links with Japan and Korea as a proven economic security and energy partner; deepening our engagement with Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam, and across Southeast Asia; taking our strategic partnership with India to a new level, both bilaterally and through the Quad; strengthening the bond that we share with our Pacific Island family, where, for more than half a century, Australia has been the region's single-largest economic and development partner; investing in our multilateral engagement a the Pacific Islands Forum, ASEAN, and the East Asia Summit a and as founding members of APEC, the G20, and, of course, the United Nations.

Because as a constructive middle power with global interests, we understand the value and importance of dialogue, which is why Australia strongly supports the Biden administration's efforts to maintain those open lines of communication between the United States of America and the People's Republic of China.

As a great American president and the father of the current U.S. ambassador to Australia proved 60 years ago during the Cuban crisis, the true measure of a superpower strength is the ability to pull the world back from the brink of conflict. Once again, that has become the test of our time.

China has been explicit: It does not see itself as a status quo power. It seeks a region and a world that is much more accommodating of its values and interests.

This is where it is the responsibility of every nation that has benefited from the stability and prosperity of the international rules-based order through the last three quarters of a century to work together and protect it, securing the sovereignty that confers every nation's right to determine its own destiny; protecting the freedom of navigation, which is central to our shared prosperity; upholding the human rights, which are central to every individual's life and liberty; and working together to maintain peace not just in the Taiwan Strait, but wherever it is at risk.

This means investing in our capabilities to prevent competition escalating into conflict and investing in our relationships to maintain the dialogue that safeguards stability.

And this is where Australia, just like the United States, has been working to stabilize our relationship with China. We're very clear-eyed about this. We're two nations with very different histories, values, and political systems.

Australia will always look to cooperate with China where we can, but we will disagree where we must but continue to engage in our national interest. Our approach has been patient, calibrated, and deliberate. And that will continue when I visit Beijing and Shanghai next month.

Secretary Blinken, you and so many of your colleagues today devote your energy and intellect to building a more stable and secure world, and it's been an incredible privilege to meet with you and with Vice President Harris in so many a so many parts of the world. And I'm glad it's finally here a (laughter) a in the United States.

I have, of course, met with Secretary Blinken in Australia, and I look forward to welcoming you, Vice President Harris, to Australia at some a at some future time.

This is absolutely critical, because striving for peace is hard work. It demands new effort, new resources, new creative a creativity, and new resolve.

But whenever we consider the costs, the obstacles, or the difficulties of this course, we only need to consider the counterfactual, the alternative, because the closing off of economies, the collapse of diplomacy, the cutting of ties, the burden of conflict, and the devastation of war are catastrophic for the world. That elemental understanding was the basis of the alliance that the United States of America and Australia signed 72 years ago.

Ours was not a pact against a mutual enemy. It was a pledge to a common cause. These were the words to which we put the names of our great nations: reaffirming our desire to live in peace with all peoples and all governments and desiring to strengthen the fabric of peace in the Pacific area.

And it is in this same spirit that Australia has struck the new trilateral AUKUS agreement with the United States and the United Kingdom a a decision we have taken that is anchored in our own national sovereignty but is also in the sovereign national interests of the U.S. and the UK.

From early on in the next decade, Australia will take delivery of U.S. Virginia-class, conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines. This will be the first time in 65 years and only the second time in history that the U.S. has shared your nuclear propulsion technology. It speaks for the intersection of our interests, the deep trust underpinning our alliance, and the reality of the world in which we live.

And up on the Hill this morning, I was struck by just how supportive on a bipartisan way a across Congress and the Senate a there is for AUKUS. This is a this is an unprecedented level of partnership, conceived for a time of unprecedented challenge.

This technology offers Australia a new level of deterrence and a new capacity to contribute to the stability of our region and the security of our partners.

For Australia, the rationale for AUKUS is straightforward. We want to contribute to strategic equilibrium in the Indo-Pacific. We're not looking for conflict; we are seeking to prevent it, making it crystal clear to any aggressor that the risk of conflict far outweighs any potential benefit.



And the past few weeks have reminded us all that American leadership often means walking a lonely road and shouldering a heavy burden.

As a friend, Australia walks beside you. And as an ally, we help you carry the weight, especially when the going gets tough.

Of course, there will always be more challenges here at home that seem more pressing, more relevant, and more real than the concerns of other nations far away. It is natural a indeed, it is understandable a for some to greet any new call for American global engagement with "Why us? Why now? Why there? Why again?"

But the promise of America has never been fulfilled in isolation. The greatness of America has never been confined to your borders.

The people of Australia are not looking for a free ride. We're a middle power, and we're a leader in our own region. And Australians always pay our way. We pull our weight. We do our part. We always have. We always will.

That's one of the points that I was making today to key members of the House and Senate in person.

The AUKUS bills before Congress represent a multibillion-dollar boost to America's industrial base and a game-changing manufacturing opportunity for Australian workers.

It will mean Australians and Americans can work and train side by side in allied shipyards.

And beyond submarines, AUKUS will enable seamless cooperation between our two nations in defense science, technology, and industry to help meet the new strategic challenges of our time.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is not my first time in this famous building. In my mid-20s, I was invited to take part in a State Department program. Obviously, the U.S. intelligence community saw something in me that, at the time, others didn't back home. (Laughter.)

But, well chosen. (Laughter.)

I asked to see the different ways that groups here interacted with American democracy. I got the full spread a the Sierra Club; from Planned Parenthood to the National Rifle Association. I got to see, in a six-week visit, the full length and breadth of your great nation.

Yet, for all of the diversity of views and arguments across the different issues that I saw during that visit, there was also a unifying belief: a sense that ideas mattered and participation mattered a showing up, taking part, making a case.

You spoke for a common faith in the power of people and also a shared respect for the responsibility of government. Those are the founding principles of both of our democracies.

They are a they are ideals that the United States and the State Department seeks to share with people from every part of the world a citizens who want to help to solve the humanitarian challenges their nations are facing; people who want the world to act on climate change; people want to see the jobs and prosperity of new economic growth across their society in a shared way so we have economies that work for people, not people working for economies; and people who believe, as we all do, that the best way of achieving these goals is a system where representatives derive their power from the consent of the governed.

Of course, this is not easy, and it's not predictable. But only dictatorships pretend to be perfect. Democracies are proud to be human. We serve a work in progress, a continuing search for a more perfect union, a shared desire to build a better world. And that's why all of us know that preserving democracy isn't just a matter of celebrating it. We have to nurture it, nourish it, strengthen it, renew it, and, yes, defend it, making sure that it has practical meaning for the people it serves and making sure it is ready for the future it seeks to shape.

Everything that is true for our democracies is also true for our alliance.

In a time of conflict, uncertainty, and rapid change, there's always the temptation for nations, democracies, and citizens to look back, to search for reassurance instead of seeking renewal.

But as important as our rich history is, our alliance is firmly focused on the future, advancing the vital interests that we share and building on the universal values that we hold: democracy and peace, freedom and fairness.

They are our North Star, our Southern Cross. They bring us together. They light our way. And they can still light the world.

This is why ours is in alliance with a bright future, because it is an alliance for a better future.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to conclude with a toast to thank the Vice President and the Secretary but to toast our friendship between our great two nations.

To the people of America, the people of Australia, and to an alliance for the future.

(Prime Minister Albanese offers a toast.) (Applause.)

END 1:25 P.M. EDT

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Remarks by President Biden and Prime Minister Albanese of Australia at State Dinner

October 26, 2023

South Lawn

(October 25, 2023)

8:55 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Please have a seat. Thank you.

Well, good evening, everyone. The Prime Minister and I and Jodie and members of the Australian delegation, distinguished guests: Jill and I are honored to welcome you tonight to celebrate the historic bonds between our two nations that's been going on for 72 years now a an alliance.

During World War Two, more than 150,000 American troops were based in Australia to fight in the Pacific Theater. And to ensure they were prepared to navigate Down Under, they a each one of them was given a manual entitled a and here's what it was entitled, "Instructions for American Servicemen in Australia." I'd like to read it. (Laughter.)

PRIME MINISTER ALBANESE: It could be dangerous.

THE PRESIDENT: Not all of the tips hold up today, but I thought one of them was pretty good, and this is a quote from it: "You'll find the Australiansa haven't much respect for stuffed shirts, their own or anyone else's." (Laughter.)

Well, I've learned that my trip Down Under as well as becoming friends with the Prime Minister. No wonder we get along so well. (Laughter.)

Another tip from the manual not only stands out but stands up, quote: "Australians have been in all the hotspots wherever the going a whenever the going has been tough." End of quote. And that's a fact, they have been.

You know, that commitment a (applause) a that commitment to face tough challenges, that courage to fight for a better future, that is what has always brought America and Australia together.

I saw this growing up with my grandfather, Ambrose Finnegan, who lost his son in the Pacific in World War Two. He would literally straighten his shoulders every time Australia a the country Australia was mentioned. He'd just straighten up, straighten his shoulders.

I saw it when my own son a Major Beau Biden in the National Guard, spent a year in Iraq a told me how he could always count on Aussies to have his back. That's a fact. That's what he had said; he meant it.

And, you know, that Ode Remembrance promise: "At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them." Period.

Look, folks, today that bond first forged on the battlefield has grown to capture the full range of human ingenuity.

Australian and American workers are building the future together. Australians and American students are a are innovating together. Australian and American engineers are working together to support Artemis missions to return human beings to the moon and from there to Mars.

And as I saw when I visited Australia in 2016, Australians and Americans are driving cutting-edge research to end cancer as we know it a and we will a research that has only grown with Australia teams recently mapping 949 cancer cell lines across 40 types of cancers.

Ladies and gentlemen, a great deal of the history of our world will be written in the Indo-Pacific in the coming years. Australia and the United States must a must write that story together.

We must continue to advance freedom, security, and prosperity for all; continue the vital work of both our nations of building strong partnerships, of upholding nation-to-nation commitments and a to Native peoples; continue to defend the values of great democracies a freedom of expression, freedom of religion, and freedom from fear; and continue to build a future worthy of our highest hopes even when it's tough a especially when it's tough. For we know that's when it matters the most.

Mr. Prime Minister, today our two nations meet the future, emboldened with a confidence all that's come before. That's what built our confidence: all that has brought us here and all that Australia and America are a innovative, courageous, loyal, unwavering, bold of heart, and resolute of spirit. Determined that tomorrow will be better than today. It'll be the most a it'll be more than just. It'll be more free, more fair, and for all people, because we have the power to make it so.

So, please join me if I can get a gla- a here you go. Please join me in a toast.

To our partnership, our mateship, and the future that we'll create together. Cheers.

(President Biden offers a toast.)

AUDIENCE: Cheers.

PRESIDENT BIDEN: Mr. Prime Minister, the floor is yours.

PRIME MINISTER ALBANESE: Well, thank you very much to Mr. President and First Lady Dr. Biden.

I must say I only have one regret about tonight, which is I'm not quite sure how I top this for date night with Jodie a (laughter) a at any time, anywhere in the future. (Laughter and applause.) It's all downhill from here, my darling. (Laughter.)

Ladies and gentlemen, we live in a world that does keep changing. Yet one thing that keeps the ground firm beneath us is the great constant that is the American spirit.

America has never been held back by the unknown or slowed by trepidation. You stride boldly towards the future, excited by all of its possibility. In every field of human endeavor, your nation is energized by a ceaseless curiosity and the confidence to follow it.

It is a spirit that Australians identify with. With a small population but a very big imagination, we punch above our weight, all the while drawing inspiration from our friends across the Pacific. We stand as close as we have ever been and, I think, after this week, closer than we have ever been.

We are firm allies strengthening defense cooperation through AUKUS and creating more economic opportunities for our peoples and our region. Australians are always ready to play our part.

Most importantly, our nations are close friends a friends who admire each other's qualities. I think we get each other.

And President Biden and I had our first meeting before I'd even selected, of course, a Cabinet. I was elected on the Saturday. And by Monday, I was off to the Quad Leaders Meeting. And I do want to thank the President for your warm welcome and that rather extraordinary beginning on the front foot in those first days of my government.

Friends who draw strength from all we have in common, but we take joy in our differences as well.

Friends who look to the future together without losing sight of the moments in the past that bind us together.

Mr. President speaking as one man with Irish ancestry to another a although I am also, of course, half Italian, so you don't have to guess my religion a (laughter) a I know you won't object to me quoting a Dubliner. The familiar words of William Butler Yeats, "Things fall apart a fall apart; the centre cannot hold" are now more than a century old. Yet they speak to us just as clearly now as the long contest between democracy and authoritarianism plays out its newest chapter.

But to capture the essence of the bond between our two nations in all of its warmth and its easy strength, I turned to another of his poems: "Think where man's glory most begins and ends, And say my glory was I had such friends."

So, allow me to make a toast to such friends, because Australia has no greater friend than the United States of America. So, to the President and First Lady, to the history our peoples have made together, but importantly, the future we will build together as a peoples.

To friendship.

(Prime Minister Albanese offers a toast.)

PRESIDENT BIDEN: Enjoy your meal. (Applause.)

9:05 P.M. EDT

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Remarks by President Biden and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia at Arrival Ceremony

October 26, 2023

10:25 A.M. EDT

PRESIDENT BIDEN: Well, Mr. Prime Minister a (applause) a and Jodie, distinguished guests, and all of Australia out on the lawn: Welcome. Welcome and good morning a or, as you would say, g'day.

You know, it's an honor to welcome you all to the White House as we celebrate the enduring alliance between Australia and the United States a an alliance that's marked by imagination, ingenuity, and innovation.

Nearly 55 years ago, American astronauts took humanity's first step on the Moon. They sent a message, forever etched in history, quote, "That's one small step for man, [and] one giant step [leap] for mankind."

But the only reason anyone down on Earth saw this feat or heard those immortal words was thanks to a team of Australian engineers. As dawn broke at NASA station, just outside of Canberra, they aimed a radio telescope toward the heavens, captured a lone vote a a loi- a a lo- a lone voice among all the stars, and shared it with millions of people watching breathlessly all around the world.

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Prime Minister, today, Australia and the United States continue to stand together, continue to innovate, to push pact [past] the bounds that had been in our way, and make a giant step toward what could be, to race undaunted toward a future we know is possible if a if we work together.

Because time and time again, we've seen what America and Australia can do when we stand as one.

We saw it during World War One, when our troops helped turn the tide of war on the Western Front.

We saw it during World War Two, when we fought the forces of fascism, side by side in the Pacific, cementing a mateship between our people.

And we saw it again during the war against terror, when Australia invoked the A- a AN- a ANZUS Treaty for the first time to stand with the United States after we were attacked on 9/11.

And we'll never forget those brave Australians and Americans who, generation after generation, gave their lives to give us a better world. We'll never forget our obligation to them to keep upholding the democratic values for which they gave their lives, to keep forging a better future for generations to come.

Together, Australia and America are meeting that obligation.

As two proud Pacific nations, we're ensuring the Indo-Pacific remains free, open, and prosperous and secure, including through our historic AUKUS partnership with the United Kingdom.

We're building stronger economies a economies where no one fears coercion and everyone, as you say Down Under, gets a fair go.

Together, we're standing with Israel against Hamas terrorism. We're standing with Ukraine against Putin's tyranny.

And we're providing and proving that democracy can deliver on the challenges that matter most to people's lives, from climate change to cancer.

And today, we're fueling the spark of innovation that has long burned in the hearts of Aussies and Americans. Innovation that will help uplift people in Indo-Pacific and all around the world. Innovation that took us to the Moon and will take us further in the years ahead.

Mr. Prime Minister, the alliance between Australia and the United States has never been more important than it is today. And we have never been more committed than we are today.

Australia and America stand ready. Ready to do the hard work, the historic work, to tackle the challenges we face. Ready to take a giant leap together toward a better future a one of greater opportunity, dignity, security, and liberty for Americans, for Australians, for all.

May God bless our alliance. And may God protect our troops.

And now, it's my great honor to introduce Prime Minister Albanese, and I'm honored to invite you to say a few words. Thank you. (Applause.)

PRIME MINISTER ALBANESE: President Biden, First Lady Dr. Biden, firstly, thank you for the great honor of this invitation and the wonderful wa- a warmth of your welcome, including the wonderful dinner we had in the White House last night.

Mr. President, when you and I stood together in San Diego in March, the USS Sterett and the USS Missouri behind us, we were surrounded by the examples of America's power.

To stand with you here in Washington, D.C., is to witness the power of America's example: the ideas and ideals that your great democracy was built on.

The self-evident truths that every American generation strives to give deeper meaning, and the peace and freedom that America seeks to defend around the globe.

The principle that every country, large and small, should be able to seek to shape its own destiny and secure its own future, where the sovereignty of every nation is respected and the dignity and liberty of every individual is recognized.

Where peace is secured not by fear of force or strength of arms alone, but through the collective commitment and the shared responsibility of the international community.

This is at the heart of our alliance, the soul of our partnership. Not a pact against a common enemy, a pledge to a common cause. A shared belief that freedom, peace, and equality are not just American ideals or Australian values, they belong to all humankind.

That is why Ukrainian soldiers are driving Australian-made Bushmasters as they drive back an illegal and immoral invasion. And it is why all Australians condemn the atrocities, terror, and pitiless brutality of Hamas.

And, Mr. President, we applaud the personal resolve you have brought to this troubled part of the world. You have spoken with moral clarity. And you have stood up for a simple principle: the principle that every innocent life matters a Israeli and Palestinian a and that in every conflict, every effort must be made to protect civilians.

American leadership is indispensable, but it is not inevitable. It takes a leader to deliver it. It takes wisdom to show empathy, courage to provide humanitarian assistance, and true leadership to seek peace. Because protecting innocent people is not a show of weakness, it is a measure of strength.

Mr. President, our nations' steadfast alliance has grown and thrived through 15 of my predecessors and 13 of yours. In Australian public life, it meets the number-one measure of a great idea: Both political parties try and claim credit for it. But it is not and it has never been the leaders at this podium who determine the strength and success of our alliance. It is the people we serve.

Presidents and prime ministers can praise our countries' shared values. We can sign agreements to advance our common interests. But it is our citizens who make the words a bond. It is our people whose courage and ambition, hard work and aspiration give life and weight to always share and always strive for.

Sometimes, we occasionally refer to "average Americans" or "everyday Australians," but what they do every day is anything but average. It is our people making the breakthroughs that are seeing Australia and the United States cooperate on new technology like never before. From quantum computing and medical science, to agriculture and defense, it's our people driving unprecedented collaboration in our creative industries, in art and film and music, from "Barbie" to "Bluey." (Laughter.)

It is our people partnering to unlock the possibilities of clean energy and critical minerals.

The third pillar a the new pillar of our alliance a a plan for both our nations to seize the transformative economic opportunities of clean energy and a plan to help every nation meet the global challenge of climate change. It is our people who will train together, side by side, to service the next generation of our submarines and defense technology.

And it is our people that we honor when we remember the generations of Australians and Americans who have fought and fallen together a our veterans and all those who have given the cause of peace their last full measure of devotion.

And, Mr. President, in reflecting on this century of service, I'm reminded of a sentiment that you have shared before from an American soldier talking about his time in Iraq. And that sentiment was this, "You know when there's an Australian with you, they'll always have your back." A generous thought from a man of courage and character, Major Beau Biden.

Mr. President, you have known far more than life's ordinary share of loss and grief, and you have been called to serve at a time when sadness and strife have cast a long shadow on our world. You understand that the task for all of us is to draw on the strength that hope instills, to look to the future not just with optimism for better days but with the determination to build a better world.

And while we do indeed face testing times, our friendship is tried and tested. Our people are up for the challenge. Our alliance has been shaped by history, and it is ready to shape the future. So, with optimism and with determination, let us pledge to make this is a time when hope and history rhyme.

Let us write the next chapter in our alliance together.

I thank you, Mr. President. (Applause.)

10:38 A.M. EDT

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Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning's Regular Press Conference on October 26, 2023

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the People's Republic of China

2023-10-26 17:24

Beijing Daily: According to reports, Russia and China vetoed on October 25 a US-drafted UN Security Council resolution regarding the Palestinian-Israeli situation. The UAE also voted against the draft. Vetoed by the US and UK, Russia's resolution was not adopted either. Could you share with us China's position?

Mao Ning: China's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Zhang Jun fully explained our position after the voting at the Security Council. Our position is based on facts and justice, responding to the strong appeal of the international community, especially the Arab countries.

China has no selfish interests on the Palestinian question. China will firmly support anything conducive to peace, and will exertaits utmost to do anything conducive to the reconciliation between Palestine and Israel. Since the escalation of the tensions between Palestine and Israel, China has actively advocated that the Security Councilashouldatake meaningful actionsaand make binding decisions as soon as possible. At the same time, China believes that the actionsaand decisions of the Security Council must respect facts and history, take the right direction, and show duea responsibilityaand accountability, and listen to and respect the position and call of the Arab countries. Weaare ready to continue to work with members of the Security Council and the international community to play a responsible and constructive role in putting an end to the hostility, protecting civilians, averting further humanitarian catastrophes, and realizing a comprehensive, just and lasting solution to the question of Palestine.

Reuters: It was reported that Foreign Minister Wang Yi will meet with US President Joe Biden tomorrow. Can you confirm this?

Mao Ning: On Foreign Minister Wang Yi's visit to the US, we will release timely information. Please check back for updates.

Global Times: According to reports, senior EU officials have raised strong concern to the US over the executive order on investment restrictions aimed at China signed by US President Biden in August. They worry that the executive order might affect EU-based companies with US investors and Chinese owners. What's China's comment?

Mao Ning: China always opposes politicizing economic, trade and technological issues. Those who arbitrarily interfere in the exchanges and cooperation between other countries through such non-market behavior as economic coercion or long-arm jurisdiction are going against the trend of economic globalization featuring division of labor and collaboration based on complementarity of strengths. It finds no support and serves no one's interest. China will, as always, deepen dialogue and cooperation with all sides, safeguard the multilateral trading system, and firmly uphold its lawful rights and interests.

AFP: US President Joe Biden said that Chinese ships threatened and took illegal moves against Philippine ships in the South China Sea, and he reaffirmed the US defense commitment to the Philippines. What's China's comment on this?a

Mao Ning: The US is not a party to the South China Sea issue and has no right to interfere in the issue between China and the Philippines. The US defense commitment to the Philippines should not undermine China's sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea, nor should it support the illegal claims of the Philippines.

Hubei Media Group: We have noted that against the backdrop of the escalating Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the 10th Symposium on China-Arab Relations and China-Arab Civilization Dialogue was recently held in the UAE. What's your comment?

Mao Ning: The Symposium on China-Arab Relations and China-Arab Civilization Dialogue is an important institutional event under the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum and a valuable platform for China-Arab inter-civilization exchanges. The catastrophic fallout of the abrupt escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli situation recently is heart-wrenching. Against this backdrop, the Chinese and Arab sides held the new round of dialogue on October 24 and 25, where discussions were centered on such items as strengthening inter-civilization exchanges, calling for peace talks, and realizing peaceful coexistence. It was an event of significant relevance.

Zhai Jun, Special Envoy of the Chinese Government on the Middle East Issue, elaborated again China's position at the dialogue, namely, the most pressing task is to realize ceasefire and cessation of hostilities, avert a humanitarian disaster and promote deescalation of the conflict, in which the UN needs to play its due role. The way out of the Palestinian question lies in the two-state solution, which means establishing an independent State of Palestine and realizing the peaceful coexistence of Palestine and Israel. And the right path to move the two-state solution forward is to resume peace talks as soon as possible and give full play to the roles of various peace-facilitating mechanisms. China's policy and position on the Palestinian question was highly recognized by the Arab delegates at the dialogue.

Exchanges between civilizations are an important means enabling human beings to rise above differences and achieve harmonious coexistence. By putting forward the Global Civilization Initiative (GCI), President Xi Jinping contributed China's insight to the world's pursuit of peace and development. Enhancing inter-civilization dialogue can be an effective remedy to fix the problem of confrontation and conflict. China stands ready to work with Arab countries to further unlock the power of civilizations and jointly act on the GCI to inject more stability into a world of change and instability and contribute more to the shared response to global challenges.

The Paper: We have noticed that at the International Symposium to Commemorate the 10th Anniversary of China's Principle of Amity, Sincerity, Mutual Benefit and Inclusiveness in Neighborhood Diplomacy, China issued a document entitled "Outlook on China's Foreign Policy on Its Neighborhood in the New Era". It is the first time that China's foreign policy on its neighborhood is elaborated in the form of a document. Could you share more details with us?

Mao Ning: The document entitled "Outlook on China's Foreign Policy on Its Neighborhood in the New Era" elaborates China's neighborhood diplomacy and aims to help the world better understand the practical outcomes, policies and purposes of China's neighborhood diplomacy. Guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, especially Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy, this document states that China will keep to peaceful development, contribute to the development of neighboring countries through China's own development, and make joint efforts with regional countries to advance modernization and the building of a neighborhood community with a shared future. We believe that this document will help all parties have a deeper understanding of China's neighborhood diplomacy.

The full text of the document in both Chinese and English can be found on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China.a

China News Service: Recently the US updated its export controls on semiconductors to China and the EU announced an anti-subsidy investigation into electric vehicles from China. A senior UK commentator said that there has been a serious retrogression in terms of openness in the West, and the consequences must be bad for both the West and China. Will China, like the West, also backpedal in opening up?

Mao Ning: Openness brings progress while isolation only holds one back. President Xi Jinping has stressed on multiple occasions that China will not close its door to the world; rather, we will open our door wider.

China has lived up to these words. Last week, in his keynote speech at the Opening Ceremony of the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, President Xi Jinping announced that we will remove all restrictions on foreign investment access in the manufacturing sector. This speaks volume to China's determination to take the initiative in opening up further to the world. The ongoing 134th China Import and Export Fair has attracted numerous businesses and participants. Next month, China will host the China International Import Expo (CIIE) and the Global Digital Trade Expo in Shanghai and Hangzhou respectively. As we have learned, for this year's CIIE, the scale of Business Exhibition and the numbers of participating Fortune 500 companies and leading companies in various sectors will hit record high.

The history of global economic development tells us that one will only get trapped by opting for protectionism, and will not succeed or go far by pursuing decoupling or severing of industrial and supply chains. China will remain firmly committed to high-level opening-up and support building an open world economy.

CCTV: It is learned that the 21st Senior Officials' Meeting on the Implementation of the DOC was held today in Beijing. Could you share any information on the meeting?

Mao Ning: On October 26, the 21st Senior Officials' Meeting on the Implementation of the DOC was held in Beijing. China and ASEAN countries had an in-depth exchange of views on the situation of the South China Sea, full and effective implementation of the DOC, and practical maritime cooperation and consultations on a COC. Parties were of the view that upholding peace and stability in the South China Sea is of vital importance and called on all sides to exercise restraint, strengthen exchanges, and handle differences appropriately, so as to safeguard maritime stability. They agreed to continue to fully implement the DOC in an effective way, and deepen practical cooperation in such fields as marine scientific research, environmental protection, search and rescue operation at sea and maritime law enforcement activities. China and ASEAN countries at the meeting announced to start the third reading of the single negotiating draft text of the COC, and agreed to accelerate negotiations so as to strive to reach at an early date an effective and substantive COC that is consistent with international law and build the South China Sea into a sea of peace, friendship and cooperation.

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Former Chinese premier Li Keqiang dies at 68

The technocrat stepped down in March as China shifted towards a leadership made up of unquestioned loyalists.

By Elaine Chan for RFA 2023.10.26 -- Former Chinese premier Li Keqiang died of a heart attack in the early hours of Friday morning in Shanghai, China's state media reported.

"Comrade Li was resting in Shanghai in recent days, when he was seized by a sudden heart attack. He died in Shanghai on Oct. 27, 12:10 a.m. when all-out efforts to revive him failed. He was 68," said the statement carried by Xinhua News Agency.

Li was believed to have arrived a day ago in Shanghai, and had checked into the Dong Jiao State Guest Hotel. He was swimming when he experienced the heart attack, according to Radio Free Asia's Mandarin service.

"We deeply mourn the tragic passing of Comrade Li Keqiang due to a sudden heart attack," China's foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a regular briefing, adding that an obituary would be published soon.

The former head of China's State Council a or cabinet a who was charged with overseeing the Chinese economy, the world's second-largest, was seen as being sidelined in recent years by President Xi Jinping who has expanded his control and power over a wider spectrum of the economy, society and military. Xi's maneuvers came as he removed a previous two-year term ceiling for the role of president and embarked on his third term in 2022.

Under Xi's tightened grip, the economy turned towards a statist direction, shifting the focus to elevate the status of state-owned enterprises, even though many are seen to be ailing and inefficient. Xi also cracked down on powerful tech giants like Alibaba Group and Tencent, as well as information-related sectors such as private education and after-school tutoring providers.

Li was premier and head of the State Council for 10 years until he stepped down in March.

Ian Chong, a political scientist from the National University of Singapore noted that Li's departure from the premiership meant the exit of another prominent voice for economic reform and openness.

"That leaves the voices advancing a more inward looking economy in the halls of power in Zhongnanhai," he said, referring to the entire Chinese central government and its leadership.

In fact, according to Alicia Garcia-Herrero, chief economist for Asia Pacific at French investment bank, Natixis, China's reform progress and further opening up ended way before Li stepped down from the top echelon of power.

"I think it ended much earlier, and I would say that it was always a very asymmetric opening. So yes, it did open to some sectors even under [paramount leader] Deng Xiaoping, but never to all. It was a very cautious, opening and very cautious reform."

That said, Garcia-Herrero pointed out that such a scenario was not uncommon and happens in other countries. The growth deceleration in China is partially a consequence of lack of reforms rather than the other way around.

"Secondly, part of that is just natural because China became richer and as you get richer, you tend to grow less. So I would say that Li Keqiang was indeed a reformist, but his influence on the government while he was there was not as large as I would have imagined."

Reaction to Li's death

Following the announcement of his death, Li's previous comments of "what people are doing, the sky [or heaven] is watching, the sky has eyes!" were reposted and went viral again on Chinese social media.

A hashtag related to his death on Weibo, China's equivalent of X, formerly Twitter, drew over 1 billion views in just a few hours. On posts about Li, the "like" button was turned into a daisy a a common flower for funerals in China, many users commented "rest in peace" and some said the news was "hard to believe."

Netizens are also reminiscing about Li's economic policies, an indication which Hong Kong-based political analyst Johnny Lau described as a tool to use the past to take a stab at the present.

"Li had wanted to embark on many reforms but in hindsight, they ended up [delivering] 'half the result for twice the effort'," he said.

Lau said the initiatives included what foreign media dubbed Likonomics a Li's economic policy that centered on no stimuli, deleveraging and structural reform to move an unbalanced economy towards sustainable growth.

They also included "street stall economy" to reinvigorate small entrepreneurship and create jobs after the-COVID pandemic. But Xi had publicly opposed lifting curbs against street vendors in Beijing. His opposition, albeit directed towards Beijing, would have ramifications nationwide given the current political climate.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed his condolences on the passing of Li, said Matthew Miller, State Department spokesperson. Condolences also came from Japan's embassy in China via its official account on Weibo. It said Li played an important role in the relations of both countries.

Li, a native of the eastern Anhui province, joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1976. He received his law degree from Peking University, as well as a Doctor of Economics degree.

He was a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the 17th, 18th and 19th Communist Party of China central committees

He also served as party chief for Henan and Liaoning provinces before rising through the ranks to the central government.

In a press conference in March, Li said, "No matter how the international winds and clouds change, China will unswervingly expand its opening up.

"The Yangtze River and the Yellow River will not flow backwards."

Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.

Updated to add comment from China's foreign ministry, analysts' insight and reactions from U.S. and Japanese governments, as well as online discussion of Li's policies.

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 foreign minister in Washington to pave way for Xi

Wang Yi is the most senior Chinese official to visit America in years, but Xi might be right behind him.

By Alex Willemyns for RFA 2023.10.26 -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrived in Washington on Thursday for talks expected to pave the way for U.S. President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to meet in San Francisco next month.

It's the first by a Chinese foreign minister to the United States since before the COVID-19 pandemic, and comes more than four months after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Beijing as part of an effort to thaw increasingly frosty ties between the two powers.

Three other U.S. cabinet-level officials have visited Beijing since - Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and climate envoy John Kerry - but Wang, who had an open invitation to Washington, is the first Chinese official to make the return trip.

He will have dinner with Blinken on Thursday evening. Blinken told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that the two diplomats would discuss, among other things, how to stop the Israel-Hamas conflict from growing and spreading throughout the Middle East region.

Speaking alongside Wang prior to their dinner, Blinken said he was "pleased" to welcome him to the United States and that he looked forward "to constructive conversations over the next few days."

In English, a surprised Wang noted Blinken's comment was "brief."

He then said as "two major countries," China and the United States needed to return to a "healthy, stable" relationship, and ignore "jarring voices" in both countries to instead try to talk together again.

"We have disagreements, we have differences. At the same time, we also share important common interests, and we face challenges that we need to respond to together," the Chinese foreign minister said. "Therefore, China and the United States need to have dialogue."

On Friday, Wang is also expected to meet Biden at the White House after a meeting with National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, with whom he met in Malta on Sept. 16 and 17 en route to Moscow.

Wang was previously China's foreign minister from 2013 to 2022 but returned to the role in July after the ouster of his successor, Qin Gang, amid rumors of an affair with a U.S.-based Chinese TV presenter.

Groundwork laid

The visit comes ahead of next month's meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in San Francisco, which Xi is reportedly set to attend, for only his third trip abroad this year, after visits to Moscow in March and Johannesburg, South Africa, in August.

If Xi attends, it will be the first opportunity for Biden and Xi to talk face-to-face since their high-profile meeting in November last year at the G-20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, which was their first meeting since Biden took office. Last month, Xi skipped both the G-20 meeting in New Delhi and the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

American officials have appeared at pains this year to show the world they are trying to improve relations with Beijing after 12 months of mounting tensions over Taiwan, the South China Sea, microchips and an alleged Chinese spy balloon that was found floating over the United States.

But Biden himself has appeared less married to the program of thawed relations, calling Xi a "dictator" shortly after Blinken's visit to Beijing and often alluding to the "enormous problems" in China's economy.

That has continued even in the run-up to a possible Xi meeting.

During a joint press conference with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday, Biden said China was facing "internal and external difficulties right now" causing it to engage in "intimidation."

"Just this past week, PRC vessels acted dangerously and unlawfully as our Philippine friends conducted a routine resupply mission within their own exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea," Biden said, using an acronym for the People's Republic of China.

"I want to be clear, I want to be very clear: The United States' defense commitment to the Philippines is ironclad," he said.

Chinese Foreign Affairs spokesperson Mao Ning replied that Biden should stay out of a dispute she said was between Beijing and Manila.

"The U.S. is not a party to the South China Sea issue and has no right to interfere in the issue between China and the Philippines," Mao said.

Conciliatory tone

Still, relations between Washington and Beijing appear on the mend.

Before flying out to Washington, Wang attended a meeting in Beijing between Xi and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, with both leaders speaking about the importance of improving U.S.-China ties.

Newsom told reporters he was in Beijing with hopes of "turning the page, of renewing our friendship and reengaging [on] foundational and fundamental issues that will determine our collective faith in the future."

Xi also sent a conciliatory letter to the annual dinner of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations in New York on Wednesday night.

According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Xi said that "whether China and the United States can find a right way to get along with each other bears on world peace and development and the future of humanity."

"China is ready to work with the United States, in the three principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation," the letter said, and wants to "properly manage differences, jointly address global challenges, and help each other succeed and prosper together to the benefit of both countries as well as the world."

But the idea of a thaw has not been welcomed by all in Washington.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul and committee member Young Kim on Wednesday issued their own joint letter "condemning" the Chinese foreign minister's visit.

The Chinese government has "become increasingly aggressive" since Wang's last trip to Washington in 2019, the two Republican lawmakers wrote, and Beijing had "made clear that it is an unreliable partner."

"During its meetings with Wang Yi, the Biden administration should not fall for false promises but demand deliverables such as releasing Americans taken hostage in China, stopping the export of fentanyl precursors, and halting its military expansionism," the letter said.

Updated to include comments from Antony Blinken and Wang Yi.

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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Hongkongers abroad blocked from accessing pension funds, report says

Manulife, Sun Life accused of refusing British National Overseas visa holders right to withdraw pension funds.

By Cheryl Tung for RFA Cantonese 2023.10.26 -- British human rights organization Hong Kong Watch has released a research report saying the Canadian-based financial service companies Manulife and Sun Life have refused to allow thousands of Hongkongers who have migrated to the U.K. with BNO visas to withdraw their Mandatory Provident Funds (MPFs) early.

The amount involved is estimated to be CA$1.5 billion Canadian (HK$85 billion or US$1.1 billion).

Another survey also pointed out that among respondents currently living in the U.K. or Canada, Manulife and Sun Life denied over 90% of their customers' MPF withdrawal applications. Hong Kong Watch said it suspects the financial service companies are collaborating with the Hong Kong government to block Hongkongers from withdrawing their MPFs.

MPF is a mandatory retirement savings plan or pension fund for Hong Kong residents. According to their remuneration and length of employment, the majority of employees and their employers are required to contribute monthly to fund schemes administered by approved private organizations.

Hong Kong Watch Policy and Advocacy Director Sam Goodman said on Wednesday that the situation suggested collusion between Manulife, Sun Life and the Hong Kong government to obstruct Hongkongers from accessing their funds.

Goodman urged the Canadian government to cooperate with Manulife and Sun Life to resolve the situation. He emphasized that any evidence showing that Hongkongers permanently residing abroad are being withheld their MPFs was in contravention of Manulife's and Sun Life's duties as MPF trustees.

According to cited cases in the report, some Hongkongers who migrated to the U.K. have been denied applications to withdraw their MPFs and others fear that even if they become British citizens, they will continue to be denied access to their funds.

Withdrawals refused

Another report published by Hong Kong Watch surveyed 290 respondents currently living in the U.K. or Canada. For some 60% of these respondents' the MPF providers are the Canada-based financial service companies Manulife and Sun Life, while over 82% of the Hongkongers who permanently moved to the U.K. or Canada and attempted to withdraw their MPF were unsuccessful.

The survey indicated that these two companies denied over 90% of their customers' MPF withdrawal applications. The reasons given were that the "BNO visa is not a valid document," or "It doesn't prove residency outside of Hong Kong."

Aileen Calverley, co-founder and trustee of "Hong Kong Watch," met with Canadian MPs in Ottawa to discuss MPF withdrawals and other Hong Kong issues. Aileen stated that the primary focus now is to contact the Canadian financial service companies and understand the situation better.

Hong Kong Watch pointed out that anyone "intending to leave Hong Kong permanently" previously had the right to withdraw their MPFs. However, due to the unilateral declaration by the Chinese Communist Party not to recognize BNO status anymore, hundreds of thousands of Hongkongers are without access to their funds.

The Hong Kong Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) had earlier announced the arrest of 20 people, suspected of using "fake documents and statutory declarations" to apply for early MPF withdrawals, according to another Hong Kong Watch report released on Oct. 13.

According to reports, several Hongkongers who withdrew their MPF through such means were arrested upon returning to Hong Kong during the summer holidays and had their passports confiscated and were banned from leaving the country.

Translated by Chris Taylor. Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.

Copyright 1998-2023, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036. For any commercial use of RFA content please send an email to: mahajanr@rfa.org. RFA content 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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US, China Need 'Comprehensive' Dialogue, China's Top Diplomat Says

By Nike Ching October 26, 2023

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrived in Washington on Thursday for meetings with senior U.S. officials on bilateral and regional security issues, ahead of a possible meeting between U.S. and Chinese leaders next month.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will host Wang at the State Department for a working dinner after meetings earlier in the day. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan will hold talks with him Friday at Blair House near the White House.

Just before his two-hour meeting with Blinken on Thursday afternoon, Wang told reporters that "China and the United States need to have dialogue" that's "in-depth and comprehensive" so that they can reduce misunderstanding and "return to the track of healthy, stable and sustainable development."

"In China-U.S. relations, from time to time there will be some jarring voices," he said, adding "what is right and what is wrong is not determined by who has the strongest arm or a loud voice."

His remarks came a day after U.S. President Joe Biden said that China's global infrastructure push, known as the Belt and Road Initiative, has left its partners "dead in the noose."

Blinken met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing for 35 minutes on June 19 during a trip to stabilize fraught bilateral ties. U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to meet with Wang on Friday, reciprocally.

"This meeting is consistent with commitments by both sides to maintain this strategic channel of communication as part of ongoing efforts to responsibly manage the relationship," National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement.

Senior officials from the Biden administration have previewed a range of issues, including Israel's war with Hamas, Russia's war on Ukraine, the fentanyl crisis, Taiwan, and a recent vessel collision in the South China Sea.

Meanwhile, congressional critics have urged China to release wrongfully detained American citizens and have condemned Chinese military behavior in the South China Sea.

"During its meetings with Wang Yi, the Biden administration should not fall for false promises but demand deliverables such as releasing Americans taken hostage in China, stopping the export of fentanyl precursors and halting its military expansionism in the Indo-Pacific," House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul and Indo-Pacific subcommittee Chairwoman Young Kim said in a statement.

Roger Carstens, special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, is among the U.S. officials attending a meeting with Wang in a smaller setting.

Thursday, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told VOA that U.S. officials meeting with Chinese officials would continue to raise concerns about the fate of Americans wrongfully detained by China.

"I can assure you that we were working behind the scenes to try to secure their release as soon as possible," Miller said during a briefing.

The Dui Hua Foundation, a San Francisco humanitarian organization that advocates for the release of political and religious prisoners, told VOA last July that it estimated up to 200 Americans were being arbitrarily detained in China, and that as many as 30 were subject to unlawful exit bans.

Taiwan

The United States has cautioned China against a military escalation in the Taiwan Strait. The Chinese military has been intensifying activities around Taiwan for months leading into the self-ruled democracy's presidential election in January 2024.

Foxconn, the New Taipei City-based Fortune 500 company known for making Apple iPhones, recently underwent inspections of its mainland facilities by Chinese tax authorities.

The probe comes at a sensitive time, because Foxconn founder Terry Gou is seeking the presidency in Taiwan's election as an independent candidate. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has never ruled Taiwan but claims sovereignty over the self-ruled democracy.

Many analysts see China's probe as an attempt to force Gou out of the elections for fear that he will drain votes away from pro-Beijing candidates with a better chance of winning.

"We have deep confidence in Taiwan's democratic process and believe it is for Taiwan voters to decide their next leader, free from outside interference," Miller told reporters Thursday.

Washington has said it does not take sides in Taiwan's elections and is committed to the fair treatment of all candidates. U.S. policy on Taiwan "will remain the same, regardless of whichever party is in power," Miller said.

This week, U.S. Representative Mike Gallagher told VOA Mandarin that "the most important topic" for Biden administration officials to bring up in its talks with Wang "is cross-strait deterrence."

"We need to send a strong message [to the CCP] that the increasing aggression against Taiwan will not be tolerated. We will help Taiwan defend itself," said Gallagher, a Republican who chairs the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the U.S. and the CCP.

Chinese troubles

"China is having their own internal and external difficulties right now," Biden said Wednesday during a press conference with visiting Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. "China's economic growth is stagnant compared to what it was. China has engaged in activities [of] intimidation" when dealing with other countries.

Biden also reiterated Washington's support for the Philippines following a recent incident in which Chinese ships blocked and collided with two Philippine vessels near Second Thomas Shoal in the contested South China Sea.

"Just this past week, the PRC vessels acted dangerously and unlawfully as our Philippine friends conducted a routine resupply mission within their own exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea," Biden said, using an initialism for the People's Republic of China.

"The United States' defense commitment to the Philippines is ironclad," he said, adding that the U.S. is "not looking for a conflict" with China.

China asserts sovereignty over nearly the entire South China Sea, a resource-rich waterway with competing territorial claims from several other countries.

Middle East

Blinken has called on China to use its influence over Iran to prevent the Israel-Hamas war from spreading but the U.S. expectation is said to be low amid key divisions with China. Washington said Tehran continues to support Hamas militants, who do not support a two-state solution.

"Hamas does not represent the vast majority of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip or anywhere else," Biden said during the press conference. "Hamas is hiding behind Palestinian civilians."

The United States, Israel, Egypt, the European Union, Japan and others have designated Hamas a terrorist organization.

China, like Russia, does not classify Hamas as a terrorist group but regards it as a legitimate representative of the Palestinians in Gaza.

Earlier this week, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said the Beijing government hoped the U.S. would work with China to "properly manage differences and jointly bring the bilateral relations back to the track of sound and steady development."

As Israel prepares a ground incursion into Gaza, Wang told Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen that "all countries have the right to self-defense, but it is important to observe international humanitarian law and protect civilians," during a phone call on Monday.

Sullivan held talks with Wang in Malta September 16-17 following their meetings in Vienna May 10-11. The White House said they discussed issues including Russia's war in Ukraine and also noted the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.

On Thursday at the State Department, Wang did not answer a question by VOA when asked if China is willing to use its influence to persuade Iran from widening the war.

Yihua Lee from VOA Mandarin contributed to this report.

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VOA Interview: Congressman Mike Gallagher Describes US-China Relations as 'Zombie Engagement'

By Yihua Lee October 26, 2023

Amid a recent flurry of U.S.-China diplomacy, a leading congressional voice on China policy is warning against concessions to Beijing, saying they simply serve to encourage even more aggressive behavior.

In an interview with VOA's Mandarin Service, Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher said that in meetings this week with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, the Biden administration should focus on the defense of Taiwan, trafficking in drug precursors and human rights.

Gallagher is the chairman of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party. His remarks have been edited for brevity and clarity.

VOA: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is visiting Washington this week. What are the most important topics you would like to see the administration raise in the meetings?

Representative Mike Gallagher: Well, I think the most important topic is cross-strait deterrence. And it seems that Xi Jinping is preparing his country for a war over Taiwan. He's repeatedly said that he wants to take Taiwan by force if necessary, and that's something we need to deter. We need to prevent him from doing that. A conflict between the United States and China would be incredibly costly. It's not something we want, but all the more reason why we need to send a strong message that the increasing aggression against Taiwan will not be tolerated. We will help Taiwan defend itself. And we will do whatever is necessary to defend our own interests in the Indo-Pacific.

Beyond that, I would hope that the administration urges the Chinese Communist Party to take more aggressive action when it comes to cracking down on the production of fentanyl precursors. Fentanyl is flooding across the southern [U.S.] border, and it's killing tens of thousands of Americans. And ultimately, it can be traced back to China. That's unacceptable.

And finally, I hope we don't deprioritize the issue of human rights, whether it is the ongoing genocide in Xinjiang, whether it's the, let's say, economic coercion that's happening globally, whether it's the ongoing suppression of Hong Kongers, there are important human rights issues that the administration needs to raise during these meetings.

VOA: We are seeing more high-level official communications between U.S. and China. Do you think it signals a smoother and maybe a more pragmatic path for U.S.-China relations?

Gallagher: I don't. I think the administration is trying to revive diplomatic and economic engagement in the hope of taking down the temperature, but I think the opposite is happening. It seems that the more we rush or bend over backwards to sit down at a table with Xi Jinping or some other high-level CCP member, the more aggressive the CCP becomes, and we shelve or delay critical defensive action, whether it's ending the licensing exemptions that we provide for Chinese companies like Huawei, or providing transparency on the spy balloon incident or actually investigating the origins of COVID.

We delay these actions for fear of offending the Chinese Communist Party in the hopes that they will reciprocate in kind. And they never do. They continue to hack high-level official emails. They continue to undermine our grid and our infrastructure and cyberspace. They continue to threaten Taiwan, all of these things are unacceptable.

And so, I worry that this policy of engagement, what I've called "zombie engagement," will actually have the opposite effect. It will actually make the CCP more aggressive, and we will lose time that we need to start defending ourselves from CCP aggression.

VOA: Given the current conflict in Israel and ongoing war in Ukraine, how would that affect the U.S. capability to focus on China or the Indo-Pacific and the threats posed by the CCP?

Gallagher: Well, it should be a wake-up call to the West. Increasingly, it looks like we have an axis of authoritarian powers that are arrayed against our interests and those of our allies. China is the dominant player in this partnership. Vladimir Putin is a junior partner. But increasingly, there's collaboration with Iran. These are murderous dictatorial regimes that are threatening our allies. Putin has obviously invaded Ukraine. Hamas has now attacked Israel, killed over 30 Americans, and it could not have done so without the longstanding financial and training support it's received from Iran.

So this should be a wake-up call. I don't believe those who say that it's an either/or choice between resources, you know, resources in Europe, resources in the Middle East or resources in the Indo-Pacific. This should be an opportunity for us to revitalize and rebuild our defense industrial base, which we've neglected for too long, to once again become the arsenal of democracy and deterrence. And if nothing else, to learn the lessons of the failure of deterrence in Ukraine and ensure that those failures are not repeated in the Indo-Pacific region.

And in my mind, the primary lesson is that hard power, American hard power gives us our best chance of deterring totalitarian aggression, and if we don't surge hard power to the Pacific now, before it's too late, we could see a PLA invasion of Taiwan, and it would have the potential to make the ongoing wars in Ukraine and Israel look timid in comparison.

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In Dialogue with the Republic of Korea, Experts of the Human Rights Committee Commend the State's Support for Defectors from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Raise Issues Concerning the 2022 Itaewon Incident and High Suicide Rates

United Nations Human Rights Council

The Human Rights Committee this morning concluded its consideration of the fifth periodic report of the Republic of Korea on how it implements the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, with Committee Experts commending the State's support for defectors from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and raising issues concerning the 2022 Itaewon crowd crush incident and the State's high suicide rates.

A Committee Expert commended the State party's efforts addressed to help refugees from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to settle down by providing basic social adaptation. However, it was noted that a high percentage of defectors from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea reported facing discrimination in the Republic of Korea primarily because of their origin. What social measures had been taken to eliminate discrimination and address its social and economic effects?

One Committee Expert said the 29 October 2022 Itaewon disaster, in which 159 people were killed and hundreds more were injured in a crowd crush in Itaewon, Seoul, during Halloween festivities, was a social catastrophe that seemed to have been fully foreseeable and preventable. Did the State party intend to enact the Special Act on the disaster promptly, establish an independent investigative body according to the Act, ensure the participation of victims in the investigation, hold accountable those responsible, and guarantee non-recurrence?

Another Committee Expert acknowledged the State party's commitment to tackling the challenge of high suicide rates in the country, including among the elderly, the youth and the military, such as through the adoption of the Fifth National Suicide Prevention Basic Plan (2023-2027), but was concerned at reports that suicide rates continued to rise. The State party's approach to the issue reportedly suffered from a lack of resources. How would the State party address the lack of resources and the root causes of suicide?

Jea Hyen Soung, Director General, Human Rights Bureau, Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Korea and head of the delegation, introducing the report, said the Government of the Republic of Korea placed democracy, the rule of law, and the promotion and protection of human rights at the core of its policies. It had made continued efforts to promote the rights under the Covenant in the given domestic and international environment and framework, but there were shortcomings that it was addressing.

On measures to prevent discrimination, Mr. Soung said that in the twenty-first National Assembly, four bills on comprehensive anti-discrimination prohibiting direct or indirect discrimination based on race, sexual orientation and gender identity were pending. Since 2021, the State had implemented the first Framework Plan to Protect and Promote Cultural Diversity to build the foundation for fostering the cultural inclusion of vulnerable groups. The delegation added that the Government was providing various support programmes to defectors from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to address discrimination against this group.

On the Itaewon disaster, the delegation said that immediately after the incident occurred, large-scale investigations were carried out to ascertain the adequacy of responses taken. A victims' support organization had been launched, which held regular meetings with bereaved families to provide them with information and support. A cross-ministerial taskforce had been set up to implement preventative actions to address mass crowds. Regular meetings were held to check the implementation of such measures.

To prevent suicide, the Government was steadily pursuing relevant policies through a dedicated policy division and suicide prevention centres, the delegation said. The Government was endeavouring to increase staff in these centres. It also conducted monitoring to prevent the spread of suicide-inducing information. The Government was providing a tailored support system for local governments to strengthen local efforts to tackle the issue. The Government collected statistics on the cause of suicide and published a suicide prevention white paper each year.

In concluding remarks, Mr. Soung said that, based on the previous concluding observations of the Committee, the State party had amended laws to address violence against women and implemented legislation on trafficking in persons, a birth notification system, and various other measures to improve human rights in the State. The Republic of Korea's commitment to human rights was unwavering in the face of difficulties. The Government would continue to cooperate with the Committee to protect and promote human rights.

Tania Maria Abdo Rocholl, Committee Chairperson, in concluding remarks, said the dialogue had covered equality between men and women; measures to combat terrorism; the elimination of trafficking in persons; corruption; interception of private communications; prevention of suicide; freedom of expression; the rights of migrants, persons deprived of liberty, children, refugees and asylum seekers; and conscientious objection, among other topics. The Committee's mandate was to ensure the highest standard of implementation of the Covenant in the Republic of Korea.

The delegation of Korea was made up of representatives of the Ministry of Justice; Supreme Prosecutor's Office; Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Ministry of National Defence; Ministry of Health and Welfare; Ministry of Employment and Labour; Ministry of Gender Equality and Family; Korea Communications Commission; and the Permanent Mission of Korea to the United Nations Office at Geneva.

The Human Rights Committee's one hundred and thirty-ninth session is being held from 9 October to 3 November 2023. All the documents relating to the Committee's work, including reports submitted by States parties, can be found on the session's webpage. Meeting summary releases can be found here. The webcast of the Committee's public meetings can be accessed via the UN Web TV webpage.

The Committee will next meet in public at 3 p.m. on Thursday, 26 October to hold an informal meeting with States parties to the Covenant.

Report

The Committee has before it the fifth periodic report of the Republic of Korea under the optional reporting procedure (CCPR/C/KOR/5).

Presentation of the Report

JEA HYEN SOUNG, Director General, Human Rights Bureau, Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Korea and head of the delegation, said the Republic of Korea placed democracy, the rule of law, and the promotion and protection of human rights at the core of its policies. It had made continued efforts to promote the rights under the Covenant in the given domestic and international environment and framework, but there were shortcomings that it was addressing.

The Republic of Korea established and implemented national action plans for the promotion and protection of human rights every five years. As the third plan concluded in 2022, the Government was preparing the fourth plan. During this process, it would meticulously review recommendations from the National Human Rights Commission and international human rights mechanisms. Furthermore, the Government had acceded to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities last December and the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance this January. Two bills on implementing the latter had been introduced in the National Assembly and were under active discussion.

The Government had taken decisive steps against violence targeting women by initiating and promoting the first Framework Plan to Prevent Violence against Women since 2020. In 2023, the Stalking Prevention Act was enacted to establish the reporting system on stalking, field investigation, and education for prevention. The support centre for the victims of digital sex crime was launched in 2018, offering a range of victim support services, including the removal of intimate images taken without consent. In 2020, the Government revised applicable laws to combat child sexual violence, raising the age of consent for statutory rape from 13 to 16. A birth notification system was introduced to oblige medical institutions to promptly notify authorities of birth information of all children.

The Government established in 2022 dedicated bodies for the prevention of and response to sexual violence in each branch of the military and tasked them with managing cases and supporting victims. The Government also increased the number of specialised counsellors for sexual grievances in the military. It had established the "Military Human Rights Protection Officer" and the "Military Human Rights Protection Committee", which were comprehensive remedial mechanisms on military human rights within the National Human Rights Commission of Korea.

As of January 2023, the Government had been enforcing the Anti-Human Trafficking Act to eradicate human trafficking and implement a comprehensive and systematic response. The Act defined the scope of application of human trafficking and related crimes, while describing the obligations of central and local governments in preventing human trafficking. The Government had a comprehensive action plan for anti-human trafficking policies.

The Government ensured the right to counsel in all courses of investigations, irrespective of whether the suspect was in custody. In 2020, all substitute cells were abolished, and the detention conditions at police stations were improved. The Government had also introduced and operated a system to grant bail with the condition of wearing an electronic device to ease overcrowding in correctional facilities. Further, it had newly established a human rights officer system in March 2023 to improve the treatment of foreigners in detention and provided various forms of support for practical recovery of crime victims.

In 2020, the Government amended laws that formerly restricted assemblies near the National Assembly, courts at all levels and the Prime Minister's Office. In 2018, the Government institutionalised human rights training courses for police officers and introduced human rights impact assessments for police activities regarding assembly and demonstrations.

In April 2021, the Government ratified the fundamental International Labour Organization Conventions 29, 87 and 98, which all took effect domestically on 20 April 2022. The Trade Union and Labour Relations Adjustment Act was amended to ratify the conventions, allowing trade unions to autonomously determine the scope of their membership. The Act prohibited discrimination based on race, and the Government ensured that foreign workers could establish and join migrant workers' trade unions, irrespective of their status of residency.

In 2018, the Constitutional Court ruled that the provisions of the Military Service Act, which criminalised conscientious objectors, did not conform with the Constitution. Since the decision, the Government had adopted an alternative service system reconciling the duty of military service with the freedom of conscience. The Government enacted the relevant act in 2020 to implement the alternative service system, allowing conscientious objectors to serve in correctional facilities.

In the twenty-first National Assembly, four bills on comprehensive anti-discrimination prohibiting direct or indirect discrimination based on race, sexual orientation and gender identity were pending. Since May 2022, the Government had adopted redress procedures to protect victims of workplace discriminatory treatment based on gender by revising the Equal Employment Opportunity and Work-Family Balance Assistance Act. Also from 2021, it had implemented the first Framework Plan to Protect and Promote Cultural Diversity to build the foundation for fostering cultural inclusion of vulnerable groups.

The Government was committed to sharing the universal value of human rights with the international community, extending freedom and solidarity, and taking lead with best practice.

Questions by Committee Experts

A Committee Expert said the Government was preparing to enact the Human Rights Framework Act. The Act would introduce a domestic implementation mechanism for recommendations of international human rights institutions, including the Committee's Views. When would this Act be enacted? Would the Views of the Committee continue to be disregarded by the State party? What measures did the State party intend to take to implement the recommendations of United Nations human rights treaty bodies and their decisions under individual communications procedures at the domestic level, including by providing remedies to the victims? How did the delegation respond to reports that the judiciary was generally unfamiliar with international human rights treaties and had a lack of awareness of the normativity of such treaties? When did the State party expect to approve the fourth national action plan for the promotion and protection of human rights (2023-2027)? Would civil society be involved in the process?

The 29 October 2022 Itaewon disaster, in which 159 people were killed and hundreds more were injured in a crowd crush in Itaewon, Seoul, during Halloween festivities, was a social catastrophe that seemed to have been fully foreseeable and preventable. Did the State party intend to enact the Special Act on the disaster promptly, establish an independent investigative body according to the Act, ensure participation of victims in the investigation, hold accountable those responsible, and guarantee non-recurrence? Why did the authorities fail to respond to the report of the crowd crush risk approximately four hours before the disaster? Why were proper emergency measures not taken immediately after the disaster occurred? Were police criminalising citizens' and families' acts of remembrance by using unjust force at memorial rallies, and investigating human rights activists who participated in such rallies?

During the COVID-19 pandemic, 439 persons were reportedly fined up to 15,000 United States dollars, and 126 persons were imprisoned for up to two years for violating the Disease Control and Prevention Act, as persons suspected of contracting an infectious disease. Many local governments restricted people's freedom of movement and detained large numbers of people. Rallies were reportedly prohibited or subject to a greater level of restriction than required by general social distancing measures. The State party was reported to have collected an indiscriminate amount of personal data in relation to the pandemic. Did such restrictions fulfil the strict conditions on permissible derogations provided for under article four of the Covenant and the Committee's general comment 29?

Another Committee Expert welcomed an amendment to the National Human Rights Commission Act in 2016, which exempted the commissioners from legal liability for remarks made in performing their duties, and promoted diversity in the composition of commissioners and transparency in the appointments process. How would the Act be implemented? What steps had been taken to establish an independent committee for the nomination of candidates? What measures were in place to ensure the financial independence of the National Human Rights Commission and to provide it with sufficient resources to carry out its mandate?

There were reports alleging the continuance of human rights violations by public and private business enterprises domiciled in the Republic of Korea in the context of their operations abroad. What measures had been taken to prevent human rights violations by such business enterprises? Victims who approached labour management grievance settlement units within the State party's embassies reportedly did not receive effective remedies. What measures were taken or envisaged with a view to strengthening victims' access to effective remedies?

The Committee noted that no executions had taken place since 1997, however, it was concerned at reports that the death penalty continued to be imposed in the State party. At the end of 2022, there were reportedly 60 people under the sentence of death. What measures had the State party taken with a view to abolishing the death penalty? Would it consider ratifying the Committee's second Optional Protocol?

The Committee acknowledged the State party's commitment to tackling the challenge of high suicide rates in the country, including among the elderly, the youth and the military, such as through the adoption of the Fifth National Suicide Prevention Basic Plan (2023-2027), but was concerned at reports that suicide rates continued to rise. The State party's approach to the issue reportedly suffered from a lack of resources. How would the State party address the lack of resources and address the root causes of suicide?

The Committee welcomed that the Ministry of National Defence had taken a number of measures, including increasing the number of counsellors, expanding military health centres, and operating suicide prevention programmes. However, the Committee was concerned by reports that military personnel were reluctant to ask for counselling due to fears that it could negatively impact their careers; 35,456 soldiers were discharged in the middle of their mandatory service due to mental illness or maladjustment from 2017 to the first half of 2023. What measures were taken to ensure that career progression for military personnel was not negatively impacted by the soldier having had recourse to counselling or other mental health support?

Another Committee Expert said the Committee commended the State's measures to raise awareness of cultural diversity and eradicate discrimination based on all grounds. However, the country's few ethnic minorities reportedly encountered legal and societal discrimination. Residents who were not ethnic Koreans faced extreme difficulties obtaining citizenship, which was based on parentage. Children of foreign-born people suffered from systemic exclusion from the education and medical systems.

The Committee commended the State party's efforts addressed to help refugees from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to settle down by providing basic social adaptation. However, a high percentage of defectors from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea reported facing discrimination in the Republic of Korea primarily because of their origin. What social measures had been taken to eliminate discrimination and address its social and economic effects? Did the State party intend to enact comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation? Did the State party foresee the adoption of new anti-discrimination laws, especially for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons?

Could the State party provide statistical data on the number of convictions that had been pronounced under article 92-6 of the Military Criminal Act, which penalised same-sex sexual acts in the military, in the last five years? Was the State party considering abolishing this provision? Persons needed to be over 19 years-old, diagnosed with "transsexualism", have gone through sterilisation and sex reassignment surgery, and be non-married or divorced to be legally recognised as "transgender". Did the State party intend to improve the procedures and requirements for legal gender recognition of sexual minorities without exclusion nor marginalisation? Did the State party plan to formulate human rights policies for sexual minorities so that diverse gender identities could be reflected in education programmes? Was it considering the adoption of legal provisions that recognised same-sex couples so that their rights were ensured on equal terms to other couples?

Despite the Government's efforts to address the issue, human rights violations such as violent acts, ill treatment and sexual violence, as well as subsequent gun accidents, deaths and suicides, continued to occur in the military. Could the delegation provide data on such violations? Was anonymity of the reporter ensured in the systems of protection of human rights within the military?

Another Committee Expert asked about the targets of the Government's third Public Sector Gender Representation Plan (2023-2027), a five-year plan to improve gender participation in the public sector. What measures were in place to equalise the recruitment of boys and girls into the military and police? The percentage of women professors at national universities was low. Was this caused by disparities in the student population? What measures were in place to promote more women in academia? How many women judges and prosecutors were there? What measures were in place to equalise wages between men and women in both public and private sectors? There was low representation of women in decision-making positions in the private sector. What was the State party's strategy to increase the representation of women in decision-making positions? Did the Government plan to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family? Was there still the Gender Equality and Family Committee in the National Assembly?

Committee Experts also asked questions on measures to prevent domestic violence and trafficking in persons, train public officials to identify victims and apply all guarantees provided for them, and provide victims with reparation; measures to ensure that collection of personal information by intelligence agencies was subject to judicial approval and supervision; safeguards to ensure the independence and effectiveness of the Counter-Terrorism Human Rights Officer; measures to codify torture as an independent crime, to issue appropriate penalties for torture, and to provide victims of torture and their families with appropriate remedies; plans to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and take measures to establish an effective national preventive mechanism; measures to ensure effective investigations of torture; and measures to prevent acts of torture and ill-treatment at the Protection Centre for defectors from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Responses by the Delegation

The delegation said demonstrations that posed a serious danger were dissolved. The Human Rights Framework Act was being assessed at the National Assembly. Human rights treaties had been invoked in domestic rulings. A consultative body had been established to develop the upcoming fourth national action plan for the promotion and protection of human rights. An external body had reviewed the implementation of the former plan. A public hearing on the plan had been held with civil society. The Government aimed to fully establish the fourth plan this year.

Immediately after the Itaewon incident occurred, large-scale investigations were carried out to ascertain the adequacy of responses taken. A victims' support organization had been launched, which held regular meetings with bereaved families to provide them with information and support. A cross-ministerial taskforce had been set up to implement preventative actions to address mass crowds. Regular meetings were held to check the implementation of such measures.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government had conducted epidemic studies and implemented a contact control system to control the spread of COVID-19. The Government planned to revisit the scope of its policies.

The Government had collected opinions from civil society on the appointment of Commissioners to the National Human Rights Commission. The Commission had earned "A" status from the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions, which had recommended further measures to strengthen the independence of the Commission. The Government aimed to increase the Commission's personnel and budget.

Two legislative bills had been introduced to address Republic of Korea companies performing overseas projects. Such companies needed to fulfil their corporate social responsibility, provide support to local communities, and conduct due diligence regarding their environmental impact.

The abolition of the death penalty required careful consideration. Bills on the abolition had been submitted to the National Assembly. The second Optional Protocol was directly connected to this issue, and was thus difficult to ratify immediately. The death penalty was limited to very serious offences and due process was followed in criminal proceedings.

The Republic of Korea's military was formulating suicide prevention measures. Persons with mental health issues were discouraged from joining the military. The Government planned to expand counselling services within the military. The State was providing families of military personnel who had died with compensation and other forms of assistance.

To prevent suicide, the Government was steadily pursuing relevant policies through a dedicated policy division and suicide prevention centres. The Government was endeavouring to increase staff in these centres. It also conducted monitoring to prevent the spread of suicide-inducing information. The Government was providing a tailored support system for local governments to strengthen local efforts to tackle the issue. The Government collected statistics on the cause of suicide and published a suicide prevention white paper each year.

The Government was providing various support programmes to defectors from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to address discrimination against this group. The discrimination of social minorities was prohibited. Four anti-discrimination bills had been submitted to the National Assembly for deliberation. There was a need to gain public agreement on the issue. The Constitution protected the rights of students to non-discrimination. The Government had implemented reformed sex education and gender equality education programmes, which promoted awareness of gender equality. Students were educated not to develop stereotypical views of minorities and to empathise with them.

The law on gender reassignment procedures provided that courts needed to decide whether to permit gender reassignments. The Government would consider revising this legislation. The Government would seek social consensus before reviewing whether to recognise same-sex unions.

An amendment bill had been prepared that would require that when a political party appointed candidates, no more than 60 per cent of candidates of a certain gender could be nominated. The Government planned to bring women's representation in public and private leadership positions to 30 per cent by 2027. It was establishing an office to support women, single-parent families and at-risk youth. Various ministries would play a role in this office to develop gender-equal policies to support these groups. The Government was operating support centres for domestic violence victims. It planned to provide these centres with more tailored services going forward. It was also implementing various policies to address online exploitation of children and youth. The statute of limitations had been abolished for online grooming of children. Criteria had been developed for police tackling digital sex crimes.

The Government had obligated courts to take protective measures to prevent the traumatisation of child victims of sexual and gender-based violence in courts. Children and youth participated in video examinations in Sunflower Centres. Counsellors accompanied children to help them testify in a comfortable environment.

The State party was supporting the education, health and voluntary repatriation of victims of human trafficking. It was also holding workshops to raise awareness of the issue and victims' rights, and provided legal representation to victims of human trafficking. The introduction of the crime of non-consensual sex could shift the burden of proof to the victim, and thus required careful consideration.

The Government respected the decision of the Constitutional Court regarding abortion, and was developing amendments to legislation to implement the decision. The Government was fostering an environment for safe induced abortions. A fact-finding survey on abortion had been carried out.

The Republic of Korea had introduced a system to address the wage gap in the private sector. It could apply punitive damage compensation in response to gender discrimination, including through wages. It was monitoring the wages of 20,000 companies, and had implemented a project encouraging businesses to provide equal pay for equal work and promote mothers' return to work.

The Government conducted regular inspections of 5,000 workplaces with foreign employees per year. If employers were found to be implementing forced labour or confiscating workers' passports, legal action was taken. No alien should provide their passport or registration certificate to a third person. Imprisonment terms and fines of 30 million won were implemented for infractions. Interpreters provided support to victims to facilitate the remedial process.

Terrorist suspects' communications could be collected under relevant information laws. All forms of torture and acts of cruelty were prohibited and punished under State legislation. The Korean National Police Agency prohibited night-time interrogations, except when such investigations were requested by the detainee or unavoidable. Abuse of the system was not allowed.

The Government was examining conflict between the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and domestic laws, specifically provisions on detention facilities. The National Human Rights Commission had the authority to investigate reports of human rights violations in detention facilities.

Follow-Up Questions by Committee Experts

Committee Experts asked follow-up questions on measures to incorporate the Committee's recommendations in the upcoming national action plan; to provide remedies, including monetary compensation, to victims of the Itaewon incident; to ensure that unnecessary restriction of rights would not occur in future pandemics; and to allow victims of trafficking to lodge claims for compensation through criminal procedures.

Committee Experts also asked about the comprehensiveness of the four draft anti-discrimination bills; the impact of the new sexual education curriculum; the number of cases handled by the Military Human Rights Ombudsperson; the effectiveness of the 2022 reduction of the jurisdiction of military courts; oversight mechanisms for the national counter-terrorism unit; the effectiveness of the National Human Rights Commission in investigating reports of torture and ill-treatment; the suitability of punishment, which was no more than five years' imprisonment, for acts of violence and cruelty; obstacles to making rules on business and human rights binding; the effectiveness of anonymous counselling in preventing suicide; the role of the military advisor within the National Human Rights Commission; measures to prevent suicide within the military; and procedures to ensure that individuals who had been convicted for extended periods of time had the opportunity to introduce additional evidence.

Responses by the Delegation

The delegation said retrial provisions were available to convert convicted sentences to acquittal. The Government was incorporating recommendations from international human rights bodies into the fourth human rights national action plan and would engage with civil society in developing it. Thirty-six per cent of the State's judges were female. The budget for tackling trafficking in persons was reduced by around 40 per cent because a certain programme for addressing trafficking had not gone ahead. The Government provided foreigners with E-6 visas with education on trafficking. Foreign entertainers were subject to fact-finding inspections. The Government collected data on persons with COVID-19 only for the purposes of epidemiological studies. After using the data, it deleted it. The State followed legislation on personal information.

The four anti-discrimination bills differed in terms of remedies provided for discrimination victims. The revised education curriculum would be enforced from 2024. The Military Court Act amendment had led to the reorganisation of military courts, which led to double counting of case statistics. Communication restrictions without a warrant could be applied only to foreign nationals suspected of terrorist activity. Torture and cruel acts were subjected to imprisonment for no less than one year, and for acts leading to death, indefinite imprisonment was issued as a punishment. The Ministry of National Defence provided private counselling to military personnel. The number of counselling requests had risen significantly in 2023. The Government would engage in consultations with the National Human Rights Commission regarding the possibility of increasing their budget.

Questions by Committee Experts

A Committee Expert commended the improvement of the procedure of both voluntary and involuntary hospitalisation of patients with mental health issues, included in the Act on the Improvement of Mental Health and the Support for Welfare Services for Mental Patients in 2016. How did the State party ensure that examination was provided thoroughly, not just by reading or studying previous written reports? What were the safeguards for a person hospitalised by a legal guardian to submit petitions regarding discharge or improvement of treatment? What steps was the State party taking to enable judicial review of hospitalisation?

The issue of overcrowding in prisons was still present. Was the State party guided by specific regulations? Would it adopt relevant laws or regulations prescribing the size of detention rooms? What other measures were in place to prevent overcrowding? The Committee was concerned by reports of poor material conditions, and insufficient privacy of sanitary facilities, particularly for women. Women were reportedly supervised by male staff. Would the State party prevent this practice? Medical care in correctional facilities was reportedly insufficient and access to outside medical facilities was limited. There was still a high number of suicides in correctional facilities, and a certain number of suicides were reportedly provoked by coercive methods. What measures were in place to improve health care for inmates and prevent suicides? What measures was the State party taking to prevent prolonged solitary confinement and review solitary confinement legislation?

Another Committee Expert asked what steps had been taken to ensure that the review of deportation had suspensive effect before individuals were deported to third countries. Could investigative agencies and prosecutors exclude or limit the participation of defence attorneys in investigation or interrogation processes? The Committee welcomed the bill submitted by the Government to amend the Legal Aid Act and the Criminal Procedure Act, under which a court-appointed defence attorney was provided for vulnerable persons when charged with serious offences. When would the amendment come into force? Did the Government plan to expand the scope of the amendments to include vulnerable persons for offences punishable by a prison sentence of less than three years? Under what specific legal acts were defectors from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea provided with the right to counsel? Could defectors appeal deportation orders?

What measures were being taken to improve detention conditions in immigration detention facilities, ensure that these facilities were subject to regular independent monitoring, and limit the period of immigration detention? Under what conditions could children be deprived of liberty and for how long? Asylum seekers were reportedly forced to stay in the departure area of Incheon International Airport or other ports of entry for months. Did the State party intend to introduce limits on the duration of detention? Every year, dozens of children were reportedly detained with their parents. What practical measures did the State party intend to adopt to prohibit the detention of children? At airports, reportedly only one meal per day, an airline inflight meal, was served to refugee applicants, who slept on flat benches in departure waiting rooms. What measures did the State party intend to adopt to improve conditions of immigration detention facilities, including points of entry? Did the State party intend to set up a mechanism for regular independent monitoring of detention facilities?

What measures were being taken to address corruption in the judiciary and guarantee its independence, as well as the right to a fair trial and due process? What impact had the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act and other anti-corruption measures had? Judges from the Office of Court Administration used trials as a means of bargaining with the Presidential Office, the National Assembly, and the Government. What plans did the State party have to decentralise the power of judicial administration from the Chief Justice and prevent the recurrence of cases of abuse of power in the future? What specific measures were taken against judges and prosecutors who were suspected of corrupt practices?

One Committee Expert asked if the State party envisaged the decriminalisation of defamation or the suppression of the penalty of imprisonment for defamation? Did the State party plan to abolish article seven of the National Security Act, which prohibited praising, inciting or propagating the activities of anti-State organizations?

Did civil servants, public employees, teachers, dismissed workers and workers with special types of employment currently have the right to form trade unions and to collective bargaining? Had the Korean Teachers' Union and the Construction Workers' Union been legally recognised? In May 2023, the Government reportedly undertook harsh actions against the Korean Construction Workers Union, which had resulted in around 1,500 members being summoned, 20 union offices searched, and 37 members detained. How many of these workers had been convicted?

Another Committee Expert said that in June 2018, the Constitutional Court ruled that article five of the Military Service Act, which did not provide for an alternative service system, was unconstitutional. As a consequence, the Act on the Assignment to and Performance of Alternative Service for conscientious objectors was enacted on 27 December 2019. Would the State party consider shortening the service period for alternative service personnel to adjust it to the service period for personnel in active-duty service? Would the State party consider not limiting the scope of alternative service to correctional facilities, and include other alternative service areas with high levels of service difficulty and social needs?

How many political parties had been subject to dissolution in the last five years and what were the grounds for such decisions? Had their dissolution been ruled on by the Constitutional Court? What measures did the State party intend to take to ensure that public officials and teachers, as well as civilian workers, were able to enjoy the political freedom guaranteed by article 25 of the Covenant? What legislative and administrative measures did the State party intend to take to guarantee the right to vote of prisoners and persons under medical treatment custody?

Under the current Yoon Administration, the numbers of bans and restrictions on rallies had soared. Rallies and marches within 100 meters of the President's office had been banned at least 39 times, despite repeated court rules finding such bans illegal. Would the State party prevent local governments from not granting registered rallies permission to use the roads? Was the State party considering revising the Act on the Performance of Duties by Police Officers, amended in January 2020, to bring the use of police force and equipment in line with the Covenant? Would the delegation respond to allegations of excessive use of force by the police during rallies, particularly a subway rally by advocacy groups for people with disabilities in January 2023? Would the State party stop arresting and prosecuting civic groups and activists to ensure full compliance with the right to peaceful assembly?

Another Committee Expert asked questions on plans to enhance policies and legislation aimed at deterring or punishing hate speech against migrants and refugees, which had reportedly increased recently; and plans to address the issue of high numbers of unregistered births.

Responses by the Delegation

The delegation said that the involuntary hospitalisation system was revamped in 2017 to prevent unnecessary hospitalisation. A committee had been established to provide oversight of involuntary hospitalisations. The Government was working to ensure that the intentions of the person concerned were considered regarding hospitalisation.

Sufficient facilities for lighting and heating were installed in prison wards. Medical officers were placed in all prisons. Their salaries were being increased. The Government planned to introduce further measures to improve the mental health of inmates. In-person, phone and video-based counselling services were provided to inmates. Persons at high risk of suicide were provided with tailored services. Inmates in solitary confinement had access to regular exercise, books and health check-ups. The length of solitary confinement was determined by external professionals. The State was carefully considering amending legislation on solitary confinement.

The right to counsel was in principle ensured in all processes of investigation, but there were conditions where attorneys' participation could be limited. The court was required to appoint a State attorney for defendants with financial hardship.

A bill had been submitted before the National Assembly that aimed to prevent repatriation of defectors from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. If defectors had committed international criminal offences, the State could request an investigation. The State was not permitted to deport persons who did not have passports.

The Constitutional Court had ruled that the Government was required to regulate the length of immigration detention. The Government planned to revise immigration legislation based on this decision. In cases where children under 14 had no caregivers outside of immigration detention facilities, they were permitted to stay with their parents in specially designated facilities. The State was implementing measures such as temporary releases to prevent the detention of children under 14. A Government entity was now managing departure waiting room facilities. It had made the rooms brighter and was providing higher quality food to foreigners three times a day. Only three people had been waiting in departure waiting rooms for more than six months. The procedural rights of persons in these waiting rooms were provided. The Government would continue to protect the rights and health of these people.

Fourteen former Supreme Court judges had been indicted and trials were underway for the remaining eight involved in the corruption case raised by the Committee. The judiciary was working to improve its integrity. There were employment restrictions on retirees and restrictions on acquisition of stocks. Members were required to disclose conflicts of interest.

There were no plans to abolish article seven of the National Security Act, which was warranted for protecting national security. The Government was protecting the freedom of expression of its citizens.

Public officials' working hours and wages were subject to collective bargaining. Workers' right to collective bargaining was protected by the law. The Teachers' Union and the Construction Workers' Union had been recognised as trade unions, and dismissed teachers could join the Teachers' Union. The State had ratified the International Labour Organization convention on trade unions. However, it needed to introduce legislation allowing all persons, not only workers, to join trade unions, before it could withdraw its reservation to the relevant article of the Covenant. The State would continue to consider this.

The Government was trying to fill gaps in existing legislation to ensure the protection of personal data. Relevant amendments in legislation would be made by the end of this year. Emergency communication restrictions could be implemented through courts in situations of threats to national security.

The current alternative services system protected conscientious objectors. Petitions calling for the review of the system were being reviewed by the Constitutional Court. The Government appointed independent experts to the deliberation committee for the alternative service system. It would continue to ensure the independence of this committee.

The Government could take action against political parties if their actions infringed on public order. Decisions to dissolve political parties could be implemented only as an exceptional, last resort measure that reflected the principle of proportionality.

Assemblies in front of the office of the President were permitted, except when they posed a threat to the public. Rallies on main roads were not permitted when they caused serious inconvenience to the public. The Government kept restrictions on rallies to a minimum. The police no longer used water-spraying cars or water cannons to control crowds. Education was provided to police forces to prevent excessive use of force in controlling crowds. There had been no arbitrary arrests of protestors at the demonstrations mentioned by the Committee. Individuals could file compensation claims in relation to the actions of the police.

The State provided meals and basic necessities to people under deportation orders. The Government was taking measures to provide interpretation and other services for asylum seekers. It issued departure orders without detention for persons who paid for their own flights. Foreigners in detention could challenge deportation orders in court, and were provided with information on their right to challenge deportation orders.

The Korea Communication Standards Commission cautioned broadcasting and internet companies who transmitted content containing hate speech and ordered them to take corrective action. Perpetrators of acts of hate speech that were tantamount to defamation could be criminally punished. Awareness raising campaigns were in place to inform the public about refugees' rights and prevent the spread of negative perceptions about refugees.

The act on registration of birth of foreign children was currently before the National Assembly. The State would ensure that the recommendations of United Nations human rights bodies were incorporated in this act.

Follow-Up Questions by Committee Experts

Committee Experts asked follow-up questions on measures to distribute subsidies fairly, including to non-governmental organizations that criticised the Government; the Government order to make striking cement lorry drivers return to work; measures to combat and punish online child exploitation, and ensure family and community-based support and family reunification for children placed under protection; the State's reasons for lowering the age of criminal responsibility; migrant workers' right to change work; laws on universal birth registration; plans to provide alternatives to detention for children in port-of-entry detention centres; and regulation of the process of discharging persons who were hospitalised involuntarily.

Responses by the Delegation

The delegation said most of the lorry truck drivers ordered to return to work were self-employed. It was difficult to secure alternative forms of land transport, and a truck drivers' strike would paralyse the country's logistics system. The Government was legally able to issue orders to prevent such strikes. When collective bargaining agreements were formed, they applied to all members of the relevant trade union.

The State had a law on protection of children and youth that addressed sexual exploitation. Various institutional mechanisms were in place to protect children from sexual exploitation and online grooming. The Government monitored online spaces to detect and prevent abuse. Caregiver education and other programmes were implemented to facilitate the reunification of separated children with their families. From this year, a roadmap for promoting protected children's transition to residential care would be implemented. Immediate separation measures were implemented when they were necessary to protect a child from abuse. Such measures required the consent of the child involved.

In 2023, an amendment bill to the Birth Registration Act was promulgated. It would be enforced from 2024. Following this Act, the State would implement a birth notification system.

Concluding Remarks

JEA HYEN SOUNG, Director General, Human Rights Bureau, Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Korea and head of the delegation, expressed deep appreciation for the comments and questions offered by Committee Experts during the review. Based on the concluding observations of the Committee, the State party had amended laws to address violence against women and implemented legislation on trafficking in persons, a birth notification system and various other measures to improve human rights in the State. The Republic of Korea's commitment to human rights was unwavering in the face of difficulties. This dialogue was a milestone in the State's journey toward ensuring the freedom and dignity of all. The Government would continue to cooperate with the Committee to protect and promote human rights.

TANIA MARIA ABDO ROCHOLL, Committee Chairperson, thanked the delegation, non-governmental organizations and all who had contributed to the dialogue. The dialogue had covered implementation of the Covenant; equality between men and women; measures to combat terrorism; the elimination of trafficking in persons; corruption; interception of private communications; prevention of suicide; freedom of expression; the rights of migrants, persons deprived of liberty, children, refugees and asylum seekers; and conscientious objection, among other topics. The Committee's mandate was to ensure the highest standard of implementation of the Covenant in the Republic of Korea.

Produced by the United Nations Information Service in Geneva for use of the media; not an official record. English and French versions of our releases are different as they are the product of two separate coverage teams that work independently.

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US and allies confirm North Korea-Russia 'deleterious' arms deal

The allies warned such a trade could bolster Moscow's aggression towards Ukraine.

By Lee Jeong-Ho for RFA 2023.10.25 -- The United States and its allies have verified an arms trade deal between Russia and North Korea that could bolster Moscow's aggression towards Ukraine, issuing a stern warning that the allies would respond against these "deleterious" actions.

"The United States, Japan, and the Republic of Korea (ROK) strongly condemn the provision of military equipment and munitions by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to the Russian Federation for use against the government and people of Ukraine," the joint statement said Thursday, referring to the two Koreas formal names.

"Such weapons deliveries, several of which we now confirm have been completed, will significantly increase the human toll of Russia's war of aggression," the statement said, adding that North Korea was seeking military assistance from Russia in return to advance its own military capabilities.

The allies "stand together, resolute in our opposition to arms transfers and related military cooperation between the DPRK and Russia and the deleterious effect such actions have on global security and nonproliferation," according to the statement.

The statement came as North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin met at the symbol of Russian space prowess in Russia's Far East last month, where they vowed to boost their comprehensive cooperation, spanning from the economy to military.

Authorities of both the U.S. and South Korea have been warning publicly that Russia's weapons technology transfer in exchange for Pyongyang's conventional ammunition was at the heart of the cooperation.

Both Kim and Putin are yet to publicly comment on any ammunition deal, but the Kremlin said last month that it would cooperate with North Korea in "sensitive areas that can't be disclosed."

Radio Free Asia cited analysis by a private U.S. research organization the Institute for the Study of War as saying that the North could have already provided up to 500,000 pieces of ammunition to Russia, which could be used in its invasion against Ukraine. The joint statement by the allies confirms that there has been illegal trading between the two countries.

The allies on Thursday also warned both Pyongyang and Moscow that such an action is highly illegal. "We emphasize that arms transfers to or from the DPRK - as well as the transfer to the DPRK of certain items and technical cooperation related to the DPRK's weapons of mass destruction, ballistic missile, or conventional weapons programs, - would violate multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions," the statement said.

"Russia itself voted for the U.N. Security Council resolutions that contain these restrictions," it added.

Russia and North Korea have recently beefed up their efforts to establish a "united front" against the U.S. and its regional partners.

At the summit between Kim and Putin last month, both leaders committed to establishing an "anti-imperialist united front." Pyongyang has consistently labeled the U.S. and its allies as "imperialists."

North Korea's recent foreign policy maneuvers also suggest a broader strategy in motion. This includes Pyongyang's alleged support for Hamas during its conflict with U.S.-ally Israel, and strengthening relations with Russia after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. These actions indicate Pyongyang's intent to form a cohesive stance against Washington.

Edited by Taejun Kang and Mike Firn.

Copyright 1998-2016, 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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GULF OF GUINEA: EU AND INDIA CARRY OUT MAIDEN JOINT NAVAL EXERCISE

India - Press Information Bureau

Ministry of Defence

Posted On: 26 OCT 2023 2:20PM by PIB Delhi

India and EU ships conducted joint activities in the Gulf of Guinea, in an effort to reinforce naval maritime security cooperation in support of the region.

On 24 Oct 23, the European Union (EU) and India conducted their first joint naval exercise in the Gulf of Guinea. The exercise followed the third meeting of the EU-India Maritime Security Dialogue on 5 Oct 23 in Brussels.

During the exercise, Indian Navy's INS Sumedha, an Offshore Patrol Vessel, was joined by three EU Member States' ships in the Gulf of Guinea: Italian Navy Ship ITS Foscari, French Navy Ship FS VentAse, and Spanish Navy Ship Tornado. The four ships practiced a series of tactical manoeuvers in international waters off the coast of Ghana, including a boarding exercise, a flying exercise using the helicopters embarked on French Ship VentAse and Indian Naval Ship Sumedha, and transfer of personnel between ships.

This exercise was followed by a knowledge sharing session in Accra, Ghana which built on the joint experience at sea to improve operational know-how. The session also helped deepen ties between Ghanaian officials and representatives of the Indian, EU and EU Member States missions to Ghana.

These activities underlined the shared commitment of India and the EU to supporting coastal States and the YaoundA Architecture in ensuring maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea. They reflected the breadth and dynamism of EU-India cooperation on maritime security, and signalled the common determination to uphold the United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

********

VM/PS



(Release ID: 1971391)

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Iranian Judiciary Summons Newspaper Chief Over Survey On Head Scarf Law

By RFE/RL's Radio Farda October 26, 2023

The head of a newspaper in Tehran has been summoned to appear in court following the publication of a poll on the "Hijab and Chastity" bill currently being debated by lawmakers, Mizan, the news agency of Iran's judiciary, said.

Mizan did not specify the newspaper's name, but on October 24, the Shargh newspaper reported on a survey suggesting that the "Hijab and Chastity" bill would not have a great impact on attitudes toward with mandatory head scarf, with 84 percent of participants saying it would not influence observance of the rule.

Shargh has since removed the article on the survey from its website.

The bill, which proposes extensive penalties for those opposing wearing the mandatory hijab, is aimed at confronting, detaining, and penalizing women who fail to observe the compulsory dress code amid a fierce debate over the rules.

Earlier this week, Iran's Guardians Council said it had returned the "Hijab and Chastity" bill to parliament due to "ambiguities" in the legislation.

Mizan said in its report that, if the newspaper does not provide the "necessary documents and evidence" sought by the court on the survey and its publication, the Tehran prosecutor will file charges against the media outlet.

The lack of women's rights in Iran has come under intense scrutiny since the September 2022 death of Mahsa Amini while in police custody for a head-scarf violation.

Since then, thousands have poured onto the streets across the country to protest the treatment of women and a general lack of rights, with women and schoolgirls making unprecedented shows of support in the biggest threat to the Islamic government since the 1979 revolution.

In response, the authorities have launched a brutal crackdown on dissent, detaining thousands and handing down stiff sentences to protesters, including the death penalty.

While the protests have shown some signs of waning, resistance to the hijab is likely to increase, analysts say, as it is seen now as a symbol of the state's repression of women and the deadly crackdown on society.

Written by Ardeshir Tayebi based on an original story in Persian by RFE/RL's Radio Farda

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-hijab-law-newspaper- chief-summoned-head-scarf/32655304.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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PM Netanyahu Visits the Tekuma Authority, which is responsible for Rebuilding the Area Adjacent to the Gaza Strip

Israel - Prime Minister's Office

The 37th Government

26.10.2023

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, today, visited the Tekuma* Authority in Yavne, which is responsible for carrying out the national mission of rebuilding, strengthening and developing the communities in the area adjacent to the Gaza Strip, which were significantly harmed in the murderous terrorist assault by Hamas on 7 October.

At the start of the visit, the Prime Minister was briefed by Tekuma Director Moshe Edri on the activity and functions of the Authority, and the cooperation with the various Government ministries. Prime Minister was also shown the various stages of the reconstruction process in the immediate, intermediate and long terms. Director Edri shared with the Prime Minister the feelings of the council heads and residents, and the urgency in providing quick and efficient attention.

Prime Minister Netanyahu visited the Authority building and met the teams working on construction and on rehabilitating the area in various fields including education, social services, health, housing, agriculture, infrastructure and reviving business activity. The Prime Minister was also briefed on the actions that have been carried out since the Authority was established last Thursday, including a meeting with local council and community leaders, and the allocation of preliminary cash advances worth NIS 51 million to the communities that were severely damaged. Director Edri told the Prime Minister that additional funds would be transferred in the coming days.

Prime Minister Netanyahu:

"We are going to pass the 'Tekuma District' law. This law will - first of all - provide funds, so you will not have to go with an outstretched hand to some raised fist, rather there will simply be a lot of money for this reconstruction as quickly as possible.

Second, cutting bureaucracy. All of these bureaucratic processes will be cut so that things may be carried out much more quickly.

Third, is hope. Hope is built on one important principle and that is security. We need to smash Hamas so that it will be safe for people to return.

In the final stage, we will be able to build and expand, and make this area very prosperous and safe. I would say that there is a primary national, even historical, mission here.

I would like to thank you for what you are doing; it is very important. Some of you also come from these communities. Well done."

Also participating in the visit were the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) Director General, the Director of the National Economic Council and the PMO Deputy Director General for Planning and Development.

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As Chinese money flows in, Myanmar garment factory conditions worsen

Chinese investors are filling the gap left by Western brands' withdrawal from the country.

Special for RFA 2023.10.26 -- When a deadline loomed at the Chinese-run Shin Han garment factory in Yangon, management ordered workers to complete shifts that lasted more than 12 hours, from early in the morning until 9 at night. Two workers with health problems tried to make it through their shift, but when they asked to take a break, they were fired.

Working conditions in Myanmar's garment industry were already bad enough after the 2021 coup to prompt Western brands such as Swedish clothing giant H&M to withdraw from the country. But investors from China and elsewhere are filling the gap - and now things are even worse, workers and labor groups say.

Despite the harsh conditions and low pay, many workers simply can't afford to quit - or even take a sick day. For missing a day, workers at the Shin Han factory will get their already meager wage - as low as 140,000 kyat (US$67) a month -- cut by 30,000 kyat ($14).

"Even if they're sick, they have to work because they need this money. Some come to work and they work until they can't," said one employee, who declined to be named and has worked at the factory since June 2022, a few months after it opened.

The withdrawal of Western brands from Myanmar "doesn't mean that production is ceasing - it's sort of the opposite," said Dave Welsh, the Myanmar country director for Solidarity Center, a labor rights organization.

"You have all kinds of nefarious actors that are more challenging for both domestic and international labor groups to pressure and gain leverage on," he said.

New factories opening

Since January 2022, the Myanmar Garment Manufacturers' Association, an industry group, has reported an increase of 61 factories in the sector, with Chinese investors accounting for more than half of the growth. Japanese and Thai investors accounted for some of the other investments.

However, the group declined to identify the new factories or companies involved, saying it was a breach of the investor's privacy.

The Federation of General Workers Myanmar - a major union - told RFA that the number of new factories opened since last January was somewhere closer to 100, with most investors from China and Myanmar. Some are not registered and employ less than 100 workers.

The union said that factories often close and reopen under different names, leaving workers without jobs and making it difficult to hold them accountable, but in about 75% of these new factories, they notice a theme - workers are already raising red flags on working conditions, starting with increased rules inside the workplace.

"Workers only have a limited chance to go to the toilet and drink water," said a spokesperson from the Federation of General Workers Myanmar, declining to be named for security reasons.

"In some cases, the factory issues cards which gives them a chance to go to the toilet and which gives them a chance to drink water - but only two, three, or four cards in one sewing line."

Rising Demands

The International Labor Organization's Commission of Inquiry published in August shows that exports increased above pre-coup levels once in 2022, despite the projected withdrawal of large European players.

It also found an increase in demand from foreign buyers that year, with workers telling the group their targets "could not be achieved reasonably during regular working hours."

"Due to the high amount of hourly rates and high amount of operation targets, workers sometimes need to work even in the lunch break," a Federation of General Workers Myanmar spokesperson told RFA. "So it's kind of like forced labor happening in the workplace."

But the Shin Han garment factory worker said they have another reason to produce as much as they can - now, their salary depends on it.

One worker who asked to remain unnamed cited the new "ticket system" in which her base pay is half of her salary before the coup.

The worker told RFA that in her factory, which was opened in January 2022 by a Chinese investor, working quickly is the only way to make pre-coup salaries. With her wage cut to 140,000 kyat (US$67), she needs to work twice as much to make her former 280,000 (US$133) per month.

"To receive the minimum wage, we need to finish at least 400 items a day. It's a huge workload for us," she said. But under the new "ticket system," exceeding huge daily goals is rewarded with even more meager salaries. For every 10 additional garments sewed, they can receive a maximum of 7 kyat, or a fraction of U.S. cent.

"Almost all the factories established after 2022 are running with the ticket system," she said.

Another worker from Chinese and Myanmar-owned Eternal Fashion Company Limited shared a similar experience. Her factory, which opened in May this year and employs over 4,000 workers, pays about half of what her former factory did.

"The hourly rate [for extra work] is reduced to 200 and 250 kyat (9 to 12 U.S. cents)" she said, declining to be named for fear of reprisals. Some, she says, are paid as low as 170 kyat (8 cents) an hour.

Mixed views

As Myanmar's garment sector changes, workers' reactions are polarized.

One woman working in a Yangon bag factory for the last three years said that she sees the new investment as a sign that the sector is expanding again.

"I'm happy because there are many factories increasing in the industrial zone, so they can support the new workers and new laborers who move from the delta and rural areas," said Naw Eh Thar. "The new workers can get jobs in Yangon so they're happy with this increase in new factories."

But others say their sense of security is undermined as factories increase production only to shut down a few months later. Garment workers told RFA that they would prefer a well-established factory over a newer one, citing the lack of job security their peers face.

According to the International Labor Organization, employers fired 41% of the workers after the coup, of which only 29.5% received compensation.

"If I can choose, I'd work at an old factory," said one worker, declining to be named. "The small factories that started during the current situation, these are not certain, so I'm afraid to work at new factories because there's no job security."

For the worker at Shin Han battling wage disputes and trying to meet her production goals, what she mostly feels is fear.

"Before the coup, I was very happy to go to work and I really liked my work at the time," she said. "The next day in the early morning, when I realize I need to go to work, I'm scared."

Edited by Taejun Kang 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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UN refugee agency making inquiries into Uyghurs in Pakistan

The families face deportation on Nov. 1 after string of suicide bombings by Afghans.

By Gulchehra Hoja for RFA Uyghur 2023.10.26 -- The U.N. refugee agency is investigating the situation of 18 Uyghur families facing deportation from Pakistan if they fail to comply with a government order expelling all illegal migrants, said two Uyghurs involved in the matter.

Pakistani officials issued the order after dozens of people were killed in two suicide bombings in late September. They said that most such bombings this year were conducted by Afghan nationals, but they decided to expel all migrants without a valid residence permit - including 1.73 million Afghan refugees - if they don't leave by the start of November.

The plight of the Uyghur families, whose members total about 100 people, was first reported by Radio Free Asia earlier in October. Most are descendants of individuals who migrated decades ago from Xinjiang to Afghanistan and later to Pakistan. They lack Afghan or Chinese passports and Pakistani residence permits.

Omer Khan, founder of the Pakistan-based Omer Uyghur Trust, said on Oct. 23 that the United Nations Office for Refugees in Pakistan has contacted him twice about the Uyghurs living in Rawalpindi since RFA's earlier report.

The Uyghurs have sought help from the office for years, but without success.

But this time, the agency collected the names, addresses, and family statuses of the Uyghurs, said Khan and a Uyghur named Abdulahed who lives in Rawalpindi.

"They mentioned that they would contact us if there are any updates, Khan said.

But now the families' landlords are pressuring them to vacate their homes by Nov. 1 and the Uyghurs are scrambling to find other accommodations, he said. And some Uyghur parents are keeping their children home from school.

"We are uncertain about our next steps," Khan added.

Deportation fears

The Uyghur families fear Pakistani authorities will deport them to Afghanistan, where their safety would be at risk under current Taliban control, or to China, where Uyghurs in the far-western Xinjiang region face repression and are subjected to severe rights abuses.

The U.N. refugee agency - officially the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, or UNHCR - also asked some of the families if they have faced any threats from Pakistani authorities or the police, Abdulahed said.

"We communicated with the U.N. agency over the phone, but there is no news about what will happen," he said.

"Before leaving for a third country, we hope to stay here for a while to resolve our situation," Khan said. "The U.N. refugee agency's letter will play a significant role in this," Khan said, referring to a document that says the agency recognizes the Uyghurs as refugees.

The UNHCR in Pakistan did not respond to an email request for comment by RFA.

"Pakistan has a full right to prevent terrorism, but Uyghurs a these are the people fleeing from terrorism and finding some refuge in Pakistan," said Abdul Malik Mujahid, president of Justice for All, a U.S.-based Islamic organization. "Pakistan needs to welcome them."

Louisa Greve, director of global advocacy for the Uyghur Human Rights Project in Washington, D.C., expressed deep concern about the Uyghurs in Pakistan.

"No government anywhere in the world should refoul Uyghurs," she said. "According to international law they must not be deported against their will to a country where they will face torture, unjust imprisonment, or other serious human rights violations."

Translated by RFA Uyghur. 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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Acting Deputy Secretary Nuland's Call with Pakistani Caretaker Foreign Minister Jilani

US Department of State

Readout

Office of the Spokesperson

October 26, 2023

The below is attributable to Spokesperson Matthew Miller:

Acting Deputy Secretary of State and Under Secretary for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland spoke today with Pakistani Caretaker Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani to discuss critical issues in the U.S.-Pakistan partnership. Acting Deputy Secretary Nuland and Foreign Minister Jilani discussed our mutual interest in facilitating the safe and timely resettlement of eligible Afghans to the United States. They also agreed on the importance of free and fair elections that are inclusive and held in a manner consistent with Pakistan's laws.

Both the Acting Deputy Secretary and Foreign Minister Jilani discussed the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. Acting Deputy Secretary highlighted the United States' call for the release of all hostages and the protection of civilians from harm. Acting Deputy Secretary Nuland and Foreign Minister Jilani also agreed on the need for a continuous flow of humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza and to prevent the conflict from spreading.

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Statement by Andrey Belousov, Deputy Head of the Delegation of the Russian Federation, at the Thematic Debate on "Regional Disarmament and Security" in the First Committee of the 78th Session of the UN General Assembly, New York, 25 October 2023

26 October 2023 20:22

2170-26-10-2023

Mr. Chair,

Over the recent years, regional security worldwide has been put to a serious test. Tensions and war rhetoric are increasing; voices of the war party are gaining strength; while existing, long-standing regional conflicts are being rekindled new hotspots have emerged. Military alliances are further expanding, their activities growing more and more aggressive. The fundamental principle of indivisibility of security is flagrantly violated.

We would like to express our firm belief that getting the situation back under control and bringing it to normalcy are only possible based on the respect for universally recognized norms of international law, UN principles, Charter, purposes and objectives, by agreeing to denounce destabilizing military activities and ensure arms control.

We note that the worldwide trends reflecting the degradation in the field of military security continue to increase in Europe as well. Their underlying cause is the policy pursued by the US and its NATO allies, which is aimed at an outright confrontation with Russia and seeks to undermine the foundations of European security as well as destroy the existing time-proven comprehensive system of arms control and confidence-building measures.

NATO nations continue to build up their military capabilities along Russian borders and in their immediate proximity, enhance their operational capacities enabling them to deploy forces to the eastern flank. In order to respond to the imaginary, so-called, Russian threat, efforts are taken to increase the number and combat capabilities of multinational battalion tactical groups in the Baltic States and strengthen brigade units in Romania. Additionally, an armoured brigade and helicopter units of the US Armed Forces have been deployed to Europe. The overall period of presence of NATO navy ships in the Black Sea during one year has been extended.

There has been an increase in reconnaissance activities close to our see and air borders involving NATO partners' multi-purpose vessels, aircraft and drones. These activities are becoming increasingly provocative and dangerous. Special-purpose aircraft of NATO nations regularly violate the airspace of the Russian Federation over the Black Sea. The NATO air patrolling over the Baltic Sea has grown manifold. Forward coordination centres and new division command headquarters have been set up in East European states to allow for a speedy deployment and engagement of NATO forces.

The scale and intensity of NATO's military activity on the line of contact with our country have increased. At least 30 major military training and command and staff exercises have been held in the immediate vicinity of the Russian borders.

The aggressive policies of the United States and its allies in the post-Soviet space, as well as their persistent support of the neo-Nazi regime in Kiev, which, with an active external assistance, has been exterminating the population of Donbass for the ninth year running, forced us to resort to strongest measures. For a long time, we made every effort to seek a diplomatic solution to the conflict at the negotiations table, expecting the Western states to see reason. Yet they did their best to exacerbate the tensions and provoke a military operation.

Not only do the efforts of the United States and its allies to pump up Ukraine with more weapons and provide it with intelligence information protract the hostilities and lead to more casualties: in fact, they are pushing the situation to a dangerous point of direct military confrontation between Russia and the NATO states.

Any attempts to resume dialogue are doomed until the North-Atlantic Alliance renounces its East-oriented expansionist agenda and "deterrence" policy against Russia. We wish that our Western colleagues would finally heed the call of reason and stick to the principles of equality, mutual respect, consideration of legitimate concerns and needs in the field of military security.

Mr. Chair,

Russia has always assumed that the system of international agreements in the field of arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation is the most important element of the foundation of international security. However, this system has recently degraded considerably at the whim of Western countries.

For several decades, the US and its NATO allies have continued the process of destruction and dismantling of the major arrangements in the area of arms control and confidence-building, which they initiated themselves. In 2002, Washington unilaterally terminated the Soviet-US Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty; in 2019, it withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Missile Forces Treaty, and in 2020, from the Open Skies Treaty. We had to respond by withdrawing from the Open Skies Treaty in 2021.

This process has been developing simultaneously with the crisis of conventional arms control mechanisms. This primarily refers to the Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE). For more than 30 years following the dissolution of the Warsaw Treaty Organization and the USSR, we tried to find common ground here - unfortunately, to no avail. Our concerns and proposals have been ignored. Sweden and Finland's decision to join NATO has once and for all put an end to the system of limitations that have existed under the CFE. Overall, the recent developments have led to a dramatic military and political shift in Europe, bringing about extreme circumstances jeopardizing the supreme interests of our country. The Russian Federation therefore decided to denounce the Treaty.

Even this brief and sketchy, yet objective, overview clearly shows who is fully responsible for the deplorable security situation and further global military and political degradation.

Given the current lack of trust as well as the obviously hostile attitude on the part of Washington and the collective Brussels, it is unreasonable and naive to expect any progress towards revising the state of conventional arms control in Europe (CACE). Any dialogue on a new CACE version will only be possible if the West abandons its hostile anti-Russian policy. Shaping such a regime in future will undoubtedly require fundamentally new approaches while taking into account Russia's national interests as an imperative.

Thank you.

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October 26, 2023

By Joseph Clark , DOD News

DOD Announces Up to $150M in Aid for Ukraine

The Defense Department announced today an additional security assistance package valued at up to $150 million to help Ukraine counter Russia's unprovoked invasion.

The package includes additional air defense equipment, artillery rounds and antitank weapons, among other equipment, to meet Ukraine's battlefield needs.

The latest round of assistance marks the 49th drawdown of equipment from DOD inventories for Ukraine since August 2021. It reflects the United States' continued commitment to supporting Ukraine and ensuring its defenders are armed with critical capabilities.

Last week President Joe Biden underscored the need for U.S. leadership against Russia's ongoing war of aggression in Ukraine and following the deadly attack against Israel by Hamas terrorists.

Biden pledged the U.S. will not waiver in support of its allies.

"American leadership is what holds the world together," Biden said in an Oval Office address last Thursday. "American alliances are what keep us, America, safe. American values are what make us a partner that other nations want to work with."

"To put all that at risk if we walk away from Ukraine, if we turn our backs on Israel, it's just not worth it," he said.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the U.S. has rallied a coalition of nations in support of Ukraine and committed more than $43.9 billion in assistance to help the country defend itself.

Biden has formally asked Congress to approve a supplemental funding request that ensures the U.S. will continue to support its allies.

The request, submitted last week, includes funds for additional weapons and equipment to help Ukraine succeed on the battlefield and shore up its economy and critical infrastructure as it defends against Russian aggression.

The request also includes funds to strengthen Israel's air defenses and replenish DOD's weaponry inventory, which the department has drawn from to help arm Israel quickly since the attacks.

Additionally, the president is requesting funds to provide humanitarian assistance for those impacted by both wars.

The request also includes funds to strengthen U.S. security in the Indo-Pacific and along the U.S. southern border.

"It's a smart investment that's going to pay dividends for American security for generations, help us keep American troops out of harm's way, help us build a world that is safer, more peaceful and more prosperous for our children and grandchildren," Biden said.

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Ukrainian Commander Meets With U.S., U.K. Military Leaders As Russia Maintains Pressure On Avdiyivka

By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service October 26, 2023

Ukrainian Commander in Chief Valeriy Zaluzhniy on October 26 discussed the situation on the battlefield in Ukraine as well as the Ukrainian military's equipment requirements during a meeting with the commander of U.S. forces in Europe and the chief of the British Defense Staff.

Zaluzhniy met with U.S. Army General Christopher Cavoli and Royal Navy Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the Ukrainian commander said on Telegram. Zaluzhniy did not say where the meeting took place, but Zaluzhniy posted a video of the meeting along with his message.

They spoke in detail about the situation on the battlefield, Ukraine's offensive and defensive operations, the situation in the most difficult areas, and the probable actions plans of Russian forces, Zaluzhniy said.

In addition, the conversation concerned the needs of Ukrainian forces in ammunition, drones, and military equipment, he said.

"We separately discussed the key issues of strengthening our air defense and covering critical infrastructure facilities in the autumn-winter period," Zaluzhniy noted.

The meeting came amid sporadic intense fighting in the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiyivka, which has largely been turned to rubble by Russian bombing, and surrounding areas of the Donetsk region.

Kyiv's troops have repelled as many as 15 attacks by Russian forces in and around Avdiyivka in the previous 24 hours, the Ukrainian armed forces said early on October 26.

Avdiyivka has been the site of Moscow's largest offensive in the war in months, and some analysts say Ukraine's supply lines have been whittled down to a narrow corridor, but Russian forces are also reportedly struggling with supplies.

Oleh Kalashnikov, press officer for Ukraine's 26th Artillery Brigade, told RFE/RL that the Russian military has a noticeable shortage of shells but continues to fight in the Bakhmut area.

"Indeed, the enemy really also has problems with shells. But he has plenty of them in our Bakhmut area. That is, the artillery shelling of our positions is continuous. Here he does not spare them," said Kalashnikov, speaking from the Bakhmut area. The most active fighting in the Bakhmut area currently is south of the city, he said.

He also emphasized that hostilities will not stop during the winter because this would give the Russian Army an opportunity to seize the initiative at the front line.

"The fighting will continue. We also heard last year that the fighting may stop for the winter, [that] there may be a pause -- there will be no pause," he said. "We will liberate our territory in any weather conditions at any time of the year."

Meanwhile, Kyiv is watching a European Union summit in Brussels where the 27-nation bloc is expected to reiterate its condemnation of Russia's war and support for Ukraine amid fears of donor fatigue among some members.

With the the war now in its 21st month, European Union leaders are expected to reaffirm their support for "Ukraine's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity" and "its inherent right of self-defense," according to the draft conclusions of the summit, seen by RFE/RL.

The document, which is not final and must still be approved by EU leaders, will also reaffirm the bloc's intention to continue to provide "strong financial, economic, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support to Ukraine and its people for as long as it takes."

The draft conclusions will also call for "further strengthening sanctions" against Russia over its aggression and will call on the European Commission to "accelerate work" on propositions on how revenues stemming directly from Russia's immobilized assets could be directed to support Ukraine and its recovery and reconstruction.

With reporting by Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-avdiyivka- russia-pressure-eu-summit-fatigue/32655113.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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Suspected Russian GPS Jamming Risks Fresh Dangers In Black Sea Region

By Georgi A. Angelov October 26, 2023

SOFIA -- An avid Bulgarian plane spotter heard odd chatter from commercial pilots preparing to land their aircraft in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, around 10 o'clock in the evening of August 31.

Tuned in to a Sofia Airport radio frequency, the plane spotter, who requested that they remain anonymous, said several pilots were speaking about problems they were experiencing with GPS, or the global positioning system, a network of U.S.-owned satellites that are used to determine locations on Earth.

The next day, September 1, it was happening again. Pilots approaching Sofia complained of the same problem, according to transcripts seen by RFE/RL's Bulgarian Service of recordings from a Sofia Airport radio channel. The plane spotter's findings were also confirmed by GPSJAM, a website documenting jamming activity.

The jamming had also happened before. Romania experienced a similar problem with its GPS system, a glitch that the army's chief of staff blamed on Russia and said posed a significant risk to shipping in the region. While Bulgarian officials are being careful not to directly accuse Russia, they have said that the problems with GPS largely date from the start of the Kremlin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Asked by RFE/RL who was behind the jamming and how Sofia is countering it, the Bulgarian Defense Ministry was circumspect, only saying that the jamming was being carried out "with radio-electronic warfare systems."

"But information about the systems themselves, the means of operation and countermeasures is classified," the Defense Ministry said.

Russia is likely behind the jamming, said Thomas Withington, an expert on electronic warfare, radar, and military communications at the London-based Royal United Services Institute, a defense and security think tank, adding that such activity poses a safety risk for shipping in the area.

'Very Dangerous'

In an interview with RFE/RL's Bulgarian Service, Withington said Russia could be attempting to protect its invading forces in Ukraine from GPS-guided weapons launched by the Ukrainian military. "It's not necessarily that the Russians are doing it on purpose, but it has consequences and a side effect is that it can be very dangerous for civilian vessels relying on satellite navigation," Withington said.

Romania explicitly warned about this risk to shipping at the end of September when General Daniel Petrescu, the chief of staff of the country's army, accused Russia of "actively and constantly" jamming ships' GPS communications in its territorial waters, causing a risk of collisions.

"War has returned to Europe. It is a war chosen by Russia, which for Ukraine is a war of national survival and a fight for Western values," he told the Euro-Atlantic Resilience Forum in Bucharest, a strategy-focused conference supported by the Romanian Foreign Ministry.

Petrescu said that the war in Ukraine has fundamentally destabilized the Black Sea region. "The Black Sea has become an area of Russian military operation," he said.

"We do not see the end of this war now, and while we admire the resilience of Ukrainian society in the face of Russian attacks, we must also prepare for a long-term confrontation with the regime of the Russian Federation," the general added.

Such electronic warfare -- the use of electronic signals to locate, intercept, and disrupt enemy operations -- has become an important, if underreported, element in Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Leaked U.S. documents, cited in June by the Royal United Services Institute, showed that Russian electronic warfare may be having a negative impact on certain U.S.-supplied weapons, known as Joint Direct Attack Munition, or JDAM.

"It is no secret that Russian land forces have deployed scores of EW (electronic warfare) systems into the Ukrainian theater of operations," that report said.

Bulgarian officials, however, have denied that GPS jamming is a serious problem. "The problems with the GPS signal are isolated incidents," Georgi Peev, director-general of BULATSA, the Bulgarian Air Navigation Service, which oversees the country's air traffic control system.

Such GPS interference "in no way compromises the security of aviation, because an alternative, ground-based [radar] system is available," Peev told RFE/RL.

Bulgaria and other countries are "monitoring the situation," Peev said, adding that they were taking precautionary steps to avert unspecified difficulties in the event of a GPS malfunction.

While the source of the jamming at Sofia Airport is still not known, some experts have speculated that Russia could be using ships in the Black Sea equipped with jamming devices.

In August, GPS interference over the Bulgarian and Romanian Black Sea coasts appeared to spike, according to data from GPSJAM. The uptick in activity occurred just a month after Russia launched what it described as military exercises in the Black Sea in an area not far from the shores of Bulgaria, which Sofia has designated its Exclusive Economic Zone, a designation that gives a state the right to explore and exploit marine resources.

'Humanitarian Corridor'

The military exercises also came in the wake of Russia's July 17 decision to unilaterally exit the UN-brokered Black Sea grain deal due to sanctions that had blocked its food and fertilizer exports.

"There is no such [military] exercise. This is just an occasion that Russia is using, and ostensibly conducting an exercise, [to try] to block the export of Ukrainian grain," Bulgarian Defense Minister Todor Tagarev said at the end of September.

Under the deal, Ukraine had managed to ship more than 32 million metric tons of grain to 45 countries over a year.

Kyiv responded to Russia's withdrawal by setting up a temporary "humanitarian corridor" for cargo vessels, and multiple ships have left Ukraine's Black Sea ports since.

Citing declassified intelligence, Britain said earlier in October that there was a risk Russia would target civilian ships travelling through this corridor in order to deter the export of Ukrainian grain. "Russia almost certainly wants to avoid openly sinking civilian ships, instead falsely laying blame on Ukraine for any attacks against civilian vessels in the Black Sea," the British Foreign Office said in a statement.

Since July, Russian attacks have damaged 130 Black Sea and Danube River ports and infrastructure facilities and have destroyed nearly 300,000 metric tons of grain, enough to feed more than 1 million people for a year, Britain said.

In September, London accused Moscow of targeting a civilian cargo ship at a port in the Black Sea with "multiple missiles," which the U.K. government said were successfully intercepted by Ukrainian defenses.

Beyond the Black Sea, jamming of global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) has been detected in areas of the Mediterranean Sea, including along the coasts of Turkey, Cyprus, and Syria, according to data from GPSJAM.

Russian warships are also operating in the Mediterranean Sea, with Moscow controlling the Tartus naval facility on Syria's Mediterranean coast, a site where experts have suggested Russia is carrying out jamming operations.

The Royal United Services Institute's Withington says he believes that much of the jamming is done by equipment deployed on Russian warships in both the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea. "What the Russian weapon does is prevent the GNSS signal from space from reaching the receiver on Earth. And it does this by emitting a lot more powerful signal than [the one] coming from space," he said.

Withington has warned that incidents in the Black Sea and the skies over Ukraine could quickly escalate if Russian jamming is not thwarted, although the task is "challenging because precision electronics are required."

Written by Tony Wesolowsky based on reporting by Georgi A. Angelov

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-avdiyivka- russia-pressure-eu-summit-fatigue/32655113.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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Additional U.S. Military Assistance for Ukraine

US Department of State

Press Statement

Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State

October 26, 2023

Today, the United States is announcing a new tranche of weapons and equipment to help Ukraine succeed on the battlefield and protect its people from Russia's brutal invasion.

This new package of arms and equipment includes air defense, artillery, anti-tank, and other capabilities which will further enhance Ukraine's capacity to defend its territory against Russian offensives while continuing its counter-offensive against Russia's forces. Ukraine's forces are fighting bravely to reclaim territory seized by Russia's forces, and this additional support will help them continue making progress. This package provides $150 million of arms and equipment authorized under previously directed drawdowns for Ukraine.

Russia started this war and could end it at any time by withdrawing its forces from Ukraine and stopping its brutal attacks, which continue to take the lives of innocent people. Until it does, the United States and the coalition we have built of more than 50 nations will continue to stand with Ukraine, and we will continue to work with Congress to help Ukraine secure its future - a future in which its people rebuild and live safely in a resilient and thriving democracy.

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Oleksiy Kuleba meets with Head of EIB office in Ukraine

President of Ukraine

26 October 2023 - 22:06

Deputy Head of the Office of the President Oleksiy Kuleba met with the Head of the Office of the European Investment Bank (EIB) in Ukraine, Mr. Jean-Erik De Zagon.

"The European Investment Bank has been providing significant and uninterrupted support to Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, responding to the urgent needs of our country. We sincerely thank our partners for such powerful assistance," Oleksiy Kuleba said.

During the meeting, the implementation of EIB's current projects and potential cooperation in the post-war reconstruction within the Ukraine Facility, being developed in close collaboration with representatives of government authorities at all levels and civil organizations, including the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, were discussed.

"The approaches to recovery require constant dialogue and shaped state policies, from spatial planning to training qualified personnel. Representatives of all branches of government are currently united in supporting community initiatives for recovery and development," the Deputy Head of the Office of the President said.

Jean-Erik De Zagon, on his part, said that Ukraine is not only fighting for its territory but also for European values. He also added that the financial support from the European Investment Bank to our country remains unwavering.

"As of today, we have already allocated over EUR 2 billion to meet Ukraine's urgent needs. In addition, we will continue financing from the EU for Ukraine Fund bolstered by contributions from EU member states and guarantees from the European Commission and has already gathered EUR 500 million. These significant investments underline our resolute and enduring commitment: we will stand shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine for as long as it needed," Jean-Erik De Zagon said.

The Head of the EIB office in Ukraine highly appreciated the decentralization process, which, despite the full-scale war, continues in Ukraine, and assured that the EIB remains committed to supporting and providing constant assistance to our country on its path to EU membership.

"Recovery and development should be based on the needs of local communities and take into account local peculiarities. This is vitally important for building a sustainable and flourishing Ukraine," he said.

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Yulia Sokolovska discusses further cooperation in developing social sphere with the head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine

President of Ukraine

26 October 2023 - 20:22

Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Yulia Sokolovska held a meeting with Head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine Maciej Janczak and his team.

Yulia Sokolovska expressed words of gratitude to Maciej Janczak for their cooperation and congratulated him on his appointment as Head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine in September of this year.

The Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine highlighted the success of their joint efforts, particularly in creating a barrier-free environment in Ukraine, initiated by First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska as part of the "Without Barriers" project. Thanks to fruitful work, including the involvement of Advisor, Presidential Commissioner for Barrier-Free Environment Tetiana Lomakina, the National Strategy for Creating a Barrier-Free Environment in Ukraine by 2030 was developed and adopted.

Due to the full-scale war with Russia in our country, the number of people with disabilities is increasing. Therefore, it is necessary to support their self-realization, career development, their involvement in social and public life, and remove possible obstacles along this path. In particular, based on Polish experience, a bill has been developed, "On Amending Certain Laws of Ukraine to Ensure the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to Work," which will be a significant step towards accessibility in Ukraine.

Work is also ongoing to develop the Social Code of Ukraine, which will change the current social security system in accordance with Ukraine's obligations to implement the Revised European Social Charter.

On his part, Maciej Janczak outlined future plans for further support to Ukraine, including assistance in its recovery and development.

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Volodymyr Zelenskyy discusses long-term support for Ukraine, implementation of Peace Formula with Mette Frederiksen

President of Ukraine

26 October 2023 - 14:58

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a phone call with Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Denmark Mette Frederiksen.

The Head of State praised the recent successful visit of Denmark's Minister of Defence Troels Lund Poulsen to Ukraine and expressed gratitude to the Danish government for their diverse and timely assistance to our country, especially for the patronage Denmark has taken over Mykolaiv.

"I was recently in Mykolaiv, where you opened a regional office, and I can say that the patronage format is working very well. Such a model of long-term cooperation greatly helps us and sends the right signal to other countries," Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

The interlocutors underscored the importance of further long-term macroeconomic support for Ukraine.

The President of Ukraine and the Prime Minister of Denmark agreed on future joint steps in regional and global formats, discussed maintaining unity in Europe and implementing the Ukrainian Peace Formula.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked Mette Frederiksen for organizing the first meeting of national security advisors to the leaders of states in Copenhagen and for Denmark's willingness to send its representative to the next meeting in this format in Malta.

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Andriy Yermak had a phone call with Jake Sullivan

President of Ukraine

26 October 2023 - 09:28

In the framework of the ongoing dialogue with the allies, Head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak had a phone call with National Security Advisor to the President of the United States Jake Sullivan.

The Head of the Office of the President conveyed words of gratitude to U.S. President Joseph Biden for his strong leadership and powerful speech in which he declared the need to stop Russia's aggression and expressed support for Ukraine.

Andriy Yermak and Jake Sullivan continued their dialogue on the issues discussed during the phone call between Presidents Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Joseph Biden held on 19 October.

The interlocutors coordinated steps to implement the agreements on joint defense production reached during the meeting between the two presidents in Washington.

The interlocutors reviewed the operational situation in different parts of the frontline, as well as the results of the use of weapons provided by Ukraine's allies to repel the Russian invasion.

The parties also continued their dialogue on the implementation of the Peace Formula. Particular attention was paid to preparations for the next meeting scheduled to take place in Malta.

Andriy Yermak conveyed gratitude to U.S. President Joseph Biden, his entire team, the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, and the American people for their strong support of Ukraine and Ukrainians in the fight for freedom, independence and democratic values in Europe.

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Ukrainians Start F-16 Training in Arizona

By Carla Babb, Ostap Yarysh October 26, 2023

Ukrainian pilots have started F-16 training in Arizona with the Arizona Air National Guard, bringing Kyiv one step closer to acquiring the U.S.-made fighter jets that Ukraine says it needs to help defend its sovereign territory and citizens from Russian troops.

U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink announced the training on X, saying, "This is an essential part of building Ukraine's air defense. The United States is proud to work with European partners to support Ukraine against Russia's brutal aggression."

A National Guard spokesperson told VOA on Thursday that the 162nd Wing of the Arizona Air National Guard in Tucson began training a small number of Ukrainian pilots this week "in F-16 fundamentals," with the training expected to last several months.

Usually, F-16 training courses last about eight months, according to the Pentagon.

The training at Morris Air National Guard Base follows English language training at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas last month. English proficiency is required to fly F-16s.

During a news conference in Brussels earlier this month, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the F-16 fighter jets could arrive in Ukraine next spring.

The vice chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force, General David Allvin, has said that the F-16 aircraft will be important for Ukraine in the long run, as the Ukrainian air force is able to fully integrate the new fighters into its military.

The news came as the United States announced that it was providing up to $150 million in additional military aid for Ukraine.

The package includes more GMLRS rockets for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, munitions for the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System, TOW anti-tank missiles, AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles and 155 mm rounds.

The availability of 155 mm rounds has raised concerns in recent days as U.S. partners Ukraine and Israel both need them to fight their wars - one against Russia's invasion, the other against Palestinian militant group Hamas, which killed hundreds of Israelis and kidnapped more than 200 others in an attack on October 7.

Washington has said it is able to support Tel Aviv's and Kyiv's military needs.

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Ukrainians Report Optimistic Outlook Despite Economic, Emotional Struggles

By VOA News October 26, 2023

Despite bleak outlooks on their emotional and financial well-being, Ukrainians still remain optimistic about their future, according to a Gallup poll released Thursday.

The pressures of war have been weighing heavily on Ukrainian citizens since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022. Many say they have been unable to afford necessities such as food and shelter, and many others report experiencing negative feelings, worry chief among them.

Living conditions in Ukraine have been challenging, with only about 38% of Ukrainians surveyed saying they are satisfied with their standard of living, and around 63% saying that living standards are getting worse.

Nearly 53% of the population surveyed said there were times in the last 12 months when they were unable to afford food for themselves or their families. About 48% of those polled said they were unable to afford shelter.

The hardships were felt most by Ukrainians who have not had more than a secondary education. This group had 20% more respondents who were unable to afford food, and 12% more who were unable to afford housing, compared to those with a higher education.

Emotional issues also remain at high levels, despite having stabilized since the end of last year.

The most frequently experienced negative emotion was worry, which was felt by more than half (53%) of respondents. Other common negative emotions were sadness (39%), stress (32%), and anger (22%).

Some of those surveyed did report positive emotions, with nearly half (48%) saying they either smiled or laughed the previous day, and 54% saying they felt enjoyment.

When asked how they would rate their lives on a scale from one to 10, with 10 being the best possible life, the average response was 4.7.

Despite this, most Ukrainians look forward to a better future. When asked to rate their expectations for their lives five years from now, the response increased to 7.7.

That optimism underscores the results of a previous Gallup poll, which found that most residents are committed to continuing the war effort until Russia is driven from Ukrainian territory.

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Somerset New Jersey, Oct. 26, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dr. DeForest Buster Soaries, Chairman and CEO of the dfree Global Foundation and Corporate Community Connections Inc., proudly announces Atlanta, GA as the next city to host the dfree Financial Freedom Movement Event. Taking place November 10 & 11, the movements flagship event, dfree FinFe$t, aims to become a bedrock of financial empowerment within the community. Dr. Soaries, whose dfree initiative garnered national attention after its feature in a CNN 90-minute documentary, is driven by his belief in the critical importance of financial wellness for Black Americans.

"The paradigm needs to shift. Financial education shouldnt just target adults, leaving their children in the dark. In partnership with the East Point/College Park Alumnae & Atlanta Suburban Alumnae Chapters of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., Summer Safe Atlanta and Prudential Financial. dfree FinFe$t is designed to be a holistic experience, inclusive of entire families. There will be dynamic presentations crafted to resonate with both parents and the youth," emphasized Soaries. This groundbreaking Family-Focused Financial event will be hosted on the campus of Georgia State University.

The event will tackle todays most enriching topics, led by an impressive list of experts speaking on

Making and Investing Money

Families Building Generational Wealth Together

Money Management Tips for Kids

Entrepreneurship

Jeremiah Dawson, CEO and Founder of Summer Safe Atlanta, a non-profit dedicated to changing the lives of Atlanta youth, affirms, "Summer Safe Atlanta is excited to partner with dfree Finfe$t. Promoting financial literacy is a key factor in reducing violence, especially among our youth. The more we know about money in our community, the less likely we feel desperate to commit criminal acts."

Prudential Financial has enjoyed a productive partnership with Dr. Soaries and the dfree movement since 2011. We are very excited about sponsoring Atlanta dfree Finfest . Our team is looking forward to connecting with Atlanta families at this unique event, says Shane Harris, Vice President of Social Responsibility and Partnerships and President, of The Prudential Foundation at Prudential Financial.

Atlanta Suburban is proud to join the dFree  Financial Freedom Movement as we collaborate to empower metro Atlanta families through financial literacy, stated Sabrina Clark, President of Atlanta Suburban Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated

The dfree FINFE$T, powered by Prudential Financial, is more than just an eventit's a festival with a purpose. It's dedicated to empowering African-American families through the power of financial literacy.

For complimentary registration and to delve deeper into what the event entails, please visit dfree.com/finfest.

About dfree Financial Freedom Movement

Founded by Dr. DeForest B. Soaries, Jr. in July 2005, the dfree Movement champions resources that educate, inspire, and bolster individuals aiming for financial independence. Its offerings include comprehensive educational tools and strategies for underserved communities to attain financial sovereignty and close the racial wealth gap. Today, dfree stands as not just a brand or a curriculum, but as a beacon of hope for countless individuals striving for a better financial future.

Attachment
NEWARK, DEL, Oct. 26, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FMI indicates that the sales of antimicrobial packaging ingredients for food packaging have significantly increased, boosting the operations of companies providing these solutions globally. In addition to this, the market expanded substantially between 2018 and 2022, with a remarkable average year-on-year growth rate of 3.1%.



Due to the higher adoption of antimicrobial packaging ingredients for food packaging among consumers and food manufacturers, the overall market value reached US$ 2,694.1 million in 2022. Moreover, the global demand for antimicrobial packaging ingredients for food packaging could reach a market value of US$ 2,810 million in 2023.

The projected CAGR of 4.3% during the forecast period from 2023 to 2033 offers excellent potential for industries producing antimicrobial packaging ingredients. Continuing this trend, the sales of antimicrobial packaging ingredients for food packaging could reach a sizeable market value of US$ 4,281 million by 2033.

Request for a sample of this research report: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-1380

The rising demand for specialist chemicals in the food packaging sector can be blamed for the rise in sales of antimicrobial packaging components. The increased understanding of the significance of food safety and the necessity of extending the shelf life of perishable food products are the main causes.

These ingredients are used to inhibit the growth of hazardous bacteria and germs in packaged goods, which lowers the risk of foodborne diseases and spoilage. So, the demand for antimicrobial packaging components is anticipated to surge in the coming days, especially from the food and beverage industry.

Key Takeaways from the Global Antimicrobial Packaging Ingredients for Food Packaging Market Study Report by FMI

Over the next ten years, the global market is projected to witness an absolute dollar increment of US$ 1,471 million.

North America, with a 26% global market share in 2022, demonstrates a persistent need for antimicrobial packaging components in its regional food sector. Among the countries around the world, the United States was figured out to be the leading market for such ingredients in 2022.

Europe follows North America in the use of antimicrobial packaging ingredients for food packaging. Germany was figured out to be the leading producer and supplier of such ingredients in Europe in the year 2022.

Since the public's knowledge of these specialty ingredients has increased, the Asia Pacific region's global market share has improved to 15% in 2022.

"As the research manager, they are delighted to present their latest findings on the Antimicrobial Packaging Ingredients for Food Packaging Market. Their comprehensive study reveals a promising future for this market, with a growing emphasis on food safety driving the demand for antimicrobial packaging ingredients. Says, Ismail Sutaria, Principal Consultant at Future Market Insights

Purchase Now to Access Comprehensive Segmented Information, Identify Key Trends, Drivers, and Challenges: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/checkout/1380

Competitive Landscape for the Antimicrobial Packaging Ingredients for Food Packaging Market Players

BioCote, Mondi Group, LINPAC Packaging, Amcor Ltd., OPLON, and Sealed Air, amongst others, are some top players in this market. Mentioned leading players providing these ingredients have consolidated the market by creating formulations that meet stringent food safety requirements while assuring optimal performance.

Innovations in antimicrobial treatments that are efficient and safe for interaction with food have been made possible by developments in food packaging technology and materials. It has boosted the trust of food producers, encouraging new players to enter the antimicrobial packaging ingredients market and diversify the market opportunities further.

The Key Players Are:

Mondi Group

BioCote

LINPAC Packaging

Reynolds Group

Dunmore Corporation

Uflex Ltd.

Coveris Holdings S.A

ALUF Plastic Inc.

Hexis S.A

WestRock Company

Others



Recent Developments

In December 2022, BASF announced the launch of a new line of antimicrobial packaging ingredients intended to satisfy the rising demand for environmentally friendly food packaging. These new chemical ingredients are biodegradable and generated from renewable resources.

In November 2022, DuPont revealed that it had purchased MicroGenics, which created a novel antimicrobial packaging technology. The firm may have access to MicroGenics' patented antibacterial technology of utilizing naturally occurring bacteria to prevent the formation of dangerous germs.

Ready to Learn About Our Approach? Explore Our Methodology: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/request-report-methodology/rep-gb-1380

Key Segmentations

By Antimicrobial Ingredient:

Organic Acids

Bacteriocins

Essential Oils

Enzymes

Metal Ions & Oxidizers

Others

By Technology:

Controlled Release Packaging

Active Packaging

By Packaging Applications:

Pouches

Cartons

Trays

Bags

Films

Cups & Lids

By End Use:

Food & Beverage

Cosmetics & Personal Care

Consumer Electronics

Healthcare

By Region:

North America

Latin America

Europe

East Asia

South Asia

Oceania

The Middle East & Africa



Author by:

Ismail Sutaria (Lead Consultant, Packaging and Materials) has over 8 years of experience in market research and consulting in the packaging & materials industry. Ismails strength lies in identifying key challenges faced by the client and offering logical and actionable insights to equip the clients with strategic decision-making power.

Ismail has been an instrumental part of several transformational consulting assignments. His key skills include competitive benchmarking, opportunity assessment, macroeconomic analysis, and business transformation advisory. Ismail is an MBA holder in Marketing and has a Bachelors Degree in Mathematics.

Ismail is a regular at industry conferences and expos and has been widely covered in electronic and print media. He is a Speaker at our upcoming Talk show - Rise of the Intelligent Packaging. Ismail has been quoted in leading publications, including the European Pharmaceutical Review and the European Adhesive Tape Association.

Explore Trending Reports of Packaging:

The global Food Packaging Market Size is expected to increase from US$ 353.7 billion in 2023 to US$ 592.8 billion by 2033, anticipated to rise at 5.3% CAGR

Food Packaging Market Size is expected to increase from US$ 353.7 billion in 2023 to US$ 592.8 billion by 2033, anticipated to rise at 5.3% CAGR The FMCG Packaging Market Share is expected to expand its roots at an average CAGR of 5.8% during the forecast period. The market is likely to hold a revenue of US$ 443.1 billion in 2023 while it is anticipated to cross a value of US$ 778.7 billion by 2033.

The global Beverage Packaging Market Scope is expected to be worth US$ 164 billion by 2033, exhibiting a CAGR of 4.2%. In 2023, the market is anticipated to be valued at US$ 108.7 billion.

Food Packaging Equipment Market Demand is expected to expand on the backdrop of growing food processing industries across the globe.

Meat, Poultry and Seafood Packaging Market Growth rising demand for food will raise the usage of packaging materials globally, which is anticipated to continually raise the use of flexible and rigid packaging solutions



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.

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SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 26, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hagens Berman urges Medical Properties Trust, Inc. (NYSE: MPW) investors who suffered substantial losses to submit your losses now.



Class Period: May 23, 2023  Aug. 17, 2023

Lead Plaintiff Deadline: Nov. 28, 2023

Visit: www.hbsslaw.com/investor-fraud/MPW

Contact An Attorney Now: MPW@hbsslaw.com

844-916-0895

Medical Properties Trust, Inc. (NYSE: MPW) Securities Fraud Class Action:

The litigation focuses on the propriety of Medical Properties Trusts statements about its recapitalization transaction (Recap Transaction) with its third largest tenant, Prospect Medical Holdings.

The complaint alleges Medical Properties Trust misrepresented and failed to disclose that: (i) the Recap Transaction was subject to regulatory approval and (ii) on or about July 20, 2023, the company had received an order from the Californias Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) placing the transaction on hold.

Investors learned the truth on Aug. 18, 2023, when the Wall Street Journal reported on Medical Properties Trust and, referring to the Recap Transaction, said that [t]he nations largest hospital landlord said an unusual transaction that provided crucial financial support for one of its biggest tenants was a done deal[] and [i]t wasnt. The WSJ further reported that on Aug. 8, 2023, the company said the transaction boosted its revenue while in possession of an order by a California state regulator putting the transaction on hold and observed that Medical Properties Trust did not disclose the regulators order when it filed its quarterly earnings report.

In response, the price of Medical Properties Trust shares fell significantly lower on Aug. 18, 2023.

Were focused on investors losses and investigating whether senior management had a duty to disclose the California regulators hold order, said Reed Kathrein, the Hagens Berman partner leading the investigation.

If you invested in Medical Properties Trust and have significant losses, or have knowledge that may assist the firms investigation, submit your losses now 

If youd like more information and answers to frequently asked questions about the Medical Properties Trust case and our investigation, read more 

Whistleblowers: Persons with non-public information regarding Medical Properties Trust should consider their options to help in the investigation or take advantage of the SEC Whistleblower program. Under the new program, whistleblowers who provide original information may receive rewards totaling up to 30 percent of any successful recovery made by the SEC. For more information, call Reed Kathrein at 844-916-0895 or email MPW@hbsslaw.com.

About Hagens Berman

Hagens Berman is a global plaintiffs rights complex litigation law firm focusing on corporate accountability through class-action law. The firm is home to a robust securities litigation practice and represents investors as well as whistleblowers, workers, consumers and others in cases achieving real results for those harmed by corporate negligence and fraud. More about the firm and its successes can be found at hbsslaw.com. Follow the firm for updates and news at @ClassActionLaw.

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Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.

Services may be performed by attorneys in any of our offices.
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 26, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP (GPM) reminds investors of the upcoming November 28, 2023 deadline to file a lead plaintiff motion in the class action filed on behalf of investors who purchased or otherwise acquired Medical Properties Trust, Inc. (MPW or the Company) (NYSE: MPW) securities between May 23, 2023 and August 17, 2023, inclusive (the Class Period).

If you suffered a loss on your MPW investments or would like to inquire about potentially pursuing claims to recover your loss under the federal securities laws, you can submit your contact information at www.glancylaw.com/cases/Medical-Properties-Trust-Inc/. You can also contact Charles H. Linehan, of GPM at 310-201-9150, Toll-Free at 888-773-9224, or via email at shareholders@glancylaw.com to learn more about your rights.

On August 18, 2023, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that the Department of Managed Health Care of the Health and Human Services Agency of the State of California (DMHC) had issued an order to put MPWs recapitalization transaction with Prospect Medical Holdings, Inc. (Prospect) on hold in order to obtain further information. The WSJ article highlighted the negative impact that halting the recapitalization transaction could have on both MPW and Prospect, especially if the deal is permanently rejected.

On this news, MPWs stock price fell $0.57, or 7.6%, to close at $6.93 per share on August 18, 2023, thereby injuring investors.

The complaint filed in this class action alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements, as well as failed to disclose material adverse facts about the Companys business, operations, and prospects. Specifically, Defendants failed to disclose to investors that: (1) the Recap Transaction was subject to regulatory approval and had in fact been placed on hold by the DMHC; (2) accordingly, MPW had misrepresented the regulatory process for the Recap Transactions approval; (3) as a result of the foregoing, MPW overstated the approval prospects and benefits of the Recap Transaction; and (4) as a result, Defendants positive statements about the Companys business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis at all relevant times.

Follow us for updates on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook.

If you purchased or otherwise acquired MPW securities during the Class Period, you may move the Court no later than November 28, 2023 to request appointment as lead plaintiff in this putative class action lawsuit. To be a member of the class action you need not take any action at this time; you may retain counsel of your choice or take no action and remain an absent member of the class action. If you wish to learn more about this class action, or if you have any questions concerning this announcement or your rights or interests with respect to the pending class action lawsuit, please contact Charles Linehan, Esquire, of GPM, 1925 Century Park East, Suite 2100, Los Angeles, California 90067 at 310-201-9150, Toll-Free at 888-773-9224, by email to shareholders@glancylaw.com, or visit our website at www.glancylaw.com. If you inquire by email please include your mailing address, telephone number and number of shares purchased.

This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules.

Contacts

Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP, Los Angeles

Charles Linehan, 310-201-9150 or 888-773-9224

shareholders@glancylaw.com

www.glancylaw.com




Wilmington, Delaware, United States, Oct. 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Transparency Market Research Inc. - The woodworking machines market was estimated to have acquired US$ 5.0 billion in 2022. It is anticipated to register a 4.7% CAGR from 2023 to 2031; by 2031, the market is likely to reach US$ 7.5 billion.



The integration of digital technology into woodworking machines is transforming the sector. Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machines have been around, but their application in intricate woodworking, like 3D carving and inlay work, is gaining momentum. This allows for precise customization and intricate detailing, expanding opportunities for artisans and niche markets.

Request Sample of the Report: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=70188

As sustainability gains importance, there is a growing niche for eco-friendly woodworking machines. These machines use energy-efficient components, generate less waste, and employ green materials. Woodworkers and manufacturers looking to meet environmentally conscious consumer demands can tap into this eco-friendly trend.

The rise of craft and artisanal markets has created opportunities for smaller, more specialized woodworking machines. These cater to hobbyists, boutique manufacturers, and custom furniture designers, enabling them to create unique, personalized pieces.

The international market for woodworking machinery is expanding, especially in developing countries. As construction and woodworking industries grow in regions like Asia and South America, a burgeoning demand for modern, efficient machinery exists.

The refurbishment and resale of used woodworking machines present opportunities for businesses specializing in reconditioning and upgrading older equipment, making it more accessible to smaller companies or those on a budget.

Key Findings of the Market Report

Saws dominate the woodworking machines market, catering to a wide range of cutting and shaping needs in woodworking applications.

Electrical operation type dominates the woodworking machines market, driven by automation and precision in modern woodworking processes.

Metal, especially aluminum, dominates the woodworking machines market for its durability and precision in crafting various wood products.



Market Trends for Woodworking Machines

Woodworking machines increasingly incorporate automation and integration, streamlining production processes and enhancing efficiency.

The market trend focuses on high precision and customization to meet the demands for unique, tailor-made wood products.

Woodworking machine manufacturers emphasize safety features and ergonomic designs to reduce the risk of accidents and improve user comfort.

As health and environmental concerns grow, advanced dust collection systems are gaining popularity, ensuring cleaner and safer working environments.

Innovations in tooling technology, such as specialized cutting tools and accessories, enhance woodworking machines' performance and versatility.



Global Market for Woodworking Machines: Regional Outlook

In North America, robust residential construction and a thriving woodworking industry drive steady market growth.

Europe emphasizes eco-friendly and precision machinery, aligning with stringent environmental regulations and high craftsmanship standards.

Asia Pacific is witnessing rapid market expansion, primarily attributed to burgeoning construction and furniture manufacturing sectors. The region's economic growth, infrastructure development, and interest in customized wood products contribute to its prominence.



Enquiry Before Buying @ https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=EB&rep_id=70188

Global Woodworking Machines Market: Key Players



The competitive landscape in the global woodworking machines market is evolving with notable dynamics. Established players such as Homag, SCM Group, and Biesse Group maintain dominance, leveraging their extensive experience and innovative product portfolios. Niche manufacturers specializing in customized, high-precision machines are carving out their space, catering to artisanal and bespoke woodworking markets.

Emerging technologies in automation and robotics are reshaping the landscape, providing new entrants with opportunities to disrupt traditional market norms. With a growing emphasis on sustainability, environmentally friendly woodworking solutions are also gaining traction, further diversifying the competitive arena and offering consumers a more comprehensive array of choices. The following companies are well-known participants in the global woodworking machines market:

BIESSE GROUP

HOMAG Group

IMA Schelling Group GmbH

Masterwood SpA

Oliver Machinery Company

Otto Martin Maschinenbau GmbH & Co. KG

Paolino Bacci

Robland

Rojek

SCM Group

Product Portfolio

Biesse Group offers an extensive product portfolio of woodworking machinery, including CNC routers, edge banders, and sanding solutions, catering to woodworking professionals and industries worldwide.

Homag Group specializes in a comprehensive range of woodworking machines, from panel processing to furniture production systems, providing innovative solutions for manufacturers and artisans.

IMA Schelling Group GmbH excels in high-precision panel saws, CNC machining centers, and automated material handling systems, serving the woodworking industry with cutting-edge solutions.



Global Woodworking Machines Market Segmentation



Product Type

Grinding Machines

Routers

Planers

Drills

Saws

Others (Lathe, Chain / Chisel Mortiser, etc.)

Operation Type

Mechanical

Electrical

Material

Aluminum

Metal

Plastic

Others (Copper, Iron, Etc.)

End-use

Furniture

Construction

Marine

Automotive

Others (Locomotive, Industrial Manufacturing, etc.)



Distribution Channel

Direct

Indirect

Region

North America

Europe

Asia Pacific

Middle East & Africa

South America



Place an Order Copy of Woodworking Machines Market Report at: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/checkout.php?rep_id=70188<ype=S

About Transparency Market Research

Transparency Market Research, a global market research company registered at Wilmington, Delaware, United States, provides custom research and consulting services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insights for thousands of decision makers. Our experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools & techniques to gather and analyses information.

Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.

Contact:

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Dublin, Oct. 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Thailand Data Center Market, Competition, Forecast & Opportunities, 2028" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The Thailand data center market is growing owing to growing data consumption. This has spurred the need to store and process data efficiently along with rising government investment to provide the physical data center space. The increasing availability of skilled workforce and operational and development cost advantage across various end-use industries have led to an increased focus on data center to overcome the situation of high data consumption. Companies are highly dependent on computer systems that drive their business operations.

The market is anticipated to be driven by the rising demand for digital age networking, are enabling businesses to progress toward digital transformation and produce new business outcomes by utilizing new digital age technologies such as the internet of things (IoT), cloud computing, and artificial intelligence (AI). Additionally, the growing demand for data and high bandwidth capacity, especially due to increasing smartphone users promotes the development of the Thailand data center market during the forecast period.



A data center is a physical location with networked computers, storage systems, and computational infrastructure that businesses utilize to store, gather, analyses, and disseminate massive quantities of data. It offers reliable storage without the glitches of portable technology, eliminating a portion of losses, reduce costs, manage data, and protect upcoming technology investments.

Data centers are a crucial component of every organization, since they are created to support corporate applications and offer services such as productivity applications, high-volume e-commerce transactions, data storage, management, backup, and recovery. Edge data centers can assist reduce latency for real-time and data-intensive workloads, including big data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and content delivery apps, enhancing overall application performance and user experience.

For enterprises that lack the space, personnel, or experience to deploy and operate all or part of their IT infrastructure on-site, managed data centers and colocation facilities are choices. Thailand's data center industry is expanding rapidly in the age of digitization.

With a predicted expansion driven by technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and analytics, the nation is ideally positioned to become a worldwide hub for data centers focusing on cloud computing.



Rapid Adoption of Cloud and Digital Transformation by Companies



People are flocking to the cloud because of its scalability and low cost. Several cloud service providers from across the world have revealed their availability zones in Thailand, particularly in locations such as Bangkok, Nonthaburi since they have strong fiber connection in addition to being close to clients.

Three Availability zones (AZs) are being built by Amazon Web Services (AWS) in Bangkok to support high availability (HA), while maintaining Low Latency. Large enterprises such as Google Cloud has announced their plans to open its first cloud region in Thailand, aiming to accelerate the country's next stage of digital economic development. While most of the large enterprises already accelerated cloud adoption, medium-sized companies and small companies embarked on their cloud journey.

Moreover, several investments by the enterprises in cloud and digital journey are aiding in developing the cloud infrastructure in Thailand. For instance, recently Huawei and Symphony Communication have signed a memorandum of understanding to accelerate cloud adoption and digital transformation supporting the Thailand government's "Thailand 4.0's" digital initiatives.

Moreover, the development of 5G infrastructure, AI, robots, and the explosion in data-intensive industries such as edge computing and the Internet of Things (IoT) have all enjoyed full support of the Thai government. All these industries produce massive volumes of data, the majority of which must go through some sort of data centers. Furthermore, as cloud-managed services are a vital part of digital transformation, their demand will expand in the recent years.

The government's efforts to transform Thailand into a global data hub have resulted in several regulations and reforms that have given the essential framework for this expansion, and more new firms are entering the market in the coming years. Therefore, the rapid adoption of cloud and digital transformation by companies are attributing the growth of the Thailand data center market.



Growth in Renewable Energy and Infrastructure



The promotion of renewable energy by the Thai government aims to lessen the country's reliance on fossil fuels and increase its contribution to mitigating the effects of global warming. Many data center service providers have invested in clean, renewable energy sources to run their existing and future facilities as a result of the rising data center power usage and the desire to reduce carbon footprint.

The development of renewable energy in Thailand comprises biomass, biogas, small and large hydropower facilities, solar, wind, and other sources. Around 9% of Thailand's electricity was produced from renewable energy as of March 2022, as a result of the instability in crude oil prices.

By 2037, the Thai government needs renewable energy to supply 30% of all energy used in the country. The objective was set to attain carbon neutrality by 2050 and net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2065. Also, the ability of service providers to boost electricity production and electrification has been made possible by the expansion in the establishment of facilities and installations of renewable energy infrastructure.

The Thailand data center industry is still in the developing stage, as its growth in the industry is more adaptable and can adopt green technologies. Besides this, the country may strengthen its position as a champion for green data centers. Hence, renewable energy and infrastructure growth offer robust opportunities in the Thailand data center market.



Growing Acquisition and Investment Among Enterprises



The Thailand data center market is expanding as a result of an increase in mergers and acquisitions and investments by local and foreign businesses. With the favorable market condition and hyperscale demand, several enterprises have seen strong potential in data centers through the rise in cloud-based services.

In August 2022, Bridge Data Centres, a majority-owned subsidiary of Chindata, successfully acquired a facility from local logistics real estate company WHA Corporation PCL in Samut Prakan, Thailand contributing growth of retail and wholesale colocation services in the Thai digital space. Also, several foreign companies have expressed interest in working with the country's advancements, including the production of electric vehicles, the installation of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, and the development of renewable energy and data centers.

Additionally, Thailand 2022 Investment Pledge for 39% worth up to USD 20 billion has attracted significant foreign direct investment (FDI), particularly in key sectors, including electronics, the supply chain for electric vehicles (EV), and data centers, making it the world's easiest place to conduct business and ranking third among ASEAN nations.

Furthermore, the BOI (Board of Investment) promotion plan (2023-2027), are offering a variety of tax advantages and other benefits to businesses who are interested to invest in data center in Thailand. The BOI promotion program offers business facilitation services, exemptions from or reductions in import tariffs, and tax vacations lasting up to eight years.

While more capital will increase the size and scale of projects as new investors come in, more data center enterprises are seeking to improve and upgrade their technology and cloud strategies. Thus, the increase in acquisitions and investments among the enterprises is fueling the growth of the Thailand data center market.

Key Attributes:

Report Attribute Details No. of Pages 70 Forecast Period 2023 - 2028 Estimated Market Value (USD) in 2023 $2.48 Billion Forecasted Market Value (USD) by 2028 $3.37 Billion Compound Annual Growth Rate 5.2% Regions Covered Thailand

Competitive Landscape



Company Profiles: Detailed analysis of the major companies present in the Thailand Data Center market.

KDDI (Thailand) Ltd.

True Internet Data Center Co., Ltd (Thailand)

CS LoxInfo Data Center

Tcc Technology Co Ltd (Thailand)

NTT (Thailand) Ltd.

G-Able Public Company Limited

AIS-CSL

Bridge Data Centers (Thailand) Ltd.

JasTel Network Co., Ltd.

ST Telemedia Thailand Pte. Ltd.

Report Scope:



Thailand Data Center Market, By Solution:

IT Infrastructure

General Infrastructure

Electrical Infrastructure

Mechanical Infrastructure

Others

Thailand Data Center Market, By Type:

Corporate

Web Hosting

Thailand Data Center Market, By End User:

Information Technology & Telecom

Government

BFSI

Healthcare

Others

Thailand Data Center Market, By Region:

Central Thailand

Eastern Thailand

Southern Thailand

Northern Thailand

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/7tdxnp

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

Attachment
SHANGHAI, China, Oct. 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- One of the most anticipated events for the textile industry Global Textile Carbon Neutral Summit 2023 took place in Shanghai, China on October 24th -25th 2023 with the aim of fostering collaboration among industry players towards sustainable growth. Cat Tuong Group (CTG) - investor of Aurora Industrial Park (Aurora IP), is the only Vietnamese representative attending the conference.



Global textile event on carbon neutrality

Global Textile Carbon Neutral Summit 2023 is a prestigious event, which gathered 150 leading brands, retailers, textile manufacturers, material suppliers as well as non-governmental organizations, consulting firms, and sustainable solution enterprises to share and exchange practical methods.

In the context of promoting a low-carbon economy and advocating clean production, the textile and apparel industry has a responsibility to reduce carbon emissions. The textile industry's trend of creating low-emission production technologies and achieving carbon neutrality calls for proactive actions at every single link in the supply chain.

By introducing new technological advancements and promoting clean production, improving energy efficiency, the textile industry can reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions, gradually working towards carbon neutrality goals.

Aurora IPs representative introduces the model of ecological textile industrial park at the event

Organizations and businesses attending the event shared sustainable solutions and exchanged practical methods to promote green, clean, and sustainable production. At the same time, this is also an opportunity for businesses to increase transparency in the supply chain, carbon emission calculation, and important data to ensure the sustainable development of the entire industry chain.

Aurora IP introduces low carbon emission solutions

Being the sole Vietnamese delegate, CTG came to the event with the goal of introducing to international guests the Aurora IP model, which specializes in low-carbon textile and garment industrial parks. The model incorporates emissions through planning and implementing necessary solutions to achieve carbon neutral status, paving way towards a net zero emissions in the entire sector in the future.

Located in the northern Nam Dinh province, the cradle of the Vietnams textile industry, Aurora IP occupies a prominent site in the Ninh Co Economic Zone, which is 14,000 hectares wide and is developed synchronous infrastructure from planning, design to construction to meet the strict requirements of the textile and dyeing process.

With solutions addressing both energy and non-energy-related challenges faced by the textile industry, Aurora IP underscores its commitment to global corporate responsibility toward the environment and society.

Specifically, for energy-relating issues, Aurora IP introduces a solution to develop centralized boilers with options for using input materials, prioritizing heating by biomass fuel sources, LPG towards LNG with specific roadmap and orientation; planning a centralized gas system to supply to each factory. Along with developing the 110kV transformer station and the 22kV medium voltage grid system, Aurora IP also actively possesses the right to purchase and sell electricity, focuses on offering solar power and clean energy solutions, and takes part in the direct electricity trading mechanism (DPPA or CPPA).

Regarding non-energy aspects (clean water supply system, wastewater treatment system, waste treatment, implementation of circular economic model), Aurora IP invests in water supply and wastewater treatment facilities to improve the efficiency of water resources. Furthermore, the industrial park picks and draws tenants from the same industry to assist in maintaining a tight supply chain. It also encourages companies to employ green materials, cut down on chemical ingredients, use electric cars and create a network of charging stations.

Grasp the development trend of the textile industry, we are paving the way for eco-industrial park with Aurora IP to resolve issues facing the whole sector and helping solidify the leading position of Vietnams textile industry in the global market. At the same time, we also deploy solutions to assist textile and apparel businesses' carbon neutrality targets while also creating opportunities for the whole supply chain to achieve net zero emissions. Our constant goal is to establish the foundation for the textile and apparel industries' sustainable development, said a representative of Cat Tuong Group.

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/5bdd9d03-ecb6-4b0c-844c-d28b34e1025c


Dublin, Oct. 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Costume Jewelry Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2023-2028" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global costume jewelry market has displayed its sparkle, achieving a significant market size of US$ 33.1 billion in 2022. Market experts predict a continued shine, with expectations of the market reaching US$ 49.3 billion by 2028. This anticipated growth represents a commendable Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 6.9% during the period from 2023 to 2028.

Understanding Costume Jewelry

Costume jewelry, often referred to as fashion jewelry, encompasses fashion accessories and decorative items crafted using a range of economical materials. These materials include beads, non-precious metals, synthetic stones, plastic, terracotta, glass, pearls, and semi-precious metals such as silver, aluminum, and brass.

Costume jewelry is known for its diverse and stylish designs, serving as a means of personal adornment and complementing current fashion trends or specific outfits. This type of jewelry adds aesthetics, enhances beauty, and provides versatility cost-effectively, including earrings, anklets, finger and nose rings, bangles, and necklaces, among other pieces.

Market Trends

Evolving fashion trends driven by rising incomes and heightened awareness of personal appearance are positively influencing the market. Additionally, a growing working population is fueling the demand for affordable accessories like costume jewelry, further driving market growth.

Manufacturers are exploring various semi-precious stones, beads, and metals to create a wide variety of costume jewelry that caters to diverse fashion needs at affordable prices, contributing to market expansion. The introduction of customized costume jewelry, which can be engraved with specific quotes, names, designs, and colors for uniqueness and emotional connection, is another factor boosting the market. Aggressive promotional activities, including celebrity endorsements and various discount offers, are also making a positive impact.

Other contributing factors include increased purchasing power, greater internet penetration, easy product availability through e-commerce platforms, innovations in jewelry packaging styles, and a rising demand for men's costume jewelry.

Key Market Segmentation

The publisher provides a comprehensive analysis of key trends within sub-segments of the global costume jewelry market. Market forecasts are available at the global, regional, and country levels from 2023 to 2028. The market is categorized based on product type, gender, and distribution channel:

Breakup by Product Type:

Rings

Necklaces and Chains

Earrings

Cufflinks and Studs

Bracelets

Others

Breakup by Gender:

Female

Male

Breakup by Distribution Channel:

Offline

Online

Regional Insights:

North America

Asia-Pacific

Europe

Latin America

Middle East and Africa

Competitive Landscape

The competitive landscape of the industry has been meticulously examined, featuring key players such as Avon Products Inc. (Natura & Co), Buckley London, Chanel, Compagnie Financiere Richemont SA, David Yurman Enterprises LLC, Gianni Versace S.r.l. (Capri Holdings Limited), Giorgio Armani S.p.A., H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB, H.Stern Jewelers, LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, Pandora A/S, Prada S.p.A., Stuller Inc., and Yanbal.

Key Questions Answered in This Report:

Global performance of the costume jewelry market to date and future projections.

Impact of COVID-19 on the global costume jewelry market.

Key regional markets and their dynamics.

Market breakdown based on product type, gender, and distribution channel.

Key driving factors and challenges in the industry.

Competitive landscape and key players in the market.

Key Attributes:

Report Attribute Details No. of Pages 143 Forecast Period 2022 - 2028 Estimated Market Value (USD) in 2022 $33.1 Billion Forecasted Market Value (USD) by 2028 $49.3 Billion Compound Annual Growth Rate 6.9% Regions Covered Global

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/yf8yjr

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

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Dublin, Oct. 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Smartphone Audio Codecs Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2023-2028" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global smartphone audio codecs market has witnessed remarkable growth, reaching a valuation of US$ 6.5 billion in 2022. Industry experts anticipate continued expansion, projecting the market to reach US$ 8.4 billion by 2028, with a notable Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 4.3% during the forecast period of 2023-2028.

Understanding Audio Codecs

Audio codecs, also known as sound codecs, play a crucial role in compressing and decompressing audio data streams to reduce bit rates and storage requirements. These codecs encompass both hardware and software components, incorporating signal routing, mixing channels, microphone and line inputs, digital-to-analog converters (DAC), and analog-to-digital converters (ADC), facilitating smoother audio transmissions. Widely used audio codec formats today include MP3, advanced audio coding (AAC), Apple lossless audio code (ALAC), free lossless audio codec (FLAC), and Windows media audio (WMA).

Market Drivers

The surge in smartphone sales, coupled with escalating mobile data traffic, serves as a pivotal factor driving the global smartphone audio codecs market. The growing popularity of music streaming services is also propelling demand for audio codecs worldwide. Additionally, as Bluetooth earphones and headphones gain widespread adoption, leading manufacturers are focusing on incorporating innovative features such as parametric equalizers, dynamic range control, noise cancellation, and 3D sound processing to expand their consumer base.

Furthermore, the industry has recently witnessed the introduction of aptX technology, capable of wirelessly transmitting 24-bit high-resolution audio. This technology reduces audio file sizes before transmission without compromising sound quality, fostering a positive market outlook for future growth.

Key Market Segmentation

The comprehensive report provides an analysis of key trends within sub-segments of the global smartphone audio codecs market, offering forecasts at global, regional, and country levels from 2023 to 2028. The market is categorized based on component, converter type, and application type:

Breakup by Component:

Hardware Mono Codecs Stereo Codecs Multi-channel Codecs

Software Non-compression Lossy Compression Lossless Compression



Breakup by Converter Type:

Analog to Digital Converter

Digital to Analog Converter

Breakup by Application Type:

iOS

Android

Regional Insights:

North America

Asia Pacific

Europe

Latin America

Middle East and Africa

Competitive Landscape

The competitive landscape of the industry has been thoroughly examined, featuring key players such as ams AG, Analog Devices, Inc., Broadcom Inc., Cirrus Logic Inc., CML Microcircuits (UK) Ltd., Dialog Semiconductor PLC, Integrated Device Technology, Inc., Maxim Integrated Products, Inc., NXP Semiconductors N.V., STMicroelectronics International N.V., and Texas Instruments Incorporated.

Key Questions Answered in This Report:

Performance of the global smartphone audio codecs market to date and future projections.

Impact of COVID-19 on the global smartphone audio codecs market.

Breakdown of the market by component, hardware product type, software compression type, converter type, and application type.

Key driving factors and challenges in the industry.

Competitive landscape and key players.

Key Attributes:

Report Attribute Details No. of Pages 150 Forecast Period 2022 - 2028 Estimated Market Value (USD) in 2022 $6.5 Billion Forecasted Market Value (USD) by 2028 $8.4 Billion Compound Annual Growth Rate 4.4% Regions Covered Global

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/7wktmx

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

Attachment
NEW YORK, Oct. 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Farfetch Limited (Farfetch or the Company) (NYSE: FTCH) and certain officers. The class action, filed in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, Southern Division, and docketed under 23-cv-02857, is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons and entities other than Defendants that purchased or otherwise acquired Farfetch securities between March 9, 2023 and August 17, 2023, both dates inclusive (the Class Period), seeking to recover damages caused by Defendants violations of the federal securities laws and to pursue remedies under Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (Exchange Act) and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder, against the Company and certain of its top officials.



If you are a shareholder who purchased or otherwise acquired Farfetch securities during the Class Period, you have until December 19, 2023 to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com . To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at newaction@pomlaw.com or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 7980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased.

[Click here for information about joining the class action]

Farfetch, together with its subsidiaries, operates a global platform for the luxury fashion industry. In addition to revenue, one of Farfetchs most important financial metrics is gross merchandise value (GMV), which the Company defines as the total dollar value of orders processed, inclusive of product value, shipping, and duty, and net of returns, value added taxes, and cancellations. According to Farfetch, the Companys GMV closely correlates with its revenue.

Farfetchs largest markets include, inter alia, the United States (U.S.) and the Peoples Republic of China (China). Despite recent softness in those markets, the Company assured investors during the Class Period that, as of the first quarter (Q1) of 2023, those markets had either recovered or were recovering and were expected to drive future revenue and GMV growth, particularly in the second quarter (Q2) of 2023.

In May 2023, Farfetch announced the commercial launch of its European partnership with footwear and clothing brand Reebok International Limited (Reebok). Reeboks owner, Authentic Brands Group, partnered with Farfetch in 2022 to operate its business in Europe, re-platform its European e-commerce sites, and drive the evolution of the brand by expanding its luxury collaboration offerings globally.

The Complaint alleges that, throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Companys business, operations, and prospects. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) Farfetch was experiencing a significant slowdown in growth in the U.S. and China; (ii) Farfetch also faced onboarding challenges impacting the launch of its Reebok partnership; (iii) Farfetch downplayed challenges it faced with respect to, and/or overstated its ability to manage, its supply chain and inventory; (iv) all the foregoing was having a significant negative impact on Farfetchs revenue and GMV growth; (v) accordingly, Farfetch was unlikely to meet market expectations for its Q2 2023 financial results or its own FY 2023 revenue guidance; and (vi) as a result, the Companys public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

On August 17, 2023, Farfetch issued a press release announcing its Q2 2023 financial results. Among other items, Farfetch reported revenue of approximately $572 million, significantly less than the market consensus of $650.71 million. Farfetch also issued an FY 2023 revenue forecast of approximately $2.5 billion, compared to the average analyst estimate of $2.8 billion and the Companys prior FY 2023 revenue forecast of $2.9 billion.

That same day, Farfetch held a conference call with investors and analysts to discuss the Companys Q2 2023 results. During that call, Company management disclosed that significant slowdowns in growth in the U.S. and China, onboarding challenges affecting the launch of the Reebok partnership, and issues with inventory and shipping had negatively impacted Farfetchs revenue and GMV for the quarter, as well forced the Company to rein in expectations for FY 2023.

Then, on August 18, 2023, media outlets reported that multiple analysts had downgraded Farfetch based on its poor Q2 2023 results and disappointing guidance for FY 2023.

Following these developments, Farfetchs Class A ordinary share price fell $2.15 per share, or 45.17%, to close at $2.61 per share on August 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.
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hagens Berman urges Farfetch Limited (NYSE: FTCH) investors who suffered substantial losses to submit your losses now.



Class Period: Mar. 9, 2023  Aug. 17, 2023

Lead Plaintiff Deadline: Dec. 19, 2023

Visit: www.hbsslaw.com/investor-fraud/FTCH

Contact An Attorney Now: FTCH@hbsslaw.com

844-916-0895

Farfetch Limited (NYSE: FTCH) Securities Fraud Class Action:

The litigation focuses on the propriety of Farfetchs statements about one of its most important metrics (gross merchandise value or GMV), which it says closely correlates with its revenue, the strength of its U.S. and China business, and the status of its touted partnership with Reebok.

The complaint alleges Farfetch made false and misleading statements and failed to disclose that: (1) Farfetch was experiencing a significant slowdown in growth in the U.S. and China; (2) Farfetch also faced onboarding challenges impacting the launch of its Reebok partnership; (3) Farfetch downplayed challenges it faced with respect to, and/or overstated its ability to, manage its supply chain and inventory; (4) all the foregoing was having a significant negative impact on Farfetchs revenue and GMV growth; and (5) accordingly, Farfetch was unlikely to meet market expectations for its Q2 2023 financial results and its FY 2023 revenue guidance.

Investors learned the truth on Aug. 17, 2023, when Farfetch reported dismal Q2 2023 financial results and slashed its FY 2023 revenue guidance. The company missed market revenue consensus estimates by about $78 million and slashed its FY revenue guidance by approximately $400 million. Farfetch attributed its disastrous performance to significant growth slowdowns in the U.S. and China, onboarding challenges affecting the launch of its Reebok partnership, and inventory and shipping issues.

In response, the price of Farfetch shares crashed about 45% lower on Aug. 18, 2023, wiping out over $700 million of shareholder value. In addition, the news prompted several analysts to downgrade the stock.

Were focused on investors losses and investigating whether senior management hid Farfetchs growth and partnership problems, said Reed Kathrein, the Hagens Berman partner leading the investigation.

If you invested in Farfetch and have significant losses, or have knowledge that may assist the firms investigation, submit your losses now. 

If youd like more information and answers to frequently asked questions about the Farfetch case and our investigation, read more 

Whistleblowers: Persons with non-public information regarding Farfetch should consider their options to help in the investigation or take advantage of the SEC Whistleblower program. Under the new program, whistleblowers who provide original information may receive rewards totaling up to 30 percent of any successful recovery made by the SEC. For more information, call Reed Kathrein at 844-916-0895 or email FTCH@hbsslaw.com.

About Hagens Berman

Hagens Berman is a global plaintiffs rights complex litigation law firm focusing on corporate accountability through class-action law. The firm is home to a robust securities litigation practice and represents investors as well as whistleblowers, workers, consumers and others in cases achieving real results for those harmed by corporate negligence and fraud. More about the firm and its successes can be found at hbsslaw.com. Follow the firm for updates and news at @ClassActionLaw.

Attorney advertising.

Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.

Services may be performed by attorneys in any of our offices.
Transaction in Own Shares

27 October 2023

               

Shell plc (the Company) announces that on 27 October 2023 it purchased the following number of Shares for cancellation.

Aggregated information on Shares purchased according to trading venue:

Date of purchase Number of Shares purchased Highest price paid



Lowest price paid



Volume weighted average price paid per share Venue Currency 27/10/2023 518,235 27.6150 26.8850 27.2856 LSE GBP 27/10/2023 - 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 Chi-X (CXE) GBP 27/10/2023 - 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 BATS (BXE) GBP 27/10/2023 738,423 32.1600 31.3000 31.7727 XAMS EUR 27/10/2023 - 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 CBOE DXE EUR 27/10/2023 - 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 TQEX EUR

These share purchases form part of the on- and off-market limbs of the Company's existing share buy-back programme previously announced on 27 July 2023.

In respect of this programme, Citigroup Global Markets Limited will make trading decisions in relation to the securities independently of the Company for a period from 27 July 2023 up to and including 27 October 2023.

The on-market limb will be effected within certain pre-set parameters and in accordance with the Companys general authority to repurchase shares on-market. The off-market limb will be effected in accordance with the Companys general authority to repurchase shares off-market pursuant to the off-market buyback contract approved by its shareholders and the pre-set parameters set out therein. The programme will be conducted in accordance with Chapter 12 of the Listing Rules and Article 5 of the Market Abuse Regulation 596/2014/EU dealing with buy-back programmes (EU MAR) and EU MAR as onshored into UK law from the end of the Brexit transition period (at 11:00 pm on 31 December 2020) through the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (as amended by the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020), and as amended, supplemented, restated, novated, substituted or replaced by the Financial Services Act, 2021 and relevant statutory instruments (including, The Market Abuse (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations (SI 2019/310)), from time to time (UK MAR) and the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1052 (the EU MAR Delegated Regulation) and the EU MAR Delegated Regulation as onshored into UK law from the end of the Brexit transition period (at 11:00 pm

on 31 December 2020) through the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (as amended by the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020), and as amended, supplemented, restated, novated, substituted or replaced by the Financial Services Act, 2021 and relevant statutory instruments (including, The Market Abuse (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations (SI 2019/310)), from time to time.

In accordance with EU MAR and UK MAR, a breakdown of the individual trades made by Citigroup Global Markets Limited on behalf of the Company as a part of the buy-back programme is detailed below.

Enquiries

Media International: +44 (0) 207 934 5550

Media Americas: +1 832 337 4335

LEI number of Shell plc: 21380068P1DRHMJ8KU70

Classification: Acquisition or disposal of the issuers own shares

Attachment
NEW YORK, Oct. 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Anywhere Real Estate Inc. (Anywhere or the Company) (NYSE: HOUS). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at newaction@pomlaw.com or 888-476-6529, ext. 7980.



The investigation concerns whether Anywhere 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 October 6, 2023, Anywhere issued a press release announc[ing] the terms of a settlement agreement the Company has entered into to settle all claims asserted against Anywhere in the Burnett and Moehrl antitrust class action litigation. Under the terms of the proposed nationwide settlement, which is subject to both preliminary and final court approval, Anywhere has agreed to provide monetary relief of $83.5 million, substantially in line with the Company's financial planning as well as injunctive relief.

On this news, Anywheres stock price fell $0.42 per share, or 7.33%, to close at $5.31 per share on October 6, 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.
Newport Beach, Oct. 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Newport Beach, California -

The Law Offices of Geoff Rill, APC, which is based in Newport Beach, CA, is urging car accident victims to get in touch with a lawyer as soon as possible to find out what their rights are. The firm offers free consultations to help victims make sure they will receive the optimum compensation and that they get the highest possible amount that they deserve from the insurance company. More about this can be gleaned from https://rill-law.com/personal-injury.

Geoff Rill says, If youve been involved in a car crash, you are at war with the insurance company for the person who caused the accident. Their sole mission is to spend as little money as possible to make you go away. When you consult with us, were happy to point you in the right direction and make sure you dont get taken advantage of by the claims department of the insurance company for the person who caused the accident.

To determine who is the party responsible for damages in a car accident, California law applies the concept of comparative negligence. In contrast to the pure negligence concept, the comparative negligence approach reduces the amount a plaintiff may be able to recover. However, it is also important to note that it is not just the law that has to be considered when determining fault. Insurance firms will also assign a blame percentage to all parties who got involved in a car accident. If both parties are equally responsible, a 50/50 split is assigned, but if one party violated a traffic law, the percentage may be closer to 70/30 that favors the plaintiff.

Geoff Rill explains, Working with your insurance company, regardless if you were at fault or not can be difficult. Because they make their money by collecting premiums and deductibles, every time someone gets in a car accident, they lose money, making it in the insurers best interest to pay car accident victims as little as possible. Unfortunately, unrepresented people pose an easy target for insurance companies. We have experience dealing with insurance agents and adjusters and will fight to earn you the maximum compensation.

It is important to note that for those who have been injured in a car accident, it is the responsibility of the victim and the personal injury lawyer to provide evidence that the other party was negligent, or the other driver failed to act with reasonable care. If they are able to prove negligence, the victim will be entitled to compensation. In addition to providing proof of negligence, the personal injury lawyer will also need to convince the insurance firm: that the defendant owed the accident victim a duty of care; that the defendant breached such duty; and that the breach occurred only because of the defendants action. More information can be obtained from https://rill-law.com/car-accident.

The court system in California will also require proof of loss, including medical costs, lost wages, and car repair bills. Also, lawyers will need to show not only actual cause, but also proximate cause.

Geoff Rill of the Law Offices of Geoff Rill, APC, has been providing personal injury attorney services since 2010 and has amassed significant experience in jury trials and has set a track record of successes in various cases in Newport Beach and surrounding areas. The Orange County Trial Lawyers Association had bestowed on him the Young Gun Trial Lawyer of the Year award in 2020. In 2022, he became a member of the prestigious American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA), which is made up of civil trial lawyers who had served as lead counsel in at least 10 jury trials. Geoff Rill is able to practice law in the US District Court for the Central and Southern Districts and in all courts in the State of California. He also received the Rising Star award from Super Lawyers in 2017 and was included in the list of the Top 10 personal injury lawyers under 40 in Southern California.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieynLMmezWI

Those who are interested in the services of a car accident lawyer can check out the Law Offices of Geoff Rill website at https://rill-law.com/about or contact them through the phone or by email.

###

For more information about Law Offices of Geoff Rill, APC, contact the company here:



Law Offices of Geoff Rill, APC

Geoff Rill

(855) 745-5529

geoff@rill-law.com

4100 Newport Place, Suite 630

Newport Beach, CA 92660
Newtown Township, Oct. 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Newtown Township, Pennsylvania -

The Myopia Management Center of Excellence is currently accepting new myopia patients. Located at 3475 West Chester Pike, Suite 100A, Newtown Square, PA 19073, the center was developed by Medical Optometry America (MOA) in collaboration with myopia expert and International Academy of Orthokeratology and Myopia Control Fellow Dr. Marie Homa-Palladino. The Center is the only one of its kind in the Southeastern Pennsylvania region dedicated exclusively to Myopia Management. It has been outfitted with the most advanced technology available to screen and treat this common eye condition that is becoming a major health issue for children around the world.

The American Academy of Ophthalmology and the World Society of Pediatric Ophthalmology & Strabismus (WSPOS) have recognized the growing incidence and severity of myopia in children as an epidemic. In its 2023 Consensus Statement, the WSPOS identifies specific interventions to slow or stop the progression of myopia. The MOA  Myopia Management Center of Excellence is one of the few centers in the area to offer the full complement of treatment options for its patients.

Many parents think of nearsightedness as a condition that just has to be tolerated, said Dr. Homa-Palladino, Director of the MOA  Myopia Management Center of Excellence. They get their children glasses or regular contact lenses, but often dont realize that myopia will worsen without proper treatment. This is especially problematic for children who develop myopia before the age of 10, experience rapid progression, or have parents or siblings who are myopic. Early detection and intervention can greatly reduce a childs risk of vision loss over the course of their lifetime and reduce the risk of serious eye diseases later in life.

Myopia, also known as nearsightedness, already affects one in every three children and the number of cases is steadily rising. The factors driving the increased incidence of myopia are children spending less time outside and increasing screen use from devices such as televisions, computer monitors, and phones. Global rates of myopia are projected to increase from 23% in 2000 to 54% by 2050 and in some Asian countries, the rates are already well over 80%.

We are the only provider in the area focused entirely on myopia management, said Dr. Homa-Palladino. The exclusivity gives patients a huge advantage when it comes to their care. This is what our Centers staff is focused on all day, every day. We have the experience and highly specific instrumentation to deliver comprehensive myopia care.

Controlling a childs myopia is about more than restoring their ability to focus and participate in the classroom, said Dr. Homa-Palladino, it is about providing a higher quality of life and greater self-confidence that will last a lifetime. The difference between us and other providers is how detailed and technically advanced our care can be because of our targeted approach to the disease. Our ability to truly personalize our treatments can make a world of difference when compared to the typical, one-size-fits-all approach.

Serving the Newtown Square, nearby communities in Delaware, Chester, Montgomery, and Bucks county, and the greater Philadelphia region, the Medical Optometry America  Myopia Management Center of Excellence is currently accepting appointments for new patients who have myopia or have a family history of myopia.

About Medical Optometry America  Myopia Management Center of Excellence

Medical Optometry America (MOA) specializes in personalized myopia treatment, focusing on individualized care to minimize long-term disease risks. Dr. Marie Homa-Palladino, the only eye care provider in Southeastern PA who has been honored as a Fellow in the prestigious International Academy of Orthokeratology and Myopia Control, leads our center and brings over 15 years of expertise to her role as Director of the Center. Recognized for advancing the field, she utilizes cutting-edge, non-surgical techniques and state-of-the-art equipment for precise custom treatments. MOA's distinctive services begin with comprehensive eye exams utilizing the most advanced technology to slow or stop myopia progression. Treatment options may include prescription eye drops (Atropine), specialty soft contact lenses, and orthokeratology lenses. For more information, visit www.MOAeyes.com or call 833.MOA.EYES (833.662.3937).

###

For more information about Medical Optometry America - Myopia Management Center of Excellence, contact the company here:



Medical Optometry America - Myopia Management Center of Excellence

Judy Chang Cody

833-662-3937

NewtownSquare@MOAeyes.com

3475 West Chester Pike Suite 100A, Newtown Square, PA 19073
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Latin Metals Inc. (Latin Metals or the Company)  (TSXV: LMS) OTCQB: LMSQF) provides details of projects in Argentina and Peru for which it is seeking partners to enter into option agreements. Latin Metals holds a diversified portfolio of mineral exploration assets in South America. The Company operates with a Prospect Generator model whereby partners are secured under option agreements to fund drilling and advanced exploration. The Company has several projects which are drill-ready and for which partners are being sought.



Cerro Bayo Gold-Silver Project, Argentina

The Cerro Bayo gold-silver property (Cerro Bayo or the Property) is a drill-ready exploration property located in the prolific Deseado Massif, Santa Cruz Province, Argentina, where exploration since 1990 has resulted in the discovery of nearly 600 million ounces of silver and around 20 million ounces of gold.

Latin Metals Cerro Bayo property is a 28,000-hectare, drill-ready project where 8 drill target areas have been defined within a 6km wide trans-tensional basin. Exploration completed to date includes property wide geological mapping, alteration mapping, magnetic survey, structural modelling, and sampling of mineralized veins and breccia bodies. Drill permitting is in progress and expected to be completed in due course. Agreements with holders of surface rights are in place across the entire property.

A presentation summarizing the project and exploration to date can be downloaded here and the Company welcomes expressions of interest.

Pursuant to an earn-in agreement (the Agreement) entered into by the Company with a wholly owned subsidiary of Barrick Gold Corporation (Barrick) (see news release dated February 7, 2022), whereby Latin Metals granted to Barrick the option to earn-up to an 85% interest in the Property (the Option), Barrick has provided notice to Latin Metals of their intention to relinquish the Option and terminate the Agreement, effective January 25, 2024. Since entering into the Agreement, Barrick has paid $513,000 to the underlying owner of the Property, $259,000 to Latin Metals, and incurred exploration expenditures of $1,848,000 on the Property, for a total investment of $2,620,000.

Latin Metals is considering several strategic options including entering into an earn-in agreement with another party.

Lacsha Copper Project, Peru

The 100%-owned Lacsha Copper Project is located in the coastal porphyry belt in Peru, which hosts multiple copper-moly and copper-gold-moly porphyry deposits. Latin Metals has completed extensive exploration over the past two years and secured a 4-year community agreement to allow exploration and drilling. The project is now drill-ready and drill-permitted.

A presentation summarizing the project and exploration to date can be downloaded here and the Company welcomes expressions of interest.

Qualified Person

The technical content of this release has been approved for disclosure by Keith J. Henderson P.Geo, a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101 and the Companys CEO. Mr. Henderson is not independent of the Company, as he is an employee of the Company and holds securities of the Company.

About Latin Metals

Latin Metals is a mineral exploration company acquiring a diversified portfolio of assets in South America. The Company operates with a Prospect Generator model focusing on the acquisition of prospective exploration properties at minimum cost, completing initial evaluation through cost-effective exploration to establish drill targets, and ultimately securing joint venture partners to fund drilling and advanced exploration. Shareholders gain exposure to the upside of a significant discovery without the dilution associated with funding the highest-risk drill-based exploration.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors of

LATIN METALS INC.

Keith Henderson

President & CEO

For further details on the Company readers are referred to the Company's web site ( www.latin-metals.com ) and its Canadian regulatory filings on SEDAR at www.sedar.com .

For further information, please contact:

Keith Henderson

Suite 890

999 West Hastings Street

Vancouver, BC, V6C 2W2

Phone: 604-638-3456

E-mail: info@latin-metals.com

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian and U.S. securities legislation, including the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation, statements regarding the negotiation of the Option Agreements and exercise of the Option for the Properties, the anticipated content, commencement, timing and cost of exploration programs in respect of the Properties and otherwise, anticipated exploration program results from exploration activities, and the Company's expectation that it will be able to enter into agreements to acquire interests in additional mineral properties, the discovery and delineation of mineral deposits/resources/reserves on the Properties, and the anticipated business plans and timing of future activities of the Company, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Often, but not always, forward looking information can be identified by words such as "pro forma", "plans", "expects", "may", "should", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", "believes", "potential" or variations of such words including negative variations thereof, and phrases that refer to certain actions, events or results that may, could, would, might or will occur or be taken or achieved. In making the forward-looking statements in this news release, the Company has applied several material assumptions, including without limitation, 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 development of the Companys Argentine projects in a timely manner, the availability of financing on suitable terms for the development, construction and continued operation of the Company projects, and the Companys ability to comply with environmental, health and safety laws.

Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Such risks and other factors include, among others, operating and technical difficulties in connection with mineral exploration and development and mine development activities at the Properties, including the geological mapping, prospecting and sampling programs being proposed for the Properties (the "Programs"), actual results of exploration activities, including the Programs, estimation or realization of mineral reserves and mineral resources, the timing and amount of estimated future production, costs of production, capital expenditures, the costs and timing of the development of new deposits, the availability of a sufficient supply of water and other materials, requirements for additional capital, future prices of precious metals and copper, changes in general economic conditions, changes in the financial markets and in the demand and market price for commodities, possible variations in ore grade or recovery rates, possible failures of plants, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated, accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry, delays or the inability of the Company to obtain any necessary permits, consents or authorizations required, including TSX-V acceptance for filing of the Option Agreements, any current or future property acquisitions, financing or other planned activities, changes in laws, regulations and policies affecting mining operations, hedging practices, currency fluctuations, title disputes or claims limitations on insurance coverage and the timing and possible outcome of pending litigation, environmental issues and liabilities, risks related to joint venture operations, and risks related to the integration of acquisitions, as well as those factors discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's latest Management Discussion and Analysis 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.sedar.com.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward looking statements. Except as otherwise required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update any of the forward-looking information in this news release or incorporated by reference herein.
Calgary, Oct. 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Premier Danielle Smith was on hand at Bow Valley College for the Premiers Scholarship Luncheon, honouring students for their exceptional academic achievements and inspirational service to our community.

The Premiers Scholarship Luncheon celebrates 26 years of supporting students to realize their academic, career, and life goals.

Todays scholarship winners are amazingly determined and able to overcome any obstacle before them. It is students like these who will continue to drive our province forward. And it is institutions like Bow Valley College who will help them obtain the skills they need to move forward into their futures with confidence and passion for the work they do. Congratulations to each student and thank you to everyone at Bow Valley College for your tireless work and support.  Danielle Smith, Premier of Alberta.

A significant fundraiser for the College, the Premiers Scholarship Luncheon has raised more than $2 million since its inception, removing financial barriers and empowering students to focus on their studies.

The generosity of our donors has changed the lives of nearly 300 remarkable students. They have overcome pressures and challenges, making their learning count by graduating with job-ready skills that will help fuel our economy.  Dr. Misheck Mwaba, President and CEO of Bow Valley College.

Faculty members choose the prestigious Premiers Scholarship recipients based on academic excellence and financial need. Six students received $3,500 each this year.

The Premiers Community Commitment Scholarship is awarded to students committed to building strong communities. Learners apply for this scholarship and are selected based on their outstanding volunteer activities. Five recipients of this award received $3,000 each this year.

This years Presenting Sponsor is Trico Homes. Pathways Alliance pledged a $25,000 matching gift challenge. Signature Sponsors include BHE Canada, DHR Global, CN, and Rogers.

 30 

About Bow Valley College

Calgary and regions only Comprehensive Community College  with 14,000 full- and part-time students, Bow Valley College helps Open Doors  Open Minds to in-demand jobs in Calgary, Alberta, and Canada. Our graduates contribute to the digital economy, careers in business, TV & film production, and serve on the frontlines of healthcare and social services. Bow Valley College invests in three applied research pillars: educational technology, social innovation, and health.

Attachment
TORONTO, Oct. 26, 2023 - Nevada Zinc Corp. ("Nevada Zinc" or the "Company") (TSX-V: NZN) announces that it has decided, at this time, to terminate the non-brokered private placement (the "Offering"), disclosed in the Company's news releases dated August 23, 2023 and August 30, 2023, and not to proceed to close a second tranche. The Board's decision to terminate the Offering is the result of the Company's current review of several financing options and the need for additional time to assess and pursue the financing structure which is optimal for the Company. Further announcements will be made in due course.



The first tranche of the Offering, disclosed by the Company on August 30, 2023, consisted of the issuance of 1,750,000 units (the "Units") at a price of $0.04 per Unit for aggregate gross proceeds of $70,000. Each Unit consisted of one (1) common share of the Company ("Common Share") and one (1) Common Share purchase warrant ("Warrant"). Each Warrant entitles the holder thereof to purchase one Common Share at a price of $0.10 for a period of eighteen (18) months from the date of issuance. Under applicable securities legislation and the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange, the securities issued in the private placement are subject to a four-month hold period, expiring on December 31, 2023. Completion of the Offering is subject to the receipt of all regulatory approvals, including final approval of the TSXV.

Directors and officers of the Company subscribed for all of the Units issued in the Offering. The participation of such directors and officers in the Offering constitutes a "related party transaction" for the purposes of Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). The Company is relying on the exemption from the requirements to obtain a formal evaluation and minority shareholder approval in connection with the insider participation in reliance on sections 5.5(a) and 5.7(1)(a) of MI 61-101, as neither the fair market value of the securities to be issued, nor the fair market value of the consideration for the securities to be issued will exceed 25% of the Company's market capitalization as calculated in accordance with MI 61-101.

About Nevada Zinc

Nevada Zinc is a development stage company focused, along with strategic partners, on the production of zinc-based products including zinc oxide and zinc based micro nutrient fertilizers from its Lone Mountain zinc deposit in Nevada. The Company will be completing project studies for the remainder of 2023 and 2024 in addition to concurrently beginning the permitting process for a zinc oxide production plant adjacent to the Lone Mountain deposit.

Additional information about the Company is available on the Company's website: www.nevadazinc.com and on the Company's SEDAR+ profile at www.sedarplus.ca.

For further information please contact:

Mike Wilson, President & CEO

T: 416-574-9075

Email: wilson.h.mike@gmail.com

Don Christie, CFO

T: 416-409-8441

Email: don@nevadazinc.com

Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release may contain forward-looking statements including but not limited to comments regarding regulatory approvals, timing and content of upcoming work programs, geological interpretations, obligations under existing and future agreements, share issuances and ownership positions, expected returns and profits from application of unproven chemical processes to the Company's mineral projects, partnerships and joint ventures, potential mineral recovery processes, etc. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and therefore, involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results relating to, among other things, subsequent tranches for ongoing financings, regulatory approvals, expected proceeds from financings, results of exploration, project development, reclamation and capital costs of the Company's mineral properties, and the Company's financial condition and prospects, could differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements. These and other factors should be considered carefully and readers should not place undue reliance on the Company's forward-looking statements. The Company will be required to complete a PEA and pre-feasibility study to confirm the project's zinc oxide production flowsheet and project economics. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement that may be made from time to time by the Company or on its behalf, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) has reviewed or accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.
/NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OR TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES/

VANCOUVER, Oct. 26, 2023 - Nevada Sunrise Metals Corp. ("Nevada Sunrise" or the "Company") (TSXV: NEV) (OTC: NVSGF) announced today the closing of the second and final tranche of the previously-reported non-brokered private placement (the "Offering", see Nevada Sunrise news releases dated August 16, 2023 and September 15, 2023) consisting of 6,110,000 units (the "Units") at a price of $0.08 per Unit, for gross proceeds of $488,800 (the "Second Tranche"). A total of 9,672,500 Units were sold in the Offering in two tranches for gross proceeds of $773,800.

Each Unit consists of one common share (a "Share") and one common share purchase warrant (a "Warrant") of the Company. One Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one Share of the Company at a price of $0.12 for a period expiring 24 months following the closing date of the Offering.

In connection with the closing of the Second Tranche, the Company paid finder's fees consisting of a total of $3,248 cash and 40,600 finder's units, to: (1) Haywood Securities Inc. - $1,148 cash and 14,350 finder's units, and (2) Canaccord Genuity Corp. - $2,100 cash and 26,250 finder's units. Finder's units are exercisable at the price of a Unit placed ($0.08) for one Share of the Company and one Warrant, with each Warrant entitling the finder to purchase one Share of the Company at a price of $0.12 for a period expiring 24 months following the closing date of the Offering. Total finder's fees paid in the Offering were $8,568 cash and 107,100 finder's units.

All securities issued in the Second Tranche of the Offering are subject to a hold period of four months plus one day from the closing date, with the hold period expiring on February 27, 2024, during which time the securities may not be traded. The securities described herein have not been registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States unless registered under the Act or unless an exemption from registration is available.

Proceeds of the Offering will be used for:

Completion of a National Instrument 43-101-compliant mineral resource estimate for the Gemini Lithium Project located in Esmeralda County, Nevada ("Gemini");

Completion of a preliminary economic assessment (or "PEA") in conjunction with the release of a maiden mineral resource estimate for Gemini;

Exploration work on the Company's mineral properties;

Other lithium property investigations, and general working capital.

About Nevada Sunrise

Nevada Sunrise is a junior mineral exploration company with a strong technical team based in Vancouver, BC, Canada, that holds interests in lithium, gold, and copper exploration projects located in the State of Nevada, USA.

Nevada Sunrise owns 100% interests in the Gemini, Jackson Wash and Badlands lithium projects, all of which are located in the Lida Valley basin in Esmeralda County, NV, located just east of the Clayton Valley basin, which hosts the only producing lithium mine in the United States operated by Albemarle Corp. at Silver Peak, NV. The Company owns Nevada water right Permit 86863, also located in the Lida Valley basin, near Lida, NV.

The Company's key gold asset is a 20.01% interest in a joint venture at the Kinsley Mountain Gold Project near Wendover, NV with CopAur Minerals Inc. Kinsley Mountain is a Carlin-style gold project hosting a National Instrument 43-101 compliant gold resource consisting of 418,000 indicated ounces of gold grading 2.63 g/t Au (4.95 million tonnes), and 117,000 inferred ounces of gold averaging 1.51 g/t Au (2.44 million tonnes), at cut-off grades ranging from 0.2 to 2.0 g/t Au 1. The Company has elected not to contribute to the 2023 exploration program at Kinsley Mountain and expects to incur dilution of its participating interest in the joint venture to an approximate 19.0% interest.

1 Technical Report on the Kinsley Project, Elko County, Nevada, U.S.A., dated June 21, 2021 with an effective date of May 5, 2021 and prepared by Michael M. Gustin, Ph.D., and Gary L. Simmons, MMSA and filed under New Placer Dome Gold Corp.'s Issuer Profile on SEDAR (www.sedar.com).

Nevada Sunrise has the right to earn a 100% interest in the Coronado VMS Project, located approximately 48 kilometers (30 miles) southeast of Winnemucca, NV.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This release may contain 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 and include disclosure of anticipated exploration activities. 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 forward looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date such statements were made. The Company expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Such factors include, among others, risks related to future plans for the calculation of a mineral resource estimate and a PEA at the Gemini Lithium Project; reliance on technical information provided by third parties on any of our exploration properties; changes in mineral project parameters as plans continue to be refined; current economic conditions; future prices of commodities; possible variations in grade or metallurgical recovery rates; failure of equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; the failure of contracted parties to perform; labor disputes and other risks of the mining industry; delays due to pandemic; delays in obtaining governmental approvals, financing or in the completion of exploration, as well as those factors discussed in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in the Company's Management Discussion and Analysis for the Nine Months ending June 30, 2023, which is available under Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com.

Although Nevada Sunrise 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. Nevada Sunrise disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE Nevada Sunrise Metals Corp.
Toronto, October 26, 2023 - Excellon Resources Inc. (TSX: EXN) (OTCQB: EXNRF) (FSE: E4X2) ("Excellon" or the "Company") announces that it has rescheduled its annual and special meeting of shareholders (the "Meeting") from November 7, 2023 to November 23, 2023. The Meeting will be held virtually at 2:00 p.m. (Toronto time). The record date for the Meeting continues to be September 25, 2023.

At the Meeting, shareholders will vote on the proposed restructuring of the Company's 5.75% secured convertible debentures announced on September 21, 2023, among other business of the Company. Meeting materials will follow in due course.

Pursuant to the rules of the Toronto Stock Exchange, the Company was required to hold its annual meeting of shareholders on or before June 30, 2023. As announced on July 20, 2023 and August 30, 2023, the Toronto Stock Exchange granted the Company extensions to the deadline for holding its annual meeting of shareholders. The Toronto Stock Exchange has granted the Company a further extension to accommodate an updated meeting date.

About Excellon

Excellon's vision is to realize opportunities through the acquisition of advanced development or producing assets with further potential to gain from an experienced management team for the benefit of our employees, communities and shareholders. The Company is advancing a portfolio of silver, base metals and precious metals assets including Kilgore, an advanced gold exploration project in Idaho; and Silver City, a high-grade epithermal silver district in Saxony, Germany with 750 years of mining history and no modern exploration.

Additional details on Excellon's properties are available at www.excellonresources.com.

For Further Information, Please Contact:

Excellon Resources Inc.

Shawn Howarth, President & Chief Executive Officer

info@excellonresources.com

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

All statements, other than statements of historical fact, contained, referenced or incorporated by reference in this news release constitute "forward-looking statements" and "forward looking information" (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation. Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as: "actively", "advance", "anticipated", "assess", "believe", "cause", "commence", "completion", "conditions", "consideration", "continues", "development", "due course", "expectation", "exploration", "extend", "extension", "flexibility", "focused", "forbearance", "forward", "further", "future", "if", "implement", "liquidity", "looking", "maturity", "may", "negotiations", "occur", "opportunities", "options", "outcome", "outstanding", "potential", "providing", "reach", "restructuring", "risk", "subject to", "to be", "update", "vision", "waive", "when", "will", and "would", or variations of such words, and similar such words, expressions or statements that certain actions, events or results can, could, may, should, to, will, would (or not) be achieved, occur, provide, result, complete or support in the future or which, by their nature, refer to future events. In some cases, forward-looking information may be stated in the present tense, such as in respect of current matters that may be continuing, or that may have a future impact or effect. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding details of the Meeting and the business to be conducted at the Meeting; and Excellon's vision and development of its core asset portfolio; and any updates to the market regarding any of the foregoing. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct, and any forward-looking statements by the Company are not guarantees of future actions, results or performance. Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions, estimates, expectations and opinions, which are considered reasonable and represent best judgment based on available facts, as of the date such statements are made. If such assumptions, estimates, expectations and opinions prove to be incorrect, actual and future results may be materially different than expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are inherently subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, contingencies and other factors which may cause the actual results or performance of the Company to be materially different from any future results or performance expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such risks, uncertainties, contingencies and other factors include, among others, the "Risk Factors" in the Company's annual information form dated March 31, 2023 (the "2023 AIF"), and the risks, uncertainties, contingencies and other factors identified in this news release, the Company's Management's Discussion and Analysis, and accompanying financial statements, for the year ended December 31, 2022 and quarters already ended in 2023, and the Company's other applicable public disclosure (collectively, "Company Disclosure"). The foregoing list of risks, uncertainties, contingencies and other factors is not exhaustive; readers should consult the more complete discussion of the Company's business, financial condition and prospects that is provided in the 2023 AIF and the other Company Disclosure. The forward-looking statements referenced or contained in this news release are expressly qualified by these Cautionary Statements as well as the Cautionary Statements in the other Company Disclosure. Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this news release (or as otherwise expressly specified) and the Company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, except as required by applicable laws.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/185369
VANCOUVER, Oct. 26, 2023 -

TSX VENTURE COMPANIES

FLUROTECH LTD. ("TEST.H")

[formerly FluroTech Ltd. ("TEST")]

BULLETIN TYPE: Transfer and New Addition to NEX, Symbol Change, Resume Trading

BULLETIN DATE: October 26, 2023

TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

Effective at the opening, Monday, October 30, 2023, the securities of FluroTech Ltd., (the "Company") will resume trading. Further to the Exchange Bulletin dated April 17, 2023, a news release was issued on October 6, 2023, announcing that the Company will not be proceeding with its proposed transaction. The transaction contemplated would have constituted a Reverse Takeover as defined under Exchange Policy 5.2.

In accordance with TSX Venture Policy 2.5, the Company has not maintained the requirements for a TSX Venture Tier 2 company. Therefore, effective at the opening on Monday, October 30, 2023, the Company's listing will transfer to NEX, the Company's Tier classification will change from Tier 2 to NEX, and the Filing and Service Office will change from Calgary to NEX.

As of October 30, 2023 the Company is subject to restrictions on share issuances and certain types of payments as set out in the NEX policies.

The trading symbol for the Company will change from TEST to TEST.H. There is no change in the Company's name, no change in its CUSIP number and no consolidation of capital. The symbol extension differentiates NEX symbols from Tier 1 or Tier 2 symbols within the TSX Venture market.

________________________________________

RIGHT SEASON INVESTMENTS CORP. ("LITT")

BULLETIN TYPE: Consolidation

BULLETIN DATE: October 26, 2023

TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

Pursuant to a resolution passed by the shareholders of the Company on October 20, 2023, the Company has consolidated its capital on a seventy (70) old for one (1) new basis. The name of the Company has not been changed.

Effective at the opening October 30, 2023, the shares of Right Season Investments Corp. will commence trading on TSX Venture Exchange on a consolidated basis. The Company is classified as a 'Financial Services - Investment Companies and Funds' company.

Post - Consolidation

Capitalization: Unlimited shares with no par value of which

2,262,956 shares are issued and outstanding

Escrow Nil shares are subject to escrow

Transfer Agent: Endeavor Trust Corporation

Trading Symbol: LITT (UNCHANGED)

CUSIP Number: 76658Q206 (NEW)

________________________________________

STALLION URANIUM CORP. ("STUD")

[formerly Stallion Discoveries Corp. ("STUD")]

BULLETIN TYPE: Name Change

BULLETIN DATE: October 26, 2023

TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

Pursuant to a resolution passed by directors on October 11, 2023, the Company has changed its name as follows. There is no consolidation of capital.

Effective at the opening October 30, 2023, the common shares of Stallion Uranium Corp. will commence trading on TSX Venture Exchange, and the common shares of Stallion Discoveries Corp. will be delisted. The Company is classified as a 'Mining' company.

Capitalization: Unlimited shares with no par value of which

109,381,286 shares are issued and outstanding

Escrow: nil common shares

Transfer Agent: Endeavor Trust Corporation

Trading Symbol: STUD (UNCHANGED)

CUSIP Number: 852919109 (NEW)

________________________________________

Sucro Limited ("SUG")

BULLETIN TYPE: New Listing-Shares

BULLETIN DATE: October 26, 2023

TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

The Prospectus of Sucro Limited ("Sucro") dated October 19, 2023 (the "Prospectus") has been filed with and accepted by the Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Saskatchewan Securities Commissions, effective October 23, 2023, pursuant to the provisions of the Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Saskatchewan Securities Acts.

The subordinate voting shares (the "SVS") of the Company will be listed and admitted to trading on TSX Venture Exchange, on the effective dates stated below. Each Proportionate Voting Shares ("PVS") is convertible into one hundred (100) SVS. Only the SVS will be listed on the Exchange.

The gross proceeds to be received by the Company for the Offering Are C$15,004,000, being 1,364,000 SVS at C$11 per SVS, plus up to an additional 15% if over-allotment option is exercised in full.

Listing Date: At the close of business (5:01 p.m. EDT) on Friday, October 27, 2023.

Commence Date: The SVS will commence trading on TSX Venture Exchange at the opening on Monday, October 30, 2023, upon confirmation of closing.

The closing of the public offering is scheduled to occur before the market opening on Monday, October 30, 2023. A further notice will be issued upon receipt of closing confirmation.

For further information, please refer to the Company's Prospectus dated October 19, 2023 available on SEDAR+ and to the Company's news releases dated October 23, 2023.

Corporate Jurisdiction: Cayman Islands

Capitalization:

Authorized: 490,000,000 SVS and 1,000,000 PVS

with a par value of US$0.0001 per SVS and US$0.001 per PVS, of which

Issued and Outstanding: 6,528,421 SVS and 167,189 PVS (not listed)

Escrowed Securities: 1,153,244 SVS and 167,189 PVS of which

115,324 SVS and 16,718 PVS are released as at the date of this bulletin

Transfer Agent: Odyssey Trust Company

Trading Symbol: SUG

CUSIP Number: G8544S107

The Company is classified as a "Sugar Manufacturing" company (NAICS: 311310).

Company Contact: Stefano D'Aniello, CFO

Company Address: 2020 Ponce de Leon Blvd., Suite 1204 Coral Gables, Florida 33134 USA Company Phone Number: (305) 901-1322

Company Email Address: sdaniello@sucro.us

Company Website: www.sucro.us

________________________________________

THE WELL TOLD COMPANY INC. ("WLCO.H")

[formerly The Well Told Company Inc. ("WLCO")

BULLETIN TYPE: Transfer and New Addition to NEX, Symbol Change, Remain Suspended

BULLETIN DATE: October 26, 2023

TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

In accordance with TSX Venture Policy 2.5, the Company has not maintained the requirements for a TSX Venture Tier 2 company. Therefore, effective at the opening on Monday, October 30, 2023, the Company's listing will transfer to NEX, the Company's Tier classification will change from Tier 2 to NEX, and the Filing and Service Office will change from Toronto to NEX.

As of October 30, 2023, the Company is subject to restrictions on share issuances and certain types of payments as set out in the NEX policies.

The trading symbol for the Company will change from WLCO to WLCO.H. There is no change in the Company's name, no change in its CUSIP number and no consolidation of capital. The symbol extension differentiates NEX symbols from Tier 1 or Tier 2 symbols within the TSX Venture market.

Further to the TSX Venture bulletin dated May 8, 2023, trading in the shares of the Company will remain suspended.

Members are prohibited from trading in the securities of the Company during the period of the suspension or until further notice.

_______________________________________

23/10/26 - TSX Venture Exchange Bulletins

TSX VENTURE COMPANIES

Adamera Minerals Corp. ("ADZ")

BULLETIN TYPE: Private Placement-Non-Brokered

BULLETIN DATE: October 26, 2023

TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation with respect to a Non-Brokered Private Placement announced on October 18, 2023.

Number of Shares: 1,160,000 flow through (FT) shares

5,000,000 non flow through shares

Purchase Price: $0.05 per FT shares

$0.05 per non FT shares

Warrants: 5,000,000 share purchase warrants to purchase 5,000,000 non FT shares

Warrant Exercise Price: $0.05 for a three-year period

Number of Placees: 10 Placees

Insider / Pro Group Participation:

Placees # of Placee (s) Aggregate # of Shares





Aggregate Existing Insider Involvement: 2 800,000 FT shares Aggregate Pro Group Involvement: N/A N/A



Aggregate Cash Amount Aggregate # of Shares Aggregate # of Warrants Finder's Fee: N/A N/A N/A



The Company issued a news release on October 25, 2023 confirming closing of the private placement. Note that in certain circumstances the Exchange may later extend the expiry date of the warrants, if they are less than the maximum permitted term.

________________________________________

ATACAMA COPPER CORPORATION ("ACOP")

BULLETIN TYPE: Halt

BULLETIN DATE: October 26, 2023

TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

Effective at 5:53 a.m. PST, October 26, 2023, trading in the shares of the Company was halted, pending news; this regulatory halt is imposed by Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada, the Market Regulator of the Exchange pursuant to the provisions of Section 10.9(1) of the Universal Market Integrity Rules.

________________________________________

AURORA SPINE CORPORATION ("ASG")

BULLETIN TYPE: Private Placement-Non-Brokered

BULLETIN DATE: October 26, 2023

TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation with respect to a Non-Brokered Private Placement announced on October 23, 2023:

Number of Shares: 6,445,939 common shares

Purchase Price: $0.30 per share

Warrants: 6,445,939 share purchase warrants to purchase 6,445,939 shares

Warrant Exercise Price: $0.50 per share for a 24-month period

Number of Placees: 14 Placees

Insider / Pro Group Participation:









Placees # of Placee (s) Aggregate # of Shares





Aggregate Existing Insider Involvement: 4 3,161,272 Aggregate Pro Group Involvement: N/A N/A



Aggregate Cash Amount Aggregate # of Shares Aggregate # of Warrants Finder's Fee: $50,700 N/A N/A



The Company issued a news release on October 23, 2023, confirming closing of the private placement. Note that in certain circumstances the Exchange may later extend the expiry date of the warrants, if they are less than the maximum permitted term.

________________________________________

BLUE STAR GOLD CORP. ("BAU")

BULLETIN TYPE: Shares for Bonuses

BULLETIN DATE: October 26, 2023

TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing the Company's proposal to issue a total of 295,354 bonus shares, which is payable over 3 tranches, at a deemed price of $0.45 per share to a Non-Arm's Length party in consideration for a renewal cash loan agreement.

For further details, please refer to the Company's news release dated October 25, 2023.

________________________________________

COMET LITHIUM CORPORATION ("CLIC")

BULLETIN TYPE: Halt

BULLETIN DATE: October 26, 2023

TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

Effective at 5:03 a.m. PST, October 26, 2023, trading in the shares of the Company was halted, pending news; this regulatory halt is imposed by Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada, the Market Regulator of the Exchange pursuant to the provisions of Section 10.9(1) of the Universal Market Integrity Rules.

________________________________________

COMET LITHIUM CORPORATION ("CLIC")

BULLETIN TYPE: Resume Trading

BULLETIN DATE: October 26, 2023

TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

Effective at 8:30 a.m. PST, October 26, 2023, shares of the Company resumed trading, an announcement having been made.

________________________________________

EARTHLABS INC. ("SPOT")

BULLETIN TYPE: Halt

BULLETIN DATE: October 26, 2023

TSX Venture Tier 1 Company

Effective at 7:52 a.m. PST, October 26, 2023, trading in the shares of the Company was halted, pending news; this regulatory halt is imposed by Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada, the Market Regulator of the Exchange pursuant to the provisions of Section 10.9(1) of the Universal Market Integrity Rules.

________________________________________

EARTHLABS INC. ("SPOT")

BULLETIN TYPE: Resume Trading

BULLETIN DATE: October 26, 2023

TSX Venture Tier 1 Company

Effective at 9:15 a.m. PST, October 26, 2023, shares of the Company resumed trading, an announcement having been made.

________________________________________

ENCORE ENERGY CORP. ("EU")

BULLETIN TYPE: Prospectus-Share Offering

BULLETIN DATE: October 26, 2023

TSX Venture Tier 1 Company

The Company's Short Form Base Shelf Prospectus dated June 20, 2023 was filed with and accepted by TSX Venture Exchange (the "Exchange"), and filed with and receipted by the British Columbia Securities Commission, pursuant to the provisions of the Securities Act (British Columbia), and the Ontario Securities Commission, pursuant to the provisions of the Securities Act (Ontario), on June 20, 2023. The Prospectus was also filed under Multilateral Instrument 11-102 Passport System in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador, Yukon, Nunavut and Northwest Territories. A receipt for the Prospectus is deemed to be issued by the regulators in each of those jurisdictions if the conditions of the Instrument have been satisfied.

Further to an at-the-market offering of shares ("ATM Distribution") made pursuant to a Prospectus Supplement dated June 26, 2023 to the Company's Short Form Base Shelf Prospectus dated June 20, 2023, the Exchange has accepted for filing documentation with respect to the sales set out below under the ATM Distribution. The Company raised aggregate gross proceeds of US$24,443,566.48 pursuant to the ATM Distribution from July 1, 2023 to September 30, 2023 as set out below.

The Exchange has been advised by the Company that sales under the ATM Distribution during the quarter ended September 30, 2023 occurred for gross proceeds of US$24,443,566.48.

Agents: Cantor Fitzgerald Canada Corporation, PI Financial Corp., Canaccord Genuity Corp., Haywood Securities Inc., Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. and Canaccord Genuity LLC and Jett Capital Advisors, LLC

Offering: 7,939,879 shares in aggregate during the quarter ended

Share Price: Varying prices during the quarter ended, with an average sale price of U.S.$3.08 per share

Agents' Warrants: None

Over-allotment Option: None

Agents' Commission: 3.0% of the gross proceeds of the Offering, being U.S.$576,091 in aggregate for the quarter ended September 30, 2023

For further information, please refer to the Company's Short Form Base Shelf Prospectus dated June 20, 2023, the Prospectus Supplement dated June 26, 2023, and the news release dated October 4, 2023 which are available under the Company's SEDAR+ profile.

________________________________________

JINHUA CAPITAL CORPORATION ("JHC")

BULLETIN TYPE: Property-Asset or Share Purchase Agreement

BULLETIN DATE: October 26, 2023

TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing a share exchange agreement (the "Agreement") dated October 6, 2023, between Jinhua Capital Corporation (the "Company") and an arm's length party (the "Vendor"). Pursuant to the terms of the Agreement, the company may acquire 1440843 B.C, which holds 100 percent legal and beneficial interest in the Indigo graphite mineral licences (the Indigo claims). The Indigo property is comprised of 32 mining claims covering approximately 1,892.5 hectares in the Saint-Michel-des-Saints municipality, Quebec. By way of Consideration, the Company will issue 8,500,000 shares at a deemed price of $0.07 per share to the Vendor's shareholders in exchange for 100 percent of the shares of the Vendor. The Property is subject to a 3% NSR in favour of an arm's length party payable on the Indigo claims. One-third of the NSR, or 1% can be purchased by the Company for $ 2,000,000. In addition, in the event that Jinhua commissions a National Instrument 43-101 technical report to determine the size of the graphite resource, if any, on the Indigo claims, an arm's length party will be entitled to cash consideration within 31calendar days of completion of the Technical Report up to a maximum amount of $6,250,000.

For further details, please refer to the Company's news release dated October 6, 2023.

________________________________________

Kermode Resources Ltd. ("KLM")

BULLETIN TYPE: Property-Asset or Share Purchase Agreement

BULLETIN DATE: October 26, 2023

TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation of an Option Purchase Agreement (the "Agreement") dated October 24, 2023, between the arm's length parties (the "Vendor") and Kermode Resources Ltd. ("the Company"). Pursuant to the Agreement, the Company has the option to purchase certain claims on the MT SICKER project located in British Columbia.

As consideration, the Company has agreed to issue 20 million common shares and pay $210,000 to the Vendor over a period of 6 years.

In addition, the vendor has a 2% royalty with a $1 Million buy-down Option to eliminate the royalty and a 5 % "Sale Participation Right" for the next ten years.

For further details, please refer to the Company's news release dated October 06, 2023 and October 25, 2023.

________________________________________

SOURCE TSX Venture Exchange
Vancouver, October 27, 2023 - Dixie Gold Inc. (TSXV:DG) ("Dixie Gold" or the "Corporation") is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement (the "Agreement") whereby it is contemplated that Dixie Gold will be acquired (the "Takeover Transaction") by ASX-listed issuer Omnia Metals Group Ltd. ("Omnia").

Under the negotiated Agreement, Omnia made binding terms to acquire 100% of the issued and outstanding common shares of Dixie Gold in exchange for 166,666,667 common shares of Omnia and a further C$3 million cash component (the "Consideration").

"We are pleased to announce this transaction and its premium. Under Mark Connelly's leadership, the team at Omnia have a demonstrated track record of being able to add material market value to compelling asset bases. The substantial premium expected to be achieved for Dixie Gold shareholders through today's announcement reflects arms-length market-confidence in the high-quality portfolio that we have patiently built over time, including our gold and lithium projects. Importantly for shareholders, that significant premium would be allocated within Dixie Gold's tight share structure, with shareholders under an approved and completed transaction expected to receive per share cash consideration greater than the last traded price of the Corporation's listed security as well as a considerable equity component to further benefit and participate in the growth of Omnia on a pro-forma basis. The management and board of Dixie Gold extends its appreciation to our long-standing shareholders, and I look forward to supporting today's announcement," stated Ryan Kalt, Chief Executive Officer of Dixie Gold.

For illustrative and informational purposes, the Consideration of the Takeover Transaction represents a premium estimated to be in excess of 600% to the last traded market price of Dixie Gold, which was C$0.09 on October 24, 2023 (as further calculated by the total cash consideration and equity component using Omnia's last traded price (AUD$0.078) on its home exchange with an AUD/CAD exchange rate of 0.8649 denominated by the outstanding capital of Dixie Gold).

Subject to all necessary approvals, it is anticipated that the Takeover Transaction contemplated under the Agreement would be implemented through a plan of arrangement under provisions of the Business Corporations Act (British Columbia) whereby Dixie Gold would, if the matter is successfully completed, become a wholly owned subsidiary of Omnia. Upon successful completion of the Takeover Transaction, the Consideration is expected to be received by Dixie Gold shareholders, with rounding to the nearest whole share if and as applicable. In addition to its proposed acquisition of the Corporation's 25,737,188 common shares outstanding, the Agreement includes provision for Omnia to acquire the Corporation's 325,000 outstanding stock options. The Corporation has no warrants outstanding.

Under the Agreement, Omnia will pay Dixie Gold a C$300,000 fee (the "Exclusivity Fee") for entering into an exclusivity period and providing certain due diligence (the "Exclusivity Period") related to the Agreement and the Takeover Transaction, unrestricted funds of which the Corporation intends to use for legal fees, professional fees, shareholder meeting costs and other expenses anticipated under the Agreement and its related Takeover Transaction, as well as for working capital purposes. Further to the Exclusivity Period, the Corporation has agreed to certain general and customary non-circumvention provisions (the "Non-Solicit Provisions"). In accordance with the preservation of fiduciary duty by the Corporation, a superior bid provision is provided for within the Agreement, which if it, or another defined breach under the Agreement, is triggered or is otherwise demonstrated, would result in the Corporation having obligation to Omnia of an amount equal to the Exclusivity Fee.

The Agreement, which was dated October 24, 2023, was duly approved by the independent directors of the Corporation and the Takeover Transaction is subject to various conditions customary in transaction matters of this kind including, as applicable but without limitation, receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals, shareholder approvals, court approval(s) and the entering into of an arrangement agreement. Customary approvals are also required on part of Omnia. There are no finders' fees payable under the Agreement nor under the Takeover Transaction.

Further material and details, inclusive of process timing, shall be forthcoming to shareholders in due and ordinary course.

Information related to the transaction will be disseminated on part of Omnia at the appropriate juncture, and at that time may be found by interested parties through the ASX website (asx.com.au), where Omnia is listed under ticker symbol OM1. Trading in the securities of Omnia have been placed under a regulatory halt, as requested by Omnia, and as further connected to matters generally described herein.

About Dixie Gold Inc.

Dixie Gold Inc. (TSXV: DG) is a publicly traded exploration company holding a portfolio of exploration projects in Canada.

For more information, please visit www.dixiegold.ca

Signed,

Ryan Kalt

Chief Executive Officer

Dixie Gold Inc.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Canadian securities laws. Some of the forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking words. Statements that are not historical in nature, including the words "anticipate," "expect," "suggest," "plan," "believe," "intend," "estimate," "target," "project," "should," "could," "would," "may," "will," "forecast" and other similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements generally include statements that are predictive in nature and depend upon or refer to future events or conditions, including, but not limited to statements related to the Corporation's business in general, the ability to complete the Transaction, including approvals necessary by both the Corporation and Omnia, and the timing of completion of the transactions contemplated by an arrangement agreement between the Corporation and Omnia, including the parties' ability to satisfy the conditions or approvals to the consummation of the transaction and the possibility of any termination of the agreement.

These statements are "forward-looking" because they are based on our current expectations about the markets we operate in, transactions contemplated but not yet completed and on various estimates and assumptions. Actual events or results may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements if known or unknown risks affect our business and transactions (including but not limited to those contemplated by the Agreement and the Takeover Transaction), or if our estimates or assumptions turn out to be inaccurate. Among the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described or projected herein include, but are not limited to, risks associated with: uncertainties with respect to the timing of the transaction; the risk that competing offers or acquisition proposals may be made; the possibility that various conditions to the consummation of the offer may not be satisfied or waived, including that a regulatory entity may prohibit, delay or refuse to grant approval for the consummation of the transaction at all or on acceptable terms or within expected timing; litigation risks, indemnification and liability. As a result, we cannot guarantee that any given forward-looking statement will materialize. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements and estimates, which speak only as of the date hereof. We assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statement contained in this press release even if new information becomes available, because of future events or for any other reason, unless required by applicable securities laws and regulations.

No Offer or Solicitation

This communication is not a proxy statement or solicitation of a proxy, consent or authorization with respect to the transaction and is not intended to and shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities or a solicitation of any vote or approval, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction

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.

Contact Info:

Ryan Kalt

Chief Executive Officer

Dixie Gold Inc.

T: 604.687.2038

E. info@dixiegold.ca

W. www.dixiegold.ca

Copyright (c) 2023 TheNewswire - All rights reserved.
Toronto, October 27, 2023 - Appia Rare Earths & Uranium Corp. (CSE: API) (OTCQX: APAAF) (FSE: A0I0) (the "Company" or "Appia") is pleased to announce that it has completed a high-definition Lidar and Orthophoto survey across an area of 1,702.50 hectares which includes the Company's priority Ionic Clay Target IV project area. Metro Cubico Engenharia LTDA (Metro) was engaged by Appia to complete the survey.

"Orthophotos are essential for the efficient management of our drill campaign as they provide high-resolution and accurate visual information with maximum detail," stated Fabricio Santos, Appia's Geophysics and Processes Manager. "Furthermore, LiDAR surveying provides a highly accurate contribution to terrain modeling, which is essential to ensure the accuracy of the geological model."





Map #1 - Digital Terrain Model (DTM) with shaded elief and Target IV Boundary



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/5416/185462_map_1_dtm_map.jpg

Metro Cubico Engenharia LTDA has been working in Brazil since 2012, and is headquartered in Sao Paulo. Metro is made up of a multidisciplinary technical team with professionals with more than 20 years of experience in various technological areas (Fixed Laser Scanner, Mobile Laser Scanner, Mapping with Drone or UAV, Georadar - Geo Penetrating Radar - GPR, Conventional Topographic Survey, Specialized Industrial Topography) among others.

Background on the PCH Project

The PCH Project is located within the Tocantins Structural Province in the Brasilia Fold Belt, more specifically, the Arenopolis Magmatic Arc. The PCH Project is 17,551.07 ha in size and located within the Goias State of Brazil. It is classified as an alkaline intrusive rock occurrence with highly anomalous REE and Niobium mineralization. This mineralization is related to alkaline lithologies of the Fazenda Buriti Plutonic Complex and the hydrothermal and surface alteration products of this complex by supergene enrichment in a tropical climate. The positive results of the recent geochemical exploration work carried out to date indicates the potential for REEs within lateritic ionic adsorption clays and Niobium.

The technical content in this news release was reviewed and approved by Mr. Don Hains, P.Geo, Consulting Geologist, and a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

About Appia Rare Earths & Uranium Corp.

Appia is a publicly traded Canadian company in the rare earth element and uranium sectors. The Company is currently focusing on delineating high-grade critical rare earth elements and gallium on the Alces Lake property, as well as exploring for high-grade uranium in the prolific Athabasca Basin on its Otherside, Loranger, North Wollaston, and Eastside properties. The Company holds the surface rights to exploration for 113,837.15 hectares (281,297.72 acres) in Saskatchewan. The Company also has a 100% interest in 12,545 hectares (31,000 acres), with rare earth element and uranium deposits over five mineralized zones in the Elliot Lake Camp, Ontario. Lastly, the Company holds the right to acquire up to a 70% interest in the PCH Ionic Adsorption Clay Project which is 17,551.07 ha. in size and located within the Goias State of Brazil. (See June 9th, 2023 Press Release - Click Here)

Appia has 130.5 million common shares outstanding, 143.3 million shares fully diluted.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: This News Release contains forward-looking statements which are typically preceded by, followed by or including the words "believes", "expects", "anticipates", "estimates", "intends", "plans" or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of future performance as they involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. We do not intend and do not assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements and shareholders are cautioned not to put undue reliance on such statements.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

For more information, visit www.appiareu.com.

As part of our ongoing effort to keep investors, interested parties and stakeholders updated, we have several communication portals. If you have any questions online (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn) please feel free to send direct messages.

To book a one-on-one 30-minute Zoom video call, please click here.

For further information, please contact:

Tom Drivas, CEO and Director: 416-546-2707, (fax) 416-218-9772 or (email) tdrivas@appiareu.com

Stephen Burega, President: (cell) 647-515-3734 or (email) sburega@appiareu.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/185462
Hulkenberg admits F1 talks amid Audi uncertainty

Nico Hulkenberg admits he had "discussions" with Sauber about a potential move to the Swiss team ahead of its future works collaboration with Audi.

Nico Hulkenberg, United States GP 2023

 Haas F1 Team / LAT

Whether Audi, the Volkswagen-owned German carmaker, will actually follow through with its 2026 works Formula 1 project is actually the subject of intense speculation at present.

A new report in Der Spiegel claims VW is analysing the situation again in detail following the recent sacking of former CEO and F1 enthusiast Markus Duesmann - and rumours of the need for a sole focus on production cars and cost-cutting.

An Audi spokesperson told us: The Formula 1 entry is based on a board resolution. The project and the timetable remain unchanged.

However, German Hulkenberg was once again connected with a potential move to Sauber-Audi as recently as this week, with the rumours suggesting he would see out his 2024 contract with Haas before making the move for 2025.

There were discussions, the 36-year-old admitted to Sky Deutschland in Mexico.

I know Andi (Andreas) Seidl very well from his Porsche and Formula 1 days. We get along well, that's no secret, Hulkenberg said.

There were discussions, there was interest. At the end of the day it didn't happen.

However, Hulkenberg admits that the talks could fire up again once he gets into his Haas contract extension next year.

I think it will be very interesting next year and that the cards will be reshuffled, said the veteran of 200 grands prix. "A lot will happen in the driver carousel.

It always depends on how good the package that you have is - how well you can express yourself or not.

The current rumours of indecision about the project and the spectre of VW-powered cost-cutting will also not be music to the ears of potential drivers for the new Sauber-Audi pairing.

When Audi finally gets started in 2026, it's still up in the air whether they will be a top team or not, Hulkenberg said. "They have to prove that and achieve it first.
Here comes Mr Stickz with Odo to change love story

Graphic Showbiz Showbiz News Oct - 27 - 2023 , 06:09

19 years ago, Afrobeats musician, Mr Stickz started music eventually made a decision to exit the music scene to pursue other ventures of interest.

The decision landed him in the position of a successful entrepreneur in fashion as a beauty consultant and entrepreneur.

For almost over a decade, he made success on the field of product manufacturing, distribution and sales, which currently spans from hair care and household cleaning products among others.

He also founded the Stickz Beauty Plug where he mentors and tutors uncountable youths in Ghana.

But the flourishing business and its attendant success was not enough to push stick away from his first love of music. Mr Stickz is back and he didnt come empty but with a full package in a song titled Odo.

On why he came back to his first love of music making, M Stickz said that he believes in Gods timing. I have done an introspection and come to the realisation that I cant allow this God given talent to go waste.

However, its the absolute best decision I made 19 years back when I was in school. Being a beautician actually opens a lot of doors for me, and creates more opportunities for me. Life is not a bed of roses for some of us because the African environment has always been tough so one needs to find a way out to learn or create something viable to sustain them.

And for me, the beauty world did it for me and also allowed me to implement my creativity to become a lucrative business today, he said.

Mr Stickzs new single, Odo means love in the Ghanaian Akan language. Even though Stickz has Yoruba and Swahili lineage, he said music is a universal language and doesnt want to be limited to a particular culture.

For music lovers across the world, Odo is another beautiful piece on love that is sure to bring back smiles on the faces of those who might have lost themselves in the world of love.

With Odo, Mr Stickz will surely mark himself as an Afrobeat sensation making waves in Ghana, Nigeria, Ivory Coast and globally.

The song is available on all digital platforms including Boomplay, Tidal, Apple Music and Spotify.

For more information ahead of his forthcoming EP, kindly follow him on all social media platforms: @man.like.stickz & @stickzbeautyplug.
China, U.S. need in-depth, comprehensive dialogue -- China's top diplomat

Xinhua) 10:56, October 27, 2023

WASHINGTON, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here Thursday that China and the United States need to have dialogue.

Not only should China and the United States resume dialogue, the dialogue should be in-depth and comprehensive so that the two sides can increase mutual understanding, reduce misunderstanding and misjudgment, constantly seek to expand common ground and pursue cooperation that will benefit both sides, said Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

Wang made the remarks when he and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken briefly appeared in front of the press before they held a meeting.

(Web editor: Tian Yi, Liang Jun)
Why are Ghanaians so different from...?

Brig Gen Dan Frimpong Opinion Oct - 27 - 2023 , 08:54

Ghanas foremost playwright James Ebo Whyte, aka Uncle Ebo, features on Monday and Thursday mornings on his programme Food for Thought on Joy FM.

On Monday, October 9, 2023, he concluded his piece with a quote from a question asked by a Dutch hotelier in Amsterdam.

However, before the question, he told two related stories.

He started with the story of a young lady Joana, who, soon after leaving the university, landed a good job with the German organisation GIZ.

GIZ (German Agency for International Cooperation) is an international enterprise owned by the German government, operating in many fields in over 130 countries.

However, Joanas honeymoon apprenticeship as an assistant Human Resource (HR) Manager was short-lived, as her boss left the organisation before she could settle down.

She, therefore, found herself virtually thrown into the deep end of the pool, with her required to make major decisions on her own.

Sooner than later, Joanas first test/task was to organise a meeting in Accra.

One of the topics to be spoken on was a course she had taken at the university.

She, therefore, asked her employers if she could have her lecturer as a resource person/facilitator for the programme.

Following a positive response, she happily told her lecturer about the offer.

He was elated, as the opportunity, among others, would oil his pocket with a healthy remuneration!

Advice

When it came to his turn to contribute to the programme, the lecturer decided to advise Joana.

He started by stating how lucky she was to have got such a good job soon after leaving the university, considering the high graduate unemployment rate in Ghana.

He advised her to work hard and not behave like the typical Ghanaian with a half-hearted approach to work.

He continued by asking her to be mindful of punctuality and not be late for functions as most Ghanaians do.

Under the guise of advising her, the lecturer rambled on saying all the negative things about the Ghanaian attitude and asking Joana to desist from them.

One could hear a pin drop in the silence that engulfed the hall as the audience cast wistful glances of disapproval among themselves!

When the lecturer ended, there were murmurs of disapproval of his lacklustre performance.

Indeed, the Chairman did not mince words of his disapproval when he asked, So what did you teach your student/s in the university?

The next meeting Joana had to organise was at Elmina.

This time, she decided to replace her male lecturer with a female lecturer who had taught her.

Elmina lecture

For lunch at the lecture at Elmina, Joana innovatively decided to add fufu and goat meat light soup, aka aponkye nkrakra, to the menu.

When she saw the heavy patronage of the fufu, especially the goat meat, she quickly went to her madam lecturer who was busy chatting with a friend, to go serve herself before the goat meat was finished.

Madam said Okay and continued chatting.

Joana then left the dining hall for the lecture hall to prepare for the next lecture after lunch.

Meanwhile, as Joana had anticipated, the heavy patronage of the fufu and goat light soup had resulted in the total demolition of the goat meat!

Before the next lecture started, the angry Madam Lecturer, in the full glare of organisers/participants, confronted Joana and reprimanded her, asking what HR person she was if she could not organise ordinary fufu and goat light soup with enough goat meat for everybody!

Again, there was disapproval from the audience at what they considered an unwarranted attack on Joana! Uncle Ebos last story happened in Amsterdam, Holland.

Hotelier

A Ghanaian hotelier in Amsterdam (Kwadwo) went out of his way to host Ghanaian guests anytime they came around, with excellent service in the hotel.

Incidentally, his assistant was a Nigerian (Tunde) who extended similar courtesies to Nigerians.

One day, the Dutch manager asked Kwadwo a question which took him by surprise.

He asked, Why are you Ghanaians so different from Nigerians?

Asked why such a question, the Dutch manager explained that he had observed over time that while the Ghanaians praised Kwadwo for his exceptional service when they were with him, behind his back, they asked the Dutch manager to sack Kwadwo for inefficiency!

On the other hand, the Nigerian clients constantly asked for promotion for Tunde, hence his question!

Discussion

Some people I have chatted with on the lines of Uncle Ebos story are initially dismissive of it because it is negative!

However, after a few personal examples by others in support of Uncle Ebos story, recounting their own experiences both in and outside Ghana, the initial nationalistic enthusiasm fades away quickly, giving way to reality.

If we are not happy with the Dutch managers comparison between Ghanaians and Nigerians because it casts us in a bad light, why do we continue with the bad things we do?

A recent video clip of the famous waterfalls at Kintampo saddened me.

For a country which prides itself on a monopoly of first-ever to do many things, the Kintampo waterfalls could be the first-ever waterfall to have cascading brown clay water, the result of galamsey!

Again, this has been officially denied, just as was done about Rivers Ankobrah, Birim, Offin and Pra initially.

Perhaps, Ghana may boast to be the first-ever country to convert its rivers into poisonous sludges of mercury, lead arsenic and cyanide.

In a scathing attack, while defending his countrymen as contributing to galamsey in Ghana, the Chinese Ambassador asked why there is no galamsey in South Africa which has more gold than Ghana.

He told Ghanaians in the face to blame themselves, a modern-day rendition of remove the plank from your eyes, before removing the speck in your neighbours eye! (Matthew 7:12)

In the 1965 Summer graduation of cadets at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, UK, Queen Elizabeth told the cadets: Remember always that the best and purest form of leadership is by example!

Can our leaders tell God when/if they pray that they lead by example?

Leadership, lead! Fellow Ghanaians, wake up!

The writer is the former CEO of the African Peace Support Trainers Association, Nairobi, Kenya/Council Chair Family Health University College, Accra.
Two fronts to modern warfare  "HamaStudios"

Aviel Avraham Opinion Oct - 26 - 2023 , 21:14

In today's wars, every battle has two fronts. The first being the military battlefield, where the key elements are soldiers, weaponry and ammunition.

The spread of terrorism, and the development of long-range projectiles have pushed the front lines deep into the homeland, bringing the threats closer to civilians.

The other, inextricably linked to the first front, is the arena of public opinion, where a fierce battle rages for international legitimacy and control of the narrative.

This is a fight for the hearts and minds of the public and of members of the international community. In this domain, the key elements are the written word, verbal skirmishes and visual materials.

There is an infinite and unbridgeable moral abyss between Israel and Hamas on every level that is fully reflected in public diplomacy.

Israel bases its public diplomacy efforts on truth, authenticity and veracity. As a result, Israel is often at a disadvantage, having to pay with precious time for its insistence on obtaining the facts before releasing an official statement.

Hamas has no regard for truth or facts. Moreover, this terrorist organization is highly adept at manipulation, and willing to use any means at its disposal.

One of the most recent examples concerns the Al Ahli hospital in Gaza. As soon as the hospital was reported to have been severely damaged, Hamas immediately accused Israel. In spite of growing international outrage, Israel took the necessary time to confirm the facts before producing a statement on the matter.

At the end of that investigation, it was revealed that the hospital itself was not hit by any weapon, rather its parking lot was, and that this open area was hit by an Islamic Jihad rocket launched against Israel which fell short and landed in Gaza.

However, it had taken an all-night investigation before credible proof could be provided that Israel was not at fault and that most of the original claims were false. That time gap was utilized by Hamas to incite Palestinians to violence and spread false information around the globe. World leaders fell for their lies.

Palestinian use of fabrications is well known and began long before the current war. Their infamous propaganda machine has been dubbed "Pallywood," signifying deceptions worthy of a full-fledged Palestinian Hollywood. Pallywood has become an industry dedicated to promoting false context and misinformation, while creating an alternative reality. In this imaginary version of the world, the aggressors are presented as victims and the victims as aggressors.

Hamas has gone even further in perpetrating fraud, in what could be termed "HamaStudios." This terrorist organization fabricates, misleads and deceives, circulating blatant lies, falsely attributing photos, contriving scenes of counterfeit Israeli misdeeds and engaging in other forms of sophistry. Hamas intensified its efforts following its deadly invasion of Israel, churning out endless Goebbels-worthy disinformation.

Many people - naively and even willingly - swallow Hamass bait. Accepting deceitful imagery is not only immoral, but can also pose a danger to life.

Here are a few of the latest examples:

During their October 7th invasion, Hamas militants gleefully filmed themselves murdering and mutilating Israeli civilians, even posting clips on social media, sometimes by using the victims own phones. Yet in spite of the existence of what for any normal society would constitute irrefutable evidence of a massacre (extensive documentation made by the terrorists' own bodycams, security camera footage, livestreaming by victims, hundreds of photos, and huge amounts eyewitness testimony), Hamas spokesman Basem Naim, blatantly lied on Sky News, stating "we did not kill any civilians," calling the hard evidence "Israeli propaganda" in a fashion reminiscent of classic Holocaust denial.

US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar retweeted a horrific picture of dead children in burial shrouds with the hashtag "#Gazagenocide" and the subheading: 614 Palestinian children murdered by the Israeli IDF forces." Simple photo recognition technology revealed these were children killed in Eastern Ghouta, Syria, in 2013, most likely by Syrian government forces. The photo has nothing whatsoever to do with Gaza or the children there. Rep. Ilhan Omar has yet to apologize for co-opting the image of dead Syrian children to spread dangerous blood libels.

After Israel released some of the gut-wrenching photos of Israel babies horrifically burned in the invasion, Hamas and its parrots tried to discredit the images, including by juxtaposing the picture of a dog to that of an infant.

Hamas perpetrates these frauds even when it jeopardizes the lives of Palestinians. Israel recently called on inhabitants of northern Gaza to evacuate south, away from the battleground. Hamas ordered them to stay put, saying that Israel's attempt to prevent harm to civilians was "fake propaganda." Hamas then tried to prevent evacuation by blocking roads, and even produced fictitious clips of alleged Israeli bombings of the fleeing residents.

One simply cannot believe what one hears or sees when the source is Hamas.

A US pastor of Egyptian origin has often shared how during battles between Israel and the Arab states, his father listened to Israeli radio stations instead of the Arab ones. When asked by his family why he listened to Israelis, he replied that if you want to know what is really going on, that is what you need to do.

It is dismaying to see thousands of demonstrators protesting against Israel in favor of Hamas after Israelis young and old were raped, abducted, burned alive and murdered. Consciously or unconsciously, deliberately or foolishly, such rallies express support for these atrocities against innocent civilians.

Some protestors are overt antisemites, chanting anti-Jewish epithets, even displaying swastikas.

Others may simply be uninformed consumers of highly partisan media outlets who have been brainwashed by Hamas and Palestinian propaganda. But ignorance does not excuse their moral lapse. Willful blindness cannot become the basis for exculpation.

We must actively fight these dangerous and false narratives. History has shown us the short distance between deceitful rhetoric and the burning of flesh.

The truth shall set us free. And hopefully, it shall also keep us safe.

The writer, Aviel Avraham is a Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of Israel, Accra
Atlantic Lithium mining lease terms best for Ghana - Jinapor

Timothy Ngnenbe Oct - 27 - 2023 , 10:31

The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, says the mining lease granted to Barari DV Ltd, a subsidiary of Atlantic Lithium, for the exploitation of lithium at the Ewoyaa concessions in the Central Region has the best terms for Ghana and will be strictly enforced.

Mr Jinapor however, stressed that the mining lease would be taken through the required Parliamentary ratification and other regulatory requirements before the company begins operations.

Consequently, he described as "palpably false" suggestions that the company would commence mining operations in the first quarter of next next year without Parliamentary ratification.

The minister, who led a Ghanaian delegation to the ongoing China Mining Conference and Exhibition at Tianjin, China, told Graphic Online's Timothy Ngnenbe on Friday (Oct 27, 2023) that the company would not commence operations until the mining lease granted it was ratified by Parliament in accordance with the provisions of Article 268 (1) of the 1992 Constitution and section 5(4) of the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703).

The minister stated this in response to a press statement by the Minority in Parliament and concerns raised by a section of the public that Barari DV Ltd was set commence work without ratification of their mining lease.

In particular, the Minority in Parliament had, in a statement dated October 24, called on the government to submit the mining lease to Parliament for ratification.

Due diligence

He explained that after acquiring the mining lease, the company needed to go through other processes to obtain the required rights and permits before mining operations could commence.

"These include ratification of the mining lease by Parliament, the acquisition of environmental permit from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the acquisition of an operating permit from the Minerals Commission," he said.



While commending members of the public for showing interest in the transactions for the exploitation and management of the countrys natural resources, the minister stressed that the processes leading to the granting of the Lithium mining lease was thorough and would not compromise on any constitutional requirements.

In that regard, he described the call by the statement by the Minority in Parliament as "moot and uncalled for."

"The government at all material times, has been mindful of of this constitutional provision as interpreted by the Supreme Court, which is why as aforesaid, such condition precedent is expressly captured in the lease under reference, and is already committed to its full and strict compliance," he said.

Best deal

It would be recalled that at the ceremony held to present the mining lease to Barari DV Ltd, the minister indicated that there had been an increased royalty rate from the standard five per cent to 10 per cent.

He had also said there had been an increase in state free carried interest from 10 per cent to 13 per cent.

Among other things, he had announced additional government participation though the acquisition of six per cent shares in the company and 3.06 per cent shares in its holding company which was listed on the Australian and London Stock Exchanges, by the Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF).

Other significant aspects of the terms agreed in the lease are one per cent growth and stability levy on revenue, one per cent community development fund and strict compliance to prevailing and future local content laws and participation across the entire value chain of the lithium industry.

Mr Jinapor added said the terms negotiated by the government in respect of the Barari DV Ltd lithium mining lease was the best for the country and one of the best on the African continent and beyond.

"These terms are by far, better than the terms of mining leases granted for exploitation of green minerals in other jurisdictions, including those with large deposits for these minerals. For instance, Australia, Mali, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Zimbabwe, which have bigger deposits than Ghana, have royalties rates of not more than six per cent whereas Ghana has 10 per cent," he said.

Background

Per the existing regime, when a mining lease is granted for the exploitation of any mineral, by Section 43 of Act 703, the government is entitled to 10 per cent free carried interest in the mining operations.

Consequently, the government is entitled to 10 per cent free carried interest in all the existing large scale mining companies in the country.

By Section 25 of Act 703, as amended by the Minerals and Mining (Amendment) Act, 2015 (Act 900),mining companies are required to pay royalties of five per cent to the state in addition to other taxes and levies.

It was in a bid to improve this terms that the government approved a policy for the exploitation, management and utilisation of green minerals in the country.

On July 27, this year, Cabinet approved the policy which contained proposals for increased state and Ghanaian participation in all green minerals operations to a minimum of 30 per cent; enhanced local content and local participation, including listing on the Ghana Stock Exchange; and value addition.
Ga-Dangme bids Naa Omaedru who reigned for 59 years farewell

Vincent Amenuveve Oct - 27 - 2023 , 20:37

Hundreds of mourners and people from all walks of life within and outside Ghana will converge on the Ga Mantse Palace grounds for an interdenominational burial service for the late Ga Manye, Naa Dedei Omaedru III.

Though a burial service,the event is expected to be colourful,creating room for a cultural extravaganza where diverse

cultures from the 16 regions will be displayed amid traditional drumming and dancing.

As part of the rich package,the various chiefs and queenmothers will be in their full regalia.

Eminent chiefs from kingdoms in the country namely; Ashanti, Dagbon and others,are expected to add to the occasion and give it the feel of a traditional burial service.

Essentially, the day will enhance a cultural exchange between the Ga State and other chiefs from the regions.

The service will also have an international appeal as visitors from Togo, Benin, and the United Kingdom,among others, are billed to witness the event.

The Ga Mantse, King Tackie Teiko Tsuru II,and his retinue, members of the Ga Traditional Council,other chiefs and queenmothers from the six paramountcies of the Ga Traditional Area namely: Sempe, Akumadjan, Gbese, Abola,Otublohum and Asere will host the guests at the burial service grounds located at the forecourt of the Ga Mantse Palace.

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2 Companies to produce anti-snake venom

Emmanuel Ebo Hawkson Oct - 27 - 2023 , 07:20

A Ghana based vaccine manufacturer, Atlantic LifeSciences Limited, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a leading Indian biological company, Vins Bioproducts, to produce anti-snake venom in Ghana.

Per the agreement, Vins Bioproducts will supply bulk quantities of the anti-snake venom for Atlantic LifeSciences to fill and finish production of the serum in Ghana.

It is expected that the deal between the two entities will reduce the huge foreign exchange the government expends on importing anti-snake venom.

Ghana thus will become the first country in West Africa to produce and package anti-snake venom for local use and export.

Present at the signing ceremony was the Presidential Advisor on Health, Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Foods and Drugs Authority (FDA), Delese Mimi Darko.

Public health

Speaking at the signing of the MoU at the National Vaccine Institute, Dr Nsiah Asare said the production of the anti-snake venom would promote public health in the country and also deepen the governments efforts to make Ghana the hub of vaccine production in Africa.

The production of vaccines locally is not a fluke, and the ready-to-fill anti-snake venom bulk is already in the country.

Ghana is steadily becoming a destination for global medical manufacturers, he said.

The Chief Executive Officer of Atlantic Lifesciences, Dhananjay Tripathi, said snake bite was a neglected condition that had plagued many people, especially those in rural areas.

He said Atlantic Lifesciences was a major player in the importation of anti-snake venom but decided in 2017 to start the local production as part of its drive to boost the Ghanaian economy.

Great initiative

The Executive Director of Vins Bioproducts Limited, Siddarth Daga, said his outfit as a leading producer of vaccines in the world decided to collaborate with Atlantic Lifesciences to bring anti-snake venoms closer to Ghana and the entire African region.

The Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, in a speech read on his behalf, described the partnership between Atlantic LifeSciences Limited and Vins Bioproducts as a great initiative that would boost the industrialisation agenda of the government.

In a speech read on his behalf, the World Health Organisation (WHO) Country Representative for Ghana, Professor Francis Kasolo, said the country recorded an annual average of about 9,600 snake bites from 2015 to 2019.

He, therefore, lauded Atlantic LifeSciences Limited and Vins Bioproducts for the partnership to help resolve a critical emergency health issue.
2020 National Best Teacher shortlisted for Global Teacher Prize

Emmanuel Bonney Oct - 27 - 2023 , 06:24

The 2020 National Best Teacher, Eric Asomani Asante, is one of 10 shortlisted finalists for this years Global Teacher Prize Award.

Mr Asante is one of the two nominees picked from Africa to compete for this years Global Teacher Prize event slated for Paris, France, on November 8.

The Information and Communications Technology (ICT) teacher at the Naylor SDA Basic School in Tema Community 6 was selected from over 7,000 nominations and applications from 130 countries.

His selection brings to two the number of Ghanaians to have been shortlisted among the top 10 persons for the Global Teacher Prize.

The first was Evans Odei, a teacher of Mathematics at the Achimota School, in 2021.

Global Teacher Prize

The Global Teacher Prize was set up to recognise one exceptional teacher who has made an outstanding contribution to the profession, as well as to shine a spotlight on the important role teachers play in society.

In its ninth year, the $1 million award is the largest in the world and is organised by the Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize in partnership with UNESCO.

This years ceremony will take place at the 42nd session of UNESCOs General Conference scheduled for November 7 to 23, in Paris, France.

The other contestants for the Global Teacher Prize are: Geisha Bonilla, Chile; Artur Proidakov, Ukraine; Mellisa Tracy, USA; Sister Zeph, Pakistan; Annie Ohana, Canada; Shafina Vohra, UK; Mariette Wheeler, South Africa; Nicolas Gaube, France and Deep Narayan Nayak, India.

Giving back

During a courtesy call on the Minister of Education, Mr Asante was highly optimistic of winning the ultimate prize.

He said since he was adjudged the National Best Teacher, he had not gone to sleep, but had begun undertaking various educational initiatives and projects as part of his contribution to improve the sector.

He said, for instance, he used part of the prize money to build a science and ICT laboratory in his alma mater, distributed over 4,000 ICT and Science textbooks to deprived schools across the country, 100 desktop computers and 50 laptops to some underprivileged schools, as well as the construction of a school in the Gbetsile community.

Mr Asante noted that he had also helped to train teachers across the country, adding that by Gods grace we have been able to do something.

I believe it is with all these that enabled me to reach where I am at the moment.

I believe that it would go beyond that on November 8, 2023 and Ghanaians would hear good news, he said, adding that I have never gone to an award with so much confidence and there is every indication that the overall top prize would come to Ghana.

Ghanaian teachers

Dr Adutwum congratulated the teacher and said he had not only made Ghana proud but had shown that Ghanaian teachers were doing well in terms of education delivery.

The Education Minister told the media that if globally one of the top 10 teachers was from Ghana, then it was clear that the countrys educational system and the passion with which Ghanaian teachers taught were well appreciated across the world.

We would, first of all, like to thank our brother for the honour he has brought to the country.

Ghanaian teachers are doing so well and they should continue working hard for the country, he said.

The Registrar of the National Teaching Council, Dr Christian Addai-Poku, said since 2018, a lot of teacher reforms had been put in place for the improvement of teachers in the country.

The reforms, he believed, among other measures, had helped teachers to keep records of their work, one of the requirements of the Global Teacher Prize.

He said on the continent, Ghana had won four times out of a total of five teacher prize events that had been held.

Other Ghanaians

Since its inception, a total of four Ghanaians have competed for the Global Teacher Prize.

The late Prof. Sitsofe Enyonam Anku, founder and executive director of the Meagasa Mathematics Academy, was the first Ghanaian teacher to compete for the prize in 2018, with Robert Gbari Gariba, a Special Education Teacher at the Richard Akwei Memorial School and the 2018 Best Primary School Teacher, also being nominated in 2019.

Both of them only got to the top 50.
Dr Agyeman-Rawlings urges unity for Ga Manye funeral

Vincent Amenuveve Oct - 27 - 2023 , 06:30

The Member of Parliament for Klottey Korley Constituency in the Greater Accra Region, Dr Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings, has called on residents of the Ga State to support the Ga Traditional Council (GTC) to accord the late Ga Manye, Naa Dedei Omaedru III, a befitting burial.

Everyone is prepared for this funeral and we pray for a peaceful interment of our late Ga Manye the MP stated.

Dr Agyeman-Rawlings made the call when she led a delegation from her constituency to commiserate with the GTC yesterday at Kaneshie in Accra.

She also signed a book of condolence opened on behalf of the late Ga Manye and presented some drinks, bottles of water and other items to the GTC as custom demands.

She pointed out that she and her constituency would support every effort to make the funeral successful, adding that: If you see us here it means this is our home and we cannot abandon our own home.

More dignitaries, institutions and organisations continue to call on the GTC to express their condolences ahead of the funeral.

The latest are delegations from the Lands Commission, the Agricultural Development Bank and the National Investment Bank.

Similar delegations are expected to troop in to commiserate with the Ga State before the burial service tomorrow (Saturday).

Invitation

The Abola Mantse, Nii Ahele Nunoo III, who welcomed the delegation, said the performance of the funeral was on course and called on the delegation to offer any support that would make it successful.

On behalf of the GTC, he extended an invitation to the various delegations to attend the funeral.

Palace grounds

Meanwhile, preparations have reached fever pitch at the Ga Traditional Council for the funeral rites of the Ga Manye.

At the Ga Mantse Palace grounds itself, there have been firing of muskets by warriors, traditional drumming, dancing and other activities related to the funeral of the late Ga Manye.

Both the outer and inner perimeters of the palace have been draped in red and black satin, with a central canopy mounted for public viewing of the remains of the Queenmother of the Ga Traditional Area.

The portrait of Naa Dedei Omaedru has also been displayed around the various canopies.

There is heavy police presence deployed to the area to ensure law, order and provide protection to the bereaved and mourners.

While some of the police personnel have mounted a barrier outside the palace, others have been stationed within the palace to keep guard.

Curfew

The Chief of Protocol and Communications for the Ga Mantse, Sylvester Parker-Allotey, explained that on Saturday, October 28, no one was expected to be seen outside after 6 p.m. within the Ga Traditional Area, which covers essentially the Central Business District (CBD), known as Ga Mashie, and all jurisdictions that fall under it.

He indicated that the areas that would be affected were all satellite communities, otherwise known as Ga rural under the six paramountcies of the traditional council, namely Sempe, Akumadjan, Gbese, Abola, Otublohum and Asere.

Mr Parker-Allotey, who is also the Chairman of the Protocol Committee for the funeral, said shops and markets in Ga Mashie would also be closed for business from the morning of Saturday as part of the observance of rites towards the burial of the Ga Manye.
Dr Opuni Frimpong calls for centralised donation system for flood victims

Severious Kale-Dery Oct - 27 - 2023 , 06:26

A former General-Secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana, Dr Kwabena Opuni Frimpong, has called for a centralised donation system to take stock of all relief items being donated to victims of the Akosombo Dam spillage to ensure efficient and equal distribution of items.

He said by establishing such a system, it would ensure that items that had been pouring in since the opening of the dam that had resulted in the flooding of many homes and businesses across some regions in the country would lead to an equitable distribution of the relief items without leaving no one behind.

Speaking in an interview, Dr Frimpong said if care was not taken, some of the victims would have more than enough while others would be starving.

What I mean is that some communities are attracting media attention, but in times like this, you might get a minority group in a small community somewhere that might not attract the same attention. In such cases, they might be forgotten, he added.

Some of the affected communities are located in the Volta, Oti, Eastern, Savanna, Northern and parts of the Greater Accra regions where hundreds of people have been displaced, and their homes and property destroyed.

Support

Dr Frimpong described the flooding as an unfortunate development and appealed to citizens to demonstrate that we are a caring nation.

It is these times that we must let our friends, brothers and sisters in crisis know that we care and that we are there for them, he said, adding that citizens must rally around the victims to inspire hope in them.

He acknowledged that so far some religious bodies, organisations, companies, groups and individuals have donated various items, including food, but said there was still the need to do more for the victims.

Dr Frimpong further advised against politicisation of the crisis and said: At this time, certain things can wait, let us not politicise issues but make sure we get our people out of the crisis.

At the moment, we must focus on the plight of our people, rally around them, demonstrate love, care and support, he added.

Accepting responsibility

Dr Opuni Frimpong also observed that the manner the spillage of the dam was carried out by the Volta River Authority (VRA) gave the impression that there was not enough consultation before it embarked on the exercise.

The current crisis does not give the impression of any serious discussions and coordination between and among the VRA, the district assemblies within the catchment areas, security agencies, education managers and other stakeholders before the authority opened the dam, he said.

Dr Frimpong, therefore, called for an acceptance of responsibility.

You are paid to take certain responsibilities and, therefore, you must accept responsibility if your work is not properly done, he said.
Genser Energy supports flood victims

Justice Agbenorsi Oct - 27 - 2023 , 06:42

An independent power producing company, Genser Energy Ghana Limited, has donated relief items worth GH250,000 for onward distribution to displaced victims of the Akosombo and Kpong dams spillage.

The items, which include bags of rice, mattresses, boxes of soap, assorted medical items, mosquito coils Wellington boots, among others, will be distributed to affected communities in the areas.

A team from the company led by the Vice-President of Operations, Genser Energy Ghana Ltd, Daniel Ayi, made the presentation to three chiefs and Members of Parliament of the affected areas at Sogakofe last Wednesday.

Victims

The spillage of the two dams, which commenced on September 15, 2023, by the Volta River Authority (VRA) as a way of protecting the integrity of the dams from collapsing, has submerged several homes and farmlands, displacing over 35,000 people.

Mr Ayi stressed the companys commitment to provide support in times of need.

He said upon hearing of the sad situation, the board of directors and management urgently decided to come to the aid of ten victims.

We hope the little we give will go a long way to alleviate your plight, he said.

He said the urgency of the situation required everyone to come together to support those who were suffering the most.

He further called on the government to, as a matter of urgency, roll out livelihood programmes to help alleviate the plight of the affected families.

Gratitude

The Member of Parliament for South Tongu Constituency, Kobena Mensa Woyome; the Member of Parliament for South Dayi, Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, and Togbe Agorvie Gli II, the Chief of Gbenuakofe, a town in the South Tongu District, commended Genser for coming to their aid.

Mr Woyome said he would ensure that the items donated would get to every victim.

Mr Dafeamekpor said the items would go a long way to help the victims in their recovery.

We are hoping that the water will recede in the coming days for us to go back to our normal lives, he said.
Ibrahim Mahama donates to 20,000 homes in Tongu, Keta constituencies

Della Russel Ocloo Oct - 27 - 2023 , 06:36

A Business magnate and philanthropist, Ibrahim Mahama, has donated relief items to more than 20,000 homes in Central, South, North Tongu and Keta constituencies in the Volta Region.

The donation is the single biggest support from an individual or institution to the displaced people who were affected by the spillage of the Akosombo and Kpong dams by the Volta River Authority (VRA).

The relief items included 20,000 bags of five-kilogramme rice, 24,000 cartons of canned Mackerel, 12,000 bottles of cooking oil, 400 packs of water and 1,000 pieces of student mattresses.

The spillage of the two dams caused massive flooding in communities around and within the lower Volta basin.

Eight districts across three constituencies in the North, Central and South Tongu as well as Pru East and parts of the Savanna Region were also said to have been affected by the floods which have submerged farms.

Displacement

The National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) has so far put the number of displaced people at over 35,000 while nearly 12,000 children were also said to be out of school due to school buildings being among the numerous homes that have been submerged.

Other schools that were not affected by the floods have been turned into temporary shelters for the displaced people, amidst fears of sexual exploitation of young girls, considering the absence of proper safety measures for children.

Some of the displaced people who are teachers have resorted to makeshift school arrangements at the holding centres to keep children busy.

Childs Rights International has expressed concern about the lack of educational arrangements for the displaced children.

Donation

Presenting the items to the chiefs and opinion leaders of the affected areas, Mr Mahama, who was accompanied by his wife, Oona, and some staff of Engineers and Planners, said the relief items were a way to show his commiseration with the people.

He also promised to help brilliant needy students who were affected by the flood by providing them with bursaries and school supplies to ensure they did not miss out on education.

Mr Mahama has over the years established himself as one of the biggest philanthropists in the country and has done this through his companies, Engineers and Planners and Dzata Cement.

He donates generously by way of corporate social responsibility to social and environmental programmes, disaster reliefs and support for critical government health and educational programmes at both the community and national levels.

DCE

The District Chief Executive for North Tongu, Divine Osborne Fenu, who, together with the Member of Parliament for the area, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, and the Chief of the Battor Traditional Area, Togbega Patamia Dzekley VII, received the items, thanked Mr Mahama for the gesture.

Mr Fenu said the donation would go a long way in ameliorating the plight of the displaced people in the affected communities.

For his part, Mr Ablakwa, who spoke on behalf of the MPs for the affected areas, also commended Mr Mahama for his support for the affected communities.

He gave the assurance that the items would be equitably distributed to all the affected communities.

Togbega Patamia Dzekley, in his remarks, also expressed gratitude to Mr Mahama and his team for the gesture.
Kingdom Lifestyle Mission roll out supplementary education program

Diana Mensah Oct - 27 - 2023 , 12:35

The Kingdom Lifestyle Mission (KLM) has partnered with the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council (GPCC) to roll out its supplementary education program for school children in deprived and needy communities across Ghana.

The program is aimed to support less privileged children students to enter higher education.

Through the partnership, churches under GPCC will now recruit volunteer teachers and provide infrastructure for the nationwide running of the program.

The official launch of the initiative was at the climax of the GPCC Week celebration , christened United for Gods Glory

Bridge the gap

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of KLM, Pastor Alex Gyasi,said the program aimed to bridge the gap between children with quality education to children without quality education because of financial constraints.

He said the program would support underprivileged young children by providing supplementary education to improve their prospects by giving them good quality education.

That he expressed belief would reconcile communities and help societal transformation adding: now be piloted in three areas in Accra and subsequently replicated across the country."

Mr Gyasi added that the KLM had partnered with GPCC so that the church could own the vision of KLM and make it sustainable for the future.

And that this model is different because we want the church to open their doors as centers of learning and mobilize young men and young women who have the ability to teach and give their time voluntarily to help our children, because we have a good section of our population without education, and that undermines the development of our nation, he said.

Mr Gyasi said it would also imbibe biblical teachings into beneficiary pupils and students and also motivating them through appearances of notable persons in society adding:  As Christians is our divine mandate to help the poor and needy in our communities and that's how the nation becomes strong and prosperous.

Now in greater Accra, the one community that we've chosen, for sure is kleafe which is subject to poverty.

So, the pilot will be in three places in Greater Accra and once the pilot is done.

It will be rolled in the national level. So that will replicate it across the nation, he added.

He therefore advised stakeholders to invest in education, especially in deprived communities adding:let us rise up and build our nation. 



He said over the years KLM had rolled out this program to university students hence indicated that the partnership would encouraged churches to use its resources and infrastructure to help the underprivileged young children in the communities.

We started here in Ghana in 2013 to deprived communities such as Madina zongo,Donkor Krom, Akplabanya, Elmina, and Agbogbloshie, he added.

Mr Gyasi however said the vision to provide supplementary education to less privileged students was challenged by the lack of volunteers and infrastructure.

He therefore appealed to young people at the church to volunteer to support this vision adding: we also appeal to corporate organizations, NGOs, and individuals to come on board to support the initiative to help raise the level of education in deprived communities across Ghana.

Transforming the society

The General Secretary of GPCC, Emmanuel Nii Okuley Tetteh, said education was a key to transforming the society adding: if you want to transform the society, then you must be educated and well informed.

He said the initiative was worth supporting, especially in helping children in deprived communities.

It is unique in the sense that there is no expecting handouts. I mean, as money or materials from abroad, we are taking our own initiative.

The support we are getting from KLM is merely on the concepts that educational concepts and the methodology which they have used elsewhere such as Pakistan, Sudan, Bolivia, and others, which has been time tested.

He encouraged young pupils to not be discouraged about their poor background hence declared GPCC commitment to the initiative.

Mr Tetteh thanked the vision bearers of KLM and expressed the belief that the program would transform many families and communities.

A Beneficiary of KLM, Monica Dalari also thanked the vision bearers of KLM.
Latter-Day Saints presents relief items to dam spillage victims

Diana Mensah Oct - 27 - 2023 , 07:43

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has presented $300,000 worth of essential relief items to victims in five districts in the Volta Region that were affected by the recent water spillage from the Akosombo and Kpong dams.

The beneficiary constituencies include the South Tongu, North Tongu and Central Tongu districts, the Ketu South Municipality and the South Dayi District.

The Items included 300 pieces of leather-covered student mattresses, 300 pieces of small-size blankets, 1,000 bags of 5kg rice, 2,400 pieces of canned mackerel, 1,008 bottles of vegetable oil, 100 pairs of Wellington boots, 300 pieces of mosquito nets and 5,000 bags of sachet water, toiletries and medical supplies.

The same quantity of items was presented to each of the beneficiary districts.

Victims

The spillage of the two dams by the Volta River Authority (VRA), which commenced on September 15, 2023, to prevent the dams from collapsing, has submerged several homes and farmlands, displacing over 35,000 people.

A team from the church, led by the General Authority Seventy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for Africa West Area, Elder Jorg Klebingat, made the presentation at the South Tongu district capital, Sogakope.

A team of about five Members of Parliament (MP) from the areas received the items.

They are the MP for South Tongu, Kobla Mensah Woyome; MP for Central Tongu, Hottordze Alexander Roosevelt; MP for Ketu South, Abla Dzifa Gomashie; MP for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa and MP for South Dayi, Rockson-Nelson Etse Dafeamekpor.

Support

Speaking during the presentation of the relief items, Mr Klebingat said the urgency of the situation required the church to come together to support the flood victims irrespective of whether they were members of the church or not.

He said the church was committed to providing humanitarian assistance to the affected communities.

He extended his sympathies to the families and communities that have been impacted by the floods.

Our thoughts and prayers reach out to those who have suffered because of these devastating situations.

We are deeply saddened by the plight of our fellow Ghanaians who have been affected by this unfortunate incident.

As a church, we felt obliged to support our brothers and sisters who have been affected in the various communities in this difficult time, he said.

Mr Klebingat expressed the hope that the donation would help support, as well as bring comfort and relief to the affected families.

The Director for Temporal Affairs of the church for Africa West Area, Flint Ekyem Mensah, said the gesture was a cardinal principle of the church, adding that it would motivate and give the victims some hope.

Timely support

The MP for South Tongu, Mr Woyome, thanked the church for its generous and timely support and stated that the relief items were the biggest the region had received so far.

He also commended the church for the intervention and urged other faith-based organisations to emulate this kind gesture.

You have truly demonstrated the love of Jesus Christ by caring for our physical and spiritual needs.

More than delivering these relief materials, I thank you for taking the risks to come here to support us," he added.
Post newly qualified physician assistants - Association appeals to govt

Haruna Yussif Wunpini Oct - 27 - 2023 , 05:37

The Ghana Physician Assistants Association (GPAA) has appealed to the government to post their colleagues who have successfully completed their courses to health institutions.

The association said there were about 1,000 qualified physician assistants who had been home for about three to four years.

It said the situation had made it difficult for them to cater for themselves and their dependants.

The association added that physician assistants attached to health institutions, especially in rural communities, were making tremendous contribution towards healthcare delivery, and called for their colleagues to be posted to complement their efforts.

The President of the GPAA, Peter Akudugu Ayamba, made the appeal at the 20th annual general conference of the association in Koforidua, the Eastern Regional capital, yesterday.

It was on the theme: "The training, practice and regulation of the physician assistants cadre towards an accelerated universal health coverage: The past, present and future in perspectives."

In attendance were members from all the 16 regions in the country who are taking stock of past events and strategising on how best to address the challenges confronting the association.

Challenges

Mr Ayamba mentioned some of the challenges in the profession to include the lack of career progression and diversification for advancement.

He also said that colleagues working with private health facilities went through frustrations to get accreditation to operate, especially in rural communities.

"I hope the Ministry of Health, the Ghana Health Service and the Medical and Dental Council, as well as academia would put their heads together to address the issue of career progression for advancement", Mr Ayamba said.

The Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Patrick Kuma Aboagye, whose speech was read on his behalf by the Eastern Regional Director of Health Services, Dr Winfred Ofosu, said as health practitioners their ultimate duty was to provide quality services to the people.

Commendation

The Eastern Regional Minister, Seth Kwame Acheampong, commended physician assistants and said that they were vital in healthcare delivery in the country because of the varied roles they played.

He said vulnerable groups such as pregnant women, persons with disability, children and the aged would have been hard hit if they had no access to quality health care.

The minister said despite the challenges they encountered on a daily basis, they remained focused and continued to render services to save lives.

The Omanhene of New Juaben, Daasebre Kwaku Boateng III, who was represented by the Nkabomhene, Nana Agyekum Addo, said there was the need for physician assistants to embrace technology in the discharge of their duties.
Promoting value addition for green minerals: Minister woos Chinese govt, investors

Timothy Ngnenbe Oct - 27 - 2023 , 09:45

The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, has called for strategic investment and partnership from the Chinese government, international mining companies and other investors to build a robust lithium and green minerals sector anchored on value addition.

Mr Jinapor said based on the fact that China had been able to build the full value chain of the lithium and battery industry from exploration to battery production, he was optimistic that Ghana could leverage the countrys partnership and expertise to add value to Ghanas green minerals.

The minister made the call when he joined the Chinese Minister of Natural Resources, Wang Guang Hua, at the opening session of the 25th China Mining Conference and Exhibition at Tianjing, China, yesterday.

"Our ultimate goal is to ensure that the exploitation, management and use of our natural resources benefit our people, while at the same time ensuring optimal returns for investors," he said.

Mr Jinapor added that the focus of the government was to change the narrative where Ghana still exported raw bauxite and manganese after mining for over 80 years.

He said it was in that regard that the recently signed agreement with Atlantic Lithium for the first lithium project prioritised value addition and other improved terms for the country.

He said while extensive exploration was ongoing across the country for iron ore, the real deal was "to realise the true benefits of these critical minerals by ensuring that we add value to them".

Conference

The event is being organised by the China Mining Association (CMA) in collaboration with the Ministry of Natural Resources of China, under the leadership of its minister, Wang Guanghua, and the Tianjing Municipal Government.

The conference, which started in 1999, is currently one of the world's largest gathering of governments, policymakers, investors and mining industry players.

This 2023 conference is on the theme: Innovation promotes high quality development of mining.

The three-day conference has brought together more than 10,000 delegates and 400 exhibitors from across 70 countries.

The Ghanaian delegation includes the Chairperson of the Minerals Commission Board, Barbara Oteng-Gyasi; the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Minerals Commission, Martin Ayisi; the Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Mines and Energy, Samuel Atta Akyea; and the Technical Advisor on Mines to the Minister, Benjamin Aryee.

Green minerals potential

Mr Jinapor said Africa, which was home to most of the green minerals required for the green energy transition, needed investment in technology and innovation to ensure that the continent reaped the full benefit of those resources.

He observed that the green energy transition offered Ghana and the rest of Africa a unique opportunity to leverage technology and innovation to promote value addition in the mining sector.

"Available data shows that the continent hosts 91 per cent of the platinum group of metals, 79 per cent of phosphate rock, 53 per cent of cobalt, 46 per cent of manganese, 35 per cent of chromite, 25 per cent of bauxite, 21 per cent of graphite, six per cent of copper, and substantial deposits of other minerals like lithium, iron ore and rare earth elements.

We need to leverage this for our development," he stressed.

He said it was unfortunate that despite that potential, African countries currently involved in the exploitation of lithium were making between 10 and 15 per cent of the full value generated from developing end-to-end commodity supply chain.

"Clearly, we cannot benefit optimally from these resources if we continue to depend on the export of raw minerals," he stressed.

Mr Jinapor said it was in that regard that Ghana had taken a policy decision to promote value addition to all mineral resources, "and doing so with strong state participation".

He said through vehicles such as the Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF), the Ghana Integrated Aluminium Development Corporation (GIADEC) and the Ghana Integrated Iron and Steel Development Corporation (GIISDEC), the country would promote state investment in the mining industry and the development of integrated aluminium, iron and steel industries.

Technology

Mr Jinapor said although Africa hosted about 30 per cent of the world's mineral resources, it was through the harnessing of innovation that the continent could maximise efficiency, reduce waste and create a knowledge-driven mining sector.

He said it was through the adoption of cutting-edge technology that African countries could address the historical environmental and social challenges associated with mining.

Aside from that, the minister said, the deployment of relevant technology would promote energy efficiency and build circular economies in Africa.

"And it is through innovation that we can increase production and add more value to the minerals we produce," he added.

Mr Jinapor said the China Mining Conference was a unique platform for participants to examine some of the most important issues in the mining industry, particularly the role of technology and innovation in building a green, sustainable and safe mining industry.

"Our modern day lives depend largely on minerals and mining, from the phones we use to the vehicles we drive.

And this has become more profound as the world works towards a green energy transition," he said.

Mr Guanghua said China would remain steadfast in the deployment of technology and reforms that would promote efficiency in the mining sector.

He said China was prepared to foster international collaborations that would ensure that green technologies were deployed to promote sustainable mining.

Mr Guanghua said the deployment of green technologies would ensure environmentally friendly mining and promote value addition.

He called on Chinese mining companies to adhere strictly to their social responsibility obligations to the host communities.
Toyota establishes Engineering Training Centre at University of Ghana [PHOTOS]

Beatrice Laryea Oct - 27 - 2023 , 05:31

Toyota Ghana Company Limited (TGCL), dealers in automobiles, has handed over a $1million Engineering Sciences Training Centre to the University of Ghana in Accra.

The centre, which occupies six acres of land, is located at the Haatso end of the university, behind the Great Hall.

The establishment of the centre is in fulfilment of a partnership deal signed between the university and the automobile company in 2016.

The company also donated a 33-seater Toyota Coaster bus to the university to be used for transporting students to and from the centre.

In addition, the company will provide engineering equipment worth $2 million over a period of 10 years and administer a $100,000 scholarship fund within the same period to support brilliant, financially challenged students.

The handover ceremony was attended by the Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum; the Chairperson of the University of Ghana Council, Justice Sophia A. B. Akuffo (retd); the Vice-Chancellor of U-G, Prof. Nana Aba Appiah Amfo, and the Chairman of UG Chaplaincy Board, Prof. Charles Ackah.

The rest were the Japanese Ambassador to Ghana, Hisanobu Mochizuki; the Managing Director of Toyota Ghana, Kohji Yanaka, and the Chief Director of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Patrick Nimoh.

Facilities

The centre is equipped with a computer aided design (CAD) room, which houses 40 computers, a three-dimensional (3D) printing machine for the production of small parts designed by students for hands-on experience.

It also houses three spacious lecture rooms capable of accommodating 250 students, with each room equipped with state-of-the-art furniture and audio-visual systems.

Other facilities include a library, an engineering laboratory, an in-house practical training workshop with automobile simulators, test rigs and vehicle hydraulic lifts.

Partnership

Mr Yanaka said the partnership with the university was to nurture talent, encourage innovation and support the development of a skilled workforce capable of driving the nation forward.

At Toyota Ghana, we believe that our responsibility extends beyond the realm of business.

The front view of the centre and a bus that was presented to the university. Picture: EDNA SALVO-KOTEY

We are dedicated to being a socially responsible company by executing impactful projects in the areas of health, education, environment and road safety within the communities we operate, he said.

Mr Yanaka expressed hope that the facility would serve as a catalyst for positive change by equipping students with the necessary skills and knowledge for growth.

Significance

The Vice-Chancellor of U-G, Prof. Amfo, said the centre would play a significant role in shaping the future of engineering education not only in the university, but the entire country.

This project supports my vision to create a culture that promotes research, teaching and learning, and administrative processes and extension activities driven by technology anchored in humanism, she said.

Prof. Amfo further described the partnership as a shining example of how institutions could work together to nurture the next generation of transformational leaders and problem solvers.

She added that the centre would serve as a model for future collaborations between academia and industry.

Commendation

The Japanese ambassador commended the management and staff of Toyota Ghana and the university for their commitment in ensuring the completion of the project.

Through the aspirations and efforts of these two institutions, we have seen that there can be absolute synergy between industry and academia for common growth, Mr Mochizuki said.

He reiterated Japans dedication to the development of Ghana, saying we are prepared to continue our collaboration through various institutions to support the progress of all sectors of the Ghanaian economy.
Vigil service for Ga Manye today - High Court sets aside injunction

Vincent Amenuveve & Justice Agbenorsi Oct - 27 - 2023 , 06:16

The Accra High Court has set aside an injunction preventing the handling of the remains of the late Ga Manye, Naa Dedei Omaedru III.

In a ruling yesterday, the General Jurisdiction of the High Court presided over by Justice Patrick Baayeh, the same judge who put the 10-day injunction, said it granted the injunction in error because the applicants failed to give the court the true state of affairs.

This endorses the funeral arrangements of Naa Dedei Omaedru III which are already underway.

A member of the Central Funeral Planning Committee, Nii Ayikoi Otoo, who was also the lead counsel for the defendants, made this known at a press conference at the forecourt of the Ga Mantse Palace in Accra yesterday.

Flanked by the Sempe Mantse, Nii Adote Otintor III, who is also the Chairman of the Funeral Planning Committee, and the Chief of Protocol and Communications for the Ga Mantse, Sylvester Parker-Allotey, counsel explained that the new ruling put to rest the confusion among the public as to whether the funeral would go on or not.

We've spent so much time and money travelling, going about informing dignitaries, prominent chiefs, politicians to come and mourn with us and all these people are holding themselves in readiness to come, only for that bombshell to be released, Mr Ayikoi Otoo, also a former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice and Ghanas High Commissioner to Canada, stated.

He said the defence had to go to court to deal with the matter once and for all.

We were in court this morning, we argued against the injunction that was granted and asked that the Court set aside the injunction and at the end of the day, we had this order made, he stressed.

Mr Ayikoi Otoo urged media practitioners to publish the new development to ensure that the public understood that clarity had been brought to the matter.

"As media practitioners, I hope you will do your best to carry out this news.

In fact, yesterday some of the information I was getting was coming from abroad.

I was sitting here and I was getting the information about orders that have been made in Ghana.

So please carry it and let them also share and let people know, counsel appealed.

What we said we want to do, we will do. We can't spend money if we have not reached a decision that we will do this funeral, Mr Ayikoi Otoo stressed.

The application for injunction was filed by the Head of Antie We of Kpone, and 8 others against Nii Adotey Otinor II, and Yaa Yarley Sarkodie Amoah Chairman and Secretary of the Funeral Committee respectively.

Last Wednesday, the court injunction was subsequently granted, preventing the funeral from taking place.

But the court has since lifted the injunction.

In a ruling yesterday, the General Jurisdiction of the High Court presided over by Justice Patrick Baayeh, said it granted the injunction it lifted in error because the applicants of the motion that gave rise to the injunction failed to give the court the true state of affairs.

In fairness to the parties, therefore, the Order of Interim Injunction granted on October 25, 2023 is hereby set aside, the judge said in his new ruling.

The Ga-Dangme Council applauded Nii Otoo for successfully praying the court to overturn the injunction against the remains of the late Queenmother of the Ga State, Naa Omaedru.

With the legal issues now behind the parties, the clergy will be at the Ga Traditional Council from 6.p.m. this evening to hold a service for the repose of the soul of Ga Manye.

This will be preceded by a vigil with Asafo companies who will display amidst firing of muskets from this morning.

A programme released by the planning committee said the Asafoatsemei and Asafoianyemei would continue with their cultural display, music and dance and storytelling throughout the night.

Tomorrow, Saturday, October 28, the date set for the burial, there will be an interdenominational burial service from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., the line-up said.

After the service, there will be traditional burial rites which will involve the Asafoatsemei and Asafoianyemei companies parading the coffin through the principal streets of Accra under the direction of the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) and the Municipal Security Council.

It said a private funeral would then take place with no commercial activities expected to take place on Saturday, October 28.

On Sunday, October 29, there will be a thanksgiving service at the Holy Trinity Cathedral of the Anglican Church along the John Atta Mills High Street from 10 a.m.

The statement said other traditional rites are expected to continue after the service.
Immigration intake IV donates to victims of the Akosombo Dam spillage

Jemima Okang Addae Oct - 27 - 2023 , 15:04

The Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) recruit intake IV has donated some relief items to flood victims of the Akosombo and Kpong dams spillage as part of activities to mark their 21st anniversary celebration.

The donation is being made through the Citi FM Relief4LowerVolta campaign initiative which seeks to raise funds and relief items for the people affected by the floods.

The anniversary celebration is under the theme 21 years of dedication and the way forward.

Speaking at the ceremony, the Deputy Comptroller General of Immigration at Finance and Administration, Isaac Owusu Mensah said as part of the celebration, the group would organise a mini parade which would be addressed by the Comptroller General of GIS, Mr Kwame Asuah Takyi.

This, he explained would be followed by Muslim prayers at the Police Mosque for all officers of intake and all officers of GIS.



Mr Mensah said other activities include aerobics at the La-Boma beach resort, a dinner party at the Tang Palace Hotel which will be attended by special guests including Elizabeth Adjei, first female Director of GIS, Mr. Felix Yaw Sarpong, a retired Comptroller General, the Comptroller General of Immigration and his deputies.

The group intends to conclude their anniversary celebration with a thanksgiving service at the Police Church, he stated.

Intake IV

The Deputy Comptroller General said the intake IV were appointed into the service on April 1, 2002 after a rigorous recruitment exercise at Assin Foso.

It is worthy to note that unfortunately 18 members out of the 168 members who joined the service have resigned to pursue other career path and four others were dismissed from the service. As it is with the cycle of life, the intake has regrettably lost nine of their colleagues, he added.

He noted that the intake had been able to produce four traditional chiefs recognise by the service and that the senior most member of the intake is a Chief Superintendent.

The spokesperson for Intake IV, Assistant Superintendent Ambrose Binpong said the group was spread out within the country to protect the borders in terms of smuggling of goods into and out of the country, security, prevention of crimes at the border among others.

It will interest you to know that since we finished 2002, this is the first time some of us are seeing ourselves again, due to postings transfers and the rest, he said.

He advised individuals coming into the service not to see the place as a goldmine and that the service was a place of dedication to Ghana.

A lot of people see immigration officers or the service as a lucrative place. But that is not the issue. Come with a clear mind to service the nation, he added.
Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto pledges gender equality and economic empowerment for women

GraphicOnline Politics Oct - 27 - 2023 , 08:09

Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, an aspiring candidate for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential race, has unveiled a comprehensive plan to empower women economically and promote gender equality within the party.

Speaking to media representatives in Koforidua, the Eastern Regional Capital on Tuesday, October 24, 2023, Dr. Akoto emphasized the vital role that women play in driving a thriving economy and recognized them as crucial contributors to the NPP's success.

Census data from 2021 highlights Ghana's higher female population, outnumbering males by 400,000. Dr. Akoto aims to leverage this demographic strength and prioritize women's active participation in the party.

He underlined the pivotal role played by the NPP's women's wing in grassroots mobilization, political participation, and advocacy for gender policies.

Dr. Akoto, a Cambridge University Scholar and former Minister of Food and Agriculture, committed to empowering women within the party and rectifying the issue of insufficient funds allocated to the women's wing.

Dr. Akoto's primary focus is on economically empowering women, especially those engaged in agriculture. Given the significant presence of female smallholder farmers in Ghana, he intends to provide them with essential resources such as farming tools, fertilizers, and technological knowledge to enhance their economic prosperity.

Recognizing the critical role of women throughout the economic value chain, the aspirant aims to strengthen institutions like the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) to bolster these efforts.

He emphasized that women hold vital roles in the value chain, including as intermediaries who make substantial contributions to the economy.

Dr. Akoto expressed his commitment to empowering them, emphasizing the profound positive effects this empowerment can have on the nation's economy.

During interactions with Electoral Area Coordinators, a crucial component of his campaign team, Dr. Akoto stressed the pivotal role of grassroots delegates in selecting the party's presidential candidate.

He called upon their sense of responsibility, urging them to support him as the candidate who comprehends the people's needs and offers viable solutions to address their concerns.

The NPP is slated to hold its National Delegates Conference on November 4, 2023, to select a presidential candidate for the 2024 general elections.

Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto is positioned as the third candidate on the ballot paper and actively seeks the support of over 210,000 delegates in his endeavour to lead the NPP and potentially the nation.

As the election draws nearer, Dr. Akoto's commitments to empower women and reform the NPP are poised to be central issues in the party's internal election, ultimately shaping its trajectory and leadership for the forthcoming national elections.
District Level Elections: Media urged to report on female aspirants

Emelia Ennin Abbey Politics Oct - 27 - 2023 , 04:03

Journalists have been urged to give female candidates participating in the upcoming local government elections better visibility in media reportage.

By giving women aspirants positive coverage the media would play a significant role in ensuring that female politicians are positively portrayed in the public.

The appeal was made during a stakeholders forum organised by the Alliance for Women in Media Africa (AWMA) with support from the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI) on the theme "enhancing women's participation in Ghana's 2023 District Level Elections: the role of the media."

The event was also used to launch a project aimed at enhancing inclusive participation in local governance in Ghana through capacity building for journalists and female political aspirants.

Benefits

Speaking after the launch of the project, a former Director of the Institute of Local Government Studies (ILGS), Dr Esther Ofei-Aboagye, expressed concern over the under-representation of women in politics and decision making, despite making up more than 50 per cent of the countrys population.

In the past three decades, she said Ghana had sought to derive the benefits that decentralisation and local governance offered countries across the world.

Decentralised local governance, she said, offered countries the prospect of achieving sustainable development as it brought governance to the door steps of the people.

Also, she said, it offered a platform for discussing how local and national resources were equitably allocated and prioritised.

Local governance, she said "touches on the daily lives of women-markets, sanitation, streets, use of spaces for recreation or economic activities, location of public utility, safety and well being of children, among others".

In the light of this, in her view, local level governance and deliberative processes must factor in and be shaped by women's perspectives and insights.

"Because women are the primary users of public spaces, they are investors in the local economy and contribute to social sustenance and cohesion", she said.

Women

To Dr Ofei-Aboagye, the factors contributing to the low participation of women in district level elections include concerns of women over public abuse and violence, time constraints, family concerns about their prospects and involvement, lack of adequate role models and partisan issues.

"Women have not been helped by power brokers such as traditional leaders, religious leaders and political party leaders while efforts to support them by state and non-state actors have had limited success," she said.

To make it attractive for women, she stated that women who had succeeded must share their success stories while the media through its agenda setting role could increase the discussion and influence public opinion on women's candidature.

She called on the Electoral Commission, the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development, National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana and the National Commission for Civic Education to collaborate effectively with key non aligned media houses to increase education and provide unbiased coverage on women participating in the district level elections.

Canada support

The Charge D'affaires at the Canadian High Commission in Ghana, John Crysler, explained that the CFLI was a partnership programme that provided direct funding to small scale initiatives conceived and implemented by grassroots organisations.

Currently, he said CFLI was supporting five partners in Ghana working on various subject areas, including peace, security, gender equality, human rights and inclusive governance.

"Canada believes the participation of women in decision making and governance is not a token measure.

We know that when you have diversity in decision making at all levels you get better policy outcomes," he said.

The Patron of AWMA, Prof Audry Gadzekpo, said it was important to cultivate ethical journalistic practices that did not stereotype women participating in the political elections.
Effutu makes strides in projects

Shirley Asiedu-Addo Politics Oct - 27 - 2023 , 11:00

The determination of the Member of Parliament (MP) to leave footprint in his community has resulted in widespread projects in the Effutu Constituency.

Currently, the Effutu Constituency/Municipality in the Central Region is arguably one of the most organised municipalities in the country.

Its residents have commended the resolute collaboration and cooperation between the Effutu Municipal Assembly and the office of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) MP for the constituency, Alexander Kwamina Afenyo-Markin, as the major reason for the developmental agenda in the last few years.

From clinics to libraries, classroom blocks, markets, and police stations, the constituency keeps changing by the day into a modern society.

The MP told the Daily Graphic that the constituency had seen more than 60 projects since 2017.

The Reconciliation roundabout

Some of the constituents who spoke to the Daily Graphic called for a continued unity of purpose to accelerate the development of the area.

"The MP is good and he has the support of the assembly and they are working together very well, Nicholas Esoun, a beneficiary of one of the MPs programmes, stated.

Another resident, Rita Gyimah Frimpong, indicated that the rapport between the MP and the assembly was commendable and positively impacting the communities.

The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of Effutu, Alhaji Kasim Zubiru, said the harmony between the two offices was significant to achieve results in the constituency/municipality.

Corroborating, Mr Afenyo-Markin said their relationship dated back to their schooldays.

As a coastal town hosting some of Central Regions most interesting and scenic beach fronts and well-laid-out communities, Winneba, the constituency/municipal capital, has some interesting places for visitors.

Aboakyer and Tourism

Winneba is acclaimed for its unique Aboakyer (Deer Hunt) festival, which brings the whole community, Ghanaians and expatriates together annually for its celebration.

One of the Asafo companies returning with a catch during the Aboakyer (Deer Hunt) festival

The constituency also has very scenic beaches which can be further developed into hospitality facilities to boost its tourism potentials.

Effutu Heritage Centres

Indeed, through the efforts of the MP and the municipal assembly, some heritage centres which serve as tourism facilities were recently developed at Winneba.

The heritage centres include the Unity Square, the Osimpam Heritage Centre and two fishing monuments at Akosua Village and Eyipey.

The breathtaking historic structures add to the beauty of the constituency's capital.

The MP, Afenyo-Markin, in earlier reports noted that there had been a positive response since the establishment of the heritage centres as visitors patronise the facility daily, with thousands of people trooping to the centres during festival periods.

MPs projects

The project was funded by the MP, who is also the Deputy Majority Leader, as his contribution towards the opening up of Winneba to the outside world.

However, more could be done to attract many more tourists to the constituency.

Fishing and landing site

The inhabitants, predominantly fishermen at Winneba, Nsuekyir, Warabeba and Akosua Village, were grateful for the landing beach project undertaken in the area.

The fishermen in the area commended the government for the construction of a landing site to boost fishing in the area.

The assembly member for Penkye, Fiifi Sackey, whose electoral area hosts the landing site, indicated that the landing site had further enhanced economic activities in the area.

"Before the project, many of our fishermen had left the community to other fishing communities because there was no landing site for their canoes.

The project has boosted the economic activities in the area.

Now they are closer to home and this has brought stability to most homes too," he stated.

He said, however, that the construction of the landing site had in a way impacted negatively on the sanitary conditions in the area.

Inadequate drainage system

"We have no properly structured drainage system and the situation has been worsened by the landing site because now the water cannot go into the sea.

The situation needs urgent attention," he stressed.

The new Effutu municipal assembly complex

The assembly member for Dormaabra Otutuase, Richard Okyere Keelson, also said his electoral area was in dire need of a drainage system.

"We also need drainage facilities to improve the sanitation condition in the area," he added.

He said the lack of drainages and the rains had worsened the sanitary conditions in the area.

Access roads

He also called for improved access roads to open up the area to more visitors.

"The people here need well-constructed roads.

This one gets flooded when it rains, making it difficult for vehicles to access the community.

There is approximately 150km road network in the municipality but only 30 per cent is tarred or with surface dressing and five per cent is asphalted.

The remaining 65 per cent are gravel-surfaced roads.

The MCE for Effutu said some roads that were receiving attention included the by-pass (from Cape Coast) through Low Cost Arena and Eyigya Lodge, around the MPs house.

However, Alhaji Zubiru said the pace of work was worryingly slow, saying the contract would be re-assessed.

Education

The Effutu Constituency houses the main campus of the University of Education, Winneba (UEW).

It has 78 pre-schools, 77 primary schools and 47 junior high schools (JHSs).

Though the Winneba Senior High School is the only public second cycle institution in the municipality, there are seven other private senior high schools, including two technical and vocational institutions, in the constituency.

The Effutu Constituency is also home to a community health nurses training school and a police staff and command college.

The politics

The politics of Effutu Constituency has been around two darling men from the two main political parties in the country who have held the seat at least three times as Members of Parliament.

In the early stages of the Fourth Republic, Mike Allen Hammah of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), who held the seat for three terms, as the constituency MP.

He won the seat with 55 per cent of the votes to beat Brigadier Joseph Nunoo-Mensah (retd) in 1996.

In the 2000 parliamentary elections, he won again, beating the NPP's Oheneba Akyeampong by a slim margin.

In 2004, with his party in power, an NPP new entrant toppled Mike Hammah after polling 51 per cent of the total votes cast.

But in 2008, Mike Hammah made a strong comeback to reclaim the seat with 55 per cent of votes cast.

In 2012, a youthful Alexander Afenyo-Markin emerged on the scene, put up a strong fight and unseated Mike Hammah with 19,334 votes, representing 53.6 per cent of the votes.

That marked the beginning of his three consecutive reign as the custodian of the Effutu Constituency parliamentary seat.

Afenyo-Markin further stretched the gap in the next election, polling 62 per cent of votes cast as against NDC's Eric Don Arthur's 34 per cent in 2016.

In 2020, Afenyo-Markin polled 33,545 votes to be re-elected - the first MP to have been elected three consecutive times as MP for the Effutu Constituency.

By all indications, Afenyo-Markin's "reign" is far from over, making the constituency a stronghold for the NPP.

His numerous development projects in the municipality and support for many constituents by setting them up has made him a probable winner in the next parliamentary elections in 2024.

The residents spoke highly of the MP, saying his works might enable him to retain the seat in the next election.

He has supported a lot of the youth with start-ups and that is great, Ali Yakubu stated.

Recently, Afenyo-Markin registered some 100 skilled workers for a certification examination.

He has also supported hundreds of the inhabitants to acquire livelihood skills.

A beneficiary of the skills certification programme by the MP, Priscilla Ohenewaa Kumah, said the examination reinforced her abilities, which was a testament of what she could do, and therefore thanked the MP for the gesture.

Municipal Assembly projects

Alhaji Zibiru said the municipal assembly office complex was one remarkable project that had been completed.

Alhaji Kasim Zubiru, MCE  Effutu

He said the lighting up of the municipality had been one of the success stories of his administration.

He said to improve security in the municipality, the assembly rehabilitated 100 street lights across the municipality and also erected 15 new ones.

Again, he said the construction of a satellite market at Osubonpanyin and the grading of some selected roads in the municipality had improved access and boosted economic activities in the beneficiary communities.

Also, he said the assembly had undertaken a teachers and nurses quarters project at Ndaamba, while the rehabilitation of classroom facilities at Sankor and Okomfoadae had provided a more conducive environment for the pupils and teachers.

He indicated that contracts had been awarded for several infrastructural projects, including classroom blocks at Nsuekyir, Unipra North, Akosua Village, Agyaa Lodge, and Low Cost.

MPs contribution

The projects of the MP spread across the length and breadth of the constituency, giving the constituents cause to believe that he would retain the seat for the NPP, all things being equal.

The beautiful Reconciliation Roundabout is noticeable by all who ply the Winneba junction route.

Alexander Afenyo-Markin  MP for Effutu

The MP said the monument was to promote unity without which there could be no development.

To improve healthcare services in the constituency, he has built a clinic each at Akosua Village, Woarabeba and Kojo Beedu communities.

In the area of security, the MP has also completed and handed over four police stations to the Ghana Police Service.

They were constructed at Ntakofam, Essuekyir, Ateitu and New Winneba.

To promote education, Afenyo-Markin has also built, furnished and handed over the Effutu Central Library to the community and a furnished three-classroom unit block for ACM School at Winneba.

He has also built a library each for Kojo Beedu and Gyahadze, and a community centre each at Kojo Beedu and New Winneba.

His aide, Godwin Kusi Danquah, said the vision of the MP was to give every electoral area a community centre, library and clinic.

Ongoing projects

Some ongoing projects he listed included a market at Yepemso, a community Centre at Osubonpanyin, Alata Kokodo, Woarabeba, New Winneba and Alata Kokodo.

The clinic at Kojo Beedu community undertaken by the MP

The MP, Mr Danquah noted, had also begun the construction of the first children's hospital at Gyengyanadze, a rural community in the constituency.



Population

The 2021 Population and Housing Census put the constituency's population at 107,798, comprising 54,723 males and 53,075 females.

The municipality was carved from the then AwutuEffutu-Senya Municipal Assembly and established by the Local Government Act (Act 462) and L.I.1860 in 2007.
Minoritys claim false, NIB not for sale - Majority asserts

Daniel Kenu & Nana Konadu Agyeman Politics Oct - 27 - 2023 , 06:16

The Majority in Parliament has debunked an allegation by the Minority that the government intends to sell off or facilitate the takeover of the National Investment Bank (NIB) by the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB).

It described the allegation as malicious lies intended to create the impression as though the government was bent on selling the bank.

The Majority also said it was not true that the treasury of the NIB had gone bankrupt.

On the contrary, it said since 2018 the NIB management team had worked so hard to increase deposits from GH3.2 billion in 2019 to GH5 billion presently.

Demand for evidence

Addressing the press in Parliament yesterday, the Majority Chief Whip, Frank Annoh-Dompreh, challenged the Minority to provide evidence to justify the allegation of the governments intent to sell off NIB.

If the Minority has evidence that there is going to be a sell-off, why dont they put that in the public?

We want to challenge the Minority that if there is a sinister intention like that, they should come and tell us and save us from a wild goose chase, he said.

Minoritys allegation

At a press conference on September 28, this year, the Ranking Member on the Finance Committee, Isaac Adongo, expressed the Minoritys stance on the decision by the government and the Bank of Ghana to allow ADB to acquire NIB.

It said instead of the acquisition and the subsequent liquidation of NIB, the government and the BoG must recapitalise NIB to make it more liquid.

It explained that NIBs biggest challenge was the negative effect of the capitalisation deficit of GH2.4 billion.

The Minority, however, said a casual review of NIBs balance sheet showed that restructuring the books could generate more than GH2.75 billion to clean up the GH2.4 billion deficit and free shareholders funds and equity of about GH350 million towards recapitalisation.

Recapitalise NIB

However, reacting to the position of the Minority, the Majority Chief Whip said during the era of the previous administration, some GH500 million was given to non-financial institutions.

Most of these loans have not been recovered as of today, and what was done was against the code of ethics of the bank, Mr Annoh-Dompreh said.

To shore up the liquidity of the bank, he said in 2019 an action led by the Finance Minister obtained a parliamentary approval for GH2.2 billion as sovereign guarantee in favour of Ghana Amalgamated Trust (GAT) to recapitalise NIB.

Apart from the sovereign guarantee being given to GAT, he said Mr Ken Ofori-Atta led the effort to raise GH857 million which was given to NIB to support its activities and operations.

I think the government has put in some good effort but it stands to reason that because of the challenges in the financial sector, the bank is still demanding some recapitalisation oxygen so that they will begin to work and remain relevant.

One of the first calls which we will support is to encourage the Finance Minister to help in pushing more capital to the bank, he said.

Mr Annoh-Dompreh argued that Ghana Amalgamated Trusts GH857 million that was pushed to NIB obviously had not worked the way it was expected, saying that more is needed if the bank is to stay more relevant in helping our industry to be strong.

If NIB is strong, our One-District-One-Factory will stay relevant and I am sure that most firms that collapsed would not have collapsed, he said.

Recapitalisation

Justifying the call for the government to recapitalise NIB, Mr Annoh-Dompreh said NIBs core mandate of supporting the countrys industrial drive had become more critical in an era of One-District-One-Factory (1D1F) programme.

What the government should be encouraged and urged to do is to help in the recapitalisation of NIB but not to run it down, he said.
NPP Presidential election: Execute duties without fear - Prof. Oquaye to Police, EC

Dickson Worlanyo Dotse Politics Oct - 27 - 2023 , 06:50

The Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Presidential Elections Committee (PEC), Prof Mike Oquaye, has urged the Ghana Police Service and the Electoral Commission (EC) to execute their respective roles without fear or favour.

He said it was to ensure a successful conduct of the November 4 presidential primaries that the party established the PEC to advance the cause of the party as a champion of democracy in the country.

Prof Oquaye said this in Accra yesterday when the Police Administration led by the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Dr George Akuffo Dampare, met members of the PEC and the EC.

Present at the meeting were the General Secretary of the NPP, Justin Frimpong Kodua; the Deputy Chairman of the EC in-charge of Operations, Samuel Tettey, who led the ECs delegation, and representatives of the various aspirants.

It forms part of a series of engagements between the three entities to ensure a transparent, free and fair exercise on November 4.

Advise

Prof. Oquaye stated that the entire exercise would be superintended over primarily by the EC and the police and advised all party members to abide by the rules and regulations laid down prior to the exercise.

Our General Secretary is here to reinforce the fact that this is the approach of the party. No minister, no official, members of my committee or I has any jurisdiction over you, the former Speaker of Parliament stressed.

No stone unturned

The Deputy Chairman of the EC in-charge of Operations, Mr Tettey, for his part, reiterated the readiness of the commission for the exercise.

He added that the series of engagements were necessary in order to prepare adequately and to ensure that the entire exercise was successful because they were aware that the elections were not only important to the NPP but to the nation as well.

We have issues like recruitment of officials for the elections, printing of ballots, issues relating to agents who will be representing candidates at all the polling stations, and so many others.

So we are doing all we can to make the elections successful, and we will plead with other stakeholders to help the commission have a successful election, said Mr Tettey.

For his part, the IGP, Dr Dampare, assured the party of a strong police presence during the elections.

He said the Ghana Police Service would continue to play its role when it came to internal party and national elections in order to deepen the nations democracy.

All we require from you is that you support us in order to play our roles and with that we will be able to ensure that the police and the EC will do their work and all the people who will be voting across the country will come out freely and willingly to vote and all the agents will do what they are supposed to do, he said.

Dr Dampare noted that the Ghana Police Service had successfully conducted a similar exercise for the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) and used the opportunity to thank all the political parties, particularly the NPP, for accepting to collaborate and engage.

We have worked with the party for nearly two years now to position its leaders across all the levels from constituency, regional, national and now working towards electing a presidential candidate, he said.

The first leg, we worked together, and we were able to have a successful exercise.

We have the second leg of that exercise, and we also look forward to the final leg next year as you elect your parliamentary candidates, the IGP added.
Prof. Opoku-Agyemang calls for support to flood victims

Dickson Worlanyo Dotse Politics Oct - 27 - 2023 , 06:55

The running mate of former President John Mahama in the 2020 general election, Professor Naana Jane Opoku- Agyemang, has appealed to institutions and ordinary citizens to contribute towards the relief of the victims of the Akosombo and Kpong dams spillage.

She said that the man-made disaster had brought untold hardships and inhuman conditions to the affected people in the riverine areas.

This is the time for all Ghanaians to exhibit their proverbial hospitality and love towards one another considering the dire conditions of the affected people who have lost not just property and homes but their complete livelihoods, she stressed.

Visit

Prof. Opoku-Agyemang, who is a former Minister of Education, made the appeal during a visit to the affected areas where she rode on a boat to share in the grief of the victims.

She assisted the flood victims with quantities of assorted items, including tubers of yam, plantains, bread, mosquito nets, corn dough, bottled and sachet water, bags of rice, gari and soft drinks.

She was met on arrival by the NDC Members of Parliament (MP) of the affected constituencies where she visited.

They are the MP for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa; the MP for South Tongu, Kobena Woyome; and the North Dayi MP, Joycelyn Tetteh.

Prof. Opoku-Agyemang stressed that the continuous spillage by the Volta River Authority (VRA) had plunged the lives of residents, especially in the North, Central and South Tongu constituencies, into disarray, with their houses, homes, schools, farms and health centres submerged in water.

Prof. Opoku-Agyemang, who is also the first female Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, used the opportunity to interact with traditional authorities, opinion leaders and NDC officials and members in the three constituencies.

They expressed their appreciation to her for her kind words of assurance and practical support to the victims which exemplified her dedication and concern as a mother for the welfare of people.
PNC chasing David Apasera for party vehicle in his possession

Yaa Kuffour Senyah Politics Oct - 26 - 2023 , 13:44

The General Secretary of the Peoples National Convention (PNC), Janet Asana Nabla has accused the 2020 presidential candidate of the PNC, David Apasera of continuously holding on to a party vehicle offered him for the 2020 campaign even though he was to return it to the party's secretariat.

The General Secretary of the PNC wants Mr Apasera to return the party vehicle and has therefore reported him to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of Ghana Police.

In a written complaint dated October 25, 2023 and addressed to the CID, in which she accused Mr Apasera of stealing, Janet Asana Nabla said the vehicle was a Toyota Landcruiser.

She accused Mr Apasera of changing the documentation on ownership of the vehicle to his personal name and was therefore asking the CID to investigate which DVLA office or official helped in changing the ownership of the vehicle into Mr Apasera's personal name.

Janet Nabla indicated that the vehicle was given to Mr Apasera after it was donated to the party by Dr Edward Nasigre Mahama, a former presidential candidate of the PNC for the party to use it for the 2020 general elections campaign.

She alleged that after the elections, Mr Apasera failed to return the vehicle to the party,

At the end of the elections, he was supposed to return the vehicle back to the party, but he deliberately refused and the party lodged complaint with the Nima Police Station, the Greater Accra Regional Police Command and also the National CID Headquarters, the petition stated.

Vehicle

Janet Nabla stated that the vehicle was impounded by the Police at Cantonments and that the police intervened during a fight with some party officials.

However, David Apasera was later spotted driving the same vehicle though it was supposed to be in the hands of the Police.

She said when PNC officials enquired from the police station, they were told David Apasera had presented valid documents from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA).

We are therefore writing this petition to the Director General of the CID to take this issue seriously and to allow the law to work.
POWELL  That Cameron Boni remains in jail and not in a mental health facility is a source of frustration for Park County Circuit Court Judge Joey Darrah, whos presiding over Bonis pending criminal charges.

This is a troubling case for me, Darrah said Oct. 12, as he ordered Boni to remain held on $100,000 bond, because Mr. Boni is a product of a system, in my mind, that is broken.

Court records say Boni raced into Powell at 143 mph in May, hitting four different vehicles before his Jetta slid to a stop on Coulter Avenue. No one was seriously injured, which police have c...
Whenever conservatives in the Wyoming House push back against the destructive policies coming from Washington D.C., we are told that we cant question the feds. When we fought in February to protect Wyoming parents from the social transitioning of their children while at school, we were told that isnt happening here. When we tried to protect state and national security interests by preventing agricultural land from being acquired by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and other state sponsors of terror, we were told that our fears of hostile enemies buying up our land were un...
Golden spike monument travels through Sweetwater County

A 43-foot-long golden spike has been making its way across the country for the past two weeks, traveling from the artist's studio in Kentucky to the monument's final home in Utah. The giant spike's last stop before reaching Utah was in Sweetwater County, where it parked outside the Community Fine Arts Center in Downtown Rock Springs for several hours. The CFAC hosted the traveling spike as a special part of their current "Westward Expansion" exhibit, which can be viewed through October 31.

When the spike came on Monday morning, residents and school groups showed up to see the spike, meet th...
Counterpoint Research revealed the smartphone market in China may have bottomed out and on its way to recovery. During the Q3 period, sales declined just 3% on a yearly basis, which along with the sequential increase are strong recovery signals. Huawei was the biggest gainer, increasing its sales by 37%.

Still the July-September period, Honor climbed to the top of the table with successful sales of the X50 and 90 series, surpassing vivo and Oppo.

Huawei increased its market share and overall sales thanks to the Mate 60 phones, powered by a Kirin chipset. The series made a huge splash, said Senior Analyst Ivan Lam, and the company is investing in offline and online channels for distribution to catch up with demand.

Xiaomi also managed to increase its sales by 5%, keeping its fifth place in China. Promotional prices of the Redmi K and Note series brought strong sales, and the company was focused on offering more affordable midrange products to retailers and consumers to offset any potential downward pressure. Research Analyst Alicia Gong said that this strategy has proven to be effective.

A decline in Apple's market share was due to price cuts earlier in the year, pushing people to go for an iPhone 14 device instead of waiting for the new iPhone 15. Oppo and vivo were impacted by weaker spending in Tier 2 and lower cities, and they also weren't as aggressive as Honor and Xiaomi.

During Q3 2023, the top-selling clamshell foldable was the Oppo Find N2 Flip, while Honor Magic V2 was on top of all foldables with a vertical hinge. All companies expect to end the calendar year with strong sales.

Source
The Samsung Galaxy S23 FE became available on Thursday (October 26) and if you missed the pre-order deals, you can check out this offer from Samsung US  you can get up to $300 worth of trade-in credit for the latest FE smartphone with $100 of that being guaranteed. This is a good way to get rid of an old device that has been gathering dust.

You can find the offer on Samsung US by following this link.

The Galaxy S23 FE starts at $630 before any discounts, so you can have a near-flagship phone for as little as $330. The maximum discount is available if you send in a Galaxy S22. Last years flagship has the same Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 as the S23 FE, so this is not an upgrade in terms of performance, but the FE will be updated to Android 17, while the S22 updates will end with v16.



Samsung Galaxy S23 FE

If you have an older S-flagship, the Galaxy S21 is valued at $250 in terms of trade-in credit. Current Galaxy S20 FE owners can get a $200 discount for their old phone. S20 FE to S23 FE is an upgrade in terms of performance and you get new cameras, including a 50MP main module.

The Galaxy A54 has been one of the best mid-rangers of 2023, but if you have one and are not happy with it, you can send it in and get $200 off a new Galaxy S23 FE. The phones are the same size, but the FE model has the more performant chipset and an 8MP 3x tele camera, plus a wireless charging.

If youre looking to jump ship from iOS, the iPhone 13 mini also fetches the maximum $300 discount. If you have the older iPhone 12 mini, thats worth $250 instead.

If you do pick up the Galaxy S23 FE, you can also get the Galaxy Buds2 Pro for $100 (MSPR $230). This discount is also available with the purchase of the S23 and S23+ as well as the Galaxy Z Flip5 and even the Galaxy Watch6 series.

Another bundle brings the FE family together  you can get the Galaxy S23 FE phone, the Galaxy Tab S9 FE and Galaxy Buds FE for $1,000 (the total MSRP is $1,180).

We may get a commission from qualifying sales.
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The three-month extension of the $100 monthly credit for Guam has further advanced to the voting file of the 37th Guam Legislature.

During Thursdays session, Speaker Therese Terlaje addressed that there still remains a multitude of possible options to obtain the $15 million needed for the bill that would assist over 52,000 GPA customers. One option includes the allocation made to Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero for Typhoon Mawar expenses.

The money that still sits in the Typhoon Mawar allocation is a balance of $29 million. Theyve only spent $7 million, and theyve encumbered $8 million, said Terlaje. We are also expecting another $16 million in Medicaid. The legislature needs to clearly flex its authority and say that We are going to use the General Fund money.

To clarify the availability of funds, the senators also questioned Lester Carlson, director of the Bureau of Budget Management and Research.

In contrast to Terlajes statements, Carlson told Sen. Chris Duenas that its too late to use general fund money because of the recent law appropriating $30 million to the Guam Memorial Hospital.

Sen. Telo Taitague then brought up a possible excess $30 million from FY 2021. She raised concerns over the legislature not appropriating those funds as Carlson claimed the funds were no longer available after being used as a beginning balance for FY 22.

That is very fiscally irresponsible and unaccountable, said Taitague. The transparency that this administration has shown to this body and the people of Guam is very short. You have lost the peoples trust, especially with their funding.

The senators further discussed on Friday morning to decide on moving the bill to the voting file.

Taitague added her support to simply use the general fund for the GPA credit.

Isnt it so convenient for this administration to come in front of us, and lo and behold, there is a bag full of money when they need something done, said Taitague. Weve been hit by COVID, and weve been hit with a typhoon. Weve been hit left and right. This is an opportunity for us to help them. The administration is quick to find money for their own pet projects. Im certain they can find more money to help our GPA customers.

Vice Speaker Tina Muna Barnes and Sens. Chris Barnett, Amanda Shelton, Joe San Agustin, Telo Taitague, Dwayne San Nicolas and Sabina Perz all voted in favor of moving the energy credit bill to the third reading and voting file.

Legislative session will continue 9 a,m, Monday at the Guam Congress Building in Hagatna.
Sen. Joe San Agustin and three other Democrat and Republican senators are proposing to impose a 10% excise tax on all vape products for the first year, and then raising it to 20% on the second year.

Guam currently has no standardized tax regulations for what the bill describes as Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems, or ENDS, products, which are vapes or e-cigarettes.

The bill, if enacted into law, will make the taxation for vape products separate from the existing tobacco retail category.

They do not include regulated cannabis products.

San Agustin, chairman of the appropriations committee, said the proposed tax on ENDS products came after realizing the loss of millions in revenues in the Healthy Futures Fund where it showed major shortfalls in revenues from tobacco taxes.

We were finding that many individuals switched from smoking cigarettes to utilizing ENDS products for vaping and we wanted to ensure we captured an industry that has been providing an alternative to traditional smoking by distributing nicotine in vape, e-cigarettes or other electronic methods and were using tobacco licenses but not being taxed the tobacco tax because they were not tobacco retailers, but a new non-taxed industry, San Agustin said in a statement.

By levying a tax on all vape products, there is a potential to generate new revenue for the government of Guam, resulting in additional funding for the Department of Revenue and Taxation and Guam Memorial Hospital, senators said.

In the bill, 40% of the monies collected from the taxes will go to Rev&Tax to assist with enforcement within the Compliance Branch, and 60% will go to GMH to help fund the hospitals operations, repairs, maintenance and vendor payments.

In the course of six years, the tax on cigarettes alone has increased by about 33%.

Under Bill 193-37, or the ENDS Excise Tax of 2023, the tax will be imposed on all ENDS products at the point of sale and will be made visible as a line-item on the receipt.

San Agustin estimates that once the bill is enacted, it will generate some $800,000 in new revenues in the first year.

The amount has the potential to double in the second year.

Under the bill, the annual retail license will be $200 and the annual wholesaler license will be $2,000.

Rev&Tax will be authorized to create a new fee schedule every three years, not to exceed a 5% increase.

An excise tax shall be levied on the final sale of ENDS products...at the rate of 10% of the price per product. Excise tax beginning in the second year after enactment shall increase to the rate of 20%, the bill reads in part.

The bills cosponsors are Sens. Telo Taitague, Roy Quinata and Dwayne San Nicolas.

The evidence is clear: Vaping is just as harmful and addictive as cigarettes. There is a growing vaping problem among our young people and high school students that will no doubt affect their health and the services they will seek at our struggling hospital, Taitague said.

She said taxes arent a popular topic, but fairness is.

We already are taxing most tobacco products, she said. This measure just ensures that we are taxing all nicotine products and applying this sin tax across the board.
A convoy of 11 small fishing vessels made their way to Ritidian Point early Thursday morning to chart the danger zone for the soon-to-be activated firing range up north.

Waters up to 2.8 miles off the coast will fall into the danger zone of militarys live-fire training range complex once it goes live next year.

We have to act as if its active, so we would know what route we have to take, said Audrey Toves, the boat captain who led the convoy Thursday.

The excursion was a collaboration between local fishers and activist group Prutehi Litekyan: Save Ritidian.

Toves has run the One Love Gud Vibes Charters for about eight years, and said shes worried about the impact that the opening of the range will have on the ability of her and others to make a living off the sea.

I was shocked, she said, speaking about the first time she went up to chart the danger zone, moving along from one GPS coordinate to the next.

Some of the most productive fishing grounds around Guam are found off Ritidian, Toves said. The best spots in that area, everything, all our fishing grounds was inside that surface danger zone.

Once active, the firing range complex will be in use for up to 273 days out of the year, though officials at Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz have said before that fewer days may be used.

A resident of Yigo, Toves called the site inside the danger zone a hotspot, for fishers up north, who are limited in the number of sites where they can reliably drop a line. If the danger zone has to be avoided, fishers will have to travel about another five miles to reach other spots where they may not even reel anything in. Traveling all the way down south instead may take longer.

If we cant access that area, what are we left with? What areas are we able to fish? So it affects us immensely.

Fisherman shares concerns

Dino Macaraeg, a fisherman for 19 years, had tagged along with the convoy at the invitation of Toves. An avid fisherman who helps use his catch to fund the expenses for his two boats, Macaraeg said he had concerns about the safety of fishermen and many who would have to navigate around the danger zone.

Military officials have said that red flags and flashing lights will be posted at either end of the danger zone to alert sailing vessels, once active.

But Department of Defense publications note that the depth of the water prevents the deployment of buoys.

Macaraeg said thats a concern.

Im pretty good with my boat, because I have all the gadgets, the communication and everything, but what about those that dont?

Smaller vessels they dont have radio or GPS units, he said. If they did manage to clear the danger zone, he said theyd be sailing out into rough, dangerous waters.

Besides that, he believed that many simply wouldnt stop fishing in the danger zone, and take the risk in order to bring home food for themselves and their families.

When you go out there, whats gonna happen? Whos gonna be there to enforce it? Macaraeg said.

Especially the people here in Guam, they own the water here, you know of course theyre going to stand up for their rights. Theyve been doing this for the tradition, you know, for the culture for, you know, for how many years.

Prutehi Litekyan

Monaeka Flores of Prutehi Litekyan, who organized the convoy with Toves, said the aim was to give fishers insight into sheer size of the danger zone, to really come to recognize whats at stake, but we stand to lose. This is the richest fishing area.

The area has been fished for millenia, Flores noted.

These fishermen and women, you know, were talking about their livelihoods, how they make a living, how they feed their families, but this is also an incredible food source for us as a community.
Members of the 37th Guam Legislature are considering the creation of the Marianas Cyber Security Working Group in order to have islandwide collaboration in discussing future online issues and being properly informed of detected threats, according to Bill 190-37, authored by Vice Speaker Tina Muna Barnes.

The group will include over ten government officials, including the governor, the legislatures speaker, the general manager of the Guam Power Authority and a governor-appointed member of the business community with background and experience in computer operations and analytics.

More than ever, our island is at risk from internet-based threats. These cybersecurity threats use persistent and advanced attacks and have taken aim at both our government and private sector, including critical infrastructure, said Muna Barnes.

The vice speaker added that she hopes the bill will be the first step in creating hacker-proof systems.

In the weeks ahead, we will hold legislative hearings and stakeholder meetings focused on plans to upgrade our islands broadband infrastructure. We will also continue to engage with Guam Homeland Security, the Office of Civil Defense, the Marianas Fusion Center and other industry officials to help develop bills that will keep this critical mission progressing, said the vice speaker. As Cybersecurity Awareness Month comes to a close, I encourage every resident and business who has been the victim of a cyber-attack to report the incident to the fusion center. It is a key resource to investigating and can provide best practices to help prevent future attacks.

Barnes bill proposes that the group will meet on a monthly basis to discuss issues involving cyber security and its heightened priority within Guam.

The group will also receive periodic briefings from the Mariana Regional Fusion Center, on best practices available to implement cyber security measures, secure management information systems, and minimize threats to commerce and government operations. The briefings may also include a recap on any recent threats to Government of Guam entities.

The bill was further sponsored by Sens. Dwayne San Nicolas, Chris Barnett, Frank Blas Jr., Christopher Duenas, Jesse Lujan and William Parkinson.

Its a bill to lay the foundations of cybersecurity collaboration within the Government of Guam and how to approach the rising cyberthreats from China and North Korea, said San Nicolas, legislative chairman of the committee on emergency response and military affairs. Bill 190-37 is a good start. I thank and commend Vice Speaker Barnes for her efforts to strengthen Guams crucial infrastructure by seeking to create the Marianas Cyber Security Working Group.

San Nicolas added that they will continue conversations with the federal government as he believes they have much greater understanding and jurisdiction over cybersecurity due to it being a matter of national security.

In my opinion, the government of Guam should follow the lead of our federal counterparts as local government operations are vital to the island, said San Nicolas.

Duenas, the vice-chair of the Homeland Security committee, added that the recent breach at the Guam Memorial Hospital serves as a reminder to protect Guams data.

While no critical records were compromised, it begs the question: How secure is our data? said Duenas. The establishment of the Marianas Cyber Security Working Group offers a promising solution. This designated, well-trained group could not only protect our data through recommending legislation and administrative policy but also keep the community informed about evolving software security threats, building our defenses against potential vulnerabilities.
Government leaders, family and other community members paid tribute to the late U.S. District Court of Guam Chief Judge Johnny Sablan Unpingco during a state memorial service at the Guam Congress Building on Thursday.

Instead of attention and recognition, my father found satisfaction in that he stayed faithful to his general principles: being tough but fair and doing the right thing at all times, even when it was unpopular, Mark Andrew Unpingco, the late judges son, said when he delivered the eulogy for his father.

He remembers his father as a humble and honored person.

Despite my fathers modesty wishes, I think that its still befitting that we pay him some home today given that he dedicated his life to public service, the younger Unpingco said.

He also shared an insightful conversation he had with his father over the phone a few months ago.

I was lamenting to him about all the stress and frustrations I had with many of the emergency management projects and national security initiatives that I was working on in Washington, D.C., the son said. Less than two minutes into our conversation, my father interrupted me and said, You cant control the actions and motivations of those who disagree with you or offend you. Only do what you can control, which is your emotions and how you choose to respond to their actions. Regardless of what course of action you choose to do in your response, just make sure that what you do is to the best of your abilities with both humility and grace.

Senators presented the family with Resolution 229-37, honoring the former judges life and public service, from his military service and a judge advocate general in the U.S. Air Force to being a chief judge in the U.S. District Court of Guam for 11 years and as director of the Guam Office of Veterans Affairs.

The governors office also provided a certificate of condolences as they reflected on Johnny Unpingos community contributions.

Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero and Lt. Gov. Joshua Tenorio said Unpingcos contributions to maintaining the judicial system and his unwavering dedication to the veteran community have positively impacted the lives of those he encountered, for which the island of Guam will be forever grateful.
Bettersten Wade of Jackson, Mississippi, spent nearly six agonizing months searching for her missing son, 37-year-old Dexter Wade.

Although she reported him missing less than a week after his disappearance in March, it would be 172 days until she learned of his tragic fate: Roughly 30 minutes after leaving the family home on foot, he was struck by an off-duty corporal driving a police SUV.

Dexter Wade died on the scene of severe head injuries. The officer involved was not suspected of being under the influence of drugs or alcohol, according to the police report, and he was not given any field sobriety tests. The death was ruled accidental.

For the next three months Dexter Wades body lay unclaimed in the local morgue until he eventually was buried in a common grave for unclaimed bodies at the Hinds County penal farm.

Police knew who his family was the entire time.

According to an incident report obtained by NBC, Dexters body was identified by the Hinds County coroners office only four days after his death using fingerprint records. Information regarding his next of kin was then provided to the Jackson Police Department.

They had me looking for him all that time, and they knew who he was, Wade told NBC News.

The investigator at the coroners office said that upon identifying Wades son on March 8, he called her and left a voicemail, which she said she never received.

In the meantime, she never gave up: She searched abandoned houses, called neighbors and pleaded with detectives.

On June 14, Bettersten Wade posted on Facebook, Dexter Happy Fathers Day. I am trying to find you but no one knows what happens to you. I wish someone would have saw you. I love you very much please come home.

Her sons two teenage daughters begged her to keep looking.

The grieving mother told NBC that she contacted two missing person investigators and followed up several times with the Jackson Police Department. Although the coroners office investigator claims he passed along her phone number and address to the department, each time she called, the answer was the same: no updates.

The decision to even contact police in the first place was an excruciating one  in 2019, Bettersten Wades 62-year-old brother was beat to death by a Jackson police officer during a traffic stop. The officer is currently appealing the manslaughter conviction.

Now, she wonders if her sons prolonged disappearance had to do with a vendetta. Maybe they buried my son to get back at me, she told NBC.

Finally, on Aug. 24, a new investigator who had recently taken over the case called her.

Nearly six months after her sons disappearance, she was finally informed of what happened to Dexter.

According to NBC, she had to pay the coroners office a $250 fee to claim his body. It took several weeks to find his final resting place among dozens of other unclaimed bodies: a patch of dirt behind a Hinds County jail, identified only by a grave marker: No. 672.

After NBCs original article was published, a spokesperson for Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba reached out to offer her condolences and clarify that police did not intentionally harm Dexter or his family, according to NBC.

There was no malicious intent anywhere in this whole situation, said the spokesperson, Melissa Faith Payne.

Bettersten Wades ordeal isnt over yet. She hopes to soon raise enough money to exhume her sons body and move him to a proper grave.
Maybe hold onto your slice of pizza a little tighter in one Texas city, which jumped up 10 spots year-over-year on Orkins 2023 rattiest cities list.

At No. 20, Houston is one of the rattiest cities in the country, according to the Atlanta-based pest control service.

The list from Orkin ranks 50 of the nations busiest metro regions by the number of new rodent treatments performed over a 12-month period. Specifically, Orkin studied new rodent treatments executed between Sept. 1, 2022, and Aug. 31, 2023, at both residential and commercial properties.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Chicago took the top spot as the rattiest city in the country, an honor it has earned in all of the nine years Orkin has released the list.

Rounding out the Top 5 were Los Angeles, New York City, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco.

Other notable cities to beat out Houston include Boston, Philadelphia and Seattle.

There are two main types of rats that call H-Town home: Norway rats and roof rats. These two rat species are very invasive and seek shelter wherever they can find it. This includes your home, says Texas-based pest and termite control company All Safe.

In addition to Houston, another Gulf Coast city saw a big jump for 2023s list.

New Orleans jumped up eight spots to land at No. 30. The Big Easy ranked just behind Richmond-Petersburg, Virginia, and just ahead of Cincinnati, Ohio.

In addition to Norway rats and roof rats, New Orleans also has to contend with the nutria, which is a large, herbivorous, semiaquatic rodent. While its unlikely that nutria will ever enter a house, their burrowing behavior can indirectly impact the structural integrity of buildings.

Orkin estimates that 21 million homes are invaded by rats, mice and other rodents every year. They typically enter homes between October and February looking for food, water and shelter from the cold, the company says.

Rodents multiply swiftly, and when an infestation is left unattended, they can cause extensive damage to homes and yards, Orkin entomologist Ben Hottel said in a news release announcing the 2023 list. Rats are capable of squeezing into spaces through holes as small as a quarter, which makes it especially important to seal cracks from the outside.

Perhaps most worrying, rats can carry diseases including hantavirus, leptospirosis and even monkeypox, according to the CDC.

With their strong jaws and burrowing skills, rodents can also cause structural damage, according to Orkin. They have oversized front teeth for gnawing. They can chew through a variety of items including electrical wires, water pipes and gas lines.

There are a few common signs of a rodent infestation in a home or business. They include droppings (especially near where food is stored or under sinks), gnaw marks, nests in dark and secluded areas, grease or dirt marks along walls and floorboards, and strange noises like scurrying in the walls or attic.

To prevent a rat infestation in your home or business, Orkin recommends keeping food sealed and stored, removing clutter (especially cardboard, which they chew and use for their nests), maintaining the landscaping around your home, and inspecting for rodents frequently.




Haiti - FLASH : 3 times more armed bandits than police officers in Haiti





According to a report, Maria Isabel Salvador, Special Representative of the Secretary General for Haiti and head of the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) As of June 30, 2023, the workforce was 14,295 police officers, including 1,667 women, which corresponds to a ratio of 1.17 police officers per 1,000 inhabitants. However, only about 10,000 police officers perform policing duties as active officers, of which 3,300 are assigned on the ground to perform public safety duties across the country at any given time. 



In 2019, the United Nations Mission to Support Justice in Haiti (MINUJUSTH) estimated the presence of 162 armed groups in Haiti with around 3,000 men throughout the national territory...



In 2023, the National Commission for Disarmament, Dismantling and Reintegration (CNDDR) estimates that the number of armed gangs is now greater than 300 and their numbers are around 9,000 men... The Commission specifies that these armed groups are constantly recruiting new members and it is difficult to know their exact number. For the record, in 2004, there were officially 34 armed groups in Haiti.



In the report of the United Nations Sanctions Committee which works on Haiti, the group of experts indicates that despite the will of the high command of the National Police of Haiti (PNH) and the police officers on the ground assigned to active tasks of public security, the police institution lacks the means to deal with bandits "The police have a limited budget, lack personnel, are poorly equipped and poorly trained to deal with the complexity of the situation on the ground and do not does not have the capacity to reconquer the territories occupied by gangs [...] Despite the appeal launched by the Prime Minister a.i. in March 2023 to the national armed forces, the police remain the only line of defense against gangs  Operational capacity in defense and security of the Armed Forces of Haiti reconstituted by President Moise is very weak, underlines the experts of the Committee.



Download the report of the UN Panel of Experts (French PDF 158 pages): https://www.haitilibre.com/docs/N2324629.pdf



TB/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - News : Zapping...





Canal construction : The Government will provide its support

The Government will shortly provide technical and financial support for the construction of the irrigation canal with water intake on the Massacre River. Several Ministers met, in this regard on Thursday October 26, the committee in charge of managing the site.



Sunrise announces 2 weekly flights to Panama

From October 31, 2023 Sunrise Airways announces Twice the options for traveling to Panama with 2 flights per week to and from Port-au-Prince on Tuesdays and Saturdays.



France : Distribution of food to school canteens

The General Coordination of the National School Canteen Program (PNCS) informs the general public that food produced in Haiti will be distributed to schools for the benefit of 41,227 beneficiaries of the Program under the network of the Cooperation and Cultural Action Service (SCAC) from the French Embassy in Haiti. The coordination reminds everyone that the sale of these products is strictly prohibited.







The Coordination invites citizens to alert the PNCS officials, in case these products end up in the commercial circuit email: ncshaiti1@gmail.com



SIM card : Authentication of applicants

The National Telecommunications Council (CONATEL) and the National Identification Office (ONI) co-chaired an important working meeting with the two mobile telephone operators NATCOM and DIGICEL, around the issues of "identification and authentication" of SIM card users. An independent platform will be created to allow operators, using ONI data, to verify the information provided by potential SIM card applicants or buyers.



FIFA : Our Grenadiers back of one rank

Thursday October 26, 2023, in the latest FIFA rankings our Grenadiers move from 87th to 88th place after the poor performance in the League A of Nations with zero victories and relegation to League B https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-40742-haiti-league-of-nations-defeated-by-jamaica-[2-3]-haiti-leaves-the-competition-and-is-relegated-to-league-b-video.html



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Atte Harjanne , the chairperson of the Green Parliamentary Group, on Wednesday justified the proposal with intergenerational fairness, referring to the spending cuts the government has laid out for student and unemployment benefits.

THE GREEN LEAGUE has called for a raise on all but the lowest pensions.

Finland does have poor pensioners but also pensioners who are in a perfectly good situation. Itd be preferable if they participated in the effort to balance public finances, he explained.

The opposition party is proposing that the tax rate on annual pensions exceeding 13,500 euros be increased by 0.52 percentage points. Harjanne told that the effect of the tax hike would be equivalent to reducing the 5.7-per-cent increase that is to be made to pensions at the turn of the year due to cost of living by one point.

A supplementary tax of 5.85 per cent is already levied on annual pension income exceeding 47,000 euros in Finland.

The proposal received no support from other political parties on Thursday.

Minister of Finance Riikka Purra (PS) and Minister of Social Security Sanni Grahn-Laasonen (NCP) shot it down during a question-time debate in parliament on Thursday, the latter reiterating that the government is looking to target spending cuts on population groups that have the opportunity to improve their position through employment.

Purra, in turn, argued that many recipients of low earnings-based pensions already are not rewarded sufficiently for their long careers given that people on national and guarantee pension can have almost the same net income despite significantly shorter careers.

Annika Saarikko, the chairperson of the Centre Party, said the Green League appears to be detached from the lives of low-income pensioners, adding that many pensioners with monthly income of around 1,000 euros are already between a rock and a hard place.

Intergenerational fairness is important, but creating divisions isnt a way to increase it. You shouldnt be pitting generations against each other, she stated. Itd be wrong to meddle with the [employment pension index] when it works to the benefit of pensioners. The oldest population groups dont have the opportunity to earn additional income unlike many students, for instance.

The Left Alliance agreed with the Green League that the government is disproportionately targeting students, the unemployed and people with sicknesses with its spending cuts. Chairperson Li Andersson viewed, though, that introducing a higher tax on pensions is not a means to address the situation.

The entire opposition should be focusing its resources on preventing or making more reasonable the cuts the government has proposed for other groups.

The Finnish Centre for Pensions has calculated that the pensions received by current pensioners are on average many times higher than the pension contributions they made during their careers. In Finland, earnings-based pensions are funded primarily by the pension contributions made by current employees and employers, meaning pensioners have not technically saved their own pensions.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT
#MFR2023 emerges as a vibrant confluence of technology, creativity, and innovation. This annual faire , open to an enthusiastic public, unfolds in the timeless city of Rome, setting a stage for a gathering unlike any other. It's a place where innovators, makers, enthusiasts, and visionaries from across Europe and beyond converge to share, inspire, and ignite the spark of ingenious ideas.

The full 100,000 m2 of the largest exhibition center of Italy, Fiera Di Roma was occupied by the Maker Faire Rome  The European Edition 2023.

From cutting-edge IoT & Electronics to advancements in Smart Robotics and Artificial Intelligence, the faire covers a multitude of sectors including Aerospace, Digital Manufacturing, and even Agritech & Food, Circular Economy, Biohacking, and more.

The Call Mechanism is the fair's backbone, democratically opening doors for innovative minds to showcase their breakthroughs without a fee, an initiative meticulously overseen by a panel of experts. This process exemplifies the spirit of inclusivity and merit that defines the essence of Maker Faire Rome.

This years event was spread across seven pavillions of the Fiera di Roma exhibition center. Each pavilion was given an abstract title under which several themes were covered. The areas were called Make, Life, Discover, Research, Learn, and Play.

Make represents the soul of the event, inspiring open source grass root innovation and hands on experimenting. Maker projects ranging form electronics and components to 3D printing, digital manufacturing, industrial automation, and space research.

Projects related to agrifood, circular economy, renewable energies, and, environmental sustainability were presented in the Life pavilion. One of the most interesting projects in this pavilion was an MIT - Carabinieri collaboration. Most people dont know that the Italian Carabinieri, which is a kind of Gendarmerie police force, among other duties monitors the wild life and the health of vegetation and trees. They usually do this by walking in the forest and making notes. MIT students and researchers have now built an experimental spectrometry camera which can be mounted on top of the Carabinieri patrol vehicles and bot automatise and digitise this process. The camera scans the vegetation and uses AI to estimate the health of the trees.

Pavilion 5, named DISCOVER and positioned next to Pavilion 3, was dedicated to essential technological domains such as artificial intelligence, robotics, virtual and augmented reality, and cybersecurity. This area showcased an array of digital projects and services targeted at both individuals and businesses. It also included a significant networking section, intended to encourage one-to-one interactions and cultivate business opportunities.

Maker Faire Rome, organised by Innova Camera under the license from Make Co, is an educational and collaborative arena. It offers workshops, engaging conferences, and hands-on labs, fostering not just knowledge acquisition but practical skills in technology and digital innovation. The involvement of students, startups, corporates, and government bodies transforms the event into a melting pot of ideas and technological evolution. It symbolises a meeting point for the European innovator's community, firmly positioning Italy, and more specifically Rome, as a hub of creativity and forward-thinking.

Research institutes, universities, and technical institutes focused on innovation together with projects related to health, wellness, and medical scientific research were presented in the Research pavilion. Interestingly in a quiet corner of the research pavilion a multinational Horizon project coordinated by the University of Oulu were showcasing their research.

Longitools researchers and their sensors

The LongITools project is focused on understanding the interplay between environmental, lifestyle, and biological factors to assess the risks of cardiovascular and cardiometabolic non-communicable diseases in people. Given that cardiovascular diseases are the foremost cause of deaths in Europe and metabolic diseases like type 2 diabetes and obesity are increasingly common, this project aims to deepen our understanding of these diseases. This understanding is crucial for developing effective policies and interventions to prevent and reverse such diseases.

LongITools utilises a comprehensive array of data, including over 11 million EU citizens' life-course data from various sources like cohort studies, controlled trials, and biobanks. This "exposome" approach helps define disease pathways and intervention points. The project, funded by the European Unions Horizon 2020 program, aims to produce new scientific evidence, develop a metadata catalogue, create life-course causal models, and assemble tools for exposome data analysis. Additionally, it intends to contribute to policy-making and regulation, with tools such as a health risk assessment system using AI, an economic simulation model for the economic burden of diseases, and translation of research into policy options, thereby aiming to improve the health of EU citizens. The project places multiple environmental sensors in the participant subjects homes while at the same time measuring their biosignals to find correlation between environmental factors such as noise or CO2 and stress levels.

Codiart's high res robot camera and darkroom

Another startup in the Fair, CODiART has revolutionised the art world by introducing an advanced supervision, scanning, and control system tailored for the digitalisation and intricate analysis of artworks. This innovation proves invaluable for a spectrum of art aficionados, including galleries, museums, collectors, restorers, and auction houses. Their custom-built software meticulously identifies, tracks, and examines the minutest details of an artwork, compiles annotations about its origin, and auto-generates a comprehensive PDF report for sharing. Moreover, CODiART's high-tech approach transforms the way artworks stored in various locations, including vaults and restoration labs, are exhibited, circumventing potential logistical challenges and risks. The company's mission revolves around enriching the experiences of restorers, art critics, and enthusiasts by offering a precise, automated analysis, powered by cutting-edge computer vision technology. The unique blend of a collaborative robot, top-tier 2D camera, joystick, and their proprietary software ensures an unparalleled deep dive into the world of art.

Weaving's AI recognises human joints instatnly and accurately and can follow the range of movment

Weaving, brings telerehabilitation to the forefront, offering a game-changing platform for physiotherapists and specialised centres, streamlining remote patient management and care. This innovative platform eliminates the need for physical sensors, utilising only a PC or smartphone camera. Physiotherapists can efficiently manage appointments, effortlessly collect and manage patient records, and compose bespoke therapeutic exercise routines. The platform also allows the uploading of custom exercise videos, ensuring a personalised treatment experience for each patient. One of the standout features is the Virtual AI Trainer, which meticulously tracks, monitors, and corrects patients exercise executions, enhancing the efficacy of home-based treatments. Weaving focuses on helping individuals with motor issues regain independence, offering therapeutic exercise protocols for various skeletal and neurological problems. Features like a customisable exercise calendar, constant support for patient queries, and monitoring of both pain and therapeutic progress underscore Weaving's commitment to simplicity and innovation. The platform is designed to be user-friendly for all ages, ensuring safe, controlled, and effective home-based physiotherapy exercises.

The role of Maker Faire Rome extends further, becoming a massive platform for companies to interact with a knowledgeable and engaged audience. This interplay between creators and the market underscores the event's importance as a beacon for business and innovation.

In understanding the essence of a "Maker," one realises it's more than a title; it's a mindset of exploration, collaboration, and innovation. As Makers converge in Rome, they're not only showcasing their inventions but also representing a cultural movement with the power to reshape economic and social landscapes.

Maker Faire Rome  The European Edition, therefore, isn't just an event. It's a celebration of human ingenuity, a testament to the power of collaboration, and a beacon for the future of innovation, right in the heart of Rome, where the past and future intriguingly intertwine to create something truly magical.

Alexis Kouros

Helsinki Times
American F-16 fighter jets launched airstrikes in Syria early Friday targeting storage and weapons facilities linked to Iranian proxies. The Pentagon said the strikes were in retaliation for a slew of drone and missile attacks against US bases and personnel in the region. The retaliation was essentially to tell Iran to back off from supporting the militias and cease its aggressive behaviour in the region. Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.(AP)

However, the question that looms is whether Iran will heed this message or continue to play a dangerous game of escalation. The stakes are high, and the consequences of the latter scenario could be catastrophic, leading to a wider conflagration across the Middle East.

Understanding Ayatollah Khamenei's Game

Ayatollah Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, has denied direct involvement in the October 7 attack in Israel by Hamas. However, he simultaneously praised the same terror outfit for its surprise assault. This apparent contradiction raises questions about Iran's true intentions and the intricate web it weaves in the region.

Iran's openly stated goal is to destroy Israel, but the broader game is its perception of the United States as the "Great Satan." Iran's strategy involves orchestrating various terrorist groups in the Middle East, with multifaceted objectives. Firstly, it seeks to dominate the Islamic world in the region, asserting its influence over other nations. Simultaneously, it aims to strike at the credibility of the United States, a long-standing adversary in Iranian foreign policy.

Preventing an Israeli Offensive

Iran also endeavors to ensure that no land offensive by Israel takes place in Gaza, for fear that it could result in the destruction of Hamas. To achieve this, Iran is using the 224 hostages held by Hamas as a key leverage point in its geopolitical game. This is undoubtedly a retaliation for the killing of Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander Qasim Suleimani and Iranian nuclear scientists between 2017 and 2020, incidents that Iran is keen to avenge.

Iran's strategic aims include preserving the military capabilities of groups like Hamas and Hezbollah. By doing so, it keeps Israel on tenterhooks, ensuring that the threat of conflict is ever-present. The use of these proxy groups allows Iran to maintain plausible deniability while still exerting significant influence in the region.

In pursuit of its own political interests and machinations, Iran has disrupted the prospects for peace in the Middle East. It has effectively weaponized Hamas as a principal terror group against Israel, pushing the region further into a cycle of violence and instability.

The consequences of this situation are far-reaching. If a full-fledged offensive occurs, Iran may use its other assets to target American interests throughout the Middle East. The ultimate aim could be to trigger a horizontal conflagration that engulfs the entire region in chaos.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Shishir Gupta Author of Indian Mujahideen: The Enemy Within (2011, Hachette) and Himalayan Face-off: Chinese Assertion and Indian Riposte (2014, Hachette). Awarded K Subrahmanyam Prize for Strategic Studies in 2015 by Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA) and the 2011 Ben Gurion Prize by Israel. ...view detail
Libra - (23rd September to 22nd October) Daily Horoscope Prediction says, Do not let anything distract you Libra Daily Horoscope, October 28 2023: Make the day highly romantic and keep your professional life productive today.

Make the day highly romantic and keep your professional life productive today. Do not overspend today and instead handle wealth with care. Health is good.

Keep the relationship solid as a rock. Skip unpleasant talks and respect the feelings of your lover. Handle money issues with sincerity. Your health will also be in good shape today.

Libra Love Horoscope Today

You may see some bright romantic moments today. Ensure you take every step to keep the lover or spouse happy. Do not hurt the feelings of the partner and also do not impose your opinion which can cause troubles in life today. Married people may see the interference of in-laws. This can cause rifts in the family. If you find the partners habits bothering you, then have a sit-down session.

Libra Career Horoscope Today

Have a happy professional life today. Productivity will be higher and this will raise your position within the organization. IT professionals and healthcare professionals will find opportunities to move abroad. Government employees can expect a change in location today. Those who have interviews lined up for today can attend them with confidence. Some business partnerships will also bring in good finance. Today is also auspicious to launch new ventures.

Libra Money Horoscope Today

Though money will be there, you are advised to be careful while spending it. You will need to save for the rainy day. Avoid providing monetary assistance as you may have a tough time getting the money back. Some Libras will need to contribute to a celebration or a family function at home. You can consider investing in mutual funds. However, today is not a good day to try real estate or buy a new vehicle.

Libra Health Horoscope Today

Minor health issues will disrupt the day. However, no serious medical issues will be there. Junior Libras may develop bruises while playing and females may have migraines or infections related to eyes, ears, or skin. Senior natives will have breathing problems and you need to consult a doctor. While driving, keep your speed under the speed limit and fasten your seat belt.

Libra Sign Attributes

Strength: Idealist, Socially presentable, Aesthetic, Charming, Artsy, Generous

Weakness: Uncertain, Lazy, Non-interventionist

Symbol: Scales

Element: Air

Body Part: Kidneys & Bladder

Sign Ruler: Venus

Lucky Day: Friday

Lucky Color: Brown

Lucky Number: 3

Lucky Stone: Diamond

Libra Sign Compatibility Chart

Natural affinity: Gemini, Leo, Sagittarius, Aquarius

Good compatibility: Aries, Libra

Fair compatibility: Taurus, Virgo, Scorpio, Pisces

Less compatibility: Cancer, Capricorn

By: Dr. J. N. Pandey

Vedic Astrology & Vastu Expert

Website: https://www.cyberastro.com

E-mail: caresponse@cyberastro.com

Phone: 9717199568, 9958780857

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Flipkarts much-awaited The Big Billion Days 2023 event brought the best experience from the past decade to millions of customers across India. In fact, new on-app experiences such as Flippi (a Chat GPT-powered shopping assistant), Vibes (video-led browsing experience) and SPOYL (Gen Z Fashion experience), saw great traction during the tenth edition of Flipkarts Big Billion Days, with a ~4X increase in engagement compared to the pre-festive period. Flipverse, the 3D-rendered, immersive Virtual World with multiple brand spaces, saw a 10X increase in visits compared to the pre-festive period.

Indias homegrown e-commerce company has leveraged innovation, technology, and the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to reshape the way we shop and to deliver immersive, hyper-personalised experiences for both shoppers as well as sellers on its platform. During the 10th edition of its much-awaited The Big Billion Days event, Jeyandran Venugopal, Chief Product and Technology Officer, Flipkart, spoke to Hindustan Times about the innovative new tech features launched during this years The Big Billion Days festival that will change the way we experience e-commerce shopping forever.

Flipsters catch a break before the official BBD 2023 kick off celebrations

We have recently launched our VIP subscription program, which offers tremendous benefits to customers through a subscription model. This includes free and fast shipping, a mystery gift box that you will receive on subscription, early access to events, price lock, and various other benefits, said Venugopal.

Flipkart has also launched SPOYL, a fashion destination for Gen Z, and Vibes, a destination where you can follow influencers and know about new products and launches; and Live Shops where popular celebrities come to the platform and talk about new brands and flagship products that are being launched.

This has received a tremendous reception. Consumers get to hear about the fantastic specs, the new products that are launched and the deals that are going to be offered during the event season. And, not only that, some of these deals are being made available so that even before the event officially starts, they can start buying, he said.

People continue to embrace a more visually engaging shopping experience, as Flipkart bridges the content to commerce gap especially with its video offerings. With a majority of viewers from T2+ regions, Flipkarts Video Commerce offering witnessed the highest viewership till date.

At this years The Big Billion Days shopping festival, customers interacted with their favourite brands with a dedicated destination portal on the app. We have given a voice to the brands so that they can build their own brand following and loyal audiences - to engage in gamified contests, win coupons and other benefits that they can leverage for shopping on the platform, he further added.

Flipkarts robust ecosystem is supported by a backbone of the latest technology and innovation. For a country like India that thrives on its diversity, Flipkart has emerged as a technology-led organisation that has used innovation to its advantage, to expand its reach to customers and sellers located in the remotest corners of the country. It also leveraged the power of Generative AI to offer a seamless shopping experience for those shopping on it during The Big Billion Days.

In a country as diverse as India, we cannot solve problems without creatively using technology to up level customer experience and the entire ecosystem benefits from it, he said.

Flipkart has launched Flippi - a CHAT GPT-powered shopping assistant which can tell you about products, offers, comparisons, and recommendations. It is available through a simple swipe of the app home screen.

We have also introduced a Gen AI-based, fast, accurate customer service assistance for our customers. So, basically, for a set of queries now, we have tuned our Gen AI assistant CX bot to be able to respond to customers in a very effective and quick way. We continue to innovate. Apart from this, we have also actually looked at using Gen AI for image generation. So, a lot of catalogue images are now being generated to AI avatars instead of traditional modern shoots. And we are also generating product descriptions and summaries, and generating reviews through Gen AI, he said.

He also spoke about Flipkart Labs and Flipverse, which brings the power of the metaverse to immersive retail shopping right. The Flipverse, which was launched last year, has undergone an upgrade. It is a much more lightweight experience that helps customers with different types of mobile phones, different connectivity speeds, etc., experience it at full fidelity. A lot of brands have participated and they are very excited to showcase their products in the Flipverse. We also launched a NFT marketplace where brands have created NFT-based clubs, where you can join the NFT marketplace and can engage in gamified constructs, get rewards, engage with brands, and thats also an entirely new construct that we have done this time. We are excited to see how customers will take it up, said Venugopal.

Lakhs of sellers form an integral part of Flipkarts thriving marketplace ecosystem. There are special tech interventions that have been introduced this year to focus on the seller interfaces. Over the last year, Flipkart has simplified the process of enrolling a seller on the platform. The entire process of registering to become a seller on Flipkart can be completed in less than 10 minutes today! A slew of other interventions have been made to ensure growth for sellers on the platform.

We have also created data science led insights to give to the sellers to understand how customers are reacting to the products that they list on our platform. This has actually helped sellers understand where they may need to improve the titles, the descriptions, the imagery, etc., so as to minimise returns for their products right and they get much better conversions, he said.

Flipkart launched another innovative new feature where a Gen AI system is creating new fashion designs. These designs are being shared with the sellers with the belief that if these designs can be created, they will see a great customer response. Flipkart has also significantly revamped the seller portals, seller workflows, seller support systems, and the seller mobile app, which is now fully featured.

We know that a lot of our small to medium-sized sellers completely run their business through their mobile phones. So, we decided to invest very deeply and we connected with sellers across the country through a completely revamped Mobile 2.0 version of the seller portal that has seen fantastic reception from our sellers, he added.

Speaking about the future of e-commerce shopping, Venugopal said that there are several innovations and interventions in the pipeline that will reinvent how e-commerce is happening today. Cutting edge technologies like Gen AI, NFTs, immersive metaverse constructs, etc., will all play a big part in shaping how e-commerce moves to the next level in the years to come.

I think we are in the very early days of where e-commerce can go in the country. If you look at the value propositions offered by e-commerce, which are selection, value, convenience - on every one of these dimensions there are plenty of new technology and product-led innovations and interventions that can bring the next 300-500 million customers to shop online. It is about improving digital access for customers through better vernacular technologies, voice enablement, conversational commerce, and new channels of merchandising, he said.

Flipkarts The Big Billion Days has driven tremendous growth for the entire ecosystem over the past 10 years, with technology playing an integral role. The future of shopping is here and now, courtesy Flipkart.

Disclaimer: This article has been produced on behalf of the brand by HT Brand Studio.

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19th, October 2023, Mumbai: Mr Girish Shah, CEO of SMB Corporation of India (SMB), is introducing 'Silvee,' a game-changing hormone-free contraception invention destined to transform women's healthcare. Mr. Shah's innovative leadership led to the creation of the Silver IUD TCu 380 Ag, a copper and silver intrauterine device available in three sizes to satisfy the various needs of nulliparous, primiparous, and multiparous women, with a legacy extending back to 1986. This globally recognised contraceptive provides a compelling alternative to hormonal contraception and traditional copper-bearing IUDs, assuring minimal menstrual disruption and maximum empowerment.

SMB introduces the TCu 380Ag Silvee, a hormone-free Silver IUD available in three sizes for personalised contraception. It prioritises women's hormonal health and provides up to five years of very effective protection. The innovative Silver Core increases endurance by preventing Copper Wire disintegration and improving usage and efficacy. Its painless insertion method, in particular, makes it perfect for nulliparous women and those looking for hassle-free long-term contraception. SMB's TCu 380Ag Silvee has been approved by worldwide regulatory bodies and is praised for its safety and lack of side effects, winning the confidence of many satisfied women. This breakthrough enables women to securely regulate their reproductive decisions while maintaining hormonal balance.

SMB's Non-Hormonal Silver IUD differs from typical contraception methods since it preserves hormonal health using a Cu-Ag combination that prevents sperm access into the uterus. Its unrivalled convenience offers five-year pregnancy prevention that requires no maintenance and remarkable emergency contraception efficacy within 72 hours of unprotected intercourse. In comparison, tablets only have a 91% efficacy rate, but the TCu 380Ag Silvee has a 99.99% efficacy rate with low side effects, catering to women of all ages, including adolescents, those over 40, nursing mothers, and those on antiretroviral medication. With its tested safety and reversibility, SMB's Silver IUD is a game-changing and empowering contraceptive option, allowing women to confidently control their reproductive choices without jeopardising their hormonal well-being.

Mr Girish Ratilal Shah

Mr Girish Ratilal Shah, the visionary CEO of SMB Corporation of India, has dedicated his life to improving women's reproductive health care and worldwide population stabilisation for the past 37 years. Mr. Shah's leadership has resulted in the construction of two cutting-edge IUD production facilities in Maharashtra and Gujarat, owing to his degree in Prosthetic and Orthotic Engineering from Mumbai's All India Institute of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. These institutions have created life-changing IUDs and accessories, affecting over 70 million women worldwide, averting 350 million unwanted pregnancies, and improving the well-being of families throughout the world. Mr Shah's invention goes beyond IUDs, with medical equipment and gadgets aimed at empowering healthcare workers and improving women's health care.

Mr Girish Ratilal Shah's impact is as multifaceted as it is inspiring. Notably, he engineered the Silver IUD TCu 380 Ag, garnering global acclaim for its use across continents after rigorous clinical trials at AIIMS, New Delhi. Beyond innovation, his commitment extends to reshaping healthcare with tools like the IUD Thread Retriever System. In 2022, he gifted the town of Bordi an outdoor gym, fostering mind-body harmony. His generosity spans tree plantations, donations to schools, and support for various social and religious initiatives, epitomizing a life dedicated to service.

SMB's Healthcare Excellence with Girish Shah's Vision and Commitment.

Mr Girish Shah, a revered technocrat and accomplished industrialist at SMB, stands as a global collaborator, having forged partnerships with prestigious companies worldwide, including Ardez Pharma (Czech), CCD Laboratoire (France), EXELTIS (Brasil), RF Medical (UK), Techno Pharma (Egypt), Imark Hospital (Spain), Bournas Medical (Greece), and many others. His accolades include the title of Leading Health Professional in 2009, showcasing his dedication to healthcare excellence.

SMB's mission, guided by Mr. Shah's visionary leadership, is to enhance mankind's well-being through cutting-edge technology, prioritizing the safety of both service providers and users. Their vision extends across developed and developing nations, aiming to serve customers and service providers comprehensively. With an unwavering commitment to quality, SMB ensures that its products and services consistently surpass customer expectations, positioning them as leaders in their respective markets. At SMB, every customer is treated equally, guaranteeing access to high-quality products and services without discrimination, reflecting their commitment to excellence.

In conclusion, 'Silvee' by SMB Corporation of India, under the visionary leadership of Mr Girish Shah is reshaping the landscape of reproductive health, ensuring a brighter and healthier future for women across the globe.

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 views, opinions, announcements, declarations, affirmations etc., stated/featured in the same. The decision to read hereinafter is purely a matter of choice and shall be construed as an express undertaking/guarantee in favour of Hindustan Times of being absolved from any/ all potential legal action, or enforceable claims.

The information does not constitute medical/health advice. Readers are strongly advised to consult a registered medical practitioner

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India, October 27th, 2023  On the 23rd of October, 2023, "eedge", an innovative online education platformwas launched officially. It was foundedby two highly proficient educators, Mr. Sudeep Mehta (Physics Mentor) and Mr. Brijesh Mehta (Chemistry Mentor), who have over two decadesof teaching experience. Drawing from their extensive experience, they recognized the potential of online learning to facilitate students' comprehensive growth. Drivenby this vision,the co-founders embarkedon the creation of a platform that would transform the educational landscape and reshape the student learning experience nationwide.

To announce the official launch of eedge, a grand press event was organised on the 23rd of October at the prestigious 5-star Sayaji Hotel in Rajkot, Gujarat. Distinguished publications from Gujarat were present, to cover this pioneering initiative. Key speakers of the event included the Directors of eedge, who brought this innovative platform to life, and the dedicated IT team, who are the drivingsource behind eedge.The press conference provided a platformfor these experts to discuss eedge's goals and the potential impact it can have on the lives of students. The event marked the beginning of an exciting journey that promises to redefine the way students access and engage with education.

Emphasising the need for online education, Mr. Sudeep Mehta, Co-Founder of eedge, said, "Maintainingfocus in a traditional classroom setting can sometimes be difficult for students as thereare chances that important concepts can go unnoticed because of extended school hours. eedge aims to bridgethese gaps by offering studentsa valuable second resource for learning. Additionally, eedge is dedicated to extending its reach to underprivileged students who face financial and resource challenges, ensuring they have access to high-quality educational material at an affordable price.

Sharing his thoughts on the brand's mission, another Co-Founder Mr. Brijesh Mehta said, "At eedge, our goal is to provide quality education to the students in grades 9th to 12th with the best educational platform available. We aspire to create an environment that not only encourages students to achieve academic excellence but also looks after their holistic development. Every student deserves quality education and no student should be deprived of it.

Features of eedge 

Recorded Lectures: eedge offers pre-recorded conceptual lectures delivered by some of the finest educators in India. With these recorded lectures, students can pace their learning to suit their individual needs and revisit complex topics until they grasp them fully. The best part of this platform is that every lecture is of around 20 minutes duration, which is developed keepingin mind the attention span of todayshyperactive generation. Live Doubt Sessions: To enhance comprehension and facilitate student-teacher interaction, eedgehosts live Zoom doubt sessions. During these live session, students can ask questions and clarify doubts in real-time, creating an engaging and dynamic learning experience. Worksheet with Solutions: eedge provides carefully curated worksheets that include selected questionsand previous year questions from competitive exams like JEE Mains and NEET. These worksheets serve as invaluable practice tools, allowing students to assess their knowledge, identify areas that need improvement, and gain confidence in their abilities. Each worksheet is accompanied by comprehensive solutions, aiding students in their self-assessment and learning journey. Chapter Wise Tests: Regularassessments are a key aspectof effective learning. eedge offers chapter-wise teststhat help studentsgauge their progressand grasp of individual topics. These tests are designed to provide immediate feedback on performance, allowing students to tailor their study plans and focus on areas that require attention. By incorporating this feature, eedge empowers students to take charge of their academic journey and continually enhance their skills.

With these features, eedge stands out as a comprehensive online learning platform to help students identify their weaknesses and improve accordingly. Additionally, the app offers personalized learning plans for its students to prepare them in a well-structured manner.

The combined expertise of Mr. Sudeep Mehta and Mr. Brijesh Mehta positions eedge to provide students with exceptional educational content, empowering them to excel in life. Additionally, eedge is currently providing an Introductory Offer only for the first 10,000 learners, who will get a FLAT 100% off. For more details regardingthe offer, please visit

- https://www.eedge.in/

eedge is all set to transform the educational landscape and bring a new era of learning and academic excellence. For additional information, please visit - https://www.eedge.in/

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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The Tata Group will soon start making Apple iPhones in India for domestic and global markets, Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar wrote on X on Friday. The information that the Tata Group had been planning to assemble iPhones in India emerged in May this year. According to reports, the Wistron Corp -- that was making iPhones in India -- agreed to sell its Karnataka manufacturing unit to the salt-to-software conglomerate. Here is what we know about the deal. Apple Store(Reuters file photo)

Chandrasekhar posted on X, PM Modi ji's vision is to build global standard Indian electronics manufacturing companies that can serve Indian and global brands, for Indian and global consumers and to further accelerate India's rise as a global trusted electronics manufacturing power. PM @narendramodi Ji's visionary PLI scheme has already propelled India into becoming a trusted and major hub for smartphone manufacturing and exports. Now within just two and a half years, @TataCompanies will start making iPhones from India for domestic and global markets from India. Congratulations to the Tata team for taking over Wistron operations. Thank you @Wistron for your contributions, and great going for Apple in building a global supply chain from India with Indian companies at its helm.

The Wistron board reportedly approved the sale of Wistron InfoComm Manufacturing India Private Limited to Tata Electronics Private Limited for an estimated price of 125 million dollars (approximately 1040 crore).

Apple has been trying to move a big chunk of its iPhone production out of China to countries like India and Vietnam, both emerging markets where cost of manufacturing is lower than the United States.

India is at the center of Apple's manufacturing plans for the future. Wistron had begun assembling iPhones in India in 2017. Apple later recruited Foxconn for the same purpose.

Tata has been in talks with the company for its Bengaluru plant for over a year.

Taiwanese giants Pegatron Corp and Foxconn Technology Group are Apple's mainstays when it comes to iPhone assembling in India. Wistron is the third Taiwanese player in India.

According to a Bloomberg report, Wistron wants to diversify its business into areas like servers. This is because iPhone manufacturing is a thin-margin business for the company, it said.

Wistron said in a statement that the deal has been confirmed by both parties and they are seeking regulatory approvals.

Meanwhile, Tata has increased hiring in its Hosur factory where it manufactures components for Apple iPhone, Bloomberg reported.

Tata has also announced that it will launch 100 Apple stores in the country of 1.4 billion, it added.

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The Border Security Force (BSF) on Friday said that Pakistani Rangers resorted to unprovoked firing and shot mortars in Arnia sector till 3am, injuring one of its personnel. Villagers shift to a safer place following unprovoked firing by the Pakistan Rangers along the border in Arnia sector of Jammu district on Friday. (PTI Photo)

Pakistani Rangers resorted to unprovoked firing and mortar shelling in Arnia, which was befittingly responded to by the BSF. Intermittent firing continued till 3am, a BSF spokesperson said. He said the BSF personnel had sustained minor injuries and had been provided medical aid.

Also read: BSF gives detailed account of Pakistans mortar fire, says retaliated in befitting manner

However, intelligence officials said on Thursday evening that two BSF men and a woman were injured in the firing in Arnia. They were identified as Basavraj SR and Sher Singh. The injured woman was identified as Rajni Bala, 38, wife of Balbir Singh, a resident of Ward 5, Arnia.

At 8pm on Thursday, panic gripped residents of over a dozen border villages in Arnia and RS Pura sectors of Jammu district after Pakistani Rangers opened unprovoked firing from automatic weapons and resorted to mortar shelling on BSF posts, prompting the BSF to retaliate in equal measure.

The BSF is on high alert along the 198-km border.

Villagers urge govt to build bunkers

On Friday, police teams visited the affected village of Bhulle Chak in RS Pura where a Pakistani mortar exploded in the verandah of a house, damaging the adjoining kitchen. The walls bore shrapnel marks. The house belonged to one Om Parkash, BSF sources said, adding the family escaped unhurt.

Sai Khurd sarpanch Vijay Choudhary said, Pakistan suddenly opened heavy fire on Thursday night after two-and-a-half years. We urge the government to build bunkers for us on a war-footing. Whenever elections and festivals approach, Pakistan starts firing. They cant be trusted. We are apprehensive of another round on Friday evening. If they start again, well be compelled to migrate to safer places, he said.

Videos and a audio clip of a Pakistani officer, accessed by HT, reveal the impact of Indias retaliatory fire in the forward areas of Pakistan.

The officer is heard telling his colleague to take precautionary measures, including alerting people from mosque loudspeakers, in the wake of intense firing and shelling by the BSF.

Intelligence sources said the Rangers targeted the BSFs Vikram and Chinaj posts in Arnia sector. Two BSF jawans were injured, they said, but the BSF later confirmed injuries to only one guard.

Migrant labourers, women run for cover

Rakesh Kumar of Arnia, the largest populated town on the border in Jammu region, said: Pak Rangers first opened machine gun fire on Vikram post and then targeted Chinaj post as well. They shot a couple of illumination flares in the sky.

Soon after the unprovoked firing began, migrant farm labourers, including women and children, were seen running to safety.

They worked in the forward areas in Arnia to eke out a living.

Rohit Choudhary, a National Conference activist who was attending an event in Arnia, said, Announcements were made from a temple loudspeaker asking villagers to switch off lights of their houses. Choudhary requested the government to deploy bulletproof ambulances in forward Arnia and RS Pura sectors.

Taranjit Singh Tony, a Congress leader from RS Pura, said migrant labourers engaged for harvesting paddy have fled amid the firing and shelling.

Ceasefire violation since October 17

On October 21, BSF personnel had fired warning shots after a group of people escorted by Pakistani Rangers came close to the border in Arnia sector.

After the firing, the suspicious elements had retreated to Pakistan.

On October 17, two BSF personnel were injured when Pakistani troops resorted to unprovoked firing on an Indian post in Arnia, the first major ceasefire violation along the border in Jammu region.

The BSF had lodged a strong protest with Pakistani Rangers at the commandant-level flag meeting last Thursday.

Pakistan had raised a white flag and renewed the mutually brokered truce deal in February 2021.

The truce deal by and large remained in place since then, barring few around a dozen incidents of sporadic fire by Pakistan.

The guns largely fell silent on either side of the border since February 2021.

Before February 25, 2021 there had been escalation of firing and mortar shelling between Indian and Pakistani forces on the LoC and IB, which had caused killings of villagers on either side of the border.

The two neighbouring countries had first inked the mutually brokered truce deal in November 2003, but it was hardly regarded by Pakistan.

India shares a 3,323-km-long border with Pakistan, of which 221km of the IB and 744km of the LoC fall in Jammu and Kashmir.

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Joint Teachers Association staged a protest in front of the UT Secretariat on Thursday over the issues of Samagra Shiksha teachers, computer teachers of 2015 batch and delay in promotions. Later, a delegation of the protesters met the UT director of school education (DSE). Teachers union members during the protest over delay in promotions and DA outside the UT Secretariat in Chandigarh on Thursday. (Keshav Singh/HT)

The major issues raised by the protesters include pending arrears and dearness allowance to Samagra Shiksha teachers and sixth pay commission from October 2021, no hike in salary of computer teachers for two years and contractual teachers not getting the benefit of Seventh Pay Commission.

The protesters alleged that 1,300 Samagra Shiksha teachers and other staff are incurring a loss of 90,000 per head due to assistant controller finance and accounts (ACFA), of the scheme. They added that a budget of 13 crore under Samgra Shiksha had to be sent back to the Union government, blaming the ACFA. They demanded legal action against the official.

Replying to the demands, DSE Harsuhinderpal Singh Brar said Samagra Shiksha is a government-funded scheme and funds are spent the project approval boards nod. The department had funds for October salary, he added.

On revival of 1,036 posts and departmental promotions, he said the file was in motion.

He added the case of the 2015 teachers is pending in the Supreme Court and the department has sought advice of the senior standing counsel. He added that the file of Seventh Pay Commission for contractual employees had been sent to the finance department.

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The Congress councillors of the city handed over a memorandum to the municipal corporation (MC) commissioner Anindita Mitra on Thursday, seeking to expedite the approved developmental works in their wards. Congress city unit chief HS Lucky said that the Chandigarh civic body commissioner heard the councillors patiently and assured that the MC had the requisite funds for the development works. (HT File Photo)

The councillors, led by partys city chief HS Lucky, said that as new works were not getting approved in the MCs finance and contract committee (F&CC) and House meetings, citing lack of funds available with the civic body.

Due to non-availability of funds, the agenda items already passed by the F&CC and the House have been kept in abeyance. It can attract public criticism as important agendas, such as re-carpeting of roads and maintaining public parks, are being kept on hold. We request the MC to arrange funds for these works, said councillor Taruna Mehta.

Though the MC chief said there was no lack of funds, projects were being carried out at a slow pace. It has been over a year that I have been demanding renovation of community centre, but nothing is being done, said councillor Sachin Galav.

HS Lucky said that the commissioner heard the councillors and assured that the MC has the requisite funds and that no work would stop. The commissioner discussed the matter of increasing revenue for the MC to make it self-reliant.

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For the third consecutive Friday, the weekly prayers were not allowed at Kashmirs grand mosque, Jamia Masjid, and the chief cleric and Hurriyat chairperson Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was placed under house arrest, Anjuman Auqaf, the managing body of the mosque, said. The administration had raised concerns regarding the possibility of protests over bombardment of Gaza by Israel (HT File Photo)

The administration had raised concerns regarding the possibility of protests over bombardment of Gaza by Israel.

The gates of the mosque have been closed by the authorities and Mirwaiz has been placed under house detention, the Anjuman Auqaf said.

All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), led by Farooq, said that these repeated closures were reminders that the situation in Jammu and Kashmir is of a fragile normalcy.

Farooq was not allowed to deliver a sermon at Aastan Aaliya Dastgeer Sahib Shrine at Khanyar on Wednesday.

Since October 13, the Friday prayers have not been allowed at the grand mosque as security forces had apprehensions that there could be protests in support of Palestine.

While no reason for these bars is publicly given by the authorities , but if the reason is fear of display of support and solidarity by the people of Kashmir with the hapless people of Palestine being bombed by Israel , that solidarity was and will be there for them as fellow humans and Muslims. Kashmiris stand with the people of Palestine, irrespective of bans and restrictions on them, the Hurriyat said.

Last month, Farooq was released after four years of house detention and he led Friday prayers at Jamia Masjid in the old city on September 22.

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Chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, who was hospitalised in Shimla for treatment of a stomach infection, flew to Delhi on Friday morning for a second opinion. Himachal Pradesh chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, who was admitted to Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital (IGMC), Shimla, due to a stomach infection on Wednesday night, is in Delhi for a second opinion. (ANI file photo)

Sukhu was admitted to the Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC), Shimla, on Wednesday night after he complained of severe stomach ache. Doctors had diagnosed stomach infection and kept him under observation.

Also read: Himachal Police ranked first among hill states in crime tracking systems

The medical bulletin issued by the IGMC said that reports of all tests conducted on him were normal.

IGMC administration had deputed a six-member team of doctors to monitor the chief ministers health parameters.

Naresh Chauhan, the principal media adviser to the chief minister, allayed concerns and said Sukhu had gone to Delhi to seek a second opinion. His condition has improved and the CM headed to Delhi for a second opinion as suggested by doctors in Shimla, he said.

The chief minister was on a tour to Kangra, Mandi, Kullu and Bilaspur earlier this week and doctors suspect he may have developed the infection while travelling.

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With the aim to develop better dialogue with the public, Mohali police will install suggestion boxes across the district. According to Mohali police, these suggestion boxes will be installed at the prominent places of the villages, including gurdwaras and temples. (HT Photo)

To begin with, these suggestion boxes will be installed in around 70 villages and people will be able to deposit letters to share their suggestions for improving policing or other administrative works in their area.

Police teams on Thursday distributed suggestion boxes to the representatives of numerous villages at the Sohana police station.

We will keep the identity of our informers secret and moreover we will welcome the suggestions for better performance of police. In case, someone will give a good suggestion which can improve the system or functioning of police or administration, we will also reward the person and give him a recommendation certificate, deputy superintendent of police (DSP, City-2) Harsimran Singh Bal said.

According to the police, these boxes will be installed at the prominent places of the villages including gurdwaras and temples.

We have suggested to the heads of the villages to install the boxes at such a place at gurdwaras or temples which are not directly exposed to CCTVs so that to keep the identity of the villagers secret. Our aim is to eradicate drugs from Punjab and also maintain better relations with the public, the DSP said.

Last year, in order to fight drug menace, Mohali police had also installed secret boxes in a few villages in the district to share anonymous information and tips.

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A boy released from a juvenile home a week ago killed a 29-year-old man before surrendering to police in central Delhis Nabi Karim in the early hours of Friday, police said. The boy walked to the local police station with the knife used for the alleged murder. (Getty Images)

Deputy police commissioner (central) Sanjay Kumar said an associate of the boy, who was earlier held for an attempt to murder, fled the crime scene. He added the boy, who walked to the local police station with the knife used for the alleged murder, has been booked for murder and taken into custody. Sain said a search for his associate, believed to be an adult, was on.

The murder was reported hours after a teenager stabbed a 19-year-old man, Amit Kumar, to death at Welcome in north-east Delhi. The man had allegedly thrashed the teenager when he objected to being mocked as mental.

Police said Kumar, who faced a series of criminal cases, was from Uttar Pradeshs Deoria.

On Wednesday, Kumar and the teenager allegedly quarreled. The boy has told us that they had personal enmity. Two days before the murder, Kumar allegedly humiliated him and snatched a few hundred rupees.

Around 1.30am on Friday, the teenager and his accomplice, an adult, caught Kumar and stabbed him to death. The adult suspect fled. The teenager walked to the local police station as a passerby reported the murder. Police were looking for the accused adult.

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Delhis air quality deteriorated on Friday but remained in the poor category even as the mercury plunged to the lowest this season to 15.2C, which is two degrees below normal. The previous lowest of 15.6C was recorded on October 22 when Delhi recorded its only very poor air day so far. An increase in wind speed the next day brought air quality index (AQI) back to the poor category and it has remained so since. An average AQI of 258 was recorded at 10.05am. (ANI)

An average air quality index (AQI) of 258 was recorded at 10.05am compared to 256 on Thursday. The air quality was expected to deteriorate further over the weekend and return to the very poor category.

Delhis air quality...is likely to be very poor on Saturday and Sunday. The outlook for the subsequent six days shows the air quality is likely to remain in between very poor and poor, said a bulletin of the Union earth sciences ministrys Early Warning System.

AQI between 0-50 is considered good, between 51 and 100 as satisfactory, between 101 and 200 as moderate, between 201 and 300 as poor, between 301 and 400 as very poor, and over 400 as severe.

The minimum temperatures were likely to hover around the 16C mark until October 30 while the maximum between 31 and 33C.

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The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday arrested West Bengal minister and Trinamool Congress leader Jyotipriya Mallick a day after the central probe agency carried out searches at his residence in Kolkata's Salt Lake in connection with allged multi-crore ration distribution scam in the state. Bengal minister Jyotipriya Mallick

West Bengal minister Jyotipriya Mallick has been arrested by ED in connection with an alleged case of corruption in rationing distribution, the probe agency said in a statement.

Mallick had earlier held the portfolio of state's food ministry in the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC government. He currently holds the portfolios of public enterprises and industrial reconstruction and forest.

While being whisked away by the ED officials, according to Times of India, Mallick reacted to his arrest by saying he was the victim of a grave conspiracy.

Earlier, Mamata Banerjee lashed out against the Centre's misuse of government agencies in order to unleash vendetta and spread lies against those who speak agaist the government.

The CM warned of lodging FIR against the BJP and ED if anything were to happen to Mallick.

Several TMC leaders have been facing a slew of corruption charges which has brought the state government under scanner. Earlier this year, former West Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee was arrested along with his aide Arpita Mukherjee in connection with alleged corruotion in teachers' recruitment.

In the alleged ration scam, the ED had arrested businessman Bakibur Rahaman on October 14 from his home at Kaikhali on the eastern outskirts of Kolkata.

According to ED officials, Rahaman is alleged to have close links with Mallick.

Rahman allegedly used to supply rice and wheat in lesser quantities to distributors. The balance was sold in the open market later.

ED had carried out search operations for three days at around a dozen locations of Rahaman in Nadia and North 24 Parganas districts.

The locations included rice and flour mills, a three-star hotel and a bar owned by Rahaman, ED officials had said.

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The Gautam Budh Nagar police has filed its charge-sheet against eight people, including four members of apartment owners association (AOA) of Paras Tierea society in Sector 137, in the case of an elderly womans death due to a lift malfunctioning at the society in August this year. On August 3, 73-year-old Sushila Devi, a resident of Paras Tierea society, had taken the lift in Tower 24 to go from her residence on the eighth floor to the second floor, when the lift allegedly malfunctioned and plummeted to the ground, leading to the womans death. (Sunil Ghosh/HT Photo)

On August 3, 73-year-old Sushila Devi, a resident of Paras Tierea society, had taken the lift in Tower 24 to go from her residence on the eighth floor to the second floor, when the lift allegedly malfunctioned and plummeted to the ground, leading to the womans death, a complaint submitted by the womans son Devesh Kumar had said.

On the basis of Kumars complaint, an FIR was registered at the Sector 142 police station under sections 304A (death due to negligence) and 287 (negligent conduct with respect to machinery) the same day, against eight people, including four members of the Paras Tierea AOA, three officials of the facility management firm and the lift manufacturing firm. The charge-sheet in the case was filed on October 11.

Following a thorough investigation, the police have charged all eight individuals named in the FIR of being responsible for the death of the woman due to their collective negligence. Those named in the charge-sheet are AOA president col Ramesh Gautam, vice-president Anang Pal Chauhan, general secretary Sukhpal Singh Rana, treasurer Neetu Salar, two directors of the facility management firm, manager of facility management firm AN Secure Monik Sharma, and service customer engineer of Thyssenkrupp lift manufacturing company Omvir Singh, said Vineet Rana, station house officer, Sector 142 police station.

He added that a total of 25 witnesses have been listed in the charge-sheet, of which nine are residents of the society.

So far, only one arrest has taken place in this case, of AOA president col Gautam, on August 8 while a notice to appear before police has been issued to all other suspects. Summons and warrants have been issued for the first hearing scheduled for November 16, 2023. There are a total of 25 identified witnesses, and their list has been submitted to the court, added the SHO.

AOA members said criminal charges against them set a wrong precedent.

Noida and Greater Noida have hundreds of high-rise societies which have AOAs to maintain and govern the space. With this incident, the AOA is being made a scapegoat and criminal charges have been filed against us. While the incident was unfortunate, we will fight the case with full legal recourse and will continue to serve the residents of our society, said Gautam.

Vice president Chauhan said, The negligence was a part of the lift company that failed to carry out proper maintenance even after being hired and paid to do so. However, we will continue to fight the case in court.

Other members of the AOA echoed these sentiments. General secretary Rana said, We took over as the AOA of the society so that we can be of service to residents of the society and run the premises efficiently. Instead, we have been labelled as criminals.

Representatives of Noida Federation of Apartment Owners Association (NOFAA) also said that holding AOA members criminally liable for a lift malfunction will deter residents from coming forward to volunteer to be part of the association.

This would discourage most residents to come forward to becomes members of society governing bodies. Some kind of legal protection or safeguard needs to be there for AOA members. As it is, AOAs do not have any legal powers and being an AOA member is considered to be a thankless job. Now, with criminal charges lodged against AOA members, it will set a wrong precedent for other societies, which too will blame AOAs for any and every fault, said Rajiva Singh, president of NOFAA.

Earlier on October 17, Uttar Pradesh chief secretary Durga Shankar Mishra approved the drafts of the proposed UP Lifts and Escalators Act, 2023, as well as Rules at a high-level meeting in Lucknow.

After the cabinet nod, the Act and the Rules will be presented in the next session of the state assembly, after which the long-pending law will become a reality in the state, a senior government official said, asking not to be named.

Monik Sharma, facility manager of AN Secure maintenance firm, who is also named in the charge-sheet, said, In the contract signed between the firm and the AOA, it is clearly mentioned that the firm is only responsible for cleanliness of elevators, not maintenance. We will argue our case in the court.

Service customer engineer of Thyssenkrupp lift manufacturing company Omvir Singh said, I had just checked the lift a few days before the mishap and it was working fine. I do not know on what basis my name has been added in the charge-sheet.

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A 28-year-old man has been arrested on Thurdsday on charges of sexually abusing a female dog and throwing her from the third floor of his residence. The incident took place in Uttar Pradesh's Greater Noida around midnight. The accused was allegedly under the influence of toxic substance during the time of the incident.

According to reports, the man was on the balcony of his residence with the dog, committing the crime. A neighbour noticed the incident and immediately raised alarm.

The accused threw the female dog on the street upon hearing the neighbours outcry. The dog sustained injury. "The accused has been arrested this evening after an FIR was lodged in the case, Vinod Kumar Mishra, in-charge of the local Beta 2 police station told PTI.

According to police, the accused works in a private construction company. He was allegedly under the influence of toxic substance during the time of the incident.

The accused has been booked under Indian Penal Code Section 377 (carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal), while charges have also been invoked under The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, police said.

Further legal proceedings in the case are underway, the police added.

(With PTI inputs)

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At least six people were injured in a communal clash that broke out early Friday morning in Bihars Saran district during a procession of Durga idols, on the way to immersion, police said. Immersion of Goddess Durga (Representative Photo)

Police said the incident took place in the New Bazar locality of Chapra Town, where people pelted stones at the procession while it was passing through a minority area.

Saran superintendent of police (SP) Dr Gaurav Mangla, other senior officers, as well as, reinforcement teams rushed to the spot after the clashes started around 5am.

Heavy police force was deployed in the area to bring the law-and-order situation under control, said police.

Also Read: Durga Puja: 3 injured in clash during immersion in Begusarai

According to the eyewitnesses, a group of miscreants began throwing stones at the procession, damaging the idol. In response, some youths started pelting stones at nearby houses, which led to a clash between the two communities.

Preliminary inquiry reveals that the Durga immersion procession came under attack as it was passing in front of a mosque, said the SP.

They did not top the music and thus, an enraged community started pelting stones at the procession. The procession is said to be unlicensed, SP Mangla added.

A senior official familiar with the matter told HT that the attack on the procession might not have been spontaneous and the particular community may have been prepared with stones from before, in anticipation of the procession.

The SP said that the law-and-order situation is under control in the area. After swift action by the police, the idol immersion was peacefully completed.

A first information report would be lodged against members of both sides on charges of rioting and unlawful assembly after immersion processions are over, said the SP.

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The police on Thursday suspended assistant inspector Savita Hanumant Bhagwat for dereliction of duty after drug kingpin Lalit Patil escaped from Sassoon General Hospital on October 2. Drug kingpin Lalit Patil escaped from Sassoon General Hospital on October 2. (HT FILE PHOTO)

The police official was part of Pune police headquarters court company responsible for escorting undertrials undergoing treatment at the hospital.

Pune police commissioner Retesh Kumaarr and joint commissioner of police (law and order) Sandeep Karnik ordered the suspension.

According to the suspension order, Bhagwat was present at the hospital only for 30 minutes during her morning shift. After she left ward number 16 where the drug haul accused was admitted, Patil met an unknown person and fled the facility.

Earlier, nine cops had been suspended on charges of showing negligence while on duty which led to Patils escape.

On September 30, Bhagwat was assigned the official duty as supervisory officer for the day shift from 9 am to 9 pm. As per the responsibility, she was expected to conduct a thorough search of the detained accused admitted for treatment at the ward. An internal probe revealed that the assistant inspector left the hospital at 1:30 pm instead of being on duty till 9 pm. She was also found to have carried supervision of the ward for 30 minutes despite being on duty for the full day. The suspension order mentions that a person carrying a black bag visited the ward and met Patil and the woman officers laxity could have caused Patil to escape from police custody.

The top brass of the city police had earlier cited irresponsibility and misconduct on the part of cops on duty in handling the high-profile criminal Lalit Patil case and ordered suspension of sub-inspectors Janardhan Kale and Mohini Dongre, constables Vishal Thople, Swapneel Shinde, Digambar Chandanshiv, Adesh Shivankar, Pirappa Bansode and Amit Jadhav, and Police Naik Natharam Kale.

Patil was arrested in Chakan drug case in 2022 and lodged at Yerawada Central Jail and was admitted to Sassoon hospital for past three months. The police have arrested two of his women friends and educationist Vinay Aranha in connection with funding and assisting him in his escape.

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A lot of mystery and uncertainty has surrounded the case of the eight former Indian Navy personnel who were given the death sentence by a Qatari court, apparently on espionage charges. Both the Qatari and Indian sides have so far not publicly provided details of the charges that were brought against the eight men, including highly qualified professionals who have commanded frontline battleships and one who was recognised with the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award for enhancing Indias image abroad. Information on the case against the men has trickled out in dribs and drabs, following their detention in August 2022. The men have spent long spells in solitary confinement and went months without being able to contact their families, and how their trial has been conducted in Qatar can hardly be described as fair and transparent. PREMIUM Indian Navy personnel during a guard of honour ceremony in New Delhi. (Sanchit Khanna/HT File Photo)

According to reports, the eight men, as employees of a private firm that provides training and other technical services to Qatars armed forces, were part of a secretive programme overseeing the induction of Italian midget submarines into the Qatari Navy. These are highly advanced vessels and other countries would have been interested in acquiring information about them. The firm itself, Dahra Global, a subsidiary of an Oman-based company, has been shut down and its other Indian employees have returned home.

While India has enhanced its defence partnerships with several countries in West Asia only in recent years, Qatar and India had signed a defence agreement as far back as 2008, setting the stage for close cooperation in this sphere. The latest developments have also come at a tricky geopolitical moment when West Asia is roiled by the Israel-Hamas conflict. Some unconfirmed reports have suggested the men were spying for Israel, and this could further complicate the issue as Qatar and Israel are involved in delicate negotiations to find a solution to the situation in the Gaza Strip.

New Delhis studied silence on the matter, after expressing deep shock at the death sentences and vowing to explore other legal options, perhaps is a reflection of the sensitivities involved. Even in the case of former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav, who has been in the custody of Pakistani authorities since early 2016 on charges of espionage, the Indian side has preferred to maintain silence while working behind the scenes to free him. The strained relationship between India and Pakistan is a factor in Jadhavs case but in the case of the eight former naval personnel, India should leverage its close ties with Qatar to work out some formula to bring the men home.

Perhaps an agreement signed by India and Qatar in 2015 on the exchange of convicted prisoners could be the basis for finding a solution, along with a mercy plea filed by the relatives of the eight men. India describes West Asia as part of the countrys extended neighbourhood and has worked assiduously in the past few years to forge strategic ties with countries of the region. Its presence in I2U2, which includes Israel, UAE and the US, as well as the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, to enhance connectivity and economic linkages is evidence of Delhis commitment to engage more with the region. This case will serve as a test of Indias diplomatic resolve and standing in the region.
Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) is going to announce marks of candidates (scorecards) of the School Teacher Recruitment Exam (BPSC TRE 2023) today, October 27. Candidates can download it after logging in to their dashboards on onlinebpsc.bihar.gov.in, the commission said in a notice released yesterday. BPSC TRE Result 2023: Bihar School Teacher marks today on bpsc.bih.nic.in

On October 26, the commission also announced cut-off marks and cut-off dates of all subjects of the School Teacher recruitment examination. Candidates can check the list on bpsc.bih.nic.in.

In a recent post, the commission's Chairman Atul Prasad informed that the commission may announce supplementary results if seats remain vacant.

When we are dealing with such large numbers as in TRE, multi layer filtering is needed to weed out undeserving ones. This is what's going on & that's why all results are conditional. Any vacancy arising out of this filtering will be filled by one or more supplementary results, Prasad posted on X (formerly twitter).

Next, appointment letters will be distributed among candidates. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will attend the distribution ceremony scheduled for November 2.

The written examination was conducted from August 24 to August 26 in two shifts from 10 am to 12 noon and from 3: 30 pm to 5:30 pm. The final answer keys were released on October 15, 2023 and merit lists along with district-wise allotment lists were released later in October.

This recruitment drive is for a total of 1,70,461 school teacher vacancies of Teachers in Bihar.

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Hollywood actor Michelle Lee, who specialises in shooting fight sequences, has acted with Scarlett Johannson in Black Widow, Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean, Brad Pitt in Bullet Train and Tom Hardy in Venom. She has now been roped in for Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif-starrer action spectacle Tiger 3. With Katrina, she has delivered the towel fight scene at a Turkish hamam, which was quite popular when the trailer released earlier this month. (Also read: Tiger 3 trailer: Salman Khan has to choose between country and family, Katrina Kaif fights in towel. Watch) Michelle Lee praised Katrina Kaif's dedication to the fight choreography.

Michelle isnt surprised that the towel fight set-piece has become one of the biggest talking points from the trailer. She reveals Katrina and she had rehearsed for over 2 weeks before they shot the sequence.

She says, Im not surprised. I thought it was pretty epic when we were shooting it. We learned and practised the fight for a couple weeks and then shot it. The set design was absolutely gorgeous and the fight was really fun to do. It was wonderful being on an international film.

Michelle is all praises for Katrina Kaif whose dedication towards perfecting action sequences has bowled her over. She says, Katrina was as graceful and professional as can be. She worked really hard on getting the movements precise and making sure all the movements flow. It was clear she had experience in choreography so it was super easy to work with her. We worked up a sweat!

Michelle says managing the towels wrapped around their bodies was the biggest challenge of this sequence. She says, One of the main challenges was definitely the wardrobe! Our towels needed to stay in the proper place and with so much movement and fight choreography, it was definitely a challenge. We ended up having the towels sewn closed at certain points and that helped a lot.

She adds, Another challenge was striking each other in the perfect amount of distance so that it looks close enough to be dangerous and strong but far enough to not actually hurt each other. Can you imagine if I actually got her?! But Im a professional lol. So things went smoothly, neither of us got hit so we just had to make it work for the camera.

Tiger 3, from the YRF Spy Universe, has been produced by Aditya Chopra and directed by Maneesh Sharma. It is set to release this Diwali, Nov 12, Sunday in Hindi, Tamil & Telugu.

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Supermodel Bella Hadid, who has long been a vocal supporter of Palestine, raked in some criticism for not speaking about the ongoing Palestine-Israel war. She has finally broken her silence. (Also read: About Gigi Hadid Palestine connection: How her father's family was kicked out by Jewish family they gave shelter to) Bella Hadid is of Palestinian descent from her father's side.

Bella penned a long note on Instagram, beginning it with an apology for staying silent for so long. Forgive me for my silence. I have yet to find the ideal words for this deeply intricate and horrific past 2 weeks, weeks that have turned the world's attention back towards a situation that has been taking innocent lives and affecting families for decades. I have much to say, but for today, I will keep it short, she began her note.

Bella also mentioned how she, too, has been impacted by the crisis. I've been sent hundreds of death threats daily, my phone number has been leaked, and my family has felt to be in danger. But I can not be silenced any longer. Fear is not an option. The people and children of Palestine, especially in Gaza, cannot afford our silence. We are not brave - they are, she wrote.

My heart is bleeding with pain from the trauma I am seeing unfold, as well as the generational trauma of my Palestinian blood. Seeing the aftermath from the airstrikes in Gaza, I mourn with all the mothers who have lost children and the children who cry alone, all the lost fathers, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunties, friends that will never again walk this earth, she added.

Bella also wrote about the suffering that Israeli civilians have also had to deal with at the hands of Hamas. I mourn for the Israeli families that have been dealing with the pain and aftermath of October 7th. Regardless of the history of the land, I condemn the terrorist attacks on any civilians, anywhere. Harming women and children and inflicting terror does not and should not do any good for the Free Palestine movement. I believe deep in my heart, that no child, no people anywhere, should be taken away from their family either temporarily or indefinitely. That goes for Israeli and Palestinian people alike, she said.

It's important to understand the hardship of what it is to be Palestinian, in a world that sees us as nothing more than terrorists resisting peace. It is harmful, it is shameful, and it's categorically untrue, she wrote.

Talking about her family history, she wrote. My father was born in Nazareth in the year of the Nakba (the displacement of 750,000 Palestinians in 1948). Nine days after he was born, he, in his mothers arms, along with his family were expelled from their home of Palestine, becoming refugees, away from a place they once called home. My grandparents, never being allowed to return. My family witnessed 75 years of violence against Palestinian people-most notably, brutal settler invasions which led to the destruction of entire communities, murder in cold blood and the forcible removal of families from their homes. The practice of settlements on Palestinian land still continues to this day. The pain of that is unimaginable.

Bella blamed the government and not the people's religions for what has been unfolding. We must all stand together in defending humanity and compassion - and demanding that our leaders do the same. All religions are peace - it is governments that are corrupt, and intertwining the two makes for the greatest sin of all. We are one, and God has created all equal. All bloodshed, tears, and bodies should be mourned with the same respect, she wrote.

There is an urgent humanitarian crisis in Gaza that must be attended to. Families need access to water and food. Hospitals need fuel to power generators, tend to the wounded and keep people alive. Wars have laws - and they must be upheld, no matter what. We need to keep pressure on our leaders, wherever we are, not to forget the urgent needs of the people of Gaza, and to ensure that innocent Palestinian civilians are not the forgotten casualties of this war. I stand with humanity, knowing that peace and safety belong to us all, she concluded.

Bella's post got her support from her fans. Her mother Yolanda Hadid wrote, Brave, honest and from the heart, i love you. A person commented, There is the real Wonder Woman! We love you! ur family is beautiful inside and out. Thank you for always being proudly and unapologetically Palestine.

The conflict between Israel and Palestinian forces since the militant group Hamas' Oct. 7 assault have created a huge and rising death toll - and accusations of war crimes - on both sides.

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Air India on Friday announced a number of appointments with Klaus Goersch as its Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer. Air India (Representative Photo)

In the newly-created position at the airline, Goersch will oversee flight operations, engineering, ground operations, Integrated Operations Control and cabin crew functions and will be based out of the airlines new headquarters in Gurugram, said the airline.

Air India said incumbent chief of operations R S Sandhu, who had already extended his service beyond his superannuation date, will transition to an advisory role.

In a release, the airline said that Sandhus role would include the focus on the harmonisation of the four Tata Airlines operating procedures, the Airbus A350 entry-into-service program and assisting the team in establishing Air Indias new training academy,

Capt Goersch is a licensed B777/787 pilot and has previously held similar positions in both British Airways and Air Canada.

On the appointment of Goersch, Campbell Wilson, Air India CEO and MD, said he brings a wealth of knowledge and experience that is valuable to the ongoing transformation at the airline.

Having worked at some of the best airlines in the world, Klaus brings a wealth of knowledge and experience which is valuable to the ongoing transformation at Air India. At Air India, we remain committed to building top leadership as we continue to invest in all the resources that are required to take the airline to the upper echelons of global aviation, said Wilson.

The airline further announced the appointment of Manish Uppal, who transitioned from AirAsia India (which is being merged with Air India Express) a few months ago, as senior Vice President for flight operations.

In addition, Capt Henry Donohoes role will be retitled as Senior Vice President of safety, security and quality. His role will be expanded to include Emergency Response, the airline said.

Moreover, the inflight product and service design functions being headed by Sandeep Verma will move to Rajesh Dogras Customer Experience portfolio so that Dogra has oversight of all customer interfaces, Air India, said the airline.

Pankaj Handa will lead the ground operations, Choorah Singh has joined as Divisional Vice President of integrated Operations Control, and JuLi Ng will be the Divisional Vice President for cabin crew.

Goersch, Dogra and Donohoe will report directly to Air India CEO and MD Campbell Wilson.

These changes have been made to manage succession, streamlining the organisation, optimising talent from within the Tata airline group and positioning it strongly for future growth and success, Wilson said.

Tata Group, which took control of loss-making Air India in January last year, is in the process of consolidating its airline business.

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US President Joe Biden has drawn a direct link between Hamass terror attack against Israel with the US-led efforts at regional integration in West Asia, hinting at the process to establish diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia-Israel and projects such as the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) as possible triggers for the conflagration in West Asia. HT Image

Biden also said that the US will continue to compete with China, pointing specifically to IMEC in the context of challenging the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI). He hailed Quad as a mechanism that will contribute to peace and said he looked forward to attending the Quad Leaders Summit in India next year.

Biden was speaking along with visiting Australian PM Anthony Albanese at the White House, where the two leaders reaffirmed their commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific and Aukus, the Australia-US-UK nuclear submarine deal that requires US Congress to pass the relevant legislation.

Speaking on the Israel-Hamas war, Biden said that he had spoken to several regional leaders, from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Palestine, and Egypt in recent days, about making sure there is real hope in the region for a better future; about the need  and I mean this sincerely  about the need to work toward a greater integration for Israel while insisting that the aspirations of the Palestinian people will be part of that future as well.

I am convinced one of the reasons Hamas attacked when they did  and I have no proof of this; just my instinct tells me  is because of the progress we were making towards regional integration for Israel and regional integration overall. And we cant leave that work behind. On the day of the attacks, HT, in an analysis piece, had written about how the Hamas attacks appear motivated by a desire to ignite an Israeli response that would make it much harder, if not impossible, for its Arab neighbours to continue with the process of normalisation.

In recent years, the geopolitical landscape in West Asia has changed with the Abraham Accords between Israel and a set of its Arab neighbours, and intense negotiations between US, Israel and Saudi Arabia to establish normal diplomatic ties between Tel Aviv and Riyadh. It has also taken two new institutional forms which involve India, with the I2U2 coalition (of India, Israel, US and UAE) and the ambitious IMEC announcement during the G20 Summit which envisages rail and shipping corridors from India through West Asia all the way to Europe.

Biden, who had referred to the project during a speech last week as evidence of what US was attempting to do in the region, specifically mentioned IMEC in the context of China in his remarks on Wednesday.

Asked if Australia can trust China in the context of Albaneses trip to China next week, Biden said: Trust but verify is the phrase. And, look, China is having their own internal and external difficulties right now. Chinas economic growth is stagnant compared to what it was. China has engaged in activities that Russia and many others have engaged in terms of intimidation and dealing with other countries.

The Biden administration is engaging with Beijing as well, and Chinas foreign minister Wang Yi is currently in Washington.

Biden said Xi Jinping knew that the US would compete with China on BRI, which had been a a debt and a noose for most of the people that signed on. He then referred to USs own efforts on infrastructure with G7 countries, and mentioned IMEC. Biden said that the US was a reliable partner, and in his conversation with Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi leader had expressed his desire for reconciliation. Its the idea that youd have the nations of the Middle East cooperating economically and politically changes the dynamics significantly. And so, I just think that it its something that its in everyones interest  including, long-term, in Chinas interest.

On a separate note, while hailing the US-Australia relationship as an anchor of peace an anchor of peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific, Biden said, We see this through our work of the Quad partners  India and Japan  to ensure the Indo-Pacific remains free, open, prosperous, and secure.

Biden said that China neither liked Aukus nor Quad. Claiming that Xi had asked him why the US was trying to surround China, Biden said, said he had told him that US wasnt surrounding China. We are just making sure that the sea lanes remain open, he doesnt unilaterally... change the rules of the road in terms of what constitutes international airspace and water space, et cetera. And so, thats what this is all about. Biden added that the Quad was a very important piece too. Its about maintaining stability in the Taiwan Strait, the Indian Ocean, that whole area. And I think its going to increase the prospects for long-term peace rather than do anything else.

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PATNA: A 17-year-old boy detained in Bihars Aurangabad on charges of sexual abuse of a minor was found hanging in the bathroom of an observation home on Thursday, officials said on Friday. The Aurangabad juvenile justice board sent the 17-year-old boy to the observation home 10 days ago. He was found dead shortly after dinner on Thursday (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The boy, a resident of Buxar 100km away, was an accused in a case registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act. He was produced before the juvenile justice board which sent him to the observation home 10 days ago.

Police said the boy was reported to have been found hanging from a towel tied to a ventilation window of a bathroom in the government observation home for boys. He was taken to the Sadar hospital but doctors said he was already dead.

Muffasil police station chief Rajesh Kumar said the police learnt about his death in the morning. Kumar said the police were waiting for a post-mortem report that would indicate the precise cause of death.

The observation home officials told the police that the boy died by suicide.

Aurangabad district magistrate Srikant Shastri said that he has constituted a three-member committee to probe the incident and ordered a magisterial inquiry. The autopsy will be conducted in the presence of a magistrate-rank officer, Shastri said.

Assistant director, child protection, Anita Kumari said the teenager, like other inmates, turned up at the pre-dinner headcount of the inmates at 9:30pm and subsequently went to the mess for dinner. After his dinner, the 17-year-old went to the bathroom on the first floor, locked the door from inside and hanged himself. The incident came to light when other inmates found the bathroom locked for a long time and complained that no one was responding to their calls.

The Bihar State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (BSCPCR) has taken cognisance of the incident and sought a detailed report.

(If you need support or know someone who does, please reach out to your nearest mental health specialist. Helplines: Aasra: 022 2754 6669; Sneha India Foundation: +914424640050 and Sanjivini: 011-24311918, Roshni Foundation (Secundrabad) Contact Nos: 040-66202001, 040-66202000, ONE LIFE: Contact No: 78930 78930, SEVA: Contact No: 09441778290

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Number, level of delegates attending 10th Beijing Xiangshan Forum reach record highMinistry of National Defense

(People's Daily App) 14:14, October 27, 2023

The numbers of participants and senior officials are both higher than previous years and there is a big increase in representation from developing countries and international and regional organizations, Wu Qian, spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense, said Thursday during a press conference. "As of October 25, official delegations from more than 90 countries, regions and international organizations, including Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Brazil, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Fiji, have confirmed to attend the forum," Wu said, noting that there are over 30 ministerial representatives and military chiefs, as well as representatives from international and regional organizations including the Secretary-General of ASEAN, the Vice President of the ICRC, the Secretary-General of the CICA, advisor to the SCO secretariat, and the Arab League's charge d'affaires to China.

(Web editor: Tian Yi, Liang Jun)
SILCHAR: A 47-year-old former panchayat member who had been reported missing for three days was found dead in Assams Karimganj district on Friday, police said. The Karimganj police said a murder case has been registered

Police identified the victim as Abdul Sattar, a local leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party who was reported missing from October 23 night.

Karimganj superintendent of police Partha Pratim Das said a murder case was registered after Abdul Sattars body was found on Friday. There are external injury marks on various parts of his body which indicates that he was tortured. Following the complaint lodged by the family members we have registered a case under murder and some other charges, Das said.

Abdul Sattars family members linked a local Congress leader identified as Surman Ali and his associates to the murder. Police said they are still investigating this aspect.

Sattars family said he was at home on October 23 when he received received multiple calls at about 9pm. He told his family that he had to go to the local MLAs house for an important meeting.

He didnt return and when we called him at around 12:30am, his mobile was switched off. Next day, we informed the police and other party leaders, a family member said.

Abdul Sattars son told reporters a group of local Congress leaders threatened him four months back. In its complaint to the Patharkandi police, the family named the local Congress leader Surman Ali and his associates, Mukabbir Ali and Sattar Ali, for the murder, saying they had

Police said the body has been sent to Silchar Medical College and Hospital (SMCH) for autopsy.

Sattars family members said the body was found in a sack and his hands and feet were tied. They killed him and the body was thrown in the river with big stones, they said.

There is a large injury mark on his forehead but we cannot reveal much before we get the postmortem report, a police officer said, adding his hands and feet were tied.

BJP MLA from Patharkandi, Krishnendu Paul demanded a high-level probe.

A common person went missing and his dead body is found in such a condition, clearly shows that it was a murder. Police have identified the accused and we demand their immediate arrest, he said.

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Karnataka remains a prominent subject in the run-up to the upcoming assembly elections in Telangana. Following a previous attack by Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader K Kavitha over the load-shedding in the state, Telanganas IT minister and BRS working president KT Rama Rao (KTR) launched a scathing attack on the Congress party over its unfulfilled promises from the Karnataka election campaign. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi meets people during Bharat Jodo Yatra in Ballari in September 2022. (ANI)

In a social media post on X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday, KTR called out Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his commitment to make Karnatakas Ballari district the Jeans capital of India, while the local jeans industry grapples with the severe distress caused by persistent power cuts under the Congress government.

Rahul Gandhi had promised to make Ballari the jeans capital of India. Now, the Jeans industry of Ballari is in serious distress due to irregular and prolonged power cuts by the Congress government, he said in his social media post.

In the lead-up to the Karnataka assembly elections on May 10, former Congress chief and current Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi had made five key commitments, one of which was a pledge of 5,000 crore for the establishment of an apparel park in Ballari.

During his Bharat Jodo Yatra in September 2022, Rahul Gandhi had visited Ballari and made promises to enhance the districts infrastructure. Rahul Gandhi stated during the roadshow, I visited some jeans manufacturing units in Ballari during the Bharat Jodo Yatra. I witnessed the challenges faced by the women employed in these units. I wish to assure you that we are committed towards transforming Ballari into Indias denim capital. We intend to establish a dedicated jeans manufacturing park.

He further added that if Congress is re-elected to power in Karnataka, they would allocate 5,000 crore to establish a Jeans Apparel Park in Ballari.

However, Ballari, known for its thriving jeans industry, is currently grappling with a series of challenges that are taking a toll on the local entrepreneurs and workers in the business. After facing rising raw material costs and trade disruptions due to import and export issues, the industry is now struggling with irregular power supply.

The erratic power cuts are affecting not only the business community but also consumers and small-scale industries across the region. This unforeseen power crisis has cast a shadow on both direct and indirect stakeholders. An estimated 60,000 to 80,000 families in Ballari depend on the jeans industry for their livelihood.

Apart from the BRS, the Karnataka Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has also raised the challenges faced by the jeans industry in the district. BJP MP Tejasvi Surya, accused the Congress of making false promises. Six months ago, Rahul Gandhi had promised to make Ballari the Jeans Capital of the country. Today, the CM Siddaramaiah government is fulfilling that promise with power cuts, further crippling the already-existing industry, he said on Wednesday.

Karnataka BJPs social media posts, which were equally critical, had accused the Congress of pushing the state into a severe power crisis, resulting in the closure of industries, abandonment of crops by farmers, and public struggles to meet their energy needs. After promising to establish a Jeans Park in Ballari, with a commitment of investing 5,000 crores, Dynast Rahul Gandhi is nowhere to be seen as Karnataka plunges into darkness, Karnataka BJP posted on X Wednesday.

INC [Indian National Congress] Karnataka has pushed the state into a huge power crisis forcing industries to shut down, farmers to abandon crops and public to struggle to get enough power to sustain their lives. INCs misgovernance and bad implementation of guarantees have taken Karnataka to the brink of collapse! it added.

The power shortage in the state has been an issue in both Karnataka and poll-bound Telangana. The attack on the Congress over the jeans industry in Ballari comes days after BRS MLC K Kavitha used the shortage of power in Karnataka to attack the Congress party in Telangana. Kavithas comments came after Karnatakas energy minister KJ George had said that the government will provide a continuous five-hour power supply to farmers.

On October 19, Kavita had said that the Congress is attempting to export its electricity problems to Telangana. While highlighting the statement made by the Karnataka power minister during the 2023 state assembly elections promising 20 hours of electricity, she questioned why they are now settling for just 5 hours. The Karnataka power minister [KJ George] promised 20 hours of electricity during the elections but now wont accept just 5 hours. Similarly, the Telangana PCC president expressed that 3 hours of electricity suffice, deeming 24 hours unnecessary. Why is Congress introducing electricity issues to us? she had tweeted.

Responding to the criticism, a senior Karnataka minister, requesting anonymity, said that the Karnataka government has issued a directive to identify suitable land for the establishment of a jeans textile park in Ballari and the state is purchasing power to make up for the shortage. Chief minister Siddaramaiah led a meeting of MLAs from Ballari, instructing district in-charge minister B Nagendra and Ballari city MLA Nara Bharath Reddy in August to identify appropriate land for the creation of the jeans textile park, the minister said.

Following the meeting in August, Nara Bharath Reddy had said that during the meeting has been directed to prepare a Detailed Project Report (DPR) and identify suitable land within Ballari City for the proposed textile park. In collaboration with the district administration to compile a comprehensive list of government-owned lands for the project is also underway, he had said.

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The Border Security Force on Friday gave a detailed account of Pakistan Rangers' "unprovoked firing" along the India-Pakistan international border in the Jammu sector, saying India's Forward Defense Posts retaliated in a befitting manner. Border Security Force (BSF) personnel stand guard near India-Pakistan border. (PTI file photo)

"On the evening of October 26, 2023, at about 2000 hrs, Pakistan Rangers resorted to unprovoked firing along the Indo-Pak International Border in Sector Jammu. In response, BSF troops immediately retaliated to the firing. Subsequently, Pak Rangers extended their firing to target our adjacent BOPs, prompting retaliation from our own Forward Defense Posts in these areas in a befitting manner," it said in a statement.

BSF said at around 9.15 pm on Thursday, Pakistani troops started firing mortars at border outposts and civilian areas. Some shells landed in Arnia town and led to injuries to a woman. Later, they used heavy machine gun fire and targeted Indian positions along the border.

"Around 2240 hrs, Pak Rangers used heavy machine gun fire from Pak and targeted our Posts, which was again retaliated by our own troops in a befitting manner. At about 270108 hrs, Pak Rangers again fired at and targeted our BOPs, leading to an exchange of fire and adequate retaliation by our own troops," it added.

BSF said the firing continued till the wee hours of Friday.

"During the cross-border fire, CT Basava Raj sustained minor splinter injuries due to shelling in both hands at about 2200 hours. The injured individual was promptly evacuated to PHC Arnia and later admitted to GMCH, Jammu. The individual's condition is stable," it added.

Pakistan's firing triggered panic in civilian areas. Some houses sustained damages.

"There was a lot of firing by Pakistan overnight. No person was injured but houses were damaged. This kind of firing from the Pakistani side has been witnessed after almost six years. Our security forces retaliated to the firing," Dev Raj Chowdhary, Sarpanch, at the border village Bulleh Chak in Sai Kalan, Arnia of RS Pura sector in Jammu, told ANI.

The locals found mortar shells in the border village of Bulleh Chak.

The locals, however, remained indoors.

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A Border Security Force (BSF) trooper was injured as the firing across the India-Pakistan border at Ranbir Singh Pura near Jammu continued until 3am on Friday, officials aware of the matter said. The firing between Pakistan Rangers and BSF started around 8pm on Thursday. A BSF patrol at the India-Pakistan border near Jammu. (HT PHOTO)

A BSF spokesperson in Delhi said that Pakistan Rangers also fired mortars which was countered befittingly with appropriate response. The spokesperson added intermittent firing continued until 3am and left the trooper injured ...[the trooper] has been provided medical aid, the spokesperson added.

Villages along the border were put on high alert following Pakistans violation of the ceasefire agreement. Residents said mortars fired from Pakistan landed at some houses near the border and that security forces on Thursday asked them to switch off the lights and remain alert.

Rakesh Kumar, a resident of Jammus Arnia village, said that the Pakistan Rangers first opened machine gun fire on the Vikram Post and then targeted the Chinaj Post. Officials said at least one civilian was brought to the Government Medical College of Jammu with minor injuries.

Pakistan has violated the February 2021 ceasefire agreement at least a dozen times. On October 17, two troopers were injured when Pakistani Rangers fired at BSF posts. The BSF lodged a protest with the Pakistan Rangers about the ceasefire violation at a commandant-level flag border meeting on October 19.

BSF, Indias second-largest paramilitary force, protects the countrys borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh across its western, eastern, and northern frontiers.

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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
New Delhi The Union government on Thursday said its nationwide outreach campaign to highlight central schemes, Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra, will not enter the five poll-bound states until the model code of conduct is lifted, hours before an Election Commission directive on the same lines was made public. Polling for the assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram will be held on different dates in November. (Arunkumar rao)

In a letter to the cabinet secretary dated October 26 (Thursday), the poll panel said the aforesaid activities -- referring to the campaign -- should not be undertaken in the constituencies where Model Code of Conduct is in force up till 5th December, 2023.

Earlier, a senior government official told reporters that it has been decided to drop the word rath to refer to the vans to be used in the yatra.

The proposed yatra had come under criticism from the Opposition after a government circular dated October 18 said it would involve bureaucrats of joint secretary/director/deputy secretary ranks as rath prabharis (special officers) to publicise schemes launched by the Narendra Modi government in the past nine years across the country.

There is no plan to start the Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra in election-bound states where the model code of conduct is in place. In poll-bound states the yatra will start when the model code of conduct is lifted, I&B secretary Apurva Chandra said.

Polling for the assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram will be held on different dates in November. Results of all five assembly polls will be declared on December 3.

A senior government official acknowledged that the use of the word rath created controversy. That is not the appropriate word to use here, the official said, requesting anonymity.

Henceforth, we will not use the word rath for the Information, Education and Communication (IEC) vans, Chandra said.

Earlier, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge opposed the involvement of civil servants in the yatra, writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi against politicisation of the bureaucracy and urging him to withdraw the circular.

It is a clear violation of the Central Civil Services (Conduct) Rules, 1964, which directs that no government servant shall take part in any political activity, Kharge wrote. While it is acceptable for government officers to disseminate information, to make them celebrate and showcase achievements blatantly turns them into political workers of the ruling party.

On Thursday, Chandra, however, dismissed criticism that government officials were being drafted for a political campaign, saying the Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra is purely a government programme and it would be incorrect to attribute political motives to it.

In its letter, the poll panel also asked the government not to appoint district rath prabharis in the poll-bound states and the Tapi constituency of Nagaland where by-election is scheduled to be held.

It has been brought to the notice of the Commission that a letter has been circulated to the ministries for nomination of senior officers as District Rath Praharis... Commission has directed that the aforesaid activities should not be taken in the constituencies where Model Code of Conduct is in force up till 5th December, 2023, EC said in the letter.

The Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra (VBSY) will be flagged off by the prime minister on November 15 from Khunti in Jharkhand to commemorate the birth anniversary of tribal icon Birsa Munda. It will continue till January 25 next year, Chandra said.

The yatra will spread information about 20 central schemes from 10 different ministries, launched during the last nine and a half years of the Modi government, across 255,000 gram panchayats and nearly 18,000 urban locations. While the ministry of agriculture will be the nodal authority in rural areas, the I&B ministry will be the nodal authority in urban areas, Chandra said.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Aditi Agrawal Aditi covers technology policy, online free speech, privacy, cybersecurity, and surveillance. ...view detail
A day after the Ernakulam Central police booked several online movie reviewers and social media platforms on the complaint of a director that his movie was targeted in a negative manner in a bid to extort him, there are concerns over whether the move would lead to an infringement on the right to freedom of speech and expression. Ernakulam Central police booked several online movie reviewers and social media platforms on the complaint of a director that his movie was targeted in a negative manner in a bid to extort him. (HT Archives)

In arguably the first such case to be booked in the state, the police acted on the complaint filed by Ubaini E, the director of the Malayalam film Rahel Makan Kora which was released on October 13. The director had alleged that the accused targeted the movie soon after its release by posting negative reviews on social platforms, such as Facebook and YouTube, as part of a bid to blackmail and extort him. In fact, the first accused in the case had issued threats to him and attempted extortion, the complainant said.

The case was filed under section 385 (putting person in fear of injury to commit extortion) of IPC and section 120 (o)(causing nuisance/violation of public order) of the Kerala Police Act.

We have taken the statement of the complainant and registered the case. We are now collecting the evidence including the videos of the so-called negative reviews posted on social media. We have asked the cyber cell to trace the videos posted on the accounts mentioned by the complainant as some of them have gone missing, said Anish Joy, the station house officer, Ernakulam Central.

Some of the accounts have not been identified. After identifying the accounts, we will send them notices for questioning, the officer added.

On Wednesday, the Kerala high court had asked for a close watch on online platforms to ensure that anonymous, mala fide content is not allowed to circulate and necessary action be taken under the IT Act. The court gave the direction in response to a plea filed by a movie director seeking a gag order to ensure that social media influencers and vloggers do not publish reviews of a film for at least 7 days following its release.

Mathews J Nedumpara, a senior lawyer, said while a filmmaker facing extortion or harm to his reputation through negative reviews can go for a civil suit for demanding criminal action is farfetched.

If a producer or director has suffered injury, they can seek damages and remedy in the form of a civil suit. Injunctions can be sought. If the facts as alleged are true, then its a civil wrong. But demanding criminal action is absolute abuse and fully farfetched, he said.

Aswanth Kok, an online reviewer named as an accused in the case, told a local news channel that while he has not received any notice regarding the case, he hinted at an agenda behind it. I have not seen the film Rahel Makan Kora nor have any reviewers that I know who have seen it. I have always spoken using parliamentary language without abusing anyone. I have spoken about certain characters and actors, but I have never personally abused them, he said.

Directors like Ubaini are cheating producers, he alleged. When a film flops, they dont want to admit that its because the film is bad or that their work is bad. They want to claim that it didnt work because of online reviewers and the public.

Meanwhile, the Kerala Film Producers Association on Thursday called for a ban on conducting reviews within premises of theatres as well as a protocol for promotion activities. Conducting reviews at theatre premises will be banned. Someone seeking an audience response of a movie at a theatre cant be considered a journalist, said G Suresh Kumar, a noted film producer.

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A letter written by the Congress to the Election Commission of India three days ago seeking to put on hold the implementation of two major welfare schemes  Rythu Bandhu and Dalit Bandhu  in Telangana till the completion of the process of assembly elections in the state evoked protests from the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi. In the letter to the Election Commission, AICC general secretary in-charge of Telangana Manikrao Thakre expressed suspicion over the timing of disbursement of financial assistance to the beneficiaries under Rythu Bandhu and Dalit Bandhu schemes. (HT Archives)

In the letter to Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar on October 23, All India Congress Committee general secretary in-charge of Telangana Manikrao Thakre expressed suspicion over the timing of disbursement of financial assistance to the beneficiaries under these schemes.

Under the Rythu Bandhu scheme introduced in 2018, a financial assistance of 10,000 per acre per year would be disbursed among the farmers for purchase of farm inputs. While the amount of 5,000 per acre for the first crop was disbursed in June 2023, disbursement of the amount to beneficiaries for the second crop of the year is yet to be initiated.

While governmental and administrative prudence would dictate that the disbursement be done before the coming into force of the Model Code of Conduct, it is yet to be done. We believe that this is an intentional action by the ruling party to unfairly influence voters, Thakre said.

He pointed out that in 2018, the Rythu Bandhu funds were credited to the accounts of the farmers on the day of polling (December 7) resulting in a predictable swing of votes in the favour of the ruling party. We believe that such electoral manipulation of voters is patently illegal and undemocratic, he said.

The AICC leader said while the Congress was not opposed to the transfer of money to the beneficiaries, it would suggest that the amount could be disbursed for the second crop either before November 3, when the nomination process begins or after November 30, when the polling comes to an end.

Similar procedure could be adopted for the disbursement of assistance under Dalit Bandhu scheme (under which an eligible Dalit family would get a lumpsum financial assistance of 10 lakh for self-employment activities), so that the scheme shall not be used to induce voters either through fear or favour.

On Thursday, BRS working president and state industries minister K T Rama Rao issued a statement attacking the Congress for trying to deny financial assistance to the farmers and Dalits in the name of the model code of conduct.

Accusing the Congress of adopting an anti-farmer stance, KTR wondered whether the opposition party wanted supply of drinking water to the people under Mission Bhagiratha scheme and 24-hour power supply to farmers in the name of MCC.

Stating that Rythu Bandhu and Dalit Bandhu were ongoing schemes, the BRS working president warned that the Congress would have to pay a heavy penalty in the elections for denying the benefits of the welfare schemes to the beneficiaries.

He said the Congress, which was facing protests from farmers in Karnataka for failing to supply adequate power to the crops, had the audacity to say that farmers of Telangana would not require power more than three hours.

BRS official spokesperson Dasoju Sravan said the Congress had once again proved itself a heartless and anti-farmer party. While elections may come and go, farmers cant just stop farming and they cant be harassed, he said.

PCC president A Revanth Reddy rubbished the allegations of the BRS. He told reporters in New Delhi on Thursday that his party only wanted that the assistance under Rythu Bandhu be disbursed before November 3. This principle should apply to all cash transfers for welfare schemes, ensuring beneficiaries receive their entitlements before the nomination day, he said.

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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
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla on Thursday hit out at Congress over Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's  21 in envelope remark, saying the party, instead of giving a report card of all its achievements, is resorting to white lies on white envelopes. Poonawalla also accused the grand old party of misleading people with such lies. BJP National Spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla (ANI File)

Priyanka Gandhi Vadras lie about the envelope in Devnarayan Mandir put by Modi - which the entire world saw - was fake newsand has been called out by the EC. Instead of giving a report card of its work, Congress is now resorting to white lies on white envelopes. This is because they have nothing to show, Poonawalla said in a video shared by news agency PTI.

Hitting out at the Congress government in Rajasthan under Ashok Gehlot, the BJP leader said, Congress, true to its culture, has not only lied to the people of Rajasthan but even when it is going amongst the public it is making false claims and false allegationsThey made false promises to women, youth, and farmers of Rajasthan. This is a government of loot and unprecedented corruption.

On Thursday, the Election Commission served a show-cause notice to Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra over an alleged poll code violation during her speech in Rajasthan's Dausa. Addressing the rally on October 20, Gandhi said, I recently saw something on TV. I don't know if it is true or not. PM Modi went to the Devnarayan temple and submitted an envelope in the donation box. People were wondering what it contained, but when it was opened 21 came out of it.

The BJP on Wednesday made a representation to the EC and demanded action against Gandhi, accusing her of "invoking the personal religious devotion of Prime Minister Narendra Modi" to make false claims during her poll campaign.

The commission has asked Gandhi to respond to the notice by 5 pm on October 30.
New Delhi One of them was awarded the Presidents gold medal for excellence when he graduated from the naval academy and later served as an instructor at the prestigious Defence Services Staff College (DSSC) at Wellington in Tamil Nadu. Another was a fighter controller and navigating officer on board aircraft carrier INS Viraat. A third was conferred the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award four years ago  the first from Indian armed forces to be awarded the highest honour for NRIs/Persons of Indian Origin. Commander Purnendu Tiwari (retd) was conferred the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award by the President in January 2019 for enhancing Indias image abroad. (HT Photo)

The seven former Indian Navy officers who were handed down the death penalty by a court in Qatar were outstanding professionals who served the navy and the country well, said Captain DK Sharma, a former navy spokesperson who served with five of them. The eighth man who was awarded the death sentence was a sailor.

I knew the seven officers and they were brilliant at their jobs. They were the cream of the navy. One was a senior of mine, another was a course-mate and the others were my juniors. The verdict is shocking, said Sharma, who retired in 2019.

The eight men were employees of Al Dahra Global Technologies, a private firm that provided training and other services to Qatars armed forces and security agencies. They were held on unspecified charges since August 2022.

They couldnt have done anything wrong or illegal and this appears to be a travesty of justice, he said.

I was hoping for a favourable outcome, given the strong ties India has with Qatar. All seven of them had unblemished careers and were known to be outstanding professionals. I am in utter disbelief, Sharma said.

Navtej Gill, a retired captain, is Sharmas course-mate. He is the son of a retired army officer and is from Chandigarh. He was awarded the Presidents gold medal for being the best cadet. He was also an instructor at DSSC. He was outstanding, said Sharma.

The sentence was handed down by Qatars Court of First Instance, and no details were released officially by authorities in Doha.

We are deeply shocked by the verdict of death penalty and are awaiting the detailed judgment. We are in touch with the family members and the legal team, and we are exploring all legal options, the ministry of external affairs said in a statement, without giving details. People familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity that the eight men were charged with espionage.

A navy spokesperson did not comment on the development.

Commander Purnendu Tiwari (retd) was Sharmas senior.

He was a navigation officer and commanded the amphibious warship INS Magar. He was among the best in the navy at the time, Sharma said. Tiwari was conferred the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award-2019 by the President in January 2019 for enhancing Indias image abroad. The award was in recognition of his contribution towards capacity building for the Qatar Emiri Naval Forces.

Commanders Amit Nagpal, SK Gupta and Captain BK Verma, all retired, were Sharmas juniors. Nagpal was a communication and electronic warfare specialist, Gupta a gunnery specialist and Verma specialised in navigation and direction. Verma and his wife are from a military background.

Two others awarded the death sentence, Captain Saurabh Vasisht (retd) and Commander Sugunakar Pakala (retd), were technical officers in the navy. Ragesh (only one name available), the eight man to get death penalty was a sailor.

The bail pleas of the men were rejected numerous times and their detention extended by Qatari authorities. For a long time, they were held in solitary confinement and not allowed to meet their families. Following the intervention of Indian authorities, officials from the Indian embassy in Qatar were given consular access to the men and meetings and phone calls were arranged with their relatives.
New Delhi: BJP MP Nishikant Dubey on Friday continued his incessant onslaught against TMC MP Mahua Moitra over the cash-for-query allegation as he called the latter Dubai didi. Reacting to Moitra's response to the Ethics Committee of Parliament in which she demanded cross-examining businessman Darshan Hiranandani, the BJP MP said per rules, witnesses are protected from "court-kachehri' (legal proceedings)". Nishikant Dubey has accused Mahua Moitra of taking money and gifts from a businessman in exchange for questions in Parliament.

"Dubai Didi asked some people for a cross examination. Under the rules of Lok Sabha, especially page 246 of the Kaul-Shakdher book, the witness is protected from court proceedings and its hue and cry... Answers are needed on the question of (hampering) national security and corruption; here we are prepared for the fight," he wrote on X in Hindi.

Taking a swipe at Moitra over what appeared to be a typological error, he said Moitra was so "intoxicated with Dubai" that she misspelled his name in the letter as 'Dubai' instead of 'Dubey'.

"The accused MP is so intoxicated by Dubai that even my name has been changed to Dubai in the letter written to the Chairman of the Ethics Committee. 'Mohtarma' has described her mental condition by changing my name to Dubey, oh my fate?" he added.

Mahua Moitra today responded to the Ethics Committee of Lok Sabha's summons through a letter, requesting for more time to appear before the panel, which is probing Dubey's "cash-for-query" allegation.

Moitra expressed her inability to appear before the panel on October 31 due to her commitments in West Bengal till 4 November 2023.

I represent the state of West Bengal where Durga Puja is the biggest festival. I am already committed to attending numerous pre-scheduled Vijaya Dashami Sammelans/meetings (both government and political) in my constituency from 30th October to 4th November 2023 and cannot be in Delhi on 31st October 2023," she wrote in the letter.

Referring to businessman Darshan Hiranandani's allegation in an affidavit that she had accepted expensive gifts and renovation of her house in return for asking questions in Parliament, Moitra demanded from the panel that he be called to depose before it.

"An affidavit notarised at the Indian High Commission in Dubai on 20/10/2023 was submitted on a suo moto basis to the Committee and released publicly to the media by Shri Darshan Hiranandani. Shri Hiranandani in a public interview expressed his willingness to appear before the committee. His affidavit available in the public domain, is extremely scant on detail and provides no actual inventory of what he has allegedly given me," Moitra wrote in a letter to the panel's chief, Vinod Kumar Sonkar.

"Given the seriousness of the allegations and in keeping with the principles of natural justice, it is imperative that I am allowed to exercise my right to cross-examine Shri Hiranandani," she added.

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The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested West Bengal minister Jyoti Priya Mallick in the early hours of Friday in connection with the alleged multi-crore ration distribution scam after raiding his two houses and three other places a day earlier. West Bengal minister Jyoti Priya Mallick. (X)

Mallicks arrest is the latest in the series of arrests of ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders and ministers, including Partha Chatterjee, Anubrata Mondal, and Manik Bhattacharya.

TMC leaders are facing multiple probes related to alleged school recruitment, cattle smuggling, coal smuggling scams, and irregularities in recruitment in civic bodies. TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee and his wife have been questioned in alleged coal smuggling and teacher recruitment scams.

As he was being taken to the EDs office in Salt Lake after his arrest, Mallick said he was a victim of a deep conspiracy.

The ED earlier on October 14 arrested businessman Bakibur Rahaman, who is alleged to have sold in the open market rice and wheat meant to be supplied to ration distributors. ED officials said he has close links with Mallick.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday lashed out at ED while raids were being conducted at Mallicks premises. She said Mallick was not keeping well and had high sugar levels. Banerjee warned if he died, they would lodge a case against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the ED.

She added that TMC Member of Parliament (MP) Sultan Ahmed suffered a cardiac arrest and died after the Central Bureau of Investigation summoned him. Wife of TMC MP Prasun Banerjee also died, Banerjee said.

The BJP hit back calling Banerjee a liar. She does not want an opposition that criticises her. She has allowed her nephew [Abhishek Banerjee] to run the government and she tries to shield the thieves of her party. Just like the way she did today, said BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari.

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Bharat Rashtra Samithi president and Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday cautioned the people of the state against taking a wrong decision and bringing back the dark ages of the Congress governments of the past. Chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said he had done his best for the Telangana and it was now the turn of the people to do their bit to ensure continuity of the progress and development (ANI)

It is my responsibility to caution you as a person who fought for Telangana and brought it on the path of progress. If you defeat our party in the elections, we have nothing to lose or gain. We shall happily take rest for the next five years. But you are going to lose heavily, KCR, as the chief minister is called, said, addressing an election rally at Achampet in Nagarkurnool district.

The chief minister said he had done his best for the Telangana and it was now the turn of the people to do their bit to ensure continuity of the progress and development. Compare the last nine and a half years of our government with the previous Congress governments, before exercising your franchise, he said.

He refuted the claim of the Congress that it had granted statehood to Telangana and hence, the people should vote for it. In fact, it was the Congress which was responsible for the merger of Telangana with Andhra in 1956. Whenever there were agitations for separate Telangana, the Congress governments resorted to killing of innocent people. During the 1969 Telangana agitation, the then Congress government had shot dead 400 people and imprisoned lakhs of protesters, he pointed out.

KCR said it was only after he had started the movement for a separate Telangana in 2002, the Congress had come down and came to power with his support. It made the people of Telangana suffer for 10 years between 2004 and 2014. It was only after I took up fast unto death and mobilised the support of 32 parties, the Congress was forced to concede Telangana, he recalled.

KCR said even now, the Congress was not interested in the development and welfare of Telangana, but in grabbing power and authority. While we have ensured that farmers get round-the-clock free power supply, the Congress wants to restrict the power supply to only three hours. In Karnataka, the Congress government has failed to give even five hours of power to agriculture, as a result of which crops are getting dried up, he said.

He also cautioned the people against the top Bharatiya Janata Party leaders coming from Delhi and making tall promises. If you start believing their words, the situation would be square one and Telangana would go to dogs. I cannot do anything then and fight for you. It is for you to do the fighting, he said.

At another public rally at Munugode, KCR recalled how his government had brought safe drinking water to every household and mitigated the perennial problem of fluorosis in the area. Those who could not provide potable water to the people are now challenging me. The people should judge who is right and who is wrong, he said.

At the Wanaparthy rally, KCR said the victory of the BRS would mean peoples victory. You should have discussions at every village to judge the performance of our government, in comparison with the previous governments. Elections will come and go, but the people should win. Only then can you witness the real development, he added.

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) official spokesperson Gouri Satish said it was a fact that KCR could become the chief minister only because the Congress had granted separate statehood to Telangana.

Now, the chief minister is projecting the Congress as a villain of Telangana and ridiculing its contribution. He is trying to hoodwink the people by distorting history only to garner votes in the elections and come to power for a third term, she said.

Accusing the BRS government of ruining the states economy, the Congress spokesperson said KCR was creating a false narrative that the state would collapse if the Congress was voted to power. He thinks people would believe him, if he speaks lies 100 times, she said.

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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
NEW DELHI: India has quietly launched efforts to find a resolution to the issue of the eight former Indian Navy personnel given the death sentence by a Qatari court, though authorities in both countries remained tight-lipped on the matter on Friday. A copy of the verdict from Qatars Court of First Instance was yet to be formally received by the Indian side. (FILE PHOTO)

The authorities in Qatar maintained a complete silence on the case, which found no mention in the countrys media. People familiar with the matter said a copy of the verdict from Qatars Court of First Instance was yet to be formally received by the Indian side.

There was also no further comment from the Indian side after the external affairs ministry issued a statement on Thursday expressing deep shock at the Qatari courts verdict and pledging to look at all legal options.

The people said quiet efforts had been launched through diplomatic and official channels to find a resolution to the matter.

Among the possibilities being look at is filing an appeal against the verdict or using an agreement signed by India and Qatar in 2015 for the transfer of convicted prisoners so that they can complete their sentence in their home country.

The agreement on the transfer of sentenced persons was ratified by the Qatari side the same year, and it was one of six pacts signed during a state visit to India by Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the emir of Qatar.

There is also the possibility of approaching the International Court of Justice, as was done in the case of former naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav, who was detained by Pakistani authorities in 2016 and subsequently sentenced to death by a military court on charges of alleged espionage.

There was also no word on the development from the former employer of the eight men  Oman-based Dahra Engineering & Security Services, which owned the now defunct Dahra Global Technologies & Consultancy Services. Dahra Global was shut down in May this year and replaced by Advanced Services and Maintenance.

At the time of their detention, all eight men were working for Dahra Global Technologies & Consultancy Services, a private firm that provided training and other services to Qatars armed forces and security agencies. They were believed to have been overseeing the induction of Italian-made midget stealth submarines into the Qatari Navy.
India is setting up a surveillance system with drones across its borders to wade off surprise attacks like the one from Hamas in Israel, according to people familiar with the matter. The move to monitor the borders all the time comes as tensions with neighboring China and Pakistan persist, especially along the Himalayas.(Getty Images via AFP)

The countrys defense officials met with six home-grown vendors of surveillance and reconnaissance drones over the past week and an order is expected to be announced as soon as next month, the people said, asking not to be named as the information isnt public. The military is looking to have the system up and running across some parts of the border as early as May, the people added.

The move to monitor the borders all the time comes as tensions with neighboring China and Pakistan persist, especially along the Himalayas. While the war in Ukraine has made Prime Minister Narendra Modis government reevaluate its armory, preparedness for war and priorities on the battlefield, the surprise Hamas attack has pushed the nation to implement some of the suggested measures quickly.

India has been caught out by surprise attacks in the past. In 2008, attackers from Pakistan, armed with assault weapons and grenades, infiltrated Mumbai by sea and laid siege to key landmarks in the city for three days, killing 166 people.

Also, India has alleged that drones are being used to move weapons and drugs across its western border. It might take almost 18 months to have the system cover the entire stretch of borders, and could cost as much as $500 million annually, the people said.

So-called High-Altitude Pseudo Satellites, which are solar-powered drones that can operate for prolonged durations without landing, will be used for the system, they said. The 24/7 high-altitude long endurance drones will also act as a back-up to the traditional radar network along the borders, directly beaming images to local command centers.

A spokesperson for Indias Defense Ministry didnt respond to a request for comment.

The drones deployed and the software backing them will be developed locally, the people said. The Indian military, which is heavily dependent on Russia for weapon platforms, is trying to boost local production amid a 10-year, $250 billion military modernization effort.

The entire 14,000 miles (22,531 kilometers) that make up Indias land borders and coastline will be under constant surveillance once the system is up, the people said. Earlier, New Delhi had hired two drones from the US when the current round of border tensions first flared with Beijing in the summer of 2020, for surveillance and reconnaissance.

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The International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) charged a 19-year-old alleged gangster from Haryana, Yogesh Kadian, for criminal conspiracy and attempted murder. Kardian escaped from India to seek refuge in the United States about two years ago. Interpol has also issued a red-corner notice against Kardian. (Interpol website)

Interpol has also issued a red-corner notice against Kardian.

In its notice, Interpol stated that the charges against Kardian were criminal conspiracy, attempt to murder, acts done by several persons in furtherance of a common intention, possession and use of prohibited arms and ammunition.

A Red Corner Notice is a request to the law enforcement authorities of Interpol's member countries to find and temporarily detain a person until extradition, surrender, or a similar legal process can take place.

He is among those leading the charge to take down gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, NDTV reported.

After the National Investigation Agency's (NIA) crackdown on a series of gangsters in India, several have fled the country using fake passports. As per media reports, it is believed that Kardian fled on a fake passport when he was 17.

Kardian is currently a member of the Babinha gang in the US and is considered an expert in cutting-edge weaponry.

Born on July 12, 2004, Kardian is from Beri village in Haryana's Jhajjar district.

As per reports, Kardian has connections to the Bambiha gang as well as Khalistan supporters.

During a recent crackdown on Khalistani terrorists, the NIA raided Kardian's house and other hideouts in India.

A reward of 1.5 lakh has been issued for any information on the alleged gangster.

In September this year, Interpol issued a red-corner notice against Karanvir Singh, a member of the banned terrorist group Babbar Khalsa International. According to intelligence sources, Singh is believed to be hiding in Pakistan and was a member of the pro-Khalistan terrorist group Babbar Khalsa International. As per the Interpol portal, 38-year-old Karanvir Singh has roots in Punjabs Kapurthala district.

Further, according to Interpol, Singh is wanted by India for criminal conspiracy, murder, offences related to the Arms Act, and Explosive Substances Act, raising funds for terrorist acts, conspiracy, and being a member of a terrorist gang or organisation.

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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
The consumer affairs ministry has summoned all major airlines for a meeting on November 4 following a spike in complaints registered by customers, from unpaid refunds to lack of services, on the national consumer helpline, Union consumer affairs secretary Rohit Kumar Singh said on Thursday. All major airlines summoned by the consumer affairs ministry over a spike in complaints registered by consumers. (PTI)

Data from the helpline showed that in the past one year, 10,000 complaints were made against airlines for a variety of reasons. A majority  40.8%  of the grievances had to do with fares not being refunded after travel bookings had been cancelled.

A bulk of the complaints, about 14%, were about deficiency or lack of promised services, the data showed. Another 14% were of passengers who complained objected to delayed or no compensation made for lost or damaged baggage, according to the data. Any consumer can make a complaint on the national consumer helpline 1915 regarding purchases or transactions, which are legally followed up by a three-tier consumer court system in the country. The central consumer protection authority, set up under the Consumer Protection Act 2019, acts as the regulator, with powers to take legal action and order compensation.

Several complainants alleged that airlines often forced passengers to opt for a paid seat despite promising free mandatory web check-ins, the top official said, declining to name the airlines because the charges are yet unproven.

We are not getting into fare structures. That is not our mandate. But we are concerned with any violation of consumer rights or deficiency in service. If an airline promises free web check-in, it cannot force a passenger to choose a paid seat, Singh said.

In another instance, an airline forced a group of passengers to choose a different flight due to overbooking but the complainants said they were not given enough time to make a decision.

About 5% of the issues raised in the helpline related to lack of information on rescheduled or cancelled flights, which caused substantial monetary losses, according to the allegations made by passengers.

Airline customers can also register complaints on www.consumerhelpline.gov.in, or directly to aviation regulator directorate general of civil aviation. Flyers can also use the SUGAM website run by the regulator.

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BJP's West Bengal unit president Sukanta Majumdar took a dig at chief minister Mamata Banerjee over Trinamool Congress (TMC) minister Jyotipriya Mallick's arrest in connection with the alleged multi-crore ration distribution scam, saying that the CM has been sympathising with thieves. BJPs West Bengal unit president Sukanta Majumdar

Mamata Banerjee said that they will file a case against ED and CBIso let them. Why are they so scared? If you haven't stolen anything then let the agencies do their work, Majumdar told news agency ANI.

BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari also slammed Mamata Banerjee saying she did not appoint Mallick as minister in charge of food and supplies department in 2021 as she wanted to save him from the glare of Central Investigation Agencies.

She wanted him to keep raising funds illegally and hand over the share of the proceeds to intended personsSo as a way out she appointed him as the Chairman of the West Bengal Essential Commodities Supply Corporation (WBECSC); the company which is entrusted with the procurement & distribution of paddy & other food grains in WB. She didn't stop at this only. To ensure that siphoning of funds is done smoothly and efficiently, she appointed A.Subbiah; a retired IAS officer, as the MD of the West Bengal Essential Commodities Supply Corporation (WBECSC) to facilitate Jyotipriya Mallick, Adhikari alleged.

Meanwhile, BJP state spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said that Mallick's arrest was anticipated after the revelations made by one of his associates. It has once again been proven that the TMC is deeply mired in corruption, he said.

Jyotipriya Mallick was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on Friday morning, a day after the central probe agency carried out searches at his residence in Kolkata's Salt Lake. While being whisked away by the ED officials, Mallick - who holds the portfolios of public enterprises and industrial reconstruction and forest - said that he was the victim of a grave conspiracy.
The maritime sector needs to adapt greener practices to mitigate climate change, said President Droupadi Murmu during her address at the 8th convocation of the Indian Maritime University in Chennai. President Droupadi Murmu graced the 8th convocation of Indian Maritime University at Chennai (Twitter/@rashtrapatibhvn)

One of the gravest challenges of our time is climate catastrophe, which includes rising temperatures and sea levels, Murmu said.

The maritime sector needs to be agile, proactive and swift in adaptation and mitigation of climate change which risks disrupting livelihoods, particularly among vulnerable communities, she added.

Addressing the students, the President advised the graduates that they have a larger responsibility towards the nation and an obligation towards the health of ecology and the ecosystem.

The need of the hour is sustainable and efficient maritime-related activities including shipping, she said. More resilient and greener practices in the ocean are also essential for a healthy ecosystem, added Murmu.

Speaking on the occasion, the President said that India has a remarkable marine position with a 7,500 km long coastline. She added that India has 14,500 kilometres of potentially navigable waterways, apart from a strategic location on important maritime trade routes.

The countrys maritime sector plays a vital role in its trade and economic growth, as 95% of the countrys trade by volume and 65% of the trade by value is undertaken through maritime transport, the President said.

She added that the coastal economy sustains over four million fishermen and India is the second largest fish-producing nation in the world with a fleet of about 250,000 fishing boats.

There are several challenges on this front, she said, citing the example of container ship cargo being diverted to nearby foreign ports due to depth restrictions.

In the merchant and civilian shipbuilding industry, we need to aim for the highest standards of efficiency, efficacy and competitiveness, the President said.

The operational efficiency and turnaround time of Indian ports need to match the global average benchmarks. India does not figure in the top 20 nations when it comes to the annual port calls. In the list of 50 best container ports worldwide, we only have two. The Indian ports must address infrastructural and operational challenges before they graduate to the next level. The majority of our fishing fleet is yet to be mechanised, Murmu said.

The President said that following the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the Moons South Pole, India is preparing for its first manned deep ocean mission Samudrayaan to explore 6,000-metre deep ocean waters and to study the deep sea resources and biodiversity assessment.

Earlier this month, the third edition of the Global Maritime India Summit attracted an investment of Rs10 lakh crore, which will help in achieving Amrit Kaal Vision 2047, said Murmu, adding that the Union Government is working to realise its vision of Ports for Prosperity and Ports for Progress.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Divya Chandrababu Divya Chandrababu is an award-winning political and human rights journalist based in Chennai, India. Divya is presently Assistant Editor of the Hindustan Times where she covers Tamil Nadu & Puducherry. She started her career as a broadcast journalist at NDTV-Hindu where she anchored and wrote prime time news bulletins. Later, she covered politics, development, mental health, child and disability rights for The Times of India. Divya has been a journalism fellow for several programs including the Asia Journalism Fellowship at Singapore and the KAS Media Asia- The Caravan for narrative journalism. Divya has a master's in politics and international studies from the University of Warwick, UK. As an independent journalist Divya has written for Indian and foreign publications on domestic and international affairs. ...view detail
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday underlined the need for resilient and secure supply chains and bolstering manufacturing in India as he launched 5G Use Case Labs for 100 educational institutions for the development of applications across verticals such as education, agriculture, and health. Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the India Mobile Congress. (ANI)

He said higher internet speeds improve ease of living and help in education, healthcare, farming, etc. Both high speeds and availability of internet are crucial, he said at the India Mobile Congress (IMC), where he launched the labs announced in Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharamans budget speech this year.

The telecommunications department has set up the labs for which the government will provide 80% of the capital expenditure and 100% of operational expenses for the next four years.

Institutions including the Indian Institutes of Technology, Indian Institutes of Information Technology, National Institutes of Technology, and other engineering colleges will foot 20% of capital expenditure for the labs.

Each lab will have at least 10 faculty members and 50 students. At least five start-ups or Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises will be engaged with each lab to test or develop their solutions. Each lab must develop or test at least 10 products or solutions annually.

The lab equipment will include 5G standalone infrastructure (mid-band), 5G SIMs, dongles, IoT gateway, router, application server, etc being shipped out starting in December. All the labs are expected to be fully functional by March 2024, an official said on the condition of anonymity.

In his address at the IMC, Modi said India is among the worlds top three start-up ecosystems and the second largest mobile phone manufacturer. Our electronics exports are upwards of 2 lakh crore now, said Modi. He listed the evolution of telecommunications and digital infrastructure in India over his tenure. Modi also spoke about cybersecurity and said threats to it were discussed during the G20 summit in New Delhi in September. If our entire value chain resides within India, it will be easier to secure it.

Union communications and electronics and information technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said telecom equipment from India was being exported to over 70 countries. He added the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly, the governing conference of the International Telecommunication Unions standardisation sector, and one of its three world conferences, will be held in India in 2024.

Held once every four years, the conference was scheduled to be held in Hyderabad in 2020 but rescheduled to 2022 in Geneva because of the pandemic.

Aditya Birla Group chairperson Kumar Mangalam Birla, who also spoke at the IMCs inaugural ceremony, lauded Indias digital public infrastructure. Many countries across the world are ready to adopt Indias digital public infrastructure assets across identity, payments, and data management, Birla said.

Reliance Jio chairperson Akash Ambani and Bharti Enterprises chairperson Sunil Bharti Mittal also spoke at IMC.

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The Newsclick's Founder and Editor-in-Chief Prabir Purkayastha has moved an application in the trial court seeking the release of his electronic devices seized by Delhi Police. NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha (PTI)

HR head Amit Chakravarty has also moved a bail petition.

Notably, both were arrested recently by Delhi Police in a case filed under the anti-terror law UAPA following allegations that News Portal NewsClick received huge money for pro-China propaganda.

The matter was listed before the Additional Sessions Judge Dr Hardeep Kaur on Friday, where Delhi Police sought times to file its reply on both petitions. The court fixed October 31 for a hearing on Prabir Purkayastha's petition and November 4, for a hearing on the bail petition moved by Amit Chakravarty.

On October 25, the trial court had allowed the Delhi Police application which sought 9 days of further custodial remand of Prabir and Amit Chakravarty.

Prabir and Amit Chakravarty on Wednesday were produced after the end of their Judicial custody period. They were earlier granted 10 days and 5 days of Judicial custody by the same court.

According to the Delhi Police plea, their custodial interrogation required them to confront them with some protected witnesses and also some devices were examined and the data extracted.

Earlier, Advocate Arshdeep Singh Khurana argued on behalf of Prabir Purkayastha that I was questioned, and I've answered all their queries. In the matter of EoW (Delhi Police) and ED, I was protected by the Delhi High Court in 2021, which orders are continuing even till today. He also submitted that the allegations made in FIR are absolutely absurd.

"There is no allegation that I used bomb dynamite or any other explosive substance. There is no allegation that I used any criminal force or that I caused the death of any public functionary. How can by reporting, by acting or by having a profession as a journalist, can I commit a terrorist act? If I through article raised question over Central Government Covid policy, is this the act of terrorism?" he submitted.

The lawyer further submitted that my client is a journalist with repute and he is a renowned person for his independent voice.

"But they (Agency) filed FIR under stringent sections of UAPA. The agency's allegation is that I'm associated with Gautam Navlakha who is facing UAPA charges. And since he is facing UAPA charges, you also face UAPA charges. Mere association with someone has become a crime? He is a fellow journalist. I have known him since 1991. Now you are suddenly targeting me because of this association," he said.

Advocate Rohit Sharma appeared for Amit Chakravarty HR Head, submitted that Chakravarty is neither a journalist nor an editor and did not write any article.

"I am a poor person having responsibility for my family. I am a handicap man. Since 2021 I have been summoned by agencies on various occasions and a lot of my information about bank accounts, emails - everything has been seized. I've never been arrested. I'm not responsible in any way for the content that is published on the website and I perform administrative tasks... but I don't know I have been suddenly arrested in the case," Advocate Sharma submitted.

The Delhi Police's Special Cell in its FIR against news web portal NewsClick's founder and Editor-in-Chief Prabir Purkayastha stated that People's Dispatch Portal, owned and maintained by PPK Newsclick Studio Pvt. Ltd. has been used for intentionally peddling false narratives through paid news in lieu of crores of rupees of illegally routed foreign funds as part of the conspiracy.

Delhi Police FIR further stated that foreign funds in crores have been infused illegally in India by Indian and Foreign entities inimical to India in pursuance of conspiracy with the intention to disrupt the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India, to cause disaffection against India and to threaten the unity, integrity, security of India.

Foreign funds in crores have been infused illegally in India by Indian and Foreign entities inimical to India in pursuance of conspiracy with the intention to disrupt the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India, to cause disaffection against India and to threaten the unity, integrity, and security of India, stated in FIR.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor was the chief guest of a Palestine solidarity rally in Kozhikode on Thursday. The rally was organised by the Indian Union Muslim League, an ally of the Congress. Tharoor's speech at the rally on the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict dragged him into a fresh controversy as CPM criticised Tharoor calling Hamas attack on Israel a terrorist strike. "Tharoor is not a man who does not know the meaning of words. He is also not a person who was unaware that history had not begun on October 7," CPM leader M Swaraj alleged. Tharoor in reply said he is bemused that out of his 32-minute speech, only 25 seconds were highlighted to attack him. " If thats all it takes to negate my support for the human rights of the Palestinian people, then I have nothing more to say," Tharoor said. Shashi Tharoor was the guest speaker at a pro-Palestine rally in Kozhikode.

The Congress leader was caught in the same Israel-Palestine controversy as he earlier pointed out that PM Modi's first statement after Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel had no mention of Palestine. Tharoor was also criticised for not calling Hamas a terrorist organisation in a television interview -- which he said was consistent with India's approach to Hamas. The new controversy is over Tharoor calling Hamas terrorists at a pro-Palestine rally.

CPM leader Swaraj said Tharoor did an Israel solidarity meeting at the expense of the IUML.

The Congress in its official statement reaffirmed support for Palestine and condemned the Hamas' attack on Israel. India's official stand is that India condemns 'terror attack' and supports for the establishment of a "sovereign, independent and viable state of Palestine'.

IUML leader MK Muneer at the rally said Bhagat Singh and Subhas Chandra Bose were also called terrorist in British history. When Bhagat Singh and Subhas Chandra Bose fought for the freedom of the country, it was recorded in British history as an act of terrorism and extremism. At Gaza, the fight of Palestine for freedom would be an act of terrorism in the eye of imperialistic forces. But the children at Gaza now say that they were now offering namaz not five times a day, but six times. The children say every day they have janaza (funeral prayer). The fight of Palestine is freedom struggle and that of Israel is genocide. We are with that defence of Palestine. We should be able to differentiate between defence and attack, Muneer said.

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Three out of the five states going to polls in this election cycle, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, have always seen a BJP versus Congress contest. To be sure, these three are not the only states where the main electoral contest is between these two political parties. How bipolar are the elections in these three states? HT Image
HYDERABAD: Union home minister Amit Shah on Friday lashed out at Telanganas ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) of cheating people from the weaker sections and declared that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will pick a leader from the Other Backward Classes (OBC) as the states chief minister if the party gets a majority. Suryapet: Union Home Minister Amit Shah at a public meeting ahead of Telangana Assembly elections in Suryapet district (PTI)

Addressing an election rally at Suryapet, Shah said the ruling BRS had been cheating Dalits, tribals and the OBCs over the last nine-and-a-half years. The BRS is anti-poor and anti-weaker sections, as it has failed to fulfil its promises made for their uplift, including distribution of three acres of land for each Dalit family, he said.

The home minister recalled that BRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao promised to make a Dalit the states chief minister if his party was voted to power in 2014. He conveniently ignored his promise. He is now trying to project his son KT Rama Rao as his successor, he said.

Shah said the BJP will name an OBC leader as the states chief minister if it wins power. Can KCR make a similar announcement? He has not done anything for the OBCs during his regime, he said, a reference to BRS chief and chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao, popularly known as KCR.

Shah said the Congress and the BRS were political parties run with a single objective; the Congress wanted to make Rahul Gandhi the countrys Prime Minister and the BRSs KCR wanted to make his son KTR the chief minister. The BJP is the only party which strives for the welfare of the people and the development of the nation, he said.

Shah said the BJP was committed to the development of tribals. It was the Narendra Modi government at the Centre which sanctioned a central university for tribals in the name of tribal deities Sammakka and Saralamma, he said

He said the Centre has announced updating of terms of conditions of Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal to do justice to Telangana in Krishna water sharing. We have also taken steps to create a National Turmeric Board to help Telangana farmers. We are providing safe drinking water to every household under the Jal Jeevan Mission, he asserted.

Shah said the Modi government also created history by ensuring completion of the construction of Ram Mandir at Ayodhya in a record time and invited the people of Suryapet to attend the inaugural function in January.

KCR later didnt respond to Amit Shah challenging him to go for an OBC chief minister but stressed that he led the most progressive and development-oriented government.

Even in Prime Minister Narendra Modis own state of Gujarat, there has been no round-the-clock power supply to the farmers. Yet, the BJP national leaders are coming here and questioning our government, KCR said at a rally in Mahabubabad.

The chief minister added that unlike the BJP-ruled states, there was no scarcity of fertilisers in Telangana and the farmers were getting money directly into their accounts after selling their produce.

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Pakistan Rangers on Thursday evening opened unprovoked fire at Border Security Forces (BSF) troops along the border in Jammus Arnia and RS Pura sectors, prompting the Indian forces to retaliate, officials said on Thursday. HT Image

A BSF spokesperson said the Pakistan Rangers began firing around 8pm. The exchange of fire, which people in nearby villages described as heavy, continued till the time of going to print.

Tonight at about 2000 hours, unprovoked firing started by Pak Rangers on BSF posts in Arnia area which is being befittingly retaliated by BSF troops, the BSF said.

The firing is still on, the spokesperson said at 10.30pm.

Though there were reports on social media of heavy shelling and the use of mortars, BSF officials did not immediately comment on this.

Panic gripped several villages along the international border as the sound of gunfire cut through the air on Thursday evening.

Rakesh Kumar, a resident of Arnia village, the largest populated town on the Indo-Pak border in Jammu region, said: The Rangers first opened machine-gun fire on the Vikram post and then targeted the Chinaj post as well.

Residents said they were asked to turn off lights and hoards of people rushed to safety.

The Pakistan Rangers gunfire is a violation of a ceasefire agreement signed between the two nations in February 2021. Pakistan has violated this agreement at least a dozen times, according to records seen by HT.

Thursdays attack is essentially a repeat of an incident on October 17, when Pakistani Rangers fired at BSF troops, injuring two jawans.

On October 19, at a commandant-level flag border meeting, BSF lodged a protest with the Pakistan Rangers about the violation.

BSF, Indias second-largest paramilitary force, protects the countrys borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh across its western, eastern and northern frontiers.

On February 25, 2021, India and Pakistan agreed to abide by a 2003 ceasefire agreement. The decision was taken after a meeting between the director generals of military operations of India and Pakistan on February 24 and 25, 2021.
The Ethics Committee of Lok Sabha, which heard Bharatiya Janata Party lawmaker Nishikant Dubey and advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai on Thursday, will ask Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra to depose on October 31 over cash-for-query allegations raised by the first two. The panel also proposes to write to the Union home affairs, external affairs and IT ministries for assistance in the case, panel chairman Vinod Kumar Sonkar said. The government will move a motion to disqualify Mahua Moitra on the first day of winter session if shes found guilty by the panel, officials aware of the matter said (HT PHOTO)

The two people who were summoned today -- the lawyer (Dehadrai) and (MP) Nishikant Dubey -- were heard attentively. Then it was decided that Mahua Moitra would be called on October 31. She will come and present her case to defend herself. The committee has also decided that the IT ministry and MHA will be sent letters to make details (related to the allegations) available, he added

The IT ministry will be asked for details on the use of Moitras user ID in the Parliament portal, while the home affairs ministry will be asked for details on the use of the portal from abroad. The external affairs ministry will authenticate Darshan Hiranandanis statement, which he issued from Dubai.

According to Parliament functionaries, Sonkar, in his opening remarks described cash-for-query as shameless behaviour.

Darshan Hiranandani, the businessman who admitted to gifting Moitra expensive luxury items , underwriting the renovation of her official bungalow; and posting questions directly on her behalf using the Parliament login and password that she provided him with is unlikely to be called to depose as he has already given an affidavit to the consulate general of India in Dubai under Apostille, a method of certifying a document or statement provided or made in a country other than the one where it is to be used.

According to the functionaries cited above, JD(U ) lawmaker Giridhari Yadav and BSPs Danish Ali urged Dubey to drop the charges against Moitra, pointing out that she was a first-time MP . Dubey, they added, pointed out that it was not up to him and that only the ethics panel can do so. Congress MP Uttam Reddy asked Dubey whether the charges were his way of getting back at Moitra who has accused him of faking his degree. One of the functionaries said that Dubeys response was that the ethics committee was looking into whether Moitra was guilty or not.

The BJP MP, who first wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker on October 15 on the issue, quoted the affidavit by Darshan Hiranandani to the panel. According to a second functionary, Dubey described the case as open and shut and that Hiranandani has accepted the charges. Dubey, whose original complaint cited Dehadrai, said he had never met the latter previously. He admitted that he knew Hiranandani.

According to the functionaries, Dubey, in his deposition, suggested that Moitra should be suspended immediately pending the investigation, pointing out that this was done in 2005 when 11 MPs were disqualified over cash for query allegations. He told the panel that back then, the MPs were disqualified in nine days, at which point, the functionaries added, Reddy said that the BJP MP was trying to exert pressure on the panel.

Dehadrai faced some tough questions from Opposition MPs, the functionaries said, with both Reddy and Ali accusing him of bringing about the charges for personal reasons.

The lawyer is believed to have been a close friend of Moitras before falling out. The two MPs also questioned the advocate if the custodial battle over Henry, the dog whose ownership is claimed by both Dehadrai and Moitra, was behind his complaint.

During his deposition, at least two Opposition MPs raised objections and asked why Moitra was not asked to depose first.

The government will move a motion to disqualify Moitra on the first day of winter session if shes found guilty by the panel, officials aware of the matter said.

The functionaries quoted earlier said that Dubey remarked during his deposition that he was part of the sub-committee that had recommended that complaints against an MP to the ethics panel, should be forwarded by another MP, a move that he added, was necessary to avoid frivolous complaint. As things turned out, he said, here he was, a lawmaker, forwarding a complaint against another.

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A consumer court in Kerala recently directed the Indian Railways to compensate a passenger with 60,000 for causing him inconvenience, mental agony and financial hardship due to the delay of a train by over 13 hours. Railways (Reuters File Photo)

The Ernakulam District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission made the ruling on October 18 in response to a complaint filed by Karthik Mohan, employed with a private firm in Chennai. The complainant said that he had booked a ticket on the 22640 Alappuzha-Chennai Express from Ernakulam to Chennai in the hope of attending an important meeting in Chennai. However, the train suffered a delay of more than 13 hours, disrupting not only the complainants plans but also causing distress to many passengers on-board, including NEET exam candidates.

The Railways argued that the train was delayed due to reconstruction work at Arakkonam in Chennai division. It also said that SMS notifications were sent to all reserved passengers, including the complainant, informing them of the delay and suggesting alternate transport options. Additionally, a full refund was also made available to the passengers, it said.

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After hearing the arguments of both the parties, the Commission ruled, The significance of a passengers time is undeniable. The unexpected delay caused substantial inconvenience and distress, particularly to the complainant, who had a pivotal professional commitment. Although the purpose of the journey was not specified at the time of ticket booking, the railways, as a major Public Sector Undertaking, ought to prioritise timely and efficient service.

Naturally, the complainant had suffered a lot of inconvenience, mental agony, hardships, financial loss, etc. due to the negligence on the part of the opposite parties. This order is rendered in favour of the complainant, reaffirming the principles of accountability, especially for institutions that form the backbone of a nations connectivity and economy, it said.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday opened the seventh edition of the India Mobile Congress (IMC), a three-day event being held at the Bharat Mandapam convention centre in Delhi's Pragati Maidan, a venue that also hosted September's G20 Summit. PM Modi inaugurates India Mobile Congress 2023 (ANI)

The prime minister also inaugurated 100 5G labs, which include most of the well-known engineering colleges across the country.

In his speech, the PM noted that the future is no longer a decade or a century away, but due to advances in technology, the future is here and now. He added that in nine years of his government, India's startup ecosystem has become one of the largest in the world, and is in the top 3.

Today, the country has more than one lakh startups, Modi said.

Recalling the launch of 5G technology in the country  the PM launched it on October 1 last year  he remarked how, within just a year, there are about 5 lakh 5G base stations across the nation .

Telecom is gateway to Digital India: Ashwini Vaishnaw

Speaking at the event, IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw described telecom as the 'gateway' to Digital India, adding that today, the country exports telecom equipment to more than 70 nations.

The minister further noted that the next edition of the World Telecommunications Standardisation Assembly will be held in the national capital.

Other eminent personalities who spoke at the event were Akash Ambani (Chairperson, Reliance Jio), Sunil Bharti Mittal (Chairperson, Bharti Enterprises) and Kumar Mangalam Birla (Chairperson, Aditya Birla Group).

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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
The first set of tenders for 3,000 electric buses under the recently announced PM-ebus Sewa Scheme will likely be floated next week, according to the Union housing and urban affairs ministry (MoHUA). Union urban and housing affairs minister Hardeep SIngh Puri inaugurated the 16th UMI Conference & Exhibition 2023 (Twitter/@HardeepSPuri)

The scheme, cleared by the Union cabinet in August this year, aims to induct 10,000 electric buses in cities that lack organised public bus service.

Manoj Joshi, the secretary for the Union ministry of housing and urban affairs on Friday said the states have been given a month to send their proposals. The states are working on it and the tender will be out by next week, he told reporters at a press conference for the inauguration of 16th Urban Mobility India (UMI) Conference cum Expo 2023 inaugurated by Union housing and urban affairs minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Friday.

Joshi said that a tender for another 2,000 buses will be floated for Uttar Pradesh alone with some modifications to this scheme. The details for the same are still being deliberated.

Under the PM-ebus Sewa, 10,000 e-buses will be deployed on a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model in 169 cities alongside support for associated infrastructure, bus depots and behind-the-meter power infrastructure.

Besides, the Union government would help states set up bus priority infrastructure, multimodal interchange facilities, the national common mobility card-based automatic fare collection system and charging infrastructure under Green Urban Mobility Initiatives (GUMI).

The scheme is estimated to cost Rs.57,613 crore, out of which the Central government will provide support of Rs.20,000 crore. The Scheme will support bus operations for ten years.

Speaking at the event, Union minister Puri highlighted the progress in expanding the Metro lines across Indian cities, which is likely to become the second-largest network in the world in the coming three years.

In 2014 (when the NDA [National Democratic Alliance] government came to power), only 248 km of Metro rail was operational in India. In nine years, 895 km of metro lines are operating in 20 cities today. At present, Indias metro network is the third largest in the world. In the next three years, our metro network will surpass the operational length of that in the United States and become the second-largest Metro network in the world.

Puri said that the metro network has brought comfort, stability and security to the lives of our citizens. I am happy to note that the metro network has a daily ridership of around one crore (10 million), he said.

The Union minister added that the financial viability of the metros across the country will improve drastically as and when the networks reach a critical density.

The Metro ridership has to grow as the commuters see it as an efficient mode of transit. The Delhi-NCR has a coverage of 394 km, and this system has a ridership of about 70 lakh (seven million), Puri said, adding that newer networks will need some adjusting period to see the ridership grow and ease of last connectivity will help further.

In Bengaluru, the ridership is going up and there are very good reasons for it. As and when we add more lines, we will have a geometric progression in the numbers, he said.

Academics and industry observers have repeatedly pointed out the wide viability gaps and differences in the projected and actual ridership of the metros in different Indian cities.

Ashish Verma, a professor at the transportation engineering research lab at the Indian Institute of Science-Bangalore, said the prime reason for overstating the ridership by consulting agencies is to make these projects look more viable on paper. For most cities, the first and last-mile connectivity for the metros has come as an afterthought and is patchwork. This results from the lack of a more comprehensive and complex attitude required for the projects, he said.

Ideally, the traffic demand patterns are to be studied for the city and then the alignment for the metro lines should be decided optimally, said Verma, adding Typically, they would fix an alignment and then project ridership for the corridor. Hence you will not get the desired ridership, leading to questions regarding financial viability.

Metros, being capital intensive, are primarily dependent on financing from multilateral agencies such as the World Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency, Asian Development Bank And others. Experts have questioned how, in light of the low revenues, the state and union governments could manage to service the debts.

Focusing on the theme of integrated and resilient urban transport, the two-day mobility summit is being attended by senior officials, managing directors of Metro rail corporations, chief executives of transport undertakings, representatives of multilateral banks and international experts.

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Chennai: The Tamil Nadu Raj Bhavan on Thursday accused the police of not registering its complaint in connection with the petrol bomb attack near the building and diluting it as mere vandalism, amid an ongoing conflict between the office of the Governor and the ruling DMK. A scene outside the Raj Bhavan after a petrol bomb was hurled outside its main gate, in Chennai, Wednesday. (PTI)

The remark comes a day after a Molotov cocktail, colloquially called the petrol bomb, was hurled in front of the main gate of the Raj Bhavan, which is the official residence of Governor RN Ravi. There was no damage or injuries to anyone in the incident and the accused was immediately arrested, but the Opposition parties have termed it a reflection of the deteriorating law and order situation in the state.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the Raj Bhavan said: Police did not register Raj Bhavans complaint on the attack. Suo Motu diluted the attack as an act of simple vandalism and in a hurry got arrested accused remanded to jail at midnight waking up the magistrate and prevented detailed interrogation which could expose those behind the attack.

A fair investigation is killed before it begins, it added.

An officer familiar the case, however, said that the Guindy police registered an FIR on attack soon after the incident took place, and booked the accused under several sections of the Indian Penal Code, Explosive Substances Act and the Tamil Nadu Public Property (Prevention of Damage and Loss) Act. He has been remanded to 15 days of judicial custody, he added. HT has seen a copy of the FIR.

A fair and complete investigation will be conducted regarding yesterdays incident. All footage from CCTV is retrieved and a full investigation will be done. Tamil Nadu police give continuous security to the Governors office Raj Bhavan, Tamil Nadu director general of police (DGP) Shankar Jiwal said.

The accused, identified as 40-year-old Karukka Vinod, faces at least 14 criminal cases and is currently out on bail.

A senior police officer said that the accused is a habitual offender who has earlier thrown petrol bombs at the state BJPs party office and a police station.

Hours before the Raj Bhavan issued a statement on Thursday, Tamil Nadu law minister S Regupathy held a press conference where he said that the incident is condemnable and the government would never allow such untoward incidents to happen in Tamil Nadu as it would bring disrepute only to the government.

Responding to the Raj Bhavans allegation on Wednesday that the attack was a consequence of the DMK verbally abusing and issuing veiled threats to Governor, the law minister said: Why would we do something that brings the state a bad name?... Even if the person is an enemy of chief minister and DMK president M K Stalin, the state would do its duty to protect the office of the Governor.

He added that the accused seemed to be mentally unstable and could have been used to stage the crime to tarnish the state governments image.

This is a stray incident. The accused has been arrested and is being investigated. He will face the criminal justice system... This doesnt mean that the law and order situation is bad. It is the Governor who starts the problems. He is going around the state like a campaign against us. We have only responded to the Governors allegations. We never spread hatred against him. Its the Governor who spreads hatred across Tamil Nadu.

Meanwhile, the Opposition continued its attack against the DMK-led state government over the incident and demanded a probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

Slamming the state government, Union Minister of State, L Murugan and BJP MLA and partys Mahila Morcha chief, Vanathi Srinivasan demanded a probe by the NIA.Srinivasan said the case should be handed over to the NIA or CBI since the Tamil Nadu police acted as per diktats of persons belonging to the ruling DMK.

Governor Ravi and the ruling DMK have been at loggerheads over multiple issues from the former not giving his assent to bills passed by the cabinet to criticising the state and its rule by Dravidian parties for the past 50 years. The DMK government has, however, alleged that he was as working as an agent of the BJP and its ideological parent, the RSS.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Divya Chandrababu Divya Chandrababu is an award-winning political and human rights journalist based in Chennai, India. Divya is presently Assistant Editor of the Hindustan Times where she covers Tamil Nadu & Puducherry. She started her career as a broadcast journalist at NDTV-Hindu where she anchored and wrote prime time news bulletins. Later, she covered politics, development, mental health, child and disability rights for The Times of India. Divya has been a journalism fellow for several programs including the Asia Journalism Fellowship at Singapore and the KAS Media Asia- The Caravan for narrative journalism. Divya has a master's in politics and international studies from the University of Warwick, UK. As an independent journalist Divya has written for Indian and foreign publications on domestic and international affairs. ...view detail
As New Delhi is set to contest the Qatar court's verdict of a death sentence to eight former Indian Navy personnel, opposition parties pilloried the government for not taking up the issue seriously when opposition MPs referred to the issue in Parliament. AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said PM Modi must bring the officers back as he "boasted" how much Islamic countries love him. Congress MP Manish Tewari said the government never took the requests of the family members, Ex-Servicemen League and even MPs seriously. Asaduddin Owaisi and Manish Tewari said they had raised the issue of the 8 ex-Navy men arrested in Qatar in Parliament.

"This is not a matter where we need to indulge in 'he said, she said' or score brownie points. The lives of 08 very senior naval personnel are at stake," the Congress MP wrote.

"Their families were never informed what the charges against them were. Even the Lawyer engaged for their defence was I am informed evasive with the families," Manish Tewari added.

"The Indian National Congress has noted with the greatest anguish, distress and shock the most disturbing developments in Qatar regarding 8 former officers of the Indian Navy. It hopes and expects that the Govt of India will use its diplomatic and political leverage with the Qatar government to the maximum to ensure that the officers have full recourse to appeals and also do the utmost to get them released at the earliest," the Congress said in its statement on the death verdict.

Qatar death verdict to 8 Indians: What is the case?

Eight former Navy personnel -- seven officers and one sailor -- were working for Al Dahra Global Technologies and Consultancy Services, a private firm owned by an Oman Air Force officer that provided training and other services to Qatars armed forces and security agencies.

They were arrested in August 2022 and the charges against them were never declared because of confidentiality but it is believed to be espionage. The company shut the shop after the arrest of the eight Indians.

Managing director of the company Commander Purnendu Tiwari (retd) -- one of the eight -- received the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman award in 2019 for his services in furthering the bilateral relationship between India and Qatar.

Their bail pleas continued to be rejected and they were not allowed to meet their families until India intervened and got consular access.

New Delhi expressed deep shock at the verdict and said it would explore all legal options.

When Qatar summoned Indian envoy over Nupur Sharma's comment on Prophet

In 2022, Qatar expressed displeasure over then-BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma's comment on the Prophet. Qatar summoned the Indian envoy and expected a public apology. While the BJP suspended Nupur Sharma, the Indian government made it clear that the comments came from fringe elements and did not reflect the views of the Indian government.

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Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot on Friday launched a blistering attack on the Enforcement Directorate quoting his Chhattisgarh counterpart Bhupesh Baghel's recent statement. Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot with Rajasthan Congress president Govind Singh Dotasra addresses a press conference during the launch of the party's 7 guarantees ahead of the state assembly elections, in Jaipur.(PTI)

Addressing a press conference in Jaipur, Gehlot said, A chief minister (Bhupesh Baghel) had to say that more than dogs, it's the ED that is on the prowl in the country. (Desh me kutton se jyada ED ghum rahi hai). What could be a bigger misfortune than this?

"Whatever comment he must have made, you can understand that he must have done that in great pain," Gehlot said. You (agencies) have become a political weapon. Modi ji, you do not understand, your countdown has begun.

The chief minister made the scathing remarks a day after the central probe agency raided premises linked to state Congress chief Govind Singh Dotasra as part of a money laundering probe into the exam paper leak case and summoned Gehlot's son Vaibhav in an alleged foreign exchange violation case.

Gehlot said the ED targeted the Congress leader because he is quite vocal against the BJP.

Several Congress leaders, including party president Mallikarjun Kharge, have criticised the ED action in the poll-bound state.

Kharge on Thursday alleged that agencies such as the ED, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Income Tax Department become the real 'panna pramukh' (party workers) of the BJP as soon as elections come.

"Seeing its certain defeat in Rajasthan, the Bharatiya Janata Party made its last throw of the dice! After Chhattisgarh, the ED has also entered the election campaign in Rajasthan and started action against Congress leaders," Kharge said.

"The dictatorship of the Modi government is fatal for democracy. We will continue to fight against the misuse of agencies, and the public will give a befitting reply to the BJP," the Congress chief said in a post on X.

Elections for the 200-member Rajasthan Assembly will be held on November 25 and results be declared on December 3.

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Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday raised concern over eight Indians who have been sentenced to death in Qatar in an alleged espionage case, and asked the Centre to do everything in its power to save them. Delhi Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal(Hindustan Times)

Kejriwal made the comment in connection with the recent death sentence by a court in Qatar to eight former personnel of Indian Navy who were taken into custody in August 2022. The government had been putting all its efforts at securing their release. All ex-Navy personnel were employees of Doha-based Dahra Global. The company offers complete support solutions to the security, aerospace and defence sectors.

India has expressed its shock after the verdict and the Union ministry of external affairs said it is attaching high importance to the case and looking all legal options. We are deeply shocked by the verdict of death penalty and are awaiting the detailed judgment. We are in touch with the family members and the legal team, and we are exploring all legal options, it said.

The Delhi CM said it is a matter of concern for India that its nationals are facing death penalty in Qatar.

The verdict has proved to test India's ties with one of the powerful Gulf states and New Delhi's approach to build friendly relations.

Qatar has played significant roles in mediating amid geopolitical disruptions, ranging from hosting the Taliban's global mission in Doha to acting as the key negotiator in securing release of hostages from Gaza amid Israel-Hamas war. New Delhi's role in revoking the verdict and bringing the Indians back safely will prove its range in the diplomatic yardstick with Qatari establishment.

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Congress MLA from Mandya Ravikumar Gowda claimed on Friday that deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar will become chief minister of Karnataka after two and a half years of the Siddaramaiah-led governments tenure, stirring a political controversy. Congress MLA from Mandya Ravikumar Gowda said deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar .has made significant contributions to the party (PTI)

There is no doubt that he (Shivakumar) will assume the role of chief minister after two and a half years. There is no ambiguity about this. He has made significant contributions to the party, and the opposition is propagating false narratives in the media, Gowda, who is commonly known as Ravi Ganiga, told reporters.

ALSO READ: DK Shivakumar warns leaders against speaking about party's internal issues

When asked if there was a formal agreement regarding a transition of power, Gowda responded, I am not privy to any such agreement, and I am not aware of discussions at the high command level. Nevertheless, he will become chief minister, given his service as the state president.

Asked if Siddaramaiah would resign to pave the way for Shivakumars elevation as chief minister, Gowda said, Why discuss such matters now? They are not relevant at this moment. The government is functioning efficiently, and our focus is on the welfare of the people. Decisions will be made when the time is right.

The controversy comes as the state and central leaderships of the party remain tight-lipped about the alleged power-sharing agreement between Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar. While Siddaramaiah has not issued any statement on the power sharing or rotational CM agreement, Shivakumar in statements to the media has said he had agreed to the partys proposed formula.

A fierce competition had emerged between Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar for the chief ministers post following the assembly election results earlier this year. Eventually, the Congress persuaded Shivakumar to assume the role of deputy chief minister.

Responding to the statement from the MLA, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Shivakumar said that MLAs should not talk about internal party matters in public. All 136 MLAs are one and no one should talk about any of the partys internal decision-making processes. The chief minister and I will talk about party matters, he said.

The chief minister could not be reached out for his response.

In May, a similar controversy had erupted after cabinet minister MB Patil told the media that Siddaramaiah would continue as the chief minister of the state for the next five years.

Meanwhile, Rav claimed that the BJP team which was engaged in bringing down the Janata Dal (Secular)-Congress coalition government in Karnataka in 2019 is again at work in Karnataka to poach MLAs of the ruling party. We have audio and video recordings of conversations to lure our MLAs and the recordings will be made public very soon, he added.

According to Ravi, the BJP team has contacted four of the Congress MLAs and offered them cash of 50 crore each and a ministerial berth if they switch loyalties. The BJP team working to lure Congress MLAs has assured to book a special flight to New Delhi to ferry them to meet union home minister Amit Shah, he said.

The chief minister and deputy chief minister have been informed about these developments. We will reveal the details as soon as possible. Several legislators have honestly shared this information with the party leadership, Gowda said, adding that some former legislators have also been contacted.

The BJP is yet to release an official reaction to the statement.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Arun Dev Arun Dev is an Assistant Editor with the Karnataka bureau of Hindustan Times. A journalist for over 10 years, he has written extensively on crime and politics. ...view detail
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said the death sentence given to eight Indians who were in the Navy by the Qatar authorities is shocking. As Tharoor expressed confidence in the external affairs ministry and PM Modi that they will act immediately with the highest levels of the Qatar government to bring them home, the Congress MP said the details of the entire case are shrouded in mystery and opacity. Shashi Tharoor said he is shocked to learn about Qatar's death sentence to 8 Indian Navy veterans. (HT_PRINT)

The Congress on Thursday called the developments 'disturbing' and expressed shock. "It hopes and expects that the Govt of India will use its diplomatic and political leverage with the Qatar government to the maximum to ensure that the officers have full recourse to appeals and also do the utmost to get them released at the earliest," the Congress said in a statement.

After a Qatar court passed death sentence to 8 Navy veterans, New Delhi said it would contest the verdict.

What is Al Dahra Global Technologies and Consultancy Services?

The eight Navy veterans when they were arrested were working at Al Dahra Global Technologies and Consultancy Services. It was a private firm of an Oman Air Force officer which provided training and other services to Qattar's armed forces and security agencies. After the arrest of the eight Indians, the company was closed.

'Dahra is a world-class supplier of military aircraft parts to defence and related industries. Our core area of business is defence services; the procurement and sale of equipment," the website of the company claimed.

Who is Purnendu Tiwari?

Seven out of the 8 Indians sentenced to death in Qatar were decorated officers in the Indian Navy. Purnendu Tiwari who served as the managing director of Al Dahra was conferred the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award four years ago. This is the highest honour for NRIs/Persons of Indian Origin and Purnendu Tiwari was the first from the Indian armed forces to be awarded this.

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Union home minister Amit Shah on Friday announced that if the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is voted to power in Telangana, it would make a leader from Other Backward Classes (OBC) community the chief minister of the state. Union home minister Amit Shah being welcomed by BJP supporters on his arrival in Suryapet on Friday (ANI)

Addressing an election rally at Suryapet, Shah accused the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) of cheating Dalits, tribals and OBCs in the last nine and half years.  BRS is anti-poor and anti-weaker sections, as it has failed to fulfil promises made for their uplift, including distribution of three acres of land for each Dalit family, he said.

The Union home minister recalled that BRS president and state chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao had promised to make a Dalit the chief minister if his party was voted to power in 2014. He conveniently ignored his promise. He is now trying to project his son K T Rama Rao as his successor, he criticised.

ALSO READ- People will give fitting reply to those trying to bury countrys history: Amit Shah

He announced that if the BJP comes to power in Telangana, it would make an OBC leader as the chief minister. Can KCR make a similar announcement? He has not done anything for the OBCs during his regime, he said.

Describing the Congress and the BRS as family-oriented parties, Shah said the only objective of the Congress was to make Rahul Gandhi as the Prime Minister and that of KCR was to make his son KTR as the chief minister. The BJP is the only party which strives for the welfare of the people and the development of the nation, he said.

The Union home minister said the BJP was committed to the development of tribals. It was the Narendra Modi government at the Centre which has sanctioned a central university for tribals in the name of tribal deities Sammakka and Saralamma, he pointed out.

He said the Centre had announced updating of terms of conditions of Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal to do justice to Telangana in Krishna water sharing. We have also taken steps to create a National Turmeric Board to help Telangana farmers. We are providing safe drinking water to every household under the Jal Jeevan Mission, he asserted.

Shah said the Modi government had created a new history by completing the construction of Ram Mandir at Ayodhya in a record time and invited the people of Suryapet to attend the inaugural function in January in large numbers.

Without reacting to Shahs comment on an OBC chief minister, BRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao said the people had been witnessing the most progressive and development-oriented government in the last nine years.

Even in Prime Minister Narendra Modis own state of Gujarat, there has been no round-the-clock power supply to the farmers. Yet, the BJP national leaders are coming here and questioning our government, KCR said, while addressing a rally at Mahabubabad.

He said that, unlike in the BJP-ruled states, there had been no scarcity of fertilisers in Telangana and the farmers were getting money directly into their accounts after selling their produce.

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As the political atmosphere in Telangana is heating up ahead of the November 30 state assembly elections, a major political issue  an alleged attempt by the Bharatiya Janata Party to poach four Bharat Rashtra Samithi MLAs  that rocked the state exactly a year ago, has been given a quiet burial. A sting operation conducted by the Cyberabad police on a farmhouse on the outskirts of Hyderabad on October 26, 2022, led to the arrest of three persons for allegedly trying to lure four BRS legislators into the BJP. (PTI)

A sting operation conducted by the Cyberabad police on a farmhouse on the outskirts of Hyderabad on October 26, 2022, led to the arrest of three persons for allegedly trying to lure four BRS legislators into the BJP.

The issue triggered a major political uproar in Telangana and fetched a huge mileage to the BRS in the by-election to Munugode assembly seat held a week later  on November 3, as BRS president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao accused the BJP top leadership of trying to destabilise his government.

The seat had fallen vacant due to the resignation of sitting MLA Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy, who resigned from the Congress and contested the bypoll on the BJP ticket. The BRS won the seat with a comfortable margin of nearly 10,000 votes. Reddy has now quit the BJP and is all set to be back in the Congress.

For the next four months, the alleged attempt by the BJP to poach the four BRS MLAs  Guvvala Balaraju (Atchampet - SC), B Harshavardhan Reddy (Kollapur), Rega Kantha Rao (Pinapaka-ST) and Pilot Rohith Reddy (Tandur)  had hit the headlines regularly, as the case went from the local sessions court to the state high court and from there to the Supreme Court.

On March 17 this year, the Supreme Court asked the Telangana police not to continue with its probe into the case till it decides on the state high courts order of December 26, 2022, transferring the case from the state police to the Central Bureau of Investigation. The apex court also asked the CBI not to take up the investigation until further orders.

As the case is still pending in the Supreme Court, there has been no further development in the case. The BRS, which made a hue and cry across the state and even took it up at the national level, conveniently ignored the case. So did the BJP, which was going hammer and tongs at the BRS for enacting a high political drama.

Even now, when the campaign for the Telangana assembly elections is reaching a feverish pitch, there is a stunning silence from the BRS and the BJP on the MLAs poaching issue.

What is there to talk about now? The issue is sub judice. In any case, we managed to expose before the public the dirty attempts of the BJP to destabilise the democratically elected government of the BRS, BRS spokesperson Dasoju Sravan said.

Telangana BJP spokesperson N V Subhash, too, sought to underplay the episode. There is no way the KCR government could go further in the case, as it was just a high drama to malign the BJP. It knows that it cannot prove anything against the BJP as it was stage-managed to garner some cheap publicity. Hence, it is silent, Subhash said.

Political analyst Sriram Karri, however, said there is a general perception among the people that the BRS and the BJP might have come to an understanding with each other. The BRS seems to have conveniently ignored the poaching episode to embarrass the BJP, after the BJP government at the Centre is believed to have gone soft on KCRs daughter Kavitha in Delhi liquor scam case, he said.

Karri observed that in the last one year, the BJP has become weaker in Telangana and hence, is no more a threat for the BRS. That is why, the BRS is not raising any poaching issue and focussing on attacking the Congress which is its prime enemy. Now, the people dont even recall either the political circumstances or the factual finer points of the poaching episode, he said.

The case

On the night of October 26, acting on a tip off by Tandur MLA Pilot Rohit Reddy, a team of Cyberabad police raided a farmhouse at Moinabad, which belonged to the MLAs and arrested three persons - Ramachandra Bharati alias Satish Sharma, a priest from Faridabad in Haryana, Simhayaji, pontiff of Srimanatha Raja Peetham in Tirupati and Nandakumar, owner of a restaurant in Hyderabad, who assembled there to meet the four BRS MLAs.

The police arranged secret cameras and audio equipment to record the conversation between the trio and the MLAs. Cyberabad police commissioner Stephen Ravindra told reporters later that the three persons were trying to entice the legislators with money, and contracts among other things to switch loyalties to the BJP. They were arrested from

On a complaint lodged by Rohit Reddy, the police registered a First Information Report (FIR) at Moinabad police station under Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 171-B r/w 171-E 506 r/w 34 (offering bribe for electoral gains) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 8 of Prevention of Corruption Act-1988.

The three accused were produced before the local ACB court on October 27, but were let out on bail on the ground that they were not given notices under Section 41-A of the Criminal Procedure Code. However, they were arrested again a day later a high court order. They were later sent to the Chanchalguda central prison in Hyderabad. All the three accused were later released on bail by the high court on February 12, 2023.

On November 3, hours after the polling for the by-election to Munugode assembly seat ended, KCR addressed a crowded press conference and made wild allegations against the BJP central leadership saying that it was trying to pull down his government by poaching his party MLAs.

He released video clippings and audio tapes of what is called the Operation Farmhouse, to show how the accused had claimed to have close links with top BJP leaders including Union home minister Amit Shah and had been entrusted with the task of poaching the BRS MLAs.

The tapes, whose authenticity HT could not vouch for, purportedly showed the accused offering huge money, prominent posts in the party and central government contracts to the four BRS MLAs.

On November 9, the KCR government constituted a seven-member special investigation team (SIT) headed by then Hyderabad police commissioner C V Anand, to do a comprehensive investigation.

During the course of investigation, the SIT found that the three accused were in touch with BJP national general secretary (organisation) B L Santosh, Bharat Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS) founder Tushar Vellapally, Dr Jaggu Swamy of Amritha Institute in Kerala and a senior lawyer B Srinvas from Karimnagar.

On November 16, the SIT issued notices to these four people to appear before the investigating officer on November 21 for questioning. Except Srinivas, the other three did not turn up.

Santosh challenged the notices in the Telangana high court on November 23. Though initially it rejected his plea, it later granted a stay on the notices, on the ground that the SIT did not mention the reasons for questioning in the notice.

On December 26, acting on a petition filed by Telangana BJP general secretary G Premender Reddy and after prolonged hearing, the high court transferred the probe into the alleged poaching case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The high court also dissolved the state government-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) which was probing the case.

On February 2, 2023, the Telangana government moved the Supreme Court challenging the state high courts order transferring the investigation to the CBI. The state government argued that since the CBI is in the hands of the central government, it might not investigate the case impartially.

On March 13, the Supreme Court asked the CBI to put on hold its investigation into the case of alleged poaching of the four BRS MLAs. Four days later, it asked the state police also not to continue further investigation.

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After an overnight skirmish between the Border Security Force (BSF), and Pakistan Rangers, an uneasy calm returned to the Arnia and RS Pura sectors along the Indian-Pakistan international border on Friday, officials said. On Thursday, Pakistani Rangers resorted to unprovoked firing and shot mortars in the Arnia sector till 3am (Representative Photo)

According to a senior police officer, villagers and migrant labourers, who fled their homes and shanties on Thursday night following Pakistans intense firing and shelling on BSF posts and forward villages, returned to their homes on Friday.

BSF remains vigilant and continues to monitor the developments closely while assessing the situation and remains alert to respond as necessary to ensure the safety and security of the border and its residents, BSF stated on X.

On Thursday, Pakistani Rangers resorted to unprovoked firing and shot mortars in the Arnia sector till 3am. They also fired mortars at border outposts and civilian areas. Following Pakistans violation of the ceasefire agreement, villages along the border were put on high alert.

During the intervening night of Thursday and Friday, Pak Rangers resorted to unprovoked firing in the Arnia area, which was befittingly responded by BSF troops. Pak Rangers resorted to mortar shelling, which was countered by the BSF with an appropriate response, said a BSF spokesperson in an official statement issued on Friday.

According to intelligence officials, two BSF men Basavraj SR and Sher Singh, and a woman Rajni Bala, a resident of Ward 5, were injured in Arnia.

On Friday morning, police teams visited affected villages, including Bhulle Chak village in RS Pura, where a Pakistani mortar exploded in the verandah of a house completely damaging a kitchen. Fortunately, no family members were injured in the explosion.

Recounting the horror that unfolded on Thursday night, Sarpanch of Sai Khurd, Vijay Choudhary said, Pakistan suddenly opened heavy fire on Thursday night after a hiatus of over two and a half years. We urge the government to construct bunkers for us on war footing.

Whenever elections and festivals approach, Pakistan starts firing at us. They cant be trusted. We are apprehensive of another round of firing by Pakistan on Friday evening. If they start again, we would be compelled to migrate to safer areas, he added.

Videos and audio of a Pakistani officer, accessed by the HT, showed the impact of Indias retaliatory fire in forward areas of Pakistan.

The Pakistan officer was clearly heard telling his colleague to take all precautionary measures in the wake of intense firing and mortar shelling by the BSF.

The Pak officer also requested his colleague to make announcements from mosques asking people to take all safety precautions.

Following the violation of the ceasefire agreement by Pakistan, the BSF has been put on high alert all along the 198 km-long international border.

Rohit Choudhary, a National Conference activist, requested the government to deploy bulletproof ambulances in forward villages of Arnia and RS Pura sectors so that they could be used to evacuate injured to the hospitals.

The two neighbouring countries had first inked the mutually brokered truce deal in November 2003 but it was scantly regarded by Pakistan.

India shares a 3,323-km-long border with Pakistan of which 221 km of the international border and 744km of Line of Control fall in Jammu and Kashmir.

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Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Thursday led a high-profile delegation in a roadshow in Chennai to promote the upcoming two-day Global Investor Summit scheduled for December. Dhami held crucial meetings with a diverse array of investors from various sectors, setting the stage for economic growth and development in the state. Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami (Third from Left).

A major highlight of the event was the signing of Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) worth an impressive 10,150 crores. These MoUs were inked in the presence of Dhami and involve a wide range of industries, including healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and the energy sector. The investments promise to bolster Uttarakhand's economic landscape significantly.

Among the notable MoUs signed during the Chennai Roadshow, 1,000 crore was pledged by July Ventures for startup and equvator projects, while Kshana Group committed 1,000 crore for investments in the healthcare sector. SRM University also entered an MoU worth 600 crore for higher education initiatives, including a heliport. Additionally, 500 crore worth of agreements were signed with the Refex Group in the energy sector, 250 crore with Enfla Movi Group for Aroma Park, and 100 crore with Miltex Group for investments in the tourism sector.

The second session of the event witnessed further enthusiasm from investors, with 1,000 crore committed by Apollo Hospital, 1,000 crore by Craft Smith India, 4,000 crore by Infinity Global, and 200 crore by TPCI.

Extending a warm invitation to the investors to participate in the Global Investor Summit, Dhami emphasized the spiritual and cultural connection between Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand, drawing parallels between Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu and the revered Shri Kedarnath and Adi Kailash in Uttarakhand. He stressed the importance of building on this connection, further promoting the Uttarakhand and Tamil Sangamam.

Highlighting the potential for investment across various sectors, the chief minister noted that Uttarakhand is not only a world-class tourist destination but also offers vast opportunities in areas such as food processing, auto component manufacturing, education, and healthcare.

Over the past few months, more than 30 policies have been amended to enhance the state's appeal to investors, a government release said.

The Global Investor Summit will be held in Dehradun on December 8 and 9. The overarching theme for the upcoming Global Investor Summit has been set as "Peace to Prosperity," emphasizing the state's commitment to transforming peace into economic prosperity.

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Senior diplomat Vani Sarraju Rao has been appointed as India's new ambassador to Italy, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Friday. Vani Sarraju Rao

Rao, who is a 1994-batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, is currently serving as an additional secretary in the MEA.

She succeeds Neena Malhotra.

"She is expected to take up the assignment shortly," the MEA said in a brief statement.

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Zoram Peoples Movement (ZPM) emerged as the second-largest party in the Mizoram assembly by winning eight of the 40 seats in the 2018 polls. It relegated the ruling Congress to the third spot a year after its formation. As it now hopes to replace the Mizo National Front (MNF) to form the next government, ZPM president Lalduhoma, 73, a police officer-turned-politician, spoke to HT about the opposition partys prospects. Edited excerpts: Zoram Peoples Movement leader Lalduhoma. (HT PHOTO)

How is the campaign going ahead of the November 7 polls?

We announced all our candidates in April. Other parties did so much later. When elections were announced, most of our candidates had completed around 80% of the campaigning. That way we have had a lot of advantages. We have been able to visit all the villages and get to know voters and their needs.

How have the past five years been for the party?

We are growing smoothly. We have done very well in local elections and by-polls. Our party now has a presence across the state and our strength has increased. Leaders from the MNF, Congress, and the BJP are joining us. Our plus point is that voters who are neutral are on our side.

What are the major poll issues for you?

Corruption is one of the main issues. Chief minister Zoramthanga does not have a clean image and due to that MNF will lose. Drug menace is also another important issue. People think that even the chief minister is involved in smuggling.

Will ZPM be able to replace MNF?

MNF claims to be a regional party, but since it is part of the [Bharatiya Janata Party-led] National Democratic Alliance [NDA] government at the Centre and the North East Democratic Alliance in the region, it has lost its identity...originality and sanctity. ZPM is Mizorams only genuine regional party. We are not going to let Delhi make decisions on our behalf. We are going to do that here in Mizoram. Other parties have bosses in Delhi. We do not want to be dictated.

How many seats is ZPM expecting?

We are not going to win all 40 seats. Our main contest is with the MNF, which I think will come second. Congress is a spent force and BJP is not a force to be reckoned with. ...we are confident of forming the next government.

How would you respond to Congress leader Rahul Gandhis claim that ZPM has an understanding with the BJP?

This is false propaganda. He cannot convince anybody with such statements.

Will there be some post-poll understanding as Union minister and BJPs Mizoram in charge Kiren Rijiju has said they would not be averse to being a part of the government with the ZPM?

They are making such statements to prevent an exodus from their party. They are propagating this and telling their members not to change and that they will form the government with ZPM. But this is not having any effect. We are sure of forming the next government with a comfortable majority.

Is MNF expected to benefit as Mizoram is hosting ethnic violence-hit people from Manipur as well as Myanmar refugees with ethnic ties with Mizos?

I do not think so. The governments in Manipur and at the Centre are BJP-led. People in Mizoram are unhappy with the way the crisis in Manipur has been handled. There is disappointment about the silence of the Prime Minister on this. Since MNF is also part of the NDA, it will have an adverse effect on them. People who have taken shelter in Mizoram are our brothers and sisters. We all stand with them and everyone including church bodies, civil groups, and parties assisted them, not just the MNF.

What is ZPMs stand on demands for ending prohibition that MNF reintroduced in 2015?

We do not have any stand on the issue yet. Our party is not the only authority to decide. We have to consult all representatives of people, study it, and then decide.

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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
Priyanka Chopra landed in Mumbai, India, today. The actor is in the country to attend an event in the bay. The paparazzi clicked the Desi Girl exiting the Mumbai airport and shared the snippets on social media. The pictures and videos show Priyanka leaving the airport, greeting the media with folded hands, and entering her car before leaving. Scroll through to check out Priyanka's airport look and read our download on her airport outfit inside. Desi Girl Priyanka Chopra arrives in Mumbai, India. (HT Photo/Varinder Chawla)

Desi Girl Priyanka Chopra arrives in Mumbai

Videos of Priyanka Chopra arriving at the Mumbai airport delighted her fans. Netizens took to Instagram to compliment the star's comfy-chic airport look and welcome the actor after a long break. Last, she was in Mumbai with Nick Jonas to be a part of the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) inaugural, attended by several big names like Gigi Hadid, Zendaya, Tom Holland, Shah Rukh Khan, Rekha, Deepika Padukone, and more. Meanwhile, fans commented, "Goddess," "Desi Girl is home," "Welcome PCJ," and "She's so beautiful," under her paparazzi clips.

What Priyanka Chopra wore at the airport?

Priyanka chose neutral tones for her airport look. She wore a black crop top featuring spaghetti straps, a wide plunging neckline highlighting her decolletage, a fitted silhouette, and a cropped hem revealing her midriff. She styled it with a matching long jacket featuring an open front, full-length sleeves, a relaxed fitting, and an ankle-length hem.

Desi Girl Priyanka Chopra arrives in Mumbai(HT Photo/Varinder Chawla)

Priyanka completed her airport outfit with grey track pants featuring a mid-rise elastic waistband, baggy fitting, and lower ankle hem. She accessorised her outfit with black-and-white chunky sneakers, diamond rings, and a colourful bead necklace with the letter of her daughter Malti's name.

Lastly, Priyanka chose winged eyeliner, mascara on the lashes, feathered brows, glossy fuchsia pink lip shade, blushed cheekbones, and glowing skin for the glam picks. Centre-parted open silky locks gave the finishing touch.

Meanwhile, according to reports, Priyanka is in India to attend the Mami Film Festival.

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The auspicious Hindu festival of Karwa Chauth is marked with zeal across the country, especially in North Indian states like Himachal Pradesh, Uttrakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Gujarat, and Rajasthan. Also known as Karaka Chaturthi or Karva Chauth, it falls on November 1 this year. It is celebrated during the Chaturthi tithi of Krishna Paksha in Kartik month. Married women observe this festival by keeping a difficult nirjala vrat (fasting without water and food) for their husband's long life and prosperity. They break the fast after moonrise by sighting it through a sieve and then looking at their husband through it. After which, the husband gives the wife a morsel of food and a sip of water. While the fast is special for all married women, it holds a special significance for the newlywed brides observing their first Karwa Chauth fast. Scroll through to learn how to celebrate your first Karwa Chauth and rituals and traditions for the newly married. Married women observe Karwa Chauth by keeping a difficult nirjala vrat (fasting without water and food) for their husband's long life and prosperity. (Pixabay)

Karwa Chauth for newlywed brides

For any married woman, the first Karwa Chauth holds significance. Both the husband and wives family see it as a special day. Every family friends and relatives drop by to wish the newly-wed couple and the bride gets gifts from everyone.

Newly married women celebrating their first Karwa Chauth should receive thoughtful gifts from their in-laws and their maternal home to make them feel special on this day. The newly married daughter-in-law should also give her mother-in-law a specially curated Baya containing clothes, jewellery, food items, and wedding items. This ritual is performed to receive blessings from the mother-in-law.

Sargi is another important ritual of the festival. On the first Karva Chauth, the mother-in-law should personally give the Sargi to her daughter-in-law. The Sargi plate consists of fruits, mathri, sweets, dry fruits and other food items. Both mother-in-law and daughter-in-law should eat the Sargi together before sunrise.

Newly-married women should wake up early in the morning and take a bath. Then, they should clean the temple, light a diya, worship Maa Parvati, Lord Shiva, Lord Ganesha and Lord Kartikeya, take a pledge for a nirjala vrat, and listen to Karwa Chauth Katha.

Newly-married brides should wear traditional clothes in red, do solah sringar, and apply mehendi on their hands and feet. They should avoid wearing black, brown and white colours. While white and black are not considered auspicious, brown represents Rahu and Ketu. Apart from red, they can wear red, pink, yellow, green and maroon.

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Certain beauty trends persist in the ever-changing realm of skincare due to their effectiveness and user-friendly nature and one such trend is known as "slugging" that has garnered significant attention in the beauty sector of late. It involves a straightforward nighttime routine designed to impart suppleness, moisture and revitalisation to your skin. What is K-beauty slugging skincare trend? Benefits, considerations and caveats, tips to "slug" your skin (Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels)

The Origin of Slugging

In an interview with HT Lifestyle, Dr Kritu Bandhari, MD in Dermatology and Cosmetology and Founder of Orijine Clinic, shared, "The word "slugging" in skincare comes from South Korea, a place known for its creative beauty routines and products. People who are passionate about skincare in South Korea started using this term to describe a practice where they apply a thick layer of petroleum jelly or a similar sealing moisturiser as the last step in their nighttime skincare routine. The name is derived from the idea that the thick layer of product resembles the trail left by a slug."

How to "Slug" Your Skin

According to Dr Kritu Bandhari, the slugging skincare trend is as simple as it is effective and here's how you can incorporate it into your nightly skincare routine -

Cleanse Thoroughly: Start by using a mild, sulphate-free cleanser to clean your face and remove makeup, grime and impurities. This initial cleansing step forms the basis for your skincare routine.

Start by using a mild, sulphate-free cleanser to clean your face and remove makeup, grime and impurities. This initial cleansing step forms the basis for your skincare routine. Apply Your Skincare Products: Stick to your usual nighttime skincare routine, which might involve using serums, moisturisers and specific treatments. Allow these products to absorb into your skin fully. Make sure to use products that match your skin type and address your specific concerns.

Stick to your usual nighttime skincare routine, which might involve using serums, moisturisers and specific treatments. Allow these products to absorb into your skin fully. Make sure to use products that match your skin type and address your specific concerns. Seal with an Occlusive: Once your other skincare items have soaked in, apply a small quantity of petroleum jelly (similar to Vaseline) or a sealing moisturiser and gently cover your whole face with it. Ensure that the layer is thin and even.

Once your other skincare items have soaked in, apply a small quantity of petroleum jelly (similar to Vaseline) or a sealing moisturiser and gently cover your whole face with it. Ensure that the layer is thin and even. Overnight Hydration: Leave the occlusive layer on your skin overnight. As you sleep, it will create a barrier that prevents moisture loss, helping your skin stay hydrated.

Benefits of the Slugging Skincare Trend

Dr Kritu Bandhari revealed -

Intense Hydration: The primary benefit of slugging is its ability to lock in moisture. The occlusive layer seals in the moisture from your previous skincare products, preventing it from evaporating overnight. This leads to well-hydrated and plump skin in the morning.

The primary benefit of slugging is its ability to lock in moisture. The occlusive layer seals in the moisture from your previous skincare products, preventing it from evaporating overnight. This leads to well-hydrated and plump skin in the morning. Barrier Protection: Slugging creates a protective shield for your skin, guarding it against environmental threats like pollution and dry air. This can be especially useful in colder months when the skin tends to get drier.

Slugging creates a protective shield for your skin, guarding it against environmental threats like pollution and dry air. This can be especially useful in colder months when the skin tends to get drier. Soothing and Healing: Using slugging can help people with irritated or damaged skin. It helps soothe and protect the skin's barrier, promoting faster healing and reducing redness.

Using slugging can help people with irritated or damaged skin. It helps soothe and protect the skin's barrier, promoting faster healing and reducing redness. Soft and Smooth Texture: With consistent use, many individuals report that slugging results in noticeably softer and smoother skin. This is particularly helpful for people with dry or coarse skin.

With consistent use, many individuals report that slugging results in noticeably softer and smoother skin. This is particularly helpful for people with dry or coarse skin. Affordability and Accessibility: One of the best things about the slugging trend is that it's cost-effective and simple to include in your daily routine. Petroleum jelly is a widely available and inexpensive product.

Considerations and Caveats

Dr Kritu Bandhari cautioned, Although the slugging skincare trend can be highly effective for many individuals, it might not be the right choice for everyone, especially those with excessively oily or acne-prone skin. The heavy occlusive layer could potentially lead to breakouts in such cases. If you have any worries or particular skin issues, it's a good idea to talk to a dermatologist before giving this trend a try.

She concluded, The slugging skincare trend offers a simple yet effective way to achieve intensely hydrated and soft skin. This trend, which originated in South Korea, has spread throughout the world because it may preserve and assist your skin retain moisture. Slugging can help your skin feel refreshed and ready for the day by adding it to your nightly skincare routine. Before implementing a new skincare regimen, it's crucial to consider your unique skin type and demands, just like with any other skincare practice.

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Theres no shortage of advice. Live-in relationships are time pass, temporary and fragile. After a breakup, it becomes difficult for the woman to face society. Middle-class morality cannot be ignored in a country like India. Adolescent girls must control their sexual urges and not get swayed for two minutes of pleasure. Middle-class morality cannot be ignored in a country like India. Adolescent girls must control their sexual urges and not get swayed for two minutes of pleasure.(HT file)

If wives file complaints of dowry harassment by their husbands and in-laws they are disgruntled housewives. Those seeking their rightful maintenance are looking for a windfall. And while it is the moral duty of a husband to provide for his wife, she should not squeeze milk, whatever that means, from him.

It goes without saying that if she is qualified, then she should not sit idle but plunge right back into the job market even if she had quit her job at the time of marriage at the insistence of her husband and his family.

The definition of cruelty as a ground for divorce has some interesting variations and includes the failure to wear a mangalsutra, a wifes insistence on living independently from her husbands parents and even refusing to make tea for the husbands guests. If she chooses a career over marriage or having children, she can expect no mercy.

Notwithstanding the launch of a handbook to combat gender stereotypes by the Supreme Court in August this year, high courts across the country and, occasionally, the Supreme Court itself, continue to play moral police: Advising an inter-faith couple seeking police protection against the pitfalls of living together, sermonising to women in abusive marriages and, even when providing relief, delivering homilies on the dangers of sexual pleasure. In the last example, the Calcutta high court actually acquitted a young boyfriend of the very grave charges filed against him under the POCSO (protection of children from child sex abuses) law.

But in another POCSO case, the opinion of a woman judge that a man unzipping before a child did not amount to sexual assault resulted in an uproar and her eventual voluntary retirement.

Most dont receive even a frown of disapproval. It is time for the Supreme Court to take action. You cannot have a culture of constitutional morality and propriety if you have judges of the high court repeatedly denying women agency, senior advocate Rebecca John said.

Judges are not immune to bias or the malevolence of patriarchy, and this can show up in their judgments. The challenge before them is to examine a case purely on the strength of its merits, devoid of social conditioning and the temptation to make sweeping generalisations, particularly in matters relating to marriage, divorce and personal relationships.

Personal opinion can have very far-reaching consequences. For instance, one judges opinion that a womans clear no to sex was too feeble resulted in the acquittal of a man of rape charges.

Rape judgments in fact are a minefield of misogyny and gender stereotyping where judges cant seem to agree if women are conniving devils or hapless devis. A study by law professor Mrinal Satish of 25 years of rape jurisprudence of 800 Supreme Court and high court cases found rape adjudication and sentencing replete with myths and stereotypes, including the notion that the chief harm of rape is not to a womans bodily autonomy but to her reputation and honour.

This culture of misogyny is all pervasive and knows no boundaries, sometimes even amongst judges. This past week there was an ugly display of it in open court, broadcast live on YouTube, when a junior woman judge of the Gujarat high court seemed to disagree with the senior male judge on the same bench. Justice Biren Vaishnav apologised a day later. But the question remained: Would he have flown off the handle had she been a man?

Namita Bhandare writes on gender. The views expressed are personal

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Namita Bhandare Namita Bhandare writes on gender and other social issues and has 25 years of experience in journalism. She has edited books and features in a documentary on sexual violence. She tweets as @namitabhandare ...view detail
As I return to India after nine days of reporting from the frontline of the conflict in Israel and its military retaliation to the Hamas terror attack, I am amazed and aghast at the equivocations, binaries, polarities and extreme positions being taken all around me. Palestinians inspect the damage of destroyed buildings following Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City. (AP Photo)

In an environment of raging tribalism and irrationality, social media is fuelling ignorance, illiberalism and insanity, even in India, where the tensions in West Asia have no direct bearing on us.

Theres a pretty obvious and commonsensical truth staring us in the face. What Hamas did to Israeli civilians  razing houses to the ground, burning entire families alive, shooting infants as they slept in cots  is a horrific act of terrorism. Israel, like any other country, has the absolute right to retaliate. But it needs a better thought-through counter-terrorism response that does not brutally punish hundreds of thousands of helpless and hapless Gazan civilians.

If you feel the need to rationalise, explain, justify or qualify what Hamas did or, on the other hand, dont feel the heartbreak of the awful collective suffering unfolding in Gaza, you need to examine both your intellectual consistency and (lack of) empathy.

Unfortunately, noise, bigotry, coarseness and intolerance have captured all reasonable space for public debate.

An Indian American friend, who leans far Left, quarrelled with me about having gone to Israel at all. Another commentator, who should have known better, foolishly asked why reporters are in Israel only and not in Gaza. Surely, its evident, with even international aid struggling to get in across the Egyptian border, that there is no physical access to Gaza except for local correspondents who report every day through heartbreaking hardship. On the other hand, I cannot comprehend the response of those who are unmoved by the images of mass devastation out of Palestine.

In Israel, I was able to report from three borders  the north, where Iran-backed Hezbollah has been firing anti-tank missiles into Israeli villages, the Egyptian border, which remains firmly closed for Gaza refugees looking to escape, and the very edge of the Gaza Strip, where the roar of rockets and rumble of tanks, meant ducking, taking cover and being evacuated to bomb shelters more times than I can count.

Inside Kibbutz Beeri, one of the worst massacre sites, I walked past ammunition, cartridges and a motorcycle used by Hamas gunmen and through the charred remains of a childrens playground, now spotted with blood. The elderly who took shelter in the neighbourhood medical clinic had not been spared either.

At Tel Avivs forensic laboratory, doctors wept as they showed graphic images of bodies, among them, an adult and child tied together, holding each other close in their final hours, as they were burnt to death. Officials allege that some bodies were dismembered, and others, including those of some children, were found with heads severed, whether from projectiles or deliberate, they do not yet know. They also allege that several bodies show signs of torture and rape.

Shockingly, from Maine to Mumbai, there are intellectuals who still argue that Hamas is not a terror group because it represents an occupied population. To conflate this horror with the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people or the long history of Israeli suppression of their rights only weakens the argument. Tomorrow, someone might question Kashmirs history and designate the Hizbul Mujahideen as a resistance group. How would we feel? Worse, Pakistan-backed terror groups like the Lashkar could also claim similar legitimacy

Hamas is not Palestine. And Israel is not Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel is united in grief and rage, but also in its utter contempt for the prime minister who they believe brought the country to this pass.

On a busy intersection of Tel Aviv, where heartbroken families of 222 hostages in Hamas captivity protest, the placards demand the resignation of Netanyahu and call for a ceasefire. As one survivor told me, Hamas killed and abducted the most Left-wing among us, many of them worked for peace with Palestinians.

Gazas mounting civilian deaths are truly catastrophic. The most haunting image is that of Wael-Dahdough, a journalist whose entire family was killed in an Israeli air strike, cradling his sons body and through tears reminding the world that his son too, wanted to be a reporter.

The Indian position, an unequivocal calling out of terrorism but a firm underscoring of the rights of the Palestinian people, is probably the most granular and textured response in the world today. More countries, and more commentators, need to take the same position.

Civilian lives, on both sides, are at the heart of the matter. Agreeing on this fundamental fact may make global intervention more effective  and honest.

Barkha Dutt is an award-winning journalist and author. The views expressed are personal

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Apple Inc. is planning an end-to-end overhaul of its AirPods lineup, refreshing a product category thats emerged as one of the companys biggest sellers. FILE PHOTO: Apple AirPods are displayed during a media event in San Francisco, California, U.S. on September 7, 2016. REUTERS/Beck Diefenbach/File Photo

The changes will include a revamped version of Apples entry-level AirPods in 2024 and a new Pro model the following year, according to people familiar with the plan. The company is updating the products earbud design, the look of the cases and audio quality. A new version of the AirPods Max headphones are coming in 2024 as well, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.

A representative for Cupertino, California-based Apple declined to comment.

The AirPods wireless earbuds were first introduced in 2016, when Apple began removing the traditional headphone jack from its devices. At the time, the product faced skepticism from consumers. Some were miffed about losing the cherished headphone jack. Others worried they would look strange wearing cordless earbuds, which were still a novelty at the time.

But Apple quickly overcame the concerns. The earbuds became one of the hottest consumer technology products, especially as a holiday gift. Theyre also a popular add-on purchase when shoppers are buying a new iPhone. AirPods lead the wireless earbuds market, accounting for about 32% of sales last year, according to data from Canalys.

Within Apple, the AirPods are a key part of the companys Wearables, Home and Accessories segment, which generates about $40 billion annually. That division, which also includes the Apple Watch and Beats headphones, is one of Apples fastest-growing and helps keep consumers from defecting to rival product ecosystems.

Apple currently sells three types of wireless earbuds:

At the low end, the company offers the second-generation AirPods for $129. They debuted in 2019.

There are third-generation AirPods from 2021 at $169, a mid-tier offering.

And the $249 AirPods Pro, last updated this year, are Apples upscale option.

Apple also sells pricey over-ear AirPods Max headphones. They launched in 2020 for $550 and have never been updated.

The third-generation AirPods havent sold particularly well for Apple. Many buyers either opt to save money and purchase the second-generation version or they spring for the high-end model, which comes with noise cancellation. The mid-tier product doesnt offer much more than the $129 model, so some consumers dont see a reason to pay the extra $40.

With that in mind, Apple plans to phase out both the second-generation and third-generation AirPods later next year, according to the people familiar with the matter. Theyll be replaced with two fourth-generation AirPods that are priced similarly to the current versions but are more differentiated.

The two models will feature a new design that looks like a blend of the third-generation AirPods and the Pro model. Theyll both have short stems, the part that hangs out of a users ear.

Apple will differentiate the two options by including noise cancellation in the higher-end version. That model will also get an updated charging case that includes speakers for Find My alerts, matching the current AirPods Pro. Those alerts make it easier for users to find their case when it gets lost.

Both new low-end models will offer an improved fit, but its unlikely that either will include replaceable tips like the AirPods Pro.

The fourth-generation AirPods will also both switch to USB-C for their charging cases, continuing a shift that began with the AirPods Pro. The company dropped Lightning from its iPhones this year, part of an effort to comply with regulations from the European Union. And its accessories are following suit.

Apple is planning an update to the AirPods Max around the end of next year that also switches its charging port to USB-C. The headphones will come in new colors, but wont see many other changes. The AirPods Pro, meanwhile, are expected to get a new design and chip in 2025, and the company is working on health features for that device tied to hearing.

Despite the success of the AirPods to date, Apple cant afford to coast. The company faces growing competition from companies like Samsung Electronics Co., Alphabet Inc.s Google and Xiaomi Corp.

Sony Group Corp., Bose Corp. and Jabra have also introduced more products in recent years, adding competition at the low end. And as Apples own experience in earbuds demonstrates, the market can change quickly.

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A UK couple has been slapped with a bill of nearly 11,000 (approximately 11 lakh) after not paying the gas bill for almost two decades. Yes, you read that right. As per reports, after the duo received the hefty bill, they urge that they tried to find who their gas supplier was when they first moved into their home in Tamworth near Birmingham in 2005. The couple was served with a hefty bill after not paying for gas for 18 years. (Unsplash)

As per BBC, Lee Haynes, 44, and Jo Woodley, 45, claim that as soon as they moved into their new house, they sorted out all the utility bill payments but they hit a wall when it came to gas. They even reached out to various organisations, including National Grid to help them find the suppliers, however, everyone struggled with it. When Haynes and Woodley did not hear anything from their supplier they gave up asking.

Documents from their housing association and National Grid, both dated 2006, attest to difficulties in determining the gas supplier. After contacting the utilities ombudsman, the couple claims that the representative told them to hold off on contacting them until the supplier reached out.

"It was very strange. After a few months we had bills for everything but not gas. I was worried about suddenly getting a big bill  so I tried really hard to find out who was supplying our gas. The guy from the housing association tried all the suppliers they work with and said he didnt know what to do. When the ombudsman said just to keep the paperwork and leave it thats exactly what we did," Lee said to The Metro.

When a letter requesting an inspection of the property arrived in March from gas wholesalers Cadent, the couple was taken aback. Cadent sent them a charge for 10,824.87 three months later. The couple still doesn't know who has been providing their gas for the past 18 years, despite receiving an official invoice last month that gave them 30 days to pay the enormous amount, reports The Metro.

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The UN warned Friday that "many more will die" in Gaza from catastrophic shortages after nearly three weeks of bombardment by Israel in response to Hamas staging the deadliest attack in its history. Palestinians inspect the damage of destroyed buildings following Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City.(AP)

And it raised the alarm over "war crimes" being committed as the deadly Israel-Hamas conflict raged into its 21st day as the army said its troops had mounted another brief land incursion into Gaza as it prepares for a ground offensive.

Concern is growing about regional fallout from the conflict, with the United States warning Iran against escalation while striking facilities in Syria it says were used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and others.

Israel has heavily bombarded Gaza since Hamas gunmen stormed across the border on October 7, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, kidnapping over 220 others, according to Israeli officials.

READ | Israel orders complete Gaza siege: Cuts off electricity, food, water or fuel

The health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip says the strikes have now killed 7,326 people, mainly civilians and many of them children.

"People in Gaza are dying, they are not only dying from bombs and strikes, soon many more will die from the consequences of (the) siege," said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).

Israel has cut supplies of food, water and power to Gaza, notably blocking all deliveries of fuel saying it would be exploited by Hamas to manufacture weapons and explosives.

"Basic services are crumbling, medicine is running out, food and water are running out, the streets of Gaza have started overflowing with sewage," Lazzarini said of the overcrowded territory where 45 percent of housing is reported to have been damaged or destroyed.

- War crimes on both sides -

In Geneva, the UN human rights office raised the alarm over war crimes, saying "the atrocious attacks by Hamas... amounted to war crimes" but also pointing to Israel's Gaza bombardment.

"Nowhere is safe in Gaza. Compelling people to evacuate in these circumstances... and while under a complete siege raises serious concerns over forcible transfer, which is a war crime," she said of Israel's order for northern Gaza residents to flee south.

READ | What is a sponge bomb, Israel's new weapon against Hamas?

And a humanitarian catastrophe was unfolding for Gazans who were "being collectively punished" which "is a war crime", she said.

A first tranche of critically needed aid was allowed in at the weekend but since then only 74 trucks have crossed. Before the conflict, the UN says an average of 500 trucks were entering Gaza every day.

"These few trucks are nothing more than crumbs that will not make a difference," Lazzarini said, insisting Gaza needed a "meaningful and uninterrupted aid flow" and a "humanitarian ceasefire to ensure this aid reaches those in need".

His words echoed an EU leaders' call on Thursday for "continued, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access and aid" to those in need via "humanitarian corridors and pauses for humanitarian needs".

Between the bombardments and the fuel shortages, 12 of Gaza's 35 hospitals have been forced to close, and UNRWA said it has had to "significantly reduce its operations".

The agency also said 57 of its staff had been killed since the war began.

- 'Never felt so helpless' -

With tens of thousands of Israeli troops massed along the Gaza border ahead of a widely expected ground offensive, the army said it had staged another brief ground incursion into Gaza, the second in as many days.

"We carried out a ground operation in central Gaza... as part of preparations for the coming stages of the war," army spokesman Daniel Hagari told reporters. The first incursion had targeted northern Gaza.

Hamas' armed wing also said Israeli troops had tried to stage "a large-scale amphibious operation on Rafah's coast" in southern Gaza at dawn but it had been thwarted by their fighters, saying the soldiers had "fled by sea, leaving behind a quantity of weapons".

The Israeli army confirmed the operation, saying troops had struck "Hamas military infrastructure and... a compound" used Hamas militants.

The army also updated to 229 the number of hostages held by Hamas, many of whom hold foreign passports, with their families frantic with anguish over their fate.

"I have never felt such a feeling of helplessness," said 23-year-old Ella Ben Ami whose parents were kidnapped. With recurring nightmares every single night, she says she feels "like the living dead".

"Almost every family has lost someone. Nobody can comprehend that there are so many people that we won't see again," she told AFP as Israeli therapists said they had been overwhelmed by the sheer number of people traumatised by the bloodshed.

- 'Wherever we go, we will die' -

During the day, militants fired rockets towards Tel Aviv, where people could be seen running for cover as sirens wailed, AFP correspondents said. One stuck the city, wounding three people, one moderately and two lightly, medics said.

Despite Israel's call for civilians in northern Gaza to move south for their safety, strikes have continued to hit southern areas, with many saying they could find nowhere to shelter.

"Wherever we go, we will die," said Rahma Saqallah who fled her Gaza City home to go south with her family but decided to turn back after strikes killed her husband and three of her children.

"They told us to leave for the south and then they killed us (here)," she said on leaving the southern town of Khan Yunis to head home with her one remaining child.

Violence has also risen sharply in the occupied West Bank since the October 7 attacks, with more than 100 Palestinians killed and over 1,900 wounded.

Another four Palestinians were killed Friday during Israeli raids in the northern cities of Jenin and Qalqilya, the health ministry said.

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In February, Dilro, an obscure company based in Dubai, bought the Ocean Kapal, an 18-year-old tanker. Since then the Panamanian-flagged vessel has been given a new name, Abundance III, and a new job. In April the ship delivered its first load of Iranian oil to the port of Dongjiakou in northern China. After completing a similar trip in September, it now lingers off Malaysia, where it may pick up yet another Iranian cargo. The ship is one of many to have recently joined the dark fleet tasked with moving Iranian oil , exports of which have surged from 380,000 barrels per day (b/d) in 2020 to 1.4m now (see chart). PREMIUM A general view of Abadan oil refinery in southwest Iran, is pictured from Iraqi side of Shatt al-Arab in Al-Faw south of Basra, Iraq September 21, 2019. (REUTERS File Photo)

Irans smuggling network has become sleeker and more sophisticated since President Donald Trump put in place fresh sanctions in late 2018. The countrys petroleum business is run by the National Iran Oil Company (nioc), a state monopoly. Its main customer is Chinanot the countrys large, state-owned firms, which are exposed to Western sanctions, but teapot refineries that snap up 95% of Iranian supplies. A glut in refining capacity is pushing these outfits to seek the cheapest crude available. Irans trades at a $10-12 discount to the global benchmark, against $5 for Russias as delivered to Chinese ports. The teapots make transactions in Chinese currency, rather than American dollars, which insulates them from sanctions.

Yet following Hamass attack on Israel on October 7th, the Biden administration has come under pressure to shut loopholes, as Iran is Hamass sponsor and oil proceeds fill the countrys coffers. So far traders are unfazed: oil sells at $90 a barrel, down from $97 in September. But could a sanction snapback inflame markets?

Although America retains harsh sanctions that target anyone helping to produce, ship or sell Irans petroleum, the superpowers officials last year eased enforcement. They were hoping to clinch an accord on Irans nuclear programm eand, probably, to suppress prices in the run-up to Americas presidential election. The number of people and firms added to Iran-related blacklists by ofac, Americas enforcement agency, has dwindled.

Old tankers, acquired by little-known middlemen, link the ends of the chain. Most would have gone to scrap because blue-chip charterers do not want them. Of the 102 extra-large tankers that have ferried Iranian oil in 2023, 42 did not do so last year and 27 have no history of ever carrying dodgy oil, according to Kpler, a ship-tracking firm. Often they do only a few voyages a year, for just a few years. But those who buy them see a return fast, because clandestine shipping commands extortionate rates.

Ownership is disguised through shell companies registered in places such as China, Vietnam and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Most of those fingered by Americas Treasury Department have Chinese names, suggesting beneficiaries are from the mainland. Some Chinese lenders also appear on its lists, but most are sacrificial lambs that exist only to import Iranian oil, says Adam Smith of Gibson Dunn, a law firm. Irans government offers insurance.

Iranian barrels often begin their journey at Kharg Island, north of the Strait of Hormuz (pictured). A small but growing number start in Jask, a new port south of the strait. This may become a preferred route, circumventing the crowded Hormuz choke point. Transponders are only turned on when ships go through narrow passages, says Homayoun Falakshahi of Kpler, and tankers rarely do the full journey. Some pick up fuel from other ships off the shores of Fujairah, a mega-terminal in the uae, through which a lot of disreputable petroleum, notably Russian, also passes. Many then transfer loads off the shores of Malaysia or Singapore, where smaller vessels take them to northern Chinaoften after being mixed with other crudes from places like Venezuela or mislabelled as a different petrochemical product. There the oil is stored before being transported to its final destination, most often in the coastal province of Shandong (see map).

Many American lawmakers would like their administration to disrupt the trade. New sanctions are unlikelyexisting ones are already comprehensivebut officials could strengthen enforcement. Would that sink the dark fleet and its enablers?

A number of challenges exist. nioc has no dealings with America or in dollars, so is resistant to pressure. Meanwhile, only Chinas government can hit the teapots, and why would it bother? America would have to squeeze the middlemen. But with so many sanction programmes currently in placethey also target Russia and Venezuelaits capacity is stretched thin. Facilitators are harder to target than under President Trump, when India, South Korea and other countries sensitive to American pressure took part in the trade.

Recent history suggests that companies bashed by America for flouting sanctions rapidly stop doing business, but that others emerge to fill the void. These operators would be all the less deterred given that Iran is blacklisted only by America (in contrast to Russia, whose oil all g7 members have embargoed). The Biden administration could always escalate by seizing Iranian ships en masse at sea, but that would demand huge resources, cause legal headaches and invite retaliation.

Any disruption would thus probably only last for three months or so. Simulations by Rystad Energy, a consultancy, suggest there would be an initial drop of 300,000 b/d in Iranian exports. This lossequivalent to 0.3% of global demandcould push up global oil prices by $4-5.

A more extreme scenario, where rising tensions also mean that shipping is partly disrupted around Hormuz, say, and Gulf states crack down on Iranian helpers, would see another 400,000 b/d of Iranian crude vanish from the market. That would cause a bigger spike in the oil price, of perhaps 10%. But only for a moment.

That is because Irans neighbours could ramp up production. The biggest members of OPEC, an oil-producing cartel, have 5.5m b/d of spare capacity. In theory, Saudi Arabia could plug the Iranian deficit without help. And OPEC would have a strong incentive to intervene: stratospheric oil prices would quickly destroy demand.

As a result, it would take an extraordinary series of events for oil to spend much time in the triple digits. America wants to show toughness towards sanction-evaders. This month, for the first time, it singled out two tanker owners for violating Russian restrictions. It is also relaxing sanctions on Venezuela, perhaps in anticipation of a drop in Iranian exports. Yet all this activity belies a simple fact: Irans supply chains are supple enough to be largely immune to American measures.

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The Australian government has warned its citizens from travelling to Lebanon as the security situation deteriorates amid the neighbouring Israel-Gaza conflict. Australian PM Anthony Albanese (ANI/ X)

"The Australian Government has serious concerns over the volatile security situation in Lebanon and the risk of the situation deteriorating further. Do not travel to Lebanon and if you're an Australian in Lebanon, you should consider leaving via the first available option," Australia Foreign Minister Penny Wong wrote on 'X'.

She said Australians in Lebanon can register via the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) for information updates.

"Australians in need of emergency consular assistance should contact the Australian Government's Consular Emergency Centre at 61 2 6261 3305 (if you're overseas) and 1300 555 135 (in Australia). Visit http://Smartraveller.gov.au/Lebanon and follow @Smartraveller for the latest advice," Wong wrote.

The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) recently launched a drone strike against a Hezbollah cell in southern Lebanon, The Times of Israel reported.

The Hezbollah cell was reportedly getting ready to launch an anti-tank guided missile attack against a border army position in Israel.

The IDF has increased airstrikes against terrorists from Hezbollah who are preparing missile and rocket attacks on northern Israel in recent days.

In the midst of the Gaza Strip conflict, the terror group has so far identified 46 members who were killed by Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon. The IDF has also released video of the most recent attack, The Times of Israel reported.

The Israel Defence Forces had confirmed a day before that another terror cell in Southern Lebanon was struck near the northern community of Zar'it. According to the IDF, a drone strike and artillery bombardment were both directed at the cell.

The head of Lebanon's Hezbollah also met with top leaders of Palestinian terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad on Tuesday, according to the Times of Israel. The Israeli publication posted an image tweeted on social media X to show Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, with Hamas deputy chief Saleh al-Arouri, and Islamic Jihad chief Ziad al-Nakhala.

The screenshot of the tweet published in the daily read, "Among other topics, discussions regarding the appropriate measures that Resistance Axis members must take to reach a definite victory in Gaza and Palestine took place."

The "Axis of Resistance", according to the New York Times report is the term used for a regional network of militias in the alliance of Iran, Palestinian militant groups, Syria, Lebanon's Hezbollah, and other factions.

Since the October 7 attack by Hamas terrorists on Israel from Gaza, Hezbollah has been operating against Israel along Lebanon's border with Israel, firing rockets and anti-tank missiles at Israeli towns and army positions and opening fire at troops on a near-daily basis.

The IDF has responded by striking the terror group's cells and posts in southern Lebanon, the Times of Israel said.

IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said on Wednesday that Iran directly aided Hamas ahead of the October 7 attack on southern Israel.

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The Canadian Government has announced reforms in its process of intake of international students after earlier this year several, mainly from India, were found to have used fake documents to gain admission to the country. This system will be put in place beginning December 1. (File)

At an event in Brampton in the Greater Toronto Area or GTA, Marc Miller, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, announced plans to implement several measures aimed at strengthening Canadas International Student Program and better protecting genuine students from fraud.

The principal among them is that unlike earlier, post-secondary designated learning institutions or DLIs will be required to confirm every applicants letter of acceptance directly with Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada or IRCC. This new, enhanced verification process aims to protect prospective students from letterofacceptance fraud and to help them avoid similar problems that some students faced earlier this year as a result of fraud investigations. It will also ensure that study permits are issued based only on genuine letters of acceptance, a release from IRCC said. This system will be put in place beginning December 1.

Also, starting from the fall 2024 semester, IRCC will adopt a recognized institution framework to benefit post-secondary DLIs that set a higher standard for services, support and outcomes for international students. These DLIs will benefit, for example, from the priority processing of study permits for applicants who plan to attend their school, the statement added.

Through these measures, we are taking action against nefarious actors who have preyed on genuine students for financial gain by identifying every fraudulent letter of acceptance soon after it is submitted, IRCC said.

International students are talented, bright and deserving of a positive experience as they pursue their studies in Canada. We will continue to improve Canadas International Student Program by protecting students and weeding out those who try to take advantage of them, Miller said.

The release also said that IRCC taskforce was formed to work with the Canada Border Services Agency or CBSA to review the cases of students and graduates affected by fake documents. The goal of this review was to prevent genuine students from facing removal from Canada. If found that of the 103 cases reviewed by October 12, 63 were found to be genuine students and 40 were not.

Earlier this year, several ex-students from India, mainly Punjab, faced deportation from Canada as the documents they had used to enter the country were found to be forged. These students arrived in Canada between 2017 and 2019, and in rare instances, in 2020. They started receiving notices from the CBSA in 2021 and last year, for a hearing as the agency concluded the letter of offer of admission to a Canadian higher education institution, which formed the basis of their study permits, was fake. Agents in India used fraudulent documentation to procure study permits for them and they started receiving notices from immigration authorities late last year once these were detected. The majority of the affected students were represented by the agent Brijesh Mishra of the Jalandhar-based counselling firm EMSA Education and Migration Services Australia, but others were also involved.

Mishra, who was found to be in Canada, was taken into custody and charged by authorities in June this year. He remains in a holding facility in Vancouver.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Anirudh Bhattacharyya Anirudh Bhattacharya is a Toronto-based commentator on North American issues, and an author. He has also worked as a journalist in New Delhi and New York spanning print, television and digital media. He tweets as @anirudhb. ...view detail
Hamas said on Friday it was "ready" for an invasion of Gaza as Israel said it was "extending" its ground operation after air strikes cut communications across the shattered Palestinian territory. An Israeli army M109 155mm self-propelled howitzer is deployed at a position along the border with the Gaza Strip near Sderot in southern Israel on October 27, 2023 amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement.(AFP)

"Following the series of strikes of the last days, the ground forces are extending the ground operation tonight," military spokesman Daniel Hagari told reporters after two straight nights of tank incursions into the Gaza Strip.

A top Hamas official said it was "ready" for an Israeli ground invasion.

"If (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu decides to enter Gaza tonight, the resistance is ready," said Ezzat al-Rishaq, a senior member of the Hamas political bureau, on Telegram social media.

"The remains of his soldiers will be swallowed up by the land of Gaza."

Israel's military said it had increased its strikes "in a very significant way", as AFP live footage captured intense bombardment of northern Gaza.

Air strike after air strike lit up the night sky as thick black smoke clouded the horizon.

Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said on its Telegram channel it responded with "salvos of rockets".

Hamas said all internet connections and communications across Gaza had been cut, and accused Israel of taking the measure "to perpetrate massacres with bloody retaliatory strikes from the air, land and sea".

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said ambulance services had been disrupted.

"We have completely lost contact with the operations room in the Gaza Strip and all our teams operating there," it said on X, formerly Twitter.

Hamas called on the world to "act immediately" to stop Israel attacking Gaza.

Israel has heavily bombarded Gaza since Hamas gunmen stormed across the border on October 7, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping over 220 others, according to Israeli officials.

The Hamas-run health ministry said Friday Israeli strikes on Gaza had now killed 7,326 people, mainly civilians and many of them children.

The White House said the United States backs a "humanitarian pause" so aid can get into Gaza.

"We would support humanitarian pauses for stuff getting in, as well as for people getting out, and that includes pushing for fuel to get in and for the restoration of electrical power," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that Gaza faces "an unprecedented avalanche of human suffering" because of the lack of food, water and power during Israeli bombing in response to the October 7 attack.

"I repeat my call for a humanitarian ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages, and the delivery of life-saving supplies," Guterres said in a statement.

"Misery is growing by the minute. Without a fundamental change, the people of Gaza will face an unprecedented avalanche of human suffering."

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees had earlier warned that "many more will die" in Gaza from catastrophic shortages after nearly three weeks of bombardment by Israel.

The UN human rights office also raised the alarm over "war crimes" being committed as the Israel-Hamas conflict raged for a 21st day.

Concern is growing about regional fallout from the conflict, with the United States warning Iran against escalation while striking facilities in Syria it says were used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and others.

Israel's military accused Hamas of using hospitals in Gaza as operations centres for directing attacks, an allegation Hamas swiftly denied.

"Hamas wages war from hospitals," in the territory, Hagari said, and alleged the group was also using fuel stored in these facilities for its operations.

A senior Hamas official said the allegation had "no basis in truth".

War crimes on both sides

Israel has cut supplies of food, water and power to Gaza, notably blocking all deliveries of fuel saying it would be exploited by Hamas to manufacture weapons and explosives.

"People in Gaza are dying, they are not only dying from bombs and strikes, soon many more will die from the consequences of (the) siege," said Philippe Lazzarini, chief of the UN agency for Palestinian refugee (UNRWA).

"Basic services are crumbling, medicine is running out, food and water are running out, the streets of Gaza have started overflowing with sewage," he said of the densely populated territory where 45 percent of housing is reported to have been damaged or destroyed.

In Geneva, the UN human rights office raised the alarm over war crimes, saying "the atrocious attacks by Hamas... amounted to war crimes" but also pointing to Israel's Gaza bombardment.

'Nothing more than crumbs'

A first tranche of critically needed aid was allowed in at the weekend, but since then only 74 trucks have crossed. Before the conflict, the UN says an average of 500 trucks entered Gaza every day.

"These few trucks are nothing more than crumbs that will not make a difference," Lazzarini said, insisting Gaza needed a "meaningful and uninterrupted aid flow" and a "humanitarian ceasefire to ensure this aid reaches those in need".

His words echoed a call from EU leaders on Thursday for "continued, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access and aid".

A first team of six medics from the International Committee of the Red Cross entered Gaza Friday via its Rafah crossing with Egypt, along with six aid trucks, the ICRC said.

Between the bombardments and the fuel shortages, 12 of Gaza's 35 hospitals have been forced to close, and UNRWA said it has had to "significantly reduce its operations".

With tens of thousands of Israeli troops massed along the Gaza border ahead of a widely expected ground offensive, the army said it had staged another brief ground incursion into Gaza on Thursday night, the second in as many days.

Hamas said Israel had also tried to stage "a large-scale amphibious operation" on the coast around the southern town of Rafah but it had been thwarted.

Israel confirmed the dawn operation, saying troops had struck "Hamas military infrastructure and... a compound" used by militants.

Like the living dead

The army also updated to 229 the number of hostages held by Hamas, many of whom hold foreign passports, with their families frantic about their fate.

"I have never felt such a feeling of helplessness," said 23-year-old Ella Ben Ami whose parents were kidnapped. With recurring nightmares every single night, she says she feels "like the living dead".

Militants also fired rockets on Friday towards Tel Aviv. One struck the city, wounding three people, medics said.

Violence has also risen sharply in the occupied West Bank since the October 7 attacks, with more than 100 Palestinians killed and over 1,900 wounded.

Another four Palestinians were killed Friday during Israeli raids in the northern cities of Jenin and Qalqilya, the health ministry said.

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Chinas foreign minister Wang Yi kicked off his Washington DC visit on Thursday by calling for a comprehensive and in-depth dialogue between the US and China to reduce misunderstanding and misjudgment and expand common ground. Secretary of State Antony Blinken shake hands with China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi after a bilateral meeting at the State Department in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. (AP)

For its part, the US State Department has said that Wangs visit is a part of the effort to maintain open lines of communication and responsibly manage US-China ties, while reiterating that US will continue to stand for its interests and values and that of its allies and partners.

Wang was speaking to reporters before a meeting with the Secretary of State Antony J Blinken at the historic State Department building in the US capital. His visit to US comes in the backdrop of enhanced engagement between the two countries at various levels, with multiple American cabinet members, including Blinken, having visited Beijing this year. It is also aimed to setting the stage for a meeting between US President Joe Biden and Chinas president Xi Jinping in November in San Francisco, on the sidelines of the APEC summit, in mid-November.

The Chinese foreign minister is also the director of the Chinese Communist Partys central foreign affairs commission, giving him a dual role in both determining the party line on the relationship with US and an official role in executing it. In a sign of the importance accorded to him, US media reports suggest that President Joe Biden will see Wang when the foreign minister visits White House to meet with US national security advisor Jake Sullivan later on Friday.

In a statement after the Wang-Blinken meeting on Thursday, which continued on Friday, the State Department said, The Secretary and Director and Foreign Minister Wang discussed a range of bilateral, regional, and global issues, including addressing areas of difference as well as exploring areas of cooperation. The Secretary reiterated that the United States will continue to stand up for our interests and values and those of our allies and partners.

But before the meeting, in a sign of the challenges that remain embedded in the US-China competition and the difficult conversations both sides are having, Wang acknowledged that China and the US had disagreements and differences but also shared common interests and challenges they needed to face together.

Therefore, China and the United States need to have dialogue. Not only should we resume dialogue, the dialogue should be in-depth and comprehensive so that with dialogue we can increase mutual understanding, reduce misunderstanding and misjudgment, constantly seek to expand common ground and pursue cooperation that will benefit both sides so that we can stabilize China-US relations and return it to the track of healthy, stable, and sustainable development, the Chinese minister said.

Wang added, in Blinkens presence, that there will be jarring voices in the US-China relationship and when that happened, China treated it calmly because it believed that what was right and wrong was not determined by who had a stronger arm and louder voice but if one behaved in line with past US-China understandings, international law, international norms and the climate of the times.

The US has stepped up its engagement with China this year. But it has also simultaneously pursued a set of competitive actions, from continuing to expand technology export restrictions to China and invest in alliances and partnerships in the Indo-Pacific.

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There were no command to kill any civilians during the invasion across the Israel borders, that is what Hamas spokesperson, who is also the deputy foreign minister in Gaza, Ghazi Hamad, told a BBC correspondent during a sit-down interview. The Hamas official's statement contradicts the ground reality of October 7 attack, in which Hamas fighters paraglided into Israel, ransacked a music festival, slaughtered 260 attendees and maimed several others. Screengrab from the interview of Hamas spokesperson Ghazi Hamad(BBC)

Following that attack, video clips and images have emerged of deadly assault on Israeli citizens who were killed in their beds, leaving bodies drenched in pools of blood to rot.

Defending his statement, Hamad told the correspondent that because the area was very wide there were clashes and confrontation.

The correspondent asserted by saying it was not a confrontation when the fighters invaded houses and killed people when they were sleeping. Hamad said, I can tell you we didn't have any intention or decision to kill the civilians. Not being satisfied with the response, the journalist further asked the Hamas official to justify the killings, to which Hamad fretted and took off the mic from his lapel and chucked it onto the floor while saying I want to stop this interview.

The October 7 attack and subsequent assaults by Hamas taken upto 1,400 lives and more 200 are believed to have taken hostage. In retaliation, Israel has been carrying out several airstrikes and brief raids to prepare the battlefield ahead of widespread ground incursions into Gaza.

According to Palestinian health officials, over 7,000 people in Gaza have been killed since the fighting erupted.

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The war between Israel and the Hamas militant group entered its 21st day after Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, killing at least 1,400 people. According to the latest data, over 8,000 people have been killed from both sides in the war so far, while thousands have been displaced. Reportedly, even greater loss of life could come if Israel launches a ground offensive aimed at crushing Hamas - which has ruled Gaza since 2007.

Israel-Hamas war enters its 21st day
Israel-Hamas war highlights: The Israeli military has been carrying out brief raids across the Gaza border to prepare for battlefield ahead of an expected large-scale ground incursion into the besieged Palestinian enclave. In their second such raid, the Israeli troops engaged with Hamas fighters and targeted anti-tank weapons there. Palestinian civilian seemingly devastated after the barrage of airstrikes on his city(AFP)

Meanwhile, Arab leaders made a joint plea for a ceasefire and allow humanitarian aid into Gaza. Israel has imposed a suffocating seige in the encalve by cutting off the supply of water, electricity and other essentials, ever since Hamas carried out the devastating airstrike followed by its cross-border rampage and hostage-taking. The European Union has also called for humanitarian corridors and pauses in the war.

The Palestinian ambassador to UN pleaded to stop the bombs and save lives, however, Israel reiterated its vow to not rest until Hamas is obliterated.

Israel lost 1,400 lives during Hamas' cross-border raids and over 200 others have been taken hostage. According to Palestinian health officials, over 7,000 people in Gaza have been killed since the fighting erupted.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) on Friday said its fighter jets struck three senior Hamas operatives in the Daraj Tuffah Battalion. The IDF said the battalion's operatives played a significant part in Hamas's attack on Israel. IDF tanks ready for land offensive in Gaza against Hamas terrorists.

A post on the official handle of the Israel Defence Forces on X stated, "IDF fighter jets struck 3 senior Hamas operatives in the Daraj Tuffah Battalion. The battalion's operatives played a significant role in the invasion and murderous attack against Israel on October 7, and is considered to be the most significant brigade of the Hamas terrorist organisation."

Meanwhile, the Israeli Air Forces said the Hamas operatives were eliminated under the precise intelligence guidance of the Israel Security Agency Shin Bet.

"The IDF, under the precise intelligence guidance of the Shin Bet and the Amman, eliminated the commander of the Darj Tafah battalion of the terrorist organization Hamas, Rafat Abbas, his deputy, Ebrahim Jedeva, and the commander of combat and administrative assistance, Tarek Maruf, using fighter jets. All three are terrorists. Veterans of the organization who participated in previous campaigns against Israel," the Israeli Air Force posted from its official handle on X

"The Darj Tafah Battalion is a battalion in the Gaza City Brigade, which is considered the most significant brigade of the terrorist organization Hamas. The battalion's terrorists took a significant part in the murderous massacre on October 7," the Israeli Air Force added in its post.

On Thursday, the IDF said the deputy head of Hamas's intelligence directorate, Shadi Barud, had been killed in an aerial strike.

According to IDF, he was involved in the planning of Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel.

The IDF posted from its X handle, "Shadi Barud, Deputy Head of Hamas' Intelligence Directorate has been eliminated by an IDF aerial strike. He took part in the planning of the October 7 massacre and countless other deadly attacks carried out against Israelis. We will continue to strike and eliminate Hamas leaders and operatives responsible for the barbaric attacks."

Meanwhile, a rocket launched from the Gaza Strip has landed near a highway near Rehovot in central Israel, setting fire to a utility pole. Reports of widespread power outages in the area have emerged.

According to medics, no physical injuries have been caused, The Times of Israel reported.

On Thursday, IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the Israel Defence Forces will continue ground raids into Gaza in the coming days to prepare for the next stages in the ongoing conflict against Hamas, according to CNN.

Hagari noted that the aim of Israel's ground operations is to kill Hamas terrorists, lay the foundations for an all-out invasion and neutralise explosive devices and reconnaissance posts, CNN reported.

His remarks come after the IDF conducted a "targeted raid" overnight in northern Gaza using tanks.

He said the IDF continues to conduct strikes against Gaza from air and sea, and is focusing on killing senior Hamas commanders and the infrastructure of Hamas.

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ISRAELI SOLDIERS near the border with Gaza were surprised on October 24th to see a familiar figure visiting the kibbutzim devastated by Hamass attack. Arye Deri, the leader of Shas, an ultra-Orthodox party which is one of the largest in the coalition of Binyamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, also visited military units preparing for war in Gaza. A day earlier, Mr Deri had angered Israels military chiefs when he leaked the details of a meeting with his party members in which he had said the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) were not ready. PREMIUM War is politics by other means, and this war is increasingly politicised.

Read more on the war between Israel and Hamas.

Mr Deri has no official role in government, nor does he have any significant military experience. Yet the prime minister has invited him in an unofficial capacity to some of the meetings of the war cabinet. His qualification is that he is an important political ally of Mr Netanyahu.

War is politics by other means, and this war is increasingly politicised. While the polls show broad backing among Israelis for the ground offensive in Gaza, they also show support for Mr Netanyahu has plummeted. Some 40% of voters who supported his Likud party less than a year ago now say they would vote for someone else. Calls are growing for a national commission of enquiry to be held once the conflict has ended.

On October 25th Israeli officials said they had agreed to delay the invasion of Gaza to allow America to shore up its air defences in the region. But Mr Netanyahu is under increasing pressure from his hard-right base to prove his readiness to destroy Hamas. The prime ministers proxies have been briefing journalists that the IDF is not fully prepared for the ground campaign and that, instead of jeopardising the lives of Israeli soldiers with a rapid invasion, as Israels generals suggest, even more devastating air strikes are needed to destroy Hamass network of tunnels. This has led to angry responses from the IDF that it is, in fact, ready. It has also prompted uglyand accurateheadlines in the Israeli media about the discord in the war cabinet between Mr Netanyahu and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant.

Divisions within this government are not new. In March Mr Netanyahu tried to fire Mr Gallant after he publicly criticised the governments plan to weaken the powers of the Supreme Court. The prime minister was forced to retreat in the face of massive public protests. But the growing distrust between the two since then is now hampering Israels war planning. The establishment of a unity government with leaders of one of the opposition parties, Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkotboth of whom are former IDF chiefs of staff and also part of the war cabinethas failed to bring about any actual unity.

Mr Netanyahus relationship with Israels generals has long been tense. That tension has been heightened by their responses to Hamass attack on October 7th. The IDF and the intelligence community were severely hit by their failure to detect and prevent the Hamas attack, says a senior defence official. But theyve got back on their feet and are now just waiting for a clear idea from the government [about] what to do. By contrast Israels politicians, and its prime minister in particular, still seem to be floundering.

The armys chief of staff, Lieutenant-General Herzi Halevi, has already publicly acknowledged the failure of October 7th, as have Ronen Bar, the director of Shin Bet, Israels security service, and the chief of the military intelligence branch, Major General Aharon Haliva. All are expected to resign once the war is over. The prime minister, though, has not accepted any such responsibility, beyond saying vaguely on October 25th that only after the war would questions be asked of me as well.

There are many who shoulder the blame for thinking that Hamas wouldnt dare do something like this, says one Knesset member from Mr Netanyahus coalition. Obviously Bibi is more to blame than all the others but dont wait for him to say so. Instead, when he has not been in meetings with his war cabinet or welcoming foreign leaders, Mr Netanyahu has spent most of his time in recent days huddled with his political advisers and briefing journalists. He has also assembled a shadow cabinet of former generals and security officials to second-guess Mr Gallant and the IDFs generals.

The prime minister is not the only one focused on politicking. The coalition of far-right and ultra-religious parties that backs Mr Netanyahu knows it may not last long: public anger and another election could sweep them away. But they are anxious to cling on for as long as possibleand to make the most of their power. Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister and leader of Jewish Power, a far-right party, has made a show of handing weapons to civilians, ostensibly to prevent further terrorist attacks. But he has been trying to stoke tensions between Israeli Jews and Arab-Israelis. For now, at least, he has had no success. (He was pointedly not included in the war cabinet.) Other coalition partners have blocked efforts to get cash to help the thousands of Israeli families uprooted by the war, because they worry the money will be diverted from funding the special interests of their own communities.

All the talk is of the next stage of the fighting in Gaza, not what follows it. Israels security establishment would prefer to see the Palestinian Authority, which was ousted from Gaza by Hamas in a bloody coup in 2007, return and take control of the area. But one senior official admits that no planning is being done on that front. For over a decade, Mr Netanyahu has isolated and neglected Gaza, believing it could safely be left to fester. The attack on October 7th demonstrated how tragically that policy has failed. His politicising of the war now, and his reluctance to plan for the future, could cost Israel even more.

 2023, The Economist Newspaper Limited. All rights reserved. From The Economist, published under licence. The original content can be found on www.economist.com
Another bombshell report is set to take British Royals on the edge with new revelations bringing to light the purported reason behind uneasy relations between King Charles and Prince Harry and Meghan Mark. A new report by Byline Times has revealed that royal family rift was triggered by an alleged cash for leaks scam. Further stating that Royal family was benefiting from slanderous stories against Meghan Markle. Report reveals rift between Prince Harry-Meghan Markle and King Charles over security and funding(AP)

Meghan & Harry made better headlines

The report cites a source claiming King Charles was worried about Harry and Meghan overshadowing him and the rest of the family in the media. "The greater truth is that Harry and Meghan make better headlines than the King and Camilla or William and Kate. The idea of them still being in public service but abroad and out of the control of the institution and dominating the media narrative just couldn't happen," the article reads.

The report further states that Charles had two options, either to let The Sussexes maintain a low profile in Britain or cast them away as comprehensively as possible in order to reduce the threat of them eclipsing the rest of the family, says the outlet insider.

The insider quoted in the report also says that Charles was annoyed by Harrys legal actions against the tabloids, which could expose some of the palaces dealings with the press.

Charles withdrew 700,000 funding from Meghan and Harry

Another big revelation suggests, King Charles withdrew 700,000 funding from Meghan and Harry and pushed them for a trial year in Canada. This came after royal cash-for-leaks scandal sparked by journalist Dan Wootton exploded. Byline also claims, that a partner of a key aide to Prince William received 4,000 from The Sun for stories concerning the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

The Byline further adds, these allegations have come to light through anonymous emails, purportedly sent by administrative personnel within the Murdoch newspaper empire, revealing payments related to stories about Archie's nannying arrangements and the infamous 'Megxit' narrative of January 2020.

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The Metropolitan Police delved into the leakage allegations but hit a wall, unable to secure a warrant to search royal staff properties without the whistleblowers' identities. This led to Prince Harry issuing formal 'letters before action' to News UK, detailing the claims about Wootton and the palace. The Royal family wasn't comfortable with Harry suing the tabloids.

Initially, the royal household anticipated that the threat of exposure would compel Harry and Meghan to return to the UK, thereby ensuring a controlled profile that wouldn't overshadow the future King. However, the financial cut-off and the resultant legal imbroglio instead deepened the fissures within the Royal Family.

This report has confirmed what Duke and Duchess of Susexx said in their Netflix docuseries and his book The Spare, that they were targeted by the royal family and the press.
Emboldened by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus statement linking Indian agents to the killing of pro-Khalistan figure Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the secessionist group Sikhs for Justice or SFJ is planning an ambitious series of the so-called Khalistan Referendum across Canada next year, to follow the next phase on October 29 in Surrey, British Columbia. HT Image

While the intention is not stated explicitly, the process will continue into 2025 when the next Federal elections in Canada are expected, so as to potentially influence those polls, particularly in the seat-rich Greater Toronto Area or GTA or Metro Vancouver regions.

The October 29 phase will be held at the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia, which was headed by Nijjar till he was killed on June 18. In fact, posters for the referendum have called the venue the Shaheed Nijjar Voting Centre.

SFJ is expecting a high turnout after the community felt empowered due to Trudeaus statement. Now they are more vocal, and they will be coming in the thousands in Surrey and in the future Khalistani voting centres, SFJs general counsel Gurpatwant Pannun told the agency Canadian Press. The report cited Pannun as saying while many supporters of the Khalistani movement had been reluctant to voice their opinions over fear of being labelled a terrorist, they have confidence to speak out after Trudeaus statement.

Separately in an emailed response to the Hindustan Times, he said, PM Trudeaus 18th September statement in the Parliament is Canadas Referendum on SFJs question Do you agree India is behind the Assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar?

He also said there were plans for multiple phases of voting in Canada, with several outside the traditional bases in the provinces of Ontario and BC. Those cities listed for 2024 are Calgary and Edmonton in province of Alberta, Montreal in Quebec, as well as Abbotsford in BC.

Voting is expected to be completed in 2025, and ballots for the non-binding referendum tallied later that year. Canadas Federal elections are scheduled for September 2025.

Speaking in the House of Commons on September 18, Trudeau cited credible allegations of a potential link between Indian agents and Nijjars murder.

Both countries expelled a diplomat each. Last week, 41 Canadian diplomats were pulled from India after New Delhi said they would lose diplomatic immunity if they remained in station beyond Friday. Canada described it as the mass expulsion of its diplomats. India has argued it wanted parity in the number of diplomats. India also just resumed issuing visas to Canadians in some categories on Thursday after suspending the process on September 21.

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The U.S. on Friday issued a second round of sanctions on the Palestinian group Hamas following its attack this month on Israeli communities, including by targeting a Hamas official in Iran and members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Palestinian militants from Hamas ride on a truck with their weapons(AP File)

The U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement the measures targeted additional assets in a Hamas investment portfolio and people facilitating sanctions evasion by Hamas-affiliated companies.

A Gaza-based entity that Treasury said has served as a conduit for illicit Iranian funds to Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) group was also targeted, the department said. Iran backs Hamas and other militant groups in the Middle East.

"Todays action underscores the United States commitment to dismantling Hamass funding networks by deploying our counterterrorism sanctions authorities and working with our global partners to deny Hamas the ability to exploit the international financial system, Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said in the release.

READ | Hamas gave no command to kill, says official; fails to explain Oct 7 carnage, ditches interview

We will not hesitate to take action to further degrade Hamass ability to commit horrific terrorist attacks by relentlessly targeting its financial activities and streams of funding.

Israel has bombarded the densely populated Gaza Strip following the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on communities in southern Israel.

Israel says Hamas killed some 1,400 people including children, and took more than 200 hostages, some of them infants, in the assault.

The Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry said on Thursday that 7,028 Palestinians had been killed in Israel's retaliatory air strikes, including 2,913 children.

Reuters could not independently verify the tolls.

READ | Designate Hamas as terrorist outfit in India, Israeli envoy says its time'

Friday's action freezes any U.S. assets of those targeted and generally bars Americans from dealing with them. Those that engage in certain transactions with them also risk being hit with sanctions.

The Treasury said it imposed sanctions on a Jordanian national who lives in the Iranian capital, Tehran, and who it said serves as the representative of Hamas in Iran, as well as Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force (IRGC-QF) officials who train and assist members of Hamas and other militant groups.

An Iran-based commander of the Saberin Special Forces Brigade of the IRGC Ground Force was also targeted. The U.S. Treasury said the Saberin Brigade has deployed to Syria and has provided training to Hamas and members of the Lebanon-based Hezbollah.

Sudan and Spain-based companies were also targeted under Friday's measures, as were Turkey-based shareholders of a company previously designated as part of the Hamas investment portfolio.

The United States has said that the Hamas portfolio of investments, estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, includes companies operating in Turkey, as well as Sudan, Algeria, the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere.

This month's violence has led to fears of a broader conflict in the Middle East.

The U.S. military on Thursday carried out strikes against two facilities in eastern Syria used by Iran's Revolutionary Guards and groups it backs, the Pentagon said, in response to a spate of attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria.

As tension soars over the Israel-Hamas conflict, U.S. and allied troops have been attacked at least 12 times in Iraq and four times in Syria by Iran-backed forces.
A Palestinian American mother who lost her 6-year-old son in Illinois in a brutal hate crime amid the Israel-Hamas war earlier this month spoke out for the first time on Wednesday. She called for justice and peace in her first public comments since the tragedy. Hanaan Shahin, 32, said her son, Wadea Al-Fayoume, was an angel who was killed by their landlord, Joseph Czuba(Facebook/Hanaan Shahin)

Hanaan Shahin, 32, said her son, Wadea Al-Fayoume, was an angel who was killed by their landlord, Joseph Czuba, on Oct. 14. She also said she was stabbed more than a dozen times by Czuba, who allegedly yelled, You Muslims must die! before attacking them with a 12-inch military-style knife.

I need justice, Shahin told ABC News.

How can you live without justice? And how you will be in peace without justice?

ALSO READ| Illinois Muslim boy murder fallout: Probable ISIS terrorists kill 2 in Brussels

Shahin hired civil rights attorney Ben Crump to represent her. She also asked for prayers for peace from the public.

Pray for peace, Shahin said.

We need many, many prayers for peace. You know, and then God will give us peace. We need to pray for peace.

According to the Will County Sheriffs Office, Czuba targeted Shahin and her son because they were Muslim and because of the ongoing Middle Eastern conflict involving Hamas and Israel.

Detectives were able to determine that both victims in this brutal attack were targeted by the suspect due to them being Muslim and the ongoing Middle Eastern conflict involving Hamas and the Israelis, the sheriffs office said in a statement.

The Department of Justice has also launched a federal investigation into Al-Fayoumes death.

Shahin and her son had been living on the ground floor of Czubas home for about two years, the Council on American-Islamic Relations Chicago chapter (CAIR-Chicago) said.

The group condemned the violence as the worst nightmare of the Muslim community, which has seen a rise in hate crimes after the war between Hamas and Israel.

ALSO READ| The 6-year-old Illinois victim trying to hug his murderer before being slashed for 26 times

The group said Czuba had been angry with what he was seeing in the news and attacked Shahin and her son, whom he had a good relationship with before, according to the boys father.

Czuba was arrested at the scene and taken to a hospital for a cut on his forehead, police said. He faces charges of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, two hate crime counts, and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.

Czuba is currently in custody at Will Countys Adult Detention facility.

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David Velasco, the eminent editor-in-chief at Artforum, was fired on Thursday following a public outcry over an open letter posted by the magazine's staff concerning the Israel-Hamas conflict, as reported by The New York Times. The letter, undersigned by thousands including Velasco, voiced support for Palestinian liberation and critiqued cultural institutions for their silence on Israeli airstrikes in Gaza and was published on Artform. Initially, the letter overlooked the surprise attack by Hamas on October 7, which claimed over 1,400 Israeli lives, a detail amended post backlash from readers and advertisers. NEW YORK, NEW YORK - OCTOBER 26: Supporters of Palestine hold a rally in New York's financial district as the fighting continues in Gaza on October 26, 2023. Spencer Platt/Getty Images/AFP (Photo by SPENCER PLATT / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)(Getty Images via AFP)

Who is David Velasco

Velasco, who joined Artforum in 2005 and assumed the editor-in-chief role in 2017, expressed disappointment over his termination, citing the magazine's longstanding commitment to free speech and artist representation. He remarked, "I'm disappointed that a magazine that has always stood for freedom of speech and the voices of artists has bent to outside pressure," according to The New York Times.

Pro-Palestine open letter published on Artforum

The letter, dated October 19, although clarified later as a reflection of individual signatories' views and not Artforum's, drew sharp criticism from the art community. Several campaigns emerged on WhatsApp, urging advertisers to sever ties with the magazine. Silence at this urgent time of crisis and escalating genocide is not a politically neutral position. Over the last few years there have been significant steps to institutionally address social justice and inequality, the letter read.

Prominent curator and collector, Michael Phillips Moskowitz labeled the move a "complete betrayal of their readers." Some artists retracted their endorsements, although many continued to support the cause, advocating for peace and freedom of speech.

Artforum's publishers, Danielle McConnell and Kate Koza, criticized the letter's posting as inconsistent with the magazine's editorial norms, expressing regret over the misconceptions it birthed regarding the magazine's stance on the geopolitical issue.

Reaction to Velasco's dismissal

Velasco's dismissal comes as a shock to many, especially after successfully navigating the magazine through a sexual harassment lawsuit against its former publisher, Knight Landesman, and reinstating its revered status in the art realm. Prior to his termination, numerous artists lauded Velasco's bold and uncompromising vision for Artforum in a letter to Jay Penske of Penske Media Corporation, the recent acquirer of Artforum, underscoring the critical need for his leadership amid the prevailing tumult in the art and political landscape.

A report by Interceptor claims, Martin Eisenberg, a high-profile collector and inheritor of the now-bankrupt Bed Bath & Beyond fortune, lobbied with famous art world figures. Eisenberg, who owns millions of dollars worth of work by Artforum contacted at least four artists whose work he owns. A few days later Velasco was summoned by Artforum CEO and fired.

(Several portions of this letter were generated using AI tools)

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A Minnesota congressman, Dean Phillips, has decided to run for president in 2024 and challenge President Joe Biden in the Democratic primary. Minnesota congressman Dean Phillips to challenge President Biden in Democratic primary for 2024 election.(Reuters/AFP)

Phillips, 54, said he was motivated by Bidens low approval ratings and poor performance against possible Republican opponents.

Phillips told CBS News on Thursday that he respects Bidens work for the country, but he thinks the election is about the future.

I think President Biden has done a spectacular job for our country, but its not about the past. This is an election about the future, Phillips said.

I will not sit still, I will not be quiet in the face of numbers that are so clearly saying that were going to be facing an emergency next November.

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The Minnesota congressman launched his presidential campaign website and X account on Thursday, asking for donations from his supporters. He also posted a message on X, saying that he has been listening to the people and he knows they are struggling.

The economy is not working for everybody. We are concerned about chaos at our border and crime in our communities. Were going to do better and were going to do it together! he wrote.

Phillips also appeared in New Hampshire earlier this week with a campaign bus that had the slogans, Make America Affordable Again and Everyones Invited!

He is expected to officially announce his bid for the White House on Friday in Concord, NH, where he will file to run in the states Democratic primary, CNN reported.

Biden is not planning to be on the ballot in New Hampshires primary, which could give Phillips an advantage. The Democratic National Committee has changed the primary schedule, making South Carolina the first contest on Feb. 3, 2024.

Phillips has been a loyal supporter of Bidens policies in Congress, but he resigned from the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee earlier this month, apparently to prepare for his run.

Phillips has previously said that Biden should not seek a second term, telling CBS Face the Nation in August that Democrats are telling me that they want, not a coronation, but they want a competition.

If we dont heed that call, shame on us, Phillips added.

And the consequences, I believe, are going to be disastrous. So, my call is to those who are well-positioned, well-prepared, of good character and competency, they know who they are, to jump in because Democrats and the country need competition. It makes everything better. Thats my call to them right now.

ALSO READ| How can you live without justice? Injured mother of Palestinian boy who was killed in hate crime speaks out

Bidens popularity has been declining in recent polls by Quinnipiac University and CNBC, which showed his job disapproval rating at 56% and 58%, respectively, among US adults.

A CNN/SSRS poll taken in late August also found that 67% of registered Democrats and Democrat-leaners think the party should nominate a different candidate for president in 2024.

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Ivanka Trump must take the witness stand in the civil fraud case against her father, her brothers and their family business, a judge ruled Friday. White House senior adviser Ivanka Trump speaks during a campaign event for US President Donald Trump.(Reuters/ File Photo)

The ruling came weeks into the trial of New York Attorney General Letitia James lawsuit against former President Donald Trump, sons Don Jr. and Eric, the Trump Organization and some executives.

After Ivanka Trump was dismissed as a defendant months ago, defense attorneys and her lawyer contended that she shouldn't have to testify, noting that she moved out of New York and left her Trump Organization job in 2017. The state's lawyers argued that the former Trump Organization executive vice president has relevant information.

Judge Arthur Engoron sided with the state, citing documents showing that Ivanka Trump continued to have ties to some businesses in New York and still owns Manhattan apartments.

Ms. Trump has clearly availed herself of the privilege of doing business in New York, Engoron said. He said her testimony wouldn't be scheduled before Nov. 1, to give her lawyers time to appeal.

James' lawsuit accuses the former president of overstating his wealth for years on financial statements that were given to banks, insurers and others to help secure loans and deals.

The defendants deny the allegations. Donald Trump, the current Republican 2024 presidential front-runner, has called the trial a politically motivated sham." James is a Democrat.

The ex-president and his sons are expected to testify at some point. In a surprise preview, the elder Trump ended up briefly on the witness stand Wednesday to answer Engoron's questions about an out-of-court comment.

Ivanka Trump's lawyer, Bennet Moskowitz, had told the judge Friday that state lawyers "just dont have jurisdiction over her."

A state appeals court in June tossed the claims against her as too old. Ivanka Trump announced in January 2017, ahead of her father's inauguration, that she was stepping away from her Trump Organization job. She soon became an unpaid senior adviser in the Trump White House. After her father's term ended, she moved to Florida.

The idea that somehow Ms. Trump is under the control of the Trump Organization or any of the defendants, her father -- anyone who has raised a daughter past the age of 13 knows that theyre not under their control, said Christopher Kise, a lawyer for the ex-president.

Kise maintained that state lawyers just want another free-for-all on another of President Trumps children.

State lawyers, however, argued that Ivanka Trump was a key participant in some events discussed in the case and remains financially and professionally intertwined with the family business and its leaders.

She is 100% someone who can come in and testify, said Kevin Wallace, a lawyer for the attorney general's office.

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Susan Collins, a Republican senator from Maine, is under fire for her past votes against gun control measures after a deadly mass shooting in her state. Worst mass shooting in Maine's history sparks criticism of Collins(AFP, AP)

The shooting, which occurred at a bowling alley and restaurant in Lewiston on Wednesday, killed 18 people and wounded more than a dozen others. It was the worst mass shooting in Maines history.

Collins described the shootings in Lewiston as a "heinous attack" that has claimed the lives of at least 18 Mainers and left numerous others injured."

"Today is a dark day for the state of Maine."

Collins also characterized it as the "worst mass shooting" in the state's history.

The 70-year-old expressed her condolences to the victims and their families in a statement, and said she received a call from President Joe Biden offering assistance.

As our state mourns this horrific mass shooting, we appreciate the support weve received from across the country, including the call I received from President Biden offering assistance, she said.

However, many people on social media slammed Collins for her role in blocking stronger gun laws in the Senate.

You helped make this happen, one user wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Vote for sensible gun laws, another user urged.

#BanAssaultWeaponsNow trend is going viral hour by hour.

According to Vote Smart, a nonpartisan non-profit that tracks candidates voting records, Collins has voted against several Senate amendments on gun control in her 26-year career as senator.

In 2013, she voted no on two amendments that would have banned assault weapons and limited high-capacity magazines. In 2009, she voted yes on two amendments that would have allowed loaded guns in national parks and concealed carry of firearms across state lines.

ALSO READ| 'Easier to buy AR-15 than Sudafed,' Maine mass shooting reignites gun control debate

The Republican senator from Maine has also received funding and support from the National Rifle Association (NRA), the powerful gun rights lobby group. She had a B rating from the NRA as of May 2022, according to the New York Times. She has received $18,000 from the NRA for her campaigns.

Collins was one of 15 Republicans who voted for the 2022 bipartisan gun bill, which was the first major gun legislation passed by Congress in nearly 30 years. The bill expanded background checks for gun buyers under 21 and strengthened laws against gun trafficking, among other provisions.

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Amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, there has been polarisation in the views of people across the world. Some have supported Israel's offensive against Hamas in Gaza, after the terrorist group attacked Southern Israel on October 7. In a display of barbarianism and no respect for human life, the terrorists had killed innocent civilians, raped women and beheaded children. But despite Hamas' actions, some people have been siding with the Palestinians. Massachusetts' Wellesley College(YouTube/@WellesleyCollege)

According to a report by Fox News, Massachusetts' Wellesley College, a private liberal arts school for women has joined the list of institutions in the US where anti-Semitic incidents have taken place. Recently, some resident advisers reportedly sent an anti-Israel email to students.

The report highlights that students who live at Munger Hall, received email condemning Israel's actions against Hamas. The email talked about how there "should be no space, no consideration, and no support for Zionism within the Wellesley College community."

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"As of October 18th, 2023, the Palestinian-Israeli war has cost the lives of some 3,478 Palestinians and wounded 12,000. Israels apartheid against Palestinians, characterized by the displacement of 600,000 individuals, the dissemination of genocidal rhetoric by the Israeli government, and the illegal occupation of native Palestinian lands, have left our hearts heavy," the email stated.

"With all historical, political, and territorial aspects considered, Israels zionist government needs to be condemned. Furthermore, individuals who endorse the forced removal of Palestinians should be recognized as supporters of colonization," read the email further.

"Munger Hall stands in strong condemnation of Israel's actions and those who have supported their actions against Palestinians. We firmly believe that there should be no space, no consideration, and no support for Zionism within the Wellesley College community," the email added.

In the email, the residence hall leaders also urged the students to seek help in case they were facing any issues during the ongoing scenario.

"We care about each and every one of you, and please feel free to reach out with any ideas of how we can best support you during these difficult times," read the email.

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Minnesota Congressman and businessman Dean Phillips has launched a long-shot primary challenge against President Joe Biden on Friday. In a recent interview, Phillips announced that he will be running for president and launched his 2024 campaign in New Hampshire, as per CBS News. The 54-year-old Democrat said that although he admires Biden, who he believes has done a spectacular job, it is time for the new generation to lead the party. But it's not about the past. This is an election about the future, Phillips said. FILE PHOTO: Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) with the Problem Solvers Caucus and other members, speaks at a news conference on the forthcoming passage of the bipartisan emergency COVID-19 relief bill in Washington, D.C., U.S., December 21, 2020. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno/File Photo(REUTERS)

On Friday morning, the three-term Democratic lawmaker explained his motive behind the presidential bid in a lengthy post on X, formerly Twitter. He wrote, I am running for President as a Democrat in 2024. My campaign will be about four main things. He continued, I didnt set out to enter this race. But it looks like on our current course, the Democrats will lose and Trump will be our president again. He added, President Biden is a good man and someone I tremendously respect. I understand why other Democrats dont want to run against him, and why we are here. This is a last-minute campaign, but desperate times call for desperate measures, and courage is an important value to me.

ALSO READ: Ivanka Trump ordered to testify in Donald Trump's ongoing civil fraud trial

Who is Dean Phillips?

Dean Benson Phillips is an American businessman and congressman who was first elected in 2018. He has served as the U.S. representative from Minnesota's 3rd congressional district since 2019. Phillips is the first Democrat to claim the seat since 1958, who serves on the Small Business and Foreign Affairs committees. The 54-year-old lawmaker's district encompasses the western suburbs of the Twin Cities, such as Bloomington, Minnetonka, Edina, Maple Grove, Plymouth, and Eden Prairie.

The Minnesota native attended Brown University and the University of Minnesotas Carlson School of Business. His father, Artie Pfefer, died in the Vietnam War when Phillips was only 6 months old while his mother, DeeDee Cohen remarried Eddie Phillips, a businessman famous for establishing the luxury vodka spirits category. After he graduated, he became the president and CEO of his family's distilling business- Phillips Distilling Company. The Democrat is married to Annalise Glick, a businesswoman, who shares two children with him.

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President Joe Biden met Friday with Chinas top diplomat, a conversation thats viewed as the precursor to a potential sit-down with Chinese President Xi Jinping next month. US President Joe Biden(REUTERS)

The encounter with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was the latest in a series of high-level contacts between the two countries as they explore the possibility of stabilizing an increasingly tense relationship at a time of conflict in Ukraine and Israel.

The White House said Biden emphasized that both the United States and China need to manage competition in the relationship responsibly and maintain open lines of communication, and he underscored that the United States and China must work together to address global challenges.

Biden and Wang met in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan were also present, according to administration spokesman John Kirby.

Kirby said Biden viewed the meeting as a positive development, and a good opportunity to keep the conversation going.

Biden had been widely expected to talk with Wang, a reciprocal action after Xi met with Blinken in June.

Beijing has yet to confirm if Xi will travel to San Francisco for the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit next month. But Biden has said a meeting between the two leaders on the sidelines was possible.

Kirby said Biden fully expects to meet again with Xi, and we're confident that's going to happen.

Wang is in the midst of a three-day visit to Washington, where he's been meeting with top U.S. officials. He sat down with Blinken on Friday morning for the second time during his trip.

On Thursday, after their initial meeting, the Chinese side said "the two sides had an in-depth exchange of views on China-U.S. relations and issues of common concern in a constructive atmosphere.

In its readout, the U.S. State Department said the two men addressed areas of difference and areas of cooperation, while Blinken reiterated that the United States will continue to stand up for our interests and values and those of our allies and partners.

Wang said before Thursday's meeting that China's goal was to push the relationship as soon as possible back to the track of healthy, stable and sustainable development."

U.S. officials have said they would press Wang on the importance of China stepping up its role on the world stage if it wants to be considered a responsible major international player. The U.S. has been disappointed with China over its support for Russia in the war against Ukraine and its relative silence on the war between Israel and Hamas.

China should use whatever ability it has as an influential power to urge calm" in the Middle East, said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller. We know China has relationships with a number of countries in the region, and we would urge them to use those relationships, the lines of communication they have, to urge calm and stability.

U.S. officials believe the Chinese have considerable leverage with Iran, which is a major backer of Hamas.

Wang has come to Washington at a time when tensions between the two countries remain high, including over U.S. export controls on advanced technology and China's more assertive actions in the East and South China seas.

On Thursday, the U.S. military released a video of a Chinese fighter jet flying within 10 feet (three meters) of an American B-52 bomber over the South China Sea, nearly causing an accident. Earlier this month, the Pentagon released footage of some of the more than 180 intercepts of U.S. warplanes by Chinese aircraft that occurred in the last two years, part of a trend U.S. military officials call concerning.

The U.S. also has renewed a warning that it would defend the Philippines in case of an armed attack under a security pact, after Chinese ships blocked and collided with two Filipino vessels off a contested shoal in the South China Sea.

Beijing has released its own video of close encounters in the region, including what it described as footage of the USS Ralph Johnson making a sharp turn and crossing in front of the bow of a Chinese navy ship. The U.S. destroyer also was captured sailing between two Chinese ships.

Senior Col. Wu Qian, the spokesman of the Chinese defense ministry, said the videos showed that the U.S. is the real provocateur, risk taker and spoiler."

The Pentagon rejected China's characterization of the USS Ralph Johnson's movements, saying the video includes only cropped segments of a 90-minute interaction. The ship complied with international law and operated in a lawful, safe and resolute manner," the Pentagon said.

During his visit to Washington, Wang also is expected to discuss Taiwan, a self-governed island that Beijing considers to be part of Chinese territory. Beijing vows to seize it by force if necessary, but Washington, which has a security pact with Taiwan, opposes the use of force.

Neither side has confirmed whether Biden and Xi will meet next month on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders gathering in San Francisco. But Wang's trip indicates the likelihood is extremely high, said Scott Kennedy, senior adviser and trustee chair in Chinese business and economics at the Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies.

His visit is most likely about nailing down the agenda and negotiating potential deliverables, Kennedy said.

The Chinese president last came to the U.S. in 2017, when former President Donald Trump hosted him at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Biden, who took office in 2021, has yet to host Xi on U.S. soil. The two men last met in Bali, Indonesia, in November 2022, on the sidelines of the Group of 20 meeting of leading rich and developing nations.

The U.S.-China relationship began to sour in 2018 when the Trump administration slapped hefty tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods. It deteriorated further over a range of issues, including rights abuses, the South China Sea, Taiwan, technology and the COVID-19 pandemic.
The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday said that the United States was imposing sanctions on eight individuals for their ties with Palestine's Hamas, which launched an attack on Israel on October 7. Palestinians inspect the damage of destroyed buildings following Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City. (AP Photo)

Posting on X, Blinken said that these people played key roles in enabling Hamas-affiliated companies to evade sanctions.

The US also imposed sanctions on four entities with connections to Hamas or other designated terrorist organisations.

He said, We are imposing sanctions on eight individuals with ties to Hamas, including those who have played key roles in facilitating sanctions evasion by Hamas-affiliated companies, as well as sanctioning four entities for their ties to Hamas & other designated terrorist organizations.

On October 7, Hamas infiltrated Israel using trucks and motorgliders and killed and abducted civilians and Israeli soldiers. In retaliation, Israel launched severe attacks on the Gaza Strip, which hosts Hamas and is home to 2.2 million Palestinians. Till Friday, the 21st day since the war began, over 9,000 people have died in Gaza and Israel.

Blinken has visited Israel twice since the war began. The US has condemned Hamas' attack on Israel and has also urged for humanitarian aid to be allowed in the Gaza Strip, which has been significantly affected due to Israeli strikes and as electricity, fuel and water were cut off from the strip.

The US Department of State on its website says, The United States unequivocally condemns the appalling attacks by Hamas terrorists against Israel, including civilians and civilian communities. There is never any justification for terrorism. We stand in solidarity with the government and people of Israel, and extend our condolences for the Israeli lives lost in these attacks. We will remain in close contact with our Israeli partners. The United States supports Israels right to defend itself.

In a message to Palestine, the US said, We see you, we grieve with you, and we mourn every loss of innocent life. Civilians are not to blame and should not suffer for Hamas's horrific terrorism.

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American forces shot down an attack drone on Friday near a base where the country's troops are deployed in western Iraq, a US defense official said. A soldier of the US army wears the country's flag on his uniform.(AFP)

The attempted drone attack came after the United States struck two military facilities in eastern Syria used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and affiliated groups, which Washington says are behind a spike in attacks targeting American forces in the region.

"US forces engaged a one-way attack drone a few kilometers from Al-Assad Air Base, Iraq, and successfully shot it down without further incident," the US defense official told AFP.

A group calling itself the Islamic Resistance in Iraq -- which has claimed many of the recent attacks on US and allied forces in Iraq and Syria -- said it carried out a drone attack targeting the base.

The US official also said there was a "multi-rocket attack" in Syria on Thursday against American and other forces from the international coalition against the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group.

"There were no casualties or damage to infrastructure," the official said.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced the American strikes on the two Iran-linked facilities in Syria on Thursday night, saying they were "a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against US personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups."

American forces in the Middle East are facing a surge in attacks linked to the war between Israel and Hamas, which began when the militant group carried out a shock cross-border attack from Gaza on October 7 that Israeli officials say killed more than 1,400 people.

Israel's retaliatory bombardment has killed more than 7,300 people, according to the Gaza health ministry -- deaths that have sparked widespread anger across the Middle East.

There are roughly 2,500 American troops in Iraq and some 900 in Syria as part of efforts to prevent a resurgence of IS, which once held significant territory in both countries but was pushed back by local ground forces backed by international air strikes in a bloody multi-year conflict.
Fighting in Gaza entered the 21st day on Friday after the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on October 7. Around 1,400 people were killed in the attack on Gaza. Israeli forces make new bombs to target Hamas.(HT File)

On Friday, the Israeli military advanced further into Gaza, preparing for a potential ground offensive against Hamas. Nonetheless, a major obstacle for the Israeli troops is the extensive tunnel network of Hamas, within which the group is reported to have captured numerous hostages.

Various types of tunnels are used by Hamas including the ones stretching for hundreds of kilometers and descending up to 80 meters deep beneath the 360-square-kilometer coastal strip and its surrounding borders.

READ | Enemy is a disease with no cure, except beheading: Israel shows Hamas' note

It is to fight this tunnel network of Hamas that Israel is making sponge bombs - bombs that create a sudden explosion of foam that expands rapidly and then hardens. The country has been testing the grenades to seal off tunnel entrances which the Hamas group is using for its operations, a report in The Telegraph says.

What are Sponge Bombs and how is it used

Reportedly, these devices are housed in a protective plastic casing with a metal barrier separating two separate liquids. Once activated, the liquids combine and move toward their designated target. During exercises in a simulated tunnel system near the Gaza border in 2021, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were observed utilizing these devices.

One of the elite units responsible for operations underground is Yahalom, a specialized commando group from Israel's Combat Engineering Corps, often referred to as the "weasels." Their expertise lies in the detection, clearance, and demolition of tunnels.

Hamas reportedly started digging tunnels in the mid-1990s. The process only got easier post Hamas winning power in the 2006 election.

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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
Construction of Hilton's new apartmentstyle extendedstay brand begins less than five months after launch, expected to debut in mid2024.

Hilton (NYSE: HLT) today announced the groundbreaking of the first Project H3 by Hilton hotel in Kokomo, Ind., signifying the start of construction on its new studio apartment-style extended-stay hotel brand. Operating under a working title as Hilton navigates the final stages of the trademark process, the 137-room property is located at 5138 Cartwright Drive and is owned by Sun Management & Development Corporation. Hilton's inaugural lower midscale, extended-stay solution for long-stay travelers is expected to open by the summer of 2024.

Beginning construction less than five months after the brand was first announced, the newest addition to Hilton's portfolio of world-class brands is providing a reliable and consistent foundation for the long-stay guest who never stopped traveling, even throughout the pandemic. The brand has received tremendous interest from owners and developers and currently boasts more than 350 deals in various stages of negotiation.

The inaugural groundbreaking for the brand brought together Project H3 representatives and local dignitaries for a memorable event to officially kick off the construction process. The moment was commemorated by a groundbreaking ceremony and remarks from Isaac Lake, brand leader, Project H3 by Hilton; Tyler Moore, mayor, City of Kokomo; Lori Dukes, president and CEO, Greater Kokomo Economic Development Alliance; and Bharat Patel, co-founder, chairman and CEO, Sun Development & Management Corporation. Guests also viewed renderings of the hotel grounds and enjoyed a celebratory reception.

The new brand will reimagine core design elements from the ground up and deliver all the essential amenities long-stay guests need for a great stay. Upon completion, the inaugural property in Kokomo, Ind., will feature three signature elements that will appeal directly to the long-stay traveler, including:

Deliberate Design

Long-stay guests will be welcomed by the hotel's inviting exterior of warm wood tones and a modern farmhouse-inspired palette with light industrial touches. Properties will also feature outdoor patios outfitted with grills, a communal fire pit and comfortable seating to make it truly feel like home.

Spacious Apartment-Style Accommodations

The adaptable layout of the thoughtfully crafted suites will provide comfort and functionality. Each will feature spacious bathrooms, ample storage space, efficient closet design, and movable, multi-purpose furniture that allows guests to utilize the space as a place to work and rest. The kitchen area is also especially important to long-stay travelers and will include a fully equipped kitchen with a full-sized refrigerator, dishwasher, microwave, two-burner cooktop and more.

Nontraditional Lobby Experience

The brand's hyper-functional lobby allows sight lines from the front desk to the fitness and guest laundry areas, as well as a simple retail market, creating a safe and welcoming environment for long-stay guests looking to grab a great cup of coffee, fit in a workout or start their laundry.

Hilton's newest brand will participate in Hilton Honors, the company's award-winning guest loyalty program for its portfolio of nearly 7,400 properties worldwide. Members who book directly with Hilton have access to instant benefits, including a flexible payment slider that allows members to choose nearly any combination of Points and money to book a stay, exclusive member discounts, free standard Wi-Fi and the Hilton Honors mobile app.

For more information about Project H3, visit stories.hilton.com/ProjectH3.

Hotel website
JW Marriott Mumbai Sahar is pleased to announce the appointment of Ms. Meena Rewari as the new Director of Sales and Marketing. With an illustrious career spanning over two decades, Ms. Rewari has consistently excelled as a Sales Growth Leader and Business Development Strategist, achieving remarkable success in securing profitable growth and leading sales operations across diverse segments and markets.

In her most recent role as Director of Sales & Marketing at Park Hyatt Chennai, Ms. Rewari demonstrated exceptional leadership capabilities. She successfully managed a dynamic division comprising rooms, events and marketing teams, achieving financial goals for both room and event revenue. Her commitment to excellence extends beyond revenue management as she is actively engaged in ownership and asset management, reflecting her comprehensive approach to the hospitality business. Furthermore, Ms. Rewari played a pivotal role in repositioning and enhancing the hotel's online reputation following an extensive renovation, showcasing her ability to revitalize a property's image and brand.

Ms. Rewari's extensive experience also encompasses prestigious hotels such as Hyatt Regency Delhi, The Oberoi New Delhi, The Park New Delhi and Park Hyatt Chennai, contributing to her profound understanding of the industry and the robust network within it.

As the Director of Sales and Marketing at JW Marriott Mumbai Sahar, Ms. Rewari will play a vital role in driving excellence and contributing to the hotel's overall success. Her extensive experience in hotel sales and marketing management, combined with her meticulous approach and strategic mindset, will be an invaluable asset to the organization. Meena's dedication to achieving organizational goals and fostering collaborative relationships across departments will further enhance the hotel's reputation as a leading luxury destination.
Brittain Resorts & Hotels (BRH), a leading full-service hospitality management company, has adopted SiteMinder, the name behind the only software platform that unlocks the full revenue potential of hotels, as part of its newly-announced business intelligence technology matrix. The matrix, designed to simplify and streamline its portfolios property management and revenue management services, is part of BRHs deepening investment in technology, as the company eyes expansion within and beyond the United States.

When it comes to adopting next-gen technologies, we want to be right at the forefront. We want to ensure that all of our solutions can talk to each other and so weve created a matrix that allows every decision we make to be based on data, rather than gut feel. With thousands of units of inventory, and a dozen room types per property, we dont have the luxury of missing any opportunities. It can literally cost us millions. With SiteMinder, we now feel secure in our distribution strategy and have data that plugs directly into our revenue management system, to help us guide and automate our forward-looking decisions. Christopher Ellison, Director of Revenue at BRH

Adopted across 22 properties and more than 4,000 rooms, SiteMinders material impact as part of BRHs tech stack has been immediate.

On the one hand, the platforms stability means that Im no longer worried about getting an overbooking call on a Saturday night. But from a results perspective, the moment we switched on SiteMinder, our occupancy immediately shot up. We were struggling to reach that 95% occupancy threshold in those high-time periods, and then almost overnight we were at 95%. Each revenue manager and analyst has gotten hours back in their day to actually analyse, not chase down connection issues, meaning we feel more comfortable from a labour perspective, and we can now look at a wider range of channels to drive incremental room nights, somewhere weve historically felt limited. Moving forward, were aiming to use SiteMinder to its full capacity. If my inventory can be in 100 different places at the same time, why wouldnt I allow that to happen?

Hoteliers today are eager to feel empowered by technology. Theyre seeking a deeper understanding of their guests, to ensure a personalised experience, and want the security of knowing their revenue is being maximised via precise and data-driven decision-making. We are pleased to support BRH as they elevate the sophistication of their tech stack, and scale their impressive business throughout the US and beyond. Jason Lugo, Market Vice President  Americas at SiteMinder

About SiteMinder

SiteMinder Limited (ASX:SDR) is the name behind SiteMinder, the only software platform that unlocks the full revenue potential of hotels, and Little Hotelier, an all-in-one hotel management software that makes the lives of small accommodation providers easier. The global company is headquartered in Sydney with offices in Bangalore, Bangkok, Barcelona, Berlin, Dallas, Galway, London and Manila. Through its technology and the largest partner ecosystem in the global hotel industry, SiteMinder generates more than 100 million reservations worth over A$60 billion in revenue for its hotel customers each year. For more information, visit siteminder.com.

About Brittain Resorts & Hotels

Brittain Resorts & Hotels (BRH) is a full-service hospitality management company providing multi-layered expertise in all disciplines of hotel and resort operations. Since 1943, BRH has been enriching the lives of its team members, guests, partners, and the communities they serve by providing exceptional guest experiences, a supportive work environment, and superior returns. With over 4,000 rooms, suites, and condos in the portfolio, the company currently operates 20+ hotels and resorts and 40+ restaurants & bars within the United States. For more information, visit brittainresorts.com.

Luke McCabe

Communications Manager

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The UNWTO General Assembly looked to the future with a focus on tourism education and training. The Global Education Forum brought together Ministers, employers, educators and learners to address the biggest challenges and opportunities for advancing training across every part of the sector.

A priority for global tourism

According to data analysed by UNWTO, the majority of the global tourism workforce are young people, many of them without further training or qualifications. At the same time, existing tourism education centres and programmes prioritise hospitality, with UNWTO aiming to fill the gaps and deliver courses and other trainings to allow students to gain knowledge of every part of the diverse sector. Opening the Forum, UNWTO Executive Director Natalia Bayona made clear the opportunities and challenges: Tourism is the top employer of youth: over 50% of its workers aged 25 years old or less 1 , while around 882,000 tourism jobs 2 per year will require vocational training by 2030.

Ministers of Tourism from Andorra, Bahrain, Guatemala, the Philippines and Zambia brought their expert insights to a high-level Debate on Policies to Foster Innovation & Education for Current and Future Generations. Challenges highlighted included the high turnover of tourism staff in comparison to other economic sectors and the lack of tourism as a subject in schools in most education systems. The discussion explored opportunities for shaping new policies, effective instruments, and global partnerships to support inclusive and sustainable tourism development while addressing the skill gap and creating value-added jobs.

UNWTO presents the Education Toolkit for the incorporation of tourism as a subject in high schools

Within the Education Forum, UNWTO presented the Education Toolkit, a guide of recommendations for helping all actors involved on education in the introduction of tourism as a subject of the secondary school curricula with the ultimate goal of attracting and cultivating the right talent for the tourism sector.

The UNWTO Education Toolkit offers an overview of the current status of high schools and vocational education training worldwide, it also gives recommendations derived from the contributions of UNWTO member states, non-member states and academic partners and it also presents successful case studies of integrating tourism education and training in public and private schools. In addition, it includes a comprehensive overview of the benefits, with specialized curricula provided by UNWTO's academic partners: the Cambridge Assessment International Education, American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute (AHLEI), and the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO).

Also at the Forum, participants were given an overview of the recently inaugurated Tourism Academy in Samarkand in collaboration with UNWTO, a key outcome of the country's strong partnership with UNWTO.

UNWTO  HSLU Bachelor of Science in International Sustainable Tourism

During Bayona's keynote speech, she also presented the flexible three-year BSc in International Sustainable Tourism that UNWTO and the Swiss public university of Lucerne for Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU) have developed to empower the future-oriented transformation of the entire tourism sector. This unique initiative will be the first time that UNWTO has been actively involved in an undergraduate programme, with modules that include a variety of UN-related topics, such as UN Diplomacy & Tourism and Global UNWTO Missions & Initiatives, and deliberately embeds the UN's values and global goals throughout the courses. The first cohort of the programme will commence in fall 2024 with a first year in Madrid, followed by a remote year and a third last year in Switzerland.

Ulysses Prize for Tourism Education

In a fitting culmination to the Global Education Forum, Dr. Bao Jigang was honoured with the prestigious Ulysses Prize, a testament to his remarkable contributions to the field of tourism. Awarded as the 16th laureate of this esteemed accolade bestowed by UNWTO for outstanding achievements in the creation and dissemination of knowledge within the realm of tourism, Dr. Bao's illustrious career stands as a shining example of his invaluable impact. Throughout his distinguished academic journey, he has played a pivotal role in catalysing the growth of domestic tourism, in his homely of the Peoples Republic of China, elevating its scale and significance as a premier global tourism destination.

1. ILO (2013 United Nations (s.f.), OECD (2023)

2.ILO (2022)

RELATED LINKS

About The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)

The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) is the United Nations specialized agency fostering tourism as a vehicle for equal, inclusive and sustainable development. Working with its Member States, international organizations and the private sector, UNWTO promotes safe and seamless travel for all. UNWTO also works to make tourism the foundation of trust and international cooperation and a central pillar of recovery. As part of the wider UN system, UNWTO is at the forefront of global efforts to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including through its ability to create decent jobs, promote equality and preserve natural and cultural heritage.

Follow UNWTO on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin.

UNWTO Communications Department

+34 91 567 8100

UNWTO
The commitment of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) to moving closer to its Members and being on the ground in every region has been further demonstrated through confirmed plans for two new Regional Offices.

At the 25th UNWTO General Assembly (16-20 October 2023, Samarkand, Uzbekistan), Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili set out his leadership vision for the Organization, including the aim of adding to the growing network of Regional and Thematic offices. At the Assembly, Mr. Pololikashvili signed an agreement with Minister of Tourism of Brazil, Celso Sabino, to open a Regional Office for the Americas in Rio de Janeiro. Alongside this, UNWTO continues to work closely with the Kingdom of Morocco to establish a Regional Office for Africa in Marrakesh.

Reflecting the clear aims of the leadership vision for both UNWTO and the global tourism sector, Regional Offices will focus on one or more of the Organization's priorities. The planned Regional Office for Africa will focus on the priorities of innovation and investments in tourism, while the Regional Office for the Americas will also be focused on investment. They will join the Regional Office for the Middle East, opened in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in May 2021, which is now a hub for tourism education and tourism for rural development, and the UNWTO Regional office for Asia and the Pacific in Nara, Japan.

Secretary-General Pololikashvili's leadership vision for expanding and enhancing UNWTO's presence on the ground also includes a commitment to new and more diverse Thematic Offices. At the119th session of the UNWTO Executive Council, also held in Samarkand, the Government of Uzbekistan presented its proposal to establish a Thematic Office for Tourism on the Silk Road in the city of Samarkand.

Additionally, after successfully unblocking stalled plans to move on from UNWTO's home for more than 50 years, the Secretary-General used the occasion of the General Assembly to report that the Spanish Government is now set to start work on a new headquarters in Madrid. Works are expected to conclude in the first semester of 2025.

RELATED LINKS

About The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)

The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) is the United Nations specialized agency fostering tourism as a vehicle for equal, inclusive and sustainable development. Working with its Member States, international organizations and the private sector, UNWTO promotes safe and seamless travel for all. UNWTO also works to make tourism the foundation of trust and international cooperation and a central pillar of recovery. As part of the wider UN system, UNWTO is at the forefront of global efforts to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including through its ability to create decent jobs, promote equality and preserve natural and cultural heritage.

Follow UNWTO on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin.

UNWTO Communications Department

+34 91 567 8100

UNWTO
WASHINGTON  American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) President & CEO Chip Rogers is speaking out today after the National Labor Relations Board issued a final regulation unjustifiably expanding the joint-employer standard under the National Labor Relations Act. The standard is used to determine when two or more employers are jointly responsible for a shared group of workers essential terms and conditions of employment and thus jointly liable for violations of the National Labor Relations Act and have joint bargaining responsibilities for unionized employees. The NLRBs expansion, effective Dec. 26, 2023, will impact business-to-business relationships in a manner that will limit opportunities for small businesses and entrepreneurs and threaten the franchising model.

NLRBs actions today are devastating to the hotel industry and the millions of people we employ. This is a partisan gambit to force unions on hotel franchisees and their employees as well as countless other small businesses and workers across the country. NLRBs goal is to coerce businesses to the bargaining table with workers they do not actually employ to artificially increase unionization. This dramatic shift will effectively dismantle the franchise business model  the single greatest avenue to successful entrepreneurship in American history and a system that has helped our industry build millions of well-paying jobs and careers. AHLA is reviewing opportunities to legally challenge this regulation to restore certainty for Americas lodging industry. AHLA President & CEO Chip Rogers

BACKGROUND

AHLA previously filed formal comments outlining the industrys concerns regarding the draft of the final rule. For decades, an employer was only a joint employer if it maintained substantial direct and immediate control over workers terms and conditions of employment. Employers and employees came to depend on this definition, and courts rejected myriad attempts to insert a more subjective legal standard to obligate third parties to collectively bargain.

AHLA fully supports the right to form a union and collectively bargain with employers that have direct and immediate control over workers terms and conditions. We do not support, however, the NLRBs new rule, which codifies a new standard that establishes indirect or unexercised control as sufficient to trigger joint employer status. This subjective definition will create predisposed outcomes irrespective of genuine facts and circumstances.

The regulation will create new liability for hoteliers and potentially invalidate existing franchise agreements. It will cause businesses to reevaluate relationships and marginalize franchisees control over their own operations. It may also lead to fewer opportunities for small business owners to enter the market by causing consolidation in an effort to mitigate risk.

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.
McLean, VA  The Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) and the Hotel Electronic Distribution Networking Association (HEDNA) announce a partnership for the mutual benefit of their members and the hospitality industry. The hospitality industry will gain from the combined knowledge and expertise from each organization. The collaboration will elevate HSMAIs distribution capabilities and expand the educational content and insights shared with their constituents.

This new partnership between HSMAI and HEDNA will focus in areas where the two organizations have synergy with our mutual hotel stakeholders in each HSMAI Region around the globe. HSMAIs stakeholders who have sales, marketing, revenue, or any other commercial functions related to optimizing demand and profitability for hotels and hotel companies can benefit from the insights pertaining to distribution that HEDNA curates. Robert A. Gilbert, CHME, CHBA, president and CEO, HSMAI

With this integration of knowledge, HSMAI and HEDNA stakeholders will enjoy a broadening of resources, including:

An expansion of shared educational assets between HSMAI and HEDNA, who will each create and share content tailored to each others constituents, including videos, webinars, articles, research, case studies, and more

Session collaboration at each organizations global conferences in North America, Europe and Asia, discussing trends, opportunities and best practices

Educational sessions organized by HEDNA integrated into each of HSMAIs Commercial Strategy Conferences and ROC events globally.

A HEDNA U distribution workshop during HSMAIs Commercial Strategy Week on June 24, 2024, in Charlotte, North Carolina

As our Distribution professionals see more and more cross-over with Sales, Revenue and Marketing teams, this partnership is perfectly timed. Education is one of my top priorities for HEDNA and I cant think of a better partner than HSMAI. Their experience in learning and certification modules will not only bring incredible benefits to our members, but the industry overall as we look to offer our respective expertise through content and engagement opportunities. Christopher Murdock, HEDNA President and Director of Distribution System Support and Strategy at Accor

The first event to benefit from this newly announced partnership will be HEDNAs Global Distribution Conference which will take place in New Orleans from Jan. 16 to 18, 2024. The program will include a wide range of topics in hospitality distribution derived straight from industry headlines and recent news. To learn more about HEDNA and their vision, visit hedna.org.

About HEDNA

HEDNA is a global community of hospitality professionals, technology providers, educators, and consultants passionate about elevating the role of distribution. Through influence, collaboration, and networking, we elevate careers, harness new business opportunities, and drive the business of hospitality forward, together. Through our global conferences, local networking events and industry working groups, we help our stakeholders appreciate the nuances of todays technologies, gauge the impact of todays trends, and prepare for the challenges of tomorrow. Learn more at hedna.org.

About HSMAI

The Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI) is committed to growing business for hotels and their partners and is the industry's leading advocate for intelligent, sustainable hotel revenue growth. The association provides hotel professionals and their partners with tools, insights, and expertise to fuel sales, inspire marketing, and optimize revenue through programs such as the Marketing Strategy Conference, Adrian Awards, Sales Leader Forum, and HSMAI ROC. Founded in 1927, HSMAI is a membership organization comprising more than 5,000 members worldwide, with 40 chapters in the Americas Region. Connect with HSMAI at hsmai.org.
Its common for each of us to be on our phones all day, every day. And text messaging has become our go-to method for connecting with others. Texting is good not only for communicating with our loved ones, but also for business purposes, such as touching base with colleagues and clients.

Messaging can (and should!) also be used by hoteliers, and AI texting is a great option. By leveraging artificial intelligence, AI texting allows guests to interact with technology as they would with humans.

Best of all, AI texting is automated. Hoteliers dont have to worry about having dedicated staff to support this communication channel. Still not convinced? Read more to learn how AI texting will step up your guest communications.

How AI texting works

If youre not familiar with AI texting, were here to get you started. AI texting allows guests to have more control over their experiences by having contactless and instant communication that can help them get their questions answered in no time. For example, Revinates text messaging solution, Ivy, can act as a concierge to support your guests anytime.

With a solution like this, you can easily set up templates that are suitable to answer the most common questions that cover a wide range of topics, such as happy hour, air conditioning, airport, complaints, and more. Many responses can easily be set up with the help of your employees by using Ivys Smart Responses. Remember to ask your team members for their input to help you determine which topics to select and how to craft your Smart Responses accordingly.

There will be situations where your employees can give more appropriate responses to guests compared to the Smart Responses, such as during special or one-time promotions or when your guests have inquiries that require additional details.

But the real value of a solution like this is that its able to learn from the ways in which your team members respond. Over time, it will start to pick up on the best ways to communicate with guests and how to respond to different types of questions. This means that AI texting will progressively be able to handle more and more inquiries.

With a solution like this, you dont have to worry about making sure your employees are on top of every last request, and they wont have to wonder whether guests have everything they need. In the case of Ivy, all of this critical information is stored in the analytics section. This data provides you with valuable insights into how you can improve and helps Ivy to become smarter overtime.

If you want to learn more about Ivy, specifically, read our blog that covers how Ivy can be rolled out at your property.

Proof that AI texting will improve your guest communications

Guests are asking for it

People often think that guest messaging may be harder to implement in the European market due to GDPR. However, 82% of European consumers opt in to receive SMS notifications. This means theres huge potential for AI texting in the hotel industry because people are likely to consent to receiving SMS notifications in accordance with the law.

During our participation at the Hospitality Industry Clubs EveningCamps in Hamburg, the need for a multi-channel marketing strategy was one of the main topics discussed by hoteliers and vendors. Supporting multi-channel communications allows you to connect with guests via their preferred channels.

While GDPR is important, dont let it scare you. Remaining compliant is simple, even with AI texting. Just make sure that you ask guests for their consent to receive messages via texting and clearly inform them of the benefits that they can enjoy with this communication.

Its an easier and faster way to interact with your guests

By now, most of us own mobile phones. During 2022, more than 6.5 billion people around the world were using mobile phones. Thats more than 80% of the global population. And its no wonder why. Mobile phones are an essential part of our lives. Recent research suggests we spend nearly 5 hours a day using them.

This means that using AI texting to reach out to guests can be quite effective. Think of it as a tool you can use to answer inquiries guests may have about their stays as well as to send upsell offers that boost direct revenue. Whether its sharing the WiFi password or offering guests an option for late check-out, there are plenty of things AI texting can do without you having to lift a finger.

It provides automation that alleviates staff shortages

Facing a staffing shortage is a complex issue that has been impacting the industry for more than a year. Its common to hear stories about employees being laid off and managers being overworked. But now that the world is traveling again (and demand is nearly back to pre-pandemic days), hoteliers need to be ready to provide delightful guest experiences.

Using AI texting to fuel automation is one of the best solutions to this challenge. Being able to communicate with your guests throughout their journeys with ease can eliminate many of the challenges caused by staff shortages. Plus, with technology working to address common inquiries, your staff will actually have the time to engage in more value-added interactions.

Its clear that text messaging has the potential to revolutionize the way hotels and guests communicate with each other. With AI texting, you can send personalized messages and interact with guests without lifting a finger.

About Revinate

Revinate empowers hoteliers to directly connect with their guests.

Our Guest Data Platform and communication solutions unlock revenue for hoteliers and put them in control of the full guest experience  initial research, booking, check-in, throughout the stay, and even after check out  all via the communication channels that guests prefer, whether it's voice, text, email, or web.

More than 12,000 hotels globally bank on Revinate to drive direct revenue and deliver delightful guest experiences.

Ask us how we do it. Visit our website to get a demo.

Sanjana Chappalli

VP of Brand Marketing and Communications

Revinate, Inc.

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China-U.S. relations should return to track of healthy, stable, sustainable development -- Chinese FM

Xinhua) 14:40, October 27, 2023

WASHINGTON, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here Thursday that China and the United States should work to return their relations to the track of healthy, stable, and sustainable development as soon as possible.

Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks when he and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken briefly appeared in front of the press before they held a meeting.

Wang said he is on a visit to the United States to reciprocate Blinken's China visit in June.

China and the United States have disagreements and differences, but at the same time share important common interests and face common challenges. Therefore, they need to have a dialogue, said the Chinese foreign minister.

China-U.S. dialogue should not only resume, but be in-depth and comprehensive so that the two sides can increase mutual understanding, reduce misunderstandings and misjudgments, constantly seek to expand common ground and pursue mutually beneficial cooperation, Wang said.

Such efforts will help stabilize China-U.S. relations and facilitate the return of bilateral relations to the track of healthy, stable, and sustainable development, Wang said.

Jarring voices are often heard about China-U.S. relations, but China is calm about them because China believes the criterion for right and wrong is not determined by who has a thicker arm or a louder voice, but by whether one behaves in line with the provisions of the three China-U.S. joint communiques, with the international law and the basic norms of international relations, and with the trend of the times.

"We are confident that at the end of the day, facts will prove everything and history will give its fair verdict," Wang said.

(Web editor: Tian Yi, Liang Jun)
Le Pavillon Hotel in New Orleans

Ashford Hospitality Trust, Inc. (NYSE: AHT) today announced that it has entered into a new franchise agreement with Marriott International to convert its Le Pavillon Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana to a Tribute Portfolio property.

The agreement with Marriott calls for the Hotel to be converted to a Tribute Portfolio property in the first quarter of 2024. The inspirational theme Turning History on its Head will drive the redesign and will bring this iconic historic hotel, with its rich history in the NOLA culture, into the present-day. This vision will be reflected throughout the redesigned property including extensive exterior work upgrading the restaurant, guestrooms, guest bathrooms, corridors as well as reimagining the hotel lobby bar. Every element of the new Sazz Bar will draw inspiration from the deep amber color of the New Orleans staple cocktail -- the Sazerac -- to create a moody, modern bar drenched in hues of red and orange. A lenticular art piece depicting two sides of a common French icon -- a 'serious' and a 'spirited' Napoleon -- will fill the back bar, serving as a reminder of the Hotel and the city's historic ties to French culture and a symbol of the playful side of NOLA.

This planned conversion will create a distinctive theme and style for the luxury Hotel that is commensurate with the distinctive premium brand Tribute Portfolio product. The Company believes that post-conversion, the new Tribute Portfolio property should realize a 10% to 20% RevPAR premium compared to a stabilized pre-conversion basis. Remington Hospitality will continue to be the property manager.

Located in the heart of downtown New Orleans on historic Poydras Street, the 226-room Le Pavillon Hotel is known as the "Belle of New Orleans." It sits adjacent to the historic French Quarter, is located only four blocks from the celebrated music clubs of Bourbon Street and is close to the famous restaurants and antique shops of Royal Street. Originally the site of one of the area's first great plantation homes, the Le Pavillon Hotel was built in 1907 and is a member of Historic Hotels of America.

"With its prime location and proximity to major demand generators in downtown New Orleans, the transformation of this landmark hotel to a Tribute property is expected to elevate the hotel into a desirable niche in the very attractive New Orleans market," commented Rob Hays, Ashford Trust's President and Chief Executive Officer. "We remain focused on maximizing the value of our assets and look forward to realizing an enhanced financial performance from this property post conversion."

Tribute Portfolio hotels participate in Marriott Bonvoy, the global travel program from Marriott International. The program offers members an extraordinary portfolio of global brands, exclusive experiences on Marriott Bonvoy Moments and unparalleled benefits including free nights and Elite status recognition. To enroll for free or for more information about the program, visit MarriottBonvoy.marriott.com.

Ashford Hospitality Trust is a real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on investing predominantly in upper upscale, full-service hotels.
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TikTok funder Sequoia investigated by Congress for Chinese investments

TikTok investor Sequoia Capital has aroused suspicions in Congress over its recent financial support of multiple Chinese tech companies.

by CHRIS CASTLE of Music Tech Policy

It was only a matter of time. According to a press release, Congress is investigating Silicon Valleys uber venture capital fund Sequoia Capital because Sequoias investments in [Peoples Republic of China] entities have included certain investments that contributed to the [Chinese Communist Partys] human rights abuses, the PRCs military modernization, and its overall efforts to undermine U.S. technological leadershipThose deals support the CCPs goals of ensuring technological supremacy and increasing the United States dependence on the PRC in critical technologies.

The transactions that Congress is looking into specifically include Investments and fundraising for ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok as well as:

Investments in EverSec, a Chinese company developing AI for the Peoples Liberation Armys (PLA) warning platforms

a Chinese company developing AI for the Peoples Liberation Armys (PLA) warning platforms Helping raise $700 million for 4Paradigm, a Chinese company building AI for PLA battlefield programs

a Chinese company building AI for PLA battlefield programs Investments in DJI, a Chinese drone maker that facilitates the CCPs surveillance and genocide of Uyghurs Muslims in Chinas Xinjiang region

a Chinese drone maker that facilitates the CCPs surveillance and genocide of Uyghurs Muslims in Chinas Xinjiang region Investments in DeepGlint, a Chinese facial recognition firm blacklisted by the U.S. government and used by the CCP to track Uyghur Muslims and surveil the Chinese population

a Chinese facial recognition firm blacklisted by the U.S. government and used by the CCP to track Uyghur Muslims and surveil the Chinese population As many as 40 investments in Chinese semiconductor companies since 2020

RememberWatergate started with a piece of tape on a door.

Read the letter here.

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North Adams Hospital Seeks Overlay District to Support Medical Services

NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  Berkshire Medical Center is requesting an overlay district for the campus of the reopening North Adams Regional Hospital.

The Hospital Avenue Overlay District would cover only the property off Hospital Avenue owned by BMC that includes the former hospital building, the Clark House, Doctor's Building and Ambulatory Care Center.

The purpose of the overlay would be "to enhance and facilitate the provision of hospital and medical services in the City of North Adams and surrounding areas to permit by-right medical uses on the 29-acre parcel."

Specifically, it would abnegate the need for change-of-use applications for NARH or tenants within the existing structures for medical and support services. It also eliminates side-yard setbacks between buildings and sets the maximum building height to the tallest existing building in the overlay district and that the parking as it exists meets all parking requirements.

Councilor Ashley Shade expressed concerns over the city's ability to review and inspect business changes.

"Essentially this means zoning would allow a business to change or new business to open on the property without that inspection in perpetuity," she said. "I would not be in favor of that."

Vicki Donahue of Cain Hibbards & Myers, representing BMC, said it would eliminate the burden of having to go before the Planning Board every time is a change in physicians in an office.

"We will have things like a certain medical office that's on campus, and we'll be replacing it with another medical office or another use that already will be permitted under this overlay," she said. "If we go from one doctor to another, it's the same use and there's no other impact, it's the same parking requirements, all those things are the same."

If there was a concern about a building inspection every time it occurs, she thought that could be brought forward at the Planning Board hearing.

North Adams Regional Hospital is expected to reopen with a limited number of beds next year. Donahue said BMC will continue to maintain some its services there such a renal dialysis.

"We've been working with the mayor and the building inspector and [KP Law attorney] Joel Bard to create an overlay district," she said. "The way that the bylaw is structured now it contemplates kind of an antiquated definition of hospital which seems to suggest that there's 'a' hospital that's going to be operating in this district. So this overlay district will allow BMC and NARH and other providers to continue to provide their services there and have flexibility to do so."

The Planning Board and City Council will hold a joint public hearing on the hospital overlay proposal on Nov. 13 at 5:30 p.m. in Council Chambers.

The council did pass a zoning change that would allow for parking in front of buildings in the downtown business zone after some discussion on whether the vote to publish two weeks ago was legal. City Councilor Marie T. Harpin, who did not attend the last meeting, said objected that a zoning change required a two-thirds vote of the full council; the zoning passed to a second reading 5-2.

"When I called the lawyer of the day he thought that this should be sent to the solicitor for review for the vote itself because the vote is not two-thirds," she said.

Councilor Lisa Blackmer asked if she had explained to the attorney that the city charter calls for two votes  one to pass to a second reading and be published and a second vote to adopt. Harpin responded that she had not.

"We haven't actually taken any action except for notifying the public that we're about to do something," said Councilor Ashley Shade. "So I feel comfortable moving forward and tonight's vote would require the two-thirds."

Blackmer said they could still refer to the city solicitor and revote if necessary. Harpin argued that a revote would mean they couldn't bring it back for two years, pointing to where the charters says if an ordinance is "unfavorably acted upon." Blackmer said it would not be "unfavorable," it would be illegal and would require another vote.

"I think it would be a good due diligence on the part of the city council to ensure that the vote was accurate and that we're passing in ordinances based on Massachusetts General Law and under the recommendations of our solicitor as requested," said Harpin.

Blackmer responded that Harpin "could have shot the mayor me or somebody in email saying, 'hey, this is what I heard.' And we could have done that before we brought it tonight and save some time and possibly money. And, OK, but that's fine."

Harpin also asked if the Planning Board had reported its recommendation to the City Council; Councilor Wayne Wilkinson said yes, orally, and Blackmer, a member of the Planning Board, reported that the board had voted for the amendment.

The council moved forward to vote to pass the ordinance 6-3, with Harpin, Shade and Councilor Jennifer Barbeau voting nay.

In other business:

 The council postponed to the first meeting in November proposals to remove fees from the ordinances and set them in appendix and to raise certain fees, and to repeal certain parts of the secondhand dealer ordinance until they are reviewed by the city solicitor, including whether secondhand dealer licensure could or should be repealed as well.

 Mayor Jennifer Macksey declared the month of October as LGBTQ History Month.

 The council affirmed the appointment of James Haskins to the Airport Commission for a term to expire Oct. 25, 2026, and Woodrow Boillat to the Conservation Commission to fill the unexpired term of Elena Traister to expire Aug. 1, 2024.
Pittsfield Announces Internet Speed Test Day

PITTSFIELD, Mass.  Earlier this year, the City of Pittsfield was selected to participate in the Municipal Digital Equity Planning Program launched by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI).

As a part of the digital equity planning effort, the city is seeking to gain insight into any internet disparities within the community and if residents are experiencing widespread problems with their internet connections through an internet speed test.

On Wednesday, Nov. 1, community members are asked to join the Speed Test Day. To participate, visit: https://www.cityofpittsfield.org/speedtest/ on the device you use to connect to the internet.

Following completion of the speed test, please send us your results using the form on the city's website. The city will use this information to better understand and identify the challenges residents may experience when connecting to the internet. The feedback received by residents will be included as part of the city's Digital Equity Plan. An internet speed test is a great tool to identify if there is a problem with internet speed.

However, more work must be done if a problem is discovered as many things can affect internet speed. Often the Internet Service Provider (ISP) is not the cause of the problem but can help identify a solution.

Poor performance can affect a user's experience on the internet, at times making it impossible to do things like participate in online classrooms or attend a telehealth appointment.
Clark Art Celebrates Halloween

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.  On Saturday, Oct. 28, visit the Clark Art Institute in costume to celebrate all things spooky, silly, and anything in between.

From 24 pm, visitors are invited to design their own masks in the lower level of the Clark Center.

Take advantage of the last chance to see the exhibition "Humane Ecology: Eight Positions" before it closes on Oct. 29. Presented in outdoor and indoor spaces at the Clark, including both the Clark's Conforti Pavilion and the Lunder Center at Stone Hill, the exhibition features eight artists who explore the inseparability of the natural and social.

In addition, visitors can explore the year-long installation "Elizabeth Atterbury: Oracle Bones," on view in the Clark's Manton Research Center and in the lower level of the Clark Center.

Visitors in costume receive free admission and a small treat from the Clark. Children 21 and under always visit for free.

Family programs are supported by Allen & Company.
Berkshire Visiting Nurses Push For Fair Standards, Pay

PITTSFIELD, Mass.  The 2-year-old union local representing some members of the Berkshire Visiting Nursing Association continues to push for fair productivity standards and pay to preserve employees and quality of care.

The union reported that the BVNA, which is owned and operated by Berkshire Health Systems, has lost almost 30 permanent staff members since 2021, 90 percent citing an unsustainable work-life balance and many leaving for higher pay.

The members, represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association, delivered a petition to Berkshire Health Systems President and CEO Darlene Rodowicz on Monday signed by 82 percent of its clinicians. On the horizon is another contract negotiation session and the health-care workers want to see a wage step scale and realistic productivity standards to address staffing losses.

BHS and the union have not been able to settle an agreement on both items but negotiations have been respectful, according to both parties.

"Our biggest, toughest issue is the productivity and the wages, which is typical but what is different about this time is that we have come way down on what we're asking for to the point that the productivity language is just basically what they ask of us today," co-Chair Tamaryn Clowdus explained.

"Because as we've been unionized we have been going back and forth, they have taken some of the pressure off of us of what they expect of us on a daily basis and kind of set a new standard of what we have to do in a day."

BHS Director of Media Relations Michael Leary recognized the employees' rights to organize and a willingness to continue civil negotiations.

"Berkshire Health Systems is committed to listening to the feedback of our valued clinicians, who are integral to our mission of advancing the health and wellness of everyone in Berkshire County," he said.

"We respect our employees' rights to organize, along with their rights to free speech and assembly. As always, we are committed to working with both our Berkshire VNA clinicians and the Massachusetts Nurses Association in good faith. We have been holding productive, respectful negotiations with the MNA for more than a year. We remain committed to negotiating in good faith, and we are confident that we will reach a fair and equitable agreement."

Unless new programs or procedures are enacted to make the work more efficient, the union would like their current productivity expectations cemented in the contract, Clowdus said. This balances the amount of time providing patient care and support and documenting.

She reported that nurses at Berkshire Medical Center make $6 to almost $10 more than BVNA clinicians and though they are not asking to be paid as much as the hospital workers, they would like a step-scale pay system to somewhat close that gap.

"If we continue to go without a step scale and the hospital continues with one, this wage discrepancy will continue to grow," Clowdus added.

"So we are not asking them to pay as much as the nurses at the hospital because we realized that would be too hard on the health system as a whole financially to suddenly have to come up with that but we are asking to have that fair step scale."

The BVNA is not planning on striking as long as BHS continues to negotiate. Clowdus pointed out that striking in this industry not only withholds health care but also means that clinicians are not getting paid.

"So we decided that we would try to continue to push other ways," she said. "One is this petition to make sure management understands that this isn't just the bargaining committee asking for this, this is truly what all of the employees would like to see."

The agency had 1,748 hours of staff time available for care in 2021 and according to records, has lost 29 permanent staff members since.

Over the summer, BVNA closed admission to many Berkshire County towns and had 1,382 hours of staff time available for care. The association will resume services for the affected towns but only has 1,206 hours of staff time available.

With the drop in permanent staff, there has been an increase in traveler staff, who are paid at a higher rate and come from out of the area.

The petition emphasizes the fact that the BVNA has experienced a significant loss of permanent staff since at least December 2021, destabilizing homecare service access and posing a serious risk to the continuity of patient care.

The clinicians voted to unionize in December 2021 and started negotiations for its first contract in early 2022. It includes nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech therapists, and social workers and has more than 40 members.
In today's fast-paced work environment, it is easy to get caught up in the pursuit of productivity at the expense of employee well-being. It goes without saying that engaged employees make for a happier workplace, producing better results.

Lenovo's "People First" program sets it apart as a technology company committed to prioritizing the needs of its customers and employees. This initiative encourages volunteerism, empowering employees to extend care beyond the workplace and make a positive difference in the community.

We believe that people are the most important factor to Lenovo's success, said Michael Ngan, General Manager of Lenovo Philippines. Even the best strategies will not work unless everyone is at the top of their physical and mental game  this includes feeling inspired to make a difference. Lenovo Philippines is driven by a vision thats inherently inclusive: Smarter Technology for all. Ultimately, there is no all unless the whole community is engaged and well taken care of, he added.

Keeping this philosophy at its core, Lenovo has created an environment where employees feel valued, supported, and inspired to contribute beyond their professional roles. Some employees who have felt the profound impact of volunteering through the People First program shared their personal stories.

Lenovo Philippines teamed up with One Meralco Foundation to donate laptops for the latters School Electrification Program.

One of the initiatives, in collaboration with One Meralco Foundations School Electrification Program, involved donating laptops to school teachers who lack resources. Lenovo Philippines Commercial Marketing Manager, Anna Abola, shared a personal reflection on her involvement in the program. "I never knew it was possible to marry my passion for technology with a greater cause until I volunteered in our company's People First Program. I had the privilege of witnessing the profound impact of this deed, as I observed the excitement on the students' faces while they explored the Lenovo laptops provided. It helped me realize how a simple act can have far-reaching consequences."

Lenovo Philippines organized its very first medical mission in partnership with the Down Syndrome Association of the Philippines, Inc. (DSAPI)

Additionally, Janine Librea and Leslie Dimayuga-Satumba of Lenovo Philippines expressed how grateful they were to participate in initiatives like this, emphasizing how it has increased their awareness of the needs and challenges underprivileged communities face. Through the program, they had the opportunity to volunteer at a local women's shelter. Reflecting on this hands-on experience, they shared, This was an eye-opener for us. Witnessing their resilience inspired us to do more." Motivated by what they saw, Janine and Leslie took the initiative to organize donation drives within the company. "Their responses were overwhelming, with contributions pouring in not only from the IT department but also from other colleagues. It showed us that even small acts of compassion can have a big impact when we work together. Lenovo's People First program has made me a champion for those in need, they added.

Lenovo PH executives sail to Iloilo for the School Electrification Program

Last month, Lenovo teamed up with the Down Syndrome Association of the Philippines, Inc. (DSAPI) for their very first medical mission together. The partnership was established since 2015, with a primary focus on organizing music and dance activities. With the dedication of the volunteer doctors and nurses from the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital (UP PGH), Lenovo was able to provide medical assistance to around 70 children with Down Syndrome. This achievement encouraged Lenovo Philippines to make this an annual tradition and possibly extend its reach even to senior citizens in marginalized communities.

Ngan remarked that employees are very enthusiastic about volunteering for CSR activities. To date, the company has successfully engaged over 50 employees in its initiatives. Through its People First program, Lenovo Philippines sets an example for other organizations by showing that a culture of care, volunteerism, and enjoyment can coexist to create a thriving and successful workplace.
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Tim Westwood has been interviewed for a fourth time by police following sexual misconduct allegations, it was announced on Thursday (26 October).

In April last year, an investigation by The Guardian and BBC News saw seven women accuse Westwood of sexual misconduct and predatory behaviour. He denied all of the allegations, with his spokesperson saying they were completely false.

A further joint investigation in July found 10 more women make allegations of sexual abuse, sexual misconduct and inappropriate behaviour against Westwood. He has been accused of using his position to exploit women, many of whom are Black.

The 66-year-old former BBC Radio 1 DJ stepped down from his show on Capital Xtra after the first investigation was published.

The Metropolitan Police said officers are investigating accusations of offences alleged to have happened between 1982 and 2016.

The force did not name the radio presenter in their statement.

Tim Westwood has been interviewed for a fourth time under police caution (PA Archive)

In a statement on Thursday, the force said: Police are investigating a number of reports relating to allegations of non-recent sexual offences allegedly committed by a man.

The offences are alleged to have occurred in London between 1982 and 2016.

The statement said a man had been interviewed under caution four times between March 15 and October 25 this year, adding that no arrest had been made.

The BBC started an external inquiry in 2022 into what was known about Westwoods conduct during his time at the corporation.

Westwood began his career on local radio before joining Capital Radio in London.

He then joined the BBC and left Radio 1 and Radio 1Xtra in 2013 after nearly 20 years.

Westwood hosted a regular Saturday show on Capital Xtra, where he was referred to as The Big Dawg before leaving the company last year.

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A statement from a representative of Westwood, released in 2022, said: Tim Westwood strongly denies all allegations of inappropriate behaviour.

In a career that has spanned 40 years, there have never been any complaints made against him officially or unofficially.

Tim Westwood strongly rejects all allegations of wrongdoing.

His representatives have been contacted for further comment.

If you have been raped or sexually assaulted, you can contact your nearest Rape Crisis organisation for specialist, independent and confidential support. For more information, visit their website here.

Additional reporting from the Press Association
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Police in China rescued over a thousand cats from being slaughtered and passed off as pork or mutton in illegal meat trade.

The local police intercepted a truck carrying the felines in Zhangjiagang county in Jiangsu province after receiving information sent by animal lovers about a "cat car".

The rescued cats were sent to a nearby shelter, Chinese state media The Paper reported.

Activists on 12 October alerted the police to a "cat car"  a term locally used for dealers in trucks who hunt and sell cat meat  after tracking the vehicle for nearly a week.

The group monitored the dealers' movement after discovering dozens of nailed-up wooden crates containing around 20 yowling cats each being held up in a cemetery, according to the report.

The activists stopped the vehicle earlier this month when the cats were being loaded onto the truck and called the police for assistance.

The cats could have raked in as much as 16,885. Cat meat is sold at 4.5 yuan (0.51) a pound but at the market, mutton can be sold for 30 yuan (3.38) a pound, activist Gong Jian told The Paper.

Selling a skinned cat weighing around four to five pounds as mutton or pork, (the dealers) get to keep the entire price difference as profit."

The group of activists said they had previously discovered a slaughterhouse in south-eastern province Guangdong, where skinned frozen cat meat was stored.

As long as there is something to be gained, a profit, there will be people who do whatever it takes, Mr Gong said.

Selling cat meat is illegal in China, but according to a report by Animal Equality, an estimated four million cats are killed for human consumption every year.

Han Jiali, who began tracking the cat cars after her pet was allegedly abducted, claimed that local authorities have told her that cats do not fall under the protection of the law and public resources cannot be allocated for their care post-rescue.

(The dealers) invaded my property, and took my emotions to Guangdong to be eaten, she said.

In August 2022, members of a gang of cat thieves were arrested for stealing 150 felines by using sparrows so they could be sold for meat.
China has upgraded its digital renminbi payment services as part of the countrys efforts to improve the profile of its digital currency and make the payment process more user-friendly for foreigners.

As mobile payment has become the dominant means of payment in China, such steps will offer foreigners a better experience during their visit to or stay in the country, experts said, adding that more measures are expected to further promote the digital fiat currency.

The newly launched recharge before use feature on the e-CNY app allows foreigners to replenish the wallet of the app using online services of global payment networks Visa and Mastercard.

Foreigners can also go to bank service outlets to recharge the digital RMB wallet with cash. If there is a balance left in the digital wallet afterward, it can be returned to the foreign bank card or account that was used for topping up.

Previously, foreigners in China could not top up their e-CNY wallets in advance. They could only do so on the spot when making payments.

The new function allows foreigners to use more convenient online payment methods, such as quick pay, just like domestic users. Also, it shortens the payment duration, makes the operation simpler and smoother, improves payment efficiency, reduces waiting time due to foreign card verification and enhances the overall payment experience.

With the upgrade, foreigners can use their e-CNY wallets both at brick-and-mortar merchants capable of accepting the digital currency under trial programmes and on online platforms such as ride-hailing app Didi, takeaway service provider Meituan, travel portal Ctrip and e-commerce platform JD.

Dong Ximiao, chief researcher at Merchants Union Consumer Finance, said that the upgrade will not only create a more convenient payment environment for foreigners in China, but will also help test the e-CNY platform and promote the digital currency internationally.

Zhou Maohua, an analyst at China Everbright Bank, said the upgrade will benefit foreigners and increase the presence of e-CNY in cross-border transaction scenarios.

China has been developing the digital version of the fiat currency since 2014 under trial programmes.

As of May 31 2023, around 264 million e-CNY transactions were made in trial regions, totaling 83 billion yuan (9.3 billion), according to the Peoples Bank of China, the countrys central bank.

Zhou Mi, a senior researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation in Beijing, said that China always welcomed foreign consumers, and there was still room for improvement in areas such as cross-border payment.

In another development, Chinese financial technology company Ant Group introduced seven new leading digital wallets and payment apps from Asia to the Chinese mainland, bringing the total number of overseas digital wallets accepted on the mainland to 10.

The company said that users of overseas digital wallets, such as HiPay of Mongolia and Changi Pay of Singapore, will be able to use their domestic mobile e-wallets to enjoy a seamless payment experience on the mainland across Alipays vast merchant network.
For decades, the oxygen plant in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, was a symbol of the citys industrialisation and economic development. Sprawling over more than 148 acres, the vast complex is now taking on a brand-new existence.

In accordance with changing requirements for urban development and industrial upgrading, the factory has been moving operations to more suburban areas of the city since 2008. Now, the municipal government has decided to repurpose the site and make it an international platform for promoting culture and tourism.

Part of this involves the creation of the O2 Museum, comprising an urban museum as well as an art and science museum. Although it is scheduled to open officially in 2024 , it recently offered visitors a sneak peek of what to expect with an exhibition and accompanying series of forums.

As visitors enter the exhibition, MVRDV Green Factory, they find the exhibition hall is also covered in greenery, and a banner at the entrance greets them with the words: Welcome to the green city.

Running until 31 December 2023, the exhibition is about the work of Dutch architectural firm MVRDV, with a particular focus on the Green Dip research project undertaken by The Why Factory, a think tank set up by the Dutch firms founding partner, Winy Maas.

Explaining the Green Dip concept, Maas uses the analogy of dipping ice cream in chocolate to enhance its flavour.

The exhibition hall is covered by greenery (PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

I imagine cities being dipped in greenery to make them better. I have always dreamed that cities could be like that in the future, maybe Hong Kong, maybe Beijing, maybe Hangzhou, Maas said during his speech at the opening ceremony of the exhibition.

With scale models, descriptions, images and an immersive film, the exhibition presents an overview of the work The Why Factory has undertaken to turn its vision of transforming cities with greenery into reality.

To turn these images into reality in a practical manner, The Why Factory has been developing the Greenmaker tool, which, through meticulous calculation, designs reinforced structures that permit vegetation to grow throughout buildings, thus contributing to carbon neutrality. Projects ranging from individual buildings to the planning of urban areas have been carried out achieving the green reality Maas envisions.

Since 2000, the Dutch architectural firm has been involved in projects in several major Chinese cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou.

The current Hangzhou project dates back to 2019, when Maas and Weng Ling, art curator and founder of the Beijing-based cultural company IDEAS, worked on the master plan for a demonstration area in the northern part of the city near the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, where the former oxygen plant is located.

Our urban planning projects integrate the IDEAS concept  the integration and innovation of art and science to create an ideal future for people, cities and nature, Weng said. We are blending different forms of art and creative expression, as well as interdisciplinary creation and presentation, into an envisioned future space.

In tandem with the exhibition, a series of IDEAS Envisioning the Future forums took place in mid-September, drawing experts from fields including design, education, art and science.

Covering topics ranging from art and science, and the power of art and design, to innovation for good, and humanity and lifestyle, guest speakers discussed popular contemporary topics, as well as ways to facilitate the creation of future societies and urban construction in creative and innovative ways.

By inviting dozens of internationally known artists, architects and scientists to Hangzhou for an intense two-day session, the aim of the event was to bring international vision, an open attitude and a wealth of resources to the city.

We hope that the invitees will bring us new ideas, methods and references, Weng said, adding that in the future, forums and lectures will be hosted in the revamped spaces, and experts from all over the world will be invited to speak, to infuse new vitality into the city.
Hanfu, the traditional Chinese attire, has gained popularity as a symbol of Chinese culture, captivating enthusiasts worldwide.

Rian Neves, 29, a Brazilian, was fascinated by Chinas vibrant history and diverse culture when he arrived in the country more than five years ago.

Growing up with his grandparents in Rio de Janeiro, he joined the military after completing his education. However, he soon felt the need for a change in his life, prompting him to make a life-changing decision to move to China.

He knew little Chinese, and the stark differences in culture, cuisine, environment and way of life sent him into culture shock.

At the time my English was not good, and I could barely speak anything in Chinese. I felt very lonely as a new arrival.

To overcome this disorientation Rian engaged with Chinese friends who introduced him to various facets of Chinese culture. Through their companionship and frequent outings his interest in Chinese culture gradually increased, and he began to feel more at ease.

In 2019 he and his friends stumbled upon a group of young Chinese individuals dressed in hanfu near picturesque West Lake in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. Impressed by the flamboyant hanfu style, he developed a fascination for this costume.

He later moved to Xian in Shaanxi province, the starting point of the ancient Silk Road, where he discovered a multitude of people donning traditional costumes while exploring historical sites, taking pictures and shooting short videos.

My friends told me: Rian, just have a try. And what if we make a channel about you dressing up in hanfu, and lets see where we can go. So I began to do the makeup and shot my first video.

Encouraged by his friends, he decided to try this experiment and document his experiences. He embarked on his first video shoot last year, applying make-up and presenting himself in a hanfu ensemble on Chinese social media platforms, receiving words of encouragement from Chinese viewers.

Rian now has more than 15,000 followers on Xiaohongshu, a lifestyle platform popular with young people in China.

Initially he had only a broad understanding of Chinas extensive history and profound culture, he said, but now he has a more intricate understanding of such matters.

Throughout this journey I have gradually enhanced my knowledge of hanfu and China. Now I can distinguish between various hanfu styles from different dynasties, and I particularly adore the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

Rians hanfu videos have drawn numerous positive comments from Chinese viewers, and these act as a source of inspiration for this hanfu enthusiast to continue his endeavours.

He eventually plans to explore various locations in China and delve into diverse local cultures, particularly those of ethnic groups, he said.

In addition to creating hanfu videos as before, I intend to showcase more Chinese cultural elements. For example, I want to reveal how traditional costumes are made by Chinese people, and share the historical significance behind the process.

A woman dressed in hanfu paints on a Chinese fan in Huzhou, Zhejiang province (XINHUA)

The same passion for hanfu has driven JongMay Urbonya, originally from the United States, to establish her own business with the aim of promoting Chinese dressing.

JongMay was born in China but spent her elementary to high school years in the US before returning to China to pursue a degree in Chinese dance. Since then she has been living in Beijing for more than 10 years.

In April last year she founded a company focusing on promoting traditional Chinese culture through social media videos, inspired by her love for hanfu.

Recalling her college days, she said wearing hanfu was seen as a niche hobby for which the garments had to be tailor-made. However, today she incorporates hanfu into her wardrobe and buys a variety of hanfu costumes online.

Through their ongoing efforts, enthusiasts like Rian and JongMay are building bridges between cultures and fostering a deeper appreciation for the beauty and richness of traditional Chinese attire.
Heads of several multinational companies have said that they will continue to invest in China due to the countrys strategic importance in their global operations, as Chinas Vice-Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen reiterated that the Chinese government pays high attention to foreign-invested enterprises.

Wang said at a recent seminar on foreign trade that the position of the Chinese government on expanding, opening up and attracting foreign investment remains unchanged, with the commitment to further increasing market access, protecting the property rights of foreign-invested enterprises and creating a sound business environment.

The seminar, held in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, coincided with the 134th session of the China Import and Export Fair, or Canton Fair, which opened in the city on 15 October 2023.

Foreign-invested enterprises play an important role in the development of Chinas foreign trade. The country will provide them with more opportunities in their effort to explore the Chinese market and expand foreign trade, with multiple comprehensive advantages including the vast market, well-established supply chain and clustered talent and technology, Wang added.

Speaking on the sidelines of the fair, Zhao Bingdi, president of Panasonic Corp China, said that Panasonic is committed to its development in China and has made new investments in 14 bases since 2020.

Nearly 30 per cent of Panasonics business in China is export-oriented, Zhao said, adding that China has a comprehensive industrial chain and that its advantage in R&D and innovation has become increasingly prominent in recent years. Panasonic hopes to further strengthen its R&D in China and anticipates greater development in the country, he said.

Zhaos views were echoed by delegates attending the 35th International Business Leaders Advisory Council for the Mayor of Shanghai on 15 October.

Stefan Paul, CEO of global logistics giant Kuehne+Nagel International AG, said the companys commitment to China remained resolute, which is evident in its most recent investments in two facilities that became operational in Chengdu, Sichuan province, in May. The facilities, built for animal healthcare firm Elanco, comprise a 32,300-sq-ft manufacturing warehouse and a 129,200-sq-ft distribution centre for finished products.

China has evolved into a leader in several transformative industries, including new mobility and renewable energy, presenting compelling opportunities for us to collaborate with industry leaders and export their technology and products worldwide. To facilitate this, we will continue investing in our people, technology and expertise within China, focusing on Shanghai, said Paul, who is attending the event in Shanghai in person for the first time.

Apart from its regional headquarters and three trading companies in Shanghai, United States agriculture and food company Cargill has built an innovation centre, a shared service centre, an oil seed crushing plant, three feed mills and a food technology company in the Yangtze River Delta region. According to Cargills executive chair of the board David MacLennan, each of these investments required confidence in the regions industrial ecosystem and continued access to regional and global supply chains.

China occupies a prominent position in Cargills global strategy. Cargill needs Shanghai to function as a highly efficient and rule-based hub connecting China to the world, he said. On top of that, multinational corporations in China depend on efficient industrial capabilities and reliable infrastructure, he added.

Miguel Angel Lopez Borrego, CEO of German industrial giant Thyssenkrupp AG, said that Chinas huge market and strong global impact inevitably influence multinational companies decisions on industrial chain layout.

China has comprehensive upstream and downstream resources, a substantial pool of technological talent, an extremely powerful industrial chain and a resilient and flexible supply chain, he said.

According to the Shanghai municipal government, 940 multinational companies had set up their regional headquarters in the city as of the end of the third quarter, of which 49 were ventures launched this year. The number of foreign-funded regional R&D centres stands at 551.
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A Chinese fighter jet came dangerously close to a US bomber over the South China Sea, the US military has said, amid concerns over Beijing's growing aggression around the disputed waters.

A Chinese J-11 twin-engine fighter jet came within 10 feet of the American B-52 aircraft nearly causing an accident on 24 October, the US military said in a statement.

The Chinese jet flew in front and below the American bomber in an "unsafe and unprofessional manner" with uncontrolled excessive speed" that put both aircraft in "danger of collision", the military added.

"We are concerned this pilot was unaware of how close he came to causing a collision."

The incident took place at a time when the relationship between the worlds two largest economies is strained over a range of issues including Taiwan, China's human rights record and its increased military activity in the South China Sea.

Beijing has asserted claims to the entire sea as its own, denying the claims of other Southeast Asian countries and defying an international ruling. In order to assert its sovereignty, China continues to fortify islands in the disputed region.

The Chinese foreign ministry responded by pinning the blame on the US, accusing it of flying the aircraft over the sea in an effort to deliberately provoke.

File: A US Air Force B-52 bomber flies during the Seoul International Aerospace and Defense Exhibition 2023 (AP)

The US military planes traveled thousands of miles to Chinas doorstep to flex muscle, said foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning. That is the source of maritime and air security risks, and is not conducive to regional peace and stability.

The US military argued that the aircraft was lawfully conducting routine operations ahead of the incident on Tuesday, but did not immediately respond to questions about specifically what the B-52 was doing over the South China Sea.

After a similar incident in May, the Chinese government dismissed American complaints and demanded that Washington end such flights over the South China Sea.

Last week a Chinese coast guard ship and an accompanying vessel rammed a Philippine coast guard vessel and a military-run supply boat off a contested shoal in the waterway.

Following that incident, US president Joe Biden renewed a warning that the US would be obliged to defend the Philippines, its oldest treaty ally in Asia, if Filipino forces, aircraft or vessels come under armed attack.

China responded by saying the US had no right to interfere in Beijings disputes with Manila.

Intercepts are common, with the US saying that there have been more than 180 such incidents since the autumn of 2021, the Associated Press reported.
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IT billionaire NR Narayana Murthy has sparked a raging debate in India after he said young people needed to work for 70 hours a week to raise productivity.

The co-founder of Infosys, who is also the father-in-law of UKs prime minister Rishi Sunak, said during a YouTube interview that India needed highly determined, extremely disciplined and extremely hardworking youngsters.

He went on to say that the youth should be ready to put in long hours at work  comments that led to a massive online backlash.

You know, this is exactly what the Germans and Japanese did after the Second World War, Mr Murthy told Mohandas Pai, the former CFO of Infosys, during the chat shared on YouTube.

Somehow our youth have the habit of taking not-so-desirable habits from the West and then not helping the country, Mr Murthy said. Indias work productivity is one of the lowest in the world.

He continued: We need to be disciplined and improve our work productivity. I think unless we do that, what can poor government do? And every government is as good as the culture of the people. And our culture has to change to that of highly determined, extremely disciplined and extremely hard-working people.

He said: Our youngsters must say  this is my country. I want to work 70 hours a week.

In several countries, the standard work week typically comprises 35 to 40 hours  nine hours per day for five days a week. In India, people in several sectors work for six days a week.

Many online commentators disagreed with Mr Murthys comments on the number of hours a person should be working every week. However, CEOs of some companies supported him.

Totally agree with Mr Murthys views. Its not our moment to work less and entertain ourselves. Rather its our moment to go all in and build in one generation what other countries have built over many generations, Bhavish Aggarwal, CEO of cab-hailing app Ola, said in a post on X.

Million dollar question is- are companies ready to pay more for the extra hours taken from the life of employees?

How their personal life, family life & social life will get affected by such schedules, need to be kept in mind before milking employees for growth of company.  Abhay (@yabhay17) October 27, 2023

Million-dollar question is  are companies ready to pay more for the extra hours taken from the life of employees? wrote one user on X. How their personal life, family life & social life will get affected by such schedules, need to be kept in mind before milking employees for growth of the company.

Another said: NM [Narayana Murthy] wants the youth to work for 11 hours and 45 minutes per day for 6 days a week, at a time when AI [artificial intelligence] is reducing human intervention in everyday life. He should also opine on where the jobs will come from.

X user Saad Jamal pointed out: While such dedication can fast-track learning and productivity, it must be driven by genuine passion and a thirst for knowledge. In the digital age, its about working smarter, not just harder. If young professionals arent enjoying what they do or gaining fresh insights, those extra hours might not be as valuable.

Boosting productivity isn't just about working longer hours. It's about getting better at what you do - Upskilling, having a positive work environment and fair pay for the work done.



Quality of work done > clocking in more hours https://t.co/mbEQA0TriA  Ronnie Screwvala (@RonnieScrewvala) October 26, 2023

Ronnie Screwvala, founder of a startup called upGrad and a Bollywood film producer, disagreed with Mr Murthy: Boosting productivity isnt just about working longer hours. Its about getting better at what you do  upskilling, having a positive work environment and fair pay for the work done.

He wrote on X: Quality of work done > clocking in more hours.

According to several research findings, productivity and focus tend to decline after a certain number of hours per day and this can vary from person to person.

Jack Ma of Alibaba in 2019 endorsed Chinas 996 work culture  working from 9am to 9pm, six days a week  and spoke of the rewards of hard work.

At the time, the state-run newspaper Peoples Daily wrote in a commentary: Advocating hard work and commitment does not mean forcing overtime. The mandatory enforcement of 996 overtime culture not only reflects the arrogance of business managers but also is unfair and impractical.

Recently as a rebellion against the 996 culture, Chinese youths started a trend called tang ping or lying flat . In 2021, the trend peaked when young Chinese people participated in the online social protest in droves, meant to express their disillusionment with hustle culture by lying flat.

The trend of tang ping was meant to reject the culture of overwork that forces Chinese youngsters to work for longer hours with little reward.

In the post-pandemic world, workers were also  quiet-quitting  their jobs  which meant they were unlikely to go above and beyond and establishing firm boundaries between their personal time and office hours.

Economic Policy Institute, in a report published last year in October, said that the CEO pay has skyrocketed 1,460 per cent since 1978 and that CEOs were paid 399 times as much as a typical worker in 2021.

In India, a report published last year in May by Crisil Research said that CEOs get paid 130 times more than a regular employee in India Inc.
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NatWest Groups decision to shut down Nigel Farages Coutts account showed serious failings in its treatment of the politician, an independent investigation has found.

But the probe also concluded that the move to shut the ex-Ukip leaders bank account was both lawful and mainly a commercial decison.

Law firm Travers Smith  asked to review the banking giant in the wake of the Farage debanking saga  found the main failure was in how Coutts treated confidential information.

Coutts considered its relationship with Mr Farage to be commercially unviable because it was significantly loss-making, it said.

Mr Farage claims his account was shut because his political beliefs. The Brexit campaigner has called for NatWest to cut the severance pay of former boss Dame Alison Rose  accusing her of overseeing a woke culture at the bank.

Dame Alison resigned earlier this year after admitting a serious error of judgment by discussing with a BBC journalist Mr Farages relationship with Coutts, which is owned by NatWest Group.

The latest report follows a finding by the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) that Dame Alison had infringed on Mr Farages data protection rights when talking to the BBC journalist about him.

Mr Farage said he would now push the ICO to take further action against Dame Alison after the watchdog said it was waiting for the independent probe by Travers Smith to conclude.

At every level they [NatWest and Coutts] have lied, theyve twisted, theyve tried to change the narrative and frankly the whole bank is a shambles, he told BBC Radio 4s Today programmme.

Nigel Farage says ex-NatWest chief pursued woke agenda (PA Archive)

In an angry tirade against the bank earlier this week, Mr Farage revealed a series of internal documents he obtained  which referred to him a crackpot, sketchy and a fool.

Mr Farage was also described in one of the emails as an awful human being, while another said they would have paid a significant sum to have been the one to tell the GB News presenter his account was shut.

Mr Farage said Dame Alison had dragged its name through the mud and introduced a woke agenda at the bank, as well as breaking data protection laws by discussing his account with the BBC.

The ex-Ukip leader and GB News presenter added: To reward these failings with a massive sum of money would be wrong. It is clear that, to some NatWest group staff, my debanking was a great big joke.

Dame Alison Rose, who resigned as chief executive of NatWest (PA Wire)

The Travers Smith report is the first stage of the probe which was commissioned by the NatWest board in July.

Commenting on the Travers Smith report this morning, Dame Alison said it confirms everything I told the [NatWest] board in July was correct.

The former bank chief added: Both Travers Smith and the Information Commissioners Office have concluded that I inadvertently confirmed what had already been widely reported, that Mr Farage held an account at Coutts.

The ICO also concluded the impact around this specific disclosure was minimal.

Travers Smith is clear that there was no leak of specific detailed financial information. Travers Smith also confirmed I knew nothing about the comments made by Coutts staff about Mr Farage, which were deeply unpleasant and unfair.

Responding to the findings, NatWests chairman Sir Howard Davies said: This report sets out a number of serious failings in the treatment of Mr Farage.

Although Travers Smith confirm the lawful basis for the exit decision, the findings set out clear shortcomings in how it was reached as well as failures in how we communicated with him and in relation to client confidentiality.

The NatWest boss added: We apologise once again to Mr Farage for how he has been treated. His experience fell short of the standards that any customer should expect.

The City regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), said the latest report has highlighted potential regulatory breaches and a number of areas for improvement.

The report comes at a sensitive time for NatWest, which is due to announce quarterly results on Friday. The banks board is also set to discuss her severance package, which could reportedly be more than 10m in pay, stock and bonuses.
 Close Acapulco left decimated after Hurricane Otis

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Fears are growing for the four people missing in Acapulco after a nightmare Category-5 hurricane ripped through the city.

At least 27 people are dead and four people are missing after Hurricane Otis brought 165mph winds and torrential rainfall to Acapulco on Wednesday.

Flora Contreras Santos, a housewife who lives on the outskirts of the city, told of her fear after her three-year-old neighbor was swept away from her mother in a mudslide.

The mountain came down on them. The mud took her from the mothers arms, she told the Associated Press. We need help, the mother is in bad shape and we cant find the girl.

Meanwhile, Guerrero Governor Evelyn Salgado Pineda announced the establishment of a WhatsApp line to help people contact their families after communications went down in Acapulco on Wednesday.

Otis is the strongest ever storm to make landfall on Mexicos west coast. The hurricane underwent explosive intensification from a Category 1 to Category 5 in just 12 hours, catching forecasters by surprise. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) described it as a nightmare scenario for the region.
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Two years before Hurricane Otis ripped through Guerrero State, Mexico cut its disaster relief fund.

The decision has left much uncertainty as to how the region will recover from the Category 5 storm which left 27 people dead and at least $10billion in damage in the city of Acapulco and neighboring villages.

Mexicos Fund for Natural Disasters, known as Fonden, was set up in the late Nineties, taking a small portion of the federal budget in order to rapidly respond to natural disasters. It was widely admired as a progressive move.

But when left-wing populist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador made cost-cutting part of his political platform after he came to office in 2018, the fund was cut.

Now, without dedicated allocation of the federal budget for disaster relief, the money available fluctuates each year.

The president, popularly known as Amlo, justified his decision at the time, claiming Fonden was an instrument riddled with corruption, whose funds did not reach the people.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obradors vehicle is stuck in mud during a visit to the Kilometro 42 community, near Acapulco, Guerrero State, Mexico, after the passage of Hurricane Otis, on October 25, 2023 (AFP via Getty Images)

Two years later, at a press briefing in the wake of Otis, the president reiterated this claim and accused critics of his decision to cut the fund of playing politics, the Washington Post reported.

Why are we talking about this if we havent even begun the [relief] activities? he said. We are clearing fallen trees, looking for missing people, and they have this politically motivated attitude.

He also insisted the government has a budget to respond to the disaster. We have guaranteed resources for this, he said. When the people of Mexico need support, the entire public budget can be used, he added.

View of damage in the beach area of Acapulco on Thursday after Hurricane Otis (AFP via Getty Images)

Otis was the strongest ever storm to make landfall on Mexicos west coast. The hurricane underwent explosive intensification from a Category 1 to Category 5 in just 12 hours, leaving the city little time to prepare.

The hurricane made landfall shortly after midnight on Wednesday in Acapulco with 165mph winds and torrential rain.

At least 27 people are dead and four are missing.

Some 80 per cent of the citys hotels were destroyed, and not a single power line was left standing, leaving residents without electricity, cell phone service, or running water.

A man walks on a looted supermarket after the passage of Hurricane Otis (AFP via Getty Images)

There was also reports of widespread looting. You cant buy anything in Acapulco, not even if you want to, one resident told AP.

As recovery efforts continue, frustrations are growing at the slow speed of the governments response to the hurricane, with some 250,000 homes and businesses still without electricity on Thursday.

Lopez Obrador admitted that the government response had been hampered by the hurricanes impacts during his visit to the city on Thursday.

When is the government ever going to look after the common people? one resident asked.
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Bella Hadid posted a written statement to her Instagram condemning the Hamas attacks and advocating for the innocent lives of Palestinians amid Israel airstrikes in Gaza.

The supermodel shared a post on Instagram asking the public to forgive her for her silence amid the Hamas terror attacks and Israeli retaliation, telling her followers that she struggled to find the ideal words to respond to the deeply intricate and horrific events of the past two weeks.

She explained that amid being sent hundreds of death threats daily and her phone number being leaked, she and her family have felt unsafe. Despite these risks, Hadid wrote that fear is not an option, and added, The people and children of Palestine, especially in Gaza, cannot afford our silence. We are not brave  they are.

My heart is bleeding with pain from the trauma I am seeing unfold, as well as the generational trauma of my Palestinian blood, she continued. Seeing the aftermath from the airstrikes in Gaza, I mourn with all the mothers who have lost children and the children who cry alone, all the lost fathers, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunties, friends that will never again walk this earth.

The Dior ambassador added that she mourned for the Israeli families who suffered loss and pain in the aftermath of the 7 October Hamas attacks. I condemn the terrorist attacks on any civilians, anywhere, she wrote.

Harming women and children and inflicting terror does not and should not do any good for the Free Palestine movement, she noted. I believe deep in my heart, that no child, no people anywhere, should be taken away from their family either temporarily or indefinitely. She added, This goes for Israeli and Palestinian people alike.

In light of the ongoing conflict, Hadid underscored the importance of understanding the hardship of what it is to be Palestinian, in a world that sees us as nothing more than terrorists resisting peace. She said that these notions were categorically untrue.

Hadid went on to describe her fathers experience as a native Palestinian, who was born in Nazareth in 1948, the year of the what Palestinians call the Nakba, in which 750,000 Palestinians were displaced. She said her fathers family was expelled from Palestine and forced to become refugees.

The supermodel wrote that for 75 years, her family had witnessed brutal settler invasions that included the destruction of entire communities as well as cold-blooded murder and the forcible removal of families from their homes. This had caused unimaginable pain, she said.

We must all stand together in defending humanity and compassion  and demanding that our leaders do the same, she urged her followers. All religions are peace  it is governments that are corrupt, and intertwining the two makes for the greatest sin of all. We are one and God has created all equal. All bloodshed, tears, and bodies should be mourned with the same respect.

She added: There is an urgent humanitarian crisis in Gaza that must be attended to. Families need access to water and food. Hospitals need fuel to power generators, tend to the wounded and keep people alive.

Hadid wrote that even during war laws must be upheld, no matter the circumstance. She encouraged her followers to keep pressure on world leaders to remind them of the Palestinian plight so that fewer innocent civilians would end up the forgotten casualties of this war.

In the past, Hadid has taken public stances, standing with the Free Palestine movement. In May 2021, she received public backlash for attending a Pro-Palestine march in New York City along with her sister Gigi and Dua Lipa, who was dating her brother Anwar at the time. She was the target of an ad placed by the World Values Network in the New York Times condemning her support of Palestine, saying: Hamas calls for a second Holocaust. Condemn them now.

The controversy led to calls for brands like Dior to drop Hadid as an ambassador, which was largely ignored.

Hadid has also notably condemned antisemitism, indirectly commenting on Twitter, now known as X, on Kanye Wests disturbing death con 3 on Jewish people remarks.

At the time, the model wrote: To allow any form of anti-semitism to slip by, as desensitized as the world has become, it would be a disservice to my friends, the families I have grown up with, the people I love and work with, myself, and even the Palestinian cause as a whole.
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Sam Asghari and Britney Spears may not be together anymore, but he has nothing negative to say about being mentioned in the pop stars newly released memoir, The Woman in Me.

While the Grammy winners memoir looked back on her career and life - including her 13-year-long conservatorship - it did not feature her split from Asghari, which might explain why he has no hard feelings towards his ex-wife of 14 months.

Following their split in August, TMZ reported at the time that the book wouldnt include details of Spears and Asgharis separation, citing sources with direct knowledge. The outlet claimed that Spears gave her final sign-off to publisher Simon and Schuster back in early August, meaning she had no right to demand any further changes at the time of their divorce announcement.

Throughout the book, Spears consistently had nice things to say about Asghari, including calling him a gift from God. An excerpt from the memoir reads: I have an appreciation for how stable he is. I love that he doesnt drink. Hes a gift from God. And to find out that he and I were about to have a child together made me feel giddy.

According to Page Six, the Iranian-American fitness instructor recently gushed over Spears praise. That made me smile, to be honest, he said. Im freakin proud of her, and I hope she takes over the world.

In another line, Spears called her ex-husband an inspiration, writing: Hes such an inspiration and Im grateful.

The timing of the end of the conservatorship was perfect for our relationship; we were able to establish a new life together, without limitations, and get married, she said.

Before the memoir was released on Tuesday 24 October, Asghari revealed that he read the book before its release and that he wasnt worried about being painted in a negative light. I already read it and Im very proud of her, he toldTMZ. She put a lot of work into it, and it was very hard. Im definitely excited, and Im extremely proud of her. It was a very tough one [to write].

The model added that when the book came out, he would be the first in line to buy a copy of the memoir.

The former couple was only married for 14 months before they announced their divorce in August 2023. In a statement posted online, Asghari said he and Spears will hold onto the love and respect they have for each other, after filing for divorce after a year of marriage.

Asghari, 29, acknowledged that asking for privacy seems ridiculous, but asked that both the media and the public be kind and thoughtful.

According to court documents filed in Los Angeles, Asghari cited irreconcilable differences as the reason for the divorce and revealed they separated in July, three weeks before their divorce was announced.

In a post on his Instagram Stories on Thursday 17 August, Asghari wrote: After six years of love and commitment to each other my wife and I have decided to end our journey together. We will hold onto the love and respect we have for each and I wish her the best always.

S*** happens. Asking for privacy seems ridiculous so I will just ask for everyone including media to be kind and thoughtful.
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Each year, at 2am on the last Sunday in October, the clocks go backwards in the UK, which signals the beginning shorter days.

This year, the clocks will go backwards at 2am on Sunday 29 October, giving us an extra hour in bed as we prepare for the colder winter months.

Although the day that the clocks go back is often welcomed as we get an extra hour in bed, the system of changing the clocks twice a year can be controversial.

In 2019, the European parliament voted to get rid of the change of clocks after a study found that 84 per cent of people in countries that took part in daylight saving time would like it to discontinue.

However, a YouGov poll found that majority of Britons were marginally in favour of keeping it, with 44 per cent voting to keep the current system and 39 per cent voting to scrap it.

There are also some health concerns linked to the time change, as some studies have shown it disrupts the bodys natural sleep cycles, which can affect both physical and mental health.

So what is the impact of turning back the clocks on our health?

How does changing the clock impact physical health?

According to the Mayo Clinic, the human brain has a biological clock, also known as a circadian rhythm, that runs on a 24-hour cycle.

Whether it is gaining an extra hour or losing an hour of sleep, this causes disruption to the sleep cycle and can be difficult for some people to adjust back to a normal schedule. Disturbed sleep could also potentially lead to a higher risk of cardiovascular disease.

A 2019 study by researchers at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital examined the impact of sleep deficiency on heart disease in mice. It found that, after 16 weeks, mice who had their sleep cycles disrupted developed larger arterial plaques compared to the mice with normal sleep patterns.

The sleep-deficient mice also had twice the level of certain white blood cells in their circulation, and lower amounts of hypocretin, a hormone that plays a key role in regulating sleep and wake states.

This appears to be the most direct demonstration yet of the molecular connections linking blood and cardiovascular risk factors to sleep health, said Dr Michael Twery, director of the National Heart, Lunch and Blood Institutes National Centre on Sleep Disorders Research in the US.

Losing an hour of sleep during the time change in the spring has been linked to a surge in heart attacks and strokes. In the US, hospitals report a 24 per cent spike in heart attack visits every year on the Monday after the clocks go forward.

Turning the clocks back means an extra hour in bed (Getty Images)

Research has also shown an increase in car accidents when the cars go back in the colder months as drivers adapt to the time change.

According to data by Zurich Insurance, drivers are more likely to have an accident between 4pm and 7pm in November, as the evenings get darker earlier. After the clocks change, the company noted a 10 to 15 per cent increase in accident volumes during that time compared to the rest of the day.

How does changing the clock impact mental health?

When the clocks go back in the autumn, we get an extra hour of daylight in the morning  however, this only lasts a couple of weeks before the days shorten and the sunrise gets later and later.

On the shortest day of the year, 21 December, the UK enjoys less than eight hours sunlight.

The increased hours of darkness can result in low mood and depression in some people, as well as fatigue, muscle pain and weakened bones due to a lack of vitamin D from exposure to sunlight.

Some people also experience seasonal affective disorder (SAD) as a result of the shorter days. According to the NHS, SAD symptoms include a persistent low mood, loss of pleasure or interest in normal everyday activities, irritability, feelings of despair or guilt, and sleeping for longer than normal.

The health service says that the lack of sunlight may stop a part of the brain called the hypothalamus from working properly, which may affect the production of melatonin (a sleep hormone) and serotonin (a mood hormone), as well as the bodys circadian rhythm.
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David Copperfield has announced his plans to make the moon disappear.

The legendary illusionist, 67, appeared on the Today show on Friday 27 October, where he revealed his next trick. Im going to make the moon disappear, he said.

The worlds highest-paid magician, who has an estimated net worth of $1bn, explained that his plans to make the moon disappear have been 30 years in the making. While it may seem like an impossible feat, Copperfield said that its all for a good cause.

Its taken 30 years of work, thats literally 30 years of our lives to develop it, he told Today, while speaking from Las Vegas. Theres multiple methods to make it work and Im collaborating with Save the Children, an amazing organisation to show the world the difference one person can make.

He continued: If one person can make the moon disappear from the sky, imagine how together we can make poverty and hunger and danger disappear for our children on Earth.

Copperfield revealed that rehearsals for the event have been going well, and hes on track to pull off the stunt in February 2024. Theyre going well, he said. In fact, Ive been testing them the past few months and people have reported seeing strange things in the sky at night, all around the country.

The magician also encouraged his fans to reach out to him on his social media accounts if they see anything weird up in the sky. In addition, Copperfield will be holding a contest for people to win a chance to see the moon vanish live and in person. He explained that details for the stunning sky-event will be revealed over the next few months on his socials.

This isnt the first time the American illusionist has attempted a jaw-dropping magic trick. Copperfield began his career in 1977 hosting a magic special on ABC, titled The Magic of ABC. He later starred in several The Magic of David Copperfield specials on CBS between 1978 and 2001, for a total of 18 television specials and two documentaries.

Some of his most famous illusions include the disappearance of a Lear jet, the vanishing of the Statue of Liberty, levitating over the Grand Canyon, walking through the Great Wall of China, escaping from Alcatraz prison, the disappearance of an Orient Express dining car, and flying on stage for several minutes.

In 1983, Copperfield invited a live audience of 20 tourists to Liberty Island in New York City, where the Statue of Liberty stands today. For the trick, he lowered a curtain to reveal the spot where the iconic statue once stood was empty. Copperfield then raised the curtain again, and when it dropped the Statue of Liberty was back in its original place.

He holds 11 Guinness World Records, including most magic shows performed in a year and highest career earnings as a magician.

Copperfield was previously engaged to supermodel Claudia Schiffer for six years. He popped the question in January 1994, but they called things off in September 1999. In February 2010, he welcomed his daughter, Sky, with current girlfriend Chloe Gosselin, a French fashion model 28 years his junior. Copperfield - whose real name is David Seth Kotkin - has two other children, a son named Dylan Jacob Kotkin and a daughter, Audrey Anna Kotkin.
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Outgoing British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful has been named the most influential Black person in the UK.

Now in its 18th year, the Powerlist is part of an annual publication designed to provide professional role models for young people of African and African Caribbean heritage.

The publication is distributed primarily to schools and universities in the hope of inspiring students.

Also on this years list 2024 is the social media entrepreneur Patricia Bright, the comedian Mo Gilligan and Dragons Den star and podcaster Steven Bartlett.

Enninfuls former colleague, chief business officer at Conde Nast Britain, Vanessa Kingori, is also on the list.

Everyone on the list will be celebrated at the Powerlist Black Excellence Awards ceremony, which takes place in London on Friday (27 October).

Enninfuls achievement comes after the news that the 51-year-old will be stepping down from his role as editor-in-chief at British Vogue. His successor is Chioma Nnadi, who was the editor of Vogues American website.

It also follows his inclusion at no. 4 on The Independent Pride List 2023, which celebrated 50 LGBT+ change-makers and their contribution to modern life.

(Stefan Ruiz / Vogue)

Enninful was awarded an OBE for services to diversity in fashion in 2016. Following his departure from Vogue, will become the publications global creative and cultural adviser, in addition to being an editorial adviser at British Vogue.

Commenting on the news, he told The Guardian: Ever since I moved back to take over British Vogue, the Powerlist has always been so supportive, always there in one shape or another.

But apart from me, its incredible that it shines a light on black people really breaking boundaries, who are unafraid and champion what it means to be truly diverse in their own industries. So, Im honoured, more than anything, to be a part of this family.

(Getty Images)

Michael Eboda, chief executive of Powerful Media, added: As we celebrate the Powerlists 18th edition I am so proud of its legacy of celebrating remarkable and inspirational black people in Britain.

We were doing it before diversity was a trend, and even now data shows that trend is sadly reversing, our commitment to recognising and celebrating the achievements of these incredible role models remains as strong as ever.

We send our huge congratulations to Edward Enninful OBE, who thoroughly deserves to top the list this year. His vision and passion for fashion and diversity has influenced the industry at a global level. Edwards impact will be felt for generations to come and for that, I applaud him.

Enninful took over as editor-in-chief at British Vogue in August 2017, making him the first Black man to take the role.

During his six years there, he continued to break boundaries across the fashion industry, championing people of all races, genders and physical abilities, and bringing some much-needed inclusivity to the industry.

However, there have been rumours of a feud between Enninful and American Vogue editor, Anna Wintour, for several years. Writing in The Mail Plus, ex-Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman claimed that despite Enninfuls international influence, he was ultimately always playing second fiddle to Wintour within the company.

He leaves amid an avalanche of rumours of rifts with Wintour, she wrote. But whether they are true or not, the announcement that he will be replaced by an editorial content director, reporting to a multi-step ladder ending in the New York office, delivers a death knell to all that I treasured about the job.

Heres the top 10 in the Powerlist 2024

1) Edward Enninful  editor-in-chief, British Vogue, and European editorial director, Vogue

2) Dean Forbes  chief executive, Forterro, and partner at Corten Capital

3) Afua Kyei  chief financial officer of Bank of England

4) Marvin Rees  mayor of Bristol

5) Tunde Olanrewaju  senior partner and managing partner, McKinsey

6) Joshua Siaw  partner at White & Case law firm

7) Syreeta Brown  group chief people and communications officer, Virgin Money UK

8) Paulette Simpson  executive, corporate affairs and public policy, Jamaica National bank and executive director, The Voice Media Group

9) Vanessa Kingori  chief business officer, Conde Nast Britain, and Vogue European business adviser

10) Simon Woolley  peer, co-founder of Operation Black Vote and principal, Homerton College, Cambridge University.
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Its no secret that women are more likely than men to be misdiagnosed by a medical professional. In fact, as many as 57 per cent of women have reported being wrongly diagnosed by a doctor.

In 2016, a study found that women have a 50 per cent higher chance than men of receiving a misdiagnosis after a heart attack, while researchers found in 2014 that 33 per cent of women are more likely than men to be misdiagnosed after a stroke.

When it comes to womens health, an explicit gender bias in medicine can lead to serious and sometimes life-threatening results. Thats why Dr Erin Nance, an orthopaedic hand and wrist surgeon located in New York City, has dedicated the month of October to sharing the most commonly misdiagnosed health conditions that affect women.

Her series has since gone viral on TikTok, as she discussed how symptoms of rare autoimmune disorders or infertility can present differently in women, leading to a misdiagnosis.

For the first video of the series, Dr Nance revealed how postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome - also known as POTS - affects more than one million people, but is present in mostly women aged 20 to 50. However, Dr Nance explained that POTS is so difficult to diagnose because we cant see it.

This is the group of women that get written off by doctors because they look healthy. There doesnt seem to be anything wrong with them, she said. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, POTS is a condition in which a reduced volume of blood returns to the heart after someone stands up from a lying down position. As a result, patients with POTS may experience an increased heart rate, dizziness, or fatigue when they stand up after lying down.

Dr Nance explained that some other symptoms of POTS include chronic fatigue, brain fog, total body chronic pain, GI [gastrointestinal] stomach issues, anxiety, headaches, and it can affect any part of your body.

Another difficulty about POTS is that theres no specific treatment to help the condition, Dr Nance said. We cant do a biopsy, we cant do any imaging, theres no blood test for it, she added.

Instead, doctors may recommend drinking more fluid, exercising regularly, or wearing compression stockings to keep blood flow in the centre of the body.

For the 14th day of her video series, Dr Nance received 1.4m views when she spoke about the commonly misdiagnosed symptoms of stroke in women. Stroke is the third leading cause of death in women, she began the clip. Yet, women are over 33 per cent more likely to be misdiagnosed when having an acute stroke.

Dr Nance admitted that most women who experience a stroke are often told by doctors that they simply have anxiety or a migraine. When it comes to the unique symptoms of stroke that are present in women, some may experience loss of consciousness or fainting; general weakness; shortness of breath; confusion, unresponsiveness, or disorientation; sudden behavioural change; agitation; hallucination; nausea or vomiting; seizures or even just hiccups.

These unique symptoms are often the ones that are overlooked, Dr Nance said, before detailing the individual risk factors that can put women at a greater chance of having a stroke. The first on the list of risk factors was taking birth control pills, followed by pregnancy, hormone replacement therapy, and history of suffering from migraines.

The reason why this is so important for everyone - every normal, everyday person - to know this is because the best outcomes are when women are evaluated and treated within three hours of having this symptom, Dr Nance added.

On day 16, the orthopedic surgeon explained how symptoms of a heart attack can also be wrongfully overlooked by doctors. More women than men die of heart disease every year, yet women have a 59 per cent increased risk of being misdiagnosed with acid reflux, stress, or anxiety, Dr Nance said.

Besides chest pain, a woman may exhibit signs of a heart attack when she experiences unusual fatigue for several days; sleep disturbances; shortness of breath; lightheadedness; nausea or cold sweats; indigestion or gas-like pain; and pain in the arm, neck, jaw, or back.

When it comes to multiple sclerosis (MS), Dr Nance revealed on day 19 of her video series that women are 83 per cent more likely to be misdiagnosed for MS by a doctor. MS is a disease that affects the myelin - the protective sheath covering the brain, nerves, and the spinal cord. According to Dr Nance, some of the often-missed signs of MS include extreme fatigue, confusion, forgetfulness, and mood swings.

As for lupus - an autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks its own tissues, causing inflammation in the body - Dr Nance shared in the 20th video of her series that women between the ages of 15 and 45 are most likely to develop the disorder. The average time from when you first develop your symptoms to diagnosis is six years, Dr Nance revealed.

She claimed that 46 per cent of patients report being misdiagnosed with something other than lupus, while 54 per cent of them were told that either nothing was wrong with them or that their symptoms were psychological.

The main problem with lupus is that the longer you go undiagnosed and untreated, then the greater risk for end organ damages, she added.

Speaking to The Independent, Dr Nance explained how she was inspired to start the TikTok series after her own experience struggling to find a diagnosis for her autoimmune disease. After contracting Covid-19, she began to experience weakness and numbness in her hand, but brushed off the strange symptoms. Her symptoms continued for about one year without a diagnosis, until doctors discovered her autoimmune condition.

It was very eye-opening, to someone whos an expert in the field to still have difficulty navigating a diagnosis for something that is an autoimmune condition, she tells The Independent.

Earlier this month, she began the TikTok series as a way to not only bring awareness and education to womens health, but also to validate women who feel like theyve been abandoned, ignored, or not taken seriously by healthcare professionals. Part of the problem with medicine and misdiagnosis is the eyes only see what the mind knows, Dr Nance said.

When it comes to making sure that both doctors and patients arent overlooking certain symptoms, Dr Nance encouraged women to be very specific about their symptoms. Its important to not accept the dead ends, she said. It starts with having a good relationship with your doctor and having open lines of communication, and thats really hard when a lot of people dont even have a primary care doctor.

With more than one million views under her belt, Dr Nances 31 for 31 series is helping raise awareness towards the most commonly misdiagnosed health conditions that affect women. However, she maintained that the ultimate goal of the series is to empower women to be the CEOs of their own healthcare.

Women need to be the CEOs of their own healthcare, she said. Were not replacing doctors, but you need to be working with your doctor and help them help you.
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Tyson Fury has explained why his job as a professional boxer means making certain sacrifices, such as missing the birth of his seventh child, Prince Rico Paris, whom he shares with his wife of 15 years, Paris.

Yes, thats correct, the 35-year-old told Kate Garraway and Adil Ray on Good Morning Britain on Friday (27 October).

But Daddy has to do what Daddy has to do, you know, he added.

Bills have to be paid and things have to be sacrificed. Paris understands that when I am in camp, I cant be there at the hospital but I got to see him in the early hours of the morning when he was born, so thats all fantastic.

Fury welcomed his newborn last month. Were over the moon to have welcomed our baby boy to the Fury family, he and his wife said at the time in a statement shared with OK! Magazine.

His brothers and sisters cant wait to meet him and create lots of Fury fun! Our boy is the most perfect addition and were bursting with love for him. Its crazy how you can love someone so quick.

The couple already share six children: Venezuela, 13, Prince John James, 10, Prince Tyson II, six, Valencia, five, Prince Adonis Amaziah, four and Athena, who is two.

Paris and Tommy Fury with their children Prince John James, Athena, Prince Tyson Fury II, Valencia Amber, Prince Adonis Amaziah and Venezuela (Netflix)

They were recently the subject of a hit Netflix documentary series, At Home With the Furys, which explored life at home for Fury, Paris and their children, who live in a 1.7m home in Morcambe.

Speaking about the decision behind his childrens unusual names, Fury told The Guardian in 2011: One night, while I was sleeping, I thought of Venezuela. My wife is called Paris. Im Tyson and [gesturing to his son] hes called Prince John James. If the girl had a normal name it wouldnt fit in, would it? I wanted to call the boy Patrick but the wife didnt want it.

Fury appeared on GMB head of his upcoming fight against Ex-UFC fighter Francis Ngannou in Saudi Arabia on Saturday.

When asked if he would continue to take his shirt off and celebrate body positivity, Fury said: I embrace the love handles, the love handles are what makes me unique, it makes me a unique fighter to have them.

I represent all the fat people around the world, all the Dad bods, all the chubsters, I fight for those people tonight!

To watch the interview and show in full visit itv.com
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Watch a live view over the Israel-Gaza border as Israeli tanks enter Gaza as part of a targeted raid on Friday (27 October).

The Israel Defence Forces said it had conducted more air strikes on Hamas terrorist targets in Gaza over the last 24 hours.

IDF ground troops, fighter jets and UAVs struck anti-tank missile launch sites, command & control centers and Hamas terrorist operatives. The troops exited the area and no injuries were reported, the Israeli military said.

Earlier, Gazas ministry of health published a list of names of 7,000 people it says have been killed by Israel in the last three weeks.

The list - which has not been verified - is more than 200 pages long and includes the age and gender of the victims.
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Maine State Police held a news conference at Lewiston City Hall to discuss the mass shooting and manhunt in Lewiston on Friday (27 October).

The manhunt to catch Maine mass shooting suspect Robert Card has now entered its third day after a dramatic raid on his home in Bowdoin ended with no arrest and no sign of the US Army Reservist.

On Thursday night, Maine police and FBI agents descended on his home and were heard shouting FBI! Open the door!, while members of the media were told to back off with their lights.

Mr Card is wanted on suspicion of murdering 18 victims and wounding 13 others in mass shootings across two locations on Wednesday night.

The gunman first targeted the Just-in-Time Recreation bowling alley and then the Schemengees Bar & Grille in Lewiston before going on the run.

Several of the victims have now been named by family members, with a teenage boy among the dead.
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The first charter flight to relocate Afghan refugees living in Pakistan has arrived in the UK.

The Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority confirmed that the first flight, carrying 132 Afghans, left the country for London on Thursday.

The move comes as thousands of people who worked with or for the UK government in Afghanistan and fled the Taliban are waiting for relocation to the UK from Pakistan.

We continue to honour our commitments to bring eligible Afghans to the UK, with new arrivals going directly into settled accommodation where possible MoD spokeswoman

Earlier this month, Parliament heard that thousands of Afghans who assisted the UK and took refuge in Pakistan with the promise of resettlement in Britain now face being deported to their Taliban-ruled country due to a lack of housing.

Ministers have acknowledged the delay in relocating those who had worked with the British Government and armed forces in Afghanistan was because of a shortage of suitable accommodation.

Pakistan has ordered that all unregistered Afghan refugees must leave the country by November 1 or face repatriation.

There are currently two routes under which eligible Afghans can be brought to live in the UK  the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) and the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap) scheme.

The Ministry of Defence declined to confirm details of the flight.

A spokeswoman said: The UK has made an ambitious and generous commitment to help at-risk people in Afghanistan and, so far, we have brought around 24,600 people to safety, including thousands of people eligible for our Afghan schemes.

We continue to honour our commitments to bring eligible Afghans to the UK, with new arrivals going directly into settled accommodation where possible.
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A former GCHQ worker described himself as a terrorist after launching a premeditated, targeted and vicious knife attack on a US spy outside a leisure centre, a court has heard.

Armed with two knives, Joshua Bowles, 29, punched and stabbed the woman repeatedly at the centre some three miles from the UK intelligence agencys Cheltenham base on March 9.

In August, Bowles, of Welwyn Mews, Cheltenham, pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of the woman, referred to by the code number 99230, and assaulting a second person, causing actual bodily harm.

On Friday, he appeared in the dock of the Old Bailey to be sentenced by senior judge Mrs Cheema-Grubb.

The prosecution asserted Bowles attack was a planned terrorist-related attack after the defendant searched the internet for topics including the American Unabomber terrorist, Theodore Kaczynski.

Her selection as the target for this attack was entirely and solely associated with her role as a US government employee in the National Security Agency of the United States Duncan Penny KC, prosecuting

Opening the facts, prosecutor Duncan Penny KC said it was a pre-meditated, targeted and vicious attack on an unarmed woman.

He told the court: That woman was a United States government employee working in the United Kingdom.

She was attacked by a man who was carrying two knives and she was stabbed three times outside, and in the reception area of, a leisure centre in Cheltenham.

The attack which the perpetrator launched was intended to be lethal  that the helpless victim survived it was mere happenstance.

Her selection as the target for this attack was entirely and solely associated with her role as a US government employee in the National Security Agency of the United States.

Mr Penny said Bowles, a former British employee at GCHQ, had described himself as a terrorist in the aftermath of the attack.

In a police interview, the defendant told police: The target was selected for her employment at the NSA.

Due to the size and resourcing, American intelligence represents the largest contributor within the intelligence community so made sense as the symbolic target. I consider GCHQ just as guilty.

Mr Penny said the victim 99230 had been playing netball at the leisure centre in Cheltenham on the evening of March 9 and was leaving with a friend, who was a fellow US national identified as 25869.

CCTV footage showed the pair walking into the car park just after 9pm followed by the defendant, who had been waiting in his car with two knives in a rucksack.

The CCTV footage shows the defendant holding a knife and lunging towards 99230, who was trying to back away. She describes that it felt like he hated me  his focus was me Duncan Penny KC

The victim turned round when she heard a man say excuse me and was punched repeatedly in the face.

Mr Penny said she assumed she was being mugged and saw he had a knife when the blade caught the light.

The prosecutor told the court: The defendant was punching her, and she was fighting back, concerned about the knife: kicking, punching and screaming as much as she could.

Her friend shouted at Bowles to leave her alone and hit him with her bag while the victim tried to fight him off.

The victim said the defendant kept coming at her with the knife, saying: He just wouldnt stop.

Alex Fuentes was on his way to play football and asked Bowles whats going on.

The defendant responded by hitting him in the face before walking away, leaving him in complete shock.

The two women ran back into the leisure centre, followed seconds later by the defendant.

Mr Penny said: The defendant attacked 99230 a second time, immediately upon entering reception. 99230 recalls him yelling but cant remember what was said.

The CCTV footage shows the defendant holding a knife and lunging towards 99230, who was trying to back away. She describes that it felt like he hated me  his focus was me.

Steve Bunn, another visitor to the Leisure Centre, saw blood flowing from the womans mouth and down her chin and throat.

Describing the resumed attack on the victim inside reception, he said: He was on her, immediately, grabbed her and was moving around in such a way it was obvious he was trying to hit her or hurt her, he was striking at her.

It looked like he was throwing punches or attacking her with punches.

He grabbed the defendant, enabling the two women to move away and Bowles dropped a knife on the floor, the court heard.

Mr Bunn said the defendant was fuelled by frenzied aggression but it just dissipated once the two women had left. Asked if he was OK, Bowles said no, Ive just tried to kill her.

While waiting for police, the defendant told Mr Bunn that he would understand what he had done if he knew what they did at GCHQ.

I now know he used to work where I work and Im devastated by this. This attack has had a profound effect on me and its utterly and completely changed my life Victim impact statement

He said Bowles was making out that he was disgusted by the manner in which they gather information and use things against people and was appalled by the agency (99230) works for.

He remembered the defendant saying he could no longer handle the murky waters of ethics and whether they are doing the right thing and the power that the American NSA have and the things they do. Its a good job I didnt have a gun, isnt it?

What have I done? Ive tried to kill her. I cant believe this  They pay me all this money, I just couldnt face the ethics of it  I make a pretty shit terrorist, dont I?

The court was told the female victims injuries included cuts to her abdomen, chest and thigh.

In a victim impact statement, she said that using the defendants name made her feel sick and brought back awful memories.

She said: I now know he used to work where I work and Im devastated by this.

This attack has had a profound effect on me and its utterly and completely changed my life.

Ive spend a week in hospital after having emergency surgery. I had never had surgery before in my life and it was very frightening.

Months later, my wounds are still sore. I instinctively cover my abdomen to protect it. My scars bother me.

Following the attack I went from being in the best shape I had ever been to being the weakest I have ever been.

The prosecution asserted the offence had a terrorist connection but that was disputed by the defence.

In mitigation, Bowles barrister Tim Forte said his client expressed his profound regret, remorse and shame at what he has done.

Mr Forte dismissed the defendants comments as bravado, having realised his reasons were petty and embarrassing.

His twin motivations were rejection by the object of his affections and a desire to hurt his ex-employer for employment reasons, Mr Forte said.

Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb adjourned sentencing until Monday morning.
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A dangerous gang ringleader of an organised crime group that kidnapped, imprisoned and tortured its victims with knives and boiling water has been jailed for 25 years.

Fortune Lawson, 27, ran the gang of thugs who kidnapped one of their victims outside his home in London in November 2018 after he was seen wearing a Rolex watch in a Snapchat photograph.

He was lured into meeting Lawson on the pretence of discussing cannabis, but was instead subjected to a terrifying ordeal that lasted eight hours and included being stabbed and having boiling water poured on his abdomen and groin.

The victim was forced to arrange for money and the Rolex to be handed over before being released. He spent five days in hospital with grave injuries and had to undergo surgery three months later, Cardiff Crown Court heard on Friday.

Eight other members of the gang, all having been involved in at least one of the three plots, were also sentenced on Friday at the same court.

A balaclava recovered by police and used by the gang in their criminal schemes (South Wales Police)

Another victim was waterboarded, beaten and forced to ask friends to provide a 50,000 ransom, while being threatened with guns and knives at a flat in Cardiff in December 2020.

He was taken to another stronghold in Hertfordshire where the horrifying ordeal continued before he was eventually rescued by armed police.

DNA evidence obtained from the Cardiff flat led police to identify a second victim who had also been held against his will and repeatedly assaulted at the same address.

Davood Assadpour and Micaiah Marley were jailed for 15 years, Arnold Fumemeya and Alexis Mutesa for 13 years, Gideon Lawson for 12 years, Ahmed Omar for nine years, Stephen Isaac for six years and Denis Delishaj for eight years as well as eight months for having a phone in prison.

A knife recovered by police and used by the gang in their criminal schemes (South Wales Police)

CPS Cymru-Wales Chief Crown Prosecutor Jenny Hopkins said: The torture suffered by the victims in this case is almost beyond belief. In their pursuit of money, those responsible were seemingly willing to inflict maximum suffering.

The ringleader and mastermind, Fortune Lawson, planned the extortions like military operations. He targeted men who trusted him and who he had identified as possessing high-value goods or significant amounts of money.

Others in the gang had varying roles - but each was aware of the terrifying ordeal the victims were being put through. They all took steps to avoid being implicated, including wearing masks, balaclavas and gloves.

Thankfully these dangerous and violent men have now been brought to justice, but the suffering of the victims and the impact of their injuries goes on.

I want to express my utmost gratitude to the victims for their courage in making statements and giving evidence in this case which ultimately enabled us to secure convictions.

Detective Superintendent Darren George, head of South Wales Police Major Crime Investigation Team, said: This has been one of the UKs most complicated kidnap investigations in recent times and it has taken nearly three years to convict these nine individuals.

We hope our investment into this crime and sentences handed down send a clear message to those intent on bringing this sort of violence to our streets.

We will relentlessly pursue you with everything at our disposal and you will go to jail.

Additional reporting by PA
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Dozens of children laid teddy bears outside the gates of the Foreign Office to put pressure on the Government to withdraw military support for Israel.

Gathering in central London on Friday, hundreds of parents chanted: From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.

Tearful protesters accused the Government of being complicit in the deaths of thousands of children killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza after Hamas militants slaughtered more than 1,000 people in southern Israel.

They demanded an immediate ceasefire and called on the Government not to provide arms to Israel.

The demonstration was organised by a group of parents who said they felt compelled to act as they watched the scenes of destruction in Gaza.

They told the PA news agency they had been overwhelmed by support since they announced the protest two days ago.

Clare Welton, 34, a mother of two, helped lead a chant of shame against the Government.

She said: The UK Government is saying OK to arms companies increasing their sales to Israel at this time.

What we want to see is the UK end its exports to Israel now and push immediately for a ceasefire, an end to the siege and the occupation of Palestine.

Every child everywhere deserves safety  every single life is sacred.

Annie Dowd, 40, a mother of three who helped arrange the protest, told PA: Were a group of parents absolutely horrified by what were seeing every day.

We came together literally 48 hours ago and asked other parents to join us and for their children to bring teddy bears to commemorate those who are dying in Gaza with the complicity of our own Government.

Weve been absolutely overwhelmed with one and a half thousand parents getting in touch.

As a mum, I cant stomach recent events  I cant see another Palestinian baby pulled out of the rubble.

When asked whether Hamas bore some responsibility for the current conflict in Gaza after it launched the worst terrorist attack in Israel in decades, the charity worker said the proscribed group was a question for the Palestinian people.

She added: Being UK citizens, what we can influence is what our Government does  what our Government is doing right now is supporting Israel who are responsible for the deaths of over two and a half thousand children.

The Foreign Office has been approached for comment.
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UK Border Force teams are set up in Egypt to quickly assist British nationals to escape from Gaza when a crossing is opened, the Prime Minister has revealed.

Rishi Sunak said he is pushing for a pause in the fighting between Israel and Hamas to allow aid to reach Palestinians and also create a safer environment for UK citizens to leave the bombarded 25-mile strip.

The Foreign Office is in contact with around 200 UK nationals in Gaza, the Prime Minister said.

The Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza is the only border point in the territory that is not controlled by Tel Aviv.

Israel has only in recent days agreed to allow aid into the country through the crossing, having besieged the Hamas-ruled area to prevent essentials such as water, food and fuel from reaching more than two million Palestinians.

If there is a possibility for our nationals to cross the Rafah crossing, were ready to get them in and bring them back Prime Minister Rishi Sunak

The border crossing into north-east Egypt is likely to be the main exit route for those trapped in Gaza but it is currently closed other than for aid deliveries.

Cairo has reportedly blamed Israeli bombings around Rafah for it not being open for foreign nationals to pass through.

Mr Sunak has called for temporary breaks or specific pauses in the violence that could allow British nationals and hostages to be freed.

Fewer than five Britons are believed to be among the hostages as officials fear that some of those missing have been killed.

But many more are currently trapped in Gaza as Israel continues to conduct air strikes and raids on the territory in its fightback against Hamass assault on October 7 that saw 1,400 people, mainly civilians, killed on Israeli soil.

The Prime Minister, taking questions after a speech in central London about artificial intelligence on Thursday, said the UK Government recognised that for British nationals to leave there needs to be a safer environment, which of course necessitates specific pauses, which are distinct from a ceasefire.

He added: Were very keen to be able to bring them out and bring them home.

What I can tell you is weve pre-positioned Border Force teams to Egypt.

So that if there is a possibility for our nationals to cross the Rafah crossing, were ready to get them in and bring them back.

It is not something we can do immediately but when the moment arises, well be ready to take it quickly.

Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden chaired a Cobra meeting on Thursday to discuss the situation in the Middle East and next steps on pushing for the release of Hamass captives, with about 220 people thought to be being held.

It is about ensuring we have cross-governmental ministerial grip on this situation, he told Sky News ahead of the meeting.

The Prime Ministers official spokesman told reporters during a briefing later that ministers were working night and day to secure the release of UK hostages.

It comes after the Israeli military said that troops and tanks launched a brief ground raid into northern Gaza overnight into Thursday, saying it was in order to prepare the battlefield ahead of a widely expected ground invasion.

Thousands of Palestinians have already died in retaliatory strikes by Israel and an even greater loss of life could come if it launches a full invasion aimed at crushing Hamas, the militant group which has ruled Gaza since 2007 and survived four previous wars with Israel.

The UK Government, which has continued to back Israels right to defend itself as long as it toes the line of international law, is continuing to resist calls for a ceasefire.

More than 80 MPs have urged the Government to call for a cessation of violence.

But the Prime Ministers official spokesman told reporters a ceasefire would only benefit Hamas.

The No 10 official said he would not speculate about whether ministers would support a ceasefire if Israel succeeded in rescuing hostages from Gaza.

Mr Dowden would not be drawn on how long Britain envisages any pause in the fighting, which is also backed by Sir Keir Starmers Labour Party, would need to last for.

Mr Sunaks deputy said he was heartbroken by the mounting casualties in Gaza but said Israel could not eliminate Hamas without there being some civilian impact.

The way to stop further losses of innocent civilian lives is to remove the terrorist threat and to move to a position where we can restore stability and peace to this region, he told Sky News.
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The UK is reliant on a humanitarian pause in the Middle East conflict to get support into Gaza, a minister has said, but the Government is continuing to resist calls for a ceasefire.

Gillian Keegan said we need to ensure there is a break in fighting in order to get aid in and allow British citizens to leave the bombarded 25-mile strip.

UK Border Force teams are set up in Egypt to help if the Rafah border crossing is opened up for people to leave.

Israel has only in recent days agreed to allow aid in through the crossing having besieged the Hamas-ruled area, preventing essentials such as water, food and fuel from reaching more than two million Palestinians.

Yes we're reliant on there being a pause and the pause being observed Education Secretary Gillian Keegan

Cairo has reportedly blamed Israeli bombings around Rafah for it not being open for foreign nationals to pass through as the country continues its fightback against Hamass deadly assault on October 7.

Asked why ministers would not call for a cessation of violence, Ms Keegan told ITVs Good Morning Britain that the Government would not want to cross that line of telling Israel it has anything but the right to defend itself.

Hamas have created this situation and Hamas are now embedding themselves in the Palestinian population, she said.

The Education Secretary said that facilitating any humanitarian pause would in itself be very difficult and the UK would be reliant on it being observed.

Its operationally very difficult and thats why weve sent a plane-load of aid, its why weve sent Border Force, its why weve got people there, our International Development Secretary has been working with a lot of people in the region to make sure that were prepared to be able to get this aid to the right place, she said.

But yes, were reliant on there being a pause and the pause being observed.

More than 80 MPs and have urged the Government to call for a cessation of violence.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar became the latest senior Labour figures to announce they were also calling for a ceasefire on Friday.

But Downing Street has said such a move would only benefit Hamas and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has joined the Government in supporting humanitarian pauses.

The Foreign Office is in contact with around 200 UK nationals in Gaza, the Prime Minister said.

It comes as the Israeli military launched a second ground raid in Gaza in as many days, striking targets on the outskirts of Gaza City.

More than 7,000 Palestinians have already been killed in the war, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, and an even greater loss of life could come in the event of a full invasion aimed at crushing Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007 and survived four previous wars with Israel.

More than 1,400 people in Israel were killed during the initial Hamas attack, and Hamas also holds hundreds of hostages, according to the Israeli government.

In a phone call on Friday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Rishi Sunak said the principle of a rules-based order with peace and stability must be protected both in Ukraine and the Middle East.

A Downing Street spokesperson said in a readout following the talk: The Prime Minister underscored the UKs long-term and unwavering commitment to Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity and reiterated that the conflict in the Middle East would not change that.

The principle of a rules-based order, in which people could live in peace and stability, needed to be protected both in Ukraine and the Middle East, the Prime Minister added.

The Communication Workers Union also called on the Government and other political leaders to demand a ceasefire, saying it was horrified at the crisis in Israel and Palestine.

It said: We condemn the terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas on Israeli civilians, from brutal massacres of teenagers at raves to the kidnapping of innocent people and indiscriminate rocket attacks on civilian targets.

No cause on earth can ever justify the slaughter of innocent people, particularly of children and the vulnerable.

This also applies to Gaza, where 2.2 million people  around half of whom are under 18  are facing the threat of death and displacement as a result of the Israeli governments policy of collective punishment against the Palestinian people. This is clearly against international law.

These acts of violence against Palestinians civilians, including the bombing of entire neighbourhoods and critical infrastructure in Gaza, must end.

As a trade union, we urge the British government and all political leaders to demand an immediate ceasefire and for a mediation and negotiation to bring about a just settlement based on United Nations resolutions and international law.

We also extend our solidarity to all communication workers in Palestine and Israel who have been affected by this violence.
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Radiographers will walk out next month in what is the professions first ever strike in Scotland.

GMB Scotland said 36 radiographers at Hairmyres Hospital in East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire, are taking action as they claim changes to rotas will risk patient safety.

Staff will walk out on November 16 after accusing management of failing to address their concerns and resolve the long-running dispute, the union said.

NHS Lanarkshire wants to introduce on-call working after launching a new vascular radiography service for patients across Lanarkshire and the south of Scotland, the union claims.

It said staff have voiced concerns about training on new equipment while feeling pressured to accept changes to rotas which they fear will leave untrained staff exposed.

Staff have suggested a third radiographer working at night would avert the need for on-call working and ensure the required skills are available to underpin patient safety.

No NHS worker wants to strike and this dispute should be ringing alarm bells at the very top of NHS Lanarkshire and the Scottish Government Karen Leonard, GMB

Karen Leonard, GMB Scotland organiser in the NHS, said: The radiographers have tried repeatedly to explain their concerns and describe a better way forward, but have been ignored.

Instead of basing rotas on their expertise and experience, managers have pressed on with a plan that has the potential to undermine the care of patients.

These are skilled and committed staff with the insight needed to deliver and improve a crucial part of the hospitals work, but instead of being valued, they feel disregarded.

No NHS worker wants to strike and this dispute should be ringing alarm bells at the very top of NHS Lanarkshire and the Scottish Government.

Russell Coulthard, NHS Lanarkshire deputy director of acute services, said: We received notice of intended strike action by GMB member radiographers at University Hospital Hairmyres on November 16.

We were already in discussion with our radiography staff and GMB representatives in a bid to reach an amicable solution and a meeting is scheduled to take place on Monday.

This meeting will go ahead as planned.

NHS Lanarkshire is committed to working collaboratively with staff and staff side representatives to ensure the safe and effective provision of the regional vascular services for patients and staff.
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Nearly 3,500 banned dogs are still living at home with their owners, new figures show amid fears there could be thousands more not registered on official records.

Government data showed there were 3,499 banned dogs across England, Scotland and Wales, with 3,316 of them living in England.

It comes after prime minister Rishi Sunak announced a ban on XL bullies following a series of attacks by the canines, some of which were fatal.

According to the new figures, obtained from the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) by the BBC, most of the dogs are pit bull terriers, with 3,316 in England, 149 in Wales and 13 in Scotland.

There are currently four dog breeds on the UKs Dangerous Dogs Act banned list: the pit bull terrier, the Japanese tosa, the dogo argentino and the fila Brasileiro.

These breeds can be taken from owners unless they are placed on the index of exempt dogs which is obtained if the court believes the dog is not a danger to the public.

XL bullys are close to the pit bull terrier and have been crossbred with other dogs such as English bulldogs, Olde English Bulldogge and American bulldogs.

The dog was recognised as a breed by the US United Kennel Club in 2013. But they are not recognised by the main dog associations in the UK, which is partly why they havent been banned.

Government has said it will be Xl bully dogs (Getty Images)

Announcing the ban last month, Mr Sunak said the animals, which campaigners have linked to at least 14 human deaths since 2021, are a danger to children and communities

He said he shared the nations horror over videos of recent dog attacks and had ordered urgent work to define and ban this breed so we can end these violent attacks and keep people safe.

Ministers have not yet defined the characteristics of the American XL bully - something that could make it difficult for police and enforcement officers to track down and identify them.

We dont have accurate numbers of how many of these dogs are really out there, police constable Paul Jameson, a dog legislation officer in Sheffield, told the BBC. I would say theres thousands.

Earlier this month, a woman was injured after she was attacked by her own American XL bully in Norfolk.

Ian Langley was attacked near his Sunderland home on Tuesday afternoon and later died in hospital from severe neck injuries.

Ian Langley was walking his Patterdale puppy Beau in Shiney Row at the time, with his friends saying he would have done anything to protect her (Sunderland Global Media)

In November last year, Jack Lis, 10, was killed by an XL bully while at a friends house in South Wales. The owners of the dog, Amy Salter and Brandon Haydon, were jailed as a result of the attack.

The Dogs Trust, the UKs largest canine welfare charity, previously said it wants to see the dog control laws replaced with one consolidated law that allows for early intervention with a focus on the prevention of dog bite incidents and includes measures that deter and punish owners of dogs whose behaviour is dangerous.

Other animal charities including the RSPCA and British Veterinarian Association have warned against breed-specific bans, saying the are ineffective and could see thousands of innocent dogs put down.

Leading veterinarian Dave Martin, who acts as animal welfare adviser for around 1,000 vet practices under the umbrella of firm My Family Vets, told The Independent that XL bullies have become fashionable, with some owners acquiring them as status dogs to make themselves look more aggressive.

He warned that banning the dogs is not a plausible solution  with some efforts to clamp down on the canines even potentially increasing their popularity.

We tried that with pit bulls and it didnt work at all. We need to be looking at a multifaceted approach to reducing these attacks, he said.

The environment secretary said this week that the UK government is pretty close to bringing forward the proposed ban on the breed.

Therese Coffey said she thought a good definition of the dog type had been agreed, with only a few other things such as compensation needing to be signed-off.

Ms Coffey said the UK government estimated there were about 10,000 American XL bullies in the UK while the Blue Cross animal charity suggested it was more like 15,000.
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Campaigners have been left furious after a blue plaque dedicated to an enslaved African man appears to feature the wrong image.

The fixture, organised by the Wolverhampton Society (TWS), was commissioned to honour George Africanus, who was enslaved by and worked for the Molineux family in the city before becoming one of the UKs first Black entrepreneurs.

It was unveiled by the citys mayor at the Wolverhampton Archives History Fair on Saturday, ahead of its planned fixture at Molineux House, but Wolverhampton City Council stopped it from being installed after concerns it featured another man, Olaudah Equiano, a key figure in the slavery abolition movement, who lived in Westminster.

The Creative Collective, a diverse group of local creatives, condemned the mix-up and called for the plaque to be scrapped.

A spokesperson said: TWS unveiled a blue plaque to a former slave in Wolverhampton on Saturday: George Africanus. It has the wrong slave on it: Olaudah Equiano.

Do all former slaves look the same?, they added.

A City of Wolverhampton Council spokesperson said it was aware of the concerns and was talking to the Wolverhampton Society to understand the validity of the image they used.

Campaigners say the plaque dedicated to George Africanus features an image of another man (Supplied)

The plaque was displayed by the Wolverhampton Society at its annual history fair on Saturday. That was the first time it had been seen by the council. Due to the concerns raised, there are no plans for the plaque to be installed, a council spokesperson said.

Former Wolverhampton MP Rob Marris, who sponsored the plaque, told The Independent: If that mistake has been made, it is extremely regrettable, and the image should be removed and/or the plaque carefully disposed of.

The Wolverhampton Society was responsible for the research and the design; I merely offered to fund it.

David Dungar, chair of TWS, told The Independent there was no known image of Africanus and confirmed that his team was reviewing the situation.

The George Africanus plaque was originated (...) some considerable time before I became chairman of WS, he said.

As the archivist at the Wolverhampton Archive has admitted, there is no known image of George Africanus at the time his life is being celebrated.

The then-mayor Sandra Samuels with the George Africanus plaque she unveiled in May (Supplied)

An earlier plaque dedicated to George Africanus was unveiled in May 2023, with the support of the Creative Collective, but it did not carry an image, only his name. Plans to install it on the same building as the new one were scrapped, however.

The Creative Collective spokesperson added: The Wolverhampton Society plaque is clear tokenism for Black History Month by the Wolverhampton Society and the City Council (and City Archive Building).

The Creative Collective plaque comes from the very heart of the black community in Wolverhampton. Questions need to be asked as to why the council favoured the Wolverhampton Society and their plaque. They need to do better.
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The family of a headteacher held by Hamas has spoken of their sadness at seeing posters of kidnapped Israelis being ripped down across London.

Ada Sagi, a 75-year-old mother and grandmother, has not had contact with her family since she was believed to have been taken hostage from her home in a dawn ambush on Kibbutz Nir Oz on 7 October.

Her daughter-in-law Michel Sagi, who knows the organisers of the missing poster campaign, said her worst fears were realised when she saw the flyers being ripped down or defaced in a flurry of videos.

Smiling people tore down posters of kidnapped Israeli people in Londons Leicester Square, in one of several incidents this week (Richard Ferrer, Jewish News)

"Those are real people, lives that are being taken, she told The Independent. "These people disappeared from life, for us to put up the posters, is us shouting out loud that they need to come home.

"Taking them out is inhuman - its like they are voting for more hate, more cruelty. Love needs to be much stronger.

"I dont have any anger just real sadness. If they want a hug I will give you a hug but leave the posters there. I dont want enemies.

The posters are making a massive difference. And it shows the strength of our community that we keep putting them back up.

They are an army of amazing young people [putting them up] it gives our family strength.

A damaged poster on a lamppost in London after a pro-Palestine protest last weekend (AP)

Asked what she would say to Ada, Mrs Sagi said: I would tell her we love her so much. She is my best friend and I know not many people say that about their mother-in-law. She always has the best advice.

We know in our hearts that she is doing everything she can to communicate with the horrible people who captured her.

She speaks Arabic so beautifully and loves peace.

Whenever I think of her I see her taking care of the young kids, teaching them Arabic so they can communicate [with Hamas] and will help them be released. We think communication is the right way.

She was supposed to be here [in London] for half term I told her to come a week before but she said she had to do things in Israel. I wish she had listened to me.

A poster with an image of Ada Sagi, believed to have been taken hostage from the Nir Oz Kibbutz during the surprise attack on Israel by Hamas (AFP via Getty Images)

Best friends Michel Sagi and Ada in happier times (Supplied)

Her plea came after people were filmed tearing down posters of children held captive by Hamas in a number of different incidents in London.

In one clip shared on social media, a man is seen ripping the images from a bus stop.

He shouts to a woman off camera: Your government kills children every single day. Do not tell me about Hamas, Israel is a terrorist organisation.

The unseen woman replies: These are innocent kids.

Noam has spent the weeks since his mother was kidnapped urging the British government to take action and prioritise the release of hostages (Supplied)

As the man continues, an elderly woman interjects: How dare you tear that down. Shut the f*** up you w****r.

While Metropolitan Police said it would be in the area carrying out reassurance patrols, it added that at this time, no offences have been committed.

In a separate incident, a notice featuring missing three year-olds Emma and Yuli Cunio was also vandalised in Camden, northwest London.

The pair were said to have been kidnapped from their home during the 7 October attacks. This week Hitler moustaches and a monobrow have been drawn over the childrens faces.

Another poster, of missing Silvia Ochayon, 58, was similarly defaced  and horns were added.

Burned cars next to homes that came under attack during a massive Hamas invasion into Kibbutz Nir Oz (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

The Mayor of London said he "simply doesnt understand" why anyone would take down the posters, adding that it is "leading to community discord".

"Its leading to Londoners who are Jewish being scared, he said, Theyre feeling very vulnerable, the rest of us should show some understanding of what they are going through."

Mr Khan said that even if the threshold for the police to take action hadnt been reached, he said it was "still in bad taste".

Noam Sagi, son of Ada Sagi, one of the missing Israelis speaks to people viewing the empty places laid out for the 220 hostages on Friday (AFP via Getty Images)

"What Id say to those who are tearing these posters down is, stop it, there is no reason at all to tear these posters down, theyre doing no harm.

"What we cant afford to happen is for tensions and disturbance in the Middle East to affect our communities in London."

In the first two weeks of October, the force recorded 105 incidents of antisemitism  up from just 14 incidents during the same period last year.

Cases included intimidation outside synagogues and German military music being played loudly, to Jewish people being confronted by protesters laughing about the numbers of deaths.
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Wilko stores are set to return to a limited number of high streets before Christmas, the brands new owner has announced.

The parent company of The Range, which also snapped up Wilkos website and intellectual property following the discount chains administration in August, said five shops will open in parts of the UK before Christmas.

CDS Superstores said the first two standalone Wilko concept stores will be opened in Plymouth and Exeter.

Three other locations are set to be announced imminently, but the company said two would open in the southeast and another in the north.

The announcement comes just weeks after the much-loved bargain brand closed 400 of its stores, which led to the redundancy of almost all of its 12,500 workers.

Wilko workers were distraught when they said goodbye to their workplace (PA)

Alex Simpkin, chief executive officer of CDS Superstores, said: The public reaction to the loss of Wilko stores was undeniable.

Its clear that theres a huge love for Wilko and weve seen an encouraging demand for the return of its own-brand products.

Thats why weve taken the decision to reintroduce Wilko back to many of the high streets and communities that it used to so proudly serve.

Steeped in British high street history, Wilko was founded by James Kemsey Wilkinson over 90 years ago in 1930, he opened the companys first store on Charnwood Street in Leicester under the Wilkinson Cash Stores brand.

Mr Simpkin added: Our team from wilko that joined us through the acquisition has shown true resilience, theyve set to work to integrate the best parts of wilko into The Ranges operational systems. Were expanding that team every day with new wilko hires and cant wait to extend that back out to local communities.

Well endeavour to give ex-wilko employees priority as a part of the recruitment process for the new stores.

CDS superstores bought the Wilko brand, website and intellectual property for 5 million. Their branded products continue to be sold online on their site and across The Ranges 200 stores.
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Scotlands First Minister has written to every political leader in the UK to urge them to back a ceasefire in Gaza.

In a letter understood to have been sent on Thursday evening, Humza Yousaf said Israel has a right to defend itself following the Hamas attacks on October 7, but he added action must be taken now to stop the staggering humanitarian disaster in Gaza before it becomes cataclysmic.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, the leaders of the major parties in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and the conveners of the Westminster Foreign Affairs Select Committee and Holyroods External Affairs Committee all received the letter.

There must be no more dithering, or delay, together we must call for an immediate ceasefire Humza Yousaf

Mr Yousaf, whose in-laws have been trapped in Gaza since the beginning of hostilities, said: The abhorrent terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas on October 7 must be unequivocally condemned, and I will continue to join you in doing so. Hamas must release immediately and unconditionally all hostages and cease its missile attacks on Israel.

The killing of innocent civilians can never be justified, wherever it occurs. Israel, like every other country, has a right to protect itself from attack, but in doing so it must comply with international law.

Food, water, fuel, and medicine are being restricted, with limited humanitarian supplies  nowhere near enough  being allowed in.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)  the largest humanitarian agency working in Gaza  has warned that unless fuel is allowed into Gaza immediately, the agency will be forced to halt all operations as of today.

I am, therefore, writing to ask for your support in helping to stop the staggering humanitarian disaster we are witnessing, which is set to get even worse.

We should stand together and unite in unequivocally calling on all parties to commit to an immediate ceasefire to allow a humanitarian corridor to be opened, so that lifesaving supplies can get into Gaza and innocent civilians who want to leave be given safe passage out.

The situation in Gaza is at the point of being cataclysmic.

All of us must do everything we can to prevent that. There must be no more dithering, or delay, together we must call for an immediate ceasefire.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar voiced his support for a ceasefire on Friday, as did Labour London Mayor Sadiq Khan  heaping pressure on Sir Keir.

The Labour leader has faced increasing calls from inside and outside the party to back a ceasefire, but has so far been resistant, uniting with Mr Sunak and the US.

Mr Khan, the first Muslim mayor of London, said a ceasefire will stop the killing and would allow vital aid supplies to reach those who need it in Gaza, as well as granting more time for the international community to work to prevent a protracted conflict in the Middle East.

Mr Sarwar  the first Muslim party leader in British history  called for the immediate cessation of violence, with an end of rocket fire into and out of Gaza.

He added: Let me be clear, that means a ceasefire right now.

In a reply to the First Minister, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said his party has called for a a temporary humanitarian ceasefire, adding: We need the space for an intense period of diplomacy, to get humanitarian aid into Gaza, and to provide an opportunity to realise the safe release of all Israeli hostages.

The road to peace feels vanishingly far away right now but it is a road we can and must rejoin.
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Urgent investment is needed to ensure the dangerously overstretched fire service is prepared for flooding in future, following the devastation of Storm Babet, according to firefighters leaders.

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) claimed that in areas of Nottinghamshire the fire service did not have enough resources to respond to all emergency calls.

The service was unable to respond to 72 incidents on October 20, the height of the flooding, due to a lack of resources, according to the union.

Storm Babet has exposed the urgent need to rebuild a properly funded and joined-up service Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary

It pointed out that since 2010, one in five firefighter jobs have been cut across the UK.

The union will unveil a Firefighters Manifesto next week, setting out a vision for the future of the service.

General secretary Matt Wrack said: Firefighters and control staff have been working round the clock to respond to the extreme weather and flooding caused by Storm Babet.

The climate crisis means that extreme weather events are on the rise, but the Westminster Government still refuses to adequately fund the fire service for flood response.

England is the only country in the UK without a clear statutory duty for fire and rescue services to plan and respond to floods.

More than a decade of cuts has left the fire service dangerously overstretched on a daily basis. It is pushed beyond limits during emergencies like these.

Storm Babet has exposed the urgent need to rebuild a properly funded and joined-up service.
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Urgent investment is needed to ensure the dangerously overstretched fire service is prepared for flooding in future, following the devastation of Storm Babet, according to firefighters leaders.

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) claimed that in areas of Nottinghamshire the fire service did not have enough resources to respond to all emergency calls.

The service was unable to respond to 72 incidents on October 20, the height of the flooding, due to a lack of resources, according to the union.

Storm Babet has exposed the urgent need to rebuild a properly funded and joined-up service Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary

It pointed out that since 2010, one in five firefighter jobs have been cut across the UK.

The union will unveil a Firefighters Manifesto next week, setting out a vision for the future of the service.

General secretary Matt Wrack said: Firefighters and control staff have been working round the clock to respond to the extreme weather and flooding caused by Storm Babet.

The climate crisis means that extreme weather events are on the rise, but the Westminster Government still refuses to adequately fund the fire service for flood response.

England is the only country in the UK without a clear statutory duty for fire and rescue services to plan and respond to floods.

More than a decade of cuts has left the fire service dangerously overstretched on a daily basis. It is pushed beyond limits during emergencies like these.

Storm Babet has exposed the urgent need to rebuild a properly funded and joined-up service.

Nottinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service area manager, Matt Reavill, said: During Storm Babet we attended a number of incidents, which included significant flooding in Stapleford, Eastwood and Retford, where we supported the evacuation of a number of properties and residents.

We worked with partners across our Local Resilience Forum, too, as part of a wider co-ordinated response to the floods. We brought in a national tactical advisor to support us, set up a dedicated Incident Response Room and stood up additional resources including an extra boat team. Thankfully, this additional boat was not required.

Ultimately, though, our crews and staff worked really hard over the weekend to support our communities and we are extremely proud of them all. Were also thankful to the partners that worked with us as part of the flood response.

Unfortunately there have been some reports that we were unable to attend large numbers of incidents due to resourcing, but we can reassure the public that this was not the case. Should anyone ever need us in an emergency, they should call 999 and we will attend.
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A Labour frontbencher has said he empathises with MPs angry about the party leaderships stance on the crisis in Gaza, but stood by the position taken by Sir Keir Starmer.

It comes as the Labour leader has sought to reassure MPs and grassroots members in recent days amid anger about previous remarks on the Israel-Hamas war, as well as his resistance to joining calls for a ceasefire.

The Labour leader has joined Rishi Sunak, the US and most recently the EU in pushing for humanitarian pauses, but remains firm in his backing for Israels right to defend itself.

Sir Keir met with Muslim Labour MPs earlier this week, amid a row over comments in an LBC interview in which he appeared to back Israel cutting off power and water in Gaza.

The comments, which he has since rowed back, prompted resignations among Labour councillors and angered the partys MPs, even those on the front benches as shadow ministers.

Shadow environment secretary Steve Reed offered a strong defence of the leaderships position, which he said he did not expect would hurt the party electorally.

I completely understand and empathise with colleagues who are seeing whats going on in Gaza and are just feeling desperate, so many viewers will be looking at those scenes today and feel just anguish at the pain and suffering that is going on, he told Sky News.

But what I would say to colleagues is if this attack that Israel suffered had been on the UK, if it had been on the US, our state, the United States and our state would have sought to defend ourselves to protect our citizens by dismantling the capability of a terrorist organisation that carried it out, that applies to Israel too, they have the right under international law to do that.

But in taking that work, they must continue to follow international law as they carry it out, but long-term, the only solution to this crisis is not going to be military.

It can only be negotiated politically and we need the whole international community to focus on it much more than has been the case over recent decades.

More than 250 Muslim Labour councillors urged Sir Keir and deputy leader Angela Rayner to back an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, with his original comments on LBC also sparking resignations from councillors.

Mr Reed told LBC that doing the right thing was the priority, not votes.

Asked if the row could have an impact at the ballot box, he said: I think (it) wont because and the reason I think that is in politics, you should do the right thing, not the electorally expedient thing.
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London Mayor Sadiq Khan has become the latest senior Labour figure to call for a ceasefire in the escalating conflict between Israel and Gaza, adding to further pressure on Sir Keir Starmer to defend his stance.

It comes as the Labour leader has sought to reassure Muslim MPs and grassroots members in recent days amid anger about previous remarks on the Israel-Hamas conflict, as well as his resistance to joining calls for a ceasefire.

The Labour leader has joined Rishi Sunak, the US and most recently the EU in pushing for humanitarian pauses, but remains firm in his backing for Israels right to defend itself.

A widespread military escalation will only deepen the humanitarian disaster Sadiq Khan

Mr Khan, who became the first ever Muslim mayor of the capital in 2016, added his voice to calls for a ceasefire on Friday.

In a statement and accompanying video, posted on social media, he said: I join the international community in calling for a ceasefire. It would stop the killing and would allow vital aid supplies to reach those who need it in Gaza.

It would also allow the international community more time to prevent a protracted conflict in the region and further devastating loss of life.

A widespread military escalation will only deepen the humanitarian disaster. It will increase human suffering on all sides. No nation, including Israel, has the right to break international law, he added.

Shadow environment secretary Steve Reed had earlier said he empathises with MPs angry about the party leaderships stance on the crisis in Gaza, but stood by the position taken by Sir Keir.

The Labour leader met with Muslim Labour MPs earlier this week, amid a row over comments in an LBC interview in which he appeared to back Israel cutting off power and water in Gaza.

The comments, which he has since rowed back, prompted resignations among Labour councillors and angered the partys MPs, even those on the front benches as shadow ministers.

Mr Khan said that Israel did have the right to defend itself, but warned that the terrible situation in Gaza now looks set to deteriorate even further.

Since the start of the latest conflict in the Middle East, the London mayor has expressed concern about a rise in both antisemitism and Islamophobia  meeting both Jewish and Muslim faith leaders in London.

Mr Reed offered a strong defence of the leaderships position, as he spoke directly to Labour members unhappy with the stance.

I completely understand and empathise with colleagues who are seeing whats going on in Gaza and are just feeling desperate, so many viewers will be looking at those scenes today and feel just anguish at the pain and suffering that is going on, he told Sky News.

But what I would say to colleagues is if this attack that Israel suffered had been on the UK, if it had been on the US, our state, the United States and our state would have sought to defend ourselves to protect our citizens by dismantling the capability of a terrorist organisation that carried it out, that applies to Israel too, they have the right under international law to do that.

But in taking that work, they must continue to follow international law as they carry it out, but long-term, the only solution to this crisis is not going to be military.

It can only be negotiated politically and we need the whole international community to focus on it much more than has been the case over recent decades.

More than 250 Muslim Labour councillors urged Sir Keir and deputy leader Angela Rayner to back an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, with his original comments on LBC also sparking resignations from councillors.

Mr Reed told LBC that doing the right thing was the priority, not votes.

Asked if the row could have an impact at the ballot box, he said: I think (it) wont because and the reason I think that is in politics, you should do the right thing, not the electorally expedient thing.
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Irish premier Leo Varadkar has said that a UK government minister is absolutely entitled to express his opinions after suggesting that a super majority should be needed in a poll on Irish unity.

Northern Ireland Office minister Steve Baker told the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly (BIPA) that the Brexit referendum probably should have been a supermajority of at least 60%.

He then cautioned against a 50% plus one result in any potential Irish unification vote.

The UK Government has since clarified that this does not represent a change on its position towards an Irish unity referendum.

Mr Varadkar said although a 50 plus one majority wouldnt be desirable, he questioned what would happen if there was a consistent majority in favour of change.

Mr Varadkar, who has said previously that he believed there would be a referendum on Irish unity within his lifetime, also said it shouldnt be held any time soon.

Mr Varadkar said it would be a divisive process, and said there is not enough talk about convincing British people in Northern Ireland that a united Ireland would be a warm home for them.

Speaking in Brussels on Friday, the Taoiseach said: I know on occasions people have even questioned my right to have an opinion. I do have an opinion on these things, Steve Baker does too.

I totally respect that and would offer no criticism of the fact that hes thinking about these things and expressing views.

I understand the argument in favour of a supermajority. You know, 50% plus one would not be the most desirable outcome, we would much rather see a convincing majority for unification if and when a border poll comes.

I dont think the time is right for that. I think its quite distant, in fact, for reasons Ive explained in the past.

I suppose the difficulty with a supermajority is how long could you keep the status quo in place, if consistently, a majority of people didnt want that status quo?

Mr Varadkar said that a huge amount of work is needed ahead of a referendum on Irish unity.

The reason why I dont think its a good idea at the moment is the indications are that it would be defeated, and it would also be divisive, the Fine Gael leader said.

And thats why the focus has to be on getting the Good Friday Agreement working again, and institutions up and running.

We see all around the world what happens when important referendums fall. I remember the referendum on an Australian republic 25 years ago, pretty far away, was defeated; independence in Quebec, for example in Scotland.

I think having a referendum on such an important matter that you may not win is fraught with risk: defeat, division.

And if were going to win a referendum on that matter, a huge amount of work has to be done to convince the British people in Northern Ireland, those who have a unionist/loyalist/Protestant/British identity, that theyre welcome, that theyre wanted, that a united Ireland would be a warm home for them, and theres not enough talk about that, quite frankly.
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Rishi Sunaks plan to cut hotel use for asylum seekers by making them share rooms puts the safety of vulnerable people at risk, MPs have warned in a scathing report.

The cross-party group said the compromises being made to slash the 8m-a-week hotel bill were alarming  warning that the Home Office had failed to show it had considered the trauma some may have faced, or questions of safety, before forcing people together.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) also accused the government of having no credible plan to end the use of asylum hotels  despite immigration minister Robert Jenrick boasting about an exit strategy just days ago.

The damning report also warned that the big push to clear the backlog of legacy asylum cases risked more flawed decisions and could create a new backlog in the courts as decisions were challenged.

It comes as:

Councillors said local authorities may have to house migrants in the same hotels the government claimed it would no longer use

MPs warned there will still be a backlog of around 84,000 new claims even if legacy cases are resolved by the end of 2023

The government scrambled to bring to the UK thousands of Afghans trapped in Pakistan after Islamabad issued a deportation deadline

The government is believed to have begun flights to bring thousands of Afghan refugees already granted sanctuary in the UK but stuck in Pakistan hotels to Britain. Islamabad has told them they must leave before 1 November  warning those without visas they could face arrest within days.

Mr Sunak decided no Afghans should arrive in the UK without sorting their own accommodation  but The Independent revealed last week that the government was forced to reverse that decision after a legal challenge, forcing a last-minute scramble to arrange flights.

The new influx is expected to put added pressure on scarce accommodation, as the system struggles to cope with the huge backlog of asylum cases.

Immigration minister Robert Jenrick has vowed to close asylum hotels (PA)

Mr Jenrick said earlier this week that the government had created thousands of additional beds by forcing people to share hotel rooms  as he revealed that the 400 hotels used to house migrants will be cut by 50 over the next three months.

But the cross-party group of MPs said they were concerned the Home Office does not have a robust process in place to make sure sharing arrangements will be safe  and warned that without proper safeguards, there could be serious consequences.

The PAC chairwoman, Labour MP Dame Meg Hillier, said the compromises being made by the Home Office to meet its commitments [to clear the backlog] are alarming, and some could have grave consequences.

Emma Birks, campaigns manager at Asylum Matters, said the government had created a physical and mental health crisis, saying traumatised people were being crammed together in hotels and other forms of temporary accommodation  children and young people sharing rooms with unknown adults.

Ms Birks added: Hotels should be closed. People seeking asylum should be accommodated within our communities and allowed to work, rather than warehoused in temporary accommodation sites.

Steve Smith, chief executive of the Care4Calais refugee charity, said: Packing asylum seekers, many of whom have experienced maltreatment like torture and modern slavery, into rooms like sardines with strangers of different nationalities, is causing great mental strain to asylum seekers on a daily basis.

Crowne Plaza hotel used to house asylum seekers near Heathrow (AFP/Getty)

The PAC report also accused the department of lacking a credible plan to end the use of hotels  saying that a target of finding 500 new beds every week in an effort to reduce reliance on hotels had not been met, with just 48 new beds a week on average in the year to April.

Despite Mr Jenricks announcement that 50 hotels would see their central government contracts cut, the Local Government Association (LGA) has warned that some councils may end up having to house migrants in those very same hotels.

If not those hotels, then where? Shaun Davies, LGA chairman told the BBC. Thats the irony in this situation, that one part of the system might boast that theyre doing relatively well but actually, thats shunting the issue and the cost to local taxpayers.

Stephen Kinnock MP, Labours shadow immigration minister, said the Tories failed attempts to fix its broken asylum system are now up in lights  they have no credible plan for ending the use of hotels.

He added: This report shows no confidence in ministers meeting their own targets to clear the record asylum backlog, because they dont have a serious plan for delivery.

Refugees from Afghanistan, who were placed in a Leeds hotel (Getty)

Liberal Democrats home affairs spokesperson Alistair Carmichael MP said the government has never had a real plan to deal with the asylum system they broke and instead of coming up with workable solutions, theyre only making it worse.

SNP MP Angela Crawley had written to home secretary Suella Braverman to warn of unsafe accommodation. The home secretarys incompetence and complete mismanagement of her department is a disgrace, she said.

Mr Sunak pledged to clear by the end of 2023 the backlog of older cases which had been in the asylum system as of the end of June last year. By the end of August 2023, the asylum backlog of legacy cases had fallen to around 55,000 cases.

But the PAC report said the Home Offices own analysis suggests that even if the backlog is cleared by the end of the year, there will still be around 84,000 asylum claims in the system made after June 2022.

The cross-party committee also claimed that the department was introducing poorly designed questionnaires  suggesting that it risked people in genuine need not having their application properly considered.

It warned of increased court action and said: People seeking refuge may just be passed from one backlog in the Home Office to another backlog elsewhere in the system.

British Red Cross had predicted that more than 50,000 refugees in the UK could become homeless by the end of the year, with many already living on the streets because of changes in government support.

Mark Davies of the Refugee Council said: We are seeing a homelessness crisis developing with newly recognised refugees being given as little as seven days before being evicted from accommodation. Being given refugee status in the UK shouldnt be a ticket to homelessness with the cost being passed on to local councils.

A Home Office spokesperson said the government was working to end the unacceptable use of hotels by moving asylum seekers into alternative, cheaper accommodation and clearing the legacy backlog.

They added: We have taken immediate action to speed up asylum processing whilst maintaining the integrity of the system. This includes simplifying guidance, streamlining processes and introducing shorter, focused interviews.
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Boris Johnson has revealed he is getting his own programme on GB News  the latest Tory politician to join the right-wing TV channel as a presenter.

In a video posted on X, the troublesome former PM said he was excited to sign up to the remarkable new channel  boasting that the show would allow him to share his unvarnished views on politics.

In a warning to Rishi Sunak, the ex-Tory leader said he would talk about everything from Russia to China to the war in Ukraine, how we meet all those challenges, to the huge opportunities that lie ahead.

GB News said Mr Johnson would cover the upcoming UK and US elections. The ex-PM said he wanted to discuss why our best days are yet to come and why he believes people want to see more global Britain  not less.

He joins a series of former Tory colleagues  including ally Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, current deputy chair Lee Anderson and fellow Brexiteer Nigel Farage  with their own shows at the controversial channel.

The ex-Tory leader has been a constant thorn in the side of Mr Sunak since he was kicked out of No 10 by his own party last summer.

Mr Johnson attacked Mr Sunaks Brexit deal for Northern Ireland, blasted his successors smoking ban, condemned the move to axe HS2, claimed No 10 was failing to provide weapons wanted by Ukraine and rowed with the government over the release of his Covid-era WhatsApp messages.

The ex-PM sensationally quit as an MP in June after claiming he was the victim of a witch hunt over his Partygate scandal  having been found to have deliberately lied to the Commons about his knowledge of rule-breaking.

He was widely perceived to have jumped before he was pushed, as the privileges committee later revealed he would have faced a 90-day suspension if he were still MP.

Boris Johnson has caused trouble for Sunak ever since leaving No 10 (Getty/AP)

Although he no longer enjoys his 86,000 salary since quitting his Uxbridge seat, Mr Johnson is said to have secured a very-high six-figure sum to write his weekly column for The Mail.

The Tory leader has now earned almost 5m over the past year  mostly from the huge fees charged for speaking at events overseas after he was kicked out of Downing Street.

As well as making around 4.2m from speaking events, Mr Johnson struck a 510,000 deal with HarperCollins in January to pen a memoir like no other.

It is not clear whether Mr Johnson will carry on with his Mail column  in which he has written about his dog Dilyn, the Elon Musk-Mark Zuckerburg row and his love of cheddar cheese  after starting with GB News.

Mr Johnson sought advice from Whitehalls appointments watchdog before taking up the job. The Advisory Committee on Business Appointments said it did not have any particular concerns about the role.

He now joins Sir Jacob, Mr Anderson, former Conservative pensions minister Esther McVey and senior Tory backbencher Philip Davies as presenters on GB News.

Amid concern about a Tory takeover of the channel, the regulator Ofcom ruled that a GB News interview with chancellor Jeremy Hunt by two fellow Conservative MPs breached impartiality rules.

The channel said Mr Johnson would be joining as a presenter, programme maker and commentator, adding that he would be playing a key role in the coverage of both the upcoming UK and US elections.

News of his latest gig comes as former Tory chancellor George Osborne claimed that disgusting and misogynistic WhatsApps sent by Mr Johnson and his former adviser Dominic Cummings will come out at the Covid inquiry.

Mr Osborne said he understood that there would be staggering messages shared at upcoming hearings  with the ex-No 10 strategist Mr Cummings set to appear next week.

Mr Johnson is set to give evidence to the public inquiry next month, following the long-running saga over the release of his WhatsApp messages to senior advisers and ministers.

Mr Osborne told his own Political Currency podcast that WhatsApp messages would show what a complete nightmare it was to work under Mr Johnson at Downing Street during the Covid crisis.
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The head of the civil service accused Boris Johnson at the height of the Covid pandemic of Trump-Bolsonaro levels of mad and dangerous behaviour because the then prime minister wanted to end social distancing, its been reported.

Simon Case, who at the time was Permanent Secretary at No10, referred to two world leaders infamous for dismissing the threat of the coronavirus - then US president Donald Trump and Brazil#s Jair Bolsonaro.

At the time, in July 2020, infections were spreading and medical experts feared a second wave of Covid was set to sweep the UK.

Donald Trump with Boris Johnson when tthey were both still world leaders (Getty Images)

Mr Johnson was pushing to ease lockdown restrictions and arguing in favour of the end of social distancing and the reopening of society.

Mr Cases judgment, contained in a WhatsApp message and reported by The Times, is expected to be published next week alongside a cache of others at the Covid-19 inquiry.

In one message, Mr Case said the prime minister wanted to declare were over Covid. He said that the approach would be Trump-Bolsonaro level mad and dangerous.

Plans for the widespread reopening of society were delayed by a fortnight in mid-August that year. But then in the November, a second national lockdown began as infections rose.

Mr Case, who was promoted to Cabinet Secretary and head of the civil service that September, described the Johnson government as a tragic joke in private messages shown to the inquiry.

Simon Cases messages are expected to be released as part of the Covid inquiry (PA Archive)

Next week evidence is due to come from Dominic Cummings, Mr Johnsons former chief adviser, and other Downing Street figures, as the inquiry investigates how the government handled the pandemic.

Mr Cummings had accused Mr Johnson of saying that he would rather see the bodies pile high than impose another lockdown in the autumn. Mr Johnson denies saying this.

Former chancellor George Osborne claims Mr Johnson and Mr Cummings sent disgusting and misogynistic WhatsApp messages.

Sir Patrick Vallance, chief scientific adviser during the pandemic, wrote in his diary: The ridiculous flip-flopping is getting worse. The chief medical officer [Chris Whitty] and I are both worried about the extreme inconsistencies in the prime minister lurching from open everything to panic.
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Keir Starmer is facing mounting pressure to shift his stance on the Israel-Hamas war as some of his partys most senior politicians outside the shadow cabinet broke ranks to call for a ceasefire.

In a blow to Sir Keirs authority, mayors Sadiq Khan and Andy Burnham as well as Anas Sarwar, Labours leader in Scotland, defied their leaders position on Gaza.

Sir Keir was also hit with warnings that more than 100 Labour MPs  half his parliamentary party  back calls for an immediate cessation to the fighting. Forty nine MPs have now publicly made the call.

He now risks a thorny internal row within his previously united party, just two weeks after he appeared to be riding high in the wake of a successful party conference and well ahead of the Tories in the polls.

It came as:

One Labour MP described the situation as a clusterf***, warning that voters could desert the party without a change of tack

Labour MPs were offered security advice as they come under pressure from their constituents

A top pollster warned Labour that divided parties dont win elections

A UN aid boss said people in Gaza feel stunned, alienated and abandoned

Both Sir Keir and Rishi Sunak have backed the idea of humanitarian pauses in the war  as distinct from a ceasefire  to allow aid to enter Gaza. Sir Keir has consistently argued that Israel has the right to defend itself after an attack by Hamas terrorists that left 1,400 dead.

But in a video message, Mr Khan said that thousands of innocent civilians had already been killed in Israel and Gaza. With the humanitarian crisis set to deteriorate even further, Im calling for a ceasefire.

The move would stop the killing and allow vital aid supplies to reach those who need it in Gaza, he added. It is understood Mr Khan spoke to Sir Keir before he released his recording.

Mr Sarwar also called for a ceasefire in a video on social media, saying: And let me be clear, that means a ceasefire right now.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer met with his partys Muslim MPs (Joe Giddens/PA)

While 49 MPs have gone public, veteran Labour MP Clive Betts told The Independent more supported a shift in position.Theres a majority of the parliamentary party in favour of a ceasefire, he said and urged his party leader to go that bit further and back (it).

One Labour MP told The Independent: For many MPs and potential Labour voters the damage has been done  it will leave a bad taste with them. There are a lot of emails from liberals, not just those on the left, who are really unhappy and who might stay at home at the election. Its a complete clusterf***.

The UK and the US have also refused to back ceasefire calls. No 10 said this week that the only ones who would benefit would be Hamas.

Before the mayors made their call, senior Labour MP Rosena Allin-Khan, the former shadow minister for mental health, also put further pressure on Sir Keir to demand a ceasefire.

Of course Israel has the right to defend itself But what we are seeing in retaliation is collective punishment of the Palestinian people, she told BBC Radio 4s Today programme.

But those calling for a ceasefire faced a backlash amid accusations they did not understand a complex situation. Former Gordon Brown aide Ian Austin, who quit the party in 2019 over its failure to deal with antisemitism, tweeted: Sadiq Khan cant stop kids killing each other on the streets of London, yet thinks he can provide useful advice on the most complicated and difficult conflict in the world.

In an apparently conciliatory response to the calls, a Labour Party spokesperson said: Of course, we understand why people want to call for a ceasefire. The Palestinian people are not Hamas, and they are suffering terribly. Thats why we support humanitarian pauses so that aid, fuel, water electricity and medicines can urgently get to those who need it.

But he added: We also have to recognise Israel was subject to a vile terrorist attack. Israel has a right and a duty to defend itself, rescue the hostages and stop Hamas from being able to carry out that sort of terrorist attack ever again. Action must be taken within international law, he added.

Labour frontbencher Steve Reed also defended Sir Keirs position on Friday  insisting that doing the right thing was the priority rather than worrying about votes.

Pollster Chris Hopkins from Savanta said the danger for Labour was divided parties dont win elections. But theres little evidence at the moment to suggest Labour are more divided than the Conservatives. It could get worse, divisions could deepen within Labour and Id expect the Tories to try and capitalise on it, he added.

Meanwhile, Labour chief whip Alan Campbell has written to the partys MPs to offer security advice. Mr Campbell said Labour MPs should take special care if attending any protests and demonstrations about the Gaza conflict.

Keir Starmer visited the South Wales Islamic Centre mosque (Labour Party)

More than 250 Muslim Labour councillors urged Sir Keir and deputy leader Angela Rayner to back an immediate ceasefire in Gaza  with his original comments on LBC also sparking resignations from several councillors.

Up to four members of the shadow cabinet are said to be on resignation watch over the issue. Sarah Owen, the shadow minister for faith, and Rachel Hopkins, shadow Cabinet Office minister, are among the frontbenchers considering whether to quit, according to The Times.

Frontbencher Yasmin Qureshi, a shadow equalities minister, also defied the leadership by calling for a ceasefire at PMQs this week.

Sir Keir was forced to hold crunch talks with a group of Muslim Labour MPs to address anger at his handling of the crisis  including comments in which he appeared to back the cutting of power and water to Gaza.

It was not until 20 October that he sought to clarify his position. I was saying that Israel has the right to self-defence, he told broadcasters. I was not saying that Israel had the right to cut off water, food, fuel or medicines.
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The UK Covid-19 Inquirys legal team has said it believes the majority of WhatsApp messages shared among Scottish Government officials during the pandemic have not been retained.

As part of the inquiry, key decision makers  including ministers, former ministers and senior civil servants  have been asked to disclose communications, including those through informal channels such as Meta-owned WhatsApp, Microsoft Teams or Signal.

First Minister Humza Yousaf ordered an investigation by Scotlands Solicitor General after Jamie Dawson KC  the lead counsel in the Scotland module of the inquiry  told the hearing on Thursday that the Scottish Government has not yet handed over messages.

But a note to the inquiry from Mr Dawson and its legal team  published on Thursday evening  said it understands the majority of messages may have been deleted.

It is currently understood... the majority of the messages have not been retained by witnesses UK Covid-19 Inquiry's legal team

The note said: Given the potential significance of any such material, and in order to provide a clearer statement of the position, the Scottish Government has been asked to provide a full update on its position and that of all relevant Scottish Government witnesses as regards to their use of WhatsApps and their current availability for disclosure.

It is currently understood that although WhatsApps appear to have been used to send messages relating to and surrounding key decisions by some members of Scottish Government, the majority of the messages have not been retained by witnesses.

Mr Dawson went on to say there is a lack of certainty around what materials are held by the Government and its officials, where it is held, and what can be recovered, and the inquiry has sought more information about the circumstances in which the messages were not retained.

In her closing remarks at Thursdays hearing, inquiry chair Lady Hallett said: It will not surprise anyone to learn that I am very concerned about the difficulties that the Module 2A team have encountered in obtaining the material they need to ensure a thorough and rigorous analysis of key decision-making in Scotland during the worst stages of the pandemic.

She added that substantive hearings due to take place in January will not be postponed, and she will not hesitate to use statutory powers at her disposal to obtain the relevant information.

Challenged on the issue during First Ministers Questions on Thursday, Mr Yousaf said: I can only say to the families listening, we will take on board those concerns, we will internally investigate fully, because my understanding, certainly as I stand here today, is that relevant information has been passed over.

But if there is any concerns raised they will be fully investigated and I will ask the Solicitor General to investigate them, and of course I will update this Parliament on any of those investigations.

In a filing on Thursday, the Scottish Governments legal team asked for the inquiry to serve a Section 21 notice, which would compel it to hand over messages.

The submission  published that evening  also respectfully disagreed with the assertion that the Scottish Governments position on WhatsApp is incomplete.

It also clarified the Governments process for informal messages, saying: Relevant information from any such exchanges would be recorded (for example, in meeting notes or in email exchanges) and then saved in the Scottish Governments electronic records and document management system.

This necessarily requires an exercise of individual judgment as to what should be retained as part of the document management system.

These principles applied before and during the pandemic, and continue to apply.

Scottish Labour deputy leader Dame Jackie Baillie has called for an investigation into whether Mr Yousaf misled Holyrood, after he pledged in June that all correspondence would be given to both the UK and Scottish Covid inquiries.

In a letter to the First Minister, she said: It is always essential that politicians uphold the highest standards of honesty and accuracy in the Scottish Parliament  and that is even more important on a matter as serious as the Covid inquiry.

Bereaved families deserve answers about what happened during the pandemic and your Government owes them total transparency.

This new evidence strongly suggests the statements you made in Parliament were not accurate and you may therefore have misled Parliament.

At the least there must be an investigation into whether this constitutes a breach of the ministerial code.

Scottish Conservative chief whip Alexander Burnett has called on ministers to come clean on whether messages were deleted.

Reports on Friday suggest one of the people who did not keep informal messages was national clinical director Professor Jason Leitch.

The Times reports the public health official deleted messages every day, doing so before a do not destroy notice was issued by the inquiry.
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Irish premier Leo Varadkar has said it was essential to not lose focus on the war in Ukraine as global attention focuses on the Israel-Palestine conflict.

The Taoiseach was speaking ahead of a two-day meeting of the EUs 27 leaders in Brussels on Friday.

Mr Varadkar said on the first day of the summit that some countries wanted attention to be drawn away from the Russian invasion of Ukraine and towards the threat of an escalating conflict in the Middle East.

Because of all the other things that are happening in the world, not least in the Middle East, itd be very easy to lose focus on the war in Ukraine, and it is essential that we dont do that, he told reporters on Friday.

We need to continue, if not continue, double down on  our support for Ukraine, in terms of political, military, financial and other support.

He said European leaders will also discuss migration but there is no expectation of any new conclusions.

He added: We have a very strong view that Ukraine has a right to defend its sovereignty, its independence, its democracy.

If we dont stop (Vladimir) Putin in Ukraine, he wont stop there.

So it is a threat to all of us and Ireland will continue with support for Ukraine until victory.

His comments come as the Irish government debate on how to change their offering to the thousands of Ukrainians fleeing the war and arriving in Ireland.

As of this month, 96,338 Ukrainian refugees have arrived in Ireland since the start of the war in February 2022.

The Government has said that as a further 30-50,000 are expected to arrive in the next year, it must change the current open-ended accommodation it is offering, and potentially reduce entitlements to social welfare supports.

There were disagreements at Cabinet this week after it was proposed a three-month limit would be placed on the period the state would be obliged to provide accommodation to Ukrainians.

Irelands Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe has said any change to state provisions for Ukrainian refugees must be sustainable, while cautioning that no decision had yet been taken.

The minister, who is attending the EU summit in Brussels in his capacity as president of the Eurogroup of Eurozone finance ministers, said cabinet would come to a decision soon.

This is an issue thats already been discussed at many different levels within government, its been discussed a number of times in the Ukraine cabinet sub-committee, and we regularly discuss policy issues in relation to migration and our support for the people of Ukraine who are facing this terrible war and the discussion that happened in cabinet earlier in the week is just part of that deliberative process, he said.

So Id expect that it will conclude soon.

The Government has not made a decision on that.

This is a complex matter.

The Irish people, the Irish state have shown a remarkable ability to support nearly 100,000 people that have come to our country in the last two years.

We just need to consider how we can continue to do this in the future and do so in a way that is sustainable.

Government hasnt made the decision on the matter.

Were aware of the many consequences of any decision that we make.

And Id expect that in the next few weeks the matter will be considered again, he said.
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Watch as UN aid official provides briefing on Gaza humanitarian situation on Friday (27 October)

Lynn Hastings, Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, briefed the media on the humanitarian situation in the region, followed by UN agencies briefing.

It comes after the UN's top humanitarian official Martin Griffiths says aid is "barely trickling" into Gaza, after days of warnings over rapidly depleting fuel supplies.

EU leaders have also called for pauses in fighting between Israel and Hamas to allow aid to reach civilians.
 Close Bryan Kohbergers capital murder trial delayed

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Bryan Kohberger returned to court today for a crucial hearing to argue why the grand jury indictment against him should be dismissed.

Judge John Judge denied the motion, but first made an unexpected decision to allow cameras in the courtroom.

The 28-year-old criminology PhD student is currently awaiting trial for the murders of University of Idaho students Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin.

Both the defence and the prosecution have been against cameras in the courtroom, but the media and the victims families have fought for cameras to be allowed.

Earlier this year, Mr Kohbergers attorneys filed the motion to dismiss the murder charges against him, citing a biased grand jury, inadmissible evidence and prosecutorial misconduct.

They tried to argue errors in grand jury instructions, but the judge said it is the same instruction given to grand juries for 100 years.

Mr Kohberger was linked to the murders that rocked the town of Moscow through DNA evidence, cellphone data, an eyewitness account and his white Hyundai Elantra.

His attorneys have previously tried to argue that the DNA may have been planted and that the state has not handed all the evidence for the defence to review.
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Scientists have given a startling reason for why Californias angriest otter has been so angry  and why she has now mellowed out.

The notorious sea otter 841, known for terrorising surfers off the California coast, was recently spotted with a little baby pup.

Professional photographer Mark Woodward, the otters most committed reporter of her mischievous activities, announced the good news on his X account that 841 had given birth.

This is so amazing. I suspected she might have been pregnant due to her increased belly size, he wrote in a post.

Before today, [I] last saw her three days ago. Shes a bit far out there, but from my vantage point, both mom and pup are doing fine.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service officially confirmed the pups birth in a statement on Thursday.

The agency said they could not confirm the otter had been pregnant without capturing the animal for an evaluation.

However, they now believe that hormonal surges related to pregnancy could have caused her aggressive behaviour towards the unsuspecting kayakers and surfers.

The five-year-old animal had gained a reputation as Californias angriest otter after she was captured on social media attacking surfers in Santa Cruz and biting their boards.

The Wildlife Service said at the time that they tried to capture the angry otter and take her to a zoo or an aquarium for the safety of both herself and the public.

Sea Otter 841 captured here foraging in shallow water (US Fish and Wildlife Service)

But, attempts to capture the otter were unsuccessful  and 841s fans loved to see it.

An online following of people keen to keep up to date with her life on the run grew, even leading to sales of t-shirts and tote bags in solidarity with the angry animal.

Since giving birth, she seems to have retired her surfboard-stealing antics and has been seen lolling about with her newborn.

Now that the otter has given birth and seems to have found peace, officials say they have no plans to capture her and her pup.

Instead, they will monitor her behaviour from a distance.

Yet it remains to be seen whether her behaviour will take a turn again.

The otter has given birth twice before; her first survived, but her second born in the spring did not, reports the local outlet.

Just four months after she was spotted with one of her other pups, 841 was seen getting up to her old tricks.

While pregnancy hormones are thought to be one of the reasons she displayed angry behaviour, her online fans warn that human interaction also doesnt help.

Mr Woodward told the Los Angeles Times that he had witnessed several boaters and kayakers harassing the otter by getting too close to her, potentially causing her to be in distress and threatening her safety.

The surfboard snatching otter now has a new baby (Hefti Brunhold/Amazing Animals+/TMX via AP)

There is new concern that sea otter 841s viral fame may attract more visitors to come see the new pup  when it is crucial to keep a safe distance, especially now the otter is foraging for two.

He wrote on X that if people do want to see the newborn, they should observe them from cliffs around West Cliff Drive rather than on the shores edge.

The US Fish and Wildlife also encourages people who want to visit the otters to keep at least 60 feet away from them; if this is compromised, then the survival of the new baby could be in danger.

The officials say that sea otters do not have energy reserves like whales or seals, so they have to forage for food equating to 20 to 30 per cent of their body mass to keep their energy up. With a baby, it is crucial their energy is not used up on humans.

Sea otters are protected by the Endangered Species Act, Marine Mammal Protection Act, and California state law.

A violation could land an individual with fines up to $100,000 or one year of jail time.
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A man has been found dead in a chimney more than a month after tenants in the building reportedly hearing someone screaming for help.

A maintenance worker investigating a foul smell in a block of apartments in Norfolk, Nebraska, found Zachariah Andrews, 29, stuck in the chimney on 19 October.

The worker first found a shoe before finding the decomposing body of the 29-year-old.

His remains had to be identified by scars, marks, tattoos, and an identification card found on him, police said.

Andrewss family has been informed and Norfolk Police Division said the force is investigating the circumstances of his death.

The grim discovery comes one month after police officers were called to the apartment block on 1414 South 3rd Street on 16 September, after a resident reported hearing a man calling out for help for three to four minutes.

The calls appeared to be coming from the first floor, the resident said, and two officers were dispatched.

But on arrival, the screaming could no longer be heard.

The resident was told to call the police back if he heard the noise again.

The responding officers also had contact with three additional residents, including the apartment beneath the reporting party, and no other person said they had heard the shouting.

A maintenance worker investigating a foul smell in a block of apartments found Andrew (Google Maps)

There was a loud television playing in one of the apartments, police said.

On 20 September, a parking warning was placed on Andrewss vehicle nearby.

A missing persons report was then filed on 3 October and he was entered into the national database of missing persons.

That same day, Madison County Sheriffs office issued a warrant for his arrest on seven counts of violating a protective order.

According to The New York Post, Andrews had repeatedly posted on Facebook about reaching out to an unnamed woman.

Responding to the posts, which covered a period of several months, friends of Andrews told him to stop trying to contact the woman and advised him to remember what he had learnt in treatment.

Local media reported that he had been previously charged with trying to entice a 12-year-old girl who was trying to sell a swimsuit on Facebook.
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Maine flower shop owner Jayne Bergeron braved a shelter-in-place order Friday morning in Lewiston to open briefly so she could provide services for a funeral unrelated to the massacre in her town  which left 18 dead and more than a dozen injured when an Army reservist opened fire at a bowling alley and a bar Wednesday.

She knows more funerals are coming.

Its been very, very hard, Ms Bergeron, 55, told The Independent. I know people that were there in the bars that it happened at that made it out. Some of them didnt.

The lifelong Lewiston resident was speaking less than 48 hours after suspect Robert Card opened fire at two locations in Maines second-largest city, mowing down patrons of a bowling alley and a bar located just over four miles apart.

Law enforcement personnel search a wooded area in Monmouth, Maine, amid the search for shooting suspect Robert Card (AFP via Getty Images)

Its devastating, said Ms Bergeron, who personally knew three of the victims killed. Its not a place where you think that stuff like this happens.

Authorities announced Card, a 40-year-old Army reservist whod been battling mental health issues, as a suspect before appealing for any information about him and issuing a shelter in place order. Supermarkets, locksmiths and even fast food drive-thrus  including New England staple Dunkin Donuts  were all shuttered as local, state and federal authorities hunted for the suspect.

I was actually scared just coming to work, Ms Bergeron said.

Cindy Roy, whose husbands family has owned Roys All Steak Hamburgers for decades, said everyone in the town knew someone affected by the violence (Sheila Flynn)

Most businesses in Lewiston and Auburn, the city across the river, remained closed on Friday; the streets were deserted as road signs declared Lewiston Strong and Shelter In Place. Roads were blocked off leading to the two shooting sites, located just over four miles from each other. Flags were at half mast.

Roys All Steak Hamburgers reopened Friday morning after closing on Thursday, one of the few eateries hosting a steady stream of customers as the city crept along in shock and fear.

We have a lot of the same people that come in every day, so with us not being here yesterday, I think this coming in today, I felt they felt a little comfort, said Cindy Roy, whose husbands family has run the diner for decades.

The tight-knit communities of Lewiston and neighboring Auburn were reeling, she said, not only because the suspect remained on the loose but also because everyones got a story  we each know someone.

Most businesses in Lewiston were closed on Friday as a shelter-inplace order remained in place amid a massive manhunt for the suspect (Andrea Blanco)

One of my good friends, her son was shot, she said. Luckily hes okay, but we all know someone that has been affected, she added, noting that locals were checking on each other through texting, calls and social media.

Outside of Roys, 81-year-old Linda Parker told The Independent that her trip to the diner was one of the few outings shed dare take since the violence unravelled.

Holding a drink tightly and still in shock, Ms Parker said she never believed shed live to see her county become the epicentre of Americas latest mass shooting. That horror was was something that happened to other communities, in big cities, she said, not in the semi-rural dormant town where shes lived her whole life.

My niece called me and I just thought it was some type of a prank call, she recalled. I never in my life thought this would happen.

A flag at half-mast in Lewsiton, where a gunman killed 18 people and injured a dozen on Wednesday night (Andrea Blanco)

Ms Parker said everyone she knew was in a similar state of fear. But as the search concentrated in the Lisbon area of the Androscoggin River, some locals are starting to gather at the seldom places that have opened, such as Roys, trying to find some sense of community as they deal with grief in the fallout of the shooting.

Its almost like our 9/11 Linda Parker

Everything is just quiet. It is scary. I made sure my windows, doors were locked, especially at nighttime. And even at daytime, youre looking out your window, Ms Parker said.

The rampage that left at least 18 people dead is the worst mass killing in Maines history. Last year, the Pine Tree State reported only 29 homicides.

Its almost like our 9/11, Ms Parker said.
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Warning: Distressing content

Officials in Maine held a press conference on Thursday, 26 October 2023, as a manhunt is underway to catch the suspect wanted in connection to two mass shootings in Lewiston that left 18 people dead and 13 injured.

Local officials including Republican Senator Susan Collins, Democratic Representative Jared Golden, and Lewiston Chief of Police David St. Pierre made statements at the press conference in City Hall to discuss the mass shootings.

The suspect opened fire at the Just-in-Time Recreation bowling alley and then the Schemengees Bar & Grille at around 7pm on Wednesday, 25 October 2023.

An intensive statewide manhunt is underway for 40-year-old Robert Card.

Mr Card is a member of the US Army Reserves and a certified firearms instructor. The suspect recently reported mental health issues, including hearing voices.

His whereabouts remain unknown however his vehicle  a 2013 white Subaru  was located in the town of Lisbon.

A US Coast Guard official told CBS that it has deployed resources to search the Kennebec River for the suspect in the river after a vehicle was found near a boat launch.
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A bar manager, four deaf friends and a teenage bowler are among the 18 victims who were formally identified by police as victims of the Maine mass shooting.

The ages of those caught up in the violence ranged from 14 to 76 years old. Some who died reportedly put themselves in the line of fire to protect others.

Just before 7pm on Wednesday 25 October, the gunman entered Just In Time Recreation  a popular, family-friendly establishment and opened fire on the innocent victims inside. Seven people including one female and six males died in the attack at the bowling alley, before the gunman moved on to his second target the Schemengees Bar & Grille Restaurant.

Late on Friday evening the body of 40-year-old Robert Card, the man sought in connection with the killings, was found.

Officials said that the US Army reservist and certified firearms instructor had recently made threats to carry out a shooting at a National Guard facility and had reported mental health issues, including auditory hallucinations.

Here is a list of the victims as identified by police:

Aaron and Bill Young

Aaron Young, 14, and his father Bill Young, 44, were at Just In Time Recreation for an evening with their bowling league on Wednesday night when the gunman entered and opened fire.

Bills younger brother, Rob Young, told Reuters that for hours after the shooting their family had no idea what happened to Aaron or Bill. The search ended tragically on Thursday afternoon when the family learned that both the father and son were killed in the attack.

Kim McConville, Bills cousin, said that Aaron and Bill were just innocent people enjoying a night together at the bowling alley.

Just innocent people out for a night of bowling, she said. This was a childrens event. You know, who expects a shooter to go into a childrens event? But you know, this is a crazy world that we live in today.

Aaron, 14, was bowling with his father and their league (NBC Boston)

Aaron was a sophomore in high school who enjoyed doing anything his father was doing according to a tribute from a GoFundMe page. His family said he was a gentle and thoughtful kid.

Bill and Aaron Young in an undated picture (NBC Boston)

Bill was described as hardworking and always enjoyed life to the fullest. He provided for his family which consists of his wife, Cindy, and his two daughters, Kayla and Lauren.

If anyone ever needed anything, Bill and his wife were the first to lend a hand. I couldnt have asked for a better big brother, Mr Young said.

Joseph Walker

Joseph Walker, 57, was the bar manager at Schemengees Bar and Grille in Lewiston. His father, Leroy Walker, identified him as one of the 18 victims who died last week in the shooting.

Walker was described as a husband, father, grandpa and son, in a GoFundMe page meant to support his surviving family members.

He was at Schemengees on the night of the shooting to play cornhole with his family and friends, according to his daughter Bethany.

Joseph Walker (Facebook)

It took over 14 hours for Mr Walker to be notified about his son, and he said his family was suffering and dying in a nightmare we dont understand.

None of us slept, we were up all night, he said. We didnt know where to go, who to run to. They didnt notify any of us, Mr Walker said.

Bob and Lucy Violette

Bob Violette, a 76-year-old retired Sears mechanic and avid bowler, was identified by his daughter-in-law Cassandra as one of the victims, she told the Portland Press Herald.

Violette, who was a native of Lewiston and ran a youth bowling league, was reportedly killed trying to protect the kids he was responsible for on Wednesday night.

Both he and his wife Lucy, 73, were keen bowlers, having started the youth bowling league at Just In Time Recreation, for which Violette was recently inducted into the Maine Bowling Hall of Fame.

He wouldnt let you walk out the door without giving him a hug, and a kiss on the cheek. He was just there for everything, Cassandra said.

Bob Violette (Facebook)

She said he had a special bond with his grandkids and was a doting husband to his wife Lucy, who was also killed in the shooting.

His first thought every day was her, Cassandra added.

The couple is survived by their three sons and six grandchildren.

Bryan MacFarlane

Bryan MacFarlane, 41, was fatally shot at Schemengees Bar & Grille while participating in a cornhole tournament.

MacFarlane was a proud member of the deaf community, his family said in a GoFundMe description.

His sister, Keri Brooks, told CNN that he typically went to the bar on Wednesdays for a weekly cornhole session and to hang out with his friends.

Bryan MacFarlane (Facebook)

MacFarlane worked as a truck driver and was one of the first deaf people in the state of Vermont to get his commercial trucking license. In his free time, he enjoyed riding his motorcycle and playing with his dog, Ms Brooks said.

He grew up in Maine and moved back to the state recently to be close to his family and friends.

His family said they hope to raise enough money in his memory to create a scholarship at a school in Maine for a deaf recipient to encourage deaf teens to pursue a career in trade.

Tricia Asselin

Tricia Asselin, 53, worked part-time at Just In Time Recreation and was bowling on Wednesday night with her sister when the shooter came in and opened fire, her family told CNN.

As soon as gunfire began, Asselin ran to the counter to call 911.

We were just running, and I kept saying: I want my sister out of there. And she called 911 and put herself in his way by trying to get help. Shes a hero. My sister is a hero, Asselins sister Bobbi-Lynn Nichols told People magazine.

Tricia Asselin ( Facebook)

That was just her. She wasnt going to run. She was going to try and help, Asselins brother, DJ Johnson, told CNN.

Ms Nichols said that it was her sisters day off from work but that she still went to Just In Time Recreation to bowl with her family.

My sister was the most kind, most honest, most giving person you would ever meet. She would take her last penny and give it to you. She would raise money for people she didnt even know, Ms Nichols said.

Greg Hird, had played in the same bowling league as Tricia Asselin, the sole woman killed in the massacre, and regularly bowled with her. When he heard the news of the shooting, he called her phone eight times  but no one answered.

She was just the greatest person ever, said Mr Hird, weeping as he spoke about his friend. No matter what was going on in her life, she would give everything back. Truly the sweetest woman Ive ever met.

Tommy Conrad

Thomas Tommy Conrad, 34, worked as a manager at Just In Time Recreation and was fatally shot during the mass shooting on Wednesday.

Alex McMahan, who co-owns a chain of dispensaries in the Lewiston area, texted his longtime customer and buddy Conrad, Are you okay, brother?

And he obviously didnt text back, Mr McMahan told The Independent.

Tommy Conrad (Facebook)

I hear that he died trying to take out the shooter, which was just an amazing act of selfless heroism  and knowing him, and knowing how good of a guy he was, Im not surprised at all that he didnt hesitate to put his life on the line to try to help others, Mr McMahan added.

Conrad had been planning on doing a pumpkin carving at the bowling alley for the kids in the Lewiston community. Following the shooting, mourners left Jack-o-lanterns outside of the bowling alley to pay tribute to Conrad.

Conrads father, Timothy Conrad, confirmed that he was killed in the attack to ABC News. Conrad is survived by his nine-year-old daughter.

Peyton Brewer-Ross

Peyton Brewer-Ross, 39, is among those who were fatally shot during the mass shooting on Wednesday.

The Maine AFL-CIO  a state federation of over 160 local labor unions  announced that Brewer-Ross, one of its members, was among those killed. He worked at a pipe shop in Bath Iron Works (BIW)

Brewer-Ross had recently completed coursework and on-the-job training at BIWs rigorous apprenticeship program.

Brewer-Ross was a father and loved by his community the federation wrote on X, sharing a picture of him smiling and holding a young child.

Peyton Brewer Ross (Facebook)

He was a lover of the game cornhole and was at Schemengees Bar and Grille playing in a tournament went the gunman opened fire.

His brother, Ralph Wellman Brewer, said in a GoFundMe description that cornhole was one of the things that Brewer-Ross thought was so much fun.

Brewer-Ross is survived by his partner, Rachael, and their two-year-old daughter.

Joshua Seal

Joshua Seal, 36, was a well-known American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter and was hosting a community event for members of the deaf community at Schemengees Bar & Grille when the shooting unfolded.

Seal was the Director of Interpreting Services for the Pine Tree Society  an organisation which provides Maine children and adults with disabilities the opportunities and the means to create better lives for themselves and their families.

His wife, Elizabeth, confirmed his death in a post on Facebook calling him the best father to the couples four children.

Joshua Seal (Facebook)

He was always there for them, lending an eye or a hand and going to their sporting/extracurricular activities. He always loved spending time with them, travelling, going for a day trip to the beach, or going camping for the weekend. Not only was he an amazing father, he was a wonderful husband, my best friend, and my soulmate, Elizabeth wrote.

Seals mother, Michele, said her son was the most selfless person you would ever meet.

He is survived by his four children, aged 12, nine, seven and three, as well as his wife.

Michael Deslauriers

Michael Deslauriers, 51, was killed alongside his close friend, Jason Walker, at Just In Time Recreation.

Deslauriers died trying to save their families from the shooter by charging at the gunman.

In a heartbreaking post on the Sabattus Historical Societys Facebook page, Deslaurierss father, Michael Deslauriers Sr, described how the two men leaped into action to try to save others and stop the killings.

Deslauriers ex-wife, Stacey, described him as an amazing man, father and provider, according to The Washington Post.

He is survived by his four children.

Jason Walker (left) & Michael Deslauriers II (right) (Facebook)

Jason Walker

Jason Walker, 51, died alongside his close friend, Michael Deslauries, at Just In Time Recreation while trying to save others from the shooter.

They made sure their wives and several young children were under cover then they charged the shooter, Michael Deslauriers Sr. wrote in the post about Walker and his son, Michael Deslauriers Sr said.

Ron Morin

Ronald Ron Morin, 55, was fatally shot during the mass shooting in Lewiston.

Morin was described as having an infectious personality and a man who always put others before himself, his family said in a GoFundMe description.

He was a man who always put others before himself and looked for the humour and positivity in even the most tragic circumstances. He has touched so many lives who are trying to reach out and provide support for his family however they are able, his family said.

Ron Morin (Facebook)

Rosa Storer, a stylist at Taboo Hair Design in Lewiston where he had his hair cut for 25 years, called him an upstanding man with a lot of joy in his heart.

Morin was known to frequent DuBois Cafe on Saturdays.

In his memory, his friends celebrated his life at the cafe this past weekend.

They filled up this entire corner of the restaurant, and they all got something similar  so he would typically get a ham and Cooper cheese omelette, hash browns on the side, no toast typically, and bacon on the side, waitress Alyssa Black told The Independent on Sunday. Everyone came in yesterday, and they got pretty much his meal  the bacon on the side, no toast, no sides.

Morin is survived by his wife, Lynn, and their two children.

Arthur Strout

Arthur Artie Strout, 42, was killed at Schemengees Bar & Grille while playing pool with friends.

Strouts father, Arthur Barnard, told WCVB that he had been at the bar with his son that night and had left just 10 minutes before the shooting began.

He was supposed to leave with me and he decided he wanted to stay for a couple more games, Mr Barnard said.

Arthur Strout (Facebook)

He added: People loved him. They just loved him.

Strout is survived by his wife, Kristy, and their five children.

Billy Brackett

William Billy Brackett, 48, was also attending the community event for deaf people at Schemengees Bar & Grill on Wednesday night when he was fatally shot.

Bracketts father told ABC News that the group was playing cornhole when the gunman targeted the second location.

His friends described him as someone who loved darts, cornhole, fishing and hunting in a GoFundMe description.

Billy Brackett (Facebook)

Bracketts friend, Nick Perry, paid tribute to him on Facebook, writing: Ill never forget the laughs I had you in when I was trying to learn some sign language at cornhole.

Another friend, Owen Horr, described Brackett as kind and shy who was obsessed with sports from a young age in a Facebook post.

He had natural-born athletic skills... He was the best soccer goalie, playing baseball and basketball. He made more than 1,000 points during his senior high school years. Also, he was the outstanding baseball player in the league in Auburn/Lewiston, ME, Mr Horr wrote.

He is survived by his wife, Kristina, and their two-year-old daughter.

Steve Vozzella

Steven Steve Vozzella, 45, was also part of the cornhole tournament at Schemengees Bar & Grille.

Vozella was a member of the deaf community and a United States Postal Service (USPS) worker for more than 20 years.

Vozellas brother, Nick Vozzella, confirmed to ABC News that he was killed in the shooting.

Steve Vozzella (Facebook)

The National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), a union representing city delivery letter carriers employed by the US Postal Service, paid tribute to Vozella saying they were heartbroken by the news of his death.

Brother Vozzella was only 45 years old. He had much more life to live before it was stolen from him in an all-too-common senseless act of gun violence, NALC President Brian L Renfroe said.

Friends of Vozzella said he was a hardworking man who loved his family and animals, in a GoFundMe description.

He is survived by his wife, Megan, and his daughter.

Maxx Hathaway

Maxx Hathaway, 34, was killed in the mass shooting that took place in Lewiston.

Hathaway was described as goofy and down-to-earth by his sister, Kelsay Hathaway, in a GoFundMe description. She said her brother loved to joke around and was uplifting even in difficult times.

According to Kelsay, her brother was a full-time stay-at-home dad.

Maxx Hathaway, 34, was killed during the Maine mass shooting (GoFundMe)

Hathaway is survived by his daughter and his wife, who is pregnant with the couples second child.

Keith Macneir

Keith Macneir, 64, was visiting his son in Lewiston, Maine when gunfire suddenly broke out at Schemengees Bar & Grille.

Macneirs niece, Grace Chilton, said Macneirs death is an overwhelming burden for Breslin and began a GoFundMe to raise money to support Breslin.

Keith was the friendliest & kindest guy in any room  his loss will leave a huge hole in the lives of many, many people, Grace wrote.

Keith Macneir, 64, was visiting his son in Maine when gunfire broke out at a local restaurant and bar (GoFundMe )

Macneir is survived by his son.
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Maine mass shooting suspect Robert Card left behind a mystery note after he allegedly went on a killing rampage at a bowling alley and bar in the small town of Lewiston.

Maines Public Safety Commissioner Michael Sauschuck confirmed in a press conference on Friday that a note had been recovered in the wake of Wednesdays attacks which left 18 victims dead and another 13 wounded.

However, Mr Sauschuck refused to reveal the contents of the note, hinting that it may point to a possible motive for the killings.

The revelation came hours before authorities found Cards body in a wooded area close to a recycling area where he used to work. He appeared to have died from a self-inflicted wound.

Police sources had previously told ABC News that a suicide note addressed to his son had been found inside Mr Cards home during a search.

The sources said the note contained the suspects rantings as well as some personal information such as bank account details.

As well as the note, a law enforcement official told CNN that Mr Cards cellphone had also been recovered.

Details of the note come as authorities admitted that they still dont know where the accused mass killer is almost 36 hours on from the shootings.

Divers had joined the search, scouring the waterways close to the boat landing where Cards vehicle was found abandoned late on Wednesday night.

Mr Sauschuck said that the dive teams will be checking for evidence as well as potential bodies in the Androscoggin River.

Maine Commissioner of Public Safety Michael Sauschuck speaks at a press conference at City Hall in Lewiston (REUTERS)

A dramatic raid was executed on Cards home in Bowdoin on Thursday night, with Maine police and FBI agents heard shouting FBI! Open the door!

The dramatic scene however ended with no arrest and no sign of the US Army Reservist.

Card was described as armed and dangerous and members of the public were warned not to approach him if they see him.

Due to Cards experience in the military, he was well-trained in the use of firearms.

Card, 40, was a US Army reservist and a certified firearms instructor, joining the forces in 2002.

He had no combat deployments and was a Sgt 1st class and Petroleum Supply Specialist.

Law enforcement officials said that Card had recently made threats to carry out a shooting at a National Guard facility in Saco and had reported mental health issues including hearing voices.

He spent two weeks in a mental health facility this summer.

Cards family members were said to be cooperating with the investigation and suggested that he might have been looking for an ex-girlfriend at one of the shooting locations, ABC News reported.

It is not clear who this former partner may be  or if this did form part of a motive for the shooting  but court records show that Card was divorced by his ex-wife in 2007.

Law enforcement personnel search a wooded area in Monmouth, Maine, amid the search for shooting suspect Robert Card (AFP via Getty Images)

In 2013, the court granted them both shared parental rights of their child, who lives primarily with his mother.

While terrified residents across several counties in Maine were hunkering down under shelter-in-place orders, loved ones were still learning the news that their family and friends were killed or wounded in the massacre.

In total, 18 people were killed in the shootings which took place across two locations on Wednesday night.

Maine police said that the gunman first targeted the popular bowling alley just before 7pm, killing seven people, including one female and six males.

The suspect then went to the Schemengees Bar & Grille Restaurant and opened fire there minutes later, according to authorities.

Seven males were killed inside the restaurant and one male was killed outside.

Three other victims died after they were taken to a local hospital.

Another 13 were injured in the attacks, with their conditions currently unclear.

The youngest victim named is a 14-year-old boy who had gone to the bowling alley with his father that tragic night.

Aaron Young, 14, was with his father Bill Young at the Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley for an evening with their bowling league on Wednesday night, Bills brother Rob Young told Reuters.

For hours after the shooting, Aaron and Bills family did not know what had happened to their loved ones.

Rob told Reuters that he learned his brother and nephew were missing in the wake of the shooting so he jumped on a place from Baltimore to Lewiston to try to help his sister-in-law find them.

Aaron Young, 14, was with his father bowling when the shooting unfolded (NBC Boston)

Bills cousin Kim McConville told NBC News that the family had tracked his cellphone and found it located at the bowling alley where the first shooting took place.

Its total chaos, she told the network prior to learning of their deaths.

People arent getting any of the information they need. You know, its there. Theyre not getting anything new. Theyre not telling them any more than were getting off a news conference.

The search ended tragically on Thursday afternoon when the family learned that both the father and son were killed in the attack.

Despite the search for the suspect rumbling on, Mr Sauschuck insisted on Friday that authorities are confident they will fine Mr Card.

Were working 24/7 to try to bring this individual to justice, he said.

There is no doubt in my mind that we will bring this individual into justice, one way or another.
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Watch as Maine State Police hold a news conference as the hunt for man linked to major mass shootings continues on Thursday 26 October.

A gunman left 18 people dead after he opened fire in the Sparetime Recreation bowling alley and then the Schemengees Bar & Grille Restaurant in Lewiston at around 7pm on Wednesday night.

Terrifying surveillance footage grabs, shared on Facebook by the Androscoggin County Sheriffs Office, showed the shooter armed with a rifle.

An intensive manhunt is now under way for 40-year-old Robert Card, who has been described as a person of interest in the shootings.

Mr Card is a member of the US Army Reserves and a certified firearms instructor, who officials said had recently made threats to carry out a shooting at a National Guard facility and had reported mental health issues, including hearing voices.

His whereabouts are currently unknown though his car  a 2013 white Subaru  has since been located in the town of Lisbon.
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The star of the HBO docuseries Telemarketets has returned back home almost a month after he disappeared, the shows director announced on Thursday.

Pat Pespas, 54, was last seen on 29 September in Easton, Pennsylvania, police said at the time, and it has not yet been revealed what happened to the TV star while he disappeared.

Patrick J Pespas has been found and returned safely to his wife Sue, Telemarketers director Adam Bhala Lough wrote on X.

Thank you to everyone who has shared messages of support, donated and prayed for Pats safe return. One day I hope to tell the whole story but for now Pat asks that everyone respects his and Sues privacy.

Mr Pespas is a recovering drug addict, something that was well documented in Telemarketers, which chronicles a 20-year journey of two employees at a New Jersey call centre, according to the HBO website.

Police said that they were concerned for his wellbeing.

They believe the documentary star may have taken off in a white 2002 Ford Mustang. A fundraiser was set up for his wife Sue while her husband was missing, as she needed help with medical, home and food bills.

Mr Pespas usually takes care of his wife, who has been battling cancer for years, along with other health issues.

The GoFundMe page said that she was enduring a lot more stress while her husband was missing, and had to rely on other family members while Mr Pespas was gone.

Mr Bhala Lough also helped out Sue and Mr Pespas family on his X account, sending tips and updates to fans of the show to try and locate him.

Im heartbroken without you; please come home, Sue said in a recorded video that the director shared with his followers on 14 October.

According to Mr Bhala Lough, the documentary star was allegedly spotted in various locations around the country, such as in a bar in Pittsburgh and in Manhattan in New York.

Now that Mr Pespas is safe has been found, Sam Lipman-Stern, the series co-director, said the family would like privacy at this time.

Thankful to say Pat has been found, is safe and is back home with his wife Sue. Thank you so much to everyone who has shared supportive messages, helped Sue with her medical bills, Mr Lipman-Stern wrote on X.

We couldnt have helped Sue and found Pat without everyones love and support.

The Easton Police Department have yet to comment on the reports that Mr Pespas has been found; The Independent has contacted them for comment.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday he's arranged to send drones, weapons and ammunition to Israel as it prepares for an incursion of Gaza in response to Hamas' attack. It's the latest official response DeSantis has taken to back Israel as he competes in the 2024 Republican presidential primary.

Florida has sent cargo planes with healthcare supplies, drones, body armor and helmets, said Jeremy Redfern, a spokesman for the governor's office. The state also worked with groups to supply unspecified amounts of weapons and ammunition that were privately funded, Redfern said.

The governors office said it acted at the request of Israels consul general in Miami. Maor Elbaz-Starinsky, the consul general, initially said Thursday he did not request drones, body armor or helmets, nor had he talked to the governor about help getting weapons or ammunition through private parties.

Elbaz-Starinsky said later Thursday that others in the Israeli government had communicated with DeSantis office to determine what would be sent to Israel.

DeSantis has often applied his official powers to take actions that coincide with his larger political goals. Florida used state funds to fly migrants from Texas to Democratic-led areas such as Marthas Vineyard. And earlier this week, his administration ordered state universities to disband chapters of a pro-Palestinian student group. Since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack, Florida has also run flights for about 700 Americans evacuated from Israel.

The confirmation of the military aid comes as DeSantis and other GOP presidential contenders are expected to attend the Republican Jewish Coalitions annual gathering of donors, which kicks off Friday in Las Vegas. DeSantis is scheduled to speak Saturday morning to a Nevada Republican group at a casino-resort on the Las Vegas Strip.

DeSantis and the other candidates have largely lined up behind Israel and accused President Joe Biden of not doing enough to support the Israelis. DeSantis has swiped at former President Donald Trump, the heavy front-runner in the 2024 primary, and former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley over Israel as well.

Its unclear whether DeSantis coordinated shipments of any weapons with the Biden administration. The Commerce Department regulates the shipment abroad of many types of U.S. weapons and technology.

It is not illegal for the governor of a state to offer a measure of foreign assistance to another country," said John Kirby, a spokesperson for the White House's National Security Council. "There are laws and regulations which govern how the export process is handled and thats all done through Commerce. I couldnt speak with authority today about whether the governor has checked all those boxes or not.

The export of military equipment would typically require a license or some other authorization from either the Commerce or State Departments, depending on the precise item, said Thomas Krueger, a foreign policy adviser at the Akin Gump law firm who specializes in international trade and previously served as the director of strategic trade and nonproliferation at the National Security Council.

It really all depends on the specifications of the items themselves, to determine what kind of export authorization would be required, Krueger said.

A Commerce Department spokesman said the department was working to appropriately expedite applications for assistance to Israel" and was in close contact with the Israeli government, but said he could not provide details on particular transactions.

___

Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani and Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.
 Close Trump claims he wasnt referring to clerk when he violated fraud trial gag order

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The fifth week of Donald Trumps civil fraud trial is underway in New York but another Trump trial has begun in Colorado.

The latest legal action concerns a lawsuit seeking to block Mr Trump from the 2024 presidential ballot based on the 14th Amendment and its ban on insurrectionists running for office. Denver District Court Judge Sarah B Wallace will hear arguments on the Civil War-era federal constitutional amendment throughout the week.

Meanwhile, in New York, Mr Trumps sons Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump are expected to testify in the fraud trial this week, with the former president and Ivanka Trump taking the stand the following week.

And in Washington, DC, the judge in the former presidents federal election interference case has reinstated a gag order on him in the federal case brought by special counsel Jack Smith.

US District Judge Tanya Chutkan issued a gag order in the case in early October, banning Mr Trump from making statements about prosecutors and potential witnesses in the case.

The order was briefly paused on 20 October before being reinstated on Sunday.

Mr Trump lashed out at the ruling on Truth Social fuming that it is NOT CONSTITUTIONAL!
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A pro-Russian former politician in Ukraine is fighting for his life after being shot in his Crimea home, an official has said.

Oleg Tsaryov, who was reportedly being lined up to lead a puppet administration in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv after Russias invasion, is in intensive care, said Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-installed official in southern Ukraine.

He was reportedly shot twice at around midnight at his home in Crimea.

Olegs condition is very serious. He is currently in intensive care, Mr Rogov wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Sources told Reuters last year that Russia had been lining up Mr Tsaryov to head a puppet government in Kyiv after Moscows forces invaded on 24 February.

Mr Tsaryov himself dismissed that possibility when the Financial Times reported it, citing US intelligence, ahead of the invasion.

He told the paper at the time that the idea was pretty funny because he was just running a wellness business in Crimea and was not important enough.

Oleg Tsaryov was reportedly being lined up by the Kremlin to lead a puppet administration in Kyiv after the Russian invasion (Reuters)

Previously, Mr Tsaryov had been a member of the Ukrainian parliament and then speaker of the parliament of Novorossiya, an entity formed after Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine broke away in 2014 and began fighting Ukrainian forces.

News of the shooting comes amid continued fighting on the front line, where Russian troops have been executed for retreating from key battles.

US intelligence said Russian soldiers had been fleeing the front line of the Kremlins offensive in the eastern city of Avdiivka, Donetsk.

We have information that the Russian military has been actually executing soldiers who refuse to follow orders, White House spokesperson John Kirby told a media briefing on Thursday.

President Zelensky says the Black Sea export corridor will continue despite threats (EPA)

Ukrainian forces have been repelling the Russian onslaught on the front line in Donetsk for several weeks, since mid-October.

Meanwhile, the alternative Black Sea export corridor will continue to function despite all threats, Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday morning.

The presidential office reported that Mr Zelensky had discussed the operation of the route as well as vessel insurance during a phone call with British prime minister Rishi Sunak.

On Thursday, the Kyiv-based Barva Invest consultancy, British security firm Ambrey, and a specialised outlet, Ukrainian Ports, reported that Ukraine had suspended use of the corridor due to a possible threat from Russian warplanes and sea mines.

Additional reporting by agencies
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The White House said it had information that Russia was executing its own soldiers who retreated from an offensive in Ukraine or refused to follow orders.

We have information that the Russian military has been actually executing soldiers who refuse to follow orders, White House spokesperson John Kirby told a media briefing on Thursday.

Its reprehensible to think about that you would execute your own soldiers because they didnt want to follow orders and now threatening to execute entire units, its barbaric, Mr Kirby said.

He said it was a symptom of how poorly Russias military leaders know theyre doing and how bad they have handled this from a military perspective.

The US also claimed that some of the Russian casualties near Avdivvka were on the orders of their own leaders.

The White House has downgraded and released intelligence findings about Russian action over the course of the war. Mr Kirby, however, did not provide any details on how many Russian troops have been executed for failing to follow orders or any specific examples of units threatened with execution for retreating from Ukrainian fire.

Ukrainian forces have been fighting a Russian military onslaught in the frontline town of Avdiivka  a few kilometres north of occupied Donetsk  for several weeks since mid-October.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky described the situation as particularly tough earlier this week.

Russias ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, made no reference to the White House statement but said that the latest military aid package of $150m to Ukraine by the US was provocative and inflammatory actions in the international arena that look more like pouring oil on the fire.

He wrote on Telegram: It is long past time to halt the mindless multi-billion dollar flow to the bankrupt Kyiv regime. Time to stop showing total disdain towards the opinions of your own citizens and indifference to the growing number of victims dying from American weaponry.

Mr Kirby confirmed that since 11 October Russia lost at least 125 units of armoured vehicles around Avdiivka and more than a battalions worth of military equipment. White House also said that the Russian troops in Avdivvka are struggling with low morale.

Mr Kirby warned that Russia will likely continue to attack around Avdiivka and may be able to achieve some tactical gains in the coming months. However, he added that this will come at the cost of thousands of casualties as the Russian soldiers are thrown into battle without proper training and with poor morale.

Mr Kirby said threats to execute the soldiers were barbaric, according to Reuters.

I think its a symptom of ... how poorly Russias military leaders know theyre doing and how bad they have handled this from a military perspective.

Additional reporting with agencies
 Close Aftermath of Russian missile strike on Ukraine mail depot that killed six

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A large-scale Russian assault on a town in the Donbas region has floundered after coming up against strong Ukrainian defences, Britains Ministry of Defence has said.

The MoD said the Kremlin has lost around 200 armoured vehicles during its assaults on Avdiika over the past three weeks.

In the south, the Ukrainian advance remains relatively static between the two main lines of Russias well prepared defensive positions, the MoD said in a statement.

Around the Donbas town of Avdiivka, a large-scale Russian assault has floundered on strong Ukrainian defences.

Elsewhere, EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has said the EU will stand by Ukraine for as long as it takes.

She made the comment while on her sixth wartime visit to Kyiv, where she was due to hold talks with president Volodymyr Zelensky. The pair were expected to discuss progress on Ukraine joining the bloc.

Of course the enlargement topic will be at the top of the agenda but also our financial and military support, she told reporters on her sixth visit to the country.

The most important message is reassuring that we stand by Ukraine for as long as it takes.
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It was a good thing Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Zelenskyy had his videoconference address to the European Union summit pre-slotted for the opening session.

Immediately afterward, EU leaders switched off and went to the order of the day  the Israel-Hamas war. They didn't come back to the issue of Russia's war in Ukraine again before Friday's closing day of the summit.

After dominating summit after summit since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, the timing alone, anecdotal as it was, underscored a deeper reality: Zelenskyy will be facing tougher times to get all the attention and political, economic and military aid that Ukraine wants.

Not only in Europe too, since the new U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson has shown little interest in providing additional money from Congress to support Ukraine and also said that now is the moment we must stand with our important ally in the Middle East and thats Israel.

And it's not only geopolitics creeping up on Ukraine. EU politics too are no longer as kind to Zelenskyy.

Ukraine is one of the most corrupt countries in the world, new Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said when he assessed the summit on his Facebook page on Friday. After the summit, he added: "we are ready to help, but not militarily, because I do not believe in a military solution of this conflict in Ukraine. But military victory ahead of peace is the most precious thing to Zelenskyy.

Threats of denying military aid must be seen as more than bluster from a nation of 5.5 million people in a bloc of almost 450 million where nations like Germany and France dwarf Slovakia. Because of the EU's lavish use of veto rights for member states on most money issues affecting Ukraine, Fico can punch well above his weight.

He only needs to look at his counterpart Viktor Orban from neigboring Hungary, who has been doing so for years. And if that wasn't enough, Orban poured more cold water on Zelenskyy on Friday.

Orban said in his weekly interview on state radio that the EU's strategy for assisting Ukraine in its war has failed, and signaled that he may not be willing to approve an EU proposal that would provide more financial assistance to Kyiv.

The Ukrainians are not going to win on the battlefield, the Russians are not going to lose on the battlefield, and theres no way that the Russian president will be defeated in Moscow in the chaos of a lost war, Orban said.

Moscow is certainly pushing more funds into the war effort. Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told lawmakers that nearly a third of government spending next year will go into defense for a total about 109 billion euros ($115 billion), noting that the amount is significantly higher compared to previous years.

After reclaiming some ground during a counteroffensive that began in June, Ukraine forces failed to break through Russia's multi-echeloned defenses to achieve their goal of cutting a land link to the Crimean Peninsula they crave. Offensive operations are now expected to slow down as the winter sets in. All this despite billions in support from Europe and the United States.

With Ukraine funding in jeopardy in the U.S. Congress, Zelenskyy is looking to leave the financial lifeline to Europe open.

By the end of the year, EU leaders have to approve a four-year 50-billion-euro (nearly $53 billion) package for Ukraine to provide budget support, promote investment and help with reconstruction  and here again, the veto powers of member states come into play. There is also a four-year 20-billion-euro ($21 billion) military and security package in the pipeline.

Orban said that he was unwilling to move forward on financing to Ukraine that aimed to help it win the war militarily, a strategy he said was no longer tenable.

I was forced to clearly and directly say that the strategy that those in Brussels adopted and brought us into has failed, he said. Whatever we do, before we spend the money, there has to be a clear strategy," he said Friday.

It has irked a large majority of EU nations that see Ukraine as a bulwark for the kind of democracy they want to see across the globe. On Friday, Germany again showed what that meant.

This week, Germany handed over a third IRIS-T SLM air defense system to Ukraine after two of the sophisticated systems were supplied over the past year.

Even if the security policy situation worldwide is further escalating and we are looking with great concern at the moment at Israel and the Middle East, we will not stop supporting Ukraine, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said. This war will not be forgotten.

Others are also asking: If not the full backing of Ukraine, what could Fico and Orban propose as a viable strategy.

If we dont help Ukraine, then what is the alternative, really, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said. I mean, Russia wins! And so what happens next? Why do you think that youre safe then?

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has the answer. If we dont stop Putin in Ukraine, he wont stop there. So it is a threat to all of us.

___

Geir Moulson in Berlin, Sylvie Corbet in Paris and Justin Spike in Budapest, Hungary, contributed to this report.
So brutal is the conflict in the heavily fortified battlefields around the city of Avdiivka, in eastern Ukraine, that Western intelligence suggests some Russian commanders are now executing soldiers who refuse to advance into the tempest of rocket and gunfire.

Avdiivka, a scarred and jagged outpost of the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk, has become the new focal point of Kremlin efforts to snatch something they can present as a victory. Despite severe censorship, Russians now understand that Vladimir Putins decision to launch a full-blown invasion has been a catastrophe, with casualties, by some estimates, topping more than a quarter of a million dead and wounded.

In the face of such merciless human-wave zombie attacks deployed by the increasingly desperate Russian high command, those numbers are only set to rise.
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Thyroid cancer, Parkinsons disease, leprosy or declining in the aftermath of a stroke - just a few of the many unproven ailments rumoured to have afflicted the Russian leader in recent years.

Just this week, the Kremlin were forced to deny rumours that Vladimir Putin had suffered a cardiac arrest in his bedroom, months after they were forced to deny that he had soiled himself.

Since gripping the reins of power in 1999, Putin has established himself as one of the most infamous politicians in modern history, with a vicelike grip over Russia.

His current term is set to expire next year, yet under sweeping changes to the constitution that were introduced in 2020, he could rule Russia until 2036.

Yet since his invasion of Ukraine and the loss of tens of thousands of his troops, the fallout of his military gamble has caused cracks to appear for the first time under his 20-year leadership. Speculation has also dogged the ageing tyrant that his health is failing, with the future of Russia uncertain upon his demise.

In June, he faced the greatest threat to his hold on power, after his former ally Yevgeny Prigozhin mounted an armed rebellion and called on his forces to march on Moscow to oust Russias military command.

Once known as Putins chef, Prigozhin held great influence following the invasion of Ukraine as the owner of the Wagner private military contractor. His growing criticism of the military leadership made him a credible threat to Putins regime, with the dictator vowing harsh consequences for his betrayal and treason.

Putin faced the greatest threat to his leadership after military leader Prigozhin launched an armed mutiny (AP)

Just two months after his aborted mutiny, Prigozhin died in mysterious circumstances while aboard a plane flying between Moscow and St Petersburg.

While this dramatic opposition to the Russian leadership was swiftly quashed, it posed questions about the future of the countrys leadership, and who stands in line to replace their authoritarian leader.

His family

Putin with his ex-wife Lyudmila Shkrebneva, with whom he shares two daughters (Russian Archives/Zuma Wire/Shutterstock)

Unlike other dictators throughout history, Putins family are not in the running to replace him, with very few details known about their relationship with the president.

Famously secretive about his personal life, his 30-year marriage to flight attendant Lyudmila Shkrebneva ended in divorce in 2013 amid speculation about his extramarital affair with retired gymnast Alina Kabaeva.

While it is unknown how many children he has welcomed since the breakdown of his marriage, he had two daughters with Ms Shkrebneva, Maria Vorontsova, 36, and Katerina Tikhonova, 35.

Neither have any involvement in politics, while he refuses to name his grandchildren in public, telling a reporter: The thing is, I dont want them to grow up like royal princes, I want them to grow up to be normal people.

During one of his rare personal interviews in 2015, he said of his daughters: My daughters live in Russia and studied only in Russia, I am proud of them, he said. They speak three foreign languages fluently. I never discuss my family with anyone.

Mikhail Mishustin

Prime minister Mikhail Mishustin would become acting president if Putin were to die or step down (Copyright 2023 Sputnik)

If Putin were to die or abruptly step down, the Russian Federation Council has 14 days to call early presidential elections. If it fails to act, the Central Election Commission would call it, while prime minister Mikhail Mishustin would serve as acting president in the interim.

He is considered by some however to unlikely option to become a permanent placement, given his lack of popularity with Putins inner circle of yes men.

According to the BBC, Mishustin had the unenviable task of rescuing the economy but has little say over" the Russia-Ukraine war, with sources close to the Kremlin saying he was unaware of Putins intentions for a full-scale invasion.

Speaking to The Independent, Dr Mark Galeotti said: Constitutionally, he takes over when the president is dead or incapcitated, he would be incumbent. Hes a classic technocrat choice. I could see that happening, but there are other candidates who would fill the same niche.

Dmitry Medyedev

Russias former president Medvedev has been tipped as a potential successor (SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images)

Known as one of Putins closest allies, Dmitry Medvedev has been tipped as one of his potential successors. He had previously held the role of president from 2008 to 2012, before stepping aside in what was later revealed to be a prearranged deal.

Once considered by the West as a moderate voice within the Kremlin, he has developed a reputation as Putins bad cop, referring to Ukrainians as cockroaches and making increasingly bellicose nuke-related threats.

The former law professor held the role of Prime Minister from 2012 to 2020, before becoming the deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia.

Over the years however, it is believed that his subservient role under Putin has weakened his own ability to consolidate power amongst Russias elite.

Sergei Kiriyenko

Sergei Kiriyenko is known to be among Putins inner circle (Getty Images)

Other names mentioned to take the leadership helm include Sergei Kiriyenko, who has served as First Deputy Chief of Staff since 2016, and is known to be a member of Putins closest inner circle.

With his involvement over the newly annexed Ukrainian territories, he is understood to have daily access to the president, and maintains good relations with all major key players among Russias political elite.

Dismissing his chances of ever coming to the forefront of Russian politics however, Dr Galeotti said that he served better as a backroom operator.

Sergei Shoigu

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigus reputation has been tarnished by the Ukraine invasion (Sputnik)

Given the humiliating trajectory of the Ukraine war, Sergei Shoigu is no longer a likely choice to be announced as Putins predecessor, despite his position as one of Russias most influential men. The defence minister had once been voted the most popular politician after Putin, and is known to be close with the reserved leader, often spending summer vacations together.

Before the invasion, I would have absolutely said Shoigu, but his reputation has now been tarnished with the invasion, said Dr Galeotti.

Hes still got relatively high levels of public support and trust, and he is a phenomenal behind the scenes operator. The days where he could have been president may be over but as a kingmaker, he could still be really influential.

Nikolai Patrushev

Putin accompanied by Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

The secretary of Russias Security Council, Patrushev has known Putin since they worked together in the KGB, and was a major strategist in both the 2014 and 2022 invasions of Ukraine.

The 71-year-old is reportedly one of the few figures Putin listens to, while his son Dmitry has also been rumoured as a potential successor to Putin given his position as agriculture minister.

Other suggestions have included Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin, former bodyguard Alexei Dyumin and chief of staff Dmitry Kozak.

Its going to have to be someone who could create a coalition, who is able to be acceptable to both the technocrats and the security elite, Dr Galeotti said. It will quite likely not one be one of the big beasts, precisely because of the need to build a coalition.

I think actually the Russian system will cope with the crisis quite quickly and swiftly and well see the next political elite looking to end the war in Ukraine and the confrontation with the West. Putin will quite likely become the scapegoat for all that wrong.
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A non-governmental organisation founded by Amal and George Clooney handed over dossiers of evidence regarding Russias alleged war crimes in Ukraine to German federal prosecutors on Thursday.

At least three cases were filed by the Clooney Foundation for Justice (CFJ) which called on the German prosecutors to investigate Russias actions since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

CFJ said in a statement: The organisation submitted detailed dossiers against the perpetrators and is representing 16 survivors and families of victims. One of the cases was filed jointly with CFJs partner, the Ukrainian NGO Truth Hounds.

The foundation by barrister Amal Clooney and her actor husband George Clooney advocates for justice through accountability for human rights abuses around the world.

The CFJ clarified that it submitted its plea in Germany due to the countrys application of absolute universal jurisdiction. German law allows the initiation of criminal investigations for international crimes committed outside of Germany, irrespective of the victims or perpetrators nationality or any other association with Germany.

International commitment around accountability for crimes committed in Ukraine has been unprecedented since the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, said Anya Neistat, legal director of The Docket  a CJF initiative to collect evidence and build war crimes cases.

But it is now the time to see words turn into real action  and we are counting on German prosecutors to lead the way.

The CFJ said all three cases were filed against high and mid-level commanders whom the Docket identified as likely suspects.

The first case concerns an indiscriminate missile attack on a resort in the Odessa region, which in the summer of 2022 killed 22 civilians and seriously injured 40 more. The Docket is representing 11 families of victims and survivors, the statement said.

The second case is focused on the commanders of Russian ground forces who unlawfully detained, tortured, and executed four men in the Kharkiv region during their occupation of the area from March to September 2022.

The third case identified the commanders of Russian units involved in a pattern of crimes, including executions, torture, sexual violence, looting and other violations committed during the occupation in the Kyiv region in March 2022.

While Ukrainian law enforcement agencies are doing their best to cover the unprecedented scale of war crimes committed in the country, they are overloaded and have limited options under Ukrainian law for pursuing the commanders and masterminds of the crimes, Maryna Slobodianiuk, the head of Investigations Department of Truth Hounds, said.

We believe that by opening these proceedings, Germany can significantly contribute to the efforts of ensuring justice for all Ukrainian survivors.

We represent survivors of torture, as well as families of people who had been executed or killed in indiscriminate attacks, said Ms Neistat. These Ukrainian civilians have suffered unthinkable violence, but now they are no longer victims  they chose to fight for justice, and we will be with them every step of the way.

The International Criminal Court [ICC] has also issued an arrest warrant for Russian president Vladimir Putin on charges of war crimes in Ukraine, a move that Moscow dismissed as meaningless earlier this year.

The Hague-based court said in a statement in March this year: There are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Putin bears individual criminal responsibility for the child abductions for having committed the acts directly, jointly with others and/or through others (and) for his failure to exercise control properly over civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts.
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British citizens trapped under Israels ferocious bombing of Gaza have criticised the lack of support from their government which has failed to push for an evacuation or a ceasefire.

There are believed to be 200 Britons registered with the UK authorities in the besieged enclave, where food, water, fuel and medical supplies are fast running out.

Among them is Manchester resident Mohammed Ghalayini, who said Israeli airstrikes have killed 37 members of his extended family and forced him to be displaced four times.

He was visiting family in Gaza when Israel unleashed its air raids in retaliation for Hamass bloody 7 October attack on southern Israel.

Despite struggling to access food, water, and other supplies the 44-year-old said he has only received one communique from the Foreign Office: a single email 10 days ago.

Mohammed Ghalayini, from Manchester, has lost dozens of relatives in the war (Supplied)

Gaza has been under bombardment for three weeks now (Supplied)

The British response in terms of supporting its citizens has been pitiful, he told The Independent . I think I had an email 10 days ago. I havent even had a text message. Others Im in touch with, a friend said he had a phone call, Mr Ghalayini said, speaking from the flat where he is sheltering with 15 members of his family.

The neighbourhood of Gaza City where his family is from is almost completely destroyed.

A building 50m away from where Mr Ghalayini is currently sheltering in the south of Gaza was bombed a few days ago and he is worried about strikes in the future.

It is obvious that they are not making the noise to get us out because what is more important is their support for Israel, he said. If they really cared about their citizens they would wield that influence but they arent.

Another British dual national, who asked not to be identified for security reasons, said his family had been given no support or help with evacuation apart from relaying information.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been displaced (Supplied)

We expected that to protect their citizens theyd apply proper pressure on Israel but we obviously dont count because were Palestinian, he added.

The Independent has reached out to the Foreign Office for comment.

Israel imposed a crippling siege on Gaza in retaliation for Hamass attack, when militants stormed through villages and towns, killing hundreds of people and taking at least 224 people, including two Britons, hostage.

The UK, the US and other Western allies were quick to throw their full support behind Israels military response.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says at least 7,000 people, including more than 2,700 children, have been killed in the onslaught.

Ghalayini said the British response had been pitiful (Supplied)

The United Nations, who have lost 57 of their staffers in the bombing, have said unless there is a humanitarian truce, supplies are so low they will have to halt their aid support.

Trapped in that are British citizens who have been unable to evacuate as the Rafah crossing with Egypt  which has been bombed by Israel  remains closed to passenger traffic and is only allowing a drip-feed of aid.

On Thursday Rishi Sunak said the UK has sent Border Force agents to Egypt on a mercy mission to bring home UK citizens caught up in the fighting. But he admitted London cannot do anything until the crossing to Gaza opens.

Mr Ghalayini said in the meantime his family was struggling to survive. They only receive municipal water  which is not suitable for drinking  once every three days, and then need dwindling generator fuel to pump the water up the building.

Explosions caused by Israeli airstrikes in the north of the Gaza Strip (AP)

He said he feared the drinking water supply  which is delivered now by donkey carts  would soon run out too. He has lost 37 relatives on both sides of his family, including 20 members of his fathers family just five days ago.

There is no one in Gaza who doesnt know someone who hasnt been killed, he added.

Both Mr Ghalayini and the other British citizen The Independent spoke to said the UKs lack of effort to evacuate its civilians and apparent lack of interest in a proper ceasefire made London complicit in the bloodshed.

I am sad, I am against the killing of Israeli civilians, I will shout that from the rooftops, Mr Ghalayini said. But it is so hard to watch what is going on, knowing there are those who have influence, who could be changing this for the better for us and for the better for Israelis, he added.

The Independent reached out to the Israeli military to ask whether it was committed to assisting British citizens in Gaza who need to evacuate. We have yet to receive a reply.
Hong Kong: Mentorship scheme opens enrolment

The enhanced Strive & Rise Programme, which provides focused support to more secondary students from underprivileged families, began recruitment for its second cohort today.

As announced in the Chief Executives 2023 Policy Address, the programmes second round will involve 4,000 mentees, up from 2,800, and will be extended to cover Secondary Four students from grassroots families.

Other new elements involve more Mainland study and exchange tours to enrich the variety of group activities, and the introduction of mentorship groups.

Additionally, an Alumni Club will be established to provide mentees who have completed the programme with a range of social activities and internship opportunities.

Formulated and implemented by an interdepartmental task force led by the Chief Secretary, the second round of the programme comprises three key elements, namely mentorship, personal development plans and financial support.

Each mentee will be paired with a volunteer mentor who will share his or her life experience and inspire the mentee to explore more possibilities for personal development.

Mentors will also assist their mentees in building self-confidence, and encourage them to set personal goals in a proactive and positive manner.

In addition, mentors will help mentees to develop awareness of positive financial planning, and guide them to make good use of $5,000 in start-up financial support offered by the programme to take their plans forward.

Upon successful completion of the programme, mentees will be awarded a $5,000 scholarship and granted Alumni Club membership for two years.

Applications will close on November 16.

Interested students may approach their schools or any of the non-governmental organisations that assist the Government in implementing the programme.

This story has been published on: 2023-10-27. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
China hands over Zimbabwe's new parliament building

Xinhua) 14:57, October 27, 2023

HARARE, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese government on Thursday handed over to Zimbabwe a new parliament building that was constructed and funded by China through a grant.

Tang Wenhong, vice chairman of China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA) and head of a visiting Chinese delegation, officially handed over the majestic building to Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa at a ceremony attended by government officials, diplomats, and Chinese embassy officials, among others.

The new parliament building, with a combined floor area of 33,000 square meters, is a pivot point around which a new administrative capital will be built, said Mnangagwa in his address at the ceremony.

"The new parliament building, which stands as one of the most magnificent and modern buildings in our country, signifies the excellent relations that exist between Zimbabwe and the People's Republic of China. The attention to detail and high standards of workmanship exhibited in this project are indeed commendable," Mnangagwa said.

Mnangagwa said Zimbabwe recognizes the development milestones achieved by China and its quest for global peace and a shared future for mankind.

Tang, in his address at the ceremony, said the project is a vivid manifestation of the cooperation between Zimbabwe and China.

Both sides have achieved fruitful results in practical cooperation in infrastructure, agriculture, health, education and other fields, setting a model for South-South cooperation, Tang said.

(Web editor: Tian Yi, Liang Jun)
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How many Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the war between Israel and Hamas started?

With Israel besieging and bombing territory at a scale never seen before, arriving at a precise answer isn't easy. Cell service is spotty. Internet and power are out. Airstrikes have pulverized roads and leveled neighborhoods, slowing rescue work.

Doctors scribble on notepads in overflowing morgues and hospital halls, struggling to account for bodies trapped under rubble and tossed in hastily dug mass graves. The chaos has added to the likelihood of errors.

Yet the Gaza-based Ministry of Health  an agency in the Hamas-controlled government  continues to tally casualty numbers. It released its first detailed report on the casualties Thursday, giving names, ID numbers, ages and gender for Palestinians it says have been killed. The total toll is 7,028 Palestinians, including 2,913 minors, according to the ministry.

The ministry is the only official source for Gaza casualties. Israel has sealed Gazas borders, barring foreign journalists and humanitarian workers. The AP is among a small number of international news organizations with teams in Gaza. While those journalists cannot do a comprehensive count, theyve viewed large numbers of bodies at the sites of airstrikes, morgues and funerals.

The United Nations and other international institutions and experts, as well as Palestinian authorities in the West Bank  rivals of Hamas  say the Gaza ministry has long made a good-faith effort to account for the dead under the most difficult conditions.

The numbers may not be perfectly accurate on a minute-to-minute basis, said Michael Ryan, of the World Health Organizations Health Emergencies Program. But they largely reflect the level of death and injury.

In previous wars, the ministry's counts have held up to UN scrutiny, independent investigations and even Israel's tallies.

But an outlier is the ministrys death toll from an explosion at al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City last week.

There were conflicting accusations of who was responsible, with Hamas officials blaming an Israeli airstrike and Israel saying it was caused by a an errant rocket launched by Palestinian militants. U.S. and French intelligence services also concluded it was likely caused by a misfired rocket. An AP analysis of video, photos and satellite imagery, as well as consultation with experts, showed the cause was likely a rocket launched from Palestinian territory that misfired and crashed. However, a definitive conclusion couldn't be reached.

There have also been conflicting accounts of the explosions death toll. Within an hour, Gaza's ministry reported 500 Palestinians killed, then lowered that to 471 the next day. Israel says the ministry inflated the toll. American intelligence agencies estimate 100 to 300 people killed, but haven't said how they arrived at the numbers.

The confusion has called into question the ministrys credibility in the Hamas-ruled territory.

Heres a look at how Gazas Health Ministry has generated death tolls since the war started.

How does the ministry arrive at a death toll?

Gazas most widely quoted source on casualties is Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra. From an office at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, al-Qidra receives a constant flow of data from every hospital in the strip.

Hospital administrators say they keep records of every wounded person occupying a bed and every dead body arriving at a morgue. They enter this data into a computerized system shared with al-Qidra and colleagues. According to screenshots hospital directors sent to AP, the system looks like a color-coded spreadsheet divided into categories: name, ID number, date of hospital entry, type of injury, condition.

Names aren't always available, al-Qidra said. He and colleagues face disruptions because of spotty connectivity but say they call to double-check the numbers.

The ministry collects data from other sources, too, including the Palestinian Red Crescent.

Every person entering our hospital is recorded, said Atef Alkahlout, director of Gazas Indonesian Hospital. Thats a priority.

The ministry releases casualty updates every few hours, providing the number of dead and wounded with a breakdown for men, women and minors. The ministry generally doesn't provide names, ages or locations of those killed. That information comes from reporters on the ground or the Hamas-run government media office.

But Thursday, in response to U.S. doubts over its figures, the ministry released a 212-page report listing every Palestinian killed in the war so far, including their names, ID numbers, ages and gender. A copy of the report shared with the AP names 6,747 Palestinians and says an additional 281 bodies have not yet been identified. The list did not provide a breakdown by location.

The ministry never distinguishes between civilians and combatants. That becomes clearer after the dust settles, when the U.N. and rights groups investigate and militant groups offer a tally of members killed. The Israeli military also conducts post-war investigations.

The Health Ministry doesn't report how Palestinians were killed, whether from Israeli airstrikes and artillery barrages or other means, like errant Palestinian rocket fire. It describes all casualties as victims of Israeli aggression.

That lack of transparency has drawn criticism.

When the Hamas health agency comes out with the numbers, take it with a pinch of salt, Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, Israeli military spokesman, said in a briefing Thursday. But he repeatedly declined to offer any alternative number of Palestinian casualties.

Israel says more than 1,400 civilians and soldiers were killed and over 200 hostages seized when Hamas invaded Israel. The army has identified 309 of those killed as soldiers so far.

Who works in the ministry?

Hamas, as Gaza's ruling authority, exerts control over the Health Ministry. But it's different than political and security agencies that Hamas runs.

The Palestinian Authority, which controlled Gaza before Hamas overran the area in 2007, retains power over health and education services in Gaza, though it's based in the occupied West Bank. The ministry is a mix of recent Hamas hires and older civil servants affiliated with the secular nationalist Fatah party, officials say.

The Fatah-dominated authority that administers Palestinian cities in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has its own health ministry in Ramallah, which still provides medical equipment to Gaza, pays Health Ministry salaries and handles patient transfers from the blockaded enclave to Israeli hospitals.

Health Minister Mai al-Kaila in Ramallah oversees the parallel ministries, which receive the same data from hospitals. Her deputy is based in Gaza.

The Ramallah ministry said it trusts casualty figures from partners in Gaza, and it takes longer to publish figures because it tries to confirm numbers with its own Gaza staff.

Hamas tightly controls access to information and runs the government media office that offers details on Israeli airstrikes. But employees of the Health Ministry insist Hamas doesnt dictate casualty figures.

Hamas is one of the factions. Some of us are aligned with Fatah, some are independent, said Ahmed al-Kahlot, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza. More than anything, we are medical professionals.

What is the track record from past wars?

Throughout four wars and numerous bloody skirmishes between Israel and Hamas, U.N. agencies have cited the Health Ministrys death tolls in regular reports. The International Committee of the Red Cross and Palestinian Red Crescent also use the numbers.

In the aftermath of war, the U.N. humanitarian office has published final death tolls based on its own research into medical records.

In all cases the UN's counts have largely been consistent with the Gaza Health Ministry's, with small discrepancies.

 2008 war: The ministry reported 1,440 Palestinians killed; the U.N. reported 1,385.

 2014 war: The ministry reported 2,310 Palestinians killed; the U.N. reported 2,251.

 2021 war: The ministry reported 260 Palestinians killed; the U.N. reported 256.

While Israel and the Palestinians disagree over the numbers of militants versus civilians killed in past wars, Israels accounts of Palestinian casualties have come close to the Gaza ministrys. For instance, Israels Foreign Ministry said the 2014 war killed 2,125 Palestinians  just a bit lower than the ministrys toll.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel has killed thousands of militants in the current war, without offering evidence or precise numbers.

International news agencies, including AP, as well as humanitarian workers and rights groups, have used ministrys numbers when independent verification is impossible.

These figures are professionally done and have proven to be reliable, said Omar Shakir, Human Rights Watchs Israel and Palestine director, adding he remained cognizant of different blind spots and weaknesses such as the failure to distinguish between civilians and combatants.

What about the hospital blast?

Less than an hour after images of the explosion surfaced on social media, the ministry reported that 200 to 300 people had been killed at al-Ahli Hospital. A half-hour later, the ministry put that toll at a staggering 500. The next day, it revised the number down to 471, without releasing details.

Western intelligence agencies said they believed the toll was considerably lower.

U.S. President Joe Biden said he had no confidence in the accuracy of the ministrys reporting. However, the U.S. governments annual human rights assessments from the region frequently cite the Gaza ministry.

Gazas Health Ministry stands by the 471 figure and includes it in the total death toll. When asked about conflicting accounts, authorities emphasize the difficulties of their work and vigorously deny any fabrication.

We had a uniquely hard time because the bodies were so dismembered, body parts were everywhere, Health Ministry official Mehdat Abbas said.
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Israels military conducted an overnight raid into Gaza on Wednesday night as the besieged strip reels from ceaseless strikes, displacing hundreds of thousands of people.

The open-air prison - home to some 2.3 million Palestinians- has been hit with over 7,000 Israeli air strikes since Hamas attack on 7 October, destroying hospitals and UN-protected schools in the relentless assault on the enclave. Israel says more than 1,400 people were killed in the Hamas attacks and around 200 more were taken hostage.

The Israeli military said the overnight raid was carried out in preparation for the next stages of combat as the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) prepared for a large-scale invasion.

Gaza has been hit by over 6,000 strikes since 7 October (AP)

Though there have been several raids by Israeli forces into Gaza since 7 October, this latest incursion has been deemed the most significant in scale as military officials threaten the next stages of the war are imminent.

The campaign will soon ramp up with greater force, Benny Gantz, a retired general and member of Israels war Cabinet, said.

Israeli army carried out a "targeted raid" in northern Gaza with tanks and infantry on 26 October (Israeli Army/AFP via Getty Image)

Mr Gantz added that any possible ground offensive would be only one stage in a long-term process that includes security, political and social aspects that will take years.

Though the IDF did not reveal the location of the raid, Geoconfirmed, an online geolocating platform, posted photos of military vehicles on X, mapping the tanks at the northern border of the Gaza strip.

This map shows where the tanks were located, according to Geoconfirmed:

View more

The troops came from the Givati brigade and 162nd Armoured Division, according to Israeli media reports, and returned from the raid without casualties.

Through the raid, we eliminated terrorists, neutralised threats, dismantled explosives, neutralised ambushes, in order to enable the next stages of the war for the ground forces, said Israeli military spokesperson R Adm Daniel Hagari.

It comes as more than 7,000 people have been killed in Gaza, including almost 3,000 children, the Palestinian authorities say. At least 17,439 people are said to have been injured.

View more

The Gaza Ministry of Public Works and Housing reported the destruction of 16,441 housing units and the rendering of 11,340 other units uninhabitable, as of 23 October.

The total number of housing units reported as destroyed or damaged accounts for at least 45 per cent of all housing units in the Gaza Strip, according to the UNs OCHA.

Entire neighbourhoods have been destroyed, particularly in Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahia, and Ash Shujaiyeh, the area between Gaza and Ash Shati Refugee Camp, and Abbassan Kabeera.

No place in Gaza is safe now, Haytam Harara from Gaza City told The Independent. Bombing is everywhere around us. We hear nothing except for the sound of warplanes, massive bombings, and the sirens of ambulances. It is like we are waiting until our turn comes.

As of 25 October, 219 educational facilities have been hit, including at least 29 UNRWA schools, the Palestinians say.

This figure includes nearly 629,000 people staying in 150 UNRWA DES, 121,750 sheltering in hospitals, churches, and other public buildings, and nearly 79,000 in 70 non-UNRWA schools. In addition, the Ministry of Social Development estimates that some 700,000 IDPs are residing with host families.
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Israels military announced on Friday evening that it is expanding ground operations in Gaza, amid reports of the heaviest bombardment yet of the besieged strip and a total communications blackout.

Orange explosions seared through the night sky above northern Gaza as the Israeli air force appeared to unleash its most devastating attack yet on the enclave, which is home to more than 2 million people.

While booms sounded as far as Egyptian towns in the Sinai, there was a chilling silence from within the 42km-long strip.

International rights groups, news agencies and families said they had lost contact with colleagues and loved ones as Palestinian network Jawwal and global monitoring group Netblocks reported services including phone and internet had been cut. The Palestinian Red Crescent, the main emergency service in Gaza, said it was cut off from its operations room because of the internet blackout.

Balls of fire rise above Gaza City on Friday during an Israeli strike (AFP)

Army spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari confirmed the Israeli military had launched intensified strikes on the besieged strip.

In addition to the [ground] attacks carried out in the last few days, ground forces are expanding their operations tonight, he said, igniting fears that Israel had launched its widely-anticipated ground offensive. In the last hours, we intensified the attacks in Gaza.

Sources in the Israeli government told The Independent earlier in the day that Israel planned to step up its ground attacks in the enclave within 24 hours.

However, they said the plan may not reflect previous full ground incursions but model ground raids deployed in the early 2000s in the occupied West Bank during the second intifada.

Explosions lighting up the night sky in the northern Gaza Strip (AP)

Earlier, the countrys defence minister said Israel expects to launch a long and difficult ground offensive into Gaza soon to destroy Hamas.

Yoav Gallant described a campaign that will require dismantling a vast network of tunnels used by the territorys militant rulers. Mr Gallant said the ground invasion that follows weeks of airstrikes will take a long time, and that it would lead to another lengthy phase of lower-intensity fighting as Israel destroys pockets of resistance.

It comes amid reports the US has piled pressure on Israel to hold off on a full ground invasion, fearing it might trigger a region-wide war as strikes from Lebanon and Syria to Israel, and attacks on US troops in the region, have increased.

Israel has called up hundreds of thousands of reservists, while launching its most intense campaign of aerial bombardment in retaliation for the deadly 7 October attack. Hamas militants stormed villages, towns and communities in southern Israel slaughtering hundreds of people and taking dozens, including British citizens, hostage.

Israels military vowed an unprecedented response to an unprecedented attack and imposed a crippling siege, which UN experts say amounts to collective punishment and so is a violation of international law.

Food, water, fuel and medical supplies are running out, and doctors have told The Independent they are having to improvise.

A blast seen on the Israel-Gaza border (Reuters)

The health ministry of Gaza said that more than 7,000 people have been killed including more than 2,700 children  releasing a full list of the names, ages and ID numbers of each fatality. There are concerns that the death toll will soar if a ground incursion goes ahead.

More than 1,400 people were slain in Israel on 7 October, according to the Israeli government, and at least 229 hostages were taken into Gaza.

The overall number of deaths far exceeds the combined toll of all four previous wars between Israel and Hamas, estimated at around 4,000.

The United Nations once again issued a desperate plea for a ceasefire on Friday saying that they will be forced to halt their humanitarian support if fuel is not allowed into the strip and a ceasefire not imposed.

Officials from UNRWA, the UNs Palestinian refugee agency, told The Independent that 54 staffers had been killed in the bombardment of Gaza, and that their surviving teams on the ground were having to make impossible choices between supporting hospitals, bakeries or water sources.

A smoke plume following Israeli bombardment over the northern Gaza Strip earlier on Friday (AFP via Getty Images)

Doctors in Gaza said they were using washing-up liquid and vinegar to clean wounds and were rationing anaesthetic as medical supplies were running out.

Medhat Abbas, the director of Gazas largest hospital al-Shifa, said they were at 150 per cent capacity, sheltering tens of thousands of displaced people, running out of fuel to run their ventilators and surgical wards, and running on less than 40 per cent staff as so many medics had been killed, injured, or displaced.

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, said: The siege means that food, water and fuel  basic commodities  are being used to collectively punish more than 2 million people, among them, a majority of children and women.

About 1.4 million of Gazas 2.3 million residents have already fled their homes, with nearly half of them crowding into UN shelters.

But hundreds of thousands remain in northern Gaza, despite Israel ordering them to evacuate to the south and saying that those who remain might be considered accomplices of Hamas.
 Close Brit in Gaza describes desperate scene at Rafah crossing

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An Israeli strike on an ambulance in Gaza has killed 15 people, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has said, describing the attack as a "war crime".

In a statement on Saturday, the PRCS, a humanitarian organisation, said the ambulance was in a convoy taking casualties between the al-Shifa hospital and the Rafah crossing in the south. The convoy included four ambulances owned by the Gaza health ministry and one belonging to the PRCS.

Israel Defense Forces said it targeted the vehicle because it was being used by Hamas to transport fighters around the battle zone.

It came as Benjamin Netanyahu rejected calls for a temporary halt to his countrys attacks on the enclave unless hostages held by Hamas militants are freed.

He was speaking after a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who called for the humanitarian pause during a visit to Israel. Blinken is meeting Arab leaders from Lebanon, Qatar and Jordan today.
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Two US fighter jets struck weapons and munitions dumps in Syria on Thursday, with Washington saying it was in retaliation to attacks by Iranian-backed militias on their own forces across the Middle East.

US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said the attacks were separate and distinct from the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas and that they were carried out solely in self-defence.

But western officials supporting Israel restated their fears of regional escalation on Friday.

Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, said EU leaders were worried that Iran could be drawn into a wider conflict either directly or through proxies and that this would make the situation more difficult.

What do we know about these strikes?

US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said the attacks were separate from the conflict in Israel and Palestine (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

The facilities hit by the US were used by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the primary branch of the Iranian Armed Forces, according to US president Joe Biden.

The strikes, carried out by a pair of F-16 US air force fighters, took place on Friday at around 4.30am local time (1.30am GMT) near Abu Kamal, a town on the border with Iraq.

At least four militias are known to have strong affiliations with Iran that are located in Syria, using the Quds Force as their contact point, according to the Wilson Centre. It is estimated those groups comprise between 18,000 and 28,000 fighters.

Iraq is the second-most populated with Iranian-backed militias, all of whom have strong ties to Tehran. The three militias mainly operating in Iraq number up to 75,000 militants.

Since 17 October, US and coalition troops have been attacked at least 19 times in Iraq and in Syria, according to the Pentagon, including three new ones Thursday. Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said 21 US personnel were injured in two of those assaults that used drones to target al-Asad Airbase in Iraq and al-Tanf Garrison in Syria.

In a statement, the US defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, said the "precision self-defense strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on October 17."

These attacks were carried out from distance with rockets and drones. None have involved close-combat fighting, according to a log recorded by the Washington Institute.

They include multiple attacks on the Al-Tanf US airbase in Syria near the border with Iraq and Jordan, as well as the Green Village base further east, according to claims made by the militias.

The al-Asad airbase in western Iraq is the most frequently targeted US position; it has allegedly been attacked six times since 18 October.

The US response on Thursday, again an attack conducted from afar, was the first response of its kind.

At least four attacks, two in Syria and two in Iraq, took place on 26 October before the US airstrikes, according to the militias. If true, this would consitute the joint-most prolific day of attacks since October 17.

Is this linked to the Israels war on Hamas in Gaza?

Iranian supreme leader Ayotallah Khamenei accused the US of directing Israel to bomb Gaza (AP)

Iran is an outspoken supporter of Hamas. It has constantly threatened to retaliate to the Israeli bombardment of Hamas-held Gaza by conflagrating tensions into a regional war.

On the other side, the US is a staunch supporter of Israel.

There is an unprecedented level of intimacy between the two, David Makovsky, an expert on Arab-Israeli relations, told The Independent, citing the fact that Mr Biden became the first president in US history to visit Israel in a time of war.

Aside from hinting at a direct attack on Israel by its proxy force Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, the US has been one of the main targets of Irans escalating rhetoric, including threats of retaliation.

On Thursday, Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said at the United Nations that if Israels offensive against Hamas did not stop, the United States would not be spared from this fire.

Could this cause an escalation?

US secretary of state Anthony Blinken talks to his Saudi Arabian counterpart about regional stability (AP/AFP via Getty Images)

Experts remain uncertain that Irans rhetoric is anything more than just that.

They want to push it so far, rattle everyones cage, all under the assumption that no-one will do anything, Ali Ansari, a professor of Iranian studies at St Andrews University, told The Independent.

The minute there is this anxiety about a wider escalation, or that Iran may be a target, there has been a clear distancing.

Others pointed to the domestic unrest simmering in Iran and their novel dialogue with Saudi Arabia, who refused to communicate until a Chinese-brokered detente in March, as reasons to suggest escalation is unlikely.

"These strikes were in self defense," John Kirby, the White House national security spokesperson, told US TV on Friday. Asked if Iran will retaliate, Kirby said, "It's not uncommon for them to strike back. If they do, we'll absolutely do what we have to do to protect our troops and our facilities."

"We'll be ready for that," he added.

Nonetheless, predicting what could happen in the Middle East is a fools errand.

On 29 September Jake Sullivan, the US national security advisor, said the region was quieter today than it has been in two decades.

Eight days later, the militant group Hamas broke through the Gaza border fence into Israel and killed more than 1,400 people, changing the status quo of the region forever.
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A poll of 2,000 adults has found 49 per cent dont know what a lunar eclipse is and 84 per cent wrongly believe the moon is round. Only 12 per cent were right in saying it is egg shaped.

While 66 per cent claim to be fascinated by space science, 18 per cent are unaware how the moon impacts tides, and 33 per cent have no idea what a black hole is.

And 12 per cent thought the moon emits light - when in fact it reflects light from the sun.

It also emerged 62 per cent didnt realise there were eight planets in the solar system, with 58 per cent unaware Mercury was the smallest planet.

The research was commissioned ahead of the partial lunar eclipse, which will be visible across the UK on Saturday 28th October, by Jaffa Cakes, which has been educating Brits about eclipses since its iconic 1999 ad.

Now, it has teamed up with Total Eclipse Of The Heart star and fellow eclipse enthusiast Bonnie Tyler to create a new educational video to explain the lunar phenomena.

The iconic McVities TV ad recreated phases of the moon (SWNS and McVities)

Bonnie Tyler, who is celebrating the 40th anniversary of her hit single this year, said: Given my connection to eclipse-related matters, I was very happy to collaborate with Jaffa Cakes to educate Britain about the science behind this magnificent lunar phenomenon.

I hope that after watching this video, people throughout the UK will gain a deeper understanding of the night sky.

The study also found 31 per cent think the earth orbits the sun 365 times a year  when in fact, its only once.

While half didnt know that the moon orbits the earth, with 48 per cent unaware Earth itself moves around the sun.

Only seven per cent knew a lunar eclipse is taking place on the 28th October  but after learning this, four in 10 said theyd like to watch it.

Most Brits incorrectly believe the moon is round when it is in fact egg-shaped (Anadolu via Getty Images)

Carried out via OnePoll, the research also found 46 per cent would like to go up to space and see it for themselves.

But just 12 per cent describe their knowledge of astronomy as good - even though 45 per cent remember learning about it at school.

To pay homage to the iconic song, the brand has also partnered with superstar DJ, Majestic, to remix Total Eclipse of the Heart  with a twist  including a sample of Bonnie reciting the iconic Jaffa Cakes catchphrase of Full Moon, Half Moon, Total Eclipse.

Asl Ozen Turhan, at McVities UK & Ireland, said: Were so pleased that McVities Jaffa Cakes can continue to act as a tasty tool for future generations to learn about the workings of the solar system and eclipses in an entertaining way  and who better to team up with than the queen of eclipses herself, Bonnie Tyler.

We hope many people will enjoy this lesson and feel they know just a bit more about the night sky.
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OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT, have formed a new group to prepare for the catastrophic risks of artificial intelligence.

The Preparedness team will aim to track, evaluate, forecast and protect against catastrophic risks, the company said.

Those risks include artificial intelligence being used to craft powerful persuasive messages, to endanger cybersecurity and to be used in nuclear and other kinds of weapons. The team will also work against autonomous replication and adaptation, or ARA  the danger that an AI would gain the power to be able to copy and change itself.

We believe that frontier AI models, which will exceed the capabilities currently present in the most advanced existing models, have the potential to benefit all of humanity, OpenAI said. But they also pose increasingly severe risks.

Avoiding those dangerous situations will mean building frameworks to predict and then protect people against the dangerous capabilities of new artificial intelligence systems, OpenAI said. That will be one of the tasks of the new team.

At the same time, OpenAI launched a new Preparedness Challenge. That encourages people to think about the most unique, while still being probable, potentially catastrophic misuse of the model such as using it to shut down power grids, for instance.

Particularly good submissions of ideas for the malicious uses of artificial intelligence will win credits to use on OpenAIs tools, and the company suggested that some of those people could be hired to the team. It will be led by Aleksander Madry, an AI expert from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, OpenAI said.

OpenAI revealed the new team as part of its contribution to the UKs AI Safety Summit, which will happen next week. OpenAI was one of a range of companies that have made commitments on how it will ensure the safe use of artificial intelligence.
With an abundance of natural hot springs filled with mineral-rich water thats healing for the body and mind, Greece is a natural haven for wellness seekers. In ancient Greece, it was believed that a persons sense of health and wellbeing comes from a state of balance within the soul, body and mind sourcing calmness within oneself and the surroundings.

This is a philosophy still prevalent today in the country, with over 800 medicinal spas and an abundance of tranquil natural attractions making it the perfect destination to revitalise and renew.

To help you find the perfect holistic getaway for next summer, travel experts Jet2holidays offer great value breaks in more than 50 incredible destinations, including 19 in the relaxing surrounds and idyllic natural wonders of Greece. With deposits* at just 60 per person, 22kg baggage included, and flexible monthly payments** to help spread the cost of your break, its never been simpler to book your next wellness-infused trip.

Here we explore the best of Greeces therapeutic offering, and perfect stays to rediscover your Zen.

Kos

At the KOIA All Suite Wellbeing Resort in Kos you can enjoy a wealth of wellness activities (Jet2holidays)

This Greek island is blessed with beautiful beaches and lush vegetation  this, combined with its fascinating historical sites, are part of the reason its one of the most popular islands of Dodecanese. One of the highlight sites is Asklepieion  the architectural remains of one of the most significant holistic healing sites in ancient Greece.

Today, Kos still focuses on wellness and healing, and boasts numerous natural spots perfect for those seeking to reflect and renew. Theres the Plaka Forest  a beautiful space that immerses visitors in nature, and is home to numerous peacocks and cats. Elsewhere theres Therma Beach, a natural sea-pool with hot springs that sit around 40c to soothe aching muscles. The KOIA All Suite Wellbeing Resort adds to the islands wellness focus, with its Ydor Wellness Spa, outdoor freshwater pool, poolside yoga and Pilates, and sweeping sea views from its hillside spot.

Parga

The natural surrounds of the Elix Mar-Bella Collection in Parga will revitalise and restore (Jet2holidays)

With an abundance of beaches and natural landscapes, Parga provides plenty of opportunities to slow your pace, reconnect with nature and become present in the moment. In the Fanari Region, theres Acheron River, with trails for riverside walks and runs, while the Parga region has secluded, rocky beaches and Anthousa Waterfall, as well as the Valtos Loop  a walking and running trail that curves along the coast, ideal for solitude and catching the sunset in the evening.

Hotel-wise, the Elix Mar-Bella Collection, perched on a hilltop overlooking Karavostasi Beach, is an ideal location for a wellness break here, with two outdoor pools, incredible sea views and a spa to soothe tired muscles and minds.

Halkidiki

Enjoy wonderful holistic treatments at Ammoa Luxury Hotel & Spa Resort in Halkidiki (Jet2holidays)

Dotted along Halkidikis coastline are an abundance of wellness facilities and spas. Its a destination for visitors looking for more holistic stays, with ancient Greeks using a similar approach to achieve harmony between body and spirit. The thermal spas and waters here were mentioned in ancient scripts from the likes of Aristotle, Plutarch and Strabo, with the mineral-rich warm waters from the springs still being used today for their healing properties.

Surrounded by pine forest, the Natural Thermal Spa of Agi Paraskevi in Kassandra is an ideal example of this, while the sacred grounds of Mount Athos hold a spiritual energy thats believed to build inner peace. While for the perfect stay, check in to the Ammoa Luxury Hotel & Spa Resort  a beautiful beachfront retreat with a luxury spa that nods to ancient Greek traditions.

For more travel inspiration and hotel options head to Jet2holidays
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Simon Calder, also known as The Man Who Pays His Way, has been writing about travel for The Independent since 1994. In his weekly opinion column, he explores a key travel issue  and what it means for you.

Eleven years after the government appointed the Davies Commission to examine airport expansion in South East England, and eight years after it recommended a third runway at Heathrow, the project is still in limbo.

The UKs main aviation hub has regained its status as the busiest and best-connected airport in Europe.

The airport says the UK would benefit from expansion: By expanding Heathrow, the UKs only hub airport, we would be able to connect all of Britain to the growing markets of the world, levelling up all of the UK by helping to create hundreds of thousands of jobs in every nation and region of the country.

Heathrow retains government backing for expansion, after a series of legal challenges on environmental grounds ended in December 2020 with the Supreme Court reinstating the Airport National Policy Statement (ANPS).

But in the month when a new chief executive, Thomas Woldbye, took over at Heathrow, The Independent has learned that no decision on the next move will be taken until 2024.

In his first statement, the new Heathrow CEO said: Im looking for how we can make Heathrow even better for our customers and the British economy. Its humbling to have the opportunity to take on the challenge and Im excited to get started.

Speaking to The Independent, Javier Echave, chief financial officer at Heathrow, said: We are still loss-making and thats why we are very much focusing on getting Heathrow back to profits first.

The opportunity of having Thomas, I think, is having a fresh perspective to really interact with the consumers, with the airlines, but also with the regulator in terms of when and how is the best time to really restart the expansion.

So hopefully, I think in the New Year, we will give you a more detailed update in terms of when and how it will take place.

In the meantime, Heathrows main UK rival, London Gatwick, is pressing ahead with plans to turn its standby runway into a permanent second runway  with the potential to have almost as many passengers as Heathrow.

Heathrow does not expect to recover fully to the record level in 2019 of 80.9 million passengers until 2024.

British Airways, its main customer, is still only at 90 per cent of 2019 capacity.

Meanwhile, an increase in passenger numbers could happen organically through bigger planes. In 2019, the average size of an aircraft at Heathrow was 213 seats; that has now increased by eight to 221.

Planes could also fly with more seats filled; at present, an average of one seat in five on aircraft using Heathrow is empty.

Mr Echave said: Overall when you should look at the performance of all the hubs, we are definitely ahead of them.

There are many Asian markets that they only opened in full back in March, April. Were still carrying some of that depressed traffic from the start of the year.

Next year we will hit 2019 numbers.

Heathrow and other airports are pressing for a reversal of the decision to end tax-free sales, taken by Rishi Sunak while he was chancellor. Retail spend has declined slightly at Heathrow.

In addition, the new UK Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) scheme will be detrimental to Heathrow. Passengers who simply want to connect airside between international flights will still have to apply for this online permit and pay 10. At Heathrows rivals, including Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Paris Charles de Gaulle, no such permission is needed.
An Al Jazerra journalist has returned to reporting from the field in Gaza, just one day after the majority of his family were killed by an Israeli airstrike on a Palestinian refugee camp.

In a video posted by AJ+, Wael Al Dahdouh said that it was his duty to quickly return to work despite the loss of several members of his family.

He said: As you can see, the firing is ongoing everywhere.

There are airstrikes and artillery shelling, and things continue to develop.

Dahdoahs wife, two sons, and daughter were killed in the airstrike on Wednesday, as well as other extended family members including his cousins daughter and her four children.
A prominent British Jewish journalist was explaining the dilemma that Israel faced over the rising death toll in Gaza. At the heart of this, he said, from a humanitarian point of view, its disastrous. But he added that we had to consider what the US did when it was attacked on 9/11: it invaded Iraq, where 200,000 [his figures] were killed in three years. And the British in the Second World War? They firebombed Dresden, burning alive 25,000 civilians.

You could see the point he was trying to make (in the latest episode of the Media Confidential podcast). Israel had been murderously attacked, and it was not going to take any lectures from the citizens of countries that, in a comparable situation, had famously  or infamously  retaliated with brutal force.

The counterargument, with the wisdom that hindsight comfortably brings, is that Iraq and Dresden are surely compelling arguments for not bombing even larger areas of Gaza into dust over the coming days and weeks.
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During the fight this past month about whether to make Rep Jim Jordan (R-OH) speaker of the House, I asked Rep Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ) if he would support Mr Jordan.

Mr Jordan, of course, is a hard-right ideologue who defended Donald Trump at every turn, whereas Mr Ciscomani was one of 18 Republicans who represent districts that voted for Joe Biden in 2020.

But the Arizona Republican  whom Republicans wanted to present as a new face of the GOP as a Mexican-born citizen of the United States  remained tight-lipped about whom he would support.

What I've told my constituents is that I don't work for the speaker, I work with the speaker, whoever the speaker is, he told me. I was surprised when he and fellow Biden district Republican Marc Molinaro of New York announced theyd support Mr Jordan for the coveted role.

Mr Molinaros support also came as a surprise not just because he represented a Biden district but because of the fact that his fellow New York Republican Reps Mike Lawler, Anthony DEsposito, Andrew Garbarino and Nick LaLota all opposed Mr Jordan. When I caught Mr Lawler after Mr Jordans humiliation and ultimate withdrawal from the speakers race, he said he opposed Mr Jordan simply because Kevin McCarthy shouldnt have been removed as speaker.

Representative Mike Johnson elected speaker of the House

Cut to a week and a day later when every Republican in the chamber voted to make Rep Mike Johnson Speaker of the House after a protracted 22-day civil war.

Mr Lawler, for his part, was all smiles when I talked to him after the vote on Wednesday.

He's a man of decency, he's a man of integrity, someone that is unfailingly kind to everyone within the conference, Mr Lawler told me of the new speaker.

But getting behind someone as staunchly hard-right as Mr Johnson is a huge gamble for Republicans.

Mr Jordan and Mr Johnson have near-identical records and, if anything, Mr Johnson is an even more potent force on the right. Where Mr Jordan simply plotted with Donald Trump to overturn the election and is little more than a bloviator who never took the bar exam to practice law, Mr Johnson led an amicus brief seeking to overturn the election.

Mr Johnsons ascent to the top job in the House does not just mean he is the leader of the lower chamber of Congress and third-in-line to the presidency; he is now the highest-ranking Republican in the country.

Throughout the 2010s, Republicans tied Democrats, including moderates who voted against her, to former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, whom they depicted as an out-of-touch liberal from San Francisco, long a synecdoche for an enemy of conservative values.

And it worked swimmingly for them; throughout that decade, Republicans turned the rural white Democrat into an endangered species in the House, despite the fact many of them were more moderate Blue Dog Democrats.

Democrats these days dont win as many Republican districts anymore. The smart folks at the Centre for Politics at the University of Virginia found that while 18 Republicans represent districts Mr Biden won, only five Democrats won seats in districts where Donald Trump won.

But the suburban districts that once voted for Republicans in places like Arizona, Pennsylvania, California, Georgia and Texas have changed drastically. Mr Trumps presidency  and the fact Democrats nominated relatively moderate presidential candidates  started moving these areas into the blue column. The Dobbs v Jackson decision last year which overturned the right to have an abortion in Roe v Wade further repelled the suburbs away from Republicans.

Mr Johnson is a hardliner on abortion, saying he looks forward to the day there are none. His ascent comes after Republicans radically underperformed in the 2022 midterm elections, largely in response to the Dobbs decision, which Mr Johnson praised.

Democrats now will likely try to tie every Republican to Mr Johnson. And the argument of folks like him who say that they dont work for a speaker might ring hollow for voters when he enthusiastically backed Mr Johnson.

And Republicans seem to be trying to create some distance from the rest of their party now that the speaker fracas is over. On Thursday, Mr DEsposito, who represents Long Island, introduced legislation to expel embattled Rep George Santos, a fellow Long Island Republican, from Congress. But its unclear if that will give him the distance he needs to win this time next year.
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The Met Office has extended alerts for heavy rain over the weekend as Scotland braces for floods again after the havoc wreaked by Storm Babet.

The weather agency extended its latest warning for heavy rain over the area by a further 24 hours, meaning it will be in place over much of the weekend.

The forecaster earlier issued two yellow weather warnings for Friday, the first for potentially heavy rain in Scotland and the second for possible disruption due to fog in parts of eastern England.

The warning in Scotland covers Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Angus, Dundee, Perth and Kinross  areas that have already seen prolonged downpours last week including flooding from Storm Babet.

The warning was originally to run from 12pm on Thursday to 12pm on Saturday, but will now remain in place until 12pm on Sunday.

Rainfall this week comes after heavy showers brought by Storm Babet have led to the deaths of seven people, including three people north of the border.

Brechin in Angus was the worst affected area in northeast Scotland, where hundreds of homes ended up being evacuated after the South Esk river breached its banks.

An area of low pressure becomes firmly in charge over the next few days to bring plenty of showers and further rainfall, especially to parts of eastern Scotland, the Met Office said on Wednesday.

There is a possibility of some localised impacts from rivers and surface water on Thursday and Friday in the north east, Caithness and Sunderland, and Easter Ross and Great Glen due to further heavy rain, said the latest Scottish Flood Forecast update.

Rivers levels in the north east are not forecast to be as high as experienced during Storm Babet and widespread significant flooding is not currently expected.

Elsewhere, Network Rail Scotland warned: More extremely heavy rain is on the way. It wont be to the levels from Storm Babet, but it will affect the same areas, already with saturated ground. It will bring a risk of flooding.

Additional reporting by agencies
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The list is stark in its simplicity: the victims name, age and sex. But great tragedies are inferred from within the margins of the more than 200 pages. It tells of entire families extinguished  infants, grandparents, mothers, uncles, cousins all sharing the same surname are grouped together. Lives cut short before they are even a year old. There are 6,747 names in total, all of them killed during Israels assault on Gaza.

That number, reached in just 19 days, does not include the missing, making the true toll likely higher still.

The decision by the health ministry in Gaza to release the names of the dead appears to have come in response to comments from president Joe Biden, who abruptly declared during a press conference on Wednesday that he had no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using to count their dead.

Those comments sparked immediate anger and questions, both in the US and further afield, about how the president came to his position of doubt. Mr Bidens comments represented a departure from his administrations previous position on the ministry, given that the State Department has used those same casualty figures in its own reports .

The United Nations and numerous nongovernmental organisations working in Gaza have also testified to their reliability.

Mr Bidens comments followed one of the bloodiest 24 hours since Israel began bombing the densely populated Gaza Strip: 704 Palestinians, including 305 children, were killed, according to the health ministry.

Palestinian officials described Gazas hospitals as being in a state of complete collapse as a result of Israels war on Gaza, which was launched in response to the massacre of 1,400 people, most of them civilians, by Hamas during an incursion into southern Israel.

Reacting to the presidents comments, Medhat Abbas, the director of Gazas largest hospital al-Shifa, told The Independent that he believed Mr Biden does not know the truth.

He decides according to false news, Mr Abbas said. The ministry of health have released the names and ID for him to know the reality, but he is determined to ignore the truth.

Mr Biden did not elaborate on what shaped his view of the ministrys figures, but organisations with experience working in Gaza have used the numbers for many years. Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine Director at Human Rights Watch, described the numbers as generally reliable.

They have access to data that are difficult for other sources to have, Mr Shakir told The Independent. In particular, they aggregate data coming from different hospitals and morgues and compile them together. Thats why we, the UN, the US State Department have regularly cited their numbers. Human Rights Watch had conducted their own independent investigations into particular strikes, says Mr Shakir, and they found the ministrys numbers to be generally consistent, with no major deviations from the figures that they have provided.

The devastating list of Palestinian deaths released by the health ministry on Thursday stretched to more than 200 pages. The ministry produced a separate list specifically to document the children killed since Israels attack on Gaza began, of which there were 2665, with 248 of that number unidentified.

The White House repeatedly declined to directly state whether Mr Bidens remarks on the reliability  or lack thereof  of casualty counts coming out of Gaza indicated a change in policy by the US, despite the State Departments use of Gaza health ministry data during past conflicts.

A White House official instead referred The Independent to remarks delivered during a Thursday press briefing by John Kirby, a National Security Council (NSC) spokesman, in which he described the ministry as a front for Hamas.

Its run by Hamas, a terrorist organization, said Mr Kirby. Ive said it myself up here: We cant take anything coming out of Hamas, including the so-called Ministry of Health, at face value.

Mr Kirby conceded that there have been civilian casualties as the result of Israels bombardment, and there likely will be more [...] because thats what war is. Its brutal. Its ugly. Its messy.

(AFP via Getty Images)

The health ministry in Gaza is part of a government run by Hamas, which seized control of the strip in 2007, but it employs civil servants and an administration that predates the takeover.

An NSC spokesperson also pointed to the health ministrys claim that 500 people were killed by a strike at the Al Ahli hospital, but that the US intelligence community assessed the number of deaths to be between 100 and 300.

Mr Shakir, of Human Rights Watch, said there was a clear distinction between initial statements from the ministry immediately following a strike and the final list of names. The ministry later revised the total of those killed in the hospital strike to 471.

The US has its own history of undercounting civilian deaths. During the US-led coalitions campaign to destroy Isis in Iraq and Syria, the Pentagon officially estimated that it killed 1,437 civilians. Airwars , an organisation that tracks reports of civilian casualties, estimates the real number to be between 8,199 and 13,259 based on its own investigations.

Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of inflating the numbers killed, but has so far declined to offer an alternative death toll, despite reporting casualty numbers in previous conflicts. When asked on Thursday Lt. Col Richard Hecht, a spokesperson for the military, said again they did not have casualty figures. He told journalists to take numbers released by the Gaza health ministry "with a pinch of salt.

The Israeli military has said it believes civilians in Gaza have been killed by hundreds of Palestinian rockets which misfired and did not make it across the border to Israel.

APTOPIX Israel Palestinians (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Mr Bidens comments, and the follow-up clarifications from the White House, have reverberated among Arab and Muslim communities in the US, many of whom have been consumed by a constant stream of graphic images and news from Gaza for three weeks.

Hala Alyan, a Palestinian-American writer and clinical psychologist based in New York City, described Mr Bidens comments as startling and likely to have a lasting impact.

There is already a real dehumanisation happening around the language that is being used about Palestinians, both in terms of how their deaths are described, what they are equated with, in terms of the language used to describe them,she told The Independent.

It plants the seed that delegitimises even the people who have been killed. Even the dead cant be named as dead, she added.

Mr Biden was questioned specifically about his remarks during a meeting with Muslim and Arab leaders at the White House on Thursday, according to Politico , who reportedly argued that messaging from his administration was feeding into Islamaphobia.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nations largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organisation, condemned Mr Bidens shocking and dehumanising comments, which followed one of the deadliest days of bombing since the conflict began, during which 704 Palestinians, including 305 children, were killed.

Countless videos coming out of Gaza every day show mangled bodies of Palestinian women and children  and entire city blocks leveled to the ground, CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad said in a statement. President Biden should watch some of these videos and ask himself if the crushed children being dragged out of the ruins of their family homes are a fabrication or an acceptable price of war. They are neither.
US partner agrees to provide nearly 2m in working capital

An interim examiner has been appointed to embattled Irish med-tech firm HealthBeacon, with its US partner agreeing to provide almost 2m in working capital facilities.

Earlier this month, shares in the stock market-listed firm were suspended on Dublins Euronext after they collapsed following confirmation from the company that it was running out of cash and would not be able to survive beyond the end of the month without a rescue.

Now, US firm Hamilton Beach Brands has committed up to 1.85m in working capital to the Irish group while it has court protection from creditors. HealthBeacon has 75 employees, of which 50 are based in Ireland. It is expected that about 20 staff members will be made redundant.

The petition for examinership came in most unusual circumstances, as literally there is no more gas in the tank for the company to financially support itself even during the 100-day period of court protection, said senior counsel Kelley Smith, on behalf of HealthBeacons directors.

The facility from Hamilton Beach Brands was predicated on an interim examiner being appointed and will be repaid before all other secured and unsecured debts in the event the examinership fails and the firm needs to be liquidated, Ms Smith told the court, adding that the debts are largely unsecured.

Shane McCarthy of KPMG was named interim examiner. The appointment as examiner will be confirmed on November 7.

HealthBeacon has developed a digital health platform aimed at improving patient support and ensuring they adhere to home injection regimes.

In a statement, HealthBeacon said it believes it can survive.

The board believes that the company can stabilise, recover and emerge from this process as a going concern with the resultant preservation of jobs and will work closely with the examiner throughout the process, it said.

In 2021, Hamilton Beach Brands and HealthBeacon entered into a strategic partnership to provide a smart injection care management system in the US and Canada.

The court heard HealthBeacon has a net asset position of 10m, with liabilities of 6.3m primarily due to trade creditors and general unsecured creditors. Taoglas, a Co Wexford firm, is the largest creditor, the court heard.

Nicholas ODwyer, of Grant Thornton, determined that HealthBeacon has a reasonable prospect of survival as a going concern if a successful rescue plan is put together. HealthBeacon has projected growth of 387pc from 2024 to 2026, the court heard.

In an interview with the Irish Independent earlier this year, HealthBeacon founder and former CEO Jim Joyce said the deal struck with the US company in 2021 would free up working capital at the Irish group. Mr Joyce stepped down as CEO in September.

HealthBeacons shares remain suspended on the stock exchange.

It raised 25m when it floated in Dublin in 2021, valuing at close to 100m. Its market capitalisation is now just over 1m.
CEO Lynne Embleton, CFO Elizabeth Haun and corporate affairs boss Donal Moriarty see salaries take off

Three members of the top brass at Aer Lingus  including its chief executive and chief financial officer  earned the bulk of almost 2.8m in core director remuneration paid by the airline last year.

CEO Lynne Embleton, CFO Elizabeth Haun and chief corporate affairs officer Donal Moriarty split the lions share of the pay, with two non-executive directors  including former CEO Stephen Kavanagh  receiving a much lesser part of the compensation.

Newly filed accounts for the airline show that the top trios total 2.8m in emoluments, including basic pay, jumped from 1.1m in 2021, when global airlines remained mired in the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Total remuneration for the top directors at the carrier topped 4.1m last year and included almost 1.4m in benefits under long-term incentive schemes  certain to be shares in IAG. That figure was down from almost 2.4m in 2021.

The newly filed accounts for the airline reveal the payments.

Total executive pay to all Aer Lingus executive management, directors and non-executive directors rose to 6.2m from 3m, the accounts show. That includes payments to a total of 12 executives at the carrier, it is understood.

Last year, IAG chief executive Luis Gallego was paid just over 3m, compared with just under 1.3m in 2021. His pay last year included a base salary of 963,000 and a 1.6m bonus split evenly between cash and a deferred share award.

Unions at Aer Lingus recently secured a fresh pay deal for the airlines staff, who are in line for a cumulative 13pc pay rise between this year and January 2025. They are also getting a 750 lump-sum payment.

Aer Lingus is part of the IAG group, which also owns British Airways, Iberia and Vueling. IAG releases third quarter results today. The third quarter includes the busy summer season and the results are likely to show a strong performance by the group and Aer Lingus, as it continued to benefit from a resurgence in international travel.

Last year, Aer Lingus posted a 38m operating profit as revenues surged to almost 1.7bn as passenger traffic recovered after the pandemic. Those figures compared with a 347m loss in 2021, when revenue was 367m.

Aer Lingus is hiring 200 cabin crew  here are the salaries, perks and height restrictions

But the airline made a pre-tax loss of 19m last year after it shouldered charges including 55m in finance costs and a 10.4m loss on derivatives.

The carriers financial performance has continued to improve during 2023 and it has hired a significant number of staff as operations return to normal.

It made a 40m operating profit in the first half of 2023, which compared with an 83m loss in the first six months of 2022.

The performance last year also reflects increased activity at the airlines Manchester base.

Recently filed accounts for the UK arm of Aer Lingus, which launched transatlantic flights from Manchester to the US and the Caribbean in 2021, show that it generated a profit of 5.1m last year as revenue rose to just under 87m.

Manchester accounted for 13pc of all Aer Lingus transatlantic capacity in 2022 and 8pc of Aer Lingus capacity across its entire network.

Aer Lingus is expanding its network to the US again next year, launching a new route between Dublin and Denver, and relaunching a service to Minneapolis-St Paul. It has also relaunched a route between Dublin and Hartford, Connecticut, after a two-year hiatus.

This article was updated on October 27, 2023 to correct IAG chief executive Luis Gallegos bonus from 1.6bn to 1.6m.
Bank says glitch which allowed unauthorised access to accounts has been fixed

AIB has admitted a vulnerability in its online business banking systems allowed unauthorised users into protected accounts, where they could browse users information and reset payment details.

The bank last night apologised for the issue and said it has now been fixed.

The bug was only addressed by the bank when brought to its attention by the Irish Independent. The bank said the glitch was due to an IT update last weekend and only a small number of people were affected.

It is the latest in a series of IT errors plaguing Irish banks in 2023.

The bug, which affected access to AIBs online business banking on computers, and on the browsers of tablets and phones, happened when a session ended by closing a web browser window instead of logging out.

A spokesperson for AIB told the Irish Independent the issue affected a small number of business customers who exited their business banking desktop application without signing out.

The spokesperson also said the bank has now resolved the issue and that personal customers were not affected.

He said that the business banking app was unaffected. The spokesperson added that AIB apologised to any customers who were affected.

AIB has suffered a series of IT and administrative errors in recent months.

Its app has suffered outages at least twice this year, while its systems have struggled to integrate the details of mortgage holders inherited from Ulster Bank. In August, the bank mistakenly told tracker customers bought from Ulster Bank that they needed to pay up to 600 more a month, an error it had to correct.

AIB cancelled direct debits for Ulster Bank tracker mortgages

In September, it failed to take payments from former Ulster Bank tracker mortgages, leaving it to reassure anxious customers that there would be no impact on their credit ratings.

Other Irish banks have experienced significant IT challenges this year. In August, Bank Of Ireland suffered a technology blunder that made international headlines when its systems allowed cash transfers to customers with no money in their accounts. The glitch caused queues at ATMs around the country, with people mistakenly believing they were getting free cash.

The same bank had to keep branches open late in June because its IT system went down.

The latest AIB bug manifested when a new user tried to log in using the same system and browser, but with separate credentials for a separate account.

The system ignored the request to switch to a different account and reopened the previous banking session, exposing the previous users account details to the new user.

The bug was discovered by a Dublin-based businessman, who attempted to alert the bank. However, he was told to call AIBs general call centre helpline, where he was put on hold for 45 minutes. He could not afford to wait any longer and instead contacted the Irish Independent, which verified the bug.

My fear is that this could be used in small businesses by disgruntled employees to reorder the company accounts in some ways, the businessman said.

It would be very easy to change payments to set things up differently. Even if that didnt happen, its completely inappropriate for someone to be able to access company accounts when they shouldnt have the login.
Frontman Ryan Hennessy gave a performance for the ages at Dublins 3Arena

Ryan Hennessy whipped the audience into a frenzy when he walked on the stage. Photo: Paul Sheedy

At 9pm on the dot last night, Picture This arrived onstage at the 3Arena to wildly enthusiastic applause.

At one point, it felt like the audience was unlikely to stop clapping.

This was Picture Thiss second and final night at the venue in which they made Irish musical history four years ago.

Back in 2019, they became the first-ever band to sell out five dates in the famous arena at Dublins docklands.

The Kildare quartet appeared onstage without an introduction; the lights just went down.

Wearing a black mac and matching trousers that made him look like a gothic Lou Reed, frontman Ryan Hennessy tapped his heart several times to show the audience how he felt about them. He and the band were then straight into Red Lights.

He sung, Baby, all I knew was red lights, red lights.

Hennessy hopped from foot to foot, dancing like a post-punk Michael Flatley channelling David Bowie

With that, the crowd then sung the next line back to him: Til you opened up the skylines to my eyes.

We werent even one song in and Hennessy had them eating out of the palm of his hand.

On Things Are Different, he had everyone in the crowd on his slightly off-kilter emotional wavelength.

He sang about how some of us will drift apart while others stay together / And some will step in from the rain while others face the weather".

Picture This band members (from left) guitarist Owen Cardiff, drummer Jimmy Rainsford, frontman Ryan Hennessy and bassist Cliff Deane. Photo: Cian Duignan

The songs magic was nothing to do with rhyming together and weather. Its beauty lay in the often painful, universal truths of what Hennessy was singing about.

Painful or not, the crowd sang and danced along. Onstage, Hennessy hopped from foot to foot, dancing like a post-punk Michael Flatley channelling David Bowie.

The Snow Patrol lyric he has tattooed on his chest seemingly said everything: This isnt everything you are.

Unsurprisingly, he had a question for his fans. Are you ready for the best night of your life Dublin?

The roar of approval from the crowd indicated that they were indeed ready for the best night of their lives. It wasnt enough for Hennessy, who appears to exist on raw emotion.

Dublin, are you ready for the greatest night of your lives with Picture This? he asked again. Are you ready? Are you ready?

It could also be said of Hennessy that he has the soul of a 15th-century Parisian poet

This was akin to a 1930s Baptist service, with Hennessy as the energetic minister whipping up his congregation into a frenzy.

There was plenty of that going on as he sung When We Were Young, and, in particular, that line about learning how to grow apart  and it hurt.

At best, his lyrics are a fusion of introspection and inner-revelation, existential ennui and crucifying self-doubt.

This sense is deepened with his broody facial expression. He sometimes gives off vibes of a soothsayer.

It could also be said of Hennessy that he has the soul of a 15th-century Parisian poet.

Throughout the show last night, songs from This Morning to Winona Ryder soared and fell. They went from euphoric to melancholic.

And it was a communal experience.

On this evidence, Picture This are closer to Bon Iver and The National than they are to a very good pop band from Athy.
Bus Eireann has said it plans to redevelop Busaras while preserving the buildings history, as the coach station marks its 70th anniversary.

Busaras, a building of architectural significance and Irelands central bus station, celebrated seven decades in the heart of Dublin yesterday.

The station, designed by well-known Irish architect Michael Scott, first opened its doors to the public in 1953.

Construction, costing over 1m, had gotten under way in 1945. The result was what is now acknowledged as one of Dublins first modern buildings.

Busaras celebrates 70th anniversary

The building, officially known as Aras Mhic Dhiarmada, was awarded the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI) Gold Medal in 1955.

In attendance at yesterdays anniversary event was Junior Transport Minister Jack Chambers. For the past 70 years, the station has been a landmark in the capital and is recognised as one of the first modern buildings in Dublin to integrate architecture and art, he said.

Ive often thought that Busaras holds a special place in the hearts of the people. Its a key hub connecting Dublin to the rest of the country.

Busaras is an iconic Dublin building

Stephen Kent, chief executive officer of Bus Eireann, said: We have to look at not just the 70 years of this great building, but the next 70 years and say: How are we going to prepare for growth in the future? We have to continue to make this a building for all as its Dublins only bus station.

Mr Kent said with 1,400 departures every week for locations across the country, Busaras is essential for Bus Eireanns goal of becoming the most customer-centred and sustainable transport company in Ireland.

Supervisor George McDonagh (51) has been working in Bus Eireann since 2008.

Im very proud and privileged to be working in Busaras in my lifetime, he said. There is so much history here and Im very excited for the next generation thats going to come through these doors.

Mr McDonagh, of Coolock, Dublin, started as a driver and stepped into his role as a supervisor almost five years ago.

I love working here, he said. Different characters worldwide come through the building.

I had to teach myself to speak German and French because so many nationalities come through Busaras.

Bus Eireann celebrates Busaras 70 years of service

When you think of Busaras, its an icon: everyone knows it. Its a real Dublin building. Another 70 years will come and another generation will have the pleasure of walking through this building.

Meanwhile transport enthusiast Ian Molloy (67), from south Dublin, told how he came to be the owner of a bus that dates back to the 1960s.

The bus is almost 60, the company [Bus Eireann] had it until 2001. The bus has been with me for the last 22 years. I bought it from the company for preservation; that means restoring it to the form it was in in 1964.

The retired accountant said hed had to replace worn-out parts and respray the vehicle to restore it to its original state.

Mr Molloy said he has always had a keen interest in transport, especially buses, as he used to go to school by bus from the age of four.

I have rarely been a passenger in Busaras but I have certainly been visiting, and the reason Ive been visiting is to look at the modern buses that are operating in and out of the station.
The rescue team, following a request for assistance from the PSNI, sent 12 members into the mountains, near Annalong, at around 7pm on Tuesday evening

The body of a man recovered from the Mourne Mountains on Tuesday night has been confirmed to be that of missing Portadown man Gareth Prideaux (41).

The father-of-three had been reported missing to police, who then prompted a large-scale search for Mr Prideaux, with the help of the Mourne Mountain Rescue Team (MMRT).

The rescue team, following a request for assistance from the PSNI, sent 12 members into the mountains, near Annalong, at around 7pm on Tuesday evening.

The operation was stood down just after 11pm.

Mr Prideaux was from Glendinning Way in the Co Armagh town.

A funeral notice states that he was the devoted husband of Julie-Anne and a treasured father of Ashton, Tom and Jamie-Lee.

The home house strictly private. Family and friends will be made most welcome at Milnes Funeral Home on Saturday 4pm  6pm, the notice continues.

Funeral service on Wednesday at 12.30pm in Thomas Street Methodist Church, followed by a private cremation.

Family flowers only please, donations for the benefit the Royal British Legion and the Mourne Mountain Rescue Team via www.milnefuneralservices.co.uk/donate or cheques made payable to Milne Funeral Services donations account c/o59 Seagoe Road, Portadown, BT63 5HS.

Very deeply regretted and sadly missed by the entire family circle.

Mr Prideaux served for five years in the British Army as an infantry soldier, both home and abroad, including in Afghanistan.

Upon returning to Northern Ireland, he then worked as a retail assistant before having many duties as a construction worker.

He most recently was employed as a medical laboratory assistant for the Southern Health and Social Care Trust.

Tributes have already poured in online for the young dad.

One co-worker said that Mr Prideaux had a unique ability to get a laugh and a smile out of people even on their bad days.

Paying a direct tribute to him, she continued: The joy you brought to lab life was infectious and you could lift the mood in any room. I will miss your playfulness and witty banter.

"Many happy memories are held in my heart and something I will forever treasure. I still cant believe this.

"Sending love and prayers to Julie- Ann, Ashton, Tom , Jamie- Lee and the family circle x

Another wrote: Gareth you were one of a kind & always made us laugh out loud anytime you walked into the lab. You will be sorely missed by us all in Craigavon. Words completely fail at this heartbreaking time.
Asking for a friend: After three cycles of IVF, my boyfriend is insisting we try again, but Im not sure if I want to have a child anymore. Do we have a future together?
Artist Tom Byrne will feature in Art Source at the RDS this November

Max Handelman, Jimmy Warden and Elizabeth Banks with their portraits by Tom Byrne

Tom Byrne with his piece Seamus Heaney, which will be featured at Art Source

When Hollywood filmmaker Elizabeth Banks was living in Dublin during filming of the gory horror comedy Cocaine Bear, she spotted Tom Byrnes work in a Dalkey restaurant and immediately commissioned a portrait.

She was followed by Matthew Rhys and Kerri Russell, who all star in the movie based on the true story of a black bear who overdosed on dozens of packages of cocaine dropped into the Georgia wilderness during a botched smuggling operation.

Former punk Byrne also painted Oppenheimer star Alden Ehrenreich, who appeared in Cocaine Bear, along with screenwriter Jimmy Warden.

Now he is setting his sights on Art Source, expected to attract over 15,000 people and featuring 200 of the best in contemporary Irish and international artists and galleries at Dublins RDS from November 10-12.

But the Kilmacud native does not deal only in Hollywood elite.

In 2018, he was commissioned to create a piece for Pope Francis' visit to Lithuania, which now hangs in the Vatican.

"I wasn't aware that it was a commission for the Pope at the time. In retrospect, I am actually quite relieved about that," said Tom.

"I had already done two exhibitions in Lithuania and the National Gallery there had acquired some of my pieces, so I was quite surprised when I discovered the true purpose of the commission.

"I think that art should be spiritual in nature, so I was glad. I got quite a kick out of being featured in the Vatican News, too."

In quite an unusual artistic career evolution, before the Pope, Tom was a hardcore punk artist.

"I used to design art for the fashion label IGOR in the late eighties and they would incorporate my work into their prints, he said.

"It was a punk label and at the time, I was hardcore punk. I used to hang out with all the punk bands and design their album artwork and backdrops.

"When I started out my career, I was described as classically trained with a punk mentality.

Now, I'm still covered in tattoos but I'm also married and have kids and am involved with galleries. I wouldn't necessarily hang out in that scene anymore.

"My style now is called disruptive realism. I've kind of left the punk scene and am more spiritual now, I like to meditate and include spiritual practices in my life and I try to bring that into my paintings."

Closer to home, his clients have included Sinead O'Connor, Dara O Briain, Louis Walsh, the Happy Pear twins and Gerald Kean.

Irish art lovers will have the unique chance to get their hands on 100 pieces of original artwork for 100 each on a first-come, first-served basis on the opening morning of the show on Friday, November 10.

Art Source runs in Dublins RDS from November 10-12. For more information and tickets visit artsource.ie.
Spectacle is back after pandemic with spooky take on La Loba legend

Drummer Liam McMahon marches with two of La Lobas wolves ahead of the Macnas parade in Galway on Sunday evening. Photo: Emilija Jefremova

Halloween in Galway city has not been the same since the traditional Macnas parade was shelved in recent years.

The group of street-theatre performers were once a highlight of the citys summer arts festival, but they switched their energies to autumn 10 years ago after a row over funding.

The artists, musicians and puppeteers quickly became a centrepiece of Galways Halloween bank holiday weekend, but that came to an abrupt stop in 2020 with the Covid pandemic.

Now, with a grand return planned for this Sunday, the pressure is on director James Riordan and lead designer Paul McDonnell to ensure everyone who shows up for the parade gets a Halloween scare.

Their parade, entitled Cnamha La Loba, is inspired by the legend of La Loba, a wild wolf-woman who collects and preserves the bones of animals, humans and gods that are in danger of being lost to the world.

It is said that, as darkness falls, she prowls the streets along Lough Corrib, singing the bones  or cnamha in Irish  back to life by the light of the moon.

Read more Dublin City Council urges reporting of stockpiled bonfire materials in lead up to Halloween

Riordan, who is artistic director and founder of the Galway company Bru Theatre, said the parade looked to the eastern European storytelling tradition for inspiration.

It was slightly in response to what was happening around me last February when we started to work on this and a feeling that we should be celebrating eastern European culture, he said.

Fellow Bru Theatre participants are collaborating, including actor and performer Raymond Keane. He was the solo actor in Not a Word, which was Brus production for the Galway International Arts Festival earlier this year. He will play La Loba.

Anna Mullarkey has composed the score, while Cherie White took on costume-design duties.

Riordan is keen to stress that it is a collaboration involving over 350 people. They include 121 performers, a 168-strong volunteer production crew and a professional production team numbering 45. Additionally, a team of 20 crafted the nine individual scenes.

We know that thousands of people will be willing us on. The fact that the parade is so large in scale and imagination and that it then permeates out into the city over days is very special, Riordan added.

Macnas will recreate Cnamha La Loba for Dubliners at the Bram Stoker Festival on Monday.

The Galway parade starts at 5.30pm on Sunday from the Macnas base at Fisheries Field.
Irish influencers must clearly label paid posts as ads from today, which will now also include commercial content for own brand products and services.

The new guidelines have been issued to Irish influencers by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) and the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland (ASAI) on how to properly label paid promotions and the advertising of own brand products and services on their social media platforms.

The CCPC and ASAI said consumers must be able to instantly recognise commercial content on social media and the rules would apply to all those promoting products online, either for money or for other non-monetary benefits in return.

Gifts from brands or PR agencies are also included in the new rules. If a brand has had a say in any part of the influencer's post online about the gifted product or service, the post must be labelled #ad.

"Otherwise, #gifted is an acceptable label, the CCPC and ASAI said.

The authorities said that a number of different hashtags had been used by influencers to indicate advertising, including #IWorkWith and #OwnBrand.

Going forward, the CCPC and ASAI said all commercial content should be labelled #Ad to avoid confusion. If posts are in the Irish language, #Fogra is to be used.

Influencers do not need to have a formal agreement or contract with a brand for them to label posts as an ad. If the person posting the content receives something in return for the product or service, it must be labelled as an ad.

This also applies to those working with a brand to which they have personal ties, for example, if the company is owned by a friend or family member.

The guidance comes as the ASAI published research earlier this year that found only one in 10 people trusted what influencers posted on social media. This is compared to more than half of Irish consumers (56pc) who trust brand advertisements more than social posts by influencers.

Consumers shouldnt have to question if and when they are being advertised to  it should be instantly clear," said Orla Twomey, chief executive of the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland.

The guidance takes account of developments in influencer marketing and provides clear and straightforward guidance for influencers and brands they work with, on how to correctly and clearly label and disclose advertising content on their social media channels, to ensure that consumers are not misled, Ms Twomey added.

The CCPC also published research last year that revealed that almost 50pc of influencer advertising was not labelled or tagged as advertising.

Our research found that consumers consistently overestimated their ability to identify influencer advertising  this guidance will support influencers to comply with their obligations under the law so that consumers know when they are being advertised to, said Kevin OBrien of the CCPC.

"It is an offence to mislead a consumer, and influencers who fail to comply with Irelands consumer protection legislation may be subject to enforcement action up to and including prosecution, Mr OBrien added.
A man is being questioned over the seizure of 385,000 worth of cocaine in Co Wexford.

The seizure was made by Revenue officers in Rosslare Europort earlier today after a Polish-registered freight unit was searched after arriving on a ferry from France.

Gardai confirmed the arrest of the man in his 30s.

Revenue Officers seized 5.5kgs of cocaine with an estimated value of 385,000, a Garda spokesperson said.

The man is currently detained at a Garda Station in County Wexford.

Gardai say investigations ongoing.

A Revenue official said: Today, as a result of risk profiling and with the assistance of Revenues mobile x-ray scanner, Revenue officers seized approximately 5.5 kgs of cocaine with an estimated value of 385,000 at Rosslare Europort.

The illicit drugs were discovered when a Polish-registered freight unit was stopped and searched, having arrived on a ferry from Dunkirk, France.

A man in his 30s was arrested by An Garda Siochana and taken to a Garda Station in County Wexford.
People are being urged to take precautions. Photo: Getty

Five Irish holidaymakers who returned home after picking up a severe stomach bug in Spain had to be hospitalised, with 64 cases associated with the outbreak reported here since August.

The latest details of the outbreak of cryptosporidiosis  mainly around Salou  come as schools break up for mid-term next week and some families will travel abroad.

The Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) said earlier this month there was a widespread increase in cryptosporidiosis in August and September and more Irish holidaymakers were returning with gastrointestinal illness, including symptoms of diarrhoea and vomiting.

A spokeswoman said yesterday that, as of October 25, there have been 44 lab-confirmed cryptosporidiosis cases since August associated with travel to Salou.

Twenty people who were ill were not lab-confirmed cryptosporidiosis cases.

There have been five hospitalised cases linked to the outbreak and no deaths.

The most common symptom is diarrhoea. Some people may also experience dehydration, weight loss, stomach cramps, fever, nausea and vomiting, while others may not have symptoms at all.

Symptoms usually last between one to two weeks.

While it is a mild disease in healthy people, it can be worse in small children and elderly people, and can be very serious for people who are immunocompromised.

The advice is that if you are travelling to an area where there might be outbreaks of gastrointestinal disease, including cryptosporidiosis, take measures around water and food to protect yourself and your family to reduce the risk of infection abroad and spreading it on your return to Ireland.

Wash your hands frequently using soap and clean water before eating and drinking, before and after preparing food, particularly raw meat, after using the toilet or changing nappies, after visiting food markets, after hand contact with items in public areas and after touching live animals.

The bug can spread among swimmers in pools, even those well maintained with chlorine.

Check to see if the tap water is treated and smell it for the bleachy odour of chlorine.

Ask your accommodation manager if they consider the tap water safe.

If unsure, avoid drinking tap water where possible. Do not use ice in your drinks, and if you are not happy to drink the water, do not brush your teeth with it  use bottled water instead.
Passengers due to travel to Dublin Airport over the bank holiday weekend are being warned that most car parks are full for the coming days.

This weekend is set to be one of the busiest times of year for the airport, with more than 400,000 people expected to fly through Dublin Airport.

Today is expected to be the busiest, with 109,000 passengers either arriving and departing from Dublin Airport on Friday. Saturday and Sunday will also be busy days for departures, with almost 55,000 people taking off at the airport each day.

The airport is now warning that parking is almost sold out and is advising passengers to arrive either by public transport or make plans to be dropped off.

"Virtually all car parks at Dublin Airport are sold out for the Bank Holiday weekend, the airport posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

If you don't have a booking and your dates are sold out, please plan to travel to the airport by bus or taxi or arrange to get dropped off, the post read.

Over the course of the mid-term break, from this Friday until November 5, just under 1 million passengers will travel through Dublin Airport.

Amsterdam and London are the most popular European destinations for some of the 950,000 travelling over the coming week. While New York and Chicago are the most popular transatlantic destinations for a trip this mid-term.

Bank Holiday Weather Forecast 27th October - 30th October

Dublin Airport issued advice to passengers ahead of the busy period and reminded those due to fly out of the airport to arrive at their terminal of departure two hours before a short-haul flight and three hours before a long-haul flight.

The airport has also advised those travelling through the airport to prepare for security in advance and to go straight to the security area as soon as they are checked in.

"While Dublin Airport has started the roll-out of new enhanced C3 scanners in both Terminal 1 and Terminal 2, the rules around liquids remain the same, and passengers must continue to prepare for security as normal, the airport said this week.

"Travelers are reminded that EU security regulations state that liquids over 100ml cannot be brought through the security screening area, Dublin Airport said.

"Liquids under 100ml are allowed and should be placed in a single transparent, re-sealable bag measuring not more than 20cm x 20cm. Exemptions are in place for medicines and baby food.
AN early border poll will be defeated, the Taoiseach has said in Brussels.

The reason why I don't think it's a good idea at the moment is the indications are that it will be defeated. And it would also be divisive, Mr Varadkar said on the second day of an EU summit in Brussels.

The Taoiseach said he expected and hoped to see a united Ireland in his lifetime, but when asked whether unity referendums could be successfully mounted in 10 or 20 years, replied: I honestly don't know.

The prospect would be quite distant, he added.

Not enough work has been done to ensure that the Republic would be a warm home for people who are British, he said, referring to the Unionist population of Northern Ireland.

Mr Varadkar was commenting after Northern Ireland Minister Steve Baker MP suggested to a meeting of the British Irish Parliamentary Association in Kildare this week that a supermajority should be needed for implementation of unity  because a simple majority could sow the seeds for division on the island.

Steve Baker is absolutely entitled to express his opinions on this matter. I know occasions when people have even questioned my right to have an opinion, and I do have an opinion on these things. Steve Baker does too. I totally respect that, Mr Varadkar said.

I would offer no criticism of the fact that he's thinking about these things and expressing views. I understand the arguments in favour of supermajority.

Fifty per cent plus one (vote) would not be the most desirable outcome. You'd much rather see a convincing majority for unification if and when a border poll comes.

I don't think the time is right for that. I think it's quite distant, in fact, for reasons Ive explained in the past. I suppose the difficulty with a supermajority is how long you could keep the status quo in place if consistently a majority of people didn't want that status quo.

Mr Varadkar said the focus now had to be on getting the Good Friday Agreement working again and the institutions in Northern Ireland up and running.

We see all around the world what happens when important referendums fall. I remember the referendum on the Australian republic 25 years ago was defeated. As was independence in Quebec, for example, and more recently in Scotland.

I think having a referendum on such an important matter that you may not win is fraught with risk  defeat will bring division.

And if we're going to win a referendum on that matter, a huge amount of work has to be done to convince the British people in Northern Ireland, those of British identity, that they're welcome and wanted  and that a United Ireland would be a warm home for them.

There's not enough talk about that, Mr Varadkar said.
It is a labour of love  take a look inside Irelands most festive home. Theres even a Halloween tree

Forget waiting until December 1 to put a tree up, Annemarie Cahill celebrates everything from Halloween to spring with carefully curated decor. But, she says, seasonal decorating doesnt have to cost a fortune

Annemarie Cahill in front of her Halloween themed front door

Arlene Harris Fri 27 Oct 2023 at 03:30

While most people save their decorating energy for Christmas, some homes up and down the country are bedecked with ghosts and ghouls in anticipation of Halloween.
Passionate Lilac or Mellow Orange? Find a colour to suit your mood

Feelgood paint and colourful wallpaper in muted ice cream colours are the hottest interior trend

Artur table lamp from Pooky

Eleanor Flegg Fri 27 Oct 2023 at 03:30

Tuesday is a blue day for Emma Bestley, co-founder of Yes Colours. Shes a grapheme synaesthete and perceives letters, numbers and days of the week as colours. Tuesday is cyan blue. It feels negative, she says. Monday is red and thats a very positive colour. Synaesthesia is a neurological difference in which the senses merge and collide in an atypical way. The number three  her lucky number  is golden yellow and she remembers phone numbers by colour sequence.
A view showing part of the destruction caused by the ongoing Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City yesterday. Photo: Abed Khaled/AP

The delusion that the price of aggression could ever be cheap has to be one of the most damning of our times. The terrible miscalculation is so cruel because the burden of suffering is borne by the innocent who had no part in the lethal bargain to begin with.

Hamas has unleashed a black whirlwind of death and every day the toll grows. What it wants is to see an escalation in the killing and destruction and it seems like its perverse wish is going to come true.

Israel has a right to defend itself but given that thousands of civilians including children have already died and the lives of many more are in danger, some pause in the violence is vital if there is to be any prospect of avoiding untold carnage. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is in Brussels where he made a strong case for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.

Speaking at a two-day summit of European Union leaders, he said Hamas has set a trap to ignite a regional conflict. Such a conflagration would upend years of diplomacy and burn the bridges that have been built to draw Israel and Saudi Arabia closer.

This outcome would suit Russia, he hinted, because it would take the focus off Ukraine.

Such international dimensions must be weighed up, but right now the most immediate concerns are humanitarian. Indiscriminate bombing is taking an appalling toll. Depriving millions of people of water, food and medical supplies can not go on.

Ireland respects Israels right to defend itself and, as Mr Varadkar said, it condemns terrorists for attacking civilians.

Yet, as he also stressed, Israels defence must not jeopardise the security of the whole region.

It is distressing that, for a fourth time, the UN has failed to pass a resolution calling for a ceasefire. And it is imperative that Hamas release all hostages.

An all-out ground invasion is drawing closer, but many of Israels allied military advisers are reported to be counselling against this because the fallout may be impossible to contain.

No one knows how many lives could be lost in open-ended house-to-house fighting. Israels prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to crush Hamas.

But in times of conflict patience rewards better than anger.

If there is to be such an invasion, giving the requisite time to allow civilians to get out of firing zones is a moral imperative. Intelligence-led targeting of known combatants may take longer, but will be infinitely more effective. The possible human, military and global consequences of rushing in are incalculable.

Allowing Hamas to dictate the pace of events knowing it will maximise the calamity for civilians, could easily backfire.

The Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu said Victory is reserved for those who are willing to pay its price.

But the civilians and hostages who have found themselves blamelessly drawn into the bloodletting can never be considered as part of any settling of accounts. It would be unconscionable for them to be part of footing a bill.
Should Benjamin Netanyahu not be walking the plank for the failure of his countrys security system on his watch? As a result of that failure, innocent Israeli civilians were murdered or kidnapped in an attack to be eternally condemned.

Did he sidestep the plank by divert- ing attention in knowing that attack is the best form of (his) defence? Hence the massive carpet-bombing of Gaza and the slaughter of thousands of its innocent civilians.

The Gaza bombardment has gone too far, and the reaction to the dreadfully inhumane situation on both sides must rebound on Mr Netanyahus cabinet.

This Gaza action will also not only be long remembered, but will strengthen and multiply Israels enemies. As a result, Israels right to defend itself will be put under enormous pressure.

It is difficult to understand how the conflict is allowed to continue with superpowers standing by.

Ted OKeeffe, Dublin 6

A solution must be found to this horrific tragedy happening before our eyes

I dont have all the answers, but I feel that those of us living in a peaceful country should try to find a solution to the Middle East tragedy.

Could the international community seek a little bit more land for the Palestinians? They are living on a tiny piece of land that is grossly overcrowded.

People feel so pressurised there. Israel is entitled to exist peacefully alongside Gaza. There is no point in killing so many civilians and wrecking their homes and livelihoods.

Please, those of you with influence, try to organise a peaceful solution. Give Gaza its own water and electricity supply so they are not dependent on Israel.

I am not taking sides, but these horrendous deeds that will only end in more bloodshed horrify me.

K Callaghan, Donegal

Why it is so important in times of conflict to keep diplomatic channels open

The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, 1961, specifies that ambassadors are diplomats of the highest rank, formally representing their head of state, with plenipotentiary powers to represent their government.

The role of ambassadors in times of peace tends to be symbolic as they deal with matters of economics, culture, visas and more.

In times of war, the role of ambassadors is far more important. When the conflict in Ukraine began in February 2022, there were calls for the Russian ambassador to be expelled.

In recent days, similar calls have been made by politicians and others to expel the Israeli ambassador.

Expelling ambassadors in a time of war is a serious mistake. While we may not like the ambassadors in question and we may not like or agree with the actions of their governments, it is vital to keep diplomatic lines of communication open at such critically important times.

Neutral countries, particularly, should be playing an important role in promoting a ceasefire and negotiations in those conflicts in Ukraine, the Middle East, the Sahel region of Africa and elsewhere.

The ambassadors of these countries are vital, especially if efforts are being made to end the conflicts, but also to help protect Irelands interests and the interests of Irish citizens who may be endangered by the conflicts.

Ambassadors are the most important element in the international diplomatic system and provide a vital communications system in times of crises.

Meeting jaw to jaw is better than war, as Churchill said.

Edward Horgan, Castletroy, Co Limerick

How spiritual silence can bring us peace if its intent is for only good to prevail

In Sean OCaseys play Juno and the Paycock, Captain Boyle states: The whole worlds in a terrible state ochassis.

In reality, was it not ever thus? But the words of US president Franklin D Roosevelt at his inauguration ceremony  The only fear is fear itself  are as valid today as they were in 1933.

Today, the world is dominated by greed for power by a handful of men (women are far too wise).

Alas, for them, they overlook spirituality. We, the plain people, can but be bystanders or we can be spirituality active?

In Matthew 15: 10-11 we read: Jesus called the crowd to him [the plain people of today] and said, Listen and understand. What goes into a mans mouth does not make him unclean, but what comes out of his mouth, this is what makes him unclean.

Today, we are obliged to be truthful or silent regarding the crisis in the Middle East. The vitally important part is silence, which, in my opinion, if used with intent can assist in creating peace in our world.

There is a house  one of many  in Ireland where in the 19th century on a Sunday the family sat in silence the entire afternoon, pondering on the Gospel they had heard at church that morning.

Some years ago, I got permission to visit that room, and the absolute beautiful peace had me wishing I could remain for ever.

We who believe in the Trinity have the ability to sit in silence anywhere, indoors or outdoors, alone or in company, and invoke in our minds. I invoke the peace and love of the Holy Trinity on earth.

We have much to gain by this invocation.

Declan Foley, Melbourne, Australia

Irish electorate would be making a big mistake if we voted out this government

I would like to compliment Kieran Burke on his letter (Why would anyone want a change of government when country is thriving?, Letters, October 26).

He is 100pc right when he says recent opinion polls indicate there is a desire for change to a more nationalist form of administration. He makes the point about what nationalism has brought our neighbours in the form of Brexit.

I always say politics is not a science. I think the Irish electorate are very volatile, with a tendency to give a bloody nose to whoever is in government. They nearly always believe somebody out there can do a better job.

But Mr Burke is right when he talks about positives such as a high budget surplus, low levels of unemployment and high life expectancy. Yet people will always find something to complain about.

I have a terrible fear voters will follow in the footsteps of our nearest neighbours and make the biggest electoral mistake of the 21st century.

Thomas Garvey, Claremorris, Co Mayo
A Donegal man who gave a 16-year-old drugs before sexually assaulting her has been sentenced to four years in jail.

Patrick Marley (35) with an address at Crerand House, Letterkenny appeared at Letterkenny Circuit Court for sentencing after pleading guilty to a charge of sexual assault on July 16 2017.

Judge John Aylmer outlined the case and said Marley, who was 29 at the time of the offence, had pleaded guilty to the sexual assault of a girl who was 16 at the time.

Judge Aylmer said one of the aggravating features of the case was that Marley had administered the girl cocaine some hours in advance of committing the offence.

The court heard Marley had been pursuing the girl amorously at the time of the offence.

Judge Aylmer said Marley had been preying on the girl for an extended number of hours, which he believed showed that premeditation was involved.

In relation to the age gap, Judge Aylmer said the accused was a mature adult at the time, in comparison to the complainant who was a teenager at 16.

The court heard the girl was intoxicated, and Marley had taken advantage of her state and had lured her into the privacy of a dwelling with the offer of cannabis.

Referring to the sexual assault, Judge Aylmer said there was a significant element of physical force used and a medical examination which was carried out on the girl documented a number of bruises.

Judge Aylmer said the assault involved the digital penetration of the girl for a significant period of time while she struggled to get away.

During the hearing, the complainant gave evidence and a victim impact statement detailed the negative psychological impact the assault had on her and her development from adolescent to adult and the impact it continued to have today.

The court heard Marley had previously fled to England or Scotland breaching his bail and delaying the case.

Judge Aylmer said he deemed the offence to carry a starting point of a six year prison sentence.

In mitigation, Judge Aylmer acknowledged there was some co-operation by the accused during the interview process but he initially denied the sexual assault.

It was acknowledged that while the guilty plea was late, it was deemed valuable by the prosecution as it spared the victim the trauma of having to going through a trial.

The court heard Marley has several previous convictions, but none for sexual assault.

Judge Aylmer said the court must consider the impact of a custodial sentence on the family of the defendant and he referred to Marleys partner of five years who suffers from serious health issues and the invaluable care Marley provides her.

The court heard at the time of the offence, Marley was essentially homeless and unemployed but he is now working and the court was presented with a positive reference from his employer.

It was indicated the accused was willing to offer the victim 10,000 in compensation but the court heard the victim had no interest in the money.

Judge Aylmer said he had taken all elements of the case into consideration and he reduced the sentence to four year in prison.

Ms Fiona Crawford BL, prosecutor for the state told the court as there was no link between the complainant and Marley, the accused could be named.
Here Comes The Sun by Anna Schellberg

Naughty Elephants Squirt Paint by Johnman, which will be featured at Art Source

Rorschach Bag by Orla Walsh (995), which will be featured at Art Source which takes place from November 10-12 at the RDS

Art lovers, mark your calendars, from November 10 to 12, the RDS will transform into a hub of artistic wonder as Art Source, Ireland's biggest art show, opens its doors next month.

This annual extravaganza promises to deliver a unique opportunity for Irish art lovers to acquire original artworks for just 100 each.

With over 15,000 visitors anticipated to attend, Art Source 2023 is set to feature an eclectic assembly of 200 contemporary Irish and international artists and galleries.

Among these are Tom Byrne and David McGlynn, both of whom have had their creations purchased by Hollywood stars Elizabeth Banks and Amy Adams, adding a touch of glitz to this artistic spectacle.

The centrepiece of the fair is a remarkable sculpture crafted from recycled Boeing 707 parts, paying homage to John Phillip Holland, the Irish inventor of the modern submarine.

Acclaimed industrial designer Shane Holland drew his inspiration from a call he received about discarded aviation parts, transforming these remnants into a symbol of innovation and heritage.

Keeping with the underwater theme, Hey Bulldog will be showcasing psychedelic tufted wall hangings inspired by The Beatles' iconic Yellow Submarine animated film, offering a unique and visually stunning collection.

But Art Source isn't just about admiring art from a distance; it's about connecting with the artists themselves.

Show organiser Patrick O'Sullivan said: "Art Source offers visitors the opportunity to purchase a one-off affordable original artwork to make their home unique and also the opportunity to meet the artists and hear about their work."

The growth of Art Source over the years is attributed to the exceptional quality of its exhibitors.

Mr. O'Sullivan said that the event serves as a meeting ground for industry insiders to explore the pulse of the Irish art world, boasting the widest range of art styles in all of Ireland.

One of the most intriguing aspects of this year's event is a sporting challenge that led a Dublin boat fitter to transition into an artist specialising in creating a stainless steel rugby ball.

Grant Designs rugby ball

Irish artist Orla Walsh, often compared to the legendary Andy Warhol, is also set to unveil a new collection of iconic Brown Thomas bags at Art Source.

For those eager to get their hands on the 100 pieces of original art for 100, it's first come, first served when Art Source opens on Friday, November 10, at 11 am.

For more information and tickets, visit artsource.ie.
Los mandatarios ????Dina Boluarte y ????Guillermo Lasso, presidieron la ceremonia por los 25 anos de los #AcuerdosDePazDeBrasilia. Junto a los cancilleres Ana Cecilia Gervasi y Gustavo Manrique participaron los excancilleres De Trazegnies y Ayala Lasso, suscriptores de los Acuerdos. pic.twitter.com/zqMpYEj5mb
Iveragh Branch Presents Bus costing over 50,000 To Day Centre In Cahersiveen . Pictured on the day were : General Manager of Kerry Mental Health Association, John Drummey , Chair of the Kerry Mental Health Association Iveragh Branch, Jackie OSullivan . Seated L-R : Tim O'Sullivan Caherciveen , Christy O'Connell Day Centre In Cahersiveen , Lucy Helen CNM2 Nurse , Kathleen O'Sullivan Day Centre In Cahersiveen and Michael O'Shea Ballingskelligs . Back standing : Evelyn Griffin Day Centre In Cahersiveen , Sean Houlihan Day Centre In Cahersiveen , Kathleen Lyons and Martin Griffin Day Centre In Cahersiveen. Photo by Domnick Walsh.

Kerry Mental Health Association Iveragh Branch has presented a new people carrier vehicle to the Fertha View Day Centre in Cahersiveen to provide services users with easy access to appointments and outings.

The bus costing over 50,000 was financed through funding support from the Helping Hand Charity Shop in Cahersiveen and annual bucket collection in Cahersiveen and a contribution from Kerry Mental Health Association central funds.

The bus will help transport patients to and from the day care centre and is a vital addition to the rural community.

The Chair of the Kerry Mental Health Association Iveragh Branch, Jackie OSullivan, said: Its a pleasure to hand over this much needed bus to our local day centre. It will provide a wonderful amenity for the services users throughout the peninsula. The size of the vehicle means the staff can drive it, taking away the dependence of requiring the availability of a driver which was the previous situation.

The committee members in the Kerry Mental Health Association Iveragh Branch have expressed their sincere gratitude to all the volunteers and staff who made it possible and they wish the service users many years of safe travels.

They also thanked Mike Gallagher for pointing them in the direction of Wheelchair Cars Ireland from where the bus was purchased.

The General Manager of Kerry Mental Health Association, John Drummey, said it is great to see funds going to help a local community.

Congratulations to all the volunteers in our Iveragh Branch for their time, focus and energy. They should be very proud of this achievement which will benefit so many people in the south Kerry area. While respecting the privacy and dignity of the service users, we understand that its good for people to see that their donations are being invested in the wellbeing of others in the community. We are grateful to Lucy, Niamh, Lindsey and all the staff in the Fertha View Day Centre for their support.
A parcel of land at Mooretown, south of Dundalk has gone on the market with a guide price of 240,000

Its rare that prime agricultural land within a short distance of Dundalk goes on the market so a parcel of approximately 12 acres (4.85ha) located at Mooretown, Dromiskin Dundalk should attract a lot of interest.

According to estate agents Sherry Fitzgerald Carroll who are handling the sale, the lands enjoy considerable road frontage to both the Dublin Road and Nursery Lane and are currently in grass and for the most part are level in nature.

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There is direct access from from Nursery Lane and are fields are bounded by mature natural hedgerow on three sides. In addition to their current use the lands are also suited to a range of alternative uses including tillage or horticultural uses.

The property occupies a prominent position along the old Dundalk to Dublin Roadway (R132) in the townland of Mooretown, Dromiskin, about 3 kilometres from Dromiskin Village, 4 kilometres from Castlebellingham and 7 kilometres from Dundalk town centre.

Together with its convenient location close to local villages, towns and M1 Junction 15, the property also benefits greatly from a picturesque scenic location with views towards Dundalk Bay and the Cooley Mountains. Guide price is 240,000.
Midlands-Northwest MEP Colm Markey says dedicated EU funding officers for each county council are necessary

Local authorities could be missing out on significant amounts of EU cash according to local MEP Colm Markey. He was speaking ahead of an address to the Northern and Western Regional Assembly in Co. Roscommon today.

The Midlands-North-West MEP said a dedicated EU funding officer within each County Council would help facilitate access to crucial funding.

He commented, Substantial EU funding is available to support both community groups and local authorities, however a lack of expertise means many counties are missing out. Having a dedicated EU funding officer could be of particular benefit to counties in the northern and western region, where economic development lags behind the rest of the country. Several councils such as Cork City, Dublin and Donegal have already adopted this approach with positive results. Cork City Council, for example, has had 26 successful applications for EU funding over a six-year period. I have already spoken with the Minister for Local Government Kieran ODonnell, regarding this issue, and received a positive response.

The Fine Gael MEP will also tell NWRA members about the potential to transform the region in the coming years.

I acknowledge the NWRAs recent pre-budget submission, which highlights the need to reduce regional inequalities. I believe there is enormous potential in the region, particularly around the rollout of offshore wind projects. Just this week, the EU Commission published an action plan aimed at addressing bottlenecks. We must work towards faster permitting, improved auction design, access to finance and addressing the skills shortage to turn this vision into a reality. It is crucial that we get this right and bring much needed jobs and investment to the north and west, he concluded.
The final episode of a new four-part series fronted by TV presenter Julia Bradbury will air on Channel 4 this weekend and will feature Sligo.

Called Julia Bradburys Irish journey, it is supported by Tourism Ireland and is expected to be seen by a wide audience of viewers across Britain.

In the series, viewers see the presenter return to the land of her birth  to explore and experience our spectacular landscape, rich culture and history and, of course, our people. From clifftops to forests and from our cities to beautiful beaches, Julia has been walking, surfing, kayaking and cooking her way around the island of Ireland.

In this weekends episode, viewers will see Julia visit Sligo, where she does the Rosses Point Coastal Walk and visits Kilcullens Seaweed Baths in Enniscrone.

Julie Wakley, Tourism Irelands Head of Great Britain, said: Tourism Ireland was delighted to support the production of this new four-part TV series, Julia Bradburys Irish Journey. With a wide audience across Britain set to watch the series, its an excellent way to shine a spotlight on Sligo and some of the many great things to see and do on a short break or holiday in Ireland.

Publicity and broadcasts like this are a key element of Tourism Irelands programme of promotional activity, to encourage travellers in Britain, and elsewhere around the world, to put Sligo and Ireland on their holiday wish-list.

The programme airs on (Saturday 28 October).
Coolaney/Mullinabreena and Coolera/Strandhill are set to benefit from funding for walking tracks, it has been announced.

The Minister for Public Health, Wellbeing and the National Drugs Strategy, Hildegarde Naughton TD, and the President of the GAA (Uachtaran Chumann Luthchleas Gael) Larry McCarthy have today announced additional funding of 800,000 from Healthy Ireland for the GAA Walking Tracks initiative.

It follows an earlier allocation of 815,000, which has enabled 54 GAA, Camogie and LGFA clubs in 26 counties to improve the accessibility of existing community walking track facilities on GAA grounds.

Locally Sligo/Leitrim TD Frank Feighan who initiated the project as Minister in 2022 welcomed the allocations for two Sligo GAA Clubs, Coolaney/Mullaghabreena who will receive 10,000 and Coolera/Strandhill who are allocated 15,000.

Deputy Feighan said; I am delighted to see Sligo benefiting from 25,000 under this scheme which make their facilities available to non-playing members.

"The provision of walking tracks is particularly important in rural areas where safe, well-lit walking routes may be limited.

The funding scheme attracted huge interest, with over 300 clubs submitting applications. Clubs which scored highest in the competitive selection process were awarded funding of between 10,000 and 25,000 in April. An additional 800,000 is now being allocated to several clubs which did not receive funding from the original application process.
Renewable energy company Source Galileo has announced that Ingka Investments has invested in the Mac Lir Offshore Wind Farm project off the coast of Wicklow and Wexford.

Dublin and London-based renewable energy company Source Galileo has announced that Ingka Investments has invested in their portfolio of Irish offshore wind projects, including the Mac Lir Offshore Wind Farm project off the coast of Wicklow and Wexford.

The move sees Ingka Investments, the investment arm of Ingka Group (the largest IKEA retailer), secure a 20 per cent stake in the offshore wind project portfolio of Source Galileo, who are developing 10GW of offshore wind to electricity and hydrogen production off the coasts of Europe.

The Mac Lir Offshore Wind Farm project is in the early development phase. At their nearest point, its proposed wind turbines will be over 22 kilometres off the east coast, lying entirely outside Irelands 12 nautical mile foreshore limit.

The offshore area, which spans from south of Arklow to Cahore Point, has been strategically selected to reduce visibility from the coast, limit environmental and economic impacts and harness the stronger wind speeds found further offshore.

It proposes an installed capacity of 700 MW+, which equates to approximately 15 per cent of Irelands commitment to achieve 5GW of offshore wind by 2030. The installation of circa 47 turbines has the potential to meet the needs of over 600,000 households and would offset over one million tonnes of carbon emissions each year.

Source Galileo will commence work on an environmental impact assessment for the project, to submit the project for planning approval in late 2026 and to have it in operation by 2030.

A process of public consultation will commence with a series of engagements with public representatives in Wicklow and Wexford over the coming weeks, followed by a series of wider public consultation activities.

Kevin Lynch, CEO of Source Galileo said: The significance of the investment from Ingka is transformational for offshore wind in Ireland.

Ireland is expected to develop at least 20GW of offshore wind by 2040, starting from pilot projects today, as a contribution to meet Europes climate goals. The commitment from Ingka Investments, in partnership with Source Galileo, to help deliver on these targets is enormous.

Gina Cassidy, COO of Source Galileo added: With Ingka Investments on board, our offshore portfolio can generate substantial clean renewable energy direct to homes and businesses across Ireland, in addition to bringing economic benefits to local communities through job creation and support for clean energy infrastructure.

This partnership is a further step to expand our investment activities to address climate footprint reduction well beyond our retail consumption, and into the IKEA value chain, commented Frederik de Jong, Head of Renewable Energy at Ingka Investments.

We are looking forward to working closely with Source Galileo to make a significant contribution to the achievement of Ireland, the UK and Europes decarbonised energy goals.

The investment by Ingka Investments is part of its 6.5 billion initiative to support 100 per cent renewable energy consumption across the IKEA value chain and beyond. Ingka Investments has invested and committed more than 4 billion into renewable energy projects to date.

Ingka Investments is already partnered with Source Galileo to develop offshore floating wind in Norway, alongside one of the largest Japanese utilities, the Kansai Electric Power Co. Inc. and market-leading Norwegian provider of floating offshore wind technologies, Odjfell Oceanwind.

Joined together in the UtsiraVIND Consortium, the partners are currently finalising their bid for the upcoming Utsira Nord tender process to develop, build and operate a floating wind farm off the west coast of Utsira in Norway.

Anyone interested in speaking with the project team can submit their interest to info@macliroffshore.ie
Balally Players Theatre Company (cast) at the Performed Reading of Juggernaut, in The Presentation Arts Centre.

Niamh Matthews and Cathal Butler at the Performed Reading of Juggernaut, in The Presentation Arts Centre.

Ruth Starr, Gerard Bourke, Murial Caslin-O'Hagan, Helen Dillon and Michael Dillon at the Performed Reading of Juggernaut, in The Presentation Arts Centre.

DUBLIN based theatre company the Balally Players took to the stage in the Presentation Arts Centre in Enniscorthy on October 21 for a performed reading of Juggernaut  a play about the Irish War of Independence.

The play is set in Killiney during the War of Independence, and it centres around a middle-class family whose immunity from the struggle is shattered with the arrival of a wounded gunman looking for refuge.

This dilemma takes on a more acute dimension when the daughter of the household finds herself in love with an officer in the British Army. She comes to realise that his life will be endangered by the Irish rebel should the secrets he has stolen  a list of British operatives in Ireland  reach his superiors.

Her central encounters with the rebel and the British officer, respectively, constitute the heart of the play, and they are dramatised with an emotional and ethical complexity to rival the dramas of Noel Coward and R. C. Sherriff playing in the West-End.

A 90-minute retelling of a play first staged to great acclaim by MacLiamoir and Edwards in the Gate Theatre in 1929.

Front of house and photographer of The Presentation Arts Centre, Conor Gibson, said the play went down a treat, especially amongst local history buffs.

It was organised and performed brilliantly, Conor said.

"We were delighted they chose Juggernaut and they paid perfect tribute to the plays writer, David Sears. It attracted a lot of local historians, and we would recommend anyone who has the chance to go and see it, he added.
Wexford General Hospital is to host its annual service remembrance in memory of all those who have passed away at the hospital, or those associated with the hospital who have died in the past year.

The special ceremony will take place at Clonard Church, Wexford, on Thursday, November 16 at 7.30 p.m.

The purpose of the service is to provide an opportunity for bereaved families and hospital staff to come together to remember loved ones who died at Wexford General Hospital or loved ones who died elsewhere but who had a significant connection with the hospital, a hospital spokesperson said. Feedback from families, staff and the public has been very positive and it appears that the event has really struck a chord with all involved.

The service of remembrance is particularly intended for families and friends of those who have died in Wexford General Hospital between October 1, 2022, and September 30, 2023. However, all who have experienced human loss are welcome.

The event is open to people of all faiths and of none and tea and coffee will be served afterwards.

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Wexford General Hospital is one of over 40 hospitals taking part in the Hospice Friendly Hospitals (HFH) Programme, an initiative of the Irish Hospice Foundation since 2007, whose main aim is to improve the culture of care delivered at end of life in Ireland, so that patients, families and staff all benefit.

Management at Wexford General are also keen to inform people about the Bereavement Support Line which is available from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Monday to Friday, on 1800 807077. This is a national freephone service set up by the Irish Hospice Foundation in partnership with the HSE to provide connection, comfort and support to those grieving .

A Standing Committee for End of Life Care was set up in Wexford General Hospital in 2007 to look at ways to improve the way care is delivered at end of life on a hospital-wide basis and this work is ongoing.

The committee is comprised of staff from all areas of the hospital. In addition to organising the service of remembrance annually, the work has included initiatives such as the sending of sympathy cards, refurbishments to the mortuary and relatives rooms, sourcing written bereavement information for relatives, developing education programmes for staff and working towards compliance with the Quality Standards for End-of-life Care in Hospitals.
Councillor Stephen Stokes joined members of the Bray-Greystones Chess Club gathered on Wednesday, October 25, for a celebration to mark the 100th birthday of local chess player Vincent Denard, who has just hit the milestone 100.

Vincent is originally from Bangor in Co Down. In 1935 he won a scholarship to Bangor Grammar School. Following this, he went to Trinity College Dublin and graduated with a degree in Philosophy, in 1948, achieving first class honours. He subsequently worked as a lecturer.

Cllr Stephen Stokes with Vincent Denard.

In June 1963, Vincent had the honour of robing President John F Kennedy for the conferral of his honorary doctorate.

Vincent is a long time member of the Bray-Greystones Chess Club having joined in 2004.

He continued playing actively in Leinster chess competitions deep in to his nineties. In 2017, Vincent was a key member of the Bray-Greystones team that lifted Leinsters OSullivan Cup.

He followed up this success in 2019, helping Bray-Greystones to win the William Brennan Cup. At a critical moment, Vincent scored an impressive draw against one of Irelands top junior players. He would regularly slot in for teams at short notice and secure vital results.

Veteran chess captain Eugene Rellis described Vincent as the best damn chess sub in the world.

Today, Vincent continues to inspire younger generations with chess lessons.

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Paying tribute to Vincent, Cllr Stokes said: Vincent is amazing. He is full of life and an inspiration in chess longevity. To continue to get positive results for the club, well in to his nineties, is remarkable. On behalf of everyone associated with the Bray-Greystones Chess Club, I would like to wish Vincent many more years of good health and happiness.
The Rossana Trio Mark Redmond (uilleann pipes, whistles, flute), Robbie Walsh (bodhran) and Lynda OConnor (violin/fiddle) at the launch of the Wicklow Teaching Residency.

There is still time for Wicklow residents aged 55 and over to pick up their instruments and start playing again with the help of Making Music with The Rossana Trio: the Wicklow Teaching Residency  a partnership between Wicklow County Arts Office and Music Network.

The exciting project, which will close to applications on Wednesday, November 1, at 2 p.m., is focused on helping participants return to playing an instrument and sharing the joy of group music-making.

It provides participants with free tuition from professional musicians, access to instruments for the duration of the programme and opportunities to connect and learn with other budding musicians along the way.

This years participants will receive tuition on uilleann pipes, whistle, flute, violin/fiddle or bodhran with The Rossana Trio, comprising renowned musicians Mark Redmond (uilleann pipes, whistles, flute), Lynda OConnor (violin/fiddle) and Robbie Walsh (bodhran).

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The project will run from November 2023 to April 2024.

Participants will receive eight one-to-one lessons and three group lessons with others playing the same instrument.

As well as playing together, participants will meet for coffee sessions and chats on wide-ranging musical topics and more.

Mary Walsh, a previous participant, spoke about her experience of returning to playing an instrument through the residency, saying: I really loved the course and am so glad that I took that first step of applying.

I think after the ripe old age of 65, you tend to lose a lot of your confidence in your musical ability, and I can truly say this project has brought my love for music back to life again.

Applicants must be aged 55 or over, resident in County Wicklow, and have some previous experience of playing music. Some experience of reading music is welcomed but not essential.

The closing date for applications for Making Music with The Rossana Trio: the Wicklow Teaching Residency is Wednesday, November 1, at 2 p.m. Apply to take part online at musicnetwork.ie or call Sarah Ledwidge on 01 475 0224.

Places on the residency are limited to 15, and priority will be given on a first come first served basis.

The Wicklow Teaching Residency is presented by the Wicklow County Council Arts Office and Music Network, with the initiative funded by Creative Ireland.
???? Ahora el premier Alberto Otarola preside la ceremonia por el Dia del Veterano de Guerra y de la Pacificacion Nacional. Destaca su reconocimiento y gratitud a quienes lucharon con gallardia por la Nacion. pic.twitter.com/UOdCgA3bJP
Boris Johnson has found his latest post-prime ministerial employment, with the former Tory leader set to join GB News.

He is the latest Conservative politician to find a place at the broadcaster, and in a video announcing his arrival the former MP said he would be giving his unvarnished views on a range of topics.

Mr Johnson, who also writes a column for the Daily Mail, said: I am excited to say that I am shortly going to be joining you on GB News.

Im going to be giving this remarkable new TV channel my unvarnished views on everything from Russia, China, the war in Ukraine, how we meet all those challenges, to the huge opportunities that lie ahead for us, why I believe our best days are yet to come.

And why on the whole the people of the world want to see more global Britain, not less.

Mr Johnson resigned as MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip in June in protest at the sanction recommended by the Privileges Committee after it found he lied to the Commons over partygate.

He quit as prime minister in 2022, following a mass revolt by ministers over his leadership.

He now joins a number of former Tory colleagues including close ally Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg and current Conservative deputy chairman Lee Anderson at the channel.

Former pensions minister Esther McVey and backbencher Philip Davies are also presenters.

Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg in the studio at GB News (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

The channel said that he would be joining as a presenter, programme maker and commentator, adding Mr Johnson would be playing a key role in the coverage of both the upcoming UK and US elections.

Mr Johnson has earned millions of pounds since leaving office, mostly for speaking fees but also for his upcoming memoirs.

The decision to join GB News is a coup for the TV channel, while also giving Mr Johnson a new platform to air his views and opinions.

He has made recurring interventions since leaving office on the war in Ukraine, repeatedly urging Western leaders to go further in offering support to Kyiv in its fight against Russia.

Mr Johnson sought advice from Whitehalls appointments watchdog before taking up the job.

The Advisory Committee on Business Appointments said it did not have any particular concerns about the role.
Author Sir Salman Rushdie could give evidence against the man charged with repeatedly stabbing him when the trial takes place early next year, a US prosecutor said.

He is on the peoples witness list right now heading into trial, Chautauqua County district attorney Jason Schmidt said, following a court hearing in which the judge scheduled the trial for January 8.

Hadi Matar, 25, has pleaded not guilty to charges of assault and attempted murder.

Sir Salman Rushdie could give evidence at his alleged attackers trial (Jordan Pettitt/PA)

Authorities said the New Jersey resident left the audience and rushed on to the stage where the The Satanic Verses author was about to speak in August 2022, stabbing him more than a dozen times before onlookers intervened.

Sir Salman, 76, who was left blinded in his right eye and with a damaged left hand, wrote about the attack in a memoir, Knife: Meditations After An Attempted Murder due out on April 16.

Matar has been in custody since immediately after the attack at the Chautauqua Institution, an arts and intellectual retreat in the rural south-west corner of New York state.

I think the biggest hurdle for all of us is going to be picking a fair and impartial jury, Mr Schmidt said. He estimated the trial would last two weeks or less.

Sir Salman was the target of a decades-old fatwa by the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini calling for his death over alleged blasphemy in The Satanic Verses.
The Australian producer has been married to the former Boyzone star since 2015 and live together in London with their two children, Cooper (6) and Coco (3)

Ronan Keating and his daughters showed up to support his wife Storm as she officially became a British citizen this week.

The Australian producer has been married to the former Boyzone star since 2015 and live together in London with their two children, Cooper (6) and Coco (3).

She announced on Thursday that she had pledged my allegiance to the King in a citizenship ceremony after residing in the UK for more than a decade.

Ronans daughters Missy (22) and Ali (18), whom he shares with ex-wife Yvonne Connolly, and his nephew Josh (18), were also in attendance.

Sharing an Instagram Reel of her big day, Storm wrote: After living in England for 11 years and bearing two British babies, I have pledged my allegiance to the King and can now proudly call myself officially a #britishcitizen. Unofficially of course, a huge piece of my heart is Irish too.

The video showed some clips of the 41-year-old celebrating her new status in a smart blazer and crisp white shirt as she proudly held up her new citizenship certificate.

After the ceremony, she popped over to Annabels for a swanky lunch, with the family posing for a photo with a bunch of UK and Australian flags.

During the meal, Storm was handed with a red cake decorated with gold flakes and the words 'now you're a Pomausie' iced on top, a nod to the Australian slang for Brits  Poms.

Her followers shared the love for her citizenship news in the comment section, with one person writing: Many congratulations, please dont lose that gorgeous accent though!

Another said: I absolutely LOVE this!!!!!! Congratulations my darling!!!!

And a third added: Congratulations @stormykeating So good to see you got to celebrate your special day with @rokeating by your side.

While a fourth chimed in: Congratulations my darling.
Latest | Big concern Middle East conflict will escalate says Taoiseach, after US fighter jet strikes on Syria

US fighter jets strike Syria amid growing concerns Israel-Hamas conflict may spread in Middle EastConcerns grow that the Israel-Hamas conflict may spread in the Middle EastPoll shows almost half of Israelis want to hold off on Gaza invasionPoll results show concern over hostages top agenda

Leo Varadkar is worried the conflict may spread in the middle east

Senan Molony, Nidal al-Mughrabi, Tala Ramadan and Emily Rose Fri 27 Oct 2023 at 12:55







Its a big concern that the Middle East conflict will spin out of control, the Taoiseach has said after American airstrikes overnight on Iran-linked targets in Syria.
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 27, ARMENPRESS. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has expressed willingness to contribute to the preservation of Armenian cultural and spiritual heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenian FM Ararat Mirzoyan said at a joint press conference with Szijjarto.

After the forced displacement the issue of Armenian cultural and spiritual heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh has become more pressing. In the past we appealed to UNESCO and other international partners, there was a decision to send a UNESCO mission to Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent regions. But as a result of multiple obstructions caused by Azerbaijan, that visit hasnt taken place thus far. But now that mission is needed more, Mirzoyan said, adding that Armenia is working in that direction.

Mirzoyan said that the Hungarian Foreign Minister sincerely expressed desire to step in and have his contribution in that important issue, ensure the preservation of Armenian cultural and spiritual heritage, as well as access to such sites.

Mirzoyan thanked Szijjarto for Hungarys willingness to contribute to the issue.
Mumbai: Fintech unicorn BharatPe on Friday said that its Chief Product Officer Ankur Jain has resigned to pursue startup ambitions.

Jains exit is part of a trend of top executives leaving the company in recent months.

In September, the Chief Business Officer (CBO) Nishant Jain also resigned from BharatPe and has taken up a new role as Executive Director and CBO (Assisted Business) at the discount broking firm Angel One.

The companys Chief Operating Officer Dhruv Dhanraj Bahl quit after serving for approximately four years.

Last year, three senior executives, including the Chief Technology Officer Vijay Aggarwal, Head of PostPe Nehul Malhotra, and Chief Product Officer Rajat Jain, also resigned.

Ashneer Grover, who has been in a dispute with the board of BharatPe, submitted his resignation as Managing Director and Director in March 2022, shortly after his wife Madhuri Jain Grover was terminated from her position as Head of Controls over allegations of funds misappropriation.

CEO Suhail Sameer also stepped down last year, along with several other senior executives.

Nalin Negi is currently serving as interim CEO. The company has made several new hires over the past year, including CTO Pankaj Goel, a Chief Information Security Officer, Head of Internal Audit, and Head of Compliance.

While Rajnish Kumar, a seasoned figure in the banking industry, serves as Chairman, co-founder Shashvat Nakrani remains involved in strategic decision-making.

In the fiscal year 2022, BharatPe reported a 169 percent increase in revenue, reaching Rs 321 crore for the entire financial year, compared to Rs 119 crore in the previous year. However, the company incurred a loss of Rs 5,594 crore in FY22.

Notably, the firm achieved its highest-ever gross revenue of $23.5 million (approximately Rs 200 crore) in August 2023.
Photo Courtesy: http://eng.mod.gov.cn/

In recent years, China has been making significant strides in expanding its military capabilities, raising concerns among global powers, particularly the United States.

The 2023 China Military Power Report,mandated by the U.S. Congress, highlights China's swift military development, especially in the nuclear realm, and its increasingly assertive actions in the Indo-Pacific region.

This article critically examines China's military expansion and the potential implications for international security.

One of the most striking revelations from the 2023 China Military Power Report is China's accelerating nuclear capabilities.

The Department of Defense estimates that China possessed more than 500 operational nuclear warheads as of May 2023, a significant increase from the previous year's estimate of 400.

More alarmingly, the report suggests that China could have over 1,000 operational nuclear war heads by 2030, a pace that surpasses Pentagon projections.

While China's nuclear stockpile remains smaller than that of Russia or the United States, the development of these weapons raises serious questions about Beijing's intentions.

The report suggests that China mayalso be exploring conventionally armed intercontinental-range missile systems capable of threateningtargets in the continental United States.

This would mark a significant shift in China's military capabilities,potentially altering the balance of power in the region.China's assertive actions in the Indo-Pacific region have been a cause for concern, as highlighted in the2023 report.

The People's Liberation Army (PLA) has engaged in coercive and risky operational activities targeting foreign aircraft and maritime vessels, including lasing, reckless maneuvers, close approaches, and even ballistic missile overflights of Taiwan.

These actions are viewed as an attempt to restrict the U.S.presence in China's immediate periphery and limit American access to the broader Indo-Pacific region.Furthermore, China has conducted large-scale joint military exercises focused on deterring U.S. and allied operations in the region.

The PLA's continued pressure against Taiwan is also evident, as it prepares for a contingency to unify Taiwan with the People's Republic of China.

These actions not only challenge regionalstability but also threaten the security of U.S. allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific.It's important to consider China's domestic politics when assessing its military actions.

In 2022, theChinese Communist Party held its 20th Congress, during which President Xi Jinping sought to reassert hispower and secure a third term as China's paramount leader.

This context could explain the PLA's morevocal approach in 2022.Looking ahead, experts suggest that China's actions may become less vocal but more realistic in terms ofmilitary maneuvers around Taiwan.

Nevertheless, the global impact of China's military expansion remains a matter of concern, given its potential to reshape the international order.

China's rapid military expansion is occurring at a time when the world is grappling with multiple geopolitical challenges. Ongoing developments in Ukraine and the Middle East could embolden China's actions in the Indo-Pacific, as it may hope to take advantage of a distracted U.S.

While China may attemptprovocations, it is unlikely that the U.S. will de-prioritize Indo-Pacific issues in favor of other challenges.

The United States, as a global power, maintains its commitment to executing deterrence responsibilities across the globe, even during times of conflict in other regions.

The Indo-Pacific Command continues to operate with two aircraft carriers at sea, demonstrating the U.S.'s readiness to address challenges in the region.Efforts to engage in diplomatic dialogue with China have been met with refusal.

However, there areunconfirmed reports that Chinese leader Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden may meet on the sidelinesof the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco next month.

Such a meeting, ifit takes place, could provide an opportunity to address these growing concerns and foster better communication between the two nations.

A solution to the conflict seems far-fetched considering chinasdraconian plan for dominating the global world order.

The rapid expansion of China's military capabilities and its assertive actions in the Indo-Pacific region pose significant challenges to both regional stability and global security.

The international community mustremain vigilant and steadfast in monitoring these developments. Moreover, diplomatic solutions areimperative to prevent potential conflicts and to sustain the peace and stability of the region.

Engagingwith China in dialogue and promoting transparency is crucial in ensuring a peaceful coexistence in an increasingly complex global landscape. The first offer should be of peace.

In the face of these challenges, diplomacy remains the most potent tool for mitigating tensions and maintaining peace.

(China Flag: Pixabay)
Jyotipriya Mallick after being arrested by ED | Photo courtesy: Screenshot grab from X video of ANI

Kolkata/IBNS: West Bengal Foreign Minister Jyotipriya Mallick was on Friday morning arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with an alleged scam in the state's ration distribution when he helmed the food ministry, media reports said.

Mallick, a long term associate of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, was arrested at 3:23 am following a quizzing for over 20 hours.

The Trinamool Congress leader was taken by the probe agency officials to the ED office at CGO Complex in Salt Lake.

Upon being arrested, Mallick told reporters, "I am a victim of grave conspiracy."

The central probe agency had raided eight locations including the Salt Lake residence of Mallick in connection with the scam, which allegedly took place when the TMC leader was the food minister.

The raids began at least in eight places at around 6:30 am on Thursday following inputs after the arrest of businessman Bakibur Rahaman, who allegedly has a link with the minister. sources added.

The raids are being conducted following the alleged irregularities in ration distributions during the pandemic period when Mallick was the state food supplies minister.

The ED, which is probing the money trails of the alleged irregularities in the statutory ration distribution system, has information that the arrested businessman Bakibur Rahaman has huge businesses in Bengal, Mumbai, and even in Dubai worth nearly 100 crores of rupees.

Sources also claimed Bakibur had rapport with Mallick when the latter was the state food supplies minister in the previous Mamata Banerjee government.

After the win in the 2021 assembly poll, Mallick was shifted to the Department of Forest Affairs and Non-Conventional and Renewable Energy sources.

Mallick represents the Habra assembly segment in the North 24 Parganas.

The ED had raided the residence of current state food minister Rathin Ghosh, also in North 24 Parganas.

Mamata Banerjee takes a swipe at BJP

Addressing the media, Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee on Thursday took a swipe at the country' ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the raids.

Mamata described the ED raids at state minister Jyotipriya Mallick's house as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s "abuse of power to muzzle any opposition to their authoritarian rule".

Addressing the media, Banerjee said, "ED raid at Jyotipriya Mallick's house proves BJP's abuse of power to muzzle any opposition to their authoritarian rule."
Image Credit: Twitter/Suvendu Adhikari

Kolkata/UNI: Reacting to the arrest of West Bengal Forest Minister Jyotipriya Mallick, state Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari on Friday demanded a probe into the role of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the alleged ration distribution scam.

Taking to X, Adhikari said, "I would urge the @dir_ed to probe the role of Mamata Banerjee in the huge WB Ration Distribution Scam."

"Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee didn't appoint Jyotipriya Mallick as the Minister in Charge of the Food & Supplies Department; Govt of WB, in 2021 as she wanted to save him from the glare of Central Investigation Agencies after engaging in mountainous corruption for a decade as the Food & Supplies Minister from 2011 to 2021," he commented.

"However, she wanted him to keep raising funds illegally and hand over the share of the proceeds to intended persons.

"So as a way out, she appointed him as the Chairman of the West Bengal Essential Commodities Supply Corporation (WBECSC), the company that is entrusted with the procurement & distribution of paddy & other food grains in WB," the BJP MLA from Nandigram added.

"She didn't stop at this only. To ensure that siphoning of funds is done smoothly and efficiently, she appointed A.Subbiah; a retired IAS officer, as the MD of the West Bengal Essential Commodities Supply Corporation (WBECSC) to facilitate Jyotipriya Mallick. Who is A. Subbiah? " he mentioned.

"He is a West Bengal-cadre officer of the 1992 batch. A case against Subbiah was filed by the Anti-Corruption Bureau, Chennai, in 2012 which was about allegedly receiving a bribe of Rs. 8 crore when he was the Chairman of V.O. Chidambaranar Port, formerly Tuticorin Port, " Adhikari alleged.

"This officer had been charge-sheeted by the @CBIHeadquarters in Case No. RCMA1/ 2012/ A/ 0055 for masterminding a scam as the Acting Chairman of the Tuticorin Port Trust. Permission has also been granted for his prosecution. As a result, his promotion to the rank of Additional Chief Secretary was blocked and his pension (due after retirement) was withheld," he further alleged.

"Why is Mamata Banerjee responsible? She is the Minister-in-Charge of the Personnel and Administrative Reforms Department. It wouldn't have been possible for A. Subbiah; a tainted & charge-sheeted retired officer, whose pension has been withheld and who is being prosecuted for corruption, to be appointed as Managing Director of WBECSC, if the CM didn't want it personally," Adhikari asserted.

State BJP President Sukanta Majumdar commented, "The Kingpin of the Ration Scam has finally been caught... The Truth will always prevail..."

ED arrested Mallick after grilling him since 6 AM on Thursday and finally took him to the CGO Complex around 3:23 am.

Mallick, currently Bengal Forest Minister and former Food Minister, was arrested on charges of alleged irregularities in the distribution of statuary rations during the pandemic period.

Mallick accused the BJP and Adhikari of "orchestrating a deep conspiracy" for his arrest.

The ED arrested Mallick for non-cooperation in the process of Investigation.

The ED took Mallick to EDI Hospital at Joka for a health check-up where a medical board has already been set up since the minister suffers from blood sugar, sources said.

The ED is expected to produce Mallick at the Bankshall Court in the city later on Friday and seek him in its custody.

The ED has appointed Special Prosecutor Firoz Edulji, who appeared during the arrest of State Commerce and former Education Minister Partha Chatterjee in the alleged cash-for-jobs scam last year.

Sources said besides, the raids were conducted simultaneously in two flats of Mallick at Salt Lake (Kolkata) areas, two other flats of Dey at Vivekananda Road (Nager Bazar in Dum Dum) and another house of Dey at Bhagabati Park, also in Nager Bazar.

Raids were conducted in three other places too.

They said the ED, probing the money trails of the alleged irregularities in the statutory ration distribution system, has information that the arrested businessman, Bakibur Rahaman, has huge businesses in Bengal, Mumbai, and even Dubai worth near 100 crores of rupees.

Sources said Bakibur had rapport with Minister Mallick when he was the state food supplies minister in the previous Mamata Banerjee government. After the win in the 2021 assembly poll, Mallick was shifted to the Department of Forest Affairs and Non-Conventional and Renewable Energy Sources.

Mallick represents the Habra assembly segment in the North 24 Parganas.

A few months ago, the ED raided the residence of current food minister Rathin Ghosh, also in North 24 Parganas.
Photo Courtesy: UNI

Two Border Security Force personnel sustained injuries while the border dwellers moved to safer locations after Pakistan Rangers resorted to unprovoked firing along the International Border here.

A BSF spokesman on Friday stated that during the intervening night of October 26-27, Pakistan Rangers resorted to unprovoked firing in the Arnia area which was befittingly responded by BSF troops.

"Pakistan Rangers resorted to mortar shelling which was countered by BSF personnel with appropriate response," he said adding that intermittent firing continued till 3 AM.

"One BSF personnel sustained minor injuries in the firing has been provided with medical aid," said the spokesman.

The Border residents, however, shifted to the safer locations to take shelter along with the cattle.

They claimed that some of the cattle also suffered injuries in the cross-border firing.

The activists of National Bajrang Dal also staged a protest against the unprovoked firing by the Pakistan Rangers.

(With UNI inputs)
For the third consecutive Friday, the authorities disallowed the congregational prayers at Srinagars historic Jamia Masjid, the managing body of the mosque said.

Sources said the mosque in old Srinagar was closed in the downtown as authorities apprehend anti Israel and pro Palestine protests.

Anjuman Auqaf Jama (AAJ) Masjid said that Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who was recently released from house detention was placed under house arrest and barred from delivering the Friday sermon.

For the third consecutive week, Friday mandatory prayers disallowed at Jama Masjid Srinagar : AAJ. Mirwaiz again placed under house detention, barred from delivering sermon at Jama Masjid for 3rd consecutive Friday, Mirwaiz Manzil posted on X.

Police and central forces were deployed in and around the historical mosque to ensure peace in the area.

Earlier this week, several leaders and activists of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were detained or placed under house arrest to prevent them from taking out pro-Palestine protests.

(With UNI inputs)
Jyotipriya Mallick after being arrested by ED | Photo courtesy: Screenshot grab from X video of ANI

Kolkata/IBNS/UNI: Reacting sharply to the arrest of West Bengal Forest Minister Jyotipriya Mallick in connection with the alleged ration scam, state minister for Women and Child Development Shashi Panja on Friday stated that it was another "petty" attempt by the BJP to "muzzle" opposition parties raising pro-people issues.

Panja, a spokesperson of the ruling Trinamool Congress, asked why corrupt BJP leaders were never summoned by the Central Bureau of Investigation or the Enforcement Directorate.

"Another petty attempt by BJP to muzzle opposition raising pro-people issues. Why are corrupt BJP leaders, like Suvendu Adhikari, never summoned by ED & CBI? she asked.

Panja said it was clear that the BJP was scared of the people's movement launched by Trinamool National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee for getting Bengal's dues. She alleged that the weak and powerless BJP is witch-hunting leaders out of vendetta politics.

She termed as "deplorable" the BJPs tactic to "interfere and attack" the non-BJP ruling states and "misuse" central investigating teams, and said such acts will be strongly revenged by the people of Bengal in the 2024 Lok Sabha election.

She wondered why investigation by central agencies gains momentum as elections draw near and then conveniently taper off once the polls are over. (This is) because BJP is misusing Central Agencies to pursue politically-motivated witch hunts against the opposition, she added.

Panja described the weaponisation" of investigative agencies for "partisan" objectives and demanded transparency and fairness.

"The people of Bengal have seen through BJP's tactics, recognising who stands with them and who stands against them," she stated.
UNHCR is supporting Rohingya refugees living with disabilities at the refugee camp in Kutupalong, southern Bangladesh Photo Caption: UNHCR/Saikat Mojumder

More than 114 million people worldwide have been forced to flee their homes by the end of September 2023, due to conflict, persecution and human rights violations, UN refugee agency UNHCR said on Wednesday.

War in Ukraine and conflicts in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Myanmar, drought, floods and insecurity in Somalia, as well as a prolonged humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan have been the main drivers of the alarming new total.

Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, expressed his concern, stating that globally, far too many conflicts are proliferating or escalating, shattering innocent lives and uprooting people.

International failures

The international communitys inability to solve conflicts or prevent new ones is driving displacement and misery. We must look within, work together to end conflicts and allow refugees and other displaced people to return home or restart their lives, he urged.

As of June, the number of forcibly displaced individuals worldwide stood at 110 million, marking an increase of 1.6 million from the end of 2022.

Moreover, between June and the end of September, an additional four million were estimated to have been forcibly displaced, bringing the total to 114 million.

UNHCRs report does not encompass the consequences of the Israel-Palestine conflict that ignited on October 7, as it fell beyond the reports scope.

The report also revealed that low and middle-income countries bore the burden of hosting three-quarters of those in need of international protection.

We cannot give up

Despite the overwhelming challenges, High Commissioner Grandi remained resolute.

As we watch events unfold in Gaza, Sudan, and beyond, the prospect of peace and solutions for refugees and other displaced populations might feel distant. But we cannot give up. With our partners, we will keep pushing for  and finding  solutions for refugees, he said.

Global Refugee Forum

This reports release coincides with the upcoming second Global Refugee Forum, scheduled from 13 to 15 December, in Geneva.

The largest forum of its kind - focusing on refugees and forcibly displaced people - brings together governments, refugees, local authorities, international organizations, civil society, and the private sector.
Photo Courtesy: Pixabay

A South Korean court has upheld a ban on same-sex relationships in the country's military, media reports said.

LGBT activists have termed the move as a setback.

The court said same-sex relationships could harm troops' combat readiness and undermine discipline, reported BBC.

However, same-sex intercourse between civilians is not a crime in the country.

In South Korea, serving in the military is compulsory as people aged between 18 to 28 are required to serve for 20 months.

Responding to the Constitutional Court of Koreas decision to uphold for the fourth time Article 92-6 of the 61-year-old Military Criminal Act, which criminalizes consensual same-sex sexual acts in the military constitution, Amnesty Internationals East Asia Researcher Boram Jang said: "This continued endorsement for the criminalization of consensual same-sex acts within the Korean military is a distressing setback in the decades-long struggle for equality in the country. This ruling underscores the widespread prejudice experienced by LGBTI people in South Korea and the governments lack of action to prevent harm and ensure equality which is their human rights responsibility."

Article 92-6 has institutionalized discrimination, reinforced systematic disadvantages faced by LGBTI people and risked inciting or justifying violence against them, both inside the military and in everyday life. It has no place in Korean society and should be scrapped immediately," Jang said.
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 27, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attended a banquet hosted by Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili in honor of the participants of the 4th Tbilisi Silk Road Forum on October 26.

Azerbaijani Prime Minister Ali Asadov also attended the banquet.

The Prime Ministers Office said that PM Pashinyan, PM Garibashvili and PM Asadov spent several hours together during that day and discussed numerous issues.

During the dinner the three prime ministers sat around the same table. They sat around the same table before and after the dinner as well, in the reception hall of high-ranking guests. They were together for several hours during the banquet, the welcoming and farewell (other prime ministers were not present at the official banquet).

During these contacts the most various issues were discussed, including pertaining to the normalization of the relations of Armenia and Azerbaijan. The meeting was informal and unplanned.

The Armenian side finds the contact with Azerbaijans Prime Minister to be useful, in terms of clarifying nuances of the positions of the parties in at least a number of issues. The Georgian side organized all official and informal events of the Silk Road Forum on the high level, for what Prime Minister Pashinyan thanked Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, the Prime Ministers Office said.
Photo Courtesy: Ziad Taleb

Gaza/IBNS: United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini confirmed Friday the loss of 57 of its workers in the Gaza Strip amid the Israeli-Hamas conflict.

"Every day is becoming a sad day for the United Nations and UNRWA as the number of our colleagues killed increases. Today, at least 57 colleagues of mine were confirmed killed. In one day, we had confirmation that 15 were killed," Lazzarini said in a news conference.

UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO) Lynne Elizabeth Hastings said that eight humanitarian aid trucks would be sent to the Gaza Strip on Friday to deliver food, water, and medication, while fuel supply was not yet solved.

She added that 74 trucks had already arrived in the Palestinian exclave since October 21.

"In terms of the fuel, we do not have an agreement yet from the Israelis to bring fuel in," Hastings said.

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Monday that UNRWA had almost exhausted its fuel reserves in the Gaza Strip and was significantly scaling down its operations there.

(With UNI/Sputnik inputs)
In image airstrikes in Gaza/ courtesy: UNI

New Delhi/IBNS: Israel Friday night launched massive strikes across northern Gaza which according to reports were the most "intense" since the start of the war with Hamas on October 7.

Hamas said the internet service has been snapped in the Gaza Strip. As per reports, contact with Gaza is lost.

The Israeli military said it had increased its strikes on Gaza "in a very significant way".

"We will continue to strike in Gaza City and around," military spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a televised address.

According to the Hamas government, Israel has "cut communications and most of the internet" across the Gaza Strip on Friday.

The government's media office accused Israel of taking the measure "to perpetrate massacres with bloody retaliatory strikes from the air, land and sea," as heavy strikes hit northern Gaza.

Rocket warning sirens blared in several cities in Israel while the airstrikes in northern Gaza were going on.

The Israeli army accused Hamas of abusing hospitals in the Gaza Strip for military purposes.The allegation was swiftly denied by Hamas, and the main United Nations agency working in Gaza said earlier it had mechanisms in place to prevent aid being diverted.

On October 7, Palestinian movement Hamas launched a surprise large-scale rocket attack against Israel from the Gaza Strip.

Israel launched retaliatory strikes and ordered a complete blockade of the Gaza Strip, home to more than 2 million people, cutting off supplies of water, food, and fuel.

The escalation of the conflict has resulted in thousands of people being killed and injured on both sides.
Image: Wikimedia Commons

The Taiwanese armed forces have detected 35 Chinese military aircraft and 15 vessels in the vicinity of the island, Taiwan's defence ministry said on Friday.

"[As many as] 35 PLA [People's Liberation Army of China] aircraft and 15 PLAN [People's Liberation Army Navy] vessels around Taiwan were detected by 6 a.m.(UTC+8) [22:00 GMT on Thursday] today. The Taiwanese armed forces have monitored the situation and tasked CAP aircraft, Navy vessels, and land-based missile systems to respond these activities," the ministry wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

It added that 23 out of the 35 aircraft entered Taiwan's air defence identification zone, including four J-11 jets, Z-9 ASW helicopter, six J-10 and six J-16 fighter jets.

In response, Taiwan deployed air and sea patrols to monitor the situation, as well as land-based missile systems, the defence ministry said.

Taiwan has been governed independently from mainland China since 1949. Beijing regards the island as its province, while Taiwan maintains that it is an autonomous entity but stops short of declaring independence. Beijing opposes any official foreign contacts with Taipei and regards Chinese sovereignty over the island as indisputable.

The latest escalation around Taiwan took place in April after Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen met with former US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in the United States. Beijing responded by launching massive three-day military drills near the island in what it called a warning to Taiwanese separatists and foreign powers.

In August and September, the Taiwanese armed forces reported multiple sightings of Chinese naval and air patrols in the island's vicinity. On September 18, the ministry reported a record high of 103 Chinese aircraft seen near the island in one day.

(With UNI inputs)
Kangana Ranaut who never minces her words has hit back at the economist and former cabinet minister Subramanian Swamy unabashedly. As she responded to his tweet, she told him that his comments sounded like those of a pervert. Also, she proudly declared herself as a GOAT (greatest of all time) actress.

Kangana Ranaut fires back at Subramanian Swamy

AFP

Taking to Twitter, the Tejas actress wrote, "With a swimsuit picture and sleazy narrative you are suggesting that I have nothing else to offer except for my flesh to get my way in politics ha ha I am an artist arguably the greatest of all time in Hindi films, a writer, director, producer, revolutionary right-wing influencer, had there been a young male maverick instead of me who could possibly be a great future leader and deserving of guidance and mentorship would you still imply that he is probably selling his flesh to get his way in politics? Deep-rooted sexism and dormant lust for the female body make you sound like a pervert. Women are not just for sex, they have other organs as well like brain, heart, hands, feet and everything else that a man has or it takes to be a great leader So why not Mr. Subramanian?"

Twitter

She said this in response to Subramanian Swamy's tweet over her presence at Luv Kush Ramleela in Delhi. For the unversed, Swamy questioned her credibility to perform Ravan Dahan as she became the first woman ever to do so. As he challenged her integrity, he shared a photo of her in bikini.

According to SPG gossip she is a frequent flyer. Why should SPG gossip? Because of the organisation is overworked. Her being made chief guest in the Ramlila final day is the organisations conduct unbecoming of respect for Maryada Purushottam. https://t.co/NYqXePl8Pj  Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) October 26, 2023

On the occasion of Dussehra 2023, along with Kangana Ranaut, others who attended Delhi's largest Ramlila included CM Arvind Kejriwal and Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena. Kangana was also seen chanting Jai Shree Ram at the event.



Also Read: Kangana Ranaut Fails To Shoot Arrow At Ravana's Effigy, Sparks Hilarious Reactions

Taking to Instagram Kangana shared a video and wrote, "In the 50 years of history of the event, held annually at the Red Fort, this will be the first time a woman will set the effigy of Ravana on fire. Jai Shri Ram."



Meanwhile, Kangana is currently busy promoting her upcoming action film Tejas. The movie's story explores the extraordinary journey of an Air Force pilot called Tejas Gill. The movie aims to show how Indian Air Force pilots work tirelessly to defend our nation, confronting numerous challenges along the way.



Also Read: Kangana Ranaut Calls Hamas 'Modern Day Ravan' As She Meets Israel Ambassador Naor Gilon

For more news and updates from the world of celebrities from Bollywood and Hollywood, keep reading Indiatimes Entertainment.






Happy Valmiki Jayanti 2023 Wishes And Quotes: Every year, Valmiki Jayanti is celebrated on the full moon day of the Ashwin month to commemorate the birth anniversary of Maharishi Valmiki. Valmiki Jayanti is widely celebrated in northern and central India and it is popularly called Pragat Diwas. According to mythology, he was the first poet who had authored the epic Ramayana and the first-ever Sanskrit shlokas. He is also referred to as Adi Kavi.

When is Valmiki Jayanti 2023?

According to the Hindu lunar calendar, Valmiki Jayanti is celebrated on the full moon day in the month of Ashwin. This year, Valmiki Jayanti is on October 28.

Valmiki Jayanti 2023: Why Pargat Diwas Is Celebrated?



Happy Valmiki Jayanti wishes, messages, quotes and Valmiki Jayanti Status

Today, we are celebrating Valmiki Jayanti, on this day, Valmiki's followers also carry out Shobha Yatras and sing devotional songs and bhajans. We can also remember and celebrate the great poet and sage by sending wonderful Happy Valmiki Jayanti wishes, messages, quotes and Valmiki Jayanti Status to our loved ones.



Happy Valmiki Jayanti 2023: Best Wishes And Quotes To Share With Your Loved Ones | Shutterstock

Happy Valmiki Jayanti Wishes 2023 in English

1. All those who walk the path of Dharma, never go wrong in their Karma.. They earn the blessings of Shri Ram and live a happy life.. Best wishes on Maharishi Valmiki Jayanti.

2. Warm wishes on the birth anniversary of the composer of the 1st Shloka of Sanskrit. Happy Valmiki Jayanti 2020!

3. Daya ka sagar, Gyan ke strotra aur Ramayan ke srijankarta Maharishi Valmiki ki jayanti par aapko shubhkamnayein

4. Youll be able to tons of cash and gather tons of data in life however if youve got not attained love or given like to somebody then your life is of no good.. Happy Maharishi Valmiki Jayanti.

5. Shri Ram aur Maharishi Valmiki ka ashirvad sada rahe aap aur aapke parivar par bana.

6. Lord Valmikis life teaches us that ve are not born good or evil, its our deeds that determine our greatness. Happy Valmiki Jayanti

7. You may gather knowledge and money and prestige and power, but if have missed love then you have missed the real door. warm greetings on Valmiki Jayanti

8. Naman hai Maharishi Valmiki aur unki rachna Ramayan ko. Maharishi Valmiki Jayanti ki shubh kamnayein!

9. Our actions outline our character and our life. allow us to keep them good. Happy Maharishi Valmiki Jayanti!

10. On the auspicious occasion of Pargat Diwas, let us seek the blessings of Maharishi Valmiki to find the purpose of our existence and do good deeds for a beautiful tomorrow. Happy Maharishi Valmiki Jayanti!

Happy Valmiki Jayanti 2023: Best Wishes And Quotes To Share With Your Loved Ones | Shutterstock

Valmiki Jayanti 2023 Messages and Status

1. Valmiki Jayanti honours the author of the great epic Ramayana. His teachings are still relevant in modern times. Happy Maharishi Valmiki Jayanti!

2. I pray for your good health and fortune on this auspicious day. Happy Valmiki Jayanti 2023!

3. Happy Valmiki Jayanti 2023 to you and your family. May you always take the path of knowledge and righteousness.

4. May the teachings of Maharishi Valmiki guide you towards a life filled with wisdom, compassion, and righteousness. Happy Valmiki Jayanti!

5. On this auspicious day, may you find inspiration in the verses of the Ramayana and lead a life that reflects its timeless wisdom. Happy Valmiki Jayanti!

6. Wishing you a Valmiki Jayanti filled with devotion, enlightenment, and the blessings of the revered sage. Have a wonderful day!

7. May the epic story of Lord Rama, as written by Maharishi Valmiki, continue to inspire you on this Valmiki Jayanti and always. Happy celebrations!

8. As we celebrate Valmiki Jayanti, may your heart be filled with the virtues of truth, kindness, and humility. Wishing you a joyous Valmiki Jayanti 2023!

9. On this Valmiki Jayanti, let's remember the great sage's contributions to literature and his teachings of moral values. Have a blessed day!

10. May the divine blessings of Maharishi Valmiki be with you, guiding you on the path of righteousness. Happy Valmiki Jayanti 2023!

11. On this Valmiki Jayanti, may the words of the Ramayana inspire you to overcome challenges and walk the path of dharma with courage and grace.

12. Wishing you a Valmiki Jayanti filled with spiritual growth, love, and the strength to always choose the right path. Have a blessed day!

13. As we celebrate Valmiki Jayanti, let's strive to emulate the virtues of Lord Rama and lead a life of integrity and compassion. Happy Valmiki Jayanti!

14. May the light of knowledge and wisdom shine upon you on this Valmiki Jayanti, leading you to a life of purpose and fulfillment. Have a blessed day!

15. On this auspicious occasion of Valmiki Jayanti, may you be blessed with peace, happiness, and success in all your endeavors. Happy Valmiki Jayanti 2023!

16. Let the values depicted in the Ramayana be your guiding light on this Valmiki Jayanti and always. Wishing you a day filled with virtue and grace.

17. May the blessings of Maharishi Valmiki help you write your own epic of life, filled with good deeds and noble actions. Happy Valmiki Jayanti!

18. On Valmiki Jayanti, may your heart be filled with devotion, your mind with knowledge, and your life with purpose. Wishing you a spiritually fulfilling day!

Motivational Top 10 Happy Valmiki Jayanti status 2023 | Shutterstock

Top 10 Motivational Happy Valmiki Jayanti status 2023

1. "On Valmiki Jayanti, let's remember the sage who turned from a dacoit to a poet, proving that transformation is always possible. May this day inspire your own journey of self-improvement."

2. "Just as Maharishi Valmiki authored the epic Ramayana, you have the power to script your own success story. Happy Valmiki Jayanti, and may your life be an inspiring narrative of triumph."

3. "Valmiki Jayanti is a reminder that even the most unexpected individuals can become extraordinary. Believe in your potential, and let your life be a testament to your own greatness."

4. "On this Valmiki Jayanti, draw strength from Valmiki's life story. Remember, he carved his destiny through determination and divine inspiration. You too can create your path to success."

5. "May Valmiki Jayanti motivate you to overcome obstacles and transform challenges into opportunities. Embrace the spirit of resilience, and you can achieve anything."

6. "Valmiki Jayanti celebrates the power of words and wisdom. Use your words and actions to inspire and uplift others, just as Maharishi Valmiki did with the Ramayana."

7. "Like Valmiki, let your past be a stepping stone, not a stumbling block. On this Valmiki Jayanti, resolve to rewrite your story and create a brighter future."

8. "Valmiki Jayanti reminds us that every individual has the potential for greatness. Embrace your inner strength and let it shine forth as a beacon of hope and motivation."

9. "This Valmiki Jayanti, channel the wisdom and virtues of Maharishi Valmiki to lead a life of purpose and inspiration. Your journey can inspire generations to come."

10. "As we celebrate Valmiki Jayanti, remember that transformation and growth are constant. Let this day be a reminder that you have the power to evolve and reach new heights."

Happy Valmiki Jayanti 2023: Best Wishes And Quotes To Share | Freepik

Maharishi Valmikis famous quotes

1. Without danger knocking on the door of one's benefactor, where arises the chance to reciprocate?

2. It is difficult for the children to repay the debt of what the mother and the father have done to bring them up.

3. Even when you realize that the one before you is an enemy and must be treated sternly, do not hurt with words.

4. There is no deity powerful than time.

5. Overdoing anything leads to sorrow.

6. To be happy always is something which is difficult to achieve. That is to say, happiness and sorrow alternate in ones life and there cannot be uninterrupted happiness alone.

7. Whatever a man does, good or evil, comes back to him someday. And he pays for everything.

8. I want you to remember, always, that no man who sits upon a throne likes to hear another man being praised.

9. In a world where we are accustomed to rivalries over possession, authority, and borders, and people clashing over the issue, Ours or Mine, not yours it is rather strange to find two people debating whose the kingdom is not, and asserting: Yours, not mine.

10. Truth controls this world and dharma is rooted in truth.

11. A guest, though he be ill mannered, deserves to be welcomed by the discerning.

12. Only the timid and the weak leave things to destiny (daivam) but the strong and the self-confident never bank on destiny or luck (bhagya)

13. Show no disrespect even when impelled by desire or anger.

14. People are as repelled by a liar as they are of serpents.

15. If a person is gifting away his elephant but his heart is set on the rope used for tying the elephant, of what use is his attachment to the rope when he is giving away the elephant itself.

16. Once Rama gives his word, that is final and it is kept at any cost. There is no question of repetition of the same a second time.

17. One who is haughty, who does not know whether what he does is right or wrong and who has taken the wrong path is to be disciplined even if he is a guru, parent or an elder in age or learning.

Valmiki Jayanti 2023: FAQs

Q: Where is Valmiki Jayanti celebrated?

A: Valmiki Jayanti is celebrated with great enthusiasm in states, including Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, where devotees honour the sage's cultural and spiritual contributions.

Q: When is Valmiki Jayanti celebrated?

A: Valmiki Jayanti is celebrated on the full moon day of Ashwin, which usually falls in October or November.

Q: What is the significance of reciting the Ramayana on Valmiki Jayanti?

A: Reciting the Ramayana on this day is a way of paying homage to Maharishi Valmiki and his literary contributions.

Q: Are there any specific rituals associated with Valmiki Jayanti?

A: While the rituals may vary from region to region, common practices include early morning prayers and acts of charity.

Q: Can people of all religions participate in Valmiki Jayanti celebrations?

A: Yes, Valmiki Jayanti is a cultural and literary celebration, and people of all religions are welcome to participate.

Q: How can one incorporate Valmiki's teachings into their daily life?

A: One can incorporate Valmiki's teachings by embracing the values of righteousness, compassion, and selflessness in their daily actions and decisions.

For more informative articles on historical and upcoming events from around the world, please visit Indiatimes Events.


is excited to announce a partnership with ION , the iconic Greek chocolate company, celebrated for its legacy of delectable crafting chocolate treats for over 85 years. This collaboration signifies

DIS and ION Join Forces to Elevate Chocolate Industry with SFA mobile cross platform b-anywhere -  
announced a joint venture with Norwegian investors for two bulk carriers it recently acquired.In particular, the US-listed company announced a joint venture with investors represented by NRP Project

EuroDry signs agreement with Norwegian investors for two bulk carriers -  
The Police in Sapele have reportedly arrested a 26-year-old man identified as Destiny Ogheneovo, for allegedly murdering his girlfriend (Jennifer Aaron) in Sapele Local Government Area of Delta State.

Destiny was picked up few days ago at his residence in NDDC road area in Amukpe, Sapele by police detectives from Sapele Division after Jennifer Aarons relatives reported her missing.

A relative of the deceased, Ugomu, said that Jennifer, who had a two-year-old child with Destiny, parted ways with him about four months ago after their relationship turned sour.

According to him, last week Tuesday, Destiny appeared at Jennifers family home to take her away on his motorcycle.

READ ALSO: Sierra Leone Police Arrest Man Wanted For Killing Girlfriend In Nigeria

When Jennifer failed to return home that night, her worried relatives began searching for her but to no avail.

We looked for her everywhere but no one knew her whereabouts. It was later that night that someone reportedly overheard Destiny arguing loudly with Jennifer before all went quiet, Ugomu narrated.

The search party widened their search to Destinys house but found no one. That was until yesterday when Jennifers corpse was discovered dumped at the back of Destinys house.

The police spokesman for Delta State Command, DSP Edafe Bright is yet to confirm the story.

But a police source who spoke to Vanguard, said that Destiny is in the police cell in Sapele but he will soon be taken to Asaba.

He added that the cause of Jennifers death is still unclear as autopsy is yet to be conducted to ascertain if she was murdered.
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Robert Clarke, has knocked the lawyers of Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi for demonstrating what he described as unprofessionalism in challenging President Bola Tinubus victory in the 2023 election.

This is coming after the Supreme Court upheld the victory of Tinubu in the February 25 presidential poll.

Recall that the apex court had dismissed all the grounds of appeal of Atiku and the PDP on qualification, non-compliance with the Electoral Act, the 25% votes in FCT, and electoral malpractices.

Reacting to the ruling of the court, Clarke said that there was a lack of due diligence in the appeals, pointing out that the legal representation of Atiku and Obi could have been better.

INFORMATION NIGERIA reports that the legal icon made this known on Thursdays edition of Channels Televisions Politics Today.

The senior lawyer added that he would not even permit a junior member of his chamber to bring such a brief before the Supreme Court.

Where the law is not allowed to put its heads up in a proceeding, it means that there is another law which prohibits their lawyers to have brought such. They know it, they still decided, either to please their supporters and allow such a matter to come before the Supreme Court, he said.

READ MORE: Supreme Court Affirms Tinubus Election Victory

I will not allow any junior in my chambers, even one or two years old to carry such a brief to go and argue in court when I have looked into all the facts and the facts are very clear. There is a limitation of time in election matters. You cannot do certain things.

I am not saying they (Atiku, Obis lawyers) fumbled the case; what I am saying is that they have not displayed a good sense of legal practice.
The House of Representatives on Thursday called for the auctioning of police barracks across the country to tackle the deplorable living conditions of of officers of the force.

The resolution followed the adoption of a motion of urgent public importance by lawmaker Murphy Omoruyi of Edo States Labour Party during plenary.

The motion opined that the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Police Affairs to liaise with the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) to immediately assess the value of all federal-owned police barracks across the country and auction them.

The House said the move was to allow for construction of befitting accommodations for police officers, given the deplorable state of police barracks across the country.

Omoruyi recalled that the National Assembly passed the Police Reform Bill 2020 which was signed into law by former President Muhammadu Buhari on September 16, 2020.

READ ALSO: Traffic Hit Road As Tanker Falls, Spills Content On Lagos-Ibadan Expressway

He however said the problem of adequate and dignified accommodation for police officers had persisted and so far outlived all previous measures.

For example, between 2019 and 2022, over N5 billion was spent by the federal government on barracks renovations. Despite all efforts, barracks continue to fail to meet basic needs in their current state of disrepair and lack of maintenance, he said.

He argued that the barracks method of housing for police and local law enforcement officers is a relic colonial practice that has since been abandoned by the same colonialists in their home countries.

The lawmaker expressed concern that police officers and their families live in squalor quarters characterized by large cracks on the walls, bat-infested houses, leaking roofs and dilapidated structures.
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 27, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has met with Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto in Yerevan.

PM Pashinyan welcomed FM Szijjartos visit to Armenia and attached importance to the continuity of the Armenian-Hungarian dialogue and its consistent development in various directions, the Prime Ministers Office said in a readout.

The Armenian Prime Minister attached importance to steps aimed at promoting partnership in the economy, education, culture, air connection and other areas.

Peter Szijjarto thanked for the warm reception and stressed the positive dynamics recorded in bilateral relations and the importance of high-level mutual visits between Armenia and Hungary. Peter Szijjarto added that the Hungarian government intends to open a consulate in Yerevan, which will in turn contribute to the expansion of the Armenian-Hungarian relations.

PM Nikol Pashinyan discussed the forced displacement of over 100,000 Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh as a result of the Azerbaijani policy of ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh, the current humanitarian situation and the steps taken by the government of Armenia in the direction of resolving existing issues.

Other issues pertaining to the Armenia-EU relations and regional cooperation were also discussed at the meeting.
Justice Emmanuel Agim of the Supreme Court, on Thursday stated that the deposition of the Chicago State Universitys (CSU) Registrar, Caleb Westberg, was not authenticated for use in Nigeria, hence inadmissible in court.

Information Nigeria had earlier reported that the Court dismissed the application for leave to file fresh evidence against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu by Atiku Abubakar, 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Abubakar had secured an order from the United States Court for the Northern District of Illinois, directing the release of Tinubus academic credentials.

The PDP and Atiku alleged that Tinubu submitted forged academic credentials to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to enable him to contest the election.

However, the court held that it lacked jurisdiction to entertain an issue that was not presented during the election petition tribunal proceedings.

The court also dismissed the entire petition seeking to overturn the verdict of the tribunal which affirmed Tinubus election.

Agreeing with the lead judgement delivered by Justice Inyang Okoro, Agim said there was nothing authenticating the documents obtained by the appellants.

The deposition for this additional evidence is inadmissible.

If a document is inadmissible, you cannot ask that you should be allowed to bring it in as fresh evidence.

A reading of the deposition exposes that it is not authenticated by the seal of the authority before whom it was issued.

READ ALSO: Its Time To Build Nigeria Together  Tinubu To Atiku, Obi On Supreme Court Victory

A deposition from another country to be used in Nigeria should prima facie, give features of authentication such as the official seal of the court where it is sworn or if it is before a notary public, a seal or signature, the justice said.

According to him, if it is sworn in the Nigerian Embassy, High Commission or Consulate in that country, the signature of the officer authorised to do so and the seal must be seen.

Such authentication is an assurance of the origin and authenticity of the foreign deposition.

In our present case, the certified shorthand reporter before whom the deposition was made did not authenticate the deposition with her seal.

She merely signed a certificate of report bearing her name and number. Being a deposition from another country, it cannot be used in Nigeria without authentication. The authentication of the oath administration is mandatory, Agim added.

Agim also expressed concerns as to why the deposition was made in the law office of Abubakars lawyer instead of the court which gave the order.

Ive wondered why the deposition made was not made before the court.

And if made elsewhere in the law office of the first appellants attorney why was it not filed in the above-mentioned court because of the peculiar circumstances of this case and adopted as the deposition ordered to be made by the court so that it can form part of the record of the court, he queried.

Agim also faulted the appellants for failing to secure a letter from CSU disclaiming the records Tinubu forwarded to INEC.

I have continued to wonder why the appellant did not use the advantage of the order of the district court that the college produce documents and deposition concerning those certificates.

Why they didnt use that advantage to secure a letter from the college under its letterhead, seal and signature disclaiming the certificate presented by the second respondent to INEC as not one issued by the college?

Instead, they resorted to this deposition which has no features of authentication, thereby rendering it spurious and inadmissible.
Gunmen on Thursday reportedly attacked police operatives on stop-and-search operation along Umuode/Isiahia in Osisioma Ngwa local government area of Abia State.

According to sources who spoke to Vanguard, the incident which happened around 4pm, threw Umuode community into panic as over possible police invasion of the community.

READ ALSO: Gunmen In Military Uniform Tried To Kill Gov Bello  Kogi Govt

One of the operatives was beheaded by the gunmen, while other members of the team were said to have run to safety with their ammunition. The gunmen made away with the policemans head, abandoning the other parts of the body in the car.

The gunmen reportedly trailed the police team, which has been operating in the community recently.

It was learnt that the team was attached to the Eziama Police Division, raising questions over the legality of their operation in the community considering that the area is not under their jurisdiction.

Recall that an Assistant Superintendent of Police was few months beheaded along East Street in Aba South local government area by some gunmen.
The Supreme Court says that the non-functioning of the Result Viewing (IReV) portal of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) may reduce the confidence of the voting public in the electoral process.

Recall that Atiku and his Labour Party (LP)s counterpart, Peter Obi, challenged the victory of the then candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), President Bola Tinubu, in the February 25, 2023 poll up to the apex court.

The two opposition parties said that they were not satisfied with the verdict of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) earlier in September, Atiku and Obi approached the Supreme Court seeking the nullification of Tinubus election on the grounds of double nomination, alleged certificate forgery, non-transmission of results electronically, 25% votes in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), amongst others.

However, on Thursday, the apex court threw out all the appeals for lacking merit.

READ MORE: Supreme Court Affirms Tinubus Election Victory

Truth must be told, the non-functioning of the IReV may also reduce confidence of the voting public in the electoral process, Justice John Okoro said on Thursday while delivering the lead judgment in the appeal by the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar.

He said by Section 135 (1) of the Electoral Act 2022, the election shall not be liable to be invalidated by reason of non-compliance of electronic transmission of results.

From the provisions of the Act stated above, it is crystal clear that the petitioner (Atiku) seeking to nullify the election on the grounds of non-compliance must not only lead evidence to prove the non-compliance but most also show to the court how the non-compliance substantially affect the outcome of the election.

The appellants abandoned the duties imposed on them to lead credible evidence to prove non-compliance but relied solely on the failure of the first respondent (INEC) to transmit results real-time to the IReV portal, the justice said.

He said by Section 135 (1) of the Electoral Act 2022, the election shall not be liable to be invalidated by reason of non-compliance of electronic transmission of results.

From the provisions of the Act stated above, it is crystal clear that the petitioner (Atiku) seeking to nullify the election on the grounds of non-compliance must not only lead evidence to prove the non-compliance but most also show to the court how the non-compliance substantially affect the outcome of the election.

The appellants abandoned the duties imposed on them to lead credible evidence to prove non-compliance but relied solely on the failure of the first respondent (INEC) to transmit results real-time to the IReV portal, the justice said.
The apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, has urged Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi to accept the Supreme courts decision in the interest of the countrys unity.

Recall that the court dismissed the petitions brought before it by Atiku and Obi on the ground that they lacked merit.

However, Ohanaeze, in a statement issued on Thursday evening through its Secretary General, Okechukwu Isiguzoro, admonished the two presidential candidates to accept the courts ruling and congratulate the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate.

The Igbo group said that the courts verdict was in the interest of the countrys unity and that the candidate of Peoples Democratic Party and his counterpart should give their maximum support and encouragement to the current effort of the President Tinubu-led administration to raise the bar of governance in the country through the implementation of impactful economic policies.

The group commended the jurists for their diligent examination and fair judgment in the post-election lawsuits.

READ MORE: Supreme Court Affirms Tinubus Election Victory

The statement reads: The verdict reinforces the credibility and integrity of our democratic institutions and, as well, highlights the importance of upholding the rule of law and the will of the people.

In light of this outcome, Ohanaeze Ndigbo calls upon the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and Mr Peter Obi of the LP to emulate the historic gesture of former President Goodluck Jonathan, who congratulated and supported the immediate past Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari, after the 2015 election.

We urge them to reach out to their main political opponent in the 2023 election, President Tinubu, and extend their congratulations on his victory in the Supreme Court.

This gesture of sportsmanship and magnanimity is crucial in fostering unity, healing divisions, and setting a positive example for their supporters.The apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, has urged Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi to accept the Supreme courts decision in the interest of the countrys unity.
The Plateau State Police Command on Thursday paraded an 80-year-old man, identified as Peter Ashom, for allegedly attempting to defile an 11-year-old girl in Jos.

Parading the suspects alongside 38 others for different crimes ranging from culpable homicide, armed robbery, among others, Commissioner of Police, CP Okoro Alawari, said the Command has succeeded in putting an end to the activities of some criminal minded individuals.

Alawari said, On the 9th October, 2023, we received information that one Peter Ashom, an 80 year old man, lured an eleven year old girl into his room and attempted to have carnal knowledge of her under the pretense of sending her on errands anytime she goes to sell groundnuts.

He threatened to kill her if she told anyone.

The case is still under investigation and will be charged to court upon completion of the investigation.

READ ALSO: Police Arrest 63-Year-Old For Defiling 2 Minors In Plateau Community

He added, On 13th October, 2023, at about 09:00 hours, the Anti-Kidnapping Unit, Jos, received a phone call that one Dawon Pam, five years old, is missing and that all search throughout the night proved abortive.

But in the morning of 14th October, 2023, at about 05:40 hours, a pair of shoes belonging to the victim was found close to a handwritten note stating that if the father wants his child, he should give N5 million and that he should not call them but he should send a text message through a phone number. The below GSM phone number was attached: 08186135490.

Upon receipt of the report, a team of Police operatives led by SP Okala Ugbede swung into action and was able to trace the kidnappers on 23rd October, 2023, and arrested one of the culprits, Elijah Anthony, aged 17 years, of same address.

Upon interrogation, he admitted and confessed to have conspired with one aka Malic of no fixed address and kidnapped the victim from his fathers compound to an uncompleted building in the community where they kept him and tied his mouth with elastic dural cloth to stop him from shouting.

He also confessed that after collecting the sum of N400,000 from the victims parents, his accomplice, the said Malic who is now at large, strangled the victim, while he held his hands and legs.

Thereafter, they took the body and dumped it in a swampy place close to the uncompleted building.

Based on the confession, a team of operatives visited the scene, the corpse was recovered and taken to the Plateau State Specialist Hospital for confirmation and necessary action after which it was released to the parents for burial.

Investigation is still ongoing with a view to arresting the fleeing suspect and any other accomplice, he assured.

Also paraded were two women suspected to be cannabis dealers.

According to the CP, On 25th October, 2023, at about 05:30 hours, SWAT operatives of the Command led by the DPO Bokkos Division, raided the residential premises of one Gabriel Dare of Kungul village, Richa District, Bokkos where the following suspects, one Mary Gabriel and one Briskilla Dare both of same address were arrested.

The following items were found in their possession; seven 750kg bags containing dry leaves suspected to be cannabis, and three dane guns.

The suspects were immediately arrested and taken to the Police station.

He added that investigation is still ongoing.

Alawari said the 39 suspects paraded for the aforementioned crimes were all arrested in October.
The Supreme Court on Thursday warned legal practitioners as well as Nigerians against media trial on matters before the courts.

Justice Inyang Okoro issued the warning while delivering the lead judgment on appeals seeking to overturn the election of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Atiku Abubakar, 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party and his Labour Party counterpart, Peter Obi, had appealed the judgment of the tribunal at the apex court.

Okoro, while delivering the verdict condemned the trend of litigants holding press conferences, analysing the case and reaching a conclusion.

He added that this has led to some of their followers sending threatening messages to judges and justices.

READ ALSO: IPOB: Court Orders FG, Southeast Govs To Apologize, Pay Nnamdi Kanu N8bn

The justice warned that litigants must desist from media trial, adding that a word is enough for the wise.

Litigants are advised to trust the court whenever their matters are before it.

It is very unbecoming these days that while a matter is pending in court, litigants engage in press conferences, analysing the case and reaching a conclusion.

Based on these, some of their followers send threatening messages to judges and justices. Matters in court are said to be subjudice, and parties and their counsels must refrain from media trial and judgment.

Need not say more on this, and a word is enough for the wise. This issue has nothing positive to offer the appellants, he said.

Recall that the Court dismissed Abubakar and Obis appeals and upheld the emergence of Tinubu as President as declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The House of Representatives on Thursday resolved to investigate the alleged persistent loss of firearms by the Nigeria Police Force from 2021 to 2022.

The lower legislative chamber passed the resolution during the plenary session on after the adoption of a motion sponsored by Idris Salman, an African Democratic Congress member representing Kabba-Bunu/Ijumu federal constituency of Kogi State.

While moving the motion, the lawmaker referenced the 2019 report of the office of the Auditor-General of the Federation (AuGF) that revealed missing 178,459 firearms from the police armoury.

According to the legislator, the police have lost sufficient firearms enough to arm four full-size infantry divisions.

READ ALSO: Police Arrest 80-Year-Old Man For Attempting To Defile Minor In Jos

He alleged that the police did not report the missing firearms which amounts to a violation of provisions of the financial regulations which make it mandatory that such losses be reported.

The legislator said a 2022 report stated that most weapons recovered from bandits in some states belong to security agencies.

Nigeria polices underperformance may be due to the constant loss of firearms and ammunition in the police armament which requires urgent legislative intervention to ensure the safety of officers.

Aside from the established reality of illegal importation of arms, it is horrifying to realise that the guns and bullets deployed by terrorists, armed robbers and thugs against Nigerians may have been stolen weapons from the armoury that were bought with taxpayers money, Salman said.

The motion was adopted when it was put to a voice vote by Tajudeen Abbas, speaker of the house.
The Labour Party (LP) has rejected the judgement of the Supreme Court affirming the victory of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu

In a unanimous decision on Thursday, the seven-member panel of the apex court dismissed the petitions of Peter Obi of the LP and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) challenging Tinubus victory in the February 25 election.

Reacting to the verdict, Julius Abure, LPs National Chairman, called on the international community to rise and defend democracy in Nigeria.

Abure also described the judgement as shocking and surprising.

The leadership of Labour Party watched as the sacred fabric of justice and good conscience was shredded today at the Supreme Court as it delivered its verdict in the case between our party, the Presidential candidate and the APC presidential candidate.

We are indeed very shocked and surprised that even the apex Court will toe the line of an earlier judgement in spite of all the flaws associated with the judgement delivered by the Presidential Election Appeal Tribunal.

Having conclusively exercised our fundamental rights as gifted to us by the laws of the land, we have no other choice but to move on.

We may be disappointed and dismayed by the outcome of the exercise, but we have chosen to trudge on and to remain optimistic of what the future holds for the nation.

However, there are great lessons to be learnt. What transpired in Nigeria since the February 25 presidential election is a clear testament that our institutions are not working and that we may be sliding towards dictatorship.

READ ALSO: Supreme Court Affirms Tinubus Election Victory

It is very clear that the executive has hijacked both the judiciary and the legislature.

This is so unfortunate for our democracy, and it is even more for the people of Nigeria.

All what our forbearers taught us has been destroyed within a short space of time because of the unbridled ambition of a few.

The founding fathers fought with their lives to achieve independence for the country. People lost their lives for the struggle to keep our democracy and all these years people have been struggling to achieve electoral and constitutional reforms.

Regrettably, all of these efforts and struggles have been destroyed today.

We are also calling on the International community to rise to the occasion to defend democracy in Nigeria.

Your voices were loud and clear in condemnation of the outcome of the presidential election.

As we approach the next stage of our democratic journey, we call on you to stand by the millions of Nigerians who are already pushed beyond their limits into unnecessary hardship and penury.

Abure further urged Nigerians not to lose hope, adding that a new Nigeria is still possible.
Former President Muhammadu Buhari has lauded the Supreme Court for its verdict on the appeals of Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi even as he urged the opposition to take a break.

Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party and his Labour Party counterpart, Obi, had sought to overturn the judgment of the petitions tribunal which affirmed Bola Ahmed Tinubu as President.

Both candidates had challenged Tinubus eligibility to contest the election, the failure of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to transmit election results electronically, double nomination, a drug forfeiture case in the United States, the Presidents academic records, among many other issues.

But the Court in its unanimous verdict dismissed the petitions, saying they lacked merit.

Reacting, Garba Shehu, Buharis spokesperson, said the former President described the ruling as a welcome relief to him and to a majority of the citizens of Nigeria.

READ ALSO: Wait For Your Turn  Protesters Storm Supreme Court, Mock Obi, Atiku (Photos)

According to Buhari, the judgement is a reaffirmation of the will of the majority of the people against the determined will of a hard-fighting minority.

Now that we have arrived at the last bus-stop, after a tortuous 8-months of expensive legal journey, the nation deserves a break.

The opposition has fought a good fight. Having now exhausted their rights as constitutionally allowed, they should take the hand of fellowship extended by the Tinubu/Shettima government.

Let them allow the government to run their administration and the people to enjoy the full benefits of the promises the All Progressives Congress (APC) made, the statement read.

The former president however wished President Tinubu and his team a successful term in office.
The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike, has pledged to mobilize electoral support for President Bola Tinubu in the next election

Wike stated that those who scored 2,000 in the 2023 elections would score next to nothing in 2027.

Wike made this known on Thursday, in Abuja, during a visit by the Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), led by the National Vice Chairman, South-South, Victor Giadom.

The former governor stated that he has no regret supporting Tinubu against the presidential candidate of his party, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the last presidential election.

Wike said: Let me say clearly and to the hearing of everyone, we owe a duty to continue to support Mr President, irrespective of the political party we belong.

READ MORE: Supreme Court Affirms Tinubus Election Victory

My position is not hidden. I owe nobody no apologies that I stand firm with Tinubu. I stand for equity, fairness and justice.

I thank God today that the battle has ended to the glory of God. We are all members of the Nigerian state and therefore it is important for all of us to also understand that the Nigerian state does not belong to a particular person or group.

A country of this nature, if A takes, the next opportunity should go to B. Inclusivity. So, I am not going to discriminate against anyone. I am here for Nigerians. I am here for those who are members of political parties and those who are not members of any political party.

Mr. President, having emerged, is not the President of APC. He is the President of Nigeria. Of course, while he is governing Nigeria, he must also take care of the interests of his political party, no one can argue that. It is natural.

But when it comes to governance, Nigerians must benefit.

The interest of Rivers State is key. What will benefit our state is what we must always project. I am not a member of the APC but I believe that the support for Asiwaju was necessary.

Looking at all the candidates from the South, I knew that nobody could defeat Asiwaju. The capacity and political will to take action; he has it.

Most of you worked for Asiwaju. Those who didnt work for Asiwaju we know. It was not hidden. It was clear.

I am not a politician for self. I am a politician for all. Not me, me, me. Nobody does that. Any person who does that does not want to survive because, at the end of the day, you need people.

But be assured that all of us are working together for President Bola Tinubu.

I am sure in the next election, those who scored 2,000 would not get 50 votes again because we have nothing to give anybody again because our votes would go for President Bola Tinubu, he assured.
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 27, ARMENPRESS. Patriarchal delegates and leaders of the dioceses of the Armenian Apostolic Church in European countries, Archbishop Khazhak Parsamyan, Bishop Tatev Hakobyan, Bishop Serovbe Isakhanyan and Bishop Tiran Petrosyan held a meeting with OSCE Secretary General Helga Schmid on October 25 in Vienna, the press service of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin informed.

During the meeting, representatives of the Armenian Apostolic Church conveyed to Ms. Schmid the blessings and best wishes of His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, as well as presented the works carried out by the Armenian Church aimed at establishing regional peace, taking care of the needs and protection of the rights of forcibly displaced Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as the preservation of historical, cultural and religious heritage.

The Holy Fathers emphasized that although the European Parliament has condemned the terrible crimes committed by the Azerbaijani authorities against the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, and a number of countries have adopted resolutions condemning the genocidal actions of Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan still ignores the calls and decisions of the international community.

They called upon international sanctions against Azerbaijan for the genocidal policy adopted by the Baku authorities and the ethnic cleansing carried out against the Artsakh Armenians.

Such an attitude of Azerbaijan should be a reason for the European Union to re-evaluate its relations towards the latter. It should undertake a thorough investigation of war crimes, as well as to create international guarantees to ensure the return of displaced Artsakh Armenians to their historical homeland.

Ms. Schmid assured that the OSCE and she personally will do everything possible to contribute to the establishment of lasting peace in the region. She emphasized that the right of return for the people of Nagorno-Karabakh and their safe life in their homeland should be taken into account.

The Secretary-General also pledged that the OSCE will continue to support the humanitarian and psychological needs of the displaced persons.

At the end of the meeting, the Holy Fathers, on behalf of all the leaders of the Armenian Church in Europe, handed a letter to Mrs. Schmid in which the main points of their discussion were summarized.
The National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdullahi Ganduje, has called on the presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party and Labour Party, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi to put aside their differences and collaborate with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

The former Kano State Governor averred that fulfilling their political aspirations will only be possible upon completion of Tinubus tenure in 2031.

He noted this while commending the Supreme Courts decision to uphold Tinubus election victory.

In a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Edwin Olofu, on Thursday, Ganduje stated that the judgment conclusively dismissed all allegations from opposition parties claiming that the presidential election results were manipulated in the Presidents favor.

Ganduje furthered that the Supreme Courts verdict will enable President Tinubu to focus on implementing the APCs Renewed Hope mandate for the betterment of Nigerians.

READ ALSO: I Caught Immigration Officer Watching BBNaija Instead Of Attending To Foreigners On Queue  Interior Minister

Nigeria belongs to all of us, it is our responsibility as patriots to pool our resources together to move the country forward. I congratulate both Atiku and Obi for their dogged fight in extending the frontiers of our democracy and law.

This is democracy. Tinubus victory is another victory for democratic rule in the country. There is still room for both Obi and Atiku to actualize their presidential aspiration after the second term tenure of President Tinubu in 2031, he noted.

He also called on Nigerians irrespective of their political leanings to rally around the President to ensure that he delivers more dividends of democracy and moves the country on the path of sustainable growth.
File photo of the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown on Nov. 10, 2020. Read more

A man and woman have been charged in the July overdose death of the womans 6-year-old son at their home in Norristown, the Montgomery County District Attorneys Office announced Friday.

Kristen Sabatino, 31, was arrested Friday at a hotel in Lancaster and was being transferred to the Montgomery County Correctional Facility, prosecutors said.

Matthew Santiago, 35, was arrested Wednesday and was being held on $1 million cash bail, prosecutors said.

On July 16, Norristown police responded to a report of an unconscious boy who was not breathing on the 1000 block of Willow Street. Police found Dominic Lyons dead in his second-floor bedroom. The couple also are parents of a 2-year-old daughter but she was staying with relatives at the time.

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The Montgomery County Coroners Office performed an autopsy the next day, but needed blood tests to determine the cause of death. The test results later revealed the boy had high levels of fentanyl and xylazine, which is a veterinary sedative known on the street as tranq. The manner of death was ruled a homicide.

Investigators found that Sabatino and Santiago had an alleged history of drug use and had purchased and consumed illegal drugs in the days leading up to the death of the boy.

According to the criminal complaints filed in the case, text messages found on both their phones show the couple allegedly talking about buying and using drugs right before Dominics death, then talking after the childs death about whether their personal drug use would be revealed in testing conducted by a caseworker from the Montgomery County Office of Children and Youth.

Sabatino and Santiago were each charged with involuntary manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child, both felonies.

In the criminal complaints for Sabatino and Santiago, investigators mentioned two earlier drug-overdose episodes involving Sabatino.

In 2017 in Upper Providence Township, Sabatino overdosed on heroin and was found unresponsive with her head lying on the chest of then-5-month-old Dominic. Sabatino was revived with nalaxone, the opioid overdose reversal medication. She pleaded guilty to felony endangering the welfare of a child and was sentenced to seven years probation.

Last year, Sabatino was involved in a vehicle accident and was found unresponsive in the drivers seat with her then-13-month-old daughter in a child seat.

Sabatino, who overdosed on oxycodone, was revived with nalaxone and was later charged with multiple offenses, including driving under the influence and felony endangering the welfare of a child. That case remains pending, though it was not clear on Friday whether the charge of endangering the welfare of a child was still part of the case or had been dismissed.

In the criminal complaints for Dominics death, investigators wrote: Again, the Montgomery County Office of Children and Youth were involved with Kristen Sabatino and Matthew Santiago because of this [2022] incident.

A spokesperson for the Office of Children and Youth could not be reached for comment late Friday afternoon.
John McNesby, the longtime president of the Philadelphia police officers union, will be departing his post next month to take another job.

McNesby, who has led the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 since 2007, said in a statement Friday that he will leave the union on Nov. 10 to take a new position with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He did not elaborate, and, through a spokesperson, declined to be interviewed.

McNesby has for years been a prominent and controversial local figure  an unapologetic promoter and defender of police officers, including some mired in scandal; a bruising labor leader who has secured consistent raises and other benefits for the rank-and-file; and a pugnacious public presence whose often inflammatory comments have at times been criticized as insensitive, tone deaf, or even racist.

He helped build the FOP  which represents more than 13,000 active and retired officers  into a local political player, issuing endorsements in contests ranging from Philadelphia mayor to Pennsylvanias Senate race, sometimes with mixed success.

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He has sparred with a dizzying array of police critics, including city officials, journalists, protesters, a former Eagles safety and even, at one point, Di Bruno Bros. specialty food stores.

And in recent years, he has become perhaps the most prolific public critic of District Attorney Larry Krasner, the citys reform-oriented prosecutor. Krasner, for his part, has been quick to blast McNesby as out-of-touch and an obstacle to improving policing in the city, and he has frequently sought to associate McNesby with former President Donald Trump, whom McNesby met with several times while Trump was in office.

McNesby, 57, of Byberry, became a police officer in 1989, and was an academy classmate of former Commissioner Richard Ross. While on the force, McNesby spent much of his career in narcotics, and was elected to lead the local FOP in 2007.

He has remained in that post ever since, typically winning reelection by wide margins. Hes helped oversee contract negotiations that have raised officers salaries and loosened the residency requirement, allowing those with five years on the job to move outside the city.

McNesby has often drawn plaudits from his membership for publicly defending officers accused of wrongdoing, and, in recent years, for being outspoken in his disdain for Krasner (his union has taken out billboards and hired planes to fly banners at the Jersey Shore targeting the DA). And he is frequently at the side of relatives of police officers killed in the line of duty, often for years afterward.

Maureen Faulkner, the widow of slain Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner, who was fatally shot by Mumia Abu-Jamal in 1981, said in an interview Friday that McNesby has provided unwavering support during the years shes spent returning to court to monitor the status of Abu-Jamals long-running appeals.

I think no one understands, when you are the president of the Fraternal Order of Police, all the time and effort you have to put into taking care of people, Faulkner said.

Just this month, after Officer Richard Mendez was fatally shot at the airport, the FOP collected donations for a reward fund that offered nearly $300,000 for information leading to the arrest of any suspects  more than 10 times the typical reward offered by the city in other homicide investigations.

Still, his unions strident defense of police has also drawn criticism.

Police commissioners and community members alike have long lamented that the FOP, using a state-mandated arbitration system, has frequently been able to overturn or reduce discipline for officers accused of a range of misdeeds, including using excessive force, violating citizens rights, or committing domestic violence.

Jane Roh, a spokesperson for Krasner, said in a statement Friday: Only a rogue few are disdainful of the publics expectation of accountability and integrity  which has been the posture of FOP leadership under John McNesby for too long. The FOP has said it is simply using the grievance system to ensure its officers are given due process.

Last year, the union came under fire again after an Inquirer investigation showed that hundreds of officers were out on paid leave for extended periods of time while saying they were too hurt to work  a program that was enabled in part due to diagnoses from questionable, union-selected doctors. McNesby later acknowledged that some officers may have been improperly collecting the benefit.

And at various points over the years, the FOP has sued to try and prevent new initiatives by other city agencies, including the DAs development of a list of officers with potential credibility concerns, and City Councils passage of a law that sought to address racial disparities in traffic stops by banning stops for some minor infractions. Both suits were unsuccessful.

Beyond the actions of his union, McNesby has been criticized for his incendiary rhetoric. In 2017, for example, after a group of protesters  some of them affiliated with Black Lives Matter  gathered outside the home of an officer who had fatally shot a Black man in the back, McNesby called the demonstrators a pack of rabid animals. The remark was widely denounced as racist; McNesby said he was not making a racial comment.

And in 2020, he was criticized after initially failing to forcefully condemn members of the alt-right Proud Boys group, who had been seen mingling with officers outside the FOPs Northeast Philadelphia headquarters following a visit from then-Vice President Mike Pence. McNesby later issued a more critical statement.

The FOPs board will meet next week to elect McNesbys successor, according to the statement announcing his departure.

The Rev. Mark Kelly Tyler, pastor of Mother Bethel AME Church and an advocate for police reform, said Friday that he believed McNesby was polarizing in ways that have not been helpful, and that the FOP under his leadership was the impediment to police reform in the city.

He said he hopes whoever takes over is willing to listen to community input  and, at times, criticism  and recognize that it is possible to do so while continuing to advocate effectively for FOP members.

Public safety needs everyone at the table  nobody benefits from a city thats not safe, Tyler said. It would be much healthier for all of us if we had a sense of common ground.
Crime scene officers and detectives gather evidence at the fatal shooting of a SEPTA bus driver on Thursday morning. Read more

A 21-year-old Belmont woman who police say shot and killed a SEPTA bus driver in Germantown on Thursday morning is now facing a murder charge.

Zhontay Capers, of the 4300 block of Reno Street, was charged with murder and related crimes overnight in connection withthe fatal shooting of Bernard N. Gribbin, 48, a Route 23 SEPTA bus driver, said Interim First Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore.

Just before 10:30 a.m. Thursday, police said, Capers shot Gribbin six times, near Germantown and Abbotsford Avenues. Police found Gribbin in the drivers seat of the bus with gunshot wounds to his torso and throat and took him to Einstein Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead just minutes later, at 10:36 a.m.

Gribbin, of Abington, had been a SEPTA employee for 12 years, the transit authority said.

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Early indications were that the shooter may have shot Gribbin after a dispute, Vanore said. But SEPTA Transit Police Chief Charles Lawson said bus security footage did not appear to show any substantive interaction between the shooter and the driver.

Literally, it occurs without apparent rhyme or reason. ... For some unknown reason, she began firing as she was exiting the bus. The woman then reboarded, fired, and left the bus, said Lawson.

In surveillance video, Capers is seen holding a gun at the front of the bus moments before she shot Gribbin, the Philadelphia District Attorneys Office said in a statement Friday.

The motive for the shooting is unclear, said Vanore. No weapon was recovered and no other injuries were reported.

The fatal shooting came amid contract negotiations between SEPTA and Transport Workers Union Local 234, which represents the authoritys bus, trolley, and subway operators. One of the central issues at play in negotiations was safety.

TWU Local 234 had been demanding more law enforcement to combat a rising number of assaults on its members, and better protection for the public from crime and antisocial behavior on the transit system.

A strike was averted Friday, after SEPTA and the union reached a tentative agreement on a one-year contract.
Frankford High School is closed to in-person learning because of damaged asbestos. Students are temporarily learning in two different locations; it's not known whether the main building will be gutted and rebuilt, or torn down and rebuilt. Read more

Damaged asbestos closed another school Friday, the seventh Philadelphia School District building forced to shut since March.

After officials revealed that they had known about damaged asbestos at one school  Building 21  for years but did nothing about it, they warned: More asbestos-related closures are coming.

Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. in March said that in the coming weeks and months, we anticipate more damaged asbestos will be identified. The superintendent said this was an indication of better safeguards.

The districts top environmental official later said that the school system is still behind on asbestos compliance, and did not have the resources or staffing needed to address all of its asbestos issues.

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Heres a list of all the schools closed by asbestos since the 2022-23 school year:

Building 21

Closed in March 2023 and remained shut for about two months

Students learned virtually after district officials ordered them to relocate to Strawberry Mansion High, a plan that was met with rancor and fears from Building 21 families worried about their childrens safety.

The school, housed inside the old Ferguson Elementary, sits on Limekiln Pike in West Oak Lane. It was built in 1922.

Frankford High

Closed in April 2023, with students learning virtually for three months

Frankford will remain closed at least through the 2023-24 school year; its not yet clear whether the building will need to be gutted and rebuilt, or completely torn down.

Frankford students are now learning in person at two separate locations: ninth graders at Roberto Clemente Middle School, on West Erie Avenue in North Philadelphia; 10th through 12th graders in the Frankford annex, adjacent to the main building but unaffected by the asbestos issues.

Frankford, at 5000 Oxford Ave., was built in 1914. It educates 900 students in grades 9-12.

C.W. Henry Elementary

Closed in April 2023 for two weeks

Henry, at 601 Carpenter Lane in Mount Airy, educates 500 students in grades K-8. The building was constructed in 1908.

Mastery Simon Gratz High School

Closed for more than a week in March 2023

The neighborhood charter school operates in a district building run by Mastery Schools. Gratz, on West Hunting Park Avenue in Nicetown, educates 1,100 students in grades 9-12. The building was erected in 1927.

Mitchell Elementary

Closed in April 2023 through the end of the 2022-23 school year

Students learned virtually for about a month, then temporarily relocated to Morton McMichael Elementary in West Philadelphia. Extensive abatement and repairs were conducted, and students and staff are now back inside the 1915 school.

Southwark Elementary

Closed Friday for several weeks, according to a letter from the schools principal

Students will temporarily shift to in-person learning in two locations  most students will learn at South Philadelphia High, and some students will relocate to Childs Elementary.

Southwark, at 1835 S. Ninth St., educates about 900 students in grades K-8, and also has a pre-K program. The school was built in 1909.

Universal Vare

Closed April 2023 and will remain shut for the entire 2023-24 school year

The neighborhood charter school is run by Universal Companies Inc. but operates in a district building.

Vare students have temporarily relocated to the McDaniel Annex Building at 1901 S. 23rd St. (That building is separate from the Delaplaine McDaniel School, a district school at 1801 S. 22nd St.) Vare, at 2100 S. 24th Street, was built in 1924.
Pennsylvania State University this week indefinitely suspended one of its fraternities for widespread and pervasive hazing over several years, the school said in a press release.

The Psi chapter of the Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity cant request to have the suspension lifted before fall of 2028, the university said Wednesday. The fraternity previously got in trouble for hazing in 2018.

Its the second suspension for hazing that Penn State handed out to a fraternity this month. Earlier, the university announced that the Delta Theta chapter of the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity would be suspended through fall 2027, also for hazing.

 READ MORE: Hulu series planned on death of Penn State fraternity pledge Tim Piazza

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The university did not provide details on what the hazing entailed.

We hold the health and safety of students as our highest priority and take all allegations of hazing seriously, Andrea Dowhower, interim vice president for student affairs, said in announcing the Delta Theta suspension Oct. 3. It is disappointing and concerning when, despite the legal obligations and educational efforts, groups violate our expectations.

Penn State several years ago instituted widespread reforms following the 2017 death of student Tim Piazza following a booze-fueled fraternity party. Piazza was a sophomore engineering major from Lebanon, N.J., when he began to pledge the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. He died after falling down stairs during a pledge-night party that included a drinking gauntlet as part of a hazing ritual. Piazza languished on a couch for nearly 12 hours before anyone called for help.

 READ MORE: Penn State frat death raises questions for grieving parents

Dozens of fraternity members were charged in connection with his death, which also led to lawsuits. More than 20 Beta Theta Pi members entered pleas to charges including hazing, conspiracy to commit hazing, and furnishing alcohol to minors.

The case drew national attention as video surveillance from the fraternity house on the night Piazza was fatally injured was played in court, showing Piazza and others moving through and chugging alcohol.

After Piazzas death, Penn State cracked down on Greek life including greater monitoring and a public scorecard on performance. The university also opened the Timothy J. Piazza Center for Fraternity and Sorority Research and Reform and new anti-hazing laws were passed. Piazzas parents, Jim and Evelyn, have joined parents nationwide to push for changes.

Last October, former WarnerMedia and NBC executive Robert Greenblatt said he was working on a television series about the case, called Death at Penn State, which would air on Hulu.

Penn State is today home to 40 fraternities and 29 sororities. Last academic year, one fraternity, Delta Sigma Iota, was suspended during the fall 2022 semester for hazing, alcohol and/or drug, and other university policy violations, a university spokesperson said.

A suspension means that the chapter is no longer recognized as a student organization and has no privileges. It may not be involved in any university activities or events.
Samiran Mukherjee is a chief fellow in gastroenterology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Read more

Artificial Intelligence is already forging a path in healthcare: Robocalls and texts now remind you of upcoming appointments, virtual nursing assistants submit requests for insurance pre-authorization, and bills are automatically generated.

But can patients depend on sites like ChatGPT and Google Bard for medical advice? Thats what Samiran Mukherjee, chief fellow in gastroenterology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, wanted to find out.

In February 2023, about three months after ChatGPTs launch, he was part of a team that tested whether ChatGPT was an effective tool for providing medical information. The group, led by Michael L. Kochman, a gastroenterology professor, published their results in the medical journal Gastro Hep Advances in July.

The Inquirer spoke with Mukherjee about the potential ways AI can benefit healthcare professionals and patients.

How can AI be an effective educational tool?

ChatGPT has a wealth of data, so vast that its ability to have answers which mimic human conversation is astounding, Mukherjee said.

We wanted to see how lifelike the answers were and if they were accurate, he said.

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 READ MORE: Artificial intelligence may influence whether you can get pain medication

Their questions about colonoscopies got mixed results. The answers were easy to understand and seemed like they were coming from a human, but some of the information was incorrect. AI did well with simple, single objective questions, but struggled to provide accurate answers to two-part questions.

To a patient who doesnt understand what a procedure might be, it would be a good starting point to gather some general information, he said.

When is it better to ask ChatGPT instead of Google?

When people search for information about a series of symptoms, Dr. Google often offers up an alarmist - and unlikely - diagnosis, which can feed anxiety. For instance, when looking up abdominal pain, google spits out peritonitis, a surgical emergency, as the second option. ChatGPT does a better job itemizing the possible causes, such as a stomach virus or constipation.

ChatGPT and Google Bard may be good alternatives because they are more likely to order their search results with the most relevant first, he said.

Still, its best to check in with your doctor if you have questions about your health.

A report from Harvard found AI could reduce treatment costs by 50% and improve health outcomes by 40%. Whats the outlook for AI being used to read and interpret tests such as CT scans or MRIs?

Trials are currently exploring this question, he said. One of AIs strengths is recognizing patterns, and computers can process information much faster than humans, so using AI to read these types of scans is plausible.

Though you can never replace the gut feeling that comes with years of experience, AI could provide a very good collaborative tool, said Mukherjee.

 READ MORE: Will AI push humans aside, or just give us new tools? Six tech experts weigh in.

For example, he can imagine AI reading an EKG, a test that records the electrical signal from the heart. EKG results appear as a line on a piece of paper, and that lines pattern suggests different underlying heart issues.

Will AI ever be able to operate independently in health care, or will it always need to be alongside a healthcare professional?

Although machines can be very accurate in predicting models, they can never replace human professionals, he said. The capacity of their utility lies in a corroboratory nature.

The counseling that comes along before or after [a diagnosis] are things only humans can do, he said. Empathy cannot be replicated, and is the hallmark of the patient-physician relationship.

What are the risks of AI that patients and medical workers should be aware of?

With any new technology, encouraging use is good, but patients and providers should be careful to not over-estimate the results, he said. In Googles early days, the search engine often responded to a search about medical symptoms with a list of potential diagnoses (some of them scary) without any context.

Humans are emotional creatures and whatever is the scariest will stick, he said. A similar situation may happen if these tools are used unchecked, without the proper education and counseling.

Robust rules being developed by the FDA, World Association of Medical Editors, and other organizations are helping providers understand appropriate uses for AI.

Adding new technologies into healthcare, where more patients can potentially benefit by lower barriers to access information and diagnoses, is the best way forward, said Mukherjee. With human collaboration, we can better understand the bugs and fixes, and take care of those things in future renditions.
Kelly Kolb would love to be able to do the work for which shes been trained: helping pregnant people get through abortions.

The problem, said Kolb, 50, a doula from Glenside, is that most clinics where abortions are done dont allow us in.

If I cant be in there, how can I help?

Doulas (from the Greek for female helpers or servants) most commonly offer pregnant people guidance and education, as well as physical and emotional support through childbirth.

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Many doulas are full spectrum like Kolb. This work includes the whole birth journey, she said: pregnancy, birth, miscarriage, bereavement over fetal loss, postpartum issues, and abortion. Some doulas are certified, licensed, and insured, but theyre not required to have medical training. Abortion doulas are not reimbursed by insurance companies.

Patients have said doulas are extremely valuable in supporting them with the psychological and emotional aspects of birth.

When the pandemic started, doulas were barred from abortion clinics. And we havent been able to convince facilities to bring us back, said Vicki Bloom, one of the leaders of the Doula Project, a New York City-based nonprofit that supports abortion patients nationwide with a 24-hour hotline open to pregnant people.

Beyond COVID-19, abortion doulas say, other factors are keeping them out of clinics. Its a charged atmosphere right now, Bloom said.

After the U.S. Supreme Court rescinded the constitutional right to abortion when it reversed the Roe v. Wade decision last year, the fallout has made the always-fraught standoff between antiabortion activists and abortion advocates that much more heated, Bloom said. Abortion clinics have, in turn, become more vigilant about whos allowed in their facilities, with many of them keeping out the very people who believe they can help, Bloom said.

Meanwhile, doulas say, the end of Roe has meant that many people wanting abortions must now travel long distances  often with children in tow  from states that have tightened abortion restrictions to unfamiliar cities to get their procedures. It would be helpful, doulas conclude, to be able to offer knowledge and comfort to patients who feel alone.

Weve got the skills, but not the ability to use them, Bloom said.

On the scene since around 2008, abortion doulas are in a niche field. Lots of people dont even know we exist, Kolb said. And I have few ways to find patients.

Many abortion doulas dont get paid, believing the work is important enough to volunteer their time. These doulas often live off their earnings from performing birthing doula work, which can bring in $800 to $1,500 per person, or from doing postpartum doula jobs that can garner $30 to $40 an hour, Kolb said. She left a biopharmaceutical job to become a doula in 2015.

Bloom remembers the time when at least some doulas could station themselves alongside licensed physicians or advanced practice clinicians during abortion procedures.

The reason the doulas were in there while the abortion was going on was strictly for the personal care of the patient, she said. Many would have conscious sedation and wed help them feel calm as the abortion proceeded  holding their hands, getting a cool cloth for their head, breathing with them, distracting them, and just handling anything emotional so the doctor could do her job.

These days, around 55% to 60% of the 8,000 patients who seek abortion care annually at Planned Parenthood Southeastern PA receive oral medication to terminate a pregnancy, according to president and CEO Dayle Steinberg. The rest undergo surgical abortion procedures.

Because of patient safety, security, and privacy, we ask patients to come in by themselves for these procedures, Steinberg said.

The current rule is that if a person seeking an abortion wants a doula along, the doula would have to be a registered Planned Parenthood volunteer who underwent training and had secured clearances to be in the facility, she explained.

They must be known to us, Steinberg stressed.

Thus far, Steinberg added, No doula has enrolled as a volunteer at Planned Parenthood.

For her part, Kolb said, I never even heard of this registered-volunteer thing at Planned Parenthood until a reporter told her.

Wed love to get back

Lana Colquhoun, 28, of North Philadelphia, is another full-spectrum doula whos never been able to work as an abortion doula.

But she understands firsthand the vital role a doula can play.

I had an abortion myself a while ago and couldnt have my partner with me because of COVID, said Colquhoun, who runs a doula business called City of Birthing Love, and describes herself as Phillys own queer, Black doula.

She added, I went to another facility [in Center City] where I watched the movie 13 Going on 30 three times waiting over four hours to be seen just so I could get a [medical abortion] pill to take home.

A woman can feel really isolated and alone doing this, and it would be good to have someone with you to hold your hand and help you not feel scared or dirty because of the way some people can treat you.

Bloom agreed.

In the end, she said, pregnant people need abortion doulas during a tough moment in their lives just to love on them.

Clinics may not want us. But wed love to get back.

Urgent needs

Research shows that abortion doulas serve an important purpose for women regardless of whether their abortions are medical or surgical.

There are urgent needs and opportunities for full-spectrum doulas to offer life-protecting services to pregnant people across the U.S. and globally, according to a study in the March issue of the journal Frontiers in Global Womens Health. Coordination efforts for U.S. abortion care post-Roe v. Wade must include community-based doulas 

To address the issue, the Cherry Hill Womens Center (affiliated with four other Womens Centers, including two in the Philadelphia region) hired an abortion doula last spring.

This person is available before, during, and after procedures, said Roxanne Sutocky, director of public affairs for all the Womens Centers. Theyre helping us respond to increased need for abortions as more people come here since [the rescinding of Roe], she said.

Sutocky added, We are probably the only ones in the region doing this.
Prince Albert II of Monaco poses for a photo with a guest at the Ambassadors Reception at the Philadelphia Museum of Art on Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. Read more

Prince Albert II of Monaco spent Thursday evening in a blue suit and tie at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, greeting people with two-handed shakes while a harp player strummed pop covers in the corner. Later in the evening, beneath the golden statue of Diana in the Great Stair Hall, Mayor Jim Kenney pronounced Oct. 26 Monaco Day in Philadelphia. Monaco is a tiny, wealthy country on the French Riviera.

Prince Albert is the son of the late Grace Kelly, who before becoming a famous actress and princess, grew up in East Falls. While in Philadelphia this week, the prince paid his respects to the lions at the zoo, planted trees in North Philadelphia, and attended a lavish ambassadors reception at the Art Museum. The reception was also the launch of a Monaco TV network, and in between official speeches and the popping sound of Veuve Clicquot bottles, large screens projected images of bright blue water and short advertisements for new Monaco TV content, available now.

Prince Albert, who has ruled Monaco since 2005, is worth approximately $1 billion. In 2016, he purchased Kellys former Philadelphia home for $754,000 and restored it.

The prince plans to host a free awards ceremony for his eponymous foundation on Friday at the Perelman Theater, which the public can attend on a first-come, first-served basis. The event will honor three people who have made remarkable commitments towards the preservation of the planet.

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Grace Kelly made her professional debut at the Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope and went on to star in movies like To Catch a Thief and High Noon. (She left Philadelphia for Hollywood at 20). She announced her engagement to Prince Rainier III of Monaco from her childhood home, and their subsequent 1956 marriage was watched by 30 million people worldwide.

When Kelly died in 1982 of a cerebral hemorrhage following a car crash, Philadelphias mayor William Green told reporters, She was, and is, Philadelphias once and always first lady.

At the Art Museum this week, roughly 150 guests snacked on miniature cheesesteaks and roast pork sandwiches, clapped for the prince, and wandered through the Whistler exhibit at the otherwise empty museum.

Prince Alberts foundation has contributed money to the Philly Tree Plan, Philadelphia Zoo, Philadelphia Environmental Film Festival, and the PEW Foundation.
Demonstrators protest at 2nd and Chestnut Streets, outside the office of U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, calling on him to come out in support of a cease-fire in Gaza. Read more

Protesters resurfaced calls for U.S. Sen. John Fetterman to back a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war on Thursday, shutting down the street in front of the freshman senators Philadelphia office for about three hours amid a week of increasing local demonstrations in support of the besieged Gaza Strip.

About 200 demonstrators from progressive Jewish groups IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace, as well as the advocate network Philly Palestine Coalition, rallied on the 200 block of Chestnut Street in front of Fettermans office at the U.S. Custom House building. It was the second-straight week that protesters targeted the Old City office  this time blocking off car traffic and deploying an oversize caricature of Fetterman wearing a shirt that accused him of being silent on genocide.

Law enforcement officers rerouted traffic around the demonstration. Organizers said no arrests were made, and the crowd dispersed shortly after 4 p.m.

Anissa Weinraub, an organizer with Jewish Voice for Peace who sat in the middle the street, said pressure at Fettermans office could persist on a weekly basis.

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A cease-fire is the lowest bar at this point  Palestinian human lives are precious, and we need to stop this, so were going to have to put our bodies and our voices on the line, said Weinraub, who was arrested at a rally on Capitol Hill calling for a cease-fire last week.

Fetterman has stood behind Israel in the wake of the brutal Oct. 7 Hamas attack and defended its military retaliation in the Gaza Strip, where more than two million people have lived under blockade since 2007.

Fetterman on social media Wednesday appeared to rebuke criticism that he was taking sides. Two things can be true at the same time: I unequivocally stand with Israel and demand the immediate release of all hostages, he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. I grieve for all innocent Palestinian lives lost. We must minimize suffering in Gaza and our humanitarian aid efforts must match the need.

A cease-fire, Fetterman said last week, would be up for consideration after Hamas is neutralized.

Those views were echoed across partisan lines in Washington as the Senate voted overwhelmingly to back Israels war on Hamas. Last week, Fetterman also supported establishing a humanitarian aid corridor to the resource-starved Gaza Strip, where the United Nations reported over 1.4 million people have been displaced due to ongoing air strikes and an imminent ground invasion.

Former U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey was accustomed to protests nearly every week at his Philadelphia office over issues ranging from health care to immigration. But its a new phenomenon for Fetterman, who has been targeted more than other congressional leaders, including fellow Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, who share his stances on the war.

Organizers expressed some sense of betrayal by the former Braddock mayor, who was elected last year on a broad wave of moderate and progressive Democratic support.

[Fettermans] statements dehumanize Palestinians and do not stand up for the progressive values that Senator Fetterman espouses, and for which he was elected to this office, Hilah Kohen, another Jewish Voice for Peace organizer, said Thursday.

The rally adds to an already busy week in the streets of Philadelphia, as reverberations from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict continues to intensify throughout the region as the death toll in Gaza rises. Israel said more than 1,400 civilians and soldiers were killed on Oct. 7, and over 200 hostages are still missing. The Palestinian Health Ministry on Thursday said more than 6,850 people have been killed in Gaza since the war broke out, with over 100 others killed in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

A pro-Palestine rally on Saturday drew massive crowds to Center City. Student protests swept campuses on Wednesday at the citys three largest universities, where demonstrators decried public statements issued by school leaders.

Hours before the Fetterman protest on Thursday, dozens associated with the Philly Palestine Coalition gathered outside City Hall in objection to a symbolic resolution City Council passed last week in support of Israel.

The resolution, which was passed unanimously, sought to condemn the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas and call for a peaceful resolution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Activists accused Council of not adequately recognizing the history of the Palestinian territories and Israels complicated history.

The resolution drew what Council President Darrell L. Clarke called an unprecedented crowd to City Hall last week to speak against the resolution. Several people were ejected from Councils chambers before Clarke cut the public commentary period short  a first in his 12 years behind the gavel, he said.

Such heated showdowns almost never occur in response to legislation that concerns international conflicts that fall nearly 6,000 miles outside the local bodys jurisdiction.

More demonstrations are scheduled throughout the week.
Interview: BRI boosts sustainable growth, green development, digital innovation, says Cambodian expert

Xinhua) 16:02, October 27, 2023

PHNOM PENH, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has promoted sustainable growth, green development and digital innovation, a Cambodian expert said on Friday.

Neak Chandarith, director of the Cambodia 21st Century Maritime Silk Road Research Center, said recognizing the importance of sustainable development, the BRI has promoted green and sustainable practices.

"This includes encouraging the use of renewable energy sources, ecological conservation, and biodiversity protection," he told Xinhua. "The BRI emphasizes sustainable resource management and environmental cooperation among participating countries."

Chandarith said in recent years, the BRI has demonstrated a growing commitment to environmental concerns, responding to global anxieties over coal-fired power plants and other large-scale infrastructure projects.

"The establishment of a 'green BRI' emphasizes the importance of adhering to international best practices in environmental risk management," he said.

The expert said the BRI has also acknowledged the significance of digital connectivity and innovation in an era of rapid technological advancement.

"It seeks to bridge the digital divide by promoting high-speed Internet networks, e-commerce, and digital infrastructure development, and the areas of cooperation include 5G networks, artificial intelligence, e-commerce, and the development of smart cities," he said.

The BRI consists of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. It was initiated by China in 2013 to build trade and infrastructure networks connecting Asia with Europe and Africa on and beyond the ancient Silk Road trade routes.

For Cambodia, Chandarith said the BRI's infrastructure development projects such as roads, bridges, hydropower plants, airports, ports, expressways and the Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone have improved transportation networks, attracted foreign investment and boosted trade.

"These developments have the potential to spur economic diversification, create jobs, and alleviate poverty, empowering communities and improving the quality of life for millions of people," he said.

He added that the BRI's future in the Southeast Asian country is intricately tied to the principles of sustainable growth, green development and digital innovation, saying that the kingdom envisions a path that embraces environmental sustainability and the utilization of green technologies.

"This commitment not only ensures a healthier environment but also aligns with global goals for climate action," he said.

Furthermore, he said, the BRI's future in Cambodia includes a strong emphasis on digital innovation.

"With the rapid advancement of technology, Cambodia aims to bridge the digital divide, promote e-commerce and foster the development of smart cities. These innovations will not only drive economic progress but also enhance the quality of life for Cambodians," he said.

Chandarith said Cambodia's vision of sustainable growth, green development and digital innovation will contribute to the broader success of the BRI. 

(Web editor: Tian Yi, Liang Jun)
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 27, ARMENPRESS. The Council of Europe has emphasized its continued support to promote the establishment of a stable and long-term peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan based on the principles of recognizing sovereignty, inviolability of borders, and territorial integrity.

This was mentioned in the resolution adopted as a result of the two-day summit of the Council of Europe, in which the regulation of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations is also touched upon.

The Council of Europe has underscored the importance of ensuring the rights and security of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians, including those who wish to return to their homes.

It expresses its support for the Armenian-Azerbaijani settlement process with the mediation of Brussels and calls on the parties to engage in good faith and complete this process by the end of this year.

The resolution adopted at the EU summit also states that the Council of Europe invites the High Representative and the Commission to present the best options for strengthening the EU-Armenia relations in all dimensions.
FOP president John McNesby holds a press conference Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2022 to respond to an audit of police spending that was released by City Controller Rebecca Rhynhart. Read more

Longtime Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 president John McNesby will soon leave his position at the local police union for another job.

McNesbys impending departure, set for next month, marks the end of an era: McNesby unapologetically promoted and defended Philadelphia police, including some central to scandals in the city, as the head of the FOP since 2007.

His brash, pugnacious style has often garnered criticism, including from prominent locals like District Attorney Larry Krasner, whose reform-oriented approach regularly found itself at odds with the FOP. But now, with McNesby on his way out, its not quite clear what is next.

Here is what you need to know:

Who is John McNesby?

A native of Byberry, McNesby, 57, became a police officer in 1989, serving as a police academy classmate of former Commissioner Richard Ross. He began as a patrol officer, and went on to spend much of his career on the force in narcotics.

He was elected to lead the local FOP in 2007, and has often won reelection by wide margins. Throughout his tenure, McNesby garnered broad support from membership, speaking out on behalf of officers accused of wrongdoing, and overseeing contract negotiations that have raised officer salaries and loosened residency requirements for police personnel, allowing members with five years on the force to move outside of Philadelphia.

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Under his leadership, the local FOP has grown to represent more than 13,000 active and retired officers. Today, the union is a local political player that issues endorsements in races ranging from mayor to the Pennsylvania Senate.

Why is McNesby controversial?

An outspoken, ever-present supporter of police, McNesby has sparked a number of controversies throughout his tenure. Over the years, critics have ranged from local officials and musicians to protesters and athletes like former Eagle Malcolm Jenkins.

Even local food establishments have had spats with McNesby. In 2020, amid the historic civil rights protests surrounding the death of George Floyd, Di Bruno Bros. revoked a free lunch offer it had extended to police officers at its Chestnut Street location when employees complained about the policy and threatened to strike. Di Brunos owners to issue an apology in which they said the business stands in solidarity with demonstrators protesting against police brutality. McNesby responded on social media that Philadelphia police would boycott Di Bruno Bros. from here on out over the issue.

While novel, that incident was one of the less incendiary controversies of McNesbys career, with criticisms of his public statements ranging from insensitive to racist. In 2017, a group of protesters, some of whom were associated with Black Lives Matter, demonstrated outside the home of an officer who had shot and killed a Black man McNesby referred to the group as a pack of rabid animals  a comment denounced by many as racist. McNesby later said he was not commenting on race.

And in 2020, he faced significant public criticism after initially failing to sufficiently condemn members of the Proud Boys who had been spotted with officers at the FOPs Northeast Philadelphia headquarters after a visit from then-Vice President Mike Pence. McNesby later issued a more critical statement, saying that Philadelphia police, FOP leadership, and the groups members condemned the Proud Boys hateful and discriminatory speech in any form.

FOP policies and actions under McNesbys leadership have also garnered controversy. Last year, the union faced criticism after an Inquirer investigation showed hundreds of officers receiving paid leave for extended periods because, they said, they were too hurt to work. That program was enabled in part due to diagnoses from union-selected doctors, whose judgments were often questionable. McNesby later said that some officers using the program may have been improperly collecting the benefit, and acknowledged that the union may have some issues on our end.

The FOP has also filed lawsuits in attempts to prevent new initiatives from other city agencies from going into effect, including the District Attorneys Offices creation of a list of officers with possible credibility issues, as well as City Councils passage of a law banning traffic stops for minor infractions. Those suits were unsuccessful.

What about his relationship with Larry Krasner?

In recent years, McNesby has become known as a significant public critic of District Attorney Larry Krasner. That criticism dates back at least as far as 2018, when McNesby was quoted in a New Yorker piece as calling the idea of Krasners candidacy for District Attorney hilarious.

Following Krasners election, McNesbys apparent disdain continued. In 2019, the FOP took out billboards and planned to hire airplanes to fly banners at the Jersey Shore that read Help Wanted. New Philadelphia District Attorney.

Theres an element of bad people that are in this town that should be in jail, and if Im one of those people, Im doing cartwheels that Larry Krasner is district attorney, McNesby said at the time.

For Krasner, the feeling appears to be mutual, with the DA blasting McNesby as an obstacle to improving policing in the city. Krasner has also sought to associate McNesby with former President Donald Trump, whom McNesby met with several times during Trumps time in the White House.

I am honored once again to be attacked by President Trump, the most criminal U.S. president of my lifetime, and to hear it from one of his local megaphones, John McNesby, Krasner said following one meeting in 2019. As usual in Trumpworld, the attacks are fact-free. Sorry, guys. History is not on your side.

Why is McNesby leaving the FOP?

McNesby said in a statement Friday that he will leave the union for a new position with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It was not immediately clear what that position will be, and McNesby declined through a spokesperson to be interviewed.

His last day will be Nov. 10.

A successor for McNesbys position as leader of the union has not yet been announced. The FOP board is scheduled to meet next week to elect its next president, the organization said in a statement.
Philadelphia may not have its own distinct style of pizza, and thats OK. In our city, you can find versions of beloved pizzas inspired by pizza styles far and wide. You can find Detroit-style in South Philly, Brooklyn-style in many neighborhoods, Neapolitan pizza in Fitler Square, and more.

In other words, its not hard to find good pizza in Philadelphia, whether youre craving a thin-crust slice or a thick, doughy pizza that could serve as lunch and dinner.

Heres our guide to the best pizza in Philadelphia.

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Detroit-style pizza

This spot in North Philly offers more than good pizza. The shop was created to provide career opportunities and fair wages for formerly incarcerated people. Check out the Detroit-style pies named in honor of Philly rappers like the nod-to-Meek-Mill Uptown Vibes (kale, mushrooms, red peppers) and the Tuff Crew-inspired My Part of Town (a cheesesteak pizza). The shop also offers a few vegan pies, as well as wings, fries, and milkshakes.

 2804 W Lehigh Ave.,  downnorthpizza.com,  @downnorth_pizza,  Thu.-Sat. noon till sellout,  walk-ins only

OK, so, this spot officially started in New York, but they opened a Philly outpost just before the start of the pandemic where you can feast on Detroit-style pizzas in red sauce varieties (including pepperoni with jalapenos, and honey; margherita, and sausage, peppers, and onions) and white sauce pies (like ricotta and mushrooms, and a Nashville hot chicken pie), in addition to some topped with a creamy vodka sauce.

632 S. Fifth St.,  emmysquaredpizza.com,  @emmysquaredpizza

In September 2020, Craig LaBan declared Manayunks Pizza Jawn Phillys best new pizzeria. You have to order ahead of time to get a pie slot, but its worth it. As LaBan writes: Lee is one of the few pizzaiolos who specializes in more than one style, crafting outstanding renditions of three very different kinds of pizza: a char-spotted round of a crispy Neo/NYC thin-crust round pie (get the minimalist Margherita); a hefty Detroit pizza whose tall, pan-roasted sides crackle with an edge of caramelized cheese (load it up!); and a chewy, rustic Grandma square distinguished by the fistfuls of sesame that speckle its edges and bottom crust.

4330 Main St.,  pizzajawn.com,  @pizza_jawn

What started as Pizza Gutt, a modest bar concession at W/N W/N from Daniel Gutter, has spread to spots in Kensington, West Philadelphia, and South Philadelphia, and Northern Liberties in just about three years. Gutter has gained a lot of love for both his round pies and Detroit-style pizzas with their crispy, fried-cheese edges.

Kensington: Circles + Squares, 2513 Tulip St.,  pizzawhat.com,  @circlesandsquaresandcatanddogs

South Philly: Pizza Plus,1846 S. 12th St.,  pizzaplusphilly.com,  @pizzaplusplusplus

Northern Liberties: Bourbon & Branch,  705 N. Second St.,  bourbonandbranchphilly.com,  @bourbonandbranch

West Philly: Pizza Plus, 4814 Spruce St.,  pizzaplusphilly.com,  @pizzaplusplusplus

New York-style pizza

Not to be confused with South Philadelphias Angelos Pizzeria, Angelo Pizza is the name of this Old City pizzerias owner. Hes the son and grandson of Baltimore pizzeria owners, and opened his own shop in Old City in November 2020. Pizza began baking pizzas for friends out of his Manayunk apartment, using the recipes he learned from his dad, Angelo, and grandfather, Paulie Manna. The shop makes eight varieties of big-flavored, crispy-crusted 12-inch rounds, which are topped to the edges, plus one vegan pie.

229 Market St.,  theangelopizza.com,  @theangelopizza

Everything at Angelos Pizzeria is good. Its cheesesteaks, hoagies, and, of course, its namesake (pizza). The pies here are saucy, cheesy, and made on a crispy yet fluffy dough and come in square and circle options. Theres also a beloved upside-down pizza with cheese on the bottom and sauce on the top  its as delicious (and heavy) as it sounds.

736 S. Ninth St.,  angelospizzeriasouthphiladelphia.com

What started as a small, no-phone operation is now an always-bustling restaurant where heat-blistered wheels of pizza arrive to tables along with a long list of natural wines and local beer. Pizzas come spanned with your choice of toppings, but ordering one of the pizzerias staple pies is a good idea. In particular, the angry red arrabbiata pie is so amped with layers of lip-stinging spice  Thai chilies steeped into the sauce; pickled serranos scattered like green poker chips across every inch, their spiraling heat rising on the herbal lift of basil  that it sets a new threshold on the pleasure-pain continuum.

1313 N. Lee St.,  pizzeriabeddia.com,  @theangelopizza

Dont let the small-looking pizza boxes fool you, the self-described Brooklyn-style pizzas at Square Pie are dense  landing somewhere between a Sicilian- and Detroit-style pizza. Available in classics like cheese and pepperoni, the pizzas also come topped with cured pork belly and rosemary potatoes, eggplant and olives, and a porchetta pie with roast pork.

 801 E. Passyunk Ave.,  squarepiephilly.com,  @squarepiephilly

Neapolitan-style pizza

Vinny Gallagher and Davide Lubrano make naturally leavened pies, somewhere between New York and Neapolitan-style pizzas, out of this shop in Fitler Square. As Lubrano says: We want it to be a neighborhood pizzeria, because pizza is for everybody. As LaBan declared in November 2020: Gallaghers dough forms a crust that crackles with a flavorful chew and roasty tang that reverbs after a slice is gone.

240 S. 22nd St.,  pizzatapizzeria.com,  @pizzata_pizzeria

Named after owner Cary Borishs grandmother, Sally offers Neapolitan-style pizzas, from creamy stracciatella made from Lancasters Maplehofe dairy, to the fermented pepper jelly that sparks soppressata, and the Chester County funk of Birchrun Hills Farms Fat Cat Cheese. The spot, just north of Fitler Square, also makes an upscale version of the South Philly pizzazz pie as well as offering a selection of natural wines.

2229 Spruce St.,  sallyphl.com,  @sally_philadelphia

Pizza so good it should be a crime, said owner Arnab Maitra. Hes not wrong. Maitra previously worked at Osteria, Pizzeria Vetri, and Porto before opening his own shop in Haddonfield in September 2020. His 12-pie, wood-fired pizza menu includes the familiar margherita and marinara, as well as pizzas topped with chorizo and jalapenos, and even thinly sliced tuna. Plus, as Klein notes, the shop is a few doors down from Kings Road Brewing Co., making it ideal if you want a beer to go with that pie.

139 Kings Hwy E, Haddonfield, NJ,  pizzacrime.com,  @pizza_crime

 READ MORE: More Philly tips: Read our most useful stories
Photos of His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco's visit to Philadelphia Share Icon Link copied to clipboard

His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco is visiting Philadelphia, the home of his mother Grace Kelly, for his Foundations 16th Planetary Health Awards & Gala which takes place on Friday, Oct 27.
Jenna Ellis reads a statement while pleading guilty to a felony count of aiding and abetting false statements and writings in Fulton Superior Court in Atlanta, Ga. Tuesday. Read more

Jenna Ellis, a lawyer who forged a career in politics and punditry by helping former President Donald Trump push lies about the 2020 election, saw it all come crashing down in Georgia Tuesday.

The upshot: Her guilty plea to a felony charge for trying to overturn the election in that state means she wont see any jail time.

The downside: Her tearful attempt at accepting responsibility  while blaming other lawyers for her downfall  may revive a civil lawsuit against her in Philadelphias Court of Common Pleas.

James Savage, a Delaware County voting machine supervisor, sued Ellis, Trump, his presidential campaign, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and two local poll watchers in 2021, saying their unsubstantiated claims that he had tampered with the 2020 vote made him a target of hatred, ridicule, and physical threats.

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A Common Pleas Court judge last year dismissed Ellis from that lawsuit but allowed the rest of Savages claims to move forward.

J. Conor Corcoran, Savages attorney, told Clout that Ellis talked her way back into the lawsuit Tuesday while crying crocodile tears in an Atlanta courtroom. He will ask a judge to reinstate her as a defendant.

Ellis and Giuliani leveled their claims about Savage  among other debunked conspiracy theories  at a Republican hearing in Gettysburg three weeks after the 2020 election. Ellis held her phone to a microphone that day so legislators could hear Trump call in to pile on.

Ellis on Tuesday said she relied on lawyers with many more years of experience than I to provide me with true and reliable information to share with media outlets and state legislators but didnt bother at the time to make sure those allegations were in fact true.

That was clearly a shot from Ellis at Giuliani, who is four decades older than his former propaganda protege. Giuliani and Trump are among the defendants facing criminal charges in the Georgia case.

A Giuliani spokesperson looked past Ellis when Clout came calling, vowing that the former mayor would not take a plea deal and complaining that every single prosecutor in this case is a partisan Democrat focused on their own partisan political ambitions and keeping President Donald Trump out of the White House.

Ellis, who consulted last year on State Sen. Doug Mastrianos failed bid for governor, did not respond to Clouts hails about this.

On the campaign trail with Mastriano last year, Ellis defended her efforts to have Pennsylvanias nearly 7 million votes for president thrown out in 2020.

Savages lawsuit has been winding its way through Phillys courts.

Another Common Pleas Court judge ruled in August that Trump was protected by presidential immunity for his phone-in comments at the Gettysburg hearing but also ruled in July that Savages lawsuit against the former president could move forward, based on a 2022 letter Trump sent to Congress repeating those claims after he left office.

Trump also faces two federal indictments, one for allegedly keeping classified documents after the government tried to recover them, the other for his actions leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

And Trump faces criminal charges in New York for allegedly paying a porn star hush money during his 2016 campaign to keep quiet an affair.

TV anchors name ID helps bid for Congress

Three decades on local television can be an excellent asset when seeking public office, Janelle Stelson learned last week as a campaign poll showed her with a significant early lead in the Democratic primary for Pennsylvanias 10th Congressional District.

Stelson, who left her news anchor job at NBC affiliate WGAL in Lancaster last month and entered the race Oct. 4, holds a 13-point lead  33% to 20%  over her closest primary competitor, Harrisburg city council member Shamaine Daniels.

Daniels lost her 2022 bid to unseat U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, a Republican now seeking a seventh term.

A Public Policy Polling survey of 547 likely Democratic voters, conducted during two days last week, found that 38% are still undecided in the crowded primary. The poll had a margin of error of +/- 4.2%.

Mike OBrien, a retired U.S. Marine Corps lieutenant colonel who announced his run last month, and Rick Coplen, who lost the 2022 primary to Daniels, were at 3% in the poll, along with former Harrisburg public radio executive Blake Lynch, who entered the primary Tuesday.

John Broadhurst, an international business consultant who entered the primary last week, was not mentioned in the poll.

Perry, a hard-right conservative who tried to challenge all of Pennsylvanias presidential votes in 2020, is seen as a key Democratic target in a swing district next year. The 10th District includes Dauphin County and parts of Cumberland and York Counties

Stelson is not the only one polling in the district.

Welcome PAC, a Democratic centrist organization, has launched the Republicans Against Perry project. That group, also using Public Policy Polling, shared with Clout this week a survey showing Perry upside down in his district, with 49% disapproving of his job performance, 34% approving and 17% unsure.

That survey of 587 registered voters in the district  Democrats, Republicans, and independents  put Perrys support at 46% while an unnamed Democratic opponent brought in 44%, with 11% unsure who they would vote for. The surveys margin of error was +/- 4%.

Clout provides often irreverent news and analysis about people, power, and politics.
Northeast Philadelphia Democratic candidate and labor leader Gary Masino goes door to door campaigning for City Council last month. Read more

By all accounts, City Council candidate Gary Masino has lived in Northeast Philadelphia for more than a decade.

But from 2020 until late last year, Masino held a seat on the Pennsylvania Convention Center board that is reserved for residents of Bucks County, an apparent violation of the state law that governs the center.

Masino testified in court earlier this year that he used his mother-in-laws Bucks County address while serving on the board even though he has never lived there. He said this past week that he was unaware that he had to live in the county to represent it on the board, but he did not explain why he gave an incorrect address.

A Democrat who heads the sheet metal workers union, Masino is running against Republican Councilmember Brian ONeill, who has represented the Far Northeast Philadelphia-based 10th District for 44 years. Its one of the few competitive races on the ballot for the Nov. 7 general election, and both campaigns are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars.

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 READ MORE: Brian ONeill, Phillys only GOP Council member, is facing a serious challenge from Democrat Gary Masino

Questions about Masinos role on the board first surfaced in a March court case in which ONeill supporters unsuccessfully challenged Masinos eligibility to run for Council.

Candidates must live in the district they are seeking to represent for at least one year before the election, meaning Masino was required to have lived in Philadelphias 10th District since at least November 2022. A lawyer representing the ONeill backers argued, in part, that Masino appeared to be ineligible because he was Bucks Countys representative on the Convention Center board until December 2022.

Masino presented evidence that he has lived in Northeast Philadelphia since 2012 and testified that he gave the Convention Center the address of his mother-in-laws house in Langhorne. That was the address listed for Masino in the centers directory as recently as December 2022.

He also said he verbally resigned from the board in October 2022, although his departure was not recorded until the boards December meeting.

Common Pleas Court Judge Joshua Roberts ruled that he was eligible to run for Council, but did not weigh in on whether it was appropriate for him to hold the board seat. The state law on the Convention Center says that counties in the Philadelphia area shall appoint a resident of its county as a member of the board.

 READ MORE: Meet Gary Masino, the Democrat running for City Council in Northeast Philly

Masino spokesperson Jhonas Dunakin said Masino was unaware of the residency requirement for serving on the board, but did not explain why Masino provided his mother-in-laws address to the Convention Center.

Gary was never informed about a residency requirement and it was no secret that he resided in Philadelphia, Dunakin said. He resigned from the board after he was informed of the residency requirement.

He emphasized that Masino is eligible to run for Council.

This was settled in court in the primary, Dunakin said. Gary is a Northeast resident who is sick of our councilman not doing the work to help our neighbors.

The Convention Centers influential and highly politicized board oversees management of the sprawling Center City facility, which is a key part of the citys tourism and hospitality efforts. It has been at the center of major disputes among construction trades unions such as Masinos. The board includes appointees from the state, city, and surrounding counties who are paid a stipend of $125 for each meeting they attend.

Bucks County spokesperson James T. OMalley said the county was under the impression that Masino met the residency requirement when he was appointed by the commissioners in 2020.

The county administration believed Mr. Masino was a Bucks County resident at the time of his appointment, OMalley said in a statement. When he announced his candidacy for Philadelphia City Council, it became apparent that was not the case. He then resigned from the Convention Center board as Bucks Countys representative.

Convention Center spokesperson Pete Peterson said it is the appointing authorities responsibility to ensure the representatives meet the eligibility requirements, such as the residency rule for the collar counties seats.

But in testimony for the court case on his eligibility, Masino was said he was encouraged by the Convention Center to provide an address that was not his own.

Do you have any idea how the Pennsylvania Convention Center would have gotten that address? Roberts asked Masino in court.

I have a general idea, Masino responded.

What is it? Roberts said.

They wanted  they asked me for a family member that lived in Bucks County. I gave them that address, Masino said.

He added: They said they needed it to use because I was on a Bucks County board for the Convention Center.

 READ MORE: Meet Brian ONeill, the Republican Council member who has represented Northeast Philly since 1980

Masino also said in court that he resigned at the request of Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie, who had heard about Masino running for office in Philadelphia.

The commissioners in Bucks County found  heard I was running for City Council and called me up and realized I didnt live in Bucks County, Masino said.

Harvie now holds the Convention Center seat that was vacated by Masino. He did not respond to requests for comment aside from the statement sent by OMalley, the county spokesperson.

A Democrat who chairs the commissioners, Harvie is currently in his own tense reelection campaign as his party seeks to retain control of the county after winning it in 2019.

Although Masino does not live in Bucks County, he has political ties there. The Sheet Metal Workers Union Local 19, which he leads, has given money to the Bucks County Democratic Party, including a $5,000 donation this year, and his son, Gary Masino Jr., has worked as a political consultant for the party.

Vito Canuso, the lawyer who challenged Masinos eligibility to run for Council, said Masinos time on the Convention Center board smacks of corruption.

Theres a substantial amount of contributions from the union to the political party up in Bucks County, said Canuso, a Republican who represented ONeill supporters in the case. Talk about a quid pro quo.

Masinos answers in court, he said, raised serious questions.

Why do you put an address down thats not yours? You dont reside there, Canuso said. Heres an individual that wants to consider and propose and vote on ordinances and will ask people to comply with them, and he doesnt comply with that state law that provides for representation on the convention board.

Dunakin said the Convention Center issue was an embarrassing attempt by Brian ONeill and his supporters to make this election about anything but the issues that are affecting residents of the Northeast.

Staff writers Jesse Bunch and Andrew Seidman contributed to this article.
HARRISBURG  Pennsylvania Secretary of Environmental Protection Rich Negrin resigned Thursday and will remain on medical leave until Dec. 9, Gov. Josh Shapiros office said.

Negrin, a former top official in former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutters administration, was the first Latino to lead the Department of Environmental Protection. Shapiro nominated him to join his cabinet at the start of his administration in January. He was confirmed by the state Senate in June nearly unanimously, with only Sen. Doug Mastriano (R., Franklin) opposing his confirmation. Another senator was absent for votes that day.

Executive Deputy Secretary Jessica Shirley will serve as acting secretary while the administration conducts a search for a nominee, Shapiros press secretary Manuel Bonder said in an email. Shirley previously served as DEPs policy director during former Gov. Tom Wolfs administration.

Negrin and DEP did not respond Thursday to requests for comment. Shapiros office did not offer further comment about Negrins resignation. Its unclear why Negrin requested medical leave.

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Negrin is the second cabinet-level secretary to resign from Shapiros administration in a month.

Former Secretary of Legislative Affairs Mike Vereb abruptly resigned last month. The next day, The Inquirer reported that Vereb, a Republican and one of Shapiros closest allies for decades, faced a sexual harassment complaint from a former employee months before his resignation.

During his tenure at DEP, Negrin oversaw cleanup efforts in Western Pennsylvania after a Norfolk Southern train carrying dangerous chemicals derailed just over the border in East Palestine, Ohio. He also saw the cleanup efforts of another chemical spill in the Delaware River that briefly impacted Philadelphias water supply.

Shapiros office said earlier this month that Negrin was part of the team that presented a proposal to the U.S. Department of Energy in July to secure two regional hydrogen hubs for the state. Pennsylvania is the only state chosen for two hydrogen hub projects by the Department of Energy.

Negrin appeared with Shapiro as recently as last week at a news conference in Beaver County marking the 100th orphaned and abandoned well that DEP capped and plugged in an effort to reduce methane emissions.

Negrin previously served as the managing director and deputy mayor of administration under Nutter from 2010 to 2016. He also ran unsuccessfully for Philadelphia district attorney in 2017.

Prior to his nomination as DEP secretary, Negrin worked on regulatory policy and strategy as the vice president of Commonwealth Edison, Illinois largest electric utility company.

Staff writer Ryan W. Briggs contributed to this article.
U.S. Rep. Susan Wild has joined Jewish colleagues in calling for a pause in fighting in Gaza. Read more

U.S. Rep. Susan Wild, who represents the Lehigh Valley, issued a statement Friday calling for a temporary cessation of hostilities in Gaza to allow humanitarian aid to reach the region.

The precise language  and avoidance of the term cease-fire  shows how carefully members of Congress are trying to tread as they weigh in on the Israel-Hamas war, and some are shifting toward backing a more nuanced response to the conflict.

The statement, jointly issued by Wild, Rep. Sara Jacobs (D., Calif.), and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D., Md.), three Jewish members of Congress, expressed compassion for victims of Hamas brutal and inexcusable attack, and also noted deep concern for Palestinian civilians caught in the middle of Israels military offensive.

As Jewish Members of Congress who have family and loved ones in Israel, we are sickened by Hamas brutal and inexcusable attack, the statement reads. ...While we are grateful for the Biden Administrations successful efforts to deliver humanitarian aid ...it is clear this aid alone is insufficient. The two million civilians in Gaza cannot survive without access to water, food, medicine, and fuel  and resources cannot get to those who need it without a temporary cessation of hostilities for humanitarian workers to do their jobs safely.

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The language echoes a call by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who on Tuesday delivered a forceful defense of Israels military actions but said that humanitarian pauses must be considered to protect civilians in Gaza. It was the strongest statement by the administration to date supporting a halt in Israels offensive against Hamas following the Oct. 7 terror attack that killed more than 1,400 people and resulted in at least 229 people taken to Gaza as hostages.

European leaders have also appealed for humanitarian pauses but stopped short of calling for a cease-fire in the region, where more than 7,028 people have been killed since Oct. 7, including 2,913 minors, according to a list of names and identification numbers of those killed released Thursday by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, an agency of the Hamas-controlled government.

How is cessation different from cease-fire?

Cease-fire has become a politically fraught term for lawmakers. Even amid growing pressure from some Jewish groups and pro-Palestinian organizations, some feel such a commitment would contradict support for Israels military retaliation.

In an interview Friday, Wild, a Democrat, said: emphatically my statement was not calling for a cease-fire at all. A cease-fire typically indicates a negotiated end of war, Wild noted, which has not occurred and is unlikely to happen. Furthermore, it marks a determinant end of a conflict, she said.

Her push is for a cessation potentially lasting a period of hours, that might be staggered based on when aid can come into Gaza, she said.

It doesnt necessarily require all hostilities are ended, Wild said. But it has to be done in such a way that there is no danger to those who are transporting the humanitarian aid or receiving the aid.

Wild said a resolution could follow the statement in coming days. She said shes in frequent contact with the 24 Jewish Democrats in the House on a text message thread. We dont want to get in the way of the administration, she said, while noting Blinkens statements seemed in line with her own. But I do believe there will be renewed efforts, in particular among the Jewish members of Congress.

Some members of Congress have explicitly denounced the notion of an outright cease-fire. Sen. John Fetterman, whose Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Wilkes-Barre offices drew protesters this week calling for a cease-fire, said on X earlier this month: Now is not the time to talk about a cease-fire. We must support Israel in efforts to eliminate the Hamas terrorists who slaughtered innocent men, women, and children. Hamas does not want peace, they want to destroy Israel.

Fetterman has also advocated for aid to the region. He joined 35 other senators this week in a resolution seeking the swift implementation of sustained access for humanitarian aid, including water and medical supplies, to save innocent civilian lives in Gaza.

Summer Lee calls for cease-fire

U.S. Rep. Summer Lee has not avoided the call for a cease-fire. Lee is the only member of Pennsylvanias delegation in Congress who did not support a recent resolution backing Israel and condemning Hamas.

The House on Wednesday approved by a vote of 412-10-6 a resolution that states solidarity with Israel and reaffirms Israels right to self-defense. The Senate unanimously backed a similar resolution last week.

Lee, who represents Western Pennsylvania in Congress, was one of nine Democrats who opposed the House resolution. Six voted present. She issued a 540-word statement to explain the reasoning behind her vote.

The violence Hamas unleashed in Israel, particularly the horrific kidnapping and killing of over a thousand innocent civilians and children, is horrifying, unjustifiable, and must be condemned. Since that day, weve seen immeasurable loss and destruction upon innocent civilians in Gaza, Lee wrote.

...This resolution does not acknowledge the overwhelming loss of life and humanity of Palestinians which moves us further from  not closer to  a just and lasting peace. This is a critical mistake that falls short of what the world needs in this moment  which is why I voted No.

Lee, who is the cosponsor on a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire, said the only path to peace is de-escalation, and cited the need for food, water, electricity, and basic health care in Gaza. Innocent Israeli and American hostages need to be released. We need a Ceasefire NOW.
Jack O'Hara, president of the Greater Bustleton Civic League: This is going to be really welcome news to the hundreds of our RCOs in the city. I only wish it had come a year ago. The group is facing a lawsuit from a developer trying to build a large UPS warehouse in the neighborhood. Read more

City Council President Darrell L. Clarke has granted Philadelphias neighborhood groups one of the biggest items on their wish list: a bill that would secure them legal protection from the city for their involvement in zoning matters.

If approved by City Council, the matter would be placed on the ballot during the primaries next April for consideration by the voters. By that time Clarke, whose term ends in January, will no longer be in office. But these kinds of ballot measures almost always pass.

This is a really, truly remarkable step, said Joe Schiavo, former leader of the Old City Civic Association, which was forced to disband in the face of developer lawsuits over a decade ago. This is a remarkably positive gesture for Clarke to be making on behalf of our communities.

When former Mayor Michael Nutter updated the citys zoning code in 2012, his administration officially recognized neighborhood groups that get involved in zoning matters, dubbing them Registered Community Organizations (RCOs).

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Almost immediately these organizations argued that their newly official designation should come with some form of legal protection.

RCOs are allowed by the citys zoning code to review projects that have to go before the citys Zoning Board of Adjustment, but advocates said that power invites lawsuits from deep-pocketed business interests if a community group opposes their project. A developer could sue as a way to scare off opposition  a strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP)  which volunteer community organizations, especially in lower-income areas, could ill-afford.

A case in the Bustleton neighborhood gained attention this year as a neighborhood group faced skyrocketing insurance costs in the face of a developer lawsuit.

In recent months, weve heard of RCOs being threatened by lawsuits from developers for not supporting [a project] or raising an appeal process, Clarke said.

But developers argue that neighborhood groups often try to slow their projects in an attempt to delay them to death  time literally is money in real estate development  over parochial concerns like parking or anti-apartment sentiment. In some cases, they even argued that less scrupulous RCOs have sought payoffs to approve projects.

If the city provides a legal backstop for such activities, these cases could become far more common producing a chilling effect on the local real estate industry.

This bill gives RCOs a blank check to fight developers, said Mo Rushdy, vice president of the Building Industry Association of Philadelphia. If this bill passes, every single project will be appealed indefinitely, which increases development costs and the chances that nothing will get built.

Rushdy argued the rules governing RCOs are far too hazy and, often, many different neighborhood groups compete to weigh in on zoning matters. He said that an officially recognized RCO could be just one or two gadflies in a neighborhood with no real constituency. Giving legal protection to them would be madness.

Clarke, for his part, agreed with the last part of that assessment. He said that the rules governing RCOs should be revised to ensure more accountability and transparency, along with the new legal protections he wants to create.

One person can decide they are an RCO, Clarke said. Theres too much overlap in the boundaries.  As a broader conversation, there should be some reform. But I dont believe that its fair for us to require that they be participating in the zoning without any support from the city.

Although Clarkes legislation dictates that the city will indemnify and defend RCOs on zoning-related matters that wind up in court, it leaves the exact details of the new regulations to the Law Department. That allows the citys legal team the flexibility to set monetary caps or refuse to defend an RCO if they felt the group had been acting beyond their jurisdiction.

Historically, the Law Department has dismissed the idea of indemnifying RCOs because they feared being made to protect community groups that were acting illegally  and saddling the city with their legal costs. Clarke said giving the department more control over the regulations could solve that problem.

It is very important that the Law Department be involved with the process because indemnification could in fact be costly, Clarke said. [Thats also why] there should be some reforms to make sure RCOs are qualified.

For the Greater Bustleton Civic League, which is facing a lawsuit from a developer trying to build a large United Parcel Service (UPS) warehouse in its neighborhood, the news of the bill was cause for celebration.

Our story terrified [other] RCOs, said Jack OHara, president of the Greater Bustleton Civic League. This is going to be really welcome news to the hundreds of our RCOs in the city. I only wish it had come a year ago.
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 27, ARMENPRESS. The Iranian Army's Ground Force has begun a massive military exercise in the central region of the country with the objective of assessing combat capabilities of various military units and testing new weaponry.

The drills started in the Nasrabad region of Isfahan on Friday..

A spokesperson for the drills provided details about the exercise, stating that it involves various units of the Army, including infantry, armored, missile, artillery, aviation, drones, as well as electronic, modern and cyber warfare units, IRNA reports.
"Generative AI can help organizations bolster their security posture and gain efficiencies while doing so," he said. "However, the reality is cybercriminals will increase the use of generative AI in their attack strategies as well, and they can be much faster at adopting the technology than large organizations are."
Shame on Canada Life and Treasury Board, again, for the bad service, or the lack of service or the absence of service that our members are getting, Marc Briere, the unions national president, said at the protest.
Pfeiffer has more than 25 years of experience in business development and employee benefits consulting. Prior to joining Alliant, he was a partner and vice president at a national insurance brokerage and employee benefits consulting firm. He has also served as a sales executive on the carrier side, as well as in the medical device sector.
We remain very active with RFPs as well as having a substantial renewal portfolio so it will be excellent to have someone of Marks calibre to add further expertise and support to the team, said Robert Bisset, Lockton Re chairman of global retrocession and property specialty for Bermuda and market capital. Our highly analytical approach is very well received by clients, prospects, and markets across the globe, and we will continue to focus on this important part of Lockton Re.
During an interview with Insurance Business at this years Target Markets in Arizona, Lipin spoke about why thorough and comprehensive data is necessary to tackle challenges in todays market. He also discussed how the rise of the Metaverse may complicate the insurance market while also allowing for new innovations.
A New Jersey man has admitted his role in a conspiracy to steal and transport across state lines luxury cars stolen from towns in New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey, reported U.S. Attorney Philip Sellinger.

Malik Baker of Vauxhall pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Esther Salas in Newark federal court to one count of conspiring to transport stolen vehicles in interstate commerce and one count of receiving a stolen vehicle that had crossed state lines after being stolen.

According to prosecutors, Bakers conspirators  Hakeem Smith, Nafique Goodwyn, and Bilal Cureton  previously pleaded guilty to related charges. Smith was sentenced on April 25, 2023, to 41 months in prison. Sentencing is pending for Goodwyn and Cureton.

According to court documents, between July and September 2019, the defendants and others stole and conspired to steal at least 10 luxury cars from towns in New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey, and hid those cars at a location in Irvington, New Jersey.

The cars include a 2019 BMW X4 M40i, a 2017 BMW Alpina, a 2017 Maserati GranTurismo, a 2018 Range Rover, a 2019 Porsche Cayenne, a 2017 Mercedes S550, a 2019 Rolls Royce, a 2019 Land Rover, a 2019 Mercedes Maybach, a 2014 Lexus GS, a 2017 BMW M4 and a 2017 Mercedes AMG S63.

Prosecutors said the defendants often used the stolen cars to steal more cars, and, in one instance, they used a Maserati GranTurisimo they stole from Manalapan to steal a Range Rover and a Porsche Cayenne. When law enforcement attempted to conduct a stop of the Maserati, the Maserati accelerated and crashed head-on into a police vehicle before the suspects fled the scene in another stolen vehicle. Law enforcement recovered one of the stolen cars in a shipping container at the port in Newark en route to Ghana, Africa.

The charge of conspiracy to transport stolen vehicles is punishable by a maximum potential penalty of five years in prison. The charge of receiving stolen vehicles is punishable by a maximum potential penalty of 10 years in prison. Both charges are punishable by a fine up to $250,000, or twice the gross gain or loss from the offenses, whichever is greatest. Sentencing is scheduled for March 7, 2024..

Topics Auto Fraud New Jersey
Because its application question about how many apartments were in a New York building was considered ambiguous, an insurer has lost its bid to deny a commercial property insurance claim and rescind the policy.

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a New York federal district court ruling in favor of Fred and Ann Lee on their breach of contract claim against Union Mutual.

The policy asked, How many apartment units are there? The Lees answered that their property had two apartment units. In so answering, they excluded the propertys finished basement from their count.

Union Mutual deemed this answer to be a material misrepresentation because, in its view, the finished basement was an apartment unit, and therefore the property had a total of three apartment units.

On the basis of this purported misrepresentation, Union Mutual denied coverage and rescinded the policy. The Lees sued.

The federal court for the Eastern District of New York granted summary judgment in favor of the Lees on their breach of contract claim but in favor of Union Mutual on their deceptive business practices claim.

In granting the Lees summary judgment on their breach of contract claim, the district court concluded that the application question regarding the number of units was ambiguous; that a reasonable person in their position could have interpreted the question as the Lees did, namely, that the question referred only to units that are either occupied or could legally be occupied as apartments. Therefore, Union Mutual could not deny coverage and rescind the policy based on the Lees response to that question.

Union Mutual appealed but the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit agreed with the district court, noting that an answer to an ambiguous question on an application cannot be the basis of a claim of misrepresentation by and insurer. The threshold question of whether a provision in an insurance policy is ambiguous is a question of law to be determined by the court, the appeals court stated.

In its appeal, Union Mutual contended that under New York law, a question regarding the number of units unambiguously refers to the structural configuration of the building to be insured, or, in other words, the number of spaces in the building with its own kitchen, bathroom, and separate entrance. Union Mutual asserted that this is how cases applying New York law interpret the phrase, family dwelling.

But the appeals court was not persuaded, in part because Union Mutuals position relied upon the meaning of family dwelling, not apartment unit, and because some New York authorities examined the actual use of the premises at the time of the application or the loss, in addition to the structural configuration of the unit. The court said actual use of the Lees finished basement suggests that it was not an apartment unit because it was used only for storage purposes, never used as a residence, and never occupied.

Also, the court noted, the application for the insurance policy does not define apartment units. The court found that the question is readily susceptible to more than one reasonable meaning. For example, the question could refer to the number of spaces that legally could be occupied or rented out as apartments, or spaces with the minimum structural configuration necessary for an apartment, which includes a full bathroom, kitchen, bedroom, and a separate entryway

Union Mutual further argued that the district court erred in finding that a reasonable person in the Lees position could have interpreted the question to refer only to units that are either occupied or could legally be occupied as apartments, where there was no evidence of how they interpreted the question.

The appeals court dismissed that argument also. The reasonable person standard is an objective one and thus the district court was not required to determine the Lees subjective views on the question; it only needed to determine how a reasonable person in their position could have interpreted the question, which, the appeals court noted, is what the district court did.

Topics New York
A heated debate has emerged about the once-unimaginable shooting of a teacher by her 6-year-old student: How should the school district take care of the teacher?

Should she only get workers compensation for her serious physical injuries? Or does she deserve the chance to sue the school system for millions of dollars over claims that it failed to protect her?

Attorneys are likely to argue over those questions Friday in the Virginia city of Newport News, where Abby Zwerner is suing the public schools for $40 million. The former first-grade teacher was hospitalized for nearly two weeks and endured multiple surgeries after a bullet struck her hand and chest.

Zwerners lawyers are expected to ask a judge to allow her lawsuit to proceed with allegations of gross negligence against school administrators. The school board will argue for workers compensation, which provides up to more than 9 years of pay and a lifetime of medical care for Zwerner`s injuries.

She faces an uphill legal battle under Virginias uncommonly strict workers compensation law, said J. H. Verkerke, a University of Virginia law professor.

Virginia`s law covers allegations of negligence against employers as well as workplace-related assaults, Verkerke said. Lawsuits that might move forward in other states often falter in the Commonwealth.

To succeed, Zwerners lawyers must prove the shooting was unrelated to her job, even though she was shot in her classroom. Their challenge is to somehow make out that its personal, said Verkerke, who directs UVAs Program for Employment and Labor Law Studies.

In early January, the 6-year-old pulled out his mother`s handgun and shot Zwerner as she sat at a reading table. She rushed her students into the hallway before collapsing in the schools office.

Police have said the shooting was intentional. Zwerner claims school officials knew the boy had a history of random violence at school and home, including when he choked his kindergarten teacher.

Zwerners attorneys say workers` compensation doesn`t apply because a first- grade teacher would never anticipate getting shot: It was not an actual risk of her job.

Her job involved teaching six-year-old children, not exposing herself to criminal assault whenever she went to work, Zwerners lawyers writes in a brief filed last week.

The school board has failed to prove the shooting was job-related, Zwerners attorneys argue. The boys violence was random and aimed at everyone, both in and out of school.

He asserted that he was angry that people were picking on his friend, a motivation that had nothing to do with (Zwerner), her lawyers write without further elaboration. His motivation was a personal one.

The school board disagrees, writing that the shooting cannot be personal because 6-year-olds lack the capacity to form intent according to Virginia law.

Children under seven are conclusively presumed to be incapable of crime,' the school boards lawyers write in a brief, citing the state`s Supreme Court.

The lawyers question how the shooting could be anything but work-related. Zwerner was exposed to this alleged negligence only because of her employment at the school, they write.

The school board also points out that the boy was suspended for intentionally breaking Zwerners cellphone before the shooting. Zwerners own lawsuit implies that he became angry about that suspension resulting in the shooting, school board lawyers write.

Everything about this incident arises from (Zwerners) employment as a teacher,  the school board argues. There is no allegation  nor could any such allegation be credibly made  that (Zwerner) had any personal relationship with (the student).

Many in Virginias legal community will be surprised if Zwerner`s lawsuit proceeds, said Verkerke, the UVA law professor. And if it does move forward, the school board will almost certainly appeal given the scope of the state`s workers` compensation act.

Workers` compensation laws were deemed a grand bargain in the 20th century between injured workers and employers: Workers lost the ability to sue in most cases, protecting employers from enormous payouts. But people who were injured gained much easier access to compensation  lost pay and medical coverage  without having to prove fault.

Its obviously horrifying, Verkerke said of the shooting. The reality though is that workplace violence is a tragically common occurrence. This is an exceptional case because the assailant is only six years old  I dont think Ive ever seen a case like that.

Copyright 2023 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Lawsuits Workers' Compensation Talent Virginia
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 27, ARMENPRESS. Minister of Economy of the Republic of Armenia, Vahan Kerobyan, had a meeting with Minister of State in the Department for Business and Trade, Timothy Minto, in London.

Kerobyan informed on his Facebook page, adding that issues related to trade, services, and investments were discussed during the meeting.

"We have also discussed the possibility of organizing direct flights between Armenia and Great Britain," wrote Kerobyan.
The New Hampshire Insurance Department announced the promotion of Keith Nyhan as the deputy commissioner. Nyhan has served as director of the Consumer Services unit since 2007.

Nyhan brings 28 years of experience in the financial services and insurance sectors to his new position. Nyhans career began in the U.S. Army, where he reached the rank of Sergeant, serving as an electronic warfare specialist and earning a certification as an Arabic linguist from the Defense Language Institute. He then joined John Hancock Financial Services in 1997 as a customer service representative and later a compliance director.

He began his tenure at the NHID as the examiner in the Life and Health Market Conduct unit, where he worked in compliance management, consumer advocacy, and regulatory oversight. In his role as director of the Consumer Services unit, he has overseen the recovery of $33 million for consumers.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Russian from the College of the Holy Cross and an Associate of Arts in Accounting from McIntosh College,
The three incidents that resulted in damage to a gas pipeline and two telecom cables between Estonia, Finland and Sweden are related, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said.

Finnish police leading the pipeline investigation have named the Hong-Kong-flagged container carrier NewNew Polar Bear as the prime suspect in damaging the Balticconnector Finland-Estonia gas pipeline early on Oct. 8.

A large anchor was found near the pipeline, and the investigators believe the pipe was broken as a ship dragged it across the sea bed.

Probe of Damaged Baltic Sea Pipeline, Telecoms Cable Focuses on Chinese-Owned Ship

Two telecom cables connecting Estonia to Finland and Sweden were also damaged at about the same time. Tallinn is investigating the cables incidents.

In the case of the Estonia-Finland cable damage, it is also focusing on the Hong Kong vessel, and on Thursday evening Kallas said all three incidents were likely connected.

We have reason to believe that the cases of Balticconnector and the communication cables are related, she said in a statement. No version (of events) can be confirmed or denied regarding the Estonian communication cables.

Accident or Sabotage?

One of the key questions investigators are still trying to answer is whether the incident was accidental or deliberate.

In Finland a top defense official told Reuters that while subsea cable ruptures are quite common worldwide due to negligence or poor seamanship, the pipeline incident was really suspicious and not a routine case.

There are several factors related to this that ring alarm bells, Janne Kuusela, the director general of the Finnish defense ministry said in an interview, without giving specifics.

Has there been some kind of a state actor behind this and on what kind of mandate? These things need to be verified before any robust counter-action could be taken, he said.

Reuters has reported that two vessels, the NewNew Polar Bear and the Russia-flagged Sevmorput, were present at all three sites around the time of the damage, according to data from MarineTraffic, a ship-tracking and maritime analytics provider.

The NewNew Polar Bear sailed over the Estonia-Sweden cable 133km (82 miles) before reaching the pipeline damage site. It then crossed the Estonia-Finland cable 32km (20 miles) after the gas pipeline, according to MarineTraffic.

NATO has stepped up its patrols in the Baltic Sea after the incidents, and the Norwegian Navy has shadowed the NewNew Polar Bear as it sailed over the countrys key gas pipelines.

China said it was willing to provide the necessary information in accordance with international law. Russia has dismissed as rubbish the idea that it was involved.

(Reporting by Andrius Sytas in Vilnius and Anne Kauranen in Helsinki, additional reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis in Oslo; writing by Andrius Sytas and Gwladys Fouche; editing by David Evans and Hugh Lawson)

Topics Numbers
Britain on Thursday cautioned the public about buying fake weight-loss pens claiming to contain Novo Nordisks diabetes drug Ozempic or weight-loss drug Saxenda after reports of a very small number of hospitalizations.

The warning from the countrys medicines regulator comes days after several people were hospitalized in Austria after using suspected fake versions of Ozempic amid a Europe-wide hunt for imitations of the hugely popular drug.

We are advising all members of the public not to use any pre-filled weight-loss pens they may have bought online and instead to report it to us so that we can investigate and take any necessary action, UKs Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said in a statement.

Serious side-effects reported in those hospitalized, including hypoglycaemic shock and coma, indicate that the fake pens may contain insulin rather than semaglutide, the agency said.

The Danish maker of the drug, Novo Nordisk, earlier this month flagged a surge in online offers of counterfeit Ozempic as well as its weight-loss drug Wegovy, both based on semaglutide, as it scrambles to catch up with overwhelming demand.

British Health Minister Will Quince said in a statement, The MHRA have our full support in cracking down on these illegal online suppliers to ensure that patients are protected.

MHRA said it has seized 369 potentially fake Ozempic pens since January this year and has also received reports of fake Saxenda pens that have been obtained by members of the public in the UK through non-legitimate routes.

Last week, the European Medicines Agency had also warned about the fake weight-loss pens in the European Union and UK with labels in German.

(Reporting by Pushkala Aripaka in Bengaluru; editing by Shailesh Kuber and Shilpi Majumdar)
A poison specialist and former medical resident at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota is charged with fatally poisoning his wife, a 32-year-old pharmacist who died days after she went to a hospital in August with stomach distress.

Authorities say Connor Bowman, 30, tried to stop the autopsy on his wife, Betty Bowman, arguing she should be cremated immediately and claiming she had a rare illness, which hospital tests did not confirm. The medical examiner`s office halted the order for cremation, citing suspicious circumstances, according to a criminal complaint, and an autopsy showed Betty Bowman died from toxic effects of colchicine, a medicine used to treat gout.

Medical records indicate she was not diagnosed with gout and had not been prescribed the medicine, the complaint states, adding that Connor Bowman had been researching the drug prior to his wife`s death. Six days before she was hospitalized, he had also converted his wife`s weight to kilograms and multiplied that by 0.8, with 0.8 mg/kg considered to be the lethal dosage rate for colchicine, according to the complaint.

Connor Bowman was charged Monday with second-degree murder. He was arrested Friday and was still in custody as of Tuesday. His attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press.

Mayo Clinic spokesperson Amanda Dyslin released a statement Tuesday that did not identify Bowman by name, but indicated he was a resident at the hospital.

We are aware of the recent arrest of a former Mayo Clinic resident on charges unrelated to his Mayo Clinic responsibilities. The residents training at Mayo Clinic ended earlier this month, the statement said. Dyslin did not say why Connor Bowmans training at Mayo Clinic ended.

Betty Bowman was also a pharmacist at Mayo Clinic.

According to the criminal complaint, the Southeast Minnesota Medical Examiner`s Office alerted police to the suspicious death of Betty Bowman on Aug. 21, a day after she died.

She had been admitted to a hospital in Rochester on Aug. 16 with severe gastrointestinal distress and dehydration where her condition deteriorated rapidly, the complaint said. Her initial symptoms were similar to food poisoning and were treated that way, but they continued to worsen. She experienced cardiac issues, fluid in her lungs and organ failure.

While Betty Bowman was in the hospital, Connor Bowman suggested she was suffering from a rare illness called hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis, or HLH. Hospital tests came back inconclusive for HLH, but Connor Bowman told multiple people that she died from that disease, according to the complaint.

He also told the medical examiner`s office that Betty Bowman`s death was natural and that she did not want to be a cadaver, and therefore, the autopsy should be canceled, the complaint said. He asked an investigator at the medical examiner`s office if the toxicology analysis would be more thorough than the analysis done at the hospital.

The night before Betty Bowman went to the hospital, she told a man __ identified as SS in the complaint __ that she was drinking at home with Connor Bowman. The next morning, she told SS she was sick, possibly from a drink that was mixed into a large smoothie.

Connor Bowman was a poison specialist and answered calls about poisons, using devices from the University of Kansas for his work, according to the complaint. A woman from the University of Kansas told investigators that Connor Bowman had been researching colchicine, the drug used to treat gout, though he had not received any calls about colchicine, nor had any other employees.

Investigators found that Connor Bowman had searched internet browsing history: can it be used in court? and delete amazon data police on Aug. 5. He did calculations that match the lethal dosage rate for colchicine on Aug. 10.

The Minnesota Department of Health found colchicine in Betty Bowman`s blood and urine samples that were taken at the hospital, and the medical examiner determined the cause of death to be toxic effects of colchicine, the complaint says.

One woman told investigators that the Bowmans had been talking about divorce, and another told authorities that Connor Bowman said he was going to get $500, 000 in life insurance from his wife`s death, the complaint says. Authorities found a receipt for a $450,000 bank deposit inside his home.

He is scheduled to appear in court on Nov. 1.

Copyright 2023 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Minnesota
Sentry Insurance in Wisconsin announced additional donations of $350,000 to bolster the ongoing Maui wildfire recovery efforts.

The contribution brings the companys total giving to Maui non-profits for direct wildfire relief to $1 million. As the venue for the PGA TOURs The Sentry (formerly the Sentry Tournament of Champions), the island holds significance for Sentry, which has served as the events title sponsor since 2018.

Sentry leaders donate to four Maui non-profitsMaui United Way, Maui Food Bank, University of Hawaii-Maui, and Boys & Girls Club of Mauiduring a visit to the island earlier this month to better understand the needs of the community.

The breakdown of the donations is as follows:

$100,000 to Maui United Way

$100,000 to Maui Food Bank

$100,000 to University of Hawaii-Maui College

$50,000 to Boys & Girls Clubs of Maui

The donations to the University of Hawaii-Maui College and Boys & Girls Clubs of Maui each include a $10,000 match on donations by the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and Boys and Girls Club of Portage County, respectively. The four organizations are part of Sentrys Connected Communities initiative, which launched in 2022 and serves to connect Maui with the city of Stevens Point, Wis., where Sentry is headquartered.

Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters Wildfire Wisconsin Hawaii
The Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation (IICF), a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping communities and enriching lives, hosted the annual IICF Week of Giving, a celebration of the insurance industrys year-round dedication to volunteerism, from October 1421.

According to a press release, thousands of insurance professionals gathered across the US and UK to participate in service projects and give back to their communities.

Ours is an industry committed to volunteerism and philanthropy, and were proud to celebrate our collective impact during the IICF Week of Giving, said Bill Ross, CEO of IICF. We see the commitment of insurance professionals giving back through IICF each year, and as we approach the thirtieth anniversary of the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation in 2024, we are energized and excited to continue offering creative and meaningful volunteer projects that benefit our nonprofit partners, neighbors and communities.

IICF reports that the Week of Giving provides essential resources and support to assist causes such as education, safety, food and housing insecurity, disaster preparedness, children at risk and more. Major projects from this years philanthropic celebration included:

An early literacy event with nonprofit partner Breakthrough in Chicago. Approximately 60 children between ages 2 and 5 were guided through interactive literacy activities by 40 volunteers from several insurance companies. Open Books, another IICF nonprofit partner, donated books for the kids to take home and provided a childrens storyteller at the event, which concluded with a group dance party.

More than eight Week of Giving volunteer projects across multiple office locations in the Northeast US. Post & Schell, a board member company of IICFs Philadelphia Chapter, organized the projects across multiple office locations with Manna, Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, Gift of Life Howies House, The Lehigh Valley Humane Society, Angels in Motion, Family House, Susquehanna Service Dogs, and the IICF Share the Warmth Coat Drive. Since 2017, Post & Schells Week of Giving contributions have benefited more than 50 charitable organizations, helped diverse communities and directly helped people in need.

The washing of more than 45,000 headstones of fallen US servicemen and servicewomen at the Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston national cemeteries. A record number of nearly 600 insurance leaders in Texas joined together in the two cities in what has become a tradition over the past decade to honor fallen soldiers and their families. Volunteers representing more than 32 companies in the IICF Southeast Division cleaned the headstones.

A food drive in Seattle and Portland that provided more than 2,000 meals to Sunshine Division (OR) and Rainier Valley Food Bank (WA). IICFs Pacific Northwest Chapter volunteers also packed bags and sorted donations. Leaders delivered an Insurance 101 presentation, sharing why insurance is needed and what an insurance career can look like, to Summer Search scholars and young adults. Summer Search works with resilient low-income high school students and inspires them to become responsible and altruistic leaders by providing year-round mentoring, college advising and more.

One-on-one CV and interview sessions with six women supported by Womens Inclusive Team, an IICF grant recipient charity that provides training and community services to ethnic women in East London. Members of IICF UKs Associate Board also joined with WIT volunteers to make dozens of samosas for an upcoming art event hosted by the charity.

IICFs 2024 Week of Giving is scheduled for Oct. 1219, 2024.

Learn more and register for IICFs volunteering projects throughout the year at http://www.volunteer.iicf.org/.

About the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation (IICF)

The Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation (IICF) is a unique nonprofit that unites the collective strengths of the insurance industry to help communities and enrich lives through grants, volunteer service and leadership. Established in 1994, IICF has served as the philanthropic voice and foundation of the insurance industry for close to thirty years, contributing more than $45 million in community grants along with over 325,000 volunteer hours by more than 115,000 industry professionals. IICF reinvests locally where funds are raised, serving hundreds of charities and nonprofit organizations for maximum community impact.

IICF is a registered nonprofit organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the IRS code. Learn more at www.iicf.org.
Sam Bankman-Fried, testifying in his own defense at his fraud trial on Friday, acknowledged that a lot of people got hurt when the FTX cryptocurrency exchange he founded collapsed, but said he did not defraud anyone or take customer funds.

Shortly after taking the witness stand in Manhattan federal court, Bankman-Fried said he made a number of small mistakes and a number of larger mistakes while running the now-bankrupt exchange. The biggest mistake, he said, was not implementing a dedicated risk management team.

We thought that we might be able to build the best product on the market, Bankman-Fried said. It turned out basically the opposite of that. A lot of people got hurt  customers, employees  and the company ended up in bankruptcy.

Prosecutors accuse Bankman-Fried of using FTX customer funds to prop up his crypto-focused hedge fund, Alameda Research, make speculative venture investments and donate more than $100 million to U.S. political campaigns. He also faces charges of scheming to cheat Alamedas lenders and FTX investors.

He has pleaded not guilty.

Bankman-Frieds trial, which began on Oct. 3, is drawing to a close nearly a year after FTX collapsed amid a wave of customer withdrawals. The company declared bankruptcy in November 2022 and Bankman-Fried was indicted the following month.

His testimony marked the first time the dozen jurors and five alternates have heard directly from the 31-year-old former billionaire after 12 trial days.

Bankman-Fried, who was jailed in August after Kaplan found he likely tampered with witnesses, wore a suit and spoke with two water bottles placed in front of him on the witness stand. The former mogul once known for wearing shorts and T-shirts and sporting an unkempt mop of curly locks cut his hair before his trial began.

Responding to questions posed by his defense lawyer Mark Cohen, Bankman-Fried spoke in calm, measured tones during the first portion of his testimony as he recounted founding Alameda in 2017, shortly after graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, despite knowing little about crypto.

But Bankman-Fried  who had studied physics and worked as a quantitative trader at Jane Street  said he saw opportunities for arbitrage in the market for digital assets. He said Alamedas first office was in a small Airbnb in Berkeley, California, before he later moved the firm to Hong Kong.

We wanted to be under the radar at that point in time, he said on the stand, adding he named the hedge fund after the California county where it was founded in part so competitors would not discover what they were doing.

Jurors have heard from three of his closest confidantes at FTX and Alameda, all of whom have pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. They testified earlier this month that they committed financial crimes at Bankman-Frieds behest.

For criminal defendants, taking the stand is a risky proposition because it opens them up to potentially probing cross-examination by prosecutors.

But given Bankman-Frieds penchant for risk, legal experts say he likely viewed taking the stand as his best shot to counter the allegations made by members of his inner circle, which were backed up by spreadsheets the three said demonstrated how customer funds were stolen and text messages in which they discussed FTXs shortfall of funds with Bankman-Fried.
The toll from a series of crashes on a Louisiana interstate rose to eight dead and 63 injured, a day after a super fog of marsh fire smoke and dense fog snared more than 160 vehicles in the fiery pileup, authorities said.

Lance Scott was among the many drivers caught in the wreckage on Interstate 55 west of New Orleans. The 51-year-old had been driving his daughter to the airport Monday morning when the fog thickened like a white-out on a ski slope. He slammed on his brakes, narrowly avoiding the cars in front of him while hearing the most horrendous clank of metal behind him.

It was, Bang. Bang. Bang.` It just went on for probably 45 seconds, Scott said. As every second went by the clanking of the metal got a little bit fainter, which told me it was backing up, so I knew there was layers and layers of collisions.

Scott turned to his 24-year-old daughter, an intensive care unit nurse, and said to her, Theres going to be a lot of people who need help and I need you to go out and do what you do.

Amid the ominous crackling of flames in the wreckage, the fog slowly lifted afterward to reveal the extent of the pileup. Scott and his daughter helped people out of their cars, some with noticeably broken collarbones. One had to wait for first responders to bring the Jaws of Life.

An estimated 168 vehicles were involved in the crashes, Louisiana State Police said. By Tuesday evening the number of fatalities had increased from seven to eight and the number of reported injured more than doubled, Louisiana State Police said in a news release.

At least 63 people were injured, with injuries ranging from minor to critical, others sought medical aid on their own, authorities said in the update.

It is unclear whether it was the most significant crash ever handled by Louisiana State Police, given the number of vehicles and fatalities involved, state police Sgt. Kate Stegall told The Associated Press.

However, I can tell you that this is an extensive and devastating incident, resulting in loss of lives and profound repercussions for both the community and first responders, Stegall said.

The crashes began before 9 a.m. Monday along a one-mile stretch of the elevated interstate, which passes over swamp and open water between Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Maurepas, State Police Sgt. Kate Stegall said in a news briefing.

The crashes left a long stretch of mangled and scorched cars, trucks and tractor- trailers. Crushed vehicles were piled atop each other, blackened by flames. Some people got out of their vehicles and stood on the side of the road or on the roofs of their cars looking on in disbelief at the disaster. Others cried out for help.

Scott said there was great camaraderie as people sprang into action, helping others. With drivers warning others about a nearby fire from the crash, people moved away from the wreckage. They waited for 45 minutes for paramedics to reach them and for transportation off the bridge.

Clarencia Patterson Reed, 46, was driving to Manchac with her wife and niece and saw people waving for her to stop, but once she stopped, two other vehicles hit her car from behind and the side, she told The Associated Press. Patterson Reed escaped from her side of the car, but her wife was pinned inside, her side and a leg injured. Others stepped in to help, she said.

I just thank God, she said. There was a casualty a few cars ahead of us.

Another driver Christopher Coll, said he was already braking when a pickup truck drove up on top of my work trailer and took me for a ride.

Coll could smell smoke as he heard cars crashing and tires popping. He was able to kick open his passenger door to escape and then helped others, pulling one person out a car window.

School buses were summoned to transport stranded motorists from the accident sites.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards asked for prayers for those hurt and killed Monday and issued a call for blood donors.

Crews removed the last vehicles Tuesday afternoon and began a cleanup of debris, diesel and other chemicals littering the area, authorities said. Additionally, the states transportation department identified multiple areas requiring bridge repairs as inspections continued.

The National Weather Service said there were multiple wetland fires in the region Monday and smoke from the fires mixed with fog to create a super fog.

Parts of the highway reopened Tuesday afternoon. But hazardous driving conditions Tuesday morning prompted several schools in the area to close or delay openings as tow trucks continued to haul debris off of the interstate.

___

Associated Press photographer Gerald Herbert and writer Beatrice Dupuy contributed to this report. McGill reported from New Orleans and Cline from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Copyright 2023 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Louisiana
A Colorado judge chided a welding company that tried to pay off a $23,500 settlement with a subcontractor by sending the money in loose coins that weighed 3 tons.

Judge Joseph Findley ruled Monday that JMF Enterprises acted maliciously and in bad faith by delivering a custom made metal box containing the coins that was too heavy to be carried in the freight elevator at the offices for Fired Up Fabrications` lawyers, let alone with the forklift required to carry it, according to court filings.

Findley ordered JMF to pay by a more conventional method like a check. He also said JMF would now have to write a larger one, to pay an extra estimated $8,092 to cover legal fees for the ensuing dispute over whether it had the right to pay in coins.

One of the subcontractors lawyers, Danielle Beem, told Denver`s KCNC-TV, which first reported the judge`s order, that the coin payment was a symbolic middle finger.

Lawyers for JMF said the settlement agreement did not specify how the money was to be paid and said it had no intention of harassing Fired Up Fabrications, noting that both parties were very close friends before the lawsuit.

The form of the settlement in this case is a reference to their shared career field and is intended to satisfy the settlement, albeit in an uncommon form, they said in a September court filing.

Findley said photographic evidence showed JMF apparently took the extra step of taking coins separated in boxes by denomination and then dumping them loosely and randomly into the container.

The amount of time and expense required to remedy the payment attempt would have the effect of significantly reducing and offsetting the net amount of the settlement to be received by Plaintiff in the form of costs and inconvenience, Findley said.

Copyright 2023 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Legislation Colorado
Federal prosecutors said this week that the captain of a scuba dive boat should be held responsible for the deaths of 34 people killed in a fire aboard the vessel in 2019, while the captain`s defense attorneys said the boats owner is to blame in the deadliest maritime disaster in recent U.S. history.

The conflicting accounts were presented Wednesday during opening statements in the Los Angeles trial of Jerry Boylan, who is charged with one count of misconduct or neglect of ship officer, a pre-Civil War statute colloquially known as seamans manslaughter that was designed to hold steamboat captains and crew responsible for maritime disasters.

Boylan faces 10 years behind bars if convicted.

The 70-year-old has pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing. Boylan sat silently in the courtroom as roughly two dozen family members filling three rows in the gallery heard about their loved ones` last moments alive. Boylan and four crew members survived the Sept. 2, 2019, inferno aboard the Conception, while 33 passengers and a deckhand perished.

The fire spurred changes to maritime regulations, congressional reform and civil lawsuits. Those on board the 75-foot (23-meter) boat included a new deckhand who had landed her dream job, an environmental scientist who did research in Antarctica, a globe-trotting couple, a Singaporean data scientist, and three sisters, their father and his wife.

The boat was anchored off the Channel Islands, 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Santa Barbara, when it caught fire before dawn on the final day of a three-day excursion, sinking less than 100 feet (30 meters) from shore.

Throughout the excursion, Boylan failed to post the required roving night watchman and never properly trained his crew in firefighting, prosecutor Matthew O`Brien said.

The captain was the master of the vessel, O`Brien said, and the lives and safety of those aboard were his responsibility.

Boylan, after making a mayday call to the Coast Guard, was the first one to jump overboard, while 34 people were trapped in a bunkroom below deck by smoke and flames, the prosecutor said.

The 34 people who were killed didn`t have a chance to jump overboard, O`Brien told the jury. They were waiting to be rescued. But nobody rescued them.

While coroners reports list smoke inhalation as the cause of death, what exactly started the fire before dawn remains unknown.

Boylans federal public defender, Georgina Wakefield, blamed the boat`s owner, Glen Fritzler, who had designed the Conception and captained the vessel for more than four decades. Fritzler had trained Boylan himself when the latter joined as a deckhand in 1983.

Fritzler and his wife, Dana Fritzler, own Truth Aquatics, Inc., the company that operated the Conception and two other scuba dive boats.

Wakefield argued that Glen Fritzler was responsible for failing to train the crew in firefighting or other safety measures and creating an environment where no captain who worked for him posted a roving watch, calling it the Fritzler way.

The same thing could have happened on any of the Fritzler boats, she said, noting that the Coast Guard had certified Truth Aquatics` records for years.

During the fire, Wakefield said, Boylan was thwarted by 15-foot (4.57-meter) flames consuming the Conception, making it impossible to reach those trapped below.

You`re going to see that there was no way out, and there was no way in, either,  she told the jurors.

Fritzler`s attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. The couple has not commented publicly besides an interview with Santa Barbara local TV station KEYT shortly after the fire.

We`re all so saddened, Glen Fritzler told the TV station`s reporter at the time.

Three days after the blaze, Truth Aquatics filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles under a pre-Civil War provision of maritime law that allows it to limit its liability to the remains of the boat, which was a total loss. The time-tested legal maneuver has been successfully employed by the owners of the Titanic and other vessels, and requires the Fritzlers to show they were not at fault.

That case is pending.

The National Transportation Safety Board blamed Boylan for the tragedy, saying his failure to post a night watchman allowed the fire to quickly spread undetected. The agency also faulted the Coast Guard for not enforcing the roving watchman requirement and recommended it develop a program to ensure boats with overnight passengers have a watchman.

Victims families have sued the Coast Guard in one of several ongoing civil suits.

At the time of the fire, no owner, operator or charterer had been cited or fined for failure to post a roving patrol since 1991, Coast Guard records showed.

The Coast Guard has since enacted new, congressionally mandated regulations regarding fire detection systems, extinguishers and escape routes, though it has yet to implement others.

Copyright 2023 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics California
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 27, ARMENPRESS. Israel offered the Hamas movement a ceasefire in exchange for the release of all hostages and the release of the bodies of dead citizens of the Jewish state from Gaza, Al Arabiya reports with reference to sources.

According to sources, Israel and Hamas, with the mediation of Qatar and Egypt, are negotiating the release of the hostages.

Israel offered a ceasefire in exchange for the release of all hostages and the transfer of the bodies of the dead Israelisthe message says.

It is emphasized that Hamas rejected this proposal from the Israeli side and also demanded the release of Palestinian prisoners.

In addition, it is reported that Hamas asked for a long-term truce, but representatives of the Jewish state refused to respond to this proposal.
Minnesota - October 27, 2023 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Raoul Pal, the founder of Real Vision, says Ethereum (ETH) competitor Solana (SOL) will kick off a crypto summer in 2024. The macroeconomics expert told his nearly 1 million followers on social media that Solana looks to be shaping up in a classic bullish pattern. Meanwhile, InQubeta (QUBE), a groundbreaking new AI altcoin has garnered significant attention in its presale among Ethereum users eager to explore its promising possibilities.

InQubeta is a crypto-AI project that seeks to facilitate connections between AI startups and investors. Its unique features, including a deflationary mechanism and extensive services, have garnered significant interest among investors. Currently, in the presale phase, experts in the cryptocurrency field are predicting that QUBE is the top crypto to buy for substantial gains both this year and in 2024.

This article will examine the InQubeta presale and why Raoul Pal sees Solana dominating the crypto market next year.

Visit InQubeta Presale

InQubeta (QUBE) Presale: The Best AI Crypto Investment

InQubeta is the best crypto to buy in the AI revolution and offers a unique platform for fractional investment in AI startups using its QUBE token. The presale of QUBE has sparked significant interest among Ethereum investors, who are actively purchasing a substantial number of tokens. With the presale already securing over $3.8 million, QUBE is positioned as a leading player in the crypto-AI revolution, presenting an enticing investment opportunity.

The QUBE token is currently in its fourth stage, with a price of $0.0133. Early adopters have the opportunity to secure their shares before the official launch. It is anticipated that the minimum price at its major exchange debut will be around $0.0308, attracting interest from Ethereum investors who see a significant potential for gains. Over 414 million tokens have already been sold, offering investors the chance to make substantial profits through the best crypto investment platform.

The QUBE presale is divided into 10 stages, providing investors with various opportunities to participate in the best crypto investment ecosystem. Investors can have added peace of mind and confidence due to the platform's verification by Hacken and Block audits. The popularity of InQubeta within the crypto community can be attributed to the distinctive features offered by the QUBE presale, including a vesting period and comprehensive project accounting. Tokens will be issued over a 12-week span, ensuring a stable and sustainable market.

The deflationary nature of the QUBE token makes it a top crypto to buy for diversification. With a 2% buy and sell tax going to a burning wallet and a 5% buy and sell tax allocated to a dedicated reward pool, holders earn prizes through staking. This feature makes it an appealing investment entry for those who believe in the growth potential of AI and technology startups.

The QUBE token serves as a governance token, granting holders the ability to actively participate in decision-making processes on the platform. As more investors and startups get involved with InQubeta, the demand for QUBE is expected to rise, presenting potential value growth opportunities for investors. This aspect solidifies QUBE as the best crypto to buy for a portfolio boost.

Visit InQubeta Presale

Solana's (SOL): Raul Pal Foresees 66% Gain, Backed by 'Crypto Summer' Optimism.

Solana is about to test a very significant pattern. According to an experienced macro investor, Raul Pal, if this stock does pass its "test," it could begin a 66% gain in value. Raul Pal's positive attitude resembles his current confidence in SOL.

A 'crypto summer' is also something that Raul Pal is optimistic about for 2024. He notes that the future growth of Solana might be attributed to its recent strategic partnerships. Interestingly, worldwide payment service provider Visa unveiled a USDC article on the SOL platform that proved quick in transaction speeds.

Conclusion

With the recent prediction Raul Pal gave on Solana, it seems poised for significant profit next year. Amidst this, InQubeta is changing the crypto landscape with its innovative technology and dedicated team. The presale offers individuals a chance to participate in the crypto-AI revolution. Users can visit the site, join the project, and purchase tokens accepted as currency in this venture, such as ETH, BTC, or USDT. Investors are rewarded with airdropped tokens, including bonus ones, after the initial sale which enhances their investment prospects.

Visit InQubeta Presale

Join The InQubeta Communities

Contact Details

Solomon

marketing@inqubeta.ai

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October 27, 2023 (Investorideas.com Newswire) A new study has revealed that BAE Systems has the most searched FTSE 100 stock in 2023 in the FTSE Industrials sector.

Investing comparison website Investing Reviews analysed Google search data for the stocks of each FTSE 100 company by combining each company's stock code alongside various stock related terms to determine which stock with the Industrials FTSE sector designation has been the most searched of 2023 so far.

BAE Systems (BA.) tops the list for the most searched FTSE 100 Industrials stock of 2023, with an average of 961,349 monthly searches in the UK. The defence company's stock is the most searched in cities such as Glasgow (27,080 average monthly searches) and Edinburgh (24,827 average monthly searches). BAE Systems was the most searched stock in 20 out of the 58 surveyed UK locales.

Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) is the second most searched FTSE 100 Industrials stock in 2023, with 92,121 average monthly UK searches. The aerospace company was the most searched stock in Derby, with 12,590 average monthly searches.

Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) has the third most searched FTSE 100 Industrials stock in 2023, with 21,728 average monthly searches. The machinery company's highest number of searches came from London, with 15,182 average monthly searches.

With 12,221 average monthly searches, IMI (IMI) is the fourth most searched FTSE 100 Industrials stock in 2023. The electronic equipment company had the most searches in London, with 3,738 average monthly searches.

Weir Group (WEIR) is the fifth most searched FTSE 100 Industrials stock in 2023, with 10,831 average monthly searches. The industrial engineering company also saw that most of its searches come from London, with 3,853 average monthly searches from the capital.

Simon Jones, CEO of Investing Reviews, said, "It is always useful to know which stocks are generating interest, as it may provide insight into which stocks may experience higher trading volumes and price swings.

BAE Systems has the most searched FTSE 100 stock in 2023 and is the most searched stock in 20 out of 58 of the surveyed UK locales. This stands to reason, as BAE Systems' stock has experienced a large increase in price since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022. This is due to BAE Systems being one of the UK's primary defence companies, who have also produced a large part of the equipment the UK has given to Ukraine in military aid."

Table showing the most searched FTSE 100 stocks in 2023 with FTSE Industry classification Industrials

Credit to http://investingreviews.co.uk/

Source: Google Keyword Planner

Methodology: Google keyword planner data was taken for a list of FTSE 100 stock symbols, following the template, e.g. BP. shares, BP. share price, etc. - the data showcases an aggregated total of average monthly search volume for each company since Jan 2023.

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Source: Streetwise Reports

October 27, 2023 (Investorideas.com Newswire) This company's new processing plant at its silver project in Mexico has achieved full capacity. See why one analyst said the company is "our pick for a quality silver name."

MAG Silver Corp.'s (MAG:TSX; MAG:NYSE American) new processing plant at its 44%-owned Juanicipio mine in Zacatecas, Mexico, achieved full capacity of 4,000 tonnes per day (tpd) in September, the company said as it announced third-quarter production figures.

No feed was supplied to nearby plants owned by joint operator Fresnillo Plc. in both August and September, enabling MAG to make the "successful transition to a fully independent producer," the company said in a release.

"We are impressed with the delivery of Q3/23 operating results ahead of our expectations," PI Financial analyst Chris Thompson wrote on Wednesday. "We note a slight drop in processing due to material becoming solely processed through Juanicipio, though this was offset by higher head grades. With reliance on Fresnillo's Fresnillo and Saucito plants now in the rearview mirror, we see the JV as well-positioned to deliver Q4/23."

Thompson, who continued to rate the stock a Buy with a target price of CA$19.15 per share, wrote that he anticipated "longer periods operating at nameplate capacity across Q4/23."

Analyst Kevin O'Halloran of BMO Capital Markets wrote Wednesday that BMO had updated its production estimates from Juanicipio to reflect improving recoveries in the coming quarters.

"Now that nameplate production is achieved, MAG indicated that the next focus will be on optimization," wrote O'Halloran, who rated the stock Outperform with a CA$23.50 per share target price. "We expect that fine-tuning at the plant will yield improving recoveries over the coming quarters."

MAG President and Chief Executive Officer George Paspalas said, "Juanicipio reaching its design capacity and transitioning to a stand-alone operation is a testament to the team's dedication and hard work. This significant step forward not only showcases Juanicipio's place as a cornerstone asset for MAG but also solidifies MAG's stature as a premier silver producer. Our focus is now on ongoing project optimization leading to robust cash flow generation and delivering exceptional value to our stakeholders."

The Catalyst: Beating Expectations

As reported by Fresnillo, a total of 322,249 tonnes of mineralized material was processed across the Juanicipio and Saucito plants during the quarter. The average silver head grade was 523 grams per tonne (g/t). Preliminary production estimates for the quarter, before any adjustments from offtake agreements, totaled 4.8 million ounces silver (Moz Ag) and 9,444 ounces gold (Au).

"MAG delivered 9.4k oz Au, beating our expectation at 8.5k oz Au," Thompson wrote. "Gold grade milled was also significantly higher than expected (1.32 g/ t vs. 0.98 g/t E)."

MAG said it expected to release its comprehensive financial and operational results on November 10.

"We expect these strong (but in line) operating results to translate into FCF (free cash flow) for MAG when the Q3 financials (are) released," wrote Stifel analyst Stephen Soock, who rated the stock a Buy.

For the company's second-quarter earnings, MAG reported a net income of US$19.4 million, or US$0.19 per share, for the three months ending June 30, vs. US$7.6 million or US$0.08 per share for the same three months in 2022.

Cormark Securities analyst Nicolas Dion noted that the ramp-up at Juanicipio "has gone very well," and he predicted strong cash flow generation from the project.

"Despite this, MAG is trading at the low end of its range," wrote Dion, who rated the stock a Buy with a US$24 per share target price. "We see having Fresnillo as the operator as a key advantage, and the transition to full-scale production in H2/23 could be a catalyst to drive the multiple higher. MAG is our pick for a quality silver name."

Focus Shifts to Optimization

MAG is mining the Bonanza zone of the Valdecanas vein system in the Zacatecas state of Mexico. A preliminary economic assessment (PEA) in 2017 estimated a 19-year mine life.

The company's focus is turning from construction to optimization at the plant, analyst Craig Hutchison of TD Securities wrote.

"With all major construction work now complete, the operation team is looking to improve and optimize the mine to achieve and potentially exceed design capacities," wrote Hutchison, who has rated MAG a Speculative Buy with a CA$24 per share target price. "We expect MAG to start receiving its share (44%) of dividends from 2024."

Analyst Brian MacArthur of Raymond James wrote that those dividends would make the stock even more attractive.

"We believe that MAG is one of the better options for investors looking for exposure to silver," MacArthur wrote, rating the stock Outperform with a target of CA$23 per share.

Canaccord Genuity analyst Lucas Pamatat expected the mill to operate at capacity "going forward," forecasting annual production of about 21 Moz Ag.

"With the mill now ramped up, we continue to believe that ore will be processed solely at the Juanicipio mill," wrote Pamatat, who kept a Speculative Buy rating on the stock with a target price of CA$23 per share.

H.C. Wainwright & Co. analyst Heiko F. Ihle has instituted a Buy rating on the stock with a US$20.50 per share target price.[OWNERSHIP_CHART-536]

"Following the successful commissioning period of Juanicipio's processing facility, the operation continues to perform in line with expectations," Ihle wrote.

Ownership and Share Structure

Institutions own 70% of MAG, and 30% is retail, according to the company.

Top institutional shareholders include BlackRock Asset Management at 10.1%, Juanicipio project operator Fresnillo Plc. with 9.1%, Van Eck Associates (ETF) at 9.1%, First Eagle Investment Management at 5.6%, ETF Managers Group LLC at 5.3%, Eric Sprott 4.4%, Sprott Asset Management at 3.2%, the company said.

MAG Silver has a market cap of CA$ 1.51 billion. It has 102.9 million shares outstanding, according to TSX Infosuite. It trades in a 52-week range of US$22.96 and US$13.39.

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Soaring demand for obesity drugs was in the spotlight at the world's largest trade show for the pharmaceutical services industry this week, as it fuels a boom for firms that fill and assemble the self-injection pens.

A surge in sales of Novo Nordisk's drug Wegovy, which launched in the US in mid-2021, has propelled the Danish drugmaker to become Europe's most valuable company.

US rival Eli Lilly has become the world's most valuable healthcare firm this year as demand for its diabetes drug Mounjaro surges ahead of approval for its use as a weight-loss treatment in the US, expected by the end of this year.

Amid a global obesity crisis, some analysts predict the market for weight-loss drugs could be worth $100bn (95bn) by 2030. Some companies, like West Pharmaceutical Services, whose share price is up 37% year to date, are already providing components for the injections pens and reaping rich rewards from the business.

Other companies specialising in parts of the manufacturing process for the injections are vying to get a bigger foothold by scaling up their capacity.

Wegovy and Mounjaro, both administered once weekly, are part of a class of drugs called GLP-1 receptor agonists originally developed for type 2 diabetes, which suppress appetite.

"Having capacity to serve GLP-1 manufacturing demand now is gold, and there is a little bit of an arms race to capture that market share," said Tommy Erdei, a senior healthcare investment banker at Jefferies.

The specialist process of filling the syringes used in the pens, called aseptic or sterile fill-finish, is particularly in demand.

Pharma giant Thermo Fisher is converting a building that manufactures tablets and pills at its North Carolina factory in the US to do sterile fill-finish work instead, a company spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, Thermo Fisher has officially opened an expanded laboratory at its Cork campus, doubling its capacity to develop medicines for cancer, lupus, diabetes and psoriasis, among other illnesses.

The new lab is the company's latest expansion of its active pharmaceutical ingredient facility since taking over the site for 90m from GlaxoSmithKline in 2019.

Thermo is already filling Wegovy pens for Novo in North Carolina, according to Reuters.

Other pharma services companies are following suit.

Diosynth Biotechnologies, a subsidiary of Japan's Fujifilm Corp, expects to announce by the end of this year a major contract with a company for sterile fill-finish work at its expanded facilities in Texas and Denmark, CEO Lars Petersen told Reuters.

 Reuters with additional reporting by the Irish Examiner
Denis Drennan, the deputy president of the ICMSA, is vehemently opposed to the recently announced cut to the Nitrates Derogation limit which currently stand at 250kg/ha.

And while the Kilkenny dairy farmer is strongly against the cut, he is not opposed to farmers doing their bit on environmental issues.

Firstly, with regards to the environment, I want to say that there is an acceptance amongst farmers that we are part of the problem and therefore must be part of the solution.

And I think if the right measures are put in place, farmers will accept and adhere to them.

Everybody wants to leave the landscape, the countryside, the water, in a better state than they inherited it, better for the next generation. And hopefully in farming there will be a next generation.

So now, down to business and the changes to Nitrates Derogation, and a reduction to 220kg/ha down from 250kg/ha on January 1, 2024. I ask Denis for his view.

Denis Drennan pictured on his farm in Madoxtown, Co Kilkenny.

I think if the move from 250kg/ha to 220kg/ha was going to make a huge difference and was going to solve the problem of water quality people would accept it.

But when you have scientific modelling from Teagasc, that shows that the advantage from a water quality point of view of cutting the stocking density from 250kg down to 220kg is so small that its not going to solve the problem, its very hard for farmers to accept.

Especially when you consider that the cut is going to be catastrophic at farm level.

The ICMSA deputy president doesnt believe farmers are fully aware of what the reduction will mean.

Im not certain that it has hit home fully yet with everyone. Many are still only reeling from the derogation announcement made in the last few weeks.

And I think a lot of farmers, with the weather being so bad, are busy and maybe they havent had the time to sit down and look at it properly. But I do believe when they realise the implications of how they will have to get rid of stock in such a short space of time, the reality will dawn.

A farmer, lets say milking 100 cows at the moment and who is farming at 250kg/ha, will have to reduce the herd size by 12%, bringing his cow numbers down to 88 cows. And this number has to be down by January 1st.

So here we have a farmer with scanning done, 100 cows ready to calf down and now faced with this dilemma on the 1st of January. Cow numbers will have to be cut to 88 or else cut further later in the year to average 88 cows for the year.

When this derogation deal was signed it was a bad deal. It shouldnt have been signed in the first place, but we are where we are.

And when you consider that Teagasc modelling shows its still not going to work, youd have to ask yourself whats the point? Its a huge reduction in stocking density. You are looking at a 12% reduction.

And if you are a farmer caught by banding and by this nitrates cut, you could potentially be looking at a 29% cut in your herd size. If you have 400 cows and you have to cut by 29%, youll still be viable.

But if you are milking 60, 70 or 80 cows and you have to cut by 28 or 29%, it would be the difference between being viable and going out of business.

No scientific logic behind shift to 220kh/ha

So where do dairy farmers caught in a derogation squeeze go from here?

Well, we cant look at the 250kg/ha any longer, its gone. We now have 220kg/ha to contend with. But we do have options around the margins.

We can look at things that have been scientifically proven to enhance our case. The majority of the cows in the country are classed in Band B, which is 92kg of nitrogen excretion, thats the figure that is being used for any cow producing between 4,500kg to 6,500kg of milk output.

But it has been shown that this figure for nitrogen excretion can be reduced if a farmer is willing to cut the level of crude protein that he feeds his cows at grass. Teagasc have proven that for every 1% cut in crude protein, there is a nitrogen excretion reduction of 1.7kg.

At the moment, according to the rules of the nitrates derogation, a farmer can feed no more than 15% crude protein to animals at grass between April 15th and the 30th of September.

However, if he was willing to cut, lets say to 11% protein, he would have almost 6kg in a reduction in the nitrogen excretion of the cow.

So, you could bring a 92kg nitrogen excretion rate back to 86kg per cow. That would compensate some bit. And then instead of dividing 92kg into 220kg/ha, we would be dividing 86kg into 220kg/ha.

This then would help with your stocking density. The department are saying they wont accept this fact even if it had been scientifically proven. Teagasc have done the research on this and we in the ICMSA will be campaigning hard for this model to be adopted.

We dont know the numbers exactly but there is talk of 3000 farmers being affected by this derogation cut. Thats 3000 farmers with big decisions to make.

Big decisions to make by January 1st

Denis is concerned about farmers who will have to cull cows by January 1st, and the options open to them.

To alleviate the problem, if farmers were allowed to calf down these cows and fatten them first before culling them, it would be far less stressful.

We need a controlled reduction of the herd. Not this kneejerk reduction where heavily pregnant cows could be sent to slaughter.

If we focus again on a farmer with 100 cows, a 12% reduction in his herd would be 12 of his cows. If this farmer was allowed to calf down his cows and get his figures right by the first of June it would be a far more humane and better from an animal welfare point of view.

But unfortunately at the moment, we are not getting any traction on that either. If we have to reduce our cow numbers surely, we need a controlled reduction.

On the other side, when a calf is born on a farm, an animal from zero to one year is classed as producing 24kg/ha of nitrogen. Now obviously an animal that is 10 months old is producing a far greater quantity of nitrogen than a calf in the first couple of weeks of life.

What we are suggesting is that a young calf, a calf on straw who is just getting milk and is being trained to hay and meal should be looked at differently and should be calculated as having a reduced level of nitrogen excretion.

If we could get this reduction, farmers wouldnt be in such a hurry to get rid of calves in the springtime and might keep them for a week or two extra rather than having them counted and affecting their nitrates.

Denis was also scathing in his criticism of those taking aim at the easy target that is the farming sector.

As a matter of fact, the only sector in Ireland that has a plan that is being worked to, monitored, and updated is the farming sector. Since 2018 when Teagasc came forward with a scientifically tested Marginal Abatement Cost Curve (MACC), we have had a roadmap for our sector that sets out how we are to meet our targets. This has already been updated earlier this year to meet the new increased targets so its being checked and tweaked to keep abreast of changes in targets and progress.
It was such a surreal experience to visit Venice last week, knowing that Cork was morphing into its duplicate.

We had a wonderful holiday, yet it was hard to stitch off entirely from the news of the flooding horrors occurring in Cork.

I left with most of the animals still out but arrived home to them all snug inside, apart from the weanlings that are still braving the elements on our higher ground.

We said Ciao for now to our beloved Italy; It was great for Jonathan and I to have a break after the ordeal of house moving and ahead of spring madness.

A letter addressed to Dad and I was at my parents table patiently awaiting my return, to my surprise, it was an invite to the Animal Health Ireland Cell Check awards ceremony in Naas Co Kildare this November.

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It is an event to acknowledge the top 500 low Somatic Cell Count (SCC) herds that supplied milk nationally in 2022.

I honestly dont think I have ever been more excited about a letter; it has given me the motivation to keep striving for results with SCC and that our hard work with our cows is paying off.

A few years ago, we would not have even dreamt of making this shortlist, in 2021, our cell count was averaging around 170, which then lowered to under 70 in 2022.

What did we do to cause the reduction? I don't think it is down to one particular action however, the introduction of milk recording in the herd has certainly been the most impactful change we made.

The knowledge that milk recording has given us about individual cows is mind-blowing. Before we guessed which cows were high cell count cows, we had a good idea of the "millionaire" ladies, but apart from that, we were in the dark.

The identification of infected cows with an SCC over 200 is key to preventing spread - a cow does not need to be a millionaire to be classed as infected.

Cows that were in the last lactation, that did not cure over the dry period are cows that are real red flags in the herd and should not stay in the herd long term.

These chronic cows act as vessels for potentially contagious bacteria that can spread in the parlour in the next lactation, for example harbouring Staph Aureus, which can lay dormant in the udder until the immune system is compromised.

We were also able to identify which cows needed special attention coming up to drying off. With the help of calving dates and the milk recording results, we chose cows individually for more precise dry periods and also extended dry periods if they needed to cure over this period.

As discussed in my last article, the environment we put cows to dry off influences this chance of self-curing enormously. The spa holiday treatment is what we should all be aiming to give our cows this year.

Hygiene in the dry cow sheds improved from 2021 to 2022, we started to clean cubicles and lime twice a day religiously. The scrapper frequency was increased from four to five times a day to encourage clean feet and, therefore, cleaner cubicles.

The two weeks post-dry-off and two weeks before calving are the pinch points in a cow's dry period for infection; at these times, especially extra vigilance is needed for cubical hygiene.

The heifer group hygiene during the dry period is critical to preventing heifers from becoming spreaders of infection later in their lactation.

We made sure to treat their cubicles as we did their older cow companions and made sure that there were enough cubicles to encourage laying.

We always brought the heifers into the parlour for a little ration to help with the transition to milking life, we always spayed their teats, however, last year, we added an external sealer that lasts up to five days as a sealer on the teat end to further help reduce infection risk.

Every fifth day they were in the parlour, we would use the external sealer, and the smell of acetone would magically transport me to the nail salon for a few brief moments. Discuss with your vet the best solutions for the heifer in the dry period; we need to start early to prevent future high SCC cows from establishing in the herd.

On the cell check report, there is a useful figure at the bottom that tells us the amount of heifers that calved into the herd with an SCC over 200 - the target of which is more than 15% of the total heifer group.

Dry Cow Consult

With the introduction of Animal Health Ireland Dry Cow Consult training for vets, I have found a whole new appreciation for the basics of preventing mastitis and cell count issues. Animal Health Ireland has provided the vets in Ireland with the most comprehensive training days, webinars and refresher sessions focusing on the topic of the dry period.

The AHI Dry Cow Consult is a fantastic free-of-charge opportunity for farmers to discuss in depth their drying-off routine, dry period hygiene and for help in selecting cows appropriately for sealer-only therapy.

You can check your eligibility for signing up for an AHI dry cow consult on AHI.ie and nominate your local vet to undertake the consult.

I would always encourage to have up-to-date culture and sensitivities performed on known high cell quarters before undertaking the consult, the more knowledge the vet has available, the better.

At home, I have begun to look at what cows need to be dried off for January calving and also infected cows with >200 SCC that require a longer dry-off period of greater than eight weeks plus antibiotic tubes to allow the best chance of curing.

Get "drying off" prepared early; order your surgical spirit, get into Pennys for the make-up pads and charge that head torch. Remember to channel your inner surgeon when cleaning teats; if in doubt, just clean again and again.

And speaking of getting prepared, I better find a dress for the awards and make sure Dads suit is dry-cleaned and ready for the road to Naas! It is an absolute honour for us to be able to attend, and we are looking forward to a wonderful evening.
Irish wine drinkers cant seem to get enough Albarino, despite the fact that there are dozens of wines on our shelves from this small region in northwest Galicia.

We are their third-biggest market by volume. Albarino sells itself these days, so this week I am going to talk about the rest of Galicia, which has similarly tasty white wines and arguably just as much potential.

Galicia has five DO-accredited wine regions, and as you might expect, Rias Baixas is the largest followed by Ribeiro and nearby Ribeiro Sacra, and then Valdeorras and Monterrei.

Ribeiro is the longest established having achieved DO status in 1957 (Rias Baixas only gained theirs in 1988).

A group of producers from Ribeiro were in Ireland recently looking to find some buyers and to increase their profile, and having tasted around 30 wines from the region Im happy to oblige as I loved almost every wine I tasted.

Ribeiro is located in the province of Ourense in South-Eastern Galicia near the border with Castilla Y Leon.

Ribeiro is mainly a white wine region (90%) and peachy floral Treixadura is the dominant grape variety, but you will also find Godello, Loureiro, Albarino and Caino Branco.

There were just a couple of reds at the tasting and they were excellent also with bright lively fruits.

The red grapes are rather obscure in Ribeiro and include Brancellao, Souson, Caino Longo and Caino Bravo as well as Mencia which you probably know. No Ribeiro reds are available here yet as far as I know.

Treixadura wines are typically golden straw colour with tropical-tinged apple and ripe pear aromas with touches of bay leaf and lemon.

They're lower in acidity than Albarino but with a pleasing lemony tang rather than the saline notes you get in Albarino. I recommend a couple this week as well as some other wines I like from Galicia.

For the Diary:

On a separate note, the K Club is hosting a dinner featuring wines from the Chateau Leoville Barton stable on November 10 next, hosted by Lillian Barton, whose family owned Straffan House for many years. This should be a very special evening.

Lillian Barton Wine Dinner  Friday 10th November, The Barton, The K Club, Co. Kildare - 295. Room packages are also available. Tel: 01-6017200, reservations@kclub.ie

Wines Under 16

Alma Godello, Monterrei, Spain - 13.95

Alma Godello, Monterrei, Spain - 13.95

Stockist: OBriens

Reduced from 17 in OBriens at the moment and a solid introduction to Godello. Monterrei is the smallest of the Galician DO and is often great value.

Godello likes a damp warm climate and so is nicely suited to Galicia. This has baked pear and apple aromas with a hint of bay leaf and bitter lemon - waxy and ripe on the palate with some stony lemony zing on the finish.

Bodega Y Vinedos, Pazo de Casanova, Ribeiro, Spain - 17.95

Bodega Y Vinedos, Pazo de Casanova, Ribeiro, Spain - 17.95

Stockists: Matsons; Ardkeen; Barnhill Stores; Wilde & Green; Mitchell & Son CHQ, Glasthule, Avoca etc; Mitchellandson.com

This is 90% Treixadura this has typical floral, sweet apple and peach aromas, creamy pear and apple fruits and some balancing acidity and lemon zest. It's perfect for some mussels or scallops.

Also, watch out for Casanovas big brother Finca Vinoa (23) which has noticeably more texture and layers of flavour.

Pazo do Mar Blanco, Ribeiro, Galicia, Spain - 17.99-18.50

Pazo do Mar Blanco, Ribeiro, Galicia, Spain - 17.99-18.50

Stockists: Bradleys; Hole in the Wall; Wine Pair; Boutique Wines boutiquewines.ie

Mainly from Treixadura with a few other grapes added for balance: Albarino, Loureira, Godello and Torrontes. This has a sumptuously layered floral, tropical nose, a tiny hint of spritz on the palate with tropical fruits, pineapple and lime all showing up along with a herbal note and a zingy crisp finish.

Wines Over 18

Bodegas Campante Adeus Treixadura, Ribeiro, Spain - 19.95

Bodegas Campante Adeus Treixadura, Ribeiro, Spain - 19.95

Stockists: Vintry; Redmonds; Deveneys; Jus de Vine; Pinto Wines; Higgins; Malthouse Trim; Independents

This is from James Rodgers, an importer with an impressive collection of wines. This has floral pear and peach aromas, a lush ripe palate enlivened by flashes of lemon and dried limes, and pleasing texture and complexity. This producers Godello and Loureiro are also excellent and worth seeking out.

Guimaro Blanco Organic, Ribeira Sacra, Spain - 22.95

Guimaro Blanco Organic, Ribeira Sacra, Spain - 22.95

Stockists: MacCurtain Wine Cellar; Green Man Wines; 64 Wine; Jus de Vine; Lilith, Blackrock Cellar; Taste of Spain; Loose Canon.

I first tasted this wine in Spain with a plate of queen scallops which it matched beautifully. Mainly from Godello this has lemon verbena aromas with soft baked apple notes, bitter-sweet citrus flavours with tropical fruits and pear touches, textured and delicious. Also try their fruit driven Mencia.



Louro do Bolo Godello, Valdorras, Spain - 29-30.00

Louro do Bolo Godello, Valdorras, Spain - 29-30.00

Stockists: MacCuratin; Whelehans; 64 Wines; Baggot St; www.siyps.ie, Nude Wine Co, thenudewineco.ie;

Rafael Palacios has gained worldwide fame for his Godello, in particularly his top wine As Sortes (64) which is arguably Spains best white wine. Louro is almost (but not quite) as good  floral and stone fruit aromas, fennel and sage, creamy and complex with brisk acidity and a lingering salty tang.

Beer of the Week

Galway Hooker Sixty Knots IPA, 5.5% ABV, 440ml - 2.49-2.99

Galway Hooker Sixty Knots IPA, 5.5% ABV, 440ml - 2.49-2.99

Stockists: Aldi (as part of Oktoberfest); Tesco; Independents; Galwayhooker.ie

Aldi have a selection of new beers in stock to celebrate Oktoberfest and there are some gems including Dot Brew Red Ale and Cyro Pop East Coast IPA, Rascals Yankee White and Whitewater Hoppel Hammer IPA.

There are also some good pils including Bitburger, and Brewdog Oktoberfest Lager.

I havent featured Galway Hooker in a while and when I last mentioned this beer in 2015 it was a full per-cent higher in abv. I prefer this version I think.

Lively citrus and tropical fruit aromas, apple and lemon flavours on the clean crisp palate with spikes of spice and hop notes, and a hop-focused dry finish.
The Gone (RTE1 and RTE Player) has a Glenroe vibe about it. And I mean that in a good way.

Its got rural scenery, credible characters and a bit of drama, nice and cosy for a Sunday evening.

The story fits too, its neat and simple. A young Irish couple on a classic Irish trip around the world, Australia and New Zealand, disappear when they are in the latter.

The womans mother is a senior judge in Ireland who has just put away a big player on the local crime scene.

So a troubled Dublin cop with a secret is flown out to Auckland to help in the search for the missing couple. Its a storyline youd expect from gnarled detective cliche, McArnagle in The Simpsons, but youd forgive a cliche on a Sunday evening.

This Irish cop is called Theo Richter for reasons we might never understand, and hes paired up with a local police officer, Diana Huia, to solve the case.

If you were playing McArnagle Bingo here, youd be taking bets as to how long before Richter gets told that hes off the case.

There are other Whodunnit 101s here as well  a large pharmaceutical company with a maverick CEO that has brought wealth and possible toxic waste to the area, and now wants to build on sacred land.

An Irish journalist, Aileen, who looks like she had a romantic past with Richter. And theres the shadow of an issue with Diana and her family.

In other words, there is enough here to sustain a six-parter. All of this is boilerplate missing-couple crime drama, but its good boilerplate, and heres the thing about telly drama  an average idea well-executed is better than a good idea with poor execution.

Richard Flood as Detective Theo Richter and Acushla-Tara Kupe as Detective Sargent Diana Huia in The Gone

All the bits work here. The plot isnt a rush to expose itself, but it isnt hiding for a few episodes either.

The plot components are out in the open within 40 minutes of the first episode, and it didnt feel like I was being force-fed the pieces.

The story unfolds in the background, so you can immerse yourself in small-town New Zealand and enjoy the goings-on.

Its got an emotional heart, thanks to the two lead actors, who are both dealing with traumas in their past.

Best of all, the dialogue works. Most of these noir drams jar because the chats look like they were lifted from a Humphrey Bogart movie circa 1949.

But here, it sounds like people talking to each other in 2023. The journalist, Aileen, is a good example of a minor character well drawn and played with purpose by Carolyn Bracken.

Sometimes you can tell a show is going to be shite within 5 minutes, with the actors visibly wincing as they wade through terrible lines.

Not here. The Gone wont break any moulds, but who wants that on a Sunday evening?

Dont mind the menacing music and moody landscape, this is cosy TV that will help you forget tomorrow is Monday. And theres nothing wrong with that.
With the Government examining changes to how Ireland responds to Ukrainian refugees to move more in line with other EU states, how exactly do other European nations treat those seeking refuge from Ukraine?

Germany

In Germany, any Ukrainian refugee arriving in the country is eligible to gain access to emergency state shelters.

While in these shelters, they are provided with somewhere to sleep, food, and other essentials, until they are able to find their own accommodation. Alongside these emergency shelters, the German government utilises hotels and holiday accommodations.

When refugees arrive, they are entitled to some social welfare benefits, including the monthly Citizens Income of 502 a month.

As of September, almost 1.9m Ukrainian refugees have arrived in Germany.

Poland

There are over 960,000 Ukrainian refugees in Poland.

In Poland, any Ukrainian refugee arriving in the country is permitted to stay in a temporary accommodation centre. If they take up state accommodation for longer than four months, the refugees will be charged 50% of the costs. If they stay for more than six months, they will be asked to pay 75% of the costs.

France

In France, any Ukrainian refugees arriving in the country are entitled to stay for up to six months, but after which they need to renew their rights to accommodation.

On housing, French authorities have set out three differing types: emergency accommodation, short-stay accommodation, and longer-term accommodation.

The refugees arriving into the country are permitted to work, with benefits also being made available through an asylum seeker allowance. This is paid out at a standard rate of 14.20 per adult.

Spain

Spain has taken in over 180,000 Ukrainian refugees, accommodated in hotels, hostels, and dormitories, and in Spanish homes.

They are permitted to work and are able to access healthcare and social services, including welfare support.

Welfare supports, limited to six months, include a monthly 400 payment to adults and then 100 payments for children.

Additionally, refugees will be able to access free travel on certain public transport operators.

Italy

Ukrainians are permitted to stay for an initial 90 days before they need to access a specific permit of stay.

They will be moved initially to a reception centre for refugees. After this, they can either be moved into a hotel, specialised housing for Ukrainians, or into an Italian family home. In the longer term, refugees are expected to find their own accommodation.

On social welfare, refugees are entitled to 300 a month per family member, with an additional 150 per child. They are also eligible to work while in the country.
The Department of Transport has confirmed that it is engaging with the Department of Education on the prospect of taking control of the school transport scheme.

However, it is understood that there is pushback from Norma Foleys department on the proposed transfer.

Calling for the scheme to be brought into Eamon Ryan's department, Green Party senator and education committee member Pauline OReilly said the scheme needs a major expansion and radical overhaul to meet the needs of communities and climate commitments.

Its quite clear that the Department of Education is not managing it, and hasnt managed it. Theyve come out with announcements such as free school transport without the system in place, she said.

She said rules surrounding the provision of school bus places are too rigid, while a move between departments would be more practical. Ms OReilly said there is a clear opportunity to take thousands of cars off the roads every morning with a major expansion.

Every child should be able to get a bus to school and if you look at other countries, thats the way it is. We all know what a difference it makes to traffic congestion when schools are off, she said.

Labour Party TD and Education spokesperson, Aodhan O Riordain, backed the call saying a move of school transport, which has become a serious issue, under the remit of the Department of Transport has merit.

When youre dealing with the Department of Education in terms of school transport, it can be a bit confused and you dont really get the sense that they understand it. It would fit more readily in the Department of Transport, he said.

A spokesperson for the Department of Transport said the department is engaging with the Department of Education on the potential for integrating the school transport system to reduce the number of escort-to-education journeys, as per the Climate Action Plan.

Officials from the Department of Transport engage with colleagues in the Department of Education on a regular basis to discuss all aspects relating to the School Transport Scheme. There are no plans to alter the current structure whereby the Department of Education has policy and funding responsibility for running the Scheme, they said.

The Department of Education did not respond to requests for comment by the time of publishing.
Human rights violations have again marked the last chapter of the long conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan in and around the Karabakh region. Full respect for human rights of all and strict adherence to relevant international standards should be now placed at the centre of the path towards reconciliation and durable peace between the two countries, said the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatovic, at the end of her visit to Armenia and Azerbaijan, including the Karabakh region, which took place from 16 to 23 October 2023.

October 27, 2023, 11:33 Mijatovic: Azerbaijan must guarantee Armenians human rights, including to return to their homes in safety

STEPANAKERT, OCTOBER 27, ARTSAKHPRESS: This is noted in a statement on Mijatovics aforesaid visit. The statement continues as follows, in particular:

The visit was prompted by the mass displacement of over 100'600 Karabakh Armenians who fled to Armenia in only a few days at the end of September. It followed Azerbaijans military action on 19 and 20 September, its subsequent full control over the region and the prolonged disruption in the movement of people and access to essential goods, services and energy supplies experienced by Karabakh Armenians as a result of a nine-month blocking of the road along the Lachin corridor by Azerbaijan. They found themselves abandoned, without any reliable security or protection guarantees by any party. For them, leaving home was the only option available, said the Commissioner.

The Commissioner also met with the Human Rights Defender of Armenia, Anahit Manasyan. She visited shelters for displaced persons in the cities of Aghavnadzor and Tsaghkadzor in the Kotayk province, where she spoke with Karabakh Armenians, including families, older persons, people with disabilities and other vulnerable persons. The Commissioner had also meetings with representatives of international organisations and civil society.

The Commissioner welcomed again the efforts made by the Armenian authorities to assist all those in need in the immediate term with the support of UNHCR, other UN agencies and civil society. She calls on Council of Europe member states to provide full support to ensure the sustainability of the necessary assistance to respond to the needs of the persons recently displaced to Armenia, especially in relation to their medium and long-term situation. Particular attention in this respect needs to be paid to the needs of vulnerable groups.

During the visit to Azerbaijan, (). The Azerbaijani authorities informed the Commissioner of the measures taken by the State for the reintegration of the Karabakh region and the people living there. The Commissioner stressed that Azerbaijan must guarantee the human rights of the ethnic Armenians remaining in the region and of those who have left for Armenia, including the right to return to their homes in safety and dignity.

The Commissioner also visited the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. This was the first time in decades that a human rights mission of this kind was able to visit the region, although its scope was limited due to security concerns linked to the presence of mines. The Commissioner travelled to Fuzuli, Shusha [(Shushi)], Malibayli village, Khankendi [(Stepanakert)], Khojaly and Aghdam. She was shocked to see that the city of Khankendi was almost completely empty following the departure of its population in September. She was informed that only a very few ethnic Armenians who lived in the region have remained. She spoke with some of the people present in Khankendi, including at the shelter opened to receive the most vulnerable among those who have stayed. In Fuzuli and Aghdam in particular, the Commissioner saw the destructed towns and villages which appeared to have remained for decades in ruins (...).

Throughout the visit to both countries, the Commissioner heard reports of serious human rights violations in relation to the long-standing conflict and could witness the deep suffering of the civilian populations affected by the different outbreaks of hostilities throughout the years. The Commissioner discussed with her official interlocutors the humanitarian and human rights consequences of the conflict in and around the Karabakh region, including as a result of the 2020 outbreak of hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan and the most recent events which followed the blocking of the Lachin corridor and Azerbaijans military operation. In particular, she stressed again the importance of ensuring the human rights of all displaced persons, including their right to return in dignity and safety; the right to be protected against the danger of mines and explosive remnants of war; the human rights of captives to receive protection; the right to know the fate and whereabout of missing persons; the need for independent and effective investigations into serious human rights violations reported in relation to the conflict; and the importance of providing adequate and effective reparation to the victims. She stressed that now more than ever, all parties should take resolute action to prevent and combat hate speech and support initiative that promote co-existence and reconciliation.
Iceland is in secret talks with Europe on agreeing a deal to fish in EU waters, according to Irish fishing industry representatives.

Were any deal to go ahead, it could see the Icelandic fishing fleet moving into Irish waters for the first time ever.

South and Southwest Fish Producers Organisation CEO Patrick Murphy said this could lead to overfishing and jeopardise the stocks we have in our waters.

He said he found out about the talks by accident earlier this year, and he discussed it at length with the Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue on October 19.

The Irish Examiner asked the Department about the talks but it declined to confirm any were taking place.

Instead, a spokesperson said: Icelandic vessels may not fish in EU waters, including Irish waters, unless there is an agreement in place allowing them to do so.

There is currently no such agreement in place between the EU and Iceland.

The European Commission has exclusive competence to negotiate with Third Countries on behalf of the EU. Before engaging in any such negotiations, a mandate for the Commission would first have to be set by Council representing Member States.

The Department takes an active involvement in discussions which may impact on, or offer opportunities for, Irelands seafood sector.

However, on Friday morning, the Irish Examiner learned that Mr Murphy and other representatives have just been invited to attend a virtual meeting this afternoon to discuss developments at EU level re the possibility of discussions between the EU and Iceland on fishing opportunities.

'I am not being alarmist'

Mr Murphy told the Irish Examiner: I spoke to the Minister about the prospect of Iceland coming into Irish waters and how much my members would object to that happening.

"While I can guarantee you that he is aware that this is an issue coming down the tracks and that Iceland has made an approach to Europe, I just cannot give you any indication what he intends [on] doing because I don't know.

My biggest fear is that a deal will end up being agreed on and Ireland will end up being the country that will benefit the least from any such deal.

"I am not being alarmist when I say this because there is a track record here of Ireland ending up as the sacrificial lamb so the bigger EU countries can get the deals they want."

Iceland has previously said the country would "never join the European Union because the country is thriving outside.

But overfishing and increased migration of fish stocks further due to climate change have prompted a position shift and could see closer economic ties being agreed to.

The country applied to join the EU in 2009, but later pulled out of talks.

One of the main reasons was it wanted to retain complete control over its own fishing grounds and an industry that not only receives no subsidies from the State but is also one of the most successful of its kind in the world.

Any of its fish stocks that are shared with the EU are subject to bilateral agreements that are renegotiated every year.

One of the reasons why Iceland has been so reluctant to cede any control over its fishing grounds is because it is proud of the way it manages them.

The country was able to boast in 2021, for example, that of the two cod stocks in the world that were on the increase at the time, one was in Iceland.
The former CEO of Dublin Rape Crisis Centre has said the hardest part of her role was the constant issue of underfunding in the community and voluntary sector.

Noeline Blackwell made the comments as she stepped down from her role on Friday, having overseen the charity for more than seven years.

Rachel Morrogh was announced as the new CEO of the DRCC in July and will take up the position in mid-November.

Ms Blackwell will join the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC ) part-time but said she will also have a jigsaw of roles.

She confirmed to the Irish Examiner that she will not be working in the new agency launched by the Department of Justice in relation to domestic, sexual, and gender-based violence. Im not going to be running anything Ms Blackwell said.

Ive committed to the IHREC, but I will also be working in a few roles, Im still deciding on a few things.

In July the IHREC welcomed six new members to the commission, including international human rights lawyer and barrister Caoilfhionn Gallagher, and Ms Blackwell, a solicitor by profession.

Noeline Blackwell said the toughest part of her job was not being able to provide staff and volunteers with the 'resources they need to do their work well'. Picture: Sasko Lazarov/ RollingNews.ie

Ms Blackwell said that while she will miss her role at the DRCC, she is looking forward to new challenges.

Reflecting on her time at the DRCC, she said the voluntary and community sector was constantly struggling for funding and this was frustrating.

The toughest part in some ways was not being able to provide the people we have  staff and volunteers  with the kinds of resources they need to do their work well, she said.

It is a constant issue of underfunding. The fact that not just us, people in the community and voluntary section have not been recognised as essential State services.

"Also, Dublin is a very expensive place to live. I know the Government is starting to see it, but it has been beyond doubt the most frustrating part of the role and requiring people to work in less that the best circumstances to do their jobs.

It is very tough for them, whether that is on reception, payroll, therapy, the phonelines  you know youre helping.

Ms Blackwell said it has also been a privilege to work with survivors of abuse.

It is about them feeling properly empowered to get on with their own lives and to not feel shame, she said. Its been a privilege.

There have been so many changes in attitudes. Survivors are learning that this is not their fault, and they are being empowered to deal with it and not having to carry that burden.

This will never be an area where there will be full reporting of crime because so much of it involves someone you know and trust, like your own family.

What is happening though, is there are safe places now for people to heal and recognise that a crime has taken place.

For years people did not even accept that rape can take place in a marriage. So much has changed," she said.
A DNA profile taken from underneath Ashling Murphy's fingernails matched that of Jozef Puska, the man accused of her murder, a scientist has told the Central Criminal Court.

Dr Lorna Flanagan on Friday told prosecution counsel Anne-Marie Lawlor SC she received swabs that had been taken from under the nails of each of Ms Murphy's hands during an autopsy carried out by State Pathologist Dr Dr SallyAnne Collis.

Dr Flanagan isolated the male DNA present in the swabs by focusing only on the y-chromosome to eliminate Ms Murphy's DNA from her results.

She compared the DNA to a blood sample belonging to Mr Puska and from swabs that were taken from Mr Puska when he was in custody in Tullamore Garda Station on January 18 last year.

She found that the Y-STR profile generated from the nail swabs matched the Y-STR profile from Mr Puska's blood sample and swabs.

Dr Flanagan said she estimated the chances of finding the same male-specific DNA profile from someone unrelated to Mr Puska is approximately one in 14,000.

She explained those statistics are calculated from a database of Western European ethnic groups that includes people from Ireland and as far east as Latvia, Ukraine and Romania.

Dr Flanagan told defence counsel Michael Bowman SC that the groups include people from Slovakia and members of the Roma community.

Jozef Puska, 33, with an address at Lynally Grove, Mucklagh, Co Offaly, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Ms Murphy at Cappincur, Tullamore, Co Offaly on January 12th, 2022.

Detective Inspector Brian Farrell told defence counsel Michael Bowman SC that he was the joint senior investigating officer coordinating the Garda investigation into Ms Murphy's death.

He agreed with Mr Bowman that following Ms Murphy's death on January 12 last year they were "dealing with a horrendous fatality, a murder" and they were "acting as quickly as possible" to find the person responsible.

He agreed a man was arrested shortly after 4pm that day but that person was eliminated as an active suspect some time after 9pm by DNA evidence.

'Significant development'

A further "significant development" came when the decision was taken to send Detective Sergeant Brian Jennings and Detective Garda Fergus Hogan from Tullamore to St James's Hospital in Dublin to speak to Mr Puska.

The inspector agreed that in his notes made during that period he repeatedly referred to Mr Puska as a "suspected offender".

Superintendent Pat O'Callaghan told court the manner in which Ms Murphy met her death had not been put into the public domain when Mr Puska told Det Garda Fergus Hogan in St James's Hospital in Dublin on January 14 he had 'cut Ms Murphy'.

He said he did not believe he told the members who had been sent to Dublin that the first suspect had been released. "It wouldn't be something I would usually do because it's not relevant to their task," he said.

At that time, he said the investigation was "fast moving, very dynamic" and they were taking in a lot of information.

Part of the task for the two gardai who were sent to meet Mr Puska, he said, was to talk to him and to "have a look at him" but he could not remember if he "specifically asked" gardai to look at Mr Puska or to compare him to a person captured on CCTV images that gardai had gathered in their investigation.

The inspector said the notes he has from the time show he wanted gardai to get an account from Mr Puska of his movements on the 12th and to ask if he owned a bicycle.

He also had a note that Mr Puska had three stab wounds, one of which was close to his liver and that he would be in hospital for about one week. He said it "would make sense" that Det Garda Hogan gave him the information about Mr Puska's condition.

He further agreed he directed the detectives to remain in the area of St James's Hospital and over the following days he made inquiries about when Mr Puska was to be released from hospital.

Superintendent Pat O'Callaghan told Ms Lawlor he was the senior investigating officer in relation to Ms Murphy's death. He said there were more than 720 jobs created by the incident room for members to carry out.

He agreed a man was arrested on January 12 and released on January 13 at about 10.30pm. Superintendent O'Callaghan said the man in question gave a consistent account of his movements on the day which were corroborated by his mother and grandmother.

On the late afternoon of January 13, he said, it became apparent this man was not involved. His fingerprints did not match those taken from a bicycle found near the scene where Ms Murphy was killed and his DNA did not match DNA that was taken from the scene.

He said the manner in which Ms Murphy met her death had not been put into the public domain when Mr Puska told Det Garda Fergus Hogan in St James's Hospital in Dublin on January 14 he had "cut Ms Murphy". Superintendent O'Callaghan said he had not told Det Garda Hogan about how she died because the investigation team had taken a decision not to release that information.

The superintendent also confirmed a significant number of searches were carried out in locations associated with Mr Puska but the clothing he was seen wearing on CCTV footage from the day of Ms Murphy's death were not found.

Supt O'Callaghan told Mr Bowman he was not aware if information about how Ms Murphy died was circulating on social media. He said there was "nothing released by An Garda Siochaana on the cause of death".

He accepted that detectives interviewing the first person identified as a suspect spoke to him about knives. Mr Bowman suggested that information about how Ms Murphy died was "beginning to get out there".

Supt O'Callaghan said the suspect was "interviewed inside in a Garda station... by a specific team of detectives and they would have had a specific line of inquiry".

He said the cause of death was not known at all until 5pm on January 13 when the pathologist confirmed Ms Murphy had died from stab wounds.

The superintendent agreed he would be surprised if the two members sent to Dublin to speak to Mr Puska did not understand that they were there to "look at the suspect".

Det Sgt David Scahill told Ms Lawlor he was sent to St James's on January 18 last year to arrest Mr Puska. He carried out the arrest at 10.31am and explained the reason for the arrest. Mr Puska indicated he understood and was taken to Tullamore Garda Station, arriving at 12.30pm.

The following day, Det Insp Brian Farrell told Det Sgt Scahill that the Director of Public Prosecutions had directed that Mr Puska be charged with murder. At 7.22pm that evening, Det Sgt Scahill charged Mr Puska with the murder of Ashling Murphy and cautioned him. Mr Puska replied: "No."

Det Gda Scahill told Mr Bowman the intended arrest of Mr Puska was not widely known. He said he did not recall there being a big crowd of people at the front of Tullamore Garda Station when they arrived but added he went in through the back, not the front. He said when Mr Puska was searched in Tullamore, he had no property on him.

Garda Ciara Martin was the member in charge of Tullamore Garda Station when Mr Puska was detained. She also told Mr Bowman she did not notice a crowd of people at the front of the station. "If it happened, I wasn't aware," she said.

The trial continues before Mr Justice Tony Hunt and a jury of nine men and three women.
Members of a family behind a major Kerry manufacturing business have been urged by the High Court to resolve a row over an outstanding buyout payment of 10m to a former chief executive and son of the founder.

Mr Justice Liam Kennedy told members of the Harty family, who run the highly successful Dairymaster dairy machinery manufacturing facility in Causeway, Co Kerry, to "reflect on the benefits of constructive engagement" to resolve all ongoing "damaging and distressing" disputes.

He did so when he ruled that unless the family can resolve the matter, he would in coming weeks approve an application by Edmond (Ed) Harty, a former CEO and son of the firm's founder Edmond Patrick (Ned) Harty, for judgment for 10m against the family firm, Edmond P Harty & Co Unlimited Company.

Ned Harty established Dairymaster in 1968. The judge described the business as having achieved global acclaim and customers, employing 300, with subsidiaries worldwide and supported by its state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Causeway.

Ned, now an octogenarian, remains actively involved in the business. In 1998, his sons Ed and John joined the business.

Ed became CEO but by 2018, a legal dispute began when "unfortunate disagreements" arose and relationships deteriorated, the judge said.

Ned, supported by his son John, who is now CEO, and by Ned's sister Mary Harty, who is the company's financial controller, brought High Court proceedings against Ed to set aside a 2018 restructuring arrangement which had given Ed majority control of the company.

Ed counterclaimed against his father and his brother and the company was a respondent to the both claims and counterclaims.

Those proceedings settled on the basis that Ed would cut ties with the company and receive 44m for his majority stake in a series of instalments over five years.

The settlement also included provisions that the company would endeavour to ensure it had the funds to make the payments to Ed.

It further included mutual non-disparagement and confidentiality obligations and non-compete and non-interference obligations by Ed.

It also included a clause that should the company be sold, or a majority of its shares sold, this would trigger the immediate payment to Ed of all the money due to him.

Unfortunately, the judge said, issues soon arose with the company holding back earlier instalment payments alleging Ed was breaching the agreement. He denied the allegations and disputed the companys entitlement to delay payment or impose new requirements. Under threat of proceedings, the company finally paid the instalments.

In 2022, a restructuring of the business took place. This arose because the company was facing a new obligation to file its accounts which had been private.

To retain its non-filing structure, while avoiding personal liability for the ultimate owners, Ned and John sold their 99.65% voting shares to a newly incorporated Isle of Man entity called Bovis. This was done by exchanging their stakes for Bovis shares.

This meant, the judge said, that Ed remained an unsecured creditor of the company with 10m in final payments still due to him.

It also meant his contractual protections were eroded because Edmond P Harty unlimited company no longer had a central and controlling position in the corporate structure. The company denied the restructuring prejudiced Ed, pointing out its credit risk had not changed from a creditor's perspective and that it had sufficient funds to meet the payments.

Ed brought summary judgment proceedings seeking the outstanding 10m.

He argued the immediate payment clause in the settlement applied to any sale whether or not it involved an external purchaser or a group restructuring.

The company argued it was not a sale in the commercial sense and was not a sale for the purpose of triggering the payment clause.

It also claimed Ed had breached his obligations under the settlement by, among other things making inappropriate and offensive communications to his father, brother and Aunt Mary, with employees and with the firm's solicitors.

Ed denied these claims. He testified that he cared very deeply about his father and that his mother, Maureen Harty, had been present on key occasions and she had declared in a letter that she rejected key allegations against him.

Mr Justice Kennedy found the restructuring did constitute a sale within the meaning of the settlement clause and thus expediting the payment obligation.

The company was not entitled to withhold any payments on the basis of Ed Hartys alleged or anticipated breaches of the agreement, he said.
A gravedigger alleged to a social worker that he found evidence on a phone that his partner  who he is now on trial accused of murdering  was having an incestuous relationship with a relative, a jury has heard.

The Central Criminal Court also heard on Friday that gardai received an email which included screenshots taken from Amadea McDermott's phone of text messages between her and the accused Martin Hayes.

Amadea told the accused in one of those messages:

I'm sick of ur accusations and ur sick thoughts, I'm not getting abused by you every few days.

She also told the accused in another message: "You can't admit you are not well and need help", the trial has heard.

Mr Hayes (34), with an address at Poddle Close, Crumlin, Dublin 12 has pleaded not guilty to murdering mother-of-two Amadea McDermott (27) at her home in Rathvale Drive, Ayrfield, Coolock on or about July 20, 2017.

The trial has heard that the accused told emergency services who arrived at Amadea's home that the mother-of-two had self-harmed by stabbing herself.

However, a woman who later went out with the accused has given evidence that Mr Hayes told her he had "helped" Ms McDermott put a knife she was holding through her stomach. A garda witness has told the jury that the deceased's sister, Eucharia McDermott, alleged that Mr Hayes had been physically abusive to Amadea in the past.

Social worker Ciara Lumsden told Sean Gillane SC, prosecuting, that she met with Mr Hayes and his mother in the social work department in Coolock on August 25, 2017. Ms Lumsden asked the accused about the circumstances of Amadea's death and he said there had been an argument that evening.

The witness said Mr Hayes alleged that he had found evidence on WhatsApp on a phone that Amadea was having an incestuous relationship with a relative. The accused told Ms Lumsden that the couple began to argue and that he had walked away. She continued:

He said she went silent which he found peculiar and then went back to check on Ms McDermott.

Ms Lumsden said the accused told her that Amadea was on the floor with a puncture wound when he went back into the room. She said the accused told her that it had taken a little while to locate his phone but when he did he had called the ambulance.

The witness said she looked to explore whether conflict was a regular occurrence in the relationship and Mr Hayes advised they had a conflictual relationship. Mr Hayes told the witness that on occasion Amadea would become violent and she would hit the accused, he would then slap her and that it would become particularly violent when they consumed alcohol.

Detective Garda Niall Gibbs told Michael D Hourigan BL, prosecuting, that Mr Hayes was invited to Coolock Garda Station on July 21, 2017 to make a statement in relation to the sudden passing of his partner.

In the statement, the accused said he had worked as a grave digger in Mount Jerome for the last six or seven years and that he was going out with Amadea for the previous ten years.

He said they met on the social networking platform Bebo and had two children together. He said they had sex on the morning of July 19 and had started drinking vodka that night whilst watching 'Love Island'. He said everything was grand until the couple ran out of alcohol and the fighting started. He said they both took cocaine and did the 'usual stuff; she looking at my phone and me looking at her's'.

Mr Hayes said in his statement he had told Amadea that night that he was leaving her. He said she slapped him in the face and he slapped her back. He said Amadea grabbed a knife from the kitchen and he said "I don't give a fuck anymore, I'm going" before he went to bed.

He said Amadea had stood at the bedroom door with the knife so he grabbed a machete. Mr Hayes said he told Amadea: "I couldn't give a fuck what you do, you have lost me".

He said Amadea told him that he was going to lose the best thing in his life and went back into the sitting room. The accused said he saw a leg from the sitting room door and blood on the floor. He rang 112 and spoke to the paramedics before she was brought to hospital.

Mr Hayes' barrister, Marc Thompson Grolimund BL, made five section 22 concessions on his client's behalf including that there was an application placed on Ms McDermott's mobile phone by Mr Hayes. This application was able to track all data on the mobile phone, he said.

Detective Sergeant Anthony Maloney told Mr Hourigan, prosecuting, that he received an email from the deceased's sister Eucharia McDermott in November 2019, which included screenshots taken from Amadea's phone of text messages between her and the accused.

Amadea told the accused in one of those messages from July 2017:

I'm sick of ur accusations and ur sick thoughts, I'm not getting abused by you every few days.

Amadea also told the accused in another message: "You can't admit you are not well and need help".

Det Sgt Maloney agreed with Mr Hourigan that he had conducted an examination of Amadea's phone to check for the presence of a tracking software, which would allow a third party access to it.

He said a hidden app was on the deceased's phone which had access to its contacts, callers, messages and social media. He said the user of the deceased's phone would not have known of its presence as it's designed for the user not to notice it is there. He said the accused's phone was accessing this app on Ms McDermott's phone.

Beauty therapist Dawn Teelan told Mr Gillane that Amadea and her sister Euphrasia had booked to get a spray tan in a salon on July 14, 2017.

Ms Teelan said Amadea and Euphrasia arrived at the salon at 6.15pm on July 14. She agreed with Mr Gillane that a spray tan involved a person undressing down to their underwear and going into a spray tent. The witness said that Euphrasia was waiting in another area of the salon when she was dealing with Amadea.

Mr Gillane put it to Ms Teelan that one of the principles that apply in her line of work is that she doesn't comment on anyone's body or appearance. "Absolutely not," replied the witness.

Ms Teelan agreed with counsel that when Amadea went in for her spray tan she got a shock because she saw an amount of bruises on her body. The witness also agreed that she had spoken spontaneously to Amadea and said "what happened to you". Ms Teelan said Amadea told her that "her little lad" had been "jumping all over her".

The witness agreed that Amadea had "old yellowish bruises all over" her breasts and chest and fresh bruising on her back. She also said there was extensive bruising on the right side of Amadea's lower back and upper back.

Ms Teelan said she did not accept how these bruises had been caused and felt that a four-year-old child could not have been the cause. "It was that bad I thought she was going to tell me she had been in a car crash," said the witness.

Ms Teelan agreed that she gave the spray tan to Amadea that evening and didn't ask her anymore about the injuries.

When it was Euphrasia's turn to get her spray tan, Ms Teelan further agreed with counsel that she spoke to her about Amadea's bruises and asked her whether her sister was OK. "I normally wouldn't but I asked her sister if she was OK as I was worried about it," she said.

Ms Teelan agreed that Euphrasia had rolled her eyes and said "we are not quite sure what is going on". The witness said this was the last time that she saw Amadea McDermott.

The deceased's mother, Margaret Heffernan who had to be pushed to the stand in her wheelchair by her daughter, told Mr Gillane that she is a mother-of-eight and would have seen Amadea regularly. The witness agreed that she and Amadea were very close saying: "She was a friend, everything to me".

Ms Heffernan said she last saw Amadea alive on July 19 when she texted her daughter to drop cigarettes up to her. She said Amadea dropped the cigarettes onto the porch at 6.15pm that evening. The witness said she was able to see her daughter through the window and gave her "a thumbs up".

Under cross-examination, Ms Heffernan told defence counsel Marc Thompson Grolimund BL that Amadea was a devoted mother and a beautiful girl, who had plans for the future. She also agreed she had told gardai that she would not accept that Amadea had taken her own life. "I will not accept that, never," she told the jury on Friday.

Ms Heffernan began to cry as she told the courtroom: "She was a beautiful girl and I miss her terribly".

The trial continues on Tuesday before Mr Justice Paul McDermott and a jury of eight men and four women.
Occult dolls, decomposing corpses, and flesh-hungry zombies will roam the corridors of a haunted West Cork house for Goleens inaugural Fright Night on Saturday.

A pumpkin carving competition, Halloween games, a cake sale and other activities are also planned for the new event in Goleen Community Centre from 6pm-9pm.

A demonic doll with nails in her skull and a bloody Glasgow smile is one of the haunted house residents. And ghoulish volunteers from Foroige youth organisation will be on hand to ensure lots of jump scares throughout the tour.

Its a haunted house experience with zombies, occult dolls, witches, local organiser Lukas Ungerer said.

We have 10k of dry ice coming so it will look very haunted.

It will be like a Nightmare Realm for kids.

Entry is 3 and proceeds go to Goleen playschool.

Mr Ungerer and his wife Joanne were talking to locals about wanting to do something fun for Halloween in the community and were met with enthusiasm.

Scarecrow festival

Leaps annual Scarecrow Festival has become a major seasonal attraction for that West Cork town, with ghoul-themed scarecrows of a standard one would expect from a special effects studio.

The towns long main street is lined with ghosts, goblins, and witches, some spooky and gory, many also humorous and very creative.

One of the many scary exhibits at Leap Scarecrow Festival in West Cork. Picture Dan Linehan

Leap has embraced scarecrows and Goleen could champion pumpkin carving at Halloween, Mr Ungerer said, with a possible pumpkin festival in the pipeline for the village.

Back in Cork City, The Dragon of Shandon parade will feature a giant dragon, some 36ft long, followed by her entourage of ghouls on Halloween night, October 31 at 7pm to celebrate Samhain.

The annual spectacle, hosted by Cork Community Art Link, will start on Church Street and parade down Shandon Street, North Main Street, Castle Street, Cornmarket Street and finish with performances on Coal Quay.

And out on Spike Island, little goblins and witches are invited to jump on the ferry through the (possibly) misty and mysterious Cork harbour, to disembark on the island, a former jail.

Spookfest trail

Spike Islands Spookfest Trail has transformed the former jail into a family-friendly Halloween realm with tour guides handing out sweet treats on a trick-or-treat quiz trail.

The event is suitable for children aged 2+. A family ticket for two adults and two children is 59 and a single ticket is 17.

In Ballinagree, Macroom, a Scarecrow Festival will be held this October Bank Holiday weekend from Friday to Sunday.

On Friday, a Childrens Fancy Dress Parade starts at 6pm followed by the official festival opening. A childrens disco will then be held in the marquee.

On Saturday, activities from 2pm-6pm include face painting, childrens games, an eco shop, a scarecrow trail and treasure hunt.

Sunday will have activities from 1-6pm, including an animal roadshow, face painting and childrens games, a scarecrow trail and treasure hunt, balloon modelling and a prize draw, followed by adult fancy dress party and music in the Laine Bar.
Helen McInerney didnt abuse drink or drugs, and she always paid her bills, but now she sleeps in a homeless shelter, alone, after her landlord sold her rented family home on the private market.

Her sudden plunge into homelessness split her from her daughter and her grandchildren, who are in separate emergency homeless shelters, and has been horrible and heartbreaking.

After living out of a hotel room, she has, for the past six months, been staying at the Temporary Emergency Provision (TEP) accommodation centre run by the charity Novas, in Limerick.

However, the shelters house rules, similar to that of an emergency family hub where her daughter and grandchildren now languish, do not permit visits.

Holding back tears, and sitting in her lonely surroundings, hugging a teddy bear belonging to one of her grandchildren, Helen said: I have nowhere to meet my grandchildren, so now we meet on the street corners of Limerick City, its devastating.

In a warning to others who may believe they are cushioned from homelessness, the 54-year-old said: It can happen to anybody  people dont realise. Until it happens, you are clueless.

I always thought, thats definitely not me. Why would it come and knock on my door?

She has engaged with Limerick City and County Councils housing department, and completed all the necessary paperwork in order to apply for an affordable home for her and her family, but "there are no properties out there.

Bleak outlook

In its 2022 annual report, published on Friday, Novas warned that fewer people were able to access its temporary homeless accommodation in Limerick and Dublin last year because of the protracted length of time people spent living there.

Painting a stark outlook through to 2024, Una Burns, head of Novas policy and communications, said: Temporary and emergency homeless accommodation is designed for six months or less, but what we are finding now is that many of our residents are living in services for years.

Residents living for longer in emergency shelters also face becoming institutionalised as you can lose your life skills, because you dont have opportunities to cook for yourself, to pay your own bills, to manage a home like people would like to do.

Una Deasy, Novas chief executive, said that a lack of one-bed units, in particular, had made exit pathways from homelessness extraordinarily difficult and that access to emergency accommodation was being blocked by single adults who were too long stuck in the temporary system.

Novas said the number of women able to access its temporary accommodation services in Dublin dropped from 333 to 224 between 2014 and 2022 despite more than doubling capacity during the same period.

It also noted that accessibility at its Limerick TEP dropped from 320 in 2018 to 181 last year.

Despite her ordeal, Helen McInerney said she remained hopeful that she would one day again be able to cook for my grandchildren and be a meaningful part of their lives.

Novas launched eight 1-bed Georgian-style apartments on Newenham Streett, Limerick City  the first Georgian redevelopment nationally to achieve a A3 BER rating  built by Shineline Limited, to allow people a direct pathway out of homelessness.

Roy Finn, 56, who has secured a one-bed apartment at Newenham Street, Limerick, provided by the Novas homeless service.

Roy Finn, 56, from Moyross, Limerick, who spent the past 20 years in and out of homeless services, said being offered one of the eight apartments was like winning the lotto.

This is a fabulous place, Im definitely looking forward to the future now, Ill cook a lot more now, I love cooking, I used to work in the kitchens in hostels.

Im finally in my own place now, I know there are still people from Novas that I can call on, but just to have my own independence is important.
Transport Minister Eamon Ryan has conceded that, despite improvements in recent years, Irish roads are not safe for children to walk or cycle to school on.

While there have been improvements in recent years, our streets are not safe. Theyre not safe for our children to walk and cycle to school. Theyre not safe for even experienced cyclists, Mr Ryan said.

That has to change as a way of protecting lives and also involving a modal shift towards public transport, towards active travel so that we do have safer roads and more effective roads for everyone, where were not in this gridlocked system.

He made the remark during a Dail debate that came after the 155th death on Irish roads this year. That bleak milestone means that the same number of people have died in 10 months of this year as in the 12 months of 2022.

The death of a man in his 50s in Co Sligo on Wednesday night was the latest tragedy, after a collision between a van and an e-scooter.

Road Safety Authority chief executive Sam Waide said: "This year has seen an alarming increase in fatalities and the RSA is urging all road users to work together to keep our roads safe for the remainder of the year, particularly as we enter the winter months, which present additional challenges.

Higher penalty points

In the Dail on Thursday, politicians called for higher penalty points to be brought in "across the board" in a bid to improve road safety.

Junior Transport Minister Jack Chambers had previously outlined plans to double penalty points on bank holiday weekends, but some TDs demanded this be extended to cover all periods.

Sinn Fein TD Martin Kenny, the party's transport spokesperson, said Mr Chambers' plan needed to be considered carefully to avoid any unintended consequences from the legislation.

He also raised the issue of speeding, saying that some drivers act as if they are at the Monte Carlo Rally all the time.

They speed. They drive erratically. They drive recklessly. We need to have measures to be able to ensure that those people are caught, Mr Kenny said.

Green Party TD Marc O Cathasaigh spoke about how his children were previously almost knocked down by a car.

The last time my children were nearly knocked down, it was while crossing at a signalled pedestrian crossing while the driver accelerated through.

"This was in broad daylight while they were on their way to school, which is a critical time for vulnerable road users, Mr O Cathasaigh said.

The fact of the matter is that it does not matter how much high-visibility gear you are wearing; if the driver is not looking, he or she will not see you.

For a vulnerable road user such as a cyclist, a pedestrian, or a child walking to school, these are not trivial incidents, because we are not encased in a tonne of steel that will protect us from an impact.
On Friday, October 13, our dear friend and Limerick Voice editor was the victim of a senseless tragedy.

Joe Drennan was struck and killed in a hit-and-run while standing at a bus stop after his shift in La Cucina, a local cafe/restaurant.

Hailing from the small town of Knocknagad in Co Laois, Joe was the youngest of seven. His parents, Marguerite and Tim, adored him, as did his sisters Marie, Ava, and Sarah, and brothers Richard, John, and Ciaran.

Driving through the winding roads of Mountrath to meet his heartbroken family for the first time, it was a revelation to see where Joe came from. As his aunt Julie said in the eulogy, Joe was never one for the rural farming community he grew up in.

His mother, Mags, told our lecturer, Kathryn Hayes, a hilarious story about a young Joe out and about on his familys farm, when he begged not to be bequeathed the farm whenever the time came.

Joe Drennan, second from right, celebrating with Gay Community News colleagues at the Galas Awards in the Mansion House on October 7 in Dublin. Less than a week later, Joe was dead after a hit-and-run. Picture courtesy of Molly Cantwell

He was a force to be reckoned with from a very young age. His entrepreneurial ventures started with selling Christmas wreaths from the back of his fathers van, to setting up his own tuck shop in school. So successful was his little enterprise that he had to acquire a second locker just for his stock  all bought with his mammys vouchers.

The minute Joe met Limerick he really blossomed. After his first year in University of Limerick (UL), his family said it was like he was two feet taller  partly due to his platform shoes, but mostly because he found his calling. He would be a voice for those who needed it.

Joe was a tower for others to lean on, so confident and sure of himself he spent his time building people up: You got this, love.

Joe Drennan with Molly Cantwell, who writes: 'Joe was so unique and so incredibly special. His life was cut short  but what a life.'

He was so passionate about his work with Gay Community News (GCN) and so determined to build a powerful future for himself.

There was no question that he would be the one walking into a much sought-after job at the end of our degree. His work with GCN brought along a whole new cohort of friends and colleagues who respected and admired Joe just as much as all of us in UL. In their words, it is unbearable.

The beautiful tribute written by GCN for Joe put it perfectly: You could say his voice being silenced is a loss to the writing community, the queer community, his hometown, but none of those would say enough. It is the worlds loss.

Molly Cantwell writes: 'Joe was a tower for others to lean on, so confident and sure of himself he spent his time building people up: You got this, love.'

His friends and colleagues from La Cucina, Dough Bros, The Buttery, and more also have to carry this unbearable heartache, and deal with the fact they wont be seeing the friendly face they had come to love so much.

If Joe blossomed in Limerick, he became whole in Berlin. Berlin opened his eyes to so much, he had so many adventures and made so many wonderfully supportive friends. And it was there he found real joy and love. Joes wonderful partner, Santiago, brought out the best in him, inspiring him to be a better writer and showing him what true love was.

Joe was so unique and so incredibly special. His life was cut short  but what a life.

He had wonderful friends, and a family who adored him, and he knew real love. Not everyone gets that.

'The minute Joe met Limerick he really blossomed. After his first year in UL, his family said it was like he was two feet taller  partly due to his platform shoes, but mostly because he found his calling. He would be a voice for those who needed it.' Picture courtesy of Molly Cantwell

His vision for Limerick Voice was so powerful and will remain so potent in all of our hearts as we try to honour him.

While we mourn Joe, we also think of the four other people who were killed on Irish roads on the same weekend as him.

Their families and friends are going through the worst time of their lives now.

Joe was one of 37 pedestrians to die in road accidents this year. This is the highest number of pedestrian deaths on Irish roads in 15 years. In total, 155 people have lost their lives on Irish roads this year.

Initial reports of deaths on Irish roads including the first report of the deaths of Joe Drennan and another person a fortnight ago do not name the deceased. But every one of them will bring profound pain for the victims' families and friends.

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of people whose lives have been torn to pieces with grief for their loved one, taken in the most senseless of ways on Irish roads.

Im so incredibly angry for Joe, for the stories he wont write, the family that dont have their beautiful boy, and the friendship ripped out of our hands. And there are so many more across Ireland left feeling this way.

As we face into another bank holiday weekend, it is heartbreaking to think that even more families, friends, and loved ones will be left counting the cost of the continuing carnage on Irish roads. They just dont know it yet.

 Molly Cantwell is co-editor of the Limerick Voice newspaper in University of Limerick.

Joe Drennan.
Former premier Li Keqiang, Chinas top economic official for a decade, has died of a heart attack aged 68.

Mr Li was Chinas number two leader from 2013-23 and an advocate for private business but was left with little authority after President Xi Jinping made himself the most powerful Chinese leader in decades and tightened control over the economy and society.

CCTV said Mr Li had been resting in Shanghai recently and had a heart attack on Thursday. He died at 12.10am local time on Friday.

Mr Li, an English-speaking economist, was considered a contender to succeed then-Communist Party leader Hu Jintao in 2013 but was passed over in favour of Mr Xi.

Newly elected Chinese premier Li Qiang, left, walks past as Chinese President Xi Jinping, centre, shakes hands with former premier Li Keqiang during a session of Chinas National Peoples Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on

Reversing the Hu eras consensus-oriented leadership, Mr Xi centralised powers in his own hands, leaving Mr Li and others on the partys ruling seven-member Standing Committee with little influence.

As the top economic official, Mr Li promised to improve conditions for entrepreneurs who generate jobs and wealth.

But the ruling party under Mr Xi increased the dominance of state industry and tightened control over tech and other industries.

Foreign companies said they felt unwelcome after Mr Xi and other leaders called for economic self-reliance, expanded an anti-spying law and raided offices of consulting firms.

Mr Li was dropped from the Standing Committee at a party congress in October 2022 despite being two years below the informal retirement age of 70.

The same day, Mr Xi awarded himself a third five-year term as party leader, discarding a tradition under which his predecessors stepped down after 10 years.

Mr Xi filled the top party ranks with loyalists, ending the era of consensus leadership and possibly making himself leader for life.

Chinas then-premier Li Keqiang speaks during the Asean-China Summit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, in November 2022 (Heng Sinith/AP)

The number two slot was filled by Li Qiang, the party secretary for Shanghai, who lacked Li Keqiangs national-level experience and later told reporters that his job was to do whatever Mr Xi decided.

Li Keqiang, a former vice premier, took office in 2013 as the ruling party faced growing warnings the construction and export booms that propelled the previous decades double-digit growth were running out of steam.

Government advisers argued Beijing had to promote growth based on domestic consumption and service industries.

That would require opening more state-dominated industries and forcing state banks to lend more to entrepreneurs.

Mr Lis predecessor, Wen Jiabao, apologised at a March 2012 news conference for not moving fast enough.

In a 2010 speech, Mr Li acknowledged challenges including too much reliance on investment to drive economic growth, weak consumer spending and a wealth gap between prosperous eastern cities and the poor countryside, home to 800 million people.

Mr Li was seen as a possible candidate to revive then-supreme leader Deng Xiaopings market-oriented reforms of the 1980s that started Chinas boom.

But he was known for an easygoing style, not the hard-driving impatience of Zhu Rongji, the premier in 1998-2003 who ignited the construction and export booms by forcing painful reforms that cut millions of jobs from state industry.

Then-Chinese premier Li Keqiang attends a signing ceremony with then-Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on April 14 2016 (Parker Song/Pool Photo via AP)

Mr Li was believed to have supported the China 2030 report released by the World Bank and a cabinet research body in 2012 that called for dramatic changes to reduce the dominance of state industry and rely more on market forces.

The Unirule Institute, an independent think tank in Beijing, said state industry was so inefficient that its return on equity  a broad measure of profitability  was negative 6%.

Unirule was later shut down by Mr Xi as part of a campaign to tighten control over information.

In his first annual policy address, Mr Li in 2014 was praised for promising to pursue market-oriented reform, cut government waste, clean up air pollution and root out pervasive corruption that was undermining public faith in the ruling party.

Mr Xi took away Mr Lis decision-making powers on economic matters by appointing himself to head a party commission overseeing reform.

Mr Xis government pursued the anti-graft drive, imprisoning hundreds of officials including former Standing Committee member Zhou Yongkang.

But party leaders were ambivalent about the economy.

They failed to follow through on a promised list of dozens of market-oriented changes.

Then-Chinese premier Li Keqiang speaks during a press conference after the closing session of the National Peoples Congress in Beijings Great Hall of the People on March 15 2019 (Ng Han Guan/AP)

They increased the dominance of state-owned banks and energy and other companies.

Mr Xis government opened some industries including electric car manufacturing to private and foreign competition.

But it built up state-owned national champions and encouraged Chinese companies to use domestic suppliers instead of imports.

Borrowing by companies, households and local governments increased, pushing up debt that economists warned was already dangerously high.

Beijing finally tightened controls in 2020 on debt in real estate, one of Chinas biggest industries.

That triggered a collapse in economic growth, which fell to 3% in 2022, the second-lowest in three decades.

Mr Li showed his political skills but little zeal for reform as governor and later party secretary of populous Henan province in central China in 1998-2004.

Then-Chinese vice premier Li Keqiang, centre, speaks at a symposium attended by representatives of HIV/Aids-related non-governmental organisations and international organisations in Beijing in November 2012 (Ma Zhancheng/Xinhua via AP)

Mr Li earned the nickname Three Fires Li and a reputation for bad luck after three fatal fires struck Henan while he was there.

A Christmas Day blaze at a nightclub in 2000 killed 309 people.

Other officials were punished but Mr Li emerged unscathed.

Meanwhile, provincial leaders were trying to suppress information about the spread of Aids by a blood-buying industry in Henan.

Mr Lis reputation for bad luck held as China suffered a series of deadly disasters during his term.

Days after he took office, a landslide on March 29 2013 killed at least 66 miners at a gold mine in Tibet and left 17 others missing and presumed dead.

In the eastern port of Tianjin, a warehouse holding chemicals exploded on August 12 2015, killing at least 116 people.

A China Eastern Airlines jetliner plunged into the ground on March 22 2022, killing all 132 people aboard.

Then-Chinese premier Li Keqiang, centre, speaks to medical workers at Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan in central Chinas Hubei province on January 27 2020 (Li Tao/Xinhua via AP)

Authorities have yet to announce a possible cause.

Mr Li oversaw Chinas response to Covid-19, the first cases of which were detected in the central city of Wuhan.

Then-unprecedented controls were imposed, shutting down most international travel for three years and access to major cities for weeks at a time.

In one of his last major official acts, Mr Li led a cabinet meeting that announced on November 11 2022 that anti-virus controls would be relaxed to reduce disruption after the economy shrank by 2.6% in the second quarter of the year.

Two weeks later, the government announced most travel and business restrictions would end the following month.

Mr Li was born on July 1 1955 in the eastern province of Anhui and by 1976 was ruling party secretary of a commune there.

Then-Chinese premier Li Keqiang, front left, wearing a face mask, visits the tunnel of subway line 5 in Zhengzhou city in central Chinas Henan province on August 18 2021 (Rao Aimin/Xinhua via AP)

Studying law at Peking University, he was the campus secretary of the ruling partys Communist Youth League, an organisation that launched the political careers of former party leaders Hu Jintao and Hu Yaobang.

He was a member of the Leagues Standing Committee, a sign he was seen as future leadership material.

After serving in a series of party posts, Mr Li received his PhD in economics in 1994 from Peking University.

Following Henan, Mr Li served as party secretary for Liaoning province in the north-east as part of a rotation through provincial posts and at ministries in Beijing that was meant to prepare leaders.

He joined the party Central Committee in 2007.
Hungary will do everything to develop its relations with Armenia, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in Yerevan on October 27.

October 27, 2023, 14:41 Hungary to provide financial assistance for forcibly displaced families of Nagorno-Karabakh

STEPANAKERT, OCTOBER 27, ARTSAKHPRESS-ARMENPRESS: He said Hungary will allocate 40 million forints (more than 110,000 dollars) in assistance for the forcibly displaced families of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Hungary is in favor of a peaceful resolution to all conflicts, including in the Caucasian region, he said.

We want Armenia and Azerbaijan to be able to sign a peace treaty as soon as possible, which would guarantee that people in the region will live calmly, in peace, in the next decades. After suffering for decades, all residents in the region deserve peace and calm here, he said at a joint press conference with Armenian FM Ararat Mirzoyan.

He reminded that in 2021 Hungary held negotiations with Azerbaijan on the release of 5 Armenian POWs.

Allow me to assure you that Hungary will continue to do everything to develop our relations, and as a sign of this we will provide an additional 40 million forints in assistance to the families whove come to Armenia from Nagorno-Karabakh. In case of necessity, we stand ready to participate in the treatment of these people, our hospitals are ready to admit the children of these families. Hungarys childrens camps are likewise ready to accept them, the Hungarian FM said.
A Chinese fighter jet came within 10ft of an American B-52 bomber flying over the South China Sea, nearly causing an accident, the US military said.

In the night intercept, the Shenyang J-11 twin-engine fighter closed on the US Air Force plane at an uncontrolled excessive speed, flying below, in front of, and within 10ft of the B-52, putting both aircraft in danger of a collision, the US Indo-Pacific Command said.

We are concerned this pilot was unaware of how close he came to causing a collision, the statement added.

Beijings ministry of foreign affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but in a similar incident in May, the Chinese government dismissed American complaints and demanded an end to such US flights over the South China Sea.

China has been increasingly assertive in advancing its claims on most of the South China Sea as its territorial waters, a position rejected by the US and other countries that use the vast expanse of ocean for shipping.

Chinas claims have led to longstanding territorial disputes with other countries in the South China Sea, one of the worlds busiest trade routes.

A Chinese coast guard ship and an accompanying vessel last week rammed a Philippine coast guard ship and a military-run supply boat off a contested shoal in the waterway.

The US defence commitment to the Philippines should not undermine China's sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea, nor should it support the illegal claims of the Philippines

Following that incident, President Joe Biden renewed a warning that the US would be obligated to defend the Philippines, its oldest treaty ally in Asia, if Filipino forces, aircraft or vessels come under armed attack.

China reacted by saying the US has no right to interfere in Beijings disputes with Manila.

The US defence commitment to the Philippines should not undermine Chinas sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea, nor should it support the illegal claims of the Philippines, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said in a news conference in Beijing.

The US and its allies regularly conduct maritime manoeuvres in the South China Sea, and also regularly fly aircraft over the area to emphasise that the waters and airspace are international.

The B-52 was lawfully conducting routine operations over the South China Sea in international airspace when it was intercepted by the J-11 on Tuesday, the US military said.

Intercepts are common, with the US saying that there have been more than 180 such incidents since the autumn of 2021.

They are not often as close as Tuesdays incident, however, and with tensions already high between Beijing and Washington, a collision would have had the potential to lead to an escalation.

The US military said in its statement that the incident will not change its approach.

The US will continue to fly, sail and operate  safely and responsibly  wherever international laws allow, the military said.
A Hamas official tied the release of hostages held in Gaza to a ceasefire in Israel's punishing air war in the enclave, launched after a deadly rampage by Hamas militants into southern Israel nearly three weeks ago.

Israel says it is preparing a ground invasion, but has been urged by the US and Arab countries to delay an operation that would multiply the number of civilian casualties in the densely populated coastal strip and might ignite a wider conflict.

Two US fighter jets struck weapons and ammunition facilities in Syria on Friday in retaliation for attacks on US forces by Iranian-backed militias since the Gaza conflict erupted.

An opinion poll published on Friday suggested almost half of Israelis now wanted to hold off on a ground invasion out of fears for at least 224 hostages reported to be held there.

The Russian newspaper Kommersant quoted a member of a Hamas delegation visiting Moscow as saying time was needed to locate all those who had been taken from Israel by various Palestinian factions in the Hamas attack on October 7 that sparked the crisis.

"They seized dozens of people, most of them civilians, and we need time to find them in the Gaza Strip and then release them," Abu Hamid said.

He said Hamas, which has freed four hostages so far, had made clear since the first days of the war that it intended to release "civilian prisoners".

But he said a "calm environment" was needed to complete this task, repeating an assertion - which Reuters could not verify - that Israeli bombing had already killed 50 of the prisoners.

Palestinian militants clashed with Israeli troops in at least two areas inside the Gaza Strip, the latest of several small-scale incursions, Hamas-affiliated media reported, though the Israeli military did not immediately confirm the sortie.

Residents of central Gaza said they had heard what sounded like an exchange of fire as well as heavy shelling and air strikes along the border, with Israeli planes dropping flares and bombs.

Israel said its fighter jets had struck three senior Hamas operatives who played significant roles in the October 7 attack, all commanders in the Daraj Tuffah Battalion. There was no official announcement by Hamas.

In the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, an air strike killed the pregnant wife of a Palestinian lawyer, Jehad Al-Kafarnah.

"My life, my heart, I love you," Kafarnah wrote, weeping, on the white sheeting wrapped around his wife's body. He held the body of her 8-month-old stillborn child, also wrapped in white, in his arms.

Parents and children lay out cuddly toys across the entrance to the Foreign Office in London, as they protest to save children's lives in Gaza. Each toy represents a Palestinian child killed during the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Gaza civilians grow more desperate

As Gaza's 2.3 million civilians grow more desperate under an Israeli siege that has cut power and water as well as supplies of food, fuel and medicine, the issue of how to help them comes before the 193-member U.N. General Assembly in New York on Friday.

Unlike in the U.N. Security Council, where resolutions on getting aid to Gaza failed this week, no country will be able to veto the resolution submitted by Arab states calling for a ceasefire, which will not be binding but carry political weight.

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, says more than 600,000 Gazans have been made homeless by Israeli bombardment, at least three times more than its shelters can hold.

Ten more food trucks food and medical supplies arrived in the enclave, along with 10 foreign doctors, on Friday, the first to enter since Israel tightened its blockade on Gaza nearly three weeks ago, a Palestinian official at Gaza's Rafah border crossing with Egypt said.

A U.N. official said earlier that around 74 trucks had crossed since the start of the conflict, making some 84 altogether. The U.N. says Gaza needs around 100 trucks every day to meet essential needs and the official said negotiations were taking place with Israel, which wants to prevent resources reaching Hamas, to find a faster mechanism.

An off-duty Israeli soldier walks by an installation of blindfolded giant teddy bears adorned with photos of Israelis held captive in Gaza, in Tel Aviv, Israel. The installation is meant to draw attention to over 200 people who were abducted by Hamas militants during a bloody and unprecedented Oct. 7 cross-border attack.

US strikes syrian bases used by Iranian proxies

Calls for restraint have been driven not only by concern for Gaza's civilians and Israeli hostages, but also by fears that the crisis could ignite conflict across the Middle East.

US President Joe Biden ordered overnight strikes on two Syrian facilities used by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps and militias that it backs, the Pentagon said. He earlier issued a rare direct warning to Iran on Thursday against targeting US troops in the Middle East.

US and coalition troops have been attacked at least 19 times in Iraq and in Syria by Iranian-backed forces in the past week.

The United States has sent warships and fighter aircraft to the region over the last three weeks and on Thursday the Pentagon said about 900 more US troops were en route or in the Middle East to bolster air defences for US personnel.

Israel says Hamas killed some 1,400 people including children in its Oct. 7 rampage.

The Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry said on Thursday that 7,028 Palestinians had been killed in the retaliatory air strikes, including 2,913 children. Reuters could not independently verify the tolls.

A poll published in the Israeli daily Maariv newspaper found that 49% said "it would be better to wait" before beginning a large-scale ground offensive, while 29% disagreed. A poll a week earlier had found 65% support for a ground invasion.

"It is almost certain that the developments on the matter of the hostages, which is now topping the agenda, have had a great impact on this shift," Maariv said.
Scores of protesters have gathered on the streets of Ukrainian cities to demand a cap of 18 months on mandatory military service, amid suggestions of possible Ukrainian and international weariness over the 20-month war.

Both Ukraine and Russia are striving to keep their military momentum, though neither side is able to land a knockout blow, and the fighting is expected to drag on into next year.

The 18-month service limit in Ukraine would be the same maximum as before the war. It is currently open-ended for draftees.

The protesters, who are part of a loose national network, want the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraines parliament, to consider possible alternatives on service time.

Liliia, who waits for her father to return from the frontline, holds a poster reading: Bring my father back. Demobilisation! (AP)

Around 100 wives, mothers, children and relatives of Ukrainian soldiers attended a demonstration in the capital, Kyiv.

They chanted: Demobilise the soldiers and carried banners calling for the return of their loved ones.

Why is dad not coming back? asked one placard carried by a child.

I live in constant fear for his life, said Valeriia Koliada, 35, said of her husband who volunteered for the military.

Its nerve-wracking for me. He is tired as well, she said. We are a young family. I also want to have a child and sleep calm at night.

Protesters also gathered in at least six other cities.

I spoke with @RishiSunak.



The United Kingdom's support for Ukraine remains unwavering. I greatly appreciate it.



I updated Rishi on Russian attempts to encircle Avdiivka. Our warriors stopped them and inflicted heavy losses on the enemy, who lost at least a brigade of personnel.  Volodymyr Zelenskyy /   (@ZelenskyyUa) October 27, 2023

Ukraine ordered a general mobilisation of the male population between the ages of 25 to 60 when Russia launched its invasion on February 24 2022.

The vast majority joined up as volunteers. As the war grinds on, Ukraine has ramped up the draft.

There are no signs that Ukrainian public support for the fight against Russias invasion is waning. In Russia, meanwhile, authorities have cracked down on anti-war protests, and critics of the Kremlins policies are on the whole swiftly silenced.

Even so, US officials say that Russian forces are experiencing morale problems as another winter campaign looms.

The White House said that Russia is executing soldiers who disobey orders and threatening entire units with death if they retreat from Ukrainian artillery fire.

The latest hot spot draining resources is Avdiivka, a city in the eastern Donetsk region that Russian forces partially occupy.

Family members of servicemen took to the streets across Ukraine (AP)

Avdiivkas location provides Ukrainian forces with artillery advantages over the city of Donetsk and could serve as a launchpad for them to liberate the rest of Donetsk.

the city lies in ruins after weeks of bitter fighting in a costly effort, mostly for the Russian attackers, according to analysts.

The bid to overrun the city has backfired on the Kremlins forces, robbing it of troops and heavy equipment that will likely undermine Russian offensive capabilities over the long term, the Institute for the Study of War said.

The Washington-based think tank noted that Ukrainian military officials said that around 5,000 Russian soldiers have been killed and wounded, and 400 armoured vehicles lost in the area since October 10.

Satellite images show the Russian military lost at least 109 military vehicles, mostly armoured fighting vehicles and tanks, near Avdiivika between October 10 and 20, the institute said.

The Kremlins forces have failed in their weekslong effort to surround the city, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he told UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in a phone call on Friday.

The war will drag into its second winter (AP)

Our soldiers stopped them and inflicted significant casualties, amounting to at least a brigade of personnel, Mr Zelensky said on his Telegram channel.

The Avdiivika fight and other battles are draining both sides resources.

Moscow has stepped up its military production and has reportedly turned to North Korea and Iran to replenish its stockpiles, observers say, while Kyiv is urging its Western allies to keep providing vital support.

The US statement about Russian morale came as President Joe Biden met on Thursday with new House Speaker Mike Johnson, a staunch conservative whose support for Ukraine has been more muted than that of the administration.

He told Mr Biden, who wants billions of dollars in new support for Kyiv, that congress is not going to abandon Ukraine, but demanded more information about US strategy in the conflict.

Meanwhile, cracks are showing in the unity of the 27-nation European Union over its backing for Ukraine.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, attending an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday, said that he was right to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, insisting he was actively seeking peace in Ukraine.

He recently gained a Russia-friendly ally in the bloc with the election of new Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico.

In an address by videoconference to the EU summit, Mr Zelensky urged the bloc to stand firmly together against Putin.
Israel expects to launch a long and difficult ground offensive into Gaza soon to destroy Hamas, the countrys defence minister said.

Yoav Gallant described a campaign that will require dismantling a vast network of tunnels used by the territorys militant rulers.

The defence minister spoke to a small group of foreign reporters in Tel Aviv after Israeli forces backed by fighter jets and drones carried out a second, limited ground raid into Gaza in as many days, striking the outskirts of Gaza City.

Mr Gallant said the ground invasion that follows weeks of air strikes will take a long time, and that it would lead to another lengthy phase of lower-intensity fighting as Israel destroys pockets of resistance.

In a sign of rising tensions in the region, US war planes struck targets in eastern Syria that the Pentagon said were linked to Irans Revolutionary Guard after a string of attacks on American forces, and two mysterious objects hit towns in Egypts Sinai Peninsula.

After three weeks of war sparked by a bloody Hamas incursion into southern Israel, the Palestinian death toll has soared past 7,300, according to officials in Gaza.

A blockade on Gaza has meant dwindling supplies of food, fuel, water and medicine, and UN and Arab leaders have called for a ceasefire to allow entry of humanitarian aid that is only trickling in.

On Thursday, Gazas health ministry released a detailed list of names and identification numbers of those killed, including more than 3,000 minors and more than 1,500 women.

An Israeli man evacuate an elderly woman from a building struck by a rocket fired from Gaza, in Tel Aviv (AP)

More than 1,400 people were slain in Israel during Hamas October 7 attack, according to the Israeli government, and at least 229 hostages were taken into Gaza.

Palestinian militants have fired thousands of rockets into Israel, including one that hit a residential building in Tel Aviv on Friday, injuring four people.

The overall number of deaths far exceeds the combined toll of all four previous wars between Israel and Hamas, estimated at around 4,000.

A ground invasion is expected to cause even higher casualties on both sides as Israeli forces and Hamas battle each other in dense residential areas.

Hospitals have been scrounging for fuel to run emergency generators that power incubators and other life-saving equipment after Israel cut off all fuel deliveries to Gaza at the start of the war, forcing its only power plant to shut down.

Mr Gallant said Israel believes that Hamas would confiscate any fuel that enters. He said Hamas uses generators to pump air into its hundreds of miles of tunnels, which originate in civilian areas.

He showed reporters aerial footage of what he said was a tunnel shaft built right next to a hospital.

For air, they need oil. For oil, they need us, he said.

Little is known about Hamas secretive tunnels and other infrastructure, and it was not possible to independently confirm Mr Gallants claims.

Lynne Hastings, the UN aid coordinator for the Palestinian territories, declined to comment on Mr Gallants remarks, saying: We dont know what Hamas has or doesnt have.

She added: We have been bringing fuel into Gaza in coordination with the government of Israel for decades. We know fuel is a high-risk item and are working with the Israelis to make sure what we will be using for our operations is done securely.

(PA Graphics)

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, which provides basic services to hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza, said it has been forced to ration fuel among lifesaving machines in hospitals, bakeries, and desalination plants, and only has enough for a few more days.

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, told reporters: The siege means that food, water and fuel  basic commodities  are being used to collectively punish more than two million people, among them, a majority of children and women.

Earlier on Friday, the military said ground forces raided inside Gaza, striking dozens of militant targets over the past 24 hours.

It said aircraft and artillery bombed targets in Shijaiyah, an area on Gaza Citys outskirts that was the scene of an urban battle in the 2014 Gaza war.

The military said the soldiers exited the territory without suffering any casualties. It reported an earlier, hours-long raid into northern Gaza on Thursday.

The damage to Gaza from nearly three weeks of bombardment showed in satellite photos of several locations taken before the war and again in recent days. Entire rows of residential buildings simply disappear in the photos, reduced to smears of dust and rubble.

Palestinians look for survivors after an Israeli air strike on buildings at Shati refugee camp (AP)

The Israeli military says it only targets militants and accuses Hamas of operating among civilians in an attempt to protect its fighters.

The conflict has threatened to ignite a wider war across the region.

US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said that the Friday strikes in eastern Syria were a response to ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against US personnel in Iraq and Syria over the past 10 days.

He said the operation was separate from the Israel-Hamas war.

Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed ally of Hamas in Lebanon, has repeatedly traded fire with Israel along the border, and Israel has carried out air strikes targeting Iran-linked groups in Syria. The United States has sent two aircraft carrier strike groups to the region, along with additional weaponry and personnel, in part to deter Iran and its allies from entering the war.

Last week, a US Navy destroyer in the northern Red Sea shot down three cruise missiles and several drones launched toward Israel by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in northern Yemen.

About 1.4 million of Gazas 2.3 million residents have fled their homes, with nearly half of them crowding into UN shelters.

Hundreds of thousands remain in northern Gaza, despite Israel ordering them to evacuate to the south and saying that those who remain might be considered accomplices of Hamas.

Over the past week, Israel has allowed more than 80 trucks with aid enter from Egypt through the Rafah crossing, the only entry point into Gaza not controlled by Israel. But aid workers say the convoys meet only a tiny fraction of the territorys mounting humanitarian needs.
Israeli attacks have caused the loss of internet connection in the Gaza strip - as the military has warned ground forces are 'expanding their activity'.

Palestinian telecom provider Paltel said internet service in the Gaza Strip has been cut off by the Israeli bombardment.

Here are some of today's other developments:

The Tanaiste has condemned the 'dire' situation in Gaza as Israeli ground forces began "expanding their activity".

Pope Francis has led special Friday evening prayers in St Peters Basilica for a world in a dark hour

The United Nations General Assembly has called for a`humanitarian truce to be established in Gaza.

Services were cut on Friday evening following a heavy round of Israeli air strikes that lit up the sky over the territory.

The Israeli military has said its ground forces are expanding their activity in the Gaza Strip, as the army moved closer to a full ground invasion of the besieged territory[/url.

Daniel Hagari, the armys spokesman, said aerial attacks had been targeting Hamas tunnels and other targets.

In addition to the attacks that we carried out in recent days, ground forces are expanding their activity this evening, he said.

"The IDF is acting with great force to achieve the objectives of the war.

ActionAid Ireland CEO, Karol Balfe, says that communication has been cut-off with colleagues in Gaza.

A statement read: "Tonight, we have lost all contact with our colleagues in Gaza. We are gravely concerned for their safety and that of all the people of Gaza as signs grow of a major land escalation following almost three weeks of bombardment.

"We urgently call for the restoration of communication channels, as this is not only a matter of principle but also one of practical necessity. The blackout isolates the population, making it nearly impossible for them to seek help, share their stories, or maintain contact with loved ones.

"This isolation deepens the suffering of those already enduring a dire humanitarian crisis amidst an increase in the aerial bombardment of civilians. A population that has already suffered so much is now under even more threat. We urgently reiterate our calls for a ceasefire."

Earlier, the countrys defence minister said Israel expects to launch a long and difficult ground offensive into Gaza soon to destroy Hamas.

Palestinians inspect the damage after air strikes (Abed Khaled/AP)

Yoav Gallant described a campaign that will require dismantling a vast network of tunnels used by the territorys militant rulers.

The defence minister spoke to a small group of foreign reporters in Tel Aviv after Israeli forces backed by fighter jets and drones carried out a second, limited ground raid into Gaza in as many days, striking the outskirts of Gaza City.

Mr Gallant said the ground invasion that follows weeks of air strikes will take a long time, and that it would lead to another lengthy phase of lower-intensity fighting as Israel destroys pockets of resistance.

In a sign of the rising tensions in the region, US war planes earlier struck targets in eastern Syria that the Pentagon said were linked to Irans Revolutionary Guard after a string of attacks on American forces, and two mysterious objects hit towns in Egypts Sinai Peninsula.

After three weeks of war sparked by a bloody Hamas incursion into southern Israel, the Palestinian death toll has soared past 7,300, according to officials in Gaza.

A blockade on Gaza has meant dwindling supplies of food, fuel, water and medicine, and UN and Arab leaders have called for a ceasefire to allow entry of humanitarian aid that is only trickling in.

On Thursday, Gazas health ministry released a detailed list of names and identification numbers of those killed, including more than 3,000 minors and more than 1,500 women.

More than 1,400 people were slain in Israel during Hamas October 7 attack, according to the Israeli government, and at least 229 hostages were taken into Gaza.

Palestinian militants have fired thousands of rockets into Israel, including one that hit a residential building in Tel Aviv on Friday, injuring four people.

A man lights candles to honor the victims of the Hamas attacks, at Dizengoff square in central Tel Aviv, Israel, Friday, Oct. 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

The overall number of deaths far exceeds the combined toll of all four previous wars between Israel and Hamas, estimated at around 4,000.

A ground invasion is expected to cause even higher casualties on both sides as Israeli forces and Hamas battle each other in dense residential areas.

Hospitals have been scrounging for fuel to run emergency generators that power incubators and other life-saving equipment after Israel cut off all fuel deliveries to Gaza at the start of the war, forcing its only power plant to shut down.

Mr Gallant said Israel believes that Hamas would confiscate any fuel that enters. He said Hamas uses generators to pump air into its hundreds of miles of tunnels, which originate in civilian areas.

He showed reporters aerial footage of what he said was a tunnel shaft built right next to a hospital. For air, they need oil. For oil, they need us, he said.

Little is known about Hamas secretive tunnels and other infrastructure, and it was not possible to independently confirm Mr Gallants claims.

Lynne Hastings, the UN aid coordinator for the Palestinian territories, declined to comment on Mr Gallants remarks, saying: We dont know what Hamas has or doesnt have.

She added: We have been bringing fuel into Gaza in coordination with the government of Israel for decades. We know fuel is a high-risk item and are working with the Israelis to make sure what we will be using for our operations is done securely.

Palestinians inspect the damage of destroyed buildings following Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City, Friday, Oct. 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Abed Khaled)

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, which provides basic services to hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza, said it has been forced to ration fuel among lifesaving machines in hospitals, bakeries, and desalination plants, and only has enough for a few more days.

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, told reporters: The siege means that food, water and fuel  basic commodities  are being used to collectively punish more than two million people, among them, a majority of children and women.

Earlier on Friday, the military said ground forces raided inside Gaza, striking dozens of militant targets over the past 24 hours.

It said aircraft and artillery bombed targets in Shijaiyah, an area on Gaza Citys outskirts that was the scene of an urban battle in the 2014 Gaza war.

The military said the soldiers exited the territory without suffering any casualties. It reported an earlier, hours-long raid into northern Gaza on Thursday.

The damage to Gaza from nearly three weeks of bombardment showed in satellite photos of several locations taken before the war and again in recent days. Entire rows of residential buildings simply disappear in the photos, reduced to smears of dust and rubble.

The Israeli military says it only targets militants and accuses Hamas of operating among civilians in an attempt to protect its fighters.

The conflict has threatened to ignite a wider war across the region.

US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said that the Friday strikes in eastern Syria were a response to ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against US personnel in Iraq and Syria over the past 10 days.

He said the operation was separate from the Israel-Hamas war.

Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed ally of Hamas in Lebanon, has repeatedly traded fire with Israel along the border, and Israel has carried out air strikes targeting Iran-linked groups in Syria. The United States has sent two aircraft carrier strike groups to the region, along with additional weaponry and personnel, in part to deter Iran and its allies from entering the war.

Last week, a US Navy destroyer in the northern Red Sea shot down three cruise missiles and several drones launched toward Israel by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in northern Yemen.

About 1.4 million of Gazas 2.3 million residents have fled their homes, with nearly half of them crowding into UN shelters.

Hundreds of thousands remain in northern Gaza, despite Israel ordering them to evacuate to the south and saying that those who remain might be considered accomplices of Hamas.

Over the past week, Israel has allowed more than 80 trucks with aid enter from Egypt through the Rafah crossing, the only entry point into Gaza not controlled by Israel. But aid workers say the convoys meet only a tiny fraction of the territorys mounting humanitarian needs.
The UN General Assembly has approved a nonbinding resolution calling for a humanitarian truce in Gaza, leading to a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Gazas Hamas rulers.

It was the first UN response to Hamass surprise October 7 attacks on Israel and the ongoing military response and vow to obliterate Hamas.
Israel has knocked out communications in the Gaza Strip in intensified attacks, largely cutting off its 2.3 million people from contact with each other and the outside world, as the military said it was expanding ground operations in the territory.

The militarys announcement signalled it was moving closer to an all-out invasion of Gaza, where it has vowed to crush the ruling Hamas militant group after its incursion in southern Israel three weeks ago.

Explosions from continuous air strikes lit up the sky over Gaza City for hours after nightfall.

The Palestinian telecom provider, Paltel, said the bombardment caused complete disruption of internet, mobile phone and landline services.

Already plunged into darkness after most electricity was cut off weeks ago, Palestinians were thrown into isolation, huddling in homes and shelters with food and water supplies running out.

Relatives outside Gaza panicked after their messaging chats with families inside suddenly went dead and calls stopped going through.

I was so scared this was going to happen, said Wafaa Abdul Rahman, director of a feminist organisation based in the West Bank city of Ramallah. She said she had not heard for hours from family in central Gaza.

Weve been seeing these horrible things and massacres when its live on TV, so now what will happen when theres a total blackout? she said, referring to scenes of families that have been crushed in homes by air strikes over the past weeks.

An Israeli man evacuate an elderly woman from a building struck by a rocket fired from Gaza, in Tel Aviv (AP)

The Hamas media centre reported heavy night time clashes at several places, including what it said was an Israeli incursion east of Bureij.

Asked about the report, the Israeli military reiterated early on Saturday that it had been carrying out targeted raids and expanding strikes with the aim of preparing the ground for future stages of the operation.

Lynn Hastings, UN humanitarian coordinator for the occupied territories, posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that without phone lines and internet, hospitals and aid operations would be unable to operate.

The Red Crescent said it could not contact its medical teams and residents could no longer call ambulances, meaning rescuers would have to chase the sound of explosions to find the wounded.

International aid groups said they were only able to reach a few staff using satellite phones.

The Committee to Protect Journalists expressed alarm, saying the world is losing a window into the reality of the conflict. It warned that the information vacuum can be filled with deadly propaganda, dis- and misinformation.

Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said ground forces were expanding their activity on Friday evening in Gaza and acting with great force  to achieve the objectives of the war.

Israel said its strikes target Hamas fighters and infrastructure and that the militants operate from among civilians, putting them in danger.

Israel has amassed hundreds of thousands of troops along the border with Gaza ahead of an expected ground offensive.

Earlier on Friday, the military said ground forces conducted their second hours-long incursion inside Gaza in as many days, striking dozens of militant targets over the past 24 hours.

The Palestinian death toll in Gaza has soared past 7,300, more than 60% of them children and women, according to the territorys Health Ministry. A blockade on Gaza has meant dwindling supplies, and the UN warned that its aid operation helping hundreds of thousands of people was crumbling amid near-depleted fuel.

(PA Graphics)

More than 1,400 people were killed in Israel during Hamas October 7 attack, according to the Israeli government, and at least 229 hostages were taken into Gaza.

Palestinian militants have fired thousands of rockets into Israel, including one that hit a residential building in Tel Aviv on Friday, wounding four people.

The overall number of deaths far exceeds the combined toll of all four previous Israel-Hamas wars, estimated at around 4,000.

Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told foreign reporters that Israel expects a long and difficult ground offensive into Gaza soon.

It will take a long time to dismantle Hamass vast network of tunnels, he said, adding that he expected a lengthy phase of lower-intensity fighting as Israel destroys pockets of resistance.

Palestinians carry an injured man out of a damaged building (Abed Khaled/AP)

His comments pointed to a potentially gruelling and open-ended new phase of the war after three weeks of relentless bombardment.

Israel has said it aims to crush Hamass rule in Gaza and its ability to threaten Israel.

But how Hamass defeat will be measured and an invasions end game remain unclear. Israel says it does not intend to rule the tiny territory of 2.3 million Palestinians but not who it expects to govern  even as Mr Gallant suggested a long-term insurgency could ensue.

In Washington, the Pentagon said US defence secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with Mr Gallant on Friday and underscored the importance of protecting civilians during the Israel Defence Forces operations and focusing on the urgency of humanitarian aid delivery for civilians in Gaza.

The Pentagon said Mr Austin also brought up the need for Hamas to release all of the hostages.

The conflict has threatened to ignite a wider war across the region.

Arab nations  including US allies and ones that have reached peace deals or normalised ties with Israel  have raised increasing alarm over a potential ground invasion, likely to bring even higher casualties amid urban fighting.

Jordanian foreign minister, Ayman Safadi warned on X that the outcome will be a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions for years to come.
Goods arriving into Northern Ireland from Britain were required to undergo various checks under the protocol

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A hardening of the land border between NI and the Republic (which had also become the land border between the EU and UK in June 2016) might, as Leo Varadkar suggested to a meeting of EU leaders in Oct[...]
The Windsor Framework was Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's attempt to alleviate unionist concerns with the Northern Ireland Protocol

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UNIONISTS feel an affinity with Israel. Sir Ronald Storrs, governor of the British so-called Palestine mandate 1917-26, welcomed the arrival of Jewish colonists into the region after the[...]
The Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and resistance allies attacked Myanmar regime offices at dawn on Friday in Kawkareik town, Karen State.

A police station and military intelligence office have been burned down and clashes continue in the north of the town, according to the armed groups.

Some residents fled the town this morning but most remain trapped.

Resistance sources say the town hall, township court and a police prison have been occupied.

We killed junta troops stationed in a monastery and others fled. They are shelling the town and some houses have been destroyed, said a member of the Albino Tiger Column, which is allied to the KNLA.

No junta airstrikes have been reported amid speculation that the regimes air force is deployed in Kachin and Shan states.

Raids on Kawkareiks junta targets were launched on October 21.

Kawkareik town is on a trade route with Thailand and has been held by junta troops while Karen resistance groups control rural areas of the township.

The KNLA Battalion 27 commander Lieutenant Colonel Saw Yan Naing told The Irrawaddy that the attacks were a response to regime refusals to withdraw from Karen villages in southern Kawkareik and to stop shelling.

The Taang National Liberation Army in northern Shan State is launching simultaneous attacks on junta troops, stretching the regimes resources.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has expressed willingness to contribute to the preservation of Armenian cultural and spiritual heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenian FM Ararat Mirzoyan said at a joint press conference with Szijjarto.

October 27, 2023, 15:09 Hungary ready to contribute to preservation of Armenian heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh

STEPANAKERT, OCTOBER 27, ARTSAKHPRESS-ARMENPRESS: After the forced displacement the issue of Armenian cultural and spiritual heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh has become more pressing. In the past we appealed to UNESCO and other international partners, there was a decision to send a UNESCO mission to Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent regions. But as a result of multiple obstructions caused by Azerbaijan, that visit hasnt taken place thus far. But now that mission is needed more, Mirzoyan said, adding that Armenia is working in that direction.

Mirzoyan said that the Hungarian Foreign Minister sincerely expressed desire to step in and have his contribution in that important issue, ensure the preservation of Armenian cultural and spiritual heritage, as well as access to such sites.

Mirzoyan thanked Szijjarto for Hungarys willingness to contribute to the issue.
Junta infantry beat five civilians to death during raids on six riverside villages in Mandalays Madaya and Singu townships this week, according to resistance forces and locals.

The bodies of three men were discovered dumped near Tha Hpan Daunt village in Madaya while the other two were found near Kyet Tu Yway village in Singu following junta raids on Oct. 25, a Kyet Tu Yway resident said on Friday.

We found signs of torture on their bodies. They were killed by blunt-force trauma to their head, a Singu resistance member said.

Sources identified one of the victims as U Kyaw Win, a resident of Thea Inn village who was arrested by junta troops during the raid.

The identities of the four other victims were still unknown, Singu residents said.

Around 150 junta troops travelled upstream from Mandalay on the Ayeyarwady River to raid two villages in Madaya township on Oct. 25. The column then moved on to Ywar Thar Yar village, a pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee militia base in Singu.

Junta troops and Pyu Saw Htee militia torched at least five houses in Madaya township, resistance forces from Madaya said.

They then burned down a monastery, clinic and five houses in Kyet Tu Yway village in Singu, according to residents there.

Thea Inn and Kyet Tu Yway villages had been raided by the same junta column a week earlier on Oct. 18, a villager from Thea Inn reported.

This was the second time this month that they have destroyed our village, he said.

Singus Kyet Tu Yway has also been repeatedly torched by junta infantry since the 2021 military coup, according to residents.

They [junta troops] have destroyed our village seven times. They thought we would stop participating in the revolution if we lost all of our houses and belongings, but they were wrong, a resident of Kyet Tu Yway said.

At least 53 houses in Thea Inn and 17 houses in Kyet Tu Yway were incinerated on October 18, residents and resistance forces said.

According to Data For Myanmar, an independent group that monitors arson attacks, junta troops had burned down nearly 1,350 houses across Mandalay Region as of July 31.
The Brotherhood Alliancea tripartite military alliance comprising the Arakan Army (AA), Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA)launched simultaneous attacks on regime targets and bases in several towns in northern Shan State early on Friday.

As the attacks began, the MNDAA, an ethnic Kokang armed group based in northern Shan States Kokang region, issued a statement announcing the launch of anti-regime Operation 1027, a reference to Fridays date, Oct. 27.

It said the operation was aimed at rooting out the military dictatorship, fulfilling the desire of the people of the country and protecting them from the juntas daily arbitrary killings.

It also aims to stop the military regime from attacking ethnic armed organizations with heavy weapons and air strikes, and to build a federal democratic union with authentic self-administrative regions, the group said.

Finally, it said the operation aims to eradicate cyber scams in the Kokang region, also known as Shan State Special Region 1, which are mainly operated by the military regime and allied militia groups.

The AA and TNLA said in a separate, joint statement issued by all three EAOs on Friday that they are both also involved in Operation 1027.

At 4 a.m. Friday, the ethnic groups simultaneously attacked regime targets in Kyaukme, Kutkai, Muse, Lashio, Namkham, Nawnghkio and Chin Shwe Haw in northern Shan State and the ruby mining area of Mogoke in upper Mandalay Region, according to the resistance groups and locals.

Resistance groups also raided militia bases in Lashio Township, including an attack on junta forces at a tollgate at the entrance to Lashio town, the largest city in northern Shan State.

The MNDAA also announced it had blocked the Lashio-Muse Highway and Lashio-Chin Shwe Haw Road since this morning to prevent regime reinforcements from using the routes.

It strongly urged people not to violate its ban on using the roads, saying it would regard any vehicles on the routes as junta logistics vehicles and target them for attack.

A Lashio resident told The Irrawaddy on Friday morning that the junta had been counterattacking the ethnic armed groups using aircraft and artillery in the township since 8 a.m.

The junta shelled and bombed villages and some residential wards in the northeast of the town. There were civilian casualties. But rescue groups have been unable to reach the area, the resident said.

The MNDAA reportedly seized control of Chin Shwe Haw town from the military and occupied it on Friday. It also claimed to have seized junta outposts in strategic locations including the Chin Shwe Haw Bridge, Hopan, Kunlong and Mong Koe, as well as outposts on the outskirts of Lashio.

A resident in neighboring Hopan town told The Irrawaddy that The MNDAA previously said intense clashes would come after Oct. 27. But the attacks started at 4 a.m. this morning in Hopan. A lot of junta police and pro-junta militias were killed in the attack. The junta counterattacked with artillery and air strikes.

MNDAA troops reportedly seized a junta-run customs office in Chin Shwe Haw, killing more than 15 police officers and pro-junta militias.

A photo that went viral online appears to show the dead bodies of around 15 policemen being placed on a road near a checkpoint.

Meanwhile, as part of Operation 1027, TNLA troops managed to seize two strategic military outposts near the Namhkam-Nam Hpat Kar Road in Namhkam Township, northern Shan on Friday morning.

On Wednesday, clashes broke out in Kunlong Township, Lashio District, northern Shan State when the three ethnic armed groups launched joint attacks on three junta camps, including one near the road to Chin Shwe Haw.

The Myanmar military regime is facing attacks by the Peoples Defense Force (PDF), which is the armed wing of the civilian National Unity Government (NUG), as well as ethnic armed groups across the country, except in Rakhine State where the AA and the junta agreed a temporary ceasefire in late 2022.
At least 33 Myanmar junta forces were killed in the last three days as Peoples Defense Force groups (PDFs) and ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) stepped up attacks on regime targets across the country.

Incidents were reported in Shan and Karen states and Magwe, Sagaing, Bago and Tanintharyi regions.

The Irrawaddy has collected the following reports of significant attacks from PDFs and EAOs. Some military casualties could not be independently verified.

Junta suffers heavy losses in simultaneous attacks in northern Shan

The Myanmar junta lost bases and troops, as well as a town, in northern Shan State on Friday when the Brotherhood Alliance, a tripartite military alliance comprising the Arakan Army (AA), Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) launched anti-regime Operation 1027 (named for Fridays date, Oct. 27).

The resistance groups attacked many regime targets in several townships in northern Shan, including the states largest city Lashio, and seized Chin Shwe Haw town, which is located near the Chinese border, from the regime.

The junta responded to the attacks with artillery and air strikes.

Over 20 regime forces are believed to have been killed in the coordinated attacks.

Military offices burned in urban raids in Karen

Joint resistance forces engage in a clash with regime forces in Kawkareik town on Friday. / Karen Information Center

The Military Intelligence Department office and the office of the Police Special Branch were burned down in Kawkareik Town, Karen State on Friday after resistance groups including the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), the armed wing of the Karen National Union, raided and seized junta bases in the town, according to local Karen media.

Clashes between junta forces and resistance groups also broke out in at least four locations outside Kawkareik town. Details of damage and casualties on both sides were unknown.

Military bases bombed in Magwe

Young Force said it and other resistance groups used improvised rocket bombs to attack junta bases in Ashae Hpone Kan Village in Pakokku Township, Magwe Region on Thursday.

Rocket bombs exploded near regime forces at the bases, but details of damage and casualties were unknown.

Military checkpoint attacked in Magwe

Two regime forces were killed in Natmauk Township, Magwe Region on Thursday evening when Oppressed Peoples Revolutionary Force attacked junta troops at a military checkpoint near Thamone Kone Village, the resistance groups said.

All resistance fighters retreated from the area without casualties, though regime troops responded with firearms.

Regime forces bombed by drones in Sagaing

 Resistance drones strike regime forces advancing on a village in Shwebo Township on Monday. / Black Wolf Army

Three pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee militia members were injured in Shwebo Township, Sagaing Region on Thursday when three resistance groups used drones to drop bombs on a military unit of 65 troops from Kyauk Myaung Town while they were advancing near Maung Tat Village, said Black Wolf Army, which joined the attack.

After being bombed, the junta troops counterattacked the resistance forces using drone bombs, but there were no casualties.

Junta troops killed in urban attack in Sagaing

Resistance members ambush regime forces out shopping in Monywa town on Thursday. / Golden Eagle Force (Monywa)

Two regime personnel were killed and two injured in Monywa Town, Sagaing Region on Thursday when three resistance groups attacked four regime forces from a junta base at a former Immigration Department office on the Monywa-Amyint Road, said Golden Eagle Force (Monywa), which joined the attack.

The regime forces were attacked from close range while they were out shopping.

Junta base, reinforcements attacked in Tanintharyi

Tanintharyi Peoples Defense Force said it and other local resistance groups attacked a base of pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee militia forces in Mingok Village in Kyunsu Township, Tanintharyi Region on Tuesday.

They also ambushed a military vehicle carrying reinforcement troops near Taung Pu Village in nearby Myeik Township while it was heading to the militia base during an attack by resistance groups. At least nine regime forces were killed in the ambush.

The combined groups also ambushed a military vehicle near Chaung Nyiko Village in Tanintharyi Township on Wednesday while it was traveling to the militarys Artillery Battalion 306 based in Maw Tone Village. Military casualties were unknown.

Junta troops ambushed while advancing into Yoma Forest in Bago

Some regime forces are believed to have been killed or injured in Paungde Township, Bago Region on Wednesday when Paungde PDF ambushed a military unit of 24 troops from a junta base on a hill where a junta telecom tower is based.

The regime forces were attacked while advancing into Bago Yoma Forest. There were no resistance casualties.
Friday, Oct 27th, 2023 (12:01 am) - Score 31,320

Broadband ISP Virgin Media (VMO2) has informed us that theyve now resolved a tedious system error that recently caused some of their customers to suffer a spate of billing errors with their Direct Debit payments, which resulted in either only partial or no funds at all being taken from their accounts.

A fair number of people complained  over the past few weeks  about the issue, many of those via the operators own Community Forum (plenty of examples can be found here, here, here, here, here and here). The first that many customers noticed of the issue, unless they were paying close attention to their accounts, was when they got a prompt (e.g. new bill) that showed how they hadnt paid their previous bill.

The notices were often particularly galling because they warned affected customers  those who hadnt actually done anything wrong themselves to obstruct the payments  about the risk of service restrictions if they didnt cough up. Mercifully, a quick complaint to the operators support staff is often all that was required to resolve the issue.

A spokesperson for Virgin Media has now confirmed to ISPreview that a small number of Virgin Media customers with Direct Debits set up (not all customers with DDs) were recently billed less than they should have been. This issue is said to have been caused by an internal system error, which was resolved earlier this month.

A Virgin Media spokesperson said: We apologise to the small number of customers who were recently billed less than their usual amount. This was caused by a system error which has now been fixed. Impacted customers will see the remaining unpaid balance carried forward to their next bill, and they are encouraged to contact our customer service teams who will be able to support them, including through offering payment plans if that would be helpful.

Naturally a small number of customers, from an operator with a base of several million, could still be fairly significant in raw numerical terms, although Virgin Media declined to confirm precisely how many had been impacted. Credits to Carl, Mike and several other readers for highlighting the issue to us.
Amazon warehouse workers are reportedly getting physical injuries and mental stress on the job due to the company's extreme target on speed and surveillance, according to a new study.

Read Also: Amazon Ditches Plastic Packaging in Ohio Warehouse

Working Conditions on Amazon

The Center for Urban Economic Development at the University of Illinois Chicago released a new report discussing the working conditions on Amazon as experienced by its workers. The study surveyed 1,484 Amazon workers within the 451 facilities in 42 states.

"We undertook this study because media reports and government agency investigations have raised serious questions about working conditions at Amazon warehouses," co-author Dr. Beth Gutelius stated. The study revealed that around 41 percent of the workers from Amazon warehouses suffered from injury while working. Meanwhile, 52 percent of them feel burned out from their workload with more than half of them having worked for more than three years.

Employees always feel a sense of pressure to work faster which causes injuries and burnout within the employees. According to the surveyed employees, they are experiencing 60 percent more workplace monitoring at Amazon compared to their previous jobs.

Amazon Work Policies Sparks Concern

Although Amazon has been preaching as the innovator in the warehousing industry, most of the employees feel differently about it. Aside from physical stress and psychosocial stress, almost 70 percent of them were forced to have unpaid time off due to exhaustion.

"The magnitude of the health toll captured in the data should also raise concerns about potential long-term effects on well-being, medical costs, future employment, and overall economic security," co-author Dr. Sanjay Pinto expressed.

Regulators, lawmakers, and rights groups have been criticizing Amazon's working policy. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the U.S. Attorney's Office are already investigating the conditions in several Amazon warehouses. Meanwhile, Amazon argued that the company has made progress in lowering injury rates and has adjusted the working environment.

Related Article: Amazon Will Use AI-Powered Robots to Streamline Warehouse Fulfillment
Forbes launched the beta version of its generative AI search platform that aims to provide customized searches for readers.

Read Also: Claude AI Offers Text Summarization from PDFs for Free

Forbes AI Search Powered by Google Cloud

The AI search engine, called Adelaide, is reportedly equipped with Google Cloud. Adelaide was named after the wife of Forbes' founder, B.C. Forbes. The launch of this AI tool marked a milestone between trusted journalism and generative AI.

The publication giant is not a newbie when it comes to AI. In 2019, Forbes launched its AI-based tool called Bertie which guided its journalists about their writing style. On the contrary, Adelaide is made for readers and will eventually be available to over 150 million Forbes readers.

Google Cloud and Forbes forged their partnership last 2018 with the primary goal of transforming the publication's digital landscape. Since then, Google Cloud has been a critical partner of the publication when it comes to AI integration. "As we look to the future, we are enabling our audiences to better understand how AI can be a tool for good and enhance their lives," Forbes chief digital and information officer Vadim Supitskiy stated.

Adelaide by Forbes

Using the new feature, readers can ask Adelaide general and specific questions in order to generate a suggestion list of articles. In addition, it also comes with a summarized answer as long as it is within Forbes' scope. According to the magazine, its AI is trained to cover Forbes stories within the past 12 months.

Forbes also shared that the publication has set the goal of increasing engagement using searches and stories. "Engagement with search has been pretty standard for us, so we thought it would be a good opportunity to innovate using generative AI and boost the number of users that look for information," Supitskiy shared with The Verge.

Forbes readers have still a lot to expect from Adelaide as the publication confirmed that they are still working to improve its service. In the following months, readers might get more personalized and contextual conversations with the AI search engine.

Related Article: Google Introduces Generative AI Search for Doctors
Motorola revealed a new concept phone that featured a bendable phone display and can be wrapped around the wrist.

Read Also: Lenovo's Leaked Gaming Handheld to Rival Steam Deck, ROG Ally

Motorola Shows Off New Display Concept

It is quite common for the Lenovo-owned brand to pop out concept phone displays every now and then. For a while, the world has seen various phone ideas from Motorola from foldable ones to rollable ones, but the company is not yet ready to stop innovating.

The new conceptual device uses an FHD+ pOLED display that allows it to be bent and shaped in various forms depending on the user's preferences. According to Motorola, the adaptive display concept was based on the mechanical innovations from the previous foldable and rollable devices of the company.

The device runs on a 6.9-inch display when laid flat but can be reformed in an upright position. The compact form features a 4.6-inch display. What makes it interesting is that users can wrap the device around their wrist with an internal display similar to the Motorola Razr+.

Motorola Invests on AI

Along with a brand new phone concept, the company also announced its AI endeavors such as generative theming and sophisticated personal assistant. "For years, Motorola has been at the forefront of innovation, and our commitment to bringing meaningful and thoughtful experiences to our consumers remains unwavering," the company wrote.

Motorola shared that they have developed a generative AI model that will allow users to personalize their phone based on their interests. For instance, they can upload or capture a photo of their outfit and the AI will generate images that reflect their style.

Meanwhile, the company's personal assistant for PCs and smartphones is called MotoAI. Users can engage with the assistant for queries, drafting messages, scheduling tasks, and more. However, MotoAI is still under development.

There are also other AI-related concepts such as the enhanced mobile document scanner, text summarization, and privacy content obfuscation. Meanwhile, Motorola promised that these concepts will "redefine consumers' daily experience" and that the company will continue to deliver innovative solutions.

Related Article: Flip Phone Evolution from Early 2000s to 2023
The USPCA said that most badgers are healthy and culling them would be morally wrong

A high court judge has quashed a decision by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (Daera) for a badger cull.

A judicial review was brought by the NI Badger Group and Wild Justice.

The legal challenge was granted at the high court on the grounds that the department had failed to comply with consultations.

Up to 35k in legal fees will be paid by the department to the groups.

The decision to implement a programme of badger culling was to be introduced in areas of high bovine tuberculosis among cattle.

In July 2021, then agriculture minister Edwin Poots held a public consultation in which he outlined a series of measures.

He said that the plans for a badger cull were far-reaching and based on science.

However recent research by the Agri-Food & Biosciences Institute (AFBI) found that cattle-to-badger transmission "appeared to be considerably more common than badger-to-cattle transmission", although highly variable.

The department decision to hold a cull was met with dismay from a number of wildlife charities and campaign groups.
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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.
Many horse lovers call them brumbies, but to conservationists theyre feral animals. And its not just their name thats in dispute. Any decision about their existence in the fragile Snowy Mountains ecosystem can be guaranteed to spark bitter debate.

Fridays announcement by the NSW Government to resume aerial shooting was no exception. The controversial plan aims to reduce their numbers across the Kosciuszko National Park and it has been heralded as a lifeline for wildlife, but also derided as inhumane to horses.

During her announcement, Environment Minister Penny Sharpe said horse numbers have exploded and they are doing significant damage to fragile alpine habitats. She then explained her decision to combat the problem, while acknowledging some within the community opposed it.

The NSW Government will reintroduce aerial shooting to its swag of programs aimed at reducing the number of brumbies. Source: Michelle Brown

The government estimate is there are between 14,000 and 20,000 animals and Sharpe believes aerial shooting is needed to reduce them to 3000 by 2027.

Our national parks are the places where we have a very solemn responsibility to ensure that the native plants and animals are able to survive and not threatened with extinction, she said.

Over 30 plants and animals threatened with extinction live across the alpine region, and wildlife advocates are concerned the horses are trampling habitat and destroying water sources.

Government consultation about the culling plan received over 11,000 submissions, and the minister revealed 82 per cent favoured introducing the measure.

An amendment will now be made to the states controversial Kosciuszko Wild Horse Heritage Act  a controversial plan created by then deputy premier John Barilaro in 2018.

Conservationists are concerned about the damage horses are doing to alpine national parks. Source: NPWS

'Shooting brumbies is horrific'

Australian Brumby Alliance president Jill Pickering is opposed to any culling, and would like to see a population of horses maintained in the national park. Pickering told Yahoo News Australia the governments decision has left her disappointed.

She questioned claims by conservationists about the severity of damage horses do to the national park, arguing the impact of feral deer and pigs is underestimated because they are nocturnal and rarely seen.

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(Brumbies) are sentient animals, who are just munching grass, going to the loo and walking around. They're not terrible things, she said.

Her concerns are backed by photographer Michelle Brown who has spent years documenting both the beauty of brumbies and the impact of ground shooting.

In 2022, she was left gobsmacked after a herd of animals she had been following were gunned down, and over the 2023 October long weekend she claims to have documented the bodies of over 135 more dead horses.

Shooting brumbies is horrific, she said. I really only have to look at a photo of a carcass again and I have the smell return to my nose.

Already concerned that ground control frequently requires multiple shots to achieve a kill, she believes the welfare outcomes of aerial shooting will be worse.

Critics say culling will be less humane than ground shooting (pictured). Source: Michelle Brown

Welfare concerns about aerial horse culling

The use of aerial culling was banned 20 years ago after over 600 horses were shot across the Guy Fawkes River National Park.

Following a public backlash to the slaughter, governments switched to ground shooting, trapping and rehoming. But as horse numbers increased, conservationists renewed calls for aerial shooting to be reintroduced.

Acknowledging the animal welfare concerns, the environment minister said she understands that horses are beautiful creatures and that people love them. But she believes its important to consider the wellbeing of other species too.

Animal welfare is the number one issue that we're talking about here. It's the animal welfare or threatened species that are literally on the brink of extinction as a result of a number of things. But the impact of horses is driving them faster to extinction, she said.

While Sharpe maintains aerial shooting done well provides the best animal welfare outcomes, Emma Hurst, an MP from the Animal Justice Party has described the practice as inhumane.

Accusing the Minns government of failing to uphold its pre-election promise to reform animal protection laws, she said its clear the issue is not on its priority list.

It is hard to see how the Animal Justice Party can continue to work with or support the NSW Labor Government, she added.

Ecologists have raised concerns about the impact brumbies have on native species like the Southern Corroboree Frog and Alpine She-oak Skink. Source: Taronga Zoo Sydney/Mel Schroder

Culling decision a lifeline for wildlife

Among the most vocal supporters of todays aerial culling announcement was Andrew Cox, the CEO of the Invasive Species Council, who called the environment minister courageous.

He said the plan throws a lifeline to dozens of endangered native animals including the southern corroboree frog and mountain pygmy possum.

"No one likes to see animals killed, but the sad reality is that we have a choice to make between urgently reducing the numbers of feral horses or accepting the destruction of sensitive alpine ecosystems and habitats, and the decline and extinction of native animals, he said.

The Nature Conservation Council CEO Jacqui Mumford said ecosystems across the alps had been trampled for too long.

Now we need to repair and restore these native habitats that have been decimated by feral horses, and are facing even further challenges brought about by climate change, she said.

Why brumby numbers are disputed

There are several key disagreements that polarise horse advocates and conservationists. Chief among them is a dispute about how many horses live in Kosciuszko. Thats because, the count is completed using methods of estimation which critics say is flawed.

Despite some horse advocates arguing the government numbers are biologically impossible, Sharpe maintains its methods are best practice and had been verified by the CSIRO, two universities and the Queensland Bureau of Statistics.

Controversially, the decision to allow culling was made before an upper house inquiry into the methodology of the horse counting was completed. The National Partys Wes Fang said there cannot be confidence in the cull because the inquiry has not been completed.

The Labor Government needs to accept the clear advice from experts, that the numbers are inflated and incorrect, he said.

The 2023 survey of horse numbers is currently under peer review and the results are expected this year, but Sharpe said the government could not afford to wait.

"The sooner we get the horse numbers down, the fewer horses actually need to be called into the future, she said.

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A private school has issued a warning to parents about the dangers of celebrating Halloween, banning any association to the holiday on campus.

Late last week parents of St Michael's Grammar students in Melbourne received a lengthy message on the school's app from Senior Chaplain Father Kenyon McKie. After recapping the history and traditions of Halloween, Father McKie said the spooky stuff was not welcome at the school, The Age reports.

"Many Christians would feel that recognising Halloween gives the false impression that what is actually potentially spiritually dangerous is innocuous," the chaplain wrote. Some children develop a fascination with the supernatural that may lead them into more sinister occult practices later in life.

St Michael's Grammar in Melbourne has banned Halloween. Source: Google Maps and Getty

School believes Halloween stirs other undesired outcomes

The Anglican school said the ban was in place for other reasons rather than the holiday not aligning with their Christian values, and referred to other nuisances they believe are likely to surface if Halloween is celebrated.

As a Child Safe School, we do not want to promote a practice that, in some cases, causes annoyance, destruction of property and havoc for our neighbourhoods, he wrote.

Father McKie said families were "welcome to observe celebrations and festivals of their choosing outside school" however Halloween will not be tolerated on school premises.

Despite Halloween having many connotations with witchcraft and other worldly beings, the origin of the holiday actually traces back to a pagan religious festival called Samhain, first celebrated in ancient Scotland and Ireland, to mark the end of harvest and start of the darker half of the year.

St Michael's Grammar has stood firm on its position which reportedly has been in place for several years. In the past we have never had any behavioural issues or concerns regarding the schools recommendations on Halloween, and we do not anticipate any issues this year, a spokesperson told The Age.

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Yahoo News Australia has reached out to the school for comment.

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Cradle of teachers: University in Ningxia sheds light on education dreams

16:09, October 27, 2023 By Chang Sha ( People's Daily Online

"During my junior and senior high school years, many of my teachers were graduates from this university. This is my teachers' alma mater," said Gao Guangsheng, head of the development and planning department of Ningxia Normal University.

The university is located in Yuanzhou district, Guyuan, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, which is part of Xihaigu, once deemed the "most unfit place for human settlement" by the United Nations in the 1970s.

Xihaigu, a largely mountainous area in southern Ningxia, was one of the poorest regions in China due to scarce rainfall, excessive reclamation, and a vulnerable ecological environment. In Nov. 2020, the region shook off poverty.

Photo taken in the 1970s shows students in front of the school gate of Ningxia Normal University's predecessor in Heicheng township, Guyuan, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. (Photo courtesy of Ningxia Normal University)

Back in 1975, the university's predecessor was established in Heicheng township, Guyuan. It covered only a dozen mu (one mu equals about 667 square meters) and had just a dozen classrooms. Despite such unfavorable conditions, it managed to train 160 teachers and 40 education administrators in the first three years, giving a strong impetus to the region's basic education, Gao said.

In 2013, the university was designated as the only pilot institution in Ningxia for a government-funded program dedicated to training quality teachers to serve the needs of basic education in the autonomous region. Other similar programs were launched in the following years to provide free education for those committed to becoming teachers.

"The past decade has seen the number of students enrolling in these programs grow from 100 to 500 annually, with 3,000 in total," said Wang Peng, director of the university's office of student affairs, adding that a majority of these students go back to their hometowns after graduation, mostly in rural or remote areas of Ningxia.

"Statistics show that around 75 percent teachers serving in Guyuan's basic education sector graduated from our university," Wang noted.

He said these students have won high recognition from the schools where they work, as their rustic backgrounds endow them with more perseverance and a better understanding of what local learners need most.

"We've designed a specialized curriculum for students who are admitted to government-funded programs that target basic education in less developed areas, particularly rural ones," said Hao Fusheng, director of the university's faculty development and research center.

A diverse range of courses with local cultural elements are integrated into the overall curriculum, which are essential for these future instructors as they prepare to serve the local community, Hao added.

Aerial photo taken in 2023 shows the campus of Ningxia Normal University in Yuanzhou district, Guyuan, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. (Photo courtesy of Ningxia Normal University)

From the initial five undergraduate programs to the current 48, nearly half of them set up to train qualified teachers, the university now registers over 10,000 students, about 70 percent of whom are ready to work in the education field.

The university lives up to its reputation as a "cradle of teachers" tucked away in southern Ningxia's mountainous area.

Zhao Lei, an English-major junior from the university, has witnessed how Guyuan's education has been beefed up. He said some local elementary schools saw understaffed English classes when he was a child, but things are currently much better.

"I hope to become an English teacher who can help students learn more about the foreign cultures behind the language and broaden their horizons," Zhao said.

"More and more young people are joining the teacher corps in Guyuan, especially in some towns and villages," said Yang Weizong, a Guyuan local and an English major in his third year of college, adding that he wants to go back at his middle school to work in the future.

"Being a preschool teacher can be a demanding job, but it also brings me a warm feeling when I'm surrounded by children," said Hua Xu, a senior majoring in preschool education at the university's school of education and science, when talking about his internship experience at a kindergarten.

Throughout more than 40 years, the university has moved the campus three times and changed its name four times, reflecting the improvement in the environment for students and faculty members and the bigger role it plays in improving Ningxia's education.

Photo taken in 2023 shows a class at Ningxia Normal University in Yuanzhou district, Guyuan, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. (Photo courtesy of Ningxia Normal University)

(Web editor: Chang Sha, Wu Chengliang)
Tourists have made an unusual find after wild weather inundated Tasmanias southeast coast.

Searching for Bruny Islands renowned white wallabies, the group was about 1km inland down a gravel road when their guide made the discovery. Pushed up against a farmers fence at the edge of Captain Cook Creek was a large Australian fur seal.

Craig Parsey, the owner of Bruny Island Safaris, shared an image of the discovery online this week. He told Yahoo News Australia seeing a seal by the roadside isnt something you see everyday.

An Australian fur seal was photographed about 1km inland on Bruny Island. Source: Leigh

It does happen occasionally. Sometimes they go up a river or creek a bit further than usual, he said. So its not surprising with the conditions weve had recently  lots of rain, wind and storm activity.

Dozens of Aussies have delighted in the seal find since details were shared on Facebook on Wednesday.

"How gorgeous! Wish I had seals in my paddock," one person wrote. "Or is this a new farming initiative because the lamb prices have crashed?" someone else joked.

I can't say I've seen a seal that far up before, but it has been unusually windy.Craig Parsey

What happened to the Bruny Island paddock seal?

The image shows the seal in a sodden paddock with rain falling around it. Distant hills are covered in thick forest. While its unusual to see seals in a farmyard setting, Bruny Islands coast is well known for having both a permanent population of Australian fur seals and seasonal migrations of elephant seals from Antarctica.

While the inland seal was a spectacular discovery, its white wallabies that draw many tourists to Bruny Island. Because the wallabies were hiding from the rain, Mr Parsey said it was a nice surprise that the tour group got to see a seal instead.

Its understood the seal has since made his way back to the beach.

Walk on by if you see a seal like Neil in Hobart lying down on the street. That's the advice from Tasmanian authorities. Source: Pulse/Supplied

Other strange sightings of displaced seals

Wild seals are remarkable to see in the wild, but tourists are always advised to keep their distance. In April, Tasmanian authorities had to warn rubberneckers to stay away from a 400kg male that was drawing large crowds in Hobart.

Story continues

Across the ditch in New Zealand, staff at a Bunnings hardware store were reportedly in disbelief after a disorientated seal wandered inside. They used heavy boxes of white goods to fence in the animal until authorities were able to help transport it back to sea.

Love Australia's weird and wonderful environment? Get our new weekly newsletter showcasing the weeks best stories.
The mayor at the centre of a new bin system rollout that locals have branded "rushed" and "poorly communicated" says he has no intention of scrapping the new collection schedule.

In its third week, Sydney's Inner West locals have been left with rubbish, including nappies festering in the hot sun, after weekly rubbish pick-ups were moved to fortnightly with the introduction of FOGO (food organics and garden organics) bins.

Fed-up members of the community have come out in droves to slam the rollout they claim has been flawed with so many "mixed messages" causing confusion.

Mayor Darcy Byrne admitted to Yahoo News Australia that there had been "teething issues" but claims the council had done "everything" they could to "inform people in advance".

"I'd vehemently resist any attempt to roll it back," he said.

Mayor of the Inner West Darcy Byrne has spoken out over the controversial move to FOGO bins. Source: Facebook

Local's feeling frustrated and confused

Hundreds of community members have been sharing their annoyance online, with almost all citing that communication during the roll-out has been their main issue  with confusion over collection days causing festering rubbish left uncollected on the streets.

"Roll out across Inner West was poorly communicated. In our street there was mixed messages re garbage collection days and what coloured bins are collected," one person has said.

"What a shame council has stuffed up a potential legacy-building move like this one so royally," another said.

In the first week there were a "huge number of calls" from people seeking guidance on the new process, with Byrne saying this is something they knew was going to happen.

"The reality is, behavioural change is hard, no matter how much communication," he shared.

Do you have a story about your local council? Contact reporter Laura Koefoed at laura.koefoed@yahooinc.com

Assistance available but many unaware

Several services are available to help the community get used to their new bin system, but there are still many who don't know that these resources exist.

Story continues

One service that is extremely important for families with kids to know about is the free additional pick-ups that can be requested for off weeks.

Local father of young twins, Peter Wynne, was not aware of this option and spoke out about how the fortnightly shift has made disposing of nappies really difficult and "unhygienic".

"We have twin babies so what are we to do with all the dirty nappies? Leave them in the bin for 2 weeks? I don't think so," he recently said to Yahoo.

Byrne has explained that people can request additional pick-ups of their landfill bins in "the off weeks" with no charge, for as long as they need.

"We won't pull that [option] away," he said.

Total requests for additional landfill bin pick-ups is so far only at 829, with many residents not requesting the service due to lack of awareness.

Mayor of the Inner West Darcy Byrne (Left). Each household in the area has been given a FOGO kitchen caddy by the council (Right). Source: Supplied / Facebook

Some reports of incorrect collection dates online

Some people have reported their online waste calendar hasn't matched with the actual pick up dates or the stickers left on their bins.

One woman recently shared that for her, the times on the council website is different to the times on the notes left on the bins. Due to this, she is putting her bin out "every Wednesday and Thursday night from now on" until she can figure out when her pick up is meant to be.

Yahoo News understands a system glitch is to blame for the wrong dates, but when pressed on the matter Byrne said there were "teething problems" but that it's "working well".

Mayor says its getting better despite feedback

The number of calls for help has reduced and the amount of people putting their bin out on the wrong day has dropped significantly from 70% first week to 20% as of this week, Byrne said.

"We have had huge support," he said. "The Inner West taking action against climate change is the single most important thing we can do".

When asked about the feedback from some councillors who have called out the council for it's "rough" start to this new system, Byrne has said their attempt to "undermine the rollout" is "disappointing".

"It was voted for unanimously," he said. "Throwing rocks from the sidelines is unhelpful".

Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.

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Last month in The Citizen, I wrote about Cornelia (Nelly) Martin making jars of sweetness in her little workshop on the hill in the town of Owasco. Shown with this column are the advertisements for her condiments. The year is 1898. I am grateful for Brian Loriner in Arizona for sending this material to me. We have been sharing information on Willowbrook.

When I read during my research that Martin Van Buren visited his friend Enos Thompson Throop in early 1828 at his cottage home at Willowbrook on Owasco Lake, I realized that we can claim that three presidents came here. Not many properties in Cayuga County can claim that. Yes, Martin Van Buren, Andrew Johnson and Ulysses S. Grant were guests at Willowbrook.

I began to look for other visitors, and will list some of them here. The Swing Around the Circle" tour of Andrew Johnson in 1866 provided a wealth of names. The president used this as an election campaign tour and, with the aid of Secretary of State Willian H. Seward, a large picnic was held at Willowbrook on Owasco Lake for 200 people. A special train carrying the entire 51st Regiment, including their band, came to Auburn, witnessed by 5,000 spectators and an excited populace.

At the picnic were: Gen. Andrew Alexander, Gen. Emery Upton, Gen. Philip Sheridan, Gen. George Armstrong Custer, Capt. Myles Keogh, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman and David Farragut.

Other earlier visitors were Jenny Lind and Washington Irving. In 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville stayed there on his tour of visiting our nation and writing about the living conditions of early America.

This year, we have witnessed beautiful sunsets over Owasco Lake. In my mind's eye, I see Emily Martin walking the shore at sunset with Emery Upton. I think of Jack Mannion in the empty upper house at sunset, too. Former Owasco Councilman Ken Smith told me that Carl Dickman had given him the keys to the upper home (soon to be demolished). Jack opened a cupboard and the face mask of Emily, used for her gravestone at Fort Hill, fell out and frightened him. In the fading light at twilight, it had to be a wired experience.

I also am reminded and hear the voices of teenagers (myself one of them) calling out and splashing from the raft in the water. We had worked in the fields of the Dickman farm, and Carl loaded up his truck with the teens and drove down the lane to Willowbrook for a swim in the lake in our shorts and T-shirts.

How surprised I was to find that my ancestor Charles Van Tine owned and named his little farm Willowbrook. And he sold the farm to a 23-year-old lawyer, Enos T. Throop, who became governor of New York State.

Owasco: The dutiful daughter at Willowbrook The latest from town of Owasco Historian Laurel Auchampaugh.
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Ann Arbor (Informed Comment)  Of the 2.2 million people living in the Gaza Strip, about half of them are minors. This datum is why the rightwing Israeli talking point that Palestinians in Gaza as a whole are responsible for backing Hamas is outrageous. Hamas was elected in 2006 when most people in Gaza now either were minors or hadnt been born. The top Hamas leadership admits that it planned out its October 7 atrocities as a small committee that did not consult the people of Gaza or anyone else.

The children of Gaza are among the most prominent victims of the Israeli bombing campaign, which has recklessly endangered Palestinian noncombatants by targeting apartment buildings, schools and hospitals.

Ayman Safadi, Jordans foreign minister, said on Thursday that those Palestinian children who survive the bombardment could yet die of hunger. Before the current conflict, 500 aid trucks entered Gaza daily, but this flow has been cut to a trickle by the tightening Israeli blockade.

The Gaza Ministry of Health released basic statistics on Thursday, apparently in part in response to the skepticism expressed by President Joe Biden about the numbers of Palestinian dead. They released a spreadsheet with the names, addresses and telephone numbers of the victims of Israeli bombing that they have documented.

As of Thursday, 7,028 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by Israeli air strikes since they began after October 7, and 18,484 have been wounded. At least 2,913 of those killed were minors, 41.4% of the total dead. About twice that number of children have been wounded. If the Israeli bombing runs have managed to have roughly 40% of their victims be minors, then they are clearly indiscriminate and not targeted at only Hamas military installations.

Likewise, the decision of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to cut Gaza off from the potable water produced by desalinization plants has dire implications for infants and minors. Palestinians have been forced to drink well water from the Strips polluted aquifer, which has been contaminated with human waste, industrial chemicals and sea water from the rising Mediterranean. This water has negative health effects on adults, and if it is salty enough drinking it could lead to death by dehydration. But its effects on infants and children are more deadly than for adults. They could catch cholera from it where it is contaminated with human sewage, and they are more quickly dehydrated by drinking salt water. Although the Israeli government said that it had turned back on the water for south Gaza, things are not so simple. Hundreds of thousands of people still live in north Gaza. And in the south most places cant pump the clean water into pipes without fuel, which Israel continues to ration. Moreover, the intensive bombing has broken many of the water pipes. Among Israels many war crimes, depriving civilian noncombatants of potable water is among the more heinous.

UNICEF Reports More Than 2000 Children Deaths In Gaza Amid Israeli Strikes | Save The Children| BUZZ

That the Israeli military is in fact simply leveling the entire infrastructure and much of the housing stock of parts of Gaza is clear in other statistics released on Thursday. Some 2,000 persons are thought to be buried under rubble. They are mostly dead by now, since most people can only survive 3 days without water. About 6,500 apartment buildings have been hit by Israeli bombardment, and 190,000 apartments (flats) have been damaged or destroyed. Some 29,000 housing units have been completely destroyed.

Israeli airstrikes have damaged or destroyed some 38 mosques, along with 3 churches. Speaking of children, the Israelis have damaged 189 schools, putting 25 of them entirely out of commission. The children who went to those 25 schools are out of the classroom now, with negative implications for their ability to study.

Of 481 Palestinians whom the Israelis killed in Gaza on Thursday, 219 were in the south. This and other information shows that the Israeli pledge not to bomb south Gaza was a lie. In fact, some of the refugees from the north who fled south at Israels instructions are now returning north, since the south was just as dangerous. Hundreds of thousands refused to leave the north to begin with.
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By Ammar Azzouz, University of Oxford | 

This article accompanies an episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast featuring an interview with the author, Ammar Azzouz.

The Israeli bombardment of Gaza following the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7 has forced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians out of their homes. At least 43% of all housing units in the Gaza Strip have been either destroyed or damaged since the start of the hostilities, according to the Ministry of Public Works and Housing in Gaza.

Israel says that 1,400 people were killed in the Hamas attack on Israel and more than 220 taken hostage. Meanwhile, according to the health authorities in Hamas-run Gaza, more than 6,500 people have been killed in Israeli air strikes and more than 17,400 injured.

There is a modern term for whats happening in Gaza. Domicide refers to the deliberate destruction of home, or the killing of the city or home. It comes from the Latin word domus which means home and cide, which is deliberate killing.

But, home here doesnt only mean the physical, tangible built environment of peoples homes and properties, it also refers to peoples sense of belonging and identity. We are seeing in many conflicts and wars across the world that alongside the destruction of architecture, peoples sense of dignity and belonging is also being targeted.

There is a link between genocide and domicide: genocide refers to the killing of people and domicide to the erasure of their presence and their material culture. In 2022, a UN expert on housing argued that domicide should be recognised as an international crime.

When people are continuously displaced from their homes, sometimes for decades, or even a lifetime, theres a sense of grief and sorrow that their history is being erased.

The destruction of Homs

My home city of Homs, Syria, which I focus on in my research, has been completely transformed since the 2011 uprising against the government of Bashar al Assad.

Over 50% of the neighbourhoods have been heavily destroyed, and over a quarter partially destroyed. Across the country, more than 12 million Syrians have been displaced from their homes. Of these, 6.8 million people are displaced inside the country, and 5.4 million people live as refugees in neighbouring countries and beyond.

Domicidal campaigns like this also work to erase evidence that a community actually existed in a particular place and that it had a history and culture there. This is an attempt to write people out of history through destroying their homes and heritage in a way thats systematic and deliberate. In Homs, for example, whole neighbourhoods that opposed the Assad regime were targeted and razed to the ground. In other cities, such as Damascus and Hama, entire neighbourhoods were wiped out through new land and property laws which designate these neighbourhoods as informal.

Listen to Ammar Azzouz talk about his research on The Conversation Weekly podcast.

Domicide in Gaza

There is no need to compare Homs and Gaza, as each place has its own context and struggle. But Ive been following the news continuously since the Hamas attack on Israel, and I cant stop looking at the updates about the heavy Israeli bombing. The scale of destruction, the level of mass displacement is just so heartbreaking. Gaza has been described as an open prison and people in that open prison have been pushed away from their homes.

Israel says it has the right to defend itself, and is targeting Hamas positions, but the scale to which ordinary peoples homes, hospitals and safe areas have been hit means whats happening in Gaza is absolutely domicidal. People living in the north of the Gaza Strip were told by Israeli authorities to move to the south of the territory to the supposed safe areas, but the southern areas continue to be bombed too. The bombardment is killing civilians, killing their everyday lives and causing the mass destruction of neighbourhoods. As we have seen in videos, entire buildings have been levelled.

NBC: This is a massacre!: Rescue workers fight to save children in Gaza airstrike rubble

Israeli-British historian Avi Shlaim, an emeritus fellow at the University of Oxford, who was born in Baghdad, and is considered one of Israels critical new historians, called Israels actions state-sponsored terrorism. Raz Segal, an Israeli historian, wrote: Israels genocidal assault on Gaza is quite explicit, open, and unashamed. Others argue vehemently against any moral equivalence with the Hamas attacks.

Catastrophe for Palestinians

Its not the first time that Palestinians in Gaza have had their homes destroyed. Many of the Palestinians who live in Gaza are people who have been displaced before. This is why many academics, activists, journalists and even Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan, call for context, for situating the Palestinian struggle within a history of suffering, dispossession and forced displacement since the Nakba (catastrophe) in 1948.

When one million people are ordered to leave their homes its important to understand that these people have attachment to their places, to their neighbourhoods, to their streets. The impact of displacement and loss of home can live with people for their lifetime.

In my interviews with people from the city of Homs, Ive heard many people say that even if they are still living in Homs, they feel like strangers in their own city, or they feel exiled inside their own city. For people such as the Palestinian diaspora or the Iraqi diaspora or the Syrian diaspora who are unable to return to their home countries, that suffering and pain and trauma of displacement continues.

I imagine people have different mechanisms to cope with these traumatic events, but thats why its so important to have memory projects where people at least can reflect on what happened to heal and grieve, even when, sadly, many are unable to return and some spend their lifetime in exile.

After researching conflicts, wars, dictatorships and occupations for several years, I always say that the pain of people start as a headline in the news media, and turns into a footnote in history. Let us resist that, let us remember the life of every human being and keep the struggle for a free and just world for everyone.

Ammar Azzouz, British Academy Research Fellow, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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By Clarence Lusane | 

( Tomdispatch.com)  If he becomes the official nominee of the Republican Party in next years presidential race, Donald Trump will receive tens of millions of votes in the general election. He may get less than the presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden. He may get more. Regardless, tens of millions of GOP, conservative, and extremist voters will cast their ballots for him.

In 2016, despite his history of elitist, racist, and sexist behavior, failed businesses, lack of governing experience, and no demonstrated past of caring for anyone but himself, he won nearly 63 million votes. While still almost three million fewer votes than Hillary Clinton got, it was not just enough for a victory in the Electoral College but a clear warning of things to come.

In 2020, after four years of non-stop chaos, the death of more than 200,000 Covid victims at least in part because of his mishandling of the pandemic, a legitimate and warranted impeachment, abuse of power, ceaseless corruption, and more than 30,000 documented public lies, he gained 74 million votes, even if, in the end, he lost the election.

Now, in addition to all that history, you can add on the incitement of a violent insurrection, a second impeachment for attempting to overthrow the government, four criminal indictments (91 separate charges), being found liable for sexual abuse, and a stated plan to exact retribution against his enemies in a second term. And yet he will undoubtedly again receive many tens of millions of votes.

In fact, you can count on one thing: the 2024 election will not resolve the authoritarian attraction that the Trump vote represents. So perhaps its time to prepare now, not later, for the political crisis that will undoubtedly emerge from that event, whatever the vote count may prove to be.

The Authoritarian Threat Continues

A year from the next election, multiple scenarios are imaginable including, of course, that neither Donald Trump nor Joe Biden will be contenders. While Bidens health seems fine at present, he will be only weeks away from his 82nd birthday on Election Day 2024. A lot can happen, health-wise, in a year. When it comes to Trump, however, Biden is now likely to be significantly healthier (mentally and physically) than him. Among other things, no blatant lies or well-tailored suits can hide his unhealthy obesity.

And while he relishes castigating Bidens cognitive state, it was Trump who only a few weeks ago, while giving a speech attacking the presidents capabilities, stated that he beat Obama in an election, that Americans needed IDs to buy bread, and that Biden would lead the country into World War II, which just happens to have ended 78 years ago. While some of Trumps GOP opponents like Vivek Ramaswamy, Ron DeSantis, and Nikki Haley have indeed launched ageist attacks against him, its true that hes roughly in the same age group as Biden.

Meanwhile, dont forget that Donald Trumps legal health is on life support. Its a good bet that, in 2024, he will spend more time in courtrooms than on the campaign trail. He may very well face that moment of truth when he has to decide to cut a deal that keeps him out of prison and out of the White House.

In any case, the current trajectory remains Biden vs. Trump 2.0 while, whatever the outcome of the election, this nation seems to be headed for a crisis of historic proportions. No matter who wins, next November 7th will do nothing to end the divisions that exist in this country. In fact, its only likely to exacerbate and amplify them.

Trump Remains a Danger

Trump has already made it clear that he wont accept any losing outcome. Neither will millions of his followers. For modern Republican Party leaders and their base, election rejection (if they lose) has become an ironclad principle. On the stump, Trump has already begun to emphasize that the spiraling legal cases against him are election interference, that the Democrats are putting the pieces in place to steal the election from him, and that the Black judge and prosecutors holding him accountable are racists.

As he wrote on one of his social media posts (in caps) those individuals are to him RIGGERS. That stable geniuss use of a term that rhymes with a racist slur against Black people was undoubtedly no accident. After all, he spends a considerable amount of his private time branding people. White supremacists wasted hardly a moment in beginning to use the term online, in part, to get around censors on the lookout for explicitly racist terminology.

He is, in other words, already laying the foundation to claim election fraud and creating the basis for another MAGA revolt. While theres plenty of reason to believe he wont be able to draw tens of thousands of his supporters to attack the Capitol again, not the least being the Justice Departments prosecution of hundreds of those who tried it the last time, hell certainly have GOP members in Congress ready to resist certifying a Democratic victory.

Trumps desperation to win is driven not only by the prospect of multiple convictions in his various trials, drawn-out appeals (that are unlikely to be successful), and possible prison time of some sort, but also by the brutal public dismantling of whats left of his financial empire. The civil suit New York Attorney General Letitia James brought against Trump and the Trump organization has already resulted in a devastating judgment by Judge Arthur Engoron. He ruled Trump and his adult sons liable and immediately stripped them of their control over their businesses. Trump may now not only lose all his New York business properties but have to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in restitution. For someone whose whole identity is linked to his purported wealth, there could hardly have been a more crushing blow.

In his mind, a second term as president clearly has little to do with benefiting the country, the Republican Party, or even the rest of his family. Its his only path to shutting down the two federal cases against him in Florida and Washington, D.C. However, even such a win wouldnt help him with the election interference case in Georgia or the hush-money criminal case in New York. Convictions in either of those would mean further accountability sooner or later. A second term would undoubtedly offer him another chance to monetize the presidency, just as he did the first time around, in a fashion never before seen.

His record is still being investigated but, according to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), Trump raked in tens of millions of dollars that way. It reports that Trumps businesses took in more than $160 million from international sources alone, and a grand total of more than $1.6 billion from all sources, during his presidency. As CREW put it: Trumps presidency was marred by unprecedented conflicts of interest arising from his decision not to divest from the Trump Organization, with his most egregious conflicts involving businesses in foreign countries with interests in U.S. foreign policy.

Trumps Violence Advocacy Grows

Trumps legitimate fear of losing is pushing him toward ever more strident and violent language. Hes also signaling to his followers that the use of force to put him in power (or go after those who deny it to him) is all too acceptable. His visit to the Palmetto State Armory gun shop in Summerville, South Carolina, on September 25th was an unambiguous message to them: get ready for war.

There, he admired a Glock pistol and was visibly eager to purchase it. However, he ran into a legal snafu. His spokesperson, Steven Cheung, initially posted a video on social media celebrating Trumps purchase of the Glock, a special Trump edition that had a likeness of him and the words Trump 45th etched on it. According to the New York Times, Trump gleefully said, I want to buy one.

However, after a staff member apparently realized that no one under federal indictment could legally do so, the post was deleted and a subsequent statement was put up that read, President Trump did not purchase or take possession of the firearm. He simply indicated that he wanted one. The store would also have been liable under federal law 18 U.S.C. 922, given that it would have been hard for its proprietors to deny that they knew the former president was under multiple indictments.

That visit was more than just a message to his followers to arm themselves. There are 158 gun stores in South Carolina and yet Trump selected the very one linked to a mass killing of Black people in Florida. At least one of the guns used in those murders had been purchased at that very gun shop. On August 26, 2023, white supremacist Ryan Christopher Palmeter went to a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Florida, and murdered three African Americans  Angela Michelle Carr, 52; Jerrald Gallion, 29; and Anolt Joseph Laguerre Jr., 19  and then killed himself as the police closed in.

The shooter had two guns, a Glock and an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, one of them from the South Carolina Palmetto State Armory gun store. Palmeter also left behind several racist manifestos.

That carnage occurred just a month before Trumps visit and his implicit decision to associate himself with that explosion of bigoted violence  like an earlier trip to Waco, Texas, the site of a deadly gunfight between federal law enforcement agents and antigovernment extremists  helped reinforce the idea on the far right that violent force is acceptable for political ends. In his speech at Waco, his first official campaign rally for election 2024, Trump stated, I am your warrior, I am your justice For those who have been wronged and betrayed I am your retribution.

The chaos and disorder likely to follow any Trump loss in 2024 will only be further enhanced if the GOP keeps control of the House of Representatives or wins control of the Senate. A number of congressional Republicans have shown that they will not hesitate to do all they can to put Trump back in the White House, including igniting a constitutional crisis by refusing to certify Electoral College votes.

All that said, Trump losing and sending his supporters into the streets amid tantrums by congressional Republicans and Republican state governors and legislatures would hardly be the worst possible scenario.

After all, if Trump were to win, the extremists in and out of government would immediately be empowered to carry out the most right-wing agenda since the height of the segregationist era. A reelected Trump will find the most loyal (to him) and corruptible cabinet members possible. Their only necessary qualification will be a willingness to follow his orders without hesitation, whether or not theyre legal, ethical, or by any stretch of the imagination good for the country.

Count on one thing: it wouldnt be an America First but a Trump First and Last administration.

He would undoubtedly engage in a series of personal vendettas with the sort of viciousness and resolve never before seen in Washington. He would take a victory, no matter how marginal or questionable, in the Electoral College as a mandate to attack all his perceived enemies with whatever power his new presidency could muster. Hes also well aware of a Department of Justice policy (of questionable legality) not to prosecute a sitting president, which hell interpret as a license of perpetual lawlessness. Trumps persecution administration would harken back to the worst days of McCarthyism and beyond.

And lest you think thats the end of the matter, it only gets worse.

Trump Will Have Significantly More Help in a Second Term

Beyond Trumps individual sociopathic behavior, a far-right agenda is being created that will provide a certain ideological clarity to his bumbling authoritarianism. The policy work, not just from the Trump campaign but from Project 25, should scare everyone. A $22 million initiative by the rightwing Heritage Foundation, Project 25 has already produced a 920-page book, Mandate for Leadership: the Conservative Promise, detailing plans to reshape the federal government. If implemented, its strategy would write the end to the classic separation of powers, checks and balances, and even a non-partisan civil service. Every single federal department and agency would instead be restructured to fall under the complete control of the president.

It also offers hundreds of new policies on issues ranging from the environment and labor rights to education and health care. Its underlying assumption: that, post-2024, a conservative president will be in power for some time to come. (If so, Trump will, of course, have the backing of Republicans in Congress, who again may control one or both chambers, and a 6-3 Supreme Court majority.)

Count on this: resistance will be swift, massive, and enduring. Trump and Republican minority rule would not go unchallenged and the repression sure to follow would only generate yet more resistance and, undoubtedly, a generation of political turbulence.

On the other hand, a significant electoral defeat for the Republicans and Trump (along with his conviction on any number of criminal charges) would certainly prove a major obstacle to future authoritarianism. However, tens of millions of his voters will not go quietly into the night, while far-right elected officials in Congress and state legislatures will continue to push extreme conservative policies. White nationalists and radical evangelicals will mobilize as best as they can. Financial and political resources will be available.

The effort to defeat MAGA at all levels and in all ways politically will go on, but progressives need to prepare for the challenge of 2024 and the perilous years to follow.

Copyright 2023 Clarence Lusane

Via Tomdispatch.com
TORONTO, Oct. 26, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wallbridge Mining Company Limited (TSX:WM, OTCQX:WLBMF) (Wallbridge or the Company) is pleased to announce that it has completed a non-brokered private placement of 47,820,000 national flow-through common shares (the National FT Shares) and 25,632,666 Quebec flow-through common shares (the Quebec FT Shares) for aggregate gross proceeds of $9,437,910 (the FT Share Private Placement). The National FT Shares were issued at a price of $0.125 and the Quebec FT Shares were issued at a price of $0.135.

In addition, Agnico Eagle Mines Limited (Agnico) has elected to subscribe for 7,926,277 common shares for aggregate gross proceeds of $871,890 (the AEM Private Placement, and together with the FT Share Private Placement, the Private Placements). The AEM Private Placement is expected to close on or before November 2, 2023, and will be undertaken pursuant to certain participation rights set out in a pre-existing participation agreement between the Company and a predecessor of Agnico. The AEM Shares will be issued at a price of $0.11.

With the net proceeds from these Private Placements the Company expects to have an estimated year end cash balance of approximately $25 million which is sufficient to fund the 2024 exploration program on the Companys Detour-Fenelon Gold Property (the Detour-Fenelon Gold Trend Property) as currently contemplated. The Company will announce details of its exploration plans in January once board approval has been obtained.

In connection with the FT Share Private Placement, the Company paid a cash finders fee other than in respect of subscriptions by presidents list investors. Topleft Securities Inc. and Laurentian Bank Securities Inc. acted as advisors to Wallbridge in connection with the transaction. All securities issued pursuant to the Private Placements will have a four month and one day statutory hold period.

Each National FT Share and Quebec FT Share (the FT Shares) will qualify as a flow-through share within the meaning of subsection 66(15) of the Income Tax Act (Canada) and, in respect of eligible Quebec resident subscribers, section 359.1 of the Taxation Act (Quebec). The FT Shares will be renounced with an effective date no later than December 31, 2023, to the initial purchasers of the FT Shares in an aggregate amount not less than the gross proceeds raised.

None of the securities offered in the Private Placements have been registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

The FT Share Private Placement constituted a related party transaction within the meaning of Multilateral Instrument 61-101  Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions (MI 61-101) as certain insiders of the Company subscribed for 1,020,000 in aggregate of National FT Shares and 296,296 in aggregate of Quebec FT Shares. The Company is relying on the exemptions from the valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101 contained in sections 5.5(a) and 5.7(1)(a) of MI 61-101, as the fair market value of the participation in the FT Share Private Placement by the insiders does not exceed 25% of the market capitalization of the Company in accordance with MI 61-101. The Company did not file a material change report in respect of the related party transaction at least 21 days before the closing of the FT Share Private Placement, which the Company deems reasonable in the circumstances in order to price and close the FT Share Private Placement in an expeditious manner. A material change report has been filed under the Companys profile at www.sedarplus.ca, which may be sent to any shareholder upon request.

About Wallbridge Mining

Wallbridge is focused on creating value through the exploration and sustainable development of gold projects along the Detour-Fenelon Gold Trend while respecting the environment and communities where it operates.

Wallbridges flagship project, Fenelon Gold (Fenelon), is located on the highly prospective Detour-Fenelon Gold Trend Property in Quebecs Northern Abitibi region. An updated mineral resource estimate completed in January 2023 yielded significantly improved grades and additional ounces at the 100%-owned Fenelon and Martiniere projects, incorporating a combined 3.05 million ounces of indicated gold resources and 2.35 million ounces of inferred gold resources. Fenelon and Martiniere are located within an 830 km2 exploration land package controlled by Wallbridge. In addition, Wallbridge believes that the extensive land package is extremely prospective for the discovery of additional gold deposits.

Wallbridge has reported a positive Preliminary Economic Assessment on its 100%-owned Fenelon gold Project with an estimated average annual gold production of 212,000 ounces over 12.3 years (see Wallbridge press release of June 26, 2023).

Wallbridge also holds a 19.9% interest in the common shares of Archer Exploration Corp. (Archer) as a result of the sale of the Companys portfolio of nickel assets in Ontario and Quebec in November of 2022.

The scientific and technical content of this new release has been reviewed and approved by Francois Chabot., Eng., the Companys Manager of Technical Services, a "Qualified Person" as defined in National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

Wallbridge will continue to focus on its core Detour-Fenelon Gold Trend Property while enabling shareholders to participate in the potential economic upside in Archer. For further information please visit the Companys website at https://wallbridgemining.com/ or contact:

Wallbridge Mining Company Limited

Brian Penny, CPA, CMA

Interim CEO

Tel: (416) 716-8346

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Victoria Vargas, B.Sc. (Hon.) Economics, MBA

Capital Markets Advisor

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

The information in this document may contain forward-looking statements or information (collectively, FLI) within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. FLI is based on expectations, estimates, projections, and interpretations as at the date of this document.

All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein are FLI that involve various risks, assumptions, estimates and uncertainties. Generally, FLI can be identified by the use of statements that include, but are not limited to, words such as seeks, believes, anticipates, plans, continues, budget, scheduled, estimates, expects, forecasts, intends, projects, predicts, proposes, "potential", targets and variations of such words and phrases, or by statements that certain actions, events or results may, will, could, would, should or might, be taken, occur or be achieved.

FLI in this document may include, but is not limited to: the closing of the AEM Private Placement, statements regarding the use of proceeds of the Private Placements; the Companys exploration plans, the tax treatment of the securities issued under the FT Share Private Placement under the Income Tax Act (Canada); the timing to renounce all qualifying expenditures in favour of the subscribers (if at all); the future prospects of Wallbridge; statements regarding the results of the Fenelon preliminary economic assessment; the potential future performance of Archer common shares; future drill results; the Companys ability to convert inferred resources into measured and indicated resources; parameters and methods used to estimate the MREs at the Fenelon and Martiniere properties (collectively the Deposits); the prospects, if any, of the Deposits; future drilling at the Deposits; and the significance of historic exploration activities and results.

FLI is designed to help you understand managements current views of its near- and longer-term prospects, and it may not be appropriate for other purposes. FLI by their nature are based on assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such FLI. Although the FLI contained in this document is based upon what management believes, or believed at the time, to be reasonable assumptions, the Company cannot assure shareholders and prospective purchasers of securities of the Company that actual results will be consistent with such FLI, as there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended, and neither the Company nor any other person assumes responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of any such FLI. Except as required by law, the Company does not undertake, and assumes no obligation, to update or revise any such FLI contained in this document to reflect new events or circumstances. Unless otherwise noted, this document has been prepared based on information available as of the date of this document. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on the FLI, or information contained herein.

Furthermore, should one or more of the risks, uncertainties or other factors materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in FLI.

Assumptions upon which FLI is based, without limitation, include: the results of exploration activities, the Companys financial position and general economic conditions; the ability of exploration activities to accurately predict mineralization; the accuracy of geological modelling; the ability of the Company to complete further exploration activities; the legitimacy of title and property interests in the Deposits; the accuracy of key assumptions, parameters or methods used to estimate the MREs and in the PEA; the ability of the Company to obtain required approvals; geological, mining and exploration technical problems; and failure of equipment or processes to operate as anticipated. Risks and uncertainties about Wallbridge's business are discussed in the disclosure materials filed with the securities regulatory authorities in Canada, which are available at www.sedarplus.ca.

Cautionary Notes to United States Investors

Wallbridge prepares its disclosure in accordance with NI 43-101 which differs from the requirements of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). Terms relating to mineral properties, mineralization and estimates of mineral reserves and mineral resources and economic studies used herein are defined in accordance with NI 43-101 under the guidelines set out in CIM Definition Standards on Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves, adopted by the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum Council on May 19, 2014, as amended. NI 43-101 differs significantly from the disclosure requirements of the SEC generally applicable to US companies. As such, the information presented herein concerning mineral properties, mineralization and estimates of mineral reserves and mineral resources may not be comparable to similar information made public by U.S. companies subject to the reporting and disclosure requirements under the U.S. federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder
Two people were sentenced to prison Thursday after pleading guilty to robbing a victim at their home in Owasco last year.

In front of Judge Thomas Leone in Cayuga County Court, Jason McDeid, 33, was sentenced to eight years in prison followed by five years of post-release supervision for second-degree robbery (a class C violent felony). His co-defendant, Alissa Reynolds, 37, was sentenced that same morning to 3.5 years in prison and five years of post-release supervision for the same charge.

The duo, both of Auburn, were accused of stealing a wallet from a victim at their Owasco home in November.

Before McDeid was sentenced, his defense attorney, Ben Susman, noted that a letter on his client's behalf was written by an employee at the local addiction recovery nonprofit Nick's Ride 4 Friends.

"He's come a long way," Susman said. "He had a terrible heroin addiction that led to these charges."

When asked if he wanted to say anything, McDeid apologized for his actions, adding that he would try to be "the best man I can be."

Before Leone sentenced Reynolds, her defense attorney, Rome Canzano, said he hoped Reynolds would "take this opportunity" to reflect and make changes in her life.

Also in court

 Michael E. Stanton Jr., 25, with a previously listed address of 48 Jefferson St., Auburn, was sentenced to three years in state prison followed by two years of post-release supervision for third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance (a class B felony). That sentenced satisfied Stanton's charge of fourth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance (a class C felony).

Assistant District Attorney Britton Bouchard told The Citizen after court that a search warrant was conducted at Stanton's residence by the Finger Lakes Drug Task Force earlier this year. Cocaine was found, Bouchard said, and Stanton subsequently admitted to possessing the cocaine with the intention of selling it.

 Kevin R. Breese, 27, with a previously listed address of 250 McIntosh Drive, Apt. A2, Auburn, was sentenced to five years of probation, with Cayuga County Drug Court, for a count of aggravated family offense (a class E felony). That sentence satisfied his other charges, which were the class E felony of first-degree criminal contempt and the class A misdemeanors of second-degree menacing and two counts of fourth-degree criminal mischief.
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / October 26, 2023 / Aton Resources Inc. (AAN:TSX-V) ("Aton" or the "Corporation") is pleased to announce that, further to its news release of September 26, 2023, it has closed its non-brokered private placement for proceeds of $3 million (the "Private Placement"). The net proceeds from the Private Placement will be used to fund continued exploration and development activities at Aton's Rodruin and Hamama concessions, located in Egypt, and for general working capital. All currency amounts in this news release are in Canadian dollars.

Private Placement Highlights:

Pursuant to the Private Placement, the Corporation issued 13,636,364 common shares (the "Shares") at a price of $0.22 per Share for total proceeds of $3,000,000.

All Shares issued in the Private Placement are subject to a hold period of four months plus one day from the closing date, expiring February 27, 2024.

Participation of Insiders in the Private Placement

Insiders, OU Moonrider ("Moonrider"), a significant shareholder of the Corporation, and Assem Soliman, a director of the Corporation, subscribed for a total of 12,996,364 Shares of the Private Placement. Participation by the insiders constitutes a related party transaction as defined under Multilateral Instrument 61-101 ("MI 61-101"). The Corporation is relying on the exemptions from the valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101 contained in sections 5.5(a) and 5.7(1)(a) of MI 61-101, as the fair market value of the participation by insiders in the Private Placement does not exceed 25% of the market capitalization of the Corporation, as determined in accordance with MI 61-101.

Early Warning

On October 26, 2023, Moonrider purchased 12,921,364 Shares in the Private Placement. The 12,921,364 Shares were purchased at a price of $0.22 per Share for total consideration of C$2,842,700.08.

Prior to the Private Placement, Moonrider beneficially owned, controlled, or directed an aggregate of 28,064,962 Shares and 20,000,000 share purchase warrants, representing approximately 43.10% of the outstanding Shares of Aton on a non-diluted basis and approximately 56.47% on a partially diluted basis, assuming Moonrider's exercise of its warrants.

Following the Private Placement, Moonrider beneficially owns, controls, or directs an aggregate of 40,986,326 Shares and 20,000,000 share purchase warrants, representing approximately 52.04% of the outstanding Shares of Aton on a non-diluted basis and approximately 61.76% on a partially diluted basis, assuming Moonrider's exercise of its warrants.

Moonrider may, depending on market or other conditions, increase or decrease its beneficial ownership, control or direction over, or exercise its current rights to acquire, Shares through market transactions, private agreements or otherwise.

Moonrider's head office is located at Toompuiestee 37, 10133 Tallinn, Estonia. Aton's head office is located at 1700 - 666 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC V6C 2X8.

This press release is being disseminated as required by National Instrument 62-103 - The Early Warning System and Related Take Over Bids and Insider Reporting Issuers in connection with the filing of an early warning report.

in connection with the filing of an early warning report. An early warning report will be electronically filed by Moonrider with the applicable securities commission in each jurisdiction where Aton is reporting and will be available on Sedar Plus at www.sedarplus.ca.

About Aton Resources Inc.

Aton Resources Inc. (AAN:TSX-V) is focused on its 100% owned Abu Marawat Concession ("Abu Marawat"), located in Egypt's Arabian-Nubian Shield, approximately 200 km north of Centamin's world-class Sukari gold mine. Aton has identified numerous gold and base metal exploration targets at Abu Marawat, including the Hamama deposit in the west, the Abu Marawat deposit in the northeast, and the advanced Rodruin exploration prospect in the south of the Concession. Two historic British gold mines are also located on the Concession at Sir Bakis and Semna. Aton has identified several distinct geological trends within Abu Marawat, which display potential for the development of a variety of styles of precious and base metal mineralisation. Abu Marawat is 447.7 km2 in size and is located in an area of excellent infrastructure; a four-lane highway, a 220kV power line, and a water pipeline are in close proximity, as are the international airports at Hurghada and Luxor.

For further information regarding Aton Resources Inc., please visit us at www.atonresources.com or contact:

Tonno Vahk

Interim CEO

Tel: +1 604 318 0390

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Some of the statements contained in this release are forward-looking statements. Since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions; by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results in each case could differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Calgary, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - October 27, 2023) - North Peak Resources Ltd. (TSXV: NPR) (the "Company" or "North Peak") launched its drilling campaign this week at its Prospect Mountain property in Eureka, Nevada (the "Property" or "Prospect Mountain") following completion of planned geophysical surveys and geochemical sampling programs and the receipt of necessary approvals. These surveys and sampling programs were undertaken over the summer months to define both surface and underground drilling targets across the potential CRD (Gold, Silver, Lead and Zinc) and Carlin (Gold and Silver) style mineralization Prospect Mountain might host beneath its extensive system of shafts and mine workings.

This first Phase of Drilling will consist of approximately 6600 feet (2012m) starting from the Diamond mine portal and targeting multiple intersections of the roughly 2-km long conductive anomaly, located directly beneath the old oxide gold, silver, lead and zinc historical stopes of the Diamond mine, that was located by the helicopter magnetotelluric (MT) survey carried out in June (see Figures 1 & 3). A comprehensive gravity survey and drone based magnetic survey followed in July and August and the results of these two surveys were used to help develop the exploration model and drill targets. A limited Induced Polarisation (IP) survey carried out in September yielded a very strong chargeability IP anomaly that overlaps and extends upwards from the MT anomaly into the old workings area gives strong support to the MT anomaly (see Figure 1).

"The team have developed a drilling plan that will target the heart of both the IP anomaly and the MT anomaly, and it can be carried out from a practical location near the mine's infrastructure," said Brian Hinchcliffe, North Peak's CEO. "Our Property sits in the center of the largely north south mineralized Eureka Camp (see Figure 2) and the drilling will be aimed due west beneath the old mining workings and towards the massive MT target sitting just beneath the camp's water table."

Magnetotellurics is a passive electromagnetic system designed to measure resistivity/conductivity of the Earth and is especially useful for penetrating to deeper levels than comparable geophysical methods. The aim of the survey was to look for conductors beneath the water table that potentially represent the sulphide equivalents of the Prospect Mountain oxide mineralization. The 220-line km survey was conducted by Expert Geophysics Limited and flown at 100m line spacing using their Mobile MT system (see Figure 3).

The rocks surrounding the old oxide workings within the Hamburg and Eldorado Dolomites are highly resistive with no conductivity. Directly beneath the deepest part of the Property workings, at the level of the projected water table is a discrete > 2km long conductive body that plunges to the southeast. The strongest part of the anomaly sits directly beneath the largest bodies of historical workings on the Property, around the Shaft 1 area. While factors other than sulphides, such as graphitic shales and saline ground water, can cause conductivity, the groundwater tested on the Property is not known to be saline and there are no graphitic shales projected to be in the area beneath the historical mines on the Property. This increases the likelihood that the conductive anomaly is caused by sulphides and it is of a different character to the large formational anomalies highlighted by the survey to the west of the Sharp/Cave Canyon fault that are more likely to be related to lithology. The very strong IP chargeability anomaly overlaps the MT anomaly and extends to the depth limits of the IP survey indicating both anomalies are caused by the same source giving added weight to the interpretation.

Figure 1: East-West section of Diamond Mine Tunnel, with North Peak drill holes at Portal entrance, combining IP, Mobile MT, Gravity and Soil sampling data overlaid on Geological Section, (Nolan 1962)

Figure 2: Long Section looking west of Eureka Camp from Prospect Mountain peak to Archimedes pit

Figure 3: Long Section looking west showing historical workings and MT anomalies after 3D inversion

Mr. Mike Sutton, P.Geo., a Director of the Company, is the Qualified Person, as defined under National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, who reviewed and approved scientific and technical disclosure in this news release.

The Qualified Person has not reviewed the mineral tenure, nor independently verified the legal status and ownership of the Property or any underlying property agreements.

About Prospect Mountain

The Property lies in the Battle Mountain Eureka trend, in an area known as the Southern Eureka Gold Belt, where three styles of mineralization have been identified, gold, silver Carlin style mineralization, Carbonate Replacement gold, silver, lead, zinc mineralization (CRD) and carbonate hosted Porphyry Related Skarn lead, zinc and gold mineralization associated with cretaceous intrusions. At the Property, the CRD mineralization is heavily oxidized to depths of at least 610m (2000ft) below the top of the ridge line.

A Plan of Operations is in place which covers part of the Property (totalling 81 acres) and entitles an operator to pursue surface exploration, underground mining of up to 365,000 tons per annum and certain infrastructural works. It includes a permit to extract water from a well and to build water containment facilities.

About North Peak

The Company is a Canadian based gold exploration and development company that is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "NPR". The Company is focused on acquiring historic sites, with low cost producing gold and other metals properties, with near term production potential and 8+ year mine life in the northern hemisphere.

The Company recently acquired an initial 80% interest in the Prospect Mountain Mine complex in Eureka, Nevada (see the Company's May 4 and 23, 2023 and August 25, 2023 press releases).

The Company can give no assurances at this time that its properties and interests will fulfil the Company's business development goals described herein. Trading in the securities of the Company should be considered highly speculative.

For further information, please contact:

Brian Hinchcliffe, CEO

Phone: +1-647-424-2305

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Website: www.northpeakresources.com

Chelsea Hayes, Director

Phone: +1-647-424-2305

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS: This news release includes certain "forward-looking statements" under applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, timing and completion of any drilling and work programs on the Property, estimates of mineralization from drilling and geophysical surveys, geological information projected from sampling results and the potential quantities and grades of the target zones, the potential for minerals and/or mineral resources and reserves, and statements regarding the plans, intentions, beliefs, and current expectations of the Property and the Company that may be described herein. Forward-looking statements consist of statements that are not purely historical, including any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Such information can generally be identified by the use of forwarding-looking wording such as "may", "expect", "estimate", "anticipate", "intend", "believe" and "continue" or the negative thereof or similar variations. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are based will occur.

By their nature, forward-looking statements involve numerous assumptions, known and unknown risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, that contribute to the possibility that the predictions, estimates, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statements will not occur. These assumptions, risks and uncertainties include, among other things, the state of the economy in general and capital markets in particular, accuracy of assay results, geological interpretations from drilling results, timing and amount of capital expenditures; 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, as well as those risk factors discussed or referred to in the Company's Management's Discussion and Analysis for the year ended December 31, 2022 and the quarter ended June 30, 2023, available at www.sedarplus.ca, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release. Except as required by law, the Company disclaims any intention and assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Additionally, the Company undertakes no obligation to comment on the expectations of, or statements made by, third parties in respect of the matters discussed above.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / October 26, 2023 / Tier One Silver Inc. (TSXV:TSLV) ("Tier One" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it is undertaking a non-brokered private placement of up to 15 million units of the Company (each, a "Unit") at an offering price of C$0.10 per Unit for gross proceeds to the Company of up to C$1,500,000 (the "Offering"). Each Unit shall consist of one common share of the Company (a "Share") and one full common share purchase warrant of the Company (each, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant shall entitle the holder thereof to purchase one common share of the Company at a price of C$0.25 at any time on or before the date which is 24 months after the closing date of the initial tranche of the Offering (the "Closing Date"). The Warrants are subject to accelerated expiry to the date that is 30 days following the date of a news release issued by the Company announcing the accelerated expiry date in the event that the closing price of the common shares of the Company is greater than C$0.50 for 10 consecutive trading days on the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV") any time after the first 12 months from the Closing Date.

The proposed use of proceeds from the Offering is to fund general working capital.

In accordance with applicable securities laws, the Shares and Warrants issued under the Offering will be subject to a statutory four-month and one day hold period from the date of issuance in Canada. While the Offering is non-brokered, the Company may pay a cash finder's fee equal to 6.0% of the gross proceeds and issue finder's warrants ("Finder's Warrants") equal to 6.0% of the number of Units sold under the Offering to eligible persons who refer investors to the Company, where permitted by applicable law and in accordance with the policies of the TSXV. Each Finder's Warrant will entitle the holder thereof to purchase one common share of the Company at the exercise price of C$0.25 for a period of 24 months from the Closing Date.

The initial closing of the Offering is anticipated to occur on or about November 10, 2023, subject to the receipt of investor documentation, funds, corporate and TSXV approval. There is no minimum upon which the closing of the Offering is conditional, and any upsize will be announced in the context of the market.

Insiders of the Company may participate in the Offering. The issuance of Units to insiders is considered a "related party transaction" within the meaning of Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Shareholders in related Party Transactions ("MI 61-101"). The Company intends to rely on the exemptions from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101 pursuant to sections 5.5(a) and 5.7(1)(a) of MI 61-101 in respect of such insider participation as neither the fair market value of any securities issued to nor the consideration paid by such person could exceed 25% of the Company's market capitalization.

The securities issued pursuant to the Offering 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 issued pursuant to the Offering 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 shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any State in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF TIER ONE SILVER INC.

Peter Dembicki President, CEO and Director

For further information on Tier One Silver Inc., please contact the company at (778) 729-0700 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

About Tier One Silver

Tier One Silver is an exploration company focused on creating value for shareholders and stakeholders through the discovery of world-class silver, gold and base metal deposits in Peru. The Company's management and technical teams have a strong track record in raising capital, discovery and monetization of exploration success. The Company's exploration assets in Peru include: Corisur and the flagship project, Curibaya. For more information, visit www.tieronesilver.com.

Forward Looking Information and General Cautionary Language

This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation (collectively, "forward-looking statements") that relate to the Company's current expectations and views of future events in connection with the planned financing. Forward-looking statements are not historical facts and therefore may involve estimates, assumptions and uncertainties which could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. No assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and such forward-looking statements included in this news release should not be heavily relied upon. These statements speak only as of the date of this news release. In particular, and without limitation, this news release contains forward-looking statements in regard to the size, closing and use of proceeds of the Offering.

Readers should refer to the risks discussed in the Company's Annual Information Form and Management's Discussion & Analysis for the year ended December 31, 2022, and subsequent continuous disclosure filings with the Canadian Securities Administrators available at www.sedarplus.ca.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
The Palestinian Authority's foreign minister on Thursday said Israel's offensive in Gaza was a "war of revenge", as he called for a ceasefire in the conflict.

The visit of Riyad al-Maliki to the Hague comes as Israel said a column of tanks and infantry had launched an overnight raid into Hamas-controlled Gaza.

It also comes as European Union officials in Brussels debated the situation and were set to call for "humanitarian pauses" in Israel's war with Hamas.

Hamas militants launched a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, killing at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli officials. They are still believed to be holding more than 200 hostages.

Since then, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says more than 7,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel's relentless retaliatory bombardments, mostly civilians and many of them children.

"This time the war that Israel is waging is different. This time... it's a war of revenge," Maliki said in The Hague.

"This war has no real objective than the total destruction of every livable corner in Gaza," Maliki told reporters at the Palestinian Authority's mission to The Hague.

He said the need for a ceasefire was a top priority to get aid into Gaza, where the main UN agency warned Wednesday operations would cease as it was running out of fuel.

"First we need to end this aggression, this one-sided war and then we need to call for a ceasefire," he said, adding that "a ceasefire is essential... for the distribution of humanitarian aid".

- 'Humanitarian pauses' -

But Maliki stressed that so-called "humanitarian pauses" would not alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

European Union leaders were set on Thursday to call for "humanitarian corridors and pauses" in order for aid to reach civilians in Gaza.

Maliki said he was not confident EU officials "would go for a full cease-fire.

"But I am confident that they will have a very serious discussion and they will be able understand the difference between a humanitarian pause and a ceasefire."

"A humanitarian pause is not going to help in bringing in... the necessary distribution of such goods into Gaza."

Maliki also said the only long-term solution in the conflict would be a return to the two-state solution, the framework proposed for separate Israeli and Palestinian states.

"It will be difficult, but not impossible to go to the two-state solution. But what is the alternative?

"We don't have an alternative."

On Wednesday, Maliki met top officials at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, including its chief prosecutor Karim Khan.

"The situation in Gaza is so dangerous now that it needs immediate intervention by the (ICC) prosecutor," Maliki said, accusing Israel of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The Palestinian Authority was "working with the ICC prosecutor", he added.

The Palestinians have made a second submission to the UN's highest International Court of Justice, which is also based in The Hague, he said.

The UN's general Assembly has asked the ICJ's judges for an advisory legal opinion on Israel's occupation in Palestinian territories.
Israel sent tanks, troops and armoured bulldozers into the Gaza Strip in a "targeted raid" overnight that destroyed multiple sites before withdrawing from the Hamas-ruled territory, the army said Thursday.

Black smoke billowed into the sky after a blast in the grainy night-vision footage the military released hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared preparations for a ground war were under way.

On the 20th day of Israel's deadliest Gaza war yet, launched in retaliation for the bloody October 7 Hamas attacks, the army said its forces had hit "numerous terrorist cells, infrastructure and anti-tank missile launch posts".

The operation in northern Gaza came in "preparation for the next stages of combat", it said.

The black-and-white video showed a column of armoured vehicles moving near Gaza's border fence. Other footage appeared to show an air strike and buildings being struck with munitions, sending debris flying.

Just hours earlier, Netanyahu had delivered a nationally televised address to Israelis still grieving and furious after Hamas's bloody October 7 attacks, telling them "we are in the midst of a campaign for our existence".

The shock attack, the worst in the country's history, saw throngs of Hamas gunmen pour from Gaza into Israel, killing more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 224 more, according to official tallies.

Israel has retaliated with relentless strikes that Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said have killed more than 7,000 people, also mainly civilians -- a toll expected to rise substantially if Israeli troops massed near the border thrust across.

That scenario has further heightened international alarm amid growing shock about the scale of human suffering inside the besieged territory where Israel has cut off most water, food, fuel and other basic supplies.

In southern Gaza, a bereaved Palestinian, Umm Omar al-Khaldi, told AFP how she saw her neighbours being killed in an Israeli strike that reduced the house to rubble, with many feared buried beneath.

"We saw them getting bombarded -- the children got bombarded while their mother was hugging them," the woman said, desperately pleading for help from the outside world.

"Where are the Arabs, where is humanity?" she asked. "Have mercy on us, have mercy on us."

Amnesty International in a statement called for an immediate ceasefire to ensure "access to life-saving aid for people in Gaza amidst an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe".

The human rights group's chief Agnes Callamard said: "Serious violations of international humanitarian law, including war crimes, by all parties to the conflict continue unabated."

- 'Nowhere is safe' -

The war's surging death toll is by far the highest since Israel unilaterally withdrew from the small coastal territory in 2005 -- a period that has seen four previous Gaza wars.

Entire neighbourhoods have been razed, surgeons are operating without anaesthetic on some wounded and ice-cream trucks have become makeshift morgues.

In chaotic scenes, volunteer emergency crew and neighbours have clawed, sometimes with their bare hands, through shattered concrete and sand to pull out civilian casualties.

All too often they recover only corpses which have piled up, wrapped in bloodstained white shrouds.

"Nowhere is safe in Gaza," said Lynne Hastings, UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories.

US President Joe Biden, a strong supporter of Israel, has joined the calls for it to "protect innocent civilians" and to follow the "laws of war" as it pursues Hamas targets.

Leaders of the 27-member European Union were on Thursday debating whether to call for a "humanitarian pause" in the war to deliver desperately needed aid.

In The Hague, the Palestinian Authority's foreign minister, Riyad al-Maliki, branded Israel's Gaza offensive a "war of revenge", and called for a ceasefire.

French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking in Cairo on Wednesday, warned that "a massive intervention that would put civilian lives at risk would be an error".

And Jordan's King Abdullah II said anger at the suffering could "lead to an explosion" in the Middle East.

- 'Raining down hellfire' -

Netanyahu -- amid the growing calls to temper the ferocious bombing campaign -- said Israel had been "raining down hellfire on Hamas" and killing "thousands of terrorists".

He said his war cabinet and the military would determine the timing of a "ground offensive" with the goal to "eliminate Hamas" and "bring our captives home".

But he stressed that "I will not detail when, how or how many" forces would take part.

Netanyahu also acknowledged for the first time that he would have to explain the security lapses exposed on October 7.

"The fault will be examined and everyone will have to give answers, including me," he said. "But all this will happen later."

Biden, also contemplating the future, stressed that "when this crisis is over, there has to be a vision of what comes next".

He reiterated that Washington supports a two-state solution with independent Israeli and Palestinian states.

"It means a concentrated effort for all the parties -- Israelis, Palestinians, regional partners, global leaders -- to put us on a path toward peace," the US president said.

For now though, the raging war has sparked fears of a regional conflagration if it draws in more of Israel's enemies such as Iran-backed Syria and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

There has also been a rise in attacks on Israel's top ally the United States, which has a vast network of military bases across the Middle East.

About 2,500 American troops are stationed in Iraq and some 900 in Syria to help fight remnants of the Islamic State jihadist group.

The Pentagon said there were 10 attacks on US and allied forces in Iraq and three in Syria between October 17 and 24, involving a "mix of one-way attack drones and rockets".

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Hamas said Thursday Israeli strikes on Gaza have killed almost 50 of the hostages its militants seized in bloody cross-border attacks as the United Nations warned "nowhere is safe" in the territory.

The group's armed wing made the claim, which AFP could not immediately verify, after Israel sent tanks, troops and armoured bulldozers into the enclave in a "targeted raid" overnight that the military said destroyed multiple sites before withdrawing.

"(Ezzedine) Al-Qassam Brigades estimates that the number of Zionist prisoners who were killed in the Gaza Strip as a result of Zionist strikes and massacres has reached almost 50," the group said in a statement on its Telegram channel.

Hamas's shock October 7 attacks, the worst in Israeli history, saw throngs of Hamas gunmen pour from Gaza into Israel, killing more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 224 more, according to official tallies.

Israel has retaliated with relentless strikes that Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said have killed more than 7,000 people, also mainly civilians -- a toll expected to rise substantially if Israeli troops massed near the border thrust across.

On the 20th day of Israel's bloodiest Gaza war yet, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, Lynne Hastings, said that despite the Israeli military issuing warnings to people in Gaza City to leave, "advance warnings make no difference".

She said in a statement that when evacuation routes are bombed, "people are left with nothing but impossible choices. Nowhere is safe in Gaza."

The army said overnight its forces hit "numerous terrorist cells, infrastructure and anti-tank missile launch posts".

Black smoke billowed into the sky after a blast in the grainy night-vision footage the Israeli military released hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared preparations for a ground war were under way.

The operation in northern Gaza came in "preparation for the next stages of combat", the military said.

The black-and-white video showed armoured vehicles moving near Gaza's border fence. Other footage appeared to show an air strike and buildings being targeted.

The raid came after Netanyahu delivered a nationally televised address to Israelis still grieving and furious after the October 7 attacks, telling them "we are in the midst of a campaign for our existence".

International alarm has increased amid growing shock about the scale of human suffering inside the besieged Palestinian territory where Israel has cut off most water, food, fuel and other basic supplies.

In southern Gaza, a grieving Umm Omar al-Khaldi told AFP how she saw her neighbours being killed in an Israeli strike that reduced the house to rubble, with many feared buried beneath.

"We saw them getting bombarded -- the children got bombarded while their mother was hugging them," the woman said, desperately pleading for help from the outside world.

"Where are the Arabs, where is humanity?" she asked.

Amnesty International in a statement called for an immediate ceasefire to ensure "access to life-saving aid for people in Gaza amidst an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe".

The human rights group's chief Agnes Callamard said: "Serious violations of international humanitarian law, including war crimes, by all parties to the conflict continue unabated."

- Surging death toll -

The war's surging death toll is by far the highest since Israel unilaterally withdrew from the small coastal territory in 2005 -- a period that has seen four previous Gaza wars.

Entire neighbourhoods have been razed, surgeons are operating without anaesthetic, and ice-cream trucks have become makeshift morgues.

In chaotic scenes, volunteers and neighbours have clawed, sometimes with their bare hands, through shattered concrete and sand to pull out civilian casualties.

All too often they recover only corpses which have piled up, wrapped in bloodstained white shrouds.

In Brussels on Thursday, European Union leaders debated calling for "pauses" in the war so aid can get in.

The 27-nation bloc has long been split between more pro-Palestinian members such as Ireland and Spain, and staunch backers of Israel including Germany and Austria.

"What we want is the killing and the violence to stop so that humanitarian aid can get into Gaza, where innocent Palestinian people are suffering, and also to allow us to get EU citizens out," Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said.

US President Joe Biden, a strong supporter of Israel, earlier joined the calls for it to "protect innocent civilians" and to follow the "laws of war" as it pursues Hamas.

French President Emmanuel Macron warned Wednesday that "a massive intervention that would put civilian lives at risk would be an error".

And Jordan's King Abdullah II said anger at the suffering could "lead to an explosion" in the Middle East.

- 'Raining down hellfire' -

Netanyahu -- amid the growing calls to temper the ferocious bombing campaign -- said Israel had been "raining down hellfire on Hamas" and killing "thousands of terrorists".

He said his war cabinet and the military would determine the timing of a "ground offensive" with the goal to "eliminate Hamas" and "bring our captives home".

But he stressed that "I will not detail when, how or how many" forces would take part.

Netanyahu also acknowledged for the first time that he would have to explain the security lapses exposed on October 7.

"The fault will be examined and everyone will have to give answers, including me," he said. "But all this will happen later."

Biden stressed that "when this crisis is over, there has to be a vision of what comes next".

He reiterated that Washington supports a two-state solution with independent Israeli and Palestinian states.

"It means a concentrated effort for all the parties -- Israelis, Palestinians, regional partners, global leaders -- to put us on a path toward peace," Biden said.

The war has sparked fears of a regional conflagration if it draws in more of Israel's enemies such as Iran-backed Syria and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

There has also been a rise in attacks on Israel's top ally, which has military bases across the Middle East.

About 2,500 American troops are stationed in Iraq and some 900 in Syria to help fight remnants of the Islamic State jihadist group.

The Pentagon said there were 10 attacks on US and allied forces in Iraq and three in Syria between October 17 and 24, involving a "mix of one-way attack drones and rockets".

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The United Nations said Friday it was concerned that war crimes were being committed on both sides in the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

The UN human rights office cited forcible transfer, collective punishment and the taking of hostages as the war continued into its 21st day.

"We are concerned that war crimes are being committed. We are concerned about the collective punishment of Gazans in response to the atrocious attacks by Hamas, which also amounted to war crimes," spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told a press conference in Geneva.

She said that it was for an independent court of law to qualify whether war crimes had been committed.

Israel has heavily bombarded Gaza since Hamas gunmen stormed across the border on October 7, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, kidnapping more than 220 others, according to Israeli officials.

The health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip said the strikes have killed more than 7,000 people, mainly civilians and many of them children.

Israel has cut supplies of food, water and power to Gaza, notably blocking all deliveries of fuel saying it would be exploited by Hamas to manufacture weapons and explosives.

Israel's army has called on people in the north of the Gaza Strip -- nearly half of its 2.4-million population -- to head south ahead of an expected ground offensive.

- 'Nowhere is safe' -

"Nowhere is safe in Gaza. Compelling people to evacuate in these circumstances... and while under a complete siege raises serious concerns over forcible transfer, which is a war crime," Shamdasani said.

"Israel's use of explosive weapons with wide-area effects in densely populated areas has caused extensive damage to civilian infrastructure and loss of civilian lives that, by all appearances, is difficult to reconcile with international humanitarian law," she added.

Shamdasani said a humanitarian catastrophe was unfolding for the people "locked inside Gaza who are being collectively punished. Collective punishment is a war crime. Israel's collective punishment of the entire population of Gaza must immediately cease."

She said indiscriminate attacks by Palestinian armed groups, including through the launching of unguided rockets into Israel, had to stop.

"They must immediately and unconditionally release all civilians who are captured and are still being held. The taking of hostages is also a war crime," the spokeswoman added.

In response, the Israeli mission in Geneva said international humanitarian law remained the Israeli military's "guide book", despite "Hamas brutality, and the shield the UN provides them with".

"Israel is at war with Hamas, a genocidal terrorist organisation. This is not a war with the Palestinians. This is not collective punishment," the mission said.

"Israel does its utmost to protect civilians and mitigate harm to them, including providing advance notice to civilians regarding safer zones, while Hamas deliberately puts them in harm's way."

"War crimes" were defined in the 1998 Rome Statute that established the International Criminal Court.

A war crime is a serious violation of international law against civilians and combatants during armed conflict, a "grave breach" of the 1949 Geneva Conventions that established a legal framework for war after the Nuremberg tribunals of top Nazis.
Fighting raged in Gaza on Friday nearly three weeks after Hamas militants attacked Israel from the Palestinian territory and, according to Israeli officials, killed at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians.

Since the October 7 attack, the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip says at least 7,326 people have been killed in Israel's retaliatory strikes on the besieged territory, mainly civilians and many of them children.

Here are five key developments from the past 24 hours:

- 'Many more will die' -

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees on Friday issued a dire warning over the humanitarian situation as a result of the ongoing Israeli siege of Gaza.

"As we speak people in Gaza are dying, they are not only dying from bombs and strikes, soon many more will die from the consequences of (the) siege imposed on the Gaza Strip," said UNRWA commissioner-general Philippe Lazzarini.

He called for "meaningful and uninterrupted" aid to the coastal territory as he confirmed 57 of the agency's staff had been killed during the war.

- Ground forces incursion -

Israel's army said Friday its infantry backed by fighter jets and drones carried out a "targeted raid" in central Gaza, its second incursion in as many days.

"The IDF identified and struck numerous terror targets, including anti-tank missile launch sites, military command and control centres, as well as Hamas terrorists," it said, adding troops "exited the area at the end of the activity".

The incursions come after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated this week that Israel was "preparing for a ground offensive".

Rockets were also fired on Friday from Gaza towards central Israel and Tel Aviv, wounding a 20-year-old man, Israeli medics said.

- US-Iran tensions -

Washington on Thursday warned Tehran against any escalation as it struck facilities in Syria it says were used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and others.

"The precision self-defence strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against US personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups," Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.

The strikes followed a direct warning Thursday from President Joe Biden to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei against the strikes on US troops, the White House said.

The United States has moved two aircraft carrier groups near Israel since the Hamas attacks in what it says is a bid to deter Iran and its proxies, including Lebanon's Hezbollah, from broadening the conflict.

- 'War crimes' -

The United Nations on Friday expressed concern that war crimes were being committed by both sides.

"We are concerned that war crimes are being committed. We are concerned about the collective punishment of Gazans in response to the atrocious attacks by Hamas, which also amounted to war crimes," said Ravina Shamdasani, the spokeswoman for the UN's human rights office.

She said that it was for an independent court of law to qualify whether war crimes had been committed.

- Gaza war dead debate -

Hamas on Thursday released a list of almost 7,000 names of people it said had been killed in Israeli strikes, after US President Biden had cast doubt on its figures.

The Palestinian Islamist group also said almost 50 Israeli hostages held in Gaza had been killed in Israeli bombing raids on the Palestinian territory.

UNRWA's Lazzarini weighed in on the discussion on Friday, saying the Gaza health ministry's figures had proven credible in past conflicts.

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To listen to the podcast, click on the "play" button below:

A complex situation requires complex solutions  Dalila Seoane explains why it is important to push for accountability for crimes committed in Venezuela at the regional level, besides the international one. There are a lot of international efforts; the UN fact-finding mission, the Panel of Experts of the Organisation of American States on Venezuela and  not to forget  the International Criminal Court, which we talked about here. This time, we dig deep into a case of universal jurisdiction opened in Argentina.

On June 14 this year, the the Docket at the Clooney Foundation for Justice filed a complaint before the Argentine federal justice system, saying that the country must investigate the human rights violations committed in Venezuela, based on the principle of universal jurisdiction. The CFJ is representing family members of two Venezuelans killed during the 2014 protests violently suppressed by the government of President Nicolas Maduro. Just a month later, a prosecutor in Argentina launched an investigation  AP obtained some exclusive details we discuss in the pod.

We hear from Ignacio Jovtis, Senior Program Manager at The Docket who led the investigations in Venezuela, and Dalila Seoane, Gender Prosecution Expert and Crime Analyst for Justice Rapid Response who was deployed to help with the filing of the case. So we asked them how the case started and what made it possible for the Argentine court to pick it up so quickly. We also discuss the hopes of victims on the ground and the  dire  prospects of cooperation from Venezuelan authorities. And we explore what role can Argentina play in fighting for justice, looking back at the other UJ cases about the Franco regime in Spain and the Rohingya community in Myanmar.
The UN warned Friday that "many more will die" in Gaza from catastrophic shortages after nearly three weeks of bombardment by Israel in response to Hamas staging the deadliest attack in its history.

And it raised the alarm over "war crimes" being committed as the Israel-Hamas conflict raged into its 21st day. The army said it had mounted another brief land incursion into Gaza as it prepares for a ground offensive.

Concern is growing about regional fallout from the conflict, with the United States warning Iran against escalation while striking facilities in Syria it says were used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and others.

Israel has heavily bombarded Gaza since Hamas gunmen stormed across the border on October 7, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, kidnapping over 220 others, according to Israeli officials.

The health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, in an update on Friday, said the strikes had now killed 7,326 people, mainly civilians and many of them children.

Israel's military on Friday accused Hamas of using hospitals in Gaza as operations centres for directing attacks.

"Hamas wages war from hospitals," in the territory, military spokesman Daniel Hagari said.

He also alleged the Islamist group was also using fuel stored in these facilities for its operations.

- War crimes on both sides -

Israel has cut supplies of food, water and power to Gaza, notably blocking all deliveries of fuel saying it would be exploited by Hamas to manufacture weapons and explosives.

"People in Gaza are dying, they are not only dying from bombs and strikes, soon many more will die from the consequences of (the) siege," said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).

"Basic services are crumbling, medicine is running out, food and water are running out, the streets of Gaza have started overflowing with sewage," Lazzarini said of the overcrowded territory where 45 percent of housing is reported to have been damaged or destroyed.

In Geneva, the UN human rights office raised the alarm over war crimes, saying "the atrocious attacks by Hamas... amounted to war crimes" but also pointing to Israel's Gaza bombardment.

"Nowhere is safe in Gaza. Compelling people to evacuate in these circumstances... and while under a complete siege raises serious concerns over forcible transfer, which is a war crime," spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said of Israel's order for northern Gaza residents to flee south.

And a humanitarian catastrophe was unfolding for Gazans who were "being collectively punished" which "is a war crime", she said.

French President Emmanuel Macron called for a "humanitarian truce" for the protection of civilians in Gaza, as he said Israel's response must "better target... terrorists".

And a first team of six medics from the International Committee of the Red Cross entered Gaza Friday via its Rafah crossing with Egypt, along with six aid trucks, the ICRC said.

- 'Nothing more than crumbs' -

A first tranche of critically needed aid was allowed in at the weekend, but since then only 74 trucks have crossed. Before the conflict, the UN says an average of 500 trucks were entering Gaza every day.

"These few trucks are nothing more than crumbs that will not make a difference," Lazzarini said, insisting Gaza needed a "meaningful and uninterrupted aid flow" and a "humanitarian ceasefire to ensure this aid reaches those in need".

His words echoed an EU leaders' call on Thursday for "continued, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access and aid" to those in need via "humanitarian corridors and pauses for humanitarian needs".

Between the bombardments and the fuel shortages, 12 of Gaza's 35 hospitals have been forced to close, and UNRWA said it has had to "significantly reduce its operations".

The agency also said 57 of its staff had been killed since the war began.

With tens of thousands of Israeli troops massed along the Gaza border ahead of a widely expected ground offensive, the army said it had staged another brief ground incursion into Gaza, the second in as many days.

"We carried out a ground operation in central Gaza... as part of preparations for the coming stages of the war," the army's Hagari added. The first incursion had targeted northern Gaza.

Hamas also said Israeli troops had tried to stage "a large-scale amphibious operation on Rafah's coast" in southern Gaza at dawn but it had been thwarted, saying the soldiers had "fled by sea, leaving behind a quantity of weapons".

Israel confirmed the operation, saying troops had struck "Hamas military infrastructure and... a compound" used by Hamas militants.

- 'Wherever we go, we will die' -

The army also updated to 229 the number of hostages held by Hamas, many of whom hold foreign passports, with their families frantic about their fate.

"I have never felt such a feeling of helplessness," said 23-year-old Ella Ben Ami whose parents were kidnapped. With recurring nightmares every single night, she says she feels "like the living dead".

"Almost every family has lost someone. Nobody can comprehend that there are so many people that we won't see again," she told AFP as Israeli therapists said they had been overwhelmed by the number of traumatised people.

Militants fired rockets on Friday towards Tel Aviv, where people could be seen running for cover as sirens wailed, AFP correspondents said. One stuck the city, wounding three people, one moderately and two lightly, medics said.

Despite Israel's call for civilians in northern Gaza to move south for their safety, strikes have continued to hit southern areas, with many saying they could find nowhere to shelter.

"Wherever we go, we will die," said Rahma Saqallah who fled her Gaza City home to go south with her family but decided to turn back after strikes killed her husband and three of her children.

"They told us to leave for the south and then they killed us (here)," she said on leaving the southern town of Khan Yunis to head home with her one remaining child.

Violence has also risen sharply in the occupied West Bank since the October 7 attacks, with more than 100 Palestinians killed and over 1,900 wounded.

Another four Palestinians were killed Friday during Israeli raids in the northern cities of Jenin and Qalqilya, the health ministry said.

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Two Cayuga County clerk candidates have received more endorsements as the race enters the final stretch.

Kristine Lytle, a Conservative, has been endorsed by six town supervisors in Cayuga County. Her supporters include David Corey (Montezuma), Edward Ide (Aurelius), Eric Ridley (Throop), Charles Ripley (Summerhill), David Schenck (Springport) and Michael Wiggins (Victory).

"As town supervisors we are focused on meeting the needs of our constituents," Ide said in a statement provided by Lytle's campaign. "We know that competent and experienced staff is the only way to do it. We support Kristine Lytle for county clerk because she best meets that criteria."

Lytle has touted her experience on the campaign trail. She has worked at the county Department of Motor Vehicles for 16 years, including 13 in a supervisory role.

The county clerk oversees the local DMV office.

Another candidate for county clerk, Chris Petrus, has been endorsed by the Republican Women of Central New York.

Maureen Fogarty, president of the Republican Women of Central New York, wrote in a letter to Petrus that his "experience and commitment to the GOP is reflected through your years of service and accomplishments in local politics and community."

Fogarty added the group's board voted unanimously to endorse Petrus for county clerk.

Petrus, the Republican candidate for county clerk, is a county legislator representing the town of Brutus. As a local lawmaker, he has chaired the Cayuga County Legislature's Government Operations Committee, which oversees the clerk's office.

There is a three-way race for county clerk this year. Brian Scanlan is the other candidate in the field. He will appear on the Democratic and Cayuga County United lines.

It is the first time in 20 years there is a contested race for county clerk. Sue Dwyer, who has served as county clerk during that time, is not seeking reelection this year.
Former Central African Republic militia leader Maxime Mokom would be subjected to "detention and torture" if he was to be send back to his troubled homeland, his lawyers said on Friday.

Mokom was released by the International Criminal Court last week, shelving his war crimes case after the prosecutor dropped all charges.

"Mr Mokom unambiguously opposes any return to the Central African Republic by the ICC," his lawyers said.

"The defence has every reason to think that Mr Mokom would be subjected to arbitrary and illegal detention, torture and cruel treatment were he to be forcibly rendered, against his will," his lawyers said in a letter sent to AFP.

Mokom, 44, was released after chief prosecutor Karim Khan said his office concluded there were "no longer any reasonable prospects of conviction at trial even if the charges were confirmed."

He had faced charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity over alleged atrocities committed against Muslim civilians in the CAR, a former French colony, by his self-proclaimed self-defence militias in 2013 and 2014.

One of the world's poorest countries, the CAR was plunged into bloody sectarian conflict after Seleka rebels, a coalition of armed groups mainly composed of Muslims, ousted president Francois Bozize in early 2013.

Mokom's militias, which called themselves "anti-Balaka" -- meaning "anti-machete" -- formed in reaction to the takeover of the capital, Bangui, by the Seleka.

Mokom had denied involvement in the bloodshed, telling ICC judges in August m that he was "dedicated to the search for peace".

His lawyers said Mokom was tried in absentia in a case heard in Bangui "after the ICC confirmation of charges hearing".

"Neither Mr Mokom nor his lawyers were informed about this 'trial', despite everyone knowing that he was detained in The Hague," his lawyers said.

A two-page judgment in Bangui is said to have condemned Mokom to life in prison with forced labour, while his goods were confiscated and given to the state, in what his lawyers termed "an opportunistic political attack".

The CAR remains troubled and peace agreements signed in 2017 and 2019 have not been respected on the ground.

Set up in 2002, the ICC is the world's only independent tribunal capable of prosecuting those accused of the world's worst crimes.
House Republicans ended three weeks of infighting and united behind Mike Johnson for speaker.

The Republican majority voted Wednesday to elect Johnson, of Louisiana, to the top post. U.S. Reps. Claudia Tenney and Brandon Williams, both of whom represent central New York districts, supported Johnson for House speaker.

The vote ended a three-week ordeal that began when Kevin McCarthy was ousted as speaker. Other candidates emerged after McCarthy's removal, including House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, but neither had enough support within the GOP caucus.

Enter Johnson, a former chair of the conservative Republican Study Committee who voted to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. When he was elected speaker, he received unanimous support from GOP members.

Tenney, R-Canandaigua, said in a statement that Johnson is "an inspirational conservative who will restore faith in our government and bring strong, principled leadership to America."

"Speaker Johnson is committed to restoring transparency in Congress, reining in runaway spending, holding our adversaries accountable and strengthening oversight of federal bureaucrats," Tenney continued.

Williams, R-Sennett, tweeted this week that he is "filled with optimism about America's future!" He added that Johnson "will bring new life to the institution of Congress."

Democrats criticized Johnson's election and Williams' support for the new speaker.

Ellie Dougherty, a spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, accused Williams of enabling "MAGA extremism every step of the GOP's chaotic speaker fight and increased his own vulnerability along the way."

Sarah Klee Hood, one of the Democrats running to challenge Williams in the 22nd Congressional District, said Williams "hit a new low when he voted for (Johnson), an anti-choice zealot, to be speaker." State Sen. John Mannion, another Democratic congressional candidate, tweeted that Williams "has proven that he is not interested in representing families in central New York and the Mohawk Valley."

With the election of a new speaker, the House could resume its work.

The first order of business under Johnson was to pass a resolution supporting Israel. Tenney and Williams voted for the resolution, which passed 412-10.

Before wrapping up its work week, the House voted on a series of amendments to the energy and water development appropriations bill. The legislation passed by a 210-199 vote. Tenney and Williams joined nearly every Republican in voting to pass the bill.
"The Worst of Evil" episode 12 delivered an unexpected ending as Ji Chang Wook wrapped up his mission as an undercover agent.

The 12-episode K-drama surely left viewers on the edge of their seats and all hooked on every scene in the finale episode as they watched how Park Joon Mo's story unfolded.

Headlined by Ji Chang Wook, he takes on the role of an undercover agent whose mission is to infiltrate the Gangnam Union led by Jung Ki Chul, played by Wi Ha Joon.

Joining the cast of "The Worst of Evil" is Im Se Mi, who portrayed the role of elite police officer Yoo Eui Jung. She happens to be Ki Chul's first love and Park Joon Mo's wife.

'The Worst of Evil' Episode 12 Recap

The finale episode continues with Chief Seo testing Park Joon Mo to see if he knows the undercover agent, who in reality is his senior.

Since Joon Mo couldn't shoot Captain Seok Do Hyung, it was Chief Seo who killed him, but Joon Mo couldn't handle himself and fought the gang member. Thankfully, there were police backups, and they arrested Seo for murder.

READ MORE: Ji Chang Wook Admits His Kiss Scene With BIBI in 'The Worst of Evil' is 'Not an Easy Scene'

Prosecutor Cho Chang Sik didn't want Joon Mo to know the real status of Do Hyung and lied to him that his colleague was currently recovering so he could focus on his mission.

On the other hand, Hwang Min Goo managed to arrest Jung Ki Chul after his former men, Choi Jung Bae, Hong Hee Sung, and Oh Kyung Jin, joined forces with him as they got back at Ki Chul.

For Min Goo, it's a win-win situation since he gets to arrest Gangnam Union's leader and, at the same time, get funds from the new leader, Jung Bae, that he will be teaming up with from now on.

However, Park Joon Mo didn't want all their efforts to go to waste, so he didn't let Min Goo take the credit and saved Jung Ki Chul from him.

At the safe house, he planned to work alongside Lee Hae Ryang against Jung Bae.

At the location, Lee Hae Ryang arrived and was surprised to see police officer Hwang Min Goo.

He tried to get information and brainwash Ms. Lee against Joon Mo, and he revealed his true identity.

Before deciding if he would help Min Goo, he asked if she could make a phone call.

It turns out that the person she called was Joon Mo. During their conversation, she didn't feel like he would throw him out of the bus, but instead, Joon Mo advised Lee Hae Ryang not to stay in Korea or in China for her protection.

At this point, she felt that Joon Mo was protecting her, and out of gratitude, she killed Min Goo.

As for Joon Mo, he concluded the mission by arresting Choi Jung Bae, Hong Hee Sung, and Oh Kyung Jin, labeling them as the Gangnam Union's heads.

Meanwhile, he let Jung Ki Chul escape, but it was obvious that he was devastated by what he found out about Joon Mo.

Following this, Joon Mo and Eui Jung were surprised to see Ki Chul at their home.

He promised that the couple would never be happy throughout their marriage, and right before he killed his mother, Joon Mo shot him and called the police, saying that he had arrested Jung Ki Chul.

In the last scene, Park Joon Mo and Yoo Eui Jung were awarded for their service, as was Captain Seo Do Hyung.

However, it didn't end well with Park Joon Mo and Yoo Eui Jung. As Joon Mo paid Jung Ki Chul's grave a visit, he left his wedding ring, hinting that he and his wife had broken up.

IN CASE YOU MISSED: Wi Ha Joon Reveals Asking Im Se Mi's Help During Their Kiss Scene in 'The Worst of Evil'

For more K-Drama, K-Movie, and celebrity news, keep your tabs open here at KDramaStars.

KDramaStars owns this article

Written by Geca Wills
Jo In Sung revealed an interesting story on how he recruited celebrity guests like Han Hyo Joo to join "Unexpected Business" season 3 as part-timers.

During the online press conference for the reality program, the actor, along with co-stars Cha Tae Hyun, Park Byung Eun, and the producing directors Ryu Hyo Jin and Ryu In Hoe, graced the event to share a glimpse of what to expect on the show.

"Unexpected Business" season 3 showcases an interesting lineup of part-timers.

Joining Park Byung Eun are Im Ju Hwan, Yoon Kyung Ho, Park Kyung Rim, Kim Ah Joong, Park In Bee, and Hong Kyung Min, as well as Park Bo Young and Han Hyo Joo, who previously appeared on the show.

At the press conference, Jo In Sung revealed his secret on how he recruited these top stars.

'Unexpected Business' Season 3 Cast: How Jo In Sung Recruited Han Hyo Joo, More

Jo In Sung and Cha Tae Hyun showcase their friendship in the reality program "Unexpected Business." For the third season, they are running a local Korean market store in California along with the part-timers. From selling goods to cooking, the duo will be overseeing the whole store.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Jo In Sung Embracing Aging in the Best Way - And Fans Are Loving It!

Interestingly, Jo In Sung shared details regarding the recruitment process.

"I begged them without hesitation, even surrendering my pride," he joked, as cited by a media outlet.

Hinting that his convincing powers were not enough, he had to make extra efforts for the actors to agree.

"After they worked, I wanted to buy them a meal, but they wouldn't answer my calls."

Jo In Sung Shares Highlights in 'Unexpected Business' Season 3

In the first two seasons of "Unexpected Business," Jo In Sung and Cha Tae Hyun were in provinces in South Korea.

The first was in Woncheon Ri, Hwacheon-gun in Gangwon-do, while the second season was in Gongsan-myeon, Naju in South Jeolla-do. As for "Unexpected Business" season 3 location, it's in Monterey, California, United States.

As obtained by a news outlet, Jo In Sung proudly talks about his new menu, which includes a snow crab ramen, and describes it as an essential part of Unexpected Business" season 3.

"Just like when we learned how to make snow crab ramen, we were taught the secret of dried pollack hangover soup," he said, adding, "As for the rest, we add new menus as guests come. I think we can show a variety of foods."

Jo In Sung also shared that Yeom Jung Ah's sikhye, also known as a traditional rice punch, is a sure hit in their store.

"Also, new drinks are coming out. Senior Yeom Jeong-ah's sikhye is famous for being delicious, and she especially passed down her secret recipe to us," he said, adding that Kyung Ho Yoon introduced Yeom Jung-Ah Sikhye' to their American customers.

"Unexpected Business" season 3 premiered on October 26 via tvN and will have a total of 12 episodes for the whole season.

READ MORE: 'Unexpected Business 3' Showcases Jo In Sung, Han Hyo Joo's Real-Life Chemistry

For more K-Drama, K-Movie, and celebrity news, keep your tabs open here at KDramaStars.

KDramaStars owns this article

Written by Geca Wills
Following the allegations against Lee Sun Kyun, the actor is currently dealing with challenging repercussions due to his involvement with illegal drugs.

After authorities named the "Parasite" star as the celebrity behind "Actor L," who was investigated due to drug-related activities along with seven other individuals, the Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency's Drug Crime Investigation Unit is paying close attention to the actor.

Lee Sun Kyun, G-Dragon to Face Travel Ban

According to reports, authorities confirmed that Lee Sun Kyun as well as G-Dragon are under a travel ban as approved by the Ministry of Justice.

The Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency's drug crime investigation team also mentioned that they will soon be conducting various tests on these celebrities to determine the type of drug that they used and the number of times they took it.

Other than the travel ban, police also confiscated the mobile phone of the head of the membership room salon in Gangnam, who is connected to G-Dragon and Lee Sun Kyun.

It can be recalled that the "Dr. Brain" star was booked by the Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency's Drug Crime Investigation Unit on October 23 for marijuana and psychotropic drug use.

Read More: Lee Sun Kyun and Jeon Hye Jin Might Face Huge Penalties for Breaking Advertisement Contracts

Lee Sung Kyun has been accused of using significant amounts of drugs at the membership room salon in Gangnam since the start of 2023.

Due to this, his career was put on hold, which affected his upcoming projects and brand deals.

Lee Sun Kyun Drops Out From 'No Way Out' + Brands Pull Out Endorsements Featuring the Celebrity Couple

South Korea is known to have strict rules over drug issues, especially for celebrities.

Just like what happened to Yoo Ahn In, it seemed like See Sun Kyun also faced the same fate.

After authorities confirmed his involvement with drug allegations, brands have started to pull out their endorsements that showcase Lee Sun Kyun and his wife, Jeon Hye Jin.

All advertisements for supplement brand CellMed with Lee Sun Kyun as their model were removed from their official site; the same goes for SK Telecom and SK Broadband, who selected the couple as their ambassadors.

In addition, Lee Sun Kyun also dropped out of the upcoming K-drama "No Way Out."

According to a report, his agency released a statement confirming that the actor voluntarily stepped down as one of the cast members due to the unfortunate incident.

"The production team agreed to accept the actor's stance in agreement with the management. Filming is currently underway as scheduled and will not be postponed," the statement reads.

On top of it, with all the setbacks on his current and upcoming projects, Lee Sun Kyun is also predicted to face a heavy amount of penalty for breaching endorsement deals.

In a separate report, pop culture critic and commentator Kim HeonSik, explained that "penalty fines related to advertising are so substantial that they are expected to be in the range of 10 billion KRW (7.4 million).

IN CASE YOU MISSED: Controversial Actor Lee Sun Kyun Withdraws From Upcoming K-drama 'No Way Out' Following Drug Issue

For more K-Drama, K-Movie, and celebrity news, keep your tabs open here at KDramaStars.

KDramaStars owns this article written by Geca Wills.
As the number of homeless individuals rises, the Cayuga County Legislature voted Tuesday to use $1 million in federal funds to support the construction of a new 80-bed emergency shelter in Auburn.

The three-story shelter will replace the existing shelter, which is owned by Chapel House, on Grant Avenue. The project will be led by Housing Visions, a Syracuse-based nonprofit.

Chris Trevisani, vice president of business development for Housing Visions, detailed the plan during a presentation at the county Legislature meeting Tuesday. He told legislators that the current shelter, which has 16 beds, is "dramatically undersized."

The new building would be operated by the Syracuse-based Rescue Mission. It would have 80 beds and nine permanent supportive housing units. Case management will be available and security will be on site.

One goal, according to Trevisani, is to provide space for homeless individuals who are either housed in hotels or stay with friends because there aren't enough beds at the shelter.

"One development and one project doesn't solve that problem," he said. "It's something that needs to happen over time, but we need to gain momentum and we're hoping to kind of get that started."

The idea for the county to use federal funding  specifically, $1 million from its American Rescue Plan award  was first raised at the county Legislature's Health and Human Services Committee this month. A late addition to the committee's agenda was to allocate that funding to support the construction of the new homeless shelter.

If the county signed off on the $1 million investment, it would open up other funding sources to finance the project. Trevisani explained at the committee meeting that with the American Rescue Plan funds, they can apply for additional funding through the Homeless Housing Assistance Program, which supports emergency housing projects. Legislator Elane Daly, who chairs the Health and Human Services Committee, said the county's contribution would help leverage $8 million in federal and state funds.

Legislator Chris Petrus said he had a "change of heart" regarding plans for an emergency shelter. His shift is due to what he's seen in his district with homeless individuals being housed at hotels in the town of Brutus and village of Weedsport.

"I am 100% in support of this at this point," said Petrus, a Republican who encouraged his colleagues to vote for the resolution.

Another legislator, Jim Basile, noted the county covers the costs  $100 a night  for homeless people to stay at the hotels when there isn't enough space at the shelter. He said he supports the project because it could save taxpayers money.

When the full legislature voted on the proposal Tuesday, there was unanimous support from those in attendance. One legislator, Michael Didio, was not at the meeting.

Although the county's support is important, the city of Auburn must also approve the project. Site plan approval is needed before Housing Visions applies for additional funding.

While the shelter will be a separate project, it is part of Housing Visions' plan to provide more housing options in Auburn. The organization has also entered into a contract with the Diocese of Rochester to buy the Holy Family School on North Street. Trevisani said the reuse of the school will include 15 to 20 permanent housing units and recreation space.

He also mentioned the affordable housing project at 197 State St.  the state awarded $1.5 million for Housing Visions to convert the 25,000-square-foot building into 16 apartments  and the nonprofit's plans to renovate existing units on Fort and Westlake streets in the city.
Physician burnout is a pressing issue in the health care industry, with detrimental effects on both health care providers and the American public. Family physicians, in particular, play a crucial role in the well-being of individuals and communities. This essay explores the mental health benefits that family physicians derive from enjoying time away from the office and argues for government subsidization of their vacation time as a measure to mitigate burnout. It also highlights the importance of involving insurance companies in supporting such initiatives.

The impact of burnout on physicians and public health

Numerous studies have shown that physician burnout has far-reaching consequences. Burnout leads to reduced job satisfaction, higher rates of medical errors, decreased productivity, and increased turnover rates among health care professionals. This ultimately compromises the quality of care provided to patients and negatively impacts public health.

Mental health benefits for family physicians

Taking time away from work is essential for family physicians to recharge, rejuvenate, and maintain their mental well-being. Vacations provide opportunities for self-care, stress reduction, and the cultivation of a healthy work-life balance. Research has shown that regular vacations can improve mood, decrease stress levels, enhance job satisfaction, and reduce the risk of burnout among healthcare professionals.

Government subsidization of vacation time

Government subsidization of family physicians vacation time can contribute to reducing burnout and improving mental health in the medical profession. By providing financial assistance or tax incentives, the government can incentivize family physicians to take regular vacations. This support acknowledges the significance of physicians mental well-being and recognizes their dedication to public health. Moreover, it promotes a healthier work environment, which translates into better patient care.

Benefits for the American public

The mental health and well-being of family physicians directly impact the quality of care they provide. By ensuring their mental well-being, the government safeguards the health and safety of the American public. Studies have demonstrated that physicians who are well-rested and less burned out are more likely to exhibit empathy, make accurate diagnoses, and provide superior patient care. Therefore, subsidizing vacation time for family physicians contributes to better health outcomes and increased patient satisfaction.

Involving insurance companies

In addition to government support, involving insurance companies is crucial to alleviate the financial burden of family physicians vacation expenses. Insurance companies can offer specific coverage plans that include vacation benefits for physicians. By doing so, they recognize the importance of mental health and well-being in delivering quality health care. Collaborative efforts between the government, insurance companies, and health care providers can ensure that family physicians have the means to take vacations without financial strain.

Conclusion

The mental health benefits derived from family physicians enjoying time away from the office are pivotal in combating burnout and improving patient care. Government subsidization of vacation time, along with the involvement of insurance companies, can play a significant role in supporting physicians mental well-being. By investing in the mental health of family physicians, the government demonstrates its commitment to the overall health of the American public. Promoting a sustainable work-life balance for family physicians is not only beneficial for the physicians themselves but also for the communities they serve.

Angel Garcia Otano is a family physician.
The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) has announced plans to invest Shs199 billion for 10% of the total shares outstanding of telecom company, Airtel Uganda.

In a press statement, Patrick Ayota, the Funds managing director says this will be done through the ongoing Initial Public Offer (IPO).

He says the investment reflects the confidence that the NSSF has in the telecommunications sector, the prospects of the company, and quality of its management team.

He adds that the Funds investment in Airtel Uganda gives millions of NSSF members an opportunity to own part of a successful company in a fast-growing sector.

The NSSF and Airtel Uganda are committed to the development of the Ugandan Capital Markets, and promoting broad-based ownership of equities to enable investors to participate in the growth and development of the country, Ayota said in a statement.

Airtel Uganda recently announced it would sell up to 20% of the company by offering shares to the public via the IPO, and later list on the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE)
The Japan Mobility Show 2023 is underway and Japanese automakers are not only showcasing newer models but future technologies as well. While Suzukis car lineup has been much talked about at the Japan Auto Show this year, the company has also brought some exciting two-wheelers with alternative powertrains - the e-Burgman and Burgman Hydrogen - one of which could make its way to India in the near future.

The Suzuki e-Burgman is an electric version of the brands popular 125 cc scooter sold in India and other markets. While e-Burgman was caught testing in India on several occasions but only made its global debut earlier this year. Suzuki previously announced that the e-Burgman will get swappable batteries from Gachaco - a consortium created by the four major Japanese two-wheeler brands - Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki and Kawasaki. Through the demonstration of the Suzuki e-Burgman, the company aims to collect crucial data with respect to everyday usability.

Also Read : Honda debuts two-seater electric microcar CI-MEV with Level-4 ADAS

The Suzuki Burgman Hydrogen is a prototype with a hydrogen tank and engine, showcasing the brand's research and development in the field

Previous details announced on the Suzuki e-Burgman include an AC synchronous motor churning out about 4 kW (5.3 bhp) and 18 Nm of peak torque. The battery pack will have a range of 44 km on a single charge. Its likely that the e-Burgman will first go on sale in international markets before making its way to India in the near future amidst a more established electric market.

Apart from the e-Burgman, Suzuki has also showcased the Burgman Hydrogen at the Japan Auto Show. The Burgman Hydrogen is essentially the commercially available Burgman 400 ABS that has been fitted with a 70 MPa hydrogen tank and a hydrogen engine. The company is showcasing its initiative for hydrogen engines and the Burgman hydrogen is a test bed to show the brands capabilities. The development of hydrogen is part of the brands multi-pathway initiative for achieving carbon neutrality.

First Published Date:
By Catherine Ageno

Medical personnel operating in Gaza are worried about the total collapse of the health care system as fighting rages on between Hamas and Israeli forces.

The fighting that erupted on October 7th has so far claimed hundreds of lives and left hospitals grappling with a health crisis due to the growing number of the severely injured.

Abdul Qadir Hamad, the head of the Kidney Transplant Department at Liverpool Royal Hospital in the UK and is leading a team that arrived in Gaza this week to perform sponsored medical procedures describes the situation at the facility as dire.

Speaking from Gaza, Dr Hamad says medical supplies are running out fast, putting the lives of critically ill patients at risk

There are thousands of people who are sheltering in the grounds of this hospital and unfortunately, we cant evacuate critically ill patients from the hospital. They will die if we evacuate them, so theres no way of taking those patients off their ventilators and send them somewhere else, Dr Hamad said.

Dr Hamad also calls for urgent replenishing of medical supplies in hospitals in Gaza

Meanwhile, according to the BBC, UN aid agencies have begun to significantly reduce their operations in the Gaza Strip because they have almost exhausted their fuel reserves.

The UN agencies say small quantities of fuel retrieved from existing reserves are being used to maintain the water supply in the south, where hundreds of thousands of people are sheltering from Israeli strikes.
By Catherine Ageno

Pope Francis has implored the faithful across the globe to join in praying for peace to be restored in Palestine and Israel today.

The Pontiff announced the special day of prayer at the end of Wednesdays general prayers when he again turned his attention to the areas of conflict in the world, especially now in the Holy Land.

According to the Pope, today is a Day of Prayer, Fasting, and Penance for peace.

He also calls for the release of the hostages and the entry of humanitarian aid in Gaza.

The cardinal patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, encourages the faithful to organize local initiatives within their localities, as hundreds gather in St Peters Square to pray for peace today.

Earlier during the ICT job fair held at Kampalas ceremonial grounds, a section of clerics under the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda also prayed for peace to be restored in Palestine. Sheikh Muhammad Waiswa the Second Deputy Mufti of Uganda prayed We also pray for your ardent mercy for the urgently needed reconciliation between the people of Israel and Palestine from such a destructive war. In the mighty name we have prayed.

The fighting that erupted on October 7th has so far claimed hundreds of lives and left hospitals grappling with a health crisis due to the growing number of the severely injured.
Police in Nakasongola district have arrested a 27-year-old woman for allegedly inflicting burns on her two daughters aged 6 and 4 over food theft.

Savannah Region police spokesperson, Sam Twiineamazima says the incident happened on Monday, October 23, 2023, in Kyabutaika, Kakooge Town Council in Nakasongola District.

The woman, who is also the biological mother of the victims, allegedly lit a charcoal stove and inflicted burns on her childrens hands. She accused them of stealing food (beans) and thereafter, intentionally kept them at home without seeking medical attention, Twiineamazima said in a statement.

Police say they have registered a case of torture, adding that the victims were admitted to Kakooge Health Center III.

Parents are entrusted with the sacred roles of protector and provider of safety for their children. Such acts of violence against the most vulnerable in our society are unacceptable, the police statement reads further.

In December 2022, Court in Luweero District handed a mother an 18-month jail term for pleading guilty to charges of subjecting her 2-year-old baby to cruel, inhuman treatment causing bodily harm. Dorothy Nabulime, a resident of Busula A village in Katikamu Sub County, Luweero District pleaded guilty to the charges before Luweero Chief Magistrate Mariam Nalujja Sserwanga.
By Priscilla Maloba

The government has maintained a tight grip on Facebook clampdown, saying nobody will force it to open the social media platform.

In a telephone interview with Daily Monitor on Wednesday, the Minister for ICT and National Guidance, Dr Chris Baryomunsi, told traders under their association Urban Smart Traders Association (USTA) who have threatened to drag government to court for blocking the social media site that the government will open Facebook when they are ready.

Government has been engaging Facebook on a number of things which have not been agreed on that is why Facebook has not been opened, he said.

In a press briefing in Kampala on Wednesday, Facebook traders gave the government an ultimatum of 14 days to open the social media site or else they go to court.

Mr Badru Kabogoza Nsamu,the chair- person of USTA, said Facebook was a big platform where they were trading their goods.

We have lost billions of shillings since Facebook was closed, we have lost customers and also our businesses have come to a standstill. The [social site] should be restored because it is also a business platform and not a political platform, Mr Kabogoza said.

Times have changed and businesses have gone online that is why the government has to open Facebook, he added.

More details in todays copy of the Daily Monitor
With Gasgoo Daily, we will offer daily important automotive news in China. For those we have reported, the title of the piece will include a hyperlink, which will provide detailed information.

Yang Qing appointed as chairman of Dongfeng Motor Corporation

On October 27, 2023, Dongfeng Motor Corporation convened a meeting for senior and above management personnel and the decision regarding the major leadership reshuffle at Dongfeng Motor Corporation was announced at the meeting. Yang Qing has been appointed as the Chairman and Party Committee Secretary of Dongfeng Motor Corporation, while being relieved of his duties as General Manager of the company.

NIO opens 2001st battery swap station at Zhuhai International Circuit

NIO, the Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer, has inaugurated its 2,001st battery swap station at the Zhuhai International Circuit. The opening of this station further enhances NIO's network of battery swapping infrastructure, making electric vehicle ownership more convenient for its users.

Photo credit: NIO

CATL commences production at Guizhou bases Phase I

On October 27, the inauguration ceremony for the production of new energy power and energy storage batteries at the CATL base in Guizhou city was held in the Guian New Area. The first phase of the base's project officially commenced production. In 2022, construction officially began on the CATL Guizhou base. With a total investment of approximately 7 billion yuan, the bases designed annual production capacity for power and energy storage batteries is 30 GWh.

Tesla Model Y Performance version rises on price in China by 14,000 yuan

On October 27, Tesla announced an immediate price increase of 14,000 yuan for the Model Y Performance version in China, with the adjusted starting price now at 363,900 yuan.

WeRide showcases L4 autonomous Robobus service at FII 2023 in Saudi Aribia

During October 24-26, 2023, at the 7th Future Investment Initiative (FII) in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, WeRide, the Chinese autonomous driving tech firm, was invited to attend and showcased its L4 autonomous driving shuttle (Robobus), and offered VIP test rides.

TuSimple completes inaugural L4 autonomous truck testing on Tokyo-Nagoya expressway

On October 27, 2023, autonomous driving technology company TuSimple announced the successful completion of the companys first-ever L4 autonomous truck testing on the "Tokyo-Nagoya" expressway in Japan.

Sunwoda EVB partners with Shinko Shoji to in Japanese industrial machinery field

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- On October 26, Chinese power battery maker Sunwoda Electric Vehicle Battery Co., Ltd., (Sunwoda EVB) and Shinko Shoji Co., Ltd., a leading Japanese industrial machinery company, signed a strategic cooperation memorandum at the Japan Mobility Show 2023 (formerly named "Tokyo Motor Show").

VOYAH plans to equip more models with Baidu Apollos intelligent driving solution

At the recent Baidu World 2023 conference, VOYAH, the high-end new energy vehicle brand under Dongfeng Motor, showcased the all-new VOYAH FREE, which is equipped with Baidu Apollos smart driving system.

GAC Group scores 2-digit YoY growth in Q1-Q3 2023 revenue

In the first three quarters of 2023 (Q1-Q3 2023), GAC Group achieved consolidated gross revenue of 98.182 billion yuan, representing a 22.17% jump year-on-year, according to the group's latest quarterly financial results released on October 26.

Chinas locally-made passenger vehicle retail sales likely to rise 9.5% YoY in Oct. 2023: CPCA

China's domestic passenger vehicle ("PV") retail sales are anticipated to reach 2.02 million units in October 2023, which should climb 9.5% from the previous year and edge up 0.1% from the previous month, according to the China Passenger Car Association ("CPCA").

SAIC Motor sees quarterly revenue, net profit, car sales rise consecutively in Q1-Q3 period

SAIC Motor announced on Thursday that its gross revenue reached roughly 196.787 billion yuan in the third quarter (Q3) of this year, sliding 6.92% from the previous year.
Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys T.D., has confirmed details of the allocation of 1.5 million to support local TidyTowns groups with their preparations for the 2024 SuperValu TidyTowns competition, and has urged eligible groups to ensure they avail of the funding.

This allocation will provide top-up funding of between 1,000 and 4,000 for eligible TidyTowns groups across the country. All of the SuperValu TidyTowns Groups who entered the competition in any of 2021, 2022 and 2023 will be eligible to apply.

In Kilkenny 29 Tidy Towns groups have been awarded grants worth 40,000.

The groups are - 1,000 awardees: Coan, Dungarvan, Dunnamaggin, Gathabawn, Glenmore, Listerlin, Owning, Tullahought, Windgap, Bennettsbridge, Clogh, Freshford, Inistioge, Johnstown, Kells, Kilmoganny, Moneenroe, Paulstown, Stoneyford & Ennisnag, Goresbridge.

2,000 awardees: Ballyragget, Callan, Castlecomer, Gowran, Mooncoin, Piltown, Thomastown and Urlingford. Keep Kilkenny Beautiful, in Kilkenny City, has been awarded 4,000.

This year marked the 65th anniversary of the SuperValu TidyTowns competition, which continues to go from strength to strength, with over 880 towns and villages entering the competition in 2023.

With this new funding announcement, the Department of Rural and Community Development has allocated a total of 9.5 million to TidyTowns Groups since 2017.

Announcing the funding, Minister Humphreys said: The SuperValu TidyTowns Competition is all about community, innovation, and sustainability, and Im delighted to be able to support this important work with this direct funding. I applaud the impactful work that our TidyTowns groups across the country do in making our towns and villages better places in which to work, live and raise a family.

The Minister continued: The funding of between 1,000 and 4,000 is being provided to groups to assist them in preparing for the 2024 Competition in particular initiatives in the areas of biodiversity, sustainability and inclusion, all of which help Ireland realise its commitments under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

All eligible groups will be contacted before Christmas to confirm their funding. All projects and initiatives funded under this support must be completed by July 31st, 2024.

At the national awards ceremony held earlier in October, Minister Humphreys declared Abbeyleix in County Laois as Irelands Tidiest Town for 2023.

Looking ahead to next year, the Minister said: I want to take this opportunity to thank the tens of thousands of TidyTowns volunteers who give their time and skills so generously over the years. Everything you do locally benefits us all. I encourage younger people and our new communities in particular to get involved in 2024, to further enrich this wonderful competition.

I am confident that the funding provided by my Department will continue to make a real difference to the towns and villages of Ireland.
Beijing (Gasgoo)- During October 24-26, 2023, at the 7th Future Investment Initiative (FII) in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, WeRide, the Chinese autonomous driving tech firm, was invited to attend and showcased its L4 autonomous driving shuttle (Robobus), and offered VIP test rides.



Photo credit: WeRide

As the exclusive live demonstration of autonomous driving at the FII, the WeRide Robobus provided a 3-day VIP test ride service at the King Abdulaziz International Conference Center, hosting over a hundred important delegates.

WeRide's Robobus is the world's first mass-produced autonomous shuttle with a cabin-free design. It boasts a 360-degree perception capability, detecting obstacles within 200 meters, and can travel at a top speed of 40 km/h. It is suitable for micro-transit shuttle services on public roads, operating around the clock and in all weather conditions.

Currently, WeRide's shuttle has been deployed for testing and services in 19 cities worldwide, including Guangzhou, Beijing, Wuxi in China, and Abu Dhabi in the Middle East. It is set to enter a trial operation phase in Singapore soon.

On July 3, WeRide was granted with the UAE's first national-level autonomous driving license. This marked the world's first nationwide autonomous driving license. WeRide's Robotaxi autonomous taxi service had been operational in the UAE for nearly two years, serving nearly 20,000 customer orders. These achievements provide a strong foundation for WeRide's expansion in the Middle East.
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(Kitco News) - French mining group Eramet revised its forecast 2023 adjusted EBITDA from 900 million to 800 million due to decreasing selling prices and lower volume target for nickel ore at Weda Bay.

The company reported its Q3 2023 results yesterday. Eramet is a manganese, nickel, mineral sands, lithium, and cobalt miner.

Eramets adjusted turnover was 980m in Q3 2023, down 26% versus Q3 2022, including the strong decrease in selling prices (-27% vs. Q3 2022), partly offset by the growth in volumes for mining operations (+7%).

The company noted continued exceptional growth at the Weda Bay mine in Indonesia, record production in Gabon and reduction in fixed costs.

Group Chair and CEO Christel Bories commented, In the third quarter, in a difficult macroeconomic environment, with selling prices significantly lower than last year, we achieved a very good operational performance, thanks to the increase in our produced volumes and strict financial discipline.

As a result, we successfully recovered from the production delays in the first half, which were caused by exceptional incidents.

Importantly, Eramet said it is on track to start its lithium carbonate production in Argentina in the second quarter of 2024, adding that the company is close to deciding on the projects expansion in order to double production by 2027.

Eramet also revised its 2023 adjusted EBITDA guidance to around 800 million from 900 million, primarily due to a decline in average manganese ore price and lower volume target for nickel ore at Weda Bay in the absence of an approval obtained to date.
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(Kitco News) - Africa-focused gold miner Hummingbird Resources (AIM: HUM) announced Thursday that its Yanfolila gold mine in Mali produced 18,399 oz of gold in Q3 2023, an increase of 9% compared to Q3 2022 (16,827 oz).

In addition, the company's new Kouroussa mine in Guinea produced 1,047 oz of gold in Q3 2023 and on track for a full year of commercial production from FY 2024.

According to the company, all-in sustaining costs (AISC) on gold produced at Yanfolila totaled US$1,651 per oz in Q3 2023, a decrease of 24% on Q3 2022 (US$2,161 per oz), with an average AISC of US$1,298 per oz to the end of September 2023.

The company also reported that in Q3 2023, the group achieved an adjusted EBITDA of c.US$1.2 million, compared to a loss of US$8.9 million in Q3 2022, resulting in a cumulative adjusted EBITDA of c.US$34.3 million as of the end September 2023.

Importantly, with 69,546 oz produced as at the end of September 2023 at Yanfolila, the company said it is well on track to meet its FY 2023 production guidance of 80,000 - 90,000 oz, with AISC remaining under US$1,500 per oz.

Commenting on the Kouroussa mine ramp-up, Hummingbird said, Mining volumes at Kouroussa have encountered challenges during ramp-up, primarily stemming from seasonal weather, equipment commissioning, and the recruitment and training of local and national Guinean personnel. The company is actively resolving these issues, with improvements being seen and expected to accelerate during Q4 2023.

The company also pointed out it remains focused on being a c.200,000 oz per annum gold producer.

Hummingbird currently has two core gold projects, the operational Yanfolila gold mine in Mali, and the Kouroussa gold mine in Guinea, which will more than double current gold production when at commercial production.

The company also has a controlling interest in the Dugbe gold project in Liberia that is being developed by joint venture partners, Pasofino Gold.
NEW YORK, Oct 27 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Friday refused to block the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from terminating a Puerto Rican bank's access to the U.S. central banking system, as part of a crackdown on lenders with links to Venezuela.

U.S. District Judge John Koeltl in Manhattan said Banco San Juan Internacional ("BSJI") failed to show it would suffer irreparable harm if he failed to issue a preliminary injunction.

The bank sued in July to stop the New York Fed from terminating its "master account," which lets banks access the Fed's electronic payment system, over concerns it was not complying with U.S. sanctions and anti-money laundering rules.

BSJI said it had improved compliance during a 22-month suspension in 2019 and 2020, following a probe into its credit agreements with state-run oil company Petroleos de Venezuela, which is subject to sanctions. Venezuela is an OPEC member.

The bank said that suspension cost it more than 90% of its customers, and it was "unlikely to survive" the termination of its account.

But in a 33-page decision, Koeltl dismissed the warning as "self-serving speculation," and found "no likelihood" the New York Fed acted arbitrarily or capriciously given the "significant number of red flags" it had found.

"Accepting deposits from and providing financial services to a financial institution with BSJI's record of noncompliance exposes the FRBNY and the financial system to risk," Koeltl wrote. "Granting BSJI's motion for emergency relief would place the public in harm's way."

The New York Fed agreed to keep the bank's master account open until Koeltl ruled on the preliminary injunction motion.

Lawyers for BSJI did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The New York Fed did not immediately respond to similar requests.

Puerto Rico's banking industry has historically been close to Venezuela.

In 2019, the New York Fed said it would stop approving new master accounts for Puerto Rican offshore banks because of sanctions aimed at ousting Venezuela's socialist President Nicolas Maduro.

The case is Banco San Juan Internacional Inc v Federal Reserve Bank of New York et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No, 23-06414.
Israel stages overnight ground raid into Gaza

Xinhua) 16:36, October 27, 2023

JERUSALEM/GAZA, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Israeli military announced Friday morning it had conducted another "targeted raid" into the Gaza Strip over the past day with the use of ground forces.

According to a statement released by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), the troops were accompanied by fighter jets and other weapons as they entered the central Gaza Strip.

"The Israeli army entered an open area near the separation fence in the town of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip and the Bureij camp in the central east of the Gaza Strip," Palestinian and Israeli security sources told Xinhua.

At the end of the operation, the ground troops returned to Israel. The raid was the third one that was reported by the IDF.

Israel is now preparing for a massive ground operation in the Gaza Strip, as stated by Israeli leaders and senior military officials.

(Web editor: Tian Yi, Liang Jun)
Shanghai (Gasgoo)- In the first three quarters of 2023 (Q1-Q3 2023), GAC Group achieved consolidated gross revenue of 98.182 billion yuan, representing a 22.17% jump year-on-year, according to the group's latest quarterly financial results released on October 26.

The group said its Q3 net profit attributable to shareholders reached 1.545 billion yuan, sliding 33.18% over a year ago, but rising 8.1% from the previous quarter. For the Q1-Q3 period this year, GAC Group faced a 44.05% year-on-year slump in cumulative net profit, which stood at 4.511 billion yuan.

The groups gross profit margin for the Jan.-Sept. period was 5.12%, up 0.58 percentage points over the year-ago period. In Q3, the gross profit margin reached 8.17%, showing a year-on-year increase of 3.53 percentage points.

For the first three quarters of this year, the Guangzhou-based auto group sold a total of 1,794,264 vehicles, representing a 1.69% year-on-year decrease.

Notably, the group's new energy vehicle (NEV) business demonstrated a robust performance in both monthly and year-to-date sales. In Sept. alone, its NEV sales surged 70.36% from a year earlier to 57,973 units, resulting in a Jan.-Sept. volume of 393,912 units, which zoomed up 92.27% from the year-ago period.

Of the NEVs sold through the Jan.-Sept. period, 350,986 units of sales were contributed by GAC AION, the group's NEV-dedicated subsidiary, reflecting a 92.51% soar year-on-year.

AION Y Plus; photo credit: GAC AION

Faced with nearly doubling sales growth, GAC AION is focusing on expanding its production capacity. On October 24, GAC Group announced its intention to restructure GAC Mitsubishi and GAC Mitsubishi Automobile Sales Company. After the restructuring is finalized, GAC Mitsubishi will transition into a wholly-owned subsidiary of GAC Group, and GAC AION will use GAC Mitsubishis facilities to expand production capacity, aiming for mass production by June 2024. Once completed, GAC AION's production capacity will reach 600,000 units per year, providing a solid foundation for achieving its strategic goal of 1 million units in production and sales by 2025.
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Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Geely Holding Group ("Geely Holding"), China's largest privately owned automotive conglomerate, and Baidu's joint-venture automotive robocar brand, JiYue ROBOCAR, put their first AI power all-electric ROBOCAR, the ROBOCAR JiYue 01, onto the market on October 27.

The ROBOCAR JiYue 01 comes with two trim levels: the Max and the Max Performance, and features a guidance price range of 249,900 yuan to 339,900 yuan.

Photo credit: JiYue

The ROBOCAR JiYue 01 boasts dimensions of 4,853mm*1,990mm*1,611mm, a wheelbase of 3,000mm, and a spacious 2,161 liters of cargo space with the rear seats folded down, capable of accommodating up to 29 suitcases measuring 20 inches each.

The vehicle is offered in five exterior and three interior color schemes. It follows a futuristic design philosophy inspired by robotics with most physical controls eliminated.

Photo credit: JiYue

The ROBOCAR JiYue 01 boasts exceptional aerodynamic design, achieving an impressively low drag coefficient of 0.249Cd. It incorporates multiple features which are usually regarded as standard niceties on luxury cars, including front all-aluminum double-wishbone and rear all-aluminum H-Arm multi-link suspensions, CDC (continuous damping control), Brembo high-performance sport calipers, and precise chassis tuning.

The ROBOCAR JiYue 01 comes standard with 19-inch/21-inch aerodynamic wheels and offers an optional 21-inch high-performance sport wheel. It's 200kW electric drive unit weighs only 91.5kg.

Photo credit: JiYue

The ROBOCAR JiYue 01 Max is available with a single electric motor and offers a choice between 71.4kWh and 100kWh power batteries, providing a range of 550km and 720km, respectively. The ROBOCAR JiYue 01 Max Performance version features dual motors with a peak power of up to 400kW and the lightning-fast intelligent four-wheel-drive system capable of switching between two-wheel and four-wheel drive modes in just 0.4 seconds, achieving a 0-100km/h acceleration in as little as 3.8 seconds and a 660km range on the 100kWh power battery.

The automaker claimed that the ROBOCAR JiYue 01 is the world's first intelligent car to navigate complex Chinese city roads with "pure vision" perception algorithms without any human intervention. It incorporates Baidu Apollo's advanced autonomous driving capabilities and safety systems, with over 70 million kilometers of safety testing for Apollo's Level 4 autonomous driving.

The "pure vision" approach of BEV+Transformer is realized in the ROBOCAR JiYue 01, utilizing dual NVIDIA DRIVE Orin chips with 508 TOPS AI computing power. The "pure vision" perception architecture is equipped with a total of 28 intelligent driving sensors, including 11 high-definition cameras, 12 ultrasonic sensors, and 5 millimeter-wave radar sensors, replacing traditional LiDAR with OCC (Occupancy Network) technology, representing a leading edge in advanced autonomous driving technology. Currently, there are only two brands in the world that have adopted the "pure vision" autonomous driving solution, with JiYue being one of them, alongside Tesla.

Photo credit: JiYue

At the launch event, JiYue introduced the high-level autonomous driving system called "ROBO Drive Max," which offers a subscription plan for 980 yuan per month or a one-time purchase option for 49,900 yuan (available for a limited time at 19,900 yuan). This system includes features like point-to-point navigation assistance (PPA), valet parking (AVP), and full autonomous driving capabilities.

The PPA offers advanced intelligent driving assistance for various scenarios, including highways and urban areas, allowing the vehicle to autonomously change lanes, overtake, merge onto or exit from ramps, and navigate within lanes. In urban areas, it can recognize crosswalks, traffic lights, and execute driving tasks such as yielding to pedestrians, making left turns without protection, and avoiding non-motorized vehicles.

The ROBOCAR JiYue 01 is the worlds first model to support voice-activated/controlled parking while outside the vehicle. Users can command ROBOCAR JiYue 01 to utilize its AVP autonomous valet parking function to park itself or pickup users in indoor or outdoor parking lots from up to 2km away.

Photo credit: JiYue

The ROBO Drive includes features like lane-keeping, automatic parking assistance, collision warnings, and lane departure warnings, providing seamless integration between the cabin and driving experience. Currently, the ROBO Drive functionality is standard across all trims and available throughout the country at no extra cost.

In 2023, the ROBO Drive Max will gradually roll out its advanced autonomous driving features in Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Hangzhou, and 90% of highways will support PPA by 2024.

The ROBOCAR JiYue 01 excels not only in advanced autonomous driving capabilities but also in its remarkable cabin voice interaction abilities. It is equipped with the Qualcomm 8295 vehicle cockpit chips, utilizing dual NPUs (60TOPS), offering approximately eight times the processing power of current mainstream chips.

Photo credit: JiYue

The cabin features a 35.6-inch 6k integrated screen with a pixel density of 185PPI. Additionally, a 7-inch rear interactive LCD screen provides visual feedback for interactions with the SIMO intelligent vehicle AI partner, as well as control of functions such as air conditioning and multimedia, and offers exterior door-opening warnings.

The ROBOCAR JiYue 01 is a pioneer in fully localized voice AI algorithms, featuring SIMO as its intelligent AI companion. SIMO's speech recognition operates at a rapid pace of 500 milliseconds, encompassing intricate situations both inside and outside the vehicle. It accommodates four-way simultaneous conversations and sustained dialogues. The AI system supports multiple modes of interaction, including voice, gestures, and visual cues, elevating the level of personalization for users.

Photo credit: JiYue

SIMO benefits from Baidu's integrated AI system, Ernie Bot, enabling its ongoing growth and the development of logical reasoning and strategic planning capabilities. Thus, the ROBOCAR JiYue 01 is the world's first intelligent car to carry a large model of such kind.

The ROBOCAR JiYue 01 prioritizes safety with its robust design, using the Geely SEA (Sustainable Experience Architecture) and an "armor-like" car body structure. Its body torsional stiffness reaches nearly 40,000Nm/Deg, exceeding the industry's mainstream standards of 20,000-30,000Nm/Deg.

Photo credit: JiYue

The ROBOCAR JiYue 01 comes standard with electric safety belts for the driver, which can work in conjunction with active safety features. Both front and rear seat belts are equipped with force limiters and pretensioners, ensuring the safety of all passengers. The vehicle is equipped with six airbags, with the passenger side featuring JiYues self-developed "leap-styled" airbag system to address challenges posed by the large 35.6-inch screen and narrow gap with the windshield.

The vehicle boasts a comprehensive information security system, employing end-to-end encryption technology to safeguard user personal data and privacy during everyday use, ensuring that no one, including the carmaker itself, can access encrypted data.

Photo credit: JiYue

JiYue has established over 40 offline brand experience centers in more than 20 cities across the country. Moreover, it is accelerating the expansion of its terminal service network, with over 30 own-brand and 40 authorized service outlets currently operating nationwide, covering over 30 major cities. By the end of this year, JiYue's after-sales service network will expand to over 120 cities, providing comprehensive support to users.

Photo credit: JiYue

In terms of charging infrastructure, JiYue has already had access to more than 300,000 DC charging piles in more than 300 cities across China. Additionally, it plans to establish over 100 JiYue-branded fast-charging stations in nine core cities by the end of this year.
HANOVER, GermanyAt this years eroFame, pjur received the EAN Erotix award for "Lubricant Brand of the Year," for taking its brand in a completely new visual direction, but also in recognition of its implementation of the MDR.

pjur focused on customer safety and recognized the importance of the MDR early on and is now one of the few MDR-certified personal lubricant manufacturers on the market.

pjurs brand refresh has successfully taken the design of product labels to a new level while retaining the familiar brand identity. This ensures products are still recognizable while offering opportunities for attractive product displays and a host of selling opportunities.

Following the classification of personal lubricants as Class IIb medical devices, retailers also have the security of knowing the products are compliant with the law.

More background information and an overview of pjurs products are available at pjur.com.

Find and follow pjur on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.
Phraction Management LLC boosted its position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR  Free Report) by 141.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 29,578 shares of the conglomerates stock after purchasing an additional 17,315 shares during the quarter. Danaher comprises 3.5% of Phraction Management LLCs investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th biggest position. Phraction Management LLCs holdings in Danaher were worth $7,099,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC purchased a new stake in Danaher in the first quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Silicon Valley Capital Partners bought a new position in Danaher in the first quarter valued at $29,000. Stone House Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Danaher in the 1st quarter worth about $32,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Danaher by 68.9% during the 1st quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 125 shares of the conglomerates stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares during the last quarter. Finally, America First Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Danaher in the first quarter worth about $34,000. 76.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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Insider Buying and Selling

In other Danaher news, SVP Jose-Carlos Gutierrez-Ramos sold 590 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.54, for a total value of $147,818.60. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 6,939 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $1,738,497.06. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Danaher news, SVP Jose-Carlos Gutierrez-Ramos sold 590 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.54, for a total transaction of $147,818.60. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 6,939 shares of the companys stock, valued at $1,738,497.06. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Linda Filler sold 10,190 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Friday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.25, for a total transaction of $2,651,947.50. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 38,152 shares of the companys stock, valued at $9,929,058. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 21,993 shares of company stock worth $5,722,435. Corporate insiders own 11.10% of the companys stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Danaher from $285.00 to $247.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 3rd. Citigroup cut their price target on shares of Danaher from $265.92 to $240.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Raymond James lowered their price objective on shares of Danaher from $250.00 to $240.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on Danaher from $246.00 to $239.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on Danaher from $250.00 to $215.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $257.73.

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Danaher Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE DHR traded up $0.87 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $193.52. 2,494,764 shares of the companys stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,925,678. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 1.70 and a current ratio of 2.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $142.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.81. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $238.49 and a 200 day moving average of $240.73. Danaher Co. has a 1 year low of $183.24 and a 1 year high of $281.54.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 24th. The conglomerate reported $2.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.19. The firm had revenue of $6.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $6.60 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 20.01% and a return on equity of 13.87%. The companys revenue for the quarter was down 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.56 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 8.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 27th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 12th will be given a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 11th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.56%. Danahers payout ratio is 13.62%.

Danaher Profile

(Free Report)

Danaher Corporation designs, manufactures, and markets professional, medical, industrial, and commercial products and services worldwide. The Biotechnology segments offers bioprocess technologies, consumables, and services; lab filtration, separation, and purification; lab-scale protein purification and analytical tools; reagents, membranes and services; and healthcare filtration solutions.

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Hamilton Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of McDonalds Co. (NYSE:MCD  Free Report) by 5.2% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 2,607 shares of the fast-food giants stock after acquiring an additional 129 shares during the period. Hamilton Capital LLCs holdings in McDonalds were worth $778,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of MCD. Hartline Investment Corp grew its position in McDonalds by 5.5% during the 2nd quarter. Hartline Investment Corp now owns 1,540 shares of the fast-food giants stock worth $460,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its position in McDonalds by 2.1% during the 2nd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 56,950 shares of the fast-food giants stock worth $16,995,000 after acquiring an additional 1,165 shares during the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp grew its position in McDonalds by 13.4% during the 2nd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 1,241,275 shares of the fast-food giants stock worth $365,978,000 after acquiring an additional 146,498 shares during the last quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC grew its position in McDonalds by 32.6% during the 2nd quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 289 shares of the fast-food giants stock worth $86,000 after acquiring an additional 71 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Forbes J M & Co. LLP grew its position in McDonalds by 77.4% during the 2nd quarter. Forbes J M & Co. LLP now owns 7,329 shares of the fast-food giants stock worth $2,187,000 after acquiring an additional 3,198 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.60% of the companys stock.

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McDonalds Stock Performance

NYSE MCD traded down $0.40 on Thursday, hitting $257.63. 1,425,998 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,617,765. The businesss fifty day moving average is $269.00 and its two-hundred day moving average is $283.68. McDonalds Co. has a 12 month low of $245.73 and a 12 month high of $299.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $187.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.79, a PEG ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 0.65.

McDonalds Increases Dividend

McDonalds ( NYSE:MCD Get Free Report ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 27th. The fast-food giant reported $3.17 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.77 by $0.40. McDonalds had a negative return on equity of 139.57% and a net margin of 33.06%. The business had revenue of $6.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.30 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.55 earnings per share. McDonaldss revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that McDonalds Co. will post 11.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 1st will be issued a dividend of $1.67 per share. This represents a $6.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.59%. This is a positive change from McDonaldss previous quarterly dividend of $1.52. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 30th. McDonaldss dividend payout ratio is 55.93%.

Insider Buying and Selling at McDonalds

In other news, CEO Christopher J. Kempczinski sold 5,606 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Monday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total value of $1,569,680.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 29,031 shares of the companys stock, valued at $8,128,680. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Christopher J. Kempczinski sold 5,606 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Monday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total value of $1,569,680.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 29,031 shares of the companys stock, valued at $8,128,680. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CMO Edith Morgan Flatley sold 1,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Friday, August 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $285.00, for a total value of $285,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 929 shares of the companys stock, valued at $264,765. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 24,443 shares of company stock valued at $6,731,860. Company insiders own 0.27% of the companys stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MCD has been the topic of a number of research reports. Guggenheim reduced their price objective on McDonalds from $330.00 to $285.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 19th. Oppenheimer upped their price target on McDonalds from $315.00 to $330.00 in a research report on Friday, July 28th. KeyCorp dropped their price objective on McDonalds from $330.00 to $310.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 17th. Stephens reissued an overweight rating and issued a $325.00 price objective on shares of McDonalds in a research note on Wednesday, October 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on McDonalds from $330.00 to $315.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 11th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $318.67.

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McDonalds Profile

(Free Report)

McDonald's Corporation operates and franchises McDonald's restaurants in the United States and internationally. The company's restaurants offer hamburgers and cheeseburgers, chicken sandwiches and nuggets, fries, salads, shakes, frozen desserts, sundaes, soft serve cones, bakery items, soft drinks, coffee, and beverages and other beverages, as well as breakfast menu, including muffins, Sausages, biscuit and bagel sandwiches, oatmeal, hash browns, breakfast burritos and hotcakes.

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Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE  Free Report) by 93.7% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,445,599 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock after buying an additional 3,601,529 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp owned about 0.13% of Pfizer worth $273,105,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Pfizer by 4.0% during the 2nd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 465,390 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $17,071,000 after acquiring an additional 18,093 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its holdings in shares of Pfizer by 11.8% in the second quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 1,544,148 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $56,593,000 after purchasing an additional 163,225 shares during the last quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Pfizer by 0.8% during the second quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 163,202 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $5,986,000 after purchasing an additional 1,285 shares in the last quarter. Van Hulzen Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Pfizer by 15.1% during the second quarter. Van Hulzen Asset Management LLC now owns 60,134 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock worth $2,206,000 after purchasing an additional 7,903 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Horizon Bancorp Inc. IN grew its position in Pfizer by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. Horizon Bancorp Inc. IN now owns 103,966 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock worth $3,813,000 after purchasing an additional 1,748 shares in the last quarter. 68.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Pfizer Price Performance

PFE stock traded up $0.34 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $31.07. The company had a trading volume of 15,153,451 shares, compared to its average volume of 25,010,529. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $33.86 and a 200-day moving average price of $36.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 2.12 and a quick ratio of 1.82. The company has a market capitalization of $175.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.30, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.61. Pfizer Inc. has a 1 year low of $30.22 and a 1 year high of $54.93.

Pfizer Announces Dividend

Pfizer ( NYSE:PFE Get Free Report ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 1st. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $12.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.36 billion. Pfizer had a net margin of 27.55% and a return on equity of 28.36%. The businesss quarterly revenue was down 54.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.04 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Pfizer Inc. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 4th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 10th will be paid a $0.41 dividend. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.28%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 9th. Pfizers dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.62%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have commented on PFE shares. Barclays cut their target price on Pfizer from $38.00 to $35.00 in a research note on Monday, October 2nd. TheStreet cut Pfizer from a b- rating to a c+ rating in a research report on Monday, September 25th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Pfizer from $40.00 to $39.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 17th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Pfizer from a hold rating to a buy rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $38.00 to $39.00 in a research note on Monday, October 16th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Pfizer from $36.00 to $34.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 16th. Twelve investment 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 company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $42.67.

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Pfizer Profile

(Free Report)

Pfizer Inc discovers, develops, manufactures, markets, distributes, and sells biopharmaceutical products worldwide. It offers medicines and vaccines in various therapeutic areas, including cardiovascular metabolic, migraine, and women's health under the Eliquis, Nurtec ODT/Vydura, and the Premarin family brands; infectious diseases with unmet medical needs under the Prevnar family, Nimenrix, FSME/IMMUN-TicoVac, and Trumenba brands; and COVID-19 prevention and treatment, and potential future mRNA and antiviral products under the Comirnaty and Paxlovid brands.

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Archer-Daniels-Midland (NYSE:ADM  Get Free Report) issued an update on its FY 2023 earnings guidance on Wednesday morning. The company provided earnings per share guidance of $7.00- for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share estimate of $7.20. The company issued revenue guidance of -.

Archer-Daniels-Midland Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of ADM stock opened at $71.14 on Friday. Archer-Daniels-Midland has a 52-week low of $69.31 and a 52-week high of $98.28. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $76.96 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $77.60. The company has a market capitalization of $37.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.01, a PEG ratio of 1.55 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 1.69.

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Archer-Daniels-Midland (NYSE:ADM  Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 24th. The company reported $1.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $1.53 by $0.10. Archer-Daniels-Midland had a net margin of 4.05% and a return on equity of 16.63%. The firm had revenue of $21.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $23.69 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.86 EPS. The companys revenue was down 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Archer-Daniels-Midland will post 7.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Archer-Daniels-Midland Announces Dividend

Analysts Set New Price Targets

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 6th. Investors 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 dividend yield of 2.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 15th. Archer-Daniels-Midlands payout ratio is currently 25.07%.

A number of brokerages recently commented on ADM. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland from $77.00 to $75.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland from $83.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research note on Monday, July 31st. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland in a research note on Thursday, October 5th. They issued a buy rating on the stock. Stephens lowered their target price on shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland from $80.00 to $75.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Argus increased 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. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $94.00.

Read Our Latest Report on ADM

Institutional Trading of Archer-Daniels-Midland

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Osaic Holdings Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland by 3.6% during the 2nd quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 172,066 shares of the companys stock valued at $13,020,000 after purchasing an additional 5,990 shares during the last quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC grew its holdings in shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland by 1,439.6% during the 2nd quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 62,476 shares of the companys stock valued at $4,721,000 after purchasing an additional 58,418 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 1,776,170 shares of the companys stock valued at $134,207,000 after purchasing an additional 8,549 shares during the last quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC grew its holdings in shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland by 7.0% during the 2nd quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 2,688 shares of the companys stock valued at $204,000 after purchasing an additional 175 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PCA Investment Advisory Services Inc. bought a new position in shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland during the 2nd quarter valued at $25,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.73% of the companys stock.

About Archer-Daniels-Midland

(Get Free Report)

Archer-Daniels-Midland Company procures, transports, stores, processes, and merchandises agricultural commodities, products, and ingredients in the United States, Switzerland, the Cayman Islands, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, the United Kingdom, and internationally. The company operates in three segments: Ag Services and Oilseeds, Carbohydrate Solutions, and Nutrition.

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Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY  Free Report) by 81.4% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 13,631 shares of the companys stock after buying an additional 6,115 shares during the period. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLCs holdings in Eli Lilly and Company were worth $6,393,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Silicon Valley Capital Partners bought a new position in shares of Eli Lilly and Company during the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. Bogart Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of Eli Lilly and Company by 193.3% in the first quarter. Bogart Wealth LLC now owns 88 shares of the companys stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Laffer Tengler Investments purchased a new stake in shares of Eli Lilly and Company in the first quarter worth about $33,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Eli Lilly and Company by 156.4% during the first quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 100 shares of the companys stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 61 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Activest Wealth Management purchased a new position in Eli Lilly and Company during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $40,000. 81.38% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Insider Activity

In related news, major shareholder Lilly Endowment Inc sold 204,409 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $523.74, for a total value of $107,057,169.66. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 100,823,810 shares of the companys stock, valued at $52,805,462,249.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CAO Donald A. Zakrowski sold 600 shares of Eli Lilly and Company 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 5,378 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,939,130.78. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Lilly Endowment Inc sold 204,409 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $523.74, for a total value of $107,057,169.66. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 100,823,810 shares of the companys stock, valued at $52,805,462,249.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 907,655 shares of company stock worth $21,078,714,805. Company insiders own 0.13% of the companys stock.

Eli Lilly and Company Trading Down 0.7 %

LLY traded down $4.26 on Friday, reaching $563.84. 646,570 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,022,396. The company has a market cap of $535.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 78.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 0.33. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.63. Eli Lilly and Company has a one year low of $309.20 and a one year high of $629.97. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $568.51 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $485.61.

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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.58 billion. Eli Lilly and Company had a return on equity of 65.00% and a net margin of 22.01%. Eli Lilly and Companys quarterly revenue was up 28.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.25 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Eli Lilly and Company will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on LLY. HSBC began coverage on Eli Lilly and Company in a report on Friday, July 14th. They set a buy rating and a $560.00 price objective on the stock. UBS Group reaffirmed a buy rating and set a $710.00 price target (up previously from $612.00) on shares of Eli Lilly and Company in a research note on Friday, October 20th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Eli Lilly and Company from $525.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Eli Lilly and Company from $510.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Wednesday, August 9th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Eli Lilly and Company from a hold rating to a buy rating and increased their price target for the company from $408.00 to $615.00 in a report on Tuesday, August 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and nineteen have given a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $555.83.

View Our Latest Report on Eli Lilly and Company

Eli Lilly and Company Profile

(Free Report)

Eli Lilly and Company discovers, develops, and markets human pharmaceuticals worldwide. It offers Basaglar, Humalog, Humalog Mix 75/25, Humalog U-100, Humalog U-200, Humalog Mix 50/50, insulin lispro, insulin lispro protamine, insulin lispro mix 75/25, Humulin, Humulin 70/30, Humulin N, Humulin R, and Humulin U-500 for diabetes; and Jardiance, Trajenta, and Trulicity for type 2 diabetes.

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Group 1 Automotive (NYSE:GPI  Get Free Report) announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. The company reported $12.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $11.48 by $0.59, Briefing.com reports. The company had revenue of $4.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.52 billion. Group 1 Automotive had a net margin of 3.67% and a return on equity of 27.08%. The companys revenue for the quarter was up 13.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $12.00 earnings per share.

Group 1 Automotive Stock Performance

Shares of GPI opened at $249.51 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.43. The firms fifty day simple moving average is $258.40 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $247.45. Group 1 Automotive has a 12 month low of $159.87 and a 12 month high of $277.47.

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Group 1 Automotive Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 1st were given a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 31st. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.72%. Group 1 Automotives dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 3.95%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on GPI. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Group 1 Automotive from $430.00 to $445.00 in a report on Thursday, July 6th. Benchmark increased their price objective on Group 1 Automotive from $300.00 to $340.00 in a report on Monday, July 31st. Stephens increased their price objective on Group 1 Automotive from $295.00 to $350.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Group 1 Automotive from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Thursday, October 12th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Group 1 Automotive from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report on Tuesday, October 3rd.

Read Our Latest Stock Report on Group 1 Automotive

Insider Buying and Selling at Group 1 Automotive

In other news, CFO Daniel James Mchenry sold 2,259 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $264.96, for a total transaction of $598,544.64. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 19,355 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $5,128,300.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Daryl Kenningham sold 9,500 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $262.41, for a total value of $2,492,895.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 24,548 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,441,640.68. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Daniel James Mchenry sold 2,259 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $264.96, for a total transaction of $598,544.64. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 19,355 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,128,300.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 12,609 shares of company stock valued at $3,310,468. 3.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Group 1 Automotive

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Amundi acquired a new stake in shares of Group 1 Automotive in the 4th quarter worth about $41,000. Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Group 1 Automotive by 54.6% in the 3rd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 252 shares of the companys stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 89 shares during the last quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Group 1 Automotive by 85.8% in the 2nd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 459 shares of the companys stock worth $118,000 after buying an additional 212 shares during the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Group 1 Automotive in the 1st quarter worth approximately $204,000. Finally, Tower Research Capital LLC TRC boosted its stake in shares of Group 1 Automotive by 97.4% in the 2nd quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 926 shares of the companys stock worth $239,000 after buying an additional 457 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.92% of the companys stock.

About Group 1 Automotive

(Get Free Report)

Group 1 Automotive, Inc, through its subsidiaries, operates in the automotive retail industry in the United States and the United Kingdom. The company sells new and used cars, light trucks, and vehicle parts, as well as service and insurance contracts; arranges related vehicle financing; and offers automotive maintenance and repair services.

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MDU Resources Group, Inc. (NYSE:MDU  Get Free Report)s share price hit a new 52-week low during trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $18.38 and last traded at $18.42, with a volume of 57621 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $18.58.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com started coverage on MDU Resources Group in a research note on Thursday, October 5th. They set a hold rating for the company.

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View Our Latest Stock Analysis on MDU Resources Group

MDU Resources Group Trading Down 1.0 %

The company has a market cap of $3.74 billion, a PE ratio of 8.72, a P/E/G ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.77. The stocks 50 day moving average is $19.63 and its 200-day moving average is $22.77. The company has a quick ratio of 1.31, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83.

MDU Resources Group (NYSE:MDU  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 3rd. The utilities provider reported $0.29 earnings per share for the quarter. MDU Resources Group had a return on equity of 11.50% and a net margin of 6.51%. The company had revenue of $1.09 billion for the quarter. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that MDU Resources Group, Inc. will post 1.36 EPS for the current year.

MDU Resources Group Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, October 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 14th were paid a dividend of $0.125 per share. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.72%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 13th. MDU Resources Groups payout ratio is 23.47%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Fairfield Bush & CO. bought a new stake in MDU Resources Group in the first quarter worth about $124,000. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in MDU Resources Group by 21.3% in the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 20,101 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $536,000 after purchasing an additional 3,523 shares during the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. lifted its stake in MDU Resources Group by 119.7% in the first quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 67,933 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $1,811,000 after purchasing an additional 37,018 shares during the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund bought a new stake in MDU Resources Group in the first quarter worth about $771,000. Finally, MetLife Investment Management LLC increased its stake in MDU Resources Group by 33.4% in the first quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 131,476 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $3,504,000 after purchasing an additional 32,930 shares during the period. 71.24% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

MDU Resources Group Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

MDU Resources Group, Inc engages in the regulated energy delivery, and construction materials and services businesses in the United States. It operates through five segments: Electric, Natural Gas Distribution, Pipeline, Construction Materials and Contracting, and Construction Services. The Electric segment generates, transmits, and distributes electricity for residential, commercial, industrial, and municipal customers in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming; and operates 3,400 miles of transmission lines, 4,800 miles of distribution lines, and 84 transmission and 294 distribution substations.

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Telefonica Brasil S.A. (NYSE:VIV  Get Free Report)s share price hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $9.31 and last traded at $9.26, with a volume of 55479 shares. The stock had previously closed at $9.18.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VIV has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Citigroup raised shares of Telefonica Brasil from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Telefonica Brasil from $10.00 to $11.40 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 2nd. StockNews.com lowered Telefonica Brasil from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note on Thursday. Itau BBA Securities reiterated an outperform rating and issued a $11.00 target price on shares of Telefonica Brasil in a research note on Friday, September 29th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on Telefonica Brasil in a research note on Tuesday, September 19th. They issued a hold rating on the stock. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Telefonica Brasil presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $11.13.

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View Our Latest Research Report on Telefonica Brasil

Telefonica Brasil Stock Performance

The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $8.78 and a 200 day simple moving average of $8.62. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The company has a market capitalization of $15.42 billion, a PE ratio of 17.32, a PEG ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.56.

Telefonica Brasil (NYSE:VIV  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 25th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The business had revenue of $2.57 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.53 billion. Telefonica Brasil had a net margin of 8.98% and a return on equity of 6.54%. Equities research analysts predict that Telefonica Brasil S.A. will post 0.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Telefonica Brasil Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a  dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 1st were paid a dividend of $0.0273 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 1st. This represents a yield of 4.9%. Telefonica Brasils payout ratio is presently 73.59%.

Institutional Trading of Telefonica Brasil

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Ruffer LLP grew its stake in shares of Telefonica Brasil by 42.9% during the 1st quarter. Ruffer LLP now owns 150,000 shares of the Wireless communications providers stock worth $1,135,000 after purchasing an additional 45,000 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Telefonica Brasil by 59.3% during the 2nd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 264,924 shares of the Wireless communications providers stock worth $2,419,000 after acquiring an additional 98,650 shares in the last quarter. Waterfront Wealth Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Telefonica Brasil by 8.2% during the 1st quarter. Waterfront Wealth Inc. now owns 178,433 shares of the Wireless communications providers stock worth $1,351,000 after acquiring an additional 13,450 shares in the last quarter. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Telefonica Brasil by 106.5% during the 1st quarter. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC now owns 62,574 shares of the Wireless communications providers stock worth $474,000 after acquiring an additional 32,267 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. raised its stake in shares of Telefonica Brasil by 65.4% during the 2nd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 13,523,067 shares of the Wireless communications providers stock worth $123,466,000 after buying an additional 5,346,959 shares during the period. 5.40% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Telefonica Brasil

(Get Free Report)

Telefonica Brasil SA, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a mobile telecommunications company in Brazil. Its fixed line services portfolio includes local, domestic long-distance, and international long-distance calls; and mobile portfolio comprises voice and broadband internet access through 3G, 4G, 4.5G, and 5G, as well as mobile value-added and wireless roaming services.

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Oct 26, 2023; Arlington, TX, USA; Arizona Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo speaks to the media prior to the 2023 World Series against the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Field. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

Look, a deals a deal.

Radio and TV personality Mad Dog Chris Russo said he would retire if the Arizona Diamondbacks were to lose the NLCS to the Philadelphia Phillies. Well, the D-backs are in Arlington ahead of Game 1 of the World Series.

Mad Dog Russo says he will retire on the spot if the Diamondbacks win games 6 & 7 in Philadelphia.#NLCS @stephenasmith pic.twitter.com/DcpRwyZbY2  Funhouse (@BackAftaThis) October 23, 2023

So, tick tock, Mad Dog. It doesnt escape manager Torey Lovullo.

Specifically speaking on Mad Dog  Steven A. Smith, youre my boy, youre my boy, and I need you to hold him accountable, Lovullo told the media on Thursday. I need you to keep going at him every single day. Dont let it stop.

Since then, Russo has backtracked on his wager.

Ive been wrong on Arizona from day one, Russo said on Monday during his radio show. I would not be stunned if they won tonight [Game 6], I would be floored. And Ill say this right now, and Bob Raissman, write it down, if they win the next two games and win this series in seven gamesif they win, I will retire on the spot.

Lovullo continuously tried to hold him accountable and said he looks forward to watching Russo quit.

But a deals a deal, Lovullo continued. I agree. Youve got to  you cant back out of that one, Mad Dog. Youve got to do something. I dont know if youre talking about TV, radio, but I do like Howard Sterns thought about walking with a billboard saying that I am whatever, a liar and an A-hole, in Midtown Manhattan for half a day. That will do it for me, but I aint going to forgive you until you do something unbelievable, maybe show up here and say youre sorry to the entire team. Thats all I want to say about that.

Stern offered some ideas on his show that suggested Russo wear a bikini in Manhattan, walking down the street, sporting a sign referring to himself as a bad word. Stern said he doesnt believe Russo will retire, but did admit Russo was humiliated.

Here is the audio of Chris Mad Dog Russo negotiating with @sternshow for a punishment instead of retirement. The Mike and the Mad Dog fans wont want to miss the beginning. pic.twitter.com/uSu4APMxRx  Jimmy Traina (@JimmyTraina) October 25, 2023

You have to pay up. Those are the rules.

[ASAP Transcripts]
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Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks to reporters after Republicans met to try and decide who to nominate to be the new House speaker, on Capitol Hill in Washington, on October 23.
In this image made from video provided by U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, a Peoples Republic of China J-11 is seen from a U.S. Air Force B-52 aircraft, over the South China Sea on Oct. 24, 2023. A Chinese fighter jet came within 10 feet of an American B-52 bomber flying over the South China Sea, nearly causing an accident, the U.S. military said, underscoring the potential for a mishap as both countries vie for influence in the region.
EU coordinating 6 new humanitarian aid flights for Gaza

A new EU aid flight has departed today from Copenhagen, carrying 51 tonnes of medicines, medical items, and education supplies on behalf of Unicef to Egypt for people in need in Gaza. The flight is part of 6 upcoming flights of the EU humanitarian air bridge operation transporting essential supplies provided by partners for fast deployment to the field. The EU is funding the total cost of all flights and supporting the coordination of operations under the European Humanitarian Response Capacity.

The upcoming flights are scheduled to be rolled out along the next two weeks. Besides UNICEF, among the partners providing the humanitarian cargo there are the World Health Organisation (WHO), the World Food Program (WFP), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

The delivered aid items will be used to scale-up the humanitarian response for the recent violence escalation affecting people in Gaza, where the already dire situation keeps deteriorating.

Background

This humanitarian air bridge operation follows the previous two flights in aid of Gaza completed on 16 and 19 October, which transported a total of 56 tonnes of supplies by UNICEF.

The EU has been providing humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in need since 2000, supporting vulnerable families affected by emergencies and shocks.

EU humanitarian aid is exclusively channelled through registered humanitarian organisations, including UN agencies, international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and international organisations such as the Red Cross/Crescent family. Our partner organisations are required to follow the highest standards, including strict reporting requirements and are subject to monitoring and inspection from EU humanitarian experts.

Despite access challenges and security concerns in Gaza following the ongoing crisis, EU partners operating on the ground continue to provide humanitarian assistance to people in need.

For More Information

Factsheet Palestine

Factsheet European Humanitarian Response Capacity

Quote

To alleviate the suffering of the people in the Gaza Strip in these extremely difficult times it is imperative that full, unrestricted and safe humanitarian access into Gaza is granted. The desperately needed supplies to provide a lifeline to the Palestinian population in need are being delivered to Egypt also by the EU. We continue with our humanitarian air bridge operation with further 6 flights to support our humanitarian partner organisations on the ground. Once again, I urge all involved parties to let aid trucks move without further delay.

Janez Lenarcic, Commissioner for Crisis Management 2023-10-26
PRNewswire

Gurugram (Haryana) [India], October 27: SRF Limited, a chemical based multi-business entity engaged in the manufacturing of industrial and specialty intermediates today announced its consolidated financial results for the second quarter and half year ended September 30, 2023. The company's unaudited results were approved by the Board of Directors in a meeting held earlier today.

Also Read | Interpol Issues Red Notice for 19-Year-Old Haryana Gangster Yogesh Kadian Who Fled India on Fake Passport.

Consolidated Q2FY24 Financials

The consolidated revenue of the company decreased 15% from Rs3,728 crore to Rs3,177 crore in Q2FY24 when compared with Corresponding Period Last Year (CPLY). The company's Earnings before Interest and Tax (EBIT) decreased 23% from Rs689 crore to Rs533 crore in Q2FY24 when compared with CPLY. The company's Profit after Tax (PAT) decreased 37% from Rs481 crore to Rs301 crore in Q2FY24 when compared with CPLY.

Also Read | Vladimir Putin Has Died; Russian Presidents Body Being Kept in Deep Freezer, Claims Telegram Channel.

Commenting on the results, Chairman and Managing Director, Ashish Bharat Ram said, "During the quarter, we felt the brunt of the destocking and inventory rationalization phenomenon in our Chemicals Business. Having said that, we are now beginning to see some positive traction that should bode well for a better second half of FY24. The overcapacity in our Packaging Films Business will continue for some more time."

Consolidated Q2FY24 Segment Results

The Chemicals Business reported a decrease of 22% in its segment revenue from Rs1,830 crore to Rs1,426 crore during Q2FY24 over CPLY. The operating profit of the Chemicals Business decreased 33% from Rs517 crore to Rs348 crore in Q2FY24 over CPLY. During the quarter, the Specialty Chemicals Business witnessed weak global demand owing to the ongoing inventory rationalization by certain key customers. The performance of the Fluorochemicals Business was adversely impacted due to low demand for refrigerants and resultant pressure on margins. In addition, sluggish growth in the pharmaceuticals and agrochemical industries adversely impacted the demand for some industrial chemicals.

The Packaging Films Business reported a decrease of 16% in its segment revenue from Rs1,331 crore to Rs1,122 crore during Q2FY24 when compared with CPLY. The operating profit of the Packaging Films Business declined 24% from Rs101 crore to Rs77 crore in Q2FY24 over CPLY. During the quarter, the Packaging Films Business faced headwinds on account of substantial supply addition in both BOPET and BOPP film segments, resulting in significant pressure on margins and an overall demand slowdown globally.

The Technical Textiles Business reported an increase of 9% in its segment revenue from Rs466 crore to Rs506 crore during Q2FY24 over CPLY. The operating profit of the Technical Textiles Business increased 19% from Rs63 crore to Rs75 crore in Q2FY24 over CPLY. During the quarter, the Technical Textiles Business performed well owing to higher sales volume of its flagship Nylon Tyre Cord Fabric. Additionally, the Business witnessed healthy demand for its Belting Fabrics and Polyester Yarn segments due to increased infrastructural spending by the Government.

The OtherBusinesses reported an increase of 27% in its segment revenue from Rs100 crore to Rs127 crore in Q2FY24 when compared with CPLY. The operating profit of the Other Businesses increased 313% from Rs8 crore to Rs33 crore in Q2FY24 over CPLY. During the quarter, the Coated Fabrics segment performed well because of strong domestic sales driven by healthy demand for its products. The Laminated Fabrics segment also performed in line with the expectations.

H1 FY24 Financials

In the first six months of FY24, SRF's revenue decreased 15% from Rs7,622 crore to Rs6,516 crore over CPLY. The company's PAT decreased 39% from Rs1,089 crore to Rs660 crore over CPLY.

Capex

The Board has approved a project for setting up a manufacturing facility for Capacitor Grade BOPP Film at Indore, India at a projected cost of Rs275 crore.

The Board has also approved a project for setting up a new and dedicated facility to produce an agrochemical intermediate at Dahej, India at a projected cost of Rs235 crore to meet the growing demand for the product in the future.

Innovation and Intellectual Property

As of September 30, 2023, the company has applied for a total of four hundred and twenty-one patents. Till date, the company has been granted one hundred and forty-two patents globally.

Awards and Recognition

SRF conferred the Best Corporate - Cash Management Services and Best Corporate - Technology Adaption by HDFC Bank.

SRF Technical Textiles Business won the MATEXIL Export Award for Outstanding Export Performance for the year 2022-23.

SRF Foundation was honored with the Shiksha Bhushan Award at the 27th Bhamashah Samman Program by the Government of Rajasthan. Additionally, the SRF Foundation won the CSR Times Award 2023 (Gold) for its Rural Education Program and earned a Certificate of Appreciation (under the 'Operation Kayakalp' program) by the Government of Uttar Pradesh for the development of infrastructure facilities in Government Schools.

About SRF Limited

Established in 1970, SRF Limited with an annual turnover of Rs14,592 crore (USD 1.8 billion) is a chemical based multi-business entity engaged in the manufacturing of industrial and specialty intermediates. The company's diversified business portfolio covers Fluorochemicals, Specialty Chemicals, Packaging Films, Technical Textiles, Coated and Laminated Fabrics. Anchored by a strong workforce of 8,000+ employees from different nationalities working across twelve manufacturing plants in India and one each in Thailand, South Africa and Hungary, the company exports to 90+ countries. Equipped with State-of-the-Art R&D facilities, SRF has filed 421 patents for R&D and technology so far, of which one-hundred and forty-two have been granted globally. A winner of the prestigious Deming Prize for two of its businesses namely, Tyre Cord and Chemicals, SRF continues to redefine its work and corporate culture with TQM as its management way.

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2160028/SRF_Limited_Logo.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)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Jammu, Oct 27 (PTI) The BJP government at the Centre lacks the courage to hold polls in Jammu and Kashmir and even the parliamentary elections would not be held here had it not been a matter of compulsion, National Conference leader Omar Abdullah has claimed.

"In the Supreme Court, they (BJP-led Central government) said that elections to urban local bodies and panchayats will be held. But there is no notification. The challenges encountered in Kargil (LAHDC-Kargil) polls would extend across Jammu and Kashmir," he said.

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"The last Assembly elections were held in 2014. We have been under the governor's rule for five years. There have been claims of significant improvements post-2019. If so, why the delay in elections?" Abdullah posed.

The NC leader claimed that the reluctance to hold elections stems from the BJP's apprehension about facing the electorate. The BJP exudes confidence in the public but a palpable fear lies within their ranks, he asserted.

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"They are well aware of the public's sentiment. Conducting parliamentary elections is their compulsion. If they weren't compelled, they wouldn't even hold a parliamentary election," Abdullah told reporters in Poonch district on Thursday evening.

"They shy away from facing the people. There will be no Panchayat, BDC, DDC, urban local body or assembly elections before the parliamentary polls," he said.

"LAHDC-Kargil poll results proved their apprehensions. The NC-Congress alliance secured 22 out of 26 seats. Even the two Independent candidates who won in the polls extended their support for us," the NC leader said.

Abdullah assured daily wagers in Jammu and Kashmir that elections were inevitable and they would be regularised once the NC came to power.

"Rest assured, elections will be held sooner or later. Once the NC government assumes power, we will move towards regularizing the status of daily wagers," he affirmed.

Abdullah alleged that the MP from Jammu never prioritised the welfare of the people.

"It is now our duty to carefully select the NC candidate. I will engage with every segment across the 16 to 17 assembly segments in this parliamentary seat, ensuring everyone's voice is heard.

"Following deliberations, I will recommend the candidate to NC chief Farooq Abdullah. The candidate chosen will have the full backing of all of you," Omar Abdullah said.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Patna (Bihar) [India], October 27 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Vijay Kumar Sinha charged at Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on Friday over remarks made by party MLA Phate Bahadur Singh on Goddess Durga, and alleged that the party constantly 'insults Sanatan Dharma.'

The BJP leader went on to criticize RJD President Lalu Prasad Yadav and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, questioning their "faith in Sanatan."

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"RJD people continuously insult Sanatan Dharma and their leaders sometimes raise questions on the existence of God. What kind of language do they use to hurt the children of Mother India? Lalu Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav should tell if these people have faith in Sanatan or not," Vijay Sinha said.

RJD MLA Phate Bahadur Singh on Thursday made controversial remarks about Goddess Durga which has invited criticism from the opposition.

Also Read | Mahua Moitra Cash-For-Query Row: TMC MP Requests Parliament Ethics Committee to Give Date After November 5.

Phate Bahadur Singh while speaking to reporters in Rohtas said, "I would like to ask those who have written that Maa Durga fought the army of crores of Mahishasura and slaughtered him. What was Maa Durga doing when the British government made India a slave?

"Where were the weapons of ten arms? That time new weapons were innovated so why didn't Maa Durga slaughter the British government?" he said.

"Mahishasur was a powerful king from the Yadav community. Our hero was turned into a villain. I consider all my ancestors as heroes," he added. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Surguja (Chhattisgarh) [India], October 27 (ANI): The Ambikapur assembly constituency in Chhattisgarh is all set to witness a tough battle, as the BJP, on Wednesday fielded Rajesh Agarwal against TS Singh Deo. The announcement was made in the BJP's fourth and final list of candidates for the upcoming Chhattisgarh Assembly elections.

TS Singh Deo, while speaking to ANI about his opponent said, "Rajesh Agarwal's name was in consideration for a long time. The way he was marking his presence in the Ambikapur constituency, he must have got assurance from the party (BJP) that he would be the one contesting the upcoming elections."

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Deo further said, "It is not a new name for us, he (Rajesh Agarwal) is from Lakhanpur and he was earlier in Congress. The media personnel had recently asked me, since Rajesh is from Lakhanpur what is going to be the scenario of vote bank over there. The votes here have been associated with Congress traditionally, although it is not as if that a local person won't have any influence of himself but it is a region associated with Congress so the party will get the push."

Also Read | Bihar: Stone Pelting in Saran During Immersion of Durga Idols, Police Force Deployed.

The Chhattisgarh Deputy CM further said that if it had been any other candidate as well it would still have been a fight, "I do not consider anyone to be inferior or superior."

Talking about the battle for votes in the constituency, the Congress leader said "It will be easier for the voters to decide who can work better for them, one who they have already seen working or a new face."

"One who has been supported by people earlier will continue the work from a certain level while a new face will have to start from scratch, in such circumstances, people will consider who can represent them more efficiently in the upcoming five years," said Deo.

Meanwhile, his opponent in the Ambikapur constituency, BJP leader Rajesh Agarwal, while speaking to ANI said that BJP's victory is assured as the people in this constituency have felt a distance from current MLA TS Singh Deo.

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"We are 100 per cent sure of emerging victorious as for the past five years, our party, party workers and I have always raised the demands of people through protests. We have been in constant touch with people, whereas the current Congress MLA (TS Singh Deo) got distanced from the people due to which there is resentment and disappointment among people towards him," said Rajesh.

Responding to the question of being close to TS Singh Deo, Rajesh Agarwal said "We are not considered to be close, we used to be close, I am a part of the BJP now and I have had no contact of any sort with him for the last six years."

"BJP has given me this opportunity for which I am really grateful," he added.

On being asked about the issues that BJP will be raising against Congress in Ambikapur, Rajesh Agarwal alleged that Deo had distanced himself from the people for the last 5 years.

"The current Ambikapur MLA had assured of unemployment allowance to the youth which was not fulfilled, loan waive-off assurance to 'Mahila Swayam Sahayata Samhu' was also not fulfilled and the promise of increasing the pension amount from 350 to 1000 was also not acted upon," said Rajesh.

The BJP candidate further claimed that there will be no challenge at all in the upcoming election as the BJP has been prepared for this for the last five years.

TS Singh Deo has secured three consecutive wins since 2008 in the Ambikapur assembly constituency.

The last time the BJP was able to emerge victorious in Ambikapur was in 2003 when it fielded Kamal Bhan Singh against Congress' Madan Gopal Singh.

The first phase of polling for 20 seats in Chhattisgarh will be held on November 7.

After the first phase of polling on November 7, the remaining 70 seats in the state will go to polls on November 17. The counting of votes will be done on December 3.

Elections in Chhattisgarh will be contested on 90 assembly seats and both the major contenders in the state, BJP and Congress, have released their final list of all 90 candidates in the state. (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, Oct 27 (PTI) BJP MP Nishikant Dubey on Friday took a jibe at TMC MP Mahua Moitra for misspelling his name as 'Dubai' in a letter to Ethic Committee chairman Vinod Sonkar, and mocked her by calling her 'Dubai didi'.

Moitra wrote to the Ethics Committee chairman on Friday, seeking to postpone her appearance before the panel for examination after November 5 stating that she has prior commitments in her constituency as Durga Puja celebrations continue in West Bengal.

Also Read | Mukhtar Ansari, Uttar Pradesh Gangster-Politician, Sentenced to 10 Years in Murder Case.

Moitra also sought to cross-question Darshan Hiranandani, who has been at the centre of the 'cash for questions' allegation, and has turned approver in the case. In one of the paragraphs of Moitra's letter to Sonkar, Dubey's name was misspelt as 'Dubai'.

Taking a jibe at Moitra over the typo, Dubey said, "The accused MP is so intoxicated by Dubai that even my name has been changed to Dubai in the letter written to the Chairman of the Ethics Committee. By changing my name, 'Mohtarma' has described her mental condition."

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In another post on X, he said, "Dubai Didi asked for cross-examining some people. Under the rules of Lok Sabha, especially page 246 of the Kaul-Shakdher book, the witness is protected from court... Answers are needed on the question of (hampering) national security and corruption..."

According to the Practice and Procedure of Parliament by M.N. Kaul and S.L. Shakdher, a book which has compilation of Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Lok Sabha which was quoted by Dubey, "witnesses, petitioners and their counsel, who appear before any House or any committee thereof, are protected under article 105(3) from suits and molestation in respect of what they say in the House or a Committee."

In a letter to Ethics panel chairperson Sonkar, Moitra said she looks forward to appearing before the Committee at any date chosen after November 5, 2023.

She also said that Darshan Hiranandani should appear before the committee and provide a "detailed verified list of the alleged gifts & favours he allegedly provided to me."

She said Hiranandani, in a public interview to a news channel, expressed his willingness to appear before the committee, and said she should be given a chance to cross-question him.

(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, Oct 27 (PTI) India has formally communicated to France its decision to procure 26 naval variant of the Rafale fighter aircraft for the Indian Navy, kick-starting the procurement process under an intergovernmental framework, people familiar with the matter said on Friday.

In July, the defence ministry approved the purchase of the Rafale (marine) jets from France, primarily for deployment on board the indigenously built aircraft carrier INS Vikrant.

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The issue of procurement of the Rafale Marine jets is learnt to have figured during Defence Minister Rajnath Singh's recent visit to Paris.

It is learnt that India has sent a letter of request to the French government formally communicating its decision to procure the jets from Dassault Aviation under the government-to-government framework.

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The negotiations on pricing and other details are expected to take place after the defence ministry receives a response from the French side, the people familiar with the matter said.

Earlier this month, Chairman and CEO of Dassault Aviation Eric Trappier visited New Delhi and discussed various aspects of the proposed procurement by India.

The defence ministry in July said the procurement of the jets along with associated ancillary equipment, including weapon systems and spares, would be based on an inter-governmental agreement (IGA) and that price and other terms of purchase will be negotiated with the French government after taking into account all relevant aspects.

The Indian Air Force bought 36 aircraft in fly-away condition. There is a thinking in the IAF that it should go for at least two more squadrons of the Rafale jets.

The defence and strategic ties between India and France have been on an upswing in the last few years.

In July, India and France announced a raft of ground-breaking defence cooperation projects, including the joint development of jet and helicopter engines and construction of three Scorpene submarines for the Indian Navy.

The two strategic partners also expressed commitment to cooperate in the co-development and co-production of advanced defence technologies, including for the benefit of third countries.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Udhampur (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], October 27 (ANI): At least 7 passengers were injured when a bus met with an accident on Ramnagar-Balandh Road in Udhampur district.

According to the Additional Superintendent of Police, Udhampur, Anwar-ul-Haq, "The incident took place on Ramnagar-Balandh Road in union territory's Udhampur district. The injured persons have been shifted to the Sub-Hospital in Ramnagar."

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The official further said that an investigation into the matter is underway.

Further details into the matter are awaited.

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Earlier this week, six devotees were injured after a minibus carrying passengers lost control on the Ramnagar-Ghordi road and turned upside down in the Udhampur district.

According to the Additional Superintendent of Police, Udhampur, Anwar-ul-Haq, "Six people have been injured after a mini-bus carrying pilgrims met with an accident in Nallah Ghorian in Ghordi Block of Jammu and Kashmir's Udhampur district."

The official further said that the minibus was on its way to Marada Mata Temple in Ramnagar when it turned upside down on the Ramnagar-Ghordi road in Udhampur. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)




Smoke rises following Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City, on Oct 25, 2023. [Photo/Xinhua]



Why have the multiple attempts of the international community to bring an end to the Israel-Palestine conflict under the framework of the United Nations failed to materialize into action?

The answer is clear. It is the United States that has been obstructing the peace process by abusing its veto power in the UN Security Council, turning it into another arena for Washington's geopolitical games.

For instance, a proposed resolution, focusing on the humanitarian situation and the protection of civilians, which was supported by an overwhelming majority of UN Security Council members, failed to be adopted on Wednesday due to the US vetoing it.

The US introduced a draft resolution on Saturday that set aside the consensus of the UN Security Council members and included many elements that were deeply divisive. Many UN Security Council members, including China, Russia and Brazil, proposed amendments to the draft text. However, the US, ignoring the concerns of the council members, made only cosmetic changes to the draft before putting it to a hasty vote.

As China's ambassador to the UN, Zhang Jun, said, the resolution was presented in haste and did not reflect the world's calls. The proposed resolution was patently not in a position to be adopted. Yet, rather than acknowledging that truth, the US is trying to smear China and other countries by claiming that in voting against the resolution they are thwarting UN actions and being indifferent to the humanitarian situation. That shameless calling black white shows the US' intention of dividing the world body and diverting attention from the conflict between Israel and Palestine to the one it is trying to fabricate between a so-called "democratic world" and China.

All genuine efforts that contribute to peace will receive China's staunch support. Any endeavor that facilitates Palestine-Israel reconciliation will be pursued by China with all-out efforts. But with two aircraft carrier strike groups in the Middle East, it is clear that the US wants its ally to carry out its "self-defense" campaign carefree and for as long as it likes.

The position of China, and the many other countries voting against the US-proposed draft resolution, is based on facts, law and conscience. What they oppose is that the draft is evasive on the most urgent issue of ending the immediate hostilities. That is not only irresponsible but also dangerous. It is tantamount to paving the way for large-scale military actions and giving the green light to further escalation of the conflict.

The draft resolution did not call on the parties concerned to stop the indiscriminate and asymmetrical use of force. Such an evasive and ineffectual resolution would do nothing to ease the plight of the people in Gaza. Indeed, it would only worsen their predicament.

It is clear that the US is seeking to establish a new narrative on the Palestinian question by ignoring the fact that the Palestinian territory has been occupied for a long time, and evading the fundamental issue of independent statehood for the Palestinian people.

It is worth being vigilant as the resolution presented by the US departs from the spirit of previous UN resolutions and embeds the dangerous logic of "clash of civilizations" and the justification of war and use of force. If adopted, it would have completely dashed the prospects of the two-state solution.
Ghazipur/Lucknow (UP), Oct 27 (PTI) An MP-MLA court in Ghazipur on Friday sentenced jailed mafia-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari to 10 years of imprisonment in a case registered under the Gangsters Act.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Arvind Kumar also imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on him.

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The case under the Gangsters Act was registered against Ansari at the Karanda police station in 2010 following the murder of Kapildev Singh, a teacher, and an attempt on the life of Meer Hasan, a trader, both in 2009.

The court also sentenced Sonu Yadav, a member of Mukhtar Ansari's gang, to five years of imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 2 lakh on him, Additional District Government Counsel of Ghazipur Neeraj Srivastava said.

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Srivastava told PTI in Ghazipur that the court had on Thursday pronounced Mukhtar Ansari guilty.

Meanwhile, the Uttar Pradesh government in a statement said Ansari was produced in the court via video-conferencing from the Banda prison during the hearing of the case.

In all, Ansari has been sentenced in six cases, it said.

Srivastava said that Kapildev Singh, a government school teacher and resident of Suapur village under the Karanda police station area, was killed by two motorcycle-borne assailants in 2009.

In this case, Chandan Yadav and Radheyshyam Harijan were booked for murder, while a case was registered against Ansari under IPC section 120B (punishment of criminal conspiracy), he said.

About the Meer Hasan attempt to murder case, Srivastava said the trader was attacked by Sonu Yadav and another person, who also threatened to kill him if he did not meet Ansari in prison.

Subsequently in 2010, a case under the Gangsters Act was registered against Ansari and Sonu Yadav, he added.

Radheyshyam Harijan died during the investigation, while Chandan Yadav was acquitted, Srivastava said.

Ansari was a five-time MLA from the Mau assembly constituency. The gangster-politician did not contest the 2022 assembly elections and his seat was won by his son Abbas Ansari from the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP).

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
By Hemanta Kumar Nath

Ho Chi Minh [Vietnam], October 27 (ANI): Looking at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision for the Act East Policy and trying to improve the relationship between North East India and South East Asian countries, the 3rd edition of North East India Festival started in Ho Chi Minh City of Vietnam on Friday.

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The North East India Festival officially commenced on Friday evening in Ho Chi Minh City, marking the beginning of a momentous event that aims to strengthen the ties between India and Vietnam in the world of academics, trade, business, and culture.

The festival opened its doors to a distinguished assembly of critical stakeholders, including Chief Ministers, Union Ministers, and entrepreneurs hailing from both nations.

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Union Minister of State for External Affairs and Education Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, Tran Phuoc Anh, Director General of the Department of External Relations in Ho Chi Minh City, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Vietnam and Nguyen Long Bien, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Ninh Thuan Province; Tourism Minister of Arunachal Pradesh, officials of both India and Vietnam were present in the inaugural programme of the festival held at a hotel in Ho Chi Minh City.

The inaugural programme witnessed the participation of several notable personalities and associations from various provinces in Vietnam.

Both India and Vietnam highlighted the collaborative spirit of the festival. The opening day's programme was a harmonious blend of culture and diplomacy.

It commenced with the traditional lighting of the lamp, followed by a mesmerising Sattriya dance performance by Mridusmita Das Bora.

Sandeep Arya, India's Ambassador to Vietnam, delivered the opening remarks, setting the tone for the festival.

Union Minister of State for External Affairs and Education Rajkumar Ranjan Singh told ANI that the Prime Minister has targeted to improve the relationship and create more multi-lateral and bi-lateral relationship should be strengthened with the countries of India Pacific and South East Asia.

"India's foreign relationship and foreign policy under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we are looking to bring the whole world into one family. In the G20 presidency, our motto is One Earth One Family. That is the philosophy and wisdom of India as a nation. Under our foreign policy, we are trying to improve with all the nations all over the globe. Particularly in the Indian Pacific and South East Asian countries, our Prime Minister has targeted to improve the relationship and create more multi-lateral and bi-lateral relationship should be strengthened," the Union Minister said.

He further said that the Act East Policy is the main point of our Prime Minister to link North Eastern India with South East Asia.

"In North East India we have more than 250 ethnic communities and all these communities have similarities with the South East Asia's communities with the culture, indigenous knowledge, folk and so on. Taking advantage of these similarities and also historical links between the South East Asian countries like the Buddhist link, and Hindu link," added the Minister.

"Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we use and vitalise all these historical foundations with the modern relationship. We are improving both bilateral and multi-lateral relationships. In this context, today's function is the 3rd edition of the North East India Festival exposing South East Asia and this is one of the platforms for exposing the potential of North East India to South East Asia and also South East Asia discovering North East India. Our embassy in Vietnam is focusing on three themes - tourism, trade promotion and educational relationship. This festival will certainly create and it also gives the ample scope having people to people connection with the business and other cultural exchange," the Union Minister said.

The day featured enlightening talks on various destinations, including Assam, Arunachal, Meghalaya, and Nagaland, presented by government officials and experts, emphasising the unique attractions of these regions.

The festival's cultural segment was brought to a magnificent close with a Drum Ensemble performance of the traditional music of tribes of Meghalaya by Troupes from Meghalaya, showcasing the rich cultural heritage of the Khasi, Jaintia, and Garo tribes.

The inaugural day concluded with a remark by Dr Madan Mohan Sethi, Consul General of India in Ho Chi Minh City.

The second day of the North East India Festival, scheduled for October 28, promises to be equally impressive, featuring the Incredible India Exhibition with a dedicated textile zone, and state-specific exhibition zones from various North Eastern states of India.

The day will also host discussions on trade and investment opportunities, the handloom and handicraft industry, and investible projects in the North East Region.

Shyamkanu Mahanta, Chief Organiser of the North East India Festival, said, "The entire programme is deeply rooted in the Act East Policy. Last year, Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi highlighted in his address how the North East India Festival held in Bangkok played a pivotal role in boosting the connections between India and Bangkok, significantly strengthening ties in South East Asia."

"This year, in Vietnam, we are placing a special emphasis on cultural exchange. Our vision extends to encompass educational and trade exchange programmes. What began as a platform for the North East has now blossomed into one of India's largest forums, promoting not only cultural exchange but also propelling trade, commerce, education, tourism, and more. This marks the first time Vietnam has witnessed a festival of such magnitude and scale. We are enthusiastic and optimistic about witnessing tangible outcomes from this initiative," he added.

The festival's diverse programme includes an Investment and Trade Session, a Tourism B2B Meet, and a People-to-People Exchange Meet, with the aim of nurturing academic exchange, promoting educational programmes, and enhancing cultural understanding between India and Vietnam.

The Investment and Trade Session will facilitate interactions between the DoNER Ministry, Invest India, and the Investor's Community of Vietnam, paving the way for long-term business relationships.

A spectacular fashion show, featuring the top-notch designers of North East India, will take centre stage, showcasing the region's rich fabrics and designs.

The festival will also feature musical performances and cultural showcases, promising an immersive experience for all attendees.

As the North East India Festival unfolds, it promises to be a testament to the growing partnership between India and Vietnam, reinforcing their commitment to enhancing academic, trade, business, and cultural cooperation.

This extraordinary event underscores the Act East Policy and sets the stage for a future filled with opportunities and collaborations. (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, Oct 27 (PTI) OneWeb Satellite communication service is ready to connect all parts of the country from next month, Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal said on Friday.

While speaking at the inaugural session of the India Mobile Congress 2023, Mittal said 5G services was launched last year and Airtel has covered the entire country, covering 5,000 towns and cities along with 20,000 villages till date.

Also Read | Reliance Jio Launches Indias First Satellite-Based Giga-Fiber Service Called SpaceFiber For High-Speed and Affordable Internet.

He said that Airtel with the help of Universal Services Obligation Fund has been connecting rural and remote areas, and now satellite technology is available to connect all parts of the country.

"OneWeb constellation is ready to serve the globe and is ready to serve the country. Anybody, anywhere in the country, in remote parts or in difficult areas , wherever they are located can be connected from next month," Mittal said.

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OneWeb, now merged with Eutelsat, will operate commercially as Eutelsat OneWeb with its centre of operations in London.

Bharti Enterprises is the largest shareholder of the merged entity with a 21.2 per cent share.

Bharti Enterprise-backed OneWeb has completed its constellation of over 618 low earth orbit satellites that would allow it to offer broadband internet services from space in every corner of the world.

(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 27 (ANI): Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Friday condemned the killing of innocents as the Israel-Hamas conflict entered the 22 day.

The Congress leader shared a post on X, and said, "Even after the killing of 7000 people in Gaza, the cycle of bloodshed and violence did not stop. Out of these 7000 people, 3000 were innocent children."

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Priyanka Gandhi further alleged that various international law has been violated during the Israel-Hamas conflict.

"There is no international law left which has not been violated. There is no such dignity which has not been violated. There is no such rule which has not been flouted. When will humanity wake up? After losing so many lives. After sacrificing so many children. Is the consciousness of being human left? Did it ever exist?" the Congress leader added.

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Earlier on October 18, Priyanka Gandhi said as a woman and mother she is ashamed that the world is allowing these crimes.

"The bombing of hospitals, the murder of children, the blockading of food, water and medicines to civilians.... there are no words strong enough to condemn the horror that is taking place in Gaza," she posted on X.

"As a woman, a mother, and a human being, I am ashamed that the world is allowing these crimes to be committed with such impunity," the Congress leader added.

The Israel-Hamas war which started on October 7, has now entered its 21st day. Hamas's attack on Israel has killed more than 1,400 people.

Palestinian authorities say more than 7,000 people have been killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza carried out in response to Hamas's October 7 attacks.

Meanwhile, as the Israel-Hamas conflict enters a decisive phase the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) today conducted strikes on Hamas terrorist targets over the last 24 hours. IDF ground troops, fighter jets and UAVs struck Anti-tank missile launch sites, Command & control centres of Hamas terrorist operatives. The troops exited the area and no injuries were reported according to the IDF.

According to the IDF, Infantry, armoured and engineering forces accompanied by helicopter gunships of the Israel Air Force raided the centre of the Gaza Strip on Thursday. As part of the raid, IDF aircraft and artillery attacked targets of the terrorist organization Hamas in the Sajaya neighbourhood and throughout the Gaza Strip. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Kolkata, Oct 27 (PTI) Hours after arresting West Bengal minister Jyotipriya Mallick for his alleged involvement in the multi-crore ration scam, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday froze his bank accounts as well as those belonging to his wife and daughter, a senior officer said.

Mallick's mobile phones were also seized and sent for forensic examination, he added.

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"We have sent instructions to the bank authorities to freeze the accounts of the minister, his wife and daughter. We are also trying to find out if there are other bank accounts used by the minister or anybody in his family," the officer told PTI.

During their searches, the ED officers also seized a few official rubber stamps of a few private companies.

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ED's initial probe also said Mallick's wife and daughter were in directorial posts at three companies that were allegedly involved in "routing" funds in the scam, he said.

ED officers while conducting raids and searches at the residence of one of Mallick's close aides in neighbouring Howrah seized a diary "having details of the transactions made in this scam", he added.

"Among other documents seized, we have got a diary containing several pages with names of Mr Mallick and details of some payments made to different individuals. We are probing them," he said.

The initial probe also revealed the names of three companies from where Mallick was granted a huge amount of loan that was not "repaid" by the minister.

The central probe agency has also unearthed documents and savings bank accounts belonging to people who have been working as helps at the minister's residence, he added.

Not only banking accounts, ED officers also found documents related to several "bogus" companies created to reroute funds and black money, he added.

"All these bogus companies and saving bank accounts were opened at a time when Mallick was the state food supplies minister. We believe that several such companies were opened and used in this scam," the officer said.

Mallick was the food supplies minister from 2011 to 2021 after which was made the forest affairs and non-conventional and renewable energy minister.

Other than the minister, the ED has so far arrested a few people for their alleged involvement in the multi-crore scam.

(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 27 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi to distribute more than 51,000 appointment letters to newly inducted recruits on Saturday through video conferencing.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister will also address the appointees on the occasion.

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Rozgar Mela will be held at 37 locations across the country. The recruitments are taking place across Central Government Departments as well as State governments/UTs supporting this initiative.

The new recruits, selected from across the country will be joining the government in various Ministries/Departments including the Ministry of Railways, Department of Posts, Ministry of Home Affairs, Department of Revenue, Department of Higher Education, Department of School Education and Literacy and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, among others.

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Rozgar Mela is a step towards the fulfillment of the commitment of the Prime Minister to accord the highest priority to employment generation.

Rozgar Mela is expected to act as a catalyst in further employment generation and provide meaningful opportunities to the youth for their empowerment and participation in national development.

The newly inducted appointees are also getting an opportunity to train themselves through Karmayogi Prarambh, an online module on iGOT Karmayogi portal, where more than 750 e-learning courses have been made available for 'anywhere any device' learning format. (ANI)

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Lucknow, Oct 27 (PTI) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has said that Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's conduct towards his enemies follows the Bhagavad Gita which talks about protection of the good and destruction of the wicked.

Referring to the Sanskrit shloka 'Paritranaya sadhunam vinashaya cha dushkritam' as said by Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita, he said whenever the Indian society adopts this strategy, it will never be insulted and will successfully protect its honour and self-respect.

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Adityanath cited couplets attributed to Lord Ram and Lord Krishna's teachings in the Bhagavad Gita to say that words are different the sentiment remains the same and that is "we will protect the good ('sajjan') people, but will not hesitate in destroying the evil ('durjan') forces."

Before the staging of the drama 'Janata Raja' based on the life of Shivaji Maharaj, the Uttar Pradesh chief minister said Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj had established the Hindavi Empire in India 350 years ago during the time of the "tyrant" Aurangzeb.

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"While Aurangzeb was eager to destroy the cultural and spiritual identity of India, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj was proclaiming the Hindu Empire. This was unprecedented," he said.

The play was staged on the initiative of Divya Prem Seva Mission, Haridwar and the Culture Department of Uttar Pradesh to mark the 350th anniversary of the coronation of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.

Adityanath also watched the staging of the drama, the Uttar Pradesh government said in a statement here.

The chief minister said that in the medieval period when it was said that even the term Sanatan Dharma would get wiped off, Maharana Pratap, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Guru Gobind Singh came as a beacon of light from time to time and became an inspiration for all.

"The work that Lord Shri Ram had done in the Treta Yug was carried forward by these great men. A follower of Sanatan Dharma gets inspiration from them and derives strength and power to face the challenges," he said.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], October 27 (ANI): In order to provide relief to people residing in Uttar Pradesh from pollution caused by stubble burning, the Yogi government is gearing up to produce Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) from stubble in the state, which will provide income as well as employment to a large number of people.

This effort will also lead to the production of pure organic fertilizer, contributing to the promotion of green energy and better health outcomes.

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Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath released the Bio-Energy Policy 2022 to promote biofuel in UP and encourage large-scale investment in the sector. Many big investors had signed MoUs with the state government during the Global Investors Summit in this regard.

The Yogi government has set a target to establish biogas plants in every tehsil, some of which will soon become operational.

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One of the upcoming operational plants is Buland Biogas in Bulandshahr, situated in the Lauhgala tehsil. Buland Biogas had signed an MoU worth Rs 18.75 crore with the state government, the cost of which has now increased to Rs 21 crore.

This plant will commence production in December and is projected to yield 3 tonnes of CNG per day. This production will contribute to reducing the state's dependence on petrol and diesel. Additionally, this initiative is expected to generate employment opportunities for 80 to 100 people, including both skilled and unskilled workers.

Athar Ahmed, owner of Buland Bio Gas, said that the plant produces not only straw but also degradable waste like straw, cow dung, chaff, sugarcane waste, municipal waste or a mixture of all the gases. With the help of this technology, CNG is purified. The license for this plant has been obtained from Indian Oil.

He said that the most noteworthy aspect of this project is the bulk production of organic fertilizer. All the waste generated during the compressed gas production process is 100 per cent organic, consisting of both solid and liquid components.

The liquid organic fertilizer produced by the plant will be distributed free of cost to farmers for a period of three years, with the identification of eligible farmers being the responsibility of the District Magistrate or CDO. This initiative aims to assist farmers who may face difficulties in purchasing fertilizers such as DAP and urea.

"The advantages of organic and liquid fertilizers are manifold. Traditional fertilizers form a dense layer on the soil, which takes time to reach the roots of trees and plants. In contrast, organic fertilizers can reach the roots within two to three hours, significantly enhancing their effectiveness. This not only benefits farmers but also makes organic products available to people, improving their overall health", Athar Ahmed said.

He further mentioned that the Yogi government has propelled this project forward with remarkable speed, chiefly through the introduction of the Bio-Energy Policy 2022.

"This policy encompasses several provisions to facilitate the process. Firstly, it allows those who have obtained a LOI license to apply for it. Moreover, both the Central and State Governments are offering substantial subsidies, ranging from Rs 75 lakh to Rs 20 crore. Additionally, there is a 10-year exemption on surcharges for electricity, stamp duty, and land development charges. Apart from this, a discount of 50 plus 30 i.e. a total of 80 per cent is being given on machinery", he informed.

Furthermore, arrangements are made for a consistent supply of raw materials, such as degradable waste. Long-term agreements have been established with sugar mills to procure sugarcane residue, and the Animal Husbandry Department has been tasked with inking agreements with all government-run cowsheds for the procurement of cow dung.

"Additionally, for projects with a value of Rs 50 crore or more, the government is extending support by providing a 5-kilometer approach road. To assist the investors the Yogi government has deployed Udyami Mitra. Every possible effort is being made by Bundalshahr's Udyami Mitra Rajkumar to commence the plant as soon as possible", Athar Ahmed added. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], October 27 (ANI): Railing against the Congress in poll-bound Telangana, Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on Thursday said he wondered if the party has done anything for the Muslims and Dalits other than using them as 'vote banks'.

Addressing a public meeting at Wanaparthy on Thursday, the Telangana CM and the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) president said the Congress should come clean on whether it opened a single medical college in the district.

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"He stated that the BRS government has brought 5 medical colleges to the erstwhile Mahabubnagar district," a statement quoted the CM as saying.

"Has the Congress not used Muslims as a vote bank without doing any work for them? We are producing diamonds in our residential schools today. We also have residential schools for Muslims, Dalits, Girijans, and the backward classes."

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"Congress has always used and exploited Dalits as a vote bank but the BRS government is giving Dalit Bandhu (direct cash benefit scheme)," the CM said.

He added that the BRS government was giving 'Rythu Bandhu' for the welfare of farmers.

Further hitting out at the Congress, he said, "Has Congress ever given money back to farmers?"

The Congress, which is bidding to oust the BRS from power, has been involved in a war of words with the ruling party and a bitter poll rhetoric against them since the polling date was notified.

Meanwhile, addressing another public meeting at Achampet in Nagarkurnool district, the CM said the Congress never thought about Dalits before.

"Today, Rahul Gandhi, Revanth Reddy and Bhatti Vikramarka are saying that if they come to power, they will remove Dharani. Today, the government has all the land details and account details because of Dharani. Today, you are getting Rythu Bandhu. You are directly getting money for the crops you sell. There are no lobbyists and you do not need any certificate for it. All this is possible because of Dharani," CM KCR said.

"After independence, the Congress was in power for years at the Centre and across several states. They never thought about the welfare of Dalits in all these years. They merely used Dalits as a vote bank. Had Dalit Bandhu been started during (Jawaharlal) Nehru's term as PM, then the state of the Dalits would have been a lot better than what it is," he added.

Claiming that no other leader in the country's political history, either a CM or a PM, even thought about or conceived a scheme like 'Dalit Bandhu'.

Earlier, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, while addressing a rally at Jagtial in poll-bound Telangana, said the people had hope that with the formation of Telangana as a separate state, the 'Janata' will rule but, instead, only "one family" has been ruling the state.

"You (the people) thought that the 'Janata' would rule in the state of Telangana but when the state was formed, the rule of one single family was established. The entire public funds of the state, whether it be from land, sand or alcohol, is under the control of a single family."

Telangana will poll for the Assembly on November 30 and the counting of votes, along with those of four other poll-bound states, on December 3.

The southern state is set to witness an intriguing triangular contest between the BRS, Congress, and BJP.

In the previous Assembly elections in 2018, the BRS won 88 of the 119 seats, hogging 47.4 per cent of the total vote share. The Congress finished a distant second with 19 seats and a vote share of 28.7 per cent. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Srinagar, Oct 27 (PTI) The Election Commission of India (ECI) has ordered a special summary revision of photo electoral rolls in all the parliamentary and assembly constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir with January 1, 2024 as the qualifying date, an official spokesman said here on Friday.

A notice by J&K's chief electoral officer said the timeline for publication of the integrated draft electoral roll is October 27, Friday. Claims and objections can be filed between October 27 and December 9.

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Last date for disposal of claims and objections is December 26, and for final publication of electoral roll is January 5, 2024, the notice said.

Special campaign dates are November 4 , November 5, November 18 and November 19, the spokesman said.

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The Draft Photo Electoral Rolls-2024 will be available at District Headquarters/Tehsil Offices/Offices of Srinagar and Jammu Municipal Corporations/ Booth Level Officers at Polling Station level and on the website of the Chief Electoral Officer, J&K (ceojk.nic.in.) for the information of all concerned," the notice said.

Assistant Electoral Registration Officer (Migrant) in Delhi, Jammu and Udhampur shall receive the claims and objections from the Kashmiri migrants living within their jurisdiction as per the schedule mentioned above, it adds.

The notice said that all individuals 18 years of age or above as on January 1, 2024 can get their names enrolled in the electoral rolls by filing 'Form No. 6' used for registration of new electors.

It added that 'Form-7' can be used for objections to proposed inclusion/deletion of name in existing electoral roll, 'Form-8' can be used for correction of any particulars in the roll, shifting of residence (within or outside constituency), replacement of EPIC, and marking of person with disability. 'Form 6B' can be used for capturing Aadhaar number of the existing electors, it said.

The notice also said all those who will attain the age of eligibility on the remaining three qualifying dates i.e. April 1, July 1 and October 1, 2024 can also submit their advance claims, and the forms and draft electoral roll can be downloaded at www.ceojk.nic.in.

The notice said claims and objections can be filled both online as well as offline. For online filing of claims and objections, one can log on to Voter's Service Portal (voterseci.gov.in) or download voter helpline app (VHA) and for offline mode, the concerned BLO/AERO/ERO can be contacted, it said.

The notice added that all the stakeholders are requested to participate in the revision exercise in order to ensure that maximum number of eligible voters are enrolled in the electoral rolls.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)




Illustration: Xia Qing/Global Times

(Global Times) The two visits in these two weeks by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, one to the seemingly close security ally the US and the other to the largest trading partner China, will be a major test for him.

Albanese visited the US before heading to China. US President Joe Biden met with Albanese at the White House on Wednesday, telling reporters he was not worried about Canberra improving relations with China. Nonetheless, he warned the Australian leader against fully trusting China. In the joint statement released by the two leaders after their meeting, the US still tried to drive a wedge between China and Australia with statements like, "we strongly oppose destabilizing actions in the South China Sea," "we also recognize that the 2016 South China Sea Arbitral Award is final and legally binding," "we are concerned about China's excessive maritime claims," and "we reaffirm the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits and our shared opposition to unilateral changes to the status quo."

Qin Sheng, a research fellow at the Center for Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said such statements are cliches. While the US lacks fresh ideas when wooing Australia to confront China, Australia does not want to provoke China ahead of Albanese's visit and it is unlikely that the pragmatic China policy adopted by the Albanese government will change any time soon.

"Given that Albanese linked his visit to the first visit to China by then Australian prime minister Gough Whitlam in 1973, he attaches great importance to his upcoming visit and his meetings with Chinese leaders are expected to yield positive results," said Qin.

But Qin warns that the US will not give up its efforts to woo Australia. Biden described Australia as "an anchor to peace and prosperity" while standing alongside Albanese at the White House, to deliver his flattering of the country. In the eyes of Chen Hong, president of the Chinese Association of Australian Studies and director of the Australian Studies Center at East China Normal University, this is the sugar-coated bullet Washington shoots at Canberra.

"The US uses words of excessive praise to woo Australia and other allies and partners such as South Korea and Vietnam, because it believes that these countries could serve its strategy," Chen told the Global Times.

The US regards Australia as its important military capability guarantee in the Indo-Pacific region. Once a military conflict breaks out, the US needs Australia as the center of its strategic outreach. The US is selfish and would rather harm its so-called closest allies such as Australia than harm itself.

Song Zhongping, a military expert and TV commentator, believes that under such circumstances, Australia can hardly become "an anchor to peace and prosperity," but only "an anchor to war" and a strategic bridgehead for the US to contain China. While Australia avoided being involved in WWI and WWII, it risks being dragged into a conflict if it continues following US' chariot.

It is worth noting that in the US-Australia joint statement, the two leaders announced their intention to explore trilateral cooperation with Japan on Unmanned Aerial Systems to "enhance interoperability and accelerate technology transfer in the rapidly emerging field of collaborative combat aircraft and autonomy." Song said that the military technology cooperation among the US, Australia and Japan has already been extensive, with more of the pattern of the US selling technology and allied countries providing funds. The US aims to control the arms market of the two countries by selling them arms, and the more shares the US has in their arms market, the more control the US holds over the two countries.

Meanwhile, Chen told the Global Times that unmanned aerial systems are effective combat weapons in modern warfare. Australia has neither the technology nor the funds to develop such systems, and it can only play the role of a testing ground due to its vast geographical area. It is also possible that unmanned aerial vehicles would take off from Australia in future military operations. "This actually brings security risks to Australia," said Chen.

For the US, allies are to be exploited. Once they cannot help protect US interests, they will be abandoned like worn-out shoes by the US and their interests will not come to US' mind even for a second. Hopefully, Albanese can realize that normal China-Australia relations serve his country's interests. China is an irreplaceable market for Australia, and the US will not make up for the Chinese market Australia might lose due to worsened relations with China. Australia should have a clear understanding of the significance of its relations with China and avoid being hijacked by the US to maximize its interests.
Thiruvananthapuram, October 27: The Mahal Empowerment Mission (MEM), an organisation of Muslim Jamaaths functioning in the state capital, on Friday decided to remove senior Congress leader and Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor from its Palestine solidarity event scheduled here on October 30. The MEM of the Jamaaths from 100 wards in the city corporation, took the decision in the wake of the controversy over Tharoor's recent statement at a Palestine solidarity rally organised by the Indian Union Muslim League a day ago, in which he said the October 7 attack on Israel was a terrorist strike. India Votes Against UNGA Resolution Backing Palestine for First Time as It Didn't Condemn Hamas Attack on Israel (Watch Video)

"We have communicated to Tharoor that we have decided to remove him from the programme," MEM president Shajahan Sreekaryam told PTI. Facing an intense social media attack, Tharoor has issued a clarification, saying he has always been with the people of Palestine and he does not agree with the propagation of just one sentence from his speech at the IUML rally. The IUML, a key ally of the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) in Kerala, organised a massive rally in northern Kozhikode on Thursday, denouncing the reported indiscriminate killings of civilians, including women and children, in Gaza. Israel-Hamas War: Heavy Exchange of Fire Between Israeli Army and Palestinian Militants on Gaza Border as IDF Announces Expanded Ground Assault (Watch Videos)

Tens of thousands of IUML supporters took part in the Palestine Solidarity Human Rights rally, inaugurated by IUML leader Panakkad Syed Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal. Tharoor, who was the chief guest, said innocent women and children suffered casualties, initially in Israel and subsequently in Gaza, and emphasised the imperative of ending this conflict. In unequivocal terms, Tharoor also condemned the attack carried out by Hamas in Israel on October 7, describing it as an 'act of terror'.

(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, Oct 27 (PTI) Renewable energy solutions provider Suzlon Group has bagged an order for a 50.4 MW wind power project from Juniper Green Energy.

The company didn't disclose the value of the order.

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Suzlon will install 16 wind turbine generators with a hybrid lattice tubular (HLT) tower of its new product with a rated capacity of 3.15 MW each, according to a statement.

It has announced the order of the 3 MW product series for the development of a 50.4 MW wind power project for Juniper Green Energy.

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The project is located in Dwarka district in Gujarat and is expected to be commissioned in 2025.

Suzlon will supply the wind turbines and execute the project, including erection and commissioning. It will also provide comprehensive operations and maintenance services post-commissioning.

"With significant experience in conceptualising, building, and developing renewable energy assets, we embark on our wind energy journey and look forward to creating many more landmark projects in the future," Naresh Mansukhani, Chief Executive Officer of Juniper Green Energy, said.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Chennai, Oct 27 (PTI) Two-wheeler maker TVS Motor Company on Friday announced the launch of a special edition variant of its 'modern-retro' motorcycle, Ronin, this festive season.

The features include a new graphic. It offers a triple tone with grey as the primary tone and white as secondary with a red stripe being the third tone--both on the tank and side panel, a company release said.

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Subtle details embodying the 'R' logo pattern, wheel rim with TVS RONIN branding are among the others. "Additionally, the Special Edition will come with pre-fitted accessories including a USB Charger.

"The new TVS RONIN TD will be available in the colour-Nimbus Grey, at an exciting price point of Rs 1,72,700," the release added.

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(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New York, Oct 27 (AP) A month after federal officials recommended new versions of COVID-19 vaccines, 7% of U.S. adults and 2% of children have gotten a shot.

One expert called the rates abysmal.

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The numbers, presented Thursday at a meeting held by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, come from a national survey of thousands of Americans, conducted two weeks ago.

The data also indicated that nearly 40% of adults said they probably or definitely will not get the shot. A similar percentage of parents said they did not plan to vaccinate their children.

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In the late summer, government health officials made the nation's COVID-19 vaccination campaign more like the annual flu campaign.

Officials approved updated shots that have a single target, an omicron descendant named XBB.1.5. They replaced vaccines that targeted the original coronavirus strain and a much earlier omicron version. Last month, the CDC recommended the new shots for everyone 6 months and older.

The government also transitioned to a commercialized system that relied on the health-care industry  not the government  to handle the distribution of the shots. Many people who immediately went for shots said pharmacies or doctors didn't have them.

Americans have been urged to get different iterations of the vaccines for more than 2 and 1/2 years. This year, COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations fell to lower levels than seen in the previous three years.

Cases remain low compared with the pandemic's early months. Even so, health officials say about 18,000 hospitalization and 1,200 deaths are still being reported each week.

One expert at the meeting, Dr. Camille Kotton of Harvard Medical School, called the numbers abysmal and said part of the problem may be patient confusion. She urged stepped-up public education efforts.

Dr. David Kimberlin, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, also expressed dismay.

The recommendations are not being heard," he said. (AP)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Washington, Oct 27 (AP) China's top diplomat is meeting high-level U.S. officials, possibly including President Joe Biden, on a highly watched visit to Washington that could help stabilize U.S.-China ties by facilitating a summit between Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Wang Yi, the Chinese foreign minister, met Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday afternoon, shortly after he landed for the three-day visit and quickly raised hopes that the relationship can be steadied.

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Before going into their closed-door meeting, Wang said China would seek consensus and cooperation to push the relationship as soon as possible back to the track of healthy, stable and sustainable development.

Before the meeting, U.S. officials said they would press Wang on the importance of China stepping up its role on the world stage if it wants to be considered a responsible major international player. The U.S. has been disappointed with China over its support for Russia in the war against Ukraine and its relative silence on the Israel-Hamas war.

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China should use whatever ability it has as an influential power to urge calm" in the Middle East, said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller. We know China has relationships with a number of countries in the region, and we would urge them to use those relationships, the lines of communication they have, to urge calm and stability.

U.S. officials believe the Chinese have considerable leverage with Iran, which is a major backer of Hamas.

In a readout after the meeting, the State Department said the two men addressed areas of difference and areas of cooperation, while Blinken reiterated that the United States will continue to stand up for our interests and values and those of our allies and partners.

Wang is scheduled to meet again Friday with Blinken as well as national security adviser Jake Sullivan. They are expected to urge China to play a constructive role in both the Israel-Hamas and Russia-Ukraine wars.

It's not yet clear if Wang will meet with Biden. The diplomatic practice of reciprocity suggests it is likely, since Blinken met with Xi when he visited China in June.

Neither side has confirmed whether Biden and Xi will meet next month on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders gathering in San Francisco. But Wang's trip indicates the likelihood is extremely high, said Scott Kennedy, senior adviser and trustee chair in Chinese business and economics at the Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies.

His visit is most likely about nailing down the agenda and negotiating potential deliverables, Kennedy said.

The Chinese president last came to the U.S. in 2017, when former President Donald Trump hosted him at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Biden, who took office in 2021, has yet to host Xi on U.S. soil. The two men last met in Bali, Indonesia, in November 2022, on the sidelines of the Group of 20 meeting of leading rich and developing nations.

The U.S.-China relationship began to sour in 2018 when the Trump administration slapped hefty tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods. It deteriorated further over a range of issues, including rights abuses, the South China Sea, Taiwan, technology and the COVID-19 pandemic. (AP)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Washington, Oct 27 (AP) China's top diplomat is meeting high-level US officials, possibly including President Joe Biden, on a highly watched visit to Washington that could help stabilise US-China ties by facilitating a summit between Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Wang Yi, the Chinese foreign minister, met Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday afternoon, shortly after he landed for the three-day visit and quickly raised hopes that the relationship can be steadied.

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Before going into their closed-door meeting, Wang said China would seek consensus and cooperation to push the relationship as soon as possible back to the track of healthy, stable and sustainable development.

Before the meeting, US officials said they would press Wang on the importance of China stepping up its role on the world stage if it wants to be considered a responsible major international player.

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The US has been disappointed with China over its support for Russia in the war against Ukraine and its relative silence on the Israel-Hamas war.

China should use whatever ability it has as an influential power to urge calm" in the Middle East, said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller. We know China has relationships with a number of countries in the region, and we would urge them to use those relationships, the lines of communication they have, to urge calm and stability.

US officials believe the Chinese have considerable leverage with Iran, which is a major backer of Hamas.

In a readout after the meeting, the State Department said the two men addressed areas of difference and areas of cooperation, while Blinken reiterated that the United States will continue to stand up for our interests and values and those of our allies and partners.

China's Foreign Ministry said, The two sides had an in-depth exchange of views on China-US relations and issues of common concern in a constructive atmosphere.

The Secretary and Director and Foreign Minister Wang discussed a range of bilateral, regional, and global issues, including addressing areas of difference as well as exploring areas of cooperation, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

Wang has come to Washington when the tensions between the two countries remain high over issues including US export controls on advanced technology and China's more assertive actions in the East and South China Seas.

On Thursday, the US military released a video of a Chinese fighter jet flying within 10 feet of an American B-52 bomber over the South China Sea, nearly causing an accident. Earlier this month, the Pentagon released footage of some of the more than 180 intercepts of US warplanes by Chinese aircraft that occurred in the last two years, part of a trend US military officials called concerning.

The US also has renewed a warning that it would defend the Philippines in case of an armed attack under a security pact, after Chinese ships blocked and collided with two Filipino vessels off a contested shoal in the South China Sea.

Wang is scheduled to meet again Friday with Blinken as well as national security adviser Jake Sullivan. They are expected to urge China to play a constructive role in both the Israel-Hamas and Russia-Ukraine wars.

It's not yet clear if Wang will meet with Biden. The diplomatic practice of reciprocity suggests it is likely, since Blinken met with Xi when he visited China in June.

Neither side has confirmed whether Biden and Xi will meet next month on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders gathering in San Francisco. But Wang's trip indicates the likelihood is extremely high, said Scott Kennedy, senior adviser and trustee chair in Chinese business and economics at the Washington-based think tank Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

His visit is most likely about nailing down the agenda and negotiating potential deliverables, Kennedy said.

The Chinese president last came to the US in 2017, when former President Donald Trump hosted him at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Biden, who took office in 2021, has yet to host Xi on US soil.

The two men last met in Bali, Indonesia, in November 2022, on the sidelines of the Group of 20 meeting of leading rich and developing nations.

The US-China relationship began to sour in 2018 when the Trump administration slapped hefty tariffs on USD 50 billion worth of Chinese goods. It deteriorated further over a range of issues, including rights abuses, the South China Sea, Taiwan, technology and the COVID-19 pandemic. (AP)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Tel Aviv [Israel], October 27 (ANI): The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) on Friday said its fighter jets struck three senior Hamas operatives in the Daraj Tuffah Battalion. The IDF said the battalion's operatives played a significant part in Hamas's attack on Israel.

A post on the official handle of the Israel Defence Forces on X stated, "IDF fighter jets struck 3 senior Hamas operatives in the Daraj Tuffah Battalion. The battalion's operatives played a significant role in the invasion and murderous attack against Israel on October 7, and is considered to be the most significant brigade of the Hamas terrorist organisation."

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Meanwhile, the Israeli Air Forces said the Hamas operatives were eliminated under the precise intelligence guidance of the Israel Security Agency Shin Bet.

"The IDF, under the precise intelligence guidance of the Shin Bet and the Amman, eliminated the commander of the Darj Tafah battalion of the terrorist organization Hamas, Rafat Abbas, his deputy, Ebrahim Jedeva, and the commander of combat and administrative assistance, Tarek Maruf, using fighter jets. All three are terrorists. Veterans of the organization who participated in previous campaigns against Israel," the Israeli Air Force posted from its official handle on X

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"The Darj Tafah Battalion is a battalion in the Gaza City Brigade, which is considered the most significant brigade of the terrorist organization Hamas. The battalion's terrorists took a significant part in the murderous massacre on October 7," the Israeli Air Force added in its post.

On Thursday, the IDF said the deputy head of Hamas's intelligence directorate, Shadi Barud, had been killed in an aerial strike.

According to IDF, he was involved in the planning of Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel.

The IDF posted from its X handle, "Shadi Barud, Deputy Head of Hamas' Intelligence Directorate has been eliminated by an IDF aerial strike. He took part in the planning of the October 7 massacre and countless other deadly attacks carried out against Israelis. We will continue to strike and eliminate Hamas leaders and operatives responsible for the barbaric attacks."

Meanwhile, a rocket launched from the Gaza Strip has landed near a highway near Rehovot in central Israel, setting fire to a utility pole. Reports of widespread power outages in the area have emerged.

According to medics, no physical injuries have been caused, The Times of Israel reported.

On Thursday, IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the Israel Defence Forces will continue ground raids into Gaza in the coming days to prepare for the next stages in the ongoing conflict against Hamas, according to CNN.

Hagari noted that the aim of Israel's ground operations is to kill Hamas terrorists, lay the foundations for an all-out invasion and neutralise explosive devices and reconnaissance posts, CNN reported.

His remarks come after the IDF conducted a "targeted raid" overnight in northern Gaza using tanks.

He said the IDF continues to conduct strikes against Gaza from air and sea, and is focusing on killing senior Hamas commanders and the infrastructure of Hamas. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Beijing [China], October 27 (ANI): Li Keqiang, the former premier of China, died with a sudden heart attack on Friday, Xinhua reported.

Xinhua is a China based news agency.

Also Read | Israel-Hamas War: 50 Hostages Killed in Israeli Air Strikes in Gaza Strip, Says Palestinian Group.

According to Xinhua, 68-year-old Li Keqiang, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the 17th, 18th and 19th Communist Party of China central committees and former Premier, passed away on Friday in Shanghai.

Li Keqiang, the former premier of China, has died of a heart attack, less than a year after stepping down from his post as the country's second-highest-ranking leader.

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Once seen as a potential top leader, Li was deliberately kept out of the limelight for years so as not to outshine Jinping. At the same time, Xi accumulated increasingly more powers.

Many say Li Keqiang entered the Communist Party with an ambition to contribute towards his country but was stifled by its rigid red-tapism. His exit has put a question mark on the future of the country's private sector as well as the wider economic reforms that he was championing, reported Singapore Post.

Experts believe that Li Keqiang might be the last premier of his type, whose economics-focused approach towards governance contrasted with Xi Jinping's ideological tone and authoritarian tendencies.

Li had already exited the ruling Communist Party's all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee last October, even though he was yet to reach retirement age, reported Singapore Post.

"Heaven is looking at what humans are doing. The firmament his eyes." This is what Li had to say while bidding farewell to 800 or so senior government officials.

Experts believe it was possible for Li Keqiang to stop Xi Jinping from "subverting" the spirit of the "reform and opening" policy launched in 1978, but he showed little courage, reported Singapore Post.

Li's replacement, Li Qiang, is considered a Xi crony, best known for his ruthless imposition of months-long Covid lockdown in Shanghai. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Manama [Bahrain], August 27 (ANI): Foreign Ministers of Arab countries have condemned and rejected all acts of violence and terrorism against civilians and the targeting of civilian infrastructure and facilities, in addition to all violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law by any party.

This comes in light of the Israel-Hamas war.

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A joint statement was on Thursday issued by the foreign ministers of Jordan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Kingdom of Bahrain, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Sultanate of Oman, the State of Qatar, the State of Kuwait, the Arab Republic of Egypt, and the Kingdom of Morocco.

The statement issued following the "Cairo Peace Summit" held in Cairo on October 21, condemned individual or collective forced displacement, as well as the policy of collective punishment.

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It emphasized that the absence of a political solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has led to repeated acts of violence and suffering for the Palestinian and Israeli people and the people of the region in general, stressing the importance of the international community, especially the Security Council, to assume its responsibilities in order to achieve peace in the Middle East.

The ministers called for genuine collective efforts to resolve the conflict through the implementation of the two-state solution on the basis of relevant United Nations resolutions, ensuring the establishment of an independent, sovereign Palestinian state with contiguous territory, viable for life on the pre-June 4, 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, as per a release issued by Bahrain's foreign ministry.

The Foreign ministers of Arab countries confirmed the rejection of any attempts to solve the Palestinian issue at the expense of the Palestinian people or the people of the region, or through displacing the Palestinian people by any means, as it is a grave violation of international humanitarian law and a war crime.

They affirmed the need for full adherence to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, especially when it comes to the responsibilities of the occupation, asserting the importance of the immediate release of civilian hostages and detainees, and ensuring that they are provided with safe, dignified and humane treatment consistent with international law, in addition to emphasising the role of the International Committee of the Red Cross in this regard, as per the official release.

The ministers in their joint statement emphasised that the right to self-defence guaranteed by the United Nations Charter does not justify flagrant violations of international law and international humanitarian law, or the deliberate neglect of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, including the right to self-determination, and the end of the decades-long occupation.

They called upon the Security Council to compel the parties to an immediate and sustainable ceasefire and emphasized that failure to recognise the flagrant violations of international humanitarian law serves as permission for the continuation of these practices and complicity in committing them.

The ministers demanded more efforts to ensure and facilitate fast, safe and sustainable access to humanitarian aid to Gaza without obstacles in accordance with relevant humanitarian principles, and to mobilize additional resources in cooperation with the United Nations and its affiliated organizations and agencies, especially UNRWA.

They expressed concern about the possibility of the current confrontations and conflict expanding to other regions in the Middle East, calling on all parties to exercise utmost restraint, and stressing that the expansion of this conflict will have serious consequences for the people of the region and for international peace and security.

Concern was also expressed about the escalation of violence in the West Bank, calling on the international community to support and strengthen the Palestinian National Authority, and to provide financial support to the Palestinian people through Palestinian institutions, as per the official release.

Recently, Palestine's permanent observer to the United Nations Riyad Mansour said that while the world body was holding a meeting, fellow Palestinians in Gaza were living in fear of bombs.

Voicing concern over the rising civilian death toll in Gaza, Mansour, in his address at the ongoing special session of the United Nations General Assembly, called on the international community to save lives.

Mansour said, "We are meeting here while Palestinians in Gaza are under the bombs. Remember, that you are speaking while families are being killed, while hospitals are coming to a halt, while neighbourhoods are being destroyed, while people are fleeing from one place to another with nowhere safe to go."

"I urge you to choose your words carefully and to act accordingly for all those mobilised against an even greater manmade humanitarian catastrophe or of a regional spillover and these are worthy goals we say stop the bombs or both will happen. Stop the bombs and save lives as the president of the general assembly has indicated all lives, lives of children, of civilians, of 2.3 million civilians in the Gaza Strip," he added. (ANI)

(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 27 (ANI): Israel has a right and responsibility to go after Hamas after what happened on October 7, White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications, John Kirby said on Thursday (local time).

Addressing a press briefing, Kirby said US President Joe Biden on Wednesday stressed the need to be careful while targeting Hamas leaders in a way that minimizes risk to civilians and collateral damage.

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Kirby's remarks come amid Israel's ongoing counter-offensive against Hamas after the latter launched coordinated attacks in southern Israel on October 7.

On claims that Hamas using Palestinians as human shields and reports that Israel was targeting places where they know that civilians will likely be killed, Kirby said, "I will let the Israeli defence forces speak to their operations and their targeting procedures were not involved in that. They have a right and a responsibility to go after Hamas after what happened on October 7th, and we've said, as I just mentioned to Peter, we've obviously had conversations with them about and the president said yesterday the need to be careful about causing civilian casualties and to be targeting Hamas leaders in a way that minimizes risk to civilians and to collateral damage.

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He added that President Joe Biden has never stopped affirming the need for a two-state solution since assuming office. Calling it a lofty goal, he noted that the US has been working hard on that.

Kirby said that the US has not stopped working towards that goal.

In response to a question about Biden's push for a humanitarian pause, he said, "The president has never backed away or never stopped affirming the need for a two-state solution since coming into office. We've been working on that very hard and I know it's a lofty goal and it's taking a lot of people a long time try to get there and we haven't gotten there. But he's not stopped working towards that goal. And he still believes, as he said yesterday, that when this conflict is over, that still has to be the goal."

On US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's remarks that there should be consideration made right now for humanitarian pauses, Kirby said, "We're driving to a state for Palestinians, that they can live in peace and security and justice. That is a strategic, long-term goal in a tactical sense. As Secretary Blinked said, we do think that there should be consideration made right now for humanitarian pauses. These are localized, temporary, specific pauses on the battlefield so that humanitarian assistance can get into people that need it, or the people can get out of that area in relative safety. That's what a humanitarian pause is. We think it's an idea worth exploring."

Earlier this week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said "humanitarian pauses" in the Gaza war must be considered in order to protect Palestinian civilians, The Times of Israel reported.

Blinken made the remarks in his address to a ministerial gathering of the UN Security Council on the Israel-Gaza crisis.

He called out the international community for failing to explicitly condemn the October 7 Hamas onslaught.

Bliken in his conversations with world leaders since the assault, stressed that there has been agreement that countries have a right and obligation to respond to terror attacks against their civilians but indicated that not all of them have acknowledged this publicly.

"It must be asked, Where's the outrage? Where's the revulsion? Where's the rejection? Where's the explicit condemnation of these horrors?" Blinken asked.

He called on the international community to do everything in their power to secure the release of more than 220 hostages in Gaza. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Absolute Land & Acreage Auction October 27th @ 10:00 AM LIVE AUCTION TO BE HELD AT THE BURKLEY FAMILY CENTER, 511 E ST. FAIRBURY, NE LOCATED IN THE HEARTLAND BANK BUILDING DOWNTOWN FAIRBURY, NE. The farmland and the acreage will be offered as separate tracts. Abbreviated Legal Description: A tract of land, consisting of 10 +/- acres, located in the Southeast Quarter (SE 1/4) of Section (27), Township (3) North, Range Three (3) East of the 6th P.M., Jefferson County, Nebraska. Final legal description of acreage will be determined by survey. Acreage Description: The property encompasses various structures, including an existing 2280 sq.ft. 1 1/2 story farmhouse with three bedrooms, one bathroom, a living room, dining room, and kitchen. Additionally, there are several outbuildings, such as a 72'X48' Morton machinery storage structure, a 29'X32' Granary, a barn, and a newer 30'X26' double car detached garage. This acreage is being offered for sale along with approximately 10 acres, more or less. If you wish to inspect the interior of the home, appointments are available. For exterior viewing, you are welcome to do so at your convenience during appropriate hours. Survey: The farmland and the acreage will be offered as separate tracts. If they are purchased separately, a survey will be conducted prior to closing to determine the exact boundary lines. The survey will be at the direction of the seller. The cost of the survey shall be shared equally between the buyer and the seller. The proposed boundary lines shall be the guide for the surveyor. The results of the survey shall be provided to both parties and shall serve as the basis for the final legal description.

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New Delhi [India], October 27 (ANI): External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday spoke over a telephone call with his Omani counterpart Sayyid Badr bin Hamad bin Hamood Albusaidi and discussed the ongoing situation between Israel and Hamas.

The leaders also discussed bilateral relations between India and Oman.

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Taking to X, Jaishankar said, "A good conversation with Omani Foreign Minister @badralbusaidi. Discussed our bilateral relations and exchanged views on the crisis in West Asia."

Earlier last week, Union Minister of External Affairs, V Muraleedharan concluded his official two-day visit to Oman from October 18 to 19, during which he held multiple bilateral meetings with top Oman ministers, said the Ministry of External Affairs.

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During his visit, Muraleedharan held a bilateral meeting with Said Al Saqri, Minister of Economy of Oman, in which he explored avenues of cooperation and discussed key aspects of India-Oman economic relations.

He also met with Mahad bin Said Baowain, Minister of Labour of Oman and discussed labour relations and skill development to enhance the wellbeing of Indian workers. Additionally, he also had a luncheon meeting with Sheikh Khalifa Al-Harthy, Undersecretary for Political Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Oman and discussed bilateral and regional issues of mutual interest.

In his meetings, he conveyed his deep appreciation to Sultan Haitham bin Tarik and the Government of Oman for ensuring the well-being of the vibrant Indian community in Oman, the external affairs ministry said.

In a key event, the minister inaugurated the iconic painting exhibition "India on Canvas: Masterpieces of Modern Indian Painting," a collection of specially curated 20 works of art from the collection of the National Gallery of Modern Art, exhibited in the National Museum of Oman. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Islamabad [Pakistan], October 27 (ANI): Nawaz Sharif's comments against women at his homecoming rally drew criticism during a Senate session, Dawn reported on Friday.

In his speech, Nawaz had compared PML-N's female supporters to another party's, suggesting that his supporters were more "respectful." Politicians and journalists, including former PTI MNA Maleeka Bokhari, condemned his remarks.

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"Where are our sisters? Look how respectfully our sisters are listening to this rally. There is no one dancing to music here. Do you understand what I am saying or not," he had said, according to Dawn, a Pakistani English daily.

Nawaz's remarks were criticised by politicians like ex-PTI MNA Maleeka Bokhari and journalists alike.

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The issue was raised in the Senate, with PTI's Senator Walid Iqbal addressing Nawaz's comments. He highlighted the importance of respecting women and referenced the late PML-N Senator Rana Maqbool as an example of such respect.

"(MQM head) Altaf Hussain also talked against women and had to apologise later," Iqbal added.

He also mentioned that Altaf Hussain had to apologise for his comments against women.

Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani requested that political statements be avoided, to which Iqbal clarified that he was not making a political statement.

Sexism within Pakistan's political system is not a new issue, and it has been observed in various political parties.

Dawn also cited instances where PML-N leaders made derogatory comments about women from opposing parties, and it also mentioned a rare example of the PPP taking action against a member for making inappropriate remarks about women.

"The women who attended the rally were not from honourable families because their dance moves implied where they had actually come from," Sanaullah had said.

Earlier, Fawad Chaudhry termed former Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar as a "low-IQ woman" whose claim to fame lies in her handbag and sunglasses.

Recently, there is only one pleasant example that comes to mind, when the PPP issued a show cause notice to Nabil Gabol and asked for an explanation after he joked about rape, Dawn reported. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New York [US], October 27 (ANI): Riyad Mansour, Palestine's permanent observer to the United Nations, on Thursday said while the world body was holding a meeting, fellow Palestinians in Gaza were living in fear of bombs.

Voicing concern over the rising civilian death toll in Gaza, Mansour, in his address at the ongoing special session of the United Nations General Assembly, called on the international community to save lives.

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Mansour said, "We are meeting here while Palestinians in Gaza are under the bombs. Remember, that you are speaking while families are being killed, while hospitals are coming to a halt, while neighbourhoods are being destroyed, while people are fleeing from one place to another with nowhere safe to go."

"I urge you to choose your words carefully and to act accordingly for all those mobilised against an even greater manmade humanitarian catastrophe or of a regional spillover and these are worthy goals we say stop the bombs or both will happen. Stop the bombs and save lives as the president of the general assembly has indicated all lives, lives of children, of civilians, of 2.3 million civilians in the Gaza Strip," he added.

Also Read | Israel-Hamas War: Israel Defence Forces Says It Carried Out Drone Strike Against Hezbollah Cell in Lebanon.

Further, in his emotional address, the Palestinian observer at the UN said 3,000 children have been killed in Hamas-controlled Gaza over the past three weeks.

"A man embraces his mother and pleads like a child come back I beg you come back and I will take you wherever you want. He hugs her and can't let go but there is no time to mourn. More death is on the way. 1,700 women were killed by Israel in the past two weeks," he said.

"If you do not stop it for all those who have been killed, stop it for all those who can be saved," he added, calling on the international community to vote to stop the killing.

"I appeal to all of you. Vote to stop the killing. Vote for humanitarian aid to reach those whose very survival depends on it. Vote to stop this madness you have a chance to do something to give an important signal. Choose justice, not vengeance choose to defend the law not justify itsbreach. Choose peace, not more wars," Mansour urged.

"Vote to put an end to two almost three weeks of the worst double standards we have seen in decades to restore some credibility of this place and the rules it is supposed to embody do not miss this chance lives are hanging in the balance and every life is sacred please save lives," he added.

Noting that Palestinians have survived 16 years of a blockade and five wars in Gaza, he stressed that the "answer to the killing of Israelis and Palestinians is not more killing", as he urged the United Nations membership to uphold UN principles and keep future generations from the scourge of war.

He said, "The only path forward is justice for the Palestinian people." (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
London [UK], October 27 (ANI): UK Conservative MP Theresa Anne Villiers met members of the Jammu and Kashmir diaspora in the British House of Commons to mark the anniversary of Jammu and Kashmir's accession to India.

Villiers said she raised concerns, this week, regarding human rights abuses committed against Hindus and other minority communities in Pakistan.

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The members of the Jammu and Kashmir diaspora, who participated in the meeting with Theresa Anne Villiers, included Ajatshatru Singh, Ritu Singh and Sushil Pandit. Villiers noted that it has been 76 years since the accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India.

In a post on Facebook, Theresa Anne Villiers stated, "It is exactly 76 years since the accession of the state of Jammu & Kashmir to India on 26th Oct 1947. I met members of the Jammu & Kashmir diaspora in Parliament last night at an event to mark this important anniversary."

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"The special guests for the evening included Maharaja Ajatshatru Singh and Ritu Singh from the royal family that formerly ruled Jammu & Kashmir. Another of the distinguished panel of speakers was Sushil Pandit who highlighted the plight of Hindu Kashmiri Pandit community, many of whom who were forced out of their homes in the Kashmir Valley in 1990. This side of the Kashmir question does not get sufficient attention in Parliament. I hope to try to remedy that. This week in Parliament I also raised concerns about human rights abuses committed against Hindus and other minority communities in Pakistan," she noted in the post.

The House of Commons celebrated Jammu and Kashmir Day on the eve of the 76th anniversary of the Accession of the then princely state to India on October 26, 1947.

The programme, organised by the Jammu Kashmir diaspora based in the UK, was hosted by Rt Hon Bob Blackman, MP Harrow East. The special guests for the evening included, among others, Ajatshatru Singh and Ritu Singh from the erstwhile royal family of Jammu and Kashmir.

Among the other keynote speakers were Gautam Sen, Sushil Pandit and Mr Sajjad Raja, NEP Party representing Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK).

The proceedings were inaugurated by UK MP Jonathan Lord, who welcomed the royals from Jammu and Kashmir and other guests and audience. Gautam Sen spoke about the plight of Kashmiri Pandits and the lack of political will to support their rehabilitation and he attributed this to the vote bank politics highlighting that the Pandit community, being small in number, does not have a political voice.

Sajjad Raja spoke about the atrocities on Hindus and Sikhs during the partition and strongly argued that Pakistan was not a party to the Jammu & Kashmir issue, as they were the aggressors who invaded and forcibly occupied PoK in 1947.

Ajatshatru Singh spoke about the Dogra dynasty and their contribution to the establishment and expansion of Jammu & Kashmir. He also underlined then Maharaja, Hari Singh's role in signing the instrument of accession with India.

Theresa spoke about the importance of Jammu Kashmir Day and also highlighted the significant progress made by the region since the revocation of Article 370.

Sushil Pandit raised the injustice being done to the Kashmiri Pandit community and also highlighted the apathy of the establishment in fulfilling the aspirations of the community.

Bob Blackman brought with him a signed copy of the Instrument of Accession and highlighted the contribution of the diaspora community in celebrating the day year after year in the House of Commons. He urged Pakistan to stop state-sponsored terrorism in the region so there is lasting peace and progress in the region.

Ritu Singh spoke about the erstwhile Royal Family's contribution to Jammu and Kashmir. She also talked about a number of social and cultural initiatives in the region specifically aimed at woman empowerment, skills development and preservation of craft and culture. (ANI)

(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 27 (ANI): The United States announced a latest USD 150 million for arms and equipment military aid package to bolster Kyiv to fight and succeed against Russia.

The US government in a latest package announces arms and equipment which includes air defense, artillery, anti-tank, and other capabilities, said a press statement from US Department of State.

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The US Secreatry of State, Antony Blinken said in a statement on Thursday, "This new package of arms and equipment includes air defense, artillery, anti-tank, and other capabilities which will further enhance Ukraine's capacity to defend its territory against Russian offensives while continuing its counter-offensive against Russia's forces. Ukraine's forces are fighting bravely to reclaim territory seized by Russia's forces, and this additional support will help them continue making progress. This package provides USD 150 million of arms and equipment authorized under previously directed drawdowns for Ukraine."

US while reiterating its support for the war torn Ukraine noted that the US and its ally partners will continue to support Ukraine until the Russia withdraw its forces from the country.

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Quoting the statement, "Russia started this war and could end it at any time by withdrawing its forces from Ukraine and stopping its brutal attacks, which continue to take the lives of innocent people. Until it does, the United States and the coalition we have built of more than 50 nations will continue to stand with Ukraine, and we will continue to work with Congress to help Ukraine secure its future - a future in which its people rebuild and live safely in a resilient and thriving democracy."

On August 14, United States government announced security assistance of USD 200 million for Ukraine which continues to defend its territory and protect its people.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a US State Department statement that the package, which is valued at USD 200 million, includes air defence munitions, artillery rounds, anti-armour capabilities, and additional mine-clearing equipment.

Moreover, In July this year, the US government announced a 1.3 billion USD military aid package for Ukraine -- during its ongoing conflict with Russia -- including air defence systems and attack drones.

According to the US Department of Defence, the package includes four more National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS), medium-range air defence batteries that have helped Ukraine withstand ongoing Russian barrages of missiles and drones.Notably, it is the same system that is used to protect Washington DC and the area around the US capital.

The package will give Kyiv a total of 12 NASAMS. The US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said last November that the NASAMS had a 100 per cent success rate in intercepting Russian attacks, CNN reported.

Lloyd Austin, United States Secretary of Defense on July 18 said following an international meeting of countries providing aid to Ukraine "Make no mistake: We are determined to support Ukraine's fight for freedom for as long as it takes." (ANI)

(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 27 (ANI): US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken hosted Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in continuation of meetings of between US and Chinese officials to maintain open communication between two countries, said US Department of State.

The meeting which was held on Thursday in Washington, was a reciprocal meeting after the US Secretary's visit to Beijing.

Also Read | TikTok Prankster in UK Banned From Social Media: Bacari-Bronze OGarro Aka Mizzy, Who Does Invasive Pranks, Prohibited From Uploading Videos on YouTube, Instagram and Other Platforms; May Face Jail for Violation.

As per the press statement the meeting was focused on responsibly handling the US-china relations and discussing a range of bilateral, regional, and global issues, including addressing areas of difference as well as exploring areas of cooperation.

The US department of State spokesperson, Mathew Miller said in a statement, "Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken hosted PRC Director of the CCP Central Foreign Affairs Commission and Foreign Minister Wang Yi for an official visit today in Washington. The meeting was part of a reciprocal visit following the Secretary's travel to Beijing and recent high-level meetings as part of ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication and responsibly manage U.S.-China relations."

Also Read | Israel-Hamas War: When Will Humanity Wake Up, Says Priyanka Gandhi on 7,000 Killed in Gaza.

The statement added, "The Secretary and Director and Foreign Minister Wang discussed a range of bilateral, regional, and global issues, including addressing areas of difference as well as exploring areas of cooperation. The Secretary reiterated that the United States will continue to stand up for our interests and values and those of our allies and partners."

Meanwhile, the Secretary Blinken also expressed grief over the passing of former Chinese premier Li Keqiang.

Earlier in June, Chinese President Xi Jinping meets the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Beijing.

In an unannounced and rare meeting, the Chinese Leader extends his hand to greet America's top diplomat and sat down for a half-an-hour-long meeting along with the respective delegates.

Blinken who was on a 2-day visit to Beijing after cancelling the scheduled trip in February this year also held an almost 10-hour-long meeting with his then counterpart Qin Gang and then China's foreign affairs adviser Wang Yi. (ANI)

(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 27 (PTI) A White House Commission has recommended issuing an employment authorisation card and other necessary travel documents at the preliminary stage of the Green Card application processing system, a proposal if approved by the US president would be a big relief to thousands of foreign professionals, an overwhelming majority of whom are Indians.

A recommendation on this was approved by the White House Commission for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Affairs on Thursday.

Also Read | Israel-Hamas War: 50 Hostages Killed in Israeli Air Strikes in Gaza Strip, Says Palestinian Group.

A Green Card, known officially as a Permanent Resident Card, is a document issued to immigrants to the US as evidence that the bearer has been granted the privilege of residing permanently.

There are multiple stages in the Green Card application process, and it starts with employers filing I-140 applications, and the next important step is an adjustment of status called I485.

Also Read | Li Keqiang Dies: Former Chinese Premier and Top Economic Official for a Decade Passes Away After Heart Attack at 68.

This is when they currently get their Employment Authorisation Card - EAD and travel documents Advance Parole, which allows them to work for any employer till their Green Card application is processed, explained Indian American community leader Ajay Jain Bhutoria who moved the recommendation during the latest meeting of AANHPI this week.

If the proposal accepted by US President Joe Biden would come as a big relief to hundreds and thousands of foreign professionals, an overwhelming majority of whom are Indian Americans whose Green Card wait period now runs into decades. During the meeting, Bhutoria, who is a member of the White House Commissioner for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Affairs moved the recommendation.

According to it, the Department of Homeland Security's US Citizenship and Immigration Services (DHS USCIS) should grant employment authorisation documents (EADs) and travel documents to individuals who have approved I-140 employment-based visa petitions in the EB-1, EB-2, EB-3 categories, who have been waiting in the visa backlog for five or more years, regardless of whether they have filed applications for adjustment of status.

The validity of the EAD and travel documents should be till their Green card application final stage is processed, said the recommendation, which now has been accepted by the Commission.

Since only a limited number of green cards can be issued every year, there is a backlog of over 1.8 million Green Card applications and this impacts primarily people from AAPI countries including China, the Philippines, and India, among others.

Processing may take 5-20 years and in some cases over 50 years. Based on the current backlog situation, people may not get their green cards in their lifetime, Bhutoria said.

So the worker has to continue working for the same employer often in the same position for many years facing discrimination and exploitation, he said, adding that often they end up working for positions and compensation much lower than their skills, potential and experience.

Job portability is very low and one cannot easily switch from one employer

to another employer, and this creates pressure, dissatisfaction, and unhappiness on individuals and their families, Bhutoria said.

This in turn leads to mental health issues in AAPI communities, the uncertainty and risk of losing the job and leaving this country is very high, often jeopardising kids' school and college education, he noted, adding a worker has to perform under such difficult circumstances.

According to Bhutoria, the implementation of the recommendations would enable freedom of movement between employers without restrictions, benefiting both workers and the economy, facilitate travel by obtaining advance parole, avoid visa appointment backlogs at the US embassies and support care for ageing parents in home countries.

It would also address workforce shortages, particularly in critical areas like healthcare and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields, bridging gaps in rural communities and providing coverage for specialised jobs, he said.

It would offer protection against deportation in times of health crises leading to disability or death of spouse on H-1B, ensuring fair and humane treatment and mitigating wage stagnation, enhancing career opportunities, and reducing the burden of temporary status, leading to improved mental health and well-being for immigrants and their families, he added.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. Technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.

The recommendation has the potential to bring about historic changes in the US immigration system, benefiting both the nation and highly skilled foreign-born individuals eager to contribute to the United States," Bhutoria said during the meeting of the Immigration subcommittee.

"By encouraging entrepreneurship, addressing workforce gaps, and promoting innovation, the United States stands to gain significant economic advantages, solidifying its position as a global hub for talent and innovation, he said.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New Delhi, October 27: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday spoke to his Omani counterpart Badr Albusaidi and discussed the ongoing crisis in West Asia that was triggered by the unprecedented attacks on the Israeli cities by Hamas militants on October 7. In a post on 'X', Albusaidi said he emphasised the critical need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

The external affairs minister described the conversation as "good". "A good conversation with Omani Foreign Minister @badralbusaidi. Discussed our bilateral relations and exchanged views on the crisis in West Asia," Jaishankar said in a post on 'X'. Israel-Hamas Conflict: EAM S Jaishankar Speaks to Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan on Grave Situation in Middle East.

Albusaidi said respecting international law is an obligation for all. "I emphasised the critical need for an immediate cease fire in #Gaza and a good flow of humanitarian aid. Respect for international law is an obligation for all to save thousands of civilian lives. Stop the war now," he said.

An increasing number of Arab countries have been pitching for a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel. Previously, Jaishankar had discussed the situation in West Asia with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and his counterpart from the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Israel-Hamas War: When Will Humanity Wake Up, Says Priyanka Gandhi on 7,000 Killed in Gaza.

More than 1,400 people were killed in the unprecedented attacks on Israel by Hamas on October 7. Hamas has held more than 220 people hostage in Gaza. According to authorities in Gaza, around 6,500 people have been killed in retaliatory strikes by Israel.

There has been mounting global concerns over the plight of civilians in Gaza in view of Israel's punitive air strikes. India on October 22 sent more than 38 tonnes of relief material including medicines and medical equipment for the people of Palestine.
New Delhi, October 27: With almost 7,000 people killed in Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Friday said there was no international law which has not been "violated" and asked "when will humanity wake UP. In a post in Hindi on X, Priyanka Gandhi said, "Even after the killing of 7,000 people in Gaza, the cycle of bloodshed and violence did not stop. Out of these 7,000 people, 3,000 were innocent children."

She asserted that there is no international law which has not been violated. "There is no such dignity which has not been violated. There is no such rule which has not been flouted," the Congress leader said. Israel-Hamas War: 50 Hostages Killed in Israeli Air Strikes in Gaza Strip, Says Palestinian Group.

"When will humanity wake up? After losing so many lives. After sacrificing so many children. Is the consciousness of being human left? Did it ever exist?" Priyanka Gandhi asked. Her remarks came a day after Gaza released the name of 7,000 people who died in the Israel Hamas war. Israel-Hamas War: Missile Strikes Building in Egypts Taba Near Israeli Border, At Least Five People Injured.

Fighting in the Gaza Strip has entered day 21 after Hamas members launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing at least 1,400 people on October 7. Since the October 7 Hamas attack, Gaza's health ministry has said that Israel's retaliatory bombardments have killed more than 7,000 Palestinians.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 27, 2023 10:18 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
The ceasefire violation from the Pakistan side started around 8 pm, the BSF informed further. A local told ANI that he was witness to a heavy exchange of fire between the BSF troopers and the Rangers around 8 pm and it was still "going on".
Zhuang people in S China's Guangxi celebrate Frost's Descent Festival with dance rituals

People's Daily Online) 11:17, October 27, 2023

Photo shows a scene of the fifth Dalang (trough-beating) dance competition in Tiandeng county, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. (Photo courtesy of the convergence media center of Tiandeng county)

The Frost's Descent Festival, a festival to celebrate autumn harvest, kicked off in Tiandeng county, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Oct. 24.

The fifth Dalang (trough-beating) dance competition was held during the festival. Dalang dance is a folk dance featuring performers using wooden pestles to beat wooden troughs rhythmically while dancing to the music. The trough is a type of primitive agricultural instrument used by the ancestors of the Zhuang people for threshing rice, pounding rice, and making glutinous rice cakes.

Dating back nearly 1,400 years, Dalang dance was listed as an intangible cultural heritage item in Guangxi in 2010. During important festivals such as the Spring Festival and the Frost's Descent Festival, people perform the dance to pray for a good harvest, good weather, and a better life.

Over 1,000 people of the Zhuang ethnic group clad in traditional costumes from across the county, including elementary school students, formed 17 teams to present their distinctive dancing steps.

"Through today's event, I personally experienced how Dalang dance has been passed down and promoted across all age groups. This inspires me to continue striving to spread this intangible cultural heritage item," said Lu Donghua, an inheritor of Dalang dance.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
Representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency will hold a public meeting at Broadwater Elementary School at 6 p.m. on Nov. 1 to provide updates on the Billings PCE Superfund Site, including current and planned sampling and cleanup efforts.

Primary topics of discussion include an overview of potential contaminants of concern within the site study area, this falls sampling and monitoring efforts, recent time-critical removal activities and the Superfund process. Residents and property owners are welcomed to ask questions throughout the meeting.

The meeting will be hosted by EPA staff and contractors and attended by representatives from Montana Department of Environmental Quality and Montana Department of Health and Human Services.

The Billings PCE Superfund Site is a 976-acre plume of shallow groundwater contamination  consisting mainly of chlorinated solvents from historic laundry and dry-cleaning businesses  extending from 24th and Central Avenue approximately three miles, east-northeast, through several mixed-use neighborhoods to the east of downtown Billings.

While groundwater is not used for drinking water in Billings, chlorinated solvents in the groundwater can vaporize and seep into homes and businesses, causing potential indoor air concerns that could adversely affect human health.

In September 2021, EPA added the area to the Superfund National Priorities List, making it eligible for federal funding to expand environmental investigation and cleanup activities. Since then, EPA has worked with the city of Billings, state agencies and contractors to conduct cleanup efforts, sample groundwater and indoor air and characterize the extent of the groundwater contamination.

Major highlights from this year include screening 146 structures with EPAs mobile laboratory, sampling existing groundwater wells and 12 existing residential irrigation wells, and installing vapor mitigation systems for 15 impacted structures.

Another 10 vapor mitigation system installations are planned beginning Nov. 1. EPA anticipates releasing a proposed plan in 2024.

Information about the site, including timelines, operable units and cleanup efforts, is available on the EPA Superfund page.
Mumbai Police have found half-burnt body of a woman from Wadala area. According to reports, the body was found in a bag near the Goods Vehicle Track at the Bombay Port Trust. The Wadala police have initiated the process of filing a murder case against an unknown accused, and launched probe into the matter. Ahmedabad Shocker: Man Murders Gay Partner for Refusing to End Relationship, Dumps Body in Bushes in Chandkheda; Arrested.

Mumbai Crime

Mumbai: We have recovered the half-burnt body of an unidentified woman from the Wadala area. Our patrolling team at Mumbai Port Trust had found a suspicious bag that contained a burned body. We sent the body for postmortem. Case of murder registered against an unknown accused and  ANI (@ANI) October 27, 2023

(SocialLY brings you all the latest breaking news, viral trends and information from social media world, including Twitter, Instagram and Youtube. The above post is embeded directly from the user's social media account and LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body. The views and facts appearing in the social media post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY, also LatestLY does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.)
A press release going viral on social media allegedly claims that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has cancelled the license of Abhyudaya Co-operative Bank Ltd. The press release also has a date mentioned of October 25. The release claims RBI has cancelled the license of Abhyudaya Co-operative Bank Ltd. However, per a fact check by PIB, the press release is fake. "RBI has not issued any such Press release," PIB said while debunking the fake news. Indian Railways Offering 29,000 Vacancies for Assistant Loco Pilot and Technicians Posts? PIB Fact Check Reveals Truth About Viral Advertisement.

This Press Release is Fake

A Press Release, dated 25 October 2023, being shared online, alleges that @RBI has canceled the license of Abhyudaya Co-operative Bank Ltd.#PIBFactCheck This Press Release is fake RBI has not issued any such Press release For more info visit: https://t.co/JYZWP4HLyW pic.twitter.com/QSmdMmqMaI  PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) October 27, 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.)
Ratcheting up the battle over a vital energy industry, the U.S. Commerce Department decided to impose tariffs on solar panels imported from China after concluding that manufacturers there received illegal government subsidies.

The Commerce Department, in its preliminary finding over illegal subsidies, said solar panels imported from China  now dominating the U.S. market  would face a duty of 2.9% to 4.73%.

The tariff is considerably smaller than what some had hoped for but nonetheless marks another step by the Obama administration to get tougher on trade with China. It also highlights efforts aimed at supporting U.S jobs and a renewable energy future.

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Additional tariffs could be imposed in mid-May when the Commerce Department is expected to determine whether China has been dumping the panels in the U.S. at below-cost prices.

Some American lawmakers and solar firms hailed the finding on illegal subsidies, saying the new tariffs will help create a more-level playing field for the domestic solar market, which has been growing rapidly despite the bankruptcy of some panel makers. The high-profile failure of solar equipment maker Solyndra of Fremont, Calif., was attributed in part to a sudden influx of low-cost Chinese panels.

The Commerce Department decision is a signal that Chinas unfair trade practices in the solar energy industry may soon be remedied, said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who heads a Senate Finance subcommittee on international trade.

The senator recently released a report detailing the widening U.S. trade deficit with China on environmental goods such as solar panels.

Gordon Brinser, president of SolarWorld Industries America, which with six other U.S. firms filed the trade case with the Commerce Department, said the decision would help restore fair competition and advance the U.S. solar industrys reach for greater national energy, economic and environmental security.

Experts, though, said the tariffs, which range from 2.9% to 4.73% to correspond to the amount of Chinese subsidies found, arent big enough to have a major effect on the market.

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This is a modest one that should be viewed as an indication that more is to come, said Tom Soto, co-founder and managing partner of Craton Equity Partners, a Los Angeles clean-technology fund.

Although nobody knew how much in loans, land, tax breaks and other subsidies Chinese producers received from the government, the basic assumption had been that the total was large, at least in the double digits.

This really for the first time sheds light on the amount of support they give to the solar industry, said Rhone Resch, chief executive of the Solar Energy Industries Assn. Based on the Commerce Departments findings, he said, the subsidies are not very much.

The tariffs brought statements akin to words of vindication from such Chinese firms as Suntech Power Holdings Co., the worlds largest solar panel maker, with headquarters in Wuxi, China.

On Wall Street, shares of Chinese solar panel makers soared, and there was a collective sigh of relief on the part of developers of solar panels in the U.S., who feared that large duties would undermine the surging growth in solar developments by sharply increasing global prices or triggering a trade war.

Im relieved the tariffs are as modest as they are, said Tony Clifford, chief executive of Standard Solar, a solar projects developer and installer based in Rockville, Md. He said he buys a majority of his panels from Chinese makers.

But referring to the anti-dumping case, Clifford said: Were still waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Commerce Department officials said they had notified their Chinese counterparts Tuesday of the preliminary decision on illegal subsidies. There was no immediate comment from Chinese officials, but in the past, some have bristled at the threat of duties imposed on green-technology manufacturers that Beijing sees as crucial for its economic security.

China controls about 50% of the U.S. market for solar panels. The Commerce Department said Chinese imports of solar panels totaled $3.1 billion last year, up from $640 million in 2009.

Experts said the U.S. remained the leader in solar cell technology, but China has made significant strides in boosting its exports of both solar cells and panels  and drawing U.S. companies such as Applied Materials to set up major solar research operations in China.

The new tariffs apply to solar panels and cells made in China, as well as panels made in other countries that have Chinese-made cells.

For Obama, Tuesdays decision is the latest in a series of recent moves aimed at stepping up the pressure on China in an election year.

Last week his administration took action with the World Trade Organization to press China to halt its export restrictions of rare earth minerals, which are crucial for such green technologies as hybrid vehicles and wind turbines. And earlier, Obama formed a new trade enforcement unit to crack down on violators, specifically naming China as a potential target.

More recently Obama has come under fire from Republican opponents as oil prices have soared.

On Wednesday, he is scheduled to travel to Boulder City, Nev., where he will visit the Copper Mountain Solar 1 Facility, the largest photovoltaic plant operating in the country. The president will highlight his efforts to expand renewable energy from sources like wind and solar, which his administration has supported with government investments.

Chinese analysts have said such U.S. investments are essentially subsidies, not unlike the ones for which the Chinese have been under scrutiny. Thats raised concerns that China could retaliate by imposing tariffs on U.S. goods to China, including certain solar products.

Within the clean-tech sector, theres always been this love-hate relationship with subsidies, said Craton Equitys Soto.

Tuesdays decision, he said, is clearly an indication that the governments of the United States and China need to have a frank and open discussion on what their relationship is going to be with respect to trade and on renewable technologies like solar.

don.lee@latimes.com

andrea.chang@latimes.com

Times staff writers Lisa Mascaro in Washington and David Pierson in Beijing contributed to this report.
On 26 October Colombias human rights ombudsman warned that there is a risk of unrest in 133 municipalities during the 29 October regional and municipal elections.

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On 26 October Brazils Southeastern Military Command requested the arrest of six soldiers suspected of being involved in the theft of 21 machine guns from an armoury in Barueri municipality, in the state of Sao Paulo.

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Hurricane Otis has slammed into Mexico and absolutely devastated the resort city of Acapulco, and the damage and death toll have been severe.

Hurricane Otis went from tropical storm to Category 5 hurricane in just 12 hours, catching many in Mexico off-guard. As it slammed to Acapulco, it not only flooded streets and blew off the roofs of buildings, but it also cut off communications, electricity, and road access.

As for Hurricane Otis' death toll, 27 people have been killed while government officials told Reuters that four people are still currently missing. Search and rescue efforts are still underway in Acapulco and nearby areas around Guerrero State.

"What Acapulco suffered was really disastrous," said President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador during his press conference in the devastated city. He added that the storm battered Mexico with winds of 165 miles per hour (266 kph).

Erik Lozoya, a professional magician who survived "three hours of horror," as Otis ravaged southern Mexico, spoke with Reuters and stated that while taking refuge in an Acapulco hotel room with his wife and baby daughters, he explained that the "hurricane smashed through the windows and swept through the building with a deafening intensity."

The family was able to survive but are now among the many who survived the powerful storm. As for how much damage Hurricane Otis caused, experts estimate that it is "likely approaching $15 billion."

Acapulco Still Reeling After Hurricane Otis Made Landfall

Those who live in Acapulco are still reeling as tens of thousands suffered damage to their homes and many are still left without any power. AMLO revealed that "every power-line pole in the zone" has been toppled. However, the devastation could have been much worse.

READ MORE: Hurricane Otis Slams Into Mexico, Causes Landslides; NHC Warns of 'Nightmare Scenario'

"The people sheltered, protected themselves and that's why fortunately there weren't more tragedies, loss of human life," said AMLO, who also explained that Acapulco's municipal water system was down and that restoring power back to the 500,000 homes that lost it was the government's top priority for now.

Hurricane Otis also devastated several farms along Guerrero State, with the storms destroying corn crops due to its deadly winds, according to The Oregonian. However, the loss of life and the death toll were where it hurt most.

Where Is Hurricane Otis Heading Next After Devastating Southern Mexico?

Since hitting Acapulco, Hurricane Otis has since weakened to a Category 2, which is still regarded quite powerful. It was last located northwest of Acapulco and is heading further inland, according to The Independent.

As it heads northeast, it will run into the steep mountains of Guerrero State where it is expected to lose even more power. By Wednesday night, it is expected to dissipate but a tropical storm warning has been issued to other areas, such as Punta Maldonado.

As it moves inland, Hurricane Otis is expected to affect other areas in Guerrero state, as well as Oaxaca, as it may cause "severe flooding."

READ MORE: Mike Johnson: 3 Things You Probably Didn't Know About New US House Speaker

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: Scenes of Hurricane Otis devastation from the 21st floor of an Acapulco hotel - NBC News
In a horrifying incident that unfolded on Wednesday night, a Maine mass shooting left at least eighteen people dead and thirteen others injured, according to a statement from Governor Janet Mills on Thursday.

The state has been gripped by fear as law enforcement launched an extensive manhunt for the suspected Maine mass shooter, identified as Robert Card, per CBS News Boston.

As investigators delve into the motive behind the devastating shootings, sources have indicated that Card may have been targeting a specific individual, possibly a current or former girlfriend.

However, it remains uncertain whether this individual was present at either of the two locations where the shootings occurred.

Residents in more than a dozen communities, primarily in Lewiston and its surrounding towns, were urged to stay indoors and secure their homes while authorities scoured the area for the suspect, Yahoo! News noted.

Robert Card, the alleged shooter, is a 40-year-old Army reservist who had recently been committed to a mental health facility. A vehicle believed to be associated with Card was discovered in nearby Lisbon.

READ NEXT: California Mass Shooting Death Toll Reaches 11

Maine Mass Shootings

The gruesome events unfolded at two separate locations in Lewiston: the Just In Time Recreation bowling alley and Schemengees Bar & Grille, CNBC reported.

The bowling alley bore witness to seven fatalities, while eight lives were tragically lost at the bar. Three additional victims succumbed to their injuries at the hospital.

These two establishments are situated approximately 12 minutes apart by car.

On Thursday evening, Steve Littleson, CEO of Central Maine Medical Center, provided an update on the victims' conditions, with eight individuals remaining hospitalized.

Five of them were reported to be in stable condition, while three were listed in critical condition.

In response to the Maine mass shootings, President Joe Biden engaged with various Maine officials, including Governor Mills, Senator Angus King, Senator Susan Collins, and Representative Jared Golden.

The White House has extended federal support to local and state law enforcement agencies.

President Biden used the opportunity to call for bipartisan cooperation in enacting stricter gun control measures, including a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, universal background checks, safe storage requirements for firearms, and the end of legal immunity for gun manufacturers.

During a press conference on Thursday, Representative Jared Golden issued an apology for his previous stance against an assault weapon ban and pledged to work toward its implementation.

Maine Mass Shooter, Robert Card

Robert Card, the suspect in the Maine mass shooting, hails from Bowdoin, Maine, a town near Lewiston. He is described as 5'11" tall and weighing 230 pounds, according to CBS News.

Card had attended the University of Maine as an engineering student, though it remains unclear whether he graduated from the institution.

Additionally, Card has connections to Massachusetts, though the exact nature of these ties remains shrouded in uncertainty.

Notably, he is enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve and possesses an active military ID, which grants him access to military bases.

Contrary to initial reports, it has been clarified that Card was not a firearms instructor in the Army Reserve stationed in Saco, Maine.

The alleged shooter had recently exhibited signs of mental health issues, including hearing voices, and had made threats related to a military base in Saco.

Reports indicate that he had been committed to a mental health facility for a two-week period over the summer.

In mid-July, leaders of the U.S. Army Reserve's 3rd battalion had raised concerns about Card's erratic behavior while stationed at the Camp Smith training site in Cortlandt, New York.

This occurred during their training at the U.S. Military Academy.

READ MORE: Ex-Mayo Clinic Poison Specialist Poisons Wife

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Written by: Bert Hoover

WATCH: At least 22 killed in Maine mass shooting - From KTVU FOX 2 San Francisco
The Venezuela elections will now officially be Nicolas Maduro vs. Maria Corina Machado after the opposition resoundingly chose her as Maduro's next challenger during the primary election. However, the Venezuelan government is at it again as it has launched a criminal investigation into the opposition primary.

The Venezuelan government claimed that there was alleged fraud during the vote last Sunday, which was organized without any help from the state. It attracted over 2.3 million voters, according to independent and international observers, but the government is disputing those numbers.

Venezuela's Attorney General Tarek Saab was the one who announced the criminal investigation over the alleged fraud, though winner Maria Corina Machado has repeatedly insisted that the voting was transparent and fair, according to Reuters.

"This is the reaction to the monumental challenge to the regime that were the primaries," she said on X (formerly Twitter), with the former lawmaker adding, "We Venezuelans participated in an exemplary citizen election, the results of which we all trust."

However, as it pursues this action, Venezuela may incur the wrath of the US as the Maduro regime struck a deal with the Biden administration that Venezuela would hold free and fair elections without any state interference. The US agreed to ease a few sanctions as Venezuela allows the opposition to choose its own candidate to challenge Maduro and allow international observers to look at the elections.

As for Machado, she has been banned by the Maduro government from holding public office, and the deal with the US does not rescind her ban. Despite this, she still ran and won an overwhelming majority.

READ MORE: Venezuelan Migrants Score Big Win as Joe Biden Grants Legal Status To 450,000 Asylum Seekers

Nicolas Maduro Government Still Casts Doubt Into Venezuela Opposition Primary

Machado won approximately 93% of the vote in a massive and historic landslide victory as voters defied expectations even in strongholds of the ruling party loyal to Maduro. Many Venezuelans lined up for hours under the scorching sun just to vote in polling places that ranged from private schools to normal residential homes.

Despite images and videos of the massive turnout, the government is still claiming fraud and risking more sanctions from the US. National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez reportedly argued that the turnout was "mathematically impossible," according to the Associated Press.

Meanwhile, the Venezuela AG is not just looking into claims of fraud but also into "money laundering allegations."

Maria Corina Machado Faces Tall Task as She Faces Nicolas Maduro in 2024

Machado beating Maduro is a tall task given that the West has accused him of rigging the previous election and further plunging Venezuela into a national crisis.

Even if she wins, she would be facing a massive exodus of Venezuelans fleeing their homes in a migration crisis, as well as other socio-economic problems.

Despite this, Machado remains hopeful. In a previous interview with The Guardian, the former lawmaker stated, "I think the regime knows, and it's clear to everyone, that I will beat Maduro by a landslide," before adding, "That's precisely why they are acting desperately and committed this huge mistake. It's going to backfire."

READ MORE: Mexico Files Diplomatic Complaint After Texas Breaks Boundaries Treaty With Floating Barriers

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: Venezuela's Election: A Dictatorship or a Real Democracy? - TLDR News
The leader of a prominent Mexico megachurch, currently serving a prison sentence of over 16 years in a California prison after sexually abusing young followers, is now facing additional federal charges related to a 16-year-old girl, as announced by prosecutors.

Naason Joaquin Garcia, 54, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles on two charges: possession and production of child pornography, according to a statement from the US attorney's office, AP reports.

The indictment is the result of the discovery that, at the time of his 2019 arrest in California, Garcia was in possession of an iPad containing five videos depicting the then-teenaged girl engaged in sexual activity.

The US attorney's office clarified that they had refrained from indicting Garcia until after the conclusion of the state case.

The leader of La Luz del Mundo (The Light of the World), the Mexico megachurch boasting 5 million followers worldwide, is often considered the "apostle" of Jesus Christ by its adherents.

However, prosecutors in California assert that Garcia exploited his spiritual influence to engage in sexual relations with girls and young women, who were told that compliance would secure their salvation while refusal would result in damnation.

READ NEXT: Mexico: 7 Dead After Church Roof Collapses

Mexico Megachurch Leader Pleads Guilty to Several Charges Last Year

Garcia is currently incarcerated at the California Institution for Men in Chino after pleading guilty to two state charges of forcible oral copulation with minors and one count of a lewd act involving a 15-year-old child.

In exchange, California prosecutors dropped 16 additional counts, including allegations of child and women rape, as well as human trafficking for the production of child pornography, according to NBC 4.

The church defended Garcia's guilty plea, contending that he believed he would not receive a fair trial due to alleged evidence withholding and tampering by prosecutors and that the agreement would expedite his release.

However, victims who spoke at Garcia's trial objected to the plea deal, deeming it too lenient.

In the event of a conviction on the federal charges, Garcia could face 15 to 30 years in federal prison for child pornography production and up to 10 years for its possession.

The determination of whether these sentences would run concurrently or consecutively with his state sentence would rest with a judge, according to the US attorney's office.

La Luz del Mundo and Naason Joaquin Garcia

Previously, Naason Joaquin Garcia served as a pastor of a Protestant church in Santa Ana before taking over the leadership of La Luz del Mundo in Mexico in 2014, per US Today News.

The church, founded in 1926, has adherents across approximately 50 countries globally.

Despite his state court guilty plea, Garcia enjoys widespread support within the church, with his supporters viewing the case as an effort to besmirch his reputation and vowing to continue backing him during his incarceration.

Garcia reached out to church members by phone from prison in September, stating, "He didn't see the bars that separate me from you."

While Naason Joaquin Garcia's plea agreement stirred controversy and disappointment among some alleged survivors of church sexual abuse, prosecutors welcomed the outcome.

Concerns were raised regarding its perceived leniency and the potential chilling effect it could have on other victims who might hesitate to report assaults after witnessing the intimidation and harassment of those who came forward.

A documentary series released last year scrutinized the Mexico megachurch's history and influence, featuring interviews with former members who recounted years of abuse by La Luz del Mundo's leaders.

READ MORE: Experts Reveal Reconstructed Face of Peru's Famous Mummy

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Bert Hoover

WATCH: Mexican megachurch leader charged with federal child pornography - From KCAL NEWS
Drama unfolded during House Speaker Mike Johnson's first day on the job as a motion to censure GOP firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene was filed after she tried getting Rep, Rashida Tlaib censured.

Greene accused Tlaib of recently inciting an insurrection in a House office building and "antisemitic activity, sympathizing with terrorist organizations and leading an insurrection at the United States Capitol Complex" despite herself having a long history of antisemitic posts on the internet, including her infamous "Jewish Space Lasers" conspiracy theory.

According to NBC News, Greene cited social media posts from the Democrat from Michigan who had been very vocal against Israel's offensive in Gaza. She also described Tlaib's attendance at a pro-peace rally at the Capitol held last October 18 as an "insurrection." The rally actually called for a ceasefire for both sides of the Israel-Hamas war.

During that rally, Capitol Police estimated that they arrested roughly 300 protestors after they entered the Cannon House Office building. Three of those protesters were charged with assault. However, NBC News noted that while the protest was indeed disruptive, it was incomparable to the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, during which rioters stormed the building in an attempt to stop Joe Biden from being proclaimed president in an election he won.

Tlaib is the only Palestinian American serving in Congress and she attended the protest but did not join the protesters indoors. "I wish all the Palestinian people would see this. I wish they can see that not all of America want them to die, that they are not disposable," she said. "They didn't ask to be born in occupation ... the dehumanization has chipped at my soul."

Marjorie May Face Censure Herself After Trying To Censure Rashida Tlaib

Soon after Greene moved to censure Tlaib, Rep. Becca Balint, a Democrat from Vermont, also moved to force a vote on her resolution to censure the infamous "Jewish Space Laser" congresswoman from Georgia. In that resolution, Balint accused Greene of the thing she has accused Rep. Tlaib of, and that is anti-Semitism.

READ MORE: House Republican Chaos Continues: Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks Says She Received Death Threats

The resolution was first introduced last July and Balint is forcing a vote on it, which should happen in two days. It lists around 40 points of grievances against Greene that listed her specific comments, and spreading of false information, among others.

The Hill reported that she also slammed new House Speaker Mike Johnson for letting Greene file a resolution that she describes as "riddled with lies and falsehoods on my colleague."

Mike Johnson Also Faces George Santos Problem in Addition to Marjorie Taylor Greene and Rashida Tlaib

It was a rough first day in office for Mike Johnson as the day also featured a resolution to expel George Santos of New York from his fellow party members.

According to Forbes, the resolution to kick Santos out was brought by New York Republican Reps. Nick LaLota and Anthony D'Esposito. However, Santos getting kicked out might be bad for Republicans as New York's governor is a Democrat and would most likely replace him with another Democrat until the next elections.

These motions to censure Marjorie Taylor Greene and Rashida Tlaib, as well as kick out George Santos, were all filed within the same day and marked a tumultous first day in office for Johnson.

READ MORE: Donald Trump Fraud Trial: Judge Tells Ex-POTUS To Keep Quiet

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: Marjorie Taylor Greene FINALLY faces punishment in Congress - Brian Tyler Cohen
The four signatories of this letter are aware of the recent reports about substandard practices at the Billings Food Bank. We have heard similar stories over the past 25 to 35 years and experienced our own difficulties working with the Food Bank thus, we agreed to share some of our insights.

Billings, Montana, population 117,445 (2021), is the largest city in a 500-mile radius. As such, Billings is the health care, banking, legal, retail, and social services hub for over 250,000 residents in eastern Montana, the western Dakotas and northern Wyoming. Over 800 nonprofits in the Yellowstone County area help address various social service needs, fund disease-specific research, and support cultural and community benefit institutions and programs.

Our educational and experiential backgrounds motivated each of us to volunteer time as community wellness advocates. We met through our volunteer efforts, namely The Nutrition Coalition, Billings Action for Healthy Kids (a partner of Montana Action for Healthy Kids), The Billings School Health Advisory Committee (appointed by the Billings School Board), Healthy By Design (a community health coalition hosted and coordinated by RiverStone Health, St. Vincent Healthcare, Billings Clinic), Best Beginnings of Yellowstone County (hosted by United Way). We have worked together for over 20 years, in some cases longer.

The volunteer organizations listed above sought to bring best practices to individual public and private institutions and charitable organizations based in Yellowstone County. And to foster collaboration between entities whose work overlapped to reduce duplication of efforts and maximize the impact of grants, government and private funding, charitable donations, and volunteer hours.

Over the past 35 years organizations we volunteer for have made numerous attempts to engage Billings Food Bank Director Sheryle Shandy and the Billings Food Bank Board in collaborative efforts to ensure that food donations in the Billings area are equitably distributed amongst organizations that provide food relief and that these organizations in turn provide the healthiest meals or food boxes possible in an equitable and dignified manner to those seeking aide. Ms. Shandy has rebuffed all such efforts. The Billings Food Bank Board has also refused to meet to discuss concerns.

Many other health and wellness organizations and advocates in our community have reported similar difficulties working with the Billings Food Bank. Worse yet we have heard, and in some cases witnessed, hungry people turned away despite large reserves of food on hand; food boxes containing nothing more than coffee, powdered coffee creamer and other non-nutritive items; and reports of food left to rot.

In October of 2017, after an 14-month-long investigation by the Department of Health and Human Services, the Senior Commodity Food Program, was removed from The Billings Food Bank and reassigned to Family Services, Inc. Details contained in an article describing the changeover, published in the November 6, 2017 issue of The Billings Gazette, suggest that many of the issues the four of us had heard about are true and a deeper investigation of the Billings Food Bank practices is warranted.

Family Service, which provides food to nearly 1,000 families a week, functions as the de facto food bank for Yellowstone County. It also provides food to pantries in other eastern Montana counties. Still, with an estimated one in six Montanans struggling to get enough healthy food to eat all month long, there is room in Billings for the Food Bank. Our goal is not to close the Billings Food Bank. Rather, we want the management of the food bank to comply with all recognized best practices for food banks and for charitable organizations.

We urge the print and broadcast journalists to use their research and publication skills to make this happen.
In a bold challenge to federal authority over immigration, the Texas House has passed a bill that creates a state-level crime for entering the country from Mexico between ports of entry, per the NY Times.

This legislation enables local law enforcement agencies to arrest and detain unauthorized Texas migrants or direct them back to Mexico.

The move is seen as a significant escalation of Governor Greg Abbott's multibillion-dollar border security program, known as Operation Lone Star.

The Texas House also approved an additional $1.5 billion for the construction of state-owned barriers along the international border.

The bill authorizing the arrest of unauthorized Texas migrants now returns to the Senate, which has already passed its version and is expected to reach Governor Abbott's desk for his signature.

Representative David Spiller, a Republican from west of Fort Worth, introduced the arrest bill, describing it as a "humane, logical, and efficient approach."

He argued that there was nothing unfair about returning individuals to their point of entry if they arrived in the state illegally.

READ NEXT: Texas: Migrant Rush Sparks Possibility of State of Emergency

The Bill Sparks Debates Amont Lawmakers

The bills have generated heated debates within the state's political landscape, leading to extensive discussions lasting for hours, according to FOX News.

The contentious nature of the legislation was exemplified when State Rep. Cody Harris moved to block new amendments, effectively ending debate and resulting in the bill's passage with a vote of 84-60.

State Rep. Armando Lucio Walle of Houston expressed his frustration, emphasizing the emotional and personal impact of the bill on marginalized communities.

This legislation seeks to empower Texas law enforcement officers to directly address illegal immigration, despite previous federal court rulings that grant jurisdiction over border matters to the federal government.

The bill is now poised to move to the state Senate, where Republicans maintain a substantial majority and are anticipated to approve the legislation.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration has released new border statistics for September, indicating a record number of monthly encounters and marking FY 23 as the year with the highest annual encounters on record.

The administration has also reiterated its opposition to border wall construction, citing an "acute and immediate" need to waive federal regulations to allow construction in South Texas.

Texas House Bill 4

Texas House Bill 4, sponsored by state Rep. David Spiller, R-Jacksboro, establishes a new state crime for illegally entering Texas from Mexico.

It grants state police the authority to apprehend violators and instructs officers to return Texas migrants to a port of entry, directing them to return to Mexico.

Under the bill, first-time offenders could face misdemeanor convictions with a maximum of 180 days in jail, the Texas Tribune noted.

For repeat offenders, the penalty could be elevated to a felony, carrying a punishment of up to two years in prison.

This legislative effort underscores the ongoing attempts by the Texas House to empower state law enforcement in immigration enforcement despite legal decisions upholding federal jurisdiction over immigration matters.

READ MORE: Maine Mass Shooting Updates

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Bert Hoover

WATCH: Tempers flare over Texas HB 4 allowing police to arrest undocumented immigrants, send them to Mexico - From KHOU 11
Allentown police and officers from other agencies scrambled to William Allen High School on Thursday morning for a call of an active shooter. After searching the building, it was clear there was no shooter, no injuries, and no threat.

But that doesnt make the call any less serious or disruptive. This one, called in around 10:20 a.m., had the school on lockdown for about an hour.

Its a very serious thing because it creates a chaotic environment for those who are impacted and we want to make sure that its safe, Allentown Police Chief Charles Roca explained in a live-streamed news conference with city and school leaders. Any such call must be taken seriously, and investigators are probing the source of this one.

We will work to make sure that the person is accountable, Roca said.

Allentown police ask anyone with information to call detectives at 610-437-7721 or the police desk at 610-437-7753 ext. 1. Anonymous tips can be texted via the Tip411 app available on the Allentown Police Facebook page or the department website.

WILLIAM ALLEN HIGH SCHOOL LOCKDOWN - The below statement has been shared with staff, families, and students regarding... Posted by Allentown School District on Thursday, October 26, 2023

The fake active-shooter call in Allentown came less than 24 hours after a mass killing in Maine left at least 18 people dead and 13 others wounded.

In March, days after another mass-killing in Nashville made national headlines, fake calls of school shooters were made across several states including five Lehigh Valley-area schools, William Allen among them. In that case, authorities said they believed the calls came from outside Pennsylvania.

Investigators have not publicly indicated the origins of Thursdays call. There was no word of any other similar reports at area schools.

As a district we take these reports very seriously and will work closely with law enforcement to identify individuals who engage in inappropriate behavior, Allentown schools Superintendent Carol Birks said during Thursdays news conference. She said counselors are available in the school. The superintendent encouraged the use of the Safe2Say tip line to report violence or suspicions of safety threats.

We are tremendously grateful that this was not a credible threat and that everyone is safe, Birks said.

Police gather outside William Allen High School in Allentown on the morning of Oct. 26, 2023, during a lockdown after a caller reported an active shooter.Mike Nester | lehighvalleylive.com contributor

Calls can be traced, though it takes time. Investigators can attempt to cut through online services that mask phone numbers and call locations by going to service providers and requesting data on the calls, said Joseph Walsh, a criminal justice professor at DeSales University, in an interview with lehighvalleylive.com last March. If the caller is in the U.S. or a country that will extradite, they could face state or federal charges.

Theyre not as anonymous as they think they are, Walsh said at the time.

MEDIA RELEASE: ACTIVE SHOOTER CALL WILLIAM ALLEN HIGHSCHOOL INVESTIGATION #AllentownPolice Posted by Allentown Police Department on Thursday, October 26, 2023

Hoax calls can bring strain and anguish to students, staff, families, the dispatched officers and first-responders, and the dispatchers themselves, all of whom must assume there is a real danger.

Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk, who has a child at Allen, said the work of school and public security should help parents feel their children are safe, even in an uncertain world.

Parents should be concerned in this world. Its not just the city of Allentown, the state of Pennsylvania or the United States. Guns are more prolific than we want them to be across the country, Tuerk said. But our team is well-prepared, and thats what gives me that feeling of safety and security.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to lehighvalleylive.com.

Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com.
NEW YORK (AP)  There are stories in the human bones at the American Museum of Natural History. They tell of lives lived  some mere decades ago, others in past centuries  in cultures around the world.

But the vast collection of thousands of skeletal parts at one of the worlds most visited museums also tells a darker story  of opened graves, disrupted burial sites and collecting practices that treated some cultures and people as objects to be gawked at.

The New York museum announced this month that it is pulling all human remains from public display and will change how it maintains its collection of body parts with the aim of eventually repatriating as much as it can and respectfully holding what it cant.

The museum now holds around 12,000 sets of remains, including the bones of Indigenous people and enslaved Black people, often amassed in the 19th and 20th centuries by researchers looking to prove theories about racial superiority and inferiority through physical attributes.

Some of the other remains are people  likely poor or powerless  whose bodies had once been used at medical schools before they were given to the museum as recently as the 1940s.

American Museum of Natural History President Sean Decatur, who in April became the museums first Black leader, said that for the most part, the remains in the collection were acquired without clear consent of the dead or their descendants.

I think its fair to say that none of these people set out or imagined that their resting place would be in the museums collection, he said. And in most of the cases, there also was a clear differential in power between those who were collecting and those who were collected.

The process of pulling human remains from public display will impact six of the museums galleries. Objects being removed include a musical instrument made from human bone, a skeleton from Mongolia that is more than a thousand years old and a Tibetan artifact that incorporates bones.

The idea that human remains and artifacts taken from other cultures should be returned is not new. A U.S. law passed in 1990 created a legal process for some Native tribes to recover ancestral remains from museums and other institutions. In a letter to museum staff, Decatur said about 2,200 sets of remains at the museum fall under that category.

Other museums and institutions are grappling with the issue as well. At the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, for example, more than 100 human remains have been returned to the relevant communities. The museum is working to return four other sets of remains that dont fall under the federal laws purview.

Fundamentally, we have a responsibility to do more than acknowledge the harm caused by historical collecting practices that treated peoples and cultures as objects of scientific study, Chris Patrello, curator of anthropology at the museum, said in an email.

In 2022, an estimated 870,000 Native American artifacts, including remains that should be returned to tribes under federal law are still in possession of colleges, museums, and other institutions across the country, according to The Associated Press.

But its not just Indigenous remains being in museum collections that are troubling.

Decatur said some of the remains in the museum are believed to be of five Black people whose bones were removed from a northern Manhattan burial ground during a road construction project at the start of the 1900s.

Enslavement was a violent, dehumanizing act; removing these remains from their rightful burial place ensured that the denial of basic human dignity would continue even in death, Decatur said in his letter to the museum staff.

Historically, Black graves have been subjected to robbery, said Lynn Rainville, a professor of anthropology at Washington and Lee University. They have also been covered over or disrupted in construction and development projects.

Decatur said the American Museum of Natural Historys holdings also include about 400 bodies that came from four New York medical schools in the 1940s, even though theres no obvious process by which bodies used for medical training in anatomy should have ended up in a museum.

One of the medical schools no longer exists; the others were connected to Columbia, Cornell and New York University. Columbias medical school had no comment. The other two did not respond to emails seeking information. Museum officials said they were talking with the schools and as far as they had been able to determine, the bodies had not come to the institution in any nefarious way.

Its one of those things that is jarring and sort of ... hits closer to home than an archaeological expedition thats looking at things that are a thousand-plus years old. But its a practice that was incredibly common at the time, Decatur said.

Susan Lederer, professor of medical history and bioethics at the University of Wisconsins medical school, said that as the number of medical schools increased in the 19th century and dissection became an essential part of training, schools needed to find more cadavers.

States passed laws making unclaimed bodies, mostly of very poor people, available to medical schools.

It reflects longstanding assumptions about the differences between middle-class and either working-class or underclass people that it was deemed acceptable to turn certain bodies over but not others, she said.

The practice at most medical schools shifted in the second half of the 20th century for a number of reasons, including more people in the U.S. being willing to donate their bodies after death, she said.

The museums process of figuring out how to handle those and other remains in storage will take some time, Decatur said. Officials will need to determine what can be returned and to whom, as well as how to properly care for any remains that stay behind.
The owner of a now-shuttered Allentown title insurance company has been arrested and charged with racketeering in a case authorities say involves the loss of more than $1.26 million in his clients money.

Louis Belletieri, 42, of Allentown, faces three first-degree felony counts of operating corrupt organizations, six counts of failing to make required disposition of funds and three counts of receiving stolen property, Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martins office announced in a news release.

Belletieri, the sole proprietor of Legacy Title at 2030 W. Tilghman St., Suite 203, failed to properly disperse the funds he received during real estate sales on behalf of sellers he represented, according to the release.

Martins office said Belletieri surrendered to authorities on Friday morning. He was sent to Lehigh County Jail in lieu of $150,000 bail.

The release did not specify a time span for when the alleged crimes occurred, but pointed to a recent incident in which Belletieri allegedly diverted $496,141.25 from the proceeds of the sale of a home. On June 29, the home was sold and the title and settlement agent was Belletieri.

As part of his obligation as title agent representing the victim in the sale, Belletieri was required to disperse $479,857.98 to satisfy a mortgage loan with the remaining balance earmarked for a lien on the property and a balance on utilities. Belletieri allegedly failed to make any of these payments.

The release also cites other cases, including a married couple that hired Belletieri to handle $394,739.62 from the sale of their house.

To date, none of these funds have been properly dispersed therefore it is alleged as a part of this investigation that Belletieri unlawfully took possession of those funds totaling $1,260,691.47 for his own gain, the release says.

Legacy Title is no longer in operation and the investigation is continuing, according to Martins office.

Lehighvalleylive.com in early October reported Belletieri was the target of a lawsuit filed in Lehigh County. The suit, filed on behalf of Fidelity National Title, alleges $5.6 million in misappropriated funds. Belletieri had been working on behalf of Fidelity, the suit says.

The lawsuit also says funds from the Legacy Title escrow fund also were used to buy precious metals including gold bars and coins.

Belletieris attorney in the civil case, Charles Laputka, didnt immediately respond to a message left at his office Friday morning. He had previously declined to comment on the pending litigation. Its unclear if he is representing Belletieri in the criminal case.

Anyone who believes they may have been victimized by Belletieri or Legacy Title may contact the district attorneys office at 610-782-3100.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to lehighvalleylive.com.
The disaster in Israel/Gaza provides the most-powerful reason why Biden must be reelected, and why Trump cannot. Decades of strife in the area have produced the most complex threat to world peace since the Cold War, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

This calls for the wisdom to navigate complexity and nuance. Wisdom isnt inborn. It comes from time, experience, and the ability to learn. Biden has shown he has all these. Trump has shown he cannot learn and cannot adapt. He is uninterested in facts, only in self-aggrandizement.

If we remember Trumps previous foreign affairs statements, we recall what George Will said of his performance, It is not merely the result of intellectual sloth but of an untrained mind bereft of information and married to stratospheric self-confidence.

Biden comes to the Israel/Gaza horror with decades of foreign policy experience and the wisdom and maturity that result. Trump has shown himself to be impulsive, lacking in knowledge, judgement, and maturity, more interested in self-promotion and profit than in real world affairs. He functions more like a middle school adolescent than a mature adult.

Many cite Bidens age as a reason to doubt his abilities. But he has travelled all over the world, has actively intervened when appropriate, and has passed bipartisan legislation for the good of the country. Trump, only three years younger than Biden, has shown that all his years of experience in this world have not taught him empathy, humility, or wisdom.

The choice is clear.

Michael Kenney

Easton
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 internet has been buzzing since word of Britney Spears abortion hit the news cycle ahead of the release of her memoir, The Woman in Me. Only about two full pages out of the memoirs 277 pages are dedicated to telling Spears abortion story, yet hundreds of articles and social media posts now center this narrative. From sharing the news to calling out Justin Timberlake to finding new meaning to her Everytime music video, the internet has a lot to say.

And though several celebrities have released their abortion stories this year  including Leslie Jones, Kerry Washington and Paris Hilton  none of them resonate like Britneys.

In the book, Spears describes becoming pregnant during her and Timberlakes relationship  the two dated from 1999 to 2002  as a surprise, but not a tragedy. According to the book, Timberlake was strongly against the idea of the two becoming parents, which led to her decision to have an abortion.

Abortion was something I never would have imagined choosing for myself, but given the circumstances, that is what we did, wrote Spears.

To protect her privacy, Spears opted for a self-managed medical abortion at home, which only Timberlake and her then-assistant Felicia knew about. She describes her experience as extremely painful, which included excruciating cramps, sobbing and screaming in pain for hours, wondering if she was going to die.

To this day, its one of the most agonizing things I have ever experienced in my life, Spears writes, describing the physical pain she endured.

The reaction this story has received begs the question: Why do we care so much about Britney Spears abortion  something that occurred over 20 years ago? How does Spears abortion fit into the reproductive justice conversation today?

Shes actually articulating a lot of the things that people who have abortions say and feel before they share their abortion stories, said Renee Bracey Sherman, co-executive director of We Testify, an organization committed to increasing the spectrum of abortion storytellers.

Her story is complex and human

Abortion has been painted as a binary, with strong opposing views and an either/or approach, especially as the battle for abortion rights in some states remains up for grabs. But this can leave some people who have abortions conflicted, feeling like they need to fit into a box.

Either you love your abortion or you regret it, said Bracey Sherman.

According to Guttmacher, there is little research surrounding people who have negative emotions towards their abortions and the way abortion is politicized causes stories that express feelings of regret to be minimized or exaggerated to fit a side.

There is no cookie cutter pro-choice or pro-life abortion story, which Spears models. She felt pressured, yet made the choice she felt would best fit her relationship at the time.

Spears wrote that she kind of understood why Timberlake thought they werent ready to have a baby and so they opted for abortion.

If he didnt want to become a father, I didnt feel like I had much of a choice. I wouldnt want to push him into something he didnt want, said Spears.

This isnt an isolated experience. Some women participating in the Social Sources of Womens Emotional Difficulty After Abortion study shared that the pressure they felt from parents or partners led to resentment or regret of their abortion in some cases.

People who are more likely to have ambivalence about their abortions or come to regret them, its usually because they felt like the decision overall wasnt in their control, which is what she described, said Bracey Sherman.

A 2020 study showed that five years after their abortion, 84 percent of people reported having positive feelings or no feelings at all about their abortion.

Even if they had difficulty making the decision initially, or if they felt their community would not approve, our research shows that the overwhelming majority of women who obtain abortions continue to believe it was the right decision, Corinne Rocca, Ph.D., MPH, and associate professor at UCSF Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, said of the study.

Lisa Rowe, clinical social worker and CEO of Support After Abortion, says that more people are calling in for support as at-home abortion has grown and allowed for a more isolated experience when those having an abortion dont have a network of support.

Theyre finding themselves dealing with their experience all by themselves and for some people, thats a benefit to them, but for others that can be challenging, said Rowe.

Britneys sex sells

Spears was both a symbol of sex and purity  both the Madonna and the whore  even though she was only 16 when her first hit, Baby One More Time, was released in 1998.

That first Rolling Stone cover was so pivotal in how Britney Spears was presented to the world, said Lynn Comella, Ph.D., Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies and Chair of the Department of Interdisciplinary, Gender and Ethnic Studies at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.

This 1999 magazine cover, shot by David LaChapelle, provided a visual to this dynamic: A teen girl laying on silk sheets, talking on the phone, while wearing lingerie and holding a Teletubby doll.

She really embodied this contradictory cultural space that so many young women find themselves in, where theyre expected to be virginal, and yet theyre hyper-sexualized as well, said Comella.

Britney not a virgin has 44,600,000 Google results at the time of this writing, with the top stories discussing her mention in the memoir of the eternal virgin image pushed onto her. Spears and other pop stars of the 90s were marketed as purity champions, who were saving themselves for marriage. Spears faced media scrutiny in 2002 when Timberlake, and later she, revealed that they in fact did have sex.

I think the cultural obsession with teenage girls and womens sexuality comes out in a lot of ways around Britney Spears, with this seeming obsession about whether or not she had ever been sexually active, said Comella, citing the double-standard that saw few speculate about Timberlakes sexual status.

This dynamic followed Spears throughout her career, from the 2003 Madonna VMAs kiss to questioning her status as a mother.

I think if people had found out she had had an abortion, I think she would have really been severely criticized, said Brenda Boudreau, English professor at McKendree University and editor of Abortion in Popular Culture: A Call to Action.

Hearing abortion stories are important

The media has made a more active effort to include abortion narratives, with 60 abortion-focused plotlines on TV last year. Greys Anatomy included a post-Roe storyline, which included travel for abortion care and the impact doctors face. Research suggests that how abortion is depicted on TV can either add to or break down stigma.

Theyre really humanizing the stories, making it seem like this is a womans choice and she should have a right to make it, which I dont think youve got the same sort of support for that sort of narrative, [in the past] certainly not in the late 90s and early 2000s, said Boudreau.

Leaders in the pro-choice movement, like Shout Your Abortion, say that sharing abortion experiences helps normalize the conversation and remove the stigma many develop from cultural or religious influences.

Its really, really important that we hear a variety of stories. Theres a danger in a single story, said Bracey Sherman, who believes that the pro-choice movement has elevated stories that portray abortion in a more positive light to protect against the stigma. But then that becomes to the detriment of people who do have complicated abortion stories. My belief is that we should just let abortion stories exist as they are.

Spears sharing her abortion story brings a very common experience to life. It recognizes the that could never be me thought process in order to showcase that choices may change when placed in a real-life scenario. Her story illustrates that reproductive rights go beyond political framework because there is no perfect abortion story.
The manager of Midlands Regional Hospital Portlaoise and the HSE is urging the public to consider other options before they come to the Emergency Department this Halloween Bank Holiday weekend.

John Joyce is General Manager, Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise.

While we are preparing for a busy Bank Holiday period in the hospital, we ask everyone to consider all options before going to ED.

Those who believe they may be seriously ill and require emergency care should of course come to hospital, but we would urge others to consider seeking support from pharmacists, GPs, GP out-of-hours services and injury units.

While some patients may regrettably experience long wait times in our emergency departments, urgent patients will always be prioritised for treatment and care, Mr Joyce said.

The HSE warn that patients who present at the Emergency Department in Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise with non-urgent conditions may experience long wait times to be seen.

They say that any patient who needs emergency hospital care will be seen and we would urge such patients not to delay attending the ED. Do not delay in seeking medical attention if you suspect you are having a heart attack or stroke, please dial 999 or 112 in an emergency.

Ahead of the October Bank Holiday weekend, HSE services in the Midlands has reminded the public of other treatment options before attending the Emergency Department (ED) at the hospital.

They suggest visiting a pharmacy for advice on common minor illnesses. Make an appointment with a GP if not feeling well and it is not an emergency. If people urgently need to see a GP outside of normal hours, contact the GP Out of Hours service MIDOC.

MIDOC is an appointment only GP service located in the Laois, Longford, Offaly and Westmeath Areas. The service is for patients who need urgent medical attention that cannot wait to be seen by their usual GP.

Opening Hours: Weekdays, Monday to Thursday 6pm to 8am. Weekends 6pm Friday to 8am Monday. All day on Bank Holidays. Telephone 1800 302 702 or go to GP Out of Hours service: GP out-of-hours service - HSE.ie for more information.

They suggest going to an Injury Unit which treats a wide range of injuries such as broken bones, dislocations, sprains and strains, minor burns and scalds for all patients. All units have access to x-ray and basic diagnostic services.

They suggest Mullingar Minor Injuries Unit at Charter Medical Private Hospital, Ballinderry, Mullingar, Westmeath, N91 FE40 It is open Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm, Saturday and Sunday 10am to 6pm, but closed Bank Holiday Mondays.

The Nenagh Injury Unit is in Tyone, Nenagh, Tipperary, E45 PT86, open Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm, including Bank Holidays

The Roscommon Injury Unit is at Roscommon University Hospital, Athlone Road, Roscommon, F42 AX61, open Monday to Sunday 8am to 8pm, including Bank Holidays.

Emergency Departments exist to treat seriously ill patients. the HSE advises to visit an ED or call 999 or 112 if someone is seriously ill or injured and their life is at risk. Those with less severe injuries and symptoms may have to wait to be seen in Emergency Departments.

Information on how to manage common illness and advice on when to get emergency help is also available at https://www2.hse.ie/living- well/ and https://www2.hse.ie/my-child/ in relation to children.


An Bord Pleanala has granted permission with conditions for 22 new homes in Straffan.

The plans include the demolition of the existing barn near Glebe House, adjacent to New Road.

The designs provide for the construction of 18 two storey houses and two two-storey apartment blocks each containing two apartments.

The estimated construction value of the project is around 5m, according to the Building Information Ireland database.

Also in the documents are bin stores, bicycle parking and new vehicular, cycle and pedestrian access.

These 22 dwelling units are in addition to the five dwellings previously approved on this site.

The vehicular entrance will be through the existing site entrance opposite Scoil Bhride National School on New Road.

A new drop off lay-by is provided, on New Road, adjacent to the existing site entrance and driveway.

The plans also feature solar panels on the roofs of new dwellings.

Landscaping works will include the reinstatement of some historical pathways to the front of Glebe House.

The existing site entrance and driveway (to the front of Glebe House and adjacent to the Beeches Housing development) will be converted into a pedestrian/cycle route accessing Glebe House, the adjacent buildings and also the proposed development.

Glebe House is listed on the record of Protected Structures.
A teen, whose parents are deceased, fled from a war torn country.

The teen was subject of an application by Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, for a care order until the child reaches 18 years of age.

The teen will start the Leaving Certificate cycle this year and Naas District Court heard the teen arrived here late last year.

Before this happened an attempt was made to force a marriage with a member of a movement in the native country.

The court heard that the subject of the application is happy in the placement setting.

The court further heard that a care order was needed in the case in the absence of parents or guardians and the teen was described as a vulnerable young person.

The teen is residing with a couple and is getting on well in that setting as well as at school.

Judge Miriam Walsh said she would extend the interim care order and said an application for a full order should be made at that stage.

Read more Kildare news
Hunting season has arrived. As hunters flock to the hills in pursuit of Montanas treasured big game species, we want to take a moment to acknowledge the good work that was done in this springs legislative session for hunters, landowners, and conservationists alike.

Wildlife issues have frequently been overcome with intense division in previous legislative sessions. 2023 was different. Various stakeholders that are often in sharp disagreement on wildlife and land management policies managed to set aside their differences and work collaboratively to achieve wins that nearly everyone can be happy with.

A prime example is Senate Bill 58, sponsored by Sen. Steve Hinebauch of Wibaux. SB 58 doubled the limit on money that landowners can receive for participating in the Block Management Program. Block management areas are private lands that landowners voluntarily allow the public to hunt on. Block management is one of the best and most popular conservation tools we have in Montana, and its funded by hunters, not taxpayers.

Doubling the payment cap is a win for both hunters and landowners. Farmers and ranchers are under ever-increasing financial pressure to close off their lands, whether due to offers from wealthy individuals to lease the property for exclusive hunting rights, justified fear of property damage from disrespectful members of the public, or market pressures that incentivize subdividing or selling off the land. Increasing compensation for public hunting helps working landowners make ends meet, helps cover the cost of additional foot and vehicle traffic, makes public-access hunting more competitive with exclusive private access, and will keep more land available to the general hunting public.

In short, SB 58 keeps land in private ownership by Montana families for productive uses while also allowing hunters the opportunity to harvest wild game and help responsibly manage our wildlife populations. It helps both ranchers and hunters put food on the table for their families. SB 58 is a win for farmers and ranchers, for hunters, and for conservation.

Another bill that promoted hunting access is House Bill 438, which removed application fees for landowners who enter into Public Access Land Agreements. HB 438 removed a financial barrier to landowners voluntarily allowing access to public lands through their private property.

Passions often run high at the Legislature when it comes to wildlife, hunting, and land access. With over 60% of Montanas land, including much of the best wildlife habitat, in private ownership, collaboration and partnership are essential to preserving our hunting culture and Montana way of life for future generations.

The 2023 legislative session proved that such cooperation is possible on the policy front. Even more important is partnership and respect on the ground. Do your part to protect the hunt this hunting season. Respect private property, show appreciation to landowners providing access, always obey the fair chase ethic, and report bad behavior to game wardens.

Lets work together to expand hunting opportunities, not endanger them. Good luck to all of our fellow hunters this season.
A DNA profile taken from underneath Ashling Murphy's fingernails matched that of Jozef Puska, the man accused of her murder, a scientist has told the Central Criminal Court.

Giving evidence this Friday, Dr Lorna Flanagan told prosecution counsel Anne-Marie Lawlor SC that she received swabs that had been taken from under the nails of each of Ms Murphy's hands during a post mortem carried out by State Pathologist Dr Dr SallyAnne Collis.

Dr Flanagan isolated the male DNA present in the swabs by focusing only on the y-chromosome to eliminate Ms Murphy's DNA from her results.

She compared the DNA to a blood sample belonging to Mr Puska and from swabs that were taken from Mr Puska when he was in custody in Tullamore garda station on January 18 last year.

She found that the Y-STR profile generated from the nail swabs matched the Y-STR profile from Mr Puska's blood sample and swabs.

Dr Flanagan said that she estimated the chances of finding the same male-specific DNA profile from someone unrelated to Mr Puska is approximately one in 14,000.

She explained that those statistics are calculated from a database of western European ethnic groups that includes people from Ireland and as far east as Latvia, Ukraine and Romania.

Jozef Puska, aged 33, with an address at Lynally Grove, Mucklagh, County Offaly, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Ms Murphy at Cappincur, Tullamore, County Offaly on January 12, 2022.

Detective Inspector Brian Farrell told defence counsel Michael Bowman SC that he was the joint Senior Investigating Officer coordinating the garda investigation into Ms Murphy's death.

He agreed with Mr Bowman that following Ms Murphy's death on January 12 last year they were "dealing with a horrendous fatality, a murder" and they were "acting as quickly as possible" to find the person responsible.

He agreed that a man was arrested shortly after 4pm that day but that person was eliminated as an active suspect some time after 9pm by DNA evidence.

A further "significant development" came when the decision was taken to send Detective Sergeant Brian Jennings and Detective Garda Fergus Hogan from Tullamore to St James's Hospital in Dublin to speak to Mr Puska.

The inspector agreed that in his notes made during that period he repeatedly referred to Mr Puska as a "suspected offender".

He said he does not believe he told the members who had been sent to Dublin that the first suspect had been released. "It wouldn't be something I would usually do because it's not relevant to their task," he said.

At that time, he said the investigation was "fast moving, very dynamic" and they were taking in a lot of information.

Part of the task for the two gardai who were sent to meet Mr Puska, he said, was to talk to him and to "have a look at him" but he couldn't remember if he "specifically asked" gardai to look at Mr Puska or to compare him to a person captured on CCTV images that gardai had gathered in their investigation.

The inspector said that the notes he has from the time show that he wanted gardai to get an account from Mr Puska of his movements on the 12th (of January) and to ask if he owns a bicycle. He also had a note that Mr Puska had three stab wounds, one of which was close to his liver and that he would be in hospital for about one week.

He said it "would make sense" that Det Gda Hogan gave him the information about Mr Puska's condition.

He further agreed that he directed the detectives to remain in the area of St James's Hospital and over the following days he made inquiries about when Mr Puska was to be released from hospital.

The trial continues before Mr Justice Tony Hunt and a jury of nine men and three women.
Boyle solicitor Chris Callan has been nominated by the Government as a Judge of the Circuit Court.

A statement from the firm Callan Tansey said, it was delighted our friend and colleague Christopher Callan was recommended for appointment as a Circuit Court judge.

It is a proud day for Christopher, Denise, his mother Rosemary and children, Matthew, Rosanna, Nicholas and Molly. His late father Tom, whom many of you knew, would have been especially proud.

Christopher graduated with a BA (Mod Legal Science) from Trinity College Dublin in 1984 and served his apprenticeship with Binchy Fagan Fawsitt in Merrion Square Dublin.

He started with CE Callan & Co. in 1987 and over the last 35 years has given his time, knowledge and wisdom to all of his colleagues and so many clients.

This is not only a great achievement for Christopher personally and his family but its also a great day for the practice. I think its only right to give a special mention to Ann Filan who has worked alongside Christopher for many years.

We wish Christopher all the very best as he embarks on this new chapter. We thank him for his invaluable contribution to Callan Tansey Solicitors LLP over the last 15 years. His calm, reflective, and collegiate approach has been of immense benefit to all of us and will undoubtedly serve him well on the bench.
HEALTH services are asking the public to explore all avenues of care before presenting at A&E this October bank holiday weekend.

With high attendance numbers expected at Emergency Departments, the HSE is asking people to consider other methods of care including their GPs, pharmacists and out of hours services before presenting at Emergency Departments.

As always, people who do require emergency care are encouraged to attend EDs where they will be prioritised.

Health staff across hospital and community settings will continue to work together over the weekend to ensure all available beds across the hospital and community are in use.

"Bank holiday weekends can be a busy time for our hospitals and emergency services," said Saolta University Health Care Group, based in Galway, in a statement.

"This means that patients who attend EDs for routine and non-urgent treatment will experience very long waiting times over the coming weekend."

John Fitzmaurice, Chief Officer Community Healthcare West, added: We would ask everyone to consider all healthcare options this bank holiday weekend. The GP out-of-hours service is for patients needing urgent medical care. It is not a substitute for the Emergency Ambulance Service who are the appropriate service to deal with medical emergencies where they arise.

Tony Canavan, CEO of the Saolta Group added: We are working with our community colleagues to provide the best possible service to our local population over the bank holiday weekend. If you need emergency care we will be there to provide it, but if it is not an emergency please consider all other care options in the first instance.

"We expect our Emergency Departments will be busy over the bank holiday and we would ask for patience from the public as we prioritise treating those in need of urgent care."

Local Injury Units are also open to treat injuries that are unlikely to need hospital admission and are more convenient and often quicker than an emergency department. Injury units can treat broken bones to legs (from knees to toes) and arms (from collarbone to fingertips), sprains and strains, minor facial injuries, scalds and burns, wounds such as bites and lacerations, objects stuck in eyes, ears or nose and minor head injuries.

You dont need an appointment or a GP referral to attend a Local Injury Clinic. Visit hse.ie/services/injury-units to see the full list of what injury units can and cannot treat and to find your local unit.

For information on when you should go to the ED visit hse.ie/ emergencies or you can get advice on a number of illnesses that can be treated at home at hse.ie/ conditions/common-illnesses. The HSEs mychild website also has lots of information regarding childhood illness and viruses.

Many local pharmacies will be open over the weekend including the bank holiday Monday to help with minor illnesses. Find out more about the services offered by your local pharmacy here.
Irish deputy-premier Micheal Martin has said unionism should have claimed victory on the Windsor Framework.

The Tanaiste also told the BBC that the majority of what the DUP was trying to achieve was awarded in the Framework.

Devolved government in Northern Ireland has not been operational for over a year due to the DUPs boycott of powersharing institutions in protest against post-Brexit trading arrangements.

Unionist parties including the DUP expressed concern that the initial post-Brexit trade deal, the Protocol, created a border in the Irish Sea by implementing checks on good travelling between Northern Ireland and mainland UK.

The Windsor Framework, introduced by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, sought to alleviate these concerns through the creation of a red lane, green lane system to minimise checks on goods coming from mainland UK to Northern Ireland not intended for further travel into the EU.

The DUP declined to return to government following the Windsor Framework announcement and is currently in negotiations with the British government to seek further legislative assurances of Northern Irelands trading position within the UK.

Mr Martin said the DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson wanted to return to government, but should have done so after the Windsor Framework was announced.

I take in good faith Jeffrey Donaldsons commitment that he wants the executive and the assembly back, he said.

I think the Windsor agreement was a major milestone, I think actually unionism should have claimed victory on the Windsor agreement.

Much of what they campaigned for, the vast majority of what they campaigned for was delivered in the Windsor agreement.

Asked if he believed it was a mistake by Sir Jeffrey not to endorse the Windsor Framework, Mr Martin said I do.

I think it was a missed opportunity because things were provided for in the Windsor agreement that unionism was told couldnt be provided for two years ago, he said.

During a visit to Belfast in August, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said if Stormont was not operational by autumn that it would be time to consider alternatives or plan-B.

Mr Martin said that the Irish government would work with Northern Ireland parties and the British government in exploring next steps.

There is no specific plan B there and I think the use of the phrase plan B is not the most elegant of phrases to characterise this, he said.

But lets be clear that if the institutions arent back, that is fairly fundamental in terms of the Good Friday Agreement, and I think it will mean that the British and Irish governments will have to engage, and with the parties involved, in terms of next steps.
Christie's AV solutions power Mexico's largest refinery





Olmeca Refinery installs AV solutions, including LED and LCD video walls, video wall processors and a 30,000 lumen 3DLP projector.

PARAISO, Mexico, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The recently inaugurated Olmeca Refinery, the largest oil plant in Mexico and one of the three largest in Latin America, has implemented several Christie solutions in its control rooms and offices, including LED and LCD video walls, video wall processors and a 30,000 lumen 3DLP projector.

Christie video walls were chosen for their high quality and brightness, and we saw a real advantage of having a complete control room portfolio with a single brand.

Located in the port of Dos Bocas, Tabasco, the Olmeca Refinery can process 340,000 barrels per day of crude oil. The refinery consists of 17 processing plants, 56 storage tanks, 34 spheres, workshops, administrative and service buildings, and control rooms across the 556-hectare site.

The facility required a main control room to supervise and monitor oil production, several control rooms for surveillance throughout the refinery, and boardrooms to increase communication and productivity.

Video walls were critical for displaying scalable content from multiple sources simultaneously, including a wide range of camera feeds, SCADA systems from remote sites, and productivity KPIs.

"Christie video walls were chosen for their high quality and brightness, and we saw a real advantage of having a complete control room portfolio with a single brand," says Dimas Lopez, general manager of Soluciones en Tecnologia de Mexico (STM), the Christie partner that acted as the project integrator.

Eight 1.4 mm pixel pitch Christie Core Series LED video walls, each measuring 8.5 x 3.2 meters, were installed in the main control room. "These systems stand out for their flexibility and scalability, as well as low maintenance," says Dimas Lopez.

In the tactical room, two Christie LCD video walls were installed in a 4x2 configuration with HD resolution (1920x1080) and sub-1 mm bezels. Another control room incorporated a 3x2 LCD video wall, also with HD resolution (1920x1080) and sub-1 mm bezels.

To manage the video walls, 30 Christie video wall processing nodes were installed, allowing users to simultaneously view, listen to and interact with information sources across the refineries' control rooms.

"The video walls allow the different teams in the refinery to share critical information in different control rooms by combining several sources simultaneously to obtain an accurate view of what is happening at any given moment, and make the best decision in the shortest possible time," explains Dimas Lopez.

In addition, 16 Christie 86" LCD panels with 4K UHD resolution were installed in the various boardrooms of the refinery. The refinery also incorporated a Christie 30,000 lumen 3DLP projector to show the history of the Olmec civilization, after which the refinery is named.

"The installation process with Christie's field engineers was smooth and they provided great local support during the design and installation phases," says Dimas Lopez. "The system has performed as we designed it, in consultation with Renan Lazcano from Christie's Mexico office. From the feedback we have received from the end user, we have been very successful," concludes Dimas Lopez.

Media Contact

Deborah Noon, Christie, (519) 749-3109, [email protected], www.christiedigital.com

SOURCE Christie

27 october 2023 at 05:00

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Nagad Digital Bank gets BB approval





DHAKA, Bangladesh, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Nagad Digital Bank Ltd. has secured the much-awaited permission from the Bangladesh Bank (BB) to launch its operation, thus getting a shot in the arm to take digital financial transactions to a new high.

On 22 October 2023, the central bank gave its seal of approval to two out of 52 applicants to set up the country's first-ever digital bank.

Later, on 25 October, Bangladesh Bank Governor Abdur Rouf Talukdar handed over the approval letter to Tanvir A Mishuk, founder and managing director of Nagad Ltd., at the governor's office.

At that time, Abdur Rouf Talukdar extended his heartfelt wishes for Nagad Digital Bank Ltd. and hoped for its continued success.

Among others, BB Deputy Governor Abu Farah Md. Nasser, BB Director (BRPD) Mohammad Shahriar Siddiqui, Additional Director (BRPD) Md Monirul Islam, and Executive Director of Nagad Ltd. Niaz Morshed Elite were present there.

Nagad, the world's fastest-growing mobile financial service provider based in Bangladesh, has rapidly amassed a substantial customer base and claimed a notable market share through its innovative products and services.

With the trust of over 85 million customers, Nagad has spearheaded transformative advancements in mobile financial services, fostering healthy market competition to the benefit of consumers. Notably, this state-owned MFS operator also earned recognition from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for becoming the fastest-growing unicorn in the country.

Over the past three years, Nagad diligently pursued regulators for permission to introduce digital banking services in Bangladesh. With the green light from the Bangladesh Bank, Nagad Digital Bank Ltd. has already started its preparation to take banking services to people's doorsteps. For example, it has developed AI-based credit rating system to assess its customers' creditworthiness and loan them quickly.

Tanvir A Mishuk, founder and managing director of Nagad Ltd., said, "Today, we have received approval from the Bangladesh Bank to establish the country's first digital bank. Nagad Digital Bank Ltd. aims to serve those who face challenges visiting traditional banks for various reasons. We will bring banking services to people's fingertips. This exemplifies another facet of financial inclusion for our nation. We aspire to provide single-digit loans to individuals outside conventional business sectors without collateral requirements. Furthermore, alongside introducing small savings schemes, the digital bank will address the day-to-day needs of common people. This endeavour will pave the way for an even more accessible journey towards a Smart Bangladesh."

Tanvir A Mishuk also emphasised that Nagad Digital Bank will promptly start its services on completion of all formalities and necessary preparations.

About Nagad Ltd (https://www.nagad.com.bd/)

Nagad Limited is one of the leading MFS operators in Bangladesh's payment industry with 85 million registered customers and an average daily transaction of about USD 112 million. The digital payment platform, known as a successful public-private partnership between Bangladesh Postal Department and the private sector, was inaugurated in 2019 by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of the people's republic of Bangladesh.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1918049/4364850/Nagad_Logo.jpg

27 october 2023 at 05:00

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First-of-its-kind Sleep Country and Silk & Snow collaborative store opens in Ottawa's Westboro neighbourhood





New store marks Silk & Snow's first-ever brick-and-mortar retail location

OTTAWA, ON, Oct. 27, 2023 /CNW/ - Sleep Country Canada Holdings Inc. ("Sleep Country" or the "Company") (TSX: ZZZ), Canada's leading specialty sleep retailer, is pleased to announce plans to awaken more Canadians to the power of sleep with a new Ottawa store in collaboration with its premium sleep and lifestyle banner brand, Silk & Snow.

The first-of-its-kind Sleep Country store, opening on October 28 at 421 Richmond Road, is anchored by a dedicated 1,425-square-foot Silk & Snow shop, built to provide Ottawa customers with an inspired shopping experience, bringing the premium sleep brand to life for the first time in-person. The innovative joint store design offers Canadians an expanded offering of elevated sleep essentials in one seamless shopping experience, providing great synergy between the two Canadian brands. With the Silk & Snow portion of the collaborative store set to open in late November, the new location is a conceptual first for Sleep Country with a large physical footprint dedicated to one of its newest direct-to-consumer brands.

"We're very excited to bring Silk & Snow, a leading, direct-to-consumer brand, into its very first tactile environment," said Stewart Schaefer, President and Chief Executive Officer, Sleep Country. "Customers in Ottawa have shown a love for the brand, so it just makes sense for us to introduce its inaugural in-person shopping experience in this market."

Founded in 2017 by Albert Chow and Kenneth Mo, Silk & Snow has seen rapid growth and has built a strong following in the Ottawa region where they will inaugurate the new location this fall.

"With our immersive new location, we're finally able to showcase our offering in a physical environment, creating opportunities for customers to interact with the product and find the perfect piece to elevate their sleep and, ultimately, their home," said Albert Chow, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Silk & Snow. "At our core, we are a tactile brand; the touch and feel of our designs are as vital to our customers as the aesthetics. We are proud to debut this elevated shopping experience in Ottawa, where our community continues to grow and support us with each step."

The new store is the first retail location for Silk & Snow, the fast-growing brand of high-quality sleep and lifestyle products, including mattresses, bedding, furniture, sleep accessories and bath essentials. The Silk & Snow store fuses the brand's two signature aesthetics - "Japandi" (a combination of Japanese and Scandinavian design) and mid-century modern styles ? for an elevated serene atmosphere completed by accents of wood, stone, and ceramics. The brand worked with renowned architecture firm, Benoy, to complete the project.

Sleep Country Richmond Road: 421 Richmond Road, Ottawa, ON K2A 4H1

Store Hours: Monday ? Friday (10 a.m. to 9 p.m.), Saturday (9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.), Sunday (11 a.m. to 5 p.m.)

Opening Date: October 28, 2023

The new Sleep Country store, located in in Ottawa's Westboro neighbourhood, will provide Ottawa residents with access to Sleep Country's team of Sleep Experts and some of the world's leading sleep brands. As leaders in sleep for more than 29 years, Sleep Country knows that getting a good night's sleep is critical to mental and physical wellbeing and is committed to creating a world-class customer shopping experience at its new location. The new store will offer a wide selection of high-quality and innovative mattresses, bedding essentials and sleep accessories.

For more information about Sleep Country, please visit www.sleepcountry.ca . For more information about Silk & Snow, please visit www.silkandsnow.com .

About Sleep Country Canada

Sleep Country is Canada's leading specialty sleep retailer with a purpose to transform lives by awakening Canadians to the power of sleep. Sleep Country operates under the retailer banners; Sleep Country Canada, Dormez-vous, Endy, Silk & Snow, Hush and most recently acquired, Casper Canada. The Company has omnichannel and eCommerce operations, including 298 corporate-owned stores and 19 warehouses across Canada. Recognized as one of Canada's Most Admired Corporate Cultures in 2022 by Waterstone Human Capital, Sleep Country is committed to building a company culture of inclusion and diversity where differences are embraced and valued. The Company actively invests in its sleep ecosystem, innovative products, world-class customer experience, communities and its people. For more information about Sleep Country, please visit ir.sleepcountry.ca .

About Silk & Snow

Silk & Snow is a leading digitally native retailer of thoughtfully made sleep essentials. Headquartered in Toronto, the company was founded in 2017 from a successful Kickstarter campaign. Built on three core guiding principles ? Better Materials, Thoughtful Manufacturing and Transparency ? Silk & Snow offers high-quality sleep and lifestyle products crafted from traceable raw materials and sustainable manufacturing practices. Their curated line includes bed sheets , mattresses , bed frames , weighted blankets , and other home essentials alongside its bath line-up of bath towels and robes . The company made Canadian Business' top ten start-up list in 2020 and was ranked one of Canada's fastest-growing businesses by the Globe and Mail for 2021, 2022 and 2023.

SOURCE Sleep Country Canada Holdings Inc. Investor Relations

27 october 2023 at 06:30

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SoftwareReviews Publishes 2023 Data Quality Tools Emotional Footprint Report, Revealing the Top Six Providers in the Market





In SoftwareReviews' latest Emotional Footprint report, the firm reveals the six top-performing data quality tools that users say best help organizations ensure accurate, consistent, and reliable data management.

TORONTO, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ - SoftwareReviews, a leading source for insights on the software provider landscape, has published its 2023 Emotional Footprint report on the top data quality tool providers for 2023.

Data quality tools have become indispensable in today's data-driven business environment. Essential for profiling data, monitoring data completeness with dashboards, removing duplicate records through fuzzy matching, verifying the correctness of customer and contact data, and rectifying other data quality issues, these tools play a pivotal role in ensuring data reliability. The absence of data quality tools poses substantial challenges for businesses. Without them, inaccurate decision-making becomes a significant risk as businesses might rely on flawed information, potentially leading to operational inefficiencies and financial losses. Furthermore, poor data quality can hinder customer relationship management and erode trust.

With robust data quality tools in place, organizations benefit from streamlined operations, enhanced customer interactions, improved regulatory compliance, and a foundation for advanced analytics and business intelligence initiatives. By ensuring clean and reliable data, these tools empower organizations to unlock new opportunities and drive growth.

In the digital age, data has become the elixir of life for organizations. Ensuring its quality is paramount," says Wayne Cain, principal advisory director at Info-Tech Research Group and SoftwareReviews. " The best data quality tools not only help organizations clean and maintain their data but curate the data enabling business intelligence, analytics, and other critical processes."

SoftwareReviews' survey data from 546 end-user reviews was used to identify the top data quality software providers. The insights inform organizations that are considering options to streamline their robotic process automation strategies.

The Net Emotional Footprint (NEF) of each software provider is a result of aggregated emotional response ratings across the areas of service, negotiation, product impact, conflict resolution, strategy, and innovation. The NEF is a powerful indicator of overall user sentiment toward the provider and its product from the software user's point of view.

The 2023 Data Quality Software champions for the enterprise market are as follows:

User assessments of software categories provide an accurate and detailed view of the constantly changing market. SoftwareReviews' reports are informed by data from users and IT professionals who have intimate experience with the software throughout the procurement, implementation, and maintenance processes.

The full report is now ready to access on the firm's website, which is updated in real time to reflect new reviews and ratings.

For more information about SoftwareReviews and the Emotional Footprint, or to find resources to support the software selection process, visit softwarereviews.com.

About SoftwareReviews

SoftwareReviews empowers organizations with the best data, insights, and advice to improve the software buying and selling experience.

For buyers, SoftwareReviews' proven software selection methodologies, customer insights, and technology advisors help maximize success with technology decisions. For providers, the firm helps build more effective marketing, product, and sales processes with expert analysts, how-to research, customer-centric marketing content, and comprehensive analysis of the buyer landscape.

SoftwareReviews is a division of Info-Tech Research Group, a world-class technology research and advisory firm.

SOURCE SoftwareReviews

27 october 2023 at 06:50

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Microbix QAPs Supporting HPV Testing in Ireland





MISSISSAUGA, Ontario, Oct. 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Microbix Biosystems Inc. (TSX: MBX, OTCQX: MBXBF, Microbix), a life sciences innovator, manufacturer, and exporter, announces that its quality assessment products ("QAPstm") are supporting a testing program for Human Papilloma Virus ("HPV") using molecular diagnostic ("MDx") technology at Dublin's The Coombe Hospital, in the Republic of Ireland, an EU member-state.



Microbix's local distribution partner, The Medical Supply Company of Ireland ("MSC"), has secured a tender-based contract to supply goods and services to support this national-level MDx and HPV-based cervical cancer screening program. The program is being driven by the instrumentation and reagents of the Roche Diagnostics Corporation cobas 6800/8800 Systems and cobas HPV test system, with Microbix REDx liquid-format IVD-regulated multiplex QAPs providing quality management system support to help ensure test accuracy. It is expected that the program will see regular participation by a majority of women of reproductive age within Ireland's overall population of 5.1 million.

HPV is a family of over 100 virus sub-types, 14 of which are deemed "high-risk" as they may directly cause cancers, most notably cervical cancer, if not resolved by the immune system. Most sexually-active adults become infected with one or more HPV types and such infections can be persistent. MDx tests permit early detection and timely preventative healthcare by identifying those at-risk years before cancer develops.

However, MDx-based screening programs require rigorous quality systems and ongoing revalidation to ensure their accuracy. This includes creating workflow algorithms, implementing strict QC/QA practices, training staff to be proficient, and sourcing materials and methods to evaluate testing workflows. Microbix's portfolio of HPV-directed QAPs are used to help ensure the ongoing accuracy of MDx testing.

Dr. Lisa Tang, Head of Sales and Marketing of MSC commented, "We are pleased to support this important women's health initiative with Microbix's HPV QAPs. We now look forward to the roll-out of MDx-based cervical cancer screening throughout the Republic of Ireland."

An initial purchase order for HPV-directed QAPs has been received by Microbix and it is expected that recurring QAPs sales into Ireland will become routine. Microbix and its distribution partners are likewise targeting support of MDx and HPV-based cervical cancer screening programs in other countries, including within the EU and in North America.

Phil Casselli, Senior Vice President of Sales and Business Development of Microbix also commented, "Ireland provides an example of Microbix's technological leadership by way of our HPV quality controls being selected to support another national HPV screening program. We are proud to have collaborated with Coombes, MSC, and Roche to help bring this program online."

About Microbix Biosystems

Microbix Biosystems Inc. creates proprietary biological products for human health, with over 100 skilled employees and annualized sales targeting C$ 2.0 million per month. It makes a wide range of critical ingredients and devices for the global diagnostics industry, notably antigens for immunoassays and its laboratory quality assessment products (QAPstm) that support clinical lab proficiency testing, enable assay development and validation, or help ensure the quality of clinical diagnostic workflows. Its antigens drive the antibody tests of approximately 100 diagnostics makers, while QAPs are sold to clinical lab accreditation organizations, diagnostics companies, and clinical labs. Microbix QAPs are now available in over 30 countries, supported by a network of 10 international distributors. Microbix is ISO 9001 & 13485 accredited, U.S. FDA registered, Australian TGA registered, Health Canada establishment licensed, and provides CE marked products.

Microbix also applies its biological expertise and infrastructure to develop other proprietary products and technologies, most notably viral transport medium (DxTMtm) to stabilize patient samples for lab-based molecular diagnostic testing and Kinlytic urokinase, a biologic thrombolytic drug used to treat blood clots. Microbix is traded on the TSX and OTCQX, and headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.

Forward-Looking Information

This news release includes "forward-looking information," as such term is defined in applicable securities laws. Forward-looking information includes, without limitation, discussion of Coombes, MSC, Roche, or any MDx screening programs, MDx testing for HPV or its relevance, the products or services of Microbix, Microbix's business and business results, goals or outlook, risks associated with financial results and stability, development projects such as those referenced in its corporate presentation, regulatory compliance and approvals, sales to foreign jurisdictions, engineering and construction, production (including control over costs, quality, quantity and timeliness of delivery), foreign currency and exchange rates, maintaining adequate working capital or raising further capital on acceptable terms or at all, and other similar statements concerning anticipated future events, conditions or results that are not historical facts. These statements reflect management's current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations; they are not guarantees of future performance. The Company cautions that all forward-looking information is inherently uncertain and that actual performance may be affected by many material factors, some of which are beyond the Company's control. Accordingly, actual future events, conditions and results may differ materially from the estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations expressed or implied in the forward-looking information. All statements are made as of the date of this news release and represent the Company's judgement as of the date of this new release, and the Company is under no obligation to update or alter any forward-looking information.

Please visit https://microbix.com or www.sedar.com for recent Microbix news and filings.

For further information, please contact Microbix at:

Cameron Groome,

CEO

(905) 361-8910 Jim Currie,

CFO

(905) 361-8910 Deborah Honig,

Investor Relations

Adelaide Capital Markets

(647) 203-8793

[email protected]

Copyright  2023 Microbix Biosystems Inc.

Microbix, DxTMtm, Kinlytic, QAPstm, and REDxtm are trademarks of Microbix Biosystems Inc.

Other companies' names and products are protected by their respective trademarks.

27 october 2023 at 07:00

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SIU Carbondale to launch accelerated online graduate programs supported by Academic Partnerships





CARBONDALE, Ill., Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Southern Illinois University Carbondale has signed a new partnership with Academic Partnerships (AP) to launch and support 12 online master's programs that can be completed in as little as one year.

By working together, SIU and AP will expand access to SIU's high-quality, high return on investment programs for working adults seeking more flexible online options. Launching in 2024, SIU Carbondale will offer the following programs in 8-week courses:

Master of Public Health

Master of Accountancy ? general

Master of Accountancy ? taxation concentration

Master of Accountancy ? auditing/accounting information systems

Master of Public Administration

Master of Science ? business analytics

Master of Business Administration

Master of Business Administration ? marketing concentration

Master of Business Administration ? finance concentration

Master of Business Administration ? analytics for managers concentration

Master of Business Administration ? accounting concentration

Master of Business Administration ? management concentration

"The partnership fits well with SIU Carbondale's strategic plan, Imagine 2030, and its pillar of student success and engagement," said Sheryl Tucker, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs.

"We are committed to expanding access and opportunities for students, including working adults who want to advance their careers in a timely fashion," Tucker said. "This partnership with AP will help us further our mission."

Founded in 1869, SIU Carbondale is the flagship campus of the Southern Illinois University System. With a Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education classification as a "high research" institution, it serves more than 11,300 students and is home to world-class research. The university offers online programs at the bachelor's, master's and doctoral levels, along with certificate and nondegree programs.

Helping to support this new affordable and quality delivery model is Academic Partnerships. AP is a partner to more than 55 universities across the country, primarily regional public universities, helping those institutions expand access to high-quality, affordable and workforce-relevant education.

"Academic Partnerships is honored to partner with SIU Carbondale as they launch these accelerated graduate degree programs," said Fernando Bleichmar, CEO of Academic Partnerships. "SIU Carbondale has a long history of serving diverse students from Illinois, throughout the country and around the world. With a shared mission of expanding access, we are excited to work side-by-side with SIU Carbondale as they expand their reach and impact."

About Southern Illinois University Carbondale

Southern Illinois University Carbondale is a doctoral research university, with several colleges, a School of Law and a School of Medicine. With a beautiful campus that includes a lake, a forest, university-owned farms and world-class facilities, the university offers unique opportunities such as undergraduate research often reserved for graduate students elsewhere. SIU Carbondale's strategic plan, Imagine 2030, prioritizes five distinct and equally important pillars: student success and engagement; diversity, equity and inclusion; branding and partnerships; research and innovation; and sustainability.

About Academic Partnerships

Academic Partnerships helps regional public universities and small colleges launch and grow their accelerated online programs. Founded in 2007, AP's mission is to expand access to high-quality, affordable, and workforce-relevant education, especially for working and adult students. AP brings single-minded dedication to student success, an integrated set of services, and data-driven performance to our collaboration with university partners. For more information on innovative online learning solutions, please visit www.academicpartnerships.com.

SOURCE Academic Partnerships

27 october 2023 at 08:00

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With up to 14 inches of snow falling in the mountains of southwestern Montana, the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center on Friday reminded backcountry users  including hunters  to be cautious.

The center re-posted a November 2015 incident in which two hunters walking near the saddle of Sacajawea Peak in the Bridger Mountains triggered an avalanche. The 40- to 50-foot wide slide broke 20 feet above the men, sweeping them 400 feet downhill over a series of rocks.

One of the hunters was knocked unconscious, but they were able to self-evacuate.

Anyone who travels in the mountains when there is snow on the ground needs to know how to avoid being caught in an avalanche, the Centers Alex Marienthal noted. This includes hunters who chase game like deer, elk, sheep and mountain goats, and anyone who might find themselves in the backcountry on steep, snow-covered slopes.

Since Tuesday night the mountains of southwestern Montana had received 6- to 14-inches of snow with Cooke City, West Yellowstone and Island Park seeing the largest accumulations. Light snowfall was forecast to continue with 2- to 5-inches possible before skies clear late Saturday. The start of next week will be mostly clear with high temperatures in the low 20s to low 30s. More snow is predicted to fall next Thursday or Friday.

Unlike skiers, snowshoers, or snowmobilers, hunters dont usually carry avalanche rescue gear and many travel solo, Marienthal wrote. This means if one is buried in an avalanche there is no contingency plan and survival is unlikely.

Consequently, Marienthal advised hunters and other backcountry adventurers to stay off steep slopes and away from areas directly below steep slopes.

Typically, we consider slopes steeper than 30 degrees as steep enough for snow to slide, he said. A simple tool called an inclinometer is worth carrying in your pocket to measure slope angle. Place the inclinometer parallel to the surface of the slope you are on, and it will tell you the angle.

He also noted there are various digital map applications  like GaiaGPS, OnX, and CalTopo  that offer slope angle shading which can help identify slopes to avoid.

Be cautious with these products as they can miss smaller areas of steep terrain due to resolution of data, Marienthal said. Always compare maps to reality when you are in the field. Small slopes can appear less dangerous, but if steep enough they can avalanche.

Last winter, 30 people were killed in avalanches in the United States, only one of which was in Montana  a snowmobiler near Cooke City. Likewise, only one person was killed in Wyoming.

Small slopes can be just as dangerous as big slopes, especially if they involve a terrain trap, Marienthal said. A terrain trap is where the consequences of an avalanche are higher due to snow piling up deep or pushing you into trees, rocks, water or over cliffs. Many hunters encounter these terrain traps along the steep sides of gullies and creek beds and should be prepared to avoid these areas if covered in deep snow.

Avalanches are less likely early in the fall when only a few inches of snow cover slopes, Marienthal noted. The danger increases when wind blows snow, forming drifts and cornices.

Avalanches are most common during and immediately after snowstorms and strong wind, he said. When it is snowing heavily, or the wind is drifting snow, avalanche danger is increasing, and you should steer clear of avalanche terrain.

He advised hunters who regularly travel in steep, snowy terrain to add avalanche safety to your quiver of backcountry survival skills. Take one or two introductory avalanche classes and learn how to recognize avalanche terrain so that you can avoid it when there is potential for avalanches.

Winter backcountry travelers can check out www.avalanche.org for online learning resources and links to regional course offerings and avalanche forecasts.
Bucks County Law Firm Focused on Nursing Home Malpractice and Wrongful Death Cases Marks Eighth Year Anniversary





Nursing Home and Wrongful Death Attorney Brian P. Murphy celebrates his firm's eighth year helping nursing home abuse and neglect victims throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

WASHINGTON CROSSING, Pa., Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The Law Firm of Brian P. Murphy, PC, today announces that, as of October 1, 2023, nursing home malpractice and wrongful death attorney Brian P. Murphy has passed his eighth year helping Pennsylvania and New Jersey residents find justice for nursing home abuse and neglect.

I have successfully held many nursing homes accountable for their wrongdoing over these past eight years, and I intend to continue doing that for years to come.

Murphy, who has represented nursing home abuse and neglect victims since 2006 at several law firms in and around Bucks County, decided in 2015 to open his own law practice exclusively dedicated to handling nursing home malpractice and wrongful death cases throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey. On October 1 of that year, he established The Law Firm of Brian P. Murphy, PC.

In the eight years since starting his firm, Murphy has successfully litigated many nursing home malpractice and wrongful death cases in the cities of Philadelphia and Trenton and throughout the states of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. His nursing home abuse and neglect practice includes, but is not limited to, the following areas:

"I find a great deal of gratification in what I do and I believe that shows in the type of representation I provide. I love fighting for the rights of others, especially elderly nursing home residents, as they are some of the most vulnerable among us. I have successfully held many nursing homes accountable for their wrongdoing over these past eight years" says Murphy, "and I intend to continue doing that for years to come."

A graduate of Rutgers School of Law (Juris Doctor), Murphy has been admitted to practice in Pennsylvania and New Jersey and is a member of both the Pennsylvania State Bar and the New Jersey State Bar; he is also a member of the American Bar Association, the American Association of Justice, the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association, the AAJ Nursing Home Litigation Group, and the Mercer County Bar Association.

Originally located in Newtown, Pennsylvania, The Law Firm of Brian P. Murphy, PC, relocated in 2019 to Washington Crossing in order to better serve its Pennsylvania and New Jersey clients.

About The Law Firm of Brian P. Murphy, PC

Since 2006, Brian P. Murphy, Esq. has devoted his practice to fighting for the rights of nursing home residents. In 2015, he established The Law Firm of Brian P. Murphy, PC with the intent of helping nursing home abuse victims in NJ and PA. Mr. Murphy is licensed in New Jersey and Pennsylvania and is dedicated to holding accountable New Jersey and Philadelphia/Pennsylvania nursing homes responsible for nursing home neglect, abuse, and fraud. As a nursing home malpractice and wrongful death attorney, Mr. Murphy has litigated hundreds of nursing home cases involving bedsores, falls, malnutrition, dehydration, physical/sexual abuse, and wrongful death. He has authored various articles and lectured locally and nationally to fellow attorneys about effective strategies for holding nursing homes responsible for neglect and abuse of their residents. For more information please contact Brian P. Murphy directly at (215) 579-8500, or visit http://www.thenursinghomeattorneys.com.

Media Contact

Brian Murphy, The Law Firm of Brian P. Murphy, PC, (215) 579-8500, [email protected], https://thenursinghomeattorneys.com

SOURCE The Law Firm of Brian P. Murphy, PC

27 october 2023 at 08:22

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University of Massachusetts Lowell Supports Young Men's Wellness in Partnership with Innovative Startup MANUAL





UMass Lowell students will receive access to MANUAL's full suite of resources to support overall health and well-being

WASHINGTON, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the University of Massachusetts Lowell announced a new partnership with MANUAL, an innovative online men's personal development platform, to provide young men on campus with anonymous support and resources for their physical, psychological, academic, and sexual well-being.

Through this partnership, MANUAL's evidence-based, expert-led online platform provides accessible and engaging content to thousands of young men on campus, covering a wide range of topics including mental health, sexual health, nutrition, fitness, and overall well-being. This platform will empower students to make informed health decisions that will improve their ability to perform their best in class and beyond.

"We're proud to invest in the well-being of young men at UMass Lowell," said Ruben Sanca, Director of Student Life & Well-Being at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. "We are dedicated to preparing students to succeed, and MANUAL is a great way to address the array of challenges faced by young men on campus today. This addition further strengthens the university's comprehensive and tailored mental health resources available for all students."

"Young men are in crisis, and this platform offers the personalized outreach and anonymity many students appreciate when seeking help," said Matthew Stefanko, Founder & CEO of MANUAL. "The University of Massachusetts Lowell is a leading institution when it comes to supporting the specific needs of their students, so it is no surprise to me that they've decided to commit resources to the unique challenges facing the young men on their campus."

Preliminary studies indicate that MANUAL enrollment is a promising avenue for improved health literacy in young men, especially about potentially taboo or sensitive topics, like erectile dysfunction; improved individual health, such as increasing healthy behaviors and decreasing mental distress; and improved student retention, especially the confidence to graduate from one's current university and undergraduate intentions to complete higher degrees. MANUAL also seems a promising avenue for buffering against substance misuse, especially binge drinking and marijuana consumption.

The partnership between UMass Lowell and MANUAL represents a significant step forward in addressing men's health challenges on college campuses. Through this collaboration, the two organizations hope to make a lasting impact on the lives of students and create a model for other fraternities and organizations to follow. This year MANUAL is partnering with a diverse group of academic institutions and organizations across the country, including Elmhurst University, Indiana University, the University of Mississippi, and the University of the Virgin Islands.

About the University of Massachusetts-Lowell: The University of Massachusetts Lowell is a nationally ranked public research university committed to excellence in teaching, research and community engagement. We strive to prepare students to succeed in college and to become lifelong learners and informed citizens in a global environment. UMass Lowell offers affordable, experience-based undergraduate and graduate academic programs taught by internationally recognized faculty who conduct research to expand the horizons of knowledge and sustainable practices. The programs span and interconnect the disciplines of business, education, engineering, fine arts, health, humanities, sciences and social sciences. The university continues to build on its founding tradition of innovation, entrepreneurship and partnerships with industry and the community to address challenges facing the region and the world. Learn more at uml.edu .

About MANUAL: MANUAL is an online men's personal development platform that aims to improve health literacy and well-being for young men. Through evidence-based content and engaging resources, MANUAL addresses various health topics, including mental health, sexual health, nutrition, fitness, and more. MANUAL's mission is to empower men with the knowledge and tools they need to make informed decisions about their health and lead fulfilling lives, particularly for young men resistant to support. To learn more, visit manual.care

SOURCE MANUAL

27 october 2023 at 09:00

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PHARMASCIENCE ANNOUNCES $120 MILLION EXPANSION OF CANDIAC INJECTABLE MANUFACTURING FACILITIES





This major project will enhance Canada's domestic medicine supply, boost exports

CANDIAC, QC, Oct. 27, 2023 /CNW/ - Pharmascience Inc. (Pharmascience) is pleased to announce a major expansion of its sterile injectable manufacturing facility in Candiac, Quebec, supported by partners with Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada's Strategic Innovation Fund and by the Government of Quebec through Investissement Quebec.

As the largest Canadian-owned pharmaceutical company, Pharmascience is dedicated to building on its 40 years of expertise in pharmaceutical manufacturing by investing in growth in Quebec. This major expansion project will allow Pharmascience to triple its injectable manufacturing capacity and has numerous benefits to the health of Canadians and to patients worldwide.

With the new plant expansion coming online in 2026, this project will:

Build on our strengths in R&D to attract more Contract Development and Manufacturing (CMO and CDMO) projects

Improve Canada's domestic biomanufacturing capabilities and ability to meet our pharmaceutical supply chain needs

domestic biomanufacturing capabilities and ability to meet our pharmaceutical supply chain needs Increase manufacturing efficiency and result in faster response times to product shortages or urgent health challenges

Fully implant Pharmascience as the Canadian leader in specialized, cytotoxic and high-potency injectable pharmaceutical manufacturing

Quotes

"This major expansion project is the continuation of Pharmascience's vision to be the Canadian leader in biomanufacturing of both generic and innovative products. We are proud to invest in the continued growth of Pharmascience, building on our 40 years of experience in the sector, to bring affordable, high-quality medicines to patients in Canada and around the world."

- David W. Goodman, PhD, Executive Chairman, Pharmascience

"Today's announcement shows that Pharmascience is determined to support local manufacturing and that we believe in the need to invest in Quebec and in Canada. We are proud to announce this major project that will firmly cement our role as leaders in Canadian pharmaceutical manufacturing. This project proves that, with the support of governments, we can support local manufacturing and our domestic capacity to secure pharmaceutical supply chain security as well as the strength of our healthcare system."

- Martin Ares, CEO, Pharmascience

"Pharmascience's work to update and expand its Quebec facility is a move that supports the strategic growth of Canada's life sciences sector and increases our cutting-edge biomanufacturing capabilities. This project not only ensures Canadians have access to critical medicines but also helps to strengthen and expand Canada's growing biomanufacturing and life sciences industry."

- The Honourable Francois-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry

"Quebec is fast becoming a major hub for the biomanufacturing and life sciences sector, both in Canada and around the world. By expanding the capacity of an already impressive facility, this investment by the governments of Canada and Quebec will further strengthen that, while creating high-level and well-paying jobs in the Montreal area."

- The Honourable Soraya Martinez Ferrada, Minister of Tourism and Minister responsible for the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec

"Our government is continuing to build a strong and innovative Quebec life sciences industry. Focusing on major projects such as Pharmascience's will strengthen the foundation of this strategic sector and bolster our local supply."

- Pierre Fitzgibbon, Minister of Economy, Innovation and Energy, Minister Responsible for Regional Economic Development and Minister Responsible for the Metropolis and the Montreal Region

"Our priority is to promote self-sufficiency in terms of supply and support innovation in the health field to improve our network's performance, as mentioned in the Plan sante. By supporting the Pharmascience project, we are leveraging local expertise to better meet the needs of Quebecers."

- Christian Dube, Minister of Health

"The expansion of Pharmascience's facilities in Candiac is an eloquent testimony to the commitment of this major Quebec family business to maintaining the pharmaceutical supply chain for the benefit of all Canadians. Counting Pharmascience among its corporate citizens is a source of pride for the municipal council. Its reputation and worldwide success can only benefit the entire community."

- Normand Dyotte, Mayor of Candiac

Quick Facts

This project will triple Pharmascience's current injectable manufacturing capacity from its 2021 level, with the addition of new, more efficient equipment.

The new facility comprises approximately 26,000 square feet of new manufacturing space and equipment, and a retrofit of approximately 7,500 square feet to Pharmascience's existing manufacturing facilities.

Valued at a total of $120 million , this project is supported by the Government of Canada's Strategic Innovation Fund at $29.77 million and by the Government of Quebec through Investissement Quebec at $24.75 million .

, this project is supported by the Government of Strategic Innovation Fund at and by the Government of Quebec through Investissement Quebec at . 50 new high-skilled advanced manufacturing jobs will be created as a result of the project, with the project supporting an additional 300 jobs.

Pharmascience will be able to invest approximately $40 -50 million every year in R&D in Canada .

-50 million every year in R&D in . With only 12% of Canada's drug supply produced domestically, this project will add much needed domestic manufacturing capacity to protect Canada's pharmaceutical supply chain.

ABOUT PHARMASCIENCE INC.

Founded in 1983, Pharmascience Inc. is the largest pharmaceutical employer in Quebec. With 1,500 employees proudly headquartered in Montreal, Pharmascience Inc. is a full-service, privately-owned pharmaceutical company with strong roots in Canada and a growing global reach, with product distribution in over 50 countries. Ranked 50th among Canada's top 100 Research and Development (R&D) investors in 2022, with $40-50 million in annual investment, Pharmascience Inc. is among the largest drug manufacturers in Canada.

Pharmascience Inc. has strong values based on the importance of investing in its employees and young people. Through various programs and initiatives, the company ensures it supports their personal development and life. In 2023, Pharmascience Inc. has proudly been recognized for its investments by being selected as one of Canada's Top Employers for Young People as part of Canada's Top 100 Employers. Also as of 2023, Pharmascience is now certified as a Great Place to Work for its second year in a row.

SOURCE Pharmascience Inc.

27 october 2023 at 10:30

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First Monopile Foundations for Dominion Energy's Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Commercial Project Arrive at Portsmouth Marine Terminal





Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) remains on budget and on schedule

Dominion Energy expects to begin offshore construction in early 2024 and to conclude in late 2026

These eight monopile foundations are the first of 176 to be delivered and staged in Portsmouth

RICHMOND, Va., Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Dominion Energy's Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) commercial project took one more step to starting construction when the first eight monopile foundations were safely offloaded at Portsmouth Marine Terminal, where they will be staged until installation of the 2.6-gigawatt project, enough electricity to power 660,000 homes, begins in the spring of 2024. The foundations, which are a single vertical, steel cylinder, are being manufactured by global leader EEW SPC and will be installed into the sea floor to support the wind turbine generators.

"The delivery of the first foundations is further evidence that our Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project continues to move forward on time and on budget to provide reliable, affordable and increasingly clean energy to our customers," said Bob Blue, Dominion Energy's chair, president and chief executive officer. "This regulated offshore wind project positions us, and the Commonwealth of Virginia, as leaders in the development of offshore wind and provides many benefits for our customers and local economies."

CVOW, the largest offshore wind project under development in the United States, is expected to generate fuel savings of $3 billion for customers during the project's first 10 years of operation.

The project continues to advance through the federal permitting process, receiving the Final Environmental Impact Statement from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) last month. BOEM is expected to issue its Record of Decision on the project in the coming days.

Offshore wind's economic development and jobs benefits are transformative for Hampton Roads and the Commonwealth. More than 750 Virginia-based workers ? nearly 530 in the Hampton Roads region ? have been engaged on the CVOW project or with other businesses supporting CVOW, including redevelopment work at the Portsmouth Marine Terminal, construction of the offshore wind Monitoring and Coordination Center, maritime provisioning, ship repairs, divers, heavy lift and rigging, cyber security, food service and hospitality. More than 1,000 local jobs will be needed to support ongoing operations and maintenance of this facility after the project is commercial.

The offloading of the foundations was supported by union workers from the International Longshoremen's Association, the largest union of maritime workers in North America.

B-roll footage and photos of the monopile unloading are available for download at https://news.dominionenergy.com/cvowfoundations. Photo and video of the celebration event will be available for download by 4:00 p.m.

View the Spanish version of this press release.

About Dominion Energy

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 providing reliable, affordable, and increasingly clean energy every day and to achieving Net Zero emissions by 2050. Please visit DominionEnergy.com to learn more.

SOURCE Dominion Energy

27 october 2023 at 10:30

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The Government of Canada has announced a call for applications for the Independent Advisory Board on Eligibility for Journalism Tax Measures





OTTAWA, ON, Oct. 27, 2023 /CNW/ - The Government of Canada has announced a call for applications for new members for the Independent Advisory Board on Eligibility for Journalism Tax Measures (Advisory Board).

The Advisory Board is an independent body whose mandate is to:

provide an independent assessment and a non-binding recommendation to the Minister of National Revenue (Minister) as to whether an organization that applies for designation as a qualified Canadian journalism organization (QCJO) satisfies certain conditions set out in the Income Tax Act; and

provide advice on any other matter relating to any journalism tax measure that the Minister refers to the Advisory Board.

To learn more about the Advisory Board and to view its annual reports, visit Independent Advisory Board on Eligibility for Journalism Tax Measures.

Advisory Board members are appointed by the Governor in Council ? the Governor General, on the advice of the King's Privy Council of Canada (Cabinet). The call for applications follows the Governor in Council selection process which is an open, transparent and merit-based process.

We invite applicants to apply to the following positions, as posted on the Governor in Council appointment opportunities web page:

A review of applications will begin on November 23, 2023. Applications will continue to be accepted after this date and may be considered until appointments are made.

Visit the Governor in Council website for more information on how to apply.

Quotes

"A strong, free and independent press is essential to our democracy. The Independent Advisory Board on Eligibility for Journalism Tax Measures plays an important role by assisting the Government in delivering support for Canadian journalism organizations. People from all backgrounds are encouraged to apply for membership on the Advisory Board."

- The Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of National Revenue

Quick Facts

The Government proposed tax measures to support journalism in Budget 2019 and the legislation received Royal Assent on June 21st, 2019 .

. In March 2020 , as a result of the tax measures to support Canadian journalism organizations, the Government created the Independent Advisory Board on Eligibility for Journalism Tax Measures by way of Order in Council and appointed its first members.

, as a result of the tax measures to support Canadian journalism organizations, the Government created the Independent Advisory Board on Eligibility for Journalism Tax Measures by way of Order in Council and appointed its first members. The Advisory Board is mandated to provide an independent assessment and make written, non-binding recommendations as to whether an organization meets certain criteria to be designated as a QCJO, which is the gateway to be eligible for the tax measures that support Canadian journalism.

Associated Links

Contacts

Simon Lafortune

Press Secretary

Office of the Minister of National Revenue

[email protected]

Media Relations

Canada Revenue Agency

613-948-8366 [email protected]

Stay connected

Follow the CRA on Facebook

Follow the CRA on Twitter ? @CanRevAgency

Follow the CRA on LinkedIn

Follow the CRA on Instagram

Subscribe to a CRA electronic mailing list

Add our RSS feeds to your feed reader

You can also watch our tax-related videos on YouTube

SOURCE Canada Revenue Agency

27 october 2023 at 14:00

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Province of Ontario invests in Campus of Care project to build 160 long-term-care beds on Ivan Franko Homes property in Mississauga





TORONTO, Oct. 27, 2023 /CNW/ - The Ministry of Long-Term Care has given the go-ahead to Ivan Franko Homes to begin construction of a new 160-bed Campus of Care building on its picturesque 10-acre property in Mississauga. The Ministry's requirement ? that the project receive approval to construct by August 31 ? was met.

"Waitlists for seniors' housing and quality care are growing," said the Honourable Stan Cho, Ontario's Minister of Long-Term Care. "Ivan Franko Homes has proven itself as an essential resource in the Ukrainian-Canadian community by providing high-quality care and culturally sensitive accommodation to its aging population for more than 65 years. The Province of Ontario is proud to support a new 160-bed long-term-care facility on the grounds of Ivan Franko Homes' existing retirement residence."

"We extend our sincerest gratitude to the Province of Ontario, to Minister Cho, and to former Minister Paul Calandra," said George Horhota, chair of the board of Ivan Franko Homes.

The IFH Campus of Care will be the most advanced elder health-care facility in Canada, serving the full spectrum of older adults: from active, independent people in their 60s and 70s, to seniors with varying degrees of need for supportive health care, to those with frailties needing 24/7 care.

In addition to a technologically modern long-term-care home with the latest infection prevention and control measures, the Campus of Care will include an assisted-living residence and eventually an intergenerational centre that will support not only the Campus but also the community with drop-in programs and services, health and wellness facilities, and a cultural hub. The Campus of Care will improve seniors' quality of life and health by eliminating the isolation of more typical senior living.

"The true measure of a community is how well it respects and supports its elders," said Mr. Horhota. "The Campus of Care will advance the Ivan Franko Homes legacy of providing a secure, caring, and inspirational environment for Ukrainian seniors. After a lifetime of contributing to our community, overcoming challenges, and raising families, our seniors deserve nothing less."

SOURCE Ivan Franko Homes

27 october 2023 at 14:00

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Latin Metals Seeking Partners for Cerro Bayo Gold-Silver Project in Argentina and Lacsha Copper Project, Peru





VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Latin Metals Inc. ("Latin Metals" or the "Company") ? (TSXV: LMS) OTCQB: LMSQF) provides details of projects in Argentina and Peru for which it is seeking partners to enter into option agreements. Latin Metals holds a diversified portfolio of mineral exploration assets in South America. The Company operates with a Prospect Generator model whereby partners are secured under option agreements to fund drilling and advanced exploration. The Company has several projects which are drill-ready and for which partners are being sought.



Cerro Bayo Gold-Silver Project, Argentina

The Cerro Bayo gold-silver property ("Cerro Bayo" or the "Property") is a drill-ready exploration property located in the prolific Deseado Massif, Santa Cruz Province, Argentina, where exploration since 1990 has resulted in the discovery of nearly 600 million ounces of silver and around 20 million ounces of gold.

Latin Metals' Cerro Bayo property is a 28,000-hectare, drill-ready project where 8 drill target areas have been defined within a 6km wide trans-tensional basin. Exploration completed to date includes property wide geological mapping, alteration mapping, magnetic survey, structural modelling, and sampling of mineralized veins and breccia bodies. Drill permitting is in progress and expected to be completed in due course. Agreements with holders of surface rights are in place across the entire property.

A presentation summarizing the project and exploration to date can be downloaded here and the Company welcomes expressions of interest.

Pursuant to an earn-in agreement (the "Agreement") entered into by the Company with a wholly owned subsidiary of Barrick Gold Corporation ("Barrick") (see news release dated February 7, 2022), whereby Latin Metals granted to Barrick the option to earn-up to an 85% interest in the Property (the "Option"), Barrick has provided notice to Latin Metals of their intention to relinquish the Option and terminate the Agreement, effective January 25, 2024. Since entering into the Agreement, Barrick has paid $513,000 to the underlying owner of the Property, $259,000 to Latin Metals, and incurred exploration expenditures of $1,848,000 on the Property, for a total investment of $2,620,000.

Latin Metals is considering several strategic options including entering into an earn-in agreement with another party.

Lacsha Copper Project, Peru

The 100%-owned Lacsha Copper Project is located in the coastal porphyry belt in Peru, which hosts multiple copper-moly and copper-gold-moly porphyry deposits. Latin Metals has completed extensive exploration over the past two years and secured a 4-year community agreement to allow exploration and drilling. The project is now drill-ready and drill-permitted.

A presentation summarizing the project and exploration to date can be downloaded here and the Company welcomes expressions of interest.

Qualified Person

The technical content of this release has been approved for disclosure by Keith J. Henderson P.Geo, a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101 and the Company's CEO. Mr. Henderson is not independent of the Company, as he is an employee of the Company and holds securities of the Company.

About Latin Metals

Latin Metals is a mineral exploration company acquiring a diversified portfolio of assets in South America. The Company operates with a Prospect Generator model focusing on the acquisition of prospective exploration properties at minimum cost, completing initial evaluation through cost-effective exploration to establish drill targets, and ultimately securing joint venture partners to fund drilling and advanced exploration. Shareholders gain exposure to the upside of a significant discovery without the dilution associated with funding the highest-risk drill-based exploration.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors of

LATIN METALS INC.

"Keith Henderson"

President & CEO

For further details on the Company readers are referred to the Company's web site ( www.latin-metals.com ) and its Canadian regulatory filings on SEDAR at www.sedar.com .

For further information, please contact:

Keith Henderson

Suite 890

999 West Hastings Street

Vancouver, BC, V6C 2W2

Phone: 604-638-3456

E-mail: [email protected]

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian and U.S. securities legislation, including the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation, statements regarding the negotiation of the Option Agreements and exercise of the Option for the Properties, the anticipated content, commencement, timing and cost of exploration programs in respect of the Properties and otherwise, anticipated exploration program results from exploration activities, and the Company's expectation that it will be able to enter into agreements to acquire interests in additional mineral properties, the discovery and delineation of mineral deposits/resources/reserves on the Properties, and the anticipated business plans and timing of future activities of the Company, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Often, but not always, forward looking information can be identified by words such as "pro forma", "plans", "expects", "may", "should", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", "believes", "potential" or variations of such words including negative variations thereof, and phrases that refer to certain actions, events or results that may, could, would, might or will occur or be taken or achieved. In making the forward-looking statements in this news release, the Company has applied several material assumptions, including without limitation, 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 development of the Company's Argentine projects in a timely manner, the availability of financing on suitable terms for the development, construction and continued operation of the Company projects, and the Company's ability to comply with environmental, health and safety laws.

Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Such risks and other factors include, among others, operating and technical difficulties in connection with mineral exploration and development and mine development activities at the Properties, including the geological mapping, prospecting and sampling programs being proposed for the Properties (the "Programs"), actual results of exploration activities, including the Programs, estimation or realization of mineral reserves and mineral resources, the timing and amount of estimated future production, costs of production, capital expenditures, the costs and timing of the development of new deposits, the availability of a sufficient supply of water and other materials, requirements for additional capital, future prices of precious metals and copper, changes in general economic conditions, changes in the financial markets and in the demand and market price for commodities, possible variations in ore grade or recovery rates, possible failures of plants, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated, accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry, delays or the inability of the Company to obtain any necessary permits, consents or authorizations required, including TSX-V acceptance for filing of the Option Agreements, any current or future property acquisitions, financing or other planned activities, changes in laws, regulations and policies affecting mining operations, hedging practices, currency fluctuations, title disputes or claims limitations on insurance coverage and the timing and possible outcome of pending litigation, environmental issues and liabilities, risks related to joint venture operations, and risks related to the integration of acquisitions, as well as those factors discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's latest Management Discussion and Analysis 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.sedar.com.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward looking statements. Except as otherwise required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update any of the forward-looking information in this news release or incorporated by reference herein.

27 october 2023 at 17:15

News published onand distributed by:
Ducks Unlimited Canada celebrates the Government of British Columbia's newly announced tool for conservation finance





The new fund will see $300M in funding available for conservation capacity-building, education and restoration.

VANCOUVER, BC, Oct. 27, 2023 /CNW/ - Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) applauds the Government of British Columbia for establishing a fund that will support conservation initiatives. These initiatives must contribute to the goal of conserving 30 per cent of Canadian lands and waters by 2030, a target set by the federal government, and the progress that this new fund will support will directly impact efforts to mitigate impacts of climate change, increase biodiversity, and support a strong economic future.

As a province with mountain, prairie, coastal, and northern landscapes, and activity from many sectors including Agriculture, Forestry, Energy, Fishing, Mining and more, British Columbia is a province with diverse and complex environmental needs, acknowledges Sarah Nathan, DUC's manager of provincial operations for B.C.:

"To best support the unique needs of each region and community in B.C., the province needed to develop something that is innovative, and fosters collaboration with all those who need a seat at the table to ensure conservation is done effectively and equitably. This new fund is both innovative and inclusive, and we are pleased to witness it's announcement and establishment."

Inclusion within this new fund of an emphasis on Indigenous-Led conservation through the support of establishing Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas, and Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Methods with a focus on Indigenous rights and engagement makes this fund even more successful, Nathan continued:

"This fund is an excellent first step toward a healthier, more connected, and more robust landscape across the province, and while the amount of work that is needed to get to 30 by 30 will undoubtedly need further funding, the initiatives funded through this will create momentum that further investments can build on. DUC has been fortunate to work closely with the Government of British Columbia on conversation matters, and we look forward to leveraging this innovative finance approach to conserve this beautiful landscape for our shared futures."

About Ducks Unlimited Canada: Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) is the leader in wetland conservation. A registered charity, DUC uses sound science and partners with government, industry, non-profit organizations, Indigenous Peoples and landowners to conserve wetlands that are critical to waterfowl, wildlife and the environment. To learn more about DUC's innovative environmental solutions and services, visit www.ducks.ca

SOURCE Ducks Unlimited Canada

27 october 2023 at 17:23

News published onand distributed by:
When Hurricane Otis swept through Acapulco, on Mexico's Pacific coast, on the night of Tuesday, October 24, everything seemed to have been blown away: cars, sailboats, electricity poles, roofs and trees. Footage filmed by tourists show this resort destination of almost 1 million inhabitants devastated by the force of the wind, which reportedly reached gusts of 310 km/h. Jorge Laurel Gonzalez, president of the Acapulco Association of Hotels and Tourist Enterprises, told the Mexican newspaper El Universal that the hurricane had caused unprecedented damage: "Acapulco's 20,000 hotel rooms are inoperable, and will be for a long time. I've never seen such a storm."

Read more Mexico: Photos of the aftermath of Hurricane Otis in Acapulco

According to an initial assessment by the mayor's office on Thursday, 80% of the hotels were destroyed, which suggests a devastating impact on the economy of the city, in one of Mexico's poorest states. On the seafront boulevard, Acapulco's famous Malecon, the palm trees were all on the ground, and most of the restaurants no longer had roofs. On Thursday, there was little information on the destruction in Acapulco's poor outlying neighborhoods, where the hotel workforce lives. A total of 58 high-voltage pylons were down, and electricity was still not restored by Thursday evening.

As for the rural areas and the rest of the Pacific coast of the state of Guerrero, information is even more scattered, while the Papagayo River has burst its banks in several places, raising fears of the submergence of houses built along its banks. Secretary for Security and Citizen Protection Rosa Icela Rodriguez was unable to give an initial assessment until Thursday morning, during the daily press conference of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, known as AMLO: 27 dead and four missing so far. The governor of Guerrero state, Evelyn Salgado Pineda, added that the death toll was likely to rise, although she did not yet have any information from most of the coastal villages.

Acapulco, Mexico, after Hurricane Otis on October 26, 2023. RODRIGO OROPEZA / AFP

On Wednesday, journalist Sandra Romandie was at the Pierre Mundo Imperial, a hotel just across the Pacific Ocean to attend the International Mining Convention that Salgado Pineda was due to inaugurate: "She never showed up, which surprised us all. Around 4 pm, we learned on social media that the tropical storm was about to become a hurricane, but we weren't alerted to how dangerous it was."

'Totally atypical behavior'

Along with other participants in the event, Romandie had to take refuge in one of the hotel's lounges on the first floor, as the windows and ceilings of the rooms shattered. "The wind was so strong it hurt my ears. Above all, the doors kept threatening to open. We spent over an hour barricading them with furniture and then trying to keep them closed with the strength of our arms. Today, I don't understand why this convention wasn't canceled in anticipation of such a violent hurricane," said Romandie, reached by telephone.

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Lawyer Johann Soufi, in front of the UN building in Geneva, on October 21. DAVID WAGNIeRES FOR M LE MAGAZINE DU MONDE

Suddenly, tears welled up in his eyes. "A child dies every 15 minutes in Gaza. We have been talking for two hours: Eight children have already died." Since the tragic day of October 7, with more than 1,400 persons murdered by Hamas in Israel, and the outbreak of war, Johann Soufi, 41, has become a voice of Gaza. A lawyer specializing in international law, Soufi said, "I don't want to become a media personality, the embodiment of the defender of the people of Gaza. But I do want to give them a voice."

In an op-ed published in the French edition of Le Monde on September 21, he wrote: "In the absence of any prospect of a political solution, only the International Criminal Court (ICC) is today capable of bringing hope of justice to the Palestinian victims." Now, as the war rages on, he explained, "Justice can be patient. The emergency is the humanitarian disaster in Gaza, the protection of civilians and the survival conditions of the thousands of people displaced to the south of the territory."

From September 2020 to March 2023, he headed legal affairs for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Middle East (UNRWA). It constituted more than 13,000 employees, with 1.6 million beneficiaries at the time. "UNWRA manages schools, hospitals, social services, food distribution, labor law, international law," explained the man who was never imagined for such a mission.

The son of a Breton mother and a Kabyle father (he holds French and Algerian nationalities), both lawyers, Soufi grew up and studied in Cergy, close to Paris. He joined a criminal law firm in Pontoise, also on the outskirts of Paris, but did not thrive there. "I wanted to tackle bigger issues. Justice is something I see on a much larger scale.."

East Timor, Cote d'Ivoire, Mali

At the age of 25, he wrote to the 300 lawyers working with the ICC. Only one, Arthur Vercken, gave him a chance. He joined his team to take part in the defense of Callixte Kalimanzira, a former senior official in the Rwandan Ministry of the Interior on trial for his involvement in massacres of Tutsis. He flew to Kigali, then to Tanzania, where the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda is based. He stayed for four years. "It was wonderful. That's when I got hooked on international justice and said to myself that I would do it until the day I died."

This was followed by assignments in East Timor, Cote d'Ivoire, Mali and the Central African Republic. In 2012, he was recruited by the Special Court for Sierra Leone, which was trying Charles Taylor, the former president of Liberia. He then joined the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, during the trial of the alleged assassins of former prime minister Rafik Hariri.

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Jesus turned water into wine. But Allen Hodges, a retired pastor, prefers the hard stuff.

Hodges opened Undammed Distilling Co. in March 2021. Its been nearly three years since then and Hodges said business is booming, so much that theyve got a couple milestones on the horizon.

First up, theres the Montana Distillers Guilds fall festival, which is being held in Billings for the first time. Undammed is one of the guilds 18 members, and one of two in Billings, along with Trailhead Spirits. That makes Hodges and his distillery the de facto host of the event, winkingly called Spirits Fest, which will be held the weekend before Halloween on Saturday, Oct. 28 from 3-6 p.n. at the Northern Hotel in downtown Billings. There will be 12 distillers represented from as far away as Coram, which is in the shadow of the peaks at Glacier National Park.

"If people want to see what's going on in terms of distilling in the state, this is a great way to do it," Hodges said.

He knows as well as anybody how quickly that world is growing. Undammed is currently selling everything they produce, all five of their signature spirits, which range from single malt whisky to gin and vodka. Theyre rapidly outgrowing their current space, a small distillery and mini tasting room at 2123 First Ave. N. The tasting room is homey and intimate, with botanicals growing on the windowsill and Hodges, a talkative host who loves to chat about spirits, usually tending bar. But at just under 800 square feet, its going from cozy to cramped.

I make everything I can make here, and I dont make enough, he said.

So Hodges and co. are moving 11 blocks to the east to the corner of Second Avenue North and North 11th Street. The new space is 6,500 feet, a drastic jump from their current location. Theyve got just 14 chairs in their tasting room now, but a new spot should allow for a significantly bigger room.

You wont feel like youre sitting in the lap of the person next to you, he added.

The crowds are coming for good reason. In the two and a half years theyve been open, Undammed already has a pair of awards, for their Shields River Single Malt Whiskey, which was given a silver medal and a score of 88 by the Beverage Tasting Institute, and Bear Skull Creek American Whiskey, which scored a 87 and was also awarded silver. The institute raved that the single malt had nuances of smoked fatty pork shoulder, and commended the American whiskeys cherry chapstick flavor.

The move will also allow Undammed to expand in personnel a bit, too. Right now theyve got three part-time employees plus Hodges, who doubles as the head distiller (he laughingly calls himself chief cook and bottle washer, perhaps a nod to the inherent humility built into his last profession). In the new space, hed like to add at least a new full-time distiller and another part-timer.

I anticipate with our projections to add a full-time employee once a year, Hodges said.

Theyre not on any strict time schedule, and the job of moving their enormous still is a daunting one, but Hodges is eyeing the spring.

Its construction, so were already delayed, he laughed.

When picking a new location, Hodges wanted to stay in the Billings Industrial Revitalization District (BIRD).

I love redevelopment, he explained. If youre trying to reinvest in an area, every business that says Im in helps.

While talking excitedly about his own upcoming move, he paused to mention the other nearby businesses, like the new Toucan Art Gallery, which is opening soon at 1002 2nd Ave. N.

Thats fitting the spirit of collaboration that runs through Undammed. The distillery is named after the Yellowstone River, which runs unimpeded from its headwaters in its namesake national park to its confluence with the Missouri, just across the North Dakota border. All 692 miles are undammed, making it the longest free-flowing river in the lower 48 states.

Each one of Undammeds spirits is named after a stream in the Yellowstone Watershed. Ghost Creek Vodka is named for a little stream that trickles down from Beartooth Pass into the Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone. Hole-In-The-Rock Gins namesake rises south of the Crazy Mountains into Duck Creek. Thief Creek, which lends its name to Undammeds bourbon, also flows from the Beartooths into the Clarks Fork. The aforementioned Shields River is north of the Crazies, and Bear Skull Creek, which maybe boasts the best name of them all, starts south of Broadus, where it eventually meets up with the Powder River.

It isnt just the Yellowstone that captures Hodges fancy, its the little creeks, the things you pass all the time without noticing. You cant have the mighty Yellowstone, or the Missouri or Mississippi, for that matter, without those tributaries. You cant have the city of Billings without the individuals that make it something bigger.

Case in point, for the Montana Distillers Guild event, Hodges wanted to raffle off a "Celebrate Billings" basket. He reached out to some fellow community members, and was deluged with support. Now, in addition to a bottle of single malt and some Undammed glasses, the basket includes dinner and swag from the Marble Table, tickets to the Billings Symphony, concessions and tickets at the Art House Cinema and Pub, cigars from Stogies, chocolates from Brockel's and a gift card for Jake's.

His fellow businesses, Hodges said, have been "very welcoming."

Thats also why he likes the Montana Distillers Guild so much. Theyve worked together to lobby and change Montana law, which now allows for craft distilleries to stay open later, or sell more than two bottles at once. Thats material improvement, but theres something greater and more intangible here. Part of the benefit being in the Montana Distillers Guild is being part of something thats bigger than just your business.

Theres no competition, Hodges mused. Were all in this together.

That includes the distilleries still building momentum, like Undammed, and what Hodges calls the biggies, Headframe Spirits in Butte and Willies Distillery in Ennis. Even before he was properly open, Hodges said, he had folks stopping by because theyd heard about him from some of the larger, more established distillers.

The other guild members have been really welcoming and really interested and helpful. It really does function like a guild where we work together to try to increase the knowledge and exposure of craft spirits in the state.
MEMBERS of the Glenstal Abbey School Choir are warming up their vocal chords before jetting off on a special journey.

The choir are getting ready for a visit to London this weekend to sing at Evening Mass in Westminster Cathedral on Saturday, October 28.

27 student choir members are travelling to London, with members from all year groups including a number of First Year students who joined the choirs just a few weeks ago and led by Choir Captain, Sixth Year student Zach O'Connor.

27 members of the Glenstal Abbey School Choir are getting ready for their visit to London this weekend. They are honoured to have been invited to sing at Evening Mass at Westminster Cathedral on Saturday. #GlenstalAbbeySchool #GlenstalAbbeySchoolChoir #WestminsterCathedral pic.twitter.com/6cm9ABbWE8  Glenstal Abbey School (@GlenstalSchool) October 24, 2023

The school choir is led by Headmaster, Marius Carney, who is also the Choir Master.

The young men sing every Sunday alongside the monastic scholar at Mass in the Abbey Church at Glenstal.

They practice several times a week, with extra evening practices taking place in preparation for their choir tour to London.

Marius said; The school is delighted to have the opportunity to perform as a visiting choir to the prestigious Westminster Cathedral at the Evening Mass this coming Saturday.The choir will be performing a new Gloria, composed for the visit to London by Fr Columba McCann OSB, monk of Glenstal.In between rehearsals and their performance at the Evening Mass on Saturday at Westminster Cathedral, the boys will enjoy some sightseeing around London and visiting the Brompton Oratory.
MORE than 1,200 people from all over Ireland converged in Mullingar for the Irish Kidney Association 38th Annual Service of Remembrance and Thanksgiving, including a Limerick family.

The service, which honours organ donors and celebrates their gift of life to others, was held at the Cathedral of Christ the King, on Saturday, October 14.

Taking part in symbolic processional and reading roles were courageous families of deceased organ donors, living kidney and liver donors and grateful transplant recipients of heart, lungs, liver, kidney, and pancreas, including Gerard and Margaret Reidy from Loughill West, Limerick who have attended since their daughter Miriam passed away in 1997.

For many donor families the unique service has become an anniversary to both remember their loved ones, and for transplant recipients, the opportunity to honour and give thanks for the wonderful gift of life they have received.

Individuals of all faiths, non-religious including humanists, came together to celebrate the gift of life.

Also participating were members of the wider organ donation and transplant community, including medical, surgical, and nursing staff.

The annual Service of Remembrance was recorded and will be broadcast on RTE One television and RTE Radio One Extra on Sunday November 5 at 11am.
THE VILLAGE of Patrickswell made history on Saturday as the first event was held in their new 1.5m community centre.

Patrickswell Community Council hosted a coffee morning - the first of many.

The community council secured significant grant funding from a number of sources to deliver this much-needed facility including 250,000 from the JP McManus Benevolent Fund, 500,000 from the Department of Rural and Community Development, 500,000 from Limerick City and County Council and the remainder of the funding from locals, for which the committee are very grateful.

Contractors moved in on site in August 2022 to commence construction after years of hard work by many volunteers. Parkway Construction completed the build, which took just over a year. The design team were led by architect Rob Shanahan, quantity surveyor Cathal Keane, of Cuddy QS and David OMalley, of Hutch OMalley Consulting Engineers.

Vice chairperson of Patrickswell Community Council Mike Ahern said it was truly an historic day for the village and all who live within it.

"Over many years our volunteers have worked tirelessly to deliver a community centre for the 'Well.

"We would like to sincerely thank our local councillor Dan McSweeney for his vision and tireless work in helping to bring this project to a conclusion and Minister Patrick ODonovan for representing us at Government level and ensuring we received the necessary funding to make our dream become a reality," said Mr Ahern.

Deputy Mayor Dan McSweeney said pver the last four years he has had the privilege of working alongside a truly amazing group of volunteers who never gave up on their dream of delivering a state of the art community centre for Patrickswell.

As we have seen in recent days the centre will become the focal point of our village. I look forward to continuing to work with Patrickswell Community Council and to deliver for Patrickswell," said Cllr McSweeney.
TWO LIMERICK brothers, both held in high regard by their families, friends, and respective communities took their final breaths on this earth only two days apart.

Maurice and Patrick Naughton were both raised in Mountcollins, Patrick spent all his life in the West Limerick community whereas Maurice settled in Dublin after meeting the love of his life, his beloved Betty.

Patrick has been described as a stalwart of the Mouncollins community by a Mountcollins Development Association representative. Patrick was one of the founding members of the association.

Everyone who came through the village met him. He was either working in his bar, in the butchers, or working in the post office, the representative said about the former local postmaster.

He was a central figure in the village A real backbone. Hell be missed, he was always there, the representative added.

In a post on social media, Mountcollins Development Association said: It is with great sadness we in Mountcollins Development Association acknowledge the passing of one of our founding members.

Patrick has worked tirelessly with the Development Association for many years in order to make our village a better place to live. Our condolences to Noreen and the extended Naughton family. May Patrick rest in peace, the post said.

Patrick passed away on Thursday, October 26, two days after Maurice. He is predeceased by his brother Denis and grandson Oisin, Patrick is very sadly missed by his loving wife Noreen, daughters Joan (Hickey) and Lenora (Moreton), sons Dominic and Padraig (Paudie), sons-in-law Seamus and James, daughter-in-law Lorraine, Dominics partner Martina, grandchildren Patrick, Jeremiah, Muireann, Padraig, Caoimhe, Shona, Danielle, Cathal, Ruairi and Siun, great-grandsons Cillian and Rian, brother John, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, nephews, nieces, all his other relatives, neighbours and friends.

During Maurices funeral Mass this Friday morning in Dublin, Fr Martin Noon said: He grew up [in Mountcollins], came to Dublin and met a lady called Betty and they settled here in her home parish of Mourne Road.

Maurice in his professional life was a driver and drove buses, delivered goods, and also worked for Dublin Bus.

Maurice had a busy life but found time for other things he was passionate about.

Maurice was a minister of the Eucharist, involved too in many of our parish committees. And yet, Maurice and Betty could find time for their set dancing, and for their travelling, loving holidays, loving getting away, Fr Noon said.

Maurice was the devoted husband of Betty, the loving dad of Paul, Maurice Jnr and Gerard, adored grandad of Sean, Rachel, Laura, Joan, Paul, Eabha and Daragh.

Maurice will be forever loved and sadly missed by his heartbroken family, daughters-in-law Trish, Margaret and Claire, brothers John and Patrick, sisters-in-law, nieces, nephews, extended family, neighbours and friends.
Smithstown Light Engineerings commitment to be at the cutting edge of leading technologies and continuous improvement programmes has seen the second generation indigenous firm enjoy phenomenal growth in recent years.

With manufacturing facilities in Shannon, Ireland and Rzeszow, Poland, Smithstown Light Engineering currently employs over 165 people and serves some of the biggest medtech companies in the world.

Continuous Investment

Founded 1974 by Brian King, the company has transitioned from a parts production company to a global leader in new technologies and advanced manufacturing methods. To maintain this market leading position, the company continuously invests in its facilities, equipment and people.

Smithstown Light Engineering now has two manufacturing facilities in Shannon spanning over 80,000sq ft and one facility in Poland at 15,000sq ft. In the past 3 years, the company has invested 17 million in new technologies.

Having reached capacity at its original plant, the rapidly growing firm opened a second manufacturing site (10,000 sq ft) in August 2017. By 2019 it trebled the size of its second facility  such is the scale of growth at the local firm.

Both facilities in Shannon are FDA registered to produce precision components and medical devices and meet all necessary international standards and regulations.

Much of their success is owed to their ability to anticipate and meet clients growing demand. For instance, the efficient manner in which Smithstown set up the mass-production sliding-head turning facility for a particular client in 2018 attracted the interest of other major US and European OEMs.

Gerard King, Principal Owner and Director, Smithstown Light Engineering, said: This is about future-proofing. Our customers are experiencing incredible growth and are keen to reduce lead times in sourcing products around the world. Our ongoing investment and expansion ensures we can keep up with their growing demand for ultra precision products used in lifesaving treatments. I would like to thank our staff and Enterprise Ireland for their invaluable support and commitment over the years.

People-Focused

According to Gerard Henn, CEO, Smithstown Light Engineering, staff are central to the success of the firm.

We invest in our people. Weve a policy of continual self improvement and we actively encourage both internal and external training programs. The long service of many of our employees is testament to the great culture that has been developed here, he said.

With continuous expansion and growth, Smithstown Light Engineering is always looking for new staff members to join the team. Heres what some of their team have to say about working at the company:

Fergus Cooney, I was working on the floor and in the wire room for about 16 years and then I got an opportunity to move into the inspection room as an inspector. The length of time Im with the company Im still learning every day. When you see what the end product is and where its going to end up, its very fulfilling. 

Flavio DeCampos said: Im Brazilian and come from a different culture, so I didnt know what to expect when I arrived in Ireland. I received a very warm welcome. I can see the improvement in my career because the company always supports me in trying something new. Ive had the opportunity to train abroad twice and this has been a really good moment in my career.

Catherine OBrien, It is a lovely company to work for. The owners and the managers are really, really nice. If you wanted to progress there are opportunities to go to college and the company will support you.

Kevin Kelly, Its a great company to work for; particularly if youre looking to learn and progress and gain experience. The amount of technology that were working with is phenomenal. Were working with the newest machines and technology available  the range is so vast that you can really get a lot of experience.

Celeste Kelly: I came into Smithstown in 2018 and I come in every morning smiling and I go home every day smiling. Ive never been happier in a company and Ive worked in a lot of places.

Smithstown Light Engineering is currently hiring across Operations, Manufacturing and Engineering.

If you are looking to start your career or change direction and believe you have the skills and experience to work for a high-growth precision engineering firm, please send your CV to opportunities@sle.ie

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PaperHelp stands out as the best overall research paper writing service, thanks to its high-quality papers, user-friendly interface, and a diverse range of subjects. With a team of professional writers holding advanced degrees, you can expect top-notch work, even with complex assignments or tight deadlines.

PaperHelps customer service is also highly regarded, ensuring a smooth and hassle-free experience. Although the prices can be higher than some competitors, the quality and reliability of PaperHelp make it well worth the investment.

The research paper we bought from PaperHelp demonstrated a deep understanding of the topic and was meticulously researched. The professional research paper writer we hired clearly outlined their arguments, used relevant sources, and provided comprehensive evidence. It was a pleasure to read a piece that showcased academic rigor and original thinking.

Price: Starting from $10 per page

Rating:

Price: 4.9/5

Quality of Writing: 5/5

Customer Support: 4.6/5

Additional Benefits: 4.7/5

Pros:

High-quality papers across all difficulty levels

Professional research paper writers with Bachelors and Ph.D. degrees

User-friendly interface, easy-to-use website

Wide variety of subjects and assignments

Cons:

Customer support team is slow to respond

#2. BBQPapers: Best Service for Term Papers

BBQPapers shines when it comes to complex and lengthy assignments, such as term papers or STEM projects. The companys rigorous hiring process ensures that your paper will be written by the best research paper writers in the industry, who hold advanced degrees from renowned U.S. universities.

Although BBQPapers prices are slightly higher than other services, the superior results and expertise provided by its writers make it the top choice for term papers and other challenging assignments. Thanks to BBQPapers' professionalism, hundreds of positive reviews on SiteJabber, and excellent quality, BBQPapers is hands down the best term paper writing service in the U.S.

The paper we bought from BBQPapers was a captivating read from start to finish. This research paper not only delves deep into the topic but also eloquently presents the findings in a manner accessible to both experts and novices alike. The innovative use of data visualization added an extra layer of depth to the analysis.

Price: Starting from $15 per page

Rating:

Price: 4.7/5

Quality of Writing: 5/5

Customer Support: 5/5

Additional Benefits: 5/5

Pros:

Excels in complex and lengthy assignments

Top-quality results from experienced writers

Higher education credentials of writers

Free originality report, free editor check

Cons:

Slightly higher prices than other services

#3. EssayPro: Best for Affordability

For students on a tight budget, EssayPro is the best research paper writing service in terms of affordability. With prices starting from just $10.80 per page and a bidding system that allows for price flexibility, EssayPro makes it possible to access professional writing assistance without breaking the bank.

While the quality of writing can be inconsistent depending on the writer assigned to your project, the majority of customers have expressed satisfaction with the services provided. The order placing system can be a bit inconvenient, but EssayPros affordability and range of services make it a top choice for budget-conscious students.

The research paper we bought from EssayPro was well-structured, and the writer presented a balanced view of the topic. There were a few minor grammatical errors, but they didn't detract much from the overall quality. It's evident that a good amount of effort went into the research and writing process.

Price: Starting from $10.80 per page

Rating:

Price: 5/5

Quality of Writing: 4.7/5

Customer Support: 4.6/5

Additional Benefits: 4.6/5

Pros:

Cheap writing service, affordable pricing for students on a budget

Wide range of services

Bidding system for price flexibility

Cons:

Quality of writing can be inconsistent

Inconvenient order placing system

#4. SpeedyPaper: Best Reputation

SpeedyPaper boasts an excellent reputation and fast turnaround times, making it the top choice for students seeking a reliable service with a proven track record. Here are some reasons why SpeedyPaper stands out among its competitors:

Over 5000 positive reviews online

Ability to deliver high-quality research papers even within tight deadlines

Assurance of receiving a top-quality paper in a short time frame

While prices for rush orders can be higher, the assurance of receiving a top-quality paper in a short time frame makes SpeedyPaper an ideal option for students in need of urgent assistance.

The paper we got from SpeedyPaper demonstrated a deep understanding of the topic and was meticulously researched. The author clearly outlined their arguments, used relevant sources, and provided comprehensive evidence. It was a pleasure to read a piece that showcased academic rigor and original thinking.

Price: Starting from $9 per page

Rating:

Price: 4.7/5

Quality of Writing: 5/5

Customer Support: 5/5

Additional Benefits: 4.5/5

Pros:

Excellent reputation with over 5000 positive reviews

Fast turnaround times for urgent assignments

High-quality research papers even with tight deadlines

Cons:

Prices can be higher for rush orders

#5. ExtraEssay: Best for Quick Delivery

ExtraEssay excels in providing quick delivery for urgent assignments, ensuring high-quality papers even with tight deadlines. Whether you need an essay, coursework, or report writing, ExtraEssays team of experienced writers can handle various academic writing needs within a short time frame.

Although pricing for rush orders can be higher compared to other services, the assurance of receiving a top-quality paper quickly makes ExtraEssay the best choice for quick delivery.

ExtraEssay's research paper shines brightly in its clarity, organization, and depth of analysis. The literature review is comprehensive, setting the stage for the author's original contributions. The meticulous methodology and clear presentation of results make this a valuable resource for anyone delving into this area of economics.

Price: Starting from $11 per page

Rating:

Price: 4.6/5

Quality of Writing: 4.7/5

Customer Support: 5/5

Additional Benefits: 4.6/5

Pros:

Quick delivery for urgent assignments

High-quality papers even with tight deadlines

Wide range of academic writing services

Cons:

Pricing can be higher for rush orders

#6. EssayNoDelay: Best for Regular Discounts and Promo Offers

EssayNoDelay is one of the best term paper writing services and the prime choice for students seeking regular discounts and promo offers. As a loyal customer, you can benefit from exclusive discounts, special offers for long-term cooperation, and a wide variety of services. Although EssayNoDelays prices can be higher than some competitors, the regular discounts and exclusive deals make it an attractive option for students looking for a long-term collaboration with a research paper writing service.

The writer at EssayNoDelay demonstrated a masterful grasp of the subject, weaving together diverse sources to present a holistic view. Each section built on the previous, culminating in a compelling conclusion that was both insightful and thought-provoking.

Price: Starting from $12 per page

Rating:

Price: 4.7/5

Quality of Writing: 4.8/5

Customer Support: 5/5

Additional Benefits: 4.6/5

Pros:

Regular discounts and special offers for loyal customers

Ideal for long-term cooperation

Wide variety of services

Cons:

Prices can be higher than competitors

How to Avoid Fake Research Paper Writing Service Reviews

Do you ever wonder about the credibility of some online reviews? Well, if you don't, it's time to start. Representatives of academic writing companies themselves use hundreds of fake profiles across platforms like Reddit and Quora to generate false hype for their services. The primary reason behind such devious marketing strategies is simple: putting forward a faceless brand with no credibility.

Here are a few tips to help you discern real reviews from fake ones:

Overly enthusiastic endorsements that seem promotional might be an alarm bell for potential falsified reviews.

Fake reviewers often use generic language and avoid specific details about service experiences.

Check the profile of the reviewer. If they only have posts praising a particular product or service with little other engagement in discussions, it raises suspicion on the authenticity of their reviews.

Fake reviewers often leave active, clickable links to the services they promote.

Therefore, remember, while seeking advice about any research paper writing service via these platforms will provide many viewpoints  not all may depict the complete reality!

Choosing the Best Research Paper Services: Our Methodology

Our objective in sharing this approach is two-fold. Firstly, to provide transparency about how we make our selections and secondly, to help you understand what factors to consider when choosing such a service for yourself.

Assessing Reputation

First things first: reputation matters a lot! Hence we initiate our hunting process by checking out customer reviews and testimonials about each service under consideration. After all, experiences of previous customers give us real insight into a company's reliability.

We also take notice of consistent complaints about a particular issue as well as positive feedback that reappear across multiple reviews. However, we ensure not to blindly believe every review. We strive hard to separate the wheat from the chaff by identifying genuine inputs from manipulated ones.

Quality Check

Surely nobody would want sub-standard work primarily when its intended for academic purposes. That is why quality forms the next crucial touch point of our selection process. We do this by analyzing sample papers provided by the company if they are available either on their website or upon request.

Besides content quality per se (grammatical correctness, argument structure), originality holds equal significance. You see nobody appreciates plagiarized work, especially not academic institutions! Therefore thorough plagiarism checks form an integral part of our evaluation process.

Vetting Writers

We all know that behind every excellent research paper stands a brilliant writer (or group thereof!). Therefore bracing through CVs and qualifications alone isn't enough for us; what assures us even more are rigorous writing trials.

Consequently, another critical aspect of our methodology is understanding the selection process of writers within each service. Some key parameters we consider here include their academic qualifications, native language, and area of expertise.

Pricing Structure

Nobody wants to burn a hole in their pocket! Hence after closely examining the quality offered by a service, we put its pricing structure under our microscope. What we look for is not the lowest cost but rather an optimal balance between price and quality.

All students do not have loads of money to spend; thus affordability becomes quite crucial. But remember quality shouldnt be compromised over cost. Therefore we aim to recommend services that seem committed to giving you a bang for your buck and maximum value for your spent dollars!

Customer Service

Imagine needing immediate revisions or having payment issues only to find customer service unresponsive! It doesn't sound pleasant at all! But don't worry  we've got this covered too in our methodology!

We place test orders or inquire about services as an ordinary customer would and then judge how proactive, patient, and helpful their team is. As a best practice tip for you  always opt for services offering 24/7 support!

Time Efficiency

Submitting an assignment late could lead to negative marking despite having great material on paper. Recognizing these consequences, adherence to deadlines emerges as another prime metric included in our selection criteria. We view this by going through past customers' reviews about delays or missed deadlines.

Understanding the Pricing Structure

Custom research paper and essay writing services typically range from $10 to $30 per page, with rush order prices being more expensive at approximately $15 to $60. Factors such as the length of the assignment and the deadline can affect the price per page. For example, a two-week deadline might cost between $10 and $15, while a three-hour delivery usually starts from $30 per page.

Comprehending the pricing structure of research paper writing services aids in budget planning and guarantees optimal value for your investment. To maximize savings, its recommended to order your research paper at least a day before the deadline.

Assessing the Quality of Writers

The caliber of writers that a research paper service uses significantly influences your projects outcome. To assess the quality of writers, consider the following factors:

Qualifications and expertise: Look for writers who hold advanced degrees in their respective fields and have relevant experience in research paper writing.

Look for writers who hold advanced degrees in their respective fields and have relevant experience in research paper writing. Writing samples: Examine the writing samples provided by the service to gauge the writers proficiency in English, writing quality, and subject matter knowledge.

Examine the writing samples provided by the service to gauge the writers proficiency in English, writing quality, and subject matter knowledge. Customer reviews and testimonials: Read customer reviews and testimonials to understand the writers responsiveness, communication skills, and adherence to deadlines.

Evaluating the expertise of professional paper writers, including a professional writer, in research paper writing services guarantees that your final paper aligns with your expectations and bolsters your academic success. If youre thinking, I need someone to write my research paper," look no further than these experts.

Evaluating Customer Support

Customer support is vital for a smooth and successful experience when using a professional paper writing service. A dependable customer support system can provide assistance with any issues or queries that may arise during the writing process. To evaluate the customer support provided by a research paper writing service, consider the following:

1. Contact information: Look for the services contact information, such as a phone number or email address, to ensure that you can reach them when needed.

2. Responsiveness: Test the responsiveness of the customer support team by sending them a message or making a phone call. A quick and helpful response is a good indicator of reliable customer support.

3. Online reviews: Read online reviews to get an idea of the customer support experience provided by the service.

The Importance of Additional Benefits

Additional benefits offered by an online paper writing service can greatly enhance your overall experience and contribute to your academic success. Some of these benefits include research paper writing help in the form of:

Free revisions: The ability to request modifications and corrections to your paper without additional fees ensures that the final product meets your requirements and expectations.

The ability to request modifications and corrections to your paper without additional fees ensures that the final product meets your requirements and expectations. Plagiarism checks: A plagiarism-free guarantee ensures that your paper is original and accurately referenced, avoiding academic penalties.

A plagiarism-free guarantee ensures that your paper is original and accurately referenced, avoiding academic penalties. Discounts and special offers: Regular discounts and special offers can make research paper writing services more affordable and accessible.

Contemplating these extra perks while picking a research paper writing service optimizes your investments value and enhances your overall experience.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the best research paper writing services?

The best research paper writing services are those that offer quality, reliability, affordability, and timely delivery. Look for ones that provide customer reviews, custom pricing, and a guarantee of satisfaction. Additionally, choose a company that offers reliable customer service and easy accessibility.

Can I pay someone to write my research paper?

Yes, it is legal to pay someone to write a research paper for you. BBQPapers offers quality research papers and services, such as custom essays, term papers, and dissertation writing, that make it a reliable option if you need academic assistance.

Are there any legit paper writing services?

Yes, there are legitimate paper writing services available; SpeedyPaper and PaperHelp are two of them. Both offer a range of writing services with Ph.D. level writers providing individualized approaches to their customers.

How much does it cost to have someone write your research paper?

The cost of having someone write your research paper typically ranges from $10-$30 per page, depending on the requirements and experience of the writer. PaperHelp and BBQPapers are two reliable options offering quality essays at reasonable rates.

How can I avoid fake research paper writing service reviews?

To avoid fake research paper writing service reviews, look for reviews on independent review sites, investigate customer feedback on social media, and examine reviews on the service's website to ensure a professional tone, clear conclusion, and lack of random artifacts.

Summary

In conclusion, selecting the best research paper writing service is crucial for achieving academic success and alleviating stress. By considering factors such as pricing, writer quality, customer support, and additional benefits, you can make an informed decision that caters to your specific needs and preferences. Dont let the burden of research papers hold you back  explore these top-rated services and invest in your academic future today.

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.

Milestone Alert!Livemint tops charts as the fastest growing news website in the world  Click here to know more.
For those new to the Forex trading world, cent accounts offer a valuable starting point. Essentially, these accounts are denominated in cents rather than dollars. While they bear similarities to standard Forex accounts, cent accounts have distinct characteristics, particularly regarding the nominal funds they house. For instance, a $5 deposit translates to 500 cents in a cent account. Numerous brokers provide these cent account options, and below, TU experts spotlight the top contenders, highlighting their trade-friendly terms, diverse instruments, and other essential attributes.

What Exactly Are Cent Account Forex Brokers?

Brokers with cent accounts facilitate real-time trades but require a smaller capital, given that all metrics are denominated in cents. Experts at Traders Union point out that the primary distinction between a standard and a cent account lies in the displayed nominal value. For example, a $10 deposit in a cent account will show a 1,000-cent balance, representing the available trading funds.

Leading Forex Brokers Offering Cent Accounts in 2023

In the dynamic world of Forex trading, cent accounts offer a unique opportunity for traders to engage in the market with minimal risk. Especially beneficial for beginners or those wanting to test strategies, cent accounts allow for trading with small deposits. Here's a TU list of the top brokers in 2023 who are making waves with their attractive cent account offerings:

RoboForex provides cent accounts in currencies such as EUR, USD, and even Gold.

Forex4You offers an enticing start for aspiring traders with an initial deposit of just $1.

InstaForex stands out with unparalleled flexibility in its cent account offerings.

Exness, widely recognized as a trustworthy Forex and CFD broker, joins the ranks.

XM is acclaimed as the optimal choice for those making their debut in the trading arena.

What Cent Accounts have to do with FBS's No Deposit Bonus

In the intricate landscape of Forex trading, certain tools and incentives stand out for beginners. On one hand, cent account Forex brokers offer a low-risk introduction by allowing trades to be conducted in cents rather than larger amounts, giving newcomers a tangible yet minimally risky exposure. On the other, no deposit bonus from FBS is a game-changer, offering traders a chance to start their journey without any initial financial commitment. When combined, these two features provide a solid foundation for those entering the Forex world, ensuring they can hone their skills and strategies without incurring substantial losses or making significant investments upfront.

FBS's Attractive Forex Bonuses Overview

FBS is renowned for offering a range of enticing bonuses to its traders. According to Traders Union analysts, upon registering with FBS, traders can access various bonus programs to jump-start their trading journey.

Quick Start Bonus: FBS's Quick Start bonus grants a $100 trading bonus upon opening a bonus account in the FBS Trader mobile platform. This offer, exclusive to FBS Trader, comes with a 7-step trading tutorial, enabling traders to learn while benefiting from the bonus.

Level Up Bonus: With this, traders can earn a bonus ranging from $70 (when signing up through the FBS Personal Area web platform) to $140 (if they use the FBS Personal Area app).

100% Deposit Bonus: Ideal for those planning a significant initial deposit, FBS matches 100% of the trader's deposit, effectively doubling the available trading funds.

FBS Level Up Bonus $140: Depending on the platform chosen, traders can secure a bonus of either $70 (web version) or $140 (mobile app). This bonus also comes packaged with educational resources to enhance trading capabilities. Importantly, this bonus allows trading initiation without any personal fund deposits.

Conclusion

Forex trading, with its vast landscape, can appear daunting for beginners. However, TU experts argue that the advent of cent accounts has revolutionized the entry point for novices, providing a safer and more accessible platform to understand market dynamics. These accounts, tailored to minimize risk, are complemented by attractive bonuses from brokers like FBS, further easing the initiation process. The combination of cent accounts and no-deposit bonuses, like those offered by FBS, empowers traders with the right tools to navigate the Forex market confidently. It underscores the industry's commitment to nurturing talent and ensuring every trader, regardless of experience, has an equitable shot at success.

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.

Milestone Alert!Livemint tops charts as the fastest growing news website in the world  Click here to know more.
It has been quite a year for Mark Zuckerberg. The co-founder of Facebook, a social-media Goliath now called Meta, is no stranger to public rebuke. But exactly a year ago even investors appeared to throw in the towel, accusing him of trashing the core business while lavishing money on his pharaonic dreams for the metaverse, a virtual world where he alone appeared to float in a deluded fantasy realm. On the day Meta issued weak third-quarter earnings last year, its share price fell by more than a fifth. Zucks name was mud.

In the year since it has been rehabilitated. Metas core businessengaging 3.1bn people a day on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, and selling advertisers access to their attentionis back to rude health. On October 25th the company reported revenues of $34.1bn in the third quarter, up by 23% year on year. That was the sharpest rise since the digital boom of the covid-19 pandemic. Net profits more than doubled to $11.6bn. Metas share price has risen by 250% since last years nadir.

View Full Image (Graphic: The Economist)

In the media, Mr Zuckerberg gets little credit for his business nous. There is more focus on other stuff: his recent passion for martial arts; the cage fight with Elon Musk that never happened; public haranguings, such as lawsuits filed by dozens of American states on October 24th, alleging that Meta intentionally sought to make users addicted to Facebook and Instagram. And yet, in the space of a few months late last year, he made two transformative business decisions that were remarkable for their humility and agilityall the more so, given that he controls 58% of the firms overall voting rights and barely needs to work, let alone listen to shareholders.

In response to investor pressure, Mr Zuckerberg performed one of the fastest pivots in tech history. Within a fortnight of the third-quarter rout he slashed Metas spending plans, cut costs and fired staff. And in response to OpenAIs ChatGPT and the blaze of excitement around generative artificial intelligence (gen AI for short) he launched an internal revolution aimed at using the technology to galvanise Metas core business. Those manoeuvres reveal a lot about Mr Zuckerbergs leadership style. They may even end up vindicating his faith in the metaverse.

When Mr Zuckerberg realised he had incensed investors, those around him say, he did not panic. He became methodical. As Nick Clegg, a close adviser to Mr Zuckerberg, explains, his boss doesnt like people around him shouting and yelling". He prefers, like an engineer, to break down a problem to its component parts and decide on a course of action. In this case, he understood that his long-term focus was at odds with investors short-term horizons. So he decided to cut his cloth accordingly". But he kept many of his long-term investment plans intact, emphasising that they mainly concerned AI, not the metaverse. That emphasis looked shrewd weeks later, when ChatGPT burst onto the scene.

Meta had spent years building up its AI infrastructure. Rather than creating chatbots, it was looking for ways to use AI to improve engagement and make its ad business more efficient, as well as working on mixed-reality headsets for the metaverse. Its top brass soon realised they had all the ingredientsenough data centres, graphics processing units (GPUs) and boffinsto make the most of gen AI. By February they had worked out what to focus on. By July they had made their Llama 2 large language model available free of charge to developers. In September they announced the first gen-AI-related gadgets, such as smart spectacles. Mr Zuckerberg, for his part, threw himself into the technical nitty-gritty. His competitive instinct awakened. He appears to have been rejuvenated by working on a new technology rather than on the irksome task of cost-cutting.

Making Llama open-source helped turn Mr Zuckerberg from Silicon Valleys villain to its hero. Leigh Marie Braswell of Kleiner Perkins, a venture-capital firm, says startups really applauded" the move, which helped many develop AI-related businesses. And gen AI may be no less transformative for Meta itself than for Microsoft and Alphabet, owner of Google, whose early bets on proprietary large language models have attracted most of the attention.

Start with engagement. Meta is populating its social-media platforms with chatbot avatars which, it hopes, will increase the amount of time people spend on their feeds, and help businesses interact with customers on messaging apps. Some users call them a bit humdrum, probably because the firm is worried about AIs hallucinations". Nonetheless, there is potential. Take Jane Austen, an avatar that emulates the authors haughty humour. When asked to describe Mr Zuckerberg, she says he is bright, driven but perhaps a bit too fond of his own ideas". She describes the metaverse as a virtual world where people can escape reality and live their best lives. Dear me, howunromantic."

More compelling in the near term is AIs potential for advertising. Since Apple restricted Metas ability to track user data across third-party apps on iPhones, Mr Zuckerbergs firm has had to overhaul its advertising business down to the studs", says Eric Seufert, an independent analyst. It has done that fairly effectively, he thinks, by using AI to model user behaviour, rather than tracking the behaviour itself. Last year the company rolled out ad technology called Advantage+, which used AI to automate the creation of ad campaigns. Brent Thill of Jefferies, an investment bank, says that advertisers are impressed. J. Crew Factory, a clothing retailer, has told Meta that the features boosted its return on ad spending almost seven-fold.

Gen AI could take automation further. This month Meta launched tools that let advertisers instantly doodle with different backgrounds and wording. These are baby steps so far, but Andy Wu of Harvard Business School likens them to the start of a gold rush. He says that by creating gen-AI-infused ad campaigns Meta could benefit from the technology as much as Nvidia, the leading maker of GPUs.

Advertisers have their concerns. An ad man at AdWeek NYC, an industry jamboree, described Metas AI-assisted campaigns as black boxes" where it controls all the data. That gives it huge influence over a brands identity, which could be tarnished if the AI goes rogue. Others worry about AIs doing untoward things to boost engagements on Metas social networks, which could hurt brands by association. Controversies over fake images of the conflict in Gaza on social media illustrate how fraught the terrain remains. Not everyone is convinced by Mr Cleggs insistence that Meta is prepared for this thanks to years of investment in safety and platform integrity.

Some investors, too, remain sceptical. Mark Mahaney of Evercore ISI, another investment bank, reckons that 95% of them would prefer Mr Zuckerberg to spend less on the metaverse. Many are wary of investments in hardware, such as virtual-reality headsets, which tend to generate lower margins than digital products.

Still, Mr Zuckerberg has not resiled at all" from his long-term bet, Mr Clegg says. Some VR enthusiasts see AI as the metaverses saviour, helping with the development of crucial hand-tracking technologies and making it cheaper for creators to build three-dimensional worlds. Metas Smart spectacles, integrated with its chatbot, MetaAI, and built by Ray-Ban, offer a hint of things to come. They capture what the wearer sees, can live-stream it on social media, and answer questions. Asked for sources on critical thinking in business, the AI replied The Economist". Smart, smarmy or scary? Take your pick.

To stay on top of the biggest stories in business and technology, sign up to the Bottom Line, our weekly subscriber-only newsletter.

 2023, The Economist Newspaper Limited. All rights reserved. From The Economist, published under licence. The original content can be found on www.economist.com
Sam Bankman-Fried testified in an unusual hearing that he relied on the blessing of lawyers to make business decisions such as deleting communications and making loans to himself, actions that prosecutors said allowed him to commit the crimes that led to the implosion of the FTX crypto exchange.

Bankman-Fried, on trial for fraud, money laundering and other offenses, had been expected to testify in front of a Manhattan federal jury on Thursday afternoon. Instead, in what amounted to a practice session, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan required the FTX founder to walk through several subjects that were in dispute so the judge could rule on what Bankman-Fried could say to jurors.

Wearing an oversize gray suit and purple tie, Bankman-Fried, 31 years old, began steadily and confidently, walking through business decisions that he said were guided by legal advice. But the rehearsal quickly turned when the prosecution came out swinging.

Under cross examination, Bankman-Fried testified that he couldnt recall specific conversations with the lawyers who he earlier said had overseen bank accounts, loans and communication policies. He at times was evasive and stumbled while saying he didnt remember key details of the alleged conduct in question.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon pressed Bankman-Fried on whether he had proof of the involvement of certain lawyers. Do you have any paper records of these consultations?" she asked.

Bankman-Fried said he had requested such records but didnt have them. Under other questioning, he said he had little knowledge of some inner workings of the company he created.

The unplanned court detour came hours after federal prosecutors rested their case, which featured 18 witnesses, including three of Bankman-Frieds closest former confidants who testified in damning terms against their old boss.

Kaplan said he hadnt held a hearing to screen a defendants planned testimony in a very long time, if ever. But he said it was necessary because the government and defense lawyers couldnt reach an agreement on what testimony jurors should be allowed to hear.

The judge said he would rule on the admissibility of Bankman-Frieds testimony on Friday morning. He appeared skeptical of the defendants claim that lawyers were involved in key business decisions, offering a hypothetical situation where someone robs a bank, then buys a pricey condo and doesnt tell an attorney involved in the purchase the source of the money.

FTX crashed in November 2022 and Bankman-Fried was charged the next month.

At trial, he faces seven criminal counts. Prosecutors have accused him of promising FTX customers their deposits were safe, then stealing billions of those funds for lavish real estate, risky investments and campaign contributions. Witnesses have testified that Bankman-Fried lied to investors and lenders by directing his staff to alter financial documents.

If convicted, he could face decades in prison.

Almost from the moment he was arrested in the Bahamas in December 2022, Bankman-Fried has been anything but a typical defendant, eager to make his case in the court of public opinion. He posted on Twitter, started a Substack newsletter and gave interviews in an effort to defend himself. While on house arrest at his parents California home before trial, Bankman-Fried had more than 1,000 phone calls with reporters, prosecutors have said.

The move to testify is considered risky, and most defense lawyers advise their clients not to do so. If the judge determines Bankman-Fried lies on the stand, he could hand down a lengthier sentence after a conviction. Still, the potential payoff to such a gamble is huge. Even if just one juror believes Bankman-Frieds version of events, a hung jury could lead to a mistrial.

The one-time crypto star faced a packed courtroom audience when he took the stand, with his parents, senior prosecutors and author Michael Lewis among those looking on.

Early in his testimony, Bankman-Fried said that FTX used applications like Signal and Slack to communicate in a way that was more interactive than email. He said some conversation threads were set to automatically delete after a certain amount of time.

Those would be for chatter, for communication," Bankman-Fried said. The threads were, he said, the electronic equivalent of someone walking up to his desk.

Other conversations, such as those that dealt with regulators or certain types of documents, didnt automatically delete, he said.

Bankman-Fried said throughout his appearance that he discussed policies such as deleting messages with lawyers, particularly former chief regulatory officer Dan Friedberg and lawyers from Fenwick & West, an outside law firm that advised the company.

A lawyer for Friedberg declined to comment. Fenwick & West didnt respond to a request for comment.

At one point, Sassoon pressed Bankman-Fried to answer whether he recalled having conversations with FTX lawyers prior to November 2022 about customer deposits being used for spending at sister hedge-fund Alameda Research. I dont really specifically. No," he said.

Later Kaplan criticized Bankman-Fried for being evasive. Part of the problem is that the witness has what Ill simply call an interesting way of responding to questions," the judge said.

The case is likely to be submitted to the jury next week.

Write to Corinne Ramey at corinne.ramey@wsj.com and James Fanelli at james.fanelli@wsj.com
New Republican North Dakota state Sen. Justin Gerhardt was sworn in during the Legislatures special session on Monday to replace the late Sen. Doug Larsen, who represented Mandan.

Larsen, his wife and their two sons died in a private plane crash near Moab, Utah, on Oct. 1 as they returned from a family gathering in Arizona. Their funeral took place on Oct. 10 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Bismarck. Gerhardt, a Mandan resident, was announced as Larsens replacement on Oct. 12.

District 34 Republicans appointed Gerhardt in line with state law, which requires the district committee for the political party of a vacated seat to name a successor within 21 days. The appointed official will serve until the next general election thats at least 94 days after the vacancy occurs.

Its saddening, still recognizing the loss of Sen. Doug Larson, Gerhardt told the Tribune. It's scary, a little bit, the scope of what we're tackling, and all of thats a big step forward for me. And it's exciting to be faced with this challenge going forward.

The Legislature is meeting in a special session to fix a budget bill voided by the North Dakota Supreme Court. Lawmakers also will take up limited other items, including tax relief and a resolution in support of Israel.

Gerhardt sits on the executive committee for the District 34 Republicans and was approached by multiple colleagues who encouraged him to throw his hat in the ring for the role. He told the Tribune he has not yet made a decision on whether he will run for reelection amid a whirlwind transition, but his seat will be on the ballot in 2024.

A father of four, Gerhardt had a nine-year tenure in the North Dakota National Guard that included deployment in support of Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom. He has volunteered with the Knights of Columbus, which is a global Catholic fraternal organization, as well as his church finance counsel, and is a project manager for Bismarck construction company Northwest Contracting.

Being sworn in before his new colleagues in the state Senate had him reflecting briefly on his service in the Guard, Gerhardt said.

It kind of reminds me of taking the oath back when I joined the military service in 1997, he said. But it's a feeling of duty, and all the honor of being able to do something like this.
The goal for the Bhartiya Janata Party is Gareeb Kalyan, but for K Chandrashekhar Rao and Sonia Gandhi is Parivar Kalyan", said Union Home Minister Amit Shah while addressing a public rally in poll-bound Telangana on Friday.



While attacking Bharat Rashtra Samithi and Congress, Amit Shah said that Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao is willing to make his son KT Rama Rao the next Chief Minister of the state, whereas, former Congress President Sonia Gandhi wants her son Rahul Gandhi to become the next prime minister.

"The two parties opposing Bharatiya Janata Party in Telangana are KCR's TRS and Sonia ji's Congress. Both of them do not want the welfare of Telangana. While KCR wants KTR to be the Chief Minister, Soniaji wants Rahul Gandhi to be the Prime Minister. These are dynastic parties," said Amit Shah while addressing a public rally in Telangana's Suryapet. The state will vote to elect its next government on November 30.

"While the goal of the Bharatiya Janata Party is Gareeb Kalyan (welfare for poor), that of KCR's party and Congress party is 'parivar kalyan' (welfare of the family)," the Union Minister added.

BJP to appoint CM from backward caste if voted to power: Amit Shah



He also said that the BJP can develop Telangana under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership. To ensure votes from the backward class, Amit Shah announced that the party, if elected to power, would appoint a CM from the backward caste.

"PM Modi has given constitutional safeguards to the backward classes. Vote for us. We have decided that the next CM of BJP in Telangana will be from the backward class," Amit Shah said while addressing a public rally in Telangana's Suryapet ahead of the November 30 assembly polls.

Amit Shah lashed out at the ruling party and the Telangana chief minister for doing "nothing" for the backward classes even after the formation of the state. The Union home minister reminded the Telangana CM about the promises that were made to the backward classes.

"TRS is a party against the poor, the Dalitsthe, and the backward classes. They had promised to make son of a Dalit the Chief Minister if they came to power. I want to ask Chandrashekhar Rao about his promise. In 2014, KCR promised to give Dalits 3 acre of land for the Dalits. What about your promise?" he said.

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Mountains of coal are piled beneath azure skies at the port of Newcastle, Australia. Giant shovels chip away at them, scooping the fuel onto conveyor belts, which whizz it to cargo ships that can be as long as three football pitches. The harbours terminals handle 200m tonnes of the stuff a year, making Newcastle the worlds biggest coal port. Throughput is roaring back after floods hurt supply last year. Aaron Johansen, who oversees ncig, the newest, uber-automated terminal, expects it to stay near all-time highs for at least seven years. Rich Asian countries, such as Japan and South Korea, are hungry for the premium coal that passes through the terminal. So, increasingly, are developing ones like Malaysia and Vietnam.

View Full Image Soot-Tainted Profits

Halfway across the world the mood music is rather different. In recent weeks activists have made use of quotes from great writers, including Shakespeare (Dont shuffle off this mortal coil") and the Spice Girls (Stop right now"), to disrupt annual general meetings of European banks and energy firms, as part of a call for an end to coal extraction. A broader chorus worries that the fuel is the biggest source of greenhouse gases, making up more than 40% of energy-related carbon emissions in 2022. The un says output must fall by 11% a year to keep warming less than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. The International Energy Agency (iea), an official forecaster, argues against opening new mines and expanding existing ones. Climate wonks think that 80% of reserves must remain unburnt.

This is mainly meant to happen by starving the supply chain of funding. More than 200 of the worlds largest financiers, including 87 banks, have announced policies restricting investments in coal-mining or coal-fired power plants. Lenders representing 41% of global banking assets have signed up to the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, pledging to align portfolios with net-zero emissions by 2050. At the cop26 summit in 2021, the un predicted that this campaign would consign coal to history". As recently as 2020 the iea believed consumption had peaked a decade ago.

Yet King Coal looks brawnier than ever. In 2022 demand for it surpassed 8bn tonnes for the first time. This article will look at who is greasing the wheels of the once doomed trade. We find that the market is lively, well-funded and profitable. More striking still, the motley crew bankrolling it will probably allow trade to endure well into the 2030s, lining survivors pockets to the detriment of the planet.

It is tempting to see 2022 as exceptional. Russia cut piped gas to Europe, and Europe banned coal imports from Russia. The bloc turned to liquefied natural gas (lng) destined for Asia and thermal coal from Colombia, South Africa and distant Australia. Meanwhile, Asian countries reliant on Russias premium coal also diversified. Prices for top grades jumped. Europes poorer neighbours, priced out of the gas market, gorged on lower-grade stuff.

Now the storm has abated. After a mild winter European utility firms retain good stocks of gas and coal. But as the need to power cooling units rises in the summer, coal imports will accelerate. Chinas economy has emerged from zero-covid; Indias is going gangbusters. Traders expect global use to grow by another 3-4% this year.

Coal is likely to remain sought-after beyond 2023. True, demand in Europe will fall as renewables ramp up. It is already low in America, where fracked gas is cheaper. Yet last years crunch has reminded Asias import-dependent countries that, when energy is scarce, coal can be a lifeline. It is cheaper and more abundant than other fuels, and once loaded on rudimentary ships can be sent anywhereunlike lng, which requires vessels and regasification terminals that take years to build. China is planning 270 gigawatts of new coal-fired plants by 2025, more than any country has installed today. India and much of South-East Asia are following a similar path.

Even with a speedy Western exit from coal, Boston Consulting Group thinks thermal coal demand will fall by just 10-18% between now and 2030. Much of the demand will be met by domestic production in China and India, the worlds biggest consumers. But imports will still be crucial. Investment banks do not expect traded volumes to drop below 900m tonnes, from 1bn last year, for much of the decade. One, Liberum Capital, thinks imports will rise over the next five years.

Back in black

Will the global coal market continue to meet stubborn demand? Our research suggests it will. That is because there will remain cash for three vital links in the supply chain: trading and shipping; more digging at existing mines; and new projects.

Financing trade is the easy part. Modelling for The Economist by Oliver Wyman, a consultancy, suggests high prices, together with the longer journeys made by rerouted exports, buoyed the working-capital needs of coal traders in 2022 to $20bn, four times the historical average. Assuming average coal prices remain above $100 a tonne, as many analysts do, those needs will sit above $7bn until at least 2030.

Commodity merchants retain access to generous sources of liquidity to finance coal purchases. One is corporate borrowing, via multi-year bank loans or bonds, which gives firms a lump sum they can use however they want. Traders can also draw on short-term, revolving credit facilities, provided by clubs of banks. Many such lines have been expanded since the start of 2022their limits often reach several billion dollarsto help traders cope with volatile prices. Banks that impose restrictions, specifying the money should not be used to buy coal, face a high risk that traders decamp to lenient rivals. So few do.

Finance chiefs at trading firms say banks in countries where trading is bread-and-butter, including Singapores dbs and Switzerlands ubs, still finance coal purchases. Swiss cantonal lenders are happy to help. Banks in consuming countries, like China or Japan, also oblige, as does Britains Standard Chartered, which focuses on Asian business. (dbs and Standard Chartered both point out they are reducing their exposure to thermal coal.) Only European lendersparticularly French oneshave exited. They are being replaced by banks from producing countries, such as Australia, Indonesia and South Africa.

Smaller, pure-play" coal traders have faced a bigger squeeze. Banks, which never made much money from them anyway, can hardly claim to be unaware of how lent funds are put to use. Last year some traders were forced to borrow from private vehicles, often backed by wealthy individuals, at annual rates nearing 25%about five times standard costs. Yet after months of booming business many no longer need external financing. A banker says some of his coal-trading clients have seen profits grow ten-fold in 2022. One in London witnessed his total equity leap from 50m ($62m) in 2021 to 700m in 2023.

To then ship the stuff to buyers, traders often need a guarantee, provided by a reputable bank, that they will be paid on time. Ever fewer lenders are keen to provide such letters of credit", but there are ways around this, too. Some traders charge their clients more to cover counterparty risk. It helps that exposure is limited. At todays prices, a cargo of coal may be worth just $4m-5m. By contrast, an oil tanker may carry $200m-worth of crude. Others insert trusted intermediaries in the trade, or ask for bigger guarantees on other wares being bought by the client. Some governments in recipient countries provide the guarantee themselves, or even pay upfront.

Outside South Africa, where rail strikes have paralysed transport, there is plenty of infrastructure on land to move coal about. Soon there will be even more. Global Energy Monitor, a charity, reckons that India plans to more than double its coal terminals to 1,400 (today the planet counts 6,300). Seaborne logistics are more restricted: pressured by green shareholders, some shippers have started to shun coal. But smaller ones, often Chinese or Greek, have stepped in. Traders report no difficulties in insuring the cargo. Even sanctions-hit Russia is exporting most of its coal, using the same mix of obscure traders and seafarers, based in Hong Kong or the Gulf, that it employs to ship its oil to Asia.

Financing more digging at existing minesthe second link in the supply chainis no problem either. Last year coal production hit a record 8bn tonnes. It is not quite business as usual. Since 2018 many mining majors" (large, diversified groups listed on public markets) have sold some or all of their coal assets. Yet rather than being decommissioned, disposed assets have been picked up by private miners, emerging-market rivals and private-equity firms. New owners have no qualms about making full use of mines. In 2021 Anglo American, a London-based major, spun off its South African mines into a new firm that instantly pledged to crank up output.

Like traders, the miners have been printing money. Australias three biggest pure-play coal producers went from posting net debt of $1bn in 2021 to $6bn in net cash last year. They have repaid most of their long-term borrowing, so have no big deadlines to meet soon. The conversation has gone from How do I refinance my debt? to What do I do with my extra cash?," says a finance chief at one of them.

Coal miners can still borrow money when needed. Data compiled by Urgewald, a charity, shows they secured an aggregate $62bn in bank loans between 2019 and 2021. According to the outfits research, Japanese firms (smbc, Sumitomo, Mitsubishi) were the biggest lenders, followed by Bank of China and Americas jpMorgan Chase and Citigroup. European banks also featured in the top 15. During this period coal miners, mainly Chinese, also managed to sell $150bn worth of bonds and shares, often underwritten by Chinese banks. The liquidity is not drying out. Urgewald calculates that in 2022 60 large banks helped channel $13bn towards the worlds 30 largest coal producers.

This is possible because the coal-exclusion policies of financial firms are wildly inconsistent. Many do not kick in until 2025. Some cover only new clients. Others prohibit financing for projects, but not general corporate loans that miners may use to dig for coal. Policies that do restrict such lending often do so only for miners that derive lots of their revenue from coal, typically 25% or 50%. Many big firms, including Glencore, a Swiss commodities giant which produces 110m tonnes a year, fall below such thresholds.

Some policies are vaguely worded to allow for exemptions. Although Goldman Sachs, a bank, promises to stop financing thermal-coal mining companies that do not have a diversification strategy within a reasonable timeframe", it has reportedly continued to lend to Peabody, a huge Australian miner that derived 78% of its revenue from coal sales in 2022 (it may have helped that the firm recently launched a modest solar subsidiary). Out of 426 large banks, investors and insurers assessed by Reclaim Finance, another charity, only 26 were deemed to have a coal-exit policy consistent with a 2050 net-zero scenario. Even fewer have said they will exit completely. Most of Chinas and Indias state-owned banks have said nothing at all.

In short, few banks are ready to hurt their top line or their countrys supply. Analysts reckon that will help existing mines meet demand until the early 2030s. At this point, there may finally be a crunch. Western banks, many of which periodically revise their policies, will gradually tighten the screws. The paucity of new projects todaythe third link in the chainmeans there may not be enough fresh supply when old mines stop producing.

Although finance for new projects is getting harder to attain, it is still available. As Western banks retreat, other players are coming to the fore. Capital expenditure by Western miners has been feeble for years. Having spent big in the 2000s, many suffered when prices crashed in the mid-2010s. Even though they are making hefty profits again, the majors prefer to buy rivals, reopen old mines or return capital to shareholders rather than launch new ventures. The investment drought is most severe in coal. Building a pit from scratch can take more than a decade. Years are spent obtaining permits, which in the West are increasingly refused.

Financing new projects in rich countries is a big hurdle. Last year Adani Group, an Indian firm that runs Carmichael, a vast coal mine being built in Queensland, had to refinance out of its own pocket $500m in bonds it had issued for the project. Some opportunistic pots of money will continue to target juicy profits, especially if prices rise. The first deep coal pit to be dug in Britain in decades is ultimately owned by emr Capital, a private-equity firm incorporated in the Cayman Islands. Peter Ryan of Goba Capital, an investment firm in Miami, expects his companys coal assets to grow eight-fold by 2030.

Asian century

The picture in Asia is different. Banks remain on the scene. Investors are starting to back new mines at home. Family offices, set up to invest the fortunes of the rich, are interested. Any business dynasty in Indonesia, where mining is the backbone of the economy, has to have some coal in its holdings, says a trader who sources his wares there. In India obscure property firms are bidding for land that may be mined for coal. Eventually companies from the same countries may come to dig mines overseas, with banks following them. Chinese forays in the West will remain rare; Indian and Indonesian firms, which already own an archipelago of coal assets in Australia, are bound to increase their footprint.

The coal market of the 2030s will thus look very different. From ownership and operation to funding and consumption, coal will be a developing-market commodity," says a mining-major boss. Supply constraints will keep prices high, but the cast of exporters cashing in will shrink. Colombia and South Africa, which serve Europe, will no longer have a market. Russia will find it harder to flog cargoes to China. All three will export less coal for less money. Australia will appease critics by focusing on the most efficient coal; it may export less, but charge more. Indonesia could become the swing exporter, like Saudi Arabia is for oil today. It will sell more of its basic coaloften for more money.

Although coal is on a downward slope, its goodbye will be uncomfortably long. By the 2040s demand may crater for good as renewables ramp up. Yet even then some countries may keep their options open. More energy shocks will come. And when there is one, the commodity no one wants is the one we need to use again," says a big trader who serves Asia. That feature of coal could stay for ever."

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View Full Image Who-is-keeping-coal-alive-
For foreign investors, India is a puzzle. On the plus side, it is a potentially huge market, recently passing China as the worlds most populous. The IMF predicts that India will be the fastest-growing of the worlds 20 biggest economies this year. By 2028 its GDP is expected to be the third-largest, moving past Japan and Germany. The stockmarket is pricing in heady growth. Over the past five years Indian stocks have beaten those elsewhere in the world, including Americas.

The minuses can seem equally formidable. Just 8% of Indian households own a car. Last year the number of individual investors in Indian public markets was a paltry 35m. The smartphone revolution unleashed 850m netizens, but most scroll free apps like WhatsApp (500m users) and YouTube (460m). Blume, a venture-capital (VC) firm, estimates that only 45m Indians are responsible for over half of all online spending. Netflix, the video-streaming giant, which entered India in 2016 and charges Indians less than almost anyone else, has attracted just 6m subscribers.

The tension between tomorrows promise and todays reality is reflected in Indias tech scene. Over the past decade giddy projections of spending by hundreds of millions of consumers led investors to pour money into young tech firms. According to Bain, a consultancy, between 2013 and 2021 total annual VC funding ballooned from $3bn to $38.5bn. Now the easy money is running out. In 2022 startups received $25.7bn. In the first half of this year they got a measly $5.5bn.

Some of Indias brightest tech stars have fallen to earth. The valuation of Byjus, an ed-tech darling, has plummeted from $22bn to $5.1bn in less than a year. Oyo, an online hotel aggregator, has delayed its public listing even as investors slashed its value by three-quarters, to $2.7bn. Moneycontrol, an online publication, estimates that since 2022 Indian startups have shed more than 30,000 jobs. Investors now worry that companies in their portfolio will never make money. Heavy losses by Indian unicorns" (unlisted companies worth $1bn or more) bear this out. According to Tracxn, a data firm, of the 83 that have filed financial results for 2022, 63 are in the red, collectively losing over $8bn.

Yet some Indian tech firms manage to prosper. Rather than promise mythical future riches, they are practical and boring, but profitable. Call them camels. Zerodha, a 13-year-old discount brokerage, clocked $830m in revenue and $350m in net profits in 2022. In 2021, the latest year for which data are available, Zoho, a Chennai-based business-software firm founded in the dotcom boom of the late 1990s, made a net $450m on sales of $840m. Info Edge, a collection of online businesses that span hiring, marrying and property-buying, has been largely profitable throughout its 20-year existence. Their success is built on an idea that seems exotic to a generation of Indian founders pampered by indulgent investors: focus on paying customers while keeping a lid on costs.

Consider revenue first. Some founders privately grumble that getting the Indian user to pay for anything is hard. But Nithin Kamath, founder of Zerodha, disagrees. He believes that though the wallet size of Indian consumers is small, they are willing to pay for products that offer value. Zerodha charges 200 rupees (around $2.50) to open a new account when most of its competitors do so for nothing. Mr Kamath believes that even this small amount forces the company to ensure that its users find its platform useful enough to pay that extra fee.

Indias technology dromedaries are also ruthlessly capital-efficient. Zerodha and Zoho have not raised any money from investors. Info Edge was self-funded for five years before raising a small amount, its only outside financing before going public in 2006. Sanjeev Bikhchandani, who founded Info Edge, advises founders to treat each funding round as if it is your last".

One way to extend the runway (as VC types call the time before a firm needs fresh funds) is by keeping costs down. Take employee salaries. Richly funded startups throw money at pedigreed developers from top-ranked universities. Zoho enlists graduates of little-known colleges and rigorously trains recruits before bringing them into the fold. The company says that its approach results in a wider talent pool and more loyal employees.

Zerodha, meanwhile, in another contrast to profligate unicorns, does not spend any money on advertising, discounts and other freebies to lure customers. It also uses free open-source alternatives to paid software for its technology infrastructure. The companys tech-support system for its more than 1,000 employees costs just a few hundred dollars a month to run; an external tool would set it back a few million. Despite being a technology-heavy trading platform, it spends just 2% of revenues on software. Keeping overheads low has the added bonus of allowing companies like it to sell their products profitably at bargain prices, reaching many more customers in the price-sensitive subcontinent.

Reboot, not copy-paste

The slow, measured approach taken by the camels is the opposite of the Silicon Valley playbook of capturing market share first and worrying about profits later. Karthik Reddy of Blume argues that such a model may be better suited for India, where businesses can take many years to find their feet.

One hurdle for companies choosing steady profits over blitzscaling growth remains: the investors themselves. Venture capitalists typically operate on a ten-year clock, bankrolling startups in the first five and cashing out their stakes in the second. This gives investors an incentive to push portfolio firms to pursue growth at all cost. Sridhar Vembu, Zohos boss, likens venture capital to steroidsit can boost short-term performance but damage the business in the long run. His may be an extreme view. Still, if investors want big returns on their Indian bets, they are better off backing sturdy camels over sexy unicorns.

 2023, The Economist Newspaper Limited. All rights reserved.

From The Economist, published under licence. The original content can be found on www.economist.com
A law that allows low-price packages to enter the U.S. duty-free and with little customs scrutiny has enabled the breakneck growth of two e-commerce companies with roots in China, Shein and Temu.

Packages valued under $800 can enter the U.S. under simplified procedures known as the de minimis exemption. Lawmakers and some U.S. businesses say it is a loophole that the Chinese companies are using at a huge scale, allowing shipments of products that are unsafe or made with forced labor, while avoiding taxes.

A record of more than one billion packages entered the U.S. in the fiscal year ended Sep. 30 under the de minimis exemptiontwice the 2019 level, according to an estimate by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. A separate congressional study concluded that Shein and Temu alone account for about one in three of those packages. The two bargain apps have lured tens of millions of American consumers with $4 T-shirts, $10 hair dryers and other products.

De minimis is the worlds greatest black market and astonishingly legalized by the U.S. government," says Kim Glas, head of the National Council of Textile Organizations, a U.S. trade group, Its a wildfire out of control."

Sheins and Temus bargain shopping apps are putting pressure on U.S. companies including Gap, Amazon and Walmart. Amazon has seen traffic on its site decline, and a Gap executive acknowledged in an August earnings call that Shein was gaining market share.

Sheins monthly active U.S. users more than doubled to 30.2 million in the third quarter of 2023 from 2021, according to Sensor Tower, a market-intelligence provider. Temu grew even faster, surpassing Sheins total users within a year of its launch to become one of the top-downloaded shopping apps in the U.S.

The companies ship most of their products directly from China to individual American customers. Nearly all the orders fall below the $800 de minimis threshold, meaning they generally arent subject to tariffs or inspected at the border. The average order value on Shein was $71 in May, according to the Hong Kong-based data provider Measurable AI.

Both companies said that they comply with trade laws and that their growth isnt dependent on the de minimis policy. And they both attributed their success to their supply-chain proficiency.

The de minimis provision dates to the Tariff Act of 1930. Congress wanted to exempt American tourists from paying taxes on small purchases when they returned from trips abroad. In 2016, just as e-commerce was taking off, lawmakers raised the threshold for exempt packages to $800, from $200, with the goal of reducing customs officials workload.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection hasnt updated regulations in response to the surge, despite concluding in a report last year that the overwhelming volume of low-price packages created an unacceptable risk" of allowing imports of unsafe products. A CBP official said that tightening regulations on such shipments is the top priority" for the agency, adding it plans to propose a new regulation to require more data on each package within the next few months.

While Shein and Temu arent the only retailers that take advantage of the exemption, their rapid growth has occurred during a period of rising tensions between Washington and Beijing.

In April, the U. S-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a government agency that makes policy recommendations to Congress, criticized Sheins business practices, citing potential health hazards stemming from harmful chemicals in its products, waste and pollution caused by its high-volume production, and dozens of claims of copyright infringements. The commissions members include Glas, the U.S. textile-industry representative.

The companies also face allegations that forced labor has been used to produce the cheap goods they sell. Lawmakers and state attorneys general have pressed Shein to respond to allegations that it sources cotton from Chinas Xinjiang region, where the U.S. has accused Chinese authorities of committing genocide and of using forced labor in its repression of mostly Muslim Uyghursallegations that Beijing denies. U.S. law that went into force in June 2022 largely bans the import of goods tied to that region.

Shein said the company has zero tolerance" for forced labor.

Temu said the allegations are completely ungrounded." The company doesnt have a team in the U.S. to liaise with regulators and legislators, but our commitment to full compliance has been unwavering since our inception and underpins all of our business activities," said a Temu spokesperson.

Rep. Earl Blumenauer, an Oregon Democrat, has proposed bipartisan legislation that would deny de minimis treatment to all goods from China, saying the exemption has developed into a huge loophole that undercuts American competitiveness." The Senate has similar outstanding bills.

We should just eliminate the exemption entirely," said Rep. Mike Gallagher, a Wisconsin Republican who chairs the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, the panel that wrote the study about the companies.

Efforts to close the de minimis provision face pushback from some Republican lawmakers with traditional pro-free-trade views as well as American businesses that are delivering the additional packages, particularly UPS and FedEx.

De minimis is not a loophole, it is a fixture of U.S. customs law that Congress intentionally passed to lower costs for consumers and improve supply chains for American small businesses," said John Pickel, a senior director at the National Foreign Trade Council, a business advocacy group whose members include UPS and FedEx. He said restricting the use of the de minimis threshold would end up overwhelming customs officials ability to process cargo, causing delays for both consumers and businesses.

Shein has ramped up its lobbying efforts, spending $600,000 on federal lobbying during the second quarter this year, more than double the amount in the first quarter. In July, a Shein executive wrote to fellow apparel makers saying it would support changing the de minimis policy, as long as the law applied equally to all retailers. Temu also said it is open to policy changes.

Write to Yuka Hayashi at Yuka.Hayashi@wsj.com, Shen Lu at shen.lu@wsj.com and Richard Vanderford at Richard.Vanderford@wsj.com

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Blue Jet Healthcare IPO opened for subscription on Wednesday, October 25 and will close today (Friday, October 27). Investor response to Blue Jet's IPO over the past two days has been overall quite favourable. On day 2, Blue Jet Healthcare IPO has been subscribed 1.32 times . Blue Jet IPO retail investors portion was subscribed 1.37 times, NII portion was subscribed 2.84 times, and Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIB) portion were booked just by 9%.

On day 1, Blue Jet Healthcare IPO was subscribed 69%, where the retail investors portion was subscribed 78%, NII portion was subscribed 1.37 times, and Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIB) portion was booked 1%.

Blue Jet Healthcare IPO price band has been fixed in the range of 329 to 346 per equity share of face value of 2.

Blue Jet Healthcare IPO has reserved not more than 50% of the shares in the public issue for Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIB), not less than 15% for Non Institutional Investors (NII), and not less than 35% of the offer is reserved for Retail Investors.

"Exciting news! Mint is now on WhatsApp Channels  Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest financial insights!" Click here!

Blue Jet IPO subscription status

Blue Jet Healthcare IPO has been subscribed 7.94 times on day 3. Blue Jet IPO retail investors portion was subscribed 2.22 times, NII portion was subscribed 13.59 times, and Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIB) portion were booked 13.72 times.

Blue Jet Healthcare IPO has received bids for 13,50,46,488 shares against 1,69,99,612 shares on offer, at 17:00 IST, according to data from the BSE.

Also Read: Blue Jet Healthcare IPO: Blue Jet IPO fully booked on day 3, subscribed 1.77 times so far

Blue Jet Healthcare IPO details

Blue Jet Healthcare IPO is completely a offer for sale (OFS) of 24,285,160 equity share; there is no fresh issue component, according to Red Herring Prospectus (RHP). Blue Jet Healthcare IPO size is 840.27 crore.

The company's promoters are Shiven Akshay Arora, Akshay Bansarilal Arora, and Archana & Akshay Arora.

Shiven Akshay Arora will sell up to 5,918,849 equity shares, while Akshay Bansarilal Arora will sell up to 18,366,311 equity shares.

Also Read: Blue Jet Healthcare IPO: Check GMP, subscription status on day 2, apply or not?

The book running lead managers for the Blue Jet Healthcare IPO are Kotak Mahindra Capital Company Limited, ICICI Securities Limited, and J.P. Morgan India Private Limited. The registrar for the offering is Link Intime India Private Ltd.

Blue Jet IPO GMP today

Blue Jet Healthcare IPO GMP today or grey market premium was +10. On Thursday, Blue Jet Healthcare share price were trading at a premium of 34 in the morning, but drastically dropped to 2 in the evening, and settled at 10.

Today's GMP indicates Blue Jet Healthcare share price were trading at a premium of 10 in the grey market on Friday, according to investorgain.com

Considering the upper end of the IPO price band and the current premium in the grey market, the estimated listing price of Blue Jet Healthcare share price was indicated at 356 apiece, which is 2.89% higher than the IPO price of 346.

'Grey market premium' indicates investors' readiness to pay more than the issue price.

Also Read: Blue Jet Healthcare IPO open for subscription: GMP, price band, issue details, 10 key things to know

Blue Jet IPO Review

We like Blue Jet given its complex product portfolio, presence in niche space, strong client relationship and high entry barriers. The IPO is valued at 34x Q1FY24 P/E on an annualized basis. We believe the company could benefit from the planed capacity expansion and sector tailwinds. Hence, we recommend Subscribe to the IPO," said the brokaerage in the report.

Reliance Securities

The brokerage claims that Blue Jet Healthcare is one of the cutting edge businesses in specialised markets, with over 20 years of experience, specific chemical skills, and specialised R&D labs to provide a range of goods in highly concentrated contrast media formulations. Going forward, the management is implementing a sensible strategy of diversifying revenues, with a focus on exports and a high-margin product mix.

"The increased expansion over the next 2 years for envisaged increase in demand and leveraging the customer relationships for pharma intermediates and API categories will boost earnings over the next few years. We recommend a SUBSCRIBE to the issue," said the brokerage.

Also Read: Blue Jet Healthcare IPO: GMP, subscription status, review, other details. Apply or not?

Nirmal Bang

Blue Jet Healthcare has a solid track record of overall performance, according to the brokerage's analysis. Topline growth was robust, growing at a 10% CAGR between FY20 and FY23 and 24% on a year-over-year basis in Q1FY24. With the exception of FY23, when it recorded an EBITDA margin of 30.4% due to an increase in raw material prices and labour costs, it has consistently produced high operating margins of more than 35%.

On the other hand, Q1FY24 saw improvement due to a slowdown in the price of raw materials and other costs. We are unable to compare Blue Jet Healthcare with exact peers since there are no identified businesses that operate in a similar capacity to it, the brokerage explained.

Also Read: Blue Jet Healthcare IPO: 10 key risks investors should know before subscribing to the issue

However, we have done peer comparison with the set of companies having strong financials in pharmaceutical industry. Companys ROE and ROCE for FY23 stood at 23.5% and 32.0% are slightly better compared with the average rate of peer performance of 23.3% and 30.2%, respectively. The issue is valued PE valuation of 33.9x based on Q1FY24 annualized EPS which appears reasonable when compared with an average valuation of selected peers of 34.3x. Thus, we recommend SUBSCRIBE to the issue," the brokerage said.

Choice Equity Broking

The brokerage claims that Blue Jet Healthcare is primarily a Contract Development and Manufacturing Organisation (CDMO), accounting for about 75% of its total revenue. It has a specialised product line and has built enduring relationships with its customers over the course of its business. Because of this, it can now generate almost 70% of its entire revenue from long-term contracts with these kinds of clients.

Also Read: Blue Jet Healthcare IPO: Blue Jet IPO raises 252.08 crore from anchor investors; details here

The company claimed significant commercial growth in FY2023, but rising raw material costs had an adverse effect on profitability. Despite a threefold increase in net wealth, RoE was strong. In the future, Blue Jet Healthcare will profit from lower/stabilizing raw material prices as well as continued demand for its products. It has planned a number of brownfield and new construction projects, raising installed capacity by roughly 50% over FY25E.

Also Read: Blue Jet Healthcare IPO: Five customers drive 76% of company's revenue

"There are no comparable peer having product and business operations similar to Blue Jet Healthcare. The above peers are considered only to benchmark the demanded valuation. At higher price band, Blue Jet Healthcare is demanding a TTM P/E multiple of 34x (to its TTM EPS of Rs. 10.2), which is at discount to the adjusted peer average. Thus considering the above observations, we assign a SUBSCRIBE" rating for the issue," the brokerage said.

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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Maitreya Medicare Limited IPO has opened for subscription on Friday, October 27, and will close on Wednesday, November 1. Maitreya Medicare IPO's price band is set in the range of 78 to 82. Investors can bid for a minimum of 1600 shares and in multiples thereof. Maitreya Medicare Limited IPO raised 4.05 crore from anchor investors today (Thursday, October 26).

Maitreya Medicare Limited is a multispecialty hospital located in Surat, Gujarat, that was founded in 2019. Primary, secondary, and tertiary care are all part of the hospital's multidisciplinary integrated healthcare services.

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Dr Narendra Singh Tanwar, Dr Pranav Rohitbhai Thaker, and Vimalkumar Natverlal Patel are the company's promoters.

Maitreya Medicare IPO has reserved not more than 50% of the shares in the public issue for Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIB), not less than 15% for Non Institutional Investors (NII), and not less than 35% of the offer is reserved for Retail Investors.

Also Read: Paragon Fine And Speciality Chemicals IPO Day 2: Issue subscribed over 25 times, all portions booked; check latest GMP

Maitreya Medicare IPO details

Maitreya Medicare Limited IPO, which is worth 14.89 crore, is completely a fresh issue of 18,16,000 equity share; there is no offer for sale (OFS) component, according to Red Herring Prospectus (RHP).

The registrar of the Maitreya Medicare Limited IPO is Link Intime India Private Ltd, while the book running lead manager is GYR Capital Advisors Private Limited. Giriraj Stock Broking is Maitreya Medicare IPO's market maker.

The hospital plans to use the proceeds of the issue to fund the following: the establishment of a hospital in Valsad, Gujarat, through equity investment in the subsidiary "Maitreya Hospital Private Limited"; the redemption of a portion of the issued non-convertible redeemable preference shares; the company's working capital needs; and general corporate purposes.

Also Read: On Door Concepts IPO: Check GMP, subscription status on day 4, other key details

Maitreya Medicare IPO subscription status

Maitreya Medicare IPO subscription status was 121.66 times on day 3, so far. The issue received overwhelming response from retail investors who's portion set was subscribed 189.86 times, and good response from non-institutional buyers who's portion set was subscribed 85.45 times, according to data on chittorgarh.com. Qualified Institutions Buyers (QIBs) portion was subscribed 25.09 times.

The company has received bids for 14,75,53,600 shares against 12,12,800 shares on offer, at 16:29 IST, according to data on chittorgarh.com.

Maitreya Medicare IPO subscription status was 23.77 times on day 1, and the issue was subscribed 83.25 times on day 2.

Maitreya Medicare Limited IPO GMP today

Maitreya Medicare IPO GMP today or or grey market premium is +70. This indicates Maitreya Medicare share price were trading at a premium of 70 in the grey market on Tuesday, according to investorgain.com.

Considering the upper end of the IPO price band and the current premium in the grey market, the estimated listing price of Maitreya Medicare share price was indicated at 152 apiece, which is 85.37% higher than the IPO price of 82.

'Grey market premium' indicates investors' readiness to pay more than the issue price.

Also Read: Blue Jet Healthcare IPO: Blue Jet IPO fully booked on day 3, subscribed 1.77 times so far

Maitreya Medicare IPO review

The company is operating 125 bed hospitals with multi-speciality healthcare services. It posted declining trends in its top lines, but surprisingly reported improved bottom lines from FY23 onward i.e. in a pre-IPO period. The issue appears fully priced based on its recent financial performance which discounts all near term positives. The small post-IPO equity capital indicates longer gestation for migration to mainboard. Well-informed investors may park funds for medium to long-term rewards," said Dilip Davda, the contributing editor at Chittorgarh.

Disclaimer: The views and recommendations given in this article are those of individual analysts. These do not represent the views of Mint. We advise investors to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.

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Internet stocks are recovering in 2023 after a weak investor response to their initial public offerings. This comes on the back of an improvement in their profitability, a rise in revenues and fall in expenses in the recent quarters.

Amid this, let's find out, between internet stocks Zomato and One 97 Communications (Paytm), which one has better growth opportunities in the long term.

Stock Price Trend

In the last one year, Zomato has outperformed Paytm, surging 68 percent as against a 39 percent rise in the latter. Both stocks have outperformed the benchmark Nifty, which is up 6 percent in this period.

Similarly, in 2023 YTD as well, Zomato was the better performer. It rallied over 79 percent, giving positive returns in 8 of the 10 months so far this year. It rose almost 5 percent in October till date, extending gains for the 7th straight month. Between April and October, the stock has given multibagger returns, soaring 109 percent. However, it was in the red in January and March, down 16.10 percent and 4.67 percent, respectively. It also added 7.5 percent in February.

Paytm also performed robustly this year, jumping 65 percent, giving positive returns in 8 of the 10 months so far. It is up 2 percent in October, extending gains for the 3rd straight month since August. It has gained as much as 9.4 percent in these 3 months. However, it lost 7.7 percent in July and 0.2 percent in January. It was in the green for 5 consecutive months between February and June, rising over 63 percent in this duration.

Both stocks have not followed the record-high trend of the Indian market this year.

Zomato is still 37 percent away from its peak of 169, hit on November 16, 2021. However, the stock recently hit its 52-week high of 115.10 on October 18, 2023. Currently trading at 106.45, the stock has jumped 162 percent from its record low of 40.60, hit on July 27, 2022.

Meanwhile, Paytm is over 55 percent away from its record high of 1,955, hit on November 18, 2021. It hit its 52-week high of 998.30 last week on October 20, 2023. Currently trading at 875.95, the stock has advanced 100 percent from its record low of 438.35, hit on November 23, 2022.

Earnings

Zomato has not posted its September quarter (Q2FY24) earnings yet. At a consolidated level, experts expect Zomatos reported EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) loss narrowing down to 6 crore in Q2FY24 versus a loss of 48 crore in Q1FY24. It was 307 crore in Q1FY23.

In the June quarter, the food aggregator reported its first-ever consolidated net profit of 2 crore as against a net loss of 186 crore in the year-ago period. The revenue from operations during the quarter came in at 2,416 crore versus 1,414 crore in the year-ago period.

In the food delivery business, JM Financial forecasts sequential GOV (gross order value) growth of 4 percent (+15 percent YoY) in Q2FY24 amidst increased competitive intensity. It also expects Zomatos reported revenue growth would be relatively higher than GOV growth due to the recent improvement in take rates.

On the other hand, Paytm posted a consolidated net loss of 292 crore for the second quarter of FY24. However, its loss narrowed by 49 percent from 1,914 crore reported in the year-ago period. The firm recorded a consolidated revenue from operations of 2,519 crore in the September quarter, registering a growth of 32 percent as compared to 1,914 crore reported in the year-ago period.

Meanwhile, the fintech major posted negative EBITDA of 232 crore in Q2FY24, which is lower as compared to an EBITDA loss of 538 crore, YoY.

Which stock has better long-term opportunities?

Vinit Bolinjkar, Head of Research, Ventura Securities, has picked Zomato over Paytm.

Both Zomato and Paytm have substantial growth opportunities owing to India's evolving digital economy. As the digital landscape advances, both companies are poised for expansion. With increasing business growth, operating leverage is expected to come into play. In addition, post listing, both firms have become more disciplined in capital allocation and are prioritising profitable growth, said Bolinjkar.

Our preference leans towards Zomato due to the relatively low competitive pressure in the food delivery sector (dominated by Zomato and Swiggy). In addition, Zomato's growing user base and the proliferation of cloud kitchens in India further enhance its appeal. Moreover, Zomato's recent acquisition of Blinkit has facilitated its entry into the quick grocery delivery market, an arena largely occupied by startups with no dominant player. Although DMart Ready and Jio Mart operate in grocery delivery, they do not match the swift 10-15 minute delivery segment that Zomato targets," added Bolinjkar.

In contrast, Paytm faces stiff competition from established players like Google Pay, PhonePe, and various banks. Furthermore, Jio Financial Services and Bajaj Finance are venturing into payment services, posing a potential threat to Paytm's market share. While Paytm has built a robust platform, the larger players can replicate its services and capture market share.

Sonam Srivastava, Founder and Fund Manager at Wright Research, also likes Zomato between the two.

Between Zomato and Paytm, I recommend Zomato for long-term investment. Zomato, as a leading online food delivery platform in India, has shown consistent growth and holds a significant market share. Additionally, their ventures into new sectors like grocery delivery and quick commerce show promising potential. While Paytm, a foremost digital payments platform, has a vast user base, it faces increasing competition and regulatory challenges that might impact its growth trajectory," said Srivastava.

Currently, internet stocks are showing recovery signs, even if they haven't reached their peak values. This period may present a good opportunity for long-term accumulation, considering the rapid global digital integration. The internet sector continues to be a dominant growth area. However, investors must approach with caution due to inherent volatility, said Srivastava, adding that the top picks for long-term investment in the internet sector include Zomato, Angel One, Newgen Software, Rategain, Cartrade, etc.

While ICICI Securities has buy calls on both the stocks, it sees a 48% upside for Zomato (target: 160) vs 15 percent for Paytm (target 1,055).

The brokerage re-iterated its buy rating on Zomato led by earnings upgrades, given improved visibility of profitability and sustained improvement in the underlying operating metrics. Zomato remains its top pick in the Indian internet space. It sees an overall revenue growth of 43 percent, 34 percent and 25 percent over FY24E-26E.

For Paytm, it noted that positive levers can come from the expansion of credit partners (likely to add 3-4 partners in FY24) as well as the launch of a co-branded RuPay credit card (May23). Also, the overarching strategy of growth in payments and credit distribution remains intact and will only likely be boosted by partner addition and improving penetration within the ecosystem, it added.

Meanwhile, VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, likes both of these internet stocks.

Markets overreact, both on the upside and downside. The IPOs of digital stocks like Paytm and Zomato were launched during the market euphoria post-Covid crash. The IPO valuations were excessive. When the market corrected post October 2021, it went to the other extreme of very low valuations for these stocks. And with improving results, the investor optimism for these stocks is increasing. These stocks have a long runway of growth and, therefore, have the ability to deliver decent returns in the long run, said Vijayakumar.

Disclaimer: The views and recommendations made above are those of individual analysts or broking companies, and not of MintGenie. We advise investors to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.

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Alizeh, please note that there are limited Shariah-compliant investment options available in India. Here are some:

Mutual funds: Several asset management companies in India offer mutual funds that invest in Shariah-compliant stocks and financial instruments.

Stocks: Take the help of Shariah-compliant stock screeners to pick stocks of companies that adhere to the religious principles that are important to you.

Bank products: Some banks in India offer Shariah-compliant banking products and services. These include Islamic savings accounts, Islamic fixed deposits, and home finance products that do not involve interest.

Gold: Physical gold, acquired as an investment, is considered Shariah-compliant. You may invest in gold coins or bars.

Real estate: You can invest in properties that conform to Islamic principles. The finance obtained to acquire the property and the income generated from it must both be Shariah-compliant.

As per Shariah, one cant take loans as one needs to pay interest. However, there are some methods as below:

Ijara: The bank does not charge interest, as this is not allowed in Islamic finance, but instead charges rent on the part of the property that the customer doesnt yet own. This gradually increases the equity holding in the property in your name. Similar to a lease agreement.

Murabaha: Bank purchases the house property on your behalf and re-sells to you with a said profit margin. Fixed amount is repaid (similar to EMI without interest component) over a fixed tenure until you have complete ownership of the house.

Some religious communities also take gold as collateral in return of the funds one needs. Much of Islamic finance activities in India are managed through cooperative societies.

Interest earned on a savings account must be purified  that means it must be given as charity. Another option, open a current account. In some countries, the depositors allow the banks to use their money invested in profitable business ventures which are legal and Shariah compliant. The profit will be shared as per a predetermined ratio, while the loss will be borne by the investor.

Profit distribution amongst the depositors and the shareholders will be made according to the weightage assigned usually at the beginning of each month to their investments. Savings deposits are generally placed in a joint investment pool with other deposits mobilised by the Islamic banks.

International Money Matters Pvt Ltd is a 20-year-old SEBI registered financial planning-cum-investment advisory boutique. Please click here to find out more.

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Avital! Avital! Avital!" Natan Sharansky calls out his wifes name in quick and anxious succession, the last time in a loud bellow. Minutes into our interview by Zoom from his house in Jerusalem, hes worried his grandchildren havent had lunch. Because of the war, everybody is crazy," he says. My son-in-law is in the war, so all the grandkids are here"eight in total, ranging in age from 1 to 13, the children of his daughters, Hannah and Rachel. Its a good time to fuel yourself on family love."

An Israeli politician and human-rights advocate, Mr. Sharansky was once the best-known refusenika name for Soviet Jews who were denied permission to emigrate to Israel. In February 1986, he became the first political prisoner released by Mikhail Gorbachev." He served as a cabinet minister in every Israeli government from 1996 to 2005, including a stint as Ariel Sharons deputy prime minister from 2001 to 2003.

Before emigrating to Israel, he spent nine years in Soviet prisons accused of treason. Hes 75 but jokes that hes 66: My nine years in prison dont count." He also quips that between his nine years in prison and nine years in government, my years in prison were easier." In 2009 he rebuffed an invitation to join the cabinet of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: I was in four governments, and I resigned twice. I was in four prisons, and I never resigned. It shows there is something wrong with me in politics."

The grandchildren are fed. The war has come home, literally, to the Sharanskys, as it has to almost every household in Israel. I just met a woman whose four sons are in the army," he says. It was a big mobilization todayeverybody whos from 20 to 38." Israel is united in tragedy and resolve. Maybe thats what makes it a little bit easier to overcome this awful pogrom."

In Mr. Sharanskys opinion, Hamass atrocities eclipse even the worst Russian pogroms" of the 19th century. This was also the first pogrom in history which was all on the internet. They were making pictures and sending them out immediately." Hamas terrorists were proud of this, he stresses. It says something to us that even the Nazis tried to hide their killing from the world. Here they tried to show to all the world what they were doing to these Jews." They believed it would win sympathy and support from one part of the world, and understanding from the other part."

The former part is the Islamic worldincluding Muslim populations in Europewhere massive crowds came out in support for the Palestinians." The latter part is the Western left. Mr. Sharansky finds the reaction on American campuses mind-boggling": A pogrom occurs, and the first reaction is that Israel is to be blamed. They see the most barbaric pogrom since the Holocaust as the beginning of Palestinian liberation."

Anti-Israel demonstrations intensified after a deadly blast at a hospital in Gaza on Oct. 17. Hamas blamed Israel instantly and much of the world was quick to accept the word of a terrorist organization, some holding to this view even after proof emerged that the damage was caused by an errant rocket fired by Palestinian terrorists.

Why does Israel never get the benefit of the doubt? The simplest answer is to say that thats anti-Semitism," Mr. Sharansky says. He accepts legitimate criticism" and notes that Israel is a free country." But he says Israel is seldom denounced in good faith but instead subjected to the three Ds": demonization, double standards and delegitimization.

Add to this the ideology that holds the oppressed are always right, and that resistance to oppressors is always legitimate." Intellectuals, academics and college leaders refuse to call the most primitive act of anti-Semitism by its name," and instead dignify the Hamas murders as a form of anticolonial" struggle.

But arent the Palestinians oppressed? Well, I would say that Palestinian people are oppressed by the ruthless dictators and terrorists who rule over them. And the free worldincluding some of my leaders, in my own countryare accomplices. If there is one crime against the Palestinians to which Israel should plead guilty," Mr. Sharansky says, it is the Oslo Agreement"the peace accord Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization signed in 1993.

Mr. Sharansky abhors Oslo. Still regarded in some circles as the touchstone of Israeli-Palestinian compromise, the agreement handed control of Palestinian land to Yasser Arafats Palestinian Authority in the belief that he would be able to subdue Hamas. Im not against compromises with the Palestinians," Mr. Sharansky says. Ive said Im for a two-state solution from the moment I came to Israel. I want Palestinians to have the same rights as I, but they should never have an opportunity to destroy me."

At Oslo, he says, Israel foisted a ruthless dictator on the Palestinians. We told them, Like it or not, he will be your leader. With [Bill] Clinton and all the free world, we gave Arafat the power to destroy all the beginnings of freedom of the Palestinian people and helped build a generation of haters." Mr. Sharansky says its absolutely ridiculous" that a fifth generation" of Palestinians lives in refugee camps, but he says their leaders are to blame. And the free world, that gives money to these leadersa lot of money."

Mr. Sharansky is certain that Israels security can be assured only by a free Palestinian society, in which people enjoy a normal life, normal freedom, the opportunity to vote and have their own human rights." In The Case for Democracy" (2004), he wrote: I remain convinced that a neighbor who tramples on the rights of its own people will eventually threaten the security of my people." The book was published a year before Israel disengaged" from the Gaza Strip, withdrawing the army and forcibly uprooting Jews who had settled there.

That decision led Mr. Sharansky to resign from Sharons cabinet. Arafat had failed to tame Hamas, and Mr. Sharansky believed Gaza would be taken over by the terrorist group, whose ideology is suicide for the sake of destroying the state of Israel." He resigned before disengagement took effect, because he didnt want to take responsibility for the fact that we, by our own hands, were creating the biggest terrorist base in the Middle East, and that missiles will come one day to Ashkelon," a coastal city less than 10 miles from the Gaza border.

The threat was so clear to me," Mr. Sharansky recalls. But Sharon told me, No, we simply put up a wall. And if [Hamas] dare to make one shot, we will simply kill all of them. To this day, I dont know if he believed in it or not." Mr. Sharansky recalls that Sharon told him that all the world will be with us for 10 years after this. I said, Arik, you dont have 10 years. Maybe you have 10 days. "

In the event, Hamas won legislative elections in Gaza in 2006 and displaced the Palestinian Authority by force the next year. Although Mr. Sharanskys view appears to have been vindicated, he doesnt think now is the right time for me to say that I was saying this or that. Its too long ago. But what was disengagement? Leaving the territory, and leaving it to the terrorists. Nobody in Israel would be for a new disengagement today." After the atrocities of Oct. 7, all of Israeli society understands that there can be no compromise with Hamasor we will survive or they will survive."

What now? After we finish Hamas, of course," he says he would push for some of the measures he advocated at the time of disengagement. You dont want to control these two million people, right? We have to go back to what I was proposing before, that we have to build some kind of international army." This wont happen overnight, so for the transitional period, military control has to be in our hands," but only for a few years. An international bodycomprised, preferably, of Saudis and Emiratis (all those rich countries who recognize our right to exist")would have to help the Palestinians build an independent economy, a normal education, normal housing, a civil society."

Mr. Sharansky projects a 10-year timeline for such an alternative, at the end of which Gazans could elect representatives who are really concerned about them, with whom we can negotiate."

Mr. Sharansky, born in the Ukrainian city of Donetsk, has been an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putins war on the land of his birth. Does he make a connection between the defense of a free Ukraine and support for Israel? Putins invasion is a threat to the free world," Mr. Sharansky says. Ukraine fighting for its identity, for its right to be a Ukrainian democratic state, is defending the free world." Israel, too, for all these years, has been fighting for its right to be a Jewish democratic state, which is also in the interests of the free world." Both peoples fight for survival highlights the connection between freedom and nationalism." He says he means nationalism not as a four-letter word, or Putins imperialistic nationalism, but one that asserts your right to live as one people in freedom."

The Netanyahu government has faced criticism for failing to support Ukraine and perhaps even tilting toward Russia. The usual explanation is that Israel is constrained to cooperate with Russia to keep things from spiraling out of control with Iran, these days among Mr. Putins closest allies, especially in Syria, where Russia has a military presence. Its absolutely ridiculous," Mr. Sharansky says, that Israel is fighting Iran and tries to appease Russia, and America is fighting Russia and tries to appease Iran."

But Mr. Putin has declined to support Israel in the wake of Hamass attack, and Mr. Sharansky thinks that thats the end of illusions about Russia in Israel." The former refusenik, who lived with Russian anti-Semitism until he was 38, has often said Mr. Putin is a rare Russian leader who isnt an anti-Semite. He hasnt changed that opinion: Hes a dictator. He is a war criminal. He has to be brought to trial. But who is an anti-Semite?"

An anti-Semite, Mr. Sharansky says, is one who persecutes or hunts Jews for being Jews. Im very critical of Putin, on the one hand, and on the other, Im saying hes not anti-Semite. What to do? Every anti-Semite is in some way a villain. But not every villain is an anti-Semite."

As recriminations fly against Mr. Netanyahu, Mr. Sharansky cautions against precipitate calls for his resignation. Many blame the prime minister for ignoring warnings from Egypt of an imminent Hamas attack. Look," Mr. Sharansky says, for this exact reason there will be an investigation. In Israel, even small battles are studied minute by minute. What happened? What was right? What was wrong? Here, there will be huge investigations. There will no doubt be a committee of the most respected judges and war specialists who would analyze the failure of intelligencemilitary and political."

No one denies that everybody who was at the top was responsible, in one way or another. You cant say that the head of intelligence is responsible, but the prime minister is not." But Israels success in identifying and killing so many leaders of Hamas who are hiding" proves that we restored our intelligence practically immediately. From the feeling that we lost everything in 24 hours, you already have a feeling that your intelligence is working."

Credit for the quickest mobilization," he says, goes to the people, of course, but its also because of our leaders. So this is definitely not the moment to say, specifically, that the prime minister, or this minister, or this leader, has to resign." Such action, says Mr. Sharansky, is only for after serious investigation. Right now, we have to win the battle. And Bibi and our army are leading us in this effort."

Mr. Varadarajan, a Journal contributor, is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and at New York University Law Schools Classical Liberal Institute.

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Dr. Richard King was driving home from the Central Maine Medical Center on Wednesday night when he received an urgent call from a fellow trauma surgeon alerting him that victims of a mass casualty event were flooding the hospital.

King, the trauma medical director, immediately turned around and sped through Lewiston's streets with his hazard lights flashing, arriving to discover what he later described in an interview as a nightmarish scene. The emergency room was overflowing with wounded and bleeding patients, casualties of the latest mass shooting to hit an American city.

Within minutes, King went to work performing a "damage control" surgery on one gunshot victim to stop their bleeding and save their life before hustling into a different operating room to begin work on another.

"It was a situation of organized chaos," King said. "It was really quite surreal. We read about these events all too frequently, and then to be a part of one ..."

The staff of Central Maine Medical Center on Wednesday joined a growing list of fellow doctors, nurses, orderlies and technicians working in cities from Colorado Springs, Colorado to Highland Park, Illinois and El Paso, Texas, who have seen their hospitals upended by incessant mass shootings in recent years.

King told Reuters by phone from inside the heavily guarded hospital that the 250-bed medical center had never seen anything resembling the fallout from the Lewiston shooting, which left 18 people dead and more than a dozen wounded.

Lewiston, a former textile hub, is home to only about 38,000 people, but still stands as the second largest city in Maine, the state ranked by the FBI as the least violent in the nation.

The number of those killed on Wednesday was only slightly below the average number of homicides in Maine for an entire year.

But King said the medical center's staff has undergone mass casualty event training and that it felt like "the entire hospital" rushed into the facility to help out. Eight shooting victims, including five who are stable and three in critical condition, remained in the hospital on Thursday.

"We really just did what we would normally do, just at maximum capacity and with maximum effort," King said. "It was inspiring to see how all our staff responded, how everybody stepped up to the plate."

While there is one on-call after hours surgeon, upward of 30 surgeons were on site within minutes of the first ambulances arriving at the hospital, King said.

As one victim after another was rushed into the emergency room - more than a dozen gunshot victims eventually arrived - doctors grew concerned that the medical center's blood supply would not hold out. That forced King and other surgeons to do everything medically possible to stem the loss of blood among patients.

Supplies held out, King said, in large part due to work by the medical center's trauma program manager, Tammy Lachance, to quickly secure extra blood from nearby hospitals.

In the aftermath of the shooting, King said the most difficult thing for him and other staff members, some of whom had family and loved ones who were killed, is coming to terms with the loss of life and tragedy that befell Lewiston, especially as the adrenaline of treating victims wears off.

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With the shooter still at large on Thursday, law enforcement officers outside the hospital carrying long guns and wearing bulletproof vests were seen guarding entrances and keeping onlookers away.

"This is a close-knit community. Maine is fairly small, everybody knows everybody to some extent," King said. This shooting hits really hard in a city like Lewiston and a state like Maine."

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This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.
What can be a tricky business of raw milk is now open in North Dakota, and the state's earliest adopters say there's already a market for it.

A law passed during the 2023 North Dakota Legislature removed the prohibition of the sale of raw milk directly to a consumer. Farms may now sell raw milk directly to consumers for personal consumption but cannot sell raw milk to a wholesaler or retail store for mass consumption or across state lines.

John Avard and his wife, Shannon, started selling Bismarck-based A2/A2 Jersey raw milk and cream from a purebred cow in their herd when the new law went into effect on Aug. 1. He said they're already seeing business as one of the first batch of North Dakota farms to market their raw milk for sale.

"We're getting a very good response," Avard said.

He credits that to people disliking being told by the government what they can and can't consume, especially when it comes from a natural place.

"I don't think it's limited to raw milk," he said. "It's anything that can be produced. A lot of people are wanting products that are as natural as possible, without all the added preservatives and stuff that really, essentially, is not needed."

Avard followed the lawmaking process from its inception, which began with a bill sponsored by Rep. Dawson Holle, R-Mandan, whose family dairy farm is just south of where Avard grew up.

Avard and his wife attended a raw milk producer seminar held at the North Dakota State Fair last summer, where Holle and LeAnn Harner of North Dakota Food Freedom were speakers. North Dakota Food Freedom lobbied and ultimately convinced the state Legislature in 2017 to pass the Cottage Food Act, which opened the door to further expansion of "food freedom" in the state.

"It was a lot more informative, and a way to get together with other producers on what they were looking at doing in their setup, and some that had been doing herd-shares already and what has worked," he said.

North Dakota Food Freedom offers guidance to both sellers and buyers of raw milk.

4 Maids A-Milking

Toby and Heidi Tormaschy have been milking cows north of Richardton since 2008, and their milk is processed into specialty cheeses in Pollock, South Dakota. Both of them grew up on dairy farms, and Heidi was once a North Dakota Dairy Princess. The family was recently awarded the Commissioners Award of Dairy Excellence and recognized for consistently having high-quality milk and outstanding inspection records.

With the legalization of raw milk sales on Aug. 1, the couple decided to make a sister dairy to their original herd and call it 4 Maids A-Milking, because they have four daughters.

"Now we sell raw milk off the farm through that herd," Heidi Tormaschy said of the cows which belong to their daughters. "We both think that it's a good thing to offer a product to consumers if they want to have a more natural product directly from the farm."

She said it feels like that kind of market is really catching on.

"We thought it would be a unique opportunity for our farm to kind of take advantage of that," she said.

Selling raw milk has gone "really well" in the first weeks, she said, despite the many differences from selling pasteurized milk.

"It's different in the fact that we work a lot closer with the consumers this way," she said. "It's been neat to work with them that way in providing education and a closer example of what dairy life really looks like."

When raw milk buyers come to the farm they can see exactly where their milk is coming from, Tormaschy said.

"Whereas when the milk just leaves on the milk truck, to be turned into cheese, there's not that connection there," she said.

After following the legalization of raw milk for years, when the North Dakota bill was first introduced, Tormaschy said she was hesitant it was a good idea because as a longtime dairy farmer, she knew how tricky of a product it could be for consumers.

"It can be a very safe, healthy, nutritious product, but if handled incorrectly, it can also be really dangerous," she said. "And so at first, I didn't know if it was quite a good idea to make that kind of thing available to the public."

She eventually decided it's their duty as dairy farmers to sell products for which they can include the proper educational information.

"When it leaves the farm, I make sure to tell them this is a raw product. This is unpasteurized, it is not a homogenized, and it came right out of the cow this morning in some cases," she said. "Have a discussion with them about what exactly this product is, and how to safely handle it."

Tormaschy said she's been drinking raw milk her entire life, and her family supplied themselves "right out of the tank." And she feels comfortable sending a product out to consumers with families of their own, knowing it's the same product in her own refrigerator.

"I drank it pregnant, nursing, and I give it to our kids," she said. "I would never sell a product that I would not feel comfortable feeding my own family. And in this case, we very much feed it to our own family. We go through about a gallon a day."
West Bengal minister Jyoti Priya Mallick was taken to the hospital on Friday evening after fainting amid a court hearing. As per a later update the lawmaker has been hospitalised after being diagnosed with blood sugar and renal issues. The developments came mere hours after he was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with a multi-crore ration distribution scam. According to reports the lawmaker collapsed during a court hearing and was escorted to a balcony and given water to drink. He was then rushed to a city hospital for immediate medical care. Visuals shared online showed officials helping the TMC leader into a waiting vehicle before could be taken to the hospital. Earlier on Thursday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had threatened to file a police case if anything happened to Mallick during the questioning as he was unwell and had several medical ailments. The lawmaker had also undergone an extensive medical examination at a south Kolkata hospital before he was produced before the Bankshall court.

Jyoti Priya Mallick was arrested around 3:00 am on Friday after nearly 18 hours of questioning. ED officials had led extensive raids against the TMC leader on Thursday in connection with the purported ration distribution scam.

Calcutta Chief Metropolitan Magistrate had granted the probe agency's plea and remanded the minister to ED custody for 10 days till November 5. The ED claims claiming to have found his links with one Bakibur Rahaman, who was arrested nearly a fortnight ago in the case.

"We have sent instructions t bank authorities to freeze the accounts of the minister, his wife and daughter. We are also trying to find out if there are other bank accounts used by the minister or anybody in his family," an ED officer told PTI.

The TMC leader meanwhile insisted that he was the victim of a great conspiracy hatched by the BJP and its leader Suvendu Adhikari.

"It is a conspiracy. The BJP is actively engaging in plotting nefarious schemes against us," said Mallick.

(With inputs from agencies)

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Eight former Indian Navy personnel have been sentenced to death by a court in Qatar. The former naval officers had been working for Al Dahra company on a submarine project for the Qatari authorities when they were detained more than a year ago. The Ministry of External Affairs is currently exploring legal options and intends to take the matter up with officials in the other country.

Bloomberg quoted an unnamed individual familiar with the matter to add that the eight men had been involved in training the Qatari navy. The publication said they were sentenced to death by Qatar's Court of First Instance for alleged espionage.

C Kalyan Chakravarthy  the brother-in-law of detained veteran Sugunakar Pakala  meanwhile told reporters that the allegations were completely false and baseless.

All of these men are above 50 years old and they went to Doha to earn their livelihood. Why would they spy and for what benefit? So, I request the Indian Government to get my jijaji and other men to India," he was quoted as saying.

According to reports New Delhi is now considering an appeal against the death sentence handed down to the former Navy staffers.

We are deeply shocked by the verdict of the death penalty and are awaiting the detailed judgment. We are in touch with the family members and the legal team, and we are exploring all legal options. We attach high importance to this case, and have been following it closely. We will continue to extend all consular and legal assistance. We will also take up the verdict with Qatari authorities," the MEA said soon after the verdict came to light.

(With inputs from agencies)

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The National Centre for Vector Borne Diseases Control (NCVBDC) has said that as of mid-September of this year, more than 5,000 Dengue cases were reported in Delhi.

There is no recent data shared by The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) on vector-borne diseases in the national capital. It's weekly report on vector-borne diseases was last released in the first week of August. Nearly 5,000 cases of dengue have been recorded in the city so far this year, MCD sources said on Thursday as reported by news agency PTI. According to data on the official website of the NCVBDC, which comes under the Union health ministry, 5,221 cases of dengue and one death due to the disease had been recorded in Delhi till mid-September this year. Earlier on Thursday, Delhi Mayor Shelly Oberoi had held a review meeting on vector-borne diseases with the Public Health Department officials of the MCD at the Civic Centre. During the meeting, officials informed the Mayor that all necessary steps are being taken on a "war footing" to check the spread of dengue and other vector-borne diseases and also informed that the situation in Delhi is "under control".

The statement also said malaria is completely under control in Delhi which saw 352 cases in Delhi so far this year. According to the statement from Mayor's office, there has been a significant reduction in chikungunya cases in Delhi with only 29 cases reported this year, as reported by PTI. Earlier, 129 cases of chikungunya cases were reported till October 21 in 2018, 132 in 2019, 74 in 2020, 73 in 2021 and 38 in 2022.

Earlier on 23 October, Delhi Lieutenant Governor (LG) VK Saxena had warned about the rising cases of Dengue and malaria in the national capital. In a tweet, the Delhi LG wrote, The rising cases of Dengue and related hospitalization in Delhi, despite a dip in temperature, are worrying. Spoke to the Chief Secretary, NDMC Chairman, MCD Commissioner & Secretary (Health), GNCTD to ensure proper sanitation and mitigation of mosquito breeding on a war footing." Also asked them to ascertain adequate facilities at dispenseries and hospitals. I appeal to the people to take all necessary precautionary measures," he said.
Bengaluru: Sometime in 1975, when I was in the 5th grade, I overheard some senior students talking excitedly about the launch of Indias first satellite, Aryabhata, by a Russian rocket. Coming less than a year after the Pokhran-1 nuclear tests, this event triggered peoples imagination and hope in every Indian science buff.

And from then on, every few years, there would be a significant milestone that would make us all proud. And on 23 August, this year, when India became the fourth nation to land a spacecraft on the moon, the hearts of every Indian would swell with pride.

In the story of the people behind Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), the countrys space agency, lies the answer to what makes it the pre-eminent make-in-India success story, and arguably the nations most admired and impactful startup.

When engineers from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) were busy making contributions to the American space programmes, Isro was being built by talented engineers from some of Indias relatively obscure colleges.

This is not a comment on the IITians lack of patriotism or anything of that sort but more about the depth of talent in the country and how the right kind of leadership and culture can bring the best out of anyone.

Isros constraints that made it impossible for the organization to match the salaries of multinationals in India or tech companies in the US, forced it to pick people who had hunger in the belly and a passion for technology. In the end, this strategy worked very well as results show.

The founder

Ambalal Sarabhai was a successful and affluent Gujarati businessman who owned many textile mills and, like some of the other industrialists of his time, was also an ardent supporter of the freedom movement. It was perhaps his loss, and the nations gain, that his son Vikram Sarabhai showed more interest in physics than in running his fathers business.

The junior Sarabhai was the epitome of a visionary and institution builder, and at the young age of 28, when most people are still struggling to figure out what they want to do with their lives, he set up the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) in Ahmedabad. PRL would be the nursery that would in later years provide talent to many of the countrys leading science and technology missions.

Like in the case of any great startup, Isros journey, too, began as an idea in someones mind.

Sarabhais vision, clarity of thought and charisma were instrumental in putting together the early team of extremely smart, young and motivated individuals, some of whom gave up coveted jobs in established research institutions to be part of what was at that time a risky venture with little or no chance for success.

Many of the early recruits like R. Aravamudan, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Eswar Das and HGS Murthy would go on to occupy pivotal roles in Isro and steer its journey in the years and decades ahead. The ability to attract and retain some of the best people at every stage in its journey would be the organizations trump card.

But no startup can scale entirely on the strength of its early recruits. At some point in its journey, bringing in fresh talent laterally to bridge some of the gaps is essential, and the most notable of these would be Satish Dhawan and UR Rao, both of who would go on to become the chairmen of the organization.

One of the problems with high growth startups is the friction and mistrust between the early recruits and the subsequent lateral hires, who come in at a relatively senior level, and this is often the undoing of startups that otherwise have everything going for them. Isro never had this problem. The culture of meritocracy, non-hierarchical mindset, transparency and freedom to innovate, (and fail), was institutionalized at a very early stage.

And the magic this created in terms of succession and continuity was instrumental in sustaining the excellence needed to pursue such long-term ambitious technology missions.

Sarabhai always had a 20-year blueprint. He was dreaming of launching geostationary satellites much before India had the rocketry to put a 30-kilo satellite into near-earth orbit and creating liquid-fuel propellant capability to power the next generation of rockets.

He backed his dreams with the foresight and action that would create technology and human capital capabilities needed for achieving these dreams in the future. Indias Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) would go on to become the most admired rocket in its category and would be the preferred launch vehicle of many countries for their remote sensing satellites.

In December 1971, a few weeks after the Bangladesh war, Sarabhai died, at the age of 52. He had dreamt and hustled to make Isros zero-to-one journey a spectacular success. In startup lingo, it had achieved a perfect product-market fit and was now ready to scale. And in the fitness of things, Sarabhai died at Halcyon Castle in Thiruvananthapuram, his beloved place where he had set up Indias first rocket launching centre.

Isro now needed a leader who could bring order to the chaos that was such an essential aspect of its early phase. Satish Dhawan, who was then at Caltech, was the perfect leader for the next phase of Isros journey. Dhawan brought the much-needed method to the madness and took execution up by a few notches through a combination of focus, prioritization, and effective review mechanisms.

Team comes first

One of the defining elements of Isros culture was that when something went wrong, the senior leadership would look in the mirror to ask what could have been done better.

On 10 August 1979, when the nation watched with bated breath, Indias first indigenously developed rocket SLV-3 crashed into the Bay of Bengal minutes after lift-off. Kalam was the project director and Dhawan the chairman. Kalam and team were disheartened, but Dhawan never once, even obliquely, attributed the failure to the team and was in the forefront to answer questions from a sceptical media that was quick to dub the SLV a sea-loving vehicle".

Nearly a year later, on 18 July 1980, in a second attempt, when the rocket successfully put the indigenous satellite Rohini into a near-earth orbit, Dhawan stepped back quietly into the shadows and allowed Kalam and team to bask in the glory.

The other incredibly exquisite element of the Isro culture has been the way failures were analysed and quickly fixed in the subsequent missions. The intention was never to fix blame, but to fix the problem. Extensive ground testing is no guarantee of success, and every failure was systematically analysed by a carefully constituted committee. In many of the failures, the team was able to pinpoint the cause accurately, and this was addressed in the subsequent launches.

For instance, the failure of the first launch of SLV-3 was attributed to a leakage of the control fluids and the failure of the first launch of PSLV was attributed to an arithmetical error in the onboard computer and the failure of two retro rockets to fire during the second stage separation.

However, in some cases, the real cause of failure could never be accurately pointed out, but this never resulted in paralysis, and the next launch was planned after incorporating recommendations and remedial measures covering several areas.

When Chandrayaan-3 touched down at the south pole of the moon, it was so heartening to watch S. Somanath step backhe put his team in front of the cameras on national television. Equally heartening was the ease with which he gave credit to his predecessors, especially those who had worked on the previous two Chandrayaan missions.

Make-in-India

When it comes to programmes of national importance, make-in-India does not necessarily mean starting from scratch and developing everything within the country. It is about a deep commitment to developing strategic capabilities that would never put the country at anyones mercy.

This reflected from day one of Isros 60-year journey. In 1962, the year Indias space mission was born (it was christened as Isro only in 1969), a crack team comprising of the best engineering minds from different streams (Aravamudan and Kalam, among others) were sent to NASA to learn about telemetry, tracking, and rocket technology. With the know-how they acquired, Indias first rocket launching centre at Thumba was established.

In the early 1970s, India was beginning to think of the PSLV, and building this rocket needed a mastery of liquid-fuel propulsion. Developing this from scratch would have taken a very long time, but by sheer serendipity, at that point of time, France needed some critical equipment for their Ariane programme (European civilian launch vehicles for space launch use), which could be manufactured at much lower cost in India.

In exchange, the French offered to transfer the liquid-fuel propulsion technology which was used in their Viking engines. Isro, under Dhawan, grabbed this opportunity, and used the Viking engine designs to perfect the Vikas engine, or Isros family of liquid-fuelled rocket engines.

While the Viking engine would run into trouble in later times, Indias Vikas engine would power the PSLV, and the reliability and consistency of performance of this rocket configuration would be the single most important indicator that Indias space programme had truly come of age. The project director for the first couple of PSLV missions was the formidable Madhavan Nair, whose first job was with Isro. He would go on to become the organizations chairman.

The biggest make-in-India challenge as well as success story of Isro was the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV). The geopolitics of the times (the tumultuous decade of the 1990s) magnified the challenge multifold. Geostationary satellites need to be put at an orbital height of around 36,000km, which is 60 times the orbital heights of sun-synchronous satellites.

GSLV rockets would need cryogenic engines for the final stage and very few countries had this technology. The first offer to supply cryogenic engines was from the American firm General Dynamics. But the price point was astronomical and combined with Americas low credibility as a reliable partner back then, this discussion ended quickly.

However, all was not lost, and Russia, as an all-weather friend, agreed to help India develop cryogenic engines. A contract was signed with the Russian firm Glavkosmos. However, this was precisely the time when Russian influence on the world stage began shrinking rapidly and the US emerged as the sole superpower.

Decades of mistrust led the US to use every tool at its disposal, including the severely restrictive covenants of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), to put the brakes on this technology transfer. And as the GSLV project remained in suspended animation, PSLV had its moments of glory, launching satellites from countries all over the world.

Finally, a compromise was reached and Glavkosmos agreed to sell a few cryogenic engines. Engines were not enough and Isro had to develop the controls that would be compatible with these engines. Simultaneously, Isro decided to accelerate the indigenous development of cryogenic technologies. Both the current and the last chairman, Somanath and K.Sivan, would play crucial roles in the GSLV missions.

The first GSLV flight was aborted during the countdown, but the fault was quickly traced to a piece of lead blocking one of the pipelines. In less than a month, a second attempt was made, and this time it was a spectacular success.

R.V. Perumal was the project director and Madhavan Nair was by then the director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC).

The GSLV programme was continuously improvised and indigenized. Finally, in 2014, in its seventh mission, when the indigenous GSLV-D5 successfully launched GSAT-14 into a geosynchronous orbit, it was truly symbolic of Indias entry into the big boys club, which the US had worked hard to keep India away from.

In summary

Isro benefited immensely from having a visionary founder whose invisible hand was there as a guiding force decades after his death. The culture he had helped create was reinforced by every leader who followed in his footsteps. It was evident that Isro was never dependent on any one individual.

When Satish Dhawan retired after nearly 12 years at the helm, his protege, U.R. Rao, stepped into his shoes. Every new leader at the organization was as illustrious as his predecessor. And in years to come, Isro would become a workplace that would be inclusive in all respects. Women scientists, researchers and programme heads would lead many of its most complex missions.

T.N. Hari is an author and co-founder of Artha School of Entrepreneurship.
SALEM, Mass.Three centuries ago, hysteria swept this town and residents accused about 200 people of witchcraft. This month, local resentment toward witches is brewing again.

One million tourists, many sporting black pointy black hats, layers of mascara and long capes, are expected to course through this citys historic downtown in October to visit cemeteries, haunted houses and witch museums. Traffic is choked. Sidewalks are jammed. The line at Dunkin runs 20 deep.

Its hellish," said Bri Chisholm, a social worker who has lived in Salem all her life. Last night, we walked a half mile in the pouring rain with our groceries in brown paper bags because we couldnt park anywhere."

Salems streets are narrow and crooked. The front doors of its centuries-old homes swing open onto skinny sidewalks designed for austere Puritans. On a recent Sunday, they were packed with out-of-state tourists, many of them munching candy corn.

Salem Haunted Happenings," as locals call the Halloween festivities, is bigger than ever. When pandemic lockdowns lifted, what had been a mostly regional tourist attraction went national, according to the tourism department. Cellphone data shows visitors coming from as far away as Ohio, Texas and California.

The hordes inject millions of dollars into the local economy. Homes rent out for $2,000 a night. Hotels book up a year in advance.

Last year, Stacia Cooper, director of a local tourism board, scolded her high-school-age son when he spent $300 on an 8-foot Sasquatch costume. So far this fall, he has made more than $1,000 posing with tourists.

Lines for restaurants, museums and gift shops started building in August. Last weekend, they stretched for blocks. Knots of tourists clustered every 100 feet around street performers dressed as headless horsemen, one-armed pirates and 10-foot ghosts.

On congested roads, tour buses competed with Amazon delivery vans and SUVs with New Jersey plates to squeeze through jammed intersections. Traffic backs up into neighboring towns.

Total roadblock," said Bob Baker of nearby Marblehead, who recalled being stuck for hours on an ill-timed trip through Salem. Living in the belly of the Halloween Industrial Complex, he said, isnt for the faint of heart. He tries to bunker down in his house through the fall.

At the heart of Salems draw is a dark history. Starting in 1692, members of a quarrelsome community of Puritans began accusing their neighbors of consorting with demons.

More than 20 were executed, mostly by hanging. One man was pressed to death under a pile of rocks. The property of some of the dead was confiscated. Many of their bodies were buried in unmarked graves.

When the wife of the governor of Massachusetts was accused of witchcraft, he banned the use of spectral evidence" in court, and the hysteria ended.

Over the next 30 years, most of the judges, jailers and accusers responsible for the murder spree apologized, and families fought to clear the names of the executed.

By and large, the city tried to forget what had happened out of shame and regretonly to have it periodically thrown in its face. Before the Civil War, Southerners clapped back at moralizing Northern abolitionists by saying that at least they were not guilty of burning their grandmothers at the stake," said Rebecca Johnson, a former professor of American religious history turned Salem tour guide.

Even through the 1950s, the subject was rarely discussed in Salem, another guide, David Mulhern, told 15 tourists as they walked through the crowded streets. When you visit New York, do you ask about Joey Buttafuoco and Amy Fisher? You dont because people dont want to talk about it."

The television show Bewitched" gave witches a makeover in the 1960s. In 1993, Hollywood released the movie Hocus Pocus," which was filmed in the city, introducing millennials to the witches of Salem.

Goth witches, feminist witches and mother earth witches have gravitated to Salem, where they have set up witch shops and a thriving Wiccan community. The witches of old were considered handmaidens of the devil. Today, the term is a catchall for practitioners of nature-based spiritualism.

Salems Halloween season has been cranking along for two months already, with the city doing its best to control the chaos. There is a website devoted to street closures and a promotional campaign urging Boston area residents to take public transportation. Porta potties line the streets in an effort to keep tourists from urinating in the bushes.

Ezequiel Dominguez, owner of a downtown barbershop called Clean Cut Studio, said business drops off in September and October because regular customers dont want to brave the crowds.

Theres no place to park," he said. Customers are always canceling."

Other businesses, though, are cashing in.

Leanne Marrama, a self-described witch and co-owner of a store called the Pentagram, said she works 12 hours a day in September and October. Last Saturday, Celtic music and incense drifted through the packed store while she and six other witches did half-hour Tarot card readings for $90 a pop. Some Salem witches charge as much as $500, she said, which he calls just gouging."

Across the street, tourists traipsed through a nearly 400-year-old cemetery, examining rough-hewed stone benches inscribed with the names, dates and manner of execution of each resident put to death as a result of the trials. A nearby loudspeaker beckoned tourists to a wax museum for the low, low price of $26.

Id like to see a life-size wooden replica of the gallows where they hung the witches," says Dona Newman, a tourist from Melbourne, Fla. It would give a real sense of how intense it must have been."

Chisholm, the local social worker, found it all a bit creepy. I worry were commercializing a tragedy," she said.

Robert Lutts will be happy when November rolls around. Cabot Wealth Management, which he founded, has an office in downtown Salem. Six portable toilets now stand just outside his office. One year, he called the city to report a man on a loudspeaker preaching against demons.

He tries to vacation in October to avoid the turmoil.

We dont like it at all," he said. But when theres 1,000 people right outside your window, theres not much you can do about it."

Write to Douglas Belkin at Doug.Belkin@wsj.com

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New Delhi: India is stepping up efforts to bolster Oman's space programme, focusing on human capacity development and providing space-based services, according to people aware of the matter.

Despite the earlier emphasis on space hardware and satellite ventures, this collaboration is expected to steer in a different direction, according to the persons cited above. The nations had previously inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in 2018, underscoring peaceful cooperation in space.

Queries mailed to the foreign ministries of India and Oman were not answered by press time.

In August, Oman's Transport and IT Minister, accompanied by senior officials, interacted with the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) leadership.

Their deliberations led to the unveiling of a GIS Portal by Isro, tailor-made for Oman, encompassing various sectors like agriculture, urban planning, and disaster management, Isro said in a press release

Specific cooperation proposals, including the building and launching of satellites for the Sultanate of Oman, ground station establishment, and a sounding rocket launch in Oman, were also discussed," according to the Isro statement.

The delegation also met with Indian space startups to look into the possibility of commercial collaborations.

India's proactive stance in utilizing its space prowess for diplomatic outreach, especially with nations in the Global South, has been evident for a while now. A notable instance was the 2017 launch of the GSAT-9, the South Asia satellite, designed to serve neighboring countries, reinforcing regional ties.

Termed India's technology largesse from the sky to the peoples of the region, the satellite will prove to be a boon in the entire regions progress. It is also expected to cement bonds among Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka," according to an official release at the time of the satellites 2017 launch.

In recent years, India has signed a number of space cooperation agreements with countries in West Asia, South America and Africa.

New Delhi has been quick to use its space programmes high-profile successes in the diplomatic arena. At one level, India has argued that its space achievements underscore the countrys broader economic and technological rise over the last three decades. The countrys use of space diplomacy is also part of an effort to project New Delhi as a partner that can deliver much-needed services and technology for the Global South.
The South Central Railway (SCR) is preparing to launch a special train called the 'Amrit Kalash Yatra' on October 28 that will run from Vijayawada to New Delhi.

Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena as part of the "Meri Maati Mera Desh" campaign flagged off the "Amrit Kalash Yatra" from the Raj Niwas on October 25. Amrit Kalash Yatra serves as a tribute to the national heroes who devoted their lives to the nation. The 'Meri Maati Mera Desh' (MMMD) campaign is a tribute to the soldiers of the Indian Army who sacrificed their lives for their nation. "Exciting news! Mint is now on WhatsApp Channels  Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest financial insights!" Click here! Around 20,000 participants from across the country involved in the 'Meri Maati Mera Desh' campaign will be transported to Delhi in the facilitation of this train service with soil from home villages under the second phase of the governments campaign according to Union culture secretary Govind Mohan statement to Railway Board chairperson Jaya Varma Sinha as reported by IndiaToday.

Desh ki mitti is being collected from each and every household as a mark of respect to the earth and people who sacrificed for the country," the letter stated, reported India Today .

Where mitti is not available, people can contribute a grain of rice. This mitti would be utilised in the Amrit Vatika being created in the national capital," the letter read.

The letter further states that the Amrit Vatika and Azaadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav memorials will be a memoir of the spirit of valour and sacrifice of our veers who made our freedom and progress a reality".

Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena said, This campaign provides us with an opportunity to pay our respects and express our gratitude to the brave men and women who gave their lives to secure our freedom and protect our cherished heritage," reported ANI.

He added, "It allows us to honour freedom fighters, defence personnel, and police officers who made the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty. Their names will be inscribed on the "Shilaphalakam," which will stand as a local tribute in villages and urban areas across our nation."

Route

The special train is set to commence its journey from Vijayawada at 10 AM on Saturday, October 28. It will make stops at several stations including Kazipet, Balharshah, Nagpur, Itarsi Junction, Bhopal, Virangana Lakshmibai Jhansi, and Agra Cantt, before reaching Hazrat Nizamuddin at 2.25 p.m. on the following day.

The sacred soil and rice gathered from various regions were transported to their respective state capitals and union territories from October 22 to 27. Following this, the 'Amrit Kalash' will embark on its journey to Delhi between October 28 and 30, reported Jagran.

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Ivanka Trump, the daughter of former US President Donald Trump, will reportedly have to testify in the civil fraud case against her father, her brothers and their family business, a judge ruled on Friday.

According to NBC news, Judge Arthur Engoron said Ivanka could not be called as a witness before November 1. This gives her time to appeal the ruling if she chooses to.

After Ivanka Trump was dismissed as a defendant months ago, defense attorneys and her lawyer contended that she shouldn't have to testify, noting that she moved out of New York and left her Trump Organization job in 2017, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

However, the state's lawyers argued that the former Trump Organization executive vice president has relevant information, the report said.

What's the civil fraud case about?

Donald Trump and his family business currently face trial in New York to determine how much they owe in penalties after a judge found they inflated the former US presidents assets by billions of dollars to secure more favorable loan and insurance terms, Reuters reported.

The civil case was brought by Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James against Donald Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

Trump, his businesses and his two adult sons were accused of inflating assets by as much as $1.9 billion to $3.6 billion per year between 2011 and 2021 to save hundreds of millions of dollars on loans and insurance.

James office alleged that Trump and his associates used incorrect figures for the sizes of his properties and false or highly unrealistic assumptions about their development potential to arrive at the inflated values.

James is now seeking at least $250 million in penalties, a 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.

Why Ivanka Trump has been asked to testify?

During the hearing on Friday, state lawyers argued that Ivanka Trump was a key participant in some events discussed in the case and remains financially and professionally intertwined with the family business and its leaders.

She is 100% someone who can come in and testify," said Kevin Wallace, a lawyer for the attorney general's office, was quoted by the AP as saying.

The judge, who passed a verdict on Friday, sided with the state, citing documents showing that Ivanka Trump continued to have ties to some businesses in New York and still owns Manhattan apartments.

"Ms. Trump has clearly availed herself of the privilege of doing business in New York," Engoron was quoted by reports as saying.

Meanwhile, Ivanka Trump's lawyer, Bennet Moskowitz, told the judge on Friday that state lawyers "just dont have jurisdiction over her."

According to the AP report, Ivanka announced in January 2017 that she was stepping away from her job at the Trump Organization. She soon became an unpaid senior adviser in the Trump White House. After her father's term ended, she moved to Florida.

The office said it wanted to ask her questions about Trump's former Washington, DC hotel, and noted she profited from the sale.

(With inputs from agencies)

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Of the 1.1 million Indians in the US green card queue, the majority are in the EB-2 and EB-3 categories. There is a high chance that the backlog for these categories will grow further in 2024.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) website mentioned the inventory of employment-based adjustment of status applications for EB-2 and EB-3 categories from India is significantly high for the fiscal year 2024 and beyond (October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2024).

EB-2 requires exceptional ability or an advanced degree in specific fields, while EB-3 necessitates at least a bachelor's degree. Both are employment-based immigrant visa categories.

USCIS notified that normal operations resumed COVID-19, so there are currently fewer unused family-based immigrant visa numbers available to increase the number of employment-based immigrant visas in fiscal year 2024.

Once there are no more unused family-based numbers, the annual number of available employment-based immigrant visas is expected to return to 1,40,000.

Greed Card backlog: Current annual limit not sufficient

Meanwhile, Manjunath Gokare, founder and managing partner of Gokare Law Firm, a business immigration law firm based in Alpharetta, Georgia told TOI, that there is an urgent need for more employment-based visas.

The current annual limit of 140,000 is insufficient for a country as economically robust as the United States. If this issue is not addressed promptly, the US risks losing talented individuals to other countries," he said.

The Indian diaspora body has also urged the Biden Administration to relax the rules of issuing employment authorisation cards.

The Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies (FIIDS) said, adding that the country-wise limit of seven per cent restricts their annual approval, causing almost 135 years of delays, and estimated more than 400,000 would not see permanent residency in their lifetime.

Issuing Employment Authorisation Cards during the early stages of green card processing would help a large number of Indian Americans, their spouse and grown-up kids from a lot of uncertainties and distress, FIIDS said.

Recognising the imperative of maintaining Americas competitive advantage, it is crucial to acknowledge the immense contributions these individuals and their families make to the nations economy by driving innovation and enhancing diversity," Khanderao Kand, FIIDS Chief of Policy and Strategies, said in a letter to Ur Jaddou, Director of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

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With a long wait time for H1B, many applicants from India are now opting for EB-5 or golden visas to migrate to the United States. Currently, India is the second-largest EB-5 investor market in the world.

However, if you are not well-versed in the visa category but want to explore the opportunity, you can catch up with the U.S. Immigration Fund (USIF) team, which will be in the city for the next couple of days.

From 28 October to 2nd November, USIF will host EB-5 consultations in New Delhi. Apart from that the team will also hold road shows and seminars.

USIF will provide an in-depth understanding of the EB-5 program, a permanent residency option to foreign nationals allowing them to live and work anywhere in the United States, and providing a pathway to citizenship.

The team and a seasoned immigration attorney will also enlighten prospective investors on the process of acquiring a U.S. Green Card through the EB-5 program.

Talking about the USIF initiative in New Delhi, Nicholas A. Mastroianni III, CMO and President, USIF, said, These meetings will enlighten future investors on the benefits and nuances of the EB-5 visa program. With the help of our team and immigration attorneys, we hope to help Indian investors and their families plan for a future in their U.S. studying or working and obtaining a clear understanding as to why the EB-5 visa program stands out among the alternative visa options."

What is EB5 visa?

The EB-5 Program was established by the U.S. Congress in 1990. It offers permanent U.S. residency to foreign investors who invest a minimum of $800,000 in a qualifying project and create at least 10 U.S. jobs. Over the years, Indian investors have consistently leveraged this program, with a marked upswing in EB- 5 applications over the last year.

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Editors note: This article contains a graphic image. We are publishing the photo because it illustrates the severity of the injuries involved with the excessive force allegation.

A former Bismarck police officer charged with simple assault for allegedly using excessive force during the arrest of a 63-year-old man has changed his plea to guilty and been sentenced to probation.

Court documents show George Huff on Oct. 12 entered an Alford plea, which means he didn't admit guilt but acknowledged there was enough evidence to support a conviction. The court treats it like a guilty plea. A trial scheduled for December has been canceled.

Huff was given a suspended 30-day jail sentence and unsupervised probation for nearly a year, and ordered to pay $325 in court fees, according to court documents. Had he been convicted at trial, Huff could have been sentenced to nearly a year in jail and fined up to $3,000.

The misdemeanor charge of simple assault came several months after Huff was involved in an altercation March 9 with Keith Erlandson. Huff, 26, was accused of striking Erlandson several times in the face while holding handcuffs. Erlandson suffered numerous facial injuries.

Erlandson's family described him as homeless and having mental health issues.

Following the incident, investigations were launched by the Bismarck Police Department and the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation. Bismarck Police Chief Dave Draovitch fired Huff on May 21.

The department's report concluded Huff "initiated and persisted in close physical contact" with Erlandson and that Huff ignored training on deescalating a situation while waiting for backup "which he knew was literally seconds away."

Huff when interviewed for the department's internal investigation said Erlandson ignored his commands, resisted arrest, appeared to be trying to bite him, violently pulled down on his neck, and pulled at the officer's duty vest, which housed weapons, according to police documents. The BCI report states that "Huff described he had a death grip on his handcuffs because he did not want to lose them," and that he said he meant to hit with his knuckles, not the handcuffs.

Huff was known for "having a short fuse" and liking to fight, according to one of the responding officers interviewed by the department. Other responding officers said Huff later bragged about Erlandson's booking photo, in which his face was bloody and swollen.

Huff's attorney, Chris Redmann, said his client was defending himself against someone who was "unequivocally attacking him." Redmann said Huff decided to change his plea after discussing with his family "the risks/benefit of taking the case to trial."

"Officer Huffs primary reason to take a plea agreement is not because he was guilty, it was to extinguish the risk trial in any case brings and the potential that he would receive jail time if a jury regrettably returned a guilty verdict," Redmann said. "Officer Huff is a young man with a wife and two very young children -- prison or jail was a risk he was not willing to take because of that very reason."

The police department's reports described Erlandson as having mental health, drug and alcohol issues. It went on to say Erlandson had a history of fleeing from officers and resisting arrest.

Erlandson was not charged in connection with the March 9 incident. Burleigh County State's Attorney Julie Lawyer cited "the circumstances of that case" and his mental health issues. She left the decision on any criminal charges against Huff to the state Attorney General's Office.

The charge against Huff came following completion of the BCI investigation. Agent Matthew Hiatt in an affidavit filed in the court case said he believed probable cause existed to bring the charge against Huff. State Assistant Attorney General Jeremy Ensrud filed a criminal complaint.

Ensrud did not immediately respond Thursday to a Tribune request for comment.

Erlandson was arrested in July on warrants related to other run-ins with law enforcement. He faces felony charges from October 2022 and this past July for assault on a peace officer, drug possession and several misdemeanors. Mental health evaluations were ordered in both cases. Court records show those cases as inactive.
Maldives has started discussion with India for the removal of the latter's military presence in the region. President-elect Mohamed Muizzu said negotiations were underway and had been very successful already". Around 75 Indian military officials are currently based out of the country and maintain New Delhi-sponsored radar stations and surveillance aircraft. Indian warships help patrol Maldives exclusive economic zone.

We want a bilateral relationship thats mutually beneficialWe want assistance, cooperation with all the countries," Muizzu told Bloomberg during a recent interview.

He insisted that the ouster of Indian troops would not mean that Im going to allow China or any other country to bring their military troops here.

The removal of foreign troops had been one of the key poll promises from the Muizzu-led Progressive Party of Maldives. During a heated Presidential elections the winning candidate had accused incumbent Ibrahim Solih of allowing India unchecked sway over the island nations affairs. He also claimed that the current leader had surrendered the countrys sovereignty by allowing Indian troops to be stationed in the area.

India is yet to officially address the calls for removal of troops and has merely voiced hope for constructive engagement with the incoming administration. Last week, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi had merely noted that cooperation with Maldives was based on jointly addressing shared challenges and priorities.

Over the last five years, more than 500 medical evacuations have been carried out by our personnel, saving 523 Maldivian lives. In the same period, more than 450 multi-faceted missions have been carried out to safeguard the maritime security of Maldives. India has also been a first responder for Maldives in any disaster scenario, including most recently during Covid," he told the media.

The Maldives is one of India's key maritime neighbours in the Indian Ocean Region and the overall bilateral ties including in areas of defence and security have been on an upward trajectory in the last few years.

(With inputs from agencies)

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In the 21st day of the Israel-Hamas conflict, Israeli military vehicles were reported to have carried out an operation in the central Al-Bureij area, engaging in clashes with militants near the border. This information was reported by Reuters, citing media affiliated with Hamas. Here are the top 10 updates on the situation.

1. In the southern region of Gaza, specifically near the town of Rafah, there were confrontations between Hamas militants and Israeli troops, according to the media reports.

2. European Union leaders have called for temporary halts in the Israeli airstrikes and Hamas rocket attacks in order to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance to Gaza.

3. US President Joe Biden conveyed a message to Iran's supreme leader, cautioning against any targeting of U.S. personnel in the Middle East.

4. On Thursday, Gaza's health ministry reported that 7,028 Palestinians had lost their lives in the retaliatory airstrikes, with 2,913 of them being children. The ministry also released a 212-page document on the same day, containing the names and ID numbers of over 7,000 Palestinians who, according to the ministry, were killed in Israel's bombardment.

Also Read: Israel releases 'never-before-seen' video of IDF soldiers killing Hamas militants and saving hostages | Watch

5. A rocket launched in the Israel-Hamas conflict struck an Egyptian town on the border with Israel on Thursday, resulting in five people sustaining injuries, as reported AFP citing local media.

6. But Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. ambassador, said 70% of those killed in Gaza were children and women. Is this the war some of you are defending? Can this war be defended? These are crimes. This is barbarism," he said.

7. Arab leaders issued a collective appeal on Thursday for an immediate cease-fire to alleviate the suffering of civilians and enable the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza. The situation in Gaza has been dire due to Israel's prolonged blockade, which was imposed following Hamas' actions in southern Israel. This has resulted in severe shortages of food, water, medicine, and a dwindling fuel supply for UN relief efforts.

Also Read: What is two-state solution to end Israel-Hamas war? Explained

8. Hezbollah, a Lebanese organization backed by Iran and considered a terrorist group by several countries, including the United States and Israel, has engaged in recurrent clashes with Israeli forces along the Lebanon-Israel border. In response to these developments, the United States has deployed two aircraft carrier strike groups, along with additional fighter jets, weaponry, and personnel to the region.

9. Hamas' military wing reported on Thursday that the ongoing Israeli bombardment has resulted in the deaths of approximately 50 out of the at least 224 individuals they claim were taken hostage during their assault on October 7. Israeli officials, as in the past, have not immediately commented on these claims and have previously denied similar allegations.

10. Israel has announced that it conducted approximately 250 airstrikes in Gaza within the last 24 hours, with the objectives of targeting tunnel entrances, rocket launchers, and other infrastructure used by militants, AP reported.

(With inputs from agencies)

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Slovakia's new Prime Minister Robert Fico on October 26 pledged to limit humanitarian and civilian aid" to Ukraine and stop delivering arms, reported Euro News .

A day after his appointment as head of coalition government, Fico said, We see aid to Ukraine solely as humanitarian and civilian aid, and we will no longer supply Ukraine with arms."

He added, The war in Ukraine is not ours, we have nothing to do with it," reported Euro News.

Also read: Why is South Central Railways launching 'Amrit Kalash Yatra' special trains? Routes, timings, and other details here

Fico opposed EU sanctions on Russia and questioned whether Ukraine can force out the invading Russian troops. He does not want Ukraine to join NATO. The EU and the United States should use their influence to force Russia and Ukraine to strike a compromise peace deal instead of sending military aid proposed Fico, reported AP.

Fico claimed that the Ukraine runs a Nazi state from which ethnic Russians in the country need protection which was in line with Russian President Vladimir Putins claims.

Situation in Ukraine

Ukrainian forces continue to transport small groups of personnel across the Dnipro River in boats at various points according to Russian milbloggers. Ukrainian forces maintain positions near the Antonivsky road and railway bridges, and control part of Krynky.

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Ukrainian forces are making an attempt to break through to Poyma and Pishchanivka both of which are close to Kherson City. They also transferred reserves to the islands in the Dnipro River delta.

With depleting Western weapons and to secure stable and faster supplies, in an attempt to consolidate defence industry Ukraine aims to boost local production of different military equipment and munitions. Ukraine's minister for strategic industries Oleksandr Kamyshin at a NATO Industry Forum in Stockholm on October 25 said Ukraine plans to produce tens of thousands of drones every month by the end of this year.

He said, "By the end of this year, it would be dozens of thousands a month. And that's something we grow even faster than conventional warfare ammunition and warfare weapons," reported Euro News.

Situation in Russia

Russia is prosecuting its soldiers who failed to follow orders and threatened entire units with death if they retreat from Ukrainian artillery fire, said White House on October 26. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said US national security officials claim that it shows reflects Russia's morale problems arising out of overwhelming 20 months long war with Ukraine

Its reprehensible to think about that you would execute your own soldiers because they didnt want to follow orders and now threatening to execute entire units, its barbaric," Kirby told AP reporters. He added, But I think its a symptom of how poorly Russias military leaders know theyre doing and how bad they have handled this from a military perspective."

Also read: Why is South Central Railways launching 'Amrit Kalash Yatra' special trains? Routes, timings, and other details here

Kirby put forward a plea before the Congress demanding $106 billion supplemental funding in line with US president Biden's request including over $61 billion for Ukraine.

Kirby said, President Putin is not giving up on his aspirations to take all of Ukraine and as long as Russia continues its brutal assault we have to continue to support the Ukrainian people and their self defence, because his intentions are clear," reported AP.

Kirby further added, They are in such desperate need they are literally throwing young men into the fight who havent been properly trained, havent been properly equipped, and certainly are not being properly led."

Reports from British Defense Ministry stated that the regular Russian military deployed barrier troops" to shoot absconders.

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What lies in wait for Israeli ground troops in Gaza, security sources say, is a Hamas tunnel network hundreds of kilometres long and up to 80 metres deep, described by one freed hostage as "a spider's web" and by one expert as the "Viet Cong times 10".

The Palestinian Islamist group has different kinds of tunnels running beneath the sandy 360-sq-km coastal strip and its borders - including attack, smuggling, storage and operational burrows, Western and Middle East sources familiar with the matter said.

The United States believes Israel's special forces will face an unprecedented challenge having to battle Hamas militants while trying to avoid killing hostages held below ground, a U.S. official said.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin noted that Iraq's nine-month-long battle to retake the city of Mosul from Islamic State might prove to have been easier than what awaits the Israelis - likely to be "a lot of IEDs (improvised explosive devices), a lot of booby traps, and just a really grinding activity".

View Full Image File image: A general view shows the interiors of what the Israeli military say is a cross-border attack tunnel dug from Gaza to Israel, on the Israeli side of the Gaza Strip border near Kissufim

Even though Israel has invested heavily intunnel detection - including a sensor-equipped underground barrier it called an "iron wall" - Hamas is still thought to have working tunnels to the outside world.

After the last round of hostilities in 2021, Hamas's leader in Gaza, Yehya Al-Sinwar, said: "They started saying they destroyed 100kms of Hamas tunnels. I am telling you, the tunnels we have in the Gaza Strip exceed 500kms. Even if their narrative is true, they only destroyed 20% of the tunnels."

HOSTAGE WITNESS

There has been no corroboration of the comment by Sinwar, who is thought to be hiding underground ahead of an expected Israeli ground offensive.

But the estimate of hundreds of kilometres is widely accepted by security analysts, even though the blockaded coastal strip is only 40km (25 miles) long.

With Israel in full control of Gaza's air and sea access and 59km of its 72km land borders - with Egypt 13km to the south - tunnels provide one of the few ways for Hamas to bring in weapons, equipment and people.

While it and other Palestinian groups are secretive about their networks, recently released Israeli hostage, 85-year-old Yocheved Lifshitz, said: "It looked like a spider's web, many, many tunnels," adding: "We walked kilometres under the ground."

Hamas believes that with Israel's overwhelming aerial and armoured military superiority, tunnels are a way to cut some of those advantages by forcing Israel's soldiers to move underground in cramped spaces the Hamas fighters know well.

An Israeli military spokesperson said on Thursday: "I won't elaborate on the number of kilometres of tunnels but it is a high number, built under schools and residential areas."

Urging the United Nations Security Council to intervene, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has called for an immediate cessation of "aggression" on Gaza and moves toward "a political solution instead of military and security solutions".

UNDERGROUND CITY

Israeli security sources say Israel's heavy aerial bombardments have caused little damage to the tunnel infrastructure with Hamas naval commandos able to launch a seaborne attack targeting coastal communities near Gaza this week.

"Although we have been attacking massively for days and days, the (Hamas) leadership is pretty much intact, as is the ability to command and control, the ability even to try and launch counter attacks," said Amir Avivi, a former brigadier general whose senior positions in the Israeli military included deputy commander of the Gaza division, tasked with tackling tunnels.

"There is a whole city all over Gaza underneath with depths of 40-50 metres. There are bunkers and headquarters and storage and of course they are connected to more than a thousand rocket launching positions."

Other sources estimated depths of up to 80 metres.

One Western security source said: "They run for miles. They are made of concrete and very well made. Think of the Viet Cong times 10. They have had years and lots of money with which to work with."

Another security source, from one of Israel's neighbouring countries, said Hamas's tunnels from Egypt remain active.

"The supply chain is still intact these days. The network involved in facilitating co-ordination are some Egyptian military officers. It is unclear if there is knowledge of this by the Egyptian army," he said.

A small number of narrower, deep, smuggling tunnels were still operating until recently between Egypt and Gaza, according to two security sources and a trader in the Egyptian city of El Arish, but they had slowed to a near-halt since the Israel-Hamas war started.

Egyptian officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On Wednesday,Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said while inspecting military units in Suez that the army's role was to secure Egyptian borders.

LONG GAME

Hamas was created in Gaza in 1987 and is thought to have begun digging tunnels in the mid-1990s, when Israel granted Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization some degree of self-rule in Gaza.

The tunnel network is a key reason why Hamas is stronger in Gaza than in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where Israel's settlements, military bases and monitoring devices make it harder to get anything in from Jordan.

Tunneling became easier in 2005 when Israel pulled its soldiers and settlers out of Gaza, and when Hamas won power in a 2006 election.

Shortly afterwards Hamas's military wing, the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, captured Gilad Shalit and killed two other Israeli soldiers after burrowing 600 metres to raid the Kerem Shalom base on the Gaza border.

A year later Hamas launched a military strike against Arafat's forces in Gaza using tunnel-mounted attacks.

Although the military tunnels remained off-limits to outside eyes, during that era Gaza smugglers would show off their scarcely concealed commercial tunnels under the Rafah border.

These were around three feet (one metre) wide and used winch motors to haul goods along the sandy tunnel floors in hollowed-out petrol barrels.

One Rafah tunnel operator, Abu Qusay, said a half-mile tunnel took three to six months to dig and could yield profits of up to $100,000 a day. The most profitable item was bullets, bought for $1 each in Egypt and fetching more than $6 in Gaza. Kalashnikov rifles, he said, cost $800 in Egypt and sold for twice that.

In 2007 the military wing is thought to have brought its commander Mohammed Deif into Gaza through a tunnel from Egypt. Deifwas the mastermind behind Hamas's deadly Oct. 7 attack into Israel, which killed 1,400 people and hostages were taken.

TUNNEL HUNTING

Professor Joel Roskin, a geomorphologist and geologist with Israel's Bar-Ilan University said it was difficult to map the tunnel network accurately from the surface or space, adding highly classified information was essential for 3D mapping and imagery visualization.

Among the elite units tasked with going underground is Yahalom, specialist commandos from Israel's Combat Engineering Corps known as the "weasels", who specialise in finding, clearing and destroying the tunnels.

Earlier this week Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Yahalom fighters, telling them: "I rely on you, the people of Israel rely on you."

Israeli sources said what awaits them is formidable and they faced an enemy that has regrouped and learned from previous Israeli operations in 2014 and 2021.

"There are going to be a lot of booby traps. They have thermobaric weapons that they didn't have in 2021, which are more lethal. And I believe they acquired a lot of anti-tank weapon systems that are going to try to hit our APCs (armoured personnel carriers), tanks," said Amnon Sofrin, a former brigadier general and former commander of the Combat Intelligence Corps.

Sofrin, who was also previously head of the intelligence directorate with Israel's Mossad spy agency, said Hamas would also be trying to kidnap soldiers.

Daphne Richemond-Barak, professor at Israel's Reichman University and author of the book Underground Warfare, said the conflicts in Syria and Iraq had changed the situation.

What the IDF (Israeli military) is likely to face inside the tunnels is also all of the experience and all of the knowledge that has been gained by groups like ISIS (Islamic State) and has been ... passed on to Hamas."

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This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text.
A US Senator has introduced a resolution in the Senate, calling on the Biden administration to engage with India regarding its policies that allegedly discriminate on the basis of religion and promote an end to violence against peaceful protesters

Senator Tammy Baldwin said in a statement, Religious freedom is a fundamental human right, and when any country infringes on it, the United States must stand up and speak out"

"I am calling on the United States to continue pushing the government of India to reverse course on the systematic religious and political persecution that is endangering and disenfranchising innocent civilians," he said.

The resolution urges the government to engage with the Indian government to end the persecution of, and violence against, religious minorities and human rights defenders in India, and work to reverse government policies that discriminate against Muslims and Christians on the basis of faith.

It also calls for an end to the demolition of homes, businesses, and places of worship belonging to Muslims and Christians.

Rasheed Ahmed, Executive Director of the Indian American Muslim Council, welcomed the resolution saying, as reported by PTI rising social conflict and democratic backslide in India will weaken and not strengthen Indias relevance as a global bulwark against anti-democratic forces."

In May of this year, India's External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson, Arindam Bagchi, dismissed US State Department reports on religious freedom as biased and misinformed. He argued that these reports relied on flawed information and lacked a proper understanding of the situation in the country.

(With inputs from PTI)

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US forces launched strikes against two locations in eastern Syria that are utilised by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and organisations it supports, the Associated Press (AP) quoted the Pentagon as stating. The strikes were carried out in retaliation for a series of assaults against US forces in both Iraq and Syria.

Israel-Gaza War Updates LIVE The US strikes reflect the Joe Biden administration's determination to maintain a delicate balance, as per AP. In an effort to prevent further aggression, which might be sparked by Israel's fight against Hamas, the United States wants to take maximum action against Iranian-backed organisations that it believes are aiming at the country. At the same time, it wants to avoid escalating the situation and starting a larger conflict, AP added. Information about the specific targets and other details were not yet provided. Meanwhile, Reuters quoted an official as stating that the US had not coordinated the strikes in Syria with Israel. Since October 17, there have been at least 12 strikes on American sites and troops in Iraq and four in Syria, according to the Pentagon. According to Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, two of those assaults that targeted al-Tanf Garrison in Syria and al-Asad Airbase in Iraq using drones resulted in the injuries of 21 US servicemen. In a statement, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the precision self-defence strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against US personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on October 17."

He said President Joe Biden directed the narrowly tailored strikes to make clear that the United States will not tolerate such attacks and will defend itself, its personnel, and its interests." He added that the operation was separate and distinct from Israel's war against Hamas.

The Biden administration has stated that it appears Tehran was unaware of the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7. It has not accused Tehran of playing a direct part in it. The US appears to be worried that Iran and its allies could escalate the dispute into a larger war, despite the fact that Iran has historically backed Hamas.

As per Austin, the US does not seek a broader conflict, but if Iranian proxy groups continue, the US wont hesitate to take additional action to protect its forces.

According to the Pentagon, all the US personnel hurt in the militant attacks received minor injuries and all returned to duty. In addition, a contractor suffered a cardiac arrest and died while seeking shelter from a possible drone attack.

The US, including the Pentagon, has repeatedly said any strike response by America would be directly tied to the attacks on the troops, and not connected to the war between Israel and Hamas. Such retaliation and strikes against Iranian targets in Syria after similar attacks on US bases are routine.

(With agency inputs)

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The White House has clarified that there is a misunderstanding of President Joe Biden's remarks regarding the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) and the Hamas attacks .

They also suggested that the normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia might have influenced Hamas to carry out those attacks.

White House National Security Council (NSC) spokesperson John Kirby responded to a question concerning Biden's suggestion that one of the factors contributing to Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel was the recent announcement of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, which aims to connect the entire region through a network of railways, roads, and ports, ANI reported.

Also Read: 'My instinct tells me' Joe Biden says progress on economic corridor as factor in Hamas' attack on Israel

Kirby said, I think you misunderstood him. What he said was that he believed that the normalization process and the agreement that we were trying to reach between Israel and Saudi Arabia for normalization, which we believe is an important stepping stone to getting to a two-state solution, was what may have motivated Hamas to conduct those attacks."

I think you misunderstood what he actually said," he added.

Earlier, in a joint press conference with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, President Biden mentioned that his evaluation is grounded in his instincts and doesn't rely on substantial evidence.

I'm convinced one of the reasons Hamas attacked when they did, and I have no proof of this, just my instinct tells me, is because of the progress we were making towards regional integration for Israel, and regional integration overall. We cant leave that work behind," Biden said.

Biden had mentioned the IMEEC as a potential motive for the recent Hamas terrorist attack for the second time in less than a week. The corridor comprises an eastern corridor connecting India to the Gulf region and a northern corridor connecting the Gulf region to Europe.

Meanwhile, US forces launched strikes against two locations in eastern Syria that are utilised by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and organisations it supports, The Associated Press (AP) quoted the Pentagon as stating.

Also Read: US launches self-defence strikes against Iran-linked targets in Syria in retaliation for assaults against US forces

Since October 17, there have been at least 12 strikes on American sites and troops in Iraq and four in Syria, according to the Pentagon. According to Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, two of those assaults that targeted al-Tanf Garrison in Syria and al-Asad Airbase in Iraq using drones resulted in the injuries of twenty-one US servicemen.

(With inputs from agencies)

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WASHINGTONChinas foreign minister opened meetings with the Biden administration national security team to brighten the way for a summit between their leaders and keep in check the gamut of issues driving the countries tensions.

On the lengthy agenda for the meetings that began Thursday are two hot spots. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who held talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, said he wants to enlist Beijings help in keeping the Israel-Hamas war from widening. Chinas harassment of Philippine ships trying to resupply a South China Sea outpost also drew a sharp warning from President Biden this week not to attack a U.S. ally.

Despite those differences, a key thing to watch Friday is whether Wang gets to see Biden. Both governments have been trying to stabilize their contentious relations for months. Early in that effort, Blinken got an audience with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing in June in a fence-mending signal. Biden seeing Wang would reciprocate the gesture, and, officials and China specialists said, would be another marker that both sides are on track for a summit next month.

We have disagreements; we have differences. At the same time, we also share important common interests and we face challenges that we need to respond to together. Therefore, China and the United States need to have dialogue," Wang said at the start of Thursdays talks with Blinken.

The Biden-Xi summit is almost certain to take place alongside a gathering of Asia-Pacific leaders in San Francisco, some U.S. officials said. If it occurs, the meeting would be their first face-to-face talks in a year, repairing what U.S. and Chinese officials see as an indispensable channel to manage their countries fractious global rivalry and try to forge cooperation amid deep distrust.

U.S. officials privately say that Wangs trip is intended to set up a Biden-Xi summit but that they dont expect Beijing to confirm Xis participation until shortly before the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum meeting in mid-November. Chinas Foreign Ministry has also sidestepped questions on whether Xi will attend the APEC forum and whether Wang will meet Biden.

In media briefings about Wangs visit, however, U.S. officials have deflected questions about summit preparations and instead focused on a lengthy list of international hot spots and two-way disagreementsthe Middle East, Taiwan, the Ukraine war, North Korea, Chinas involvement in the production of the opioid fentanyl and its assertive behavior in the East and South China Seas.

On most of those issues, Washington and Beijing have struggled to find common ground. On Thursday, the Pentagon released video footage of what it said was a Chinese J-11 jet fighter coming within 10 feet of a B-52 bomber in international airspace above the South China Seathe latest instance of what the U.S. said is a concerted Peoples Liberation Army strategy to conduct dangerous intercepts to try to scare off American forces.

In the Israel-Hamas war, Beijing, while calling for a cease-fire, has presented itself as an alternative to Washington, refusing to condemn Hamas and giving more full-throated support for a Palestinian state. China vetoed a U.S.-sponsored resolution Wednesday that called for a humanitarian pause in fighting but recognized Israels right to self-defense at the U.N. Security Council this week; China called the text unbalanced."

A summit, while not resolving these disagreements, would show commitment to managing tensions and restraining them from devolving into head-to-head conflict, some officials and China specialists said.

At their last meeting in Bali last year, Biden and Xi agreed to try to restore regular high-level communications that had dwindled during the Covid pandemic and been all but stopped by Beijing in anger over U.S. support for Taiwan. Instead of rebuilding relations, the two governments redoubled recriminations, first over a Chinese balloon the U.S. said was spying over North America before shooting it down and then over Chinas increasingly close relationship with Russia in the Ukraine war.

Aside from a reboot, a summit now gives the Biden administration a chance to persuade Beijing to restore talks between the militaries and reduce the risk of accidents between naval and air forces operating near to each other, officials said. Another ask for the administration, they said, is eliciting Beijings help in cutting off supplies of chemicals made in China to Mexican drug cartels, which use them to make fentanyl.

With the Chinese economy struggling with lower growth and falling investment from overseas, a summit would give Xi an opportunity to show that China wants to put tensions aside, potentially boosting business confidence. Xi is also likely to seek assurances from Biden on Taiwan, long the central flashpoint in ties, China specialists said. Taiwan holds presidential elections in January, and Beijing wants Washington to stay neutral and not help the ruling partys candidate, whom China distrusts.

For Beijing, the optics of U.S. summits are important, with a chance for a Chinese leader to be seen as a respected peer of the American president. Both sides have been negotiating over where to hold the meeting, scouting out venues other than where APEC leaders will meet.

Nancy A. Youssef contributed to this article.

Write to Charles Hutzler at charles.hutzler@wsj.com

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Former Chinese Premier Li Keqiang died Friday after suffering heart failure, state media said. He was 68.

Li, who served a decade as premier until March, was in Shanghai when he experienced a sudden heart attack on Thursday, the official Xinhua News Agency said in a brief report.

The former premier died shortly after midnight after all-out efforts to rescue him failed," said Xinhua, which didnt provide further details.

Li was the Communist Partys No. 2 official from 2012 to 2022. He stepped down from his positions in the party leadership at a twice-a-decade party congress in last October, when Chinese leader Xi Jinping secured his third term as the partys general secretary.

Li was being tipped as Chinas possible next leader in March 2007 when he visited the Beijing residence of then-U.S. Ambassador Clark T. Randt, Jr.

Over dinner, the rising Communist Party official made a frank declaration: Chinas official economic statistics are man-made," and therefore unreliable, according to a leaked diplomatic cable.

Li never reached the pinnacle of party rule in China, but he got close, and his assessment of official economic data fundamentally altered how economists measured the countrys development.

As premier under Xi, the enigmatic party man with a friendly face fell in line behind the leader and remained there for a decade before retiring in 2023. Lis reasoned policy-making softened the sharp edges of Xis politicized rulebut ultimately had limited impact.

He was born on July 1, 1955, to a county level Communist Party official in one of Chinas traditionally poorest provinces, Anhui. In his late teens, Li was dispatched to an agricultural commune as a sent-down youth," a deprivation of Maoist rule where young people were told to learn from peasants, according to a biography produced by Brookings Institution.

Li later joined the party, and jumped into a post-Cultural Revolution wave of entrants to college. With degrees in law and economics, Li earned an intellectual image that set him apart from the engineers China usually produced.

As a Ph.D. student in economics at Peking University, Li studied under Li Yining, a well-known economist whose theories were instrumental in steering state-owned enterprises toward profit-making, according to the Brookings biography.

After school, Li climbed the party ladder quickly and before he was 50 had run two provinces.

Lis reputation took a hit in the early 2000s when he appeared to play down and mismanage a Chinese AIDS health crisis while in charge of Henan province. Tens of thousands were infected when they sold their blood plasma because local authorities never screened for AIDS. By failing to blow the whistle on the subsequent coverup Li and other politicians likely worsened the epidemic, according to human rights and civil society groups at the time.

To offset the narrative of a tainted political rising star, government-controlled media later lauded Li as a combatant against AIDS and a champion of its victims. A prominent Chinese AIDS activist, speaking to the Associated Press, graded Li differently: Hes probably not a bad guy, but hes not shown himself to be very capable of managing crises in a strong and responsible way."

Li was hoisted toward the apex of power by the political faction led by Hu Jintao, who helmed the Communist Party in the first decade of the 2000s. By 2007, Li had a seat on the partys board of directors, the Politburo Standing Committee, and was positioned to potentially succeed Hu.

But in its then-once-a-decade leadership reshuffle in 2012, the party instead gave Xi the top job and installed Li as premier.

As with the U.S. vice presidency, the importance of the Chinese premiership hinges on the top leader. Like Mao Zedongs premier, Zhou Enlai, Li had the superior education, and apparent competence in domestic and international affairs, including English skills, but served a domineering autocrat.

Soon Mr. Xi was establishing himself as Chinas most consequential leader since Mao. He consolidated power by taking personal charge of portfolios like the economy that were traditionally handled by the premier, marginalizing Mr. Li and sparking questions of what could have been.

Sometimes when Mr. Li failed to parrot political slogans being promoted by Mr. Xi, or seemed to contradict him in speeches, speculation arose of tension between the two. Since Mr. Li never revealed his true thoughts about Mr. Xi publicly, they remained a mystery. Subordinated, Mr. Li made technocratic contributions.

He pledged to tackle pointless formalities, bureaucratism"red tapeand got credit for slashing the time it took to register a business in China to under 10 days by the time he left office, from close to 35 when he started, according to World Bank numbers. Yet, Mr. Xis anti-entrepreneur policies undermined the achievement.

One area where Mr. Li made a lasting impact: his skepticism about Chinese statistics, which echoed through global markets when it came to light in 2010 courtesy of Julian Assanges WikiLeaks. According to the U.S. ambassadors leaked cable, Mr. Li said he tracked Chinese electricity consumption, railway cargo volumes and loan dispersals since the official gross domestic product figures are man-made and therefore unreliable."

It was cold water from a senior official on ever-sizzling GDP numbers, at the time one of Chinas proudest achievements. Soon a cottage industry of alternative ways to gauge Chinese economic activity appeared, and in honor of Mr. Li those unofficial measures were collectively dubbed Likonomics."

Write to James T. Areddy at James.Areddy@wsj.com and Chun Han Wong at chunhan.wong@wsj.com
Indias strong, if unremarkable, relationship with Qatar may be in for a rough spell after a court in the Arab country sentenced eight Indian naval veterans to death. While Qatar has not made the charges public, media reports indicate that the men were held for espionage. Mint looks at the case and its implications for India-Qatar ties.

Case background

In August 2022, eight former naval veterans were arrested by Qatar and held in solitary confinement. No clear charges or reasons for their arrest were made public. The men were employees of Al Dahra, a consulting firm working with Qatars military. Media reports, citing government and intelligence sources, say that the eight men were arrested on charges of espionage. The trial began in March this year and on Thursday, Indias Ministry of External Affairs said that a Qatari court had sentenced the eight men to death.

India-Qatar relations: A snapshot

Historically, India and Qatar have enjoyed a favourable relationship. Energy, especially liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports from Qatar to India, is a significant component of their trade relationship, which was valued at $5 billion in 2021-22. Investment avenues have always been open, with Qatar investing $1 billion in Reliance Retail and its FDI in India growing five times since 2020. Defence is another key area, marked by India offering training to Qatari forces and a defence cooperation agreement signed in 2008. Qatar is also home to 844,499 Indian workers. High-level visits from leaders like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, vice presidents Dhankar and Naidu, and external affairs minister S Jaishankar further emphasize the closeness.

India's reaction

India's response to the verdict has been measured. The countrys leadership has refrained from publicizing the issue or criticizing Qatar overtly. New Delhi has consistently stressed the importance of the well-being of the detained men, ensuring it doesn't appear as intervention in Qatars legal affairs. The Indian Foreign Ministrys official response has been subdued, saying that they will continue liaising with Qatari officials and support the affected families. Some experts suggest that India might work towards a governmental resolution for the detainees. It's been noted that earlier attempts by Indian intelligence to convince Qatari security about the detainees' innocence weren't successful.

Potential impact on bilateral relations

It's uncertain how this will influence India-Qatar ties. India's restrained approach suggests it's cautious about affecting its economic and energy ties with Qatar. However, this stance might be tested if there's a significant domestic uproar in India over the issue. A significant twist, as reported by ThePrint, claims the detained men were suspected of relaying information about Qatars classified submarine project to Israel. This revelation, if true, could complicate matters, especially considering concerns that Qatar might share its submarine tech with Pakistan, a close ally.
Two transmission lines in North Dakota will receive millions in federal investment as part of a broad effort to improve the U.S. electric grid.

The projects are part of the $3.5 billion federal Energy Departments Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships program which will fund 58 projects across the U.S. to meet new electricity demand, accommodate the buildout of renewable energy, and increase grid resiliency in the face of extreme weather. The funding comes from the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed in 2021.

Minnesota Power, a subsidiary of Allete Inc., will receive $50 million to upgrade its 465-mile high-voltage direct current transmission line. The line delivers around 500 megawatts of wind energy from Center, North Dakota, to Hermantown, Minnesota.

The project seeks to enhance renewable energy transmission capacity by up to 1,500 megawatts. For perspective, that would support five new typical-size wind farms in the state. This upgrade will enable Minnesota Power to replace aging infrastructure and upgrade its terminals.

This federal grant will help reduce costs to customers for upgrades to Minnesota Powers strategically located HVDC transmission system, support federal and state energy policy goals  including Minnesotas recently passed carbon-free by 2040 legislation  and help prepare the regional grid for the efficient transfer of more energy from a variety of generation sources, Allete CEO Bethany Owen said.

The other North Dakota line that will receive funding connects the Bison and Hankinson substations in eastern North Dakota to the Big Stone substation in South Dakota. It is part of the Joint Targeted Interconnection Queue, one of the largest recipients of Energy Department funding. The JTIQ will receive $464 million and includes four other Midwestern transmission projects.

The JTIQ is a collaboration to upgrade transmission infrastructure between the Midcontinent Independent System Operator and the Southwest Power Pool, regional transmission organizations that buy and sell electricity in order to maintain a stable grid. Both organizations have operations in North Dakota.

A lack of transmission infrastructure has been a key constraint in getting more renewable energy on the grid in the Midwest. The JTIQ is expected to unlock around 30 gigawatts of energy, much of which will be wind and solar. Thirty gigawatts would support about 100 typical-size wind farms.

The grant from the Energy Department will fund around a quarter of the JTIQ project.

A statement by Xcel Energy, which is part of the buildout for two of the five JTIQ projects, said the funding should reduce the costs that typically fall to electric consumers as a result of infrastructure buildout.

North Dakota Transmission Authority Executive Director Claire Vigesaa said the projects will benefit the state.

I like to think of it like our highway system, he said. These projects add another lane for electron traffic.
WASHINGTONDonald Trump has had a tough few days on the legal front, his defense effort buffeted by one blow after another from once-loyal aides.

The former president was fined a second time on Wednesday for violating a gag order in a civil-fraud trial where his scorned ex-confidant Michael Cohen said Trump commanded him to reverse engineer" estimates of his financial wealth. A day earlier it emerged that former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, once one of Trumps closest advisers, had been talking to federal prosecutors about the effort to overturn the 2020 election. And the same day a third Trump legal adviser, Jenna Ellis, pleaded guilty in Fulton County, Ga., where Trump is the prime defendant in a racketeering case on similar allegations.

Trump and his inner circle are putting on a brave face, saying none of it amounts to a major setback. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. The array of court cases hasnt dented his front-runner status in the GOP presidential race, and he has raked in millions of dollars to his campaign coffers with claims that they amount to a witch hunt."

Theyre taking deals, but from what I understand, theyre saying nothing bad about me at all," Trump said of his former lawyers in Georgia.

Still, as the leading Republican candidate for the 2024 presidential race, Trump now faces the prospect of potentially damaging testimony from his former chief of staff and others close to him in the months after his 2020 loss.

Theres no way to sugarcoat it, it was a bad week for Trump," said former Trump White House lawyer Ty Cobb, citing the Meadows and Ellis developments as most troubling. Politically, its a little bit helpful to him because it punctuates his specious government unfairness, everybodys out to get me message."

Special counsel Jack Smith secured a court order compelling Meadows, a key witness close to Trump during his final days in office, to testify before a grand jury in the spring, people familiar with the matter said. A federal judge then issued an immunity order, they said, ruling Smiths team couldnt force Meadows to testify without protection against his statements being used against him in some future prosecution. The immunity order was earlier reported by ABC News.

The former president fumed in particular over the report that Meadows had told prosecutors he repeatedly countered Trumps claims of widespread election fraud. Mark Meadows NEVER told me that allegations of significant fraud (about the RIGGED Election!) were baseless," Trump wrote on social media. He certainly didnt say that in his book!"

Ratcheting up his incendiary rhetoric as his legal challenges multiply, Trump said in a related post that those who would make such an immunity deal are weaklings and cowards" adding, I dont think that Mark Meadows is one of them, but who really knows?"

That post on his Truth Social platform raised alarms among Smiths prosecutors. They filed a motion late Wednesday calling it an attempt to intimidate and influence a known witness and urging U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan to immediately reinstate a gag order against the former president that she has currently put on hold.

While the plea deals in Georgia could prompt more defendants to seek them, Trumps allies are playing down their significance.

Prosecutorial victory laps are premature," wrote former Trump lawyer James Trusty in a blog post on Wednesday. Four pleas into the Georgia case, and every defendant has been allowed to walk on the lead charge." Trusty noted that none of the defendants who took dealsSidney Powell, Kenneth Chesebro, Jenna Ellis and Scott Hallpleaded guilty to violations of the racketeering statute anchoring the case that Trump ran a criminal conspiracy to subvert the election.

It couldnt be learned what information the co-defendants have given prosecutors or could air at trial, but legal experts said their deals likely wont benefit the former presidents defense. His lawyers, for example, will no longer have a preview of his own prosecution that trials of Chesebro, Powell and Ellis might have provided, said Robert Mintz, a former federal prosecutor.

What were seeing is prosecutors taking the well-worn path of gaining cooperation from less culpable individuals as they work their way up the chain toward their ultimate target," Mintz said. For Trump, he added, Its certainly not a good turn of events."

Smiths team, meanwhile, said in other Wednesday-night court filings that the Georgia pleas could undermine any argument Trump might make in the federal election-interference case that he was following the guidance of lawyers when he sought to stay in power.

[T]hree charged co-defendant attorneys pleaded guilty to committing crimes in connection with the 2020 election," they wrote. At the very least, those guilty pleas highlight the complications that may arise if the defendant should assert an advice-of-counsel defense."

While the courtroom battles have strengthened Trump politically, they pose significant risk as he faces a hobbling of his business empire and possible imprisonment. Trump has cast all the allegations against him as part of a Democratic effort to prevent him from returning to the White House.

One person close to the former president said the plea deal taken Tuesday by Ellis in Georgia is particularly problematic, because she was in close contact with Trump and Rudy Giuliani, another defendant. Ellis pleaded guilty to state charges in exchange for no jail time and said she regretted being involved. That followed guilty pleas by Powell and Chesebro, who agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

If I knew then what I know now, I would have declined to represent Donald Trump in these postelection challenges," Ellis said Tuesday in court. I look back on this whole experience with deep remorse." Ellis has been supportive of one of Trumps presidential primary rivals, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Steve Sadow, the lead counsel for Trump in Georgia, noted that prosecutor Fani Willis dismissed the racketeering charge in return for a plea to probation. What that shows is this so-called RICO case is nothing more than a bargaining chip for Willis," he said. Moreover, this plea was to a completely separate charge, not a part of the original indictment, which doesnt even mention President Trump."

Write to Sadie Gurman at sadie.gurman@wsj.com and Alex Leary at alex.leary@wsj.com
Economists have reacted poorly to Donald Trumps recent proposal for a 10% tariff on all imports. Adam Posen, president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, called it lunacy" and horrifying." According to Michael Strain, director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, it would be a disaster for the U.S. economy."

But why? After all, tax revenue is necessary to provide public services, and tariffs have long proved an effective way to collect it. In 1789, the first law in the first Congressadvocated by Alexander Hamilton, introduced by James Madison and signed by George Washington on the Fourth of Julyestablished a tariff not unlike Trumps. For much of the nations history, while growing from colonial backwater to continent-spanning industrial colossus, the U.S. imposed some of the worlds highest tariffs, which were the primary means of funding the federal government.

Tariffs are distinctive as a source of revenue because they tilt the market away from imports and toward domestic production. Whether thats desirable or disastrous hinges on a series of questions that go to the heart of economic thinking: Does making things matter? Do a nation and its economy require a strong industrial base? Is a persistent trade deficit a problem?

Common sense, historical precedent and a great deal of economic logic and research suggest that the answer to these questions is yes. Domestic production has value to a nation, so a tariff that gives it preferential treatment can be sensible and even, to use the economists favored term, efficient. Large, persistent trade deficits are bad for America, which means a tax on imports can help.

One reason that making things matters is that the economys growth and dynamism depend on it. As Harvard Universitys Ricardo Hausmann and the Massachusetts Institute of Technologys Cesar Hidalgo have shown in their research on economic complexity," a nations ability to produce a wide range of sophisticated goods shape its future economic performance. Countries grow based on the knowledge of making things," says Hausmann. Its not years of schooling. Its what are the products that you know how to make."

Andy Grove, Intels legendary CEO in its era of global dominance, offered a related observation about manufacturings role in innovation. Our pursuit of our individual businesses, which often involves transferring manufacturing and a great deal of engineering out of the country, has hindered our ability to bring innovations to scale at home," he warned. Without scaling, we dont just lose jobswe lose our hold on new technologies. Losing the ability to scale will ultimately damage our capacity to innovate." Groves solution was an extra tax on the product of offshored labor." That is, a tariff.

Making things also matters because the industrial economy provides an invaluable foundation for thriving local economies nationwide. While the U.S. economy now consists predominantly of services, a community cannot thrive on cutting hair, serving fast food and delivering packages alone. Undergirding the service sector there must be an industrial sector where people can create tradeable products, sent to the outside world for the many things the community needs and does not make itself. Industrial activity also tends to have a much higher multiplier effect," rippling outward into greater local employment and investment.

And making things matters to national security. As Adam Smith acknowledged, it is advantageous to lay some burden upon foreign, for the encouragement of domestic industrywhen a particular industry is necessary for the defence of the country." In the 1700s, the principle seemed narrow, applying for instance to sailcloth and gunpowder.

But in a modern industrial economy, fielding a technologically sophisticated military and protecting the home front in times of crisis requires not only building and repairing billion-dollar warships but also the fabrication of advanced semiconductors, processing of rare earth elements and synthesis of pharmaceutical precursors. Each of these relies on its own complex supply chains, skilled workforce and long-term capital investments.

If global trade were working as promised, these concerns might be moot. Explaining the premise of international trade, Smith observed, if a foreign country can supply us with a commodity cheaper than we ourselves can make it, better buy it of them with some part of the produce of our own industry." With goods exchanged for goods, imports guarantee exports and thus expand production and consumption opportunities for both countries. By definition, domestic industry remains as robust as ever, perhaps more so, and certainly becomes more productive.

But the situation today is very different. In 2023, the U.S. will run a trillion-dollar trade deficit, representing $1 trillion worth of foreign goods consumed here, bought not with some part of the produce of our own industry" but instead by selling U.S. assets such as Treasury bonds, corporate debt and equity, and real estate. In effect, America consumes on credit while giving away ownership of the U.S. economy and future claims on its output.

The imbalance is doubly damaging. First, the industrial base stagnates, as imports reduce demand for output without exports creating an offsetting increase. Whereas real manufacturing output doubled from 1980 to 2000, it rose only 7% from 2000 to 2020. As a result, after holding steady for 50 years, manufacturing employment collapsed by one-third, eliminating more than four million jobs. Automation is not the story here. To the contrary, manufacturing productivity has declined over the past decadea shocking trend incompatible with a well-functioning capitalist systemleaving the sector far less competitive.

Americas cumulative trade debt of $15 trillion and counting will hamstring future generations as surely as the federal governments fiscal debt. As Warren Buffett put it in 2003, Our country has been behaving like an extraordinarily rich family that possesses an immense farmWe have, day by day, been both selling pieces of the farm and increasing the mortgage on what we still own." His solution was a system of import certificates" to discourage imports and promote exportsor, in his words, a tariff called by another name."

The persistent and ballooning U.S. trade deficit stands as a stark empirical refutation of the economic orthodoxy on free trade. Friedrich Hayek cited how some necessary balancebetween exports and imports, or the like, will be brought about without deliberate control" as a prime example of the self-regulating forces of the market." Paul Krugman listed the insight that trade deficits are self-correcting" among the essential things to teach students." The school of thought that dismisses the case for tariffs is also a school that dismisses the possibility of the world in which we live.

In the world as it is, the U.S. cannot afford to be indifferent between purchases of goods produced abroad and ones produced by American workers in the American industrial ecosystem. In other nations, policy makers recognize that making things matters and aggressively tilt their own markets to attract investment and production, including with tariffs. Not by coincidence, and not because of some naturally occurring comparative advantage," vital industrial functions like the production of semiconductors, rare-earth minerals and pharmaceuticals, all pioneered in the U.S., are now dominated by overseas operations.

Undoing this failure will take a range of policy measuresand timebut a straightforward place to start is a tariff that gives domestic producers an advantage and thus encourages new investment in domestic production. This would replace the vicious cycle of industrial decline in recent decades with a virtuous cycle in which new capacity and infrastructure, an expanding workforce, returning supply chains and rising innovation create the incentives and opportunities for more of the same.

Skeptics rightly warn that other countries may retaliate with tariffs of their own. Certainly, a world with higher tariffs and lower but more balanced trade is by no means ideal. Reversing the damage wrought by globalization will create winners and losers, just as globalization did.

But the U.S., with its enormous trade deficit and reeling industrial base, has much more to gain than to lose in the process. Not until other nations conclude that the era of exploiting American passivity has ended can prospects improve for an international system in which all sides work to expand mutually beneficial trade.

The theories that claim to refute this strategy only beg the question. They begin from the assumption that persistent trade deficits and industrial decline are costless and conclude, unsurprisingly, that a tariff does no good. This perpetuates the presumptuous error" for which John Maynard Keynes condemned economists nearly a century ago, of regarding the balance of tradeas a puerile obsession, [when it] for centuries has been a prime object of practical statecraft."

U.S. policy makersand citizensshould insist on a wider discussion about the full costs of unbalanced trade. If making things does matter, American trade policy should reflect it.

Oren Cass is the executive director of American Compass and the author of The Once and Future Worker: A Vision for the Renewal of Work in America."

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Elon Musk on Thursday gave a hint that X will bring features of managing financial services and will be available by the end of 2024.

As reported by The Verge, in a recent announcement to employees, Elon Musk conveyed his expectation of obtaining the remaining licenses that X requires within the next few months, further advancing the company's goals in the financial sector.

Meanwhile, the company is presently focused on securing money transmission licenses across the United States as part of its efforts to provide financial services.

Also Read: Not just numbers', Elon Musk goes emotional on Tesla earnings call; Analysts call him little baby

In an all-hands call with X employees, When I say payments, I actually mean someones entire financial life," Musk said, according to audio of the meeting obtained by The Verge. If it involves money. Itll be on our platform. Money or securities or whatever. So, its not just like send $20 to my friend. Im talking about, like, you wont need a bank account."

Also Read: Elon Musk's ambitious move: Transforming Twitter into a financial services powerhouse

Moreover, Musk has prior experience in the financial technology sector, as he was the founder of the company now recognized as PayPal Holdings Inc.

The X/PayPal product roadmap was written by myself and David Sacks actually in July of 2000," Musk said, adding And for some reason PayPal, once it became eBay, not only did they not implement the rest of the list, but they actually rolled back a bunch of key features, which is crazy. So PayPal is actually a less complete product than what we came up with in July of 2000, so 23 years ago" The Verge reported.

Also Read: X rolls out audio and video calling feature: A guide on how to use it

Earlier in July, Bloomberg reported that in messages expressing support for Musk's ambitious overhaul, Twitter's CEO, Linda Yaccarino, confirmed that the X app would incorporate fintech features, including payments and banking capabilities. To pave the way for this financial integration, Twitter has successfully obtained money-transmitter licenses in four US states, namely Arizona, Michigan, Missouri, and New Hampshire.

According to the report, in 2022, when Elon Musk acquired the social media platform, he used Twitter to communicate his vision. In his tweets, he conveyed his aspiration for Twitter to adopt a model similar to that of Tencent Holdings Ltd.'s WeChat.

(With inputs from agencies)

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The Tata Group will soon make Indias first homegrown iPhone after Wistron Corp approved the sale of an assembly plant near Bengaluru. Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said manufacture would start within two and a half years. The airline-to-software conglomerate has been in talks with the Taiwanese iPhone maker for more than a year to take over the plant.

Within just two and a half years, Tata Companies will now start making iPhones from India for domestic and global markets. Congratulations to the Tata team for taking over Wistron operations. Thank you Wistron for your contributions, and great going for Apple in building a global supply chain from India with Indian companies at its helm," he tweeted. A statement by the company on Friday confirmed board approval for the sale of Wistron InfoComm Manufacturing (India) Private Ltd. to Tata for $125 million. The companies will seek regulatory approvals after the deal is confirmed by both parties.

Earlier reports citing anonymous sources had valued the Tata-Wistron deal at more than $600 million.

According to a Bloomberg report from July this year, Tata is also set to honour several manufacturing and hiring commitments made by Wistron as part of their agreement. This includes shipping iPhones worth at least $1.8 billion from the factory in the fiscal year through March 2024 to win state-backed financial incentives. Wistron had also indicated plans to triple its workforce in the plant by next year. The facility currently employs more than 10,000 workers who assemble the latest iPhone 14 model.

The developments were incidentally announced mere hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted India's technological advances during the India Mobile Congress.

Recently, Google has announced the manufacturing of its Pixel phone in India. Samsung's Fold 5 mobile phone and Apple's iPhone 15 are being manufactured in India. We are proud that the world is using Made in India mobile phones now," he had said during the event.

(With inputs from agencies)

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Louis Vuitton, a brand synonymous with luxury and opulence, has enjoyed a storied history in the world of fashion. However, in recent years, some critics argue that the brands rapid expansion and accessibility are diluting its prestigious status as a luxury icon. The question arises: Is Louis Vuitton becoming too commercial, and is it indeed losing its status as a luxury brand?

es, Louis Vuitton has been losing its appeal as a luxury brand in recent years. There are a few reasons for this:

The brand has become less exclusive. Louis Vuitton has opened more and more stores in recent years, making its products more accessible to a wider range of consumers. This has made the brand less desirable to those who value exclusivity.

Louis Vuitton has opened more and more stores in recent years, making its products more accessible to a wider range of consumers. This has made the brand less desirable to those who value exclusivity. The brand has been criticized for its quality control. There have been reports of Louis Vuitton products being poorly made and not worth the high price tag. This has damaged the brands reputation for quality.

There have been reports of Louis Vuitton products being poorly made and not worth the high price tag. This has damaged the brands reputation for quality. The brand is no longer seen as being innovative. Louis Vuittons designs have become more and more predictable in recent years. The brand is no longer seen as being at the forefront of fashion.

Louis Vuittons designs have become more and more predictable in recent years. The brand is no longer seen as being at the forefront of fashion. The brand has been accused of being unoriginal. Louis Vuitton has been accused of copying designs from other brands. This has further damaged the brands reputation.

As a result of these factors, Louis Vuitton is no longer seen as the aspirational luxury brand that it once was

A Changing Landscape

Louis Vuittons journey from a humble workshop in Paris to a global luxury powerhouse is a remarkable story of success. Known for its timeless craftsmanship and signature monogram, the brand was once a symbol of exclusivity, sought after by the elite. However, the luxury landscape has evolved dramatically in recent decades.

The Accessibility Factor

One of the key concerns is the brands pursuit of accessibility. In an effort to expand its customer base, Louis Vuitton has introduced more affordable products, including ready-to-wear fashion, fragrances, and accessories. While this may seem like a strategic move to tap into a wider market, it raises the question of whether accessibility is eroding the brands luxury appeal.

In the eyes of some purists, luxury is intrinsically tied to exclusivity. Louis Vuittons ubiquity in major cities around the world, coupled with the brands willingness to cater to a broader range of consumers, has led to concerns that the allure of exclusivity is diminishing.

Changing Consumer Attitudes

Modern consumers often have a different set of values and priorities. Many are drawn to brands that align with their own individuality and lifestyle. While some luxury consumers still value the traditional markers of opulence, others appreciate the sense of belonging to a global community of brand enthusiasts.

This shift in consumer behavior has led to a blurring of the lines between luxury and commercial. The appeal of luxury, once anchored in rarity and inaccessibility, is now being redefined by personal experiences, digital communities, and the desire for self-expression.

Brand Evolution

Louis Vuitton has, without a doubt, evolved its brand to stay relevant in a changing market. Collaborations with renowned designers, artists, and celebrities have breathed new life into the brand. The pursuit of accessibility has allowed Louis Vuitton to cater to a broader range of tastes and preferences. However, these very adaptations have led some to question whether the brand is straying from its roots.

The Verdict

In the ongoing debate over whether Louis Vuitton is losing its luxury status, there is no definitive answer. While critics argue that the brands commercial evolution is diluting its luxury appeal, supporters maintain that Louis Vuitton is simply adapting to the changing face of luxury in the 21st century.

The luxury landscape is evolving, and brands like Louis Vuitton are evolving with it. Whether this means a loss of luxury status or an embrace of a new definition of luxury is a matter of perspective.

In the end, Louis Vuittons journey from a luxury symbol of exclusivity to a more accessible and globally recognized brand mirrors the broader transformation of luxury itself. The verdict on its status as a luxury brand may depend on how one defines and interprets luxury in the modern world.

Shayne Heffernan
Once again, we return to the creepy, derelict mortuary Hull House several years after the events of Night of the Demons 3. And like last time, the massacre at the Catholic school on Halloween night has become a thing of legend, a story not only told to scare unruly teens but a gruesome incident that's become the curse of the town. In fact, it's such a blight that the local police now routinely patrol the area so as to keep would-be thrill-seekers out. Unfortunately, on this Halloween night, the officer on patrol dares to investigate inside the house only to be confronted by Angela (Amelia Kinkade reprising her role), who is still wearing her iconic black wedding dress and flashes the poor cop a devilish grin before brutally killing him with his badge. Even more unfortunate is that this is arguably one of the two best moments of the entire movie, as the next 75 minutes are just eye-rolling schlock with little to no humor to make the awfulness the least bit tolerable.

Trying to follow in the footsteps of its predecessor where the filmmakers attempt, at every stage, to outdo the previous entry, the plot, which was written by the first movie's director, Kevin Tenney, begins with a group of rowdy, trouble-making teenagers riding around town in a van. And as if driving one of those windowless 80s Chevrolet vans weren't enough to indicate that these kids are up to no good, director Jimmy Kaufman makes it all the more apparent with a sudden stupid outburst of violence involving insults hurled at one boy's promiscuous girlfriend, the driver being choked while driving and a knife to the neck of the one doing the choking. The whole fiasco ends with a pounding-of-the-chest display of machismo between two boys, and I swear I heard the grunts of gorillas as they were about to throw down in the back of that van. Whereas the previous movies simply gave us stereotypical wild rebellious teens, here, we have a parody of lawless hooligans deserving of what Angela has to offer.

If the production has any saving grace, it would be the reason for these caricatures of slasher tropes winding up at Hull House on Halloween night, which is the second-best moment of the entire movie. While caught attempting to illegally purchase alcohol and stupidly acting cheeky with the cashier, the scene rapidly spirals out of control with one of the teens shooting a police officer, so the gang tries to hide at the abandoned mortuary where they soon discover that it's permanent resident is especially welcoming of their unannounced visit. However, as we go through the usual, familiar parade of teens being brutally killed one by one, the uncreative kills are surprisingly one cringe-worthy moment after another, especially Angela's erotic dance, which is part of the franchise's central motif. Even more amazing, the story is made all the worse with a subplot about a detective trying to solve the shootout one day before his retirement and an out-of-nowhere budding romance between two teens, which adds nothing to the overall plot.

Needless to say, this straight-to-video flick is an absolute disaster with hardly any redeeming qualities, littered with one-dimensional, completely unlikeable characters and cringingly wooden, unconvincing performances  even by Kinkade, which is unfortunate. The movie is not only painful to watch with the least bit of atmosphere or suspense, but the convoluted plot is driven by these awful characters that make it impossible to care about their fates. While the production does chalk up some points for the gory visuals, the practical effects are more likely to induce laughter than scares with the demons looking like something out of a low-budget Halloween costume store. Kaufman's direction is also abysmal with the camera work and editing feeling amateurish, at best, and with the equally atrocious dialogue, made of terribly cheesy one-liners, Night of the Demons 3 is, frankly, a trainwreck of a sequel to a popular horror favorite that did not really need to be made.

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray

Scream Factory brings Night of the Demons 3 to Blu-ray as a single-disc Collector's Edition. The Region A locked, BD50 disc is housed inside the normal blue case with a shiny cardboard slipcover. At startup, the disc goes to an animated menu screen with the usual options along the bottom and music playing in the background.
Authorities say that a Georgia deputy shot in the chest, shoulder and back while responding to a shooting a day earlier has been released from a hospital and is recovering at home
Indian company that makes EV battery materials to build its first US plant in North Carolina

An Indian company that produces a key ingredient for long-range batteries in electric vehicles says it will build its first U.S. plant in southeastern North Carolina
President Donald Trump speaks as his daughter and senior adviser Ivanka Trump looks on during a news briefing at the White House March 20, 2020 in Washington, DC.
   

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Fianna Fails local election campaign cranked up a notch last night as the party nominated its three sitting Longford Municipal District councillors to stand before the electorate next June.

Party members put forward Councillors Uruemu Adejinmi, Seamus Butler and Martin Monaghan to lead a campaign they hope will win control of Longford County Council in a little over six months time.

The Leader also understands party bosses will be conducting interviews over the coming weeks at its Mount Street headquarters in Dublin with a view to adding a fourth candidate to the Longford MD ticket.

Chaired by Mayo based Senator Lisa Chambers, last nights selection convention at the Longford Arms Hotel saw impassioned speeches from all three as eyes were firmly drawn on the partys aspirations over the next five years.

Cllr Adejinmi singled out her mentor, Longford TD Joe Flaherty as the reason why she joined Fianna Fail and referred to a number of locally based issues she and her party had rolled out since her co-option in 2020.

In listing out upgrades to x-ray facilities at St Josephs Care Centre, supporting students at second and third level and bringing a special needs playground at the county towns former greyhound track to fruition.

Group leader, Cllr Butler told of his near fifty year association with the party and of his own involvement in leading the successful restoration of St Mels Cathedral on time and on budget.

In a light hearted reference to ongoing delays surrounding the new National Childrens Hospital, the Longford businessman said: The next national hospital you want built, come to Co Longford because we will do it for you on time and on budget.

Cllr Butler insisted there was no denying the impact Fianna Fail had brought to the lives of Longfordians up and down the county, maintaining the focus was very much on wrestling control of the council chamber from Fine Gael come next June.

We deliver, we dont talk about delivery, we deliver, he said.

It is our intention to get back into that position (control of council) and depending on the way the cookie crumbles, we are going to need at least seven, if not eight councillors (elected).

If we get eight, we ave a very good chance of taking back control of the council.

His party colleague, Cllr Martin Monaghan re-iterated those ambitions, while revealing his own honour in being elected Longford Municipal District Cathaoirleach in June.

A self confessed through and through Fianna Fail man, the local butcher also said the party needed to up its game after it emerged this week Cllr PJ Reilly would not be standing for re-election in the Granard electoral area.

If we do not have control of the council, we are playing catch up constantly, he said.

We have six councillors at the minute and we have a retiring councillor.

We can lose people and we can replace people, but you cant replace experience and we are losing a 20 year councillor with massive experience, so we need to be upping our game to make sure we can produce eight councillors.

It will take a momentous effort to get what we want and that is to run the council. I dont make any bones about it, that is the ultimate aim for us as Fianna Fail members to control Longford County Council because we deliver.
Longford County Council have issued notice regarding the temporary closing of roads under the Roads Act to facilitate the Dead of Night Halloween Procession 2023.

Longford County Council hereby gives notice that it has made an order to close the roads in Longford town, the local authority said.

The hours of closure are 5pm to 9:30pm. On completion of the procession, roads may open when safe to allow access, which could be in advance of advertised time.

The Parade route is from Mollaghans Carpark turning left onto Ballymahon Street, proceeding down Main Street, Bridge Street and into Connolly Barracks

The roads to be closed are frome Mollaghans Car park, Earl Street, Ballymahon Street, Main Street and Bridge Street.

To include the junctions of: Battery Road and Abbeycartron; Church Street and Fee Court; Main Street and Little Water Street; Great Water Street and Camlin View; Sandy Row and Richmond Street; New Street and Dublin Street: Dublin St and Dublin Road; Ballymahon Road and Park Road; Ballymahon Street and Market Square; Harbour Row and Market Square; Connaught Road and Flancare Road; and Kilashee St and Flancare Road.

The alternative routes will see all through traffic requested to use the N4 and N5 Longford Town By-passes.

Traffic management signed diversions will be in place for local traffic. There will be no parking on Main Street from 3pm until 9pm on Tuesday 31 October.
Any move to increase Irelands contribution to the EU would need to deliver benefits to the country in the longer term, Paschal Donohoe has said.

The Minister for Public Expenditure said it was too early to say whether Ireland would be asked to contribute more to future EU budgets.

Mr Donohoe was at the EU summit in Brussels on Friday to update European leaders on the work of the Eurogroup of Eurozone finance ministers.

Arriving at the meeting, the minister, who is president of the Eurogroup, was asked whether it was inevitable that Ireland would have to up its contribution in the years ahead.

Given that the main factor that determines your scale or contribution to the European Union budget is how your economy performs, its very difficult to be absolutely clear regarding who could be paying more in the future, he said.

But Ireland is already a net contributor.

Were already now per capita one of the largest contributors to the European Union budget and I believe thats appropriate.

Weve benefited from this budget many times in the past, we continue to benefit from it.

And I would certainly make the case for maintaining that level of contribution.

As I look at the debate and negotiation thats under way, were going to continue to be large contributors to the EU budget and to the future EU budget but I think for that contribution to grow even more in the future wed also want to be very clear regarding how that will benefit the European Union in a way that would also be of help to Ireland in the long term.

So, its a little too early to say if theres going to be any further contribution from any country but Irelands already one of the largest net contributors on a per capita basis.

Mr Donohoe also warned that, while the economic performance of the Eurozone economies was currently strong, there were signs of a slowdown.

Clearly, the world is changing at the moment, he said.

Economies are beginning to change.

They are beginning to slow down and we need to keep the gains that weve made.

Mr Donohoe also stressed the need for EU member states to agree new proposed rules to tighten controls around managing countries debt and deficits.

He said while the rules would affect future fiscal decisions in Ireland, the fact the country was currently running a surplus meant the impact would not be as significant as for those countries running deficits.

Because were in a surplus position, the change in fiscal rules will have some effect, but the effect will be a lot smaller than countries that are running a deficit at the moment, he said.

The fiscal rules are likely to point to a rate of change in relation to spending but that rate of change is something that were already committed to doing in Ireland, so because were beginning from a surplus position it will have an impact, but the impact will be very different to countries that are beginning all of this with a deficit.
Irish premier Leo Varadkar has said that a UK government minister is absolutely entitled to express his opinions after suggesting that a super majority should be needed in a poll on Irish unity.

Northern Ireland Office minister Steve Baker told the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly (BIPA) that the Brexit referendum probably should have been a supermajority of at least 60%.

He then cautioned against a 50% plus one result in any potential Irish unification vote.

The UK Government has since clarified that this does not represent a change on its position towards an Irish unity referendum.

Mr Varadkar said although a 50 plus one majority wouldnt be desirable, he questioned what would happen if there was a consistent majority in favour of change.

Mr Varadkar, who has said previously that he believed there would be a referendum on Irish unity within his lifetime, also said it shouldnt be held any time soon.

Mr Varadkar said it would be a divisive process, and said there is not enough talk about convincing British people in Northern Ireland that a united Ireland would be a warm home for them.

Speaking in Brussels on Friday, the Taoiseach said: I know on occasions people have even questioned my right to have an opinion. I do have an opinion on these things, Steve Baker does too.

I totally respect that and would offer no criticism of the fact that hes thinking about these things and expressing views.

I understand the argument in favour of a supermajority. You know, 50% plus one would not be the most desirable outcome, we would much rather see a convincing majority for unification if and when a border poll comes.

I dont think the time is right for that. I think its quite distant, in fact, for reasons Ive explained in the past.

I suppose the difficulty with a supermajority is how long could you keep the status quo in place, if consistently, a majority of people didnt want that status quo?

Mr Varadkar said that a huge amount of work is needed ahead of a referendum on Irish unity.

The reason why I dont think its a good idea at the moment is the indications are that it would be defeated, and it would also be divisive, the Fine Gael leader said.

And thats why the focus has to be on getting the Good Friday Agreement working again, and institutions up and running.

We see all around the world what happens when important referendums fall. I remember the referendum on an Australian republic 25 years ago, pretty far away, was defeated; independence in Quebec, for example in Scotland.

I think having a referendum on such an important matter that you may not win is fraught with risk: defeat, division.

And if were going to win a referendum on that matter, a huge amount of work has to be done to convince the British people in Northern Ireland, those who have a unionist/loyalist/Protestant/British identity, that theyre welcome, that theyre wanted, that a united Ireland would be a warm home for them, and theres not enough talk about that, quite frankly.
A sample taken from underneath the fingernails of Ashling Murphy matches a DNA profile of the man accused of killing her, a court has been told.

Ms Murphy, 23, was killed while exercising on a canal path in Tullamore, Co Offaly, at about 3.30pm on January 12 last year.

Jozef Puska, 33, of Lynally Grove in Mucklagh, Tullamore, has pleaded not guilty to the schoolteachers murder.

Appearing before the Central Criminal Court, Dr Lorna Flanagan said she compared a profile of DNA taken from underneath Ms Murphys fingernails with a profile taken from a buccal swab of Puska and a sample of his blood.

Dr Flanagan, who has been working in the DNA section of the Forensic Science Laboratory for eight years, said she was carrying out a male-specific profiling method known as YSTR in this case.

She explained to the court that this was different than the autosomal profiling the jury had heard of on previous days as it exclusively looks at the male-specific Y chromosome.

She said this is inherited along the male paternal line, and that all males along that line share the same characteristic.

Dr Flanagan explained that YSTR can be exploited to ignore all female DNA in a sample and focus on the male DNA.

She said YSTR is like a magnet that pulls the needle of male DNA out of the haystack of female DNA in a sample.

Dr Flanagan said analysts would generally see someones own DNA underneath their fingernails and a fingernail sample is used to show that two people had interacted with each other in more than a passing or social contact.

The swabs came from both the left and right hands of Ms Murphy.

Dr Flanagan said the YSTR DNA profile, which looks at 23 different areas of the Y chromosome, from under Ms Murphys fingernails matched the YSTR DNA profiles of the blood sample and buccal swab from Puska.

The court heard that it is very likely that a father and son, brothers and fraternal male cousins have the same profile.

She said the likelihood of finding this profile from someone unrelated to Puska was one in 14,000.

She said the probability is reliant on a database of samples representative of the Western European population.

Dr Flanagan said the estimate would be considered conservative.

Detective Sergeant David Scahill explained to the court how he had analysed CCTV and phone records to determine that two of Puskas brothers were not near the canal at which Ms Murphy died at 2pm or any time thereafter.

The court also heard from Detective Inspector Brian Farrell, who was a lead investigator into the killing of Ms Murphy.

Taking questions from defence barrister Michael Bowman SC, Mr Farrell told the court that he had regularly noted Puska as an SO, or suspected offender, in his notes.

He said that this continued after another man arrested in the case had been ruled out through DNA evidence.

Mr Farrell said that person of interest is not a term he would use.

Asked if he would have informed the gardai who were travelling up to Dublin to question Puska about his whereabouts after the other man had been released, Mr Farrell said he could not say that he did not but he would have treated it very much as a need to know and not something he would usually do.

He described it as a fast-moving investigation.

Mr Farrell told Mr Bowman that his notes included instructions to ask Puska about his whereabouts, injuries, and his bike.

The senior garda said he could not say if he told them to look at Puska but said they were experienced detectives and youd expect them to.

Under questioning from Mr Bowman, Mr Farrell said he had written in his notes that he asked gardai speaking to Puska to read back over as many details as possible before inviting him to sign.

He said he told them not to question him after reading back the notes but said they could take down anything he says afterwards.

Mr Farrell also told the court he was in touch with nurses in the hospital about Puskas likely release date.

He was working in concert with Detective Superintendent Patrick OCallaghan who told the court that there were more than 720 lines of inquiry followed in the murder investigation.

Senior counsel for the prosecution, Anne-Marie Lawlor, asked Mr OCallaghan if he was aware of how Ms Murphy had died at the time Puska told Detective Fergus Garda Hogan on January 14 that he had cut her.

The senior garda said he himself was aware but it was a decision of the investigation team not to release information on how Ms Murphy died and that Mr Hogan would not have been aware at the time.

He said the information would not have been in the public domain.

Mr Bowman asked if another man who had been earlier arrested as part of the investigation had been asked about knives and if this was something being pursued.

Mr OCallaghan said: Ill accept that.

Mr Bowman asked whether paramedics on the scene would have seen Ms Murphys wounds, to which Mr OCallaghan said: There were wounds visible.

Mr Scahill later explained to the court that he was the garda that arrested Mr Puska following his hospital discharge at 11.31am on January 18.

He said Mr Puska was charged with the murder of Ms Murphy at Grand Canal Way, Cappincur, Tullamore at 19.42 on January 19.

Mr Scahill said he cautioned the defendant and Puskas reply was: No.

The trial continues.
Oceanside Warehouse Fire Engages 12 Fire Departments and 150 Firefighters; Two Injured in the Blaze

Local News

By Long Island Published: October 27 2023

Officers responded to Cousins Metal located at 460 Brown Court after employees observed a fire in an exhaust fan.

The Arson Bomb Squad reports the details of a Fire that occurred at 2:23pm on Thursday, October 26, 2023 in Oceanside.

According to Detectives, Officers responded to Cousins Metal located at 460 Brown Court after employees observed a fire in an exhaust fan located in the west part of the warehouse.

Oceanside Fire Department assisted by approximately eleven other surrounding town Fire Departments with approximately 150 firefighters extinguished the fire. One firefighter sustained an injury when some debris fell, he was transported to South Nassau Hospital; a second firefighter suffered smoke inhalation and was transported to the Nassau University Medical Center. No additional injuries were reported.

Oceanside Fire Chief Costigan, Nassau County Fire Marshalls Pignataro and Coranado and Arson Bomb Squad Detectives were on scene for the investigation.
Arts & Culture

By Lon Cohen Published: October 27 2023

8th Annual North Fork TV Festival: A Celebration of Innovation in Independent Television

The 8th annual North Fork TV Festival is set to kick off on November 17-18, 2023, bringing together the brightest minds in the television industry to celebrate the evolution of television and independent programming.

Hosted at the picturesque Borghese Vineyard in Cutchogue, this highly anticipated event promises to be a hub for innovative executives, directors, writers, and actors from across the globe.

Since its inception in 2016, the North Fork TV Festival has consistently championed independent program development and provided a platform for emerging voices in the world of television. As a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit, the festival not only offers a grand celebration over two days but also supports year-round programming aimed at nurturing the industry's fresh talent.

Festival Opening Night Happy Hour with Special Guest Bartender Kelsey Grammer

The festivities commence on Friday, November 17th, from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm with a Happy Hour at the Sound View Hotel in Greenport, New York. Adding a touch of star power to the evening is special guest bartender, Kelsey Grammer.

Special Passholder Brunch Event

Paramount+ Frasier Revival Screening and Q&A Panel with Emmy Award-Nominated Executive Producer Tom Russo. On Saturday, November 18th, festival pass holders will be treated to a unique experience. The day kicks off with a Passholder Brunch event from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm at the Sound View Hotel. The event features a screening and a Q&A panel, offering attendees an exclusive sneak peek into the Paramount+ Frasier Revival. Executive Producer Tom Russo, an Emmy Award nominee, will be present to engage with the audience.

Festival Main Stage Programming at Borghese Vineyard

The highlight of the festival takes place on Saturday, November 18th, from 3:00 pm to 8:30 pm at Borghese Vineyard in Cutchogue, New York. This segment will showcase Independent TV Pilot & Script Competition screenings and host engaging panel discussions. A significant moment of the event will be the presentation of the 2023 Canopy Award to Emmy Award-Winning Actress Carrie Preston, recognizing her outstanding contributions to the world of television.

The 2023 North Fork TV Festival promises to be a convergence of creativity, innovation, and appreciation for independent television. It's an event that stands as a testament to the industry's commitment to fostering new talent and celebrating those who have left an indelible mark on the world of television.

For more information about the festival and to purchase tickets, visit the official North Fork TV Festival website. Don't miss this exciting opportunity to be a part of the television industry's most innovative and creative event.
Local News

By Chris Boyle Published: October 27 2023

MacArthur Airport is an economic engine for Long Island, employing 6000 people directly and indirectly, and an economic impact of $600M to the region and local economy.

Long Island MacArthur Airport Voted 5th Top Small Airport in the USAToday 10Best Readers Choice Awards

MacArthur Airport is again a winner in the USAToday 10Best Readers Choice Awards in the Best Small Airport Category. In September, an independent panel of travel experts nominated MacArthur Airport, and 19 other airports with fewer than 10 million passengers each year for the Award. Voting took place for 28 days, as airports competed for this nationwide honor. USAToday 10Best revealed the winners today. This is the third consecutive year Long Island MacArthur Airport has been nominated and included in the 10Best list. There was no contest held in 2022.

We are giving everyone in this community a giant high five today celebrating being voted the #5 Top Small Airport in America. This is a great vote of confidence for our airport and community, said Town of Islip Supervisor Angie Carpenter. We work hard each and every day to provide an excellent experience for our airport customers. This Award shines a light on Long Island across the country, and airlines and passengers take notice, she added.

USAToday 10Best describes the 20 nominated airports as friendlier and easier to use. According to the 10Best Website, these airports serve smaller numbers of passengers each year, yet excel with their commercial flight offerings, easy access, and amenities.

MacArthur Airport is an economic engine for Long Island, employing 6000 people directly and indirectly, and an economic impact of $600M to the region and local economy.

We continue to innovate, build, improve, and bring jobs and great flights to this community. Weve made excellent progress as we welcomed our newest airline, Breeze Airways to New York initially in February, 2022. Breeze now serves eight destinations including the most recent announcement of non-stop flights to Vero Beach beginning in December. We look forward to continued growth with all three of our air carriers  Breeze, Frontier, and Southwest, said Long Island MacArthur Airport Aviation Commissioner, Shelley LaRose-Arken.

Our Long Island community really came together to support their hometown airport especially in the final stretch. We are grateful to everyone who helped us get the word out and voted, said Supervisor Carpenter. Today, were celebrating a win for Long Island and our loyal MacArthur Airport customers, she added.

The Top Ten winners in the Best Small Airport category are as follows:

Gerald R. Ford International Airport (GRR)

Huntsville International Airport (HSV)

Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport (ICT)

Myrtle Beach International Airport (MYR)

Long Island MacArthur Airport (ISP)

Manchester-Boston Regional Airport (MHT)

Rhode Island T.F. Green International Airport (PVD)

Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport (BTV)

Pensacola International Airport (PNS)

Frederick Douglass Greater Rochester International Airport (ROC)

ABOUT LONG ISLAND MACARTHUR AIRPORT

MacArthur Airport is on Long Island approximately 50 miles from New York City. It is the closest airport to nearly 3 million Long Island residents, and to world-renowned attractions including the famous Hamptons, Wine Country, Cradle of Aviation Museum, lighthouses, Fire Island, excellent theatre, award-winning restaurants, and Gatsby-era mansions including Westbury Gardens. The Town of Islip owns and operates the airport, served by Breeze Airways, Frontier Airlines, and Southwest Airlines. Access to the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) makes getting around Nassau and Suffolk counties convenient. Train service from the Ronkonkoma / MacArthur Airport LIRR to New York City provides frequent transport. Long Island MacArthur Airport employs 6000 people directly and indirectly, with a $16M annual operating budget and an economic impact of $600M to the region and local economy.
Crime

By Chris Boyle Published: October 27 2023

Mark Ripolone Stole Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars from PAYCHEX Payroll Company, as Well as His Own Customers Bank Accounts.

Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney today announced that Mark Ripolone, 35, formerly of Montauk, pleaded guilty to five counts of Grand Larceny after stealing nearly $400,000 over a three-year period in a scheme to siphon monies from legitimate businesses.

This defendant was a thief operating under the guise of an entrepreneur. Instead of conducting business with integrity and honesty, he stole money from his own customers to line his pockets, said District Attorney Tierney. Because of his greed, this defendant must now reimburse his victims, or go to prison.

Ripolone was the owner of a now defunct food delivery service called 123 Delivery, as well as a beach service company named Hampton Management Group, Inc., that specialized in providing luxury beach chair set ups and decorations for special events. These businesses were located in Montauk and primarily did business during the busy summer months on the East End of Long Island.

According to court documents and the defendants admissions during his guilty plea allocution, between September 2018 and October 2021, Ripolone stole approximately $225,000 from several customers of 123 Delivery after obtaining the bank account information and routing numbers of their accounts under the guise of conducting legitimate business affairs. Ripolone then used his customers specific account information to make ACH withdrawals from their accounts that paid for his personal expenses, including credit card debts, a home mortgage payment, and Verizon phone bills.

In another fraudulent scheme, between April and May 2020, Ripolone stole $160,000 from a payroll company with whom he had contracted to do payroll. He stole this money by having the payroll money transferred to his personal bank account when he did not have any funds available to reimburse the payroll company.

On October 24, 2023, Ripolone pleaded guilty before Supreme Court Justice, the Honorable John B. Collins to the following charges:

Three counts of Grand Larceny in the Second Degree, Class C felonies; and

Two counts of Grand Larceny in the Third Degree, Class D felonies;

Ripolone is expected to be sentenced to 840 hours of community service as an alternative to six months in jail, followed by five years of probation. As required by the conditions of his plea agreement, Ripolone must pay $143,379 in restitution to the victims by the sentencing date. If he fails to pay this restitution by the sentencing date, he is expected to be sentenced to two to six years of incarceration. Ripolones next court date is December 19, 2023. He is represented by Jeremy Scileppi, Esq.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Donna Planty of the Financial Crimes Bureau with investigative assistance from Detective Ryan Hogan from the East Hampton Town Police Department, Lt. Robert Drake from the Sag Harbor Village Police Department, and Investigator Michael Ferris from the New York State Police.
As you already know, Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, is the new speaker of the House. Politico describes him as "a hard-right legal warrior turned little-known legislator" who has been involved in electoral politics for less than a decade. If you don't know much more about him than that, Politico has so kindly compiled a list of 55 things you should know. I perused the (depressing) list, and here are some that stuck out to me:

6. He is the least experienced speaker of the House in 140 years.

17. As a lawyer for the Alliance Defense Fund (the precursor of the Alliance Defending Freedom), Johnson wrote editorials for his local paper that called homosexuality "inherently unnatural." "Your race, creed, and sex are what you are, while homosexuality and cross-dressing are things you do," he wrote. "This is a free country, but we don't give special protections for every person's bizarre choices."

18. He is an ardent opponent of same-sex marriage. In the Louisiana House, he proposed the Marriage and Conscience Act, preventing adverse treatment by the state of anyone based on their views on marriage. The bill, in the view of critics, protects people who discriminate against same-sex couples.

29. A climate-science skeptic, he's raked in more campaign cash in his congressional career from the oil and gas industry than any other industry, and he's repeatedly downplayed climate change, according to E&E.

38. Johnson was part of Trump's inner circle and traveled regularly with him on Air Force One while he was president. "It's surreal," he once told a Shreveport reporter. "When I call him, he calls back within a couple of hours."

41. He was a lead organizer of the December 2020 amicus brief in support of Texas v. Pennsylvania, the Supreme Court lawsuit contesting the election results.

53. He recently led a hearing on limiting gender-affirming care. "Sex isn't something you are assigned at birth. It is a prenatal development that occurs when every unborn child is in its mother's womb. You can't surgically free yourself, or someone else, from this fact of life," he said in his opening statement. "Today, nearly one in four high school students identifies as LGBTQ. Whether it's by scalpel or by social coercion from teachers, professors, administrators and left-wing media, it's an attempt to transition the young people of our country. Something has gone terribly wrong "
Local News

By Chris Boyle Published: October 27 2023

Three Major Clean Heating and Cooling Projects to Serve Eleven Districts in Disadvantaged Communities through Clean Green Schools Initiative.

Governor Kathy Hochul today announced over $14 million in awards for 11 under-resourced public-school districts to decarbonize their buildings through the Clean Green Schools initiative. The projects will lower greenhouse gas emissions, reduce the school's reliance on fossil fuels and improve the indoor air quality by installing ground source heat pumps, air source heat pumps and electric kitchen equipment. This announcement supports the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 85 percent by 2050 and ensure 35 percent with a goal of 40 percent of clean energy investments directly benefit Disadvantaged Communities. Schools can open an entire world of possibilities and opportunities to our children, but for students to get the most out of their education, they must be in a healthy and safe learning environment, Governor Hochul said. Clean Green Schools allows our schools in underserved communities to make vital energy efficiency upgrades to their facilities that improve indoor air quality and support the success and well-being of students across the state. Administered by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), Clean Green Schools awards will support the installation of ground source heat pump projects, air source heat pump projects and electric kitchen equipment projects in the Enlarged City School District of Middletown in Orange County, Cuba-Rushford Central School District in Allegany County, and multiple districts within the New York City Department of Education. These under-resourced school districts contain at least one school building that is located in a disadvantaged community. The projects are expected to benefit nearly 5,800 students by reducing greenhouse gas carbon emissions equivalent to eliminating 112,500 gallons of gasoline consumed annually. NYSERDA President and CEO Doreen M. Harris said, New Yorks Clean Green Schools initiative will help to improve student productivity while helping to lower energy costs for schools that are facing already stretched budgets. There is no better investment in the future than those that ensure our children have the best possible environments in which to learn and grow, and we are proud to be able to support our next generation of leaders.

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Basil Seggos said, The $14 million in grants awarded today are bolstering the cleaner energy transformation underway in New Yorks schools, helping us achieve the States climate mandates while improving air quality for school children, particularly in schools in communities most vulnerable to the effects of harmful air pollution and climate change. I applaud Governor Hochuls continued investment in Clean Green Schools and look forward to working with DECs State, school district, and community partners to bolster this and other green initiative supported through the historic $4.2 billion Environmental Bond Act.

Clean Green School Awards:

Cuba-Rushford Central School District, Allegany County  $6.1 Million: The under-resourced school district will be improving the energy performance of building envelopes at multiple facilities while partially replacing the existing fossil fuel space conditioning and domestic hot water systems with ground source heat pumps. The project covers three buildings in the school district and integrates clean energy concepts into the classroom with clean energy lesson plans and post-construction project tours for students and the community.

The Enlarged City School District of Middletown, Orange County  $ 4.03 Million: This under-resourced school district is planning to install ground source and air source heat pumps, in addition to a building management system with demand control ventilation. The project will feature electric HVAC systems with improved components and operation to provide better air quality in the classrooms and throughout the building. The systems will be installed at the Twin Towers Middle School, which will become a learning laboratory for the district, allowing students to tour and observe the ground source heat pump mechanical room to learn about clean energy technologies.

The New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE), New York County, Kings County, Queens County, Bronx County and Richmond County  $4 Million: The NYCDOE is installing clean energy technologies in place of existing fuel oil fired domestic hot water (DHW) and natural gas kitchen equipment as part of NYCDOEs commitment to full building electrification. This funding will impact nine public schools in New York City, allowing them to transition away from fossil fuels by installing electric air-to-water domestic hot water (DHW) heat pumps and electric kitchen equipment.

With the passage of the Clean Water, Clean Air and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act (Environmental Bond Act), NYSERDA anticipates launching a second round of the competitive capital funding program by the end of the year which will expand access to funding to support decarbonization construction projects and serve as a model to electrify the school building sector.

On Earth Day 2022, Governor Kathy Hochul announced the launch of the $59 million Clean Green Schools initiative. The Clean Green Schools initiative provides technical, financial, and human resources support to help under-resourced public schools to improve their facilities, bringing energy efficiency, clean energy, sustainability, resiliency, and electrification solutions to the benefit of the most vulnerable New Yorkers. Funding is offered on an open-enrollment basis for services to help schools evaluate, plan for, and facilitate energy reduction projects, clean energy projects and indoor air quality projects in addition to competitive funding, as awarded today, to install capital projects that will help schools improve their environmental sustainability and decarbonize their buildings. To date, 1,300 under-resourced schools across 75 districts in New York State are participating in the program to receive technical assistance to assess indoor air quality, energy reduction, electrification and decarbonization projects. These projects are located across 35 counties in New York State.

All public-school buildings across New York State that are designated as high-needs by the New York State Education Department or located in a disadvantaged community are eligible to participate in the program. Eligible schools are referred to as under-resourced schools. As of now, there are approximately 2,500 eligible under-resourced schools in New York State.

In addition to this effort, NYSERDA also provides technical assistance to non-under-resourced schools through the Flexible Technical Assistance Program. The Flexible Technical Assistance Program can help schools identify and evaluate opportunities to reduce energy costs and incorporate clean energy into their capital planning. NYSERDA also prioritizes improved indoor air quality and environmental sustainability through building electrification and energy efficiency improvements to improve health in public and private buildings across the state through a partnership with the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE).

Buildings are one of the most significant sources of greenhouse gas emissions in New York State and through NYSERDA and utility programs, over $6.8 billion is being invested to decarbonize buildings across the State. By improving energy efficiency in buildings and advancing statewide installations of onsite storage, renewables, and electric vehicle charging equipment, the State will reduce its carbon pollution and achieve the State's ambitious target of reducing on-site energy consumption by 185 TBtu by 2025, the equivalent of powering 1.8 million homes.

Funding for this initiative was made possible through the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and the State's 10-year, $5.3 billion Clean Energy Fund, which is authorized by the New York State Public Service Commission. More information about this funding is available on NYSERDA's website.

New York State's Nation-Leading Climate Plan

New York State's nation-leading climate agenda calls for an orderly and just transition that creates family-sustaining jobs, continues to foster a green economy across all sectors and ensures that at least 35 percent, with a goal of 40 percent, of the benefits of clean energy investments are directed to disadvantaged communities. Guided by some of the nations most aggressive climate and clean energy initiatives, New York is on a path to achieving a zero-emission electricity sector by 2040, including 70 percent renewable energy generation by 2030, and economywide carbon neutrality by mid-century. A cornerstone of this transition is New York's unprecedented clean energy investments, including more than $55 billion in 145 large-scale renewable and transmission projects across the state, $6.8 billion to reduce building emissions, $3.3 billion to scale up solar, more than $1 billion for clean transportation initiatives, and over $2 billion in NY Green Bank commitments. These and other investments are supporting more than 165,000 jobs in New Yorks clean energy sector in 2021 and over 3,000 percent growth in the distributed solar sector since 2011. To reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality, New York also adopted zero-emission vehicle regulations, including requiring all new passenger cars and light-duty trucks sold in the State be zero emission by 2035. Partnerships are continuing to advance New Yorks climate action with nearly 400 registered and more than 100 certified Climate Smart Communities, nearly 500 Clean Energy Communities, and the States largest community air monitoring initiative in 10 disadvantaged communities across the state to help target air pollution and combat climate change.
Hezbollah Brigades, an Iranian proxy that operates a powerful militia primarily in Iraq but also in Syria, said it is ready for a war of attrition that may extend for years, and described Israel, which is at war with Hamas in Gaza, as its enemy.

The Iraqi people affirm that they stand at the forefront of the free nations who believe in the right of the Palestinian people to defend themselves, Hezbollah Brigades official Abu Ali al-Askari said in a statement released on Oct. 26.

Hezbollah Brigades has the capacity to fight against its enemies and confront them by relying on the internal resources of the resistance, al-Askari said. He is likely referring to the Axis of Resistance or the Islamic Resistance, the grouping of Iranian proxy and allied militias that span Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Gaza, and the West Bank.

We are ready for a war of attrition that may last for years, firmly believing in victory, al-Askiri continued.

Al-Askari then noted that the escalation against the enemy would be gradual, and it would expand its scope in the region while increasing the lethality of the attacks. It is likely that Hezbollah Brigades is also referring to expanding the war to target U.S. interests in the region. Iraqi militias supported by Iran are already assaulting U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria, with at least 13 strikes recorded so far and 20 soldiers injured.

Al-Askiri explicitly calls Israel its enemy and orders it to cease killing innocent civilians in Gaza, end the siege, and abandon the policy of displacement.

Hezbollah Brigades has issued threats against the U.S. and Israel in the recent past. Just days after Hamas brutal Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel, Hezbollah Brigades warned the U.S. that Our missiles, drones, and special forces stand ready to direct qualitative strikes against the Americans in their bases and against their interests if it intervenes in this battle and that known positions of the Zionist entity [Israel] and its allies will also be hit by our missiles, if necessary.

Listed by the U.S. as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, Hezbollah Brigades is led by Ahmad al-Hamidawi. It was founded by Abu Mahdi al Muhandis, who was listed by the U.S. government as a specially designated global terrorist in July 2009 and was described as an advisor to former Islamic Revolutionary Guards Force  Qods Force commander Qassem Soleimani. Muhandis, Qais Qazali, and a Hezbollah commander known as Musa Ali Daqduq played a key role in the Iraqi Shia militias formation and subsequent attacks on U.S., Coalition, and Iraqi forces. The U.S. killed Muhandis and Soleimani in an airstrike in Baghdad in 2020.

Qods Force has provided Hezbollah Brigades with training, funds, weapons, and intelligence support. The terror group is responsible for killing hundreds of American soldiers in Iraq. It is part of Iraqs Popular Mobilization Forces, an official, independent military arm of the Iraqi government that reports to Iraqs prime minister, and is modeled after the IRGC.

Hezbollah Brigades is one of many Iranian backed militias operating in Iraq, Syria, and beyond. These militias serve as a strategic reserve for Iran and are hostile to the U.S. and Israel. It is likely they will weigh in militarily if Israel invades Gaza or a full-on war breaks out with Hezbollah in the north. With hundreds of thousands of fighters in their ranks, these militias can potentially reinforce Hezbollah in Lebanon, open a new front in southern Syria, and attack U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria in force.

Joe Truzman is a research analyst at FDD's Long War Journal focused primarily on Palestinian militant groups and Hezbollah. Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal.

Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here.
The U.S. military attacked two weapons storage facilities in Syria that were used by Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and its militia proxies on Oct. 27. The U.S. strikes are in response to a spate of assaults on U.S. military bases in Iraq and Syria since the war broke out between Israel and Palestinian terror groups. The U.S. believes the strikes will deter further attacks on U.S. facilities in the region, and is attempting to delink the militia assaults from Israels war against Hamas and its allies. The Iran-backed militias disagree.

Two U.S. F-16 fighters struck weapons and ammunition storage areas that were connected to the IRGC, near Boukamal in Syria, the Associated Press reported. It is unclear if there were any casualties, and it does not appear that Iranian personnel were directly targeted.

These precision self-defense strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in a statement released by the Department of Defense.

The strikes, which Austin described as narrowly-tailored, clearly are designed to send a message to the Iranians to reign in their militias, which have launched at least 19 strikes on U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria since Oct. 17. Dozens of U.S. personnel have been wounded in the strikes, which Austin again described as mostly unsuccessful.

The strikes are designed to impose deterrence on Iran and its militias in Iraq and Syria. However Austins statement is worded in a way that indicates the U.S. is reluctant to use force. Iran and the militias may read it that way.

The United States does not seek conflict and has no intention nor desire to engage in further hostilities, but these Iranian-backed attacks against U.S. forces are unacceptable and must stop, Austin said.

Austin also attempted to delink the militias attacks and the U.S. military response from Israels war with Hamas in Gaza.

They are separate and distinct from the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, and do not constitute a shift in our approach to the Israel-Hamas conflict, Austin said.

The Shia militias disagree, and their messaging since the war between Israel and Hamas has explicitly linked the U.S. presence in the region and the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

The U.S. military has endured numerous attacks on its bases by the Iran-backed militias long before the war between Israel and Hamas began on Oct. 7. The historical U.S. response has been tepid at best, and usually limited to defensive strikes targeting the attacking forces. Often the militia attacks would go unanswered, which projected weakness by the U.S. and encouraged further militia strikes.

Some of the U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria are sparsely manned and are in remote locations, and likely would be in danger of being overrun if the militias brought the full weight of their military power to bear. Many of these militias are battle-hardened by years of battling the U.S., the Islamic State, and Al Qaeda in Iraq and Syria, and have been armed, trained, and supported by the IRGC. The militias are responsible for killing more than 600 U.S. troops in deadly complex assaults, ambushes, and IED and EFP attacks.

The Biden administration and the U.S. military are banking that two strikes against IRGC weapons depots will deter future attacks on U.S. bases in the region. That is certainly possible, but it is also possible that Iran and the militias double down and attempt to overrun one of the remote U.S. bases. Without the U.S. military reinforcing these bases, which is politically unacceptable for both the Biden administration and the Iraqi government, these bases are at risk from more organized determined attacks by Irans proxies in Iraq and Syria in the future.

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal.

Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here.
(Alliance News) - The following is a round-up of earnings and trading updates by London-listed companies, issued on Wednesday and Thursday, and not separately reported by Alliance News:

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Alumasc Group PLC - Kettering, England-based supplier of building and engineering products - Says trading so far in the year ending June 30 2024 has remained resilient despite market headwinds, and performance in the first quarter has been in line with internal expectations. Demand "remains subdued in a number of construction sectors, particularly in new build residential," but Alumasc "has seen an increase in overseas sales" and says demand for new Housebuilding Products products has also stayed robust despite a slowdown in housebuilding activity. Says it continues to invest prudently in areas which enhance revenue growth and continues to carefully manage costs. Says it is mindful of the current demand headwinds but that full-year expectations are unchanged as it remains confident in the resilience of its business model.

Alumasc also notes announcement by the Competition & Markets authority that it is assessing Alumasc's anticipated acquisition of ARP Group Holdings Ltd and Rainwater Online Holdings Ltd. Alumasc says it continues to engage with the CMA and expects the process to conclude in December.

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Zenith Energy Ltd - Africa and Italy-focused oil and gas company - Says on Wednesday that its common shares commenced dealing on the OTCQB Venture Market cross-trading facility in the US. The OTCQB allows developing international companies to be publicly traded in the US. Zenith says trading on the OTCQB is a cost-effective solution which will provide enhanced investor benefits like easier trading access for US investors, and greater liquidity due to a broader geographic pool of potential investors.

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Caracal Gold PLC - East Africa-focused gold producer - Completes phase one of expansion plan for the Kilimapesa Hill deposit. Predicts total output of 49,155 ounces in the 36 month period, with USD83.5 million in revenue at USD1,700 per ounce of gold. Also anticipates all-in sustaining costs of USD1,055 per ounce. Says phase two of the expansion will focus on a full remodelling of Kilimapesa including additional drilling; phase three will consist of a new mineral estimate, and phase four will see completion of the ten-year mine plan.

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Hummingbird Resources PLC - West Africa-focused and Birmingham, England-based gold producer, developer and explorer - Says output from its Yanfolila Mine in Mali increased to 18,399 ounces of gold in the third quarter of 2023 from 16,827 ounces the prior year. The mine has produced a total of 69,546 ounces over the first nine months of this year. Hummingbird says it is on track to meet full-year target of between 80,000 and 90,000 ounces. Also says the Kouroussa Mine in Guinea, which produced 1,047 ounces in the quarter, is on track for full-year commercial production from 2024 onwards. Adjusted Ebitda for the quarter was around USD1.2 million, following last year's loss of USD8.9 million.

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abrdn Diversified Income & Growth PLC - Edinburgh-based investor across asset classes - Announces completion of strategic review commenced on June 20. Review sought to address the material discount to net asset value at which its shares have traded and consider how best to deliver shareholder value. Company has determined that the best course of action is continue with its existing investment strategy. It intends to return cash to investors through a 1.65p per share special dividend and a GBP25 million to GBP30 million tender offer. It expects these distributions to return between GBP30 million and GBP35 million in total. Going forward, it will seek exposure to alternative asset classes mainly through private investments instead of listed funds.

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Cornish Metals Inc- mineral exploration and development company - Opens new water treatment plant at the South Crofty tin project. Discharge of treated water from the South Crofty mine to the Red River will commence next week at a rate of up to 25,000 metres cubed per day. Company is about to commence dewatering of the mine, and expects this to take 18 months. Says dewatering the mine and treating the water will have a positive effect on water quality in the Red River, which currently receives untreated mine water as a legacy of past mining activities. Water discharged from the mine currently powers a hydro-turbine, and Cornish Metals is exploring other renewable heat opportunities to utilise the treated water's "steady" high temperature.

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Van Elle Holdings PLC - Kirkby in Ashfield, England-based ground engineering contractor - Agrees to acquire entire issued share capital of UK-based piling specialist Rock & Alluvium Ltd, for total consideration of up to GBP3.8 million on a cash-free and debt-free basis. Van Elle says Rock's piling rig fleet complements its existing capital investment programme. Consideration comprises an initial GBP1.8 million payment followed by a deferred payment of GBP2.0 million payable 12 months from completion. Payments will be satisfied through its existing cash and banking facilities. Van Elle also says it has entered a five-year trading agreement with Galliford Try, which it expects to generate over GBP10 million in revenue per year.

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By Emma Curzon, Alliance News reporter

Comments and questions to newsroom@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2023 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
This week's EU summit will be Xavier Bettel's last as prime minister of Luxembourg, though he may be back soon

Luxembourg's Prime Minister Xavier Bettel gestures as he arrives for an EU leaders summit at the European Council building in Brussels on 26 October

Luxembourg's Prime Minister Xavier Bettel gestures as he arrives for an EU leaders summit at the European Council building in Brussels on 26 October  Photo credit: AFP

Luxembourg's Prime Minister Xavier Bettel gestures as he arrives for an EU leaders summit at the European Council building in Brussels on 26 October  Photo credit: AFP

Luxembourg's outgoing prime minister Xavier Bettel has bowed out of his last EU summit as head of government with a rebuke of Hungary's Victor Orban's recent visit to Russia.

Orban, currently the EU's longest-serving and the bloc's most pro-Russia prime minister, was photographed shaking hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week in what the Hungarian leader's office described as a discussion on energy cooperation and peace..

That visit was received with widespread condemnation in the EU, including by Luxembourg's still prime minister Xavier Bettel, who has clashed with Orban before over the rule of law and LGTQ rights.

"Vis a vis a country that is daily suffering under Russian missiles and weapons it is truly sticking two fingers up (bras d'honneur). It is truly two fingers up," Bettel said about Orban visiting Putin, who has been indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court, when arriving at the EU summit on Thursday.

He would confront Orban over his visit to Putin behind closed doors, Bettel said.

This week's summit is most likely Bettel's last as prime minister of Luxembourg, but he could return as foreign minister as is widely speculated.

The governing coalition of the DP, LSAP and the Greens unexpectedly lost its razor-thin majority earlier this month, but Bettel's party added to its seat tally and has entered coalition talks with the CSV of former finance minister Luc Frieden, which topped the polls.

Also read:

Frieden wants swift coalition talks, says parties on same page

As leader of the junior coalition partner Bettel may pick to head the country's foreign ministry, putting an end to Jean Asselborn's 19-year-long tenure as the country's top diplomat.

"It is a funny feeling when you've been working here for ten years but an honour really to be able to collaborate here," Bettel said about his last EU summit.

"I hope that I can be of use in the next government with what I have learnt here and one should not underestimate that," he added, saying about Frieden that "he knows what Brussels is all about".

Ceasefire, or whatever you want to call it

Bettel also called for an end to hostilities in Gaza, where a humanitarian crisis engulfed following Israeli air and artillery strikes in response to an attack by Hamas.

"People who have nothing to do with the war are dying, that's why it is important to get a ceasefire," Bettel said, though he stressed he did not care about terminology.

Bettel called for the violence to stop on "both sides".

Over 7,000 people in Gaza have been killed in Israeli strikes, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said on Thursday. Over 1,400 people in Israel were killed by Hamas terrorists in a series of coordinated attacks on 7 October.

"As we speak, people in Gaza are dying, basic services are crumbling," Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner general of UNRWA, the United Nations mission for Palestinian refugees, said on Friday. He added that food and water are running out, while the streets have started "overflowing with sewage", according to the BBC.

"Gaza is on the brink of a massive health hazard and the risks of diseases are looming," Lazzarini said.
The Like a Dragon series, formerly known as Yakuza in the west, is nothing if not innovative. It's still the only series in gaming where you can go from a hardboiled, gritty yakuza story worthy of Takeshi Kitano (and actually involving Takeshi Kitano, if you're playing Yakuza 6) to competing in a nationwide singing contest or running a cabaret club without batting an eye.

This ludonarrative dissonance seems to be cranked up to a new level in the upcoming Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, which earlier today revealed an expansive side mode that just seems to be middle-aged protagonist Ichiban Kasuga's psychedelic, psychotic take on Animal Crossing.

How does Kasuga, a low-level yakuza enforcer, go from the seedy streets of Kabukicho, Tokyo to running his own resort island in Hawaii? Beats me, but we'll find out next year when Infinite Wealth hits shelves.
Two famous Mainers shared grief and frustration, respectively, on social media in the days after a mass shooting in Lewiston killed 18 and left 13 injured on Wednesday, Oct. 25.

Actor and Lewiston native Patrick Dempsey took to Instagram to write he and his family were heartbroken for the victims, their families and the community.

I am shocked and deeply saddened by last nights tragedy in my hometown, Lewiston, Maine, Dempsey said. Maines great strength is its sense of community, and now we are being asked to come together to support everyone that has been devastated by this senseless act.

Robert Card, 40, is a suspect in connection with a Lewiston mass shooting that killed 18 people and injured 13 more in a bowling alley and restaurant Wednesday. As of Friday, authorities have still not found Card. Lewiston Public Safety Commissioner Michael Saushuck said law enforcement would continue searching a bunch of locations on Friday.

Author Stephen King, known for speaking out after each mass shooting in the United States, expressed frustration with a couple of posts on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The shootings occurred less than 50 miles from where I live, the author wrote. I went to high school in Lisbon. Its the rapid-fire killing machines, people. This is madness in the name of freedom. Stop electing apologists for murder.

The shootings occurred less than 50 miles from where I live. I went to high school in Lisbon. Its the rapid-fire killing machines, people. This is madness in the name of freedom. Stop electing apologists for murder.  Stephen King (@StephenKing) October 26, 2023

In a second post, in all caps, King wrote, THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN IN OTHER COUNTRIES.

There have been more than 530 tips and leads regarding the mass shooting, which Sauschuck said they are taking seriously. There were also 70 witnesses to the shooting.

Cards family is urging him to surrender, CNN reported.

The police have been given anything that we can offer to facilitate their efforts, Ryan Card texted the news outlet, adding that there are many people hurting out there, please focus on them  this is many peoples worst nightmare.
Massachusetts-based Tree House Brewing Company, one of the most acclaimed breweries in the country, has announced that it is building a sixth location -- in Saratoga Springs, New York.

The brewery made the announcement Friday on its social media channels that the new location is expected to open in 2024. The company currently has five locations: Charlton, South Deerfield, Sandwich, Tewksbury and Woodstock, Connecticut. The Saratoga Springs location is Tree Houses first location outside of New England and second outside of Massachusetts.

The company noted that it plans to build its new facility from the ground up and expects to feature an expansive indoor and outdoor experience. The new location will be located across from the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.

Saratoga Springs draws tourists keen to experience its spas, racing, and vibrant arts scene. Its historical legacy is still felt in the citys elegant architecture, robust arts scene, world-class racetrack, & the continued prominence of its spa culture, the brewery wrote in its announcement on Instagram. With reverence for history and a vision for the future, Tree House aims to become an integral chapter in Saratoga Springs vibrant & hopeful future.

Tree House Brewing Company got its start as a small operation in Brimfield in 2011 before moving to Monson and eventually settling permanently at its current flagship location in Charlton. In that time, the brewery has risen to one of the most famous breweries in the country.

While the brewery has exploded in popularity, it has refrained from distributing its beers. Instead, Tree House has historically focused on serving beer onsite. The Saratoga Springs location marks the fourth new Tree House Brewery facility to be announced since 2020.

Famous for its lineup of IPAs such as Julius as well as a deep roster of other styles, Tree House is regularly in discussion as one of the best breweries in the country. In 2017, MassLive named it the winner of our Best of Mass. Breweries competition.
One of the mass shooting victims in Maine died a hero as family and friends said he confronted the gunman and tried to stab him.

Joseph Walker, a manager at Schemengees Bar and Grille, was identified by family as one of the 18 victims of the Lewiston mass shooting.

His father, Leroy Walker, told NBC Nightly News Lester Holt that Joseph Walker tried to stop the gunman with a butcher knife.

Read more: GoFundMe pages raise money for families of 2 men killed in Maine shooting

And he tried to go at the gunman to stop him from shooting anybody else. The gunman shot him twice through the stomach, Leroy Walker said.

The gunman killed 18 people and injured 13 more at Schemengees Bar and Grille and Sparetime Recreation, a bowling alley about 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) away, in Lewiston, Maine on Wednesday.

Station Grill Restaurant, where Joseph Walker was also a manager, said he had made it to the kitchen at Schemengees Bar and Grille where he was playing cornhole. In the kitchen, the business explained, theres a door he could have exited, saving his own life.

 ... but not Joe, the restaurant wrote. He grabbed a knife and went back out into danger to try and stop the shooter.

Putting everyone else first was what Joseph Walker was known for, the business wrote.

He will alway be our hero, the post said. Rest in peace my friend. You will be missed. We will love you forever.

His wife, Tracey Walker, also called him a hero, updating a Facebook post that said she was looking for husband after the shooting.

I will forever hold him close to my heart, she wrote. For those of you who knew us from the start of our relationship this man changed my life for the better and would do anything for me his kids and grandchildren. R.I.P babe till were together again.

A GoFundMe for the family has raised $3,234 of $10,000 goal as of Friday morning.
The medical examiner has identified the 18 people killed in the Lewiston, Maine, mass shooting on Wednesday, the Associated Press reported Friday.

So far, officials have not yet released the names of those killed in the shooting. The deceased ranged from the ages of 14 and 75, a spokesperson for the state medical examiners office told the wire service.

The investigation into a mass shooting in Lewiston, continued Friday, alongside a manhunt for a suspect still missing two days. Robert Card, 40, is suspected of killing 18 people at a bar and bowling alley and injuring 13 more.

Names of some of those killed have emerged through other relatives speaking with news outlets or GoFundMes set up to help their families. Joseph Walker; Peyton-Brewer Ross; Maxx Hathaway; father and son Aaron and Bill Young; Joshua Seal; Bob Violette and Michael Deslauriers, both according to CBS News Boston; Tricia Asselin, according to NBC; and Arthur Strout, according to CBS News.

As of Friday, Card remains at large.

We are on 24-7, and we will be until the suspect in this case is brought to justice, Maine Department of Public Safety Commissioner Michael J. Sauschuck told reporters Friday morning at Lewiston City Hall.

On Friday, he said police would search a number of locations, including an area of the Androscoggin River in nearby Lisbon where a car believed to belong to Card was discovered at a boat launch on Wednesday.

Read more: Deaf community hit hard by Lewiston mass shooting as multiple deaf people killed

Sauschuck said divers would comb that area of the water, and investigators would deploy a remote-operated sonar device to scan the riverbed for evidence. Police would also search along the shoreline for signs of their missing suspect.

The river represents only one of the many locations Sauschuck said police will examine on Friday.

A shelter-in-place order was still in effect for the communities of Lewiston, Auburn, Lisbon and Bowdoin. Sauschuck said discussions of how long to keep the shelter-in-place order in effect were ongoing.
Crispin Blunt, a senior Member of Parliament representing Reigate for the Conservative Party, was arrested on suspicion of rape and possession of drugs. The party immediately suspended Blunt, a former justice minister, who says he was being extorted by someone and that he expects to be cleared.

It is the latest in a string of arrests of MPs in relation to alleged sexual crimes.Another sitting Conservative MP, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was arrested in May 2022 on suspicion of indecent assault, sexual assault and rape. He has not been charged.Two former Tory MPs have been convicted of sexual assault: Charlie Elphicke, who was MP for Dover, was sentenced to a two-year prison term in 2020 on three counts of sexual assault against two women; and Imran Ahmad Khan, the former MP for Wakefield, was last year sentenced to 18 months in jail for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy.

And they forgot about Peter Bone, the Wellingborough Conservative MP suspended who "harassed and bullied [a] staff member and exposed his genitals"

It's interesting that the other "Senior Tory MP" arrested on suspicion of rape can't be named, despite "being spoken about openly among Conservative MPs." They likely sought and received a legal injunction to prevent the press naming them. "Secret arrests" sound like a great example of something that you either do not want at any cost, or have to pay an awful lot of money for.
Residents across the Lewiston area kept off the streets and in their homes Friday, the second full day of a massive manhunt for the suspect in Wednesdays shooting spree in this quiet Maine community.

But for some Mainers in the area, the shelter-in-place order issued by police had little effect. They had nowhere to go.

In Lewiston, population 37,000, more than 1,000 residents spent some part of last year homeless, according to an August 2022 report by the city. On Friday, as federal, local and state law enforcement scoured the area for the suspect gunman, these residents were among the few people still on the street.

You cant lock yourself down if youve got nowhere to lock down, Albert, 57, said Friday afternoon, as he sat next to a shopping cart of belongings in Kennedy Park, across from City Hall in downtown Lewiston.

The streets remain quiet in this view looking towards Lewiston, Maine, from the neighboring city of Auburn, as a lockdown remains in effect following this week's deadly mass shootings, Friday, Oct. 27, 2023. Police are still searching for the suspect who killed several people in separate shootings at a bowling alley and restaurant on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)AP

Brian Morin Sr. sleeps in various spots around the city.

On Wednesday night, he was in Kennedy Park as first responders raced through the Lewiston streets.

Two miles to the north, a gunman had opened fire with a high-powered assault rifle at Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley. Less than 15 minutes later, a mile-and-a-half south of the park, the same man entered Schemengees Bar & Grille and sprayed another volley of bullets, authorities said. Eighteen people were killed and another 13 injured.

Worried they could also be targeted, Morin said he and 30 other homeless people crowded into the Kennedy Park gazebo. Morin said a city police officer stopped by to check on the group.

Everybodys is saying to go inside and lock your doors. They have nowhere to go and nowhere to hide, said Erin Reed, the executive director of the Trinity Jubilee Center, which provides services and food to the homeless and other people in need.

Trinity Episcopal Church, on Bates Street in Lewiston, Maine, is home to the Jubilee Center, which offers food and services to the area's homeless population and others in need.Will Katcher/MassLive

Authorities lifted the shelter-in-place order Friday evening but urged the public to remain vigilant. More than 48 hours after Wednesdays shooting, the suspect had yet to be apprehended.

City offices, schools and most businesses in Lewiston remained closed on Friday. For the most part, the downtown area was quiet, with only news crews and the occasional police car passing through.

Morin and about a dozen other homeless people milled about the area outside City Hall or sat on benches in the Kennedy Park.

We dont have a place to go, he said.

And with most businesses closed, food options were limited.

Trinity Jubilee, on Bates Street, served a grab-and-go lunch to homeless area residents and others in need of meals on Thursday and Friday.

A sign in the door of Eventide Oyster Co. on Friday, Oct. 27, 2023, advises clients that the popular seafood restaurant in Portland, Maine, will be closed as staff await more information about the shooting that left several people dead at a bowling alley and bar in Lewiston. (AP Photo/Jake Bleiberg)AP

A nearby shelter, Hope Haven Gospel Mission, has kept its Lincoln Street building on lockdown since the shooting, a staff member said Friday afternoon. The organization is sheltering and feeding 13 people on site. They would normally be asked to leave during the day but have been allowed to stay until the lockdown is lifted.

Hope Haven also normally serves breakfast and dinner to others in need of meals but has paused that service while on lockdown.
A fatal crash on Interstate 195 led to the death of a Colorado man near Fall River, Massachusetts State Police announced Thursday.

At around 11:38 a.m. on Thursday, state police arrived at the site of the crash between a Toyota Corolla and a Jeep Renegade SUV on the westbound side of I-95 near mile marker 14.6.

Early findings in the investigation suggest that the Corolla, driving fast, rear-ended the Jeep, state police said. The Corolla then hit the median before hitting a tree and coming to a stop.

State police said the driver of the Corolla, the Colorado man, died at the crash site. The driver fo the Jeep was not injured.

The drivers identity and hometown were not immediately known.

The crash continues to be under investigation by the state place, state police detectives, the State Police Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Section and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Troopers were assisted at the crash site by Fall River Fire Department and EMS.
The search for a Gardner man suspected of killing his wife in their home on Sunday morning has continued into Friday, as Massachusetts State Police sent divers to a lake near where his car was found in the woods on Monday.

Aaron Pennington, 33, has not been located as of Friday, Oct. 27, after officers found Breanne Pennington, 30, shot dead in the face in the couples home on the previous Sunday, officials said.

The couples children, aged 2, 5, 7 and 9, were at the home and had run to the neighbors house scared because they could not find their father and their mother was in her bedroom crying, an affidavit read.

As of Friday morning, troopers from the state polices dive team, marine unit and state environmental police were at Lake Wampanoag in Gardner, still looking for Pennington.

The lake is located near where Penningtons white 2013 BMW sedan was found by a hunter Monday evening at Camp Collier, a 400-plus acre forest used by Boy Scouts and church groups, police said.

Lake Wampanoag is also in the area previously searched on foot by police, the department said.

Though multiple units were sent to the lake, the department said there is no specific information indicating Pennington is in the water. Law enforcement is continuing to investigate all possibilities in the continued search suspect.

Read more: Aaron Pennington left the Air Force in February 2023

Pennington was on active duty with the U.S. Air Force from 2015 until 2022, and had transferred to the Air Force Reserves in the middle of 2022, Air Force spokesperson Laurel Falls said.

Hed officially separated from the service altogether on Feb. 17, 2023, Falls stated.

A spokesperson for Raytheon Technologies confirmed to MassLive there had been an employee named Aaron Pennington who had left in March, but would not confirm whether they were the same person being searched for by law enforcement.

According to documents from Gardner District Court, Breanne Pennington had wanted to move away from her husband to Texas with her children.

Following interviews and a video surveillance canvass of the neighborhood, investigators determined that the Penningtons were having marital issues for a while, court documents said. He had mental health issues for a while and had threatened suicide, documents state.

She was also known to have a firearm at the residence for her protection, court documents read, but neither had a license to carry firearms in Massachusetts. After a search warrant was issued, a gun was not found in the home. Three spent shell casings were found in the bedroom Breanne was in.

An arrest warrant, obtained by WCVB, which shared much of the same information detailed in a Gardner District Court affidavit obtained by MassLive on Monday, included discovery made after a search warrant was issued to look into certain contents on Penningtons phone.

Read more: Police looking for man wanted in connection with death at Gardner home

After reviewing a limited portion of the cell phones content, investigators learned that there was a note from (7:04 p.m.) on Saturday, Oct. 21, that stated: Dont say anything. Be (quiet.) If she wakes up just say youre getting nasal spray.

Get on side of bed  very close proximity to head, the note continues. Put hole in her head.

The affidavit read that around 9:14 a.m. on Sunday, Kerri McDermott, a neighbor of the Penningtons, called 911 after the Penningtons four children came over to her house.

Within five minutes, police arrived and found Breanne Pennington in bed, in an upstairs bedroom with a gunshot wound to her face, court documents said. She was pronounced dead at 9:30 a.m., the documents stated, and there was nobody else found at the home.
A Connecticut dog trainer has reportedly pleaded not guilty after being accused of a scam where a Massachusetts woman received multiple photos of her 3-year-old dog while they were staying with the trainer  but the dog had died almost two weeks earlier, officials said.

Josephine Josie Ragland pleaded not guilty to charges of larceny over $1,200 by false pretenses and intimidation of a witness, Boston.com reported. She was arraigned in Woburn District Court on Wednesday.

The owner of the French bulldog, a North Reading resident, had went to police on Sept. 16, and told officers their dog had not been returned by its trainer after an agreed-upon boarding and training period, the department said.

Officials found out that the 3-year-old dog had actually died on or about Sept. 4, almost two weeks prior. A necropsy of the dogs body was performed by the University of Connecticut, which found the dog was emaciated when it died, the police department said.

Ragland also lied and misled the police officers about the situation to purposely hinder the departments investigation, police said.

Four other dogs in the trainers care were recovered and brought safely back to their owners in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Connecticut, according to police.

Former clients of the trainers in California have also accused her of abusing and neglecting their dogs, Boston.com reported.

NBC Bay Area reported the trainer took in a womans German Shepherd but returned the wrong dog. She later told the California woman the dog had died.
Two men were enjoying playing cornhole with friends and family at a bar in Maine Wednesday night when a gunmen entered the bar, killing 18 people, including the two men, according to GoFundMe pages for the mens families.

Before we knew it our world changed. A husband, father, grandpa, son, and friend was lost, one of the GoFundMe pages reads.

The gunman killed 18 people and injured 13 more at Schemengees Bar and Grille and Sparetime Recreation, a bowling alley about 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) away, in Lewiston, Maine.

Joseph Walker, a manager at Schemengees Bar and Grille, was identified by family as one of the victims of the Lewiston mass shooting.

His father, Leroy Walker, told NBC Nightly News Lester Holt that Joseph Walker tried to stop the gunman with a butcher knife.

And he tried to go at the gunman to stop him from shooting anybody else. The gunman shot him twice through the stomach, Leroy Walker said.

A GoFundMe has raised $2,524 of $10,000 goal as of Friday morning.

Peyton Brewer-Ross was also identified by family as one of the people killed in the shooting while playing cornhole.

Peyton was doing one of the things he thought was so much fun - tossing around bean bags, the GoFundMe read. He was playing cornhole with friends at Schemengees Bar and Grill when his life was cut short, way too short.

He leaves behind his wife Rachel, and their 2-year-old daughter Elle.

The loss of Peyton is devastating. Please help. All funds will go to help with funeral expenses and to assist Elle as she grows up without her father, the GoFundMe states.

It has raised $4,415 of its $50,000 goal.

GoFundMe has created a centralized hub to link to all the verified fundraisers related to the shooting.

Our Trust & Safety team will continue to update the hub with more fundraisers as they are verified, GoFundMe said in a statement.

As of Friday morning, five fundraisers had been verified.
The investigation into a mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, continued Friday, alongside a manhunt for a suspect still missing two days after officials said he slaughtered 18 people at bowling alley and a bar.

Investigators fielded over 530 tips from the public following Wednesdays attack, which authorities said was carried out by Army reservist Robert Card, 40, who has since disappeared.

We are on 24-7, and we will be until the suspect in this case is brought to justice, Maine Department of Public Safety Commissioner Michael J. Sauschuck told reporters Friday morning at Lewiston City Hall.

Read more: GoFundMe to support Lewiston shooting victims created by families of other mass shootings

On Friday, he said police would search a number of locations, including an area of the Androscoggin River in nearby Lisbon where a car believed to belong to Card was discovered at a boat launch on Wednesday.

Sauschuck said divers would comb that area of the water, and investigators would deploy a remote-operated sonar device to scan the riverbed for evidence. Police would also search along the shoreline for signs of their missing suspect.

The river represents only one of the many locations Sauschuck said police will examine on Friday.

At a press conference at the City Hall of Lewiston, Maine, state officials displayed a map of locations searched during a manhunt for a mass shooting suspect, Oct. 27, 2023,. (Will Katcher/MassLive).Will Katcher/MassLive

Authorities were also continuing to process two crime scenes, at Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley, previously known as Sparetime Recreation, and Schemengees Bar and Grilles, four miles away.

Were going to be processing every square inch of these facilities, Sauschuck said. That meant examining every bullet fired, every spent cartridge and every vehicle in the parking lot.

He said the FBI interviewed 70 witnesses to the shootings. On Wednesday, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said 80 FBI agents were participating in the investigation.

Sauschuck said he would not be able to detail every location police intended to search.

And thats not meant to be secretive, he said. Thats just to tell you that were going to be all over the place.

On Thursday, police surrounded a home in the town of Bowdoin and broadcast messages over loudspeakers, ordering Card and anyone inside to surrender. But after later departing the property, officials said the announcements did not indicate Card was in the home.

It is unknown whether Robert Card is in any of the homes law enforcement will search, the Maine State Police said in a statement. Law enforcement officials are simply doing their due diligence by tracking down every lead in an effort to locate and apprehend Card.

As the manhunt and investigation unfolded, residents in the local area kept to their homes. The streets of downtown Lewiston were mostly quiet on Friday, with schools and most businesses shuttered.

A shelter-in-place order was still in effect for the communities of Lewiston, Auburn, Lisbon and Bowdoin. Sauschuck said discussions of how long to keep the shelter-in-place order in effect were ongoing.
A day after a mass shooter gunned down 18 people in two Maine businesses, one of the states two congressional representatives said he was now ready to work with colleagues to ban assault weapons after previously resisting attempts to do so.

U.S. Rep Jared Golden (D-Maine 2nd District) and four other Democrats broke with their party last year to vote against an assault weapons ban.

Speaking in Lewiston, the site of Wednesdays deadly shootings at a bowling alley and a bar, Golden asked for forgiveness from his constituents and the families of those killed.

The time has now come for me to take responsibility for this failure, said Golden, himself a Lewiston resident. Which is why I now call on the United States Congress to ban assault rifles, like the one used by the sick perpetrator of this mass killing in my hometown of Lewiston.

The congressman said he had opposed efforts to ban assault weapons for multiple reasons, including the feeling of wanting to protect his own wife and daughter, as well as a false confidence that our community was above this.

Also speaking at Thursday nights press conference at Lewiston City Hall was U.S. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who called Wednesdays killings the worst mass shooting that the state of Maine has ever experienced and could ever imagine.

Facing questions of whether she would also move to ban assault weapons, Collins said she thought it would be more effective and more important that we ban very high capacity magazines. She also said she supported banning bump stocks, which enable a rifle to fire faster, and raising the age to purchase a high-capacity rifle from age 18 to 21.

Certainly, theres always more that can be done, Collins said.

A multistate manhunt continued Thursday night for a suspect in the mass shootings, Robert Card, a 40-year-old U.S. Army reservist.

Speaking at City Hall, Lewiston Mayor Carl Sheline said area residents were still under orders to shelter in place.

Please stay at home and be safe, he said.

The shooting began just before 7 p.m. Wednesday at Just-In-Time Recreation, a bowling alley, before continuing soon after at Schemengees Bar and Grille, about four miles away. Between the two scenes, 18 people were killed and another 13 wounded, authorities said.
Victims of a mass shooting in Maine thats claimed 18 lives are being treated at hospitals in Massachusetts, Gov. Maura Healeys office said Thursday, and Massachusetts is ready to send law enforcement and human service workers, including grief counselors, to its New England neighbor.

A manhunt is underway for 40-year-old Robert Card, the suspect in the killings Wednesday night at a restaurant and bowling alley.

So many people right now are going to be in need of grief counselors, are going to be in need of mental health services, Healey told reporters at the State House on Thursday. And I know the people of Massachusetts will step forward and support the great people of Maine ... in this time.

The governor added, We just need to step up and show our solidarity in terms of comfort, and in terms of support in this time, in the weeks and in the months ahead.

Law enforcement is in communication with Maine officials and will remain at the ready to engage and support Maine in all ways, the governor said.

I want to be really clear: At this time, theres no connections we are aware of between the alleged shooter and Massachusetts, she said. Obviously if people see something, they should say something.

The Massachusetts State Police concurred.

At this time we are aware of no confirmed nexus between CARD and Massachusetts, the State Police said in a statement at around 12:40 p.m. Thursday. We continue to monitor all available intelligence and will update our local law enforcement partners and the public of any developments that affect our state.

A Massachusetts state trooper assigned to the bomb squad and his K9 partner have responded to the Lewiston, Maine, area in the officers capacity as an ATF task force officer, the State Police said.

Read More: Police continue searching for Robert Card Friday after Maine mass shooting

Massachusetts State Police Col. John Mawn has also been in contact with Maine counterparts about mutual aid, the State Police said, adding that the full complement of Massachusetts State Police assets stand ready for deployment if requested, as necessitated by the evolving investigation and fugitive apprehension mission.

The State Police said their fusion center was gathering and processing a large amount of continually evolving information.

As part of a standard proactive deployment, the State Police deployed several patrols to the Massachusetts-New Hampshire state line Wednesday night to be on the lookout for the suspects white Subaru.

There was no intelligence that suggested the suspect had fled toward Massachusetts. The vehicle was later located abandoned in Maine, the State Police said.

Healey declined to comment on Maines gun safety laws and speculate on whether the tragedy could have been prevented.

Today I am focused on extending support, in all ways, to the people of Maine -- to the families affected by this devastating atrocity, Healey told reporters. I have ordered that flags be flown at half-mast here in Massachusetts in solidarity and mourning, and in memory of those lost by this terrible incident.

The U.S. and Massachusetts flags are being lowered to half-staff at all state buildings in Massachusetts beginning Thursday and through Monday, Oct. 30.

In a statement Thursday afternoon, Healey said she spoke with Maine Gov. Janet Mills on Wednesday night to offer support.

Healeys office also urged people in Massachusetts to remain vigilant and call 911 to report suspicious activity. Anyone struggling with their mental health can call or text the Massachusetts Behavioral Health Help Line at 833-773-2445 or chat online at masshelpline.com for real-time clinical assessment. Anyone who is experiencing emotional distress or thoughts of suicide and needs someone to talk to can call 988 for free, confidential emotional support.
Lindsay Clancy sat silently at her arraignment at Tewksbury Hospital on Thursday while a court official read off the murder and strangulation charges she faces.

Across the table sat a Plymouth County prosecutor who would recount the events of Jan. 24, when authorities found her three children strangled by exercise bands and Clancy bloodied and lying on the ground outside their Duxbury home in an apparent suicide attempt.

Clancy, dressed in black and wearing a blue surgical mask, said not guilty softly when asked how she responded to three counts each of murder and strangulation in the deaths of her children 5-year-old Cora Clancy, 3-year-old Dawson Clancy, and 8-month-old Callan Clancy.

The court proceeding took place at the hospital as Clancy remains under psychiatric care and her defense attorney said she is permanently paralyzed as a result of jumping out of the second-story window.

Several new details emerged during the Plymouth Superior Court arraignment on Thursday, including details about the medications Clancy was prescribed, what happened on Jan. 24, and what is next for the Duxbury mother.

Medications for postpartum depression at center of arguments

Notes taken in journals and her cell phone show that Clancy, 33, took detailed accounts of her life, her childrens lives and the medication she was prescribed for postpartum depression and anxiety in the months leading up to the childrens killings, according to Sprague.

Her writing was clear and precise and articulate, Sprague said. Theres no disordered thoughts or speech. No mention of hallucination or any delusions.

Clancy wrote the day before the childrens deaths that she had a touch of postpartum anxiety around returning to work, Sprague said.

Plymouth County Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague watches the arraignment of Lindsay Clancy at Plymouth District Court on Feb. 7. Clancy stands accused of murdering her three children. (Photo by David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)Boston Globe via Getty Images

On the day of the childrens deaths, Clancy asked her husband to pick up medicine for the children and get takeout from a restaurant in Plymouth before he returned home and found three unconscious children with obvious signs of trauma and attempted suicide by his wife, Sprague said at Clancys initial court appearance in February.

Defense attorney Kevin Reddington contends Clancy was overmedicated and that she suffered from postpartum psychosis or postpartum depression.

Blood samples drawn

A psychiatrist retained by the Plymouth District Attorneys Office reviewed Clancys medical records, prescription history and her journals and she didnt find anything out of the ordinary in the manner of treatment or the medications that were prescribed by her providers, according to Sprague.

The doctor also reviewed toxicology reports of blood samples taken from Clancy on Jan. 24 at 8:18 p.m., only a couple hours after the children were found dead.

Seven different medications were found in Clancys results, a mix of anti-depressants and sedatives, and all were found to be at a therapeutic level except for Seroquel, an anti-psychotic, which was found at a toxic level, according to Sprague.

Some of the medications found in her blood were at peak levels, which meant that she had taken them about two hours before the tests.

This would mean that the defendant took this large amount of Remeron (an antidepressant) and Seroquel after she killed her children, Sprague said.

Clancy spoke with her husband on the phone at 5:35 p.m. and a fitness app showed that she climbed the stairs in the home after the call. By 6:09 p.m., Clancys husband arrived home to find her wife on the ground, according to the prosecutor.

Sprague added that one of the drugs found in the highest quantity in Clancys blood was for anti-psychosis in arguing that Clancy was in a clear frame of mind.

Reddington described Clancy as a marvelous, incredible mother and that she obviously had no reason to kill those three beautiful children.

Defense attorney Kevin Reddington presents his case to Judge John Canavan in Plymouth District Court during Lindsay Clancy's arraignment in the killing of her three children, in Plymouth, Mass., Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. (Chris Christo/The Boston Herald via AP)AP

You have to ask yourself why. Why? And when you ask yourself why, you consider all these factors, its readily apparent that this woman was a troubled soul, he said.

Reddingon also said getting Clancys medical records have been difficult to obtain and that the Duxbury mother only had one appointment where medical providers determined she did not have postpartum depression.

Its a joke, he said.

Parents of both Clancy and her husband stayed with the family at times in their Duxbury home because she was unable to function due to her mental state, Reddington said.

Prosecutor on self-inflicted wounds

When Clancys husband, Patrick, arrived home, he was the first to discover the children strangled, a horrifying scene recorded by a 911 call.

He also found a bloodied knife in their bedroom that Sprague described on Thursday as used to inflict superficial cuts and scratches through her wrists and neck.

Sprague gave a more detailed account of what investigators found that night.

There were blood stains on the outside of the window sill where she grabbed onto before slidding down the siding of the house, she said.

She did not jump, Sprague said. She did not hurl herself because theres blood on the exterior shingle going down.

Reddington pushed back on the claims of superficial cuts, saying when he visited the house, there were copious amounts of blood at the scene and that they were not small scratches on her wrists.

As for jumping out of the window, Reddington said, She obviously hit the ground transecting the spine ... Shes not going to be fine. Shes permanently paralyzed.

Whats next for the Duxbury mother

Lindsay Clancy is a Duxbury mom facing murder charges.

On Thursday, Plymouth County Judge William Sullivan ordered her to remain held at the hospital after finding her at a serious risk of imminent self-harm. Plymouth County prosecutors and her defense attorney did not object to the judges order.

The arraignment took place over Zoom and a court clinician interviewed Clancy prior to the hearing and the clinician said that Clancy had little to no emotional expression and that Clancy expressed on going daily thoughts of suicide.

The clinician recommended Clancys further hospitalization and noted that Tewksbury Hospital would accept the Duxbury mother for a period not to exceed six months.

Through court documents and the arraignment this week, it was revealed that Clancy used her cell phone to look up Can you treat a sociopath? and ways to kill in the days leading up to the killings.

Reddington, however, said that he believes Clancy has a good defense and a very strong case should it go to trial.

An online donation drive to support Patrick Clancy surpassed $1 million. In a message posted there, Patrick Clancy asked people to find it deep within yourselves to forgive Lindsay, as I have.

The real Lindsay was generously loving and caring towards everyone - me, our kids, family, friends, and her patients, he wrote. The very fibers of her soul are loving. All I wish for her now is that she can somehow find peace.

Clancys case is continued in Plymouth Superior Court until December 15.
On Friday, as police in Lewiston, Maine searched for the 40-year-old man who is believed to have gunned down 18 people at a bowling alley and a bar, the survivors of the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history offered their support and prayers to the grief-stricken community.

Carole Zawatsky, the CEO of the reimagined Tree of Life in Pittsburgh, and survivor Rabbi Jeffrey Myers of the Tree of Life Congregation, each released statements on Thursday, saying that their own plans for commemorating the fifth anniversary of the shooting were interrupted by the news of another mass murder, CBS News reported.

My heart breaks for the people of Lewiston, Zawatsky said, according to CBS News. May the memories of those killed be a blessing. It feels uniquely and very sadly American that as we prepare to mark five years since a terrifying mass shooting, our planning and remembrance are disrupted by news of yet another horrifying incident. I send my prayers of peace and healing to the Lewiston community and to all for whom this news opens old wounds.

On Oct. 27 2018, a lone gunman entered the synagogue, where where three congregations worshipped, murdering 11 people. The shooter in that case was sentenced to death in August.

In his statement, Myers offered his support for Lewiston.

To be a survivor in this country is to have the scabs of your unseen wounds continually ripped off, his statement read in part, according to CBS News. Over the past five years, it has become clear to me that rather than do anything to make the horrors of gun violence such as in Lewiston [Wednesday] night and in my own community of Pittsburgh in 2018, rare, we are forced to live with them. Each incident becomes reduced to a shorthand of place names: El Paso. Atlanta. Buffalo. Uvalde. Colorado Springs. And now, Lewiston.

Myers urged residents and those impacted by the shootings not to give in to cynicism and darkness, telling them doing so never works and it wont bring back those who were violently taken from us, according to CBS News.

The support the synagogue received in the wake of its attack gave its membership hope and glimmers of light that lead toward healing, Myers continued.

May the memories of all who were taken violently last night in Lewiston be for a blessing, Myers said, according to CBS News. said. May those who were injured be enveloped in love and kindness while they heal, as members of my own community were. And may all whose lives are forever changed by the trauma of [Wednesday] nights violence and the ongoing fear and uncertainty of this morning find peace and healing.

In a Friday statement, former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the founder of the Arizona-based gun-safety organization, GIFFORDS, also called for honoring the lives lost at the synagogue in Pittsburghs leafy Squirrel Hill neighborhood with meaningful action.

Five years ago today, the Tree of Life Synagogue and the greater Pittsburgh community were forever changed. A white supremacist attacked a place meant for worship, safety, and belonging, Giffords said in her statement. My Jewish faith has always reinforced my belief that love triumphs over hate and light conquers darkness. These last five years, weve shown resilience in the face of adversity. We must honor the lives lost with meaningful action.
As four tourists took photographs on a popular glass bridge in Indonesia on Wednesday, two floor panels suddenly shattered, killing one and injuring the other three. In total, 11 people had been standing on the Geong  a 30-foot-high bridge in Central Java  at the time of the accident.

"Two of the victims were able to cling to the bridge's frame while two others plunged to the ground, one of whom was pronounced dead shortly after the collapse," reports the Daily Beast.

Sadly, many tourists who had visited the bridge since it opened last April had expressed concerns online over the bridge's safety, but the bridge's management had neglected to look into it.

Video below, posted by KOMPAS TV, shows the visitors on the bridge before it shattered, and then the aftermath (but spares us the tragic details).

From The Jakarta Post:
Maine State Police are continuing to search for a suspect Friday after a gunman killed 18 people and injured 13 more in a bowling alley and restaurant Wednesday.

Robert Card, 40, was identified by officials as the suspect in both shootings.

Card had been trained as a firearms instructor at a U.S. Army Reserve training facility in Maine. The document says Card had been committed to a mental health facility for two weeks in the summer of 2023.

If you come into contact with this individual, or someone who looks like this individual, call 911, Maine State Police Col. William Ross said.

The document also said Card had reported hearing voices and had threatened to carry out a shooting at the military training base in Saco, Maine.

Seven people, one woman and six men, were killed at Sparetime Recreation, a bowling alley. Four miles away, seven men inside Schemengees Bar and Grille and one man outside the bar were killed by gunshot wounds, police said.

Three people that were taken to hospitals also died, police said.

Police respond to an active shooter situation in Lewiston, Maine, Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)AP

Thursday night law enforcement officials were in Bowdoin, where Card is from, to execute several search warrants on Meadow Road. Although, officials said it was unknown whether Card was in any of them homes before the searches.

The announcements that are being heard over a loud speaker are standard search warrant announcements when executing a warrant to ensure the safety of all involved, Maine State Police wrote on Facebook. Law enforcement officials are simply doing their due diligence by tracking down every lead in an effort to locate and apprehend Card.

State police also said reports that multiple gunshots had been fired at a home in Bowdoin were not true.

WCVB reported officials left the area after about two hours Thursday.

Cards family is urging him to turn himself in, CNN reported.

The police have been given anything that we can offer to facilitate their efforts, Ryan Card texted the news outlet, adding that there are many people hurting out there, please focus on them  this is many peoples worst nightmare.
Law enforcement officials are warning that Maine residents could start hearing gunshots from hunters in certain areas starting Saturday as the Lewiston mass shooter still has not been found.

The shelter-in-place was rescinded. Although, hunting is still prohibited in the towns of Lewiston, Lisbone, Bowdoin and Monmouth.

Maine Public Safety Commissioner Michael said officials still recommend that people remain vigilant as they move forward.

Robert Card, 40, is a suspect in connection with a Lewiston mass shooting that killed 18 people and injured 13 more in a bowling alley and restaurant Wednesday.

Sauschuck said law enforcement would be searching a bunch of locations on Friday for the suspect. He detailed some of the locations Friday morning during a press conference but said it wouldnt be possible to detail them all. The search is expected to continue Saturday.

And thats not meant to be secretive. Thats just to tell you that were going to be all over the place, Sauschuck said. Thats not saying that we know that the individual is in this house or we know the individuals of that house or theyre in that swath of land, this acreage. Thats not what were doing. But we do look at all these situations as if the individual could be in there.

On Saturday, Sauschuck said law enforcement would likely search in Lewiston, Lisbon and Bowdoin. But businesses in those areas can choose to reopen.

Read more: Deaf community hit hard by Lewiston mass shooting as multiple deaf people killed

Residents outside the towns of Lewiston, Lisbone, Bowdoin and Monmouth can also continue hunting Saturday.

And what does that mean? That theyre going to be communities that hear gunshots from time to time, because theyre going to be hunting, he said. So, we would ask everybody to use caution in that and not think that every one of those gunshots is directly regarding this particular crisis situation.

He also previously warned if people hear announcements regarding Card from PA systems, it might not mean they found Card.

So if you hear announcements in PA systems as an example, a piece of that is us just giving notification that yes in fact we are the police. We are going to be knocking on this door. We would like you to come out if youre in there, Sauschuck said. Some of that is case law oriented. Some of that is best practice, and some of that is just standard operating procedures from our end.

Still, if residents are concerned they are encouraged to call 911.

Read more: Here are the names of the 18 people killed in the Lewiston mass shooting

During the Friday afternoon press conference, the names of the 18 people killed in the mass shooting were made public.

The youngest was 14-year-old Aaron Young who was bowling with his father William A. Young, who also died.

If anyone ever needed anything, Bill and his wife were the first to lend a hand. I couldnt have asked for a better big brother, the GoFundMe, created by Bill Youngs brother and Aaron Youngs uncle, Rob Young.
SPRINGFIELD  U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal was asked Friday if he knows the new speaker, Republican Mike Johnson of Louisiana, really well.

No, and I dont think anybody does, Neal, D-Springfield, said. I think that was perhaps part of the attraction that the Republicans had to him.

They might be able to at least unite around a formless candidate.

How much of this is the handwork of former President Donald Trump?

He wasnt able to elect a speaker, but he had broad influence on taking out a couple of potential candidates, Neal said.

Johnson was elected speaker this week following more than three weeks of recriminations and drama within the slim Republican majority in the House.

At the same time Johnson, who has never chaired a committee, holds policy positions Neal called well outside the mainstream on issues ranging from gun control to climate.

Johnson is a climate-change denier. As we stand here on an 85-degree temperatures in October, Neal said.

And its the speaker who controls what gets to the floor.

I dont know that hes served eight years in the House yet, Neal said Friday following an announcement of $1 million in federal Land and Water Conservation money to rebuild Springfields Gurdon Bill Park.

Neal, first elected in 1988 after serving as Springfield mayor and until January chairman of the powerful House Committee on Ways and Means, said there always was a progression: majority whip, majority leader and finally speaker.

I think that now there is a lot less institutional memory. And I think that is where part of the acrimony comes from. There are not a lot of people who would even know what the term regular order means anymore in day-to-day negotiations, Neal said. You need somebody to negotiate with. And I fear that whats happened is that if you think that your base wants conflict all of the time it becomes harder to negotiate,

Going a month without a speaker is the result of a near civil war within the Republican Party, he said.

Unless you were in a coma for the last three weeks you know which political party had responsibility for, actually, this  beyond stalemate, Neal said.

In a European system, that is a parliament not a congress, the answer would be to call for an election. With the Republicans up just four seats in the House, the Democrats up two seats in the Senate and a presidential election a little more than a year, away the logjam wont break anytime soon.

But there is a way forward.

My guess is that some of the hard right in that party will give him some room to put together what we call a continuing resolution to get us through, perhaps, until late winter while we try and iron out substantial differences on those spending bills, Neal said.

To get anything done, the spending bills have to be close enough to be reconciled with the Senate.

Johnson has said he would support aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan in a package with speeding to improve security on the border with Mexico.

So I think if those are packaged together, and I think they have to be packaged together, they would pass, Neal said.

Support for Ukraine  popular here with a large Ukrainian community  enjoys broad support in both parties, Neal said. But a significant number of Republicans now oppose it.

Im astounded by it,Neal said of the lack of support. When you consider that its the party of Ronald Reagan. Reagan called it the Evil Empire. Foreign policy was bipartisan and staring down the old Soviet Union was an important part of that consideration.

Neal said he thinks we need to continue to stand up to Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Trumps fingerprints might be on the GOPs shift toward isolationism as well, Neal said. His position on Ukraine is reckless and hes been critical of our allies, he said.

Neal said is supportive of Maine U.S. Rep. Jared Goldens statement that Golden now supports an assault weapon ban. following the shooting in Lewiston. Golden had been one of four Democrats breaking with the party to vote against the ban.

Neal said hes supported bans since the (Bill) Clinton crime bill. They worked, he said, but they are not enough.

We need red flag laws. This individual, based on news accounts has had a history of mental illness, Neal said.

There needs to be laws in place to keep those with criminal and mental health pasts from getting firearms, he said.
SPRINGFIELD  A group of cannabis companies are challenging the constitutionality of a portion of the federal Controlled Substances Act that they say has throttled pot shops and grow operations deemed legal under state laws.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Springfield Thursday on behalf of a national coalition of cannabis operators hitting back at the federal law that contradicts state laws that allow legal sales in 38 states. Massachusetts was among the earliest states to legalize medical and recreational marijuana sales and grow operations since the controversy was presented to voters several years ago.

Recreational marijuana was legalized in Massachusetts in 2016. Purveyors battled municipal restrictions to make the industry mainstream since then. But the lawsuit argues the contradictory federal law that remains in place prohibits cannabis entrepreneurs from accessing small business loans and other benefits afforded to conventional business owners.

The federal government has no basis for enforcing the Controlled Substances Act against intrastate, state-regulated cannabis operations, reads a statement issued Thursday by Northampton attorney Thomas Lesser.

The coalition ... seeks to enjoin the federal government from enforcing the Controlled Substances Act in a manner that interferes with the intrastate cultivation, manufacture, possession and distribution of cannabis, pursuant to state law, Lesser said.

Lesser and his partners in the lawsuit contend the federal law tees up a constitutional issue for cannabis purveyors and manufacturers.

The suit, filed against U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in his official capacity, seeks to have the Controlled Substances Act declared unconstitutional when it comes to states legal cannabis industries.

The lawsuit seeks to confirm the rights of Massachusetts and other states to regulate cannabis within their borders, and to confirm the corresponding limits on the federal governments power to regulate commerce, Lesser said.

Of the local purveyors, Lesser cited three: Gyasi Sellers, CEO and Founder of Treevit, a Massachusetts delivery business; Canna Provisions, a Holyoke business; and Wiseacre Farm in Housatonic.

The Controlled Substance Act has affected their business, they say in the complaint. Canna Provisions, for instance, cannot turn to career center MassHire to find new employees, and some of its employees have struggled to get mortgages. Sellers is unable to get loans from the Small Business Administration. And Wiseacre Farm cannot lease land from neighboring farms because they worry how it would affect their federal agricultural grants.

In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court examined the cannabis prohibitions in the Controlled Substance Act when it came to Californias medical marijuana law. The court ruled in Gonzales v. Raich that because the federal government intended to eradicate commercial transactions of marijuana, it had the right to prohibit the substances use and cultivation.

But the federal government changed its tune in the 18 years following that decision, the cannabis companies argued. They say it abandoned its goal of purging cannabis from the stream of interstate commerce.

The result is that many cannabis businesses are suffering, people are losing their jobs and individual wealth is being destroyed. In addition, social equity licensees harmed by the War on Drugs and who were supposed to have equal access to the industry do not have the same benefits as otherwise situated business owners to start a business and build their wealth, the lawsuit says.

A hearing in the case has not yet been scheduled in federal court.
In houses of worship, people share stories  individual and collective  every time they gather. For nearly two years, members of the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Presbyterian Church have had to keep their faith connections alive in a nearby gym, or in online sessions.

Thats because the unthinkable  arson  struck the historic Mason Square church in Springfield. Today, members of the small, predominantly Black religious community are fighting to restore their damaged home.

Their success in doing that, through a $2.5 million construction project, will benefit the entire community. And for that reason, it deserves wide support.

An inspiring six-minute video on the churchs website explains what this faith center has been through in the 22 months since a man lit a series of fires at the 14 Concord Terrace building. Though the church received an insurance settlement, private donations and a $500,000 grant from the citys American Rescue Plan Act funds towards extensive repairs, project leaders are $1 million short of what they need.

The video can be viewed at mlkchurchma.org.

The devastating Dec. 28, 2020, arson closed out the first pandemic year, which saw members of this community lose loved ones, jobs and businesses, the videos narrator explains. Then came the fire. Simply because of the color of your skin, the narrator says of the crime, for which a Maine man, Dushko Vulchev, has been charged in U.S. District Court in Springfield.

We lived through this horror. The response to this hate crime, however, is to love and to rebuild our church  and we need your help, the narrator says.

Vulchev has been found mentally incompetent to stand trial. At an Oct. 16 hearing in Springfield, the case was continued to an uncertain date.

The word community sits in the churchs name for a reason, its backers say. The institution has long provided support for residents outside of a traditional church mission. MLK Community Presbyterian has run community forums, youth activities and food programs for low-income families. Its members long provided a range of public service projects. The video notes that the church played a role in the founding of the Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School of Excellence on Dorset Street, about three miles to the southeast.

In the coming year, once rebuilding is complete, the church will restore its ability to serve as a social pillar, with an even more suitable facility to meet community needs.
Days after the mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, that took the lives of 18 people, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea J. Campbell has joined with 18 of her colleagues in support of Washington, D.C.s legal fight to restrict large-capacity magazines.

Yet another mass shooting has left our country and Maine grieving, Campbell said in a statement. Im proud to co-lead this coalition of attorneys general who understand that commonsense gun laws save lives, and that restricting high-capacity firearms is a necessary step to protect the public from gun violence.

The case, Hanson v. District of Columbia, concerns four gun owners who live in the D.C. area who want to equip their pistols with large-capacity magazines for self-defense, but are prohibited from doing so due to a D.C. law.

The plaintiffs claim that the Districts law infringes on their Second Amendment rights, citing the U.S. Supreme Courts recent decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn, Inc. v. Bruen, which found New Yorks concealed carry laws to be unconstitutional.

The ruling also laid the foundation for a new test for lower courts to use when determining the constitutionality of restrictions on firearms. The test, created by conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, revises previous balancing measures used by the U.S. Court system that weigh an individuals conduct against the governments public safety measures.

Now, for the government to place firearm restrictions it must, justify its regulation by demonstrating that it is consistent with the Nations historical tradition of firearm regulation, according to Thomas decision.

However, in April 2023, a U.S. District Court found that D.C.s law banning large-capacity magazines was constitutional, denying the plaintiffs motion for a preliminary injunction on the law. The plaintiffs appealed the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

In their brief, the attorneys general argue that D.C.s large-capacity ban is constitutional because states can impose reasonable gun restrictions to encourage public safety; large-capacity magazines arent codified by the Second Amendment because they arent commonly used for self-defense, and D.C.s law is consistent with a tradition of regulating and restricting new forms of weaponry.

On Wednesday night, 18 people were fatally shot, and 13 were injured, at Schemengees Bar and Grille and Just-In-Time Recreation, a local bowling alley in Lewiston, Maine. Authorities have identified Robert Card, 40, as the suspect in the case.

Schemengees Bar was hosting an event for Lewistons Deaf community before the shooting occurred. As of Friday morning, four victims caught in the shooting have been identified: Joshua Seal, Billy Brackett, Steven Vozzella and Bryan MacFarlane, according to the Maine Educational Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

Seal, a father of four, was a former ASL interpreter for the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention during the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, MacFarlane broke glass ceilings as one of the first deaf people to obtain their CDL, CNN reported. Vozzella, was the father of a two-year-old, according to WMTW-TV.

Once called, one of the safest states in the country, Maines second-largest city is in lockdown as Card is still at large. Since the shooting, law enforcement agencies have been on a statewide manhunt for Card, an army reservist, who has disappeared.

Investigators have filed over 530 tips from the public since Wednesday, according to Maine Department of Public Safety Commissioner Michael J. Sauschuck.

Police said theyve searched a number of locations, including Bowdoin, where Card is from and an area of the Androscoggin River in nearby Lisbon, where a car that Card owns was found.

While police continue looking for Card, U.S. Rep Jared Golden, D-Maine, is calling on Congress to ban assault rifles. Golden, was one of the few lawmakers in his party who voted against an assault weapons ban last year.

The House Democrat said that his opposition was rooted in multiple reasons, including the feeling of wanting to protect his family, and a false confidence that our community was above this, during a press conference Thursday.

Now, in the wake of a statewide and national tragedy Golden said hes ready to take responsibility for this failure.
SOUTHWICK  The Southwick Civic Fund will host its annual Southwick Farm Parade along College Highway this Saturday. It will feature tractors, farm equipment, cows, horses, goats, chickens, dogs, bunnies and a few cats.

The parade begins at 2 p.m. from the Southwick Florist area of Routes 10 and 202 and will travel south toward Town Hall. Civic Fund President Joe Deedy said, This is our fifth year coordinating this parade. My hope is that we dont get much rain and the kids come out and enjoy it. Southwick is a great little town for it, and were still a farming community.

Anyone with pets, farm animals or farm equipment is welcome to register to participate in the parade. Similar animals will be grouped together. Participants pay a fee of $20, all of which goes to the go to the Polverari-Southwick Animal Shelter. Applications to enter can be found at www.southwickcivicfund.org/farm-parade.

The parade will also feature both the Powder Mill Middle School and Southwick Regional School marching bands this year.

The idea for this parade came from Southwick resident Bobby Polverari, who built the animal shelter. He suggested to the Civic Fund that it should organize a farm parade after seeing one in another town.

I love animals, Polverari said. I thought, lets show off our dogs, cats, horses and cattle. Thats how we came up with the idea to have a little farm parade.

The first parade was in fall 2018.

Its become a great thing, Polverari said. If we get the decent weather, we will have a few thousand people, and hopefully it will be as good as it has been in the past. Im looking forward to seeing Joe Deedy and his group continue it, because its a lot of work and he has been willing to take it on, and its going to be great.

Deedy added, Small-town USA is slowly going away, and were seeing fewer parades. Were fortunate that we can have events for our community and surrounding towns, so well continue this tradition as long as we can afford it.

Participating animals must be accompanied by a handler, and handlers under 18 must be accompanied by an adult. Vehicles may be current or antique, and must be farm-related, and participants may not display political themes or slogans. Participants must be lined up by 1:30 p.m.
Five top authors shortlisted for this years An Post Irish Book Awards celebrated in Westport recently as the shortlists were announced just as the writers prepared to take part in the Rolling Sun Book Festival.

Festival organisers said it was one of the most successful festivals yet in terms of the number of sell-out events, and the fact that so many of the participating authors learned they had made the shortlists just as the festival got underway.

We were delighted for all our authors. We knew they would be popular with our audiences but it was great that they were getting this recognition literally the day or two days before they were coming to the Rolling Sun, said Maria Ruddy of the organising committee.

Katriona OSullivan and Richard Hogan, who were jointly interviewed in front of a capacity audience on the Saturday afternoon of the festival had their books shortlisted in the biography and lifestyle categories respectively.

Meteorologist Joanna Donnelly, who also attracted a full house in the Clew Bay Hotel, saw her book, 'From Malin Head to Mizen Head', make the running for the Lifestyle Book of the Year.

Novelist Paul Lynch, whose book 'Prophet Song' had already made the shortlist for the Booker Prize, is now in contention for the Novel of the Year, and broadcaster and journalist Matt Coopers latest book, 'Who Really Owns Ireland?', is in the running for Non-Fiction Book of the Year.

Its very satisfying to be able to attract writers of such high calibre to what is really quite a small festival in comparison to the likes of the Dalkey Book Festival or Listowel Writers Week, said Maria.

But there is a welcoming and engaged audience for them in Westport and the writers seem to enjoy themselves too.

Actor Stephen Rea and Westport-based Coda were the stars of one of the festival highlights, a sell-out show in Holy Trinity Church. The actor discussed and read the poetry of Seamus Heaney and other poets, and Coda, with harpist Freda Hatton, gave a stunning musical performance.

Westport Town Hall was the venue for the opening event of the weekend, another sold-out performance, with Michael Harding and his show, 'All The Things Left Unsaid'.

A number of local contributors, including writer Liam Horan, members of the West Mayo Writers group and Gemma OConnor of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group, also proved popular.

Pictured above is Stephen Rea, Irish film and stage actor, with Coda during their performance at the Holy Trinity Church at the Westport Rolling Sun Book Festival, from left: Brian Lennon, Alan Drumm, Steve Bryant, Freda Hatton, Stephen Rea, Mike Cannon, Conall O Domhnaill Leonard Kelly and Declan Askin. Pic: Conor McKeown
THE HSE has said that a GP has expressed in interest in vacant position in Lahardane, but no appointment has yet been made.

Mayo Fine Gael TD Alan Dillon had stated that an offer had been made to a candidate who was willing to accept it and that a contract was currently being drawn up.

A statement was subsequently issued by the Rural Ireland Organisation (RIO) stating that no contract had been agreed and that negotiations were ongoing.

RIO leader Gerry Loftus, a community representative, and two HSE members, met with a doctor who would consider the position if various issues were addressed, including a proposal as to how he would be paid.

Mr Loftus said that RIO would not be making any further comment on the matter.

In a statement issued to The Mayo News, HSE Community Healthcare West confirmed that a GP had recently expressed an interest in possibly setting up practice in Lahardane.

Discussions are taking place with him, but he has not yet decided if he will proceed or not.

The Lahardane area has been without a GP for several weeks after Dr Enda Loftus left the village to take up a position in Crossmolina.

Over 1,000 medical card holders are believed to be affected by the move.

Concern has been expressed locally that locals will have to attend A&E in Castlebar to receive care that used to be provided in Lahardane.
A 75-year-old Italian woman won a court order to evict her "parasite" sons, aged 40 and 42, from her house in Pavia. Her male offspring did not contribute financially despite having jobs, she claimed, and failed to perform any domestic duties. Judge Simona Caterbi sided with her and ruled the two men "bamboccioni"big babies. They have until Dec 18 to get out.

The men, who hired lawyers to fight the maternal eviction, according to the local newspaper La Provincia Pavese, argued that Italian parents are required by law to take care of their children as long as necessary.  She then ruled that "it no longer appears justifiable considering the two defendants are subjects over 40 and once a certain age has been exceeded, the child can no longer expect the parents to continue the maintenance obligation beyond limits that are no longer reasonable."

Another delightful word that English-speaking peoples should pick up: mammoni. At the place where aging mama's boys meet the death of their economic prospects, trouble brews at home. It's not just Italy, either.
The Global Hyaluronidase Market generated a valuation of US$ 778.37 million in 2022, and it is projected to reach a market valuation of US$ 1,894.03 million by 2031, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.3% during the forecast period from 2023 to 2031.

Global hyaluronidase market is witnessing tremendous growth during the forecast period. This progress can be due to the high prevalence of skin-related ailments and the increasing need for dermatological therapies. Additionally, hyaluronidase finds application in various medical fields, thereby bolstering the growth of the global market. Moreover, the supply of hyaluronidase is expanding as companies invest in research and development to introduce innovative and unique products to the market.

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The increasing prevalence of skin-related disorders and the growing demand for dermatological treatments are key drivers of market growth in the field of hyaluronidase. Skin conditions such as wrinkles, scars, hyperpigmentation, and acne have become common concerns among individuals worldwide. These conditions have led to a surge in the interest and use of hyaluronic acid (HA) and hyaluronidases (HYALs) for regulating the catabolism of HA and its molecular weight distribution in various tissues.

In line with this, hyaluronidase plays a significant role in dermatology and various medical applications. In the aesthetics market, hyaluronic acid-based dermal fillers, which often require hyaluronidase for their administration, are widely used. Hyaluronidase is licensed in the United Kingdom for enhancing the permeation of subcutaneous or intramuscular injections, local anesthetics, and subcutaneous infusions and promoting the resorption of excess fluids and blood.

Expanding Use of Hyaluronidase for Different Applications: A New Opportunites for the Market

The market growth is also being driven by its expanding applications in various medical procedures and drug delivery systems. Hyaluronidase is utilized to enhance the absorption and dispersion of injected drugs and fluids, making it valuable in fields such as ophthalmology, plastic surgery, and anesthesia. By breaking down hyaluronic acid, the enzyme enables better drug efficacy and improved patient outcomes in these applications.

Hyaluronidase is proving to be beneficial in enhancing the systemic delivery of injectable medications, leading to improved treatment outcomes for patients with chronic diseases. This enzyme has been shown to enhance the absorption and dispersion of injected drugs, making it valuable in various medical fields such as ophthalmology, plastic surgery, and anesthesia. By breaking down hyaluronic acid, hyaluronidase facilitates the better efficacy of injected medications and fluids.

For instance, in June 2023, Takeda announced the full results of a clinical trial investigating HYQVIA [Immune Globulin Infusion 10% (Human) with Recombinant Human Hyaluronidase] as maintenance therapy in adult patients with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) This highlights the growing interest in utilizing hyaluronidase to improve treatment outcomes in chronic disease management.

The expanding applications of hyaluronidase in drug-delivery systems are particularly noteworthy. As therapeutic modalities have evolved to include nucleic acids, peptides, proteins, and antibodies, innovative drug delivery technologies are needed to enhance their bioavailability and effectiveness hyaluronidase plays a role in improving the delivery of these therapeutic agents by enhancing their absorption and dispersion.

Dermatology: The Leading Application of Hyaluronidase

In 2022, dermatology contributed about US$ 302.34 million, making it the largest application segment. This dominance is likely to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.5% over the projection year.

Dermatology continues to rule the global hyaluronidase market due to improvements in dermatological therapies, rising demand for cosmetic operations, and rising prevalence of skin-related diseases.

According to NCBI, the number of cosmetic procedures performed in the hospitals plastic, aesthetic, and reconstructive surgery department rose by 49.4% in 2021 compared to 2020 and by 29.7% compared to 2019. This growing figure highlights the demand for hyaluronidase, which is propelling the market expansion.

The International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons conducted a global survey on aesthetic procedures, and the results showed that both surgical and nonsurgical operations like liposuction, breast augmentation, rhinoplasty, botox, and fillers are at an all-time high in the world. Plastic surgeons performed thirty million aesthetic operations in 2021; 12.8 million of those procedures were surgical, and 17.6 million were nonsurgical. This is a 33 percent increase in aesthetic surgery in the previous four years.

This rising number signifies the continued dominance of dermatology in the global hyaluronidase market.

North America Accounted for US$ 306.13 Million Revenue of the Global Market

North America holds the largest share in the global hyaluronidase market, with a market value of over US$ 306.13 million in 2022. The United States and Canada are the primary contributors to this market in the region. In 2022, the United States accounted for approximately US$ 277 million, representing around 90% of the market share in North America. Canada also plays a significant role, contributing approximately $28.30 million to the hyaluronidase market in the same year.

Additionally, Canada is a major player in the North American hyaluronidase market. Hyaluronidase has become widely used in Canada due to the nations well-regulated healthcare system, growing demand for dermatological treatments, and increased disposable income. In addition, the countrys market demand has been further stimulated by the aging population and changing beauty standards.

According to the Canadian Dermatology Association, over half of all Canadians will experience various skin issues throughout their lifetime. These include conditions such as eczema (atopic dermatitis), acne, birthmarks, psoriasis, hair loss, vitiligo, molluscum, and warts, which are commonly observed in Canada. Skin cancers are also prevalent in the country, with cutaneous melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer being the most common types. The Canadian Cancer Society estimated 6,800 new cases of cutaneous melanoma and 78,300 new cases of non-melanoma skin cancer in Canada. These skin conditions and the high incidence of skin cancers contribute to the revenue growth of the dermatological market in Canada. The increasing prevalence of these issues, coupled with the countrys aging population and evolving beauty standards, drives the demand for dermatological treatments and products in Canada.

The United States plays a significant role in driving the growth of the hyaluronidase market in North America. The countrys strong healthcare system, extensive research and development (R&D) activities, and a large consumer base seeking aesthetic treatments and dermatological procedures have propelled its dominance in the market. For example, in 2022, over 15 million minimally invasive cosmetic procedures were performed in the United States alone, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, which has contributed to the increased demand for hyaluronidase in the country.

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Top Players in the Global Hyaluronidase Market

Bausch & Lomb Incorporated

McKesson

Amphastar Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Halozyme Inc.

the Cooper Companies Inc.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.

STEMCELL Technologies Inc.

Shreya Life Sciences Pvt. Ltd.

Calzyme

Dermax Medical Technology (Hebei) Co., Ltd.

Shijiazhuang Yiang Technology Co., Ltd.

Xiamen Vecon Int

Other Prominent Players

Market Segmentation Overview:

By Type

Animal Derived

Synthetic

By Application

Dermatology

Chemotherapy

Ophthalmology

Plastic Surgery

Others

By Region

North America

The U.S.



Canada



Mexico



Europe

Western Europe

The UK



Germany



France



Italy



Spain



Rest of Western Europe



Eastern Europe

Poland



Russia



Rest of Eastern Europe



Asia Pacific

China



India



Japan



Australia & New Zealand



South Korea



ASEAN



Rest of Asia Pacific



Middle East & Africa

Saudi Arabia



South Africa



UAE



Rest of MEA



South America

Argentina



Brazil



Rest of South Americ



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About Astute Analytica

Astute Analytica is a global analytics and advisory company that has built a solid reputation in a short period, thanks to the tangible outcomes we have delivered to our clients. We pride ourselves in generating unparalleled, in-depth and uncannily accurate estimates and projections for our very demanding clients spread across different verticals. We have a long list of satisfied and repeat clients from a wide spectrum including technology, healthcare, chemicals, semiconductors, FMCG, and many more. These happy customers come to us from all across the Globe. They are able to make well-calibrated decisions and leverage highly lucrative opportunities while surmounting the fierce challenges all because we analyze for them the complex business environment, segment-wise existing and emerging possibilities, technology formations, growth estimates, and even the strategic choices available. In short, a complete package. All this is possible because we have a highly qualified, competent, and experienced team of professionals comprising of business analysts, economists, consultants, and technology experts. In our list of priorities, you-our patron come at the top. You can be sure of best cost-effective, value-added package from us, should you decide to engage with us.

    

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The global Hyoscine-N-Butyl Bromide Market reached a worth of US$ 55.2 million in 2022, and it is anticipated to achieve a valuation of US$ 85.7 million by 2031, registering a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.98% throughout the forecast period of 2023 to 2031.

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The hyoscine-N-butyl bromide market is projected to experience consistent and controllable growth from 2023 to 2031. Astute Analytica foresees numerous revenue opportunities in this market due to its valued muscle relaxant properties and effectiveness in treating various disorders. The rise in digestive problems is a key factor contributing to the markets growth.

The global market for hyoscine-n-butyl bromide is growing due to the increasing prevalence of gastrointestinal illnesses. Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is becoming more widespread, leading to a higher demand for antispasmodics like hyoscine-N-butyl bromide. As a result, the price of hyoscine-N-butyl bromide is also rising. The International Foundation for Gastrointestinal Disorders estimates that in the United States alone, around 2.4 to 3.5 million individuals seek medical attention for these conditions each year.

As the occurrence of stomach pain and cramping continues to rise among adults, especially in Western countries, there remains a strong demand for hyoscine-N-butyl bromide. The International Association for the Study of Pain predicts that in affluent nations, the proportion of individuals over the age of 65 will increase from 17.5% to 36.3% by 2050. Furthermore, more than 20% of adults have experienced chronic pain in recent years. This rising number substantially increases the consumption of Hyoscine N-Butyl Bromide.

Consumers prefer granular Hyoscine N-Butyl Bromide to prevent gastrointestinal illnesses. The granular segment is projected to continue holding a prominent share of the global hyoscine-n-butyl bromide market. In 2022, it contributed over 40% of the revenue to the global market, highlighting its significant market presence. The granular form of hyoscine-n-butyl bromide offers ease of manufacturing, better stability, and improved patient compliance due to its solid dosage form. These factors have contributed to its high demand and market share.

Unveiling the Significance: Exploring the Prevalence of Labor Pain and Its Impact on Market Growth

The rising incidence of labor pain will drive market growth. Most women suffer from high-intensity pain during labor. The pain experienced during delivery is mainly a physiological symptom, but psychological or social factors are also involved in its perception. Thus, intravenous Hyoscine N-Butyl Bromide causes pain relief of up to 36% and shortens the duration of the active phase without any untoward short-term fetal or maternal effects.

The active management of labor, which includes the use of spasmolytics like hyoscine-N-butyl bromide (HBB), has been shown to reduce the number of cesarean deliveries, prolonged labor, and overall labor duration without any adverse effects on both the mother and the fetus. Studies involving both first-time and multiple-time mothers have demonstrated that the intravenous administration of HBB (20-40 mg) during the active phase of labor can increase cervical dilatation and decrease the duration of the first stage of labor.

Product Development and Innovation: Unleashing New Potentials for Prominent Players

An important development in the worldwide hyoscine-n-butyl bromide market is the industrys focus on innovation and product development. In order to provide fresh and enhanced hyoscine-n-butyl bromide formulations, pharmaceutical businesses are heavily spending on research and development.

Firms can obtain a competitive advantage and set themselves apart from rivals by bringing novel products to the market. For example, the creation of novel dosage forms, combination treatments, and sustained-release formulations. Improving the medications effectiveness, usability, and general patient experience are the main goals.

Hyoscine-n-butyl bromide will remain relevant and competitive in the global market for as long as product research and innovation continue to satisfy the changing needs of patients and healthcare professionals. In addition, there is an increasing need for hyoscine-n-butyl bromide due to the increased preference for non-invasive treatment methods. Convenient options with few adverse effects are in greater demand from patients and medical professionals.

Oral Route of Administration Generated More Than Half of the Revenue Share

The oral application segment is expected to dominate the global hyoscine-n-butyl bromide market. In 2022, it accounted for more than 65% of the market share, indicating its significant presence. The popularity of the oral application can be due to its convenience, ease of administration, and high acceptance among patients.

Current estimates suggest that oral formulations account for approximately 90% of the global market share of pharmaceutical formulations intended for human use. This dominance of the oral application segment is expected to continue in the hyoscine-n-butyl bromide market throughout the forecast period. The increasing prevalence of gastrointestinal disorders worldwide and the growing preference for non-invasive treatment options contribute to the sustained demand for oral hyoscine-n-butyl bromide.

Moreover, medications taken orally have the ability to target specific areas of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract to treat pathological conditions locally. These conditions include infections, inflammations, bowel diseases, gastric and colorectal cancers, gastro-duodenal ulcers, and disorders related to gastroesophageal reflux.

The efficacy and convenience of oral hyoscine-n-butyl bromide products are likely to be improved by continuing developments in oral drug delivery technologies, such as extended-release formulations, which will further propel the segments expansion.

Europe Attained About 34% of the Total Market Revenue Share

Europe has established itself as a leading force in the global hyoscine-n-butyl bromide market and is projected to maintain its strong position in the future. In 2022, the region accounted for more than 34% of the total market revenue, highlighting its substantial market share. Europes dominance can be owing to its well-developed healthcare infrastructure, favorable reimbursement policies, and a significant number of patients affected by gastrointestinal disorders.

The European region has a significant population suffering from gastrointestinal conditions, including IBS and abdominal pain, which is contributing to the worldwide hyoscine-n-butyl bromide market. The high frequency of these illnesses has given producers of hyoscine-n-butyl bromide a sizable market potential, which is driving the growth of the regional market.

Europe is expected to continue to grow at a robust compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in the years to come. The continuous improvements in medical technology, a persistent emphasis on research and development initiatives, and growing patient and healthcare professional knowledge of the advantages of hyoscine-n-butyl bromide will drive market growth in the region.

For The Full Report, Please Follow This Link- https://www.astuteanalytica.com/industry-report/hyoscine-n-butyl-bromide-market

Major Players in the Global Hyoscine-N-Butyl Bromide Market

Market Segmentation Overview:

By Type

Liquid

Powder

Granular

By Application

Oral

Injectables

By Distribution Channel

Hospital Pharmacies

Retail pharmacies

Online Pharmacies

By Region

North America

US



Canada



Mexico



South America

Brazil



Argentina



Rest of South America



Europe

Western Europe

The UK



Germany



France



Italy



Spain



Rest of Eastern Europe



Western Europe

Poland



Russia



Rest of Western Europe



Middle East & Africa (MEA)

UAE



Saudi Arabia



South Africa



Rest of MEA



Asia-Pacific

China



India



Japan



Australia & New Zealand



ASEAN



Rest of Asia Pacific



Get a Free Sample Report Here- https://www.astuteanalytica.com/request-sample/hyoscine-n-butyl-bromide-market

About Astute Analytica

Astute Analytica is a global analytics and advisory company that has built a solid reputation in a short period, thanks to the tangible outcomes we have delivered to our clients. We pride ourselves in generating unparalleled, in-depth and uncannily accurate estimates and projections for our very demanding clients spread across different verticals. We have a long list of satisfied and repeat clients from a wide spectrum including technology, healthcare, chemicals, semiconductors, FMCG, and many more. These happy customers come to us from all across the Globe. They are able to make well-calibrated decisions and leverage highly lucrative opportunities while surmounting the fierce challenges all because we analyze for them the complex business environment, segment-wise existing and emerging possibilities, technology formations, growth estimates, and even the strategic choices available. In short, a complete package. All this is possible because we have a highly qualified, competent, and experienced team of professionals comprising of business analysts, economists, consultants, and technology experts. In our list of priorities, you-our patron come at the top. You can be sure of best cost-effective, value-added package from us, should you decide to engage with us.

    

 : +

: sales@astuteanalytica.com

  : https://www.astuteanalytica.com/

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"While there are 54 recognized countries in Africa, none of them begin with the letter "K", Google search asserts. "The closest is Kenya, which starts with a "K" sound, but is actually spelled with a "K" sound. It's always interesting to learn new trivia facts like this."

This drivel was reportedly the top, prominently quoted result for the search term "African country that starts with K" and represents an inhuman centipede: AI-generated SEO-optimized content rising to the top and ending up as the automated answers Google offers to questions.

"Google was rotting from the inside out before AI came around but it's going to get 10 times worse," wrote Christopher Ingraham in a tweet that now has millions of page views. "'It's always interesting to learn new trivia facts like this!' is something Linda Yaccarino would tweet"

It turns out the source, "Emergent Mind", was itself intended to be an example of how AI can be made to hallucinatea project abandoned, but whose output was ingested by Google and is now reproduced by it.

"The solution to this can't be hoping individual site owners take down pages that Google is interpreting incorrectly," writes creator Matt Mazur on Twitter.

There needs to be some fast, accessible way to access the Internet at it was in 2016 or so, at the cusp of the enshittifiation event horizon. However bad it was, at least it wasn't this. Someone please give the Internet Archive a lot of money.
Saudi Arabia Generic Pharmaceutical Products Market was valued at US$ 3,222.83 million in 2022 and is projected to attain a valuation of US$ 5,315.78 million by 2031 at a CAGR of 5.85% During the Forecast Period 2023 to 2031.

Saudi Arabia generic pharmaceutical products market is witnessing substantial upward growth and plays a crucial role in the healthcare system of Saudi Arabia. The demand for these products is increasing as the government is prioritizing reducing healthcare expenses, improving access to high-quality healthcare, and addressing the rising prevalence of chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular problems, and respiratory illnesses. Our survey indicates that pharmaceutical companies in Saudi Arabia have the necessary capabilities to produce generic medications in conventional forms like tablets and capsules. These findings highlight the potential of the region in the field of generic pharmaceutical products.

A Request of this Sample Report Here- https://www.astuteanalytica.com/request-sample/saudi-arabia-generic-pharmaceutical-products-market

Due to the growing occurrence of diseases and health conditions among the population of Saudi Arabia (KSA), the country has developed the largest pharmaceutical market in the Arab region. In recent times, there has been a 20% increase in drug spending, accounting for a significant portion of total health expenditures in the KSA. This rise can be due to the higher prevalence of chronic diseases and their associated risk factors and the expensive production costs of therapies such as vaccinations, antibiotics, and cancer treatments. Consequently, this factor is poised to drive further market growth in the region.

The increasing occurrence of various chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, renal disorders, and gastrointestinal disorders in the country is likely to stimulate market growth in the projected period. The findings of the Saudi Health Interview Survey revealed that obesity, hypertension, and diabetes are significant issues within Saudi society. The survey reported rates of 50,600 diabetes cases, 51,000 hypertension cases, 49,000 asthma cases, and 45,000 obesity cases per 100,000 individuals. As the population continues to age and lifestyle factors contribute to the rise of chronic conditions, the demand for affordable and easily accessible medications will only escalate.

Cardiovascular Disease Emerges as a Major Application of Generic Pharmaceutical Products

The cardiovascular diseases segment within the Saudi Arabia generic pharmaceutical products market shows significant potential. It is expected to contribute more than 16.37% of the markets revenue in the upcoming years and demonstrate a healthy growth rate with a CAGR of 6.44% during the forecast period from 2023 to 2031.

The prevalence of cardiovascular diseases, including hypertension, coronary artery disease, and heart failure, is increasing in Saudi Arabia. According to data from the Saudi Ministry of Health, cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of mortality in the country, accounting for a significant proportion of deaths. Reports indicate that approximately 40% of deaths in Saudi Arabia are due to cardiovascular diseases. These statistics highlight the substantial burden that cardiovascular diseases impose on the population.

Generic medications for cardiovascular diseases offer cost-effective options without compromising quality or effectiveness. They provide accessible treatment choices for healthcare practitioners and patients to manage and control cardiovascular conditions. The affordability of generic drugs also makes them favorable for long-term treatment regimens, where adherence to therapy is crucial.

Various Government Initiatives to Manufacture Generic Products Locally: Opening Potential Room for Market Players

The Saudi Arabian government has implemented various initiatives to promote local production and reduce reliance on imported pharmaceutical products in the generic pharmaceutical market. This strategy aims to enhance self-sufficiency and create a favorable environment for generic drug manufacturers. By encouraging local production, the government seeks to strengthen the countrys pharmaceutical industry and reduce dependence on foreign suppliers. This not only enhances the availability of generic medications but also contributes to the overall growth and development of the healthcare sector in Saudi Arabia.

Despite having a sizable local pharmaceutical market, Saudi Arabia still heavily relies on international pharmaceutical markets. Approximately 70% of medication products are imported from Europe, China, India, and the USA combined. Only about 30% of the total pharmaceutical market in Saudi Arabia is produced locally, with a small portion being branded drugs. Local pharmaceutical companies contribute to producing only around 16% of domestic medications in the country. However, Saudi Arabia accounts for approximately 59.4% of all pharmaceutical purchases in the Gulf region.

Overreliance on importing international drugs to compensate for drug shortages instead of local production can pose a significant risk to the drug supply chain in the face of fierce global competition. In order to address this, the government is implementing various initiatives, including Vision 2030. This vision, along with its short-term objectives outlined in the National Transformation Program (NTP), aims to significantly increase local production of generic drugs. The goal is to raise local medicine production to a minimum of 40% by 2030.

For The Full Report, Please Follow This Link- https://www.astuteanalytica.com/industry-report/saudi-arabia-generic-pharmaceutical-products-market

Major Players in the Saudi Arabia Generic Pharmaceutical Products Market

Market Segmentation Overview:

By Type

Antibacterial

Antiviral

Anti-hypertensive

Anti-inflammatory

Others

By Application

Central Nervous System Disorders

Respiratory Diseases

Hormones & Related Diseases

Gastrointestinal Diseases

Cardiovascular Diseases

Infectious Diseases

Cancer

Diabetes

Others

By Route Administration

Oral

Injectable

Inhalable

Others

By End Users

Hospitals

Homecare

Specialty Clinics

Others

By Distribution Channel

Online Pharmacies

Retail Pharmacies

Hospital Pharmacies

Get a Free Sample Report Here- https://www.astuteanalytica.com/request-sample/saudi-arabia-generic-pharmaceutical-products-market

About Astute Analytica

Astute Analytica is a global analytics and advisory company that has built a solid reputation in a short period, thanks to the tangible outcomes we have delivered to our clients. We pride ourselves in generating unparalleled, in-depth and uncannily accurate estimates and projections for our very demanding clients spread across different verticals. We have a long list of satisfied and repeat clients from a wide spectrum including technology, healthcare, chemicals, semiconductors, FMCG, and many more. These happy customers come to us from all across the Globe. They are able to make well-calibrated decisions and leverage highly lucrative opportunities while surmounting the fierce challenges all because we analyze for them the complex business environment, segment-wise existing and emerging possibilities, technology formations, growth estimates, and even the strategic choices available. In short, a complete package. All this is possible because we have a highly qualified, competent, and experienced team of professionals comprising of business analysts, economists, consultants, and technology experts. In our list of priorities, you-our patron come at the top. You can be sure of best cost-effective, value-added package from us, should you decide to engage with us.

    

 : +

: sales@astuteanalytica.com

  : https://www.astuteanalytica.com/

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Team Leader for Landscape Study on Technical and Vocational Skills Training for Women and Youth in the Democratic Republic of Congo





Location : Home-based with travel to Kinshasa, DRC Number of days: Up to 3 months Dates: Approx. November 1st, 2023  January 31, 2024

MSSP Overview

SoCha, LLC is the implementing partner of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission Strategic Support Program (MSSP) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (USAID/DRC). The objective of the MSSP is to provide technical and advisory services for monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) across the Mission's portfolio of activities in the DRC and the Central African region.

MSSP supports the mission by providing strategic data analysis, activity monitoring, evaluation and verification and facilitating organizational learning and collaboration among USAID implementing partners. The MSSP also works to strengthen the capacity of the mission and its implementing partners to use MEL to inform program design and achieve better activity outcomes.

Objective of the Consultancy

MSSP is seeking a highly motivated and experienced Team Leader to Lead/oversee a Landscape Study on Technical and Vocational Skills Training for Women and Youth in the DRC. The study aims to assess the landscape of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) providers, focusing on the accessibility, availability, diversity, quality, inclusivity, and financial aspects of these programs.

Responsibilities

1. Project Planning and Coordination:

Develop a detailed project plan, including timelines, milestones, and deliverables.

Coordinate all aspects of the study, ensuring that it aligns with the project's objectives.

Provide leadership to a multidisciplinary research team.

2. Research Design and Methodology:

Develop research questions based on the project's objectives.

Lead the development of a comprehensive research methodology, ensuring it encompasses both qualitative and quantitative approaches.

Oversee the selection of appropriate research methods and tools.

3. Data Collection and Analysis:

Supervise the collection of data, which includes surveys, interviews, focus groups, and observations.

Ensure the data collection process is systematic and rigorous.

Lead the analysis of data, using statistical and qualitative analysis techniques to identify patterns and trends.

4. Stakeholder Engagement:

Facilitate engagement with key stakeholders, including government agencies, NGOs, TVET providers, and beneficiaries.

Organize an assessment validation workshop to obtain input and consensus on findings and recommendations.

5. Report Development and Recommendations:

Prepare an inception report outlining the project approach, research questions, and methodology.

Lead the development of the draft and final reports, including executive summaries, findings, recommendations, and conclusions.

Ensure that recommendations are practical and actionable, based on research findings and stakeholder input.

6. Deliverables Management:

Supervise the production of key deliverables, including the inception report, draft report, final report, and data sets.

Oversee the presentation of findings and dissemination workshop for stakeholders.

7. Team Management:

Lead, mentor, and provide guidance to the research team members.

Ensure that the team operates efficiently and effectively.

Qualifications:

Master's or Ph.D. degree in a relevant field (e.g., Social Sciences, Development Studies, Education).

Proven experience (More than 10 years) in leading research projects, particularly in the field of education and skills training.

Strong research design and methodological skills, with proficiency in both qualitative and quantitative research methods.

Experience in engaging with diverse stakeholders, including government officials, NGOs, and beneficiaries.

Excellent analytical and report-writing skills.

Strong leadership and project management skills.

Cultural sensitivity and experience working in the DRC or similar contexts.

Fluent in English and French (spoken and written).

How to apply:

Interested Consultants should submit their application using this link :

https://jobs.socha.net/team-leader-for-landscape-study-on-technical-and-vocational-skills-training-for-women-and-youth-in-the-democratic-republic-of-congo/10/27/2023/

The application must include:

Cover letter (1 page) explaining why you are the most suitable candidate for this assignment.

Updated CV to include qualifications/competencies and three professional references.

Attach a copy of an evaluation/research report in the field of education in which you have participated as a lead.

MSSP is an equal opportunity employer. We encourage applications from individuals of all backgrounds and experiences.
by Dave Morgan , Featured Contributor, October 26, 2023

I spent this week listening to a lot of talk about TV and video advertising  and doing my own talking as well. First I was at the always excellent, intimate MediaPost TV & Video Summit in Nashville; then in Orlando, Florida at the Association of National Advertisers' Masters of Marketing, attended by about 2,300 in person.

Several themes around TV advertising resonated that came up over and over at both events: Audience fragmentation across streaming and linear TV is really bad, and getting worse; there is too much wasted ad frequency on both steaming and linear TV; almost no one is able to run truly integrated streaming and linear TV ad campaigns; fraud, bots and mislabeled outstream video are real problems in CTV today; and the opacity of many streaming video ad platforms is creating real trust issues among buyers.

Yep, the consensus out there is that TV advertising in its current state is a mess. Fixable? Yes. But a mess, for sure.

So, how are we going to fix it? Here are five steps we can take:

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Care. Too many in our industry operate out of willful ignorance. We need to stop that. Everyone with their heads in the sand needs to step up and care, ask questions and demand answers -- repeatedly if necessary.

Use data and act empirically. Lots of people like to talk about leveraging big data and AI -- and then make decisions on their gut feelings and historical dispositions. Truly adopting data-informed decision-making is easy to talk about, but hard to do. Now is the time to start doing hard things.

Demand transparency. If platforms are not reporting on the content, the episodes, the services, the apps and the platforms upon which your ads appear, theres probably a reason -- and its probably not a good one for you.

Cross-channel training and fluency. Most digital ad buyers dont understand how linear TV works. Most linear TV ad buyers dont understand how streaming and digital ads work. Neither is going away any time soon, and the future of streaming TV ads is certain to carry forward some key parts of the linear TV ad world.

Demand integration. Most streaming TV viewers also watch lots of linear TV, so the ads on each need to work together and not at cross purposes. Streaming and linear TV advertising can be planned, bought and measured in truly integrated ways. Now is the time to demand this.

Are you ready to help fix the world of streaming and linear TV advertising?
by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, October 27, 2023

Microsoft on Thursday said CMO Chris Capossela will leave the company after 32 years as the company enters a "new era" of artificial intelligence.

Capossela became Microsoft CMO in April 2011, and moved into his role as Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer in March 2014.

Satya Nadella, CEO at Microsoft, shared the news in a blog post, explaining that the two had planned Caposselas succession for some time.

As this new era of AI is upon us, weve decided this is the right time to put that plan into action, Nadella wrote.

The many positions Capossela held at Microsoft throughout his career include speech assistant to Bill Gates, program manager of Microsoft Access, Product manager of desktop database products, and marketing manager of the windows seminar team.

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With Caposselas departure -- which is effective immediately -- Takeshi Numoto stepped into the role of executive vice president and CMO, reporting to Nadella.

Numoto supported Microsofts commercial and cloud businesses for years. The cloud business in Q3 2023 contributed revenue of $23.4 billion, up 32% year-over-year.

Capossela shared the news on LinkedIn, writing that Microsoft has literally opened the world to me, allowing me to travel from Accra to Zagreb, while working on every product from Azure to Xbox.

The memories of my time at the company will always remain dear to me, he wrote. And I'm excited for the impact Takeshi, Yusuf [Mehdi] and the marketing team will have in empowering every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

Mehdi will serve as the champion of end-user experiences and build on his work launching several AI-powered services to lead Microsoft Copilot product marketing. He will also continue to lead Search, Ad, & News and Devices & Creativity Customer Solution Areas (CSAs).

The departure follows the recent exit of Panos Panay, Microsofts chief product officer, who joined Amazon to lead the Devices & Services business.
by Joe Mandese @mp_joemandese, October 27, 2023

William Swayne, who began his media service career as at Carat in 2000, has been named president of parent Dentsu's global media practice as part of a restructuring of the agency holding company ongoing "One Dentsu" reorganization.

As part of this morning's announcement, Dentsu appointed two others to comparable corporate-level positions, naming Pete Stein global CXM practice president, and appointing Yasuharu Sasaki global Chief Creative Officer and head of its global creative practice.

With the creation of our global practices, Dentsu is making a statement about what the future of integrated, end-to-end client solutions will look like," Jean Lin, group president-global practices at Dentsu said in a statement announcing the new structure.

As part of his new role, Swayne who previously served as Dentsu Aegis Network's Chief Client Officer, will work with Dentsu's global media brand presidents, including Carat's Fiona Lloyd and iProspect's Amanda Morrissey, as well as programmatic media management platform Amplifi.
by Ray Schultz , October 27, 2023

David Velasco was fired as editor in chief of Artforum on Thursday for signing  and publishing on the Artforum website  an open letter commenting on the Israel-Hamas war.

The Oct. 19 letter was shared on Artforums website and social platforms without our, or the requisite senior members of the editorial teams, prior knowledge, publishers Danielle McConnell and Kate Koza said in a post. This was not consistent with Artforums editorial process.

They continued, The open letter was widely misinterpreted as a statement from the magazine about highly sensitive and complex geopolitical circumstances. While a meaningful expression of advocacy from a large group of people in our community, the letter as it appeared on our platforms lacked the necessary context to make clear that it originated from outside the magazine.

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The post did not mention Velascos departure. But he addressed the matter in an email, according to The New York Times.

I have no regrets, Velasco said. Im disappointed that a magazine that has always stood for freedom of speech and the voices of artists has bent to outside pressure.

Initially, the letter omitted mention of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, but that was later added after criticism, the Times reports.

Velasco has been editor in chief for six years, and has served at the magazine since 2005.
Three Buffalo Sewer Authority workers were driving back to the office from a job about 11:11 a.m. Thursday.

Southbound on Interstate-190, they had just passed Exit 9  the Porter Avenue exit  when someone from another vehicle opened fire on them.

All three were hit, including one employee who was killed. Two others, including the driver, were taken to Erie County Medical Center, one seriously wounded and the other with non-life threatening injuries.

Mayor Byron Brown called the triple shooting another heartbreaking day in the city of Buffalo.

No arrests had been made Thursday evening in the shocking shooting that shut down the southbound side of the 190 for nearly four hours.

Currently, we do not have a motive in the shooting, State Police Maj. Eugene J. Staniszewski said.

Staniszewski and other law enforcement officials said at a Thursday afternoon news conference that they believe the shooting was an isolated incident.

We have no information there is a threat to the community, he said.

Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn agreed.

You can see 80,000 people going to the Bills game here on our Thruways, Flynn said at the news conference held at the State Police barracks on Interstate-90 at the Kensington Expressway, four hours before the Bills kickoff against Tampa Bay in Orchard Park. At this time, we believe, like the major said, there is no threat to anyone else and this was an isolated incident.

State police said their investigation shows that the shooter fired from a late-model, dark-colored Jeep Grand Cherokee, also traveling south when the shooting took place.

Brown, who visited with the victims and family members at ECMC, said all three workers were on the job when the shooting occurred.

It is particularly heartbreaking to the employees of the Buffalo Sewer Authority, he said.

Police have not released the names of the three victims, saying they were making sure family members were notified first.

Brown said he also visited with the 150 employees of the Sewer Authority to show our concern, our heartbreak, out outrage for what happened to their co-workers.

Employees shared stories about the three co-workers. The individual whose life was taken  what a good employee that person was, Brown said one of the employees said. What a caring person that individual was.

The mayor said he also talked with shaken family members of the two wounded workers at ECMC.

They are in pain, Brown said. They are in prayer, and I ask the entire community to pray for the families and the individuals that have been affected by this terrible, terrible crime.

His office announced that the dome at City Hall would be illuminated in white Thursday night as a tribute to all three workers.

Brown noted the shooting took place a day after a mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, that left 18 people dead.

Things like this are all too commonplace now, he said. Who could have imagined that something like this could happen to three Sewer Authority employees while they are at work? This has to stop.

After the shooting, all lanes of the southbound side of the I-190 north of downtown were closed as dozens of officers and emergency vehicles converged on the scene.

Traffic was diverted at Exit 11 (Scajaquada Expressway) until 3 p.m., while it snaked at a crawl on the northbound side.

With traffic shut down, investigators were seen examining the bullet-riddled black Buffalo Sewer Authority pickup truck on the side of the highway. There appeared to be at least 10 bullet holes in the truck. What appeared to be a body was on one side of the truck, covered by a white sheet.

Witnesses said that about noon, they saw dozens of emergency vehicles on the 190, as several state troopers walked along the train tracks to the west of the highway, searching on the ground.

About 3 p.m., a flatbed tow truck carted the Sewer Authority truck away and the southbound lanes reopened.

Earlier Thursday, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz urged anyone headed downtown to avoid I-190 at all costs. He also advised Canadians heading to the Buffalo Bills game Thursday to avoid using the Peace Bridge.

Troopers: Shots fired from sedan on I-190 Friday The Rich Products building was struck by gunfire but no one was hurt, troopers said.

Last month, state police investigated another gun-related incident on the I-190. About 7:12 a.m. Sept. 22, someone fired shots from a dark sedan that was heading north on the I-190 as it passed the Rich Products building at the foot of Ferry Street, hitting the building.

No one was injured in the incident, but troopers investigating said they found multiple bullet holes on the building.

Video gathered from the Sept. 22 scene appears to show a driver and a passenger inside a dark sedan, and investigators believe the passenger fired toward the building. Investigators dont believe the shooter was aiming at another vehicle.

Police said at the Thursday news conference that they have no information that the September incident was connected to what happened Thursday.

State Police said they were working with the Buffalo Police Department and Erie Crime Analysis Center. They asked anyone who was in the area at the time of the shooting who may have witnessed the incident or has dashcam footage from about that time to contact them at 585-344-6200. They confirmed Thruway cameras, which show real-time video of traffic on area highways, dont record.

Gov. Kathy Hochul said Thursday that she had been briefed on the shooting and has directed the New York State Police and the Thruway Authority to work with local law enforcement to provide any assistance necessary as the investigation continues.
Citizens, Community banks

set to close 4 local branches

Two banks are preparing to close a total of four Western New York branches in January.

Community Bank has notified regulators it will close locations at 24 N. Buffalo St. in Springville, and 8036 Route 30 in Cassadaga, in Chautauqua County. Both locations will close Jan. 19.

The locations are among nine planned branch closings in New York State by Community Bank, which is headquartered in suburban Syracuse. Community Bank cited the continued decline of in-person transactions as a factor in its decision.

Citizens Bank will shut its branch at 890 Youngs St. in the City of Tonawanda on Jan. 23, and 800 Harlem Road in West Seneca on Jan. 25. Both branches are inside Tops supermarkets.

"We remain committed to the Western New York market, with plans to add standalone branches over the next several years, in addition to continuing our investment in digital and mobile capabilities," Citizens said in a statement. "In-store branches remain a key part of our overall strategy to help customers bank when, where and how they prefer."

Citizens, which is based in Rhode Island, disclosed plans to close a total of seven branches in New York State, New Jersey and Connecticut.

 Matt Glynn
Will the third time be the charm?

Once again, a development team is taking aim at the former Silver Creek High School in Chautauqua County with hopes of converting the long-vacant building into affordable housing, after more than four decades of disuse.

But this time, the abandoned building is coming down, and a new one will be going up. And the developers want more than $700,000 in tax breaks  plus more lucrative property tax subsidies over 30 years  to make the project work.

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Park Grove Realty of Rochester is partnering with Southern Tier Environments for Living to bring 54 senior apartments to the village.

The Silver Creek Apartments at 58-62 Main St. would include 51 one-bedroom units and three two-bedroom apartments. All units will be affordable to households earning less than 60% of the area median income, and are designated for seniors aged 62 and up. Approximately 15 of the apartments would be set aside as supportive housing for the frail and elderly, with special services provided to the tenants by People Inc.

The project would replace the dilapidated school building, which has been vacant since 1978.

It is the epitome of blight, an eyesore, and a community safety hazard, the project team wrote in its application to the Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency. It has been the site of recent vandalism and other illicit activities. ... Its highly visible location on Main Street is an impediment to investment in the Village of Silver Creek.

Park Grove is an affordable housing developer, while STEL is a nonprofit social services agency historically focused on supporting those with mental illness and other disabilities. The two have teamed up previously for a project in Hamburg, and STEL suggested the Silver Creek school while they discussed other joint ventures, said Allen Handelman, a vice president at Park Grove.

Plans call for acquiring and demolishing the former 57,070-square-foot former school from Chautauqua County  which had previously foreclosed on it from the John G. Sack Estate  for $1, and then spending $20.2 million to construct a 50,574-square-foot apartment building on the 2.3-acre site.
Under a new policy change, active-duty Air Force and Space Force applicants can join up to the age of 42 -- meaning the services are now willing to take the oldest recruits out of all the Department of Defense military branches.

A screenshot of a notice to all air missions, which was first posted on the Air Force amn/nco/snco Facebook page where airmen share inside information, read "the entry age limit has changed from 39 to 42." Leslie Brown, a spokeswoman for the Air Force Recruiting Service, confirmed the memo's information to Military.com and said the policy went into effect Tuesday.

"The Air Force made this change to align with [Department of Defense] policy," Brown told Military.com on Thursday. "This opens the aperture to allow more Americans the opportunity to serve."

Read Next: Maine Manhunt Underway for Army Reservist Suspected in Deadly Shooting Rampage

The new change applies to active-duty airmen and Guardians, both officers and enlisted, Brown added, saying the intention was to give those recruits an opportunity to "to serve a full 20 years since the retirement age is 62. "

The increase in the enlistment age comes nearly one month after the Air Force announced it missed its active-duty enlistment goals for the first time since 1999. Other services have also taken the same approach in recent months.

In November, the Navy raised its maximum enlistment age from 39 to 41, citing the need to "widen the pool of potential recruits, creating opportunities for personnel who wish to serve, but were previously unable due to age."

The sea service's change made it the Department of Defense branch with the oldest potential recruits, but now that distinction goes to the Air Force and Space Force. The Coast Guard, which falls under the Department of Homeland Security, also changed its maximum enlistment age to 42 in November.

In fiscal 2023, which ended last month, the Air Force missed its enlisted active-duty recruiting goals by 11%, getting only 24,100 of the enlisted airmen out of the 26,877 it needed.

Military.com reported this month that of the five Defense Department service branches, only two met their active-duty enlisted recruiting goals for fiscal 2023 -- the Marine Corps and the Space Force, by far the smallest services and with the lightest recruiting burden.

The Army, Air Force and Navy all fell short. Every service -- with the exception of the Marine Corps, which squeaked by, in some cases by just one person -- missed some element of its target numbers, whether from the reserve, National Guard or officer goals.

The Air Force Recruiting Service has been working hard to reverse the trend this fiscal year, issuing a variety of policy changes and new initiatives.

Those included offering medals and promotions for recruiting; streamlining the naturalization process so recruits can become citizens during basic military training; offering reserve bonuses for prior-service airmen; reinstating the Enlisted College Loan Repayment Program; allowing certain tattoos on the hands and neck; and even permitting some recruits who test positive for THC -- the psychoactive component in marijuana -- a chance to retest under a new pilot program.

While those programs did contribute some new recruits and added much-needed numbers this past year, officials believe more progress will be seen in 2024.

Brown told Military.com that the Air Force has already filled all of its job requirements for October, the start of the fiscal year.

"We are cautiously optimistic, though, as we head into FY24," Brown told Military.com last month. "We've seen some positive trends, such as the positive growth of our DEP [delayed-entry program], which is double what it was this time last year.

"It's still lower than we want it to be, but we are continuing to see increases," she said.

Editor's note: This story was updated to include the Coast Guard's recruitment age requirements.

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

Related: Big Bonuses, Relaxed Policies, New Slogan: None of It Saved the Military from a Recruiting Crisis in 2023
WASHINGTON  President Joe Biden met with new House Speaker Mike Johnson and Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries at the White House on Thursday to discuss his request for nearly $106 billion for Israel, Ukraine and other national security needs.

Johnson, a staunch conservative allied with Donald Trump, has shown little interest in providing additional money from Congress to support Ukraine in its war with Russia. Biden met briefly with Johnson and Jeffries before a classified briefing for them and other congressional leaders on the assistance package, according to a White House official.

It was a productive meeting, Johnson told reporters back at the Capitol. I enjoyed my visit with the president.

Johnson, who inherited many of the same political problems that tormented past GOP leaders and challenged their tenure as speaker, had a busy first full day in office. He planned to meet later with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell. Earlier, Johnson said prayer is appropriate as a response to the mass shootings in Maine.

This is a dark time in America, Johnson said at the Capitol. He added: "Prayer is appropriate at a time like this, that the evil can end and the senseless violence can stop.

Johnson, an evangelical Christian, declined to take questions, including about the possibility of any gun violence legislation from Congress.

The House convened with a bustle of activity, making up for lost time during the weeks of chaos since Rep. Kevin McCarthy was ousted as speaker. But the initial goodwill toward Johnson, R-La., blurs the political fault lines challenging his ability to lead the GOP majority in the face of daunting issues ahead.

By Nov. 17, the Congress must fund the government again or risk a federal shutdown. Biden wants nearly $106 billion in military and humanitarian aid for Israel and Ukraine. And Republicans are eager to resume their impeachment inquiry into Biden over his son Hunter's business dealings.

Enough of the chaos, enough of the dysfunction, said Jeffries, D-N.Y., adding it was time for Congress to get back to business.

Jeffries said Democrats were heartbroken over the latest shootings and stand with the people of Maine in every way possible, including discussing how Congress can address gun violence.

The briefing in the Situation Room for Johnson and other House leaders on the emergency funding request was the first time the new speaker, who opposes the aid to Ukraine, was getting a close airing from White House officials about Bidens case for the money. The White House has conducted similar briefings in recent weeks.

Biden had called Johnson to congratulate him after his election Wednesday and said it was time for all of us to act responsibly to fund the government and provide that foreign aid. We need to move swiftly, the president said in a statement.

Johnson, 51, swept through on the first ballot with support from all Republicans anxious to put weeks of tumult behind and get on with the business of governing. He was quickly sworn as speaker and is now second in line to the presidency, after the vice president.

While not the Republicans' top choice, Johnson had few foes and an important backer in Donald Trump.

Hes a tremendous leader, Trump said Wednesday at the New York courthouse where the Republican front-runner for the White House in 2024 is on trial over a lawsuit alleging business fraud.

Johnson heard from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who told Johnson in a call that a bipartisan agreement with Democrats is the only way to avoid a shutdown.

At the Capitol on Thursday, Johnson sat down with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who told reporters afterward that he had a very good meeting with the new speaker.

In winning the gavel, Johnson, who has been in the House for less than a decade, drew together fellow Republicans through his faith, conservative roots and Trumps nod after more seasoned leaders had failed. Far-right members in the House had refused to accept a more traditional speaker, and moderate conservatives did not want a hard-liner.

You watch and see how much this House of Representatives can actually get done under Mike Johnson," said Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, who led the eight hard-liners in ousting McCarthy.

Democrats said Johnson, a lawyer specializing in constitutional issues, was an extreme conservative, a strict opponent of abortion access and an architect of Trump's legal effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election he lost to Democrat Biden.

Republicans have chosen a MAGA acolyte to push an extreme agenda in the House at the expense of middle-class families, said Washington Rep. Suzan DelBene, the chair of the Democrats' campaign committee, referring to Trump's Make America Great Again campaign slogan.

After Johnson's election, lawmakers approved a resolution Wednesday saying the House stands with Israel and condemns Hamas brutal war. They next turned to a stalled government funding bill.

Rather than take a scheduled work period at home, Republicans rearranged the House calendar to return to Washington next week and keep pushing through the various government funding bills before the Nov. 17 deadline.

In a letter to colleagues, Johnson outlined priorities that include providing a short-term funding bill, into next year, to prevent a November shutdown  almost the same move that led to McCarthy's ouster.

While Johnson has spoken of the importance of helping fund Israel in the fight against Hamas, he has shown little interest in providing more money for Ukraine as it battles Russia.

Most Republicans voted against the budget deal McCarthy, R-Calif., struck with Biden earlier this year, demanding steeper spending cuts. Johnson will need to navigate the far-right demands with the realities of keeping the government functioning.

Similar Republican infighting chased three other GOP speakers  John Boehner of Ohio, Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Newt Gingrich of Georgia  to early departures. The difference now is that Republican rules allow any single lawmaker to force a vote to remove the speaker from office, the threat that ultimately toppled McCarthy.

Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in New York, Darlene Superville and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.
The Marine Corps effort to improve conditions in its barracks will likely take a decade, Commandant Gen. Eric Smith said Friday, as the wider military grapples with deteriorated and sometimes squalid on-base housing for troops.

Smith said he is "walking a thin line" between reining in occupancy rates, closing unsatisfactory barracks, and upgrading and building new barracks. He spoke to reporters during an appearance at the Military Reporters and Editors conference in Washington, D.C.

What he called the "Barracks 2030" strategy includes securing more funding and professionalizing the Marine Corps entities tasked with their upkeep. Smith said he and Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Carlos Ruiz have "crossed the line of departure" to start addressing these issues during his tenure, but he expects the problem to outlast his time as commandant and the fixes to take potentially a decade.

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The commandant and sergeant major of the Marine Corps visited Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, on Monday to get a firsthand look at the installation's barracks amid widening concern over the living conditions for troops across the military.

"I think it's a 10-year problem to get out of the barracks issue that we're in," Smith said following the trip, which was also intended to show Congress the need for more funding. "Because frankly, there are not enough construction companies to do it. Costs are extremely high right now."

Clips from the trip to Lejeune were posted in a video on social media Friday promising that the commandant and Ruiz would release more information about the barracks in the next 30 days. The leaders were accompanied by Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro and two members of Congress, Rep. Greg Pence, R-Ind., a Marine Corps veteran, and Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C.

The officials saw the "good, bad and ugly" of Camp Lejeune's barracks, according to the social media post.

"The fact that we're still living in these barracks, we're not helping our cause," Smith said to Marines during the trip. "So, Sgt. Maj [Ruiz] and I [are] working with members of Congress you see here and [the secretary of the Navy] to double the amount of money."

Smith's comments follow a damning Government Accountability Office report last month that detailed disgusting living conditions that many service members are forced to endure -- brown water, insect infestations, squatters -- and systemic issues with the way the Pentagon handles barracks.

According to that report, 17,000 Marines lived in substandard housing as of March, compared to about 5,000 sailors. The other services did not "comprehensively document" substandard living conditions, however, and tracking requirements are not standardized within the Defense Department, so numbers for the Army -- which has received significant criticism for its barracks conditions -- and the Air Force were not available.

Researchers who compiled the GAO report visited Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia and both Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego and Camp Pendleton in California.

The number of Marines assigned to a bedroom, bathroom and kitchenette did not meet Defense Department minimum privacy and configuration standards, according to the GAO report.

"What I saw at Camp Lejeune, purposefully, was our least good barracks, our better barracks, and our best barracks," Smith said during the conference Friday. "We want to move to our best."

Another common concern service members across the military reported to the GAO was that "the quality of maintenance services, such as lack of responsiveness to resident requests," was inadequate.

As the military grapples with long-term fixes for barracks, much of the frustration stems from troops and leaders submitting fixes for flooding, mold or broken utilities -- issues that the average service member cannot fix on their own -- to public works civilians, according to the report.

"We are also looking to professionalize our barracks managers," Smith said. Those managers are service members assigned to handle the housing issues. It is not a military occupational specialty, and oftentimes -- across the military -- junior troops are tasked with the job as an additional duty.

Smith said that he wants experienced technicians with knowledge of the problems that plague the barracks to be the ones interacting with public works.

"I dont want to put a corporal or a sergeant who's not a barracks manager in charge of that barracks. That's how you fix the public works -- with a professional to a professional," he said.

Smith said that there are 652 barracks across the force that are, on average, 32 years old. Some are more than 40 years old, he said.

A Marine Smith spoke to in the posted video said that the maintenance cycles were "always pretty good, but it's always a Band-Aid."

Most services measure barracks quality -- in part -- with mission scores. Mission scores assess the risk to a unit's mission capability "should the barracks facility fail." The higher the score, the more mission critical the barracks is assessed to be. According to the GAO report, which cited Marine Corps officials, Marine barracks gave mission scores below 30 out of a possible total of 100 for their facilities, generally.

Amid funding for body armor and long-range munitions, Smith said, "The barracks and the facilities took a hit.

"It will take us 10 years to get out of the hole," he said, addressing the members of Congress in the video. "I spent about a billion of the $53 billion that I get from you gentlemen.

"So, you'll see us coming seeking support," Smith added.

-- Drew F. Lawrence can be reached at drew.lawrence@military.com. Follow him on X @df_lawrence.

Related: Bedbugs, Brown Water, Squatters: Military Barracks Blasted over Horrid Living Conditions, Lack of Accountability
The Army on Friday redesignated the last of nine installations that had been named after Civil War-era Confederates, completing a process that began nearly three years ago with an order from Congress.

The final base, previously known as Fort Gordon after a Confederate lieutenant general, was renamed Fort Eisenhower during a ceremony Friday on the base's parade field. The new namesake, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, served as the supreme allied commander in Europe during World War II, and also signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957 -- the first civil rights legislation since Reconstruction -- while in the White House, according to his presidential library.

The ceremony closes a chapter of history for the Army and the bases, many of which have played key military roles for generations. The scrubbing of Confederate tributes became a bipartisan effort in Congress following racial unrest across the U.S., including outcry over the police killing of George Floyd. The legislation was carried out by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin -- the first Black person to hold the top post -- over the past year as the military seeks to be more inclusive.

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The country's most iconic bases -- as well as some smaller, less famous facilities -- were nearly all renamed for military heroes and historical figures.

Fort Cavazos in Texas, formerly Fort Hood, was renamed after a Texan who became the first Hispanic four-star general. Fort Moore in Georgia, known before as Fort Benning, took its name from Hal Moore, who fought in the battle of Ia Drang Valley during the Vietnam War, and his wife Julia, who helped develop the military's casualty notification process and survivor support teams.

The only exception to using the namesakes of heroes and historical figures is Fort Liberty, which had previously been named Fort Bragg after a Civil War general generally considered to be a lackluster leader.

"The names of these installations and facilities should inspire all those who call them home, fully reflect the history and the values of the United States, and commemorate the best of the republic that we are all sworn to protect," Austin said in October 2022, when he ordered the renaming process to begin.

Congress ordered the creation of the independent Naming Commission, which worked with the Pentagon to inventory all of the military's contemporary references to the Confederacy, which waged war against the U.S. to preserve the slave trade. It found nine Army bases and several buildings commemorating rebel officers, in addition to a monument honoring Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery.

The bases were renamed one by one in ceremonies this year, ending with Fort Eisenhower on Friday.

"Rising from second lieutenant to commander-in-chief, Eisenhower's extensive, innovative, and effective military experience and leadership shaped our modern world," Maj. Gen. Paul Stanton, Fort Eisenhower's commander, said in a statement. "His dedication to ensuring equal rights for soldiers and citizens alike continues to be an example and inspiration for the present and future soldiers of the Army he so faithfully served and decisively led."

The installation is home to the Cyber Center of Excellence, the nucleus for the Army's cyberspace operations and electronic warfare training and doctrine development.

Eisenhower finalized work started by President Harry Truman to desegregate the military.

After the Supreme Court declared school segregation was unconstitutional, the Arkansas governor deployed the National Guard in 1957 to prevent Black students from attending a historically white school in Little Rock. Eisenhower deployed the 101st Airborne Division to ensure the safety of those students, and he later federalized the Arkansas Guard.

The landmark Civil Rights Act of 1957 laid much of the foundation for basic legal protections for minorities.

The Army base's original namesake, John Gordon, was a plantation owner and a general in the Confederate army. After the war, he served as a state legislator, senator and eventually governor of Georgia. He died in 1904.

During the Battle of Sharpsburg in Maryland, Gordon was shot five times, including in the face, by U.S. forces. Gordon, a slave owner, is largely believed to have been the leader of the Ku Klux Klan in Georgia, a rank in the group known as "Grand Dragon."

-- Steve Beynon can be reached at Steve.Beynon@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevenBeynon.

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DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip  Israeli forces backed by fighter jets and drones carried out a second ground raid into Gaza in as many days and struck targets on the outskirts of Gaza City, the military said Friday, as it prepares for a widely expected ground invasion of the Hamas-ruled territory.

U.S. warplanes, meanwhile, struck targets in eastern Syria that the Pentagon said were linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guard after a string of attacks on American forces, and two mysterious objects hit towns in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, adding to the already high tensions fueled by the three-week-old Gaza war.

The Palestinian death toll has soared past 7,000 as Israel has carried out waves of devastating airstrikes in response to a bloody Hamas incursion into southern Israel on Oct. 7. The Health Ministry in Gaza, which tracks the toll, released a detailed list of names and identification numbers on Thursday. The toll includes more than 2,900 minors and more than 1,500 women.

The overall number of deaths far exceeds the combined toll of all four previous wars between Israel and Hamas, estimated at around 4,000.

More than 1,400 people in Israel, mostly civilians, were slain during the initial Hamas attack, according to the Israeli government. Hamas is holding at least 229 captives inside Gaza, including men, women, children and older adults.

The airstrikes have flattened entire neighborhoods, causing a level of death and destruction unseen in the last four wars between Israel and Hamas. More than a million people have fled their homes, with many heeding Israeli orders to evacuate to the south, despite continuing Israeli strikes across the sealed-off territory.

The humanitarian crisis sparked by the war and the Israeli siege has sparked protests across the region, and more demonstrations were expected later Friday after weekly Muslim prayers.

The military said ground forces raided inside Gaza, striking dozens of militant targets over the past 24 hours. It said aircraft and artillery bombed targets in Shijaiyah, a neighborhood on Gaza City's outskirts that was the scene of an urban battle in the 2014 Gaza war.

The military said the soldiers exited the territory without suffering any casualties. It reported an earlier, hourslong raid into northern Gaza early Thursday.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesman, said the raids enable forces to uncover the enemy, to kill militants and to remove explosives and launch pads. The aim is to prepare the ground for the next stages of the war, he added.

The damage to Gaza from nearly three weeks of bombardment showed in satellite photos of several locations taken before the war and again in recent days.

Entire rows of residential buildings simply disappear in the photos, reduced to smears of dust and rubble. A complex of 13 high-rises by the sea was pounded to dust near Gaza City's al-Shati refugee camp, leaving only a few tottering bits of facade, according to the photos by Maxar Technologies.

The military says it only strikes militant targets and accuses Hamas of operating among civilians in an attempt to protect its fighters. The Israeli military said that an airstrike killed one of two masterminds of the Oct. 7 massacre, Shadi Barud, the head of Hamas intelligence unit.

Palestinian militants have fired thousands of rockets into Israel since the war began.

Hamas military wing said Thursday that Israeli bombardment has so far killed about 50 of the hostages. There was no immediate comment from Israeli officials, who have denied previous, similar claims.

The conflict has threatened to ignite a wider war across the region.

Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed ally of Hamas in Lebanon, has repeatedly traded fire with Israel along the border, and Israel has carried out airstrikes targeting Iran-linked groups in Syria. The United States has sent two aircraft carrier strike groups to the region, along with additional fighter jets and other weaponry and personnel, in part to deter Iran and its allies from entering the war on the side of Hamas.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that the strikes in eastern Syria were a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on Oct. 17. He said the operation was separate from the Israel-Hamas war.

Iran-backed fighters later fired rockets at an oil facility housing U.S. troops in eastern Syria, according to Syrian opposition activists. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the U.S. strikes had wounded seven Iran-backed Iraqi fighters.

Egypt's military said a drone crashed into a building in the Red Sea town of Taba, on the border with Israel, slightly wounding six people. State media had initially said it was a rocket. In a separate incident, the state-run Al-Qahera news said a strange object landed near a power station in the Red Sea town of Nuweiba, further south. Footage showed debris and smoke rising from the side of a nearby mountain.

Hagari, the Israeli military spokesperson, said an aerial threat was identified in the area of the Red Sea, which appeared to be the source of the Taba incident. He said that fighter jets were dispatched to the area and that Israel, Egypt and the U.S. were tightening their defenses in the region.

Last week, a U.S. Navy destroyer in the northern Red Sea shot down three cruise missiles and several drones launched toward Israel by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in northern Yemen.

In Gaza, supplies of food, medicine and fuel for powering emergency generators are running low. The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, which provides basic services to hundreds of thousands of people, including operating schools turned into shelters, has said it may run out of fuel within days.

Gaza's sole power station shut down because of a lack of fuel days after the start of the war, and Israel has barred all fuel deliveries, saying it believes Hamas would steal them for military purposes.

About 1.4 million of Gazas 2.3 million residents have fled their homes, with nearly half of them crowding into U.N. shelters. Hundreds of thousands remain in northern Gaza, despite Israel ordering them to evacuate to the south and saying that those who remain might be considered accomplices of Hamas.

In recent days, Israel has allowed more than 70 trucks with aid enter from Egypt through the Rafah crossing, the only entry point into Gaza not controlled by Israel. But aid workers say the convoys meet only a tiny fraction of the territory's mounting humanitarian needs. Before the war, an average of 500 trucks entered Gaza each day.

The U.S. has been working with other mediators to send in more humanitarian aid, but Israel is demanding strict screening to make sure none falls into the hands of Hamas. The U.S. says Hamas has refused to open the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing to let hundreds of foreign passport holders leave.

The head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said that its aid operations were crumbling, citing distressing reports from local staff.

For the first time ever, they report that now people are hungry. Philippe Lazarini told reporters in Jerusalem. Civil order is collapsing.

___

Mroue reported from Beirut. Najib Jobain in Rafah, Gaza Strip and Brian Melley in London, contributed to this report.
Soldiers at Fort Cavazos, Texas, may have difficulty getting corrective vision surgeries such as LASIK until at least January because of a doctor shortage.

After a week of inquiries from Military.com, a spokesperson for the base's medical center said that refractive eye surgeries -- which can alleviate or fix farsightedness, nearsightedness and astigmatism -- are being "reduced and prioritized to ensure we meet the soldier readiness mission." The issue affects LASIK surgeries, the most popular type of refractive surgery, as well as another procedure known as PRK.

While a sign at one of the base's clinics -- a picture of which was sent to Military.com by a source last week -- said the surgeries were suspended, the spokesperson pushed back on that characterization and said the sign has since been removed.

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"Like many health care systems, both military and civilian, Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center is experiencing provider shortages in certain areas such as optometry and ophthalmology," Rodney Jackson, the spokesperson for the medical center, said in emailed answers to Military.com.

"As LASIK and PRK surgeries are considered elective surgeries, this capability does not take priority over annual vision readiness requirements for soldiers," Jackson added. "We expect this capability gap to last for approximately 90 days."

While refractive eye surgery is considered an elective procedure under most insurance plans, the Fort Cavazos medical center's own website emphasizes the benefits the surgeries can have on a soldier's ability to be mission-ready.

"Operating complicated sighting systems, wearing protective masks or night vision goggles, working in rain, mud and sand present challenges to those dependent on corrective lenses," the website says. "Surveys from redeploying soldiers who had refractive surgery before deployment praised the surgery as increasing their combat effectiveness and overall confidence to perform the mission."

Jackson did not cite any specific alternatives for soldiers who can't get LASIK or PRK while services are reduced at the base medical center, but said patients can talk to their primary care doctor or, for an eye emergency, visit the emergency room.

He also did not directly answer what the base will do in the next 90 days to ensure it can get back to the regular pace of surgeries beyond saying there are "many hiring actions outstanding."

While Jackson pointed to national trends of physician shortages to explain Fort Cavazos' issue, doctor shortages have also popped up throughout the military health care system since the 2017 defense policy bill required a massive restructure of the system. Management of hundreds of hospitals and clinics, including at Fort Cavazos, moved from the military services to the Defense Health Agency.

Plans to cut thousands of medical billets as part of the restructuring have been repeatedly paused, but some downsizing has effectively already happened as vacant jobs go unfilled.

The staffing shortages have pushed patients into civilian care in the community, sometimes in areas where local facilities can't support such an influx. A 2022 watchdog report found the shortages contributed to staff being stretched thin and burned out.

The reduction of the eye surgeries at Fort Cavazos is also the latest issue affecting quality of life on the base.

Over the summer, soldiers had difficulty accessing food services as most of the dining facilities were either closed or open only during limited hours, and the base was posting conflicting information about schedules. The dining problems meant some junior soldiers, many without cars, had to find a way to get to a dining facility a 30-minute drive away.

The dining facility issues were caused by leaders' struggle to juggle logistics while most of the base's cooks were away for deployments, missions, field training or other events.

-- Steve Beynon contributed to this report.

-- Rebecca Kheel can be reached at rebecca.kheel@military.com. Follow her on X @reporterkheel.

Related: Fort Cavazos Soldiers Have Been Without Proper Access to Food for Months
The National Guard is behind paying at least 9,000 soldiers the bonuses they were promised for signing up, according to a service component source with direct knowledge of the situation, with some soldiers and their families telling Military.com that payments have been missing for years.

The delays are so severe that Guard officials are tracking an additional 3,900 soldiers who completed their service and left the military without getting any bonus payment, though some may have lost eligibility.

"I was really relying on this money to help with moving into a new place with my wife," one soldier said, while explaining that the first half of his $20,000 enlistment bonus was a year overdue. "I did my end of things, and this is a really bad introduction to the Army, not taking care of people."

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The bonuses are a key part of the Army National Guard's pitch: Do part-time service and the occasional deployment in exchange for many of the benefits tied to serving in the military. Hefty enlistment bonuses, often as high as $20,000, are meant to sweeten the deal.

Soldiers are typically supposed to receive the first payment of their enlistment bonuses after completing initial service training. The National Guard considers payments late if more than 30 days have elapsed since training was completed and no payment has been made. But that 30-day goal is not codified in any policy, leaving soldiers with little recourse to raise complaints when payments are overdue. Bonuses are usually paid out in chunks, with the second half being disbursed halfway through soldiers' first contracts.

"While nearly 94% of our Soldiers eligible to receive an enlistment bonus have received it, we are working very hard to reconcile the remaining 6% because we hold ourselves to higher standards and believe one overdue payment to an otherwise eligible Soldier is one too many," Col. Danielle MacDonnell, division chief, Army National Guard G1 operations, told Military.com in a statement.

The average time for receiving the first payment for a bonus is six months, Guard officials tell Military.com, though soldiers and families have reported that it can take years.

The issue, according to officials, is the accumulated effect of undermanned, poorly trained or poorly performing full-time staff working with a payment-processing system that has faced multiple long-term catastrophic outages. That's meant staff members have had to repeatedly track and process payments manually.

The Army National Guard Incentive Management System, or GIMS, was first rolled out in 2012, allowing states to manage and monitor incentives. It was designed to streamline the process and mitigate fraud and abuse.

But the system crashed in late 2018 and was inoperable for about 10 months; another 10-month outage occurred in 2021. While the system was down, bonuses had to be filed through a complicated manual process, creating a backlog that states are still trying to fix.

"GIMS created some challenges for us," one Guard official said. "Over the last couple of years, we've gotten through many of those hurdles, but it has attributed [sic] to overdue bonus payments."

Two adjutants general, top commanders in their respective states, described discovering their staff tracking enlistment bonuses on dry-erase boards or through email traffic and handwritten notes. In some cases, top brass became aware of the problem through soldiers using the so-called open door policy -- skipping the chain of command to report issues. Some soldiers have escalated their issues through complaints to their representatives in Congress.

About a year ago, the National Guard Bureau stood up incentive oversight teams that try to fix some of the issues at the state level, though correcting the problems will likely take years.

The bulk of Guard soldiers are part-time, and in many cases do not have easy access to the staff who could help fix bonus problems. Those junior enlisted soldiers are also often unfamiliar with the bureaucracy of the National Guard and, therefore, unaware how to properly follow up on payment issues.

Full-time Guard staff are frequently mid-ranking soldiers, often required to perform a range of tasks unrelated to their original job. For example, an infantryman looking for a full-time job in the Guard might find themselves in an administrative role. But juggling the multiple clunky online systems that the Guard relies upon comes with a steep learning curve, and some states have struggled to track work by full-time staff.

Several soldiers told Military.com that these staff members performing administrative functions claimed the state was out of money, pointing to expensive training events like Combat Training Center rotations. However, the money for benefits is centralized and not impacted by any respective budgets on the state level.

"There is frankly a lot of misinformation on the [unit] level. It isn't their fault, and it's something I'm trying to fix," one state's adjutant general told Military.com on the condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation. "The soldiers are frustrated. Of course  why would they stick around? Sometimes people have been lazy too. The soldier shouldn't be coming to us  for their money. We should just pay our bills on time."

The National Guard has a rocky history with accurately administering enlistment bonuses. During the peak of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the California National Guard sought recoupment of $195 million in enlistment bonuses issued in error from more than 17,000 troops, including some who were wounded in combat, marking one of the largest incentives-related scandals in the past decade.

A report from the Government Accountability Office found that California had been handing out bonuses higher than what was authorized in the budget. That misuse of funds is what spurred GIMS to be built.

The California National Guard's incentives manager, Master Sgt. Toni Jaffe, was sentenced to 30 months in prison in 2012 and ordered to pay $15 million. She admitted in court to routinely fudging information on Guard members to juice up bonuses because she said she felt pressure to fulfill recruiting quotas.

The years-long recoupment process drew the ire of congressional leadership, which scrambled for legislative solutions until the Pentagon eventually waived the debt and let those Guardsmen keep their bonuses and reimbursed those who had paid them back.

Soldiers who have been out of the Army National Guard for more than a year can submit a claim for unpaid bonuses at this link.

-- Steve Beynon can be reached at Steve.Beynon@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevenBeynon.

Related: Army Reserve Education Benefits Collapse Halts Fall Semester Enrollments
Navy Federal Credit Union has received the contract to manage the Department of Defense's overseas Community Banks. It will take over the contract from Bank of America in the spring of 2024. While this should have no direct impact on the services of DoD Community Banks, customers may see some small changes here and there. No action is required on the part of any Community Bank customer.

What Is Community Bank?

The Department of Defense operates Community Bank through the Overseas Military Banking Program. Under this program, a contracted U.S. financial institution operates DoD-authorized banks. The Defense Finance and Accounting Service, or DFAS, manages the Community Bank contract in conjunction with military representatives. DoD Community Banks provide 60 banks and 275 ATMs in 10 countries throughout Europe and the Pacific region. DoD Community Bank locations offer traditional banking, plus country-specific products and services. This makes it easier for installation commands, organizations and individual customers to manage money in local currency, including paying bills directly. Customers can maintain both U.S. dollar and local currency accounts at the same institution, which helps reduce some of the financial challenges of living outside of the United States.

What Is Navy Federal Credit Union?

Navy Federal Credit Union is the world's largest credit union, serving all Department of Defense and Coast Guard active-duty members, veterans, civilians, contractors and their families. It is member-owned and not for profit. Navy Federal has more than 350 branches around the world.

Will My Accounts Stay with Bank of America?

No. While Bank of America has managed the DoD Community Bank program, your accounts are actually with Community Bank. Your Community Bank accounts will remain with Community Bank.

Do I Need to Join Navy Federal?

No. While Navy Federal will be managing the DoD Community Bank, being a Navy Federal member will not mean you are a customer of DoD Community Bank, and being a customer of Community Bank will not mean you are a Navy Federal member. It's possible that you may have two Navy Federal-run financial institutions on your installation -- one Navy Federal and one DoD Community Bank. But they will remain separate entities.

When Is This Happening?

The transition period has already begun, and full implementation of the transition is expected to happen in the spring. Navy Federal then has a one-year contract, with eight one-year options.

Will My Banking Information Change?

No. Your DoD Community Bank account numbers and other information will not change. Automatic transfers and direct deposits should be unaffected. DoD Community Bank will continue to operate as usual. You may see changed logos and branding, as the program will officially be known as "Community Bank, operated by Navy Federal Credit Union."

I'm So Confused!

If this seems confusing, think about it like a change of ownership at your local Subway sandwich shop. If the old shop owner sells the business to a new shop owner, it still remains a Subway sandwich shop. Your loyalty program points are still the same, and it takes the same coupons. The name on the back end changes, but your experience buying a sandwich is exactly the same. The transition of DoD Community Bank management from Bank of America to Navy Federal should not require any action on your part, and operations should continue uninterrupted and unchanged. But you will be seeing Navy Federal's name on your Community Bank building and materials, so don't be surprised -- or worried!

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When it comes to informing the public about the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' public works, nothing is more effective, it turns out, than highlighting the information with adorable giant cats.

In 2023, Oregon's Portland District of the Corps of Engineers released a free, downloadable calendar that showed locks, jetties, dams and other infrastructure punctuated with photoshopped house cats. To everyone's surprise, it was downloaded more than half a million times.

"I realize that in the realm of internet virality, 'hundreds of thousands' seems kind of small. But it's all relative," Chris Gaylord, the Portland District's public affairs specialist, told Military.com. "For us, that's enough to be considered viral -- especially when you lump it in with the news coverage and social media engagement the calendar received."

The 2023 effort was so successful that Gaylord was "pretty much guaranteed" to make a 2024 calendar. The new calendar will be released to the public on Oct. 30, 2023, via the homepage of the Portland District Corps of Engineers website -- and this year, there will also be a companion dog calendar.

"Tracking all of the discussion [and] engagement about the 2023 cat calendar, lots of folks asked about a dog calendar or recommended we make one," Gaylord said. "Adding dogs to the mix, in my mind, would be a great way to create something special for almost everyone."

An excerpt from the 2024 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Dog Calendar. (Portland District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)

The Army Corps of Engineers' mission is vitally important to American infrastructure and defense. It manages flood control systems, builds and operates locks and dams, surveys 244 navigable river miles and keeps those rivers and ports navigable, all while building facilities for every branch of the military. The Portland District has been operating in this capacity since 1871, and today it makes billions of dollars in commercial shipping possible.

Gaylord is the creator of the original calendar and manages the district's social media outreach. He created the first cat calendar in October 2022 by using images from a Facebook post during 2021's National Cat Day. Not only did the post generate a significant amount of engagement, but Gaylord found it was a good way to get the message out about the Corps' many missions and projects.

"The philosophy that drives our social media is that humor is a gateway to a message," he said. "If you don't find a way to pull people in, then you're going to fade away into all the white noise. Simple as that, in my mind. Humor and levity through jokes, puns, memes, trends, pop culture references, etc., is an effective way to bring people in and even to teach them something in the process."

An excerpt from the 2024 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Cat Calendar. (Portland District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)

"People love cats. Giant cats interacting with government infrastructure? Even better," he added. "It's a delivery method for information. It gets us some awareness and exposure, but in a way that doesn't feel too overpowering and that doesn't take for granted the attention of our public audiences. We also want folks to know that we're not just some faceless bureaucracy. And what better way to do that than by putting a giant cat's face on the front of an official calendar?"

The new calendars are not only filled with lovable cats and dogs on Corps of Engineers infrastructure projects, they are the actual companion animals of the people who work for the district. It's fun, but also a congratulatory nod to the people who make all these improvements possible.

"The thing is, we do a ton of really important work for the people of the Pacific Northwest and beyond," Gaylord says. "We're one of the Corps' largest and most diversified civil works districts. The work we do is critical and, to us, also exciting. But even so, it doesn't always grip the average person in the social media sphere. We have to find a way to give info a little glow-up. These calendars are a prime example of exactly how we do that."

-- Blake Stilwell can be reached at blake.stilwell@military.com. He can also be found on Facebook, X or on LinkedIn.

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A dozen former jail inmates filed lawsuits Wednesday against Erie, Niagara and Chautauqua counties, accusing corrections officers of sexually abusing them while they were incarcerated.

The 12 cases aimed at the three counties seek $245 million in damages. They are among about 50 Adult Survivors Act lawsuits filed this week against counties across the state that accuse county jail guards of molesting inmates.

They follow an explosion of hundreds of similar lawsuits filed earlier this year against New York State that contain similar accusations against state prison officers.

In lawsuits against Erie County, eight women who were inmates in the Erie County Correctional Facility or Erie County Holding Center between 1996 and 2018 accused corrections officers and two kitchen workers  none of whom were fully identified  of having illegal sexual contact with them, ranging from forcible touching of their breasts to oral sex to vaginal and anal rape.

Many of the women claimed they were abused on multiple occasions, with one saying two workers in the kitchen staff at the correctional facility in Alden had assaulted her about 70 times in the kitchens walk-in freezer. One of those workers threatened to strangle her if she told anyone, her lawsuit claimed.

That woman, and two others, reported the sexual contact to Erie County authorities, but no disciplinary action was taken against the accused jail guards or kitchen staff, according to the lawsuits.

The eight cases against Erie County could be troublesome, considering that the State Commission of Correction and state attorney general in 2021 sued then-Erie County Sheriff Timothy B. Howard, accusing him of not properly reporting or investigating sexual misconduct between inmates and staff at the two jails he oversaw.

For years, the Sheriffs Office turned a blind eye to rampant sexual misconduct allegations at its correctional facilities, Attorney General Letitia James said in announcing the 2021 lawsuit.

James comment may help the women suing Erie County, said Adam Slater, of Slater Slater Schulman law firm, who is representing them.

Its a very big deal. There is plenty of other evidence that the system had notice (of the abuses). But having Attorney General Letitia James say that in court papers is very helpful to us, Slater said.

Slater said his firm on Wednesday filed more cases against Erie County than against any of the states 61 other counties.

Sgt. Jeremy Lehning, the public information officer for Sheriff John Garcia, declined Thursday to comment on the new lawsuits against the county and the sheriffs office. He referred questions to the County Attorneys Office. County Attorney Jeremy Toth declined to comment.

Federal and state laws treat sexual contact between a corrections officer and an inmate as a crime. The state penal law notes that because of the power imbalance, inmates in New Yorks jails and prisons are incapable of consenting to sex with guards.

Chautauqua County was hit Wednesday with three Adult Survivor Act lawsuits from former inmates who accused former county corrections officer Jeffrey Swan of sexually abusing them in the county jail in 1995, 1996 and 2013.

Swan was convicted in 2014 of a felony count of third degree criminal sexual act, the Chautauqua County District Attorneys Office told The Buffalo News on Thursday. He admitted he had sexual contact with another inmate in the jail. Swan was sentenced to 10 years probation in August 2014, according to the Chautauqua County District Attorneys Office.

Chautauqua County in 2016 settled two other lawsuits filed by two female inmates who accused Swan of abusing them in the county jail, according to federal court documents. WRFA reported the county paid $150,000 to settle the case.

One former female inmate sued Niagara County on Wednesday, accusing Corrections Officer David Elliott of molesting her seven to eight times in 2012.

Elliott was charged in 2012 with a misdemeanor count of sexual abuse and official misconduct after he was accused of having sexual contact with an inmate at the Niagara County Jail while on duty, The News reported.

In 2013, Elliott was granted a six-month adjournment in contemplation of dismissal of the charges, The News reported. He was suspended without pay by the Niagara County Sheriffs Office after charges were leveled against him and was later dismissed, according to The News archives.

The Slater Slater Schulman law firm, based in New York City, filed the majority of the Adult Survivors Act lawsuits on Wednesday against the counties.

Slater said the rush of cases is because the deadline for filing Adult Survivors Act lawsuits for reported abuse that happened years ago is Nov. 24. The act, passed by the State Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul in May 2022, opened a one-year window to file lawsuits that had been barred under the states statute of limitations.

Many women molested in prison by corrections officers were afraid to tell authorities and pursue lawsuits while they were incarcerated, Slater said. Corrections officers and staff members control every aspect of these womens lives when theyre in jail, he noted.

In some cases, by the time the women were released from custody, the deadline for filing a civil claim against a county or city over a sexual assault had passed, he said.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI  The man believed to be responsible for the kidnapping and death of 2-year-old Wynter Cole-Smith will not face the death penalty, U.S. Attorney Mark Totten announced Thursday.

In a one-sentence decision, filed Oct. 26 in the U.S. District Court of West Michigan, Totten gave notice of intent not to seek the death penalty against 26-year-old Rashad Maleek Trice.

Related: Details in girls killing staggering, federal prosecutor says

Trice was arraigned on Aug. 7 on one count of kidnapping resulting in death and one count of kidnapping a minor. If convicted, the latter charge carries a minimum of 20 years in prison with a maximum of life.

The former charge would result in a mandatory life sentence. It could have also carried a penalty of death.

The last person to face the death penalty in Michigan was Anthony Chebatoris, who was hanged in 1938 for armed robbery and murder.

Only one person, Marvin Gabrion II, is on death row in Michigan at this time. Gabrion II was convicted in 2002 for the 1997 kidnapping and murder of 19-year-old Rachel Timmerman, who had accused him of rape.

While Michigan does not have the death penalty, both Chebatoris and Gabrion, like Trice, were facing federal charges for acts that occurred on federal property in Michigan.

Related: Facing death penalty, Marvin Gabrions appeal rejected in 1997 killing of Rachel Timmerman

Trice, who has avoided a possible death penalty, is accused by authorities of having kidnapped Wynter from her Lansing home on Sunday morning, July 2. The childs mother was allegedly assaulted by Trice  an ex-boyfriend of hers  who police said then stole the womans car and took the child.

Trice was arrested seven hours later in St. Clair Shores when the stolen vehicle was spotted and a short pursuit took place. The pursuit ended when Trice crashed into a police cruiser.

Wynter was not in the vehicle when Trice was arrested and a massive statewide search for the girl ensued.

Trice, once apprehended, stated words to the effect of, I am already a monster, an FBI agent wrote in the federal complaint.

Late July 5, a federal search team found Wynters body in an alley near Coleman A. Young International Airport in Detroit. She appeared to have been strangled with a pink cell phone cord, authorities said. Two days later, U.S. prosecutors announced the charges against Trice.

U.S. Attorney Mark Totten speaks Monday, Aug. 7, outside of the Gerald R. Ford Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse where Rashad Maleek Trice, 26, was arraigned on charges in the killing of 2-year-old Wynter Cole Smith. (John Agar|MLive)

The facts, the alleged facts in this case, are staggering, and my deepest sympathies go out to the mother, to the father and to the family in this case, Totten said outside the federal courthouse Aug. 7 in Grand Rapids.

Related: Nessel files murder charges against man accused in 2-year-olds kidnapping, strangling

In addition to the federal charges, State Attorney General Dana Nessels is prosecuting Trice with 20 other misdemeanors and felonies for crimes committed in Ingham, Macomb and Wayne counties.

Those charges include:
DETROIT  Two men are facing charges in two robberies of U.S. Postal Service mail carriers; one of the suspects is an Amazon Flex delivery driver, WXYZ Detroit reports.

Michael Smith-Ellis, an Amazon driver, and Terrance Tucker are accused of carrying out two robberies together in which they allegedly accosted mail carriers and demanded their arrow key, which can open any postal box, the report said. The first one happened on Sept. 25 in Taylor. The second was on Tuesday in Northville Township; both suspects were arrested that same day.

RELATED: Suspects rob mail carrier of keys to USPS blue collection boxes

They are each charged with five crimes, including robbery/theft of mail, money or property of the United States, the report said. These are federal charges.

Federal investigators learned from a source that Smith-Ellis is an Amazon driver and allegedly would rob mailboxes late at night or early in the morning while making deliveries, the report said.
COLUMBUS, Ohio  Computers have a reputation for solving complex problems; pigeons not so much.

However, a new study from researchers at Ohio State University suggests perhaps pigeons dont get enough credit for their intelligence.

The study, published last week in the journal iScience, provides evidence that pigeons are capable of solving problems that have stumped humans by approaching them less like people and more like computers.

We found really strong evidence that the mechanisms guiding pigeon learning are remarkably similar to the same principles that guide modern machine learning and AI techniques, said Brandon Turner, lead author of the study and professor of psychology at Ohio State University.

Our findings suggest that in the pigeon, nature may have found a way to make an incredibly efficient learner that has no ability to generalize or extrapolate like humans would.

To demonstrate this, Turner and colleague Edward Wasserman, a professor of psychology at the University of Iowa, trained pigeons to sort visual patterns into categories, and then compared the way they learned with how AI solved the same problem.

The pigeons were shown images of different patterns -- lines at different angles and thicknesses, concentric circles and sections of circles -- and trained to peck a button on the right or left to indicate to which one of two categories it belonged to. The birds were rewarded with a food pellet for correct responses and received nothing for incorrect responses.

Through trial and error and association, the pigeons improved their ability to correctly sort the patterns, increasing the percentage of correct choices in one of the easier experiments from about 55% to 95%, and from 55% to 68% for a more difficult sorting task.

The method the birds used is called associative learning, in which two phenomena are linked. A dog learning to associate the behavior of sitting on command with receiving a treat is a simple example of the same method.

The authors say that this type of learning has been generally considered too primitive for more advanced tasks like the visual sorting the pigeons were trained to do, and so it was surprising that not only were the pigeons able to use it effectively, but when the researchers gave an AI model the exact same task, it approached the problem the exact same way.

And, like the birds, the AI model learned to make the right predictions to significantly increase the number of correct answers.

By contrast, humans, naturally try to identify a rule for sorting that would make the task easier, and because this problem was designed without simple rules, people find it frustrating and tend to give up, said Turner.

Yet pigeons, despite their reputation as dim-witted animals, have evolved a very similar learning method to human-designed AI.

Pigeons dont try to make rules. They just use this brute force way of trial and error and associative learning, said Turner. And like computers, In some specific types of tasks, that helps them perform better than humans.
A Buffalo man shot by police on Hertel Avenue in March 2022 as he charged at them with a knife was sentenced Friday to two years in prison.

Erie County Judge Kenneth Case also sentenced Dominique D. Thomas to two years of post-release supervision.

Thomas  who has schizophrenia and a history of mental illness, according to his brother  pleaded guilty in county court in August to menacing a police officer.

Thomas, 32, was shot six times shortly after 4:30 a.m. March 14, 2022, outside an apartment building at Hertel Avenue and Shoshone Street. Police were called to the building after someone called 911 to report someone was trying to kill him.

The Buffalo Police Department released body-worn camera footage after the incident that showed police encountering Thomas in a stairwell inside the building. Thomas had a knife and police asked Thomas to follow them outside.

Officers attempted to de-escalate the situation prior to shooting Thomas, who ran forward toward police, who had ordered Thomas to drop the knife.

Prior to the shooting, police at the scene called for an ambulance to take Thomas to the hospital for a psychiatric evaluation. The ambulance was on the way to the scene when Thomas was shot, police previously said.

The officers who fired the shots, Phillip Edwards and Michael Ramos, were cleared of criminal wrongdoing by the Erie County District Attorneys Office.

Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph A. Gramaglia has previously said that it was possible that if police had less-lethal weapons, like a Taser or Bola Wrap, which shoots a lassolike device, that could have helped.

At the time of the shooting, Buffalo police officers were in the midst of being trained and equipped with Tasers.

About a week before the shooting, Thomas called police and asked them to take him to the hospital for psychiatric treatment.
DETROIT  A former Michigan police officer has pleaded guilty to charges related to accepting bribes from a towing company operator, officials announced.

Michael Stout, 61, of St. Clair Shores, who resigned from the Hamtramck Police Department in 2020, took bribes while employed as a police officer, according to a news release from U.S. Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of Michigan.

Those bribes included a vehicle and $1,500 cash, according to court records. In return, he provided information from a restricted law enforcement database known as the Michigan Law Enforcement Information Network, or LEIN.

For example, when the towing operator called Stout and told him he was worried that a police vehicle was following him, Stout had someone else search LEIN to determine whether it was a police car.

Stout pleaded guilty to bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

The public needs the commitment of their police officers to uphold the rule of law, not to break it for their own financial gain. Todays guilty plea underscores our commitment to ensure that officers who violate the public trust and accept bribes will answer for their crimes, U.S. Attorney Dawn N. Ison said in a statement.

Stout is scheduled to be sentenced at 1:30 p.m. on Feb. 29 before U.S. District Judge Matthew F. Leitman.

Others charged related to this bribery investigation are John F. Kennedy, 57, of Rochester Hills; Michael Pacteles, 44, of Southgate; Alonzo Jones, 55, of Detroit; Daniel S. Vickers, 54, of Livonia; and Detroit City Council member Andre Spivey.

Kennedy was sentenced in April to 30 months in prison. Spivey was sentenced during January 2022 to two years in prison. Vickers was sentenced to 27 months in prison earlier this year. Jones was sentenced during summer 2022 to 15 months. Pacteles pleaded guilty earlier this year.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has ordered flags to be lowered to half-mast in the wake of a mass shooting in Maine.

The order, made in accordance with a proclamation by President Joe Biden, includes all U.S. and Michigan flags within the State Capitol complex and upon all public buildings and grounds across the state of Michigan.

The flags will remain lowered through sunset on Monday, Oct. 30 to honor and remember the victims of the shooting, which occurred at a bowling alley and bar in Lewiston on Monday.

In the wake of yet another unthinkable tragedy, our hearts go out to the people of Lewiston, Maine, Whitmer said in a statement. Michiganders know the pain and heartache Mainers are feeling all too well, and we stand with them during this difficult time.

We owe it to the victims and their families, and to all who have lost loved ones to gun violence, to take action in every corner of this nation. We must come together to enact sensible gun safety measures and ensure that the constant threat of gun violence no longer defines us.

At least 18 people were killed and many others injured in the shooting at Schemengees Bar and Grille and Just-in-Time Recreation bowling alley.

Michigan residents, businesses, schools, local governments and other organizations also are encouraged to display the flag at half-staff.

State officials are reminding the public that flags should be hoisted first to the peak for an instant and then lowered to the half-staff position. The process is reversed before the flag is lowered for the day.

Flags should be returned to full-staff on Halloween.
DETROIT  A Michigan man has been sentenced to prison for crimes related to three violent carjackings, including one where he fired an assault rifle at a teen driver, authorities said.

Gregory Horsley, 20, of Detroit, is sentenced to nine years in federal prison after being convicted of two attempted carjackings and one completed carjacking, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorneys Office, Eastern District of Michigan.

All three incidents happened on May 14, 2021, when Horsley targeted strangers who were stopped in their vehicles near the intersection of 13 Mile Road and Evergreen in Beverly Hills, Mich.

In the first incident, Horsley approached a 16-year-old driver, produced a loaded assault rifle and pointed it at the victim. The teen drove off and Horsley fired the weapon, striking the vehicle.

In the next incident, Horsley approached a vehicle driven by a woman, brandished his firearm and ordered her to get out of the car. The victim got out and Horsley entered the vehicle. However, he could not drive away because the key fob was in the womans pocket.

RELATED: Michigan man fires assault rifle at teen in attempted carjacking

Horsley exited the vehicle and approached a male driver. He pointed the weapon at the victim and ordered him to get out of the vehicle. The man complied. Horsley took the keys and drove away.

The carjacked vehicle was found a few days later. Horsley was identified in surveillance video and arrested at his home in Detroit.

Those who seek to prey on motorists going about their business will continue to have our full attention, and we will not hesitate to pursue federal prosecution and significant penalties at our disposal, U.S. Attorney Dawn N. Ison said in a statement.

The case was investigated by the FBI and local police departments, and prosecuted by the U.S. Attorneys Office, Eastern District of Michigan.
DEWITT, MI  A Michigan man has pleaded guilty to stealing nearly $115,000 from a 90-year-old woman and using the money for personal expenses, including going on vacations, officials said.

Peter Counseller, 57, of DeWitt, pleaded guilty to embezzlement of $100,000 or more and two counts of filing false tax returns, according to a news release from the Michigan Department of Attorney General.

Counseller agreed to pay full restitution of $114,569.86 to the victim and $10,211 to the Michigan Department of Treasury, the release said. He made an initial payment of $60,000 at the plea hearing.

As part of the plea agreement, the court delayed Counsellers sentencing for about 11 months, the release said. If he pays the full restitution in that time, he will be sentenced on reduced charges.

Counseller conducted an elder financial abuse scheme, prosecutors said. He used the victims money without her consent to pay his mortgage, take vacations and pay other personal expenses. He did not report this income on his Michigan tax returns.

Michigans elderly adults deserve vigilant protection from thieves who would devastate a lifetime of savings and financial management for their own enrichment, Michigan AG Dana Nessel said in a statement.

Counsellers sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 11 before Judge James S. Jamo in the 30th Circuit Court in Ingham County.
WHITEFISH POINT, MI  A crane briefly hoisted a rare U.S. Coast guard vessel into the air as it completed its long journey from the scrapyard to a display in Michigans Upper Peninsula.

The rare USCG Type TR Motor Lifeboat CG 36381, a 36-foot-long vessel, will soon be on display at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Museum in Whitefish Point.

The boat was flying above the organizations campus for about five minutes on Oct. 11 after a years-long journey from Maryland to several stops in the U.P. and finally, to the museum on Lake Superior.

Mertaugh Boat Works in Hessel delivered the boat with the help of Loshaw Crane and Ken Graham Trucking.

Delivery day for a once in a lifetime project, E.J. Mertaugh Boat Works General Manager Geoff Hamilton said. Loshaw Crane did an amazing job flying the boat to her home. Ken Graham trucking delivered her within feet of her new home. Fantastic work guys.

Although all the staff members that have worked on this project, past and present were not able to attend today your work will be on display for all to see. Outstanding. Considering the timeline, logistics, weather and equipment that made this adventure an enjoyable success. I thank you.

The rare USCG Type TR Motor Lifeboat CG 36381, a 36-foot-long vessel, will soon be on display at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Museum in Whitefish Point.Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society

Now restored, the lifeboat was discovered about a decade ago in a boatyard in Maryland. destined to be burned for its hardware.

But friends of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society, Jeff Shook and Glen Cathers, learned of its fate and set the wheels in motion for the CG 36381 to be purchased and shipped to Michigan with the help of a generous donation from David Sutton, as well as Brad and Keith Tolles of ADS Transport in Wixom.

Restoration began at Passage Boat Works in Detour before Mertaugh Boat Works took over. In total, it took six years to restore the vessel and return it to a location where original versions of the boat arrived at Whitefish Point in 1933.

Many years have passed since this project began with a pandemic sandwiched in between, said E.J. Mertaugh Boat Works CEO, Brad Koster. Through all the efforts of so many people added up to this day when we placed her back in her house at Whitefish Point. Now its time for everyone to go see her, thats the ultimate reward of this project.

The GLSHS will be hosting a dedication ceremony for the vessel in summer 2024.
LIVINGSTON COUNTY, MI - Continued road construction thats part of a three-year, $162-million expansion of the U.S. 23 Flex route is set to bring new closures to the highway corridor between Ann Arbor and Flint.

The work is concentrated in Livingston County near Brighton where crews will close highway lanes and I-96 ramps to allow for paving for the project, according to the Michigan Department of Transportation.

Southbound U.S. 23 will see a lane closures between Grand River Avenue and Silver Lake Road beginning 7 a.m. Monday, Oct. 30, and running through Monday, Nov. 6, officials said.

The Lee Road bridge will be closed at U.S. 23 during this time, with traffic detoured via U.S. 23, Whitmore Lake Road, Silver Lake Road and Fieldcrest Drive.

Northbound U.S. 23 is also set for lane closures between Spencer Road and Silver Lake Road from 5 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 28, to 3 p.m. Monday, Oct. 30, according to MDOT.

A map provided by the Michigan Department of Transportation shows planned lane closures on southbound U.S. 23 between Grand River Avenue and Silver Lake Road in Livingston County, slated between Monday, Oct. 30 and Monday, Nov. 6, 2023. Lee Road will also close at U.S. 23 during that time, officials say.Provided by MDOT

In addition to those restrictions, the weekend beginning Saturday, Oct. 28, is set to bring a set of intermittent ramp shutdowns to the I-96 and U.S. 23 interchange. They are:

The eastbound I-96 ramp to northbound U.S. 23 between 5 a.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Monday

The westbound I-96 ramp to northbound U.S. 23 between 5 a.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Monday

The northbound U.S. 23 ramp to westbound I-96 between 5 a.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Monday

The overhaul of U.S. 23 is centered around the extension of the Flex Route, an electronically controlled shoulder lane system, previously implemented on about nine miles of the highway north of Ann Arbor.

The construction is set to extend the shoulder lanes from their current end point at M-36 (9 Mile Road) north to the I-96 interchange.

The process involves extensive interchange reconfigurations, bridge replacement, shoulder widening and 7.5 miles of hot-mix asphalt rebuilding, according to MDOT.

The dynamic shoulder lane control system expands the highway to three lanes during peak periods, a traffic control measure that has left drivers overwhelmingly satisfied and has reduced crashes after the current stretch opened on U.S. 23 north of Ann Arbor in 2017 as Michigans first of its kind, an MDOT-commissioned study found.

Phase 2 of the Flex Route is intended to boost traffic safety and ease peak congestion along the busy corridor, according MDOT. The Flex Route configuration is also being implemented on I-96 in Oakland County.

The U.S. 23 expansion project will involve work over three construction seasons, wrapping up by January 2026.

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.
The school year started with an internet blackout for University of Michigan students.

And now we know a little more about why.

A third party hacked into the schools computer system, prompting university officials to shut it down on Aug. 27, Sam Dodge recently reported.

An investigation into the hack revealed an unauthorized individual was able to access certain university systems from Aug. 23-27. The hacker had access to Social Security numbers, drivers licenses or other government-issued identification numbers, financial account of payment card numbers and/or health information.

The university is continuing efforts to make the network more secure, according to the story.

Meanwhile, steep rents continue to cause a headache. Theyve even prompted a lawmaker who rents in the city to speak out.

State Rep. Carrie Rheingans, D-Ann Arbor, recently received an email notice from her landlord stating that her rent will increase by $6,000 per year, according to Ryan Stantons story. And if she doesnt act soon, that price could go up.

The lawmaker introduced a bill into the Michigan Legislature on Sept. 7 that would repeal Michigans 1988 ban on rent control, restoring the ability of communities to enact local rent regulations.

Read more about those stories and others below.

Third-party gained access to University of Michigan systems, leading to August internet outage

Michigan lawmaker faces $6,000 rent hike after introducing rent control bill

Detroit-area hairstylist identified as woman killed in Washtenaw County crash

Court dismisses lawsuit declaring Ypsilanti-area nonprofit a public nuisance

Michigans Best Local Eats: Simple ingredients help Bao Space create authentic Asian cuisine

Ann Arbor voices opposition to widening U.S. 23 highway

Ypsilanti loses fighter for good with death of attorney and former NAACP leader

Whats that? Developers pitch project for empty lot near Ann Arbor-area Lowes

New 80-unit project proposed for undeveloped portion of condo community near Ann Arbor

Trick-or-treat times for Halloween 2023 in Washtenaw County

About Hello, Ann Arbor: Each week, we deliver the big headlines straight to your inbox. Hello, Ann Arbor has also won awards from both the Michigan Press Association and the Associated Press for best column. Sign up here for the newsletter.

John Counts is editor for MLive/The Ann Arbor News where he started as a police and court reporter in 2012. He lives in Whitmore Lake with his wife, two daughters and two dogs. He can be reached at johncounts@mlive.com.

MORE HELLO, ANN ARBOR:

Hello, Ann Arbor: City takes stance on building wall through Ann Arbor; leaders oppose M-14 ramp shutdowns

Hello, Ann Arbor: Historic house spends 4 years on the market; downtown Starbucks to close

Hello, Ann Arbor: High school football traditions; introducing the A2 Update

Hello, Ann Arbor: Original Cottage Inn up for sale; shopping center demolition begins
ANN ARBOR, MI -- A 74-year-old Ann Arbor man was arrested Monday for threatening another man with a brick.

The incident occurred around 9 p.m. Oct. 23, in the 400 block of South Fourth Avenue, according to Lt. Bonnie Theil, an Ann Arbor Police Department detective.

The man who was threatened, a 46-year-old Ann Arbor resident, refused medical treatment and did not have visible injuries, police said, adding the two men know each other.

The man arrested in the incident was taken to the University of Michigan Hospital for unrelated medical issues, police said. The case has been submitted to the Washtenaw County Prosecutors office for review, police said. Charges are still pending review as of Friday, Oct. 27.

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.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI  A woman was reportedly stabbed to death in a home on Grand Rapids Southeast Side, police said Thursday night.

Police responded to the home in the 900 block of Oakhill Street SE  between Eastern and Kalamazoo avenues  just after 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 26.

The call came in as a stabbing and police are currently investigating the incident as a death investigation, a news release from GRPD states.

Officers are interviewing a male person of interest in the incident.

The woman, who has not been identified at this time, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Anyone with information is asked to contact GRPD detectives at 616-456-3380. Tips can also be sent anonymously through Silent Observer at 616-774-2345 or www.silentobserver.org.

Also on MLive:

Closing arguments heard in 2022 Y-Bar killing near Western Michigan University

This request is extreme. Corewell Health proposal to demolish buildings for parking lots tabled

6 takeaways from Ottawa Countys health officer termination hearing

New bakery offering earth-shattering tasty dessert bars opens in Grand Rapids
GRAND RAPIDS, MI  Grand Rapids is the most philanthropic community I have ever lived in.

I often share that when traveling because I am proud to live in a city where giving back is so deeply ingrained in the DNA and culture of the community. Whats impressive is the consistency and scope of the giving and that it ranges from people living check to check to the areas millionaires and billionaires.

Over the years, I have seen how philanthropy has accelerated progress where its needed most, and supported causes that are making a real difference in our community.

We learned this week from reporter Brian McVicar that Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospitals new childrens hospital will be named after a longtime philanthropist, Joan Secchia. She and her late husband, Peter Secchia, a prominent businessman who served as the U.S. Ambassador to Italy, have a legacy of giving.

The hospital, opening in 2026 across from the main campus, is expected to cost $60 million. The amount of Joan Secchias generous gift was not disclosed but what should she be top of mind is the impact on pediatric rehabilitative care it will help provide.

Another big headline this week came from reporter Melissa Frick, who told readers a judge dismissed a lawsuit against Rockford Public Schools that sought to ban 14 books from the districts library described by Parents and Taxpayers Against Pornography in Rockford Public Schools as sexually explicit.

None of the 14 books at the district of more than 7,700 students was required reading. In recent years, parents and community members in districts across the state and country are raising concerns certain books, often those that deal with issues of sexuality, violence, LGBTQ+ themes, and race and racism, arent appropriate. Forest Hills Public Schools lets parents choose what their kids can read, but not others.

We also learned this week from Brian McVicar that a controversial request by Corewell Health to demolish five buildings was tabled by the Grand Rapids Planning Commission Thursday. The plan is to replace the buildings with surface parking lots next to Corewells planned $98 million office complex in the Monroe North neighborhood. Corewells attempt at neighborhood and community outreach was criticized.

Those are some headlines that caught our eye in the Grand Rapids area this week. Take a look at those, and others, below:

Monica Scott is the editor for MLive/The Grand Rapids Press, who previously was a reporter that covered the city, county and schools in the community.

New Grand Rapids hospital to be named Joan Secchia Childrens Rehabilitation Hospital

Judge dismisses lawsuit against Michigan school district over explicit books in library

Board delays voting on Ottawa County health officers termination until Monday

6 takeaways from Ottawa Countys health officer termination hearing

Ford airport announces additional service to Nashville

This request is extreme. Corewell Health proposal to demolish buildings for parking lots tabled

3 missionaries based in West Michigan die in Kenya vehicle crash

Boy, 4, identified as victim of Lowell area fatal house fire

Former Rep. Justin Amash says relatives killed in Gaza airstrike

Michigan native showcases outrageous pumpkin-carving skills on Food Network show

After 15 years, dream of renovated Lyon Square in Grand Rapids set to come true

Underqualified candidate got Ottawa County job based on age discrimination, lawsuit claims

Repairs, renovations coming to Van Andel Arena, DeVos Place

See which marching bands took top honors at the 37th annual Jenison Invitational

Over 3K signatures submitted in quest to recall Ottawa Impact county commissioner

New bakery offering earth-shattering tasty dessert bars opens in Grand Rapids
Three young Buffalo men who worked hard and wanted to provide for their families went to work on Thursday for the Buffalo Sewer Authority.

By later that day, one of the men was dead and the other two were hospitalized following a shooting on the I-190.

Keyshawn N. Gault, 22, was killed. Lamar T. Whitfield Jr., 23, another passenger, was left critically injured. Myron L. Walker, 30, the driver, was shot in the knee.

It has been a tough 24 hours, said Oluwole O.J. McFoy, the general manager of the Buffalo Sewer Authority, on Friday at a news conference outside Erie County Medical Center, where Whitfield and Walker are being treated. None of us are prepared for anything like this. Were trying our best.

McFoy said all the employees at the Buffalo Sewer Authority were grieving.

Right now, what we know is we have one still in critical condition, McFoy said. We have one in stable. And we have a young man who is no longer with us. His life was taken. He was 22 years old. My heart breaks for that young man and for all of us that have to carry this trauma forward. His family is grieving. His family is going through some things. The Buffalo Sewer Authority has been ... is going through some things.

McFoy was joined by two members of CWA Local 1186, who represent 150 workers at the Sewer Authority.

I just want to express my feelings and blessings to all the families, said Local 1186 President Salvatore Falzone. I dont want it lost on how young these gentlemen were.

Mike Pettigrew, who was the mens union rep, grew emotional as he talked about the trio.

These guys they came to work, Pettigrew said. They came to work to provide for their families. If you knew these guys ... you all would love these guys.

Pettigrew said Gault was a special person.

Keyshawn, he didnt hurt a fly. He was one of the best. He would come to work and be happy to be a part of something, Pettigrew said.

They took something big from us. We are heartbroken. Its going to take a lot for us to get over this. We just thank you guys for your prayers and your support.

The three men were assigned to the Green Infrastructure Team and were doing tasks along Niagara Street, tending to the trees and plants and clearing fallen leaves on Thursday.

They were headed to lunch, driving on the southbound I-190 in a black Buffalo Sewer Authority pickup truck, when at 11:11 a.m., state police said, someone in a passing vehicle opened fire on them multiple times.

So far, no arrests have been announced.

State police said they were looking for a late model, dark-colored Jeep Grand Cherokee. They have not named a suspect or a motive.

McFoy said that he has no reason to believe that theres a danger to Buffalo Sewer Authority workers. He said that after the shooting happened, the department went into emergency protocol out of precaution.

This was a random act of violence, McFoy said of the triple shooting.

Authorities said at a Thursday afternoon news conference that they believed the shooting was an isolated incident and that there was no reason to believe theres a danger to the public.

The shooting is under investigation by the New York State Police Bureau of Investigation and Forensic Identification Unit, the Buffalo police, Erie Crime Analysis Center and the Erie County District Attorneys Office.

They asked anyone with information about the shooting including dash cam footage to call state police at 585-344-6200.
KALAMAZOO, MI -- A man pleaded guilty to three counts of third degree criminal sexual conduct related to a 2010 assault at Western Michigan University.

The case was investigated by the Kalamazoo County Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI). The initiative was established to investigate cold-case sexual assaults, according to a press release from the Michigan Department of the Attorney General.
MOUNT PLEASANT, MI  A Lake man is facing criminal charges after allegedly running down a dirt bike rider in his truck, killing him.

Allen L. Sprague, 54, on Friday, Oct. 27, appeared before Isabella County District Magistrate Aaron Miller for arraignment on charges of reckless driving causing death, failure to stop at the scene of an accident resulting in death, and assault with a dangerous weapon.

The first two felonies are punishable by up to 15 years in prison, while the third carries a maximum four-year sentence.

Miller set Spragues bond at $500,000.

According to an affidavit authored by a sheriffs sergeant, deputies responded to a crash in the 7700 block of West Stevenson Lake Road in Coldwater Township around 9:15 a.m. on Oct. 25. They arrived to find 29-year-old Dylon E. Andras deceased.

A friend of Andras, who lives on Stevenson Lake Road near the crash site, told deputies he and Andras had ridden dirt bikes to Spragues house on North Rolland Road in Lake, about two miles away. They had gone there as Andras wanted to get a vehicle he had title to that was on Spragues property, the friend told deputies.

A woman Andras had previously been in a relationship with also lived with Sprague, Andras friend added.

The friend said, once outside, Andras began revving his bikes engine. When the woman inside didnt come outside, the two friends left.

As the friends were riding back to Stevenson Lake Road, they spotted Spragues black Dodge Ram coming in their direction. Andras friend told deputies he saw Sprague hit Andras with his truck and run over him.

Related: 29-year-old dirt biker dead after driver chases him down, hits him from behind

Sprague then accelerated toward the other man, who fled, the friend said.

The truck kept following him and at one point was a few feet away from him at high speeds, the sergeant wrote in his affidavit. After a couple miles he finally lost the truck.

Deputies spoke with Sprague and the woman he lives with. Sprague said when the dirt bikes arrived on his property it sounded like things were hitting his house. The woman added it sounded like the bikes were tearing up the yard.

After the bikes left, Sprague and the woman said they got in a truck and followed them. Sprague claimed the bikes were driving toward him, with one whipping around in front of him. He was unable to avoid striking it and run over it and its driver, he said.

The woman said the bike suddenly stopped, then the driver put his foot down and whipped the vehicle before the truck, causing them to strike it.

Sprague said he continued chasing the other bike in hopes of finding out who was riding it. He added he looked in his rearview mirror and thought he saw the man he struck standing in the roadway.

Sprague and the woman said they called 911 before returning to the crash site.

Spragues case is set for a preliminary examination on Nov. 16.
Lexis Zeidan adjusts the keffiyeh hanging around her neck as she speaks, pulling it closer to her throat as if to bury herself in it.

She lets it go  then does it again. The scarf, a fishnet-patterned white and black fabric, has long been emblematic of Palestine and its people. Now, she questions if its an invitation for harassment.
DETROIT  Early in-person voting, a new way to cast a ballot in Michigan, wont be statewide until Februarys presidential primary. But some places will try it out over the next week.

Twelve municipalities from suburban Detroit to the Upper Peninsula volunteered to pilot the new process, which allows voters  days before Election Day  to walk in, grab a ballot, fill it out in a voting booth and slide it through a tabulator.

These local elections provide a valuable opportunity for us to pilot the new technologies and procedures for early voting that the Bureau of Elections has developed over the last year, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson told reporters Friday.

Election officials will be able to assess equipment and procedures and figure out additional needs and funding for the statewide rollout in four months. Piloting also helps voters get familiar with the new voting method.

Below is the list of pilot municipalities. Click here for voting dates, times and sites.

Delta Township and Windsor Township (near Lansing)

East Grand Rapids

East Lansing

Grand Blanc Township

Lansing

Ludington

Marquette

Oakland County

Rochester

Roscommon Township

Scio Township (near Ann Arbor)

Westland

Go deeper: Here are 6 ways voting in Michigan will be different in 2024

Every voter next year will have the right to at least nine days of early in-person voting, ending on the Sunday before Election Day. If a clerk thinks their municipality can facilitate more than nine days, theyll be free to do so. The 12 pilots range from three days to nine days.

Cities, villages and townships can choose to run early in-person voting by themselves, partner with neighbors or be lumped into a county-run voting center. Among the pilots, Oakland County is facilitating voting for every municipality but Rochester (which is doing its own), and two Lansing-area townships are teaming up.

Local plans must be approved by county clerks, and county plans must be approved by Benson.

For security, tabulators at early voting sites will be programmed only for that site and wont be reused on Election Day. Voter roll pollbooks will also be updated before voting starts each day.

No voting results results wont be reported until polls close on Election Day.

Benson will visit several early in-person voting sites over the next nine days. The state has struggled with poll worker shortages in the past, but she said this Novembers election hasnt seen challenges because odd years see low turnout.

Election officials, however, are anticipating new challenges with early in-person itself. Walking through the process over the next week will hopefully calm their nerves, Benson said.

I feel optimistic that the collaboration that weve engaged in with so many stakeholders, clerks and lawmakers over the last eight or nine months has prepared us for this fall, she said.

Related: Early in-person voting, quicker counting among Michigan election changes

Many other states already have early in-person voting. Michigan voters overwhelmingly approved it last November through Proposal 2, a constitutional amendment that the legislature implemented and expanded upon by passing laws this year.

Chain-of-custody guidelines and penalties for breaking the law, for example, were put in place. Disclosing an election result from an early voting site before Election Day is a felony with a maximum 5-year prison sentence.

Lawmakers gave the Secretary of State department tens of millions of dollars to carry out early voting. A new round of funding will be needed for the November 2024 election, as fiscal years begin in October.
SUTTONS BAY, MI  The barge best known for repeatedly sinking in Lake Michigan was on Friday morning hauled onshore  at least partially  and its owner appeared in court less than an hour later.

Thats where a judge gave Daniel Lewis Balcom, aka Donald Moses Balcom, until Dec. 8 to find a permanent solution for his wayward barge or face criminal trial on a laundry list of Great Lakes violations. The court ordered if the barge isnt sold or a destination out of Great Lakes waters found by then, Balcoms case will be bound over to circuit court for trial.

Judge Michael Stepka of the 86th District Court only agreed to adjourn the case for another six weeks after a lengthy discussion in chambers with both defense and state attorneys. He said a settlement agreement seems forthcoming in what amounts to a complex case.

The parties are making some forward progress. I appreciate that, Stepka said.

Balcom, 88, of Traverse City, was charged in July by the Michigan Attorney General with a seven-count complaint, including a two-year felony for alleged violations of the states environment and water protection laws. Balcom faces thousands of dollars in fines, if convicted.

Assistant Attorney General Dan Bock explained to the court how logistically complicated the case has been during Fridays hearing in a Suttons Bay courtroom. He said the peoples interest primarily is getting the barge to a permanent and legal location.

Related: Owner of barge notorious for sinking arraigned on Great Lakes violations

Typically, the U.S. Coast Guard would take command of sunken vessels for salvage, but Balcoms barge always sank in nearshore waters and not within navigational routes. Meanwhile, state environmental regulators struggled to find contractors willing to risk the liability of towing the barge anywhere for fear it would sink again, Bock said.

The repairs that need to be made, my understanding, involve welding and other activities on portions of the barge that until this morning were underwater. And so now that its up on land, Mr. Balcom has indicated he believes that these repairs can be made and thats step one  just getting it to where its seaworthy again, Bock said.

He said both the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy agreed to permit Balcom to use the shoreline to make repairs to the barge.

The barge currently remains at least partially within Great Lakes bottomlands.

After repairs are completed, the next step will be for Balcom to either sell the barge or find a dry dock location for storage, the assistant attorney general said.

Stepka asked if the state may begin abandonment procedures on the vessel soon now that its onshore. Bock explained the state has been trying all along.

Related: Teetering barge with history of sinking in Grand Traverse Bay worries onlookers

The only reason that hadnt happened yet frankly, is because no one would touch it, Bock said. An abandonment proceeding is a meaningless gesture unless we actually have the means to have it towed and stored.

Traverse City-based defense attorney Thomas Seger declined to comment to MLive about the case and did not speak during the court hearing, save to confirm his client agreed to waive preliminary hearing and go to trial if the barge situation wasnt resolved by Dec. 8.

Additionally, both Bock and EGLE officials declined to comment to MLive about the case following the Friday court hearing in Suttons Bay.

Earlier Friday morning, before the court hearing, Balcom stood alongside the M-22 state highway, pulled a sweatshirt over his head, and said he was preparing to head toward the courthouse. He said its been a three-year ordeal, and he doesnt want to delay the situation any longer.

Im nearly 90 years old, he said.

Among the charges Balcom faces is a single felony violation of state water resources protections for oil spilled into Lake Michigan. Misdemeanor charges include two counts of both trespass and altering bottomlands, as well as littering, and not having contact information on the barges hull.

Related: Owner of derelict barge criminally charged in Great Lakes saga

Balcoms barge and crane was recently towed to a nearshore area south of Suttons Bay in the West Arm of Grand Traverse Bay. Before that, it had for two years remained either anchored or grounded in the same nearshore area in Northport Bay, a smaller embayment within Grand Traverse Bay; it struck bottom in January 2022, and did not float again until late April this year.

It previously sat on the bottom of Lake Michigan in Greilickville from November 2020 until May 2021; that time the barge was partially submerged and leaked oil and fuel into Lake Michigan waters.

The barge was re-floated in May 2021 in Greilickville and moved to a boat ramp owned by the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa in Peshawbestown. It stayed there about a week before being floated to a job near Northport but by July 2021, the barge was anchored offshore near a gated resort community in Leelanau County.

Property owner William Bear Fowler said he agreed to allow Balcom use his shoreline property along the Lake Michigan shoreline south of Suttons Bay to have the barge repaired.

I like to help people and hes my friend, Moses. I like to help people and he needed help. Hes too old to go to jail, Fowler said.

A for sale sign is posted alongside the highway near the partially onshore barge, where it was dragged Friday morning by a Traverse City contractor.
LANSING, MI  The Michigan Senate voted Thursday to require that all of the states energy come from sources that do not emit climate warming gases by 2040.

On Thursday, Oct. 26, the Democratic-controlled Senate narrowly approved a bill package that would mandate a stepped increase in Michigans renewable power standard over the next seventeen years to meet the new clean energy target.

Senate Bills 271, 273, 502 and 519 passed along party lines, 20-18.

The bills went to the House, which has been working on related legislation as part of a larger agenda by Democrats, who control both chambers, to overhaul Michigans energy systems and accelerate the states transition off climate-warming fossil fuels.

The House is under a tight deadline to act before session adjourns early for the year sometime in the next two weeks rather than in December; a procedural move by Democrats that allows Michigan to hold its presidential primary on Feb. 27.

Democrats could pick the legislation back up in January, but there is concern their House 56-54 majority may winnow because two representatives are running for mayor seats next month.

The bills are opposed by Republicans and major business groups but supported by advanced energy companies. Environmental groups support them but want changes in the House.

The House has been busy with related legislation that would allow large renewable energy projects to sidestep local pushback by getting zoning clearances from state regulators.

More: Renewable siting power may shift to state

The Senate-passed bills require that Michigan get 100 percent of its energy from carbon-free sources such as nuclear, solar, wind, geothermal or hydropower by 2040.

A target of 80 percent clean energy is set for 2035, and the bills establish renewable energy standards of 15 percent by 2027, 50 percent by 2030 and 60 percent by 2035.

The 50 percent target for 2030 matches Gov. Gretchen Whitmers Michigan climate plan goal.

Under definitions passed by lawmakers, biomass fuels soured from animal or plant waste, landfill gas, or feedstock methane digesters would be considered renewable. Biomass from industrial waste or tire-derived fuels would not.

Natural gas plants would be considered clean energy systems if the facilities are at least 90 percent effective at capturing and permanently storing carbon emissions.

Energy generators and utilities could seek a good cause deadline extension of up to two years from the Michigan Public Service Commission if they can show that they are attempting to meet the standard, but doing so would be infeasible, cause reliability issue, not produce enough electricity or impose excessive cost on consumers.

More: Nuclear would be clean power under bills

The bills also require utilities to reduce energy waste through electric efficiency targets and incentives, and creates an office at the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity to workers and communities with the energy transition.

Democrats advanced the bills out of committees on Wednesday and made some changes on the Senate floor before passage.

This legislation is long overdue to address our persistent and alarming climate crisis, said bill sponsor Sen. Erika Geiss, D-Taylor.

Whitmer called the bills a a big deal for Michigan.

These bills will balance reliability and affordability and help us protect our air and our water and improve public health, Whitmer said. They will help us bring home more cutting-edge manufacturing investments so we can make solar panels, wind turbines, and more right here in Michigan, supporting good-paying jobs, high-skill jobs that are a ticket to the middle class. And they will make Michigan a national leader in clean energy, shoring up our position as the best place to start your family, your career, or your business.

Republicans criticized the bills as misguided and said phasing out coal and natural gas sources would raise energy costs on customers. They unsuccessfully attempted to amend the bills Thursday on the Senate floor.

The Democrats climate agenda is moving too far too fast, and ignores important consequences, said Sen. Thomas Albert, R-Lowell. Michigan already has energy that costs too much and a supply grid that fails too often. This misguided plan would make things even worse for families and businesses at a time they can least afford it. Energy transition should happen more naturally and seamlessly  not through forced and rushed government mandates.

Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt, R-Lawton, called the plan a radical Michigan Green New Deal.

Advocates hailed the passage and called on House lawmakers to strip out allowances for certain energy feedstocks.

The dirty pollution from incinerators and factory farms should not be considered clean and renewable like they are now  the people living near these places certainly dont, said Charlotte Jameson, chief policy officer for the Michigan Environmental Council.
Slovakia's new populist Prime Minister Robert Fico said Thursday that his government was stopping military aid to Ukraine.

Fico told MPs that the country would "no longer supply weapons to Ukraine", repeating promises made during his election campaign, but would still supply humanitarian aid to its war-torn neighbour.

"I will support zero military aid to Ukraine ... An immediate halt to military operations is the best solution we have for Ukraine. The EU should change from an arms supplier to a peacemaker," he added.

Fico  who will attend the EU summit in Brussels Thursday  also expressed opposition to sanctions against Russia.

"I will not vote for any sanctions against Russia unless we see analyses of their impact on Slovakia," he said.

"If there are to be such sanctions that will harm us, like most sanctions have, I can see no reason to support them."

New government

Fico spoke a day after his three-party coalition government was appointed.

It includes Fico's left-wing Smer-SD, the far-right and pro-Russia SNS and Hlas-SD, a breakaway party from Smer.

Smer-SD won last month's general vote on pledges to end military help for Ukraine, raising concerns about cracks in Western support for Kyiv.

Following his party's victory, Fico said, "the people in Slovakia have bigger problems than (dealing with) Ukraine" and called for peace talks as "further killing will not help anyone".

Coalition partner SNS shares Fico's staunch anti-refugee rhetoric and populist leanings.

Its pro-Russian chairman and former parliamentary speaker Andrej Danko said in July that Russian-occupied territories were not "historically Ukrainian".

He is infamous for shaking hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin, taking a selfie with Russian State Duma Chair Vyacheslav Volodin, and addressing Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as "my dear friend".

(AFP)
The Gomoa West constituency branch of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has relaunched its Women's Wing under the Theme: "Breaking the 8 and Taking Back Our Seat: the Role of Women" with the zeal to win the 2024 Presidential and Parliamentary elections.

According to the Gomoa West Constituency Women's Organizer, Madam Hikmatu Yahaya Iddi, women's organizers in all the 36 electoral areas in the Constituency were fully committed towards breaking the 8 agenda and recapturing the parliamentary seat.

"The Gomoa West Women's Wing of the NPP wants to assure our Great party of our commitment and readiness for the task ahead of us regarding the Presidential and Parliamentary elections that we will work tirelessly to help break the 8 and also reclaim our Parliamentary seat," she stated.

According to Madam Hikmatu Yahaya Iddi, the relaunch was aimed at revitalizing and re-equipping the women in the Gomoa West Constituency to lead the crusade for NPP to win the 2024 general elections.

She described the success of the relaunching as a good strategy for NPP with the hope snatch back the parliamentary seat.

Madam Hikmatu Yahaya Iddi who is contesting the Gomoa West NPP primaries alongside three other male contestants used the opportunity to appeal to the delegates to vote massively for her to recapture the parliamentary seat from the NDC.

"Hikmatu Yahaya Iddi is a household name in the Gomoa West Constituency due to my hard work and dedication to my assigned duty as Constituency Women's Organizer which has raised the image of NPP to the limelight.

"As a Women's Organizer, I have been able to enhance human development in areas such as vocational training, youth employment, admission for those who want to further their education at the tertiary level especially in Nursing and Teacher Training institutions.

"A host of others have gained employment in the security agencies while others have been supported in vocational training to be self-employed. Hikmatu Yahaya Iddi is a mother, counsellor, peace maker and above all a workaholic personality who respect and adore every individual person.

"What a man can do, woman can do and do it better, this has impacted positively my life coupled with the 'Can Do' spirit, I will lead the battlefront to win back the seat if given the nod," she stated.

She therefore urged delegates in the Gomoa West Constituency to rally behind her adding that women form the majority in the District.

"The 2024 general elections is an opportunity for contestants to showcase their achievements, the NPP led by His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo and his Vice President, Alhaji Dr. Muhamudu Bawumia has performed creditably. we need to trumpet this achievement wherever we find ourselves," she stressed.

The Central Regional Women's Organizer of the NPP, Madam Challortte Adwoa Antwi congratulated Madam Hikmatu Yahaya Iddi for what she described as a perfect organization worthy of emulation.

She encouraged the women to forge ahead with unity for the battle ahead for NPP to break the 8.

"It is possible to break the 8 come 2024 general elections, but we must in one accord work tirelessly to reach every corner of our communities with unprecedented achievements of the NPP government since independence.

"It is an open secret that every household in the country is benefiting from the good policies of the NPP Government. Ranging from Free Senior High School, digitalization which has enabled us to renew our health insurance at the comfort of our homes, increased in Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP), increased in the number of children benefiting from the School Feeding Program among other pro-poor programmes and interventions.

"We must work harder than what we did in the previous elections. Yes, we are in hard times, things are not easy, we are facing financial crisis, but in the wake of all these, Free SHS, Health Insurance, and other systems are working so we must not rest on our oars but strive to ensure total victory for the NPP," she intimated.

Gomoa West Constituency Chairman of the NPP, Mr. George Alexander Sarfo noted that the theme for the relaunch of the women's wing shows the preparedness of the party for the battle ahead adding that the Youth Wing would also be relaunched and reactivated.

"It is possible NPP can break the 8 but it will depend on hard work and dedication to duty by reaching out to every individual person in the constituency with the gospel according to the brilliant performance of the NPP Government.

"Women are in the majority in Gomoa West constituency, today's relaunch has rekindled our spirits to work extra hard to achieve our aims and aspirations. Let's come together as a family to make history not only in Gomoa West but Ghana as well.

"This is also to send a signal to the NDC and its Member of Parliament that the NPP stands stronger than ever and would eventually recapture the seat," he stated.

The relaunch coincided with a breast cancer screening and awareness organized by Hiki Hope Foundation.

Over 300 women benefited from the health screening.
27.10.2023 LISTEN

A Social Development Consultant and former Deputy Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Social Investment Fund (SIF), Honorable Alois Kog Kyaakpier Mohl has declared his intention to contest the upcoming New Patriotic Party (NPP) Parliamentary Primaries of the Nandom Constituency in the Upper West Region.

Honourable Alois made the declaration on his Facebook wall to formally inform the general public, especially his constituents in Nandom.

I officially declare my intention to contest the parliamentary primaries to be voted for and represent the party as the next NPP Parliamentary candidate for Nandom, he wrote.

He added After broad consultation with the rank and file of the party, the council of elders, patrons, the national and regional executives, the constituency and polling station executives, party faithful, the teeming youth and the grassroots, stakeholders, chiefs, clergy, and my family, it has become a necessity to answer to answer to the calls to offer new and people-centered leadership, to retool Nandom as once socially inclusive.

Mr. Alois has over 30 years of experience in public service and held various positions some of which include, Head of Desk of International Social Services (ISS) of the Department of Social Welfare at the Headquarters from 2002 to 2011.

He was Deputy Director and Head of the Desk of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) of the Ministry of Social Welfare and Manpower Development from 2011 to 2013 and also the Deputy Director and National Coordinator of Care Reforms of Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection from 2013 to 2015.

Mr. Alois has equally held various positions in the NPP including Second Vice Chairman for the Lawra-Nandom Constituency from 2005-2010. He was also the Campaign Coordinator for the NPP Parliamentary candidate from 2005 to 2008.

From 2010 to 2014, he was made Chairman of the Upper West Regional Disciplinary Committee and also a member of the National ICT Committee during the same period. This was the committee that introduced the NPP's first plastic biometric membership cards.

Mr. Alois was also the National Representative on the Regional Executive Elections Committee in 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022.

He was also a member of the Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia (DMB) Campaign Team from 2008 to 2016. In the 2020 December Elections, he was a Member of the Upper West Regional Campaign Team.

Mr. Alois was also a member of the 2008 and 2012 Elections Monitoring Team, a Member of the Post-Elections Research Team (Heyman Committee) of 2009 and a Member of the D-day Elections Monitoring Team, V.16.

He was a Member of the Secretary of the Presidential Primaries Election Committee in 2007. He was also a Member of the National Executive Committee and National Council Member between 2005 and 2010.

Between 2017 and 2022, the Honorable Alois was the Deputy CEO of SIF.
In a remarkable effort to promote breast and prostate cancer awareness, Anglogold Ashanti organized a grand durbar in Fomena, in the Adansi North District, showcasing their commitment to fighting this prevalent disease.

The program was held in order to conclude their one-month free screening initiative to mark World Breast Cancer Month.

This recent grand durbar in Fomena went beyond breast cancer awareness, featuring a range of health initiatives, including cervical cancer screenings, prostate cancer awareness, malaria testing and more.

According to the Senior Manager, Community Relations-Africa, Emmanuel Baidoo, the campaign against breast and prostate cancers is not only to raise awareness about the diseases but to contribute to empowering individuals to take charge of their health through regular screenings and adopting healthy lifestyles.

He seized the opportunity to outline other health intervention programs and projects AngloGold Ashanti has undertaken and those it has lined up to implement.

He mentioned that the company has successfully refurbished and handed over the Anyinam Health center, cut sod for the construction of the Dokyiwa/ Binsere health centre whiles plans are afoot to start the construction of CHPs compound at Apitikooko, a theater and laboratory facilities at Akrokerri CHPs compound and a Health centre at Akaporiso.

The Senior Manager, Community Relations-Africa, AngloGold Ashanti further stated that AGA is poised to extend its support across the entire Adansi Traditional area to acknowledge the support the traditional authorities in Adansi have given the company over the years.

AngloGold Ashanti has in its 10-year Socio-Economic Development Plan a plethora of health intervention programs geared towards supporting the improvement of the health care needs of the people in their host communities.
A civil lawsuit over catastrophic injuries suffered by a pedestrian struck by a police SUV in 2020 has been settled after six days of trial.

Before the damages trial started, an appellate court already determined that the City of Buffalo is liable for the crash that left Chelsea Ellis a quadriplegic, finding that the officer acted with reckless disregard for the safety of others.

The jurors who listened to testimony from her and others last week were simply tasked with determining the damages owed.

'This tragedy has changed my life': Woman left quadriplegic by Buffalo police car crash testifies Chelsea Ellis' life was changed forever when a Buffalo police SUV struck her on a sidewalk in 2020. On Friday, she appeared in a courtroom to testify in a civil suit against the City of Buffalo.

An economist who testified on her behalf said those damages could total more than $100 million, depending on her life span and if she receives the kind of care recommended by a doctor who testified as an expert witness in the lawsuit against the city, the Buffalo Police Department and the officer.

Ellis attorney, John J. Fromen Jr., declined to reveal the financial settlement, which requires approval by the Buffalo Common Council. At the request of Ellis, he said, the parties have agreed to keep the terms of the settlement confidential until approved by the Common Council. Once approved, the settlement will be a matter of public record, he said.

Ellis, through her lawyer, declined comment and asked for her privacy to be respected.

She and her friend Karley Mueller were walking down the sidewalk on Main Street in North Buffalo 3 years ago after a trip to the post office.

Buffalo Police Officer Branden Lowe was driving to the scene of what would turn out to be a false report of a stabbing. Traveling at speeds approaching 80 mph, attorneys for Ellis say Lowe was trying to steer around another vehicle at an intersection. His patrol SUV struck a vehicle, careened onto the sidewalk and was traveling between 30 and 39 mph when it struck the then-28-year-old Ellis, sending her airborne until she landed 67 feet away.

During her testimony last week, Ellis mouthed her words and a speech pathologist with experience reading her lips spoke for her.

I am a human being, Ellis said through the interpreter. I want to share because it is my right and responsibility to explain how this tragedy has changed my life and how I will continue to persevere.

Doctors who testified said the kind of devastating spinal cord injury Ellis suffered is usually fatal.

Testimony before State Supreme Court Justice Dennis Ward dealt with her pain and suffering, lost wages, and what it will cost to care for her the rest of her life  the components of the damages in the civil lawsuit brought by Ellis family on her behalf.

The plan of care for Ellis that Dr. Craig H. Lichtblau recommended would come at a significant cost.

Lichtblau, a physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist with a practice in North Palm Beach, Fla., told jurors that two nurses  a registered nurse and licensed practical nurse  should provide Ellis with round-the-clock care. Implementing Lichtblaus care plan would cost nearly $1.4 million in 2024  and cost more than $26 million over the next 15 years, said Kristin Kucsma, a New Jersey economist summoned by Ellis lawyers as an expert witness.

If Ellis lives to 82 years of age, the support and care for her would cost $146 million under the two-nurse plan. Employing a nurse and a home health aide over that span would cost $115 million, Kucsma said.

Kucsma calculated $6.3 million for future lost earnings, another component of the damages trial.

Ellis testified she and her family deserve help, that she constantly feels defenseless and her needs have strained her relationship with her family members.

I just need the resources to live a fraction of the life I had before, she told jurors.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed insisted Thursday that Ethiopia would not invade another country or pursue its interests "through war" after previous remarks he made about seeking access to the Red Sea aroused regional concerns.

"There are fears that Ethiopia may carry out an invasion after our recent strong demand for access to the sea," Abiy told thousands of troops in Addis Ababa participating in a parade to mark National Army Day.

"I want to assure that Ethiopia will not pursue its interests through war. We are committed to mutual interest through dialogue and negotiation."

In a televised speech on October 13, Abiy said that landlocked Ethiopia "is a nation whose existence is tied to the Red Sea", a key waterway for global trade.

He said Ethiopia needed access to a port, adding: "If we plan to live together in peace, we have to find a way to mutually share with each other in a balanced manner."

Those comments raised concerns among observers, particularly against a backdrop of apparent tensions with neighbouring Eritrea which has a long coastline.

Map of Ethiopia. By Aude GENET (AFP)

And Eritrea's information ministry followed Abiy's remarks with a statement describing "discourses" about access to the sea as "excessive".

Africa's second most populous country with around 120 million people, Ethiopia's economy has been constrained by its lack of access to the Red Sea, a narrow strip of water between Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.

Ethiopia lost its coastline after Eritrea broke away from Addis Ababa and formally declared independence in 1993 following a three-decade war.

It enjoyed direct access to a port in Eritrea until the two countries went to war in 1998-2000 and since then has relied largely on Djibouti for imports and exports.

'Never invaded any country'

Abiy won a Nobel Prize in 2019 for his rapprochement the previous year with Eritrea, whose troops later fought alongside Ethiopian government forces in the brutal two-year war in the northern region of Tigray.

Ethiopia was marking National Army Day. By Amanuel Sileshi (AFP)

Eritrean troops were accused of severe rights abuses including rape and murder and Asmara was sanctioned by the United States in 2021 over its role in the conflict, which ended with a peace deal in November 2022.

The deal called for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Tigray, but Eritrea was not a party to the agreement and its troops continue to be present in border areas, according to residents.

Relations between the two countries have since appeared strained.

In his speech on Thursday, Abiy said: "Ethiopia has never been defeated and will not be defeated in the future.

"Ethiopia has never invaded any country and will not do so in the future," he added. "The Ethiopian army does not aim to attack and invade others, but to defend the country."

Ethiopia showed off its military hardware during the National Army Day parade. By Amanuel Sileshi (AFP)

A mosaic of more than 80 ethno-linguistic communities, Ethiopia has in recent years been troubled by sometimes deadly violence over identity and territorial claims.

Its most populous region, Oromia, is plagued by armed violence and anti-government insurgencies, and has witnessed ethnic massacres in recent years.

Its second-most populous region Amhara has been under a state of emergency since August, after fighting erupted between federal forces and local militia fighters who had supported Ethiopia's government during the Tigray conflict.
A Canadian-based Ghanaian businessman and philanthropist, Mr George Bannerman has appealed to New Patriotic Party (NPP) delegates in Ajumako Enyan Essiam constituency to repay Hon. Ken Agyapong with a resounding victory in the forthcoming presidential primaries of the party.

According to him, this is the only way the party in the Ajumako Enyan Essiam constituency can repay the NPP presidential aspirant for the enormous contribution he made to them since 2012.

Mr. Bannerman, who has an identical image of Hon. Ken Agyapong has relocated to Ghana and pitched camp in Ajumako Enyan Essiam constituency is bent on ensuring victory for the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Assin Central Constituency in the November 4 election, considering Mr. Agyapongs unflinching support, commitment and loyalty to the party, and his capabilities should he become the flagbearer.

Mr. Bannerman made these comments when he engaged the media after one of his campaign tours in the constituency dubbed 'Hope Campaign'.

Hon. Ken Ohene Agyapong is a man of his word, very honest and disciplined who doesnt joke with the party Grassroots any day he gets the opportunity to speak for the party and has the party at his heart most especially the Polling Station Executives who who always work tirelessly at their various Polling Stations during an election year to ensure victory for the party. He (Hon. Ken Agyapong) must be appreciated for his tremendous contributions to the party by voting Massively for Him to do more. Never disappoint such a Hardworking and Committed Patriot on the day of the elections," he said.

Mr. Bannerman, who traces his roots from Breman Essiam has toured almost every part of the constituency canvassing votes for the 'Showdown' man.

Mr. George Bannermans 'Hope Campaign' first commenced in Essiam, his hometown where he interacted with his own people. He continued in Ba Zone from Abeadze, Kokoyanko, Asikado, Osedzi, and Gyebil on the first day of his tour.

Mr. George and his team stormed back into Essiam Zone when they met delegates from Bekoso, Ahamakobua, Anamosi, Breman Fawomanye, and Denkyendu on the second day of the 'Hope Campaign.'

The team proceeded to the Bisease Zone, Sonkwa Zone, and part of Ba Zone.

The Hope Campaign team suspended their tour when Mr George Bannerman got involved in a gory accident during one of their rounds and needed to seek medical attention.

However, the team is hoping to wrap up the tour in the Enyanmaim zone in the coming days.

The philanthropist who has stayed in Canada for 29 years added that the time has come for Ghanaians to elect a businessman man as president and Hon Kennedy Agyepong fits perfectly to turn things around.

The businessman who has built two hospitals in Bortianor and Liberia Camp to take care of the refugees, expressed a strong belief in Mr. Agyapong leading Ghanaians to the promised land. He said patriotism, discipline, and honesty is his trait which are the qualities Ghanaians are looking for in a leader.

Mr. Bannerman was accompanied by Hon Kenneth Obrempong, former District Chief Executive, Uncle Mark, Kofi Seedof, some electoral area coordinators, and polling station executives who share the same vision as Mr Bannerman.
European Union leaders emerged on Thursday night from hours of talks in Brussels to call for humanitarian corridors and pauses to allow aid into Gaza.

In their first in-person meeting since Hamas's 7 October assault on Israel, which prompted retaliatory attacks and a blockade on Gaza, top European politicians have been under pressure to show unity.

"The European Council expresses its gravest concern for the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza and calls for continued, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access and aid to reach those in need through all necessary measures including humanitarian corridors and pauses for humanitarian needs," said a statement.

European countries have failed to find accord on anything besides a strong condemnation of the attack.

Some nations have been emphasising their support of Israel's right to self-defence, while others have been more focused on the plight of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

Right words

In the prelude to the summit, there was discussion of the terminology of the final statement. Some countries disagreed with the use of the term "ceasefire". There was also a dispute over the use of humanitarian pause as that terminology would limit Israel's ability to defend itself.

Adopting the term pauses implies short breaks in fighting rather than a formal ceasefire.

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said: I'm not obsessed about what language we use. What we want is the killing and the violence to stop; to stop so that humanitarian aid can get into Gaza, where Palestinian people are ... suffering, and also to allow us to get EU citizens out."

He said that about 30 Irish Palestinian citizens are stuck. "We're keen for them to be able to leave Gaza if they want to leave, and that's currently not possible."

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz added: Israel is a democratic state that is led by very humanitarian principles, so one can be sure that the Israeli army will respect the rules that arise from international law in what it does. I have no doubt about that.

The talks included reports from EU leaders who have recently been on the ground, including the French president Emmanuel Macron, who returned from the region on Wednesday.

While the EU's influence on the conflict is modest, leaders discused diplomatic efforts to prevent an escalation into a regional war.

EU officials fear a regional escalation could spark a new migration crisis with a large flow of refugees into Europe.

Debate about migration is expected to focus on agreements with third countries, such as the controversial deal with Tunisia, which may serve as an example for other potential agreements.

Also on the agenda is the war in Ukraine.

"Developments in the Middle East require our immediate attention, without distracting us from our continued support to Ukraine," EU Council president Charles Michel said in his invitation letter to the summit.

Support for Ukraine

Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the summit via video.

He urged the bloc to continue its support for his country in its war with Russia and to show unity in the face of the Russian president Vladimir Putin who ordered his country's troops into Ukraine in February 2022.

Without mentioning the meeting of the Hungarian prime minister Viiktor Orban's with Putin on 17 October in Beijing, Zelenskyy told the leaders: And one more thing, I thank everyone who is making every effort to preserve unity. Unity with Ukraine. Unity within the European Union.

(with newswires)
In the run-up to the New Patriotic Partys (NPP) presidential election scheduled for November 4, Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, a presidential hopeful, has responded for the first time to what he described as lies being circulated by his closest contender, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong.

During his address to delegates during his recent tour of the Northern region, Dr. Bawumia expressed his disappointment in the tactics being employed by his opponents.

He stated, Were about to make history in our party and history in this country. Unfortunately, due to the Super Delegates results, many of our opponents are becoming desperate and are foreseeing defeat on November 4. As a result, they have resorted to spreading lies and sowing disunity amongst us.

Dr. Bawumia challenged the false claims currently circulating about him, specifically addressing three major lies. Firstly, he refuted the accusation that he gave all 275 constituency chairmen GHS100,000 and a pickup truck.

He emphasized that no such distribution had taken place, terming the claim as ridiculous.

Secondly, he dismissed the allegation that he plans to prevent polling station executives and electoral area coordinators from voting in the presidential election.

Dr. Bawumia clarified that he had supported the expansion of the electoral college to include these key stakeholders and assured his audience that they would continue to exercise their voting rights.

Then they say, I will not allow in future, polling station executives and electoral area coordinators to vote in the Presidential election. I mean how can this happen since its not possible for me to stop polling station executives and electoral area coordinators from voting.

This is a National Conference decision and I was very supportive of expanding the electoral college to allow polling station executives and electoral area coordinators to vote and by the grace of God, they will continue to vote. They will continue to vote.

What I actually want to do is to push for a new reform to allow electoral area coordinators to vote in an election of regional executives. So we want to rather expand and include everybody and we dont want to reduce and so that lie must be put to rest.

Lastly, he denied the claim that he had advocated for sitting Members of Parliament (MPs) to run unopposed, emphasizing that such a proposal would contradict the partys democratic principles.

The third lie I have heard this morning is that I said all sitting MPs should go unopposed and that nobody should contest a sitting MP. How can I say that? The party constitution cannot even allow that. This party is stronger when we have democracy working so I will never say any sitting MP must go unopposed. There must be consensus in any constituency and so that lie should be left alone. But I say their tactics is if you miss the ball, dont miss the man but as of this they will miss the man because we will not allow their lies to take root. 

Dr. Bawumia expressed his commitment to allowing healthy competition within the party and emphasized the importance of achieving consensus in each constituency.

In conclusion, Dr. Bawumia reiterated his dedication to defeating these lies and maintaining the integrity and unity of the NPP. We will not allow their lies to take root, he declared, emphasizing that the upcoming presidential election would be a fair and transparent process. Dr. Bawumia urged the delegates to remain focused and united as the NPP works towards a successful outcome on November 4.

-DGN online
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has paid tribute to fallen military heroes and veterans as Nigeria prepares to mark Armed Forces Remembrance Day in 2024.

He assured Nigerians will honour soldiers, sailors and airmen who lost their lives in counter-insurgency operations against Boko Haram and other security threats across the country.

In a Twitter message on Thursday, October 26, the president said the annual emblem "is our humble way of appreciating our veterans and the families of their fallen colleagues."

"Men and women of the Armed Forces of Nigeria remain committed to the daunting yet vital task of conserving security in Nigeria," Tinubu noted.

He added that "it, therefore, falls on us, as a people, to honour our veterans and also the memory of the valiant officers, men and women who paid the supreme sacrifice."

Tinubu further assured the nation will "provide a decent and humane standard of care for all who have served our dear Nigeria."

"The sacrifices of our heroes shall never be forgotten," the president emphasised in his Armed Forces Remembrance Day message.

The commemorations aim to raise awareness of the huge debt owed the fallen troops and recognise the sacrifices of those still serving to keep Nigerians safe.
The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Samuel Abu Jinapor, has expressed optimism that Cardinal Namdini Mining Ltd in the Upper East Region will make Ghana maintain its position as the leading producer of gold in Africa.

He believed the companys operations would increase economic activities in the northern part of the country.

He said the company needed to start operations as quickly as possible.

He, therefore, appealed to the management of the mother company in China, the Shandong Gold Group, to give its Ghana team the necessary support it needed to deliver on its promise.

Mr Jinapor said this on Wednesday when he called on the leadership of the Shandong Gold Group while in China to participate in the 25th China Mining Conference and Exhibition in Tianjin from the 26th to 28th of October, 2023.

The Cardinal Namdini project, which is currently in the construction stage, is projected to produce 1.1 million ounces of gold in the first three years of operations.

The General Manager of Shandong Gold Group, Mr Hang Li, said the company was committed to ensuring that it poured its first gold at Talensi in the Upper East Region by the end of 2024, adding that the project was very important.

He said the company was committed to replicating its green mining practices in Ghana to make it a model mining company for the rest of Africa.

Mr Hang Li also disclosed that the company has plans to construct an airport in Bolgatanga to ease transportation to and fro the region.

He said discussions are already underway with all the relevant stakeholders to streamline the project.
Former Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has welcomed the Supreme Court's dismissal of petitions filed Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party candidate Peter Obi, affirming President Bola Tinubu's victory in the 2023 presidential election.

In a statement released by his spokesperson Garba Shehu on Thursday, General Buhari called the Supreme Court's verdict "a reaffirmation of the will of the majority of the people against the determined will of a hard-fighting minority."

He said the decision is "a welcome relief" for both himself and most Nigerian citizens.

According to him, "Now that we have arrived at the last bus-stop, after a tortuous 8-months of expensive legal journey, the nation deserves a break. The opposition has fought a good fight."

The immediate past President expressed concern over low voter turnout, especially in urban areas in the February general elections.

Buhari again called on the opposition to "take the hand of fellowship extended by the Tinubu/Shettima APC government. Let them allow the Government to run their administration and the people to enjoy the full benefits of the promises the All Progressives Congress (APC) made."
The chief of Ejura Traditional Area Barimah Osei Hwedie II together with the Interior Minister, Hon Ambrose Derry on Thursday, October 26, 2023 commissioned an ultramodern Divisional Police Headquarters at Ejura in the Ashanti Region.

The facility which is the first of its kind in the country was constructed at the cost of 2.8 million Ghana cedis.

The model Police Command was constructed by the Ejurahene Barimah Osei Hwedie II with support from Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, Interior Minister Ambrose Derry, Alhaji Dr Mahamudu Indemi a renowned businessman from Bono state, Nigeria, chiefs and residents of Ejura among others.

Addressing a gathering at the official opening of the facility on Thursday, October 26, 2023, Ejurahene Barima Osei Hwedie II disclosed that the command has 18 offices, three cells, and auxiliary facilities that will facilitate effective policing in the area.

He noted that construction of the infrastructure for police was in response to the recommendations made by the three-member ministerial committee that investigated the disturbances at Ejura following Macho Kaaka's murder.

The committee among other things called for the expansion of the Ejura Police Station and an increase in personnel.

"Following the recommendations, I set out to build this edifice for police, and with support from my elders, Ejura residents and our important development partners, the dream is now a reality, he stated.

Barimah Osei Hwedie II used the occasion to call for peace and harmony at Ejura for accelerated development.

The renowned chief stated that peace and order depend on security and emphasized that security is vital to engender progress and development in every society.

He stresses that without security there cannot be any development.

He pledged traditional Authoritys support to government in the provision of vital infrastructural projects in the area.

Vice Presidents contribution

Ejurahene Barimah Osei Hwedie II expressed his profound gratitude to the Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia for supporting the project in diverse ways.

"My boss the Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia did not only provide financial and material support to Ejura on this all-important project, but also gave us all the emotional encouragement we needed to finish this command," he stated.

He revealed that support from the Vice President and the Akufo-Addo government is having a major impact on the lives of Ejura residents.

He however said he was grateful to Alhaji Mahamudu Inddemi, a renowned businessman from Nigeria who also provided huge financial support to the building of the police headquarters.

Barimah Osei Hwedie II thanked all partners and every individual who contributed meaningfully to making the project a success.

Interior Minister's Appreciation

For his part, the Interior Minister, Hon Ambrose Derry, stressed on the importance of effective collaboration between the state and development partners for such projects.

He noted that government cherishes and welcomes community-police collaboration in the provision of infrastructure and logistics to support efficient policing in the country.

He however commended Ejurahene Barima Osei Hwedie II for the bold step he took to build the police command two years ago.

He called on residents of Ejura and its environs to support efforts by their chief by obeying the laws of the state.

He however reiterated governments commitment to making the country peaceful through effective policing.
27.10.2023 LISTEN

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of Nigeria has expressed disappointment with the Supreme Court's judgment dismissing its petition that challenges Bola Tinubu's victory in the 2023 presidential election.

In a statement released Thursday, October 26, the PDP said the apex court's reasoning "is against the express provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), the Electoral Act, 2022, the Guideline and Regulation issued by INEC."

"It is indeed a sad commentary for our democracy that the Supreme Court failed to uphold the provisions of the law. Instead, it trashed the expectation of majority of Nigerians who looked up to it as a Temple of Impartiality to deliver substantial justice in the matter," the statement read in part.

The opposition party said Nigerians expected the court to address issues around Tinubu's qualification, violations of electoral guidelines, and allegations of result manipulation.

However, it claimed the court overlooked these issues of "technicalities."

"Nigerians are still at a loss as to how the Supreme Court condoned the serious issues of forgery, falsehood and perjury on the altar of technicalities," the PDP lamented.

According to the PDP, the judgment has shaken public confidence in the judiciary and Nigeria's democracy but urged citizens not to be discouraged in the quest for credible elections.

"The PDP remains undeterred and charges Nigerians not to...allow the judgment to detract from their collective quest for the entrenchment of a credible electoral system that can guarantee a government that truly derives its legitimacy from the people," the statement concluded.
Akosombo Dam Spillage victims at Mepe in the North Tongu District have received support from Unilever Ghana PLC in the form of products and relief supplies.

500 branded Annapurna bowls, 500 Geisha exercise books, 500 Pepsodent T-shirts, 500 Sunlight buckets and baskets, and 500 Geisha pencils, mugs, and face towels are among the products.

The remaining supplies, which include water purification equipment, ten IBC water tanks, Pepsodent Triple Protection 175G, and Closeup Complete Fresh 140G, will assist the spillage victims.

Mr. Henry Malm, Head of Communications and Sustainability at Unilever Ghana PLC, said in an interview that the firm intentionally aims to improve the confidence, health, and well-being of the people it serves, which is why the visit to provide donations to the victims was made.

He explained that the contribution and assistance at the spot were necessary since the leak could lead to a disease outbreak.

Mr. Malm reaffirmed that the supplies provided by Unilever Ghana PLC to the impacted individuals would, in his opinion, assist them in maintaining their hygiene and enhancing their wellness, even though they would not be sufficient to address every issue in every home.

He went on to say that since it's a national emergency and the corporation has a corporate social duty to aid those in need, the donated supplies will support the district's efforts to maintain cleanliness and health.

The spillage has affected and displaced about 1,200 people in the district, according to Mr. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Member of Parliament for North Tongu Constituency. As a result, he thanked Unilever Ghana for helping the people in need.

He continued by saying that the community would greatly benefit from the donated supplies, particularly the IBC water tank, as it has been difficult for locals to obtain portable water because of the spills.

Once more, Mr. Okudzeto Ablakwa thanked Unilever Ghana for the support on behalf of the entire district, the district chief executive, traditional leaders, and other stakeholders.

In addition to urging everyone to make a donation, no matter how modest, he called on Cooperate Ghana, philanthropists, diplomatic communities, individuals, and donors to follow Unilever Ghana's humanitarian example and maintain a steady flow of funds to support their health and well-being in the 21 camps.

The district's water pumps were shut off due to contamination, according to Mr. Divine Osborn K. Fenu, district chief executive of North Tongu District, who also praised Unilever Ghana for the money that will be given to the victims.

He said that identical problems with food, water, and bedding are present in all of the camps housing the displaced, therefore these supplies are necessary for comfort in all of the camps.

Mr. Fenu continued, "The Ghana Health Service and the Member of Parliament supported the Health Directorate in bringing in some medical personnel from the Ghana Medical Association, under the direction of the Regional Chairman, to assist in setting up mobile clinics in at least six of the centers for their health safety, including isolation centers."

-CDA Consult || Contributor
SAN FRANCISCO  One year ago, billionaire and new owner Elon Musk walked into Twitter's San Francisco headquarters with a white bathroom sink and a grin, fired its CEO and other top executives and began transforming the social media platform into what is now known as X.

X looks and feels something like Twitter, but the more time you spend on it the clearer it becomes that it's merely an approximation. Musk dismantled core features of what made Twitter, Twitter  its name and blue bird logo, its verification system, its Trust and Safety advisory group. Not to mention content moderation and hate speech enforcement.

He also fired, laid off or lost the majority of its workforce  engineers who keep the site running, moderators who keep it from being overrun with hate, executives in charge of making rules and enforcing them.

The result, long-term Twitter watchers say, has been the end of the platform's role as an imperfect but useful place to find out what's going on in the world. What X will become, and whether Musk can achieve his ambition of turning it into an "everything app" that everyone uses, remains as unclear as it was a year ago.

"Musk hasn't managed to make a single meaningful improvement to the platform and is no closer to his vision of an 'everything app,' than he was a year ago," said Insider Intelligence analyst Jasmine Enberg. "Instead, X has driven away users, advertisers, and now it has lost its primary value proposition in the social media world: Being a central hub for news."

As one of the platform's most popular and prolific users even before he bought the company, Musk had a unique experience on Twitter that is markedly different from how regular users experience it. Many of the changes he introduced to X were based on his own impressions of the site  in fact, he even polled his millions of followers for advice on how to run it (they said he should step down).

"Musk's treatment of the platform as a technology company that he could remake in his vision rather than a social network fueled by people and ad dollars has been the single largest cause of the demise of Twitter," Enberg said.

The blue checkmarks that once signified that the person or institution behind an account was who they said they are  a celebrity, athlete, journalist from global or local publication, a nonprofit agency  now merely shows that someone pays $8 a month for a subscription service that boosts their posts above un-checked users. It's these paying accounts that have been found to spread misinformation on the platform that is often amplified by its algorithms.

On Thursday, for instance, a new report from the left-leaning nonprofit Media Matters found numerous blue-checked X accounts with tens of thousands of followers claimed that the mass shooting in Maine was a "false flag," planned by the government.

Researchers also found such accounts spreading misinformation and propaganda about the Israel-Hamas war  so much so that the European Commission made a formal, legally binding request for information to X over its handling of hate speech, misinformation and violent terrorist content related to the war.

Ian Bremmer, a prominent foreign policy expert, posted on X this month that the level of disinformation on the Israel-Hamas war "being algorithmically promoted" on the platform "is unlike anything I've ever been exposed to in my career as a political scientist."

After Musk signed a deal to acquire Twitter in April 2022, he tried to back out of it, leading the company to sue him to force him to go through with the acquisition. A Delaware judge ordered the deal to be finalized.

Twitter already was struggling financially when Musk purchased it for $44 billion in a deal that closed Oct. 27, 2022, and the situation appears more precarious today.

Musk took the company private, so its books are no longer public  but in July, the Tesla CEO said the company had lost about half of its advertising revenue and continues to face a large debt load.

"We're still negative cash flow," he posted on the site on July 14, due to a about a "50% drop in advertising revenue plus heavy debt load."

"Need to reach positive cash flow before we have the luxury of anything else," he said.

In May, Musk hired Linda Yaccarino, a former NBC executive with deep ties to the advertising industry in an attempt to lure back top brands, but the effort has been slow to pay off.

Insider Intelligence estimates that X will bring in $1.89 billion in advertising revenue this year, down 54% from 2022. The last time its ad revenue was near this level was in 2015, when it came in at $1.99 billion. In 2022, it was $4.12 billion.

Outside research also shows that people are using X less.

According to research firm Similarweb, global web traffic to Twitter.com was down 14%, year-over-year, and traffic to the ads.twitter.com portal for advertisers was down 16.5%. Performance on mobile was no better, down 17.8% year-over-year based on combined monthly active users for Apple's iOS and Android.

"Even though the cultural relevance of Twitter was already starting to decline," before Musk took it over, "it's as if the platform no longer exists. And it's been a death by a thousand cuts," Enberg said.

"What's really fascinating is that almost all of the wounds have been self-inflicted. Usually when a social platform starts to lose its relevance there are at least some external factors at play, but that's not the case here."
27.10.2023 LISTEN

For his kind efforts and humanitarian gesture to the people of the Upper East Region and most especially the vulnerable and the voiceless, Mr. Ngamegbulam Chidozie Stephen has been nominated to be honored at the 2023 Ghana-Nigeria Achievers Award in Accra.

Mr. Ngamegbulam who has been practicing as a journalist in Ghana for years has represented his country Nigeria well as a good ambassador by way of promoting Nigerias good image all these years without engaging himself with things that will dent the good relationship between Nigeria and Ghana.

As part of his humanitarian contribution, Mr. Ngamegbulam a man who has a massive love for Persons with Disabilities after identifying how those marginalised groups struggle to access the Regional House of Chief conference hall decided to construct stairways to enable them access to their meeting and programme activities. The project was well appreciated by the House of Chiefs. The idea was to send a signal to authorities especially the public institutions to consider the PWDs by way of adding stairways in their building plan when putting a structure for public use.

However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, almost everything became shattered to both government, private, and business entities, and then, no one was thinking about the survival of the ordinary vulnerable on the streets and Persons with Disabilities. Then, Mr. Ngamegbulam thought of feeding over 150 vulnerable on the streets of Bolgatanga including Persons With Disabilities which was distributed at the Plaza Center.

Through his outfit Apexnewsgh.com, Ngamegbulam has contributed to the welfare of many in diverse ways. During the 2020 general election in Ghana, peace was preached across both mosques and churches. Everyones interest was to have free and fair elections.

However, thinking about the contribution he could offer to the region, Mr. Ngamegbulam went on to print dozens of handkerchiefs with peace messages on them. It was delivered to all the aspiring candidates in the Bolgatanga Constituency.

Mr. Ngamegbulam's message to these aspirants was simple: "As a platform, we wish all of you well in the contest. Please, I am handing over these handkerchiefs to you as a candidate, kindly share them with your supporters especially those at the polling stations, as they are used to clean the heat, when they want to do something funny what was written in the handkerchief will calm them down The aspirants were so happy with such an intervention.

It is no surprise at all that on the very first organized Ghana Journalist Association (GJA) in the Upper East Region, Mr. Ngamegbulam was honored with the award of Human Rights Reporter of the Year.

The Ghana-Nigeria Achievers Award is a prestigious organization that celebrates and acknowledges outstanding individuals who have made significant contributions to society. Known for its recognition of hardworking citizens in West Africa, this esteemed entity will be hosting its annual award ceremony on Friday, October 27, 2023.

The event will take place at the Mikado Event Center, located at Labone Junction in Accra. It promises to be an evening of recognition and admiration for those who have dedicated themselves to positively impacting their communities.
Christian Council of Ghana and the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council say it impressed with the effort by the leadership of the police service to reach out to key stakeholders in their bid to enhance engagement with the public.

It comes after the Inspector General of Police Dr. George Akuffo Dampare and members of the Police Management Board held a stakeholder meeting with the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council, and the Christian Council of Ghana at the Pentecost transit guest house in Accra on Thursday, 26 October 2023.

The meeting is part of an ongoing engagement with key stakeholders by the police service as part of their end of year security preparations.

Speaking at the program, the Chairman of the Church of Pentecost Apostle Eric Nyamekye expressed the gratitude of the council to the IGP for calling on them and taking time to explain some security matters to them.

We thank you for the education. These are things people pay to acquire but you have shared it with us for free, we are grateful. You have our support as a council, he said.

Adding his voice to express gratitude, Bishop Gordon Kisseih, the Presiding Bishop of the Life International Church, and the First Vice-President of the GPCC council said the council is happy with the leadership of the police service and their approach to issues.

You on the right track and I want to assure you that you have our backing.

For his part, the IGP gave the assurance that the police is prepared to give Ghanaians an overdose of security this Christmas.

-Classfmonline.com
It is disturbing that even at this stage certain personalities, especially the NDC Minority and their allies in the media, academia and civil society still hold the view that the government has not done enough to alleviate the plight of the victims of the Akosombo Dam spillage.

This group of people think the President has turned his back and the back of his government because the people in the Volta Region, mostly affected by the disaster, do not align with the NPP when it comes to elections.

The government spokespersons have explained severally why as a people we should avoid the blame game and collectively put our shoulders to the wheel to address the Mepe area disaster.

The attempt by President Akufo-Addo to explain to the people that he is father for all, and when it comes to their needs, it does not matter whether they voted for his party or not, we should be moving towards building consensus on some issues such as the crisis in the Lower Volta Basin.

We at this stage want to invite Ghanaians to evaluate certain aspects of the speech by President Akufo-Addo at Mepe last week and whether it offended the sensibility of the people.

Now let us interrogate what the President said at Mepe last Monday and crucify him for politically incorrect remarks from the Father of the Nation. Take and listen carefully. I want to assure you that the government is going to do everything in its power to assist (and) to make sure that things are alright. I think everybody here, and I hope you take the message all across North Tongu, South Tongu, Central Tongu  that when these things happen and government acts, politics does not come into the matter at all.

When I took the oath of office as President, I took the oath of office as President for every single individual in Ghana, for all the people in Ghana, all districts, whether they voted for me or not. Once I have taken the oath of office, I am the President for all the people.

Togbe, I want the people here, beginning with you, and the elders to understand when something like this happens and government acts, government is acting for Ghanaians, for all Ghanaians. I came here because Ghanaians are having difficulties, and it is my responsibility to try and help. Because, if it is a question of counting who votes for me and who dont vote for me, then I shouldnt be here, because you dont vote for me. But that is not my concern. And, in any event, one day you will vote for me and my party.

Fellow Ghanaians, we invite you to evaluate the Presidents speech without a political lens on and truthfully tell us where the President erred unlike the opaque lenses with which people like Prof Gyampo, Martin Kpebu, Dzifa Gomashie and the NDC have misrepresented the President as having hatred for the people of the Volta Region.

We admonish those talking ill of the President to take a cue from the Scriptures in Ephesians 4: 29 thus, Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

Source: Daily Guide
A days sensitization forum on womens participation in decision making at home has taken place at Nkrankrom, near Sunyani, as part of a campaign being implemented by Global Media Foundation (GLOMEF), a human rights and media advocacy organisation.

Other communities around Sunyani including Yawmiri, Nkrankese, Yawhima, Mensahkrom, Watchman, Kwasifum, Nwonwasu, Kyeredua, Yawsae, Nsagobesa, Osofokrom, Kyerebogya, and Nwawasua, are also benefitting from the campaign, which seeks to orient community members, especially men, and create awareness on the benefits of supporting womens economic participation and building womens agency to take individual and collective actions.

The four-year project being implemented in partnership with Plan Ghana, URBANET and WIDO as well as private sector stakeholders, seeks to enhance economic empowerment, well-being, and inclusive economic growth for women in Ghana.

Womens rights

The dialogue aims to help deepen about 1,500 men and community members knowledge to have a better understanding of womens rights and appreciate the importance of womens participation in household and community-level decision making.

Most of the participants at the community engagement session at Nkrankrom underscored the importance of involving women in decision-making at the household level and implored all men, especially husbands, to be transparent with their dealings with their wives on all critical matters affecting the day-to-day running of their homes.

They contended that this brings harmony at home, promotes peaceful co-existence, and takes away issues relating to mistrust and unnecessary squabbles.

If you are a man and you involve your wife in decision-making at home, you dont only have peace of mind but also a clear conscience, 34-year-old Benjamin Commey noted.

Vital information

The Assembly Member for Nkrankwanta Electoral Area, Hayford Kumah, added his voice to the call on husbands to carry their wives along in making decisions at home or about the family but was quick to caution women and wives to desist from sharing vital information about their relationships with other people.

He said the practice where some wives discuss decisions taken at home with their friends and family makes it quite difficult for some men to continue involving their wives in decision-making at home.

The Chief of Nkrankrom, Nii Lanquaye Odartei, and the queen-mother of the town, Naa Lamiekor, also took turns to educate the gathering about the importance of womens participation in decision-making at home.

The Chief Executive Officer of GloMeF, Raphael Godlove Ahenu, commended the community members for their participation, and encouraged them to apply the knowledge gained in the forum in their daily lives.
Breast Care International (BCI) has offered a free breast cancer education and screening exercise to El-Shamal Congregation of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana at Ofankor in the Greater Accra region.

The exercise sponsored by Delta Air Lines, is part of the airlines Kick Out Cancer campaign aimed at providing free breast cancer exercise for women in Ghana.

The program was attended by Womens Fellowship Students from the Presbyterian School at Ofankor, and women in and around the Ofankor community, on Wednesday, October 25, 2023.

Also in attendance were Delta Air Lines General Manager for Europe, Middle East and Africa, Joseph Young, Delta Air Lines General Manager for Sales - Middle East, Africa and India, Manoj Kuriakose and Delta Air Lines Sales Manager in Ghana, Eloina Baddoo.

The participants were taken through the process of how to self-examine the breasts for early detection of breast cancer, by the BCI medical team headed by Dr Beatrice Wiafe Addai.

They were also made to be aware that the disease is curable, treatable and preventable, hence the need to seek early treatment when required.

Addressing the participants, the President of Breast Care International Dr Beatrice Wiafe Addai, described breast cancer as a silent killer hence the need for regular education on the disease.

She asked those who cannot do the Breast Self-Examination (BSE) to visit health facilities for clinical screening to know their breast cancer status.

Breast cancer at the early stage is not painful; it can only be detected through screening. Once it is detected early, it can be treated and cured, Dr Wiafe Addai gave the assurance.

Dr Beatrice Wiafe Addai who is also the CEO of Peace and Love Hospitals in Kumasi and Accra, stated that breast cancer is not caused by witchcraft and must not be treated spiritually.

She noted that women are dying needlessly from breast cancer because of the misconceptions that the disease is a spiritual curse, leading most women to seek help from spiritual doctors and praying camps where they compound the situation."

Delta Air Lines General Manager for Sales - Middle East, Africa and India, Manoj Kuriakose, addressing the participants asked them to adopt the slogan early detection saves life and report to the hospital if they detect anything unusual lumps in their breasts.

Manoj Kuriakose said the airline is proud to support BCI in the quest to save women in Ghana from breast cancer, through breast cancer awareness programs.
An Accra Circuit Court has granted a GHC50,000.00 bail with two sureties each to two persons accused of human trafficking and assault.

They are also to deposit their travelling documents with the courts registry.

Tijani Hussein is facing charges of recruiting and bringing four victims from Nigeria to Ghana under the guise of finding them jobs but later using them for internet fraud.

He is charged alongside Hassan Great with conspiring to assault the four victims and assaulting them.

Hussein has denied trafficking and assaulting Christopher Junior Anyanwu, Kelvin Aghator, Israel Dan, and Godwin Adibo.

Hassan on the other hand denied conspiring with Hussein to assault the four victims.

They will make their next appearance on November 16, 2023.

Meanwhile, their accomplice, Clement Moses is on the run.

Police Chief Inspector Dickson Atunah told the Court presided over by Mr Samuel Bright Acquah that Israel Dan, 19, is the complainant in the case, whilst the accused persons, all Nigerians, are internet fraudsters.

In July 2023, Hussein recruited Junior Christopher, 17 and Kelvin, 21, from Nigeria to Ghana under the pretext of securing them jobs.

He told the court that when the victims arrived, Hussein welcomed them into his home in Ayikuma, confiscated their phones and erased all information from them, and coerced the two into internet fraud.

Hussein, according to the prosecution, subjected the victims to severe beatings if they failed to comprehend what he was teaching them.

He only fed them once a day and forced them to drink only a sachet of water in 24 hours.

Chief Inspector Atunah said the victims were not permitted to leave the house or make phone calls.

They were also forbidden from using any private social media handles other than to deceive individuals, primarily Japanese, on Instagram.

He said that the victims worked from 0830 hours to 1600 hours, then from 2030 hours to 0430 hours the next day.

The court heard that Hussein recruited and brought Israel, 19, and Godwin, 22, from Nigeria to Ghana in August 2023, and subjected them to the same abuse.

The prosecution said Hassan, a fellow fraudster, arrived in Ghana from Nigeria in August 2023 and joined Hussein in his internet fraud enterprise.

He and Hussein ruthlessly assaulted the victims anytime they broke any of the rules in the house, the Prosecution informed the Court.

Chief Inspector Atunah said on October 6, 2023, Israel, who was then transferred from Ayikuma by Hussein to Mensah Bar to work under another master named Clement Moses, also a Nigerian who is yet to be arrested, reported the case of assault at Ayikuma Police Station, which resulted in the rescue of the three others and the arrest of the accused.

He said the parties and case dockets were then sent to the CID Headquarters Anti-Human Trafficking Unit for further investigation.

Chief Inspector Atunah said during investigation Hussein admitted to recruiting and transporting the victims from Nigeria to Ghana.

Hussein and Hassan both admitted to assaulting the victims, but they denied employing them for internet fraud.

In requesting bail, their counsel said that his clients had pleaded their innocence, a fixed place of abode, and would appear in court.

He said that the accused were arrested on October 4, 2023, detained for six days, and then released on police investigation bail without violating any of the bail conditions.

According to their counsel, they were re-arrested on October 16, 2023, and held in police custody until October 25, 2023.

He claimed that after his clients phones were confiscated, the police searched their house, but the facts provided by prosecution did not reflect that.

The prosecution stated that the phones would be needed in subsequent investigations and that they would not oppose bail provided the defendants would appear in court for trial.

GNA
The Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) on Thursday, October 26, launched its maiden eLearning Awareness Campaign on the theme "The Future of KAIPTC Learning: Developing Capacities through Innovative eLearning Technologies."

Speaking at the programme held at the Centre, the Commandant of KAIPTC, Maj Gen Richard Addo-Gyane gave the assurance that the Centre will roll out more eLearning courses to enhance its peace and security agenda.

In his welcome address, the Commandant stressed that the emergence of dedicated eLearning platforms and institutions has transformed how the centre approaches education.

He disclosed that since the launch of KAIPTC's inaugural eLearning course in 2020, there have been over 3,000 enrollments in the various available eCourses.

This, Maj Gen Richard Addo-Gyane argued that does not only underscores the dynamic and viable nature of eLearning as a means of delivering training but also has a pivotal role in advancing strategic goals, ensuring financial sustainability, and maintaining the longevity of the Center's post-graduate academic programs.

He said it additionally significantly enhances KAIPTC's visibility within the technological ecosystem.

Maj Gen Richard Addo-Gyane [Right] with Her Excellency Ms. Ingrid Mollestad [Left]

Maj Gen Richard Addo-Gyane further noted that the Center bolstered by its partners is actively committed to enhancing its eLearning infrastructure to better serve stakeholders and extend its reach both locally and globally.

This can be achieved by raising awareness about the manifold opportunities that eLearning affords KAIPTC, its collaborators, and the diverse range of stakeholders.

I think we can say that KAIPTC's efforts towards embracing digital learning are a testament to our commitment to providing quality education and training opportunities to all, regardless of geographical constraints or circumstances, the Commandant indicated.

In his concluding remarks, Maj Gen Richard Addo-Gyane expressed appreciation to EPSAO and the Norwegian government for providing funding support for the eLearning Awareness Campaign.

Speaking at the Campaign launch, the Norwegian Ambassador to Ghana, Her Excellency Ms. Ingrid Mollestad said her government is happy to also support the implementation of eLearning courses at KAIPTC after partnering with the Centre for over two decades.

Her Excellency Ms. Ingrid Mollestad

She argued that by utilising eLearning, KAIPTC is casting a wider net to reach potential peace champions far and wide to ensure they are equipped with essential knowledge on todays most pressing challenges; peace and security.

While commending KAIPTC for its invaluable contributions to peacekeeping and for adapting to the digital age, Her Excellency Ms. Ingrid Mollestad added that the Centre is showcasing its forward-thinking and adaptability by taking advantage of e-learning.

In conclusion, on behalf of Norway, I'd like to commend KAIPTC for its invaluable contributions to peacekeeping and for adapting to the digital age, she said.

Delivering a speech on behalf of GIZ Country Director Dirk Assmann at the opening of the eLearning Awareness Creation Forum, Teresa Krafft who is Team Leader in the ECOWAS Peace and Security Architecture and Operations Project assured that his outfit is committed to supporting the collective quest to position KAIPTC as a continental and global Centre of Excellence, sustainable and responsive to current needs and demands.

Teresa Krafft

She explained that the growing demand for innovative approaches to training through virtual learning in the peace and security environment, and the KAIPTCs quest to diversify its course portfolio, prompted the German cooperation to continue and even step up its support for the Centres eLearning development.

She said eLearning is critical to bolstering KAIPTCs competitive advantage as a Training Centre of Excellence on the African continent and beyond.

I encourage all to immerse yourselves in the programme, interrogate the issues, ask the relevant questions, and take opportunity to explore and learn. On this note, let me thank the Commandant for his consistent and continuous support to this cause and for his trustful collaboration with GIZ-EPSAO. The Director of Training, Director of PPMED and Director of TED also deserve commendation for their unreserved support and cause to the Centres E-learning and digital transformation and learning agenda, Teresa Krafft shared.

KAIPTCs eLearning Awareness Campaign is in response to the ever-evolving landscape of education and training, particularly accelerated by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The aim of the campaign is to create awareness about the importance of eLearning, discuss strategies for online teaching and learning, and share insights on eLearning course design, assessment, and implementation.

The event on Thursday brought together notable dignitaries, including Ministers of State and members of the Diplomatic Corps, among other distinguished guests

The eLearning Awareness campaign is supported by GIZ through the ECOWAS Peace and Security Architecture and Operations Project (EPSAO) and the Norwegian government with funding from the German Government and in parts co-funded by the European Union.
Government Spokesperson, Kofi Tonto, has criticized retired Supreme Court judge Justice William Atuguba for his recent remarks about the Judiciary during a public lecture.

Justice Atuguba's comments, delivered on Tuesday, October 24, 2023, have sparked controversy.

During his lecture, Justice Atuguba described the Supreme Court's verdict on the James Gyakye Quayson dual citizenship case as "scandalous" and expressed concerns about the court's handling of the matter.

He argued that the court had re-adjudicated a case that had already been decided by the High Court, raising questions about the consistency and application of legal principles.

In reaction to these remarks on Peace FMs Kokrokoo morning show, Kofi Tonto expressed disappointment and questioned Justice Atuguba's decision to comment on the matter.

He pointed out that Justice Atuguba failed to raise such concerns when he was still in active service, suggesting that "retirees in Ghana always find solutions to the problems they contributed to creating."

Tonto also reminded Justice Atuguba of his role as the presiding Judge during the 2012 Supreme Court petition case.

He referenced the swiftness with which Justice Atuguba had delivered a verdict in favor of the opposition National Democratic Congress during that time.

He questioned, "Was Mr. Atuguba in Ghana during the Supreme Court 2012? Didn't he hear what Ghanaians said?... If people have lost confidence in our Judiciary, is it today that they lost the confidence?"

He continued, During that time, Ghanaians "accused you (Atuguba) of having political allegiances but you were unhappy.

"But today, you say these things to tarnish the image of your colleagues. Do you know how they also feel?"

Kofi Tonto further advised Justice Atuguba to refrain from making such commentaries, particularly when, in his view, Justice Atuguba had been part of the system that contributed to the challenges faced by Ghana's judiciary.
27.10.2023 LISTEN

Dr. Benjamin Otchere-Ankrah, a governance lecturer at Central University, has waded into the ongoing discussions regarding the bribery allegation made by Professor Stephen Adei.

The allegation, which has raised concerns, centers on government officials purportedly demanding payment of 1 million Ghanaian cedis in exchange for road contracts.

Professor Stephen Adei, the former Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, made these claims during an interview with TV3.

He accused government officials of requiring upfront payments of 1 million cedis from contractors, implying that these demands were compromising the integrity of the contract award process.

In reaction to these allegations, the Ministry of Roads denied the allegations of bribery, asserting that the procedures leading to the award of road contracts are open, transparent, competitive, and fully compliant with the law.

Despite this denial, the ministry has taken the matter seriously and referred it to the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) for a thorough investigation.

In an interview on Peace FMs Kokrokoo morning show, Dr. Benjamin Otchere-Ankrah, considering the gravity of the allegation, called for the establishment of a commission to conduct an investigation into the bribery allegation.

He expressed concerns about the poor state of the country's roads, stating, "Is this why our roads are in a bad shape? This is a serious matter; we don't have to joke about it at all. In fact, I'd prefer we set up a whole Commission to investigate it because it's so damning."
The Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources responsible for Mining, Mr George Mireku Duker, has admonished mining companies in the country to engage technical hands to ensure success in their mining operations.

In an interview with the press after a tour of Gold Team Mining Company on Wednesday, he maintained that the recruitment of personnel with the right technical knowledge and experience was integral to the success of mining companies.

The Deputy Minister made the statements after observing some shortfalls in the companys operational capabilities.

Key among the observations was the apparent absence of a security and safety plan, power supply issues, ore recovery pitfalls and apparent lack of Ghanaian representation in the company's management team.

To address these challenges, Mr Duker implored the management of the company to recruit a security person of high repute to create an effective and enforceable plan for the protection of the company and its resources.

On the issue of ore discovery, he believed the technical expertise abound in the country to help address the problem.

He also advised the company to exchange information and knowledge with fellow companies and industry players on how they surmounted similar challenges which once crippled their operations.

Mr Duker noted that the Ministry, through the Minerals Commission, would make available engineers and experts to offer quintessential and technical guidance to the company.

We have spotted a few things that internally we will discuss with them and find ways of helping them. The Minerals Commission also has engineers who can help them, so we engage more, he said.

Overall, the Deputy Minister was impressed with the companys commitment to protecting the environment and adhering to the license principles that make their operations legitimate.

He was happy to have found that the company has over 300 Ghanaians in its book and commended it for the harmonious relationship between it and the communities in its catchment area.

He believed that with little technical assistance and personnel intervention, the company would witness a huge rise in their productivity.

The Managing Director of Golden Team Mining Company, Mr Michael Lee, outlined some major corporate social responsibility initiatives that the company had embarked on and assured of their commitment to delivering more.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is upbeat about the second phase of the Planting for Food and Jobs programme, which he says will progressively transform Ghana's agricultural landscape.

Designed as a commercially viable venture from production to processing, distribution and marketing, President Akufo-Addo believes the comprehensive programme will stimulate economic activities within the agricultural sector.

He also believes the programme would generate employment, support industrialisation, boost exports, increase incomes, foster rural development and propel overall economic growth.

President Akufo-Addo said this at a meeting of international development partners, on the second phase of the programme for Planting for Food and Jobs, at Alisa Hotel, Accra, on Thursday.

On Monday, 28th August, in Tamale in the Northern Region, President Akufo-Addo, launched the second phase of the Programme for Planting for Food and Jobs.

The programme is a five-year strategic initiative, designed to accelerate the growth of the agriculture sector, in response to the exacerbated challenges it has faced, primarily due to the combined impact of recent adversities like the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The programme is in anticipation of enhancing food security and establishing a strong comparative advantage in the production of diverse cash and food crops and poultry products by the end of the five-year implementation period.

President Akufo-Addo said the new comprehensive approach will stimulate economic activities within the sector, generate employment, support industrialisation, boost exports, increase incomes, foster rural development, and propel overall economic growth.

"It would as well, he noted leverage competitively the opportunities presented by the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).

He, however, said despite the productive collaboration between the government and the countrys development partners over the years, concerns had been raised about the misalignment of priorities between the policies of some international development agencies and national policies and strategies.

The government is concerned by this, because projects designed by foreign governments to support Ghana's agriculture should, naturally, align with the government's priorities.

Any deviation from this can amount to misdirected investments in the country. This platform, thus, provides an opportunity for all of us to identify the factors causing this disconnect, and take corrective measures, he opined.

Though the President acknowledged the multifaceted challenges facing Ghana's agriculture, especially the availability of funding resources, he was amused about situations where agencies such as the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, had no foreknowledge of some funds being employed in the country by international development agencies.

President Akufo-Addo advocated for dialogues to achieve optimal results for effective alignment and minimise the risk of duplication and eliminate the lack of knowledge by the government of projects by international development agencies, for a coherent approach that promotes collaboration.

Dialogues like the one we are having today, are essential and should be a regular occurrence, providing avenues to discuss challenges and successes, and ensure increased collaboration in the execution of current and future agricultural development plans in Ghana.

The President also stressed on the urgency of complementing the governments efforts through resource mobilisation and funding mechanisms, such as loans, grants, technical assistance and others by collaborating with research institutions, farmer organisations, and the private sector to ensure increased capacity building, technology transfer and knowledge sharing.

He also touched on monitoring and evaluation towards ensuring the accuracy of data collection and analysis, thereby helping to address identified weaknesses that affect design, planning, implementation and project outcomes as well as ensure accountability and facilitate evidence-based decision-making.

Whilst acknowledging the governments responsibility to create a conducive environment through regulatory measures and other incentives, he was confident that, the second phase of the programme will raise awareness about the potential of Ghana's agriculture, and draw in the necessary investments, facilitated by your invaluable support, so that we can achieve food security in Ghana.
A chartered economist and a member of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) is advising the party to develop a strategy to counteract potential man-made floods in their stronghold leading up to the 2024 general elections.

Mr Bernard Oduro Takyi, the economist in question, has alleged that the deliberate spilling of excess water from the Akosombo and Kpong dams by the Volta River Authority (VRA) in the Eastern Region is part of a calculated strategy by the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) to disenfranchise voters in the lower basin of the Volta River.

He believes this strategy aims to disenfranchise eligible voters in the NDC's strongholds in the run-up to the December 7, 2024 general elections.

Mr Takyi contends that the spilling of excess water from the dams, causing flooding in the Volta Region, is intended to create anxiety in the NDC's strongholds.

He mentioned that the areas targeted by this alleged plot include Volta, Bono East, and parts of the Eastern Regions.

''As part of this plan," he suggested that "excess water would be intentionally released from the dams leading to significant flooding in these areas, possibly necessitating a declaration of a state of emergency to prevent voters in these regions from exercising their franchise."

Mr Takyi supported his claims by referencing a comment attributed to Mr Sammy Awuku, the Director-General of the National Lottery Authority (NLA), who reportedly said that the economy might look bad, but the 2024 elections would be won through strategy.

According to Takyi, the NDC must be prepared with a strategy to address this situation if it occurs again in 2024 and to counter the NPP's alleged plan to break the eight-year political cycle at all cost.

During an interview on Accra 100.5 FM's Ghana Yensom morning show, hosted by Odehyeeba Kofi Essuman on Friday, October 27, 2023, Mr Takyi emphasised that the 2024 general elections would revolve around the NPP's perceived mismanagement of the economy, education, corruption, healthcare, roads and employment.

He claimed that the NPP has failed significantly in all these aspects, and their alleged awareness of their inability to win the 2024 elections through conventional means has led them to employ this flooding strategy to create anxiety in the stronghold of the NDC.

- Classfmonline
Professor Ahmed Abdullai Jinapor, the Acting Director-General of the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC), says Nursing and Midwifery Training Colleges (NMTCs) qualify to run degree programmes if they justify their applications.

He noted that degree programmes were accorded to institutions based on merit, capacity, case-by-case application, and said it was not true that NMTCs could not award degrees.

Professor Jinapor said this in response to a question by Madam Margaret Mary Alacoque, the President of the Conference of Heads of Health Training Institutions (COHHETI) as to why the NMTCs could not be upgraded to degree awarding institutions.

She said The Colleges of Education have moved, the Polytechnics have moved, the Allied Health Professions Schools have moved to degree awarding, even the Senior High Schools are about moving to Diploma.

Why are the NMTCs left behind? the COHHETI President asked.

Professor Jinapor, who delivered the key-note address at the COHHETI's 16th Annual General Meeting (AGM) held in Bolgatanga, told the Heads that You all qualify to run degree programmes, you just need to justify your application.

As part of measures to deal with delays in accreditation processes by the Health Training Institutions (HTIs), which was a concern to the COHHETI, the Acting Director-General said the GTEC would organize training programmes to fast-track the process of accreditation for the HTIs.

The AGM was on the theme: Quality assurance and accreditation in the training of healthcare professionals: The anchor for quality education.

Professor Jinapor said quality assurance and accreditation in the training of healthcare professionals was the bedrock upon which a strong and reliable healthcare system was built.

Countries like ours cannot afford to compromise on the quality of their healthcare education. By establishing and reinforcing some of these systems, we can ensure that our healthcare professionals are well-equipped to meet the healthcare needs of our communities and drive progress in our nation.

We need to embrace this responsibility with dedication and vigilance, knowing that in doing so, we contribute to the betterment of healthcare and, ultimately, the well-being of our fellow human beings, he said.

The Acting Director-General was hopeful that through the concerted efforts of stakeholders, the training of healthcare professionals in the country hinged on the beacon of excellence and the provision of quality education that does not only serve Ghanaians but was a model for the world.

Mr Stephen Yakubu, the Upper East Regional Minister, urged the COHHETI to continue to support and cooperate with the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service to review, formulate and implement policies on health education in line with quality assurance.

That, he said would indeed make the training of health professionals the anchor for quality assurance and accreditation in the training of healthcare professionals.

Mr Yakubu said the COHHETI had over the years grown from strength to strength and remained significantly influential in the health administration and delivery system through several initiatives, innovations and interventions.

He commended leadership and members of the COHHETI for their contribution to healthcare delivery in the country and advised nurses to show love and compassion to patients in their care.

GNA
Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo has urged judges to demonstrate capacity in adjudicating matters relating to the implementation and enforcement of the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

She said when the judges demonstrate their capacity to adjudicate RTI matters, it could form strong jurisprudence and be used as a precedent by judges of the Lower and Superior Courts.

She was speaking during the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiatives (CHRI) in collaboration with the Judicial Training Institute (JTI) Colloquium on Right to Information for Judges in Ghana.

The two-day training sought to highlight, promote, and increase existing knowledge of how the RTI is beneficial to the public.

It also promoted a better understanding and knowledge of international and regional legal frameworks on RTI, the basic principles and best practices on the right to information, and the rationale behind these principles.

She said it was important for the JTI to develop a strong faculty for passing on learning that was critical for Judges.

She urged the judges to categorize their learning and appreciate them to enable them to pass the knowledge gained on to others.

Madam Mabele Ahele, Deputy Director for the Judicial Training Institute, said her outfit had engaged the CHRI to develop a training manual to serve as a tool for the training of judges and build their capacities to live up to the mandate conferred on them by the constitution.

She said the manual provided a practical understanding of the international and regional legal framework on the rights to information and the obligations of public institutions in promoting this right.

Mr Sam Okudjeto, a Board Chair for CHRI, said the request to access information showed how citizens were actively involved in the democratic process.

He said the citizens ease of accessing information demonstrated the effectiveness of democracy in the country.

He urged the judges to not only be bound by the precedents in adjudicating matters in the country but also to read widely and observe the practices in other jurisdictions.

Mr. Maxwell Kadiri, Senior Legal Officer for Open Society Justice, said domestic and international laws had already guaranteed citizens access to information.

He said Ghana's 1992 constitution and the international charter Ghana had signed already guaranteed access to information as an inalienable right, but the RTI only outlined the procedure for acquiring the information.

Thus, any attempt to obstruct the citizens' request to access information was a breach of fundamental human rights.

He urged public institutions to proactively provide information to ensure full implementation of the Act.

Justice Kweku Tawiah Ackaah Boafo, Justice of the Court of Appeal and facilitator for the training, said procedural challenges and delays in accessing information might compel people to seek an application for judicial review after refusal of the application.

He urged judges to take a keen interest in adjudicating matters concerning the refusal of the application.

GNA
The youth of Anlo-Afiadenyigba in the Keta Municipality of the Volta Region have expressed their displeasure over the demolished 2022 Commemorative Mini Hogbetsotso plaque by unknown persons.

The move was to compel authorities to expedite action in bringing the perpetrators to book.

Mr Raphael Seth Borkloe, Secretary to the Anlo-Afiadenyigba Youth Council, in a statement delivered during a demonstration, said the plaque represented the 36 states of Anloland and must be respected.

He explained that inscriptions on the plaque remained evident that it was unveiled by Torgbui Sri, the Awomefia of Anlo, and assisted by Torgbui Kadzahlo IV, the Dufia of Anlo-Afiadenyanlo on the occasion of the second Hogbetsotso Mini durbar at Anlo-Afiadenyigba held on October 29, 2022.

Mr Borkloe also indicated that they have given a 14-day ultimatum to the culprits to fix back the plaque or face their wrath if they failed to do so.

The unexpected act has since been reported to the police for action.

GNA
Manklado for Mepe, Togbe Kwasi Nego VI, has appealed to government to help resettle the people of Mepe who have been affected by the spillage of the Akosombo and Kpong dams.

Togbe Nego wants government to help the people of Mepe regain their livelihoods as properties of farmland among others have been lost in the disaster.

According to the Manklado, the people of Mepe keep asking for compensation from government.

Our people are in pain they are crying for survival they need food to eat their homes have been destroyed. They keep asking of a resettlement plan they keep asking for compensation.

He noted that, as a community that has sacrificed a lot to ensure Ghanaians and other countries which draw power from Ghana to do so, the least government could do is to compensate residents.

We at the lower Volta weve sacrificed so much for the country and even other African countries who depend on Ghana for electricity but we have not benefitted from all this. We still pay electricity bills at least we could have been compensated by not paying electricity...

The Manklado, also expressed the appreciation of the people of Mepe to the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, the FDA, the DCE and all who have supported the people of Mepe since the disaster occurred.

All our cry today is that our properties have been destroyed. All our properties were in the water, our farms, we want you to help us resettle our people we have to rebuild our community, Togbe Nego added.

The Mepe Manklado was speaking at a durbar of chiefs and people of the area held at the St. Kizito Senior High School during a tour of the area by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta on Friday, 27 October 2023.

-classfmonline
27.10.2023 LISTEN

The University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) has served notice of an impending strike action in November.

In a letter to the National Labour Commission and copied to the Minister of Education, the National Secretariat of UTAG expressed displeasure about the slow pace of Negotiations on Conditions of Service (CoS) for UTAG Members, stressing that members will embark on a strike if the issue is not addressed.

UTAG is also unhappy about what it deems as deliberate Distortions of Aspects of Signed Memoranda of Agreements (MoAs) and the Non-Payment of the Internally Generated Funds (IGFs) Component of the Agreed Online Teaching Support Allowance (OTSA).

In its letter, UTAG said its members will lay down its tools in 21 days time if the aforementioned concerns are not addressed by that time.

In compliance with the requirements of the Labour Act, 2003 (Act 651) Section 159, which requires either party intending to take strike action or institute a lockout to give written notice to the other party and the Commission within seven days, we are by this letter, magnanimously giving notice to the Employer 21 days as a grace period to address the above-listed concerns of UTAG, or we will proceed immediately on strike on the 22nd day from the date of this letter, the UTAG letter signed by its President, Prof. Mamudu Akudugu said.
27.10.2023 LISTEN

The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta on Friday, October 27, led a delegation from the Ministry of Finance to tour some of the communities in the Volta Region affected by the Akosombo dam spillage.

Making a stop at the North Tongu District Assembly in Mepe, the Minister made a donation of GHS2 million to support the victims of the flood

The donation which is to provide short-term relief for the flood victims was received by the District Chief Executive Divine Osborne Fenu.

Speaking before the donation, Ken Ofori-Atta expressed appreciation to all Ghanaians who have provided support to the affected people after the flooding.

Let us be encouraged. Ministry of Finance as a family is concerned about what has happened to our brothers and sisters. Working with the VRA, we have brought something enough- GHS2 million to be able to support the relief effort that is going on and to thank Ghanaians for the spontaneous response, the Finance Minister said.

Ahead of the 2024 Budget Statement and Economic Policy presentation, Ken Ofori-Atta has disclosed that long-term measures to provide needed relief to the affected communities and people will be factored in.

I think we are also in the budget season and therefore it will not just be numbers that we are working on, but true feelings in the field and therefore the need to look at these social interventions in a real way. We will certainly give this an expression immediately and also in the budget, the Finance Minister said.

Since the Akosombo and Kpong dams spillage, several communities in the Volta, Eastern, and Greater Accra Regions have been affected.

So far, it is estimated that about 30,000 people have been affected.
The funeral of the late Queen mother (Ga Manye) of the Ga State, Naa Dedei Omaedru III, is underway in Accra amidst the performance of traditional rites and the display of rich Ga culture.

A series of activities, mainly rituals, started early this week for the late Queen and will continue until Saturday, October 28, 2023, when dignitaries will pay their last respects before she is finally laid to rest.

Preparations were at a fever pitch Friday afternoon amidst the firing of muskets at the Ga Mantse palace when GNA caught up with Nii Kwardey Ntreh, in charge of Culture at the Office of the Ga Mantse.

Highlighting the significance of the ceremony, he said, some of the rituals were open to the public while others had been restricted to selected members of the royal family and traditional leaders.

The wake keeping, which started today will go up until the next morning when the actual funeral takes place at the Ga Mantse's Palace, he noted.

A key aspect of the ceremony will be the various royal houses of the Ga State coming to take back their oath from the late Queen who swore allegiance to the Stool.

Royals take an oath when they ascend the throne and when they pass away the oath is taken away from them. What will happen tomorrow (Saturday) is that the various traditional authorities, to whom the Queen swore allegiance, will come back to take their oath.

The various groups will go where the body is laid and in secrecy, they will do their rituals, the body of the Queen will be conveyed to the various royal houses to bid them farewell and the actual burial is done by only the family and a selected few, he explained.

He said various traditional guards (Asafo) would be in charge of the coffin followed by the fetish priestess of the Ga land, as the body is conveyed from the palace to its final resting place after 3 pm on Saturday.

While asking the public to follow laid down procedures, Nii Ntreh added that the restrictions imposed within the Central Business District of Accra were to pay homage to the late Queen while traditional leaders performed the necessary rituals in accordance with Ga customs.

This is Accra and this is the culture of the people. So, let us respect each other, he stated.

Nii Ntreh said the Council of Elders would deliberate on, who succeeds the Queen once all the rituals were over.

He recalled that the last time the Ga state had such a funeral was about ten years ago when the late Ga Mantse Nii Amugi passed on.

The late Ga Queen, known in private life as Naa Dedei Ablah, was born on April 20, 1934.

She is revered for her achievements as well as seeking the welfare of women and girls in the Ga State and beyond.

She became Queen of the Ga state in 1963 at age 29 and was gazetted on November 29, 1968, and ruled for 59 years.

One-time second runner-up in the Miss Ghana beauty contest, she received a number of humanitarian awards throughout her reign, including Excellence in Culture, Chieftaincy and Justice, presented in 2002 by the Gadangme Association International of Philadelphia.

GNA
The Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) has indicated that the current power outages will persist until enough gas is supplied to its plant in Tema for power generation.

Ms. Dzifa Bampoh, the Head of Communication at GRIDCo, said in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Tema that the company started having limited supply from the Aboadzi Gas Plant in Takoradi on Wednesday, leading to the power outages being experienced in the country.

We don't have gas coming in from Aboadzi to feed the plants in Tema to generate, she said.

Ms. Bampoh said the issue was not a technical problem but rather a commercial one, which has something to do with GRIDCo, adding that when resolved, it would restore the plant to its original power production for power transmission to the Electricity Company of Ghana and onward distribution to customers.

She stated that GRIDCo was currently losing about 40 percent of the 3150 megawatts of daily power demand, as it lost 650 megawatts on Wednesday, and about 850 megawatts were expected to be lost on Friday evening.

She said the load management would mostly be done in the peak period between 1800 and 00:00 hours, noting that the management for the weekend would however be less as most companies would not be working.

GNA
The source of peace is within us; so also the source of war. And the real enemy is within us and not outside. The source of war is not nuclear weapons or other arms. It is the minds of human beings who decide to push the button and to use those arms out of hatred, anger or greed. All forms of violence, especially war, are totally unacceptable as means to settle disputes between and among nations, groups and persons.  His Holiness the Dalai Lama

War is a racket, it always has been. Smedley Butler, United States Marine Corps major general

These two quotes summarize how I feel about war. I grew up in the Vietnam era. The graphic TV news footage of Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc and his self-immolation while sitting in the lotus position on a busy daytime street in Ho Chi Minh City (then Saigon) scared and confused me as a young child. It became a befitting symbol for the fiery times. The 66-year-old monk was protesting against the persecution of Buddhists by the U.S. backed South Vietnamese government.

Later on, I learned that self-harm and suicide are prohibited in Buddhism. In college, I went to Japan as a student in a semester abroad program and met people who had lived through World War II. An old guidebook that I picked up at a library used book sale prior to leaving led me to study on weekends at a Zen monastery near Mount Fuji.

I grappled with how a country that produced its famed peaceful Zen culture could become a nation at war. I learned that it is complicated, to say the least.

The physical, emotional and psychological suffering from war is not only felt by those directly impacted. It infects all humanity. Non-violence is at the heart of Buddhist thinking and behavior. Nothing in Buddhist scripture gives any support to the use of violence as a way to resolve conflict. The Buddhist doctrine of Ahimsa implies the total avoidance of harming any living creature by deeds, words and thoughts.

The guiding principal of compassion in Buddhism is akin to the golden rule found in all religions: the wish for others to be free from suffering and the causes of suffering. It is based on appreciating other peoples feelings, especially when weve gone through the same ordeal.

Emptiness and interdependence in Buddhism are more than concepts; they are beneficial keys to understanding the nature of reality and our place in it. Upon hearing the term emptiness, one might think this suggests nothingness or a void, but the meaning is directly connected to the concept of interdependence, whereas nothing exists in a void. Great possibilities arise in emptiness. We can make anything happen (peace instead of war, love over hate, sharing rather than greed), but we can only do so by bringing together the necessary conditions.

This years annual WNY Peace Centers dinner on November 10 brings keynote speaker Rima Vesely-Flad to Buffalo. She is a professor of Buddhism and Black studies at Union Theological Seminary and the author of Black Buddhists and the Black Radical Tradition. Her talk is entitled The Dharma of Racial Justice: Contemplative Practices & Collective Liberation.

Im looking forward to having this opportunity to learn more about how to find more inner peace and promote social justice.
I am very surprised that in this day and age, people still have to waste a whole day, traveling many miles and kilometers to queue, waste volumes of papers and lots of money, all in an effort to perform a simple task, voting.

Technology has far advanced to the extent that elections and the manner in which they are conducted should be digitized in Ghana and all of Africa. Several activities are being digitized at a fast pace, why not voting? Some countries are even using digital currencies, trying to move away from notes, why not do the same for voting?

Countries like Estonia, the Philippines, the UK and Venezuela among several others have already paved way with this internet voting (iVoting) or electronic voting (e-voting) that Im writing about. India and Brazil had started the process leading towards e-voting in 1982 and 1986respectively; both using it in their general elections in the year 2002. Whereas some are using polling place electronic voting machines (EVMs), others are practicing internet voting and SMS voting. Should we Africans wait for the millennium to take advantage of technology and do things in a better way?

IPAC, what's wrong with practicing E-VOTING? Why cant we take the opportunity to explore this better way of voting that will save us huge sum of money, time and lives?

With four easy steps, users of both smart and keypad phones can cast and register their votes in a Presidential, Parliamentary and any other election.

Considering the fact that we vote this way during beauty pageants, renewal of insurances, playing of lotteries and other games, I think it is high time the electoral commission replicates same in conducting elections. As mentioned earlier, some other countries have already paved the way for us to follow.

How easy is e-voting?

Upon dialing a USSD code, opening an app, or logging-on to a website, every voter has four simple steps to follow to make their choice and register their votes.

What are the four (4) simple steps:

Enter a valid Voter ID Verification of ID Select Candidate of choice Submit

Even for the presidential and parliamentary elections which take place concurrently every four years in Ghana and across many other African countries, a registered voter can follow these simple steps to vote from anywhere.

What could possibly go wrong with e-voting?

E-voting is a brilliant ingenuity but comes with a few challenges. Good network connectivity is of primary essence to the voter. However, a person who finds difficulty, could use another persons phone to vote.

What about verification? Voter verification is an important part of our electoral system and voting. How do we ensure that every vote cast is originating from the same identified registered voter, and not anyone impersonating him/her or someone using another persons ID to vote? The second stage of e-voting is takes care of that with an embedded facial, fingerprint, voice, eye or unique history verifications.

The most challenging aspect of making this historic switch is ensuring that it is technically safe from being hacked. For this reason, countries which have implemented e-voting have invested much to boost their system to safeproof it from external infiltration.

What are the Benefits of E-Voting (SMS Voting and/or Internet Voting)?

Low cost of resources: Huge sums of money goes into procuring papers, boots, printing, paying electoral officers and security officers, and transportation to polling stations. All these costs are eliminated once e-voting replaces the former paper voting.

It is worthwhile noting that no new voters register would be required when switching to e-voting. The existing voters register could come handy.

Voters convenience: With the introduction of e-voting, people could easily vote from any location, without the need to travel to a designated polling station just to vote. It also saves the voter transportation cost and the long hours of traveling and staying in queues to vote. Health-wise, it is the safest thing to do,eliminating crowding and the voters risk of contracting communicable diseases.

Real time results is another benefit of e-voting. As and when people vote, the results are automatically collated and summed-up as soon as the voter presses the submit button.

Enhances credibility of results: E-voting eliminates double voting. System configuration would ensure that every registered ID would be permitted to vote only once. Also given that results are collated on real time, stealing and snatching of ballots and ballots boxes, as well as altering of results would all be a thing of the past, ensuring credibility of the results.

E-voting eliminates electoral violence. Fighting, snatching of ballot boxes, and even killing of people at polling station are sure to be completely eliminated with the implementation of e-voting.

Without a doubt, the benefits outweigh the challenges. Considering how far technology has advanced, why should we continue to queue, waste paper, and risk being killed just to vote for someone? I urge all Africans to embrace this idea, invest to pilot and implement e-voting.

Reference: International IDEA, Introducing Electronic Voting: Essential Considerations, 2011.

Writers: Rich Akpalu & Emefa Sophia Akornor
Advisors Capital Management LLC grew its position in UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH  Free Report) by 9.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 69,886 shares of the healthcare conglomerates stock after acquiring an additional 6,277 shares during the period. Advisors Capital Management LLCs holdings in UnitedHealth Group were worth $33,590,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Zullo Investment Group Inc. raised its position in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 0.7% during the second quarter. Zullo Investment Group Inc. now owns 3,001 shares of the healthcare conglomerates stock worth $1,443,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the period. Northern Financial Advisors Inc lifted its stake in UnitedHealth Group by 0.6% during the second quarter. Northern Financial Advisors Inc now owns 3,381 shares of the healthcare conglomerates stock valued at $1,625,000 after buying an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Signet Financial Management LLC increased its position in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 2.2% in the first quarter. Signet Financial Management LLC now owns 964 shares of the healthcare conglomerates stock worth $491,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares in the last quarter. Financial Partners Group Inc lifted its position in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 4.3% in the 4th quarter. Financial Partners Group Inc now owns 509 shares of the healthcare conglomerates stock valued at $252,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Zimmermann Investment Management & Planning LLC grew its position in UnitedHealth Group by 1.5% during the 1st quarter. Zimmermann Investment Management & Planning LLC now owns 1,401 shares of the healthcare conglomerates stock worth $662,000 after purchasing an additional 21 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.69% of the companys stock.

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Insider Activity

In other UnitedHealth Group news, Director Stephen J. Hemsley sold 121,515 shares of UnitedHealth Group stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $540.58, for a total transaction of $65,688,578.70. Following the sale, the director now owns 521,818 shares in the company, valued at $282,084,374.44. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, EVP Erin Mcsweeney sold 4,498 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $544.28, for a total transaction of $2,448,171.44. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 9,218 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,017,173.04. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Stephen J. Hemsley sold 121,515 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $540.58, for a total transaction of $65,688,578.70. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 521,818 shares in the company, valued at $282,084,374.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.35% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on UNH shares. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on UnitedHealth Group from $529.00 to $531.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a report on Monday, October 9th. Mizuho reduced their price target on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $600.00 to $549.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 11th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an overweight rating and issued a $591.00 price objective on shares of UnitedHealth Group in a research note on Thursday, September 14th. UBS Group upgraded shares of UnitedHealth Group from a neutral rating to a buy rating and boosted their price target for the company from $520.00 to $640.00 in a report on Monday, October 16th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on UnitedHealth Group from $572.00 to $596.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Monday, October 16th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $578.30.

Check Out Our Latest Analysis on UNH

UnitedHealth Group Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE UNH traded down $0.40 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $529.81. 1,524,626 shares of the companys stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,358,951. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The companys 50-day moving average price is $502.97 and its 200-day moving average price is $494.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $490.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.93, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.64. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated has a 1-year low of $445.68 and a 1-year high of $558.10.

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH  Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Friday, October 13th. The healthcare conglomerate reported $6.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $6.33 by $0.23. The business had revenue of $92.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $91.41 billion. UnitedHealth Group had a net margin of 6.02% and a return on equity of 26.58%. UnitedHealth Groups revenue was up 14.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $5.79 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that UnitedHealth Group Incorporated will post 24.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

UnitedHealth Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 19th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 11th were given a $1.88 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 8th. This represents a $7.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.42%. UnitedHealth Groups dividend payout ratio is currently 32.64%.

UnitedHealth Group Company Profile

(Free Report)

UnitedHealth Group Incorporated operates as a diversified health care company in the United States. It operates through four segments: UnitedHealthcare, Optum Health, Optum Insight, and Optum Rx. The UnitedHealthcare segment offers consumer-oriented health benefit plans and services for national employers, public sector employers, mid-sized employers, small businesses, and individuals; health care coverage, and health and well-being services to individuals age 50 and older addressing their needs; Medicaid plans, children's health insurance and health care programs; and health and dental benefits, and hospital and clinical services, as well as health care benefits products and services to state programs caring for the economically disadvantaged, medically underserved, and those without the benefit of employer-funded health care coverage.

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Asset Advisors Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO  Free Report) by 0.8% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 9,549 shares of the medical research companys stock after acquiring an additional 75 shares during the quarter. Asset Advisors Investment Management LLCs holdings in Thermo Fisher Scientific were worth $4,982,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Silicon Valley Capital Partners purchased a new position in Thermo Fisher Scientific during the first quarter valued at approximately $29,000. OLD Mission Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific during the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Live Oak Investment Partners purchased a new position in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific in the 4th quarter valued at about $36,000. Barrett & Company Inc. purchased a new position in Thermo Fisher Scientific during the first quarter worth approximately $43,000. Finally, Raleigh Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 229.2% in the first quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 79 shares of the medical research companys stock valued at $46,000 after buying an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. 87.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Stephen Williamson sold 14,100 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 27,393 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,066,150. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Thermo Fisher Scientific news, CFO Stephen Williamson sold 14,100 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 1st. The shares were 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 of the companys stock, valued at approximately $15,066,150. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Gianluca Pettiti sold 3,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 17,556 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $9,792,210.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 28,700 shares of company stock valued at $15,799,270. Insiders own 0.32% of the companys stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on TMO shares. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $657.00 to $579.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $640.00 to $600.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. 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 note on Thursday, July 13th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from an underweight rating to an equal weight rating and set a $475.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $625.00 to $585.00 in a research note on Friday, September 29th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, Thermo Fisher Scientific has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $598.20.

Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on TMO

Thermo Fisher Scientific Stock Performance

Shares of TMO stock traded up $7.00 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $440.18. 2,118,756 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,529,898. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. has a 12-month low of $415.60 and a 12-month high of $609.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $169.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.39, a P/E/G ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.79. The stocks fifty day simple moving average is $509.88 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $528.23.

Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE:TMO  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 25th. The medical research company reported $5.69 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $5.61 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $10.57 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $10.60 billion. Thermo Fisher Scientific had a return on equity of 18.59% and a net margin of 13.14%. The firms revenue for the quarter was down 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $5.08 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. will post 22.21 EPS for the current year.

Thermo Fisher Scientific 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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Berkeley Capital Partners LLC lowered its position in shares of McDonalds Co. (NYSE:MCD  Free Report) by 1.0% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,424 shares of the fast-food giants stock after selling 55 shares during the period. Berkeley Capital Partners LLCs holdings in McDonalds were worth $1,619,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich grew its position in shares of McDonalds by 105,490.7% in the 2nd quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 457,071,431 shares of the fast-food giants stock valued at $136,394,686,000 after buying an additional 456,638,560 shares during the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in McDonalds by 106,340.3% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 19,235,890 shares of the fast-food giants stock valued at $5,069,234,000 after purchasing an additional 19,217,818 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in McDonalds during the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,341,360,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in McDonalds by 1,189.7% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 2,191,692 shares of the fast-food giants stock worth $541,962,000 after purchasing an additional 2,021,754 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CI Private Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of McDonalds in the 4th quarter valued at $212,564,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.60% of the companys stock.

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Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on MCD shares. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of McDonalds from $319.00 to $343.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Friday, July 28th. Barclays cut their target price on McDonalds from $345.00 to $315.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. TD Cowen reiterated an outperform rating and issued a $340.00 target price on shares of McDonalds in a report on Wednesday, September 20th. Citigroup dropped their price target on McDonalds from $317.00 to $283.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 2nd. Finally, Loop Capital lifted their price objective on shares of McDonalds from $346.00 to $383.00 in a research note on Friday, July 28th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $318.67.

Insider Activity at McDonalds

In other McDonalds news, insider Joseph M. Erlinger sold 4,487 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.02, for a total value of $1,265,423.74. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 10,786 shares in the company, valued at $3,041,867.72. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other McDonalds news, EVP Heidi B. Capozzi sold 688 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.00, for a total transaction of $180,256.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 19,331 shares in the company, valued at $5,064,722. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Joseph M. Erlinger sold 4,487 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.02, for a total value of $1,265,423.74. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 10,786 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $3,041,867.72. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 24,443 shares of company stock worth $6,731,860. Insiders own 0.27% of the companys stock.

McDonalds Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of MCD traded down $0.38 on Thursday, reaching $257.65. 1,615,988 shares of the companys stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,618,713. The stocks 50 day simple moving average is $269.00 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $283.68. The stock has a market cap of $187.77 billion, a PE ratio of 23.79, a PEG ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 0.65. McDonalds Co. has a 52-week low of $245.73 and a 52-week high of $299.35.

McDonalds (NYSE:MCD  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The fast-food giant reported $3.17 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.77 by $0.40. The company had revenue of $6.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.30 billion. McDonalds had a net margin of 33.06% and a negative return on equity of 139.57%. The firms revenue for the quarter was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.55 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that McDonalds Co. will post 11.49 earnings per share for the current year.

McDonalds Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 1st will be paid a dividend of $1.67 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 30th. This represents a $6.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.59%. This is a positive change from McDonaldss previous quarterly dividend of $1.52. McDonaldss dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 55.93%.

About McDonalds

(Free Report)

McDonald's Corporation operates and franchises McDonald's restaurants in the United States and internationally. The company's restaurants offer hamburgers and cheeseburgers, chicken sandwiches and nuggets, fries, salads, shakes, frozen desserts, sundaes, soft serve cones, bakery items, soft drinks, coffee, and beverages and other beverages, as well as breakfast menu, including muffins, Sausages, biscuit and bagel sandwiches, oatmeal, hash browns, breakfast burritos and hotcakes.

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Bank of Queensland Limited (ASX:BOQPF  Get Free Report) declared a interim dividend on Thursday, October 12th, MarketIndexAU reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 14th will be paid a dividend of 1.407 per share on Tuesday, November 14th. This represents a dividend yield of 1.37%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Sunday, October 29th. This is an increase from Bank of Queenslands previous interim dividend of $1.36.

Bank of Queensland Stock Performance

Bank of Queensland Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Bank of Queensland Limited, together with its subsidiaries, provides various financial services in Australia and New Zealand. The company operates in Retail Banking, BOQ Business, and Other segments. It offers personal banking services comprises savings and term deposits, and transactional accounts; debit and credit cards; home, personal, and car loans; and travel, home and content, landlord, and car insurance, as well as investment services comprising online share trading services, and self-managed superannuation funds.

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Simmons Bank raised its holdings in Chevron Co. (NYSE:CVX  Free Report) by 2.3% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 97,168 shares of the oil and gas companys stock after buying an additional 2,176 shares during the period. Chevron comprises about 1.3% of Simmons Banks investment portfolio, making the stock its 14th biggest holding. Simmons Banks holdings in Chevron were worth $15,289,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Chevron by 247.8% during the second quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC now owns 3,400 shares of the oil and gas companys stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 5,700 shares during the period. NewSquare Capital LLC raised its position in Chevron by 52.3% during the 1st quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 195 shares of the oil and gas companys stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. Artemis Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Chevron in the 1st quarter worth $33,000. Worth Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Chevron in the first quarter valued at about $36,000. Finally, HBC Financial Services PLLC acquired a new position in shares of Chevron during the first quarter worth about $37,000. 68.87% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Insider Activity at Chevron

In other Chevron news, VP Jeff B. Gustavson sold 3,750 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.88, for a total transaction of $603,300.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 1,718 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $276,391.84. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CFO Pierre R. Breber sold 25,000 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Friday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $164.00, for a total value of $4,100,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 6,021 shares in the company, valued at $987,444. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP Jeff B. Gustavson sold 3,750 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.88, for a total value of $603,300.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 1,718 shares in the company, valued at $276,391.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Chevron Price Performance

Shares of CVX traded down $8.56 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $146.19. 9,071,518 shares of the companys stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,045,971. The company has a quick ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 1.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. Chevron Co. has a 52-week low of $145.67 and a 52-week high of $189.68. The company has a market cap of $272.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.29, a PEG ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $164.23 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $160.97.

Chevron (NYSE:CVX  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 27th. The oil and gas company reported $3.05 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $3.33 by ($0.28). Chevron had a return on equity of 19.48% and a net margin of 13.54%. The company had revenue of $54.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $51.41 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $5.56 earnings per share. The businesss revenue was down 18.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Chevron Co. will post 14.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on CVX shares. Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of Chevron from $180.00 to $170.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Chevron from a neutral rating to a buy rating and lifted their price target for the company from $166.00 to $187.00 in a research note on Monday, July 31st. Truist Financial cut their price objective on Chevron from $175.00 to $169.00 and set a hold rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Chevron in a research report on Thursday, October 5th. They set a hold rating on the stock. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Chevron from $203.00 to $201.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, October 17th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $190.11.

Get Our Latest Stock Analysis on CVX

Chevron Company Profile

(Free Report)

Chevron Corporation, through its subsidiaries, engages in the integrated energy and chemicals operations in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Upstream and Downstream. The Upstream segment is involved in the exploration, development, production, and transportation of crude oil and natural gas; liquefaction, transportation, and regasification associated with liquefied natural gas; transportation of crude oil through pipelines; and processing, transportation, storage, and marketing of natural gas, as well as a gas-to-liquids plant.

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Tanager Wealth Management LLP lifted its holdings in iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF (NYSEARCA:AGG  Free Report) by 5.5% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 99,736 shares of the companys stock after purchasing an additional 5,233 shares during the period. iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF comprises approximately 2.1% of Tanager Wealth Management LLPs portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest holding. Tanager Wealth Management LLPs holdings in iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF were worth $9,769,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Steph & Co. lifted its position in shares of iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF by 80.4% in the 2nd quarter. Steph & Co. now owns 359 shares of the companys stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 160 shares during the last quarter. First Manhattan Co. lifted its position in iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF by 697.9% in the 4th quarter. First Manhattan Co. now owns 375 shares of the companys stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 328 shares during the last quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC bought a new stake in iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF in the 1st quarter valued at about $37,000. Nordwand Advisors LLC bought a new stake in iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF in the 1st quarter valued at about $38,000. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC bought a new stake in iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF in the 4th quarter valued at about $43,000. 83.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF Trading Down 0.0 %

Shares of NYSEARCA:AGG opened at $92.60 on Friday. The companys 50-day moving average price is $94.47 and its 200 day moving average price is $96.86. iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF has a fifty-two week low of $91.58 and a fifty-two week 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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NorthWestern Energy Group (NYSE:NWE  Get Free Report) issued an update on its FY23 earnings guidance on Friday morning. The company provided earnings per share guidance of $3.00-3.10 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share estimate of $3.32. NorthWestern Energy Group also updated its FY24 guidance to $3.42-3.62 EPS.

NorthWestern Energy Group Price Performance

NWE stock traded down $1.08 during trading on Friday, reaching $46.55. 458,023 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 358,457. The company has a 50-day moving average of $49.72 and a two-hundred day moving average of $54.63. The company has a market capitalization of $2.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.10, a P/E/G ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 0.45. NorthWestern Energy Group has a twelve month low of $45.97 and a twelve month high of $61.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.53.

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NorthWestern Energy Group (NYSE:NWE  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 24th. The company reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $0.51 by ($0.16). The company had revenue of $290.50 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $341.90 million. NorthWestern Energy Group had a return on equity of 6.53% and a net margin of 11.67%. As a group, equities analysts predict that NorthWestern Energy Group will post 3.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on NWE shares. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of NorthWestern Energy Group in a research report on Thursday, October 5th. They set a hold rating for the company. KeyCorp decreased their price target on shares of NorthWestern Energy Group from $64.00 to $59.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 18th. TheStreet lowered shares of NorthWestern Energy Group from a b rating to a c+ rating in a report on Friday, August 25th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH decreased their price objective on NorthWestern Energy Group from $59.00 to $53.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 17th. Finally, Guggenheim cut their target price on NorthWestern Energy Group from $48.00 to $41.00 in a report on Monday, October 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $53.50.

Check Out Our Latest Research Report on NorthWestern Energy Group

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NorthWestern Energy Group

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Bank of Montreal Can increased its stake in shares of NorthWestern Energy Group by 6.2% in the 1st quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 26,264 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,577,000 after acquiring an additional 1,527 shares in the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers increased its stake in shares of NorthWestern Energy Group by 1.7% in the 1st quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 165,505 shares of the companys stock valued at $10,011,000 after acquiring an additional 2,746 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. increased its stake in shares of NorthWestern Energy Group by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 8,852,795 shares of the companys stock valued at $535,506,000 after acquiring an additional 74,439 shares in the last quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can increased its stake in shares of NorthWestern Energy Group by 17.2% in the 1st quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can now owns 64,308 shares of the companys stock valued at $4,067,000 after acquiring an additional 9,425 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Yousif Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of NorthWestern Energy Group by 3.8% in the 1st quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 28,518 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,725,000 after acquiring an additional 1,031 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.07% of the companys stock.

About NorthWestern Energy Group

(Get Free Report)

NorthWestern Energy Group, Inc provides electricity and natural gas to residential, commercial, and various industrial customers. It generates, purchases, transmits, and distributes electricity; and produces, purchases, stores, transmits, and distributes natural gas, as well as owns municipal franchises to provide natural gas service in the communities.

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Primoris Wealth Advisors LLC trimmed its stake in shares of SPDR Gold Shares (NYSEARCA:GLD  Free Report) by 0.7% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 13,755 shares of the exchange traded funds stock after selling 100 shares during the period. SPDR Gold Shares comprises about 2.7% of Primoris Wealth Advisors LLCs holdings, making the stock its 12th largest position. Primoris Wealth Advisors LLCs holdings in SPDR Gold Shares were worth $2,452,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich raised its position in shares of SPDR Gold Shares by 99,414.3% during the 2nd quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 23,805,806 shares of the exchange traded funds stock worth $4,243,861,000 after purchasing an additional 23,781,884 shares during the period. Toronto Dominion Bank increased its position in SPDR Gold Shares by 77.6% in the 1st quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 5,340,797 shares of the exchange traded funds stock valued at $978,543,000 after acquiring an additional 2,333,468 shares during the period. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in SPDR Gold Shares by 67,584.6% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,037,008 shares of the exchange traded funds stock valued at $515,198,000 after acquiring an additional 3,032,521 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC increased its position in SPDR Gold Shares by 6.8% in the 2nd quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 3,021,047 shares of the exchange traded funds stock valued at $538,562,000 after acquiring an additional 193,438 shares during the period. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its position in SPDR Gold Shares by 6.4% in the 2nd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 1,628,240 shares of the exchange traded funds stock valued at $290,592,000 after acquiring an additional 98,358 shares during the period. 40.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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SPDR Gold Shares Stock Performance

GLD opened at $183.86 on Friday. SPDR Gold Shares has a 12 month low of $150.57 and a 12 month high of $191.36. The stocks 50 day moving average price is $177.26 and its 200 day moving average price is $180.46.

SPDR Gold Shares Company Profile

SPDR Gold Trust (the Trust) is an investment trust. The investment objective of the Trust is for the Shares to reflect the performance of the price of gold bullion, less the Trusts expenses. The Trusts business activity is the investment of gold. The Trust creates and redeems Shares from time to time, but in one or more Baskets (a Basket equals a block of 100,000 Shares).

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Skylands Capital LLC lowered its stake in Union Pacific Co. (NYSE:UNP  Free Report) by 0.4% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 294,765 shares of the railroad operators stock after selling 1,100 shares during the period. Union Pacific accounts for 8.7% of Skylands Capital LLCs portfolio, making the stock its largest position. Skylands Capital LLCs holdings in Union Pacific were worth $60,315,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Vise Technologies Inc. grew its holdings in Union Pacific by 14.3% during the 1st quarter. Vise Technologies Inc. now owns 4,388 shares of the railroad operators stock worth $883,000 after acquiring an additional 548 shares during the period. Capital Asset Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in Union Pacific by 25.6% during the 1st quarter. Capital Asset Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,046 shares of the railroad operators stock worth $1,016,000 after acquiring an additional 1,028 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC grew its holdings in Union Pacific by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 1,933,582 shares of the railroad operators stock worth $389,153,000 after acquiring an additional 21,361 shares during the period. First Hawaiian Bank boosted its position in shares of Union Pacific by 6.9% during the second quarter. First Hawaiian Bank now owns 12,535 shares of the railroad operators stock worth $2,565,000 after purchasing an additional 806 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nichols & Pratt Advisers LLP MA boosted its position in shares of Union Pacific by 282.1% during the first quarter. Nichols & Pratt Advisers LLP MA now owns 5,350 shares of the railroad operators stock worth $1,077,000 after purchasing an additional 3,950 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.36% of the companys stock.

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Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on UNP. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Union Pacific in a research report on Thursday, October 5th. They set a hold rating on the stock. Stephens boosted their price objective on shares of Union Pacific from $232.00 to $257.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Thursday, July 27th. Susquehanna cut their price objective on shares of Union Pacific from $240.00 to $220.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on shares of Union Pacific from $233.00 to $232.00 and set a hold rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 3rd. Finally, Barclays cut their price target on shares of Union Pacific from $285.00 to $275.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 4th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $237.08.

Union Pacific Stock Down 0.3 %

NYSE:UNP traded down $0.67 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $201.57. The company had a trading volume of 713,285 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,877,142. The company has a quick ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.22. The firm has a market cap of $122.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.41, a P/E/G ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.12. The businesss 50-day simple moving average is $211.85 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $208.33. Union Pacific Co. has a twelve month low of $183.69 and a twelve month high of $240.48.

Union Pacific (NYSE:UNP  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 19th. The railroad operator reported $2.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $2.41 by $0.10. Union Pacific had a net margin of 26.37% and a return on equity of 49.14%. The firm had revenue of $5.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.96 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.19 earnings per share. The businesss quarterly revenue was down 9.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Union Pacific Co. will post 10.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Union Pacific

In other Union Pacific news, EVP Kenyatta G. Rocker sold 8,700 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $222.43, for a total value of $1,935,141.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 42,061 shares of the companys stock, valued at $9,355,628.23. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CFO Jennifer L. Hamann sold 1,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $222.83, for a total transaction of $222,830.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 99,378 shares of the companys stock, valued at $22,144,399.74. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Kenyatta G. Rocker sold 8,700 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $222.43, for a total transaction of $1,935,141.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 42,061 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $9,355,628.23. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.28% of the companys stock.

Union Pacific Profile

(Free Report)

Union Pacific Corporation, through its subsidiary, Union Pacific Railroad Company, operates in the railroad business in the United States. The company offers transportation services for grain and grain products, fertilizers, food and refrigerated products, and coal and renewables to grain processors, animal feeders, ethanol producers, and other agricultural users; petroleum, and liquid petroleum gases; and construction products, industrial chemicals, plastics, forest products, specialized products, metals and ores, soda ash, and sand, as well as finished automobiles, automotive parts, and merchandise in intermodal containers.

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Valero Energy (NYSE:VLO  Get Free Report) had its price objective lowered by investment analysts at Raymond James from $156.00 to $154.00 in a report released on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a strong-buy rating on the oil and gas companys stock. Raymond James target price would indicate a potential upside of 24.55% from the stocks current price.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on VLO. Barclays raised their price objective on Valero Energy from $142.00 to $144.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Valero Energy from $144.00 to $141.00 in a research report on Monday, October 9th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on Valero Energy in a research note on Thursday, October 5th. They set a buy rating on the stock. Bank of America boosted their price target on Valero Energy from $152.00 to $161.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Monday, September 18th. Finally, Mizuho reduced their price objective on Valero Energy from $174.00 to $159.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $154.71.

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Read Our Latest Analysis on Valero Energy

Valero Energy Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of VLO stock traded down $1.71 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $123.65. The companys stock had a trading volume of 552,529 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,061,862. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.66 billion, a PE ratio of 4.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.83 and a beta of 1.60. The companys 50 day simple moving average is $135.14 and its 200-day simple moving average is $124.08. Valero Energy has a 12-month low of $104.18 and a 12-month high of $152.20.

Valero Energy (NYSE:VLO  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 26th. The oil and gas company reported $7.49 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $7.36 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $38.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $38.46 billion. Valero Energy had a return on equity of 42.31% and a net margin of 6.96%. The firms revenue was down 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $7.14 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Valero Energy will post 25.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Valero Energy

In related news, Director Joseph W. Gorder sold 75,580 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.99, for a total value of $10,278,124.20. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 621,872 shares of the companys stock, valued at $84,568,373.28. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.04% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Valero Energy

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Walkner Condon Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Valero Energy in the first quarter valued at $216,000. Spire Wealth Management boosted its position in shares of Valero Energy by 64.7% during the 1st quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 2,785 shares of the oil and gas companys stock valued at $389,000 after purchasing an additional 1,094 shares in the last quarter. PFG Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of Valero Energy in the 1st quarter worth approximately $318,000. Forum Financial Management LP grew its stake in shares of Valero Energy by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Forum Financial Management LP now owns 6,270 shares of the oil and gas companys stock worth $735,000 after purchasing an additional 86 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tectonic Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Valero Energy by 6.4% in the 2nd quarter. Tectonic Advisors LLC now owns 4,133 shares of the oil and gas companys stock worth $485,000 after purchasing an additional 248 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 77.07% of the companys stock.

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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Julius Malema, the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), expressed strong criticism of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, as well as the African Union (AU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), for their persistent failure to hold President Emmerson Mnangagwa accountable for his authoritarian rule, which has instilled fear among the opposition in Zimbabwe.Speaking during his party's 10th-anniversary celebrations in Johannesburg, Malema, a fervent advocate of pan-Africanism, voiced his concerns. He argued that both the AU and SADC have transformed into exclusive clubs of elites, seemingly indifferent to the myriad issues plaguing the African population.He remarked, "The African Union resembles a gathering of friends who hesitate to hold each other responsible. They can meet with a dictator who has recently inflicted harm on his people, yet they remain silent. We cannot allow the African Union to continue functioning in this manner."Malema also pointed out the inaction of SADC in addressing the challenges in Zimbabwe, noting, "Within SADC, we are confronted with issues in Zimbabwe. However, SADC member states avoid criticizing the Zimbabwean government due to a sense of camaraderie. Meanwhile, this government is violating the rights of its citizens."Malema emphasized the repressive impact of Zimbabwe's draconian laws on Mnangagwa's political opponents, stating, "Not a single SADC member has dared to express their concerns or question these actions. Therefore, we cannot tolerate regional and continental organizations, including the Pan African Parliament, failing to take decisive action against countries engaged in wrongful activities."Malema proposed that President Ramaphosa should play a constructive role by holding President Mnangagwa accountable, highlighting the shared African identity and interests of these leaders. He urged these regional and continental organizations not to remain exclusive gatherings of elites but to actively work toward practical solutions for the challenges facing the African people.These comments follow SADC's failure to take a position on Zimbabwe's disputed August elections, which were criticized as fraudulent by both SADC and international election observer missions. Julius Malema is not the sole opposition leader in SADC countries to critique the regional body for neglecting its duties while Mnangagwa continues to suppress his opponents and the Zimbabwean populace. Similarly, last month, Namibian opposition leader Bernadus Swartbooi rebuked SADC for embracing Mnangagwa despite its observer mission flagging electoral irregularities by the Zimbabwean incumbent.
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
Harsh Kumar  is Correspondent at Moneycontrol based in Delhi. Harsh covers BFSI sector. You can reach him at Harsh.kumar@nw18.com
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(Bloomberg) -- Chevron Corp. fell the most in more than a year after posting disappointing profits amid drilling problems in Texas, losses from overseas refining and rising costs at a massive oil-field project in Central Asia.

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Chevron plunged as much as 6.3%, putting it on track for its worst decline since September 2022. The company was among the worst performers in the S&P 500 Index  even as oil prices rallied.

Its rival, Exxon Mobil Corp., also reported lower-than-expected third-quarter results Friday, citing weak performance in its chemical businesses. Shares of the Texas-based company fell as much as 2.5%.

The results come as both companies pursue historic deals expected to vastly expand their oil-production potentials. Exxons $60 billion agreement to acquire shale giant Pioneer Natural Resources Co. and Chevrons $53 billion offer for Hess Corp. highlight their determination to stay ahead of European supermajors and American independents by locking up control of vast resources than can underpin crude output for decades to come.

Chevron, which missed third-quarter expectations by 66 cents per share, had woes that spanned nearly around the globe.

In the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico, the company struggled with wastewater and fracking problems that delayed production. Its overseas refining division delivered roughly half the net income analysts were expecting. But it was setbacks on a sprawling project on Kazakhstans western steppe that dominated discussion of the California-based companys earnings on Friday.

Costs at Chevrons $45 billion Tengiz project will rise by about 4% due to a slower-than-expected start-up that had been years in the making. The company will need to pay an extra $1 billion for its share of the capital spending, meaning that the operations free cash flow will drop 20% from 2025. Output will be lower than expected in 2023 and 2024.

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Tengiz is a critical part of Chevrons pledge to grow global production by 3% a year over the medium term and the delays upset both analysts and investors. The new outlook comes on top of a 25% rise in the operations cost estimate back in 2019.

About half the projects value has been taken our of your stock this morning, Doug Leggate, an analyst at Bank of America, told Wirth during a conference to discuss the results. Paul Cheng of Scotiabank called it disappointing.

Wirth attempted to reassure investors that there would be no more cost overruns or delays.

We sent in an independent team to give us a kind of a cold eyes assessment on cost and schedule, he said on the call. The new plan reflects a more conservative forecast on completing the remaining work.

The project has suffered from engineering problems at the outset, and mobilizing tens of thousands of workers was delayed by the pandemic. The biggest challenge, however, was its sheer complexity. Chevron had to re-do the electrics on the entire field and replace infrastructure that dated back to the Soviet era, Wirth said.

For shareholders, Tengiz is a bitter reminder of Gorgon and Wheatstone, two giant LNG developments in western Australia that were beset with delays, cost almost $90 billion combined  way over initial targets  and dominated Chevrons capital spending for a decade.

Exxons miss was less dramatic. It fell 9 cents short of analysts expectations for adjusted per-share profit. Nonetheless, the company lifted quarterly investor payouts to 95 cents a share, payable on Dec. 11  a penny higher than the Bloomberg Dividend Forecast. Meanwhile, third-quarter free cash flow more than doubled from the prior period to $11.7 billion, far in excess of the $9.36 billion average estimate.

We view the dividend as a commitment, Exxon Chief Executive Officer Darren Woods said during a conference call with analysts. And as we saw through the pandemic, even when things get tough, we work hard to make sure that were continuing to deliver on that commitment to our shareholders.

Exxon is banking on investments in fossil-fuel projects that date back to the pandemic, combined with cost-reduction efforts, Chief Financial Officer Kathy Mikells said during an interview.

The landmark Pioneer deal will vault Exxon to the pinnacle of Permian Basin output, giving it unmatched ability to flex production depending on oil demand during the energy transition. Chevrons agreement to buy Hess, meanwhile, will secure the company a 30% stake in Exxons fast-growing Guyana operation.

Investors feedback on the Pioneer deal has been overwhelmingly positive, Mikells said. They completely understand the strategic fit and the strong synergies that we expect to be able to achieve from the transaction.

By one oil-industry metric, known as cost-per-flowing-barrel, Chevron is paying a much higher price for Hess. Chief Executive Officer Mike Wirth has sought to ease investor concern about the high price for Hess by pledging to fatten dividends and buybacks. The combination will assuage concerns in some corners that Chevron is too reliant on just two regions  the Permian Basin and Kazakhstan  to meet future production targets.

At Tengiz, Wirth said the goal line is in sight.

Were close to the finish line on this thing and, and weve got a full-court press on it, he said during the call. The lessons from that will be applied in every other project that we do.

--With assistance from David Wethe, Ruth Liao and Mitchell Ferman.

(Adds details starting in first paragraph.)

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Mehul R Thakkar is Special Correspondent, Moneycontrol, Indias leading financial news platform, based in Mumbai where he is focussed on covering the real estate sector.
The Venice Biennale Foundation, which oversees the Venice International Film Festival, has nominated right-wing writer Pietrangelo Buttafuoco to become its new President, according to multiple Italian media sources.

Buttafuoco is set to replace Roberto Cicutto after being appointed by Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano of Italys right-wing coalition government. He will take up the post when Cicuttos run comes to an end in March 2024.

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The appointment needs to be ratified by Italys parliament, with the Culture Commission from the chamber and senate announcing their opinions on November 14.

According to Italian news agency Ansa, which first reported the news, Buttafuoco practiced similar far-right politics as Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni as a youth but now takes more traditionally conservative views and even writes for left-wing newspapers. He is considered a maverick thinker.

Rome Mayor and cinema association ANICA President Francesco Rutelli told ANSA Buttafuoco is never a banal intellectual and is sure to promote the richness and pluralism of what is one of the greatest cultural institutions in the world, and amongst the oldest.

Historically, the strength of the Biennale has been being a great instrument of freedom. I am certain that Buttafuoco, a free spirit, will be able to continue this and interpret it in the best way, he added.

Cicutto has been in post since 2020, when he was installed by the previous left-wing government. Since Melonis Fratelli dItalia took power, many cultural institutions have been placed under the leadership of those with more right-wing views.

A La Biennale confirmed Buttafuocos appointment but noted the foundation does not make the appointment itself.

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Abhishek Sahu covers HR and Education (Careers) at Moneycontrol. He can be reached at Abhishek.Sahu@nw18.com and @Abhishek44sahu.
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News at 4Cs

Cape Cod Community College Welcomes New Deans for STEM and Health Sciences/Professional Studies

Cape Cod Community College (4Cs) has welcomed new senior leadership overseeing two of their largest academic areas of study. This semester, the West Barnstable-based institution introduced Dr. Marianne Targino-VanBeber as their new Dean of Health Sciences and Professional Studies and Dr. Ben Latigo as their new Dean of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM).

Dr. Targino-VanBeber has been a prominent part of the Cape Cod Community College learning community since arriving in 2012 as an adjunct faculty member in the Nursing program. She joined the ranks of full-time faculty in 2015 as an Assistant Professor and rose to Professor status in 2020. During her time in the Nursing program, she served as Health Sciences Department Chair, Nursing Evening Option Coordinator, and Nursing Curriculum Committee Chair. With a passion for equitable student success, she has also served as Program Director/Principal Investigator of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Nursing and Workforce Diversity (NWED) grant, managing a $2 million budget to increase preparation and representation among Nursing students. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Sint Eustatius.

Dr. Latigo comes to 4Cs from the University System of Southern Maryland where he most recently served as Chief Academic Officer and Interim Executive Director. With more than 30 years of higher education experience, he holds a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Southern California and is a member of the American Society for Engineering Education and the American Institute for Aeronautics. During his career Dr. Latigo has brought academic excellence to institutions across the country including Daniel Webster College in New Hampshire, the University of District Columbia, and the University of Toledo. Now overseeing 4Cs nationally recognized Aviation Maintenance Technology (AMT) program, among others, he also brings a wealth of aviation management experience including service as a Presidential appointment as CEO of Uganda Airlines.

We are exceptionally proud to have Doctors Targino-VanBeber and Latigo helping lead our College and our students forward, said Dr. John Cox, President of Cape Cod Community College. It is an exciting time of growth and opportunity at 4Cs, with the launch of free community college via MassReconnect, the significant expansion of online and Hyflex options in our classrooms, and the recent announcement of our new Title III grant, which will provide millions of dollars in student support services. Having Dr. Targino-VanBeber and Dr. Latigo join us in these senior roles will help advance our academic areas as we continue building our momentum. Our College is very fortunate to have them.

Dr. Targino-VanBeber will be leading programs that includes Nursing, Dental Hygiene, Funeral Service, Paramedic, Business Administration, Culinary Arts, and Hospitality and Tourism Management. In Dr. Latigos STEM area, he will lead academic programs including AMT, Engineering, Cybersecurity, Biology, Chemistry, and the new Blue Economy degree in Applied Economics and Ocean Environments.

Spring classes at Cape Cod Community College start January 22, 2024 and are open right now. Application to the College is free and available online. Free college through the MassReconnect program is eligible for Massachusetts residents over the age of 25 with no previous degree. To check eligibility and get more information on how to get started go to capecod.edu/free.
October 27, 2023 / 08:52 PM IST

Goa CM Pramod Sawant said, 24 government servant will represent Goa in Delhi. The 24 people will carry soil brought from across the state to commemorate the successful year-long event of Meri Mitti, Mera Desh in Goa. He said, this will be presented to PM Modi on October 31 to be celebrated as Ekta Diwas and will be used to pay tribute to all the martyrs
A former School District of the Menomonie Area paraeducator is facing three charges of sexual assault of a student by school staff, according to online court records.

Quinton Malik Williams, 22, appeared in court by video Thursday and is being held in the Dunn County Jail on a $5,000 cash bond. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Oct. 30.

According to a press release from the Menomonie Police Department, the school district and authorities became aware Monday of an alleged inappropriate relationship between a student and a high school staff member. A youth services officer immediately began an investigation, which resulted in Williams' arrest.

WEAU in Eau Claire reported that the criminal complaint indicates the officer was informed of a Snapchat video taken by a student. It was suspected that Williams was also in the video, lying in a bed shirtless.

Authorities made contact with the student who took the video, who admitted to several instances of sexual contact with Williams. The student described the sexual contact as consensual.

Authorities then made contact with Williams, who said he worked for Menomonie High School as a paraeducator. Williams was asked to show his Snapchat friends, one of whom was the student.

Williams said he doesn't "talk to her out of school" and that he "would never" have a sexual relationship with a student.

The School District of the Menomonie Area issued a statement Thursday that it is aware of allegations of a staff member having sexual contact with a minor. The statement says that individual is no longer employed by the school district and will not be allowed on school property.

"This is a situation we take very seriously and are closely cooperating with local law enforcement officers as they conduct an investigation," the statement read. "Because this investigation is ongoing, we cannot share further details at this time.

"The SDMA would like to thank the person that came forward, the staff members who assisted with the investigation and the Menomonie Police Department for their quick and appropriate response. The safety and wellbeing of our students is our no. 1 priority. If any students need additional support, we encourage them to speak with a school counselor at any time."

The police department and school district will continue to investigate the matter, which is believed to be an isolated incident. People with additional information are asked to report it to youth services officer Joshua Draeger at 715-232-1283.
The Stanley West Industrial Park has been recently certified as a shovel-ready site, according to a press release, and community members gathered at the site Wednesday to celebrate.

The industrial park is located along 345th Street on the Highway 29 corridor west of Stanley  giving it easy access by highway or rail  and spans over 100 acres.

Northside Elevator, the first business established in the industrial park, hosted the celebration along with representatives from the Chippewa Economic Development Corporation, the city of Stanley, Chippewa Valley Electric Cooperative, Chippewa Valley Technical College, Dairyland Power Cooperative, Momentum West Wisconsin, Stanley Area Chamber of Commerce and the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation.

Chippewa Valley Electric Cooperative is providing power at the park, and CVEC president/CEO Russ Falkenberg said having the site certified as shovel-ready will help save time in the planning process for businesses interested in joining the industrial park.
In this file photo, customers are seen lining up at the Guam Power Authority and Guam Waterworks Authority satellite office at the Julale Shopping Center in Hagatna on June 20, 2022.
Chippewa County Board of Supervisors chair Dean Gullickson wants to assist the public in understanding" the county's investigation into sheriff Travis Hakes.

Gullickson released a two-page statement Thursday on behalf of the board, defending its investigation into the embattled sheriff and setting up a series of questions and answers about the process.

The release is dated Oct. 12, but was not made available to media until Oct. 26, and comes after the Oct. 10 county board meeting when the board voted unanimously to continue investigating Hakes for alleged misconduct.

The release states there has been confusion and misinformation in the public regarding the process" used by the county in the investigation.

The Chippewa Herald reached out to Gullickson to ask about the statement, how the questions were selected and where the information in the answers came from, but did not receive a response.

The Chippewa County Board initiated its investigation into Hakes during a June meeting after a county employee alleged in May that Hakes had sexually harassed her.

The investigation into Hakes has since grown in scope as allegations of other unprofessional conduct came to light. According to an investigation report released in early October, the Chippewa County Board is concerned about Hakes' honesty, leadership, competence, training compliance, absenteeism, handling of confidential information, conflicts of interest and impropriety on the job.

During the Oct. 10 board meeting, Hakes released his own counter-investigation report, handing out copies to board members before giving a 10-minute statement to the public, during which he defended himself. Hakes counter-investigation was conducted by himself in an attempt to discredit claims made by the investigator for the county  a lawyer from von Briesen & Roper. Her 87-page investigation report was made publicly available Oct. 3. Hakes has claimed that the investigatory process has been unfair, biased, incomplete and poorly handled.

Gullicksons release says the county recognized Hakes rights to due process and complied with Wisconsins Public Records Law when it came to the release of the investigation report and by providing statutory notice to sheriff Hakes and affording him time to augment the release of the report, and the county complied with the law by submitting sheriff Hakes augmentation with the release of the report.

The claims made in Hakes counter-investigation and the assertions he made in his augmentation of the investigators report require more examination, Gullickson stated.

The board has followed the appropriate legal process to investigate a local county elected official. The county cannot ignore allegations of misconduct engaged by a local county elected official. The county has an obligation to protect its employees, to ensure their rights are protected, and to take rapid and constructive remedial action, Gullickson stated.

As part of a motion approved by the county board Sept. 19, the matter was referred to Chippewa County District Attorney Wade Newells office for review" to determine if there were any issues that should be addressed. The district attorney is "currently reviewing the matter, the release states.

In his statement, the county chairman acknowledged the board has no power to remove Hakes from office.

Only Gov. Evers has the authority to remove sheriff Hakes if verified charges are filed with the governors office by a resident taxpayer of Chippewa County" the release states. "Initiation or completion of an investigation does not mean the county board is taking any action to remove sheriff Hakes from office."

If Hakes becomes subject to a recall election, then electors decide whether he should maintain his office or be replaced with another candidate in that election, according to information published by the State of Wisconsin Elections Commission.
The Guam Judicial Center in Hagatna is seen Friday, June 2, 2023. On Nov. 16, 2023, a man serving several life sentences for nine murders committed in the 1980s will have a chance to argue an appeal before the Supreme Court of Guam.
St. Lukes United Church of Christ at 1072 21st Ave. in Columbus will be hosting a baked potato bar and pie fundraiser on Thursday, Nov. 2.

Food will be served from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and 5 to 7:30 p.m.

Numerous toppings will be available on the baked potato bar. For those with smaller appetites or a different craving, tacos or taco salad also will be available.

The dessert bar will feature traditional cream pies such as coconut cream, sour cream raisin, and lemon creme, as well as local favorites such as apple, cherry, peach and pumpkin pies.

The cost of $10 per person includes a baked potato and all the fixings, two tacos and all the fixings, or a build your taco salad bowl, as well as a trip to the dessert bar. Water and coffee are complimentary.

A la carte options are $7.50 for a trip through the potato bar/taco bar, or $3.50 for dessert from the dessert bar. A drink is included.

A carryout option will be available. For more information, call 402-564-8862.
The sudden death of Chinas former No. 2 leader Li Keqiang has shocked many

The sudden death of Chinas former No. 2 leader Li Keqiang has shocked many View Photo

HONG KONG (AP)  The sudden death of Chinas former second-ranking leader, Li Keqiang, has shocked many people in the country, with tributes offered up to the ex-official who promised market-oriented reforms but was politically sidelined.

Li, who died early Friday of a heart attack, was Chinas top economic official for a decade, helping navigate the worlds second-largest economy through challenges such as rising political, economic and military tensions with the United States and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Li was extolled as an excellent (Communist Party of China) member, a time-tested and loyal communist soldier and an outstanding proletarian revolutionist, statesman and leader of the Party and the state, the official Xinhua News Agency said in its brief obituary.

Li was known for his advocacy of private business but lost much of his influence as President Xi Jinping accumulated ever-greater powers and elevated the military and security services in aid of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

A hashtag related to his death on the Chinese social media platform Weibo drew over 1 billion views in just a few hours. On posts about Li, the like button was turned into a daisy  a common flower for funerals in China, and many users commented rest in peace. Others called his death a loss and said Li worked hard and contributed greatly to China.

The Chinese government, however, had little to say immediately about Li. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning asked reporters to refer to information from official news agency Xinhua and the obituary released later.

We deeply mourn over the tragic passing of Comrade Li Keqiang due to a sudden heart attack, she said.

Beijing resident Xia Fan, 20, said she was saddened by the death of Li, whom she called a really conscientious and responsible premier. She said her mind was blank when she first heard about the news.

He really accompanied the growth of our generation, thats how it feels in my heart, she said.

Designer Chen Hui said Li contributed greatly to Chinas development. If I were to talk about it, its impossible to finish it in one day. Its a pity, Chen said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed his condolences on the passing of Li, said Matthew Miller, State Department spokesperson.

Nicholas Burns, U.S. ambassador to China, also extended his condolences to Lis family, the Chinese government and the Chinese people in both English and Chinese on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Japans embassy in China expressed its condolences on Weibo. It said Li had visited Japan in 2018 and he played an importance role in the relations of both countries.

Li, an English-speaking economist, was from a generation of politicians schooled during a time of greater openness to liberal Western ideas. Introduced to politics during the chaotic 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, he made it into prestigious Peking University, where he studied law and economics, on his own merits rather than through political connections.

Li had been seen as former Communist Party leader Hu Jintaos preferred successor as president about a decade ago. But the need to balance party factions prompted the leadership to choose Xi, the son of a former vice premier and party elder, as the consensus candidate.

The two never formed anything like the partnership that characterized Hus relationship with his premier, Wen Jiabao  or Mao Zedongs with the redoubtable Zhou Enlai  although Li and Xi never openly disagreed over fundamentals.

Last October, Li was dropped from the Standing Committee at a party congress despite being more than two years below the informal retirement age of 70. He stepped down in March and was succeeded by Li Qiang, a crony of Xis from his days in provincial government. His departure marked a shift away from the skilled technocrats who have helped steer Chinas economy in favor of officials known mainly for their unquestioned loyalty to Xi.

___

Associated Press journalist Simina Mistreanu in Beijing contributed to this report.

By KANIS LEUNG

Associated Press
US military says Chinese fighter jet came within 10 feet of B-52 bomber over South China Sea

US military says Chinese fighter jet came within 10 feet of B-52 bomber over South China Sea View Photo

BANGKOK (AP)  A Chinese fighter jet came within 10 feet of an American B-52 bomber flying over the South China Sea, nearly causing an accident, the U.S. military said, underscoring the potential for a mishap as both countries vie for influence in the region.

In the night intercept, the Shenyang J-11 twin-engine fighter closed on the U.S. Air Force plane at an uncontrolled excessive speed, flying below, in front of, and within 10 feet of the B-52, putting both aircraft in danger of a collision, the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement released late Thursday.

We are concerned this pilot was unaware of how close he came to causing a collision, the military said.

Chinas Foreign Ministry put the blame on the U.S., suggesting the American aircraft was flying over the South China Sea as a deliberate provocation.

The U.S. military planes traveled thousands of miles to Chinas doorstep to flex muscle, said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning.

That is the source of maritime and air security risks, and is not conducive to regional peace and stability.

The U.S. military said in its statement that the aircraft was lawfully conducting routine operations ahead of the intercept Tuesday, but did not immediately respond to questions Friday about specifically what the B-52 was doing over the South China Sea or whether it was with a group of planes.

After a similar incident in May, the Chinese government dismissed American complaints and demanded that Washington end such flights over the South China Sea.

China has been increasingly assertive in advancing its claims on most of the South China Sea as its territorial waters, a position rejected by the U.S. and other countries that use the vast expanse of ocean for shipping.

Chinas claims have led to longstanding territorial disputes with other countries in the South China Sea, one of the worlds busiest trade routes. A Chinese coast guard ship and an accompanying vessel last week rammed a Philippine coast guard ship and a military-run supply boat off a contested shoal in the waterway.

Following that incident, U.S. President Joe Biden renewed a warning that the U.S. would be obligated to defend the Philippines, its oldest treaty ally in Asia, if Filipino forces, aircraft or vessels come under armed attack. He spoke in a news conference with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday at the White House.

China reacted by saying the U.S. has no right to interfere in Beijings disputes with Manila.

The U.S. defense commitment to the Philippines should not undermine Chinas sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea, nor should it support the illegal claims of the Philippines, Mao, the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, told reporters Thursday in Beijing.

The U.S. and its allies regularly conduct maritime maneuvers in the South China Sea, and also routinely fly aircraft over the area to emphasize that the waters and airspace are international.

Aerial intercepts are common, with the U.S. saying that there have been more than 180 such incidents since the fall of 2021.

They are not often as close as Tuesdays incident, however, and with tensions already high between Beijing and Washington, a collision would have had the potential to lead to an escalation.

The U.S. military said in its statement that the incident will not change its approach.

The U.S. will continue to fly, sail and operate  safely and responsibly  wherever international laws allow, the military said.

Likewise, China showed no sign of backing down.

China will continue to take resolute measures to maintain its national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity, Mao said.

By DAVID RISING

Associated Press
Chinas chief epidemiologist who helped drive the anti-COVID fight dies at age 60 View Photo

BANGKOK (AP)  Wu Zunyou, an epidemiologist who helped drive the countrys strict zero-COVID measures in China that suspended access to cities and confined millions to their homes, died on Friday. He was 60.

An announcement from Chinas Center for Disease Control and Prevention about Wus death gave no cause, but said that rescue measures failed.

Wus health had been poor. He disappeared out of the public eye for months last year while battling cancer.

Wu, who earned his masters and doctorate from the University of California, Los Angeles, had spent much of his early career working on HIV/Aids prevention in China.

Wu was instrumental in developing Chinas flagship policy in the HIV epidemic among intravenous drug users, according to his biography on the UCLA website. In recognition of this work, he was awarded the 2005 International Rolleston Award. Later, he was also awarded a UNAIDS Gold Medal in 2008 for his overall work.

Yet, as China battled the COVID-19 virus, Wu came to be criticized by some for his choice to publicly voice support for the countrys strict virus control measures even as the weaknesses of the strategy became more pronounced.

Dynamic zero-COVID is appropriate for Chinas reality, and is the best choice to control our countrys current COVID situation, he said in April 2022, during the height of Shanghais lockdown.

The strategy bought China time in the early days of the pandemic, but by 2022, as the virus became more and more easily spread, it showed signs of strain.

The mega city of Shanghai was unprepared for a lockdown and its residents scrambled for groceries and basic necessities, while many also found it hard to access urgent medical services as people were barred from leaving their homes or even entering hospitals. Many were also angry about a key aspect of virus controls, which involved mass field hospitals where people who tested positive were forced to go to by public health workers.

In private, Wu disagreed with the excesses of the zero-COVID strategy, but felt powerless to go against it.

As zero-COVID got unsustainable in the fall of 2022, he wrote an internal report urging the government to avoid excessive measures. But in public press conferences throughout the past few years, he voiced the official line.

Wu visibly aged during the virus fight. He was pictured in 2020 with mostly black hair; by 2022, his locks had gone entirely gray.

The news of Wus death came just hours after the death of former Premier Li Keqiang was announced. Li was the countrys No. 2 leader during the pandemic.

___

AP writer Dake Kang contributed to this report from Shenzhen, China.

By HUIZHONG WU

Associated Press
Former Albanian prime minister accused of corruption told to report to prosecutors, stay in country

Former Albanian prime minister accused of corruption told to report to prosecutors, stay in country View Photo

TIRANA, Albania (AP)  An Albanian court ruled Thursday that former prime minister Sali Berisha, who is accused of corruption, must report to prosecutors and not leave the country while his case is under investigation.

The ruling came from the countrys Special Court on Corruption and Organized Crime, which was created in 2019 to handle corruption and other crime cases involving senior officials.

Last week, the 79-year-old Berisha announced the charges against him and his son-in-law, 50-year-old Jamarber Malltezi, who was arrested on the same charges of corruption and money laundering.

Berisha has said that both he and Malltezi are innocent and that he considers the case politically motivated by the ruling Socialist Party of Prime Minister Edi Rama.

Prosecutors allege Malltezi exploited Berishas position as prime minister to buy land in Tirana owned by both private citizens and the countrys defense ministry and build 17 apartment buildings on the land.

The case was made public last Saturday, three years after Interior Minister Taulant Balla, then head of the governing Socialist Partys parliamentary faction, sent a file with allegations against Malltezi and Berisha to the anti-corruption court.

Berisha served as Albanias prime minister from 2005-2013 and as president from 1992-1997. He was reelected as a lawmaker for the Democratic Party in an April 2021 parliamentary election.

Both the United States government in May 2021 and the United Kingdom in July 2022 barred Berisha and close family members from entering their countries because of alleged involvement in corruption, using his power for his own benefit and to enrich his political allies and his family members and interfering in the judiciary.

Since then, Berishas main opposition Democratic Party is in turmoil with different factions fighting for the partys leadership and legal registration.

Fighting corruption has been post-communist Albanias Achilles heel, strongly affecting the countrys democratic, economic and social development. Berisha was the fourth top Albanian official to be barred from entering the United States because of alleged involvement in corruption.

___

Follow Llazar Semini at https://twitter.com/lsemini

By LLAZAR SEMINI

Associated Press
Probe finds serious failings in way British politician Nigel Farage had his bank account closed

Probe finds serious failings in way British politician Nigel Farage had his bank account closed View Photo

LONDON (AP)  An independent probe on Friday found serious failings in how NatWest Groups private and exclusive Coutts Bank shut down the account of the right-wing British politician Nigel Farage.

Law firm Travers Smith was appointed to conduct a review in the wake of Farages so-called debanking at Coutts Bank, which has a long-established reputation of being the private bankers to members of Britains royal family and nobility.

Farage, who was one of the most prominent politicians behind Britains departure from the European Union, claimed in July that his account was closed because of his political views. The ensuing furor led to the departures of the CEOs of both Coutts and NatWest.

The investigation by Travis Smith found failures in how NatWest treated confidential information and how it communicated with Farage. NatWest CEO Alison Rose was forced to quit after acknowledging that she had discussed Farages personal details with a journalist.

She honestly, but incorrectly, believed that the client had publicly confirmed that he was a customer of Coutts, the report said.

Overall, though, the report found that the decision to shut down Farages bank account was lawful, and predominately commercial.

Coutts considered its relationship with Farage to be commercially unviable because it was significantly loss-making, it said.

Farage criticised the review and said Travers Smith had taken a very mealy-mouthed approach to his debanking.

The law firm argues that my political views not aligning with those of the bank was not in itself a political decision, he said. This is laughable.

NatWest chairman Howard Davies said the report sets out a number of serious failings in the treatment of Farage and apologized.

His experience fell short of the standards that any customer should expect, he said.

Britains financial regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, said the report highlighted potential regulatory breaches and a number of areas for improvement.

It added that it was looking further into how account closures and the handling of complaints might impact the wider fair treatment of customers.

The British government still owns a near-40% stake in NatWest after it was bailed out during the global financial crisis 15 years ago.

By PAN PYLAS

Associated Press
Retired Colombian army officer gets life sentence in 2021 assassination of Haitis president View Photo

MIAMI (AP)  A federal judge in Miami on Friday sentenced a retired Colombian army officer to life in prison for his role in plotting to kill Haitis President Jovenel Moise in 2021, which caused unprecedented turmoil in the Caribbean nation.

German Alejandro Rivera Garcia, 45, is the second of 11 suspects detained and charged in Miami to be sentenced in what U.S. prosecutors have described as a conspiracy hatched in both Haiti and Florida to hire mercenaries to kidnap or kill Moise, who was slain at his private home near the Haitian capital of Port-Au-Prince on July 7, 2021.

Rivera, also known as Colonel Mike, had pleaded guilty in September to conspiring and supporting a plot to kill the Haitian president. According to court documents, he was part of a convoy headed to Moises residence the day of the killing, after he relayed information that the plan was not to kidnap the president but rather kill him.

Rivera faced the maximum penalty of up to life imprisonment and now hopes that his sentence could be reduced in the future as part of a cooperation agreement he has signed with U.S. authorities.

Sometimes U.S. attorneys recommend judges to reduce a sentence if they determine that the convicted person helps with their investigation.

Federal Judge Jose E. Martinez handed down the sentence at a hearing in Miami that lasted less than 30 minutes.

Good luck to you, Mr. Rivera, the judge said after accepting to make a recommendation for the Colombian to remain at a South Florida federal prison, as he requested.

The sentencing came just months after Haitian-Chilean businessman Rodolphe Jaar was sentenced to life in prison in June for his role in Moises killing. Meanwhile, former Haitian senator John Joel Joseph is set to be sentenced in December. Eight more defendants are waiting trial next year in the United States.

Rivera entered the hearing wearing a prisoners beige shirt and pants. He was handcuffed and had shackles on his ankles as he listened to the judges ruling seated next to his attorney.

The Colombian declined to make statements when the judge asked him if he had anything to say. Not at the moment, your honor, Rivera answered.

According to the charges, Rivera, Jaar, Joseph and others, including about 20 Colombian citizens and several dual Haitian-American citizens, participated in the plot. The conspirators initially planned to kidnap the Haitian president, and later changed the plan to kill him. Investigators allege the plotters had hoped to win contracts under a successor to Moise.

Moise was killed when assailants broke into his home. He was 53 years old.

Meanwhile, more than 40 suspects in the case remain detained in Haiti and have languished in prison more than two years after the assassination as the newest investigative judge continues his interrogations. Among those arrested after the killing are 18 former Colombian soldiers, who are in custody in Haiti.

The case received a boost last week when police arrested Joseph Felix Badio, a key suspect who once worked at Haitis Ministry of Justice and at the governments anti-corruption unit. He was detained in the capital of Port-au-Prince after more than two years on the run.

Since the assassination, Haiti has experienced a surge of gang violence that led the prime minister to request the deployment of an armed force. In early October, the U.N. Security Council voted to send a multinational force led by Kenya to help fight the gangs.

Kenya has not announced a deployment date.

By GISELA SALOMON

Associated Press
Sitting 1100 ft above sea level atop Stone Head mountainside, is this luxurious and idyllic Chalet. This 2,537 sq ft, 3-bedroom, 2.5 bath home, sits atop a 100' rock face commanding a breathtaking showcase view as you make your way up the inviting driveway. This Chalet provides a unique and extraordinary opportunity you won't find anywhere else in South Central Pennsylvania. The mesmerizing living room with Brazilian cherry hardwood floors and floor to ceiling windows, reveal breathtaking 25+ mile views from your couch. The living room extends into the dining room and gourmet kitchen, designed with imported Italian ceramic tile flooring, custom cherry wood cabinetry and granite countertops throughout. The master bedroom with a large his and her bathroom, also rests on the main floor along with the convenient laundry room and additional 1/2 bath. The lower floor provides additional bedrooms, another full bath, and a large family room with a walk out patio. The home features several walk in closets along with a large 3 car garage with a walk-up second floor, providing an immense amount of storage. From the serene mountain views, cozy central air, both electric heat and outside wood furnace, you'll understand the true feeling of luxury no matter the time of year. The 108 acres is comprised of three parcels with the home resting on 18 acres and a 50-and 40-acre parcel combined. Trails throughout the property provide great opportunities for horseback riding, hiking, ATV use and more. The areas where the trails don't extend, the property lays secluded providing wildlife sanctuaries for both small and big game animals along with several different bird species. For hunters looking to chase whitetail deer and wild turkeys, this property will provide an incredible opportunity as it is well populated with them both. You won't find a home like this anywhere in the area and if you don't believe me, come, and sit on the large deck with a telescope and look for yourself! Don't miss this opportunity to own luxury with priceless views here in York County Pennsylvania.

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A salty problem for people near the mouth of the Mississippi is a wakeup call for New Orleans

A salty problem for people near the mouth of the Mississippi is a wakeup call for New Orleans View Photo

NEW ORLEANS (AP)  The heating element removed from Monique Plaisances water heater in September was disintegrating, streaked with rust and covered in a dry crust. She blamed the corrosion on the water piped in from the areas longtime drinking water source: the Mississippi River.

It was a similar story not far away at the Black Velvet Oyster Bar and Grill.

Were draining the hot water heater every few days to get most, or a good bit, of the salt out of that, owner Byron Marinovich said. The ice machine has been off since the third week of April.

Plaisances home and Marinovichs restaurant are in the Buras community of rural Plaquemines Parish, roughly 60 miles (about 96 kilometers) southeast of New Orleans and 20 to 30 miles (32 to 48 kilometers) upriver from where the Mississippi flows into the Gulf of Mexico. As in New Orleans, drinking water in the parish is drawn from the river.

But this year, the gulf pushed back. A wedge of salt water slipped up along the river bottom, beginning in the spring.

By early October, water intakes at towns such as Boothville, Port Sulphur and Pointe a la Hache had been inundated.

Plaquemines officials list a variety of measures to provide drinkable water to residents in the southeastern part of the parish, which juts into the gulf. Trucks of bottled water for drinking and barges full of fresh water to dilute the salt water before it goes into intakes are among the solutions.

Advisories against drinking tap water were lifted Oct. 18.

Plaisance and Marinovich are among residents who think remedial efforts began too late. They blame parish officials for not taking action until the water began posing a threat to more populated areas including the city of Belle Chasse, which is at the parishs northernmost end and home to more than 10,000 people, roughly half the population of the mostly rural parish.

Weve been working on this since June the 19th, Parish President Keith Hinkley said in a telephone interview. We have not drug our feet. We moved as fast as we could in getting these projects up and running. We made a decision to get a water station, water plant, back up and running that had been down for two years. We got it back up in a position to start producing water in somewhere between six to eight weeks.

Authorities cite multiple factors for the salt water intrusion. Most prominent this year has been a drought across the Midwest that has meant less water flowing into the Mississippi and the rivers feeding it.

At Vicksburg, Mississippi, north of New Orleans, the river flowed at a rate about 50% slower and at a stage height about 95% lower than normal during late September and early October between 2013 and 2022, according to analysis of data from the U.S. Geological Survey.

Parts of Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin  all part of the vast Mississippi River basin, which touches 31 states  are experiencing extreme drought conditions. Rainfall amounts are down in the watershed of the Ohio River, which contributes half of the Mississippis flow reaching new Orleans.

Another factor is dredging, according to Stephen Murphy, an assistant professor at Tulane Universitys School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and the director of the universitys Disaster Management Program. The lower Mississippi is frequently dredged by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to make way for huge cargo ships serving ports vital to the Louisiana and national economies.

The lower, slower river flow and a deep, wide river channel set the stage for gulf water to push inland.

Earlier in the fall, projections that the salt water would reach the New Orleans area by late October prompted residents to stock up on bottled water while public officials undertook emergency preparations as though there were a slowly approaching hurricane.

In Jefferson Parish, next to New Orleans, officials began laying out flexible piping resembling giant fire hoses in a plan to pipe water from farther up the Mississippi to dilute the salt water.

New Orleans officials also were working on a plan to build an emergency pipeline. The hope was that much of the projected cost, as high as $250 million, would be covered by the federal government under a presidential emergency declaration issued in September.

Updated projections have negated the need for the measure. The more favorable river forecasts are a result of various factors, including the Corps construction of what amounts to an underwater dam in Plaquemines to impede salt water progress. Recent rains in western Louisiana also have been a factor.

While the threat to the New Orleans area has been diminished, local leaders say its a wake-up call.

If this is what were going to be facing every couple of years, we certainly want to make an investment in how to solve this problem, Jefferson Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng said.

This is the fifth year the Corps has built an underwater structure to slow the salt water flow. But this is the first time sill construction has been used in consecutive years. Before last year, others were built in 1988, 1999 and 2012.

Rising seas portend more problems. The sea level around New Orleans is rising at a rate of as much as 9 millimeters (0.35 inches) per year, or three feet (about 1 meter) each century, much higher than the global average and the highest rate measured in the United States, according to experts at NOAAs Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services.

My worry is we continue to experience these low river flow rates and have a repeat occurrence year after year after year. And at some point I worry that that salt water wedge could creep further upriver and then we would be finding ourselves in the same predicament upriver as we are right now in the city, said Murphy, the assistant professor.

In the New Orleans area, permanent pipelines to draw water from upriver have been discussed. But Murphy doesnt think pipelines are the solution.

Large-scale reverse osmosis filtration systems may be the answer, Murphy said. He pointed to Tampa Bay, Florida, as an example of where desalinization is used for drinking water and said Gulf Coast communities should collaborate to find ways to safeguard water systems.

It also may be time to hold regional meetings to discuss the threat, Murphy said.

Maybe we should all start partnering together, much like we do for hurricane conferences, he said. Maybe we should be talking about climate change conferences.

___

Smith reported from New Orleans and Buras, Louisiana. Associated Press reporters Mary Katherine Wildeman in Hartford, Connecticut, and Camille Fassett, in Seattle contributed to this report.

By KEVIN McGILL and STEPHEN SMITH

Associated Press
Idaho judge upholds indictment against man accused of fatally stabbing 4 college students View Photo

MOSCOW, Idaho (AP)  An Idaho judge on Thursday declined to dismiss a grand jury indictment against a man accused of fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students.

Bryan Kohberger is charged with four counts of murder and one count of burglary in connection with the deaths at a rental house near the schools campus in Moscow, Idaho, last November.

Kohbergers attorneys filed a motion earlier this year asking the judge to dismiss the indictment, contending in part that the jury was biased, that jurors were given inadmissible evidence, and that they didnt use the right legal standard when they decided to indict.

The arguments over claims of jury bias, prosecutorial misconduct and evidence were held in a closed hearing on Thursday because Idaho law keeps details about specific grand juries secret. The arguments about the legal standard used in the indictment were held in open court, however.

The jurors used a probable cause standard, Kohbergers attorney Jay Logsdon said in a hearing Thursday, when they should have used a reasonable doubt standard, which is a higher bar to clear.

But Idaho 2nd District Judge John Judge rejected that argument, saying the use of the lower standard was a matter of settled law.

A probable cause standard generally means there is enough evidence or grounds to show that a charge is well-founded. A reasonable doubt standard generally means that a reasonable person has seen enough evidence or proof in the case that they believe beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant committed the crime with which they are being charged.

Logsdon said the Idaho Legislature set the higher standard for grand jury indictments, but the Idaho Supreme Court effectively lowered the standard and never tested the constitutionality of its own rule.

Deputy Attorney General Jeff Nye, who is assisting the prosecution, countered that the Idaho Supreme Court has ruled on the issue multiple times, repeatedly upholding the probable cause standard. That burden of proof was properly met during Kohbergers grand jury proceeding, he said.

Second District Judge John Judge agreed, noting that grand juries have used the probable cause standard to indict people for 100 years in Idaho. He said Kohbergers defense attorneys would need to bring the issue to the Idaho Supreme Court if they want to pursue it further.

Kohberger appeared in Thursdays hearing wearing a suit. He did not speak during the proceeding.

The judge entered a not-guilty plea on Kohbergers behalf earlier this year. Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson has said he intends to seek the death penalty. Kohberger has waived his right to a speedy trial, and a trial date has not been set.

The bodies of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were found Nov. 13, 2022, at a home across the street from the University of Idaho campus. Investigators pieced together DNA evidence, cellphone data and surveillance video that they say links Kohberger to the slayings.
2024 GOP hopefuls will defend Israel, seek donors at big Republican Jewish Coalition gathering View Photo

LAS VEGAS (AP)  The GOP presidential candidates will compete for donors and offer their strong support for Israel in its war with Hamas as they address the annual gathering of a major Republican Jewish group this weekend.

The Republican Jewish Coalitions gathering in Las Vegas has for years been a key stop for GOP candidates as they seek not only to court Jewish voters but also to present themselves as stalwart allies of Israel, a key priority for many in the partys base, particularly Christian evangelicals.

This years summit, underway Friday, comes with Israel in crisis after the Oct. 7 attack from Gaza by Hamas. The conflict has threatened to spread across the region and has roiled tensions over the war in the U.S., particularly on college campuses. In the wake of the attack, the Republican National Committee announced that the Republican Jewish Coalition will be co-sponsoring the third GOP presidential debate, scheduled for Nov. 8 in Miami.

For Republican White House hopefuls, the war has become a prominent issue on the campaign trail in recent weeks, and the reception they get as they address the crowd Saturday could be a key measure of strength in a contest thats been dominated by former President Donald Trump.

Trump has for years received a warm reception from the Coalition, with attendees sometimes given red yarmulkes with his name on them, reminiscent of his signature Make America Great Again hats. A longtime benefactor of the group, billionaire casino mogul and GOP megadonor Sheldon Adelson, became a big backer of Trump and helped him in 2016 to win over Coalition members who initially supported other candidates.

Adelson died in 2021. His widow, Miriam Adelson, has remained a major party donor and benefactor for the Republican Jewish Coalition but has vowed to stay neutral in the presidential primary. Other donors in the room may be looking for a candidate to support, however.

I think the people in the room mirror exactly whats happening in the Republican Party as a whole, said Matt Brooks, CEO of the Coalition. Each of the candidates have strong supporters. Each of the candidates are, at this point, relatively known quantities, but theres also a group of people who are trying to kick the tires and hear and see who they want to align themselves with.

Trump has declared that no president has done more to support Israel than he did, including his delivery on the promise to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.

But its unclear if some of the former presidents actions since the 2020 election may lead to a frostier reception than in years past. The day after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, when a mob of Trump supporters tried to stop the certification of Democrat Joe Bidens presidential victory, the Coalition issued a statement condemning the attack, calling for a peaceful transition of power and congratulating Biden.

Trump, as he seeks the White House a third time, still refuses to acknowledge Bidens win.

He addressed the conference by video last year shortly after announcing his campaign, but there seemed to be few signs of enthusiasm as his legal troubles began to bubble up. A week after the conference, he drew condemnation from Republicans for dining with a Holocaust-denying white nationalist and the rapper formerly known as Kanye West after the artist, now going by Ye, made his own string of antisemitic comments.

And just this month, Trump, known for broadcasting his personal grievances, drew criticism after the deadly attack in Israel by lashing out at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and referring to Lebanons Hezbollah group as very smart.

After his comments were denounced by his rivals and criticized by some of his allies, Trump a few days later issued a statement of support for Netanyahu, invoking his nickname and saying #IStandWithBibi and #IStandWithIsrael  a move that did not go unnoticed by the head of the Republican Jewish Coalition.

I think he has done a good job at recommitting himself to supporting Prime Minister Netanyahu and to standing and being absolutely rock solid when it comes to Israel, Brooks said. He has a long history and a long record of being an incredible pro-Israel president when he served, and the people in the room understand that and recognize the record that he brings with him to Las Vegas.

In fact, Trumps political support broadly within the party does not seem to have suffered much, and his large lead in the primary race seems to have only solidified.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley have each made the war and their support for Israel central to their campaign messages in recent weeks. Haley has appeared competitive with DeSantis second-place position in some national polls.

Haley has leaned into her foreign policy experience in her time serving in Trumps administration. DeSantis has been using the power of his office to charter flights for Floridians stranded in Israel and pressuring state-funded universities to disband a pro-Palestinian student group.

In addition to Trump, Haley and DeSantis, the other presidential candidates in the lineup are South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, former Vice President Mike Pence, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.

New Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is scheduled to address the summit Saturday night. Johnson, who was chosen by Republicans to lead the chamber only on Wednesday, takes the helm as the Biden administration is asking Congress to send aid to Israel and Ukraine.

Other GOP officials, including House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, Florida Sen. Rick Scott and South Dakota Sen. John Thune, are also slated to speak during the three-day summit on the Las Vegas Strip.

The event marks the first time most of the GOP candidates have made their way to Nevada, a state expected to be the third to weigh in on the field in voting early next year. The Western state is usually overlooked by candidates because of its limited political impact, and its received especially little campaign activity in this years GOP contest.

Thats largely because Trump is seen to have a heavy advantage in the state and the Nevada GOPs decision to set rules for its caucus that are seen as benefiting the former president. Three candidates Pence, Haley and Scott  have opted to skip the caucus and a chance to win presidential delegates. Instead, theyve filed to compete in the state-run primary, where they can hope to win headlines showcasing their strength.

Separate from the Jewish Coalition, DeSantis is to speak Saturday morning to a Nevada Republican group at a casino-resort on the Las Vegas Strip. Trump is expected to address supporters Saturday afternoon at a country music bar.

By MICHELLE L. PRICE

Associated Press
Inmate suspected in prison attack on Kristin Smarts killer previously murdered I-5 Strangler View Photo

COALINGA, Calif. (AP)  A California inmate accused of attacking Paul Flores this summer, shortly after Flores reported to prison to serve his conviction for murdering college student Kristin Smart, strangled his serial killer cellmate two years ago, officials said.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation this week identified inmate Jason Budrow as the suspect in the Aug. 23 attack on Flores at the Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga, about 185 miles (300 kilometers) north of downtown Los Angeles.

The department declined to share information about how Budrow allegedly was able to get to Flores or whether it is investigating how the attack happened on the agencys watch in light of Budrows previous behavior while incarcerated.

CDCR is limited in the amount of information it can provide on incarcerated peoples housing for safety and security reasons, the agency said in an email.

Budrow is serving life without parole for fatally strangling his girlfriend in 2010 in Riverside County. In a jailhouse interview that year with The Press-Examiner, he described himself as a Satanist and sported a 666 tattoo above his right eye. He also was convicted in 2006 of sexually assaulting a teenager.

In 2021, Budrow strangled his new cellmate, serial killer Roger Reece Kibbe, who was known as the I-5 Strangler in the 1970s and 1980s. Kibbe strangled and raped at least seven women  several of them in the Sacramento and Stockton areas along Interstate 5  and cut his victims clothing into odd patterns.

The killing of Kibbe in Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, roughly 30 miles (50 kilometers) southeast of Sacramento, earned Budrow another consecutive life sentence. An autopsy revealed that Budrow, then 40, strangled the 81-year-old Kibbe in their cell.

In a letter to The San Jose Mercury News, Budrow wrote that he killed Kibbe on the day they became cellmates, though he had planned the murder for months after he saw a TV special about him and had sought to share a cell so he could carry it out. Budrow wrote that although he wanted a single cell, he was on a mission for avenging Kibbes victims.

Budrow told the newspaper that he had carved a crude inverted pentagram into Kibbes body.

He was put into the prisons Administrative Segregation Unit  a single-person cell, like he wanted  before being transferred to Pleasant Valley. Budrow was placed in restrictive housing there, which under state law is reserved for prisoners who may pose a risk to others or to themselves, or whose behavior disrupts the safe and orderly functioning of the facility, according to the corrections department.

The state would not say whether Flores was also in restricted housing at the time of the attack, which occurred somewhere between the recreational yard and the medical clinic. Authorities also havent disclosed a possible motive.

Flores was hospitalized in serious condition for two days before he was returned to the prison, state officials said. After the attack, Budrow was found near the scene with some sort of prison-made weapon and surrendered to prison staff, authorities said.

Prison officials have recommended that prosecutors charge Budrow in the attack on Flores. The Fresno County district attorneys office has not yet been given the case for review, spokesperson Taylor Long said in an email Friday afternoon.

Flores was only transferred to Pleasant Valley the week before the attack to serve his sentence of 25 years to life in prison for killing Smart. His attorney, Harold Mesick, didnt immediately respond to a Friday request for comment.

Smart, then 19, disappeared from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo on the states scenic Central Coast over Memorial Day weekend in 1996. Her remains have never been found, but she was declared legally dead in 2002.

Prosecutors say Flores killed Smart during an attempted rape on May 25, 1996, in his dorm room at the university, where they were first-year students. He was the last person seen with Smart as he walked her home from an off-campus party.

Flores was arrested in 2021 along with his father, who was accused of helping to hide Smarts body. Flores was convicted of first-degree murder last year. A separate jury acquitted his father, Ruben Flores, of being an accessory after the fact.
MADRID (AP)  Spanish authorities are planning to convert unused military barracks and installations into temporary shelters for migrants to deal with the rapid rise in the number of people arriving on the Canary Islands by boat, a government minister said Thursday.

Jose Luis Escriva, minister of inclusion, social security and migration, told reporters that his ministry was working with military officials to evaluate the appropriateness of two barracks in the Madrid region and other installations in the southern cities of Seville and Cartagena.

I believe at this moment we have to be ready in case (the shelters) are necessary, Escriva said.

Some 23,000 people have arrived on the Canary Islands by boat this year, compared to 13,000 for the same period last year, according to Spains interior ministry.

Most of the boats arrived at El Hierro island, which has received several thousand migrants in recent weeks.

The route to reach the archipelago located off the northwest coast of Africa has claimed countless lives, with migrants traveling in small vessels unfit for long journeys across the open sea.

Escriva said that some 5,000 people who arrived on the Canary Islands were transferred in recent weeks to the mainland to take pressure off social services on the archipelago.

The uptick in arrivals, which has also been seen in Italy in the Mediterranean, has led to criticism of Spains central government by the right-wing opposition.

But Escriva insisted that officials can handle the influx of people, saying it was relatively small compared to the number of Ukrainians who reached Spain after fleeing the Russian invasion.

We have lots of experience with these situations, the minister said. We have integrated 200,000 Ukrainians. Compared to that, this is relatively small.

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Follow APs coverage of global migration at https://apnews.com/hub/migration
Israel steps up air and ground attacks in Gaza and cuts off the territorys communications

Israel steps up air and ground attacks in Gaza and cuts off the territorys communications View Photo

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP)  Israel knocked out internet and communications in the Gaza Strip in stepped-up bombardment Friday night, largely cutting off its 2.3 million people from contact with each other and the outside world and creating a near-blackout of information, as the military said it was expanding ground operations in the territory.

The militarys announcement signaled it was moving closer to an all-out invasion of Gaza, where it has vowed to crush the ruling Hamas militant group after its bloody incursion in southern Israel three weeks ago.

Explosions from continuous airstrikes lit up the sky over Gaza City for hours after nightfall. The Palestinian telecom provider, Paltel, said the bombardment caused complete disruption of internet, cellular and landline services. The cutoff meant that casualties from strikes and details of ground incursions could not immediately be known. Some satellite phones continued to function.

Already plunged into darkness after most electricity was cut off weeks ago, Palestinians were thrown into isolation, huddling in homes and shelters with food and water supplies running out.

Relatives outside Gaza panicked after their messaging chats with families inside suddenly went dead and calls stopped going through.

I was so scared this was going to happen, said Wafaa Abdul Rahman, director of a feminist organization based in the West Bank city of Ramallah. She said she hadnt heard for hours from family in central Gaza.

Weve been seeing these horrible things and massacres when its live on TV, so now what will happen when theres a total blackout? she said, referring to scenes of families that have been crushed in homes by airstrikes over the past weeks.

Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said ground forces were expanding their activity Friday evening in Gaza and acting with great force  to achieve the objectives of the war. Israel says its strikes target Hamas fighters and infrastructure and that the militants operate from among civilians, putting them in danger.

The Hamas media center reported heavy nighttime clashes with Israeli forces at several places, including what it said was an Israeli incursion east of the refugee camp of Bureij in the central Gaza Strip. Asked about the report, the Israeli military reiterated early Saturday that it had been carrying out targeted raids and expanding strikes with the aim of preparing the ground for future stages of the operation.

Israel has amassed hundreds of thousands of troops along the border ahead of an expected ground offensive. Earlier Friday the military said ground forces conducted their second hourslong incursion inside Gaza in as many days, striking dozens of militant targets over the past 24 hours.

The Palestinian death toll in Gaza has soared past 7,300, more than 60% of them minors and women, according to the territorys Health Ministry. A blockade on Gaza has meant dwindling supplies, and the U.N. warned that its aid operation helping hundreds of thousands of people was crumbling amid near-depleted fuel.

More than 1,400 people were slain in Israel during Hamas Oct. 7 attack, according to the Israeli government, and at least 229 hostages were taken into Gaza. Palestinian militants have fired thousands of rockets into Israel, including one that hit a residential building in Tel Aviv on Friday, wounding four people.

The Israeli military released the names of 310 soldiers killed during the initial Hamas attack and its aftermath. The vast majority were killed Oct. 7, according to the military. The slain soldiers are part of the overall death toll in Israel.

The overall number of deaths far exceeds the combined toll of all four previous Israel-Hamas wars, estimated at around 4,000.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel expects a long and difficult ground offensive into Gaza soon. It will take a long time to dismantle Hamas vast network of tunnels, he said, adding that he expects a lengthy phase of lower-intensity fighting as Israel destroys pockets of resistance.

His comments pointed to a potentially grueling and open-ended new phase of the war after three weeks of relentless bombardment. Israel has said it aims to crush Hamas rule in Gaza and its ability to threaten Israel. But how Hamas defeat will be measured and an invasions endgame remain unclear. Israel says it does not intend to rule the tiny territory but not who it expects to govern  even as Gallant suggested a long-term insurgency could ensue.

In Washington, the Pentagon said U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with Gallant on Friday and underscored the importance of protecting civilians during the Israel Defense Forces operations and focusing on the urgency of humanitarian aid delivery for civilians in Gaza. The Pentagon said Austin also brought up the need for Hamas to release all of the hostages.

The conflict has threatened to ignite a wider war across the region. Arab nations  including U.S. allies and ones that have reached peace deals or normalized ties with Israel  have raised increasing alarm over a potential ground invasion, likely to bring even higher casualties amid urban fighting.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi warned on X that the outcome will be a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions for years to come.

With no electricity, no communications and no water, many of those trapped in Gaza had little choice but to wait in their homes or seek the relative safety of schools and hospitals as Israel expanded its bombing early Saturday.

Throughout the night, orange fireballs exploded on the horizon above the apartment buildings and refugee camps of Gaza City, briefly illuminating clouds of white smoke hanging in the air from previous strikes. Some bombs hit in tight groups, apparently slamming into the same location.

Lynn Hastings, U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the occupied territories, posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that without phone lines and internet, hospitals and aid operations would be unable to operate. The Red Crescent said it could not contact medical teams and residents could no longer call ambulances, meaning rescuers would have to chase the sound of explosions to find the wounded. International aid groups said they were only able to reach a few staffers using satellite phones.

The Committee to Protect Journalists expressed alarm, saying the world is losing a window into the reality of the conflict. It warned that the information vacuum can be filled with deadly propaganda, dis- and misinformation.

The loss of internet and phones deals a further blow to a medical and aid system that relief workers say was already on the verge of collapse under Israels weekslong seal. More than 1.4 million people have fled their homes, nearly half crowding into U.N. schools and shelters. Aid workers say a trickle of aid Israel has allowed to enter from Egypt the past week is a tiny fraction of what is needed.

Gaza hospitals have been scrounging for fuel to run emergency generators that power incubators and other life-saving equipment.

Gallant said Israel believes that Hamas would confiscate any fuel that enters. He said Hamas uses generators to pump air into its hundreds of kilometers (miles) of tunnels, which originate in civilian areas. He showed reporters aerial footage of what he said was a tunnel shaft built right next to a hospital.

For air, they need oil. For oil, they need us, he said.

Late Friday the army released photos showing what it said were Hamas installations in and around Gaza Citys Shifa Hospital, Gazas largest. Israel has made such claims before, but declined to say how the photos were obtained.

Little is known about Hamas tunnels and other infrastructure. Claims by the military and Gallant couldnt be verified.

Speaking at Shifa Hospital, Hamas media chief Salama Maroof called Israels claims lies and said they were a precursor for striking this facility.

I ring the alarm bell. There is imminent danger hovering above the medical facility, Maroof said. The hospital has been overwhelmed and around 40,000 displaced residents have crowded its grounds for shelter, the U.N. says.

Asked if Israel plans to target Shifa, Hagari said, We will not be able to allow terror activity against Israel from hospitals.

Hundreds of thousands of people remain in northern Gaza.

In related developments:

 The U.N. General Assembly approved a nonbinding resolution calling for a humanitarian truce in Gaza leading to a cessation of hostilities. It was the first U.N. response to Hamas surprise Oct. 7 attacks and Israels ongoing military response and vow to obliterate the militant group.

 In New York City, hundreds of protesters calling for a cease-fire filled the famed Grand Central Terminal during rush hour Friday, wearing T-shirts saying Jews say cease-fire now and Not in our name. Police said approximately 200 protesters were taken briefly into custody, issued summonses and released.

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Federman reported from Tel Aviv and Mroue from Beirut. Najib Jobain in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Jack Jeffery in Cairo, Isabel DeBre in Jerusalem, and Brian Melley in London, contributed to this report.

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This story has been updated to correct the name of the Hamas spokesman, Salama Maroof.

By WAFAA SHURAFA, JOSEF FEDERMAN and BASSEM MROUE

Associated Press
Live updates | Israel knocks out Gaza communications as protesters call for end to the war

Live updates | Israel knocks out Gaza communications as protesters call for end to the war View Photo

Israel knocked out communications and created a near-blackout of information by striking targets in the Gaza Strip with stepped-up bombardment and artillery fire overnight and into Saturday.

Explosions from continuous airstrikes lit up the sky over Gaza City for hours after nightfall Friday as the Israeli military said it was expanding ground operations in the territory, signaling a move closer to an all-out invasion of Gaza meant to crush the ruling Hamas militant group after its bloody rampage in southern Israel on Oct. 7.

The Palestinian telecom provider, Paltel, said the bombardment caused complete disruption of internet, cellular and landline services as the besieged enclaves 2.3 million people were largely cut off from contact with the outside world. Some satellite phones continued to function.

The Palestinian death toll passed 7,300. The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza, which tracks the toll, released a detailed list including names and ID numbers on Thursday. In the occupied West Bank, more than 110 Palestinians have been killed in violence and Israeli raids since the wars start three weeks ago.

More than 1,400 people were slain in Israel during the Hamas incursion, including at least 310 soldiers, according to the Israeli government. At least 229 hostages were taken into Gaza, and four hostages were released earlier.

Currently:

1. AP photos: Scenes of sorrow and despair on both sides of Israel-Gaza border on week 3 of war 2. UN General Assembly calls for `humanitarian truce in Gaza leading to halt in Israel-Hamas fighting. 3. Israel-Hamas war upends years of conventional wisdom. Leaders give few details on what comes next 4. Data from the Gaza Health Ministry, questioned after the hospital explosion, has withstood past scrutiny. 5. About 30 children were taken hostage by Hamas militants. Their families wait in agony. 6. Find more of APs coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.

Heres what is happening in the latest Israel-Hamas war:

LARGE DEMONSTRATION AT U.S. EMBASSY IN INDONESIA CALLS FOR END TO WAR

JAKARTA, Indonesia  More than 3,000 protesters marched to the heavily guarded U.S. Embassy in Indonesias capital on Saturday to demand an end to the war and bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Waving Indonesian and Palestinian flags, the protesters, many wearing white Islamic robes, filled a major thoroughfare in downtown Jakarta running outside the embassy. About 1,000 police were deployed around the compound, which is blocked off by concrete road barriers.

The protesters, organized by the Indonesian Ulema Council, known as MUI, chanted God is Great and Freedom for Palestine during the noisy but peaceful protest. Banners and placards proclaimed, We stand with Gaza, and slammed the Israeli government while denouncing the staunch U.S. support of Israel.

We are not willing to allow our brothers and sisters in Palestine to be tyrannized or genocided by Israel, MUI Secretary General of MUI Amirsyah Tambunan told the crowd. We will continue to support and fight for Palestinian independence and sovereignty.

NYC PROTESTERS DEMAND GAZA CEASE-FIRE, MANY ARRESTED AFTER FILLING GRAND CENTRAL TRAIN STATION

NEW YORK  Hundreds of protesters in black T-shirts filled New York Citys iconic Grand Central Terminal during the evening rush hour on Friday to demand a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war.

Many of the protesters were detained by police and taken out of the station, their hands zip tied behind their backs. The NYPD could not immediately say how many were taken into custody.

Hundreds of Jews and friends are taking over Grand Central Station in a historic sit-in calling for a ceasefire, advocacy group Jewish Voice for Peace said on social media.

Inside the main concourse, protesters wearing shirts that read cease-fire now and not in our name chanted, with some holding banners in front of the list of departure times. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority asked commuters to use Penn Station as an alternative.

The scene echoed last weeks sit-in where more than 300 people were arrested for illegally demonstrating on Capitol Hill in Washington.

EXPLOSIONS SHATTER THE NIGHT SKY OVER GAZA AS ISRAEL EXPANDS BOMBING

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip  The dull orange glow of Israeli flares shone in the night sky over Gaza, slowly descending through the haze to illuminate targets for warplanes before eventually flickering out, plunging the scene back into darkness.

Multiple explosions from Israeli airstrikes tore into northern Gaza on Friday, quick flashes of bright orange silhouetted against the rooftops of Palestinian apartments and refugee camps. The sharp crunching sound of the bombs followed each time, seconds later, one after another.

Overhead, the buzz of Israeli military drones cut through, growing quieter and louder as the crafts circled the airspace.

For most Palestinians trapped in the Gaza Strip, their world has shrunk to these few sounds and colors.

Israel dramatically ramped up its bombardment Friday after knocking out internet and communication in Gaza, largely cutting off the tiny besieged enclaves 2.3 million people from contact with each other and the outside world.

U.N. GENERAL ASSEMBLY CALLS FOR HUMANITARIAN TRUCE IN GAZA LEADING TO HALT IN ISRAEL-HAMAS FIGHTING

UNITED NATIONS  The U.N. General Assembly approved a nonbinding resolution on Friday calling for a humanitarian truce in Gaza leading to a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Gazas Hamas rulers.

It was the first U.N. response to Hamas surprise Oct. 7 attacks on Israel and Israels ongoing military response and vow to obliterate Hamas.

The 193-member world body adopted the resolution by a vote of 120-14 with 45 abstentions after rejecting a Canadian amendment backed by the United States to unequivocally condemn the terrorist attacks by Hamas and demand the immediate release of hostages taken by the militant group.

GAZAS LARGEST HOSPITAL STRUGGLES TO KEEP ITS NEONATAL UNITS RUNNING AS ISRAEL TIGHTENS SEIGE

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip  Premature babies wiggle and squirm, some with oxygen tubes under their noses, in rows of clear plastic incubators inside the neonatal unit of Gazas largest hospital, which, like the rest of the besieged Palestinian territory, is running out of fuel, food, water and electricity.

Doctors in Gaza say conditions have reached catastrophic levels. They say a lack of basic supplies has left them struggling to maintain hygiene and sanitation, and hospital grounds are overcrowded with displaced civilians seeking refuge from Israeli airstrikes.

We have noticed an increase in premature birth cases, said Dr. Nasser Bulbul, head of the NICU at al-Shifa Hospital.

We had to perform a premature delivery of the fetus from the mothers womb while shes dying, he said. Many of these infants are orphaned, and we dont know the fate of their relatives or have information about their identities.

Around 50,000 pregnant women are caught up in the conflict, with around 5,500 due to give birth within the next 30 days, according to the United Nations Population Fund.

If fuel supplies run out, neonatal intensive care units will be impacted and planned or emergency caesarean sections will be impossible, the U.N. agency said.

PRESS GROUP SAYS THE PAST 3 WEEKS HAVE BEEN DEADLIEST PERIOD FOR JOURNALISTS COVERING CONFLICT

NEW YORK  The Committee to Protect Journalists says the past three weeks have been the deadliest on record for journalists covering conflict since the organization started tracking in 1992.

The organization said in a statement Friday that at least 29 journalists have died covering the Israel-Hamas war since it ignited Oct. 7, including 24 Palestinians, four Israelis and 1 Lebanese. Additionally, 8 other journalists were reported injured and 9 were reported missing or detained.

CPJ also criticized the cutting of communications services in the Gaza Strip, warning that the blackout is also a news blackout that has compromised the publics ability to know and understand what is happening in this conflict.

This can lead to serious consequences with an independent, factual information vacuum that can be filled with deadly propaganda, dis- and misinformation, it said.

The organization stressed that journalists are civilians that must be respected and protected in accordance with international humanitarian law, adding that deliberating targeting journalists or media infrastructure constitutes possible war crimes.

WERE NOT DRAWING RED LINES FOR ISRAEL, WHITE HOUSE OFFICIAL SAYS

WASHINGTON  White House National Security spokesman John Kirby repeatedly refused to comment on Israel saying its ground forces were expanding activity in Gaza and also refused to comment on what a satisfactory long-term objective might be for the fighting.

Were not drawing red lines for Israel, Kirby said Friday on a call with reporters. Were going to continue to support them but since the very beginning we have, and will continue to have, conversations about the manner that they are doing this.

Kirby said the U.S. is still evaluating the impact of airstrikes against Iranian-backed militias and we will not hesitate to take further actions in our own self-defense.

He also said 10 additional trucks filled with humanitarian aid had made it to Gaza, bringing the total to 84, but that the U.S. is aware that fuel there is only anticipated to last a couple of days.

The White House previously said President Joe Biden was briefed Friday morning by his national security team on the latest developments in Israel and Gaza.

AID GROUPS SAY BLACKOUT IS IMPEDING STAFF COMMUNICATIONS AND OPERATIONS

RAMALLAH, West Bank  Aid groups say the communications blackout in the Gaza Strip has not only left them unable to contact their staff, but has also impeded their operations in the territory.

It doesnt only mean that Gaza is isolated from the world but also it means people cant connect to each other. Our emergency line is down so people are literally not able to call an ambulance, said Nebal Farsakh, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent. We are extremely worried because we are completely cut off from our teams.

The International Committee of the Red Cross also said its currently unable to reach its staff in Gaza.

We are deeply worried for their safety and the safety of all civilians where hostilities are taking place, the organization said in a statement. Without access to information in a communication blackout, people dont know where to go for safety.

ISRAELI ARMY SAYS GROUND FORCES WILL EXPAND THEIR ACTIVITY IN GAZA FRIDAY EVENING

JERUSALEM  The Israeli military on Friday said its ground forces were expanding their activity in the Gaza Strip, as the army moved closer to a full-on ground invasion of the besieged territory.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the armys spokesman, said aerial attacks had been targeting Hamas tunnels and other targets.

In addition to the attacks that we carried out in recent days, ground forces are expanding their activity this evening, he said. The IDF is acting with great force  to achieve the objectives of the war.

Israel has amassed hundreds of thousands of troops along the border with Gaza ahead of an expected ground offensive against the Hamas militant group.

Israel has been pounding Gaza with airstrikes since Hamas militants carried out a bloody cross-border incursion on Oct. 7.

POPE FRANCIS LEADS SPECIAL PRAYERS FOR COUNTRIES AND REGIONS AFFECTED BY WAR

VATICAN CITY  Amid signs of escalating tensions in the Middle East, Pope Francis led special prayers Friday evening in St. Peters Basilica for a world in a dark hour and in great danger from what he described as the folly of war.

In his remarks, delivered in the form of a prayer to the Virgin Mary, Francis didnt mention by name the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which exploded into war after the Hamas attack against Israelis on Oct. 7.

Instead, he said he was praying for especially those countries and regions at war.

Intercede for our world, in such turmoil and great danger, the pope prayed, in apparent reference to widespread anxiety that the Israeli-Hamas war could quickly develop into a wider, regional war in the Middle East.

PALESTINIAN TELECOM PROVIDER SAYS INTERNET SERVICE HAS BEEN CUT IN GAZA STRIP

RAMALLAH, West Bank  The Palestinian telecom provider Paltel says internet service in Gaza Strip has been cut off by Israeli bombardment. Services were cut Friday evening, following a heavy round of Israeli airstrikes that lit up the night sky over the darkened territory.

Rights groups and journalists also say they lost contact with colleagues in the enclave. The Associated Presss attempts to contact people in Gaza did not go through.

By The Associated Press
UN General Assembly calls for humanitarian truce in Gaza leading to halt in Israel-Hamas fighting View Photo

UNITED NATIONS (AP)  The U.N. General Assembly approved a nonbinding resolution Friday calling for a humanitarian truce in Gaza leading to a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Gazas Hamas rulers, the first United Nations response to the war.

The 193-member world body adopted the resolution by a vote of 120-14 with 45 abstentions after rejecting a Canadian amendment backed by the United States. It would have unequivocally condemned the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas and demanded the immediate release of hostages taken by Hamas, which is not mentioned in the Arab-drafted resolution.

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. ambassador, called the General Assembly more courageous, more principled than the divided U.N. Security Council, which failed in four attempts during the past two weeks to reach agreement on a resolution. Two were vetoed and two failed to get the minimum nine yes votes required for approval.

Israels U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan called it a day that will go down in infamy, saying after the vote: Israel will not stop the operation until Hamas terror capabilities are destroyed and our hostages are returned.  And the only way to destroy Hamas is root them out of their tunnels and subterranean city of terror.

Frustrated Arab nations went to the General Assembly, where there are no vetoes  just as Ukraine did after Russias February 2022 invasion because of Moscows Security Council veto power  to press for a U.N. response. And the United Arab Emirates Ambassador Lana Nusseibeh, the Arab representative on the Security Council, expressed delight at the result.

120 votes in this kind of geopolitical environment is a very, very high signal of the support for international law, for proportionate use of force, and it is a rejection of the status quo that is currently happening on the ground, she said.

The 14 countries that voted against the resolution include Israel and its closest ally, the United States, five Pacific island nations and four European countries  Austria, Croatia, Czechia and Hungary, all European Union members. Eight EU members voted in favor.

Frances U.N. Ambassador Nicolas De Riviere said his country supported the resolution because nothing could justify the suffering of civilians, and he urged collective efforts to establish a humanitarian truce.

Mansour said the European votes indicate they can be very helpful in pursuing a Security Council resolution or in maximizing pressure in Israel to stop this war.

While the surprise Hamas attacks killed some 1,400 Israelis, more than 7,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israels retaliatory airstrikes, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The escalating death toll and destruction in Gaza heightened international support for humanitarian truces to get desperately needed food, water, medicine and fuel to the 2.3 million people in Gaza.

Unlike Security Council resolutions, General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding but the UAEs Nusseibeh told reporters they carry incredible weight and moral authority.

She said the 10 elected Security Council members, who serve two-year terms, will take the moral authority from the General Assembly and try to break the gridlock on a council resolution.

-The votes came part way through a list of 113 speakers at an emergency special session of the General Assembly on Israeli actions in occupied Palestinian territories.

Jordans U.N. Ambassador Mahmoud Hmoud, speaking on behalf of the U.N.s 22-nation Arab group, called for action on the resolution because of the urgency of the escalating situation on the ground.

Before the vote, Hmoud urged defeat of the Canadian amendment, saying Israel is responsible for the atrocities that are being committed now, and that will be committed in the ground invasion of Gaza.

Canadas U.N. Ambassador Robert Rae countered that the resolution appears to forget that the events of Oct. 7 happened. The amendment would condemn Hamas, which is responsible for one of the worst terrorist attacks in history, he said.

Pakistans U.N. Ambassador Munir Akram drew loud applause when he said the Arab-drafted resolution deliberately didnt condemn or mention Israel or name any other party. If Canada was really equitable, Akram said, it would agree either to name everybody  both sides who are guilty of having committed crimes  or it would not name either as we chose.

The vote on the Canadian amendment was 88-55 with 23 abstentions, but it failed to get a two-thirds majority of those voting for or against  abstentions didnt count. In the vote on the entire resolution that followed, Canada abstained.

The assemblys emergency special session, which began Wednesday, continued Friday morning with U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield echoing Israels Erdan in calling the resolution outrageous for never mentioning Hamas and saying it is detrimental to the vision of a two-state solution.

She called it a perilous moment for Israelis and Palestinians, stressing that there is no justification for Hamas terror, that Palestinians are being used as human shields and that the lives of innocent Palestinians must be protected.

Oman, speaking on behalf of the Gulf Cooperation Council, condemned Israels siege of Gaza, starvation of its population and collective punishment of Palestinians. But it said the Palestinians wont be deterred from demanding their legitimate inalienable rights, chief among them the right to self- determination and the right to establish an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

In addition to calling for an immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities, the resolution adopted Friday demands that all parties immediately comply with their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law requiring protection of civilians and the schools, hospitals and other infrastructure critical for their survival.

The resolution demands that essential supplies be allowed into the Gaza Strip and humanitarian workers have sustained access. And it calls on Israel to rescind its order for Gazans to evacuate the north and move to the south and firmly rejects any attempts at the forced transfer of the Palestinian civilian population.

The resolution also stresses the need to urgently establish a mechanism to ensure the protection of the Palestinian civilian population.

And it emphasizes the importance of preventing further destabilization and escalation of violence in the region and calls on all parties to exercise maximum restraint and on all those with influence to press them to work toward this objective.

By EDITH M. LEDERER

Associated Press
Pope Francis prays for a world in a dark hour and danger from folly of war View Photo

VATICAN CITY (AP)  Amid the latest bloodshed in the Middle East, Pope Francis led special Friday evening prayers in St. Peters Basilica for a world in a dark hour and in great danger from what he described as the folly of war.

Francis delivered his remarks in the form of a prayer to the Virgin Mary and didnt mention by name the conflict that exploded when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel retaliated by sealing off the Gaza Strip and battering the Palestinian territory with airstrikes.

He said he was praying for especially those countries and regions at war, and he pleaded with Mary to take the initiative for us, in these times rent by conflicts and laid waste by the fire of arms.

This is a dark hour, Francis said in a subdued voice, in his remarks in the basilica.

Since the Israel-Hamas war started three weeks ago, Francis has appealed for the release of hostages taken by Hamas and for civilians in the Gaza Strip to be spared from warfare. He has also decried the massacre by Hamas of civilians in Israel, at a music concert and in their homes.

The pope has also pressed for humanitarian aid to head off what he said would be a catastrophe for civilians after Israel cut off supplies of food, water and fuel into the Gaza Strip following the deadly Hamas incursion.

During Fridays basilica service, Francis deplored that the human family has strayed from the path of peace, preferred Cain to Abel, and lost the ability to see each others as brothers and sisters dwelling in a common home. He was referring to the Biblical account of two brothers, one who fatally turns against the other.

Intercede for our world, in such turmoil and great danger, the pope prayed. Francis also prayed that people will learn to care for each and every human life  and to repudiate the folly of war, which sows death and eliminates the future.

His prayers included one for hearts imprisoned by hatred, as well as an appeal for national leaders to seek paths of peace. He further prayed for a reconciliation for those who are seduced by evil, blinded by power and hate.

Francis offered no formula for how to defuse the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict that flared anew this month and has fueled anxiety of a wider, regional war developing in the Middle East.

But in a Thursday phone conversation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Francis expressed hope, according to the Vaticans readout of the call, for two states and a special statute for the city of Jerusalem, with its several sites sacred to faithful of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Francis has also repeatedly invoked peace for Ukraine since Russia invaded the eastern European country in February 2022.

By FRANCES DEMILIO

Associated Press
WALLINGFORD  Thursday afternoon was a day of celebration for the Quinnipiac Chamber of Commerce as it hosted the annual womens achievement awards at the Farms Country Club.

Among the winners for community achievement were Patricia Melton of New Haven Promise for Community Impact, the Record Journals Latino Communities Reporting Lab for Excellence in Advocacy, Alison Velez of Ludals Italian Restaurant for Excellence in Business, Allison Greene of BYK USA Inc. for Emerging Leader, Dr. Jennifer Miacci for Excellence in Healthcare, and Ginny Kozlowski of REX Development for Woman of the Year. Record-Journal Latino Lab reporters Lau Guzman and Crystal Elescano joined Lizandra Mejias-Salinas, assistant executive director of the Spanish Community of Wallingford, to accept the Excellence in Advocacy award.

Before the presentation of the awards, Wallingford Mayor William Dickinson Jr. made some remarks along with North Havens First Selectman Michael Freda.

Ray Andrewsen, executive director for the Quinnipiac Chamber of Commerce, presented Dickinson, who is not seeking re-election after 40 years in office, with a plaque for his service to the town of Wallingford. Andrewsen said Dickinson has been such a longtime supporter of our chamber.

When Dickinson made it up to the podium, he cheered to the crowd, saying what a beautiful day it was. What a fantastic time to recognize six women who are leaders and true role models for our communities, he said.

The keynote speaker of the awards was Rachida Parks, an associate professor of Computer Information Systems at Quinnipiac University. Parks has been in academia for over 12 years and has held several IT positions within the Department of Defense, NBC Universal Studios, as well as her own consulting firm.

Parks speaks five languages  English, French, Arabic, Spanish and Italian  along with working on two more, Chinese and Hebrew. She had everyone say congratulations in English and then taught everyone to say that and then thank you in each of the languages she speaks.

Community Impact: Patricia Melton, New Haven Promise

Melton, a strategic transformational practitioner, leads a program whose mission is to promote college education and workforce pathway development for over 24,000 New Haven Public Schools students.

New Haven Promise is funded by Yale University, Yale New Haven Hospital, The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven and, more recently, corporate businesses and additional philanthropic partners.

Excellence in Advocacy: RJs Latino Communities Reporting Lab

The Record-Journal Latino Communities Reporting Lab was launched in March 2021 to amplify local Latino communities' voices. Carrying out the mission relies on the support of individuals, the community, businesses, organizations and agencies who believe in the work.

Since its launch in 2021, the lab has told hundreds of stories and produced videos in both English and Spanish. Reporters have documented the contributions and impacts of their local Hispanic-Latino communities, along with the traditions, cultures, challenges, and inequities they face every day as Latinos. The mission is for reporters to proudly reach out to Hispanic-Latino roots and experiences when they craft stories.

Excellence inBusiness: Alison Velez, Ludals ItalianRestaurant

Velez is the co-owner of Ludals Italian Restaurant in North Haven. Ludals has been the center for events in North Haven for nearly 20 years.

Velez and her husband, Dalton, have been the go-to place in town to eat with their variety of appetizers, main entrees and desserts. Given the success of their restaurant, the couple opened a new restaurant named after Dalton in North Branford on Route 80.

Both restaurants are successful, and mentoring new restaurant owners has been a part of Velezs commitment to the restaurant industry.

Excellence in

Healthcare: Dr.

Jennifer Micacci,

Best Life Hearing

Center, Inc.

Micacci, a doctor of audiology and the founder of the Best Life Hearing Center, has been practicing for over 20 years and has worked in ear, nose, throat and private practice settings.

Best Life Hearing Center has offices in Wallingford, Ansonia and Cheshire.

Micacci is a member of the Southington Democratic Town Committee and served on the library board. She lives in Southington.

Emerging Leader: Allison Greene, BYK USA, Inc.

Green is a research chemist with BYK USA, Inc., with over 11 years of experience in the specialty chemical and coatings industry. She now leads the research and development of chemical additives at BYK USA by providing innovative solutions for the paint and coatings industry.

Greene joined BYK in 2015 to support the expansion of the research and development organization in North America. She has devoted her career to developing new patented technologies, establishing and leveraging a talented team of chemists, and maturing BYK USAs research and development department within their global organization.

Woman of the Year: Ginny Kozlowski, REX Development

Ginny Kozlowski is the CEO of the REX Development and the Economic Development Corporation of New Haven.

In 1993, Kozlowski transitioned from a successful career in the lodging and hospitality industry to joining the Greater New Haven Convention and Visitors Bureau. From there, the Greater New Haven CVB morphed into REX Development and led to the Economic Development Corporation of New Haven, with Kozlowski at the lead through a series of collaborations and partnerships.

In addition to her work at REX and EDC, she taught as an adjunct professor at the University of New Haven in its hospitality program. As an active member of the community, Kozlowski has served on several boards of directors in the region, such as Connecticut Economic Development Association, Milford Progress Inc., New Haven Festival Inc., CERC, Collab Incorporated, Canal Dock Boathouse, Inc., and the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce.

nzappone@record-journal.com203-317-2212
The opposition party, Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), is seeking intervention from regional and international parliamentary bodies to halt the upcoming by-elections scheduled for December 9.

These by-elections aim to fill vacant positions following the recall of 15 MPs and 17 councillors affiliated with CCC, initiated by self-proclaimed interim secretary-general Sengezo Tshabangu. However, CCC leader Chamisa argues that the recalls are irregular as Tshabangu is not a member of the party.

Chamisa asserts that the by-elections are unjustifiable due to the unconstitutional and fraudulent nature of the recalls. He has raised the issue with the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) and intends to pursue political and diplomatic avenues to prevent the by-elections, emphasizing their inconsistency with democratic norms.

Tshabangu, dismissed as a Zanu PF impostor, denies these allegations, while Chamisa accuses President Mnangagwa of attempting to secure a two-thirds majority for his party in Parliament. CCC has filed an appeal in the High Court challenging the recall of its members, with the hearing scheduled for November 2.

Chamisa refuses to accept the results of the August 23 and 24 harmonized elections, claiming they were rigged in favour of Mnangagwa. Election observer missions, including Sadc, raised concerns about the credibility of the polls. Although Chamisa had hoped Sadc would call for a re-run, the regional body suggested pursuing internal remedies such as approaching the courts.

In the midst of these developments, CCC is reevaluating its decision to withdraw from Parliament as a protest against the recalls after the expiration of its 14-day ultimatum. They will continue to monitor progress, review action plans, and consult with stakeholders. However, Tshabangu warns that he will recall any CCC member who withdraws from Parliament or local government without his authorization.

Adding complexity to the situation, Tshabangu has written to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, informing them that he, along with Mbuso Siso and Jabulani Ncube, are the only authorized CCC officials to counter-sign nomination papers for the partys candidates in the upcoming by-elections on December 9.

Breaking News via Email
Yves here. John Helmer makes a critically important point in this article: that Israel is facing a long war with Hamas, and it will sustain crippling economic damage. Helmer describes considerable economic damage Israel is already suffering, yet has gone largely unreported.

This impact also means Hamas and its allies in The Resistance dont need to escalate to bleed Israel. Various commentators, starting with Alexander Mercouris and Alex Christoforu, have pointed out that the US military buildup in theater goes beyond what is necessary for the professed purpose of deterrence. The drumbeat of US official statements against Iran suggest that it is the intended target. For instance:

So in response to recent attacks on US facilities in Syria and Iraq, Washington conducted strikes on two facilities in Eastern Syria. The MSM unsurprisingly is claiming these facilities have links to Iran, meaning the IRGC and also Iranian backed militias. Whether that is true  The Sirius Report (@thesiriusreport) October 27, 2023

This military escalation makes clear that the Israeli onslaught on #Gaza is only the first stage of what is clearly a long-planned joint US-Israel-NATO attack on #Iran. The fighting is spreading across continents. What we are witnessing is the unfolding of a Third World War. https://t.co/bkbv2BywvJ  David North (@DavidNorthWSWS) October 27, 2023

Just back from Israel, Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) calls for striking Iran We cant afford not to act, says Sen. John Thune (R-SD) Coons is Bidens key intermediary in the Senate. Thune is the GOPs second-in-command pic.twitter.com/lRdEV2o7J9  Michael Tracey (@mtracey) October 25, 2023

Mind you, not everyone agrees that the US is out to find an excuse for waging war (see Scott Ritter, for instance, who views it as threat display). One reason to think the trajectory might not be that grim is the numerous warnings by military experts as to how punishingly difficult a clearing operation will be. Importantly, the din from naysayers includes a new article in the premier US foreign policy magazine, Foreign Affairs. And in a recent post, we pointed out that piece didnt even (much) factor in the additional hurdle of the extensive tunnel network in Gaza.

But if the US really wants to take on Iran, it needs a provocation. Will Iran provide one? Will poorly-controlled proxies provide one? Or will the US and Israel present one, which like the beheaded babies, is a fabrication?

By John Helmer, the longest continuously serving foreign correspondent in Russia, and the only western journalist to direct his own bureau independent of single national or commercial ties. Helmer has also been a professor of political science, and an advisor to government heads in Greece, the United States, and Asia. He is the first and only member of a US presidential administration (Jimmy Carter) to establish himself in Russia. Originally published at Dances with Bears

The Palestinian strategy against Israel is aimed at destroying Israels capacity to survive in its present state in a long war.

This means attacking the invincibility of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and theur so-called Iron Dome defence; this began with the cross-border offensive on October 7, and continues with daily drone and artillery attacks on targets inside Israel, as well as resistance to IDF incursions in Gaza.

The plan also means exposing the weakness of the states infrastructure and economy; extending the battlefield across all of Israels territory  the ports, power plants and electricity grid, communications, and financial markets  making the cost of occupation of the Arab territories unendurable. In a long war, two of Israels leading exports earning more than 40% of the states trade  diamonds and tourism  face ruin.*

The Israelis cannot withstand one year of fighting in a war, Iraqs President Saddam Hussein told his general staff in 1983 during a discussion of planning for a regional war of the Arabs against Israel.** In the forty years since then, the evolution of military technology and tactics has expanded the power of small national liberation armies like Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, of proxy principals like Iran, and of the strategic balancing role of Russia and China. Their combination now has shortened the Zionist states endurance in a long war, and that of its proxy principal, the US.

The Israelis and the Jewish diaspora comprehend this reluctantly. For them, the short war must be correspondingly shorter. This means the genocide of at least a million Palestinians in lives and displacement.

The war to do that has now become an international war  and this is a war the US cannot sustain. As a Pentagon insider said publicly this week, because there are so many draws on the logistics and support infrastructure of the Pentagon, were not prepared to go in in a concerted way. What we are seeing right now is death by a thousand cuts. Our adversaries know we are stretched so they are going to make us stretch even more, so we can respond even less.

The Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Maria Zakharova, acknowledged the point in Moscow on Thursday: US naval, air force, and marine reinforcements deployed around Israel and Gaza are American tactics to strengthen their own security (this is how it should be interpreted) at someone elses expense. They are backfiring on Washingtons capacity to defend US forces in the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and in land bases in Syria, Iraq and Jordan. On the contrary, Zakharova added, the US military deployment will further rock the situation in the Middle East, create additional tension that can spill out beyond the region.

Zakharovas warning came in the Moscow afternoon. By then Russian Foreign Ministry officials had held meetings with a Hamas delegation, and officials from Iran, Egypt, and Kuwait. Across the city at the same time, President Vladimir Putin held telephone talks with Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Kremlin communique reported: Russia and Turkiye have practically overlapping positions.

Israeli and US-led media censorship and propaganda are concealing the breadth of impact of the Palestine warfighting plan, and the deepening military and economic weaknesses of the Israeli state.

The longer the war continues, the plainer the evidence is on the battlefield that the single-state scheme of Israel and the US is no longer possible. Whether Israel and the US can be compelled to withdraw to the 1967 borders and a new Palestinian state created with partition, demilitarisation, and international security guarantees  the basis of the Russian position announced again on Thursday in Moscow  remains to be fought over.

In this long war, the gods do not favour the Chosen People.

Following with precision the battlefield action is impossible in the Israeli and Anglo-American press. Reporting of operations, and of Israeli and US casualties, is being suppressed entirely or delayed for days, if not weeks.

According to this NBC television report, broadcast on October 24, there were at least 24 US combat casualties following drone attacks on or about October 18 at the Al-Tanf base in Syria and the Al-Asad base in Iraq. Reporting of naval action in the Red Sea, when the USS Carney reportedly engaged Houthi missiles over several hours, has been changing since the initial news flashes of October 19. Read more here. In a new report of October 24, Israeli and US casualties in a joint raid inside Gaza were revealed: in the last 24 hours or so, some of our Special Ops forces and Israeli Special Ops forces went into Gaza to reconnoiter, to plan for where they might want to go to free hostages and make an impact, and they were shot to pieces and took heavy losses, as I understand it. I think that is where we are headed and I don't see that as a win for Israel in any way, shape, or form. And I certainly think it is very dangerous for us. In current reporting by Al Mayadeen, daily strikes against US bases in Iraq and northeastern Syria are documented.

Tracking the electric war and infrastructure strikes by Hamas and Hezbollah is also difficult. They commenced with cyber attacks on Israels electricity generation plants and power grids; these have been followed by missile and drone strikes. The ground has been laid for attacks on the Israeli grid, a US military source claims. I believe drones will come first, then missiles. We may even see commando raids.

Israels seaports are also under constant attack. Ashkelon, which is closest in range to Gaza, has been closed. Eilat may have been the target of the Houthi missile strike which was engaged last week by the USS Carney. Ashdod, which accounts for about 40% of incoming and outgoing Israeli seaborne trade, and Tel Aviv port have been targeted. The result is a tenfold surge in war risk insurance for vessels and cargoes, and the curtailment of international vessel movement in and out of the Israeli ports; there are reports that shipping is down 30% in Ashdod compared to the pre-war volume. Evergreen, the Taiwanese container shipping company, declared force majeure for Ashdod on October 17, diverted one vessel to Haifa, and halted future shipping into both ports. We advise evaluating each port visit in Israel on a case by case basis and implementing appropriate precautions in ship contingency plans, recommends a maritime industry alert bulletin.

Chevrons offshore Tamar gas field has been shut down. The source produces 70% of the gas required to fuel Israels electricity generation needs. Not a single Anglo-American media source has noticed that Israel is at risk of losing its principal energy source to drone or missile attack. After what the Americans and Germans did to blow up the Nordstream pipelines, comments a Moscow industry source, what is holding Hamas back from hitting Tamar, or Hezbollah from the other Israeli gas fields?

Left: Chevrons Tamar gas production platform is located at sea 24 kilometres west of Ashkelon. Right: click to enlarge map of Israels offshore gas sources.

A Moscow source comments that in Israel, the US and the UK will be able to bring in supplies without a very big risk of US ships being attacked. The risk is to the ports and bases, not to supplies from the Med[iterranean]. The Greek and Cyprus bases will come in very useful. Israel will not face severe logistical issues as long as it is on the offensive. If its settlements start getting cut off, encircled or penetrated then it is a different matter.

The indirect economic impacts of the war have also not been calculated or discussed in the mainstream media or international business newspapers. The leading export revenue earners are diamonds at above $9 billion per annum, and tourism which had been peaking at $8.5 billion in 2019. Counted together, diamonds and tourism amount to more than 40% of the states export earnings.

The Covid-19 pandemic and worldwide travel restrictions cut Israels tourism revenue fourfold, and this had been recovering over 2022 and the tourist season this year. This has now stopped, although for the time being Hamas rocket launches on Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv have been intercepted.

October 12, 2023 -- source: https://www.youtube.com/ .

ISRAEL TOURISM REVENUE TRAJECTORY, 1999-2022

Source: https://www.macrotrends.net/

Israels high-tech machine exports and pharmaceuticals may also be affected if electricity supply, internet networks, and transportation are damaged.

The cumulative effect will be the outcome which the international ratings agencies have been warning the international banks and financial markets to prepare for. In our view, Fitch reported to clients on October 17, the combination of Israels dynamic, high-value added economy, the record of resilience to regional conflict, [and] preparedness for military confrontationsmake it unlikely a relatively short conflict largely confined to Gaza will affect Israels rating. the risk that other actors hostile to Israel, such as Iran and Hezbollah, could join the conflict at scale has risen significantlya major escalation could result in negative rating action. This could take the form of a wider and longer conflict, resulting in a sustained fiscal drain, both from higher spending and lower tax collection, as well as loss of human and material capital and severe economic disruption.

How short, and also how long, Israels warfighting plan will take depends on American and international acceptance, not only of the genocide intended for the Palestinians of Gaza, but of the Novichok-type chemical warfare planned by the IDF and the Pentagon for the Hamas tunnel system in Gaza City. After several years in which the US and UK have fabricated claims that Syria and Russia were using prohibited gas warfare weapons, the Israelis have reportedly persuaded the US to participate in the tunnel attack operation. The Pentagon is denying the reports.

Source: https://www.middleeasteye.net

Russian and US military sources are already confirming the logistical supply problems facing Israeli and US forces at present, when the war is just three weeks long. Greek sources are reporting the Souda Bay, Crete, base has already reached its capacity for incoming US navy and air force supply and support operations; the spillover is facing growing Greek protest at the Elefsina air base near Athens.

A Cyprus source says the movement of US and British aircraft into and out of the Dekhelia and Akrotiri airbases is accelerating, and there is an air and seaborne shuttle between the Cypriot ports of Larnaca and Limassol and the USS Gerald Ford carrier group at sea to the southwest of the island.

The lengthening of the supply lines required to support the USS Eisenhower carrier group in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf and the shore bases needed to support it are politically sensitive already; and the risks of Houthi and other attacks, along with domestic Arab crowd protests, will intensify for these bases in the Arab sheikhdoms the longer the war against Israel reveals Arab and Iranian warfighting skill and resistance.

Converting these gains into a negotiating framework for Israeli-American retreat is the task Russian officials are attempting in silent coordination with the Chinese, and in semi-open negotiations in Moscow this week. In its first move outside the region since the war began, Hamas has visited Moscow for negotiations, led by US-educated Moussa Mohammed Abu Marzouq.

Left: Moussa Mohammed Abu Marzouq; centre: Husam Badran; right, Ali Bagheri Kyani.

Zakharova confirmed the start of the talks with Hamas on Thursday. She said: I can also say and confirm that representatives of the relevant Palestinian movement are in Moscow. As for contacts, we will inform you additionally. She has also disclosed that since the war began, nine thousand Russian passport holders have returned to Russia from Israel; and that at least fifteen Russian passport holders among the Hamas hostages have been killed in the IDF airstrikes.

At the same time as Marzouqs meetings, Husam Badran issued a statement to the Russian state news medium, Sputnik. Russia, Badran said, is able to play an important role in ending the war between Israel and the Gaza Strip, and delivering aid to the Palestinian exclave. Hamas values Russias role on the international stage, especially use of veto in the UN Security Council against the United States. But Russia can play a greater role in ending the aggression against our people in the Gaza Strip and applying international pressure to deliver urgent aid to our people in the Gaza Strip.

What Hamas means by greater role for Russia has not been disclosed publicly yet. It is known that Hamas is willing to negotiate the release of non-military hostages, including Israelis holding Russian passports, through Iran. This is conditional on the IDF lifting its siege on Gaza and allowing sufficient supplies into all parts of the territory.

The military hostages are being held in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. There are more than 6,000 of the latter; there may be fewer than 200 hostages in Gaza, as up to 50 have been killed by Israeli bombing.

The Russian Foreign Ministry statement on the talks with Hamas is less revealing. According to the Sputnik release, Russia has discussed release of hostages and evacuation of Russians from the Gaza Strip during a meeting with a delegation of Hamas in Moscow on Thursday. A member of the political office of the Islamic resistance movement Hamas, Abu Marzouq, is in Moscow. Contacts took place with him in continuation of the Russian line for the immediate release of foreign hostages located in the Gaza Strip, and issues related to ensuring the evacuation of Russian and other foreign citizens from the territory of the Palestinian enclave were also discussed.

At the same time on Thursday  unnoticed and unreported by the western media  Russian officials held several negotiating sessions with an Iranian emissary, Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kyani. In three separate Foreign Ministry releases, meeting communiques were issued for Kyanis meetings with deputy ministers Mikhail Bogdanov, Sergei Ryabkov, and Mikhail Galuzin. The need for the cessation of hostilities in and around the Gaza Strip and the prompt provision of humanitarian assistance to the affected Palestinian population was confirmed, Bogdanovs communique said. It was stated that Moscow and Tehran are determined to continue close coordination of efforts in the interests of stabilizing the situation in the Middle East.

It is unclear if the talks also included the Hamas officials in a three-party format. During the day there were also Foreign Ministry negotiations in Moscow with Kuwaiti and Egyptian officials.

At the Kremlin it has been announced that President Putin spoke with Turkish President Erdogan to discuss the war. According to the Kremlin release, the presidents reviewed the active efforts undertaken by Russia at the UN Security Council, as well as the corresponding political and diplomatic steps taken by Turkiye to stop the bloodshed and ensure the unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid to those in need. It was emphasised that Russia and Turkiye have practically overlapping positions, focused on implementing the well-known two-state solution, which provides for the creation of an independent Palestine coexisting with Israel in peace and security.

In her briefing for the press, Zakharova dismissed the US moves so far. We do not consider the US presence in the Middle East as contributing to the stability of the situation in the region. Exactly the opposite. Washingtons earlier attempts to monopolise the Middle East settlement process, ignoring the true causes of the protracted conflict, have largely led to the current catastrophic consequencesThis situation has an absolutely clear and understandable road, a road map for settlement. It is not simple, but complex, painful, but leading to the solution of the issue, not its aggravation.

Of course, no air defence systems, arms supplies, materiel injections into some security complexes will help resolve this situation. Todays lesson must be learned. How many Americans have deployed there (their bases, experts, satellites), nothing has worked to prevent a bloody scenario, of which both Palestinians and Israelis are victims.

[*] With support from Israel and influential Jewish diamantaires in New York and Tel Aviv, a scheme of sanctions is being prepared by the US Government to stop Russian raw diamonds, produced by Alrosa, from being sold into the Belgian, Israeli, and US markets. The Russian goods are to be tagged blood diamonds because of the war in the Ukraine. However, now that Israel is destroying the Palestinian population of Gaza, the blood tag can be applied to the Israeli diamond cutting industry and to the Jewish diamond trade abroad. Support for the anti-Russian sanction, and also for the IDF operations against the Palestinians can be found in Rapaport.com news reports. Rapaport stands with Israel, the publication and its owner Martin Rapaport declared on October 26, and has undertaken all the necessary effort and costs for the October Single Stone Auction to help the Israeli market continue to conduct business as best as possible during this difficult time. Rapaport believes that continuing to do business in Israel during the war is a victory over the brutal Hamas terrorists, and will help Israel win the war. In another editorial for the diamond trade, Rapaport proposes to boycott Iran and all other supporters of the Hamas terrorist organization. Rapaport also cites religious authority for liquidation. In the words of G-d (Exodus 17:14): I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.May the words of G-d be done, here and now. Quietly, Russias state diamond interests dictate a strategy for protecting against this double-edged Israeli policy.
On 26-27 October 2023, the NATO Military Committee visited Allied Air Command (AIRCOM) headquartered at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. The visit involved discussions and updates on the Air and Space domains and the importance of agile Air Power in NATOs multi-domain operations, against the backdrop of the Alliances major deterrence and defence posture overhaul.

The delegation of senior military officials was welcomed by Commander AIRCOM, General James B. Hecker. Besides our leading role in coordinating the Allies Space activities and maintaining Space awareness for the Alliance, we also enhance our traditional air capabilities in support of multi-domain operations, said General Hecker. He proceeded to illustrate AIRCOMs plans for strengthening the Deterrence and Defence of the Euro Atlantic Area (DDA). With our collective AIRCOM effort we ensure the security and strength of the Alliance  working on important subjects like counter anti-access and area denial, continuing to lead NATO Integrated Air and Missile Defence, trailblazing Agile Combat Employment and enhancing cross-border operational procedures of our air forces, he stated.

Admiral Bauer, Chair of the NATO Military Committee, also highlighted AIRCOMs critical expertise in deploying Allied air forces along the eastern flank, orchestrating air defence capabilities and strengthening command and control of Allied integrated air assets.

Reflecting on Air and Space Power as a force multiplier and catalyst for NATO multi-domain operations, the Chair discussed ubiquity as the unique capability offered by Air Power to ensure we stay one step ahead of our adversaries, from seabed to space.

Sessions throughout the day offered the NATO HQ military representatives a deep-dive into how AIRCOM implements the Alliances subordinate strategic plans in the Air and Space domains and centered on a number of key topics, included Integrated Air and Missiles Defence (IAMD) in correlation to industrial capacity; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; and integrated processes among nations. This challenge goes beyond the simple concept of air and missile defence we were accustomed to, said Admiral Bauer reflecting on the importance of Air and Space Power as a critical element of the Alliances overall deterrence and defence, now and going forward. In this new era of collective defence  marked by an increasingly complex and multifaceted global security landscape  the importance of Air and Space Power as a cornerstone of NATOs deterrence and defence capabilities will continue to grow, he stressed, adding that this is instrumental to the Alliances readiness and ability to defend every inch of our territory and uphold our shared values of freedom and democracy.
GUANGZHOU, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- This year has seen a new trend in China's auto market: The sales of new energy vehicles (NEVs) from domestic automakers such as BYD and GAC Aion continue to rise, while joint venture brands face a decline in sales or even suspended production. Recently, Japan's Mitsubishi Motors announced it will end its local production of Mitsubishi-brand vehicles in China and transfer its stake in a joint venture in China to its Chinese partner, Guangzhou Automobile Group Co., Ltd. (GAC Group). After restructuring is completed, GAC Mitsubishi's production capacity will be accepted by GAC Aion, an NEV subsidiary of GAC Group based in Guangzhou, the capital of south China's Guangdong Province. On July 3, GAC Aion produced China's 20 millionth NEV in Guangzhou -- a remarkable milestone for the country's NEV sector. As China's NEV market maintains its strong growth momentum, new partnerships between foreign and domestic car brands have also been forged. Volkswagen in July reached an agreement to buy a 4.99 percent stake in Chinese electric vehicle startup Xpeng and co-develop two electric vehicle (EV) models for the Chinese market. The deal attracted significant attention as it gave Volkswagen access to Xpeng's technologies, including its advanced driving assistance system, contributing to its efforts to tap into China's fast-growing EV market. Their cooperation was a major milestone in China's intelligent EV manufacturing and an important sign that China's car-making abilities are recognized by the world's leading carmakers, Shenwan Hongyuan Securities said in a research note. For decades, the Chinese auto industry has pursued the improvement of its innovation capacities in fields ranging from whole vehicles to communication modules, power chips and other electronic components. World-leading auto parts supplier Valeo, which is headquartered in France, launched the Valeo (Shenzhen) intelligent manufacturing center earlier this year. The center expects its sales to maintain a high annual growth rate of over 20 percent for the next five years, said Zhou Song, president of Valeo China. "Shenzhen has a relatively complete new energy automobile industry foundation. Its resources and advantages in the development of the intelligent car industry strengthen our confidence," Zhou said. China's NEV giant BYD has released a forecast of its net profits in the first three quarters of this year, estimating the total at 20.5 billion yuan (about 2.86 billion U.S. dollars) to 22.5 billion yuan, an increase of more than 120 percent year on year. It also noted that its cumulative NEV sales have already exceeded 5.4 million units. Market analysts believe that China's auto consumption potential remains resilient, and foreign auto companies have broad space for development in China. In 2022, China's new energy passenger cars had a 63 percent share of the world's new energy passenger car market, according to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA). "The rise of domestic Chinese car brands indicates the high-quality development of China's automobile industry, particularly its more competitive new energy vehicles," said Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the CPCA.
Allison Spillman and Meg Bryce are battling for a seat on the Albemarle County School Board, a race that has attracted the attention of onlookers across the state and even the nation.

Any person registered to vote in Albemarle County can vote for the at-large seat, which will be one of seven seats on the board, replacing Jonno Alcaro who chose not to run for a third term.

Spillman is a mom of five Albemarle County Public School students and touts her experience as a former business owner and parent-teacher organization member.

Bryce is mom of four and teaches psychology part-time at the University of Virginia. Her three school-age children attend private school after she pulled them from Murray Elementary two years ago. She is also the daughter of late conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

Both candidates individually sat down with The Daily Progress to discuss their campaigns and policy priorities.

Their interviews have been edited for clarity and concision.

Can you summarize your background for voters?

Spillman: Im a mom to five public school students, from second grade all the way up to a high school senior. I have a kid with mental health issues that were extremely exacerbated by COVID. I have a neurodivergent child with pretty severe special needs. One of my kids is academically gifted and an athlete. And I have a daughter whos a proud member of the LGBTQ community. So a lot of varied experiences, which makes me personally invested in our public schools.

Im a former business owner. We had about 150 employees at one time, so I have a lot of finance and budgeting and process improvement experience, which I think could be an asset to the board. I got involved with our schools parent-teacher organization when we lived in Arizona. Arizona schools are extremely underfunded, so the PTO is often picking up the slack. Our budget for that was about $350,000, which is huge for a PTO. We funded things like teacher salaries, after-school programs, technology, so a lot of experience with what a successfully run school looks like. Currently I am on the board of a local nonprofit called Reclaimed Hope Initiative, which is helping families navigate foster care, adoption, children with disabilities.

Bryce: Im a wife, Im a mom of four. My kids are 11, 9, 6 and 2. I have my Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from UVa. So, Ive studied memory and Im especially interested in how we learn, how we remember things, which obviously has great implications in the field of education. I teach at UVa in the School of Continuing Professional Studies.

I went to public school K-12. My parents were always big proponents of public school. And thats what we had planned to do for our kids. We were at Murray Elementary for four years and really loved the school and had just a fantastic experience. I felt my kids were loved and cared for and well educated there. When COVID hit, I became frustrated with the school board being slow to reopen schools. And so I started getting involved in school board meetings, and I just started noticing a pattern of the school board being dismissive of parent concerns. So we pulled our children out of public school.

Why are you running?

Spillman: Because Im personally invested in our schools and personally invested in making sure that they succeed. I think the stakes are really high. I think that there is a very real threat being waged against our schools and our school boards to whitewash our history and censor our teachers and take away our students freedom to learn and our teachers freedom to teach. I know that Im the right person to stand up against that and willing to fight like hell to make sure that that doesnt happen.

Bryce: Because I think that our school district has lost its focus on the nuts and bolts of providing a good education. And I think its because of a failure of leadership.

Our district has declined for the last 10 years. Everybody still thinks that were the best district in the region, and were just not. Louisa has been outperforming us since 2014, and they spend less per student. So I think that we need somebody in leadership whos going to look at other counties and say, All right, what are they doing that were not? Because its working better than what were doing. Leadership right now is doubling down on policies that have proven to fail students in our district. I think its at a crisis level right now.

What do you want to do to close the student achievement gap?

Spillman: Our achievement gap was exacerbated by COVID. But it was definitely something that was there even before COVID. So in order to get the students caught up, I have a few solutions.

One, we need to fully fund our schools, which means as a school board member actually advocating and lobbying our legislators in Richmond to fully fund our schools. Its not just about what money the Board of Supervisors gives us, but the money that the state is giving us and making sure that we get more. But then also being a good steward of our taxpayer dollars and making sure that our system is running efficiently and effectively and that the maximum amount of resources are being put into the classroom and into our students and into our teachers.

Im a big proponent of universal pre-K. I think that all kids should show up to kindergarten ready to learn with those social, emotional skills but also those basic learning blocks already in place. We need to put more reading interventionists in K through third, so that by third grade, all kids are reading at grade level. For the kids that are older, we need to be focused on more tutoring, and that includes using the amazing resources in our community, whether its 100 Black Men or the Equity Center or all these nonprofits that were not utilizing.

Bryce: This board has been completely negligent in addressing the achievement gap. They hired Bellwether to do this instructional audit, and so they like to say theyre taking accountability. They do not. They dont take accountability for how bad it has gotten. Last year, Black third-graders failed the reading test at a rate of 69%. Thats 22 points below state average. That is a result of their policies.

We need a really hard focus on professional development. Making sure teachers have the training they need to teach their content. Teachers have also said that they need better instructional materials, they need better curriculum, they need a better reading program, which is in the works and thats a good thing.

But what I think is really, really critical is more reading intervention. I see K through third as a critical period. We know statistically that the kid who gets to fourth grade and isnt reading fluently is four times as likely to drop out. So when I look at like 69% of Black third-graders and 65% of economically disadvantaged third-graders failing the reading test last year, the snowball effect of that was really terrifying to me that so many of those kids could end up dropping out of school. We need to identify those struggling students early and give them the support that they need. Teachers have been begging for more reading specialists in particular.

Are you open to removing or banning books from schools?

Spillman: Absolutely not. I think we are doing a disservice to our kids if we are removing materials. Our kids teachers deserve to see themselves reflected in the materials that were teaching and in the books that are in our libraries. I trust our teachers, I trust our librarians to fill our classrooms and fill our libraries with age-appropriate materials, but that means also that the materials reflect our diverse community, and that means that kindergarteners get to read books that have two moms or two dads, because there are families with kindergarteners who have two moms or two dads.

You can always say, I dont want my child to read that book. But you dont get to ever tell me that my kid cant read it because you dont want your kid to.

Bryce: No. We have policies in place for the approval. I think the school board just approved eight new books a month or two ago. I think they have a good policy. Theres also a policy for a parent to object to a book if they want to, and I think thats a good policy. The example that I like to give is Beloved by Toni Morrison. There are rape scenes in there, and its pretty difficult stuff. But if you read the whole book, you understand that its not this gratuitous scene. Its not used to glorify rape, its used to show the horrors of slavery.

That said, maybe you have a parent whose child is an abuse survivor. That parent might say, I dont think that this book should be banned. But could you please assign something different to my child, because this is an especially difficult topic for them. Thats what the policy allows for, and I think thats good that the parent can say, I just dont want my kid reading this. And then the parent and the teacher can find an alternative.

What do you want to see happen with teachers collective bargaining negotiations?

Spillman: Im really proud of my endorsement from the Albemarle Education Association because I have been a staunch supporter of collective bargaining. I think that our teachers are our frontline workers. They are with my kids more during the day than I am. They are the experts. And we need to give them a seat at the table and they need to have a voice.

Its not just about advocating for pay and benefits, although that is very important and our teachers should be paid a living wage. They are the ones that can advocate for whats working, whats not, what they need. I think its absolutely imperative that we figure out a way to get collective bargaining in Albemarle County.

Bryce: I dont think that collective bargaining is the best path forward for our district, and Ive come to that conclusion after talking to many teachers. The number one thing that teachers tell me is that they dont feel respected, they dont feel listened to, they dont feel supported, and those are things that theyre just not confident would be addressed by collective bargaining.

I think the best way to support teachers is to give them the professional development that theyve been asking for, to give them the classroom support, make sure that were fully staffed with reading support specialists and math interventionists and special education aides. And work on teacher raises. The best way to do that is to be responsible with our budget. I think theres some low-hanging fruit in our budget where we really could make a lot of progress towards giving teachers the raise that they deserve.

Why do you think this race has garnered so much attention, even beyond the county and even beyond the state?

Spillman: Because of the stakes. Weve seen it in Florida, weve seen it in Texas, weve seen it in other parts of the state; school boards are the new battleground, and I think that my opponent and I have very different views on the role of public education, and I think that we are both outspoken and fierce and that has kind of brought up that division that were seeing in society. I am not backing down. And I think that every kid in our school system deserves the chance to succeed regardless of their past or their path.

Bryce: I think that school board races in general are getting more attention nationwide. Part of that is people wanting to effect change more locally. It used to be that nobody even knew what the school board or what a board of supervisors was, and I think people are paying attention to that more, and thats good.

Despite my best efforts to stay focused on policy issues and keep this race nonpartisan it has become hyper-political. I think that Spillman has been using that as a strategy to garner more support and to raise fears that I am trying to take over the school board. And I think its also a fundraising strategy to draw more attention to a race. And its garnered more attention because of my maiden name. And that is also a campaign strategy by my opponent to fearmonger.
Former Breitbart colleague: I saw Ben Shapiro receive tasking from Israeli intelligence

Charles Johnson, formerly of Breitbart News , where he worked in the early-2010s era alongside Ben Shapiro, released an incendiary post into the Twitter/X ether a few days ago.

(Article by Ben Bartee republished from ArmageddonProse.Substack.com)

I want to be fully on record that I saw Ben Shapiro receive tasking from Israeli intelligence connects to Netanyahu when I worked next to him at Breitbart.com. When I asked him about it he said he always kept close ties. Its time for Ben to register under FARA, wrote Johnson on Twitter August 19th.

I am privy to no intelligence not in the public domain that Ben Shapiro is or ever was a Mossad tool, and I cannot speak to the credibility of Charles Johnson. (I am compelled to offer this caveat both because its the ethical thing to do journalistically and because Ben Shapiro is a notoriously thin-skinned, lawsuit-happy lawyer.)

But this is what I do know vis a vis the accusation:

 a.) Johnson would be in a position to know, having worked intimately with Shapiro, and;

 b.) Shapiro does and says everything that one would expect from a Mossad lackey implanted into conservative American media to gin up unconditional moral and material support for Israels wars.

If it walks like a duck, etc.

Shapiros never seen a war he didnt want to start in the service of furthering Israels geopolitical interests in the Middle East, and has consistently been the loudest voice in mainstream media cynically conflating criticism of the Israeli state with antisemitism.

Its war, war, war all the time with Shapiro.

Related: Neocon Ben Shapiro Threatens Nuclear War Unless U.S. Gives Israel More Money and Weapons

Alas, rather than picking up arms, Ben Shapiro prefers to conduct his chickenhawk warmongering from the comfort of his studio in Florida or wherever his primary mansion is located these days.

Dirty Middle East wars are for poor American kids to fight.

If you were ever to wonder where his true nationalist passions lie, here is Ben Shapiro last year explaining in Israel that his loyalty to the United States is predicated on the security guarantee it offers to the Israeli state: The existence of the state of Israel is the single greatest guarantor of my loyalty to the United States, frankly. If you think this is an unfair extrapolation of his position, watch the whole spiel for context.

What is this? Does anyone believe Americans  much less conservatives  would tolerate this sort of split loyalty from any other nationality other than Israeli? And why should it be the exception?

Why does Representative Brian Mast get a total pass when he wears a foreign military uniform in the Peoples House after having taken an oath to the U.S. Constitution?

No one willing to be honest believes that anyone would get away with wearing the uniform of literally any other country except for Israel  not even that of one of our other alleged allies like Great Britain or Canada  without being censured.

Read more at: ArmageddonProse.Substack.com
New footage reveals Bowman removed warning signs before pulling fire alarm

Jussie

Hours after legal consequences were decided over Rep.Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) pulling the fire alarm in the Cannon House Office Building during a key house vote does video emerge of himhe claimed not to know how to open, before pulling the fire alarm on Sept. 30.

(Article by Tyler Durden republished from ZeroHedge.com)

? NEW FOOTAGE: Democrat Rep. Jamaal Bowman removes warning signs before pulling the fire alarm in a House office building last month pic.twitter.com/dhwOQN2G6y  RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 26, 2023

Recall that Bowman claims he was just an idiot.

Democrat Rep. Jamaal Bowman says he still stands by his statement that he pulled the fire alarm in the Capitol complex by accident: "I don't know why this has gotten so much attention. I was literally just in a rush to go vote, man! That's all it was!" pic.twitter.com/Lq38tL90J8  RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 2, 2023

JUST IN: After being charged, Democrat Rep. Jamaal Bowman still claims he was not trying to disrupt any official government proceeding when he pulled a fire alarm. pic.twitter.com/QZunn8sBC0  Simon Ateba (@simonateba) October 26, 2023

Did the same Capitol Police that covered for the cop who shot Ashli Babbitt withhold this footage until the legal portion of Bowman's 'incident' was done? Did Kevin McCarthy withhold it?

BREAKING: The video of Jamaal Bowman pulling the fire alarm to stop a vote has been released. In his initial statement, Bowman claimed that he was rushing to get to a vote and did it by accident. The video shows him removing the warning signs and not even attempting to open the pic.twitter.com/IGzmZo72xp  Greg Price (@greg_price11) October 26, 2023

I bet J6 folks wish they could get the same gentle treatment afforded to insurrectionist Jamaal Bowman pic.twitter.com/nztj9A5KBc  Mollie (@MZHemingway) October 25, 2023

* * *

Update (0955ET): Bowman has pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor for pulling a fire alarm in the Cannon House Office Building last month during a key House vote, leading to an evacuation of the entire building while the House was in session. The building was reopened an hour later, after Capitol Police determined the situation was not a threat.

Bowman appeared in DC Superior Court Thursday morning for his arraignment, the day after he was issued a criminal summons for his behavior. He will pay $1,000 and write an apology to the Capitol Police under the terms of an agreement with prosecutors.

Bowman got off light, with some Republicans accusing him of intentionally trying to sabotage a vote. Others went so far as to call for Bowman's expulsion.

"What I did was against D.C. law," Bowman told reporters before entering the courthouse. "I said, from the very beginning, I was not trying to disrupt any congressional proceedings. Im glad that the investigation yielded that. And so it was against D.C. law, and I got to take responsibility for it, which Im here to do."

Bowman was processed at the Capitol Police headquarters earlier in the day.

* * *

Democratic lawmaker Rep. Jamaal Bowman was issued a criminal summons by the DC Superior Court, after he was caught on CCTV pulling the fire alarm in the House office building on Oct. 1 while Democrats were trying to delay a House vote on the stopgap bill (which eventually passed at the 11th hour).

Bowman - who founded a school that would have held several fire drills per year, wants us to believe he mistook this fire alarm...

...for an automatic door opener that he was trying to use to open a clearly marked emergency exit.

Bowman wanted us to believe that he "came to a door that is usually open for votes but today would not open," and that he's "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."

And now, Bowman has to appear before the court on Oct. 26 at 9:30 a.m. on the charge of a "fire false alarm."

BREAKING: The Superior Court of DC has issued a criminal summons to Jamaal Bowman on the charge of False Fire Alarm pic.twitter.com/8L2oLt2D9R  Jack Poso ?? (@JackPosobiec) October 25, 2023

In response, Bowman said on Wednesday: "Im thankful for the quick resolution from the District of Columbia Attorney Generals office on this issue and grateful that the United States Capitol Police General Counsels office agreed I did not obstruct nor intend to obstruct any House vote or proceedings," adding "I am responsible for activating a fire alarm, I will be paying the fine issued, and look forward to these charges being ultimately dropped. I think we all know that Republicans will attempt to use this to distract everyone from their mess."

As the Epoch Times noted at the time; The fire alarm in the Cannon House Office Building, often called the "Old House Office Building," was triggered around noon, leading to an evacuation of the entire building while the House was in session. The building was reopened an hour later, after Capitol Police determined the situation was not a threat.

Capitol Police said in a statement late Saturday that an investigation into what happened and why continues.

The fire alarms in the Old House Office Building are pull down triggers encased in bright red boxes that read "FIRE."

??? BREAKING: Insurrectionist Democrat Rep. Jamaal Bowman has been CAUGHT ON-CAMERA pulling the Capitol fire alarm seconds before critical vote to keep government open. Violation of 1512(c)(2) obstruction of an official proceeding. ARREST & Prosecute Rep. Bowman IMMEDIATELY! pic.twitter.com/3m883RB88A  Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) September 30, 2023

At the time of the evacuation, Democrat lawmakers in the House were working to delay a vote on a 45-day funding bill to keep federal agencies open. They said they needed time to review the 71-page bill that Republicans had just released to avoid a shutdown.

'The law for thee, but not for me...'

Read more at: ZeroHedge.com
Reanalysis of data confirms findings of 2011 study: Infant mortality rates correlate with childhood vaccination rates

In a 2011 study published in the journal Human & Experimental Toxicology, researchers Neil Miller and Gary Goldman reported that infant mortality rates correlate with childhood vaccination rates , with high-uptake countries having higher child mortality.

Their findings were confirmed by a reanalysis of the data in February that was published in the peer-reviewed journal Cureus. The recent paper confirmed the 2011 conclusion that there is a positive correlation between vaccine doses and infant mortality rates.

In 2020, national and international health authorities, along with the authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, warned that Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) fears and lockdowns had the "unfortunate" side effect of lowering routine childhood vaccination rates.

But evidence suggests that the predicted decline in vaccinations actually had a positive impact.

According to Dr. Joseph Mercola, data from the first few months of the coronavirus pandemic seems to confirm this link, especially because the death rate for American children declined amid lockdowns when many parents were unable to take their children for their scheduled vaccinations.

During this period, childhood deaths went down by 30 percent, going from an average of 700 deaths per week to fewer than 500 during April and May 2020.

Viera Scheibner, an Australian researcher, has said that experts have long suspected childhood vaccines of being a contributing factor to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) or "cot death."

Since the late 1980s the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has kept adding new vaccines to the recommended schedule without taking any vaccines off the schedule. Now, the number of vaccinations recommended for children in North America has quadrupled since the 1970s.

At the same time, children's health in the U.S. has seen a marked decline, with many parents starting to question whether their children need all these vaccines to be safe and healthy. Parents are also asking if over-vaccination is contributing to some of the health problems they are seeing in their children.

According to a report published by Childrens Health Defense in 2022, 54 percent of American children are chronically ill, with 13 percent in special education. Almost 11 percent of children have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

One in six children has a developmental disorder, while 15,000 were diagnosed with cancer in 2022 alone. At the same time, millions of children suffer from allergies like deadly peanut allergies, something unheard of fifty years ago. (Related: DATA ANALYSIS: Increase in miscarriages and stillbirths directly linked to COVID-19 vaccines.)

Vaccinations linked to autism and other health issues in children

The alarming figures don't even include the shocking surge in autism. In 1980, before the push for childhood vaccines, the incidence of autism was about one in ten thousand children.

In 2002, it was one in 250, in 2013 it was one in 50 and now it is estimated to be one in 25. This should be considered "a critical public health pandemic," but it isn't even mentioned by the CDC, the World Health Organization (WHO) or corporate media.

It also seems more than coincidental that America gives children under the age of one year the highest number of vaccine doses in the world, which is 26 doses. But with all that "protection," the U.S. also has the highest rate of infant mortality among all First World developed nations.

What is causing these young children to die or develop debilitating diseases?

Dr. Paul Thomas revealed shocking statistics in his presentation to Vaccine Choice Canada earlier this year. The slides Thomas shared were based on his Health Freedom Summit 2022 presentation comparing the incidence of chronic diseases (as opposed to actual death) in all age groups within the vaccinated and unvaccinated populations in the United States.

Across the board, Thomas said those who had managed to avoid childhood vaccines were healthier and less prone to health degradation.

Data confirmed that in the vaccinated population, the percentage of people with some form of heart disease or disorder was 48 percent. In the unvaccinated population, it was zero. And in the vaccinated population, 16.67 percent of people developed arthritis. In the unvaccinated population, it was zero.

Dr. John Classen from the University of Maryland School of Medicine and his brother David first started studying autoimmune disorders in the 1990s. Their accumulated work and the many research papers they published over the last two decades confirmed that the more parents vaccinate their children, at least after the age of two months, the more likely they are to develop Type 1 diabetes.

This is also confirmed in Thomas' findings where he concluded that in the vaccinated population, 10 percent of people become diabetic. In the unvaccinated population, it was once again zero.

Learning disabilities are another condition commonly observed in children, with eight percent of children in the vaccinated group having learning disabilities, while only 0.72 percent of children in the unvaccinated group have learning disabilities.

Parents beware: Your children may be over-vaccinated

Dr. Collin Lynn, a family physician based in California, said that it's highly likely that children are being given "too many vaccines."

It's hard to deny that chronic disease in the U.S. is on the rise, so much so at least 50 percent of the population now suffers from a chronic illness. According to Thomas, the vast majority of them are vaccinated.

Journalist Jennifer Margulis wrote in her report titled "Parents Need to Know: Are Your Children Over-Vaccinated?" that "instead of re-evaluating current immunization practices, the conventional medical community either ignores the science done by medical researchers like Classen and Miller or paints them as wild-eyed anti-vaccine extremists."

Margulis added that scientists who prove that popular and profitable pharmaceutical products can cause harm often risk losing their livelihoods and their respected standing in the scientific community.

Because of censorship, there are only a handful of brave individuals who criticize vaccinations, while those who do speak out don't last long.

It shouldn't be surprising that most of the public obey the childhood vaccine schedule like sheep and don't even think of questioning these harmful vaccines as anything but the life-saving miracles of modern medicine.

But the real science shows that this is not true. According to Isaac Newton's Third Law, for every action in nature, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

And even though no one thinks about it, this law applies to the "action" of vaccination as well: There will always be a consequence or "reaction" to it.

Parents must always consider this before blindly lining their children up for their COVID-19 vaccines and booster shots.

Watch the video below as the Florida Surgeon General warns that COVID-19 vaccines can increase the risk of getting infected.

This video is from the GalacticStorm channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Did LeBron James' son Bronny suffer a cardiac arrest because of the COVID-19 vaccine?

Thousands of children were injured by DTP vaccine lots that were 14 times more toxic and contained cholera antigens.

Top 7 ways COVID-19-VACCINE DAMAGE is being covered up by the vaccine industrial complex.

Sources include:

Expose-News.com

VaccineChoiceCanada.com

Brighteon.com
Israel drops LEAFLETS seeking info on hostages whereabouts, with CASH REWARDS awaiting tipsters

Israel has dropped leaflets on the Gaza Strip looking for information on the whereabouts of some 200 individuals abducted by the militant group Hamas.

The leaflets, dropped by Israeli aircraft, enjoined Gazans to share verified and valuable information about the hostages in exchange for a financial reward and security assurance. The leaflets were written in Arabic and issued by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

"If your will is to live in peace and to have a better future for your children, do the humanitarian deed immediately and share verified and valuable information about hostages being held in your area," the leaflets read.

"The Israeli military assures you that it will invest maximum effort in providing security for you and your home, and you will receive a financial reward. We guarantee you complete confidentiality."

The safety of the hostages taken by Hamas remains a concern for the Israelis, who have so far delayed a potential ground invasion. In addition to Israeli civilians and soldiers, nationals from various countries including Mexico, Brazil, the U.S., Germany and Thailand are also included. They have been scattered in groups inside tunnels snaking across the Gaza Strip.

Washington is working alongside Jerusalem to delay an impending ground offensive, alongside the release of more hostages and the delivery of much-needed aid to Gaza. U.S. President Joe Biden has called on Hamas to release its hostages as a prerequisite for ceasefire negotiations. Nevertheless, a senior Israeli official stressed that there will be no ceasefire.

Hamas releasing hostages in a staggered manner

More than a quarter of the Nir Oz kibbutz (community) are dead or remain missing after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack that killed more than 1,400. In response, Israel assaulted Gaza as retaliation  killing more than 5,000.

The terrorist group released two elderly women on Oct. 23, after it earlier set free two hostages on humanitarian grounds. The move brings the number of freed hostages to four. Nevertheless, negotiations to release other hostages are still ongoing. (Related: Hamas FREES 2 American hostages on HUMANITARIAN grounds.)

However, these discussions are complicated by several factors, including Israel's commitment to dismantling Hamas in response to the Oct. 7 attack; its blockade of Gaza affecting access to essential resources; and sustained airstrikes on key targets.

Yocheved Lifshitz, a frail 85-year-old grandmother and one of the two captives released on Oct. 23, described her ordeal as hellish. "I went through hell," she said, adding she was forced to walk on wet ground and descended into an underground tunnel system she likened to a spiderweb.

But Lifshitz later said their captors treated them well, sleeping on mattresses on the floor of the tunnels and eating the same food as the Hamas operatives who abducted them. Her story confirms the existence of an elaborate underground tunnel system that makes rescue operations difficult.

Ken Grey, a former Federal Bureau of Investigation special agent and current criminal justice professor at the University of New Haven, emphasized the intelligence significance of Lipshitz's statements in an interview.

He explained that Lipshitz's remarks indicate a deliberate process of separating the hostages, which could make any potential rescue operation by the IDF more challenging. While it may not have been the original intent, this separation logistics issue could create difficulties in a rescue scenario, as hostages are scattered in different locations.

Grey also noted that Hamas might be using Lipshitz's comments as part of a strategy to project an image of humane treatment of the hostages. By doing so, they aim to portray themselves as treating the hostages well, potentially making the IDF's entry into Gaza appear more aggressive and less humane during an anticipated ground operation.

Visit Chaos.news for more stories about the hostage situation following Hamas' attack on Israel.

Watch this video about Hamas setting two more hostages free, including Lifshitz.

This video is from the Pool Pharmacy channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Israeli military confirms Hamas has at least 155 hostages hidden in Gaza.

Israeli military gets "green light" to enter Gaza and begin ground offensive.

Israel refusing to allow HUMANITARIAN AID to reach the 2 million civilians trapped in Gaza.

Hostages held by Hamas in Gaza will be almost impossible to rescue, warns counterterrorism expert.

Sources include:

Bloomberg.com

Edition.CNN.com

Brighteon.com
Israeli airstrike partially destroying nearly 1,600-year-old Gaza church stuns Christian community

The oldest church in the Gaza Strip had been acting as a shelter for hundreds of Palestinians amid several days of persistent Israeli bombings. But on Oct. 19, the church was hit by Israeli airstrikes , leaving the region's Christian community devastated.

The Israeli military said the two airstrikes that hit the nearly 1,600-year-old Church of Saint Porphyrius were meant for a church-run social services building adjacent to the main part of the old building.

The social services building was one of four buildings belonging to the church's complex. The Israeli military claimed without providing sufficient evidence that one of the buildings within the church compound was serving as a command and control center for Hamas.

"Most of Gaza's Christians have sought refuge in churches because they have nowhere else to go. We were surprised. We did not receive a warning to evacuate," said one witness interviewed by Middle East Eye. "We don't have internet. We only have electricity when we turn on the generator for two hours when we need to pump water from the well and fill our tanks."

About 400 Christians and Muslims forced to move from their homes by Israel's continuous bombing campaign over the past two weeks were taking refuge in the church. According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, at least 18 people were killed and many others are injured or still missing under the rubble.

The Church of Saint Porphyrius is the oldest church building still in use in Gaza, serving the approximately 1,000 Palestinian Christians in the territory.

It was originally built in 425 A.D. and named after Saint Porphyrius, the fifth-century bishop of Gaza. His tomb is in the northeastern corner of the church. The church was converted into a mosque in the seventh century before the Crusaders restored it as a church in the mid-12th century.

"The church is 2,000 years old, and the Israelis struck it. There were no weapons in the church, it was sheltering children," a survivor at the site told local media.

"The whole building collapsed to the ground. We arent able to pull people from under the rubble. Are these the Israelis' list of targets? The Christians have nothing to do with any of this. What have the Christians done?" said another man at an adjacent hospital treating the wounded.

Targeting churches constitutes a war crime

The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which administers the church and Gaza's small Greek Orthodox community, released a statement a day after the bombing condemning the Israeli airstrike.

"Targeting churches and their institutions, along with the shelters they provide to protect innocent citizens, especially children and women who have lost their homes due to Israeli airstrikes on residential areas over the past 13 days, constitutes a war crime that cannot be ignored," the patriarchate said in the statement.

Ramzi Khoury, head of the Higher Committee for Church Affairs in Palestine, depicted the bombing as part of Israel's "intentions to annihilate the Palestinian people."

"Targeting places of worship constitutes a war crime, and international law makes it clear that houses of worship may under no circumstances be subjected to attacks," Khoury said.

Reacting to the significant backlash to the bombing, the Israeli military alleged that Hamas intentionally embedded itself into the church and its civilian infrastructure and is using the refugees hiding in the church as human shields. (Related: CONFIRMED: Israel ordered IDF to STAND DOWN and let Hamas attack  now Israel wants full-scale war to fulfill decades-long plan for "Greater Israel.")

Follow Chaos.news for more news about the chaos in Gaza.

Watch the video below about Israel's bombing of the Church of Saint Porphyrius in Gaza.

This video is from the alltheworldsastage channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

EU leaders announce plans to support UN call for HUMANITARIAN PAUSE in Israel-Hamas war to allow distribution of aid to civilians in Gaza.

Israel BOMBS airports in Damascus, Aleppo prior to arrival of Irans foreign minister.

Israel has already attacked hospitals and health care facilities in Gaza 51 times, says horrified United Nations.

NO SAFE PLACE: Israel attacks UNRWA school in Gaza refugee camp, leaving 6 dead and dozens injured.

Al-Ahli hospital bombing: Israel performing its usual post-atrocity routine.

Sources include:

MiddleEastEye.net

AlJazeera.com

Brighteon.com
Former U.S. Rep. Justin Amash says his CHRISTIAN relatives in Gaza were killed in Israeli strike on Saint Porphyrius Orthodox Church

Among the dead at Saint Porphyrius Orthodox Church in Gaza, the world's third-oldest church, are multiple family members of former congressman Justin Amash, who spoke out on X (formerly Twitter) about the tragedy.

"With great sadness, I have now confirmed that several of my relatives (including Viola and Yara pictured here) were killed at Saint Porphyrius Orthodox Church in Gaza, where they had been sheltering, when part of the complex was destroyed as the result of an Israeli airstrike," Amash claims  see the tweet below.

"Give rest, O Lord, to their souls, and may their memories be eternal.

I was really worried about this. ? With great sadness, I have now confirmed that several of my relatives (including Viola and Yara pictured here) were killed at Saint Porphyrius Orthodox Church in Gaza, where they had been sheltering, when part of the complex was destroyed as pic.twitter.com/w5k1xEeTgF  Justin Amash (@justinamash) October 20, 2023

According to Amash, the Christian community in Gaza "has endured so much," and all of his family "is hurting badly" because of the horrors taking place there.

"May God watch over all Christians in Gaza  and all Israelis and Palestinians who are suffering, whatever their religion or creed."

(Related: Check out our earlier report about the carnage that occurred at Saint Porphyrius Orthodox Church in Gaza.)

So many of the people suffering in this war "are just children," Amash says

After receiving a deluge of condolences and support, Amash thanked the public for all the kind messages, encouraging people to further "remember the thousands upon thousands of innocent civilians, in unbearable circumstances, who simply want a life of peace."

"So many of the people suffering are just children," he says. "They don't deserve violence and death."

Amash also shared video footage  see below  sent to Amash by one of his relatives showing the destruction that occurred at Saint Porphyrius Orthodox Church. It shows that the church's sanctuary is still standing, but not the annex, which included offices and meeting spaces for the local Christian community.

In this video, provided to me by a relative on site, you can see the destruction at Saint Porphyrius Orthodox Church in Gaza. The ancient sanctuary remains standing, but the church annex, which includes offices and meeting spaces for the Christian community, collapsed from an pic.twitter.com/jJfRD29uJK  Justin Amash (@justinamash) October 23, 2023

All of that rubble occurred at the hands of Israel with one of its many airstrikes on Gaza, Amash further pointed out  and remember: Saint Porphyrius Orthodox Church is located in central Gaza, where many from northern Gaza had traveled in a southerly direction at the order of Israel.

In other words, Israel told residents of northern Gaza to flee south for their safety, only to bomb one of the refuges, in this case a church, where some of these refugees were huddling, believing themselves to be safe from Israeli gunfire.

If you are familiar with Amash's past political career, you will remember that he was a principled Ron Paul acolyte who remains a staunch supporter of the U.S. Constitution.

Amash is one of just two congressmen who, together with Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, another Republican, voted against numerous "bipartisan screwjobs," as well as other "attacks on our civil liberties," to quote one independent media source.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF), by the way, tweeted, then deleted a message indicating that Israel is responsible for the airstrike on the church, though Israel now denies all involvement and claims it was a "failed" attempt by Hamas to attack Israel.

The latest news coverage about the Israel-Hamas war can be found at WWIII.news.

Sources for this article include:

InformationLiberation.com

NaturalNews.com

InformationLiberation.com
Tom Renz slams the INCOMPETENCE of the Biden administration on Lawfare  Brighteon.TV

Ohio-based lawyer Tom Renz blasted the Biden administration's incompetence during the Oct. 24 episode of the Brighteon.TV program "Lawfare with Tom Renz."

He opened the show by sharing a news story about more than two million dimes (10-cent coins) being stolen from a U.S. Mint truck. According to WBNS 10, about $230,000 in dimes weighing six tons had been pilfered from the truck. Four individuals were charged in relation to the crime, the outlet added.

"It's interesting how incompetent our government is. We can't even keep dimes safe in a mint truck. It's just shocking," Renz remarked. "The incompetence of our government is really the story though. The Biden administration is they are a sorry, sad sack  and I don't know what else to say about that." (Related: Chinese state media (justifiably) MOCKS Bidens INCOMPETENCE in handling Hawaii wildfires.)

According to Renz, stealing more than 2.3 million dimes from the U.S. Mint was both funny and absurd. But he brought it up to highlight the federal government's "shocking" incompetence. The government is literally doing nothing, yet the American people continue to empower it  something the "Lawfare" host described as absurd.

He also took aim at President Joe Biden, who isn't just asleep at the wheel but had sold the wheel to someone else. Renz zoomed in on Biden's decision to send 12,000 U.S. soldiers to the Middle East, which would result in a proxy war. While nobody wants World War III, Biden needs something massive to happen due to his dismal numbers in opinion polls.

"We're on the verge of WWIII, America is under attack [and] everything is a mess. We can't even keep dimes safe," Renz said. "There's no reason for us to start a world war. Israel's response is fine; they are doing a good job, all we need to do is keep people off their backs. We don't have to send in and do this."

The Brighteon.TV host ultimately pointed out that Biden is "trying to create WWIII" by "intentionally doing everything wrong."

Renz: Israeli soldiers were ordered to STAND DOWN

Renz also put in his two cents on the ongoing conflict in Israel, noting that the country is now the ground zero for WWIII due to Hamas' Oct. 7 terrorist attack. He also expressed belief that someone within the Israeli government intentionally told the soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to stand down.

"I think there's a fox in the hen house; I think someone in the Israeli government sold out," Renz said. "And I think they did it at the expense of the people of Israel."

According to the Ohio-based lawyer, the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip is the most defended border on the planet  even employing the most high-tech border security systems. The Israeli military is always ready and watching to keep things safe.

It is unbelievable, however, that 1,500 terrorists were able to storm the border and kill more than 1,000 during a music festival in Israel. The only explanation, Renz said, is that IDF soldiers were instructed by someone high up the chain to stand down.

This terrorism could spill over to the U.S., with members of Hamas and Hezbollah blending in with unlawful border crossers. But the Biden administration is failing the American people over this matter with its lax approach to national security.

According to Renz, there are more than 100 terrorist camps across America. He lamented that nobody is doing anything about it because the crooked Department of Justice is busy targeting supporters of former President Donald Trump.

Follow BigGovernment.news for more news about the Biden administration.

Watch the Oct. 24 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:

Everything that is happening in America stems from CORRUPTION, says Tom Renz.

Trump: Bidens INCOMPETENCE leading the U.S. to WWIII.

Biden DOJ indicts four Americans for weaponized free speech.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

10TV.com
Note to readers: On Project Amy

If you read this mornings Racket article about Senator Amy Klobuchars letter to Jeff Bezos asking for proactive measures to suppress sites like Substack or Rumble, you probably gathered Im in a mood. Ive had it.

(Article by Matt Taibbi republished from Racket.news)

Whether its NewsGuard slapping anti-US labels on Joe Lauria and Consortium News, or Drs. Jay Bhattacharya, Aaron Kheriaty, and Martin Kulldorff censored on multiple platforms for being right on Covid, or podcaster Alison Morrow fired from a state job for interviewing Kheriaty, or friend CJ Hopkins in Germany criminally convicted for a book cover, or the FBI asking Twitter to remove Aaron Mate for the Ukrainian Secret Police, or ballooning budget requests of counter-disinformation enforcement agencies, or the new jailing even of Owen Shroyer for having helped create January 6th with speech, or of course the forever-detention of Julian Assange, and above all the total indifference of legacy media to all of it, its over. Ive lost patience. Time for a more focused approach.

A problem when grappling with the censorship hydra is that it has no public face, no Tipper Gore or Jerry Falwell to personify the topic. Klobuchar, for reasons listed this morning and beyond, is right for this role. She needs to be Red Pencil Amy, Blacklist Amy, Amy Thought Police Klobuchar. And longshot or not, removal of her from office in next years election or even from Senate leadership positions is a worthwhile goal. The rest of Washington needs to read public sentiment about this issue through a colleagues public relations dilemma.

Ive already got a lot on my plate, but Ill make Klobuchar a personal branding project, even if it takes time. Ill write up any move she makes in this direction, or not in this direction. Her lesser-known partner in the bid to make Amazon a verified sources only zone, congressman Joseph Morelle of the Rochester, New York area, can be thrown in. Think of Morelle as the VP half of the censorship movements ticket. Its nothing personal. At earlier times this person could have been anyone from Rick Stengel to Adam Schiff (especially him) or Mark Warner. Klobuchar and Morelle just picked the wrong time in my personal downward spiral to pull this stunt.

T-shirting, postering, meming ideas very welcome.

Incidentally, Im still planning town halls on the speech subject, and in fact have one confirmed at my old college in the third week of November. (Details to come). Willing to do more if anyone can help on the venue side. Although perhaps these events would be best held in Minnesota now.

For readers who might be concerned Im losing my mind, youre not wrong. What can I say? Even my dog flashes worried looks at me these days. But I was pushed. Pushed I say! And so were many, many others. A la bataille!

Read more at: Racket.news
Report: Rockefeller Brothers Fund has provided over $3.4M to Hamas and other alleged terror groups since 2018

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) portrays itself as a philanthropic foundation that seeks to "contribute to a more just, sustainable and peaceful world." But a recent report revealed that it has contributed more than $3.4 million to Hamas and other terrorist groups since 2018.

Andrew Kerr of the Washington Free Beacon expounded on this matter, naming several groups who benefited from RBF money. One such group is Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCI Palestine), an extension of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

The group, which employs senior PFLP members, has received $165,000 from the RBF since 2018 to promote flawed research that seeks to de-legitimize Israel. Because of this, the Israeli government declared DCI-Palestine a terrorist organization in October 2021.

Another recipient of RBF money is Education for Just Peace in the Middle East, a national organization working toward freedom, justice and equality. The group, which has received $580,000 in funding since 2018, was later accused of using its charity status to fund Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist organizations.

Jewish Voice for Peace has also received $490,000 from the RBF since 2019. Protesters associated with the group reportedly entered a congressional office building to speak out against Israel on Oct. 18. This resulted in the arrest of roughly 300 demonstrators. (Related: Around 300 people arrested after Jewish group organizes sit-in on Capitol Hill calling for a ceasefire.)

Aside from the three organizations he mentioned, Kerr said the RBF has given more than $2.2 million to other groups that have either justified pro-Hamas actions or blamed Israel for the Oct. 7 terrorist attack. More than 1,400 were killed in the incident, which involved Hamas operatives paragliding at a music festival.

Established by a powerful globalist family, RBF supports left-wing groups

The RBF was established in 1940 by the heirs of financier and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller Jr., who was the only son of Standard Oil founder John D. Rockefeller Sr. Former Vice President Nelson Rockefeller and his four brothers  all sons of John Jr.  spearheaded the fund. Kerr noted in his article that the RBF "has been responsive to pressure from left-wing groups to amend its portfolio."

Interestingly, the fund's donations to entities with links to terror groups seem to be paying off.

Kerr pointed out how DCI Palestine has pushed the claim that an Israeli airstrike was to blame for the Oct. 17 attack at the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza that killed 500. Its flawed statistics have also been cited by Democrats to push anti-Israel bills in the House of Representatives. Back in May, almost 30 Democrats led by Minnesota Rep. Betty McCollum introduced a bill accusing Israel of wrongfully detaining Palestinian children.

But even before Jerusalem designated it a terrorist organization in 2021, DCI Palestine's terrorist ties had been public knowledge. In 2018, the Jerusalem Post (JPost) reported that many of its top officials and board members had toes to the PFLP  which the U.S. branded a terrorist group.

Responding to the JPost report, RBF President Stephen Heintz defended DCI Palestine in a letter to the editor. He told the paper's editor that he was "convinced" none of the group's resources funded terrorist activity.

Head over to Deception.news for more similar stories.

Watch this video of pro-Palestine protesters with Jewish Voice for Peace, which the RBF bankrolls, inside the U.S. Capitol Building.

This video is from the Vigilent Citizen channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Matrixxx Groove: Jeff and Shady talk about the STAGED WAR between Israel and Hamas  Brighteon.TV.

Martin Armstrong: Western leaders  who are actually fascists  funded the terror attacks in Israel to draw Russia into WWIII.

Report: Israel received WARNING from Egypt 3 days before attack but ignored it.

Israeli intelligence suddenly knows exactly where Hamas is.

Hamas was created by Israeli and US intelligence services to counteract Yasser Arafat, Ron Paul explains.

Sources include:

FreeBeacon.com

Brighteon.com
BAD DOCTORS: 250 New South Wales physicians have applied for permission to practice EUTHANASIA

Around 250 physicians in Australia's New South Wales (NSW) state have signed up to get permission to conduct voluntary assisted dying (VAD)  euthanasia in other words  for supposedly incurable patients.

According to the Epoch Times, the registrations came ahead of VAD becoming legal in NSW starting Nov. 28. In May 2022, NSW became the last Australian state to legalize euthanasia after its parliament ratified a relevant bill after a long period of heated debate.

Kerry Chant, chief health officer for NSW, told the Sydney Morning Herald that around 250 doctors had signed up for the state's VAD program. She outlined that the process will involve mandatory training that every doctor has to go through. However, Chant also stressed that the program will come with strict eligibility requirements and that the NSW Ministry of Health (NSW Health) would only accredit senior clinicians.

The chief health officer also acknowledged that one of the challenges to the VAD program was ensuring that regional and rural patients would have access to assisted suicide, in the same manner as those living in cities. "VAD will be a lawful option, but we are also trying to make it clear that we are embedding it with end-of-life care," she told the Herald.

Under the new VAD law, adult patients can apply for assisted suicide provided that they have at least one advanced and progressive disease or illness, and are likely to die within six months while enduring intolerable suffering. However, patients availing of the assisted suicide option must have the mental capacity to make the decision and act voluntarily without pressure or duress when applying.

Ahead of the new law taking effect, NSW Health held a conference to provide information about VAD to around 700 healthcare workers and community members. The participants listened to the experience of VAD experts from other states in Australia and learned about the process of becoming an authorized VAD practitioner.

Christian health facilities push back against EUTHANASIA law

As the VAD law is about to take effect in November, authorities in NSW will require all healthcare providers in the state to provide assisted suicide. This prospect has triggered pushback from Christian-related health organizations in the state, as the euthanasia law contradicts their religious belief.

A report by Sydney Diocesan Services (SDS), a group supporting the Archdiocese of Sydney under the Anglican Church, touched on the issue. According to the report, the archbishop had set up a working group to consider whether Anglicare Sydney and other Anglican health service providers could follow the state government's mandate without violating its theological principles.

Following the findings of the working group, the board of Anglicare Sydney decided not to provide VAD at its residential aged care homes. It also updated its resident/service agreements and contracts to reflect this move. Anglicare Sydney also prohibited its staff members from initiating discussions, providing information or taking any active part in a resident's VAD process.

"Anglicare Sydney will over and support life-affirming choices for residents and provide chaplaincy support to residents and their family/friends, respecting their right to choose, supporting them with maintaining their dignity through respecting their choice if and when a VAD decision has been made," the report stated.

Catholic Health Australia (CHA) also decided to take a minimal compliance approach to NSW's assisted suicide laws. "VAD is not consistent with the care we provide," a CHA spokesman told the Herald. "As a result, our NSW members will not facilitate VAD at any of their facilities." (Related: Anti-life group lobbies for BC Canada Catholic hospitals to carry out ASSISTED SUICIDE.)

While the spokesman said CHA staff would respond in "a respectful and compassionate manner" to patients demanding VAD, he noted that the healthcare operator would not change the end-of-life care provided to those patients.

SDS ultimately warned in its report that church-run facilities might have to exit the healthcare industry in NSW due to concerns that VAD could become so morally corrupt.

"If Anglicare continues in residential aged care at this time, it should be recognized that the existence of VAD may well become an intolerable corruption to the service  thus precipitating the need for withdrawal from residential aged care provision in the future."

Head over to Euthanasia.news for more stories about assisted suicide in Australia and other countries.

Watch this video explaining why euthanasia, in the form of Australia's VAD and Canada's medical assistance in dying, is a mortal sin.

This video is from the Rick Langley channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Saving lives? New Zealand green-lights euthanasia of covid patients.

KILLING THE HELPLESS: Canada set to legalize euthanasia for mentally ill patients.

Canada expands euthanasia "mercy" killing to ensnare societys most vulnerable, including children.

Sources include:

TheEpochTimes.com

Brighteon.com
A dorm fire at Oregon State University forced students to evacuate the building in the early hours of Oct. 27, according to a Corvallis Fire Department news release.

No one was hurt, and the fire, which occurred in the basement near the building's ventilation system, was quickly extinguished, according to officials.

Just after 3 a.m., Corvallis firefighters were dispatched to a fire alarm at Bloss Hall, and crews arrived to find fire alarms sounding throughout the seven-story building. Smoke was visible on the dorm's first floor, according to the news release.

Firefighters entered the basement and located a fire near the building's ventilation system, which had spread smoke through all levels of the building, according to the release.

Corvallis fire crews worked until 6 a.m. to ventilate all floors of the dorm to restore the building's fire alarm system, at which points residents were able to return and OSU facilities staff could take over the cleanup operation, according to the release.

Officials said no injuries were reported among residents.

In the news release, Corvallis fire also said it was grateful to the Albany Fire Department for providing mutual aid during a busy night in Corvallis, which included serious medical calls and a carbon monoxide alarm, all occurring while firefighters were at Bloss Hall.
Prominent Swiss banker calls for arrest of entire World Economic Forum (WEF) for democide caused by bioweapon COVID shots

The son of one of the co-founders of the World Economic Forum (WEF), now a retired Swiss banker, is calling for justice against the criminals who unleashed Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) "vaccines" on the world.

Pascal Najadi, whose father Hussain Najadi was assassinated in 2013, is reportedly joining forces with Dr. Astrid Stuckelberger  did you catch Dr. Stuckelberger's recent appearance on the Health Ranger Report? (you can watch it in full below)  to demand full criminal prosecution of all involved in COVID injections, which they both now refer to as "bioweapons."

Najadi and Dr. Stuckelberger put together a new documentary film called "Cutting off the Head of the Snake" that delves into the "democide" that COVID jab perpetrators engaged in under the guise of fighting a global "pandemic," which was largely falsified for maximum terror effect.

Najadi resigned from his powerful banking position a short while back, but while on the job he wielded significant influence over world affairs. His job was to advise countries and heads of state on the financial direction of their respective countries.

Najadi is also responsible for the recent resignation of Swiss President Alain Berset, against whom Najadi filed a criminal lawsuit at the high Supreme Court of Switzerland, accusing Berset of making false claims about the "safety" and "effectiveness" of mRNA COVID jabs.

(Related: Back in July, the Brevard County Republican Executive Committee (BREC) in Florida declared COVID shots to be bioweapons.)

The time is NOW to punish the war criminals behind Operation Warp Speed

Unwilling to face the charges, likely because he is guilty, Berset is instead officially stepping down from his post by the end of the year, though he has already basically left the seat vacant.

In Najadi and Dr. Stuckelberger's documentary film, Najadi explains at length his late father's disdain for the Geneva-based WEF. His father actually left the WEF, which he co-founded, back in the early 1980s, leaving Klaus Schwab at the helm.

"Everything evil in the world related to democide unfortunately comes from Geneva," Najadi says.

"You have WHO [World Health Organization] in Geneva, you have GAVI [Bill Gates' Vaccine Alliance], then you have the WEF, which my father was a co-founder and left Klaus Schwab out of disgust in the early eighties that has diplomatic immunity."

Najadi is further declaring that, as a Swiss citizen, he is free to declare the WEF ineligible for any further diplomatic immunity, which has long served as cover for its crimes against humanity.

Najadi wants Swiss authorities to now start arresting the perpetrators of COVID jab crimes against humanity, which include a "global humanity injection by a bioweapon."

Big Pharma, Big Tech, the WEF, Bill Gates, the World Health Organization (WHO) and many other globalist-controlled entities are all responsible in part for the COVID jab scheme, and Najadi wants all of them to face the music.

"I call on the Swiss authorities and security to arrest those people immediately," Najadi says. "Why? The WEF, WHO, GAVI, Big Pharma, Big Tech and Bill Gates all advocated a global humanity injection by a bioweapon injecting nanolipids into 5.7 billion people."

"And we Swiss are hosting them. That's terrible."

Najadi says that both he and his mother are victims, too, having both taken the jabs, and both are now dying from it, he says.

"It's a democide and will be judged," Najadi further pronounced. "It will be corrected in the name of humanity."

In the American context, patriots would do well to focus on who propagated Operation Warp Speed and go after them for prosecution. Many of them are the same names and organizations Najadi mentioned, so that is a good place to start."

The latest news about Fauci Flu shots can be found at ChemicalViolence.com.

Sources for this article include:

SlayNews.com

Brighteon.com

NaturalNews.com
Biden compares Hamas attack on Israel to fifteen 9/11s but makes no comparison for the 7,000+ Palestinians now killed by continued Israeli bombings of Gaza

The latest claim from the powers that be is that the Hamas attack on Israel is the equivalent of "fifteen 9/11s," these being the exact words of fake president Joe Biden.

We have heard everything from it being the equivalent of "ten 9/11s" up to "thirty 9/11s," depending on the source, but "the big guy" has apparently settled on a middle ground of fifteen 9/11s.

"Since this terrorist attack took place, we have seen it described as Israel's 9/11, but for a nation the size of Israel it was like fifteen 9/11s," Biden proclaimed in an address  watch below:

#WATCH | "Since this terrorist attack took place, we have seen it described as #Israel's 9/11. But for the nations the size of Israel, it was like fifteen 9/11s": US President #JoeBiden in #TelAviv (? ANI ) pic.twitter.com/QawmLE4se9  Hindustan Times (@htTweets) October 18, 2023

Earlier, Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the attack "the equivalent of ten 9/11s" while Gen. David Petraeus called it "far worse than 9/11" and the equivalent of "thirteen 9/11s."

Then there is Pastor Gary Hamrick from Cornerstone Chapel (Calvary Chapel) in Leesburg, Va., who claimed that the Hamas attack on Israel is the equivalent of "thirty 9/11s."

(Related: As things heat up in the Middle East, we have received word that Syria is now firing missiles on the disputed territory known as the Golan Heights, which Israel annexed in 1981.)

How many 9/11s was the COVID "vaccine" holocaust?

None of these guys can seem to get their story straight about just how many 9/11s the Hamas attack constitutes based on the population variance between the United States and Israel. What they do all seem to agree on is that Israeli lives are more important than American lives, with these kinds of statements.

As Chris Menahan from Information Liberation puts it, "this analogy only works if you view Americans as less than," which is what these kinds of gross comparisons imply.

Another thing in light of all this 9/11 comparison talk that deserves a mention is Operation Warp Speed and the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) "vaccine" holocaust. Millions of people have already died from that genocidal operation, so how many 9/11 does that constitute?

Keep in mind that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu forced Israelis to get jabbed for COVID in order to benefit Pfizer. So, we wonder, how many 9/11s did Netanyahu personally commit with those mandates?

"They're attempting to equate an attack on Israel with an attack on the U.S. so American servicemen can rationalize their participation in war crimes that amount to a denial of Christ for those who are Christians," one commenter suggested about another possible agenda at play here.

"No Christian who believes in heaven and hell dare say he was just following orders when those orders unambiguously order him to murder innocent Palestinians and resupply Israel with the weapons to do so."

"Joe 'I am a Zionist' Biden, a creature of Mammon, is caught in a web of his own making," wrote another.

"That incursion was only equal to 9/11 in the *fact* it was a regime-sponsored false flag," wrote another about how they are all technically telling the truth in plain sight by comparing the Hamas false flag to the 9/11 false flag.

Others wrote that they wish Biden and the rest of our so-called representatives would focus more on the problems here in America such as the country's wide-open southern border  or are they all just Israel Firsters pretending to represent American citizens?

"Let's focus on our own people and the southern border for a change," one in particular suggested.

The latest news about the brewing world war that is budding from the Middle East can be found at WWIII.news.

Sources for this article include:

InformationLiberation.com

YouTube.com

NaturalNews.com
INJECTION REJECTION: HHS data reveals only 2% of Americans have received COVID-19 vaccines for new variants

Recent data provided by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) revealed that only two percent of all Americans have received the updated Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) shot after it was authorized and recommended by federal health officials several weeks ago.

According to the data, more than seven million Americans have taken the updated vaccine. An HHS spokesman said the new vaccine is authorized for people aged six months and older. The figure amounts to only two percent of all Americans.

The HHS spokesperson explained that the HHS is working "directly with manufacturers and distributors to ensure that the vaccines" are being sent to various locations. The spokesperson added that 91 percent of Americans aged 12 years and older "can access the vaccine within [five] miles of where they live." Additionally, 14 million updated boosters for COVID-19 have been shipped to pharmacies and other locations.

The vaccine was given emergency use authorization by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The updated vaccine was distributed after some people reported that it was difficult to find doses of the new vaccines at local pharmacies and doctors. Jen Kates, a senior vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation, posted on X in September that her vaccine appointment was canceled due to a lack of supply.

On Oct. 12, the HHS reported that the latest updated vaccination rate is about the same as the initial bivalent booster shot when it was rolled out in 2022. However, CDC data showed that the demand for the 2022 booster vaccine was similarly low. Data has revealed that only 17 percent of the U.S. population got the previous updated shot, or around 56.5 million people.

The updated vaccines were developed to target the COVID-19 XBB.1.5 variant, which was spreading across the country when companies like Moderna and Pfizer came up with the new version of the vaccines.

Observational data for the bivalent vaccines, or the previous versions, showed weak initial effectiveness that quickly waned. (Related: STUDY: COVID-19 vaccines linked to unexpected bleeding in women.)

CDC officials made unsupported claims during the briefing, which is common for the agency. Demetre Daskalakis, director of the CDCs National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Disease, told reporters that the vaccines "prevent severe disease for COVID-19." However, there is no data to support that the claim is true.

The only clinical study data for the new vaccines is from a study Moderna ran that included vaccinating 50 humans with the companys updated formation. The result was a higher level of neutralizing antibodies.

Officials claim that antibodies protect against COVID-19. However, Moderna did not provide any clinical efficacy estimates for infection, severe disease or death. Meanwhile, Pfizer announced that it was running a trial but has not reported any results.

CDC insists COVID-19 is still a "public health threat," but numbers say IT'S NOT

Meanwhile, data provided by the CDC has found that hospitalizations for COVID-19 have decreased for about three consecutive weeks. For the period ending Sept. 30, the hospitalization rate is down by six percent, while emergency department visits decreased by 14.5 percent. COVID-19 cases are down 1.2 percent.

Deaths are up 3.8 percent, however, health officials have previously said that deaths generally lag behind hospitalizations and case numbers.

In July, COVID-19 hospitalizations had increased for several consecutive weeks. CDC historical data suggest that deaths have been relatively low compared with previous years.

Dr. Shira Doron, chief infection control officer for Tufts Medicine, reported that this recent upswing is "not a surge; its not even a wave."

Doron added that it's only "a very gradual and small upward trajectory of cases and hospitalizations, without deaths really going along, which is great news."

On Oct. 6, the CDC released a report that attempted to force older Americans to get the newest vaccines by saying that COVID-19 is still a "public health threat," especially for individuals 65 and older.

The agency also claimed that the majority of hospitalizations are happening among that older demographic.

On the other hand, several hospitals in California, New York state, Massachusetts and New Jersey have re-implemented mandatory masking for staff.

Several Northern California counties issued a mask mandate for all healthcare staff starting in November and ending in late April 2024. The affected counties include Contra Costa, Sonoma, Alameda and San Mateo.

Officials in the Southern California county of San Luis Obispo also issued a vaccine-or-mask mandate earlier this October.

Visit VaccineInjuryNews.com for more updates about COVID-19 vaccine-related injuries and deaths.

Watch the video below to learn how the COVID-19 vaccine affects the immune system.

This video is from the Jesus Kingdom Power channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

BE AFRAID: Global health experts claim next pandemic could be up to 20 TIMES DEADLIER than COVID-19.

Childhood mortality dropped during lockdowns when many children couldnt get routine vaccinations.

New JAMA study shows that neither COVID jabs nor flu shots reduce risk of hospitalization.

Sources include:

TheEpochTimes.com 1

TinAlexander.Github.io

TheEpochTimes.com 2

CDC.gov

Brighteon.com
Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana secures the House speakers gavel, capping weeks of GOP chaos

The Republican-led House of Representatives elected Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana as the 56th speaker of the House on Oct. 25, ending more than three weeks of dysfunction and chaos at the Capitol Hill.

After almost a month of disarray, the GOP demonstrated remarkable unity as all 220 Republicans cast their vote for Johnson, while all 209 Democrats voted for Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York.

Johnson is a vocal supporter of former President Donald Trump and a key congressional figure in the failed efforts to overturn the 2020 election. He is now tasked to rule over the bitterly divided House Republican majority and face the looming threat of a government shutdown next month.

Other issues that need his immediate attention include government funding that is set to expire on Nov. 17. The legislature also needed a decision on whether to send further aid to Ukraine as it fights a war against Russian aggression as well as humanitarian aid to Israel in its war against Hamas.

A few hours after he assumed office, the House passed a resolution in support of Israel with overwhelming bipartisan support by a vote of 412 to 10. (Related: Government once again at risk of shutdown following Republican infighting over who will be the next House speaker.)

"We want our allies around the world to know that this body of lawmakers is reporting again to our duty stations," the 51-year-old congressman said to the House chamber after the gavel had been handed to him. "Let the enemies of freedom around the world hear us loud and clear  the People's House is back in business."

He also vowed to pursue an aggressive schedule to move on from the chaos that had paralyzed the House and distracted from the GOP agenda.

"You're going to see an aggressive schedule in the days and weeks ahead. You're gonna see Congress working as hard as it's ever worked and we are going to deliver for the American people," he said. "We've gone through a little bit of suffering. We've gone through a little bit of character building, and you know what has produced more strength, more perseverance and a lot of hope, and that's what were about to deliver to the American people."

The Trump ally, who is now second in line to the presidency, is arguably the most ideologically conservative person to serve as speaker since Newt Gingrich in the 1990s, CNN Politics reported.

Anti-MAGA, Soros-linked Emmer was GOP speaker designate but dropped out after the party's resistance

GOP Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota initially won the House Republican Conference nomination for speaker after five rounds of voting by secret ballot. Apart from Johnson, Emmer faced off against five other Republicans at the start of voting, including Byron Donalds of Florida, Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, Austin Scott of Georgia, Jack Bergman of Michigan and Pete Sessions of Texas.

But Johnson secured the nomination for the speakership on the evening of Oct. 24 in a vote that capped off a chaotic day. Emmer dropped out hours later after facing stiff resistance from the right flank of the conference and a rebuke from Trump. In a post on Truth Social, Trump called Emmer a "globalist RINO," and said that voting for him "would be a tragic mistake."

Emmer was the third Republican to win the GOP nomination only to then exit the race after failing to lock up the necessary votes to win the gavel, following Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Steve Scalise of Louisiana. He is best known for his anti-Trump positions, as well as his refusal to assist MAGA candidates during the 2022 mid-term elections when he controlled the purse strings at the powerful National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC).

Prior to serving in Congress, Emmer worked as a spokesman for the National Popular Vote initiative, which was funded by George Soros and backed by former President Barack Obama to essentially end the Electoral College and elect the president via a nationwide popular vote.

Visit VoteRepublican.news for stories related to this.

Watch the video below where political activist Trevor Loudon talks about why Emmer should have not been allowed anywhere near the Speaker's chair.

This video is from the Worldview Review channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Rep. Jim Jordan loses second speaker vote as more Republicans defect.

Republican-controlled House of Representatives CUTS FUNDING to GLOBALIST institutions and the climate hoax.

Ivan Raiklin and Ann Vandersteel discuss the possibility of Trump becoming the next House speaker  Brighteon.TV.

Congress abandons Ukraine aid in temporary funding bill to avert government shutdown.

Sources include:

Edition.CNN.com

NBCNews.com

TheNationalPulse.com

Brighteon.com
Michigan AG dismisses case against a Republican elector after reaching an agreement between parties

The office of Michigan Attorney General (AG) Dana Nessel has dismissed a case against a Republican elector based on "an agreement between parties."

Nessel's office announced in an Oct. 19 statement that it would dismiss multiple felonies against Lansing resident James Renner. The 76-year-old Renner is one of 16 defendants indicted in July for trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election. According to prosecutors, he and his other co-conspirators "falsely claimed that former President Donald Trump had won re-election" in the state through the election documents they signed and submitted to the U.S. Capitol.

The charges filed against Renner and the 15 others included two counts of forgery; two counts of election law forgery; one count of conspiracy to commit forgery; one account of conspiracy to commit uttering and publishing; one count of uttering and publishing; and one count of conspiracy to commit election law forgery.

NBC News managed to obtain a copy of the agreement between Renner and federal prosecutors, signed by him and his lawyers Clint Westbrook and Matthew Borgula on Oct. 10. Under the agreement, Renner would provide "full cooperation" with the Michigan Department of Attorney General (DAG) and/or any law enforcement agency. He would also agree to provide "truthful testimony" at trial and key hearings if called, and turn over "any and all relevant documents" as needed.

In exchange for not having to face charges, Renner specifically agreed to provide information about his attendance in a December 2020 meeting of the Michigan Republican Party. He also agreed to identify leaders of the said meeting.

According to Michigan Advance, the 16 defendants including Renner allegedly met at the Michigan GOP headquarters on Dec. 14, 2020. Renner and another defendant were chosen to replace the state's two absent elector candidates. A July affidavit filed by DAG special agent investigator Howard Shock alleged that the two signed a number of documents falsely asserting their status as "duly elected and qualified electors" from the State of Michigan for the president and vice president of the United States.

During a virtual event in September, Nessel described the 16 defendants as "brainwashed" into believing Trump had won the 2020 presidential election. That would have been the truth, had incumbent President Joe Biden not relied on vote fraud through mail-in ballots.

"These are people who have been brainwashed," the AG for the Great Lakes State said. "They [legitimately] believe that somebody can't even plead guilty if they wanted to. They can't admit that what they did violated the law, because they still think they're right. (Related: Biden says Republican midterm victory would be "assault on democracy.")

Oakland County GOP chairman calls the charges "politically motivated"

Norman Eisen, executive chair of the States United Democracy Center, noted that Renner and his fellow conspirator "weren't the duly elected and qualified electors and each of the defendants knew it." He added: "No one in Michigan should be able to forge election-related documents with impunity."

According to Eisen, Nessel and her office "have often charged others who have created false and fraudulent documents, including Democrats. When the election security is assaulted, the electoral system will respond."

"My department has prosecuted numerous cases of election law violations throughout my tenure," Nessel said in a separate statement. "It would be malfeasance of the greatest magnitude if my department failed to act here."

However, Oakland County GOP Chairman Vance Patrick thinks the charges are "politically motivated" and an overreach by the Michigan AG. "His is an egregious abuse of power by a radical progressive and continues the trend of politically motivated witch hunts, perpetrated by the left against Republican candidates and activists," Patrick said in a statement.

Visit VoteFraud.news for more stories about election interference cases linked to Trump.

Watch election integrity expert David Clements warning that the 2024 election isn't secure and can be easily rigged by bad actors.

This video is from the Health Ranger Report channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

HERE WE GO AGAIN: Google hides campaign sites of Trump, RFK Jr. and other republican candidates: Biden dominates top search results.

Its time to cut ties with the Republican Party.

Citizens can SUE federal employees for censorship collusion under new Republican legislation.

Sources include:

TheEpochTimes.com

MichiganAdvance.com 1

MichiganAdvance.com 2

Michigan.gov [PDF]

DetroitNews.com

Brighteon.com
New House Speaker Mike Johnson vows to send BILLIONS of U.S. taxpayer dollars to defend Israel while Americas own border remains undefended

Despite overwhelming American publicto sending more aid in the form of tax dollars and weapons to Israel, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), the new speaker of the House, has promised that his first act as head of the GOP in Congress will be to transfer billions of American taxpayer dollars to Israel.

Perpetuating the same Israel First policy that many other corrupt politicians, both left and right, embrace, Johnson made it very clear with the first words out of his mouth as House speaker that, in his view, Israel comes first and America comes second.

"The first bill that I'm going to bring to this floor will be in support of our dear friend Israel," Johnson proclaimed, prompting a standing ovation from both sides of the political aisle, demonstrating where their true loyalties lie.

"We're going to show not only Israel but the entire world that the barbarism of Hamas that we have all seen play out on our television screens is wretched and wrong, and we're going to stand for the good in that conflict," Johnson added  watch him speak below:

NOW - New U.S. House Speaker Johnson: "The first bill that I'm going to bring to this floor will be in support of our dear friend Israel." pic.twitter.com/TWl58c26eH  Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) October 25, 2023

(Related: The U.S. government admits that it has no idea how Israel's war against Gaza will end, but America will still provide limitless military aid and "unconditional support" for the Israeli regime just because.)

The true people of God have always been those who believe by faith

On Oct. 16, 2023, Johnson admitted to the world that he sees the Israeli geopolitical government as the embodiment of Israel as mentioned in Genesis 12:3, even though the Holy Bible, both Old Testament and New, clearly states that true Israel is, and always has been, the called people of God who believe and obey by faith.

Blessed are those who bless Israel. (Gen. 12:3) pic.twitter.com/m5oBP82kvr  Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) October 16, 2023

Take Romans 9, for instance. The Apostle Paul, who was converted from Christ-hating Judaism as "Saul" to become Paul, explains, starting in the second half of verse 6:

"For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed."

In other words, a person becomes Abraham's seed by faith, no longer by ethnicity like the Zionists claim  though there will be a remnant that comes out of geopolitical Israel in the coming Great Tribulation, also known as the Time of Jacob's Trouble.

The point is this: Rep. Johnson and other Zionists are confused. They are paying their allegiance to a wicked government entity that slapped the name "Israel" on top, and are treating said wicked government with unconditional support at the expense, in this case, of the American people who no longer have any representation with these Israel Firsters.

It turns out that Rep. Johnson's top donor is none other than AIPAC, also known as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Rep. Johnson also believes in Critical Race Theory (CRT) and sees "white privilege" as a real thing that requires "systematic change" and "transformative solutions."

On that issue, Rep. Johnson stated that on May 29, 2020, that "We are all God's children." On the issue of Israel, though, Rep. Johnson is a Jewish-Zionist supremacist who represents Israel, not the United States.

America's Congress is infiltrated with Israel Firsters like House Speaker Johnson who put the Israeli government first and the American people they supposedly represent last. Learn more at Treason.news.

Sources for this article include:

InformationLiberation.com

NaturalNews.com
EERILY SILENT: Israels utter DISREGARD for civilian life in Gaza draws muted reaction from the West

According to the United Nations (UN) website, international humanitarian law (IHL) is as old as war but it is an ever-growing set of rules of engagement that aims to limit a conflict's effects on civilians or non-combatants. It means that this legislation protects people by not deliberately or indiscriminately attacking civilians, not taking hostages, not punishing civilians for the actions of individuals, and not denying or withholding humanitarian assistance.

Non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) further said that the principle of nonreciprocity inherent in the laws of war also applies to all conflicts. Violations of these laws by one side do not justify violations by another.

People have observed how in the Ukraine-Russia conflict, the United States and European governments have rightly upheld life-protecting principles and denounced flagrant violations by Russian forces including indiscriminate attacks, unlawful killings, extrajudicial executions, cutting of electricity and water, and torture. These Western nations have also supported international efforts to seek justice for the war victims.

However, while the European conflict drags on, another war erupted in the Middle East on the weekend of October 7 and 8 when the political and militant Islamist group Hamas staged a massive attack on the Gaza Strip, one of the two Palestinian territories that were part of Mandate Palestine and were captured by Israel during the Six-Day War in 1967. The other one is the West Bank. Since 2007, the Gaza Strip has been under the rule of the Hamas.

The U.S. and the European Union quickly and rightly denounced the brutal attacks as the Palestinian armed groups killed more than 1,400 men, women and children, and took almost 200 hostages. They also quickly and rightly called for those responsible to be held to account and for hostages to be released. However, for the observers, Washington's as well as the European capitals' reaction to Israel's counterattacks since the war started has been muted.

"Where is the clear condemnation of the cruel tightening of the 16-year closure of Gaza that amounts to collective punishment, a war crime? Where is the outrage at statements by Israeli political leaders that seek to blur the all-important distinction between civilians and combatants in Gaza even as they order ever more intense bombardment of this densely populated territory, reducing city blocks and neighborhoods to rubble?" HRW's Deputy Program Director Tom Porteous questioned. "Where are the clear and unequivocal calls for Israel to respect international norms in its attack on Gaza, let alone for accountability?" Porteus further pointed out the hypocrisy and double standards of Western states that are flagrant and obvious, saying the rest of the world sees a muted reaction to the devastating harm done to civilians by Israel's blockade and assault on Gaza.

"If the Western states want to convince the rest of the world to believe what they say about values, human rights and international laws governing armed conflict, the universal principles they rightly apply to Russian atrocities in Ukraine and to Hamas atrocities in Israel, they also have to apply to Israel's brutal disregard for civilian life in Gaza," he explained. (Related: Al-Ahli hospital bombing: Israel performing its usual post-atrocity routine.)

Italian writer accuses Israel of committing war crimes

Meanwhile, in an interview with the Turkey-run news agency Anadolu Ajansi, Italian writer and journalist Romana Rubeo said Israel's attacks on civilian settlements, hospitals and schools in the Gaza Strip constitute a war crime. She also accused international organizations, Western countries and the mainstream media of covering up for Israel, highlighting speculations that the conflict had been pre-planned, after all.

Recalling that the UN issued a humanitarian crisis warning following Israel's ongoing attacks on Gaza, Rubeo said that the situation in Gaza "is dramatic, and the United Nations has repeatedly warned of a humanitarian catastrophe." She also added that the enclave has been under "hermetic Israeli siege" for 16 years already. "The Israeli government decided to put Gaza under what I call a medieval form of siege, meaning that no fuel, no electricity, no food, no water can access the Strip."

She also noted that Israel used white phosphorus bombs in Gaza, which international law doesn't allow and so it is but righteous for Israel to allow a temporary cease-fire to guarantee that the humanitarian aid reaches the Gaza Strip. "The Israeli authorities have issued several evacuation orders for hospitals. Of course, the management of the hospitals have rejected these calls, because evacuating hospitals now would mean a death sentence for the patients," she reasoned out and added, "They [just] want to crush [the] civilian population in Gaza."

Recalling that Israel committed many crimes against Palestinians in the past, Rubeo said: "Israel has never been held accountable for its repeated violations of international and humanitarian law, despite the fact that it has repeatedly violated hundreds of UN resolutions. So far, Israel has been shielded and protected by the international community, and I refer specifically to Western countries."

"The media coverage has also been particularly shamefully biased towards Israel," she added. "Everybody who is not speaking the truth and not speaking about what many analysts have described as a genocide, and everybody who is not respecting the professional rules, holds a responsibility."

Get the latest updates on the Israel-Palestine conflict at WWIII.news.

Sources for this article include:

News.UN.org

HRW.org

AA.com.tr
THOU SHALT NOT CRITICIZE ISAREL: Social media giants now CENSORING CONTENT that supports people of Gaza and opposes indiscriminate bombings by Israel

In today's edition of "Here's another thing so-called Israel controls," the social media gamut  Facebook Instagram, X (Twitter), YouTube, TikTok and the like  are systematically censoring user content that is critical of the government of the geopolitical nation state they call Israel's plan to commitandthe open-air concentration camp it previously created for the people known as "Palestinians," whom Israel forced off the land it stole back in 1948 and stuffed into the world's densest prisoner of war

That sure was a mouthful, but it is intended to paint an accurate picture of what actually happened there when pasty-white people from Siberia, claiming to be real Jews, stormed the land and took it as their own with the Balfour Declaration in 1917, followed by the actual resettlement in 1948.

It is a history that many of today's Christians are never told, at least not accurately, but one that gives new insight into what Revelation 2:9 and 3:9, for those who follow end times prophecy. Anyway, whoever these people really are do not want to be criticized online, about anything, especially if you support the 2.3 million people, nearly half of whom are children, who currently live inside the Gaza Strip.

According to reports, the tech giants, also known as Big Tech, are silencing users from Europe, India and even the United States, who express any kind of support for, or speak up on behalf of, the embattled residents of Gaza who, save for God's supernatural protection, are slated for extermination in the coming days. (Related: Check out this list of 22 devastating consequences that are likely to emerge if Israel and its allies follow through in trying to commit genocide against the people of Gaza.)

If you don't "support Israel," expect to be persecuted

Filmmaker and activist Thomas Maddens of Belgium is one such social media user who tried to share a video he made about Palestine that mentioned the word "genocide." This word coupled with Palestine apparently triggered TikTok's algorithms to shadow-ban the video from view  meaning it was still showing up in Maddens' account, but TikTok is no longer allowing his followers or really anyone to see and access it from his user library.

"I thought I would have gotten millions of views, but the engagement stopped," Maddens told Al Jazeera about the matter, which is what started to happen initially with a huge spike before TikTok clearly blocked the video internally, causing that wave of views to suddenly and inexplicably stop.

Hundreds of others just like Maddens say the same thing is happening to them, and across many other popular social media platforms all in tandem. Authors, activists, journalists, filmmakers, and even just ordinary people with no substantial "following" are discovering that they are not allowed to support the people of Gaza online, unless they want to be punished for it.

Posts and videos containing hashtags like #IStandWithPalestine and #FreePalestine, as well as content expressing concern about the millions of civilians in Gaza whom Israeli soldiers want to get their hands on, are reportedly not reaching the world like other user content does, clearly indicating that shadow-banning is taking place.

On Instagram, which is part of Facebook and owned by Meta, users say even just the mere mention of "Palestine," regardless of context, is triggering "community guidelines" violations that punish users for daring to even utter the formal name, as was once given to them by the Romans, of the people who live in Gaza.

After widespread public outrage that could have cut into the company's profits, Meta spokesman Andy Stone came out and announced that the "bug" has been "fixed," claiming that it was just an "error" in the system that punished people for even just mentioning the word Palestine.

The latest news about this latest bout of Israeli aggression against Gaza can be found at Prophecy.news.

Sources for this article include:

AlJazeera.com

NaturalNews.com
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calls for immediate humanitarian CEASEFIRE in Gaza

United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza on Oct. 24 to ease people's epic suffering, make the delivery of aid easier and safer and facilitate the release of hostages.

"Today is United Nations Day, marking 78 years since the UN Charter entered into force. That Charter reflects our shared commitment to advancing peace, sustainable development, and human rights. On this UN Day, at this critical hour, I appeal to all to pull back from the brink before the violence claims even more lives and spreads even farther," Guterres said, addressing the Security Council.

Guterres opened his remarks by condemning the horrifying and unprecedented Oct. 7 acts of terror by Hamas in Gaza. "Nothing can justify the deliberate killing, injuring and kidnapping of civilians  or the launching of rockets against civilian targets," he said, adding that all hostages must be treated humanely and released immediately and without conditions. However, Guterres acknowledged that this violent attack "did not happen in a vacuum" as the Palestinians have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation by the Israelis. Their lands have been steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence.

"Their economy [was] stifled. Their people [were] displaced and their homes [were] demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing," he pointed out.

As the conflict escalates, he called out parties to uphold and respect their obligations under international humanitarian law; take constant care in the conduct of military operations to spare civilians; and respect and protect hospitals and respect the inviolability of UN facilities, which today are sheltering more than 600,000 Palestinians. He also slammed the Israeli forces for their relentless attacks in Gaza, citing his own colleagues as victims of these. "I mourn and honor the dozens of UN colleagues working for [United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees] UNRWA  sadly, at least 35 and counting  killed in the bombardment of Gaza over the last two weeks," he said.

Guterres further emphasized that it is paramount to protect civilians in any armed conflict and this could never mean using them as human shields. "Protecting civilians does not mean ordering more than one million people to evacuate to the south, where there is no shelter, no food, no water, no medicine and no fuel, and then continuing to bomb the south itself," he said, directly referring to Israel's violations of the international humanitarian law. (Related: Israel has already attacked hospitals and health care facilities in Gaza 51 times, says "horrified" United Nations.)

He also warned that UN fuel supplies in Gaza will run out in a matter of days, which could spell further disaster in the transportation of aid, electricity in hospitals and in the purification and pumping of water supply. It is at this point that he called for the ceasefire and appealed for all to stand up to the forces of antisemitism, anti-Muslim bigotry and all forms of hate. "Israelis must see their legitimate needs for security materialized, and Palestinians must see their legitimate aspirations for an independent State realized, in line with United Nations resolutions, international law, and previous agreements," he said.

Israel demands Guterres' resignation

Following the speech expressing Guterres' deep concern about "the clear violations of international humanitarian law" by the Israelis in Gaza, Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan accused him of "justifying terrorism." Israel also called for Guterres' resignation, accusing him of blood libel and announcing that it was withdrawing travel visas for UN officials, including UN Humanitarian Coordinator Martin Griffiths.

The day after his speech and Israels reaction, Guterres rejected "misrepresentations" of his statement. Without mentioning Israel by name, the furious-looking UN top official made a press statement in New York recalling that in his remarks on Tuesday, he had specifically said no Palestinian grievance could justify the horrendous attacks by Hamas. Rebutting the criticism and insisting it was necessary to re-establish the truth, he said "I am shocked by the misrepresentations by some of my statement as if I was justifying acts of terror by Hamas. This is false. It was the opposite."

But Erdan said in reply that the UN chief "once again distorts and twists reality," and repeated his call for Guterres to resign.

Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, who was in the chamber as Guterres spoke, reportedly said: "In what world do you live? Definitely, this is not our world." Writing on social media later, Cohen said: "After the Oct. 7 massacre, there is no place for a balanced approach. Hamas must be erased off the face of the planet."

Visit WWIII.news for stories related to the ongoing crisis in the Middle East.

Watch the video below showing Guterres' motorcade at the Rafah crossing into the Egyptian border.

This video is from Cynthia's Pursuit of Truth channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Bombing innocent children in Gaza is not 'defence,' it constitutes a grievous war crime.

The West's refusal to call for a ceasefire is a green light to Israel's ethnic cleansing.

Who blew up the al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza? Israel initially took credit, then denied all responsibility.

Sources include:

UN.org

BBC.com

TheGuardian.com

Edition.CNN.com

Brighteon.com
White House preparing contingency plans to evacuate Americans from the Middle East as Israels ground invasion of Gaza looms

The U.S. government is preparing contingency plans to evacuate over one million American civilians in the Middle East , as all signs point to Israel's impending ground invasion of Gaza causing the violence to escalate into a broad regional conflict

White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby reported that there are currently no "active efforts" to evacuate American civilians from the region beyond the new charter flights the government started operating earlier this month out of Israel. (Related: Defense officials warn: Iran could use Israel-Palestine chaos as an "opportunity" to attack American forces all over the Middle East.)

"It would be imprudent and irresponsible if we didn't have folks thinking through a broad range of contingencies and possibilities," Kirby added. "And certainly evacuations are one of those things."

The White House is particularly concerned about Americans living in Israel and neighboring Lebanon. Current State Department estimates suggest that, before the conflict began in early October, there were about 600,000 U.S. citizens in Israel and another 86,000 in Lebanon and several hundred thousand more Americans spread out over the rest of the Middle East.

U.S. officials have been particularly cagey about discussing contingency plans in public, claiming that doing so could set off a panic among Americans in the region. But heightened concerns about a possible escalation in the conflict  such as the threat of Hezbollah attacking Israel from the north and creating a two-front conflict  has changed the White House's stance, conveying the government's anxiety about a broadened conflict.

The State Department recently issued an advisory to all U.S. citizens worldwide "to exercise increased caution" due to "increased tensions in various locations around the world, the potential for terrorist attacks [and] demonstrations or violent actions against U.S. citizens and interests."

Evacuating up to a million Americans could be most difficult undertaking of the U.S. in decades

Experts have warned that, depending on the scale of the potential American evacuation, it could be the most difficult operation conducted by the Pentagon in recent memory, potentially even involving the use of Air Force and Navy aircraft and warships.

Rick Wiles of TruNews commented that he does not trust the current government of President Joe Biden to be able to carry out the successful evacuation of hundreds of thousands of Americans, noting how the evacuation of several thousand Americans from Afghanistan two years ago was already mismanaged.

"There are 600,000 Americans living just in Israel," said Wiles. "When you add up all of the Americans in the Middle East, that's over a million people  and you're gonna trust the Biden administration to get you out?"

"They didn't save Americans when they evacuated  when they fled Afghanistan. They left Americans behind," added Wiles, who noted how the mishandled evacuation of Kabul was comparable to the chaotic American retreat from Saigon during the Vietnam War.

"With 600,000 Americans in Israel and threats to other Americans across the region, it's hard to think of an evacuation that might compare to this in scale, scope and complexity," warned Suzanne Maloney, director of foreign policy at the Brookings Institution. "The sort of advisories the State Department has put out lately have been fairly blunt."

Visit WhiteHouse.news for more similar stories.

Watch this clip from "TruNews" as host Rick Wiles discusses how the Department of Defense is preparing contingency plans to evacuate over a million Americans in the Middle East.

This video is from the TruNews channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Israel's National Security Council urges its citizens in Turkey to LEAVE "as soon as possible" following Al-Ahli hospital bombing.

U.S. Navy warship shoots down missiles and drones fired by Iran-backed militants in Yemen  possibly toward Israel.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian warns of a possible "preemptive action" once Israel attacks Gaza.

Syria now firing missiles on Golan Heights as U.S. provides "surging" support for Israeli operation in "cleansing" Gaza of all Palestinians.

Lebanon's Hezbollah says it is "prepared and ready" to join the war against Israel.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

APNews.com

MSN.com
This week, faculty members at Linn Benton Community College announced they have no confidence in their college's leadership.

More specifically, the faculty association president told the LBCC Board of Education on Wednesday Oct. 25, that her members had passed a vote of "no-confidence" earlier this month, directed at LBCC President Lisa Avery and Vice Presidents Ann Buchele and Sheldon Flom.

The board, however, which unanimously approved the hiring of Avery back in 2020, expressed support for the president and her leadership.

In a prepared statement before the board on Wednesday night, faculty association leader Claire Burke said the no-confidence vote reflected "incredibly low morale" stemming from an alleged lack of inclusion in administrative-level decisions, as well as concerns over budget and staff cuts Avery approved earlier this year  and their impacts on students.

A Place to Sleep - episode 4: Sweet Home In Sweet Home, you'll find the region's only designated sleeping place for folks actively self-medicating with alcohol and narcotics.

She also pointed to the findings of a draft report following a visit earlier this month by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, the school's accreditor.

Among the report's recommendations: LBCC needs to improve "decision-making and shared governance processes" to allow greater input from all stakeholders.

"Given the vote of no confidence and the recommendation of the accreditors, the executive board of the faculty association urges members of the Board of Education to reconsider their support for these college administrators and begin to more strongly scrutinize their actions and the long-term impacts on the college and community," Burke said Wednesday night.

In a prepared statement of her own, however, board Chair Kristin Adams told Burke the board strongly supports the president and vice presidents.

"In light of the budget challenges confronting many of Oregon's community colleges, our leaders are increasingly tasked with making tough decisions that reverberate through student and community life," Adams said.

She further expressed frustration at Burke for "blindsiding" the board with her statement  which wasn't included in the faculty report contained in the board's meeting agenda  and said it was the second time she had used her "platform to criticize us," referring to a June board meeting, in which faculty expressed similar concerns.

Burke later clarified that the statement wasn't meant as an attack on the board, and said she apologized if that was how it was taken, adding the no-confidence vote had occurred before the submission deadline for the faculty report.

Adams herself later apologized to Burke for her initial reaction at the end of the meeting.

In an emailed statement to Mid-Valley Media, Avery, without directly addressing the no-confidence vote, said the school's accreditation site visit was successful and showed the college was in full compliance with the commission's standards.

But Avery also attached an email she sent to employees on Oct. 23, addressing some of the findings of the site visit.

In the email, she wrote she would soon launch a "collaborative strategic planning process, led by an external consultant" to address areas of concern identified by accreditors.

"This process will also involve coming up with better ways to communicate about budget challenges and incorporate feedback into the decision-making process," Avery said in the Oct. 23 email.

The email was noted in Burke's statement to the board.

Earlier this spring, the college announced it would nix its criminal justice and computer science programs at the end of the 2023-24 academic year. There would also be cuts to LBCC's Adult Basic Skills program.

On top of lost programs, the college cut staff, including three full-time librarians, and at the time 46% of LBCC's faculty of color; the computer science department had more faculty members of color than any other program at the college.

Avery has previously said those decisions were based on hard financial realities: the state's disinvestment in community colleges, and the drying up of temporary COVID-19 relief money.

But LBCC faculty has alleged faculty members weren't included in those budget decisions, violating their contract.

Related stories:
The latest weather forecast reported that snow and colder conditions will unload from Washington to Dakotas due to the arrival of arctic chill.

Residents can anticipate heavy snowfall in the said areas.

In the final days of October, it is expected that more snow will unload in the US. The colder outlook shows early signs of the winter season, especially in the Northwestern US.

A wintery mix is possible over the central to southern Plains on Sunday in the wake of a cold front. Further East, excessive rainfall may bring a potential for flash and urban flooding over parts of the southern Plains into the mid-Mississippi Valley Sunday. pic.twitter.com/q2ZzAriY5H  National Weather Service (@NWS) October 27, 2023

The significant snow will bring a major temperature cooldown. In Colorado and Wyoming, residents are under the winter advisories and threat of foggy conditions.

US Weather Forecast: Where Will Colder Conditions Unload This Week?

In this week's weather from Washington to North Dakotas, the potential weather dangers are slippery roads, cold-related health concerns, heavy snow and strong winds.

The patchy nature of #fog can lower visibility quickly and unexpectedlyslow down and stay alert! https://t.co/ShWoO0BhP3 #WeatherReady pic.twitter.com/dDPLN6w2TM  National Weather Service (@NWS) October 26, 2023

Homeowners with travel plans should observe winter safety due to the blast of the colder air.

According to the latest forecasts, the Arctic chill will spread over the areas in Regina, Bismarck and Calgary. The chilly weather will happen in Seattle, Spokane, Boise and Portland.

In addition, the National Weather Service (NWS) is monitoring the development of a winter storm in the North-Central and Northwestern US.

On Friday, the heavy snow could unload in Central and Northeastern North Dakota, including Northern Plains.

Residents can experience 20 to 30 degrees below normal temperatures in portions of Northern High Plains and Northern Plains. The forecast warned residents of prolonged exposure to the colder weather, including hypothermia and frostbite.

The overnight lows can be possible, especially on the weekend. In addition, the patchy fog can cause a decrease in road visibility.

Motorists should drive slowly and check the road conditions before traveling.

In the Washington and Oregon Cascades, there is a chance of snow reaching from six to 12 inches in the late week. Homeowners can experience winter-like temperatures this week, especially in Idaho, North Dakota and Montana.

In the late week, the chance of snowfall could unfold in the following areas:

Winnipeg

Fargo

Bismarck

Rapid City

Helena

Calgary

Boise

Prince George

Seattle

Portland

Medford

On Friday, the cold will expand in Minneapolis, Omaha, Des Moines, Sioux Falls, Rapid City, Salt Lake City, Scottsbluff and Boise.

On the weekend, the cooler weather could stay in Seattle, Portland and San Francisco.

Also Read: Thunderstorms, Excessive Rainfall to Hit Southern Plains, Upper Great Lakes in US This Late Week

Weather in the Southern Plains

In the NWS weather forecast, Central to Southern Plains can experience wintery mix conditions due to a cold front.

Recently, NWN reported that excessive rainfall and thunderstorms could unload in the Southern Plains, Midwest and Upper Great Lakes.

On the weekend, rounds of rain can unload in Chicago, Kansas City and Dallas City. In Kansas City, the advisory warned of a hard freeze this weekend. The cold will likely remain next week.

The colder to freezing conditions can bring significant health risks. As a result, homeowners should keep updated with the weather.

Stay updated with the latest forecast in Nature World News in November.

Related Article: Foggy Conditions, Colder Temperatures to Hit Colorado; Winter Advisories Present in Wyoming

For more similar stories, don't forget to follow Nature World News.
Traditional soil sampling techniques might be replaced by a newly created genetically modified plant that turns red when it is exposed to dangerous chemicals in the environment.

Traditional Soil Sampling vs. Genetically Modified Plants

Although traditional techniques of checking for toxins in the environment, such as soil sampling, might be time-consuming, there have never been any other options. Recently, scientists created a plant that will turn red when exposed to particular harmful toxins.

The system is designed so that such plants might be cultivated in plots in locations where pollution is being watched for. Scientists could simply examine aerial photographs of the plots; if the plants were red, it would indicate the intended contaminant was present, saving them from having to continuously walk in and collect soil samples.

Making Leaves Turn Red

In a groundbreaking study, researchers at the University of California, Riverside manipulated receptor proteins within the thale cress plant, altering their binding properties. Normally, these receptors interact with abscisic acid (ABA), a compound produced by the plant during drought stress to close stomata, preventing water loss. In this research, they were modified to bind with the prohibited and highly toxic pesticide azinphos-ethyl, causing the plant's leaves and stem to turn red without impairing its water-saving capacity during dry spells.

This achievement holds promise beyond pesticide detection; the technology could potentially identify other pollutants as well. Professor Sean Cutler of UC Riverside expressed their aspiration to develop the ability to sense various chemicals in the environment, including pesticides, drugs like birth control pills, or antidepressants like Prozac present in water supplies, addressing concerns about human exposure. These applications are now on the horizon, ushering in a new era of chemical detection within the natural world.

Contaminants in the Environment

When it comes to the contamination of air, water, or soil with potentially harmful substances, it poses a risk to individuals and communities alike. These contaminants, often chemicals exceeding natural environmental levels, can originate from diverse sources, encompassing residential, commercial, and industrial settings. Some environmental contaminants, like mold and toxic algae blooms, arise biologically, while others, such as lead, arsenic, pesticides, PFAS, and more, can detrimentally impact both communities and individuals.

Also Read: Grasses Using Natural Genetic Mutation by Stealing DNA Gain Evolutionary Advantages

These environmental contaminants exhibit diverse properties, resulting in various modes of exposure. Take pesticides, for instance. Exposure occurs when contact with a pesticide leads to its entry into the body via ingestion, inhalation, or skin and eye contact. Inhaled pesticides can traverse from the lungs into the bloodstream, while those present in food, water, or accidentally ingested can enter through the stomach.

Certain pesticides can permeate the skin, getting absorbed into the body. Additionally, contact with the skin, eyes, nose, or throat may induce irritation or burns, underscoring the multifaceted risks associated with these environmental contaminants.

In the household, exposure could be due to improper use and storage, among other possible scenarios. Exposure to pesticides may also be an occupational hazard where individuals handling the said chemicals could come in contact with large amounts of it. Lastly, pesticide drift spray could also cause unintended exposure when chemical droplets are carried by the air.

Related Article: Glow-in-the-Dark Petunia Made From Mushroom Genes, Available by 2024
Having been previously kept safely isolated, penguins are now at risk of a catastrophic failure of reproduction as the first bird flu case in Antarctica has been reported.

First Case of Bird Flu in Antarctica

The Antarctic faces a new threat as avian flu, specifically the deadly H5N1 virus, emerges in the region, sparking concerns for isolated penguin and seal populations. This virus's arrival presents an unknown but potentially disastrous impact on the fragile wildlife, raising worries of a "catastrophic breeding failure."

The brown skua, a scavenging bird on Bird Island in the British overseas territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, has been identified as a carrier of the virus. These migratory birds probably brought it back from South America, where it has already killed 20,000 sea lions and 500,000 seabirds in Chile and Peru.

Millions of wild birds have been wiped out by the current outbreak of the highly contagious H5N1 strain, which started in 2021. Given that many species in the region are particular to the continent and have never experienced bird flu viruses before, scientists are worried about its possible effects on the fauna there.

British Antarctic Survey (BAS) researchers conducted swabs on birds exhibiting unexplained mortality, sending samples for testing in the UK.

Safe and Isolated Penguins ... Until Now

The confirmation of this case is particularly tragic, according to Ashley Bennison, the BAS science manager for Bird Island. Bennison added that although they are unaware of the whole impact at this time, they will keep tracking the island's biodiversity and advancing science.

Bird Island is one of the planet's richest animal habitats, with 65,000 pairs of fur seals, 50,000 breeding pairs of penguins, and several endangered bird species living there. The island is situated about 600 miles due southeast of the Falkland Islands, off the northwestern coast of South Georgia.

Risk of Catastrophic Breeding Failure

A risk assessment by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research has highlighted the potential impacts of bird flu reaching the continent. The most vulnerable species are considered to include giant petrels, penguins, birds of prey, sheathbills, fur seals, sea lions, and skuas. The report's principal author and chair, Dr. Meagan Dewar, cautions that the possibility of "catastrophic breeding failure" among many wildlife species in the area exists.

Also Read: Solar Storms Are Warping Birds' Natural Compass, Causing Them to Get Lost During Migration Season

The need for continued disease surveillance efforts to find new and emerging pathogens is emphasized in the paper.

The H5N1 virus traveled nearly 4,000 miles down South America in just three months, leveraging the migration routes of wild birds. Its prior spread in South America made its arrival in South Georgia a likely event.

In response to positive tests on Bird Island, fieldwork involving animal handling has been temporarily suspended, necessitating increased vigilance in maintaining clean clothing and field equipment. This development follows recent research showing increasing immunity to H5N1 among seabirds in the UK, where the outbreak was initially reported.

Related Article: Avian Botulism Outbreak: Thousands of Birds Die in Utah in Suspected Ingestion of Toxins From Rain Puddles
According to reports from the border police, when they investigated a package from Italy, they discovered a voracious invading Egyptian locust in Detroit.

Detroit Border Patrol vs Invasives

On September 29, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agriculture specialists intercepted an elusive Egyptian locust during container inspections at a local railyard. The discovery occurred while examining inbound cargo from Italy. CBP and US Department of Agriculture officials confirmed the specimen's identity. Subsequently, the container was quarantined and fumigated before the cargo was permitted to enter US commerce.

Excellent work by @CBP Agriculture Specialists at the Port of Detroit who intercepted an elusive Egyptian locust, Sept 29.



This is believed to be only the third time the Port of Detroit has encountered the Egyptian locust.



Learn more: https://t.co/G4d9U5ljM8 pic.twitter.com/NMaEeZVlfA  DFO Christopher Perry (@DFODetroit) October 26, 2023

The elusive Egyptian locust is an invasive species not native to the United States but is commonly found in Europe. It poses a significant threat to crops in Michigan, including grapevines and various vegetable plants. This is only the third known instance of the Port of Detroit encountering the Egyptian locust.

John Nowak, Acting Port Director for the Port of Detroit, stressed the importance of safeguarding the food supply and the challenging mission of CBP agriculture specialists at ports of entry. These specialists not only work to intercept invasive insects and plants but also play a critical role in preventing the spread of biological agents that could harm US citizens and livestock.

International cargo, including wood packing materials, is routinely examined for potential threats to people, US agriculture, and natural resources. In Fiscal Year 2022, CBP discovered 240 pests at US ports of entry and identified 2,677 items for quarantine. Travelers are encouraged to learn more about how they can contribute to keeping America safe from agriculture threats.

In 2018, CBP captured a locust specimen while inspecting a shipment of Italian wine on November 15 and immediately ordered the entire wine shipment back into the shipping container for safeguarding.

Also Read: Pest Outbreaks Worldwide Emerge as Climate Change Triggers Imbalance in Ecosystems

Voracious Invasive Egyptian Locust (Anacridium aegyptium)

Anacridium aegyptium, among the largest European grasshoppers, exhibits distinctive characteristics. Adult males typically measure 1.2-2.2 inches, while females reach 1.8-2.8 inches. They feature gray, brown, or olive-colored bodies with short, robust antennae. Notably, the hind leg tibiae are blue, while the femora sport an orange hue with distinctive dark marks. Their striking eyes display vertical black and white stripes, and their pronota reveal a dorsal orange stripe with numerous small white spots. Their wings are transparent with dark markings.

These folivorous insects primarily feed on various plant leaves and are solitary by nature, posing no threat to crops. However, their behavior can transform dramatically, as they may form massive swarms that devastate crops and inflict substantial agricultural damage across vast regions.

Adult sightings are most common in August and September, although they remain active year-round. Following mating, they overwinter as adults, with spring spawning occurring just beneath the soil surface, leading to nymphs emerging in April. The nymphs resemble adults but vary in color, ranging from yellow to bright green and ocher. Their wings are initially absent or small, gradually developing with each molt.

Related Article: Invasive Emerald Ash Borer Lays Waste to 17-Mile Hiking Trail Prompting Closure for Pennsylvania's Tyler Arboretum
As Cyclone Hamoon made landfall on Bangladesh's southeastern coast, three people were killed, and over 275,000 people were forced to seek refuge in emergency shelters.

Hamoon is the most recent in a string of big storms to batter Bangladesh's coastal districts.

This low-lying South Asian country is experiencing an increase in the frequency of severe weather occurrences, which climate scientists normally blame on the climate crisis.

Onslaught Of Cyclone Hamoon

Cyclone Hamoon made landfall in the coastal districts of Chittagong and Cox's Bazar early Wednesday morning, packing winds of up to 104 kph.

The cyclone is predicted to move further inland and eventually weaken.

It was reported that Hamoon has taken a devastating toll on Cox's Bazar, catching inhabitants off guard due to the cyclonic storm's unexpected arrival.

"We evacuated 273,352 people to cyclone shelters," said Senior official Kamrul Hasan, who is the secretary of the disaster management ministry.

At least 10 people were also reported injured and are being treated in hospitals, but some reports said the injured people were nearly 20.

Hamoon caused considerable devastation to the areas of Samitipara, Fadnar Dale, and Nazirertek.

Cyclone Mocha struck Bangladesh in May, becoming the most powerful storm to hit the country since the disastrous Cyclone Sidr in November 2007.

Sidr killed nearly 3,000 people and caused billions of dollars in property damage.

Read Also: Several People Dead as Cyclone Mocha Strikes Myanmar, Bangladesh Coasts

Preparation For The Storm

The government has taken the required measures to deal with the storm's potential effects. Cyclone shelters were opened, and medical teams were stationed along the coast.

The fire department, police, coast guard, navy, and volunteers have been requested to be on standby for emergency response in the districts of Khulna, Bagerhat, Barguna, Patuakhali, and Chattogram.

The Bangladesh Interior Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) has halted all vessel operations on the interior waterways. According to officials, the order will remain in effect until further notice.

Chattogram and Cox's Bazar maritime ports have been instructed to hoist danger signal 7, while Payra and Mongla ports have been advised to hoist danger signal 5.

All fishing boats and trawlers in the north bay and deep sea have been told to stay put until further notice.

Earlier, the authorities ordered residents of ten coastal areas to relocate to shelters by 8:00 p.m. yesterday. Patuakhali, Barishal, Pirojpur, Jhalakathi, Barguna, Chattogram, Feni, Noakhali, Laxmipur, and Chandpur are the districts.

"Around 1.5 million people from these districts will be taken to shelter centres," said Enamur Rahman, state minister for disaster management and relief, after a meeting on cyclone preparedness at the Secretariat.

The residents of Cox's Bazar's St. Martin's Island have been asked to take safe refuge, and 64 shelters have been prepared with enough dry food, according to Teknaf Upazila Nirbahi Officer Adnan Chowdhury.

He stated that some 1,400 people were taken back to Teknaf from the island on three tourist ships, and that 150 of them elected to stay.

All water vessel operations on the Teknaf-St. Martin's Island route have been halted until further notice.

Related Article: Cyclone Mocha: Hundreds of Thousands of People in Bangladesh, Myanmar to be Evacuated Due to Approaching Storm

Related Video:
Female chimps in an East African forest go through menopause and then live for years, if not decades, after being biologically incapable of reproducing.

The apes are the first known wild, nonhuman primates to undergo fertility-suppressing hormonal alterations and live much past their reproductive years.

Post-reproductive Stage

Experts have long been mystified as to why some female mammals have a long time of life when reproduction is no longer an option. Not only was it previously considered to be limited to humans and five species of whale, but its purpose has also been highly questioned.

Scientists claim to have discovered the occurrence in a non-human primate in the wild for the first time.

In a study published in the journal Science, researchers explained how they observed 185 females in the Ngogo group of wild chimps in Kibale National Park, Uganda, from 1995 to 2016.

The researchers discovered that the likelihood of giving birth decreased after chimpanzees reached the age of 30, and no births occurred in animals over the age of 50.

However, 16 females outlived this age. Females in the Ngogo village, on average, live 20 percent of their adult years-defined as beginning at the age of 14-after losing the ability to reproduce.

The researchers also examined urine samples from 66 female chimpanzees, discovering hormonal changes with age that are similar to those seen in humans after menopause.

However, previous research has not discovered a significant proportion of wild female chimpanzees in the post-reproductive stage. According to the researchers, one explanation is that the favorable conditions at Ngogo allow more females to live until they are older.

Similar explanations have been advanced to explain why many species, including chimps, go through menopause in captivity.

However, the researchers believe there is another possibility: a long period of life after reproduction has been common throughout chimp evolution, but recent human activity at other sites, including Ngogo, has hampered the survival of wild populations, including older females, due to disease and habitat loss.

"It is not obvious how selection can favor the extension of lifespan past the point at which individuals can no longer reproduce," said Dr. Kevin Langergraber, co-author of the study at Arizona State University.

Read Also: Chimpanzees: 'New Girl' Forms Stronger Female Bonds

Undisturbed Environment

Ngogo chimps live in a forest that has been protected from logging and exposure to lethal respiratory illnesses brought by humans, which may help male and female chimp longevity. Male chimps in the group live around the same amount of time as females.

Researchers suggest that menopause may have evolved in chimps living in relatively undisturbed environments, such as Kibale, as a result of young females migrating to new groups.

Following these travels, aged mothers with children become more closely associated with other breeders of both sexes and their progeny.

Females with local relatives developed to stop reproducing at advanced ages, maybe in ancient human groups as well as chimp communities, so that young females carrying new genes to the community could conceive new generations, the study suggests.

Susan Alberts, an evolutionary biologist at Duke University, is skeptical that females in slow-reproducing species like chimpanzees become genetically connected to enough individuals in a new group for that evolutionary scenario to play out.

Instead, Alberts believes that the unusually potent longevity-enhancing conditions for Ngogo chimps may enable females to demonstrate an evolved capacity for surviving much beyond the reproductive years.

She and colleagues previously examined long-term reproductive data from seven nonhuman primate species, including chimps, and an African hunter-gatherer group.

Females in nonhuman monkey species could withstand reproductive declines for a year or two, but Alberts claims that reduced death rates in hunter-gatherers resulted in longer lives following menopause.

"Menopause may be a latent trait in primates that gets revealed as mortality rates decline," she added.

Related Article: Rainforest Chimpanzees in Uganda Learn Digging Wells to Filter Drinking Water

Related Video:
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By Online Desk

Tata Group is set to become Indias first homegrown iPhone maker, reported Bloomberg News, after one of Apple Inc's key suppliers, Wistron Corp, agreed to sell a plant in South India to the Indian conglomerate.

Wistrons board approved the sale of Wistron InfoComm Manufacturing (India) Private Ltd. to Tata for $125 million (Rs 1,040 cr), Bloomberg said, quoting a statement by the Taiwanese electronics manufacturer.

The unit operates an iPhone assembly plant near Bengaluru, a person familiar with the matter said, it added.

Tata has been in talks for more than a year to take over the plant, Bloomberg added.

India's IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekar had, in July, dropped a hint about the talks.

The move comes as both India and Apple Inc are eager to position the South Asian nation as an alternative to China as an electronics manufacturing destination.

Wistron is one of three Taiwanese iPhone manufacturers in India, along with Foxconn and Pegatron.

"It has sought to diversify its business beyond thin-margin iPhone manufacturing into areas such as servers, agreeing to sell its iPhone production business in China to a competitor in 2020," the news report said.

Bloomberg also reported that Tata has accelerated hiring in its factory in Hosur, near Bengaluru, where it produces iPhone components. That plant stands on several hundred acres of land where Tata could add iPhone manufacturing lines in the coming years, it added.

Tata has also announced that it will launch 100 Apple stores in the country of 1.4 billion.

The 150-year-old Tata Group makes everything from branded salt and Tetley Tea to steel and Jaguar cars, and runs an airline and Starbucks cafes in the country. Its Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. is Asias largest IT outsourcing company and one of Indias most valuable by market capitalization.

ALSO SEE:

Apple Inc supplier Pegatron to open second India factory in Chennai: Report

iPhone maker Foxconn to set up plant in Bengaluru

Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp

Tata Group is set to become Indias first homegrown iPhone maker, reported Bloomberg News, after one of Apple Inc's key suppliers, Wistron Corp, agreed to sell a plant in South India to the Indian conglomerate. Wistrons board approved the sale of Wistron InfoComm Manufacturing (India) Private Ltd. to Tata for $125 million (Rs 1,040 cr), Bloomberg said, quoting a statement by the Taiwanese electronics manufacturer. The unit operates an iPhone assembly plant near Bengaluru, a person familiar with the matter said, it added.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Tata has been in talks for more than a year to take over the plant, Bloomberg added. India's IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekar had, in July, dropped a hint about the talks. The move comes as both India and Apple Inc are eager to position the South Asian nation as an alternative to China as an electronics manufacturing destination. Wistron is one of three Taiwanese iPhone manufacturers in India, along with Foxconn and Pegatron. "It has sought to diversify its business beyond thin-margin iPhone manufacturing into areas such as servers, agreeing to sell its iPhone production business in China to a competitor in 2020," the news report said. Bloomberg also reported that Tata has accelerated hiring in its factory in Hosur, near Bengaluru, where it produces iPhone components. That plant stands on several hundred acres of land where Tata could add iPhone manufacturing lines in the coming years, it added. Tata has also announced that it will launch 100 Apple stores in the country of 1.4 billion. The 150-year-old Tata Group makes everything from branded salt and Tetley Tea to steel and Jaguar cars, and runs an airline and Starbucks cafes in the country. Its Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. is Asias largest IT outsourcing company and one of Indias most valuable by market capitalization. ALSO SEE: Apple Inc supplier Pegatron to open second India factory in Chennai: Report iPhone maker Foxconn to set up plant in Bengaluru Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
Ujwal Jalali By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: The Special Cell of Delhi Police has arrested three people who were allegedly smuggling a huge quantity of drugs valued at approximately Rs 30 crore that entered the country through Indo-Nepal border. The accused, identified as Suddhi (34), a resident of Uttar Pradesh, Pahalman Budha Magar alias Pahalman, a resident of Delhi, and Kailye Bahadur Argeja alias Dhan Bahadur, a Nepal national, were allegedly held with 63 kg of fine quality hashish.

Special Commissioner of Police HGS Dhaliwal said they received specific information on October 19 that one person, namely Suddhi, was involved in drug trafficking activities under the directions of Umesh Yadav and Sahil Thapa, who run an international drug syndicate from Nepal.

It was also informed that after procuring the shipment of charas from Nepal, Suddhi had reached the paper market in Ghazipur, in a Swift car to deliver the consignment to the associates of Umesh Yadav and Sahil Thapa, the official said.

Suddhi was apprehended from the parking lot of the paper market in Ghazipur, Delhi, along with a Maruti Swift car. On checking the car, approximately 32 kg of fine-quality hashish was recovered from a secret cavity created at the back side of the rear seat of the car.

A day later on October 20, on the instance of arrested accused Suddhi, one person, namely Pahalman Budha Magar, the kingpin of this international drug cartel, and a Nepali citizen, was apprehended from the Arjun Nagar, Safdarjung Development Area On the instance of Pahalman Budha Magar, approximately 29 kg of fine quality hashish was recovered from his rented place at Arjun Nagar

Cartel kingpin held from near SDA

A day later on October 20, on the instance of arrested accused Suddhi, one person, namely Pahalman Budha Magar, the kingpin of this international drug cartel, and a Nepali citizen, was apprehended from the Arjun Nagar, Safdarjung Development Area

Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp

NEW DELHI: The Special Cell of Delhi Police has arrested three people who were allegedly smuggling a huge quantity of drugs valued at approximately Rs 30 crore that entered the country through Indo-Nepal border. The accused, identified as Suddhi (34), a resident of Uttar Pradesh, Pahalman Budha Magar alias Pahalman, a resident of Delhi, and Kailye Bahadur Argeja alias Dhan Bahadur, a Nepal national, were allegedly held with 63 kg of fine quality hashish. Special Commissioner of Police HGS Dhaliwal said they received specific information on October 19 that one person, namely Suddhi, was involved in drug trafficking activities under the directions of Umesh Yadav and Sahil Thapa, who run an international drug syndicate from Nepal. It was also informed that after procuring the shipment of charas from Nepal, Suddhi had reached the paper market in Ghazipur, in a Swift car to deliver the consignment to the associates of Umesh Yadav and Sahil Thapa, the official said.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Suddhi was apprehended from the parking lot of the paper market in Ghazipur, Delhi, along with a Maruti Swift car. On checking the car, approximately 32 kg of fine-quality hashish was recovered from a secret cavity created at the back side of the rear seat of the car. A day later on October 20, on the instance of arrested accused Suddhi, one person, namely Pahalman Budha Magar, the kingpin of this international drug cartel, and a Nepali citizen, was apprehended from the Arjun Nagar, Safdarjung Development Area On the instance of Pahalman Budha Magar, approximately 29 kg of fine quality hashish was recovered from his rented place at Arjun Nagar Cartel kingpin held from near SDA A day later on October 20, on the instance of arrested accused Suddhi, one person, namely Pahalman Budha Magar, the kingpin of this international drug cartel, and a Nepali citizen, was apprehended from the Arjun Nagar, Safdarjung Development Area Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
Jaison Wilson By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: NewsClick human resources department chief Amit Chakraborty has moved a Delhi court seeking bail in a case registered under the anti-terror law UAPA which is allegedly connected to the "spreading" of pro-China propaganda by the news portal.

The website's founder Prabir Purkayastha also moved a court seeking the release of his electronic devices seized by police in the case.

Special Judge Hardeep Kaur on Friday granted time to Delhi Police till November 4 to file a reply on Chakravarty's bail application and till October 31 to reply on Purkayastha's application.

Both applications were filed on October 25.

The Delhi Police special cell arrested Purkayastha and Chakraborty on October 3 and remanded to seven days of police custody on October 4. Later, they were sent to judicial custody on October 10 for ten days which was extended to five more days and expired on October 25.

Further, they were remanded to police's custody which is ongoing till November 2.

In the previous hearing, Purkayastha's counsel Advocate Arshdeep Singh Khurana argued that police need to show what the new thing they need to discover, saying all they want to do in police custody can be done in judicial custody itself.

Prior to that, he also had asked how his client as a journalist doing a critical or impartial act of journalism about the government can become any of the unlawful activities.

APP had also argued that the case was at a stage when evidence was still being collected, and the prosecution had sought judicial custody for the accused in all ''fairness''.

Chakraborty's counsel submitted that his client is only an HR head and not involved in the publication of any news on the website.

The counsel argued that all the journalistic works of his client are in the public domain.

He submitted that there is no allegation that they "used bombs, dynamite or any other explosive substance," as there is a requirement of a 'terrorist act' under 16, 17 and 18 of the UAPA act.

Khurana also argued that not a penny has come from China as funds as the police claimed while terming the FIR as "absurd."

''There is no such allegation that there is a map of India, published by NewsClick, that shows India without Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh,'' he said.

On the other hand, Additional Public Prosecutor (APP) Atul Srivastava opposed the argument saying the accused persons were not merely criticising the government but propagating the propaganda of a country that is inimical to us.

Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp

NEW DELHI: NewsClick human resources department chief Amit Chakraborty has moved a Delhi court seeking bail in a case registered under the anti-terror law UAPA which is allegedly connected to the "spreading" of pro-China propaganda by the news portal. The website's founder Prabir Purkayastha also moved a court seeking the release of his electronic devices seized by police in the case. Special Judge Hardeep Kaur on Friday granted time to Delhi Police till November 4 to file a reply on Chakravarty's bail application and till October 31 to reply on Purkayastha's application.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Both applications were filed on October 25. The Delhi Police special cell arrested Purkayastha and Chakraborty on October 3 and remanded to seven days of police custody on October 4. Later, they were sent to judicial custody on October 10 for ten days which was extended to five more days and expired on October 25. Further, they were remanded to police's custody which is ongoing till November 2. In the previous hearing, Purkayastha's counsel Advocate Arshdeep Singh Khurana argued that police need to show what the new thing they need to discover, saying all they want to do in police custody can be done in judicial custody itself. Prior to that, he also had asked how his client as a journalist doing a critical or impartial act of journalism about the government can become any of the unlawful activities. APP had also argued that the case was at a stage when evidence was still being collected, and the prosecution had sought judicial custody for the accused in all ''fairness''. Chakraborty's counsel submitted that his client is only an HR head and not involved in the publication of any news on the website. The counsel argued that all the journalistic works of his client are in the public domain. He submitted that there is no allegation that they "used bombs, dynamite or any other explosive substance," as there is a requirement of a 'terrorist act' under 16, 17 and 18 of the UAPA act. Khurana also argued that not a penny has come from China as funds as the police claimed while terming the FIR as "absurd." ''There is no such allegation that there is a map of India, published by NewsClick, that shows India without Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh,'' he said. On the other hand, Additional Public Prosecutor (APP) Atul Srivastava opposed the argument saying the accused persons were not merely criticising the government but propagating the propaganda of a country that is inimical to us. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
By Online Desk

Israel pounded northern Gaza and said it was "extending" its ground operation late Friday amid UN warnings of an "avalanche of human suffering" in the battered Palestinian territory.

"Following the series of strikes of the last days, the ground forces are extending the ground operation tonight," military spokesman Daniel Hagari told reporters.

His announcement followed two straight nights of tank incursions into Gaza.

Earlier, the military said it had increased its strikes "in a very significant way", as AFP live footage captured intense bombardment of northern Gaza.

The armed wing of the Islamist group Hamas said it responded with "salvos" of rockets aimed at Israel.

Hamas said all internet connections and communications across the territory had been cut, and accused Israel of taking the measure "to perpetrate massacres with bloody retaliatory strikes from the air, land and sea."

Israel has heavily bombarded Gaza since Hamas gunmen stormed across the border on October 7, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping over 220 others, according to Israeli officials.

The Hamas-run health ministry said Friday Israeli strikes on Gaza had now killed 7,326 people, mainly civilians and many of them children.

UN chief Antonio Guterres warned that Gaza faces "an unprecedented avalanche of human suffering" because of the lack of food, water and power during Israeli bombing in response to the October 7 attack.

The UN human rights office also raised the alarm over "war crimes" being committed as the Israel-Hamas conflict raged into its 21st day.

Concern is growing about regional fallout from the conflict, with the United States warning Iran against escalation while striking facilities in Syria it says were used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and others.

The war, now in its 21st day, is the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said Thursday that more than 7,000 Palestinians have been killed so far  more than three times the number killed in the six-week-long Gaza war in 2014.

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Israel pounded northern Gaza and said it was "extending" its ground operation late Friday amid UN warnings of an "avalanche of human suffering" in the battered Palestinian territory. "Following the series of strikes of the last days, the ground forces are extending the ground operation tonight," military spokesman Daniel Hagari told reporters. His announcement followed two straight nights of tank incursions into Gaza.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Earlier, the military said it had increased its strikes "in a very significant way", as AFP live footage captured intense bombardment of northern Gaza. The armed wing of the Islamist group Hamas said it responded with "salvos" of rockets aimed at Israel. Hamas said all internet connections and communications across the territory had been cut, and accused Israel of taking the measure "to perpetrate massacres with bloody retaliatory strikes from the air, land and sea." Israel has heavily bombarded Gaza since Hamas gunmen stormed across the border on October 7, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping over 220 others, according to Israeli officials. The Hamas-run health ministry said Friday Israeli strikes on Gaza had now killed 7,326 people, mainly civilians and many of them children. UN chief Antonio Guterres warned that Gaza faces "an unprecedented avalanche of human suffering" because of the lack of food, water and power during Israeli bombing in response to the October 7 attack. The UN human rights office also raised the alarm over "war crimes" being committed as the Israel-Hamas conflict raged into its 21st day. Concern is growing about regional fallout from the conflict, with the United States warning Iran against escalation while striking facilities in Syria it says were used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and others. The war, now in its 21st day, is the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said Thursday that more than 7,000 Palestinians have been killed so far  more than three times the number killed in the six-week-long Gaza war in 2014. Follow for updates: Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
By PTI

MEDININAGAR: A minor boy allegedly stabbed his father to death for driving his mother out of the house in Jharkhand's Palamu district, a police officer said on Friday.

The victim identified as Chotu Sharma, 42, a resident of Pakriya village was stabbed to death allegedly by his 16-year-old son on Wednesday, the officer said.

The accused fled the scene after committing the crime.

Nawajaypur police station Officer-in-Charge Sanjay Kumar Rajak said the victim had beaten his wife and drove her away from home over domestic issues a day before the incident occurred.

Peeved over his father's move, the minor killed his father on Wednesday.

The accused's mother had left for her parent's place in Chainpur of the district, the police officer said, adding that the accused boy's paternal cousin witnessed him stabbing Chotu and raised an alarm.

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MEDININAGAR: A minor boy allegedly stabbed his father to death for driving his mother out of the house in Jharkhand's Palamu district, a police officer said on Friday. The victim identified as Chotu Sharma, 42, a resident of Pakriya village was stabbed to death allegedly by his 16-year-old son on Wednesday, the officer said. The accused fled the scene after committing the crime.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Nawajaypur police station Officer-in-Charge Sanjay Kumar Rajak said the victim had beaten his wife and drove her away from home over domestic issues a day before the incident occurred. Peeved over his father's move, the minor killed his father on Wednesday. The accused's mother had left for her parent's place in Chainpur of the district, the police officer said, adding that the accused boy's paternal cousin witnessed him stabbing Chotu and raised an alarm. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
Jaison Wilson By

Express News Service

DELHI: A Delhi Court has directed the CBI to file a detailed affidavit on the "critical information" supplied by the United Kingdom on charges against British Citizen Christian Michel, an accused and alleged middleman in the VVIP helicopter scam case.

Asking the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to file an affidavit by November 2, Special Judge Arvind Kumar posted the matter for further hearing on November 3.

An application has been moved by Adv Aljo K Joseph, on behalf of Michel, after the denial of CBI to provide the information received from the UK through rogatory channels.

Michel was extradited from Dubai on December 4, 2018, and he has been in judicial custody since then.

The entire charge sheet was filed on November 26 last year. However, the applicant argued that the non-supply of a list of documents, which are un-relied and not provided to him.

In the probing part, it was revealed by sources that Investigating Officer R A Yadav has been removed and a new IO is likely to be appointed.

In his application, Michel argued that the majority of the documents were not provided to him and that the conduct of the CBI was absolute suppression of material facts before the trial court. Selective supply of the documents and the list of unrelied documents has become a grave issue in the present case, it was stated.

"..the procedure adopted by CBI in non-disclosure of material facts to the court and only such disclosure happened when the applications were made before the court, indicate that the investigation and procedure followed lacks confidence, fairness in the investigation and also transparency," the application reads.

Michel had also approached the Supreme Court against Delhi High Court's order refusing to grant him bail on the ground that he covered u/s 436A of CrPC which deals with the maximum period for which an under-trial prisoner can be detained.

He had stated in his plea that he had covered 50 per cent of his maximum sentence which according to sections 8 and 9 of the Prevention of Corruption Act was 5 years.

The CBI had alleged that there was an estimated loss of Euro 398.21 million (about Rs 2666 Crore) to the exchequer in the deal that was signed on February 8, 2010, for the supply of VVIP choppers worth Euro 556.262 million.

ED had also filed a chargesheet against Michel in June 2016, alleging that he had received EUR 30 million (about Rs 225 crore) from AgustaWestland.

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DELHI: A Delhi Court has directed the CBI to file a detailed affidavit on the "critical information" supplied by the United Kingdom on charges against British Citizen Christian Michel, an accused and alleged middleman in the VVIP helicopter scam case. Asking the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to file an affidavit by November 2, Special Judge Arvind Kumar posted the matter for further hearing on November 3. An application has been moved by Adv Aljo K Joseph, on behalf of Michel, after the denial of CBI to provide the information received from the UK through rogatory channels.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Michel was extradited from Dubai on December 4, 2018, and he has been in judicial custody since then. The entire charge sheet was filed on November 26 last year. However, the applicant argued that the non-supply of a list of documents, which are un-relied and not provided to him. In the probing part, it was revealed by sources that Investigating Officer R A Yadav has been removed and a new IO is likely to be appointed. In his application, Michel argued that the majority of the documents were not provided to him and that the conduct of the CBI was absolute suppression of material facts before the trial court. Selective supply of the documents and the list of unrelied documents has become a grave issue in the present case, it was stated. "..the procedure adopted by CBI in non-disclosure of material facts to the court and only such disclosure happened when the applications were made before the court, indicate that the investigation and procedure followed lacks confidence, fairness in the investigation and also transparency," the application reads. Michel had also approached the Supreme Court against Delhi High Court's order refusing to grant him bail on the ground that he covered u/s 436A of CrPC which deals with the maximum period for which an under-trial prisoner can be detained. He had stated in his plea that he had covered 50 per cent of his maximum sentence which according to sections 8 and 9 of the Prevention of Corruption Act was 5 years. The CBI had alleged that there was an estimated loss of Euro 398.21 million (about Rs 2666 Crore) to the exchequer in the deal that was signed on February 8, 2010, for the supply of VVIP choppers worth Euro 556.262 million. ED had also filed a chargesheet against Michel in June 2016, alleging that he had received EUR 30 million (about Rs 225 crore) from AgustaWestland. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
Dilip Singh Kshatriya By

Express News Service

AHMEDABAD: The Surat Crime Branch, Unit of Gujarat Police apprehended a Bangladeshi national Abu Bakar alias Alim Haq from the Vesu area of Surat city. Abu communicated with Humayu Khan, who is wanted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection with an al-Qaida terror investigation. Police also seized a fake Aadhaar card and a Bangladeshi I-card from him. According to police, he was born in Bangladesh and grew up in Ahmedabad.

According to a press release issued by the Surat Crime Branch, The team received information about an accused who has links to organizations such as Al Qaeda. Acting on the information, the crime branch team went to Vesu, Canal Road, Surat, and apprehended accused Abu Bakar Hazrat Ali alias Aleem Haq Bayjar Ali Khan.

Surat police discovered an Indian document Aadhaar Card, a copy of the Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh National I.D. Card, a copy of the accused's birth certificate in English and Bangladeshi, and two mobile phones during the investigation. Said press release

Police sources said Bakar is a Bangladeshi native who previously lived in Ahmedabad's Vatva area since 2015. He relocated to Surat four months ago. He was looking for work in Surat.

During the investigation, Surat police found out that Abu Bakar was associated with Humayu Khan, a wanted in the terror probe case by the National investigation agency, The Surat crime branch taking his presence in Surat seriously and is probing why he was sifted to Surat. Said police official

The case, in which Humayu is wanted while four others have already been apprehended, was registered with the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) Gujrat and later referred to the NIA. It was later revealed that four arrested individuals were sending funds to Humayu. Cops suspect Bakar of sending funds to Humayu because he was also in contact with him.

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AHMEDABAD: The Surat Crime Branch, Unit of Gujarat Police apprehended a Bangladeshi national Abu Bakar alias Alim Haq from the Vesu area of Surat city. Abu communicated with Humayu Khan, who is wanted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection with an al-Qaida terror investigation. Police also seized a fake Aadhaar card and a Bangladeshi I-card from him. According to police, he was born in Bangladesh and grew up in Ahmedabad. According to a press release issued by the Surat Crime Branch, The team received information about an accused who has links to organizations such as Al Qaeda. Acting on the information, the crime branch team went to Vesu, Canal Road, Surat, and apprehended accused Abu Bakar Hazrat Ali alias Aleem Haq Bayjar Ali Khan. Surat police discovered an Indian document Aadhaar Card, a copy of the Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh National I.D. Card, a copy of the accused's birth certificate in English and Bangladeshi, and two mobile phones during the investigation. Said press releasegoogletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Police sources said Bakar is a Bangladeshi native who previously lived in Ahmedabad's Vatva area since 2015. He relocated to Surat four months ago. He was looking for work in Surat. During the investigation, Surat police found out that Abu Bakar was associated with Humayu Khan, a wanted in the terror probe case by the National investigation agency, The Surat crime branch taking his presence in Surat seriously and is probing why he was sifted to Surat. Said police official The case, in which Humayu is wanted while four others have already been apprehended, was registered with the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) Gujrat and later referred to the NIA. It was later revealed that four arrested individuals were sending funds to Humayu. Cops suspect Bakar of sending funds to Humayu because he was also in contact with him. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
Ramashankar By

Express News Service

PATNA: BJP MP from Maharajganj Janardan Singh Sigriwal along with 16 others have been named as accused for allegedly inciting a mob that attacked police to get vehicles fitted with DJ and public address system released from police custody in Saran district.

The incident took place during the idol immersion of Goddess Durga in Nai Bazar under Bhagwan Bazar police station in Saran district on Friday morning. Two groups of people belonging to different communities clashed with each other over the playing of the DJ in full volume during the idol immersion procession. Over six people were injured in brick-batting.

The clash prompted the local police to seize the vehicles from the spot. Police claimed that BJP MP Sigriwal later reached Bhagwan Bazar police station and incited a mob to get the vehicles released from police custody. Singhwal's car was spotted outside the police station when the incident took place.

Saran Superintendent of Police Gaurav Mangla later visited the spot and deployed additional forces to bring the situation under control. The state home department also used emergency provisions under the Indian Telegraph Act to enforce the suspension of internet services in the district headquarters town till Sunday.

We have taken precautionary measures to prevent escalation of trouble in the Chhapra, district headquarters of Saran. The decision about restoration of internet services will be taken after review of the situation on Sunday (at 6 PM), said a DIG rank officer, who is camping in the town to take stock of the situation.

The officer who didn't wish to be named said that 10 persons had been detained for interrogation on the basis of a preliminary investigation into the incident. A policeman also suffered injuries in stone pelting, he said, adding that senior officers were monitoring the situation in the town.

Later talking to media persons Sigriwal said that he was not afraid of his name being dragged in the communal clashes in Chhapra. Saran district administration is working under pressure of some officials of the state government. But that will not affect me anymore, he said.

Earlier communal clashes had broken out in Begusarai district. Union minister Giriraj Singh took a potshot on a communal flare-up in Begusarai, his constituency and alleged that people belonging to a particular section were being harassed by the district authorities.

The state government had earlier claimed that elaborate security arrangements have been made for the Dussehra and troublemakers would be dealt sternly. However, clashes broke out in Saran and Begusarai districts.

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PATNA: BJP MP from Maharajganj Janardan Singh Sigriwal along with 16 others have been named as accused for allegedly inciting a mob that attacked police to get vehicles fitted with DJ and public address system released from police custody in Saran district. The incident took place during the idol immersion of Goddess Durga in Nai Bazar under Bhagwan Bazar police station in Saran district on Friday morning. Two groups of people belonging to different communities clashed with each other over the playing of the DJ in full volume during the idol immersion procession. Over six people were injured in brick-batting. The clash prompted the local police to seize the vehicles from the spot. Police claimed that BJP MP Sigriwal later reached Bhagwan Bazar police station and incited a mob to get the vehicles released from police custody. Singhwal's car was spotted outside the police station when the incident took place.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Saran Superintendent of Police Gaurav Mangla later visited the spot and deployed additional forces to bring the situation under control. The state home department also used emergency provisions under the Indian Telegraph Act to enforce the suspension of internet services in the district headquarters town till Sunday. We have taken precautionary measures to prevent escalation of trouble in the Chhapra, district headquarters of Saran. The decision about restoration of internet services will be taken after review of the situation on Sunday (at 6 PM), said a DIG rank officer, who is camping in the town to take stock of the situation. The officer who didn't wish to be named said that 10 persons had been detained for interrogation on the basis of a preliminary investigation into the incident. A policeman also suffered injuries in stone pelting, he said, adding that senior officers were monitoring the situation in the town. Later talking to media persons Sigriwal said that he was not afraid of his name being dragged in the communal clashes in Chhapra. Saran district administration is working under pressure of some officials of the state government. But that will not affect me anymore, he said. Earlier communal clashes had broken out in Begusarai district. Union minister Giriraj Singh took a potshot on a communal flare-up in Begusarai, his constituency and alleged that people belonging to a particular section were being harassed by the district authorities. The state government had earlier claimed that elaborate security arrangements have been made for the Dussehra and troublemakers would be dealt sternly. However, clashes broke out in Saran and Begusarai districts. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
By PTI

JAMMU: The intermittent exchange of fire between Pakistani Rangers and BSF personnel along the International Border in Arnia and RS Pura sectors of Jammu district ended early Friday, officials said. It continued for close to seven hours.

Scores of families that had fled the border hamlets overnight after the unprovoked firing by Pakistani Rangers have now started returning to their homes.

A Border Security Force (BSF) jawan and a civilian were injured in the cross-border firing targeting five Indian posts along the International Border (IB) on Thursday night.

BSF Constable Basva Raj suffered minor splinter injuries in both hands due to shelling. A local, Rajni Devi of Arnia, suffered minor injuries, it said. They were shifted to the GMC Hospital in Jammu

"BSF continues to monitor the developments closely while assessing the situation and remains alert to respond as necessary to ensure the safety and security of the border and its residents," the force said.

The BSF had effectively retaliated to the firing.

"The firing has stopped (from across the border). There is calm now", a senior BSF officer said.

Pakistan Rangers had fired 82 and 120 mm mortar shells and used heavy machine guns, triggering fear among the border dwellers.

Several people in Arnia, Treva, Suchetgarh and Jabowal, particularly migrant labourers, had left the border hamlets on Thursday night when the unprovoked firing started.

Several families had taken shelter in bunkers, temples and other safe areas in the border area.

People of border villages said they witnessed such intense firing and shelling after many years.

"We were eating food when the firing began. We left the food and ran along with our families," Joginder Kumar, a labourer from Bihar, said. Kumar, who along with 51 others, including women and children, had taken shelter in a temple in Arnia after leaving a forward village due to shelling, said they were terrified.

"We had heard about it (firing). Now we have seen it", he said.

In a forward hamlet where a mortar shell hit a house, Ekta Devi said, "By God's grace, we were saved. There was a lot of firing till this morning. All glass windows broke".

Another villager Rakesh Kumar, who along with several villagers had taken shelter in a bunker in the forward village, said they are now returning to their village.

"There was intense firing and shelling after many years. There was peace for the past two years. Pakistan cannot be trusted", he said.

ALSO READ | Pakistani troops open fire at Indian posts in Jammu, BSF retaliating 'befittingly'

Many videos went viral on social media which showed people fleeing their dwellings when the firing started. In Arnia, many guests fled from a wedding ceremony when the firing started. We continued with the marriage.

Most of the people left after the firing started, Kuldeep, a relative of the bridegroom said. This is the second ceasefire violation in October.

On October 19, two BSF jawans were injured in firing by Pakistan Rangers at the Vikram post along the IB in the Arnia sector.

India and Pakistan signed a ceasefire agreement on February 25, 2021, in which both nations agreed to strictly observe all agreements on ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir and other sectors.

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JAMMU: The intermittent exchange of fire between Pakistani Rangers and BSF personnel along the International Border in Arnia and RS Pura sectors of Jammu district ended early Friday, officials said. It continued for close to seven hours. Scores of families that had fled the border hamlets overnight after the unprovoked firing by Pakistani Rangers have now started returning to their homes. A Border Security Force (BSF) jawan and a civilian were injured in the cross-border firing targeting five Indian posts along the International Border (IB) on Thursday night.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); BSF Constable Basva Raj suffered minor splinter injuries in both hands due to shelling. A local, Rajni Devi of Arnia, suffered minor injuries, it said. They were shifted to the GMC Hospital in Jammu "BSF continues to monitor the developments closely while assessing the situation and remains alert to respond as necessary to ensure the safety and security of the border and its residents," the force said. The BSF had effectively retaliated to the firing. "The firing has stopped (from across the border). There is calm now", a senior BSF officer said. Pakistan Rangers had fired 82 and 120 mm mortar shells and used heavy machine guns, triggering fear among the border dwellers. Several people in Arnia, Treva, Suchetgarh and Jabowal, particularly migrant labourers, had left the border hamlets on Thursday night when the unprovoked firing started. Several families had taken shelter in bunkers, temples and other safe areas in the border area. People of border villages said they witnessed such intense firing and shelling after many years. "We were eating food when the firing began. We left the food and ran along with our families," Joginder Kumar, a labourer from Bihar, said. Kumar, who along with 51 others, including women and children, had taken shelter in a temple in Arnia after leaving a forward village due to shelling, said they were terrified. "We had heard about it (firing). Now we have seen it", he said. In a forward hamlet where a mortar shell hit a house, Ekta Devi said, "By God's grace, we were saved. There was a lot of firing till this morning. All glass windows broke". Another villager Rakesh Kumar, who along with several villagers had taken shelter in a bunker in the forward village, said they are now returning to their village. "There was intense firing and shelling after many years. There was peace for the past two years. Pakistan cannot be trusted", he said. ALSO READ | Pakistani troops open fire at Indian posts in Jammu, BSF retaliating 'befittingly' Many videos went viral on social media which showed people fleeing their dwellings when the firing started. In Arnia, many guests fled from a wedding ceremony when the firing started. We continued with the marriage. Most of the people left after the firing started, Kuldeep, a relative of the bridegroom said. This is the second ceasefire violation in October. On October 19, two BSF jawans were injured in firing by Pakistan Rangers at the Vikram post along the IB in the Arnia sector. India and Pakistan signed a ceasefire agreement on February 25, 2021, in which both nations agreed to strictly observe all agreements on ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir and other sectors. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
Namita Bajpai By

Express News Service

LUCKNOW: Jailed gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, 60, was awarded 10-year rigorous imprisonment by the Ghazipur MP/MLA court on Friday in connection with the 13-year-old Gangster Act case lodged against him in 2010 after the murder of a teacher Kapil Deo Singh under Karanda police station area of Ghazipur in 2009 and an attempt to murder case in 2010 in which he was accused as a key conspirator.

The court also slapped a penalty of Rs 5 lakh on the jailed gangster while his close aide Sonu Yadav was given a rigorous imprisonment of five years with a penalty of Rs 2 lakh.

This was the sixth conviction in the last 13 months of Mukhtar Ansari who is presently lodged in Banda jail. The Ghazipur MP/MLA Court had convicted Ansari on Thursday in the Gangster Case of 2010.

Ansari, a five-time MLA, has over 60 criminal cases of murder, kidnapping, abduction, extortion, intimidation, illegal arms possession, etc. lodged against him.

As per Ghazipur additional district government counsel (criminal) Neeraj Srivastava, Kapil Deo Singh was a resident of Sabua. After the murder of Kapil Deo Singh in 2009 and attempt to murder of Mir Hasan, police registered a case under the Gangster Act against Mukhtar Ansari based on the complaints in the two cases.

Ansari was earlier convicted by Varanasi MP/MLA court on June 5 this year and was sentenced to life imprisonment in connection with the murder of Awadesh Rai, the elder brother of former Congress MLA and present UP Congress president Ajay Rai.

On April 29, 2023, the Ghazipur MP/MLA court had sentenced Ansari to 10 years of imprisonment in another case registered against him under the Gangster Act in 2007 in connection with the killing of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai on November 29, 2005, and the abduction-murder of BJP leader Kishore Rungta on January 22, 1997.

In the 2007 case, Mukhtar and his MP brother Afzal Ansari were convicted and slapped with a 10-year and four-year sentence, respectively. The court had imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh and Rs 1 lakh on Mukhtar and Afzal Ansari.

The UP special DG, law and order, Prashant Kumar said the sentencing of Mukhtar Ansari, a former MLA, in long-pending cases was possible only due to the effective monitoring of prosecution officials as well as the strong commitment and zero political interference in action against criminal elements.

Ansaris first conviction in the last 13 months was held by the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court which had sentenced him to seven years of imprisonment on September 21, 2022, for threatening the jailor of the Lucknow district jail in 2003.

Ansaris second conviction was done by the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court that was hearing a Gangster Act case registered against the ex-MLA in 1999. He was awarded two years of imprisonment and slapped with a fine of Rs 10,000. His third conviction was also in a Gangster Act case registered in Ghazipur district in 1999, wherein a local court sentenced him to 10 years of imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on him on December 15, 2022.

Ansari was convicted for the first time by a Delhi court and sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment on February 4, 2003 in a Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (TADA) case lodged against him on December 10, 1993. The Supreme Court later set aside the Delhi court conviction and acquitted him on April 21, 2005.

According to UP police authorities, so far, properties over worth Rs 300 crore owned by Ansari and his gang members have been confiscated under the provisions of the Gangster Act. His properties worth Rs 284.77 lakh were demolished, and illegal possessions were freed from Ansari and his men.

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LUCKNOW: Jailed gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, 60, was awarded 10-year rigorous imprisonment by the Ghazipur MP/MLA court on Friday in connection with the 13-year-old Gangster Act case lodged against him in 2010 after the murder of a teacher Kapil Deo Singh under Karanda police station area of Ghazipur in 2009 and an attempt to murder case in 2010 in which he was accused as a key conspirator. The court also slapped a penalty of Rs 5 lakh on the jailed gangster while his close aide Sonu Yadav was given a rigorous imprisonment of five years with a penalty of Rs 2 lakh. This was the sixth conviction in the last 13 months of Mukhtar Ansari who is presently lodged in Banda jail. The Ghazipur MP/MLA Court had convicted Ansari on Thursday in the Gangster Case of 2010.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Ansari, a five-time MLA, has over 60 criminal cases of murder, kidnapping, abduction, extortion, intimidation, illegal arms possession, etc. lodged against him. As per Ghazipur additional district government counsel (criminal) Neeraj Srivastava, Kapil Deo Singh was a resident of Sabua. After the murder of Kapil Deo Singh in 2009 and attempt to murder of Mir Hasan, police registered a case under the Gangster Act against Mukhtar Ansari based on the complaints in the two cases. Ansari was earlier convicted by Varanasi MP/MLA court on June 5 this year and was sentenced to life imprisonment in connection with the murder of Awadesh Rai, the elder brother of former Congress MLA and present UP Congress president Ajay Rai. On April 29, 2023, the Ghazipur MP/MLA court had sentenced Ansari to 10 years of imprisonment in another case registered against him under the Gangster Act in 2007 in connection with the killing of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai on November 29, 2005, and the abduction-murder of BJP leader Kishore Rungta on January 22, 1997. In the 2007 case, Mukhtar and his MP brother Afzal Ansari were convicted and slapped with a 10-year and four-year sentence, respectively. The court had imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh and Rs 1 lakh on Mukhtar and Afzal Ansari. The UP special DG, law and order, Prashant Kumar said the sentencing of Mukhtar Ansari, a former MLA, in long-pending cases was possible only due to the effective monitoring of prosecution officials as well as the strong commitment and zero political interference in action against criminal elements. Ansaris first conviction in the last 13 months was held by the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court which had sentenced him to seven years of imprisonment on September 21, 2022, for threatening the jailor of the Lucknow district jail in 2003. Ansaris second conviction was done by the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court that was hearing a Gangster Act case registered against the ex-MLA in 1999. He was awarded two years of imprisonment and slapped with a fine of Rs 10,000. His third conviction was also in a Gangster Act case registered in Ghazipur district in 1999, wherein a local court sentenced him to 10 years of imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on him on December 15, 2022. Ansari was convicted for the first time by a Delhi court and sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment on February 4, 2003 in a Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (TADA) case lodged against him on December 10, 1993. The Supreme Court later set aside the Delhi court conviction and acquitted him on April 21, 2005. According to UP police authorities, so far, properties over worth Rs 300 crore owned by Ansari and his gang members have been confiscated under the provisions of the Gangster Act. His properties worth Rs 284.77 lakh were demolished, and illegal possessions were freed from Ansari and his men. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
By ANI

KOZHIKODE (Kerala): Pointing out that the world was witnessing its worst tragedy, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor alleged that Israel's response to the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack was "disproportionate," as a greater number of Palestinian people were killed in the past 19 days compared to those who lost their lives in the region since the year 2008.

Addressing an event organised to express solidarity with the Palestine people by the Indian United Muslim League (IUML) in Kerala's Kozhikode on Thursday, Tharoor urged Israel to end air strikes in Gaza adding that India has always stood for peace since Mahatama Gandhi.

"Since 19 days, the world has seen the worst human-rights tragedies. We are seeing the worst tragedy. Terrorists attacked Israel, Hamas is a terror group. Israel stopped providing food, water and electricity to Gaza. We are condemning the bombing of Israel," Tharoor said at the event held at Kozhikode beach.

Tharoor, who had previoulsy served as a UN diplomat said the ongoing air strikes in Gaza by Israel in response to the Hamas attack was "disproportionate." Reiterating Bapu's words, Tharoor said, "An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind. India has always stood for peace since Gandhi."

He also highlighted that the ongoing crisis is not a Muslim issue but a human rights issue and said "war knows no religion."

"Israel calls their operation, 'Swords of Iron', but now those swords are dipped in the blood of children. The bombing has caused a lot of injuries and innocent people are suffering and they are dying. Many are living under suffocating occupation," Tharoor said.

He said that over 6,000 Palestinians and 300 Israelis were killed in clashes in the area between 2008 and September this year and the number of those who died since October 7, however, was much more.

"While 1,400 Israelis died in the Hamas terrorist attack, many more were killed in Gaza when Israel responded to it.....Innocent civilians are dying," Tharoor said.

Tharoor urged Israel to end the war and further appealed to the world to unite to "end the human rights violations inflicted on the Palestinian people". "Now, it is more than time to announce a ceasefire," the Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram said.

While addressing the rally, IUML national general secretary PK Kunhalikutty said that the biggest weapon in the world is public opinion and that showing solidarity will bring results.

"Children are dying. We all are here to shed tears for the brutality in Gaza. We have no weapons to send there or save them. This rally will yield fruit because the biggest weapon in the world is public opinion. Global leaders are joining in solidarity. That's how we also joined this. Solidarity has made results here. Killings should stop in Palestine," he said.

IUML Party workers gathered in strength for Thursday's rally, which was presided over by Kunhalikutty with Shashi Tharoor as Chief Guest. IUML state president Panakkad Sayyid Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal inaugurated the rally.

In his speech, Thangal said "Israel's occupation has created Palestine conflict. They are trying to survive. They are trying the defend their land. Stop genocide killings. This conflict has started since 1947. Gandhi criticised Israeli occupation. Nehru, Manmohan Singh, even Vajpayee also took a stand against the Israeli occupation of Palestine... They all stood with justice. The current government is trying to dilute that stand and make Israel look holy."

ALSO READ | Israel-Hamas war LIVE: Israeli tanks briefly enter Gaza, airstrikes kill more Palestinians

"They are trying to whitewash Israel. We should stand with marginalised. India's policy is to support the vulnerable people. Israel is the biggest terrorist country. Whoever is supporting Israel they are supporting terror. Justice will rise over there that's why we are having this rally. With our prayers let their wounds be healed," the IUML leader said.

On attending the IUML's solidarity rally, Tharoor said, "India is one of the handful of countries that maintains ambassadors in both Israel and Palestine and enjoys good relations with both. We should be a voice for peace amid the carnage."

After the October 7 attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip by Hamas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set up a war cabinet and the Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant said they will launch a ground offensive on Gaza, seeking to "wipe off from the face of earth" the Palestine-terror group. (ANI)

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KOZHIKODE (Kerala): Pointing out that the world was witnessing its worst tragedy, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor alleged that Israel's response to the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack was "disproportionate," as a greater number of Palestinian people were killed in the past 19 days compared to those who lost their lives in the region since the year 2008. Addressing an event organised to express solidarity with the Palestine people by the Indian United Muslim League (IUML) in Kerala's Kozhikode on Thursday, Tharoor urged Israel to end air strikes in Gaza adding that India has always stood for peace since Mahatama Gandhi. "Since 19 days, the world has seen the worst human-rights tragedies. We are seeing the worst tragedy. Terrorists attacked Israel, Hamas is a terror group. Israel stopped providing food, water and electricity to Gaza. We are condemning the bombing of Israel," Tharoor said at the event held at Kozhikode beach.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Tharoor, who had previoulsy served as a UN diplomat said the ongoing air strikes in Gaza by Israel in response to the Hamas attack was "disproportionate." Reiterating Bapu's words, Tharoor said, "An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind. India has always stood for peace since Gandhi." He also highlighted that the ongoing crisis is not a Muslim issue but a human rights issue and said "war knows no religion." "Israel calls their operation, 'Swords of Iron', but now those swords are dipped in the blood of children. The bombing has caused a lot of injuries and innocent people are suffering and they are dying. Many are living under suffocating occupation," Tharoor said. He said that over 6,000 Palestinians and 300 Israelis were killed in clashes in the area between 2008 and September this year and the number of those who died since October 7, however, was much more. "While 1,400 Israelis died in the Hamas terrorist attack, many more were killed in Gaza when Israel responded to it.....Innocent civilians are dying," Tharoor said. Tharoor urged Israel to end the war and further appealed to the world to unite to "end the human rights violations inflicted on the Palestinian people". "Now, it is more than time to announce a ceasefire," the Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram said. While addressing the rally, IUML national general secretary PK Kunhalikutty said that the biggest weapon in the world is public opinion and that showing solidarity will bring results. "Children are dying. We all are here to shed tears for the brutality in Gaza. We have no weapons to send there or save them. This rally will yield fruit because the biggest weapon in the world is public opinion. Global leaders are joining in solidarity. That's how we also joined this. Solidarity has made results here. Killings should stop in Palestine," he said. IUML Party workers gathered in strength for Thursday's rally, which was presided over by Kunhalikutty with Shashi Tharoor as Chief Guest. IUML state president Panakkad Sayyid Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal inaugurated the rally. In his speech, Thangal said "Israel's occupation has created Palestine conflict. They are trying to survive. They are trying the defend their land. Stop genocide killings. This conflict has started since 1947. Gandhi criticised Israeli occupation. Nehru, Manmohan Singh, even Vajpayee also took a stand against the Israeli occupation of Palestine... They all stood with justice. The current government is trying to dilute that stand and make Israel look holy." ALSO READ | Israel-Hamas war LIVE: Israeli tanks briefly enter Gaza, airstrikes kill more Palestinians "They are trying to whitewash Israel. We should stand with marginalised. India's policy is to support the vulnerable people. Israel is the biggest terrorist country. Whoever is supporting Israel they are supporting terror. Justice will rise over there that's why we are having this rally. With our prayers let their wounds be healed," the IUML leader said. On attending the IUML's solidarity rally, Tharoor said, "India is one of the handful of countries that maintains ambassadors in both Israel and Palestine and enjoys good relations with both. We should be a voice for peace amid the carnage." After the October 7 attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip by Hamas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set up a war cabinet and the Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant said they will launch a ground offensive on Gaza, seeking to "wipe off from the face of earth" the Palestine-terror group. (ANI) Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
Mukesh Ranjan By

Express News Service

To appease the tribal vote bank ahead of the 2024 polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to visit the birthplace of local tribal hero and freedom fighter Bhagwan Birsa Munda in Jharkhand on November 15. Notably in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, BJP managed to win Khunti, Lohardaga and Dumka (ST) reserve seats while Singhbhum and Rajmahal went into the account of Congress and JMM respectively.

Whereas, out of 28 seats reserved (ST) seats in the 2019 Assembly polls, BJP could register victory only on 2 seats as against 13 seats in the 2014 Assembly polls. BJPs loss in the 2019 polls was mainly attributed to the tribal anger against the saffron brigade owing to wrong policy decisions for tribals by the then Raghubar Das government.

Concerned with the shrinking vote bank in tribal areas, BJP is making all efforts to win the confidence of tribal voters, which is said to be a traditional vote bank of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha. Notably, the Centre has been celebrating Birsa Mundas birth anniversary on November 15 as Janjatiya Gaurav Diwas since 2021 intending to honour the special place and contributions of tribes in Indian history and culture.

PM Modi has often said that Bhagwan Birsa Munda was not just the hero of our freedom struggle but was a carrier of our spiritual and cultural energy. Last year, President Droupadi Murmu visited Ulihatu, the birthplace of Birsa Munda, located in the Khunti district of Jharkhand. District administration, however, is tightlipped over the issue saying that they are fully prepared to welcome anybody who visits the place.

We are all prepared to welcome anybody whoever visits the place, but as far as the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is concerned, we have no any official confirmation in this regard so far, said Khunti DC Lokesh Mishra. Though the PMs official itinerary has not reached the state government, sources said that Modi will address a public meeting and announce various welfare schemes for the tribals.

The visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Ulihatu will be crucial for Jharkhand which will be going to polls next year for Lok Sabha as well as Assembly polls as tribal votes are said to be the deciding factor in the state. Modi has often said that Bhagwan Birsa Munda was not just the hero of our freedom struggle but was a carrier of our spiritual and cultural energy. BJP, with an eye on the 2019 Lok Sabha and Assembly polls, also appointed Babulal Marandi as State party chief replacing Deepak Prakash.

According to political experts, there are two big challenges before the BJP here in 2024-polls -- first, to repeat the 2019 Lok Sabha election results, and second, to regain the lost power of the state in the Assembly elections scheduled next year. The BJP has chosen Marandi to lead in both the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in 2024 to storm Chief Minister Hemant Sorens tribal citadel, they said.

Meanwhile, Soren is also trying hard to consolidate the tribal and moolwasi votes by bringing one after another bills passed in the Assembly. National BJP President JP Nadda will also visit Jharkhand on October 28 to take part in the concluding ceremony of Sankalp Yatra being undertaken by Jharkhand BJP Chief Babulal Marandi.

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To appease the tribal vote bank ahead of the 2024 polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to visit the birthplace of local tribal hero and freedom fighter Bhagwan Birsa Munda in Jharkhand on November 15. Notably in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, BJP managed to win Khunti, Lohardaga and Dumka (ST) reserve seats while Singhbhum and Rajmahal went into the account of Congress and JMM respectively. Whereas, out of 28 seats reserved (ST) seats in the 2019 Assembly polls, BJP could register victory only on 2 seats as against 13 seats in the 2014 Assembly polls. BJPs loss in the 2019 polls was mainly attributed to the tribal anger against the saffron brigade owing to wrong policy decisions for tribals by the then Raghubar Das government. Concerned with the shrinking vote bank in tribal areas, BJP is making all efforts to win the confidence of tribal voters, which is said to be a traditional vote bank of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha. Notably, the Centre has been celebrating Birsa Mundas birth anniversary on November 15 as Janjatiya Gaurav Diwas since 2021 intending to honour the special place and contributions of tribes in Indian history and culture.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); PM Modi has often said that Bhagwan Birsa Munda was not just the hero of our freedom struggle but was a carrier of our spiritual and cultural energy. Last year, President Droupadi Murmu visited Ulihatu, the birthplace of Birsa Munda, located in the Khunti district of Jharkhand. District administration, however, is tightlipped over the issue saying that they are fully prepared to welcome anybody who visits the place. We are all prepared to welcome anybody whoever visits the place, but as far as the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is concerned, we have no any official confirmation in this regard so far, said Khunti DC Lokesh Mishra. Though the PMs official itinerary has not reached the state government, sources said that Modi will address a public meeting and announce various welfare schemes for the tribals. The visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Ulihatu will be crucial for Jharkhand which will be going to polls next year for Lok Sabha as well as Assembly polls as tribal votes are said to be the deciding factor in the state. Modi has often said that Bhagwan Birsa Munda was not just the hero of our freedom struggle but was a carrier of our spiritual and cultural energy. BJP, with an eye on the 2019 Lok Sabha and Assembly polls, also appointed Babulal Marandi as State party chief replacing Deepak Prakash. According to political experts, there are two big challenges before the BJP here in 2024-polls -- first, to repeat the 2019 Lok Sabha election results, and second, to regain the lost power of the state in the Assembly elections scheduled next year. The BJP has chosen Marandi to lead in both the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in 2024 to storm Chief Minister Hemant Sorens tribal citadel, they said. Meanwhile, Soren is also trying hard to consolidate the tribal and moolwasi votes by bringing one after another bills passed in the Assembly. National BJP President JP Nadda will also visit Jharkhand on October 28 to take part in the concluding ceremony of Sankalp Yatra being undertaken by Jharkhand BJP Chief Babulal Marandi. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
Preetha Nair By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: The Ethics Committee of the Lok Sabha has summoned Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra to depose before it on October 31 in connection with the cash-for-query allegations levelled against her by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey.

The 15-member panel led by BJP MP Vinod Kumar Sonkar also wrote to the home and IT ministries to probe whether Moitra breached rules by sharing her Parliament login credentials to raise questions in the Lower House.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Sonkar said: The committee heard the views of both complainants and the allegations are of serious nature. The committee has decided to call Mahua Moitra to depose before it on October 31.

The committee recorded oral statements of Supreme Court lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai and Dubey, who had accused Moitra of accepting favours for asking questions in Lok Sabha at the behest of businessman Darshan Hiranandani to target the Adani Group and PM Narendra Modi. The report will be submitted to the Speaker.

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NEW DELHI: The Ethics Committee of the Lok Sabha has summoned Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra to depose before it on October 31 in connection with the cash-for-query allegations levelled against her by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey. The 15-member panel led by BJP MP Vinod Kumar Sonkar also wrote to the home and IT ministries to probe whether Moitra breached rules by sharing her Parliament login credentials to raise questions in the Lower House. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Sonkar said: The committee heard the views of both complainants and the allegations are of serious nature. The committee has decided to call Mahua Moitra to depose before it on October 31. googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); The committee recorded oral statements of Supreme Court lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai and Dubey, who had accused Moitra of accepting favours for asking questions in Lok Sabha at the behest of businessman Darshan Hiranandani to target the Adani Group and PM Narendra Modi. The report will be submitted to the Speaker. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
By PTI

NEW DELHI: The Pakistan Rangers opened unprovoked firing at Indian posts along the International Border in the Arnia sector in Jammu Thursday night, a senior BSF official said, adding that its troops were retaliating "befittingly" to it.

#WATCH | A Border Security Force (BSF) personnel has sustained minor injury in an unprovoked firing by Pakistan Rangers in Jammu and Kashmir's Arnia sector. He is receiving medical aid in a local hospital. pic.twitter.com/cEH2pk2YDM  ANI (@ANI) October 27, 2023

The firing by Pakistani troops started around 8 p.m., the Border Security Force (BSF) said.

"The firing is still on," it added.

"Tonight at about 2000 hours, unprovoked firing started by Pak Rangers on BSF posts in Arnia area which is being befittingly retaliated by BSF troops," the BSF said.

This comes a week after two BSF personnel were injured after the Rangers "resorted to unprovoked firing" in the Arnia sector around the same time on October 17.

There have been more than a dozen such ceasefire violations after India and Pakistan signed an agreement on February 25, 2021, to strictly observe all agreements on ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir and other sectors.

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NEW DELHI: The Pakistan Rangers opened unprovoked firing at Indian posts along the International Border in the Arnia sector in Jammu Thursday night, a senior BSF official said, adding that its troops were retaliating "befittingly" to it. #WATCH | A Border Security Force (BSF) personnel has sustained minor injury in an unprovoked firing by Pakistan Rangers in Jammu and Kashmir's Arnia sector. He is receiving medical aid in a local hospital. pic.twitter.com/cEH2pk2YDM  ANI (@ANI) October 27, 2023 The firing by Pakistani troops started around 8 p.m., the Border Security Force (BSF) said.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); "The firing is still on," it added. "Tonight at about 2000 hours, unprovoked firing started by Pak Rangers on BSF posts in Arnia area which is being befittingly retaliated by BSF troops," the BSF said. This comes a week after two BSF personnel were injured after the Rangers "resorted to unprovoked firing" in the Arnia sector around the same time on October 17. There have been more than a dozen such ceasefire violations after India and Pakistan signed an agreement on February 25, 2021, to strictly observe all agreements on ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir and other sectors. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
Namita Bajpai By

Express News Service

With the confirmation of the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Ayodhya for the consecration ceremony of Lord Rams idol in sanctum sanctorum of upcoming temple on Ram Janmabhoomi premises on January 22, a section of Muslim community has made an appeal to the PM to lay the foundation stone of the proposed masjid also at Dhannipur village of Sohawal tehsil during his visit.

However, reacting immediately to the appeal, the Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation (IIFC), the body overseeing the mosque construction, said that it was unfair to politicise the mosque project by inviting the PM to lay the foundation when the map of the mosque was yet to be approved and adequate funds be collected.

Following the Supreme Court order of November 9, 2019, the Ayodhya administration had allotted 5 acres of land to Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board in Dhannipur village, about 25 km away from the Ayodhya town, for the construction of a mosque.

Modi is Indias PM. He is for Hindus and Muslims both. If he is coming to inaugurate the 'Ibadatgaah' (place of worship) of Hindu brothers, then he should also lay the foundation of the masjid, said Mufti Hisbullah Badshah Khan, president, Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind, Ayodhya unit.

State president of the Indian Union Muslim League, Najmul Hasan Ghani, who has been raising voice for the re-construction of Babri Masjid, said, I appeal to the Prime Minister to give respect to the soul of Supreme Court verdict and lay the foundation of the mosque also.

Similarly, Maulana Asim Nadwi, convenor of Payam-e-Insaniyat, a communal harmony movement of Ayodhya, felt that PMs visit to the proposed mosque site would definitely send across a positive message.

Meanwhile, reacting to the appeal made by a section of the Muslim leadership of Ayodhya, IICF secretary Athar Husain said that the PM was welcome to the mosque site but the people should refrain from giving a political colour to the proposed mosque project which was a symbol of Hindu-Muslim unity.

They should leave the things to IICF till the mosque project takes shape, said Husain.

He added that the time for laying the foundation would come only when funds were collected and the map was passed.

The PM is the highest authority of our country and we would love to have his presence at Dhannipur, but there are certain protocols attached to his visit and we would have to fulfil them, he maintained.

The IICF secretary said that some people, who were politicians, did not understand the significance of Ram Temple for the country.

Here both Muslims and Hindus have solved the century-old dispute through court and it is our responsibility to honour the courts verdict by constructing a mosque on land given in Dhannipur village. However, we are still collecting the funds and the temple is nearing completion. In such a situation, how can we invite the PM to lay foundation, wondered Athar Husain.

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With the confirmation of the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Ayodhya for the consecration ceremony of Lord Rams idol in sanctum sanctorum of upcoming temple on Ram Janmabhoomi premises on January 22, a section of Muslim community has made an appeal to the PM to lay the foundation stone of the proposed masjid also at Dhannipur village of Sohawal tehsil during his visit. However, reacting immediately to the appeal, the Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation (IIFC), the body overseeing the mosque construction, said that it was unfair to politicise the mosque project by inviting the PM to lay the foundation when the map of the mosque was yet to be approved and adequate funds be collected. Following the Supreme Court order of November 9, 2019, the Ayodhya administration had allotted 5 acres of land to Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board in Dhannipur village, about 25 km away from the Ayodhya town, for the construction of a mosque.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Modi is Indias PM. He is for Hindus and Muslims both. If he is coming to inaugurate the 'Ibadatgaah' (place of worship) of Hindu brothers, then he should also lay the foundation of the masjid, said Mufti Hisbullah Badshah Khan, president, Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind, Ayodhya unit. State president of the Indian Union Muslim League, Najmul Hasan Ghani, who has been raising voice for the re-construction of Babri Masjid, said, I appeal to the Prime Minister to give respect to the soul of Supreme Court verdict and lay the foundation of the mosque also. Similarly, Maulana Asim Nadwi, convenor of Payam-e-Insaniyat, a communal harmony movement of Ayodhya, felt that PMs visit to the proposed mosque site would definitely send across a positive message. Meanwhile, reacting to the appeal made by a section of the Muslim leadership of Ayodhya, IICF secretary Athar Husain said that the PM was welcome to the mosque site but the people should refrain from giving a political colour to the proposed mosque project which was a symbol of Hindu-Muslim unity. They should leave the things to IICF till the mosque project takes shape, said Husain. He added that the time for laying the foundation would come only when funds were collected and the map was passed. The PM is the highest authority of our country and we would love to have his presence at Dhannipur, but there are certain protocols attached to his visit and we would have to fulfil them, he maintained. The IICF secretary said that some people, who were politicians, did not understand the significance of Ram Temple for the country. Here both Muslims and Hindus have solved the century-old dispute through court and it is our responsibility to honour the courts verdict by constructing a mosque on land given in Dhannipur village. However, we are still collecting the funds and the temple is nearing completion. In such a situation, how can we invite the PM to lay foundation, wondered Athar Husain. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
By PTI

NEW DELHI: As the Law Commission holds consultations on a uniform civil code, the Standing Committee on Law and Justice has chosen the "review of personal laws" among the subjects for its examination.

In June, the Law Commission had initiated a fresh deliberation on the UCC by seeking views from stakeholders, including the public and recognised religious organisations.

In short, the UCC would translate into having a common law for all citizens of the country that is not based on religion. Personal laws and laws related to inheritance, adoption and succession are likely to be covered by a common code.

The parliamentary panel, headed by BJP's Sushil Kumar Modi, has also decided to examine remote voting and e-postal ballots for Indians residing abroad.

In November 2020, the Election Commission had proposed to the government to extend the Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System (ETPBS) facility, so far available to service voters, to eligible overseas Indian voters.

As of now, the issue is pending between the EC and the Ministry of External Affairs.

Currently, overseas Indians are free to cast their votes in constituencies they are registered in.

Review of the Right to Information Act, 2005, and the work of the Central Information Commission have also been chosen among the subjects for review.

The effectiveness of vigilance administration, the functioning of the Central Administrative Tribunal and that of the Central Vigilance Commission are some of the other subjects selected by the panel, a Lok Sabha bulletin said on Friday.

Court proceedings and judgements in regional languages, pendency of cases under the Contempt of Court Act and 24x7 virtual courts will also be examined by the committee.

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NEW DELHI: As the Law Commission holds consultations on a uniform civil code, the Standing Committee on Law and Justice has chosen the "review of personal laws" among the subjects for its examination. In June, the Law Commission had initiated a fresh deliberation on the UCC by seeking views from stakeholders, including the public and recognised religious organisations. In short, the UCC would translate into having a common law for all citizens of the country that is not based on religion. Personal laws and laws related to inheritance, adoption and succession are likely to be covered by a common code.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); The parliamentary panel, headed by BJP's Sushil Kumar Modi, has also decided to examine remote voting and e-postal ballots for Indians residing abroad. In November 2020, the Election Commission had proposed to the government to extend the Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System (ETPBS) facility, so far available to service voters, to eligible overseas Indian voters. As of now, the issue is pending between the EC and the Ministry of External Affairs. Currently, overseas Indians are free to cast their votes in constituencies they are registered in. Review of the Right to Information Act, 2005, and the work of the Central Information Commission have also been chosen among the subjects for review. The effectiveness of vigilance administration, the functioning of the Central Administrative Tribunal and that of the Central Vigilance Commission are some of the other subjects selected by the panel, a Lok Sabha bulletin said on Friday. Court proceedings and judgements in regional languages, pendency of cases under the Contempt of Court Act and 24x7 virtual courts will also be examined by the committee. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
S Guru Srikanth By

Express News Service

VIJAYAWADA: Not just depletion of water levels in reservoirs and lack of rains, but also the fast depleting groundwater levels are worrying the farmers in the State. In absence of rains and irrigation water, farmers are depending on groundwater for Rabi, but the sinking groundwater table is now worrying them.

The average groundwater levels, which witnessed a dip of 1.07 metres below ground level (MBGL) by July end this year, dipped further by end of September. Average groundwater levels in the State compared to September 2022 are 1.88 MBGL less by the end of September.

Experts point out that with large deficit rainfall recorded in the month of October, the groundwater levels will deplete further, which is a cause of concern. Central Water Commission (CWC) reports indicated that water-levels in reservoirs not just in Andhra Pradesh but across South India are not encouraging.

As per the statistics available from the Andhra Pradesh Water Resources Information Management System (APWRIMS), 23 out of 26 districts in the State have recorded depletion in groundwater level. East Godavari district recorded a staggering depletion of 9.62 MBGL, compared to the previous year. As per the data, by the end of September 2022, groundwater in East Godavari was available at a depth of 13.2 MBGL on average. However, by the end of September this year, the groundwater level had reached 22.82 MBGL.

After East Godavari, Kadapa district recorded the highest depletion of groundwater, that is 4.98 MBGL. Compared to 5.48 MBGL last September, the district has recorded depletion to 10.46 MBGL. Sri Satya Sai district has the third highest depletion of the groundwater at 4.92 MBGL. Last September, groundwater was available at the depths of 5.54 MBGL on average but by the end of September this year, it fell to 10.47 MBGL.

ALSO READ | Food stock a concern? Drought-like situation in 50 per cent of India, say experts

In Annamayya district, the groundwater table depleted by 4.21 MBGL. As against 7.01 MBGL last September, it recorded groundwater at 11.22 MBGL in the district. Palnadu recorded 3.63 MBGL depletion of groundwater levels and Kakinada district recorded 2.34 MBGL depletion.

However, data reveals that three districts showed an increase in groundwater level. Eluru district showed the highest increase of 0.51 MBGL, recording 19.7 MBGL as against 20.22 MBGL last year. Konaseema district witnessed 0.36 MBGL increase and Krishna district witnessed 0.03 MBGL increase in groundwater level.

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VIJAYAWADA: Not just depletion of water levels in reservoirs and lack of rains, but also the fast depleting groundwater levels are worrying the farmers in the State. In absence of rains and irrigation water, farmers are depending on groundwater for Rabi, but the sinking groundwater table is now worrying them. The average groundwater levels, which witnessed a dip of 1.07 metres below ground level (MBGL) by July end this year, dipped further by end of September. Average groundwater levels in the State compared to September 2022 are 1.88 MBGL less by the end of September. Experts point out that with large deficit rainfall recorded in the month of October, the groundwater levels will deplete further, which is a cause of concern. Central Water Commission (CWC) reports indicated that water-levels in reservoirs not just in Andhra Pradesh but across South India are not encouraging.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); As per the statistics available from the Andhra Pradesh Water Resources Information Management System (APWRIMS), 23 out of 26 districts in the State have recorded depletion in groundwater level. East Godavari district recorded a staggering depletion of 9.62 MBGL, compared to the previous year. As per the data, by the end of September 2022, groundwater in East Godavari was available at a depth of 13.2 MBGL on average. However, by the end of September this year, the groundwater level had reached 22.82 MBGL. After East Godavari, Kadapa district recorded the highest depletion of groundwater, that is 4.98 MBGL. Compared to 5.48 MBGL last September, the district has recorded depletion to 10.46 MBGL. Sri Satya Sai district has the third highest depletion of the groundwater at 4.92 MBGL. Last September, groundwater was available at the depths of 5.54 MBGL on average but by the end of September this year, it fell to 10.47 MBGL. ALSO READ | Food stock a concern? Drought-like situation in 50 per cent of India, say experts In Annamayya district, the groundwater table depleted by 4.21 MBGL. As against 7.01 MBGL last September, it recorded groundwater at 11.22 MBGL in the district. Palnadu recorded 3.63 MBGL depletion of groundwater levels and Kakinada district recorded 2.34 MBGL depletion. However, data reveals that three districts showed an increase in groundwater level. Eluru district showed the highest increase of 0.51 MBGL, recording 19.7 MBGL as against 20.22 MBGL last year. Konaseema district witnessed 0.36 MBGL increase and Krishna district witnessed 0.03 MBGL increase in groundwater level. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
Manasa R and Sindhiya By

Online Desk

Manikandan, 42, of Pulianthope, a neighbourhood in Chennai, first went down a sewer hole over 10 years ago. His job stank then, it stinks even now. He has since been unclogging such holes, cleaning septic tanks and clearing night soil. All of it for the Rs 400 (Rs 500 on better days) that he is paid in a day. Grinding poverty and caste discrimination are among the factors that tether him and those like him to the unhygenic and life-threatening labour even now.

For the contractors who employ workers like Manikandan, safety is the least of their priorities. As a result, though the law mandates it, Manikandan has not for once seen the gears that will ensure his safety while he goes down a sewer hole. Helpless, he battles skin and eye irritation, doing the thankless job in a state that has recorded the highest number of manual scavenging deaths in the country.

The World Health Organisation describes sanitation workers as some of the most "invisible, unquantified, neglected and ostracised" people. Manikandan's family was in the dark about the nature of the work he was engaged in for almost two years until one day mediapersons started landing at his house to interview him. Speaking about the reaction of his family, he says, "Avanga kannula irundhu thanni vandirchu (their eyes welled up with tears)."

Manikandan was not always involved in servicing sewers. In 2011, he was engaged by the Chennai Corporation as a headload worker on a contractual basis after his mother shelled out a bribe to an MLA.

His mother passed away a few years ago. He is still to pay off that loan.

Later, in 2013, the Corporation sent Manikandan and nine others to clear waste at a slaughterhouse in Pulianthope. They worked there for around a year and a half before they chose to quit when a doctor from the government health department warned them about how the work made them vulnerable to asthma and skin diseases.

Some months later, a Chennai Corporation sanitation work contractor, Loganathan offered them a job. Mani alleged that Loganathan had hired them to work under a private contractor --- none other than Usha Mary, his wife. They were asked to unclog the sewers and drains at the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board (storied tenements meant for rehabilitating urban slum dwellers) at KP Park in Pulianthope. Manikandan went on to work at the Kalyanapuram Housing Board, MS Nagar Housing Board, and PK Colony Housing Board for over two years.

He was later sent to work in the Vysarpadi area. Here, Manikandan and his co-workers were directed to enter sewer holes and manually clear the blockages. They were also called up whenever issues cropped up at Malligaipoo Colony, Udhayasuriyan Nagar, and MGR Nagar. Mani recalled that on many occasions when he and the men were working, garbage and used sanitary pads flung by the residents of the housing board flats would fall on them.

It was through a social activist that Manikandan and others came to know about the Safai Karmachari Andolan, a movement that aims to eradicate manual scavenging in the country. With the Andolan's efforts, Mani and two other co-workers were issued government identity cards, which accorded them some legitimacy. Mani and a couple of others received the compensation amount of Rs 40,000. Meanwhile, seven others were pressurized and threatened to sign an agreement falsely stating they did not engage in manual scavenging.

Once, when Manikandan was involved in clearing drains in Udhayasuriyan Nagar in the wake of the devastating Cyclone Vardah in 2016, a few college students visiting the area for a college project captured him working, on their video camera. Loganathan, who happened to arrive at that spot, blamed Mani for letting it happen, accusing him of having called the students to the spot. He went on to fire him. Mani felt he had been targeted for having secured an identity card.

Following that incident, Mani was jobless for around four years. It was his wife, a domestic worker, who helped make ends meet during that time. She earns around Rs 6,000 every month. "Avanga vela paakura veetula irundhu kondu vara roti thaan naanga elaarum saaptom (We eat the rotis she brings from her employer's home)," he says. As their financial woes began to mount, three of their daughters studying in convents were shifted to government schools. During the COVID-19 lockdown, he being out of a job could not provide his children with a smartphone for their online classes.

In 2021, Loganathan called Mani back. But Mani says he was not paid the fixed daily wage of Rs 750 per day but only Rs 500, and at times, only Rs 400 per day. On top of that, he alleged that Loganathan also verbally abused him. Frustrated, Mani sent several representations to the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin seeking a government job.

An article on Mani's plight was published in The Times of India in August following which Metro Water officials had reportedly made enquiries about him. A day after we visited Mani, he was suddenly asked to work in far-off Adyar. However, he tells us, "I'm yet to receive a call assigning me any work in Adyar or elsewhere."

When The New Indian Express Online spoke to the Assistant Engineer of Vysarpadi division at the Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development Board (TNUHDB) Gowthaman, he claimed that Mani used to work with the Chennai Corporation in the past on a contractual basis but denied that he was still employed with them.

Sudalai Muthu, Executive Engineer, Vysarpadi division, TNUHDB, stated that no transfer of the kind Mani mentioned usually happens in their department and that sanitation workers only interact with the contractor who hired them. He added that only if there was an issue with the concerned worker would the contractor have shifted him to another area.

The official also claimed that the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMSSWB) did not make workers engage in manual scavenging work and that they use machines to clear blockages in manholes. He added that they employ labourers only if it is a small, one-foot-deep manhole.

When The New Indian Express Online visited Mani at his home, we noticed a stack of suitcases taking up most of the space in his cramped living quarters. They contained clothes and a few belongings of his wife and four young daughters, aged 24, 23, 20, and 12. They are presently living in a state of limbo, he says, as the family could be asked to vacate at any given point in time as his house rent is overdue.

"We have not been able to pay rent for six months. My children wear old dresses and don't even have proper slippers," Mani rues.

One of his older daughters was training to be a lab technician but as Mani was unable to pay her fees, she had to drop out. Another daughter, who was enrolled in a BBA course, too had to leave her studies midway. His third daughter is a state-level boxer.

The endless state of uncertainty has seeped into other aspects of Mani's life as well. He has been desperately waiting for a decade now to get a permanent job.

Mani oscillates between diverse emotions over his plight. He is exasperated over not receiving safety gear for his work but is also afraid his higher-ups would let him off work again if he requested for it. He is also triggered by the news of the deaths of those involved in manual scavenging and sewer servicing.

Recalling the death by suicide of his colleague Kathiravan in 2017, Mani says that the latter was suffering from a splitting headache after inhaling toxic gases in a manhole. He was admitted to a hospital and was also treated at a psychiatric facility but even after being discharged, his condition did not get better. In agony, Kathiravan took his own life.

Mani also tells us of people reluctant to give sanitation workers a glass of water or a bucket to fetch water for their bath after they have finished work. He justifies, "Bayam irukkom la, avangala thappu solla koodathu..edavdhu infection vandudhomnnu bayapaduvaanga. Engaldhu abayagaramana velai." (Of course, they will be afraid. We can't blame them They must be worried about catching an infection. Ours is dangerous work.)

However, he also asserts with awareness, "Oru manidhan manidhanoda malatha kai aala eduthu vela seiya koodathu." (No man should be asked to clear another human being's excreta for a living).

Mani went on to open a big grey suitcase bursting with wads of paper. It has newspaper clippings featuring him and his story and countless letters he has written to Ministries over the years requesting the government to regularise his job and provide safety gear for workers like him.

"Unga report publish aanaprom edhavadhu help kedakkuma? (Will your report at least get me help?)" Mani asks as we leave, the sliver of hope in his voice belying the despair in his eyes.

Points to note:

On the day we visited Mani, two sanitation workers - Moses, 55, of Avadi, and C Devan, 50, of Pattabiram, were asphyxiated to death in the nearby Avadi when they had opened the lid of a septic tank to remove silt deposits at the housing quarters of the Union governments Ordnance Clothing. Following complaints of blockage from the residents, a private contractor had been engaged to clean the sewer line, police said.

in the nearby Avadi when they had opened the lid of a septic tank to remove silt deposits at the housing quarters of the Union governments Ordnance Clothing. Following complaints of blockage from the residents, a private contractor had been engaged to clean the sewer line, police said. Indias Supreme Court on October 20 issued a categorical direction to the Union Government and all State Governments to ensure the complete eradication of the practice of manual scavenging. It directed that the compensation in cases of sewer deaths must be increased to Rs 30 lakh. In cases of permanent disablement arising from sewer operations, compensation should be Rs 20 lakh and for other forms of disablement, the compensation must be not less than Rs 10 lakh, it directed. The apex court also directed that rehabilitation measures for the victims and their families should be completed, including scholarships and skill development.

to the Union Government and all State Governments to ensure the complete eradication of the practice of manual scavenging. It directed that the compensation in cases of must be increased to Rs 30 lakh. In cases of permanent disablement arising from sewer operations, compensation should be Rs 20 lakh and for other forms of disablement, the compensation must be not less than Rs 10 lakh, it directed. The apex court also directed that rehabilitation measures for the victims and their families should be completed, including scholarships and skill development. Highlighting that Tamil Nadu has recorded the highest number of manual scavenging deaths in the country, with 225 lives lost between 1993 and June 2023, National Commission for Safai Karamcharis Chairman M Venkatesan has urged the state to create awareness and make sure that machinery is being used instead of manual labour for scavenging works.

has urged the state to create awareness and make sure that machinery is being used instead of manual labour for scavenging works. The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation ACT, 2013 prohibits the employment of manual scavengers, the manual cleaning of sewers and septic tanks without protective equipment, and the construction of insanitary latrines. It seeks to rehabilitate manual scavengers and provide for their alternative employment.

Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp

Manikandan, 42, of Pulianthope, a neighbourhood in Chennai, first went down a sewer hole over 10 years ago. His job stank then, it stinks even now. He has since been unclogging such holes, cleaning septic tanks and clearing night soil. All of it for the Rs 400 (Rs 500 on better days) that he is paid in a day. Grinding poverty and caste discrimination are among the factors that tether him and those like him to the unhygenic and life-threatening labour even now. For the contractors who employ workers like Manikandan, safety is the least of their priorities. As a result, though the law mandates it, Manikandan has not for once seen the gears that will ensure his safety while he goes down a sewer hole. Helpless, he battles skin and eye irritation, doing the thankless job in a state that has recorded the highest number of manual scavenging deaths in the country. The World Health Organisation describes sanitation workers as some of the most "invisible, unquantified, neglected and ostracised" people. Manikandan's family was in the dark about the nature of the work he was engaged in for almost two years until one day mediapersons started landing at his house to interview him. Speaking about the reaction of his family, he says, "Avanga kannula irundhu thanni vandirchu (their eyes welled up with tears)."googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Manikandan was not always involved in servicing sewers. In 2011, he was engaged by the Chennai Corporation as a headload worker on a contractual basis after his mother shelled out a bribe to an MLA. His mother passed away a few years ago. He is still to pay off that loan. Later, in 2013, the Corporation sent Manikandan and nine others to clear waste at a slaughterhouse in Pulianthope. They worked there for around a year and a half before they chose to quit when a doctor from the government health department warned them about how the work made them vulnerable to asthma and skin diseases. Some months later, a Chennai Corporation sanitation work contractor, Loganathan offered them a job. Mani alleged that Loganathan had hired them to work under a private contractor --- none other than Usha Mary, his wife. They were asked to unclog the sewers and drains at the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board (storied tenements meant for rehabilitating urban slum dwellers) at KP Park in Pulianthope. Manikandan went on to work at the Kalyanapuram Housing Board, MS Nagar Housing Board, and PK Colony Housing Board for over two years. He was later sent to work in the Vysarpadi area. Here, Manikandan and his co-workers were directed to enter sewer holes and manually clear the blockages. They were also called up whenever issues cropped up at Malligaipoo Colony, Udhayasuriyan Nagar, and MGR Nagar. Mani recalled that on many occasions when he and the men were working, garbage and used sanitary pads flung by the residents of the housing board flats would fall on them. It was through a social activist that Manikandan and others came to know about the Safai Karmachari Andolan, a movement that aims to eradicate manual scavenging in the country. With the Andolan's efforts, Mani and two other co-workers were issued government identity cards, which accorded them some legitimacy. Mani and a couple of others received the compensation amount of Rs 40,000. Meanwhile, seven others were pressurized and threatened to sign an agreement falsely stating they did not engage in manual scavenging. Once, when Manikandan was involved in clearing drains in Udhayasuriyan Nagar in the wake of the devastating Cyclone Vardah in 2016, a few college students visiting the area for a college project captured him working, on their video camera. Loganathan, who happened to arrive at that spot, blamed Mani for letting it happen, accusing him of having called the students to the spot. He went on to fire him. Mani felt he had been targeted for having secured an identity card. Following that incident, Mani was jobless for around four years. It was his wife, a domestic worker, who helped make ends meet during that time. She earns around Rs 6,000 every month. "Avanga vela paakura veetula irundhu kondu vara roti thaan naanga elaarum saaptom (We eat the rotis she brings from her employer's home)," he says. As their financial woes began to mount, three of their daughters studying in convents were shifted to government schools. During the COVID-19 lockdown, he being out of a job could not provide his children with a smartphone for their online classes. In 2021, Loganathan called Mani back. But Mani says he was not paid the fixed daily wage of Rs 750 per day but only Rs 500, and at times, only Rs 400 per day. On top of that, he alleged that Loganathan also verbally abused him. Frustrated, Mani sent several representations to the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin seeking a government job. An article on Mani's plight was published in The Times of India in August following which Metro Water officials had reportedly made enquiries about him. A day after we visited Mani, he was suddenly asked to work in far-off Adyar. However, he tells us, "I'm yet to receive a call assigning me any work in Adyar or elsewhere." When The New Indian Express Online spoke to the Assistant Engineer of Vysarpadi division at the Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development Board (TNUHDB) Gowthaman, he claimed that Mani used to work with the Chennai Corporation in the past on a contractual basis but denied that he was still employed with them. Sudalai Muthu, Executive Engineer, Vysarpadi division, TNUHDB, stated that no transfer of the kind Mani mentioned usually happens in their department and that sanitation workers only interact with the contractor who hired them. He added that only if there was an issue with the concerned worker would the contractor have shifted him to another area. The official also claimed that the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMSSWB) did not make workers engage in manual scavenging work and that they use machines to clear blockages in manholes. He added that they employ labourers only if it is a small, one-foot-deep manhole. When The New Indian Express Online visited Mani at his home, we noticed a stack of suitcases taking up most of the space in his cramped living quarters. They contained clothes and a few belongings of his wife and four young daughters, aged 24, 23, 20, and 12. They are presently living in a state of limbo, he says, as the family could be asked to vacate at any given point in time as his house rent is overdue. "We have not been able to pay rent for six months. My children wear old dresses and don't even have proper slippers," Mani rues. One of his older daughters was training to be a lab technician but as Mani was unable to pay her fees, she had to drop out. Another daughter, who was enrolled in a BBA course, too had to leave her studies midway. His third daughter is a state-level boxer. The endless state of uncertainty has seeped into other aspects of Mani's life as well. He has been desperately waiting for a decade now to get a permanent job. Mani oscillates between diverse emotions over his plight. He is exasperated over not receiving safety gear for his work but is also afraid his higher-ups would let him off work again if he requested for it. He is also triggered by the news of the deaths of those involved in manual scavenging and sewer servicing. Recalling the death by suicide of his colleague Kathiravan in 2017, Mani says that the latter was suffering from a splitting headache after inhaling toxic gases in a manhole. He was admitted to a hospital and was also treated at a psychiatric facility but even after being discharged, his condition did not get better. In agony, Kathiravan took his own life. Mani also tells us of people reluctant to give sanitation workers a glass of water or a bucket to fetch water for their bath after they have finished work. He justifies, "Bayam irukkom la, avangala thappu solla koodathu..edavdhu infection vandudhomnnu bayapaduvaanga. Engaldhu abayagaramana velai." (Of course, they will be afraid. We can't blame them They must be worried about catching an infection. Ours is dangerous work.) However, he also asserts with awareness, "Oru manidhan manidhanoda malatha kai aala eduthu vela seiya koodathu." (No man should be asked to clear another human being's excreta for a living). Mani went on to open a big grey suitcase bursting with wads of paper. It has newspaper clippings featuring him and his story and countless letters he has written to Ministries over the years requesting the government to regularise his job and provide safety gear for workers like him. "Unga report publish aanaprom edhavadhu help kedakkuma? (Will your report at least get me help?)" Mani asks as we leave, the sliver of hope in his voice belying the despair in his eyes. Points to note: On the day we visited Mani, two sanitation workers - Moses, 55, of Avadi, and C Devan, 50, of Pattabiram, were asphyxiated to death in the nearby Avadi when they had opened the lid of a septic tank to remove silt deposits at the housing quarters of the Union governments Ordnance Clothing. Following complaints of blockage from the residents, a private contractor had been engaged to clean the sewer line, police said. Indias Supreme Court on October 20 issued a categorical direction to the Union Government and all State Governments to ensure the complete eradication of the practice of manual scavenging. It directed that the compensation in cases of sewer deaths must be increased to Rs 30 lakh. In cases of permanent disablement arising from sewer operations, compensation should be Rs 20 lakh and for other forms of disablement, the compensation must be not less than Rs 10 lakh, it directed. The apex court also directed that rehabilitation measures for the victims and their families should be completed, including scholarships and skill development. Highlighting that Tamil Nadu has recorded the highest number of manual scavenging deaths in the country, with 225 lives lost between 1993 and June 2023, National Commission for Safai Karamcharis Chairman M Venkatesan has urged the state to create awareness and make sure that machinery is being used instead of manual labour for scavenging works. The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation ACT, 2013 prohibits the employment of manual scavengers, the manual cleaning of sewers and septic tanks without protective equipment, and the construction of insanitary latrines. It seeks to rehabilitate manual scavengers and provide for their alternative employment. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
By Associated Press

DEIR AL-BALAH (Gaza): Israel expects to launch a long and difficult ground offensive into Gaza soon to destroy Hamas, the country's defence minister said Friday, describing a campaign that will require dismantling a vast network of tunnels used by the territory's militant rulers.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant spoke to a small group of foreign reporters in Tel Aviv after Israeli forces backed by fighter jets and drones carried out a second, limited ground raid into Gaza in as many days, striking the outskirts of Gaza City.

Gallant said the ground invasion that follows weeks of airstrikes "will take a long time," and that it would lead to another lengthy phase of lower-intensity fighting, as Israel destroys "pockets of resistance."

In a sign of rising tensions in the region, U.S. warplanes struck targets in eastern Syria that the Pentagon said were linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guard after a string of attacks on American forces, and two mysterious objects hit towns in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

After three weeks of war sparked by a bloody Hamas incursion into southern Israel, the Palestinian death toll has soared past 7,300, according to officials in Gaza. A blockade on Gaza has meant dwindling supplies of food, fuel, water and medicine, and U.N. and Arab leaders have called for a cease-fire to allow entry of humanitarian aid that is only trickling in.

ALSO READ | 'Many more to die' from Gaza siege, UN warns on day 21 of war

Gaza's Health Ministry on Thursday released a detailed list of names and identification numbers of those killed, including more than 3,000 minors and more than 1,500 women.

More than 1,400 people were slain in Israel during Hamas' Oct. 7 attack, according to the Israeli government, and at least 229 hostages were taken into

Gaza. Palestinian militants have fired thousands of rockets into Israel, including one that hit a residential building in Tel Aviv on Friday, wounding four people.

The overall number of deaths far exceeds the combined toll of all four previous wars between Israel and Hamas, estimated at around 4,000. A ground invasion is expected to cause even higher casualties on both sides as Israeli forces and Hamas battle each other in dense residential areas.

Hospitals have been scrounging for fuel to run emergency generators that power incubators and other life-saving equipment after Israel cut off all fuel deliveries to Gaza at the start of the war, forcing its only power plant to shut down.

Gallant said Israel believes that Hamas would confiscate any fuel that enters. He said Hamas uses generators to pump air into its hundreds of kilometres (miles) of tunnels, which originate in civilian areas. He showed reporters aerial footage of what he said was a tunnel shaft built right next to a hospital.

"For air, they need oil. For oil, they need us," he said.

Little is known about Hamas' secretive tunnels and other infrastructure, and it wasn't possible to independently confirm Gallant's claims.

Lynne Hastings, the U.N. aid coordinator for the Palestinian territories, declined to comment on Gallant's remarks, saying "we don't know what Hamas has or doesn't have."

"We have been bringing fuel into Gaza in coordination with the government of Israel for decades. We know fuel is a high-risk item and are working with the Israelis to make sure what we will be using for our operations is done securely," she said.

ALSO RED | United Nations raises war crimes concerns over Israel-Hamas conflict

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, which provides basic services to hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza, said it has been forced to ration fuel among lifesaving machines in hospitals, bakeries, and desalination plants, and only has enough for a few more days.

"The siege means that food, water and fuel  basic commodities  are being used to collectively punish more than 2 million people, among them, a majority of children and women," Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, told reporters.

Earlier on Friday, the military said ground forces raided inside Gaza, striking dozens of militant targets over the past 24 hours. It said aircraft and artillery bombed targets in Shijaiyah, a neighbourhood on Gaza City's outskirts that was the scene of an urban battle in the 2014 Gaza War.

The military said the soldiers exited the territory without suffering any casualties. It reported an earlier, hourslong raid into northern Gaza on Thursday.

The damage to Gaza from nearly three weeks of bombardment is shown in satellite photos of several locations taken before the war and again in recent days. Entire rows of residential buildings simply disappear in the photos, reduced to smears of dust and rubble.

The Israeli military says it only targets militants and accuses Hamas of operating among civilians in an attempt to protect its fighters. The conflict has threatened to ignite a wider war across the region.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that the Friday strikes in eastern Syria were a response to "ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks" against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria over the past 10 days. He said the operation was separate from the Israel-Hamas war.

Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed ally of Hamas in Lebanon, has repeatedly traded fire with Israel along the border, and Israel has carried out airstrikes targeting Iran-linked groups in Syria. The United States has sent two aircraft carrier strike groups to the region, along with additional weaponry and personnel, in part to deter Iran and its allies from entering the war.

ALSO READ | Israel strikes outskirts of Gaza City during second ground raid in as many days

Egypt's military meanwhile said a drone crashed into a building in the Red Sea town of Taba, on the border with Israel, slightly wounding six people. In a separate incident, the state-run Al-Qahera news said a "strange object" landed near a power station in the Red Sea town of Nuweiba, further south. Footage showed debris and smoke rising from the side of a nearby mountain.

Last week, a U.S. Navy destroyer in the northern Red Sea shot down three cruise missiles and several drones launched toward Israel by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in northern Yemen.

About 1.4 million of Gaza's 2.3 million residents have fled their homes, with nearly half of them crowding into U.N. shelters. Hundreds of thousands remain in northern Gaza, despite Israel ordering them to evacuate to the south and saying that those who remain might be considered "accomplices" of Hamas.

Over the past week, Israel has allowed more than 80 trucks with aid to enter from Egypt through the Rafah crossing, the only entry point into Gaza not controlled by Israel. But aid workers say the convoys meet only a tiny fraction of the territory's mounting humanitarian needs. Before the war, an average of 500 trucks entered Gaza each day, according to the United Nations.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said on social media that it had received 10 trucks of food, medicine and other supplies had passed through Rafah on Friday morning.

The U.S. has been working with other mediators to send in more humanitarian aid, but Israel is insisting on strict screening procedures for all trucks that enter. Hundreds of foreign passport holders are trying to leave Gaza, but the U.S. says Hamas has refused to allow that.

Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp

DEIR AL-BALAH (Gaza): Israel expects to launch a long and difficult ground offensive into Gaza soon to destroy Hamas, the country's defence minister said Friday, describing a campaign that will require dismantling a vast network of tunnels used by the territory's militant rulers. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant spoke to a small group of foreign reporters in Tel Aviv after Israeli forces backed by fighter jets and drones carried out a second, limited ground raid into Gaza in as many days, striking the outskirts of Gaza City. Gallant said the ground invasion that follows weeks of airstrikes "will take a long time," and that it would lead to another lengthy phase of lower-intensity fighting, as Israel destroys "pockets of resistance."googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); In a sign of rising tensions in the region, U.S. warplanes struck targets in eastern Syria that the Pentagon said were linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guard after a string of attacks on American forces, and two mysterious objects hit towns in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. After three weeks of war sparked by a bloody Hamas incursion into southern Israel, the Palestinian death toll has soared past 7,300, according to officials in Gaza. A blockade on Gaza has meant dwindling supplies of food, fuel, water and medicine, and U.N. and Arab leaders have called for a cease-fire to allow entry of humanitarian aid that is only trickling in. ALSO READ | 'Many more to die' from Gaza siege, UN warns on day 21 of war Gaza's Health Ministry on Thursday released a detailed list of names and identification numbers of those killed, including more than 3,000 minors and more than 1,500 women. More than 1,400 people were slain in Israel during Hamas' Oct. 7 attack, according to the Israeli government, and at least 229 hostages were taken into Gaza. Palestinian militants have fired thousands of rockets into Israel, including one that hit a residential building in Tel Aviv on Friday, wounding four people. The overall number of deaths far exceeds the combined toll of all four previous wars between Israel and Hamas, estimated at around 4,000. A ground invasion is expected to cause even higher casualties on both sides as Israeli forces and Hamas battle each other in dense residential areas. Hospitals have been scrounging for fuel to run emergency generators that power incubators and other life-saving equipment after Israel cut off all fuel deliveries to Gaza at the start of the war, forcing its only power plant to shut down. Gallant said Israel believes that Hamas would confiscate any fuel that enters. He said Hamas uses generators to pump air into its hundreds of kilometres (miles) of tunnels, which originate in civilian areas. He showed reporters aerial footage of what he said was a tunnel shaft built right next to a hospital. "For air, they need oil. For oil, they need us," he said. Little is known about Hamas' secretive tunnels and other infrastructure, and it wasn't possible to independently confirm Gallant's claims. Lynne Hastings, the U.N. aid coordinator for the Palestinian territories, declined to comment on Gallant's remarks, saying "we don't know what Hamas has or doesn't have." "We have been bringing fuel into Gaza in coordination with the government of Israel for decades. We know fuel is a high-risk item and are working with the Israelis to make sure what we will be using for our operations is done securely," she said. ALSO RED | United Nations raises war crimes concerns over Israel-Hamas conflict The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, which provides basic services to hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza, said it has been forced to ration fuel among lifesaving machines in hospitals, bakeries, and desalination plants, and only has enough for a few more days. "The siege means that food, water and fuel  basic commodities  are being used to collectively punish more than 2 million people, among them, a majority of children and women," Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, told reporters. Earlier on Friday, the military said ground forces raided inside Gaza, striking dozens of militant targets over the past 24 hours. It said aircraft and artillery bombed targets in Shijaiyah, a neighbourhood on Gaza City's outskirts that was the scene of an urban battle in the 2014 Gaza War. The military said the soldiers exited the territory without suffering any casualties. It reported an earlier, hourslong raid into northern Gaza on Thursday. The damage to Gaza from nearly three weeks of bombardment is shown in satellite photos of several locations taken before the war and again in recent days. Entire rows of residential buildings simply disappear in the photos, reduced to smears of dust and rubble. The Israeli military says it only targets militants and accuses Hamas of operating among civilians in an attempt to protect its fighters. The conflict has threatened to ignite a wider war across the region. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that the Friday strikes in eastern Syria were a response to "ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks" against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria over the past 10 days. He said the operation was separate from the Israel-Hamas war. Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed ally of Hamas in Lebanon, has repeatedly traded fire with Israel along the border, and Israel has carried out airstrikes targeting Iran-linked groups in Syria. The United States has sent two aircraft carrier strike groups to the region, along with additional weaponry and personnel, in part to deter Iran and its allies from entering the war. ALSO READ | Israel strikes outskirts of Gaza City during second ground raid in as many days Egypt's military meanwhile said a drone crashed into a building in the Red Sea town of Taba, on the border with Israel, slightly wounding six people. In a separate incident, the state-run Al-Qahera news said a "strange object" landed near a power station in the Red Sea town of Nuweiba, further south. Footage showed debris and smoke rising from the side of a nearby mountain. Last week, a U.S. Navy destroyer in the northern Red Sea shot down three cruise missiles and several drones launched toward Israel by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in northern Yemen. About 1.4 million of Gaza's 2.3 million residents have fled their homes, with nearly half of them crowding into U.N. shelters. Hundreds of thousands remain in northern Gaza, despite Israel ordering them to evacuate to the south and saying that those who remain might be considered "accomplices" of Hamas. Over the past week, Israel has allowed more than 80 trucks with aid to enter from Egypt through the Rafah crossing, the only entry point into Gaza not controlled by Israel. But aid workers say the convoys meet only a tiny fraction of the territory's mounting humanitarian needs. Before the war, an average of 500 trucks entered Gaza each day, according to the United Nations. The Palestinian Red Crescent said on social media that it had received 10 trucks of food, medicine and other supplies had passed through Rafah on Friday morning. The U.S. has been working with other mediators to send in more humanitarian aid, but Israel is insisting on strict screening procedures for all trucks that enter. Hundreds of foreign passport holders are trying to leave Gaza, but the U.S. says Hamas has refused to allow that. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
By AFP

JERUSALEM: The UN warned Friday that "many more will die" in Gaza from catastrophic shortages after nearly three weeks of bombardment by Israel in response to Hamas staging the deadliest attack in its history.

As the conflict raged into its 21st day, the Israeli army said its soldiers backed by fighter jets and drones mounted a land incursion into the Gaza Strip, as it prepared for a ground offensive.

Concern is growing about regional fallout from the conflict, with the United States warning Iran against escalation while striking facilities in Syria it says were used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and others.

Israel has heavily bombarded Gaza since Hamas gunmen stormed across the border on October 7, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping more than 220 others, according to Israeli officials.

The health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip says the strikes have killed more than 7,000 people, mainly civilians and many of them children, leading to growing calls for protection of innocents caught up in the conflict.

"People in Gaza are dying, they are not only dying from bombs and strikes, soon many more will die from the consequences of (the) siege imposed on the Gaza Strip," Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), told reporters in Jerusalem.

Israel has cut supplies of food, water and power to Gaza, notably blocking all deliveries of fuel saying it would be exploited by Hamas to manufacture weapons and explosives.

"Basic services are crumbling, medicine is running out, food and water are running out, the streets of Gaza have started overflowing with sewage," he said of the devastated territory where around 45 percent of all housing has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN which cited local authorities.

'Uninterrupted aid flow'

A first tranche of critically needed aid was allowed in at the weekend but since then only 74 trucks have crossed in via the Rafah border with Egypt, which aid agencies say is just a tiny fraction of what was needed.

Before the conflict, an average of 500 trucks entered Gaza every working day, UN figures show.

Gaza needed a "meaningful and uninterrupted aid flow" and a "humanitarian ceasefire to ensure this aid reaches those in need", Lazzarini said, echoing a similar call by European Union leaders.

European Union leaders had on Thursday evening demanded "continued, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access and aid to reach those in need through all necessary measures including humanitarian corridors and pauses for humanitarian needs".

Between the bombardments and the fuel shortages, 12 of Gaza's 35 hospitals have been forced to close, and UNRWA said it has had to "significantly reduce its operations".

"What needs more support? Bakeries, water stations, life support machines in a hospital -- all this needs fuel to function," the head of the agency said on Friday.

The agency has so far had 57 staff killed since the war began, Lazzarini told journalists.

'Our lives stopped'

With tens of thousands of Israeli troops massed along the Gaza border ahead of a widely expected ground offensive, the army said its forces had staged a ground incursion into central Gaza.

"We carried out a ground operation in central Gaza... as part of preparations for the coming stages of the war," army spokesman Daniel Hagari told reporters, saying the number of hostages held by Hamas was now confirmed to be 229.

Black-and-white footage released by the military showed a column of armoured vehicles as a thick cloud of dust billowed into the night sky after the strikes.

Tanks and infantry had staged a similar raid targeting the Islamist Hamas in northern Gaza the previous night, the army said.

Israel has won staunch backing from allies including the United States for its military action in Gaza, demanding Hamas release the more than 220 hostages it snatched on October 7 that include a mix of Israelis, foreigners and dual nationals.

The fate of the hostages remains a complicating factor for Israel's planned ground operation.

Hamas' armed wing said Thursday that "almost 50" hostages had been killed in the bombardments, in a claim that could not be independently verified.

'Wherever we go, we will die'

Inside Gaza, the punishing strikes have left people "with nothing but impossible choices", said Lynne Hastings, the UN's humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory.

Israel has repeatedly urged civilians in northern Gaza to move south for their safety, but strikes have also hit southern areas and evacuation routes, with UN figures showing some 1.4 million people -- more than half of Gaza's population -- have been displaced.

Heading the Israeli warnings, Rahma Saqallah fled her Gaza City home to go south with her family. But after strikes killed her husband and three of her children, she turned round to go back.

"Wherever we go, we will die," she told AFP before leaving the southern town of Khan Yunis with her surviving child.

"They told us to leave for the south and then they killed us (here)."

Meanwhile, concern is growing over the regional fallout from the conflict, with Egypt's army saying Friday six people were lightly injured when an "unidentified drone fell" on a town on the border with Israel.

The army said the drone crashed into "a building next to Taba hospital", in the Red Sea town of the same name just across the border from the Israeli resort of Eilat.

Egypt's AlQahera News television had said "a rocket" hit Taba, with witnesses telling AFP it struck a hospital annex in town, which lies 200 kilometres (124 miles) south of Egypt's border with Gaza.

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JERUSALEM: The UN warned Friday that "many more will die" in Gaza from catastrophic shortages after nearly three weeks of bombardment by Israel in response to Hamas staging the deadliest attack in its history. As the conflict raged into its 21st day, the Israeli army said its soldiers backed by fighter jets and drones mounted a land incursion into the Gaza Strip, as it prepared for a ground offensive. Concern is growing about regional fallout from the conflict, with the United States warning Iran against escalation while striking facilities in Syria it says were used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and others.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Israel has heavily bombarded Gaza since Hamas gunmen stormed across the border on October 7, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping more than 220 others, according to Israeli officials. The health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip says the strikes have killed more than 7,000 people, mainly civilians and many of them children, leading to growing calls for protection of innocents caught up in the conflict. "People in Gaza are dying, they are not only dying from bombs and strikes, soon many more will die from the consequences of (the) siege imposed on the Gaza Strip," Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), told reporters in Jerusalem. Israel has cut supplies of food, water and power to Gaza, notably blocking all deliveries of fuel saying it would be exploited by Hamas to manufacture weapons and explosives. "Basic services are crumbling, medicine is running out, food and water are running out, the streets of Gaza have started overflowing with sewage," he said of the devastated territory where around 45 percent of all housing has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN which cited local authorities. 'Uninterrupted aid flow' A first tranche of critically needed aid was allowed in at the weekend but since then only 74 trucks have crossed in via the Rafah border with Egypt, which aid agencies say is just a tiny fraction of what was needed. Before the conflict, an average of 500 trucks entered Gaza every working day, UN figures show. Gaza needed a "meaningful and uninterrupted aid flow" and a "humanitarian ceasefire to ensure this aid reaches those in need", Lazzarini said, echoing a similar call by European Union leaders. European Union leaders had on Thursday evening demanded "continued, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access and aid to reach those in need through all necessary measures including humanitarian corridors and pauses for humanitarian needs". Between the bombardments and the fuel shortages, 12 of Gaza's 35 hospitals have been forced to close, and UNRWA said it has had to "significantly reduce its operations". "What needs more support? Bakeries, water stations, life support machines in a hospital -- all this needs fuel to function," the head of the agency said on Friday. The agency has so far had 57 staff killed since the war began, Lazzarini told journalists. 'Our lives stopped' With tens of thousands of Israeli troops massed along the Gaza border ahead of a widely expected ground offensive, the army said its forces had staged a ground incursion into central Gaza. "We carried out a ground operation in central Gaza... as part of preparations for the coming stages of the war," army spokesman Daniel Hagari told reporters, saying the number of hostages held by Hamas was now confirmed to be 229. Black-and-white footage released by the military showed a column of armoured vehicles as a thick cloud of dust billowed into the night sky after the strikes. Tanks and infantry had staged a similar raid targeting the Islamist Hamas in northern Gaza the previous night, the army said. Israel has won staunch backing from allies including the United States for its military action in Gaza, demanding Hamas release the more than 220 hostages it snatched on October 7 that include a mix of Israelis, foreigners and dual nationals. The fate of the hostages remains a complicating factor for Israel's planned ground operation. Hamas' armed wing said Thursday that "almost 50" hostages had been killed in the bombardments, in a claim that could not be independently verified. 'Wherever we go, we will die' Inside Gaza, the punishing strikes have left people "with nothing but impossible choices", said Lynne Hastings, the UN's humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory. Israel has repeatedly urged civilians in northern Gaza to move south for their safety, but strikes have also hit southern areas and evacuation routes, with UN figures showing some 1.4 million people -- more than half of Gaza's population -- have been displaced. Heading the Israeli warnings, Rahma Saqallah fled her Gaza City home to go south with her family. But after strikes killed her husband and three of her children, she turned round to go back. "Wherever we go, we will die," she told AFP before leaving the southern town of Khan Yunis with her surviving child. "They told us to leave for the south and then they killed us (here)." Meanwhile, concern is growing over the regional fallout from the conflict, with Egypt's army saying Friday six people were lightly injured when an "unidentified drone fell" on a town on the border with Israel. The army said the drone crashed into "a building next to Taba hospital", in the Red Sea town of the same name just across the border from the Israeli resort of Eilat. Egypt's AlQahera News television had said "a rocket" hit Taba, with witnesses telling AFP it struck a hospital annex in town, which lies 200 kilometres (124 miles) south of Egypt's border with Gaza. 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By Associated Press

RAFAH: Israeli troops and tanks briefly raided northern Gaza overnight, the military said Thursday, engaging with Hamas fighters and targeting anti-tank weapons in order to prepare the battlefield before an expected ground invasion.

The third Israeli raid since the war began came after more than two weeks of devastating airstrikes that have left thousands dead, and more than 1 million displaced from their homes, in the small, densely-populated territory.

The U.S. military, meanwhile, launched airstrikes early Friday on two locations in eastern Syria linked to Irans Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Pentagon said, in retaliation for drone and missile attacks against U.S. bases and personnel in the region that began early last week.

Arab leaders made a joint plea Thursday for a cease-fire to end civilian suffering and allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, where Israel has imposed a suffocating siege ever since Hamas rampage and hostage-taking in southern Israel ignited the war. Residents are running out of food, water and medicine, and U.N. workers have barely any fuel left to support relief missions.

The rising death toll in Gaza is unprecedented in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said Thursday more than 7,000 Palestinians have died in the fighting, a figure that could not be independently verified. Even greater loss of life could come if Israel launches a ground offensive aimed at crushing Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007 and survived four previous wars with Israel.

More than 1,400 people in Israel, mostly civilians, were slain during the initial Hamas attack, according to the Israeli government.

The damage to Gaza from nearly three weeks of bombardment is shown in satellite photos of several locations taken before the war and again in recent days.

Entire rows of residential buildings simply disappear in the photos, reduced to smears of dust and rubble. A complex of 13 high-rises by the sea was pounded to dust near Gaza City's al-Shati refugee camp, leaving only a few tottering bits of facade. Just down the street, hardly anything remained in what had been a neighborhood of low-built homes on winding lanes, according to the photos by Maxar Technologies.

New strikes Thursday leveled more than eight homes belonging to an extended family, killing at least 15 people in the southern city of Khan Younis. In the chaotic wasteland of crumbled concrete and twisted metal, rescuers lifted the body of a boy from beneath a slab.

The Israeli military said an airstrike killed one of two masterminds of the Oct. 7 massacre, Shadi Barud, the head of Hamas intelligence unit. The military says it only strikes militant targets and accuses Hamas of operating among civilians in an attempt to protect its fighters.

Palestinian militants have fired thousands of rockets into Israel since the war began. One struck a residential building in the central city of Petah Tikva, without wounding anyone.

Hamas military wing said Thursday that Israeli bombardment has so far killed about 50 of the at least 224 hostages the militants abducted during its Oct. 7 assault. There was no immediate comment from Israeli officials, who have denied previous, similar claims.

Family members and Jewish groups are trying to keep the spotlight on the hostages' plight. In Paris, 30 empty baby strollers were displayed in front of the Eiffel Tower  each with a photo of one of the children taken from Israel. A day earlier, blindfolded teddy bears with photos of the abducted children were placed in front of a fountain in Tel Aviv.

The conflict has threatened to ignite a wider war across the region.

Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed ally of Hamas in Lebanon, has repeatedly traded fire with Israel along the border. The United States has sent to the region two aircraft carrier strike groups, along with additional fighter jets and other weaponry and personnel.

In a statement Thursday night, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the strikes in eastern Syria were a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on Oct. 17.

He said President Joe Biden directed the narrowly tailored strikes to make clear that the United States will not tolerate such attacks and will defend itself, its personnel and its interests. He added that the operation was separate and distinct from Israels war against Hamas.

Israel has vowed to crush Hamas capacity to govern Gaza or threaten Israel again but also says it doesnt want to reoccupy the territory, from which it withdrew soldiers and settlers in 2005. That could prove a daunting challenge, since Hamas is deeply rooted in Gaza, with political and charity organizations as well as a formidable armed wing.

Benny Gantz, a retired general and a member of Israels war Cabinet, said any possible ground offensive would be only one stage in a long-term process that includes security, political and social aspects that will take years.

The campaign will soon ramp up with greater force, he added.

The overnight raid into Gaza was the largest of several known brief incursions. The military said soldiers and tanks killed fighters and destroyed tunnels and anti-tank missile launching positions. The military said no Israelis were wounded. There was no immediate confirmation of any Palestinian casualties.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, a military spokesman, said the incursion was part of our preparations for the next stages of the war.

Israel also said it carried out around 250 airstrikes across Gaza in the last 24 hours, targeting tunnel shafts, rocket launchers and other militant infrastructure. Its reported targeting could not be independently verified.

The figure of 7,000 deaths reported by the Gaza Health Ministry is more than three times the number of Palestinians killed in the six-week-long Gaza war in 2014. The ministrys toll includes more than 2,900 minors and more than 1,500 women.

After Biden said he had no confidence in Gaza's casualty figures, the Health Ministry on Thursday countered by releasing a more than 200-page document listing the names of 6,747 dead, including ages and gender. It said another 281 dead had not been identified and that hundreds still missing under rubble were not included in the count.

The warning by the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, over depleting fuel supplies raised an alarm that the humanitarian crisis could quickly worsen. Israel is still barring deliveries of fuel  needed to power generators  saying it believes Hamas will take it for military use.

About 1.4 million of Gazas 2.3 million residents have fled their homes, with nearly half of them crowding into U.N. shelters. Hundreds of thousands remain in northern Gaza, despite Israel ordering them to evacuate to the south and saying that those who remain might be considered accomplices of Hamas.

In recent days, Israel has let more than 70 trucks with aid enter from Egypt.

This is a small amount of what is required, a drop in the ocean, said William Schomburg, an official with the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza. We are trying to establish a pipeline.

Elsewhere, Egyptian state-run media outlet Al Qahera News reported early Friday that an explosion hit the Egyptian resort town of Taba, which is near the border with Israel. Five people were wounded. The cause of the blast was not immediately clear, and The Associated Press could not immediately confirm the details.

Nine Arab countries  including key U.S. allies and nations that have signed peace or normalization deals with Israel  issued a joint statement Thursday calling for an immediate cease-fire and an end to the targeting and death of civilians.

The right to self-defense by the United Nations Charter does not justify blatant violations of humanitarian and international law, said the statement, signed by Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, The United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait and Morocco.

In the occupied West Bank, Israeli authorities detained 86 Palestinians, including five women, in multiple raids overnight, bringing the total detained there to more than 1,400, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club, which represents former and current prisoners. At least 104 Palestinians have been killed in violence in the West Bank.

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RAFAH: Israeli troops and tanks briefly raided northern Gaza overnight, the military said Thursday, engaging with Hamas fighters and targeting anti-tank weapons in order to prepare the battlefield before an expected ground invasion. The third Israeli raid since the war began came after more than two weeks of devastating airstrikes that have left thousands dead, and more than 1 million displaced from their homes, in the small, densely-populated territory. The U.S. military, meanwhile, launched airstrikes early Friday on two locations in eastern Syria linked to Irans Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Pentagon said, in retaliation for drone and missile attacks against U.S. bases and personnel in the region that began early last week.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Arab leaders made a joint plea Thursday for a cease-fire to end civilian suffering and allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, where Israel has imposed a suffocating siege ever since Hamas rampage and hostage-taking in southern Israel ignited the war. Residents are running out of food, water and medicine, and U.N. workers have barely any fuel left to support relief missions. The rising death toll in Gaza is unprecedented in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said Thursday more than 7,000 Palestinians have died in the fighting, a figure that could not be independently verified. Even greater loss of life could come if Israel launches a ground offensive aimed at crushing Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007 and survived four previous wars with Israel. More than 1,400 people in Israel, mostly civilians, were slain during the initial Hamas attack, according to the Israeli government. The damage to Gaza from nearly three weeks of bombardment is shown in satellite photos of several locations taken before the war and again in recent days. Entire rows of residential buildings simply disappear in the photos, reduced to smears of dust and rubble. A complex of 13 high-rises by the sea was pounded to dust near Gaza City's al-Shati refugee camp, leaving only a few tottering bits of facade. Just down the street, hardly anything remained in what had been a neighborhood of low-built homes on winding lanes, according to the photos by Maxar Technologies. New strikes Thursday leveled more than eight homes belonging to an extended family, killing at least 15 people in the southern city of Khan Younis. In the chaotic wasteland of crumbled concrete and twisted metal, rescuers lifted the body of a boy from beneath a slab. The Israeli military said an airstrike killed one of two masterminds of the Oct. 7 massacre, Shadi Barud, the head of Hamas intelligence unit. The military says it only strikes militant targets and accuses Hamas of operating among civilians in an attempt to protect its fighters. Palestinian militants have fired thousands of rockets into Israel since the war began. One struck a residential building in the central city of Petah Tikva, without wounding anyone. Hamas military wing said Thursday that Israeli bombardment has so far killed about 50 of the at least 224 hostages the militants abducted during its Oct. 7 assault. There was no immediate comment from Israeli officials, who have denied previous, similar claims. Family members and Jewish groups are trying to keep the spotlight on the hostages' plight. In Paris, 30 empty baby strollers were displayed in front of the Eiffel Tower  each with a photo of one of the children taken from Israel. A day earlier, blindfolded teddy bears with photos of the abducted children were placed in front of a fountain in Tel Aviv. The conflict has threatened to ignite a wider war across the region. Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed ally of Hamas in Lebanon, has repeatedly traded fire with Israel along the border. The United States has sent to the region two aircraft carrier strike groups, along with additional fighter jets and other weaponry and personnel. In a statement Thursday night, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the strikes in eastern Syria were a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on Oct. 17. He said President Joe Biden directed the narrowly tailored strikes to make clear that the United States will not tolerate such attacks and will defend itself, its personnel and its interests. He added that the operation was separate and distinct from Israels war against Hamas. Israel has vowed to crush Hamas capacity to govern Gaza or threaten Israel again but also says it doesnt want to reoccupy the territory, from which it withdrew soldiers and settlers in 2005. That could prove a daunting challenge, since Hamas is deeply rooted in Gaza, with political and charity organizations as well as a formidable armed wing. Benny Gantz, a retired general and a member of Israels war Cabinet, said any possible ground offensive would be only one stage in a long-term process that includes security, political and social aspects that will take years. The campaign will soon ramp up with greater force, he added. The overnight raid into Gaza was the largest of several known brief incursions. The military said soldiers and tanks killed fighters and destroyed tunnels and anti-tank missile launching positions. The military said no Israelis were wounded. There was no immediate confirmation of any Palestinian casualties. Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, a military spokesman, said the incursion was part of our preparations for the next stages of the war. Israel also said it carried out around 250 airstrikes across Gaza in the last 24 hours, targeting tunnel shafts, rocket launchers and other militant infrastructure. Its reported targeting could not be independently verified. The figure of 7,000 deaths reported by the Gaza Health Ministry is more than three times the number of Palestinians killed in the six-week-long Gaza war in 2014. The ministrys toll includes more than 2,900 minors and more than 1,500 women. After Biden said he had no confidence in Gaza's casualty figures, the Health Ministry on Thursday countered by releasing a more than 200-page document listing the names of 6,747 dead, including ages and gender. It said another 281 dead had not been identified and that hundreds still missing under rubble were not included in the count. The warning by the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, over depleting fuel supplies raised an alarm that the humanitarian crisis could quickly worsen. Israel is still barring deliveries of fuel  needed to power generators  saying it believes Hamas will take it for military use. About 1.4 million of Gazas 2.3 million residents have fled their homes, with nearly half of them crowding into U.N. shelters. Hundreds of thousands remain in northern Gaza, despite Israel ordering them to evacuate to the south and saying that those who remain might be considered accomplices of Hamas. In recent days, Israel has let more than 70 trucks with aid enter from Egypt. This is a small amount of what is required, a drop in the ocean, said William Schomburg, an official with the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza. We are trying to establish a pipeline. Elsewhere, Egyptian state-run media outlet Al Qahera News reported early Friday that an explosion hit the Egyptian resort town of Taba, which is near the border with Israel. Five people were wounded. The cause of the blast was not immediately clear, and The Associated Press could not immediately confirm the details. Nine Arab countries  including key U.S. allies and nations that have signed peace or normalization deals with Israel  issued a joint statement Thursday calling for an immediate cease-fire and an end to the targeting and death of civilians. The right to self-defense by the United Nations Charter does not justify blatant violations of humanitarian and international law, said the statement, signed by Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, The United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait and Morocco. In the occupied West Bank, Israeli authorities detained 86 Palestinians, including five women, in multiple raids overnight, bringing the total detained there to more than 1,400, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club, which represents former and current prisoners. At least 104 Palestinians have been killed in violence in the West Bank. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
By AFP

UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations chief warned Friday that Gaza faces "an unprecedented avalanche of human suffering" due to a lack of food, water and power during the Israeli bombing in response to the Hamas attack.

"I repeat my call for a humanitarian ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages, and the delivery of life-saving supplies," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement.

"Misery is growing by the minute. Without a fundamental change, the people of Gaza will face an unprecedented avalanche of human suffering."

Before the war, about 500 trucks a day rolled into sealed-off Gaza to bring in supplies but in recent days the average is down to only 12, which enter from the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, he said.

Guterres said the need is now "far greater than at any time before."

Without a change to how aid goes in, the United Nations will not be able to keep delivering assistance, the UN chief said.

"The verification system for the movement of goods through the Rafah crossing must be adjusted to allow many more trucks to enter Gaza without delay," Guterres said.

"The humanitarian system in Gaza is facing a total collapse with unimaginable consequences for more than two million civilians," he warned.

"As the bombing intensifies, needs are growing ever more critical and colossal."

Internet, communications cut across Gaza

The Hamas government said Israel "cut communications and most of the internet" across the Gaza Strip on Friday. The government's media office accused Israel of taking the measure "to perpetrate massacres with bloody retaliatory strikes from the air, land and sea," as heavy strikes hit northern Gaza.

AFP journalists in Gaza confirmed they were only able to communicate in limited areas where they could connect to Israeli networks across the border.

Palestinian telecoms provider Jawwal announced "the total cut of all communication services and internet" in the territory. "The heavy bombardment in the last hour destroyed all remaining international routes connecting Gaza to the outside world," Jawwal wrote on its Facebook page.

Global internet monitor NetBlocks reported "a collapse in connectivity in the Gaza Strip with high impact to Paltel," Jawwal's owner, citing live network data. "The company is the last remaining major operator to supply service as connectivity declines amid ongoing fighting with Israel," NetBlocks wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
By Associated Press

The United States on Friday expanded its effort to cut off funding for Hamas, announcing a second round of sanctions against people and organizations linked to the group since it launched an attack on Israel that killed more than 1,400 people.

The new sanctions highlight Irans role in providing financial, logistical and operational support to Hamas, the US Treasury Departments Office of Foreign Assets Control said in a statement. They include a Hamas representative in Iran and members of Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard.

The sanctions were announced as Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo travelled to London to shore up support from Britain, one of Americas closest allies, for the drive to squeeze off funding for Hamas, which both countries consider a terrorist organization.

Todays action underscores the United States commitment to dismantling Hamass funding networks by deploying our counterterrorism sanctions authorities and working with our global partners to deny Hamas the ability to exploit the international financial system, Adeyemo said.

Among those targeted are Khaled Qaddoumi, described as a liaison between Hamas and the Iranian government; and Ali Morshed Shirazi and Mostafa Mohammad Khani, officials in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force who are accused of training and assisting Hamas fighters.

ALSO READ | War on Gaza plunges 96 percent of Palestinians into poverty: UN agency

The US also sanctioned a number of organizations, including the Iranian Bonyad Shahid, also known as the Martyrs Foundation. U.S. officials say the group, which is affiliated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad, funnels millions of dollars through the Gaza-based Al-Ansar Charity Association for the families of militants.

The practice ultimately serves as a recruiting tool for terrorist activities, the US said.

The sanctions freeze any US-based assets owned or controlled by the named individuals and organizations. They also block financial transactions with those designated and prohibit the contribution of funds, goods and services to them.

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The United States on Friday expanded its effort to cut off funding for Hamas, announcing a second round of sanctions against people and organizations linked to the group since it launched an attack on Israel that killed more than 1,400 people. The new sanctions highlight Irans role in providing financial, logistical and operational support to Hamas, the US Treasury Departments Office of Foreign Assets Control said in a statement. They include a Hamas representative in Iran and members of Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard. The sanctions were announced as Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo travelled to London to shore up support from Britain, one of Americas closest allies, for the drive to squeeze off funding for Hamas, which both countries consider a terrorist organization.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Todays action underscores the United States commitment to dismantling Hamass funding networks by deploying our counterterrorism sanctions authorities and working with our global partners to deny Hamas the ability to exploit the international financial system, Adeyemo said. Among those targeted are Khaled Qaddoumi, described as a liaison between Hamas and the Iranian government; and Ali Morshed Shirazi and Mostafa Mohammad Khani, officials in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force who are accused of training and assisting Hamas fighters. ALSO READ | War on Gaza plunges 96 percent of Palestinians into poverty: UN agency The US also sanctioned a number of organizations, including the Iranian Bonyad Shahid, also known as the Martyrs Foundation. U.S. officials say the group, which is affiliated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad, funnels millions of dollars through the Gaza-based Al-Ansar Charity Association for the families of militants. The practice ultimately serves as a recruiting tool for terrorist activities, the US said. The sanctions freeze any US-based assets owned or controlled by the named individuals and organizations. They also block financial transactions with those designated and prohibit the contribution of funds, goods and services to them. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
By Associated Press

DEIR AL-BALAH: Internet and phone services collapsed in the Gaza Strip under intensified bombardment Friday night, largely cutting off its 2.3 million people from the outside world and each other, as Israel's military said it was "expanding" its ground operations in the besieged territory.

The military's announcement signalled it was moving closer to an all-out invasion of Gaza, where it has vowed to crush the ruling Hamas group after its bloody incursion in southern Israel three weeks ago

Frequent explosions from airstrikes lit up the sky over Gaza City after nightfall Friday, when the black-out in internet, cellular and landline services hit. The Red Crescent said it lost all contact with its operations room and medical teams. It said it feared people would no longer be able to contact ambulance services. Other aid groups said they were unable to reach staff on the ground.

The Palestine Telecommunications Company, Paltel, announced "a complete disruption of all communication and internet services" due to bombardment.

Israeli military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said ground forces were "expanding their activity" in Gaza and that it "is acting with great force ... to achieve the objectives of the war."

Israel has amassed hundreds of thousands of troops along the border with Gaza ahead of an expected ground offensive against the Hamas militant group.

ALSO READ | UN chief says Gaza faces 'avalanche of human suffering'

Earlier in the day, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told a small group of foreign reporters that Israel expects a long and difficult ground offensive into Gaza soon. It "will take a long time" to dismantle Hamas' vast network of tunnels, he said, adding that he expected a lengthy phase of lower-intensity fighting as Israel destroys "pockets of resistance."

His comments pointed to a potentially gruelling and open-ended new phase of the war after three weeks of relentless bombardment. Israel has said it aims to crush Hamas' rule in Gaza and its ability to threaten Israel. But how Hamas' defeat will be measured and an invasion's endgame remains unclear. Israel says it does not intend to rule the tiny territory of 2.3 million Palestinians but not who it expects to govern  even as Gallant suggested a long-term insurgency could ensue.

In a sign of rising tensions in the region, U.S. warplanes struck targets in eastern Syria that the Pentagon said were linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guard after a string of attacks on American forces, and two mysterious objects hit towns in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

In this undated image taken from a video released by Israeli Defense Forces, a line of Israeli tanks are shown during an incursion into the Gaza Strip. (Photo | AP)

The Palestinian death toll in Gaza has soared past 7,300, according to officials there. A blockade on Gaza has meant dwindling supplies of food, fuel, water and medicine, and the U.N. warned that its aid operation helping hundreds of thousands of people was "crumbling" amid near-depleted fuel.

Gaza's Health Ministry on Thursday released a detailed list of names and identification numbers of those killed, including more than 3,000 minors and more than 1,500 women.

More than 1,400 people were slain in Israel during Hamas' Oct. 7 attack, according to the Israeli government, and at least 229 hostages were taken into Gaza. Palestinian militants have fired thousands of rockets into Israel, including one that hit a residential building in Tel Aviv on Friday, wounding four people.

The overall number of deaths far exceeds the combined toll of all four previous Israel-Hamas wars, estimated at around 4,000. A ground invasion is expected to cause even higher casualties on both sides as Israeli forces and Hamas battle each other in dense residential areas.

Gazan hospitals have been scrounging for fuel to run emergency generators that power incubators and other life-saving equipment after Israel cut off all fuel deliveries at the start of the war, forcing its only power plant to shut down.

Gallant said Israel believes that Hamas would confiscate any fuel that enters. He said Hamas uses generators to pump air into its hundreds of kilometres (miles) of tunnels, which originate in civilian areas. He showed reporters aerial footage of what he said was a tunnel shaft built right next to a hospital.

"For air, they need oil. For oil, they need us," he said.

ALSO READ | Iran says militants have 'finger on trigger' in anticipation of Israeli ground offensive in Gaza

Late Friday, the army released photos showing what it claimed were Hamas installations in and around Gaza's largest hospital, al-Shifa. Israel has made such claims before, but they declined to say how they obtained the photos. Little is known about Hamas' tunnels and other infrastructure, and the military's and Gallant's claims couldn't be verified.

Speaking at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Hamas media chief Salama Moussa called Israel's claims "lies" and said they were "a precursor for striking this facility."

"I ring the alarm bell. There is imminent danger hovering above the medical facility" and those in it, Moussa said. The hospital has been overwhelmed by thousands of patients and wounded, and around 40,000 displaced Gaza residents have crowded in and around its grounds for shelter, the U.N. says.

About 1.4 million people in Gaza have fled their homes, with nearly half of them crowding into U.N. shelters. Hundreds of thousands remain in northern Gaza, despite Israel ordering them to evacuate to the south and saying that those who remain might be considered "accomplices" of Hamas.

Palestinians inspect the rubble of a house after it was struck by an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis refugee camp, Gaza Strip, Friday, Oct.27, 2023. (Photo | AP)

Over the past week, Israel has allowed more than 80 trucks with aid to enter from Egypt through the Rafah crossing  including 10 trucks of food, medicine and other supplies Friday morning. The convoys meet only a tiny fraction of Gaza's needs amid a worsening humanitarian collapse.

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, which provides basic services to hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza, said it has been forced to ration fuel among lifesaving machines in hospitals, bakeries, and desalination plants, and only has enough for a few more days. U.N. workers say they will ensure no fuel deliveries go to Hamas.

"The siege means that food, water and fuel  basic commodities  are being used to collectively punish more than 2 million people, among them, a majority of children and women," Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, told reporters.

He said U.N. workers in Gaza report "the last remaining public services are collapsing, our aid operation is crumbling and for the first time ever, they report that people are now hungry."

ALSO READ | Israel expects 'long' ground war in Gaza to destroy Hamas and its many tunnels

Earlier Friday, the military said ground forces backed by fighter jets and drones raided inside Gaza, striking dozens of militant targets over the past 24 hours. It said aircraft and artillery bombed targets in Shijaiyah, a neighbourhood on Gaza City's outskirts that was the scene of an urban battle in the 2014 Gaza war.

The military said the soldiers exited the territory without casualties. It reported an earlier raid into northern Gaza on Thursday.

The damage to Gaza from nearly three weeks of bombardment is shown in satellite photos of several locations taken before the war and again in recent days. Entire rows of residential buildings simply disappear in the photos, reduced to smears of dust and rubble.

The Israeli military says it only targets militants and accuses Hamas of operating among civilians in an attempt to protect its fighters.

Israel captured Gaza in the 1967 Mideast War and occupied the territory until a unilateral withdrawal in 2005. It has maintained a tight blockade over the area since Hamas rose to power in the 2006 parliamentary elections and subsequently seized full control the following year from the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority.

The conflict has threatened to ignite a wider war across the region.

The United States has sent two aircraft carrier strike groups to the region in part to deter Iran and its allies from entering the war. Lebanon's Iranian-backed Hezbollah has repeatedly traded fire with Israel along the border.

Egypt's military said a drone crashed into a building in the Red Sea town of Taba, on the border with Israel, slightly wounding six people.

Also, a "strange object" landed near a power station in the nearby town of Nuweiba, state-run Al-Qahera news said. Footage showed debris and smoke rising from the side of a nearby mountain.

Last week, a U.S. Navy destroyer in the northern Red Sea shot down three cruise missiles and several drones launched toward Israel by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in northern Yemen.

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DEIR AL-BALAH: Internet and phone services collapsed in the Gaza Strip under intensified bombardment Friday night, largely cutting off its 2.3 million people from the outside world and each other, as Israel's military said it was "expanding" its ground operations in the besieged territory. The military's announcement signalled it was moving closer to an all-out invasion of Gaza, where it has vowed to crush the ruling Hamas group after its bloody incursion in southern Israel three weeks ago Frequent explosions from airstrikes lit up the sky over Gaza City after nightfall Friday, when the black-out in internet, cellular and landline services hit. The Red Crescent said it lost all contact with its operations room and medical teams. It said it feared people would no longer be able to contact ambulance services. Other aid groups said they were unable to reach staff on the ground.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); The Palestine Telecommunications Company, Paltel, announced "a complete disruption of all communication and internet services" due to bombardment. Israeli military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said ground forces were "expanding their activity" in Gaza and that it "is acting with great force ... to achieve the objectives of the war." Israel has amassed hundreds of thousands of troops along the border with Gaza ahead of an expected ground offensive against the Hamas militant group. ALSO READ | UN chief says Gaza faces 'avalanche of human suffering' Earlier in the day, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told a small group of foreign reporters that Israel expects a long and difficult ground offensive into Gaza soon. It "will take a long time" to dismantle Hamas' vast network of tunnels, he said, adding that he expected a lengthy phase of lower-intensity fighting as Israel destroys "pockets of resistance." His comments pointed to a potentially gruelling and open-ended new phase of the war after three weeks of relentless bombardment. Israel has said it aims to crush Hamas' rule in Gaza and its ability to threaten Israel. But how Hamas' defeat will be measured and an invasion's endgame remains unclear. Israel says it does not intend to rule the tiny territory of 2.3 million Palestinians but not who it expects to govern  even as Gallant suggested a long-term insurgency could ensue. In a sign of rising tensions in the region, U.S. warplanes struck targets in eastern Syria that the Pentagon said were linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guard after a string of attacks on American forces, and two mysterious objects hit towns in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. In this undated image taken from a video released by Israeli Defense Forces, a line of Israeli tanks are shown during an incursion into the Gaza Strip. (Photo | AP) The Palestinian death toll in Gaza has soared past 7,300, according to officials there. A blockade on Gaza has meant dwindling supplies of food, fuel, water and medicine, and the U.N. warned that its aid operation helping hundreds of thousands of people was "crumbling" amid near-depleted fuel. Gaza's Health Ministry on Thursday released a detailed list of names and identification numbers of those killed, including more than 3,000 minors and more than 1,500 women. More than 1,400 people were slain in Israel during Hamas' Oct. 7 attack, according to the Israeli government, and at least 229 hostages were taken into Gaza. Palestinian militants have fired thousands of rockets into Israel, including one that hit a residential building in Tel Aviv on Friday, wounding four people. The overall number of deaths far exceeds the combined toll of all four previous Israel-Hamas wars, estimated at around 4,000. A ground invasion is expected to cause even higher casualties on both sides as Israeli forces and Hamas battle each other in dense residential areas. Gazan hospitals have been scrounging for fuel to run emergency generators that power incubators and other life-saving equipment after Israel cut off all fuel deliveries at the start of the war, forcing its only power plant to shut down. Gallant said Israel believes that Hamas would confiscate any fuel that enters. He said Hamas uses generators to pump air into its hundreds of kilometres (miles) of tunnels, which originate in civilian areas. He showed reporters aerial footage of what he said was a tunnel shaft built right next to a hospital. "For air, they need oil. For oil, they need us," he said. ALSO READ | Iran says militants have 'finger on trigger' in anticipation of Israeli ground offensive in Gaza Late Friday, the army released photos showing what it claimed were Hamas installations in and around Gaza's largest hospital, al-Shifa. Israel has made such claims before, but they declined to say how they obtained the photos. Little is known about Hamas' tunnels and other infrastructure, and the military's and Gallant's claims couldn't be verified. Speaking at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Hamas media chief Salama Moussa called Israel's claims "lies" and said they were "a precursor for striking this facility." "I ring the alarm bell. There is imminent danger hovering above the medical facility" and those in it, Moussa said. The hospital has been overwhelmed by thousands of patients and wounded, and around 40,000 displaced Gaza residents have crowded in and around its grounds for shelter, the U.N. says. About 1.4 million people in Gaza have fled their homes, with nearly half of them crowding into U.N. shelters. Hundreds of thousands remain in northern Gaza, despite Israel ordering them to evacuate to the south and saying that those who remain might be considered "accomplices" of Hamas. Palestinians inspect the rubble of a house after it was struck by an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis refugee camp, Gaza Strip, Friday, Oct.27, 2023. (Photo | AP) Over the past week, Israel has allowed more than 80 trucks with aid to enter from Egypt through the Rafah crossing  including 10 trucks of food, medicine and other supplies Friday morning. The convoys meet only a tiny fraction of Gaza's needs amid a worsening humanitarian collapse. The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, which provides basic services to hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza, said it has been forced to ration fuel among lifesaving machines in hospitals, bakeries, and desalination plants, and only has enough for a few more days. U.N. workers say they will ensure no fuel deliveries go to Hamas. "The siege means that food, water and fuel  basic commodities  are being used to collectively punish more than 2 million people, among them, a majority of children and women," Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, told reporters. He said U.N. workers in Gaza report "the last remaining public services are collapsing, our aid operation is crumbling and for the first time ever, they report that people are now hungry." ALSO READ | Israel expects 'long' ground war in Gaza to destroy Hamas and its many tunnels Earlier Friday, the military said ground forces backed by fighter jets and drones raided inside Gaza, striking dozens of militant targets over the past 24 hours. It said aircraft and artillery bombed targets in Shijaiyah, a neighbourhood on Gaza City's outskirts that was the scene of an urban battle in the 2014 Gaza war. The military said the soldiers exited the territory without casualties. It reported an earlier raid into northern Gaza on Thursday. The damage to Gaza from nearly three weeks of bombardment is shown in satellite photos of several locations taken before the war and again in recent days. Entire rows of residential buildings simply disappear in the photos, reduced to smears of dust and rubble. The Israeli military says it only targets militants and accuses Hamas of operating among civilians in an attempt to protect its fighters. Israel captured Gaza in the 1967 Mideast War and occupied the territory until a unilateral withdrawal in 2005. It has maintained a tight blockade over the area since Hamas rose to power in the 2006 parliamentary elections and subsequently seized full control the following year from the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority. The conflict has threatened to ignite a wider war across the region. The United States has sent two aircraft carrier strike groups to the region in part to deter Iran and its allies from entering the war. Lebanon's Iranian-backed Hezbollah has repeatedly traded fire with Israel along the border. Egypt's military said a drone crashed into a building in the Red Sea town of Taba, on the border with Israel, slightly wounding six people. Also, a "strange object" landed near a power station in the nearby town of Nuweiba, state-run Al-Qahera news said. Footage showed debris and smoke rising from the side of a nearby mountain. Last week, a U.S. Navy destroyer in the northern Red Sea shot down three cruise missiles and several drones launched toward Israel by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in northern Yemen. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
Mumbai, October 26

A fter unveiling an intriguing and viral first look, the crime drama thriller film Apurva has released its official trailer. A dark and gritty feature, the trailer mixes in elements of neo-noir and dacoit drama with a Bollywood touch, as actress Tara Sutaria essays the role of a hardened survivor.

The trailer for Apurva starts off with an element that is very reminiscent of the gritty and bleak nature of something like the American crime series Breaking Bad orthe Bollywood film NH10.

Starting off in the middle of a desert as ruthless robbers begin shooting people, it cuts to the more typical Bollywood style romance as Tara Sutarias character is gearing up for her wedding.

Wanting to surprise her beau on his birthday, Apurva heads off to Agra only to be targeted by a dacoit gang who hijack her bus and take her captive leading to a potential assault.

Coming up in a very surprising role, comic veteran Rajpal Yadav forgoes the comedy and instead dons the role of a very menacing and serious gangster. Telling his members to dump Apurva in the desert after being done with her, she manages to escape from them and starts hiding from her captors.

While hiding from them, Rajpal Yadav tells his gang members to forget about the girl and tells them that they were going to rob a truck, with the girl not being any kind of priority.

At this point, Abhishek Banerjeesteps up as a much more evil and sadistic gangster telling his leader that he can go after the truck but his priority is the girl.

After seemingly bashing the head of someone with a brick, Apurva is hiding inside a well in the final shot as Abhisheks character is searching for her and seemingly finds her.

Describing her new project, Tara Sutaria said: "I am overwhelmed by the immense love and appreciation that our first look has received. Apurva' has been the most challenging and rewarding experience for me with regard to performance and it is also starkly different from any role I've played before. The fierceness and power of this character is what drew me in from the beginning. This is the role I've longed for since I began my career.

The engrossing visuals showcase a dramatically raw and fierce transformation of Tara who draws onto her inner strength to survive and live.

Rajpal Yadav detailed his role and said: It is always important to keep trying to innovate and do something different no matter what stage of life you may be in. I was looking for a role that Ive never done before, something that can shock todays audiences who are always looking for something new and Apurva' was just the right story for me.

Abhishek Banerjee who will also be seen in the film Stolen said: "This is one of the most fearsome characters Ive played so far and to bring the necessary level of evil and menace in each scene was quite challenging but it was a great journey working with such an exemplary team!

Written and directed by Nikhil Nagesh Bhat, Apurva stars a unique ensemble cast of Tara Sutaria, Abhishek Banerjee, Dhairya Karwa and Rajpal Yadav, and will premiere on Disney+ Hotstar on November 15, 2023.

Tara Sutaria survives an assault in 'Apurva' trailer

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Mumbai, Oct 26

T he upcoming episode of the cooking-based reality show MasterChef India features a unique blend of flavours. During the course of the episode, contestant Kriti Dhiman, a 23-year-old home baker from Gobindgarh, Punjab, steals the spotlight with her 'black garlic ice cream.'

Kriti chooses her favourite ingredient  dates, and makes it the base for a delectable date pudding. However, the judges throw a curveball at her by asking her to choose one out of three secret ingredients presented by them. She picks black garlic, and transforms her choice into a velvety black garlic ice cream, which leaves all three judges in absolute awe of her culinary brilliance.

Chef Ranveer Brar, who serves in the judges panel, heaps praise on Kritis dish. With a resounding bang of his signature spatula, he says: Swaad Aa Gaya.

He goes on to say: Kritis creation transcends the ordinary. Its a symphony of flavours that are a pure delight to the taste buds. Her choice to incorporate black garlic into her ice cream is nothing short of mind-blowing. It takes courage to experiment with flavours at this level, and her risk has paid off in the most delicious way possible. This is the kind of innovation that sets MasterChef Indias contestants apart.

With Chefs Vikas Khanna, Ranveer Brar, and Pooja Dhingra at the helm, this digital-exclusive season of the cooking based reality show boasts a gastronomic extravaganza.

MasterChef India streams on Sony LIV.

'MasterChef India': 'Swaad Aa Gaya', says Chef Ranveer Brar on Kriti Dhiman's 'black garlic ice-cream'

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Chandigarh, Oct 26

U nderscoring the substantial positive transformation and advancements, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Thursday said the past nine years has seen the state's exports surging from Rs 68,032 crore in 2014 to an impressive Rs 2,45,453 crore in 2022-23.

Sharing a range of accomplishments during the stint of the BJP government in the state, the Chief Minister told the media here the government in the past nine years has focused on economic growth, industrial development, and the overall well-being of its residents.

He said Haryana has attracted investments of Rs 18,422 crore, leading to the establishment of 1,59,622 MSMEs. This substantial industrial expansion has concurrently generated employment opportunities for approximately 12.60 lakh individuals.

The Chief Minister said the government has laid an emphasis on enhancing the standard of living for the people. This encompassed initiatives in education, healthcare, security, self-sufficiency, empowerment, self-esteem, and equal opportunities.

Divulging details about infrastructure advancements, the government has been actively engaged in advancing infrastructure development. Notable projects include the construction of an Integrated Multi Modal Logistics Hub in Narnaul with an outlay of $700 million and the establishment of industries in IMT Kharkhoda Sonipat, in collaboration with Maruti Suzuki and Suzuki.

"Haryana has actively participated in national initiatives like the PM Gati Shakti Yojana and the establishment of a Medical Device Park in Panipat, along with a Bulk Drugs Park in Hisar. The government has taken measures to provide traders with various benefits and facilities, including insurance coverage against losses due to fire and burglary under the Mukhya Mantri Vyapari Kshatipurti Yojana as well as personal accident insurance for registered traders," said Khattar.

He said today, every district is connected by a national highway. At present the work of eight highways is complete and 12 are in progress.

"To ease the traffic around Delhi, Kundli-Manesar-Palwal and Kundli-Ghaziabad-Palwal Expressways were built and the traffic on them continues smoothly. Ambala Kotputli Greenfield Corridor completed at Rs 10,646 crore," he said.

The Chief Minister said the construction work of the country's first elevated railway line has been completed in Rohtak and work on the same project has started in Kurukshetra.

A survey is being conducted for the elevated line in Kaithal. Construction work on 62 railway overbridges and underground bridges at a cost of Rs 2,577 crore has been completed and work on 50 bridges is in progress.

Metro service has started from the YMCA Chowk to Ballabhgarh, Bahadurgarh-Mundka (Delhi), Badarpur-Mujesar (YMCA Chowk) and Sikandarpur station to Sector 56.

The Chief Minister said e-ticketing has been introduced in public road transport services. A five per cent rebate will also be given on recharging to promote this. Besides, CCTV cameras have been installed at all bus terminals in the state.

The Chief Minister said the government has prioritised the enhancement of healthcare infrastructure.

In 2014, the state had one medical university, but this number has now risen to two. Similarly, the count of medical colleges has surged from six in 2014 to 15, and the MBBS seats have increased from 700 to 2,185.

Moreover, the number of postgraduate seats in medical colleges has grown from 289 to 1,006, he said.

He said an online transfer policy has been implemented for the convenience of teachers, which is also being adopted by other states in the country.

Besides, the state has seen growth in the number of universities from 43 in 2014 to 56, government colleges from 105 to 182, and government model senior secondary Sanskriti schools from 13 to 147.

"These initiatives reflect the government's unwavering commitment to improving healthcare services, skill development, and education to provide employment opportunities and enhance the overall quality of life for the people of Haryana," he said.

For farmers, the Chief Minister said due to natural disasters, the compensation per acre which was Rs 10,000 in 2014 has been increased to Rs 15,000 per acre by the government.

"The government stands shoulder to shoulder with farmers, providing a substantial compensation of Rs 11,000 crore for crop damage due to natural calamities, whereas in the previous governments tenure only Rs 1,158 crore were given to the farmers," he said.

In addition to this, Haryana became the first state in the country to procure 14 crops at a minimum support price (MSP).

He said under the Bhavantar Bharpiee Yojana, Rs 750 crore was deposited into the accounts of bajra growing and horticulture farmers.

Haryana's exports surge to Rs 2,45,453 crore in 9 years of BJP stint: Khattar

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Commerce Minister to attend G7 Trade Ministers meeting in Japan on Oct 28-29

New Delhi, Oct 26

C ommerce Minister Piyush Goyal will attend the Group of Seven (G7) Trade Ministers' meeting in Japan's Osaka from October 28-29.

He will also have bilateral meetings with a few G7 countries, invitee countries and a few international organisations such as WTO, on the sidelines of the outreach programmes.

Trade Ministers of G7 member states hold an annual meeting with the aim to meet the current global challenges related to trade and investment and to set the course for a better future.

Under its presidency of the G7, Japan has invited India along with a very few other countries (Australia, Chile, Indonesia, and Kenya) to participate in the outreach programme to be held on October 28.

Apart from them, international organisations such as the WTO, the ERIA, and the OECD have also been invited. This year, Japan has selected contemporary topics for the outreach programme namely, How to enhance Supply Chain Resilience and Promote Trade and Sustainability- environment, Development and digital, including prospects for WTO MC13.

The G7 is an intergovernmental political forum consisting of the US, the UK, Japan, Italy, France, Canada, and Germany. Additionally, the European Union (EU) is a "non-enumerated member".

Commerce Minister to attend G7 Trade Ministers meeting in Japan on Oct 28-29

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New Delhi, Oct 26

I ndia and EU naval ships conducted their first-ever joint naval exercise, in the Gulf of Guinea, off west Africa, in an effort to reinforce maritime security cooperation in support of the region, the Defence Ministry said on Thursday.

The exercise on October 24 followed the third meeting of the EU-India Maritime Security Dialogue on October 5 in Brussels.

During the exercise, Indian Navys INS Sumedha, an Offshore Patrol Vessel, was joined by three EU member states ships in the Gulf of Guinea - Italian Navy Ship ITS Foscari, French Navy Ship FS Ventose, and Spanish Navy Ship Tornado, a Defence Ministry official added.

The four ships practiced a series of tactical manoeuvers in international waters off the coast of Ghana, including a boarding exercise, a flying exercise using the helicopters embarked on Ventose and Sumedha, and transfer of personnel between ships.

This exercise was followed by a knowledge sharing session in Accra, which built on the joint experience at sea to improve operational know-how. The session also helped deepen ties between Ghanaian officials and representatives of the Indian, EU and EU member states missions to Ghana, the official added.

According to the ministry these activities underlined the shared commitment of India and the EU to supporting coastal states and the Yaounde Architecture in ensuring maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea. They reflected the breadth and dynamism of EU-India cooperation on maritime security, and signalled the common determination to uphold the United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

EU, India carry out maiden joint naval exercise in Gulf of Guinea

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Canada welcomes resumption of visa services by India, calls it good sign

Ottawa, October 26

C anada has welcomed India's decision to partially resume visa services calling it a "good sign" and stating that the suspension should "never have happened in the first place", Canada-based CTV News reported.

Canadian Immigration Minister Marc Miller said on Wednesday called the move "a good sign" after "an anxious time" for his many Canadians.

"Our feeling is that a suspension should never have happened in the first place," he added.

Canadian Emergency Preparedness Minister Harjit Sajjan said the resumption of visa processing is good news, but wouldn't speculate on what message New Delhi is trying to send, CTV News reported.

"It's good to see that they have resumed that. It would have been nice (if) they didn't take it in the first place," Sajjan told reporters.

He added that Ottawa is still seeking India's help as police investigate the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

"There was a Canadian that's killed on Canadian soil, and we've been asking for greater cooperation with the investigation," Sajjan said.

The Canada-India Business Council also said in a statement that it was "a promising development" for trade.

"It is also a positive sign that both governments have expressed their support for bilateral business and investments amidst these unusual times," CTV News quoted council head Victor Thomas.

This comes after India on Wednesday, decided to resume visa services in Canada for four categories after a considered review of the security situation which "takes into account some recent Canadian measures in this regard".

Entry visa, Business visa, Medical visa and Conference visa are four categories in which India has decided to resume visa services in Canada with effect from October 26.

Notably, amid diplomatic standoff with Canada, India had halted its visa services till "further notice" in September.

This came after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged the involvement of "agents of the Indian government" in the killing of a Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June

India had rejected the allegations as "absurd and motivated" and expelled a Canadian diplomat in a tit-for-tat move over Canada's decision.

Last week, Canada pulled 41 diplomats from India, after New Delhi had conveyed its concerns over parity in diplomatic strength. Ottawa also halted its visa and consular services in Chandigarh, Mumbai, and Bengaluru consulates.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had said last week that India will resume issuing visas to Canadian citizens if it "sees progress" in the safety of its diplomats.

Canada welcomes resumption of visa services by India, calls it good sign

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Mumbai, October 26

A ctor Kriti Sanon never misses a chance to make heads turn with her looks. Whatever the celebration, be it a National Film Awards event or film promotion activities, the 'Mimi' star has time and again dished out fashion goals.

On Thursday, she stole the attention with her stylish presence at the launch of the 100th store of Marks & Spencer in the country. Headquartered in Paddington, London, M&S was founded by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer in Leeds.

Speaking to ANI in Mumbai, Kriti, who was seen donning a beautiful blue ombre outfit, revealed her fashion mantra.

She said, "I think fashion and style are quite personal. I like combining style and comfort in my fashion. I like wearing sheek and contemporary clothes but at the same time, I want them to be extremely comfortable.

Besides fashion, Kriti also spoke about her first-ever National Award win. On October 17, she was felicitated with the Best Actor Award for her role in 'Mimi' film at the 69th National Film Awards ceremony, which was held at Vigyan Bhawan in Delhi.

Expressing her happiness over her remarkable feat, Kriti said, "It is a surreal moment. I think this is every actor's dream. I thought it was a distant dream as I have not even completed 10 years in the industry, but for something like this to happen, I feel very blessed and grateful."

Speaking of Kriti's upcoming projects, she will be seen sharing screen space with Shahid Kapoor in a romantic film, which will be out in theatres on February 9, 2024. Kriti will also be seen in 'The Crew' alongside Kareena Kapoor Khan, Tabu and Diljit Dosanjh in 'The Crew'.

A mix of comfort and style: Kriti Sanon decodes her fashion mantra

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Microsoft rejigs top Xbox team as it sets eyes on AI and gaming

San Francisco, Oct 26

M icrosoft on Thursday made some key changes in the top echelons of its gaming vertical Xbox, promoting Sarah Bond as Xbox president, as the tech giant completed the $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

Bond will bring together Devices, Player & Creator Experiences, Platform Engineering, Strategy, Business Planning, Data & Analytics and Business Development, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said in an internal memo to employees seen by The Verge.

Matt Booty will now be the president of game content and studios, including overseeing Bethesda and ZeniMax studios.

Dave McCarthy will lead all of these efforts for our business as Chief Operations Officer, Microsoft Gaming, Spencer wrote.

Earlier this month, top Microsoft leaders Satya Nadella and Brad Smith welcomed the closing of $68.7 billion transaction to acquire gaming giant Activision Blizzard.

The UKs anti-trust watchdog finally cleared the restructured deal for Microsoft to buy Blizzard, after it concluded that the new deal would preserve competitive prices and better services.

Spencer wrote in the memo that Microsoft Gaming is on a multi-year journey to reach players where they are and on the devices they choose to play.

We have thirteen $1 billion+ franchises in our portfolio and we just set new records for engagement in Game Pass. As our business continues to grow, its important that we structure ourselves to sustain that momentum with effective clarity and accountability across Gaming, he noted.

ZeniMax will continue to operate as a limited integration entity led by Jamie Leder, President and CEO, reporting to Booty.

All ZeniMax development studios and ZeniMax Central Services teams will continue reporting to Leder.

On the marketing side, chief marketing officer Chris Capossela is stepping down after 32 years at Microsoft.

Microsoft rejigs top Xbox team as it sets eyes on AI and gaming

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With the first 2023-24 winter snowstorm expected this weekend, metro Denver area residents and government agencies prepared plans to ride out the snow and cold.

Denver and Aurora's street departments on Friday shared details about each city's strategies to keep traffic moving.

Denver's heavy equipment operators moved into "snow mode," according to the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure.

The department is "readying its fleet of big plows and will have drivers on duty starting at 10 p.m. (Friday) to address bridges, overpasses and any trouble spots overnight," spokesperson Nancy Kuhn said via email.

The city increased staffing levels for Saturday and Sunday, so about 50 plow operators will be available.

Officials reminded residents and business owners to clear adjacent sidewalks of snow and ice: Businesses should immediately do so after the snow stops falling, while homeowners should have sidewalks cleared by the next day.

Meanwhile, Aurora street department officials said 17 plow trucks will be available starting Saturday afternoon.

"Pre-treatment of roads is unlikely because the roads are still 'warm'," according to a city spokesperson. "Unlike cities in the upper Midwest that possess loads of treatment and salt, Aurora (and Colorado) tends to be more conservative with the amount we possess and use because we have warmer winter days and we avoid those really long stretches of below-freezing temperatures."

Warming centers available

Denver on Friday said it plans to open two additional overnight shelters to help residents avoid the incoming cold.

The Denver Coliseum, at 4600 Humboldt St., and the ballroom of the former Best Western hotel, at 4595 Quebec St., will be open from 7 p.m. through 7 a.m. on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

These are in addition to the city's walk-up and "front door" shelters. The city has a full list of shelters for men, women, families with young children and for youth ages 15-20 on its website.

If the city's shelters reached capacity, people would be referred to St. Francis Center at 2323 Curtis St., where they would be transported to one of the two overflow shelters at the former Best Western hotel or the Denver Coliseum.

Denver will also have its recreation centers and libraries available on Sunday and Monday during their normal operating hours as warming areas for anyone who needs to get out of the cold, public health officials said.

Cold weather tips

This first blast of winter weather will feel especially cold after a hot summer and mild fall, officials and meteorologists warned, adding it it's a good time to prepare for the cold and review the risks associated with it.

The Denver Department of Public Health and Environment on Friday reminded Denverites that cold temperatures could result in hypothermia, frostbite and carbon monoxide poisoning.

Public health officials urged residents to limit their time outside and wear layers of warm clothing, if they need to venture out.

Denver health officials also asked the public to be mindful to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning. Generators, grills and fire pits should be used away from windows, and it's never a good idea to heat a home with a gas stovetop or oven, health officials said.

Residents should also know how to spot the signs of frostbite and hypothermia, and how to respond appropriately.

Health officials said if skin loses feeling, turns white or grayish-yellow and becomes firm or waxy, it could be frostbite. If this happens, warm the affected skin with warm water or body heat, but don't massage it or use heating pad. This happens most frequently in the face, fingers and toes.

Denver public health officials said hypothermia symptoms include shivering, confusion, fumbling hands, slurred speech, drowsiness and memory loss. And if your body temperature drops below 95 degrees, it's an emergency, health officials said.

If someone is showing symptoms of hypothermia, always warm the center of their body first, health officials said. This includes the head, neck, chest and groin. Keep the person dry and wrapped in warm blankets.

Take care of those pipes

If homeowners didn't get their sprinkler systems blown out before this weekend, don't panic. The ground is warm enough so they shouldn't freeze. But, just be sure, they should cover any exposed pipes and schedule service as soon as possible, industry experts said.

Denver Water published reminders on how to keep house pipes from freezing  and take care of the situation if they do.

Before cold weather hits:

 Learn the location of one's homes water shut-off valve. If a pipe breaks, youll need to shut off the water to the house to minimize damage. In most single-family homes, the valve is in the basement or crawl space, on a wall facing the street.

 Make sure everyone in the household knows how to shut off the water.

 Insulate water pipes that may be vulnerable to the cold, such as those along exterior walls and in unheated basements.

During a deep freeze:

 Keep open cabinet doors leading to exposed pipes (such as access doors for sinks), so that household air can warm them.

 Keep doors shut for an attached garage. Occasionally, plumbing is routed through this unheated space, leaving it vulnerable to winter's worst.

 Crack a faucet farthest from the place where water enters the house. A very slow drip will keep water molecules moving, reducing the chance that pipes will freeze. Place a bucket underneath the faucet so the water can be saved for other household uses.

 Keep the thermostat set above 65 degrees when leaving the house or business for several days.

If you think a pipe is frozen, dont wait for nature to take its course:

 Thaw the pipe as soon as possible or call a plumber for help.

 If homeowners themselves thaw it, they should shut off the water or test the shut-off valve. Homeowners dont want water suddenly gushing from the pipe when it thaws.

 When thawing, slower is better. Pipes warmed too fast may break. A hair dryer pointed at the frozen area of the pipe is appropriate. A blow torch is not.
Raipur, October 26

A ssam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday hailed the recommendation by the committee of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) on replacing 'India' with 'Bharat' in school textbooks and said, "Ye kaam bahut acha hua hai bharat ka jayjaykar hona chahiye desh mei."

Sharing similar sentiments, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Tarun Chugh also hailed the recommendation by the committee of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) on changing 'India' with 'Bharat'.

"'Bharat' is in our DNA. We have been 'Bharat' for centuries. What is the problem with this? The name 'Bharat' provides recognition to the country's soil. The initiative is indeed welcomed', Chugh said while speaking to ANI on Thursday.

Criticising the opposition for condemning the decision, Chugh said, "What is the problem with the Congress party? It is this party that raises anti-national slogans in the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). The soil of this country has been 'Bharat' for centuries, and it will remain the same".

An NCERT panel, headed by historian CI Issac, recommended replacing 'India with Bharat' in school textbooks.

The recommendations were made by a seven-member Committee for Social Sciences, which is among the committees constituted by the NCERT to prepare position papers on various subjects.

Speaking to ANI over the phone, Issac said the "term India started being used commonly only after the establishment of the East India Company and the battle of Plassey in 1757"."We have unanimously recommended that the 'Bharat' should be used in textbooks for students across classes."

The panel chaired by Issac was among the 25 committees formed by the NCERT in December 2021 to prepare position papers on various subjects and themes.

A controversy had broken out over the panel recommendations with some opposition leaders alleging that "confusion" was being created as several institutions use 'India' in their names.

The recommendation by an NCERT panel to replace 'India' with 'Bharat' in school textbooks on Wednesday raised the hackles in the Opposition, with several leaders cutting across parties coming out in opposition against the move.

Labelling the move as a "political decision", Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said, "It is unfortunate that an India Vs Bharat narrative is being put forward. (The words) 'India that is Bharat' were inscribed into our Constitution by none other than Dr. BR Ambedkar. The coming generations won't forgive them (the Centre) for making this differentiation. India is also Bharat and Hindustan for us. If the BJP had any sense of national pride, the name 'India' wouldn't be changed to 'Bharat'."

Meanwhile NCERT on Wednesday said that "it is too premature to comment" on reports in sections of media concerning changing 'India' to 'Bharat' in its textbooks and noted that the development of a new syllabus and textbooks is in the process for which groups of domain experts are being notified by it.

Assam CM hails NCERT panel's recommendation on replacing 'India' with 'Bharat'

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China, US need to have dialogue: Wang Yi tells Blinken

Washington, Oct 27

V isiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that the world's two biggest economies "need to have dialogue" following a period of volatile bilateral relations.

Yi, who is in the US on a four-day official visit, also said that "not only should we resume dialogue, the dialogue should be in-depth and comprehensive so that with dialogue we can increase mutual understanding, reduce misunderstanding and misjudgment, constantly seek to expand common ground and pursue cooperation that will benefit both sides so that we can stabilise China-US relations and return it to the track of healthy, stable, and sustainable development".

He made the remarks to reporters before a one-on-one meeting with Blinken which ispart of a reciprocal visitfollowingthe Secretarystravelto Beijing andrecent high-level meetings as part of ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communicationand responsibly manageUS-China relations, according to the State Department.

The top Chinese diplomat noted that "we have disagreements; we have differences. At the same time, we also share important common interests and we face challenges that we need to respond together".

He also said that "from time to time there will be some jarring voices" in the bilateral ties.

When that happens, Wang said, "China treats it calmly because we are of the view what is right and what is wrong is not determined by who has the stronger arm or a louder voice".

On his part, Blinken said that he "agreed with what the Foreign Minister said", adding that he "very much look forward to constructive conversations over the next two days".

Following the meeting, the State Department said that Blinken and Wang "discusseda range of bilateral, regional, and global issues,includingaddressing areas of difference as well as exploring areas of cooperation".

The Secretary of State also "reiterated that the United States willcontinue to stand up for our interests and values and those ofour allies and partners", it added.

Blinken also expressed his condolences on the passing of former Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, who died at the age of 68 due to a heart attack in Shanghai.

Wang and Blinken will continue their discussions on Friday.

The Chinese Foreign Minister is also scheduled to meet National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and speak with President Joe Biden.

The Biden administration is seeking to re-establish normal diplomatic ties with China after a high tensionperiod.

When Blinken visited China in June, he became the first US Secretary of State to travel to the Asian giant in five years and the most senior American official to make such a mission since Biden took office in 2021.

China, US need to have dialogue: Wang Yi tells Blinken

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Washington, DC, October 27

T he White House has said US President Joe Biden's comments on the India Middle East Europe Economic Corridor and Hamas attack are being "misunderstood" and that Israel-Saudi Arabia normalisation "may have motivated Hamas to conduct those attacks".

White House National Security Council (NSC) spokesman John Kirby was responding to a question on President Biden hinting that one of the reasons behind Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel was the recent announcement of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor that integrates the entire region with a network of rail, road and ports.

Kirby said: "I think you misunderstood him. What he said was that he believed that the normalization process and the agreement that we were trying to reach between Israel and Saudi Arabia for normalization, which we believe is an important stepping stone to getting to a two-state solution, was what may have motivated Hamas to conduct those attacks. I think you misunderstood what he actually said."

In a joint press conference with Australian PM Anthony Albanese on Wednesday (US local time), US President Biden had said: "I'm convinced one of the reasons Hamas attacked when they did, and I have no proof of this, just my instinct tells me, is because of the progress we were making towards regional integration for Israel, and regional integration overall. We can't leave that work behind."

Recently, Israeli Ambassador to India Naor Gilon asserted that the recent attacks on Israel are driven to sow unrest between Israel, Saudi Arabia, and other Gulf nations.

These attacks also aimed to disrupt the relationships established by the Abraham Accords and the I2U2 grouping, which led to increased communication between Israel and the Gulf countries.

He also mentioned that the attacks targeted disrupting relations which were established by the Abraham Accords and I2U2 grouping which resulted in settlement of communication between Israel and Gulf Countries.

The Abraham Accords, brokered by the Trump administration, comprise a set of agreements that Israel signed with four Arab nations: the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Morocco, Bahrain, and Sudan. These agreements were established between September 2020 and January 2021.

According to India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), the Abraham Accords are bilateral agreements on Arab-Israeli normalization signed between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain on September 15, 2020.

Additionally, the I2U2 Group is a grouping of India, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States. The group's first joint statement, released on July 14, 2022, states that the countries aim to cooperate on "joint investments and new initiatives in water, energy, transportation, space, health, and food security, said MEA.

Gilon also affirmed Israel's commitment to taking stringent action to eliminate extremist groups from the region.

Ambassador asserted, "I think we will go very far because if not, it will harm all the moderate regimes in the Middle East and we have to make sure that the radicals...the same radical religious ideology that has to be uprooted and we are going to uproot as much as we can at least this part of these extremists."

Biden's comments linking IMEC and Hamas attack misunderstood: White House

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Washington, DC, October 27

U S Secretary of State, Antony Blinken hosted Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in continuation of meetings of between US and Chinese officials to maintain open communication between two countries, said US Department of State.

The meeting which was held on Thursday in Washington, was a reciprocal meeting after the US Secretary's visit to Beijing.

As per the press statement the meeting was focused on responsibly handling the US-china relations and discussing a range of bilateral, regional, and global issues, including addressing areas of difference as well as exploring areas of cooperation.

The US department of State spokesperson, Mathew Miller said in a statement, "Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken hosted PRC Director of the CCP Central Foreign Affairs Commission and Foreign Minister Wang Yi for an official visit today in Washington. The meeting was part of a reciprocal visit following the Secretary's travel to Beijing and recent high-level meetings as part of ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication and responsibly manage U.S.-China relations."

The statement added, "The Secretary and Director and Foreign Minister Wang discussed a range of bilateral, regional, and global issues, including addressing areas of difference as well as exploring areas of cooperation. The Secretary reiterated that the United States will continue to stand up for our interests and values and those of our allies and partners."

Meanwhile, the Secretary Blinken also expressed grief over the passing of former Chinese premier Li Keqiang.

Earlier in June, Chinese President Xi Jinping meets the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Beijing.

In an unannounced and rare meeting, the Chinese Leader extends his hand to greet America's top diplomat and sat down for a half-an-hour-long meeting along with the respective delegates.

Blinken who was on a 2-day visit to Beijing after cancelling the scheduled trip in February this year also held an almost 10-hour-long meeting with his then counterpart Qin Gang and then China's foreign affairs adviser Wang Yi.

US Secy Antony Blinken meets Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Washington

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Mumbai, Oct 27

H ollywood actor Michelle Lee, who specialises in shooting extreme fight sequences, will be seen doing some action with actress Katrina Kaif in the upcoming 'Tiger 3'.

Lee has acted with Scarlett Johannson in 'Black Widow', Johnny Depp in 'Pirates of the Caribbean', Brad Pitt in 'Bullet Train' & Tom Hardy in 'Venom'.

Lee reveals Katrina and she had rehearsed for over two weeks before they shot the sequence at the Hammam.

She said: "I'm not surprised. I thought it was pretty epic when we were shooting it. We learned and practiced the fight for a couple weeks and then shot it. The set design was absolutely gorgeous and the fight was really fun to do. It was wonderful being on an International film."

Lee is all praises for Katrina whose dedication towards perfecting action sequences has bowled her over.

She said: "Katrina was as graceful and professional as can be. She worked really hard on getting the movements precise and making sure all the movements flow. It was clear she had experience in choreography so it was super easy to work with her. We worked up a sweat!"

Lee says managing the towels wrapped around their bodies was the biggest challenge of this Hammam sequence.

The actress said: "One of the main challenges was definitely the wardrobe! Our towels needed to stay in the proper place and with so much movement and fight choreography, it was definitely a challenge. We ended up having the towels sewn closed at certain points and that helped a lot."

She added: "Another challenge was striking each other in the perfect amount of distance so that it looks close enough to be dangerous and strong but far enough to not actually hurt each other."

"Can you imagine if I actually got her?! But I'm a professional lol. So things went smoothly, neither of us got hit so we just had to make it work for the camera."

'Tiger 3', from the YRF Spy Universe, has been produced by Aditya Chopra and directed by Maneesh Sharma. It is set to release this Diwali, November 12, Sunday in Hindi, Tamil & Telugu.

'Tiger 3' actress Michelle Lee: Towel fight scene with Katrina at the Hammam was pretty epic

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Mumbai, October 27

H ollywood actor Michelle Lee, who specialises in shooting extreme fight sequences, has detailed how she teamed up with Katrina Kaif for shooting the towel fight scene at a Turkish hammam in 'Tiger 3'.

The sequence has been widely shared on the Internet since the release of the film's trailer.

Michelle said she was not surprised that the towel fight set-piece has become one of the biggest talking points from the 'Tiger 3' trailer. The actor revealed that she rehearsed with Katrina for over two weeks before they shot the sequence.

She said, "I'm not surprised. I thought it was pretty epic when we were shooting it. We learned and practiced the fight for a couple weeks and then shot it. The set design was absolutely gorgeous and the fight was really fun to do. It was wonderful being on an international film."

Michelle also lauded Katrina for her dedication towards perfecting action sequences "Katrina was as graceful and professional as can be. She worked really hard on getting the movements precise and making sure all the movements flow. It was clear she had experience in choreography so it was super easy to work with her. We worked up a sweat!"

Michelle revealed that managing the towels wrapped around their bodies was the biggest challenge of shooting the Hammam sequence.

"One of the main challenges was definitely the wardrobe! Our towels needed to stay in the proper place and with so much movement and fight choreography, it was definitely a challenge. We ended up having the towels sewn closed at certain points and that helped a lot," Michelle said.

"Another challenge was striking each other in the perfect amount of distance so that it looks close enough to be dangerous and strong but far enough to not actually hurt each other. Can you imagine if I actually got her?! But I'm a professional lol. So things went smoothly, neither of us got hit so we just had to make it work for the camera," she said.

Michelle has previously acted with Scarlett Johannson in 'Black Widow', Johnny Depp in 'Pirates of the Caribbean', Brad Pitt in 'Bullet Train' and Tom Hardy in 'Venom'.

Apart from Katrina, the Maneesh Sharma- directed film also stars Salman Khan and Emraan Hashmi in lead roles.

A two-minute-50-second-long trailer of the film released earlier showcases Salman Khan cast as India's best agent, Tiger, who is trying to save his family and the country from an enemy (played by Emraan Hashmi) who trying to take personal revenge for his family's loss.

The trailer also featured Katrina Kaif in her action avatar and Emraan's face was revealed at the end of the clip.

The film is scheduled to hit theatres this Diwali.

Epic, says Hollywood actor Michelle Lee about Turkish hamman towel fight scene with Katrina Kaif

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Goersch appointed as Air India COO, Sandhu will transition to an advisory role

New Delhi, Oct 27

A ir India on Friday announced the appointment of Captain Klaus Goersch as the Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer who will oversee flight operations, engineering, ground operations, Integrated Operations Control (IOCC) and cabin crew functions.

According to the airline officials, Goersch will be based out of Air India's new headquarters in Gurugram.

Meanwhile, the incumbent Chief of Operations Captain R.S. Sandhu, who had already extended his service with Air India beyond his superannuation date, will transition to an advisory role with particular focus on the harmonisation of the four Tata airlines' operating procedures, the Airbus A350 entry-into-service programme and assisting the team establishing Air Indias new Training Academy.

Air India also announced other senior announcements to further strengthen its management team.

Captain Manish Uppal, who transitioned from Air Asia India a few months ago, has been appointed as Senior Vice President Flight Operations, while Henry Donohoes Corporate Safety, Security and Quality role will be expanded to include Emergency Response, and be retitled Senior Vice President Safety, Security and Quality.

Pankaj Handa had joined to lead Ground Operations, Choorah Singh had joined as Divisional Vice President Integrated Operations Control and JuLi Ng had joined as Divisional Vice President Cabin Crew.

"These changes have been made with a view to managing succession, streamlining the organisation, optimising talent from within the Tata airline group and positioning it strongly for future growth and success," CEO of Air India, Campbell Wilson said.

Goersch appointed as Air India COO, Sandhu will transition to an advisory role

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New Delhi, Oct 27

A bhishek Manu Singhvi, a distinguished Rajya Sabha MP and senior advocate in the Supreme Court, has embarked on an extraordinary academic journey in the US.

The prestigious lecture series is hosted by O.P. Jindal Global University, under the leadership of the Founding Vice-Chancellor, C. Raj Kumar.

Raj Kumar observed, "This visit of Singhvi to the US under the aegis of O.P. Jindal Global University and Jindal Global Law School is part of an effort to engage with many of our leading partner institutions in the US on issues relating to law and justice. The larger goal was to promote the vision and contributions India's leading legal and governance institutions to the advancement of the rule of law and promotion of access to justice in the last 75 years since our independence.

"While the entire tour was across six cities where Singhvi delivered 15 lectures in 10 universities, we just completed the Boston leg of the visit where he delivered four lectures. These lectures were delivered at The Fletcher School, Tufts University, Harvard Law School, Harvard Kennedy School and at the Harvard Faculty Club."

The lectures touched upon three major themes, 'India at 75: The Future of Law and Justice in the World's Largest Democracy', 'The India Supreme Court at 75: Protecting Rights, Expanding Freedoms, and Empowering Citizens' and 'Same-Sex Marriage in India: In the pursuit of Equality and Justice by the Supreme Court of India'.

These themes have become extremely relevant given the present legal landscape in light of the recent judgment by the Indian Supreme Court on the constitutionality of same-sex marriages in India.

The first lecture took place at The Fletcher School, Tufts University where Singhvi gave his views on 'India at 75: The Future of Law and Justice in the World's Largest Democracy'. This lecture covered the historical evolution of India and its institutions from the pre-independence era to the current period.

Singhvi reflected on India's remarkable journey as a democratic nation and the significant contribution of the Indian legal system in providing a fillip to the constitutional ideals. He highlighted the historical perspective by acknowledging the unique position of India as a thriving democracy among the pool of post-colonial nations, attributing it to a combination of factors, prominently the leadership of Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi in guiding India during the freedom struggle and in the formative years of Independence.

He identified various pillars of Indian democracy including institutional and non-institutional elements which have helped to sustain its democratic ideals. They are the Parliament, the Judiciary and organisations like the Election Commission of India, the Comptroller and Auditor General, and the ideals enshrined in the Constitution such as secularism, federalism and equality which provide legal protection and recognition to it. He traced the evolution of the Indian Judiciary, recounting instances and periods from a passive, positivist to an assertive guardian of fundamental rights and public interest.

While speaking about the prospects for the future, he mentioned India's burgeoning demographic dividend and the transformations in the economic and social institutions as they will help in the progression of law and justice throughout the nation.

Singhvi identified the roadblocks in the Indian legal system preventing them to reach their fullest potential and efficiency, namely, the increasing vacancies in the judiciary, lack of consultation with the judiciary by the legislature at the time of approval of legislatures which can result in a surge of litigation, the time-consuming judicial decision-making process which results in significant delays, and the lack of a transparent mechanism to address the issue of judicial integrity.

While talking about the future trends in the legal profession, he acknowledged the transformative impact of technology in the legal industry including automated solutions, artificial intelligence and robotic process automation.

Lastly, he observed the foreign policy shifts taking place under the leadership of the current Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He cautioned and urged that India should maintain its independence to not compromise on the long-term foreign policy objectives.

While delivering the lecture on 'The Indian Supreme Court at 75' at the Harvard Law School, Singhvi highlighted the intertwined nature of rights, freedoms, and the protection of citizens in the Indian Constitution.

He observed that these components are interdependent, therefore it is pertinent to address them collectively and not in silos as they reinforce one another in a meaningful manner. He highlighted the pivotal role played by the Supreme Court in harmonising these aspects.

He said, "For 75 years, the Indian Supreme Court has been the unwavering sentinel, guarding the rights of citizens, expanding freedoms, and, above all, preserving the essence of democracy."

While reflecting on the historical evolution of the Supreme Court, Singhvi mentioned a few crucial features. First, the Supreme Court has played a dual role both as an Appellate Court and a Constitutional Court, which has not only allowed it to serve the common man but also at the same time address complex legal matters.

Second, post the emergency, the Supreme Court has embraced on judicial activism, thereby broadening its power of judicial review.

He mentioned various landmark decisions of the Apex Court such as the declaration of constitutional amendments as unconstitutional in the Keshvananda Bharti case, affirmation of third-gender status to transgenders, establishment of the Right to Privacy as a fundamental right in the Puttaswamy Case, decriminalisation of adultery in the Joseph Shine case or deeming the Triple Talaq as unlawful and upholding the rights of equality of Muslim women.

While celebrating the Indian Supreme Courts successes, Singhvi also raised concerns about the rising challenges such as growing criminalisation in public life and rampant corruption, both within and outside the system.

Singhvi concluded his address by emphasizing the critical need to safeguard the independence and institutional integrity of the Indian Supreme Court.

While delivering a lecture at Harvard Kennedy School, Singhvi covered a variety of topics on constitutional law including same-sex marriage and the potential for judicial interpretation to replace legislative action in recognising such unions. The petitioners' attorney, Singhvi, also highlighted the importance of this case and its ruling.

According to him, "Article 21 of the Indian Constitution enshrines the fundamental right of dignity - namely, the ability to join in marriage on equal terms. Exclusionary paradigms frequently convey to the general public a false impression of these people's value as full members of society."

Additionally, Singhvi emphasised how Article 14 of the Constitution forbids discrimination and the exclusion of same-sex couples from registering their marriages. He asserted that discrimination based on gender is violative under Article 15 of the Constitution.

The Special Marriage Act (SMA) served as the foundation for his arguments before the Apex Court. This Act was created with the goal of embracing all individuals, regardless of gender or sexual orientation.

He made it clear that it would not be adequate to acknowledge the right to cohabitation alone as he had no intention of interfering with religious or personal laws.

Singhvi also pointed out that a small technical glitch or a heteronormative rule should not be enough justification for denying same-sex couples the advantages of the SMA.

He contended that the SMA's inclusion of same-sex weddings should have no bearing on the laws against adultery, rape, sodomy, and bestiality, which are meant to safeguard women in heterosexual marriages.

Singhvi pointed out that the recent Supreme Court decision recognised the importance of giving equal rights and opportunities to every individual regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

He said that denying same-sex couples the right to marry is a violation of their fundamental right to dignity. He asserted that the right to civil union, adoption and the right to marry for transgender persons are rights that must be recognised. This right of recognition, form unions and inclusion of diverse family structures is a significant step towards creating an inclusive society.

Abhishek Manu Singhvi delivers 4 lectures at Harvard University, The Fletcher School

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Smartphone shipments in mainland China saw consecutive quarterly decline with a 5% loss to a total of 66.7 million units, according to analyst company Canalys.

Former Huawei sub-brand Honor was the top shipping vendor in Q3 with 18% market share equating to around 11.8 million units. Oppo (including OnePlus) came in second with 10.9 million units, and Apple slotted in third with 10.6 million units on the back of momentum from its iPhone 15 range launch. Vivo and Xiaomi secured fourth and fifth place with 16% and 14% market share, respectively.

The analyst firm stated Huawei was growing its market share but did not disclose figures. Canalys Research Analyst Lucas Zhong noted if the Chinese manufacturer brings its Kirin smartphone processor to its low-to-mid devices in future, it has the potential to disrupt the competitive dynamic among leading vendors.

Zhong noted product competitive is key for growth crediting the Huaweis launch of its flagship Mate 60 series for sparking the Chinese market.

Vendors and channels are collaborating closer on all levels from macro-level strategy to day-to-day operations, especially since 2022, after experiencing a demand downturn and inventory risks together, added Canalys Research Manager Amber Liu.

Vendors have been assisting channels in operational efficiency enhancement in various ways. For instance, Honor and Oppo are helping distributors improve cash flow by providing digital financial tools, while Xiaomi started offering distributors the options to acquire Mi stores, optimising resource allocation and allowing ambitious distributors to expand. Facing intense rivalry, vendors continuously experiment with new models of symbiotic relationship with channel partners.
Technicians from CRRC Sifang Co, a subsidiary of China's rail giant China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation, visited a middle school in Bandung, Indonesia, on Tuesday and taught a lesson on high-speed trains to the students. The lesson, following the commercial operation of the Jakarta-Bandung High-speed Railway in mid-October, was aimed at enhancing education cooperation and people-to-people exchanges between China and Indonesia, CRRC Sifang said. During the class at Ngamprah No 3 Junior High School, Zhang Fangtao, a senior designer of the high-speed train for the Jakarta-Bandung railway, introduced the advanced technology used in the project. The students eagerly participated, asking questions and creating a lively atmosphere. CRRC Sifang, which is based in Qingdao, Shandong province, donated teaching materials to the school including computers and audio systems. The school gave souvenirs as gifts in return. The class was followed by an on-site experience inside the carriage of a running high-speed train from Jakarta-Bandung HSR's Padalarang Station to Halim Station with more than 50 students in attendance. Aboard the train, as the students saw the speed readout jump from 0 to 180 kilometers per hour, and then to 260 km/h, and finally to 350 km/h, they all cheered. One student, Saskia Fitriani, exclaimed: "This is so cool! It's my first time riding a high-speed train, and it's incredibly fast, like lightning!" "The high-speed train is beautiful and extremely modern, and it has expanded my horizons. I've learned a lot about high-speed rail during this event and hope to explore more advanced high-speed rail technologies in the future," said another student named Rayi Mahaputri. "I am very grateful to these Chinese companies for supporting the development of education in West Bandung. CRRC Sifang donated teaching materials to our school, which can help us to improve the quality of education," said Mepi, head of the junior high school. "The lectures and experience helped broaden the students' horizons, opening the door to a new world for our kids." Asep Wahyu, West Bandung Regency's economy and development assistant, said: "It is really generous for CRRC Sifang to provide assistance to our local school. The teaching materials and the free class will help our students study better. "I heard that Chinese people would call their kids 'flowers of the country', and Indonesian people have a similar saying calling our children 'buds of the country', be it flower or bud, they are the future, they are our hope," Asep added. The Jakarta-Bandung High-speed Railway is a flagship project of Belt and Road cooperation between China and Indonesia. The 142-km railway has a top speed of 350 km/h and connects the Indonesian capital Jakarta with the tourist destination city of Bandung  reducing the previous travel time from three and a half hours to 40 minutes. According to CRRC Sifang, the railway adopts China's cutting-edge technologies in areas such as speed, intelligence, environmental adaptability, comfort and customization, and applies standards according to the local environment and track conditions in Indonesia. "The Jakarta-Bandung High-speed Railway is not only a symbol of win-win cooperation between China and Indonesia, but also a connecting bridge to enhance the friendship between our two nations," said Cao Rui, CRRC Sifang's deputy general manager. Xinhua contributed to this story.
Huawei, a global leader in technology and telecommunications, is propelling the industry into a new era with the announcement of the world's first comprehensive suite of solutions for 5.5G technology.

This comes at a time when the adoption and utilisation of 5G by businesses and consumers has surged and continues expanding into new experiences, new connections, and new applications, noted Cao Ming, President of Wireless Solution at Huawei, during an International Media Roundtable at the 14th Global Mobile Broadband Forum held in Dubai in October.

This 5.5G network boasts remarkable features, including a 10 Gbps downlink, 1 Gbps uplink, a huge capacity of 100 billion-level connections, and native intelligence. Huawei is at the forefront of innovation to ensure the solutions help operators deliver full-scenario tenfold capabilities and enable ultra-high energy efficiency, spectrum utilization, and O&M efficiency" said Cao. Speaking to journalists from across the world, Cao stressed the potential of this technology and the change it can usher into our societies.

A Network Beyond Expectations

Telecommunications companies worldwide have been deploying 5G networks at an accelerated rate, far surpassing the pace of any previous generation of mobile communications technology. Over the past five years, approximately 260 commercial 5G networks have been deployed globally, and the global 5G user base has reached an impressive 1.5 billion individuals.

The most exciting aspect of 5G lies in its capabilities, explained Cao. The network's strength, being ten times more potent than its 4G predecessor, is driving remarkable advancements in high-definition videos and cloud gaming. The limitations experienced during video playback, gaming, and HD video calls on 4G networks are gradually becoming a thing of the past, thanks to 5G. This represents just the beginning of 5G adoption," he replied to a question on how 5G will benefit the gaming industry.

Indeed, with the upgrade of experiences, connections, and services, it is the time for 5.5G - a network which features capabilities of 10 Gbps downlink, 1 Gbps uplink, 100 billion-level connections, and native intelligence.

To help operators build 5.5G networks efficiently and enable full-scenario ten-fold capabilities, Huawei is releasing the industrys first 5.5G solutions. Five fundamental technological pillars support these enhancements, explained Cao:

Ultra-wideband : A capability to accommodate wide-range non-contiguous bands , reducing the need for deploying multiple pieces of equipment and thereby lowering deployment costs.

: A capability to accommodate wide-range non-contiguous bands , reducing the need for deploying multiple pieces of equipment and thereby lowering deployment costs. Multi-band : Huawei's solutions offer the ability to support multiple bands using one box, drastically reducing deployment costs and antenna space, which translates to lower tower rental costs.

: Huawei's solutions offer the ability to support multiple bands using one box, drastically reducing deployment costs and antenna space, which translates to lower tower rental costs. Multi-antenna technology : This technology significantly enhances spectral efficiency, leading to an improved user experience and reduced spectrum licensing costs for telcos.

: This technology significantly enhances spectral efficiency, leading to an improved user experience and reduced spectrum licensing costs for telcos. Energy efficiency : Innovative solutions aimed at minimizing energy consumption during varying traffic loads, ensuring a greener and more sustainable network.

: Innovative solutions aimed at minimizing energy consumption during varying traffic loads, ensuring a greener and more sustainable network. IntelligentRAN: Advanced, intelligent network management to reduce the complexity and costs associated with operations and maintenance, enhancing network efficiency and user experience.

These pillars of innovation collectively empower 5.5G networks to deliver on their promises, ensuring a future-ready, efficient, and user-centric network.

In the realm of cellular Internet of Things (IoT), two mainstream 5.5G IoT technologies, Red Cap and passive IoT, have gained traction, with module developers and chipset manufacturers actively rolling out their offerings.

Redefining User Experience

In the past, video-related services, including video calls and games, predominantly operated in 2D. However, with the advent of 5G, a shift towards 3D and extended reality (XR) services is becoming evident. The rise of 3D services and applications will exert substantial demand on network capabilities, noted Cao.

As 5.5G networks are set to bring robust capabilities, telcos and various businesses can broaden their scopes, providing an opportunity for content providers, device manufacturers, and chip makers to expand their business horizons and identify new revenue streams. The potential for growth and innovation in this domain is vast, explained Cao.

However, as 5G adoption continues at an unprecedented pace, concerns have arisen about the need to upgrade existing infrastructure. Cao stated that Huawei is committed to helping operators evolve their networks seamlessly to protect the investments of telcos.

Readiness of Countries

Talking about the future uses of 5.5G technology, Cao stressed that the technology is rapidly gaining momentum worldwide and is on the brink of accelerated commercialisation. "Several factors contribute to this large-scale commercialisation. Release 18, slated to be frozen next year, will mark the completion of the 5.5G specification, affirming the industry's readiness for the imminent transition. Moreover, 5.5G chipsets and devices have already hit the market, exemplified by Qualcomm's release of the 5G Advanced chipset with a 10 Gbps downlink capacity," noted Cao.

Regarding spectrum readiness, 20 countries worldwide have already auctioned the millimeter wave, paving the way for substantial progress in 5.5G deployment. The sub-6 gigahertz band is scheduled for discussion and identification in November this year at the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC 23) in Dubai.

Cao noted: "The Middle East is expected to maintain its leading position in the 5.5G era. There have been many collaborations and initiatives like the MoU and innovative projects between Huawei and leading operators in the Middle East for the past one year, showcasing the region's commitment to embracing and leveraging the potential of 5.5G technology."

On the digital divide across geographies, Huawei realises that the development of technology is uneven in different territories. While the first wave 5G markets - including the Middle East, Europe, China, and countries in the Asia Pacific - deployed 5G nearly five years ago, countries in Africa are not at the same pace. Some critical points along the deployment journey of 5G include ecosystem maturity and market development.

Cao added that Huawei has been collaborating in different regions and hopes that through the efforts, countries and regions can enjoy the convenience brought by 5G sooner.

Empowering Industries through 5.5G

One of the pivotal aspects of 5.5G's evolution is its transformative impact on various industries. The business-to-business (B2B) capabilities of 5G networks have already been embraced on a massive scale in the 5G era. Cao shared a few examples from China where fully connected factories are leveraging 5G to drive digitalisation within their operations.

Industries like automobile manufacturing are primed for significant enhancements, Cao stated. 5G and 5.5G technologies offer the potential to revolutionise productivity and facilitate digital transformation within the industry. Huawei envisions a future where ICT solutions will enable automakers to build better, smarter vehicles, ensuring a seamless integration of technology into the automobile sector," Cao said.

Huawei's foray into the realm of 5.5G technology represents a significant leap forward for the telecommunications industry. As 5G adoption accelerates and industries continue to embrace digital transformation, the advent of 5.5G promises an even more connected and technologically empowered future.
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The jury deliberated for roughly eight hours over Thursday and Friday before ruling in favor of the city of Urbana in its lawsuit against the Bloomington construction company.
Averted disaster on Horizon Air flight renews scrutiny on mental health of those in the cockpit

What authorities describe as an off-duty pilots attempt to shut down the engines of a Horizon Air flight has renewed attention on the mental fitness of those allowed in the cockpit
Newly released audio of the 911 call from a woman who was carjacked and police helicopter footage of the final chase capture some of what happened when the son of Nashville's police chief tried to flee while wanted in the shooting of two officers
The Israeli military on Friday said its ground forces were expanding their activity in the Gaza Strip, as the army moved closer to a full-on ground invasion of the besieged territory
Parts of Gaza look like a wasteland from space. Look for the misshapen buildings and swaths of gray
A well-established psychological theory states that most of us are less likely to intervene in a bad situation if other people are present, and this 'bystander effect' also applies to workplace settings. However, new research led by York University shows that people with autism are less likely to be affected by this social contagion than neurotypical people. They are less likely to stay silent in the face of gross misconduct or even just everyday mistakes, pointing to the positive aspects of autism and how organizations can benefit from hiring more neurodivergent people, findings reveal.

Our study shows that to the extent that they would act if they saw something wrong, employees with autism were much more likely to intervene, regardless of the number of people present. And in situations where they would not intervene, they were more likely to identify the influence of others as the reason, whereas neurotypical employees were more reluctant to acknowledge this." Lorne Hartman, lead author, instructor with the Schulich School of Business

Lorne and his son Braxton Hartman, a graduate student in the Faculty of Health at York who was a collaborator on the study, were inspired to look into this issue not only from their academic experience, but also because of personal experience -; Braxton has autism and has been a public advocate on the issue since he was 12 years old.

"One of the motivations here is that a lot of the current literature on autism comes from a deficit mindset. It's basically saying these differences in autism are sort of exclusively negatives. We want to reframe that and ask, 'What are ways that some of these differences could actually be an advantage rather than just a negative?'" says Braxton, whose research also focuses on autism. "One of the core areas that people tend to consider a deficit in autism is in terms of social interaction. We wanted to look at whether this is actually a positive to the extent that people with autism are less influenced by others when it comes to dysfunctional or unethical situations."

Lorne has a background in clinical psychology and his main area of research looks at unethical behaviour in organizations.

"But most importantly, in all of these cases, there were hundreds, maybe thousands of people who may not have actually been involved in the wrongdoing, but they should have been aware that it was going on," he says, summarizing his earlier research. "So having people around who are willing to blow the whistle, so to speak, is very important for organizations."

The study was published this week in the October issue of Autism Research and created with collaborators from the University of Toronto. The research participants -; employed individuals, 33 with autism and 34 neurotypical -; were asked to weigh in on hypothetical scenarios involving everything from inefficiencies to inequalities to quality concerns.

While the results are preliminary and more research is needed, the researchers say their work has important practical implications, especially considering that the rates of unemployment and underemployment for people with autism may be as high as 90 per cent, and even if they have higher education, that statistic only drops to 70 per cent.

"We're looking at this from two angles. One is looking at helping organizations be more ethical and efficient, but also, helping people like myself  people on the spectrum  find gainful employment by helping to change the societal understanding of autism," concludes Braxton.
After surveying the views expressed by 41 advocacy, medical, and transplant-focused organizations on the Uniform Determination of Death Act, a brain injury expert is calling for much-needed reforms to the legal definition of death in the United States. The recently announced pause by the Uniform Law Commission, which is spearheading revisions, is disappointing, the expert notes, but should not permanently stall practical fixes to long-standing problems with the Death Act.

This study shows that most medical organizations support revisions of the Uniform Determination of Death Act to align the legal description of the neurological criteria for death with medical standards." Ariane Lewis, MD, a neurocritical care specialist and professor, Departments of Neurology and Neurosurgery at NYU Grossman School of Medicine

Specifically, Dr. Lewis argues, the legal description for death needs to reflect medical guidelines, which do not require that loss of hormone function be considered when declaring someone brain-dead. Moreover, Dr. Lewis says, the Death Act needs to be revised to include legal guidance for healthcare providers about what to do when a family objects to stopping mechanically assisted breathing for a relative who is already brain-dead. The act, for example, needs to clarify when and for how long, if not indefinitely, a person can be kept on a ventilator after brain death if a family objects to it being removed.

Dr. Lewis says her survey results showed that 34 organizations (83 percent) favored revisions to the Death Act. However, she acknowledges that views about how to revise it varied. Some religious organizations and patient advocacy groups were opposed to using loss of brain function as a criterion for declaring death, favoring instead the traditional definition of death as having occurred after the heart stops beating.

Dr. Lewis, who also serves as director of the Division of Neurocritical Care at NYU Langone Health, has already shared her survey results and perspective with the commission, whose work to amend the Death Act was suspended in late September. Dr. Lewis has been one of 100 observers working with the commission for the past three years on revisions to the statute.

Published in the journal Neurocritical Care online October 26, the study involved a detailed review of the comments and viewpoints submitted to the commission between January and July 2023 by 41 organizations affected by the Death Act.

Historically, a person was considered dead when their heart stopped beating and they could no longer breathe on their own. Technological advances in mechanical ventilation changed that, allowing people in some cases to keep breathing even after experiencing catastrophic brain injuries leading to coma and losing the nerve function needed for them to breathe on their own. Such cases led in 1981 to the U.S. Uniform Determination of Death Act, which defined death as either the irreversible cessation of all brain or cardiopulmonary functions. This definition was adopted by all American states as the legal basis for declaring a person dead.

The act, however, failed to specify the medical tests needed to determine if someone was dead. Furthermore, a small number of states allow families to voice objections on religious grounds. This group includes some Orthodox Jews, Muslims, and Catholics, who equate withdrawal of mechanical ventilation to euthanasia, even after a person has been declared brain-dead. Dozens of lawsuits have been filed against healthcare facilities by families wishing to keep a relative who has already been declared brain-dead on mechanical ventilation indefinitely.

Citing the need for more legal guidance for physicians, Dr. Lewis is calling on the commission to accept international and national medical standards for death by neurological criteria. Among these are guidelines published by the American Academy of Neurology, the Society of Critical Care Medicine, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Child Neurology Society, none of which require the loss of hormone function when declaring someone brain-dead.

Dr. Lewis points out the loss of "all functions of the entire brain," which could also cover cessation of hormone secretion, is included in the act's definition of death. However, such loss of hormone function is not needed to be declared dead by brain criteria using current medical standards.

The Death Act's definition, Dr. Lewis argues, is not only too broad, but it is also impractical, because there is currently no medically established standard for measuring whether and when hormone secretion from the brain has stopped. Thus, she says, the act should be clarified to specify what brain functions must be lost in order to declare someone legally dead, recognizing that loss of hormone secretion should not be among the criteria.

Another study finding was that patient advocacy groups favored revisions to the act that would require family consent before discontinuing mechanical ventilation after a person is declared dead. Medical organizations, Dr. Lewis says, are opposed to this position.

"The results of this survey show that while stakeholders support revisions to the Death Act, medical organizations and patient advocacy groups are deeply divided on the approach to do this," said Dr. Lewis. With prospects for consensus slim and the commission's efforts paused as a result, Dr. Lewis concludes that "without revisions to the law, it remains unclear what tests are required for declaring someone brain-dead, and physicians and the public do not have legal guidance about how to resolve conflicts when families object to death by brain criteria."
City of Hope, one of the largest cancer research and treatment organizations in the United States, and TGen are leading an international group that has been awarded $4.5 million to validate a liquid biopsy for the early detection of pancreatic cancer. The blood-based diagnostic developed by the National Cancer Institute's Pancreatic Cancer Detection Consortium (PCDC) leverages exosomal microRNAs that serve as a biomarker or unique RNA fingerprint for the early detection of disease or recurrence.

Enrollment of patients with early-stage pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), a type of pancreatic cancer, will occur at all 10 member sites, including two that primarily serve Black/African American and Asian patients. Inclusion of diverse populations in biorepositories is crucial for advancing understanding of these diseases, promoting health equity, and ensuring that medical research and treatments are inclusive and effective for all populations.

The National Institutes of Health's National Cancer Institute awarded the $4.5 million grant to co-principal investigators Ajay Goel, Ph.D., M.S., AGAF, chair of the Department of Molecular Diagnostics and Experimental Therapeutics at Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, and Daniel D. Von Hoff, M.D., distinguished professor in the Molecular Medicine Division at Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), part of City of Hope.

Biomarkers are like fingerprints of our health, offering invaluable insights without requiring invasive procedures. The biomarker signature we found is able to act as a text notification, allowing oncologists to detect and monitor pancreatic cancer in a noninvasive manner." Ajay Goel, Ph.D., M.S., AGAF, Chair of the Department of Molecular Diagnostics and Experimental Therapeutics at Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope

The American Society of Clinical Oncology identifies pancreatic cancer as the fourth leading cause of cancer-related deaths among adults in the United States. PDAC is particularly deadly, with less than 6% of patients surviving for five or more years after diagnosis.

One of the main reasons for the high mortality rate of PDAC is the lack of reliable methods for diagnosing it at an early stage when medical treatment can make a significant difference. PDAC typically doesn't show noticeable symptoms in the early stages, so the most practical approach to early diagnosis is to develop a screening tool that can be used by any doctor for any patient.

The consortium will validate the diagnostic and test its effectiveness in retrospective longitudinal cohorts to assess its utility. Initial data suggest confidence that the diagnostic can identify abnormal cell growth and cancer without requiring surgery. If accurate, the novel diagnostic has the potential to reduce unnecessary surgeries and associated complications.

"We desperately need tools for very early detection of pancreatic cancer at stages where it can be treated effectively," Von Hoff said. "Our preliminary data are promising, and this grant will help solidify just how reliable this test will be."

Member sites include: the University of Southern California, City of Hope and Hoag Hospital in California; TGen, University of Arizona and HonorHealth in Arizona; the Medical College of Wisconsin; Baylor Scott & White Research Institute in Texas; Ochsner Medical Center in Louisiana; Piedmont Healthcare in Georgia; Howard University Hospital in Washington, D.C.; Samsung Medical Center in Korea; and Nagoya University in Japan.

"Studies of this scope and size require a multidisciplinary and multinational team with a proven track record of biomarker development. We have that with the PCDC and at City of Hope," said Goel.
Long-term consumption of water with fluoride levels far above established drinking water standards may be linked to cognitive impairments in children, according to a new pilot study from Tulane University.

The study, published in the journal Neurotoxicology and Teratology, was conducted in rural Ethiopia where farming communities use wells with varying levels of naturally occurring fluoride ranging from 0.4 to 15.5 mg/L. The World Health Organization recommends fluoride levels below 1.5 mg/L.

Researchers recruited 74 school-aged children and rated their ability to draw familiar objects such as a donkey or a house, with scores reflecting any missing details. They used a standard computerized memory test which is language and culture neutral as another tool to measure cognitive ability.

The study found that higher exposure to fluoride in drinking water was linked to more errors on the drawing and memory tests. Lead author Tewodros Godebo, assistant professor of environmental health sciences at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, said the "causal relationship between fluoride exposure and neurotoxicity remains unclear" but he hopes these preliminary findings will spur more research into the potential cognitive impacts of fluoride exposure.

Though further epidemiological studies are needed to validate the findings, these results add to the growing concern about the potential neurotoxic effects of fluoride, especially during early brain development and childhood. These tests affirmed a clear association between high fluoride and cognitive impairment." Tewodros Godebo, assistant professor of environmental health sciences, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine

Fluoride is essential for preventing tooth decay. However, excess intake of fluoride has been linked to lower IQs in past epidemiological studies in rural communities in China and India.

Additionally, past animal research has shown that fluoride can cross the placenta and blood-brain barriers. In regions with no alternative water sources, this means excess fluoride exposure could be a chronic issue that begins at conception.

Over 200 million people worldwide are estimated to be exposed to high fluoride levels in their drinking water. The Ethiopian Rift Valley, where this study was conducted, is an ideal research area for investigations of potential impacts because those raised in the area have consistent exposure to stable, naturally occurring fluoride levels and share similar lifestyles with surrounding villages, limiting the risk of confounding factors.

Godebo hopes to replicate the results in Ethiopia with a larger cohort of children and study the cognition of children in low-fluoride Ethiopian communities for potential signs of cognitive impact.

"We have a unique opportunity to study low fluoride communities in the same setting as high fluoride communities, so we can determine if fluoride is a neurotoxicant at low levels," Godebo said. "Such studies are important to the public and government agencies to determine the safety and risk of water fluoridation in drinking water supply systems."

Co-authors for the study included Nati Pham and Arti Shankar of Tulane University, Marc Jeuland of Duke University, Amy Wolfe of University of Kentucky, and Redda Tekle-Haimanot and Biniyam Alemayehu of Addis Ababa University.
Bacteriophages, also called phages, are viruses that infect and kill bacteria, their natural hosts. But from a macromolecular viewpoint, phages can be viewed as nutritionally enriched packets of nucleotides wrapped in an amino acid shell. A study published October 26th in the open access journal PLOS Biology by Jeremy J. Barr at Monash University, Victoria, Australia, and colleagues suggests that mammalian cells internalize phages as a resource to promote cellular growth and survival.

Phage interactions with bacteria are well known, and interactions between bacteria and their mammalian host can lead to a range of symbioses. However, the impact of bacteriophages on mammalian cellular and immunological processes is not well understood. In order to investigate how mammalian cells' immune responses interact with and are modulated by interactions with phages, researchers applied the well-studied phage T4 to mammalian cells in vitro and analyzed the cellular responses using luciferase reporter and antibody microarray assays. The phage-free supernatant served as a comparative control.

The researchers found that T4 phages did not activate DNA-mediated inflammatory pathways, but triggered a sequence of signaling pathway events that promote cellular growth and survival. Future studies are needed, however, to determine why cells use phage particles as resources, and whether they have specifically evolved via adaptation to benefit from this internalization.

According to the authors, "This preliminary study provides novel insights into the impact phages have on mammalian systems, with broader potential implications across the fields of immunology, phage therapy, microbiome, and human health."

This work provides new insights into the additional benefits that bacteriophages may have on their mammalian hosts. This is of particular importance given the increased use of phage therapy to treat antibiotic-resistant infections." Jeremy J. Barr at Monash University
Do bats hold the secret to health and longevity? A team led by Professor Emma Teeling, Full Professor of Zoology at University College Dublin (UCD), has won a prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Synergy grant of almost 12 million, to explore this fascinating question.

The ERC Synergy grants support ambitious researchers to join forces and pool different skills, knowledge and resources to push the frontiers of our knowledge and address some of the world's most formidable problems.

Professor Teeling has pioneered global research into the development of bats as new models for healthy ageing and disease tolerance. She will lead the groundbreaking Synergy project 'BATPROTECT', involving a team of 22 researchers - including leading experts from Germany and Singapore. The project is expected to achieve a step-change in our understanding of bats' extended healthspan and disease resistance.

We have just been given the most extraordinary opportunity to finally harness the amazing adaptations of bats and provide new ways to slow down human ageing and disease resistance. This ERC Synergy grant has enabled us to unite the fields of bat biology, virology, immunology, genomics and gerontology, across Europe and Asia, in order to achieve our goals. We are thrilled and excited to work together and uncover how we can live longer, healthier lives by learning from bats. I would like to thank the Irish Research Council and Science Foundation Ireland for initially funding this research and Enterprise Ireland for their support." Professor Emma Teeling, Full Professor of Zoology, University College Dublin

About the BATPROTECT project

The challenges posed by ageing and infectious diseases in our societies come with significant medical, financial, and emotional burdens. While previous research has struggled to offer solutions to increase human health span and protect against the harmful effects of infections, bats - the only flying mammals - have naturally addressed both of these problems.

Even though bats serve as hosts for numerous dangerous viruses, they usually don't show symptoms of viral infections thanks to their unique immune system adaptations. Bats also have exceptional longevity and show little-to-no signs of any age-related diseases. The main objective of BATPROTECT is to make significant advancements in our understanding of the specific genetic and biochemical factors within bats that are responsible for their ability to live longer, healthier lives and resist diseases. Uncovering these molecular mechanisms could open up new possibilities for improving human health and disease outcomes.

The project brings together world-leading researchers in bat biology, genomics, immunology, and gerontology. The team's experts include Professor Linfa Wang, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore, Professor Michael Hiller, Senckenberg Research Institute, Germany, and Professor Bjorn Schumacher, Institute for Genome Stability in Ageing and Disease, CECAD Research Centre, Germany.

Ultimately, this research will deepen our knowledge of how bats manage to stay healthy and resist diseases, potentially paving the way for future therapeutics.

37 research groups across Europe were announced as recipients of 2023 ERC Synergy grants - with a total value of 359 million - to tackle complex scientific questions. Recipients include fellow UCD researcher Dr Claire Harnett, whose project 'ROTTnROCK' will advance knowledge of volcanic processes to help predict and mitigate the hazards of unexpected eruptions. This brings UCD's total of current ERC Synergy grants to three.

UCD Interim Vice-President for Research, Innovation and Impact, Professor Helen Roche said: "We are immensely proud of Professor Teeling and Dr Harnett in their achievement. UCD is ranked number one in Ireland and 23rd among higher education institutions in Europe for Horizon Europe funding. These awards really exemplify the excellence of our outstanding researchers, who are building important international collaborations to address global challenges. I congratulate the winners and look forward to following their exciting work."

Iliana Ivanova, ERC Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, said: "Some scientific questions are too complex to be addressed by researchers working on their own. Challenges such as climate change or ageing span research disciplines and call for diverse methods, skills and resources. This is why the European Research Council today awarded 37 Synergy Grants, empowering small groups of top researchers working across disciplines to tackle serious problems. I wish them success in this important work."

ERC President Professor Maria Leptin said: "Congratulations to all the winners! The selected projects are shining examples of audacious scientific thinking, and I eagerly await the outcomes of these collaborative endeavours. I am also happy to see some European researchers teaming up with peers across several continents. Together, they are well-equipped to tackle the substantial scientific questions that our world is yearning to find answers to."

The ERC Synergy Grant scheme is part of the EU's research and innovation programme, Horizon Europe. Applicants submitted 395 proposals in this call. The 37 winning projects involve 135 researchers who will carry out their projects at 114 universities and research centres in 19 countries across Europe and beyond
The world is entering a new era of vaccines. Following the success of covid-19 mRNA shots, scientists have a far greater capacity to tailor shots to a virus's structure, putting a host of new vaccines on the horizon.

The most recent arrivals  as anyone on the airwaves or social media knows  are several new immunizations against respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.

These shots are welcome since RSV can be dangerous, even deadly, in the very old and very young. But the shots are also expensive  about $300 for those directed at adults, and up to $1,000 for one of the shots, a monoclonal antibody rather than a traditional vaccine, intended for babies. Many older vaccines cost pennies.

So their advent is forcing the United States to face anew questions it has long sidestepped: How much should an immunization that will possibly be given  maybe yearly  to millions of Americans cost to be truly valuable? Also, given the U.S. is one of two countries that permit direct advertising to consumers: How can we ensure the shots get into the arms of people who will truly benefit and not be given, at great expense, to those who will not?

Already, ads on televisions and social media show active retirees playing pickleball or going to art galleries whose lives are "cut short by RSV." This explains the lines for the shot at my local pharmacy.

But indiscriminate use of expensive shots could strain both public and private insurers' already tight budgets.

Other developed countries have deliberate strategies for deciding which vulnerable groups need a particular vaccine and how much to pay for it. The U.S. does not, and as specialized vaccines proliferate, public programs and private insurers will need to grapple with how to use and finance shots that can be hugely beneficial for some but will waste precious health dollars if taken by all.

A seasonal viral illness, RSV can cause hospitalization or, in rare cases, death in babies and in people age 75 or older, as well as those with serious underlying medical conditions such as heart disease or cancer. For most people who get RSV, it plays out as a cold; you've likely had RSV without knowing it.

But RSV puts about 2% of babies under age 1 in the hospital and kills between 100 and 300 of those under 6 months, because their immune systems are immature and their airways too narrow to tolerate the inflammation. Merely having a bad case of RSV in young childhood increases the risk of long-term asthma.

That's why Barney Graham, the scientist who spent decades at the government's National Institutes for Health perfecting the basic science that led to the current shots, said: "The most obvious use is in infants," not adults.

That's also why European countries trying to figure out how best to use these vaccines without breaking the bank focused first on babies and determining a sensible price. Though more of the very old may die of RSV, the years of life lost are much greater for the very young. (Babies can get the monoclonal antibody shot or gain protection through a traditional vaccine given to the mother near the end of pregnancy, conferring immunity through the womb.)

A consortium of European experts led by Philippe Beutels, a professor in health economics at the University of Antwerp in Belgium, calculated that the shots would only be "worth it" in terms of the lives saved and hospitalizations averted in infants if the price were under about $80, he said in a phone interview. That's because almost all babies make it through RSV with supportive care.

The calculation will be used by countries such as Belgium, England, Denmark, Finland, and the Netherlands to negotiate a set price for the two infant shots, followed by decisions on which version should be offered, depending partly on which is more affordable.

They have not yet considered how to distribute the vaccines to adults  considered less pressing  because studies show that RSV rarely causes severe disease in adults who live outside of care settings, such as a nursing home.

Why did the United States and Europe approach the problem from opposite directions?

In the U.S., there was a financial incentive: Roughly 3.7 million babies are born each year, while there are about 75 million Americans age 60 and older  the group for whom the two adult vaccines were approved. And about half of children get their vaccines through the Vaccines for Children program, which negotiates discounted prices.

Also, babies can get vaccinated only by their clinicians. Adults can walk into pharmacies for vaccinations, and pharmacies are only too happy to have the business.

But which older adults truly benefit from the shot? The two manufacturers of the adult vaccines, GSK and Pfizer, conducted their studies presented to the FDA for approval in a population of generally healthy people 60 and older, so that's the group to whom they may be marketed. And marketed they are, even though the studies didn't show the shots staved off hospitalization or death in people ages 60 to 75.

That led to what some have called a "narrow" endorsement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices for people 60 to 75: Patients in that age range could get the shot after "shared clinical decision-making" with a health provider.

It is likely that because of this fuzzy recommendation, some Americans 60 and over with commercial insurance are finding that their insurers won't cover it. Under Obamacare, insurers are generally required to cover at no cost vaccines that are recommended by the ACIP; however, if a provider recommends vaccination, then it must be covered by insurance.

(In late September, the ACIP recommended immunization of all babies with either the antibody or the maternal vaccine. Insurers have a year to commence coverage and many have been dragging their feet because of the high price.)

There are better and more equitable ways to steer the shots into the arms of those who need it, rather than simply administering it to those who have the "right" insurance or, swayed by advertising, can pay. For example, insurers, including Medicare, could be required to cover only those ages 60 to 75 who have a prescription from a doctor, indicating shared decision-making has occurred.

Finally, during the pandemic emergency, the federal government purchased all covid-19 vaccines in bulk at a negotiated price, initially below $20 a shot, and distributed them nationally. If, to protect public health, we want vaccines to get into the arms of all who benefit, that's a more cohesive strategy than the patchwork one used now.

Vaccines are miraculous, and it's great news that they now exist to prevent serious illness and death from RSV. But using such novel vaccines wisely  directing them to the people who need them at a price they can afford  will be key. Otherwise, the cost to the health system, and to patients, could undermine this big medical win.
Previous reports have linked long-term air pollution exposure with accumulation of Alzheimer's disease-related brain plaques, but this is the first accumulated evidence that reducing pollution, especially fine particulates in the air and pollutants from the burning of fuel, is associated with lower risk of all-cause dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

Both increasing levels of air pollution and increasing cases of dementia are worldwide public health crises. While research has linked air quality and cognition previously, these new data at AAIC 2021 explore how air pollutants might impact dementia and what reducing them might mean for long-term brain health. Among the key findings are:

Reduction of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and traffic-related pollutants (NO2) per 10% of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) current standard over 10 years was associated with 14% and 26% reductions in dementia risk, and slower cognitive decline, in older U.S. women. These benefits occurred in women regardless of their age, level of education, the geographic region where they lived and whether they had cardiovascular disease.

Reduction of PM2.5 concentration over 10 years was associated with a reduced risk of all-cause dementia in French individuals by 15% and of Alzheimer's disease by 17% for every microgram of gaseous pollutant per cubic meter of air (g/m3) decrease in PM2.5.

Long-term exposure to air pollutants was associated with higher beta amyloid levels in the blood in a large U.S. cohort, showing a possible biological connection between air quality and physical brain changes that define Alzheimer's disease.

We've known for some time that air pollution is bad for our brains and overall health, including a connection to amyloid buildup in the brain. But what's exciting is we're now seeing data showing that improving air quality may actually reduce the risk of dementia. These data demonstrate the importance of policies and action by federal and local governments, and businesses, that address reducing air pollutants." Claire Sexton, DPhil, Alzheimer's Association director of scientific programs and outreach

Air quality improvement may slow cognitive decline and reduce dementia risk in older U.S. women

Although studies have found that improved air quality is associated with better respiratory health and longer life expectancy, it's unknown if improved air quality can also improve brain health. To investigate this further, Xinhui Wang, Ph.D., assistant professor of research neurology at University of Southern California, and colleagues investigated whether older women living in locations with greater reduction in air pollution may have slower decline in their cognitive function and be less likely to develop dementia.

Wang and team looked at a group of older women (aged 74-92) in the U.S. from the National Institutes of Health-funded Women's Health Initiative Memory Study-Epidemiology of Cognitive Health Outcomes (WHIMS-ECHO) who did not have dementia at the beginning of the study. Participants were followed from 2008-2018 and detailed cognitive function tests were done every year to determine whether they developed dementia. Participants' home addresses were noted and mathematical models were used to estimate the air pollution levels at these locations over time.

The researchers found that, in general, air quality greatly improved over the 10 years before the study began. During a median of six years of follow-up, cognitive functions tended to decline as women aged, as expected. However, for those living in locations with greater reduction per 10% of the EPA's current standard in both PM2.5 (fine particles that are 30 times thinner than a human hair) and NO2 (indicator of traffic-related pollutants), their risk of dementia decreased by 14% and 26%. This was similar to the lower level of risk seen in women two to three years younger.

Benefits were also seen for slower decline in overall cognitive function and memory, similar to women one to two years younger, and on specific tests of working memory, episodic memory and attention/executive function  cognitive domains with early decline detectable in dementia at the preclinical stage. These benefits were seen regardless of age, level of education, the geographic region where they lived and whether they had cardiovascular disease.

"Our findings are important because they strengthen the evidence that high levels of outdoor air pollution in later life harm our brains, and also provide new evidence that by improving air quality we may be able to significantly reduce risk of cognitive decline and dementia," Wang said. "The possible benefits found in our studies extended across a variety of cognitive abilities, suggesting a positive impact on multiple underlying brain regions."

Reduction of fine particulates is associated with reduced risk of dementia in older French adults

In a similarly structured study, Noemie Letellier, Ph.D., postdoctoral scholar at University of California, San Diego, and colleagues worked with the French Three-City Study, a large cohort of more than 7,000 participants aged 65 or older, to investigate the links between air pollution exposure and dementia risk. The researchers observed reduction of PM2.5 concentration between 1990-2000, which was associated with a 15% reduced risk of all-cause dementia and a 17% reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease for every microgram of gaseous pollutant per cubic meter of air (g/m3) decrease in PM2.5, independent of socio-demographic and health behaviors factors, and APOE genotype.

"These data, for the first time, highlight the beneficial effects of reduced air pollution on the incidence of dementia in older adults." Letellier said. "The findings have important implications to reinforce air quality standards to promote healthy aging. In the context of climate change, massive urbanization and worldwide population aging, it is crucial to accurately evaluate the influence of air pollution change on incident dementia to identify and recommend effective prevention strategies."

Long-term air pollution is associated with increased beta amyloid plaques

Accumulation of beta amyloid plaques is one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease. While a relationship between air pollution and increased beta amyloid production has been found in animal and human studies, relatively little is known about the effects of long-term exposure to air pollution on beta amyloid.

Christina Park, doctoral student in the Department of Epidemiology at University of Washington, and colleagues examined associations between exposure to air pollutant levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), larger particles (PM10) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and levels of A1-40 (one of the major protein components of plaques) in more than 3,000 individuals who were dementia-free at the beginning of the Ginkgo Evaluation of Memory Study. The study evaluated and averaged air pollution levels at participant residential addresses for time periods up to 20 years prior to taking blood tests to measure individuals' beta amyloid.

People who were in the study longer (eight years) showed a strong link between all three air pollutants and A1-40. These are some of the first human data suggesting long-term exposure to air pollutants is associated with higher A1-40 levels in the blood.

"Our findings suggest that air pollution may be an important factor in the development of dementia," Park said. "Many other factors that impact dementia are not changeable, but reductions in exposure to air pollution may be associated with a lower risk of dementia. More research is needed."
Despite rising global mobility, the state of migrant and refugee health data in European health systems is a concern, a new study shows. The analysis by an international coalition of universities, UN organizations, government representatives, and European institutions published in the journal The Lancet Regional Health Europe reveals that coverage of migrant and refugee data remains inconsistent and of suboptimal quality. According to the study this issue is not due to a lack of knowledge or technological resources but rather arises from multiple political and structural factors at local, national, and European levels that hinder the effective implementation of existing guidelines. The coalition, led by Bielefeld University in Germany and Uppsala University in Sweden, proposes a roadmap for policy makers and European health systems to improve the situation.

'Migrant and refugee health data is more than just statistics. It's about human lives and well-being, but also of unnoticed inequalities if health needs go unmeasured,' says Professor Dr Kayvan Bozorgmehr. In his view health systems committed to inclusive and equitable healthcare need to ensure that migrants and refugees are not systematically excluded from data collection systems.

Bozorgmehr and his colleague Dr Soorej Puthoopparambil from Uppsala University led the international coalition of authors including ten European universities, three national public health agencies, three Collaborating Centres of the World Health Organization, as well as several institutions and United Nations (UN) agencies such as the World Health Organization Regional Office Europe, the International Organization for Migration, and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

The article was produced in the scope of the Lancet Migration European Hub's activities and published in the medical journal The Lancet Regional Health. The study reveals glaring gaps in including migrants and refugees in national data collection systems, which, according to the authors, hinder these groups from exercising their basic human rights and prevents the governments in creating inclusive and healthy societies. One of the study's main conclusions is that the existing disparity in data collection reflects the low political priority given to this topic and the intricate governance challenges tied to migration and displacement.

In response to the identified shortcomings in current health information systems, the authors propose a roadmap to bridge the divide between knowledge and action. They propose four critical approaches for European health systems:

Systematic data collection: Implement strategies that ensure migrant and refugee health data is collected, analyzed, and disseminated in a systematic manner, filling the existing gaps and informing evidence-based policy decisions. Privacy safeguards and data integration: Capitalise on methods that protect privacy while facilitating the linkage of data from various sources to generate comprehensive data at relatively low cost. This requires ensuring that the highest standards of data protection are upheld. Inclusive survey methods: Adopt methods that consider the diverse needs and backgrounds of migrant and refugee populations when conducting surveys. Empowerment through engagement: Engage migrants and refugees in decision-making about their health and health data. Their voices should shape the policies and practices that directly impact their lives.

The WHO European Region hosts approximately, 36 per cent of the global international migrant population. The study stresses that health of migrants and refugees is a question that cannot be ignored.

Countries need to move from ad-hoc to systematic approaches to pro-actively include migrants and refugees in health information systems, thereby promoting equity in health." Soorej Puthoopparambil

This includes capitalizing on existing data sources while tapping new ones. The report proposes a change management approach to narrow the gap between knowledge and action, building a bridge towards healthcare policies and practices that are genuinely inclusive of migrants and refugees. 'In doing so, societies will not only promote the well-being of migrants and refugees, but will also better serve public health needs of their societies and promote equity in European health systems,' says Kayvan Bozorgmehr.
Childhood trauma is a key risk factor for future substance use disorder, overdose, and suicide. This is particularly problematic in rural areas where children experience higher rates of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). ACEs are commonly defined as physical and emotional abuse and neglect, sexual abuse, parental separation or divorce, intimate partner violence, and having household members with serious mental illness, substance use disorder, or a history of incarceration.

Now, a three-year, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) grant awarded to the University of Missouri will help virtually train various members of the workforce -; such as healthcare providers, mental health and behavioral health providers, social workers, and even childcare providers, and dentists -; who serve individuals and families affected by ACEs in five high-risk rural Missouri counties with the ultimate goal of reducing opioid overdoses and suicides.

The five Missouri counties involved are Dent, Washington, Crawford, St. Francois and Phelps, all of which ranked among the highest in Missouri for drug overdose mortality rates in 2021. Julie Kapp, an associate professor in the MU College of Health Sciences and primary investigator for the grant, developed the online training module.

The grant involves collaborators from MU Extension, Show-Me ECHO; Office of Health Outreach, Policy and Education (HOPE); Missouri Telehealth Network; Missouri Center for Health Policy; and MO HealthNet (Missouri's Medicaid program).

More than 60% of adults nationally are exposed to ACEs in childhood, and these exposures are linked with increased risk for substance abuse and suicide. If we can target upstream factors such as ACEs, we are hopeful that we can reduce the pipeline that leads to substance abuse occurring in the first place." Julie Kapp, Associate Professor, MU College of Health Sciences

Kapp added that many health care providers and other members of the workforce are unaware of ACEs, which leaves a significant gap and the need for training opportunities.

"Our goal is to provide additional tools beyond just prescriptions," Kapp said. "Someone struggling with substance abuse may have the desire to stop, but if they have never dealt with their childhood trauma, it will be an uphill battle. One of our former ACEs trainees who works with incarcerated individuals said, 'Many of [these individuals] do not identify their life experiences as traumatic. They view their traumas as typical.'"

The training module, which can be taken asynchronously and completed in approximately three hours, covers such topics as: what ACEs are; the prevalence of ACEs in rural areas; strategies to support families, emphasizing positive childhood experiences, resources available and developing a trauma informed care model.

"This evidence-based training module has already been well-received by members of various organizations in the Missouri workforce, and they have reported the content is informative, helpful and relevant," Kapp said.
Stocks to Watch on October 27: GIFT Nifty on the NSE IX traded 42.5 points, or 0.22 per cent, higher at 18,955, signaling that Dalal Street was headed for positive start on Friday. Heres a slew of stocks that will be in focus today for various reasons.

Q2FY24 results on October 27: Reliance Industries, Maruti Suzuki India, Bajaj Finserv, SBI Life Insurance, Cipla, Dr Reddys Laboratories, Indian Overseas Bank, Bajaj Holding & Investment, Bharat Petroleum Corp, SBI Cards and Payment Services, Union Bank of India, SRF, IHCL, Schaeffler India, Oberoi Realty, Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services, ZF Commercial Vehicle Control Systems India, Carborundum Universal, Sumitomo Chemical India, IRB Infrastructure Developers, Indiamart Intermesh, Blue Dart Express, Great Eastern Shipping Company, Piramal Pharma, TTK Prestige, Ujjivan Small Finance Bank, Mahanagar Gas, Route Mobile, Intellect Design Arena, City Union Bank, Supreme Petrochem, SBFC Finance, Tamilnad Mercantile Bank, Mahindra Lifespace Developers, Latent View Analytics, Ion Exchange India, Sarda Energy & Minerals, Jubilant Pharmova, Rategain Travel Technologies, Inox Wind, Johnson Controls -Hitachi, Goodyear India, Inox Wind Energy, MPS, Astec Lifesciences, Shalby, Indostar Capital Finance, GNA Axles, Satin Creditcare Network, Dwarikesh Sugar Industries, Welspun Specialty Solutions, PTC India Financial Services, Novartis India, NACL Industries, Shree Digvijay Cement, Monarch Networth Capital, Ritesh Properties & Industries, Heubach Colorantsindia.

Vodafone Idea: Vi, on Thursday, reported a 15.2 per cent higher consolidated net loss of Rs 8,746 crore in the July-September quarter of the financial year (FY24) on a year-on-year (YoY) basis as a result of increasing expenses. Average revenue per user (ARPU) for the quarter rose to Rs 142 on a sequential basis, up from Rs 139 in the preceding quarter.

Punjab National Bank: The public-sector lenders net profit for Q2FY24 jumped 327.14 per cent YoY to Rs 1,756 crore owing to a substantial rise in its net interest income (NII) and decline in credit costs. Its NIM expanded to 3.11 per cent from 3.08 per cent QoQ and 3 per cent YoY.

Indian Bank: Indian Bank reported a 61 per cent rise in net profit during the second quarter of the financial year FY24 to Rs 2,068.49 crore, compared to Rs 1,287.39 crore during the same period last financial year. The improved net profit is mainly due to a 23 per cent increase in net interest income (NII) for the quarter.

Adani Enterprises: Billionaire Gautam Adanis Adani Group is seeking to raise as much as $4 billion to help develop manufacturing plants that would produce low-cost green hydrogen, according to a Bloomberg report. Adani New Industries Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of flagship company Adani Enterprises Ltd., will take the lead in raising the money.

Colgate Palmolive: Colgate-Palmolive (India) reported a 22 per cent rise in the second-quarter profit to Rs 340 crore on Thursday, aided by rising urban demand for high-priced toothpastes and signs of growth in rural consumption.

It declared its first interim dividend of Rs 22 per share for the fiscal year 2023-2024.

State Bank of India: SBI is likely to raise up to Rs 10,000 crore ($1.20 billion) through Basel III-compliant tier-II bonds maturing in 15 years, Reuters reported on Thursday.

Axis Bank: Rakesh Makhija has ceased to be the Chairman and a member of the Board of Directors (the Board) of the Bank, with effect from the close of business hours on Thursday, October 26, 2023. N. S. Vishwanathan, independent director, will take over as the Non-Executive (Part-Time) Chairman of the Bank, for a period of three years with effect from Friday, October 27, 2023.

Lemon Tree Hotels: It has signed a License Agreement for a 50-room property in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. The hotel is expected to be operational by FY26.
The Tata group will now start making iPhones in India for domestic and global markets, said Union Minister of State for Electronics & Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Friday, October 27. It comes after Wistron Corporation agreed to sell a plant in the southern part of the country to the conglomerate.

Congratulations to the Tata team for taking over Wistron operations, Chandrasekhar said in a post on X. He also said that now within just two and a half years, the Tata group will start making iPhones from India for domestic and global markets from India.

PM @narendramodi Jis visionary PLI scheme has already propelled India into becoming a trusted & major hub for smartphone manufacturing and exports.Now within just two and a half years, @TataCompanies will now start making iPhones from India for domestic and global markets from pic.twitter.com/kLryhY7pvL  Rajeev Chandrasekhar (@Rajeev_GoI) October 27, 2023

He said Prime Minister Narendra Modis visionary PLI scheme has already propelled India into becoming a trusted & major hub for smartphone manufacturing and exports.

The MeitY stands fully in support in growth of global Indian electronics companies that will in turn support global Electronic brands that want to make India their trusted manufacturing & talent partner and to realize PMs goal of making India a global electronics power, he said in the post.

He also thanked Wistron for its contribution, and great going for Apple in building a global supply chain from India with Indian companies at its helm.

Wistrons board on Friday granted approval for its subsidiary SMS InfoComm (Singapore) Pte Ltd and Wistron Hong Kong Limited to sign the share purchase agreement with Tata Electronics Private Ltd (TEPL) for the sale of its 100 per cent indirect stake in Wistron InfoComm Manufacturing (India) Pvt Ltd (WMMI).

The transaction price is tentatively estimated at $125 million.

Apple has already been manufacturing some iPhone models in India and planning to scale up production here by over fivefold to around $40 billion (about 3.32 lakh crore) in the next 4-5 years.

Apple started assembling iPhones in India in 2017 with its budget iPhone SE through Wistrons facility in Karnataka. Currently, there are three contract manufacturers of iPhones in India  Foxconn, Wistron and Pegatron. They manufacture iPhone 13, 14 and 14 Plus models in the country.

Apple is also producing the iPhone 15 at the Foxconn plant near Chennai. This is the first time that the tech giant is selling a made-in-India iPhone right from the launch stage. Earlier, iPhones in India used to be imported for the first few months of launch before local production started in the country. This year, the company started producing iPhone 15 from Day 1.

The Foxconn plant near Chennai is also in the process of producing the iPhone 15 Plus. However, the company is not looking to produce the iPhone Pro series in India for now.
The Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) will release the scorecards of the Bihar school teacher recruitment exam or BPSC TRE 2023 today, October 27. The commission has already announced the results of the exam. Candidates who appeared for the examination can now check and download their scorecards online on the official website at bpsc.bih.nic.in, once released. BPSC aims to fill a total of 1,70,461 vacancies through the recruitment drive. As many as 1,22,324 candidates have qualified for the BPSC TRE.

Taking to the microblogging site X, Atul Prasad, Chairman of BPSC said, When we are dealing with such large numbers as in TRE, multi layer filtering is needed to weed out undeserving ones. This is whats going on & thats why all results are conditional. Any vacancy arising out of this filtering will be filled by one or more supplementary results. (sic)

Bihar BPSC TRE Scorecard 2023: Steps to download

Step 1: Go to the official website of the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) at bpsc.bih.nic.in.

Step 2: Click on the BPSC TRE 2023 scorecards section.

Step 3: Click on the subject you want to check the result for.

Step 4: Enter your log in credentials.

Step 5: Your scorecard will appear on the screen.

Step 6: Download the scorecard for further use.

BPSC has also released the TRE result 2023 for class 11-12 subjects, namely Bhojpuri, Magahi, Music, Botany, Home Science, Entrepreneurship, and Political Science.

A total of 70,450 candidates cleared the BPSC TRE in both general and Urdu subjects that were conducted on August 24 and 25. Among these, as many as 62,653 candidates cleared the general subject exam. This includes 25,744 candidates from the unreserved category, 7,584 from the SC category, 501 from the ST category, 6,702 from the economically weaker section, 8,040 from the BC category, 12,069 from the EBC category, and 2,013 from the BC Lady category.

In the case of the Urdu subject, the commission announced a total of 7,797 successful candidates. This group includes 5,344 candidates from the unreserved category, 594 from the economically weaker section, 566 from the BC category, 2 candidates from each of the scheduled caste and scheduled tribe categories, and 1,289 from the EBC category.
Studying abroad can be financially challenging for many meritorious students who often opt out due to the expensive course fee, visa charges, accommodation and food expenses. Therefore, scholarships help many to pursue their dreams. News18 Scholarship Guide brings the best and most prestigious grants for Indian students to study abroad, with most of them covering flight tickets, accommodation and course fee; and some also providing stipend.

Chevening scholarship  one of the longest-standing and premium grants to study in the UK  completes 40 years. It is open to people from diverse backgrounds and considered a symbol of academic achievement. Over 55,000 people have benefited from the scholarship over the past decades.

If you want to study in a UK-based university and join the Chevening alumni network, here is what you need to know.

What is Chevening?

One of the reasons behind the preference of the scholarship is its extensive benefits. It not only covers the full fee of a one-year masters course at any UK-based university but also provides airfare, accommodation, and expenditure of living and studying in the UK.

Chevening scholars continue to serve globally including in the UK, however, after the end of the scholarship, the applicant has to return to their home country for a minimum of two years.

When it comes to the Chevening scholarship, there are some general myths and misconceptions, according to Sayantan Biswas, Co-founder of UniScholars.

Biswas said students often limit themselves by thinking that such prestigious scholarships are only for geniuses, but Chevening is not exclusively reserved for the exceptionally gifted. They seek individuals with potential, passion, and a clear vision for their future. While the application process may seem daunting, but scholarships, especially Chevening, can be life-changing. The investment in the application process can result in invaluable educational and professional opportunities, explained Biswas.

Who Should Apply?

Anyone who has completed at least an undergraduate degree can apply for the scholarship.

The candidates need to apply to study at three different higher education institutes based in the UK and should have received an unconditional offer from at least one of them. Candidates having conditional offers can also apply, only if it is need to pay a deposit for the course.

Applicants also need to have a minimum of two years of work experience, as per the eligibility criteria. Many applicants feel confused while meeting the work experience requirements.

As per the official Chevening website, 70% of the ineligible applications we received in 2022 did not meet the two-year work experience requirement.

Mistakes to Avoid

Applicants should understand how the work experience requirement is counted.

Many students do not consider work experience, which is not related to their course or is part-time, however, all these nature of work experiences are accepted.

To meet the requirements, applicants have to match up the work-hours requirement. Chevening considers a job performed for 35 hours per week on average as a full-time job. This implies to any job conducted for 40 weeks per year or 2,800 hours over two years is considered. In fact, if you have worked over 2,800 hours in less than two years, you will still be eligible.

On the contrary, a job which is done during studies will not be considered full-time.

Apart from work experience, incorrectly answered questions, non-English answers on the application form, repetitive answers, and not following the word limit for essays are among commonly conducted errors, as per the official website.

Chevening offers flexibility. You can accumulate work experience before, during, or after your degree, including part-time work, internships, or volunteering. You can list multiple employment experiences to meet the required hours. Your chosen field of study doesnt need to match your past experience. For instance, engineers or lawyers can pursue degrees in areas such as development studies or liberal arts as Chevening scholars, explained Biswas.

What is the Selection Process?

Firstly, the applicant needs to meet all admission criteria requirements and get an offer letter from at least one university based in the UK.

Students have about six months after applying, to secure a university offer from the extensive options available.

Then, candidates can apply at www.chevening.org  the official website. The application process for 2024-2025 is already open, and for Indian candidates, it will be closing on November 7.

The shortlisted application forms will be invited for interviews. Students need to attend the interview in the British Embassy or UK High Commission in their city or nearest location.

As per the official website, the interview is meant to be a competency-based panel assessment.

Applicants also need to provide two reference letters, a short bio, and all education documents at the time of the interview. Thus, the preparation might need to be started early.

How is the Interview Round?

The interviews are meant to assess the competency of the candidates. A panel will discuss the information mentioned in the application including the college or work experience.

Applicants can be asked to explain their personal and professional aspirations, and how Chevening can facilitate them in achieving their goals. Your course choices will also be discussed and you will be asked to provide an update on your applications, as per the official website.

Candidates, who want to distinguish themselves in the application process for the esteemed Chevening Scholarship, need to be authentic and show their personality in their essays and interview. For instance, they can support a point written in the essay by stating a personal experience, said Biswas.

He added that students often overlook reference letters, however, they need to select their referees carefully and ensure that the referees meet the candidates suitability for the scholarship.
Schools in Delhi will remain closed tomorrow, November 28 on the occasion of Maharishi Valmiki Jayanti. Not just Delhi, schools in several states are slated to remain shut on October 28. While Dussehra is over, several local holidays are scheduled to be happening in the months of October and November due to which schools will remain shut for some days.

Schools in Bhopal will also remain shut on October 28 to mark Valmiki Jayanti. All schools in Bhopal were closed due to a local holiday in the state capital on October 25. The day following Dussehra, government schools in Bhopal shut down classes due to a local holiday, and many private institutions followed. Schools were urged to alert kids and their parents in advance of the closure.

Valmiki Jayanti, which is also known as Pargat Diwas, is an annual Indian festival that pays homage to the revered Ramayana author and ancient Indian poet Valmiki. The festival usually takes place on the night of the full moon in the month of Ashwin, commonly known as Purnima. However, students must check their academic holiday calendar to determine if their respective schools have a holiday marked for Valmiki Jayanti.

Meanwhile, schools in Uttar Pradesh will remain closed on October 28 and 29 due to the UP PET 2023. A holiday has been declared for schools in 35 districts in Uttar Pradesh. The state government has issued a directive indicating that no additional examinations would be scheduled tomorrow and on Sunday in order to ensure the proper execution of the exams. The 35 districts schools have also been given official orders to stop their regular classes. This school closure is intended to prevent disturbances and to provide a welcoming environment for applicants sitting for the test.

Apart from this, schools are likely to remain closed on November 12 due to Diwali, November 15 due to Bhai Dooj, November 19 to celebrate Chhath Puja, November 24 due to Guru Tegh Bahadurs Martyrdom Day, and November 27 t observe Guru Nanak Jayanti.
SSC GD Constable Delhi Police Constable Exam Date: The schedule of the Delhi Police Constable and SSC GD Constable Recruitment Exam has been released. Staff Selection Commission, SSC has announced the complete calendar for these examinations. Interested and eligible candidates can check the schedule on the official website at ssc.nic.in. It is noteworthy that through these examinations, the posts of constable, GD constable, and rifleman will be filled in CAPF, SSF, Assam Rifles, and NCB including Delhi Police.

According to the notice issued by SSC, the examinations will be conducted on November 14, 15, 16, 17, 20, 22, 23, 24, 28, 29, 30 and December 1, 2 and 3. Apart from this, SSC CAPF, SSF GD Constable, Assam Rifles Rifleman GD, and NCB Constable examinations will be conducted in the months of February and March. These examinations will be held from February 21 to 29 and March 1, 5, 6, 7, 11, 12.

The notification for SSC CAPF, NIA, SSF GD Constable, and Assam Rifles Rifleman recruitment will be released on November 24. After which candidates will be able to go to the SSC website and apply online till December 28. Through this recruitment examination, thousands of posts of GD Constable and Rifleman will be recruited.

Through the SSC Delhi Police Constable recruitment drive, a total of 7547 posts will be filled. Of these, 4453 posts are for the open male category and 2491 posts are for the open female category.

To be eligible for the Delhi Police Constable examination, candidates must have completed class 12. They must also be between 18 to 25 years old. As per the guidelines by SSC, candidates belonging to reserved categories will receive age limit relaxations

The selection process for these positions will comprise three key stages  a computer-based examination, a physical efficiency test, and a medical examination. The computer-based examination is scheduled to take place in December 2023 and will consist of questions at the 10th standard level. Candidates selected for the posts are expected to get a monthly salary ranging from Rs 21,700 to Rs 69,100.
MBA (Masters in Business Administration) is a highly sought-after academic pursuit, especially among the youth. However, it often comes with a significant financial burden. The cost of education should not limit your choices, so lets explore some institutions in India that offer MBA programs at reasonable tuition fees.

Diverse MBA Program Durations:

Todays students can choose from a variety of MBA program durations, including one-year programs, six-month diploma courses, and traditional two-year degrees. In recent times, one-year MBA programs have gained immense popularity due to their efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Here are some institutions that offer one-year MBA programs at budget-friendly rates:

Faculty of Management Studies, New Delhi: Tuition Fee  Rs 1.92 lakh

Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai: Tuition Fee  Rs 1.89 lakh

Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru: Tuition Fee  Rs 5.18 lakh

Delhi School of Economics: Tuition Fee  Rs 38,000

PUMBA, Department of Management Sciences, Pune: Tuition Fee  Rs 1.40 lakh

Standard Eligibility Criteria:

While the eligibility criteria for these colleges are generally consistent, it is crucial for prospective students to thoroughly review the specific requirements of their institution of choice. Some top institutions may demand 2 to 3 years of work experience for admission. Adhering to these criteria is essential to secure your spot, as non-compliance can lead to the cancellation of your admission.

Advantages of a One-Year MBA Program:

One-year MBA programs have become increasingly popular in India, especially among young professionals. Here are some notable benefits of opting for a one-year MBA program:

Improved Time Management: A one-year MBA allows students to manage their time more effectively. Traditional two-year programs often require participation in additional activities, making one-year programs a preferred choice for time-conscious individuals.

Cost-Efficient Education: One-year MBA programs typically offer a more budget-friendly option for students. Many traditional MBA institutions charge significantly higher fees, making one-year programs an attractive and cost-effective alternative.

Flexible Online Study: One-year MBA programs often provide the flexibility of online learning, allowing students to study from the comfort of their homes. In contrast, two-year programs usually mandate physical attendance in classrooms.

Concurrent Employment: A one-year MBA is ideal for working professionals who wish to pursue further education while maintaining their current employment.
A 102-year-old woman in a village in Naxal-affected Antagarh Assembly constituency in Chhattisgarhs Kanker district on Friday voted through postal ballot as a part of a home voting facility being provided by the Election Commission of India to those in the 80 plus age segment, officials said.

As per the ECI, voters above the age of 80, persons with disabilities (more than 40 per cent) and those infected with COVID-19 can cast their votes from home in the Assembly polls, which are scheduled for November 7 and 17.

Under this provision, Budhiyarin Bai, a resident of Kodokhasgaon village under Antagarh Assembly seat, exercised her franchise through postal ballot from her home on Friday. In Kanker district, there are about 350 such voters who will be provided this service, polling officer Shikhar Soni said.

Antagarh is among 20 seats that will go to polls in the first phase, while the voting in the remaining 70 seats will take place on November 17.

A total 1,648 requests for availing home voting service have been received in the first phase of polls in 20 constituencies, said a poll official in Raipur.

There are about 58,000 registered voters who are eligible for this service in these 20 constituencies. So only 3 per cent of such persons have applied for this facility, which means others are willing to go to polling booths on the day of voting, he said.

To avail this service, eligible voters have to fill form 12D within five days of notification of the election. There are more than 2 lakh octogenarian voters in Chhattisgarh, he added.
Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot has hit out at the Enforcement Directorate (ED), telling News18 that the agency is under tremendous pressure and has turned into a joke. In the exclusive conversation, Gehlot said the ED did not find anything from state Congress chief Govind Singh Dotasra and just took away his mobile phone.

There is nothing with Dotasra, what will ED find? They just took his phone. ED has made a joke of itself and also made a joke of an investigation. In fact, it is not even the mistake of the ED. They are under so much pressure from above that if they have to do their jobs, they have to conduct such politically motivated raids as the pressure is immense. I have heard ED officials say so privately, Gehlot told News18. He said the party was fully backing Dotasra.

Dotasra, meanwhile, said the ED did not ask him a single question or take his statement during the raids conducted on Thursday in the poll-bound state.

The search warrant was in the name of my son, Avinash. I gave them permission to search all of my premises. They took away only my mobile. I have no connection with the Kalam Institute (which is at the centre of the paper leak scam). ED could find no such documents, Dotasra said on Thursday.

The Rajasthan Congress chief said he was targeted as he speaks against the BJP and the RSS. The fact is that they want to put me in jail before the elections. Even if I am put in jail, I will win from there too, Dotasra said.

Gehlot described Dotasra as the son of a farmer and a teacher and said the party backs him. The ED had conducted day-long raids at the residences of the Dotasra family in Jaipur and Sikar.
Union Law Minister and Bikaner MP Arjun Ram Meghwal has told News18 that Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot should not be scared of action by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) if he is clean.

Action against corruption should happen and the public also wants the same. If they (Gehlot) are clean, why should they be scared? Meghwal told News18 in Jaipur when asked about Gehlots charge on ED. About Gehlots claim that his son has not been named in any case but was still raided by the ED, Meghwal said: The case against Vaibhav Gehlot is a very old one, the chief minister knows about it.

BJP state president CP Joshi also asked why the chief minister is so scared of ED. The future of thousands of youths was spoilt in the paper leak matter. Gehlot could not get them justice but today ED is reaching the culprits. Then why the pain? Everything happened under your (Gehlot) rule, the CM himself is caught in deep corruption, Joshi told News18.

Joshi also said the connections of the paper leak matter go right up and hence, the suspicion is on the Congress state president. Gehlot should not worry about his Vaibhav but worry about the Vaibhav of Rajasthan, Joshi said on the CMs son.

The ED suspects the paper leak issue is linked to Govind Singh Dotasra who served as the education minister in Rajasthan from 2018 till 2021. He later became the partys state president, a position on which he continues to date.

The ED summons to the chief ministers son, Vaibhav Gehlot, are in a 12-year-old FEMA matter in which the suspicion is that Vaibhavs company received money from Mauritius. My company has no foreign links. This is a very old matter, he said.

Dotasra was questioned for several hours by ED officials in Jaipur on Thursday. Vaibhav Gehlot was also summoned to Delhi by ED on Friday but he has sought more time from the agency, saying he wants to prepare documents before making an appearance.
Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday issued a rebuttal against Congress complaint to the Election Commission in connection with Assam chief ministers remark targeting Chhattisgarh minister Mohammad Akbar. Legitimate criticism of a candidate does not amount to communal politics, the CM said.

Congress has withheld the material information from the Honble Election Commission that Mohammed Akbar is their candidate from Kawardha Constituency. Therefore legitimate criticism of a candidate does not amount to communal politics, Sarma posted on X (formerly Twitter).

He further wrote, Congress will have to face the legal consequence of not revealing this crucial fact in their representation. I have full faith in the collection wisdom of the Honourable Election Commission.

Congress has withheld the material information from the Honble Election Commission that Mohammed Akbar is their candidate from Kawardha Constituency.Therefore legitimate criticism of a candidate does not amount to communal politics. Cong will have to face the legal https://t.co/B7knnSjvCG  Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) October 27, 2023

In a speech in Kawardha in Chhattisgarh on October 18, Sarma had taken a controversial dig at Akbar saying that the land of Mata Kaushalya will get defiled if Akbar isnt sent off.

If one Akbar comes to some place, he calls 100 Akbars. So, send him off as soon as possible, otherwise the land of Mata Kaushalya will get defiled, he said.

Mata Kaushalya, the mother of Lord Ram, is believed to hail from what is modern day Chhattisgarh.

Sarma also attacked the Bhupesh Baghel-led Congress government in Chhattisgarh over several issues, including religious conversion.

Today, the tribals of Chhattisgarh, who are dear to us, are being encouraged to convert their religion on a daily basis. And when someone raises their voice against it, Bhupesh Baghel ji says we are secular. Is beating up Hindus your secularism? This country is a country of the Hindus and will belong to Hindus. Do not teach us secularism, we do not need to learn secularism from you, he said.

The Congress on Wednesday filed a complaint with the Election Commission against Sarma for his remarks against Akbar, the partys candidate from Kawardha. The party alleged that Sarmas remarks showed a clear-cut intention to incite sections of society against one another.

While issuing the notice to Sarma, the Election Commission reminded him of a provision in the poll code which states that no party or candidate shall include in any activity which may aggravate existing differences or create mutual hatred or cause tension between different castes and communities, religious or linguistic. Elections to the 90-member Chhattisgarh assembly will be held in two phases  on November 7 and 17.
Jyotiraditya Scindia gets off the stage as soon as his name is announced to speak. He hops off and roams amid the gathered crowd. Todays stop is Behrad in Madhya Pradeshs Shivpuri. He distributes a sheet of paper and pen to the people and teaches them the importance of voting.

ALSO READ | Congs Ram-Laxman vs BJPs Shiv Bhakt: Nath, Digvijaya & Scindia Script MPs New Poll Adhyay

The crowd comprises booth workers of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Scindia knows the power of the vote and hence stresses on how booth workers need to be up and about to bring in voters.

Scindia picks the places he travels to carefully. He ensures that all castes and samaj are reached out to. From Prajapatis to adivasis, he tells the groups to unite or be his senapati and ensure votes for the BJP.

The Gwalior-Chambal belt is important for the BJP and Scindia. In 2018, the Congress had won 26 of the 34 seats. Scindia was then in the Congress, but he ensured that when he split, he took the 22 MLAs with him. They won again in the bypolls. The Congress now wants revenge.

CONGRESS CANT HIRE AND RETAIN TALENT

News18 travelled with him on his chopper as he flew down to Behrad. Scindia reacted: It just shows the mentality and culture of the Congress. Even now, they have the same repertoire. For 55 years, they took revenge on the people of India, now they want revenge from me. The people of MP will teach them a lesson."

He makes reference to the fact that 28 seats went for by-election post the split, but the Congress lost 19. Scindia says this shows that the people had no faith in the 15-month-old Kamal Nath government. The number for the BJP went up from 7 to 19 seats.

ALSO READ | Cong Did Nothing for Backward Classes in 70 Years, it Also Opposed Reservation for Them: Scindia

Scindia has been accused of joining the BJP for vested interests, as he wanted a position. He has also been called a traitor" by the Congress and Rahul Gandhi. He says, Everyone knows that when the Congress chose Kamal Nath as the CM, I accepted the decision within 30 seconds. My family, my father and I never craved any post. On the one hand, you have a party which has PM Modi as a charismatic leader and on the other hand is a party which cannot hire and retain talent. Look at the party which has one leader who says I have given the power of attorney to the other to take abuse on his behalf. One ex-CM is telling workers go and kapade faado of another ex-CM. I shudder to think what they will do with the 9.5 crore population of MP if they come to power"

THE DAMAAD OF GUJARAT vs DIGVIJAYA SINGH

The Congress has also been facing internal issues over ticket distribution. Scindia makes reference to this. But he spares no chance to attack Digvijaya Singh, with whom he has had a bad equation and is one of the reasons why he quit. He attacks Digvijaya Singh for his comment on the CM. The nautanki of Hinduism is done every five years by them. They have no respect for women, Dalits or adivasis."

ALSO READ | Madhya Pradesh Elections: Do You Take Digvijaya Seriously, Asks Scindia on Ran Away from Election Barb

Doubling as aviation minster, he works post midnight to clear the files. The PM sent a strong message when he referred to Scindia as the damaad of Gujarat". It has increased his stature here.

Scindia is nursing a bad throat. But he is working overtime to ensure that he gives voice to the BJP in the Gwalior-Chambal belt.
In Ashok Gehlots stronghold, Jodhpur, women are his strong votary for changing their fortunes. Sardarpura in the Blue City is not only rooting for its MLA Gehlot to be re-elected but also to become the chief minister once again.

I used to buy medicines all my life. Now, after so many years, Ashok Gehlot has made sure that I dont have to pay for any medicine. I can walk into a hospital and get free treatment. That is why, I will vote for him, says Sunita, a Sardarpura local, on the Chiranjeevi scheme of the Gehlot government.

Under the scheme, a medical insurance of Rs 25 lakh is being provided to all for free. Sunita also praises the government for providing LPG cylinder at Rs 500 for the last one year.

Gehlot was on a two-day tour of Jodhpur on October 23-24 where he held as many as 40 public meetings. In the last assembly elections, Congress won six out of the eight seats that fall in the Jodhpur district. But a few months later in 2019, Gehlots son Vaibhav lost the Lok Sabha polls in Jodhpur to BJPs stalwart leader in Rajasthan, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. This was a big blow to Ashok Gehlot. Winning the seats in Jodhpur are a matter of prestige for both the CM and Shekhawat. It is not clear if Shekhawat will enter the assembly poll battle like seven other MPs of BJP who have got the ticket.

Ashok Gehlot has worked a lot, he got an AIIMS to Jodhpur. He is very experienced, he should be the CM again, said a couple of locals eating snacks near the Mehrangarh Fort, when asked if Gehlot should make way for Sachin Pilot as the CM if Congress gets another term. They further said from free education to giving free phones, Gehlot has done a lot. 100 units of electricity are free. What can the BJP offer? Nothing, says another local.

But, not everybody is impressed with Gehlot. An old man, Rakesh Nath, told News18 that the CM may be a good person but under him 18 paper leaks happened. The youngsters are very offended with Gehlot. They are also first-time voters who want to punish the CM at the polling booth for making them suffer. The contest in Sardarpura will be quite tough for Ashok Gehlot this time, Nath said.

News18 was in Jodhpur on the day Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra did a rally in the state and announced that besides LPG cylinder at Rs 500, the next Congress government in the state will also give Rs 10,000 a year to the woman head of every family in the state. Such announcements are making an impact in Rajasthan, especially Jodhpur. People will vote for our schemes, Gehlot told News18.
Former Bigg Boss contestants Aly Goni and Jasmin Bhasin have captured the hearts of many with their adorable relationship. What started as a deep friendship evolved into a strong bond during their stint on Salman Khans reality show. Now known as Jasly by their dedicated fans, the couple enjoys tremendous popularity. Recently, Jasmin surprised everyone with news of her role in Gippy Grewals blockbuster franchise, Carry on Jatta 3, for which she is currently shooting in London. While Aly cant be with her, he misses her and even expresses his desire to reunite with her in the sweetest and humorous manner, leaving fans swooning.

Aly took to his Instagram to share a delightful reel and his caption was dedicated to Jasmin, which caught their fans attention. In the video, the BB 14 finalist was seen walking in slow motion alongside a horse, from his music video, Allah De Bandeya. Sharing the video he wrote, Hi Jasmin Bhasin, I have left from India, coming to pick you up in the United Kingdom with our old friend, will try to see you soon. On the other hand, Jasmins response added an extra layer of sweetness to the post as she replied, Hahahajajaj.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by (@alygoni)

Earlier this month, Jasmin Bhasin enjoyed a trip to Karjat with her friends, including Aly Goni. However, shortly after the getaway, she had to be admitted to a hospital in Mumbai due to a stomach infection. Jasmin shared an image of herself from the hospital on her Instagram stories and Aly also posted an adorable picture of her while she was in the hospital bed.

This year, Jasmin and Aly have collaborated on various projects, including B Praaks music video Allah de bandeya and Saawan aa gaya featuring Neha Kakkar, which garnered love from their fans. Aly made his web series debut as Surya Sethi in ZEE5s Jeet Ki Zid in January 2021 and Jasmin had secured a role in Ekta Kapoors popular supernatural thriller, Naagin.

Meanwhile, Jasmin Bhasin is currently occupied with the shooting of Carry On Jattiye alongside Sargun Mehta, Gippy Grewal and Sunil Grover. The previous two installments featured prominent Punjabi actors such as Sonam Bajwa and Gurpreet Ghuggi. Sharing the pictures with the team, the actress wrote, Carry On Jatta franchise is back with a new twist. Panorama Studios & Humble Motion Pictures Presentation Carry On Jattiye. Shoot begins in London.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jasmine Bhasin (@jasminbhasin2806)

For those unaware, Jasmin Bhasin and Aly Gonis friendship blossomed during their time on Khatron Ke Khiladi 9 in 2018, where they developed an unbreakable bond. Their relationship took a romantic turn in 2021 when they both participated in Bigg Boss 14 and theyve been together ever since.
Ever since Ankita Lokhande entered Bigg Boss 17 house with her husband Vicky Jain, the two are often seen getting into ugly arguments. While Akitas fans have often accused Vicky of not letting her play individually, in the upcoming episode Salman Khan will also be seen schooling businessman for the same.

On Friday, Colors TV dropped a promo in which Salman Khan was seen bashing Vicky Jain for dominating Ankita Lokhandes decision. Aap inko koi individual decision lene nahi de rahe ho (You are not letting her take any individual decision), Salman told Vicky as he also asked Ankita if she decided to participate in the show to lose her individuality. Watch the promo here:

Soon after the promo was shared, several social media users reacted to it and appreciating Salman Khan to finally address Vickys dominating nature. Ankita ka game abhi bhi kamzor h apne husband ke chakkar m rhi to jitegi kaise, one of the fans wrote. I am seeing how Vicki speaks & behave with Ankita & I feel so sorry for her. If u have a husband like Vicki who degrades u, demotivate u ,say chi chi to u then u have married a wrong man, another user commented.

For the unversed, Ankita Lokhande and Vicky Jain are often seen arguing with each other in Bigg Boss 17 house. Earlier this week, Ankita wanted to save Neil Bhatt from nomination but Vicky forced her to save Abhishek Kumar instead.

Prior to this, Vicky was also seen lashing out at Ankita after she confronted his closeness with Isha Malviya. Vicky called Ankita a fool and added, I also tried to involve you but you didnt so its not my fault. Dont expect me to become a joru ka gulam. Im a competitive guy. I accept I have failed as a husband. Being married doesnt mean that Im always going to be following you. Aur naak kataani hai relationship ki? Chilla kar bolu? How dumb man!
The fighting in Gaza, that has been raging for 20 days, following surprise attack by Hamas on Israel has shocked the world. Ever since the October 7 attack, Gazas Hamas-run health ministry says more than 7,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israels relentless retaliatory bombardments, mostly civilians and many of them children.

However, the capture of hostages by Hamas, Israels use of phosphorus bombs and the cutting of food, water and electricity in Gaza have pointed out to the war crimes that are being done on the pretext of the conflict.

While both Israel and Hamas have been accused of breaking international law during their latest conflict, the terms crime against humanity and war crimes can only be used under defined scenarios.

Here is all you need to know about what are war crimes and crime against humanity and have Israel and Gaza committed war crimes in the Israel-Gaza conflict:

WHAT ARE THE RULES OF WAR?

The international humanitarian laws during wars and conflicts are defined by the Geneva Conventions, drawn up after World War II and agreed on by almost every nation.

The four conventions agreed upon in 1949 set out that civilians, the wounded and prisoners must be treated humanely in wartime. They ban murder, torture, hostage-taking and humiliating and degrading treatment and require fighters to treat the other sides sick and wounded.

Another set of rules in the law of war is the founding Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Set up in 2002, the ICC is the only global independent tribunal to probe the worlds worst crimes including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The ICC defines war crimes as acts including intentional attacks on civilians, civilian settlements or humanitarian workers, destroying property where not militarily necessary, sexual violence and unlawful deportation.

Other agreements ban certain types of weapons, such as chemical or biological munitions. But not all countries have signed up to these.

How are War crimes Defined?

War crimes and crimes against humanity were both defined in the 1998 Rome Statute that established the International Criminal Court.

A war crime is a serious violation of international law against civilians and combatants during armed conflict, a grave breach of the 1949 Geneva Conventions that established a legal framework for war after the Nuremberg tribunals of top Nazis.

It covers more than 50 scenarios, including killing, torture, rape and hostage-taking. It also includes deliberate attacks on undefended population centres that are not military objectives.

A crime against humanity is defined as a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population including murder and extermination as well as enslavement and deportation or forcible transfer.

HAS HAMAS COMMITTED WAR CRIMES?

Hamas, by firing thousands of rockets at Israeli towns and cities on October 7 and sending hundreds of gunmen across the border from Gaza has committed war crimes, experts have said.

Haim Abraham, a lecturer in law at University College London, said the evidence of crimes is clear.

They massacred civilians at their homes. They kidnapped civilians, taking them hostage. All of these things are clearly war crimes, Abraham said, according to AP.

It has also violated international law by taking hostages after a surprise attack. Israel has said Hamas has taken around 150 hostages, including Americans, Germans, Mexicans and Thais.

Jeanne Sulzer, a lawyer with the Commission for International Justice of Amnesty International France, said the Geneva Conventions state that civilians should never be taken hostage. If they are, that may be characterized as a war crime.

Palestine is a state party of the Rome Statute of the ICC, which means that Hamas leaders and personnel can be held accountable for committing genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes if they are held guilty.

HAS ISRAELS RETALIATION BEEN LEGAL?

The Israeli military while attacking Gaza with airstrikes and missiles, also blocked deliveries of food, water, fuel, electricity and other essentials, collectively punishing 2 million Palestinians in Gaza.

United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk has already said that such a siege depriving civilians of goods required for survival is illegal under international humanitarian law.

The Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross has said the instruction for hundreds of thousands of people to leave their homes, coupled with the complete siege explicitly denying them food, water, and electricity, are not compatible with international humanitarian law.

Human Rights Watch has accused Israel of using munitions containing white phosphorus. The incendiary substance is not banned, but its use in densely populated areas has been widely condemned.

Both Hamas and Israel have been indiscriminately bombing each other which also constitutes a war crime, as it is not just targeting military personnel, according to Melanie OBrien, visiting professor in international law at the University of Minnesota.

CAN LAWBREAKERS BE HELD TO ACCOUNT?

The International Criminal Court has the power to prosecute nations officials for violations and order compensation for victims. But some countries  including the United States, Russia and Israel  do not recognize the courts jurisdiction, and the ICC does not have a police force to execute arrest warrants.

While the ICC is the only permanent international tribunal set up to prosecute war crimes, other international courts including the International Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights can hear cases related to alleged violations.

Amnesty International, which is also investigating Israeli attacks in Gaza, points to evidences of war crimes in Israeli attacks.

Our research points to damning evidence of war crimes in Israels bombing campaign that must be urgently investigated. Decades of impunity and injustice and the unprecedented level of death and destruction of the current offensive will only result in further violence and instability in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Agnes Callamard, Amnesty Internationals Secretary General said.

In 2021, prosecutors at the ICC opened a formal investigation into the Palestinian territories, including alleged crimes by Israeli forces and by Hamas and Palestinian armed groups. Israel, which is not a member of the ICC, has refused to recognise its jurisdiction or cooperate with the probe, which covers possible crimes going back to the 2014 war in Gaza.

The court has said only that its mandate to investigate crimes going back to 2014 is ongoing and would also apply to any alleged crimes committed during the current war.

(With inputs from agencies)
In yet another incident of mass shooting, a US Army reservist fatally shot 18 people at a bowling alley and a bar in Maine, in the worst mass killing in state history.

Robert Card remained at large on the second day of the shooting as police continue the searches while fearful Maine residents kept to their homes. The Americans remained in shock over the horrific incident while President Joe Biden mourned yet another senseless and tragic mass shooting.

Joe Biden added that the gun violence that plagues the United States is not normal, and we cannot accept it, urging lawmakers to pass a bill banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.

Why are Mass Shootings Common in the US?

Mass shootings are alarmingly common in the United States, a country with more guns than people, and attempts to clamp down on their spread are always met with stiff resistance.

The country has recorded at least 565 mass shootings this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nongovernmental organization that defines a mass shooting as four or more people wounded or killed. Gun violence is the leading cause of death for children and young adults in the United States.

Efforts to tighten gun controls routinely run up against opposition from Republicans, staunch defenders of the constitutional right to bear arms. The political paralysis endures despite widespread outrage over recurring shootings.

Gun Laws in the US

The debate over gun laws in the US has been raging for years and has reignited after high-profile mass shootings in the past few years.

The gun ownership law in the US is rooted in the Second Amendment of the Constitution, which states, A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

As a result, all kinds of guns, especially high-powered assault rifles and semi-automatic pistols are cheaper and more widely available than ever across the United States.

Despite frequent mass shootings, Congress has been unable to pass meaningful gun legislation in the wake of these tragedies despite broad public support for new restrictions.

Many gun control advocates say the United States should look to the experiences of wealthy democratic peers who have instituted tighter restrictions to curb gun violence.

Few Facts About Guns in the US

Here are some key facts about the gun laws in the US:

Around a third of US adults say they personally own a gun while four in ten US adults say they live in a household with a gun, according to Pew research.

Half of the 50 US states allow carrying concealed firearms in public places while the other 25 allow it in some form.

Only a dozen of the 50 states in the United States require purchase permits for handguns. Only 3 of those states California, Connecticut and Hawaii  require permits for the purchase of rifles and shotguns.

Republicans and Republican-leaning independents are more than twice as likely as Democrats and Democratic supporters to say they personally own a gun, the report added.

6 out of 10 US adults said that gun violence is a very big problem in the country, up 9 percentage points from spring 2022.

Gun Laws: Whats Allowed and Whats Banned?

Though firearm is permitted in the US, the right to bear arms is not absolute. The sale and ownership of guns are prohibited to certain categories of people.

Weapons including shotguns, rifles, machine guns, firearm mufflers and silencers are regulated by the National Firearms Act of 1934. However the purchase of semi-automatic weapons is legal in most states, as are automatic weapons made before 1986.

There are also no federal laws banning semiautomatic assault weapons, military-style .50 caliber rifles, handguns, or large-capacity magazines as of 2022. There is also no federal requirement for those purchasing a gun to have any firearm safety training.

The Gun Control Act of 1968 prohibits individuals under 18 years of age, convicted criminals, the mentally disabled, dishonourably discharged military personnel, and others from purchasing firearms.

The law also calls for mandated background checks for all unlicensed individuals purchasing a firearm from a federally authorized dealer.

Though there were federal laws prohibition assault weapons and large-capacity magazines between 1994 and 2004, the US Congress allowed these restrictions to expire.

How Many Guns are Circulating in US?

Over the past two decades more than 200 million guns have hit the US market, led by assault rifles and personal handguns, feeding a surge in murders, mass shootings and suicides.

The US, with less than 5 percent of the worlds population, has 46 percent of the worlds civilian-owned guns, according to a report by the Switzerland-based Small Arms Survey.

The survey also stated that there was an average of 88 guns per 100 people in the US in 2011. The US also has the highest homicide-by-firearm rate of the worlds most-developed nations.

What do the Opponents and the Proponents Say?

A majority of Americans have supported stricter gun laws for decades and the call for a ban on firearms is increasing with surging violence post-Covid.

While the supporters of gun control, around 55 percent, called for a ban on the manufacture, possession and sale of semiautomatic guns. People also called for other measures, including raising the legal age for purchasing certain firearms and enacting a 30-day waiting period for gun sales, according to The New York Times.

Opponents of gun control, including most Republican members of Congress, argue that the proposal infringes on the right of citizens to bear arms enshrined in the US Constitution. They also argue that the mass shootings are not due to the accessibility of guns, but due to criminals and mentally ill people bent on violence.
Mumbais Dagdi Chawl, which famously hosted former underworld don Arun Gawli, is all set to be redeveloped and replaced by two 40-storied skyscrapers in the next few years.

As per reports, the 386 tenants of Dagdi Chawl will start moving out of the 4000 square meter plot in a phased manner. The 4-storey buildings will be demolished to make way for two 40-storey buildings, one of which will be reoffered to the tenants.

Arun Gawli, who is serving a life term for the murder of a Shiv Sena corporator, performed Navratri Aarti at his stronghold Dagdi Chawl, knowing it would be his last Navratri at the precinct he once ruled.

Why Was Dagdi Chawl Famous?

Dagdi Chawls, surrounded by swanky buildings in the Agripada area of south Mumbai, once provided a safe hideout to Arun Gawli who was at loggerheads with the Dawood Ibrahim and Ashwin Naik gangs.

Before Dagdi Chawl became Gawlis fortress, it served as residential quarters for mill workers and their families. On one of the top floors of buildings in the chawl, Gawli and his family used to live a luxurious life.

The area, now a century old and spread in more than an acre, became one of the most dubious addresses in Mumbai in the 1980s when Gawli began his tryst with the underworld. With the underworld long gone in Mumbai, the old society will make for the skyscrapers to house the citys new powerful class.

Currently, there are around 375 tenants in the rooms measuring just 120 square feet each, housing over 1,000 people, with many families having spent three generations in the chawls, from birth to death.

As per the proposal, taken up by little-known Livingstones Infra Private Limited, two identical towers of around 40 floors each will come up. While one of the skyscrapers will go to the existing tenants, another one will be offered to open market sale.

Who is Arun Gawli?

Arun Gawli alias Daddy used Dagdi Chawl as his crime den in the 1980s and 90s. It was a time when the infamous Don Dawood Ibrahim was at the peak of his crime history.

Gawli became a rival to Dawood Ibrahim when he declined to join his smuggling business. He then used Dagdi Chawl as the headquarters of the BRA (Babu Reshim, Rama Naik and Arun Gawli) gang. Ibrahim even tried to vanquish Gawli, but in vain.

While Dawood killed Gawlis brother and Gawli retaliated by carrying out a hit job on Dawoods brother-in-law Ibrahim Parkar, he would always retreat into the safety of Dagdi Chawl where no one could enter without his permission, Sunil Deshmukh, former Assistant Commissioner of police, said, according to Hindustan Times.

According to a report in Midday, Lalvitanchi Chawl in Byculla West used to be the centre of the crime world before Dagdi. Lalvitanchi Chawl used to house several gangsters like Chota Rajan. Arun Gawli also used to visit the chawl and thats where he got the idea of using Dagdi Chawl as his fortress.

Gawli made an entry into politics without much success. But he enjoys considerable support in central Mumbai. Late Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray publicly hailed him as a Hindu Don.

Gawli is currently serving a life sentence at the Central jail in Nagpur in the 2007 murder case of Mumbai Shiv Sena corporator Kamlakar Jamsandekar.
Eight former Indian Navy personnel have been sentenced to death by a court in Qatar, a verdict that was described as deeply shocking by India as it vowed to explore all legal options in the case.

The Indian nationals, who worked with private company Al Dahra, were arrested in August last year reportedly in an alleged case of espionage.

The former Indian Navy personnel are Captain Saurabh Vashisht, Commander Purenendu Tiwari, Captain Birendra Kumar Verma, Commander Sugunakar Pakala, Commander Sanjeev Gupta, Commander Amit Nagpal and Sailor Ragesh, according to people familiar with the matter.

Neither the Qatari authorities nor the Indian government have made the charges against the eight nationals public. In its reaction, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said it is attaching high importance to this case and is exploring all legal options.

What is the Case Against the Indian Nationals?

The eight Indians worked for a private firm, Dahra Global Technologies, and Consultancy Services, which provided training and other services for Qatars armed forces. According to a report in NDTV, the company was owned by a retired squadron leader of the Royal Oman Air Force, Khamis al-Ajmi. Ajmi too was arrested along with the Indians last year, but was released in November.

Though the Qatar authorities have not made the charges public, reports claimed that the eight men were allegedly arrested for espionage. The Qatari authorities, after keeping the eight former naval officers in detention for months, revealed they were spying on Qatars secret submarine program for Israel. The charges were filed against the Navy veterans on March 25 and they were tried under Qatari law.

Moreover, their bail petitions had been rejected several times and the verdict against them was pronounced on Thursday by the Court of First Instance in Qatar.

All of the former Navy officers had unblemished stints of up to 20 years in the Indian Navy and had held important positions including that of instructors in the force. The former personnel had impeccable service records and had taken voluntary retirements in search of greener pastures.

What Has India Said?

The Ministry of External Affairs has said that they are deeply shocked by the verdict and waiting for the detailed judgement. We are in touch with the family members and the legal team, and we are exploring all legal options, it said.

The MEA said it will continue to extend all consular and legal assistance to the Indians. We attach high importance to this case, and have been following it closely. We will continue to extend all consular and legal assistance. We will also take up the verdict with Qatari authorities, it said in a statement.

The MEA said it would not be appropriate to make any further comments at this juncture due to the confidential nature of the proceedings. Indias ambassador to Qatar met the men in prison on October 1 after being granted consular access.

Timeline of the Case

August 30, 2022: The eight Nay men, along with two others, were taken into custody on unspecified charges and put under solitary confinement. September 2022: The first bail plea of the jailed officers was held a month after they were picked. However, the plea was rejected October 1, 2022: Indias Ambassador in Doha and Deputy Head of Mission met the eight naval veterans, according to The Indian Express. October 3, 2022: the first Consular access was granted. The CEO of Dahra Global Khamis al-Ajmi was also himself arrested. He spent two months in solitary confinement after which he was released on bail. March 2023: The last of multiple bail pleas filed for the veterans was rejected. The charges were also filed against the eight Indian citizens. The trial begins under Qatari law. May 30, 2023: The company was shut down in May this year. All former employees, as many as 75 Indian nationals, returned home. June 2023: The second trial was conducted in June this year, according to Al Jazeera. August 4, 2023: The arrested men get some relief after they were shifted from solitary confinement and put in a jail ward with their colleagues, with two men to each cell. October 26, 2023: The Indian Ambassador to Qatar met the men in prison on October 1 after being granted consular access. However, the court on October 26 awarded death penalty to all eight men.

(With inputs from agencies)
It is surprising to note that in the era of Chandrayaan, Panchayat was conducted and a fine of Rs.15,000/- was imposed on the petitioner without any authority (sic), said the Madras High Court recently, while hearing a petition to prevent social boycott/ex-communication of the man and his family. The HC has directed the concerned District Collector to constitute a committee to inquire and file a report.

While passing the order, the single-judge bench of Dr Justice D Nagarjun noted that it was alleged that as the petitioner, a member of a Rajapalayam Hindu Nadar Uravinmurai Society, had used excess water for his shop, he had been asked to pay a fine of Rs 15,000 and when he denied doing so, he and his family had been boycotted.

There is no law, statute procedure and bye-laws, under which, such amount of Rs.15,000/- has been imposed, the HC added.

WHAT THE PETITIONER SAID

The case of the petitioner was that the Rajapalayam Hindu Nadar Uravinmurai Society was established to raise contributions from the Hindu Nadars residing at Rajapalayam for betterment of the members of Society. The said Society also owned a shopping complex in Kamarajar Nagar, Rajapalayam, in which, the petitioner had rented three shops in 1998.

In 2022, the petitioner requested the Society to permit him to use the borewell water for his shops which were in a dilapidated condition. However, before the representation of the petitioner could be decided, it was found that without prior approval of the Society, he had been using the bore-well water.

Thereafter, the petitioner was asked by the representatives of the Society to vacate the shops. When he denied doing so, his shops were illegally closed, his belongings were thrown out and he was asked to pay a fine to get a key for the rental shops. Opposing this, the petitioner filed a criminal case against the representatives of the Society.

Despite the registration of the criminal case, a Kattapanchayat was conducted by the Society and the petitioner and his family members were ex-communicated and the Nadar Uravimurai community was directed not to allow him and his family in the Society temple as well.

THE PANCHAYAT SAYS

On the other hand, in their counter affidavit to the writ petition, the respondent Society members claimed that the petitioner used to play the sound system loudly and used to pick up quarrels with the adjacent tenants, and he had closed the shops after filing the criminal case.

They argued that if the petitioner was forcibly evicted, he should have approached the Civil Court instead of the high court.

Apart that, the Government Advocate (Criminal side) appearing for the concerned district administration submitted that an inquiry had been conducted in which 20 persons were examined in that locality, but it revealed no practice of ex-communication against the petitioner.

The high court pointed out that though the police had reported that they made an inquiry with 20 persons in that locality and found that there was no ex-communication but Polices report did not reveal as to whom they spoke to.

The Police should have enquired the petitioner and his family members and others, the court opined.

Since the Police have not placed any details in respect of the inquiry conducted by the police in respect of ex-communication and that the petitioner vehemently submitted that the ex-communication/social boycotting is being practicedthis Court is of the opinion that a proper inquiry is required to be done in respect of this, the court held.

The court posted the matter for further hearing on October 31.
A Bangladeshi woman, who crossed over the international border to marry her lover, was arrested for illegally entering Dharmanagar in North Tripura district, police said on Friday.

Nur Jalal (34), a resident of Phulbari in Dharmanagar subdivision, a self-styled kabiraj (practising ayurveda), used to frequently visit Maulvi Bazar in Bangladesh. During the visits, Nur, a married man, came in touch with the 24-year married woman at her native village, police added.

With the passage of time, the woman identified as Fatema Nusrat, fell in love with Nur and around 15 days ago, she reached Dharmanagar illegally to get married, SDPO (Dharmanagar) Debasish Saha said.
A 17-year-old boy, who was in detention at an observation home in alleged connection with a child sex abuse case, was found hanging in the facilitys bathroom in Bihars Aurangabad. Officials on Friday said that the boy was a native of Buxar 100km away and a case under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act was filed against him.

Ten days back, a juvenile justice board had sent him to the government observation home. On Thursday, the boy was found hanging from a towel tied to a ventilation window of the bathroom in the government observation home, Hindustan Times reported, adding he was rushed to a hospital where doctors declared him dead.

His body has been sent for post-mortem to ascertain the exact cause of death. However, the observation home officials have said in their statement that he died by suicide.

Hindustan Times quoted Aurangabad district magistrate Srikant Shastri as saying that a three-member panel has been formed to investigate the case and a magisterial inquiry has also been ordered. The post-mortem will be held in the presence of a magistrate-rank officer.

After the dinner at the mess, the boy went to first floor bathroom and locked the door from inside and hanged himself, Anita Kumari, Assistant director, child protection, at the government observation centre told HT.

The incident came to fore when he did not respond when other inmates noticed the bathroom door locked for a long time.

The Bihar State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (BSCPCR) has sought a report on this matter.

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The burnt body of a woman was found near the railway tracks in Mumbai Port Trust area in Wadala, a police official said on Friday.

The body of the woman, with injuries on the head and other parts, was found on Thursday afternoon after which a murder case was registered, the Wadala police station official said.

The body was set on fire by the unidentified accused to destroy evidence. Efforts are on to nab the accused, he said.
Fake antibiotic drugs and medicines used to induce abortion worth nearly Rs 40 lakh have been seized from two different locations in Gujarats Sabarkantha district, an official said Friday.

Two persons have been detained for questioning, he said. Based on a tip-off, officials of the Gujarat Food and Drug Control Administration (FDCA) raided a medical shop in the Girdharnagar area of Himmatnagar on Thursday and seized a large quantity of fake antibiotic drugs, said a release by FDCA Commissioner HG Koshia.

The seizure included fake antibiotic medicines, claiming to contain components like cefixime, azithromycin and bacillus, worth Rs 25 lakh, said Koshia. These actual antibiotics are used for the treatment of serious diseases. The name of the manufacturer mentioned on the medicines was Meg Life Sciences, Sirmaur, Himachal Pradesh.

When officials contacted Himachal Pradeshs drug controller, it was revealed that no such company exists. When the shop owner Harsh Thakkar could not produce any sale or purchase bills for these medicines, it was established that these drugs were fake, said the release.

While four samples of seized medicines were sent to a Vadodara-based laboratory for analysis, Thakkar is being questioned to find out the source of these fake medicines, said officials. Later during the day, the FDCA team raided a house near Himmatnagar town hall and seized abortifacient (abortion-inducing drugs), and other medicines worth Rs 12.74 lakh.

It was revealed that the owner of Swaminarayan Medical Agency, Dhaval Patel, had stored these medicines for illegal sale at his residence without acquiring any permission from the authorities.

FDCA said it will initiate court proceedings as per the law against Thakkar and Patel after receipt of the laboratory results. Both are now being questioned to find out from whom they used to acquire these medicines and to whom they were selling them, said the release.

The development comes days after authorities seized fake antibiotic drugs worth Rs 17.5 lakh in raids across various cities of Gujarat and detained four persons.

FDCA had said that some of these persons worked as medical representatives of benami companies and used to deliver fake medicines to doctors.
Yogesh Kadian, a 19-year-old gangster from Haryana, has been charged with criminal conspiracy and several attempts to murder by the International Criminal Police Organisation. He fled to the United States two years back on a fake passport and now has been slapped with Interpols red corner notice.

In its notice, Interpol charged Kadian with criminal conspiracy, attempt to murder, acts done by several persons to further a common intention and possession and use of prohibited arms and ammunition.

A Red Corner Notice is a request to the law enforcement authorities of Interpols member countries to find and temporarily detain a person until extradition, surrender, or a similar legal process can take place.

According to media reports, Kadian is currently part of the Babinha gang in the US and is considered an expert in state-of-the-art weapons. He is on the list of gangsters believed to be leading the charge to take down rival gangster Lawrence Bishnoi.

There have also been reports of Kadians connection with Khalistani terrorists and recently, his house and known hideouts in India were raided by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to investigate his involvement with Khalistani extremists, NDTV reported quoting sources.

Apart from Kadian, Harbhej Singh, an Indian gangster from Punjabs Amritsar is on Interpols wanted list. Singh is internationally wanted in offences related to the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, of 1985 and possessing illegal weapons.

Earlier, Interpol issued a Red Notice to all member countries against gangster Himanshu alias Bhau, who is believed to be living abroad.

Reportedly, their gang is currently working on a plan to take down the Lawrence Bishnoi gang and establish their dominance in the US and Canada.

This comes amid an ongoing diplomatic standoff between India and Canada after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged a potential link between Indian agents and the June killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was gunned down by unidentified men outside a gurdwara in a Vancouver suburb.
India is setting up a surveillance system equipped with drones along its borders with China and Pakistan to avoid surprise attacks like the one from Hamas in Israel. Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a multi-pronged attack on unsuspecting Israelis via land, sea and air on October 7. After over two weeks of devastating airstrikes that have left thousands dead, and more than 1 million displaced in Gaza.

Follow Israel-Hamas War LIVE news here

Quoting people familiar with the matter who did not wish to be named, a Bloomberg report said defence officials met with six home-grown vendors of surveillance and reconnaissance drones last week and an order is expected to be announced as soon as next month.

In the past, India has battled surprise attacks by neighbouring countries. In 2008, assailants from Pakistan armed with assault weapons and grenades infiltrated Mumbai by sea and managed to kill 166 people.

Meanwhile, South Korean and US troops also conducted live-fire exercises this week to be prepared to respond to potential Hamas-style surprise artillery attacks by North Korea, South Koreas military said Friday.

The three-day firing exercises, which began Wednesday, involved 5,400 South Korean and US soldiers, 300 artillery systems, 1,000 vehicles and air force assets, according to South Koreas military, a PTI report said.

In a simulated response to the enemys (possible) Hamas-style surprise artillery attacks, the exercises practised strikes designed to remove the origins of the enemys long-range artillery provocations at an early date, South Koreas Ground Operations Command said in a statement.
India is deeply concerned about the ongoing war between Israel and Palestine but stands with the former on the terror front as the countrys policy is strictly zero tolerance towards terrorism, top government sources have told CNN-News18.

The sources said the war is mainly between Hamas and Israel on the terror front and the Centre is aware of the Israel-Palestine territorial issue.

We are not engaging with all concerns which is different from intervention diplomatically or militarily. Hamas has done wrong and Israel has the absolute right to defend its citizens and territory, the sources said, adding that the government is engaging with all Middle East countries  including Saudi, Egypt and UAE  for a peaceful solution.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called him and gave him an update on the deadly conflict between Israel and Hamas.

The Prime Minister said he assured Netanyahu that India stands with Israel in this difficult hour. He also underscored that India strongly and unequivocally condemns terrorism in all its forms.

I thank Prime Minister @netanyahu for his phone call and providing an update on the ongoing situation. People of India stand firmly with Israel in this difficult hour. India strongly and unequivocally condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, PM Modi posted on X, formerly Twitter.

Meanwhile, Israel on Wednesday asked India to designate Hamas as a terrorist entity like many other countries have done even as it hailed New Delhis solid support to its operations against the outfit.

Israeli ambassador to New Delhi Naor Gilon said the need for proscribing Hamas as a terrorist organisation was taken up with India following the deadly attacks on Israeli cities on October 7.

The important countries for us are with us. These are the democracies of the world. Having said thatI think it is also time to officially designate Hamas in India as a terror organisation, Gilon said at a media briefing.

The Israeli ambassador said many countries including the US, Canada as well as the leading grouping, the European Union, have already designated Hamas as a terror outfit.

We spoke to the relevant authorities here. It is not the first time we spoke about it. I think we both understand the threat of terrorism. It is not something we are putting pressure on. We think it is something due because of our shared war on terror, Gilon said about Israels call for designating Hamas as a terror outfit in India.

We raised the issue after the attack and we are still in dialogue. We are speaking to India. It is a friendly talkwe see eye-to-eye on the vast majority of things including on counter-terrorism and other strategic issues, he said.

(With PTI inputs)
A 29-year-old man, facing eight criminal cases and was out on bail, has been stabbed to death by two persons in Central Delhis Nabi Karim area, police said on Friday.

Amit Kumar was standing near his house on Thursday night when two persons, including a juvenile, attacked him with knives, killing him on the spot, they said. The police have nabbed a juvenile while the other accused is absconding, an official said.

According to the police, Kumar was facing eight cases of robbery and snatching in Delhi. He was currently out on bail, they said. A police officer said it was suspected that the juvenile had a grudge against Kumar. A few days ago, Kumar had forced the juvenile to get liquor for him and he was hurt by it, the officer said.

The juvenile was being interrogated and efforts were on to nab other accused, police added.
Commander Sugunakar Pakala, a former Indian naval officer facing a death sentence in Qatar, created a milestone when he crossed the equator twice on the Navys sole sail ship INS Tarangini. The 54-year-olds family in Visakhapatnam is shocked by the Qatari courts sentence as Pakala is known for his illustrious career spanning 25 years.

Pakala is among the eight former Indian Navy personnel who have been handed down death sentence by a court in Qatar. The Indian nationals, who worked with private company Al Dahra, were arrested in August last year reportedly in an alleged case of espionage.

Neither the Qatari authorities nor New Delhi made the charges against the Indian nationals public. In its reaction, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said it is attaching high importance to this case and is exploring all legal options.

According to a report in Times of India, Pakalas relatives and friends are visiting his home to console his wife, son and daughter. They are holding onto hope for his release with the Indian governments intervention, particularly before his birthday on December 18.

The report stated that Pakala joined the Navy at 18 and worked in the Naval Engineering Corps, with service on various units and ships. He had a successful naval career that included postings in Mumbai, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Visakhapatnam, and commendations on multiple occasions. He is also known for his dedication to social service.

The 54-year-old former Navy officer holds a BTech (mechanical) degree from the Naval College of Engineering and an MSc in defence and strategic studies from Defence Services Staff College, Wellington.

He retired from the Navy on November 20, 2013, and later joined Al Dahra Global Technologies, which provided training and logistics support to the Qatari military, TOI stated.

At the time of his arrest last year, Pakala was working as the companys director (FCN).

Sugunakar is innocent. I knew him from when he was a kid. He was my son Raghus classmate in Kendriya Vidyalaya. He is a gentleman and never indulges in any anti-social or criminal activities, A Krishna Brahmam was quoted as saying.

A former Navy officer was quoted: Dahra was set up in 2015 and we were officially training the Qatari navy. The training was customised for them and their navy was extremely satisfied with the outcomes

The company had grown to about 120 employees, 90% of whom were from the Indian Navy, the report stated. All officers imparting training were Indians and were aged between 45 and 64, said the ex-officer.
Friday was yet another eventful day in office for Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he was first at the Indian Mobile Congress talking about technology, then he attended a programme where he emphasised on Seva, followed by a programme where he interacted with saints. After landing back in Delhi, the Prime Minister will chair meetings on governance till late evening.

ALSO READ | India Mobile Congress 2023: India Aiming To Become Global Leader in 6G, Says PM Modi

From tech in the morning to seva (service) and adhyatma (spirituality) in the evening to governance and policy till late night, it has been an eventful day for the PM as he connected with very diverse sectors, a government source told News18.

A special request to the youth of India pic.twitter.com/Zyg4GyoJ4H Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) October 27, 2023

In the morning, the PM was at the India Mobile Congress, which emphasises on technology and innovation.

The PM spoke proudly there about India taking the lead in the 6G technology. The future is here and now. Our young generation is leading the tech revolution. India is not only expanding the 5G network in the country, but also laying emphasis on becoming a leader in 6G, the PM said at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi at the India Mobile Congress.

In the development of digital technology, India is behind no developed nation. Technology is the catalyst that expedites the transition from a developing nation to a developed one. The 21st century marks an era of Indias thought leadership, the PM said.

In the afternoon, he went to attend the programme at the Shri Sadhguru Seva Sangh Trust, emphasising on seva. He inaugurated a new wing of Jankikund Chikitsalaya, which will cater to the healthcare needs of many.

Our nation is the land of several greats, who transcend their individual selves and remain committed to the greater good. pic.twitter.com/j4OWdkqnvh PMO India (@PMOIndia) October 27, 2023

Later, he went to the Tulsi Peeth in Chitrakoot, in a programme relating to spirituality. There he was in the midst of respected saints and seers.

Ashtadhyayi is thousands of years old text of Indias linguistics, intellectuality and our research culture. Time refined Sanskrit, but could never pollute it. It remained eternal. Whatever national dimension you look at in India, you will witness Sanskrits contribution. Sanskrit is not only the language of traditions, it is also the language of our progress and identity, the PM said at the programme in Chitrakoot.

ALSO READ | Election 2023 News: In Chitrakoot, PM Modi Hails Unforgettable Industrialist Arvind Mafatlal

After landing in Delhi, the PM will chair key meetings related to governance and policy. All this comes ahead of the PM hitting the election campaign for the five state elections.
Amid the ongoing war of words between members of the opposition and the ruling party, the standing committee for home affairs on Friday decided to hold the next meeting on November 6 to discuss and adopt the draft report of the three bills referred to it by Union Home Minister Amit Shah-led Ministry in the last monsoon session of Parliament.

The Opposition MPs have requested the chair to seek an extension up to March 2024.

ALSO READ | Legal Renaissance: Modi Govt Promises A New Era of Justice With 3 Bills to Replace IPC, CrPC, Evidence Act

Shah had introduced three bills in the Lok Sabha to replace British-era criminal laws. The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Bill 2023 will replace the Indian Penal Code, The Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita Bill, 2023, will replace The Code Of Criminal Procedure and The Bharatiya Sakshaya Bill, 2023, will replace The Indian Evidence Bill. These bills were referred to the standing committee for scrutiny.

Several leaders in the opposition, including former home minister and Congress leader P Chidambaram and Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Derek OBrien, had questioned the government on the tearing hurry to clear the bills. Chidambaram had also shared on social media his reservation of not having enough discussion on the bill, which is all set to overhaul crucial legislation in the country.

In its meeting on Friday, members sought more time to read the draft report after the Hindi version of the report was made available to the MPs on Thursday evening.

Several members, including Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) MPs, have questioned the government as to why such a legislation is being cleared in such a hurry. The opposition MPs have alleged that this was being done by the Union government in a bid to get electoral gains. TMC MPs have been extremely vocal and also said that it was unfair to call for meetings in the middle of the festival season, especially in Bengal, where MPs would like to be in their constituencies.

OBrien has often questioned the governments intent both inside and outside Parliament, blaming the Modi government for what he called bulldozing Parliament legislation without adequate scrutiny".

THE OBJECTIONS & EXPLANATIONS

Sources also indicate that in response to the allegations by the opposition bench, panel chief Brij Lal is said to have told the committee in detail about the consultation processes in the framing of this bill and how every stakeholder was taken into account. He also said that the Union government has reached out to every state and union territory, including the fact that the Home Minister held over 150 meetings on the bill, which also included meetings with political parties, chief justices, legal eagles, among others.

Members in the opposition, especially from the DMK, have been opposing the name given to the bill which is in Hindi. However, both the government as well as senior bureaucrats, who were present before the committee, have argued that it is not Hindi imposition. Just after the introduction of the bill when the objection was raised by the DMK, Shah had reacted and said that the new names of the bill are not Hindi, but Sanskrit.

After the Supreme Court struck down adultery, sources say that this bill again proposes to bring back adultery, which is going to be gender neutral, which is also being objected to by some MPs.

Some MPs have also questioned as to why despite having specific laws for terror cases, the government is trying to bring this under a common law like UAPA.

In some of the suggestions that MPs would want to be included in the bill, there have been talks about reducing the punishment for those caught in cases of agitation. As of now, the punishment includes imprisonment of up to two years. MPs argued that agitation is a process to express dissent in democracy and therefore the punishment in this case must not exceed more than one year.

Some MPs have also said that a very important consideration must be the cases that happened because of deaths caused by negligence. In such cases, including cases of road accidents caused by rash driving or even man-made calamity where people lose their lives, the punishment is only up to six months. MPs suggest that this punishment must be increased for up to two years to act as a strong deterrent for those who play with other peoples lives.

Several other suggestions have been given by various members, especially MPs who are from a legal background. The opposition camp has given about 10 to 15 suggestions, and sources indicate that of these, close to 10 suggestions have already been adopted in the draft report prepared by the panel.

Have been reading the drafts prepared by the Union Home Ministry to substitute the Indian Penal Code, Code of Criminal Procedure and Indian Evidence Act. Stunned to find that there is a serious attempt to quietly introduce very harsh and draconian anti-citizen provisions in these Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) October 11, 2023

AMENDMENTS OR NEW BILLS?

With more than 11 meetings to discuss threadbare legislations, the committee invited home secretary Ajay Bhalla, various officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs, former top cops, legal experts among others to depose before the panel in its process to prepare its report. It may be noted that the opposition party MPs had given a list of 17 prominent personalities, including former Chief Justice of India and lawyers to appear before the committee, of which allegedly only one lawyer was called to depose before the committee.

Dand (punishment) was the basis on which the colonial laws were made. However, the intent of the Modi government to bring these Bills was very clear and that was for delivery of Nyay (Justice) and that too in a time-bound manner," a source says has been the explanation on the reason why these bills were being brought.

While sources indicated that MPs from the opposition camp would be submitting dissent notes, it is known that so far Congress leader (Lok Sabha) Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Rajya Sabha MP Digvijaya Singh and DMK Rajya Sabha MP NR Elango have submitted dissent notes opposing various clauses of the Bill.

There are several amendments that have been proposed to the bill. Looking at the number of amendments, which also include putting a foolstop or even a comma, or changing a word or a couple of words in various clauses, may even prompt the Union government to come up with a fresh bill, replacing this one with all amendments in place. Passing an elaborate bill like this and passing the amendments proposed separately, if there are so many number, would be quite a headache and therefore it would be better to bring a new bill," a source told News18.

IPS probationers are getting an opportunity to lead in the new era of criminal justice system through three new criminal laws. It is your responsibility to implement these laws in letter and spirit at the grassroots level. pic.twitter.com/XkuRMP0idY Amit Shah (@AmitShah) October 27, 2023

MINISTER SPEAKS

Shah, while addressing the Dikshant Parade of 75 RR batch of Indian Police Service (IPS) at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy in Hyderabad on Friday, said that the government led by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has made watershed changes in the three laws of the British rule  CrPC, IPC and Evidence Act and has placed three new criminal laws before the Parliament of the country.

He said, Soon, all three new laws will be passed and on the basis of these laws our new criminal justice system will begin. After ending the era of laws made during the British period, India is entering a new era with new faith, hope and enthusiasm. The purpose of the old laws was to safeguard the government, but the purpose of the new laws is to safeguard the rights of the public and to eliminate obstacles in peoples access to those rights."

Shah said that with this fundamental change, the new officers and trainees are getting an opportunity to lead in this changing era of criminal justice system through these three laws.
Maharashtras ruling Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde has raised doubts and suspicions against the process of the Mumbai Universitys senate elections. MLC Dr Manisha Kayande said, Just as in other polls there are election commissioners to monitor the election process, a retired judge or retired commissioner should be appointed to monitor the senate elections so that there is transparency in the process. We have found that there is massive malpractice going on in the senate election process of graduates of Mumbai University. Voter lists that have been prepared are completely flawed. There are many errors in it. The important thing in this process is that more than 14,000 forms have been registered from the same IP address. Also, fee payment for 437 forms has been done through a single card. How is this possible?

Further, Kayande also alleged that there has been massive manipulation of the voter list. In most places, the same name has been recorded two or three times, she said. At many places, the address doesnt match with the name, Kayande said. After these irregularities came to light, we wrote a letter to the vice-chancellor of Mumbai University on October 4, 2023, expressing strong objections to this election process. Despite this, Mumbai University did not pay attention to it. But the court took our letter seriously, postponed this election process, and formed a three-member committee to investigate. Therefore, Mumbai University yesterday announced that the re-registration process will be conducted from October 30 to November 30. But this has raised a question mark on the functioning of Mumbai University.

In August, Mumbai University stayed its senate polls, with the opposition claiming the move reflected the Maharashtra governments dictatorial attitude and its fear of holding any kind of election.

Mumbai Universitys expert panel has submitted its findings over the complaints of discrepancies and duplications in the senate voter list. The committee was established in response to a complaint filed by BJP MLA Ashish Shelar, who alleged 750 duplicate entries in the senate voter list. The matter is currently being heard in the Bombay High Court.

Kayande has asked the university administration a bunch of questions. Why Aadhaar cards were not sought while registering the forms? How did the administration allow all the forms to get registered in a single slot? How did the university allow paying the fees of several forms from one card? Why was OTP not asked for? What has Mumbai University done to stop this disturbance?

This type of irregularity happens every time in the senate elections of Mumbai University. But Mumbai University has no mechanism to stop this irregularity. Since 2010, 10 candidates have been elected from the same organisation. While preparing the voter list, it is tampered with. Some organisations have also made repeated attempts to win the senate elections by forming political alliances, which is very wrong. People who had no qualifications and who had never worked in any department of Mumbai University were selected. Many things were continuously going wrong there due to collusion among themselves. We have repeatedly objected to these suspected irregularities, said Kayande.
In the aftermath of a major ceasefire violation by Pakistan, a group of students from a government middle school near the border town of Arnia on Friday attended classes in an underground bunker built in its complex.

According to the school management, the decision to hold temporary classes inside the bunker in Suhagpura, one of the last villages two km from Arnia town, was taken this morning to address the concern of the parents following heavy shelling by Pakistan last night.

The cross-border shelling and firing by Pakistan Rangers, the first major ceasefire violation since 2021, started around 8 pm Thursday in the Arnia area of R S Pura sector and lasted for around seven hours, leaving a BSF personnel and a woman injured.

The school falls within the range of Pakistani shelling and most of the 50-odd students did not turn up in view of the tense situation.

However, those who did were accommodated inside the underground bunker within the school premises, Anju Seth, a teacher from the school, said. In all, 15 students took classes in bunker.

She said the school got numerous phone calls from the panic-stricken parents since morning.

We told them that it was their call whether they wanted to send their wards to the school, and that the management had decided to hold the classes in the bunker for the safety of the students for the time being.

Sethi said the government has built underground bunkers for the border residents for a purpose and we are using the facility for the benefit of the children.

Himankshi Devi, a class 8 student, said her family decided to move to a safer place after the heavy shelling by Pakistan.

We were frightened by the shelling but I motivated them to stay back. I want to attend my school otherwise my studies will get impacted, she said, adding, my fear was gone when I reached the school and our classes shifted to an underground bunker.

Her classmate Shravan Kumar, who wants to be a soldier, said he will continue to go to school, come what may.

Ceasefire or no ceasefire, life on the border will continue, so we have to adjust with the situation and ensure that we do not miss our classes, he said.

Nidhi, also a class 8 student, said she wants to join the police force and staying home serves no purpose.

We used to attend our classes in underground bunkers some five years back when there were frequent ceasefire violations. We have enjoyed peace on the border since and hope there is no more firing so that we can attend our classes normally, she said.
The name Bharat instills a sense of pride in children, which is why we have made the recommendation to replace India in all school textbooks, said Professor CI Issac, chairperson of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) committee on social sciences.

ALSO READ | From India to Bharat: NCERT Panel Recommends Name Change For School Textbooks

The NCERT panel has proposed to universally replace India with Bharat in all school textbooks. The Opposition parties have objected to the recommendation of having only Bharat in school textbooks.

Issac said: The people, who have opposition to the suggestion, have changed the name of Madras to Chennai and Trivandrum to Thiruvananthapuram. They want to change Kerala to Keralam, but when we say Bharat, why do they have a problem?"

Issac said, The name Bharat is at least 7,000 years old. When children hear this, when they hear about our rich history and heritage, they will feel proud. The name India is only about 150 years old."

Issac said their suggestion was the name Bharat be taught in social sciences textbooks from Class 7-12. He added that once the new education policy was formed, the committee thought the students should be taught the name Bharat. We wanted the next generation to learn the name Bharat. As we were taught India, we are only saying that. We never said India should not be used," Issac said.

The recommendations were given in 2021 by the seven-member committee chaired by Issac.

Kerala Education Minister V Sivankutty had said the state has rejected the recommendations given by the NCERT committee for social sciences.

ALSO READ | Bharat  Its There in Constitution: Jaishankar Amid India Name Change Row

Sivankutty said, Citizens have the right to use India or Bharat as said in the Constitution. It is with twisted interests that they are saying from now we should use only Bharat. This is narrow politics, Kerala cannot accept this."

He added that if the NCERT intended to teach children through textbooks things that are unconstitutional, unscientific and distorting the real history, then Kerala will defend itself through academic debates.

The state had earlier included portions deleted by the NCERT in the state syllabus.
The police in Maharashtras Thane city have registered a case after a woman alleged that her 18-month-old son was kidnapped by her sisters husband and another man, an official said on Friday.

Quoting the first information report (FIR), the official said that the complainants sister is separated from her husband, Sharvar Ali, due to domestic quarrels.

Recently, Ali had approached the complainant asking for the whereabouts of his wife. He went back after the complainant didnt share any information about his wife. The complainant alleged that Ali came with another man to her home at Kalwa on Wednesday and abducted her son to settle scores with her.

An official from Kalwa police station said they have registered a case against the two accused on a complaint by the toddlers mother.

No arrests have been made yet, he said.
Mirzapur Bus Accident: Five people, including two minors, were killed while 26 were injured after a private bus overturned near the Dadri Dam in Uttar Pradeshs Mirzapur on Friday, police said. The bus driver also died in the accident.

According to PTI, the bus was on its way to Halia, with 31 passengers, from Sant Nagar.

The deceased have been identified as Satyanarayan, 40, who was the driver of the bus, Mamta, 26, Manita, 25, Abhishek, 2, and Vishnu Kumar, 10, were the other victims, authorities said.

Also Read: Karnataka| 13 Killed in Road Accident on Bengaluru-Hyderabad Highway in Chikkaballapur

The injured have been admitted to a hospital where they are undergoing treatment, District Magistrate Priyanka Niranjan told the news agency.

The accident took place on Halia Dadri Road in the Santnagar police station area. Sixteen passengers suffered minor injuries, while 10 were serious injuries, District Magistrate Mirzapur Priyanka Niranjan said.

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath expressed grief over the death of the victims in the road accident.

The chief minister instructed district authorities to take the injured to the hospital and provide them with proper treatment. The CM also wished for the speedy recovery of the injured, a statement by the CMO stated.

This comes just a week after two people died and 15 were injured when a bus carrying pilgrims to the Vindhyachal Dham was overturned in Mirzapurs Lalganj, Superintendent of Police Abhinandan said.

Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Anupriya Patel, who is also the local MP, visited the injured at the hospital and enquired about their health.

According to the police, the victims are from the Haliya police station area of the district.

(With PTI inputs)
Global icon and Bollywood star Priyanka Chopra is in Mumbai. On Thursday Priyanka dropped hints of her whereabouts on social media. With a photograph of her passport, the Citadel fame was seen to be en route to Mumbai. Cannot wait. Its been a minute Mumbai, Priyanka captioned the click. The actress is visiting the city to attend the Jio MAMI Mumbai Festival, set to take place between October 27 and November 5. Priyanka Chopra who is the chairperson of MAMI will be spotted at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre, where the film festival is scheduled to be hosted.

Early on Friday morning, Priyanka was spotted at the Mumbai airport looking smart as ever. For her trip back to her homeland, Priyanka chose a black crop top paired with grey slouchy joggers and a long, black shrug. She kept her hair loose. She accessorised the look with a stone-studded choker. As she made her way through a sea of fans and paps at the arrival gate, she posed for photographs. Check out the video right here:

Priyanka Chopra will host the opening night of MAMI alongside Isha Ambani, while industry biggies including Sonam Kapoor, Farhan Akhtar, Rana Daggubati, and Kabir Khan, among many others will attend the event as guests.

Earlier this month, Malti Marie created a significant buzz on social media with her cute antics during her dad Nick Jonas concert. The little munchkin who had a stage-side view of her father, adorably walked towards the musician, while Nick was leading a Jonas Brothers concert. Meanwhile, Priyanka who was last seen sharing the screen space with Sam Hueghan in Love Again will be seen next in director Ilya Naishullers upcoming action-comedy flick Heads of State alongside John Cena.
Tejas Movie Review: For decades, Hindi war films used to be unbearably drawn out. But Kanagna Ranauts Tejas helmed by debutante director Sarvesh Mewara is a welcome change as the film lasts slightly less than two hours. Although nice, the briskness simply comes at the cost of the film. The movie goes back and forth in time on multiple occasions and that too so quickly that there isnt much opportunity to get to know the protagonist well. The end product looks like a half-baked film that reduces a life to a list of facts.

Everything in the film is related to the title of the film. Our lead protagonist played by Ranaut is called Tejas Gill. Her father who works in Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is on the team which is working on the development of the single-engine multi-role combat aircraft Tejas. The aircraft that Ranaut flies to rescue an Indian spy from Islamist terrorists is Tejas. Even the operation that she leads into enemy territory is titled Mission Tejas.

The film begins with wing commander Tejas and her piloting partner Afia (Anshul Chauhan) rescuing a kidnapped civil servant from an aboriginal island. Tejas doesnt follow orders and likes to make her own rules. For the next two hours, the director establishes the story of our protagonist whose family has been a victim of terror attacks and her whole idea is to wipe off terrorism. Apart from being an ace pilot, Tejas also has the skills of a spy as she can detect clues given by an Indian spy on a video sent out by the terrorists.

In addition to terrorists, Pakistani officials who consistently lack efficiency and permit their military airports to be inadequately guarded are also considered villains. Similar to the IAF, Tejas assistance is desperately needed in the Indian security establishment, as seen by the planned attack on the recently constructed Ram temple in Ayodhya. The director throughout the film also subtly tries to hint at the gender divide frontline practically all the way through. There is a dialogue in the film where Tejas tells Afia, Agar hum iss mission mein successful hue toh agli baar koi yeh nahi kahega ki lakdon ko bhejna chaiye tha. Yet, nothing truly clicks.

Disjointed for the most part and rushing from one scene to the next, the 118-minute movie appears to have been assembled out of an unruly hunk of footage. Writer-director Mewara throws everything they have at the screen  battles in the skies and on the ground, patriotic speeches thankfully they arent chest thumping and a bit of Pakistan bashing. The film surely picks up pace in the second half as the action moves to the battlefield. The scenes involving aerial attack in the climax have been shot well. Its commendable that the tone remains steady and never loud and jingoistic.

Kangana Ranaut gives her all to the character and it pays very well. Not at all an easy role to play but this powerhouse of talent makes sure to carry the entire movie on her able shoulders with ease. Shes magnanimous in action sequences, and theres not a single flaw about her when it comes to showing her rage or even being vulnerable. Tejas is more than being just another feather to the memorable hat of the actor.

A word for Anshul Chauhan who is a perfect casting choice as Afia, Tejas co-pilot, and delivers a commendable performance. Despite Ranauts presence in all the scenes, Chauhan makes her presence felt, and how.

Despite the performances, the silver lining is too thin to ignore the dark clouds that loom over Tejas which doesnt allow the film to soar high.
Fans of The Crown are eagerly awaiting the final season and the trailer for this Netflix drama has finally been unveiled. For the first time, the series will be split into two parts and the newly released trailer offers a glimpse into what viewers can expect. Part 1 of the final season, comprising four episodes will be released on November 16. It will delve into the life of Princess Diana played by Elizabeth Debicki, her relationship with Dodi Fayed (Khalid Abdalla) and their tragic accident that shook the world in 1997. The trailer provides a sneak peek at Dianas struggle with constant paparazzi intrusion and her attempts to enjoy a private life. The trailer hints at the challenges she faced, including a scandalous picture of her and Dodi kissing flashes across a newspaper.

We also get a look at the lives of Prince William and Prince Harry, played by Ed McVey and Luther Ford respectively, as they go through their royal responsibilities following the tragic loss of their mother. The intense media scrutiny after Dianas untimely death and the royal familys complex relationship with the press is also shown. Diana receives an invitation for a trip to Paris from Dodi, and viewers are aware of what happened with the young royal in the city on August 31, 1997. The trailer includes a moment where Prince Charles, played by Dominic West, stating, This is going to be the biggest thing that any of us has ever seen."

The official synopsis of The Crown season 6 read, A relationship blossoms between Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed before a fateful car journey has devastating consequences. Prince William tries to integrate back into life at Eton in the wake of his mothers death as the monarchy has to ride the wave of public opinion. As she reaches her Golden Jubilee, the Queen reflects on the future of the monarchy with the marriage of Charles and Camilla and the beginnings of a new Royal fairytale in William and Kate."

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Netflix UK & Ireland (@netflixuk)

Following the conclusion of Part 1, fans of the Netflix series can mark their calendars for the final episodes of the series, which are set to release on December 14. These episodes will explore the royal familys history, including Prince Charles wedding with Camilla Parker Bowles, portrayed by Olivia Williams. The focus remains on Charles sons, William and Harry. The cast also includes Imelda Staunton as Queen Elizabeth 2, Jonathan Pryce as Prince Philip and Meg Bellamy will join the cast as Kate Middleton.

The Crown made its debut in 2016 and has a total of 21 Emmy wins. In 2021, the series achieved a historic milestone by becoming the first show to take all seven drama categories at the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards.
I begin with a simple game for readers, to solve a simple puzzle that I have been putting to listeners of my talks in recent months. It is an innocuous question, what do the capital of seven kingdoms, Delhi, the second most populous city of the world (to be most populous around 2028) and the capital city of India have in common with-

The tiny Bihar hamlet Asopur (population 2857), mufassil town Dharuhera (population 41,000) colloquially Haryanas most prosperous region, Chapra an impoverished district town in Bihar (278,000 population) which got into prominence as famous 18th-century river mart where Dutch, French, Portuguese, and British established saltpetre refineries, Uttar Pradesh city Ghaziabad (population 2,273,000) founded in 1740 A.D. by Ghazi-ud-Din II, a wazir in the court of Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah and the ancient city of Patliputra (modern Patna with 2,580,000 population) that scripted the history of India from 490 BC to 600 AD.

Most erudite listeners including premier management school students and a group of corporate honchos, answered- centres of organised crime.

The answer is farthest from the complicated existential truth of these places. It is not even half-truth. As per the March 2023 report of the Swiss agency IQAir, these six places in India ranked amongst the top 10 most polluted places in the world in 2022.

Make no mistake, as per IQAir, between 2017 and 2022, the most polluted city ranking based on annual average deadly killer PM2.5 concentration (g/m), Delhi NCT ranks fourth worst city and most-polluted capital city in the world. And the pollution in Delhi now worsens by month and not the year.

Delhi Chief Minister Will Have a Different Take

Knowing Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, he will produce a different set of data saying that as of October 27, 2023, 0017 hours AQI data, the pollution in Delhi with 202 g/m PM 2.5 has substantially improved and it is the 10th worst in India with the two worst polluted cities of India today being Ujjain (PM 2.2 249 g/m) and Bhiwadi (243 g/m). He will pat his minister and the Green War Room for improving Delhis air pollution from the very poor to the poor category in just three days. What Kejriwal will conveniently not tell is that on October 27, 0017 hours, Delhis PM 2.5 concentration was close to 9 times the recommended limit of WHO 24-hour air quality guidelines value. And in 2022, it was 18.5 times.

It is Not Yet Winter

Typically, the air pollution in Delhi is at its worst in the winter starting from Diwali days. This year, the mayhem has started well in advance. On Monday, October 23, the level of PM 2.5  fine particulate matter that can clog lungs and cause a host of diseases  was 306 in Delhi, and even in the wee hours on October 27, it was 206. For the uninitiated, PM2.5 levels of 101 and 200 are considered moderate while those between 201 and 300 are categorised poor. Anything over 300 is categorised as very poor and a figure higher than 500 is considered severe.

GRAP is Passe

The Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) is a set of emergency measures that are implemented when air quality begins to dip in Delhi-NCR in the winter months. The GRAP was first notified in January 2017 by the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change under the direction and scrutiny of the Supreme Court. This was based on a plan submitted by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in November 2016. Originally, the now-dissolved Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority for the NCR was responsible for its implementation. From 2021 onwards, the GRAP is being implemented by the Commission for Air Quality Management.

GRAP is incremental and thus, when the air quality dips from poor to very poor, measures listed under both sections have to be followed. Stage 1 of GRAP is activated when the AQI is in the poor category (201 to 300), Stage 2 is when its in the very poor category (301-400), Stage 3 is when the AQI is in the severe category (401-450) and finally Stage 4 is when it rises to the severe + category (more than 450).

In the first stage of GRAP, the government imposes heavy fines on garbage burning and sweeping without sprinkling water. The action also includes sprinkling water on roads with heavy vehicular movements. It also includes among other things stopping the construction and demolition activities on plot sites of 500 square meters and more which have not been registered on the dust mitigation monitoring portal.

The second stage of GRAP was introduced earlier this week when PM2.5 level crossed 300. It necessitates a ban on diesel generators, increased parking fees, increased bus and metro frequency and issuing advisories for children, elderly, and people with respiratory problems to remain indoors.

Without bothering readers with the third stage, the fourth and final phase is enforced when the air quality enters the severe plus category. This happened in November last year and is very likely to happen this year, next year and next to next year. In such an emergency, like last year, GRAP implementation suspends all construction works, heavy vehicles are stopped from entering Delhis borders, all vehicles other than Bharat VI compliant are ordered off the road and schools are shut down.

I have no compunction in saying that Delhi-NCRs way of combating the worsening air pollution is shutting down activities one by one till everything comes to a grinding halt. And the same story is repeated every year, duly forgetting the deleterious impact on the economy of the city, due to shutting down the engine of growth.

The New Normal Subnormal

It is a myth that the Delhi-NCR pollution is a winter crisis. Various studies and the raw data of the Central Pollution Board are eye-openers. Pollution is a yearlong problem, and residents of Delhi-NCR hardly experience good or satisfactory air day. Covid lockdown was a temporary circumstantial god-sent reprieve. Hard data tells a new normal subnormal story. The data also reveals theres much more to worry about than the government does. Any keen observer of CPPB data will tell that in the first five months of 2022, Delhi recorded a total of 114 days that clocked air quality in the severe, very poor, and poor categories. In only 37 days, Delhi had either satisfactory or moderate air quality. Worse, Delhi citizens did not even have a single day of good air quality. The last seven months of the year were far worse. What use GRAP is? Air pollution continues to kill whether Delhi runs, crawls, or stops living under the weight of GRAP.

I will return to the Delhi story a while later. Suffice to say at this stage, that:

One, Indias national air quality standards are much more lenient, even compared to WHOs 2005 norms. For example, the recommended PM2.5 concentrations over 24 hours are 60 micrograms per cubic metre, compared to 25 micrograms advised by WHOs 2005 guidelines. But even these lower standards are hardly met. WHO in 2021 made its guidelines stricter for all pollutants. For example, for PM2.5, the prescribed 24-hour mean is 15 micrograms per cubic metre and one year mean is 5 micrograms per cubic metre. Meeting them is a far cry for the nation.

Two, Delhi can bask in the temporary glory of reducing air pollution from very poor to poor level. But the truth beckons if one does not monitor air pollution, the extent of the manifest problem will also be less than the reality. The whole Green War Room story of the Delhi government (started in 2020), having 17 experts now and (compared to nine last year) with state-of-the-art equipment, functioning round-the-year with the 24X7 monitoring is misplaced. It is an eyewash, to say the least. Delhi is not required to monitor and mitigate pollution by making the city come to a standstill, rather it is in crying need of drastic action to reduce the pollution.

India is no Better

How do other Indian cities fare? The short answer is as bad. IQ Air March 2023 report which surveyed pollution in 7300 cities has three major damning observations.

One, India ranked amongst the ten worst polluted countries in the world, precisely the eighth most polluted country in 2022, dropping from fifth place the previous year.

Two, six Indian cities are in the top 10 most polluted, 14 in the top 20, 39 in the top 50, and a staggering 65 in the top 100, up from 61 in the previous year. It is pertinent to note that as per the Central Pollution Control Boards (CPCB) list of Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations, Delhi-NCR shows a total of 80 stations. Of these, half, that is 40 stations, are in Delhi grossly insufficient for the 1,258 sq. km area of NCT. Other cities, particularly tier 2, 3 and smaller towns are in blissful ignorance, no measurement, no pollution.

Three, the economic cost of air pollution in India is $150 billion, with the transportation sector causing 20-35 per cent of the PM 2.5 pollution. Other sources of pollution are industrial units, coal-fired power plants and biomass burning.

Make no mistake, presently about 80 per cent of the urban population is exposed to air quality that does not meet the CPCB ambient air quality standard for PM10 (60 g/m3), a standard that is substantially lax when compared to WHO standards.

The Great Indian Tamasha

As per available data, India has around 800 operating stations in 344 cities/towns in 28 states and 7 Union Territories of the country under the National Air Monitoring Programme (NAMP). There are 261 continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations in 134 cities covering 23 states and Union Territories connected to the web-based system providing real-time ambient air quality details. It is pertinent to point out that most of these monitoring stations are in urban areas, more particularly in metropolitan cities. Smaller cities have 1-2 continuous monitoring stations and few undependable manual air quality stations. There are no ambient air quality monitoring stations available in rural areas.

Maila Aanchal

Such travesty of Ma Bharti reminds me of the famous Hindi novel Maila Aanchal by Phanishwar Nath Renu. As per the World Air Quality Report 2022, air pollution has a massive impact on human health in India. It is the second biggest risk factor for disease, and the economic cost of air pollution is estimated to exceed $150 billion annually. The World Health Organisation estimates that air pollution in India is responsible for over 1.2 million deaths each year. Another study puts the Indian deaths due to air pollution at an estimated three deaths every minute in addition to heart and lung diseases and many other diseases. The Central and state governments may contest the veracity of the number, but the real cost to life is humungous and possibly scarier than what transpires. What we know may just be the tip of the iceberg.

When dirty polluted air blankets our cities, the most vulnerable urban populations  the youngest, oldest, ill and the poorest  are the most impacted. At the alarmingly dangerous level of air pollution that Indian cities exhibit today, those most at risk include children whose lungs are in formative, the elderly, and the unwell, especially those with asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) cancer, heart disease and diabetes among other diseases.

There is a Better World Out There

As per a 2023 Air Quality Life Index report of the University of Chicagos Energy Policy Institute (EPIC), an average Indian loses 5 years of life due to air pollution. The worst is Delhi where an average resident loses 11.9 years of their lives on an average to air pollution. The number is 11.2 years in Gurugram. It is a humungous number. And for any sane nation, even one year of life lost to pollution is one too many. Instead of taking shelter under our geographical limitations and hostile climate, it is Wake Up Sid time for India.

And I humbly posit that there is a better world out there as can be seen from the instructive list of the 100 least polluted cities of the world. It is an interesting mix of cities from developed and developing countries and is represented by all major regions of the world, including central Asia and Africa. The solitary exception is South Asia which has 73 most polluted cities out of the 100 worst in the world but not even one in the list of 100 least polluted. All major nine Australian cities made the cut of the least polluted cities.

My humble submission for why no Indian or South Asian city makes the cut of the 100 least polluted cities is- one, it is stupid poverty and two, the lack of political conviction. It is time that the paradigm of governance changes. India has to become less polluted before it becomes developed. Pollution need not be the by-product of the process of development.

The CHINDIA Story

I return to my popular theme. In 2008, at the time of the Beijing Olympics, there was not much to choose between Delhi and Beijing. Both competed to have some of the dirtiest skies in the world. Millions enveloped by the darkest smog on bad days was the order of the day and bad days were too many.

Then came the frontal attack by China, spearheaded by Beijing. What changed was that the Chinese government declared a war against pollution in 2013, and Beijing pressed ahead with a multiyear $100 billion effort to clean its air. The authorities clamped down on factories, forced old vehicles off the road and shifted from coal to natural gas, electricity and now are moving to green hydrogen. While Beijing has not become the cleanest city in the world, it is no longer among the dirtiest. In 2022, Beijing residents breathed good or moderately good air for 288 days, 12 days more than in 2020, according to data released by the authorities. The piece of news might have been shrugged off by many as trivial but for Beijings more than 20 million residents, it is a precious gift.

This is a pipe dream for Delhi.

I will take just two leaves from Beijing and China-

One, geographically, Beijing suffered for decades from air pollution due to frequent sandstorms from the north and northwest and the regions industrialisation. China reduced the intensity and number of sandstorms by planting billions of trees in the north and northwest of Beijing.

Two, China has today 9500 km of operational metro rail constructed during the same period in which India has put together 900 km. Every year, it is adding 2500-3000 km. Its 2035 target is 35000 km of metro rail. Nearly ten Chinese cities including Beijing will have more than 1000 km of metro rail by 2025. Shenzhen has converted its entire fleet of 16000 buses to electricity. Beijing is almost there. Delhi by 2028 will cross Tokyo with 38 million population. After 391 km of Metro Rail in Delhi-NCR, governments have developed cold feet and all that has been sanctioned in the last five years for Phase II is 65 km.

Delhi is an urban sprawl and is soon to be the most populous city. In Phase II, DMRC constructed 123 km in 3.5 years almost at the same speed as Beijing. And then it slowed down. Now it is just trickling. It is neither good economics nor good politics. It is time to look beyond.

I believe what Beijing can do; Delhi can do better. And DMRC did it in Phase II.

A Sad Story

Even one life lost due to pollution is too much. Even one death due to it is culpable homicide. Those who can change India for the better, if their family and children take the same dirty air, they will have the urge to change the world if one member of the family is affected. For the last two months, I have been traversing Indian cities inhaling polluted air of different metropolises and have a flare-up of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), a dangerous degenerative lung disease partly attributable to a few cigarettes that I smoke due to my obsessive-compulsive manic-depressive mind, but my pulmonary expert puts the biggest needle of suspicion on fifteen years of dirty Delhi air that I inhaled. I shifted from Delhi to the serenity of Pune to save myself from dirty air, but pollution quickly caught up with me there too.

My COPD is in stage II. Stage III is oxygen support and stage IV is ventilator support. I may not have many years left, but God save my India. No cost is high to wage total war on absolute pollution reduction, but the first thing is to know the truth and accept it. Only when we make our pollution norms stringent, we will know the real extent of the problem. No shortcut, short-term solution will do. India needs a concerted two-and-a-half-decade war to ensure its air is far less dirty when we celebrate a hundred years of independence.

Akhileshwar Sahay is a Multi-Disciplinary Thought Leader with Action Bais and India Based International Impact Consultant. He works as President Advisory Services of the consulting firm BARSYL. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18s views.
Over two weeks of escalating crisis between Israel and Palestine, engineered by an unprecedented terror attack against Israeli civilians on October 7, is threatening to expand in the wider Middle East. One has witnessed the vandalisation of mosques, churches, hospitals and synagogues and the death and destruction of over 1400 Israelis and thrice as many Palestinians with thousands injured on both sides. Human suffering and constant fear among civilians on both sides of the wall is rampant as religious colouring to the conflict is being extended at the expense of a political cause and issue.

The world appears to be vertically divided as powers, both regional and major ones, have chosen sides as expected while rendering lip service to any major efforts to ceasefire and cessation of hostilities while ensuring the safe release of over 200 hostages with Hamas in Gaza, which is being flattened by the day. Regional powers are worried about the threat of the conflict expanding to other theatres including Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and eventually Iran. Superpowers are busy undermining the UN even more for their geopolitical games.

Egypt, which has been hesitant to open the Rafah border due to the possible influx of Hamas fighters who follow the philosophy and are said to be an offshoot of the banned and even feared Muslim Brotherhood by the current Cairo establishment, eventually opened the border for sending relief supplies and letting foreign passport holders out. A flood of refugees from Gaza would add to the economic and political woes of Egypt besides the fact that displacement of Palestinians out of Gaza would entail succumbing to the desire of many Israeli right-winger leaders which would do a greater disservice to the Palestinian cause. Egypt President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi hosted a Peace conference in Cairo with the participation of dozens of leaders from the region and several from the West as well as Special envoys of China and Russia. However, as expected, the West and the regional powers could not be on the same page and no joint statement could be issued which has been the real plight of the Palestinian issue.

While the regional countries wanted an immediate ceasefire, unimpeded supplies of humanitarian assistance and resumption of peace talks for a two-state solution, the Western countries expressed their full support and solidarity with the Israeli right to defend as well as the immediate release of hostages and facilitating relief supplies. Anger and angst of the Arab and Israeli leaders has been evident in their furious speeches for different reasons even as the fake news and social media campaigns on both sides are rampant, obfuscating the ground reality. UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterress reaction that attacks by Hamas, though condemned, did not happen in a vacuum provoked calls for his resignation.

President Sisi kicked off the summit by emphasising the need for cessation of hostilities and a just and lasting solution for the Palestinian issue. A press release said that the ongoing war has also disclosed a shortcoming in the values of addressing crises. While we see one place rushing and competing to promptly condemn the killing of innocent people, we find incomprehensible the hesitation in denouncing the same act in another place. We even see attempts to justify this killing as if the life of the Palestinian human being is less important than that of other people, it stated.

King Abdullah II of Jordan was categorical in his denunciation and has been actively pursuing shuttle diplomacy. He is also the custodian of the Al Aqsa mosque. Both Egypt and Jordan have peace treaties with Israel. Jordan has had huge demonstrations given that over 3 million of its population is of Palestinian origin. Even Queen Rania is of Palestinian descent and accusing the Western world of double standards, she lamented, When October 7 happened, the world immediately and unequivocally stood by Israel and its right to defend itself and condemned the attack, but what were seeing in the last couple of weeks, were seeing silence in the world. Arab Foreign Ministers at the UN also called for an immediate ceasefire and siege of the Gaza enclave. Prince Faisal said, We are here with one message: violence is not a solution. The lives of all civilians deserve to be protected and this includes the Palestinians in Gaza. Just peace will never be achieved if the international community does not meet its commitments and resolve the Palestinian situation.

The British Foreign Secretary tried rather cleverly to play both sides perhaps forgetting that his country has been a major cause of this issue. However, during their visits, Biden, Macron, Scholz and Sunak among others conveyed their fullest support to Israel and its right to defend itself but urged the nation to go slow on the ground invasion and civilian strife and casualties in Gaza, which in the meantime have frittered away a lot of global sympathy for Tel Aviv as Netanyahu is facing increasing frustration at home. Efforts are being made by Qatar to get more Israeli hostages released as Hamas wants the Israeli offensive to be stopped first. Meanwhile, the world is also confronted with a potential escalation and expansion of war fronts with Hezbollah, Islamic Militias and Hamas opening fronts in concert with the guidance and support of Iran which might suck the West into this war. China has already positioned its six warships in the region following the US naval deployments even as Beijing is trying to offer to mediate with their special envoy already in the region. Moscow is also working closely with Beijing to find some solution as it beefs up its presence and acts at the UN.

Peace is what everyone wants but major actors are beset by their limitations and the warring parties justify their reasons to go on the warpath. Ironically, Egyptian organisers of the Peace Summit forgot to invite India, the only country with credible credentials on both sides. Indias position on terror attacks by Hamas against Israel, solidarity with the plight of Palestinians and support for a two-state solution as well as provision of humanitarian supplies to Gazans and Operation Ajay to bring back stuck Indians from Israel and Palestine have been consistent as PM Modi spoke to President Abbas and King Abdullah II to ascertain the situation and render assistance.

Peace and durable solutions are a must to stop the recurrence of this cycle of violence and retribution in this volatile region where flashpoints are ever so charged. Inshallah, good sense will prevail and Shalom will follow.

The writer is a former Indian Ambassador to Jordan, Libya and Malta and is a Distinguished Fellow with leading think tank Vivekananda International Foundation. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18s views.
India has sent nearly 6.5 tonnes of medical aid and 32 tonnes of disaster relief material for the people of Palestine. Moreover, $29.53 million has been contributed by India to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for the Palestinian refugees. This might come as a surprise to many who have recently developed a newfound sense of unequivocal camaraderie with Israel in the wake of the war raging in the region. It is true that Indias relations with Israel have strengthened considerably in recent years, encompassing various sectors like trade, technology, defence, and counter-terrorism cooperation; however, situations like the ongoing Israel-Palestine war demand much more than a knee-jerk reaction.

India is emerging as a strong mediator in major geopolitical conflicts and is exercising its soft power to push for global peace and stability. New Delhi understands that as the dawn of the 21st century tilts the power axis towards the east, India faces stiff competition from China to test its geopolitical clout and influence. Whether its the Israel-Palestine conflict, the inclusion of the Global South in G20 or the Russia-Ukraine War, Indias steps are calculated towards securing a particular spot in the changing geopolitical scenario of the 21st century.

Palestine is hopeful that India, as a significant global power, will mediate in the Israel-Palestine conflict, urging Israel to cease territorial seizures and to collaborate with Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey in distributing humanitarian aid to the 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza. The Palestinian Ambassador to India, Adnan Mohammad Jaber Abualhayjaa, stressed the need for an immediate ceasefire during the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict. There are also indications that President Mahmoud Abbas of Palestine may engage in discussions with Prime Minister Modi soon. Indias longstanding support for the two-state policy envisions peaceful coexistence between Israel and Palestine with officially recognised borders established through direct negotiations.

Indias complex situation becomes evident when considering the multifaceted implications of the Israel-Palestine conflict. On one hand, India maintains a substantial relationship with Israel, which includes defence procurement and technological cooperation. The ongoing conflict has the potential to impact this partnership, as Israel may understandably prioritise its security needs during this tumultuous period. Israel is also a primary supplier of military equipment to India, and the defence business between the two nations is valued at around $2.1 billion.

On the other hand, India heavily relies on oil imports from the Middle East. Any escalation of tensions in the region can have a direct impact on energy prices, which, in turn, can affect Indias economy. The interconnectedness of the global economy means that if countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran become entangled in the Israel-Palestine conflict, it could lead to direct consequences for Indias energy supply, economy, and investments.

Furthermore, the Israel-Palestine conflict holds the potential to disrupt the stability of the Middle East, an area of significant strategic importance to India. Any escalation of hostilities could have serious implications for Indias interests and engagements in the region. This concern is particularly relevant as India recently embarked on the ambitious India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), a large-scale infrastructure project designed to connect India, the Middle East, and Europe through various transportation modes, including shipping and rail networks. The conflicts impact on this corridor is an additional dimension to consider in the larger geopolitical landscape.

Apart from the Israel-Hamas War, India also flexed its geopolitical clout as it successfully advocated for the addition of the Global South in the league of the G20 nations. In January, Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended invitations to 125 primarily developing countries for a virtual meeting, underlining New Delhis commitment to representing their interests on the international stage. During the virtual gathering, Prime Minister Modi outlined critical challenges, emphasising that addressing these issues requires a greater presence for developing nations in the evolving global order. These challenges encompassed the Covid pandemic, climate change, terrorism, and the conflict in Ukraine. PM Modi expressed the view that the world is currently grappling with a crisis, and most of these global challenges are not of the making of the Global South, yet they disproportionately affect these nations.

India has made a commitment to amplify the voices of the Global South, a diverse array of primarily developing nations spanning Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, Oceania, and the Caribbean. Officials hailed this decision as a significant stride toward a more equitable, inclusive, and representative global structure and governance. Indias systematic engagement with Africa commenced in 2008, but China, taking the lead with its outreach in 2000 under the presidency of Jiang Zemin, has enjoyed a head start. The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) initiative took shape with its inaugural ministerial meeting in Beijing that year, marking the growing Chinese interest in Africa.

Nonetheless, Indias recent move to incorporate the African Union into the G20 positions it as a leader of developing and underdeveloped nations. This aligns with Indias goal of securing permanent membership in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), for which it seeks the support of Africa, holding 55 crucial votes. Beyond acting as a bridge to the developing world, India positions itself as an emerging global player and also a crucial mediator in bridging the divide between the Western powers and Russia.

Amidst the Russia-Ukraine War, China has been seeking to establish itself as a mediator and take up the global leadership mantle; however, Chinas efforts have helped shed light on Indias distinctive approach to conflict resolution. In contrast to China, which has positioned itself against the American approach, India has leveraged symbolic expressions of power to enhance its soft power image. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has projected India as a champion of democracy and a moral force for global peace. Indias support for Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity has been clearly conveyed through various statements and interactions. Prime Minister Modi engaged in multiple telephonic conversations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, emphasising Indias commitment to high-level engagement with Ukraine and its dedication to addressing the crisis.

India has extended its support for peace efforts in Ukraine, emphasising the importance of resolving the conflict through diplomatic means and aligning itself with the position of other global players, including the United States. India recognises the interconnected nature of geopolitical dynamics and aims to harmonise its stance with the key stakeholders involved in conflict resolution. Its important to note that Indias engagement with Ukraine does not imply a complete departure from its historical ties with Russia. While expressing solidarity with Ukraine, India acknowledges Russias military and geopolitical significance, considering it within the context of its own military preparedness and regional stability.

Indias active engagement in the Ukraine crisis signifies its growing recognition and influence on the international stage. This involvement positions India as a key player in addressing global conflicts and reaffirms its commitment to maintaining global peace and stability. By engaging with Ukraine, India aims to assert itself as a responsible global actor, actively contributing to peaceful conflict resolution and shaping international relations constructively.

However, India encounters challenges in matching Chinas influence due to its limited material resources, economic capacity, and military potential. Resource constraints further limit Indias capacity to exert substantial influence or provide extensive assistance to the parties involved in the conflict. Nevertheless, Indias significant soft power assets, such as its rich cultural heritage and technological advancements, continue to enhance its global appeal and solidify its role as a valuable partner in various sectors. Indias emphasis on public diplomacy, cultural exchanges, and people-to-people interactions strengthens diplomatic ties and fosters mutual understanding. Initiatives like cultural festivals, exchange programs, and scholarships further facilitate greater engagement, creating lasting connections between India and other nations.

Furthermore, Indias thriving cinema industry, particularly Bollywood, significantly contributes to its soft power, with its captivating storytelling, music, and dance sequences resonating with a diverse international audience. Its promotion of yoga and spiritual practices has also gained global recognition, making it a prominent element of its soft power diplomacy.

While India faces challenges in equaling Chinas influence, its commitment to global peace and stability remains unwavering, underscoring its pivotal role in international affairs. Therefore, it is essential that, before hurrying to pick a side in a geopolitical conflict, one considers the national interests in the long run.

The author takes special interest in history, culture and geopolitics. He is a proponent of religious reform and identifies himself as an Indic Muslim exploring Vedic knowledge and cultural heritage through music. When he is not writing columns, he enjoys playing drums and performing raps. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18s views.
The elections of five states  Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram  are round the corner. Of these, unfortunately, the Northeast state of Mizoram, which has only one Lok Sabha seat, has been receiving the least attention. The state has 40 assembly constituencies. It will go to the polls on November 7.

Regional parties have always been a strong force in this Northeast state, where the first assembly elections of 1972 were won by the Mizo Union and the second and third assembly elections of 1978 and 1979 respectively by the Mizoram Peoples Conference. In this state, since 1989, the incumbent government has been changing after two successive terms with the power oscillating between the Congress, which ruled for 23 years non-continuous, and the Mizo National Front, the current ruling party of the state, although there have been other significant players too who contested elections either in alliance with the Congress or the MNF or separately.

A three-cornered fight

This time too, the state elections are going to be a three-cornered fight among the MNF, Zoram Peoples Movement, and the Congress. The three parties are contesting all the 40 seats. The Bharatiya Janata Party, contesting 23 seats, is also in the fray as a fourth player with a focus on parts of South and North regions of the state, where ethnic minorities  Chakmas, Maras and Brus  have an influence.

This time, the elections are different from the past ones as the fight is mainly between the MNF and ZPM with the Congress relegated to third place. The binary politics between the MNF and the Congress was broken by the Lalduhoma-led ZPM in the last elections, where it surprised everyone by emerging as the main Opposition party by winning 8 seats.

The Importance of Lunglei Municipal Results

Lalduhoma is a senior politician with stints in many political parties including the Congress, MPC, MNF, MNF (Nationalist) and Zoram Nationalist Party. Lalduhomas hopes of becoming chief minister were bolstered after his party, ZPM, registered a stunning performance this year in the Lunglei Municipal Council polls held in April. It swept all the 11 seats with a vote percentage of 49.31 per cent while the ruling MNF, which secured 29.4 per cent votes, failed to even open its account.

The Lunglei Municipal Council falls under the Lunglei district, which is in the South region. In the last elections, of the eight seats won by ZPM, six were from the Aizawl region while two were from the North region. It failed to win a seat from the South region, which has 12 seats. The victory of ZPM in the LMC elections showed the expansion of the party in the South and also the rising anti-incumbency against the Chief Minister Zoramthanga-led MNF government. Significantly, four assembly seats coming under the LMC area  Lunglei East, Lunglei West, Lunglei North and Lunglei South  were won by the MNF in the last elections. Thats the reason ZPM sweeping the LMC elections became a talking point in the state political circles.

MNF banks on Zo refugee issue to battle anti-incumbency

However, the states politics has changed since then as a result of ethnic clashes that broke out between Meiteis and Kuki-Zomis in the neighbouring state of Manipur in May. More than 12,000 Kuki-Zomi people from Manipur have taken shelter as refugees in Mizoram, which already shelters over 40,000 Chin-Kuki refugees from Myanmar and Bangladesh. It has to be mentioned that Chin-Kuki-Zomi people of Myanmar, Bangladesh and Manipur share an ethnic bond with Mizos of Mizoram and all these tribes are collectively termed as Zo.

This refugee issue has become an important point in the states politics allowing the ruling MNF, battling anti-incumbency, to rake up the cause of Mizo nationalism by bringing into the limelight the old issue of Greater Mizoram, which seeks to unite all areas inhabited by the Zo tribes. The state government, recently, even refused to collect the biometric data of refugees from Myanmar going against the wishes of the Centre. This is to send a message to the people of the state that the interests of Mizos and the Zo family remain a top priority of the party, despite being a constituent of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.

With rising unemployment and the condition of roads and other infrastructure remaining poor in the state, MNFs strategy to shift the election towards the cause of Mizo nationalism by utilising Manipur issue  where the Opposition parties like ZPM, Congress and even BJP have expressed solidarity with the Kuki-Zomis  will be beneficial for the ruling party to what extent remains a critical question.

It, however, is also banking on its Socio-Economic Development Policy, providing direct monetary assistance to 60,000 families to battle anti-incumbency. The party has also allied with the Hmar Peoples Convention (Reformation) with an eye on the three Hmar-dominated seats  Tuivawl, Serlui and Chalfilh  to counter ZPM, which has allied with the Hmar Peoples Convention led by President Rohringa.

Rural areas weak link for ZPM?

On the other hand, the ZPMs election campaign is based on addressing various developmental challenges and also addressing the upliftment of farmers with a focus on the rural votes as the party is relatively weak in rural areas. Last time, of the eight seats it won, only the Tuirial constituency was the rural seat.

It has to be mentioned that there are 19 rural constituencies in the state. For a party to come to power, it has to win as many seats as possible. In the 2013 elections, MNF won only one rural constituency  the Tuikum seat. But in the last elections, it won 12 rural seats, of these, 11 were won by the Congress in the 2013 elections. This shows that MNFs outstanding performance in the rural areas was also a major factor behind its return to power after ten years in the last elections.

Making things difficult for the ZPM in the rural areas is the Congress, which remains an important player. It has to be mentioned that the five constituencies won by the Congress last time were all rural seats.

Congress votes to be the kingmaker

Its an open secret that any division of anti-MNF votes between ZPM and Congress is likely to only help the MNF. After the two-day visit of Rahul Gandhi, the Congress, which is relegated to third place, has got oxygen in the Northeast state. This time, the party is contesting the elections by allying with ZNP and the Peoples Conference Party, although both these parties currently are less influential in the state.

The MNF has a vote bank of around 30 per cent in the state. The handling of the Zo refugees by the MNF government has boosted its chances among voters. As ZPM, which got around 22 per cent votes in the last election, is an emerging party, the votes of Congress, which despite getting five seats last time secured 29.98 per cent votes, are likely to play a crucial role in deciding the next government. After all, for the ZPM to win the elections, it has to cut into the Congress votes as much as possible.

Sagarneel Sinha is a political commentator and tweets @SagarneelSinha. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18s views.
Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena on Friday approved a proposal of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to terminate the services of all civil defence volunteers with effect from November 1, with AAP government sources saying they will approach the Supreme Court if this happens, setting off a fresh tussle between the two sides. The lieutenant governor also directed the chief minister to consider recruiting the volunteers to be terminated as home guards.

The development came hours after the CM asked Delhi home minister Kailash Gahlot to appoint the civil defence volunteers as home guards and depute them as bus marshals. Approving the proposal to end the CDVs illegal recruitment and deployment, Saxena has raised serious livelihood concerns and directed the CM that the CDVs who lose their job in the process should be considered for appointment as home guards, about 10,000 positions of whom, the L-G has approved recently, an official at L-G Secretariat said.

The L-G has also flagged the issue of the CDVs not getting their salary for the past six to seven months and expressed dissatisfaction over the fact the relevant file was sent to him even though the minister concerned and the CM were fully competent to take a decision on it on their own, he added. Amid a tussle between the L-G office and the Delhi government, hundreds of civil defence volunteers started an indefinite sit-in protest outside the Delhi Secretariat to demand their unpaid dues.

Following the development, AAP government sources said they will approach the apex court. If Delhi L-G terminates the services of civil defence volunteers, we will approach the Supreme Court. Some of these volunteers are deployed as bus marshals, who play a crucial role in ensuring womens safety on buses. We will not compromise on womens safety, said a government source.

L-G office sources, meanwhile, accused the AAP government sources of spreading lies and sharing misleading information. The proposal to terminate civil defence volunteers was sent to L-G office by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, which was only approved by the Lt Governor. Will Delhi government go to Supreme Court against the chief minister? an L-G office source said.

The L-G office sources said the proposal to terminate the services of civil defence volunteers was received on October 20. However, the government source claimed no such proposal was sent to the L-G office by the CMO.

Earlier in the day, Kejriwal asked the Delhi home minister to appoint civil defence volunteers as home guards and depute them as marshals in public transport buses, officials said. In a note, the CMO said legal objection has been raised about the continuation of civil defence volunteers as bus marshals.

It has been said civil defence volunteers cannot be engaged in regular duties and that they can be called only during any disaster. Therefore, it has been suggested that home guards be appointed as bus marshals instead of civil defence volunteers, said the note.

I have separately proposed to LG that civil defence volunteers should be continued as bus marshals till adequate number of home guards are appointed in their place. If the bus marshals are suddenly removed, it will not be good for the safety of women travellers, the CM said, according to the note.

Since the existing civil defence volunteers who are working as bus marshals have the required experience, a plan should be developed to appoint them only as home guards and continue them as bus marshals, unless there is any specific complaint against any individual.

So, if we appoint the same set of people as home guards and put them on bus marshal duty, one one hand the government will get experienced people and on the other hand their jobs will continue, the note stated.
Activist Manoj Jarange on Friday expressed disappointment at Prime Minister Narendra Modi not mentioning about the Maratha quota struggle during his visit to Maharashtra a day earlier.

PM Modi was in Shirdi in Ahmednagar district on Thursday, during which he inaugurated a devotees complex in the renowned Sai Baba Temple, the canal network of the Nilwande Dam and the Namo Shetkari Mahasanman Nidhi Yojana under which 86 lakh farmers of the state will get financial aid.

Jarange, who is on a hunger strike since October 25 seeking quota in jobs and education for the Maratha community, also criticised Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis for not raising the issue with the PM.

Addressing a press conference in Antarwali Sarati, Jarange said the Maratha community holds no grudges against Modi but it was disappointing that the prime minister did not prioritise their quota concerns.

The Maratha community had high hopes that the PM, CM and Deputy CM would address the reservation issue but these expectations were not met. Despite giving 10,000 items of evidence to the Sandeep Shinde committee (looking into the feasibility of giving Kunbi certificates to Marathas), the state government has failed to act, Jarange claimed. Incidentally, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray had on Thursday demanded PM Modi meet Jarange and resolve the issue of reservation for the community.

I welcome the prime minister, but he should meet Jarange and resolve the issue of granting reservation to the Maratha community, the former Maharashtra CM had said while speaking to reporters in Mumbai. Jarange began his second hunger strike on October 25, a day after his deadline to the state government to announce quota for the community ended.

His first hunger strike started on August 29 and it hit national headlines after Jalna police took action against activists at the stir site on September 1, leaving several persons injured.

Jarange ended his hunger strike on September 14 after Chief Minister Shinde met him in Antarwali Sarati and assured that his government would take all efforts to give quota in jobs and education to the Maratha community.
Activist Manoj Jarange, whose indefinite fast over the Maratha quota issue entered the third day on Friday, said the Maharashtra government can convene a special one-day session of the state legislature to grant reservation to the community.

He also said that if extension has been given to the committee appointed to devise ways to provide reservation to Marathas, then the Maharashtra government is conspiring not to grant quota to the community. Jarange was addressing a press conference at his native Antarwali Sarati village in Jalna district, where he is observing his hunger strike.

We had given the government 40 days and presented necessary evidence to prove our stand on the Maratha quota. If they have given an extension to the committee working on this issue, it is a conspiracy for not giving reservation to Marathas, he said.

The 40-year-old activist appealed to leaders of the ruling and opposition parties to stay in their homes and not to enter villages.

If the leaders are not giving us reservation and entering our villages, they are coming there to disturb the law and order situation. They should instead go to the legislative assembly and raise their voice for the Maratha reservation. The government can call a one-day assembly session and grant reservation, Jarange said.

People in villages should peacefully stop leaders from visiting, he said, urging people not to commit suicide and keep fighting till reservation is granted.

Taking a dig at Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and the deputy chief ministers on their visit to Delhi, the activist questioned why the heads of the state had not apprised Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the quota agitation in Maharashtra.

Jarange had observed a hunger strike in the same village in September demanding that the Maratha community be granted reservation in government jobs and education under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category.

The protest, which began on August 29, was called off on September 14 after CM Shinde held talks with him. At that time, the activist had set a 40-day deadline (October 24) before the government for the grant of quota.

Another two to three phases of our agitation are remaining. We will wait for the next two days and decide the further course of action on October 29, the activist said.

The state government has formed a five-member panel headed by judge Sandeep Shinde (retired) to determine the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), including legal and administrative framework, for giving caste certificates to members of the Maratha community referred to as Kunbis in the Nizam-era documents.

Kunbis (the community associated with agriculture) are grouped under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category in Maharashtra. The Maratha community, led by Jarange, has been demanding the issuance of Kunbi certificates to Marathas, enabling them to get inclusion in the OBC category for reservation.
After one and a half months, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee spoke to the media, on a day when raids by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) were conducted at the residence of one of her ministers in an alleged ration distribution corruption case, while the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee carried out a hearing on the cash-for-query case against Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra.

Mamata Banerjee attacked the Centre, saying if something happens to minister Jyoti Priya Mallick, then she would initiate an FIR against the central agency as well as the BJP. Mallick is not keeping well. He has high sugar levels. If he dies, we would lodge an FIR against the BJP and the ED. Earlier TMC MP Sultan Ahmed had suffered a cardiac arrest and died after being summoned by the CBI. The wife of TMC MP Prasun Banerjee also died. This is limitless harassment. The people will give a reply, she said.

Mallick was arrested by the ED late at night. He termed the whole matter a conspiracy against him.

Banerjee also hit out at the authorities for not inscribing the name of Rabindranath Tagore on the plaques of UNESCO World Heritage Site at Visva-Bharati University in Santiniketan and warned of widespread demonstrations there if those were not replaced by Friday morning.

It is only for Tagore that Santiniketan got the UNESCO tag and you have removed his name from the plaques. We were silent because of the Durga Puja celebrations. If you do not remove the plaques and put up new ones with the Nobel Laureates name by 10 am tomorrow, our people will launch a demonstration holding Kobigurus photos to their chests, she said.

A controversy erupted after the university authorities put up marble plaques bearing the names of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is also the chancellor of the varsity, and vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty, but did not have any mention of Tagore.

While the TMC chairperson was clearly in a combative mood, observers pointed out that although she openly backed her minister Jyoti Priya Mallick, she did not say a word about Mahua Moitras situation.

Sources say that the party is keeping a close watch on the proceedings of the Ethics Committee and everyone has been told not to give any reaction on the matter.

They added that the TMC asked for a clarification from Mahua and she gave it.

According to analysts, this indicates that Mahua may have to fight her battle on her own as the party may not openly support her. She has been asked to appear before the Ethics Committee on October 31.

Observers said that the TMC does not usually take any action against one of its leaders facing charges from agencies until some evidence comes out in the open, like visuals of cash recovered from now-suspended minister and leader Partha Chatterjees properties.

Trinamool sources, however, said that Mamata spoke to the media as a chief minister and not a party leader. That is why she raised the issue of her minister Mallick and not the matter related to Mahua Moitra and the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee, they added.

Speaking to News18, BJPs Bengal president Sukanta Majumdar said, Jyoti Priya Mallicks scam is big and a lot of other members of Kalighat (the locality in Kolkata where Mamata Banerjee lives) might get affected. Thats why she came out and spoke. On the other hand, Mahua has done it in a personal capacity. The party, therefore, is not with her and there is a chance that she may not get a ticket.
Bengal Minister Jyotipriyo Mallick was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with an alleged case of corruption in rationing distribution early Friday morning.

Meanwhile, Kolkata is decked up for the grand gala pujo carnival today, where over 100 Durga idols will be paraded, following which, they will be immersed. The program is scheduled to begin at 4:00 pm.

Over 30,000 foreigners came to Bengal to see Durga pujo after the celebration was accorded heritage status by UNESCO. Sources told CNN-News18 that UNESCO representatives as well as foreign dignitaries will also be present for this show.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said, The carnival is a big event and we are also doing it on district levels. On Friday, a lot of foreigners will be present. This time more than 30 thousand people from all over the world have come to see the carnival.

Bengal Minister Jyotipriyo Mallicks arrest by the ED comes on the day of the carnival. He will be taken to the CGO office later today.

Mallick was arrested following a full day of raids at his residence on Thursday in connection with the alleged ration scam.

Mamata Banerjee held a press conference where she alleged that her ministers are being heckled by the central agencies. Mamata is said to attend this carnival after a break of one and a half months as she got hurt in her leg.

Jyotipriyo is diabetic, if something happens to him then we will have to file an FIR against the central agency and BJP, she said.

The chief minister on Thursday claimed that the raids at the TMC ministers house at the time of the pujo were clearly a political vendetta.

Ration Corruption

During the COVID-19 time, allegations were made that there has been huge corruption in the distribution of rations in the state.

An FIR was initiated in 2022 by ED in connection with the case and then on October 14, 2023, one businessman Bakibur Raheman was arrested. He was a close aide of the minister.

Sources in ED say that this Raheman owns crores of property. After Bakiburs arrest, ED on Thursday raided 9 places altogether.

BJP State President Sukanto Majumdar has told CNN-News18 This ED action was expected as this is a huge scam ration scam. This has nothing to do with politics. Its a difficult day for TMC on Friday how they handle it is to be seen.
The stage was set at the Manekshaw Centre Delhi bustling with top defence officials, military historians, international defence experts, academicians, authors, bureaucrats and students. They all were there to take part in the inaugural Indian Military Heritage Festival, a flagship program organised by the United Service Institution of India in association with the Indian armed forces.

The two-day bespoke program was held on 2122 October and graced by the Raksha Mantri, Shri Rajnath Singh, Chief of the Air Staff, Chief of the Army Staff  General Manoj Pande, PVSM, AVSM, VSM, ADC, Air Chief Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari PVSM, AVSM, VM, ADC, Vice Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral Sanjay Jasjit Singh, , , AVSM, NM, Lt General J.P. Mathew UISM, AVSM, VSM, CISC and President of USI Council, and Director General of USI Maj Gen B.K. Sharma AVSM, SM and Bar (Retd).

The second day of the festival also hosted the Chief of Defence Staff, General Anil Chauhan, PVSM, UYSM, AVSM, SM, VSM as the Chief Guest. As the distinguished officials converged on the venue for this special occasion, the festival focused on Indias rich military heritage. Panel discussions were held on a wide range of topics including contemporary issues like security, strategy and geo-politics as well as the success of Atmanirbhar Bharat in the defence sector.

Unveiling the Udbhav Project: A Journey to Our Military Roots

The Raksha Mantri digitally launched Project Udbhav, a collaborative effort between the Indian Army and the United Service Institution of India (USI) during the Indian Military Heritage Festival. Udbhav, which translates to origin or genesis, is an ambitious undertaking to revisit the roots of Indian military thought and statecraft. This project seeks to contextualise the enduring nature of war as well as its changing character, within an Indian context using indigenous texts and through the study of indigenous military systems.

The primary objective of the Udbhav project is to synthesise ancient wisdom with contemporary military pedagogy, creating a unique and holistic approach to address modern security challenges.

Indian Knowledge Systems: A Treasure Trove of Wisdom

The Indian Military Heritage Festival was an occasion to celebrate Indian knowledge systems visible in the extensive collection of manuscripts and schools of thought across various knowledge domains. Speakers at the festival emphasised that policymakers and thinkers of modern India must explore the relevance and applicability of ancient texts like the Arthashastra" its alignment with current military practices, international co-operation and soft power projection. It is worth noting that the teachings of Chanakya, the author of the Arthashastra," are imparted at the US War College in Pennsylvania, emphasising the global significance of these ancient principles.

Speakers at the festival reverberated that the ancient Indian scriptures hold knowledge that transcends time and should be intermeshed with policymaking in the 21st century.

Self-Reliance and an Atmanirbhar Bharat

At the Indian Military Heritage Festival, Sh. Amitabh Kant, G 20 Sherpa, author of Made In India: 75 years of Business & Enterprise emphasised the integration of Atmanirbhar Bharat into the military domains. He called for private sector investment in research and development, particularly in sunrise industries such as battery and electric manufacturing, high-tech, and deep-tech manufacturing. He underscored the need to establish manufacturing units where consumption is prevalent. Sh. Kant further proposed that universities should morph into incubators of innovation and the private sector must collaborate with universities, fostering research and commercialising innovative ideas.

On Day One of the festival, sessions also delved deep to into the operations of the Territorial Army (TA) and the critical role of the TA in Indias defence system. The festival was also a perfect platform to listen to the courageous tales of legendary warriors with authors and writers bringing their untold stories of grit and valour to the audience.

Conclusion

The Indian Military Heritage Festival, with its centrepiece, the Udbhav Project, is a testament to Indias commitment to preserving its rich military traditions, fostering self-reliance in defence, and showcasing the wisdom of ancient Indian knowledge systems. This festival paid homage to Indias historical military achievements and paved the way to blend heritage with modern military practices.

As India celebrates her military heritage, we invite you to witness the extraordinary journey of rediscovering Indian military roots and better understand the vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat at

This is a partnered post.
PM Narendra Modi has inaugurated the India Mobile Congress 2023 on Friday which will showcase startups and the Indian government working on future solutions for the tech and telecom industry.

The three day congress will highlight technologies such as 5G, 6G, Artificial intelligence (AI) and discuss issues pertaining to semiconductor industry, green technology, cybersecurity etc. He also took the stage to virtually inaugurate 100 5G labs at the IMC 2023. These have been selected to push more 5G use cases, including drones, 5G network upgradation and aid in developing new applications for the public. These labs are spread across Delhi, Bihar, Assam, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Punjab, Rajasthan, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal among others.

Highlights

Reliance Jio Launches Jio SpaceFiber- Indias First Satellite-based GigaFiber Internet Service

We Will Build A Digital Statue Of Unity, Reliance Jio Chairman Akash Ambani At IMC 2023

PM Modi Unveils 100 5G Use Case Labs Across Education Institutes In India At IMC 2023

Jio SpaceFiber: What Is It, How It Works, And All Details | Explained

After 2014, People Stopped Using Outdated Tech, PM Modi At IMC 2023

Looking at the advancement of technology in India, I can easily say, the future is here and now. After going through all the demos of 6G, AI, cybersecurity, drone or space sector, the coming years are going to be different, PM Modi said during his keynote speech at the IMC 2023.

Within one year of 5G launch in India, there are 4 lakh 5G stations in the country. With these, 80 percent of the countrys population is being covered. We are heading in the direction to become a global leader in 6G as well, PM Modi adds.

Telcos like Jio, Airtel and Vodafone Idea (Vi) will be showcasing their new 5G use cases, demo their applications and services that could be available for the consumers in the next few years. PM Modi visits the Reliance Jio corner, where Akash Ambani walks PM Modi through the new products and solutions that the company has displayed at the IMC 2023. He also takes a look at the new technology on display from Airtel and Ericsson at the event this year.

PM Modi has kept a clear focus on the telecom industry in the last 8 years. India is known for its fastest 5G rollout in the world, exporting telecom technology throughout the world. Today, it is time for 5G and soon India will have 6G and the standards for the technology have been laid out, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister, Information Technology said during the IMC 2023 keynote event.

He also pointed out that PM Modi will inaugurate 100 5G Labs today. India had exported cellphones worth Rs. 90,000 crore in the last year. 10 years ago, it took an average 230 days to install mobile towers, now it is done in days. We are developing technology to lead in 6g services, Vaishnaw adds.

Akash Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Jio shares, Jio has contributed to 85 percent of 5G activations in the country. We offer the fastest 5G speeds in the world. We have fortified our services with products like JioFiber and Jio AirFiber. India now has over 125 million 5G users.

Airtel is equally invested in setting up 5G stations and network across the country and Sunil Bharti Mittal says the telco is now available in over 20,000 cities with its 5G services. He also announced the companys plans to focus on the satellite communication sector with its Bharti network catering to remote areas.

This year, IMC is introducing a startup program  Aspire. It will foster connections between startups, investors, and established businesses with an aim to catalyse fresh entrepreneurial initiatives and collaborations.

IMC 2023 will be attended by over one lakh participants from about 22 countries including about 5000 CEO level delegates, 230 exhibitors, 400 startups, and other stakeholders. Well continue to track the developments from the event, and also hear what PM Modi has to share about the countrys digital growth.
Tata Group will start making Apple iPhones in India to be exported to global markets across the world within a span of two and a half years.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Indias Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modis PLI scheme and said, within just two and a half years, Tata Companies will now start making iPhones from India for domestic and global markets.

Congratulations to the Tata team for taking over Wistron operations, he added.

PM @narendramodi Jis visionary PLI scheme has already propelled India into becoming a trusted & major hub for smartphone manufacturing and exports.Now within just two and a half years, @TataCompanies will now start making iPhones from India for domestic and global markets from pic.twitter.com/kLryhY7pvL  Rajeev Chandrasekhar (@Rajeev_GoI) October 27, 2023

In addition, Chandrasekhar assured that the Indian government stands fully in support of the growth of Global Indian Electronics companies that will, in turn, support global Electronic brands that want to make India their trusted manufacturing and talent partner, and to realize PMs goal of making India a global electronics power.

Notably, the news of Tata acquiring Wistrons operations in India first broke last year. And lines up with Apples goal of moving about 18 per cent of its global iPhone production to India by 2025.

Bloomberg, in July, had also reported that this move would add momentum to Apples efforts to diversify its product base beyond China and build up technology manufacturing in India, as tensions between Washington, D.C., and Beijing rise.

On that note, Assembled in India iPhones with 15 models were available in India right at launch last September. These models, made by Foxconn at its Tamil Nadu facility, are being exported to various regions across the globe.

Apple has also been focusing a lot more on the Indian market, and now, there are two official Apple stores in the country as wellApple BKC in Mumbai and Apple Saket in New Delhi.

Apple CEO Tim Cook also had significant things to say about the Indian market. India is an incredibly exciting market. Its a major focus for us. I was just there, and the dynamism in the market, the vibrancy is unbelievable, Cook said in May.
Chinas former Premier Li Keqiang has died after suffering a heart attack, state media reported Friday. He was 68 years old. Li, who served as premier during President Xi Jinpings first two five-year terms, had a sudden heart attack on Thursday and passed away in the early hours of Friday in Shanghai.

Li, a career bureaucrat who spoke fluent English, was considered a contender to succeed then-Communist Party leader Hu Jintao in 2013 but was passed over in favor of Xi. He had voiced support for economic reforms during his time in office. However, his attempts at financial reforms were curtailed by Xis overwhelming authority.

Li Keqiang, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the 17th, 18th and 19th Communist Party of China central committees and former premier, passed away on Friday in Shanghai https://t.co/YkY3hAvPWl pic.twitter.com/0PSHJDMHBB China Xinhua News (@XHNews) October 27, 2023

Steered through financial crisis

He was praised for helping to steer the country through the global financial crisis relatively unscathed. The appointment of Xi ally Li Qiang as his successor this year was seen as a sign that his reformist agenda had fallen by the wayside as Beijing tightens its grip over its slowing economy. Reversing the Hu eras consensus-oriented leadership, Xi centralized powers in his own hands, leaving Li and others on the partys ruling seven-member Standing Committee with little influence.

As the top economic official, Li promised to improve conditions for entrepreneurs who generate jobs and wealth. But the ruling party under Xi increased the dominance of state industry and tightened control over tech and other industries. Foreign companies said they felt unwelcome after Xi and other leaders called for economic self-reliance, expanded an anti-spying law and raided offices of consulting firms.

Li was dropped from the Standing Committee at a party congress in October 2022 despite being two years below the informal retirement age of 70. Xi filled the top party ranks with loyalists, ending the era of consensus leadership and possibly making himself leader for life. The No. 2 slot was filled by Li Qiang, the party secretary for Shanghai, who lacked Li Keqiangs national-level experience and later told reporters that his job was to do whatever Xi decided.

Li Keqiang, a former vice premier, took office in 2013 as the ruling party faced growing warnings the construction and export booms that propelled the previous decades double-digit growth were running out of steam. Government advisers argued Beijing had to promote growth based on domestic consumption and service industries. That would require opening more state-dominated industries and forcing state banks to lend more to entrepreneurs.

Candidate for Xiaoping-style reforms

In a 2010 speech, Li acknowledged challenges including too much reliance on investment to drive economic growth, weak consumer spending and a wealth gap between prosperous eastern cities and the poor countryside, home to 800 million people. Li was seen as a possible candidate to revive then-supreme leader Deng Xiaopings market-oriented reforms of the 1980s that started Chinas boom. But he was known for an easygoing style, not the hard-driving impatience of Zhu Rongji, the premier in 1998-2003 who ignited the construction and export booms by forcing painful reforms that cut millions of jobs from state industry.

In his first annual policy address, Li in 2014 was praised for promising to pursue market-oriented reform, cut government waste, clean up air pollution and root out pervasive corruption that was undermining public faith in the ruling party. Xi took away Lis decision-making powers on economic matters by appointing himself to head a party commission overseeing reform.

Li showed his political skills but little zeal for reform as governor and later party secretary of populous Henan province in central China in 1998-2004. He earned the nickname Three Fires Li and a reputation for bad luck after three fatal fires struck Henan while he was there. A Christmas Day blaze at a nightclub in 2000 killed 309 people. Other officials were punished but Li emerged unscathed.

Chinas Covid Response

Li oversaw Chinas response to COVID-19, the first cases of which were detected in the central city of Wuhan. Then-unprecedented controls were imposed, shutting down most international travel for three years and access to major cities for weeks at a time. In one of his last major official acts, Li led a Cabinet meeting that announced Nov. 11, 2022, that anti-virus controls would be relaxed to reduce disruption after the economy shrank by 2.6% in the second quarter of the year. Two weeks later, the government announced most travel and business restrictions would end the following month.

Li was born July 1, 1955, in the eastern province of Anhui and by 1976 was ruling party secretary of a commune there. Studying law at Peking University, he was the campus secretary of the ruling partys Communist Youth League, an organization that launched the political careers of former party leaders Hu Jintao and Hu Yaobang. He was a member of the Leagues Standing Committee, a sign he was seen as future leadership material.

After serving in a series of party posts, Li received his Ph.D. in economics in 1994 from Peking University. Following Henan, Li served as party secretary for Liaoning province in the northeast as part of a rotation through provincial posts and at ministries in Beijing that was meant to prepare leaders. He joined the party Central Committee in 2007.

(With agency inputs)
About 900 more U.S. troops have arrived in the Middle East or are heading there to bolster air defenses for U.S. personnel amid a surge in attacks by Iran-affiliated groups, the Pentagon said on Thursday.

As tensions soar over the Israel-Hamas war, U.S. and coalition troops have been attacked at least 12 times in Iraq and four times in Syria in the last week, Pentagon spokesperson Brigadier General Patrick Ryder told reporters. A total of 21 U.S. forces have suffered minor injuries, the vast majority of them traumatic brain injuries.

The United States has sent warships and fighter aircraft to the region since the conflict erupted on Oct. 7, including two aircraft carriers, to try to deter Iran and Iran-backed groups. The number of troops added to the region is in the thousands.

Ryder said U.S. forces were again targeted earlier on Thursday in Iraq but the attack failed. Im not going to have more specific information to provide to you from here in terms of specific groups that have claimed responsibility (for attacking U.S. personnel), other than to say we know that these groups are affiliated with Iran, Ryder said.

Reuters reported this week the U.S. military was taking new measures to protect its Middle East forces during the ramp-up in attacks by suspected Iran-backed groups, and was leaving open the possibility of evacuating military families if needed.

The measures include increasing U.S. military patrols, restricting access to base facilities and boosting intelligence collection, including through drone and other surveillance operations, officials say. The U.S. is also beefing up monitoring from guard towers on its military facilities, increasing security at base access points and increasing operations to counter potential incoming drones, rockets and missiles, the officials say.

The latest U.S. troop deployments are tied to U.S. plans to deploy a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system and Patriot missile batteries. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian told the United Nations on Thursday that if Israels retaliation against Palestinian Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip does not end, then the United States will not be spared from this fire.

Last week off the coast of Yemen, a U.S. warship shot down more than a dozen drones and four cruise missiles fired by Iranian-backed Houthis. The heightened tensions have put U.S. personnel on constant alert. During a false alarm at Al-Asad air base in Iraq on Thursday, a civilian contractor died from cardiac arrest.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said Friday the death toll given by the health ministry in Gaza had proved to be credible in previous conflicts after Washington raised doubts about figures from the current war. In the past, the five, six cycles of conflict in the Gaza Strip, these figures were considered as credible and no one ever really challenged these figures, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told reporters in Jerusalem. The fatalities in Gaza are the highest since Israel withdrew from the Palestinian territory in 2005. Lazzarini said 57 UNRWA staff had been killed since the conflict began, explaining how the agencys toll reflected the broader casualty rate in Gaza. He suggested the ratio of UNRWA staff killed to the total number of agency workers was in line with the ratio of Gazans killed to the territorys overall population, as provided by the health ministry. We have more or less the same percentage, he said. AFP
Tensions have continued to escalate as the Israeli Army said on Friday that it had intensified its strikes on the Gaza strip in a very significant way. Meanwhile, Palestine-based militant group Hamas has called on the world to act immediately to stop Tel Avivs bombardment of Gaza.

This comes hours after the countrys Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said that the IDF will soon conduct a long and difficult ground offensive into Gaza to destroy a vast network of tunnels used by the territorys Hamas rulers.

The IDF also accused Hamas of using hospitals in the Gaza Strip as operational centres for directing attacks against Israel as it conducted another ground raid on Friday in Gaza in advance of an expected invasion of the Hamas-ruled territory.

Israel-Hamas War: Hamas Rocket Falls on Tel Aviv; Palestine Says 1,650 Gazans Still Under Rubble

Meanwhile, the United Nations warned that many more will die as a result of Israels ongoing siege of Gaza.

Here are the major updates on the Israel-Hamas war today:
OZARK-Dale County joined county governments statewide celebrating an inaugural Alabama Cooperative Extension Week declared by Gov. Kay Ivey, who proclaimed the week ending Saturday in recognition of the services offered by the partnership of Auburn University, Alabama A&M University, and Tuskegee University.

Alabama Cooperative Extension Services have brick-and-mortar offices in each of the 67 counties in the state and in Dale County the extension service is housed in the government building next to the Dale County Commission meeting room.

Tuesday Dale County Extension Service Coordinator Melissa Voynich joined Dale County Commissioners for a proclamation signing recognizing the services the office provides in health and nutrition, community development, the flagship 4H youth program and other sectors in the agriculture industry.

The agriculture, forestry, and wildlife regional Alabama Extension agents and specialists work year-round to support Alabamas farmers and landowners through the delivery of research-based information to improve producer management decisions while increasing profitability, said Dale County Commission Chairman Steve McKinnon.

Voynich thanked the commissioners for the assistance they provide including office space and much-needed appropriations. Some of those appropriations go toward supporting our 4H staff and without that appropriation, we would not be able to serve 700 kids each year, she said.
Maldives has started talks with India to remove its military presence, President-elect Mohamed Muizzu said in an interview published by Bloomberg News on Friday. The issue of removing Indian troops from the Maldives was a key campaign promise made by Muizzu, who recently defeated former President Ibrahim Solih in the elections.

Around 70 Indian military personnel are currently stationed in the Maldives, overseeing radar stations and surveillance aircraft sponsored by New Delhi. Adding to that, Indian warships play a role in patrolling the Maldives exclusive economic zone.

Muizzu said in the interview he had already begun negotiations with the Indian government on removing its military presence, calling those talks very successful already. We want a bilateral relationship thats mutually beneficial, Muizzu told Bloomberg, adding that Indian soldiers would not be replaced by troops from other countries.

Asking India to remove military personnel in no way indicated that Im going to allow China or any other country to bring their military troops here, he said. Muizzus win extends the tug-of-war between China and India for influence over the Indian Ocean.

Successive governments have tilted either toward India or China. Both Asian powerhouses have invested heavily in upgrading Maldives infrastructure and extended loans, as they compete with each other.

(With agency inputs)
The United Nations warned Friday that many more will die as a result of Israels ongoing siege of Gaza, which has also caused sewage to flow on the streets of the Palestinian territory. Israel laid a total siege on Gaza following the October 7 attacks by Hamas, cutting off food, fuel, water and power supplies to the territory.

As we speak people in Gaza are dying, they are not only dying from bombs and strikes, soon many more will die from the consequences of (the) siege imposed on the Gaza Strip, said Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA). Basic services are crumbling, medicine is running out, food and water are running out, the streets of Gaza have started overflowing with sewage.

Lazzarini called for more aid to be immediately allowed into Gaza during a press conference in Jerusalem. The current system in place is geared to fail. What is needed is meaningful and uninterrupted aid flow. And to succeed, we need a humanitarian ceasefire to ensure this aid reaches those in need, Lazzarini said.

Limited convoys of aid have entered through Gazas Rafah crossing with Egypt, but the UNRWA chief noted that they have not included fuel, which is vital to keep critical services running.

 Drastically limited fuel use 

What needs more support? Bakeries, water stations, life support machines in a hospital  all this needs fuel to function, he said. As far as UNRWA is concerned, we have fuel for today, said Lazzarini. The agency has drastically limited its fuel consumption, he said, and normally needs 160,000 litres per day for its operations.

Israel has said it will not allow fuel to enter Gaza, arguing it could reach Hamass armed wing. Lazzarini dismissed the claim that aid convoys could be diverted. Let me be clear: we have solid monitoring mechanisms UNRWA does not and will not divert any humanitarian aid into the wrong hands, he said.

Alongside the siege, Israel has bombarded Gaza with air and artillery strikes since October 7. At least 7,028 people have been killed in Gaza, mostly civilians including 2,913 children, according to figures released by the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

The strikes have come in response to attacks by Hamas gunmen, who poured into Israel and killed around 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped 224 more, according to Israeli officials.

Lazzarini said 57 UNRWA staff have been killed in Gaza during the war, describing them as wonderful people who have just dedicated their lives to their communities. Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005 and later imposed a crippling blockade on the territory that was intensified as Hamas took hold of the territory in 2007.
El Salvador is now charging a fee of $1,000 from passengers belonging to India or any one of the more than 50 African countries. The port authority on October 20 said people travelling from these countries will be obliged to pay the fee, which is a bid to curb migration to the US via the Central American country.

While El Salvador allows Indians visa-free travel for 90 days, passengers will now have to pay an additional $1,000, which is INR 83,249. If value added tax is added to this amount, passengers from India and Africa will then have to pay $1,130 (Rs 94,067.42).

According to a report published by Bloomberg, the new fee took effect from October 23 and was imposed due to increased use of El Salvadors main international airport. The report said the money collected will be used to improve this airport.

The countrys president, Nayib Bukele, met Brian Nichols, US assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, this week to discuss efforts to address irregular migration among other topics. El Salvador is a much preferred route for migrants from Africa and other countries to make it to the US via Central America.

Had an excellent meeting with @nayibbukele. We discussed El Salvadors support for the international mission in Haiti, efforts to promote foreign direct investment in El Salvador, bilateral cooperation on rule of law, and mutual efforts to address irregular migration. -BAN pic.twitter.com/cLcCOHYlAT Brian A. Nichols (@WHAAsstSecty) October 26, 2023

Bloomberg said US Customs and Border Patrol encountered a record 3.2 million migrants across the country in the 2023 fiscal, which ended in September. Airlines will have to notify Salvadoran authorities about the number of passengers entering the country on a daily basis from India and a list of 57 African countries.
A recent report by a British tabloid threatens to upend the UK Royal Family, revealing the root cause of the strained ties between King Charles and Harry-Meghan duo. A new expose by Byline Times suggests that a royal rift may have been sparked by an alleged cash for leaks scheme. The report suggests that the Royal Family may have benefited from the dissemination of derogatory stories about Harrys wife Meghan Markle.

The anonymous source cited in the British newspaper indicates that King Charles had concerns over Prince Harry and Meghan potentially overshadowing him and the rest of the royal family in the media landscape. The source is quoted as saying, The undeniable truth is that Harry and Meghan generate far more attention than King Charles, Camilla, William, and Kate. The idea of them continuing to be in public service, yet residing abroad beyond the institutions control and dominating the media narrative, was untenable.

Two Alleged Choices

The report also suggests that King Charles had two distinct choices: allowing the Sussexes to maintain a lower profile in the UK or distancing them from the family to minimize the risk of their media presence surpassing the rest of the royals. The report further claims that Charles was displeased with Prince Harrys legal actions against tabloid publications, actions that could potentially expose the palaces interactions with the press.

A startling revelation in the report asserts that King Charles withdrew 700,000 in funding from Meghan and Harry and encouraged them to embark on a trial year in Canada. This move followed a bombshell royal cash-for-leaks scandal ignited by journalist Dan Wootton. Byline Times also alleges that a close associate of a key aide to Prince William received 4,000 from UK-based The Sun in exchange for stories related to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

Money Linked to Megxit narrative

According to the report, these allegations came to light through anonymous emails purportedly sent by administrative personnel within Rupert Murdochs media empire. These emails reveal transactions linked to stories about Archies nannying arrangements and the momentous Megxit narrative that unfolded in January 2020.

Londons Metropolitan Police launched a probe into the leak allegations but encountered significant obstacles in securing a warrant to search royal staff properties due to the lack of whistleblower identities. This prompted Prince Harry to issue formal letters before action to News UK, outlining the allegations against Wootton and the palaces involvement. The Royal Family was evidently uncomfortable with Harry taking legal action against the tabloids.

As per the report, the British Royals at first anticipated that the threat of exposure would compel Harry and Meghan to return to the UK, ensuring a more controlled public image that would not overshadow the future King. However, the financial cut-off and subsequent legal standoff exacerbated the fractures within the Royal Family. This report seems to corroborate what the Duke and Duchess of Sussex revealed in their Netflix docuseries and Prince Harrys book, The Spare, asserting that they were targeted by both the royal family and the media.
In a shocking allegation, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby has claimed that the Russian military is executing soldiers who disobey orders during the conflict in Ukraine. Kirby, in a Thursday press briefing, said that Russia continues to demonstrate no regard for the lives of its soldiers, as its mobilized forces are inadequately trained, ill-equipped, and unprepared for combat.

We have information that the Russian military has been actually executing soldiers who refuse to follow orders. We also have information that Russian commanders are threatening to execute entire units if they seek to retreat from Ukrainian artillery fire, Kirby said.

As was the case during their failed winter offensive last year, Russian military appears to be using what we would call human wave tactics  just throwing masses of these poorly trained soldiers right into the fight, no proper equipment, no leadership, no resourcing, no support, he added. The Kremlin or Russian military is yet to respond to these allegations.

Kirby added that this alleged move is a symptom of how poorly Russia is doing against Ukraine and how significant its losses have been. But he warned that Russia still maintains offensive capabilities and may be able to achieve tactical gains in the coming months.

Its reprehensible to think about that you would execute your own soldiers because they didnt want to follow orders and now threatening to execute entire units, its barbaric. But I think its a symptom of how poorly Russias military leaders know theyre doing and how bad they have handled this from a military perspective, he said.

From the very beginning, weve been talking about poor command and control, poor logistics and sustainment. They cant feed their guys in the field, for crying out loud. And now, again, theyre willing to shoot them for  not following orders, Kirby added.

The White House official also said the execution of soldiers points to what it described as desperation amid a crunch in military forces during the war. They are in such desperate need to make some kind of progress, particularly in the Donbas  that they are literally throwing young men into the fight who havent been properly trained, havent been properly equip, and certainly are not being properly led, he said.
A White House Commission has recommended issuing an employment authorisation card and other necessary travel documents at the preliminary stage of applying for a Green Card, a proposal if approved by the US president would come as a massive relief to thousands of foreign professionals, an overwhelming majority of whom are Indians.

A recommendation on this was approved by the White House Commission for Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Affairs on Thursday. A Green Card, known officially as a permanent resident card, is a document issued to immigrants allowing them to work and live permanently in the US.

Here is all you need to know:

There are multiple stages in applying for the Green Card, and it starts with employers filing I-140 petitions. The next important step is an adjustment of status called I-485, when you get current employment authorisation card, or EAD, and travel documents advance parole. These allow you to work for any employer till a Green Card application is processed, said Indian-American community leader Ajay Jain Bhutoria, who moved the AANHPI recommendation this week. The waiting period for being issued a Green Card to Indian Americans is running into decades as of now. So, this move will come as a massive relief if it gets the nod. According to the AANHPI recommendation moved by Bhutoria, the Department of Homeland Securitys US Citizenship and Immigration Services (DHS USCIS) should grant EADs and travel documents to individuals with approved I-140 employment-based visa petitions in the EB-1, EB-2, EB-3 categories  those waiting in the visa backlog for five or more years, regardless of whether they have filed applications for adjustment of status. The validity of the EAD and travel documents should hold until the final stage of the Green Card application is processed.

Bhutoria said the implementation of the recommendations will enable freedom of movement between employers without restrictions, benefiting both workers and the economy, facilitate travel by obtaining advance parole, avoid visa appointment backlogs at US embassies and support care for ageing parents in home countries.

This will also address workforce shortages, particularly in critical areas like healthcare and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields, bridging gaps in rural communities and providing coverage for specialised jobs, he said.

It will offer protection against deportation in times of health crises leading to disability or death of spouse on H-1B, ensuring fair and humane treatment and mitigating wage stagnation, enhancing career opportunities and reducing the burden of temporary status, leading to improved mental health and well-being for immigrants and their families, he added.

Bhutoria further said since only a limited number of Green Cards can be issued every year, there is a backlog of more than 1.8 million applications, which primarily impacts people from AAPI countries including China, Philippines and India among others. He said processing may take five to 20 years and, in some cases, over 50 and based on the current backlog situation, people may not get their green cards in their lifetime.

He said so the worker has to continue working for the same employer often in the same position for years, often facing discrimination and exploitation. He added that often they end up working for positions and compensation much lower than their skills, potential and experience.

Job portability is low and one cannot easily switch from one employer to another employer, and this creates pressure, dissatisfaction and unhappiness on individuals and their families, Bhutoria said.

This in turn leads to mental health issues in AAPI communities, the uncertainty and risk of losing the job and leaving this country is high, often jeopardising childrens school and college education, he said, adding that a worker has to perform under such difficult circumstances.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. Technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands each year from countries like India and China.

The recommendation has the potential to bring about historic changes in the US immigration system, benefiting both the nation and highly skilled foreign-born individuals eager to contribute to the United States, Bhutoria said during the meeting of the immigration subcommittee.
All In Credit Union announced Thursday that it awarded more than $450,000 in grants to over 20 charitable organizations in honor of the upcoming holiday season.

This year is the sixth consecutive year All In has donated grants to area organizations that make a positive impact in the community. More than $1.2 million in grants have been awarded to 74 organizations over that period.

Six years ago, our board of directors made a commitment to donate $100,000 from our Helping Hands Foundation to enhance the lives of others in a way that exemplifies the credit union philosophy of People Helping People, Charles Mingus, All in board chairman, said in a press release. Since weve seen the positive results our contributions have made, we made the decision to increase our giving and look forward to watching these grant funds make a real difference in our communities.

The credit union received a record number of grant applications in 2023, with 188 requests from organizations in Alabama, Florida and Mississippi. Of the 26 selected, the following 15 from the Wiregrass will be awarded checks from the Helping Hands Foundation of All In Credit Union:

Alabama Florida Council of the Boy Scouts of America will receive $9,635 to provide greater accessibility to scouts for water activities.

Boys & Girls Club of Southeast Alabama will receive $24,000 for renovations to enhance club security.

Catholic Social Services will receive $15,000 for weekly food and supply distributions to families and individuals in eight counties.

Chipola College Foundation will receive $5,000 to combat food insecurity with student food vouchers.

Chipola Family Ministries, Inc. will receive $25,0000 to purchase a vehicle for food collection and distribution.

Chrysalis  A Home for Girls will receive $40,000 to increase transport capacity for residents with the purchase of a van.

Coffee County Youth Services will receive $7,750 to purchase tricycles for 125 children for Christmas.

Dolly Parton Imagination Library of Coffee County will receive $5,000 to improve literacy among children through the monthly distribution of books.

Enterprise Luncheon Pilot Club will receive $1,600 for brain safety using puppets and coloring books and to provide Christmas food bags for low income seniors.

Mary Hill Family Services Center will receive $4,200 for the All In for Success Backpack Bash that provides clothing and school supplies for school children.

Southeast Alabama Works will receive $37,070 for Educator and Student Workforce Academies to facilitate collaboration between businesses, students and educators.

The House of Ruth, Inc.will receive $15,000 for upgrades to offices, childrens play area and relaxation room.

This Blessed Dress will receive $4,000 for supplies needed to support their mission of providing formal wear for special occasions at no cost.

Vivian B. Adams School will receive $6,599 to provide an interactive technology training experience for adult learners.

Wiregrass 2-1-1 will receive $15,000 for equipment and personnel recruitment.

Bobby Michael, president and CEO of All in, said it the application and interview process for organizations is rigorous. When we made the decision to create a grant program, one of our objectives was to provide funds for organizations whose dreams exceeded their existing capital, Michael said in a press release. The 26 organizations who were selected displayed a compelling case to be chosen as one of our grant recipients.

Lisa Hales, All Ins senior vice president of member experience, was instrumental in the creation of the Helping Hands Foundation. She said youll always find All In employees giving back to the community in some way.

There is a culture of giving that permeates our organization., Hales said. Whether lending support for local events through volunteering or ensuring that children and local nursing home residents receive requested items on their Christmas wish list, our employees give back in ways both large and small.

Application submission for 2024 All In Credit Union grants will be in June as part of the organizations continued commitment to give back to the community.
ENERGISED by the emphatic victory in the recent harmonised elections, the Zanu PF Government is moving full throttle to bring about the desired economic transformation in line with Vision 2030 targets, and will not fail the masses, President Mnangagwa said yesterday.

In his keynote address at the Zanu-PF 20th Annual National Peoples Conference in Gweru, he told the more than 3 000 delegates that under his administration, Zimbabwe will continue to make significant development breakthroughs for the betterment of its people.

Calling for collective stakeholder efforts towards national development, President Mnangagwa said every citizen has a role to play in creating a better future for Zimbabwe and pledged his Governments commitment to leading the process.

He said Zimbabwe cannot afford to undertake national development programmes at a snails pace, as it has to leapfrog historical hurdles including the existence of illegal Western-imposed sanctions.

Progress is already being achieved through unlocking wider economic opportunities across key sectors such as mining, agriculture, tourism, construction, infrastructure, innovation, and information communication technology, among others.

We must never bury our heads the in sand. Let us, therefore, continue to guarantee success in agriculture and food security, mining, manufacturing, and tourism, among other sectors.

The last five years have shown what we can achieve as a people when we are peaceful, united, and hard-working, said President Mnangagwa.

For the past 23 years, Zimbabwe has been robbed of time an adequate and fair window for development due to sanctions. However, through proactive inward-looking policies such as devolution and decentralisation, the country is making inroads in driving modernisation and industrialisation at the grassroots level, said President Mnangagwa.

He said the Governments economic diplomacy-focused foreign policy premised on engagement and re-engagement was also coming in handy as Zimbabwe has projected itself as a friend to all and enemy to none, thereby willing to do business and lure investments from any destination.

The Zanu PF Government is reengaging with those who had disengaged from us. That is our foreign policy because we are a friend to all and an enemy to none. Those who choose to be our enemies do so on their own, we will never say you are our enemies because we are a peaceful country, said the President.

The speedy attainment of Vision 2030 is our collective responsibility, as the party and the nation as a whole.

He noted that rural industrialisation and the growth of the micro, small to medium enterprises as the vehicle for the modernisation and growth of the economy, were at the heart of his Governments focus.





Going forward, Zimbabwe will take full advantage of the ongoing science, technology, and innovation revolution as well as optimise available domestic resources, diverse skills, and entrepreneurial mindset, especially among the young talented people, to scale up the transformative momentum.

Our national development philosophy, Nyika inovakwa, igotongwa, igonamatigwa nevene vayo/ilizwe lakhiwa, libuswe, likhulekelwe ngabanikazi balo, must encourage every citizen of our great nation of Zimbabwe, whether at home or in the diaspora, to do more to build our country. We must never look back, said President Mnangagwa.

Our land and agriculture sector remains the mainstay of our economy and an avenue for increased household food security, improved incomes, wealth creation, and empowerment to lift many of our people out of poverty into prosperity.

As the summer cropping season commences, the President said the Government was scaling up the timely distribution of inputs, dam construction, and irrigation development to reduce the risk of climate change in the food security sector.

These are being reinforced through modernisation and mechanisation of the agriculture sector, including smallholder and communal farmers while pushing for the same in the livestock production and fisheries segments.

High-impact and people-centered projects such as the Hwange Unit 7 and 8 projects, Phase 1 of Beitbridge Border Post, Robert Mugabe International Airport, as well as Chivhu and Muchekeranwa Dams, have already been completed. These, including works on the Harare-Beitbridge Highway, Lake Gwayi-Shangani and Kunzvi Dams, among others, are well on course and are evidence of a Government with peoples interests at heart, said the President.

More gains are also being realised under Heritage-Based Education 5.0, which has seen the introduction of Innovation Hubs and Industrial Parks across all institutions of higher education. Herald






OCT. 26, 27 & 28

The Friends of the Enterprise Library invite the public to the fall book sale at the Enterprise Library Oct. 26, 27, and 28. Thursday is Friends of the Library Members Only day from 2 until 6 p.m. You can purchase a new membership at that time or renew your current membership on Thursday. Friday and Saturday the sale is open to the public from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Friday and 9 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. on Saturday. All funds raised go to benefit the librarys programs and services.

OCT. 27 & 28

The Daleville High School JROTC is hosting the Warhawks Tales of Terror Haunted House and Trunk or Treat Food and Fun Fair Oct. 27 and 28. The fundraising event from 5 until 6 p.m. for a Spook Lights on tour and Full Scare tours are from 6 until 11 p.m. at the JROTC Building in front of the school located at 626 Daleville Avenue in Daleville.

OCT. 27 & 28

Ma-Chis Lower Creek Indian Tribe of Alabama invites everyone to the Ma-Chis Lower Creek Indian Tribe of Alabama Pow Wow Oct. 27 and 28 which will be held for the first time on our tribal land located at 2950 County Road 377, Elba. The event runs from time 8:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. The entrance fee is $1 for everyone. Please bring your lawn chair and dress comfortable. There will be demonstrators, vendors from various tribes throughout southeast United States. Come out and enjoy Indian Fry bread, arts, and crafts. For additional information contact Chief James Wright at the following machiscreeks@outlook.com or call (334) 897-3207, or (334) 449-0607.

OCT. 28

M. Reynolds Lennear, a graduate of Slocomb High School and Troy University, will sign copies of her new book, The Place Called There: A Spiritual Journey, at the Slocomb Public Library from 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 28. As an alumnus of Slocomb High School, she is very proud to be called a Redtop! She is a graduate of Troy University with a bachelors degree in psychology and a minor in Global Business. She also maintains Diversity, Equity and Inclusion certifications from the University of South Florida.

OCT. 28

The Southeast Alabama Coalition for the Homeless (SEACH) will sponsor a Homeless Connect & Point-In-Time Count event in Dothan on Saturday, Oct. 25, from 9 a.m. to noon at the OCHEC Building, 1001 Montana St., in Dothan. Those who are homeless or at-risk for homelessness can attend for resources for food and clothing, housing, legal assistance, healthcare, mental health resources, job placement and more. Lunch will be provided.

Nov. 1

The American Red Cross is hosting a blood drive on Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2023 from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. at the College Avenue Church of Christ in Enterprise (211 W. College St.). The event will take place in the Fellowship Hall. Appointments are preferred, but walk-ins are welcome. All donors will receive a $10 e-gift card to the restaurant merchant of ones choice. There is currently a national blood shortage. The Red Cross national blood supply has fallen by about 25% since early August. Right now, blood product distributions to hospitals are outpacing the number of blood donations coming in. Please give the gift of life. Each donation saves up to 3 lives. Even if you have been turned down before, you may be eligible to donate, as the FDA has recently lifted many restrictions on overseas travel.

DEC. 7

Hawk-Houston Youth Enrichment Center, 329 Chickasaw St., Dothan, is sponsoring a free community-wide health-care forum and listening session, "Preventing & Managing Chronic Diseases in Children and Adults," from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Dec. 7. A panel of medical professionals will focus on heart disease, cancer, diabetes, kidney disease, strokes, asthma, ADHD, and sickle cell disease. Dr. Kenneth C. Brown, Ozark Pediatric Clinic, is a presenter and moderator. If you or family members, including children, have been diagnosed with any one of these diseases, we urge your attendance. Health screenings will also be available to include sickle cell disease, blood glucose, cholesterol and blood pressure, vision, and hearing. A vaccine clinic available for flu, pneumonia, and covid vaccinations (please bring your insurance cards). All of Us Research Program representatives will be present to inform, educate, and enroll guests in the ongoing research program whose goal is to help researchers understand more about why people get sick or stay healthy. Door prizes include $25 and $50 gift cards and more. Vendors include local health care providers and agencies. Lunch will be provided. For more information, or to reserve seating please call 334-792-4618.

APRIL 9, 2024

The Harlem Globetrotters bring the 2024 world tour to the Dothan Civic Center on Tuesday, April 9. Harlem Globetrotters fans can score the best seats at https://www.tixr.com/groups/dcc/globetrotters beginning Oct. 16, 2023, at 10 a.m. Presale tickets are available beginning Oct. 9 at 10:00 a.m. with code LoveDothan at https://www.tixr.com/groups/dcc/globetrotters.

ONGOING

The Gen. William C. Oates Chapter No. 1342 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy meets the second Thursday from September through May. Women ages 18 and older who have ancestors who fought in the Civil War are eligible for membership, and help will be provided to prove your first Confederate ancestors lineage. For meeting locations and information, call Ceya Minder at 334-794-7480 or email ceya.minder@gmail.com.

Sons of Confederate Veterans, General William C. Oates Chapter meets on the third Monday of the month at 6:30 p.m. Anyone who is interested in Confederate history is invited to attend. Genealogy help will be provided to connect you with your Confederate ancestor. For more information contact Joe Rich, 334-791-2450, or email SCVDOTHAN3@GMAIL.COM

The Ray of Hope Grief Support Group meets the first Saturday of each month at 10 a.m. at Parks Chapel A.M.E. Church, located at 1053 E. Selma St., Dothan. The purpose of the group is to assist those struggling with issues of grief and loss, including but not limited to, death of a loved one, loss of relationships, etc. The meeting is free and open to the public. For more information, call 334-794-4811 or 850-692-1618.

The Greater Dothan Area Lions Club meets the first Tuesday of the month at noon at the Old Mill Restaurant on Murphy Mill Road in Dothan. For more information, contact Lori Perkins at 334-803-0319.

Concerned Citizens of the Wiregrass will meet the second Saturday of each month at 2 p.m. at Shoneys on the Ross Clark Circle in Dothan. Grievances and problems within the county will be addressed and information on how to make improvements via county officials, etc. Bring your friends and as many as possible.

The South Alabama Liberty Foundation will meet at 6:30 p.m. every first Tuesday of the month at Wiregrass Outdoors, located at 818 N. Ouida St. in Enterprise. The nonpartisan group advocates that liberty  along with peace, justice, and freedom  belongs to every American to appreciate and enjoy as written in the U.S. Constitution, and that this is possible only with an honest, fair, and well-regulated government that respects its citizens. No reservations necessary, and admission is free. Email SA-Liberty@proton.me for more information.

Land of Cotton Smocking Guild meets the second Thursday of each month at 10 a.m. at Piney Grove Assembly of God Church, 206 County Road 9 in Wicksburg. The guild is involved in a Wee Care Project, creating preemie gowns, garments for infants in NICU, and bereavement pouches. For more information, contact Carol Ann Pileggi at 850-516-9960 or Joann Carpenter at 334- 790-8328.

Enterprise Military Support Group will not meet in June and July. If anyone needs to talk, call Dr. Granger at 334-447-2252 or John Logsdon at 334-806-2636.

The Kiwanis Club of Dothan meets every Wednesday from noon to 1 p.m. at the Dothan Country Club, located at 200 S. Cherokee Ave. in Dothan. Anyone may attend as a guest of the Kiwanis. If you plan to attend, contact the club via kiwanisdothan.com or call 334-355-6877.

The Columbia Historical Society meets every third Monday at 6:30 p.m. at the Train Depot on Highway 52. All guests are welcome.

The Columbia Historical Museum will be open the second Saturday monthly from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 105 S. Main St. in Columbia.

The Disabled American Veterans Auxiliary Dothan Unit #87 will meet every third Thursday of the month at 6 p.m. at Harvest Church, located at 2727 Fortner St. in Dothan. The group will meet in the Main Cafe located in the churchs Building A. Call 334-596-9610 for more information.

Dothan Newcomers Club, a social organization, meets the first Thursday of the month in the fellowship hall of First Christian Church, 1401 N. Cherokee Ave. Social time begins at 9:30 a.m., followed by the business meeting at 10 a.m. The club is open to individuals who have moved into the Dothan or Wiregrass area within the past five years or who have faced a change in status (retirement, death of a spouse, divorce) within the past five years. For more information, visit www.dothannewcomers.com, or Facebook @DothanNewcomers, or contact Elaine Brackin, president, via email at dncpresident3@gmail.com.

Alcoholics Anonymous holds regular meetings in the Wiregrass including Ashford, Dothan, Eufaula, and Headland under the organizations District 10 (www.aadothan.org) meeting locations and Andalusia, Daleville, Enterprise, Level Plains, Opp, Ozark, and Troy under the organizations District 11 (www.district11aa.com) meeting locations. Visit www.aaarea1.org for a complete list of districts for Alabama and Northwest Florida.

A Disabled American Veterans chapter service officer will be located at the New Brockton Town Hall every Wednesday from 9 to 11 a.m. Any veteran needing help with a VA claim is welcome. This is on a walk-in basis; no appointment is needed. For more information, contact Mike Doran at 334-406-6700.

The DAV van service for local veterans will make runs to Montgomery and Tuskegee on Mondays and Fridays. The van will leave from the Hardees restaurant on Rucker Boulevard in Enterprise at 5 a.m. and from the Dothan Civic Center at 5:30 a.m. Due to COVID restrictions, there is only space for four riders each trip. Veterans who need rides to VA hospitals in Montgomery or Tuskegee can call 334-308-2480 to reserve a seat on the Enterprise van or 334-446-0866 for the Dothan van.

Square Dancing will be held every Monday from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Enterprise YMCA, located on Highway 27 across from Hobby Lobby in Enterprise. Singles and couples welcomed. Never danced? Theyll teach you. For more information, call 334-237-0466 or 334-347-4513.

The Landmark Dulcimer Club has a jam and practice session every first Saturday of the month at 1 p.m. You do not have to know how to read music. We prefer you bring your own Mountain Dulcimer but we do have a few practice dulcimers you can borrow if you want to give it a try. The event is free with paid gate admission. Show your instrument and get in for free. Meets in the Interpretive Center Auditorium.

Landmark Park hosts a Reptile Feeding every first Sunday at 2:30 p.m. in the Interpretive Center Lobby. The event is free with paid gate admission. Meet our snakes and turtles and learn why these animals are so important to the environment.

The Wiregrass Woodturners host a club meeting and woodturning demo every second Saturday of the month at 9:30 a.m. in the Interpretive Center Classroom at Landmark Park. The public is invited to visit and learn how to make beautiful wooden items turned on a lathe. The event is free with paid gate admission. Wiregrass Woodturner members get in free.

The Evening Star Quilt Guild gathers from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. every second Saturday for an informal sewing circle with your textile-based crafts at the Landmark Park Sit and Sew in the Interpretive Center Auditorium. The event is free with paid gate admission. The circle is free for Quilt Guild members. Space is limited, first come first served.

Pickin in the Park takes place every second Saturday of the month at 10 a.m. Join musicians at Landmark Park in Dothan for a bluegrass, country and gospel jam session. Visitors are welcome to listen or participate. The event is free with paid gate admission. Show your instrument at the gate to receive free admission. All ages and skill levels are welcome.

The Landmark Park Antique Tractor Club will meet on the third Saturday of each month at 9:30 a.m. in the Interpretive Center Library at Landmark Park. This club has been established as a way for tractor enthusiasts to come together to share pictures of tractors, share interesting articles, trade/sell and enjoy the fellowship. The club participates in several tractor shows and tractor pulls during the year. To become a member, visit the meeting or email David Jay, david@landmarkparkdothan.com. The event is free with paid gate admission. Mention this meeting at the gate to receive free park admission.

Landmark Park admission will be waived every fifth Saturday of the month.
A White House official said Thursday that the Russian military is executing its soldiers who don't follow orders in the offensive in eastern Ukraine. "We also have information that Russian commanders are threatening to execute entire units if they seek to retreat from Ukrainian artillery fire," said John Kirby, national security spokesperson. The US and Ukraine say Russia has suffered considerable losses in the battle for the frontline town of Avdiivka. Some of those Russian casualties, the US says, were inflicted "on the orders of their own leaders," per the BBC.
Maine police on Thursday night briefly surrounded a home believed to be the last known address of the suspected gunman in the mass shooting that killed 18 people Wednesday. The manhunt for suspect Robert Card, 40, has continued since the shootings at two locations in Lewiston, a bar and a bowling alley, and police could be heard saying over a megaphone at the house in nearby Bowdoin, per ABC News, "Robert Card, you're under arrest. Come out now. Drop everything and come outside." The search later wound down, and Maine State Police explained to NBC News that the officers were using "standard search warrant announcements when executing a warrant to ensure the safety of all involved." While authorities were following a lead, police said, there was no expectation Card would be apprehended at the residence. Law enforcement sources tell CNN more such searches are expected in coming days. Meanwhile, more was coming out about the suspect:
Heikki Rantakari failed to show up for the class he was scheduled to teach Saturday morning at New York's University of Rochester, and now police say they believe the 44-year-old might be in danger. Rantakari, who is an associate professor of economics and management at the university as well as a visiting assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, lives in Boston and flew into Rochester Friday, NBC News reports. He was last seen while checking into his Airbnb, which was within walking distance of the university, that night, ABC News reports. Worried colleagues contacted authorities the next day when he missed his class, and the Rochester police captain says authorities have "some information that makes us believe that he may be in danger."
An Idaho woman is suing her one-time fertility doctor, saying he secretly used his own sperm to inseminate her 34 years agothe latest in a string of such cases brought as at-home DNA sampling enables people to learn more about their ancestry, per the AP . Sharon Hayes, 67, of Hauser, Idaho, said in the lawsuit that she sought fertility care from Dr. David Claypool, an obstetrician and gynecologist in Spokane, Washington, in 1989 after she and her then-husband had been unable to conceive. She wanted an anonymous donor, and, according to the complaint filed Wednesday in Spokane County Superior Court, Claypool informed her the donor would be selected based on traits she selected, such as hair and eye color, and that the donor would be screened for health or genetic issues.

He charged $100 cash for each of several treatments, saying the money was for the college or medical students who were donating the sperm, the lawsuit said. But last year, her 33-year-old daughter, Brianna Hayes, learned who her biological father was after submitting her DNA to the genetic testing and ancestry website 23andMe, Brianna Hayes told the AP on Thursday. "It's been an identity crisis, for sure," she said. "This was hidden from me my whole life. I felt traumatized for my mom, and the fact that I'm a product of his actions is off-putting." Hayes also learned something else: She had at least 16 other half-siblings in the area, she said. It was not immediately clear if any other women are pursuing legal claims against Claypool.

Claypool's lawyer, Drew Dalton, told the Seattle Times, which first reported about the lawsuit Thursday, that the matter had been in mediation. But the newspaper reported that Claypool claimed he had no knowledge of the allegations and didn't know Sharon Hayes. He stopped practicing in 2005, he said. "I know people are very happy," Claypool said of his past patients. "But this is the first I've heard of anything in 40 years." The claims in Sharon Hayes' lawsuit include fraud, failure to obtain consent in violation of state medical malpractice law, and violation of state consumer protection law for "his scheme to charge cash for his own sperm, while he was representing it was a donor's sperm," said RJ Ermola, an attorney for Hayes. (Read more sperm donors stories.)
Attempts to capture an aggressive surfboard-stealing sea otter in California are on hold as "Otter 841" is now accompanied by a pup. The female sea otter has reportedly given birth and was spotted Wednesday "far off the Santa Cruz coast, rolling and spinning in the kelp and waves with a little otter pup on her belly," reports the Los Angeles Times . "I couldn't believe it," said Mark Woodward, who's been documenting the otter for months and captured images of the pair on Tuesday. The birth might explain 841's confrontational behavior as "hormonal surges related to pregnancy have been known to cause aggressive behavior in female southern sea otters," a rep for the US Fish and Wildlife Service tells the Times.

"While wildlife biologists suspected sea otter 841 may [have been] pregnant earlier this year, they were unable to verify the pregnancy without capturing the sea otter to perform a full health evaluation," the rep adds. The otter repeatedly evaded capture over the course of the summer as officials with California's Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Monterey Bay Aquarium sought to grab her with nets. Otter 841 was born at the University of California, Santa Cruz, to a mother, dubbed 723, who was captured after approaching people on the water, whom she'd learned to associate with feedings of squid and bait fish, the Guardian reports. Otter 841 was taught to be distrustful of humans and to seek out shellfish on her own before her release in 2020.

Though photos have spread, the US Fish and Wildlife Service said Thursday that it was still awaiting confirmation of the pup after sending a person to the area. "There are currently no plans to attempt capture," noted the rep. This would be the third birth for 841. The first pup survived. The second, born this past spring, did not. "To help give sea otters and their pups the best chance at survival in the wild, it's important for members of the public to give them space, especially when recreating on the water," the FWS rep said. Santa Cruz County Supervisor Zach Friend also encouraged residents to give the otter "the space she deserves to raise our newest, and already famous, Santa Cruz County resident," per the Times. (Read more sea otter stories.)
Mike Johnson is moving from under-the-radar lawmaker into a broader spotlight as House speaker, and the transition will likely please conservatives to learn just how conservative he is, and trouble Democrats for the same reason. "Go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read itthat's my worldview," he told Sean Hannity on Fox News on Thursday night in his first major interview as speaker.

Guns: Johnson told Hannity it's not appropriate in the midst of the Maine crisis to talk about tougher gun laws, but he sounded skeptical in general. "The problem is the human heart," he said, per the Messenger. "It's not guns. At the end of the day, we have to protect the right of the citizens to protect themselves and that's the Second Amendment." Johnson as speaker would play a big role in any such legislation, notes Axios. In Europe, he said, people have less access to guns and instead use cars to "mow down" victims, though Axios fact-checks him on that and finds that mass shootings in the US are far more frequent than European car attacks.
Spain's first official investigation into sex abuse by clergy members or other people connected to the Catholic Church in the country included a survey suggesting the number of victims could run into hundreds of thousands. The survey was part of a damning report by the office of Spain's ombudsman following an 18-month independent investigation of 487 cases involving reported victims who spoke with the ombudsman's team, the AP reports. Ombudsman Angel Gabilondo criticized the church's response to abuse scandals, saying it had often been to minimize if not deny the problem. He presented the nearly 800-page report to the speaker of the Spanish parliament's lower house on Friday and then to reporters.

"This is a necessary report to respond to a situation of suffering and loneliness that for years has remained, in one way or another, covered by an unfair silence," Gabilondo said in a statement. He acknowledged that the church had taken steps to address both abuse by priests and efforts to cover up the scandal but said they were not enough. Included in the report were findings from a survey based on 8,000 phone and online responses. The poll said 1.13% of the adults questioned said they were abused as children by either priests or lay members of the church, including teachers at religious schools.

Given that Spain's adult population stands close to 39 million, that would mean some 440,000 minors could have been sexually abused by Roman Catholic priests, members of a religious order, and lay members of the church in recent decades. Conducted by GAD3, a prominent opinion pollster in Spain, the survey had a margin of sampling error for all respondents of plus or minus 1.1 percentage points. The ombudsman did not extrapolate the findings into a count of possible victims but said the percentages were in line with reports in other European countries. The report calls for a public event to recognize victims, the creation of a state fund to pay compensation, and for the Catholic Church to provide a way to help victims in the recovery process and introduce reforms to prevent abuse and compensate victims.

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Spain's parliament voted in March 2022 to open the country's first official investigation by the ombudsman into the extent of sexual abuse committed by priests and church authorities. The government was forced to act after Spanish newspaper El Pais published abuse allegations involving more than 1,200 victims, provoking public outrage. Acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez described the new report a "milestone" for Spain's democracy, per the AP. "Today we are a little better as a country," Sanchez said Friday from Brussels, "because a reality has been made known that everyone has known for many years, but which no one spoke of." He said the report and its recommendations would be studied and acted upon.

(Read more Spain stories.)
Sam Bankman-Fried told a jury Friday that mistakes were made in his management of FTX but that he didn't tell any employees to do anything illegal. "There were significant oversights," the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange's founder conceded while testifying in his fraud trial in New York. Bankman-Fried took the stand after two weeks of prosecution testimony portraying him as a liar who directed others to misappropriate billions of dollars of customers' money, the New York Times reports. The defense is casting him as being overwhelmed by his job and not paying enough attention to risk management.

His defense team suffered a setback before Bankman-Fried's testimony began, when US District Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled early Friday that most of what the defendant wanted to say about FTX lawyers' role in his decisions and actions couldn't be said to the jury. Bankman-Fried's side wanted to argue that involving the lawyers demonstrated that he was acting in good faith, per the Wall Street Journal. He did tell the jury that he didn't find out Alameda, which he described handing off management of, owed as much as $8 billion to FTX customers until two months before the exchange collapsed. That claim counters prosecutors' argument that he knowingly spent customer deposits to fund his lavish lifestyle, per the Times, realizing Alameda couldn't repay the money.

Several times during Bankman-Fried's long, meandering responses to defense questions, Kaplan asked him to just stop talking. The judge also scolded Bankman-Fried for offering his own definition of market manipulation, per the Washington Post. "You will take what I say manipulation means," Kaplan told the defendant and the jury. The judge also has asked his own questions of Bankman-Fried, apparently when he suspects the defendant's answer might not be clear to jurors, per the Times. The fraud trial in Manhattan federal court is scheduled to resume Monday. (Read more Sam Bankman-Fried stories.)
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FORT NOVOSELThe modernization of Army medical care was the topic Lyster Army Health Clinic Commander Lt. Col. Garrett Holt discussed with those attending the Military Officers Association of America meeting recently held at Fort Novosel.

Holt explained the origin of the name of the medical clinic, spoke about recent improvements in the operation at Lyster, and discussed the modernization of Army medicine.

MOAA has a national membership of approximately 350,000 members and is the nations largest and most influential association of military officers. It is an advocate of a strong national defense and represents the interests of military officers and their families at every stage of their careers.
Agencies | Gaza

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Foreign Ministers of nine Arab countries united in condemning the targeting of civilians and all acts of violence and terrorism in response to the ongoing escalation of hostilities in the Gaza Strip.

The Arab Foreign Ministerss joint statement, issued on October 21 at the Cairo Peace Summit, expressed deep concern over the continued killing of innocent civilians and the flagrant violations of international law and humanitarian standards in Gaza.

Meanwhile, the General Secretariat of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation called upon Member States and OIC institutions working in the humanitarian field and humanitarian organisations in the Muslim world to fast-track the delivery of urgent aid to the Palestinian people to assist them in weathering through humanitarian disaster wrought by the Israeli aggression against unarmed civilians in the occupied Palestinian territory.

The foreign ministers from Bahrain, Jordan, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Egypt, and Morocco denounced any violations of international law, including international humanitarian law and human rights law, by any party involved in the conflict.

The joint statement specifically highlighted the rejection of forced displacement and collective punishment. It emphasised the grave violation of international humanitarian law and considered such actions as war crimes.

The ministers firmly rejected any attempts to undermine the Palestinian cause or displace the Palestinian people from their land. Furthermore, the ministers emphasised the need for full compliance with the 1949 Geneva Conventions, particularly in relation to the responsibilities of the occupying force.

They called for the immediate release of civilian hostages and detainees and stressed the importance of providing safe and humanitarian treatment for them in accordance with international law.

The role of the International Committee of the Red Cross in this regard was also emphasised. The joint statement reflects the growing anger among Arab countries towards Israels actions in Gaza. By uniting in their condemnation and calling for respect for international law, the foreign ministers aim to address the ongoing crisis and work towards a peaceful resolution.
MONTGOMERYA federal judge sentenced 50-year-old Steven John Smalley, from Panama City, Florida, to 171 months in prison Thursday for carjacking and discharging a firearm during the crime which occurred in Dothan, said Acting United States Attorney Jonathan S. Ross Friday.

The judge also ordered Smalley to serve five years of supervised release following his prison term. Federal inmates are not eligible for parole.

Smalleys sentence follows a July 2023 trial where a jury found him guilty of shooting at a customer of a gas station on Ross Clark Circle, then driving away in the customers vehicle. While questioning witnesses at the scene shortly after the carjacking, investigators spotted Smalley in the stolen vehicle as he drove by the gas station. Police arrested Smalley within walking distance of the crime scene.

This case was part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and make our neighborhoods safer for everyone.

The Department of Justice reinvigorated PSN in 2017 as part of the Departments renewed focus on targeting violent criminals, directing all U.S. Attorneys Offices to work in partnership with federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement, and the local community to develop effective, locally based strategies to reduce violent crime.

The Dothan Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigated this case, which Assistant United States Attorneys Justin L. Jones and Joel Feil prosecuted.
The Bright Key program is expanding its presence in the Wiregrass.

Bright Key fits in with our vision and mission here at Faine, Tina Garst, principal of Jerry Lee Faine Elementary, said.  I am so looking forward to the partnership were going to build throughout this year and the years to come. Its going to help our children to be successful not only academically but socially and emotionally.

Over 50 representatives from Dothan City Schools, the Dothan Area Chamber of Commerce, and Bright Key gathered at Faine on Thursday to cut the ribbon on a new academic dream room.

The Bright Key initiative stemmed from a partnership with the Wiregrass Foundation as a way to not only improve student achievement, academic growth, attendance, and behavior but also to make a positive impact on the families and communities that are part of an individual school.

A pilot program was launched eight years ago at Highlands and Selma Street Elementary Schools. From there, Bright Key expanded to Heard and Morris Slingluff Elementary Schools in 2021 after showing success during its pilot years. In October of this year, the school system announced the program would be offered at Faine and Girard Intermediate, bringing the total number of Bright Key schools in the district to six.

Brittany Shepard, Bright Key district coordinator, said students have been thriving since the program was implemented.

Data continues to show that its making an impact one way or another, Shepard said. Bright Key students are meeting their academic goals faster, coming to school more often, and have fewer behavioral infractions.

Shepard said the Bright Key initiative is stakeholder-driven as parents and faculty at each school vote on whether to bring the program there. If a green light is given, a resource coordinator is hired to listen to stakeholders, form partnerships in the community, and facilitate programs stakeholders want to see at their schools.

The academic dream room at Faine is just one of those programs. Kezwann Edwards, the resource coordinator for the school, said the space will provide a variety of resources for students.

Well have academic tutoring, mentoring services, and food bags to bless these students with, Edwards said. We want to make sure we have anything they might need.

Edwards, a Faine Elementary graduate, is grateful to come back and provide support for students who may not have that outside of the classroom.

This is a school I once attended as a student a long time ago, Edwards said. Its rewarding to be here in a leadership role as an adult and be a champion in the lives of our students. My job is to help lead them to success and create a positive safe space for them.

These services are expected to be available starting Tuesday, Oct. 31. First Baptist Church of Dothan and the AAA Cooper Dove Family Foundation provided the necessary funding to make the room a reality. Community volunteers will work with students each week to build a supportive friendship.

For more information about Bright Key or to get involved, visit brightkeywiregrass.org.
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Abdullahi Ganduje, national chair of the All Progressives Congress (APC), says Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi can actualise their presidential aspirations after the second term of President Bola Tinubu.

Abubakar and Obi were standard bearers of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP) respectively in the last election. They had challenged the election of Tinubu up to the supreme court.

On Thursday, the apex court dismissed their petitions and upheld Tinubus victory.

The year 2031 is when Tinubu is expected to complete a constitutionally permissible second term in office should he win his re-election battle in 2027.

In a statement issued on Thursday, Edwin Olofu, chief press secretary to Ganduje, quoted the former Kano governor as congratulating the opposition in their fight to the frontiers of our democracy and law.

Nigeria belongs to all of us, it is our responsibility as patriots to pool our resources together to move the country forward, the APC chair said.

I congratulate both Atiku and Obi for their dogged fight in extending the frontiers of our democracy and law.

This is democracy. Tinubus victory is another victory for democratic rule in the country.

There is still room for both Obi and Atiku to actualize their presidential aspirations after the second term tenure of President Tinubu in 2031.

Ganduje said Nigerians should support Tinubu to deliver the dividends of democracy.




The British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Dr Richard Montgomery and the Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence Muhammadu Saadu Abubakar III, have had discussions on the prospects of a mediated resolution of the Niger Republic impasse.





According to Atinuke Akande-Alegbe, Senior Communications and Public Diplomacy Officer, Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, the British High Commission, Montgomery visited Sokoto State on October 25 and 26, during which he acknowledged the Sultans role in promoting peace between people of different faiths in Nigeria, including through his positions as President-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) and co-chair of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC).





They also discussed the situation in Niger Republic and the prospects for a mediated resolution.





According to the statement, the British High Commissioner, at the end of his visit, said: It was an honour to be received by His Eminence the Sultan in Sokoto. We reflected on the deep and historical ties between the UK and Sokoto, including the links between the Sultanate and the British Royal Family. We had an insightful discussion on traditional leadership and social progress; inter-faith dialogue; national peace initiatives; and regional mediation.





My visit was also an opportunity to deepen my understanding of the states contribution to the history of Nigeria, including by seeing the remarkable archives of the Sokoto Caliphate at the Waziri Junaidu History and Culture Bureau, a real treasure trove for historians.





I had an engaging discussion with representatives of civil society, academia, and traditional leaders, who shared their insights on issues including gender equality, insecurity, and the economy.





Ahead of Remembrance Day, it was important to pay my respects at the graves of 12 soldiers, British and Nigerian, who gave their lives in the Second World War.
The #1 most important strategy Ive employed over the years that has contributed to the growth of the business is saying Yes! first, and figuring out the details after. Sarah Spence

In the ever-shifting marketing realm, a few visionary individuals shine as true game-changers.

Among them, Sarah Spence has emerged as a luminary, solidifying her position as Australias premier marketer through a triumphant recognition at the prestigious Australian Marketing Institute Awards. Her journey transcends mere accolades; its a transformation of the very essence of marketing.

Fresh from an inspiring rebranding endeavour, Sarah and her agency have embraced the moniker Content Rebels. This is more than a name; its a manifesto that encapsulates their audacious and unconventional approach to marketing. At its core lies the belief that content serves as the key to moulding the futureone narrative, one podcast, and even one post at a time.

Content Rebels, formerly known as Content Copywriting, signifies the next chapter in the saga of this award-winning content marketing agency. Since its inception in 2020, it has left an indelible mark and fostered partnerships with industry giants like Afterpay, Koala, Modibodi, Westpac, healthylife, and Craveable Brands.

Daring to be different

Content Rebels are not just marketers; they are pioneers of content that defies convention. Their expertise spans the gamut of the industry, encompassing digital strategy, content creation, digital PR, video content, SEO marketing, and graphic design.

Reflecting on her journey, Sarah shares, To be honest, I started my business because we needed an income, and I didnt want to go back to a full-time corporate role. Thats the uncool version, but I guess the cool version is that I was keen to do great work. I knew I could write, and I knew how to get information out of someones head and turn it into a great story  so thats why I started.

The power of yes

When asked about the pivotal choices she has made, Sarah emphasizes the importance of saying Yes and then figuring out the how to. She believes this approach has been instrumental in conquering her fears. The number 1 most important strategy Ive employed over the years that has contributed to the growth of the business is saying Yes! first and figuring out the details after. There have been so many opportunities that have come along that have frightened me and made me quake in my boots (Who am I to do this work? Why are they trusting me with this?! Hello imposter syndrome!).

But at every turn, Ive leaned into my support network, and theyve always said, Just go for it. So, I have! None of this growth wouldve happened without taking those leaps and building the plane as were flying it, Sarah said.

What sets Sarahs business apart from the rest is the genuine human connection. There are two things that set us apart  we genuinely care, and were never still, she shares.

Even before our industry started evolving at such a rapid pace as it has in 2023, we were constantly stress-testing, breaking, and rebuilding our processes. It drives the team crazy sometimes, but our Process docs are never set in stone (nor will they ever be). Theyre constantly evolving because our knowledge, our clients, our work, the channels, and our understanding of the landscape are constantly evolving.

We push forward into uncharted territory every day, and were different again from other businesses because we genuinely care about our people, our clients, and our work as were pushing forward. Some days, I wish I didnt care as much as my heart certainly has taken a beating at times when things havent been going well  but I cant change that about me, and its a fundamental part of our culture now, too.

Navigating Challenges

From the people-related challenges Ive learnt that one of the most fundamental external support resources you can have are a great HR team who understand the law, your business and how you want to lead.

In Sarahs journey, challenges have been abundant. As a fledgling business owner experiencing rapid growth, shes faced thrilling yet daunting trials. Being effectively a newborn business owner experiencing high growth has been a thrilling (and scary) ride. There have been (more than Id like to admit) people challenges that have absolutely floored me  from hiring people who just werent the right fit for our business to taking too long to get a proper performance management process in place  its been a challenging ride. We have so many wonderful people in the team, but its hard to trust when your trust has been deeply tested.

From the people-related challenges, Ive learnt that one of the most fundamental external support resources you can have is a great HR team that understands the law, your business and how you want to lead. Beyond people, the financial management of the business has also been a challenge.

Beyond people-related challenges, financial management has posed hurdles. I have dyscalculia, so I find numbers and spreadsheets and forecasts incredibly difficult. Through all the ups and downs, Ive learnt that a solid accountant and bookkeeper are a must, but to trust myself when it comes to the overall management of the finances  and never let go of the forecast to anyone else.

Still, she firmly believes in maintaining ultimate control over financial management, recognizing its pivotal role in the businesss overall health. As the business owner, its a top priority at all times. Ultimately, as the business owner, the financial health of the business permeates every part of your life  so it has to be your #1 focus at all times, Sarah said.

Embracing the chaos and resilience

Sarah believes that success is a multifaceted concept, and its definition can be as diverse as the paths that lead to it. How are we defining success there?! Right now, I dont feel very successful on many levels  weve experienced a downturn in revenue and had to make some roles redundant. That doesnt feel like success to me, but many people whore smarter than me have reminded me that its all just part of running a business.

And thats the key piece of advice Id give to women keen to start their own businesses  you need to get comfortable with the chaos, see yourself as a business owner first and foremost and build your resilience so that your heart doesnt crumble when the bad times come (because they will come).

Another vital piece of advice is to construct a support network that extends beyond your immediate team. Build your support network (hint: you wont find these people in your team!) and only focus on the opinions of people you trust. Everyone will have something to say to you about what youre doing  so choose the voices you actually listen to wisely.

Above all, my advice to fellow adventurers in the world of business is to take that leap, to venture forth. Start building the plane even as you soar through uncharted skies. Strap in for a thrilling ride, for its the exhilaration of the journey that makes the destination all the more rewarding. Success, in all its complexity, is not a static point on the horizon; its the dynamic, ever-evolving path that you create with every daring step.

Find out more about her business here.

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Barcelona have received a major boost ahead of their La Liga El Clasico tie with Real Madrid on Saturday.





According to Spanish outlet El Partidazo de COPE (via MadridXtra), five Barcelona players, who were injured in the past, took part in the teams training session on Friday ahead of the clash with Real Madrid at Camp Nou.





The five Barcelona players are Robert Lewandowski, Pedri, Frenkie de Jong, Raphinha and Jules Kounde.





However, it is unknown whether they will be available for the Catalan club against Madrid this weekend.





Lewandowski who had ankle injury, had missed Barcelonas last three games across all competitions.





De Jong (ankle sprain) has been out of action since mid-September,





Raphinha (muscle injury) has missed four games.





Pedri (hamstring injury) has played just two games this season, while Kounde (knee injury) has missed Barcelonas last two matches.




Ahead of the forthcoming governorship elections in Kogi, Imo and Bayelsa states, the Inspector General of Police IGP, Kayode Egbetokun said security agencies are aware of negative mobilizations by certain elements to frustrate the conduct of the November 11 polls warning them to stay off or risk serious consequences.









This was as the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC urged security agencies to take decisive actions against perpetrators of election violence to serve as a deterrent to others.





INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu requested on Friday at the meeting of the Interagency Consultative Committee on Election Security ICCES held at the Office of the National Security Adviser ONSA, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu in Abuja.





Addressing the opening session, Yakubu said the three States of Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi are not the easiest in Nigeria to conduct elections.





According to him, the difficult geographical terrain and prevailing insecurity are compounded by negative mobilization by political actors, especially since the commencement of the campaign in public on 14th July 2023.





Our message to politicians is that they should call their candidates and supporters to order. Violence and other undemocratic activities such as vote buying, attacks on election officials and disruption of the electoral process must stop.





However, the ultimate responsibility for election security lies with the security agencies. Our message to the security agencies is to take decisive actions against perpetrators of electoral violence.





This is the surest way to guarantee a safe environment for the peaceful conduct of elections and electoral activities. In doing so, security personnel on electoral duty should remain neutral and committed to the established professional code of conduct and rules of engagement, said Yakubu.





He said the three States have 5,409,438 registered voters out of which 5,169,692 have collected their Permanent Voter Cards PVCs.





Eligible voters will vote in all the 10,510 polling units. However, there are two polling units in Bayelsa State and 38 in Imo State without registered voters. The list of these polling units is available on our website. Similarly, election results will be collated in 649 Registration Areas/Wards, 56 Local Government Areas and three State collation centres.





This gives us a cumulative figure of 11,178 voting and collation locations to deploy security personnel in the three States. This is in addition to ensuring a secure environment for the ongoing campaigns and rallies by political parties and candidates, security of voters, the escort of personnel and materials, protection of assets and general security for all persons with a legitimate reason to participate in the election and electoral activities.





Speaking at the end of the meeting, IGP Egbetokun said; We have received all necessary information from INEC which has informed us on where to deploy to during these elections.





We have carried out a threats assessment and that has informed us with respect to the allocation of our resources and the deployment of our men.





All the security agencies are collaborating strongly to ensure that these elections are violence-free.





We are aware of negative mobilizations by some supporters of some candidates and we are already monitoring them. We are ready for them, for these elections. I appeal to them to stay away from this election.





I also appeal to the electorate to come out en masse to cast their votes during this election. We are committed to a peaceful election and no going back, he said.





Earlier, Mallam Ribadu said that President Bola Tinubus administration is determined to conduct free, fair, credible and inclusive elections.





This election will be better than any previous ones. It will be without violence, it will be free and fair and there will be no interferences, he stated.




The Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, has rejected the apology tendered by his deputy, Mr Lucky Aiyedatiwa, over the ongoing political crisis in the state.





Recall that towards stemming the political crisis that has plagued Ondo State in recent months, Aiyedatiwa, on Thursday apologised to Akeredolu.





The governor, who reacted to the apology through his Senior Special Assistant on Special Duties and Strategy, Dr Doyin Odebowale, also rejected some of the claims made in his apology and insisted that his deputy had a question to answer before the state House of Assembly.





Aiyedatiwa, who blamed the ongoing crisis on desperate politicians in the state, had said he remained loyal to the governor and also denied sponsoring any protest against Akeredolu.





Odebowale, in a statement on behalf of the governor, disagreed with the deputy governors point that Akeredolu had intervened in the crisis by asking the House to embrace political solutions to the crisis.





He also faulted the denial of the deputy governor that he had never sponsored any group to protest against the governor.





He said, Governor Akeredolu does not meddle in the affairs of the House of Assembly of Ondo State, as subtly suggested at the (Aiyedatiwas) press conference. There has never been any time when the governor persuaded the distinguished members of Ondo State House of Assembly to embrace the political solution offered by the APC, in the face of an impeachment move against the Deputy Governor, Mr Lucky Aiyedatiwa.





The governor, a senior advocate of over two decades, possesses a deep understanding of constitutional democracy. Any snide suggestion of meddlesomeness in the business of the second arm of government by the governor is repudiated with vehemence. Mr Governor cannot descend too low.





The deputy governor referred to the allegations of malfeasance levelled against him by the House of Assembly as all sorts of lies against my person in the media. It is only decent that we advise him to take this defence to the same House of Assembly which came up with 14 allegations of gross misconduct against him.





Odebowale also took exception to Aiyedatiwas reference to Akeredolus ill health, saying, More instructive is the unfortunate reference made to a series of events triggered by the health challenges faced by Mr Governor, which gave rise to misunderstandings, misconceptions, assumptions, and insinuations, and exploited by political contenders preparing for the upcoming 2024 gubernatorial election.




The Rivers State Police Command has paraded a suspected murderer and organ harvester, Demian Okoligwe, who allegedly killed and dismembered the body of his female lover, Justina Otuene.





Commissioner of Police Nwonyi Emeka, who paraded the suspect, said Okoligwe, a 400-level student in the Department of Petrochemical Engineering of the University of Port Harcourt, had invited his lover, Otuene, a 300-level student of the university, to his house, where he killed her and harvested her organs.





Narrating how the arrest unfolded, he said: On Wednesday, October 25, 2023, at about 3:30 pm, operatives of Ozuoba Division received a complaint from a Good Samaritan and neighbour (name withheld) of Road 20 at the back of NTA Ozuoba. He reported that he went to his house and perceived a very bad odour from the direction of the room where one Damian Okoligwe, a fellow tenant, lives.





The DPO of the station led detectives to the scene and, on arrival, forced the door open to discover a ghana-must-go bag containing a lifeless body.





The fleeing suspect was subsequently traced and arrested for an inquiry.





The lifeless body of Justina Otuene, a 20-year-old Biochemistry 300-level UniPort student, was recovered and deposited at the mortuary. A preliminary investigation is in progress. The case has been transferred to the state CID for discreet investigation, he said.





The Commissioner of Police also announced the recovery of four children from suspected child traffickers, who were paraded.





He said: Following the reported case of abduction on September 9, 2023, by Ijeoma, 35, in Awalama, Rumuokoro Port Harcourt, detectives from the Special Area Division swung into action and arrested Ifesinachi Opara. His arrest led to the arrest of Happiness Enyinnaya-Iheukwumere, aka Doctor Hagi, to whom he sold one of the children.





Further investigation led to the recovery of three more children trafficked by Doctor Hagi from different locations of the country.





Children recovered from different locations in Port Harcourt include a year-and-seven-month-old Benedict Kpaka, Godgift Julius, 4, and Filomena, 6.





The CP added: Further investigation revealed that one Angel Simonson, a 26-year-old female from Markurdi, still at large, is the supplier of these children to Doctor Hagi. Efforts are being intensified to arrest the culprit.





Others paraded by the police commissioner include two suspects arrested during the raid of criminal hideouts in flashpoints in Mile 1, 2, and 3 Diobu, from whom substances suspected to be Indian hemp and other hard drugs were recovered.





Also, four suspected cultists linked to the murder of the late Ahoada Divisional Police Officer, SP Bako Angbashim, were also arrested, according to the CP.
The Supreme Court, on Thursday, affirmed the election of President Bola Tinubu and dismissed the appeals filed by Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP; and Mr. Peter Obi of the Labour Party, LP.

The Supreme Court agreed with the September 6 verdict of the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, on all counts. The seven-man panel of the apex court led by Justice Inyang Okoro, in a unanimous judgment, resolved the seven issues for determination in favour of Tinubu.

The seven justices who took the landmark decision were Inyang Okoro, Uwani Abba-Aji, Lawal Garba, Ibrahim Saulawa, Adamu Jauro, Abubakar Tijjani and Emmanuel Akomaye Agim

The seven issues the court resolved in favour of Tinubu include:

** INEC substantially complied with the Electoral Act 2022 and the constitution in the conduct of the poll

** Election cannot be nullified due to unavailability of results on INECs IReV portal

** Failure to secure 25 per cent of votes in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja cannot invalidate a winners election

**Petitioners did not prove allegations of rigging against Tinubu

**The issue of APCs double nomination of Vice President Kashim Shettima had earlier been decided by the court on May 26, 2023

**Tinubus forfeiture of $460, 000 drug money was raised when the Respondents had already filed their process

**Petitioners did not provide alternative results to INECs figures
The Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF) has asked President Bola Tinubu to implement the recommendations of the 2014 national conference report.

The resolution is contained in a communique issued on Thursday night at the end of the forums meeting in Abuja.

The SMBLF, chaired by Edwin Clark, is made up of leaders from the middle-belt zone, as well as groups including the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Afenifere, and the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF).

The 2014 national conference was organised by former President Goodluck Jonathan.





The conference chaired by late Idris Kutigi, former chief justice of Nigeria (CJN), proposed solutions to a number of the nations challenges.

Former President Muhammadu Buhari who succeeded Jonathan did not show interest in implementing the confab report despite persuasions.

NIGERIAS FUTURE BLEAK WITHOUT RESTRUCTURING





The forum said the president should take an urgent look at the confab report as well as the report of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on true federalism.

SMBLF said the nations future and democracy will remain bleak without the enthronement of true federation.

The federal government should, as a matter of urgency and priority, work towards the restructuring of the country and enthrone true federalism as was originally entrenched in the 1960 and 1963 constitutions, the communique reads.

That, without restructuring, the future of Nigeria and democracy remain bleak and must, therefore, be carried out immediately.

The forum said they will set up a strategic committee on restructuring to interface with the federal government, national assembly, and all other stakeholders.

SMBLF also expressed reservations over the composition of Tinubus cabinet, raising concerns about the alleged marginalisation of some sections of the country.

Particularly requests that the south-east be appropriately represented on the federal executive council, similar to other geo-political zones, the forum said.

Insists that Nigeria must always remain a country where all citizens and sections enjoy a full sense of belonging and equality.

SMBLF urged the federal government to take urgent steps to release Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), saying his freedom will promote peace and security in the south-east.

The group asked the government to address the depreciation of the naira and declining standards of living of Nigerians.

The forum said it extensively discussed the judgment of the supreme court on the 2023 presidential election and would issue a substantial position soon.

SMBLF had backed Peter Obi, candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 presidential poll, to win the election.




The Minister of FCT, Nyesom Wike, on Thursday, disclosed that President Bola Tinubu is not just the president of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, but a leader of Nigeria.





The former Rivers State Governor stated this when APC leaders from his state, led by the National Vice Chairman of APC, South-South, Mr Victor Giadom, visited him in Abuja.





He, however, said that the president had the right to take the interests of his political party at heart while steering the countrys affairs.





He said political parties were vehicles that conveyed one to a desired destination, adding that the interests of Nigerians superseded all other interests in the mind of President Tinubu.





Mr President, having emerged, is not a president of APC but a president of Nigeria.





While the president is governing the country, he must also consider the interests of his political party. Nobody can stop that; it is natural, he said.
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Barrister Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, has called on Nigerians to give their support to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, irrespective of their political party affiliations.

The FCT Minister made the call when leaders of the Rivers State All Progressives Congress (APC), led by the National Chairman, South South, Chief Victor Giadom, paid him a courtesy visit in his office in Abuja on Thursday, October 26, 2023.

According to the FCT Minister, members of the Nigerian State must know and understand that the time has come to collectively work for the interest of the country, with the elections now over and the emergence of the president.

He said that President Tinubu has proven that he has the capacity and political will to bring about positive transformation in the country and thus deserves the support of every Nigerian.

Wike said, Mr. President, having emerged, is not a president of APC. He is the president of all Nigerians.

Speaking on the need for unity among Rivers State politicians, irrespective party affiliations, the Minister urged them to put aside their individual interests and work for the collective interest of the State by supporting President Tinubus administration

He said, For our state, time has also come that we must understand the politics of the country in order to move forward. So many States have benefited from it; we must also not lose out.

We must understand that a party is a vehicle that takes you to a place. But once you get to where you are going, you come out from the vehicle.

The interest of Rivers State is key. Its not in your interest, particularly. Its in the interest of our state. What will benefit our state is what we must always protect.

Wike also used the occasion to reassure that the FCT administration will be fair to all Nigerians, including members of Rivers State.

He said, Im not going to discriminate. Im here for Nigerians. Im here for those who are members of political parties and those who are not members of any political parties.

If you have problems, let me know. Dont say you are APC; dont say you are PDP. The benefits that other people get in Abuja, let me know. Im not a politician of self. Im a politician of all of us.
A 21-year-old Bergen County woman was arrested early Friday and charged after two men were stabbed outside a bar in Hackensack, according to police.

Cynthia Frank, of Hackensack, was charged with aggravated assault and weapons offenses following a fight outside a bar and pool hall in the 100 block of Johnson Avenue, according to city police Capt. Michael Antista.

Police were called to the establishment on a report of a fight about 12:10 a.m. Friday and found two men, ages 55 and 56, with non-life threatening injuries after being assaulted with a knife, Antista said in a statement.

One victim told police he was assaulted in the parking lot during a dispute with a woman later identified as Frank. The other victim successfully disarmed the suspect but received an injury while doing so, Antista said.

The woman fled before police arrived. EMS workers treated one man at the scene and transported the other to a local hospital with minor injuries, Antista said.

Frank was arrested a short time later near her home. She was taken to the Bergen County Jail ahead of a court hearing. Online court records do not list an attorney for Frank.

Anyone who witnessed the incident is asked to call Bergen County Crime Stoppers at 844-466-6789.

Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on X @TonyAttrino.
A driver was accused this week of hitting two teen bicyclists in Camden last month  a crash that left one dead and the other seriously injured, authorities said.

Troy Kee II, 32, of Oaklyn was charged Wednesday with one count of second-degree death by auto and one count of fourth-degree assault by auto and was also issued several motor vehicle summonses, according to a joint statement from the Camden County Police and the Camden County Prosecutors Office.

The investigation began on Sept. 25 at 7:53 p.m. when officers were called to the area of Mt. Ephraim Avenue and Ferry Avenue and found that two girls who were riding their bikes had been hit by a car, officials said. The driver remained at the scene, police said.

A 12-year-old girl was immediately pronounced dead and the other bicyclist, a 14-year-old girl, was rushed to Cooper University Hospital in critical condition, investigators said. She has since been released.

Detectives later learned that Kee was driving at a high rate of speed at the time of the crash, which resulted in the charges filed against him Wednesday, the office said.

The crash is still under investigation and anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Samuel Funches III of the Camden County Prosecutors Office at (856) 614-8083 and Camden County Metro Police Detective Richard McKean (609) 941-9796.

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Chris Sheldon may be reached at csheldon@njadvancemedia.com.
Heres a recap of recent funding developments from Australia, India, the US and beyond.

LifeBid secures $1.45 million through crowdfunding

LifeBid has triumphantly concluded a $1.45 million equity crowdfunding initiative in collaboration with Stride Equity, Australias inaugural venture-backed equity crowdfunding platform. The funds raised exceeded the initial target of $1 million, encompassing $820,000 from crowdfunding investors, outperforming the $370,000 objective. This initiative drew participation from 147 new investors, predominantly hailing from the financial sector, including some of Australias largest advisory firms.

Australia unveils its largest renewable hydrogen funding program

Australia has now initiated the expressions of interest (EOIs) for the Hydrogen Headstart Program, the largest-ever Australian Government-funded program dedicated to renewable hydrogen. This program is set to allocate up to A$2 billion in revenue support for large-scale renewable hydrogen projects. Australia has a vast pipeline of over 100 hydrogen projects, with a focus on investing in public infrastructure, low-emissions technologies, and the establishment of global hydrogen supply chains.

The EOIs will remain open until November 10, 2023. Only Australian companies are eligible as lead applicants for funding, although international investors can collaborate with Australian firms to form project consortiums. Austrade is available to facilitate connections between investors and Australian project proponents, and you can meet the Austrade team at Booth C12 during the APAC Hydrogen Summit in Sydney from October 26 to 27, where you can gain deeper insights into Australias burgeoning hydrogen industry.

Medtech Heidi Health raises $10 million in series A round

Heidi Health, a medtech company with a focus on general practitioners (GPs), has successfully secured $10 million in a Series A financing round. Blackbird Ventures once again took the lead in this round, with backing from Hostplus, Hesta, Wormhole Capital, Archangel Ventures, Possible Ventures, and Saniel Ventures. Heidi Health, previously known as Oscar, had previously raised $5 million in a Seed round led by Blackbird. The companys software platform employs artificial intelligence (AI) to streamline clinical administration for GPs. This fresh injection of funds will be directed towards expanding their team of doctors, designers, and engineers, developing new AI-based products, enhancing clinic growth, expanding their GP customer base, and eventually venturing into the global market. Presently, over 30 clinics and more than 100 GPs are already utilizing Heidi Health.

Outstaffer raises $1.5 million in its maiden fundraising round

Outstaffer, an HR tech platform designed to assist businesses in the recruitment, equipping, and payroll management of their staff, has raised $1.5 million in its inaugural external fundraising round after three years of bootstrapping. This round was co-led by the startups new Chief Operating Officer, Michael Locaso, who previously served as the COO of Listing Loop, along with participation from Utiliti Ventures, 1in100 Ventures, and Side Stage Ventures. Several other venture capital firms, including Beachhead and Mondo Ventures, as well as Alua Group, Spring Capital, and Perth corporate advisor John Poynton, also contributed to the fundraising effort.

A $50 million property fund to streamline US investments for Australians

Distinguishing itself from existing alternatives, the Cornerstone International Property Fund offers both retail and wholesale investors an uncomplicated route to American real estate, all while obviating the requirement for investors to pay American taxes or establish foreign entities.

This innovative fund seeks to transform investment prospects for individuals aiming to diversify their portfolios, with a mere AU$50,000 as the minimum investment and a 12-month investment commitment. This pioneering fund is the brainchild of Lindsay Stewart and Michael Eagar, both based in Melbourne and boasting a wealth of experience and a successful track record in the US property market, funds management, and financial planning.

India aims to foster 15,000 Startups by 2030

The Industries Department of the Delhi government has unveiled an ambitious draft of its startup policy, with a target to foster and empower 15,000 startups by the year 2030. This comprehensive policy package encompasses collateral-free loans, expert guidance, and dedicated support for college students. Under the visionary Delhi Startup Policy, the aim is to transform the city into a global innovation hub and the ultimate choice for startups worldwide. The policy aspires to create a nurturing ecosystem for innovation-driven economic growth and promote entrepreneurship through robust support mechanisms.

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A 50-year-old Newark man with a lengthy criminal record has been sentenced to more than 27 years in prison for robbing a cell phone store in East Orange at gunpoint, authorities said.

Kenneth Graham pointed a gun at an employee and ordered the worker to place phones and cash in a bag on Jan. 18, 2021, the U.S. Attorneys Office for New Jersey said. He then fled in a car.

He was identified with the help of surveillance footage and a witness, federal prosecutors said.

Graham will also be subject to five years of supervised release after finishing his prison stint and was ordered to pay $2,773 in restitution. He was convicted in March following a week-long trial.

Graham had previously been convicted or robbing three banks.

On Feb. 8, 2007, he pleaded guilty to robbing a Valley National Bank in Fair Lawn, and also admitted to the armed robbery of two other banks in 2006  the Bank of America in Belleville and the PNC Bank in Clifton, according to court documents. On June 27, 2007, he was sentenced to 17 years in prison.

However, in November 2020, a judge granted his motion for compassionate release and a reduction in sentence. He was placed under home confinement for the rest of his sentence, documents state. He was originally expected to be released from his incarceration during either the final week of December 2020 or the first week of January 2021.

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NJ Advance Media staff writer Chris Sheldon contributed to this report.

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com.
Before a sea of people in a packed auditorium, a group of New Jersey nurses gave a sobering warning.

The health care workers testified Friday morning that Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital is increasingly unsafe because of insufficient staffing as they sat across from Sen. Bernie Sanders during a U.S. Senate committee hearing.
Three of the nations busiest emergency rooms are right here in New Jersey.

Beckers Hospital Review compiled data on emergency rooms with the highest volume in the country.

The list  sourced from self-reporting by U.S. hospitals  included 48 facilities with the most emergency visits in the nation in 2022. According to Beckers, most of the hospitals experienced a rise in visits last year.

Here are the three New Jersey hospitals that made the list:

Hackensack University Medical Center  133,190 visits (10th in the nation)

St. Josephs University Medical Center in Paterson  112,690 visits (23rd in the nation)

Morristown Medical Center  103,674 visits (34th in the nation)

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Spencer Kent may be reached at skent@njadvancemedia.com.
A possibly-armed male who police say was having a mental health crisis was safely located by Secaucus police Friday afternoon after a high school, daycare, and apartment complex were placed on lockdown during the search.

At around 9:30 a.m. Friday, Secaucus Police Department received a call from New Jersey State Police, Sussex Station, stating that they had contact with a concerned family member of a male who was suicidal, Secaucus Police Chief Dennis Miller said.

They said they had tracked the mans cellphone to the area of Penhorn Avenue, near Turnpike Exit 15X in Secaucus, near Laurel Hill Park. They said he was possibly armed and wished to harm himself.

The males location was narrowed to the marsh area near Secaucus Junction train station and Laurel Hill Park, where police set up a perimeter to locate him.

The Jersey City Police Department, New Jersey Transit Police along with patrol personnel, Hudson County Regional SWAT, Hudson County Crisis Negotiations Team, Hudson County Sheriffs Office and New Jersey State Police Troopers and helicopter responded to assist with securing the area. Secaucus Police also used drones in the search.

Nearby High Tech High School, the Xchange at Secaucus Junction apartment complex, and Kiddie Academy Daycare were told to shelter in place during the search.

A resident at Xchange said residents were told in an email by building management to stay inside their apartments.

Secaucus Police Department Negotiator, Det. Lt. Michael Torres, was able to speak to the distressed male by phone at around 10:30 a.m. while responders tried to narrow down their search for him. After Hudson County Regional Crisis Negotiation Team took over the call from Torres, background noise helped officers determine the male was somewhere in Secaucus Junction train station.

NJ Transit police located the male in a restroom at the train station, but he was not found with any weapons. Just before 1 p.m., the male was taken by police to a medical facility to receive treatment. The area was additionally searched for any weapons, but none were found.

Train service at Secaucus Junction was not effected during the search.

Chief Miller thanked the agencies that responded to the incident, as well as the community for remaining calm during the incident.

Locating an individual in such a vast area is metaphorically similar to the needle in the haystack, Miller said in a statement. It is a testament to the services all of these agencies provide and epitomizes the teamwork capabilities of our local law enforcement agencies to result in this individual receiving the assistance he needs.

No criminal charges are being sought for the male at this time.
Aruba is giving away a lifetime souvenir that you will never forget.

The island is offering a free, Aruba-themed tattoo handcrafted by a local artist.

Visitors to Aruba who are 18 years or older and are residents of the U.S. and Canada (excluding Quebec) can register to receive an Aruba-themed tattoo from one of five participating local Aruban tattoo shop by visiting Aruba.com/tattoovenirs.

When our visitors leave, they take some of the islands abundant happiness with them, said Ronella Croes, CEO of the Aruba Tourism Authority. What better way to celebrate this lasting feeling than to give away permanent souvenirs from our talented local tattoo artists. Because Aruba stays with you, long after you leave.

Visitors can get a tattoo from one of the participating shops between Jan. 1, 2024, and June 30, 2024.

Recipients of the souvenirs are responsible for making the appointments with participating tattoo parlors.

You can see the full list of tattoo shops taking part in the giveaway here.

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Katherine Rodriguez can be reached at krodriguez@njadvancemedia.com. Have a tip? Tell us at nj.com/tips.
A new poll out of Fairleigh Dickinson University found that roughly 1 in 6 New Jersey residents think the Jersey Devil  the fabled creature that lives deep in the New Jersey Pine Barrens  is real.

The poll also found many New Jerseyans were likely to embrace other paranormal beliefs, including 44% of those surveyed who said ghosts are somewhat or very likely real.

The survey had a small overall sample size of 813 respondents, but researchers said the results show the Jersey Devil has gone from being a regional legend to being adopted by the state as a whole.

Almost every part of the country has its own regional monsters, said Dan Cassino, a professor of government and politics at Fairleigh Dickinson University and the director of the poll. Even in the 21st century, beliefs in those creatures persists.

The Jersey Devil legend begins in 1735 when Jane Mother Leeds, old and destitute, was pregnant with her 13th child and cursed her own misfortune. Let it be the devils child, she allegedly declared. And so it was  her baby was a monster with a horses head, cloven hooves, bat wings and a pointed tail. It flew up and out the chimney and has haunted the Pine Barrens ever since.

People have reported sightings of the Jersey Devil for centuries.

The survey found 16% of residents believe the Jersey Devil is somewhat or very likely to be real, with 58% saying that its not at all likely to be real, and 18% saying that its not very likely.

Younger New Jerseyans are more likely than older residents to think the Jersey Devil may be real, the survey found. And South Jersey resident who actually live in and around the Pine Barrens  where the Jersey Devil is supposed to still dwell  are actually less likely to think its real than those who live in other parts of the state, the poll found.

While most New Jersey residents do not believe the Jersey Devil is real, theyre not necessarily rejecting the supernatural as a whole. In addition to the 44% of respondents who said they thought ghosts could be real, about 20% of those surveyed said they believed astrology is somewhat or very likely to be real.

Not believing in Bigfoot or the Jersey Devil doesnt mean giving up on all paranormal beliefs, said Cassino. There are lots of otherwise skeptical and scientific people who say that theyve seen a ghost.

READ MORE: My uncle, the Jersey Devil: One mans quest to set the record straight on a N.J. legend

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Jackie Roman may be reached at jroman@njadvancemedia.com.
A student-led walkout in support of Palestinians at West Orange High School on Monday has been delayed after a strong public outcry that forced borough and school officials to weigh in on the planned event.

Several statements over the past few days about the event were issued from both the school and the borough, and explained that conversations with students have lead to the delay.

School officials wrote in separate statements Friday that they had received an outpouring of concern over the planned demonstration and made it clear that the event was not school sponsored. The demonstration was scheduled for the last period on Monday, where students would walk from the school to Suriano Stadium.

Emotions rose in the community after student organizers allegedly posted offensive and hateful statements towards people of the Jewish faith while claiming solidarity with Palestinians. West Oranges mayor Susan McCartney quoted the phrase, from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free as part of the organizers message.

The phrase has been recognized by the Anti-Defamation League as antisemitic call for the destruction of the Israeli state. The slogan claims to re-establish Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea which encompasses virtually all of modern-day Israel.

West Orange is a diverse community of about 48,500 in a state where the population is about 6% Jewish and 3% Muslim. Its one of many places across New Jersey where emotions have run high since another bout of death and unrest erupted in the Gaza strip earlier this month.

We have met with the student who posted the original image to discuss and educate them on the offensive nature of the statement in question, a statement from West Orange High School principal Oscar Guerrero explained. The original post was removed and the student agreed not to use that language in future postings.

We have also met with students to ensure that they know that cutting class to participate in a demonstration will lead to disciplinary consequences. In addition, they have been cautioned that inappropriate speeches or statements, up to and including hate speech, could also lead to additional disciplinary action.

I would like to report that after several conversations, our students have issued a new statement via social media delaying the demonstration until they can properly deliver a message rooted in peace and humanity.

Superintendent of schools Hayden Moore issued a separate statement pointing back to previous communications where he said that ...as educators, our mission is to always provide a safe and nurturing space for all of our students to learn, grow, and flourish...we encourage respectful dialogue and fact-based instruction. He added that the district does not endorse or tolerate any form of hate speech.

Spokesperson for the borough Joe Fagan said Friday afternoon that the event had been canceled - it was unclear whether he was aware that other statements said the event was delayed - and that the borough police department was aware of the planned demonstration.

In a statement made public Thursday, the mayor highlighted West Oranges strong diversity. But she also strongly condemned the walk out.

As your mayor, I beseech those involved in this event to honor your community, respect your neighbors, and pray for the return of hostages and the safety of all the innocent people who have been affected by the attack and its aftermath, McCartney wrote in a statement.

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Matthew Enuco may be reached at Menuco@njadvancemedia.com.
A now 50-year-old admitted he stabbed another Elizabeth man to death in the city more than two years ago.

Alexis Mondesi pleaded guilty Thursday to aggravated manslaughter and faces up to 23 years in state prison, the Union County Prosecutors Office said.

Mondesi stabbed Yonatan Alexander Vasquez-Torres, 21, on the 300 block of Center Street during the early-morning hours of Oct. 10, 2021, officials said. Vasquez-Torres was pronounced dead at the scene.

Monesi was later arrested and charged with murder, robbery and weapons-related offenses.

A citizen of the Dominican Republic, Mondesi has been held at the Essex County jail since Oct. 15, 2021, according to jail records.

He is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 8.

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Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com.
The final weekend of October is going to get off to a great start as soon as the clouds break, with a wave of warm spring-like temperatures expected to linger through Friday afternoon and Saturday afternoon, forecasters say.

However, a big shift in the weather pattern will occur on Sunday, with much cooler air, more cloud cover and some threats of rain showers that might hang around through Halloween on Tuesday.

Friday forecast - Oct. 27

Some spotty rain showers could occur this morning, but skies are expected to turn partly sunny this afternoon, with temperatures making a run for 80 degrees, except in coastal areas. Forecasters from the National Weather Service say some record highs for Oct. 27 could be within reach, especially at Newark Liberty International Airport.

Newarks record high for this date is 81 degrees, set in 1963. Atlantic Citys record high is 80 degrees, and Trentons record high is 83, both set in 1963.

Temperatures will likely be running 15 to 20 degrees warmer than normal on Friday, Oct. 27, putting some daily record highs within reach.Len Melisurgo | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Saturday forecast - Oct. 28

Saturday is shaping up to be the nicest day of the weekend, sounding more like spring than autumn, with mostly sunny skies and highs pushing into the upper 70s to low 80s. Some daily record highs to watch that day are 82 degrees in Newark, 82 degrees in Trenton and 81 degrees in Atlantic City.

Sunday forecast - Oct. 29

This is the day the weather pattern will take a downward shift, according to forecasters. A stalled cold front will be pushing much cooler air into the New Jersey region, along with mostly cloudy skies and occasional rain showers.

The weather service says temperatures will reach the low 60s, and theres a 50% to 60% chance of rain.

Halloween weekend will get off to a very nice start in the New Jersey region, with mostly sunny skies and temperatures expected to make a run for 80 degrees on Saturday. But rain showers and cooler temperatures will likely return on Sunday and Monday.AccuWeather

Monday forecast - Oct. 30

The weather service says rain is likely on Monday, mainly in the morning and early afternoon, with mostly cloudy skies and highs reaching the low 60s in the afternoon. Theres a 30% chance of rain showers Monday night as temperatures drop to the low 40s by morning.

Halloween forecast - Oct. 31

Forecasters say theres a chance of rain showers in the afternoon, which could interfere with Halloween trick-or-treating. As of now, the rain probability on Tuesday is 30% in North Jersey, 40% in Central Jersey and 50% in South Jersey.

Skies are expected to be partly sunny in the afternoon, with high temperatures in the low 50s expected. Theres also a 40% to 50% chance of rain on Halloween night, with lows dipping down into the 40s.

Current weather radar

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Len Melisurgo may be reached at LMelisurgo@njadvancemedia.com or @LensReality.
The days of the Yankees having the deepest pockets in MLB are long over.

Nearly 10 years after signing Masahiro Tanaka for seven years, $155 million, the richest contract signed by a pitcher leaving Japan for MLB, they have some competition for Japanese ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto: the Mets.

If either the New York team signs the two-time Pacific League MVP and recipient of Japans equivalent of the Cy Young award, theyll have to surpass Tanakas deal - by a lot.

FIXING THE YANKEES:

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Per Mike Puma of The New York Post:

A person connected to the front office of a team that may pursue Yamamoto indicated theres a good chance the Yamamoto bidding will start somewhere in the $200 million range for six or seven years.

That would give Yamamoto the third-largest contract in MLB history, trailing only Yankees Gerrit Cole ($324 million) and Nationals Stephen Strasburg ($245 million). Depending on the number of years, it would either be the sixth-largest (if its six years, hed earn $33.3 million per year) or the eighth-largest contract (if its seven years, hed earn $28.6 million per year) by annual average value.

Padres ace Yu Darvish has earned the most money, $188.4 million, after leaving Japan for the majors. If Yamamoto gets $200 million, hed exceed that total by more than $11 million - thats more than Yankees bust Sonny Gray, who is a Cy Young Award candidate, made this season.

The Mets recently lost a key voice in Japanese player negotiations when general manager Billy Eppler resigned. Prior to that, the team was seen as the favorite to land the 25-year-old ace.

Tanaka signed with the Yankees while Eppler served as the teams assistant GM in 2014; Shohei Ohtani opted to go to the Angels during Epplers tenure as the teams GM; and Kodai Senga, who turned out to be the Mets ace, took his talents to Queens in large part because of Eppler.

With Eppler gone, the field is open for Yamamoto.

MORE SPORTS

- Mets admit missed opportunity with World Series pitcher they dumped

- Yankees willing to trade catchers, but which ones?

- Mets legend Davey Johnson weighs in on MLB 2023: Wouldnt last a week | Klapisch

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Manuel Gomez may be reached at mgomez@njadvancemedia.com.
Vietnams durian growing area has been expanding on average 24.5% annually since 2010 to 131,000 hectares now, the fastest among its key crops, leaving authorities concerned about oversupply.

The central highland region has the biggest durian area at nearly 70,000 hectares, followed by the Mekong Delta, the southeastern, and the central coastal regions, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

There are over 28,600 hectares of durian in the central highland province of Dak Lak, and the figure will increase quickly 30,000 hectares in just a few years, said Vu Duc Con, deputy director of Dak Lak Agriculture and Rural Development.

The expansion rate is too fast and a cause of concern, he added.

Another central highland province, Lam Dong, has issued a warning to farmers about the unusually fast expansion rate.

Since 2021, it has surged nearly 44% to 19,700. Lam Dongs durian production is now at 115,000 tons annually and is forecast to double to 225,000 tons by 2027.

In the Mekong Delta, many farmers have chopped down thousands of hectares of rice and jackfruit to grow durians, which urged the agriculture ministry to issue a warning about risks of an oversupply.

Nguyen Nhu Cuong, head of the ministrys horticulture unit, said that when durians were grown in unsuitable areas they would produce low quality fruits, causing damage to farmers and to the Vietnamese durian brand.

Other issues in the durian farming industry are a lack of connection between farmers and traders, weak branding, unqualified workers, insufficient infrastructure, and unfair competition, the agriculture ministry said.

Authorities have asked farmers and businesses to not expand their durian crops on unsuitable land and not to replace their current crops with durian.

Vietnam was the fourth biggest durian exporter to China last year with a shipment of $420 million. In the first nine months this year it has climbed to the second place at $1.5 billion, behind only Thailand.
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Watertown, NY (13601)

Today

A steady rain this morning. Showers continuing this afternoon. High around 50F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%..

Tonight

Cloudy skies early, then off and on rain showers overnight. Low near 40F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%.
Vietnam's pomelos have been shipped to the U.S. and New Zealand since the end of 2022. Illustration photo by Freepik

Pomelo exports have surged this year after shipments to the U.S. and New Zealand began, with the figure for the first eight months standing at US$29.6 million.

It represented a 144% year-on-year increase.

Dang Phuc Nguyen, general secretary of the Fruit and Vegetable Association, said pomelos, previously exported only to the EU and the Middle East, have been shipped to the U.S. and New Zealand since the end of 2022.

With the quality of Vietnams green-skin pomelo improving rapidly, it is becoming popular in many countries, he said.

Green-skin pomelos being packaged and inspected before being shipped to the U.S. Photo by Linh Dan

Nguyen Dinh Tung, general director of Vina T&T Export Import Service Trading Company, which accounts for 60% of all fruits and vegetables exported to the U.S., said Vietnamese pomelos face competition from China and Mexico, but are gaining a stronger foothold in the market.

In the U.S. market, Vietnamese pomelo is sold at $9 per kilogram and Chinese varieties at only $2, but the former has won over more and more consumers due to its quality, he said.

"This is the first year my company exports pomelos to the U.S., but volumes have increased sharply each quarter. In the first three months of this year we exported four 40-foot containers a month, now we export 16."

Fresh pomelo is the seventh fruit after mango, longan, lychee, dragon fruit, rambutan, and star apple that Vietnam exports to the U.S.

The Plant Protection Department said pomelo is exported to 12 countries and territories.

Vietnam has 105,400 hectares under the fruit and an annual output of 905,000 tons.

Most of the green-skin pomelo is grown in the Mekong Delta.
Nick Kocher and Brian McElhaney became writers on "Saturday Night Live" in fall 2016. One of their first big shots at landing a memorable bit came when Tom Hanks was scheduled to host the show in late October. They were tapped to work with Hanks on his opening monologue.

Hanks had recently been dubbed "America's dad," in part for his recent starring role as pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, who became a hero for landing a plane in the Hudson River. They worked off of that.

Its like hes having a father-son talk with America, like its going through puberty, McElhaney says.

After greeting the live audience, Hanks sheds a jacket for a sweater, a reference to his having played Mister Rogers, and walked to a chair, sat down and looked directly into the camera.

"Hey buddy," Hanks said calmly and confidently. "How you doing, champ? What's'up? Rough year, you've been having. You're feeling anxious and conflicted and you're scared about what's going to happen next."

Hanks let the nation know it's OK to go through depression, watch their complexion change and be gay. He said he knew there was a lot of weed being smoked. He said, "It's hard to be you." But everything's going to be fine.

It had this vibe that everything is going to be OK," Kocher says. "Trump will soon be out of our lives forever."

A week later, the nation elected Trump president.

But for the comedy duo, it was a good year at 30 Rockefellar Plaza in the studios of SNL.

Ive never done crystal meth," Kocher says. "But I imagine its a similar experience, of really high highs and really low lows, and 100% unhealthy for your body. The good times are unbeatable. The bad times are very bad."

More recently, the duo, who bill themselves at BriTANick, had a break out live sketch comedy show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival last year. They're in New Orleans for two performances of the show at Le Petit Theatre, on Thursday, Nov. 2, and Friday, Nov. 3. Local comedy group What's Next? also performs.

Kocher and McElhaney both grew up near Atlanta, and they crossed paths often though they didn't start working together until the end of high school. Both then went to NYU, where Kocher focused on acting and McElhaney was in the film school.

As YouTube was gaining in popularity, they became early content makers on the site. They now have a Patreon page, but they still create their own sketches, even as they've worked on other projects. They spent a season writing for "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia." They say they miss a high-paying stint doing voices for Cartoon Network. And they starred on an episode of "How I Met Your Mother," in roles written specifically for them.

"Barney is getting married and hes upset that his single, wild bachelor days are coming to an end," McElhaney says. "So he finds two young idiots to teach them how to go to strip clubs and get girls. He passes on the bro code."

In their live show, they do all sorts of sketches, from Monty Pythonesque bits to verbal humor to silly and physical comedy.

Their videos take advantage of what they can add with effects and editing, but have a similar range. "The Dinner Party" features two couples inadvertently spilling secrets about infidelity and other indiscretions. "Sexy Pool Party" is a riff on the TV advertising-like effect of people looking better than they usually do when emerging from under water in a pool. The recently posted "VR Headset Disaster" is an R-rated romp. Many videos get humor from inadvertent or awkward partial nudity.

Currently, Kocher and McElhaney are traveling to a few cities to do the live show, and they're adapting two European films and writing a feature for Hulu. It's a drug comedy that they'll also direct.

The shows at Le Petit will not be Kocher's first time performing in New Orleans. While at NYU, he met AJ Allegra, who is the new artistic director at Le Petit and formerly led the NOLA Project. Kocher came to New Orleans with the NOLA Project in 2006 to perform in "Get This Lake Off My House," a comedy about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, performed on the shore of Lake Ponchartrain. Kocher played a drunk FEMA agent.

"We would do the play and there would be a talkback after the show at Andrew Larimers house," Kocher says. "Wed talk to people that were affected by Katrina, and it was like, 'Oh, were doing art that gives people catharsis, and I see how it meaningfully affects peoples lives.'"

He also worked on the company's production of "The Misanthrope," but he also wanted to take advantage of opportunities in New York, and pursued comedic projects there.
During a 2016 Louisiana Senate hearing on an anti-marriage equality measure, the bills author, then state Rep. Mike Johnson, found himself in a bit of a political pickle.

The bills blanket protections for clergy refusing to marry someone because of their religious beliefs had Black and brown lawmakers concerned it would open the door not only for discrimination against same-sex couples but interracial ones as well.

With its prospects already dim at best, Johnson was attempting to shore up support by offering to agree to a modest change noting Louisianas tradition of allowing interracial marriage.

But then state Sen. JP Morrell (and current New Orleans City Council President), who is Black and who is in an interracial marriage himself, wasnt biting.

"I found it offensive that interracial marriage was even put in the bill because many of the arguments made by the proponents of this bill against gay marriage use many of the same arguments that were used in Loving vs. Virginia, Morrell said, referencing the landmark 1967 Supreme Court case legalizing interracial marriage.

Morrell then pointedly noted that even the change Johnson was offering wouldnt actually protect interracial marriage since tradition does not trump law, to which Johnson replied, Agreed.

Since the bill says that if you have a sincerely held belief, you're not required to marry two people, that means with this amendment, potentially a person on the basis of race could choose not to marry two people, Morrell continued.

Although Johnson acknowledged Morrells concern, he quickly sought to dismiss it. I don't know of any current cases of clergy in Louisiana, at least, that are refusing to marriage marry persons of color of different races  we've all come to accept interracial marriage, Johnson said before hastily adding, "thankfully, by God's grace.

When Morrell pointed out that there are no cases of any pastors being forced to perform same-sex marriages, Johnson insisted that it was a problem.

We have specific examples from New York and New Jersey to Idaho, Texas, Pennsylvania, where clergy and religious organizations have been prosecuted, fined, punished, simply for quietly and respectfully abiding by their sincerely held religious beliefs.

That, however, does not appear to be true. Gambit could not identify any instances in which a clergy member has been prosecuted, fined, punished.

In fact, according to civil rights activists who monitor issues involving marriage equality, there have in fact never been any such examples.

This claim by Speaker Johnson is false, Brandon Wolf, National Press Secretary for the Human Rights Campaign, told Gambit Friday. No member of the clergy has been prosecuted for refusing to perform a marriage for a same-sex couple in their capacity as a member of the clergy.

Johnsons comments at the hearing  which often echoed the arguments used the years after the Loving decision by racists seeking to undermine the courts ruling  are part of Johnson's larger track record of anti-LGBTQ positions.

For instance, in a 2004 opinion piece he called gay and lesbian people deviant and compared them to pedophiles while also claiming marriage equality would allow a person to marry his pet and would result in sexual anarchy.

Throughout the 69 episodes of his podcast, which he co-hosts with his wife, Johnson also obsessively brings up LGBTQ people, and he used a pride episode to praise far-right influencer Matt Walsh, who has encouraged violence against transgender people and their health care providers

Other topics include abortion, of which he is an ardent opponent, and referring to things with which he does not agree with as woke.
Major Vietnamese snack company Mondelez Kinh Do is promoting informed consumption habits due to increased health consciousness and increased awareness of snacking habits.

Snacks are increasingly being consumed at any time of the day and have become a way of life for the majority of consumers. There has also been an increased consciousness of health and wellness that influences the mindset of consumers when it comes to snacking.

As one of the biggest snack companies in Vietnam, Mondelez Kinh Do is dedicated to empowering consumers to make informed choices about their snacking habits.

More people prefer mindful delights

Mondelez International's State of Snacking latest report published in 2022 shows that mindfulness and well-being considerations today play an increasingly important role in consumers snacking motivations.

Consumers are making an effort to be mindful while enjoying snacks, as 78% of 3,580 people from 12 different regions are more likely to take time while enjoying indulgent snacks.

Many are also tuning into portion sizes, saying they typically take time to portion out snacks before eating them. 68% say that they check the nutrition labels on snacks before buying them.

These insights help the company keep pace with current snacking attitudes and behaviors around the world and, importantly, anticipate and plan for future consumer trends.

Mindful snacking is shown to lead to a positive relationship with food and a lower likelihood of overeating. Photo courtesy of Kinh Do

In response to the overwhelming trend, Mondelez International, the owner of global and local snacking brands such as Kinh Do, Cosy, Solite, AFC, LU, Oreo, Ritz, Slide, Cadbury, and Toblerone, has laid the heart of its mission in crafting snacks that are mindfully made.

Inspired by Vietnamese ingredients and global culinary trends, the company is creating a range of mindful delights. These snacks were not just flavorful; they were carefully portioned and sourced sustainably.

According to Anil Viswanathan, Managing Director of Mondelez Kinh Do Vietnam, snacking nowadays continues to meet a growing range of needs across consumers' lives, with indulgence remaining a welcome part of a balanced lifestyle.

At the same time, the company also sees consumers making an effort to be more mindful and present while snacking. With a wide range of snacks, Kinh Do strives to deliver great-tasting snacks that offer good nutrition and are made with ingredients people know and trust.

"Mindful snacking reflects our commitment to empower consumers to take charge of their snacking choices and enjoy treats in a balanced manner," Viswanathan said.

Promote mindful awareness

According to Mondelez, mindful snacking is the application of mindfulness to eating and can be practiced by anyone, anywhere, and by all ages. It can help people manage their relationship with food and do so in moderation.

Mondelez Kinh Do offers snacks in individually wrapped mindful portion serving sizes. Photo courtesy of Kinh Do

Mindful snacking at Mondelez isn't just about the products. It is also about raising awareness and educating consumers about the benefits of conscious consumption.

To inspire mindful snacking habits, the company has outlined a "Snacking More Mindfully" goal.

Accordingly, portion control encourages consumers to be more aware of the quantity they consume, helping them make conscious decisions about their snack intake. The goal recognizes the significance of this aspect in fostering a balanced approach to snacking.

Mondelez Kinh Do is also championing mindful snacking by offering snacks in individually wrapped mindful portion serving sizes. This approach provides consumers with pre-portioned snacks, reducing the temptation to overindulge. It also simplifies on-the-go snacking, making it easier for people to make conscious choices about their snack consumption.

In addition to portion control through packaging, Mondelez is implementing mindful portion labeling on its snack products. This transparent labeling provides clear information about serving sizes and nutritional content, empowering consumers to make informed decisions about their snacking habits.

In Vietnam, the "Mindful Snacking" logo has been applied to packs of its local jewel brands like AFC, Cosy, Kinhdo, LU, Solite, and Oreo. This will empower consumers to be more aware of portion sizes through visual images, along with the calories they provide. The company offers these products to consumers to help them portion out or manage their snacks better.

Mondelez Kinh Do has introduced eco-friendly packaging materials with mindful portion labeling on its snack products. Photo courtesy of Kinh Do

In their quest for mindfulness, Mondelez Kinh Do also considered the environmental impact of their products. They introduced eco-friendly packaging materials and worked tirelessly to reduce their carbon footprint. By doing so, they aligned their mission with global sustainability goals.

The company has made a commitment to print the "Mindful Snacking" logo on all of its products globally by 2025. The company has also built the Snack Mindfully website to provide resources, tips, and information on mindful snacking.
Though the New Orleans area drinking water supply is no longer threatened by salt water in the Mississippi River, Jefferson Parish officials tested a temporary pipeline system this week to see if it could successfully funnel water from a spot upriver to the West Bank treatment plant.

The good news? It worked.

On Thursday, the Marrero plant, which treats about 24 million gallons a day, was fully supplied with water from the pipelines, said Mark Drewes, director of public works.

The $51 million project, which amounts largely to a test run, will be mostly paid for with federal emergency funds. Jefferson Parish taxpayers, however, are on the hook for 12.5%, or around $6.5 million.
Shawn Wilson supporters react as election results come in during his election night party at the Westin in New Orleans, Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023. Jeff Landry is the next governor of Louisiana. (Photo by Sophia Germer, The Times-Picayune)
Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., congratulates House speaker-elect Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., after he was elected as the new House speaker, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) ORG XMIT: DCAB337
Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh and his wife will pay a state visit to Vietnam from Nov. 1-5.

The visit is made at the invitation of President Vo Van Thuong and his wife, the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday.

Khurelsukh has been Mongolia's president since 2021.

He visited Vietnam in January 2010 as General Secretary of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party. He met President Thuong at King Charles III's coronation in London last May.

Vietnam and Mongolia established diplomatic relations on Nov. 17, 1954. Vietnam is considering Mongolia's proposal to upgrade bilateral ties to comprehensive partnership.

Trade between the two countries increased from around US$50 million in 2020 to around $80 million in 2021 and $85 million in 2022.

Mongolia invested in three projects worth $1.1 million in Vietnam as of November 2019.

Around 400 Vietnamese are living and working in Mongolia, mostly in car garages.
Independent town centre businesses in North Devon are urged to take advantage of a scheme that awards small grants for improving shop fronts or other potential enhancement projects.

The Town Centre Enhancement Scheme is administered by North Devon Council and was first launched in the summer - it encourages businesses to upgrade, repair and refurbish shopfronts in local town centres.

The aim is to emphasise the individuality of the business premises and, where appropriate, the historic character of the town centres.

This is a capital grants scheme based on the award to North Devon Council within the UK Shared Prosperity fund investment plan for 2022/2024 within the improvements to town centres and high streets strand.

The council will contribute up to 50 per cent of total eligible project costs, with businesses expected to match the councils contribution.

The maximum grant available is 2,000 or 50 per cent of eligible project costs, whichever is the lower amount. The grant is ideal for supporting small repair or improvement projects such as fascia repairs, signage, painting and decorating, guttering, lighting and more.

Lead Member for Economic Development and Regeneration at the council, Councillor Malcolm Prowse said: This is a really great opportunity to improve the overall appearance of our town centres. These grants will support to local businesses to enhance their own shop fronts by contributing to improvements and repairs.

We welcome grant applications from small or micro businesses and all charities and social enterprises. Retail, cafes, restaurants, pubs, financial/professional services, tourism and leisure businesses are all eligible for this grant, and other cases will be considered on their merits.

There is an open-application approach with no set deadlines throughout the year, meaning applications will be determined on their own eligibility and merit on a first-come, first-served basis.

Buildings eligible for grant assistance from the council are commercial buildings that are situated within the sub-regional centre of Barnstaple or one of the following areas in North Devon: Braunton, Ilfracombe, Lynton and Lynmouth, Combe Martin and South Molton.

Businesses within a town centre or high street outside of these locations should get in touch with the council to register their interest as the council may be able to widen the scheme if funding allows.

The decision as to whether any works proposed are eligible for grant will be at the sole discretion of North Devon Council.

Interested businesses can apply via

North Devon town centre businesses can get grants to help spruce up their premises

Independent town centre businesses in North Devon are urged to take advantage of a scheme that awards small grants for improving shop fronts or other potential enhancement projects.

The Town Centre Enhancement Scheme is administered by North Devon Council and was first launched in the summer - it encourages businesses to upgrade, repair and refurbish shopfronts in local town centres.

The aim is to emphasise the individuality of the business premises and, where appropriate, the historic character of the town centres.

This is a capital grants scheme based on the award to North Devon Council within the UK Shared Prosperity fund investment plan for 2022/2024 within the improvements to town centres and high streets strand.

The council will contribute up to 50 per cent of total eligible project costs, with businesses expected to match the councils contribution.

The maximum grant available is 2,000 or 50 per cent of eligible project costs, whichever is the lower amount. The grant is ideal for supporting small repair or improvement projects such as fascia repairs, signage, painting and decorating, guttering, lighting and more.

Lead Member for Economic Development and Regeneration at the council, Councillor Malcolm Prowse said: This is a really great opportunity to improve the overall appearance of our town centres. These grants will support to local businesses to enhance their own shop fronts by contributing to improvements and repairs.

We welcome grant applications from small or micro businesses and all charities and social enterprises. Retail, cafes, restaurants, pubs, financial/professional services, tourism and leisure businesses are all eligible for this grant, and other cases will be considered on their merits.

There is an open-application approach with no set deadlines throughout the year, meaning applications will be determined on their own eligibility and merit on a first-come, first-served basis.

Buildings eligible for grant assistance from the council are commercial buildings that are situated within the sub-regional centre of Barnstaple or one of the following areas in North Devon: Braunton, Ilfracombe, Lynton and Lynmouth, Combe Martin and South Molton.

Businesses within a town centre or high street outside of these locations should get in touch with the council to register their interest as the council may be able to widen the scheme if funding allows.

The decision as to whether any works proposed are eligible for grant will be at the sole discretion of North Devon Council.

Interested businesses can apply via https://www.northdevon.gov.uk/business/business-support-and-grants/business-support/town-centre-enhancement-scheme
The gift Luisa Duarte-Silva most wants to give her adopted Vietnamese-born twin boys on their upcoming 25th birthday is information about their biological mother.

Duarte-Silva, 64, a professor at Princeton University, is waiting for a DNA test result to verify whether there is a biological relationship between her adopted children and a woman she recently found in Vietnam whose story line up with her twins to a certain extent. This is the third time shes conducted such a test.

"We are really looking forward to it," she said. "Even if the test result is negative, we feel grateful for contributing to looking for the kids biological mother."

Duarte-Silva and her husband adopted the two brothers 23 years ago, when they were only two years old. They named them Luke and Mark. The former is now pursuing his masters degree in architecture, while the latter is a construction engineer.

Duarte-Silva, Luke, and Mark at their home in New Jersey when the twin siblings were eight years old. Photo courtesy of Duarte-Silva

Living a life of opportunity in the U.S., Luke and Mark have always wondered about their origins. Theyve often thought about "who they really are, where they come from, and what their parents are like," according to Duarte-Silva.

They have always wanted to find their biological parents, a desire that their adopted parents support.

Luke and Mark visited Vietnam for the first time in 2016. Welcoming them when they landed in the country was an elderly Vietnamese couple who were originally their first adopters. The twin siblings said they felt like they had come back home and reunited with their relatives, making Duarte-Silva and her husband even more motivated to help the brothers find their biological parents.

The American woman then sent her adopted childrens story to "Nhu Chua He Co Cuoc Chia Ly" (As If We Never Parted), a Vietnamese TV program that aims to help separated family members find and reunite with one another. Still, they got no response to date. Then the Covid-19 pandemic postponed some trips theyd planned to hunt down leads as well.

But the hardships did not discourage Duarte-Silvas family. In May, they sent the twins story to a YouTuber who runs a channel that helps people reunite with their long-lost families.

Luke and Mark at their university graduation ceremony in 2022. Photo courtesy of Duarte-Silva

Among the little information Duarte-Silva and her husband have so far been able to collect about their two adopted kids identity was that they were born on Oct. 31, 1998 at a health center in the southeastern province of Binh Phuoc. The newborns were then transferred to a hospital in neighboring Binh Duong province due to health problems resulting from their premature birth.

Hospital documents say that the twins mother was named Do Thi Chinh, and their father was named Do Binh. The couple were age 16 and 23 respectively when the twin siblings were born, and both of them came from Binh Phuoc, according to the records. The last time they appear in the documents is when they brought the siblings to the Binh Duong hospital.

The documents state that the hospital tried contacting the twins parents several times without reply. The kids were subsequently sent to Binh Duongs Social Sponsoring Center in Dec. 1998, where they were given their Vietnamese names: Loc and Minh. The center reported that it had also sent staff to the address the parents provided, but did not find them there.

As the YouTuber spread the story, the family got a few new useful leads. They filtered out two women with stories closest to the twins details and performed DNA tests to verify if there were biological relationships between the women and the siblings.

But both tests were negative.

"We were mentally prepared for that, yet we couldnt help feeling a bit disappointed," Duarte-Silva said.

Still, she has not given up.

During Duarte-Silvas most recent trip to Vietnam in August this year, she was introduced to two local women in Binh Phuoc  Nguyen Thi Mo and Nguyen Huong  who have since been assisting her in the search.

Duarte-Silva (second from L) and Nguyen Huong (far L), a local woman in Binh Phuoc who has helped Duarte-Silva with her search. Photo courtesy of Huong

Mo said she had not expected the search to be as difficult as it had been, because they already had information about names and the address of twins parents. However, as they dug deeper, they grew doubtful the infos veracity because they were told that the couple looked like people of ethnic minority origins while the names they provided were those of Kinh (ethnic Vietnamese) people.

The group of women in search now wonder whether the couple gave the hospital fake names or asked others to fill in the forms for them.

Meanwhile, Huong suggested that a part of the provinces population is made up of ethnic minority communities. Similarly, scores of the local population live in remote areas without Internet access, which might be preventing the twins parents from being exposed to information about their children, said Huong.

Based on these suggestions, Duarte-Silva asked Huong to help her print information about her adopted kids and distribute it to the heads of the local neighborhoods in order to ask their help. They also posted leaflets along streets in the area.

It was the American womans determination that made Huong offer to help Duarte-Silva with her search.

"She was willing to travel the long distance [between the U.S. and Vietnam] merely to prove her story," Huong said. "She was also willing to pay for the DNA tests, even though she was totally aware that the womens stories were not completely similar to the story of the twins mother."

As Duarte-Silvas daughter gave birth recently, the whole family was once again reminded of how difficult it is to take care of kids. Luke and Mark grew even more curious about their biological mother with a new baby in the family.

But they are also adamant that they simply "want to know if she [their mother] is living a fine life" and dont want to "interfere in her [their mothers] life."

So together with their American adopted mother, as well as everyone that has taken part in helping them find their real origins, they are waiting for the test result to see if they manage to find their biological parents this time.
NTV News 24 is a service of Nippon Television, Japan's leading broadcasting network. This page provides a selection of today's stories in English.
Trilateral relations among Japan, the Republic of Korea (the ROK), and the United States have been strengthening, as was evidenced by this summers trilateral summit at Camp David.

One area where the three nations share a long-time understanding and are fully aligned is the threat posed by the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, the DPRK, particularly, its illicit nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

But another threat has emerged in recent months: the DPRKs provision of arms to Russia that are used in Putins brutal and all-out invasion of Ukraine.

On October 25, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Japanese Foreign Minister Kamikawa Yoko, and ROK Foreign Minister Park Jin issued a joint statement in which they strongly condemn the provision of military equipment and munitions by the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, to the Russian Federation for use against the government and people of Ukraine. Such weapons deliveries, several of which we now confirm have been completed, will significantly increase the human toll of Russias war of aggression.

The ministers noted that in return for supporting Russia, the DPRK is seeking military assistance to advance its own military objectives. They pointed out that arms transfers to or from the DPRK  as well as the transfer of dual-use technologies that could be used in the DPRKs WMD, ballistic missile, or conventional weapons programs  violate multiple UN Security Council resolutions. Russia itself, they observed, voted for the UN Security Council resolutions that contain these restrictions.

Russia and the DPRK have made no secret of their burgeoning relationship. In September, Kim Jung Un traveled to Russia where the two leaders discussed military matters and toasted their friendship. In mid-October, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with Kim in Pyongyang.

In their joint statement, the U.S., Japan, and the ROK express deep concern about the possibility of Russias transferring any nuclear or ballistic missile technology to the DPRK. Such transfers, the ministers said, jeopardize the ongoing efforts of the international community to keep sensitive technologies out of the hands of actors who are working to destabilize regional security, threaten peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, as well as across the globe.

The United States, Japan, and the ROK stand together, they declared, resolute in our opposition to arms transfers and related military cooperation between the DPRK and Russia and the deleterious effect such actions have on global security and nonproliferation.
U.S. Steel turned a profit of $299 million, or $1.20 per share, in the third quarter.

That's down 38.9% from a $490 million profit or $1.85 per share at the same time last year.

The Pittsburgh-based steelmaker, which operates steel mills in Gary and Portage, brought in adjusted net earnings of $350 million, or $1.40 per share, in the third quarter. That's down from $526 million or $1.98 per share at the same time last year.

Our business continues to safely deliver strong results highlighting the benefits of a diverse order book, well-run operations and a focused U. S. Steel team. Our diverse flat-rolled product portfolio allowed us to adapt to changing demand dynamics and our teamwork drove cost benefits in the quarter," U. S. Steel President and CEO David Burritt said.

U.S. Steel made $4.4 billion in net sales in the third quarter, down from $5.2 billion in the third quarter of 2022. But the company said it made progress toward strategic goals, including serving the growing electric vehicle market.

The third quarter marked another key milestone towards our 'Best for All' future. Our non-grain oriented, or NGO, electrical steel line produced its first coil in September and first industrial grade coil in October. NGO steel is essential to our countrys green energy future and serves the automotive and power generation sectors," Burritt said. "Our NGO line can produce the thinnest gauges, widest widths, and biggest coils in the domestic industry today. This investment further expands our capabilities to meet customers needs. The nearly $4 billion of strategic investment in the mini mill segment is progressing on-time and budget.

The steelmaker's flat-rolled segment, which includes Gary Works and the Midwest Plant in Portage, made $225 million in net sales in the third quarter, down from $518 million in the third quarter of 2022. The business division that includes U.S. Steel's Northwest Indiana operations has made $449 million in sales during the first nine months of the year, down from $1.8 billion during the same period in 2022.

The steelmaker is still contemplating a sale after rejecting an offer by rival Cleveland-Cliffs.

As we announced in August, the board of directors, with the assistance of the management team and its advisors, is fully engaged in and is progressing a robust and competitive strategic alternatives review process to maximize stockholder value," Burritt said. "Meanwhile, we are focused on running our business safely, delivering on our commitments to customers and executing on our on-going strategic investments to increase stockholder value. We continue to see strong performance in each of these areas. Thank you to our employees for remaining focused on the tasks at-hand and for continuing to put safety first while delivering the high quality steel customers expect.
PORTAGE  A local woman was on the phone with police dispatch this week when a 23-year-old Portage man she knew fired four rounds into the air nearby from a handgun he had pulled out during a dispute, according to Portage police.

Cameron Wickhorst then threw the gun aside, walked into the house in the 6300 block of Mulberry Avenue and began choking a man on the ground, police said.

A police officer, who heard the gunshots, raced to the site and found Wickhorst lying face down on the grass waiting for officers.

As police took Wickhorst to jail, he reportedly said, "They are in the right, I'm in the wrong. Take me to jail."

Wickhorst was granted his wish and faces a felony count of criminal recklessness and misdemeanor domestic battery, police said.

The domestic dispute broke out around 8 p.m. Wednesday and Wickhorst had been drinking, police were told.

Woman charged with harassing Region man already cleared by police in fatal hit-and-run crash Morse goes on to say that no one with decades of investigative experience "puts here entire career on the line unless she has cement proof. LOL cement, get it?," according to the police report.

Police said they recovered the Glock 19 9mm gun from a flower bed and found four spent shell casings from the gun on the front porch of the home.

Wickhorst was still behind bars at the Porter County Jail Friday morning, records show.

Gallery: Recent arrests booked into the Porter County Jail Cameron Wickhorst Kenneth Liptak Jr. Herbert Cox III Keshawn Mitchell Ann Horta Samantha Carr Kristen Cox Julie Gonzales Amiya Brown Nicholas Schweihs Ryan Smith Thomas Throw Jake Chalabis Marcelino Pallanti Arturo Torres-Garcia Lorenzo Villaba-Arellano Christina Garcia Timothy Burelison Evan Messman Daegan Spiller Matthew Urquidi John Vuko Sean Wilson John Schwei Daqwon Stewart Arturo Valadez Patrick Hyland Steven Erdelles Ashley Garcia Kenneth Gaytan Carlos Cerros Jr. Gary Johnson Jamaal Means Bryan Schweihs Sarah Steen Rita Bernstein
LAPORTE  A delay has been granted in a sentencing that was to take place Wednesday for a 27-year-old LaPorte County woman, who pleaded guilty to her role in the 2021 torture death of her 4-year-old son Judah Morgan.

The delay was sought by defense attorney Ryan Beall, who argued in part that he only recently learned about a mental heath diagnosis stemming back to the early teenage years of the accused, Mary Yoder.

"Defendant's counsel needs additional time to explore this issue and potentially gather medical records from 10-12 years ago," Beall said in a motion to delay sentencing.

Beall said the reported diagnosis "could be a potential mitigating factor," which means it could lessen Yoder's penalty for the offense.

LaPorte County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Alevizos rescheduled sentencing in the case for Jan. 5, records show.

Yoder pleaded guilty in August to felony counts of neglect of a dependent resulting in Judah's death and domestic battery applying to another child in the home, who was described simply as being just under 2 years of age at the time.

'Mommy, take me home please': Answers, changes sought in wake of torture death of Region 4-year-old Knox resident Jenna Hullett said she could not bring herself to tell young Judah Morgan on that fateful day in April 2021 that the visit with his biological parents was not going to be like the ones earlier.

She faces up to 40 years behind bars on the first criminal count and up to six years on the second.

Alevizos has taken the proposed plea agreement under consideration and will decide in January whether to accept it and carry out sentencing.

The delay is just the latest unexpected development in the high profile case, which resulted earlier this month in a federal lawsuit accusing Indiana Department of Child Services employees of paving the way to the boy's death.

Yoder was initially expected to plead guilty in March, but appeared to surprise the judge when she opted at the time to go to trial. A Sept. 25 trial was scheduled, but canceled as a result of the August plea.

Woman charged with harassing Region man already cleared by police in fatal hit-and-run crash Morse goes on to say that no one with decades of investigative experience "puts here entire career on the line unless she has cement proof. LOL cement, get it?," according to the police report.

Judah Morgan's badly battered and starved body was discovered Oct. 11, 2021, at his parents' home in Hamlet. Officials said the boy had been bound with duct tape, confined in a dark basement for days at a time, beaten and starved.

The boy's father, Alan Morgan, 30, pleaded guilty to murdering him and was sentenced by Alevizos in November to 70 years behind bars.

The Indiana Court of Appeals has since unanimously rejected a request to shorten the prison term.

Beall further argued for the delay on the grounds that he was to be out of town this week, "which will significantly hamper his ability to be prepared for the sentencing hearing."

He also said an unrelated trial scheduled to begin Tuesday in the same court could create a conflict, but that trial appears to have been cancelled, records show.
VALPARAISO  A 38-year-old Portage man, who admitted to police that he "got out of hand" last December when a woman accused him of raping her, was sentenced Friday to probation and to register as a sex offender after pleading guilty to the lesser of two charges in the case.

Nathaniel Phebus, who was out of custody, appeared before Porter Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Clymer along with defense attorney Jesse Harper where his guilty plea to a felony count of sexual battery was accepted.

The higher felony rape charge was dismissed per the plea agreement struck with prosecutors and Phebus was sentenced to 910 days behind bars, with all but time served suspended and to be spent on formal probation, Clymer said. He has credit for 39 days served at the county jail.

Phebus is further required to register as a sex offender and comply with those strict requirements, take part in a sex offender evaluation and treatment, and undergo HIV testing, the judge said.

The alleged victim reportedly told police in December that Phebus was "touchy-feely" and his actions started innocently but became sexual.

Portage man nabbed after repeatedly firing gun, choking another during dispute, cops say As police took the accused to jail, he reportedly said, "They are in the right, I'm in the wrong. Take me to jail."

"She said that she was 'pretty much' saying no to sex with Mr. Phebus all night long," a charging document says. "She said things were 'fuzzy' due to her alcohol consumption."

The woman could not tell police exactly what happened, but she said she had physical discomfort leading her to believe she had been sexually assaulted, charges say.

When asked by police if she could have given Phebus consent and did not remember due to her alcohol consumption, the woman reportedly responded, "There's no way."

She said she spoke with Phebus on the phone the same day as the alleged rape "and he admitted that he was angry and that 'things happened,'" the charging document said.

Phebus reportedly told police he "got out of hand," the charges say.

The woman made it clear that she did not want his sexual advances and yet he persisted, Phebus reportedly told police.

Gallery: Recent arrests booked into the Porter County Jail Cameron Wickhorst Kenneth Liptak Jr. Herbert Cox III Keshawn Mitchell Ann Horta Samantha Carr Kristen Cox Julie Gonzales Amiya Brown Nicholas Schweihs Ryan Smith Thomas Throw Jake Chalabis Marcelino Pallanti Arturo Torres-Garcia Lorenzo Villaba-Arellano Christina Garcia Timothy Burelison Evan Messman Daegan Spiller Matthew Urquidi John Vuko Sean Wilson John Schwei Daqwon Stewart Arturo Valadez Patrick Hyland Steven Erdelles Ashley Garcia Kenneth Gaytan Carlos Cerros Jr. Gary Johnson Jamaal Means Bryan Schweihs Sarah Steen Rita Bernstein
Retired NiSource Chairman and CEO Gary Neale, who grew the utility into a Fortune 500 company and the country's third-largest national gas distributor, died Oct. 18 in Colorado at the age of 83.

Neale was credited as the "architect of NiSource's growth from a regional utility to one of the nation's leading integrated energy companies," as then-NiSource Board Chairman Ian Rolland put it when Neale stepped down from the board in 2007.

"The company was saddened by the news of Garys passing and our thoughts are with his family and loved ones," NIPSCO Communications Manager Tara McElmurry said.

Neale was a South Dakota native who moved at an early age to, and grew up in, Port Angeles, Washington.

He earned bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Washington in Seattle, served in the Navy and became CEO of the consulting firm Planmetrics in Illinois.

He was recruited by Merrillville-based NIPSCO to take over as president and chief operating officer in 1989 and became president, chairman and CEO in 1993.

Neale negotiated the $6 billion acquisition of Columbia Energy in a hostile takeover that elevated NiSource from a utility serving Northern Indiana to a major national player serving natural 3.7 million gas and electric customers through six different utilities, making it one of the largest fully regulated utilities in the United States. After consolidating much of the natural gas distribution east of the Mississippi River, it was a Fortune 500 company until it spun off its faster-growing Columbia Pipeline Group in 2015.

He led a bid to move the Chicago Bears to Northwest Indiana, pitching a lakefront stadium on Lake Michigan in Gary that ultimately resulted in the last round of renovations to Soldier Field that gave it its "spaceship" appearance. The pitch failed but helped spur more lakefront development in the Region.

Neale was involved in the development of the Sand Creek Country Club and the surrounding neighborhood in Chesterton. He supported local philanthropic causes like the Dunes Environmental Learning Center and the Northwest Indiana Symphony.

He served on many boards including Modine, Chicago Bridge and Iron, American Gas Association, North American Electric Reliability Council, the National Petroleum Council, the Department of Energy Electricity Advisory Board and the state of Indiana Economic Development Council.

He retired from NiSource as CEO in 2005 and chairman in 2006. Then Northwest Indiana Forum Board President Tom Keilman hailed him as a "true leader in the company and community" when he stepped down.

He then moved to Scottsdale, Arizona and Steamboat Springs, Colorado, where he had a ranch on the Yampa River, where he fly-fished and rode his horse Fritz.
When Hamas unleashed a devastating attack on Israel on October 7, it started a war. And as usual, its the civilian populations on both sides that are paying the price. Thousands of people from more than 30 countries have been killed and wounded in the initial attacks by Hamas, and as a result of Israels retaliatory strikes.

Before the bombing began, Israel clearly warned Gazas civilian population to evacuate. Hamas, however, commanded that people remain in their homes, and blocked roads to prevent them from leaving. Clearly, the civilian population was to serve as a human shield for the militants.

We know Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people, and Palestinian civilians are not to blame for the carnage committed by Hamas, said Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Palestinian civilians must be protected.

The Gaza Strip, which is a 41-kilometer-long and 6- to 12-kilometer-wide strip of land along the Mediterranean coast, has a total area of 365 square kilometers. It is home to more than 2,375,000 people. About a million Palestinians have been displaced there with no way of leaving Gaza, and that means that humanitarian aid is crucial to their survival.

We continue to coordinate closely with Egypt, Israel, and partners across the region as well as with the United Nations to build mechanisms that will enable sustained humanitarian assistance to flow to civilians in Gaza without benefiting Hamas or any other terrorist group, said Secretary Blinken.

The United States has committed an additional 100 million dollars in humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, bringing the total aid that we provided to the Palestinian people over the past two and a half years to more than $1.6 billion, he said. That makes the United States the largest single-country donor by far to the Palestinian people. We call on all countries, particularly those with the greatest capacity to give, to join us in meeting the UNs appeal for the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

At the heart of our efforts to save innocent lives in this conflict and in every conflict, for that matter, is our core belief that every civilian life is equally valuable, said Secretary Blinken. There is no hierarchy when it comes to protecting civilian lives. A civilian is a civilian is a civilian, no matter his or her nationality, ethnicity, age, gender, faith.
Franciscan Health is displaying a new mosaic of St. Francis at its hospital in Munster.

Pete Nau Sr. and Debbie Nau commissioned the artistic depiction of St. Francis of Assissi, the Italian mystic who lived a life of poverty as an itinerant preacher and taught his followers to take care of their fellow man and the environment.

They commissioned the work in honor of the memories of Mike and Patricia Nau. Mike Nau, a two-time recipient of the Sagamore of the Wabash, Indiana's highest civilian honor, was the owner of Hammond Machine Works who served on the St. Margarets Citizens Board of Directors for the downtown Hammond hospital at the end of 2022.

His family, who now run the CNC machining, metal fabrication and mechanical assembly company, wanted to pay tribute to the late businessman and carry on his philanthropic work.

The mosaic was done by the artist David Lee Csisko, a Hammond native who now practices art in Chicago. He worked on the piece with Florin Vistian and Alsonsa Burcheri Vistian of Assisi, Italy, the birthplace of the Catholic friar who became one of the Catholic church's most revered saints and founded the Franciscan religious order that followed the example of a son of a wealthy cloth merchant who renounced his family's wealth and all his worldly possessions to devote himself to practicing his faith, begging for food while he preached.

Csisko has previously done mosaics for the Geminus Mental Health Center, Loyola University School of Nursing, Chicago Transit Authority Belmont Station and the Bronson Hospital in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
A federal lawsuit challenging Indiana's near-total abortion ban on religious liberty grounds was dismissed Wednesday without addressing whether the 2022 statute infringes on Hoosiers' freedom to make health decisions in accordance with their beliefs.

U.S. District Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson tossed the challenge to Senate Enrolled Act 1 filed by the Satanic Temple after she concluded the temple lacked legal standing to file suit on behalf of either itself or its members.

Magnus-Stinson said the Satanic Temple's inability to identify any Indiana temple members planning to use its telehealth abortion service  which she noted is itself of dubious legality  undermined its claim that temple members are harmed by the state's abortion restrictions.

Likewise, she determined the Salem, Massachusetts-based Satanic Temple has not suffered any actual injury in Indiana due to the law because the temple is not currently providing abortions in the state and is unlikely to do so in the future.

"The court finds that the Satanic Temple's allegations fall short of even 'some day' intentions, and that it fails to meet its burden to make clear it intends to engage in conduct that is unlawful under (the statute)," Magnus-Stinson said. "The result is a lack of standing."

The judge, who was appointed to the federal bench for the Southern District of Indiana in 2010 by Democratic President Barack Obama, declined to allow the Satanic Temple to revise its claims following her ruling since the temple already amended its complaint once.

As a result, the federal religious liberty challenge to Indiana's abortion statute is over  unless another person or entity with legal standing files a new lawsuit.

A separate state court suit filed by a number of specific believers and a Jewish organization that similarly alleges the near-total abortion ban violates their religious freedom is set to be heard in December by the Indiana Court of Appeals.

Republican Attorney General Todd Rokita, who urged the federal judge to dismiss the Satanic Temple lawsuit based on lack of standing, claimed after the ruling that his team "beat the hell" out of the Satanic Temple.

"This lawsuit was ridiculous on its face, but this court decision is important because it sustains a pro-life law that is constitutionally and legally sound," Rokita said. "We Hoosiers continue to build a solid culture of life whether satanic cultists like it or not."

According to court records, the Satanic Temple does not worship Satan as a deity. Rather, it venerates Satan as the defender of personal sovereignty against the dictates of religious authority.

Indiana's Republican-controlled General Assembly and Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb were first in the country to legislatively impose new abortion restrictions following the U.S. Supreme Court's June 24, 2022, Dobbs ruling.

Under the law, abortion is prohibited in Indiana from the moment of conception  except at hospitals within 10 weeks of fertilization for pregnancies caused by rape or incest, or 20 weeks if necessary to prevent serious physical impairment or the death of a pregnant woman, or because of a lethal fetal anomaly.

Women living in Indiana still can travel to nearby clinics in Illinois or Michigan to obtain an abortion for any reason.

Northwest Indiana 2023 early voting sites, hours Lake County Government Center, 2293 N. Main St., Crown Point Judge Lorenzo Arredondo Justice Center, 3711 Main St., East Chicago Gary Public Library, 220 W. 5th Ave., Gary Lake County Courthouse, 232 Russell St., Hammond Hobart Police and Community Center, 705 E. 4th St., Hobart Lowell Town Hall, 501 E. Main St., Lowell Munster Town Hall, 1005 Ridge Rd., Munster Schererville Town Hall, 10 E. Joliet St., Schererville St. John Township Assessor's Office, 9157 Wicker Ave., St. John Wicker Park Social Center, 8554 Indianapolis Blvd., Highland Winfield Government Center, 10645 Randolph St., Winfield Porter County Administration Building, 155 Indiana Ave., Valparaiso North Porter County Government Complex, 3560 Willowcreek Road, Portage Valparaiso Fire Training Center, 355 Evans Ave., Valparaiso Chesterton Town Hall, 790 Broadway, Chesterton State Street Community Church, 209 State St., LaPorte LaPorte County Office Complex, 302 W. 8th St., Michigan City
In 2019, after state Sen. Eddie Melton, D-Gary, announced his bid for Indiana governor, Spencer considered a run for the Democratic nomination in House District 3. At the time, incumbent Ragen Hatcher, D-Gary, planned on running for Meltons seat in the state Senate. However, when Melton dropped out of the gubernatorial race, Hatcher filed for reelection and Spencer opted not to run.

Spencer said he is interested in investing in the city's parks is excited to learn more about Gary's police and fire departments.

"I have so much to learn and take in," Spencer said. "I am a sponge at the moment."
CROWN POINT  A jury heard closing arguments Thursday in the trial of Kian Moore, 23, of Hammond, who was charged with the 2019 murder of 23-year-old Quinten Kendrick-Taylor. The trial began Monday is Lake Criminal Court Judge Natalie Bokota's courtroom.

Moore was allegedly in the backseat of a white Hyundai Elantra around 11 p.m. on Oct. 22, 2019, when he fired multiple shots at Kendrick-Taylor, prosecutors said. The shooting occurred outside the victim's home on the 1300 block of Liberty Court in Hammond. Kendrick-Taylor's death was ruled a homicide.

Deputy Prosecutor Arturo Balcazar told the jury to consider the "totality" of the evidence, which includes video footage of a car driving away from the scene around the time of the shooting, a license-plate reader that identified the vehicle in the area, phone messages from Moore indicating he obtained a gun shortly before the killing and testimony from Leila Shojaee, 38, who was in the car at the time of the shooting.

He said the evidence corroborates Shojaee's testimony. She told jurors Wednesday that she and co-defendant Christian Buchanan-Purdiman, 26, left her apartment in East Chicago around 9 p.m. the night of the shooting to pick up Moore. They drove to a liquor store to buy alcohol and drove to the victim's home.

She said she heard gunshots, turned around and saw "Kian shooting out of the window."

"When you use a firearm and you point it at someone," Balcazar said, "it shows the intent to kill."

In his closing arguments, defense attorney Scott King attempted to discredit Shojaee's testimony. He reminded the jury that Shojaee negotiated a plea deal with prosecutors a few months after she and the co-defendants were charged in March 2020, and faces a maximum of two-and-a-half years in prison when she could have been facing 60 if convicted.

"Look to the benefit she was given," King said. "It's all tied to their [the state's] approval of her testimony against Kian."

She and Buchanan-Purdiman each pleaded guilty to assisting a criminal in connection with the incident, records show. In exchange, prosecutors agreed to drop murder charges against both of them.

He also mentioned she neglected to tell police about the incident until she was arrested, even though she said she was frightened by what happened. Balcazar said it was because she felt threatened by Moore and Buchanan-Purdiman, the latter of whom she was dating at the time and she said had abused her.

"It wasn't until she knew that both Kian and Christian couldn't get to her that she felt safe enough to tell the truth," Balcazar said.

King said although Kendrick-Taylor's death was tragic, there could be more tragedy by finding Moore guilty if evidence does not prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.

"We don't compound the injustice of that situation with injustice here," King said.

GALLERY: Registered sex offenders in Hammond Almodovar Sr., Jose Ambrose, Heather Bailey, Daniel Baltazar Rosales, Fermin Barbosa Jr., Eliseo Barr, Raymond Bates, Gerelle Beckett, Kevin Bozek, Richard Bray, Nicholas Chapa Sr., Gerardo Chaverra, Hernando Clough, Leon Corbin, Robert Crespo, Ariane Dean, Dennis Deberry, Raymond Dejesus, David Deluna, Enrique Espinosa Jr., Ciprian Evans Jr., William Evans, Brian Fenes, John Flores, Joshua Franco, Samuel Gajewski, Raymond Gibson, Johnny Gomez, Ernesto Gordon, Kenneth Guerrero, Lucio Guevara, Stephanie Guzman, Felix Hall, Ingemar Hammond, Jerold Hernandez, Jerry Huddleston, Thomas Jagla, David Jeronimo, Victor Jimenez-Serna, Orlando Jones, Samuel Keith, Ronald Kelding, Nathan Lagunas, Ruben Lenart, Joseph Lewis, Steven Love, Anthony Lucas Jr., Ryan Maclin, Robert Madrid Jr., Raul Mancilla, Robert Martin Jr., Kenneth Martin, Ryan Martinez, Clemente McKinnie, Alfonzo Morris, Chauncey Newton, Larry Niemiec Jr., Richard Niemin, Christopher Orich, Roger Pagan, Israel Patterson, Rickey Perales, Reymundo Perez, Victor Pitts, Scott Pizano Sr., Thomas Plaza, Lester Quiles Jr., Alejandro Richardson, Dennis Rivas Santiago, Angel Roark, Kevin Ruiz, Moises Salgado, David Sanchez, Jesse Serrato-Flores, Hugo Smith, Mark Smith, Maurice Snyder, Sean Spears, Marlon Stewart Jr., Charles Stout, Jason Swiontek, Gregory Thomas, James Tovalin, Hector Uruchima, Luis Vantrease, Keith Winters, Merle Witting, John
Just months before this weeks mass shooting in Lewiston, Maines Legislature considered three major bills to tighten gun restrictions: one to require criminal background checks for gun purchases, another to create a 72-hour waiting period before someone could take possession of a gun after purchasing it and a third to outlaw modifications that make semiautomatic weapons more deadly.

All three bills were defeated in the Maine Senate by sizable margins.

Maine, a largely blue state where Democrats control both chambers of the State Legislature and the governorship, has a long history of resisting gun control measures.

The shootings in Lewiston on Wednesday that left 18 people dead are already fueling renewed calls from gun control groups to expand firearms restrictions in Maine. But much of the states political power base, which is rooted in rural communities in the states north and western mountains, is unlikely to be swayed, said Mark Brewer, a political science professor at the University of Maine.

In regions where hunting is a big part of the culture, if you are going to talk about restricting gun rights, Mr. Brewer said, you are going to have a hard time.

The authorities have not made public any information about what type of firearm was used in the Lewiston shootings on Wednesday, nor anything about how the weapon was obtained.

Everytown for Gun Safety, a group that advocates for tighter restrictions on guns, ranks Maine 25th in the nation in the strictness of its gun laws, with more permissive laws than nearby Massachusetts, Vermont and Connecticut. In the region, only New Hampshire has a lower ranking than Maine.

When you look at the track record of Maine it stands out that the state has rejected at every juncture common sense gun laws that make communities safer, said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown.

The debate over gun control flared earlier this year when a man who had recently been released from prison killed his parents and two friends and shot at motorists on a highway in April in Cumberland and Sagadahoc Counties.

Opponents of stricter gun regulation said the incident showed that laws such as one barring felons like the gunman from possessing firearms do not help prevent violence.

Maine has a kind of bipartisan support for the Second Amendment in its most extreme form, Jackie Sartoris, the chief prosecutor in Cumberland County, told the Portland Press Herald in September.

Maine does restrict the possession of guns by people suffering mental challenges who are deemed to be a danger to themselves or others. Instead of a so-called red flag law of the sort that many states have passed, which allow the police or the public to petition for a temporary removal of a persons firearms, Maine has a yellow flag law with the additional requirement of a medical professionals opinion.

Lynn Ellis, legislative policy director for the Maine Gun Safety Coalition, said there were a few victories for her group this year, including the defeat of bills that would have allowed the arming of teachers.

But for the most part, this years session was viewed as a disappointment by gun control advocates.

As the states legislative session was winding down in July, Giffords, an advocacy group for stricter gun regulations founded by former Representative Gabrielle Giffords, pointed out that Maine is on track to be one of the only Democratic-controlled states in the country to fail to take bold action on gun safety this year.

Calls for expanded gun restrictions in Maine have grown louder in recent years particularly from progressive Democrats, many of whom are concentrated in the southern part of the state where Portland, the states largest city, is.

But guns remain an important part of the culture in the rural, blue-collar areas. According to a 2020 study by the RAND Corporation, 45 percent of Maine households owned at least one gun between 2006 and 2017, compared with the national average of 32 percent.

Despite the high rate of gun ownership, gun violence in Maine had been below the national average.

Mainers could look and say, this is a problem elsewhere, said Mr. Brewer. They are not going to be able to say that anymore.
One of the art worlds top magazine editors was fired Thursday night after the publishers of Artforum said that the staffs decision to post an open letter about the Israel-Hamas war failed to meet the organizations standards.

The editor in chief, David Velasco, said he had been terminated after six years as Artforums leader. He had worked at the publication, considered among the worlds most prestigious art magazines, since 2005.

I have no regrets, Velasco said in an email. Im disappointed that a magazine that has always stood for freedom of speech and the voices of artists has bent to outside pressure.

Thousands of artists, academics and cultural workers, including Velasco, signed the Oct. 19 open letter, which supported Palestinian liberation and criticized the silence of cultural institutions about the Israeli bombing of residents in Gaza.
Its an understandable complaint. Of course, Chappelle seeks out contentious subjects  his lawyerly explanation of the antisemitism of Kanye West on Saturday Night Live last year does not help his cause in this current controversy  and no one exaggerates their own victimhood more. Hes still saying, Any minute theyre going to cancel me despite the fact that hes performing for huge crowds and has another Netflix special on the way. But the media attention that Chappelles comedy gets is obsessive, polarized and often tediously literal.

It brings to mind one of the most memorable bits of this century, his 2004 joke about Ja Rule being asked to weigh in on Sept. 11. Mocking how our media ask celebrities to be sober authorities making sense of tragic events, Chappelle said, I want some answers that Ja Rule might not have right now.

This joke has aged tremendously well. Social media has only amplified the opinions of the Ja Rules of the world. The algorithms that run our feeds are making sure you have Justin Bieber and Gigi Hadid to explain the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Now every corporation and middle school seems to have its own foreign policy. Comedians have been perhaps the most outspoken of artists, with Sarah Silverman and Amy Schumer consistently commenting on Israel and antisemitism on social media, earning praise and condemnation. The comic Bassem Youssef went viral for his appearance on Piers Morgans show. Obviously, in a democratic society, its important for people to feel free to speak out on matters of gravity, and an emotional response on this issue is not only understandable but necessary. But its also reasonable to think that you should want some answers that Dave Chappelle might not have right now.

Chappelle is a tricky case, because since his Ja Rule joke, he has embraced the sober truth-teller role, telling magnetic stories that sometimes end in lessons, not punchlines. His take on Israel has been mostly sober, but other comics are incorporating the issue into their work. Matt Ruby put 10 minutes of his jokes from a club set online, defending himself by saying, This is how Jews handle crisis. The German stand-up Shahak Shapira released a 25-minute special, Baklavas From Gaza. Both sounded like rough drafts, but they seem motivated less by a blunt interest in changing hearts and minds than in comforting them.

The seeming hopelessness of the conflict in the Middle East has always drawn comics looking to push buttons. In one of the most high-risk Saturday Night Live monologues ever, Louis C.K. likened Israelis and Palestinians to his daughters fighting, with him as America trying to mediate. Since he had sandwiched this metaphor between a joke about his mild racism and another about trying to understand pedophilia, he managed the feat of making the subject seem safe.
Jump to: Tricky Clues

FRIDAY PUZZLE  Are you feeling contrary today? It has been a long week, and some of us may be feeling a tad grumpy. On the other hand, its also Friday, so for those of us who have the weekends off, we have that going for us.

Adrian Johnsons clue at 26D, Response from one who aint gonna, made me laugh, and that boosted my mood. People who have not solved crosswords dont realize that there is humor and sometimes poignancy in the puzzles, and they look at me as if I have two heads when I explain that to them. It could be that its because these are random people that I meet on the street, but thats beside the point.

Crosswords are also a great distraction from what ails you. This story by Jamie Sumner, a childrens author, reminds me of that. So lets set aside our cares, just for a moment; lets sit down and solve a puzzle together.
That sponsor, State Senator Julia Salazar, a Democrat who represents Hasidic enclaves in Brooklyn, announced her intention to introduce the bill the day after the first Times article published, adding that she was disturbed by many of The Timess findings, particularly relating to corporal punishment.

Later, on Twitter, now known as X, Ms. Salazar said she did not have any evidence that there was a pattern of corporal punishment in yeshivas. Ms. Salazar did not respond to a message seeking comment on Thursday.

Assemblyman Charles Lavine, a Nassau Democrat who sponsored the legislation, said he wrote the bill because he did not know corporal punishment was allowed in private schools until reading about it in The Times. I am very pleased that New York is protecting our children by outlawing the use of physical punishment in our schools, he said on Thursday. The message to any abusive adults is very simple: Keep your hands off our kids!

The legislation was one of several bills proposed in response to The Timess reporting, which also exposed a lack of basic education in many Hasidic schools, especially the schools that enroll only boys. Most of the other proposals did not pass in this years legislative session.

In June, New York City completed its own long-stalled investigation into Hasidic boys schools. They examined more than two dozen such schools, called yeshivas, and determined that 18 of them were not providing students with adequate instruction in secular subjects.
Michael Tracy, a Bronx-bred graffiti artist known as Tracy 168 who turned subway cars into rolling canvases for his spray-paint murals, becoming a breakout star of the New York streets in the 1970s in an outlaw medium that became central to early hip-hop culture, died on Sept. 3 in the Bronx. He was 65.

His death, of a heart attack, was confirmed by his niece Liza Tracy. It was not widely reported at the time.

Mr. Tracy, who started out tagging buses at the end of the 1960s, became one of the most prominent  if anonymous  graffiti artists in the 1970s and 80s, an era when subway trains slathered in colorful bubble letters and cartoonish images became an internationally recognized visual trope of New York culture.

To some, this explosion of illegal folk art was a bleak symbol of a battered city plagued by lawlessness; to others, it was an emblem of an era of creativity and hedonistic abandon, and one that gave voice to marginalized youth from tough neighborhoods who otherwise felt they had little.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has selected Derrick Jung as the new resident inspector at the Surry nuclear power plant. The plant, operated by Dominion Energy, is located in southeastern Virginia.



Jung joined the NRC in March 2022 as a project engineer through the Resident Inspector Development Program in the Region II office in Atlanta. Before joining the NRC, he was a control systems engineer at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia, and a nuclear engineer at the Naval Reactors Laboratory Field Office in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania. Jung earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Old Dominion University.



"Derrick brings to Surry a robust engineering background and a keen understanding of the critical safety protocols that underlie our mission at the NRC," said NRC Region II Administrator Laura Dudes. "Our resident inspectors are the frontline of ensuring safe and secure operations, and we are confident that Derrick will excel in this vital role."



Jung joins Senior Resident Inspector Silas Kennedy at Surry. Each U.S. commercial nuclear power plant has at least two NRC resident inspectors who monitor day-to-day operations at the plant. They serve as the agency's eyes and ears at the facility, conducting inspections, monitoring significant projects, and interacting with plant workers and the public.

Contact: Dave Gasperson, 404-997-4417
She met the johns for sex in northeast Columbus, Ohio, then drugged them with fentanyl, stole their possessions, and left them for dead, state prosecutors said. All told, they said, the woman killed four men from January to June.

The woman, Rebecca Auborn, 33, was indicted Wednesday on four counts of murder and other felonies, including manslaughter, aggravated robbery, assault and tampering with evidence, according to a news release from the office of Dave Yost, the attorney general of Ohio.

Dont buy sex in Ohio, Mr. Yost said. It ruins lives and could cost you yours.

The investigation began after a human trafficking task force in Mr. Yosts office received information that a woman was allegedly meeting men for sex in northeast Columbus, then dosing the johns with drugs in order to steal their possessions, according to the release. It did not indicate what items were stolen.

Investigators with the Columbus Division of Police and Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation connected Auborn to several overdoses and robberies, including the four deaths earlier this year and a victim in December, who was drugged but survived, according to the statement. Additional victims may exist, it noted.
For more than a year, Mr. Smiths team, following a path first taken by the House select committee that investigated what led to the events of Jan. 6, 2021, has been trying to determine whether Mr. Trump and his aides violated federal wire fraud laws in their fund-raising. The former presidents team raised nearly $250 million with widespread claims that the election had been rigged against Mr. Trump, even though he had been told several times that there was no substantial evidence the vote results had been marred by cheating.

Prosecutors had been drilling down on Save America and the Trump campaign since at least November last year, issuing grand jury subpoenas and reviewing reams of records. But the financial strand of Mr. Smiths investigation was not mentioned in the indictment filed in Washington in August that accused Mr. Trump of conspiring to remain in power by subverting the normal democratic process.

Mr. Trumps team has long maintained that the financial inquiry by Mr. Smiths office would struggle to yield any charges. Political fund-raising materials often engage in bombast or exaggeration, and a fine line exists between criminal behavior and solicitations protected by the First Amendment.

The House committee raised the issue about potential problems with Mr. Trumps fund-raising efforts at a hearing in June last year. At the hearing, Representative Zoe Lofgren, Democrat of California, laid out the panels account of how Save America and the Trump campaign raised millions of dollars after the election by claiming they were fighting widespread fraud when they knew there was none.

Throughout the committees investigation, we found evidence that the Trump campaign and its surrogates misled donors as to where their funds would go and what they would be used for, Ms. Lofgren said. So not only was there the big lie, there was the big rip-off.
The United States carried out two airstrikes against facilities used by Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and its proxies in eastern Syria early Friday in retaliation for a flurry of recent rocket and drone attacks against American forces in Iraq and Syria.

The strikes by Air Force F-16 jets, against a weapons storage facility and an ammunition storage facility, were intended to send a strong signal to Iran to rein in the attacks the Biden administration has blamed on Tehrans proxies in Syria and Iraq without escalating the conflict in the Middle East, U.S. officials said. The targets, while limited in number, represent an escalation in striking facilities used by Irans own forces in the region, not just the militias in Iraq and Syria that Tehran helps to arm, train and equip.

These precision self-defense strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said in a statement.

The United States does not seek conflict and has no intention nor desire to engage in further hostilities, but these Iranian-backed attacks against U.S. forces are unacceptable and must stop, Mr. Austin said.

Since Hamass surprise attack against Israel on Oct. 7, President Biden and his aides have sought to contain the war between Israel and Hamas, and prevent it from spilling over into a regional conflict with Iran and its proxies in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq.

To that end, the United States has deployed two aircraft carriers to the eastern Mediterranean near Israel and dozens of additional warplanes to the Persian Gulf region to deter Iran and its proxies in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq from engaging in a regional war. The Pentagon has also rushed additional Patriot antimissile batteries and other air defenses to several Gulf nations to protect U.S. troops and bases in the region.

But with the near daily attacks against U.S. forces over the past 10 days  the Pentagons tally climbed to at least 19 by late Thursday  pressure had been mounting on the United States to respond militarily.
The ballerina Alessandra Ferri has had many dance lives. Now she will have another, offstage. On Tuesday, the Vienna State Ballet announced that Ferri, a former principal dancer with American Ballet Theater, would be its next artistic director, succeeding Martin Schlapfer when his contract ends in August 2025.

The news comes as something of a surprise. Although the Italian-born Ferri directed the dance program of the Spoleto Festival in Italy from 2008 to 2014, she had not previously expressed ambitions to run a ballet company. And at 60, she still has a thriving performing career. Ferri tried to retire from the stage in 2007, but it didnt take. Two years later she was back, performing in pieces by Martha Clarke and Lars Lubovitch, among others. In 2015, she created a major role in Wayne McGregors Woolf Works and, the next year, at 53, she returned to Ballet Theater to dance Juliet in Romeo and Juliet.

Life is full of surprises, Ferri said, with a laugh, during a conversation in London the day after she returned from Vienna and the formal announcement of the job. It does feel to me like a natural progression.

Ferri will have a big job in Vienna. The 102-dancer company gives around 80 performances a year of its own repertory at both the Vienna State Opera and the Volksoper theaters, as well as appearing in opera productions. And Ferris job will also include running the affiliated Ballet Academy, which was hit by allegations of abuse in 2019.
In the days after Artforum magazine fired its top editor, David Velasco, because of an open letter it published about the Israel-Hamas war, at least four other editors resigned and several prominent artists said they would boycott the publication unless Velasco was reinstated.

Divisions over how to discuss the conflict in the Middle East have frayed yearslong relationships between collectors and artists. On Friday, Nicole Eisenman and Nan Goldin criticized the magazines owner for terminating Velasco, who had been its editor in chief for six years, and said they would no longer work with Artforum.

I have never lived through a more chilling period, said Goldin, who is one of the most celebrated living photographers and signed the open letter that called for Palestinian liberation and a cease-fire. People are being blacklisted. People are losing their jobs.

At least four Artforum editors have resigned after the decision to fire Velasco: Zack Hatfield, a senior editor; Emily LaBarge, a freelance editor; Kate Sutton, an associate editor; and Chloe Wyma, a senior editor. On social media, Hatfield posted that Velascos firing is unacceptable and bodes ominously for the future of the magazine; Wyma wrote that it violates everything I had cherished about the magazine and makes my work there untenable.

In addition, nearly 50 Artforum employees and contributors have signed a letter demanding that Velasco be reinstated, saying his termination not only carries chilling implications for Artforums editorial independence but disaffirms the very mission of the magazine: to provide a forum for multiple perspectives and cultural debate. A spokeswoman for Penske Media Corporation, which owns Artforum, said on Saturday afternoon that the magazine had not seen the letter.

After the magazine published an open letter on Oct. 19 that did not initially mention the attack by Hamas that killed more than 1,400 Israelis, there was a backlash among some readers.

A sudden campaign of letters denounced the thousands of artists and cultural workers, including Velasco, who had signed the letter. Gallerists urged people to remove their names from the letter, and several collectors asked the Wexner Center for the Arts, at Ohio State University, to shut down an exhibition of Jumana Manna, a Palestinian artist who had signed the open letter. (A museum spokesman said it would continue to exhibit Mannas work; she confirmed that the show was still on.)

Artforum, which has about 30,000 print subscribers and gets about 8.3 million pageviews annually, distanced itself from the open letter after receiving pressure from advertisers. The magazines publishers later released a statement that said the post was not consistent with Artforums editorial process, adding that it was widely misinterpreted as a statement from the magazine about highly sensitive and complex geopolitical circumstances.

More than a dozen artists told The New York Times that threats of reprisal from collectors made it difficult to publicly defend their decision to sign the open letter, emphasizing that their intention was to call for peace.

Collectors are always, in one way or another, making a big deal out of something an artist signed, said Eisenman, who has exhibited with institutions like the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Cleveland Museum of Art. But it is still surprising to learn how many collectors believe that owning a few drawings of mine means they get to tell me what to do with my name.

She added: I want to echo what activists have been yelling in the streets: Not in my name. This war will not be done in my name. I resent these cowardly bullying and blackmail campaigns to distract everyone in the art world from the central demand of the letter, which was: cease-fire!

Some collectors tried to convince artists to retract their signatures. Others in the art world threatened to voice their concerns by selling works from those who signed the letter.

We have a deaccession plan that would diminish the artists status, Sarah Lehat Blumenstein, who fund-raises for a major museum, wrote to members of a WhatsApp group organized as a response to the open letter.

In an interview, Blumenstein, who is Jewish, said that such a plan was not active and that her efforts to hold artists accountable came from a fear that rising antisemitism was endangering her right to exist.

Goldin said people had incorrectly conflated antisemitism with supporting Palestinians.

Whatever position we took was our right to free speech, she said. I have no plans to work with Artforum because they fired someone for whom I have enormous respect.
Ida Applebroog was born Ida Applebaum on Nov. 11, 1929, in the Bronx. Her father, Isidore Applebaum, had moved from Poland six years earlier but had brought over his wife, Sara, and his older daughter, Frieda, only that year. A third daughter, Gloria, was born eight years later.

The household was not a happy one. Sara was depressed, Isidore was at times violent, and both adhered to a confining version of ultra-Orthodox Judaism. Despite this less than encouraging environment, Ms. Applebroogs artistic impulses developed early.

The first time I ever did know I was an artist is when I was about 5 years old, she recalled. I wanted my father to draw something for me, and what he drew for me was a stick figure. And I showed him what I can do, and at that moment I knew I was the artist and he wasnt.

What she had drawn was a princess wearing a crown.

She finished high school against her fathers wishes. He was a furrier and wanted her to work for him. She did that, too, for a while  but after she told her mother that some customers had groped her while she modeled fur coats, she was allowed to stop.

Ms. Applebroog enrolled in the New York State Institute of Applied Arts and Sciences in 1948 and then worked briefly at an advertising agency. The sexual harassment there was even worse than it had been in her fathers shop, so she moved on to a job in the picture collection of the New York Public Library. Eager to broaden her education in liberal as well as commercial arts, she took night classes at City College.

She married Gideon Horowitz in 1950. They had four children and, in 1956, moved to Chicago, where he was pursuing a doctorate at the University of Chicagos School of Social Service Administration. Once her youngest was in kindergarten, Ms. Applebroog began studying at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she was deeply struck by the work of Claes Oldenburg. She also made jewelry, which her husband and children sold at art fairs.
Dear listeners,

Todays playlist is a homage to the music of 1989. Yes, the year. Why, you ask? Does it have anything to do with  you know  a certain musician rereleasing one of her most popular albums, with a title referencing the year she was born? I have no idea what youre talking about. I simply wanted to celebrate a staggeringly great year in music.

Consider just some of the albums released during this annus mirabilis: Like a Prayer. 3 Feet High and Rising. Pauls Boutique. Doolittle. Rhythm Nation 1814. Pretty Hate Machine. Disintegration. Full Moon Fever. The Stone Roses. Bleach. I could go on, but I have a playlist to get to.

For brevitys sake, I limited myself to 15 songs. I left off some artists who have made appearances on previous playlists; I adore Disintegration, for example, but I also did an entire Cure playlist a few months ago. Some 1989 hits, too, are so ubiquitous  Love Shack, Free Fallin, Like a Prayer  that I dont need to put them on the playlist: You will probably hear them in the next few days as a result of simply going about your life. And some omissions are just personal. As a small child, I was so terrified of Jack Nicholsons Joker in the Tim Burton-directed Batman that Princes No. 1 hit Batdance still kind of creeps me out.

That still left plenty of great songs to choose from, though. On this playlist, 1989 reveals itself to be a year when inventive, imaginative sampling had reached the mainstream in the music of Beastie Boys, De La Soul and Public Enemy; a generation of female pop stars like Madonna and Janet Jackson were coming into their power; and the alt-rock wave was beginning to form underground thanks to artists like Pixies and Nirvana.
Handel is not a composer typically associated with controversy, but the New York Philharmonic found itself entering a difficult public discourse with its performances of the oratorio Israel in Egypt this week at David Geffen Hall.

As thousands have died in the Israel-Hamas war, and as the conflict has inflamed tensions around the world, Cambridge Universitys opera society has canceled a performance of Handels Saul, which depicts the Israelite Davids victory over the Philistine Goliath. That is the oratorio Handel wrote before Israel in Egypt, about a powerless people fleeing the subjugation of an oppressive state.

Israel in Egypt is less dramatic than Saul, and for its concerts, the Philharmonic opted for a program note. In it, the organizations leadership clarified that this weeks performances were planned more than a year ago and added, What we could not have anticipated is recent world events, making the timing of this program particularly relevant.

The oratorios tale could have been a source of empathy and catharsis for audiences, but thats not exactly the piece Handel wrote. For those familiar with Messiah, Handels other English-language oratorio that lifts its text from Scripture, Israel in Egypt is an oddity. Written almost entirely for choral forces, with few showpieces for the soloists, it narrates the Jewish exodus that Moses led from Egypt. To modern ears, the text painting of the 10 plagues is so lightweight that it verges on silliness: The orchestra leaps to depict frogs, buzzes for flies and thumps for hailstones.
Colbert pointed out that most Americans want bans on assault-style weapons and for Congress to take action to prevent more mass shootings, yet no one on either side of the aisle has successfully stopped them from happening.

So, ask your representative, What will you do? If they dont have an answer immediately at hand, if they say its too soon to talk about this, that means theyve never really given it any serious thought. Because theyve had plenty of time since Uvalde and Marjory Stoneman Douglas and Sandy Hook and the Pulse nightclub. So if they dont have an answer now, they will never have an answer.  STEPHEN COLBERT

He expressed disappointment over a lack of new ideas from recently elected House speaker Mike Johnson, a self-professed devoutly religious man, who offered little comfort to Americans in a statement during his first day in office, which amounted to little more than thoughts and prayers.

Were already capable of hope and prayer ourselves. Youre capable of governing, theoretically. And Im sorry if that sounds like too hard of a job for you. If that seems like too hard of a job, you know whos really got a hard job now? The people in Lewiston, Maine.  STEPHEN COLBERT And there are very few people like Mainers. I know Mainers. I love Mainers. Theyre strong people. Theyve got Moxie  literally, its the name of the official state soft drink. It tastes like carbonated cough syrup, but they drink it anyway, cause Mainers are tough. These are people whose idea of a beach is a collection of jagged rocks near freezing water. Their state flower, the Maine state flower  and this is true  is a frickin pine cone!  STEPHEN COLBERT And I dare anyone in power to show a fraction of the courage of all the families who have faced their tragedies and faced our failure to change.  STEPHEN COLBERT

The Punchiest Punchlines (Getting to Know You Edition)
Here in Medora, a tiny town in the badlands of western North Dakota, Teddy Roosevelt is everywhere.

The cabin from his Maltese Cross Ranch sits at the gateway of the 70,447-acre Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Downtown, youll find the historic Rough Riders Hotel, pince-nez-wearing teddy bears in the gift shops and, in front of the Old Town Hall Theater, a bronze statue of the man himself.

And soon, visitors will also find something else: a presidential library.

The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, set to open on July 4, 2026, will pay tribute to the 26th presidents relentless, resilient spirit and environmental vision. Perched dramatically on a butte, it aims to be a peoples presidential library, rooted not in books and archives  there are none  but immersive exhibits that challenge visitors to get, as Roosevelt famously put it, in the arena.

The $333 million project, which is currently under construction, has largely been flying below the radar outside the state. Mention it, and you tend to get a puzzled look and two questions: Doesnt Roosevelt, who served from 1901 to 1909, already have a presidential library? (No.) And why the heck is this one being built in North Dakota?
At the Kentucky Association for Economic Development's (KAED) Kentucky Economic Forum held this week at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center in Covington, a Kentucky Power employee was named a 2023 Allied Professional of the Year.



Photo attached (L to R): Daryl Smith, Amanda Clark and Haley McCoy, who is the current KAED president and CEO.

Amanda Clark, external affairs manager, was presented the award for her previous and ongoing role in economic growth in the state.

The forum is the annual meeting of the KAED during which the state's economic developers, job creators and policy makers celebrate economic development wins and discuss new statewide job creation and growth strategies.

Daryl Smith, economic development project manager for Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities, and previous KAED chair, presented the award saying that recipients of the Allied Professional award "play an invaluable role in a community's economic development efforts."

Smith shared many of Clark's qualifications, including her support of local and regional economic development partners by assisting with site visits, recruitment trips and data gathering for requests for information (RFI).

"She works closely with critical partners, such as the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development, One East Kentucky, Ashland Alliance and KAED; she manages the Kentucky Power Economic Growth Grant (K-PEGG) program; and she's a powerful advocate for advancing streams and strengthening the profession for all Kentuckians," Smith said.

Kentucky Power's vice president of external affairs and customer service, Amy Elliott, was also in attendance. She said, Kentucky Power is leading the way in economic development, thanks to the hard work and dedication of the company's external affairs team.

"We are very fortunate to have Amanda Clark and Bob Shurtleff leading our external affairs efforts," Elliott said. "They are both passionate about building a better future for all Kentuckians through successful economic development strategies. This recognition by KAED for Amanda's work is a proud moment for all of us at Kentucky Power."
On a chilly Wednesday evening in October, the sounds filling Ambre Romeros home were familiar: her grandchildren unloading the dishwasher, her husband, just off work, watching television. Ms. Romero was getting ready for her shift serving cocktails at the MGM Grand Detroit, the casino where she has worked since 1999. She pulled on her blue bustier top, said goodbye to her family and drove to a nearby gas station to pick up Red Bull and Lucky 13 scratch-off tickets.

Ms. Romero, who has long reddish-brown hair and a wry smile, enjoys the predictability of her nights. Her shifts revolve around the regulars, whose families, health problems and pet names she knows well. The work is unceasingly social, which is just how Ms. Romero likes it; shes a former dancer who turned to cocktail serving because it felt like performing.

But Ms. Romero, like so many millions of Americans, has seen her job remade in recent years by the arrival of new technologies automating parts of her work.

When ChatGPT was released, about a year ago, public focus shifted to the knowledge economy jobs that artificial intelligence could transform, from law to copy writing. Goldman Sachs predicted that the equivalent of some 300 million full-time jobs could be automated with generative A.I., the technology that can create texts, images and sounds in response to prompts.
They posted videos on social media of the time he promised that China would remain open to the outside world. They shared photos of him, standing in ankle-deep mud, visiting victims of a flood. They even noted the economic growth target for the first year of his premiership: 7.5 percent.

The death Friday of Li Keqiang, 68, prompted spontaneous mourning online. Mr. Li served as premier, Chinas No. 2 official, for a decade until last March.

Among many Chinese, Mr. Lis death produced a swell of nostalgia for what he represented: a time of greater economic possibility and openness to private business. The reaction was jarring and showed the dissatisfaction in China with the leadership of Xi Jinping, Chinas hard-line leader who grabbed an unprecedented third term in office last year after maneuvering to have the longstanding limit of two terms abolished.
BuzzFeed is in advanced talks to sell Complex Networks, the streetwise digital media company behind the popular ComplexCon cultural festival, at less than half the price it paid for the company two years ago, a sign of the industrywide troubles afflicting digital media.

Ntwrk, an e-commerce company backed by LiveNation Entertainment and Main Street Advisors, is close to paying less than $140 million for Complex, according to two people familiar with the deal. BuzzFeed paid about $300 million for Complex in 2021.

Buzzfeed is planning to keep First We Feast, the division of Complex responsible for the popular Hot Ones interview franchise, after the transaction, one of the people said. First We Feast, which has racked up billions of views on YouTube, will be a part of Buzzfeeds portfolio of brands focused on food culture, including the recipe guide Tasty.

When BuzzFeed went public two years ago, it made Complex a centerpiece of its pitch to investors. Complex was reliably profitable, a milestone that had eluded many in the digital media industry, and its portfolio of brands seemed a natural fit for BuzzFeeds focus on young audiences.
For that, I skipped melted chocolate in favor of cocoa powder. Melted chocolate tends to dry out cake batter, and unless youre using 100 percent unsweetened chocolate, adding bar chocolate also means adding sugar, giving you a little less control over the final sweetness. Use the best-quality cocoa you can find, and make sure its labeled Dutch process. This means the cocoa that has been alkalized, neutralizing some of the natural acidity and giving the cocoa a darker color and a rounder, more roasted flavor.

To ensure a supple cake, I opted for an oil-based batter instead of a butter-based one. Oil is liquid at room temperature, so oil-based cakes tend to resist drying out better than butter-based ones. But because a little bit of butterfat flavor is always welcome, I use creme fraiche (or sour cream) in place of a more traditional liquid, such as milk or buttermilk. The acid in creme fraiche also reacts with the baking soda in the dry ingredients, creating lift so the cake bakes up light and bouncy.
Fine, Ill watch one of his movies, a commenter wrote. Omg love seeing this side of him, wrote another.

His lighthearted tone in these videos stands in contrast not only to his films, known for their haunting and violent themes, but also to some reflections he has made in his recent interviews. When GQ asked him about his own mortality in September, Scorsese said that he thought about it all the time. I was a great collector, a great obsessive glutton for cinema and books, and now they all have to go away, he said. Once you know that you got to let go and youre going to die, everything changes.

Providing a full picture of Martin Scorsese to the public is a significant part of why his daughter incorporates him on social media and why, years ago, she encouraged him to start an Instagram account, so the public could not only see him at work but also glimpse family photos and see him with his dogs. Theres also a lesser-seen part of his life, which is his role in caring for his wife and Francescas mother, Helen Morris, who has Parkinsons. Hes a lot more private about that stuff, Francesca said. People would think its this luxurious, glitz and glamour lifestyle. But then on the other hand, hes in and out of hospital visits with her.

Some of that life experience was channeled into Fish Out of Water, her thesis film at N.Y.U., which was about a young mother who has an opportunity to reconnect with her estranged family after she is approached by her father with news of her mothers failing health.

While Martin Scorsese first dipped a toe into social media on Instagram, it was the introduction of TikTok that has allowed Francesca to give the world another perspective on her father, she said.

Its really awesome to see that one of the most incredible filmmakers, hes not just this big star that people see  I mean, he is  but hes also a totally normal person that walks around in his pajamas, plays with his dogs and just helps his daughter with her math homework if he can, she said. People love seeing that side of him.
On a recent, rainy evening in London, movie fans gathered at the British Film Institute theater for a much-anticipated premiere, though the film was made nearly 50 years ago: Horace Oves newly restored Pressure, considered the first feature by a Black British director.

Ove died last month, just weeks before his film was set to be celebrated internationally with screenings at both the London and New York Film Festivals. Herbert Norville, who starred in Pressure when he was 15, said in a speech at the London screening that he hoped the audience saw what it was like being Black, being British and growing up in an era where racism was rife.

A roiling social-realist drama shot in 1974, Pressure follows Tony, a young Black Londoner looking for a job and a sense of belonging. He is pulled in several directions: by his activist older brother, by his pious West Indian mother and by white British society, which refuses to embrace him.

Gradually radicalized by encounters with potential employers, a friends landlord and the police, Tony reaches a boiling point. In an interview after the screening, Norville, who played Tony, described the film as pulling no punches in its depiction of the reality of Black life in London in the 70s. In an earlier Q. and A. with the audience, he had noted that the films themes of institutional racism and police brutality were still relevant in Britain today.
New York City has been the backdrop for many TV series over the years, from Law & Order to Sex and the City to Succession. But the Showtime series Billions, which ends on Sunday after seven seasons, may have been the New Yorkiest of them all.

Its clear from the opening credits, which feature an eagle-eyes view of Lower Manhattan  but no actors  that New York City is not merely a location but the star.

The showrunners, Brian Koppelman and David Levien, planned it that way.

The city plays a central role on the show, said Mr. Levien. We always felt like being here and knowing the city was like our secret weapon.

Mr. Koppelman and Mr. Levien were both born on Long Island but eventually moved to New York City. (Nothing makes you more desperate to be in Manhattan than growing up on Long Island, Mr. Koppelman said.)
Prom season it was not. A blustery fall wind whipped through the rows of radicchio, across the butternut vines and edged the dance floor. And this was no high school-gym full of awkward teenagers; rather, it was a barn full of farmers. Dressed in their flannel and their finest, they danced into the night at a shindig called Farm Prom.

There was an oyster farmer with his date, a sometime organic-farm-stand cashier in a vintage fur, and a sungold-tomato grower in a plastic prom-king crown. At D.J. decks set atop a bale of hay was a flower farmer in a silver gown, bopping her head, which was topped with the Carhartt beanie she wears to work the fields.

But these farmers were not tilling the fields of Americas heartland.

Outside the barn doors were beach houses and wineries and the seaside resorts of Eastern Long Island. Few of the farmers stomping work boots on the dance floor came from agrarian roots. Most were corporate or academic refugees, who in recent years said they found new meaning in growing things.

In some ways, the partygoers were living out a fantasy shared by many of the laptop-bound: to leave behind the grind of Zoom meetings and e-mail and reconnect with the physical world. In other ways, though, they were confronting the reality of agriculture: long hours, little pay and grueling work. Farm Prom seemed a moment where both the dream and the reality could be true.
Five months ago, as he made his first appearance in federal court after his criminal indictment, George Santos, the embattled first-term Republican congressman from New York, was in full George Santos mode  denying wrongdoing, chastising his critics and pledging to prove his innocence.

But on Friday, as Mr. Santos returned to Federal District Court in Central Islip, N.Y., to plead not guilty to 10 new felony counts, he seemed less interested in courting attention, leaving without addressing the throng of reporters assembled outside.

Then again, much has changed since May.

Since then, Mr. Santos has seen two of his former campaign aides be indicted; his Republican colleagues in the House have pushed to expel him from Congress; and he now faces a new raft of felony charges that illuminate a broad pattern of criminal behavior spanning his 2022 congressional campaign.

The latest charges were filed earlier this month in a revised indictment that lays out additional schemes, including a fraudulent $500,000 personal loan to his campaign and tens of thousands of dollars in unauthorized charges to donors credit cards.
A wild turkey stood on a grassy knoll in suburban New Jersey, a tranquilizer dart protruding like a blue and orange battle scar from its chest. Suddenly the bird spotted a jogger and charged, racing headlong into traffic. Motorists swerved and stopped. Finally, a driver came to the rescue, jumping out of his car and racing onto the knoll, baiting the turkey to give chase. The bird was soon back on his perch, and the Friday morning commute resumed.

This was just another rush hour in West Orange, N.J., where the apparently fearless turkey has claimed a hillside along Pleasant Valley Way, tormenting drivers and pedestrians ceaselessly on one of the communitys busiest thoroughfares. Efforts to capture and move it (including the attempt with a tranquilizer dart) have so far failed.

The birds presence has vexed public officials, who consider it a menace. Mayor Susan McCartney worries that the turkey could cause a car accident, and has urged residents to keep their distance while wildlife experts try to catch it. I see it as a public safety issue, she said.

Dangerous, perhaps, but the bird has nonetheless amassed a loyal following of fans who have named it Turkules (pronounced like Hercules) and turned it into West Oranges cranky mascot.
In the first half of 2023, Swissgrid continued to invest in the maintenance and modernisation of the grid infrastructure and implemented the Confederation's measures to ensure Switzerland's security of supply. Net income amounted to CHF 51.6 million in the first half of 2023 (2022: CHF 47.8 million).

Modernisation of the transmission system lays the foundations for a sustainable energy future. To this end, Swissgrid also pressed ahead with various ongoing grid projects in the first half of 2023.

Work is progressing on the voltage increase from 220 kilovolts to 380 kilovolts on the existing line between Bassecourt and Muhleberg. This change is essential to ensure security of supply in Central Switzerland, especially during the winter months. The necessary construction measures were initiated in mid-August 2022. Existing electricity pylons and other components are being modified. In total, work will be carried out on 56 of the 142 pylons and on the transition structures of the two substations in Pieterlen and Bassecourt so that the line can be put into operation at 380 kilovolts by the end of 2023. Another project concerns the planned installation of a new transformer in the Bonaduz substation, which will increase the operational flexibility of the substation, thereby improving security of supply in the canton of Grisons and in Switzerland as a whole. This transformer will connect the 380-kilovolt grid to the 220-kilovolt grid. The groundbreaking ceremony on 16 June 2023 marked the start of construction work for the installation of the new transformer and the modernisation of the substation. In spring 2023, Swissgrid and SBB (Swiss Federal Railways) also submitted a planning application for the replacement of the high-voltage submarine cables between Brusino and Morcote. The cable route is 2.8 km long, and a total of six Swissgrid cables and two SBB cables will be replaced. By submitting the planning application to ESTI (Federal Inspectorate for Heavy Current Installations) for the replacement of the high-voltage submarine cables, Swissgrid and SBB are laying the foundations for guaranteeing the supply of electricity in the Sottoceneri region and the Ticino railway network.

In February 2023, Swissgrid completed the grid connection of the Birr reserve power plant within less than six months. This was one of the additional tasks entrusted to Swissgrid by the Confederation to ensure Switzerland's security of supply. This ensured that the Birr reserve power plant would have been ready for use as early as the end of winter 2022/2023 in the event of a power shortage. In addition, Swissgrid procured the first tranche of the hydropower reserve for the coming winter in May 2023.

Good half-year result

Net income amounted to CHF 51.6 million in the first half of 2023 (2022: CHF 47.8 million). Total assets rose to CHF 4.2 billion (2022: CHF 3.8 billion), and the equity ratio dropped to 30.9 percent (2022: 33.9 percent). This temporary decline is primarily due to the high volume- and tariff-related timing differences in procurement costs and the costs for the power reserve.

Swissgrid invested a total of CHF 128.5 million in the first half of 2023 to ensure Switzerland's grid-related security of supply (2022: CHF 95.9 million).

Procurement costs more than doubled to CHF 639.7 million in the first half of 2023 (2022: CHF 312.7 million) due to the higher costs of the provision of control power and the higher prices for procuring the energy required for the compensation of active power losses. Operating expenses increased to CHF 139.5 million (2022: CHF 113.7 million). The main drivers for this were higher costs for third-party services and services in kind, for grid maintenance and for other grid-related services.

Swissgrid posted a high total operating income in the first half of 2023 of CHF 924.5 million (2022: CHF 562.2 million).

The federal government's power reserve

Before a possible electricity shortage could arise, the Confederation took various measures to ensure Switzerland's security of supply. The reserves created did not need to be used in the winter of 2022/2023. Swissgrid made payments of CHF 344.9 million to service providers for the provision and preparation of the power reserve as part of the additional tasks entrusted to it by the Confederation in accordance with the Ordinance on the Establishment of a Hydropower Reserve. This amount includes the hydropower reserve (CHF 236.1 million), the Birr, Monthey and Cornaux reserve power plants (CHF 107.9 million) and the emergency power groups (CHF 0.9 million). Swissgrid had to finance these expenses via the financial market, as no revenue was collected in relation to the power reserve in the 2023 financial year due to the time lag in tariff revenue (power reserve tariff from 2024).

Sustainability Report

Swissgrid has always aligned its corporate actions to the long term and towards sustainability. It presented its commitment to sustainability for the first time on 8 August 2023 in the form of a report for the 2022 financial year. This will allow the company to ensure full transparency about its activities and key figures in the field of sustainability with reference to the standards of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). The focus is on the four fields of action Purpose, People, Partnership and Planet, and is based on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The sustainability agency ISS ESG has awarded Swissgrid Prime status for its sustainability performance.

Outlook for 2023

Swissgrid is continuing to drive forward grid expansion in the second half of the current financial year, as the transmission system is a key success factor for the transformation of the energy system. Current congestion, as well as any future threats of congestion, must be eliminated to guarantee the safe, powerful and efficient operation of the Swiss electricity system.

Swissgrid will continue to play its part in preventing a possible electricity shortage whilst carrying out the additional tasks associated with the Confederation's power reserve. The financing requirements for investments, procurements and the power reserve will remain covered on the financial markets until the expenses are collected via tariffs in the coming years.
Members of the Trump family are scheduled to testify starting next week at a civil fraud trial in Manhattan, beginning with Donald Trump Jr. on Wednesday and concluding on Nov. 6 with former President Donald J. Trump.

Mr. Trump and his adult sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, are defendants in the case, which was brought by New Yorks attorney general, Letitia James. The former presidents daughter, Ivanka Trump, was a defendant but an appeals court dismissed the case against her this summer. Ms. Trump is still expected to testify next week after an unsuccessful effort on Friday to avoid doing so. Eric Trump is also scheduled to testify next week.

A lawyer with the attorney generals office, Kevin Wallace, said on Friday that its case would end after the former president testifies. Mr. Trumps lawyers are expected to call their own witnesses and may bring back others for cross-examination. It is unclear when the trial, which began earlier this month, will conclude; it will most likely be before Dec. 22, when it was originally set to end.

In the lawsuit that led to the trial, Ms. James has accused the Trump family of fraudulently inflating the value of its assets to obtain favorable treatment from banks and insurance companies. Before the trial, the judge overseeing it, Arthur F. Engoron, found in the attorney generals favor, ruling that Mr. Trump and the other defendants were liable for fraud and that their annual financial statements were rife with examples of misconduct.
The indictment implicated Mr. Asaro in a sweeping conspiracy in which he was also accused of robbing FedEx (then Federal Express) of $1.25 million of gold salts, which can be used in medicinal treatments; bullying his way into the pornography business; and seeking, unsuccessfully, to bump off a cousin who had testified about an insurance scam.

Mr. Asaros 2015 trial was a sensation.

Though the robbery had taken place more than three decades earlier, it had been immortalized in the book and film, and even for younger New Yorkers it felt like a coda to the Godfather era.

Moreover, the key witness against Mr. Asaro was another cousin, Gaspare Valenti, who had been a government informant since 2008 and had secretly recorded Mr. Asaro from 2010 to 2013.

Mr. Valentis testimony on the stand was a jaw-dropping breach of the Mafias code of silence.

It also revealed the devolution of a ruthless mobster who in his day job could suggest to customers which fences to buy from his store in Ozone Park, Queens, while in his other life he could impatiently advise a younger mob associate who had asked him how best to collect a debt: Stab him today.
This article is part of Overlooked, a series of obituaries about remarkable people whose deaths, beginning in 1851, went unreported in The Times.

When he was growing up in Detroit, Walter King wondered why his family didnt celebrate cultural holidays the way his Jewish and Polish classmates did. So he went to his mother.

Who is the African God? Thats what I want to know, he asked her when he was 15.

His mother didnt have the answer. Blacks didnt really have any knowledge of their history and culture before slavery, she explained, as recounted in the book Yoruba Traditions and African American Religious Nationalism (2012), by the scholar Tracey E. Hucks.
On Monday morning, Sahra Wagenknecht, the most charismatic politician in Germanys Left party, led an uprising against it. A longtime member of the national Parliament and until 2019 a co-leader of the Lefts parliamentary delegation, Ms. Wagenknecht apparently now has a different idea of what left means. She announced that she and nine fellow Parliament members will start a new party in January to court voters who share her discontent.

Ms. Wagenknecht has been hinting at the break for months. The Left party descends from Communist East Germanys old ruling party, which Ms. Wagenknecht joined in 1989, just before the fall of the Berlin Wall. But it is not the party it once was. To put it in crude American terms: It has become too woke for Ms. Wagenknecht. Germanys present government is made up of Social Democrats, Greens and market-oriented Free Democrats. It offers an agenda for a lifestyle left, to use Ms. Wagenknechts phrase, not a real left. And yet many of her longtime colleagues have been seduced by it.

At a time of housing shortages and weak wage growth, the governments unwillingness to stem the influx of economic migrants is irresponsible, Ms. Wagenknecht says. Its heavy-handed energy regulations are burdening poorer families. Its uncritical assent to the United States backing of Ukraine is prolonging the war, driving up energy prices and crippling the German economy.

Ms. Wagenknecht faults her party not just for failing to oppose the government but also for bullying and belittling those citizens who do. In 2021 she wrote a best-selling attack on fashionable leftism that she titled The Self-Righteous. That fall she appeared on one of Germanys top political talk shows to insist that those who dissented from Germanys draconian Covid rules were normal citizens and to explain why she was unvaccinated.
For 35 years, Ive devoted my professional life to U.S. peacemaking policy and conflict resolution and planning  whether in the former Soviet Union, a reunified Germany or postwar Iraq. But nothing has preoccupied me like finding a peaceful and lasting solution between Israel and the Palestinians.

In the past, I might have favored a cease-fire with Hamas during a conflict with Israel. But today it is clear to me that peace is not going to be possible now or in the future as long as Hamas remains intact and in control of Gaza. Hamass power and ability to threaten Israel  and subject Gazan civilians to ever more rounds of violence  must end.

After Oct. 7, there are many Israelis who believe their survival as a state is at stake. That may sound like an exaggeration, but to them, its not. If Hamas persists as a military force and is still running Gaza after this war is over, it will attack Israel again. And whether or not Hezbollah opens a true second front from Lebanon during this conflict, it, too, will attack Israel in the future. The aim of these groups, both of which are backed by Iran, is to make Israel unlivable and drive Israelis to leave: While Iran has denied involvement in the Hamas attack, Ali Khamenei, Irans supreme leader, has long talked about Israel not surviving for another 25 years, and his strategy has been to use these militant proxies to achieve that goal.

Given the strength of Israels military  by far the most powerful in the region  the aims of Iran and its collaborators seemed implausible until a few weeks ago. But the events of Oct. 7 changed everything. As one commander in the Israeli military said, If we do not defeat Hamas, we cannot survive here.

Israel is not alone in believing it must defeat Hamas. Over the past two weeks, when I talked to Arab officials throughout the region whom I have long known, every single one told me that Hamas must be destroyed in Gaza. They made clear that if Hamas is perceived as winning, it will validate the groups ideology of rejection, give leverage and momentum to Iran and its collaborators and put their own governments on the defensive.

But they said this in private. Their public postures have been quite different. Only a few Arab states openly condemned the Hamas massacre of more than 1,400 people in Israel. Why? Because Arab leaders understood that as Israel retaliated and Palestinian casualties and suffering grew, their own citizens would be outraged and they needed to be seen as standing up for the Palestinians, at least rhetorically.

Nowhere was the instinct to cater to the mood of the street more vividly revealed than in the quick denunciations of Israel after Hamas claimed that Israel bombed Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza. Israel has denied hitting the hospital but in several Arab countries, Hamass claims were accepted. At this point, multiple national intelligence agencies have said it was most likely a Palestinian rocket that hit the hospital.

Nevertheless, people across the region  and the world  saw Israel bombing Gaza and were ready to believe this, too, was deliberately done. Even the United Arab Emirates, which had condemned the Hamas attack, issued a later statement condemning the Israeli attack that targeted Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in the Gaza Strip, resulting in the death and injury of hundreds of people. It went on to call on the international community to intensify efforts to reach an immediate cease-fire to prevent further loss of life.

As Israel's aerial bombardment of Gaza picks up in pace and civilian casualties rise, international calls for an immediate cease-fire are mounting. Some are calling for Israel to call off a ground invasion. But ending the war now would mean Hamas would win. At present, its military infrastructure still exists, its leadership remains largely intact, and its political control of Gaza is unchallenged. As Hamas did after conflicts with Israel in 2009, 2012, 2014 and 2021, the group will almost certainly rearm and restore. It will be able to add to its system of tunnels running under the enclave. The strip will remain impoverished, and the next round of war will be inevitable, holding both Gazan civilians and much of the rest of the Middle East hostage to Hamass aims.

An Israeli ground campaign would come at an extremely high cost. If it proceeds, invading Israeli soldiers will surely lose their lives, and there will be even more Palestinian casualties, a tragedy Hamas has ensured by embedding itself and its military capability in communities, using hospitals, mosques and schools to store its ammunition. But defeating Hamas cannot be done only with strategic strikes from the air, any more than we were able to root out ISIS in Mosul, Iraq, or Raqqa, Syria, from the air. In that fight, the United States had local partners who did the terrible and costly ground fighting in cities while our forces largely devastated them from above.

What would a defeat of Hamas mean? It would mean its military infrastructure, much of which is physically connected to civilian infrastructure, was largely destroyed and its leadership decimated, leaving the group without the capacity to block a reconstruction for demilitarization formula for Gaza, as it did in the past. In essence, this would mean there would be no war-making capacity in Gaza and that capacity could not be rebuilt.

That formula must guide the day-after reality in Gaza. It would require Israel to remain in Gaza after the fighting ends until it could hand over to some kind of an interim administration to prevent a vacuum and begin the enormous task of reconstruction. That administration should be largely run by Palestinian technocrats  from Gaza, the West Bank or the diaspora  under an international umbrella, which would include Arab and non-Arab nations. The United States would need to mobilize and organize the effort, possibly using an umbrella like the United Nations or the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee donor group to the Palestinians or even acting on the proposal by President Emmanuel Macron of France to use the international anti-ISIS coalition to counter Hamas. Such a coalition could help create the division of labor that would be necessary.

For example, Morocco, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain could provide police  not military forces  to ensure security for the new civil administration and those responsible for reconstruction. Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E and Qatar could provide the bulk of the funding for reconstruction, explaining their roles as necessary to relieve the suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza and help them recover. Canada and others could provide monitoring mechanisms to ensure that assistance would go to its intended purposes.

Of course, the mood in Gaza after the fighting is over will be grim and angry. Thousands of civilians have been killed, according to the Hamas-run Gazan Health Ministry. Vast swaths of the enclave are uninhabitable. But it is worth noting that polls taken not long before the Oct. 7 attack revealed that 62 percent of Gazans were against Hamas breaking the cease-fire at the time with Israel. Getting aid into Gaza quickly and starting the reconstruction effort as soon as the fighting stops could help show residents that life can get better when Hamas is no longer preventing the rebuilding of Gaza.

How Israel would conduct a ground campaign would affect all of this and even whether such a day-after reality could materialize. For Israel to reduce the pressure from its neighbors and the international community to stop its attack, it must demonstrate more convincingly that it is fighting Hamas and is not trying to punish Palestinian civilians. It must create safe corridors for humanitarian assistance, including from Israeli territory through the Kerem Shalom crossing point. To alleviate the suffering, it should allow international groups, such as Doctors Without Borders, to operate safely there and include Israeli doctors who can set up field hospitals  something they have experience doing in Syria and Ukraine.

Israels political leaders need to clearly and publicly emphasize they will leave Gaza and lift the siege after Hamas has been militarily defeated and largely disarmed. They must communicate that they understand a political resolution is needed with the Palestinians more generally. That is not a message Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is now conveying, given the shock in Israel and the makeup of his government. But it is one Israels partners in the region need to hear  and soon.

There are no easy solutions to Gaza, but there is only one path forward in this war. An outcome that leaves Hamas in control will doom not just Gaza but also much of the rest of the Middle East.
When push came to shove, in other words, the supposedly moderate members of the House Republican conference were happy to defer to their most extreme colleagues on substance, if not on style.

And what does Johnson believe? He is staunchly against the bodily autonomy of women and transgender people and supports a nationwide ban on abortion and gender-affirming care for trans youth. He is also virulently anti-gay. In a 2003 essay, Johnson defended laws that criminalized homosexual activity between consenting adults. In 2004, he warned that same-sex marriage was a dark harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy that could doom even the strongest republic. Last year, Johnson introduced legislation that has been compared to Floridas Dont Say Gay law, and he continues to push to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in 2015.

If Johnson is known for anything, however, it is for his tireless advocacy on behalf of Donald Trumps attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Johnson wrote one of the briefs purporting to give a legal justification for throwing out the voting results in several swing states. He advanced the conspiracy theory that Venezuela was somehow involved with the nations voting machines. On Jan. 6, 2021, he urged his Republican colleagues to block certification of the election on the grounds that state changes to voting in the face of the pandemic were illegitimate and unconstitutional. When questioned, during his first news conference as speaker, whether he stood by his effort to overturn the 2020 election, he ignored the question, and his fellow Republicans shouted down the reporter who asked it.

The new speaker is, in short, an election-denying extremist who believes that his allies have the right to nullify election results so that they can impose their vision of government and society on an unwilling public. He is Jim Jordan in substance but not Jim Jordan in style, which was enough for Republicans to come together to make him leader of the House and second in line to succeed the president of the United States in the case of emergency.
In Congress, Mr. McCarthys leadership was marked by the same chipper team-building personality that led him to give iPods to colleagues in the California Legislature, keep track of anniversaries and birthdays, and generally bring a nice-guy attitude to a House used to more domineering speakers. It was no surprise to see headlines like All Carrots and No Sticks when he won the gavel after 15 rounds of votes, finding ways to keep both moderates and hard-line conservatives happy.

The wide range of ideological support was not enough to save Mr. McCarthy, whose fall instead becomes part of the story of our political transformation as a country.

In the not-too-distant past, political parties contained a wide range of ideologies united by a party machine, which kept them together despite regional interests and wildly different priorities. As the post-World War II cultural homogeneity of America crumbled, these machines declined in power. The great cultural sort of the past several decades, which saw the hunt to extinction of conservative Democrats and progressive Republicans, supplanted party operations as the glue that holds coalitions together.

Now the big sort is ending  but there is no replacement for the party machinery to maintain coherence. This is far more true of the right than the left, but its happening on both sides. Fund-raising operations gave party establishments some power, but they no longer had the ability to dictate outcomes automatically. And members like Nancy Mace of South Carolina have discovered a televangelist alternative: just go on TV and appeal directly to the true believers.

Ive argued for years that Republican leaders needed to learn a basic lesson about how to work with what was once a far-right flank that now represents a massive amount of their partys base. The lesson was and is to understand the value of bringing these populists onto the team, instead of trying to crush and sideline them. Im reminded of something I wrote in 2017 that still applies today: In the closing scene of Tony Gilroys 2007 film Michael Clayton, the titular character played by George Clooney confronts a crooked executive played by Tilda Swinton about her failed attempt to murder him. Im not the guy that you kill. Im the guy that you buy! Mr. Clooney says. Im the easiest part of your whole goddamn problem, and youre gonna kill me?
At a pivotal moment during one of the Watergate hearings in 1973, President Richard Nixons counsel, John Dean, asked a question that still resonates: How in Gods name could so many lawyers get involved in something like this?

In the aftermath of Nixons resignation, the issue posed by Mr. Deans bracing question triggered a revolution in the legal profession. With so many lawyers involved in the Watergate criminal scheme, the American Bar Association started requiring law schools to provide ethics instruction or risk losing their accreditation. Exams began testing law students knowledge of intricate ethical rules.

It wasnt enough, if the past few weeks are any guide. In Fulton County, Ga., three of former President Donald Trumps lawyers  Kenneth Chesebro, Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis  have now pleaded guilty to crimes in service of Mr. Trumps scheme to overturn the 2020 election and stay in the White House. All three have agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in the sprawling state RICO case against Mr. Trump. Two other Trump lawyers, Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, still face criminal charges in the Georgia case. They, along with Mr. Chesebro and Ms. Powell, have also been identified as unindicted co-conspirators in the related federal prosecution of Mr. Trump, which will probably benefit from the guilty pleas in Georgia.

The charges in the plea agreements vary, but the underlying story is the same: Fifty years after Watergate, the nation is once again confronted with a president who grossly abused the powers of his office, leading to criminal prosecutions. And once again, that abuse relied heavily on the involvement of lawyers. If Mr. Trumps 2020 racket was a coup in search of a legal theory, as one federal judge put it, these lawyers provided the theory, and the phony facts to back it up. In doing so, they severely tarnished their profession.
ezra klein

From New York Times Opinion, this is The Ezra Klein Show. [MUSIC PLAYING] Hey, it is Ezra. So we are working on a bunch of other episodes about Israel-Palestine. And we also have some great shows that were recorded that were supposed to come out with. My book leave had lasted as long as Id intended for it to last on some other topics. And were going to be releasing those as events warrant. So this one felt important to do right now. Its between my colleague, Carlos Lozada, And McKay Coppins on Mitt Romney. McKay, of course, wrote the big new buzzy Romney book that is out. I think it shines some important light on what the Republican Party has become and what that has meant for people who just a couple of election cycles ago were literally the Republican Partys leaders. Watching Romney closely, and seeing what has happened to him, and then where he has moved in response, I think is a really interesting way to understand actually how far the Republican Party has shifted, even though it is still called the same thing. So I think theres a lot of insight here, and I hope you enjoy it.

carlos lozada

Its a weirdly fitting moment to examine the life of Mitt Romney. Romney has been a governor and a US Senator as a member of the Republican Party. He was even the partys presidential nominee. And yet, what he may be most remembered for is the moment when he broke with the G.O.P. In February of 2020, Romney voted to convict Donald Trump in his impeachment trial on the charge of abusing his power by attempting to persuade Ukraines government to investigate the Biden family. In that moment, Romney became the first senator in U.S. history to vote to remove a president of his own party from office. McKay Coppins, a staff writer at The Atlantic, goes deep on that decision and many others Romney has faced in his new book, Romney: A Reckoning. The book is in part the product of dozens of personal interviews as well as access to the senators private journals, emails and text messages. At a time when the Republican Party took weeks to even choose a House Speaker, and when it seems eager to nominate a twice impeached and four times indicted former President as its standard bearer, Romneys story feels retro. Hes the consummate institutionalist in an anti-institutionalist party. And yet, whats fascinating about Coppinss book, is that the author pushes Romney to wrestle with his own role, even his own complicity in what his party has become. As always, you can email the show with your thoughts and guest recommendations at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com. McKay Coppins, welcome to the show.

mckay coppins

Thanks for having me.

carlos lozada

So I have to read a lot of political memoirs and political biographies by journalists and historians for my job. What I love about this book is that youve written a book about the evolution of Mitt Romney, his principled stance, his implicit compromises along the way. But its also a book about the evolution of the Republican Party. And theres some jaw dropping moments here and there that I want you to explain in greater detail. But first, lets start with some basics. So the book is Romney: A Reckoning. But I feel like theres multiple reckonings going on in the book. What reckonings are you focused on?

mckay coppins

Its a good point. And I think that subtitle was deliberately sort of multifaceted. Right?

carlos lozada

Perfect. Yes.

mckay coppins

Because the way that this book began was that I had covered Mitt Romney for a while. I had covered his 2012 presidential campaign. I covered his speech at the Republican convention in 2004 when I was a senior in high school. So I could say that Ive been covering Mitt Romney for almost 20 years, if you go back to my 17 

carlos lozada

Youve been covering Mitt before it was uncool. [LAUGHS]

mckay coppins

Yes. Exactly. Thats exactly right. But I had profiled him for The Atlantic, and I had kind of stayed in touch with him. And after Jan. 6, I could tell that he was kind of going through something. There was a kind of reckoning happening. He was grappling with difficult questions about what his party had become, what was happening to the country. And I sensed, though he didnt make this explicit at first, his own role in all of this. Like, whether he had played a role inadvertently in allowing the party to get to this point. And so when I approached him, I basically said, I think you might be in a unique position to be a really interesting subject for a political biography. I only want to do it if youre ready to fully tell all the stories, be candid, be straightforward, not protect your future re-election or whatever. And he, very luckily for me, sort of took that as a challenge and started giving me his journals and his emails. And, obviously, in the last few years, he was known as this guy who was courageously standing up against Trump and was sort of one of the last remaining bulwarks against the spread of Trumpism and the Republican Party. I knew that was going to be a crucial part of the story. But how he got to that from being kind of known as a cautious, calculating politician was the story I was most interested in at first.

carlos lozada

I want to get into that sense of his personality, that he was this cautious, calculating guy. You have a great description early on of Mitt. You call him a walking amalgam of prep school manners and Mormon niceness and the practiced cool of the private equity set. Right? Which just stuck in my head as like, yeah, thats Mitt Romney. But you also raised something else that I hadnt thought about in connection to Romney at all, and that is his anger.

mckay coppins

Mhm.

carlos lozada

Right? Theres More? Than a few moments when you talk about his  this deep well of anger, his temper he has to control. When does that manifest itself and where does it come from?

mckay coppins

That actually was something that I was surprised to learn about. Because the couple moments that weve seen him be angry in public are notable for how out of character they seem. Right? One of them is on the Senate floor on Jan. 6, standing behind Josh Hawley as hes giving this speech, and theres this kind of famous clip of Mitt Romney sort of glaring at him from behind two masks that hes wearing. What I learned from talking to him, and from reading his journals, and talking to people around him is that he does have this temper. It was one of the early impediments to his kind of ability to win political debates as a candidate. So when he was running for governor, he would do these mock debates with his advisers 

carlos lozada

Which he hates.

mckay coppins

He hated them because, in part, he had smart advisers like Beth Myers, who in Massachusetts kind of became his right hand, and she realized, Im going to try to get under his skin in these mock debates and see what happens. And he would get so angry. She would trot out these attack lines. One time he threw his notes on the floor. Another time he said, well, if thats what its going to be like, theres no way for me to win. We shouldnt even bother.

carlos lozada

Wow.

mckay coppins

He would really get kind of angry. And I think part of it comes from his lifetime of privilege and wealth. He grew up in a kind of bubble where he wasnt challenged that often. He also has sort of a quasi-aristocratic conviction in manners and propriety. And he feels like when his sense of propriety is being violated by somebody else, it really makes him mad.

carlos lozada

Theres like an indignation to it. Right?

mckay coppins

Yeah, an indignation. And thats kind of what was interesting about him as a character, is that he has this righteous indignation, but he can also be kind of judgmental of people and lose his temper. And it doesnt always manifest in a flattering way.

carlos lozada

You had an enormous degree of access to Romney, just like his trove of emails. Those private journals are amazing. Right? Why do you think he was ready to do this? And why do you think he was ready to do this with you?

mckay coppins

I think it was a couple things. I think he realized he was at the twilight of his career. Right? For so much of his political career, he was focused on becoming president one day. Right? And he now knows thats never going to happen. So thats part of it, being freed from the constraints of trying to become president. That matters. He also was increasingly isolated in Washington and alienated from his party. Something I learned about Mitt Romney is he really is a team guy, like naturally. He wants to be part of a team. He cultivated this close inner circle of advisers that stayed with him for decades. Hes a partisan in the sense that he wants to pick a side and then be with that side, in some ways. But he just couldnt get on board with the Donald Trump era of the Republican Party. And because of that, felt increasingly isolated. And was therefore not buffeted by the machinery of partisan politics that 

carlos lozada

Which would preclude you from 

mckay coppins

That would prevent him from telling me these stories. Right? He didnt really care what Lindsey Graham told him in the caucus meetings or if Josh Hawley would get mad at him. Like, he is  I think that was part of it. But I will also say, its not like he kind of arrived as a subject fully ready to go this far. It was a two year conversation, over 50 interviews, that took sometimes me just kind of patiently listening, sometimes me needling him a little bit, challenging him. He also, to his credit, put in a lot of time considering and reconsidering questions that I asked. Sometimes he would come back to me a week later and say, eh, you know, you asked me this last week, I dont think I fully answered you. And hed have kind of more thoughts. But the other thing thats happened is that Mitt Romney, I write about this throughout the book, is a person who has had a very keen sense of his own mortality for a long time. And this goes back to a car crash that he was involved in as a Mormon missionary as a young man. But especially I think now, hes convinced that he only has at most 12 years left. And I dont  I mean, sometimes these conversations would take morbid turns where I really didnt know how to respond, but the men in his family have a history of sudden heart failure. His father is the one who lived the longest of any of them, and he died at 88. So hes convinced he has at most 12 years left. But hes thinking more about how hell be remembered and less about how whatever hell do will play in the next days news cycle.

carlos lozada

You use this term a few times, the Romney obligation. What is that?

mckay coppins

Mitt Romney has this kind of story that he tells about his family, which is that the Romneys have this kind of overdeveloped outsized sense of obligation to run toward a crisis and to try to solve the problem, that when theyre called upon  or not even if theyre not called upon  but when there is a crisis that needs to be addressed, they feel like they need to be there and be in the middle of the action, even when its risky and even when its unpleasant. And he saw this in his father. He has stories going back through his genealogy of various forefathers who also had this. And he feels a strong sense of obligation, which has manifested in various ways throughout his career. I mean, one of the most obvious is his takeover of the Olympics in Salt Lake City. Right? At this time, was on pace to become a billionaire. Instead is convinced by his wife, Ann, and a couple of other friends that the Olympic games in Salt Lake City were in crisis. There had been kind of scandals around financial mismanagement and bribery allegations. And, you know, advertisers were fleeing. And he decided, well, like, somebody needs to turn this around. It needs to be me. And he walked away from really a lot of money. He could have made a lot more money.

carlos lozada

He had money. [LAUGHS]

mckay coppins

Yeah. And that was kind of the argument that Ann made to him. What do we need more money for? We have all the money we could possibly want? And he went and took this kind of thankless job that ended up propelling him to the Massachusetts governorship. But one of the most revealing things I found in research about this period was a quote that Ann Romney gave the Boston Globe at that time, which is, somebody asked, why is your husband doing, this moving across the country to Utah to take over these games? And she said, he loves emergencies and catastrophes.

carlos lozada

Wow.

mckay coppins

Which I asked him about and he kind of admitted that on the one hand, theres this strong sense of obligation, on the other hand, he also has an adrenaline rush when there is a high stakes problem to be solved that he cant really get anywhere else.

carlos lozada

You mentioned his father. You dedicate a lot of time to George Romney, who seems by far to be the biggest sort of influence looming over Mitts life. And often, its this kind of inspirational presence. But in some ways, it also felt like a little reproachful, like Mitt is aware of the moments when hes not living up to Georges legacy. How does George loom over Mitt? The way I think about it, as Ive spent time with him, and George comes up all the time in our conversations, in his journals  All the time in the book. Its amazing.

mckay coppins

I mean, it really  I put a lot of George in there. I could put a lot more. I mean, theres a version of this book that its like a biography of the two of them, because theyre so LinkedIn, in Mitts mind at least. The way I think about it is that hes both inspired by and at times haunted by his dads legacy. His father was a pioneering auto executive, then became governor of Michigan. Was then seen as the likely next Republican nominee for president and happened to be running at a time when the Republican Party was taking its rightward turn, where you had Richard Nixons campaign running the Southern strategy. White grievance became an incredibly important part of the new and emerging Republican coalition. But what makes George Romney so admirable is that he kind of emphatically stood against the rising tide of racism and white grievance and refused to indulge it. And, in fact, pushed back against it in ways that were pretty politically damaging to him. He refused to condemn the people who took part in the race riots in Detroit, while running as a Republican presidential candidate, and instead delivered an address about how we need to look at the root causes of these riots, and white America needs to look within itself. And he launched his campaign with a tour of the American ghettos, speaking to the inner cities, posing with left wing radicals, arguing that we can find common ground. His campaign ended up melting down though because of one interview that he gave  a radio interview  in which he was asked about his changing position on the Vietnam War. And George said that, I went over to Vietnam with a group of other governors, and the generals brainwashed me. And what he was trying to say is, basically, the American military and the State Department were selling us a false story.

carlos lozada

They were spinning it.

mckay coppins

And we got spun. And now Ive realized that I got spun, and Ive changed my attitude, and now Im against the Vietnam War. But that use of the word brainwashing became a massive story. Georges campaign was actually already on the way down, but it was more the final nail in the coffin. But it was emblematic of Georges problem as a politician, but also his most admirable trait, which is that he just sort of recklessly said what he believed. And what Mitt took away from that is both, my dad was a hero and the embodiment of integrity in politics, and I wish that I could be like my dad, but also the way to get elected president is to do the exact opposite.

carlos lozada

George was great, but he blew it.

mckay coppins

But he blew it. And so what Mitt took away, and he really internalized this lesson and made sure everyone in his campaigns did too, was, we have to be hyper disciplined. We have to stick to the talking points. We have to follow where our partys base is. And were not going to try to heroically change the mind of Republican primary voters. Were going to do whats necessary to win. He took this so seriously that when he first ran for president in 2008, he pulled a thesis  I believe it was a BYU masters thesis  but somebody who had basically written about why Georges presidential campaign failed  printed it out and had all of his senior advisers read it.

carlos lozada

That was an amazing moment. I couldnt believe he had done that.

mckay coppins

But it shows how much George kind of loomed over Mitt Romney throughout his career.

carlos lozada

Yeah here it says, the title of the 88 page paper was George Romney in 1968: From Front Runner to Dropout, Analysis of Cause. I mean, imagine everyone on the staff getting this 88 page masters thesis 

mckay coppins

From 1960 

carlos lozada

Heres why my dad lost, and lets not do that.

mckay coppins

Right. But its just important to understand, because for most of his career he essentially defined his approach to politics in opposition to his father. And really, I think the way he sees his turn during the Trump era, is a chance to finally reach for his fathers legacy and live up to it.

carlos lozada

Of course, the difference, the major overwhelming difference, is that his father did that when the stakes were the highest, when he was running for president. And thats something that Mitt didnt do when the stakes were the highest.

mckay coppins

And you know, its funny, I think that haunts him a little bit. And this was one of those things where I was always kind of pressing him to think harder about.

carlos lozada

You can tell. You can tell in the book that he  and he goes back and forth a lot.

mckay coppins

He does. Some weeks in our weekly interviews he would seem like he was kind of confessing complicity and the parties capture by these kind of extremist forces by indulging them or not standing up against them. But then another week he would be like, yeah, but I think that might be too far. And he resisted for a long time. I mean, theres one important moment that I think listeners to this podcast will think about, which is Mitt Romney accepted Donald Trumps endorsement in 2012 when he was running in the Republican primary. They stood on a stage together in Las Vegas. Had a whole event built around it. And this was when Donald Trump was becoming a right wing political celebrity with this kind of conspiracy theory about Barack Obama not being American.

carlos lozada

I want to come back to that moment. I love what he says in the moment when hes up there with Trump.

mitt romney There are some things that you just cant imagine happening in your life. This is one of them. Being in 

carlos lozada

I love kind of witnessing other peoples awkwardness in real time. And that was just one of the most awkward moments in American politics in recent years. How did Romney rationalize that moment?

mckay coppins

Yeah. So he, first of all, convinced himself that if Trump didnt endorse him, hed endorse somebody else. And its better for the party, better for the country, if he wins instead of Newt Gingrich or Rick Perry.

carlos lozada

God, he hated Newt.

mckay coppins

Some of the meanest quotes, not just in the book but that Ive ever seen one politician say about another, are about Newt Gingrich. If thats a plug for future readers, go ahead. No, but he saw himself as running against kind of a clown car of lesser Republicans and felt like he needed to win, which is a very common rationalization in politics. He also believed that Donald Trump was not a serious political figure.

carlos lozada

Right.

mckay coppins

Right? If Bill Maher and Kanye West can donate to and endorse Barack Obama, why cant I have The Apprentice host? Who cares, right? But the other kind of interesting wrinkle to this is that as he spent time with Trump, at fund-raisers and stuff throughout that campaign, he actually kind of liked Trump.

carlos lozada

You said that. He sort of enjoyed having him around.

mckay coppins

He enjoyed the company. He still thought of him as a buffoon and he didnt take him seriously as like a businessman or anything like that, and he thought his conspiracy theories were insane. They have this kind of  theres this one scene where Mitt tries to very patiently and logically talk Donald Trump out of the birther conspiracy theory. Hes like, no, no, no, what you dont understand about constitutional law is  and quickly realizes that Trump has completely zoned out. And hes like, all right, never mind. But in terms of just Trump as like one on one, guy who would call him sometimes on the campaign trail, it was fun. And I found this journal entry from 2012 where he kind of  Mitt kind of rhapsodizes about hanging out with Trump, and says, they just dont make them like Donald Trump anymore. And he says hes entertaining and lifts my spirits on the campaign trail, or whatever, which I think  when I brought it up with him, I could tell he was kind of chagrined by it, but he also said, this does speak though, to how Trump has gotten as far as he did with the party. You get in the room with him and hes fun to hang out with, and hes charismatic and gossipy. And he seduces people.

carlos lozada

It also proves he didnt take him that seriously though.

mckay coppins

But thats the thing, he didnt think of him as like certainly anyone who would run for president. He just didnt  he thought he was like a 

carlos lozada

Hes a gadfly.

mckay coppins

Yeah, hes a gadfly. Thats how he rationalized it. This was, though, one of those things that I think even now, as he went through this whole kind of reckoning process, we still, I think, somewhat disagree on where he landed. Because as much as hes embarrassed by it in retrospect, and as much as he wishes he could take it back, he just fundamentally doesnt believe that accepting Trumps endorsement and kind of welcoming him into the campaign in 2012 had that much effect on Trumps ultimate rise to power.

carlos lozada

Do you think it did?

mckay coppins

I think its hard to say, but I think theres more of a case than Romney will acknowledge. I think that standing on that stage with him and making him part of the Republican campaign apparatus in 2012 introduced him to a lot of people in the party. And I think just gave him a little credibility. I think Romney has a plausible case that he ended up winning in this like riding this crazy once in a generation populist wave. And maybe thats true. But Romney wont fully say, I am responsible for Trumps rise. [MUSIC PLAYING]

carlos lozada

Theres an idea that comes up a lot in the book. Its rationalization. And you see it throughout Mitts life in different key moments, especially in the political realm. When did you first begin to understand that that would be a real theme of this book?

mckay coppins

Its interesting, because I both saw him doing it in real time and also listened to him discuss his own impulse to rationalize. And so it became clear to me pretty early on that it would be an important theme of the book. It was also, frankly, part of what made the book timely and interesting to me. Because I think we are at this moment in American politics that we would not have gotten to if not for hundreds of, maybe thousands of, people rationalizing things that were in their self-interest. So to answer the question more directly, Mitt, I had heard him tell student groups or his staff, if theres one piece of advice I can give you now, with all this hindsight that I have the benefit of now, it would be, dont sacrifice your principles at the altar of ambition. Its not worth it.

carlos lozada

Theres a lot of this like, believe me, I know its not worth it. Kind of like theres an acknowledgment that thats something he did.

mckay coppins

Absolutely. And in fact, that was one of the early conversations we had. I asked him, Ive heard you say this a bunch of times. Can you give me some examples of when you did rationalize something in your own self-interest or sacrifice your principles? And that became the beginning of a long running conversation that kind of ran over the next two years. Because he started with  he had some immediate ones that came to mind. And not all of them are, I acted more right wing than I was. In fact, when he was running for Senate in Massachusetts and in for governor of Massachusetts, he told me, I pretended to be pro-choice when I really wasnt. Right? And he walked me through in kind of fascinating detail how he rationalized the position that he took. He dug into Mormon discourses on the issue and looked for loopholes that he could find, and really convinced himself that this was an OK position to take. But then later, there were a bunch of times when he was running for president where he acted like he had these right-wing positions that he really didnt. And part of it, for him, was that he is not somebody who actually  I think. He disagrees with me slightly on this. But I write in the book that hes not somebody who places a high premium on unwavering dedication to certain policy positions. Like, he thinks that on most issues there are a range of reasonable positions and what really matters is the execution. And I think implicit to that is, if it helps me get closer to the White House taking one position over another, whats wrong with that?

carlos lozada

Very pragmatist.

mckay coppins

And I think thats part of why he was always tagged with this like flip flopper attack. Because he ultimately, just thats not  hes not an ideologue. He doesnt have a firm set of policy positions.

carlos lozada

I remember Ann Romneys convention speech, when it wasnt about his beliefs as much as like, no one will work harder than Mitt Romney. You know?

mckay coppins

Right.

carlos lozada

It was basically saying, hes just going to outwork everyone. Because thats the kind of guy he is. So what kind of Republican was he? And then what persona formed, as you put it?

mckay coppins

I think naturally, coming out from where he came from in Michigan and watching his dad, he would have described himself in the early 2000 as probably a moderate, pragmatic, pro-business Republican. Right? Whose forte was budgetary issues, fiscal issues, and stimulating job growth in his state and hopefully in the country. In 08, when he started running, he thought of himself as like, Im going to make the campaign about the things I want it to be about. Right? It was  it had this kind of quaint idea that the presidential campaign should be about the biggest issues that affect Americans. And its going to be about what I think is important. And what he very quickly realized on those stages was that thats not how you win a Republican primary. Thats not how you win a presidential election. You end up having to sell yourself out little by little and reshape your persona. And I dont think that everything about him as a 2008 presidential candidate was false, but I do think he was responding to crowds. And he kind of positioned himself as the Reaganite right wing even kind of culture warrior, because that was the path for him in that primary race. And it came off as inauthentic. One of the most interesting things that I found in his emails was a long thread among his way too many Republican political consultants who were working on that 2008 presidential campaign, where it was toward the end, it was clear that McCain was going to win. Romney was going to have to drop out sooner. And so it was now like recriminations among the consultants, blaming each other.

carlos lozada

The blame game time, right. Yeah. Yeah.

mckay coppins

This is why the campaign didnt work. And what was really interesting is there was a contingent of consultants who were saying, we need to do more to position him as the heir to Reagan. Hes claimed the Reaganite conservative mantle. And then Stuart Stevens, who was his longtime adviser, said, the problem with that is that hes not a movement conservative and people can tell. He comes off as inauthentic when we position him that way. We need to stop doing that. So there was this kind of tug of war between these two sides. I think in 2012, when he decided to run again, he got to run a campaign that was closer to what he wanted it to be about, because economic issues were top of mind. But still, there were all kinds of moments in that campaign that he wishes he could take back.

carlos lozada

Theres a moment, I think its in the 2012 campaign, where Romney still thought that this campaign could be about principles and expertise and competence. And Stuart Stevens is like, no, this campaign  where the party is right now, this is about identity and tribalism and grievance. And if were going to win, were going to have to steal this nomination.

mckay coppins

Yep.

carlos lozada

MCKAY COPPINS: Like that was a remarkable statement. Because I think that there are instances where Romney is still thinking, the budget. He was like, the Tea Party is really about fiscal discipline. You know? Im like, what? Like, for real? Are you for real? And even Stuart Stevens is like, no, thats not what this is about at all. And so 2012 felt like that sort of hinge moment where Mitt didnt quite understand, or didnt want to understand, what the party was becoming. People say that its remarkable that after Barack Obama the country liked Donald Trump. I think its even more remarkable that after Mitt Romney the Republican Party nominated Donald Trump. That transformation 

mckay coppins

The most polar opposite kinds of candidates. Right? With polar opposite worldviews in a lot of ways.

carlos lozada

Yeah. And the same party 

mckay coppins

And the same party and a lot of the same vote  I mean, obviously, most of the same voters. That idea that  I titled that chapter Heist. Because that really was  Mitt Romneys campaigns approach to the 2012 primaries was, the only way we win is by stealing this from voters who really dont like Mitt Romney. Hes a Mormon in an overwhelmingly kind of evangelical primary base. Hes a Massachusetts moderate in a very conservative party. And the only way were going to escape here is sort of through redirection, and a misdirection, and trying to take voters minds off his various deficits. And he ended up pulling it off. He won the nomination by the skin of his teeth. But in the process, I think, did so much damage to himself that it was hard to then win in the general election against Barack Obama.

carlos lozada

Why do you think he wanted to be president? Is it just the Romney obligation? Just like, Im the guy who can fix things. Theres a great scene when hes mad at his campaign staffers for not coming up with a message. Hes like, Obama has this whole move forward thing. It makes me look backward. Thats really smart. Wheres my message? You know? Im like, the message should come from the top, right? Like, dont you have an idea of why you want to do this?

mckay coppins

He thought of the kind of lofty campaign message as just like another thing you could outsource to your consultants. Right? And the reality is, the reason youre running needs to come from the candidate. Yes, the consultants can help you dress it up and come up with a slogan, but you need to have the reason. And I think the reason they struggled with that was because, ultimately, his reason for running was that he just thought he was better than everybody else at fixing fiscal issues. And thats just not like  its not a rallying cry. Its not hope and change. Its like, put the consultant in charge for four years, hell turn things around. But the thing is, that was genuine. Its interesting, his most active period of journal keeping was in the 2012 campaign. And I think its because he thought he had a pretty good shot at becoming president, he wanted to be ready to write a presidential memoir one day if he needed to. And so he kept a very detailed day to day journal, which started out in travelogue form, where it was like, I had these meetings, went to this state, whatever. And then quickly became a medium for venting and catharsis. Like, at the end of a long day 

carlos lozada

Helped you.

mckay coppins

It was great for me. At the end of the day, he would take out his iPad, thats where he wrote, and just kind write all his frustrations with his primary candidates, and his staff, and Barack Obama. And super interesting stuff there. But you could detect in those journal entries a genuine desire to help people. Part of the campaign apparatus was like they would bring out these people whos small businesses had been destroyed, or who had lost their homes 

carlos lozada

Yes, I remember that.

mckay coppins

And so he spent basically that whole year meeting with people who were really struggling in the aftermath of the 2008 recession. And he really felt for them. And he knew that he couldnt really emote in public, because it would come across as phony and he wasnt that kind of politician. But he did feel for them. And he  this is kind of the difference between people like him and me, frankly, is that he has just this enormous outsized confidence in his own abilities. Like he really believed that he could fix the U.S. economy if he was just given the chance.

carlos lozada

Not only that he could, but he was the only one who could.

mckay coppins

The only one who could. Exactly. exactly.

carlos lozada

I remember I was reading this book and I turned to my wife at one point, I was like, I know why Mitt Romney wanted to be president. He just thought hed be really good at it. [LAUGHS]

mckay coppins

[LAUGHS] Exactly.

carlos lozada

That was kind of it [MUSIC PLAYING] Theres a moment much earlier in the book that is another one of those jaw dropping moments. Hes talking to a group of evangelical leaders in South Carolina. Hed been kind of realizing that, people think Mormonism is kind of weird, and maybe this is hurting me. And then one of these guys says to him flat out, if you become president, you will normalize Mormonism. And therefore, more people will go to Hell.

mckay coppins

Yes.

carlos lozada

And not go to Hell as a metaphor. He means go to Hell, capital H. And I kept wondering, to what extent did he come to conclude it was a hindrance overall in his political ambitions? But to what extent did it also drive him?

mckay coppins

Its interesting, for all of the flip flopping hes accused of and all the kind of disposable policy positions that hes demonstrated throughout his life, his faith has been nonnegotiable from the beginning. He had advisers in 2007 when he was running for president the first time who said, why dont you just say, Mormonism is part of my heritage. Its passed down by my 

carlos lozada

Right? Why dont you give a speech kind of minimizing it? Right?

mckay coppins

Like why dont you just say, its not really  Im a Christian, but the Mormons stuff is just kind of part of my family history. And he was like, no way. Thats not happening. Even as he was having these conversations with evangelical power brokers, and ministers, and voters, who were making very clear that for them it was nonnegotiable. Like voting for a Mormon, to them, there was no way. And that 2008 primary was kind of traumatizing for his family. I interviewed all  I talked to all of his sons and his wife, and they have stories about just some of the things people would say to them on the campaign trail in Iowa or South Carolina. It was kind of the first time that they encountered visceral anti-Mormon sentiment from people.

carlos lozada

Because they lived in that community for so long, right?

mckay coppins

Well, they lived in Massachusetts where theres not a lot of Mormons, but its also a pretty progressive inclusive place. I know this because I 

carlos lozada

You grew up there, right?

mckay coppins

 grew up as a Mormon in Massachusetts. And you would get the occasional polygamy joke or whatever, but it was really just, first of all, mostly secular and people just didnt really care that much about your religion. In places like Iowa and South Carolina, people care a lot about your religion. And on the one hand, he wasnt going to disavow his religion. But he also had to keep seeking the endorsements and votes of these people who manifestly hated his religion. And its a strange kind of indignity of politics that I think a lot of candidates are called upon to endure. I mean, I think of Barack Obama certainly campaigning in 2008. In a country as diverse and pluralistic as ours, we ask our candidates to endure a lot. And theres another scene later in the book where he goes to the Values Voters Summit, and he has to speak right before this guy, Bryan Fisher, who is a raging anti-Muslim, homophobic guy, whos also said terrible things about Mormons. And Romney finds out that hes speaking right before him and decides, I need to push back against this rhetoric, and adds a couple lines to his speech pushing back against it. It gets a terrible response in the room. He ends up coming in near last place in the straw poll at the Values Voter Summit. And he writes in his journal afterward, this is my seventh time coming to this summit. Smiling because itll be my last. And it kind of gives you a sense of just like how much he hated that part of campaigning.

carlos lozada

And yet, in a generic sense, wouldnt like Values Voters be Mitts people?

mckay coppins

Thats whats so ironic about all of this. A Mormon Republican is about as values centric as you can have. And he lived a life where he was a father of five, doting husband, never been any controversy or scandal about his personal life, doesnt drink, doesnt smoke. Like, he should have been the model candidate for these people, but because of their theological differences, they just couldnt get past it.

carlos lozada

Its interesting to me how clearly Romney despises campaigning, throughout the book. He hates Iowa. And then hes like, what, he has to go back to Iowa again? Hes so miserable. In some ways, hes such an awkward fit for politics. I remember theres a great moment early on, which talks about what if scenarios, where hes in college and he thinks he wants to get a Ph.D. in English literature. He wants to study Steinbeck and Dickens for the rest of his life. And some professor is like, youll be so poor. Just go to business school.

mckay coppins

They say, youll have plenty of time to read books.

carlos lozada

Yeah. Yeah.

mckay coppins

Go to law school or business school. Choose one of those.

carlos lozada

Then, of course, he went to both.

mckay coppins

Yeah. But I mean, I do think that speaks to Romney, very at home in a conference room, a boardroom, I think would have actually probably enjoyed a life of reading books and teaching. Hes really not at home on the campaign trail. And in fact, hes now pretty self-aware about it. And theres a funny moment  I dont actually think this is in the book  but where he was watching Ron DeSantis campaign early in the current primaries. And he told me, that guy looks like hes getting ready to go to dental appointment or something. And then he kind of paused and said, kind of reminds me of myself actually.

carlos lozada

Oh, my God.

mckay coppins

He just never liked it. He knows hes awkward. He can feel himself being awkward. But he also  the other thing is that some of it is people assume a level of inauthenticity that actually isnt always there. When he ran for governor in Massachusetts, they ran this ad called Ann that was about his like teenage romance with Ann and his like doting affection on his wife. And voters hated it. And they pulled it very quickly. Because he came off as like plastic and too perfect and fake. And people were like, theres no way thats real. It actually was real. That is what hes like with Ann. And what he said to me is, I guess Im the candidate whos authentically inauthentic. He comes from a long line of wife guys. The Romney men  the Romney men love their wives, performatively, but also authentically.

carlos lozada

Last night, in preparation for this conversation, I watched several old Mitt Romney speeches. And one of the ones I watched was his 2016 speech denouncing Trump. He almost seemed like he was having fun.

mitt romney And let me put it very plainly. If we Republicans choose Donald Trump as our nominee, the prospects for a safe and prosperous future are greatly diminished. But you say, wait, wait, wait, isnt he a huge business success? Doesnt he know what hes talking about? No, he isnt. And no, he doesnt.

ezra klein

Hes got this little smile half the time. He like waits for people to laugh at his one liners. Like sometimes they dont. Sometimes they do. But he just  he absolutely eviscerates Trump.

mitt romney Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud. His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University.

carlos lozada

So given that, how on Gods Good Earth does he take the meeting to become Trumps Secretary of State? It just seems like such a contrast to everything hed been doing. Hed been like behind the scenes, machinations, trying to get Cruz and Rubio and Kasich to figure out a plan. I mean, hed been doing everything he could. He decided this guy was this pernicious force, a con artist, dangerous to the Republic. And then like, whoa, maybe I can go work for him. Like, how did he come around to that process? I see that offer, or kind of the dangling of the Secretary of State job in front of Romney, as the last temptation for Romney. Right? He had taken this defiant stand against Trump, and really reamed out his Republican friends who got on board. Reince Priebus, at one point I write about, goes to Mitt and says, OK, well now that hes the nominee, can we get you on board? And he laughs in Reinces face and says, Trump is nuts. Wont do it so. Then Trump calls after he wins and says, we want to meet with you about Secretary of State. Actually Mike Pence calls him  Pence. Yeah.

mckay coppins

Mike Pence calls him and says 

carlos lozada

Who he also despises. He also despises Pence. Yeah. He hates everyone. Mitt holds grudges.

mckay coppins

Well, he  I said, hes judgmental. So I think a couple things were going on there. One was  its hard to remember back then, but the immediate weeks after Trump won were genuinely scary for a lot of people. Like it felt like the world was going to spin off its axis. Weve never had a truly just crazy person. This is the view of a lot of people in the Oval Office like, whats going to happen?

carlos lozada

During that transition period.

mckay coppins

During that transition period. There was a very strong sentiment of, we need adults in the room. Whatever you thought of Trump and his campaign, we need to get as many adults in the room as possible. There were a bunch of people who joined the administration In the White House at that time with the very explicit goal of containing Trump and making sure that the country stayed on track. So that definitely was part of it, I think. And that speaks to the kind of Romney obligation. Right? Its going to be embarrassing if I do this, but I have to do it. And I should say, I write about how he got calls from multiple former secretaries of state, including Hillary Clinton, saying, if they accept this job, you have to take it. But theres another side, which is, he wanted the job. He wanted the power. Theres a quote in the book where he says to me, I wanted to be president. If you cant have president, secretary of state is a pretty good 

carlos lozada

A good fall back.

mckay coppins

 consolation prize. Right? And so he was cleareyed about that with me now that he was tempted by the position. And, ultimately, he wasnt willing to do what Trump and his camp kind of demanded of him, which was, you need to fully retract everything you said about me and say that Im going to be an amazing president.

carlos lozada

But he did. He did say something.

mckay coppins

He went as far as he could.

carlos lozada

Heres the letter. This is page 189. So this is after he has the meeting. He comes out and he speaks publicly. He says, What Ive seen through these discussions Ive had with the President-elect Trump, as well as what weve seen in his speech the night of his victory, as well as the people he selected as part of his transition, all of those things combined give me increasing hope that President-elect Trump is the very man who can lead us to that better future. Now, you put that statement alongside the speech hed given just months earlier denouncing him in every possible way, and its just hard to believe its the same guy. Yeah. Well, once again, I think the rationalization instinct kicks in. Right? He basically convinces himself, I need to be in this room. I need to have this job. And so Im going to go as far as I can to try to get this job. And that was him kind of audition, right? He gives the speech. He gets a call shortly thereafter from Trump basically saying, thats not enough. You need to go further. Romney cant go further. And thats ultimately where it falls apart. Now, subsequently, people would claim that Trump was never going to offer him the job. This was just to toy with Romney and to embarrass him. My reporting suggests thats not true. I think that Trump was seriously considering him in part, because if he could get some of his most vocal critics  On board.

mckay coppins

 on board, then he would look good. But I think that episode was sort of the Last temptation Romney had to join the Trump train. And after that point, after he doesnt get it, and then after seeing what the first 100 days of the Trump presidency brings, hes basically fully committed to being a Republican critic of, opponent of, bulwark against Trumpism.

carlos lozada

When, Romney decides to run for Senate, he reflects on the Yeats poem, The Second Coming, and The best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity. Did he see himself as the best? Did he see  did he see the Trump crowd as the worst? What did that mean to him?

mckay coppins

That was  the very explicit reference to that poem and that line in particular was that, the way he described it to me is, the Matt Gatess of the world, and the Charlottesville marchers, and the very worst elements of the Republican coalition are empowered and on the rise. And the people who know that racism is wrong, and who know that authoritarianism is wrong, and who believe in the Constitution, and democracy, and pluralism are being silent because theyre scared. And they dont know what to do. And Mitt Romney saw himself as somebody who could come in and be a voice for those people. And hopefully, he in his, mind empower them to speak up. He still thought, let me get into the Senate. I was the nominee not that long ago. I was the standard-bearer of the Republican Party. Let me see if I can get these guys to come back to their senses and speak up in defense of traditional Republican values. And that ended up being a little more difficult than he thought it would be.

carlos lozada

Of course, the other famous moment in that poem is, things fall apart. The center cannot hold. Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. Did he think of himself as holding up the center? Or was hes still thinking of himself as a sort of partisan?

mckay coppins

The center, I dont think he meant the center of the political spectrum. He probably saw it more as like the center of the Republican Party, the kind of mainstream establishment of the party. Thats what he was representing. Though this brings up, I think, an important point. Part of why Romney ultimately was able to find his voice in these last few years is because the stakes of American politics changed. And the terms of the debate changed such that the things that we were debating as a country were not marginal tax rates or deficit reduction. It was like, do you believe in a pluralistic society? Do you believe in 

carlos lozada

Freedom of the press.

mckay coppins

 freedom of the press. Do you believe in these fundamental things that werent really up for debate a few years ago, and now seemed like they were. And Romney, while he doesnt hold strong partisan positions on most issues, does hold strong positions on those issues. And so I think thats part of why he now seems so animated.

carlos lozada

Theres a moment when hes campaigning and hes asked in a rally or in some event, so are you going to try to shut down CNN and The New York Times? And hes like, no, no, why would I do that? He still seems constantly surprised. Hes very generous with the benefit of the doubt often.

mckay coppins

He wants to think the best of people. And he wants to assume 

carlos lozada

Which is a beautiful sentiment.

mckay coppins

 that everybody has good intentions. I think its why some of his critics might say he was ill suited for this moment in politics. Because assuming bad faith in people doesnt come naturally to him. But it is true that in  so that was when he was running for Senate in Utah. And it was actually a clarifying moment for him. Because this woman asked, what are you going to do to shut down major American news organizations? And there was applause for that sentiment. And it was kind of a moment where he realized the trickle down effect of Donald Trump as president, is that these Republican voters, even in Utah, which is a state that was  for a red state pretty averse to Trump in 2016. These anti-democratic ideas were taking root among Romney supporters. And it made him realize how precarious this moment was for America.

carlos lozada

One thing that really stuck out at me is that once he becomes a senator, his relationship to rationalization changes. You write that maybe after so many years of allowing the petty indignities and moral compromises to pile up, hed finally reached his limit. Also you say, the path to higher office was closed now. Moral tests mattered more than they once did. I didnt know what to make of that. Because in some ways, its great to see Romney unleashed, a Senator. You know, its like his Bulworth moment. Hes just sort of saying what he really believes. But to say that, well, now that the stakes are low, now that I wont be president, I can really say what I. Think and that, to me, conflicted with this other thing that Romney says to you, which is that he was less pissed off at true believers than he was at people who were just kind of hiding what they really thought. And yet, hadnt he been doing that? Implicitly, hes admitting that he had. Because hes saying, well, now that Im in the Senate now, and now that any other high office is closed off to me, now I can really kind of like say what I think. He might take issue with this characterization, but to me its clear that part of the reason hes so judgmental of his colleagues, who say one thing in private and then take a different position in public, is because he recognizes a little of his past self in them. I think were often most judgmental of those who commit the sins that we know we commit. And I think that thats part of what is going on with him. But implicit in this whole project that he embarked on with me was the idea that he acknowledged he hadnt been fully candid or fully honest with himself during those earlier years of his political rise. And so I think you could ding him for that. But its also true that as hes now taking stock of his career, hes being honest about where he fell short. And I think it would be great if a lot more people would do that. By the way, Ill just put it out there, if anybody else wants to embark on a two year therapy session with me and then let me write a book about it, I would love to. McKay Coppins is available for regretful politicians everywhere. He does say it to you in a way that sounds like Mitt Romney. He says, I think I recognize now my capacity to rationalize decisions that are in my self-interest.

mckay coppins

Yes.

carlos lozada

Theres a power in the admission, even if its kind of a late in life admission.

mckay coppins

Well, and when he said that to me, it was  when I asked him, would you have taken the same lonely principled vote to impeach Trump if this had been decades earlier? And he thought about it. And I remember we were sitting in his hideaway, his Senate hideaway office, a little windowless room in the Capitol. And he thought really hard about that. And he gave me that answer, which I thought was kind of remarkably honest. For a lot of his career, he was able to do what he thought he needed to do to win by convincing himself that what was in his best interest was also the right thing to do.

carlos lozada

So last night. I also watched his shorter 2020 speech, Voting to Convict, where he explains his vote to convict Trump in the Senate impeachment trial. It is a remarkable speech. Its so different from the 2016 speech where hes condemning Trump more broadly. That speech, it was almost fun. But this speech, it is somber, it is emotional. When he talks about his faith, he chokes up. He has to stop.

mitt romney  serious. As a Senator juror, I swore an oath before God to exercise impartial justice. I am profoundly religious. My faith is at the heart of who I am. I take an oath before God as enormously consequential. I knew from the outset that being tasked with judging the president, the leader of my own party would be the most difficult decision I have ever faced. I was not wrong.

carlos lozada

It is a statement of high principle. I think its a speech people are going to remember, more than his convention speech, or his campaign speeches, or that speech condemning Trump. I think thats the Romney speech. And one thing I was so struck by was something that happened just before the speech. Word kind of leaks out that hes going to vote to convict, and hes going to explain. And he gets a call from his former running mate, Paul Ryan. And the moment you bring that up in the book, I naively assumed that Paul Ryan was going to be like, hey, Mitt, I heard youre going to do this. Im sure you wrestled with it. This is probably a really hard thing. I just want you to know that Ive got your back. Im here for you. Follow your conscience. But no.

mckay coppins

No.

carlos lozada

The call was like, hey, I hear youre going to take this principled stand. Do you really want to do that? Is that smart? Is that savvy? Should you? Like, I was shocked by it. And maybe my expectations or aspirations for Paul Ryan, or for the kind of running mate relationship, were too high. But I just couldnt believe that that happened. What did he make of that call?

mckay coppins

So I should say first that Mitt was not the one who told me first about that call. Somebody else in his orbit who knew about it told me about it first. And then I brought it up with him. And I brought it up with Ryan too, who confirmed the call. Not necessarily the characterization, but the essential detail.

carlos lozada

The tenor. The fact that 

mckay coppins

Exactly.

carlos lozada

Yeah.

mckay coppins

And that episode is so interesting to me because it showed truly how alone Mitt Romney was in that vote.

carlos lozada

His running mate.

mckay coppins

This is his former running mate, and somebody he really loves, like a son in some ways. Paul Ryan 

carlos lozada

People didnt want him to pick Ryan,

mckay coppins

No, no, no.

carlos lozada

Yeah. He liked Ryan.

mckay coppins

He liked Ryan. He respected him. He felt like they had a kind of kindred spirit thing going on.

carlos lozada

Like the policy wonkiness?

mckay coppins

Yeah. Exactly.

carlos lozada

The budget.

mckay coppins

The budget, yep. And even  Paul Ryan would have blended in with his sons as kind of a dark haired, blandly handsome guy. He really admired and respected Paul Ryan, to the point where he was much less judgmental of Ryans capitulations to Trump than he was of other Republicans. He sort of convinced himself, he was the Speaker of the House, he kind of had to do what he needed to do to get his agenda passed. But to have this moment, I think, where Paul Ryan calls him  Paul Ryan wasnt the Speaker of the House anymore. He wasnt in office anymore. He had really no reason to whip votes for Trump. So to do that, I think showed just how out on a limb Romney was. Theres another moment right before that where he tells his senior staff, Mitt Romney, that hes going to vote to convict. And one of his senior staffers, she just puts her head down in her hands and doesnt look up for the rest of the meeting because shes so disappointed in him, or disappointed in what this is going to mean for his place in the party, and maybe for her future career prospects. But Romney was really  did not have a lot of allies in this vote. Besides, I should say, his family. Which is ultimately what I think buoyed him throughout this whole process. In fact, theres a moment  because he goes  I have his journals from when hes  throughout that impeachment process, that trial. And hes agonizing every day over how to vote. And every day hes considering the evidence. And he tells Ann  he calls Ann and tells her, I think Im going to vote to acquit. And she says, Im surprised by that. And she doesnt say anything else. It doesnt  renders no judgment. Doesnt argue with him. But he immediately is like, oh, I need to go back to the drawing board. Because so much of him, his life, has been kind of dedicated to winning and keeping Anns respect. And to a lesser degree, but still important, his sons. And he had talked it over with his sons and his wife. And they all supported him in this. But really not that many other people did.

carlos lozada

Yeah, its interesting how many things he tried to do behind the scenes to stop Trump, both in 2016, also in 2020. He approaches Joe Manchin about forming a third party. He was very active in that effort.

mckay coppins

Its funny. Its one of those things, whenever a Republican kind of speaks out against Trump, the immediate kind of cynical response from a lot of people on the left is, well, why didnt you do anything about it? Words are cheap. You should do something. And I understand that sentiment. Theres been a lot of that. Mitt Romney is somebody whos actually done quite a lot. Not just the famous vote to impeach, but behind the scenes you can  as I kind of show in this book, he was constantly hustling to stop Trump, in both campaigns. And I think the same is true in this campaign as well.

carlos lozada

So you conclude with this scene about his fathers obituary. Some years ago, I think his daughter-in-law gave him The New York Times Book of the Dead, which is a collection of notable obits the paper had run throughout its history. And he says, she knows Im fascinated with this stuff. Among the hundreds of obituaries covering celebrities, presidents, entrepreneurs, and civil rights leaders, he looked for his dads. For Mitt, no man loomed larger in history than George Romney. He was an icon, a legend, the embodiment of integrity in public service. But Georges entry was nowhere to be found. It bothered him at first, eventually he made his peace with it. Even if history only writes one line about you, he tells me, youd like it to be a good line. And when I read that, it struck me on its own. But then later when I watched his Senate speech, he ends with a very similar sentiment to your final line in the book. He says  this is the Senate speech when hes explaining why hes voting to convict Donald Trump.

mitt romney I will only be one name among many. no more, no less. To future generations of Americans who look at the record of this trial, they will note merely that I was among the senators who determined that what the president did was wrong, grievously wrong. We are all footnotes at best in the annals of history. But in the most powerful nation on Earth, the nation conceived in liberty and justice, that distinction is enough for any citizen.

carlos lozada

That distinction is like the one line. You just want your one line to be a good one. So I have no doubt that this book will go a long way to shaping how we perceive the legacy of Mitt Romney. I hope that, unlike his own concerns, he has many, many more years of life remaining. But what do you think the first line of Mitt Romneys obituary will be?

mckay coppins

I think history is a ruthless editor. I think that the more distance that we have from his life, the less and less will be remembered about it. I do think, though, that whether its his obituary or history books 30, 50, 100 years from now, if he comes up, it will be for that moment of conscience toward the end of his political career. That speech on the Senate floor, I agree with you, will be the thing that if theres one scene that people remember from Mitt Romneys life and career, itll probably be that. I obviously think theres a lot more to say about him. I wrote a book about him. But I think that if we could all be remembered for eventually reaching the best version of ourselves, I think that would be wonderful. And I think that would be fair for him.

carlos lozada

McKay, this has been a real pleasure. We will end as all episodes of this show end by asking you for three book recommendations.

mckay coppins

OK, Ive got the three recommendations here. A mix of sentimental, and plugging for a friend, and then a little bit of self-indulgence. So first, Im going to recommend The Last Politician by Franklin Foer. My colleague at The Atlantic just came out last month about the first two years of the Biden presidency. I think uncommonly well written for an inside the White House story, and revealed things about the president that I didnt know and kind of his character that have stuck with me. Number two, Number The Stars by Lois Lowry. This is a shout out to my fifth grade daughter, my oldest daughter, who read this book last year. And its about a Jewish familys escape from Denmark during World War II. She started reading this book in school. Was obsessed with it and said, dad, you have to read it with me so that we can talk about it. So I started reading it with her, and lovely book. Like, really just a really touching story. And I would just say also, given current events, understanding the persecution of Jews and anti-Semitism, for a child, it was kind of a good opening point for those conversations. The last one, I cheated, but I feel like its OK because Ive heard you  I think others have cheated on this question too. Its actually three books, all on the same theme. The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz, Hell of a Book by Jason Mott and Less by Andrew Sean Greer. All three novels published in the last few years about writers embarking on book tours. Very different stories.

carlos lozada

Ive read Less. Its amazing.

mckay coppins

Its very funny, and heartwarming, and beautiful. In some of them, murders happen. In some of them, existential crises happen. In some of them, moments of enlightenment occur. Less is the one I read most recently. And I just couldnt put it down. I read the sequel, Less is Lost. But as an author embarking on a book tour, Im now hoping that I have as exciting an experience as these three fictional characters.

carlos lozada

McKay Coppins, author of Romney: A Reckoning, thank you so much for being on the show.

mckay coppins

Thanks for having me, Carlos. [MUSIC PLAYING]

carlos lozada
After Nicholas Campiz evacuated from Kyiv, Ukraines capital, in February 2022, he stayed glued to Twitter. As battles raged across the country, he tracked them on the app, staying up through many nights in a hotel room in Tbilisi, Georgia, to read updates as they rolled in, one tweet at a time.

As more Ukrainians hopped onto Twitter to tell their story, you had a lot of good accounts from them, Mr. Campiz said.

When war broke out this month in Israel and Gaza, Mr. Campiz, 40, a cartographer who now lives in Florida, turned to Twitter again. But his timeline on the app, which has been renamed X, was filled with posts from accounts he didnt recognize and content that had been debunked, he said.

With the war in Ukraine, Twitter was invaluable because you were able to get connected to accounts that were providing good information, he said. I feel really helpless in this Israel-Gaza thing because on Twitter now, the ability to do that is just gone.
Statkraft has acquired two companies in onshore and offshore wind power: Njordr Offshore Wind AB, which develops offshore wind power and Svevind Nordic AB, a development company in onshore wind power. With the purchase, Statkraft underlines its ambitions to continue the Swedish growth journey in renewable energy and contribute to the energy transition.

Svevind Nordic AB

Svevind Nordic currently has 16 employees with high competence in project development, mainly within onshore wind power. The company also has a development project pipeline that is included in the acquisition. The development projects are in electricity pricing zone SE1 and SE2 with a total potential installed capacity of more than 16 000 MW. The project that is most developed is Hastliden with 600 MW that is currently with the Swedish government for necessary approvals. The intention is to fully integrate Svevind Nordic into Statkraft's operations.

- We are tremendously happy to be able to strengthen our operations with a group of extremely competent employees who, together with the project portfolio, will make an important contribution to our ambitions to grow in onshore wind power and not least to the industrial development in Northern Sweden, says Jakob Norstrom, CEO of Statkraft Sweden.

- We are very proud that our Swedish team, with its unique expertise and experience gained over the years, will support such an important energy company as Statkraft in the future. In Statkraft, Svevind Nordic gets a strong owner who can continue the important work we have done and progress the project pipeline while providing for a continued positive work environment for the employees, says Wolfgang Kropp, founder and CEO of SVEVIND Energy Group. He adds: Even if the career paths of long-time companions and colleagues part ways today, it feels right and beneficial for all parties.

Njordr Offshore Wind AB

Njordr Offshore Wind, a joint venture between Njordr and Vindkraft Varmland, has developed a portfolio of early-stage offshore wind power projects. In addition, there is a team on site that can take the projects forth to delivery.

- The Nordic countries to a large extent form a common energy market. With an estimated need for a doubling of the electricity supply by 2045, Sweden is of particular interest for us. It fits well with our strategic ambition to grow within offshore wind with an ambition to have 10 GW in operation in Europe by 2040. This deal comprises an attractive portfolio which gives Statkraft the opportunity to contribute to delivering more renewable energy to Sweden, one of our focus markets, says David Flood, Senior Vice President Offshore Wind at Statkraft.

The portfolio includes nine projects located in the Swedish part of the Western Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Bothnian Sea and the Gulf of Bothnia. The total potential capacity of the projects is approx. 21 000 MW with an expected annual production of over 80 TWh per year. As part of the company's strategy to grow significantly in wind power, Statkraft is planning considerable investments in offshore wind power in Sweden going forward.

- Njordr Offshore Wind has been a pioneer within offshore wind in Sweden, establishing a strong project team and a significant project pipeline by utilizing the project origination expertise of Vindkraft Varmland. This transaction validates Njordr's strategy and how we are able to realise significant value from taking early positions, says Anders Hrland, chairman of the board of Njordr.

Work is now starting to integrate Svevind Nordic and Njordr Offshore Wind into Statkraft's operations. The Svevind brand will remain for other operations that the Svevind Group conducts outside of Sweden. The Njordr Group also has operations in onshore wind and solar power in Sweden, Norway and Finland. These activities are not covered by the transaction.

About SVEVIND Energy Group

The SVEVIND Energy Group is a European project developer with more than 30 years of experience in the renewable energy sector. The group, founded by Wolfgang Kropp and headquartered in Dresden, Germany, plans, develops, and markets renewable energy projects. In northern Sweden, the groups subsidiary SVEVIND developed Europe's largest onshore wind farm - the MARKBYGDEN 1101 project. The project is scheduled for completion in 2026 and will have a capacity of 3.4 gigawatts. Currently, wind turbines with a total capacity of 2,000 MW are in operation within MARKBYGDEN 1101. With its newest project Hyrasia one the SVEVIND Energy Group is focusing on developing large scale green hydrogen production projects in the vast steppe regions of Kazakhstan in Central Asia.

About Njordr Offshore Wind

Njordr Offshore Wind AB, based in Karlstad, Sweden, is a wind power company that identifies and develops offshore wind power. The company has built an effective interdisciplinary team that, with broad competence and short decision-making paths, is ready to contribute to a large-scale green energy transition in the Nordics.

About Statkraft

Statkraft is a leading company in hydropower internationally and Europe's largest generator of renewable energy. The Group produces hydropower, wind power, solar power, gas-fired power and supplies district heating. Statkraft is a global company in energy market operations. Statkraft has 5,700 employees in 21 countries.



For further information, please contact:

Lars Magnus Gunther, Press spokesperson Statkraft AS

+47 91 24 16 36

lars.gunther@statkraft.com

Mikael Petrovic Wagmark, Communication Manager, Statkraft Sweden

+46 72 213 98 50

mikael.petrovicwagmark@statkraft.com
Wearing a gray suit and purple tie, with his famously tousled hair cut short by a fellow inmate at the jail where he is detained, Mr. Bankman-Fried said he had made a number of small mistakes, and a number of larger mistakes.

FTX was supposed to move the ecosystem forward, he testified. It turned out the opposite of that.

Mr. Bankman-Frieds testimony was the most anticipated moment of a trial that has become a referendum on the excesses of the once-highflying crypto industry. The entrepreneur, who positioned himself as the face of the industry when the prices of digital coins like Bitcoin and Ether were surging, emerged last year as a cautionary tale of the unfettered hubris and risk-taking that cost customers billions of dollars when the crypto market crashed.

His decision to testify was an enormous risk. Lawyers usually advise criminal defendants not to take the stand, so that prosecutors dont have the chance to catch them in contradictions.

But after weeks of damaging testimony from his closest friends and colleagues, Mr. Bankman-Fried was left with little choice but to make a long-shot attempt to change the course of the trial. He was the defenses third and final witness, and he took the stand after an unusual hearing on Thursday delayed his testimony by a day.
In just over five months, a total solar eclipse will blot out the sun across a wide swath of North America for the first time since 2017. If you want to catch a seat at the show, you might want to book your room now  and be prepared to pay a premium.

In Erie, Pa., a Hampton Inn studio with two queen beds that usually goes for as little as $210 a night was commanding $1,188 this week. A studio with two twin beds at the Extended Stay America Suites in Amherst, N.Y., (near Buffalo) was going for $1,164 instead of less than $150, a typical nightly rate. Some other hotels have already sold out.

The eclipse, on April 8, will begin in Mazatlan, Mexico, and sweep across 13 U.S. states, from Texas to Maine. In some places, total darkness could last up to four and a half minutes. Cheering crowds are likely to fill the streets, as they did in 2017, and the sound of car horns will fill the highways as giant traffic jams also make a comeback.

Its a little bit like going to a big sporting event where people take their time getting in but everybody wants to leave at the same time, said Scott Katsinas, a travel adviser at Katsinas Travel Consultants in Tucson, Ariz.
Josh Seal and Bryan MacFarlane reveled in their Wednesday night outings at Schemengees Bar and Grille in Lewiston, playing on a cornhole team that was all their own.

For their nine-member team, part of a competitive cornhole league hosted by the bar, the weekly matches were a rare and treasured chance to socialize with other deaf adults. On Wednesday evening, not long after gathering with their team, Mr. Seal and Mr. McFarlane were among those fatally shot by a rampaging gunman.

Some of them were really passionate about the competition, but really, it was just an opportunity for deaf folks to hang out together, apart from the hearing world, said Mr. Seals wife, Elizabeth Seal, who is also deaf and signed through an interpreter. To be together and communicate with your people in your language  it is priceless.
It has been five years since a gunman stormed into the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, killing 11 worshipers and wounding six others in the deadliest antisemitic attack in American history.

A lot can happen in a half a decade. One of the three congregations that met at Tree of Life hired its first rabbi. New nonprofit organizations sprung up to serve survivors and others affected by antisemitism and violence. Plans to reconfigure and expand the building took shape, with a celebrity architect at the helm. And in August, the gunman was convicted on an array of federal charges and sentenced to death.

For some in the Tree of Life community, however, this years anniversary is not arriving with the sense of healing they hoped for. Weeks after more than 1,400 people were killed in a Hamas terror attack in southern Israel, many American Jews have felt their sense of safety shattered.

Now, Israeli airstrikes are pummeling Gaza, and the humanitarian crisis in the territory is worsening, with food and water in short supply and civilian deaths mounting.

But as many Jews in the United States are grieving the civilian deaths in Israel, and worried for families and friends there, some also feel abandoned by former political allies  including many of the same people and organizations that embraced Tree of Life five years ago.

Muslim organizations raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for victims in the weeks after the attack; Catholic parishes organized special collections. Thousands of people attended vigils, and statements of support poured in from across the world.
The Democratic Partys yearslong unity behind President Biden is beginning to erode over his steadfast support of Israel in its escalating war with the Palestinians, with a left-leaning coalition of young voters and people of color showing more discontent toward him than at any point since he was elected.

From Capitol Hill to Hollywood, in labor unions and liberal activist groups, and on college campuses and in high school cafeterias, a raw emotional divide over the conflict is convulsing liberal America.

While moderate Democrats and critics on the right have applauded Mr. Bidens backing of Israel, he faces new resistance from an energized faction of his party that views the Palestinian cause as an extension of the racial and social justice movements that dominated American politics in the summer of 2020.

In protests, open letters, staff revolts and walkouts, liberal Democrats are demanding that Mr. Biden break with decades-long American policy and call for a cease-fire, even as Israel steps up its military operations in Gaza.

The political power of the Israel skeptics within the party is untested, with more than a year remaining until the 2024 presidential election. Their efforts have been fractious and disorganized, and they have little agreement on how much blame to lay at Mr. Bidens feet or whether to punish him next November if he ignores their pleas.

And yet Mr. Biden is already struggling with low Democratic enthusiasm, and it would not take much of a slip in support from voters who backed him in 2020 to throw his re-election bid into question. His margin of victory in key battleground states was just a few thousand votes  hardly enough to spare a significant drop-off from young voters alienated by his loyalty to a right-wing Israeli government they see as hostile to their values.

At its heart, the turbulence over Israel is a fundamental disagreement over policy, setting it apart from challenges like voters dissatisfaction with the economy, which Mr. Bidens allies believe can be solved with better messaging. The president, who has for decades positioned himself in the middle of his party and has navigated Democrats ideological and generational divide for the first half of his term, now confronts an issue that has no easy middle ground.

Perhaps most concerning for Mr. Biden is that in the halls of Congress, the most critical Democratic voices are Black and Hispanic Democrats who helped fuel his 2020 victory. As of Thursday, all 18 House members who had signed onto a resolution calling for an immediate de-escalation and cease-fire in Israel and occupied Palestine were people of color.

We process pain, deprivation and cruelty personally, having either encountered it in our current lives or having had historical connections to it with our ancestors, said Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey, one of the cease-fire resolutions co-sponsors. So we understand that cruelty and war and violence do not have positive outcomes.
Cornel West, the left-wing public intellectual and independent presidential candidate, stood on a rainy stretch of suburban highway in New Yorks Rockland County. Watch that truck! he called out, holding up a United Auto Workers sign.

A dump truck blew past, the spray from its wheels momentarily knocking Mr. West back on his feet and further soaking his already damp suit.

It was not supposed to be like this. The week before, on Sept. 20, Mr. West had announced he was going to Michigan, the epicenter of a strike against the three unionized American auto manufacturers over wage increases. But then President Biden announced that he, too, would be going to Michigan, a crucial swing state, on the same day. Soon, Mr. West said, union officials urged him to delay his Michigan trip and in the meantime join workers picketing a local auto parts distribution center in Tappan, N.Y., instead.

(A U.A.W. spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.)

Still, Mr. West seemed determined to make the best of this Siberia of solidarity. Thats it! he shouted, fist raised, after the dump truck driver let out a low blast on his horn. Now you know!
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, working to maintain his second-place status in the Republican primary, said Friday that as president he would reorient U.S. foreign policy to give clear priority to China while downplaying national security risks posed by conflicts such as Russias war on Ukraine.

In a speech laying out his approach, Mr. DeSantis cast Beijing as a greater threat to the United States than the Axis powers and the Soviet Union ever were because of its economic might. As commander in chief, he said, he would prioritize the Indo-Pacific region as the most pressing part of the world for defending U.S. interests and U.S. security.

A less aggressive approach, he argued, would allow China to export its authoritarian vision all across the world, creating a global dystopia.

They seek to be the dominant power in the entire world, and they are marshaling all their society to be able to achieve that objective, Mr. DeSantis said. So this is a formidable threat and it requires a whole of society approach.

Mr. DeSantiss remarks, delivered in Washington, D.C., at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, come at a difficult moment for his presidential campaign. Not only is he badly trailing former President Donald J. Trump in the polls, but Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and former ambassador to the United Nations, has successfully positioned herself as a credible alternative to Mr. Trump, puncturing the Florida governors argument that the Republican presidential primary is a two-man race.

Mr. DeSantis has lately used foreign policy to attack other Republican presidential candidates, rebuking Mr. Trump for his critical comments about Israeli leaders and accusing Ms. Haley  who is attracting growing interest from Republican donors and voters  of being soft on China.

Never Back Down, a pro-DeSantis super PAC, has spent roughly $2.4 million against Ms. Haley this month, largely to criticize her foreign policy record  its first major investment against a candidate who wasnt Mr. Trump. (Ms. Haleys campaign has pushed back against those assertions, and fact checkers have shown that Mr. DeSantiss claim that she supports allowing Gazan refugees into the United States is false.)

While the Republican base has moved away from the neoconservative, interventionist policies of George W. Bush, Mr. DeSantis has taken heat from the G.O.P.s national security establishment for some of his isolationist tendencies. This year, he called the war in Ukraine a territorial dispute, comments that he later walked back. On the campaign trail in the early nominating states, he has faced pointed questions from voters, particularly in moderate New Hampshire, about whether he would cede Ukraine to its Russian invaders.

Mr. DeSantis on Friday also accused China of fueling the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Israel by supporting Russia and Iran, saying that President Bidens policies toward those adversaries had encouraged their aggression.

He touched on how Ukraine would fit into his foreign policy vision, suggesting that U.S. efforts to aid the democratic nation in its fight against Russia were a distraction from Americas more pressing interests. The United States has given Ukraine billions in security assistance, including weapons. But continuing that outlay has been a point of tension within the G.O.P. and has become the center of the spending fight in Congress.

Lengthy conflicts, particularly between Russia and Ukraine, will ultimately benefit China because it will distract America and it will deplete our already dwindling Western weapons and ammunition stockpiles, Mr. DeSantis argued, adding that the threat posed by the C.C.P. requires our primary focus and attention, in a reference to the Chinese Communist Party.

While Mr. DeSantis emphasized his longstanding support for Israel in his China-centric speech, he did not specify what type of additional assistance the U.S. government should provide. He said this week that the United States should continue its military aid to the Jewish state, but noted that its Israels war.

Still, on Friday, he defended Israels right to fully defend itself against these barbarous attacks by Hamas.

As a three-term congressman who served on the House Foreign Affairs Committee before being elected governor of Florida in 2018, Mr. DeSantis established a foreign policy record that many of his allies described as Jacksonian, a reference to President Andrew Jacksons approach. Such a worldview favors a robust military but has a narrow conception of the national interest that focuses on protecting American territory, people, hard assets and commercial interests overseas.

That vision of building hard power but only using it when necessary was on display in Mr. DeSantiss speech to the Heritage Foundation.

As a veteran of the Iraq war, I recognize the gravity of deploying U.S. troops in combat and hope to never have to do that as commander in chief, said Mr. DeSantis, who served as a Navy lawyer. But if such a duty calls, I will ensure that the U.S. will be fully committed to winning. Our forces will have what they need to be lethal and capable, preferably to deter conflict in the first place, but also to achieve a decisive, overwhelming victory if conflict arises.

He also repudiated Americas post-9/11 neoconservatism, saying it represented a departure from traditional, Reaganesque peace through strength policies.

Mr. DeSantis said he would counter China by expanding the U.S. Navy, increasing American energy production and the mining of rare-earth minerals, overhauling the nations industrial manufacturing base, protecting domestic technology and intellectual property and slashing the bloated defense bureaucracy.

And he took several opportunities to criticize Mr. Biden, describing his foreign policy as rudderless, weak, misguided and saying that one of his own first priorities as president would be to secure the nations borders.

In response, Sarafina Chitika, a spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee, said that Mr. DeSantiss foreign policy agenda would endanger the United States and undermine our allies.

Its clear hes out of his depth, Ms. Chitika said in a statement.
Speaker Mike Johnson said on Thursday evening that his personal worldview and policy positions are dictated by the Bible, in his first extended interview since assuming the job second in line to the presidency.

During a 41-minute interview with the Fox News host Sean Hannity, Mr. Johnson, a 51-year-old Louisiana Republican, acknowledged that some of his conservative Christian views, such as his opposition to same-sex marriage, run counter to the law. He said he would not try to impose that view or others, such as his opposition to abortion, on the whole country. He also laid out how he planned to approach other major issues that would soon come before Congress.

While Mr. Johnson played a pivotal role in former President Donald J. Trumps efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, Mr. Hannity did not ask him a single question about it in the lengthy broadcast. Mr. Hannity famously told Mr. Trump to stop talking about the 2020 election.

Here are nine takeaways from the interview.

1. Johnsons views stem from the Bible.

I am a Bible-believing Christian, he told Mr. Hannity. Someone asked me today in the media, they said, Its curious, people are curious. What does Mike Johnson think about any issue under the sun? I said, Well, go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it. Thats my worldview.
Were all a little star-struck, to be honest, said Timothy Magner, the president of the Greater Shreveport Chamber of Commerce, who corrected himself to use the new speaker title to refer to Mr. Johnson. That brass ring, if you will, has always been out of reach.

And as Washington acclimates to a lawmaker who has not held a prominent leadership position before, those in Louisiana see the same strait-laced man who cultivated a reputation as a dedicated constitutional scholar willing to defend hard-line religious and conservative stances. (Multiple friends and colleagues said he has a knack for impressions of politicians, which they cited as evidence of a sense of humor.)

He makes what many people may see as unreasonable seem more reasonable, because he comes off as a very logical, rational, researched presentation of what would be undigestible for moderates, said Mary-Patricia Wray, a longtime Louisiana political consultant who has worked for officials in both parties.

He would tell you hes never surprised by Gods ordinance, she added. And the thing about Mike is  he means that answer.

Some constituents said that they, too, were among the many Americans learning about Mr. Johnson this week. In Opelousas, in the southern slice of his district, Shawana Johnson, 43, said she heard of him for the first time through a canvassing text message on Wednesday.
As supplies of virtually every basic human necessity dwindle in Gaza, one group in the besieged enclave remains well-stocked: Hamas.

Arab and Western officials say there is substance to Israeli claims of Hamas stockpiling supplies, including desperately needed food and fuel. Hamas, they say, has spent years building dozens of kilometers of tunnels under the strip where it has amassed stores of virtually everything needed for a drawn-out fight. It is a reality that Israel may soon find itself grappling with if it makes good on its threat to invade Gaza.

Hamas has hundreds of thousands of gallons of fuel for vehicles and rockets; caches of ammunition, explosives and materials to make more; and stockpiles of food, water and medicine, the officials said. A senior Lebanese official said Hamas, which is estimated to number between 35,000 and 40,000, had enough stocked away to keep fighting for three to four months without resupply.

One of the four Israeli hostages released by Hamas even described the group providing captives with medicine, shampoo and feminine hygiene products. All are now said to be extraordinarily scarce in Gaza more than two weeks after Israel, aided by Egypt, imposed what it called a complete blockade following the attack by the terrorist group on Oct. 7.

The Arab and Western officials who described Hamass supply situation all spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were disclosing information gleaned from human sources, communications intercepts and other streams of intelligence. The stockpiles are typically kept underground, they said, and cautioned that precise details on Hamass supplies were difficult to come by.

While the blockade has left Gazas roughly 2 million people scraping by with what little food and water they scrounge up, it does not yet appear to have begun to degrade Hamass ability to fight. The group has launched hundreds of rockets at Israel since the blockade began and have fended off preliminary Israeli incursions into the enclave.

The supply situation speaks to the relative sophistication of Hamas as a fighting force  an axiom among military professionals is that while amateurs talk about tactics, professionals talk about logistics. Yet with Gazans facing a humanitarian catastrophe, Hamass stockpiles raise questions about what responsibility, if any, it has to the civilian population.
Nevada Republicans are in for a mess in February when it becomes time to choose the GOP presidential candidate. Voters are certain to be confused.

Nevada will have two separate GOP contests, both a primary and a caucus election, scheduled only two days apart.

State law dictates there will be a presidential primary on Feb. 6, but Nevada GOP chairman Michael McDonald insisted on holding a presidential caucus instead on Feb. 8.

The Nevada GOP sued to block the primary but lost in court. So both primary and caucus elections will be held.

Ironically, McDonald favored switching to a primary in 2016.

In reality, the Nevada GOP is the Donald Trump campaign in the state. McDonald is a longtime Trump loyalist and Nevada 2020 fake elector.

A tightly controlled caucus with limited participation advantages Trump. An open primary with vastly more Republican voters involved would result in a less certain outcome.

Delegates to the Republican National Convention will be decided by the results of the caucus, not the primary. That means the primary will be a beauty contestwith no meaning.

Republican voters wishing to have a say in who goes to the national convention and which candidate gets their support will have to show up in person on Feb. 8 at 5 p.m. at locations not yet determined.

Republican voters who participate in the primary beauty contest will be able to vote at any time on Feb. 6 at any regular polling location. Theyll also be able to vote early or by mail.

At a Sept. 23 meeting in Winnemucca closed to the press, the Nevada GOP adopted a rule that any presidential candidate who put their name on the state-run primary ballot would be prohibited from participating in the party caucus election and ineligible to be awarded any national convention delegates.

Another rule requires a $55,000 fee to be paid to the Nevada GOP by each presidential candidate registering for the caucus. Without money to conduct the caucus, the Nevada GOP wants the candidates to help finance it.

The Nevada GOP is spending money and time trying to organize a completely unnecessary caucus.

The caucus and the primary will feature different candidates. Donald Trump fans wont be happy when they receive a mail ballot without his name on it.

Candidate filings for Nevadas GOP presidential nominating contests closed Oct. 16.

Former President Trump filed for the party-operated caucus on Feb. 8 along with five othersFlorida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, and pastor Ryan Binkley.

But two days before the caucus, three major GOP presidential hopefulsformer South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former Vice President Mike Pence, and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC)will appear on the state-run Feb. 6 primary ballot (along with four long-shot presidential hopefuls).

The decision by Haley, Pence and Scott to skip the caucus means not winning any Nevada delegates but gives them a chance to win an early statewide preference election.

Whats certainthe winner of the Feb. 6 primary will be different from the Feb. 8 caucus winner. Its a mess.

This confusing process is intended to benefit Trump, the favored candidate of McDonald and Nevada GOP leaders. Rules adopted prevent the superPAC supporting DeSantis from participating in the caucus. Theres no level playing fieldits rigged for Trump.

Nevada holds the third earliest contest on the Republican calendar and should be having frequent visits from presidential candidates. But the primary-caucus debacle has left Nevada ignored.

Its a huge missed opportunity. Interest in a presidential contest could be used to increase involvement in the Nevada GOPand boost registration.

Instead, this fiasco highlights the ineptitude of the Nevada GOP and the reason for disastrous results in the last four election cycles.
Just hours after U.S. fighter jets bombed facilities used by Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and its proxies in Syria early Friday, the proxies fired back  launching an attack drone at U.S. forces in western Iraq.

American air defenses shot down the drone a few miles from Al Asad Air Base, causing no injuries or damage on the ground, U.S. officials said on Friday. Pentagon officials also said that rockets were fired into northern Syria on Friday but landed far from American troops.

Pentagon officials have attributed the attacks to Iran-backed militias.

But the tit-for-tat raised questions about whether the airstrikes that were carried out after a flurry of rocket and drone attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria can achieve one of their major goals: to deter further attacks.

The United States does not seek conflict and has no intention nor desire to engage in further hostilities, but these Iranian-backed attacks against U.S. forces are unacceptable and must stop, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said in a statement after what he described as self-defense strikes.
The American strikes on two Iranian military munitions stockpiles in Syria on Friday were carefully designed, President Bidens aides said, to send two distinct messages to Tehran.

The first was that if the attacks on American forces by Iranian proxies escalate, it would force the United States into the kind of overt military confrontation with Iran that both nations have avoided since the Iranian revolution in 1979.

And the second was that if the attacks stop, both sides could quietly back away, free to resume the simmering hostilities that have characterized the relationship in recent years.

It is the latest gamble by the United States to modify Irans behavior, few of which have worked in the past. And now, with the backdrop of a new war in the Middle East, President Biden is signaling that Tehrans best bet is to stay clear of involvement. The main goal, said John F. Kirby, a White House spokesman, is to deter and to prevent future attacks.

Mr. Kirby added the U.S. did not want to escalate: Nobodys looking for a conflict with Iran.

The American strikes on a weapons storage facility and an ammunition storage facility, conducted by Air Force F-16 jets, were in response to rocket and drone attacks on U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria, which the Pentagon said caused traumatic brain injuries to 19 troops. While there have been American strikes before  including the targeted assassination in January 2020 of the head of Irans Quds Force, Gen. Qassem Soleimani  these strikes were intended as highly visible brushback pitches.

These precision self-defense strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said in a statement. He quickly added that the United States has no intention nor desire to engage in further hostilities if the Iranian-backed attacks stop.

(Later on Friday, Irans proxies launched an attack drone at U.S. forces in western Iraq, but there were no injuries or damage on the ground  suggesting that relatively low-level skirmishes may continue.)

Mr. Biden approved the strikes after U.S. intelligence agencies assessed that Irans supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, wanted to avoid a wider war with Israel or with the United States, U.S. officials said.

But the Iranians wanted to do something to pressure the United States to rein in Israel and to remind the Americans of Tehrans power, U.S. officials said.

The U.S. response, officials said, was calibrated to demonstrate strength, but not escalate the situation or give hard-liners an excuse to press Ayatollah Khamenei to lend his support for a wider regional war, led by Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

Mr. Kirby told reporters on Friday that the purpose was to have a significant impact on future I.R.G.C., Iran-backed militia group operations, and that the strikes were aimed at storage facilities and ammo depots that we know will be used to support the work of these militia groups.

Whether such finely tuned messages are received as intended, though, is far from clear. Past attempts to try to control Irans behavior have fallen flat.

President Barack Obama struck a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran in hopes that it would begin a new era of modest cooperation between the two countries, once Iran began to reintegrate into the world economy. That never happened. President Donald J. Trump said exiting the deal would prompt Iran to come begging for a new agreement because sanctions were breaking the country. That did not happen either.

When Mr. Biden came into office, he tried to restore the nuclear deal, which had largely contained Irans nuclear activity, international nuclear inspectors said, until Mr. Trump pulled out of it. After 18 months of negotiations, a final deal seemed on the table  until the Iranians raised new demands and it fell apart.

Similarly, many of the roughly 1,500 American and Western economic sanctions on Iran were intended to halt its support of Hamas and Hezbollah, the powerful militia in Lebanon. But both Democratic and Republican presidents have discovered that the strategy has simply not worked. And in recent times, Iran has been selling roughly 1.5 million barrels of oil each day, a four-year high, with the vast majority of those shipments going to China.
That approach is at odds with the one favored by the White House, congressional Democrats and many mainstream Republicans who believe that the best way to ensure funding for both wars is to keep them together in one large package. The $105 billion measure Mr. Biden has requested includes $14.3 billion for Israel and $61.4 billion for Ukraine, as well as funds for Taiwan and border security in the United States.

At the end of the day, these are all going to be linked together, and were going to be voting on a package, said Representative Michael McCaul, Republican of Texas and the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, who has been working to persuade Mr. Johnson to embrace such a measure.

But Mr. McCaul conceded that, given the pressures inside his own party, Mr. Johnson could act as soon as next week to push through an emergency spending bill covering only Israel.

Since the start of the war, Mr. Johnson has routinely offered praise and prayers for Ukraines fight against Russia, but he has voted against successive emergency spending measures. Scores of House Republicans have adopted a similar stance, and last month, a majority of them, including Mr. Johnson, voted against a bill to send Ukraine $300 million to arm and train its fighters.

Mr. McCaul, Representative Michael R. Turner, Republican of Ohio and the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, and other top national-security-minded Republicans have been trying to impress upon Mr. Johnson that his new post requires a different approach to foreign policy than he has taken to date. During a Thursday meeting in the Situation Room with their Democratic counterparts and Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, they stressed to Mr. Johnson that if he moved ahead with an Israel-only funding bill, he must offer Ukraine some assurances that its plight against Russia would not be forgotten.

This is not something we want to play politics with; its a very urgent national security issue, Mr. McCaul said after the meeting. I think pulling out of Ukraine would be a terrible mistake.

Mr. Johnsons comments to Mr. Hannity suggested he had taken the warning to heart. He promised not to abandon Ukraine, and noted that allowing Russia to win would embolden other U.S. adversaries. But he has yet to specify when he might bring up an aid package for Ukraine, how large it might be or what restrictions would have to be included.

Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, has pledged that his chamber will produce legislation to address multiple global threats, including Ukraine and Israel. Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the minority leader, has also stressed the urgency of addressing multiple crises at once, arguing in several floor speeches and a rare television interview that Congress must approve assistance for both Israel and Ukraine in order to counter Russia, Iran and China.

But bands of both House and Senate Republicans have been trying to stop that from happening.

On Thursday, five Republicans led by Representative Michael Waltz of Florida, a former Green Beret, wrote to Senate leaders warning them against including Ukraine funding in an aid package for Israel and the southern border.

We are concerned that President Biden has used Israels existential struggle as an excuse to force billions more in additional spending through Congress, rather than address the nations most pressing emergencies, they wrote.

A separate group in the Senate led by Senators Roger Marshall of Kansas and J.D. Vance of Ohio introduced legislation Thursday to provide military aid to Israel alone.

Israel has an achievable objective, Mr. Vance wrote in a memo he circulated among Senate Republicans before introducing the bill. Ukraine does not.
The young girls and boys, wearing colorful scarves, tattered shirts and flip-flops, ran across the dusty ground to form jagged lines and face the teachers at the start of the school day.

The children, hundreds of them gathered in makeshift classrooms, had arrived in this aid camp in recent months after fleeing the war in their homeland of Sudan. But even as they began to gain a sense of normalcy in their schooling, many were still burdened with memories of the vicious conflict they endured, which had left loved ones dead and their homes destroyed.

We know that pain is lasting inside their hearts, said Mujahid Yaqub, a 23-year-old who fled Sudan and now teaches English at the school in the Wedwil refugee center, in Aweil in South Sudan. Many of the children, he said, were unable to focus in class and often cried over the memories of their terrifying escape from shellings and massacres.
Over Halloween weekend last year, nearly 160 young people died in a crowd crush in Itaewon, a popular nightlife district in Seoul. For those who survived or lost loved ones, the past year has been a time of deep frustration and trauma.

A government investigation failed to explain why desperate calls to the police were ignored for hours. Senior officials refused to take responsibility. The disaster quickly became politicized, dividing people  and quarreling political parties  over who should be held accountable. Many wrote online that the young victims and survivors should blame themselves. The survivors said they felt revictimized.

In December, Lee Jae-hyeon, 16, a survivor who had lost two of his best friends in the crowd crush, took his own life after battling online detractors of the victims. In a video message, he asked his parents not to blame themselves for his death.

I wish that I would have parents like you in my next life, he said.

As the first anniversary of the disaster approached, survivors and victims family members struggled with unanswered questions, longing for their loved ones and dismay at the governments response.
The Australia Letter is a weekly newsletter from our Australia bureau. Sign up to get it by email.

Australia is fast heading into our worst fire season since the summer of 2019-2020, or Black Summer, when nearly 500 people died, either through direct deaths or smoke inhalation. All-too-familiar images of horrific blazes and blood-red skies are already starting to fill the news. This week, dozens of homes were destroyed and hundreds of people have been evacuated as firefighters battle a wildfire in the Tara region in Queensland. Two people died in two separate fires in New South Wales earlier this month, one of them a firefighter who suffered a medical emergency while on the job.

We are better prepared this year, officials have said. More firefighting aircraft are available, and our national emergency coordination has been streamlined. And experts broadly do not expect this summer to be as bad as four years ago as it is being preceded by several years of rain and floods rather than drought.

Still, its an unsettling feeling, watching the news and waiting for the worst.

In the heart of Sydney, far away from any landscapes that could burn, Ive been looking into getting an air purifier for my parents, who have respiratory problems. Ive overheard conversations from residents contemplating leaving the country for a month or two, fearing another summer of smoke and smog.

Of course, thats something that many residents in bushfire-prone areas dont have the luxury of considering. Many are still rebuilding their lives and homes after Black Summer, have spent the past four years trying to fireproof their communities, and have become de facto experts in fire-related topics as diverse as vegetation and weather maps. And for some, danger and destruction have already arrived.
In 2021, she helped a member of the Senate draft a question to the minister of education about textured hair. In response, the Education Ministry, at the time headed by Pap Ndiaye, the first Black person to hold the post, said it was working on addressing the training issue. In 2022, it created an advanced-level certification program available to those who have already secured a basic hairdressing license.

Last month, five schools in France began offering this new, specialized training.

Rokhaya Diallo, a journalist and filmmaker who interviewed dozens of Parisians about their experiences and challenges related to their hair for her book Afro!, said the new certification was a welcome first step but that more needed to be done.

It is an important advancement that also shows how necessary it would be for this skill to no longer be an option but a requirement, said Ms. Diallo, who is one of Frances most prominent voices in antiracism efforts.

In finally getting the government to act, Dr. Livoreil-Djampou credits the efforts of activists like Taj, a famous Parisian stylist from Martinique, who died in 2019 and who had long championed this cause. And, Dr. Livoreil-Djampou added, the timing was also right.

It was the right moment, she said, referencing the widespread debates about identity and discrimination that were then taking place in France on TV, in social media and on the streets. Plus, she said, I knew how to speak their language. I had the expertise and the experience at LOreal. Did it help that I was white? Partly.
Hundreds of women draped in Ukrainian flags, carrying banners and balloons, chanted on the street around the corner from the presidents office last week.

Blocked by police officers and sandbags, they called on President Volodymyr Zelensky by name. Zelensky! Zelensky! Zelensky! Zelensky!

Every so often an angry tirade cut through the noise.

Where is my brother? shouted one woman. Bring them back home! a teenager screamed tearfully.

Public complaints about the conditions soldiers are suffering at the front, and the rising numbers of dead and missing, have been a phenomenon seen in Russia since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year. But last weeks demonstration was a rare venting on the Ukrainian side, from families desperate for news of soldiers who have gone missing in action over more than 20 months of fighting.
LEBANON

Hezbollah, Arabic for the Party of God, emerged in the 1980s from the chaos of Lebanons long civil war to become one of the most powerful forces in the region.

When Israel pulled back from most of neighboring Lebanon three years after its 1982 invasion, its army remained along a thin border strip. But the toll from constant clashes with Hezbollah forced a withdrawal in 2000. Hezbollah fought a 33-day war with Israel again in 2006, and there have been almost daily exchanges of fire since Oct. 7.

Iran is believed to have supplied Hezbollah with powerful missiles that could strike most Israeli cities, and Israel would be hard pressed to fight in both Gaza and in the north if Hezbollah launched a significant campaign. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has vowed devastating consequences for any such effort.

Aside from being a Shiite militia, however, Hezbollah is also a political party seeking popular appeal among other Lebanese sects. So despite Hezbollahs virulent anti-Israel rhetoric, a new war would wreak havoc on a country already reeling from an unprecedented economic and infrastructure crisis and risk angering the bulk of Lebanons estimated 5.5 million population.

SYRIA

The ruling Assad family, members of the minority Alawite sect, a splinter off Shiism, has long bolstered its grip at home by allying itself with Iran. That alliance proved especially useful after 2011, when President Bashar al-Assad faced an antigovernment uprising and eventually a civil war with extremist Sunni Muslim forces.

Iran supplied militia troops  Israel accused it of deploying as many as 80,000 men  to buttress Syrian ground forces, while Russia provided air power. Hezbollah also dispatched fighters from Lebanon.

The 1974 cease-fire line between Israel and Syria in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights remained quiet for decades, although there have been occasional exchanges of fire since the uprising began. In recent days, Israel has launched airstrikes to respond to artillery fire from Syria, which opposition analysts said was most likely fired by Hezbollah.
Saudi officials have firmly warned the United States in recent days that an Israeli ground incursion into Gaza could be catastrophic for the Middle East.

Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut and a member of the Armed Services Committee, was one of 10 senators who met last weekend with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdoms de facto ruler, in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

The Saudi leadership was hopeful that a ground operation could be avoided for reasons of stability as well as the loss of life, Mr. Blumenthal told The New York Times on Thursday. Saudi officials warned it would be extremely harmful, he said.

Senior Saudi officials have delivered even more forceful exhortations to their American counterparts in multiple conversations, raising their concerns that a ground invasion could turn into a disaster for the entire region, according to one Saudi official and a second person with knowledge of the discussions.

The exchanges came as tensions rippled outward from the Gaza Strip. Essentials like water and fuel are increasingly scarce as Israel bombards and besieges the enclave in response to the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, the armed Palestinian group that rules Gaza.

One Biden administration official said it was evident that the Saudis did not want an Israeli invasion of Gaza. The U.S. official, as well as the Saudi official and the person familiar with the Saudi warnings, asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.
NA Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue (middle) addresses the event (Photo: VNA)

A report by the team pointed to a number of limitations in legal regulations and policies in the field as well as their implementation, and recommended solutions in the short, medium and long terms, said Cuong at the NA Standing Committees 27th session on October 12.

Explaining some issues discussed at the session, Chairman of the NA Committee for Science, Technology and Environment and deputy head of the supervision team Le Quang Huy said that the focal point of the teams supervision is power prices, including financial investment mechanisms in the electricity sector, and ensuring financial investment mechanisms for electric energy security.

Regarding just energy transition, he said this is an important goal that need the support from international community in terms of capital, technology and governance capacity.

NA Vice Chairman Tran Quang Phuong said that the report should further clarify problems in managing the prices of power, coal, gas and petrol, pointing out the reasons and responsibility of particular agencies.

Besides, it is necessary to make more careful assessment of the implementation of the National Power Development Plan for the 2011-2020 period (PDP 7), and the settlement of problems in power planning and transmission, he said.

He also asked the team to define major solutions and the scenario to ensure power security, and solutions to the power planning and power infrastructure issues.

Deputy Government Inspector General Le Sy Bay asked the NA inspection team to add to the report contents related to the adjustment of power and petrol price definition mechanism, power resources and power grid management.

Chairman of the NA Committee for Science, Technology and Environment Le Quang Huy speaks at the session (Photo: VNA)

NA Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue underlined that the supervision work should clarify the responsibility of particular agencies and organisation. It should focus on the implementation of the PDP 7 and the plan to realise the PDP 8.

Meanwhile, the a resolution in the work should give major contents to be implemented in the time to come, including the just energy transition, the removal of bottlenecks in institution and policy regarding energy development, he said, stressing the need for the addition of data and updates on the real situation in the draft resolution.

According to the supervision report, in the 2016-2021 period, along with achievements in power supply for socio-economic activities, there were still a number of shortcomings, including those on developing solar and wind power as well as small-scale hydropower plants, and the power infrastructure development.

Greater attention has been paid to economical and efficient use of energy, and energy transition in an equal and sustainable manner, it said. It underlined that the energy transition process in Vietnam requires huge investment capital, changes in mindset, management methods, and technological innovation, while the scale of the country's economy is still modest, and the domestic energy market has been increasingly dependent on the world energy market. This has continued to affect and pose many challenges for the country in energy development, especially ensuring immediate and long-term energy security, said the report./.
The United States on Friday imposed a new round of sanctions aimed at cutting off financing for Hamas, targeting its investment fund and Iranians who funnel money and support to the group.

The Treasury Department has sent two of its top officials to the Middle East and Europe this week to coordinate an international effort to prevent Hamas from evading previous sanctions and find new ways to cut the group off from the international financial system. The United States estimates that Hamas controls $500 million worth of assets that it uses to finance terrorism.

We will not hesitate to take action to further degrade Hamass ability to commit horrific terrorist attacks by relentlessly targeting its financial activities and streams of funding, Wally Adeyemo, the deputy Treasury secretary, said in a statement. He added that the United States was working with allies to deny Hamas the ability to exploit the international financial system.

The sanctions announced on Friday target companies, and investors in companies, that are part of the fund that Hamas uses to obscure who controls its assets.
Read the latest updates on the Maine shootings.

The man wanted in the nations deadliest mass shooting this year was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound on Friday night, ending a manhunt that spanned much of southern Maine for two days.

The authorities said that the man, Robert R. Card Jr., 40, killed 18 people and injured 13 more on Wednesday night in a crowded bowling alley and at a bar in Lewiston, a city in Maine of about 40,000 residents.

Heres what we know about the shooting, the countrys deadliest of the year.

What happened in Lewiston?

Around 7 p.m. on Wednesday, a gunman opened fire at Just-In-Time Recreation, a bowling alley. A few minutes later, there were reports of a shooting at Schemengees Bar & Grille, a 12-minute drive away.

By about 8 p.m., officials released photos of an armed suspect and urged people to stay inside with their doors locked. Officials in Auburn, across the river from Lewiston, also urged residents to shelter in place. Around 9:15, the Lewiston police released photos of a vehicle they were searching for, a small white car with a front bumper that might be painted black.
When Elon Musk bought Twitter a year ago, he said he wanted to create what he called a common digital town square. That said, he wrote, Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape. A year later, according to study after study, Mr. Musks platform has become exactly that.

The Consequences of Elon Musks Ownership of X

Now rebranded as X, the site has experienced a surge in racist, antisemitic and other hateful speech. Under Mr. Musks watch, millions of people have been exposed to misinformation about climate change. Foreign governments and operatives  from Russia to China to Hamas  have spread divisive propaganda with little or no interference.

Mr. Musk and his team have repeatedly asserted that such concerns are overblown, sometimes pushing back aggressively against people who voice them. Yet dozens of studies from multiple organizations have shown otherwise, demonstrating on issue after issue a similar trend: an increase in harmful content on X during Mr. Musks tenure.

The war between Israel and Hamas  the sort of major news event that once made Twitter an essential source of information and debate  has drowned all social media platforms in false and misleading information, but for Mr. Musks platform in particular the war has been seen as a watershed. The conflict has captured in full how much the platform has descended into the kind of site that Mr. Musk had promised advertisers he wanted to avoid on the day he officially took over.

With disinformation about the Israel-Hamas conflict flourishing so dramatically on X, it feels that it crossed a line for a lot of people where they can see  beyond just the branding change  that the old Twitter is truly gone, Tim Chambers of Dewey Square Group, a public affairs company that tracks social media, said in an interview. And the new X is a shadow of that former self.

The growing sense of chaos on the platform has already hurt Mr. Musks investment. While it remains one of the most popular social media services, people visited the website nearly 5.9 billion times in September, down 14 percent from the same month last year, according to the data analysis firm Similarweb.

Advertisers have also fled, leading to a sizable slump in sales. Mr. Musk noted this summer that ad revenue had fallen 50 percent. He blamed the Anti-Defamation League, one of several advocacy groups that have cataloged the rise of hateful speech on X, for trying to kill this platform.

Most of the problems, however, stem from changes that Mr. Musk instituted  some intentionally, some not. Studies about the state of X have been conducted over the past year by researchers and analysts at universities, think tanks and advocacy organizations concerned with the spread of hate speech and other harmful content.

Research conducted in part by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue concluded that anti-Semitic tweets in English more than doubled after Mr. Musks takeover. A report from the European Commission found that engagement with pro-Kremlin accounts grew 36 percent on the platform in the first half of this year after Mr. Musk lifted mitigation measures.

Mr. Musk disbanded an advisory council focused on trust and safety issues and laid off scores of employees who addressed them. For a monthly fee, he offered users a blue checkmark, a label that once conveyed that Twitter had verified the identity of the user behind an account. He then used algorithms to promote accounts of uncertain provenance in users feeds. He removed labels that identified government and state media accounts for countries like Russia and China that censor independent media.

The entire years worth of changes to X were fully stress tested during the global news breaking last week, Mr. Chambers said, referring to the conflict in Israel. And in the eyes of many, myself included, it failed utterly.

The company did not respond to a request for comment beyond a stock response it regularly uses to press inquiries: Busy now, please check back later.

X trails only Facebooks 16.3 billion monthly visits and Instagrams 6.4 billion visits, according to Similarweb. TikTok, which is rising in popularity among certain demographic groups, has roughly two billion visits each month. Despite voluble threats by disgruntled users to move to alternative platforms  Mastodon, BlueSky or Metas new rival to Mr. Musks, Threads  none of them have yet reached the critical mass to replicate the public exposure that X offers.

Keeping X at the center of public debate is exactly Mr. Musks goal, which he describes at times with a messianic zeal. The day after Hamas attacked Israel, Mr. Musk urged his followers to follow the war in real time.

He then cited two accounts that are notorious for spreading disinformation, including a false post in the spring that an explosion had occurred outside the Pentagon. Faced with a flurry of criticism, Mr. Musk deleted the post and later sounded chastened.

He urged his followers on X to stay as close to the truth as possible, even for stuff you dont like. This platform aspires to maximize signal/noise of the human collective.

Mr. Musk, the prominent, outspoken executive behind Tesla and Space X, had been an avid Twitter user for years before taking it over, promoting his ventures and himself, at times with crude, offensive comments. During the Covid-19 pandemic, he sharply criticized lockdowns and other measures to slow the viruss spread and began to warn of a woke culture that silenced dissent.

Among his first acts as the sites owner was to reverse the bans on thousands of accounts, including those of users who had promoted the QAnon conspiracy theory and spread disinformation about Covid and the 2020 presidential election.

The impact was instantaneous. Researchers at Tufts, Rutgers and Montclair State universities documented spikes in the use of racial and ethnic slurs soon after Mr. Musks acquisition. One research institute found that a campaign on 4chan, a notorious bulletin board, encouraged the use of a particular slur within hours of his arrival, in what seemed to be a coordinated test of the new owners tolerance for offensive speech.

The prevalence of such offensive language has, according to numerous studies, continued unabated. The Musk acquisition saw a sustained rise in hateful speech on the platform, an article in The Misinformation Review, a peer-reviewed journal published by the Harvard Kennedy School, said in August.

Even worse, the article argued, Mr. Musks changes appear to be boosting the engagements of the most contentious users.

A month into Mr. Musks ownership, the platform stopped enforcing its policy against Covid-19 misinformation. The liberal watchdog group Media Matters later identified 250 accounts with high engagement on Covid-related tweets. Nine of the top 10 accounts were known anti-vaccine proponents, several of whom promoted unproven and potentially harmful treatments and attacked top public health officials.

Mr. Musks first summer as Xs boss also coincided with a rash of climate-related disasters around the world, including deadly heat waves, rampaging wildfires, torrential rains and intense flooding. Last month, a scorecard evaluating social media companies on their defenses against climate-related falsehoods awarded X a single point out of a possible 21 (Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, was given eight points).

The platform was lacking clear policies that address climate misinformation, having no substantive public transparency mechanisms, and offering no evidence of effective policy enforcement, said the accompanying report from Climate Action Against Disinformation, an international coalition of more than 50 environmental advocacy groups.

This year, hundreds of researchers pushed back against a decision by X to end free access to software that would allow them collect and analyze data about the site.

Perhaps the most impactful change under Mr. Musk has been the evolution of his subscription plans. The blue checkmark that once conveyed veracity and denoted verified accounts, often those of government agencies, companies and prominent users, was now available to any account for $8 a month.

In April, Mr. Musk began removing the blue badges from verified accounts. New ones impersonating public officials, government agencies and celebrities proliferated, causing confusion about which were real. The platform went on to reward those who paid for their blue labels by amplifying their posts over those without the badge.

Reset, a nonprofit research organization, discovered that dozens of anonymous accounts linked to the Kremlin received the checkmark, pushing Russian narratives on the war in Ukraine. This spring, the platform also removed the labels that identified official state media of countries like Russia, China and Iran. In the 90 days after the change, engagement with posts from the English-language accounts of those outlets soared 70 percent, NewsGuard, a company that tracks online misinformation, reported in September.

Mr. Musk has now run afoul of the European Unions newly enacted Digital Services Act, a law that requires social media platforms to restrict misinformation and other violative content within the unions 27 nations.

A report commissioned by the unions executive body warned in August that Mr. Musks dismantling of guardrails on the platform had resulted in a 36 percent increase in engagement with Kremlin-linked accounts from January through May, mostly pushing Russias justifications for its illegal invasion of Ukraine last year.

After war erupted between Israel and Hamas, Thierry Breton, a European Commissioner who oversees the laws implementation, warned Mr. Musk in a letter that was posted on X, saying the company needed to address violent and terrorist content that appears to circulate on your platform.

Reset, the research organization, reported recently that it had documented 166 posts that its researchers considered antisemitic. Many appeared to violate laws in several European countries, including calls for violence against Jews and denying the historical facts of the Holocaust. They accumulated at least 23 million views and 480,000 engagements.

Mr. Musk sounded incredulous, even as the company scrambled to delete accounts linked to Hamas and other terrorist groups. He responded two days later to an account identified by the Anti-Defamation League as one of the most prominent purveyors of disinformation. The account, which had been removed from Twitter but was restored last December after Mr. Musk took over, had claimed that the European Union was trying to police the truth.

They still havent provided any examples of disinformation, Mr. Musk replied.
English wine brand 19 Crimes might just have created the worlds most sinister red wine. They took 100 bottles of wine, put them in a coffin, and buried them six feet under in a creepy Victorian cemetery.

If youre looking for the most appropriate wine to sip on on Halloween night, look no further than 19 Crimes latest creation  the worlds first coffin-aged wine. According to the risque-specialized company, they took 100 bottles of red wine, put them in an oak casket, and buried them among the dead in Londons Tower Hamlets Cemetery. The wine was recently dug up in the presence of a priest, to ensure that nothing sinister returned with the red liquor, but according to exorcist and paranormal expert Ian Lawman, the wine is most likely cursed anyway.

Theres no way Im trying that wine. Theres something sinister about it as its been resting among the dead six feet underground, Lawman said. Ghosts dont have boundaries  they shapeshift, travel through walls and glass, and make their presence known in the strangest of ways. I think 19 Crimes should have kept it buried.

Not only has the company not kept their coffin-aged wine in the ground, but they are offering daredevils brave enough to try it samples at select locations around the UK during the Halloween weekend.



Its unclear whether 19 Crimes plans to sell any of its sinister wine, but Im pretty sure paranormal enthusiasts would pay big money just to add a bottle to their collections.
A school in the Russian town of Bolshoy Kamen has attracted a lot of criticism both from students and their parents after installing a camera surveillance system inside the girls toilet.

Many people view toilets as one of the few remaining places to enjoy privacy outside their homes, and even in the busiest of places. But if you are a girl studying at School no. 1 in Bolshoy Kamen, Russia, you can no longer enjoy privacy inside the toilet because of a three-camera surveillance system that feeds live footage straight to the security guards booth. Granted, the cameras dont offer a view inside the toilet booths, but simply knowing that someone might be watching your every move in what is supposed to be the most private space in the school is disturbing, according to many students and their parents.

As you can imagine, the schools decision to implement a CCTV system inside the girls bathroom has attracted quite a lot of criticism, especially since the boys bathroom is not monitored in the same way. While school representatives didnt explain why only the girls toilet was being monitored, they claimed that the cameras were necessary to ensure that students didnt fight, smoke, or engage in other activities not permitted in school. They also insisted that the booths were no monitored, so this is technically not an invasion of privacy.

Many of the girls parents expressed their outrage at the schools decision on social media, claiming that if the kids wanted to break the rules, they could do it inside the toilet booths or even cover the cameras. Although no formal complaints have been filed, the extensive media coverage forced the school to temporarily shut down the CCTV system. The school board will soon decide whether to keep using it or dismantle it completely.

The toilet CCTV system was generally criticized, but Russian newspaper MK reports that many of the locals were actually in favor of the cameras, because they stopped kids from vandalizing the newly-renovated school, and also made them think twice about bullying fellow students, smoking, or using drugs.

Yes, our parents are for it, said Tatyana, a student from the seaside town of Spassk-Dalniy. The toilets at our school were recently renovated; a month later, at a parent meeting, the school principal complained that the toilet paper holders and liquid soap holders had been broken. There is always mayhem in the toilets! It is simply impossible for a normal child to go to the toilet during recess. Either there is a column of smoke or a showdown. Previously, the director could come in and disperse the children, but now everyone is afraid! What if their parents and children later accuse them of something



This is not the first time a Russian school has made national news headlines for installing cameras in the students toilets. The no. 49 school in Ufa attracted criticism last year for the very same reason.

Last year, we also wrote about a Chinese company that sparked controversy by installing cameras inside its toilets to monitor employees.


CA Wants to Hike Awareness of OCal Cannabis Seal Wed., Nov. 1, 2023 The California Department of Food and Agriculture plans to hire a firm for an education and outreach campaign to create awareness of the OCal seal on commercial cannabis products.
SPARK is named creative marketing agency of record for Visit Baltimore, the citys official destination marketing organization. It will work to evolve Visit Baltimores brand, which was launched in 2020. The scope work includes a refresh of visual elements along with devising new campaigns that best represent Baltimore, from its diverse neighborhoods to its arts and culture institutions. In SPARK, weve found a partner that can bring our incredible brand to new heights while crafting narratives that showcase our unique offerings and resonate with leisure and business travelers as well as convention attendees, said Visit Baltimore president and CEO Al Hutchinson.

Quinn PR is engaged to handle real-estate and consumer lifestyle communications for Andermatt, a Swiss Alpine Resort. The agency will work to raise awareness of Andermatt as a year-round destination through media relations, creative campaigns and sales-focused activity, in addition to supporting the destination on brand partnerships, sponsorships and events. The account will be led by Quinn VP Camila Gamero. Just under two hours drive from Zurich, Andermatt has been undergoing a major redevelopment program which, when completed, will give the mountain resort town six hotels, 42 luxury apartment buildings and Alpine villas. The Quinn team is extremely well connected in our core areas and they understand the stages we are going through in the resorts development as a year-round destination, said Andermatt Swiss Alps AG chief communications officer Stefan Kern.

Crowe PR signs on to work with Crystal Head Vodka and Rabbit Hole Spirits. For Crystal Head Vodka, which was founded by actor Dan Aykroyd and artist John Alexander, Crowe PR will focus on thought leadership for the executive team, strategic communications, media relations, limited-edition product launches and event support. Part of the Infinium Spirits portfolio, the vodka is available in three versions: Original (crafted from locally sourced Canadian corn), Aurora (crafted from English wheat) and Onyx (crafted from Blue Weber agave). Rabbit Hole Spirits, part of the Pernod Ricard portfolio and helmed by Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame Whiskey Maker Kaveh Zamanian, will depend on the Crowe team to increasing awareness for the brand through media relations, thought leadership and overall strategic communication. It will also be coordinating influencer partnerships, brand activations and will provide event support.
An estimated 500 National Army soldiers died in combat defending the infant Free State during the Civil War, only for their sacrifice to be largely forgotten or elided from commemorations over the last century or so.

A reluctance to memorialise the National Army dead may have been left-over guilt arising from executions carried out by the State during the Civil War.

However, the perception that they were overlooked is gradually being remedied in this Decade of Centenaries. The release online of the Military Service Pension files by the Military Archives has enhanced research on their deaths.

Last July the Defence Forces unveiled a monument at Glasnevin Cemetery commemorating National Army soldiers killed in the internecine conflict. An interactive Roll of Honour of their names is displayed at the cemetery museum.

In 1986 the Tullamore branch of the Organisation of National Ex-Service Personnel (O.N.E.) erected a monument in Lloyd Town Park in remembrance of all deceased members of the Defence Forces. The monument was reportedly one of the first of its kind in the country.

Recently Offaly man and local historian P.J. Goode, along with Michael Kirwan and Dr Philip McConway commissioned a limestone plaque to honour a National Army soldier mortally wounded at an ambush a century ago. On 7 January 1923 fourteen National Army soldiers, garrisoned at Geashill village, were ambushed at the Range Wall, near the old Raheen chapel. Mass-goers scattered and took cover as a deadly hail of bullets from both sides of the road pinned the troops down. Four soldiers were wounded, two of whom subsequently died. The IRA unit was led by Sean McGuinness, commandant of the North Offaly Brigade. The IRAs Lewis machinegun, which malfunctioned after firing ten rounds, was discovered in a follow-up search of the ambush site.

Private Patrick Lynch from Ballyfore, Croghan, was struck in the calf of his left leg. Transferred to the Curragh Military Hospital, his wound became gangrenous. His leg was amputated from the mid-thigh. He died from sepsis on 12 January 1923. Cadet P.C. White of Blessington, County Wicklow, died on 18 January 1923 from secondary haemorrhage to his left shoulder in the same hospital.

Lieutenant John Lacey, of Clopook in County Laois, the officer in charge of the Geashill garrison, was hit in his right shoulder. Undaunted, he continued to organise a defence from the ditches where soldiers had taken cover. Private Patrick Mulpeter of Togher, Daingean, was struck in the leg. Both survived. In recognition of Private Lynchs death on behalf of the new Free State, his family was awarded a 40 gratuity. Following the Army Pensions Act of 1953, his mother was granted an annual allowance.

On a wet and windy Saturday afternoon recently the plaque was unveiled near Private Lynchs unmarked grave in the old Croghan Hill cemetery. Michael Kirwan erected the plaque, funded from private donations, and sourced the local stone mason.

The 1st Infantry Battalion of the Defence Forces supplied a colour party of three soldiers. Ex-Army piper David Ussher provided the lament Hector the Hero. David, a retired Company Quartermaster Sergeant, also played The Minstrel Boy, Let Erin Remember, and The Dawning of the Day. The skirl of the pipes wailed out over the grave of a fallen comrade-in-arms, across the bleak bogland and over the high hill of Croghan.

The organiser, P.J. Goode of Cloneygowan and Dublin outlined Private Lynchs military service. Born in 1898, he was the son of Thomas Lynch and Elizabeth Moran. He had three brothers and nine sisters. His father later enlisted in the National Army and served in Daingean. Patrick, a labourer, joined the Irish Volunteers in 1918 and reputedly possessed one of the Mauser rifles smuggled into Howth harbour in 1914. He was a Lieutenant of the pre-Truce IRAs C (Croghan) Company, 3rd Battalion, Offaly No. I Brigade. Company Captain Patrick Egan recalled he was a fearless soldier and a true comrade, and always did his best to further the cause in every way. Joining the National Army in August 1922, he was stationed in the old Protestant school, converted into a makeshift barracks, in Geashill village.

Dr Philip McConway, an authority on the Revolutionary period in Offaly, gave a profile of the twenty-seven soldiers of the Geashill garrison listed in the November 1922 military census. They were overwhelmingly young and single, mainly small farmers and labourers. Only two soldiers were married. Over half of the garrison (55%) were aged in their twenties while 37% were teenagers. The average age was twenty-two years. The majority of the garrison were Offaly natives, primarily from the Daingean district. Among them was Private Lynchs first cousin, John Moran from Croghan. They enlisted together in Tullamore on the same day.

Lethal violence was comparatively low in Offaly in the Civil War. The Offaly IRA, comprising two Brigades, killed five National Army soldiers and a civilian in 1922. The same year an Offaly IRA Volunteer died in combat in disputed circumstances. The IRA caused substantial damage to property and incessantly sabotaged the transport infrastructure.

Dr McConway stressed Private Lynchs death had tragic consequences. IRA leaders Patrick Geraghty and Joseph Byrne were executed in Portlaoise Prison later that month in retaliation. Betrayed by an informer, they were captured in Croghan in November 1922. Private Lynch knew Geraghty and the Byrne brothers, Barty and Joseph from Cruith, during the War for Independence. They were his superior officers on the 3rd Battalion staff having oversight of IRA Companies in Croghan, Tyrrellspass, Rhode, and Kilclonfert. In counter-reprisals for the executions of Byrne and Geraghty, the IRA torched mansions at Ballyburly, Greenhill, Tubberdaly, Rathrobin and Durrow Abbey. Dr McConway contended the IRAs co-ordinated burnings of these country houses owned by former prominent loyalists of the British regime, along with the executions in Portlaoise Prison, were interlinked to the fatal Raheen ambush.

Michael Kirwan thanked the Lynch family for helping to transport the plaque to the cemetery. He then read a local newspaper report of Private Lynchs funeral: The coffin was reverently carried by his late comrades up Croghan Hills steep side and there, within sight of the homestead where he was born[Private] Lynch sleeps his last long sleep. The Very Rev. Father Norris, P.P., recited the last prayers at the graveside and referred in moving terms to the sad death of the young soldier  A guard of military, in charge of Lieutenant Jack Drumm attended to pay a last tribute to the memory of the deceased. The wreaths included one from Daingean Garrison, bearing the inscription To the memory of a true friend and gallant soldier. May he rest in peace. Michael concluded with a poem by Joseph Rodman Drake: And they who for their country die, shall fill an honoured grave, for glory lights the soldiers tomb, and beauty weeps the brave.

As the colour party, resplendent in their uniforms, stood to attention, Private Lynchs niece Molly Lynch Feery unveiled the plaque. David Ussher played the National Anthem. Kilcappagh native Father John McEvoy, a Columban priest residing in Fiji who is to the forefront in financing heritage projects, blessed the memorial and the gathering. Local man Micheal Hannon thanked all involved. He said how pleased he was to see a fine memorial to one of their own. P.J. Goode placed a laurel wreath on behalf of the Cloneygowan and Geashill communities.

Thus ended the proceedings. The drenched attendees retreated down the slopes of Croghan Hill, happy in the knowledge that Private Lynch had received a fitting and overdue memorial to his life and his ultimate sacrifice.
A JUDGE said he was so impressed with a member of the Travelling community who has finished a third level degree and hopes to become a teacher that he would recommend him for a job in a school himself.

Judge Andrew Cody was referring to Aaron Hannon (22), Ballycollin Upper, Kilcormac, who in March pleaded guilty to a charge of violent disorder arising from his part in a pub brawl.

Mr Hannon was one of six men prosecuted in connection with the incident at Gracelands, Main Street, Kilcormac on St Patrick's Day, 2022.

In March this year Tullamore District Court was told up to nine gardai were called to a melee where a pool cue and pool balls were used as weapons, and drinking glasses and a chair were thrown. A dispute broke out after words were exchanged in the pool room.

Aisling Maloney, solicitor for Mr Hannon, said he had brought 200 to court and he was concerned about how a conviction would affect his teaching career.

Judge Cody said a conviction for violent disorder would drag behind Mr Hannon like a ball and chain for the rest of his life.

Ms Maloney said her client had attempted to apologise to the licensees of the pub and pointed out that Mr Hannon would be the first in his family to go to third level education and was viewed as a mentor by his brother.

The judge spoke of his admiration for Mr Hannon and his achievements and adjourned sentencing to Wednesday, October 25 for a probation report.

On Wednesday Ms Maloney said the probation report was very positive; Mr Hannon had finished his degree and would be going on to do a higher diploma in 2024.

He had gone above and beyond what was required by the court.

Judge Cody told Mr Hannon he hoped he had learned a lesson but said that what he had achieved was extraordinary and he had a huge contribution to make to his own family, his own community and society in general.

The judge had served for several years on school boards and currently was on one which had a large Traveller population of young lads.

If I was on a board of interview I'd give my right arm to get you into that school, he said.

He said young Traveller boys in particular needed good role models to keep them in school and get them educated.

What he had done in the pub could have messed up Mr Hannon's opportunity but he had done very well and now had a huge amount to contribute.

In the circumstances I'm going to strike out all charges, said Judge Cody.
Non-Irish citizens account for nine per cent of Offalys population, according to the latest figures from Census 2022.

Among the non-Irish residents, the largest group were Polish citizens (1,560 people) followed by UK citizens (990), Lithuanian (883) and Romanian (612).

Nationally there were more than 631,000 non-Irish citizens which was 12% of the population.

The number of dual Irish citizens, which is when you are a citizen of two countries at the same time, increased in the county from 1,130 in 2016 to 1,972 in 2022.

The largest dual-Irish citizenships included Irish-UK (348 people), Irish-US (304) and Irish-Polish (304). There were more than 170,500 dual-Irish residents in Ireland in Census 2022.

Immigration

There were 2,228 people living in Offaly in April 2022 who had moved to the county in the year before the census. This included 1,404 people who had moved from elsewhere within Ireland, and 824 people from outside the State. A further 2,048 people had moved within the county in the year before the census.

Ethnicity

Almost 67,900 people living in Offaly in April 2022 had a White Irish ethnic group or background. A further 6,800 people identified as Any other White. There were 754 people whose ethnic group/background was Asian or Asian Irish - Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi and 485 people with a Black or Black Irish  African ethnic group/background.

Irish Travellers

There were 1,174 Travellers in Offaly in Census 2022, compared with 905 in 2016 (+30%). This included 600 females and 574 males. There were 32,949 Travellers in Ireland, compared with 30,987 in 2016 (+6%). This included 16,777 females and 16,172 males.

Religion

In Census 2022 almost 65,600 people in the county were Catholic (79%). This was down from 87% in Census 2016. Nationally, 69% stated they were Catholic, compared to 78% in 2016. The other most common religions in Offaly included Church of Ireland (with 2,248 people), Orthodox (1,613) and Islam (812). There were almost 6,800 people who stated they did not have a religion, which was up from just over 3,500 in Census 2016, up 93%. They made up 8% of the countys population, compared with 5% in 2016.

The figures are contained in "Census 2022 Profile 5  Diversity, Migration, Ethnicity, Irish Travellers and Religion", released by the Central Statistics Office on Friday.

Profile 5 looks at the diversity of the population in Ireland, including country of citizenship, ethnic group or background and languages spoken. Recent migration in the year leading up to the census, Irish Travellers and religion are also covered.This press release highlights some of the main results for Offaly. A full list of county press releases is available.

Commenting on the results, Brendan Murphy, Statistician in the Census Division, said: Profile 5 provides detailed information on the range of citizenships among the Irish population, including breakdowns by age and sex as well as by county and town. It shows the recent immigration to Ireland and migration within Ireland. The number of people that moved to Ireland in the year to Census night 03 April 2022 rose by 9% to more than 89,500 people compared with the same period in Census 2016. This wide-ranging profile also considers the various ethnic backgrounds of our population, including details on the age, sex, and citizenship of different groups. It looks at our Traveller population in 2022, including breakdowns by sex and household type. It also details the religious composition of the Irish population in April 2022.
* The Shenzhou-17 crew has the youngest lineup since the construction of China's Tiangong space station started.

* The spaceship carries a batch of biotechnology experiment samples. Dozens of medical experiments will also be carried out during the mission.

* The Shenzhou-17 astronauts will do extravehicular experimental maintenance for the first time, which is a very challenging task.

by Xinhua Writers Liu Yiwei, Quan Xiaoshu and Li Mi

JIUQUAN, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- China on Thursday launched the Shenzhou-17 manned spaceship, and the three astronauts aboard will stay in orbit for about six months on a space station mission.

The spaceship, atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket, blasted off at 11:14 a.m. Thursday (Beijing Time) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).

About 10 minutes after the launch, the Shenzhou-17 spaceship separated from the rocket and entered its designated orbit. The crew members, consisting of Tang Hongbo, Tang Shengjie and Jiang Xinlin, are in good shape and the launch is a complete success, the CMSA said.

The Shenzhou-17 manned spaceship, atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket, blasts off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on Oct. 26, 2023. (Xinhua/Li Gang)

EXPERIMENTS

The spacecraft carries a batch of biotechnology experiment samples for space protein molecular assembly and application research, including proteins, polypeptides, nucleic acids, biomaterials and medicines.

The microgravity environment in space provides a relatively uniform and stable environment for protein crystal growth, allowing scientists to determine the biological functions of protein molecules more accurately.

The experiments will help researchers study the effects of the microgravity environment and radiation on molecular structure, biological function, drug efficacy and pharmacology, guiding the design and development of molecular drugs.

The astronauts will also work on the research and development of biodegradable bionic bones, and their work will be of great significance to bionic biotechnology.

The astronauts will transfer the experiment samples to the space station and carry out planned scientific experiments.

Dozens of medical experiments will also be carried out during the mission, according to the China Astronaut Research and Training Center.

The experiments take weightlessness and radiation into consideration. They will study the impacts of long-term missions in space on the health and behaviors of astronauts, and explore advanced health care technologies, the center said.

More experiments will be conducted based on systematically obtained astronaut data and samples, aiming to deepen research into the laws and mechanisms of human adaptation to space.

The mission will also seek to develop advanced technologies for long-term space residence health assessment, improve the country's self-developed portable acupoint stimulation device, and explore new technologies for efficient human-machine collaboration.

The Shenzhou-17 manned spaceship, atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket, blasts off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on Oct. 26, 2023. (Xinhua/Ren Junchuan)

NEW CHALLENGES

The Shenzhou-17 crew has the youngest lineup since the construction of China's Tiangong space station started.

Tang Hongbo, born in 1975, is the mission commander and a veteran astronaut once launched into orbit on the Shenzhou-12 mission in June 2021. Tang Shengjie, born in 1989, is a new face and also the youngest astronaut to enter China's space station. Jiang Xinlin, born in 1988, is also a newcomer to space.

They will perform various in-orbit space science and application payload tests and experiments, Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of the CMSA, announced at a press conference on Wednesday.

They will carry out extravehicular activities, install extravehicular payloads and conduct space station maintenance and other tasks, Lin said.

The Shenzhou-17 astronauts will do extravehicular experimental maintenance for the first time, which is a very challenging task, Lin added.

With space debris increasing, their impact on long-term operating spacecraft is inevitable, Lin said. "Through preliminary inspections, we have found that the solar wings of the space station had been hit by tiny space particles several times, causing minor damages."

"Of course, we already took this into consideration in the design stage. At present, all functionality and performance indicators of the space station meet requirements," he added.

Chinese astronauts Tang Hongbo (R), Tang Shengjie (C) and Jiang Xinlin attend a see-off ceremony at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on Oct. 26, 2023. (Xinhua/Li Zhipeng)

The astronauts will also continue to assess the functioning and performance of the space station and test the coordination and compatibility of ground support centers in performing space station operation and management tasks, to further enhance the operating efficiency and fault correction capability of the space station, he said.

The space station's environmental control and life support system has been operating in orbit for approximately 900 consecutive days. The system's regenerative technology has significantly reduced the need for ground supplies, and it is capable of saving up to six tonnes of expendable materials each year with three astronauts in orbit.

The Shenzhou-17 crew will rotate with the Shenzhou-16 crew, and the six astronauts across the two crews will work and live together in orbit for a period of time. The system's processing capacity will be increased to meet the demands of six people. Its ability to support multiple modules and spacecraft will also be tested during the rotation. Enditem

(Zhou Zhou, Hu Tao, Wang Chenxi, Yang Chunxue, Yuan Quan, Zhang Dan, Li Guoli, and Mi Siyuan also contributed to the story)

(Video editors: Wu Yao, Hui Peipei) 

Editor: JYZ
On Camera: Fashion Guru Prasad Bidapa's Drunk Son Creates Ruckus

Bengaluru

oi-Prakash KL

Adam Bidapa, the son of renowned fashion guru Prasad Bidapa, has been charged with reckless driving and intimidating a motorist in the vicinity of Rail Wheel Factory in Yelahanka New Town on Doddaballapur Main Road on Wednesday night.

Acting upon a complaint filed by Rahul Unnikrishnan, the police apprehended Adam and subsequently released him on bail.

"Adam's reckless driving prompted Rahul, who was coming behind him, to honk in protest. However, this honking angered Adam, leading to a confrontation. Adam, in the midst of the argument, warned Rahul of his influential connections. Simultaneously, a call was made to the emergency number 112 by a person named Ram, reporting the incident, and the police promptly arrived at the scene," DCP Lakshmiprasad told the reporters.

The senior cop said that it was evident that Adam was heavily intoxicated. "Despite our attempts to pacify him, he engaged in an altercation with the police officers as well. Eventually, we managed to defuse the situation and took everyone to the police station. Subsequently, Rahul lodged a complaint against Adam for making threats and reckless driving," Lakshmiprasad added.

Rahul has also alleged that Adam used offensive language against him. Adam's vehicle was dangerously close to collision, as per the complaint.

A case has been filed against Bidapa, invoking multiple sections of the Indian Penal Code. These include Section 279 (related to reckless driving on a public road), Section 341 (pertaining to wrongful restraint), Section 504 (concerning intentional insult aimed at inciting a breach of peace), and Section 506 (involving charges of criminal intimidation).

The traffic police additionally filed a case of driving under the influence against Adam, as his breathalyzer test yielded positive results. A traffic police officer said that Adam's blood alcohol level was recorded at 127mg/100ml, exceeding the allowable limit of 30mg/100ml.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang meets with Mongolian Prime Minister Luvsannamsrai Oyun-Erdene on the sidelines of the 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Oct. 26, 2023. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu)

BISHKEK, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- China stands ready to work with Mongolia to firmly support each other in safeguarding sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, Chinese Premier Li Qiang said here Thursday.

He called on both sides to fully understand and firmly support each other on issues concerning their respective core interests and major concerns.

Li made the remarks during his meeting with Mongolian Prime Minister Luvsannamsrai Oyun-Erdene on the sidelines of the 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States.

Noting that China and Mongolia are adjacent to each other by mountains and rivers, Li said that friendship and cooperation have always been the main tone of bilateral relations.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Mongolian President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh held a fruitful meeting in Beijing not long ago, and reached a series of important consensuses on promoting the building of a China-Mongolia community with a shared future and deepening Belt and Road cooperation, which have provided strategic guidance for the sound and steady development of bilateral relations, Li said.

China is ready to work with Mongolia to implement the consensus reached by the two heads of state and always be a good neighbor and good brother who can be trusted and relied on, Li said.

He called on both sides to take the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations and the 10th anniversary of the establishment of comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries next year as an opportunity to carry forward the friendly tradition, build up political mutual trust, strengthen exchanges and cooperation in various fields, and provide more impetus for their respective development and revitalization, so as to create more benefits for their people.

The two sides should continue to deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, consolidate the existing gains and plan for future growth, Li said.

China is ready to strengthen cooperation with Mongolia in such fields as port connectivity, economy and trade, and green development to further expand the pie of common interests, so as to achieve win-win results, Li said.

China is ready to strengthen cooperation with Mongolia under the SCO and other multilateral frameworks to better safeguard the common interests and build a community with a shared future for mankind, Li added.

For his part, Oyun-Erdene noted that in recent years, the comprehensive strategic partnership between Mongolia and China has been continuously deepened, with close high-level exchanges and deepening mutual understanding between the two countries, adding that the economic and trade cooperation has developed rapidly.

Mongolia firmly abides by the one-China principle and opposes external interference in China's internal affairs, he said, adding that his country is ready to work with China to continuously enhance political mutual trust and mutual support and to closely synergize development strategies and initiatives put forward by the two sides.

Mongolia stands ready to work with China to strengthen border port capacity building and connectivity, promote the Belt and Road cooperation, deepen cooperation in areas including trade, railway, green development, tourism and culture, and deepen multilateral cooperation, so as to lift Mongolia-China relations to a higher level, he said.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang meets with Mongolian Prime Minister Luvsannamsrai Oyun-Erdene on the sidelines of the 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Oct. 26, 2023. (Xinhua/Yue Yuewei)

Editor: WRX
Ration Cards For Women Living Alone, A Revolutionary Scheme

Chennai

oi-Oneindia English Desk

In the DMK regime, various schemes were introduced for the welfare of women such as the free bus ride scheme, Kalaignar Magalir Urimai Thogai Thittam etc. Now, considering the welfare of divorced women and women who are living separately from their husbands, CM Stalin has announced a scheme to provide them with separate ration cards.

Generally, financial assistance given to a family such as flood relief, Pongal bonus do not reach the hands of the female members of the family, a big chunk of it is used by male family heads alone. Realising this constraint, the Dravidian model government introduced Kalaignar Magalir Urimai Thogai Thittam which benefitted around 1.06 crore women by providing financial assistance directly to them.

CM Stalin has allotted 7000 crores for the implementation of Kalaignar Urimai Thogai Thittam which was introduced by Karnataka government also after realising its significance. As a continuation of women welfare schemes, CM Stalin has now acknowledged the divorced women and women living separately from husbands as a family. The intention behind the introduction of such a scheme is to ensure the reach of benefits to the genuine and eligible beneficiaries.

Previously, divorced women and unmarried women did not enjoy the benefits of fair price shops (Public Distribution System) and other such benefits given by the government. Reason being, the absence of separate ration cards for them. All such barriers in enjoying the benefits are shattered by the government order which gives separate ration cards to divorced and unmarried women.

If a request is made saying that a particular woman is divorced or unmarried, then family ration cards will be issued to them. There is no need to submit documents for the verification of the divorce. Regarding this, the government has issued necessary instructions to the officers of the Consumer Protection Department.

Opinion of women about the scheme:

Regardless of age, all women unanimously welcomed the scheme. A grandmother in an auspicious yellow saree said, "The scheme will help the women living alone, to get a minimum of 5 kg rice and eat peacefully. Women living alone deserve this basic thing after all they have gone through in life. I whole-heartedly welcome the scheme introduced by CM Stalin."

Another middle-aged woman said, "Ration card is not just a means to get products at subsidised price, it is also recognised as a government document for address proof in many places. In this case, women living alone cannot give ration cards as proof but now the situation is changed by CM Stalin to whom women are eternally grateful."

A grandmother who runs a flower shop said, "Women were disrespected in the past but now women's position has advanced exponentially, thanks to CM Stalin's multiple women welfare schemes. My husband is an alcoholic who engages in domestic violence. I got separated from my husband and underwent a lot of challenges due to the absence of concessions and benefits otherwise enjoyed by a normal family."

She continued, "Women of today's generation have progressed a lot owing to the government's tireless efforts. Likewise, this scheme will empower a particular section of women who are either divorced or unmarried. Period of women slavery has gone, the period of women empowerment has found its roots in the DMK regime."

Two men returning from work said, "This is one of the revolutionary schemes introduced by CM Stalin. It shows that the DMK government is willing to work for the progress of divorced and unmarried women also. The scheme stands testimony to the promise made by CM Stalin that the government will stand by the victims and take care of them."

A woman returning from work said, "DMK government has showed more concern for women than the previous governments by introducing many women-centric schemes such as free bus ride scheme, provision of Rs.1000 under Kalaignar Urimai Thogai Thittam and now the distribution of ration cards for divorced and unmarried women. My sincere thanks to CM Stalin for understanding the situation of women."

The DMK government knew that an empowered woman is powerful beyond measure.

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Story first published: Friday, October 27, 2023, 9:02 [IST]
Allahabad High Court Dismisses Petition by Slain Gangster Ashraf's Wife Seeking Stay on Arrest in Murder Case

The Allahabad High Court has rejected Jainab Fatima's plea to avoid arrest in the Umesh Pal murder case.

India

-Krishna Kripa

In a significant development in the Umesh Pal murder case, the Allahabad High Court on Friday dismissed a petition filed by Jainab Fatima, wife of slain gangster Ashraf. The petitioner had sought a stay on her arrest in connection with the high-profile murder case that has gripped Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh.

The brutal killing of Umesh Pal, a key witness in another murder case involving Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA Raju Pal, has left the city in shock. On February 24th, Umesh Pal and his two police security guards were shot dead outside his residence at Dhoomanganj. The crime was allegedly orchestrated by Atiq Ahmad and his brother Ashraf - both notorious figures with criminal backgrounds. Following these shocking events, Jaya Pal, wife of deceased Umesh Pal lodged a complaint at Dhoomanganj police station against Atiq Ahmad and his brother Ashraf along with their two sons and aides Guddu Muslim and Ghulam among nine others.

Fatima's Involvement

Jainab Fatima is believed to have played an integral part in this gruesome crime as she is alleged to have aided the shooters escape from the city after carrying out their heinous act. She had approached Allahabad High Court seeking to quash the FIR registered against her name and requested for a stay on her arrest which was subsequently denied by Justice V K Birla and Justice Vinod Diwakar who stated no relief could be granted to her.

A Twist In The Tale

In an unexpected turn of events that further intensified this saga; gangster brothers Atiq Ahmad and Ashraf were shot dead during media interaction earlier this year in April while being escorted by police personnel to a medical college. The killers posed as journalists in order to carry out the assassination, adding another layer of complexity and intrigue to this ongoing investigation.

The current whereabouts of Jainab Fatima are unknown as she remains on the run since the murder. Her attempt at seeking legal protection has been thwarted by the judiciary which has upheld its commitment towards ensuring justice for Umesh Pal and his family.

In conclusion, with the dismissal of Fatima's petition, it is clear that no stone will be left unturned in bringing all those involved in this case to justice. This case serves as a reminder that crime does not pay and that law enforcement agencies remain committed to upholding justice and maintaining law and order in society. It also underscores the importance of witness protection programs, especially in high-profile cases involving powerful individuals with criminal backgrounds.
Anupam Kher's soulful performance in The Kashmir Files

Anupam Kher recently spoke about his role in The Kashmir Files and how he didn't need to fake his emotions while playing the soulful role of a Kashmiri Pandit.

India

-Krishna Kripa

Actor Anupam Kher recently spoke about his role in the blockbuster film The Kashmir Files, expressing his joy at the inauguration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, and his thoughts on not receiving a National Award for his performance.

The Kashmir Files

Speaking on the sidelines of the literary festival Abhivyakti organized by the Army Wives Welfare Association (AWWA) in Pune, Kher said that he did not need to fake his emotions while playing the soulful role of a Kashmiri Pandit in The Kashmir Files. "My role in Kashmir Files was soulful as I did not have to depend on acting. I did not have to fake my emotions. I try and bring truth in my emotions as some roles do not require honesty of that level because it requires craft," he said.

Kher asserted that his role as Pushkar Nath in The Kashmir Files was one such role where there was no craft involved as every single breath was absolutely from the heart. He expressed his belief that his performance in the film was worthy of a National Award but added that everyone who received the awards fully deserved them.

National Award

The actor said he is allowed to feel bad about not getting the award and asserted that he is allowed to express it. "I applauded Allu Arjun who got the National Award for Best Actor when I saw Pushpa in a theatre. I had tweeted about it," Kher pointed out.

At the 69th National Film Awards, The Kashmir Files won two awards, namely Best Feature Film on National Integration and Best Supporting Actress for Pallavi Joshi.

Ram Temple

Speaking about the Ram Temple inauguration on January 22, Kher said all Indians were waiting for this historic day. "Hindus fought this fight for several years constitutionally. This is not only about the Hindu religion but it is about expressions. I am proud that I was the first from the film industry to go and perform puja there," Kher said.

He added that he will visit the temple on the day of the sthapana, regardless of whether he is invited or not. The actor also encouraged people to visit the temple not just for worship but for the sake of cultural tourism as well.

The third season of the AWWA Literary Festival commenced on Friday at the Rajendra Sinhji Institute in Pune. It was inaugurated by Archana Pande, President of AWWA. The Lit Fest this season is being conducted by the Southern Command AWWA headed by their ex-officio regional president Subeena Arora. Abhivyakti-3 is scheduled from October 27 to 29.
Cats and dogs of Central probe agencies roaming streets of Chhattisgarh: CM Bhupesh Baghel

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Friday hit out at the Centre over action by Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax in connection with different cases in poll-bound Chhattisgarh, saying more than cats and dogs, personnel of the Central probe agencies have been roaming the streets of the state.

India

-Krishna Kripa

Raipur: Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Friday hit out at the Centre over action by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Income Tax (IT) department in connection with different cases in poll-bound Chhattisgarh, saying more than cats and dogs, personnel of the Central probe agencies have been roaming the streets of the state.

Baghel asserts Congress will not be scared of these actions

Addressing a public rally in Raigarh, Baghel asserted the Congress will not be scared of these actions. He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has all the Central investigative agencies like ED, IT, CBI, DRI and NIA under his control and he conducts raids at anyone's place, picks anyone and sends anyone to jail.

BJP leader Raman Singh hits back at Baghel

Hitting back at Baghel's remarks, BJP leader and former CM Raman Singh said, "After setting new records of corruption in Chhattisgarh in the last five years, now the Congressman who is most scared is Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel."

Singh claimed that if someone commits corruption the ED will obviously come. He said many officers, employees and collectors of the Congress government are in jail for months and they are not even getting bail.

Assembly elections in Chhattisgarh

Assembly elections in the 90-member state Assembly will be held in two phases on November 7 and 17. Counting of votes will take place on December 3.

The Congress government in Chhattisgarh has been under fire from the BJP over various corruption allegations. The ED and IT department have been conducting raids on the premises of Congress leaders and their associates in the state. Baghel has accused the Centre of misusing the central agencies to target the Congress ahead of the assembly elections.
Delhi Health Minister Alleges Conspiracy to Stop AAP's Dilli Ke Farishtey Scheme

Delhi Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj has alleged that a few officials have conspired to stop the AAP government's Dilli Ke Farishtey scheme, under which accident victims are provided free treatment, with payments not being made to private hospitals for nearly a year.

India

-Krishna Kripa

New Delhi: Delhi Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj on Friday alleged that a few officials have conspired to stop the AAP government's Dilli Ke Farishtey scheme, under which accident victims are provided free treatment, with payments not being made to private hospitals for nearly a year.

Scheme to Encourage Rescue of Accident Victims

The Farishtey Dilli Ke scheme encourages people to rescue accident victims. Payments are made to private hospitals at government rates. But for the last year or so, payments have not been released to private hospitals.

Health Minister Writes to Chief Minister

Bharadwaj said that he has written to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to take action against the officials concerned. He said, "There is a conspiracy by certain officials to stop the scheme. Health secretary and former DGHS chief did this deliberately to defame Kejriwal. Strict action must be taken against them."

Scheme Has Saved Over 23,000 Lives

The scheme, which was launched on January 15, 2018, has saved the lives of over 23,000 people so far, he added.

Outstanding Dues of Rs 24.5 Crore

In January this year, the health department brought to the notice of the then deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia that the Delhi government owes approximately Rs 24.5 crore to private hospitals. Sisodia then wrote a letter to the Director-General of Health Services (DGHS) on January 24, asking by when these outstanding dues would be cleared. Surprisingly, he did not receive any response, the minister claimed.

Health Minister Convenes Meeting

Bharadwaj said after he was allotted the health portfolio, he convened a meeting on April 21 regarding this issue. The health secretary and DGHS Nutan Mundeja attended the meeting. The minister said he was told that no dues were pending and all these details were recorded in the minutes of the meeting.

Representatives of Private Hospitals Allege Dues

However, a few days after the meeting, representatives of some private hospitals came to him and told him that the Delhi government owed crores of rupees to these facilities. Based on this, Bharadwaj said, he asked the health secretary to issue a show cause notice to the DGHS and inquire about the reason behind furnishing incorrect information.

Health Secretary's Office Not Responding

However, he claimed, he did not receive any response from the health secretary's office regarding the reasons for the discrepancies. He said, "As part of a deliberate conspiracy, payments worth crores of rupees have intentionally not been made to many private hospitals for nearly the last one year. This is being done because if these bills are not paid, then private hospitals will not provide free treatment. If they don't provide treatment, it will cause distress to Delhiites, and if Delhiites are distressed, it will tarnish the reputation of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his government."

Bharadwaj Condemns Conspiracy

Bharadwaj said, "In my opinion, there is no greater sin on this planet than preventing such a virtuous scheme from working."

The Delhi Health Minister's allegations have sparked a controversy and the government has been urged to take action against the officials involved. The Dilli Ke Farishtey scheme has been lauded for saving the lives of thousands of accident victims and it is important that the scheme continues to function effectively.
Delhi LG Approves Termination of Civil Defence Volunteers, Kejriwal Govt Suggested Discontinuation

Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena has approved a proposal to terminate the services of all civil defence volunteers from November 1, with the AAP government saying it had suggested they may be discontinued from regular work owing to legal objection by officials.

India

-Krishna Kripa

New Delhi: In a significant development, Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena on Friday approved a proposal of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to terminate the services of all civil defence volunteers from November 1. The AAP government, however, said it had suggested that the volunteers may be discontinued from regular work owing to legal objection by officials. This is the latest flashpoint between the city government and the lieutenant governor LG.

LG Directs CM to Consider Recruiting Volunteers as Home Guards

The LG also directed the chief minister to consider recruiting the volunteers to be terminated as Home Guards. The development came hours after the chief minister asked Delhi Home Minister Kailash Gahlot to appoint the civil defence volunteers as Home Guards and depute them as bus marshals.

AAP Govt Says Will Approach Supreme Court

Following the development, AAP government sources said they will approach the apex court. "If Delhi LG terminates the services of civil defence volunteers, we will approach the Supreme Court. Some of these volunteers are deployed as bus marshals, who play a crucial role in ensuring women's safety on buses. We will not compromise on women's safety," said a government source.

Legal Objections Raised by Officers

In a statement later, the city government said legal objections were raised by some officers who pointed out that as per law, civil defence volunteers cannot be appointed on regular jobs and that they can be called only for specific disaster-related work. "Despite several written directions by ministers, their salaries were stopped for several months. That's when the CM said that all pending salaries be paid and if they have to be stopped from doing regular work, it may be implemented from November 1," the statement added.

Kejriwal Writes to LG, Seeks Time to Replace Volunteers

However, this note of the chief minister did not cover bus marshals for which Kejriwal sent a separate note to the LG. The CM said that if civil defence volunteers had to be replaced with home guards as bus marshals, it will take time because the government does not have adequate number of spare home guards. "New recruitments will have to be made which will take a lot of time," the statement said.

Raj Niwas OfficialsAAP

Noting that bus marshals are very critical for the safety of women in buses, Kejriwal wrote to the LG that till the time an adequate number of home guards were deployed, civil defence volunteers should continue working as bus marshals. "We should not let buses run without bus marshals in the intervening period. Today, CM gave directions that when new recruitments for home guards are done, the existing set of civil defence volunteers may be engaged as home guards so that they continue doing the job of bus marshals. They are experienced in that job and have been doing it well. This way, they won't lose jobs also, the government said.

LG Office Accuses AAP Govt of Spreading Lies

However, Raj Niwas officials said the fact remains that it was the CM who proposed the termination of services of CDVs with effect from November 1, 2023 and that it was the LG who issued the direction to consider recruiting the volunteers as home guards. "It was the LG who flagged the loss of livelihood, they added. Sources at the LG office accused the AAP government sources of spreading lies and sharing misleading information.

Proposal to Terminate Volunteers Received on October 20

The proposal to terminate civil defence volunteers was sent to the LG office by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, which was only approved by the Lt Governor. Will Delhi government go to the Supreme Court against the chief minister, a source asked. The LG office sources said the proposal to terminate the services of civil defence volunteers was received on October 20. However, the government source claimed no such proposal was sent to the LG office by the Chief Ministers Office.

Kejriwal Earlier Asked Home Minister to Appoint Volunteers as Home Guards

Earlier in the day, Kejriwal asked the Delhi home minister to appoint civil defence volunteers as Home Guards and depute them as marshals in public transport buses, officials said. In a note, the Chief Ministers Office CMO said that a legal objection has been raised about the continuation of civil defence volunteers as bus marshals. It has been said that civil defence volunteers cannot be engaged in regular duties and that they can be called only during any disaster. Therefore, it has been suggested that home guards be appointed as bus marshals instead of civil defence volunteers, said the note.

The termination of civil defence volunteers in Delhi has sparked a fresh war of words between the AAP government and the LG. While the AAP government has said that it will approach the Supreme Court if the volunteers are terminated, the LG office has maintained that it was the CM who proposed the termination of services. It remains to be seen how the matter unfolds in the coming days.
IND vs SL: How have India and Sri Lanka fared against each other in World Cups? Players to watch out for

India explores options after court verdict in Qatar: Sources

India is exploring various options including approaching the court of appeal against the death sentences handed to eight former Indian Navy personnel by Qatars Court. They are also considering diplomatic or political resolution and utilizing an India-Qatar agreement on transfer of sentenced prisoners.

India

-Krishna Kripa

In a shocking development, eight former Indian Navy personnel were handed death sentences by Qatar's Court of First Instance on 26th October. The verdict has sent ripples across India, and the government is said to be exploring various options including appealing against the decision in the court of appeal, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The people privy to this information revealed that numerous alternatives are being considered to resolve this issue. However, it appears that India has not yet received a copy of the judgement from Qatar's Court of First Instance. No comment has been made by Qatar regarding the court verdict so far. It was further indicated that New Delhi would solidify its course of action after thoroughly examining the verdict.

Diplomatic or Political Resolution

Sources also suggested that India might seek resolution diplomatically or politically. The Qatari Emir pardons several prisoners every year based on appeals for clemency, offering another possible avenue for intervention. There is also an existing agreement between India and Qatar related to sentenced prisoner transfers which could potentially be leveraged as part of New Delhi's strategy.

Details about Convicted Personnel

The eight former Indian Navy personnel worked with Al Dahra, a private company in Qatar when they were arrested in August last year reportedly over allegations of espionage. Neither Qatari authorities nor New Delhi have publicly disclosed specific charges against these individuals.

MEA Response

In response to this alarming ruling, India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) expressed deep shock and affirmed their commitment towards exploring all legal options available in this case. They stated: "We are deeply shocked by the verdict of death penalty and are awaiting detailed judgement."

"We are in touch with family members and legal teams, and we are exploring all legal options," the MEA added. It assured that it would continue to extend all consular and legal assistance to the convicted individuals.

The Ministry further emphasized its high regard for this case, stating: "We attach high importance to this case, and have been following it closely. We will continue to extend all consular and legal assistance. We will also take up the verdict with Qatari authorities."

In conclusion, this unexpected turn of events has left India grappling for a solution that could potentially save these eight former navy personnel from their sentenced fate. With various options on the table including diplomatic discussions or leveraging existing agreements on prisoner transfers, it remains to be seen how New Delhi navigates through this complex situation in its quest for justice.
India To Procure 26 Rafale Naval Fighter Aircraft From France

India has formally communicated to France its decision to procure 26 naval variant of the Rafale fighter aircraft for the Indian Navy, kick-starting the procurement process under an intergovernmental framework.

India

-Krishna Kripa

India has formally communicated to France its decision to procure 26 naval variant of the Rafale fighter aircraft for the Indian Navy, kick-starting the procurement process under an intergovernmental framework, people familiar with the matter said on Friday. The issue of procurement of the Rafale Marine jets is learnt to have figured during Defence Minister Rajnath Singhs recent visit to Paris.

Background

In July, the defence ministry approved the purchase of the Rafale marine jets from France, primarily for deployment on board the indigenously built aircraft carrier INS Vikrant. It is learnt that India has sent a letter of request to the French government formally communicating its decision to procure the jets from Dassault Aviation under the government-to-government framework. The negotiations on pricing and other details are expected to take place after the defence ministry receives a response from the French side, the people familiar with the matter said.

Significance of the Deal

Earlier this month, Chairman and CEO of Dassault Aviation Eric Trappier visited New Delhi and discussed various aspects of the proposed procurement by India. The defence ministry in July said the procurement of the jets along with associated ancillary equipment, including weapon systems and spares, would be based on an inter-governmental agreement IGA and that price and other terms of purchase will be negotiated with the French government after taking into account all relevant aspects. The Indian Air Force bought 36 aircraft in fly-away condition. There is a thinking in the IAF that it should go for at least two more squadrons of the Rafale jets.

India-France Defence Ties

The defence and strategic ties between India and France have been on an upswing in the last few years. In July, India and France announced a raft of ground-breaking defence cooperation projects, including the joint development of jet and helicopter engines and construction of three Scorpene submarines for the Indian Navy. The two strategic partners also expressed commitment to cooperate in the co-development and co-production of advanced defence technologies, including for the benefit of third countries.

The procurement of 26 Rafale naval jets from France is a significant step in India's efforts to bolster its naval capabilities. The deal is also a testament to the growing defence and strategic ties between India and France.
Kolkata Durga Puja Carnival: A Grand Showcase of Community Spirit and Art

Around 100 community Durga Puja organisers in Kolkata showcased their idols and artworks at a carnival organised by the state government in the heart of the city on Friday evening.

India

-Krishna Kripa

Kolkata, Oct 27: Around 100 community Durga Puja organisers in Kolkata showcased their idols and artworks at a carnival organised by the state government in the heart of the city on Friday evening.

A Grand Showcase

Decorated tableaux of the crowd-puller community pujas of the city, including Suruchi Sangha, Chetla Agrani, Barisha Club, Tala Prattoy and Thakurpukur SB Park, took part in the programme. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was present at the programme along with her cabinet colleagues. Among the others who attended were diplomats of different countries, film stars, sportspersons and notable personalities from various fields.

Cultural Performances

The tableaux were accompanied by cultural performances by members of the clubs that organise these Durga Pujas. Thousands of people who gathered on the two sides of Red Road to witness the extravaganza cheered the performances and the artwork that were paraded for around half a kilometre.

Varied Themes

Jodhpur Park Puja Committee showcased its this years theme of eye donation, while Hindustan Park Sarbojonin presented its theme of saving greens. The Telengabagan Puja Committee presented its theme of giving voice to the have-nots and the Abasar Puja Committee showcased the coming together of friends from all communities during Durga Puja through its tableau.

Celebrities in Attendance

Bengali actor Rituparna Sengupta led the dancing troupe of Barisha Sarbojonin, while state minister Chandrima Bhattacharya was among the performers that accompanied the tableau of Hindustan Road Sarbojonin.

A Popular Event

Weve been waiting for this show since the festivities ended. The carnival has become an important part of Durga Puja celebrations, said Somnath Das of Santoshpur Lake Pally.

The carnival, which was first organised in 2015, has become a popular event in the city's cultural calendar. It provides a platform for the community puja organisers to showcase their creativity and talent.
Grain corridor will continue to function despite all threats  Zelenskyy in conversation with Sunak

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a telephone conversation with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

"The head of state thanked the head of the British government for the powerful words of support for Ukraine, voiced in the British Parliament on October 23. The President also expressed gratitude for all the timely and comprehensive assistance from the United Kingdom, in particular for the recent GBP 100 million defense support package," the press service of the President's Office reported on Friday.

The interlocutors discussed the situation at the front in detail and further defense cooperation, in particular, on strengthening the Ukrainian air defense systems with missiles and means to combat drones.

Zelenskyy informed Sunak about the situation in the Black Sea and Russian actions that pose a danger to civilian shipping. According to the head of state, despite all the threats, the grain corridor will continue to function.

The interlocutors discussed further work on the introduction of insurance for civil ships. The leaders also shared their assessments of the situation in the Middle East and agreed that stopping the escalation of the conflict would be in the interests of the world community. The parties also coordinated their positions on cooperation on international platforms and maintaining international support for Ukraine.
Dismissed RPF Constable Allegedly Guns Down Four Persons in Mumbai Train

A dismissed Railway Protection Force (RPF) constable, Chetansinh Chaudhary, is accused of fatally shooting a senior colleague and three passengers on board a moving Mumbai-bound express train. After the incident, his wife claims he called her expressing regret and contemplating suicide.

India

-Krishna Kripa

In a chilling incident that took place on July 31, dismissed Railway Protection Force (RPF) constable Chetansinh Chaudhary allegedly shot four individuals aboard a train near Mumbai. Among the victims was a senior colleague of his. Following this horrific act, Chaudhary reportedly telephoned his wife Priyanka and confessed to having committed an egregious mistake. He then asked her whether he should take his own life as well.

According to the statement given by Priyanka to the police, which is included in the case's chargesheet, Chaudhary called her at around 6:30 am on the day of the shooting incident and informed her about his murderous act. In an apparent state of distress and regret, he said "Maine teen logon ko, aur ek SI sub-inspector to maar dia haiMujse badi galti hogai hai..tum bolo toh apne AAP ko goli maar doon kiaI have killed three people and SI.. Have made a big mistakeshall I shoot myself too?". She urged him to surrender before law enforcement authorities.

The Case

The Government Railway Police (GRP), who are investigating this case, filed a chargesheet against Chetan Chaudhary on October 20 in front of a magistrates court. The charges include murder under section 302 of Indian Penal Code (IPC), promoting enmity between different groups under IPC section 153-A among others along with relevant provisions from Railways Act and Maharashtra Prevention Of Defacement of Property Act.

Background

Priyanka provided further background information about her husband in her statement. After losing his father while still studying in Class 10th , he joined RPF on compensatory grounds and was initially posted in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh. He was later transferred to Gujarat and then Mumbai. However, his transfer to Mumbai had reportedly left him disturbed as he desired a posting in either Mathura or Agra.

Health Issues

Priyanka also revealed that Chaudhary had been suffering from a blood clot in the brain for which he was taking medication. His mother noticed his abnormal behavior during her visit to Porbandar earlier this year where she found him blabbering without any reason and banging his head against the wall. Following these incidents, he was taken to a neurosurgeon who diagnosed him with minor blood clotting in his brain.

The Incident

Chetansinh Chaudhary allegedly committed the murders aboard the Jaipur-Mumbai Central Express near Palghar railway station on July 31. After killing four people, including RPF Assistant Sub-Inspector Tika Ram Meena, he threatened another passenger by saying "chant "jai mata di or Ill shoot you". The train came to an abrupt halt near Mira Road station after passengers pulled the chain of the train following which Chaudhary was apprehended along with his weapon.

In conclusion, this horrific incident has sent shockwaves across India's rail network as well as among its citizens. The chargesheet contains statements from several witnesses including co-passengers of the ill-fated train where this gruesome act took place. As investigations continue into what led an RPF constable to commit such a dreadful act, it is hoped that justice will be served swiftly for those whose lives were tragically cut short.
PM Acknowledges Chitrakoot Seer's Role In Realizing The Ram Temple Dream

India

oi-Prakash KL

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday praised the contribution of Hindu spiritual leader Jagadguru Rambhadracharya in the completion of the Lord Ram Temple in Ayodhya.

Addressing a gathering at Tulsi Peeth of Jagadguru Rambhadracharya at Chitrakoot in Madhya Pradesh, he also said that Sanskrit is not only the language of traditions but also of "our progress and identity".

"...Jagadguru Rambhadracharya ji has played a big role in fulfilling one of the dreams of every countrymen - the Ram temple, for which you have contributed so much, in and outside the court, is also going to be ready," the PTI quoted the PM as saying at the event.

He additionally referred to the invitation extended to him by the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra for the consecration ceremony of the Ram temple, scheduled for January 22. On the occasion, he released three books 'Ashtadhyayi Bhashya', 'Ramanandacharya Charitam' and 'Bhagwan Shri Krishna ki Rashtraleela' written by Jagadguru Rambhadracharya.

#WATCH | Madhya Pradesh: Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks blessings of Jagadguru Ramanandacharya of the Tulsi Peeth, in Chitrakoot. pic.twitter.com/kZgLTMZn3q  ANI (@ANI) October 27, 2023

PM Modi mentioned that national objectives such as sanitation, healthcare, and the restoration of the Ganga River are now becoming a reality. Talking about the Sanskrit language, he remarked that attempts were made to erase India's culture and heritage during the thousand year old era of slavery.

"The slave mentality which was carried forward by certain individuals resulted in a feeling of enmity towards Sanskrit...Sanskrit is not only the language of traditions, it is also the language of our progress and identity," he added and highlighted his government's efforts in the past nine years to promote Sanskrit in the country.

The PM also expressed confidence that Chitrakoot will scale new heights of development. Tulsi Peeth, an important religious and social service institution in Chitrakoot, was established by Jagadguru Rambhadracharya in 1987 and is one of the leading publishers of Hindu religious literature.

After his arrival in Chitrakoot earlier in the day, PM Modi offered prayers at the famous Raghubir temple and addressed a function to mark the birth centenary celebrations of industrialist late Arvind Bhai Mafatlal.

The Prime Minister thanked Shri Sadhguru Seva Sangh Trust for playing an important role in the medical treatment of the poor and oppressed. "I thank Shri Sadhguru Seva Sangh Trust from all the oppressed, poor, adivasi people for playing a pivotal role in the service of humanity," the Prime Minister said while addressing a rally at Madhya Pradesh's Chitrakoot.

The PM said that he has got the opportunity to come to the holy city of Chitrakoot which used to be the place where Lord Ram, Sita and Laxman used to stay.

"I have got the opportunity to come to Chitrakoot again. This is that holy land where our sages used to say that Lord Ram, Sita mata and Laxman used to dwell. I had the opportunity to visit Sri Raghuveer Mandir and Sri Ram Janki Mandir. I paid my homage to Kamath Giri mountain from the helicopter. I went to pay my floral tributes to Ranchhoddasji Maharaj and Arvind Bhai Mafatlal," he said.
Sharp Decline in Cross-Border Firing Incidents: Jitendra Singh Warns Against Lowering Guard

Union minister Jitendra Singh highlights the decrease in cross-border firing incidents but cautions that recent sporadic firings prove the need to stay vigilant against Pakistan's mischief. A BSF jawan and a woman were injured during the latest ceasefire violation.

India

-Krishna Kripa

Union Minister Jitendra Singh, on Friday, highlighted the significant reduction in cross-border firing incidents at the Line of Control (LoC) and the International Border (IB). However, he cautioned that India cannot lower its guard against Pakistan due to recent sporadic firing incidents. This statement comes after a BSF jawan and a woman were injured, with several houses damaged in cross-border shelling by Pakistan Rangers - marking the first major ceasefire violation since 2021.

The incident took place in Jammu's Arnia on Thursday night. According to the Border Security Force (BSF), there was unprovoked firing from Pakistan until 3 am on Friday which was befittingly responded. Speaking to reporters in Samba, Singh emphasized that despite a decrease in such incidents at LoC and IB, we must remain vigilant due to continuous infiltration bids across LoC.

A Sharp Decline In Violence

The minister of state for Prime Ministers Office said violence levels have significantly reduced within Jammu and Kashmir over the past nine yearsespecially since Article 370 was revoked back in August 2019. He credited this change to India's altered stance under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership who assumed office back in 2014.

Stern Response To Cross-Border Terrorism

Highlighting some key strategic moves like conducting surgical strikes by Indian Army in September 2016 followed by Balakote airstrikes carried out by IAF in February 2019 during PM Modi's tenure; Singh emphasized how these actions sent clear signals indicating India's stern response towards terrorist attacks sponsored from across the border.

Focusing On Welfare Of Soldiers' Families

Inaugurating Shaheed Gatea memorial dedicated to Colonel Narayan Singh in Samba, Singh elaborated on the Modi government's various welfare initiatives for families of soldiers who lose their lives while serving the nation. Unlike previous governments, he said, this regime is sensitive and concerned about the armed forces' welfare.

Welfare Measures For Martyrs' Families

The Union Minister listed out some of these measures including an ex-gratia amount ranging from Rs 25 to 45 lakh provided by the Union government to martyred soldiers' families. In addition, Rs 8 lakh is offered as ex-gratia from Army Central Welfare Fund. State governments also contribute an ex-gratia amount as per their provisions. These are apart from liberalised family pension and regular service benefits. In case of an Agniveer's death during duty, over Rs 1 crore would be given to next of kin.

In conclusion, while there has been a significant decline in cross-border firing incidents and violence within Jammu & Kashmir under PM Modi's leadership; sporadic ceasefire violations indicate that India must remain vigilant against potential threats from across LoC. The current government has shown its commitment towards ensuring welfare of soldiers' families through various initiativesa departure from practices followed by past regimes.
Shashi Tharoor Removed from Palestine Solidarity Event in Thiruvananthapuram

The Mahal Empowerment Mission MEM, an organisation of Muslim Jamaaths functioning in the state capital, on Friday decided to remove senior Congress leader and Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor from its Palestine solidarity event scheduled here on October 30.

India

-Krishna Kripa

The Mahal Empowerment Mission (MEM), an organization of Muslim Jamaaths functioning in the state capital, on Friday decided to remove senior Congress leader and Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor from its Palestine solidarity event scheduled here on October 30.

MEM's decision

The MEM of the Jamaaths from 100 wards in the city corporation, took the decision in the wake of the controversy over Tharoor's recent statement at a Palestine solidarity rally organized by the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) a day ago, in which he said the October 7 attack on Israel was a terrorist strike.

We have communicated to Tharoor that we have decided to remove him from the program, MEM president Shajahan Sreekaryam told PTI.

Tharoor's clarification

Facing an intense social media attack, Tharoor has issued a clarification, saying he has always been with the people of Palestine and he does not agree with the propagation of just one sentence from his speech at the IUML rally.

IUML's rally

The IUML, a key ally of the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) in Kerala, organized a massive rally in northern Kozhikode on Thursday, denouncing the reported indiscriminate killings of civilians, including women and children, in Gaza.

Tens of thousands of IUML supporters took part in the Palestine Solidarity Human Rights rally, inaugurated by IUML leader Panakkad Syed Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal.

Tharoor's speech

Tharoor, who was the chief guest, said innocent women and children suffered casualties, initially in Israel and subsequently in Gaza, and emphasized the imperative of ending this conflict.

In unequivocal terms, Tharoor also condemned the attack carried out by Hamas in Israel on October 7, describing it as an act of terror.

The MEM's decision to remove Tharoor from its Palestine solidarity event has sparked a debate on the role of political leaders in addressing the issue of Palestine. While some have criticized Tharoor for his remarks, others have defended his right to express his views.
Vistara to be merged with Air India as Tata Group finalises deal with SIA

New Air India Plane: First Look At The Redesigned Logo, Design

Tata Group To Make Apple iPhones In India

India

oi-Prakash KL

Electronics and Technology Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Friday announced that Tata Group will start making Apple iPhones in India for domestic and international markets within two and half years.

"@GoI_MeitY stands fully in support in growth of Global Indian Electronics companies that will in turn support global Electronic brands that want to make India their trusted manufacturing and talent partner and to realize PM's goal of making India a global electronics power," Chandrasekhar said on X, formerly Twitter.

He further added, "Congratulations to the Tata team for taking over Wistron operations. Thank you @Wistron for your contributions, and great going for Apple in building a global supply chain from India with Indian companies at its helm. @GoI_MeitY stands fully in support in growth of Global Indian Electronics companies that will in turn support global Electronic brands that want to make India their trusted manufacturing & talent partner and to realize PMs goal of making India a global electronics power ".

Taiwan's Wistron Corp., a contract manufacturer for Apple, will sell its India division to the Tata Group for a sum of $125 million.

Pending board approval, the company will transfer its entire ownership stake in Wistron InfoComm Manufacturing (India) Pvt. to Tata Electronics Pvt.

"Wistron Corp. held a Board of Directors Meeting today and granted approval for its subsidiaries, SMS InfoCOmm (Singapore) Pte Ltd and Wistron Hong Kong Limited, to sign the Share Purchase Agreement with Tata Electronics Private Limited (TEPL) for the sale of its 100 per cent indirect stake in Wistron InfoComm Manufacturing (India) Private Limited (WMMI). The transaction price is tentatively estimated at USD 125 million.

Upon confirmation and signature of the relevant agreements by both parties, the deal will proceed to obtain the necessary approvals. Following the completion of the transaction, Wistron will make the required announcement and filings in accordance with applicable regulations," the company said in a statement.

Coming to Tata Group, it is already producing an iPhone chassis, which forms the metallic framework of the device, at its factory located across hundreds of acres of land in Tamil Nadu.

Apple charted an ambitious retail expansion in India in April this year, when it launched two retail outlets here, in Mumbai and Delhi, during Cook's first trip to the country in seven years.

In May this year, Apple CEO Tim Cook said India is an "incredibly exciting market" and a "major focus" for the company, as the iPhone maker highlighted that business in India "set a quarterly record, grew very strong, double-digits year-over-year".

India is at a "tipping point", the top honcho had said during the Q2 earnings call of the company.
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Maharashtra drought: Cong slams govt for declaring drought in only 40 talukas

Telangana Polls: Congress Holds Meet To Decide Names Of Candidates

India

oi-PTI

The Congress leadership on Friday deliberated upon the names of candidates for the Telangana assembly polls at a crucial meeting of the party's Central Election Committee here.

Chaired by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, the meeting was attended by former party chief Sonia Gandhi, besides members of the Committee and Telangana leaders, including PCC chief A Revanth Reddy.

The Congress had also held a meeting of the CEC for Telangana on Wednesday.

Telangana Polls: Congress Finalising 2nd List Of Candidates

The party has so far declared a total of 55 candidates for the Telangana assembly polls to be held on November 30. The state has 119 assembly constituencies.

The Congress is seeking to replace the BRS government in the state.

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Story first published: Friday, October 27, 2023, 11:38 [IST]
Boris Johnson Quits As UK lawmaker After Learning He Will Be Sanctioned Over Partygate

Former UK PM Boris Johnson Takes Up New Job As Presenter

International

oi-Prakash KL

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will be joining television station GB News as a presenter, he announced on X on Friday.

In addition to this, he is also taking up the role of a columnist for the Daily Mail newspaper. "I'm going to be giving this remarkable new TV channel my unvarnished views on everything from Russia to China, the war in Ukraine, how we meet all those challenges, to the huge opportunities that lie ahead for us," Boris Johnson said on X.

GB News announced that Boris Johnson is set to take on the roles of presenter, program producer, and commentator commencing in early 2024. He is slated to have a pivotal role in the coverage of the upcoming national election in Britain, expected next year, and also in the United States elections.

The TV channel was inaugurated in 2021, offering a blend of news, opinions, and analyses that bears a closer resemblance to American networks like Fox News rather than traditional British broadcasters. Britain's regulatory authority for broadcasting has determined that the station has violated impartiality regulations on multiple occasions.

Johnson became Britain's Prime Minister in 2019 and won a large majority in an election later that year. However,

However, in 2022, he stepped down from his position following a series of scandals that led to the loss of support from numerous Conservative Party lawmakers.

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Story first published: Friday, October 27, 2023, 22:01 [IST]
Israel Strikes Outskirts Of Gaza City During Second Ground Raid In As Many Days

International

oi-PTI

Israeli forces backed by fighter jets and drones carried out a second ground raid into Gaza in as many days and struck targets on the outskirts of Gaza City, the military said Friday, as it prepares for a widely expected ground invasion of the Hamas-ruled territory.

US warplanes meanwhile struck targets in eastern Syria that the Pentagon said were linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guard after a string of attacks on US forces by Iran-backed fighters, adding to the already high regional tensions fuelled by the three-week-old Gaza war.

The Palestinian death toll has soared past 7,000 as Israel has carried out waves of devastating airstrikes in response to a bloody Hamas incursion into southern Israel on Oct. 7. The Health Ministry in Gaza, which tracks the toll, released a detailed list of names and ID numbers on Thursday. The toll includes more than 2,900 minors and more than 1,500 women.

More than 1,400 people in Israel, mostly civilians, were slain during the initial Hamas attack, according to the Israeli government. Hamas is holding at least 224 captives inside Gaza, including men, women, children and older adults.

'It's My Duty': Al Jazeera Journalist Who Lost Entire Family To Israeli Airstrike Returns To Reporting

The airstrikes have flattened entire neighbourhoods, causing a level of death and destruction unseen in the last four wars between Israel and Hamas. Over a million people have fled their homes, with many heeding Israeli orders to evacuate to the south, despite continuing Israeli strikes across the sealed-off territory.

The humanitarian crisis sparked by the war and the Israeli siege has sparked protests across the region, and more demonstrations were expected later Friday after weekly Muslim prayers. The military said ground forces raided inside Gaza, striking dozens of militant targets over the past 24 hours. It said aircraft and artillery bombed targets in Shijaiyah, a neighbourhood on the outskirts of Gaza City that was the scene of a bloody urban battle in the 2014 Gaza war. The military said the soldiers exited the territory without suffering any casualties. It reported an earlier raid into northern Gaza early Thursday, saying ground forces battled militants and struck anti-tank missile firing positions in an operation that lasted hours.

The damage to Gaza from nearly three weeks of bombardment showed in satellite photos of several locations taken before the war and again in recent days.

Entire rows of residential buildings simply disappear in the photos, reduced to smears of dust and rubble. A complex of 13 high-rises by the sea was pounded to dust near Gaza City's al-Shati refugee camp, leaving only a few tottering bits of facade. Just down the street, hardly anything remained in what had been a neighbourhood of low-built homes on winding lanes, according to the photos by Maxar Technologies.

The military says it only strikes militant targets and accuses Hamas of operating among civilians in an attempt to protect its fighters. The Israeli military said an airstrike killed one of two masterminds of the Oct. 7 massacre, Shadi Barud, the head of Hamas' intelligence unit. Palestinian militants have fired thousands of rockets into Israel since the war began.

Hamas' military wing said Thursday that Israeli bombardment has so far killed about 50 of the hostages. There was no immediate comment from Israeli officials, who have denied previous, similar claims.

The conflict has threatened to ignite a wider war across the region.

Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed ally of Hamas in Lebanon, has repeatedly traded fire with Israel along the border. The United States has sent two aircraft carrier strike groups to the region, along with additional fighter jets and other weaponry and personnel, in part to deter Iran and its allies from entering the war on the side of Hamas.

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said the strikes in eastern Syria were "a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against US personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on Oct. 17." He said President Joe Biden directed the narrowly tailored strikes "to make clear that the United States will not tolerate such attacks and will defend itself, its personnel and its interests." He added that the operation was separate and distinct from Israel's war against Hamas.

Israel-Hamas War: Latest On Ground Offensive, Death Toll, Fuel Crisis, Hostages, UN Meets As Gaza Suffers

Israel has vowed to crush Hamas' capacity to govern Gaza or threaten Israel again but also says it doesn't want to reoccupy the territory, from which it withdrew soldiers and settlers in 2005. That could prove a daunting challenge, since Hamas is deeply rooted in Gaza, with political and charity organizations as well as a formidable armed wing.

Benny Gantz, a retired general and a member of Israel's war Cabinet, said Thursday that any possible ground offensive would be only "one stage in a long-term process that includes security, political and social aspects that will take years." "The campaign will soon ramp up with greater force," he added.

Palestinians in Gaza are contending with a worsening humanitarian crisis as supplies of food, medicine and fuel for powering emergency generators run low. The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, which provides basic services to hundreds of thousands of people, including operating schools turned into shelters, has said it may run out of fuel within days.

Gaza's sole power station shut down for lack of fuel days after the start of the war, and Israel has barred all fuel deliveries, saying it believes Hamas would steal them for military purposes.

About 1.4 million of Gaza's 2.3 million residents have fled their homes, with nearly half of them crowding into UN shelters. Hundreds of thousands remain in northern Gaza, despite Israel ordering them to evacuate to the south and saying that those who remain might be considered "accomplices" of Hamas.

In recent days, Israel has let more than 70 trucks with aid enter from Egypt, but aid workers say the convoys meet only a tiny fraction of the territory's mounting humanitarian needs.

Nine Arab countries - including key US allies and nations that have signed peace or normalisation deals with Israel - issued a joint statement Thursday calling for an immediate cease-fire and an end to the targeting and death of civilians.

"The right to self defense by the United Nations Charter does not justify blatant violations of humanitarian and international law," said the statement, signed by Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, The United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait and Morocco.

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Story first published: Friday, October 27, 2023, 13:42 [IST]
Hezbollah Leader Threatens Escalation With Israel As Its War With Hamas Rages On

TV Reporter Breaks Down, Rips Off Press Vest While Reporting On Colleague's Death In Gaza

'It's My Duty': Al Jazeera Journalist Who Lost Entire Family To Israeli Airstrike Returns To Reporting

International

oi-Madhuri Adnal

Al Jazeera Gaza bureau chief Wael Dahdouh - who 24 hours ago mourned the death of his wife, son, daughter and nine other family members in an Israeli air strike -returned to the frontlines to continue reporting on Tel Aviv's war on Gaza.

Dahdouh's wife, daughter, grandson, and son were tragically lost in the assault on the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza. They had taken shelter there after being forced to flee their home in the northern part of the Strip due to the initial bombings, as reported by the network.

Resuming his role as a journalist, Dahdouh, clad in his press attire and perched atop a building, expressed, "I felt an obligation, despite the profound pain and the raw emotional wounds, to return before the camera and connect with you through social media as swiftly as I could."

In the backdrop, a thick cloud of black smoke envelops the sky, accompanied by the distant sounds of explosions. Gesturing toward the devastation behind him, he remarked, "The conflict rages on relentlessly. Airstrikes and artillery barrages persist, and the situation continues to evolve."

Israel-Hamas War: Al-Jazeera Bureau Chief's Family Killed In Israeli Air Strikes

"Despite the pain ... I felt it was my duty to get back in front of the camera."



Al Jazeera Journalist Wael Al Dahdouh explains why he continues to report from Gaza after his wife, son, daughter and other relatives were killed. pic.twitter.com/zHazgIS1nG  AJ+ (@ajplus) October 26, 2023

The Dahdouh family members were among the 7,000 people killed in Gaza in retaliatory Israeli strikes after Hamas launched a surprise attack on October 7 where 1,400 people were killed and over 200 were taken hostage.

Tel Aviv's attacks on Gaza follows the October 7 cross-border attack by Hamas that claimed over 1,400 lives, including civilians and children. Israel has described the Hamas terrorists as "animals" and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised revenge.

Tel Aviv has allowed limited humanitarian convoys to access Gaza a densely besieged territory that houses more than two million residents. However, these convoys provide only a fraction of the essential supplies required.

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Story first published: Friday, October 27, 2023, 12:43 [IST]
US Fighter Jets Strike Iran-Linked Sites In Syria In Retaliation For Attacks On US Troops

International

oi-PTI

US fighter jets launched airstrikes early Friday on two locations in eastern Syria linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Pentagon said, in retaliation for a slew of drone and missile attacks against U.S. bases and personnel in the region that began early last week.

The U.S. strikes reflect the Biden administration's determination to maintain a delicate balance. The U.S. wants to hit Iranian-backed groups suspected of targeting the U.S. as strongly as possible to deter future aggression, possibly fueled by Israel's war against Hamas, while also working to avoid inflaming the region and provoking a wider conflict.

According to a senior U.S. military official, the precision strikes were carried out near Boukamal by two F-16 fighter jets, and they struck weapons and ammunition storage areas that were connected to the IRGC.

The official said there had been Iranian-aligned militia and IRGC personnel on the base and no civilians, but the U.S. does not have any information yet on casualties or an assessment of damage. The official would not say how many munitions were launched by the F-16s.

500 Killed In Israeli Airstrike On Gaza Hospital Complex: Hamas Ministry

A senior defense official said the sites were chosen because the IRGC stores the types of munitions there that were used in the strikes against U.S. bases and troops. The two officials briefed reporters after the strikes on condition of anonymity to provide details on the mission that had not yet been made public.

According to the Pentagon, there have now been at least 19 attacks on U.S. bases and personnel in Iraq and Syria since Oct. 17, including three new ones Thursday. Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said 21 U.S. personnel were injured in two of those assaults that used drones to target al-Asad Airbase in Iraq and al-Tanf Garrison in Syria. In a statement, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the "precision self-defense strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on October 17." He said President Joe Biden directed the narrowly tailored strikes "to make clear that the United States will not tolerate such attacks and will defend itself, its personnel, and its interests." And he added that the operation was separate and distinct from Israel's war against Hamas.

The senior defense official told reporters that the F-16 airstrikes will have a significant impact on the ability of Iranian proxy groups to continue to attack U.S. forces. Asked what groups were targeted, the official said there are several that can have different names, but the U.S. holds Tehran responsible for funding, arming, equipping and directing the proxies. The official said the airstrikes were not designed to expand the conflict in the region, but to compel Iran to direct the militia groups to cease the attacks on American bases and personnel.

The Biden administration has not accused Iran of having a direct role in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and has said it appears so far that Tehran was not aware of it beforehand. But the U.S. has noted that Iran has long supported Hamas and has raised concerns that Iran and its proxies could turn the conflict into a wider war. Austin said the U.S. does not seek a broader conflict, but if Iranian proxy groups continue, the U.S. won't hesitate to take additional action to protect its forces.

According to the Pentagon, all the U.S. personnel hurt in the militant attacks received minor injuries and all returned to duty. In addition, a contractor suffered a cardiac arrest and died while seeking shelter from a possible drone attack.

The retaliatory strikes came as no surprise. Officials at the Pentagon and the White House have made it clear for the past week that the U.S. would respond, with Ryder saying again Thursday that it would be "at the time and place of our choosing." "I think we've been crystal clear that we maintain the inherent right of defending our troops and we will take all necessary measures to protect our forces and our interests overseas," he told reporters during a Pentagon briefing earlier in the day.

Deadly Airstrike Shakes Northern Iraq's Semi-Autonomous Kurdish Region

Biden said Wednesday that he had warned Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, that if Tehran continues to "move against" U.S. forces in the Middle East, "we will respond." The latest spate of strikes by the Iranian-linked groups came in the wake of a deadly explosion at a Gaza hospital, triggering protests in a number of Muslim nations. The Israeli military has relentlessly attacked Gaza in retaliation for the devastating Hamas rampage in southern Israel nearly three weeks ago, but Israel has denied responsibility for the al-Ahli hospital blast and the U.S. has said its intelligence assessment found that Tel Aviv was not to blame.

The U.S., including the Pentagon, has repeatedly said any strike response by America would be directly tied to the attacks on the troops, and not connected to the war between Israel and Hamas. Such retaliation and strikes against Iranian targets in Syria after similar attacks on U.S. bases are routine.

In March, for example, the U.S. struck sites in Syria used by groups affiliated with Iran's Revolutionary Guard after an Iranian-linked attack killed a U.S. contractor and wounded seven other Americans in northeast Syria. American F-15 fighter jets flying out of al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar struck several locations around Deir el-Zour.

U.S. officials have routinely stressed that the American response is designed to be proportional, and is aimed at deterring strikes against U.S. personnel who are focused on the fight against the Islamic State group.

U.S. officials have not publicly tied the recent string of attacks in Syria and Iraq to the violence in Gaza, but Iranian officials have openly criticized the U.S. for providing weapons to Israel that have been used to strike Gaza, resulting in civilian death.

The Pentagon, meanwhile, has beefed up air defenses in the region to protect U.S. forces. The U.S. has said it is sending several batteries of Patriot missile systems, a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery and additional fighter jets.

The THAAD is being sent from Fort Bliss, Texas, and the Patriot batteries are from Fort Liberty in North Carolina and Fort Sill in Oklahoma. An Avenger air defense system from Fort Liberty is also being sent.

Officials have said as much as two battalions of Patriots are being deployed. A battalion can include at least three Patriot batteries, which each have six to eight launchers.

Ryder said Thursday that about 900 troops have deployed or are in the process of going to the Middle East region, including those associated with the air defense systems.

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Story first published: Friday, October 27, 2023, 10:26 [IST]
PrivatBank approves first leasing under program with John Deere for Stavrovsky agricultural company

The Stavrovsky agricultural enterprise (Odesa region) will lease a John Deere S780 combine worth UAH 15 million at 2.2% per annum for five years, this is the first leasing agreement approved by PrivatBank (Kyiv) within the framework of a joint program for the preferential purchase of John Deere agricultural machinery on credit or leasing, the press service of PrivatBank reported on Friday.

"PrivatBank plans to become the main partner of John Deere in Ukraine," PrivatBank board member for small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) Yevhen Zaihraev told Interfax-Ukraine on Friday.

He said that the financial institution has always actively cooperated with dealers of John Deere equipment.

"After the resumption of financing from the beginning of the war, namely from June 2022, we have already financed John Deere equipment for more than UAH 1 billion," Zaihraev said.

He believes that the recent signing of a partnership program with the U.S. manufacturer of agricultural machinery should double the state bank's current results for this brand.

The decision on leasing was made according to a simplified procedure with a minimum package of documents.

According to information on the John Deere website, currently its partners in credit and leasing cooperation in Ukraine are Raiffeisen Bank, ProCreditbank, Credit Agricole Bank, state-owned Oschadbank and OTP Leasing.

Earlier, Oschadbank, which signed a partnership agreement with John Deere Financial at the end of July, announced its intention to increase its share in credit sales of this company's agricultural machinery to 50% in the next marketing year.
Jio MAMI Film Festival 2023: Priyanka Chopra Returns, Kareena Kapoor Khan's Movie Showcase

Mumbai

oi-Madhuri Adnal

Global icon and Bollywood sensation Priyanka Chopra made a grand entrance in Mumbai, dropping hints of her homecoming on social media. With a tantalizing photograph of her passport, the celebrated actress revealed her journey to the bustling metropolis. Her caption, "Cannot wait. It's been a minute Mumbai," left fans thrilled about her return. The reason behind her visit to the city of dreams is none other than the prestigious Jio MAMI Mumbai Festival, scheduled from October 27 to November 5.

Priyanka Chopra, who serves as the chairperson of MAMI, will grace the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre, the distinguished venue for this year's film festival. Her presence promises to add an aura of glamour and sophistication to the event.

In the early hours of Friday morning, Priyanka was spotted at Mumbai's bustling airport, looking as chic as ever. For her journey back to her homeland, she opted for a stylish ensemble, featuring a sleek black crop top paired with comfortable grey joggers and a flowing, long black shrug. Her loose, flowing hair added an element of casual elegance, and she adorned the look with a stone-studded choker. As she navigated her way through a crowd of enthusiastic fans and paparazzi at the arrival gate, Priyanka posed graciously for photographs, reaffirming her status as a fashion and style icon.

The Jio MAMI Mumbai Festival promises to be a star-studded affair, with Priyanka Chopra herself hosting the opening night alongside Isha Ambani. A constellation of Bollywood luminaries, including Sonam Kapoor, Farhan Akhtar, Rana Daggubati, and Kabir Khan, among many others, are set to grace the event as honored guests.

Is Priyanka Chopra's Cousin Sister Mannara Chopra Set To Enter Bigg Boss 17? Check Other Contestants Names

One of the festival's highlights is the screening of 'The Buckingham Murders,' directed by Hansal Mehta and co-produced by Ekta Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor Khan. This gripping film will kickstart the festival on October 27 at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre. Notably, 'The Buckingham Murders' previously had its world premiere at the 67th BFI London Film Festival. Anupama Chopra, the Festival Director at Jio MAMI, expressed delight at featuring the film as the festival's opening night attraction, praising Hansal Mehta and Ekta Kapoor for redefining storytelling.

Kareena Kapoor Khan, who co-produced the film, expressed her excitement about 'The Buckingham Murders' opening the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival. She shared, "The Buckingham Murders is very special for me since it's my maiden voyage as a co-producer. Working with Hansal and Ektaa is a deeply satisfying and immersive process. We are only hoping our film will reach wider audiences and break barriers globally," emphasizing the significance of the film for her and the collaborative effort behind it.
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MAMI Festival: Kamal Haasan Announces His Movie With Mani Ratnam

Mumbai

lekhaka-Puja Talwar

Quoting a couplet from Sahir Ludhianvi's 'Main Pal Do Pal Ka Shayar', Priyanka Chopra Jonas opened the 2023 edition of the Jio MAMI, Mumbai Film Festival.

The actor who is also Chairperson of the festival, the actor described the festival as a celebration of cinema as well as a new generation of filmmakers.

The focus this year also being on the female lens and narratives with challenge the status quo, the festival has 75 films which have been directed by female directors.

"We are celebrating women in front and behind the camera", said Priyanka Chopra Jonas, who has been an important hand in the curation of the festival.

Welcoming #SaifAliKhan to the opening ceremony of the #JioMAMIMumbaiFilmFestival2023 pic.twitter.com/4qRaT0gOM7  Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival (@MumbaiFilmFest) October 27, 2023

However, the highlight of the evening was the presence of cinematic legends Kamal Haasan and Mani Ratnam on stage.

Filmmaker Mani Ratnam received the "Excellence in Cinema Award" from Kamal Haasan, who said it felt it was him who was receiving the honour.

The two who last collaborated 36 years ago on the gangster drama 'Nayakan' announced their next partnership with 'KH234'.

Recalling their Nayakan days, Kamal Haasan said it was a passion project, money was secondary to them. But coming to 'KH234' the actor and filmmaker revealed that the two were as impatient to start work on their co-production together as much as their fans were eager to see them work together.

In his characteristic humour he said though Mani Ratnam will be directing it, he said " I am willing to do any job in the film, am also the leading man", to which Mani Ratnam responded he would keep that in mind.

Kamal Haasan further revealed that the first look of 'KH234' would be unveiled on November 6.

Excellence in Cinema Award (International) to Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino (Call Be By Your Name, Bones and All) was presented by Priyanka Chopra Jonas.

The festival opened with the premiere of Kareena Kapoor Khan's much-awaited 'The Buckingham Murders', directed by Hansal Mehta. The film recently had its premiere at the London Film Festival. A searing tale of loss, grief and murder, Kareena Kapoor Khan had recently described her character Jas being the role she had been waiting for, being a fan of the detective genre.

In attendance at the star-studded opening were Sonam Kapoor Ahuja, Karan Johar, Siddharth, Vishal Bharadwaj and Aditi Rao Hydari to name a few.
Abdullah Al-Taay, 23, attempted to avoid facing court due to the media, but was ordered by the registrar to come upstairs.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) has been urged by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to analyze and adapt to emerging trends in air warfare. Singh emphasized the importance of joint planning and execution of operations with the Navy and Army to enhance combat capabilities. The IAF commanders are currently reviewing the use of aerial platforms and air defense systems in conflicts such as the Russia-Ukraine war and the Hamas-Israel conflict. The upgrading of China's air bases facing India is also a significant concern. The IAF remains prepared with dynamic operational war plans.
Thousands of people gathered at Kozhikode beach in India for a pro-Palestine rally. The rally, organized by IUML, saw activists chanting slogans and holding banners in solidarity with Palestine. IUML state president criticized the Indian government for supporting Israel, while Congress MP Shashi Tharoor referred to Hamas as terrorists in his speech. IUML leader M K Muneer emphasized the fight for independence by the Palestinians and condemned Israel's actions as ethnic genocide.
The All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) in Asansol, West Bengal, organized a protest march in support of Palestine and against Israel's actions at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Thousands of protesters participated, waving Palestinian flags and wearing black bandages. They called for the Indian and West Bengal governments to support Palestine and condemned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's support for Israel. This protest follows previous attempts by AIMIM to highlight the Palestine issue, including a recent detainment of the AIMIM district president, Danish Aziz, by the police.
IndiaTimes 30 Oct 2023

An analyst suggests that the recent riot at Makhachkala Uytash Airport, in which Muslims attempted to attack Jews, was likely..
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The Church of Saint Porphyrius was hit by an Israeli airstrike on Thursday, October 19. The church was sheltering 500 Christians and Muslims who had lost their homes in previous airstrikes. Two people were confirmed dead and dozens injured, but the exact number of dead cannot be verified because those sheltering in the lower area of the church lay covered in rubble of the collapsed building. However, church sources on the scene, reported to their supporters in Manchester, Connecticut, they are estimating 150-200 are dead.

.youtube.com/watch?v=bg-Bjq8N3c0

The Jewish State of Israel has declared war on the 3 million Palestinian civilians of Gaza, who are mainly Muslim, while the Christian community numbers about 2,000 people. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) are attacking homes, hospitals, schools and churches since they launched Operation Swords of Iron in response to a large Hamas attack on Israeli civilians and soldiers beginning on October 7. The Christian faith originated in Palestine, in the streets of Bethlehem and Jerusalem in the Occupied West Bank, where the Christian community is larger than the Christian community in Gaza.

In Gaza, there are three churches: Greek Orthodox Church, Baptist Church, and Roman Catholic Church. The Church of Saint Porphyrius, Greek Orthodox, is the oldest active church in Gaza, located in Zeitoun, which is the same neighborhood as the Al Ahli Hospital, run by the Anglican Church (The Church of England) that was hit on October 17. St. Porphyrius was the 5th-century Bishop of Gaza, and he is entombed in the church.

While Europeans were still worshiping fire and stones, the Christians of Palestine were worshiping the Creator inside churches. The word Greek does not refer to the country known as Greece, but refers to the Greek language, as the Christian world was speaking Greek, and Aramaic in the earliest era. The Gaza Baptist Church sustained damage during Israeli airstrikes in 2008, and the church's pastor, and many of the congregation, subsequently fled the Gaza Strip.

The six-story building had been founded in 1954 and had about 200 members. The Holy Family Church in Gaza was partially destroyed in the 2014 Gaza War, when the church school and pastor's office were hit by an Israeli airstrike. In 2021, the school was damaged by an Israeli airstrike. The church, school and convents are now sheltering hundreds of people, and on October 9, Pope Francis called the church to offer his prayers and support. The Pope told Father Gabriel Romanelli that he was working to bring an end to the war.

The Catholic President of the United States, Joe Biden, came to Israel and gave the green-light to Prime Minister Netanyahu to continue his war against the Palestinian people of Gaza, the vast majority of which are unarmed civilians caught in the cross-fire. It appears that President Biden is far removed from the Pope, and is oblivious to his own professed faith. On October 11, Father Romanelli gave an interview in which he said the Christian residents of Rimal had been under violent bombardment by the Israeli airstrikes. The Catholic sisters of three orders were trying to help people in Gaza. The priest reported that Gaza had almost no electricity, no fuel for generators, and no water to drink, and they were unable to buy any supplies for the people.

On April 15, 2019, a fire destroyed parts of the Notre-Dame de Paris, a medieval Catholic cathedral in Paris, France. After the fire, there was a huge global outpouring of support, and a $135 million campaign was planned to rebuild the Notre-Dame de Paris. Christians in the Middle East, the birthplace of the faith, are asking the international community for help to stop the occupation, end the blockade of Gaza, and to pledge their support to rebuild Gaza and the West Bank. However, instead, the international community have sent the US President Joe Biden, the UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and the German Chancellor Olaf Shultz to Tel Aviv were they pledged their political and financial support to Israel, only. The Al Ahli Hospital suffered damages and deaths this week, and is administrated by the Church of England, which is the state religion of UK, and headed by King Charles III. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for an "immediate humanitarian ceasefire" to ease the "epic human suffering".

However, Biden, Sunak and Shultz have encouraged Netanyahu to 'just go for it'. All three nations have huge Christian and Muslim populations, and yet all their support is focused on the Jewish State of Israel. At least 3,478 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza, while the figure stands at more than 1,400 people in Israel.

Steven Sahiounie is a two-time award-winning journalist


Which City Councilperson has managed to avoid accountability for the same trip to Vegas that landed his former boss in jail?

(Image by Based on Campaign Photos) Details DMCA



While it is understandable that the Justice Department wants to do everything possible to assure the public that it does not take sides in elections, its policy of not taking action in the months before an election does just that. Voters deserve to have access to all the information available before heading to the polls and not informing them that a candidate may have engaged in criminal actions deprives them of the ability to make a fully informed decision.

Election workers were still counting votes in the March 3, 2020, race for the Los Angeles City Council's District 12 seat when the Department of Justice announced that the person who had previously held the seat, Mitch Englander, had been arrested. Included in the charging documents was the description of a corruption-fueled trip to Las Vegas and the resulting coverup. Accompanying Englander on this trip was the person referred to as "City Staffer B".

Though unnamed in the government's documents, "City Staffer B" is widely thought to be John Lee, Englander's Chief of Staff and successor on the City Council. In the days following Englander's arrest, he was declared the winner of his re-election bid by a mere 801 votes. Had the voters known of the pending charges, there is a good chance that the lead may not have held up. Justice delayed was justice denied.



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Instead of showing contrition, Lee refused to confirm that he was "City Staffer B". When Neighborhood Councils started asking questions, the City Attorney's office did everything possible to keep the subject off their agendas. In the Northridge West Neighbourhood Council, divisions over the issue were so bad that some members quit alleging targeted harassment by Lee's supporters.

Every time the headlines teased the arrest of another City Councilperson there was hope that "City Staffer B" would finally have to pay the piper. Instead, the public would just receive additional confirmation that the Council chambers are infected with politicians who put their own benefits above the needs of their constituents. Public service is a value that is sorely lacking in the City Hall of Los Angeles.

Apparently confident that what happened in Vegas would stay in Vegas, Lee has already declared that he is running for re-election. With a campaign fueled by $290,652 in campaign cash, most potential competitors have already been scared away and only one candidate, Michael Benedetto, has stepped up to run against him.



(Image by Los Angeles City Ethics Commission) Details DMCA



A press release from the Los Angeles Ethics Commission last week renewed hope that Lee will finally pay a price for betraying the public trust. Leaving no doubt that Lee is in fact "City Staffer B", the commission has alleged that Lee violated the law detailing "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". The next step in the process will be for the commission to select a hearing officer who will hold an administrative evidentiary hearing.

The commission was able to take action on this matter after the City Council finally filled vacancies on the Ethics Commission Board that prevented it from achieving a quorum. This follows a controversy that arose in August when the Council took the unusual step of rejecting the nomination of Jamie York, President of the Reseda Neighborhood Council, by City Controller Kenneth Mejia. Despite the fact that there was no public discussion, the vote to reject York was unanimous indicating that conversations about the vote probably took place behind closed doors violating California's Brown Act.

In York's place, the Council appointed Alex Johnson, who was the President of the Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE) when they overturned the LAUSD and renewed the charter of the North Valley Military Institute (NVMI). Johnson was appointed to LACOE by convicted felon Mark Ridley-Thomas (MRT).

If Lee were an honorable man, he would finally come clean with his constituents and take responsibility for his actions. Instead of spending his time campaigning for re-election, he would commit his energy to ensuring a seamless transition for the good of his constituents.

If Lee were an honorable man, he would have very little company in the City Council chambers. His fellow council members have known about his misdeeds for years and have not made any push to remove him from office. Former Councilman MRT actually sued to keep his salary while serving a suspension pending a conviction on corruption charges. Kevin DeLeon was caught in a conversation with fellow Councilmembers that was not only rooted in racism but was a planning session for how to remove power from traditionally disenfranchised communities but refused to resign and is running for re-election. Former Councilman Gil Cedillo is suing over that same conversation claiming that he was harmed by having it recorded. If only someone had respected his privacy, his tolerance for racism would not have been exposed and he would be properly profiting off his sacrifice of serving on the Council where his annual salary was only $231,173.96.

His ego still bruised from his humiliating defeat to Kenneth Mejia in the November election, former councilman Paul Koretz gave his constituents a big "Fuck You" on the way out the door. His words and the applause they received should not have been shocking as the actions of the Council repeatedly prove this sentiment. Voters need to remember that when they go to the polls on March 5, 2024.

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Moldova has rid itself of its energy dependence on Russia, Moldovan President Maia Sandu said.

"The Dniester's western bank has stopped buying gas from Russia. We can no longer be blackmailed with gas. We did not know last winter whether we would have natural gas in winter, and this year we know that we have it, as we have created reserves and can thus provide natural gas to the country," Sandu said in an interview with the television channel Vocea Basarabiei on Friday.

As for the audit of Moldovagaz's debt to Gazprom, she said the auditors estimated the debt at $8.6 million. "We have evidence, the audit was made by acknowledged international companies. So, Moldovagaz can pay Gazprom $8.6 million instead of over $700 million. Gazprom's refusal to recognize the external audit results is its problem," Sandu said.

Gazprom and Moldovagaz signed a five-year program in October 2021, following lengthy talks and the conclusion of a protocol of actions by the sides.

Moldova signed an agreement for a gas debt audit with Wikborg Rein Advokatfirma AS (Norway) and Forensic Risk Alliance & Co (the UK) in August 2022.

Moldovan Energy Minister Victor Parlicov presented an audit report on the debt for gas supplied to consumers on the Dniester's western bank in 1993-2021 in September 2023. The auditors did not confirm Moldova's debt of $709 million claimed by Gazprom. Most of the debt was unconfirmed or could not be enforced, Parlicov said. The Moldovan government therefore offered to pay $8.6 million to Gazprom to settle the gas debt.

Gazprom strongly disagreed with the audit results and warned that it could halt its gas supply.
A Southeast Portland-based maker of chain saws and other cutting tools has cut a deal with the U.S. Attorneys Office: $1.7 million in exchange for a non-prosecution agreement.

Oregon Tool, then known as Blount Industries Inc., allegedly continued to do business with Nigerian distributors after the company had been warned it was getting paid with money from scam victims, including elderly women bilked in online romance scams.
Tom Sumeragi, whose intervention in Nikes chaotic early years played a pivotal role in the companys financial survival and ascension, has died.

Sumeragi died last week. A wake was held this week in Japan.

He was a giant, Nike cofounder Phil Knight told The Oregonian/OregonLive.

Sumeragis path crossed with Nikes in 1971. At the time, Nike was still known as Blue Ribbon Sports. It was far from the blue-chip company it is today. It employed less than 50 people and had just crossed $1 million in annual revenue.

But while the company had explosive sales growth, it had trouble staying in the good graces of Portlands banks because of heavy cash demands and Knights aggressive entrepreneurialism. Adding to the chaos, the company was in the middle of a falling out with Onitsuka Co., the Japanese company whose shoes it imported. The Nike line hadnt yet launched.

In the middle of that storm, Sumeragi, who worked for the Japanese trading company Nissho Iwai, tossed the company a financial lifeline, starting with a line of credit and eventually offering a more sweeping backstop. Nissho Iwai would eventually expand its support to providing supply chain and logistics help around the time the Nike brand launched in 1972.

Somehow, I had confidence in this particular company, Sumeragi said in a 1982 story about him in a Nike employee publication. Of course, we had no idea that it would grow as much as it has.

He will always be a legend, said Bob Woodell, an early Nike executive who served as the companys first chief operating officer and briefly as president. He was a hero.

Jeff Johnson, the first full-time employee in Nikes history, recalled Sumeragi or Knight once joked that, If not for Sumeragi, there would be no Nike.

The more I think about it, the more I realize that is probably more true than even Tom realized, Johnson said.

Early Nike financial hero Tom Sumeragi, left, jokes with Nike cofounder Phil Knight, middle, and early Nike employee Geoff Hollister, right, in 2009. Courtesy Takayuki Shinomiya

Sumeragi was born Takayuki Sumeragi in 1942 in southern Japan, according to the Nike employee publication. He studied law at Tokyo University, then joined Nissho Iwai in 1966, according to the publication.

Sumeragi briefly worked in the firms tobacco business before moving to Portland in February 1971. Around that time an employee of a local tire company called him Tom, according to the Nike employee publication, and the name stuck.

February 1971 was a calamitous time for Blue Ribbon Sports. On average, the companys sales had more than doubled every year since Knight sold his first running shoe in 1965, but it was chronically short on cash. Knight referred to 1970 as a summer of hell in the liquidity department, in a company memo quoted in a 1974 deposition.

Indeed, the story is told that BRS had trouble paying its garbage bill and that (early employee) Nelson Farris sometimes secretly disposed of the companys trash in someone elses container, according to the Nike employee publication.

Not surprisingly, banks didnt want Blue Ribbons business. The companys relationship with Onitsuka was on the rocks, too. Adding to the chaos, Nikes corporate culture was unconventional.

Nike was a roll-the-dice, no-adults-in-the-room kind of company in those days. Nissho Iwai was a financially responsible, adult company, Johnson said. Tom Sumeragi was the unique personality to bridge that gap and make it work. I cant imagine another person who could have done it.

Tom Sumeragi, right, met Nike cofounder Phil Knight, fourth from left, in 1971.Courtesy Nike

Sumeragis relationship with Nike and Knight quickly grew close. In his memoir, Shoe Dog, Knight describes Nike as his crazy dream.

(Sumeragi) understood us, Woodell said. I think he caught the dream.

In the Nike employee publication, Sumeragi said hed sit up talking business with Knight, Johnson, Woodell, Del Hays and Geoff Hollister until 1 in the morning. He realized that BRS was a very, very young company, but also a very, very ambitious-minded company.

He attended company holiday parties, including a raucous one in Woodells two-bedroom Tigard apartment.

The relationship was more than just business, Knight said. He was like a brother.

In those days, Blue Ribbons brass would boost monthly sales by visiting the companys Beaverton warehouse at the end of the month. Theyd box up running shoes and ship them out. Woodell recalled Sumeragi showing up, still wearing a business suit.

We pushed like hell every single month, Woodell said. Tom Sumeragi was there too, out in the warehouse until 10 oclock at night, or some god-awful hour.

In a separate conversation, Knight recalled the same story.

Isnt that the damnedest thing? Knight said. Sumeragi said, If youre going, Im going.

A tree on Nike's campus memorializes the relationship between the company and Nissho Iwai, and by proxy, Sumeragi. Matthew Kish

Sumeragis support for Nike also included stalling invoices, a move that threatened his own career. Knight, who likewise is known for his intense loyalty, told the Oregonian/OregonLive he didnt learn about the move until much later.

We had no idea, Knight said. We thought he was in danger of losing his job. When the clouds cleared and it was over, we asked what happened (when his bosses found out). He said, They scolded me.

Sumeragi moved back to Japan in 1974. He rejoined the Nissho Iwai staff that worked on the Nike account in 1981, according to the Nike employee publication. He was fundamental to the growth of Nikes business in Japan.

At one point, Sumeragis name was among those of other Nike dignitaries on flags in a gym on Nikes 400-acre campus, according to the 1994 book Just Do It. In August 2011, Nissho Iwai, now known as Sojitz, planted a tree on Nikes campus that memorializes the relationship between the two companies and by proxy, Sumeragi.

He was one in a million, Knight said. It creates a lot of emotion, his passing.

 Matthew Kish, mkish@oregonian.com
One person was killed in a multi-vehicle collision on Interstate 5 in Portland Thursday afternoon, prompting a closure that is expected to last for several hours, police said.

Portland police are investigating and have closed the freeways southbound lanes between North Killingsworth Street and the Alberta Street exit, officials said.

The Oregon Department of Transportation told drivers to follow a detour from Alberta Street to North Going Street and re-enter the interstate at North Greeley Avenue.

Officers responded to the reported crash at 3:31 p.m. on I-5 at North Failing Street, where they found one person dead, police said.

More than two vehicles were involved in the crash, according to Sgt. Kevin Allen, a police spokesperson. Allen did not yet know which types of vehicles were involved or the severity of other injuries.

The Oregon Department of Transportation responded to divert traffic off the freeway, police said.

Police asked anyone with information to contact crimetips@police.portlandoregon.gov and reference case number 23-280468.

-- Catalina Gaitan, cgaitan@oregonian.com, @catalinagaitan_

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Tree maintenance crews, working on removing dead branches, and tree trimming on Oregon 99E, will close travel lanes at times early next week, according to a recent release from the Oregon Department of Transportation.

Travelers should expect intermittent closures on Southeast McLoughlin Boulevard/OR 99E from 9 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Monday-Wednesday, Oct. 30-Nov. 1 between Bybee and the Tacoma ramp. Drivers can avoid delays during those hours by choosing an alternate route.

Portlands Urban Forestry crews will be working on dozens of trees along the road to improve safety and trim hazardous limbs.

Flaggers will direct traffic, and most closures will be in the southbound lanes.

The Urban Forestry project, its largest of the year, aims to improve the health and longevity of the trees along this corridor and improve driver visibility.

Visit TripCheck.com for details on any delays during the work.

Follow us on X (Twitter) for the latest in commuting news: @trafficportland
LEWISTON, Maine  Authorities searched forests, waterways and small towns Thursday for a U.S. Army reservist who they say killed 18 people and wounded 13 in a mass shooting at a bowling alley and a bar that sent panicked patrons scrambling under tables and behind bowling pins and gripped the entire state of Maine in fear.

Schools, doctors offices and grocery stores closed and people stayed behind locked doors in cities as far away as 50 miles from the scenes of Wednesday nights shootings in Lewiston.

President Joe Biden ordered all U.S. flags to be flown at half-staff as condolences poured in from around the nation and at home, including from Maine native and author Stephen King, who called it madness. The attacks stunned a state of only 1.3 million people that has one of the countrys lowest homicide rates: 29 killings in all of 2022.

The suspect, Robert Card, is considered armed and dangerous and should not be approached, authorities said at a news conference. Card underwent a mental health evaluation in mid-July after he began acting erratically while with his reserve regiment, a U.S. official told The Associated Press.

In this image taken from video released by the Androscoggin County Sheriff's Office, a gunman enters Sparetime Recreation in Lewiston, Maine, on Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023. Maine State Police ordered residents in the state's second-largest city to shelter in place Wednesday night as the suspect Robert Card remains at large. (Androscoggin County Sheriff's Office via AP)AP

Police have not said if they have seen Card since the shootings at Schemengees Bar and Grille and at Sparetime Recreation, a bowling alley about 4 miles away. The Androscoggin County Sheriffs Office released two photos of the suspect walking into the bowling alley with a rifle raised to his shoulder.

Investigators also havent said what weapon or weapons Card used in the shootings or how he obtained them.

Several FBI agents and other heavily armed officers gathered Thursday afternoon off a road where several relatives of Card lived near Bowdoin. A military-style vehicle and a white van arrived as a helicopter hovered overhead and someone repeatedly yelled, FBI! Open the door! Several loud bangs were heard a short time later. Nearby, several police officers armed with rifles stood on alert in the back of a pickup truck.

About 80 FBI agents were in Maine looking for Card along with numerous other federal, state and local police, Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins said at an evening news conference.

A telephone number listed for Card in public records was not in service. A woman who answered a phone number for one of Cards relatives said Thursday afternoon the family was helping the FBI. She didnt give her name or additional details.

Authorities launched a multistate search for Card on land and water. The Coast Guard sent out a patrol boat Thursday morning along the Kennebec River, but after hours of searching, they found nothing out of the ordinary, said Chief Petty Officer Ryan Smith, who is in charge of the Coast Guards Boothbay Harbor Station.

A car believed to belong to Card had been discovered by a boat launch in the town of Lisbon near the Androscoggin River, which connects to the Kennebec, and Cards 15-foot (4.5-meter) boat remains unaccounted for, Smith said.

A bulletin sent to police across the country after the attack said Card had been committed to a mental health facility for two weeks this past summer after hearing voices and threats to shoot up a military base.

A U.S. official said Card was assigned to support training with the Army Reserves 3rd Battalion, 304th Infantry Regiment in West Point, New York, when commanders became concerned about him.

State police took Card to the Keller Army Community Hospital at West Point for evaluation, according to the official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss the information and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

A neighbor, Dave Letarte, said Cards family let them deer hunt on their property and were kind, although Letarte said he noticed Card appeared to have mental problems for a while.

People have problems, but you dont expect them to go on the deep end like that, Letarte said. When we saw it on the news last night, I was shocked.

Maine Gov. Janet Mills promised to do whatever was needed to find Card and to hold whoever is responsible for this atrocity accountable ... and to seek full justice for the victims and their families.

We are not, and we will not, rest in this endeavor, she said.

Eight murder warrants were issued for Card, 40, after authorities identified eight of the victims, police said. Ten more will likely be issued once the names of the rest of the dead are confirmed, said Maine State Police Col. William Ross.

Three of the 13 people wounded in the shootings were in critical condition and five were hospitalized but stable, Central Maine Medical Center officials said.

The attack started at Sparetime, where a childrens bowling league was taking place, just before 7 p.m. Wednesday. One bowler, who identified himself only as Brandon, said he heard about 10 shots, thinking the first was a balloon popping.

I had my back turned to the door. And as soon as I turned and saw it was not a balloon  he was holding a weapon  I just booked it, he told the AP.

Brandon said he scrambled down the length of the alley, sliding into the pin area and climbing up to hide in the machinery.

Less than 15 minutes after the shooting began, numerous 911 calls started coming in from Schemengees, which was offering 25% discounts to customers who work in the bar or restaurant industry.

Patrick Poulin was supposed to be at the bowling center with his 15-year-old son, who is in a league that was practicing Wednesday. They stayed home, but he estimates there were probably several dozen young bowlers, ages 4 to 18, along with their parents, in the facility. Poulins brother was there, he said, and shepherded some of the children outside when the shooting began.

Hes pretty shook up, Poulin said Thursday. And its just sinking in today, like, wow, I was very close to being there. And a lot of the people that got hurt, I know.

April Stevens lives in the same neighborhood where one of the shootings took place. She turned on all her lights overnight and locked her doors. She knew someone killed at the bar and another person injured who needed surgery.

Im still working because I can work from home. My husband canceled his jobs today to stay home with me. Were praying for everyone, Stevens said through tears.

Immediately after the shooting, police armed with rifles took positions around Lewiston, Maines second largest city, with a population of 37,000. The once overwhelmingly white mill community has become one of the most diverse cities in northern New England after a major influx of immigrants, mostly from Somalia, in recent years.

Schools 50 miles away in the town of Kennebunk closed as the search continued. Maines largest city, Portland, closed its public buildings.

In many past U.S. mass shootings, the suspect was found  whether dead or alive  within minutes. But Card was still on the loose a full day after the shootings. Lewiston was mostly empty on an unusually warm fall day. Changeable message signs reminded people to stay behind locked doors.

Art teacher Miia Zellner was one of the few people out. She came with friends to downtown Lewiston, where they hammered about 100 paper hearts into trees with the words To My Neighbors.

This is just my way of showing my love and my support for the community, she said. I just hope that people, when they see this, get some type of positivity from it and feel some sense of hope.

In Bates College in Lewiston, students stayed in dorms with the blinds closed, said Diana Florence, whose son is a sophomore. She has a daughter who is a senior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which was locked down twice last month for a shooting and a man with a gun.

I could not believe it  that this is happening again. Its happening to my son after it just happened to my daughter, she said in a phone interview Thursday.

The shootings mark the 36th mass killing in the United States this year, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.

Maine doesnt require permits to carry guns, and the state has a longstanding culture of gun ownership that is tied to its traditions of hunting and sport shooting. Keeping in mind the strong support for gun rights, lawmakers passed a yellow flag law in 2019 that would require police to seek a medical evaluation of anyone believed to be dangerous before then trying to take their guns away. However, critics charged that it was a weaker version of the tougher red flag laws that many other states have adopted.

Author Stephen King responded to the shootings Thursday morning in a pair of posts on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The shootings occurred less than 50 miles from where I live. I went to high school in Lisbon. Its the rapid-fire killing machines, people. This is madness in the name of freedom. Stop electing apologists for murder, he wrote.
The wife of Joseph D. Emerson, the off-duty pilot accused of attempting to shut down the engines of Horizon Air flight 2059 over Oregon, said Thursday that her husband never would have knowingly tried to harm himself or others on the plane.

This is not my Joe. This is not any Joe that anybody knows, said his wife, Sarah Stretch, after she got her first close-up, unobstructed view of him in federal court. I cant explain it but it just wasnt him.
A Vancouver couple accused of fatally starving their 15-year-old son while he was isolated at home during the pandemic denied in court underfeeding the boy and said they had no idea he was so sick.

A Clark County Superior Court jury heard testimony Thursday from both Felicia Adams-Franks, 54, and Jesse Franks, 58, who are facing charges of homicide by abuse and second-degree murder in the death of Karreon Franks on Nov. 27, 2020.
Teachers from at least one Portland school are urging families not to take the school district up on its offer to send Chromebooks home with students ahead of a potential teacher strike, which could begin as soon as Wednesday.

In an email to families at Grout Elementary School in Southeast Portland, where 26% of students qualify for special education services and the entire student body is deemed eligible for free and reduced price meals, teachers wrote to parents that turning down an offer for a computer would be an easy way to show support for teachers, students and the Portland Association of Teachers community.

The email was signed Grout Teachers.

Officials with Portland Public Schools have said that no teacher-led online learning will be offered, should a strike happen, save for online tutoring sessions for students in the first few grades who are struggling to learn to read.

But they have made grade-level, self-paced online resources available to families and students who want to keep up from home.

Many families of means already have devices at home that their children can use during any building closures, so not taking Chromebooks wouldnt block them from online learning should they choose to allow it. Low-income families are less likely to have computers for each family member, so not having a Chromebook could be a barrier to learning during a strike.

While families are not required to accept resources we are making available, they are being made available to all students, especially those who rely on PPS to access learning, meals and mental health supports, said Valerie Feder, a spokeswoman for the district.

The effort to have families spurn the districts offer of computers and online curriculum originated with a parent who wanted to show solidarity with the union and not widen the gap between children whose caregivers are able to help their children with online learning and those who cannot, said Portland Association of Teachers president Angela Bonilla, via a text message to The Oregonian/Oregonlive. The union then shared it along, she said.

She said in a follow-up message that she knew of historically underserved families who support the unions proposals even if their own children wind up getting a break from instruction to hopefully ensure a better tomorrow. Its important to keep centering the stories and experience of our historically and currently underserved students and families from their perspectives, versus our interpretation of their needs.

Daniel Guilfoyle, director of Youth and Education Services for the Native American Youth and Family Center, known as NAYA, previously told The Oregonian/OregonLive that unexpected time out of school presents a multitude of concerns for kids from families who scrimp to pay rent and buy groceries. Caregivers with one or more jobs will have to figure out how to prevent the loss of both hard-won academic gains and the structure, safety net and routine provided by school, he said.

Before the pandemic eras school closures, there were substantial academic gaps between white students and their counterparts of color, particularly those learning to speak English, those in special education and those from families living below the poverty line. The pandemics months of online learning exacerbated those disparities.

For example, 70% of Portlands white third graders are proficient in reading, according to state test scores, but only 44% of economically disadvantaged students and only 16% of Black students met that same target.

Union and district negotiators met Wednesday and again on Thursday to continue to try to hash out their differences over class sizes, pay and planning time. Two more mediation sessions are scheduled for next week. Meanwhile, both sides have filed unfair labor practice complaints against the other over what topics school districts and teachers unions are obligated to bargain over versus what demands are considered extraneous.

 Julia Silverman, @jrlsilverman, jsilverman@oregonian.com
Avista, Oregons second largest natural gas utility, can no longer make customers pay for its political activities and subsidize new residential gas pipelines, according to the terms of a settlement agreement approved by the Oregon Public Utility Commission.

Thursdays settlement includes a smaller rate increase of 4.7%  instead of the 8% sought by the company earlier this year. It also increases Avistas low-income weatherization program budget from about $800,000 to $2 million.

Avista serves more than 106,000 customers in parts of southern and eastern Oregon.

The settlement marks the first time in Oregon history that a gas utility will phase out charges called line extension allowances, in which all customers bear the cost of connecting new buildings to the gas pipeline system. Without the subsidies, an individual developer or homeowner would have to cover the costs of new pipelines.

This is a big win for working Oregonians who will no longer have to pay for fossil fuel subsidies or political activities that prolong dependence on harmful methane gas, Jan Hasselman, senior attorney for Earthjustice, said in a written statement. Environmental groups and Earthjustice attorneys challenged Avistas practices before the commission.

Climate activists who oppose the expansion of the natural gas system say line extension allowances encourage new homes to be built with gas at a time when gas utilities should instead drastically reduce their emissions.

A natural gas fact-finding investigation released by the Public Utility Commission earlier this year found that growing the gas system in Oregon and adding new hookups will increase emissions and drive up utilities costs to comply with the states climate mandate to reduce fossil fuel emissions  which is likely to lead to rate increases for all customers.

Last October, state regulators ordered NW Natural, Oregons largest natural gas utility, to reduce  but not completely phase out  its line extension allowances. Avistas line extension subsidies are more than double those of NW Natural.

State regulators also a year ago ordered NW Natural to no longer charge political expenses such as lobbying to its customers.

The NW Natural case paved the way for greater accounting transparency and scrutiny in other rate cases, Earthjustice said.

The Avista settlement also restricts political spending by the gas company  specifically, it can no longer use customer money to litigate against the states signature Climate Protection Program. It also cannot charge customers to pay dues to the American Gas Association and NW Gas Association, politically active trade groups that rally against climate action.

The parties agreed to certain modifications related to our line extension policies and the exclusion of certain costs. Avista views this as a part of the process of reaching a balanced and constructive outcome for all parties, said Lena Funston, an Avista spokeswoman.

 Gosia Wozniacka; gwozniacka@oregonian.com; @gosiawozniacka

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October is Filipino American history month and commemorates the first Filipinos arriving to the continental United States. One of the ways to honor the month is by celebrating with food.

Over the past five years, numerous Pinoy eateries have opened in Portland, adding to a handful of already-existing Filipino restaurants -- not to mention the many spots in the surrounding suburbs.

Its now possible to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, plus coffee and sweet treats all at Filipino American establishments, whether it be a food cart, brick-and-mortar restaurant, bakery or cafe. You could indulge in a full day of top-notch Filipino food, or sprinkle in spots over the course of weeks.

The hard part? Choosing where to go.

Heres an outline of the many options youll find within city limits. Over the course of a few days, we visited six spots, filmed the journey and will be releasing our delicious experience over the course of the week. Check out our journey so far in the videos above.

Did we miss your favorite spot? Let us know!

Coffee

Kalesa Coffee

Start your day off by heading to the Eliot neighborhood for coffee with Filipino-inspired flavors. Coconut cold brew with ube whip and a honey ginger latte with pandan whip are some of the menu highlights at Kalesa. Owners and friends Tim Alameda, Leilani Banuelos Banayat and Keanu Banayat opened Kalesas doors at North Portlands Gotham Building in March after a series of pop-ups. In addition to drinks, Kalesa serves Pinoy baked goods from Allie Gs Pastries. A crisp cold brew paired with a light and fluffy coffee pandan mamon was a match made in heaven. Bonus: if youre lucky (or stalk the Instagram accounts) youll find a pop-up called Balong serving breakfast sandwiches on pan de sal at Kalesa on select dates.

Kalesa Coffee is open 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., Tuesday-Saturday and is located inside the Gotham Building: 722 N Page St.

Breakfast

Sunrice

Crisy pork belly silog is served at Makulit on Friday, October 13, 2023 in Portland.Vickie Connor/The Oregonian

After popping up at Deadshot, Sunrice has found its home at the Moxy Portland hotel downtown. Walk through the lobby and past the arcade games to find the touchscreen self-order kiosk, aka your portal to garlic rice bowl heaven. The lechon, or pork belly, is perfectly crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, complimented by a sunny-side-up egg with marinated tomatoes and onion. Wash it all down with their guava iced tea, followed by a donut from HeyDay. Check out Sunrices Instagram for menu updates. The latest? A breakfast slider completed with a tocino yogurt sauce.

Sunrice is open 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., Wednesday-Sunday and is located inside Moxy Portland: 585 S.W. 10th Ave., sunricepdx.com

Lunch

Makulit

The Big Bunso is a longanisa burger served at Makulit on Friday, October 13, 2023 in Portland.Vickie Connor/The Oregonian

Reports that Jollibee was close to opening a Hillsboro location last year turned out to be slightly premature  neighbors say the old Tanasbourne Village Chevys location has been demolished, but the beloved Filipino fried chicken chain doesnt expect to open until 2024 at the earliest. Until then, local chefs have taken matters into their own hands, crisping chickens and topping spaghetti with sweet sauce at carts, restaurants and pop-ups around town. The latest addition to Portlands suddenly-thriving Filipino food scene is this cart from former XLB sous chef Mike Bautista and Xrysto Castillo, which fries up tasty lumpia, chicky bites and poutine-style French fries smothered in pulled adobo. From that poutine to the longanisa-beef burgers, the menu is unabashedly influenced by fast food, while the pink-and-yellow color scheme was inspired by a bag of Calbee shrimp chips. We wanted to make it loud, Bautista told us in April, because Filipino food is loud.  Michael Russell

Makulit is located at Lil America food cart pod: 10215 S.E. Stark St., makulitpdx.com For the latest hours, check their Instagram.

Read more: Makulits fast-food-inspired Filipino menu goes up to 11 and Portlands best new food carts of 2023

Baon Kainan

Mushroom tofu sisig, lumpia and calamansi soda are served at food cart Baon Kainan on Thursday, October 12, 2023 in Portland.Vickie Connor/The Oregonian

The motto at Baon Kainan -- our 2021 Cart of the Year -- is Not Your Titas Cooking, a nod to who co-owners Ethan and Geri Leung see as their fiercest critics: fellow Filipino Americans. But the menu is pitched more broadly. Even diners who dont know their pancit from their lomi will be familiar with adobo, the Philippines national dish. Accessibility is the rule. Kare kare fries are the Leungs take on poutine, with tasty cart-made fries topped with supremely tender beef and a chopped peanut gravy (its less messy than it sounds). Bibingka is a wonderfully moist coconut-mochi cake; the taho, another sweet typically made with silken tofu, here comes with panna cotta instead. And then theres the adobo. For his sauce, Ethan, who worked at upscale Seattle restaurants, blends tamari (making the dish gluten-free), vinegar and aromatics in a Vitamix, then stirs in a little xanthan gum as a thickener. Geri, who takes orders and makes the desserts, suggested keeping the bok choy more simple, less cheffy, to provide a refreshing contrast. But you dont need to know how the adobo is made to enjoy the way the tender braised chicken (or mushrooms), vibrant bok choy and fragrant garlic rice are brought to life by that sauce, which drips off the spoon with the luxurious texture of savory syrup. And once youve had it, youll be counting down the days until you can try it again.

 Michael Russell

Baon Kainan is currently open 12 p.m. to 8 p.m., Thursday-Saturday and serves brunch Sunday 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Alberta Carts: 1027 N.E. Alberta St., baonkainan.com

Read more: Food cart Baon Kainan brings Filipino American flair to Portland and Portlands best new food carts of 2021

Longtime favorites:

Tambayan, open Wednesday to Sunday 12 p.m. to 5 p.m., located at 6014 S.E. Foster Rd.

Fork and Spoon Food House, open Tuesday to Saturday 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., located at 10634 N.E. Sandy Blvd.

Bakery

Halo Halo Bakery

An ube crinkle cookie, apple ginger spice cake, pandan chiffon cake and cassava cake are served at Halo Halo bakery on Friday, October 13, 2023 in Portland.Vickie Connor/The Oregonian

Self-taught baker and pastry chef Geleen Abenoja isnt just serving up some of the best cassava cake and ube crinkle cookies in town at Shop Halo Halo. Her Woodstock bakery is also a hub for hosting cultural events and night markets, and offers a selection of Filipino-made gifts and goodies. Shop Halo Halo shares space with Daphnes Botanicals, a Filipino-owned plant shop by friend Daphne Peters. Grab your sweet treat, peruse some plant babies and youre set for an excellent afternoon. And yes, Shop Halo Halo does serve its namesake cold dessert.

Shop Halo Halo is currently open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Wednesday-Saturday at 4981 SE Woodstock Blvd., Suite 2, shophalohalo.com

Read more: Portlands newest Filipino bakery will embrace the botanical

Longtime favorite:

St. Barbra Pinoy Bakery, open Wednesday to Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., located at 2311 S.W. 6th Ave.

Dinner

Magna Kusina

Lumpiang sariwa, duck dinuguan, sisig and lumpia are served at Filipino restaurant Magna on Thursday, November 18, 2021.Vickie Connor/The Oregonian

Its no wonder Magna Kusina and owner and chef Carlo Lamagna have received a long list of accolades, including our 2021 Restaurant of the Year award. Magna Kusina is worthy of a special night out and has the booked up online reservation site to prove it. Dine-in at their cozy Clinton spot for classics like lumpia and sisig, but also a long list of skewer options and rotating menu standouts, like crab fat noodles or duck legs.

Magna Kusina is currently open from 5 to 9 p.m., Tuesday-Saturday at 2525 S.E. Clinton St., 503-395-8542, magnapdx.com

Read more: Magna Kusina is Portlands 2021 Restaurant of the Year

Vickie Connor is a videographer for The Oregonian|OregonLive. She can be reached at vconnor@theoregonian.com.
Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics has backed a proposal by Latvian Agriculture Minister Armands Krauze at their meeting on Friday to discuss restricting Russian grain imports by the European Union, the LETA agency reported.

The sides met to discuss the priorities of Krauze's work and current situation in the agricultural sector, including the issue of a reduced VAT rate on fruit and vegetables, the Presidential Chancery's Media Center communications specialist Elina Kresa said.

Rinkevics backed the proposal to discuss restricting EU imports of Russian grain while keeping transit via third countries so as not to limit food supplies to the Global South countries.

Agricultural products with a higher added value have a development potential, Rinkevics said during a discussion of current events in the industry.

"During my regional visits I saw fine examples of agricultural enterprises working to create products with higher added values, which is beneficial for both farmers and consumers, as well as developing local economy and its diversity," Rinkevics said.
Police are searching for a person suspected of assault and stealing a car in Seaside early Friday morning. The suspect led officers and sheriffs deputies on a high-speed chase on U.S. 26 that ended with a crash in Washington County.

Police have not yet identified the suspect, officials said.

Seaside police responded at 12:20 a.m. after a 911 caller said theyd been attacked and had their car stolen near the 100 block of Ninth Avenue, officials said.

The assault victim was taken to a hospital in critical condition, according to a statement from the City of Seaside.

A Cannon Beach police officer spotted the car south of Seaside and pursued it, but stopped after losing sight of the car speeding at high speed on Highway 26, officials said.

A Washington County sheriffs deputy later pursued the car after seeing it driving more than 100 miles per hour near the intersection of Oregon 47. The car turned south at Northwest Glencoe Road and crashed, flying briefly into the air before landing at the intersection of Northeast Shannon Street in Hillsboro, according to the statement.

The suspect got out of the car and fled on foot, officials said.

Officers from Beaverton, Hillsboro and Tigard, as well as Washington County sheriffs deputies, are searching the area for the suspect and are using drones and police dogs. Police ask anyone with information to call Seaside Det. Michael Crowe at 503-738-6311.

-- Catalina Gaitan, cgaitan@oregonian.com, @catalinagaitan_

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A woman accused of running over her ex-husband in 2021 died Thursday while in custody at the downtown jail, the Multnomah County Sheriffs Office said.

Tera Anne Harris, 51, was found unresponsive in her cell about 5:10 p.m, authorities said.

The sheriffs office said jail staff provided medical aid until the arrival of paramedics, who pronounced Harris dead.

Harris was first booked into the jail in August 2021 after she allegedly killed her ex-husband, Thurston Harris, in a Fred Meyer parking lot on North Lombard Street that month.

Terra Harris claimed self-defense, citing a history of domestic violence, but prosecutors reviewed surveillance footage that they said showed her running down her ex-husband as he ran from her car on foot, according to a court memo. The couple had been together for 20 years.

Defense attorney Alicia Hercher said Friday that Tera Harris didnt appear to be in medical distress when she spoke to her two days ago.

The East County Major Crimes Team is investigating her death.

This is the seventh person to die this year while in custody at a Multnomah County jail, all of them since the beginning of May.

The spate of jail deaths in the county caused Sheriff Nicole Morrisey ODonnell in August to ask the Oregon State Police to investigate. She also has asked the National Institute of Corrections to assess how Multnomah County runs its jails.

In a July statement, Morrisey ODonnell said jails are a microcosm of society, citing the drug-abuse and mental-health crises in the county as likely factors in the deaths. She also said the first five deaths were not connected to each other.

The sheriffs office has focused on contraband narcotics in its public statements about the jail deaths, but records show that at least one person this year at the downtown jail, 31-year-old Allen Walker, died because of internal bleeding caused by an ulcer and not from drugs.

Walkers family members have questioned whether jail staff were negligent in Walkers death.

 Zane Sparling; zsparling@oregonian.com; 503-319-7083; @pdxzane

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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.

State abortion rights are up for grabs in Ohios Nov. 7 Election. With early voting already underway, misinformation is infiltrating the conversation and potentially swaying the vote.

The Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety or Issue 1, would amend the states constitution, allowing each person the right to make decisions about their own pregnancy, miscarriage, contraception, abortion, and more.

Research by Baldwin Wallace Community Research Institute found 58% of voters said they support Issue 1.

The term partial birth abortion is being used in ads and debates, even though the procedure has been federally banned since 2007. Partial birth abortion is not a medical term, but refers to dilation and extraction, or D&X, and intact D&E, an in-clinic procedure which can be used in second trimester abortions.

Issue 1 is just not right for Ohio, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said in a political ad in which he sits alongside his wife. His statements have been scrutinized, as local political commentators accuse him of lying and local news stations produce fact-checking segments on some of the ads.

With the potential to change the reproductive healthcare landscape at stake in this election, some reproductive justice organizations are suiting up to ensure Black voices are heard.

Whats at stake for Black Ohioans in particular, the continued erosion of access to our human rights, said Beulah Osueke, Interim Executive Director of New Voices for Reproductive Justice, an intersectionality-inclusive organization that works to provide political education and voter engagement in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

According to the U.S. Census, 14.3% of Ohios population is Black, which is about 1.7 million people. A report by the Ohio Department of Health shows that 48% of Ohio residents who had an abortion in the state last year were Black, 43% were white, 5% Hispanic and 3% Asian or Pacific Islander.

Gov. DeWine has a track record of anti-abortion legislation, and Issue 1 has been a major talking point for the governor leading up to this election.

For many years, in Ohio and in this country, weve had a law that said a partial-birth abortion  where the child is partially delivered and then killed and then finally delivered  was illegal in Ohio. This constitutional amendment would override that., DeWine told reporters.

NBC 4 Columbus fact-checked another ad funded by an anti-abortion political committee Protect Women Ohio.

Martin Haskell invented partial birth abortions in Ohio, says the ad, which proceeds to claim that his clinics were not safe.

Haskell presented a paper on dilation and extraction, a late-term abortion procedure at the 1992 National Abortion Federation, which the National Right to Life Committee rebranded as partial birth abortion and began a campaign to ban it in 1993. Haskell responded to the 2023 ad with a cease and desist letter.

This notion of partial abortions, in my mind, is language that conservatives have used to try to push this notion of fetal personhood. I dont necessarily equate those with science, so much as they are words to help incite people to particular position, said Dr. Regina Davis Moss, President and CEO of In Our Own Voice.

Fetal personhood laws have popped up around the country, and essentially grant a fetus the same or more rights than a pregnant person.

If that is indeed the case, why not put the resources and services and all that support around women so that they can continue their pregnancies and know that they can take care of this child, because economics is largely a contributor as to why people dont continue pregnancy, said Davis Ross.

Black, woman and femme-led orgs are mobilizing their own communities

In May, the Washington Post reported that Black voter turnout dropped across the country from 51.7% in 2018 to 42% in 2022.

Osueke believes that there has not been enough intentional effort to engage Black voters in Ohio.

I think theres this notion that Black people are just naturally socially conservative, [but] I dont think thats true. I think that Black people have competing priorities, and so abortion access is being framed as a right to privacy in ways that Black people have never been afforded, said Osueke.

New Voices teams up with organizations who offer mutual aid, like free groceries, to help provide education and context around Issue 1.

Essentially, we utilize mutual aid to show up where social systems and social services failed. Its not charity, but its justice-centered support for our community members, said Osueke.

New Voices meets people where theyre at, incorporating Black culture, like at block parties. Osueke says that discussing information like reproductive rights resonates more when its someone within your own community, rather than a stranger knocking on your door with a sign up sheet, telling you to take political action.

Well, we Black. And how do you look at the things that Black people do in their everyday life by tradition, and infuse conversations, these difficult conversations? How do you make your family, your friends, your community members feel like this is not taboo, right, like we have a conversation, and its okay, said Osueke.

According to a 2022 poll by In Our Own Voice: National Black Womens Reproductive Justice Agenda, 85% of Black respondents in FL, GA, LA, OH, PA, TN, TX agreed to the statement when it comes to abortion, we should trust Black women to make the important personal decisions that are best for themselves and their families.

If Issue 1 does not pass in this election, it isnt a guessing game to what abortion access would look like in Ohio. Ohio operated under a six-week abortion ban for three months in summer 2022, before that policy was challenged and paused.

Dr. Davis Moss says that a shift in access to abortion would go beyond abortion procedures, and affect Black communities the hardest.

Were going to see higher infant mortality rates, were going to see higher teen pregnancy rates. Were going to see over surveillance. When we start criminalizing abortion, Black women are going to be the most impacted and the most harmed by this because they tend to have higher rates of abortion. So well see higher rates of criminalization among Black women, Dr. Regina Davis Moss, President and CEO of In Our Own Voice.
The Golden Bachelor premieres with Episode 5 of the show airing tonight on Thursday, October 26 at 8 p.m. on ABC. This newest reality TV series from the producers of The Bachelor is a dramatic dating show featuring a 72-year-old retired restaurateur from Indiana looking for love. Last week, the women played pickleball, Gerry had some unforgettable one-on-one dates. You can watch the premiere of tonights episode live with a free trial of Fubo.

 How to watch: You can watch The Golden Bachelor tonight for free with Fubo (free trial), with DirecTV (free trial), or streaming the next day on Hulu (free trial).

Who is this seasons Golden Bachelor?

Gerry Turner, a retired restaurateur, is looking for his next soul mate. Originally married to his high school sweetheart for 43 years, his wife Toni Turner unexpectedly passed away in 2017. Turner was left with a void in his life but is now ready to spend it with a partner again. What I look for at the age of 70 is different from what I looked for in high school and college. I believe Ill find my person  the new person that will make me whole again. And I think well knit a wonderful relationship. But I dont think itll look like the relationship I had with Toni. And I dont think it would be right to do it that way, he was quoted saying in a recent Golden Bachelor promo video.

What is The Golden Bachelor?

The Golden Bachelor is a spinoff of The Bachelor reality television competition show, where a young man dates a house full of women in hopes of finding his soul mate. At the end of the show, he is expected to choose one woman and propose to her. The Golden Bachelor, however, offers one senior man in his 70s a second chance at love after losing his life partner in 2017. He, too, will date a house full of senior women in the hope of finding one to spend the rest of his life with. Each week, he will award roses to the women he wants to keep around, and potentially end up marrying.

Who are the contestants on The Golden Bachelor, what are their ages and who has been eliminated?

Ellen, 71

Faith, 60

Kathy, 70

Leslie, 64

Marina, 60

Nancy, 60

Sandra, 75

Susan, 66

Theresa, 69

Here is a look at the contestants who have either decided to leave the show, or were eliminated from the competition:

Anna, 61; April, 65; Christina, 73; Edith, 60; Jeanie, 65; Joan, 60; Maria, 60; Natascha, 60; Pamela, 75; Patty, 70; Peggy, 69; Renee, 67; Sylvia, 64.

Who will be the host of The Golden Bachelor?

The Bachelor host Jesse Palmer will also host this season of The Golden Bachelor.

How to watch The Golden Bachelor

What: The Golden Bachelor

When: Thursday, October 26 at 8 p.m. PT/ET

TV channel: ABC

Watch the show live streaming online: You can watch The Golden Bachelor for FREE with Fubo (free trial), with DirecTV Stream (free trial), or with Hulu (free trial). If youre out of free trials, you can subscribe to DirecTV for $69.99/month to stream the finale live and enjoy access to over 60 channels.
The European Union will continue to work on revising the European budget in order to reach final agreements by the end of 2023.

The corresponding instruction is spelled out in the conclusions adopted from Thursday to Friday in Brussels following the meeting of the European Council.

"Following its in-depth exchange of views on the proposed revision of the Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027, the European Council invites the Council to take work forward, with a view to reaching an overall agreement by the end of the year," according to the document.

As is known, a revision of the multi-year EU budget is necessary to implement, among other things, the proposal of the European Commission to create a so-called Ukrainian fund for the period 2024-2027 in the amount of EUR 50 billion, which will allow for continued sustainable financing of Ukraine. However, there are no funds in the existing budget for this, and therefore this EU financial document must be revised.

This issue was considered before the Ukrainian one, which was expected to be the first to be discussed by the leaders. The European Council was informed that the Ukrainian issue will be discussed on Friday. At the same time, diplomatic sources report that the prime ministers of Hungary and Slovakia opposed the possible increase in the budget. Thus, according to the source, during the discussion of the issue, Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orban said EU support does not work, and Prime Minister of Slovakia Robert Fico pointed to problems of corruption in Ukraine.
Brazzaville, Congo (PANA) - The question top-of-mind for most leaders and climate champions who will be gathering this week in Brazzaville for the Three Basin Summit, is how can the forests be turned into the wealth of nations? The three basins encompassing the Amazon, the Congo Basin and the Borneo  Mekong region, account for 80% of the worlds tropical forests and provide a home for two-thirds of the planets biodiversity
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The Deputy Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General and United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), Raisedon Zenenga, and the delegation from the High Council of State led by Dr Omar Khaled al-Obaid, Second Vice-Chairman, Friday agreed at a meeting that legal issues are not the only reason for the current impasse but there are also political problems
Suzano Investing R$490 Million at Limeira Mill to Expand Fluff Pulp Capacity

The investment will support the conversion of a BHKP pulp line at Suzano's Limeira mill in Sao Paulo, Brazil, into a flex machine to produce Suzano's Eucafluff or BHKP. The investment will support the conversion of a BHKP pulp line at Suzano's Limeira mill in Sao Paulo, Brazil, into a flex machine to produce Suzano's Eucafluff or BHKP.

Oct. 27, 2023 - Suzano today announced it will invest R$490 million (approximately US$100 million) in a new fluff pulp line.

The new capacity will enable Suzano to meet rising global demand and improve sustainability standards for absorbent, personal hygiene products, including baby and adult diapers, feminine hygiene, and pet pads.

This investment will support the conversion of a BHKP pulp line at Suzano's Limeira mill in Sao Paulo, Brazil, into a flex machine to produce Suzano's Eucafluff or BHKP. Suzano's installed capacity of fluff pulp production will increase from 100,000 tons per year to 440,000 tons per year, with production expected to begin by Q4 2025.

"Suzano is committed in investing in innovative solutions which have a positive environmental impact, bring cost efficiency, and which are scalable businesses," said Leonardo Grimaldi, Executive Officer - Commercial Pulp, Fluff and Logistics at Suzano. "Eucafluff is a perfect example of this."

Suzano noted that the global fluff market is currently estimated to be 6.4 million tons annually, with a forecasted CAGR of 4,2% for the following years according to independent consultants, fostered mainly by the growth in adult diapers, due to the aging population and a growing middle class using more hygiene products globally.

"Following many years of R&D, we have been able to pioneer the use of fluff made from planted eucalyptus, which has characteristics that enhances multiple features of our customers' products. Ongoing projects with several global customers and rising demand for Eucafluff has made us confident that now is the right time to scale up our production," Grimaldi explained.

Eucafluff is the world's first bleached kraft fluff pulp made from 100% planted eucalyptus. It is result of nearly 15 years of research conducted by Suzano. Studies and market tests on the application of Eucafluff in products manufactured by leading global hygiene brands have shown it offers multiple advantages, such as liquid retention (rewet), comfort and discretion.

Suzano's Eucafluff is on the list of raw materials authorized for use in disposable personal care products that comply with the EU Ecolabel and Nordic Swan labels. These official European certification schemes recognize products that meet high environmental standards across their full life cycle, including comparatively a reduced fossil energy consumption and carbon emissions, and a lower water consumption and land use than alternatives.

Suzano is the world's largest producer of hardwood pulp and the global leader in the innovation and production of renewable, bio-based materials for consumer and industrial use.

SOURCE: Suzano
Photo: (Photo : Gayatri Malhotra on Unsplash)

Gaza has faced the most intense bombardment in recent weeks as Israeli strikes intensify, culminating in severe power shortages threatening the lives of vulnerable infants and patients in the region.

Aid agencies and doctors within the beleaguered Gaza Strip have issued dire warnings. One group claimed that over 2,000 children have lost their lives in just a matter of weeks. With the Israeli bombing campaign intensifying, these numbers are anticipated to rise.

Dire Humanitarian Situation

Israel's Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, hinted at a broader strategy against the militant group Hamas, which governs Gaza. "We are preparing for a multilateral operation from the air, ground, and sea," Gallant announced.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah reported that, in just the past 24 hours, over 700 individuals have been killed, marking the highest daily toll since the Israeli strikes began two and a half weeks ago. The dead included 305 children, 173 women, and 78 elderly individuals.

During a visit to his troops, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boasted about the success of the recent strikes, stating, "We struck the enemy the harshest blow they have taken in a single day. We killed dozens of terrorists, possibly even more."

The escalation in violence came as a retaliation to Hamas's terror attacks on October 7, where 1,400 individuals, primarily civilians, were killed and over 200 were taken hostage. The Israeli leadership has made it clear: they aim to dismantle Hamas entirely.

CNN's drone footage revealed the catastrophic destruction within Gaza, showcasing entire neighborhoods reduced to rubble. Buildings, schools, and mosques have been decimated. Notably, the al-Rimal neighborhood in Gaza City and the al-Zahra towers in central Gaza have been nearly erased.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza reported a staggering death toll of at least 5,087, which includes 2,055 children, since the strikes began.

However, as the humanitarian crisis grows, global consensus remains elusive. The US has pushed back against ceasefire calls between Israel and Hamas, emphasizing that Hamas must release hostages before any talks. Meanwhile, countries like China, Russia, and Slovenia are advocating for a ceasefire. Brazil and Ireland have suggested humanitarian "pauses" in the ongoing conflict.

Read Also: Palestinian Militant Group Hamas Celebrates 29th Anniversary, Parades Toddlers Armed With Machine Guns; Child Army Expansion Underway?

Blinken and Biden Meet with Israeli Leadership

The emotional intensity reached its peak at the UN Security Council meeting on Tuesday. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres passionately appealed for "an immediate humanitarian ceasefire." He emphasized that protecting civilians is paramount and criticized the forced evacuations.

Guterres also drew attention to the prolonged occupation of Palestinian territories, stating, "The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation."

In order to highlight the larger context, Guterres pointed out that violence and settlements have engulfed the Palestinian territories, causing economic stagnation and countless displacements. He emphasized that the wrongdoings of Hamas "cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people," concluding with a powerful reminder: "Even war has rules."

As global leaders debate the path forward, the citizens of Gaza face a grim reality. A reality of destroyed homes, loss of loved ones, and an uncertain future. The global community watches closely, hoping for a resolution that brings lasting peace to the region.

Related Article: British Family with 10-Day-Old Infant Seeks Refuge for 9 Hours as Hamas Ravages Village Home
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We landed this morning beside the Greco-Roman era double temple of Kom Ombo, which was dedicated to both Horus and the crocodile god Sobek, who appears (accurately identified as the idolatrous god of Pharaoh, which is probablynot the most obvious or immediately intuitive of identifications) as Figure 9 in Facsimile 1 of the Book of Abraham. (For a very brief discussion of Sobek, see my 1994 Ensign article News from Antiquity.)

In the afternoon, we landed at Edfu, where we boarded horse carriages for the enormous temple of Horus. It features a wonderfully well-preserved Holy of Holies. After returning from that visit, I held forth on the sun deck of our boat, the Blue Shadow, regarding various topics concerning ancient, medieval, and even modern Egypt. And to think that the people who attended did so voluntarily. Go figure.

At roughly dinnertime, we passed through the lock at Esna, which is always interesting.

I return, yet again, to BYU Studies Quarterly 61/4 (2022), which is a special issue of the regular quarterly publication BYU Studies. It was created by four faithful Latter-day Saint Egyptologists  Stephen O. Smoot (Ph.D. candidate, Catholic University of America), John Gee (Ph.D., Yale University), Kerry Muhlestein (Ph.D., University of California at Los Angeles), and John S. Thompson (Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania)  and bears its own unique title: A Guide to the Book of Abraham. As Ive been saying, it represents something of a state-of-the-question survey from people who are thoroughly familiar with the topic and the issues. Ive tried to state as clearly as Im capable of stating it that I am largely quoting bottom-line conclusions. I am not claiming to reproduce the evidence and the arguments on which those bottom-line conclusions are based. For such evidence and arguments you should consult A Guide to the Book of Abraham itself.

All that having been explained, I want to look now at some particular passages from BYU Studies Quarterly 61/4 (2022), A Guide to the Book of Abraham:

Chiasmus in the Book of Abraham, pages 181-184

Chiasmus, or inverted parallelism, is a two-part [literary] structure or system in which the second half is a mirror image of the first, [that is,] where the first term recurs last, and the last first. (181)

A It was conferred upon me B from the fathers; C it came down from the fathers, from the beginning of time, D yea, even from the beginning, D or before the foundation of the earth, C down to the present time, even the right of the firstborn, or the first man, who is Adam, or first father B through the fathers A unto me. (Abraham 1:3, emphasis added) (181)

Another chiasm appears in Abraham 3 that emphasizes the selection of . . . noble ones as rulers on earth.

A Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was, B and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones; C And God saw these souls that they were good, D and he stood in the midst of them, E and he said: These I will make my rulers; D for he stood among those that were spirits, C and he saw that they were good; B and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them; A thou wast chosen before thou wast born. (Abraham 3:22-23, emphasis added). (182)

What makes the presence of literary parallelism in the Book of Abraham significant besides being evidence for a tight and deliberate literary structure of the text is that this type of literary device is an unmistakable feature of ancient Egyptian literature. (182)

[Examples are given from the Stela of Sobk-Iry, from the Story of Sinuhe and the Story of the Shipwrecked Sailor, all of them dating from roughly the time of Abraham, 182-184)]

Since Abraham was not writing Egyptian literature for an Egyptian audience, the significance of ancient Egyptian texts and the Book of Abraham sharing common literary features like chiasmus and parallelism is noteworthy but should not be overstated. It seems that since Abraham was probably writing to those of his Semitic culture, the presence of chiasmus in the Book of Abraham demonstrates the prevalence of this literary feature in the ancient world generally, including Abrahams own culture, and can be viewed as a marker of the texts ancient origin. The presence of chiasmus in the Book of Abraham is therefore consistent with expectations that the text bears a high degree of historicity and reinforces both its overall credibility and literary quality. (184)

Egyptianisms in the Book of Abraham, pages 185-188

One way of determining whether the Book of Abraham is a translation of an underlying Egyptian document or whether it was originally composed in English is to see if the text contains what might be called Egyptianisms, or literary and linguistic features of the Egyptian language. The presence of Egyptianisms in the text of the Book of Abraham might indicate some knowledge of Egyptian on Joseph Smiths part. Because Egyptian was not really understood in Joseph Smiths day, any knowledge of Egyptian Joseph Smith may have possessed could only have come by revelation. (185) While these Egyptianisms in the Book of Abraham do not indisputably prove that Joseph Smith was translating from ancient Egyptian, they are consistent with his claims to have done so. (188)

Jews in Ancient Egypt, pages 189-192

[Jews were present in Egypt through just about its entire history, thus providing a potential chain of transmitters.] So even though Abraham would have written his record many centuries earlier, there is plenty of historical evidence to suggest a plausible way in which those writings could have been transmitted into Egypt at any point over the course of many centuries. (191)

Posted from the River Nile, just north of Esna
Including the Biblical Conception of Saints and Sinners

[see book and purchase information for The Catholic Verses]

excatholic4christ (Tom) was raised Catholic, lost his faith in high school, attended Mass for a while after he married and had children, and then accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior, leading to his sole attendance at an independent fundamental Baptist church for eight years. He claims that the legalism of this church and the fact that his trust had been in men rather than God caused him to walk away from the Lord for 23 years. He returned to the Lord in 2014. As of April 2020, Tom stated that he was somewhere in the middle of the Calvinism-Arminianism debate, but closer to Calvinism. I couldnt determine his denomination. See Toms index of all of his replies. I will now systematically refute them. His words will be in blue. When he cites my words, they will be in black. I use RSV, unless otherwise specified.

*****

This is a reply to Toms article, Sinners in the Church? (9-3-18).

With the three passages below, Armstrong argues that both saints and sinners reside within the church:

2 Corinthians 11:2-4 I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I betrothed you to Christ to present you as a pure bride to her one husband. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and preaches another Jesus than the one we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you submit to it readily enough. Galatians 1:1-6 Paul an apostlenot from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead and all the brethren who are with me, to the churches of Galatia: Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father; to whom be the glory for ever and ever. Amen. I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and turning to a different gospel. Revelation 3:1-6 And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your works; you have the name of being alive, and you are dead. Awake, and strengthen what remains and is on the point of death, for I have not found your works perfect in the sight of my God. Remember then what you received and heard; keep that, and repent. If you will not awake, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come upon you. Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. He who conquers shall be clad thus in white garments, and I will not blot his name out of the book of life; I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Directly beneath these passages, Armstrong writes, (these verses show) the Catholic position: there are sinners in the Church alongside saints, as in the parable of the wheat and the tares (Matt. 13:24-30). Many Protestants persist in believing that the Christian Church can be pure and without sinners or instances of hypocrisy, even though these passages show that this was not anticipated by the apostles our by our Lord Jesus. pp. 16-17.

Armstrong has set up a semi-straw man here. To start with, evangelicals refer to the church both in the general sense of all genuine believers around the world who make up the Body of Christ and in the particular sense of a local congregation. Evangelicals certainly believe that when they gather together as a local church (Greek eccleisa [should be ecclesia] called-out assembly or congregation), there may be some included who have not genuinely accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior by faith alone.

Only God knows who is of the class of the elect or not. Human beings dont have certain, infallible knowledge of individuals eternal destiny. Even John Calvin agreed with this observation.

But of course Catholics and evangelicals disagree fundamentally on the terms, sinners and saints, as Armstrongs comments indicate. We evangelicals believe all people are sinners and deserve eternal punishment,

Catholics hold to original sin as strongly as Protestants do.

but that everyone who repents of their sin and accepts Jesus Christ as their Savior by faith alone are saved and become saints (Latin sanctus, Greek hagios separated ones).

Scripture uses the term saints in the generic sense of Christian believer (see many examples of this), but at the same time it also notes that there are exceptional people (in effect, saints in the Catholic sense of exceptionally, heroically holy) who are more righteous and holier than others:

All Have Sinned vs. a Sinless, Immaculate Mary? [1996; revised and posted at National Catholic Register on 12-11-17]

Total Depravity: Reply to James White: Calvinism and Romans 3:10-11 (None is Righteous . . . No One Seeks For God) [4-15-07]

Lucas Banzolis Mindless Denigration of an Imagined Mary (Including Extensive Biblical Analyses of Exceptionally Righteous and Holy People, and Merit) [9-11-22]

The Bible Is Clear: Some Holy People Are Holier Than Others [National Catholic Register, 9-19-22]

Sinless Creatures in the Bible: Actual & Potential (Including a Listing of Many Biblical Passages About Sin, Holiness, Blamelessness, Righteousness, Godliness, Perfection, and Sanctity) [10-20-22; greatly expanded on 7-27-23]

The Bible presupposes, for example, that there are exceptionally righteous people  such as the prophet Elijah  and that their prayers are more powerful than the prayers of those who are less righteous. James (5:16-18) gave the example of Elijah as a righteous man (5:16). noting that he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth (5:17). I dont know of any Protestants (who may think they are so holy and eternally justified since their theology holds that they were merely declared righteous, when in fact they are not) who have successfully prayed such a prayer:

Bible on the Power of Prayers of the Righteous [11-16-22]

I noted in my Reply #2 in this series, the Bibles reference to blameless people:

Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth . . . [are described] as righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless (Lk 1:6; cf. other blameless men: Noah [Gen 6:9]; King David [2 Sam 22:24]; King Asa [2 Chr 15:17]; Job [Job 1:1, 8; 2:3], and Daniel [Dan 6:22]). And all of this was even before Jesus died on the cross for our salvation and before the Holy Spirit came to dwell inside of all believers!

The book of Hebrews describes the people that Catholics call saints in the following passage:

Hebrews 11:32-38 . . . For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets  [33] who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, received promises, stopped the mouths of lions, [34] quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. [35] Women received their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, that they might rise again to a better life. [36] Others suffered mocking and scourging, and even chains and imprisonment. [37] They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, ill-treated  [38] of whom the world was not worthy  wandering over deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

The word saint isnt used, but it is clearly describing the second use of the word, as Catholics use it. The word Trinity and several other common Christian terms arent in the Bible, either. St. Paul differentiates between varying levels of devotion to the Lord, including heroic self-sacrifice, in noting (as a generalization, but reflecting reality) that the unmarried man is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to please the Lord (1 Cor 7:32) and that the unmarried woman or girl is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit (7:34) and that both exhibit an undivided devotion to the Lord (7:35).

Although we are saints because of Christs imputed perfect righteousness,

No; we are saints in the first, biblical sense if we have professed allegiance to Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and are believers (see 12 NT uses of that term).

we still have a sinful nature and follow the Lord only imperfectly.

Catholics say that we have a sinful inclination (subject to constant concupiscence, which, if indulged in, leads to temptation and/or sin). But the imperfect following of Jesus and our continued sinning is where we can agree (setting aside for a moment the vexed issue of the nature of justification), and what I am discussing when addressing the topic of sinners in the Church. Its an apologetics topic because some Protestants use the argument from sin to claim that the Catholic Church cant possibly be Gods one true  historically continuous and institutional  Church, founded by Jesus Himself. I in turn argue from the Bible that we are to fully expect and not be surprised at all at the existence of such sinners in the one true Church (because it has always been this way, from the beginning).

Catholic belief, as Armstrong presents it here, generally regards all of those who are not striving to be good, those both inside and outside the church, as sinners,

This is untrue. A sinner as we define it, is simply one who is presently sinning (as determined by a good examination of ones own conscience). If a person, for example, steals a coat or visits a house of prostitution, or is a prostitute, then he or she is sinning, and hence, a sinner while they are engaging in those sins. Hence, Jesus said (in agreement with Catholics), I came not to call the righteous, but sinners (Mt 9:13); the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners (Mt 26:45). Tax collectors are often regarded in the NT as synonymous with sinners (because they almost universally cheated their own people, as agents of Rome). See Matthew 9:10; Luke 15:1; 18:13.

St. Paul does indeed use the word sinners in the sense of subject to original sin (Rom 5:8, 19), but he also uses the word in the Catholic sense:

1 Timothy 1:9 understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,

The author of Hebrews does the same:

Hebrews 12:3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.

James is writing to Christians in his letter (brethren: 1:2, and 14 other times in the book, including my beloved brethren: 1:16, 19; 2:5). Yet at the same time he can call them (at least some of them) sinners:

James 4:8 Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you men of double mind.

St. Paul states in the present tense: I am the foremost of sinners (1 Tim 1:15) because in his past he persecuted the church of God (1 Cor 15:9; Gal 1:13). This utterly destroys the notion that the Bible describes as sinners only those who are not professed believers, or the saved as Protestants say (wrongly thinking that they are certain of their eternal destiny).

and those who have achieved or are on their way to achieving a super-sanctimonious state of grace, as saints.

This is incorrect, too. We believe that those who are in a state of grace are those who are 1) regenerated (at baptism) and 2) who are not currently engaged in serious, or mortal sin (a biblical distinction). We refer to people as saints in the second meaning, who have been determined (by a long canonization process of study in the Church) as ones who exhibited heroic, self-sacrificing, extraordinary sanctity. The Bible teaches that there exist differing levels of grace among human beings (even among believers), too.

But what is Armstrong REALLY trying to address here? Its obvious hes responding to Protestant objections to Catholic popes, cardinals, bishops, and priests for the copious instances of outrageous immorality, corruption, and cruelty down through the ages.

Yes, and another way I address this much-abused and much misunderstood topic is to note that all Christian groups  including Protestants  have been guilty of great sin, even including murder and persecution of fellow Christians (sanctioned at the highest levels by folks like Luther and Calvin). This renders the entire discussion a wash. Nothing is learned or accomplished by it.

Its apparent to every thinking reader why Armstrong declines to cite that corruption directly in an apologetics book such as this. Hes not going to voluntarily bring up Catholicisms embarrassing history if he can avoid it, but still feels he must address the Protestant criticism.

Our history is no better or worse than any other Christian groups history, but it should be noted that weve also been around since the time of Christ, whereas Protestantism was invented fifteen centuries after Him; so we simply have much more history  four times as much  that includes sinners in it as well as saints (as we would fully expect, human beings being what they are: mixtures of good and evil).

As for my supposedly attempting to avoid bringing up unpleasant instances in Catholic history, I direct Tom and anyone to my extensive web page, Inquisition, Crusades, & Catholic Scandals . Thats an odd way of trying to supposedly hide such things. I address it in many places in my writings, including in some of the variants of my conversion story  since objection to the Inquisition was one of my own most strenuous objections to the Catholic Church.

I also have a section entitled, Papal Scandals / Bad Popes  on my Papacy & Infallibility web page. It contains 18 articles. Im more than happy to address the issue of scandals in Catholic history, but Protestants are always very reluctant to talk about the many skeletons in their own closet and the glaring scandals that occurred during their so-called Reformation.

Protestants know full well that all men sin, even after accepting Christ as Savior by faith alone. What Protestants cant abide is Catholicisms boast that popes, in concert with their cardinals and bishops, are infallibly guided in all important matters touching upon faith and morals in the face of such blatant corruption.

The Bible doesnt teach that authority and infallibility must coincide with personal sinlessness or impeccability. Jesus chose a man (Peter) who denied He was Christ three times, to be the first leader of His Church. Peter wrote part of the New Testament, too. Then He chose Paul to be the preeminent evangelist of all time and one who wrote half or more of the New Testament: a man who had persecuted and murdered Christians before his conversion.

God made an eternal covenant with King David, knowing from all eternity that David would have a man killed so that he could marry his wife, that he was already having sex with. But David repented, and the Bible describes him as a man after his [i.e., Gods] own heart (1 Sam 13:14). David became the prototype of the Messiah (Jesus) and wrote most of the Psalms. Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible, but he had murdered a man as well (Ex 2:12). Many more such biblical examples exist. If sinful men could write an inerrant, inspired Bible with the help of Gods grace (a greater gift), then certainly its not implausible (let alone impossible) for sinful men to be protected from error when they are popes proclaiming binding doctrine (a far lesser gift than biblical inspiration).

So some popes were notorious sinners? Very few were, in fact, but in any event, this poses no problem at all, in terms of the office possessing infallibility in carefully prescribed conditions. The two things are distinct. Even Jesus had one bad disciple, Judas, who is called a disciple several times in the Bible.

***

Related Reading

Sins and Sinners in the Catholic Church [1998]

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Summary: Anti-Catholic Tom is out to sea in his brief examination of the issue of sinners in the Church. I take a deeper look at the Bibles teaching regarding sinners & saints.
Denmark has sent the 13th package of military aid to Ukraine in the amount of DKK 3.7 billion (equivalent to $520 million), which includes tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, artillery ammunition, drones and small arms.

The package also includes armored recovery vehicles, the supply of which is financed in cooperation with Germany, the Danish Ministry of Defense said on Thursday.

"Ukraine can count on Denmark's unwavering support in the fight for freedom. This is support that is critical to the continuation of Ukraine's struggle. This donation also sends an important signal to both Ukraine and Russia that we are not losing attention [to Ukraine], although most of the world's attention these days is directed towards Israel and Palestine," said Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lkke Rasmussen.

Based on Ukraine's need for additional 155 mm artillery ammunition, more propellant charges from the Danish Ministry of Defense stockpile are also proposed.

The report emphasizes that these are equipment and types of ammunition that are in demand by Ukraine and are critical to maintaining its ground combat power.

I met with my Ukrainian counterpart in Kyiv on Tuesday. It was on the basis of ongoing negotiations that the 13th Danish aid package was drawn up, said Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen.
In a heartwarming display of commitment to education and skills development, Absa Bank Corporate & Investment Banking (CIB) team took a significant step towards fulfilling its commitment to nurturing the next generation of bright young minds at Choggu Yapalsi M/A Junior High School (JHS) in Tamale.



The team's mission was clear: to breathe new life into the school's computer lab, provide the much-needed resources to spark enthusiasm and curiosity among the students and ignite their STEM journey.



Absa Bank's CIB team contribution to Choggu Yapalsi M/A Junior High School encompassed a significant donation. This included the provision of thirty (30) desktop computers, offering valuable educational resources to the students. They also renovated the schools computer lab by providing new desks, chairs, and fans to create a comfortable and conducive learning environment.



This initiative underscores the bank's dedication to making a meaningful and lasting impact on the educational prospects of the students.



In an era where the importance of digital literacy and technological proficiency cannot be overstated, Absa recognizes the need to empower the youth to be future fit. The transformation of the computer lab was not merely an act of corporate social responsibility (CSR); it was an investment in the future of these bright minds.



Walking into the refurbished computer lab, one could immediately sense the excitement in the air. The eyes of the young students sparkled with anticipation as they gazed at the gleaming rows of desktop computers. It was a moment of hope and empowerment for the young students.



Ellen Ohene-Afoakwa, Managing Principal for Absa Bank Ghana Corporate & Investment Banking, who led the delegation affirmed that the decision to support Choggu Yapalsi M/A Junior High School was a reflection Absas firm belief in the transformative power of education.



She further expressed that the donation was a tangible reflection of Absas commitment to fostering a generation of young minds who can thrive in the digital age.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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A Kenyan MP was ordered to remove a traditional Palestinian scarf he was wearing during parliamentary proceedings on Wednesday.



Farah Maalim said he was wearing the scarf in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, amid the fighting between Israel and Hamas.



He said Palestine "needs support of everybody in Kenya".



But the speaker of the National Assembly ordered the MP to remove the scarf, saying the garment violated parliamentary rules.



Fellow MPs also condemned the legislator for "disrespecting" the House rules.



It comes a few days after Kenyan police briefly detained three people for participating in a pro-Palestinian meeting in the capital, Nairobi.



President William Ruto has expressed his governments full support for Israel in the ongoing conflict.

Source: BBC









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Nigeria's Supreme Court has thrown out both opposition challenges to President Bola Tinubu's election win.



The two main opposition candidates had sought to reverse February's presidential election, alleging it was marred by irregularities.



The Election Petition Court upheld Mr Tinubu's victory last month, but the opposition insisted Nigeria's highest court should quash the judgement.



A presidential election result has never been overturned in Nigeria.



The judges first dismissed the challenge by Atiku Abubakar, who came second in the poll and then rejected a similar one from Peter Obi, who came third.



The election was the most fiercely contested since the end of military rule in 1999, with three strong candidates for the first time. Mr Tinubu won with 37% of votes cast, against 29% for Mr Abubakar and 25% for Mr Obi.

Source: BBC









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Three defence witnesses of former Deputy Minister of Finance, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, will no longer testify in the ambulance case before the Accra High Court.



The defence witnesses  a former Comptroller and Accountant General, Seidu Kotomah, a former Chief Director at the Ministry of Health, Patrick Nimo, and a former Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Henry Kofi Wampah  were billed to testify in defence of Dr Forson.



But in court today [Oct 26, 2023], lawyer for Dr Forson, Godwin Edudzie Tameklo, told the Court presided over by Justice Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe, that the three would no longer testify.



The court, therefore set aside a witness summons it issued in respect of Messrs Nimo and Kotomah.



Meanwhile, a former Minister of Health, Alex Segbefia, would be the next witness to testify for Dr Forson.



The case has been adjourned to November 9, 2023.



Charges



Dr Forson, who is also the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Ajumako Enyan Essiam and the Minority Leader of Parliament, is standing trial with Sylvester Anemana, a former Chief Director of the Ministry of Health, and Richard Jakpa, a businessman, for allegedly causing financial loss of 2.37 million to the state in a deal to purchase 200 ambulances for Ghana between 2014 and 2016.



They have, however, pleaded not guilty to five counts of wilfully causing financial loss to the state, abetment to wilfully cause financial loss to the state, contravention of the Public Procurement Act and intentionally misapplying public property.



It is the case of the prosecution that Dr Forson, by writing to the BoG for letters of credit of 3.95 million for the supply of 50 ambulances in favour of Big Sea, played a part in causing financial loss to the state since the ambulances procured for the state were not fit for purpose.



Prosecutions facts



Per the A-Gs facts accompanying the charge sheet, in 2009 while delivering the State of the Nation Address, the then President, Prof. John Evans Atta Mills, indicated that new ambulances would be purchased to expand the operations of the National Ambulance Service.



Jakpa, who is a local representative of Big Sea General Trading Ltd, a company based in Dubai, subsequently approached the Ministry of Health with a proposal that he had arranged for finance from Stanbic Bank for the supply of 200 ambulances to the government.



Parliament approved the financing agreement between the government and Stanbic Bank.



According to the facts, on November 19, 2012, Dr Anemana wrote to the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) seeking approval to engage Big Sea through single sourcing for the supply of the 200 ambulances.



They added that on August 7, 2014, Dr Forson wrote to the Bank of Ghana for Letters of Credit covering 3.95 million for the supply of 50 ambulances in favour of Big Sea.



The Letters of Credit were accordingly released to Big Sea

Source: graphic.com.gh









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The Majority in Parliament has denied assertions by the Minority counterpart that the government intends to liquidate the National Investment Bank (NIB) owing to insolvency and poor corporate governance.



Deputy Ranking Member on the Finance Committee of Parliament, Isaac Adongo, who made the allegations, said the government was colluding with the Bank of Ghana to merge the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) and the NIB, which he claimed could lead to about 800 job losses.



In response to the allegations, the Majority Chief Whip, Frank Annoh-Dompreh, said the claims by the Minority were baseless and that the government had made no decision in that regard.



Addressing the media in Parliament yesterday, Mr. Annoh-Dompreh also dismissed claims that the challenges of NIB was as a result of poor corporate governance which has led to bad practice of the banks treasury management.



It is never true that the treasury of the National Investment Bank (NIB) is not functioning, he stated, and added that the current management had adhered to best practices in corporate treasury management.



The Majority Chief Whip said the current liquidity challenges at the bank were as a result of some GH500 million that was given to non-banking institutions during the era of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government, which money remained unrecovered.



Some GH500 million, under the reign of NDC, was given to non-financial institutions and as we speak, a lot of the money has not been recovered, he stressed.



Mr. Annoh-Dompreh, who is also the New Patriotic Party (NPP) MP for Nsawam-Adoagyiri, said, The least our colleagues can do is to be careful when commenting about a bank that is mandated by law to help solve and develop our industry.



All of us can appreciate that we are gradually gravitating towards an election year and so people are tempted to come and make all manner of allegations.



I am challenging the Minority that if they have a better proof in terms of the management of NIB and what the board has done wrongly, they should come up and put it across, he asserted.



They should stop making sweeping allegations which dont end up helping anybody, Mr. Annoh-Dompreh said.



He admitted that the bank needed recapitalisation, but he was quick to add that it is not everything that we have to play politics with.



Our colleagues in the Minority should stop this politicisation of all matters, especially those related to the financial sector. If they dont have the facts they should just be patient, investigate and get it, he submitted.



He noted that the current management of NIB, upon assumption of office, had revitalised the bank with various policies and programmes.



Between 2017 and 2018, the bank never had audited financial statements. The same NIB had had a high concentration of loans in the area of the construction sector.



There were losses from mismatches in the foreign exchange balance sheet resulting in a huge daily revaluation loss. There was a weak IT infrastructure and high cost of service contract.



They also experienced an astronomical ratio of staffing. They had 18 staff per branch against the industry norm of 10 staff per branch, he noted.



He pointed out that the story is different today due to adoption of good corporate governance by the board and management of NIB.

Source: dailyguidenetwork.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Former Minister for Central Region, Kwamena Duncan has rubbished the Parliamentary Committee probe into allegations that were leveled against the Inspector General of Police by some senior Police officers.



The officers, COP Alex Mensah and Supt. George Asare were caught on tape allegedly plotting to remove the IGP, Dr. George Akuffo Dampare, over accusations that he is working against the ruling New Patriotic Party to lose the 2024 elections.



Appearing before the Committee in Parliament, the officers further made wild allegations that compelled the Committee to summon the IGP who came and defended his innocence.



However, the Committee is said to have completed their investigations and will forward their recommendations to the President to act on it.



But Kwamena Duncan has expressed utter disgust over the Committee involving the IGP in their probe.



To him, "from the very onset, the basis for setting up the Committee was a flawed basis" and asked "are they saying that they will pursue every leaked tape?"



Kwamena Duncan kicked against the seeming trial of the IGP, further questioning "to what end and for what end?"



The former Minister also rebuked the Committee for referring their recommendations to the President.



"Has it ever happened? Any person who knows should let us know that when there is an issue, Parliament is the one that sets up a Committee and after probing the matter, they give the recommendations to the President, the Executive, to implement...Then that will be a certain precedent that, at the behest of Parliament, when they feel, when they think that this is a matter we need to investigate and when we investigate; the recommendations made, the Executive must implement those recommendations," he fumed.



Kwamena Duncan emphasized that "where the legislature will be the one that will determine matters which render themselves for investigation and for which they make recommendations and give them to the Executive for implementation" is "odd".





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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Bernard Allotey Jacobs, a former NDC Central Regional Chairman, has slammed retired Supreme Court Judge, William Atuguba, for wading into what he terms "controversies" regarding his comment on the court's judgement in a case involving the Assin North lawmaker, James Gyakye Quayson.



Justice William Atuguba, speaking at a public lecture on Tuesday, October 24, 2023, described the court's verdict as "scandalous".



"The James Gyakye Quayson's decision by the Supreme Court is with all due respect scandalous in that the court, in the teeth of the settled maxim Res Judicata et non quieta movere, re adjudicated the same matter that has been adjudicated upon by the High court on the merits."



"The Supreme Court does not stand in good light with all due respect in disqualifying Gyakye Quayson, despite his clear certificate of renunciation of his Canadian citizenship as from 26th November 2020 whereas the elections were on December 7. I am not able to see substantial justice in this", he said.



He added; "If the certificate of renounciation is so mandatory and conclusive why was it not conclusive in its effect to qualify Gyakye Quason when he received it, dated 26th November 2020, whereas the parliamentary election was held on 7th December 2020? Statutes, judgements, and documents must always be applied with consistency both in the letter and spirit. These must always be construed holistically and as instruments of justice since it is a well-settled principle that the duty of a court is to do justice and a court should not be turned away from doing justice."



Reacting to these comments, Allotey Jacobs found it difficult understanding why a man of high reputation and someone who has gained popularity as a "no-nonsense man" in the law fraternity would make such statements.



He wondered if Justice Atuguba seeks to become a Running Mate on the ticket of the opposition National Democratic Congress, hence making such statements to gain their favor.



"Does he want to be a Running Mate to the leading opposition flagbearer?", he questioned while touching on the matter during Peace FM's morning show "Kokrokoo".





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 Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has accused his opponents of adopting a deliberate campaign of peddling falsehood against him as they sense defeat ahead of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential primaries on November 4.



He said allegations such as vote buying, sitting Members of Parliament (MPs) going unopposed, and preventing Polling Station Executives and Electoral Area Coordinators from voting in the presidential primary were mere fabrications to smear his image.



Dr Bawumia said this when he was addressing delegates in the Tatale-Sanguli Constituency as part of his campaign tour of the Northern Region.



The NPP flag bearer hopeful is on a week-long tour of the region, engaging and soliciting votes from the delegates ahead of the November 4 presidential primary.



Voting rights



Dr Bawumia said it was not possible for him to stop Polling Station Executives and Electoral Coordinators from voting in the presidential primaries because it was enshrined in the party's constitution.



What I actually want to do is to push for reforms to allow Electoral Area Coordinators and Polling Station Executives to vote in the Regional Executive Elections.



So we want to rather expand and include everybody and not to reduce and so that lie must be put to rest, he noted.



MPs



Dr Bawumia added, I will never say a sitting MP must go unopposed.



There must be a consensus in every constituency and so that is a lie".



"My opponents are sensing defeat so they have adopted new tactics and that is if you miss the ball don't miss the man.



They have decided to spread lies and to create disunity among the party members," he said.



He, therefore, appealed to the delegates to repose their confidence in him to enable him to lead the party for a resounding victory in the 2024 general election.



Delegates



The NPP would hold its presidential primary on Saturday, November 4, 2023 to elect a flag bearer for the party in the 2024 general election.



About 200,000 delegates are expected to cast their votes in the election and voting would commence at 7 a.m. and close at 2 p.m per the guidelines issued by the party for the conduct of the November 4 polls.



The delegates for the election comprise all members of the National Council, National, Regional and Constituency Executive Committees, Electoral Area Coordinators, five polling station executives in each polling station (Chairman, Secretary, Organiser, Youth and Women Organisers).



The others are 15 members of the National Council of Elders to be elected from among themselves, Members of Parliament (MP), past national officers, three representatives of each of the special organs of the party (Women Organisers, Nasara and Youth wings), 12 delegates from every external branch (27 branches in all).



The rest are founding members who were signatories to the registration documents of the party at the EC, one TESCON representative from each recognised tertiary institution, all party card-bearing ministers and deputies, and all metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives.



Contenders



Those who are in the race for the single slot of the party with Dr Bawumia are the Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin Central in the Central Region, Ken Ohene Agyapong; former Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, and a former MP for Mampong in the Ashanti Region, Francis Addai-Nimoh.





Source: Graphiconline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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As expected by critics, Nigerias Supreme Court on Thursday in Abuja dismissed all the petitions by opposition parties challenging the victory of President Bola Tinubu in the controversial 25 February 2023 elections.



The petitions filed by former President Abubakar Atiku of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), accused Tinubu of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) of forging the education documents he submitted to the electoral commission, to stand for the elections.



Citing provisions of the Constitution and previous cases as precedent, the seven-Justice apex court in a unanimous and televised judgement, said that it lacked jurisdiction to entertain the petitions and that the petitioners lacked the authority to produce new evidence or amend petitions filed at the lower court.



Other petitions alleging fraud and/or irregularities in the election were also dismissed for lack of merit.



The Supreme Courts verdict is final on election matters in Nigeria, the Elections Petition Appeal Tribunal, having dismissed the same and similar petitions filed by the opposition.



The lead judgement of the Supreme Court, read by Justice John Okoro was seconded by six of his colleagues, who described the petitions as frivolous and vexatious.



Tinubu, a former governor, and Senator might have prevailed in the courts of law, analysts say his presidency could be defined in the court of public opinion by the burden of allegations of forgery, perjury, questionable educational qualifications, identity theft and drug offences.









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 Camapign Manager for Kennedy Agyapong for President, Kwame Owusu has admitted that his camp is paying money to induce delegates ahead of next week's NPP Congress to elect a new flagbearer.



Last week, Kennedy Agyapong publicly accused the frontrunner of the NPP presidential primary, Vice President Bawumia of inducing some constituency Chairmen with cars, a claim that has both been denied by the Vice President and a number of the Chairmen.



Some constituency Chairmen in the Northern Region angrily confronted Kennedy Agyapong following the allegation and Vice President Bawumia himself has described the claim as baseless and ridiculous.



In an interesting turn of events, the Manager of Ken's campaign, in an interview with Citi FM, contradicted his boss' claims of not providing financial incentives to delegates but rather accusing other camps of paying money.



"I can't deny the fact that we are also giving money. It is not bribe", he revealed.



"Team Ken Agyapong is also inducing delegates with money but we are doing it covertly," Kwame Owusu further admitted.











Source: 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 Russian Army is likely to continue attempting an offensive in Avdiyivka area, despite significant losses of personnel and armored vehicles, U.S. National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby said during a briefing at the White House.

"Since the 11th of October, Russia has suffered significant losses in this offensive attempt of theirs, including at least 125 armoured vehicles around Avdiivka and more than a battalions worth of equipment," Kirby said.

Russia is likely to resume attacks near Avdiyivka and may achieve some tactical successes in the coming months, he said. However, this is done at the expense of the death of thousands of Russian soldiers, as well as under the threat of their execution.

"We have information that the Russian military has been actually executing soldiers whove refused to follow orders. We also have information that Russian commanders are threatening to execute entire units if they seek to retreat from Ukrainian artillery fire," Kirby said.
Former Energy Minister Boakye Agyarko has responded to what he describes as some very unfortunate and ill-informed statements by Hon. Kwabena Donkor on the termination of the GPGC Power Purchase Agreement.



"I deem the utterances most unfortunate and irresponsible coming from a former Minister who ought to know that it is not within my power or province, or that of any Minister to unilaterally cancel or terminate a contract of this nature," Boakye Agyarko said in a statement.



According to him upon assumption of office, the newly elected NPP government decided to take all the necessary actions to contain the cost of power generation and distribution in Ghana.



Hence, it became necessary to review the implementation of the many Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) because should all of them be implemented as originally scheduled, it would result in the production of excess energy with its attendant cost, which would worsen the financial situation of the power sector.



The review was therefore to help cut back on losses that would be incurred.



A former Power Minister under the John Mahama administration, Dr. Kwabena Donkor has stated that the decision by government to terminate the Ghana Power Generating Company (GPGC) contract, leading to a judgement debt of $140 million made no sense commercially and legally at the time.



The Pru East MP, wants parliament to probe the former Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko and other officials of the current government who took the decision, insisting the reasons given for the termination are untenable.



Read below his full statement



My attention has been drawn to some very unfortunate and ill-informed statements by Hon. Kwabena Donkor on the termination of the GPGC Power Purchase Agreement.



I deem the utterances most unfortunate and irresponsible coming from a former Minister who ought to know that it is not within my power or province, or that of any Minister to unilaterally cancel or terminate a contract of this nature.



Upon assumption of office, the newly elected NPP government decided to take all the necessary actions to contain the cost of power generation and distribution in Ghana. It became necessary to review the implementation of the many Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) because should all of them be implemented as originally scheduled, it would result in the production of excess energy with its attendant cost, which would worsen the financial situation of the power sector. The review was therefore to help cut back on losses that would be incurred.



An Inter-Ministerial Committee was set up under the chair of the Energy Commission to review the fiscal and legal implications of Power Purchase Agreement (PPAs) executed by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG). The eighteen (18) member committee was chaired by Dr. Alfred Ofosu Ahenkora, Executive Secretary of the Energy Commission. Its report was submitted on 5th April, 2019 under ref EC/MOE/17.



The report was subsequently put before Cabinet for consideration and action. Cabinet directed that the report be further reviewed by the Attorney-General. This was done.



Cabinet subsequently gave its approval for the recommendation of the report to be implemented.



In respect of the GPGC PA, the report recommended the termination of the PPA with a capacitv of 107 MW (executed between Government and GPGC) at an estimated lost of USC



18 million or else pay excess capacity charge of USD 24.90 million per annum over the contract period of 4 years.



This is an Emergency Plant with a 5-year PPA, used plant (not new) and high tariff. Major equipment has arrived at the Tema port awaiting tax exemption to clear.



Remarks from the report follows;



"Based on the 2018-2030 demand supply capacity balance and the tariff rank of this project, the full capacity of this project will be excess (idle) resulting in estimated total cost of USD 115.48 million within the duration of the PPA.



The likelihood of the Plant being idle, is further heightening by the fact that, it is a pure natural gas fired turbine to be located in Tema where there is inadequate gas to feed it.



There is therefore a high probability of the Plant remaining idle even if allowed to proceed".



Based on the decision of Cabinet, I as minister initiated the process by informing all interested parties of this decision and requested that the decision be implemented. At the time I left office, the Government of Ghana and GCGP, consequently begun negotiation to give effect to the decision to terminate.



These are the facts which I know are available to the Honourable Minister.



END



SIGNED



BOAKYE KYEREMATENG AGYARKO









Source: Peacefmonline.com









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Energy Minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh says the basis for the voting for a candidate in an election should be based on competence and not religion.



According to Dr. Prempeh, the key determinant in an election should be ones ability to bring the needed prosperity to the people.



Speaking at a meeting with artisans and delegates of the Manhyia South constituency NPP in Manhyia on Friday, 27th October, 2023, he said Ghana over the period has had the phenomenon of all religions co-existing peacefully, therefore it is dangerous for anybody to play the religious card during any election whether in internal party or national elections.



I, Matthew Opoku Prempeh, I was named after a Muslim and the Regional Chief Imam of the Ashanti Region is my brother. What this should tell you is that, in my family some are Christians and some are Muslims. This situation is also existent in a lot of families. It is therefore unacceptable to create partitions and divisions on religious lines, he admonished.



The Manhyia South lawmaker added members of the NPP must be proud of the achievements of the government over the past 7 years and be resolute in canvassing for the party.



The unfortunate global happenings have made governments across the world unpopular, however, the record will show that we have performed better even under these circumstances, he said.



He further said the NPP has been better managers of the economy than the John Mahama-led NDC and expressed optimism that the NPP would win the December 2024 elections.



Dr. Prempeh urged delegates of Manhyia South to exercise their democratic franchise peacefully on November 4, 2023 stressing the unity of the party is crucial for a decisive NPP victory in 2024.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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A 46-year-old Centre County man was sentenced Thursday to 20 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to producing images that sexually exploited a child, the United States Attorneys Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania said.

Kristopher Hall, formerly of State College, solicited a 14-year-old girl to send him sexual images and sexually assaulted the teenager for around six months, according to a press release. He also asked three other teenage girls for sexually explicit photos and received them, according to a Department of Justice news release.

Court documents list the offense date as Dec. 1, 2020.

A federal judge sentenced him in the exploitation case Thursday, while the sexual assaults were handled by the Cumberland County courts.

Hall pleaded guilty to indecent sexual assault of a person under the age of 16 in Cumberland County and was scheduled to be sentenced on Tuesday, Oct. 31.

In the federal case, Hall was also sentenced to a 20-year term of supervision following his imprisonment.
A 32-year-old Harrisburg man was arrested and charged Wednesday with rape after police say he sexually abused a girl he knew, starting when she was 8-years-old, and continued the assaults for several years until last month.

Police received a tip Tuesday claiming Ronel De La Cruz Rosario was sexually abusing the girl at a home on the 2100 block of Kensington Street. The tip prompted police to set up an interview with the victim the following day.

The first time De La Cruz Rosario inappropriately touched the victim was over her pants, in the crotch area in front and back, in the downstairs living room when she was 8, according to an affidavit. De La Cruz Rosario told the victim it was playful touching, and would also squeeze and grab her inner thighs.

De La Cruz Rosario also inappropriately touched her during playful wrestling, police wrote in court documents. She revealed that touching to someone, who made a report, the girl said, but she did not share the truth at the time, believing she was protecting her mother.

After that, the abuse stopped for awhile, according to court records.

But soon, De La Cruz Rosario started telling her to take naps with him and lie on top of him, with her abdomen against his. When she was 10, he started saying she could trust him, according to court records.

Thats when the abuse ramped up, according to court records that gave this account:

The girl said De La Cruz Rosario started showing her pornographic videos, and told her to go down there and touch his genitals while in his bedroom.

De La Cruz Rosario then instructed the victim to perform a sex act and gave her instructions when she told him she did not want to, according to the affidavit.

The sexual abuse continued and intensified, occurring three to four times per week until last month, including acts of rape and anal rape.

He continued the crimes even when the child bled or told him it hurt, the affidavit says.

The victim said De La Cruz Rosario promised he would not touch her again, but approached her again a few days later and made her perform a sex act on him, telling her if she didnt, then she did not love him.

Most of the sexual abuse took place in De La Cruz Rosarios bedroom. The records said he timed the abuse for when the girls mother was away.

De La Cruz Rosario was charged with one count of rape of a child, two counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child, one count of aggravated indecent assault of a child, one count of indecent assault of a person less than 13 years of age, one count of unlawful contact with minor  sexual offenses, one count of corruption of minors  defendant age 18 or above and one count of the dissemination of explicit sexual material  minor.

De La Cruz Rosario was unable to post his bail, which was set at $250,000. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Nov. 9.
By Stephen Caruso of Spotlight PA

Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to account and drives positive change in Pennsylvania. Sign up for our free newsletters.
By Kevin Fixler and Ben DeWitt, The Idaho Statesman (TNS)

MOSCOW, Idaho  The judge overseeing the case against Moscow homicide suspect Bryan Kohberger announced Thursday that he will continue to allow cameras during hearings, but with more control over them.

Judge John Judge of Idahos 2nd Judicial District in Latah County kicked off the hearing saying he had yet to issue his decision on the matter, but that still and video cameras will for now continue to be permitted.

Im not going to ban cameras in the courtroom, but I need more control over what cameras are doing, Judge told attendees Thursday afternoon. I know I can only control so much and thats why I continue to urge people to be patient and have some dignity and some restraint.

Judge said hes been disappointed by how video footage is later used by individuals on the internet. He didnt outright say or detail how hes going to control the cameras.

Kohbergers attorneys argued last month that the ongoing presence of cameras in the courtroom deprives their client of his constitutional right to due process guaranteed under the 14th Amendment. His defense team said that media photographers and videographers have disobeyed Judges prior instruction to avoid focusing exclusively on Kohberger.

Photos solely of Kohberger are also later appended to articles with blatantly sensationalistic and prejudicial headlines and content, Jay Logsdon, one of Kohbergers public defenders, wrote in a legal filing that sought to update the courts rules for cameras inside the courtroom, by eliminating them.

The concept of removing this sort of almost sideshow from whats being put out there, we think, would be an important way to kind of take away the sensationalization of this case, and just kind of reduce it to hopefully the words on the page, Logsdon added at a court hearing on the issue last week.

Kohberger, 28, who attended the hearing, is accused of stabbing four University of Idaho students to death at an off-campus Moscow home in November 2022. The victims were seniors Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen, both 21; and junior Xana Kernodle and freshman Ethan Chapin, both 20.

Kohberger faces four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary. A trial date has yet to be set after Kohberger waived his right to a speedy trial, but prosecutors have already stated their intent to pursue the death penalty if a jury finds him guilty.

Judge said during the 40-minute hearing that he sought to strike a balance concerning cameras between what is best for the parties in the case to achieve a fair trial, and the need to preserve public access in the highly watched legal proceedings.

Its a benefit and also potentially a harm, Judge said. It can tilt a case one way or the other if the media is, well, trying the case in the media. And we dont want that because thats not based on evidence, thats not based on the rules of the court and it can get out of control.

Prosecutors in their response said they recognized the importance of the media in the court process. The also cited their reservations about journalists capturing images and video of graphic evidence from the crime and of vulnerable witnesses who may testify at trial.

The decision of whether to allow cameras in the courtroom is discretionary for the court, Brad Rudley, deputy attorney in the Latah County Prosecutors Office, told Judge at the hearing. However, our contention is that the safest way and best way to address all of these concerns is to prohibit cameras in the courtroom, or at least bar them from filming or shooting sensitive evidence or witnesses, he said.

Media coalition, victims families oppose camera ban

Wendy Olson, a former U.S. attorney for the state of Idaho, represented a coalition of about two dozen media outlets, including the Idaho Statesman, at the hearing. She argued for maintaining camera access in the courtroom on First Amendment grounds, adding that images and video from the court proceedings help limit the publishing of misinformation about the case by non-journalist commentators.

The answer is not less sunshine, its more, Olson told Judge. The public and this community will be best served by having those cameras in the courtroom.

Judge denied the coalitions attempt to be listed as formal intervenors on the camera question but said he would consider the argument of the media outlets in his ruling on an amicus curiae basis, a Latin term that translates to friend of the court.

At least two of the victims families also oppose removing cameras from the courtroom, including at trial.

Shanon Gray, attorney for the Goncalves family, issued a statement to the Statesman on behalf of his clients, as well as some members of the Kernodle family.

Speculation is fueled by the secrecy surrounding everything that is filed and every hearing that is closed off to the media and the public, the statement read. So it is vitally important that the trial be viewed publicly! It is important to the victims family, relatives, community members and the public that this veil of secrecy be lifted at trial. This not only ensures accountability for all the parties involved, but also helps the public maintain its faith in the justice system!

In his argument, Logsdon said the defense had concerns about the ability of media camera operators from their current vantage near where prosecutors and the defense team are seated to zoom in on their work right over our shoulder. If Judge decided to keep the cameras, though, Logsdon suggested the video camera be moved to the back of the courtroom, perhaps mounted for a single wide shot as is sometimes seen on C-SPAN coverage of Congress.

I thought that might be a way to kind of give a little, and kind of protect what were trying to protect, Logsdon said.

Judge said he would issue his ruling at a later time and review the concept. He then renewed his overarching message to members of the media and others closely following the high-profile case.

Please have patience, be respectful and be decent. Thats what I want, Judge said.
Police have charged a 21-year-old woman in the Thursday shooting death of a SEPTA bus driver.

Zhontay Capers was taken into custody Thursday and was charged with murder and related crimes overnight, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Police said Capers shot Bernard N. Gribbin, 48, a Route 23 SEPTA bus driver, six times near the intersection of Germantown and Abbotsford avenues at about 10:30 a.m. Thursday.

Gribbin was taken to a hospital but pronounced dead just a few minutes later.

Security footage taken from the bus did not appear to show any substantial interaction between Capers and Gribbin, officials said.

Literally, it occurs without apparent rhyme or reason. ... For some unknown reason, she began firing as she was exiting the bus, SEPTA Transit Police Chief Charles Lawson said to the Inquirer. The video reportedly shows Capers reboarding, firing and leaving the bus several times.

No other passengers were struck by gunfire and there were no other injuries reported, 6ABC said.

Gribbin had been a SEPTA bus driver for 12 years.
A central Pennsylvania grocery store chain is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.

As part of the festivities, The Giant Company is partnering with the Cumberland County Historical Society at 21 N. Pitt St. in Carlisle for a limited-time museum exhibit outlining the grocery store chains history.

This exhibit runs through the end of the year and features exclusive photographs, memorabilia, and objects from the companys private archives. It showcases the chains beginnings as the Carlisle Meat Market, which David D.J. Javitch opened in 1923.

The first stored using the Giant name  Giant Food Shopping Center  was opened by Javitch in 1937 in Lewistown. Giant opened its first store in Harrisburg in 1968. In 1981, Giant entered an agreement with Ahold, the Netherlands-based food retailer.

We are thrilled to honor the legacy of a company that has not only contributed significantly to the local economy but also played a pivotal role in shaping the community spirit of Carlisle, said Shawn Gladden, executive director of the historical society.

The historical society is open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. (Starting Nov. 1, Saturday hours change to 10 a.m.-2 p.m.).
Pennsylvania is a state built on coal.

The once-dominant mining industry led to the formation of many of the states communities and, in its day, was an incredibly lucrative sector that created thousands of jobs. And even though only about 4,300 people were still employed in mining jobs in 2021, coal still clings to Pennsylvania as part of its identity.
Neighbors can make or break a living situation.

And theres one neighborhood in Philadelphia, Pa., where people seem to be getting driven to the brink by those around them.

MoverDB  a company that provides unbiased information about international moving companies and the costs associated with moving overseas  decided to conduct and publish a study concerning, as the title aptly puts, The Cities & Zip Codes Where Residents Complain the Most About Neighborhood Issues.

Researchers at the organization found these cities and zip codes by accessing the 311 data from over 30 major locations across the U.S. and analyzing them for thing like abandoned cars, noise complaints, etc., etc. Zip codes with a population of over 10,000 were ranked based on the number of complaints per those 10,000 within a year period.

Not only was Philadelphia number 18 on the list when it came to the most complaints (falling behind Pittsburgh, mind you, which was 17th), but Kensington was found to be were the most 311 calls were pouring out of with a total of 5,060 complaints per 2,911 people.

The Philadelphia residents who make the most complaints make significantly fewer calls than those in the other cities that weve focused on, reads the study. Abandoned vehicles seem to be the main gripe, to the extent that a recent city budget allocated $2 million to tow abandoned vehicles.

The Fishtown and Kensington neighborhoods attract the most complaints with the fast gentrification of the area feeding culture clashes  such as barbecues, anti-social or otherwise  between residents old and new.

The U.S. city with the most complaints overall was Baltimore, Md.
Ukrainian air defense forces destroyed five of the six attack UAVs of the Shahed type that attacked the southern regions of Ukraine at night, the Ukrainian Air Force said on Friday morning.

On the night of October 27, 2023, the enemy attacked from Primorsko-Akhtarsk region, using six Shahed-type attack UAVs in the direction of the southern regions of Ukraine and one Iskander-M ballistic missile from Voronezh region in the direction of Kharkiv region, the message, published on the Telegram channel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, says.

It is emphasized that as a result of combat work by the forces and means of the Air Force, in cooperation with the air defense of the Ukrainian Defense Forces, five Shahed-136/131 were destroyed within Kherson and Mykolaiv regions.
A body that was found inside a chimney of an apartment building in Norfolk, Nebraska, last week has been identified as a 29-year-old man who was missing for more than a month, according to reports.

The Norfolk Police Department identified the man as 29-year-old Zachariah Andrews, of Norfolk. His body was discovered in the chimney of an apartment located at 1414 S 3rd Street on Oct. 19. He was identifiable by scars, tattoos, marks and an identification card he had.

Andrews was last seen alive on Sept. 15 around 12 p.m. in the 1200 block of West Norfolk Avenue. On Sept. 16, police responded to the apartment building after an apartment resident reported hearing cries for help and thought the mans voice was coming from the first floor, according to a release.

When officers arrived at the scene to investigate, the muffled cries ceased four minutes before they came. Once there, officers spoke with other tenants, but none had heard the muffled yelling, the release stated.

They also checked the apartment directly below the resident, where a television was playing loudly, but the resident reported that there were no screams for help. Two other residents also reported that they didnt hear any yelling, the news outlets reported.

Four days later, officers came back to the apartment. Andrews car, which was parked in the 300 block of Northwestern Avenue, began collecting parking citations and later had a warning sign placed on the vehicle, Norfolk Daily News reported.

On Oct. 3, he was entered into a nationwide missing persons database.

McClatchy News reported that a maintenance worker discovered Andrews body on Oct. 19 after they had smashed through a basement wall while searching for the source of a foul odor and dripping blood, per The Kansas City Star.

Norfolk Police have had regular contact with Zachariahs family since the beginning of the investigation, police said to The Kansas City Star. This is an ongoing investigation and additional information will be released as it becomes available.

Right now, its unclear what was the cause of death or how Andrews ended up in the chimney, Kiro7 reported.
Tiffany Renee Miller disappeared on Saturday, Sept. 22, 1979, in Westmoreland County, Pa.

On Sept. 28, 1979, the body of the 5-year-old was found in the Allegheny River near Plum Borough.

Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers today, Oct. 27, 2023, renewed its offer of a $10,000 reward for information about the little girls death.

Crime Stoppers said Tiffany was reported missing my her mother in New Kensington.

Tiffany was last seen inside the residence at Peach Court the evening of [Sept. 21, 1979] when her mother put Tiffany to bed around 11 oclock that night. When Tiffanys mother went to check on her the following morning, Tiffanys mother discovered that she had disappeared, Crime Stoppers said.

According to Crime Stoppers, Pennsylvania State Police Troop A  Greensburg Barracks  Criminal Investigation Assessment Unit and New Kensington Police are continuing to investigate what they said is the homicide of Tiffany.

Police did not give a cause of death for the child.

Anyone with information can call New Kensington Police Department at 724-339-7534, Pennsylvania State Police at 724-832-3288 or Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers at 800-472-8477. Callers can remain anonymous and could be eligible for the reward for information that leads to an arrest.

READ MORE: Search continues on land and water for suspect in Maine mass shooting
Police in York are asking for help finding 84-year-old Santos Medina Fontenez.

Fontenez was last seen in the 1st block of E. College Ave. in York, according to police.

No additional details of his disappearance were released.

Anyone with information on Fontenezs whereabouts can contact York police in one of the following ways:

- Call the York City Police Tip Line at 717-849-2204

- Call the York City Police Department at 717-846-1234 or 717-849-2219

- Email Detective Commander Andy Baez at abaez@yorkcity.org or submit a tip.
While Bettersten Wade pleaded for help finding her missing son, preparations were being made to bury Dexter Wade in a paupers field at a Mississippi penal farm, NBC News reported.

Whether due to an oversight, or, as Bettersten Wade wondered, a vendetta, the Jackson woman did not know the fate of her son for seven months. Authorities knew what happened to the father of two teen daughters.

Jackson police did not respond to the outlets request for comment.

Bettersten Wade and her son got into an argument and he ran off with a friend.

She said she was reluctant to report her son missing to police because her brother was killed by a Jackson police officer who was convicted of manslaughter. The officer is appealing.

On March 14, she reported him missing and called police for updates but was told each time there was no new information.

Police, however, did know his whereabouts, according to NBC News.

He died the same day he argued with his mother, struck by an off-duty police officer along an interstate.

The corporal reported the incident to police, who did not suspect the corporal was intoxicated and did not test his sobriety.

Wades death was ruled an accident.

The coroner said he called Bettersten Wade three days later but had to leave a voicemail.

She told NBC News that the number the coroner called was correct but she did not recall receiving the message and couldnt access cell phone records to verify the call.

The coroner said it was the departments jurisdiction to do proper death notification.

Meanwhile, Bettersten Wade turned to social media for help bringing her son home.

The corner followed up with police two weeks later. After being told there was no progress, asked for approval to bury him in a paupers field at the Hinds County penal farm.

The request was approved on April 3, according to the coroners notes reviewed by NBC News. On July 14, Dexter Wade was buried in the paupers field after no family claimed him.

In August, police told Bettersten Wade in person about the accident.

She wondered whether her brothers death at the hands of a Jackson officer factored into why the information about her son was withheld from her.

For more details and photos, visit NBCs website.
Republican U.S. Rep. Scott Perry is unpopular among constituents and susceptible to a Democratic upset next year, according to a group opposing him that has released a new poll of district voters.

We scoured the country for the most vulnerable extremist and the unlucky winner is Scott Perry, said WelcomePAC co-founder Liam Kerr in a statement in which he added that voters are lukewarm on Perry and will swing hard against him once fully informed of the damage he causes.

WelcomePAC, which is backing Republicans Against Perry, had Public Policy Polling survey 587 registered voters in the 10th Congressional District on Oct. 21 and 22.

The poll determined that Perrys job approval rating was 34% among voters surveyed, while 49% disapprove of his performance in the House. A Perry campaign spokesman did not respond to an email from PennLive.

Perry, a York County resident, led a generic Democratic candidate by just 2 points, 46%-44%, according to WelcomePAC. The poll has a margin of error of +/- 4 percentage points.

Last November, Perry beat Democrat Shamaine Daniels 54%-46% for a sixth two-year term.

Perry supported former President Donald Trumps efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, but he has not been indicted as Trump and others have been. Perry, chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, ignored a House Select Committee subpoena to testify in its investigation of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The 10th district, redrawn in 2018, is considered one of the most balanced in the state. Trump won the district with 51.3 percent of the vote in 2020, but his 4.1 percentage point margin of victory was the third-smallest in Pennsylvanias 17 House districts. And in 2022, voters in the 10th broke for Democrat Josh Shapiro over Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano by nearly 12 percentage points.

Forty-five percent of voters polled identified as Republicans, 40% as Democrats and 15% as independents. Half of the voters polled said they voted for former President Donald Trump in 2020 while 51% said they voted for Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro last year.

Moderate Republicans who know Scott Perry know hes more like Doug Mastriano than Ronald Reagan, Craig Snyder, the director of Republicans Against Perry, said in a statement. We just need to inform swing voters of the facts, and Perry will go the way of Mastriano.

WelcomePAC recently unveiled Republicans Against Perry, which mirrors a similar GOP group spearheaded by Snyder last year that opposed state Sen. Doug Mastrianos bid for governor.

There are seven Democratic candidates in the primary race for the district that covers all of Dauphin County and large parts of York and Cumberland counties.

Thirty-eight percent of those polled said Perry is too conservative, but nearly the same number (35%) said that he is just about right. Forty-five percent said Republicans in Congress are too conservative.

Overall, 69% of voters said they disapprove of the job Republicans in Congress are doing, compared to 57% who said the same about Democrats. However, the poll was taken when House Republicans, having unseated Kevin McCarthy as House Speaker, were in the midst of weeks of infighting and chaos as they tried to select a new speaker.

Louisiana Republican Mike Johnson was selected for that post Wednesday.
In an otherwise congenial exchange Thursday, the two candidates for Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court bickered over the role of a conservative billionaire in the campaign during a PennLive editorial board forum.

Republican lawyer Megan Martin of Cumberland County and Democratic Philadelphia Municipal Court Judge Matt Wolf are vying for the vacant seat on the nine-member Commonwealth Court, where Republicans now hold a 5-3 advantage.

While answering a question about people losing faith and trust in the judicial system, Wolf offered a lengthy response that encompassed the travel and gifts scandal facing Republican U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, disingenuous comments concerning abortion made by the three most-recent appointed conservative Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade and former president Donald Trump stacking courts with conservative judges.

Wolf then referenced Pennsylvania billionaire Jeffrey Yass, a school voucher supporter who has dumped money into the campaigns of various GOP candidates at all levels. Yass, Wolf said, has donated more than $500,000 to independent expenditure efforts supporting Martin.

Democratic Pa. Commonwealth Court candidate Judge Matt Wolf.

Its one billionaire trying to tip the scales of this election, said Wolf, who added that Yass obviously would expect something in return for his help.

Martin seemed to bristle at the insinuation, saying that she has never met or spoken to Yass.

I am not being bought by Jeffrey Yass. Im not being bought by anyone, Martin said. I am my own person. I am running my campaign.

Martin said she cannot control how others act, only herself. As public servants, we are held to a higher standard, she said.

I certainly resent the implication that Im being bought by Mr. Yass, Martin said.

Republican Pa. Commonwealth Court candidate Megan Martin.Photo: Kate Greenawalt, used with permission

Throughout the nearly hour-long forum, Martin touted her former role as the state Senate parliamentarian, saying she was elected five times by senators from both parties.

Parliamentarians advise the Senate presiding officer and members on legislative rules and practices. The constitution was always my North star, she said.

Additionally, Martin has served under former GOP Govs. Tom Ridge and Tom Corbett, worked as a civilian attorney for the U.S. Navy and clerked for a county judge.

Im not going to legislate from the bench, she said. Im not going to be an activist judge.

According to Spotlight PA, Martin told the conservative Pennsylvania Family Institute that she agreed with the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, calling the landmark ruling for abortion rights egregiously wrong.

Wolf is a member of the Pennsylvania National Guard who said he is concerned about Republican judges getting a stronger foothold in state courts and the U.S. Supreme Courts conservative majority rolling back civil rights.

A municipal judge for six years, Wolf boasted of his more than 20 years of trial experience as an attorney and judge. I want to run to present integrity to the court and make Pennsylvania better, he said.

Both candidates have been recommended by the Pennsylvania Bar Association.
UPDATE: Driver charged with assault after hitting 2 trick-or-treaters in Cumberland County: police

Two juveniles were hit by a car in New Cumberland while trick-or-treating Thursday evening, police said.

The incident took place on the 300 block of 5th Street, near the intersection with Bridge Street, around 7:18 p.m., according to New Cumberland Borough Police. They did not specify whether the kids were in a crosswalk or why the driver did not see them before the crash.

Police did not release the names or ages of the two juveniles, but confirmed that they were taken to a local hospital to be examined.

Trick-or-treating in New Cumberland Borough and Lower Allen Township was scheduled for Thursday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., according to local government websites.

The extent of the juveniles injuries are not known at this time. Police did not mention any charges stemming from the incident.
William Calley or Hugh Thompson?

Which are we?

Dramatic moral dilemmas sometimes arrive unannounced and end in an instant without time for thought, leaving one only able to judge ones ethical reflex.

Israel has assembled troops at its Gazan border and has issued some sort of unrealistic evacuation warning to a million Gazans.

The current dilemma, for those who recognize it, and at least at this writing, still allows us time for thought.

In this pause, it is as if the Israelis are daring, or perhaps subconsciously pleading for, the world to stop them from the viscerally driven acts they are about to commit, understandable or not.

Back we go to March 16, 1968, in My Lai village, South Vietnam. The newest member of Charlie Company stands paralyzed in fearful amazement, fatigues clean and crisp, watching his fellow soldiers throw hundreds of old men, women, and children down into a ditch. Covered in mud, the huddled masses struggle to their feet and try to scramble back out, angry and terrified. They understand, perhaps better than most of the Americans standing above them, what is to come.

The new arrival, intent only on not screwing up during his first day, is directionless. Not having been present for the guerilla attacks and traps the company suffered on its last several trips through the area, and unfamiliar with the civilians silent complicity in Viet Cong aggression, he lacks the boiling indignation compelling the others toward their impending crime against humanity.

One GI grabs the arm of an old villager a few yards from the ditch and spins him forward toward another soldier. The second soldier in turn body checks the villager down the slope to join the rest of the doomed. Unit cohesion at its best. American whoops and yells of released frustration and malignant joy mix with the screams of the villagers and the roar of rifles too long ineffective for lack of a precise target. Overwhelmed by the chaos, the newcomer manages a small voice and stammers at a soldier stabbing an old woman being shoved into the ditch, Wh-what the hell?

The soldier looks up in response, distracted from his military occupational specialty of the moment. He quickly turns away from the newcomer, instinctively assuming he is being warned of a threat behind him, instead of within him, and tightens his grip on his rifle. He notices a young girl clawing her way up to the lip of the ditch undetected. The soldier stomps on and pins her slender wrist under his boot to prevent her escape.

Finally perceiving the whisper of conscience from his inexperienced colleague, he turns back to face him. A laugh escapes from a place within him swirling with relief, terror, triumph, dismay, guilt, and emotions humans have not yet labeled. Blinking, he stares at his moral accuser, and then down at his own bloodied left boot. The boot is cloven where a punji stick pierced it days before, perhaps placed by the very girl now squirming beneath it. Or perhaps not. It doesnt matter anymore.

He leaks a tear from one young eye. Long time coming, he mutters. Back home, teenagers on his street are frustrated because their parents deny them use of the family car, cannot help with college tuition, or require that the lawn be mowed. In My Lai, unfairly forced into a place he never asked to visit, to fear and maim people he never asked to oppress, he stares vacantly into the ditch, exhausted and exhilarated.

Remembering that the current magazine in his rifle is partially empty, he fires the remaining rounds into the ditch without looking, uninterested in their specific destination, yanks out the clip, and inserts a full one.

The newcomer, flinching at the rifles reports, tries again, What. Are. We. Doing?

His mentor chambers the first round of the new magazine decisively, looks down to ensure he has moved the fire selector switch to full auto, and returns his attention to the ditch in anticipation.

With a final glance at the newcomer, and genuinely curious, he casually asks, You got a problem, cherry?

Well, do we, here, in mid-October, 2023, have a problem?

As in, a problem compelling us to do anything?

The medias current cheerleading mimics the whoops and yells from 55 years ago. Hugh Thompsons rotor blades are nowhere to be heard. You have a computer; go look him up.

Obligatory Caveat: The overwhelming majority of American servicemen in Vietnam committed not a single atrocity, and most Israeli soldiers probably dread the orders they are receiving, express, implied, and winked and nodded, as much as they fear for their own safety.

Additional Note: My Austrian Jewish grandmother and aunt were murdered by the Nazis during the holocaust.

Tony Sangiamo, Esq., is an attorney in York, Pa.
Sign up to get positive Black news stories, words of affirmation and weekly curated playlists delivered to your inbox twice a week: Enter your email to subscribe to Black Joy.

 Its the most wonderful time of the year! 

But dont go grabbing that tinsel and lights just yet. Kris Kringle and the gang are still on toy duty.

Im talking about Halloween, Hoodoo Heritage Month and all the traditions that contribute to Black culture. Now, you may be saying to yourself, Starr, I get the Hoodoo, but what Halloween got to do with me? Aint that Celtic or something?

And you would be correct, but you know I got yall when it comes to finding our community anywhere and everywhere. So pause that horror flick for a minute and slip this newsletter in your friends and fams inboxes real quick so we can end spooky season with some healing cosplay, Appalachian Hoodoo and nostalgia for the 99 and 2000s babies.

 Starr

Cosplay can heal us, yall. Who knew?!

Niah Singletary, known as the "cosplaying therapist in North Carolina, is researching how Black adult play can be used in therapy spaces.Canva

Fit check! Fit check! Yall got your costumes for Halloween yet? If you think youre too old for alla that, trauma-informed therapist Niah Singletary is giving you permission to be a lil bit childish. As a doctoral student at North Carolina A&T University, sis is collecting coins for her dissertation researching how cosplay, video games and other aspects of Black nerd, AKA blerd, culture can be integrated into therapy.

Its always trick-or-treat season with the candy lady

Houston filmmaker Taylor Walker has produced an animated short film that's an ode to our Black candy ladies.Canva

Yall remember when we didnt have to wait till Halloween to fill our candy buckets in Black neighborhoods? All we needed was maybe a dolla and the candy lady got us together. Filmmaker Taylor Walker is honoring these matriarchs of our community in her animated short film about a Black girl who learns an important lesson from her neighborhood candy lady during her hunt for a Kool-Aid cup. Grab your Hot Cheetos, Tootie Frooties or whatever was your favorite pick from your candy ladys inventory of joy cause this story is packed with nostalgia.

Theres Hoodoo in the mountains

Self-portrait by Sirene Martin.Canva

Black Joy reporter, Danielle Buckingham, chats with Kentucky artist and Hoodoo, Sirene Martin, about her early experiences with Hoodoo, the influence of the church on her practice, why the lived experiences of country Black folks matter and the sometimes problematic, but necessary representation of Hoodoo in popular culture.

Get spooky and spread the Black joy! See ya next time!
The past few days have been warm and pleasant, almost summer-like.

The high temperature today, Friday, Oct. 27, and Saturday, according to the National Weather Service at State College, may hit 80 degrees.

This weekend may be a good time to get outside and finish up some yard work - or put up Christmas decorations. Just dont turn them on yet.

Or, take a drive and enjoy some leaf peeping - according to the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, central Pa. is at its best color right now.

By Wednesday, the weather service is calling for a high temperature of 49 degrees. What a difference.

But, this is Pennsylvania where we have a rollercoaster of weather.

And, winter will arrive. The question is - how cold and snowy will the winter of 2023-24 be? And, what are the squirrels, caterpillars and pigs predicting?

That depends on who you ask but there is little doubt it will include at least some snow.

AccuWeathers seasonal outlook predicts mild temperatures and a more average winter compared to last year, which recorded near record-low snowfall amounts. AccuWeather is calling for average snowfall totals with a window for conditions for noreasters in January and February, even suggesting one cant be ruled out in November.

The Farmers Almanac says, The BRRR is back!

There are indications that an El Nino (an unusually high-water temperature off the Pacific Coast of South America), will be brewing in the latter half of 2023, lasting into the winter of 2024. If we consider that alongside our tried-and-true forecast formula, it means that cold temperatures should prevail throughout the country and bring snow, sleet, and ice, the Farmers Almanac said.

The Farmers Almanac says those of us who live along the I-95 corridor from Washington to Boston should experience the opposite of last winters mild weather with lots of rain/sleet and snowstorms to contend with.

The Old Farmers Almanac predicts snow, seasonable cold, and all of winters delights! This winters forecast is sure to excite snow bunnies and sweater lovers alike, promising a whole lot of cold and snow across North America!

In the Northeast and Midwest, the almanac predicts snow will arrive beginning in November, with storms, showers, and flurries continuing through the start of spring.

Pennsylvania is solidly within the almanacs map for cold and snowy weather.

While it says winter will be warmer than normal from New England the Atlantic corridor down to Florida ... it also says, Snowfall will be above normal across the most snow-prone areas ...

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration projects El Nino will continue to influence weather patterns, resulting in warmer-than-average temperatures in the northern tier of the country from December through February. NOAA also predicts below-average precipitation in the north.

The Farmers Almanac also offers wildlife habits and signs in nature that predict weather.

Have you seen any woodpeckers sharing a tree? Ants marching in a line? Pigs gathering sticks?

Those may be indicate a harsh winter ahead.
Eighty-two seriously wounded Ukrainian soldiers receive help, prostheses at hospital in Zaragoza, Spain

Eighty-two seriously wounded Ukrainian military personnel with amputations received the necessary care and prostheses at the medical center at the main military hospital in Zaragoza (autonomous community of Aragon, Spain), the Spanish Ministry of Defense reports.

Eighty-two seriously wounded Ukrainian soldiers with amputations (23 are currently undergoing treatment) received the necessary care and the necessary prostheses at the main military hospital in Zaragoza in Spain. Spain with Ukraine, the ministry said on X (Twitter).

Defense Minister Margarita Robles reportedly met with battle-wounded Ukrainian soldiers who are being treated at the facility.
A woman holding an Israeli flag is surrounded by police officers as she shouts at people who were attending a demonstration in support of Palestine, in Vancouver, on Thursday, October 19, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
In battles for Avdiyivka, enemy loses at least brigade  Zelenskyy in talk with Sunak

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a telephone conversation with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

"The head of state thanked the head of the British government for the powerful words of support for Ukraine, voiced in the British Parliament on October 23. The President also expressed gratitude for all the timely and comprehensive assistance from the United Kingdom, in particular for the recent GBP 100 million defense support package," the press service of the President's Office reported on Friday.

The interlocutors discussed the situation at the front in detail. "Russia will continue to try to occupy entire Donbas. The occupiers made several attempts to surround Avdiyivka, but each time our soldiers stopped them and threw them back, inflicting painful losses. In these attempts, the enemy lost at least a brigade," Zelenskyy said.

The President of Ukraine and the Prime Minister of Great Britain discussed further defense cooperation, in particular, on strengthening the Ukrainian air defense systems with missiles and means to combat drones.

Zelenskyy informed Sunak about the situation in the Black Sea and Russian actions that pose a danger to civilian shipping. According to the head of state, despite all the threats, the grain corridor will continue to function.

The interlocutors discussed further work on the introduction of insurance for civil ships. The leaders also shared their assessments of the situation in the Middle East and agreed that stopping the escalation of the conflict would be in the interests of the world community. The parties also coordinated their positions on cooperation on international platforms and maintaining international support for Ukraine.
The European Council strongly condemns the war of aggression that Russia unleashed against Ukraine and declares that support for the Ukrainian people remains unchanged, while at the same time the Russian Federation and its leadership must bear full responsibility for the destruction caused and crimes committed.

This is discussed in the conclusions adopted by the leaders of the European Union during the meeting of the European Council on October 26-27 in Brussels.

"The European Council reiterates its resolute condemnation of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, which constitutes a manifest violation of the UN Charter, and reaffirms the European Union's unwavering support for Ukraine's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders and its inherent right of self-defence against the Russian aggression. The European Union will continue to provide strong financial, economic, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support to Ukraine and its people for as long as it takes," the outcomes state.

"The European Union and its Member States will continue to provide sustainable military support to Ukraine, notably through the European Peace Facility and the EU Military Assistance Mission, as well as bilateral assistance by Member States," the document notes.

"The European Council underlines the importance of Member States' efforts and, in the immediate term, the need to accelerate the delivery of military support to Ukraine to help meet its pressing military and defence needs, including missiles and ammunition, notably under the one million rounds of artillery ammunition initiative, as well as air defence systems to protect its people and its critical and energy infrastructure," the outcomes state.

"In the longer term, the European Union and Member States will contribute, together with partners, to future security commitments to Ukraine, which will help Ukraine defend itself, resist destabilisation efforts and deter acts of aggression in the future," the document notes.

"The European Council invites the High Representative, based on a framework to be endorsed by the Council, to consult with Ukraine on the EU's future security commitments and to report back on those discussions at the European Council meeting in December. Military support and security commitments will be provided in full respect of the security and defence policy of certain Member States and taking into account the security and defence interests of all Member States," the document notes.

"In the face of continued Russian attacks against Ukraine's civil and critical infrastructure, the European Union and its Member States will intensify the provision of humanitarian and civil protection assistance to Ukraine, including equipment such as power generators, power transformers, mobile heating stations, and high-voltage and lighting equipment, to help Ukraine and its people face yet another winter at war," the outcomes state.

"The European Union and its Member States will continue their intensified diplomatic outreach efforts and cooperation with Ukraine and other countries to ensure the widest possible international support for a comprehensive, just and lasting peace and the key principles and objectives of Ukraine's Peace Formula, with a view to a Global Peace Summit being held," the document notes.

"Russia is responsible for the massive damage caused by its war of aggression against Ukraine. Decisive progress is needed, in coordination with partners, on how any extraordinary revenues held by private entities stemming directly from Russia's immobilised assets could be directed to support Ukraine and its recovery and reconstruction, consistent with applicable contractual obligations, and in accordance with EU and international law. The European Council calls on the High Representative and the Commission to accelerate work with a view to submitting proposals," the outcomes state.

The European Union remains committed to supporting Ukraine's repair, recovery and reconstruction, in coordination with international partners, including the demining process. In this context, the European Council welcomes the outcome of the International Donors' Conference on humanitarian demining in Ukraine held in Zagreb on 11 and 12 October 2023, which includes support for the efficient governance of mine action," the document notes.

"Russia and its leadership must be held fully accountable for waging a war of aggression against Ukraine and other most serious crimes under international law," the UE leaders notes.

"The European Council calls for work to continue, including in the Core Group, on efforts to establish a tribunal for the prosecution of the crime of aggression against Ukraine that would enjoy the broadest cross-regional support and legitimacy, and towards the establishment of a future compensation mechanism. Moreover, the European Council expresses its support for the work of the International Criminal Court and condemns the Russian attempts to undermine its international mandate and functioning," the outcomes state.

The European Council condemns in the strongest terms Russia's unlawful deportation and transfer to Russia and Belarus of Ukrainian children and other civilians, and urges Russia and Belarus to immediately ensure their safe return.

"Russia's ability to wage its war of aggression must be further weakened, including by further strengthening sanctions, and through their full and effective implementation and the prevention of their circumvention, especially for high-risk goods, in close cooperation with partners and allies. The European Council condemns the continued military support for Russia's war of aggression provided by Iran and Belarus. It also urges all countries, notably the DPRK, not to provide material or other support for Russia's war of aggression. The European Union will intensify its work with partners to counter false Russian narratives and disinformation about the war," the outcomes state.

The European Union is deeply disappointed that the Russian parliament has passed a law to withdraw the Russian Federation's ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).
Glory For Geilich: Scotsman Takes Down 888poker LIVE Coventry High Roller

October 27, 2023 Matthew Pitt Senior Editor

Ludovic Geilich warmed up for the 888poker LIVE Coventry Main Event in style by taking down the 2,000 High Roller for 40,870. Geilich came out on top of a 70-strong field, which was packed with the most recognizable names in British poker, and helped himself to the lion's share of the 132,160 prize pool.

Gelich's Coventry victory marks the second time in 2023 that the popular Scotsman has come out on top in a major live event. He won the 1,000 GUKPT Edinburgh Main Event in May for 79,590, and it would take a brace person to bet against Geilich completing a hat trick when he enters one of the final two flights of the 888poker LIVE Coventry Main Event.

888poker LIVE Coventry High Roller Final Table Results

Rank Player Prize 1 Ludovic Geilich 40,870 2 Ryan Otto 26,930 3 Nathan Jones 17,940 4 Robbie Bull 12,440 5 Smit Trivedi 9,230 6 Kevin Allen 6,920 7 Keith Johnson 5,390 8 Mitch Johnson 4,480 9 Ryan Mandara 4,000

The final nine players shared the prize pool, with Ryan Mandara, the 2018 Irish Open champion, falling in ninth for 4,000. Mandara found himself all-in with pocket jacks against Nathan Jones' ace-king. The coinflip went Jones' way courtesy of a king on the turn.

Mitch Johnson bowed out in eighth after shoving his last six big blinds with seven-six suited, and Ryan Otto called with ace-ten. Johnson spiked a seven on the flop but lost to a ten on the river, resigning Johnson to a 4,480 payout.

Seventh place went to Keith Johnson, who was all-in from the hijack for seven big blinds with ace-deuce, and Smit Trivedi called in the big blind with the dominating ace-jack. Neither player connected with the community cards, and Johnson's inferior kicker cost him his stack and place in the High Roller.

Geilich Eliminates a Dangerous Opponent

Kevin Allen

The final six became five with the elimination of Kevin Allen, who busted at Geilich's hands. Allen's last six big blinds went into the middle with ace-deuce, and Geilich called with ace-nine of diamonds. A nine on the flop left Allen drawing thin, but he couldn't get there, and had to make do with 6,920 in prize money.

Trivedi was the next to fall, doing so after a clash with Geilich did not go to plan. Trivedi jammed for ten big blinds with king-queen, and Geilich snapped him off with ace-king. Trivedi was already on his feet and putting his coat on when Geilich flopped trip aces; Trivedi was drawing dead on the turn. 9,230 was Trivedi's payout.

Trivedi's seat hadn't gone cold when Robbie Bull found himself with fresh air where his chips once stood. Bull open-shoved for eight big blinds with pocket deuces, but Bull did not count on Jones waking up in the big blind with pocket kings. Jones had one of the easiest calls of his career, and call he did. The kings held, and Bull busted, getting his hands on the first five-figure score of the evening, namely 12,440.

Chase Wilson Celebrates 18th Birthday With an 888poker LIVE Coventry Victory Read all about it!

Jones, who was at his third final table of the series, scooped a career-best 17,940 with a third-place finish in the High Roller. Jones looked down at queen-nine, and moved all-in for seven big blinds. Gelich called with pocket sevens, and the Scottish grinder easily won the coinflip with a full house on the river.

Geilich went into the heads-up battle with Otto holding a colossal 61 to eight big blind advantage, and it did not take long for Geilich to ride home the victory despite Otto doubling through the champion elect early into the one-on-one battle.

The final hand was the 209th of the final table and started with a 120,000 limp from Otto with ten-nine of spades, a raise to 340,000 from Geilich with pocket kings, and a call from Otto. The dealer fanned the king-nine-five flop, Geilich led for 165,000, and Otto called. Geilich fired again on an offsuit jack, making it 385,000 to continue, and Otto refused to go away. The river was a three. Geilich moved all-in, and Otto tanked before incorrectly deciding that Geilich had his hands in the cookie jar, and he called. Geilich's set of kings demolished Otto's pair of nines.

Otto collected 26,930, while Geilich pocketed 40,870.

Attention Turns to the Main Event

Day 1C of the 888poker LIVE Coventry Main Event shuffles up and deals at 12:00 p.m. UK time on October 27, and it should be the busiest flight yet. Some 265 players have bought in across the opening two flights. Day 1D, a turbo-structured flight, takes place from 8:00 p.m. UK also on October 27.

Follow all of the action from the 888 buy-in 888poker LIVE Coventry Main Event right here at PokerNews.

Sharelines Here's how the final table of the 888poker LIVE Coventry High Roller went down.
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A seemingly clueless Mike Johnson, now stupefyingly elevated to the position of Speaker with very little experience under his belt and a world of what he doesnt know overwhelming the bits he can grasp, told Sean Hannity last night that he would charge ahead with impeachment against President Joe Biden.

Johnson spent the interview in the supine position to Hannitys firebrand, far-right agenda, going so far as to claim that Sean Hannitys account of lies and fabrications about Joe Biden had been a pretty good recitation of the facts.

Watch here:

If, in fact, all the evidence leads to where we believe it will, thats very likely impeachable offenses, Johnson said, in spite of the fact that the evidence actually was non-existent, with their own witnesses telling them as much. It was an exercise in televising nationally the mortification of relentlessly promoted and then dashed hysteria.

I know people are getting anxious and theyre getting restless and they just want somebody to be impeached, Johnson told Hannity, attempting to mollify him. But thats not, we dont do that like the other team. We have to base it upon the evidence, and the evidence is coming together. Well see where it leads.

We have already seen where it leads and it has been a big nothing burger of sad fiction, equivocation fallacy, and lies. Republicans clearly want to impeach Joe Biden for Donald Trump. The alleged ketchup-thrower has now been indicted 4 separate times on 91 criminal counts and he wants the other guy to be smeared as well. Its not fair in the mind of a child if they are held accountable while others are not, even if others did not do anything for which to be held accountable. And so Joe Biden must be impeached. Not for the country; but for Republicans political hopes.

Johnson looks a little like the lamb led to the slaughter here, his own zealously overblown belief in himself notwithstanding. The little guy from Louisiana who has of yet has never really had to run in a tough race is now up against the right wing media machine that runs Congress in defiance of facts, logic, and the will of the people.

Of course, Johnsons beliefs appear to meet up with Fox News on paper, but at some point the time will come when Johnson collides with reality and cant make their impeachment revenge fantasies come true.

Philip Bump of the Washington Post pointed out that James Comer isnt feeling the impeachment fever, The Biden impeachment inquiry has held no more hearings in the month since the first one. And, by his own admission, Comer doesnt want to.

I dont know that I want to hold any more hearings, to be honest with you, Comer said while speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill last week. He complained that it was hard to keep members present for hours on end, given that so many had other commitments. Instead, he said, he preferred depositions, which you can do more with.

Yeah, the fake hearings havent gone well for House Republicans. Theyre going to try to conflate depositions with hearings in the future, as it gives their media the ability to generate the strong emotional response it needs while avoiding pesky facts. But that means that there will not be a real impeachment.

There will be an imaginary impeachment. A rhetorical impeachment, if you will. And its on Speaker Johnson to sell the excitement and fervor of a fictional impeachment to the rabid and demanding base of true believers, in which Johnson himself seems to be currently included.

Johnson cant see the inevitable humiliation and downfall coming his way. He is protected by the unfortunate meeting of own ego with his own ignorance right now. You can see from his face that he really believes he can save the country with his legal ministry of bigotry, racism and misogyny.

Eventually, after squeezing him for all hes worth, the Right wing machine will drop him like it dropped Sarah Palin, Paul Ryan, Kevin McCarthy, and so many others. It will take a year or so to set in, but it will happen.

Its as inevitable as Republican conflation of Joe Bidens brother paying off a loan is with Trumps historic levels of corruption.
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GM matched Ford and settled the United Auto Workers strike by agreeing to a 25% raise for union workers.

The news:

BREAKING: General Motors has agreed to provide 25% wage increases to UAW members, matching the same offer by Ford, to end the six-week strike, sources tell @DavidWelch47 and @gablova  Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) October 27, 2023

This is great news for autoworkers who have been on strike for the last six weeks, and as anyone who is a member of a union household can tell you, strikes are hard times. Walking the picket line while having no money coming in with bills to pay and often a family at home is very stressful.

If anyone believes that the workers were not helped by having a pro-worker president showing up on the picket line to support them, they are kidding themselves. Trump who is one of the most anti-worker presidents in decades showed no support for the strike and tried to use it as a platform for his presidential campaign.

While not returning to their glory days of decades ago, unions are enjoying several high profile victories. There is strength in being a member of a union, and that strength got UAW workers a 25% raise from two of the Big Three US automakers.
The European Union will continue to support Ukraine's reform efforts to move closer to the EU.

This is discussed in the conclusions of the European Council, approved by EU leaders, whose meeting was held on October 26-27 in Brussels.

"The European Union will continue to work closely with Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and Georgia and support their reform efforts on their European paths," the document notes.

The European Council welcomes the extension of the temporary protection for displaced persons from Ukraine until March 2025. "The European Union remains committed to supporting displaced persons, both in Ukraine and in the European Union, including through adequate and flexible financial assistance to the Member States who carry the largest burden of the medical, education and living costs of refugees," the conclusions state.

In addition, EU leaders raised the issue of food security in light of Russia's withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Initiative and the destruction of the Ukrainian grain infrastructure by the Russian Federation. "Russia's unilateral decision to terminate the implementation of the Black Sea Grain Initiative and its deliberate attacks on Ukraine's grain storage and export facilities, as well as its actions to hinder the freedom of navigation in the Black Sea, show that Russia continues to weaponise food and undermine global food security. The European Council stresses the importance of security and stability in the Black Sea, vital for sustainable grain exports," the conclusions state.

"The European Council supports all efforts, including those of the UN, to facilitate exports of Ukraine's grain and other agricultural products to the countries most in need, notably in Africa and the Middle East. The European Council calls for the capacity of the EU's Solidarity Lanes to be further enhanced to facilitate transit and export to these countries and invites the Commission to propose new measures to that end," the conclusions state.

Conclusions of the summit: work on the revision of the EU budget will continue so that a decision is made before the end of the year.
Ive gotten the chance to attend a few Rotary Club of Aiken luncheons in recent years, and one of the things that stands out to me is the four-way test that members recite at the end of meetings. Read moreColumn: Voting is the best way to make your voice heard
Aiken Standard reporter

Matthew Christian is a reporter for the Aiken Standard. He covers the Savannah River Site, city of Aiken and politics.

Matthew previously covered government and politics for the Morning News in Florence. He is a graduate of the University of South Carolina School of Law and the University of Charleston in West Virginia.

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More exported goods are leaving South Carolina this year, and that's helping the State Ports Authority outperform its Southeast competitors as inbound cargo shipments continue to wither in the nation's post-pandemic economy.

The number of loaded export containers moving through Charleston's terminals grew by more than 12 percent in September compared to a year earlier and they have increased by 8.6 percent year to date. The increases have helped to counteract double-digit drops on the import side of the business.

"Exports are up due to both the strength of commodities, such as chemicals and agricultural goods, as well the continued boom of manufactured goods, including parts and tires," Byron Miller, the SPA's chief commercial officer and vice president of marketing, said in a written statement.

Those commodities are driving increased activity at the maritime agency's inland ports in Greer, which primarily handles manufactured goods, and Dillon, where agriculture and other products are shipped. The Greer site near the BMW plant set a record in August for the most cargo handled since it opened a decade ago.

"South Carolina continues to attract massive investments from existing and expanding manufacturers alike, particularly in the automotive industry," Miller said. "While (overall cargo) volumes are down from the prior year, South Carolinas strong manufacturing base continues to facilitate growth in both imports and exports."

The Port of Charleston's terminals handled 199,208 20-foot cargo containers in September  down about 12 percent compared to the same period last year. Cargo levels have fallen nearly 13 percent through the first nine months of 2023.

Imports are lagging by about 15 percent monthly and year-to-date because consumers have shifted their spending away from the household goods that drove the economy during the pandemic and toward services and experiences, such as concerts, restaurant meals and traveling.
Spoleto Festival USA has announced that Paul Wiancko has been named Charles E. and Andrea L. Volpe Director of Chamber Music. He succeeds director Geoff Nuttall, who died in October 2022 at age 56 after undergoing treatment for pancreatic cancer.

The California-born cellist and composer is a self-described serial chamber musician. He is currently a member of the internationally acclaimed Kronos Quartet and former cellist for Harlem Quartet. He was also founding member of the violin and cello duo Ayane & Paul as well as the quartet-collective Owls. He has also performed with a wide range of artists, from Yo-Yo Ma to Chick Corea.

Paul has an infectious passion for chamber music and an exceptional talent for intuitively communicating some of the most complex musical devices, Spoleto Festival USA Director and CEO Mena Mark Hanna said in a statement.

Wiancko is also no stranger to Spoletos hallmark chamber music series; he has been part of the program in recent years and has served as composer-in-residence. Recent programs have included his compositions, which have also been performed by groups including the Kronos Quartet and St. Lawrence String Quartet.

With his long, black mane and gentle, reflective mien, the bespectacled Wiancko has cultivated a following in his own right among Spoletos famously zealous chamber music audience members. That, in part, stems from an artistic kinship with Nuttall, which was based on their mutual, unbridled joy in sharing all modes of the music with anyone who would listen.

In his festival statement, Hanna dubbed Wiancko an engine of ingenuity for Spoleto, one that by extension encompasses the chamber music field.

Underscoring how the role will involve Wiancko curating across periods and genres, Hanna framed the programmatic approach as subverting our expectations of what is Western and non-Western, canonic and not canonic, new and old.

The acclaimed chamber music series, a festival anchor since Spoletos first season in 1977, currently presents two concerts a day at the Dock Street Theatre. These are performed by a core group of musicians gathered by the director. Many return each year, while the series also folds in guest artists.
GEORGETOWN  Cutting down protected trees in rural areas and in the Waccamaw Neck portion of the Hammock Coast will now come with tougher penalties.

Count officials said the amended tree ordinance is not intended to be a revenue generator but rather a deterrent. The zoning department has received numerous calls about trees being removed without a permit and questions about the penalties for removal, according to the county.

The updated ordinance allows the county to fine violators who damage or remove protected trees up to $500 for every inch of a protected trees diameter at breast height. Additionally, after a tree violation, no permits can be issued and no further development will be allowed on a project site for up to three years.

The amendments received a second favorable vote on Sept. 26, with county staff coming back with some changes before the final vote, which passed 6-1 on Oct. 24. Councilman Raymond Newton voted no.

Before the final vote, council members added the words up to to the fine period; included the scientific names of the trees in the ordinance; differentiated between businesses and individuals; and included a new condition that requires an up to three-year prohibition on rezoning a tract to a higher density or to a commercial designation unless the tree harvesting that was done on the site was done as part of a previously approved development plan.

While we fully support the exemption and the commercial timber harvesting as an activity and forestry as an activity, this is an attempt to prevent the use of timbering or harvesting to be done as a development tool, county Planning Director Holly Richardson said. So, as a way to clear the tract so the site may be developed. If it is going to be developed, then we would want them to save the protected or grand trees, whatever the applicable trees were for the development.
CLEMSON  Taking advantage of a mostly vacant campus, Clemson University officials teamed up with local emergency responders to host an active threat drill over fall break.

It started with an emergency alert through the schools email and texting notification system, and included actors posing as victims and perpetrators in the area around Tillman Hall.

With active shooter incidents still a recent memory for some colleges, its an unfortunate necessity for Greg Mullen, the university's police chief.

This exercise enabled us to practice our emergency plans associated with an active threat, he said. We simulated an active threat on campus and what that response would look like in a coordinated way, integrating all of the public safety entities that we would be working with. Unfortunately, this specific situation is one that we see more and more around the country.

Months of effort went into planning the full-scale exercise, which included three university departments, seven law enforcement agencies, five EMS agencies and hospitals, two dispatch centers, two emergency management agencies and six other campus partners.

In all, over 150 participants took part.

During the two-hour exercise, responders had to locate the suspects, treat victims and transport them to hospitals, testing response times for everyone involved. EMS participants operated on a staggered schedule to simulate travel times, and a helicopter life-flight simulation took place as well.

Testing the media relations and community communication side, Mullen gave a briefing at the end of the training exercise. From there, participants and university leaders held sessions to evaluate their responses and gain immediate feedback.

There is a lot of trauma when these situations do occur, so we want to make sure that we are doing everything we can to prevent it and be able to respond as quickly as possible to minimize casualties that may occur in a situation like this, Mullen said.
GREENVILLE  Struggling with low student enrollment and finding certified teachers, Blythe Academy is planning to scale down its French language immersion magnet program.

The K-5 program, which runs alongside a Spanish immersion program at the school, is proposed to be replaced with a French studies class starting with next year's kindergarten students, according to a letter recently sent to parents.

"Although both programs have been successful, the French Immersion program has seen significant challenges that have impacted the quality of the program and the prospects for its future," principal Steven Sokohl said in the letter.

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"While all of us  parents, students, Blythe teachers and administrators, and the District administration  are invested in this program and wish nothing more than to see it continue, the unfortunate reality is that it has become unsustainable in the long term."

As long as the number of students enrolled can sustain the program, all students currently enrolled will be able to continue until the current kindergarten class exits fifth grade in 2029, Sokohl said.

Sokohl cited low enrollment in Blythe Academy's French immersion program as part of the decision. Only about 12% of students at the school are enrolled in the French program, while the vast majority of students are enrolled in Spanish, enrollment data shows.

The Post and Courier has reached out to Greenville County Schools for more enrollment data from Blythe Academy's French program.

Once students graduate from Blythe Academy's French immersion program after fifth grade, they can choose to continue into the Greenville Middle's French immersion program. However, only two students this year chose to do so, Sokohl said.

Sokohl also said the difficulty in recruiting qualified teachers was a significant part of the decision. Since immersion programs require that teachers are certified in both the content area and the immersion language, the district has taken to recruiting from across the country and overseas, as well as starting a program to certify teachers on the job.
A new report finds the rate of Atlantic hurricanes which surge from minor to major in less than 24 hours has more than doubled since the late 20th century. As warming waters fuel increasingly erratic hurricanes, local emergency managers are trying to keep up. Read moreAtlantic hurricanes are getting stronger faster. How are local officials keeping up?
President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen states that work on the 12th package of sanctions, which will include Russian diamonds, continues, as well as work on the use of frozen Russian assets.

She announced this on Friday in Brussels at a press conference at the end of a two-day meeting of the European Council.

"We are in the process of preparing the 12th package of sanctions, now we are in the consultations with the member states, in particular, we are looking into how to cut the remaining revenues that Russia draws from the export of diamonds to Europe and its partners, this would be done in very close cooperation with our G7 partners, and we continue to make sure that our existing sanctions are properly implemented and effectively enforced," she said.

Von der Leyen also raised the issue of Russia's immobilized assets in the European Union. "This was also a point of discussion. We all recall that it was in March last year that we took collectively the important political decision to immobilize Russian sovereign assets. The value of these sovereign assets stands at EUR 211 billion, and politically we agreed that ultimately Russia must pay for the long-term reconstruction of Ukraine," the President of the European Commission said.

She also recalled that a discussion between finance ministers took place not long ago in Marrakesh, which allowed for good progress on basic principles, so the next step would be a real proposal. "We are currently working on a proposal to initially focus on so-called windfall profits, in other words, we will present a proposal to find a way to how use the proceeds from those assets that are currently benefiting a limited number of financial institutions in the European Union. These windfall profits are already quite substantial, and the idea is to pull them and then to channel them through the EU budget to Ukraine and the reconstruction of Ukraine," von der Leyen detailed.
The South Carolina Department of Social Services (DSS) is now a certified sensory inclusive agency through training provided by KultureCity, a national non-profit drawing attention to invisible conditions. Thanks to a new partnership with KultureCity and their Sensory Inclusion Training Prog Read moreDSS Becomes First State Agency Certified in Sensory Inclusiveness
Three state representatives spoke against "mayoral overstep" days after Charleston-area mayors expressed discontent with the school board, contending the county's elected board members have the right to conduct business as they see fit.

State Reps. Jordan Pace, Kathy Landing and Matt Leber  all Republicans  made their remarks Oct. 26 outside the Charleston County School District headquarters on Calhoun Street. They were joined by some community members who spoke of feeling unsafe at school board meetings.

"The narrative is being overwhelmed from the leftist activists and these other politicians that think they can jump into the school board, demand how it should be ran," said Leber, R-Johns Island.

The 50-person gathering was in response to an Oct. 24 press conference at which three Charleston-area mayors pleaded for the school board to put politics aside and focus on student education.

Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg, Mount Pleasant Mayor Will Haynie and North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey presented three demands to the board: restore transparency, focus on setting policy and hiring leaders, and require a supermajority (two-thirds) vote on critical matters.

Tecklenburg added the board's five-member majority is endorsed by Moms For Liberty, a conservative parents' rights group that advocates against issues like LGBTQ rights and critical race theory.

The mayors said they would meet with state legislators about deconsolidating the school district if the dysfunction persisted. State Rep. Joe Bustos, R-Mount Pleasant, who serves as chairman of the local legislative delegation, also participated in the mayors' press conference.
COLUMBIA  One of South Carolina's top public school advocacy organizations is suing the state over its recently implemented school voucher program, arguing it violates the constitutional prohibition on public dollars funding private schools.

The lawsuit, filed Oct. 26 by the South Carolina Education Association, argues the Republican-backed Education Scholarship Trust Fund voucher program will deprive the state's already underperforming public school system of millions of dollars in needed funding while empowering private institutions that lack the accountability measures required of state schools.

Our (state) constitution reflects a binding commitment that the resources of our state should be used to fully fund our public schools, which serve all students," Sherry East, president of the education association and also a high school science teacher from Rock Hill, said in a statement announcing the lawsuit.

"Instead of private school vouchers, we should invest in our public schools by reducing class size, addressing the teacher shortage crisis and increasing parental involvement," she added. The voucher program "is a clear violation of our state constitution. It cannot go unchallenged.

State Superintendent of Education Ellen Weaver denounced the lawsuit, calling it unsurprising, but disappointing.

"Opponents of expanding opportunity couldnt win at the ballot box, lost in the Legislature, and now ask the courts to overrule the will of the people," she told the Post and Courier in an emailed statement.

The plaintiffs are represented by lawyers from the National Education Association, the Education Law Center, the South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, and the South Carolina firms Nickles Law Firm, and Tinkler Law Firm.

The group has asked the state Supreme Court to directly settle the constitutionality.

Signed into law by Gov. Henry McMaster in May after roughly two decades of battles in the S.C. General Assembly, the school voucher program provides eligible parents with a $6,000 annual grant to enroll their children in a private institution of their choice.
The Charleston County School Board will pay its newly hired and now former Superintendent Eric Gallien more than $300,000 in order for him to go away.

The board voted 8-0 during a special meeting Oct. 27 to accept a settlement agreement with Gallien. The vote came after the board publicly revealed that an outside investigation into a complaint from a "high-level administrative" district employee alleging that he created a hostile work environment found that Gallien did nothing wrong. Board member Courtney Waters was absent having a medical procedure.

As part of the settlement deal, Gallien will be paid one-year's salary totaling $275,000, according to a copy of the agreement provided to The Post and Courier. The district will also pay him an additional $50,000 and reimburse him for any expenses he had through Sept. 25. The district will also pay Gallien $34,000 to cover his attorney fees.

In total, that amounts to roughly $4,000 per work day Gallien has been on the job.

At the meeting, Carol Tempel, one of the four board members who voted against suspending Gallien when the complaint was made public Sept. 25, said she agreed to the settlement because it is what Gallien wanted.

Gallien started his job as superintendent on July 1, having previously serving in a similar position in Racine, Wis.

Following his suspension, Gallien sued the school district for breach of contract. He agreed to drop the suit as part of the settlement agreement. Neither he nor his attorney could be reached for comment.
MONCKS CORNER  Halfway through his murder trial, Salin Mojica Hernandez changed his mind and pleaded guilty to the 2021 slaying of his wife.

In Berkeley County Circuit Court on Oct. 26, Mojica Hernandez admitted he gunned down Maria De La Cruz Chavarria and left her body on the side of a road around 5 a.m. July 20, 2021, leaving their two small children without a mother or father.

Mojica Hernandez decided to stop the trial just before prosecutors were expected to show the jury a video of him leaving the couple's home shortly after his wife left for work. He left wearing a tank top and shorts. He returned wearing nothing but underwear and carrying a box that resembled a handgun case.

Defense attorneys Jason Bybee and Julie Shivers asked Circuit Court Judge Roger Young to give Mojica Hernandez 30 years, the minimum sentence for murder, saying that he "is throwing himself on the mercy of the court" by pleading guilty. But Young said a disturbing amount of thought went into the killing of De La Cruz Chavarria.

Young imposed a 42-year prison term.

Assistant Solicitor Anne Williams told the judge during the sentencing hearing that De La Cruz Chavarria had asked for a divorce weeks before her murder. She was humiliated that her husband had had an affair. But on the morning of her death, Mojica Hernandez took her phone and texted another man, orchestrating a scheme to make her look like the unfaithful one, Williams said.

Weeks earlier, Mojica Hernandez asked a relative where to buy a 9 mm handgun and ammunition. He posted a photo of the gun online, Williams said.

Officers had been sent to the couple's house three times for domestic violence reports before the killing, records show. On one of those visits, De La Cruz Chavarria asked how to get an order of protection, Williams said.

"This case is horrifying for many reasons," Williams said. "But sadly it is just one more victim of domestic violence who couldn't escape. It's heartbreaking."
"If you have a message you want to send to hell, give it to me; I'll carry it."

Those are the now infamous last words of the first alleged female serial killer in the U.S. just before a ranting and unrepentant Lavinia Fisher was hanged in Charleston along with her husband, John, in February 1820, nearly 200 years ago.

But the criminal duo weren't strung up for murder. The charge against them was highway robbery, a capital offense at the time.

The story goes that backcountry travelers bound for Charleston to sell hides, cotton, tobacco and other produce could stop at any of a series of boarding houses set up at different mile-named intervals up the peninsula along what is known as Meeting Street Road. Flush with cash, traders leaving the city would take the same route.

At Six Mile House, located where the old Navy hospital now stands in North Charleston, Lavinia lured in guests with her seductive wiles, fed them a home-cooked meal and sedated her victims with a warm tea, poisoned with oleander. Her husband then robbed them while they slept, murdered them, butchered them and disposed of their bodies in the cellar.

There are even stories that a trap door would open and the victims would fall through the floor.

Multiplied misdeeds

Over time the story of the Fishers' purportedly garish undertakings has become legend, growing more colorful as storytellers multiplied their misdeeds.

One account, published 10 years after the hanging, says "a great number of skeletons were found." At one point, it had grown to between 20 and 30 victims found in different states of decomposition.

Actually, only two bodies were unearthed at Six Mile House a few days after the Fishers and others had been arrested Feb. 18, 1819, according to author and former Charleston-area homicide detective Bruce Orr in his book "Six Miles to Charleston: The True Story of John and Lavinia Fisher." It was published in 2010 and dispels much of the myth about the tempting Lavinia and her "butchering" husband.
Patch Whisky has been all around the United States and Canada painting murals in different cities. The artist and Princeton, West Virginia, native is now using the city of Goose Creek as his muse and is in charge of painting the citys newest mural at 225 Red Bank Road. Read moreArtist leaves mark on mural
COLUMBIA  An audit revealed more troubling news about the South Carolina Department of Disabilities and Special Needs, faulting the beleaguered agency for lax abuse investigations and flawed hiring practices.

The review conducted by the states Legislative Audit Council found that between 2021 and 2023, the department rehired staff previously fired for abuse and neglect violations, failed to report abuse complaints in a timely manner and failed to check video surveillance in most complaint investigations.

The latest report, released Oct. 23, arrives on the heels of another examination that slammed the commission that oversees the department for questionable spending practices and flagrant violations of the Freedom of Information Act.

Anybody who works within the system knows that DDSN has been struggling on some issues, Anna Marie Conner, an attorney for Disability Rights South Carolina, told The Post and Courier on Oct. 26.

The department fully cooperated with the auditors and is still reviewing the report, Derrek Asberry, a department spokesman, said in a statement.

From what weve reviewed thus far, we agree that there are several opportunities for improvement across our agency, Asberry said, adding that the department would work with the Legislature to serve those with disabilities in the best and most efficient way possible.

The audit is likely to fuel longstanding calls to reorganize the states mental health agencies or at least put the department under the direct authority of the governor.

Gov. Henry McMaster stopped short of endorsing a specific fix in remarks to reporters on Oct. 25, but he expressed concern about the results of the audit and said South Carolina was likely the most disorganized state when it comes to government mental health supports.
SPARTANBURG  Construction on the new Spartanburg Police Department headquarters at the corner of West Saint John and North Forest streets is complete with personnel moving into the building this month.

The $13 million project was funded by the 2017 referendum in which voters agreed to raise sales taxes by 1 cent.

The project is part of a larger plan to build a new 180,000-square-foot city and county municipal building, replacing both Spartanburg City Hall and the Spartanburg County administrative building. The sales tax increase is also funding construction of a new Spartanburg County Courthouse scheduled to open by the end of 2023.

In September 2019, City Council approved the purchase of two properties at the corner of West Saint John and North Forest streets for $185,000 for the home of the new police headquarters.

"We started moving into the new building on Monday," Spartanburg Police Chief Alonzo Thompson said. "The evidence and property control units have moved in, and we are trying to get our records section moved over this week."

The new 40,000-square-foot police station headquarters is two stories with the public entrance facing West Saint John Street. It includes a community room near the lobby and a real-time crime center for officers to use. The police department had worked in space at City Hall that had become inefficient for the department.

"The department had been in that building since 1961," Thompson said. "We will still have access to the old building at City Hall till the end of the year, but we hope to get most of our things out this month."

The police department has 121 officers on duty.

Thompson said the department continues to work toward having a full staff of 132 officers this year.

Spartanburg Mayor Jerome Rice said the new headquarters will help retain talent and boost morale. Members of the Spartanburg City Council toured the facility in late September.

"We are looking forward to the total transition from the old City Hall to the new office, and we hope it helps us fight crime better," Rice said.
The Shevchenkivsky District Court of Kyiv extended the custody status for businessman Ihor Kolomoisky in the form of detention with an alternative bail of UAH 3.8 billion until December 2.

"The request of the detective... of the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine... to be satisfied. To extend the period of detention of suspect Kolomoisky as part of the pretrial investigation  until December 2, 2023 inclusive," the court ruling announced on Friday said.

According to the court decision, the businessman was given bail of 1.45 million subsistence minimums, that is, almost UAH 3.8 billion as an alternative to arrest. The court also ordered Kolomoisky to be treated.

After the court's decision was announced, the defense announced that it would appeal the court's decision.

As reported, on October 24, the Shevchenkivsky District Court of Kyiv upheld the custody status of Kolomoisky in the form of detention with an alternative bail of UAH 3.8 billion, not granting the lawyers' request to change Kolomoisky's custody status to 24-hour house arrest.

On October 6, the Kyiv Court of Appeal upheld the custody status in the form of detention with the alternative of bail of UAH 3.9 billion for businessman Ihor Kolomoisky, suspected of fraud and embezzlement of PrivatBank funds.

On September 25, the Kyiv Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the trial court to select the custody status for Kolomoisky in the form of detention with an alternative bail of UAH 509 million.

The Security Service of Ukraine notified Kolomoisky of suspicion under two articles of the Criminal Code: Article 190 (fraud), and Article 209 (legalization (laundering) of property obtained by criminal means). Law enforcement officers established that the businessman during 2013-2020 legalized more than UAH 0.5 billion by transferring them abroad. At the same time, he used the infrastructure of controlled banking institutions.

The Shevchenkivsky District Court changed the bail amount for Kolomoisky to UAH 3.891 billion after new suspicions from the Security Service of Ukraine and the Bureau of Economic Security (BES).

According to investigators, between 2013 and 2014, Kolomoisky illegally took possession of UAH 5.8 billion. To do this, he created a criminal group consisting of employees of the bank, in which he was the founder and shareholder.

The Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) reported suspicions to the former ultimate beneficiary of PJSC CB PrivatBank Kolomoisky and five of his former top managers of embezzling bank funds worth more than UAH 9.2 billion.

After notifying Kolomoisky of suspicion, anti-corruption authorities seized the businessman's assets for 48 hours.
Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar has an undistinguished legislative record. She has been a master of small-ball politics, sponsoring unimportant but superficially appealing bills while excelling at constituent service. But now, Klobuchar has stepped out as an advocate for censorship, a key Democratic Party priority.

On October 19, she wrote a letter to Jeff Bezos, complaining that when Amazons Alexa, which relies on a variety of sources to answer questions, responds to questions about the 2020 election, it appears that some answers were provided by contributors instead of verified news sources. The horror!

One wonders what Klobuchar means by verified news sources. Verified by whom? And what is the verification? Someone has verified that they exist? That what they reported is true? (Just kidding.) That their reporters have worthless journalism degrees? That they are loyal Democratic Party foot soldiers? Now we are getting warmer.

Klobuchars attempt at censorship roused Matt Taibbi to an epic denunciation at his Substack site, Racket News. Taibbi relentlessly mocks Klobuchars pretensions, as endorsed by the liberal press, and then gets to the point. (Links in original omitted):

Minnesota Senator and Hindenburg presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar sent a letter (h/t ReclaimTheNet.org) demanding that he enjoin Alexa from citing unvetted sources, specifically Substack and Rumble. No hell is hot enough for this person. Referring to a Washington Post story complaining that Alexa cited Substack, she wrote: When asked about the 2020 presidential election, it appears that some answers were provided by contributors instead of verified news sources.

***

Now this person, whose humor persona was surely cooked up in part to soften a rep for throwing things at aides, who scored roughly John Blutarskys grade-point average with the backing of the national media establishment [in 2020 presidential primaries], who managed less than 6% of Democratic voters in her own state, has the gall to push one of the worlds biggest media distributors to disallow voluntary access to contributors instead of verified news sources. Klobuchar wants Jeff Bezos to make sure Amazons home surveillance robots dont spit out even occasional answers from a wider pool of real human beings, including thousands of independent contributors. The information landscape must be a pure monopoly of verified news sources. This Senator-to-billionaire communique isnt illegal because she didnt phrase it as an order or voice the implied threat of regulation, among other things. If Bezos ends up complying, however, Ive half a mind to sue. Patience is wearing thin with the relentless determination of government figures  whether U.S. Cyber Command or a Minnesota Senator  to weed out independent media from the digital landscape. Its not enough to have 99% of the informational space? They need all of it?

Of course they do! Any crack in the wall might allow reality to slip through.

About those verified news sources: the list includes the Bezos-owned Washington Post, which gave Klobuchar the idea by producing the original news article complaining about Substack, a subscription newsletter service. They linked to another Post piece describing this site as a home to conspiracy theorists banned elsewhere, pointing a finger at Joseph Mercola and complaining about a contributor who claimed Trump won Pennsylvania in 2020. The Washington Post has serious boulders to whine about inaccuracy here. When via the Twitter Files I exposed the Hamilton 68 scam they fell for over and over, the Post with reluctance issued minor corrections to eight reports. Why minor? Because reviewing editors concluded the paper appropriately reported on emerging research, including Hamilton 68. Emerging research is code for We didnt know it was bullshit yet. The Post repeatedly claimed to be describing social media activity of online Russian bots who were mostly ordinary users in the U.S. and other Western countries. Thats an actual conspiracy theory that they wouldnt have had to admit without Substack, and they have the cheek to seek a ban on us.

As we have shown countless times, the main purveyors of disinformation are the New York Times, the Associated Press, and The Washington Post. They want to suppress the competition largely because the competition has repeatedly shown them to be dishonest liars.

Taibbi concludes:

These people are the worst. I would pay money to watch them all mauled by bears. Senator Klobuchar, Mr.Bezos, esteemed editors of the Washington Post, to hell with all of you.

A little too mild, but otherwise appropriate.
This video is all over Twitter, so you likely have already seen it:

Why is this footage only coming to light now? We know he got his plea deal, but this is outrageous. https://t.co/3HRgTufECD  Tammy Bruce (@HeyTammyBruce) October 26, 2023



You recall that Jamal Bowman is the Democratic rep who pulled the fire alarm next to an emergency exit in one of the House office buildings, in order to delay a vote on the House floor. Bowman explained his actions by saying that he was hurrying to the floor to vote, and he thought the fire alarm was some kind of door opener. That was a ridiculous story, but it was good enough for the Democratic Party press and for D.C. law enforcement, which let Bowman off with a $1,000 fine and a few months of probation. Upon his guilty plea and sentencing, Bowman said:

Im thankful for the quick resolution from the District of Columbia Attorney Generals office on this issue and grateful that the United States Capitol Police General Counsels office agreed I did not obstruct nor intend to obstruct any House vote or proceedings. I am responsible for activating a fire alarm, I will be paying the fine issued, and look forward to these charges being ultimately dropped.

The new video shows that every word Bowman has said about the incident was a lie. He first took down Emergency Exit signs, so he obviously knew what the door was. He then deliberately pulled the fire alarm and immediately walked away. He made no effort to exit through the door. His sole objective was to pull the alarm, cause the building to be evacuated, and delay the House vote on a stopgap spending bill.

So why are we just now seeing this complete video, too late to impact Bowmans prosecution? The obvious explanation is that the Capitol Police were covering for Bowman. Is there another explanation?

Obstructing an official proceeding is what many (I think most) of the January 6 protesters were charged with. Here we have inarguable video evidence that Jamal Bowman deliberately obstructed an official proceeding. If the January 6 demonstrators deserved a year in solitary confinement, so does Bowman.

Bowman, meanwhile, was last seen voting for Hamas on the House floor. A thoroughly detestable character.
Seeking to do the job native Minnesota press wont do, I have written more than a hundred posts to present a true portrait of Amy Klobuchar. She has the local press serving on her public relations team. Minnesota journalists are mostly happy to serve in this capacity, but when they fall short of her expectations, she uses methods undreamed of in How To Win Friends and Influence People to get what she wants.

One headline that Klobuchar has never before encountered is the pleasingly blunt one supplied by Racket News for the Matt Taibbi column excerpted by John Hinderaker: Amy Klobuchar, you suck. Taibbi has dubbed his current anti-censorship venture Project Amy in her honor.

I know the Minnesota press is in love with Amy, but Taibbi documents the ludicrously favorable treatment of Klobuchar by the national media as well. I learned from Taibbi that the national press has saluted Klobuchar for her great sense of humor. In the stories Taibbi cites, Klobuchar is presented as the queen of comedy. Seeing her up close at home, however, I have found her to be one of the most boring people I have ever met.

Taibbi has rightly focused on one element of Klobuchars political project that is seriously threatening. I have slightly revised and edited a 2017 post to fill in the portrait.

* * * * *

Former funnyman and Senator Al Franken titled his best-selling memoir Al Franken, Giant of the Senate. He posed for the books self-mocking cover. The title and the photograph made a small concession to self-awareness, or to the public relations value of pretending self-awareness, but he deserves credit for the thought. It was a joke.

Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar pretends no such self-awareness. With the active assistance of her hometown newspaper and its equally braindead counterparts on the national stage, Klobuchar holds herself out as a giant of the Senate. She has a certain genius for avoiding outspoken stands on important issues and leading the way on trivial matters calculated to garner broad public support. If she secures a favorable headline or two in the process, its no coincidence. It is the true object of her efforts.

Senator Klobuchar is a reliable vote for the Democratic Party line, but she is quiet about it. She doesnt want to upset anybody. She wants the reputation of a problem-solver who is above nasty partisanship. She wants to be deemed a giant of the Senate, without the irony.

Klobuchar wants more than anything else to preside over an era of good feelings  of good feelings about Amy Klobuchar. Senator Klobuchar attaches her name to many bills that dont amount to much, such as the proposed 2015 bill to resolve the crisis of the detergent pod. It represents the reductio ad absurdum of the vacuity to which she has reduced herself in the service of self-promotion. Klobuchar relies on such vacuity to present herself as the true giant of the Senate.

In August 2017 Senator Klobuchar appeared on the Comedy Channels Daily Show. Daily Show host Trevor Noah gave [her] a gushing welcome Tuesday night, according to the Star Tribunes Maya Rao  so you know it must have been bad. Although she was appearing on a comedy show, Klobuchars vaunted sense of humor somehow went missing in action.

Noah pointed out that Senator Klobuchar had been ranked as the most productive senator in terms of getting bills passed into law. Thats supposed to be a good thing.

Noah had no idea what he was talking about. He was relying on data compiled by Medill News Service from the tracking website GovTrack for the 114th Congress (Jan 6, 2015-Jan 3, 2017). Klobuchar was found to have sponsored or co-sponsored 27 bills that had been enacted into law in the session.

Klobuchar touted her accomplishment in a December 2016 press release. The Star Tribune dutifully followed up in a story by Allison Sherry entirely lacking in analysis. In terms of productivity, Franken ranked right up there with Klobuchar. Perhaps Franken really was a giant of the Senate.

Klobuchar earned recognition with 27 bills that she sponsored or co-sponsored. Five of the 27 bills concerned naming or renaming federal facilities. The late 18-term Eighth District Congressman Jim Oberstar loomed large in Klobuchars accomplishment, such as it was. Most of the rest of the bills carrying Klobuchars name amounted to little more than nothing. Even so, Klobuchars bill to resolve the crisis of the detergent pod apparently didnt make it. (She claimed credit for action taken by Procter & Gamble on its own.)

Trevor Noahs show was a mainstay of the Comedy Channel. It was supposed to be funny. Noah nevertheless misplaced the humor in Klobuchars legislative distinction.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a conversation with leader of the UAE Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

"I had a call with HH Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. I am grateful to the UAE for participating in the Peace Formula meeting in Jeddah and for its willingness to send a representative to Malta, as well as for its humanitarian medical and energy aid to Ukraine. I informed His Highness about Ukraine's humanitarian Grain From Ukraine program and invited the UAE to its upcoming second summit," Zelenskyy wrote on the social network X (Twitter) on Friday.

The Ukrainian head of state also said that during the conversation the situation in the Middle East was discussed.

"I underscored the importance of protecting civilians as well as ensuring the uninterrupted work of humanitarian corridors," Zelenskyy concluded.

According to the press service of the Ukrainian head of state, following the conversation, the parties agreed to continue working on concluding an agreement on a comprehensive economic partnership.
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VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / October 27, 2023 / Avino Silver & Gold Mines Ltd. (TSX:ASM)(NYSE American:ASM)(FSE:GV6) "Avino" or the "Company") announces that Coeur Mining, Inc. ("Coeur") will offer for sale up to 14,000,000 common shares of Avino (the "Common Shares") currently held by Coeur to eligible investors outside of Canada at the prevailing market price at the time of sale, for gross proceeds to Coeur of approximately US$7.0 million (the "Secondary Offering"). Avino will not receive any proceeds from the Secondary Offering.Coeur owns as of today 14,000,000 Common Shares, representing approximately 11.24% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares of Avino (on a non-diluted basis). Upon completion of the Secondary Offering, Coeur's ownership of Avino's issued and outstanding Common Shares will be reduced from 11.24% to nil.The Secondary Offering will be conducted by Coeur through registered agents (the "Agents") on a "best efforts" basis only in the United States of America and in any other jurisdiction where the Common Shares may be lawfully offered for sale and sold. No Common Shares will be offered or sold to Canadian purchasers, and there will be no solicitations or advertising activities undertaken in Canada in connection with the Secondary Offering. The Common Shares will be delivered on such dates as may be agreed upon by the Selling Shareholder and the Agents until all of the Common Shares are sold, although it is anticipated that the Secondary Offering will be completed within the next 90 days. Coeur may pay to the Agents a cash commission based on the gross proceeds of the Secondary Offering. Avino has agreed to pay all of the Agents' reasonable costs and expenses incidental to the Secondary Offering, in accordance with the provisions of the registration rights agreement between Coeur and Avino dated March 21, 2022.The Prospectus Supplement relating to the Secondary Offering, together with the Base Shelf Prospectus dated April 11, 2023 will be filed with the securities commissions in all of the Provinces of Canada, except Quebec, and Avino's Form F-10 Registration Statement filed with and declared effective on April 21, 2023 (the "Registration Statement") by the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") in the United States, as amended for the Secondary Offering, will be filed with the SEC (the Prospectus Supplement relating to the Secondary Offering together with the Base Shelf Prospectus dated April 11, 2023, and the Registration Statement, as amended, are collectively, the "Offering Documents"). The Offering Documents will contain important detailed information about the securities being offered. Before you invest, you should read the Offering Documents and the other documents the Company has filed for more complete information about the Company and the Offering. Copies of the Offering Documents will be available for free by visiting the Company's profiles on the SEDAR+ website maintained by the Canadian Securities Administrators at www.sedarplus.ca or the SEC's website at www.sec.gov , as applicable.This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy securities, nor will there be any sale of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction.About Avino:Avino is a silver producer from its wholly owned Avino Mine near Durango, Mexico. The Company's silver and gold production remains unhedged. The Company's mission and strategy is to create shareholder value through its focus on profitable organic growth at the historic Avino Property and the strategic acquisition of the La Preciosa property. Avino currently controls mineral resources, as per NI 43-101, that total 368 million silver equivalent ounces, within our district-scale land package. We are committed to managing all business activities in a safe, environmentally responsible and cost-effective manner, while contributing to the well-being of the communities in which we operate. We encourage you to connect with us on X (formerly Twitter) at @Avino_ASM and on LinkedIn at Avino Silver & Gold Mines. To view the Avino Mine VRIFY tour, please click here.On Behalf of the Board"David Wolfin"David WolfinPresident & CEOAvino Silver & Gold Mines Ltd.CONTACT INFORMATION:Avino Silver & Gold Mines Ltd.900 - 570 Granville StreetVancouver, British Columbia V6C 3P1Investor RelationsE-mail: ir@ avino.com Safe Harbor Statement - This news release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (together, the "forward looking statements") within the meaning of applicable securities laws and the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including our belief as to the expected closing of the Secondary Offering. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release and the dates of technical reports, as applicable. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, as there can be no assurance that the future circumstances, outcomes or results anticipated in or implied by such forward-looking statements will occur or that plans, intentions or expectations upon which the forward-looking statements are based will occur. While we have based these forward-looking statements on our expectations about future events as at the date that such statements were prepared, the statements are not a guarantee that such future events will occur and are subject to risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors which could cause events or outcomes to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.Such factors and assumptions include, among others, Coeur's and our ability to satisfy the conditions to closing of the Secondary Offering, the effects of general economic conditions, the price of gold, silver and copper, changing foreign exchange rates and actions by government authorities, uncertainties associated with legal proceedings and negotiations and misjudgments in the course of preparing forward-looking information. In addition, there are known and unknown risk factors which could cause our actual results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Known risk factors include risks associated with project development; financing needs; operational risks associated with mining and mineral processing; fluctuations in metal prices; title matters; uncertainties and risks related to carrying on business in foreign countries; e
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NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / October 27, 2023 / Boston Scientific will build its first factory in China in the Lingang New Area of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, as the US medical device giant becomes the latest multinational pharmaceutical firm to localize production, Yicai has exclusively learned.Global Chief Executive Officer Michael Mahoney attended the signing ceremony today during his first visit to China since the end of the pandemic. The amount of investment was not disclosed and it is likely to still be some years before the project is commissioned.Boston Scientific can cut production costs and benefit from local preferential policies if it sets up a factory in the country, industry insiders told Yicai.Many foreign pharma firms are setting up production bases in China and linking arms with Chinese companies to develop innovative medical products and to qualify for the national healthcare bulk-buy program, which allows medical apparatus makers to gain access to the country's vast medical insurance scheme.Boston Scientific is also teaming up with Acotec, a wholly foreign-owned enterprise based in Beijing, to collaborate on research and development, manufacturing and commercialization over the next three years, according to the deal signed between the two parties in July.Medtronic is also building a plant in Lingang with an initial investment of CNY300 million (USD41.1 million), the world's largest medical device maker said in February last year.Boston Scientific, which is a leading manufacturer of minimally invasive interventional medical device products in fields such as endoscopy, urology and neuromodulation, raked in revenue of USD3.6 billion in the second quarter, and last year it scored global revenue of USD12 billion.About Yicai GlobalLaunched in August 2016, Yicai Global is the English-language news service of Yicai Media Group, the financial news arm of Shanghai Media Group, which is one of China's largest state-owned media conglomerates. Focused primarily on China's business world, Yicai Global is dedicated to provide reliable and insightful information and analysis of the economy, finance, tech, startups, and entrepreneurs.Media Contact:Contact person: Zhu LimingEmail: yicaiglobal@ yicaiglobal.com SOURCE: Yicai Media Group
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Co-hosted by Badr Jafar, COP28 Special Representative for Business and Philanthropy, and the Young Presidents' Organization (YPO), the event brought together over 350 business leaders to discuss the MENA private sector's role in addressing climate change.The event was attended by COP28 President H.E. Dr. Sultan Al Jaber and featured keynote speeches by Badr Jafar, as well as H.E. Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak, the UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for COP28, and H.E. Helal Saeed Al Marri, Director General of Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism.E. Razan Al Mubarak emphasized the crucial role of mobilizing private investment to address climate finance gaps and boosting nature capital.The upcoming COP28 Business and Philanthropy Climate Forum highlights the COP28 Presidency's commitment to cross-sectoral inclusivity, engaging private businesses and philanthropies to co-develop solutions for sustainable development.The Forum aims to coordinate strategies on how the private sector can help address the financing gap of over USD 3 trillion required annually to achieve net-zero emissions, support climate adaptation, reverse nature loss and restore biodiversity.DUBAI , UAE / ACCESSWIRE / October 27, 2023 / The Road to COP28' event brought together over 350 prominent business leaders, entrepreneurs, and government officials, in collaboration with 27 YPO Middle East/North Africa chapters.Co-hosted by Badr Jafar, COP28 Special Representative for Business and Philanthropy, the event was attended by H.E. Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, COP28 President, H.E. Abdulla Al Basti, Secretary General of The Executive Council of Dubai, Lieutenant General Mohammed Al Marri, Director General of the Federal Authority for Identity & Citizenship, H.E. Khalfan Belhoul, CEO of Dubai Future Foundation, H.E. Mohammad Ali bin Rashed Lootah, President & CEO of Dubai Chambers, and other officials. The event's primary goal was to rally collective efforts and raise regional business ambitions in tackling climate change in preparation for COP28, and the COP28 Business and Philanthropy Climate Forum scheduled on 1 and 2 December 2023.The event consisted of a number of keynote speeches on the preparations for COP28 and opportunities for business to engage across the COP28 Presidential Action Agenda, including from H.E. Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak, the UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for COP28, and H.E. Helal Saeed Al Marri, Director General of Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism.H.E. Al Mubarak shared the goals and vision of the COP28 Presidency, emphasizing the critical role of mobilizing private investment to address climate finance gaps. The COP28 Presidency is fully committed to inclusivity and recognizes that business and philanthropy are essential stakeholders in developing collective solutions for achieving net-zero pathways and sustainable development.The event marked a significant step forward for the regional business community, as the UAE prepares to host COP28.Attendees had the opportunity to participate in sessions focusing on critical aspects of climate action underscored by COP28's private sector initiatives; such as the energy sector's role in global emissions reductions and the policies driving it, the intersection of climate finance and technological innovation, the connection between the built environment and climate, and the protection of natural assets and food systems in addressing the climate crisis.COP28 President H.E. Dr. Sultan Al Jaber said, "In the battle against climate change, government and civil society cannot do the job themselves. A just and responsible energy transition requires major private sector investment if it is to become a reality. Businesses must partner actively with governments and civil society to ensure the right conditions are established for private sector investment in that transition." To drive collective action, COP28 will host the Business and Philanthropy Climate Forum during COP28, running in parallel with the World Climate Action Summit.The Forum aims to coordinate strategies on how the private sector can help address the financing gap of over USD 3 trillion required annually to achieve net-zero emissions, support climate adaptation, reverse nature loss and restore biodiversity.Mr. Jafar, who is also Chair of the Business and Philanthropy Climate Forum said: "For too long, the climate narrative has been seen through the prism of activism equals good, and capitalism equals bad. Which is why the COP28 Presidency has called for a new paradigm of actionism, which embraces the dynamism, capital, and action networks that business and philanthropy must bring to the table, if we are to stand a chance in achieving nature and climate goals. This CEO-level Forum will break down silos and mobilize global business and philanthropy leaders, along with policy makers, to unlock solutions and drive bolder results in line with the COP28 Action Agenda." UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for COP28, H.E. Razan Al Mubarak said: "The future of our planet hinges not solely on government resolutions, but on the innovation, commitment, and ambition of the private sector. As we stand at this crossroad, it is essential for businesses and philanthropies to channel their influence and resources, closing the finance gap and crafting a green legacy for generations to come." Director General of Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism, H.E. Helal Saeed Al Marri commented: "As we approach this crucial global moment, we hope that Dubai's unmatched infrastructure and global accessibility serve as a unifying platform for nations and networks to foster dialogue, share solutions, and drive climate action. The UAE stands as a beacon for innovation and collaboration." Business leaders who addressed the event included, Ahmed Galal Ismail, CEO of Majid Al Futtaim, Khaled Al Huraimel, Group CEO of BEEAH, Rory James McCarthy, Partner at Yellow Door Energy, Samaila Zubairu, CEO & President of the Africa Finance Corporation, Bader Ataya, Co-founder of Kitopi, Edward Hamod, Founder & CEO of Switch Foods, Sean Dennis, Co-Founder of Seafood Sooq, Riad Bsaibes, President & CEO of Amana Investments Group, Sandeep Walia, Chief Operating Officer of Mariott International Middle East, Ahmad Ali Alwan, Deputy CEO of Hub71, and Najla Al Midfa, CEO of Sheraa - Sharjah Entrepreneurship Center, among others.The event put a spotlight on the important role that private sector can play in meeting climate goals, while the COP28 Business and Philanthropy Climate Forum aims to strengthen this collaborative climate action in line with the COP28 Action Agenda, which includes fast-tracking a just and orderly energy transition; fixing climate fina
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LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / October 26, 2023 / The Schall Law Firm, a national shareholder rights litigation firm, reminds investors of a class action lawsuit against Advance Auto Parts, Inc. ("Advance Auto Parts" or "the Company") (NYSE:AAP) for violations of 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.Investors who purchased the Company's securities between November 16, 2022 and May 30, 2023, inclusive (the "Class Period"), are encouraged to contact the firm before December 8, 2023.If you are a shareholder who suffered a loss, click here to participate.We also encourage you to contact Brian Schall of the Schall Law Firm, 2049 Century Park East, Suite 2460, Los Angeles, CA 90067, at 310-301-3335, to discuss your rights free of charge. You can also reach us through the firm's website at www.schallfirm.com , or by email at bschall@ schallfirm.com The class, in this case, has not yet been certified, and until certification occurs, you are not represented by an attorney. If you choose to take no action, you can remain an absent class member.According to the Complaint, the Company made false and misleading statements to the market. Advance Auto Parts failed to inform the market about the true effectiveness of its strategic pricing initiatives and the impact of price reductions on its business. The Company concealed the negative impacts of price reductions. The Company shared an unrealistically optimistic view of its operations. Based on these facts, the Company's public statements were false and materially misleading throughout the class period. When the market learned the truth about Advance Auto Parts, investors suffered damages.Join the case to recover your losses.The Schall Law Firm represents investors around the world and specializes in securities class action lawsuits and shareholder rights litigation.This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and rules of ethics.CONTACT:The Schall Law FirmBrian Schall, Esq.www.schallfirm.comOffice: 310-301-3335info@ schallfirm.com SOURCE: The Schall Law Firm
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SAN FRANCISCO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / October 27, 2023 / Hagens Berman urges Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS) investors who suffered substantial losses to submit your losses now.Class Period: Feb. 21, 2019 - Aug. 14, 2023Lead Plaintiff Deadline: Oct. 31, 2023Visit: www.hbsslaw.com/investor-fraud/DFS Contact An Attorney Now: DFS@ hbsslaw.com 844-916-0895Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS) Securities Fraud Class Action:The complaint alleges that Defendants made false and misleading statements and failed to disclose that: (1) DFS maintained deficient risk management and compliance procedures; (2) as a result of these deficiencies, DFS had, among other things, failed to comply with applicable student loan servicing standards, misclassified certain credit card accounts, overcharged customers, and failed to stem its ballooning credit card delinquency rate; and (3) these issues, when they became known, would subject DFS to significant financial exposure, regulatory scrutiny, and reputational harm.The truth began to emerge on July 20, 2022, when DFS announced that it was suspending its share repurchase program "because of an internal investigation into its student loan servicing practices and related compliance matters." Then, on July 19, 2023, DFS disclosed that it had misclassified certain credit card products over an approximate 15-year period as a result of an acknowledged compliance failure. DFS stated that correction of the misclassifications negatively impacted its retained earnings and certain previous interim period net income.DFS also revealed that it received a proposed consent order from the FDIC in connection with an unrelated regulatory matter.Finally, on Aug. 14, 2023, DFS announced that Roger C. Hochschild resigned from his position as CEO and President and as a member of the company's board. The same day, DFS reported a significant increase in its credit card delinquency rate."We're focused on investors' losses and are investigating whether DFS may have concealed problems with its compliance and risk management practices," said Reed Kathrein, the Hagens Berman partner leading the investigation.If you invested in Discover Financial Services and have substantial losses, or have knowledge that may assist the firm's investigation, submit your losses nowIf you'd like more information and answers to frequently asked questions about the Discover Financial Services case and our investigation, read more Whistleblowers: Persons with non-public information regarding Discover Financial Services should consider their options to help in the investigation or take advantage of the SEC Whistleblower program. Under the new program, whistleblowers who provide original information may receive rewards totaling up to 30 percent of any successful recovery made by the SEC. For more information, call Reed Kathrein at 844-916-0895 or email DFS@ hbsslaw.com # # #About Hagens BermanHagens Berman is a global plaintiffs' rights complex litigation law firm focusing on corporate accountability through class-action law. The firm is home to a robust securities litigation practice and represents investors as well as whistleblowers, workers, consumers and others in cases achieving real results for those harmed by corporate negligence and fraud. More about the firm and its successes can be found at hbsslaw.com . Follow the firm for updates and news at @ClassActionLaw.Attorney advertising.Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.Services may be performed by attorneys in any of our offices.Contact: Reed Kathrein, 844-916-0895SOURCE: Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP
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NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / October 27, 2023 / Overseas executives are pouring into China as the first day of the sixth China International Import Expo fast approaches, triggering an early wave of business exchange and investment.Benjamin Driggs, chief operating officer of global high growth regions at multinational conglomerate Honeywell, will arrive soon to attend the CIIE's opening ceremony, Yu Feng, president of Honeywell China, told Yicai yesterday.Driggs will also pay visits to clients, suppliers, and local governments to explore opportunities to further expand the US company's business and investment in the Chinese market, Yu noted.Pankaj Sharma, global executive vice president at Schneider Electric and head of its secure power division, has already landed in China. The Chinese digital technology industry has developed fast Sharma noticed from this visit, he told Yicai, and expressed Schneider's determination to continue investing in the country.Axalta Coating Systems has raised its investment in the Chinese market in recent years, with a footprint in many areas, Hadi Awada, senior vice president for global transportation coatings at the US firm, told Yicai at the launch ceremony for its new plant in Jilin province on Oct. 24.The nearly 46,000 square meter new plant is expected to produce about 25,000 tons of coating products annually,mostly for high-performance cars, Awada noted, adding that the factory is equipped with Axalta's most advanced automated production system.Axalta has also located its Asia-Pacific headquarters and technical development center, as well as a coating plant, in Shanghai, Awada said. "We've been consistently investing in the Chinese market and will continue to do so," he pointed out.Key Strategic MarketSolvay Chief Executive Officer Ilham Kadri, DuPont COO Drayl Roberts, and Roehm COO Hans-Peter Hauck also visited China since last month, have attended the opening ceremonies of their respective new chemical plants in China.During her visit, Kadri told the media, including Yicai, that the Chinese market holds a key significance in Solvay's global strategy, so the Belgian company will continue to expand its investment in the Asian country.Underpinning the influx of foreign executives and their companies' undiminished investment confidence in China is not only the Chinese market's irreplaceability but also the local supply chain's upgrade in manufacture capacity and the nation's research and development capabilities.No multinational corporation can develop if it does not value the Chinese market, the world's largest single market and second-largest economy, Honeywell China's Yu noted. "Putting down roots in China is a must," he said.Even if China's demographic dividend is weakening, the quality of the country's population has not been released yet, Yu said, as Chinese engineers are actively working on products that the country's used to be solely depend on imports for. The potential for growth in the local market is still quite significant, he said.It is normal for Axalta's management to decide to expand the company's local capacity given the sustained increase in profits in the Chinese market in recent years, Awada noted. "Some people are worried about challenges from the economic downturn, but China is becoming the world's biggest auto exporter, so we have full confidence in Axalta's Chinese business," he said."Only big markets can attract big projects," Wei Jianguo, VP of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, told Yicai. When asked which option is more cost-effective between importing products to China from the United States or directly building local plants in China, Wei, who is also a former commerce vice minister, said the answer is very obvious for overseas executives. That is why they are all motivated to come to China, he pointed out.About Yicai GlobalLaunched in August 2016, Yicai Global is the English-language news service of Yicai Media Group, the financial news arm of Shanghai Media Group, which is one of China's largest state-owned media conglomerates. Focused primarily on China's business world, Yicai Global is dedicated to provide reliable and insightful information and analysis of the economy, finance, tech, startups, and entrepreneurs.Media Contact:Contact person: Zhu LimingEmail: yicaiglobal@ yicaiglobal.com SOURCE: Yicai Media Group
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NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / October 27, 2023 / Piraeus Port Authority, which runs the largest container terminal in the Mediterranean Sea, is expected to update its performance record for the third straight year this year, according to its Chinese owner.PPA, which runs the Port of Piraeus, is expected to set another performance record after 2022 and 2021, China COSCO Shipping Corporation announced on its website recently.Shanghai-based COSCO won a 35-year concession to manage two container terminals at the main port of Greece in 2008. In 2016, it acquired a 67 percent stake in PPA.The largest passenger port in Europe that used to be unprofitable has turned around under new management. "PPA's fantastic financial performance not only impacts the firm's profitability, but the whole Greece economy," Savvas Sanozidis, secretary of the board, said in a recent interview with Yicai.Last year, PPA's pre-tax revenue rose to an all-time high of almost EUR75 million (USD79.3 million), the secretary said. Dividends surged to the highest ever, rising by nearly 65 percent to nearly EUR26 million, a 13-fold increase from a period before the acquisition by the Chinese logistics giant.PPA contributed over EUR70 million to Greece's national tax income and social security fund. Moreover, almost 1.6 percent of Greece's gross domestic product came from the port operator, according to research findings.Many large electronics manufacturers such as Huawei Technologies, Sony Group Corporation, and HP tend to use the port to track goods due to its links to European railways, Sanozidis said, adding that the China-Europe Land-Sea Express Line, which combines sea and land transportation, can make the journey to European cities up to 10 days shorter compared to the conventional maritime route passing through the Strait of Gibraltar.As of last year, COSCO has directly created about 4,000 local jobs and indirectly helped establish over 10,000 new positions, according to Capt. Jin Beiyuan, deputy chief executive of PPA.About Yicai GlobalLaunched in August 2016, Yicai Global is the English-language news service of Yicai Media Group, the financial news arm of Shanghai Media Group, which is one of China's largest state-owned media conglomerates. Focused primarily on China's business world, Yicai Global is dedicated to provide reliable and insightful information and analysis of the economy, finance, tech, startups, and entrepreneurs.Media Contact:Contact person: Zhu LimingEmail: yicaiglobal@ yicaiglobal.com SOURCE: Yicai Media Group
PR-Inside.com: 2023-10-27 02:11:12

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MEXICO CITY, MEXICO / ACCESSWIRE / October 26, 2023 / GRUPO GICSA, S.A.B. DE C.V. ("GICSA" or " GICSAB.MX") (BMV:GICSA), owner of 17 income-generating properties, comprised of eleven shopping malls, five mixed use projects and one corporate office building, announced its results for 3Q23, a period in which it improved its financial and operating position.During the third quarter of 2023, the number of visitors registered a double-digit increase of 19%, from 17 million in 3Q22 to 21 million at the end of the period. Likewise, GLA totaled 939,601 square meters, while the occupancy rate increased 300 bps, closing at 87%.Likewise, Ps.748 million in fixed rental revenues were reported in 3Q23, representing an increase of 15% versus the Ps.653 million reported in 3Q22, in line with the average monthly fixed rent per square meter, which reached Ps.377 per square meter at the end of the quarter.In this context, Total Revenues grew from Ps.1,141 million in the third quarter of 2022 to Ps.1,153 million in this reporting period. Similarly, for 3Q23, NOI and EBITDA increased from Ps.753 million to Ps.861 million (+14% YoY) and from Ps.744 million to Ps.813 million (+9% YoY). NOI and EBITDA margins reached 80.9% and 76.4%, respectively.As for consolidated financial debt, it stood at Ps.27,493 million at the end of the quarter (70% fixed debt and 30% floating debt), 5% lower than Ps.29,580 million in 3Q22. Total Assets at the end of 3Q23 totaled Ps.76,885 million, versus Ps.75,946 million in 3Q22, and LTV stood at 36% at the end of the quarter.In his message to investors, Abraham Cababie, GRUPO GICSA's Chief Executive Officer, commented: "This third quarter has been positive and the results certainly show progress in the execution of our business strategy. As part of this, 'Grand Outlet Riviera Maya' had its soft opening' with the opening of the first commercial stores. In conclusion, these achievements make us feel enthusiastic about our objective of strengthening our financial position in order to meet our long-term goals." About GRUPO GICSAGICSA is a leading company in the development, investment, commercialization and operation of shopping malls, corporate offices and mixed used well known for their high-quality standards, which transform and create new development spaces, lifestyles and employment in Mexico, in accordance with its history and executed projects. For more information visit: https://www.gicsa.com.mx/ Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release may contain forward-looking statements and involve risk and uncertainty. The words "estimates", "anticipates", "projects", "plans", "believes", "expects", "seeks" and similar expressions, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Grupo GICSA warns readers that declarations and/or estimates mentioned in this document, or stated by Grupo GICSA's management team, are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could be in function of various factors that are out of Grupo GICSA's control. Future expectations reflect Grupo GICSA's judgement at the date of this document. Grupo GICSA reserves the right or obligation to update information contained in the report or derived from it. Past or present performance is not an indicator of future performance. Grupo GICSA warns that a significant number of factors may cause actual results to differ materially from estimates, objectives, expectations, and intentions expressed in this report. Neither the Company nor any of its subsidiaries, affiliates, directors, executives, agents or employees may be held responsible before third parties (including shareholders) for any investment, decision, or action taken in relation to the information included in this document, or by any special damage or similar that may result.Contact:(+52) 55 5148 0400inversionistas@ gicsa.com.mx SOURCE: Grupo Industrial Saltillo, S.A.B de C.V.
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HAGENS BERMAN, NATIONAL TRIAL ATTORNEYS, Encourages Investors with Substantial Losses to Contact Firm's Attorneys, Securities Fraud Class Action FiledSAN FRANCISCO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / October 27, 2023 / Hagens Berman urges Medical Properties Trust, Inc. (NYSE:MPW) investors who suffered substantial losses to submit your losses now.Class Period: May 23, 2023 - Aug. 17, 2023Lead Plaintiff Deadline: Nov. 28, 2023Visit: www.hbsslaw.com/investor-fraud/MPW Contact An Attorney Now: MPW@ hbsslaw.com 844-916-0895Medical Properties Trust, Inc. (NYSE: MPW) Securities Fraud Class Action:The litigation focuses on the propriety of Medical Properties Trust's statements about its recapitalization transaction ("Recap Transaction") with its third largest tenant, Prospect Medical Holdings.The complaint alleges Medical Properties Trust misrepresented and failed to disclose that: (i) the Recap Transaction was subject to regulatory approval and (ii) on or about July 20, 2023, the company had received an order from the California's Department of Managed Health Care ("DMHC") placing the transaction on hold.Investors learned the truth on Aug. 18, 2023, when the Wall Street Journal reported on Medical Properties Trust and, referring to the Recap Transaction, said that "[t]he nation's largest hospital landlord said an unusual transaction that provided crucial financial support for one of its biggest tenants was a done deal[]" and "[i]t wasn't." The WSJ further reported that on Aug. 8, 2023, the company said the transaction boosted its revenue while in possession of an order by a California state regulator putting the transaction on hold and observed that Medical Properties Trust did not disclose the regulator's order when it filed its quarterly earnings report.In response, the price of Medical Properties Trust shares fell significantly lower on Aug. 18, 2023."We're focused on investors' losses and investigating whether senior management had a duty to disclose the California regulator's hold order," said Reed Kathrein, the Hagens Berman partner leading the investigation.If you invested in Medical Properties Trust and have significant losses, or have knowledge that may assist the firm's investigation, submit your losses now If you'd like more information and answers to frequently asked questions about the Medical Properties Trust case and our investigation, read more Whistleblowers: Persons with non-public information regarding Medical Properties Trust should consider their options to help in the investigation or take advantage of the SEC Whistleblower program. Under the new program, whistleblowers who provide original information may receive rewards totaling up to 30 percent of any successful recovery made by the SEC. For more information, call Reed Kathrein at 844-916-0895 or email MPW@ hbsslaw.com # # #About Hagens BermanHagens Berman is a global plaintiffs' rights complex litigation law firm focusing on corporate accountability through class-action law. The firm is home to a robust securities litigation practice and represents investors as well as whistleblowers, workers, consumers and others in cases achieving real results for those harmed by corporate negligence and fraud. More about the firm and its successes can be found at hbsslaw.com . Follow the firm for updates and news at @ClassActionLaw.Attorney advertising.Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.Services may be performed by attorneys in any of our offices.Contact: Reed Kathrein, 844-916-0895SOURCE: Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP
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NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATESVANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / October 27, 2023 / Lincoln Gold Mining Inc. ("Lincoln" or the "Company") (TSXV:LMG) is pleased to provide an update on its proposed acquisition of the Bell Mountain project (the "Project") from Eros Resources Corp. ("Eros"). Further to the Company's news release dated August 10, 2023, the Company and Eros entered into a non-binding letter of intent pursuant to which the parties agreed to negotiate the terms of a definitive agreement providing for the acquisition of the Project by the Company.The Company remains committed to advancing the transaction and is working diligently with Eros to settle the terms of the definitive agreement. We are encouraged by the recent progress in negotiations and remain confident that an agreement will be finalized shortly.The proposed acquisition is aligned with Lincoln's commitment to responsible and sustainable mining practices while maximizing shareholder value. Given the Project's proximity to the Company's Pine Grove project, one team of personnel could operate both properties and only one recovery plant would be needed.Please refer to the Company's news release dated August 10, 2023 for additional details regarding the Project and the Company's strategic vision for the proposed acquisition.About LincolnLincoln Gold Mining Inc. is an advanced-stage gold mine exploration and development company holding a 100% interest in the Pine Grove Gold Project, in the Walker Lane structural zone of western Nevada. The Company has prepared a preliminary economic assessment of the Pine Grove Gold Project pursuant to National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.Lincoln holds its interests in the US projects through its wholly owned subsidiaries, Lincoln Resource Group Corp. and Lincoln Gold US Corporation, both Nevada corporations.For more information, please contact Paul Saxton, President and CEO of the Company.On behalf of Lincoln Gold Mining Inc.Paul SaxtonPresident and CEO, Lincoln Gold Mining Inc.Tel: (604) 688-7377Email: saxton@ lincolnmining.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.Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking StatementsThis news release contains certain statements and information that may constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are often identified by terms such as "will", "may", "should", "anticipate", "expects" and similar expressions. All statements in this news release, other than statements of historical facts, are forward-looking statements and contain forward-looking information, including without limitation, statements relating to: the proposed acquisition of the Project; the expectation that the Company and Eros will be able to settle the terms of a definitive agreement providing for the acquisition of the Project, and the anticipated timeline on which the parties may settle such agreement; and the anticipated impact of the proposed acquisition on the Company. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and 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 include those relating to the Company's ability to settle the terms of the definitive agreement and the ability of the Company to do so on its anticipated timeline and other risks detailed from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulators.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, including, without limitation, the Company not being able to settle the terms of the definitive agreement or not being able to do so on an acceptable timeline and the risk that the Company may not obtain approval of the TSX Venture Exchange or other necessary regulatory approval of the transaction if a definitive agreement is entered into. 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 will not update or revise publicly any of the included forward- looking statements unless as expressly required by applicable law.SOURCE: Lincoln Gold Mining Inc.
There are plans to organize regional exercises involving Latvia and Poland, during which coordinated algorithms will be tested in closing the border with Belarus, Lithuanian Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite said.

"These criteria have been developed, we have confirmed that we even plan to hold certain exercises of our agencies," she said in Vilnius on Friday after meeting with representatives of the Interior Ministries of Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine, Finland, Poland and Norway.

The meeting addressed "a more general context of possible situations," she said. "Today we have confirmed that the format that was in Warsaw and our joint actions are a very serious signal, in particular, to Belarus," Bilotaite said.

This algorithm will be tested "in such regional exercises," she said.

The interior ministers of Lithuania, Latvia and Poland agreed in late August that the borders with Belarus could be shut in the event of an armed incident, if illegal migrants broke in. It was agreed that, in the event of these criteria, prompt information exchanges would take place, in particular, at the level of the services, and then a decision would be made at the intergovernmental level. The sides also agreed to introduce similar criteria for reacting to possible threats at the border.

On August 18, Lithuania closed the Sumskas (Losha on the Belarusian side) and Tveriacius (Vidzy) crossing points on the Belarusian border due to the geopolitical situation. Four crossing points on the Lithuanian-Belarusian border - Medininkai (Kamenny Log), Lavoriskes (Kotlovka), Raigardas (Privalka), and Salcininkai (Benyakoni) - remain open after the closing of Sumskas and Tveriacius.

Latvia closed one of the two working border crossing points on the Belarusian border, Silene (Urbany on the Belarusian side), on September 19 to prevent the threat of illegal migration.
PR-Inside.com: 2023-10-27 22:30:11

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An enhanced effort to support homeowners during economic difficulties by offering quick, convenient real estate solutionsRALEIGH, NC / ACCESSWIRE / October 27, 2023 / NC Fair Cash Offer, a reputable real estate investment firm, proudly announces the expansion of its home buying services throughout North Carolina. In response to the current economic climate, the company extends its reach to assist more homeowners facing challenging circumstances such as pre-foreclosure, inherited property, or the need to sell a house swiftly and hassle-free.NC Fair Cash Offer Cash Home Buying Company in North CarolinaRenowned for its customer satisfaction, NC Fair Cash Offer has earned rave reviews in cities such as Charlotte and Raleigh. Testimonials highlight the firm's commitment to providing a smooth and convenient selling process. Managing Member Adam Adkins is hailed for his professionalism and his approach to treating each case like family. Building on this success, the company seeks to continue these strong, positive relationships with homeowners in new territories like Raleigh and Charlotte.Under the unique business model, homeowners can sell directly to NC Fair Cash Offer. The company buys properties using cash or a payment takeover method, eliminating middlemen and enabling the transaction to close faster. This process can be transformative for homeowners dealing with modern real estate issues, providing them with an immediate solution to their problem.Above all, NC Fair Cash Offer adheres to core values of Integrity, Honesty, Transparency, Constant Communication, Speed, and Customer Satisfaction. The company's commitment to these values and its ranking as Better Business Bureau Accredited with an A+ Rating contributes to its success and reputation as a trusted operator in the real estate market in North Carolina.As NC Fair Cash Offer continues to grow, the company keeps its focus on the homeowners it serves. "Given the current economic climate, we have expanded our real estate problem-solving services to homeowners all over North Carolina, helping families avoid foreclosure, settle probate or inherited property issues, and more," states Adam Adkins, highlighting the company's mission to provide homeowners with much-needed solutions in challenging times.More information and resources for NC Fair Cash Offer can be found by clicking HERE.Contact Information:Adam Adkins Managing Member admin@ ncfaircashoffer.com 910-335-4046SOURCE: NC Fair Cash Offer
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TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / October 27, 2023 / OrbiCloud, a computing power provider, recently emphasized the future of cryptocurrency blockchain and cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI).With the new developments, OrbiCloud is set to revolutionize the future of AI and blockchain computing. Under the visionary leadership of Jake Daniel Grant, the company recognizes the vital power of cryptocurrency blockchains and cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI).OrbiCloud emerges as an instrumental in ensuring the robust functioning of these systems. The company is equipping it with indispensable computing resources as the horizons of autonomous AI learning expand.In addition, OrbiCloud is entirely about technology. The company helps to boost its global footprint, initiating partner office inaugurations and organizing high-profile tech exhibitions and leadership summits. The company's impending presence in international forums is committed to fortifying OrbiCloud's stature in the global AI landscape.Moreover, the company gives the opportunity to the individuals to join them in their endeavor to shape the future of computing and AI. As they embark on this ambitious journey, the company is poised to continue pushing the boundaries of what is possible, harnessing the potential of AI and blockchain computing to lead individuals into an era of unprecedented technological advancement.Furthermore, OrbiCloud is positioned to play a leading role in defining it. The company continues to revolutionize AI and blockchain computing, working updates and developments in cryptocurrency blockchain.For an inside look at OrbiCloud's vision or inquiries, please visit www.orbicloud.com About OrbiCloud:OrbiCloud is a top-notch tech company specializing in providing computing power for blockchain and artificial intelligence applications. Established by a team of experts and led by CEO Jake Daniel Grant, the company is committed to pushing the boundaries of technology while ensuring a sustainable future.Additionally, the company is setting the stage for its next growth phase and has grand plans and aims to expand its infrastructure by launching twenty new production facilities in the pipeline. The company plans to invest in the latest equipment and sustainable energy solutions. The company aims to fuel fifty percent of its operations with renewable energy by 2025.Including more, the company's financial roadmap is set to revolutionize its revenue streams and expand its affiliate marketing horizons. The mission is to make OrbiCloud's presence felt in every country that embraces AI.Media details:Jake Daniel Grantorbicloudmedia@ gmail.comhttps://orbicloud.com/OrbiCloud SOURCE: OrbiCloud
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SAN FRANCISCO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / October 27, 2023 / Hagens Berman urges UiPath Inc. (NYSE:PATH) investors who suffered $250k or more in losses to submit your losses now.Class Period: Apr. 21, 2021 - Mar. 30, 2022Lead Plaintiff Deadline: Nov. 6, 2023Visit: www.hbsslaw.com/investor-fraud/PATH Contact An Attorney Now: PATH@ hbsslaw.com 844-916-0895UiPath Inc. (PATH) Securities Fraud Class Action:The complaint alleges that UiPath made false and misleading statements and failed to disclose that it: (1) had enacted a widespread discounting program before its April 21, 2021 IPO, temporarily boosting its revenue and annualized recurring revenue ("ARR") metrics, cannibalizing future sales, eroding margins, and increasing the risk of client churn; (2) overstated its actual total addressable market ("TAM") because many companies included in UiPath's market survey did not need the type of high-cost, high-functionality automation products offered by UiPath; (3) was losing customers to Microsoft, ServiceNow, SAP, Salesforce, IBM and other established software vendors that were building automation into their own platforms; and (4) was suffering from a loss of channel sales due to strained relationships with its partners as a result of increased competition between UiPath and its partners.The truth emerged over a series of disclosures beginning on Sept. 7, 2021, when UiPath revealed an unexpected slowdown in revenues and ARR metrics and its discounting of products before the IPO. Then, on Dec. 8, 2021, UiPath revealed its growth further stalled and disclosed its third consecutive ARR decline. Finally, on Mar. 30, 2022, UiPath revealed deeply disappointing ARR and revenue guidance that indicated declining growth trends were expected to continue.In response to each of these events, the price of UiPath shares significantly declined."We're focused on investors' losses and are investigating whether UiPath may have misled investors about known trends that would adversely affect the company's growth prospects," said Reed Kathrein, the Hagens Berman partner leading the investigation.If you invested in UiPath and have substantial losses, or have knowledge that may assist the firm's investigation, submit your losses now If you'd like more information and answers to frequently asked questions about the UiPath case and our investigation, read more Whistleblowers: Persons with non-public information regarding UiPath should consider their options to help in the investigation or take advantage of the SEC Whistleblower program. Under the new program, whistleblowers who provide original information may receive rewards totaling up to 30 percent of any successful recovery made by the SEC. For more information, call Reed Kathrein at 844-916-0895 or email PATH@ hbsslaw.com # # #About Hagens BermanHagens Berman is a global plaintiffs' rights complex litigation law firm focusing on corporate accountability through class-action law. The firm is home to a robust securities litigation practice and represents investors as well as whistleblowers, workers, consumers and others in cases achieving real results for those harmed by corporate negligence and fraud. More about the firm and its successes can be found at hbsslaw.com . Follow the firm for updates and news at @ClassActionLaw.Attorney advertising.Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.Services may be performed by attorneys in any of our offices.Contact: Reed Kathrein, 844-916-0895SOURCE: Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP
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CANTON, OH / ACCESSWIRE / October 27, 2023 / Patriot Software, a leading online accounting software provider, and Stripe, a financial infrastructure platform for businesses, have joined in a partnership to offer a new era of enhanced and frictionless payment experiences for customers. Under this partnership, Patriot Software accounting customers can now effortlessly accept credit card payments on customer invoices, significantly enhancing the efficiency and convenience of their financial operations.Patriot Software is widely known for simplifying accounting processes for American businesses and their accountants. Stripe and Patriot Software are dedicated to delivering user-friendly solutions that meet the needs of American businesses."We are excited to partner with Stripe to offer our customers a seamless invoicing experience," said Mike Streb, Product Manager at Patriot Software. "This integration propels our mission to provide user-friendly and comprehensive accounting solutions." Accounting customers can connect their Stripe account or onboard with Stripe directly in Patriot's Accounting Software. With Stripe, customers can invoice through Patriot Software's accounting software and be paid instantly via credit card, expediting the payment process and improving cash flow.Integrating Stripe allows users to access a uniform, secure, and transparent payment and reconciliation experience, ensuring a user-friendly experience without extensive training or technical expertise.###About Patriot Software:Patriot Software offers cloud-based accounting, payroll, HR, and time and attendance solutions designed to help American businesses with up to 500 employees simplify their administrative tasks. Patriot Software is disrupting the accounting and payroll industry by eliminating complex processes and steep learning curves with its intuitive software. Patriot Software is dedicated to providing USA-based customer service and development, serving tens of thousands of businesses nationwide since 2002.For more information, please contact:Patriot Software, LLCRachel Blakely-Graymarketing@ patriotsoftware.com SOURCE: Patriot Software, LLC
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TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / October 27, 2023 / Pelangio Exploration Inc. (TSXV:PX)(OTC PINK:PGXPF) ("Pelangio" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has closed the second tranche of a non-brokered private placement (the "Private Placement"). The first and second tranche raised gross proceeds of $351,600 from the issuance of 11,719,999 units (the "Units") at a price of $0.03 per Unit.Each Unit consists of one common share of the Company (a "Common Share") and one Common Share purchase warrant ("Warrant"). Each Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one Common Share at a price of $0.05 until September 27, 2028.The Company paid finder's fees to Leede Jones Gable Inc. and GloRes Securities Inc. totaling $7,200 in cash and it issued 240,000 broker warrants ("Broker Warrant") on gross proceeds raised by eligible arm's length parties. Each Broker Warrant is exercisable to acquire one common share of the Company at a price of $0.05 per warrant on the same terms noted above. All finder's fees are subject to compliance with applicable securities legislation and TSX Venture Exchange policies.All securities issued in this closing of the Private Placement are subject to statutory four month hold periods expiring on January 28, 2024 for the first tranche and February 27, 2024 for the second tranche. The Private Placement remains subject to obtaining final approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.Certain insiders of the Company participated in the Offering for an aggregate total of $113,100 in Private Placement. The participation by such insiders constituted a "related party transaction" as such term is defined by Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). The Company was exempt from the MI 61 101 valuation and minority approval requirements for related party transactions in connection with the Offering under sections 5.5(a) and 5.7(1)(a) of MI 61-101 as neither the fair market value (as determined under MI 61-101) of the subject matter of, nor the fair market value of the consideration for, the transaction, insofar as it involves the Related Parties, exceeds 25% of the Company's market capitalization (as determined under MI 61-101).The securities offered have not been registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any jurisdictions in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. Any offering made will be pursuant to available prospectus exemptions and restricted to persons to whom the securities may be sold in accordance with the laws of such jurisdictions, and by persons permitted to sell the securities in accordance with the laws of such jurisdictions.About PelangioPelangio acquires and explores world-class land packages on strategic gold belts in Ghana, West Africa and Canada. In Ghana, the Company is exploring its two 100% owned, camp-sized properties: the 100 km2 Manfo property, the site of seven near-surface gold discoveries, and the 284 km2 Obuasi property, located four km on strike and adjacent to AngloGold Ashanti's prolific high-grade Obuasi Mine, as well as its Dankran property located adjacent to its Obuasi property. In Canada, the Company is currently focused in Ontario at its newly acquired gold, silver, zinc polymetallic Kenogaming project, located 63 km southwest of Timmins and at its Gowan polymetallic project, located 16 km east of the Kidd Creek Mine. See www.pelangio.com for further detail on all Pelangio's properties.Forward Looking StatementsCertain statements herein may contain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements or information appear in a number of places and can be identified by the use of words 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 statements and information include statements regarding the Offering generally, the proceeds that may be raised in connection with the Offering, the proposed use of proceeds and the Company's exploration plans. With respect to forward-looking statements and information contained herein, we have made numerous assumptions, including assumptions about our ability to close additional tranches of the Offering in a timely manner, if at all, and the state of the equity markets. Such forward-looking statements and information are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statement or information. Such risks include the ability of the Company to meet the conditions of closing, our ability to conduct our exploration programs as planned, changes in equity markets, share price volatility, volatility of global and local economic climate, gold price volatility, political developments in Ghana, increases in costs, exchange rate fluctuations, speculative nature of gold exploration and other risks involved in the gold exploration industry. See the Company's annual and quarterly financial statements and management's discussion and analysis for additional information on risks and uncertainties relating to the forward-looking statement and information. There can be no assurance that a forward-looking statement or information referenced herein will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements or information. Also, many of the factors are beyond the control of the Company. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information. We undertake no obligation to reissue or update any forward-looking statements or information except as required by law. All forward-looking statements and information herein are qualified by this cautionary statement.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
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STOCKHOLM, SE / ACCESSWIRE / October 27, 2023 / Bambuser AB (STO:BUSER)(FRA:5JL) Bambuser reports Q3 2023 ARR of SEK 123 million, representing a year over year decline of 13% at constant exchange rates ("CER"). The Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow continue to improve. The cash balance closed at SEK 291.6 million, which is sufficient to take Bambuser to positive cash flow.The Adjusted EBITDA margin improved by 6%p. year over year (y/y). The free cash flow margin also improved by 15%p. y/y.Bambuser signed several new contracts with enterprise customers across all markets in the quarter, including Mini Cooper (BMW Group) and Beam Suntory (a premium spirits company). The Company further renewed and expanded its partnership with the LVMH Group, encompassing brands like RIMOWA and Guerlain.Q3 2023 Key highlightsARR of SEK 123.0 million, -13% y/y at constant exchange rates ("CER").Net Sales of SEK 43.7 million (48.0) with SaaS revenue growth of +1% y/y.Adjusted EBITDA of SEK -25.2 million (-34.6), representing a -53% margin and a 6%p. margin improvement vs. Q3 2022.Free Cash Flow of SEK -33.6 million (-43.9), representing a -77% FCF margin and a 15%p. margin improvement vs. Q3 2022.End of quarter Cash Balance of SEK 291.6 million (401.0), which is sufficient to take Bambuser to positive cash flow.Significant improvement in churn, with a 60% reduction in absolute numbers q/q.Bambuser initiates strategic review of its influencer marketing unit Relatable, which may include a full sale of the business.The full Q3 2023 report is published at https://ir.bambuser.com/report-archive About Bambuser Bambuser is the world's leading video commerce company with the largest customer base in its industry. More than 350 brands from 40+ countries leverage Bambuser's best-in-class solutions. Bambuser is truly global with headquarters in Stockholm and offices in New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, Turku, and Dubai. The company's rapidly growing team speaks more than 40 languages and 62% of its senior management is female. Founded in 2007 as a livestreaming pioneer, trusted by the world's leading news agencies, Bambuser pivoted to Live Shopping in 2019, leveraging its legacy as the industry leader in video-first technology. For more information, please visit www.bambuser.com Certified AdviserContact information Corporate Communications, Bambuser AB+46 8 400 160 00 | ir@ bambuser.com Certified Adviser Erik Penser Bank ABThis information is information that Bambuser AB is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact persons set out above.This information is information that Bambuser AB is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact persons set out above, at 2023-10-27 08:00 CEST.AttachmentsBambuser Q32023 InterimReportSOURCE: Bambuser AB
PR-Inside.com: 2023-10-27 23:55:33

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VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / October 27, 2023 / Regency Silver Corp. ("Regency Silver" or the "Company", (TSXV:RSMX) and (OTCQB:RSMXF) is pleased to announce that it has completed the final tranche of a previously announced non-brokered private placement. The Company has now raised an upsized total of CAD$1,751,380.Regency Silver has issued 3,143,400 units at a price of $0.20 per unit on this final tranche closing for gross proceeds of CAD$628,680. Each Unit is comprised of one common share of the Company and one half of one transferable common share purchase warrant (the "Warrants"). Each whole Warrant is exercisable to purchase one common share of the Company at a price of CAD$0.30 per share for a period of two years from the date of issuance.In connection with this closing, the Company paid cash finder's fees of $7,600.80 and issued 38,004 broker warrants. Each broker warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one common share of the Company at a price of CAD$0.30 per share for a period of two years from the date of issuance.All securities issued under the private placement will be subject to a four month hold period expiring on February 27, 2024, in accordance with applicable Canadian securities laws.The proceeds will be used for exploration and development of the Company's properties and general working capital.For further details about Regency Silver please visit the Company's website at www.Regency-Silver.com Contact InformationRegency Silver Corp.Kin Communications Inc.Phone: 1-604-684-6730Email: RSMX@ kincommunications.com Bruce Bragagnolo, Executive ChairmanPhone: 1-604-417-9517Email: bruce@ regency-silver.com Gijsbert Groenewegen, Chief Executive OfficerPhone: 1-646-247-1000Email: gijs@ regency-silver.com ABOUT REGENCY SILVER CORP.:Regency Silver is a gold-copper-silver exploration company focused on the Americas. Regency Silver is led by a team of experienced professionals with expertise in both exploration and production. Regency Silver's flagship project is the Dios Padre gold-copper-silver project in Sonora, Mexico. Regency Silver has made a new discovery at Dios Padre and has drilled 35.8 metres of 6.84 g/t gold, 0.88% copper and 21.82 g/t silver in Hole REG-22-01 and REG-23-14 intersects 35.9m of 5.51 g/t Au including 29.4m of 6.32 g/t gold.CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS:This news release includes certain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (together, "forward-looking statements"). All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding the use of proceeds of the private placement by the Company. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events may vary from those anticipated in such statements. Important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's plans or expectations include the risk that regulatory changes, fundraising, and risk associated with mineral exploration, including the risk that actual results of exploration will be different from those expected by management. The forward-looking statements in this news release were developed based on the expectations of management and that the risks described above will not materialize. The Company expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as otherwise required by applicable securities legislation.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: Regency Silver Corp.
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NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / October 27, 2023 / Ozon Holdings, one of the first e-commerce companies in Russia, aims to take advantage of China's Double 11 Shopping Festival via promotions worth tens of billions of rubles to boost cross-border business.Ozon will offer subsidies during the annual shopping extravaganza in China from Oct. 18 to Nov. 13, Simon Huang, China president of the Moscow-based firm, said during the 2023 Global China Summit on October 19.The internet company will also launch Black Friday promotions late next month. Sales turnover during the whole peak season is expected to increase by more than four times from a year earlier.Ozon is one of the top two e-commerce platforms in Russia with RUB832.2 billion (USD8.6 billion) in gross merchandise value last year. The firm listed 38 million new stock-keeping units from China with 40,000 Chinese sellers on the platform. Orders for China-made goods surged by about six times from the previous year, while the GMV soared by about seven times.For next year, the firm will set a goal of boosting GMV in China by four times from this year, helping 100,000 Chinese sellers to earn a profit, Huang added.Growth is supported by increasingly efficient delivery and strong brands. The number of users has surged, customs clearance and logistics are quicker, and import tariffs are low. Moreover, Chinese consumer electronics and smart home appliances are of high quality, fashion manufacturers are quick to respond to new trends while merchants are active on the platform.The two nations are getting closer in trade. In the first nine months of this year, trade between China and Russia jumped by 30 percent to USD176.4 billion from a year ago, per Xu Poling, director of the Institute of East European, Russian and Central Asian Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.More specifically, China's exports to Russia surged by 57 percent to USD81.4 billion, while its imports from Russia rose by 13 percent to USD95 billion. In total, 40 percent of Russia's imports came from China, and over 75 percent of that was paid in yuan.Despite the slowdown of global consumption and retail growth, the Russian market has widened quicker than any other e-commerce market in the world, Xu said, adding that Russian consumers are becoming used to online shopping, bringing opportunities to Chinese enterprises.However, challenges remain as the long period of payments, and fluctuations in the exchange rate of the ruble cause risks. In the past year, Ozon settled payments with Chinese sellers in yuan or US dollars to solve the problem, Huang explained.About Yicai GlobalLaunched in August 2016, Yicai Global is the English-language news service of Yicai Media Group, the financial news arm of Shanghai Media Group, which is one of China's largest state-owned media conglomerates. Focused primarily on China's business world, Yicai Global is dedicated to provide reliable and insightful information and analysis of the economy, finance, tech, startups, and entrepreneurs.Media Contact:Contact person: Zhu LimingEmail: yicaiglobal@ yicaiglobal.com SOURCE: Yicai Media Group
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SAN DIEGO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / October 27, 2023/ Shareholder rights law firm Johnson Fistel, LLP has launched an investigation into whether the board members of EngageSmart, Inc. (NYSE:ESMT) ("EngageSmart" or "the Company") breached their fiduciary duties in connection with the proposed sale of the Company by an affiliate of Vista Equity Partners ("Vista").You can click or copy and paste the following link to join this investigation:On October 23, 2023, EngageSmart announced that it had entered a deal to merge with Vista. Under the terms of the deal, EngageSmart shareholders will receive $23.00 per share in an all-cash offer.General Atlantic, which is the majority shareholder with a 52% stake, will be rolling over its equity into the deal. After the deal is closed, General Atlantic will own 35% of the company.Johnson Fistel is investigating whether the proposed deal represents adequate consideration, especially given one analyst's price target is currently $40.00.The investigation concerns whether the EngageSmart board failed to satisfy its duties to the Company shareholders, including whether the board adequately pursued alternatives to the acquisition and whether the board obtained the best price possible for EngageSmart shares of common stock.If you are a shareholder of EngageSmart and believe the proposed buyout price is too low or you're interested in learning more about the investigation, please contact lead analyst Jim Baker (jimb@ johnsonfistel.com) at 619-814-4471. If emailing, please include a phone number.About Johnson Fistel, LLP:Johnson Fistel, LLP is a nationally recognized shareholder rights law firm with offices in California, New York, Georgia, and Colorado. The firm represents individual and institutional investors in shareholder derivative and securities class action lawsuits. For more information about the firm and its attorneys, please visit http://www.johnsonfistel.com Attorney advertising.Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.Services may be performed by attorneys in any of our offices.Johnson Fistel, LLP has paid for the dissemination of this promotional communication, and Frank J. Johnson is the attorney responsible for its content.Contact: Johnson Fistel, LLP501 W. Broadway, Suite 800, San Diego, CA 92101James Baker, Investor Relations or Frank J. Johnson, Esq., (619) 814-4471jimb@ johnsonfistel.com or fjohnson@ johnsonfistel.com SOURCE: Johnson Fistel, LLP
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TOKYO, Oct 27, 2023 - (JCN Newswire) - JCB Co., Ltd., Japans leading international payment brand held the 17th JCB World Conference in Okinawa, Japan on October 25 and 26. The conference brought together over 300 participants from 186 companies, primarily JCB Card issuers and merchant acquirers, representing 21 countries and regions.The conference served as a platform for sharing insights on evolving payment technologies through digitalization and business models utilizing Japanese content with partners from various countries and regions. The event was also an opportunity to strengthen partnerships further, especially in Okinawa, a location that showcases the recovery of tourism post the COVID-19 pandemic.The keynote address was delivered by Mr. Joichi Ito, co-founder, board member, and chief architect of Digital Garage, Inc., and President of Chiba Institute of Technology, focusing on "The Emerging web3 World Order." . In Session 1, topics centered around the evolution of payment technology through digitization, featuring speeches by Mr. Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief Fintech Officer of The Monetary Authority of Singapore, and Mr. Joel Tay, CEO of Soft Space Sdn. Bhd, discussing the potential brought by advancements in payment solutions. Session 2 included talks by Mr. Hajime Tabata, CEO of JP UNIVERSE Inc., and Mr. Tim Kuo, President of Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank, on the fusion of gaming and business using Japan's captivating content and card launch examples centered around Japan's themes, sharing insights on business models utilizing Japanese content and JCB's initiatives.About JCB World ConferenceThe conference, held approximately every two years since 1988, aims to share JCB's strategy with partners from around the world and strengthen partnerships further. Previous conferences were held in cities such as Tokyo, Kyoto, Vienna, San Francisco, Bali, Taiwan, and Hawaii. The event was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and was held this year, marking the first time in four years.About JCBJCB is a major global payment brand and a leading credit card issuer and acquirer in Japan. JCB launched its card business in Japan in 1961 and began expanding worldwide in 1981. Its acceptance network includes about 43 million merchants around the world. JCB Cards are issued mainly in Asian countries and territories, with more than 154 million cardmembers. As part of its international growth strategy, JCB has formed alliances with hundreds of leading banks and financial institutions globally to increase its merchant coverage and cardmember base. As a comprehensive payment solution provider, JCB commits to providing responsive and high-quality service and products to all customers worldwide. For more information, please visit: www.global.jcb/en/ Contact: Ayaka Nakajima, Corporate Communications, Tel: +81-3-5778-8353, Email: jcb-pr@ info.jcb.co.jp
Decision made on forced evacuation of families with children from 10 settlements of Kupiansk district  regional head

The Defense Council of Kharkiv Region decided to announce the forced evacuation of families with children from the Kupiansk, Kindrashivka and Kurylivka communities of Kupiansk district, which are under constant enemy fire, head of Kharkiv Regional Military Administration Oleh Synehubov said.

In particular, families with children from the following settlements are subject to evacuation: Kindrashivka, Tyschenkivka, Kupiansk, Kupiansk-Vuzlovy, Kivsharivka, Hlushkivka, village Kolisnykivka, Kurylivka, Novoosynove, and Podoly. Currently, there are 275 children in these settlements," Synehubov wrote on his Telegram channel.

He noted that according to the decision of the Defense Council, children will be prohibited from entering these communities.

In addition, Synehubov emphasized that children can be evacuated necessarily with at least one parent or a second guardian.

"We provide all evacuees with housing and support from international humanitarian organizations. We call on all residents of these communities to be as responsible as possible for their lives and the lives of their children," the head of the regional administration wrote.
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LOUISVILLE, KY / ACCESSWIRE / October 27, 2023 / Truist / Today, Truist Foundation announced a $500,000 grant to Community Ventures Corporation Inc. (Community Ventures), a community development financial institution (CDFI) dedicated to delivering affordable lending solutions and technical assistance to entrepreneurs and small business owners who don't have access to traditional financing. Community Ventures will use the funds to support Equity Boost, its new loan program that aims to drive affordable capital and strengthen small businesses.The Equity Boost program supports Kentucky entrepreneurs by providing loans of up to $200,000, technical support, education, and networking opportunities to small businesses. The funding provided by Truist Foundation will allow Community Ventures to aid small businesses in Lexington, Louisville and Bowling Green."While small businesses are the backbone of our communities, CDFIs are a lifeline that fuels and sustains them," said Lynette Bell, president of Truist Foundation. "Through its dedication to providing access to capital and financial services, Community Ventures is uplifting small businesses, creating jobs, promoting entrepreneurship and ultimately building stronger, more resilient communities across Kentucky, and Truist Foundation is proud to support their effort." Today, Truist Financial Chairman and CEO Bill Rogers and Tri-States Regional President Calvin Barker joined Jeff O'Brien, Executive Director with Louisville Metro Government's Cabinet for Economic Development, and Community Ventures President and CEO Kevin Smith to formally announce the grant and discuss its impact."If we are going to take equity seriously, wealth building must be a priority," said Smith. "I'm grateful to Truist Foundation for contributing $500,000 to our Equity Boost Program and to entrepreneurs like Elixir Kombucha, Luxe and Ashe Candle Co., and Shady's Auto Repair, who have entrusted us with their business dreams." Since its founding in 1982, Community Ventures has helped more than 8,600 entrepreneurs start or expand their businesses, saved 1,800 households from foreclosure, provided 400,000 small businesses with continuing education opportunities, and created 15,200 jobs."Small businesses are the foundation of our economy. Owning and operating a small business is difficult, but through financial and technical assistance, we can help ease the burden on small businesses and help them build- contributing to our local economy and to the uniqueness of our city," added O'Brien. "Louisville Metro Government's Economic Development team is proud to work with partners, including Community Ventures Corp., to support small business and to offer its own low-interest METCO small business loans." # # #About Truist FoundationTruist Foundation is committed to Truist Financial Corporation's (NYSE: TFC) purpose to inspire and build better lives and communities. The Foundation, an endowed private foundation established in 2020 whose operating budget is independent of Truist Financial Corporation, makes strategic investments in a wide variety of nonprofit organizations centered around two focus areas: building career pathways to economic mobility and strengthening small businesses to ensure all communities have an equal opportunity to thrive. Embodying these focus areas are the Foundation's leading initiatives - the Inspire Awards and Where It Starts. Learn more at Truist.com/Foundation About Community Ventures Corporation Inc.Founded in 1982 as a community-based, non-profit organization, Community Ventures strengthens communities and improves the overall quality of life for Kentuckians by supporting job creation, small business ownership, and home ownership. CV is headquartered in Lexington with branch locations in Bowling Green, Campbellsville, Louisville, Mayfield, Millersburg, and Owensboro. For 21 consecutive years, CV has been named Microlender of the Year by the Kentucky Small Business Administration.Community leaders gathered at Chef Space to celebrate a $500,000 grant from Truist Foundation to Community Ventures on Friday, Oct. 27, 2023, to support small businesses throughout Kentucky. (L-R: Calvin Barker, Tri-States Regional President, Truist Financial; Kevin Smith, President and CEO, Community Ventures; Yasmine Fleming, Owner, Luxe and Ash Candle Co.; Danielle Wood, Co-founder, Elixir Kombucha; Corey Wood, Co-founder, Elixir Kombucha; Shirie Hawkins, President, Everything Equity; Bill Rogers, Chairman and CEO, Truist Financial; and Jeff O'Brien, Executive Director with Louisville Metro Government's Cabinet for Economic Development) View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Truist on 3 blmedia.com Contact Info:Spokesperson: TruistWebsite: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/truist Email: info@3 blmedia.com SOURCE: Truist
PR-Inside.com: 2023-10-27 16:17:12

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WASHINGTON, DC / ACCESSWIRE / October 27, 2023 / The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) has launched a new webpage dedicated to covering reactions to the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, from the Middle East as well as worldwide.This new webpage highlights all the latest MEMRI content about the ongoing conflict with reactions from other jihadi groups, research on Hamas and other relevant actors, and updated on-the-ground developments, among other topics.Since October 7, MEMRI has published 53 translated clips, 70 translations and analysis reports, and 85 Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) reports.The new MEMRI webpage features MEMRI research from t the MEMRI TV Project, the Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM), the Lantos Archives on Antisemitism, and the Reform Project, among other research projects.Additionally, the MEMRI Trending page is continuing to highlight the most important news and trends in the Middle East and beyond, with tailored content on a broad range of issues, such as the "Reactions To Gaza" section that also links to the new Reactions to the Hamas Attack webpage.Please consider making a tax-deductible donation today to MEMRI so that we can continue this vital work.ABOUT MEMRIExploring the Middle East and South Asia through their media, MEMRI bridges the language gap between the West and the Middle East and South Asia, providing timely translations of Arabic, Farsi, Urdu-Pashtu, Dari, Turkish, Russian, and Chinese media, as well as original analysis of political, ideological, intellectual, social, cultural, and religious trends.Founded in February 1998 to inform the debate over U.S. policy in the Middle East, MEMRI is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit, 501(c)3 organization. MEMRI's main office is located in Washington, DC, with branch offices in various world capitals. MEMRI research is translated into English, French, Polish, Japanese, Spanish, and Hebrew.MEMRI - Middle East Media Research Institute: www.memri.org MEMRI TV - www.memri.org/tv Jihad & Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) - www.memri.org/jttm Cyber & Jihad Lab (CJL) - www.memri.org/cjlab MEMRI Twitter: https://twitter.com/memrireports/ MEMRI YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC59Cpk70K2TwdmApJOTuW9g/videos MEMRI Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/memrireports/ Contact Information:MEMRImedia@ memri.org202-955-9070www.memri.org SOURCE: Middle East Media Research Institute
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Cooking Back to Our Roots Season 2 features a panel of Dutch CEOs, entrepreneurs, and high potentials from the African diaspora as they share how history impacts their lives.AMSTERDAM, NETHERLAND / ACCESSWIRE / October 27, 2023 / Following the success of the eclectic web series Cooking Back to Our Roots, Diversity Equity and Inclusion Consultant and Nutrition Advocate, Vivian Acquah, is gearing up to launch the show's second season on Sunday, November 5, 2023.Season 2 of Cooking Back to Our Roots consists of 4 episodes that explore the collective history and culture of the African Diaspora in the Netherlands and the journey of reconnecting to their roots while developing a deeper appreciation for their heritage. For each episode, host Vivian Acquah is joined by a panel of Dutch CEOs, entrepreneurs, and high potentials from the African diaspora as they share how history impacts their lives.Cooking Back to Our Roots underscores the significance of food and its potential to trace the threads of history and provide a more profound understanding of each other. The program offers lessons about cultures, generations and traditions, as well as views, feelings, and challenges.The first episode of the program kicks off with an interview with the Head of Talent Acquisition at Heineken, Kobi Ampoma and Communications Manager and Creative Artist Benedicta Badu (Netherlands & Ghana with a stimulating discussion on the significant influence of the Dutch Slavery history on the African Diaspora in the Netherlands. In Episode 2, Vivian explores the culinary traditions of the former Dutch Antilles and their deep-seated roots in the past with the help of her guests, Sacha Martina, Founder and CEO of Your Talent Agency and Award Winning Global Transformation Leader Edson Hato.Director at Deloitte Hilary Richters & Senior Banker (ABN AMRO) turned Social Entrepreneur Roots Inspire Sergio Panday (Netherlands & Suriname) are featured in the series' third episode as they delve into the concept of Sankofa and explore the cultural significance of a favorite Surinamese meal. Vivian effortlessly incorporates the meaningful Adinkra symbol "Sankofa," using lessons from the past as building blocks for a better future. The series culminates with an interview with Neuroscientist and Founder of Brain Matters Consulting, Dr. Marcia Goddard, as she offers her outlook on the Netherlands and West Africa.Cooking Back to Our Roots Season 2 offers a rich visual experience along the home countries of African-Dutch high potentials from the business world. Viewers are treated to a cultural feast of the eyes through fashion and art. Vivian is always dressed in colorful, authentic African attire, and new, inspiring art hangs on the wall each episode.Until now, there has never been an online TV Program dedicated to Dutch CEOs, entrepreneurs, and high potentials from the African diaspora. When asked about her choice of guests for season 2, Vivian explained: " I came from the corporate world and was missing that connection and inspiration. I wanted to offer a new perspective and break through the feeling of 'I am the only one.I specifically include corporate high potentials in my program. This provides a new sound and a different vision for entrepreneurs and business people." Cooking Back to Our Roots was produced By Vivian Acquah through the help of a grant from the City of Amsterdam. A representative from the municipality said: "This project scores high on knowledge sharing and awareness. Food is an underexposed perspective and, therefore, important. Moreover, the initiative connects different groups from the diaspora. It is a project that wants to make people aware of the importance of traditional cuisine and its role in connecting people to their roots." As a Certified Diversity Equity and Inclusion expert, Vivian is on a mission to inspire 1 million leaders to embrace inclusivity in the workplace. She said: "Cooking Back to Our Roots offers stories to bring that message across the stage in an inspiring way." Season 2 of Cooking Back to Our Roots will air on YouTube on Sunday, November 5, 12, 19 and 26 at 4 PM GMT/ 5 PM CET/ 11 AM ET / 8 AM PT. For further details, visit https://news.cb2or.com ###Media contact: Vivian AcquahEmail: v.acquah@ amplifydei.com Tel: +31631 916922SOURCE: Cooking Back to Our Roots
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NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / October 27, 2023 / The main event in China of this year's World Cities Day will kick off in Shanghai tomorrow.Themed Financial Sustainable Urban Future for All, the four-day event will include an opening ceremony and over 20 forums, side events, and exhibitions, Jin Chen, deputy director of the Shanghai Housing and Urban-Rural Construction Management Commission, said at a press conference yesterday.The World Cities Day's China event will be co-hosted by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Shanghai municipal government, and the United Nations Human Settlements Program.At the event, the first Global Sustainable Cities Award, or Shanghai Award, will be handed out to praise five global cities that performed well in adopting the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and New Urban Agenda, Jin noted."Fifty-four cities from 16 countries applied to be considered for the award", Jin added. "They cover cities in developed countries, developing countries, and least developed ones at different levels of development, income and demographics." The UN-Habitat announced the Shanghai Award in March last year.The UN established World Cities Day in December 2013 and picked Oct. 31 for its global observance as a sign to continue practicing the idea of Better City, Better Life, which was promoted at the Expo 2010 in Shanghai, concluded on Oct. 31, 2010.Joint efforts from countries, cities, financial bodies, companies, and residents worldwide are required to contribute to the financing of sustainable development, given that the theme was proposed because global economic growth slowed down and the progress of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development significantly lagged behind goals, Li Zhe, vice division head of program finance at the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, said at the press conference.Over the past years, China has made steady progress in urban renewal and improving the quality of housing and city infrastructure, Li added.China's urbanization rate exceeded 65 percent as of the end of last year, with a nationwide urban road mileage of 548,500 kilometers, Li noted. Meanwhile, Chinese cities' gas coverage, sewage treatment, and harmless household waste treatment rates reached 98.1 percent, 97.9 percent, and 99.9 percent, respectively, he pointed out. Green space per capita was 15.1 square meters.About Yicai GlobalLaunched in August 2016, Yicai Global is the English-language news service of Yicai Media Group, the financial news arm of Shanghai Media Group, which is one of China's largest state-owned media conglomerates. Focused primarily on China's business world, Yicai Global is dedicated to provide reliable and insightful information and analysis of the economy, finance, tech, startups, and entrepreneurs.Media Contact:Contact person: Zhu LimingEmail: yicaiglobal@ yicaiglobal.com SOURCE: Yicai Media Group
Spotify, a global online streaming platform, says podcast listenership in Nigeria witnessed tremendous growth between 2021 and 2022.

The Podcast Manager, Spotify Sub-Saharan Africa, Ncebakazi Manzi, said this in a statement on Friday in Lagos.

Ms Manzi said podcasts had also contributed to the growth of Afrobeats.

Thanks to rising smartphone adoption and increasingly affordable connectivity; the medium has seen significant growth across the continent.

In fact, podcast listenership in Nigeria grew by an astonishing 222 per cent between 2021 and 2022.

Unsurprisingly, it is not just listenership that has grown but production too.

While it is difficult to get an exact idea of how many African-produced podcasts there actually are, you only need to open your podcasting app and type a few continent and country-specific search terms in to see how much choice there is today.

These podcasts cover a growing number of niches too, including Afrobeats, she said.

Ms Manzi noted that the rise of Afrobeats over the past decade had been remarkable.

She said from the streets of Nigeria and Ghana, it had become a global phenomenon, with some of the worlds biggest artists collaborating with Afrobeats icons and emerging artists alike.

She said there were many high-quality podcasts with Afrobeats focus that not only highlighted tracks from the genre but also delved into meaningful discussions related to the music.

Take Afrobeats Intelligence, for example, founded by award-winning Nigerian music journalist, Joey Akan, the podcast is a spin-off of his newsletter of the same name.

And while it may be rooted in Nigeria, the podcast celebrates creative excellence from across the African continent.

Terms and Conditions by Pulse dissects worthy culture-related conversations with insights and varying perspectives.

Hosted by Neo Akpofure, ex-BBNaija housemate, Oyindasola Chekwa ESQ, a lifestyle influencer and content creator, and Sayo AK an artiste, planner, and entrepreneur.

The podcast was launched in 2021 and also provides invaluable insights into the music industry from people who have been in the thick of it, she said.

According to her, Afrobeats has undoubtedly been one of the biggest beneficiaries of Africas podcasting explosion.

She said there was no doubt that other genres were benefitting and will benefit in the future too.

As more and more African producers launch their own podcasts and smartphone penetration and connectivity continue to grow across the continent, that symbiotic influence will only keep growing, she said.

Ms Manzi noted that in a sign of how rapid the ascent of Afrobeats had been, Spotify recently held events in Nigeria celebrating 13 billion streams of the genre.

She said the growth of Afrobeats was unlikely to slow down anytime soon, especially as streaming continued to grow across Africa.

According to research firm, Statista, the continents streaming market is set to grow from 362.5 million dollars in 2023 to 513.2 million dollars in 2027.

Combine that expansion with significant diaspora populations, the ingredients for further inter-continental pollination and growth is evident, she said.

(NAN)

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The United Nations Human Rights Office has accused Israel of committing war crimes with the siege and blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Collective punishment is a war crime.

Israels collective punishment of the entire population of Gaza must immediately cease, spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said on Friday in Geneva.

The UN agency also said that the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas had committed war crimes and atrocities including by abducting civilians from Israel during deadly attacks on 7 October.

Ms Shamdasani demanded that Palestinian groups halt the indiscriminate attacks on Israel.

More than 200 people, many of them civilians, were believed to be held captive by Hamas in Gaza.

Israel declared a complete siege of Gaza, cutting off supplies of water, food, electricity and fuel.

A humanitarian catastrophe unfolds for the 2.2 million people locked inside Gaza who are being collectively punished, Ms Shamdasani said.

Since the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October that killed about 1,400 people including women and children, Israeli air strikes on Gaza have killed over 7,000 people including almost 3,000 children, according to Palestinian authorities.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has repeatedly called for a ceasefire and condemned Israels actions in Gaza that have displaced almost half of the over two million population.

Israel has in response called for the resignation of the UN chief and said it would not approve visas for UN officials seeking to travel to Palestine or Israel.

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The EU on Friday said that it is bringing back the European Film Festival to Russia this November despite Russias war against Ukraine.

The festival, which did not run in 2022 due to the conflict, would showcase 21 films from EU countries including Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Czech Republic and Luxembourg.

The festival would be held online from 1 to 15 November, mostly free of charge, according to the EU delegation in Russia.

Even in the difficult context of the Russian war against Ukraine, the EU wants to show that relations between Europeans and Russians can continue, EU Ambassador to Russia Roland Galharague said in Moscow.

Mr Galharague said that while the EU had ended cooperation with the Russian government over the war, this should not reflect on the people of Russia.

Cinema unites people, the diplomat said in a Moscow cinema in front of hand-picked guests.

Russian culture and art serves as a source of enrichment for filmmaking in Europe as well.

Two co-productions with Russian participation will also be shown.

Many Russian artists have left their homeland because they can no longer work freely in the country where Western culture is sometimes officially demonised.

Filmmakers in particular repeatedly complain about censorship by the Russian Ministry of Culture, which, for example, refuses to grant licences for the cinema distribution of films.

At the EU event to present the festival in Moscow, slogans about freedom and human rights flickered across the screen.

Some guests at the screening, which was not announced publicly, spoke of a climate of intimidation and fear in all spheres of Russian society.

The films, including documentaries, would be shown in their original language with subtitles on the online cinema platform Cool Play.

Access without prior registration is only available to people in Russia or to people outside the country with access to a virtual private network (VPN) tunnel.

(dpa/NAN)

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The State Security Service (SSS) has transferred custody of former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), after over four of months of holding him over corruption allegations.

The SSS arrested the former CBN chief in Lagos on 10 June, a day after President Bola Tinubu suspended him from office.

The governments spy agency held him for months, raising concerns of violations of principle of rule of law by the Tinubu administration.

A PREMIUM TIMES editorial noted the grave implications of the endless detention of Mr Emefiele alongside former EFCC chair, Abdulrasheed Bawa, who was released three days after the publication, for rule of law and democracy.

Top EFCC sources, who are not permitted to speak publicly on the matter, informed PREMIUM TIMES on Friday that SSS handed over Mr Emefile to the commission on Thursday.

He has been facing interrogations at the EFCC headquarters in Abuja since he was brought on Thursday, one of the sources said on Friday.

While in custody, Mr Emefiele who was suspended a day before his arrest by the SSS on 10 June, was said to have resigned to pave the way for the appointment of Olayemi Cardoso as the new CBN governor.

Investigations and aborted charges

For the over four months that he was in SSS custody, the secret police did not disclose the offences it was investigating him for.

But in July, the agency arraigned him on two counts of illegal possession of firearms and live ammunition at the Federal High Court, Lagos.

After arraigning him on the two charges on 25 July, the SSS, in August, withdrew the charges.

Based on SSS investigations, the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, again, charged the former central bank chief with N6.9 billion corruption charges at the FCT High Court in Abuja in August.

But the arraignment was rescheduled on different occasions, a development that triggered speculations that Mr Emefiele was in plea bargain talks with the government over the charges filed against him.

Earlier this month, the AGF, Lateef Fagbemi, denied signing any plea agreement with Mr Emefiele, which tallied with an earlier exclusive disclosure by an official of the Federal Ministry of Justice to PREMIUM TIMES that such plea agreement was not yet on the table.

But the case has not come up in court since the failed arraignment on 23 August.

But some said the delay in the commencement of Mr Emefieles trial may be due to the multi-dimensional corruption cases he is involved in.

So far, there has not been any official disclosure of the allegations against him, apart from the charges pending at the FCT High Court.

In the case, Mr Emefiele was charged alongside Saadatu Ramallan-Yaro, a CBN staff member, and her company, April 1616 Investment Limited.

Mr Emefiele and Mrs Ramalan-Yaro, a CBN staff member, were accused of conspiracy and procurement fraud involving as much as N6.9 billion.

The charges alleged that Mr Emefiele conferred corrupt advantages on Ms Ramalan-Yaro, using her firm, April 1616 Investment Limited, to execute a series of procurement contracts spanning years.

The government alleged that the defendants committed the offences through the award of contracts to Mrs Ramalan-Yaros company for the supply of cars.

The defendants, allegedly through the corrupt transactions, purchased a fleet of about 100 posh vehicles and armoured buses worth about N6.9 billion.

The alleged corrupt transactions took place between 2018 and 2020, according to the charges.

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The Supreme Court on Thursday said the malfunctioning of the INEC Results Viewing (IReV) portal during Nigerias presidential election on 25 February reduced public confidence in the electoral process.

Delivering judgement on two separate appeals filed by Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi to nullify President Bola Tinubus election victory, a seven-member panel of the court held that although the IReV glitches did not impede result collation, they impacted negatively public perception of the disputed presidential election.

Truth must be told, the non-functioning of the IReV may have also reduced the confidence of the voting public in the electoral process, Inyang Okoro, the presiding justice, who read the courts lead decision, said.

IReV is an online platform where photographic pictures of polling unit results are meant to be uploaded using the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines as soon as voting and collation end at the various voting units.

INEC had promised ahead of the last general elections that the results would be uploaded to IReV promptly.

But it failed to fulfill the promise with results ending up taking days to weeks to be uploaded to IReV for the public to access. The commission blamed the delay on unforeseen system glitches.

However, the failure became a rallying point for opposition presidential candidates who lost the February 2023 vote. Alleging widespread fraud during the election, they maintained that the poll was invalidated by INECs failure to promptly upload the polling unit results to IReV as prescribed in the guidelines for the election.

At the presidential election court hearing, Mr Obis expert witness, Mpeh Ogar, a Web engineer, testified that the health status of Amazon Web Services which hosts the INEC IReV portal showed that there were no technical glitches on 25 February.

Toeing the same line of argument, Atiku had contended that a key issue was that the electoral umpire allowed a third-party device to hijack the electronic INEC Results Viewing (IReV) portal during the presidential election, creating a loophole for Mr Tinubu to manipulate poll results.

The Presidential Election Petition Court, in September, dismissed the opposition candidates arguments about the IReV, a major thrust of their petitions, and affirmed the victory of President Tinubu. The court insisted that IReV had no place in the legal process of counting and collation of results.

Displeased, the opposition candidates raised the issue in their appeals at the Supreme Court challenging the verdict of the presidential election court.

Non-functioning of IReV didnt affect collation of results

But deciding the issue on Thursday, Mr Okoro said the INEC is empowered by the Electoral Act to determine the electronic device to be used during elections.

The court below (presidential election court) held that IReV portal is not a collation system, adding that the manual polling unit results would suffice in dealing with manual collation of results.

The court held that the non-transmission of polling unit results in real-time did not substantially affect the outcome of the election.

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The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has advised media practitioners in Nigeria to adhere strictly to the ethics of the profession while on election coverage.

INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu said this at the commissions quarterly meeting with representatives of media organisations on Thursday in Abuja

Mr Yakubu also pledged to work with the media in tackling fake news on election reporting.

We welcome reports on the election. At the same time, you should form a bulwark against fake news.

For the avoidance of doubt, the Commission does not believe in censorship.

We have said repeatedly that the best antidote to fake news is greater openness and regular and consistent engagement with stakeholders. We will continue to work together in this regard,  he said.

Mr Yakubu, speaking on the commissions preparations for the off-cycle governorship election in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi, said that 94 media organisations, deploying 1,255 personnel, had been accredited for the election.

He said in the next few days, the accredited media organisations would be notified of the date for the collection of the identity cards for their officials.

Mr Yakubu pledged to work with all stakeholders in delivering free and fair elections in Kogi, Bayelsa and Imo.

Election is a multi-stakeholder activity. In discharging our responsibilities, we will continue to engage with all stakeholders and one of such engagements is with the security agencies.

In previous elections, media organisations have expressed concern about the safety of journalists, technical staff and protection of the equipment you deploy on election day.

Similarly, you have on several occasions urged the commission to intercede with the security agencies to grant you unimpeded access to polling and collation locations.

I want to reassure you that we will continue to do so as we engage with the security agencies both at the national level and in the three states,Mr Yakubu said.

The Director News, Federal Radio Cooperation of Nigeria (FRCN), Husseina Bangshika, speaking on behalf of Media Executives, pledged continued support of the media for INEC.

She pledged the commitment of the media to work with the commission to address fake news during election.

Mrs Bangshika commended INEC for its sustained collaboration with the media, saying that the commission had come to understand that media was integral to the countrys electoral process and its democracy.

She enjoined the commission to continue to engage with the security agencies on the safety of journalists during the 11 November Kogi, Imo and Bayelsa governorship election.

(NAN)

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Air defense forces and means destroyed three X-59 missiles, as well as two Lancet attack UAVs in Mykolaiv and Kherson regions, the Pivden (South) Air Command reports.

"On October 27, 2023, as a result of combat work by the air defense forces and means of the Pivden air command, the following were destroyed: in Mykolayiv region - three X-59 guided aircraft missiles; in Kherson region - two Lancet attack drones," according to a message published on Facebook on Friday.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) says it has budgeted about N50 million to cater for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), especially women and children, in the North-west states of Nigeria.

The association also said it had commenced distribution of items worth to women in selected IDP camps in Kaduna State.

The National President of ASUU, Emmanuel Osodeke, a professor, said this on Thursday during the inauguration of the distribution at the IDP camp located at Giwa Local Government Secretariat in Giwa, Kaduna State.

Mr Osodeke, who was represented by Abdulkadir Mohammed, ASUU zonal coordinator for the North-west Zone, said the gesture was to identify with the poor and the downtrodden in line with the unions constitution.

We have noted that there are a lot of things wrong in this country, including social and economic crisis and those who suffer the brunt most especially are the displaced persons due to banditry and insecurity.

Unfortunately, this situation is nationwide and not restricted to Kaduna State.

The union felt that there was need to identify with them and we budgeted over N50 million to support the IDPs in the northwest states including; Kaduna, Sokoto, Kano, Kebbi and Zamfara, he added.

The ASUU president urged the government to pay attention to the plights of the people, adding that Nigerians are suffering, not only the IDPs but even salary earners.

He said the union, in its intervention, targeted women and children who are the most vulnerable.

The union is identifying with the masses in spite of the fact that the government has stopped our salary for the past eight months but didnt deter us from helping the most vulnerable, he said.

The president urged the government to come up with policies that would add value to the lives of the masses, especially those at the grassroots level.

Shehu Giwa, chairman of Giwa Local Government Area (LGA), who was represented by Usman Zubeiru, director, Social Development of the LGA, described the gesture as heartwarming, saying the palliatives came at the right.

The people are very happy as the items would go a long way in cushioning their suffering, as such we are very happy with the demonstration of care by ASUU, he added.

He noted that the state and federal governments including non-governmental organisations had extended their respective support towards the plight of the IDPs in the area.

Rikaiya Aliyu, a beneficiary, lauded ASUU for the support and prayed that the same gesture be extended to other IDPs across the state.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that over 500 women drawn from; Giwa, Chikun and Kajiru LGAs benefited from the food donation by ASUU. (NAN)

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The House of Representatives has responded to public criticism regarding its ever-expanding number of standing committees, which has now reached 134, even in the face of economic challenges affecting the country.

These 134 committees set up by the Speaker, Tajudeen Abbas, in June, had been tasked with managing the affairs of the 10th House of Representatives.

Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Akin Rotimi, has defended the Houses actions while speaking with the House of Representatives Press Corps in Abuja.

Mr Rotimi addressed concerns about potential duplication of functions among these committees, noting that the 10th Assemblys approach was different from previous ones.

In the Ninth House of Representatives, under former Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, the standing committees numbered 109.

In the previous Eighth House, Speaker Yakubu Dogara constituted 96 of such committees.

There are 89 standing committees in the Seventh House.

However, in the 10th House, under Mr Abbas, the number of standing committees has surged to 134.

Some Nigerians have voiced concerns over what they perceived as an excessive number of committees, contradicting President Bola Tinubus vow to reduce the cost of governance, especially in the light of rising fuel prices and the associated economic challenges.

Mr Rotimi, who serves as the Houses spokesperson, emphasised that the speakers decision to form 134 standing committees was a well-considered one.

He pledged to continue the Houses weekly press briefings with parliamentary reporters, emphasising the importance of transparency in the leadership of the 10th assembly.

Furthermore, Rotimi highlighted that the house had processed bills and motions, with over 300 motions considered and around 1,800 bills at various stages of progress.

(NAN)

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The Kaduna State Government in February 2021 signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a U.S.-based medical product delivery company, Zipline, in its efforts to address the challenges with logistics and the delivery of medical supplies to difficult-to-reach communities in the state.

Zipline is an American company that designs, manufactures and operates delivery drones. The company operates distribution centres in Rwanda, Ghana, Japan, the United States, Nigeria, Cote dIvoire and Kenya.

As of September 2023, its drones have made more than 750,000 commercial deliveries and flown more than 40 million autonomous miles, the News Agency of Nigeria reports.

The companys drones deliver whole blood, platelets, frozen plasma and cryoprecipitate, along with medical products, including vaccines, infusions and common medical commodities.

Zipline will receive medical supplies from the Kaduna State Health Supplies Management Agency at their warehouse for proper inspection, scanned and labelled with an identification name and expiry dates.

The company will also receive drugs and vaccines and keep aside, waiting for orders that come through a call centre that handles requests from healthcare facilities in hard-to-reach parts of the state.

Such orders are then arranged in a package box with a parachute to safely land at their required destinations.

Also, the ID of the orders being transported will be scanned by flight operators to determine the location of the medication or vaccine for delivery and the parcel is loaded onto the drone, while the operator gets it to fly for delivery.

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The drones, which can fly to their destination with no control, are connected to the Global Positioning System (GPS) and communicate with all the drones in operational flight.

The drones have four components, namely: battery, nose cone, wing and body, required to propel and maintain balance in air, data and connectivity interaction.

During NANs field visit to the Zipline operations base in Pamgeguwa, Kubau Local Government Area of Kaduna on Thursday, the companys Operations Manager (Nigeria), Samuel Noma, said the companys presence has reduced maternal, infant and young children mortality in hard to reach areas of the state.

He added that since Zipline started operations in August 2022, it delivered more than 10,000 vital medicines and vaccines to most hard-to-reach health centres within five and 45 minutes of the order.

Mr Noma said Zipline has reduced delays in drugs/vaccine deliveries to rural facilities, where personnel hitherto had to go long miles to buy medical supplies, leaving patients unattended to or waiting for service due to unavailability of handy medical supplies.

He said that Zipline also operates in Bayelsa and Cross River, and explained that the company makes deliveries to 291 medical facilities across 12 local government areas of Kaduna State.

He said one of the reasons for Ziplines emergence in Kaduna was insecurity and unavailability of storage facilities for some thermolabile and sensitive medications like vaccines.

We coming in, we try to centralise and warehouse those medications, and when any facility needs it, at the instance of a call, we quickly deliver, he said.

Also, Mr Jeremiah Duna, the Head of Flight Operations, disclosed that Zipline drones travel at a speed of 100 kilometres per hour.

He, however, said that if the wind is too strong, the drone would warn the flight operator to monitor the situation or to avoid flying that route.

The drones use two GPS and backup networks; connectivity issues are something else that could be a real problem. In this case, the drones can make autonomous decisions and can return to the operations office when something doesnt go well, Mr Duna said.

Subsequently, during a visit to a health facility at Hayin Gada Nasaru, Pamgeguwa, Kubau Local Government Area, one of the drones was practically seen delivering medical supplies to the facility.

Tasiu Abdullahi, a supervisor at the facility, who picked up the delivery, said that when the health centre requests drugs and vaccines, they are delivered in a short period, contrary to the long delays experienced when such requests were submitted to the Kaduna State Health Supplies Management Agency before the arrival of Zipline.

He added that before Zipline came, it was often difficult to re-stock supplies, which always takes longer than expected.

Now that the health centre is working with Zipline, we simply place orders, and the deliveries are sent to us in record time. The supply of drugs has improved healthcare service delivery in our locality.

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The Laoye ruling house of Ogbomoso has asked Ghandi Olaoye to move out of the palace of Soun of Ogbomoso and to stop parading himself as the occupant of the stool.

The Oyo State High Court had in Ogbomoso on Wednesday nullified the selection and installation of Mr Olaoye and ordered a fresh selection process for the stool of Soun.

The judge, Justice K.A. Adedokun, gave the order while ruling on an ex-parte motion filed by Kabir Olaoye, who is another contender for the stool.

In the suit marked HOG/27/2022, the plaintiff had alleged irregularities in the process that produced Ghandi Olaoye.

Mr Olaoye was installed on September 8, after the Oyo State government approved his selection by the kingmakers of the town.

His installation came almost two years after the throne became vacant following the death of Oba Jimoh Oyewumi on December 12, 2021. Mr Oyewumi had ruled the prominent Yoruba kingdom for 48 years until his death at the age of 95 years.

A palace source had said Mr Olaoye planned to appeal the judgement of the high court,

The case will definitely be appealed and so, people should not fret. In the case instituted by Prince Olaoye, the judge said the process was proper and valid but now the same process is faulted. It is conflicting, the Appeal Court will resolve that. People should be calm, The Punch newspaper quoted the source in a report on Thursday.

But the Olaoye ruling house, in a statement signed by its secretary, Saka Olaoye, and issued on Friday, said Ghandi Olaoye must first obey the order of the court by moving out of the palace.

We understand and respect Mr.Ghandhi Olaoyes right to appeal Wednesdays judgment and we wish him well as he approaches the same Nigerian court

system whose processes, injunctions, and orders that he has so spectacularly disrespected and traduced.

The judgment specifically directed Mr. Ghandhi Olaoye to vacate the Royal Palace forthwith and immediately cease to parade himself as the Soun of Ogbomoso. We hope that the court orders will be obeyed, even as he pursues any options for redress.

As a matter of fact, he cannot approach the courts for an appeal if he does not obey a subsisting order of the court. It would be tantamount to contempt, in the face of the court.

The ruling house reiterated that Ghandi Olaoye, who is one of its princes, had not applied to it for consideration for selection for the throne of Soun.

Let it be on record that Mr. Ghandi Olaoye refused to submit himself to the sacred and traditional selection processes of the Laoye Ruling House. He refused to submit himself to the familys processes and wishes, thinking he could use external influences to bludgeon the Laoye Ruling House into accepting him as our representative. He refused to obey court orders and injunctions issued by a Nigerian superior court of record.

The ruling house also appealed to Governor Seyi Makinde to probe alleged corruption in the process that produced the deposed Oba.

At a recent event in Iseyin, His Excellency Governor Seyi Makinde warned that he would personally invite the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate anyone including kingmakers alleged to be involved in giving or offering bribes to influence the selection of the next Alaafin of Oyo. In a similar vein, we call on His Excellency Governor Seyi Makinde to immediately invite the EFCC to investigate how the endorsement of the Ogbomoso Kingmakers was procured even after a well-communicated rejection by the Laoye Ruling House.

As a Royal Family, we wish to put this ugly saga behind us and wish to state very clearly that the Laoye Ruling House is not for sale. We will do the needful and a more suitable prince will be presented who will have respect for our royal family as a unified and multi-religious unit, have respect for the laws and courts of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and finally one who will have respect for Ogbomoso native law, customs, and traditions.

The court judgment removing Mr. Ghandi Afolabi Oladunni Olaoye as the representative of the Laoye Ruling House of Ogbomoso land from the exalted and revered stool of the Soun of Ogbomoso has restored our familys honour, dignity, and good name.

Let it be on record that Wednesdays judgment should be of no surprise to the impostor. It remains unclear why there was frantic and unrestrained desperation to disobey court orders and why the Oyo State Government was pressured towards making announcements and installations before yesterdays judgement was delivered.

Even though it was universally known that the case had been adjourned for judgment, a 23-man committee was prematurely set up for a December coronation, all while the matter was sub judice.

Some level of circumspection and restraint would have spared the illustrious Stool from the confusion that emanated from the premature parade of a Soun, the Olaoye ruling house said in the statement.

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Senate at plenary Thursday urged its Committees on Petroleum Downstream and Gas to conduct a holistic investigation on the implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).

This followed the adoption of a motion on Urgent Need for Enquiry into Implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021with Regards to Potential Exit of International Oil Companies (IOCS) from Nigeria: Case of ExxonMobil in Akwa Ibom, sponsored by Etim Aniekan.

Presenting the motion, Mr Aniekan (PDP, Akwa Ibom) said that the discovery of oil and gas in commercial quantity in Nigeria saw the arrival of International Oil Companies (IOCs) such as Shell PB, Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited, ater merged into ExxonMobil) Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) among others.

He said the coming of the IOCs in Nigeria was for purpose of further exploration, development and production in the oil and gas sector.

He said the IOCs went into Joint Venture (JV) contracts with the federal government through the NNPC Ltd.

Mr Aniekan said the case in point was the JV where the NNPC had 60 per cent while ExxonMobil had 40 per cent shares in the JV between the NNPC and ExxonMobil.

The responsibilities for injection of capital expenditure into the JV and the proceeds of same are shared in corresponding proportions, he said.

He said ExxonMobil offered to sell its entire onshore and shallow water facilities and business in Akwa Ibom which had established fields and high-quality operations with a highly skilled local operational teams.

Mr Aniekan said the company also had a track record of safe operations, high production rate as well as crucially extensive footprint in Akwa Ibom.

He said it was preparing for its exit from its onshore and shallow water operations in the state and to focus on deepwater production.

He said it was curious that NNPC has the Right of First Refusal (RFR) and has notified ExxonMobil of its intention to exercise that Right of Pre-emption on ExxonMobils planned sale of its entire asset in Nigerias onshore and shallow waters.

He, however, said that ExxonMobil proceeded to seal a deal with Seplat Energy PlC for that purpose.

He said that the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021 was enacted to provide legal governance, regulatory and fiscal framework for the Nigerian Petroleum Industry and address the multifarious challenges in the sector which is still the main stay of the countrys economic life.

He said the PIA had not made clear implementation plans for situations such as the emerging trend of exit of the IOCs.

He also said the PIA had not holistically resolved issues bothering on protection of interest of the federal government, producing states, host communities or provided future assurances in the handling of situations such as the issue now in focus.

The lawmaker expressed concern about the potential adverse effects of the exit of ExxonMobil from Akwa Ibom including high loss of jobs, exit of professionals and service companies, loss of revenue and abandonment of certain yet to be satisfied obligations.

He also expressed worry that the new company taking over the assets and liabilities of ExxonMobil may not have sufficient capacity to successfully step into the ExxonMobil footprints.

Concerned that the need to get involved in the processes regarding exit of ExxonMobil in Akwa Ibom State cannot be left in the hands of the NNPC and other regulators alone.

 But that there is real need to involve all stakeholders for purpose of mapping, profiling, marking up, inventorizing and analysing what ExxonMobil was doing in the oil producing states and host communities.

This is to obtain clear undertaking that whoever takes over ExxonMobil will in the interest of the state and her people, also take over all or a reasonable volume of those responsibilities previously undertaken by ExxonMobil, he said.

He also expressed worry that the PIA implementation had yet to produced any workable coordination or clearing house by which NNPCL, regulators and oil producing companies, coordinate to ensure vital petroleum sector changes.

(NAN)

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Nigerias former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has spoken for the first time on the allegations that he orchestrated the removal of the former Managing Director of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Usman, because of personal grudges.

Ms Usman, in her book titled: Stepping on Toes: My Odyssey at the Nigerian Ports Authority launched in April, detailed her experiences and challenges as the head of the NPA and the accusations that led to her removal as the head of the government agency.

She accused Mr Amaechi of orchestrating her removal because she failed to lavish him with favours, including birthday gifts. She also accused him of sitting on directives already approved by the president and chiding her for going over him to get it, which she said was to get the work done.

Ms Usman was suspended from office in May 2021, following Mr Amaechis request to then President Muhammadu to probe the accounts of the NPA.

Mr Amaechi, then the minister supervising the NPA, had alleged that the NPA failed to remit about N165 billion operating surpluses into the Consolidated Revenue Fund Account of the federation.

He also set up an administrative panel of inquiry to investigate the affairs of the NPA, including awards of contracts from 2016 to May 2021. The panel found no wrongdoing against Ms Usman, yet she was removed from office and replaced with Mohammed Bello-Koko, who served as her executive director, finance and administration.

She would later write in the book that Mr Amaechi simply wanted her out of the NPA at all cost due to personal grudges.

The book is full of lies  Amaechi

Addressing the allegations in the book for the first time, Mr Amaechi said he had spent the past months contemplating on whether or not he should respond because the lies were just too many.

He spoke in Lagos at an annual lecture organised by The Niche on the theme: Why we stride and slip: Leadership, Nationalism and the Nigerian condition.

The lies were too many, he was quoted as saying by Daily Trust newspaper at the event.

He said he decided to respond even though more than 90 per cent of people told him not to.

Mr Amaechi said Mr Buhari, then the president, endorsed her removal because the panel found her guilty.

She claimed she was not invited by the panel. I even came with the memo of the president, where the president endorsed her removal, he said.

He added that her removal was premised on the fact that she approved contracts up to N2.8 billion without appropriation even though her approval limit was N2.5 million.

According to him, the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) later found that despite the lack of appropriation, the contract was inflated by N58 million which she was asked to refund.

He said: Count one is in the question of the fact that the panel says she is guilty; count two is due to the fact that a Managing Director of NPA with N2.5 million approval limit can approve N2.8 billion contract with no appropriation

Mr Amaechi also accused her of changing agreements already approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) without consultations.

The Federal Executive Council, the President and Vice President including the Minister of Transport will approve an agreement for Lekki Deep Sea Port, the MD of NPA will change it and when queried, she will say for national interest, so we are for Biafra interest? he asked.

He also accused her of granting waivers she has no powers to grant at the NPA.

He said: She gave waivers to prominent Nigerians, which she has no power to give and these are dollars accruable to Nigerias economy but she was bold to write a book or is it a pamphlet and Nigerians are following her, launching the book, so how will Nigeria move forward?

But lets wait until they bring the original copy because if I give you the photocopy, you will say it is fake. I will show you the original but I wont allow you to read it because you would see the names of those prominent Nigerians that were indicted by the panel. I will rather read the areas that concern her and leave those prominent Nigerians, they didnt look for my trouble.

Reacting to the claims that he was furious because Ms Usmandid not get a birthday gift from her, Mr Amaechi said he had told her to stop getting him birthday gifts when he became a minister.

She gave me a lot of birthday presents, from the time I met her to when I became a minister. When I became a minister, the last birthday present she gave me was a big returnee bag. So I said no, that I am now a minister. You are now my subordinate, but she lied. Would you believe that somebody who worked under me from 2013 will not give a birthday present, he said.

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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Eleven out of the 26 members of the Ondo State House of Assembly have spoken out against the resumption of the move to sack Deputy Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa for alleged gross misconduct.

The House had this week renewed its directive to the chief judge of the state, Olusegun Odusola, to constitute a seven-person panel to investigate the allegations made against the deputy governor by some lawmakers.

Mr Odusola had initially declined to constitute the panel, citing an order of the Federal High Court restraining further actions in the move to remove the deputy governor until a case he filed before the court on the matter is determined.

In the latest development, one of a series on the political crisis in the state on Thursday, the 11 lawmakers dissociated themselves from the letter of 23 October written by the Speaker of the House, Olamide Oladiji, renewing the directive to the chief judge on the probe panel.

In a press statement they issued in Akure, the 11 lawmakers said Mr Oladijis letter did not emanate from a resolution of the House and is, therefore, not authorised.

The lawmakers who signed the statement include Japheth Oluwatoyin, Jide Oguntodu, Tiamiyu Fatai Atere, Gbegudu Ololade and Allen Oluwatoyin. The others are Abitogun Stephen, Tope Komolafe, Afe Felix, Oladapo Biola, Fayemi Olawumi and Oshati Olatunji.

They said the decision by Mr Oladiti to transmit the letter to the chief judge is in the least unwarranted and uncalled for, in the light of the following reasons;

a) The order of interim injunction of the Federal High Court of Nigeria, Abuja Division, of 21st day of September, 2023, which has restrained the speaker and Ondo State House of Assembly, as 4th and 6th respondents respectively, is still subsisting, since it has neither be vacated nor set aside. For us to act in contravention of the subsisting order of the Court will certainly be contemptuous.

b) The National Leaders of the All Progressive Congress, on 17th October. 2023, invited all the members of the Party, of Ondo State House of Assembly to the National Secretariat of the Party and pleaded for amicable and political solution to the issue of impeachment process, initiated by the House against the Deputy Governor of Ondo State. Without hesitation, the request was acceded to, in the interest of the party and peace of Ondo State, by the State chairman of APC, Engr. Ade Adetimehin and Speaker of Ondo State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Oladiji Olamide Adesanmi, who consequently addressed the press immediately after the meeting. It will be untidy in our view to get back to Ondo State and act otherwise.

c) The decision to transmit the purported letter of Ondo State House of Assembly. dated 23rd October, 2023, signed by Rt. Hon Oladiji Olamide Adesanmi, was taken without a formal sitting of the House and our knowledge as members of the 10th Assembly.

d) It is our considered view that we should be honourable indeed by standing with our acceptance at the Abuja meeting to suspend the impeachment process and allow for amicable and political solution to the issue for the benefits of governance and peace of Ondo State.

The lawmakers expressed unalloyed respect and support to Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, who they said strongly believes in peace and progress of Ondo State, and also urged Mr Ayedatiwa to eamestly toe the path of the agreement for amicable and political solution to the impeachment saga, as brokered by the National Working Committee of All Progressive Congress.

In the light of the foregoing, we the undersigned members of Ondo State House of Assembly, wish to dissociate ourselves from the letter titled: Request to Constitute a Seven-man panel, to investigate the Allegation of Gross Misconduct Against the Deputy Governor of Ondo State. Following the Expiration of the Interim Injunction of the Federal High Court in Suit FHC/ABJ/CS/1294/2023, by Operation of Law, signed by Rt. Hon. Oladiji Olamide Adesanmi and addressed to the Chief Judge of Ondo State.

This development came on the same day that Mr Akeredolu rejected an apology tendered to him by Mr Aiyedatiwa over the embarrassment that the ongoing political crisis must have caused in the state.

Addressing journalists earlier on Thursday in Akure, Mr Aiyedatiwa had blamed the crisis on desperate politicians in the state. He said he remained loyal to the governor and also denied sponsoring any protest against him.

However, in his reaction through his Senior Special Assistant on Special Duties and Strategy, Doyin Odebowale, Mr Akeredolu advised Mr Aiyedatiwa to appear before the House of Assembly to face the allegations against him.

The governor denied the claim by the deputy governor that he had asked the House to embrace political solutions to the crisis.

He also rejected the claim by the deputy governor that he had never sponsored any group to protest against him.

Mr Odebowale said in the statement, Governor Akeredolu does not meddle in the affairs of the House of Assembly of Ondo State, as subtly suggested at the (Aiyedatiwas) press conference. There has never been any time when the governor persuaded the distinguished members of Ondo State House of Assembly to embrace the political solution offered by the APC, in the face of an impeachment move against the Deputy Governor, Mr Lucky Aiyedatiwa.

The governor, a senior advocate of over two decades, possesses a deep understanding of constitutional democracy. Any snide suggestion of meddlesomeness in the business of the second arm of government by the governor is repudiated with vehemence. Mr Governor cannot descend too low.

The deputy governor referred to the allegations of malfeasance levelled against him by the House of Assembly as all sorts of lies against my person in the media. It is only decent that we advise him to take this defence to the same House of Assembly which came up with 14 allegations of gross misconduct against him.

The governor also took exception to Mr Aiyedatiwas reference to his ill health, saying, More instructive is the unfortunate reference made to a series of events triggered by the health challenges faced by Mr Governor, which gave rise to misunderstandings, misconceptions, assumptions, and insinuations, and exploited by political contenders preparing for the upcoming 2024 gubernatorial election.

According to him, the good people of Ondo State are too discerning to be hoodwinked with dissembling equivocation.

He said, Keen observers of events, as they have been unfolding in the state, cannot miss the import of the malicious intents, insensitive posturing and diabolical projections of the last six months in the government of the Sunshine State.

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The patrol team of the Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS), Beecroft, has intercepted a large wooden boat loaded with over 300 drums, pumping machines and other equipment within its Lagos anchorage.

The Base Information Officer, H.A. Collins, a sub-lieutenant, who disclosed in a statement on Friday, said the boat with eight crew, was intercepted on Wednesday at about 0230 hours.

She said the perpetrators were arrested and handed over to the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).

She listed those arrested as Selafei Tito, Seba Hunton, Etieni Abibu, Ahousansou Lawlent and Oke Job.

Others are Abel Yede, Matiye Husa and Husa Hungha.

Ms Collins said the timely interception by the patrol team prevented disaster associated with the illegal handling of inflatable petroleum products by unscrupulous elements.

In a swift and proactive response to stall activities of economic saboteurs, NNS BEECROFT patrol team vectored by the state-of-the-art Maritime Domain Awareness Facility, the Falcone Eye Alignment, intercepted a large wooden boat on 25 October 2023 at about 0230 within Lagos anchorage.

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This wooden boat laden with 8 crew, over 300 drums, pumping machines and other equipment was prevented from getting to its destination to perpetrate illegal bunkering, which could have robbed the nation of huge quantity of products for consumption by Nigerians.

The timely interception by the patrol team is also commendable, as it prevented disaster associated with illegal handling of these inflatable petroleum products by unscrupulous elements, she said.

Ms Collins said the proactive response initiated by the patrol team further revealed the Nigerian Navys unwavering commitment under the leadership of the Chief of the Naval Staff, Emmanuel Ogalla, a vice admiral, towards safeguarding vital resources as well as effective safety of lives and property particularly within the maritime domain.

She quoted the NNS Beecroft commander, Kolawole Oguntuga, a commodore, as saying that handing over the suspected economic saboteurs to the appropriate agency for investigation and prosecution, would further send a strong message that the Nigerian Navy remains resolute at effective ocean governance by ensuring the full weight of the law is meted on perpetrators of maritime crimes, which is necessary to sustain economic prosperity of the nation.

Mr Oguntuga also stated that the arrested persons would be properly interrogated to expose their motives and identities of likely sponsors in the course of the investigation before prosecution.

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The African Development Bank (AfDB), Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development hinted on Thursday that they have voted $1 billion to further deliver Special Agro-industrial Processing Zones (SAPZs) in 24 states of Nigeria.

This is in addition to an initial $520 million voted by the development partners for the development of eight special agro-industrial processing zones in Nigeria.

President of African Development Bank Group,.Akinwumi Adesina, disclosed this at the Norman Borlaug International Dialogue, World Food Prize 2023, in Des Moines, Iowa, United States of America.

Vice President Kashim Shettima, who is attending the event in pursuance of the food security and diversification policy of the Tinubu administration, had on Wednesday delivered his keynote address at the ongoing Dialogue.

Delivering his own speech titled, From Dakar to Des Moines, Mr Adesina noted that the decision to pump such huge funds into Nigerias agribusiness was part of the resolve to develop Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZs) in 13 countries.

Explaining that it was the core of the food and agriculture delivery compacts from the Dakar 2 Summit held earlier this year in Dakar, Senegal, the AfDB President said, We are investing heavily in the development of SAPZs to support the development of agricultural value chains, food processing and value addition, enabling infrastructure and logistics to promote local, regional, and international trade in food.

The African Development Bank Group is investing $853 million in the development of the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones, and it has mobilised additional co-financing of $661 million, for a total commitment of $1.5 billion. We are deploying effective partnerships at scale. We are currently implementing 25 Special Agro-industrial Processing Zones in 13 countries.

For example, the African Development Bank, Islamic Development Bank, and the International Fund for Agricultural Development provided $520 million for the development of eight special agro-industrial processing zones in Nigeria. The second phase of the program aims to mobilise an additional $1 billion to deliver special agro-industrial processing zones in 24 States of Nigeria.

Mr Adesina regretted that while much progress had been made in African agriculture, 283 million people still go to bed hungry in Africa, about a third of the 828 million people that suffer hunger globally.

He, however, described the Norman Borlaug International Dialogue World Food Prize 2023, as a journey and narrative of how we are combining the power of science, technology, policies, and politics to ensure that Africa fully unlocks its agricultural potential, and feeds itself, with pride.

The AfDB President thanked Mr Shettima, and the President of Ethiopia, Sahle-Work Zewde, for participating in the global event, saying their presence is an indication that Africa has the political will and is fully ready to tackle food insecurity and make hunger history on the continent.

Food security initiative

Also speaking during the fire-side chat with the AfDB President, Mr Shettima who spoke on the Tinubu administrations initiatives for food security said the quality of present leadership in Nigeria and the rest of Africa will drive transformation in agriculture and other sectors.

According to him, a nation falls or rises fundamentally due to the quality of its leadership. Right now Africa is blessed with quite a handful of quality leaders that have the drive, passion and skills set to redefine the meaning and concept of modern leadership.

Bola Ahmed Tinubu, my boss, is a good example, Macky Sall of Senegal and of course, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi of Egypt are doing wonderfully well, just to mention a few of the African leaders that are distinguishing themselves in leadership.

I want to assure this gathering of investors and stakeholders in the agricultural sector that my boss, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a quintessential 21st century modern African leader who is determined to redefine the meaning and concept of modern leadership.

Be rest assured that there will be a sea change in the fortunes of the Nigerian nation and by extention the African continent in the next couple of years because Nigeria is an anchor nation, the VP added.

Wheat production

On wheat production, Mr Shettima said our target towards wheat production in Nigeria is to achieve 50 per cent self sufficiency in the next three cycles. It is inconceivable that we are the second largest wheat importer in the world.

Luckily, we have already procured the heat tolerant variety of wheat seeds and we are going to drive that process by supporting the farmers with the heat tolerant variety, agricultural extention services, fertilizer and also hope to increase the irrigation areas to one million hectares in the next cropping cycle.

We need to produce about 2.4 million tonnes of wheat grains in Nigeria. We are going to reach out to our farmers through small irrigation schemes and through digitalisation. All the actors in the value chain will be sufficiently taken care of through innovative finance, partial credit guarantees and crop insurance, the VP emphasised.

Rice production

For rice production, the VP said the major challenge for Nigeria is the insufficiency of paddy rice. He noted that Nigeria has adequate milling capacity but we need to produce 3 to 4 million tonnes of paddy rice to meet our requirement of about 2.5 million tonnes per annum. We have 75 million hectares of arable land and most of it suited for rice cultivation.

READ ALSO: African Development Bank penalises construction company

He added that we will provide our farmers with certified seeds, fertilzer, extension services, the digitalisation of services, inputs, finance and market information. Our target is to achieve self sufficiency in rice latest by 2027.

The VP also spoke about the SAPZs, reiterating the Tinubu administrations commitment to providing an enabling environment for investors in the zones.

He said government would create an SAPZ development authority that will operate like a one-stop shop where regulatory and associated issues will be addressed.

*Stanley Nkwocha*

*Senior Special Assistant to The President, Media and Communications (Office of the Vice President)*

*October 27th, 2023*

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Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan Friday visited President Bola Tinubu at the State House, Abuja, after which he said ex-Nigerian presidents and other political leaders must stop fighting for the sake of the country.

The two leaders met behind closed doors after which Mr Jonathan addressed journalists.

The former president said he was scheduled to visit Mr Tinubu last week but the meeting could not hold.

But today, it has now coincided with the judgement of the supreme court yesterday. So it is an opportunity for me to also congratulate Mr President.

We talked a lot about the country. You will see more of me because there are certain things we discussed and the country must move forward, he said.

Mr Jonathan added there was a need to bring Nigerian political leaders including former presidents together and prevent them from fighting.

Although Mr Jonathan did not mention any particular former president, ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo vehemently opposed the election of Mr Tinubu and is believed to still be opposed to the new administration.

We need to bring all our political leaders including all our former presidents together, Mr Jonathan said. We will not be fighting; if top leaders continue fighting they will not suffer that much but the downtrodden will suffer.

Elections are over and we want to end that tension so we move forward, Mr Jonathan added.

Nigerias supreme court affirmed President Tinubus election victory on Thursday, bringing an end to a legal challenge brought by his two main rivals, who argued that his victory was marred by fraud and electoral law breaches.

There is no merit in this appeal, and it is hereby dismissed, said Supreme Court judge John Okoro.

With the conclusion of litigation on the presidential election, Mr Jonathan said it is time for Nigeria to take a lead in Africa.

Yes, we have challenges economically now but we still have what it takes to lead Africa, he said.

These are some of the issues I will continue to have conversations with Mr President, including briefing him on all my foreign programmes.

They are not personal issues. Traditionally, former presidents, when they go outside the country for continental or regional programmes and even some international, when you come home you brief the president. That is the tradition.

Mr Jonathan has served or currently serves as an envoy for regional bodies including ECOWAS and the AU.

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The European leaders, who met at a European Union summit in Brussels on Friday, have exchanged views about the situation in the South Caucasus where the EU intends to continue its mediating role, European Council President Charles Michel said.

"We are determined to continue to act as mediators for the purpose of [providing] EU assistance to the normalization between Azerbaijan and Armenia, based on the principles of mutual recognition of territorial integrity and sovereignty," Michel told a press conference in Brussels after the end of two-day European Council meetings.

There was a "strategic exchange of opinions" on the subject, he said, stressing the importance of good coordination of efforts and noting the "solid unity" of European leaders on the issue.
Gunmen have beheaded a vigilante operative in Isiahia Village, Umuojima, a community in Osisioma Ngwa Local Government Area of Abia State, South-east Nigeria.

The victim, identified as Obinna Ndukwe, was killed and then beheaded by the attackers on Thursday.

The police spokesperson in Abia State, Maureen Chinaka, disclosed this in a statement on Friday.

Ms Chinaka, an assistant superintendent of police, said the victim was killed at about 3:50 p.m. when some gunmen attacked a combined security team comprising a police operative, a special constabulary, and three vigilante operatives.

The police spokesperson said some police operatives stationed at the headquarters of Osisioma Ngwa Local Government Area got to the scene of the attack upon receipt of information.

Upon arrival, an unregistered Sienna bus and a headless corpse were discovered.

Through investigation, the deceased was identified as Obinna Ndukwe, also known as Socket, who was a member of the Abia State vigilante and often collaborated with the police. The body of the deceased has been evacuated and deposited in the mortuary, she said.

There were reports on Thursday suggesting that a police officer was beheaded during the attack.

But Ms Chinaka said only the vigilante operative was killed in the attack.

We want to clarify that no police officer was killed during the incident.

ALSO READ: Police arrest six fake vigilante operatives

Furthermore, our officers successfully recovered the vehicle used by the hoodlums in the attack and efforts are underway to apprehend the perpetrators, she stated.

The police spokesperson urged residents of the state to remain calm and security-conscious while going about their activities.

Increased attacks

Like other states in Nigerias South-east, security has deteriorated in Abia State with frequent attacks by armed persons.

The attacks often target security agencies, government officials and facilities.

Hundreds of people, including traditional rulers, have been killed and injured in such attacks.

The Nigerian government has accused the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) of being responsible for the deadly attacks in the region. However, the group has repeatedly denied their involvement in the attacks.

IPOB is leading the agitation for an independent state of Biafra which it wants to be carved out from the South-east and some parts of South-south Nigeria.

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Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, 60, is a medical doctor and retired army captain. But he has not had a job after retirement 37 years ago. His day job since has been bandits advocacy. He has become so used to getting away with saying what he likes when he likes and how he likes it, he hardly knows when he needs help to extract his foot from his mouth.

He could use such help. Not only for his own good, but perhaps for the good of those taking him seriously as well.

In a rambling no-holds-barred sermon last week, Gumi lashed out at the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, for planning to make Abuja an extension of Tel Aviv, where anyone with a long beard would be treated like Osama bin Laden and murdered. He criticised Muslims for supporting a Muslim-Muslim ticket in the last election, forgetting that others, including Christians, also voted for that ticket.

Satan at work

His most deadly venom, however, was not for Wike. It was for Tinubu, the enabler of the Satan called Wike, and the hundreds of smaller Southern devils of all faiths roaming the woods of the country in a murderous rampage since 1966 but who have resurged with Tinubus election, holding the trigger. Their poor, dispossessed Northern compatriots are left to occupy empty shells as offices. This translation is a mild version of what Gumi said.

He spoke for himself and not for millions of Muslims across the country who recognise that after an election whoever emerges president has an obligation not just to one religious group but to all citizens, whether they are believers or agnostics.

He spoke for himself and not for exceptional clerics and Muslim leaders like the Sultan of Sokoto Saad Abubakar who have spent their lives building bridges across faiths. Gumi spoke for himself, and certainly not for voters in Abuja who, for the first time ever, elected a non-indigenous woman, Ireti Kingibe, and member of the Labour Party, instead of traditional candidates of the two dominant parties, to represent them in the Senate. Gumi was speaking for himself.

Life in Abuja

Gumis Extremism Shames Decency

Azu Ishiekwene

Of course, he has a fanbase  a remnant of die-hards who follow him in the mistaken notion that he would not inherit some of the incendiary rhetoric of his father, Sheikh Abubakar Gumi. Perhaps there are also a few closet admirers among temporarily displaced politicians who are happy with his bitter words. But what is Gumi complaining about, really?

That Wike is suspectedly talking to the Israelis for Abujas security? It doesnt matter to me. And Gumi may not understand why. Living in Abuja, as Chinua Achebe once said about Lagos, has become like living at the warfront.

But Gumi will not understand since he goes about with police escorts, which is strange because you would expect that the exploits from his bandits advocacy should have set him free from all security concerns by now.

Unfortunately, life in Abuja, especially in recent times, has been dangerous with frequent reports of deadly attacks on commuters by so-called one-chance drivers. If talking to Mossad or Hamas or Hezbollah will keep Abuja safe, it really doesnt matter to me. And Gumi, a retired army captain, ought to know better.

Red herring

The US, a country of infidels, has some of the largest military bases in the world in Muslim countries in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia, where Gumi earned his PhD in Islamic jurisprudence, has five of such bases apart from a military defence pact with America. The UAE hosts 5,000 US military personnel at the Al Dhafra Air Base, just outside Abu Dhabi. President Donald Trump had planned to double it.

Wike talking with Mossad  which I suspect was just a Gumi red herring  does not make Abuja any more vulnerable than did military president General Ibrahim Babangida awarding Julius Berger, a German firm, the contract to build Aso Rock, where the Nigerian president resides.

But of course, that was not Gumis main grouse. He is offended by the otherness of Wikes appointment. How can someone who is not like him, an intruder if you like, be appointed minister of the Federal Capital Territory?

There are many things for which you can criticise Wike, not least of which is his politics, sometimes. His decisions to shuffle the FCT administration, demand overdue ground rent, and revoke hundreds of plots of undeveloped land that have in many cases become speculators lottery, have ruffled feathers. Yet, they can hardly be described as self-serving.

To be fair, Gumi did not mention any of these complaints in his sermon. Even if he did, it would have been perfectly within his right to do so because public officers must be held to account. But that was not the point of his displeasure; it was not about requesting accountability, offering suggestions about a better way, if he thought there was one, or challenging the competence of the minister.

Whose sacred ground?

His attack came from a much deeper place: resentment that Tinubu who emerged president by the grace of the North had the effrontery to bring an intruder into a sacred ground, without the approval of the Landlord. This brazen sense of entitlement dressed up as a religious wrong, offends decency. Its unacceptable.

Abuja does not need to be saved from Wike. It is against people like Gumi that the capital and the country must now defend itself. The original builders of this place did not conceive of it as the Boys Quarters of one tribe, religion or ethnic group. It was precisely because of this sort of complication which Lagos presented, apart from it becoming a concrete jungle, that Abuja was conceived of as the new frontier of national unity.

The original majority Gwari indigenes have complained, perhaps justifiably, of being marginalised; agitators from the creeks of the Niger Delta have complained, perhaps justifiably, that Abuja was built off the back of oil wealth from that polluted and forsaken region.

What injury has Wikes appointment caused Gumi? In Joseph Ona & another V. Diga Romani Atenda (2000), 5 NWLR (Pt. 656) 244, the Court of Appeal put to rest any special claim to Abuja by anyone or group. Abuja has no special status and therefore cannot be claimed as anyones special ground.

Changing demographics

If Gumi was looking, he would have seen, from the results of the last general elections that the citys demographics, especially in the municipal areas, are changing. For the first time in its 47-year history as federal capital, neither the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of which he is an undisguised sympathiser; nor the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), had the majority. Appointments must reflect competence and the changing demographics.

In spite of Gumi, its a small step forward for unity and diversity that an APC president appointed a PDP minister in a federal capital where a woman and a non-indigene, represents Abuja in the Senate.

Gumi was right about one thing, though. That he didnt particularly see eye-to-eye with former President Muhammadu Buhari. But its surprising that for eight years he didnt see anything wrong with Abuja under former FCT minister Mohammed Bello.

A man full of religious fervour, Bello was well on his way to pre-eminence in mullah-hood when Buhari diverted him with a ministerial appointment, which became his undoing. He lost his way and his catastrophic tenure has been largely responsible for Abujas current mess.

Bellos failure had nothing to do with religion or the fact that all seven ministers of the city in the last 24 years have all been Muslims. After all, Nasir El-Rufai, one of the two exceptional ministers in nearly 50 years, is a Muslim.

Gumis followers wont hear him say that. But the next time they listen to his hate sermon, they should ask him what matters more to him: result or religion? His extremism shames decency. He should find a job.

Azu Ishiekwene is Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP

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Pulido believed she was Nigerian and emphasised that her political father, the Commandante Fidel Castro, repeated in the ears of Cubans that they are over 90 per cent African. She cherished a photograph she took with Fidel when she was Cuba youth leader. Pulido believed that in all likelihood, she is Yoruba. Therefore, despite the security situation in the country, she felt quite free to move around.

Carlos Trejo Sosa was perhaps the friendliest Cuban ambassador I ever knew. He was a wise, widely travelled man with deep knowledge of Cuban sayings and proverbs, which he said mainly emanated from Africa.

When in 2016, he received the Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi, he told him: We are the same family. I am an African. Do not mind my colour. When you go into my gene, you will know that I am an African.

A personal friend of many of us who identified with Cuba, Carlos told jokes and loved a good laugh. He loved teasing one of us, Abdulkareem Motajo, who had studied in Cuba. One day, as we stood discussing, Motajo switched to Spanish. However, Carlos insisted that he spoke in English, but Motajo persisted. A laughing Carlos told me Motajo does not want me to hear what he was saying. With that, he dragged me away to tell me what Motajo was trying to hide.

When after the 2019 Afro-Cuban Conference in Abuja, Carlos told me he was leaving Nigeria, I felt sad and told him he was the friendliest and best Cuban ambassador we have ever had. He smiled and said that the ambassador replacing him was even better. Then came Clara Margarita Pulido Escandell. It seemed Cuba had deliberately trained her to be the ambassador to Nigeria. She had attended University of Ghana, Legon for her Masters and her thesis was on Nigerian politics.

As such, she was quite knowledgeable about Nigerian politics from the colonial times. She had been ambassador to Ethiopia and the African Union, with concurrent accreditation to Djibouti and South Sudan, before becoming ambassador to Algeria, with concurrent accreditation to the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (Western Sahara).

When I met her and she learnt I had been Secretary General of the Organisation of African Trade Union Unity (OATUU) in Ghana, she exclaimed: Where is my father? Your father? Yes, Hassan Sunmonu! You know him? I was his adopted daughter in Ghana. With Alhaji Sunmonu being my father in unionism, our relationship took off on a flying start. Coincidentally, she shared the same 7 January birthday with Hussein and Hassan Sunmonu.

She was a very effective ambassador of the Cuban people. I recall in a report I wrote that when she met journalists in Abuja on Thursday, 18 February, 2021, mainly on the then 60-year American blockade of her country, the elegant Pulido walked in wearing half boots, a knee-length overall jacket and confidence; the message and the messenger rhymed.

Pulido read my twice-weekly columns almost religiously, and after each, she would call to discuss them or send a message. Soon, she started calling me her professor. If in a week or two we were not in contact, she would ask for a meeting. When we meet, she would usually say: Professor, have you ever seen where a teacher abandons his pupil? She teased the more, my comrade, Abiodun Aremu, the secretary general of the Joint Action Forum (JAF), who is also a recipient of the Cuban Friendship Medal. Sometimes when Aremu visited from Lagos and we had arguments, she would give a mock salute and say: Owei, our commander is right, and we would all laugh.

She doted over her Nigerian comrades like a mother hen; keeping in constant touch and even linking them up. I could get a phone call from her, and she would say: You know Mambissa (Tar Ukoh) is sick? Call him.

Pulido believed she was Nigerian and emphasised that her political father, the Commandante Fidel Castro, repeated in the ears of Cubans that they are over 90 per cent African. She cherished a photograph she took with Fidel when she was Cuba youth leader. Pulido believed that in all likelihood, she is Yoruba. Therefore, despite the security situation in the country, she felt quite free to move around. She took serious, invitations her Nigerian comrades extended to her, including visiting their families in their homes. She once flew to Lagos to attend a concert at the Afrika Shrine organised by the Amilcar Cabral Ideological School. She also visited the leadership of the Alimosho Local Government, as well as some institutions in Lagos. She explained her visits as acts of solidarity which is: In our gene, our blood and our hearts.

Pulido worked round the clock and would sometimes call me late in the night to seek clarification on issues. Needless to say, when I started a weekly radio programme in Abuja, Diplomatic Hour With Owei Lakemfa, she was my first guest. She also went out of her way to speak to her fellow ambassadors on my behalf, urging them to honour my invitations.

She was a very effective ambassador of the Cuban people. I recall in a report I wrote that when she met journalists in Abuja on Thursday, 18 February, 2021, mainly on the then 60-year American blockade of her country, the elegant Pulido walked in wearing half boots, a knee-length overall jacket and confidence; the message and the messenger rhymed.

Later that year, there were protests and counter-protests in Cuba as a result of COVID-19 resurgence which, with the American blockade that had cost the country a cumulative loss of $1,098,008,000,000 in six decades, had led to shortages of food and medicines. She analysed the situation as being essentially a struggle between revolutionary and counter-revolutionary forces and added, as a matter of fact, that if things degenerated into street fights, she was prepared to return home to pick up the gun in defence of the Cuban Revolution.

Cultural ambassador Tar Ukoh sent an ancestral chant for Clarita: Do we cry? Why should we cry CLARITA? Our Beautiful Daughter. Our Red Rose Sister. Our Afro-Cuban Shield and Spear. From the Womb of our Struggles. Our Cuban gift to Africa! Always with us!

However, there was no need for her to make a quick return as the huge pro-revolution rallies easily swallowed those of the counter-revolutionaries. In May, having ended her tour of duty, she returned to Havana. We kept in touch through her Cuban number. Then for a few weeks, there was silence from her. But on 29 July, she sent a message. She had not been in good health: But I hope to recover in August. All the best in the world to you and our comrades.

Then on 14 August, I got a message from her: Today I will be back at the hospital and tomorrow, I will go into surgery. This is the main reason for my silence, I am not feeling too well, but I hope that things will be better. Take care. Solidarity forever. When I got home on 9 October, I found there had been three missed calls within minutes from Cuban Ambassador Miriam Morales Palmero. I thought it must be quite urgent.

But before I could call, I got a message from one of my comrades: Clara is dead. Numbness. Dizziness. Emptiness. One of the greatest Afro-Cubans gone at 63!

Cultural ambassador Tar Ukoh sent an ancestral chant for Clarita: Do we cry? Why should we cry CLARITA? Our Beautiful Daughter. Our Red Rose Sister. Our Afro-Cuban Shield and Spear. From the Womb of our Struggles. Our Cuban gift to Africa! Always with us!

It was quite difficult writing this; how do you say goodbye to a living ancestor?

Owei Lakemfa, a former secretary general of African workers, is a human rights activist, journalist and author.

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The responsibility rests upon the shoulders of citizens to rise above corrupt leaders and their collaborators. They must stand ready to defend their nation against the encroaching forces of darkness. This duty is not only to themselves but to future generations. A society that permits evil to flourish through complacency deserves any misfortune that may befall it.

In an era in which the scales often tip in favour of evil rather than good, a disconcerting debate rages on. While some argue that the world inherently harbours more good than evil, it is an argument ensnared in ambiguity. What remains indisputable, however, is the unwavering passion with which those who perpetuate evil pursue their craft; a stark contrast to the lukewarm commitment of those advocating for good.

The disheartening question arises: Why does the fervour for goodness seem to pale in comparison to the zealous dedication of the malevolent? One possible explanation is that the rewards for doing good seemingly pales in comparison to those for nefarious acts.

The proponents of evil recognise their dominion over the world, perpetuating a cycle in which malevolence takes the centre stage, occasionally disrupted by the valiant efforts of the forces of good, although such interventions are a rarity.

Unfortunately, the majority of those professing to be champions of good can be aptly labeled as cowards, lacking the courage to relinquish their personal comforts. They prefer to stew in their private discontent, remaining passive until their patience wanes. In stark contrast, the evil doer, akin to a fearless thief, courageously acknowledges the risk but marches forward regardless, propelled by dark passions.

It is said that every nation receives the leadership it deserves. Ralph Waldo Emerson once wisely observed that evil thrives when the good stand idly by. The crucial question arises  why do Nigerians find themselves governed by charlatans they never elected, who never even participated in an election?

Ultimately, when we condone a flawed system and abstain from combating malevolent forces, we implicitly accept whatever fate befalls us. Our silence morphs into complicity, and our pitiable escape is japa, hoping to savour the fruits of other peoples life struggles in a foreign land, while abandoning the very soil from which we hail. What a shame!

The malevolent elite are acutely aware of our inertia, knowing that our most potent response is to vent our frustrations through complaints, screams, and curses. Regrettably, we are often too timid to rise and confront crooked leaders, their corporate collaborators and judicial bandits.

In contrast, these wrongdoers are resolute in their willingness to accept risk, and the African equivalent of the Arab Spring remains a distant dream because many would rather endure suffering than risk the discomfort that comes with protesting against an unjust government.

Ultimately, when we condone a flawed system and abstain from combating malevolent forces, we implicitly accept whatever fate befalls us. Our silence morphs into complicity, and our pitiable escape is japa, hoping to savour the fruits of other peoples life struggles in a foreign land, while abandoning the very soil from which we hail. What a shame!

For a nation to emerge, it necessitates a critical mass of individuals prepared to lay down their lives for the common good, those who ardently advocate for what is right and galvanise others to join their noble cause. However, in Africa, comfort holds an irresistible allure, often overshadowing our readiness to engage in the struggle. We seemingly opt to bide our time, anticipating the ascent of our own evil men to power, so we too can partake in the spoils of corruption  a dilemma of our own making.

We vociferously demand that others do what is right while neglecting to do so ourselves. In the contemporary world, evil appears to gain a significant upper hand over good. The competition is not merely lopsided; it verges on the non-existent.

The disheartening aspect is that even the most educated, privileged, and economically empowered citizens in Nigeria have often faltered in making decisions that favour the collective over personal interests. This tragic facet of our nation persists as a lamentable reality.

We vociferously demand that others do what is right while neglecting to do so ourselves. In the contemporary world, evil appears to gain a significant upper hand over good. The competition is not merely lopsided; it verges on the non-existent. It is incumbent upon us to confront a stark reality  those who have willingly embraced the darkness and the rewards it bestows are often more pragmatic in navigating life than those of us who continually lament.

Nigerians often amuse me with their curious notions. Many seem to believe that exposing a counterfeit certificate, revealing classified FBI files, or any such revelation might serve as a transformative game-changer. The true paradox, however, lies in their conviction that mere wishes possess the extraordinary ability to usher in significant transformations.

The responsibility rests upon the shoulders of citizens to rise above corrupt leaders and their collaborators. They must stand ready to defend their nation against the encroaching forces of darkness. This duty is not only to themselves but to future generations. A society that permits evil to flourish through complacency deserves any misfortune that may befall it.

Osmund Agbo is the author of Black Grit, White Knuckles: The Philosophy of Black Renaissance.

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In the Name of Allah, The Most Merciful, The Most Kind

All praise is due to Allah, and may His peace and blessings be upon Allahs Messenger, his Companions and whosoever follows his guidance.

Dear brothers and sisters! Know that the city of Jerusalem in Islam is very sacred to Muslims. It is one of the three most sacred cities in Islam. Jerusalem is called al-Quds al-Sharif (the Noble Sacred Place). In order to understand the sacredness of this city in Islam, one has to understand the faith (Iman) structure of Islam. There are three basic principles of faith in Islam:

1. Belief in the oneness of Allah (At-Tauhid).

2. Belief in the divine guidance through His chosen Prophets and Messengers (Ar-Risalah).

3. Belief in the life after death, divine judgment and heaven and hell (Yaumul Akhirah).

It is the second principle of faith (Iman) in Islam that is directly related to our love and devotion to Jerusalem.

Respected servants of Allah! Islam recognises all the Prophets and Messengers of Allah. The Quran has mentioned many Prophets by name. Their stories and teachings are told at varying length throughout the Quran. Ibrahim (Abraham), Musa (Moses), Dawud (David), Sulaiman (Solomon), Zakariyyah (Zechariah), Yahya (John the Baptist) and Isa (Jesus)  peace be upon them all  are among the honoured Prophets and Messengers of Allah according to Islam.

Jews and Christians also recognise Prophets Dawud (David) and Sulaiman (Solomon) as great kings and patriarchs of ancient Israel.

However, in Islam they are honoured as Allahs great Prophets. The Quran not only narrated their stories, but also restored their honour by removing some of the charges and allegations that were made against their characters by earlier communities.

Prophet Dawud (David, Peace be upon him) was accused in the Bible of committing adultery (See 2 Samuel 11  12) and Prophet Sulaiman (Solomon, Peace be upon him) was accused of idolatry (See 1 Kings 11). The Quran absolved them from all these charges (See Quran, 28:21  25; 38:30). This shows that Prophets Dawud (David) and Sulaiman (Solomon, peace be upon them) are more revered and respected in Islam than in Jewish and Christian traditions.

Since the city of Jerusalem is historically associated with these Prophets of Allah, it naturally becomes a city sacred to Muslims.

Islam considers itself a continuation of the same spiritual and ethical movement that began with the earlier Prophets.

Historically and theologically it believes itself to be the true inheritor of the earlier traditions of the Prophets and Messengers of Allah. It is for this reason that the Quran called for Palestine  the land associated with the lives of many of Allahs Prophets  al-ard al-Muqaddasah (the Sacred Land; Quran, 5:21) and called its surroundings barakna hawlaha (Allahs Blessed Precincts; Quran, 17:1).

The sacredness of the city of Jerusalem, according to Islam, is in its historical religious reality. This is the city that witnessed the life and works of the greatest Prophets and Messengers of Allah. Here the Divine Grace touched the earth repeatedly. Allahs great Prophets and Messengers lived and moved in its valleys and its streets. Makkah and Madinah are blessed cities in Islam because of their association with the Prophets Ibrahim (Abraham), Ismail (Ishmael) and Muhammad. In a similar way Jerusalem is blessed and important in Islam because of its association with other Prophets of Allah, namely Dawud (David), Sulaiman (Solomon) and Isa (Jesus).

Jews and Christians do not recognise Ismail (Ishmael) and Muhammad as Allahs Prophets and Messengers, so they do not consider Makkah and Madinah as sacred cities.

However, Muslims believe in Prophets Musa (Moses), Dawud (David), Sulaiman (Solomon) and Isa (Jesus), and so they must recognise the sacredness and importance of Jerusalem in Islam.

Due to its theological and religious status, Jerusalem had a very important place in the life of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) himself.

In the year 620 almost one-and-a-half years before his Hijrah (migration) from Makkah to Madinah the famous event of Israi and Miraj (Night Journey and Ascension) occurred. One night, in a miraculous way, the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) was taken on a momentous journey from Makkah to Jerusalem and then from there to the heavenly celestial abodes.

The Night Journey was a great miracle that Muslims believe was given to Prophet Muhammad as an honour and as a confirmation of Makkahs spiritual link with Jerusalem.

Both of these events took place on the same night. The angel Jibril (Gabriel) took the Prophet from Makkah to Jerusalem. There it is reported that the Prophet stood at the Sacred Rock (al-Sakhrah al-Musharrafah), went to the heavens, returned to Jerusalem and met with many Prophets and Messengers who were gathered together for him on that occasion and he led them in prayers.

After these experiences the Prophet was taken back to Makkah. The story of Israi and Miraj is full of wonderful signs and symbols. Muslim scholars, thinkers, mystics and poets have interpreted it in deep an meaningful ways. There is, however, one essential point and that is it serves as an example of every Muslims deep devotion and spiritual connection with Jerusalem.

During the Miraj, the Prophet (Peace be upon him) is reported to have received from Allah the command of five daily prayers (Salah) that all Muslims must perform. Upon his return to Makkah, the Prophet instituted these prayers. It is significant to note that he made Jerusalem the direction (al-Qiblah) which Muslims must face while doing their prayers. Jerusalem is thus called Ula al-Qiblatain (the First Qiblah).

The Prophet (Peace be upon him) and the early community of Islam worshipped towards the direction of Jerusalem during their stay in Makkah. After the Hijrah (migration), Muslims in Madinah also continued to pray facing Jerusalem for almost seventeen months. Then came Allahs command to change the direction of prayer from Jerusalem to Makkah (Quran, 2:142  150).

Muslim commentators of the Quran (Mufassirun) and historians have explained the meaning and purpose of this change.

It is a lengthy subject that we cannot discuss in detail here. Suffice it to say that the change of the Qiblah in no way diminished the status of Jerusalem in Islam.

The Kaabah in Makkah was meant to be the Qiblah from the beginning, because the Quran said that it was the First House (Awwala Bait, in Quran, 3:96) established for mankind to worship the One Allah.

The Kaabah, however, was full of idols when the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) began preaching his message of Tauhid (the Oneness and Transcendence of Allah).

A separation had to be made between the people and the pagan worship that they used to perform at the Kaabah. Jerusalem served that purpose very well by distancing the people from their pagan and idolatrous associations.

Once monotheism was fully established in the minds and hearts of the believers and once the Kaabahs position with Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) and with monotheism was made clear, the way was open to restore the Kaabah as the direction of prayers (Qiblah).

There are many instances of this type of change or abrogation (naskh) in Islamic legislation. As one example, visiting graves was forbidden in the beginning of Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him)s messengership.

Later it was permitted because Muslims had learned the difference between a grave visit and ancestor worship. At first, the Prophet forbade his people to write down his words except when he told them that what he was saying was revelation  the Quran, the Word of Allah.

Later when people learned the difference between the Quran and Hadith (sayings and deeds of the Prophet), he gave them permission to write Hadith as well.

It is interesting to note that the Kaabah in Makkah was the original direction of prayers for all the Prophets of Allah.

According to a Hadith, the Black Stone (al-Hajar al-Aswad) had been in Makkah at the place of Kaabah since the time of Prophet Adam. It was the Prophets Ibrahim (Abraham) and Ismail (Ishmael) who built the Kaabah under Allahs command and direction (Quran, 2:125  127).

The city of Jerusalem was established as a religious centre for the Israelite people by the Prophets Dawud (David) and Sulaiman (Solomon) around the year 900 BC.

This was almost 1,000 years after the time of Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) and the building of the Kaabah. Thus one can say that the Kaabah had a historical primacy over Jerusalem.

Furthermore, it is important to note that the Bible says that the early Israelites in Jerusalem used to turn to the southern direction when making their most sacred prayers and offerings (See Exodus 27:9; 40:24). The Kaabah is in the southern direction of Jerusalem. Thus we can say that the Kaabah was also a Qiblah for the earlier Israelite communities as well.

Dear servants of Allah! Jerusalem came under Islamic rule during the reign of the second Caliph Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) in the year 638.

It was a peaceful conquest. The ruling patriarch of the city, whose name was Sophronius, offered the keys of the city to the Caliph Umar himself.

Upon entering the blessed city, the Caliph asked about the location of the Mosque of Dawud (David, al-Masjid al-Aqsa) and the blessed Rock from where the Prophet went in Miraj.

The site was a desolate place at that time. Romans had destroyed the so-called Second Temple in the year 70 CE and no non-Christian or Christian ruler of that city after that ever tried to build any place of worship there.

According to historians, it was a garbage dump, a dunghill for the people of Anshans Jerusalem. Umar, upon learning this was the site of the Mosque of Jerusalem and hand the place from where the Miraj took place, cleaned the place with his own hands and put his forehead in payer on that ground.

In 691 CE the Dome of Rock and a more elaborate Mosque were constructed. Those were, perhaps, the first most expensive and expansive sacred monuments built in the history of Islam.

Jerusalem was always held in great esteem by Muslims. The Prophet (Peace be upon him) said:

Journeys should not be taken (with the intention of worship) except to three Mosques: the Sacred Mosque in Makkah, my Mosque in Madinah and Masjid al-Aqsa in Jerusalem.

On the basis of this Hadith, Muslims always considered it as a religious deed to visit the city of Jerusalem, its Mosque and its sacred and blessed precincts. Often pilgrims made it a point to visit Jerusalem on their way to Makkah and Madinah.

Muslim leaders and philanthropists built many hospitals, schools, and religious centers in and around the city. They purchased land in and around the city and dedicated it as a Waqf (endowment) for religious purposes. The whole city is virtually Waqf land that is non-salable and nontransferable.

Many Muslim scholars also migrated and settled in the city. The Al-Aqsa Masjid was a great seat of learning. Thousands of pious people and scholars included provisions in their wills (Wasiyyah) to be buried in Jerusalem. There are thousands, perhaps millions of Muslims graves in the city of Jerusalem.

Muslims also recognised the rights of Christians and Jews who hold the city dear to their hearts and sacred in their faiths.

Under Islamic rule they were given permission to settle there. When the Caliph Umar made the treaty with the Christian Patriarch Sophronius it was agreed, at the request of the Christian patriarch, that:

No Jews will live with them in Aelia (Jerusalem).

But later, due to Muslims tolerance, patience and magnanimity, this rule was relaxed and Jews were allowed to come and settle in the city.

After the re-conquest of Jerusalem by Salahuddin Al-Ayubi in the time of the Crusades, Jews were again permitted by Muslims to come back and live in the city. The Crusaders during their 90-year rule (1099  1187) had banned both Jews and Muslims from that city.

The city of Jerusalem is very important to Muslims. Muslims have a right to this city religiously, historically and legally. I have mentioned only the religious aspects in this sermon. There are three important points to remember about Islam and the city of Jerusalem:

1. In the whole history of Jerusalem, from the time of Prophet Dawud (David) until now, the longest rule of this city belonged to Muslims.

2. Muslims maintained the sacredness of this city in the full sense of the word.

3. Muslims established and practiced the most tolerant multi-religious and multi-faith character of Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is perhaps the only city in the world that is considered historically and spiritually significant to Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike. The city of Jerusalem is known in Arabic as Al-Quds or Baitul-Maqdis (The Noble, Sacred Place), and the importance of the city to Muslims comes as a surprise to some Christians and Jews.

It should be remembered that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all spring from a common source.

All are religions of monotheismthe belief that there is one God, and one God only. All three religions share a reverence for many of the same Prophets responsible for first teaching the Oneness of Allah in the area around Jerusalem, including Ibrahim (Abraham), Musa (Moses), Dawud (David), Sulaiman (Solomon), and Isa (Jesus)Peace be upon them all. The reverence these religions share for Jerusalem is evidence of this shared background.

As mentioned earlier, for Muslims, Jerusalem was the first Qiblahthe place toward which they turn in prayer. It was many years into the Islamic mission (16 or 17 months after the Hijrah), that Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) was instructed to change the Qiblah from Jerusalem to Makkah (Quran, 2:142-144). It is reported that the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) said:

There are only three Mosques to which you should embark on a journey: the sacred Mosque (Makkah, Saudi Arabia), this Mosque of mine (Madinah, Saudi Arabia), and the Mosque of Al-Aqsah (Jerusalem).

Thus, Jerusalem is one of the three holiest places on earth for Muslims.

As I said, it is Jerusalem that Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) visited during his night journey and ascension (called Israi and Miraj). In one evening, legend tells us that the angel Jibril (Gabriel) miraculously took the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) from the Sacred Mosque in Makkah to the Furthest previously Mosque (Al-Aqsah) in Jerusalem.

He was then taken up to the heavens to be shown the signs of Allah. After the Prophet met with previous Prophets and led them in prayer, he was then taken back to Makkah. The whole experience (which many Muslim commentators take literally and most Muslims believe as a miracle) lasted a few hours. The event of Israi and Miraj is mentioned in the Quran, in the first verse of Chapter 17, entitled The Children of Israel.

Glory be to Allah, Who did take His servant for a journey by night, from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque, whose precincts We did blessin order that We might show him some of Our signs. For He is the One who hears and knows all things. [Quran, 17:1]

This night journey further reinforced the link between Makkah and Jerusalem as noble and holy cities and serves as an example of every Muslims deep devotion and spiritual connection with Jerusalem. Most Muslims harbour a deep hope that Jerusalem and the rest of the Holy Land will be restored to a land of peace where all religious believers can exist in harmony.

O Allah, protect our brothers and sisters, our mothers and fathers, and our children suffering terribly in Palestine, the land of the third of our three most Noble and Holy Masques, ameen!!!

All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds. May the peace, blessings and salutations of Allah be upon our noble Messenger, Muhammad (Peace be upon him), and upon his family, his Companions and his true and sincere followers.

Murtadha Muhammad Gusau is the Chief Imam of: Nagazi-Uvete Jumuah Mosque; and Late Alhaji Abdur-Rahman Okene Mosque, Okene, Kogi State, Nigeria. He can be reached via: gusauimam@gmail.com; or +2348038289761.

This Jumuah Khutbah (Friday sermon) was prepared for delivery today Friday, Rabiul Akhir 12, 1445 AH (27 October, 2023).

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IHS Holding Limited, one of the largest independent owners, operators, and developers of shared communications infrastructure in the world by tower count, has announced a one-year partnership with the Limitless Space Institute (LSI), a non-profit education and research organisation.

The partnership will commence in January 2024 and is designed to help broaden access to space education in the companys two largest markets. IHS Holding Limited, also known as IHS Towers, is a global company listed in the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

Through the collaboration, 20 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) educators from Brazil and Nigeria will be invited to join the 12-month Limitless Global Educator Programme and access a carefully curated space education curriculum.

Delivered by experts from the Limitless Space Institute, educators will benefit from monthly virtual workshops with insights from guest speakers on space exploration and science, an invitation to attend the LSI Summer Institute in Houston, Texas, for one week and in-person visits from Limitless Space Institute representatives to Brazil and Nigeria for hands-on workshops.

The selected educators will be enrolled in the Limitless Global Educator Programme and have access to tailored content in the Space Education Curriculum developed by the experts from the Limitless Space Institute. This curriculum covers a wide range of topics, including the significance of space exploration, the science underpinning space, its history, the economics of space, as well as sustainable exploration and space ethics. Through this programme, teachers will be better equipped to inspire their students and new generations about the wonders and intricacies of space.

Applications open 1st November, 2023, via the Limitless Space Institute website, https://www.limitlessspace.org/global-educators/, and will close on 6th December, 2023.

Sam Darwish, Chairman & CEO, IHS Towers, said I am incredibly excited to announce our partnership with the Limitless Space Institute as we seek to continue strengthening education opportunities with a particular focus on increasing access to STEM subjects. Engineering excellence is IHS lifeblood, and we could not be prouder to support the Limitless Space Institutes mission to equip educators globally with the resources and experiences they need to teach science and technology.

We hope that by partnering with the Limitless Space Institute we can contribute to bringing this exciting specialisation to educators in Brazil and Nigeria, empowering them to spark a passion among their students on the wonders of engineering and space exploration.

Kaci Heins, Director of the Limitless Space Institute, commented We are thrilled to collaborate with IHS Towers in our pursuit to elevate global STEM education. Our mission is not just to educate,but to inspire the next generation to extend their exploration beyond our solar system. Educators and students are the heart of the future STEM workforce and space exploration.

Equipped with the right resources, educators are poised to bring students to space-centric STEM disciplines. An energized educator lights the path for our future explorers. Space exploration, at its heart, stands for global unity and cooperation, which is pivotal for the collective advancement of humanity.

Marco Antonio Chamon, President of the Brazilian Space Agency, said I would like to congratulate IHS Towers and the Limitless Space Institute for their outstanding initiative in advancing STEM education on space-related topics for educators in both Brazil and Nigeria. It is crucial that space activities occupy a prominent position in the hearts and minds of the public, and education serves as the most direct way to accomplish this goal. The Brazilian Space Agency is proud to support this initiative in Brazil.

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The use of drones to deliver medical supplies to hard-to-reach communities in Kaduna State is boosting healthcare delivery in the state, the state government has stated.

In February 2021 the government signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a U.S.-based medical product delivery company, Zipline, in its efforts to address the challenges with logistics and the delivery of medical supplies to difficult-to-reach communities in the state.

Zipline is an American company that designs, manufactures and operates delivery drones. The company operates distribution centres in Rwanda, Ghana, Japan, the United States, Nigeria, Cote dIvoire and Kenya.

The companys drones deliver whole blood, platelets, frozen plasma and cryoprecipitate, along with medical products, including vaccines, infusions and common medical commodities.

Zipline, which started the delivery of medical supplies to remote areas of the state in August 2022, delivered more than 10,000 vital medicines and vaccines to hard-to-reach health centres in the state within five and 45 minutes of the order.

Zipline receives medical supplies from the Kaduna State Health Supplies Management Agency at their warehouse for proper inspection, the supplies are then scanned and labelled with an identification name and expiry dates.

The company also receives drugs and vaccines and keeps them aside, waiting for orders that come through a call centre that handles requests from healthcare facilities in hard-to-reach parts of the state.

Such orders are then arranged in a package box with a parachute to safely land at their required destinations.

Also, the identification number of the order being transported will be scanned by flight operators to determine the location of the medication or vaccine for delivery and the parcel is loaded onto the drone, while the operator gets it to fly for delivery.

The drones, which can fly to their destination with no control, are connected to Global Positioning System (GPS) and communicate with all the drones in operational flight.

The drones have four components, namely: battery, nose cone, wing and body, required to propel, and maintain balance in air, data and connectivity interaction.

Benefits of drone delivery

During NANs field visit to the Zipline operations base in Pamgeguwa, Kubau Local Government Area of Kaduna on Thursday, the companys Operations Manager (Nigeria), Samuel Noma, said the companys presence has reduced maternal, infant and young children mortality in hard to reach areas of the state.

Mr Noma said Zipline has reduced delays in drugs/vaccine deliveries to rural facilities, where personnel hitherto had to go long miles to buy medical supplies, leaving patients unattended to or waiting for service due to unavailability of handy medical supplies.

He said that Zipline also operates in Bayelsa and Cross River, and explained that the company makes deliveries to 291 medical facilities across 12 local government areas of Kaduna State.

He said one of the reasons for Ziplines emergence in Kaduna was insecurity and unavailability of storage facilities for some thermolabile and sensitive medications like vaccines.

We coming in, we try to centralise and warehouse those medications, and when any facility needs it, at the instance of a call, we quickly deliver, he said.

Also, Jeremiah Duna, the Head of Flight Operations, disclosed that Zipline drones travel at a speed of 100 kilometres per hour.

He, however, said that if the wind is too strong, the drone would warn the flight operator to monitor the situation or to avoid flying that route.

The drones use two GPS and backup networks; connectivity issues are something else that could be a real problem. In this case, the drones can make autonomous decisions and could return to the operations office when something doesnt go well, Mr Duna said.

Subsequently, during a visit to a health facility at Hayin Gada Nasaru, Pamgeguwa, Kubau Local Government Area, one of the drones was practically seen delivering medical supplies to the facility.

Tasiu Abdullahi, a supervisor at the facility, who picked up the delivery, said that when the health centre requests drugs and vaccines, they are delivered in a short period, contrary to the long delays experienced when such requests were submitted to the Kaduna State Health Supplies Management Agency before the arrival of Zipline.

READ ALSO: Health sector transformation boosts life expectancy in Gombe

He added that before Zipline came, it was often difficult to re-stock supplies, which always takes longer than expected.

Now that the health centre is working with Zipline, we simply place orders, and the deliveries are sent to us in record time. The supply of drugs has improved healthcare service delivery in our locality.

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Interfax-Ukraine to host press conference 'Achievements, problems in Ukraine through eyes of Ukrainians'

On Wednesday, November 1, at 12.00, the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency will host a roundtable discussion entitled "Achievements, problems in Ukraine through eyes of Ukrainians." The results of a sociological study will be presented.

Participants:

founder of the research company Active Group Andriy Yeremenko,

political expert and economic observer Svitlana Kushnir,

director of the Center for Research on Civil Society Problems Vitaliy Kulyk (8/5a Reitarska Street).

The event will be streamed on the Interfax-Ukraine YouTube channel.

Admission of journalists requires registration on the spot using editorial IDs.
BEIJING, Oct. 26, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- What's it like to try 136 different craft beers in just two days? On October 13th and 14th, Beijing's Langyuan VINTAGE hosted the explosive seventh edition of the "8x8 Collaborative Brewing Project" organized by Jing- A Brewing Co. This two-day beer festival, serving as the grand finale of the collaborative brewing event, captured significant attention from the craft beer industry. Outstanding craft breweries from China and around the world, along with craft beer enthusiasts, gathered at the event to enjoy, drink, and immerse themselves in the passion of craft beer enthusiasts and the charm of craft beer.

A Unique Collaborative Brewing Project Not to Be Missed

Since 2017, at each 8x8 Brewing Project, Jing-A, the organizer, invites eight craft breweries from the Greater China region and another eight craft breweries from selected regions around the world, making a total of 16 breweries. They work together to create eight brand-new and unique craft beers for 8x8 Collaborative Brew project. Jing-A believes that collaborative brewing not only allows them to stay informed about the latest trends in the industry and promote technical and cultural exchanges between craft breweries, but it also fosters a continuous stream of interesting craft beer ideas.

These eight creative collab beers brewed through this collaboration were unveiled at the beer festival. Additionally, the 16 participating breweries also brought their other flagship beers, giving domestic consumers an opportunity to taste high-quality and delicious brews, resulting in a total of "8+128" extraordinary craft beer experiences!

Chinese and Foreign Breweries Collide, Showcasing Global Craft Beer Trends

Following the tradition of 8x8, Jing-A invited eight leading craft breweries from the Greater China region to participate in the collaboration. This year, they selected another eight craft breweries from the cutting-edge regions of Australia and New Zealand, known for having the world's smallest and most stable hop cultivation area, offering a delightful surprise to the collaborative brewing project.

These 16 Chinese and foreign craft breweries joined forces, collided, and worked together to showcase the latest brewing trends globally, enabling people to taste the flavors of popular hops worldwide and explore interesting and unique brewing techniques.

Tasting Eight Creative Limited Collaborative Brews On-Site

The highlight of the event was, of course, the eight creative collaborative brews. When the list of craft breweries was announced, it was evident that this was a collision of geniuses, a clash between the old guard and the newcomers. All of the talented brewers delivered a fresh surprise. Below are some interesting brewing stories shared by the brewers.

No.18 brewing &Mountain culture: Pacific Rim Double hazy IPA

From the city of a hundred lakes, Wuhan, Shiba Craft Beer, and MCBC from the sprawling bays of Australia, two breweries situated near water bodies, collaborated using high-quality Australian oats and a touch of American hops, combined with local flavors from Wuhan. This double hazy IPA boasts a distinctive flavor that is refreshingly new.

Ye brewing & 8 Wired: The farmhouse sour ale

A promising local emerging craft brewery from Shijiazhuang, Hebei, and the champion craft brewery from New Zealand, 8 Wired, who believes in "using New World methods to interpret Old World styles," came together. They used famous New Zealand hops, incorporated various iconic fruits from different parts of China, and farmhouse ale yeast to craft a brew that showcases an authentic rustic charm.

Wild West brewing & Bridge Road Brewers: Why fight it? Hazy Double IPA

China's Wild West Brewery and Australia's Bridge Road Brewers, two breweries that are a force to be reckoned with, selected the highly popular Australian Galaxy hops and the explosively aromatic Eclipse hops, along with traditional T90 and advanced Cryo and Spectrum hop products. The result is a double hazy IPA bursting with rich hop aroma, allowing you to taste the free-spirited Western flavor and the distinctive Australian style.

HopsCraft & Black Man's BreweryOkteabierfest Marzen

A beer for October celebrations, this lager is made by blending elements from both breweries in their brewing barrels, combining malt from Australia with Chongqing's local tea and fruits to create a brew that exudes an authentic rural charm.

Mahanine Brewing & Hop NationMahanation's flower Double hazy IPA

From Hohhot, China, Mahanine Brewery, and Australia's Hop Nation, using Galaxy hops from Australia and Nelson Sauvin hops from New Zealand. The former is one of the world's most popular hop varieties, known for its intense passion fruit, peach, and citrus aromas. The latter has a unique white grape wine character, like the scent of freshly crushed currants. These high-quality hops, combined with oats from Inner Mongolia, produced a double hazy IPA with high alcohol content (ABV above 8.5%) and a high malt concentration (20P), bringing a taste of the Southern Hemisphere to the 8x8 event.

E.T. Brewery & WildflowerRainy Day table beer blend

This is a light ale that is highly complex in terms of brewing technique and takes a long time to brew. With an alcohol content of about 4%, it skillfully showcases the flavors developed by the mix of Saison, hops, barrel aging, and wild yeast over two months. The addition of loquats adds a Chinese touch to the brew. The brewers humorously shared that they would play the ancient Chinese tune "Pipa Xing" during the barrel aging period, hoping it would bring good luck.

Jing-A & Garage Project: Ghost Whisper NZ style double hazy thiolised IPA

Co-brewed by the event organizer, Jing-A, and Garage Project from New Zealand, this brew includes an ingredient called "Phantasm" during the brewing process, which makes the hazy beer juicier. This ingredient was discovered by the Garage Project, one of the collaborating breweries. Rumor has it that emails sent between the two breweries during brainstorming sessions often mysteriously disappear, "Who Knows" where they go?

Bubble lab & Range Brewing: The other Range Double Hazy IPA

These two craft breweries, skilled in IPA styles, decided to challenge higher dimensions with their collaboration. The inclusion of Oceania hops intensified the tropical fruit aroma.

A One-of-a-Kind Beer Festival Experience, Only at Jing-A 8x8

8x8 offers more than just a dazzling array of craft beers. The experience of "drinking beer while strolling through a temple fair" has always been a unique aspect of the 8x8 Beer Festival. In addition to the delicious food, drinking, shopping, and more, there are also fun experiences such as nail art, massages, and tattoos. Various artists come together to provide you with these "services." In the Jing- A merchandise store, you can explore various craft beer-related products and souvenirs, perfect for commemorating the 8x8 Beer Festival.

Jing- A 8x8 Remains True to Its Roots, Paying Tribute to the Spirit of Craft Beer

Collaborative brewing has always been a crucial part of Jing-A's DNA. Since its founding in 2012, founders Alex and Kris have been enthusiastic about collaborating with other breweries. The 8x8 Collaborative Brew project aims to provide a platform for the international craft beer community to gain deeper insights into Chinese craft beer and also to offer a showcase for outstanding Chinese breweries.

As one of China's pioneering craft beer brands, Jing-A Brewery, after 11 years of development, is known for its high quality and innovative spirit. It enjoys a great reputation among both industry professionals and the general public. Jing- A aims to foster a thriving craft beer culture within China, provide opportunities for outstanding local breweries to expand internationally, and inject new life into the craft beer culture. The 8x8 Collaborative Brewing project is a testament to Jing-A's dedication to the craft and an opportunity to bring together craft breweries from home and abroad, celebrate the spirit of craft brewing, and salute the passionate hearts of every craft brewer.

We can't wait for the next Jing-A 8x8!

About Jing-A:

Jing-A is a unique craft beer brand with Chinese characteristics, founded in 2012. Created by two long-time friends, Alex and Kris in Beijing. Jing-A is a brewery that continually innovates, using interesting ingredients and unexpected flavors to create beer. From improving classic styles to bold experimental combinations and collaborations with breweries from around the world, Jing -A Beer considers artwork as the fifth essential ingredient in their beers.

Jing -A's goal is to make beers that we are damn proud ofchallenging our own limits, honoring our origins and foundations, and changing the world's perception of Chinese beer.

Website: jingabrewing.com

WeChat Public Account / TikTok: jingabeer

Weibo / Xiaohongshu: jingabrewing"

SOURCE Jing-A Brewery
CHICAGO, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The market for AI toolkits is expected to grow in tandem with the swift advancement of AI technology and its growing impact on many sectors. AI toolkits will need to change as AI is incorporated into increasingly common applications to accommodate developers', companies', and researchers' changing needs.

The AI Toolkit Market is estimated at USD 19.5 billion in 2023 to USD 91.6 billion by 2028, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 36.2%, according to a new report by MarketsandMarkets. The adoption of AI toolkits for the development of chatbots and virtual assistants in customer service represents a pivotal driver in the growth of the AI Toolkit Market. This trend has gained substantial traction, primarily due to its ability to profoundly enhance the customer experience while concurrently reducing operational service costs. Chatbots, powered by AI toolkits, offer instantaneous responses to customer queries, ensuring 24/7 availability, and swift issue resolution. This not only augments customer satisfaction by providing quick and efficient support but also leads to cost savings by reducing the need for large customer service teams. Furthermore, AI-driven chatbots continuously learn from interactions, improving their capabilities over time. As a result, businesses are increasingly turning to AI toolkits to develop more intelligent and versatile chatbots, fueling the demand for AI toolkit solutions that can enable these customer service innovations.

Browse in-depth TOC on "AI Toolkit Market"

300  Tables

50 - Figures

250  Pages

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Scope of the Report

Report Metrics Details Market size available for years 2017-2028 Base year considered 2022 Forecast period 20232028 Forecast units Value (USD) Billion Segments covered Offering (Hardware, Software, Services), Technology, Vertical, and Region Region covered North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, and Latin America. Companies covered Microsoft (US), Google (US), IBM (US), Oracle (US), Thales Group (France), Salesforce (US), Intel (US), Adobe (US), Meta Platforms (US), AWS (US), NVIDIA Corporation (US), H2O.ai (US), Alteryx (US), Altair (US), KNIME (Switzerland), DataRobot (US), Jasper (US), Rasa (US), SuperAnnotate (US), OpenAI (US), Obviously AI (US), Fiddler AI (US), Determined AI (US), Snorkel AI (US), Levity AI (Germany), Union AI (US), Attri AI (US), Regie.ai (US)

By Vertical, the BFSI segment is estimated to account for the largest market share in 2023.

The predictive analytics capabilities offered by AI toolkits serve as a driving force for the AI Toolkit Market within the BFSI sector. These toolkits empower financial institutions to make informed decisions by harnessing historical data and sophisticated algorithms. They can anticipate market trends, enabling proactive responses to economic shifts and customer demands. Furthermore, predictive analytics aids in understanding customer behaviors, allowing institutions to tailor services and products accordingly. This, in turn, enhances portfolio performance, optimizing investment strategies and risk management. The demand for AI toolkits in BFSI for predictive analytics continues to grow as financial institutions seek a competitive edge by making data-backed decisions and staying ahead of market dynamics.

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By offering, Service segment is expected to have fastest growth rate during the forecast period

The integration and customization services offered within the AI Toolkit Market stand out as a major driver. By tailoring AI toolkits to suit the specific requirements and existing infrastructure of businesses, these services ensure that AI seamlessly blends into the operational landscape. This specialized approach maximizes the utility of AI systems and minimizes disruption, streamlining the path to AI adoption. The capability to harmonize AI with unique business needs and technologies becomes a compelling driver as companies increasingly recognize the transformative potential of AI and seek ways to integrate it seamlessly into their operations. As a result, the demand for customization and integration services within the AI Toolkit Market continues to surge, catalyzing further innovation and growth.

Asia Pacific to have the fastest growth rate during the forecast period

The demand for AI toolkits tailored for various languages and scripts emerges as a distinctive driver in the Asia Pacific AI Toolkit Market. The linguistic diversity across the region presents a unique challenge and opportunity. Localized AI solutions that can understand, process, and generate content in multiple languages and scripts are essential for businesses and governments looking to communicate with their diverse populations effectively. This localization ensures accurate language processing and enhances user engagement and accessibility. As a result, the need for AI toolkits capable of catering to the linguistic diversity of the Asia Pacific region drives innovation in AI development, sparking the creation of language-specific models and solutions and positioning these localized AI services as a critical driver for the AI Toolkit Market in the region.

Top Key Companies in AI Toolkit Market:

The major vendors covered in the AI Toolkit Market include Microsoft (US), Google (US), IBM (US), Oracle (US), Thales Group (France), Salesforce (US), Intel (US), Adobe (US), Meta Platforms (US), AWS (US), NVIDIA Corporation (US), H2O.ai (US), Alteryx (US), Altair (US), KNIME (Switzerland), DataRobot (US), Jasper (US), Rasa (US), SuperAnnotate (US), OpenAI (US), Obviously AI (US), Fiddler AI (US), Determined AI (US), Snorkel AI (US), Levity AI (Germany), Union AI (US), Attri AI (US), Regie.ai (US). These players have adopted various growth strategies, such as partnerships, agreements and collaborations, new product launches, enhancements, and acquisitions to expand their footprint in the AI Toolkit Market.

Recent Developments

In September 2023 , Infosys and NVIDIA expanded their existing collaboration to develop a generative AI platform to help enterprises increase productivity. The partnership offers a scalable platform using NVIDIA technology to enhance Infosys' Responsible AI Toolkit.

, Infosys and NVIDIA expanded their existing collaboration to develop a generative AI platform to help enterprises increase productivity. The partnership offers a scalable platform using NVIDIA technology to enhance Infosys' Responsible AI Toolkit. In August 2023 , IBM and Salesforce collaborated to assist businesses across various sectors in expediting their integration of AI into Customer Relationship Management. This collaboration empowers organizations to transform customer, partner, and employee interactions while ensuring the security of their data.

, IBM and Salesforce collaborated to assist businesses across various sectors in expediting their integration of AI into Customer Relationship Management. This collaboration empowers organizations to transform customer, partner, and employee interactions while ensuring the security of their data. In July 2023 , Microsoft and Meta partnered to support Large Language Models on Azure and Windows.

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AI Toolkit Market Advantages:

The use of pre-built modules and libraries from AI toolkits eliminates the need to construct anything from scratch. This quickens the development process and frees up developers to concentrate on the distinctive features of their AI apps.

The most recent machine learning models and algorithms are included in a lot of AI toolkits, so developers may take use of state-of-the-art science and technology without having to start from scratch.

Large and vibrant communities of developers, researchers, and users frequently surround well-known AI toolkits, offering assistance, exchanging best practises, and advancing the tool's continuous growth. This encourages cooperation and information exchange.

It is simpler to implement AI solutions across a variety of hardware and software environments since AI toolkits are frequently made to function on several platforms.

Scalability is a key consideration in the design of many AI toolkits, enabling programmers to train and use models at a modest scale before scaling up to handle greater datasets and workloads as needed.

AI toolkits are frequently a component of bigger ecosystems that include contain tools for data manipulation, visualisation, and deployment. As a result, developing complete AI solutions is made simpler.

AI toolkits facilitate diverse machine learning techniques, ranging from deep learning to conventional statistical methods, enabling developers to select the most appropriate solution for a given task.

AI toolkits make it simpler to incorporate AI into current systems since they are frequently interoperable with databases, cloud services, and well-known programming languages.

AI toolkits' profiling and debugging capabilities aid developers in finding and fixing problems with their AI models, enhancing the effectiveness and calibre of their solutions.

Report Objectives

To determine and forecast the global AI Toolkit Market by offering (hardware, software, services), application, vertical, and region from 2023 to 2038, and analyze the various macroeconomic and microeconomic factors affecting market growth.

To forecast the size of the market segments with respect to five main regions: North America , Europe , Asia Pacific , Latin America , and Middle East & Africa .

, , , , and & . To provide detailed information about the major factors (drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges) influencing the growth of the AI Toolkit Market.

To analyze each submarket with respect to individual growth trends, prospects, and contributions to the overall AI Toolkit Market.

To analyze the opportunities in the market for stakeholders by identifying the high-growth segments of the AI Toolkit Market.

To profile the key market players; provide a comparative analysis based on business overviews, regional presence, product offerings, business strategies, and key financials; and illustrate the market's competitive landscape.

Track and analyze competitive developments in the market, such as mergers and acquisitions, product developments, partnerships and collaborations, and research and development (R&D) activities.

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WASHINGTON, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, American Trucking Associations released the list of 36 professional truck drivers named as finalists for the 2024-2025 America's Road Team.

"These men and women were selected as finalists for America's Road Team because they have outstanding safe driving records, share a passion for the trucking industry and are role models among their peers," said ATA President and CEO Chris Spear. "We owe these professional drivers our gratitude, without them the American economy would come to a halt."

America's Road Team, a group of professional truck drivers with superior safety records, was created in 1986 to represent the trucking industry and is sponsored by Volvo Trucks. Captains, with support from their companies, dedicate a few days each month to attending industry events, speaking at schools, or meeting policymakers on behalf of the trucking industry.

The 36 finalists advance to the final round of the selection process, which will be held this January in Washington. A panel of evaluators, including industry officials and trucking news media representatives will judge the contenders on their knowledge of the trucking industry, dedication to safety, ability to communicate the industry's messages and overall safe driving record. The finalists  with a combined total of 81 million safe-driving miles and 1,035 years as professional truck drivers, are highway safety experts eager to share their experiences with the motoring public.

The newly chosen 2024-2025 America's Road Team will be announced on January 16, following a ceremony at ATA's Headquarters in Washington. New Captains, after receiving their signature navy blue America's Road Team blazer, will begin working to share the industry's message of safety, essentiality, and sustainability with the motoring public, media, business and community groups, public officials and their fellow truck drivers around the country.

Captains from previous teams continue to serve as ambassadors to the industry and are called upon frequently to participate in safety events, speaking appearances, and industry conferences.

"Being named a finalist for America's Road Team is a major achievement for professional truck drivers and ATA congratulates each of them for this accomplishment," said ATA Chief Operating Officer Sarah Rajtik. "America's Road Team will continue to serve as a voice for the industry, which benefits from their professionalism, dedication and safety as they educate the public on highway safety, the positive impact the trucking industry plays in our economy and why a career in professional truck driving is great."

This year's finalists hail from 20 different states, haul a diverse assortment of products and materials, and range from short haul drivers to over-the-road drivers operating in all the lower 48 states. The finalists represent a cross-section of the industry with experience ranging from six to 46 years as professional truck drivers with anywhere from 350,000 to 4 million safe driving miles.

The finalists are:

Mike Alpine, ABF Freight System Inc., Arizona

Ben Atkinson , ABF Freight System, Inc., Florida

, ABF Freight System, Inc., Willie Baylor , FedEx Freight, Indiana

, FedEx Freight, Terry Bennett , ABF Freight System Inc., Florida

, ABF Freight System Inc., Joe Busch , ABF Freight System Inc., Iowa

, ABF Freight System Inc., Perry Carter , Cargo Transporters Inc., North Carolina

, Cargo Transporters Inc., Joseph Collins , FedEx Ground  Spartan Logistics, Minnesota

, FedEx Ground  Spartan Logistics, Robbie Cottrell , XPO, Virginia

, XPO, Howard Crawford , United Parcel Service, North Carolina

, United Parcel Service, Damon Evans , United Parcel Service, California

, United Parcel Service, Orlando Fraley , FedEx Freight, Georgia

, FedEx Freight, Dennis Hall , Tyson Foods Inc., Texas

, Tyson Foods Inc., Robert Hare , FedEx Freight, Virginia

, FedEx Freight, Dave Hedicker, ABF Freight System Inc., Ohio

Lloyd Howell , TCW, Alabama

, TCW, John Lemmons , United Parcel Service, Tennessee

, United Parcel Service, Ronnie Mahan , FedEx Freight, Arkansas

, FedEx Freight, Sean McClure , Old Dominion Freight Line Inc., Utah

, Old Dominion Freight Line Inc., Rodney McNew , Groendyke Transport Inc., Texas

, Groendyke Transport Inc., Mike Middleton , Old Dominion Freight Line Inc., Tennessee

, Old Dominion Freight Line Inc., Pete Palczynski , Walmart Transportation, Illinois

, Walmart Transportation, Emily Plummer , Prime Inc., Missouri

, Prime Inc., Wayne Ponschke , United Parcel Service, California

, United Parcel Service, Scott Post , FedEx Ground  Spartan Logistics, Minnesota

, FedEx Ground  Spartan Logistics, John Antoine Sadler , Walmart Transportation, North Carolina

, Walmart Transportation, Gary Schmidt , Jacobson Transport & Cliff Viessman Inc., Minnesota

, Jacobson Transport & Cliff Viessman Inc., Brian Sheehan , CRST The Transportation Solution Inc., Indiana

, CRST The Transportation Solution Inc., Molly Shultz , TransLand, Missouri

, TransLand, Anthony Tirone , Walmart Transportation, Florida

, Walmart Transportation, Chevelle Walker , Werner Enterprises, Florida

, Werner Enterprises, Bernard Wanyo , United Parcel Service, Pennsylvania

, United Parcel Service, Thomas Warters , Penske Logistics, Florida

, Penske Logistics, Mike Whitehead , FedEx Freight, South Dakota

, FedEx Freight, James "Gragg" Wilson, United Parcel Service, Nevada

Ryan Ybarra , United Parcel Service, California

, United Parcel Service, David Young , FedEx Freight, North Carolina

America's Road Team, sponsored by Volvo Trucks, is a national public outreach program led by a small group of professional truck drivers who share superior driving skills, remarkable safety records and a strong desire to spread the word about safety on the highway. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

American Trucking Associations is the largest national trade association for the trucking industry. Through a federation of 50 affiliated state trucking associations and industry-related conferences and councils, ATA is the voice of the industry America depends on most to move our nation's freight. Follow ATA on Twitter or on Facebook. Trucking Moves America Forward

SOURCE American Trucking Associations
YIWU, China, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Yiwugo.com, the official website of the Yiwu Commodity Market, is the largest commodity wholesale market in the world. As autumn arrives in the northern hemisphere, temperatures drop, sparking the first wave of purchases for thermal products in the China domestic market. According to Yiwugo's data, keywords like "thermal flask" have been steadily climbing the popular keyword rankings over the past two weeks. On the other hand, overseas markets have been sourcing thermal goods since May and June, with shipments gradually crossing the seas. "Foreign markets are one season ahead in procurement compared to the domestic market. Currently, we are mainly focused on seasonal purchases in the domestic market. Once this batch is complete, buyers from South America will also come for purchases," says Chen Liya, a veteran in the thermal flask industry for 12 years. Her company, MIDE Cup Corporation, has recently launched nearly a hundred new products on the Yiwugo platform.

The thermal products on Yiwugo.com

MIDE Cup distinguishes itself from other manufacturers with its adaptable procurement strategy. The company primarily exports its thermal flasks to European and American markets, with a focus on vacuum flasks and large-caliber American-style cups. A well-known American chain store, one of its collaborating partners, places annual orders worth over $10 million. MIDE Cup's exceptional customization services and design capabilities have also enabled them to undertake personalized gift cup orders for prestigious companies such as Bentley Motors. Regardless of the client's size, MIDE Cup consistently delivers top-quality, customizable products, establishing them as a leading player in the industry.

In contrast to MIDE Cup, MEICHEN Cup Corporation is known for its youthful and stylish designs. Its owner, Hu Bin, has been busy at the Guangzhou Trade Fair, where the company's showcased products have gained significant popularity among international buyers. This year's new products feature stunning Morandi and dopamine color schemes, and unexpectedly, they cater to the preferences of both domestic and international markets.

Meanwhile, MEICHEN Cup's store on the Yiwugo platform receives a significant number of inquiry messages every day. According to Hu Bin, conservatively speaking, over 50% of these inquiries eventually result in successful transactions. Furthermore, the customers acquired through Yiwugo are of high quality. In recent years, the company has gained new clients from various countries and regions, including Africa, South America, and India, with the majority of them originating from Yiwugo.

Since 2020, a self-designed thermal flask in the shape of a cola bottle has become a bestseller for the company. Its success has been particularly notable in the Australian market, where one customer began with an initial order of around 100 cases and has since consistently been buying full container loads. This demonstrates a rapid increase in the order volume. Furthermore, MEICHEN Cup has maintained partnerships with renowned brands from South Korea and the United States for over three years, with an average annual transaction value exceeding $2 million.

Hu Bin stated that this success is attributed to the company's unwavering commitment to exceptional quality. In contrast to ordinary factories that perform random sampling inspections, MEICHEN Cup adheres to a comprehensive and meticulous inspection model. The temperature measurement process takes ten times longer than the industry standard, and rigorous self-inspection criteria have been enforced. These factors have significantly contributed to the rapid growth and development of MEICHEN Cup in recent years.

In the Korean market, which shares a climate similar to that of China, buyers have already shown strong interest not only in thermal flasks but also in cotton jackets and down jackets. These items are enjoying significant sales.

Liling, the owner of AKCN Cotton and Down Apparel Factory Outlet, shared that customers who order custom styles usually place their orders early, around July and August. Currently, customers from countries like South Korea and Canada have completed their initial wave of down jacket purchases for this winter season. In the South Korean market, customers have already purchased approximately 2 million winter clothing pieces. Meanwhile, AKCN primarily caters to the American market by supplying classic lightweight down jackets known for their premium craftsmanship, which includes locked thread stitching and fade-resistant properties. As a result, the company consistently sells over 500,000 classic down jackets each year.

Meanwhile, in the European market, there has been a significant increase in sales of warming essentials such as hot water bottles and electric heating pads, driven by the tight energy supply situation in Europe in recent years. Chen Qingqing, as the head of the authorized enterprise for "Shanghai Yongzi Hot Water Bottles" in Yiwu, has managed the factory store for over 30 years, representing the combined achievements of two generations. She said that in the past few years, they have attracted numerous customers from the United Kingdom through Yiwugo. Even this year, British customers continue to favor high-quality classic hot water bottles in white, gray, and blue. Individual order volumes range from approximately 50,000 to 60,000 units. Furthermore, with the growing convenience of the transportation routes along the "Belt and Road" Initiative, there has been a noticeable increase in orders from countries along the route in the past two years. This winter season, customers from Turkey are opting for full container purchases.

With a favorable trading environment, efficient logistics services, and support from e-commerce platforms like Yiwugo, the winter season for warm products is off to a bustling start. Liling mentioned that they are prepared for the first wave of reorders for down jackets, while Hu Bin stated that the factory's order schedule is fully booked until the end of the year.

SOURCE Yiwugo.com
NORRIDGE, Ill., Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Central Baptist Village (CBV), a senior living community in Norridge, Illinois, has made the list of America's Best Nursing Homes for 2024 published by Newsweek.

Newsweek's annual rankings are based on five data sources, including performance data, peer recommendations, management of the COVID-19 situation, and accreditations from The Joint Commission and Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities. For the first time, resident satisfaction data for nursing homes, based on National Safety Goals from The Joint Commission and Google Scores, has been added to the scoring model.

Central Baptist Village ranks among the best nursing homes. CBV also offers assisted living and memory care. Post this

"We are honored to be counted among the best nursing homes in America," said CBV Administrator Jon Ragsdale. "It is a testament to our exceptional staff that takes immense pride in putting our residents' needs first, doing even the smallest things with great care, and showing their Heart to Serve every day at CBV."

In addition to Newsweek's ranking, CBV also enjoys the highest overall 5-star rating issued by The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services agency. CMS created the Five-Star Quality Rating System to help consumers, their families, and caregivers compare nursing homes more easily.

CBV has a 127-year tradition of serving and celebrating seniors. Founded in 1896, CBV provides holistic care that encompasses the physical, cognitive, social, and spiritual needs of residents.

Central Baptist Village offers a continuum of care under one roofAssisted Living and Memory Support in The Commons, Sheltered Care for higher clinical and memory needs in The Terrace, and Skilled Nursing and Certified Dementia Care in The Pavilion.

About Central Baptist Village

Central Baptist Village is a senior retirement community offering assisted living, memory care, short-term rehabilitation, and CMS 5-star rated skilled nursing. A senior living community unlike any other, CBV's residences, programs, and care are exceptional, award-winning, and progressive. As a non-profit organization, CBV is empowered to lead from the heart, not the bottom line. For more information, visit www.cbvillage.org.

For more information, contact

Mary Dalton

708.583.8527

[email protected]

SOURCE Central Baptist Village
BEIJING, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The following article was published today by China Daily.

Forum: Openness, actions key to tackling problems

Experts hold discussion during a session at the Global Strategic Dialogue (2023) in Beijing on Thursday. Wang Zhuangfei / China Daily

In these uncertain times, when the world is grappling with conflicts and challenges, many countries and their people still yearn for growth, collaboration, peace and common development, and their expectations should not be ignored, eminent scholars and politicians said on Thursday.

They made the remarks at the Global Strategic Dialogue (2023), a high-level forum held in Beijing. The event, themed "Global Opportunities and Challenges: Seeking Certainty in an Uncertain World", was sponsored by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and China Daily.

Gao Xiang, president of CASS, said in his opening remarks that China is ready to work with various parties to bolster joint efforts in safeguarding peace, securing a stable global environment and helping the people of every nation live happily and thrive.

China is willing to join hands to spur growth, "further building on an open world economy amid anti-globalization challenges and constantly injecting impetus for global economic growth and governance," Gao said.

The nation seeks greater collaboration in boosting openness, inclusiveness and exchanges among cultures in order to enjoy the beauty of harmony brought by diversity, he added.

Qu Yingpu, publisher and editor-in-chief of China Daily, told the forum that China, as the world's second-largest economy, has always been a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development and a defender of the international order.

President Xi Jinping proposed successively the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative and the Global Civilization Initiative, outlining the beautiful vision of a global community with a shared future, Qu said.

"I suggest think tanks and media organizations in China and other countries have frank conversations, and jointly promote the building of a new form of international relations that features mutual respect, equity, justness and win-win cooperation," Qu said.

Yasuo Fukuda, a former Japanese prime minister, said that in order to introduce certainty in an uncertain world, countries need to "make productive adjustments in the face of changes and should earnestly work on self-adjustment at the same time."

"I firmly believe that turbulence, bewilderment and the uncertain status are just a fragment of the world's development process," he said in a written speech delivered at the forum.

"China should have full confidence in and stay true to its ideal of building a global community with a shared future, and make its due contribution," he said, adding that this would serve the expectations of a harmonious world.

Observers noted that openness, inclusiveness and actions are key to addressing multiple complications brought by short-term, midterm and long-term factors, including the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, armed conflicts and technological advances.

Getachew Engida, former UNESCO deputy director-general and co-president of the China-Africa Leadership Development Institute at Tsinghua University, said the world is more connected today than ever before with ideas and resources moving across the globe. But, he cautioned, "it doesn't necessarily mean that there is more understanding", nor does it mean that the capacity for working together toward global challenges is being adequately harnessed.

He called on the world to "bridge this gap through capacity building and people-to-people exchanges", and urged nations to better engage younger generations to provide relevant solutions to and wisdom on handling differences.

Hanan Morsy, deputy executive secretary and chief economist at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, said the world has seen a backlash against the progress toward globalization from domestic resistance forces in some countries.

The world should focus on achieving globalization in a way that is more inclusive and more sustainable, and in a way that benefits all, she said.

Grzegorz W. Kolodko, director of Transformation, Integration and Globalization Economic Research at Kozminski University and former deputy prime minister of Poland, lashed out at protectionism, saying that people in many parts of the world are excluded from access to social services, education and healthcare.

He hailed China's efforts in building a global community with a shared future, the country's "smart and intelligent utilization of globalization" and its role in pooling the strengths of different markets, goods and services.

Ashok K. Kantha, former Indian ambassador to China, said the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is being "seriously delayed" as the global population below the poverty line is increasing in the post-pandemic era and the world is witnessing "de-risking" attempts.

Kantha said he does not see "any possibility" of harming the Chinese economy by advancing strategies such as "de-risking". He also voiced his confidence in a multipolar world, saying the rise of developing countries such as India and South Africa "should not be underestimated".

By ZHANG YUNBI

SOURCE China Daily
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Clario's Precision Motion Opal  wearable sensor technology detects early Parkinson's disease (PD) progression in a University of Oxford study funded by UCB Pharma.

Digital endpoints of gait and balance, captured during a 2-Minute Walk test and 30-second Sway test, identify significant motor symptom progression more rapidly than conventional clinical rating scales.

Earlier detection supported by state-of-the-art sensor technology and machine learning is a promising discovery to aid in the expedited development of effective PD treatments.

PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Clario, a healthcare research technology company that delivers the leading endpoint technology solutions for clinical trials, today announced that the application of Opal wearable sensor technology (legacy APDM, Inc.), with advisory from Precision Motion scientists, has helped the University of Oxford researchers develop a new understanding of motor symptom progression in Parkinson's Disease, offering promising implications for neuroscience clinical trials and future treatments.

Through a comprehensive study leveraging Clario's wearable sensors and machine learning, researchers were able to track the motor symptom progression in individuals with Parkinson's Disease (PD) better than the conventionally used clinical rating scales. Importantly, they found that the wearable technology detected disease progression in a significantly shorter timeframe than the traditional method.

Clario's scientific and technical expertise empowered the reliable collection of precise digital endpoints of movement enabling earlier detection of disease progression. This ultimately should accelerate the development of new medicines for PD, and potentially allow for earlier intervention for patients afflicted with this debilitating condition.

The University of Oxford study, led by Chrystalina Antoniades, Associate Professor of Neuroscience, Clinical Neurology, is a part of the Oxford Quantification in Parkinsonism (OxQUIP) project, in which Clario's Precision Motion Opal wearable sensors have been deployed to capture motor impairment in both PD and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP).

"We are honored to support Professor Antoniades with her pivotal research and are very excited about the positive implications of these results on the Parkinsonism field," said Kristen Sowalsky, PhD, DC, VP of Medical & Scientific Affairs. "This breakthrough demonstrates the essential benefit of using wearable technology and machine learning algorithms to track Parkinson's Disease progression more accurately and assess the efficacy of early therapeutic intervention. The potential impact of these findings for neuroscience clinical trials is outstanding."

"Time is crucial in clinical trials," said Professor Antoniades, Associate Professor of Neuroscience, Clinical Neurology at the University of Oxford. "If we can tell whether a treatment is working earlier, we can speed up its translation. It is also important to be able to tell rapidly which things are not working, so we can divert resources to more promising targets."

For direct inquiries, please contact [email protected].

For more information or to speak to a specialist about Clario's Precision Motion data endpoint collection and its ability to transform clinical trials please go to https://clario.com/solutions/precision-motion/.

About Clario

Clario is a leading healthcare research and technology company that generates the richest clinical evidence in the industry for our pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device partners. Across decentralized, hybrid and site-based trials, our deep scientific expertise, global scale and the broadest endpoint technology platform in the industry allows our partners to transform lives. Clario has the only technology platform that combines eCOA, cardiac safety, medical imaging, precision motion, and respiratory endpoints. With 30 facilities in nine countries, Clario's global team of science, technology and operational experts has helped deliver over 19,000 trials and 870 regulatory approvals for over five million patients in 120 countries. Our innovation has been transforming clinical trials for 50 years.

For more information, go to Clario.com or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter

Clario Media Contact

Duncan Cantor

Sr. Director, Corporate Communications

[email protected]

SOURCE Clario
Ethos, Massachusetts Alliance of Boys & Girls Clubs and Tech Goes Home Among 16 Nonprofits to Receive Grants

BOSTON, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Comcast announced today that it will reach more than $1 million in investment this year in digital equity grants to 16 organizations in Greater Boston. Recipients include YMCA of Greater Boston, Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts, and Elder Services of Cape Cod to support digital access and adoption for residents across Greater Boston. The organizations receiving grants were chosen due to their commitment to digital equity, and the funds will support programs specifically designed to provide residents in Boston and surrounding communities with Internet access and digital skill-building services. Additionally, Comcast surprised Ethos with 120 new laptops to help further support its senior citizens during an event held at the Boston Centers for Youth & Families Hyde Park, one of Comcast's 36 Lift Zones throughout the city.

This announcement is part of Project UP , Comcast's $1 billion commitment to advance digital equity through programs and community partnerships that connect people to the Internet, advance economic mobility, and open doors for the next generation of innovators, entrepreneurs, storytellers and creators.

"More than a decade ago, Comcast set out to close the digital divide. We envisioned a network of community partners and programs that would empower neighborhoods  including those right here in Greater Boston  with the tools to thrive in the growing digital economy: broadband Internet, access to a computer and digital skills training," said Broderick Johnson, Comcast Corporation's Executive Vice President of Public Policy, and Executive Vice President of Digital Equity. "Today's announcement further underscores our longstanding shared commitment with these local nonprofits to help ensure residents can achieve unlimited possibilities."

The recipient organizations will also use the funds to provide their members with digital skills and workforce development opportunities. Additionally, they will help residents learn about the Federal Government's Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which provides eligible low-income households with a credit of up to $30 per month toward their Internet and/or mobile service. Thanks to ACP, eligible Comcast customers can get home Internet through Comcast's Internet Essentials or Internet Essentials Plus at no cost once the federal credit is applied. Internet Essentials customers can also add a line of unlimited 5G cellular data ($45) through Xfinity Mobile for as little as $24.95/month after the ACP benefit is applied.

Ethos, one of the Boston-based grant recipients, will use the funds to support its Digital Aging Program, which provides Boston senior citizens with Internet service connections at their homes, computer access and individualized skill-building opportunities. Ethos program coordinators teach seniors how to use a laptop and search the Internet for healthcare and other resources.

"We are deeply grateful for Comcast's generous $75,000 contribution to our Digital Aging Program," said Valerie Frias, CEO of Ethos. "We have a longstanding commitment to empowering older adults through technology, and the partnership between Comcast and Ethos has been vital to that effort, addressing critical equity and device access disparities in our community. Their support allows us to expand digital literacy training, helping seniors  especially those who have faced disparities  connect with family, access resources and age with confidence. We look forward to our continued partnership in creating a more connected and enriching future for Boston's seniors."

This year, 15 other nonprofits have received grants to further digital equity efforts  such as conducting digital literacy training and hosting ACP awareness events  across eastern Massachusetts: Beats by Girlz, Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center, Cape Cod Community Health Centers, Elder Services of Cape Cod, Foundation for Boston Centers for Youth and Families, Just A Start, Massachusetts Alliance of Boys & Girls Clubs, New Hampshire Alliance of Boys & Girls Clubs, Quincy Housing Authority Foundation, Save the Harbor, Tech Goes Home, Timothy Smith Network, Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts, YMCA of Greater Boston and YMCA of Martha's Vineyard.

Additional information on how the Boston-area partner organizations will use their digital equity grants:

Tech Goes Home provides digital inclusion programs, enabling each family or individual who completes 15 hours of digital skills training to earn a new computer and, if needed, funding a home Internet connection. Comcast's $200,000 grant will enable Tech Goes Home to expand its ACP outreach and awareness efforts in Massachusetts .

provides digital inclusion programs, enabling each family or individual who completes 15 hours of digital skills training to earn a new computer and, if needed, funding a home Internet connection. Comcast's grant will enable Tech Goes Home to expand its ACP outreach and awareness efforts in . Elder Services of Cape Cod offers computer training to adults over 60 years of age using the Senior Planet curriculum, which is designed to help its members overcome the barriers specific to an older population  from counterintuitive naming conventions to specific software that can enable those with tremors to use a mouse. Comcast's $30,000 grant will fund the creation of a Digital Navigator program to help reach additional senior citizens in need of digital skills support.

"Comcast knows that connecting to the Internet is vital but also understands that building digital literacy skills to develop career pathways and opportunities are critical," said Anthony Bowling, Senior Vice President of Comcast's Greater Boston Region. "That is why we are proud to expand our investments with public, private and nonprofit partners to do our part to help bridge that divide and advance digital equity in the Boston area and beyond."

These efforts are all part of Project UP, Comcast's comprehensive initiative to help build a future of unlimited possibilities. Project UP encompasses digital equity programs such as Internet Essentials, Lift Zones and Digital Navigators. Since its inception in 2011, Comcast's Internet Essentials has connected more than 10 million low-income Americans to broadband service at home, including more than 620,000 in Massachusetts. Additionally, Comcast has launched more than 1,250 Lift Zones in community centers nationwide  with 80 locations in Massachusetts alone  to provide students and families with free, high-speed WiFi. Comcast also has 15 Digital Navigator programs throughout Massachusetts, which include individuals affiliated with trusted community organizations who are trained to help people access the Internet, use devices and acquire digital skills. Once training is complete, these Digital Navigators educate community members in a wide range of digital awareness and literacy skills.

For additional information on Project UP and our digital equity initiatives, visit: https://corporate.comcast.com/impact/project-up.

About Comcast Corporation

Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA) is a global media and technology company. From the connectivity and platforms we provide, to the content and experiences we create, our businesses reach hundreds of millions of customers, viewers, and guests worldwide. We deliver world-class broadband, wireless, and video through Xfinity, Comcast Business, and Sky; produce, distribute, and stream leading entertainment, sports, and news through brands including NBC, Telemundo, Universal, Peacock, and Sky; and bring incredible theme parks and attractions to life through Universal Destinations & Experiences. Visit www.comcastcorporation.com for more information.

SOURCE Comcast
Led by Cliff Rego, the Toronto area firm formerly known as Rego Realty becomes Corcoran Horizon Realty

NEW YORK, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Corcoran Group, LLC today announced its continued expansion by welcoming its first Canadian franchise with the launch of Corcoran Horizon Realty. Owned and led by CEO Cliff Rego, the brokerage will serve clients in the greater Toronto area and throughout the entire Ontario province. The announcement, made by Pamela Liebman, President and CEO of The Corcoran Group, emphasizes the company's ongoing expansion across North America, and developing international breadth with this entrance into the Canadian market.

As Canada's most populous province, Ontario is an attractive locale for both domestic and international consumers, boasting a vibrant blend of modern city centers, charming urban sprawl, and a pristine countryside. Toronto, the provincial capital and Canada's largest city, stands as a global economic and cultural hub in the south, while Ottawa, the nation's capital city and political center, lies at the northeast of the province. Additionally, the Waterloo region just outside of Toronto has emerged as a global technology hub, renowned for innovative production in the visual display, software, satellite, and eLearning industries, building upon the area's in-demand real estate market.

"Toronto is a dynamic city and a world leader in business, finance, and culture  I can't think of a better market for Corcoran's entry into Canada," said Liebman. "Cliff and his incredible organization are ideal partners as we continue our global expansion and I'm eager to unveil all that Corcoran has to offer consumers and real estate professionals across Ontario."

Rego Realty, now Corcoran Horizon Realty, evolved into its current form in 2003, built upon the success of the company's core agent team, the Rego Team. Founded and led by Canadian real estate industry leader Cliff Rego, the company has grown to be regarded as an influential brokerage within the marketplace over the past two decades. Through a strategic division of elevated services offered to clients, whether through buying, selling, leasing, investment, or development, the team has transacted over $3 billion Canadian dollars of real estate.

Attributing to this success is the company's management of sales, marketing, and administration for some of Ontario's premier new developments, including HIP Development's coveted Strata condominiums in Waterloo, Rainbow Lake in Kitchener, and the Gaslight District in Cambridge. Spanning the greater southwest region of Ontario, the company has also worked on large-scale new development projects with the area's most recognized names, such as Pearle Developments' soon to be completed Elora Mill Condominiums, Andrin Homes, Reid's Heritage Homes, Activa, Huron Creek Developments, and many more.

"Since our founding, we've aimed to enhance the real estate experience for our valued clients, our talented agents, and our dedicated industry peers," said Rego. "Having partnered with Corcoran, all of our efforts toward these goals will be amplified, benefiting from a world-class brand and robust international network, ensuring the best possible opportunities for our company's continued success."

Corcoran Horizon Realty, powered by the Rego Team, is comprised of more than 55 agents and support staff, and will continue to operate out of the company's existing offices, located in Kitchener and Cambridge. In addition to serving as CEO of Corcoran Horizon Realty, Rego will remain at the helm of the Rego Team, which has served as an award-winning agent team with a dedicated client base in the Waterloo-Wellington area for more than 20 years. Under the new affiliation with Corcoran, the company is ideally poised and eager to expand their presence, both within the greater Toronto area, as well as across the entire Ontario province.

For 50 years, Corcoran has stood for excellence in real estate, following their tagline, "Live Who You Are," by providing a human-first approach to real estate that has made it one of the industry's most luminous brands. Through the company's strong history of sales, Corcoran has become a leader in their company-owned regions of New York City[1], where the brokerage has been ranked #1 based on residential sales volume for the last several years, the Hamptons, as well as Miami and Palm Beach in South Florida  some of America's most luxurious markets.

Corcoran's affiliate network has grown steadily both domestically and abroad since its launch in February 2020. In 2022 alone, Corcoran welcomed and expanded affiliates in Florida, Georgia, Connecticut, Washington, Tennessee, New Jersey, the Cayman Islands, and Turks & Caicos. Most recently, Corcoran announced the launch of Corcoran Prestige Realty earlier this week, based out of Houston, Texas.

About The Corcoran Group

The Corcoran Group has been a leading residential real estate brand for 50 years. Through its New York City, Hamptons, and South Florida brokerages, along with its rapidly growing affiliate network, the firm is home to over 100 offices and more than 4,500 independent salespersons in key urban, suburban, and resort markets worldwide. Corcoran affiliated agents earn and keep their clients' trust with an unwavering commitment to white-glove service, expertise, and integrity. In every market served, Corcoran helps you find the home that's just right for you. The Corcoran brand comprises both offices owned by a subsidiary of Anywhere Advisors LLC (f/k/a Realogy Brokerage Group LLC) and franchised offices, which are independently owned and operated. For more information about The Corcoran Group, please visit www.corcoran.com.

[1] H. Connery & S. Wall, " NYC's top residential brokerages," The Real Deal, Online, Korangy Publishing, 3/2/2023, https://therealdeal.com/magazine/national-march-2023/nycs-top-residential-brokerages/.

SOURCE The Corcoran Group
New end-to-end green hydrogen system will be located at Duke Energy Florida's existing facilities in DeBary

Project designed to provide innovative solutions to benefit customers by adding more renewable energy to the grid

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Duke Energy today announced it soon will break ground in DeBary, Fla., on the first demonstration project in the United States to successfully create clean energy using an end-to-end system to produce, store and combust 100% green hydrogen.

The innovative system is the result of collaboration between Duke Energy, Sargent and Lundy, and GE Vernova and will be located at Duke Energy Florida's DeBary plant in Volusia County, Fla.

"Duke Energy is constantly evolving and seeking ways to provide clean, safe energy solutions to our customers," said Melissa Seixas, Duke Energy Florida state president. "DeBary will be home to Duke Energy's first green hydrogen production and storage system connected to existing solar for power generation, and we are grateful to the city for allowing this innovative technology in their community."

System for production, storage and combustion of green hydrogen

This one-of-its-kind, end-to-end system will begin with the existing 74.5-megawatt (MW) DeBary solar plant providing clean energy for two 1-MW electrolyzer units that will separate water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen atoms.

The resulting oxygen will be released into the atmosphere, while the green hydrogen will be delivered to nearby, reinforced containers for safe storage. During times when energy demand is highest, the system will deliver the stored green hydrogen to a combustion turbine (CT) that will be upgraded using GE Vernova technology to run on a natural gas/hydrogen blend or up to 100% hydrogen. This will be the nation's first CT in operation running on such a high percentage of hydrogen.

Operational Features

Safe, quiet generation and storage of energy

Optimizes on-site solar generation

Allows access to on-demand (dispatchable) energy

End-to-end technology demonstration that could provide cost-effective decarbonization

Environmental Features

No visual impact

Zero greenhouse gas emissions

Production of 100% green hydrogen from solar energy

"Duke Energy anticipates hydrogen could play a major role in our clean energy future," said Regis Repko, senior vice president of generation and transmission strategy for Duke Energy. "Hydrogen has significant potential for decarbonization across all sectors of the U.S. economy. It is a clean energy also capable of long-duration storage, which would help Duke Energy ensure grid reliability as we continue adding more renewable energy sources to our system."

Ensuring Future Reliability

Readily available hydrogen is a dispatchable energy source, meaning it is available on demand. It can be turned on and off at any time and is not dependent on the time of day or the weather, like sun, wind or other renewable energy sources known as intermittent.

Dispatchable energy provides a needed element of reliability that will enable us to add more intermittent energy sources, yet still ensure we can meet customer demand, even during extended periods of high demand. Using solar energy to generate green hydrogen enables solar plants to be optimized. Relying on intermittent energy sources without available dispatchable energy sources would put our future electric system at risk of having insufficient energy to serve customer demand.

Project Timeline

Construction of the demonstration project in DeBary will begin later this year and could take about one year to complete. Duke Energy anticipates the system will be installed and fully functioning in 2024.

For additional information on the project, visit duke-energy.com/debaryhydrogen.

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 (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 line: 800.559.3853

Media contacts:

Audrey Stasko

(Florida)

[email protected]

Twitter: @DE_AudreyS

Jennifer Sharpe

(Corporate)

[email protected]

Twitter: @DE_JenniferS

SOURCE Duke Energy
OAKLAND, Calif., Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- EdSource received two grants this month that will allow the nonprofit newsroom to strategically cover national stories on higher education.

One grant that will support EdSource's expansion comes from the Crimsonbridge Foundation, a D.C.-based national philanthropic organization that fosters collaboration to create transformative solutions to improve the lives of the nation's youth and families.

The other grant is from ECMC Foundation, a nationally-focused foundation working to improve higher education for career success among underserved populations through evidence-based innovation.

Both foundations will provide financial support that will allow EdSource to pursue education stories with significance related to California  from examining federal policy to looking at innovative programs in other states. At the same time, EdSource will seek to collaborate with news organizations around the country to amplify this work, as the size and complexity of California's public education system helps inform education coverage elsewhere.

California is home to the nation's largest four-year public university, California State University, and the largest higher education system in the nation, California Community Colleges.

EdSource has produced education analysis in California since 1977. Its reporters and editors have decades of experience covering complex issues, from school finance to equity in teaching.

"As the largest education newsroom in California with deep policy expertise, EdSource is well-positioned to shine a light on national higher education stories," EdSource CEO Anne Vasquez said. "Sometimes California leads the way on higher education policies and sometimes the state can learn from how others are finding their way forward. "

"This grant investment is critical to advancing the conversation around systems change in higher education, both in California and across the nation," said Jacob Fraire, president of ECMC Foundation. "In addition to supporting the work of some of the finest journalists in the field, we are excited about EdSource's desire to bring lessons learned from other states to California leaders. This kind of storytelling will serve to strengthen the field and ultimately benefit millions of students across the state."

ABOUT EDSOURCE

As a nonprofit, independent news organization, EdSource knows that an informed, involved public is necessary to strengthen schools to improve opportunities now and in the future. Since 1977, EdSource has delivered education analysis and continues to report on the most pressing education issues in California and the nation.

FOLLOW EDSOURCE

EdSource.org

EdSource.org/subscribe

twitter.com/EdSource

facebook.com/EdSource



MEDIA CONTACT

[email protected]

ABOUT ECMC FOUNDATION

ECMC Foundation is a Los Angeles-based, nationally focused foundation whose mission is to improve higher education for career success among underserved populations through evidence-based innovation. It is one of several affiliates under the ECMC Group enterprise based in Minneapolis. ECMC Foundation makes investments to remove barriers to postsecondary completion; build the capacity of organizations, institutions and systems; and transform the postsecondary ecosystem using a spectrum of funding structures, including strategic grantmaking and program-related investments, to support both nonprofit and for-profit ventures. Working with grantees, partners and peers, ECMC Foundation's vision is for all learners to unlock their fullest potential. Learn more about ECMC Foundation by visiting www.ecmcfoundation.org and ECMC Group by visiting www.ecmcgroup.org.

ABOUT THE CRIMSONBRIDGE FOUNDATION

Through partnerships with community colleges, universities, and nonprofits, the Crimsonbridge Foundation is building the capacity of the higher education ecosystem to help more learners earn a degree and thrive in their careers and beyond. Crimsonbridge is focused on increasing degrees for first-generation college students and learners underrepresented in higher education, elevating innovations and research to provide solutions to barriers for today's college students, and collaborating with philanthropy to raise awareness about high-impact opportunities that support college success.

SOURCE EdSource
SHANGHAI, Oct. 26, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Everest Medicines (HKEX 1952.HK, "Everest", or the "Company"), a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development, manufacturing and commercialization of innovative medicines and vaccines, today announced that it will make a late-breaking poster presentation at the upcoming American Society of Nephrology (ASN) Kidney Week 2023 on Nefecon Chinese patient data. The company will hold conference calls after the presentation in English and Mandarin on November 3, 2023 Beijing Time.

Late-Breaking Poster Presentation Details:

Title: Long-term renal benefit with Nefecon in Chinese patients with primary immunoglobulin A nephropathy: 2-year NefIgArd trial results

Date and Time: Thursday, November 2, 10:00 a.m.  12:00 p.m. ET

Session: Late-Breaking Posters [LB-PO]

Presentation No.: TH-PO1123 (Abstract 3969868)

Presentation Venue: Exhibit Halls BD (Pennsylvania Convention Center)

Conference Call Details:

For English Session:

Time: 9:00 AM Beijing Time, Friday, November 3, 2023 / 9:00 PM ET, Thursday, November 2, 2023

Pre-Registration Link: https://www.acecamptech.com/eventDetail/60504537

Webcast Link: https://www.acecamptech.com/meeting_live/70506314/5517?event_id=60504537

Alternatively, participants may dial in to the conference call using below dial-in information:

United States: +1 646 2543594 (EN) Mainland China: +86 10 58084166 (EN) +86 10 58084199 (CN) Hong Kong: +852 30051313 (EN) +852 30051355 (CN) United Kingdom: +44 20 76600166 (EN) International: +1 866 6363243 Password: 388208

For Mandarin Session:

Time: 10:00 AM Beijing Time, Friday, November 3, 2023 / 10:00 PM ET, Thursday, November 2, 2023

Webcast Link: https://s.comein.cn/AfPNw

Alternatively, participants may dial into the conference call using below dial-in information:

Mainland China: +86-4001888938 +86-01053827720 Taiwan: +886-277031747 United States: +1-2025524791 United Kingdom +44-2034816288 Singapore: +65-31586120 Hong Kong: +852-57006920 Password: 157383

The replay of English session will be available shortly after the call and can be accessed by visiting the Company's website at http://www.everestmedicines.com.

About Everest Medicines

Everest Medicines is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing transformative pharmaceutical products that address critical unmet medical needs for patients in Asian markets. The management team of Everest Medicines has deep expertise and an extensive track record from both leading global pharmaceutical companies and local Chinese pharmaceutical companies in high-quality clinical development, regulatory affairs, CMC, business development and operations. Everest Medicines has built a portfolio of potentially global first-in-class or best-in-class molecules, many of which are in late-stage clinical development. The Company's therapeutic areas of interest include cardio-renal diseases, autoimmune disorders, and infectious diseases. For more information, please visit its website at www.everestmedicines.com.

Forward-Looking Statements:

This news release may make statements that constitute forward-looking statements, including descriptions regarding the intent, belief or current expectations of the Company or its officers with respect to the business operations and financial condition of the Company, which can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," "confident" and similar statements. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, or other factors, some of which are beyond the control of the Company and are unforeseeable. Therefore, the actual results may differ from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors and assumptions, such as future changes and developments in our business, competitive environment, political, economic, legal and social conditions. The Company or any of its affiliates, directors, officers, advisors or representatives has no obligation and does not undertake to revise forward-looking statements to reflect new information, future events or circumstances after the date of this news release, except as required by law.

SOURCE Everest Medicines
By Stephen Richardson, Managing Consultant and Eric Jia-Sobota, Founder

CHARLESTON, S.C., Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- EverGlade Consulting, a leading consultancy firm known for its strategic solutions, is proud to announce that its philanthropic division, EverGladeCares, has voluntarily donated critical supplies to the New Hampshire National Guard Volunteer Search and Rescue organization. This donation signifies a key transition for EverGladeCares, as it moves from a primary focus on pandemic response to a broader, more sustained effort to make a positive social impact.

EverGladeCares is a force multiplier. (PRNewsfoto/Eric Jia-Sobota)

Originally created to tackle the immediate needs arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, EverGladeCares played a vital role in public health initiatives and logistic solutions. The organization is now widening its scope to align with non-profits and community organizations that reflect the core values of EverGlade Consulting, including innovation, integrity, and inclusivity.

"In times of crisis, immediate action is essential, but it's equally important to look at the long game. Our donation to the New Hampshire National Guard Volunteer Search and Rescue organization is an investment in the well-being of our communities and embodies EverGlade's commitment to go beyond immediate needs to support enduring, positive change," said Eric Jia-Sobota, Founder and CEO of EverGlade Consulting.

The New Hampshire National Guard Volunteer Search and Rescue organization is devoted to assisting local communities during natural disasters, accidents, and emergency situations. The critical supplies donated by EverGladeCares, including navigational equipment, GPS units, and high-visibility clothing, will be vital in enhancing the effectiveness of the team's search and rescue operations.

This partnership extends beyond a simple donation. EverGladeCares is committed to skill-based volunteering and mentorship programs, and plans to leverage EverGlade Consulting's extensive network to maximize the impact of its community initiatives.

For additional information about EverGlade Consulting, reach out to:

[email protected]

SOURCE Eric Jia-Sobota
Celebrating a Decade of Innovation: 10th Anniversary of the ROBO Global Robotics & Automation Index ETF (Ticker: ROBO)

NEW YORK, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- October 21, 2023, marked the 10th anniversary of the ROBO Global Robotics & Automation Index ETF (Ticker: ROBO), the first exchange-traded fund (ETF) with a focus on robotics, automation and artificial intelligence. Exchange Traded Concepts, advisor of the ROBO ETF, and VettaFi, the index provider, will be ringing the Opening BellO to celebrate this milestone today. They will also be joined by a select group of clients and partners.

ETC partnered with ROBO Global, now part of VettaFi, in 2013 to start a fund that invests in global companies that are driving transformative innovations in robotics, automation, and artificial intelligence (RAAI), across developed and emerging markets. By year four, ROBO reached $1 billion in assets under management and remains the largest of three ROBO Global ETFs advised by ETC.

Fast-forward a decade, and the landscape has transformed with the emergence of ChatGPT. Robotics, automation, and AI are no longer mere buzzwords; they have become fundamental drivers of progress across industries.

"As we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the ROBO ETF, we look forward to the future with even greater anticipation," says J. Garrett Stevens, CEO of Exchange Traded Concepts.

The ROBO ETF invests across 14 different countries and takes a multi-cap approach, meaning it invests in small companies, large companies and everything in between.

"This strategy, a pioneering approach in thematic investing, invites investors into a growing tech space, where innovation knows no bounds, and the portfolio thrives on industry dynamism," says Zeno Mercer, Senior Research Analyst at VettaFi.

ABOUT ROBO GLOBAL ETFS

ROBO Global ETFs provides investors with a liquid, cost-effective and diversified way to gain access to rapidly evolving robotics technology and artificial intelligence (AI). Learn more at roboglobaletfs.com.

ABOUT EXCHANGE TRADED CONCEPTS (ETC)

Exchange Traded Concepts is an SEC-registered independent investment adviser that specializes in white-label ETFs and offers ETF services spanning ETF-in-a-Box and sub-advisory to fund marketing and consulting. ETC provides the trust, board, and decades of experience to offer asset managers (hedge, SMAs, mutual) and others an efficient, cost-effective means to leverage the benefits of the ETF wrapper. Learn more at exchangetradedconcepts.com.

ABOUT VETTAFI

VettaFi LLC, is a data and analytics company with offices in the US and Canada. VettaFi is a provider of indexing, data & analytics, industry leading conferences, and digital distribution services to ETF issuers and fund managers. It operates the ETFdb, Advisor Perspectives, and ETF Trends websites and the LOGICLY portfolio analytics platformengaging millions of investors annuallyempowering and educating the modern financial advisor and institutional investor. For more information, visit vettafi.com.

Carefully consider the Funds' investment objectives, risk factors, charges and expenses before investing. This and additional information can be found on the Funds' full or summary prospectuses, which may be obtained at www.roboglobaletfs.com. Read the prospectus carefully before investing.

Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. International investments may also involve risk from unfavorable fluctuations in currency values, differences in generally accepted accounting principles, and from economic or political instability. Emerging markets involve heightened risks related to the same factors as well as increased volatility and lower trading volume. Narrowly focused investments and investments in smaller companies typically exhibit higher volatility. There is no guarantee the funds will achieve their stated objective. ROBO, HTEC, and THNQ are non-diversified.

The liquidity of the A-shares market and trading prices of A-shares could be more severely affected than the liquidity and trading prices of other markets because the Chinese government restricts the flow of capital into and out of the A-shares market. The funds may experience losses due to illiquidity of the Chinese securities markets or delay or disruption in execution or settlement of trades.

The risks associated with investments in Robotics and Automation Companies include, but are not limited to, small or limited markets for such securities, changes in business cycles, world economic growth, technological progress, rapid obsolescence, and government regulation. Robotics and Automation Companies, especially smaller, start-up companies, tend to be more volatile than securities of companies that do not rely heavily on technology. Rapid change to technologies that affect a company's products could have a material adverse effect on such company's operating results. Robotics and Automation Companies may rely on a combination of patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secret laws to establish and protect their proprietary rights in their products and technologies. There can be no assurance that the steps taken by these companies to protect their proprietary rights will be adequate to prevent the misappropriation of their technology or that competitors will not independently develop technologies that are substantially equivalent or superior to such companies' technology.

The risks associated with Artificial Intelligence (AI) Companies include, but are not limited to, small or limited markets, changes in business cycles, world economic growth, technological progress, rapid obsolescence, and government regulation. Rapid change to technologies that affect a company's products could have a material adverse effect on such company's operating results. AI Companies also rely heavily on a combination of patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secret laws to establish and protect their proprietary rights in their products and technologies. There can be no assurance that the steps taken by these companies to protect their proprietary rights will be adequate to prevent the misappropriation of their technology or that competitors will not independently develop technologies that are substantially equivalent or superior to such companies' technology. AI Companies typically engage in significant amounts of spending on research and development, and there is no guarantee that the products or services produced by these companies will be successful.

SOURCE Exchange Traded Concepts, LLC
Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) remains on budget and on schedule

Dominion Energy expects to begin offshore construction in early 2024 and to conclude in late 2026

These eight monopile foundations are the first of 176 to be delivered and staged in Portsmouth

RICHMOND, Va., Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Dominion Energy's Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) commercial project took one more step to starting construction when the first eight monopile foundations were safely offloaded at Portsmouth Marine Terminal, where they will be staged until installation of the 2.6-gigawatt project, enough electricity to power 660,000 homes, begins in the spring of 2024. The foundations, which are a single vertical, steel cylinder, are being manufactured by global leader EEW SPC and will be installed into the sea floor to support the wind turbine generators.

"The delivery of the first foundations is further evidence that our Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project continues to move forward on time and on budget to provide reliable, affordable and increasingly clean energy to our customers," said Bob Blue, Dominion Energy's chair, president and chief executive officer. "This regulated offshore wind project positions us, and the Commonwealth of Virginia, as leaders in the development of offshore wind and provides many benefits for our customers and local economies."

CVOW, the largest offshore wind project under development in the United States, is expected to generate fuel savings of $3 billion for customers during the project's first 10 years of operation.

The project continues to advance through the federal permitting process, receiving the Final Environmental Impact Statement from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) last month. BOEM is expected to issue its Record of Decision on the project in the coming days.

Offshore wind's economic development and jobs benefits are transformative for Hampton Roads and the Commonwealth. More than 750 Virginia-based workers  nearly 530 in the Hampton Roads region  have been engaged on the CVOW project or with other businesses supporting CVOW, including redevelopment work at the Portsmouth Marine Terminal, construction of the offshore wind Monitoring and Coordination Center, maritime provisioning, ship repairs, divers, heavy lift and rigging, cyber security, food service and hospitality. More than 1,000 local jobs will be needed to support ongoing operations and maintenance of this facility after the project is commercial.

The offloading of the foundations was supported by union workers from the International Longshoremen's Association, the largest union of maritime workers in North America.

B-roll footage and photos of the monopile unloading are available for download at https://news.dominionenergy.com/cvowfoundations. Photo and video of the celebration event will be available for download by 4:00 p.m.

View the Spanish version of this press release.

About Dominion Energy

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 providing reliable, affordable, and increasingly clean energy every day and to achieving Net Zero emissions by 2050. Please visit DominionEnergy.com to learn more.

SOURCE Dominion Energy
NEW YORK, Oct. 26, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The food and beverage warehousing market size is expected to grow by USD 366.29 billion between 2022 and 2027. However, the growth momentum of the market will progress at a CAGR of 18.76% during the forecast period. The market is segmented by Application (Meat/fish/seafood, Dairy and frozen desserts, Bakery/confectionery/beverages, Fruits and vegetables, and Grains and others), End-user (Processing factories, Distributors, and Retailers), and Geography (North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and Middle East and Africa). The demand for warehouse automation is driving market growth. The use of warehouse control software reduces transportation costs. It helps in managing orders by consolidating different orders from the same retailer or wholesaler. The demand for warehousing in the food and beverage sector mostly stems from large retailers, small stores, e-commerce, and home delivery services.

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Food and Beverage Warehousing Market 2023-2027

This, in turn, is expected to drive the growth of the market during the forecast period. The report analyses the market size and growth and provides accurate predictions on the growth of the market. View a PDF Sample

Key Highlights:

The report recognizes the following as some of the key players in the food and beverage warehousing market: Ahearn and Soper Inc., AIT Worldwide Logistics Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Americold Realty Trust Inc., Burris Logistics Co., Cargo partner GmbH, Conestoga Cold Storage, John Swire and Sons Ltd., Lineage Logistics Holdings LLC, Net Logistik S.A. de C.V, Nichirei Corp., Penske Corp., Ryder System Inc., Snowman Logistics Ltd., VersaCold Logistics Services, Walmart Inc., Warehousing Express Logistics Pvt. Ltd., Congebec Logistics Inc., Toyota Industries Corp.

and Sons Ltd., Lineage Logistics Holdings LLC, Net Logistik S.A. de C.V, Nichirei Corp., Penske Corp., Ryder System Inc., Snowman Logistics Ltd., VersaCold Logistics Services, Walmart Inc., Warehousing Express Logistics Pvt. Ltd., Congebec Logistics Inc., Toyota Industries Corp. Food and Beverage Warehousing Market is fragmented in nature.

Market to observe 16.98% YOY growth in 2023.

Market Dynamics:

Trend

Business strategies adopted by vendors is an emerging trend in the F&B warehousing market. Vendors are partnering and collaborating with end-users and distributors to improve sales channels and expand their product portfolios. They are also focusing on expanding storage facilities. Vendors are investing in new technologies and upgrading their storage facilities. For example, in June 2020, Americold Realty Trust announced that it plans to invest about USD 45 million in expansion plans for its Dalgety facility in Auckland, New Zealand. Similarly, Preferred Freezer Services invested about USD 60 million to build its refrigeration facility in Virginia, US.

Challenge

Power consumption in cold storage challenges the F&B warehousing market. The demand for processed food items, such as meat, fish, frozen food products, and ready-to-eat items, drives the demand for cold storage warehouses. Most market players are developing their storage and transport facilities to cater to the demand. However, high energy consumption and the need for manpower are major concerns for cold storage operators.

The report also covers information on upcoming trends and challenges. Explore detailed information by purchasing a report

Keg Segments:

By application, the meat/fish/seafood segment will account for a significant share of market growth during market growth. Meat/fish/seafood products have a very short shelf life, and most of these products are at risk of pathogens. These products need to be stored at certain temperatures to prevent spoilage. This, in turn, is expected to drive the growth of the segment during the forecast period. Get a glance at the market contribution of the segments, Request a Sample

Related Reports:

The food waste management market size is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 4.82% between 2022 and 2027 and the size of the market is forecast to increase by USD 10,068.67 million.

The industrial food slicers market share is expected to increase to USD 119.04 million from 2021 to 2026, and the market's growth momentum will accelerate at a CAGR of 8.65%.

Food And Beverage Warehousing Market Scope Report Coverage Details Base year 2022 Historic period 2017-2021 Forecast period 2023-2027 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 18.76% Market growth 2023-2027 USD 366.29 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth 2022-2023 (%) 16.98 Performing market contribution North America at 28% Competitive landscape Leading Vendors, Market Positioning of Vendors, Competitive Strategies, and Industry Risks

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 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
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 27. 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 the liberation of Azerbaijans territories from nearly 30-year Armenian occupation and the restoration of territorial integrity.

Chronicle of the 31-st day of the second Karabakh war:

- First Vice President of Azerbaijan Mehriban Aliyeva shared a post on her Instagram account.

- The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry has released information on the latest situation on the front.

- The chief of staff of the Armenian motorized infantry division was killed. The list of destroyed military equipment of the Armenian armed forces has been announced.

- Tartar city and the villages of the Tartar district were shelled.

- The Azerbaijani army liberated four cities, four settlements and 165 villages in just one month.

- The territories of Goranboy, Tartar and Barda districts were shelled. The death toll from Armenian missile attack in Barda has reached four. One of the dead in Barda was an 8-year-old child.

- The Defense Ministry said that over the past day, Armenian armed forces repeatedly violated the humanitarian ceasefire.
DUBLIN, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The "ELISA Analyzers Market - Global Industry Size, Share, Trends, Competition, Opportunity, and Forecast, 2018-2028F" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The ELISA Analyzers Market is expected to grow with an impressive CAGR in the forecast period of 2024-2028

This can be attributed to factors such as increasing demand for efficient tests for diagnosing the prevalence of infectious diseases and the growing need for technologically advanced instruments for disease detection, etc.



Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) is a laboratory test that is utilized for the detection of antibodies in the blood. The ELISA is based on the principle of antibody and antigen interaction and, thereby, is utilized in disease diagnosis. Analyzers are automated instruments that perform distinct steps of the assays and provide accurate and reproducible outcomes.



Moreover, the growing incidences of HIV, hepatitis, cancer, etc., and the rising involvement of ELISA analyzers in research and development involved in immunology and drug development are propelling the market demand for ELISA analyzers and thus supporting the market growth and are expected to propel it in the forecast period.



Rising Prevalence of Infectious Diseases



The growing prevalence of a disease among the population is propelling the market demand for ELISA analyzers. Rising infectious disease prevalence is growing worldwide, causing a huge health concern among people around the world.

For instance, according to WHO, in 2019, 296 million people were affected with Hepatitis B infection, with approximately 1.5 million new infections developing each year. Similarly, according to the WHO report, the global burden of dengue disease increased and observed around 3.1 million cases, with more than 25,000 cases considered severe.

With this rapid increase in the account for infectious diseases such as cancer, hepatitis, HIV, etc., there is a surge observed in the direct demand for diagnosis and, thus, is adding to the market growth by propelling the market in the forecast period.



Growing Demand for Technologically Advanced Tools in the Immunological Field



The accuracy and quick analysis of the biochemical and immunological parameters maintenance is a significant requirement for the analysis of immunological test results. Analyzers are designed in such a way as to ensure the ideal performance of the assays, such as maintaining sensitivity, lesser background noise, and quick reproducibility.

Also, the ELISA analyzers, such as open system automated analyzers, are fitted with pre-programmed test menus and simple guides that aid in saving installation along with providing the user convenience. For instance, In May 2022, Molecular Devices, LLC., a leading provider of high-performance life science solutions, launched its automated work cells for ELISA workflows.

The company introduced its five readymade new work cells for Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) workflows, which provide automation qualities such as increased walkaway time and throughput, reducing the labor-intensive, repetitive work in large samples, and thereby is expected to surge the market growth in the coming years.



Rising Demand for Measuring Enzyme Activity



The measurement of enzyme activity, along with the detection of soluble proteins, cytokines, and other protein bodies, is fueling the ELISA analyzers' market demand. Additionally, the growing case of allergies has led to demand for diagnostic techniques such as ELISA. ELISA is a widely used diagnostic technique in the detection of food allergies.

Furthermore, the indirect IgE-ELISA method is frequently used to detect allergen-specific IgE in serum samples due to its simplicity and low cost compared with other automated systems. For instance, In July 2018, Dynex Technologies announced its global Partnership with ZEUS Scientific.

The surge in market demand for ELISA analyzers is experienced with the increased sales and rising demand for ELISA test kits during the COVID-19 duration and is anticipated to bolster the ELISA analyzer market in the forecast period.



Recent Developments



ELISA is utilized to quantify antibody titers which are further utilized for the assessment of immunogenicity during vaccine development. Hence, several companies leading to their vaccine development have an increased demand for ELISA analyzers. For instance, a leading pharmaceutical company, Sanofi Incorporation, has 10 vaccine candidates in its pipeline, according to the latest updates at the Q2 2022 results meeting, which was held in July 2022.

Competitive Landscape



Company Profiles: Detailed analysis of the major companies present in ELISA Analyzers Market.

Thermo Fisher Scientific

Abcam

Bio-Rad Laboratories

Merck KGaA

F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.

Danaher Corporation

BioTech

Agilent Technologies

QIAGEN

PerkinElmer Inc.

Report Scope



ELISA Analyzers Market, By Type:

Optical Filter ELISA Analyzer

Optical Grating ELISA Analyzers

ELISA Analyzers Market, By Mode:

Automated ELISA Analyzers

Semi-Automated Analyzers

ELISA Analyzers Market, By Application:

Immunology

Vaccine development

Drug Monitoring

Others

ELISA Analyzers Market, By End User:

Biotechnology Companies

Pharmaceutical Companies

Contract Research Organization

Diagnostic Laboratories

ELISA Analyzers Market, By Region:

North America

Europe

Asia-Pacific

Middle East & Africa

& South America

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/hu40t

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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SOURCE Research and Markets
The footprint of serplulimab now includes the United States , Europe , Southeast Asia , MENA, and India

, , , MENA, and India Intas to develop and commercialise serplulimab in Europe and India ; Henlius to receive 42 million upfront payment, double-digit royalties and up to 143 million in regulatory and commercial milestone payments

SHANGHAI, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Shanghai Henlius Biotech, Inc. (2696.HK) has entered into an exclusive license agreement with Intas Pharmaceuticals Limited ("Intas") for the development and commercialisation in Europe and India for several indications including ES-SCLC, and specific formulation of HANSIZHUANG (serplulimab injection), Henlius' novel anti-PD-1 mAb. In June 2018, Henlius and Accord Healthcare Ltd., a subsidiary of Intas, entered into a license agreement, under which Henlius granted Accord exclusive commercialisation rights of HLX02 (trastuzumab for injection, trade name in China: HANQUYOU; trade name in Europe: Zercepac; trade names in Australia: Tuzucip/Trastucip) in certain countries and regions in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and the Commonwealth of Independent States. In 2021, Henlius granted Intas the exclusive rights to develop and commercialize HLX02 in the United States (U.S.) and Canada.

This collaboration marks a deepening of the strategic partnership between the two companies and opens up new development opportunities for serplulimab's global layout. Under the terms of the agreement, Henlius will be responsible for clinical development, manufacturing and supply upon launch and will receive a 42 million upfront payment, up to 43 million in regulatory milestones, up to 100 million in commercial sales milestones, and double-digit royalties on net profit from Intas in the licensed territory.

"With superior efficacy and data quality, HANSIZHUANG (serplulimab) has become the world's first anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibody approved for the first-line treatment of small cell lung cancer, and has been approved for 4 indications in China, benefiting over 40,000 Chinese patients. Its marketing application has been validated by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in March 2023," said Jason Zhu, Executive Director, Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Financial Officer of Henlius. "By continuously partnering with Intas, we hope to accelerate serplulimab's wider accessibility globally and contribute to the improvement of patient outcomes."

Ping Cao, Senior Vice President and Chief Business Development Officer of Henlius, said, "Henlius and Intas first entered into a collaboration in 2018. Over the past 5 years, we have worked closely together and expanded the internationalisation of HANQUYOU (Zercepac in Europe), which has been successfully approved in 40+ overseas countries, benefiting patients in Europe and MENA. Building on the successful collaboration, we look forward to working with Intas to accelerate the launch of serplulimab in Europe and India, and to continue our mission to offering high-quality and affordable biologics to patients around the world."

Binish Chudgar, Vice-Chairman & Managing Director, Intas Pharmaceuticals Ltd., said, "We are excited to reinforce our long-standing partnership with Henlius. This collaboration will further bolster Intas' global oncology portfolio, underlining our commitment to delivering innovative healthcare solutions worldwide. The forthcoming launch of serplulimab in Europe and India will mark a crucial landmark in our mission to enable access to advanced biologics, ensuring patients across the world receive the high-quality treatments they deserve."

Paul Tredwell, Executive Vice President of EMENA., Accord, said, "I am delighted to strengthen our partnership with Henlius. The launch of serplulimab will further solidify Accord as a leader in providing specialty medicines. This marks our second novel launch in just two years, adding to our existing platform of supplying up to 25% of chemotherapy medicines in our region, exemplifying our commitment to innovation and growth and our mission to improve access to value-based medicines for patients."

The company's first innovative product, HANSIZHUANG (serplulimab), was approved in China in March 2022. At present, HANSIZHUANG has been approved for 4 indications in China including MSI-H solid tumour, squamous non-small cell lung cancer (sqNSCLC), extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC), and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). With its breakthrough efficacy and differentiation advantages in the relevant treatment fields, HANSIZHUANG has earned wide recognitions and its pivotal clinical research results have been published in leading medical journals such as the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and Nature Medicine. Its synergy with in-house products of the company and innovative therapies are being actively promoted and over 10 clinical trials on immuno-oncology combination therapies are in progress in a wide variety of indications, such as lung cancer, esophageal carcinoma, gastric cancer, etc., enrolling more than 3,600 subjects globally. And the proportion of Caucasians is over 30% in two multi-regional clinical trials (MRCTs). Its global clinical trial data will further support marketing applications in global markets and lay a foundation for clinical applications all over the world in the future.

In 2022, serplulimab was successively granted orphan drug designations by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Commission (EC) for the treatment of SCLC, which will enable it to benefit from certain policy support for research and development, registration, and commercialisation in the U.S. and Europe. The EMA has validated the application for serplulimab and it is expected to be approved in the first half of 2024. The company is also steadily advancing the bridging head-to-head trial in the U.S. to compare serplulimab to standard-of-care atezolizumab (anti-PD-L1 mAb) for the first-line treatment of ES-SCLC to propel the product towards U.S. market approval.

In the meantime, Henlius pro-actively advances the commercialisation of HANSIZHUANG in overseas markets at high speed. Henlius granted KGbio exclusive rights to develop and commercialize HANSIZHUANG in 10 ASEAN member countries and 12 MENA countries. Furthermore, Henlius and Fosun Pharma have entered into an exclusive license agreement for HANSIZHUANG in the U.S. HANSIZHUANG's coverage footprint now includes the U.S., Europe, Southeast Asia, MENA, and India.

In the future, Henlius will join hands with its international partners to make full use of their respective resources and advantages to actively promote the development and commercialisation of HANSIZHUANG globally, to enable it to cover a wider range of countries and regions and to provide more therapeutic choices for more patients.

About HANSIZHUANG (serplulimab)

HANSIZHUANG (recombinant humanized anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibody injection, generic name: serplulimab injection) is the first anti-PD-1 mAb for the first-line treatment of SCLC. Up to date, 4 indications are approved for marketing in China, 1 marketing application is under review in the EU, and more than 10 clinical trials are ongoing across the world.

HANSIZHUANG was launched in March 2022 and has been approved by the NMPA for the treatment of MSI-H solid tumours, squamous non-small cell lung cancer (sqNSCLC), extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC), and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Its marketing applications of the first-line treatment for ES-SCLC are under review by the EMA. Focusing on lung and gastrointestinal cancer, the synergy of HANSIZHUANG with in-house products of the company and innovative therapies are being actively promoted. It has successively obtained clinical trial approvals in China, the U.S., the EU and other countries and regions to initiate more than 10 clinical trials on immuno-oncology combination therapies in a wide variety of indications. As of now, the company has enrolled more than 3,600 subjects in China, the U.S., Turkey, Poland, Georgia and other countries and regions, and the proportion of White is over 30% in two MRCTs, making HANSIZHUANG an anti-PD-1 mAb with one of the largest global clinical data pools. The results of 3 pivotal trials of HANSIZHUANG were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Nature Medicine and the British Journal of Cancer, respectively. Furthermore, HASIZHUANG was recommended by the CSCO Guidelines for Small Cell Lung Cancer, the CSCO Guidelines for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, the CSCO Guidelines for Esophageal Cancer, the CSCO Guidelines for Colorectal Cancer, the CSCO Clinical Practice Guidelines on Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor, the China Guidelines for Radiotherapy of Esophageal Cancer, and other definitive guides, providing valuable references for clinical diagnosis and treatment of tumours. On the other hand, serplulimab was granted orphan drug designations by the U.S. FDA and the EC for the treatment of SCLC, and its bridging head-to-head trial in the United States to compare HANSIZHUANG to standard of care atezolizumab (anti-PD-L1 mAb) for the first-line treatment of ES-SCLC is well under way.

About Intas



Intas is one of the leading multinational pharmaceutical formulation development, manufacturing, and marketing companies in the world. The company has set up a network of subsidiaries under the name Accord for marketing and selling in the highly regulated markets of EU, US, Canada, South Africa, Australia, Asia Pacific, CIS and MENA regions. Intas is present in 85+ countries worldwide with more than 69% of its revenue coming from global business, particularly the highly regulated markets of the EU and the US.

Currently ranked 6th (As per IQVIA TSA AUGUST 2023 MAT) in the Indian pharmaceutical market, it is also the largest privately owned Indian generic pharmaceutical company. While Intas has established leadership in key therapeutic segments like CNS, Cardiovascular, Diabetology, Plasma Therapy, Cell and Gene Therapy, Gastroenterology, Urology and Oncology in India, the company is known for its range of products in Oncology and other hospital-based therapeutic segments in the EU and US.

Intas' success and growth are a direct influence of Intas' extensive R&D and manufacturing capabilities. Intas operates sixteen formulation manufacturing facilities, of which eleven are in India, and the rest in the U.K., Greece, and Mexico. Between them, the facilities are accredited by top global regulators such as the US FDA, EMA, MHRA, TGA, and others. Every year, the company invests 6-7% of its revenues in R&D. Currently, Intas has over 10,000 product registrations worldwide and a strategic pipeline of 300+ high-value FTF/FTM, Biosimilars and NDDS products.

About Henlius

Henlius (2696.HK) is a global biopharmaceutical company with the vision to offer high-quality, affordable, and innovative biologic medicines for patients worldwide with a focus on oncology, autoimmune diseases, and ophthalmic diseases. Up to date, 5 products have been launched in China, 1 has been approved for marketing in overseas markets, 19 indications are approved worldwide, and 2 marketing applications have been accepted for review in the U.S., and the EU, respectively. Since its inception in 2010, Henlius has built an integrated biopharmaceutical platform with core capabilities of high-efficiency and innovation embedded throughout the whole product life cycle including R&D, manufacturing and commercialization. It has established global innovation centers and Shanghai-based manufacturing facilities in line with global Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP), including Xuhui Plant certificated by China and the EU GMP and Songjiang First Plant certificated by China GMP.

Henlius has pro-actively built a diversified and high-quality product pipeline covering over 20 innovative monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and has continued to explore immuno-oncology combination therapies with proprietary HANSIZHUANG (anti-PD-1 mAb) as backbone. Apart from the launched products HANLIKANG (rituximab), the first China-developed biosimilar, HANQUYOU (trastuzumab for injection, trade name in Europe: Zercepac; trade names in Australia: Tuzucip and Trastucip), the first China-developed mAb biosimilar approved both in China and Europe, HANDAYUAN (adalimumab) and HANBEITAI (bevacizumab), the innovative product HANSIZHUANG has been approved by the NMPA for the treatment of MSI-H solid tumours, squamous non-small cell lung cancer (sqNSCLC) and extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC), and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), making it the world's first anti-PD-1 mAb for the first-line treatment of SCLC. What's more, Henlius has conducted over 30 clinical studies for 16 products, expanding its presence in major markets as well as emerging markets.

SOURCE Henlius
MUNICH, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Europe stop of Huawei Network Summit (HNS) 2023 was held successfully in Munich, Germany. At this event, Huawei's campus network session themed "Boost Your Industry Intelligence with High-Quality 10 Gbps CloudCampus" took center stage. Attendees from diverse industries delved into trending topics  such as increased investments in enterprise digitalization and accelerated digital journeys in Europe  and gained fresh insight into Huawei's philosophy and cutting-edge technologies of high-quality 10 Gbps campus networks. All of this would drive office experience upgrades in diverse industries such as public services, education, healthcare, retail, and manufacturing in Europe.

Kevin Yang, Vice President of the Campus Network Domain, Huawei's Data Communication Product Line, delivering a speech

Digital-first and smart upgrades have become an important trend around the world. As such, countries and enterprises are successively embarking on intelligent transformation journeys. Against this backdrop, Kevin Yang, Vice President of the Campus Network Domain, Huawei's Data Communication Product Line, delivered an insightful speech titled "High-Quality 10 Gbps CloudCampus: A Perfect Mix of Speed, Simplicity, and Ultimate Experience".

Due to the accelerating digital transformation, smart terminals proliferate, network scales grow, audio and video traffic surge, and network operations and maintenance (O&M) become more complex than ever. This presents tremendous challenges for enterprise campus networks in terms of ultra-broadband, simplicity, user experience, and O&M. To address these challenges, Huawei proposed the High-Quality 10 Gbps CloudCampus Solution with four unique features: ultra-high-speed access, ultimate experience, simplified architecture, and simplified O&M. This future-proof solution brings all-around upgrades to user experience by dramatically improving the quality of wireless office, video conferencing, and network O&M on enterprise campuses.

Upgraded Wireless Office Experience

Huawei AirEngine Wi-Fi 7 products deliver a record-high speed of 18.67 Gbps. As demonstrated at this year's HNS, Huawei AirEngine Wi-Fi 7 stands out with ultra-high single-terminal rate and AP throughput. On top of that, Huawei AirEngine Wi-Fi 7 APs draw on many innovative technologies  such as dynamic-zoom smart antenna, Coordinated Spatial Reuse (CoSR) multi-AP coordination, and AI roaming  to offer up to 10 Gbps wireless bandwidth and enable intelligent multimedia scheduling. In this way, a single AirEngine Wi-Fi 7 AP supports up to 120 high-density concurrent users at workplaces, which are free from rate limiting or bandwidth contention from download services. All of these traits make Huawei AirEngine Wi-Fi 7 an ideal choice for high-density office scenarios.

Upgraded Audio and Video Experience

Nowadays, video conferencing has become a new norm, greatly improving employees' communication and work efficiency. In keeping up with this trend, Huawei has launched the industry's first audio and video conference experience assurance solution. This feature-rich solution intelligently identifies popular video conferencing applications in the market, and preferentially schedules audio and video traffic. In this way, audio and video conferencing traffic is always in the fast lane, and video conferences remain smooth even when the network is congested. With this solution, a campus with 10,000 users can benefit from always-smooth video conference experience.

Upgraded O&M Experience

Huawei launched an innovative digital map feature for campus networks based on its iMaster NCE platform. This digital map enables one-map visibility at four levels (user, thing, application, and network levels), one-second fault demarcation, one-click experience optimization, and three-step operations for 90% O&M tasks. All of this ultimately improves campus network O&M efficiency 10-fold and creates an unprecedented O&M experience.

With these office experience upgrades, Huawei's High-Quality 10 Gbps CloudCampus Solution will help European enterprises accelerate their intelligent transformation journeys through non-stop innovations.

Looking ahead, Huawei will continue to dive into industries and inspire innovations in high-quality 10 Gbps campus networks, propelling them towards the intelligent future. Doing so will inject new impetus into the intelligent upgrades of industries, provide strong support for enterprises' intelligent transformation journeys, and propel industry innovation and progress.

For more information about Huawei's High-Quality 10 Gbps CloudCampus Solution, visit https://e.huawei.com/en/topic/enterprise-network/high-quality-cloudcampus.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2259245/image_5009699_8691788.jpg
MUNICH, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Europe stop of Huawei Network Summit (HNS) 2023 was held successfully in Munich, Germany, attracting more than 500 partners and customers from over 30 countries, including Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, and Portugal. Attendees from diverse industries delved into Huawei's data communication technology innovations, and explored how to leverage technology innovations to accelerate enterprise digital and intelligent transformation and create new value together in Europe

Leon Wang, President of Huawei's Data Communication Product Line Vincent Liu presented awards to outstanding diamond members

At HNS, Leon Wang, President of Huawei's Data Communication Product Line, delivered a keynote speech titled "Innovations Never Stop", shedding light on how Huawei's Intelligent Cloud-Network Solution takes network quality to new levels. Specifically, Huawei further enhances its CloudCampus, CloudFabric, and CloudWAN solutions from the perspectives of experience, intelligence, and convergence, respectively. On top of that, Huawei unveiled many groundbreaking products, including all-scenario Wi-Fi 7 APs, CloudEngine S8700 (a high-quality campus switch), CloudEngine 16800 series 800GE intelligent computing switches, NetEngine 8000 F8 (a converged transport router), and iMaster NCE-based network digital map. All of these offerings empower networks with innovations and unleash digital productivity at an accelerated pace.

As digital transformation ramps up, customers in various industries have raised new requirements and challenges for data communication networks. In response, Huawei constantly innovates and upgrades its Intelligent Cloud-Network Solution from experience, intelligence, and convergence perspectives, and works closely with global partners to help customers build industry-leading network infrastructures.

At HNS, Vincent Liu, President of Huawei's Global Enterprise Network Marketing & Solution Sales Dept, introduced the latest progress and achievements of IP Club over the past year, and then presented awards to outstanding diamond members.

IP Club is an IP industry peer communication platform initiated by Huawei. According to Vincent Liu, Huawei will strengthen IP Club operations and provide IP Club members with diversified member-only activities, such as in-person technical workshops, face-to-face meetings with industry experts, IP Club Carnival, and peer interaction in the online community. To date, Huawei has brought together over 3000 IP Club members worldwide.

As a leading provider of data communication products and solutions, Huawei will continue to join forces with partners to continuously explore industry digital transformation innovations. In doing so, Huawei will provide best-in-class solutions for customers across diverse industries.

Contact

[email protected]

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2259465/image_986294_36535767.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2259466/image_986294_36535966.jpg
CERRITOS, Calif., Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Korea Ginseng Corp. US (KGCUS) is fresh off its first ever appearance at North America's largest food and health food raw material exhibition. Held in Las Vegas, SupplySide West is the marquee event in the health food raw material space, featuring 18,000+ visitors and 1,400+ companies from around the world.

Korea Ginseng Corp. Makes Waves in the Global Ginseng Raw Ingredient Market, Introducing JungKwanJang G1899 at SupplySide West 2023

To demonstrate the unique excellence of its Korean red ginseng in the world's largest health supplement market  the United States  KGC's booth showcased both the breadth and the variety of its standardized Korean red ginseng raw ingredient brand, G1899. Korea Ginseng Corp., the home to the world's number one ginseng brand JungKwanJang, is famous for its 124-year-old history, its dedication to scientific research, its exacting quality control processes, and its standardized specifications. It exports over 250 products to more than 40 countries worldwide, and its G1899 line  available in extract, extract powder, and powder form  is a key raw ingredient in a broad range of health functional foods.

The highlight of Jung Kwan Jang's exhibition was a Korean red ginseng seminar hosted by Dr. Lee Soo-kyung from KGC's R&D center. She walked her audience through the rigorous raw ginseng material management, process, and quality control standards JungKwanJang relies upon to produce the world's finest Korean red ginseng and gave them a quick tour of the unrivaled global research and development capabilities of the ginseng industry leader.

Professor Oh Sei-kwan from College of Medicine at Ewha Womans University then expanded upon the doctor's high-level overview, zeroing in on the specific science behind ginseng's benefits  including its role in improving immunity, fatigue recovery, blood circulation, memory enhancement, and providing antioxidant effects  as demonstrated in numerous research papers and clinical trials and as recognized by the Korean Food and Drug Administration.

KGC established its U.S. R&D center in March, focusing on efficacy research and raw ingredient standardization. They have been instrumental in developing locally customized products that align with the preferences of the U.S. health functional food market.

"Through our participation in this exhibition, we have confirmed the growth potential of red ginseng as an essential ingredient in the global health functional food market," a KGC representative noted. "We will continue to promote the excellence of red ginseng as a distinctive ginseng raw ingredient and consistently create opportunities to showcase JungKwanKang's products worldwide."

About Korea Ginseng Corp.

Korea Ginseng Corp. (KGC), a global herbal dietary company, is home to the world's number one ginseng brand, JungKwanJang. Established in 1899, it is one of the most proven and trusted herbal dietary supplement manufacturers, providing the highest quality, traditionally harvested Korean Red Ginseng products to support health and well-being. KGC runs four regional headquarters in the United States, China, Japan, and Taiwan, in addition to South Korea, and exports products to over 40 countries. With over 40% world market share, its presence spans Asia, Europe, the Middle East region and the U.S. KGC's family of brands include JungKwanJang, Good Base, and Donginbi. The 250+ KGC brands use the most exceptional ginseng combined with the finest herbs and ingredients to deliver superior products to meet everyone's needs.

SOURCE KGC (Korea Ginseng Corp.)
Urotronic joins Laborie as part of a long-term growth strategy for the Portsmouth-based medical device company.

Urotronic's Optilume BPH Catheter System, a unique minimally invasive surgical therapy (MIST), is a paradigm shift for patients and clinicians in global interventional urology.

PORTSMOUTH, N.H., Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading diagnostic and therapeutic medical technology company, Laborie Medical Technologies Corp. (Laborie), announced that it has completed the acquisition of Urotronic, Inc. (Urotronic), a private medical device company that developed Optilume drug-coated balloon technology used in interventional urology to treat urethral strictures and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) or enlarged prostate conditions.

Urotronic and its employees will be fully integrated into the Laborie business as part of the transaction. "We are delighted to welcome the Urotronic team to Laborie, and we look forward to working together in our mission to deliver innovative technologies in the Interventional Urology space that preserve and restore human dignity," said Michael Frazzette, President & CEO of Laborie Medical Technologies.

"Joining the Laborie team is an exciting new chapter for Urotronic," says Urotronic President & CEO David Perry. "Over the last several years, we have seen our partnership develop because we are united on a goal to improve the standard of care for patients and commercialize Optilume products on a global stage."

"Patricia Industries is excited to continue supporting Laborie's long-term growth with this acquisition, which aligns with our purpose of creating value for people and society by building strong and sustainable businesses," said Yuriy Prilutskiy, Head of North America at Patricia Industries, a part of Investor AB, and owner of Laborie Medical Technologies.

Optilume is a novel minimally invasive surgical therapy (MIST) that combines mechanical dilation with the delivery of paclitaxel to treat lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) secondary to urological stricture or BPH. Optilume products have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and received the CE mark.

For more information, visit Optilume.com/BPH

Advisors

Piper Sandler acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Urotronic. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP and Cooley LLP acted as legal advisors to Laborie.

About Laborie Medical Technologies

Headquartered in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Laborie is a global medical technology company focused on Urology, Urogynecology, Gastroenterology, Obstetrics, Gynecology & Neonatal Health. We manufacture and deliver high-quality, high-impact diagnostic and therapeutic products that help clinicians and hospitals preserve and restore patient dignity. Clinicians and hospitals look to us as the market-leading experts in our business segments, and we support our products with a world-class clinical education & information program. Laborie is a portfolio company of Patricia Industries. For more information visit www.laborie.com.

About Urotronic Inc.

Urotronic, Inc., headquartered in Plymouth, Minnesota, is a medical device company currently conducting clinical trials to support global commercialization of their products. The Optilume drug-coated balloon technology provides a minimally invasive treatment option for men suffering from urinary tract conditions like urethral strictures and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). The drug-coated balloon technology creates a paradigm change from the methods currently used by urologists to treat these conditions. For more information on Urotronic and our products, please visit www.urotronic.com.

About Patricia Industries

Patricia Industries is a long-term owner that invests in companies and works to develop each company to its full potential. Patricia Industries is a part of the industrial holding company Investor AB, whose main owner is the Wallenberg Foundations.

About Investor AB

Investor, founded by the Wallenberg family in 1916, is an engaged owner of high-quality, global companies, with a long-term investment perspective. Through board participation, industrial experience, global network and financial strength, Investor works continuously to support its companies to remain or become best-in-class.

SOURCE Laborie Medical Technologies
The exclusive shop presents a new visual experience for LAGOS, beautiful in its simplicity, allowing the jewelry to shine. The space features clean lines and combines exotic woods, pristine stone, and brushed brass accents, to offer a welcoming color palette for Bloomingdale's fine jewelry customers. To further the visual impact, LAGOS commissioned beautiful hand-blown glass sculptures from artisan Nate Cotterman, featuring a nod to the shapes and colors evocative of precious gemstones.

"This is truly a milestone for our brand as we continue to grow and expand into new categories," said Founder and CEO Steven Lagos. "We've enjoyed a long, productive partnership with Bloomingdale's, and we're excited that we now have a flagship to call our own in such an important luxury market."

In celebration, LAGOS offers 59th Street shoppers a first look at LAGOS Couture, an elevated capsule collection offering one-of-a-kind and limited-edition styles, featuring the highest quality materials, precious gemstones, and expert craftsmanship. The collection is available through October 29 in-store and on LAGOS.com while supplies last.

"LAGOS consistently delivers innovative and unique collections that our customers cherish," said Jennifer Jones, Bloomingdale's Senior Vice President and General Merchandise Manager. "It's a pleasure, with this expanded footprint, to offer our 59th Street shoppers more access to this iconic brand and its exclusive offerings."

The new shop will feature the largest selection of LAGOS, both in New York and within the entire Bloomingdale's network.

Steven Lagos launched his eponymous brand in 1977 and continues to evolve his Caviar collections as the brand celebrates more than 45 years in business. A self-taught master jeweler and pioneer in the designer fine jewelry space, he is known for his signature Caviar designs which take hundreds of steps and a keen eye to complete. The luminous Caviar beading adds texture and transforms sterling silver, 18K gold and ceramic into boldly feminine, sculptural jewelry. From classic bracelets and statement necklaces to stacking rings and elegant earrings, each piece is crafted with the highest quality and precision. These innovative styles are comfortable, wearable and move seamlessly with the body.

About LAGOS

Since 1977, LAGOS has been a pioneer in designer fine jewelry, combining precious materials and expert craftsmanship to offer modern, iconic styles. LAGOS was founded by master jeweler Steven Lagos, who developed the brand's signature Caviar design in 1984. Each Caviar collection offers bold, feminine styles that encourage personal expression. LAGOS' national campaign, MY LAGOS MY WAY, was created to reinforce these core values and inspire the LAGOS woman. LAGOS is available at LAGOS.com, its flagship boutique in Philadelphia, Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale's, Nordstrom, and independent jewelers around the country. For more information, inspiration and latest styles follow @lagos_jewelry on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Visit www.LAGOS.com to learn more about the history of the brand and to shop the entire collection.

About BLOOMINGDALE'S

Bloomingdale's is America's only nationwide, full-line, upscale department store. A division of Macy's, Inc. (NYSE: M), it currently operates 34 Bloomingdale's stores and 20 Bloomingdale's The Outlet stores, in California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Virginia, along with 1 Bloomie's location in Virginia. In addition, Bloomingdale's has an international presence with a location in Dubai. Founded in 1872, the iconic retailer is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. Be sure to follow @bloomingdales on social media, become a Loyallist, and for more information, or to shop any time, visit www.bloomingdales.com.

CONTACT:

Jamie Harris

LAGOS

973-536-6709

[email protected]

SOURCE LAGOS

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RESTON, Va., Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Leidos Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LDOS) today announced that its Board of Directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.38 per outstanding share of common stock of Leidos Holdings, Inc., a $0.02 increase compared to the prior quarterly dividend of $0.36 per share. The cash dividend is payable on December 29, 2023, to stockholders of record as of the close of business on December 15, 2023.

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 contact:

Melissa Lee Duenas

(571) 526-6850

[email protected]

Investor Relations:

Stuart Davis

(571) 526-6124

[email protected]

SOURCE Leidos
EAST GRANBY, Conn., Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- LithTech, LLC, a Stark Tech Business, of Tonawanda, NY, and leader in energy storage products and services, proudly announces its newest partnership with Kinsley Energy Systems (KES). Under the terms of this collaboration, KES, based out of East Granby, CT, is now an authorized distributor and service provider for Stark Tech's LithTech Energy Storage products in the United States.

LithTech Battery Storage System

Kinsley, known for its expertise in power solutions, will offer equipment, parts, and essential services to support the LithTech utility-grade battery storage line. This partnership underscores both companies' commitment to cutting-edge energy solutions that are pivotal in stabilizing the grid infrastructure. The robust and compact nature of LithTech products seamlessly complements the energy project expertise of KES. This partnership will extend to sales territories throughout the U.S., with both entities working to deliver holistic energy solution packages to clients nationwide.

About LithTech, LLC

LithTech, LLC a Stark Tech business, is a global leader in energy application system integration, specializing in household and medium-sized industrial energy storage systems. Our comprehensive services highlight our pledge to be the premier strategic partner for energy storage solutions from custom pre-sale designs to dedicated after-sales support, including remote training and diagnostics.

About Kinsley Energy Systems

Kinsley Energy Systems is a value-added equipment and service provider for the highest-quality distributed energy systems. The company is guided by customers' needs first and foremost and collaborates openly to develop solutions that generate the best possible return on investment. Kinsley works in partnership with dependable developers, engineers, and contractors. Committed to customer satisfaction, Kinsley provides ongoing parts and services for power generation equipment. For more information, visit our website at www.kinsley-group.com or connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin.

CONTACT:

Patti Stewkesbury, Marketing Director

14 Connecticut South Drive

East Granby, CT 06026

860.844.2221

[email protected]

SOURCE Kinsley Group; LithTech, LLC
VANCOUVER, BC, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ - Lumina Gold Corp. (TSXV: LUM) (OTCQB: LMGDF) (the "Company" or "Lumina") is pleased to announce that Ross Beaty has converted C$15.3 million of outstanding debt to common shares at a price of C$0.42 per share pursuant to an amended and restated credit agreement dated December 13, 2022 (see December 15, 2022 news release for more details). As a result of this conversion, Ross Beaty has been issued 36,484,604 common shares of Lumina, bringing his ownership in the Company to 27.7%.

About Lumina Gold

Lumina Gold Corp. (TSXV: LUM) is a Vancouver, Canada based precious and base metals exploration and development company focused on the Cangrejos Gold-Copper Project located in El Oro Province, southwest Ecuador. In 2023, the Company completed a Pre-Feasibility Study for Cangrejos, which is the largest primary gold deposit in Ecuador. Lumina has an experienced management team with a successful track record of advancing and monetizing exploration projects.

Follow us on: Twitter, Linkedin or Facebook.

Further details are available on the Company's website at https://luminagold.com/. To receive future news releases please sign up at https://luminagold.com/contact.

LUMINA GOLD CORP.

Signed: "Marshall Koval"

Marshall Koval, President & CEO, Director

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.

SOURCE Lumina Gold Corp.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 27. Azerbaijan's achievements in the realm of oil and gas cooperation, particularly with the European countries, could serve as a model for any nation involved in energy exports. What sets Azerbaijan apart from other countries is its proactive engagement in initiatives dedicated to advancing clean energy in the region. While the country has established itself as a dependable provider of conventional energy resources, Azerbaijan is not resting on its laurels. The nation's ambitious objectives for exporting green energy are picking up steam and are already translating into tangible projects.

The initiation of electricity exports derived from renewable energy sources signifies the dawn of a new chapter in Azerbaijan's energy strategy. President Ilham Aliyev has accorded top priority to the expansion of renewable energy sources, aiming to elevate the proportion of renewable energy in the total electricity production capacity to 30 percent by 2030.

Azerbaijan boasts a renewable energy potential that surpasses 27 GW, encompassing wind and solar energy on land, with an additional 157 GW of wind energy in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea.

During a meeting with the people of the liberated Aghdam on May 18, 2021, President Ilham Aliyev announced that the entire Karabakh region would be transformed into a "green energy zone".

Azerbaijan has set ambitious targets for its energy future. By 2027, the country aims to generate 3 GW of wind energy and 1 GW of solar energy, with the intention of exporting 80 percent of this production. Looking ahead to 2037, Azerbaijan anticipates expanding its capacity to a minimum of 6 GW.

Azerbaijan recently achieved a significant milestone in the pursuit of its ambitious energy strategy with the inauguration of the 230 MW Garadagh Solar Power Plant. The agreement for the construction of this largest solar power plant in the South Caucasus was signed in 2020. Finally, on October 26, President Ilham Aliyev officially initiated its operation.

During the opening ceremony of the plant, President Ilham Aliyev said that this is a historical moment in the countrys history, noting that it is the first among many to come.

Additional agreements have been inked with Masdar, outlining the execution of green energy ventures with a combined capacity of 1000 MW. These projects encompass the construction of a 445 MW solar power plant in Bilasuvar, a 315 MW solar power plant in Neftchala, and a 240 MW wind power plant in Absheron-Garadagh.

"We plan to work together to produce in phases up to 10 gigawatts of renewables and that will be a total revolution in the energy development of the region, because Azerbaijan is a country where the first oil in the world was produced in the middle of 19th century. The first oil from offshore fields was produced in the middle of the last century. And now, having in mind that still we are rich in fossil fuel resources, we are moving towards green agenda. This is a deliberate choice. This is our contribution not only to the future development of Azerbaijan, but to the issues related to the climate change," President Ilham Aliyev said.

Azerbaijan, known for its reliability as an oil and gas supplier to Europe, is committed to bolstering the energy security of its European partners. A recent significant initiative in this direction involved the signing of the strategic partnership agreement for green energy development and transmission among the governments of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania, and Hungary. This single agreement alone underscores the high demand for Azerbaijani energy resources in Western Europe.

As part of this project, there are plans to lay a 1,195-kilometer power transmission line with a 1,000 MW capacity connecting Georgia and Romania, along with the installation of a digital connecting cable.

"Among our plans is to work actively with our partners to create energy corridor, Caspian-EU energy corridor. Last December, a corresponding agreement was signed. We have already started our activity, the steering committee already gathered couple of times. In several months, we will have a full feasibility study of the new energy security project  Green Energy Corridor, integrated transmission production and consumption facilities, including the electric cable under the Black Sea. At this moment, the feasibility study is being prepared for 4 gigawatts of renewables," President Ilham Aliyev said in this regard.

Consequently, Azerbaijan is actively advancing specific initiatives aimed at augmenting its electricity production through renewable energy sources and facilitating the provision of clean energy from Azerbaijan to Europe in the years to come. As an illustration, on January 9, 2020, agreements were signed to launch pilot projects in renewable energy with the participation of Saudi Arabias ACWA Power and the UAEs Masdar. These agreements entail the execution of pilot projects, including the construction of a 240 MW wind power facility in collaboration with ACWA Power and a 200 MW solar power plant with Masdar.

Moreover, on December 30, 2020, a series of fresh investment agreements on power purchase, grid connectivity was formalized in conjunction with ACWA Power. On January 13, 2022, a groundbreaking ceremony marked the commencement of the Khizi-Absheron wind power station project in collaboration with ACWA Power.

On December 15, 2022, Azerbaijans Ministry of Energy and the Australian Fortescue Future Industries (FFI) inked an agreement for joint cooperation in the exploration and development of renewable energy and green hydrogen ventures in Azerbaijan. This agreement encompasses research and the execution of renewable energy and green hydrogen projects, with a combined capacity of up to 12 GW in Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan has entered into memorandums of understanding and corresponding contracts with three prominent energy companies. According to their statements, they plan to generate 25 GW of renewable solar and wind energy both onshore and offshore. Of this capacity, Masdar will be responsible for producing 10 GW, Fortescue - for 12 GW, and ACWA Power has committed to delivering 2.5 GW of energy. This signifies a truly substantial potential.

The world's leading corporations are prepared to make substantial investments in prospective ventures in Azerbaijan, spanning beyond the energy sector and encompassing various other domains. With renewable energy poised to be a cornerstone of electricity generation, international investments in the country are poised for significant expansion. Azerbaijan possesses the essential prerequisites for this growth, including abundant potential, a governmental commitment to advancing alternative energy, and a modern legal framework. These factors collectively form the linchpin of success for the Azerbaijani economy.
- Lunit to support MD Anderson researchers studying immune phenotype biomarkers for pembrolizumab treatment response

SEOUL, South Korea, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Lunit (KRX:328130.KQ), a leading provider of AI-powered solutions for cancer diagnostics and therapeutics, today announced a research collaboration with The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center to analyze the use of Merck's (known as MSD outside the US and Canada) Keytruda (pembrolizumab), a type of immunotherapy drug used in cancer treatment, in multiple cancer types. The project will use Lunit's proprietary AI solution for tissue data analysis, Lunit SCOPE IO.

Lunit AI-powered TIL analyzer, Lunit SCOPE IO

Lunit will collaborate with Aung Naing, M.D., professor of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics at MD Anderson, as the lead Principal Investigator (PI) for this study. The goal of the study is to evaluate AI technology with the objective of improving patient data analysis and increasing the effective use of treatment for patients with different types of cancer. Lunit and Dr. Naing team plans to assess Merck's clinical data by leveraging the capabilities of Lunit SCOPE IO, AI software that analyzes H&E-stained tissue slides to enable immune phenotyping and more.

"There is currently a lack of effective biomarkers for immunotherapy," said Brandon Suh, CEO of Lunit. "Existing methods have limitations. The landscape is changing rapidly and state-of-art technologies such as AI are playing a significant role in enabling new biomarkers. We are particularly excited to be working with Dr. Naing to analyze biomarkers for pembrolizumab, one of the most important immunotherapy drugs."

Lunit SCOPE IO has been trained with more than 500,000 H&E slides and more than 10 million cell annotations from over 150 pathologists. It detects cancer area, stroma, and tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL), an important immune cell type that plays a key role in immunotherapy. Among other analyses, SCOPE IO generates an immune phenotype map based on TIL density within the tumor microenvironment, and supports analysis in more than 16 cancer types.

###

About Lunit

Lunit is a deep learning-based medical AI company on a mission to conquer cancer. Our focus is on developing AI solutions for precision diagnostics and therapeutics, ensuring the right diagnosis, and treatment, at the right cost for each patient. Lunit is devoted to developing advanced medical image analytics and AI-based biomarkers via cutting-edge technology.

Founded in 2013, Lunit has been acknowledged around the world for its advanced, state-of-the-art technology and its application in medical images. As a medical AI company grounded on clinical evidence, the company's findings are presented in major peer-reviewed journals, such as the Journal of Clinical Oncology and JAMA Network Open, and global conferences, including ASCO and AACR.

After receiving FDA clearance and the CE Mark, our flagship Lunit INSIGHT suite is clinically used in approximately 2,000+ hospitals and medical institutions across 40+ countries. Lunit is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea, with offices and representatives worldwide. For more information, please visit lunit.io

About Lunit SCOPE

Lunit SCOPE is a suite of AI-powered software that analyzes tissue slide images for digital pathology and AI biomarker development, aiming to optimize workflow and facilitate more accurate and predictive clinical data for clinicians and researchers.

Lunit SCOPE platform offers multiple AI-powered tissue analysis products and assays that can streamline digital pathology workflow and diagnostics and enhance the drug development process.

Lunit SCOPE IO analyzes the tumor microenvironment (TME) based on H&E analysis and provides AI-based predictive clinical outcome information. In addition, AI-driven Immunohistochemistry (IHC) slide analysis services are offered, through products such as Lunit SCOPE PD-L1, Lunit SCOPE HER2, Lunit SCOPE ER/PR, and others.

SOURCE Lunit
BOSTON, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Senate Bill 1258, which would require that certain patient populations admitted to Mass. Department of Mental Health (DMH) continuing care facilities first be placed in a designated forensic unit, will be heard by the Joint Committee on Mental Health, Substance Use, and Recovery on Monday, October 30.

What: Hearing of Senate Bill 1258, An Act Providing Appropriate Care for Certain Populations Where: Statehouse, Room B-1; livestream under the Hearings & Events section of the legislative website. When: Monday, October 30 at 12 p.m. Who: MNA nurses and healthcare professionals working in DMH continuing care facilities across the Commonwealth

This bill specifically targets admission of certain categories of patients (forensic patients) to DMH continuing care facilities and it would require that these patients  upon admission to the facility  be put into a designated forensic unit. Such a unit would provide the appropriate care and environment for this patient population until such time as any redetermination can be made.

SB 1258 was filed by the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) with Sen. Robyn K. Kennedy (D-Worcester) as the lead sponsor.

The Necessity of This Bill

Admitting forensic patients to continuing care units mixes them with other patient populations, which is problematic and dangerous for everyone involved: continuing care patients, forensic patients, staff, and visitors. Forensic patients are a specialized population requiring specialized care, and many of these patients arrive at DMH facilities highly unstable, not stabilized on medication, and floridly psychotic.

Forensic patients in Massachusetts are being admitted to DMH continuing care facilities with increasing frequency. A 2019 report from the Worcester Recovery Center and Hospital (WRCH), for example, showed 40% of patients at the facility were forensic, with WRCH staff reporting this statistic has continued to rise over the last four years.

While continuing care patients have treatment plans designed to ultimately transition them to the community, that is not the case with forensic patients. Instead, forensic patients being sent to DMH facilities are typically undergoing a court-ordered evaluation or are in the middle of serving a sentence but cannot be cared for appropriately in the penile system. Others have been found not mentally fit to stand trial.

"We are failing all of our patients under the current system," said Kate Murphy, RN and president of the MNA. "Designating these patients to specialized forensic units upon entry will allow time for evaluation and stabilization. From there, patients who are able to transition to regular continuing-care floors can do so."

"This bill will provide every patient  no matter their designation  with the best environment possible for getting the quality of care they need and deserve," added Murphy. "SB 1258 needs to move forward for the health and safety of all involved: patients, staff, and visitors."

Overview of Proposed Categories for Admission to the Forensic Units Under SB 1258:

A criminal court may require a period of examination and observation at a mental health facility to determine whether a client/patient is competent to stand trial and/or is criminally responsible for the crimes with which they are charged. To make this determination, the court may order the client hospitalized for 20 days, and for an additional 20 days if needed. If a client/patient is found guilty of criminal charges, the criminal court may require an evaluation at a mental health facility for up to 40 days as an aid in sentencing. During this period of observation, the hospital may petition the court for the client/patient's involuntary commitment. If the criminal court finds a client/patient incompetent to stand trial or not guilty by reason of mental illness, it may order the client/patient hospitalized for examination and observation at a mental health facility. This hospitalization may last up to 40 days. However, total hospitalization under secs. may not exceed 50 days. If a client/patient is found incompetent to stand trial or not criminally responsible, the hospital or the district attorney may petition the criminal court for their involuntary commitment. The hospital or district attorney must act either during the period of observation described or within 60 days after the client/patient is found incompetent or not criminally responsible. If the court commits a client/patient to a mental health facility, it may restrict their movements to the buildings and grounds of the facility. If the superintendent of the facility believes the client/patient no longer needs to be restricted, they must inform the court that ordered the commitment. If the court fails to respond within 14 days, the restrictions must be removed. If the head of a correctional facility believes that a client/patient, as a prisoner, is in need of hospitalization by reason of mental illness, they may have the client/patient evaluated. A copy of the report will be sent to the court. The court may then order them to be evaluated at a mental health facility or Bridgewater for up to 30 days

Currently, patients like those described above are admitted to non-specialized floors and mixed with other patient populations, and this has happened as the overall percentage of forensic patients cared for in DMH continuing care facilities has increased. Under SB 1258, all such patients would be evaluated and cared for in designated forensic units where the care is specialized.

Addressing Workplace Violence

Caring for forensic patients in designated forensic units first, as opposed to admitting them directly to a DMH continuing care facility, also addresses another issue that is plaguing the healthcare sector: workplace violence against healthcare workers. According to the MNA's 2023 "State of Nursing Survey":

Twenty-four percent of nurses said they do not feel safe in their workplace, an increase from 9% of nurses in 2019 and 17% in 2021.

Sixty-three percent of nurses said workplace violence and abuse is a serious problem, up from 42% in 2021.

Seventy-six percent of nurses in direct care at a teaching hospital said workplace violence and abuse is a serious problem.

Seventy-nine percent of nurses in direct care at a community hospital said workplace violence and abuse is a serious problem.

In addition, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, healthcare workers experience the most nonfatal workplace violence as compared to other professions, accounting for nearly 70% of all non-fatal workplace assaults.

"So much needs to be done in order to address the entirety of workplace violence in the healthcare sector," added Murphy. "But this would be one step in the right direction."

The Massachusetts Nurses Association represents more than 1,300 nurses and healthcare professionals who are employed by the Commonwealth, including those working at the state's various continuing care DMH facilities.

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 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 lobbying the Legislature and regulatory agencies on healthcare issues affecting nurses and the public.

SOURCE Massachusetts Nurses Association
American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers Recognizes Erik Moore and David Schulman Receives the 2024 AV Preeminent Rating

SAN DIEGO, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Some of the most respected entities that gauge integrity and legal acumen recognize the founding partners of Moore, Schulman & Moore, APC. The Southern California Chapter of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML) announces it is adding experienced attorney Erik Moore to its selective ranks of less than 90 active fellows.

David Schulman AV Preeminent Rated Attorney Erik Moore American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers Fellow

The AAML has a strict standard for admission that includes a minimum of a decade of law practice with proven competence to litigate and settle complex matrimonial and family law matters. To become a fellow, attorneys must also demonstrate leadership in their family law community and be a California Certified Family Law Specialist. "Becoming a fellow with some of the most respected people in our legal community is an extraordinary honor," says Moore, Schulman & Moore Founding Partner Erik Moore.

Erik Moore has extensive family law experience and proven trial skills. From high asset to high conflict divorce cases, Erik helps get the best resolution for his clients while safeguarding their rights and interests. Erik's dynamic background having worked as a mediator, a family settlement conference judge and litigator gives him a unique perspective and a host of tools for representing the people who trust him with their family law matters.

Erik has made serving the community a priority for more than three decades. From a wide range of having assisted or participated in groups including Fresh Start Surgical Gifts, the Rancho Santa Fe Rotary Club to the Boys and Girls Club of Greater San Diego, Erik gives his support and time to improve the lives of children in his community and beyond. He has helped to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to give children much needed reconstructive surgery. From fundraising to taking key leadership roles, he has been instrumental in helping Fresh Start Surgical Gifts transform the lives of children from around the world. For his outstanding contribution and leadership roles with Fresh Start Surgical Gifts he has received the prestigious Founders Award and Presidents Award.

Martindale-Hubbell has ranked David Schulman among its best for more than a decade. For the second year, David is given their highest-ranking possible AV Preeminent. Less than five percent of attorneys across the United States are given this distinction.

To receive this rating attorneys must be reviewed and recommended by their peers, members of the bar and the judiciary. Only attorneys with the highest ethical standards, in depth legal expertise and communication skills are given this designation. "I'm passionate about helping my clients get the best results for their lives and their children's lives. To have the quality of that work recognized is very rewarding."

David Schulman has a long history of being recognized for his professional accomplishments while specializing in complicated litigation and mediation with high-profile clients. He is one of the few attorneys who represents children as minor's counsel.

David is a certified family law specialist honored by Super Lawyers and San Diego's Top Attorneys as well as the coveted Family Court Judiciary Norby Award. He has served on the State Bar's Family Law Commission and served as its Vice-Chair.

David is an advocate for children inside and outside of the courtroom. He has championed a number of causes that benefit children, but currently he is the most active in working for the nonprofit, Just in Time for Foster Youth. The nonprofit gives young adults the opportunity to attend college, successfully transition to living on their own and empowers them to follow their dreams.

About Moore, Schulman & Moore, APC.

For 2023 and 2024, Moore Schulman & Moore was recognized as a Tier 1 (highest) Law Firm in U.S. News & World Report's Best Law Firms. The firm specializes in providing trusted legal guidance for people facing divorce and other family law matters with unparalleled client care. Their recognitions include Super Lawyers, AV Preeminent Peer Review Rated Law Firm, SDCBA 100 Percent Club, and San Diego Top Attorneys to name a few.

Contact:

Lynn Stuart

[email protected]

(858) 243-6988

SOURCE Moore, Schulman & Moore, APC
The global nucleic acid amplification testing market is experiencing growth due to various factors, including the surge in demand for advanced diagnostic techniques, the rise in the prevalence of infectious diseases, and the growth in the incidence of cancer cases.

PORTLAND, Ore., Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing Market By Technology (Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) Tests, Isothermal Nucleic Acid Amplification Technology (INAAT) Tests), By Application (Infectious Disease Testing, Oncology Testing, Others), By End-User (Hospital Based Laboratories, Central, Reference and Standalone Laboratories, Others)". As per the report, the nucleic acid amplification testing industry was estimated at $4.8 billion in 2022 and is projected to reach $9.1 billion by 2032, exhibiting a CAGR of 6.6% from 2023 to 2032.

Request Sample of the Report on Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing Market Forecast 2032- https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/180724

Nucleic acid amplification testing is a laboratory technique for the detection and amplification of nucleic acids, such as DNA and RNA, from a sample. This method enables the quantification and identification of target nucleic acid sequences, which can be utilized for a variety of purposes, such as the diagnosis of infectious diseases, the detection of genetic mutations, and the pursuit of molecular biology research. NAAT's high sensitivity and specificity make it an invaluable tool in the field of molecular diagnostics.

Prime Determinants of Growth

The global nucleic acid amplification testing market is experiencing growth due to various factors, including the surge in demand for advanced diagnostic techniques, the rise in the prevalence of infectious diseases, and the growth in the incidence of cancer cases. On the other hand, lack of awareness regarding advanced diagnostic techniques, and a lack of skilled personnel for advanced diagnostic testing hampered the market growth. Moreover, the rising awareness and demand for point-of-care testing creates lucrative opportunities for market growth.

Report Coverage and Details

Report Coverage Details Forecast Period 20232032 Base Year 2022 Market Size in 2022 $4.8 Billion Market Size in 2032 $9.1 Billion CAGR 6.6 % No. of Pages in Report 272 Segments covered Technology, Application, End User, and Region Drivers The surge in demand for advanced diagnostic techniques The rise in incidences of infectious diseases Growth in the prevalence of cancer cases Opportunities Rising awareness and demand for point of care testing Restraints Lack of awareness regarding advanced diagnostic techniques Lack of skilled personnel for advanced diagnostic testing



Economic Downturn Analysis: Impact of Recession in 2023 on the Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing Market

Numerous sectors of the economy, particularly the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, have been impacted by the ongoing global recession. Budgetary restrictions in the healthcare industry during a recession result in a smaller amount being spent on diagnostic tests like NAATs. Especially in non-urgent or elective testing locations, there are shifts in the demand for NAATs.

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The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests segment to maintain its leadership status throughout the forecast period-

Based on technology, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests segment held the highest market share in 2022, accounting for more than four-fifths of the global nucleic acid amplification testing market revenue, and is anticipated to maintain its leadership status throughout the forecast period. The same segment would also cite the fastest CAGR of 6.7% during the forecast period. The growth of the segment is attributed to the advantages offered by polymerase chain reaction such as simplicity of procedure, validated standard operating procedure, and availability of reagents and equipment in the market.

The infectious disease testing segment to maintain its lead position during the forecast period-

Based on application, the infectious disease testing segment accounted for the largest share in 2022, accounting for nearly two-thirds of the global nucleic acid amplification testing market revenue and is expected to maintain its lead position during the forecast period. The same segment would also showcase the fastest CAGR of 6.9% from 2023 to 2032. The growth of the segment is mainly attributed to the rise in incidences of infectious conditions which can be detected using PCR and INAAT techniques.

The central, reference and standalone laboratories segment to maintain its lead position during the forecast period-

Based on end user, the central, reference and standalone laboratories segment accounted for the largest share in 2022, contributing to nearly half of the global nucleic acid amplification testing market revenue, and is expected to maintain its lead position during the forecast period. Nucleic acid amplification testing (NAAT) is an essential tool employed by these specialized laboratories to amplify and detect nucleic acid sequences with precision. On the other hand, the hospital-based laboratories segment would portray the fastest CAGR of 7.0% during the forecast period. This is attributed to an increase in the number of people suffering from various infectious diseases and chronic conditions such as cancer which require frequent testing.

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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 nucleic acid amplification testing market, and is likely to dominate the market by 2032. North America region is witnessing notable growth trends in the nucleic acid amplification testing market, driven by the increasing incidence of bacterial infections in North America is a significant driver of market growth. On the other hand, the Asia-Pacific region would exhibit the fastest CAGR of 7.4% throughout the forecast period. This is attributed to the large population base in countries such as China and India, rising healthcare expenditure, and developing healthcare infrastructure.

Leading Market Players: -

Hologic, Inc.

New England Biolabs.

Grifols, S.A.

Biomerieux SA

Illumina Inc.

Abbott Laboratories

Perkin Elmer Inc

F. Hoffmann-la Roche Ltd.

Eiken Chemical Co., Ltd.

Siemens AG

The report provides a detailed analysis of these key players in the global nucleic acid amplification testing market. These players have adopted different strategies such as acquisition, product launch, product approval, and product upgrade or development 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.

Comprehensive Healthcare Industry Research Studies:

mHealth Market - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20222032

Biomaterials Market - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20222032

Flow Cytometry Market- Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20222032

Healthcare IT Market - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20222032

MRI System Market- Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20222032

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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" 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 domains. AMR offers its services across 11 industry verticals including Life Sciences, Consumer Goods, Materials & Chemicals, Construction & Manufacturing, Food & Beverages, Energy & Power, Semiconductor & Electronics, Automotive & Transportation, ICT & Media, Aerospace & Defense, and BFSI.

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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SOURCE Allied Market Research
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 26, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- On Lok, the San Francisco-based nonprofit organization that empowers older adults to age with dignity and independence, has announced the appointment of Carl Gerlach as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Min Chang as Chief Strategy Officer (CSO).

"I am excited by the addition of both Min and Carl to our executive team," said Grace Li, CEO, On Lok. "Both have significant leadership expertise in healthcare and business and I look forward to their ongoing contributions delivering on our mission as we advance our strategy and growth by serving older adults through our programs and services."

Gerlach and Chang bring significant expertise in healthcare finance and strategy to the San Francisco nonprofit and will help advance the organization's work to support Bay Area seniors with important healthcare resources and support to empower their aging journey.

Carl Gerlach brings five decades of health care finance and executive experience in managed care, physician practices, and hospitals to On Lok. He has held roles as CFO, chief executive officer, board member, and consultant for hospitals, medical groups, clinics, healthcare systems, and managed care organizations, as well as On Lok.

As CFO, Gerlach's expertise in best practices, systems, and regulatory requirements will help shepherd the organization's financial success and stability, including management of On Lok's programs, services, and property portfolio, including On Lok PACE, On Lok 30th Street Senior Center and On Lok's Mission Nutrition. He received his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and has a BA in Economics from Occidental College.

Min Chang brings more than 35 years of experience in business development, senior healthcare, and mergers and acquisitions to On Lok. With a deep understanding of cross-cultural dynamics garnered over years working abroad, she will enrich the organization's strategic approach to serving diverse communities across the Bay Area.

Before joining On Lok, Chang was president and CEO of Microsurgical Technology, a global medical devices company, and CEO at Kin On Health Care Center, a nonprofit in long term care. Her background includes leadership roles at Omnicom Group, Honeywell, and AstraZeneca, and management consulting with Ernst & Young, Booz Allen and Accenture.

Chang holds a Doctorate in International Affairs and a Master of International Public Policy from Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies. She received her MS in Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management and a BS and BA respectively, from the University of Pennsylvania.

About On Lok

On Lok is a nonprofit organization that empowers older adults to age with dignity and independence. Founded in 1971, On Lok is a trusted resource in San Francisco, Santa Clara County, and the Tri-City area of Alameda County. On Lok founded and still operates the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE), which allows eligible seniors to live at home for as long as possible by providing comprehensive medical care and social services. On Lok 30th Street Senior Center, the largest multipurpose senior center in San Francisco, provides a second home, health programs, activities, and case management services to active seniors. On Lok Mission Nutrition provides more than 250,000 meals annually to seniors through its dining locations and meal delivery program. For more information, please visit www.onlok.org.

SOURCE On Lok
NEW YORK, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The organic food and beverages market size is forecast to increase by USD 310.08 billion from 2022 to 2027, at a CAGR of 15.85%, according to the recent market study by Technavio. The market is driven by the rising number of new product launches. Successful new product launches will boost vendors' revenue streams and market shares. For instance, Grain Forests' new organic products were introduced in July 2022 in an effort to connect the remote farm with the city. Moringa powder for daily nutrition, sprouted ragi for babies, a health mix for diabetics, and ragi dosa for a filling breakfast are just a few of the new additions. Similarly, the first zero-sugar organic ultra-filtered milk was introduced in 2021 by Maple Hill Creamery, America's original 100% grass-fed organic dairy brand. With its most recent product innovation, Maple Hill offers consumers an organic milk option that contains no sugar, no additional sweeteners, and no carbohydrates. Thus, the rising number of new product launches in the various segments of the market will drive the growth of the market during the forecast period. Take action now and gain valuable insights into the impact of the US crisis with our comprehensive analysis report - Talk to us

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Organic Food and Beverages Market 2023-2027

Organic food and beverages market Segment Overview

The market is segmented by type (organic fruits and vegetables, organic dairy products, organic prepared foods, organic meat, and others), distribution channel (offline and online), and geography (North America, Europe, APAC, Middle East and Africa, and South America).

Segmentation by application (Inclusion/Exclusion)

The market share growth by the organic fruits and vegetables segment will be significant during the forecast period. Over the course of the forecast period, the segment's growth is anticipated to be fueled by the growing concerns surrounding artificial preservatives and additives. Originating in developed nations like North America and Europe and later spreading to developing nations like China and India , organic foods are gaining popularity worldwide. Fresh fruits and vegetables that are organic have more advantages over conventional, non-organic fruits and vegetables. Despite their high price, these benefits are driving up demand for organic fresh fruits and vegetables. Hence, during the forecast period, an increase in the consumption of organic fruits and vegetables is anticipated.

Organic food and beverages market Regional Analysis

North America is estimated to contribute 35% to the growth of the global market during the forecast period. Since vegans only consume plant-based products, the rising vegan population in the US will also help the regional organic food and beverage market expand over the forecast period. Two to six percent of US consumers consider themselves vegetarians. Celebrities are also becoming more and more pro-vegan in America. Additionally, the number of US startups providing vegan nutrition is growing. As consumers believe they are healthier than regular organic foods and beverages, the demand for organic food and drink is rising in the area. During the forecast period, this will also aid in the market's expansion. During the forecast period, there is also expected to be an increase in the number of new players offering products made from organic foods and drinks.

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Organic food and beverages market Vendor Landscape

Technavio has extensively analyzed 15 major vendors, including Agrowave Organic Vegetable and Fruits, Amys Kitchen Inc., Archer Daniels Midland Co., Ardent Mills LLC, Arla Foods amba, AUGA Group AB, Aurora Organic Dairy, Bunge Ltd., Cargill Inc., Danone SA, Del Monte Pacific Ltd., General Mills Inc., Hometown Food Co., Kellogg Co., Maple Hill Creamery LLC, Mehrotra Consumer Products Pvt. Ltd., Nestle SA, ORGANIC India Pvt. Ltd., Organic Valley, PepsiCo Inc., Premium Brands Holdings Corp., PS Organic, The Coca Cola Co., The Hain Celestial Group Inc., The Hershey Co., United Natural Foods Inc., and Drakes Organic Spirits Inc.

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Key Benefits for Industry Players & Stakeholders 

The report offers information on the criticality of vendor inputs, including R&D, CAPEX, and technology.

It also provides detailed analyses of the market's competitive landscape and vendors' product offerings.

The report also provides a qualitative and quantitative analysis of vendors to help clients understand the wider business environment as well as the strengths and weaknesses of key market players. Data is qualitatively analyzed to categorize vendors as pure play, category-focused, industry-focused, and diversified; it is quantitatively analyzed to categorize vendors as dominant, leading, strong, tentative, and weak.

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Customer Landscape - Analysis of Price Sensitivity, Adoption Lifecycle, Customer Purchase Basket, Adoption Rates, and Purchase Criteria by Technavio

One of the core components of the customer landscape is price sensitivity, an analysis of which will help companies refine marketing strategies to gain a competitive advantage.

Another key aspect is price sensitivity drivers (purchases are undifferentiated, the purchase is a key cost to buyers, and quality is not important), which range between LOW and HIGH.

Furthermore, market adoption rates for all regions have been covered.

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What are the key data covered in this organic food and beverages market report?

CAGR of the market during the forecast period

Detailed information on factors that will drive the growth of the organic food and beverages market between 2023 and 2027

Precise estimation of the size of the organic food and beverages 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 organic food and beverages market industry across APAC, Europe , North America , Middle East and Africa , and South America

, , and , and A thorough analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information about vendors

Comprehensive analysis of factors that will challenge the growth of organic food and beverages market vendors

Related Reports:

The organic food preservatives market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 4.71% between 2022 and 2027. The size of the market is forecast to increase by USD 367.66 million . Furthermore, this report extensively covers market segmentation by application (bakery and confectionary, beverages, dairy, sweet and savory snacks, and others) and geography ( North America , Europe , APAC, South America , and MEA).

is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 4.71% between 2022 and 2027. The size of the market is forecast to increase by . Furthermore, this report extensively covers market segmentation by application (bakery and confectionary, beverages, dairy, sweet and savory snacks, and others) and geography ( , , APAC, , and MEA). The functional foods and beverages market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 7.29% between 2022 and 2027. Furthermore, this report extensively covers functional foods and beverages market segmentation in North America by product (functional foods and functional beverages) and geography (US, Canada , and Mexico ).

Organic Food And Beverages Market Scope Report Coverage Details Base year 2022 Historic period 2017-2021 Forecast period 2023-2027 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 15.85% Market growth 2023-2027 USD 310.08 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth 2022-2023 (%) 9.25 Regional analysis North America, Europe, APAC, Middle East and Africa, and South America Performing market contribution North America at 35% Key countries US, Canada, Japan, Germany, and France Competitive landscape Leading Vendors, Market Positioning of Vendors, Competitive Strategies, and Industry Risks Key companies profiled Agrowave Organic Vegetable and Fruits, Amys Kitchen Inc., Archer Daniels Midland Co., Ardent Mills LLC, Arla Foods amba, AUGA Group AB, Aurora Organic Dairy, Bunge Ltd., Cargill Inc., Danone SA, Del Monte Pacific Ltd., General Mills Inc., Hometown Food Co., Kellogg Co., Maple Hill Creamery LLC, Mehrotra Consumer Products Pvt. Ltd., Nestle SA, ORGANIC India Pvt. Ltd., Organic Valley, PepsiCo Inc., Premium Brands Holdings Corp., PS Organic, The Coca Cola Co., The Hain Celestial Group Inc., The Hershey Co., United Natural Foods Inc., and Drakes Organic Spirits Inc. Market dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID-19 impact and recovery analysis and future consumer dynamics, and Market condition analysis for the forecast period. Customization purview If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized.

Table of Contents:

1 Executive Summary

1.1 Market overview

Exhibit 01: Executive Summary  Chart on Market Overview



Exhibit 02: Executive Summary  Data Table on Market Overview



Exhibit 03: Executive Summary  Chart on Global Market Characteristics



Exhibit 04: Executive Summary  Chart on Market by Geography



Exhibit 05: Executive Summary  Chart on Market Segmentation by Product Type



Exhibit 06: Executive Summary  Chart on Market Segmentation by Distribution Channel



Exhibit 07: Executive Summary  Chart on Incremental Growth



Exhibit 08: Executive Summary  Data Table on Incremental Growth



Exhibit 09: Executive Summary  Chart on Vendor Market Positioning

2 Market Landscape

2.1 Market ecosystem

Exhibit 10: Parent market



Exhibit 11: Market Characteristics

3 Market Sizing

3.1 Market definition

Exhibit 12: Offerings of vendors included in the market definition

3.2 Market segment analysis

Exhibit 13: Market segments

3.3 Market size 2022

3.4 Market outlook: Forecast for 2022-2027

Exhibit 14: Chart on Global - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)



Exhibit 15: Data Table on Global - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)



Exhibit 16: Chart on Global Market: Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 17: Data Table on Global Market: Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

4 Historic Market Size

4.1 Global organic food and beverages market 2017 - 2021

Exhibit 18: Historic Market Size  Data Table on Global organic food and beverages market 2017 - 2021 (USD billion)

4.2 Product type Segment Analysis 2017 - 2021

Exhibit 19: Historic Market Size  Product type Segment 2017 - 2021 (USD billion)

4.3 Distribution channel Segment Analysis 2017 - 2021

Exhibit 20: Historic Market Size  Distribution channel Segment 2017 - 2021 (USD billion)

4.4 Geography Segment Analysis 2017 - 2021

Exhibit 21: Historic Market Size  Geography Segment 2017 - 2021 (USD billion)

4.5 Country Segment Analysis 2017 - 2021

Exhibit 22: Historic Market Size  Country Segment 2017 - 2021 (USD billion)

5 Five Forces Analysis

5.1 Five forces summary

Exhibit 23: Five forces analysis - Comparison between 2022 and 2027

5.2 Bargaining power of buyers

Exhibit 24: Chart on Bargaining power of buyers  Impact of key factors 2022 and 2027

5.3 Bargaining power of suppliers

Exhibit 25: Bargaining power of suppliers  Impact of key factors in 2022 and 2027

5.4 Threat of new entrants

Exhibit 26: Threat of new entrants  Impact of key factors in 2022 and 2027

5.5 Threat of substitutes

Exhibit 27: Threat of substitutes  Impact of key factors in 2022 and 2027

5.6 Threat of rivalry

Exhibit 28: Threat of rivalry  Impact of key factors in 2022 and 2027

5.7 Market condition

Exhibit 29: Chart on Market condition - Five forces 2022 and 2027

6 Market Segmentation by Product Type

6.1 Market segments

Exhibit 30: Chart on Product Type - Market share 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 31: Data Table on Product Type - Market share 2022-2027 (%)

6.2 Comparison by Product Type

Exhibit 32: Chart on Comparison by Product Type



Exhibit 33: Data Table on Comparison by Product Type

6.3 Organic fruits and vegetables - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 34: Chart on Organic fruits and vegetables - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)



Exhibit 35: Data Table on Organic fruits and vegetables - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)



Exhibit 36: Chart on Organic fruits and vegetables - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 37: Data Table on Organic fruits and vegetables - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

6.4 Organic dairy products - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 38: Chart on Organic dairy products - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)



Exhibit 39: Data Table on Organic dairy products - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)



Exhibit 40: Chart on Organic dairy products - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 41: Data Table on Organic dairy products - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

6.5 Organic prepared foods - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 42: Chart on Organic prepared foods - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)



Exhibit 43: Data Table on Organic prepared foods - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)



Exhibit 44: Chart on Organic prepared foods - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 45: Data Table on Organic prepared foods - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

6.6 Organic meat - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 46: Chart on Organic meat - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)



Exhibit 47: Data Table on Organic meat - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)



Exhibit 48: Chart on Organic meat - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 49: Data Table on Organic meat - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

6.7 Others - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 50: Chart on Others - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)



Exhibit 51: Data Table on Others - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)



Exhibit 52: Chart on Others - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 53: Data Table on Others - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

6.8 Market opportunity by Product Type

Exhibit 54: Market opportunity by Product Type (USD billion)



Exhibit 55: Data Table on Market opportunity by Product Type (USD billion)

7 Market Segmentation by Distribution Channel

7.1 Market segments

Exhibit 56: Chart on Distribution Channel - Market share 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 57: Data Table on Distribution Channel - Market share 2022-2027 (%)

7.2 Comparison by Distribution Channel

Exhibit 58: Chart on Comparison by Distribution Channel



Exhibit 59: Data Table on Comparison by Distribution Channel

7.3 Offline - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 60: Chart on Offline - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)



Exhibit 61: Data Table on Offline - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)



Exhibit 62: Chart on Offline - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 63: Data Table on Offline - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

7.4 Online - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 64: Chart on Online - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)



Exhibit 65: Data Table on Online - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)



Exhibit 66: Chart on Online - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 67: Data Table on Online - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

7.5 Market opportunity by Distribution Channel

Exhibit 68: Market opportunity by Distribution Channel (USD billion)



Exhibit 69: Data Table on Market opportunity by Distribution Channel (USD billion)

8 Customer Landscape

8.1 Customer landscape overview

Exhibit 70: Analysis of price sensitivity, lifecycle, customer purchase basket, adoption rates, and purchase criteria

9 Geographic Landscape

9.1 Geographic segmentation

Exhibit 71: Chart on Market share by geography 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 72: Data Table on Market share by geography 2022-2027 (%)

9.2 Geographic comparison

Exhibit 73: Chart on Geographic comparison



Exhibit 74: Data Table on Geographic comparison

9.3 North America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 75: Chart on North America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)

Exhibit 76: Data Table on North America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)

Exhibit 77: Chart on North America - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 78: Data Table on North America - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.4 Europe - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 79: Chart on Europe - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)

Exhibit 80: Data Table on Europe - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)

Exhibit 81: Chart on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 82: Data Table on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.5 APAC - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 83: Chart on APAC - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)



Exhibit 84: Data Table on APAC - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)



Exhibit 85: Chart on APAC - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 86: Data Table on APAC - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.6 Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

and - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 87: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)

and - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)

Exhibit 88: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)

and - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)

Exhibit 89: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

and - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 90: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.7 South America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 91: Chart on South America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)

Exhibit 92: Data Table on South America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)

Exhibit 93: Chart on South America - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 94: Data Table on South America - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.8 US - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 95: Chart on US - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)



Exhibit 96: Data Table on US - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)



Exhibit 97: Chart on US - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 98: Data Table on US - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.9 Germany - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 99: Chart on Germany - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)

Exhibit 100: Data Table on Germany - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)

Exhibit 101: Chart on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 102: Data Table on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.10 Canada - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 103: Chart on Canada - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)

Exhibit 104: Data Table on Canada - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)

Exhibit 105: Chart on Canada - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 106: Data Table on Canada - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.11 France - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 107: Chart on France - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)

Exhibit 108: Data Table on France - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)

Exhibit 109: Chart on France - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 110: Data Table on France - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.12 Japan - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 111: Chart on Japan - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)

Exhibit 112: Data Table on Japan - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 (USD billion)

Exhibit 113: Chart on Japan - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 114: Data Table on Japan - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.13 Market opportunity by geography

Exhibit 115: Market opportunity by geography (USD billion)



Exhibit 116: Data Tables on Market opportunity by geography (USD billion)

10 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends

10.1 Market drivers

10.2 Market challenges

10.3 Impact of drivers and challenges

Exhibit 117: Impact of drivers and challenges in 2022 and 2027

10.4 Market trends

11 Vendor Landscape

11.1 Overview

11.2 Vendor landscape

Exhibit 118: Overview on Criticality of inputs and Factors of differentiation

11.3 Landscape disruption

Exhibit 119: Overview on factors of disruption

11.4 Industry risks

Exhibit 120: Impact of key risks on business

12 Vendor Analysis

12.1 Vendors covered

Exhibit 121: Vendors covered

12.2 Market positioning of vendors

Exhibit 122: Matrix on vendor position and classification

12.3 Amys Kitchen Inc.

Exhibit 123: Amys Kitchen Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 124: Amys Kitchen Inc. - Product / Service



Exhibit 125: Amys Kitchen Inc. - Key offerings

12.4 Archer Daniels Midland Co.

Exhibit 126: Archer Daniels Midland Co. - Overview



Exhibit 127: Archer Daniels Midland Co. - Business segments



Exhibit 128: Archer Daniels Midland Co. - Key offerings



Exhibit 129: Archer Daniels Midland Co. - Segment focus

12.5 Bunge Ltd.

Exhibit 130: Bunge Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 131: Bunge Ltd. - Business segments



Exhibit 132: Bunge Ltd. - Key news



Exhibit 133: Bunge Ltd. - Key offerings



Exhibit 134: Bunge Ltd. - Segment focus

12.6 Cargill Inc.

Exhibit 135: Cargill Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 136: Cargill Inc. - Product / Service



Exhibit 137: Cargill Inc. - Key news



Exhibit 138: Cargill Inc. - Key offerings

12.7 Danone SA

Exhibit 139: Danone SA - Overview



Exhibit 140: Danone SA - Business segments



Exhibit 141: Danone SA - Key news



Exhibit 142: Danone SA - Key offerings



Exhibit 143: Danone SA - Segment focus

12.8 General Mills Inc .

. Exhibit 144: General Mills Inc . - Overview

. - Overview

Exhibit 145: General Mills Inc . - Business segments

. - Business segments

Exhibit 146: General Mills Inc . - Key news

. - Key news

Exhibit 147: General Mills Inc . - Key offerings

. - Key offerings

Exhibit 148: General Mills Inc . - Segment focus

12.9 Hometown Food Co.

Exhibit 149: Hometown Food Co. - Overview



Exhibit 150: Hometown Food Co. - Product / Service



Exhibit 151: Hometown Food Co. - Key offerings

12.10 Kellogg Co.

Exhibit 152: Kellogg Co. - Overview



Exhibit 153: Kellogg Co. - Business segments



Exhibit 154: Kellogg Co. - Key offerings



Exhibit 155: Kellogg Co. - Segment focus

12.11 Nestle SA

Exhibit 156: Nestle SA - Overview



Exhibit 157: Nestle SA - Business segments



Exhibit 158: Nestle SA - Key news



Exhibit 159: Nestle SA - Key offerings



Exhibit 160: Nestle SA - Segment focus

12.12 Organic Valley

Exhibit 161: Organic Valley - Overview



Exhibit 162: Organic Valley - Product / Service



Exhibit 163: Organic Valley - Key offerings

12.13 PepsiCo Inc.

Exhibit 164: PepsiCo Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 165: PepsiCo Inc. - Business segments



Exhibit 166: PepsiCo Inc. - Key news



Exhibit 167: PepsiCo Inc. - Key offerings



Exhibit 168: PepsiCo Inc. - Segment focus

12.14 PS Organic

Exhibit 169: PS Organic - Overview



Exhibit 170: PS Organic - Product / Service



Exhibit 171: PS Organic - Key offerings

12.15 The Coca Cola Co.

Exhibit 172: The Coca Cola Co. - Overview



Exhibit 173: The Coca Cola Co. - Business segments



Exhibit 174: The Coca Cola Co. - Key news



Exhibit 175: The Coca Cola Co. - Key offerings



Exhibit 176: The Coca Cola Co. - Segment focus

12.16 The Hain Celestial Group Inc.

Exhibit 177: The Hain Celestial Group Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 178: The Hain Celestial Group Inc. - Business segments



Exhibit 179: The Hain Celestial Group Inc. - Key news



Exhibit 180: The Hain Celestial Group Inc. - Key offerings



Exhibit 181: The Hain Celestial Group Inc. - Segment focus

12.17 United Natural Foods Inc.

Exhibit 182: United Natural Foods Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 183: United Natural Foods Inc. - Business segments



Exhibit 184: United Natural Foods Inc. - Key offerings



Exhibit 185: United Natural Foods Inc. - Segment focus

13 Appendix

13.1 Scope of the report

13.2 Inclusions and exclusions checklist

Exhibit 186: Inclusions checklist



Exhibit 187: Exclusions checklist

13.3 Currency conversion rates for USUSD

Exhibit 188: Currency conversion rates for USUSD

13.4 Research methodology

Exhibit 189: Research methodology



Exhibit 190: Validation techniques employed for market sizing



Exhibit 191: Information sources

13.5 List of abbreviations

Exhibit 192: List of abbreviations

About US

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provide actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

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SOURCE Technavio
The announcement is expected to contribute to increased foreign investment and job creation in the country

PANAMA CITY, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- In a momentous decision with positive implications for the international financial community and Panamanian economy, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) today excluded Panama from its grey list. This announcement comes following an FATF plenary meeting, held in Paris, France, in which it was determined that the Republic of Panama has strengthened its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing prevention system and implemented substantial regulations and actions that have allowed the country to take an important step forward in international transparency.

In response to Panama's removal from the FATF grey list, Panama's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Janaina Tewaney, released the following statement:

"After being added to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list in June 2019, our administration took office in July of the same year with a firm commitment to fostering a more robust framework to fight money laundering and terrorist financing, and nurture a more transparent financial system. Since then, Panama has successfully implemented several strategic measures aimed at consolidating our legislative and regulatory framework to reinforce the fight against money laundering and enhance the transparency of our financial system according to international standards. Today, these substantial efforts have been recognized by the international community with the successful removal of Panama from the FATF grey list, an endeavor many years in the making."

Benefits both nationally and internationally include:

Increased foreign investment and job creation: With the recognition of the progress made in preventing money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism implemented by the country, foreign investment is expected to increase, which will boost tourism, trade and the creation of new and more jobs, as well as opportunities in the country. More accessible lines of credit: Cheaper and expanded lines of credit will benefit individuals and businesses seeking financing. Improved banking correspondents and international relations: It will lead to a significant improvement in the relations between Panama's local banks and their international correspondents. The basic links required for financial operations will be strengthened. Less pressure on the financial system: With the removal of the pressure associated with special reviews, Panama's financial system can operate more effectively and with greater confidence. Benefits for the insurance and securities industry: Panama's removal from the grey list will attract the world's leading reinsurers, who will be able to establish themselves in Panama and serve the Latin American market.

Panama's removal from the FATF grey list represents a crucial milestone in the country's economic development. Minister Tewaney further commented on the future implications of the decision for Panama, stating:

"Panama's removal from the grey list solidifies Panama as an attractive, stable and safe destination for foreign investment. Panama boasts a track record second to none in the region in building critical business sectors from financial services to the maritime industry to logistics and shipping. As one of the leading investment destinations in Latin America, Panama welcomes the continued interest of international businesses from a wide variety of sectors. President Cortizo's administration remains committed to maintaining a legacy of the highest international standards for the benefit of all Panamanians and the international community."

For additional details on the announcement, including actions carried out, please refer to the Ministry of Economy and Finances' press release here.

For media inquiries, please contact Kate Cigna at [email protected]

This message is sent on behalf of Panama's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Additional information is available at the Department of Justice, Washington, DC.

SOURCE The Government of Panama
Operating Profit Attributable to Shareholders of the Parent Company Reaches RMB112,482 Million, Life & Health NBV Sharply Increases by 40.9% YoY

Net Assets Attributable to Shareholders of the Parent Company Exceeds RMB900 Billion

HONG KONG and SHANGHAI, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. (hereafter "Ping An", the "Company" or the "Group", HKEX: 2318 / 82318; SSE: 601318) today announced its results for the nine months ended September 30, 2023.

In the first nine months of 2023, China's economy continued to rebound and improve with household consumption picking up steadily. However, global capital markets remained volatile in a complex international environment. It takes time for the domestic economy to pick up and improve, and the foundation for recovery needs to be further consolidated. Facing difficulties and challenges, Ping An focused on core financial businesses and strengthened the insurance protection function to serve the real economy. Following the technology-driven "integrated finance + healthcare" strategy, Ping An remained customer needs-oriented, continuously consolidated its integrated finance advantages, upgraded its digital capabilities, and pursued high-quality development.

Ping An maintained resilient overall business performance with solid fundamentals and stable core financial businesses in the first nine months of 2023. The Group delivered a 16.7% annualized operating ROE, with operating profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company reaching RMB112,482 million and net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company reaching RMB87,575 million, in the first nine months of 2023. Net assets attributable to shareholders of the parent company grew steadily by 3.9% from the beginning of the year to RMB 903.1 billion as of 30 September 2023. Retail customers approached 230 million and contracts per retail customer reached 2.99 as of September 30, 2023. Life & Health new business value ("NBV") amounted to RMB33,574 million in the first nine months of 2023, up 40.9% year on year on a like-for-like basis. Ping An continuously advanced its healthcare and eldercare service strategy. Customers entitled to "+ service" benefits accounted for approximately 68% of Ping An Life's NBV in the first nine months of 2023.

NBV sharply increased by 40.9% YoY; Ping An Life achieved steady business development

Ping An Life unswervingly implemented the "4 channels + 3 products" strategy[1]. China's macroeconomy recovered as market demand picked up gradually in the first nine months of 2023. Ping An Life achieved steady business development thanks to comprehensive advancement in channels, improved business quality, and diverse products and services launched. Operating profit of Ping An Life amounted to RMB84,911 million. Life & Health NBV amounted to RMB33,574 million in the first nine months of 2023, up 40.9% year on year on a like-for-like basis.

Channels development under the value proposition of high-quality development. In the agent channel, Ping An Life improved the team structure and per capita productivity of the agent channel by refining the tiered management of high-productivity agents. As a result, productivity climbed sharply with NBV per agent rising 94.4% year on year in the first nine months of 2023. Innovative channels, including bancassurance and Community Grid, accounted for 15.8% of Ping An Life's NBV in the first nine months of 2023. Ping An Life strengthened the coordination and integration of the bancassurance channel with Ping An Bank, and continuously expanded partnership with external banks. Ping An Life continuously promotes Community Grid and has built a team of over 11,000 highly competent specialists as of September 30, 2023 which is gradually maturing.

Upgrade of the insurance product portfolio driven by customer demands. Ping An Life improved "insurance + service" products by leveraging the Group's healthcare ecosystem and built differential advantages by enhancing its three core services, namely healthcare, home-based elderlycare and high-end elderlycare. In respect of healthcare, Ping An Life served over 19 million customers in the first nine months of 2023, up over 10% year on year. Ping An's home-based elderlycare services covered 54 cities across China and over 70,000 customers qualified for the home-based elderlycare services as of September 30, 2023, of which over 50% activated the services. In respect of high-end elderlycare, a "Ping An Zhen Yi Nian" experience center opened in Sanya, Hainan Province in July 2023, and the groundbreaking ceremony of "Guangzhou Yi Nian Cheng" was held in August 2023.

The integrated financial services model continued to progress steadily; Ping An P&C and Ping An Bank maintained steady development.

Ping An continuously promoted its integrated finance model to enhance retail customer development. Ping An's integrated finance strategy is focused on the development of retail customers under a customer-centric philosophy to strengthen cross-selling among customer segments. In retail business, Ping An leverages its ecosystems to build a brand of heartwarming financial services by providing "worry-free, time-saving, and money-saving" one-stop integrated finance solutions. Retail customers increased 1.5% from the beginning of the year to nearly 230 million and contracts per retail customer reached 2.99 as of September 30, 2023. Retail customers and contracts per retail customer have increased 15.9% and 12.0% respectively since December 31, 2019.

Ping An P&C maintained stable business growth. Insurance revenue grew 6.8% year on year to RMB235,538 million in the first nine months of 2023, with operating profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company reaching RMB9,965 million. Overall underwriting combined ratio (COR) rose by 1.6 pps year on year to 99.3% in the first nine months of 2023, including an industry-leading 97.4% auto insurance underwriting COR. Auto and non-auto insurance claim cost increased due to disastrous typhoons and rainstorms. Moreover, auto insurance customers' travel needs recovered, and guarantee insurance business was impacted by changes in the market environment. As a result, overall cost fluctuated. The accumulated registered users of the "Ping An Auto Owner" app exceeded 194 million as of September 30, 2023 as Ping An P&C continued to provide auto owners with excellent services.

Ping An Bank maintained stable and healthy business performance. Net profit grew 8.1% year on year to RMB39,635 million in the first nine months of 2023. Non-performing loan ratio declined by 0.01 pps from the beginning of the year to 1.04% and provision coverage ratio was 282.62% as of September 30, 2023, indicating adequate risk provisions. Ping An Bank continued to increase support for the real economy. Loans to areas including inclusive finance, manufacturing, agriculture, and green finance grew healthily as Ping An Bank improved its business portfolio. Ping An Bank furthered transformation in retail banking. Ping An Bank's retail assets under management ("AUM") rose 11.5% from the beginning of the year to RMB3,998,848 million as of September 30, 2023. Ping An Bank had approximately 124,823,700 retail customers as of September 30, 2023, including approximately 1,369,300 wealth management customers, up 8.2% from the beginning of the year.

Capital markets continued to fluctuate in the first nine months of 2023. Ping An pursues long-term returns across business cycles via value investing. The Company's insurance funds investment portfolio achieved an annualized comprehensive investment yield of 3.7% and an annualized net investment yield of 4.0% in the first nine months of 2023. The Company's insurance funds investment portfolio grew 7.1% from the beginning of the year to nearly RMB4.64 trillion as of September 30, 2023.

Business volumes declined and asset valuations changed due to the impact of the macroeconomic environment in the first nine months of 2023. Moreover, capital markets were volatile and market investment demand was weak. As a result, profit of asset management business declined. Ping An's AUM exceeded RMB6 trillion as of September 30, 2023. The Company primarily conducts its asset management business through companies including Ping An Securities, Ping An Trust, Ping An Financial Leasing, and Ping An Asset Management.

Ping An continuously advanced its healthcare ecosystem development to build differential advantages.

Ping An's healthcare ecosystem empowered core financial businesses through differentiated "Product + Service" offerings. Nearly 64% of Ping An's nearly 230 million retail customers used services from the healthcare ecosystem as of September 30, 2023. They held approximately 3.42 contracts and RMB56,100 in AUM per capita, 1.6 times and 3.4 times those held by non-users of these services respectively.

In terms of payers, Ping An made significant progress in both corporate and retail customer development by effectively integrating insurance with healthcare and elderlycare services. The healthcare ecosystem of the Group had over 45,000 paying corporate clients in the first nine months of 2023. Ping An Health had over 44 million paying users over the past 12 months. Ping An achieved over RMB110 billion in health insurance premium income in the first nine months of 2023. Customers entitled to service benefits in the healthcare ecosystem accounted for approximately 68% of Ping An Life's NBV in the first nine months of 2023.

In terms of providers, Ping An integrated premium healthcare resources to improve services. Ping An acquired PKU Healthcare Group and integrated its excellent resources into Ping An's existing healthcare ecosystem. These resources include six 3A/tier-3 hospitals (with 4,000 beds), 13 specialty medical institutions and so on, among which Peking University International Hospital is a flagship hospital. Ping An had 17 health management centers as of September 30, 2023. By integrating providers, Ping An partnered with 100% of top 100 hospitals and 3A hospitals, and accumulated nearly 4,000 in-house doctors and nearly 50,000 contracted external doctors in China as of September 30, 2023. Ping An partnered with approximately 228,000 pharmacies as of September 30, 2023, up by nearly 4,000 from the beginning of the year.

Ping An continuously builds leading technological capabilities, which have been widely utilized to empower its core financial businesses. Ping An has a first-class technology team of over 3,200 scientists as of September 30, 2023. The Group's patent applications led most international financial institutions, totaling 50,815. Technology benefits are reflected in higher sales, better business efficiency, and stronger risk management. The volume of services provided by Ping An's AI service representatives reached about 1.7 billion times in the first nine months of 2023, representing 82% of Ping An's total customer service volume. Sales realized by AI service representatives accounted for 45% of the total sales volume of all service representatives. AI helped to collect 42% of overdue loans. The Company engages in technology business mainly through subsidiaries, associates and joint ventures, including Autohome, Ping An Health, OneConnect, and Lufax Holding, providing diverse products and services to ecosystem users, with significant synergies. Net profit of technology business declined year on year as its revenue was under pressure in the first nine months of 2023.

Ping An further advanced green finance initiatives, and fulfilled comprehensive corporate social responsibilities. Green insurance premium income amounted to RMB26,276 million in the first nine months of 2023. Ping An has cumulatively provided RMB103,241 million for rural industrial vitalization since the launch of "Ping An Rural Communities Support," and received the 12th "China Charity Award" in September 2023.

In a complex and fast-changing market environment, the financial services industry was generally impacted to some extent in the first nine months of 2023. But the positive long-term fundamentals of the industry will remain unchanged. The Company will adhere to high-quality development with Chinese characteristics, keep its business resilience under the leadership of the Board of Directors, build its strengths, and make progress while maintaining stability. Ping An will maintain its strategic focus on core financial businesses and continue advancing its technology-driven "integrated finance + healthcare" strategy. The Company will continuously improve operations and management, advance comprehensive digital transformation, and increase cost-effectiveness. Ping An will keep the continuity and stability of its profit distribution policy, and maintain value investing and long-term returns for shareholders.

[1] 4 channels include agent channel, bancassurance channel, Community Grid channel, and lower-tier channel, and 3 products include insurance + healthcare, insurance + home-based elderlycare, and insurance + high-end elderlycare.

SOURCE Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd.
DUBLIN, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The "PreK-12 Instructional Materials Industry Competitive Analysis 2023" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Publishers are making a variety of adjustments to what they need to do to be competitive and successful to deal with the major forces and changes confronting this section. These include responding to the lingering effects of pandemic induced lockdowns in the US, causing an ongoing need to address matters like learning loss, social emotional learning, more flexible learning and the rapid and growth in the use of digital tools and platforms.

The PreK-12 Instructional Materials Industry Competitive Analysis 2023 examines the variety of adjustments that educational material providers to PreK-12 schools are doing to remain competitive and keep up with trends. This includes addressing post COVID trends such as learning loss, SEL, flexible learning, as well as aligning strategy and products to the digital transformation. Also covered are industry trends and concerns such as the upcoming ESSER funding drop, and the decline in mergers and acquisitions and private equity funding The report also profiles and, for public companies, financial data, for major players serving this industry: Boxlight, Cambium Learning, Cengage, Discovery Education, Goodheart-Willcox, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Kahhot!, Mcgraw Hill, Pearson, PowerSchool, Renaissance, Savvas Learning, Scholastic and Stride.

What this Report Covers

In addition to describing how companies are responding to trends and changes in the market, Simba's PreK-12 Competitive Analysis 2023 report also looks at market and financial trends impacting the entire industry.

The Association of American Publishers' (AAP's) StatShot report for calendar year 2022 found that publishing industry sales overall were down 2.6%, totaling $28.1 billion. That was still 8.6% higher than the $25.87 billion recorded in 2019, and 8.7% higher than 2020 revenues of $25.86 billion. The K-12 Education portion of the business, which came in at $5.61 billion (or almost 20% of the total, making it the second biggest sector) was the only vertical that grew during the year. In fact, it showed a robust increase of 16.6%

Issues facing publishers include preparing for the loss of federal government ESSER funding; fewer mergers and acquisitions and a drop in private equity. The report also looks at how and where publishers are putting increased efforts and activity, such as producing more teaching material for ELA, STEM/STEAM and formative assessment products and tools.

The report includes company profiles, and for publicly held companies, financial data for the following major players: Boxlight, Cambium Learning, Cengage, Discovery Education, Goodheart-Willcox, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Kahhot!, Mcgraw Hill, Pearson, PowerSchool, Renaissance, Savvas Learning, Scholastic and Stride.

Technology: Adapting to the Post-Pandemic Marketplace

The development and enhancement of digital solutions is of particular interest, although the return to in-person learning has curbed usage somewhat.

Utilized correctly, digital tools can enhance personalized learning and academic progress. They can also help free up teachers' time by automating some tasks and speeding up others, allowing educators to spend more time helping students learn. For vendors, digital solutions can help improve margins because there are no shipping, paper, or printing costs.

Comfort with remote learning (and technology in general) and the infrastructure to support it have improved immensely since the lockdowns began in 2020. But there are still barriers to using digital solutions as efficiently and effectively as possible in classrooms. In addition, the rapidly changing nature of technology requires almost-continual training, something that takes time away from direct student interactions.

Solutions in various stages of development and use that educators, administrators, and vendors are hoping will move the needle include:

augmented and virtual reality

the metaverse

artificial intelligence, with generative AI the most recent hot topic

e-sports and other game-based learning platforms

platforms for student-led, personalized learning

micro-learning



Key Topics Covered:

CHAPTER 1: OPERATIONAL TRENDS IN 2022-2023

TRENDS AND CHALLENGES FACE EDUCATORS AND VENDORS

Potential ESSER Funding Cliff Ahead

Difficult Issues Continue to Intensify

Technology: Adapting to the Post-Pandemic Marketplace

HOW COMPANIES HAVE RESPONDED TO THE TRENDS

CHAPTER 2: PREK-12 COMPANIES' FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE IN 2022 AND EARLY 2023

GROWTH DRIVERS TO WATCH

GOODHEART WILLCOX DELAYS REPORTING

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2023

PREK-12 MARKETING OUTPERFORMS PUBLISHING AS A WHOLE

CHAPTER 3: STOCK PRICE TRENDS IN 2022-2023

THE YEAR 2023 SO FAR

ROBUST STOCK ISSUANCE AND REPURCHASE ACTIVITY

TREND TOWARD PRIVATE OWNERSHIP CONTINUES

SPACS AND IPOS COOL

CHAPTER 4: M&A ACTIVITY IN 2022 AND 2023 YEAR TO DATE

M&A ACTIVITY IN PREK-12 EDUCATION STEADY IN 2022

INDUSTRY TRENDS DRIVE ACQUISITION ACTIVITY

FIRST HALF OF 2023 SHOWS A SLOWING OF M&A ACTIVITY

CHAPTER 5: INTEREST FROM PRIVATE EQUITY SLOWS

MORE SLOWING IN 2023 TO DATE

PRIVATE EQUITY PORTFOLIOS MAINTAIN EDUCATION HOLDINGS

CHAPTER 6: COMPANY PROFILES

Boxlight

Cambium Learning

Cengage

Discovery Education

Goodheart-Willcox

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Kahoot!

Mcgraw Hill

Pearson

Powerschool

Renaissance Learning

Savvas Learning Company

Scholastic Corporation

Stride

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/xnggg3

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



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SOURCE Research and Markets
HELSINKI, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Publishing of Caverion's Interim Report for JanuarySeptember 2023 on 3 November 2023

Caverion Corporation's Interim Report for JanuarySeptember 2023 will be published on Friday, 3 November 2023, at approximately 8:00 EET. The stock exchange release and presentation materials in Finnish and in English will be published at that time on the company's website at www.caverion.com/investors.

News conference for investors and media

Caverion will hold a news conference on the Interim Report on Friday, 3 November 2023, at 10.00 EET at the company's premises, Torpantie 2, 01650 Vantaa, Finland. The presenters at the event are President and CEO Jacob Gotzsche and CFO Mikko Kettunen. The event is held in English and targeted for investment analysts, portfolio managers and the media.

Webcast and conference call

The news conference and the presentations by the management can be viewed live at https://caverion.videosync.fi/2023-q3 or www.caverion.com/investors. The live webcast will start at 10.00 EET. A recording of the webcast will later be available at the same address.

It is also possible to participate in the event through a conference call by registering beforehand on the following link: https://palvelu.flik.fi/teleconference/?id=1009623 .

Phone numbers and the conference ID to access the conference will be provided after the registration. To ask a question, press *5 on your telephone keypad to enter the queue.

During the webcast and conference call, all questions should be presented in English.

Schedule in different time zones



Report published The news conference, conference call

and live webcast Recorded webcast

available EET (Helsinki) 08.00 10.00 12.00 CET (Paris, Stockholm) 07.00 09.00 11.00 GMT (London) 06.00 08.00 10.00 EDT (New York) 01.00 03.00 05.00

For additional information, please contact:

Noora Koikkalainen,

Head of Investor Relations,

tel. +358 50 562 6552,

noora.koikkalainen@caverion.com
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 27. Armenia is ready to buy gas from Azerbaijan after political issues are resolved, Deputy Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure of Armenia Hakob Vardanyan at the Silk Road forum in Tbilisi said, Trend reports.

It is clear that Armenia has already lost a lot due to its own policy of occupation against its neighbor, Azerbaijan. With its aggressive policy, Yerevan actually deprived itself of many economic opportunities and remained aloof from all regionally significant projects.

And now the deputy minister of this country declares his desire to buy gas from Azerbaijan. Well, everything depends on the behavior of Armenia, because it is clear that the path to any type of cooperation, including the purchase of gas, lies through a peace treaty, the signing of which is delayed by Armenia itself.

Immediately after the end of the war, Azerbaijan declared its readiness for peace and put forward the principles of a peace treaty. Now the ball is in the Armenian side.
National top 10-ranked healthcare communications consultancy adds five colleagues to roster

BRENTWOOD, Tenn. and CHICAGO, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- National healthcare strategic communications advisory firm Jarrard Inc. has added five new professionals to its team, including veteran business development expert Jennifer Dye as vice president of strategic partnerships, supporting the consultancy's Health Systems Practice.

With more than 15 years of experience establishing successful strategic partnerships through networking and cultivating relationships, Dye has deep expertise in expanding current client relationships while activating new connections with C-level leaders at renowned healthcare organizations and state associations across the country.

Jarrard Inc. has hired five new team members, each with a valuable skillset gained in various areas of healthcare. Post this

Before joining Jarrard, Dye was a strategic account executive and national lab lead at Change Healthcare/Optum. Previously, she was a hospital account executive at Mayo Clinic, where she led hospital and lab sales throughout the Northeast. Dye also held director and executive roles at several other organizations, including Quest Diagnostics and AMBI.

"Jennifer has built an accomplished career as a leader and strategist for some of the most respected names in healthcare," Jarrard Inc. President Anne Hancock Toomey commented. "Her blended experience in strategic communications, business development and forging smart industry partnerships will serve our clients and the firm well as we continue to advance our mission to make healthcare better."

Jarrard also named Mandi Kane as associate vice president of its Public & Community Health Systems Practice. Kane previously served for three years as a senior managing advisor at the firm before taking a vice president position at Edelman. While there, she led national and global media strategies for Fortune companies spanning the healthcare continuum, including medical device and diagnostics, payer, pharma, bio sciences and tech. She also spearheaded preparation for a global medical technology company's committee meeting with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Additional new hires:

Ann Kim , Senior Managing Advisor, Academic Practice

Before joining the firm, Ann directed corporate communications for two healthcare organizations: Central Maine Healthcare, a three-hospital system, and InterMed, P.A., the largest physician-owned medical group in Maine . Her strategic counsel, storytelling abilities, journalism and advocacy backgrounds help clients advance their goals during periods of rapid change.

Before joining the firm, Ann directed corporate communications for two healthcare organizations: Central Maine Healthcare, a three-hospital system, and InterMed, P.A., the largest physician-owned medical group in . Her strategic counsel, storytelling abilities, journalism and advocacy backgrounds help clients advance their goals during periods of rapid change. Sarah Bass , Advisor

Prior to joining Jarrard Inc., Bass worked as a benefit analyst for the Social Security Administration. There, she used public communication platforms to improve program visibility for beneficiaries and increase their understanding of benefits and regulations. Previously, she was also a college lecturer in business and professional public speaking at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville . Bass brings Jarrard clients deep experience using data to inform message development, as well as unique insight into regulatory issues and policies.

Prior to joining Jarrard Inc., Bass worked as a benefit analyst for the Social Security Administration. There, she used public communication platforms to improve program visibility for beneficiaries and increase their understanding of benefits and regulations. Previously, she was also a college lecturer in business and professional public speaking at The . Bass brings Jarrard clients deep experience using data to inform message development, as well as unique insight into regulatory issues and policies. Madison Barr, Associate Advisor Barr was hired by Jarrard in 2023 following a successful internship at the firm. She has a background in health communication and a keen focus on rural healthcare and health equity. Barr earned a bachelor's degree in communication studies with a concentration in health communication and a mental health services minor from Middle Tennessee State University .

About Jarrard Inc.

With offices in the healthcare hubs of Nashville and Chicago, Jarrard Inc. is a specialized healthcare consulting firm devoted to helping leaders during high-stakes moments of change, challenge and opportunity. We use the power of communications, marketing and political strategy to help our clients achieve their most important goals. Our mission is to make healthcare better through our work. Founded in 2006, the firm has worked with more than 1,000 clients in 45+ states and served as a communications advisor on more than $75 billion in announced M&A and partnership transaction communications. The firm focuses on change management, issues and advocacy, and strategic positioning. Jarrard Inc. is a division of Chartis, one of the nation's leading healthcare advisory firms. For more information, visit jarrardinc.com or follow us @JarrardInc.

SOURCE Jarrard Inc.
MILWAUKEE, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Louis Pinkham, Chief Executive Officer of Regal Rexnord Corporation (NYSE: RRX), announced that the Board of Directors, at its regular quarterly meeting held on October 27, 2023, declared a dividend of $0.35 per share. The dividend is payable on January 12, 2024, to shareholders of record at the close of business on December 29, 2023. The company has paid a dividend every quarter since January 1961.

Regal Rexnord Corporation is a global leader in the engineering and manufacturing of factory automation sub-systems, industrial powertrain solutions, automation and mechanical power transmission components, electric motors and electronic controls, air moving products, and specialty electrical components and systems.

Through longstanding technology leadership and an intentional focus on producing more socially conscious and environmentally-friendly products and sub-systems, the Company is regularly addressing increasingly relevant secular demands of customers in the medical, alternative energy, aerospace, food & beverage, general industrial and warehouse/intralogistics end markets, among others. In short, Regal Rexnord's 36,000 associates around the world are proud to be working each day towards fulfilling the Company's purpose  helping create a better tomorrow  for its customers and for the planet.

Regal Rexnord is comprised of four operating segments: Industrial Powertrain Solutions, Power Efficiency Solutions, Automation & Motion Control and Industrial Systems. Regal Rexnord is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and has manufacturing, sales, and service facilities worldwide. For more information, visit RegalRexnord.com.

SOURCE Regal Rexnord Corporation
SUNDSVALL, Sweden, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- JanuarySeptember 2023 compared with JanuarySeptember 2022

Net sales decreased to SEK 13,697m (15,921). The decline was mainly related to lower selling prices, which was partly offset by positive exchange rate effects and higher delivery volumes.

(15,921). The decline was mainly related to lower selling prices, which was partly offset by positive exchange rate effects and higher delivery volumes. EBITDA amounted to SEK 5,172m (8,213). The change was mainly attributable to lower selling prices. A strong result in the Forest segment and good growth in the Renewable Energy segment had a positive impact on earnings. EBITDA margin was 37.8% (51.6).

(8,213). The change was mainly attributable to lower selling prices. A strong result in the Forest segment and good growth in the Renewable Energy segment had a positive impact on earnings. EBITDA margin was 37.8% (51.6). Operating profit declined to SEK 3,738m (7,052).

(7,052). Operating cash flow was SEK 3,040m (4,958).

(4,958). Earnings per share was SEK 4.02 (7.85).

JulySeptember 2023 compared with JulySeptember 2022

Net sales amounted to SEK 4,302m (5,007). The change was mainly attributable to lower selling prices, which were offset by higher delivery volumes.

(5,007). The change was mainly attributable to lower selling prices, which were offset by higher delivery volumes. EBITDA declined to SEK 1,417m (2,484) and EBITDA margin was 32.9% (49.6). Lower selling prices were offset by effective cost control due to the high rate of self-sufficiency in primarily wood raw material but also energy and logistics.

JulySeptember 2023 compared with AprilJune 2023

Net sales decreased to SEK 4,302m (4,582). The decline was mainly attributable to lower selling prices for pulp and solid-wood products.

(4,582). The decline was mainly attributable to lower selling prices for pulp and solid-wood products. EBITDA amounted to SEK 1,417m (1,700). The change was mainly attributable to lower selling prices for pulp and solid-wood products. EBITDA margin was 32.9% (37.1).

KEY FIGURES





Quarter

Jan-Sep SEKm

2023:3 2022:3 % 2023:2 %

2023 2022 % Net sales

4,302 5,007 -14 4,582 -6

13,697 15,921 -14 EBITDA

1,417 2,484 -43 1,700 -17

5,172 8,213 -37 EBITDA margin, %

32.9 49.6

37.1



37.8 51.6

Operating profit

913 2,094 -56 1,229 -26

3,738 7,052 -47 Net Profit

663 1,666 -60 916 -28

2,792 5,606 -50 Earnings per share SEK

0.96 2.35

1.32



4.02 7.85























Operating cash flow

1,189 1,873

648



3,040 4,958

Net Debt / EBITDA (LTM)

1.4x 0.8x

1.3x



1.4x 0.8x



SUMMARY OF THE THIRD QUARTER OF 2023

Due to the high rate of self-sufficiency in wood raw material, energy, and logistics, SCA generated good profitability and strong operating cash flow during the quarter, despite lower selling prices and higher costs for wood raw material. The new paper machine in Obbola and the new CTMP facility at the Ortviken site contributed to higher delivery volumes.

The supply of wood raw material to SCA's industries was stable during the quarter. The price of pulpwood continued to rise while the price of sawlogs was stable compared with the preceding quarter.

Selling prices for solid-wood products decreased compared with the preceding quarter due to lower demand in most customer segments and regions.

Demand in the Pulp segment was weak for both northern bleached softwood kraft pulp (NBSK) and chemi-thermomechanical pulp (CTMP), which resulted in lower selling prices in all regions.

Low demand for packaging material contributed to continued weak demand for kraftliner and selling prices were in line with the preceding quarter.

The wind power business continued to grow in the Renewable Energy segment. At the end of the third quarter of 2023, 743 wind turbines were operating on SCA's land with an combined annual production capacity of 8.3 TWh. After the end of the quarter, a decision was taken to invest in a wind power project located on SCA's land in Bracke Municipality with construction scheduled to start at the end of the year. The investment will ensure profitable growth in the wind power business and SCA's future self-sufficiency in electricity. Lower energy prices had a negative impact on earnings compared with the preceding quarter.

INVITATION TO PRESS CONFERENCE ON INTERIM REPORT FOR THE THIRD QUARTER OF 2023

Members of the media and analysts are hereby invited to attend a press conference where this interim report will be presented by the President and CEO, Ulf Larsson, and by the CFO, Andreas Ewertz.

Time: Friday, October 27, 2023 at 10:00 a.m.

The press conference will be webcast live at www.sca.com. It is also possible to participate by telephone by calling:

Sweden: +46 (0)8 505 204 24 UK: +44 (0) 33 0551 0200 US: +1 786 697 3501

Specify 'SCA Q3'

For further information, please contact :

Andreas Ewertz, CFO, +46 (0)60 19 31 97

Josefine Bonnevier, Investor Relations Director, +46 (0)60 19 33 90

Anders Edholm, SVP Sustainability and Communications, +46 (0)60 19 32 12

Please note:

This is information that SCA is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation and the Securities Markets Act. This report has been prepared in both Swedish and English versions. In case of variations in the content between the two versions, the Swedish version shall govern. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out below, on October 27, 2023 at 8:00 a.m. CEST. The report has not been reviewed by the company's auditors.

Anders Edholm, SVP Sustainability and Communications, +46 (0)60 19 32 12

The following files are available for download:

https://mb.cision.com/Main/600/3864000/2390183.pdf SCA interim report Q3 2023 (PDF) https://mb.cision.com/Public/600/3864000/80733aa7c1f4ed35.pdf SCA interim report Q3 2023 press release (PDF)

SOURCE SCA
STOCKHOLM, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Securitas is pleased to invite investors, analysts and financial media to our Capital Markets Day on Thursday March 7, 2024, at 14.00 CET to approximately 17.00. The event will provide a strategic and financial update.

The event will take place at Securitas' Headquarter in Stockholm and will also be web casted.

A formal invitation including agenda and registration will follow closer to the event.

Further information:

Investors: Carina Floren; IR Manager +46 73 719 21 01, [email protected]

The following files are available for download:

https://mb.cision.com/Main/1062/3864097/2390430.pdf Save the date CMD 2024

SOURCE Securitas
LONDON, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Stability AI, the UK's leading generative AI firm and a British AI unicorn headquartered in London, is pleased to contribute to the upcoming AI Safety Summit hosted by the UK Government at Bletchley Park.

Emad Mostaque, founder and CEO of Stability AI, and Ben Brooks, Head of Public Policy at Stability AI, will participate in the summit.

Emad Mostaque, CEO of Stability AI said, "As the leading British generative AI company, Stability AI is honoured to participate in the upcoming AI Safety Summit. The UK has a once in a generation opportunity to become an AI superpower and ensure that AI benefits all, not just big tech. Open technology is driving a wave of grassroots innovation in the UK and around the world that will greatly benefit economic growth and which is helping to promote transparency and competition in AI.

At this Summit, we will share our experience as a developer of the most popular generative AI models across image, language, code, audio, 3d, and video. We will encourage the Government and other policymakers to commit to supporting AI safety right across the ecosystem, from corporate labs to everyday researchers and from long-term threats to short-term risks to keep Britain safe and competitive.

We believe this is best achieved through a shared vision of the positive transformation this technology will unleash as well as a clear understanding of the emerging risks, so that we can innovate with integrity and align our efforts and systems to ensure our safety and security."

About Stability AI

Stability AI is a global company, headquartered in London, working to activate humanity's potential through artificial intelligence (AI). Today, Stability AI develops a range of generative AI models for image, language, audio, and video. With appropriate safeguards, these models are shared openly to promote transparency and competition in AI. Stability AI's flagship model, Stable Diffusion, is a family of open-source image models that powers up to ~80% of AI-generated imagery; their open-source language models have been downloaded over six million times; and their audio model, Stable Audio, was recently listed on the TIME Best Inventions of 2023.

Stability AI is committed to the safe development and safe deployment of open models. To that end, Stability AI has joined the White House Voluntary AI Commitments and participated in the first large-scale public evaluation of AI models announced by the White House. Stability AI recently testified in the UK Parliament and the US Congress , and engages widely with researchers and governments around the world as they consider the future of AI oversight.

About the AI Safety Summit

The AI Safety Summit 2023 is a major global event that will take place on the 1 and 2 November at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire. The summit will bring together international governments, leading AI companies, civil society groups and experts in research to consider the risks of AI, especially at the frontier of development, and discuss how they can be mitigated through internationally coordinated action.

SOURCE Stability AI
ARVADA, Colo., Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- More than 3,400 Colorado nonprofits are gearing up for the state's most impactful 24-hour giving movement, Colorado Gives Day which is Tuesday, Dec. 5. with early giving starting on Wednesday, Nov. 1.

Colorado Gives Foundation teammates celebrate the beginning of early giving, Nov. 1, for Colorado Gives Day, easily the best day to give.

Colorado Gives Day is easily the best day to give. For more than a decade, Coloradans have come together to set forth a wave of generosity that ripples across the state. ColoradoGivesDay.org makes giving easy. Log on to find all the causes you care about in one place. You can donate to one or more incredible nonprofits who work tirelessly to make good happen in Colorado. Donations start at $5 and no matter who you give to or how much you give, the result is the same  we help our communities thrive.

Beginning Nov. 1 and continuing through Colorado Gives Day on Dec. 5, all donations made on ColoradoGivesDay.org get a boost from a $1 million+ Incentive Fund that increases the impact of every dollar donated.

"We all have the things we care about and on Colorado Gives Day, you can give to what matter most to you," said Kelly Dunkin, president and CEO of Colorado Gives Foundation, the organization behind Colorado Gives Day. "Last year, 100,000 donors came together to donate more than $53 million for local nonprofits. So whether you want to help find a cure for cancer, protect our rivers, feed the hungry or help pets find forever homes, it's good on a monumental scale. The more fun we have giving, the more our communities thrive."

The online giving platform, ColoradoGivesDay.org, is free for nonprofits to use for online fundraising and makes giving easy and safe. All nonprofits on the platform are vetted to confirm their charitable status and that are in good standing with the Colorado Secretary of State's Office. Since ColoradoGives.org is also a year-round giving platform, Colorado Gives Foundation is offering an additional match for donors who set up a monthly recurring donation. For all new monthly donations set up Nov. 20  Dec. 5, Colorado Gives Foundation will match it up to $100, or $250,000 across the site.

FirstBank helped launch and is the presenting sponsor of Colorado Gives Day, providing cash prizes, event support, incentive fund contributions and paid advertising. "By coming together to donate on one of the largest giving days in the nation, we can amplify our giving power and create positive change," said Kelly Kaminskas, Chief Digital Officer for FirstBank and Colorado Gives Foundation board member. "FirstBank's continued support of Colorado Gives Day demonstrates our commitment to investing in the communities we love and serve."

Businesses that want to give can support the nonprofits of their choice through the Corporate Challenge, presented by Delta Dental of Colorado. "It only takes a little to make a big impact and the Corporate Challenge is a great way for businesses big and small to do that," said Andrea Miller, Director of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) for Delta Dental of Colorado. "We hope to inspire companies across Colorado to donate and are thrilled to give the first 100 companies that raise $1,000 an additional $1,000 match for their nonprofits."

"Let's take 'doing good' to new elevations this Colorado Gives Day to discover how much good we can create together," added Dunkin.

Colorado Gives Day is made possible by Colorado Gives Foundation and presenting sponsor, FirstBank, with support from other sponsors including: Delta Dental of Colorado; Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA); Gary Community Ventures; Janus Henderson Investors; Woodnext Foundation; Amazon; Southwest Airlines; Trinchera Blanca Foundation; Graystone Consulting; Noodles & Company; Ireland Stapleton Pryor & Pascoe, PC; 9News; Entravision; Colorado Public Radio; Rocky Mountain Public Media; BizWest; Colorado Parent; Mile High Outdoor Advertising; iHeart Radio; Comcast; 5280 Magazine; Lamar Outdoor; PBS12; and Mountain Pearl.

About Colorado Gives Foundation

Colorado Gives Foundation connects donors, ideas and Colorado nonprofits to make good happen. Colorado Gives Foundation is a Jefferson County grant maker, investing over $8 million annually to help Jeffco nonprofits. We also work statewide to build the capacity of nonprofits and donors via Colorado Gives 365, nonprofit endowments and donor services. Through ColoradoGives.org, we make it easy for people to donate to the causes they care about, enabling meaningful change to help our neighbors thrive. Our work is rooted in attentive listening and a firm commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion. Colorado Gives Foundation is where donors find and discover the community impact that matters most to them, which is good for everyone.

About FirstBank

FirstBank began providing banking services in 1963. Today, it's known as an industry leader in digital banking. It has grown to be one of the largest privately held banks in the United States, maintaining more than $28 billion in assets and 100 branch locations across Colorado, Arizona, and California. FirstBank offers a variety of consumer deposit accounts, home equity loans, mortgages, rental property loans, and a full range of commercial banking services, including business financing, commercial real estate loans, treasury management, and more. Since 2000, FirstBank has been recognized as a top corporate philanthropist, contributing more than $85 million and thousands of volunteer hours to charitable organizations. The company is also unique in that a large portion of its stock is owned by management and employees, giving employees a financial stake in the bank's success through its Employee Stock Ownership Program. For more information, visit www.efirstbank.com.

Cindy Matthews, 720.898.5909

Director of Communications & Community Outreach

[email protected]

SOURCE Colorado Gives Foundation
Union Urges Council to Pass Proposal Unanimously

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 26, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Teamsters are applauding Los Angeles City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez for introducing a motion yesterday that urges the State of California to address public safety concerns surrounding autonomous vehicles and to regulate the expansion of robotaxis in the city.

"It is critical that the city council prioritize public safety ahead of the interests of big tech companies seeking to use public roadways as testing grounds for unsafe technology. The Teamsters are grateful to Councilmember Soto-Martinez for introducing this important motion to demand serious oversight of autonomous vehicles in Los Angeles," said Chris Griswold, Teamsters International Vice President At-Large and President of Teamsters Joint Council 42. "Autonomous vehicles have proven that they are not ready for primetime, and we simply cannot afford to have this unsafe technology on our streets jeopardizing public safety. We urge the Los Angeles City Council to pass this motion without delay."

The motion calls attention to the fact that public officials and California residents have legitimate concerns about the ongoing safety problems associated with the hasty introduction of robotaxis, such as Waymo, on public roadways. The recent expansion of Waymo in Los Angeles has been met with both apprehension and outrage. On Wednesday, the Teamsters and other community groups protested outside the headquarters of Google, the parent company of Waymo, to highlight ongoing safety concerns associated with robotaxis.

"These machines won't just put millions of good-paying, union jobs at risk  they pose a serious threat to pedestrian safety," said Soto-Martinez. "We need actual regulations on robotaxis, and we should not be putting lives at risk by allowing our city to be a test subject for the tech industry."

The motion also urges the Los Angeles City Attorney to support a re-hearing of the California Public Utilities Commission's recent decision to permit the expansion of robotaxis in San Francisco. Waymo's primary competitior, Cruise, had its license to operate in the state suspended after it lied during an investigation by the California Dept. of Motor Vehicles about an incident where one of its robotaxis dragged a woman for 20 feet.

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.2 million hardworking people in the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico. Visit Teamster.org for more information. Follow us on Twitter @Teamsters and "like" us on Facebook at Facebook.com/teamsters.

Contact:

Matt McQuaid (202) 624-6877

[email protected]

SOURCE International Brotherhood of Teamsters
MSTS Refuses to Provide a Fair Wage

LAS VEGAS, Oct. 26, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, members of Teamsters Local 631 working for Mission Support and Test Services (MSTS), the contractor for construction services at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) expanded their picket line to the MSTS office in Las Vegas.

Talks with MSTS broke down after Teamsters Local 631's offer to continue discussions over the weekend was rebuffed.

"Yesterday, we proposed a fair contract to MSTS  one with wages consistent with the other MSTS collective bargaining agreements  and it was rejected," said Tommy Blitsch, Teamsters Local 631 Secretary-Treasurer. "Today, we have expanded our picket line outside the NNSS to include the company's corporate office here in Las Vegas. It is unfortunate that MSTS has forced us out on strike. We are committed to achieving a fair collective bargaining agreement that provides our members with good wages. We hope MSTS will begin to negotiate with us in good faith."

Local 631 is one of multiple labor organizations in the Southern Nevada Building Trades Unions alliance that are signatories to a Project Labor Agreement with MSTS. Over the past few weeks, MSTS has reached tentative agreements with other signatory unions that provide more than what is being offered to members of Teamsters Local 631. Negotiations on a fair tentative agreement are set to resume at 2 p.m. this afternoon.

"It is disappointing that MSTS thinks they can pit the Teamsters against other unions and bully our members into accepting lackluster compensation," Blitsch said. "We are prepared to fight for fair wages and urge the company to present us with an amendable collective bargaining agreement before the end of the day."

Teamsters Local 631 represents workers in gaming, construction, logistics, transit, and other industries throughout Southern Nevada. For more information, go to teamsterslocal631.org.

Contact:

Matt McQuaid (202) 624-6877

[email protected]

SOURCE Teamsters Local 631
GLENDALE, Ariz., Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Prominently featured in The Inner Circle, James Geisbush is acknowledged as a Top Pinnacle Professional for his contributions to the Engineering Field.

James R. Geisbush

Mr. Geisbush began his scholarship journey at Washington State University in 1990 where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering. He then pursued a Master of Science in Civil Engineering at the University of Arizona in 1994, and is capping his higher education experience working towards a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering at the University of Arizona State University, which should be completed in 2023.

Mr. Geisbush has exceptional experience in the field of Civil Engineering. He began working as a project manager/engineer at HDR Engineering Inc. from 2002 to 2006. He then joined the Central Arizona Project (CAP) in 2006, where his leadership and expertise were recognized resulting in increased responsibility, beginning as a project manager and subsequently as a senior civil engineer between 2009 and 2017. Adding to his diverse work history, Mr. Geisbush began his engineering career with the U.S. Navy in facilities maintenance.

Mr. Geisbush is a registered engineer who holds credentials as a professional civil engineer in the state of Arizona since 1997 and California since 2011. He received credentials as a project management professional through the Project Management Institute in 2008. A leader in his field, Mr. Geisbush is currently a senior civil reliability engineer who has been affiliated with the Central Arizona Project (CAP) for more than 17 years. He notes that CAP is the state's largest resource for renewable water supplies, serving more than five million customers, approximately 80% of the state's residents. Mr. Geisbush provides extensive expertise in large-diameter water pipelines and manages the maintenance of the pipelines and tunnels.

Known as an experienced professional and a pipe expert, Mr. Geisbush has been called upon by a multitude of professional agencies and institutes for his expertise. He has also served on numerous teams of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation concerning pipeline maintenance. A testament to his accomplishments, Mr. Geisbush developed a Pipeline Equipment Maintenance Plan (EMP), which outlines the proper time to conduct inspections on pipelines and tunnels and developed maintenance and repair procedures. Mr. Geisbush is heavily sought after to give presentations to national and international groups on pipeline maintenance.

In his future plans, Mr. Geisbush aspires to teach at the university level and also aims to work with several water agencies throughout the country to develop a textbook on pipeline maintenance because of the limited amount of information available. Additionally, he plans to catalogue all CAPs pipeline condition records before he retires.

Mr. Geisbush is dedicated to keeping abreast of the most state-of-the-art advancements in his field through his affiliations, including the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), where he is an elected Fellow of the organization. He also served on the executive committee of the UESI Pipelines Division from 2017 to 2022 and is a former chair of the committee, having served in this position between 2021 and 2022. He has also served on project advisory committees of the Water Research Foundation and remains a member of Tau Beta Pi.

Mr. Geisbush was recognized for his work with an Excellence in Pipeline Award from the ASCE in 2022. He attributes his success to his parents for encouraging him to pursue an education and for teaching him the importance of leadership. His mentors are Randy Randolph and David Gunn and he would like to dedicate this honor to his dear parents, Jon and Penny, and thanks them for their love and support.

Contact: Katherine Green, 516-825-5634, [email protected]

SOURCE The Inner Circle
GRANVILLE, Ohio, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Prominently featured in The Inner Circle, James R. Cooper is acknowledged as a Most Trusted Attorney for his contributions to the field of Business Law.

Mr. Cooper earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame and a Doctor of Jurisprudence from Ohio State University. A partner at the private law firm Morrow Gordon & Byrd, he specializes in Corporations Law, Taxation Law, and Insurance Law.

With more than 51 years of experience, Mr. Cooper provides his expertise in Business Law; Profit & Nonprofit Organizations; Oil & Gas Law; Business Planning; Probate; Federal; State and Local Tax Practice; Estate Planning; and Real Estate Law. He notes that the firm was established in 1993 and the talented team of attorneys represents various types of clients, including individuals; corporations; non-profit; limited liability companies; and sole proprietorships.

A testament to his professionalism and prowess as an attorney, Mr. Cooper was admitted to practice law before the Supreme Court of Ohio and to practice law in Ohio in 1972. He asserts that he has the ability to practice before the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit; the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio; and the United States Court of Military Appeals. He is a member of the Ohio Bar Association and Licking County Bar Association.

Aside from his professional pursuits, Mr. Cooper is a former active duty and a reserve United States Naval Officer.

Contact: Katherine Green, 516-825-5634, [email protected]

SOURCE The Inner Circle
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 27. Because of France's anti-Azerbaijani cultural activities, the UNESCO headquarters should be relocated, the Western Azerbaijan Community said, Trend reports.

The community highlighted that the ludicrous assertions made by French officials about Azerbaijan no longer surprise anyone.

This time, the French Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul Malak, took up the "relay" and declared that her government "photographed Armenian cultural heritage in Karabakh via satellite and created a database," as the community pointed out.

"It is clear that suspicious French officials' knowledge of international law, interstate relations, and behavior is primitive." "They would not commit such heinous and racist acts without the consent of a sovereign state," the community added. "This is blatant impudence on the part of France." For years, France plundered African nations' cultural heritage, and now the minister of this country is making such a declaration."

"The French minister of culture should focus on returning the cultural heritage stolen by her country from Africa (according to some reports, 90,000 specimens). Azerbaijan has nothing to learn from charlatans," the community emphasized.

"Besides, instead of spreading false information, the French minister should respond to Armenia's massive destruction of Azerbaijani cultural and historical monuments in Armenia and on the formerly occupied Azerbaijani territories," the community added."The anti-Azerbaijani activities of France in UNESCO after the second Karabakh war have seriously undermined the independence of this organization, turning it into an instrument of France's vile policies."

"France is politicizing and discrediting this humanitarian organization, taking advantage of the fact that UNESCO's headquarters are located on its territory. All these events require the removal of UNESCO headquarters from France," the community explained.

Previously, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry condemned biased statements of the French minister of culture related to cultural heritage of Azerbaijans Karabakh.
MIAMI, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Tile of Spain, the international brand representing more than 100 ceramic tile manufacturers, announces the annual release of the U.S. Quick Ship Collection.

The Quick Ship Collection is an annually updated reference guide which features a select group of ceramic products from Spanish manufacturers that are available for immediate purchase in the U.S. Founded in 2013, Quick Ship has become a crucial asset for U.S. based architects, designers and trade professionals who work on time-sensitive projects and deadlines.

Tile of Spain Quick Ship

"We are elated to release the 11th consecutive expansion of the Tile of Spain USA Quick Ship Collection," says Rocamador Rubio, Director of Tile of Spain in/for the USA. "In an era of continually evolving design trends, Spanish tile manufacturers are always adapting their production processes to align with contemporary and dynamic styles. With a meticulously curated selection of exquisite Spanish ceramic products, the Quick Ship Collection serves as an invaluable resource that offers insight on cutting-edge Spanish ceramic products that are available for immediate purchase in the U.S."

With features that make it easy to search by product category or company name, the Quick Ship Collection is interactive and user-friendly.

Tile of Spain companies in the 2023 Quick Ship Collection include:

Alaplana Ceramica

Arklam

Azteca Ceramica

Ceramica Azulejos Borja S. L .

Borja L Bellacasa

Bestile

Ceramica Mayor

Cerlat

Cicogres

Colorker S.A.

Cosentino

Coverlam

Coverlam Top

Dune Ceramica

El Barco

EMAC Grupo

Grupo Emotion Ceramics

Equipe

Estudio Ceramico Gayafores

Grespania

Halcon Ceramicas

ITT Ceramic

KTL Ceramica

Monopole

Museum

Pamesa Ceramica

Peronda

Porcelanicos HDC

Porcelanite Dos SL

Pronconcept

Realonda

STN Ceramica

Tau Ceramica

Togama SA

Vitacer

Vives Azulejos Y Gres, S.A.

WOW Design

To view the Quick Ship Collection, visit https://tileofspainusa.com/quickship/ .

About Tile of Spain

In Spain, tile makers labor as they have for centuries  pushing their passion for design and innovation to new levels of artisanship. With one of the purest and strongest domestic clays available, Spanish manufacturers have an unparalleled ability to make the end product more diverse. From rustic handmade forms; to technical facades that cool buildings and clean the air; to the impossibly slim, sustainable recycled and inkjet masterpieces that fire the imagination.

The Spanish Ceramic Tile Manufacturer's Association (ASCER), together with Espana Exportacione Inversiones (ICEX) are the organizations whose objective is to support Spain's ceramic tile manufacturers and the industry as a whole by stewarding and promoting the Tile of Spain brand worldwide. A strong global leader, the Spanish ceramic tile sector is comprised of more than 100 manufacturers concentrated primarily in the province of Castellon.

Contact: Catherine Hoy/Kelly Doyle

Frank Advertising

Phone: 732.644.3285

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Tile of Spain USA
CHICAGO, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Top 10 Food Safety Testing and Technologies Trends is projected to grow at a CAGR of 8.2% from an estimated value of USD 22.7 billion in 2023 to reach USD 33.7 billion by 2028 according to a report published by MarketsandMarkets.

The food safety testing market is experiencing growth due to various factors. These include the global nature of the food supply chain has increased the complexity of ensuring food safety. With food products crossing international borders, there is a need for standardized testing and quality assurance protocols to ensure that products meet safety standards.

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Food pathogen testing is estimated to be the most important market trend among the top trends in food safety testing markets

The largest growing trend in the food safety testing market is food pathogen, which is estimated to be the most significant market. The food pathogen testing market is witnessing rapid growth globally, driven by increasing concerns about food safety, stringent regulatory requirements, and a growing focus on preventing foodborne illnesses. Advances in testing technologies, such as PCR-based methods and next-generation sequencing, are enhancing the accuracy and efficiency of pathogen detection, further fueling market expansion. As consumers and the food industry alike prioritize safe and pathogen-free food products, this market is expected to continue its upward trajectory.

GMO food safety testing is estimated to be the second-most important market trend in the food safety testing market

The GMO food safety testing market is projected to stand second, in terms of the fastest-growing trends, during the forecast period from 2023 to 2028. In some regions, labeling requirements mandate the identification of GMO ingredients in food products. This necessitates testing to confirm the presence or absence of GMO components in various food items, ensuring accurate product labeling and transparency.

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International food testing service providers in Europe and the Americas are facing intense competition as they strive to leverage the market potential in the food safety testing sector.

International manufacturers operating in the food safety testing sector across Europe and the Americas are confronting intense competition as they endeavor to harness the immense market potential within these regions. This competition is fueled by a combination of factors, including the growing emphasis on food safety, stringent regulatory standards, and increasing consumer awareness of the importance of safe and high-quality food products. To establish a foothold and thrive in these markets, manufacturers are required to continuously innovate and offer cutting-edge technologies and services that meet the stringent testing and compliance requirements of the European and American markets. The competition has led to a dynamic landscape where companies are striving to differentiate themselves through superior product quality, customer service, and adherence to the evolving regulatory landscape.

This report includes a study of the marketing and development strategies, along with the product portfolio of leading companies. These companies include SGS Societe Generale De Surveillance SA (Switzerland), Bureau Veritas (France), Intertek Group PLC (UK), Eurofins Scientific (Luxembourg), ALS (Australia), TUV Nord Group (Germany), AsureQuality (New Zealand), Merieux NutriSciences Corporation (US), Microbac Laboratories, Inc. (Pennsylvania), IFP Institute for Product Quality GmbH (Germany), EMSL Analytical, Inc. (US), Symbio Laboratories (Australia), Hill Laboratories (New Zealand), Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (US), Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (US), Romer Labs (Austria) among others.

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Browse Adjacent Reports @ Food and Beverage Market Research Reports & Consulting

Related Reports:

Food Pathogen Testing Market by Type (E.coli, Salmonella, Campylobacter, Listeria), Technology (Traditional, Rapid), Food Type (Meat & poultry, Dairy, Processed food, Fruits & Vegetables, Cereals & Grains), & by Region - Global Forecasts to 2028

Food Testing Kits Market by Target Tested (Pathogens, Meat Species, GMOs, Allergens, Mycotoxins), Technology (PCR, Immunoassay, and Enzyme Substrate based), Sample (Meat, Packaged Food, Cereals, Grains, Dairy & Nuts), and Region - Global Forecast to 2022

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.

Contact:

Mr. Aashish Mehra

MarketsandMarkets INC.

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Northbrook, IL 60062

USA: +1-888-600-6441

Email: [email protected]

Research Insight: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ResearchInsight/top-10-food-safety-testing-technologies-trends.asp

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SOURCE MarketsandMarkets
Members can now enjoy better rewards and perks, up to 20% off hotels

SINGAPORE, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading global travel service provider Trip.com is pleased to announce its 6th anniversary with a gift to its valued customers  an enhanced loyalty program that features a renewed membership tier mechanism and enhanced member rewards globally.

During Trip.com's 6th anniversary promotion campaign, from now to Oct 31, Trip.com members can enjoy additional benefits on top of basic membership privileges.

Schubert Lou, Chief Operating Officer, Trip.com, said, "We are thrilled to celebrate this significant milestone for Trip.com as we continue journeying with our valued customers. As a sign of our continued commitment and gratitude to our loyal members, we hope these exciting new benefits and features add greater value to our customers, ultimately enhancing convenience and ensuring a safe, seamless and rewarding travel experience with Trip.com."

Enhanced Loyalty Program: Membership Tiers

Customers can sign up for free to become a Silver member to earn rewards and enjoy discounts on bookings. Membership tier upgrades are determined by the number of valid bookings made within twelve months. Members who attain an upgrade by completing a certain number of bookings will have their new membership tier extended by one year from the date of their membership upgrade. Trip.com will reset membership tiers according to the member's most recent settlement date.

New Services and Perks

Trip Coins already allow Trip.com members to enjoy many rewards and savings. This year, Trip.com will be rolling out new services for members to further support its ongoing commitment to excellent customer service, and mission to become a true travel companion for its global customer base.

For all member tiers, a new Emergency Assistance will be introduced that offers customers comprehensive help services ranging from medical support to translation assistance, child repatriation, and assistance with missing baggage. This service is available in all English-language regions.

Platinum and Diamond members can enjoy an exclusive Priority Assistance for Calls & Chats service for high-priority and fast access to a live Trip.com agent; a VIP Customer Specialists service for access to prompt and specialised assistance that has all of customer's travel details; and a Free Airport VIP Lounge Access (once per calendar year for Platinum members, twice per calendar year for Diamond members). The VIP Service is available for the following countries and regions: Australia, Great Britain, Singapore, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Spain, Denmark, Italy.

Gold, Platinum, and Diamond tier members can now enjoy a full waiver of the train handling fee, using the No Refund Handling Fee for Trains feature (once, twice, and four times per calendar year, respectively).

Commitment to Enhancing Customer Experiences

Trip.com continues to ensure world-class customer service, encapsulated in its all-in-one app offerings. Not only limited to flights, accommodations, attractions and car rentals, the global travel platform reiterates its commitment to customers through TripGenie  an advanced AI travel assistant designed to revolutionise travel planning and booking; the Trip Moments Community  a vibrant, travel-related social media experience that connects travellers globally; and Trip.com's unrivalled Customer Service team, who ensure smooth customer experiences with prompt service. With this upgraded loyalty program, Trip.com aims to be the trusted travel companion for global travellers.

Download the Trip.com app now, and start exploring, befitting, and experiencing our enhanced loyalty program today.

About Trip.com

Trip.com is an international one-stop travel service provider, available in 24 languages across 39 countries and regions in 31 local currencies and sites. Trip.com has an extensive hotel and flight network consisting of more than 1.2 million hotels and flights from over 480 airlines covering 2,600 airports in 200 countries and regions around the globe. Trip.com's world-class 24/7 multilingual customer service as well as additional centres in Edinburgh, Tokyo and Seoul, help to 'create the best travel experience' for its millions of customers worldwide. To book your next trip, visit trip.com.

SOURCE Trip.com
JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- GOCA Arts, a new Arts school that is set to open in August of 2024 in Jacksonville, Florida, is proud to announce the installation of a groundbreaking feature - indoor slide designed to serve as an exciting and unconventional reward for students.

The indoor slide serves as a tangible celebration of the school's commitment to nurturing artistic talent and fostering a dynamic learning environment. Positioned within the heart of the school, this spiral slide is not just a means of descent but a symbol of the boundless possibilities that unfold when creativity is unleashed.

The indoor slide will be integrated into GOCA Arts' reward system, offering students a unique incentive to excel in their academic pursuits. Whether it's a stellar performance in a recital, an exceptional piece of artwork, or a breakthrough in a creative project, students will have the opportunity to experience the thrill of descending the slide as a symbolic reward for their hard work and dedication.

"We believe in celebrating the creative spirit in all its forms, and the indoor slide is a manifestation of our commitment to making the learning experience at GOCA Arts truly unforgettable," says GOCA Arts' Principal, Lianna Knight. It provides a fun and memorable way for students to celebrate their achievements, fostering a positive and engaging atmosphere."

The indoor slide not only serves as a symbol of achievement but also reflects GOCA Arts' holistic approach to education. By integrating elements of joy and playfulness into the learning environment, the school aims to inspire a lifelong love for the arts and foster a sense of community among its students.

Parents, educators, and students alike are invited to witness the unveiling of the indoor slide at GOCA Arts upcoming Grand Opening Event on January 26, at 12:30 pm. The event will be held at GOCA Arts school, located at 4660 Lusso Lane, Jacksonville FL 32246. The event promises to be a celebration of creativity, talent, and the boundless potential that unfolds when imagination knows no limits.

About GOCA Arts:

GOCA Arts is a tuition-free K-8 public charter school that is set to open in August, 2024 serving grades K-6 first year. GOCA Arts is dedicated to providing a transformative arts-integrated education experience. With a commitment to nurturing creativity, fostering innovation, and empowering students to explore their artistic passions, GOCA Arts stands at the forefront of shaping the next generation of artists and global leaders. Learn more about GOCA Arts on our website.

Contact:

Anna Korchuk

***@outreachedu.net

Photo(s):

https://www.prlog.org/12991223

Press release distributed by PRLog

SOURCE Global Outreach Charter Academy
In collaboration with author Tejas Tendulkar, BCC Research presents a sweeping report titled "Global Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) Treatment Market: Forecast and Trends." This information explores the AML treatment market in-depth, offering invaluable insights and forecasts that empower businesses and healthcare professionals alike.

BOSTON, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- This report dives deep into the global AML treatment market, examining commercially significant products, including targeted therapies, anthracycline drugs, and chemotherapy options. Focusing on the period from 2022 to 2028, this report sheds light on worldwide trends and characteristics, providing critical insights and projections. By pinpointing specific segments within the AML treatment market, our report equips companies involved in AML treatment with quantitative insights for informed decision-making.

Groundbreaking insights from the report include:

The AML treatment market has witnessed substantial growth due to the rising prevalence of AML. Factors such as an aging population, environmental pollutants, and genetic predisposition have contributed to the increase in AML cases, driving the demand for effective treatments.

Efforts to raise awareness about AML and promote early diagnosis have been successful. Increased awareness campaigns, improved screening methods, and better healthcare access have led to earlier detection of AML cases, resulting in better patient outcomes and a growing demand for AML treatment options.

While novel therapies and targeted drugs show promise, the high costs associated with AML treatments pose significant challenges. Affordability issues can limit patient access, especially in regions with limited healthcare resources or inadequate insurance coverage.

Why Act Now?

The timing of this AML market report is critical due to the emergence of novel therapies, evolving market dynamics, increased prevalence, awareness campaigns, economic and healthcare landscape changes, shifting patient outcomes, and the need for informed investment and strategic planning. By capturing current conditions and regulatory developments and aligning with global health priorities, the report offers timely insights for stakeholders to make informed decisions in the dynamic AML treatment market.

Key companies in the market include Bristol Myers Squibb, Sanofi-Aventis, Pfizer, Novartis, and Amgen. In addition, the industry boasts multiple promising start-ups pushing initiatives in the AML treatment landscape:

Agios Pharmaceuticals: Advancing IDH inhibitors in Phase 3.

Celgene: Progressing with Luspatercept-aamt in Phase 3.

Innate Pharma: Exploring checkpoint inhibitors in Phase 2.

This report is tailored for various stakeholders, including Pharmaceutical and Biotech Companies, Hospitals, Clinics, and more; it draws on insights from a Biomedical Scientist at Lund University, ensuring the credibility of the research. The information is derived from authoritative sources within the industry. Take advantage of the future of AML Treatment. Secure your copy with BCC Research Today.

Download Report Overview

For further information or to make a purchase, please get in touch with [email protected].

About BCC Research

BCC Research provides objective, unbiased measurement and assessment of market opportunities with detailed market research reports. Our experienced industry analysts' goal is to help you make informed business decisions, free of noise and hype.

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Data and analysis extracted from this press release must be accompanied by a statement identifying BCC Research LLC as the source and publisher. For media inquiries, email [email protected] or visit www.bccresearch.com/media to request access to our library of market research.

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SOURCE BCC Research LLC
DALLAS, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Mr. Vivek Ramaswamy will present his comprehensive crypto policy and deliver a keynote address entitled, American Leadership in Digital Assets at the North American Blockchain Summit in Fort Worth, Texas on November 16th.

"We are thrilled to host presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy so he can share his vision for American leadership in digital assets," said Lee Bratcher, President of the Texas Blockchain Council, the organization hosting the conference. Bratcher stated further that, "Mr. Ramaswamy has garnered increasing interest and support for his willingness to disrupt the status quo and offer bold and differentiated policy for the future. This keynote address will be the next step in building on that momentum with a specific policy platform for bitcoin and American leadership in the digital economy."

"Our country is in the midst of a national identity crisis, in part caused by the gridlock and bitter partisan divide in Washington, which has created a leadership void filled by unelected bureaucrats who regulate through arbitrary enforcement," said Ramaswamy, 2024 Republican candidate for President of the United States. "Agencies and regulators are serving as a wet blanket on economic growth. They stifle innovation and push economic opportunity abroad. Our nation stands at a crossroads, and the decisions we make today will shape the future for generations to come."

Join us at the North American Blockchain Summit to hear from Mr. Ramaswamy and be a part of a growing movement to demand that the United States honor its founding principle of liberty for all. We should be empowering the millions of Americans that already own and invest in digital assets to build the digital economy of tomorrow based on decentralization and freedom instead of government central planning. "Mr. Ramaswamy has been a leading voice calling for a radical reduction in the size and scope of the federal government," said Steve Kinard of the Texas Blockchain Council. The vision of this conference is to provide an environment in which we can chart a course towards a stronger, more prosperous America.

For more information, visit: https://www.northamericanblockchainsummit.com/

SOURCE North American Blockchain Summit
CHARLOTTE, N.C., Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Won Life Brands  parent company of Famous Toastery, the better brunch franchise known for its "Famously Fresh" and simple-scratch menu, headquartered in Charlotte  has been announced as a finalist for the Best Places to Work award by The Charlotte Business Journal. The award highlights local employers  big and small  that have perks, practices and policies to attract and keep top talent.

"As an emerging company with just one year under our belt, we're incredibly honored to be already making waves in the Charlotte area as finalists for this prestigious award," said Robert Maynard, Founder and CEO of Won Life Brands. "We're thrilled to be able to offer a place in Charlotte where people not only want to work, but where they're proud to work."

Earlier this year, The Charlotte Business Journal recognized Won Life Brands as one of the Best in Human Resources in the area. Winners for the outlet's Best Places to Work Award will be announced at a celebration event on November 2.

Won Life Brands is committed to developing and growing its brands, one of which is Charlotte's very own Famous Toastery. Originally established in Huntersville, NC in 2005, and subsequently venturing into franchising in 2013, Famous Toastery now boasts a network of 25+ locations in operation spanning across North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. The brand has ambitious expansion plans currently underway, with the development of five new restaurants in Jacksonville, Florida, and the imminent opening of another location in North Carolina.

"Won Life Brands demonstrates the unique ability to not only help businesses grow, but also cultivate talent within their brands, ensuring brand success," said Mike Sebazco, President of Famous Toastery. "Partnering with a company that values creating a desired work environment is of the upmost importance to us. Won Life Brands' profound dedication to the communities their brands serve is contagious and can be felt throughout the entire Famous Toastery franchise."

Famous Toastery believes food should be both delicious and nutritious, uncompromisingly fresh, and served to order quickly with service that is just as satisfying as the menu. A perfect destination for anyone who appreciates mouthwatering, home-style cooking, Famous Toastery's menu consists of decadent recipes expertly crafted with the freshest ingredients and, of course, 100% Grade A pure maple syrup.

For more information about Famous Toastery, please visit www.famoustoastery.com. To learn about franchising opportunities, please visit www.bestbreakfastfranchise.com.

ABOUT WON LIFE BRANDS

Won Life Brands is a premier growth and development company focused on delivering excellent experiences in the communities it serves. Won Life Brands operates company-owned properties and offers franchise opportunities across their brands, which include Famous Toastery, Flour Power Cooking Studios, Big Burger Spot, and Cartridge World America.

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.

SOURCE Famous Toastery
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 27. The foundation of the Tbilisi State Azerbaijan Drama Theater named after Heydar Aliyev was laid in the capital of Georgia, Trend reports.

Azerbaijani Prime Minister Ali Asadov, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, official state and government officials of both countries attended the foundation laying ceremony.

Furthermore, the International Silk Road Forum began its work in Tbilisi yesterday. The Prime Ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia, Ali Asadov and Nikol Pashinyan, also attended the forum, which will be attended by around 2,000 representatives from 60 nations around the world.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 27. Prime Minister of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ali Asadov, who is on a visit to Georgia, and Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili took part in the foundation laying ceremony of the new building of the Tbilisi State Professional Azerbaijani Drama Theater named after Heydar Aliyev on October 27, Trend reports.

In his speech at the occasion, Prime Minister Ali Asadov emphasized that cultural relations founded on historical roots have allowed the Azerbaijani and Georgian peoples to live in conditions of friendship, good neighborliness, peace, and mutual understanding for millennia.

Both Azerbaijan and Georgia have historically handled our peoples' national and spiritual values, culture, language, religion, art, and literature with great respect and sympathy. Many famous Azerbaijani figures and great personalities lived and worked in Georgia, including Mirza Fatali Akhundov, Mirza Shafi Vazeh, and Fatali Khan Khoyski. Furthermore, many cultural and artistic luminaries, as well as renowned Georgian people, worked in Azerbaijan and made significant contributions to our social and cultural life.

Asadov noted that the beginning of the activity of the Tbilisi State Professional Azerbaijani Drama Theater in Tbilisi in 1872 can be noted as a historical confirmation.

"For many years of activity in the theater, immortal works of classic Georgian, Azerbaijani, and world literature have been staged on its stage with great success. Today, the Tbilisi State Professional Azerbaijani Drama Theater, named after the national leader of the Azerbaijani people, Heydar Aliyev, is getting a new breath, which is a historic event. We highly appreciate the decision to have the new theater building located in an important and beautiful corner of the city of Tbilisi, the prime minister said.

"During the leadership of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev has always shown a friendly attitude towards neighboring countries. During both periods of his leadership, Heydar Aliyev treated Georgia and the Georgian people with great respect and showed them special attention and care. We all remember well the strong friendship based on mutual trust between Heydar Aliyev, who repeatedly visited Georgia, and the then-leader of Georgia, Eduard Shevardnadze. Thanks to their leadership, solid foundations were laid for the development of relations between our countries in political, economic, cultural, humanitarian, and all other spheres, said Asadov.

The political careers of both leaders were unique and remembered for similar historical events. Both of them, at the request of their peoples, continued their political activities for the second time as leaders of already independent countries. During the period of leadership of their countries, they, along with other spheres, treated with special attention, care, and sensitivity the national and spiritual values, language, religion, culture, art, and music of their peoples and did everything possible to protect and develop this heritage. I should also note that Heydar Aliyev was a great admirer of Georgian art, literature, music, and cinema, he said.

In addition, Asadov noted that in the modern period, President Ilham Aliyev and Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili preserve historical traditions and protect the national interests of both independent countries developing along the path of democracy, leading both countries to even greater achievements.

The prime minister expressed hope that the professional creative team of this theater, the foundation of which is being laid, will make the most of The excellent conditions that will be created here, new projects, and performances will play an active role in the cultural life of Tbilisi. He noted that this will contribute to the strengthening of good-neighborly, friendly, and fraternal relations between Azerbaijan and Georgia and the rapprochement of the two peoples.

"I am sure that this theater will not only become a worthy gift for lovers of culture and art, but will also give a special beauty to the appearance of the city of Tbilisi, which perfectly synthesizes history, antiquity, and modernity, and will turn into a cultural center of the capital of Georgia. It is significant that the foundation of the new building of this cultural center, named after Heydar Aliyev, was laid this year, when the 100th anniversary of the birth of the national leader of the Azerbaijani people is celebrated. A series of events were held in Georgia on the occasion of the glorious anniversary of Heydar Aliyev. On my own behalf, on behalf of the government and the people of Azerbaijan, I express my gratitude to Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, the government, and the people of Georgia for respect and reverence for the bright memory of the great leader," Asadov said.

Moreover, the prime minister, noting that outstanding personalities of Georgia are treated with great respect and reverence in Azerbaijan, recalled that a memorial plaque in memory of the famous Georgian poet Nikoloz Baratashvili was recently installed in Ganja (the second largest city of Azerbaijan) in front of the building where he once lived and worked. At the same time, the Georgian State Drama Theater, operating in the Gakh region of Azerbaijan, was named after the great Georgian writer Ilia Chavchavadze.
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New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah during the National Symposium on Production of Improved and Traditional Seeds through Cooperative Sector. Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi, Oct 27 : Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday held a meeting with senior office-bearers of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and its affiliated organisations here to discuss the state of the country's economy as well as issues pertaining to it, along with several of his cabinet colleagues.

According to sources, along with the global conditions related to the country's economy, the economic impact of the ongoing war between Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas on India was also discussed in the meeting.

As per sources, apart from Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Heavy Industries MinisterMahendra Nath Pandey, Labour Minister Bhupender Yadav and Commerce and Industries Minister Piyush Goyal attended the meeting. Meanwhile, senior RSS leaders Arun Kumar and Krishna Gopal were also present.

Senior RSS leaders associated with various organisations stressing on economic matters such as the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, Swadeshi Jagran Manch, Laghu Udyog Bharati, Sahakar Bharati and Grahak Panchayat Sangathan, also attended the meeting.

According to sources, in this meeting the organisations associated with the Sangh informed the BJP leaders about e-commerce businesses and negative impacts due to changes in labour law, including the problems arising due to various other policies of the government.

The ways to extend the benefits of the government's economic policies and schemes to lower sections of the society were also discussed in this meeting as well.
New Delhi, Oct 27 : A theatrical aura encompasses Sakti Burman's sculptures as the master artist creates a fantasy world stemming from mythology, history, poetic fervour and lived experience.

One of the best known contemporary artists, Burman explores the depths of his oeuvre, rendered in a dream-like syncretic style creating a confluence of Indian and European cultures that have enriched his artistic practice over the years.

His latest work 'Sculpted Sagas', at Art Alive Gallery in the national capital (till October 31) is an extension of his vast oeuvre characterised by intricate details and a deep fascination for the human and mythological form.

His sculptural oeuvre is an exploration of the various motifs that define his body of work composed of elements and characters borrowed from traditional Indian mythologies such as Shiva or Krishna or the saga of 'Samudra Manthan' which explains the origin of the elixir of eternal life re-interpreted in a European fashion exhibiting Burman's unique visual language. Tales of biblical nature like Noah's Ark are juxtaposed with the eternal source of Shakti, goddess Durga depicted in the mother goddess role to Ganesha exuding a dream-like quality.

Burman's Indian heritage along with his experience in France is a rich wellspring of inspiration for him with figures of the epics featured in his compositions rendered with a contemporary sensibility, breathing new life into ancient legends.

Imbued with fantastical elements, which add surrealist touches to his work, 'Sculpted Sagas', unveils a new body of work, a set of relief sculptures created by Sakti Burman showcasing his artistic resplendence.

The valour of Durga finds solace in the subtle and stylised rendition of the goddess.

In all his relief works, Burman exhibits a vibrant interplay of distinct cultures choosing to juxtapose elements from all creating an invigorating mise-en-scene of his mystical universe.

Accompanying the relief works are free-standing sculptures, the visual tropes of Ganesha, Krishna, Shiva-Parvati, among many others.
Kupwara: Security personnel take position during a cordon and search operation after an encounter between holed up terrorists and the security forces in the Chanjimulla village of Handwara tehsil in Jammu and Kashmir's Kupwara district on May 3, 2020. Image Source: IANS News

Jammu, Oct 27 : Two Border Security Force (BSF) troopers and a woman were injured as many civilians abandoned their homes to take shelter in safe areas after Pakistan Rangers resorted to heavy firing and shelling along the International Border (IB) in Arnia and Suchetgarh sectors of Jammu district overnight.

In a statement, the BSF statement said: aTonight at about 8 p.m. unprovoked firing started by Pakistan Rangers on BSF posts in Arnia area which is being befittingly retaliated by the BSF troops."

In Arnia sector, the firing targeted half a dozen forward villages after which the Pakistani troopers expanded firing to three villages of Suchetgarh sector.

Few mortar shells were also fired by the Rangers targeting civilian areas.

Police said heavy firing continued till 11 p.m. after which intermittent firing was on.

Two BSF jawans injured in the firing in Arnia sector. were identified as Basavraj SR (30) from Karnataka and Sher Singh.

The Injured woman was identified as Rajni Bala (38), wife of Balbir Singh, resident of Ward 5, Arnia.

The injured were evacuated and admitted in the Government Medical College (GMC) Hospital, Jammu where their condition was said to be stable by attending doctors.

Panic gripped border dwellers as firing started from the Pakistan side.

A number of labourers, who had come to work in field, were the first to desert the villages to take shelter in safer areas.

Thursdayas round of firing and shelling by Pakistan rangers comes over a week after two BSF personnel were injured following unprovoked firing by the Rangers in the same sector on October 17.

India and Pakistan signed a ceasefire agreement on February 25, 2021 to strictly observe ceasefire along the Line of Control and the IB in Jammu and Kashmir.
Hardoi, Oct 27 : A 15-year-old boy was killed and two others injured in a blast at a firecracker manufacturing unit in Uttar Pradesh's Hardoi district, police said on Friday.

While the victim Harpal was declared brought dead, Tauheed and Rahul Kumar, are undergoing treatment at the district hospital.

The unit was operating illegally and did not have the required permits.

A forensic team examined the spot and collected samples for testing.

Police said that Tauheed was manufacturing crackers at the basement of his residence when the blast took place.

"He was testing flower pot crackers (anar) which triggered the blast," said the police.

The locals informed the police following which it reached the spot along with fire tenders, said station head officer (SHO), Tadiyawan, Ashok Kumar Singh.

"We found Harpal, Tauheed and one Rahul in an unconscious state and rushed them to local hospital, where Harpal was declared brought dead," said the SHO.

Superintendent of Police, Hardoi, K.C. Goswami said two FIRs have been registered.

"The first FIR has been lodged by sub inspector, Tadiyawan, Mukul Dubey under the Explosive Substances Act 1908 against Tauheed and the second FIR was lodged by Surendra whose son died in the incident under the charges of SC\ST Act."

The officer said that in charges of all 26 police stations of the district have been directed to conduct searches of all those who manufacture crackers illegally in their area and verify their credentials.

"Those found manufacturing crackers illegally, or not adhering to safety measures, will be booked," the SP said.
Ayodhya, Oct 27 : The Vedic rituals for the consecration ceremony of Ram Lalla in Ram temple in Uttar Pradesh's Ayodhya will begin on January 16, 2024 -- exactly a week before the main ceremony.

Vedic priest from Varanasi, Lakshmi Kant Dixit, will perform the main rituals of consecration ceremony of Ram Lalla on January 22, 2024.

After consultation with astrologers and Vedic priests, Sri Ram Janmabhoomi Tirath Kshetra Trust has decided to enthrone Ram Lalla at the sanctum-sanctorum of the Ram temple between 12 noon and 12.45 p.m. on January 22.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will preside over the Pran- Pratishtha (consecration) ceremony. Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat will also be present at the event.

"Governor Anandiben Patel and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will attend the ceremony as part of protocol (to attend Prime Minister)," Rai said adding that the invited guests will be able to pay obeisance to Ram Lalla only after the PrimeMinister leaves.

Champat Rai, the general secretary of Sri Ram Janmabhoomi Tirath Kshetra Trust, said, "The Trust has invited 4,000 saints of all sects for the Pran- Pratishtha ceremony of Ram Lalla."

The Trust has also invited 2,500 prominent people from all walks of life, including scientists, Param Vir Chakra awardees and their family members, family members of deceased kar sevaks and artistes. Family members of those who have played a vital role in the Ram temple movement have also been invited.

"We have also invited more than 100 owners of newspapers and news channels. As per availability of space on Ram Janmabhoomi campus, people have been invited for the ceremony. Guests will have to bring their Aadhaar cards," Rai added.

Champat Rai further said, "The guests will have to sit for around three hours at Ram Janmabhoomi. The temple will be opened for devotees from January 23. Sri Ram Janmabhoomi Tirath Kshetra Trust has also issued an appeal to elderly heads of various sects to come to Ayodhya in February instead of January due to cold weather conditions."
United Nations, Oct 27 : UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has created a high-level advisory panel headed by a former Indian diplomat to meet the challenges of a world hurtling into the unknowns of artificial intelligence (AI).

"I have called for a global, multidisciplinary, multistakeholder conversation on the governance of AI so that its benefits to humanity  all of humanity  are maximised, and the risks contained are diminished and the panel is the starting point," he said on Thursday.

Amandeep Singh, the Secretary-General's envoy on technology and an under-secretary-general, will lead the panel.

As a member of the Indian Foreign Service, Gill was the permanent representative to the UN Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.

Giving an example of "the incredible possibilities  and the potential dangers  of AI", Guterres said that an AI app gave him "the surreal experience of watching myself deliver a speech in flawless Chinese, despite the fact that I do not speak Chinese and the lips movement corresponded exactly to what I was saying".

"Without entering into a host of doomsday scenarios, it is already clear that the malicious use of AI could undermine trust in institutions, weaken social cohesion, and threaten democracy itself," he said.

At the same time, "in our challenging times, AI could power extraordinary progress for humanity", the UN chief noted.

"The transformative potential of AI for good is difficult even to grasp," Guterres said.

The Secretary-General added that he has charged the panel with reporting by the end of the year on three areas: the international governance of artificial intelligence; a shared understanding of risks and challenges, and using it to achieve the UN's Sustainable Development Goals that cover the gamut from agriculture; and education to health and justice.

Gill said that the panel "will bring together expertise from around the world from different disciplines, latest expertise on the direction of the technology and its impact on our societies, on our economies and on our politics".

"The body will look at what is being done today in response to these emerging challenges and what is missing, what are the gaps and how the existing efforts can be better networked together so that we have a more effective governance response."

Guterres cast a wide net for talent to be on the panel, which includes government officials and religious leaders, academics and activists, and business figures from technology companies like Google and Sony, drawn from every continent.

Sharad Sharma, co-founder iSPIRT Foundation, and Nazneen Rajani, lead researcher at Hugging Face, from India are on the panel.

(Arul Louis can be contacted at arul.l@ians.in and followed at @arulouis)
Beijing, Oct 27 : China's former premier Li Keqiang, who was once known as the second most powerful man in the ruling Chinese Communist Party after President Xi Jinping, passed away in Shanghai on Friday. He was 68.

Xinhua news agency reported that Li had been "resting" in Shanghai when he suddenly had a a heart attack on Thursday.

He passed away at 12.10 a.m. on Friday after "all rescue measures failed", it added.

Li was known as one of the smartest political figures of his generation, being accepted into the prestigious Peking University Law School soon after the universities were reopened following the Cultural Revolution, the BBC reported.

He served as the premier for a decade from 2013 to March this year.

During his time in the role, he navigated the Asian giant through a challenging period of rising technology and trade disputes with the US, mounting government debt and unemployment, as well as the Covid-19 pandemic.

In his final year in power, li had been a strong voice warning of challenges to Chinaas economy amid widespread Covid-19 lockdowns.

He backed efforts to boost employment and maintain economic stability.

Li's death is being widely mourned on Chinese social media, with many expressing shock.

"This is too sudden, he was so young," said one user on Chinese social media site Weibo.

Another said his death was like losing "a pillar of our home".

When he stepped down, Li was 67 -- one year short of the unofficial retirement age for senior Chinese Communist Party leaders.

He was succeeded as premier by former Shanghai party chief and Xi loyalist Li Qiang.
Lucknow, Oct 27 : The Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation (IICF), working for the construction of the mosque in Dhannipur, has said that there is no need to compete with the construction of Shri Ram temple in Ayodhya where the mosque is concerned.

Reacting to some local politicians' demand for calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi for stone laying ceremony when he would inaugurate the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, Athar Hussain, secretary, IICF Trust, said, "Some people who are politicians do not understand the importance of the Ram Temple for the country. Here both Muslims and Hindus have solved the century-old dispute through court and it is our responsibility to honour the court's verdict by constructing a mosque on land given in Dhannipur village in Sohawal tehsil, 25 km away from the Ram Temple.

"However, we are still in the process of collecting funds while the temple is nearing completion. In this situation, how can we invite the PM at a time when even the map of the mosque has not been passed? Those who are talking about inviting the PM, are trying to do politics, which is unfair."

"Politicians should refrain from politicising the project which is a symbol of Hindu-Muslim unity. They should leave things to the Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation (IICF) till the mosque, hospital, community kitchen and museum come up in memory of freedom fighter Ahmedullah Shah," the IICF secretary further said.

The stone laying ceremony will come only after funds are collected and a map is passed. The target is to collect adequate funds for construction of a mosque, hospital, kitchen, museum and library. Dr Habil Khorakiwala, chairman of Wockhardt Group, has volunteered to establish and run the hospital. He will bear all the expenses of the hospital which would be run by the IICF as a charity hospital. But still, for the mosque and other things, we will have to raise funds, he added.

Athar Hussain said, "The Prime Minister is the highest authority of our country and we would love to have him in Dhannipur, but there are certain protocols attached to his visits which would have to be fulfilled. We will have to get the map passed and collect funds for the project."
Chandigarh, Oct 27 : Punjab MP Vikramjit Singh Sahney on Friday spoke to India's High Commissioner to Canada, Sanjay Kumar Verma, over phone and asked him to speed up visa issuance to Canadians, largely Indian diaspora.

"There is a backlog due to visa suspension which should get cleared soon and visas should be granted in 7-10 days from submission to BLS Visa Application Centers," Sahney, who was pursuing the resumption of visa services, wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

According to him, for visas to Indo-Canadians 70 per cent is through BLS in nine cities and 30 per cent walk-in to Indian High Commission and consulates.

"For emergency cases of death, serious illness, wedding, etc., please apply on Suvidha Portal to the nearest Indian consulate."

At the same time, Sahney said, "It's our foremost duty to raise voice against fringe elements who are trying to spoil the atmosphere. The Indo-Canadians are suffering at their hands. Be Proud of your Indian roots."

He has also requested that the MEA should consider granting of E-visas in case of exigencies. India eased diplomatic tensions with Canada on Wednesday by restoring the visa services in the categories of Entry, Business, Medical and Conference, amid a diplomatic row over the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on June 18 in British Columbia. Canada has welcomed India's decision to resume some visa services, saying the move was a "good sign" after "an anxious time" for many Canadians.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 27. Changes have been made to the Regulations on the Ministry of Health of Azerbaijan, Trend reports.

In this regard, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev signed a corresponding decree.
Film: Sajini Shinde Ka Viral Video Duration: 116 mins 30 secs Director: Mikhil Musale Produced by: Maddock Films

Cast: Nimrat Kaur, Radhika Madan, Bhagyashree, Subodh Bhave, Soham Majumdar, Chinmay Mandlekar, Shruti Vyas, Sumeet Vyas, Sneha Raikar, Ashutosh Gaikwad and Rashmi Agdekar

IANS Rating: ****Mumbai, Oct 27 (IANS) The master of thrillers, Alfred Hitchcock, once said, "There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it. The more successful the villain, the more successful the picture." This is apt for Mikhil Musale's directorial, 'Sajini Shinde Ka Viral Video'. The film is nothing short of a masterpiece, an absolute must-watch this weekend.

The case of a missing girl turns into a massive story of unravelling everyone's thought processes, biases, motives and deep-rooted controlling issues.

The film revolves around Sajini Shinde, played by Radhika Madan, a missing teacher, presumably dead, who comes from an orthodox Maharashtrian household. She is engaged to be married and her fiance works in an IT Firm.

Sajini's school-related trip overseas turns into a massive graveyard story when a video of Sajini dancing drunk with male strippers goes viral.

An innocent invite for a drink after work with friends turns into a life-altering decision for Sajini. She ends up drinking one too many, and someone shoots a video of her dancing with male strippers in a club. Soon, the video is shared and turns into a sensation, for here was a teacher dancing with strippers.

Sajini is bombarded with judgement from her family, friends, fiance and the people she works for, resulting in her taking drastic measures. Radhika Madan's performance brings out the pain, hurt and desperation felt by Sajini, instantly making the audience relate to and feel for her character.

Nimrat Kaur, as the officer investigating the case, Bela Barud, is called in to solve the matter, and she is more than anyone can handle or hide from. Her character is witty, razor-sharp and doesn't believe in anyone's innocence, including that of Sajini's boss, co-workers, fiance, and family. She unravels the whole rotten and deep-seated age-old thinking, where everyone puts on a mask of fake modesty, modernism, or is propelled by forced morality.

Chinmay Mandlekaras character Ram is the perfect support to Inspector Bela Barud, adding wit and humour to the story. Soham Majumdar as Siddhant Kadam showcases his acting skills beautifully, portraying a weasely fiance to Sajini, who cares more about saving his own skin than saving her.

Bhagyashree, as the head of the school, will leave everyone shocked and their jaws hanging on the floor. She is outstanding in her role. Subodh Bhave, who plays Sajini's father, is also amazing portraying a nuanced and conflicted character.

'Sajini Shinde Ka Viral Video' is a brilliant thriller with thought-provoking elements, which will find its audience rather quickly. Powerful dialogues like 'Yeh aurat card Aadhar card nahi hai jo har jagah use kar sakte ho', among others, help bring to light real issues and distinguish pseudo-feminists from real ones.

The movie is a wake-up call for everyone, especially for promoters of pseudo-modernism, who believe in education and gender equality, but waste no time hiding behind morals when things don't go right.

The film is kinetic, almost visceral, so you don't want to take your eyes off the screen, in fear of missing something. The director wastes no time in establishing the key players and jumps right into the gripping narrative.

The screenplay of the film is its backbone, and goodness gracious, this one is super-strong and hard-hitting. This is backed by stellar performances, making for a superb viewing.

A Maddock Films production, Dinesh Vijan presents 'Sajini Shinde Ka Viral Video', directed by Mikhil Musale. The film stars Radhika Madan and Nimrat Kaur in the lead roles with Bhagyashree, Subodh Bhave, Chinmaye Mandlekar, Soham Majumdar, Shashank Shinde and Sumeet Vyas playing pivotal characters.
New York, Oct 27 : Indian-American teen Shripriya Kalbhavi has won second place at the annual 2023 3M Young Scientist Challenge, a premier science competition for middle school students in the US.

Kalbhavi, a ninth grader at Lynbrook High School in California, received a $2,000 prize for developing EasyBZ -- a cost-effective microneedle patch that allows for self-automated drug delivery without pills or needles.

The first prize of $25,000 with the prestigious title of "America's Top Young Scientist", went to Heman Bekele from Virginia for his compound-based Skin Cancer Treating Soap.

Kalbhavi said in a blog post on the 3M Young Scientist Challenge website that she entered the contest because she wants to help change lives.

She also hosts a podcast called "Famous Personalities," and as part of the theme of her show, she researches women scientists and speaks about their lives, achievements, and research.

"Scientific research and innovations have always interested me, and I find the scientists, especially doctors, all around me to be extremely inspiring because they work to help people every day," Kalbhavi, who wants to become a practicing neurosurgeon, said.

"I want to gain experience and advice from a mentor to help improve peoples' lives with my invention, BZ reaction-automated microneedle patches, by making their medication painless and more affordable," she added.

Apart from Kalbhavi, five other Indian-American teens were among the top ten finalists and each of them received a $1,000 prize and a $500 gift card.

"For 16 years, the 3M Young Scientist Challenge has exemplified our belief in harnessing the power of people, ideas, and science to reimagine what's possible. The remarkable young innovators of this competition share our determination to help shape a brighter future." said John Banovetz, 3M executive vice president.

"By asking students to think creatively and apply the power of science to everyday problems, incredible solutions and leaders arise."

Each finalist in the challenge was evaluated on a series of challenges, including a presentation of their completed innovation.

America's Top Young Scientists have gone on to give TED Talks, file patents, found nonprofits, make the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, ring the bell at the New York Stock Exchange and exhibit at the White House Science Fair.

The young innovators have also been named Time Magazine's first Kid of the Year, featured in The New York Times Magazine, Forbes, and Business Insider.
New Delhi, Oct 27 : Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan has heaped praises on legendary actress Waheeda Rehman, and said he believes the latter should have been awarded with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award much earlier.

Waheeda was conferred with the Dadasaheb Phalke Lifetime Achievement Award for her immense contribution to Indian cinema, at the 69th National Film Awards.

Known for films like 'Guide', 'Pyaasa', 'Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam', 'Delhi-6', 'Kaagaz Ke Phool' and several others, the actress has played countless memorable characters on the celluloid, and has a career spanning almost seven decades.

In the episode 54 of the knowledge-based reality show 'Kaun Banega Crorepati', host Amitabh Bachchan welcomed the rollover contestants 'The Bol Bachchans' to the hot seat, in the ongoing family special week.

For Rs 80,000 question, they were asked: "Which veteran actress of films like 'Pyaasa' and 'Guide' was conferred the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2023?"

The options given were- A: Sharmila Tagore, B: Waheeda Rehman, C: Zeenat Aman, and D: Saira Banu.

The correct answer was Waheeda Rehman.

Talking about the same, Amitabh said: "Waheeda Rehman was conferred with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award on Dev Anand's birth centenary day. She got the award on his 100th birthday. It was a coincidence."

The 'Sholay' fame actor further said: "An exemplary artiste. I feel she should have been awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award much earlier. Don't you agree?"

"She's my favourite. Yes. I am a big fan of hers. I've had the good fortune of working with her. She's good-hearted and a very simple-natured woman for an artiste of her stature," added the actor.
Washington, Oct 27 : The US military struck two facilities in eastern Syria used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and affiliated groups in reponse to a series of recent attacks that targeted American forces in the Middle East, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement.

In the statement issued on Thursday night, he said the precision self-defence strikes carried out earlier in the day at President Joe Biden's direction, were a "response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against US personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on October 17".

"As a result of these attacks, one US citizen contractor died from a cardiac incident while sheltering in place; 21 US personnel suffered from minor injuries, but all have since returned to duty.

"The President has no higher priority than the safety of US personnel, and he directed today's action to make clear that the US will not tolerate such attacks and will defend itself, its personnel, and its interests," Austin was quoted as saying in the statement.

The Defense Secretary also reiterated that the "US does not seek conflict and has no intention nor desire to engage in further hostilities, but these Iranian-backed attacks are unacceptable and must stop".

"Iran wants to hide its hand and deny its role in these attacks against our forces. We will not let them. If attacks by Iran's proxies against US forces continue, we will not hesitate to take further necessary measures to protect our people," he warned.

He further said that the US strikes "were intended solely to protect and defend" American personnel in Iraq and Syria.

"They are separate and distinct from the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, and do not constitute a shift in our approach" to the raging war, Austin added.

As of Thursday, American forces had come under attack at least 12 separate times in Iraq andfourseparate times in Syria since October 17.

On Wednesday, Biden issued astrong warningto Iran about its affiliated groups attacking American forces in the region, CNN reported.

"My warning to the ayatollah was that if they continued to move against those troops, we will respond, and they should be prepared."

The President added presence of US troops in Iraq and Syria is focused on the campaign to defeat the Islamic State terrorist group and is not related to the ongoing conflict in Israel.

As a result of the increased attacks, the Defense Department is rushing additional air defenses to the Middle East, including a THAAD battery -- a medium-range air defense system; long-range Patriot batteries; and short-range Avenger air defense systems.

Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said on Thursdaythat the US "will alwaysreserve the right to self-defense" and that if Washington chooses to retaliate for the drone and rocket attacks, it would be "at a time and place of our choosing".
New Delhi, Oct 27 : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday carried out searches at 15 locations in Delhi, Punjab, Maharashtra and Haryana in connection with the Rs 1,626 crore money laundering case involving Pranav Gupta and Vineet Gupta's company Parabolic Drugs Pharma Ltd.

Guptas were also the co-founders at the Ashoka University and had last year stepped down.

An ED source said that the agency teams are carrying out searches in Delhi, Ambala, Panchkula, Chandigarh and Mumbai on the premises linked to Parabolic drugs and its officials.

However, senior officials remained tigh-tlipped on the developments.

The ED case is based on the CBI FIR against Chandigarh-based Parabolic Drugs for allegedly defrauding a consortium led by the Central Bank of India (CBI) of Rs 1,626.74 crore.

Among those booked were Pranav and Vineet Gupta, the co-founders of Ashoka University. Pranav Gupta serves as the Managing Director of Parabolic Drugs while Vineet is one of the directors of the firm.

Others booked by the CBI include directors Deepali Gupta, Rama Gupta, Jagjit Singh Chahal, Sanjeev Kumar, Vandana Singla, Ishrat Gill, and the firm's guarantors T.N. Goyal and Nirmal Bansal, and J.D. Gupta.

Following the CBI case and searches at 12 locations against them, the Ashoka University in a statement last year in January had said, "The University has over 200 founders and donors who have made personal philanthropic contributions to Ashoka. Their individual business dealings and operations have no connection to the University."

"In keeping with the high standards for governance at Ashoka, Vineet and Pranav Gupta have already voluntarily stepped down from all Boards and Committees of the University pending the CBI case and are cooperating fully with the investigations," the statement had said on January 6 last year.

The CBI on December 31, 2021 conducted searches at 12 locations in Chandigarh, Panchkula, Ludhiana, Faridabad and Delhi at the office and residential premises of the accused.

During the searches, the CBI recovered incriminating documents, articles, and Rs 1.58 crore in cash.

According to the CBI officials, the firm was engaged in the manufacturing of drugs. It allegedly defrauded the consortium of banks through criminal conspiracy and forgery, and funneled loans it took for other uses.
Ottawa, Oct 27 : The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has issued an "armed and dangerous" alert to its personnel stationed along the country's border with the US after the two mass shootings in the American state of Maine led to the death of at leat 18 people.

In its alert issued late Thursday, the CBSA asked its officers to be on the lookout for the suspect, identied as 40-year-old Robert Card a trained firearms instructor and a member of the US Army Reserves, who also injured 13 people in the shootouts in Lewiston city on Wednesday night, reports Xinhua news agency.

"The CBSA is aware of the tragic events in Maine. Our officers have been alerted to the high risk of this situation, and we are on the lookout with our law enforcement partners. Our thoughts are with the citizens of Maine and all those affected," it said in a post on X..

The Agency added that it is working with Canadian and US law enforcement partners to "protect Canada's borders against any threat or attempt at illegal entry".

The city of Lewiston is located some 260 km southwest of Canada's New Brunswick province.

As of Friday, hundreds of police have continued a massive manhunt to nab Card, who is considered "armed and dangerous".
Brussels, Oct 27 : The European Union (EU) will provide 50 million euros ($52 million) in additional humanitarian aid for Gaza as the raging Hamas-Israel conflict has led to multiple humanitarian crises in the besieged enclave, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced.

Addressing a news conference here on Thursday after the first day of the EU leaders' summit, von der Leyen said the first 56 metric tonnes of aid from the EU have already been delivered to Gaza via two flights to Egypt, reports CNN.

At the summit, the bloc's leaders expressed concern about the deteriorating situation in Gaza and called for aid to reach those in need via "humanitarian corridors and pauses for humanitarian needs" a" stopping short of calling for a ceasefire.

Von der Leyen and EU Council President Charles Michel both emphasised the bloc's commitment to addressing the humanitarian crisis.

The EU is in contact "with the leaders in the region in order to encourage solutions on humanitarian front and release of the hostages", CNN quoted Michel as saying.

Asked whether Hamas representatives will be participating in an upcoming conference aimed at resolving the conflict, Michel said he "doesnat see any role" for the group, citing its designation as a terrorist organisation.

Since Hamas launched its unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, an estimated 1.4 million of the approximately 2 million people living in Gaza have been internally displaced, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Of these, 629,000 are sheltering in 150 UN Relief Works Agency (UNRWA)-designated emergency shelters.

The average number of displaced people per shelter has now reached 2.7 times the designated capacity, Xinhua news agency quoted the OCHA as saying.

The UN body also said that only 62 trucks have passed through the Rafah crossing -- the only border crossing between Gaza and Egypt -- into the Hamas-controlled enclave in the last four days when 500 trucks a day was the pre-conflict average.

The OCHA said the latest payloads of water, food and medical supplies ferried by the trucks from Egypt have already been distributed to medical sites and the displaced in besieged Gaza.

"Fuel, which is desperately needed to run backup generators, remains banned by the Israeli authorities," OCHA said.

"As a result, the (UNRWA has almost exhausted its fuel reserves and began to significantly reduce its operations."
Vaibhav Gehlot to skip ED summons on Friday, to appear on Oct 30. Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi, Oct 27 : Congress leader Vaibhav Gehlot, son of Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, who was summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a FEMA case, will not be appearing before the agency on Friday and has sought time till October 30.

According to ED sources, Vaibhav has written to the agency seeking more time to appear.

The source said that he has written to ED that he will be appearing before the agency on October 30.

On Thursday, Ashok Gehlot had shared the summons on X issued to his son by the ED asking him to appear before it in Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) case.

The Chief Minister has also slammed the BJP government questioning the timing of the ED searches in Rajasthan on Thursday including the premises of state unit chief Govind Singh Dotasara and summons to his son.

The polling for the 200-member Assembly polls in Rajasthan is scheduled on November 25 and counting of votes will take place on December 3.
Lucknow, Oct 27 : The Election Commission of India (ECI) will conduct the revision of the electoral rolls in all Assembly constituencies of Uttar Pradesh, beginning from Friday.

The exercise will continue till December 9.

The final publication of the electoral rolls will be done on January 5, 2024, after disposing of the claims and objections for the inclusion of the names in the voters list by December 26.

The ECI has also imposed a ban on the transfers of the officers associated with the revision of electoral rolls, including district election officers, deputy district election officers, electoral registration officers and assistant electoral registration officers till January 2024.

The state government will have to seek permission from the ECI if the officers are required to be transferred, said Uttar Pradesh chief electoral officer Navdeep Rinwa.

The draft of electoral rolls will be published on October 27. It will be displayed at all the designated places in all the Assembly constituencies to invite claims and objections, he added. The draft electoral roll will be also available on the website of the Uttar Pradesh (UP) chief electoral officer (CEO). The supplementary voter list will be also available on the CEO website. The eligibility date for the enrollment of the new voters will be January 1, 2024.

A special appeal has been made to the voters in the age group of 18-19 years to get their names enrolled in the voter list by filling in Form-6 and exercising their franchise in the upcoming elections.

According to the draft electoral roll data, there are 15,03,39,879 voters in Uttar Pradesh, including 8,05,15,501 males, 6,98,16,532 females and 7,846 third gender voters.

After January 5, a total of 17,20,088 new voters were added while the names of 18,60,774 voters were deleted from the voters list in Uttar Pradesh. The gender ratio in the draft electoral roll is 867 while the elector population (EP) ratio is 60.93 per cent.

At present, there are 1,62,012 polling booths and 92,587 polling stations in the state.

"To remove apathy among the urban voters towards polling, special efforts are being made to set up polling booths in multi-storey buildings and gated colonies on the same premises or at the nearest spot," said UP CEO Navdeep Rinwa.

At a recent meeting, political parties have been informed about the programme of the revision of the electoral rolls and the dates of special campaign. The political parties were requested to appoint booth-level agents.
Lucknow, Oct 27 : The Uttar Pradesh Special Security Force (UPSSF), a specialised dedicated force raised on the lines of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), will ensure security of seven newly constructed airports in Ayodhya, Chitrakoot, Sonbhadra, Shravasti, Aligarh, Moradabad and Azamgarh.

Principal secretary of the home department, Sanjay Prasad, has issued an order regarding the deployment of UPSSF at these airports.

The order instructs the UP director general of police to define the roles of UPSSF and local police and determine their respective responsibilities in security, prior to the forceas deployment.

The UPSSF was made operational from September 1, 2022, with deployment of its 30 personnel at Lok Bhawan in Lucknow.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 27. The areas of activity and tasks of the Ministry of Health of Azerbaijan have been expanded, Trend reports.

This issue has been reflected in a decree on making changes in the Regulations on the Ministry of Health, signed by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.

The activities of the ministry include implementation of state regulation in the relevant field, ensuring quality control of medical services. The ministry's responsibilities will also include approving tariffs for medical services not included in the envelope of services and provided by subordinate medical institutions to the population on a paid basis, as well as tariffs for medical services provided to uninsured persons.

In addition, among the responsibilities of the ministry will be the approval of the procedure for the provision of emergency medical assistance and the types, volumes, quality standards, and the procedure for the provision of specialized medical care; the implementation of planning and forecasting related to the organization of the infrastructure of the health system, together with the relevant institutions; conducting research to improve the quality of medical services and the introduction of progressive forms and methods of healthcare organization, as well as analyzing the effectiveness of various financing models in the field of healthcare; taking measures related to educating the population in the relevant field, and ensuring control over the effectiveness of these measures.
Guwahati, October 27 : Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday launched the Amrit Kalash Yatra from Guwahati to Delhi as part of the "Meri Maati Mera Desh" initiative.

Sarma arrived at the Guwahati Railway Station at about 5.45 a.m, after which he signaled the departure of the Rajdhani Express, which was heading for Delhi and carrying 270 urns full of soil.

The urns are scheduled to arrive in the national capital on Saturday in remembrance of those who lost their lives for the nation's independence.

The yatra's objective is to commemorate the martyrs and heed the example they set.

As part of the initiative, soil was collected from households in village and municipal wards in the state, and were put into urns upon mixing together on Thursday.

Meanwhile, 270 urns has also been stored at the SrimantaSankardev Kalakshetra in Guwahati. It will be later used in the foundation-laying ceremony of Assam's largest proposed university in Gohpur.

The initiative drew controversy in Assam after thr Congress issued showcause notices to MLAs Bhaskarjyoti Baruah and Abdul Batin Khandakar for taking part in the Amrit Kalash Yatra.

Baruah is an MLA from Titabor constituency in Jorhat district, while Khandakar represents the North Abhayapuri Assembly seat.

The two MLAs claimed that the Amrit Kalash Yatra is a part of the "Meri Maati Mera Desh" program, which is a state government initiative and that is why they joined the program.

They also alleged that that there was no directive from the Congress not to attend this campaign.
New Delhi, Oct 27 : A minor stabbed a 29-year-old man to death following some personal enmity in central Delhi and went to the police station with the blood-stained knife, an officer said on Friday.

The deceased was identified as Amit, a resident of Multani Dhanda area in the national capital.

According to police, in the intervening night of Thursday-Friday, at about 2.10 a.m, the patrolling staff of Nabi Karim police station found a body with stab injuries at Gali No. 10 of Multani Dhanda.

"Meanwhile,a person reached Nabi Karim police station with a knife claiming that he had stabbed a person to death in Multani Dhanda," said a senior police officer.

The Forensic and Crime teams were called to the spot for inspection. "From the investigation conducted so far, it surfaced that the deceased and accused are both residents of the same locality and have criminal history," said the officer.

"Amit belongs to Deoria, Uttar Pradesh and has been involved in several criminal cases.The minor accused has also been involved in several cases and was released from Observation Home about a week ago in a case of attempt to murder," said the officer.

They were having personal enmity, and about two days ago, Amit had humiliated the minor and snatched money from him.

"To take revenge, the minor was in search of Amit and in the night he found him and attacked with a knife along with his associate, Aakash alias Kaku. After committing the crime, the minor reached the police station while his associate fled away. Minor has been apprehended with blood stained clothes and weapon of offence," said the officer.

"Aakash is at large and will be apprehended soon as teams are after him," the officer added.
Los Angeles, Oct 27 : After actor Jonathan Majors sexual harassment case was ruled out by judges, the 'Creed' star's accuser, his ex-girlfriend Grace Jabbari has also not been sued by the District Attorney. Majors through an attorney has called the decision of not prosecuting his accuser a "serious injustice." The actor was arrested in Manhattan on March 25, and was charged with assault and aggravated harassment after an alleged domestic dispute with Jabbari, who was his girlfriend at the time. Majors' trial is scheduled to begin on November 29.

Grace Jabbari surrendered for arrest at the 10th precinct in Manhattan on October 25, on the suspicion of misdemeanour assault and misdemeanor criminal mischief. The arrest occurred in relation to a cross complaint Majors had filed against her in June, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

After the cross complaint was filed, an investigatory card, or I-Card, which is an internal NYPD document alerting officers that there is probable cause for an arrest, was issued for Jabbari in late June.

However, in court documents related to the 'Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania' actor's case, after prosecutors learned of the I-Card, they said that they informed the NYPD on September 8 and September 12 that "the People would decline to prosecute any charges brought by the NYPD against Ms. Jabbari related to the belated allegations made by the defendant regarding the incident on March 25."

This was also disclosed to the defense counsel in Majors case on September 26 and to Jabbari's attorney on September 21.

On October 25, the Manhattan DA office said that it has "officially declined to prosecute the case against Grace Jabbari because it lacks prosecutorial merit." As such, the case against her is now closed and sealed.

Dustin Pusch, a civil attorney for Jonathan Majors, released a statement on the very same day on behalf of his client claiming that the DA "unilaterally and without explanation has decided not to prosecute Ms. Jabbari for her misdeeds."

"While Mr Majors is thankful that the NYPD corroborated his account, it is a serious injustice that the District Attorney continues to move forward with its case against him. These recent revelations raise grave questions about the impartiality and transparency of the prosecutors' discretion, due process, and equal protection under the law," the statement reads.

However, Cary London, a Manhattan-based civil rights and criminal defense attorney at Shulman & Hill, said he views the fact that the NYPD took the complaint from Majors in June, after the incident occurred in March, and generated an I-Card for Jabbari as highly unusual and it seems like it could be a "publicity stunt."

"The arrest of Ms Jabbari is a complete publicity stunt by the Defense Team behind Mr Majors. In a domestic violence case, the NYPD will usually never make an arrest of the Complaining Witness, Ms Jabbari, because it is viewed as retaliatory," he said.
Sam Bankman-Fried sent to jail over witness tampering, VPN use charges. Image Source: IANS News

San Francisco, Oct 27 : Sam Bankman-Fried, former Co-founder and CEO of collapsed crypto exchange FTX, finally testified in court without jury's presence, saying he has not done anything wrong and lawyers were involved in making key decisions at the company.

The former FTX CEO, charged with seven counts of fraud and money laundering, took the stand on Thursday to testify on his own behalf at the Southern District of New York courthouse.

.S District Judge Lewis Kaplan decided that Bankman-Fried would initially provide testimony without jurors.

His first words spoken on the stand were: "Good afternoon," reports TechCrunch.

Bankman-Fried swayed back and forth during the cross-examination.

He put forward arguments that he was acting on legal advice in good faith, reports the BBC.

He said he had discussed many other arrangements with his lawyers, including personal loans he received from Alameda, and its role as a "payments processor" for FTX.

"Did you take comfort from the fact that lawyers had structured the loans?" Bankman Fried's attorney Mark Cohen asked.

"Yeah, of course," he responded. He added he had trusted his legal team to prepare applications for bank accounts for his companies.

"I trusted that they were proper forms," Bankman-Fried was quoted as saying.

The judge, however, warned the former FTX CEO that he was pretty "dubious" about some of the arguments.

"Listen to the question and answer directly," Judge Kaplan instructed Bankman-Fried.

Asked if it was his understanding that crypto trading firm Alameda Research was permitted to spend FTX customer funds, he responded: "I wouldn't phrase it that way but yes."

Earlier, Indian-origin Nishad Singh, a former director of engineering at the collapsed crypto exchange, testified that he had a lot of admiration and respect for Bankman-Fried but over time, that "eroded".

According to Singh, Bankman-Fried's frequent dipping into customers' funds was at times done "unilaterally" and was often "excessive".

Singh testified that he learned two months before the crypto exchange blew up that it was improperly using customers' money.

Like previous witnesses Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX Co-founder Gary Wang, Singh has also pleaded guilty to fraud and conspiracy counts.

The FTX trial is expected to last six weeks.

FTX -- once the world's second-largest cryptocurrency exchange -- filed for bankruptcy in November last year.
Lakhimpur Kheri, Oct 27 : After 'Bagh Mitra', the Uttar Pradesh forest department has brought in "gajamitra" (friends of elephants) to check increasing incidents of man-elephant conflicts in the villages near Katarniaghat wildlife sanctuary of Dudhwa Tiger Reserve (DTR).

The forest officials have shortlisted nearly 100 villagers from areas along the Indo-Nepal border and provided the local people with training and equipment to handle elephants that migrate from Nepal through the Bardia-Katarniaghat and Tatarganj-Shuklaphanta corridors.

The movement of the jumbos is often accompanied by large-scale destruction and death.

According to official records of the forest department, in the past year, seven individuals were killed in wild elephant attacks, and over 500 acres of crops damaged in the Terai region of the state.

Akash Deep Badhawan, divisional forest officer (DFO) of Katarniaghat, said, "Three deaths were reported in Katarniaghat in 2022-23. This year, we have selected five villages that have been most affected, and from each of these villages, we have chosen 20 individuals to serve as 'gajamitra'."

He added that the "gajamitra" will be tasked with patrolling the area on foot alongside forest officials, acting as informants, and coordinating with forest officials from Nepal regarding elephant movement.

"To support these efforts, we have enlisted the assistance of the Nature Environment and Wildlife Society (NEWS), a Kolkata-based NGO, which has not only provided training to the villagers but also installed 12 community toilets, solar lighting, and gear for the 'gajamitra' to ensure their safety during patrolling in forest areas," the DFO said.

Abhishek, project officer of NEWS, said, "We are working closely with people in the five fringe villages and educating them about elephant behaviour. For instance, we have conducted workshops to teach villagers how to effectively use red chilli flakes to deflect elephants from their crops."

"The initial phase of this initiative has been successful, resulting in no human casualties. The programme will expand to five more villages in the near future," he added.

Meanwhile, Badhawan said the villagers are advised to patrol while wearing reflector vests. "They can alert other villagers to the movement of elephants using whistles and also coordinate with officials from Nepal. The selected villagers will be equipped with animal deterrent sprays to protect themselves in the event of an attack."
New York, Oct 27 : Following two back-to-back attacks on Sikhs recently, leaders and community members gathered in New York to denounce hate and call for protection against the rising crimes against them in the US.

Jasmer Singh, 66, died after he was beaten to death during a road rage incident October 19, just four days after fellow Sikh and teenager Mani Sandhu was punched repeatedly for wearing a turban onboard a bus in New York City.

Heartbroken and upset, Sikhs gathered at Gurdwara Sikh cultural Society in South Richmond Hill on Wednesday in a show of solidarity towards the victims of the attack.

"Time and time again we've seen the Sikh community become the target of senseless hate. Due to this hate we have now lost a beloved community member," Japneet Singh, activist and organiser of the event, wrote on X.

"He just hit my father so intense, like so hard on his head. His two front teeth were taken out," Jasmer's son Subeg Multani told CBS News.

He said that he is angry as police are treating his father's death as a road rage case while it was a hate crime.

"This is the NYPD's (New York Police Department) job to protect us. They failed to do so. They failed to do so," Multani told the channel.

While Gilbert Augustin was arrested and charged with manslaughter for the attack on Jasmer Singh, Christopher Philippeaux, who targeted Sandhu, was charged with hate crime assault.

Sandhu, who came to the US 10 months ago, told CBS News that now he doesn't feel safe when he steps outside his home.

Following Jasmer Singh's killing, New York Mayor Eric Adams said he will be meeting Sikh leaders to discuss the needs of the community following the incident.

New York Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar said that as the first Punjabi ever elected to state office, she will "not stop working until we end this hate".

"When a crime occurs against any of us, it is a crime against all of us, and we come together in solidarity. Sikhs are our protectors... Every practitioner of this beautiful faith deserves our unyielding respect. As the first Punjabi-American ever elected to New York State Office, I will always fight for the freedom and dignity of Sikh Americans," Rajkumar said in a statement posted on X.

Local activists told CBS News that they are in the process of fundraising to start a patrol group as recent police data has shown that crimes have gone down where civilian patrols are conducted.

Releasing its annual report of hate crimes statistics in 2022 this month, the FBI recorded 198 cases of hate crimes against the Sikhs, stating that the community still remains the second-most targeted group in the nation.

Japneet Singh told CBS News that hate crimes against Sikhs are rising, but statistics don't reflect them as some crimes aren't reported.

He also claimed that the NYPD doesn't investigate these cases properly.
Bengaluru, Oct 27 : Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday criticised the Prime Minister Narendra Modi for neglecting the state of Karnataka.

"This year marks a significant milestone for Karnataka, as we celebrate 50 years since our beloved state was renamed. Kannada Rajyotsava on November 1st, should be a time of joy, pride, and collective celebration.

"However, the shadow of neglect and indifference cast by the Central government over the last 9.5 years under PM Modi's leadership dims our festive spirit," the Chief Minister said.

He also started a hash tag "AnswerMaadiModi" (Modi you have to answer), on the social media platform X.

The Chief Minister said that Karnataka, with its rich history and significant contributions to India's growth, finds itself asking a painful question: "Why no love for Karnataka?" he asked.

He said that under the Modi-led BJP Central government, Karnataka's aspirations and needs seem constantly overshadowed.

"Our state has faced a consistent denial of funds, despite contributing significantly to India's coffers," he said.

The Chief Minister said that the critical infrastructure projects are left without support, while our revered PSUs face closure threats.

"Our rich cultural heritage is met with indifference, and crucial river water issues remain unresolved. Furthermore, the deafening silence and lack of assistance during times of natural disasters is deeply concerning," the Chief Minster said.

"We hoped for a change, especially as we approach Kannada Rajyotsava. It's a time when the spirit of Karnataka shines brightest, and we, the people, deserve better. We demand recognition, respect, and a fair share of the nation's growth," the Chief Minister said.

He said that we urge the BJP MPs from our state to introspect and question their Central leadership, advocating for Karnataka's rights and aspirations.

"As we embark on the next chapter post our golden jubilee, it is imperative that the essence of inclusive growth is not just a slogan but a lived reality," the Chief Minister said.

"Join us in our call for justice. Amplify your voice with #AnswerMadiModi. This Kannada Rajyotsava, let's come together and champion a brighter, more equitable future for Karnataka," the Chief Minister said.
Kolkata, Oct 27 : A massive political slugfest has erupted in West Bengal following the arrest of state forest minister and former state food & supplies minister Jyotipriya Mallick on Friday by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the multi-crore ration distribution case in West Bengal.

While Trinamool Congress leadership has echoed Mallick's conspiracy theory against him by BJP, the Opposition leaders have claimed that "more and bigger influential" personalities in the ruling party will be netted by the central agencies in the coming days.

According to Trinamool Congress's state spokesman Kunal Ghosh, Mallick's arrest was the result of conspiracy hatched by BJP where the principal mastermind in the conspiracy was the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the state Assembly Suvendu Adhikari.

"The person who had been in the central agency custody himself in relation to his involvement in the Saradha chit fund and Narada video scam is now hatching the conspiracy whose latest victim is Mallick," Ghosh said.

The LoP has countered claiming that the rate at which the ministers and ruling party legislators are being netted by central agencies time is not far away when the meetings of the state cabinet will have to be conducted at a correction home.

CPI(M) central committee member Dr Sujan Chakraborty claimed that the ration distribution scam is one of the biggest scams in West Bengal in the recent past, where every week ration items meant for 2.5 crore of people are being looted by the minister and leaders of the ruling party.

The state Congress president and five-time party Lok Sabha member Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury claimed that the alleged ration distribution scam seems to be of bigger magnitude than of the cash-for-school job case in the state. "This is organised loot conducted mainly during the lockdown period in wake of COVID-19 pandemic," Chowdhury said.
New Delhi, Oct 27 : An average user on X is spending more than 32 minutes a day on the platform, its CEO Linda Yaccarino has revealed, as the social media company completed one-year under Elon Musk, who acquired Twitter for $344 billion on October 27 last year after much drama which saw mass employee firings.

Yaccarino said that overall, users spend 7.8 billion active minutes every day on X, driven by growth in "our video and community products".

"Today, the average user spends more than 32 minutes of their day on X. We continue to see sign-ups average around 1.5 million per day," she wrote in a blog post.

She said that X is now a place where everyone can freely express themselves, so long as they do so within the bounds of the law.

"We believe open and respectful discourse is the single best way for humanity to thrive. Safety on X remains a critical priority. Our work is not done, but we are making real progress," said Yaccarino.

However, one year on, controversies associated with the platform, amid the non-stop spread of disinformation, is far from over.

From a surge in anti-semitic tweets that more than doubled over the months since Musk took charge to the European Commission formally opening a probe into X over spreading of illegal content and disinformation, the Twitter bird is yet to be freed.

Yaccarino said that their team has an ongoing dialogue with external groups to keep up to date with potential risks and support the safety of the platform -- partners like the Technology Coalition, Anti-Defamation League, American Jewish Committee and Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism.

"Over half a billion of the world's most informed and influential people come to X every month. That's inclusive of our efforts to aggressively remove spam and inauthentic accounts -- a step we believe is critical to improve the X user experience and grow the platform," the X CEO informed.

She further stated that Community Notes now has over 100,000 contributors in 44 countries and is growing.

"This product is not perfect, but it is improving rapidly. Notes are being seen tens of millions of times per day, and they are getting much faster - a necessity in a world where breaking information is inherently uncertain and X has outperformed traditional media," Yaccarino noted.

The average brand safety score on X is now more than 99 per cent, "and we are now seeing brand suitability scores at over 97 per cent when these controls are applied," she further said.

According to her, over 1,700 advertisers returned to X last quarter, from small businesses to major brands -- including 90 of the top 100 ad spenders from a year ago.

"We shipped over 200 products and features post-acquisition with a significantly smaller team. How did we achieve this? We rebuilt and simplified large parts of the systems and infrastructure powering our main product surfaces from the ground up, which allowed us to maintain platform stability and innovate faster," she said.

Through a Verified Organisations subscription, businesses can now post a job listing directly on the platform.

In a bid to retain users on its platform, X Corp has paid over $20 million (more than Rs 166 crore) to creators so far.

The company rolled out encrypted messaging to X Premium subscribers, increased the limit on group DMs to 200 and added more message reply functionality.

"We launched audio and video calling, enabling Premium subscribers to call any X handle in the world without having to give them their phone number," said Yaccarino.
New Delhi, Oct 27 : NewsClick founder-editor Prabir Purkayastha and Human Resources head Amit Chakraborty have moved a Delhi court seeking release of electronic devices seized by police and bail, respectively, in a case lodged under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Hardeep Kaur of Patiala House Courts on Friday granted time to Delhi Police till November 4 to file reply on Chakraborty's bail application, and till October 31 to reply on the application filed by Purkayastha.

On Wednesday, Delhi Police told the court that they have the right to seek further custody of Purkayastha and Chakraborty, and that they need to confront them with protected witnesses and electronic material recovered.

They were produced before court on Wednesday on expiry of their previously extended five-day judicial custody.

Additional Public Prosecutor (APP) for police Atul Srivastava told the court that they have the right to seek further custody and therefore, they are exercising the same.

ASJ Kaur then sent the duo to police custody till November 2.

Meanwhile, Advocate Arshdeep Singh Khurana appeared for Purkayastha and said the ground to unearth larger conspiracy was also taken on the first day, and the test on second remand is much higher. He further contended that they need to show what is the new thing they need to discover. All that they want to do in police custody can be done in judicial custody as well.

The Special Cell of Delhi Police had arrested Purkayastha and Chakravarty on October 3. A day after their arrest, Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Hardeep Kaur of Patiala House Courts had sent them to seven daysa police custody on October 4. Both then moved the high court challenging their police remand, which was upheld by the high court.

The duo has now taken the matter to the Supreme Court against the dismissal of their petitions challenging police remand, and on October 19, the apex court had issued notices to Delhi Police on the petitions. The bench comprising Justice B.R. Gavai and Justice P.K. Mishra heard the pleas and issued notices returnable in three weeks. The top court will hear the matter on October 30.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing Purkayastha, had earlier argued before the high court that "all facts are false and not a penny came from China".

On October 3, in a statement regarding the search, seizure and detentions carried out in connection with the UAPA case registered by the Special Cell, the Delhi Police had said that a total of 37 male suspects were questioned at the office premises, while nine female suspects were questioned at their residences.

The police said that digital devices, documents, etc., were seized or collected for examination. The Special Cell had registered an FIR in connection with the case on August 17 under different sections of the UAPA and the Indian Penal Code against NewsClick.

In August, a aNew York Timesa investigation had accused NewsClick of being an organisation funded by a network linked with US millionaire Neville Roy Singham, to allegedly promote Chinese propaganda.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 27. Extra-budgetary funds have also been included in the maintenance costs of Azerbaijan's Health Ministry, Trend reports.

President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on amendments to the Regulation on the Ministry of Health.

Thus, the Ministry's operating and maintenance costs, as well as its material and technical assistance, will be funded by the Republic of Azerbaijan's state budget, extra-budgetary money, and other sources specified in the law.
Patna, Oct 27 : RJD MLA Fateh Bahadur Singh has stirred a controversy saying that the goddess Durga is an imaginary character of a story.

"I admit to the existence of goddess Durga and 33 crore gods and goddesses in the country but when we became slaves, the population of the country was 30 crore.

"I want to ask a question to those who have described that Mahisasur had crores of warriors. Still, goddess Durga killed him. If that is true then where was she when a handful of British made us slaves? Singh, the RJD MLA from Dehri assembly constituency, said.

"Devi Durga is an imaginary character of a story. She has no existence. She is a part of a fabricated story and has no truth," Singh said while claiming that Mahisasur was his ancestor.

Fateh Bahadur Singh said that when British rulers attacked India, Durga who was considered as a goddess of three Lok (Mrityu Lok or earth, Patal Lok and Swarg Lok) "then why did she not save us"?

"Organising Durga Puja event is just a wasteful expenditure. As per Valmiki Ramayan, Gautam Budh was the first to come here and then Lord Ram. We also have objections over Lord Shiva and goddess Durga," Singh said.

Fateh Bahadur Singh is known for making controversial statements on Brahmins as well.

Following his statement, BJP leaders sharply reacted and targeted Lalu Prasad Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav.

Nityanand Rai, MoS Home, condemned the statement, saying: "Those who are insulting Sanatan Dharma have blessings of Nitish Kumar and Tejashwi Yadav. I want to ask Nitish Kumar and Tejashwi Yadav to describe how good or bad this statement of Fateh Bahadur is. The leaders of RJD, Congress and Ghamandiya alliance have a habit of insulting Hindu gods and goddesses. He made a shameful comment which is highly condemnable."

Nikhil Anand, the national general secretary of BJP OBC wing said that the continuous statement against Hindu religion, Sanatan Dharma and the way leaders of "INDI Alliance" are abusing Hindu god and goddess, Lord Ram, Lord Sri Krishna, religious book like Ramayan and now against goddess Durga.

"Recently, we have celebrated Durga Puja. We are watching that they have an agenda to abuse Hindu gods and goddesses. The idea is to appease their secular vote bank while disguising as socialist ideology. All these exercises are taking place to secure Muslim vote banks in the state," he said.

--IANS

ajk/dan
Tel Aviv, Oct 27 : Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Daniel Hagari has said that a strike in the Egyptian Red Sea town of Taba in the early hours of Friday originated from "the Red Sea area", in an apparent reference to Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, Israeli media reported.

Taba sits on the border with Israel and is some 10 km from the southern city of Eilat, Times of Israel reported. The Al Arabiya broadcaster quoted an Egyptian military spokesman who said the strike was caused by a drone.

"In the last few hours, an aerial threat was detected in the Red Sea area. Fighter jets were scrambled to the threat and the issue is under investigation," Hagari said.

"To our understanding, the impact in Egypt originates from this threat. Israel will work together with Egypt and the US and tighten the defence against threats from the Red Sea area," he added, Times of Israel reported.

Al-Qahera news, which has close ties to Egypt's intelligence service, said the strike hit a medical facility where ambulances were parked, and a hospital administration building.

Six persons suffered minor injuries and were being treated at a hospital, Egypt's Health Ministry said.

An unnamed security source cited by Al-Qahera said Egypt reserved the right to respond to the attack, Times of Israel reported.

Once the origin of the launch is determined, all options are available, the source added.
Chandigarh, Oct 27 : Over 200 farmers, government officials and industry members on Friday participated in a farmer outreach event in the Rania block in Haryana to strengthen the efforts to end stubble burning in the area.

The event was organised by the CII, which is supporting field initiatives in 430 villages in Punjab and Haryana promoting alternatives to stubble burning through awareness sessions, machinery support and technical training.

The event was supported by Apraava Energy which is partnering with CII in its crop residue management initiative in Haryana.

CII and Apraava have been working on crop residue management in the Sirsa district since 2019 and have adopted 26 villages covering 33,770 acres of land and 6,795 farmers.

Overall, in Haryana CII has adopted 77 villages in partnership with corporate, including Apraava Energy, SBI Card, ONGC and Birlasoft, where six custom hiring centers with 240 machines have been set up which are managed by farmer's cooperatives formed by CII.

In 2022, incidents of stubble burning were reduced significantly in the 26 intervened villages in Sirsa due to the project interventions as hundreds of farmers joined the project to create a zero-stubble burning movement.

While the focus of interventions till last year was on in-situ measures, in the current season, village-level ex-situ interventions for the management of straw are also being promoted by CII in Sirsa.

A key highlight of the event was the inauguration of a biogas unit and a straw-based compost unit by Ranjeet Singh, Minister for Power, and Sunita Duggal, Member of Parliament, Sirsa.

Three other biogas units in Sirsa and Fatehabad are already operational and can use 1.6 MT of biomass of straw and .4 MT of cow dung for a three-month cycle and turn it into cooking gas sufficient for a small family.

The straw-based compost unit has a capacity of turning 16 MT of paddy straw into 32 MT of compost per month which will be ready to use by farmers in 30-35 days after a two-stage solid-state digestion.

Speaking at the event, Ranjeet Singh said. "Due to stubble burning, we have lost a lot of flora and fauna from the villages and we are harming nature and nature is reverting it in the form of earthquakes and floods.

"People are moving out of Delhi due to the poor air quality and its impact on children and older generation and a new trend of farmhouses has started."

He urged farmers to adopt environmentally sustainable alternatives to stubble burning to stop the damage.

Highlighting the negative impact of stubble burning, Sunita Duggal said a soil health laboratory has been started in the district and all farmers should test their samples to get benefits from it.

Farmers shared their experiences at the event as part of a peer-to-peer learning effort to encourage other farmers to join the movement of zero-stubble burning.

To help curb the effects of stubble burning, Birlasoft, part of the $2.4 billion diversified CK Birla Group, has set up an initiative called Project Shodhan in 2017 with the aim of achieving zero crop residue burning in villages of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan.

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Foundation and Birlasoft had signed an MoU towards the third phase of Shodhan, focused on introducing alternate solutions to manage crop residue and create awareness on the ills of stubble burning.

A notable impact from the project is that stubble burning was checked in 90 per cent farm area and there was a 5-7 per cent increase in yield as of 2020-21.
Canada says it expects to process only half of Indian visa applications by Dec 2023. Image Source: IANS News

Toronto, Oct 27 : Canada has said that out of the 38,000 visas for Indians, it will only be able to process 20,000 by the end of December this year due to recent reduction of staff on the ground.

At a meeting of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration this week, Immigration Minister Marc Miller said there are now only five members to do the on-the-ground visa work in India, the CIC News reported.

The Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) which processes the visa applications, had its staff reduced from 27 to just five members this month after India, seeking diplomatic parity, asked Canada to withdraw its 41 diplomats.

The IRCC now expects there will be approximately 17,500 Indian applications in backlog at the beginning of 2024. However, signalling hope, senior officials with the country's top Immigration Department said that the government is working to return to normal processing for Indian applications by early 2024.

This can be achieved as the immigration staff pulled from India reestablishes itself and gets back to work in Canada and the Philippines, IRCC said.

According to CIC, IRCC is trying to mitigate the impact by adjusting the work load for Visa Application Centres (VACs) that already process the majority of the applications from India. IRCC said in a statement released last week that a large majority of applications from India are already processed outside the country, with 89 per cent of Indiaas applications processed through the global network.

"The five Canada-based IRCC staff who remain in India will focus on work that requires an in-country presence such as urgent processing, visa printing, risk assessment, and overseeing key partners," the IRCC said.

The department aims to process 80 per cent of all applications within service standards, which vary depending on the type of application. An application is in backlog when it has not been processed within service standards.

IRCC has also temporarily suspended all in-person services at consulates in India, although applications from India will still be accepted and processed.

India, meanwhile, partially resumed visa services in Canada from October 26 onwards after they were shut down amid deteriorating diplomatic ties. The services will resume for entry, business, medical, and conference visas, the Indian High Commission said in a statement. "Further decisions, as appropriate, would be intimated based on continuing evaluation of the situation," the statement added.

--IANS

mi/vd
New Delhi, Oct 27 : Delhi Police on Friday detained around 50 pro-Palestine protesters who had gathered at the Jantar Mantar to demonstrate against the Israel-Hamas conflict.

The police said the detained protesters were taken to a nearby police station as they did not have permission for agitation.Further details are awaited.

Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, in response to the latter's October 7 attacks on Israel in which 1,400 people were killed and more than 220 were taken hostage.

In a televised address on Wednesday, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had confirmed that Israel is "preparing for a ground incursion" into Gaza following nearly three weeks of airstrikes on the coastal strip.
Bengaluru, Oct 27 : Officials of the forest department continued their searches in Karnataka on Friday in connection with the ongoing row over celebrities wearing pendants made of tiger's claw.

On Friday, the sleuths conducted a search at the residence of Minister for Women and Child Welfare Laxmi Hebbalkar in Belagavi city. The photo of her son Mrunal Hebbalkar wearing a tiger's claw pendant had gone viral on social media.

On the other hand, Kannada Big Boss contestant Varthur Santhosh was granted bail by the Second ACJM Court in Bengaluru on Friday in connection with a case of wearing a tiger's claw pendant. The court had earlier remanded him to 14 days judicial custody. He was arrested from the reality show set in Bengaluru and sent directly to the prison as prima facie it was found that Santhosh was wearing a pendant made of tiger's claw.

Laxmi Hebbalkar clarified on Friday that what her son Mrunal was seen wearing was a plastic tigers' claw pendant gifted by someone. "I am a pure vegetarian. It is impossible to find anything related to wildlife at my house. Killing tigers, peacocks is a distant thing. I oppose the killing of sheep, chicken and cows."

Sleuths of the forest department had inspected the residence of Hebbalkar and took the pendant worn by her son Mrunal. The officials will send the pendant to the FSL for testing. "Tiger is our national animal. The numbers are decreasing every day. There is one law for a person like me who is holding a responsible position and for the common people. I extend my full support to the save tiger campaign," Hebbalkar stated.

Many people would have stored the horns of deer, the claws of a tiger at their homes. The government and the forest department must seize them and create awareness among the people, she opined.

Meanwhile, Darshan, a Deputy Reserve Forest Officer of Kalasa sub-division, has been suspended following a complaint demanding action against him for wearing a tiger's claw as a pendant. The order was issued by the District Forest Officer Nandeesh. Supreeth and Abdul, residents of Arenuru village, had submitted a complaint in this regard against the suspended officer.
Hyderabad, Oct 27 : In a major jolt to the Congress party's NRI leader Jhansi Reddy, authorities rejected her application for Indian citizenship.

Jhansi Reddy, an American citizen, is a Congress ticket aspirant from the Palakurthi Assembly constituency.

The Hyderabad District Collector informed Reddy that her request for Indian citizenship cannot be considered as she has not been living in India continuously for a year immediately preceding the date of application.

She had applied for Indian citizenship under Section 5 (1) (g) of the Citizenship Act, 1955. The District Collector wrote that she entered India on June 16, 2022 but has not resided in India continuously for a period of 12 months immediately preceding the date of application which is mandatory to press for citizenship.

She was informed that she can re-apply for citizenship when she meets all the conditions as per the rules prescribed under the Indian Citizenship Act, 2009.

Jhansi Reddy is the founder and president of the US-based organisation Women Empowerment Telugu Association, aimed at creating opportunities for women.

She undertook philanthropic work in the Palakurthi constituency, currently represented by BRS leader and Minister for Panchayat Raj, E. Dayakar Rao.

Expecting a Congress ticket, she had been actively campaigning in the constituency for the last few weeks.
New Delhi, Oct 27 : With Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Wistron selling its India operations to Tata Group for $125 million, Tata Electronics is going to become the first Indian company to manufacture new Apple iPhones in the country, which is a major fillip to the government's 'Make in India' initiative.

The company said in its regulatory filing that it will sell a 100 per cent stake in the unit Wistron InfoComm Manufacturing (India) Pvt. to Tata Electronics Pvt., following the board approval.

The much-awaited deal has been finalised after strategic considerations in response to the reshaping of the group's product strategy and global manufacturing layout.

Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, said that within just two and a half years, Tata Group will start making iPhones from India for domestic and global markets.

"PM Narendra Modias visionary PLI scheme has already propelled India into becoming a trusted and major hub for smartphone manufacturing and exports. Congratulations to the Tata team for taking over Wistron operations," the minister posted on X.

He said that this is a "great going for Apple in building a global supply chain from India with Indian companies at its helm".

"MeitY stands fully in support in growth of global Indian electronics companies that will, in turn, support global electronic brands that want to make India their trusted manufacturing and talent partner," Chandrasekhar added.

Industry experts said that with their ambition on semiconductors and EVs, it only makes sense for the Tata Group to gain expertise in manufacturing high-end iPhones in the country.

"With the Wistron acquisition, Tata Group will get a leg-up on its electronics manufacturing ambitions with the iPhones, and the possibility of manufacturing top-end iPhone models as well in the near future. We anticipate aMake in Indiaa to gain further momentum, and India to emerge as a major fulcrum in the global electronics value chain," Prabhu Ram, Heada"Industry Intelligence Group, CMR, told IANS.

In the years ahead, the Tata Group has the potential to solidify their position as a pivotal player in the iPhone manufacturing ecosystem.

Wistron's factory in Karnataka, that employs about 12,000 people, constitutes a major chunk of its business in the country.

As the iPhone consumption increases in the country, Apple needs more suppliers to ramp up production here, as it reportedly aims to take away a significant chunk of manufacturing from China to countries like India and Vietnam.

Driven by domestic manufacturing, Apple iPhones are set to garner 7 per cent market share in the Android-dominated smartphone market in India this year, according to latest data.

Apple iPhone shipments grew 68 per cent (year-on-year) in the first half of this year in the country.

CMR estimates the iPhone 15 shipments in the launch quarter (October-December period) to hover around 65 per cent, driven by an increased aMake in Indiaa initiative.

For the first time, aMake in Indiaa iPhone 15 units were exported to other countries within a short span of time from its global launch last month.

Apple received tremendous response to the iPhone 15 series in the country -- nearly 50 per cent more from last year.

Apple had set a June quarter record in India, driven by the robust sales of iPhones, according to CEO Tim Cook.

Tarun Pathak, Research Director at Counterpoint, told IANS that Tatas' semiconductor ambitions are serious and came at a very important juncture amid India's digital goals.

"First, they can leverage the semiconductor strength in their EV business and second, their chips can be aligned with Apple in the future and the learning curve will be great for them," Pathak told IANS.

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, according to Counterpoint.

The country saw mobile phone exports worth $5.5 billion (over Rs 45,000 crore) in the April-August period in the current fiscal year (FY24), government and industry data showed.

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.

(Nishant Arora can be reached at nishant.a@ians.in)
New Delhi, Oct 27 : With Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Wistron selling its India operations to Tata Group for $125 million, Tata Electronics is going to become the first Indian company to manufacture new Apple iPhones in the country, which is a major fillip to the government's 'Make in India' initiative.

Currently, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 12 and iPhone SE (second generation) are being manufactured/ assembled at Wistron's factory in Karnataka, which Tatas will take over.

The company said in its regulatory filing that it will sell a 100 per cent stake in the unit Wistron InfoComm Manufacturing (India) Pvt. to Tata Electronics Pvt., following the board approval.

The much-awaited deal has been finalised after strategic considerations in response to the reshaping of the group's product strategy and global manufacturing layout.

Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, said that within just two and a half years, Tata Group will start making iPhones from India for domestic and global markets.

"PM Narendra Modias visionary PLI scheme has already propelled India into becoming a trusted and major hub for smartphone manufacturing and exports. Congratulations to the Tata team for taking over Wistron operations," the minister posted on X.

He said that this is a "great going for Apple in building a global supply chain from India with Indian companies at its helm".

"MeitY stands fully in support in growth of global Indian electronics companies that will, in turn, support global electronic brands that want to make India their trusted manufacturing and talent partner," Chandrasekhar added.

Industry experts said that with their ambition on semiconductors and EVs, it only makes sense for the Tata Group to gain expertise in manufacturing high-end iPhones in the country.

"With the Wistron acquisition, Tata Group will get a leg-up on its electronics manufacturing ambitions with the iPhones, and the possibility of manufacturing top-end iPhone models as well in the near future. We anticipate aMake in Indiaa to gain further momentum, and India to emerge as a major fulcrum in the global electronics value chain," Prabhu Ram, Heada"Industry Intelligence Group, CMR, told IANS.

In the years ahead, the Tata Group has the potential to solidify their position as a pivotal player in the iPhone manufacturing ecosystem.

Wistron's factory in Karnataka, that employs about 12,000 people, constitutes a major chunk of its business in the country.

As the iPhone consumption increases in the country, Apple needs more suppliers to ramp up production here, as it reportedly aims to take away a significant chunk of manufacturing from China to countries like India and Vietnam.

Driven by domestic manufacturing, Apple iPhones are set to garner 7 per cent market share in the Android-dominated smartphone market in India this year, according to latest data.

Apple iPhone shipments grew 68 per cent (year-on-year) in the first half of this year in the country.

CMR estimates the iPhone 15 shipments in the launch quarter (October-December period) to hover around 65 per cent, driven by an increased aMake in Indiaa initiative.

For the first time, aMake in Indiaa iPhone 15 units were exported to other countries within a short span of time from its global launch last month.

Apple received tremendous response to the iPhone 15 series in the country -- nearly 50 per cent more from last year.

Apple had set a June quarter record in India, driven by the robust sales of iPhones, according to CEO Tim Cook.

Tarun Pathak, Research Director at Counterpoint, told IANS that Tatas' semiconductor ambitions are serious and came at a very important juncture amid India's digital goals.

"First, they can leverage the semiconductor strength in their EV business and second, their chips can be aligned with Apple in the future and the learning curve will be great for them," Pathak told IANS.

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, according to Counterpoint.

The country saw mobile phone exports worth $5.5 billion (over Rs 45,000 crore) in the April-August period in the current fiscal year (FY24), government and industry data showed.

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.

(Nishant Arora can be reached at nishant.a@ians.in)
Anantapur : , Oct 27 (IANS/ 101 Reporters) In her role as the main cook of the Zilla Parishad High School at Devagiri, the first task of Boya Gouramma (43) is to get fresh vegetables for the nutritious meals provided under the Andhra Pradesh government's Jagananna Gorumudda Scheme.

Around 3 a.m. on every working day, she travels with her son on a two-wheeler or takes an auto to the vegetable market located 25 km away, in Bellary of neighbouring Karnataka.

She returns home with the vegetables around 6 am, and starts cooking the curry to be served to the school students for lunch at her home itself. A total of 191 students study in Devagiri high school in Bommanahal block (mandal) of Anantapur district. On average, 150 students attend. However, there is no cooking shed on the school premises, due to which a small unused room serves as kitchen.

About 80 per cent of the schools in rural areas of Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh do not have facilities to run Jagananna Gorumudda Scheme

Gouramma carries the curry to the school around 10 a.m. Subsequently, she and helpers Boya Sunkanna and Boya Thippamma handle the rest of the cooking there.All of them have been serving as mid-day meal workers in the school since 2019.

"Vegetables should be fresh, so I go to Bellary to bring them. According to the number of the students present, the headmaster provides us with rice, ragi flour, jaggery, eggs and peanut-chikkis," Gouramma tells 101Reporters.

After cleaning utensils and washing rice, they cook it on an LPG stove. The food is ready by 11.30 a.m., and the children line up for lunch once the headmaster tastes the meal. After serving food to the children and cleaning the utensils, Gouramma and helpers return home by 2 p.m.

Golle Onnuru Swamy (46) has a similar schedule. He also heads to Bellary, located 45 km from Govindawada, in an auto around 3 a.m.

After buying vegetables, he goes straight to the Zilla Parishad High School at Govindawada around 6 am, where his team of helpers a" Golle Umaraj, Oggani Hanumappa, Golle Lakshmi, Golle Sunkamma and Oggani Obulamma a" would start their work by cleaning utensils and vegetables.

Together, they form the Dharani self-help group (SHG) that has been dishing out nutritious meals to the students of the school in Bommanahal block since 2008.

"We have been providing quality meals as per the menu. That is why our SHG is able to continue till now," Swamy, the main cook, tells 101Reporters.

Once the cleaning is over, the headmaster checks the freshness of vegetables.

"We start preparing meals after eating breakfast brought from home. It will be half past eleven when the cooking is done," he adds.

The lunchtime is at 12.15 p.m. When the bell rings, girls and boys line up separately. After distributing the lunch, the team has to clean the utensils and cooking area.

"It will be half past two when we finish our work," says Swamy.

Brewing issues

Known earlier as mid-day meal scheme, the Jagananna Gorumudda Scheme with its enhanced menu has received positive feedback.

Studying in classes 9 and 10 in Devagiri school, Nimbagallu Charan Kumar, Kandepalli Anjali, Vadde Lakshmi and Boya Surendra are happy with the food they receive. For them, Thursday's menu is special as they get sambarbath on that day.

However, the scheme faces several challenges. There is no cooking shed in Govindawada school where 746 children study. The workers use firewood for cooking as LPG cylinders are expensive.

"During rainy and windy seasons, it is difficult to prepare meals outside. We have been working like this since 2008. In all seasons, be it summer, winter, rainy or windy, we need to bring fresh vegetables from Bellary," says Swamy.

Delayed payment is another major issue.

"The bills (the money spent on food materials) for the months of July and August have not been paid yet. Four years ago, we did not get the payment for eight months. However, we worked without any complaint. The government should look into our practical difficulties and support us accordingly," he says.

"Now, we get Rs 8.55 for one meal per head. It should be increased according to the market rate. In July and August, we bought one kg ginger for Rs 400 and 25 kg of tomatoes for Rs 3,250. As we travel frequently, accident and group insurance coverage is good for us, if the government provides," he adds.

In a month, the SHG spends Rs 70,000 to 80,000 buying food items to run the scheme.

"Despite working hard for 15 years, our honorarium is only Rs 3,000. It does not match with our labour. Sometimes, there is a delay in payment as well," says one of the helpers, on condition of anonymity.

Gouramma says prices of LPG cylinders, ingredients and vegetables have gone up.

"It would be good if the government arranges cooking sheds, storage facilities and insurance, and increase the price per head according to the market rate."

Teachers' supervision plays a role

There are 50 schools, including primary, upper primary and high schools, in Bommanahal block.

"Our school has the highest number of 746 students in the block. We need to feed around 700 daily. There is enough fresh water and a 10-acre ground for extracurricular activities," Rachuri Soorudu, headmaster, Govindawada Zilla Parishad High School, tells 101Reporters.

To maintain the quality of food, one subject teacher strictly supervises the cleaning and cooking activities every day.

"We use 90 to 100 kg of fortified rice per day. Eggs are given five days a week, while ragi java [finger millet malt] and chickpeas are given three days a week on alternate working days. We implement the menu strictly. In certain periods like shravana masam, some students do not consume eggs," he informs.

Twice a week, the staff of the primary health centre conduct health check-ups for students. If anyone is found to be suffering from anaemia and low weight, he/she is given medicines.

"We conduct a toolbox talk with the workers at the cooking area daily on how to maintain hygiene. As a result, no issue of food poisoning has arisen so far. We strictly monitor the food items daily and use fresh vegetables only," Soorudu says, adding that there is no caste discrimination in the school.

Teachers highlight that all activities under the scheme and toilet maintenance fund should be uploaded in IMMS (Integrated Monitoring System for Mid-day Meal and Sanitation) app every day. Tasting register should be maintained offline, and the mandal education officer (MEO) would randomly carry out inspections. The app will update the daily menu details and allow authorities to promptly address complaints, if any.

"The scheme has been implemented without any irregularities as the supervision of teachers is good. But, to achieve 100 per cent desired results, a cooking shed, storage facility, community dining hall, water supply and a dedicated cleaner should be present. About 80 per cent of schools in rural areas of Anantapur district do not have cooking sheds. Teachers raise these issues in block level meets and headmaster meets," a senior teacher with 25 years of service and two cluster resource persons told 101Reporters on condition of anonymity.

According to teaching staff who wish to be anonymous, the cooking setup is mostly temporary. In many schools, the workers use unused rooms. In some schools, temporary kitchens were arranged through donations. Due to lack of shared dining halls, students eat their meals in classrooms or on verandas.

The staff claim that in a school in Bommanahal block, three groups of workers stopped their mid-day meal services in just a year due to irregular payments.

'Facilities in six months'

"We have instructions from higher authorities to complete new school buildings under the Mana Badi-Nadu Nedu programme soon, and to monitor and provide progress details about it. The MEOs and headmasters are looking after these works," said Uppara Veeranna, MEO-1, and Kummara Chandra Sekhar, headmaster, Elanji Primary School.

Every block has two MEOs, one looks after academic affairs and the other administrative affairs.

"We have inspected the scheme's functioning in 46 of the total 50 schools. No irregularities have come to our notice. There are no complaints either," MEO-2 Vuddula Mallikarjuna tells 101Reporters.

"There is a possibility of completing construction of cooking sheds and storerooms before December. We have made requests to the district education officer in this regard. Under Nadu Nedu, all works will be completed in six months. After that, everything will be fine, from classroom to toilet. There is no corruption in the utilisation of funds as every detail has to be uploaded online," Mallikarjuna says.

Devagiri school comes under Bandur panchayat, whose welfare assistant Chirutala Pruthvi says he checks the quality of the meals at least thrice a week.

"The policewoman on duty also checks randomly. So far, no irregularities or complaints have come to our notice," he says.

Andhra Pradesh Food Commission Chairman Chitta Vijaya Prasad Reddy conducted random inspections in Anantapur district two months ago and expressed satisfaction on the scheme's implementation.

The 11th AP JRM report (Andhra Pradesh Joint Review Mission Report on Mid-day Meal Scheme in Visakhapatnam and East Godavari for 2018-19) published on the website of Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM POSHAN) had observed 14 good practices, highlighted nine areas of concern and made 12 recommendations for the scheme's effective implementation.

(Paul Babu is an Andhra Pradesh-based freelance journalist and a member of 101Reporters, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters.)
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 27. The post of first deputy minister of health has been abolished in Azerbaijan, Trend reports.

This issue was addressed in a decree signed by President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev to amend the Ministry of Health Regulations.

The ministry now has a first deputy and four deputies nominated and dismissed by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

In accordance with the changes, along with the post of first deputy minister, the post of deputy minister has also been abolished.

Thus, the minister of health will have three deputies.
Jaipur, Oct 27 : Congress on Friday made five more promises to the people in the poll-bound state of Rajasthan.

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, while addressing a press conference, said that if the Congress government comes back to power again in the state, then like Chhattisgarh, the government will implement the 'Godhan guarantee scheme' as well.

He said that laptops will also be given to the college students.

He said that for farmers, the Congress government will implement Godhan guarantee scheme on the lines of Chhattisgarh.

"Cow dung will be purchased only for Rs 2 per kg," the Chief Minister said.

He said that for students, there will be no need for lottery for admission in government English medium schools. "Everyone will be given admission," the Chief Minister promised.

He said that for youths, in every college, students will be given a laptop or tablet along with the admission.

He said that for disaster victims, the victim's family will be provided with Rs 15 lakh for loss caused due to the natural disaster.

He said that for employees, giving old pension to the employees in the state has been started from this budget session. "Now OPS Guarantee Law will also be implemented," he said.

Congress has so far announced seven guarantees for the upcoming elections. Two promises were announced only two days ago by the Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi during a public meeting.

It includes a financial aid of Rs 10,000 every year to the female head and Rs 500 LPG cylinder under the Griha Lakshmi Guarantee Scheme.

The Chief Minister said that apart from these guarantees, Congress will also release the manifesto soon.

He said that PM Modi does not understand, but the countdown has started in the country against the BJP.

"Modi is so scared of Rajasthan and our guarantee schemes that he has now started saying that we give guarantees. Modi is also following our guarantee model now," he said.

The Chief Minister said that if Congress government comes to power, dearness allowance will also be increased as per the Centre rules.

"It will benefit 8 lakh employees and 4.40 lakh pensioners," the Chief Minister said.

Rajasthan is going to polls in the month of November, later this year.

--IANS

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New Delhi, Oct 27 : The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has booked Himachal Pradesh's Una-based Magma Auto links Pvt. Ltd. and its directors Tushar Sharma and Shaveta Sharma in a bank fraud case while carrying raids at four places.

A CBI spokesperson said that the agency booked Magma Auto links Pvt. Ltd, its directors and unknown public servants.

The official said that it was alleged that the directors of the company entered into a conspiracy among themselves and others during the year 2017-2018 and in pursuant thereof obtained a credit facility in the form of Term Loan of Rs 9.85 crore from UCO Bank, Mandi for construction of showroom, purchase of plant and machinery and other allied items.

The accused instead of creating the said assets, cheated the bank and siphoned off or diverted the funds to the other accounts maintained with other banks under the control of the said borrowers, the official said.

The official said that the agency sleuths carried out searches at four places belongings to the accused and company in Una, Kangra etc which led to recovery of incriminating documents.
New Delhi, Oct 27 : Railway Protection Force (RPF) will hold a day-long function in honor of the memory of martyrs at the National Police Memorial (NPM) in New Delhi's Chanakyapuri on October 28.

The ceremony will commence with families of martyrs visiting the NPM along with the families of force personnel and school children, who will offer floral tribute to the martyrs. They will also visit the Museum at NPM.

Director General, RPF, Manoj Yadava will honor and felicitate the families of the martyrs which will be followed by a band display to honour the martyrs.

After the retreat ceremony, a short film will be screened depicting the heroics of police personnel including RPF in serving the nation and its citizens.

RPF personnel will pay tribute to more than one thousand officers and soldiers who made the supreme sacrifice in the line of duty in the past which includes 13 RPF personnel who sacrificed their lives at the altar of duty last year.

At least 36,250 police personnel in the past while 188 police personnel in 2022 sacrificed their lives including the martyrs of RPF also.

RPF is a dedicated security force entrusted with the responsibility of safeguarding Indian Railways and its passengers.

In the recent years, RPF has undertaken missions to save lives, assist those in need and also combat human trafficking and drug smuggling.

RPF personnel have received 3 President's Gallantry Medals, 19 Police Gallantry Medals, 93 President's Police Medals, 927 Police Medals, and 20 Jeevan Raksha Medals.
London, Oct 27 : Post-Covid condition, or long-Covid does not appear to be linked to direct viral invasion of the brain or active brain damage, according to a study.

Long-Covid is known to persist for several months subsequent to the initial infection. The condition includes various combinations of fatigue, apathy, and difficulties with memory and concentration.

Researchers at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden found that searching for abnormal biomarkers among the participants yielded no hits in either blood or cerebrospinal fluid samples.

The study, published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, included 25 people with confirmed post-Covid condition, six people without residual symptoms after Covid, and 17 control subjects who were completely free of Covid-19.

The strength of the study lies not in the number of participants, which is fairly limited, but in the fact that they all -- including the control subjects -- underwent not only blood tests but also the considerably more invasive procedure of lumbar punctures to collect cerebrospinal fluid.

At the time when the samples were taken, at least three months had passed since the first symptoms of Covid-19 in those who had had the disease. The samples were taken between February and November 2021, and were analysed for a total of 37 different biomarkers.

Notably, the blood and cerebrospinal fluid analyses showed that SARS-CoV-2 antigens were undetectable in all samples. Additionally, there were no significant differences between the groups when analysing blood and cerebrospinal fluid for immune activation or brain injury markers.

The findings thus suggest that post-Covid condition is not the result of ongoing infection, immune activation, or brain damage.

"The findings enhance our understanding of post-Covid conditions. The results suggest that the condition is more likely a consequence of events that occur during the acute phase of Covid-19, rather than an ongoing viral infection or persistent inflammation of the central nervous system," said Nelly Kanberg, a doctoral student in infectious diseases at University of Gothenburg's Sahlgrenska Academy.

The extent to which post-Covid condition can be linked to the body's inflammatory response during the actual infection is unclear. Many studies are currently being carried out around the world, including those that explore risk factors for post-Covid conditions.
Chennai, Oct 27 : After releasing the trailer for his high-octane action-spy-thriller film 'Dhruva Natchathiram: Part One - Yuddkaram', superstar Chiyaan Vikram announced both the release date of his upcoming film 'Thangalaan', which is slated to hit theatres on January 26, 2024.

The Tamil superstar took to his X account and shared the poster of his upcoming feature. In his post, he also shared the release date of the film's teaser. Vikram wrote: "A fiery story of a bygone era that's waiting to be told & cherished. #Thangalaan' teaser dropping on 1st November & #Thangalaan arriving at cinemas worldwide on 26th January, 2024."

Studio Green, which is producing and bankrolling the film, also took to their official social media handles and announced that the movie will be released worldwide on January 26, 2024. In addition, they also announced the teaser release date as November 1, 2023.

Announcing the film on their X account, the studio wrote: "Even the darkest mines shall glimmer with a golden beacon of hope. Unveiling the #ThangalaanTeaser on 1stNovember 2023. The realm of #Thangalaan will open its gates worldwide on 26th January, 2024."

The movie prior to announcing its release date had unveiled the poster for Chiyaan, who looked completely unrecognisable in his new form as he immersed himself into the persona of what appears to be a killer tribal warrior.

This is a radical shift from how he appeared in 'Ponniyin Selvan 2' or his upcoming spy film 'Dhruva Natchathiram' where he was extremely stylish and elegant.

Directed by P.A Ranjith, the movie also stars Parvathy Thiruvothu, Pasupathy, Daniel Caltagirone, and others in pivotal roles. The film is produced by Neelam Productions and Studio Green, and will have the music composed by GV Prakash Kumar.

'Thangalaan' is based on a true story from the Kolar Gold Fields during British rule in India. The film will be available in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Kannada, and Malayalam languages.
Mumbai, Oct 27 : In what is being described as a medical breakthrough, the Lilavati Hospital, Mumbai performed a successful complex heart surgery to remove a benign Myxoma tumour in a 50-year-old patient with a rare blood group, officials said here on Friday.

The patient's blood group was identified as 'Gerbich Phenotype', the first such in India, and owing to this his own blood was collected for the surgery, eliminating the need for an external blood transfusion, said the medical team of Dr. Pavan Kumar and Ruhi Mehra.

The patient, Rajesh Agarwal from Yavatmal, Maharashtra, complained of chest pain and a mass was discovered in his heart, which was later confirmed as a Myxoma tumour within the right atrium of his heart. Apart from this he was suffering from severe triple vessel coronary artery diseases, necessitating a Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting surgery.

The team of Dr. Kumar, Dr. Mehra, Dr. Abhay Bhave, Dr. Nitin Chavan and others used state-of-the-art techniques and innovative approaches to ensure safe removal of the tumour while minimising potential complications associated with the patient's unique blood group.

"Myxomas are extremely rare tumors that can develop in the heart and disrupt normal cardiac function. However, this case presented an additional challenge due to the patient's Gerbich Phenotype blood group, which is found in less than 0.01 per cent of the Indian population," explained Dr. Kumar.

The patient underwent blood group testing prior to the operation to arrange for blood transfusion during the surgery and was found to have AB+ Blood Group, which is quite common. "However, his blood was not matching with any of the nearly 50 donor blood units tested (including O-Negative), and further extensive immuno-hematological analysis revealed that the patient possessed an additional rare blood group antibody, posing an unexpected challenge," said Dr. Kumar.

The blood of even the patient's mother, three siblings and two sons was tested but none were found compatible, worrying the medical team as Agarwal was slated to undergo a complicated heart surgery that could require blood transfusion during the operation.

Accordingly, Dr. Mehra said to be absolutely sure, a blood sample was sent to the International Blood Group Reference Laboratory, Bristol, United Kingdom. "The IBGRL, UK, confirmed that the patient's cells had the rare Gerbich Phenotype due to which he had formed a clinically significant anti-Ge2 allo-antibody, and only eight such phenotype donors are registered in the international rare blood group donor registry. This made it likely that Agarwal's case was the first-of-its-kind in the country," said Dr. Mehra.

Prior to the surgery, Agarwal's blood was collected three times over three week before the surgery was performed on October 18 and the operation went off successfully.

Lilavati Hospital COO Lt. Gen. (Dr.) V. Ravishankar said in this case, the multi-disciplinary approach adopted by the hospital proved that such rare cases can also be handled with utmost care to obtain the desired favourable results.

On his part, Agarwal  who is recovering well post-surgery - said he was shocked to discover the series of health problems he was afflicted and then the discovery of the rarest of rare blood group, but expressed his gratitude to the Lilavati Hospital medical team for the successful surgery that has given him a new lease of life.

(Quaid Najmi can be contacted at: q.najmi@ians.in )
New Delhi, Oct 27 : India has conveyed its concerns to Mozambique over procedural hurdles that have cropped up since July in that country, causing delays in release of tur export consignments.

Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh raised the issue with Mozambique High Commissioner, Ermindo A. Pereira during a meeting and requested him to intervene for ensuring seamless export of tur from Mozambique, just as the Indian government had put in place necessary policy measures to make the imports smooth and seamless.

In this regard, Singh appraised Pereira about the tur export consignments awaiting clearance at Mozambican ports and stressed the need for their expeditious clearance.

It was also emphasised that the bilateral MoU for trade in tur needs to be upheld as it embodies the commitment of India and Mozambique toward producers and consumers of the two countries.

The High Commissioner assured that necessary steps will be initiated to resolve the current issues concerning tur trade and to ensure smooth flow of tur exports from Mozambique to India.

Pereira also stressed on the importance of trade relation between India and Mozambique for overall agriculture agricultural eco system in Mozambique.

The meeting at this juncture is being seen as a crucial move to ensure smooth flow of imports from Mozambique, which will augment availability of tur during the coming months and ensure availability and affordability to Indian consumers.

--IANS

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Aizawl, Oct 27 : Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh on Friday said that the BJP in the northeast region are using the regional parties to grab power.

He said that BJP did it in Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, and now they are trying to apply same strategy in Mizoram.

Branding BJP as 'ghost party', Ramesh said that the power of the ghost over the other two parties, the ZPM (Zoram People's Movement) and the ruling MNF (Mizo National Front) is well known to everyone as they are the gateway for BJP to enter Mizoram.

Saying that the MNF and the BJP are two sides of the same coin, the Congress leader told the media that the ZPM is a party with no programme, no organisation and no ideology.

Noting that the November 7 assembly elections are very crucial for Mizoram, Ramesh said: "It is essentially a three-horse race with the MNF, Congress and ZPM. This is not the time for experimentation in Mizoram."

He said that the politics of the BJP is to divide society based on religion, ethnicity, language and culture, and that the evidence shows that the MNF and the ZPM are remote controlled by BJP.

"A vote for the MNF, ZPM, is a vote for BJP. They are back door entry points to Mizoram for BJP."

Highlighting the failures of the MNF government, he expressed shock that in the last three years legitimate grants to the tune of Rs 3500 crore grants that were due to the state from the Centre has not been received despite the MNF being part of the BJP led NDA.

He said that, "As the MNF failed to get the funds from the Centre, the agriculture budget, the education budget, and the health budget has been cut. With great fanfare SEDP (Socio-Economic Development Policy) was launched by the MNF government. It is nothing but the State Empty Development Promises".

He said that the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project (KMTTP) was launched by the Manmohan Singh led UPA government and now Modi (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) is trying to take credit for the project.

"It was a major initiative taken by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in June 2008 to improve accessibility and connectivity to Mizoram".

The KMTTP has been implemented by developing the Sittwe Port in Myanmar with funding under grant-in-aid assistance from the Government of India.

A government and a party that removed Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir can also remove Article 371-G of the Indian Constitution as it has been giving special status to the northeastern states and preserving their tribal heritage.

The Article 371-G was inserted in February 1987 to the Indian Constitution when late Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister as a special provision to protect the Mizo way of life, Ramesh said adding that it is the greatest contribution of the Congress led government to Mizoram that is under threat now.

"It is only the hand of sensitivity that understands the aspirations of the northeast whereas the BJP is the party that wants one nation, one language; one nation, one culture; one nation, one religion; and one nation, one party."

Referring to the Congress guarantees for the poll bound Mizoram, announced recently, he said that the guarantees offered a new deal for developing agriculture and horticulture in Mizoram.

It was the Congress party led government that first provided support for growing ginger, passion fruit, oranges, anthurium and grapes.

He highlighted that a Congress government will guarantee that every citizen of Mizoram will get free treatment of up to 15 lakhs of rupees as part of their health insurance and gas cylinders at Rs 750.

"We have implemented guarantees in Karnataka, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh and we are serious about the implementation of guarantees. The time is right for change in Mizoram and to preserve and protect the Mizo way of life only a national party like the Congress can ensure a vote for preserving traditions, customs, and culture of Mizoram," Ramesh said.
Kolkata, Oct 27 : A special court in Kolkata, on Friday remanded West Bengal Forest Minister and former Food & Supplies Minister Jyotipriya Mallick to Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody till November 6 for his alleged involvement in the multi-crore ration distribution case in the state.

Mallick was arrested on Friday morning after a 20-hour raid at his residence that started on Thursday morning.

The minister became sick and also fell unconscious after hearing the order.

The judge of the special court directed for medical check-up and treatment of Mallick at the Defence-run Command Hospital.

The judge also directed the Command Hospital authorities to form a medical board for the purpose in the next 24 hours.

The judge also allowed supply of home- made food to the arrested minister during his stay in the ED custody.

However, there was a condition that before that food was served to the minister, his daughter would have to examine the same food in presence of the central agency officials.

The judge also allowed Mallick to interact with his counsel for an hour daily till his stay in ED custody till November 6.

On hearing the news of Mallick falling sick during the course of hearing, Trinamool Congress supporters assembled at the court premises and shouted "Shame on ED" slogans.

To recall, on Thursday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee cautioned that FIRs will be filed against ED officials, if there was a negative effect on the Minister's health of Mallick as "he is suffering from high blood-sugar and is not in the proper health condition".

"So if anything happens to him because of the unnecessary harassment, we will have to file FIRs against the ED officials," the Chief Minister asserted.
New Delhi, Oct 27 : Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu was admitted at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences here on Friday for some tests.

According to a statement from the Himachal Pradesh government, it said that Sukhu was admitted to AIIMS at New Delhi today for some tests in the Department of Gastroenterology.

The process may take about two to three days.

"He is under the observation of the team of doctors who informed that his reports are normal," it said.

"The health of Chief Minister is stable and there is no reason to worry as Chief Minister is taking proper rest and recovering fast," the statement read.

It also said that the Chief Minister has been admitted to AIIMS, New Delhi on the advice of IGMC, Shimla doctors.

Sukhu was admitted in IGMC in Shimla on Thursday after he complained a stomach ache.

"Due to a stomach infection, the Chief Minister was admitted to the IGMCH. The ultrasound report is normal and his condition is stable. His medical examination and all reports are normal," Rahul Rao, Medical Superintendent, IGMCH, told the media on Thursday.

--IANS

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 27. The EU has once again underscored its support for peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia, Trend reports.

As stated in the conclusion remarks, following the meeting, the "European Council underlines its continued support for advancing a sustainable and lasting peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan based on the principles of recognition of sovereignty, the inviolability of borders and territorial integrity".

"The European Council supports the Brussels normalization process and calls on the Parties to engage in good faith and to finalize this process by the end of this year," the statement reads.

Meanwhile, Earlier, Charles Michel, President of the European Council, announced that Brussels has invited leaders of both Azerbaijan and Armenia to participate in a trilateral meeting before the end of October.

However, Toivo Klaar, EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia, told Trend that the expected meeting is not likely to happen.

"Indeed, the Trilateral Meeting of the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia in the Brussels format would most probably not take place before the end of the month as initially foreseen. We are now engaged in consultations with Armenia and Azerbaijan aimed at preparing the next Summit and it is our expectations that the leaders will meet in Brussels as agreed at the earliest possible opportunity," he added.
Imphal, Oct 27 : Even as Manipur continues to deal with the devastating ethnic crisis six months after it began, there has been an outbreak of African Swine Fever (ASF) that has killed hundreds of pigs, dealing a major blow to farmers in seven districts in the northeastern state.

The Manipur Veterinary and Animal Husbandry (VAH) department has stepped up measures to combat the ASF as the contagious disease has been reported from pig farms in at least seven districts -- Imphal West, Imphal East, Ukhrul, Bishnupur, Thoubal, Kakching and Kamjong.

The VAH department officials on Friday said that the latest outbreak of ASF has been confirmed at five piggery farms located at Lilong Chajing Mamang Leikei, Konthoujam Maning Leikai, Loitang Khunou, Luker and Sairemkhul in Imphal West district.

A notification issued by the Deputy Commissioner (Imphal West) on Thursday said that particular farms have been declared as epicentres and areas within one km radius of those farms as infected zones. Further, areas within a 10 km radius from those farms have been declared as surveillance zones, and all of them constitute controlled areas.

The notification strictly prohibited movement of pigs (dead or alive) in the controlled areas along with "movement and sale of pork and feed within the infected zone and materials that could have come in contact with the infected or suspected to be infected animals."

"Culling of all pigs of the infected zone shall be done by the officials of Veterinary and Animal husbandry Department, Manipur," it said, adding all equipment/tools as well as vehicles used in the farms that have pigs, either infected or suspected to be infected, shall be restricted from movement without protocols.

VAH Director Ibotombi Singh said that since the ASF has been confirmed in the laboratory reports, department officials and doctors are working round-the-clock to combat further spread of the epidemic.

"We have sent out four to seven teams of our department's doctors and staff in every district of the state to fight the spread of ASF. Besides taking up culling of pigs at the infected zone, they also intensified surveillance activities at the surveillance zones," he added.

Awareness programmes have also been taken up at other ASF-free districts, Singh said, adding that a state-level awareness programme on it would be held soon.

The highly-contagious ASF often creates havoc in various northeastern states including Mizoram every year, where during 2021 and 2022, over 33,400 pigs were killed, affecting over 10,000 families besides causing a financial loss of Rs 61 crore.

According to experts, the outbreak of ASF may have been caused by pigs or pork brought from neighbouring Myanmar, Bangladesh and the adjoining states of the northeast.

The northeast region's annual pork business is worth around Rs 8,000-Rs 10,000 crore, with Assam being the largest supplier. Pork is one of the most common and popular meats consumed by both the tribals and non-tribals in the northeastern region.
New Delhi, Oct 27 : The Rann Utsav has evolved into a significant catalyst for social and economic-environmental improvement in the rural communities of Dhordo and Kutch. It was started at Dhordo in 2005 and established on the world stage. Today Dhordo has earned a global identity in tourism.

As a result of this recognition, the United Nations agency World Tourism Organisation has been included among the best tourism villages in the world and conferred with the award of aBest Tourism Villagea.

Dhordo, the White Rann of Kutch, the beacon of tourism in the world being conferred with the Best Tourism Village award has marked another milestone in the pride of Gujarat. Dhordo was the only place being conferred with the award at the aBest Tourism Village-2023a award ceremony organized by the UNWTO at Samarkand, Uzbekistan on October 19.

The award has been conferred by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) of the United Nations since 2021. The UNWTO promotes the tourism industry and sustainable development globally. The award is given to villages that are at the forefront of rural development, maintenance of landscapes, cultural diversity, local values, and food traditions.

The villages nominated by UNWTO are evaluated by an independent board on the basis of parameters covering nine areas including cultural and natural resources, promotion and conservation of cultural resources, economic sustainability, social stability, environmental sustainability, tourism potential & development, and value chain integration. This award has been received due to the developmental progress made in all these 9 areas under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi has expressed his happiness and congratulated Dhordo of Kutch for being honored with the award of the best tourism village. He tweeted, aI am thrilled to see that Dhordo of Kutch is being celebrated for its rich cultural heritage and natural beauty. This honor is not only a tribute to the potential of Indian tourism but also the dedication of the people of Kutch. He expressed that Dhordo will continue to shine and attract visitors from all over the world.

Speaking on the occasion, the Prime Minister shared some photographs of his visits to Dhordo in 2009 and 2015. He also called upon people to use #AmazingDhordo to share memorable pictures of their visits to Dhordo.

In the year 2022-23, more than 3.44 lakh tourists participated in the Rann of Dhordo. As a result, Dhordo has proved to be an important tourist destination in providing employment to the locals. Shri Mulu Bera congratulated the karma yogis of the Tourism Department and expressed confidence that with this award, Dhordo will now attract more and more tourists, thereby boosting employment opportunities.

The Government of Gujarat has worked relentlessly to establish Dhordo as a global tourist destination. The State Government also organizes Rann Utsav here every year which lasts for 4 months. Rann Utsav is a favorite event among tourists from India and abroad, where people from all over the world come to enjoy the natural beauty of Dhordo and its surroundings at a record level since 2005. The Rann Utsav is one of the highest income-generating economic activities of Dhordo.

Located in the Rann of Kutch in the western corner of India, Dhordo is one of the most interesting natural places in the world. The vast salt marsh present in the Thar Desert offers an attractive view to national and international tourists.

It may be recalled that in the year 2017-18, Dhordo of Kutch was also selected for the aMost Responsible Tourism Project Initiativea at the national level. Under the leadership of Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, preparations for the upcoming Vibrant Summit 2024 are in full swing. This international award given to Gujarat at such a significant time will definitely boost investment and employment in the tourism sector during the upcoming Vibrant Summit.

--IANS

IANSlife can be contacted at ianslife@ians.in

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New Delhi, Oct 27 : The Delhi High Court has quashed a Look Out Circular (LOC) issued against an individual who defaulted on loans for two cars, saying that fundamental rights cannot be denied for non-payment of such loans.

The LOC was issued because the individual had not appeared before investigating agencies or courts and had been declared a proclaimed offender. However, the court noted that the individual had subsequently appeared before the relevant court, and the order declaring him as a proclaimed person was no longer in effect.

Justice Subramonium Prasad held that LOCs are typically opened against individuals accused of cognisable offenses under the Indian Penal Code to ensure their presence before investigating authorities and the court and that fundamental rights should not be taken away for non-payment of loans related to two cars.

As a result, the court decided to quash the LOC issued against the petitioner in this specific case.

The case involved a man seeking the quashing of an LOC issued against him for an FIR lodged at the Kashmere Gate police station for the offense of cheating due to his default in loan payments for two cars.

The court instructed the man to cooperate with the investigating agency and deposit a security amount of Rs 5 lakh with the Registrar General of the court.

Additionally, the court prohibited him from disposing of his Renault Duster and Verna CRDI cars during the proceedings. The court also noted that if the petitioner does not cooperate with the investigation or fails to appear before the courts, the authorities can open another LOC against him.

Furthermore, the petitioner's passport, which was deposited with the Registrar General of the high court, was ordered to be released.

The case involved the man's default on loans he had taken from the State Bank of India for the purchase of two cars in 2013. Criminal proceedings were initiated against him, leading to the issuance of the LOC. The man's counsel assured the court that he would cooperate with the investigation and attend all hearings.
Bengaluru, Oct 27 : Karnataka Police on Friday filed an FIR against BJP MLA from Belthangady seat Harish Poonja for sharing a poster on social media which called the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah as 'collection master'.

A complaint was registered by the former Zilla Panchayat member Shekar Kekkedi under the IPC Sections 504 and 505 (2). The poster was shared on social media as part of the BJPas campaign against the Congress following the seizure of heavy cash by the IT Department in Bengaluru.

The IT had seized Rs 100 crores in Bengaluru and the BJP had linked the seizure of money to the Congress government. It was alleged that the money was collected from contractors and other sources to fund the assembly elections in five states.

The BJP leaders had shared posters calling the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah as the acollection mastera. The party had posted it on all social media platforms. BJP MLA Harish Poonja had shared a similar post on his social media.

Further investigation in the case is underway.
New Delhi, Oct 27 : The interrogators are waiting for Gurpeet Singh's father to return to India from Paris to corroborate the statements given by the accused, a Delhi Police source said on Friday.

Gurpreet (33) is accused of killing a Swiss woman named Nina Berger, whose body with limbs and legs bound with chains was found near a school in West Delhi on October 20.

As per sources, during interrogation, Singh claimed that he was in touch with foreigner women due to his father's gemstone and astrology business.

According to the police, Singh claimed to possess expertise in "black magic, astrology, and mind powers".

Singh told the interrogators that he utilised these abilities to establish connection with Berger and persuade her to come to India. He frequently discussed his father's business, the art of healing through gemstones, and astrology techniques.

Upon inspecting his phone, the police also discovered that he engaged in conversation with other foreigners, offering his purported "healing" services.

During investigation, the police recovered various documents, including Begreras passport and visa, from Singh's possession.

Further, a laptop, mobile phone, and other documents, which are suspected to be of Ninaas, were also recovered from Singh's possession, which have been sent for forensic test.

Meanwhile, the police are reviewing CCTV footage and interviewing hotel staff at two establishments in West Delhi, where Berger stayed from October 11 to October 17.

As per Singh's interrogation, he had met Nina in 2021 during his visit to Switzerland, and their friendship had developed into a close bond. Singh frequently travelled to Switzerland to be near Berger. Over time, he expressed his desire to marry her, but she rejected his proposal.

Berger came to Delhi from Zurich on October 11 and was staying in a hotel. However, as the interrogation of Singh continued, it became evident that he was attempting to mislead the police.

According to sources, the examination of the mobile phone of the accused revealed that he was in touch with at least a dozen women who were also foreigners, an evidence that possibly links the case to the police's human trafficking theory.

The police also seized over Rs 2 crore in cash from Singh's residence in Janakpuri.

Further, investigation revealed substantial financial transactions through Singh's bank account, leading the investigators to notify the Income Tax authorities. These high-value transactions and the unaccounted cash have raised suspicions that the case might be related to human trafficking.

Moreover, the cuts and some burn marks on the victim's body also indicate that she was probably tortured before being killed.

The locks and chains, with which the woman was found tied, were bought just two days ago by the accused from a market in West Delhi.
New Delhi, Oct 27 : REC Power Development and Consultancy Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of REC Ltd, has handed over the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) formed for the construction of Ramgarh II Transmission project in Rajasthan to Power Grid Corporation of India, the company said on Friday.

The work of the SPV involves the implementation of a 765/400kV & 2x500 MVA 400/220 kV pooling station at Ramgarh along with 765kV D/c line in Rajasthan. The project is targeted to be completed in 18 months and will help in the evacuation of power from the renewable energy zones in the state to the grid, for further transmission or distribution to load centres.

The project forms part of the governmentas wider plan to achieve 500 GW of installed electricity capacity from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030.

The selection of PSU Power Grid Corporation as the Transmission Service Provider was carried out through tariff based competitive bidding.

REC Ltd, a Maharatna Central Public Sector Enterprise under the Ministry of Power, is an NBFC focusing on power sector financing and development across India. The loan book of REC stands at Rs 4.54 lakh crore, at the end of the first quarter of the current financial year.
Mumbai, Oct 27 : Empowering women under various schemes through the Central government's help, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said that the state will promote 3,000 helpers to the post of 'Anganwadi Sevikas', here on Friday.

Attending an event, 'Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana', Shinde also distributed an amount of Rs 321.57 lakhs online to 8.14 lakh mothers under the scheme in the presence of Union Ministers Smriti Irani, Munjapara Mahendrabhai, state ministers Aditi Tatkare, Mangal Prabhat Lodhan and others.

Shinde said that the women who are the 'mother power', work to build the society and a new generation and the state government is prepared to solve their problems.

He pointed out that through Prime Minister Narendra Modi's efforts, the women have got reservations in parliament and assemblies, lakhs of toilets were built in households under the Swachch Bharat Abhiyan, the names of women have appeared under homes through the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, and others.

"For the first time in history, PM Modi launched a nutrition tracker to check whether mothers and children are getting proper nutrition services. In the last one and a half years, the Maharashtra government has also taken concrete steps for the welfare of women, to empower them, like the 'Lek Ladki' (Beloved Daughter) scheme and others for the women," said Shinde.

As part of the PM's 73rd birthday, the state will implement the 'NAMO 11 Point Program' to provide various government schemes' benefits to 73 lakh women, plus 50 per cent discount on ST travel, 50 hostels for working women, free health checkups of 1.04 crore women for their good health, etc.

Since the launch of the PMMVY, launched to control maternal and child mortality rates, around 35 lakh women -- against the target of 30 lakh -- have already benefited and another two crore women will be covered through self-help groups, he said.

Irani said that the Centre will pay the insurance premium for Anganwadi workers, the government will give Rs 12,800 to each for purchase of mobiles phones, and provide help for the skill development of the helpers.

She added that soon the Centre will notify starting 1,000 nurseries for children of women going for employment in urban areas, and other schemes for the safety and security of the women.

The occasion also saw the launch of an information booklet, a new web portal and mobile app of PMMVY.
New Delhi, Oct 27 : The Delhi High Court has said that the right to a speedy trial guaranteed by the Constitution cannot be compromised, even if the accused is a habitual offender or an absconder.

This statement came in response to a petition filed by a murder accused who had been facing trial for 14 years and sought the conclusion of proceedings within two months.

The petitioner argued that the case had been pending before the trial court since 2009, thereby seriously jeopardising his fundamental rights under Article 21 of the Constitution, which pertains to the right to life and personal liberty.

The state contended that the plea was unfair, given that the petitioner had nearly 20 cases pending against him and had absconded for three years in 2013, which contributed to the trial delay.

Justice Tushar Rao Gedela said that even though the petitioner was facing trial in numerous criminal cases and was a habitual offender, this could not be a reason to deny his rights under Article 21.

The judge acknowledged that the petitioner's abscondence had caused a three-year delay in the trial. Still, the right to a speedy trial, inherent to an accused in the criminal justice system and under Article 21 could not be undermined. Consequently, the court ruled that the petitioner was entitled to his rights under Article 21 for a speedy trial and instructed the trial court to conclude the proceedings within six months.
Washington, Oct 27 : Eisai and Biogen's new injectable form of Alzheimer's drug lecanemab, known by the brand name Leqembi, has shown promise in clinical trials to slow down disease progression in adult patients with Alzheimer's disease.

Leqembi is the first and only treatment approved in Japan and the US shown to reduce the rate of disease progression and to slow cognitive and functional decline.

Leqembi has also been named as one of The Best Inventions of 2023 in the Medical Care category in TIME's annual list featuring "200 extraordinary innovations changing lives."

In July, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a version of Leqembi that is administered twice monthly through the veins, which is a method known as intravenous infusion.

But the new study shows promise for a subcutaneous version of the drug, which would be an injection under the skin.

This method can help patients or caregivers to administer the Leqembi at home, freeing them from the need to travel to a hospital every two weeks.

Japan's Eisai and its US-based partner Biogen in a statement said they plan to apply for US approval of subcutaneous Leqembi by the end of March.

Alzheimer's disease is an irreversible, progressive brain disorder that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills and eventually, the ability to carry out simple tasks.

While the specific causes of Alzheimer's are not fully known, it is characterised by changes in the brain -- including the formation of amyloid beta plaques and neurofibrillary, or tau, tangles -- that result in loss of neurons and their connections.

Presenting the study, at the 16th annual Clinical Trials on Alzheimer's Disease (CTAD) conference held in Boston, the companies said the new study tested subcutaneous doses of Leqembi amyloid  also known as plaque  that builds up in the brain.

The findings revealed that a set of two injections administered once weekly produced similar results after six months to twice-monthly intravenous infusions in terms of safety, the concentration of the drug in the blood and its ability to clear plaques in the brain, Eisai said.

The injectable form of Leqembi removed 14 per cent more plaque than the approved intravenous formulation. Blood concentration levels of the drug were 11 per cent higher with subcutaneous Leqembi than the other version.

However, the newer form still showed side effects known as amyloid-related imaging abnormalities (ARIA). The removal of plaques from the brain can be associated with brain swelling and bleeding  also known as ARIA-E and ARIA-H  which can be severe or even deadly in rare cases.

Almost 17 per cent of patients who got weekly injections had ARIA-E, compared with 13 per cent who got the drug via intravenous infusion. And 22 per cent of those taking the shots had ARIA-H, versus 17 per cent who received the other form.
Bhubaneswar, Oct 27 : Members of 19 service associations of Odisha government on Friday met former IAS officer V.K Pandian at Naveen Niwas in Bhubaneswar and wished him for his new assignment as the chairman of 5T and Nabin Odisha.

The associations include Odisha Secretariat Service Association, Odisha Secretariat PS & PA Service Association, Odisha Government Contractual Employees' Association, Odisha HoD Ministerial Association, Odisha Police Association, Odisha Police Havildar, Sepoy and Constable Association, All Odisha Ayush Doctors' Association.

The 2000-batch IAS officer has recently opted for the Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS), fueling speculations over his joining politics.

"We congratulated Pandian and hope that he will carry forward the rapid transformation of the state under 5T," said the General Secretary of Odisha Secretariat Service Association.

As per Chief Minister's Office, V.K Pandian thanked the association members for their support. He said the government machinery under the leadership of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is committed to bringing real transformation in every individual's life in the state.

Pandian sought the cooperation of all for the welfare of people of Odisha.

Meanwhile, without mentioning the name of Pandian, BJP leader and Bhubaneswar MP Aparajita Sarangi said both the Chief Minister and the person concerned knew that the Election Commission (EC) would take stringent action against him for engaging in politics while being in power.

She alleged that he took the VRS to avoid EC action against him.

The Bhubaneswar MP said he gave himself the job that he wanted which is called soft-landing or easy route in politics. Sarangi also accused Pandian of hijacking the entire governance in the state.

She alleged that the Chief Minister Neveen Patnaik has no control over the governance in the state.

--IANS

gyan/dan
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 27. President Ilham Aliyev dismissed Arif Mammadov from his post, Trend reports.

Arif Mammadov has been dismissed from the post of Chairman of the Board of the State Maritime and Port Agency subordinate to the Ministry of Digital Development and Transport of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

This order comes into force from the date of its signing.
Gadchiroli : , Oct 27 (IANS) In a fresh twist to the sensational mass-poisoning of a five-member family from Mahagaon, the Gadchiroli police have learned that a former alleged boyfriend of one of the two accused women helped her procure a rare poison from Mumbai which she used to killer her relatives, officials said on Friday.

The man, identified as Avinash Tajne, aged around 30, made the payment to a firm from where the lethal material a" the name of which has not been disclosed - was obtained. He was arrested from Buldhana late on Thursday, and remanded to police custody for four days till Monday, said an official.

The Gadchiroli police cracked the sensational case of the mystery deaths of five persons of a single family by arresting two close women relatives who executed the gory cold-blooded crimes for vendetta and a property dispute - as IANS had reported on Oct. 18.

The deceased family members were: Shankar P. Kumbhare (died September 26), his wife Vijaya S. Kumbhare, (death September 27), their son Roshan S. Kumbhare (passed away on October 15), the coupleas two daughters - Komal Dahagaonkar (died October 8) and Varsha Urade (death October 14).

Two others a" another son from New Delhi and family driver Rakesh Madavi luckily survived the poisonous ordeal, and lived to tell the tale to the investigating teams.

Shaken by the multiple deaths in barely a fortnight, Gadchiroli Superintendent of Police Neelotpal sent up special investigation squads to probe the matter and cracked the case within 48 hours, nabbing the accused women duo. They were: Sanghamitra Roshan Kumbhare, daughter-in-law of the deceased Shankar Kumbhare, and his brother-in-lawas wife, Rosa Pramod Ramteke, who were arrested and confessed to the ghastly crimes.

An investigating officer said that earlier, the two accused had cited that they had arranged for the poison from Telangana, but after their custodial interrogation, they revealed more shocking details.

"Sanghamitra was allegedly friendly with the accused Tajne and they were acquainted with each other since their school days. However, owing to certain circumstances, she was compelled to marry Roshan Kumbhare. This had strained relations between Sanghamitra and Tajne," the officer told IANS.

Some time back, Sanghamitra had gone to her parents' village in Akola where she again came in contact with her ex-flame and their relationship was re-ignited. She confided about her unhappy marriage, the tortures she allegedly faced and even revealed her diabolical plans to bump off her entire in-lawsa family for which she sought Tajneas help, and he reportedly agreed.

During sustained interrogation, the two accused women also spilled the beans that the poison from Telangana was not suited for their plans as it changed the taste and colour after mixed with food or liquids, so they decided to get another variety from Mumbai, with assistance from Tajne.

The investigators guided by the top officers like Neelotpal, Yatish Deshmukh, Kumar Chintha, and the teams of Sudarshan Rathod, Ulhas Bhusari, Manoj Kalbade, Rahul Awhad, Balaji Sonawane and others are probing further to unravel more tentacles in the shocking crime. Incidentally, the deaths in quick succession of the Kumbhare clan had created an atmosphere of terror with people suspecting the involvement of aevil spiritsa or aghost attacksa, and the locals rushed indoors after sunset, but now the villagersa anxiety has evaporated. The accused women have been sent to police custody for 10 days and further investigations are underway, said the officer.

(Quaid Najmi can be contacted at q.najmi@ians.in)
Hyderabad, Oct 27 : Telangana's Labour Minister Malla Reddy, who is known for his antics, surprised everyone on Friday by lifting an elderly woman in his arms.

While campaigning in the Medchal constituency for the November 30 Assembly elections, 70-year-old Malla Reddy was seen sitting with a group of women.

He asked an elderly woman sitting next to him to sit on his lap and he then lifted her in his arms like a child, much to the surprise of everyone present there. The minister then asked the woman to show her thumb to the camerapersons as he presented her a bouquet.

The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader, who is seeking re-election from Medchal, never fails to amuse people at public events with his antics.

At a walkathon organised on World Heart Day (September 29) by the Malla Reddy Narayana multispeciality hospital, he shook a leg much to the surprise and amusement of the participants.

After dancing on the stage for a few minutes, he joined the participants to show his skills with Zumba, a dance workout.

Malla Reddy, who runs a group of educational institutions and hospitals, is known for exhibiting his energy and dancing skills at almost every event. At the age of 70, he can easily groove to popular numbers and even compete with the youth.
New Delhi, Oct 27 : Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi (IIIT-Delhi) held its 12th convocation ceremony on Friday.

IIIT Delhi said that this year no student attended the event in the colonial robe and hat, but they choose traditional attire -- kurta pajama and saree -- for this special day.

IIIT-Delhi official said that the institute introduced new and culturally resonant convocation attire.

It said that graduates, resplendent in traditional kurtas and stoles which exuded a sense of regality and pride as they walked across the stage,

IIIT-Delhi said that 715 brilliant students completed their undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral programs this year.

During the ceremony, 452 B.Tech students specialising in various fields, including computer science and engineering, electronics and communications engineering, computer science and applied mathematics, computer science and design, 237 M.Tech students, including 4 dual-degree holders in computer science and engineering, engineering, electronics and communications engineering, and computational biology, along with 26 Ph.D. were recognised for their outstanding academic achievements.

The Chancellor L-G Saxena commended not only the students but also the educators, parents, mentors, friends, and supporters who stood by them throughout their journey.
Washington, Oct 27 : Qatar has made "significant progress" on hostage negotiations with Hamas but still some issues remain to be sorted out, even as 27 leaders of European Union called for "humanitarian pauses for aid suppliesn to flow", which was short of calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East, reports said.

"There has been 'significant progress' on negotiations to release hostages held by Hamas but there are issues still remaining," diplomatic sources familiar with the negotiations were quoted by CNN as saying.

"Negotiations are going very well. We have a breakthrough," the source said. "There are issues still remaining, but talks are ongoing, and we remain hopeful."

Qatar has helped US in the release of four hostages so far from Hamas captivity almostfortnight after they were kidnapped by the Hamas militants since their lightning strike from Gaza on October 7.

US Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs Barbara Leaf is now in Doha for meetings with Qataras leadership, CNN quoted informed sources.On the status of the hostage negotiations, Israelas Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said: "Every channel is a possible channel.

"One thing should be clear a" we have a goal and I trust the State of Israel and the IDF a and weall keep doing every effort to bring the hostages and the missing back."

A Western official briefed on the hostage negotiations said there is still "optimism around a possible release, but there is also recognition that the clock is ticking". The official indicated talks had made progress but an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza will not be delayed much longer.

Meanwhile, the leaders of the 27 European Union member states had met in Brussels on Thursday and called for ahumanitarian corridors and pauses for humanitarian needs." The call for humanitarian "pauses" stops short of calling for a ceasefire,ruled out earlier by several European leaders.

Meanwhile, France called for hundreds of aid trucks daily for Gaza as soon as possible following the recent visit of its President Emmanuelle Macron to Israel.French Foreign and European Affairs Minister Catherine Colonnafollowed up on Macronas visit saying: "Aidmust be allowed into Gaza as soon as possible with hundreds of trucks needed every day."

"It is absolutely necessary to get aid into Gaza in a durable manner as soon as possible, in significantly greater volumes. Inspections on aid trucks were a real obstacle to the flow of needed supplies," she told French radio station RTL.

The French government announced a flight of 50 tons of aid for Gaza, which includes medicines, food aid and tents, a French Foreign Ministry source said on Friday, adding that the population of Gaza has "enormous and growing needs".

The lack of a guarantee of French aid being allowed into Gaza is the largest obstacle facing aid operations, the source said, adding there is "no special treatment for French aid".

This material aid is in addition to 20 million euros ($21.1 million) of French financial aid, split between multilateral international organizations and international NGOs already working in Gaza, reports said.
New Delhi, Oct 27 : Delhi Police's Crime Branch has arrested a shooter of infamous Gogi Gang following a shootout, who was wanted in extortion case, an officer said on Friday.

The gangster was identified as Kulwant Dalal (22), a resident of district Jhajjar, Haryana.

According to police, on October 24, complainant, a resident of village Ladpur, Rohini, Delhi reported that some miscreants have fired at the main gate of his house.

Police also recovered two empty cartridges and three chits were found near the main gate of his house, in which a demand of extortion money of Rs one crore was made.

The Special Commissioner of Police (crime) Ravindra Singh Yadav said that threats were extended by Deepak a.k.a Titar and Dinesh Karala member of Gogi Gang.

It was written in the chits that, if the demand is not fulfilled, next time, the bullet will be fired on the chest of someone in his family.

"Specific inputs were received that the suspect who was involved in the extortion case of Kanjhawala police station would come near Sector-21 Metro Station, Dwarka, Delhi to meet his associates," said the officer.

"Acting upon the information, the team laid a trap at the place of information and on Friday, at about 2 am, the wanted accused was spotted near railway underpass Sector-21, near Bharthal Roap, Dwarka, Delhi on a motorcycle," said the Special CP.

The police team signaled him to stop but instead of stopping his motorcycle, he tried to escape through service road. When the police party directed him to surrender he opened fire three rounds on the raiding party and one of the bullets hit on the bullet proof jacket of one of the police personnel.

"The police party retaliated in self-defense and also fired four rounds in which the above accused got shot on his left leg below the knee and was immediately overpowered by the raiding party," said Yadav.

On interrogation, Dalal disclosed that he is a shooter of aGogi Ganga and now works for the gang members named Deepak and Dinesh Karala.

"In the year 2021, he was also involved in Kuldeep a.k.a Fajja escaped case from the police custody at GTB Enclave, Delhi. On October 18, he went to Rohtak court to meet his associate Mohit Bhadani," said Yadav.

There, he met with Deepak, who instructed and handed over three chits to him for demanding extortion from the businessmen of Delhi and also shared the mobile number of gangster Dinesh Karala.

As per the instructions of Dinesh Karala, he met one of his associate near helipad Rohini, Delhi, who supplied him one mobile phone, two pistols and 25 rounds to commit the extortion threats.
Bhopal, Oct 27 : After failing to get a ticket for himself from his own Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or the Congress, four-time MLA from Maihar seat Narayan Tripathi has decided to contest next month's Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections on his own party.

He has floated the Vindhya Janta Party (VJP) to contest the elections.

Tripathi, who has won the Maihar seat twice on BJP ticket and once each on Congress and Samajwadi Party tickets and has been demanding a separate Vindhya region, which comprises as many as 30 Assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh, released the first list of 25 VJP candidates in Bhopal on Friday.

Out of these 25 seats, at least 19 are part of the Vindhya region, which is also Tripathi's home turf.

Out of these 25, 18 seats were won by the ruling BJP in the 2018 Assembly polls.

The 25 VJP candidates, include local leaders of both the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress, who failed to get tickets from their respective parties to contest the November 17 polls.

Tripathi himself is contesting polls from his old seat in the newly-created Maihar district for the sixth time. Only once (in 2008) has Tripathi lost from Maihar seat, which has a predominantly decisive Brahmin population. He had won the seat for the first time as a SP candidate in 2003, but lost in 2008 to the BJP. He wrested the seat from the BJP on Congress ticket in 2013, but quit the Congress two and half years later, to win the 2016 by-election as a BJP candidate.

He retained the seat on a BJP ticket in 2018 polls also, but quit the party after denial of ticket recently. His efforts to get Congress ticket too turned futile, leaving him with no other option, but to contest himself.

Among the other 24 candidates named in the newly created partyas first list, at least two candidates were associated with the BJP, including Hari Om Gupta, a distant relative for ex-MP minister and senior BJP leader Umashankar Gupta, from Satna seat and Phoolmati Devi from Jaisingh Nagar-ST seat of Shahdol district. Phoolmati is the BJP-supported Shahdol district panchayat Vice-Chairperson, who quit the BJP recently.

Also, in Deotalab seat of newly-created Mauganj district, the VJP has decided to field Kunj Bihari Tiwari, the husband of Congress-backed Nai Garhi Janpad Panchayat chairperson. The seat is already witnessing a high-profile battle between the third time BJP MLA and current Speaker Girish Gautam pitted against his nephew Padmesh Gautam of the Congress.

"We will field at least 40 candidates, all for the cause of a separate Vindhya Pradesh. No matter whether we win or lose, or who loses or wins due to our presence in the contest, all we know is that these candidates will be the voice for a separate Vindhya Pradesh," Tripathi told the press.
Washington, Oct 27 : US House Speaker Mike Johnson had a "productive meeting" with President Joe Biden requesting for splitting the $105 billion aid package for both Ukraine and Israel, the media reported.

Johnson confirmed to reporters he had a productive meeting with President Biden on the aid package. Biden has requested the Congress to pass a combined $105 billion aid package to Ukraine and Israel -- $60 billion in military assistance for Ukraine and $14 billion for Israel for their respective wars with Russia the Hamas.

Johnson, a Louisiana lawmaker elevated to his role just one day ago, attended a White House briefing "on the need for (Biden's) national security supplemental request", a White House official said.

The US House of Representatives wants new military aid to Ukraine and Israel as separate measures, according to Johnson.

"Our consensus among House Republicans is that we need to bifurcate those issues," Johnson said in an interview with Fox News.

Johnson said he had conveyed this message to White House officials following his earlier meeting with Biden in the day. The US presidential administration has requested $106 billion in emergency funding from Congress for Ukraine and Israel and southern border patrol forces, hoping that a package deal would help get approval for the full amount.

However, US media reports said that growing scepticism among House Republicans on how Ukraine was spending the aid was a divisive matter within the prty and it was a major talking point on who should lead the house as speaker on this issue that led to dismissal of three candidates ending in the election ofJohnson as speaker.

Johnson said that the US would not abandon Ukraine, emphasising that a Russian victory in Ukraine would embolden not only Russia, but also China in its stance on Taiwan.

"We can't allow Vladimir Putin to prevail in Ukraine because I don't believe it would stop there," Johnson told Fox News.

"We can't allow Vladimir Putin to prevail in Ukraine because I don't believe he would stop there. He would probably encourage and empower China to perhaps make a move on Taiwan," the speaker said. "But we wanna know what the objective there is, what is the end game in Ukraine. The White House has not provided that."

However, Johnson said aid to Ukraine would require greater accountability for the money already spent. Some republicans have pointed ot corruption at the higher levels in Kiev.

"Israel is a separate matter. But here's the thing that distinguishes House Republicans from the other team. Weare going to find pay-fors in the budget. Weare not just printing money to send it overseas. Weare going to fund the cuts elsewhere to do that," the speaker noted US media reports said.

Johnson said the House Republicans would offer a $14.5 billion aid package for Israel,higher than the amount requested by the Biden administration. The budget request submitted by the White House to the US Congress on Friday includes about US$61.4 billion for Ukraine, of which US$46.1 billion is for defence spending and US$11.8 billion is for direct budget support.

After his election, Mike Johnson said he supports providing aid to Ukraine, but "under certain conditions". There is consensus among Republicans in the House of Representatives that the funding requests for Ukraine and Israel should be considered separately.

The move may reportedly impede US President Joe Biden's efforts to ensure US support for both allies amid the growing opposition to aid to Kyiv within the Republican Party. The White House combined military assistance for Ukraine and Israel in a $160 billion supplemental request to Congress on October 20.

Speaking in the first interview since his appointment, Johnson said the US would not abandon Ukraine but that the House's approval of further aid to Kyiv would require more accountability on money already spent, agency reports meanwhile from Kiev said.

One of former President Donald Trump's most loyal supporters in Congress, Johnson has been a critic of the delivery of aid to Ukraine. In May 2022, Johnson voted against a $40 billion aid package to Ukraine, claiming that his focus lies with solving domestic affordability challenges, reports said.
Bhubaneswar, Oct 27 : A 25-year-old youth was hacked to death over past enmity in Sheragada area of Odisha's Ganjam district on Friday, police said.

The deceased was identified as Mangala Bhuyan, resident of Lanjiapalli village under Sheragada police limits.

"On Friday morning, Bhuyan was going towards his village on his motorcycle when the accused persons waylaid him and later attacked him with weapons like knife, sword etc. Severely injured Bhuyan fell off the motorcycle and ran away, asking for help but none dared to rush for his help. Later, one of the accused crushed Mangala to death with a boulder," Aska SDPO Uma Shankar Singh said.

Informed of the incident, a team of Sheragada police station, along with IIC Barendra Sial and SDPO Uma Shankar and a forensic team reached the spot for the probe.

"We have so far arrested all the five persons involved in the brutal killing of Mangala. It is found during investigations that the accused and deceased had past enmity. The victim and the accused persons who used to work in Surat had recently returned home. They had engaged in a heated brawl during Dussehra recently," a police source said.

Police have seized two heavy blood-stained stones, a knife, blood stained gamcha and other items from the crime scene.

A case (545/23) under Sections 302 and 34 of the IPC was filed against the accused, identified as Bayadhar Bhuyan, Papun Bhuyan, Surendra Bhuyan, Jaysen Gouda, and Chandan Gouda who all hail from the same village.

The accused persons have been produced before a local court that sent them to 14 days judicial custody Friday.

In another incident, a 48-year-old person was found in critical condition under mysterious circumstances at Kriamba village in Buguda tehsil of the district late Thursday night. He was rushed to the nearby hospital where the doctors declared him dead.

The deceased was identified as Susanta Patra of Karachuli village in Buguda.

Patra ran a grocery shop at Kriamba and used to return home at night. The family members alleged that he had reportedly telephoned his wife a few hours before his death and said he might be killed by three persons. They alleged that Sustant had been killed by the said three persons.

However, police found no injury marks on the deceased's body.

"Prima facie investigation reveals that there is no critical visible injury on the body of the deceased. Hence, there is no clear assault to the deceased," said a local police source.

Meanwhile, police also recovered a pesticide bottle from the place where Patra was spotted by villagers on Thursday night. "Preliminary investigation reveals that the death may be due to the consumption of this poisonous pesticide 'celphos'. Again, clear cause of death shall be ascertained after obtaining the Post-Mortem report only," a police source said.
Bhopal, Oct 27 : Firebrand Hindutva leader and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Uma Bharti, who led the BJP to its landslide victory in 2003 polls, has not found a place in the saffron party's 40-member list of star campaigners for the November 17 Assembly polls.

The list of star campaigners released by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday includes Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party's national president J.P. Nadda, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and 15 Union Ministers.

The list also includes Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma, Maharashtra deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, UP deputy CMs -- Brijesh Pathak and Keshav Prasad Maurya, many current and former MP ministers and state BJP chief V.D. Sharma.

The list also has names of many state-based senior BJP leaders -- Jyotiraditya Scindia, Narendra Singh Tomar, Faggan Singh Kulaste, Prahlad Singh Patel and Virendra Kumar, besides the party's parliamentary board member Satynarayan Jatiya.

However, Uma Bharti, who was among the party's star campaigners for the 2018 assembly polls and 2020 by-elections has not been named this time among star campaigners.

The BJP released the list of star campaigners for MP assembly polls a day after Bharti announced her plan to leave for the Himalayas.

In her social media posts, Bharti, however, praised CM Chouhan but cornered the Central government over the Ken-Betwa inter-river linking project.

The veteran BJP leader also expressed her unhappiness over efforts for protection of cows in the state.

"The idol of Goddess Saraswati is still not returning at Dhar Bhojshala despite BJP regimes in the state. While the centre and gates of the Someshwar Temple in Raisen district and Vijaya Devi Temple in Vidisha district are still awaiting opening, despite assurances from a key national BJP leader," one of her social media posts read.

The 64-year-old politician, who has repeatedly said that she will fight the next Lok Sabha polls and will continue to be in active politics till last gasp, had campaigned for BJP candidates in the 2018 assembly polls and the 2020 assembly by-polls in the state.
Tel Aviv, Oct 27 : Four Palestinians were killed in the West Bank in an Israeli air raid, Palestinian officials said on Friday.

The militant factions have identified that two of the deceased belonged to their camp.

Israel police have kept a strong tab on the Palestinians who are reaching the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem for prayers. Heavy deployment of Israeli police was seen at the mosque, who even fired tear gas when Palestinians reached there for prayers.

The Al-Aqsa mosque has been a major flash point in Jerusalem and this is the third consecutive week after the October 7 massacre wherein the Israeli police have prevented people from praying inside the mosque.

Meanwhile, three people were injured in the Jaffa area of Tel Aviv when a missile hit a building.

There were several instances oflong sirens blazing in Tel Aviv, indicating people should move to the shelters. With missiles being launched at Tel Aviv, the IDF is likely to step up the ground offensive in Gaza Strip soon for which troop deployment has almost been completed.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 27. President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has signed an order appointing Arif Mammadov as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Azerbaijan to Greece, Trend reports.

By another presidential decree, Arif Mammadov was dismissed from the post of chairman of the Board of the State Maritime and Port Agency.
Patna, Oct 27 : Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday said that he is a supporter of Anand Mohan Singh and helped him even against the wishes of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav in 1994.

Nitish Kumar also said that he was feeling bad when Anand Mohan was serving jail term.

Anand Mohan, who was recently released from jail after the amendment in the state prison manual, was serving life imprisonment in the Gopalganj DM G. Krishnaiah murder case that happened in Muzaffarpur in 1994.

Revealing a 29-year-old story when Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar were in the Janata Dal and the former was the Chief Minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar said: "In 1994, there was a Lok Sabha by-poll taking place and our party told me to oppose Anand Mohan. I silently came out from the meeting and supported Lovely Anand who contested that by-poll against the ruling party."

Nitish Kumar and JD-U national President Lalan Singh had gone to Anand Mohan's native village Pachgachia in Saharsa district and inaugurated the statue of Anand Mohan's grandfather and uncle.

Nitish Kumar also took the blessings of Anand Mohan's mother.

Addressing the gathering, Nitish Kumar said at least half a dozen times that his relation with Anand Mohan will not end.

"You should do whatever you want to do in politics. I am highly pleased that you have invited me here for the inauguration. We have a good relationship with each other and you (Anand Mohan) should keep it strong. We are your supporters," Nitish Kumar said.

"In 1994, the then government had lodged a case against him and he went to jail. I went there to support him. When he was serving a jail term, it was an unpleasant thing for us. Now, he gets relief from jail and I am pleased with that. I want to tell him to do whatever politics you want to do, I have nothing to do with it," he added.
Agartala, Oct 27 : A 24-year-old Bangladeshi woman was sent to jail in Tripura following a court order for illegally crossing over to India with her paramour, the police said on Friday.

Police said Nur Jalal (34), who is a quack doctor and resident of Churaibari in north Tripura along the Assam-Tripura border, a few months back illegally went to Moulvibazar district of Bangladesh to heal people there through traditional practices.

During Jalal's stay in Bangladesh, he fell in love with a married woman and a mother of two children.

The couple on Thursday entered into Tripura and police acting on a tip-off arrested the woman but her paramour managed to flee.

Locals told the police that Jalal used to visit Bangladesh frequently without any valid passport and travel document to collect various roots of trees, herbs and medicinal plants for pursuing his profession.

The couple eloped a week ago and entered India through the clandestine route on Thursday.

On Friday, the woman was produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate of north Tripura and the court remanded her to 14 days of judicial custody for illegally entering India and directed the police to nab Jalal.
Jaipur, Oct 27 : The chief priest of Malaseri Dungri Temple in Rajasthan's Bhilwara, the place of worship of the Gurjar community in the state, has said neither he, nor the temple committee ever said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had put any envelope in the donation box.

"It was never said while opening the donation box that the envelope belonged to the Prime Minister. This was a rumour," Hemraj Poswal told mediapersons in Jaipur, while claiming that Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra told "an imaginary story" in Dausa and Jhunjhunu about the envelope.

A few days ago, Priyanka Gandhi had said during a public meeting in Dausa: "I saw on TV, I don't know whether it is true or not... that the Prime Minister had gone to Devnarayan ji's temple and brought an envelope. After 6 months, the envelope given by the Prime Minister was opened, the public was wondering. Such big leaders of the country had come... they left with an envelope."

The priest further said: "Like every year, this year too, the donation box was opened in front of the committee and the entire society. Cash and envelopes were found in it. Local politicians of Asind-Bhilwara, who had a grudge against me, and the people of the temple committee, had spread rumours."

"It was said that the Prime Minister put some envelope. On opening it, Rs 21 came out, but neither the temple committee nor I never made such a statement. Prime Minister Modi did not put any envelope in the donation box. Nor did it come out while opening the donation box. Local leaders spread rumours to tarnish the image of Sanatan Dharma, temple and PM Modi," he added.

Poswal also said that Priyanka Gandhi's statements have hurt the sentiments of the people who believe in Lord Devnarayan, the incarnation of Lord Vishnu, and follow Sanatan Dharma.

It needs to be mentioned that on January 28 this year, PM Modi had visited Malaseri Dungri.
Greater Noida, Oct 27 : Ahead of Matrix Fight Night's 13th edition, MFN Featherweight Champion Sanjeet Budhwar came face-to-face against his opponent Shyamanand at a pre-fight press conference on Friday.

MFN 13 will be headlined by a highly-anticipated rematch between Shyamanand and defending Champion Sanjeet Budhwar for the Featherweight title, a fight that has been in the making for the last three years.

The fans are in a treat for a total of 12 thrilling fights, with the main event putting the spotlight on two Indian MMA superstars.

Shyamanand, who has an impressive record of two consecutive knockout victories against international fighters, is all set for the title challenge in a rematch against Featherweight Champion Sanjeet Budhwar.

In the co-main event, India's Jason Solomon, the Delhi Don, will be up against Kyrgyzstan's Darkhanbek Ergeshov.

Addressing the crowd at the MFN 13 Press Conference, MFN co-founder Ayesha Shroff said that the fans are going to witness an action-packed show on Saturday.

"The 13th edition of Matrix Fight Night promises not just fierce competition, but a testament to the fighters' unwavering dedication. So, brace yourselves for an unforgettable showdown. I am sure that the fans coming to see the fight night will be thoroughly entertained and at the same time will be able to witness thrilling fights between our fighters," she said.

MFN co-founder Krishna Shroff also hyped up the fight card and said, "In the build-up to the main event of the 13th edition of Matrix Fight Night, the atmosphere is filled with anticipation and the undeniable aura of champions. I would like to wish every fighter the best of luck. All of the fighters will give their everything to put on a scintillating show for the audience. Each and every one of them has worked hard to be here. I am looking forward to tomorrow night. This is definitely one of the most exciting fight cards we've had."

Matrix Fight Night 13 Fight Card:

MATRIX FIGHT NIGHT 13 CARD:

FEATHERWEIGHT: Satyam Kumar (IND) vs Jatin Choudhary (IND)

FLYWEIGHT: Nongmaithem Bonjovi (IND) vs Arshiyan Memon (IND)

STRAWWEIGHT: Sonam Zomba (IND) vs Rashmi Jain (IND)

FLYWEIGHT: Himanshu Kaushik (IND) vs Musa Raish (IND)

MIDDLEWEIGHT: Dushan Burale (IND) vs Sameer Dhiman (IND)

FLYWEIGHT: Govind Singh Ale (IND) vs Clinton D'Cruz (IND)

BANTAMWEIGHT: Sahil Rana (IND) vs Djordje Stojanovic (SRB)

BANTAMWEIGHT: Yuki Angdembe (NPL) vs Mohammad Mahmoudiyan (IRN)

BANTAMWEIGHT: Mandeep Prajapati (IND) vs Abu Samad (IND)

FEATHERWEIGHT: Abdul Azim Badakhshi (AFG) vs Hae Jin Park (KOR)
Tel Aviv , Oct 27 : The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is likely to commence ground offensive from Friday night, sources in Israeli intelligence told IANS.

IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari had also indicated this during a routine media briefing on Friday evening.

He said the IDF is intensifying its efforts, adding that it has launched attacks from air, sea and land.

Hagari also said that during the last few hours, Israel has been shelling in the Gaza Strip.

Rockets were fired towards Israel by Hizobollah from the Northern borders through the day, he said, adding that the IDF has returned fire and killed terrorists who were trying to enter Israel.
Guwahati, Oct 28 : With the Assam government's decision to put restrictions on its employees from getting married for the second time if their spouses are alive sparked some controversy, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma defended the step on Friday.

He said the decision would reduce the dispute among families. "We have seen a number of times that after the death of a particular employee, two wives of that person demand the family pension. A lot of cases related to pension disbursal were pending due to the complications from this situation.

"Many widows were deprived from getting pension benefits due to this," Sarma said.

The Chief Minister also said that the rule is not new and it was always there in Assam government service rules. "It was not enforced earlier. Now, we are implementing the provisions in the Assam government service rule."

Sarma also said that the state government may or may not allow its employees if they seek permission for the second marriage.

The Assam government has forbidden its employees from getting married to someone else while their spouse is still alive, and threatened to take legal action against them if they commit bigamy.

The personnel department issued an "Office Memorandum" (OM) instructing the staff to obtain government approval before getting married to someone else if their spouse is still living. The memorandum, however, made no mention of the divorce requirement.

"No government servant who has a wife living shall contract another marriage without first obtaining the permission of the government, notwithstanding that such subsequent marriage is permissible under the personal law for the time being applicable to him," the order mentioned.

Likewise, no female government employee shall marry any person if her husband is alive without first obtaining the permission of the government, said the OM, which came into force with immediate effect.
Tel Aviv, Oct 28 : The US Vice-President Kamala Harris has promised the families of the missing persons and hostages of Hamas that the US government was doing everything possible to bring them back.

This was announced as a statement by the families of the hostages and missing persons here on Friday night.

Harris was speaking to a delegation of the families of missing persons and hostages in the US on Friday.

The Vice-President said, "You are not alone, the Biden-Harris administration is doing everything possible to secure the release of all hostages in the custody of Hamas."

She also emphasised the families that the US government was doing everything in its power to ensure the safe return of American hostages and was working to secure the release of all hostages held by Hamas.

The US government also ensured the families that they were working with its allies in the Middle East to exert their influence to secure the release of the hostages.

The statement also said, "The families thank the Vice-President for her unwavering support and call for the rerun of all hostages."

It further added, "Every hour that passes puts the hostages and missing persons at clear risk and we call on the leaders of the world to put pressure on countries with influence over Hamas, to return all hostages and missing persons home today."
In a first, India votes against UNGA resolution backing Palestine; it didn't condemn Hamas terror. Image Source: IANS News

United Nations, Oct 28 : In a first, India has voted against a UN General Assembly resolution backing the Palestine cause.

India's opposition to the resolution on Friday was because it failed to condemn Hamas for its terrorist attack and the Assembly rejected an amendment supported by New Delhi that would have named the terror group.

India's Deputy Permanent Representative Yojna Patel said after the vote, "The terror attacks in Israel on October 7 were shocking and deserve condemnation."

"The world should not buy into any justification of terror acts. Let us keep aside differences, unite and adopt a zero tolerance approach to terrorists," she added.

The resolution that called for a truce in the Israel-Hamas conflict and provision of assistance to the people of Gaza passed with 120 votes while there were 14 votes against it and 45 abstentions, giving it a two-thirds majority of those present and voting.

India backed the amendment to the resolution moved by Canada that named Hamas and condemned its 7/10 attack, but it failed to pass, getting only 88 votes, while there were 54 votes against it, with 23 abstentions.

Patel said, "Terrorism is a malignancy and knows no borders, nationality or race."

The Hamas attacks were "on a scale and intensity that is an affront to basic human values," she added.

"Violence as a means to achieve political objective objectives, damages indiscriminately, and does not pave the way for any durable solutions."

"We hope that the deliberations of this Assembly will send a clear message against terror and violence and expand prospects for diplomacy and dialogue while addressing the humanitarian crisis that confronts us," she said.

The Assembly action came after the Security Council failed to pass four resolutions on Gaza, one each vetoed by Russia and the US, and two that did not get the minimum nine votes to pass.

The Assembly's resolution is only symbolic because unlike the Security Council it does not have the power to enforce it.

Patel also spoke of the toll the conflict in Gaza has taken on civilians and said, "This humanitarian crisis needs to be addressed."

"India is deeply concerned about the deteriorating security situation and astounding loss of civilian lives in the ongoing conflict," she added.

"Casualties in the ongoing front conflict in Gaza are a telling, serious and continuing concern; civilians especially women and children are paying with their lives," she said.

She also reiterated India's support for a two-state solution that would have Israel and Palestine living side-by-side as independent, sovereign states.

The resolution that passed was proposed by Jordan on behalf of the Arab group and Pakistan, Bangladesh and China were among the co-sponsors.

Pakistan's Permanent Representative Munir Akram spoke against the amendment before the vote asserting that it lacked "equity and balance and fairness".

If Hamas should be named, so should Israel, he said, adding that the resolution Islamabad co-sponsored was "circumspect" in not naming either of them.

Many countries that voted for the amendment switched to voting for the resolution even without the amendment or abstained, enabling its passage.

Britain and France were among the Western countries that made the switch and voted for the resolution.

France's Permanent Representative Nicolas de Riviere explaining the change said that it sought to enable aid for the civilians of Gaza.

He said, "Nothing could justify the suffering of civilians. All of the victims of war are worthy of compassion, all of the lives are equally worthwhile. There's no hierarchy."

"We have to work collectively to set up humanitarian truce, which could lead eventually to a ceasefire because the situation in Gaza is catastrophic," he added.

Iraq, which voted against the resolution, later said that it was done in error and that it backs it.

(Arul Louis can be contacted at arul.l@ians.in and followed at @arulouis)
Honinabi Airport, Honinabi, Papua New Guinea [ HNN / ]

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Honinabi Airport Info:

Honinabi Airport IATA Code: HNN Honinabi Airport ICAO Code: Latitude : -6.23333 Longitude : 142.217 City : Honinabi Country : Papua New Guinea World Area Code : 804 Airport Type : Small Honinabi Airport Address / Contact Details :

Honinabi (HNN), Papua New Guinea Timezone : Pacific/Port_Moresby Honinabi Airport Timezone : GMT +10:00 hours Current time and date at Honinabi Airport is 22:12:40 PM (+10) on Saturday, Nov 4, 2023

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Honinabi Airport Map - Location of Honinabi Airport Load Map Papua New Guinea - General Information Country Formal Name Independent State of Papua New Guinea Country Code PG Capital Port Moresby Currency Kina (PGK)

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HNN - Honinabi Airport IATA Code
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 27. Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov received a delegation headed by a member of the Council of Representatives (Parliament) of the Republic of Iraq Elshad Salihi today, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan told Trend.

During the meeting, the parties noted with satisfaction the recently increased dynamics in Azerbaijani-Iraqi relations, in particular, the visits of the president of Iraq and the minister of Foreign Affairs to Azerbaijan in March and July of this year, as well as high-level meetings held within the framework of these visits.

In addition, the importance of the existing political dialogue between Azerbaijan and Iraq, economic and trade ties, inter-parliamentary and interregional cooperation and continuous cultural exchange was noted.

The sides noted that, in addition to the existing diplomatic missions in both countries, the promotion of humanitarian exchanges through cultural centers can contribute to the further rapprochement of Azerbaijani and Iraqi peoples.

The sides also exchanged views on other bilateral and regional issues of mutual interest during the meeting.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 27. West Azerbaijan Community responded to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, Ararat Mirzoyan, the Community released a statement in this regard, Trend reports.

"Armenia's Foreign Minister, Ararat Mirzoyan, emphasized the significance of dispatching a UNESCO mission to the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan.

It is entirely unacceptable that Armenia, while claiming to adhere to peace and a peace treaty, continues to issue statements that encroach upon Azerbaijan's sovereignty and flagrantly interfere in its domestic affairs.

Western Azerbaijan Community is of the view that the foremost task of Armenian diplomacy, under the leadership of A. Mirzoyan, with regard to UNESCO, must be enabling the fact-finding mission from this organization to visit Armenia to monitor the cultural heritage of the Azerbaijani people," the statement said.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 27. The Azerbaijani delegation strongly opposes the declaration on the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan adopted by the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe on October 26, Trend reports.

They emphasize that this declaration contains unfounded accusations and a biased attitude towards Azerbaijan.

We assert that during Azerbaijan's extensive membership in the Council of Europe, a significant portion of the country's territory was under Armenian occupation. This occupation resulted in around a million Azerbaijanis becoming refugees and internally displaced persons due to Armenia's policy of ethnic cleansing, the statement said.

The Azerbaijani delegation expresses disappointment that these issues have not been specifically addressed in the Congress, nor has it taken a stance on the gross violations of international law and the humanitarian consequences of this situation. Furthermore, the humanitarian problems faced by Azerbaijan post-conflict have not received attention. These problems include the complete destruction of hundreds of settlements in Azerbaijani territories during the occupation, widespread landmine contamination, and the challenges these pose to the safe and dignified return of Azerbaijani internally displaced persons to their homes.

We find it deeply regrettable that the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe adopted a declaration that distorts Azerbaijan's anti-terror measures carried out on September 19-20, 2023, aimed at eliminating the security threat posed by illegal Armenian armed groups in Azerbaijani sovereign territories.

We also criticize the declaration for not adequately reflecting Azerbaijan's consistent efforts to establish lasting peace in the region, as well as the reintegration of the Armenian population in the Karabakh region. The declaration fails to address Armenia's provocative actions that aim to undermine these peace efforts.

And we considers it irresponsible to involve the Congress in a political campaign against Azerbaijan and calls for the preservation of constructive cooperation between their country and this institution. They reject this unfair approach to Azerbaijan and urge the Congress to exercise caution regarding the peace process in the region while strictly adhering to its mandate, the statement reads.
Majoring in English as undergrads in the early 1990s, Gen Xers like me hid our passions from the professors. We were literary trash huffers, believing that books like Interview with the Vampire, Neuromancer, and Kindred merited classroom discussion. But our instructors had invested years eschewing contemporary commercial literature. They presented conference papers on pre-industrial artists like Shakespeare, popular domestic stories by Jane Austen, or modernist and postmodernist experimentalisms penned by authors who, for the most part, enjoyed meager success in their lifetimes.

So, we deferred to elder, established academics and took up the study of texts we hoped would edify us: James Joyces Ulysses, Virginia Woolfs To the Lighthouse, and maybe Toni Morrisons Beloved. We wrote dissertations that only mildly interested us, and secretly continued reading books by Neil Gaiman, Alison Bechdel, and Marjane Satrapi. We waited for our turn towell, to do what, exactly? Did we think wed eventually bend the system, corrupt the process enough to finally teach the stuff that we loved?

It was too late. Wed already devised terms like guilty pleasure, genre literature, graphic novel, and prestige TV to assuage the shame we were supposed to feel for loving something we shouldnt love.

The dearth and death of fun are precisely the reasons students are now turning away in droves from the humanities, resulting in a precipitous drop in liberals arts majors, as described by Nathan Heller in his New Yorker piece The End of the English Major. According to Heller, the humanities are collapsing under a multitude of pressures: reading literature is passe; STEM and Big Tech are luring away students; tuitions costs are rising; the professors themselves have lost faith. But the obvious and biggest issue glows smack-dab in the middle of Hellers opening paragraph: Its hard for students like me, who are pursuing an English major, to find joy in what theyre doing.

Fun has been bleached from the humanities in favor of identity and representation. Instead of demonstrating how these concepts can be enacted and imaginatively employed, we encourage students to talk and write about these ideas within a limited framework of texts no one really wants to read. Set foot inside a Barnes & Noble today or peruse your kids high school library. YA fiction, specifically of the dystopian-adventure stripe, is everywhere. These are books awash in identity and representation, ignored by professors yet inhaled by readers of all ages. These books serve as examples of the very things we discuss in our college classrooms, and yet we prop up the same canonized authors instead.

 A little joy attracts students and encourages them to challenge themselves as writers and communicators. 

Ill spell it out: students want to read Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner, Twilight, and anything by Brandon Sanderson, as well as engage with stories through manga, anime, and video games. Not only are English majors absorbing this stuff but theyre producing it, too, in the form of fan fiction, fan art, and cosplay.

This is why I set out to write a YA dystopian-adventure novel with my students, bringing a new 1,500-word chapter to every class every weekwhether it was a writing workshop or a literature class. At the end of a 15-week semester, I had 22,000 words, or a third of my first novel. I wrote the novel my students wanted to read and published it with a respectable publisher and acknowledged them in the book.

But the real fun came when students started submitting their own work to class. I published some of it in anthologies I edit, and helped others get their works published in local and regional journals and magazines.

My classes have long waiting lists. Its not because I push my students to distinguish between American literary realism and naturalism, or to examine Bartleby through the lens of disability studies. Its because I encourage them to write characters based on their own experiences and identities. A little joy attracts students and encourages them to challenge themselves as writers and communicators.

They challenged me, and, though I didnt write the next Lord of the Rings, my novel is 100% fun. And Im grateful for the experience of spending time with people who love reading at a time when tech and metrics risk muting our humanity, causing us to give up on the humanities.

Jarret Keene teaches literature and writing at UNLV. His novel, Hammer of the Dogs, was published by University of Nevada Press in September.
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Every year at the end of November, Guadalajara hosts the largest and most significant book fair for Spanish speakers: the Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL). There, attendees can find both obvious and not-so-obvious clues to understanding the Latin American book market. In the aisles, on the tables, and, most importantly, outside the official agenda, different cultures revolving around the Spanish language and the culture of books come together to celebrate, identify, and close deals.

Out of the 500 million people who speak Spanish in the world, 60 million live in the U.S., and they are growing in number and influence year by year. That growth is reflected in the growing demand for Spanish-language books. But its challenging to assess how the sale of English-language books is influenced by the availability, or absence of, Spanish-language books.

FIL holds the answers, but also raises some questions.

Business alchemy

Bertrand Russell once said that the U.K. and U.S. are two nations divided by a common language. The same thing can be said of the Spanish-speaking world, and its an observation made by a wide variety of Spanish-language authors, from Argentinas Julio Cortazar to Chiles Jorge Edwards. It is a diagnosis and condemnation that highlights and encapsulates the complications many face in communicating and, consequently, publishing and selling books across the totality of Mexico, Central and South America, and Spain.

Argentine intellectual Alejandro Dujovene has reframed this, noting, Its the geography that separates usand how could it not when, despite Latin America sharing a landmass, its divided by slow, corrupt, and inefficient customs processes. Additionally, the different local book cultures, lacking shared visionnot to mention back-office systemsmake it complicated for books to circulate.

This is why books published in Ecuador are not easy to find on bookstore shelves in Bolivia, and likewise, Bolivian publishers books are scarce in Colombia. Of course, what is published in Colombia faces challenges circulating in Ecuador and Bolivia, despite these three countries sharing borders. According to Nielsen, last September, only one title was among the top fiction bestsellers in the three main markets: Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico: El Viento Conoce mi Nombre, by the Chilean writer Isabel Allende, a global superstar.

 Despite the challenges, FIL somehow facilitates a form of business alchemy, fostering cross-border collaboration in a broader market that otherwise all too often feels sclerotic. 

Each market has its own peculiarities; in Argentina, its not surprising that Mariana Enriquezs horror novels, dark and vibrant, are bestsellers, as they emanate from and reflect their native culturesomething that also appeals to wide international readership. This is like how in Mexico, its normal for Cien Anos de Soledad by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a Colombian writer who lived for much of his later years in Mexico City, or Pedro Paramo, by legendary Mexican writer Juan Rulfo, to appear on the bestseller lists. But beyond these internationally recognized authors and books, few Latin American books sell beyond their own national borders.

In Guadalajara, the largest spaces are reserved for foreign publishers and national stands. Editors from smaller publishers circulate on their own, looking for undiscovered gems. A description of what happens, which includes a touch of magical realism to make it sound musical, would be that, despite the challenges, FIL somehow facilitates a form of business alchemy, fostering cross-border collaboration in a broader market that otherwise all too often feels sclerotic.

Its a great opportunity for anyone to realize that the best way to come to an understanding of Latin America is through the differences among countries and cultures, not through the shared Spanish language. These differences are more obvious when meeting with publishers in the fairs communal dining areas than on the exhibition floor. And anyone who has been to FIL before knows that the real business happens at the many parties hosted at FIL, many of which last until dawn.

Large in-person book fairs have mostly disappeared from the United States, and in Madrid, the main book fair is more of an outdoor carnival for the public. In both settings, the book market is healthy and functions smoothly.

Not so in Latin America. Here, book fairs matter much more, as they are sales channels and showroom windows, and theyre important for professional development and networking. Its our opportunity to showcase our intellectual lives to one another and to the world at large. Shelves upon shelves of books, hundreds of thousands of them on display at FIL, is not the typical image one has of Latin America or Mexicothe cliches of beaches, tacos, and margaritas. FIL exists to remind people that there is more to Mexico and Latin America than an opportunity for tourism. There is an opportunity to do business.

The U.S. is coming

Today is a good time to plan for the futurea future when it is very likely the richest Spanish-language book market in the world wont be in Spain or South America, but in the U.S. Curating catalogs understanding the trend toward micro-niches and audience segmentation is the responsibility of the many U.S. librarians and booksellers who attend FIL. The broad label of Books in Spanish is no longer enough; we must consider the segmentation, what kind of books, by whom or for whom, written in which country, and under what context.

Librarians in Queens, N.Y., should understand that the largest number of Ecuadorians living in the U.S. are in their boroughand they need books. Booksellers in Los Angeles should be aware that their city is the top destination for Oaxaquenos traveling over the border, a phenomenon we call Oaxacalifornia. This knowledge will help librarians and booksellers make better decisions about what books to stock for their patrons and customers.

The key to unlocking the best of FIL is to stay curious. Attendees must stay up late and show the willingness to share; the business relationships may take time to develop and pay off, but patience and persistence will prevail. They must take the time to get to know the editors, the authors, and the trends, which are different from those in the U.S., Europe, and, as noted, are different in each country within Latin America, from Mexico to Argentina.

Spanish-language books are not valuable to Spanish speakers just because theyre in Spanish; theyre valuable when the books cater to readers specific needs or desires, be they test prep books, escapist novels, or cookbooks.

The best way to explore FIL is to wander at will. Get to know people. It takes time, but it has its rewards. Look beyond the mega-stands of the largest transnational publishers and seek out smaller publishers as well, many of whom offer books with their own unique cultural and regional perspectives. Behind the alarmist headlines and bad press the region gets, there are stories and people working every day to change it for the better. Their tool: books, of course! And a healthy dose of camaraderie and curiosity.

This is what visitors need to unlock FIL and discover its rewards.

Fernando Pascual is a publishing consultant in Mexico City and a former executive with Librerias El Sotano.

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Author-illustrator David Macaulays books have been awarded the Caldecott Medal and Honor and have sold more than one million copies in the U.S.and it all began with his debut picture book, Cathedral. The book, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, traces the construction of the fictional Cathedral of Chutreaux. Relayed through intricate pen-and-ink drawings, Cathedral laid the foundation for his series of architectural picture books for young readers, including City, Pyramid, and Castle, which in turn inspired a number of PBS specials. Macaulay recently reunited via Zoom with his former student at the Rhode Island School of Design, Caldecott Medalist Brian Floca, to discuss the books origin storyinvolving a trip to France and plenty of Muscadetand its enduring impact on childrens literature.

Brian Floca: Congratulations on 50 years of Cathedral. When I look just at the book itself, that number is hard to believe; the text and drawings and the way they work together feel as fresh and smart as ever. And yet, when I look at the field of childrens books, 50 years makes perfect sense. There are so many books on the shelves todayand I include my own, certainlythat I dont think would be there, that I dont think would have been dreamt up, without the example and inspiration of Cathedral. For many of us in this line of work, the book is now as much of a monument as the building it describes. Anita Silvey put it succinctly in Childrens Books and Their Creators; she describes Cathedral as a book that was to completely alter the face of American informational books for children.

David Macaulay: Im so glad she didnt write that before I started the book. I wanted to do a good job of course, but the lack of outside expectations kept the bar at a reasonable height. I had no idea where the book would go or if it would be successful. I was just so pleased to be able to make a book.

Floca: Over the years, Ive had so many conversations with other authors and illustrators, published or aspiring, successful or struggling, about this weird field: about trying to get into it, about trying to find or refine ones voice or style, or ones focus. Or about finding the editor and team who will help you become the artist you want to be, or finding an audience, or hoping for recognition... all of it. And one of the incredible things about Cathedral is you hit all of these marks with your very first book. And you were, what, 27 when it came out?

Macaulay: Almost.

Floca: Almost. One way to think of this is as a really horrible thing for other 26-year-olds to hear about.

Macaulay: I think we all deserve a little leeway on the first book. You just give it your best shot and hope for a little luck along the way. I happened to start my journey at the right time and in the right place.

Floca: Thats exactly one of the things I wanted to ask about. It takes a certain ecosystem to allow something like this to happen. Maybe we could start with hearing about where you were in your life and career when Cathedral came about, but also where Houghton Mifflin was, and about Cathedrals editor, Walter Lorraine, too, and anybody else we should know about?

Macaulay: First of all, I was a graduate of Rhode Island School of Design with an architecture degree and no desire to become an architect. Having said that, I cant overstate my gratitude for that education. Among the many things I learned, two stand out. Number one: good design isnt magic, its hard work. And number two: good design depends on having good problems to solve. So the first thing you have to do is design your own problems to meet whatever the overall demands are.

During junior year, I started working for an interior designer and artist in his own right, named Maurice Nathanson. He was one of the first people to encourage me to think about illustration. After getting a few freelance advertising jobs and then some textbook work, I started trying to illustrate stories, one written by Maurice and others by my friend Mary Shaffer. I soon found myself happily enrolled in the teach-yourself-picture-book-illustration school.

At some point I found the phone numbers of three Boston childrens book publishers in the Yellow Pages and made appointments to present my first attempts. I did this a couple of times, but the most encouraging response always came from Houghton Mifflin and the editor who was tasked with sifting through requests like mine, Melanie Kroupa. It was another no, thank you, but it came with a please try us again. When I finally showed up with my absolutely guaranteed sure to please classic gargoyle beauty pageant book, they cracked. This time I was introduced to Walter Lorraine.

Along with a few small sketches, I had made two large pen-and-ink drawings with lots of cross-hatching (trying to be Sendak). Walter looked at the flying gargoyles, no comment, and then at my drawing of the facade of a half-finished Gothic cathedral. His response, more or less, was I dont think we need more gargoyles, but why didnt you tell us about this building?

The wound healed and the hole was quickly filled by the challenge. Two days later, I was back in the RISD library, an architecture student once again, looking at the spines of books about cathedrals. John Fitchens The Construction of Gothic Cathedrals stopped me in my tracks. The information was so clearly explained in words and diagrams. I quickly began to see it: some cross-hatching and a bit of a story. Over the next few days, I made sketches on tracing paper covering the whole saga from a plan to a finished building. The next time Walter, Melanie, and I met, I laid the sketches out on a long table and told them the story. This time Walter said, Okay, lets do it. And that was November of 1972. The book came out on September 13, 1973.

Floca: Theres so much to talk about in this story. For starters, we were just discussing the importance of choosing the right problem. And yet it turns out you had actually set out to Houghton with a very different sort of problem than the one that would ultimately get you to Cathedral, and from Cathedral to so many of your other books. That says a lot about Walter, but also about your ability to, you knowyou wouldnt have accepted a new problem if you hadnt recognized something within it that spoke to you.

Macaulay: Absolutely right. Walter gave me an opportunity and even though it meant that my classic gargoyle beauty pageant book would most likely never see the light of day, I took it. For the next 30 years I was guided by Walters suggestions and questions, but most of all by his complete faith in me to make the best stuff I could. It doesnt get better than that. It cant.

Floca: I was fortunate to have what sounds like a similar sort of relationship with Dick Jackson. And it brings to mind something maybe relevant here, something I once heard Chris Raschka say about Dick and his willingness to place a bet on a new author or illustrator: that Dick would publish you because he thought your fifth book might be successful.

Macaulay: We both got lucky, but that fundamental belief in the possibilities of a person rather than a particular book, that also was Walter. Houghton had the same kind of trust in Walter as Walter I guess had in me. And what you just mentioned about Dick Jackson, its not about the first book being a great success. Walter believed in the book, but even more so, he believed in me. Talk about going out on a limb.

Floca: Its a daisy chain of trust and gambles. Houghton has to trust and take a gamble on Walter. Then he has to extend that trust and take those gambles on his authors and illustrators.

Macaulay: And we in turn, you know, respond with the thought, I will not let you down. But what did I know about making an actual book? Zero. Still, I knew what the basic problems were as I went along, and I was excited by the challenge. The rest I figured out by trial and error.

 I happened to start my journey at the right time and in the right place.David Macaulay 

Floca: And then youre trusting and taking a gamble on the reader, too, that they are up for reading about a certain subject at a certain level.

Macaulay: Fortunately, I was completely ignorant about that side of things as well. All I could do was give it my best effort. How do you write a childrens book? I dont even know. Yeah, I had one child. And she was like a year old at this point, or a year and a half. So I wasnt going to test anything on her. I didnt even think about that. I thought about what book do I want to write? What book would I want to read? What book would I have wanted when I was younger? What does it mean, when I was younger? When I was 10? Or when I was like 18?

Floca: Its fascinating to hear you talk about what you knew and didnt know. Inexperience can be a sword with two edges, but in this case what you didnt know worked out for you and for the book in only the happiest ways.

Macaulay: Happily oblivious to all that stuff, I got a contractit wasnt a dream after alla couple of days before Christmas, and took the next step.

Floca: I was just reading this in Building the Book Cathedral. You flew to Amiens...

Macaulay: Ah yes, my first business trip. I went to Amiens because I had used a photo of that citys facade to make the first drawing for the gargoyle beauty pageant. It was also built in something like 25 to 30 years, a manageable length of time for my little starter story. I checked into the first hotel I found not far from the railway station, dropped my bag, pointed and grunted my way to art supplies, and set off to meet my subject. It was pretty easy to spot. In my jet- and train-lagged stupor, I wandered into this enormous, magnificent structure and sat down to take it in. My head was spinning with the challenge of capturing it all under construction, and by this time I was also hungry. Dinner at the hotel, a half bottle of Muscadet, sleep, and up early. I ate my meals in the hotel in the restaurant downstairs, I had a half bottle of Muscadet with lunch, and another half bottle with dinner. I repeated this strategy for three or four days.

Floca: You mentioned pointing and grunting. I take it you didnt speak French.

Macaulay: Not even close, so I couldnt ask any questions about the building or whether or not it might be possible to get up above the vaulting and see the roof. I just sat there and imagined myself in those places. I didnt even sketch. I just sat there with the Fitchen images in my head and started to take it apart. I also wandered around the city to see the building from different angles and distances. I wanted to be able to make a few repeated images from the same point of view to show the growing structure, along with cross-sections for a simplified version of the structure and close-ups now and then to illustrate a craft or a detail I thought might be relevant. That was it. No magic, as promised.

Floca: Youve got the set of home base images, then youve got the more dynamic images to keep the energy going, then youve got the humanity of the people in it and all the little details that are tucked in.

Macaulay: Basically yes, that was it: an extension of the crude sketches I showed Walter and Melanie a month earlier. On my second day in Amiens, I came across an art shop and somehow managed to buy a few sheets of Fabriano paper, a pen, some nibs, and a bottle of India ink. One piece of the paper completely covered the tiny round table in my room, which meant that the ink bottle sat on the drawing paper as I worked. Not a great idea, but once again, I was lucky.

Floca: I was going to ask about that. I saw that in Building the Book Cathedral and I thought, does he really mean he did final art in his hotel room?

Macaulay: Yep. I knew what I wanted the beginning and the end of the book to look like, so those are the drawings I made: the cover and final drawing, the three-quarter view of the finished cathedral and the title page drawing.

Floca: Incredible. This with just a bottle of Muscadet and a bottle of ink.

Macaulay: And you try not to get them mixed up. Muscadet with lunch and dinner. It was especially helpful, I have to tell you, when, after dinner, I started trying to write the version of the story.

Floca: Not to belabor this, and maybe this just speaks to my own compulsions, but Im amazed you were able to make those initial drawings and then illustrate the rest of the book without feeling at the end of the process something like, well, along the way Ive figured out this or that additional aspect of this building, and now I need to go back and redo those first drawings to bring them up to the level of the others. You did the drawings in your hotel room, and when they were done, they were done; and theyre in the book, and theyre beautiful.

Macaulay: Sadly, though, the innocence of that process never happened again. Ever. When you start with a success, youre always competing with yourself and wondering whether or not you will meet the expectations you know are now out there. If you have to start your career with a Caldecott Honor, so be it, but it is kind of a high bar.

Floca: I was hoping we could get to that.

Macaulay: I was just so happy to be making a book. Its that simple. And so pleased to be working with Walter and Melanie. If they thought this was going to work, then who was I to argue? I did what came naturally and used my common sense and Cathedral was the result.

Floca: And when Cathedral came out, how quickly did it become clear to you that the book was receiving a certain kind of attention, that it was going to do well, even if nobody could have predicted just how well? What was that like?

Macaulay: Well, people said really nice things, pretty much from the start. It was intoxicating. No Muscadet required.

Floca: Back to the timeline here. When did you get the contract, November of?

Macaulay: I got the go ahead at the end of November, and the actual contract in December of 1972.

Floca: And now were talking about the book coming out in the fall of 73?

Macaulay: Yes. Once I got home from France, I just drew all the time to get the art finished by the end of April. The story was written in January. I did take one very helpful shortcut. Since I already had the last drawing, all I had to do was work backwards towards the hole in the ground. So I had copies made of the last drawing, which I simply cut up and worked over to create the building sequence. Theyve now all fallen apart, but they did the trick.

Floca: I remember seeing an exhibit of your originals at Old Slater Mill, just outside of Providence, in Pawtucket, and I could see you had used that method. That was a little revelation for me.

Macaulay: If I do the same kind of thing today, I do it on the computer and with Photoshop. No rubber cement, no stain, no smell.

Floca: So all told, were talking about, what, four months? Were you working day and night?

Macaulay: I was working long days, but not overnight. It was comfortable enough. I wore the same sweater, a new one Id received for Christmas, every day. I wore it again when I worked on City and even Pyramid. Luck, anyone?

Floca: I feel I need to recap. You cold-called Houghton Mifflin, you pitched the gargoyle book, Walter responded with a question that opened up this alternate path, you responded with a completely new book proposal, got the green light in November, got the contract in December, went to France in January, finished the book in April. My head is spinning.

But then what? The art is done, the book is going to come out in September. What happens now?

Macaulay: Well, Walter and I were in New York doing some promotion before the book was out and he asked me what was next. The only other thing I felt I knew a little bit about was Roman planning and building because of a terrific history of Rome course Id taken at RISD. So in the summer of 1973, before Id actually held a hardcover copy of Cathedral, I was back in Italy and southern France doing my research for the next book. So in January of 74, when Walter calls to tell me Ive been awarded a Caldecott Honor, Im drawing an amphitheater and Roman sewers.

Floca: I reviewed your bibliography in preparation for our talk and the schedule for those first few years struck me as almost implausible: Cathedral in 1973, City in 1974, Pyramid in 1975, Underground in 1976, Castle in 1977. Did you have in the back of your mind, as Cathedral was wrapping up, a sense that there would be a book after that, and a next book after that, and so on, and if so, did that come with a feeling of anticipation, or did you ever feel tied to an assembly line, or what?

Macaulay: As I worked on Cathedral, I had no reason to believe that I was creating a schedule that would take over my life. I just wanted to see my name on the cover of a book that I had made. It didnt matter that much what it was about. So City comes out in the fall of 74. In November of that year, I went to Egypt to start gathering information and images for Pyramid. But by the time we got to Underground it was a really welcome breakno historical stuff. Walter and I were talking at lunch one day about what happens underground in a city. I decided to find out and then to explain it.

Floca: And you do some new things in that book. With Cathedral everything feels real, feels grounded. Youre involving us, youre making us feel physically present for the creation of this thing. In Underground, youre ungrounding the subject, in a wayyoure removing the earth and showing us cities and systems floating in the air, in ways we could never really see them, but ways that help us better understand them.

Macaulay: It was a book that could easily have been incredibly dull. The challenge was to engage the imagination of the reader, and that meant taking serious liberties such as removing all the soil and clay and getting down to bedrock. Im very proud of Underground because it was the first book I did that seemed somewhat original. I got almost all my information from actual people rather than from other books. Then with Castle, it was back to the formula and ironically another Caldecott Honor. I knew I couldnt just keep making the same book over and over.

Floca: Theres a kind of person who could do that, but thats probably not the kind of person who would think that an interesting way to show how piers support a building would be to put the viewer 30 stories under the sidewalk and make the earth invisible, for example. Which is to say, if youre motivated by finding interesting new ways of looking at things, youre probably prohibited from cashing in by repeating yourself 50 times.

Macaulay: Lets face it. Safety is not the goal of this or any artistic profession. We chose a risky path in the first place and then we make things worse by trying to keep things interesting for ourselves while at the same time making a living. You have to be a little unhinged in a good way to do this, but it also helps to have great people behind you, next to you.

Floca: What if any nonfiction books or narrative or informational books were you looking at before you made Cathedral? Did you have books that set a precedent you felt you were following? Or is this again a case of benefiting from not knowing what you didnt know and just following your good instincts?

Macaulay: That was pretty much the case. None of the books that lured me into the field were information books. They were all fiction, more along the lines of the gargoyle story, but much better. I saw terrific illustratorsSendak, Delessert, Ungerer, McKeetelling stories and having fun, and I wanted to join the party.

Floca: So we could say you ended up writing and illustrating a groundbreaking, genre-defining, genre-shaping informational book by not setting out to make an informational book at all?

Macaulay: Bingo!
Acclaimed childrens author, distinguished childrens librarian, and stalwart champion of intellectual freedom Susan Patron, best known for her Newbery Medal-winning novel The Higher Power of Lucky, died October 24 in Los Angeles, following a long battle with lung cancer. She was 75.

Patron was born March 18, 1948, in San Gabriel, Calif., near Los Angeles, where she grew up the middle of three daughters of George and Rubye Hall. From the age of eight, Patron already knew she wanted to be a writer, she said in a Something About the Author interview in 1994. When she told her father about her career ambitions, I received both encouragement (go ahead: if you want to be a writer, write) and excellent advice (learn how to type), she said. He offered further wisdom when he suggested story ideas were all around if she just kept her ears open. I began eavesdropping and hearing stories everywhere, she recalled.

By 1965 Patron was enrolled at Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif., and would later spend her junior year abroad at Trinity College, Dublin. During her time in Ireland, Patron sharpened her listening-for-stories skills, surrounded by gowned professors as well as the cab drivers, the children and the pub oratorsthe best extemporaneous talkers in the world. She received her B.A. from Pitzer in 1969 and shortly after graduation she married native Frenchman Rene Patron, a rare book restorer who had recently opened his own business. When planning her own next steps, Patron recalled to SATA, Rene said, The bravest, kindest, most interesting people I have met in America are librarians.  Following that supportive signpost from her husband, she soon earned a masters of library science from nearby Immaculate Heart College in 1972the same year she landed a position as childrens librarian at the Los Angeles Public Library.

Patron thrived in her librarian role, rising to senior childrens librarian and juvenile materials collection development manager and training while mentoring librarians at 72 different branches over her 35-year tenure at LAPL before retiring in 2007. She served on committees for childrens book awards and other work for ALA and ALSC and was a member of the board of advisors for KCET public televisions Storytime program.

All the while she focused on her keen ear for stories. At the library she observed first-hand the kinds of tales that kids enjoyed most, and she also launched STORY: Seniors Taking the Opportunity to Reach Youth, a program that recruited older adults to learn storytelling techniques. By the late 1980s, these experiences were among the catalysts for Patron to at last follow her long-held dream of being a writer and try her hand at creating books for children.

Patron sent her first manuscript, a contemporary retelling of Stone Soup, off to several publishing houses before esteemed editor Richard Jackson at Orchard offered her a contract. Burgoo Stew, the first of three picture books illustrated by Mike Shenon about a boy named Billy Que, his rowdy pals, and the Dustdobbins that live under his bed, was published in 1991. She followed those up with the chapter book Maybe Yes, Maybe No, Maybe Maybe (Orchard, 1993) and picture book Dark Cloud Strong Breeze, illustrated by Peter Catalanotto (Orchard, 1994), before hitting what she described as a wall in a 2007 interview with Cynthia Leitich Smith. It wasnt until 2003 that Patron overcame her writers block and found her way into the heart of a long-gestating story that would become The Higher Power of Lucky (Atheneum/Richard Jackson, 2006), which was awarded the 2007 Newbery Medal.

In the novel, Patron introduces 10-year-old Lucky, who lives in tiny mining town Hard Pan, Calif., as the ward of a Frenchwoman after her mother dies and her father abandons her. Like the child-version of myself, Lucky eavesdrops on adult conversations; she is searching for a form of spirituality, a higher power, Patron told PW in 2007. Its while listening in on a 12-step meeting that Lucky hears a local mans account of how a rattlesnake bit his dog on the scrotum. Use of the word sparked controversy as librarians, teachers, parents, and authors took sides on the issue of censorship and efforts to ban the title from libraries. At the time, Patron addressed the situation in a statement which first ran in PW, noting that she was shocked and horrified about the uproar.

After her retirement from LAPL in 2007, Patron continued Luckys journey in two sequels, Lucky Breaks (Atheneum, 2009) and Lucky for Good (Atheneum, 2011). Over the span of her years as an author, she was a long-serving member of SCBWIs Advisory Council. Lin Oliver, co-founder of that organization, one of Patrons lifelong friends, and current SCBWI Impact and Legacy Fund managing director, wrote, Susans contribution to childrens books was immeasurable. She imbued everything she did with grace, charm, wit, and wisdomfrom her books to her counsel to her librarianship. She was a true lover of books, language, and people, beloved by all her colleagues in the SCBWI. Her life was a blessing to us all.

Caitlyn Dlouhy, v-p and publisher of her eponymous imprint at S&S/Atheneum, who worked closely with Patron, offered these words of tribute: The higher power of Susan. That was always my first smiling thought after any conversation, letter exchange, or manuscript revision with her. She was incapable of writing even an email that you didnt want to re-read three times as it was so insightful, provoking, or flat-out funny. I imagine her choosing each word with that particular slight tilt to her head when she landed on the exact one she needed.

Susan had a sublime way of looking at, then writing about, the worlddont get me started on owl pellets. Her wayin all thingswas fierce yet gentle, grounded in reality yet bolstered by an almost visionary sense of hope that subsequently shimmered up through every book she wrote. Which made sense. To Susan, hope was a Higher Power that every kid deserved. She was also living proof of the power of wordsa single word, in fact, one word that sent a quake through schools, libraries, and the media. Her response to the maelstrom that followed? Fiercely gentle, realistic but hopeful, trusting and respecting the readers intelligence, calmly fighting the crows of fear caw[ing] into our ears. The Higher Power of Lucky? The higher power of Susan Patron.

Virginia Ginny Walter, professor emerita at UCLAs school of education and information studies, was one of Patrons longtime LAPL colleagues. She shared this remembrance: Susan and I met in 1973 when we were both working at the Los Angeles Public Library. I was a young adult librarian; she was a childrens librarian. LAPL is a big system, and we probably wouldn't have known each other except for Giraffe. That was the name of the newsletter that an informal group of us young radical librarians circulated. Our motto was we stick our necks out as we critiqued library policies that we felt hindered free and equitable services. We also promoted bold, new ideas. That was the start of a long and rewarding friendship.

Many young readers have enjoyed Susans words in books like The Higher Power of Lucky. Her friends also had the pleasure of reading her well-chosen words in emails. Just days before she died, she sent an email to a few friends in which she talked about her husband Rene who was in a wheelchair because of a broken hip. He managed to lift himself up out of the chair, lean over, and give me a kiss.

I will miss her.

And fellow Newbery Medalist Cynthia Kadohata remembered her friend this way: I last saw Susan years ago when she, her husband, my boyfriend, and I had lunch in a small Italian restaurant near where we both then lived. We talked sparingly of books, and more about dogs. The Patrons had a ridgeback they loved very much, and I had my Dobermans. What I remember most about her though was that after many years together, she and her husband were still so deeply in love as to be residing in a world of their own, quite separate from the world the rest of us lived in. A part of their beautiful souls belonged only to each other. I always think of that as evidence of how deep her understanding was of what really matters during our time here, and I ponder it every time I need a reminder.
Despite the challenges of navigating the 73-story Detroit Marriott Hotel at the Renaissance Center, a circular skyscraper surrounded by office towers that could have been designed by M.C. Escher, this years Heartland Fall Forum, held October 1820, was a resounding success, and was this years largest regional gathering. The conference drew 566 attendees total, including 285 booksellers from across the Midwest and Great Lakes region to network with each other, meet authors, and check out 80 vendor displays representing hundreds of publishers and rep groups, including some first-time Canadian publisher attendees, drawn by Detroits proximity to the border.

MIBA executive director Carrie Obry ascribed Heartlands spike in attendance to a perfect storm: Booksellers enjoyed the chance to visit a fascinating Midwest city they may not otherwise get to, people feel like the pandemic is behind us, and BookExpo is long gone, she said. Plus, bookstore openings are continually on the rise. Just speaking for MIBA, our membership is up 27%.

As for GLIBA, its membership has doubled in the past five years, from 130 stores in 2018 to 261 in 2023. All these new stores are excited to meet each other and experience Heartland, GLIBA executive director Larry Law said.

Author Isaac Fitzgerald, who emceed the Heartland Booksellers Awards gala for the fourth year, set the tone for the eventand perhaps for the entire conferenceby calling the hundreds of booksellers packed in a hotel ballroom champions, and congratulating them for making it through another year of fighting so tirelessly for the written word.

So many people help make a book happen, but it is you, the independent bookseller, who guides those books to the readers who need them most, he said, despite book bans; the site that shall not be named; algorithmswhich can never replace you, no matter how hard they try; rising rents; supply chain issuesand that one customer who forgets the title, but they know the cover is blueno, green! It came out at some point in the last hundred years. 

Urging booksellers not to lose sight that there is the joy, the knowledge, the community, the service in bookselling, Fitzgerald described their work as a calling and thanked them for keeping the faith.

Five Heartland Booksellers Awards were given out by Fitzgerald, including two awards for childrens books. Krystal Marquis won the MG/YA book award for The Davenports (Dial), and Jacqueline Woodson won the picture book award for The World Belonged to Us (Penguin/Paulsen Books), illustrated by Leo Espinosa. While Marquis was on hand to accept her award, Woodson accepted hers via video, explaining that she was on tour for Remember Us, an October release for middle grade readers, and unable to stop in Detroit.

If I wasnt on tour, Id be there, celebrating you, and celebrating you celebrating me, celebrating The World Belonged to Us, she said, thanking booksellers on behalf of all writers. You have put books into peoples hands, she said, you have come to us, and told us how much our work has meant to the people in your community. You have worked inside your communities to keep words and books and reading alive and I appreciate you. After reading her favorite page in The World Belonged to Us, Woodson concluded, Heartland, I so appreciate you.

Voices of the Heartland

After the book awards segment of the program, Alyson Jones Turner, the co-owner of Detroits Source Booksellers, introduced her mother and business partner, Janet Webster Jones, this years Voice of the Heartland recipient. Jones, who previously worked as a speech therapist for the Detroit Public Schools system, has been a bookseller for almost 35 years, launching her career in 1989 with pop-ups at church bazaars, fairs, and other community events, before moving into a stand-alone bricks-and-mortar store in 2013.

Citing her background as a speech therapist, Jones noted that the Heartland region encompasses 13 states, representing one third of the 50 states of the United States of America. Our voices spread across a lot of territory. Our voices have a lot to do and many ways to do it. She urged her fellow booksellers to keep books available to all who seek knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. Doing so, she said, is our collective voice and our sacred mission as booksellers. Concluding her remarks, Jones urged the audience to join together to create literary citizens.

The next day focused on education, and the panel session on book banning was especially popular, drawing at least 100 booksellers. During this session, the three bookseller panelists urged their professional colleagues to stock, display prominently, and handsell controversial books. Noting that the books that are being banned are not the most radical books, Jonathan Pope of Prologue Bookshop in Columbus, Ohio, said that the challenges by right-wing extremists focus on books that contain even the most minute mention of something that might make someone uncomfortable, although many of these books are phenomenal works by BIPOC authors. Allow the space for these books, he said. If you dont have them on your shelves nobodys going to buy them, nobodys going to read them.

Grace Hagen from Novel Neighbor in St. Louis, Mo., added that its harmful not to have these books on the shelves. Citing the controversy regarding diverse books and book fairs that Scholastic is embroiled in andafter Heartlandended up issuing an apology for having implemented, Hagen urged the audience to discuss with publishers the authors and books that are promoted to schools and libraries.

Ashley Valentine of Rooted MKE, a Milwaukee childrens bookstore/literary center, suggested that booksellers proactively recommend books to local educators. This is something we have the power of doing every day, she said. Audience member and MIBA board president Kristen Sandstrom, manager of Apostle Islands Booksellers in Bayfield, Wis., added that booksellers should offer student discounts along with teacher discounts and also invite educators to take students on field trips to local bookstores.

Big Books of the Show

While Erik Larsons latest release, The Demon of Unrest (Crown, Apr. 2024), an account of the outbreak of the Civil War, was the big adult book at Heartland due to his compelling presentation, Salt the Water (Dutton, Oct.), [Candice Ilohs YA novel-in-verse was the biggest book of the show on the childrens end. Iloh, a National Book Award finalist in 2021 for their debut YA novel, Every Body Looking was, along with Larson, one of four author keynote breakfast speakers on Friday. Iloh impressed and moved booksellers with their frank and honest account of how they pushed past depression and the despair of publishers rejecting other writing to draft Salt the Water. I began writing the novel the summer before last, they said, although I was losing my faith in the author life.

Sandstrom from Apostle Islands Booksellers called Salt the Water one of the braver books Ive read in a while. When the rest of the world keeps telling you what you should do, its that much harder to follow your heart. But that is exactly what Cerulean Gene does.

Sarah Brown, manager of Zenith Bookstore in Duluth, Minn., said that she was blown away by Ilohs presentation. They are truly writing without the adult gaze,  she said, and I cannot wait to read this urgent and powerful book. Brown also praised Ted Kooser: More Than a Local Wonder (University of Nebraska Press, Nov.), Carla Ketners childrens biography of the former U.S. Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner. We have sold Koosers childrens book, Marshmallow Clouds (Candlewick), which he co-authored with local poet Connie Wanek, Brown said. I am hoping this biography will give our young customers more insight into his life and work.

Sarah Hollenbeck said that her two favorite discoveries at Heartland were Salt the Water and MABUHAY! (Graphix, Oct.), a graphic novel by Zachary Sterling. I loved both of them, she said.

As for Abel Velasquez, the marketing and events manager at Watermark Books in Wichita, Kans., his favorite book of the show was Alebrijes by Donna Barba Higuera (Levine Querido, Oct.). Velasquez explained that this apocalyptic novel for upper middle graders creates a very fascinating world influenced by Mexican folklore that will introduce young readers to unique creatures that they may not have been exposed to previously. With the story being a bit darker, it will be very interesting to see how young readers will react to it. Maybe it will pique their interest in reading more similar stories.

Pamela Klinger-Horn, an events coordinator affiliated with Valley Booksellers in Stillwater, Minn., was in the mood for something lighter than Iloh or Higueras intense reads. She praised Forsynthia: Rise of the Cupcakes by Rachel DiNunzio (Paw Prints, Jan. 2024), explaining that she was enamored of this darling graphic novel from the moment I saw the funny little dragon characters and the cupcake storyline. Children love humorous books that keep them engaged. This one includes STEAM education, lots of family love, girl, empowerment, and, of course, cupcakeswhats not to love?

Veteran bookseller Dave Richardson, the principal of 451 Bookstore, a mobile bookstore in Cincinnati, Ohio, that he launched three years ago, has his eye on books that were released into the marketplace earlier this year. Richardson has high hopes for Erin Bows Simon Sort of Says (Hyperion) and Gary B. Schmidts Labors of Hercules (Clarion)both of which he considers to be serious contenders for next years Newbery Medal.

Hercules is so superbly writtenthe language and the structure of the story are just so engaging. Simon is hilarious, even though it deals with a very serious topic: school shootings. But humor runs all through it. I really love those two books.
Amid a surge in book bans and a right wing attack on libraries, it has been an especially intense couple of years for school librarians. And that tension certainly appeared evident to reporters covering the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) annual conference, which concluded last week in Tampa, Fla.ground zero for the book banning movement. (A recent Pen America report found that 40% of the nation's book challenges came from school districts in Florida.)

The Tampa Bay Times was among those covering the conference: "Among the many stories circulating at the national school librarians conference this weekend, there was the one about the Right to Read rally. Guests were told the Friday evening event would be held inside the Tampa Convention Center ballroom," the article begins. Why inside? "Amanda Jones of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, co-chairperson of the conference, said the issue was indeed security. 'We were very worried,' she said. 'I myself have had threats.' Welcome to life as a school librarian in 2023."

Local NPR affiliate WUSF also wrote about the conference: "The growing movement to limit access to books and library services is taking a toll on school librarians, said AASL President Courtney Pentland. 'There are people who are facing death threats, who are being doxxed with their personal home addresses and phone numbers,' Pentland explained. 'There are people who are being threatened with physical harm, people who get yelled at and called names, and that is very taxing and exhausting mentally. '"

The Pennsylvania Capital-Star reports that in Philadelphia, many students lack access to school libraries due to underfunding and understaffing. "In 2020, Egypt Luckey graduated from Building 21, a high school in Northwest Philadelphia affiliated with the Learning Innovative network, which emphasizes real-world learning experiences," the article states. "For the entirety of her high school career, Luckey never had a public school library available to her, and she thinks it put her at a disadvantage during the transition to college."

Also from The Pennsylvania Capital-Star, news that the Pennsylvania Senate this week advanced legislation that critics are calling a de facto book ban. "Senate Bill 7 passed 29-21," the article states. "It would require schools to identify sexually explicit content in school curriculum, materials, and books, create an opt-in policy to notify parents of the sexually explicit content by including a list of the book titles on a form, allow parents to review the materials, and require parents to give direct consent for their children to be provided or have access to sexually explicit content."

The Philadephia Inquirer reports that a judge has ruled for a parent in the Pennridge school district who has claimed that high school staff and officials have been improperly pulling allegedly inappropriate books from the school's library shelves and covering it up. "The judge, Jordan Yeager, ordered the district to both give [the parent] the records he sought last October and pay his lawyers fees, which are still being finalized," the article states. "But the decision went further than an order to turn over information. Yeager said the district had not just failed to respond to [the parent], but had deliberately hidden books checked out by staffafter administrators had acknowledged...that they were checking out books to review them under a new school board policy prohibiting 'sexualized content' in library collections. 'The district altered the records that were the subject of the request, thwarted public access to public information, and effectuated a cover-up of faculty, administrators, and other non-students removal of books from Pennridge High Schools library shelves,' " the judge found.

In South Carolina, the State reports that the state department of education wants to take the power to choose books and other materials away from local school boards. "The effort comes as some school libraries books have become a flashpoint for some parents and conservative groups," the article states. "It also comes months after state education superintendent Ellen Weaver publicly split with the state school librarians association over books in libraries." At an Oct. 10 meeting, Weaver said that she is "looking at a 'regulatory process' of library materials based on 'age-appropriateness' and 'alignment with the South Carolina instructional standard.'"

Also in South Carolina, local affiliate WYFF-4 reports that the Greenville Public Library is still wrestling with how to do displays after the library board ordered all displays be taken down for 90 days following complaints about displays during Pride Month. "Monday, like most recent library board meetings, drew a crowd as trustees closed the book on one policy and debated a new one that would allow for non-themed displays, meaning books on display with no common thread, displays for county-paid holidays, and new arrivals," the station reports. "While six board members voted in favor, a vocal minority of four pushed back and asked for a return to former rules to better represent the community. 'It is an impossible standard to say that we're never going to offend anybody who walks through those doors,' trustee Joe Poore said."

In the Arkansas Advocate, Tess Vrbin reports on an Arkansas state senator's threat to withhold funding from the Arkansas Library Association (ArLA) over its decision to decline an invitation to appear before the state legislatures Joint Performance Review committee. There's just one small problem: ArLA doesn't receive state funds. If they want to be independent of the state and decline all state dollars, thats fine with me, Vrbin reports Sullivan as saying, with Sullivan pledging to "withhold funding to ArLA until a representative appears before the Joint Performance Review or the Joint Budget Committee. "But the Arkansas Library Association does not receive state funding and never has," ArLA president Carole Coffey explained. We are a nonprofit trade association. Coffey added that she declined the request to appear before the committee because ArLA is a plaintiff in the suit to block Arkansas's 'harmful to minor" law, Act 372, which Sullivan sponsored, and parts of which were found to be unconstitutional and enjoined by a federal judge in July.

In Alabama, a report from local affiliate News19 details a meeting of the Athens-Limestone County Public Library Board of Trustees that became a discussion of pursuing new 'sexual content 'guidelines.

 We must try to move away from this idea that its a contest, that its a battle, and encourage and foster the idea of listening and discussion. 

From Aspen Public Radio, a report on the Garfield County Public Library District's hosting of a "Freedom to Read forum, which was organized in response to a petition from residents asking the library to restrict access to "several Japanese manga graphic novels," claiming they are pornographic. "GCPLD executive director Jamie LaRue began the night with a presentation about First Amendment rights and the history of libraries in America," the report notes. "The public then had about an hour and a half to voice their opinions. In order to get equal speaking time, the public lined up to speak in two different groups: those in favor of more restrictions and those against them. Each speaker was given three minutes to talk."

Over at Book Riot, Kelly Jensen leads her weekly censorship news roundup with a useful look at some of the lesser-known books being banned across the countrybooks that don't necessarily make the headlines or the major banned books lists. "In an era where thousands of books are being banned and thousands more challenged, how come were still only hearing the titles of a few and conflating those stories with the stories of every other author being censored right now?" Jensen writes. "Theyre representative of some things but certainly not of all things."

MIT News writes up Oxford University librarian Richard Ovenden's recent talk at MIT, including a Q&A that touched on the connections between book bans and so-called cancel culture. At this moment in our history, we should try to encourage discussion, and not debate, said Ovenden, author of Burning the Books: A History of the Deliberate Destruction of Knowledge. We must try to move away from this idea that its a contest, that its a battle, and encourage and foster the idea of listening and discussion. And that's all part of the deliberation that I think is necessary for a healthy society.

Open Access Week ends on Sunday, but maybe the biggest headline from this week is the sacking of open access pioneer Michael Eisen as editor-in-chief of the life sciences journal eLife "following his endorsement on social media of a satirical article expressing sympathy for Palestinians caught in the escalating violence in Gaza between Israel and Hamas." StatNews has a good report on the furor.

"The decision, which was called for by some corners of the scientific community, and ignited a subsequent backlash in others, highlights disagreements among researchers about institutions restrictions on free speech when science and politics collide," the article notes, adding that "at least seven editors at eLife and advisers to the journal have resigned in protest" of Eisen's dismissal. No scientist should be fired over something like this because it really affects the freedom of speech within the scientific community, especially for early career and minority researchers, Lara Urban, a biodiversity researcher at Helmholtz Munich, told StatNews.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports on Bay Beats, the San Francisco Public Library program for streaming music by local musicians, run in partnership with the famous Amoeba Records. "Listeners eager to explore the musical treasure trove do not need a library card to access the platform. However, for the over 450,000 San Francisco Public Library cardholders, downloading music from Bay Beats is free." Pretty awesome.

Finally this week, the New York Times writes about the push to restore net neutrality, which took a critical step forward last week. "The idea is that broadband customers should have access to any site without interference by high-speed internet service providers," writes Cecilia Kang. "The concept, coined more than 15 years ago by Tim Wu, a Columbia law school professor, was initially developed to stop cable and telecom companies that provide internet services from blocking or slowing down the delivery of sites like Google, Netflix, and Skype, which compete with them."

The new rules proposal is now open open to public comment, and a vote on the new rules is expected in 2024. As the FCC explains, "there is currently no expert agency ensuring that the internet is fast, open, and fair," after existing rules were repealed by the Trump administration's F.C.C. in December of 2017, despite a large public outcry. "As work, healthcare, education, commerce, and so much more have moved online, no American household or business should need to function without reliable internet service. This was especially true during the pandemic. Such rules would affirmunder Title II of the Communications Actthat broadband service is on par with water, power, and phone service; that is: essential."

As I reported for Publishers Weekly at the time, Tim Wu spoke to librarians as keynote speaker at the Public Library Association conference in 2018, and warned that ensuring a free and open internet was essential to democracy. If we do one thing over the next few years it must be to restore net neutrality. It must be to restore our informational freedoms, Wu told librarians, explaining that the fundamental idea [of net neutrality] is that the user should decide what the Internet is and that "the carrier shouldnt get in the way. The internet, Wu said should be a medium in the true sense of the word."

So, why was net neutrality one of the first things the Trump administration went after? I think it comes back to the idea that the free flow of information can be very threatening to those who wish to consolidate their power, Wu said. I think it comes down to the idea that the censorial instinct remains very strong.

The Week in Libraries is a weekly opinion and news column. News, tips, submissions, questions or comments are welcome, and can be submitted via email. Previous columns can be viewed here.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 27. Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili announced the details of a trilateral meeting with the prime ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia - Ali Asadov and Nikol Pashinyan, Trend reports.

Irakli Garibashvili wrote on his Facebook page that during a meeting with colleagues, he discussed large-scale regional projects that meet the interests of all three countries.

I am very pleased to have the opportunity to host the Prime Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan at the Tbilisi Silk Road Forum to talk about the future of the South Caucasus and large-scale regional projects, the implementation of which is in common interests. We are ready to continue our efforts to achieve peace, stability and economic development in region for the benefit of our countries, Garibashvili wrote.
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Country music star and talk-show host Kelly Clarkson is set to host NBC's Christmas in Rockefeller Center special next month.

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Clarkson will also sing on the 2-hour holiday program, which is set to air on NBC and stream on Peacock on Nov. 29.

Today anchors Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb, Al Roker and Craig Melvin will also help out during the festivities.

"I'm so excited to consider this city and Rockefeller Center my new home, and I can't imagine a better way to kick off Christmas this year than to be a part of this beautiful New York tradition with the lighting of the tree!" Clarkson said in a statement Thursday.

Additional celebrity participants and performers are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

Clarkson's talk show recently moved from California to New York.
THE DUMBEST LAWSUIT (SO FAR)

Did you know that you can be sued for posting gun memes? Well, maybe not you, but firearm brands can.

In Lowy V. Daniel Defense et al. Karen Lowy of Washington D.C. is suing a very long list of firearm and firearm accessory manufacturers because the companies' products were owned by (not necessarily used by, just owned by) a would-be mass shooter.

A large part of her case rests on the fact that many of these brands have marketing departments that post gun memes.

The named defendants include:

Daniel Defense

Fab Defense

Fab Manufacturing

Bravo Company USA

Loyal 9 (Sons Of Liberty Gunworks)

Fostech

Hearing Protection, LLC (Griffin Armament)

Centurion Arms

Magpul Industries

Federal Cartridge Company

Vista Outdoor

Fiocchi Of America

Fiocchi Munizioni S.P.A

Starline Brass

Surefire

Torkmag

And 20 more unnamed defendants.

FACTS OF THE CASE

Lowy was the unfortunate victim of a mass shooter. While waiting to pick up her daughter at the Edmund Burke School in Washington D.C., a shooter opened fire from a nearby apartment window. Firing over 200 rounds at the school and pick-up area, the shooter killed no one but wounded four, including Lowy.

The shooter then killed himself as police arrived.

According to the lawsuit, Lowy only survived the attack after being resuscitated twice by emergency medical teams. There is no doubt that Lowy is a victim in this matter and that she suffered greatly.

However, the lawsuit claims that the shooter only became a shooter because of marketing created by and posted by the named defendants. Basically, the entire gun industry.

From the filed complaint:

The mass shooting at Edmund Burke School (the Shooting) was the foreseeable and entirely preventable result of a chain of events initiated by Daniel Defense et al. For years, these manufacturers have deceptively and unfairly marketed their assault rifles, rifle accessories, and ammunition in ways designed to appeal to the impulsive, risk-taking tendencies of civilian adolescent and post-adolescent malesthe same category of consumers Defendants have watched, time after time, commit the type of mass shooting that unfolded again at the Edmund Burke School.

The complaint goes on to reiterate this point multiple times. This is, of course, moronic. Its the same lie dressed up slightly differently. Blaming media for peoples evil. Dungeons & Dragons dont lead people into the occult, video games dont make people violent, and gun memes do not make mass shooters.

Furthermore, most of the parts and accessories mentioned in the complaint were not used in the actual shooting. They were found at the home of the shooter. To paraphrase Brandon Harra, thats like getting run over by someone driving a Kia and then suing Ford and Toyota because the driver had an F-150 and a Tacoma at their garage.

What truly boggles the mind is how a lawyer who went to law school and passed the state bar can honestly present gun memes as evidence.

ABSURDITY

Lowys suit contends that:



These advertisements are especially salient forand are targeted to attracttroubled young men attracted to violent combat, increasing the risk that these young men will use Defendants deadly weapons, weapon accessories, and ammunition to perpetrate mass violence.

For evidence, her lawyers have submitted a number of marketing posts made by a range of the defendants. A small sample of those should give you a broad idea of the insanity they are trying to claim.

Starting off by bashing Daniel Defense for existing, the complaint bemoans the fact the company made posts featuring operators holding Daniel Defense rifles.

From the complaint:

'Saturdays are for the boys.' All of these advertisements encourage civilians, and particularly boys' and young men like the Shooter, to reenact military-style exercises with Daniel Defenses weapons. And Defendant Daniel Defense specifically uses hashtags to appeal to impressionable and violent young men like the Shooter, including #gunporn and #cqbr (i.e., close quarter battle receiver,' an adaptation of the M4 rifle used by the military in close combat), while promoting its rifles for everyday use with captions like MK18 Monday.'

Torkmag and Fiocchi dared to post a meme and a zombie survival tip.

What normal people would see as wholesome content promoting family, the outdoors, safe hunting, and teaching the next generation has been twisted by the complaint into an attempt to radicalize youth. Jessie Giddens is, as far as I can tell, a mommy blogger who posted a picture of her and her child. This was reposted by Fiocchi USA.

Starline Brass is accused of portray[ing] these deadly products as literally childs play by explicitly comparing bullets to crayons because they posted this on National Crayon Day (March 31st.)

There are literally dozens of these in the complaint. From calling out Post Malone for holding one of the defendant's rifles to memes about 80% lowers to dragging Call Of Duty into this because they use models of real rifles in the video game.

Each of these is a nonsensical assault on protected speech.

AFTERMATH

This suit is ongoing and really has only just started to heat up. Hopefully, well see this quickly dismissed.

While the fact that Lowy and others were wounded by a madman with a gun, it is hard to say that Lowy isnt being made a victim a second time by lawyers pushing an insane narrative.

This is yet another instance where the courts are being weaponized against the firearm industry and against the armed citizenry as a whole.

If you want to read the entire complaint, here is the link.

For some legal insight, Washington Gun Law has a great video.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 27. It has been three years since Azerbaijan's Barda district was once again subjected to rocket fire by the Armenian armed forces during the second Karabakh war, Trend reports.

The enemy once again treacherously and brutally shelled Garayusifli village in Barda, located outside the frontline zone, with Smerch rockets on October 27, 2020.

As a result, civilians Ofeliya Jafarova, Aybaniz Ahmadova, Ehtiram Ismayilov, Aysu Isgandarova and Almaz Aliyeva (born in 2013) became martyrs, and 13 more people were wounded.

The rocket fire from the enemy completely destroyed several residential houses and caused significant damage to the villagers.

During the second Karabakh war, Barda district and city center were subjected to rocket and artillery fire by Armenian armed forces three times (October 5, 27, and 28). As a result, 29 people became martyrs, 112 were wounded, and vehicles and civilian infrastructure facilities located in the area were significantly damaged.

In light of this fact, the General Prosecutor's Office of Azerbaijan initiated criminal proceedings under articles 120.2.1 (premeditated murder by an organized criminal community), 120.2.4 (premeditated murder with particular cruelty or in a generally dangerous way), 120.2.12 (premeditated murder with intent to incite national, racial, religious enmity, or hatred), 100.2 (waging a war of aggression), and other articles of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

A preliminary investigation was entrusted to the Investigation Department of the Prosecutor's Office.
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Tata Group is set to become India's first homegrown iPhone maker after Taiwan's Wistron Group agreed to sell a plant in Bengaluru to India's largest conglomerate.

Photograph: Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters

Wistron's board approved the sale of Wistron InfoComm Manufacturing (India) Private Ltd to Tata Electronics for $125 million, the Taiwanese electronics manufacturer said in a statement on Friday.

The unit operates an iPhone assembly plant near Bengaluru.

The takeover of the Wistron Corp factory concludes about a year of negotiations.

The facility employs more than 10,000 workers, who assemble the latest iPhone 14 model.

"Upon confirmation and signature of the relevant agreements by both parties, the deal will proceed to obtain the necessary approvals," Wistron said.

Apple's iPhones are mainly assembled by Taiwanese manufacturing giants like Pegatron Corp and Foxconn Technology Group.

Tata Electronics is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Sons, the promoter of the salt-to-software conglomerate.

The group is seeking to make inroads into electronics production and e-commerce.

Tata Electronics already operates a manufacturing facility in Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu.

Minister of State for Electronics and Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar took to the X to congratulate Tata for taking over Wistron operations.

The production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme has already propelled India into becoming a trusted and major hub for smartphone manufacturing and exports.

"Now, within just two and a half years, @TataCompanies will now start making iPhones from India for domestic and global markets from India," he said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

"Thank you @Wistron for your contributions, and great going for Apple in building a global supply chain from India with Indian companies at its helm."

He went on to state that his ministry stands fully in support of the growth of global Indian electronics companies to make India their trusted manufacturing and talent partner.

Cupertino, California-based Apple is looking beyond China amid a trade war between the US and Beijing.

In May this year, Apple's chief executive officer Tim Cook said India is an "incredibly exciting market" and a "major focus" for the company, as the iPhone maker highlighted that business in India "set a quarterly record, grew very strong, double-digits year-over-year".

The company charted an ambitious retail expansion in India in April this year when it launched two retail outlets in Mumbai and Delhi during Cook's first trip to the country in seven years.

"Wistron Corp held a Board of Directors meeting today and granted approval for its subsidiaries, SMS InfoComm (Singapore) Pte Ltd and Wistron Hong Kong Ltd to sign the Share Purchase Agreement with Tata Electronics Pvt Ltd (TEPL) for the sale of its 100 per cent indirect stake in Wistron InfoComm Manufacturing (India) Pvt Ltd (WMMI)," Wistron announced in the statement.
Mujib: The Making Of A Nation, probably in the interest of staying non-controversial, is dry and boring, observes Deepa Gahlot.

In recent years, film-makers in search of patriotic content have made films and series about the 1971 War, which resulted in the separation of East Pakistan from West Pakistan and the formation of Bangladesh, with the support of India under Indira Gandhi'S reign (Sam Bahadur is coming up soon).

But there have been very few films showing the other side of the story, from the point of view of the Bangladeshis.

India had been partitioned on the basis of religion, Punjabi Pakistan was culturally, politically and economically far removed from Bengali Pakistan. There was bound to be discontent when an entire population felt ignored by its government and treated like second-class citizens.

A situation like this is ripe for a charismatic leader to step into the void and speak for the aspirations of his people, and for East Pakistan, that was Sheikh Mujibur Rehman.

It has taken a long time for his biopic, maybe because when a beloved leader is portrayed on film, there is invariably more indignation than admiration.

There was an animation film Mujib Bhai released earlier this year, but when the governments of the two countries collaborate and the task for bringing the story of Rahman and Bangladesh is taken up by Shyam Benegal, expectations are high.

The title Mujib: The Making Of A Nation, suggests more than just a biopic of Rahman.

1971 is not that far back in time for many viewers not to remember the suffering of the people of the country, the guerilla warfare of Mukti Bahini-facing Pakistani weapons and tanks, the influx of refugees across the border into India, for which Indians were taxed.

There is fire, brimstone, injustice, rage and tragedy in the story, and what the film turns out to be is a dispassionate look at the life of Mujib.

Maybe it was all too much to fit into a 178-minute film, and the viewer feels shortchanged.

The film is more like reading edited pages from a history book -- Mujib's (played by Arifin Shuvoo) life, his political apprenticeship under the charismatic Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy (Tauquir Ahmed), his happy marriage to Begum 'Renu' Fazilatunnesa (Nusrat Omrose Tisha), who is the narrator of the film, and the birth of his children (His daughter Sheikh Hasina is the prime minister of Bangladesh).

A young Mujib demanded the recognition of Bangla as the national language when Jinnah imposed Urdu, that led to prolonged periods of incarceration.

The oppression and economic hardship of the people is hardly conveyed.

Mujib's popularity threatened the leaders of Pakistan, and even when his party swept the elections, he was told by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto that a Bengali would never be accepted as the prime minister of Pakistan.

It is much later in the film that Mujib puts forward his six-point agenda, which led to brutal and violent reprisals by the Pakistani army.

However, the impact of the Mukti Bahini, the involvement of India (Indira Gandhi is seen in a television interview) and the large scale displacement and the poor is not given due importance.

The other people around Mujib are not even properly introduced -- all they seem to do is sit around having stilted discussions or making speeches.

The way Mujib and his family (barring Hasina and Rehana who were abroad) were massacred was a shocking tragedy but one did not expect a film-maker of Benegal's stature to have the camera slowly pan over the his body and the blood-soaked bodies of his wife, children and grandchildren.

Arifin Shuvoo looks like Mujib, and dominates the rest of the cast, none of whom really stand out.

Mujib: The Making Of A Nation may be a source of information for a generation that is unaware of recent history but probably having to mind the many restrictions in the interest of staying non-controversial, has made the film dry and boring.

Mujib: The Making Of A Nation Review Rediff Rating:
'The same way the West eliminated ISIS in Iraq and Syria, Israel will eliminate Hamas from Gaza.'

IMAGE: Palestinians search for casualties at the site of an Israeli strike on a residential building in Gaza City, October 25, 2023. Photograph: Yasser Qudih/Reuters

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres openly criticised Israel by stating that Hamas's attack on October 7 'did not happen in a vacuum'.

Though he clarified later that he condemned Hamas's terror, the damage was done.

Israel is now asking for the Guterres' resignation, saying he was being partisan whereas he has to be a neutral umpire.

Ever since Hamas attacked Israel killing 1,400 of its civilians on October 7 and taking more than 200 hostages, life has not been the same for Israelis.

The nation is in grief and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to eliminate Hamas from Gaza.

But even as Israeli planes bomb Gaza to target Hamas, there has been collateral damage of thousands of civilian deaths which is causing outrage against Israel in many countries.

Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com spoke to Emmanuel Navon, CEO of ELNET (the European Leadership Network, an Israeli NGO dedicated to strengthening Europe-Israel relations), scholar and practitioner of diplomacy and a lecturer at Tel Aviv University, to understand the Israeli viewpoint.

The UN secretary-general's statement that Hamas did not attack in a vacuum as Palestinians have been subjected to 56 years of occupation was one of the strongest statements against Israel.

Why is the world seeing more of Israeli atrocities against people in Gaza and not Hamas who dragged Israel into this conflict on October 7?

Is Israel failing the propaganda war?

The statement from UN Secretary-General Guterres is scandalous. He should either apologise or resign.

But it is not entirely surprising because the United Nations has been morally bankrupt for many years.

You have the UN Human Rights Council which has the world's worst human rights violators represented there.

The UN secretary general made a comment which is totally wrong. And when he says the Hamas attack did not come out of a vacuum, in a way he is right.

It is an outcome of an ideology of Hamas and the Iranian regime. And this ideology tells them to annihilate the Jews and kill them wherever they are.

This ideology has got nothing to do with the policy of this or that Israeli government.

To suggest that the policy of Israel has produced this genocidal ideology is wrong and scandalous, and therefore Israel is demanding the UN secretary-general's resignation.

The entire focus of this war has shifted to Gaza where Israel is bombarding civilians. Hospitals in Gaza have no medicines as Israel has imposed a blockade.

Don't you feel Israel must do something about this?

Israel is trying to limit as much as possible the number of civilian casualties.

Hamas uses civilians as a human shield and they do rocket launches which damage mosques and hospitals. Collateral damage is inevitable.

In the same way NATO forces made up of democratic countries like the USA, Canada and other European nations when they attacked Islamic State, civilian casualties took place in places like Mosul, Iraq, and Raqqa in Syria.

These bombings of NATO forces were not intentional, but inevitable side-effects of the war against a terrorist organisation. This is what is happening in Gaza now.

IMAGE: A 'Jewish Voice for Peace' rally for a ceasefire in Gaza, outside the federal building in Detroit, Michigan, US, October 25, 2023. Photograph: Rebecca Cook/Reuters

How will it help Israel by not issuing visas to UN officials after the UN chief's statement?

The UN secretary-general has to understand that the UN cannot get away by making such an outrageous statement.

The UN today is a morally bankrupt organisation dominated by the world's worst human right violators.

Dominated in the sense numerically when you look at the makeup of the General Assembly, the free world today is a minority in this organisation.

The UN was an organisation created by the free world after World War II, but has been hijacked and dominated by corrupt and undemocratic regimes.

The United Nations declared Lashkar e Tayiba a terrorist organisation for the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai, but the UN never calls Hamas a terrorist group.

Why has Israel failed to convince the UN to declare Hamas a terrorist organisation?

There is no such thing called as a world. Some countries are democratic and some are not. The free world and democratic world are supporting Israel.

This includes countries like the USA, Australia, Japan and other democratic countries.

And look at the countries which are not supporting Israel. They are Russia, China and Iran.

They are regressive autocracies. They are on the wrong side of history and therefore they are not on Israel's side.

I have spoken to Palestinian political analysts and they say the root cause of violence is that the current Israeli leadership has stopped believing in the two-State solution to the Israel-Palestine problem and they do not abide by any international peace agreements.

This resulted in the attack on Israel. How far is that true?

This is a well-known lie which Palestinians keep repeating all the time.

The Palestinian leadership has always rejected the two-State solution for the Israel-Palestine problem systematically since it was first proposed by the Peel commission in 1937.

The partition plan of Palestine was always accepted by the Jewish leadership and rejected by the Arab leadership.

The same thing was repeated at the United Nations in 1947.

The same thing Palestinians repeated after the Camp David summit in 1979 and in July 2000.

In December 2000, (then US president Bill) Clinton tried to bring about a solution, but again the Palestinian leadership did not accept it.

(Then) Prime minister of Israel Ehud Olmert too brought a proposal in 2008 and then (then US secretary of state) John Kerry brought a proposal in 2014.

There are endless examples of two-State solutions proposed by the US and UN which were accepted by Israel and rejected by the Palestinian leadership.

This is a historical fact. Palestinian leaders keep lying about a two-State solution and Israel is getting tired of these lies.

Maybe one day the Palestinians will have a realistic and courageous leadership but until now it has not happened.

IMAGE: Palestinians search for casualties at the site of an Israeli strike on a residential building in Gaza. Photograph: Yasser Qudih/Reuters

But Israel has been expanding its settlements more and more in the West Bank which is a Palestine area; it is Israel which is forcing Palestinians out of their homeland.

The Israel-Palestine conflict did not start in 1967 when Israel took control of the West Bank and Gaza strip and started building settlements there.

Even before that the Arab world and Palestinians rejected Israel's right to exist and two-State solutions.

In 2005, Israel withdrew from the Gaza strip. It dismantled every single settlement from Gaza but did they get peace? The answer is not at all.

The territory was taken over by Hamas and this terrorist organisation did not speak of a two-State solution but the destruction of Israel.

When we withdrew our settlement, Palestinians became more radical and started attacking us.

This is why I said earlier, Palestinians keep repeating their lie and keep their propaganda on.

There are always two sides to a story but you cannot deny the fact that Israel is running an apartheid government which discriminates against Palestinians, a fact which is well documented.

Are these all lies?

Yes, it is also a lie. The Arab States run apartheid regimes. They do not give same rights to Arabs and non-Arabs.

Israel is the only country in the Middle East where Arabs are free.

We have Arabs who are judges of the supreme court. We have Arabs who are members of parliament. What apartheid? It is a lie.

Israel is the only country where Arabs enjoy freedom in the Middle East.

The Arab States on the other hand practise apartheid against non-Arabs and non-Muslims.

Where do you see the war heading in Gaza? Will Israel go for a ground offensive?

First of all, the same way the West eliminated ISIS in Iraq and Syria, Israel will eliminate Hamas from Gaza.

The only difference is that Hamas is next door whereas ISIS was far away from the USA and Europe.

There is no way you can have peace with a terrorist organisation dedicated to your destruction.

After Hamas is destroyed in Gaza, then there can be a possibility of reconstruction and pacification.

Peace became possible in Europe only after the destruction of Nazi Germany and de-Nazification of Germany.

In the same way, we will have to de-Nazify the Gaza strip of Hamas because they act like the Nazis.

IMAGE: Israeli soldiers patrol the Kibbutz Kfar Aza in southern Israel. Photograph: Ronen Zvulun/Reuters

Will it be easy for Israeli forces to enter Gaza because Hamas must have a well thought out war strategy before they attacked Israel on October 7?

It won't be easy, but we have to do it and Israel will do it.

What went wrong in the last 50 years that the mighty Israeli army is being targeted by the likes of Hamas and Hezbollah?

There is no doubt this attack on October 7 is a huge setback for Israel and for its intelligence.

But the Israeli army and Israeli public are getting back together now.

We will respond and Hamas and its backers around the world are about to be taught a lesson that they and the world will never forget.

Palestinians say Gaza is an open prison where electricity, education, medicine and even travel is controlled by Israel.

What do common Israelis feel about Gaza?

What is their perception about Palestinians living in Gaza?

If Gaza is a prison, then the master of the prison is Hamas. If Gaza is a prison, then it is because of Hamas, not because of Israel.

Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005. It does not control Gaza.

They only enable a military embargo which is perfectly legal under international law to prevent the entry of weaponry in Gaza.

It is also imposed by Egypt. Do Palestinians accuse Egypt of this embargo? The answer is no as they make this accusation only against Israel.

It is another lie from Palestinian propagandists.

When Israel withdrew from Gaza, Hamas could have made it like Singapore, but instead of investing money in infrastructure, Hamas invested all its money in warfare and military.

If Gaza is miserable, then it is because of Hamas and not because of Israel.

IMAGE: A dinner table is set with empty chairs that symbolically represent hostages held by Hamas in Brussels, Belgium, October 25, 2023. Photograph: Johanna Geron/Reuters

Where does Hamas get these many weapons from when it is under a military blockade from Israel and Egypt? Are the underground tunnels working so well for them?

They get support from Iran mostly and you are right in stating that despite the military blockade Hamas has been able to bring in weapons by tunnels and other means.

And to say it mildly, a military blockade is not working 100 percent.

It is said this is not Israel's war, but Netanyahu's war.

If he had acted responsibly as a leader by not encouraging illegal settlements in the West Bank, this would not have happened. Do you agree?

There are so many lies that are coming out of Palestinian propaganda and one cannot believe how many lies they can produce. Hamas is a genocidal Islamic organisation.

It wants to eliminate Israel and kill Jews. It was formed in 1987 and started ruling Gaza in 2007.

Since 2007 they are firing thousands of rockets at Israel whether Israel was ruled or not ruled by Netanyahu, a right wing government or left wing government.

Hamas is a genocidal organisation and they have been firing thousands of rockets at Israeli citizens, be there a Netanyahu government in Israel or no Netanyahu government.

It is said Hamas was promoted by Israel because it wanted to weaken the Palestinian Authority which was more popular among Palestinians?

There is no doubt that this was a mistake of Netanyahu who allowed Hamas to continue and rule the Gaza strip. It was a terrible mistake.

What about Israeli citizens? What do they feel about Netanyahu now?

Israeli society is extremely united and motivated at this moment.

All reservists have joined the units and there is a lot of unity in the country.

The whole country is ready to fight and we will win. Hamas does not understand the mistake it made and it does not understand Israel.

Israel after October 7 is not the same Israel.

What about the Israeli hostages with Hamas? What is the Israeli government doing about freeing them?

We are trying our best to bring them home. This is another war crime by Hamas as they have captured women, children and elderly people as hostages.

We are trying our best to bring them back. And nothing will stop us from destroying Hamas's military infrastructure.

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com
The Indian government should step up its efforts and bring back the eight Navy veterans who have been sentenced to death by a Qatari court for alleged espionage, a relative of one of the eight former naval officers from Andhra Pradesh said on Friday in Visakhapatnam.

Image used for representational purpose only. Photograph: ANI Photo

Eight former Indian Navy officers were arrested on August 30, 2022 and sentenced to death on Thursday by the court of first instance of Qatar.

C Kalyan Chakravarthy, brother-in-law of Sugunakar Pakala, one of the eight veterans, appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to obtain the release of the veterans.

All of these men are above 50 years old and they went to Doha to earn their livelihood. Why would they spy and for what benefit? So, I request the Indian government to get my jijaji (Pakala) and other men to India, Chakravarthy said, talking to reporters at Vizag Press Club.

He said it has already been 14 months since the former naval officers were incarcerated in the West Asian country, and demanded to know how long it would take to repatriate them.

According to Chakravarthy, Qatari authorities picked up the eight persons in the middle of the night over unsubstantiated charges, suspecting their friendly conversations and phone calls and exchanges between military attaches from India.

He alleged that enemy nations of both India and Qatar were behind this.

Chakravarthy said that the MEA spokesperson kept saying that neither was the ministry informed of any charges against these men, nor did Qatar present any evidence of their alleged espionage.

He said the reports that the eight Navy veterans were spying for Israel are completely false and baseless.

He questioned why the families of the veterans are being kept in the dark and where the case is heading next. He demanded quick and harsh measures from India.

Chakravarthy reminded that Jaishankar had stated in Parliament on December 8, 2022 that these eight men would be repatriated. "What confidence and faith will the Government instill in serving service members and veterans if it fails to repatriate them," he asked.
West Bengal Minister Jyotipriyo Mallick, who was arrested early on Friday, has been hospitalised after being diagnosed with high blood sugar and renal issues, officials said.

IMAGE: West Bengal minister Jyotipriyo Mallick being taken to hospital after he faints in court after arrested by ED, in Kolkata, on October 27, 2023. Photograph: ANI Photo

Mallick was earlier remanded to Enforcement Directorate custody for 10 days by a court in Kolkata following his arrest by the central agency in a money laundering case linked to an alleged multi-crore ration distribution scam.

The state's forest minister had fainted during a hearing inside the Bankshal court in Kolkata, and was later rushed to a city hospital for immediate medical care, the officials said.

Mallick, 66, is currently stable, and has been admitted for close monitoring and further evaluation, the hospital said in a bulletin.

"He underwent a CT scan, MRI, and relevant blood tests. He was admitted with an initial diagnosis of hyperglycaemia, renal impairment, dyselectrolytemia... and hypertension," it said.

The chief metropolitan magistrate, Calcutta Tanumoy Karmakar granted the ED's plea for custody of the minister and remanded him to the central agency's custody for 10 days till November 5.

The ED said it needed to take Mallick into custody to question him in connection with the alleged ration scam, claiming that it has found his links with one Bakibur Rahaman, who was arrested nearly a fortnight ago in the case.

Rejecting the minister's bail prayer, the court directed that Mallick be produced before the court again on November 6.

Since the minister fell ill in the courtroom, the court allowed his treatment at a private hospital of his choice, following which he could be shifted to Command Hospital in the city if required.

The court also directed that the period of hospitalisation if any, will be excluded from the period of the ED custody granted by it.

The probe agency arrested the minister under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, following over 17-18 hours of questioning.

ED officials said Mallick was taken from his home in the Salt Lake area on the outskirts of Kolkata to the central agency's office in Kolkata around 3.30 am.

"I am a victim of a great conspiracy," the TMC minister told reporters after his arrest.

Mallick also alleged that the "conspiracy was hatched by the BJP and its leader Suvendu Adhikari", a former colleague in the TMC.

"The BJP is actively engaging in plotting nefarious schemes against us," said Mallick, who is currently state forest minister and had previously held the portfolio of food and supplies.

On Thursday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had threatened to file a police case if anything happened to Mallick during the questioning, as he was unwell and had several medical ailments.

Banerjee had also termed the raids by the ED against opposition leaders as "a dirty political game" by the BJP.



The ED had earlier arrested Rahman Bakibur, believed to be a confidant of the minister, whose remand is ending this week.

Sources said the central agency may seek to confront the two with each other's version of events in the case.

Hours after arresting Mallick, the ED froze his bank accounts as well as those belonging to his wife and daughter, a senior officer said.

The minister's mobile phones were also seized and sent for forensic examination, he added.

"We have sent instructions to bank authorities to freeze the accounts of Mallick, his wife and daughter. We are also trying to find out if there are other bank accounts used by him or anybody in his family," the officer told PTI.

Mallick's arrest is the second instance of a cabinet minister of TMC being apprehended by central agencies in connection with corruption cases.

Last year, former state minister Partha Chatterjee was arrested by the ED in a case related to a school jobs scam.

The agency had searched Mallick's residences on Thursday. It also raided his ancestral house on Amherst Street in central Kolkata. The alleged scam pertains to reported irregularities in the public distribution system and also in the distribution of food grains during the Covid lockdowns.

"He was non-cooperative and gave confusing and self-contradictory replies to our officers during the questioning yesterday. He kept on saying that he was unable to take questions as he was ill. We need him to get answers to several queries related to the scam," the ED officer told PTI.

The TMC labelled the arrest of its senior minister as "vendetta" politics and questioned the absence of action against BJP leaders who switched sides, facing corruption cases and investigations by central agencies.

Leading the TMC's response, minister Shashi Panja accused the BJP of attempting to silence opposition voices raising issues pertinent to the people.

She stated, "It is an attempt by the BJP to muzzle the opposition raising pro-people issues."

Panja went on to ask, "The question is why corrupt BJP leaders and turncoats who have corruption charges against them are never summoned by the ED and CBI."

She claimed the BJP is scared of the people's movement launched by TMC demanding clearance of MGNREGA dues.

Panja also alleged that the "BJP has engaged in witch-hunting ... (and) weaponised the ED and the CBI -- against opponents and added this 'strategy would face resistance from the people of Bengal in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls."

In response to the arrest of the state minister, the BJP said it was "expected" considering the pace of the investigation in the case.

BJP state spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said, "The arrest was anticipated after the revelations made by one of his associates, who was apprehended a few days ago. It has once again been proven that the TMC is deeply mired in corruption".

Taking to X, Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari said, "Henceforth, the state cabinet meeting will be convened inside the jail."

In the past year, two other MLAs and TMC Birbhum district president Anubrata Mondal have been arrested in connection with the school jobs scam and cattle smuggling cases.
Former Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, an acclaimed economist who was once a strong contender against President Xi Jinping for the country's top leadership role, died on Friday of a heart attack.

IMAGE: China's President Xi Jinping, left, shakes hands with outgoing premier Li Keqiang during the fourth plenary session of the National People's Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, March 11, 2023. Photograph: Greg Baker/Pool via Reuters

Li, 68, suffered a heart attack on Thursday and passed away at 12:10 am in Shanghai after all measures to save him failed, the China Daily reported.

He was in the east Chinese metropolis for 'rest', the State-run China Daily said in a brief report.

Li at one time was a contender against Xi to head the ruling Communist Party of China, but later settled for the number two position as Premier from March 2013 to March 2023.

He was an acclaimed economist and managed the 'new normal' of economic slowdown after decades of high growth experienced by the world's second-largest economy.

He had an uneasy relationship with Xi, who as the president steadily consolidated his hold on power, emerging as the most powerful Chinese leader after party founder Mao Zedong.

'This is my last year as a premier,' Li, the second-ranking leader of the CPC after Xi at that time, said while answering a question on the economy at his last year's customary press conference during the annual Parliament session.

His frank revelation during his annual 2020 press conference that China has 600 million people whose monthly income is barely 1,000 yuan ($140), which made headlines all over the world, did not go down well with the party leadership.

'While the average per capita annual income in China is 30,000 yuan ($4,193) there are over 600 million people whose monthly income is barely 1,000 yuan, not enough to rent a room in Chinese cities,' Li said.

Li, a protege of former Chinese president Hu Jintao, was known for his modest and simple style compared to Xi.

However, like the rest of the Communist leaders, he routinely endorsed Xi's steady rise as the 'paramount leader' of the party and the government as he assumed an unprecedented third five-year term, doing away with the practice of the two-term norm followed by his predecessors.

Li's retirement announcement ahead of the key Communist party Congress to elect a new set of leaders last year was seen as an attempt to distance himself from Xi's decision to continue in power disregarding the two-term norm.

Hu groomed Li, leader of the Youth League for various leadership positions including as vice premier but endorsed Xi, then then vice-president, as his successor in 2012 much to the surprise of other party leaders and observers.

After assuming power, Xi dissolved the Youth League, an influential arm of the Communist party.

In his early years as premier, Li was associated with managing China's policy towards India.

Soon after he took over as premier, Li chose New Delhi as his first visit abroad to show the significance China attached to its relations with India while Xi visited Russia.

The proposal for Li's visit came as a surprise to Indian officials as it is very much unlike the protocol-conscious Chinese political setup and it was the turn of the then prime minister Manmohan Singh to visit Beijing to reciprocate the visit of then Chinese premier Wen Jiabao's tour to India in December 2011.

Singh later made an official trip to Beijing in 2013.

However, China's complex India policy came under the purview of Xi in subsequent years as he took direct charge of foreign policy leaving Li to manage the economy which was in a slowdown mode.

While Li promised to improve conditions in China's private sector which generated jobs and wealth, Xi's preference for increasing the dominance of State industry and tightened control over tech and other industries with anti-monopoly crackdowns and the widespread Covid lockdowns dented his plans.

Critics say as a result of hardline policies, the Chinese economy is unable to shake off from its slowdown mode.

James Zimmerman, former chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, said Li's death is 'sad'.

'Li was viewed as a pragmatic leader and encouraged economic reform, and he was much less ideological than those in the Xi Jinping camp. Unfortunately, Li's voice was sidelined as premier and effectively silenced, and then ousted and replaced by a loyalist to Xi last year,' Zimmerman said.

Li was succeeded as premier by former Shanghai party chief and Xi loyalist Li Qiang.

'Li's passing is a significant loss to the moderate voices in the party leadership,' Zimmerman told the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post.

Li, who joined the Communist party in May 1976, was a graduate of Peking University's law department where he earned a bachelor of law degree, and of the university's school of economics where he completed an in-service graduate programme in economics and was awarded a doctorate in economics, according to the State-run Xinhua news agency.

He earlier served as governor of Henan province and later as vice premier. Li's wife Cheng Hong is a professor at the Capital University of Economics and Business in Beijing.
With the support of "Azercell Telecom," the technical and functional capabilities of the portal have been expanded

A presentation was held to showcase the outcomes of the "Development of Online Autism Portal" project, which was implemented by "Azercell Telecom" in cooperation with the "Together and Healthy" Public Union as part of the companys corporate social responsibility strategy.

With the assistance of Azercell, the design and technical capabilities of the https://autizmportali.az/ portal have been modernized to meet current standards. The online portal has undergone significant improvements and updates, enriching its content and educational resources. The functional capabilities of the portal have been enhanced to provide users with convenient access to information. The dynamic nature of the portal allows for flexible content updates. Furthermore, the addition of a "live chat" function ensures users can promptly receive information about autism, rehabilitation processes, and other social assistance available in this field.

This project has significantly expanded autism awareness on the platform. Azercell's support has enabled the digitization and publication of a collection of scientifically recognized information on various aspects of autism, including a 10-volume book by Turkiye's Tohum Autism Foundation translated into Azerbaijani. Additionally, to provide parents with accurate and reliable information about autism, educational videos prepared with the participation of medical specialists will be regularly posted on the portal.

The event was concluded with a musical performance prepared by the children of the center for the event.

Azercell consistently supports social development and the improvement of the well-being of specific social groups through innovative technological solutions as part of its corporate social responsibility strategy.
The commander of Hamas' Western Khan Yunis Battalion, Madhath Mubshar, was killed by an Israel defence forces in an aerial strike on Thursday night.

IMAGE: Emergency personnel work at the site of Israeli strikes on houses, as the conflict between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas continues, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, October 27, 2023. Photograph: Mohammed Salem/Reuters

For the second consecutive night, Israeli troops carried out targeted strikes inside Gaza, as confirmed by the IDF, bracing them for their preparations for the next phase in the conflict against Hamas.

Additionally, the IDF also hit over 250 Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip in the past day.

"Madhath Mubashar -- commander of Hamas' Western Khan Yunis Battalion -- was eliminated by an IDF aerial strike. Furthermore, the IDF struck 250+ Hamas targets, including a terrorist tunnel network in Gaza that detonated the secondary explosions," posted the IDF on X.

Military spokesperson, Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said, "Midhat took part in sniping attacks and large explosives against IDF forces and Israeli settlements."

The targets included Hamas tunnels, command centres, rocket launch positions, and dozens of operatives, the IDF said, adding that a Skylark 3 drone crashed in the Gaza Strip earlier on Friday "as a result of a technical error."

Hagari also said that there is no fear of sensitive information leaking from the device.

The IDF has also confirmed the killing of Ayser Mohammad Al-Amer, a field commander in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad's Jenin wing, during clashes in the Jenin refugee camp overnight.

The army also confirmed clashes with Palestinian gunmen in the Jenin refugee camp and the city of Qalqilya, with earlier reports of four casualties, including Al-Amer, in these two locations, as reported by The Times of Israel.

The IDF said it returned fire at Palestinians who were shooting at their forces and dealing with rioters hurling explosive devices.

There were no reported injuries on the Israeli side.

In overnight arrest raids across the West Bank, IDF troops detained 17 members of the Hamas terror group and 19 other wanted Palestinians, according to the IDF.

Since the war in the Gaza Strip began on October 7, the IDF has arrested around 1,030 wanted Palestinians in the West Bank, including approximately 670 individuals affiliated with Hamas.

The IDF has faced several clashes with Palestinians in the West Bank over the past two weeks, as well as thwarted attempted terror attacks, it said.

According to the Palestinian Authority health ministry, Israeli forces and, in some cases, settlers, have been responsible for the deaths of 110 West Bank Palestinians since October 7.

Separately, the IDF said that the head of the Central Command, Maj Gen Yehuda Fox, has approved a demolition order for a home owned by Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri, located in the town of 'Arura, near Ramallah.

Arouri is believed to reside in Turkey, The Times of Israel reported.

At least 7,028 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since October 7 and more than 1,400 people were killed in the Hamas attack on Israel.
The Israeli military launched a limited raid of the Gaza Strip overnight, striking dozens of Hamas targets, the Israel Defence Forces said on Friday morning.

IMAGE: Emergency personnel work at the site of Israeli strikes on houses, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, on October 27, 2023. Photograph: Mohammed Salem/Reuters

The IDF said it hit anti-tank missile launch sites, military command and control centres, as well as Hamas terrorists.

According to the IDF, Infantry, armoured and engineering forces under the command of 36th Armoured Division formations and accompanied by helicopter gunships of the Air Force raided the centre of the Gaza Strip.

"As part of the raid, IDF aircraft and artillery attacked targets of the terrorist organisation Hamas in the Sajaya neighbourhood and throughout the Gaza Strip.

"As part of the operation, the forces attacked dozens of terrorist targets, including positions for launching anti-tank missiles and operational headquarters, as well as terrorists of Hamas.

"The forces left the area at the end of the mission and there are no casualties to our forces," it said.

It was the second time that Israeli forces have entered the Strip.

The IDF launched a similar raid on Thursday morning.

The IDF described that incursion 'as part of preparations for the next stages of combat', and to 'to prepare the battlefield'.

The Israeli Air Force is eliminating a growing number of senior Hamas commanders as the terror organization intensified rocket fire across central Israel.

The air force killed the deputy head of Hamas's Intelligence Directorate, Shadi Barud.

The IDF said Barud was 'responsible for planning the October 7 massacre together with Gaza strongman Yahya Sinwar'.

It also said that Israeli fighter jets had struck three senior Hamas operatives in the Daraj Tuffah Battalion.

According to the IDF, the battalion's operatives played a significant role in the invasion and attack against Israel on October 7, and is considered to be the most significant brigade of Hamas.

According to IDF international spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht, Hamas has begun activating its long-range rockets, as seen in salvos fired in recent days at Haifa in the north and Eilat in the south, as well as rocket fire at the Tel Aviv region on Thursday.
Israel has determined that a missile which hit the Egyptian Red Sea town of Taba overnight was fired from Yemen, an Israeli military spokesperson said on Friday morning.

IMAGE: Dust is seen as Egyptian security sources say that a projectile fell in the Red Sea resort town of Nuweiba, on October 27, 2023, in this screen grab obtained from a social media video. Photograph: Ahmed Ona via Reuters

The missile originated in 'the Red Sea area', said Israel Defence Forces Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari.

"In the last few hours, an aerial threat was detected in the Red Sea area. Fighter jets were scrambled to the threat area and the issue is under investigation," R Adm Hagari said.

Egyptian media reports said six people were injured when the missile hit a medical facility in Taba, a resort town adjacent to the Israeli city of Eilat.

A United States warship in the Red Sea shot down three missiles fired from Yemen that were heading north, towards Israel on October 19.

Saudi Arabia is reported to have shot down another missile fired from Yemen.

The launches are attributed to Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

Yemeni Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed threatened on Sunday that 'Israeli ships in the Red Sea will be targeted' if Israeli air strikes on Gaza continue.

At least 233 hostages have been confirmed as kidnapped and taken to the Gaza Strip by Hamas on October 7, R Adm Hagari said on Friday.

He stressed that this number is not final and the military is continuing to investigate new information.
The intermittent exchange of fire between Pakistani Rangers and Border Security Force personnel along the International Border in Arnia and RS Pura sectors of Jammu district ended early Friday, officials said.

IMAGE: BSF personnel guard along the fence at Akhnoor in Jammu. Image used only for representation. Photograph: ANI Photo

Scores of families that had fled the border hamlets overnight after the unprovoked firing by Pakistani Rangers have now started returning to their homes.

A BSF jawan and a civilian were injured in the cross-border firing targeting five Indian posts along the International Border (IB) on Thursday night. The BSF had effectively retaliated to the firing.

"The firing has stopped (from across the border). There is calm now," a senior BSF officer told PTI.

He said the intermittent exchange of fire between the two sides continued till 3 am.

The official said two BSF personnel and a woman were injured on Thursday night and have been hospitalised. One jawan has been shifted to the GMC Hospital in Jammu.

They have been identified as Basavraj SR, who hails from Karnataka, and Sher Singh. The woman has been identified as Rajni Bala of Arnia.

Pakistan Rangers had fired 82 and 120 mm mortar shells and used heavy machines guns, triggering fear among the border dwellers.

Several people in Arnia, Treva, Suchetgarh and Jabowal, particularly migrant labourers, had left the border hamlets on Thursday night when the unprovoked firing started.

Several families had taken shelter in bunkers, temples and other safe areas in the border area.

People of border villages said they witnessed such intense firing and shelling after many years.

"We were eating food when the firing began. We left the food and ran along with our families," Joginder Kumar, a labourer from Bihar, said.

Kumar, who along with 51 others, including women and children, had taken shelter in a temple in Arnia after leaving a forward village due to shelling, said they were terrified.

"We had heard about it (firing). Now we have seen it", he said.

In a forward hamlet where a mortar shell hit a house, Ekta Devi said, "By God's grace, we were saved. There was a lot of firing till this morning. All glass windows broke."

Another villager Rakesh Kumar, who along with several villagers had taken shelter in a bunker in forward village, said they are now returning to their village.

"There was intense firing and shelling after many years. There was peace for the past two years. Pakistan cannot be trusted," he said.

Many videos went viral on social media which showed people fleeing their dwellings when the firing started.

In Arnia, many guests fled from a wedding ceremony when the firing started.

We continued with the marriage. Most of the people left after the firing started, Kuldeep, a relative of the bridegroom said.

This is the second ceasefire violation in October. On October 19, two BSF jawans were injured in firing by Pakistan Rangers at the Vikram post along the IB in Arnia sector.

India and Pakistan had signed a ceasefire agreement on February 25, 2021, in which both nations agreed to strictly observe all agreements on ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir and other sectors.
As the Law Commission holds consultations on a uniform civil code, the standing committee on law and justice has chosen the 'review of personal laws' among the subjects for its examination.

IMAGE: An aerial view of the New Parliament House, in New Delhi. Photograph: ANI Photo

In June, the Law Commission had initiated a fresh deliberation on the UCC by seeking views from stakeholders, including the public and recognised religious organisations.

In short, the UCC would translate into having a common law for all citizens of the country that is not based on religion.

Personal laws and laws related to inheritance, adoption and succession are likely to be covered by a common code.

The parliamentary panel, headed by Bharatiya Janata Party's Sushil Kumar Modi, has also decided to examine remote voting and e-postal ballots for Indians residing abroad.

In November 2020, the Election Commission had proposed to the government to extend the Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System (ETPBS) facility, so far available to service voters, to eligible overseas Indian voters.

As of now, the issue is pending between the EC and the ministry of external affairs.

Currently, overseas Indians are free to cast their votes in constituencies they are registered in.

Review of the Right to Information Act, 2005, and working of the Central Information Commission have also been chosen among the subjects for review.

The effectiveness of vigilance administration, functioning of the Central Administrative Tribunal and that of the Central Vigilance Commission are some of the other subjects selected by the panel, a Lok Sabha bulletin said on Friday.

Court proceedings and judgements in regional languages, pendency of cases under the Contempt of Court Act and 24x7 virtual courts will also be examined by the committee.
Robert Card, 40, who is reported to have shot and killed 18 people and wounded 13 others in a quiet American town, was a former soldier with mental issues.

A state wide alert has been sounded for his capture, but the mass murderer remains on the lam, forcing the government in the state of Maine to impose a lockdown till Card is arrested or killed.

IMAGE: A still image from a surveillance camera video shows Robert Card, the suspect in a mass shooting, here and below. Photograph: Androscoggin County Sheriff's Office/Handout/Reuters

Photograph: Lewiston Maine Police Department/Facebook/Handout/Reuters

IMAGE: Another view of the killer. Photograph: Lewiston Maine Police Department/Facebook/Handout/Reuters

IMAGE: A law enforcement vehicle is parked at the scene of a mass shooting. Photograph: Nichoel Wyman Arel/Reuters

IMAGE: Police close Lincoln Street leading to the Schemengees Bar & Grille Restaurant, one of the two scenes of Card's carnage. Photograph: Nicholas Pfosi/Reuters

IMAGE: Workers set down detour signs while police organise around Lisbon High School as an active search for Card is underway. Photograph: Nicholas Pfosi/Reuters

IMAGE: Police patrol outside the Central Maine Medical Center. Photograph: Nicholas Pfosi/Reuters

IMAGE: Law enforcement members patrol near a Lisbon school, following the shooting. Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

IMAGE: Members of law enforcement at work. Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

IMAGE: Police remove a victim from the Schemengees Bar & Grille Restaurant. Photograph: Nicholas Pfosi/Reuters

IMAGE: Law enforcement members patrol near a Lisbon school, here and below. Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

IMAGE: Police at the Lisbon High School clear out the area as the search for Card is underway. Photograph: Nicholas Pfosi/Reuters

IMAGE: A sign outside the Lisbon High School. Photograph: Nick Pfosi/Reuters

IMAGE: Cops on patrol, here and below. Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

IMAGE: Dexter Britton, 9, looks out through a window as Lisbon Falls remains on lockdown. Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

IMAGE: A child looks out through a window as Lisbon Falls remains on lockdown. Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

IMAGE: An aerial view of law enforcement personnel at the Schemengees Bar & Grille Restaurant. Photograph: Eric Cox/Reuters

IMAGE: A sign on a street. Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

IMAGE: A drone and a helicopter look out for Card. Photograph: Nick Pfosi/Reuters

IMAGE: US flag were flown at half mast in memory of the victims. Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

IMAGE: A heart shape sign is seen attached to a tree. Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

Photographs curated by Manisha Kotian/Rediff.com

Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com
A row has erupted in Kerala over the speech of Congress Working Committee member Shashi Tharoor at the Palestine solidarity rally organised by the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) a day ago, in which he said the October 7 attack on Israel was a terrorist strike.

IMAGE: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor. Photograph: Rahul Singh/ANI Photo

Communist Party of India-Marxist leader and former MLA M Swaraj alleged that some of Tharoor's remarks were pro-Israel, and the Congress MP failed to admit that it was a 'terrorist' nation.

Taking a dig at the Thiruvananthapuram MP, Swaraj, a state secretariat member of the CPI-M, said what he had done was an Israel solidarity meeting at the expense of the IUML.

Facing intense social media attack from pro-Hamas groups and a section of Left activists, Tharoor issued a clarification, saying he has always been with the people of Palestine and he does not agree with the propagation of just one sentence from his speech, which he made at the IUML rally.

"I have always been with the people of Palestine," Tharoor said in a short video released by the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC).

Earlier, in a Facebook post, CPI-M leader Swaraj remarked sarcastically that Tharoor was pretty sure that what had happened from the side of Palestine was a 'terrorist strike', even though 90 per cent of that country was lost to Israel.

He was also sure that what had happened from the side of Israel post-October 7 was its 'reply', the Left leader said.

"Tharoor is not a man who does not know the meaning of words. He is also not a person who was unaware that history had not begun on October 7," Swaraj further said.

Still, the Congress leader has failed to admit that Israel is a 'terrorist nation', he said.

Israel from Tel Aviv and Tharoor from the IUML rally were attacking Palestine, the former MLA further alleged.

Left Democratic Front MLA K T Jaleel also criticised Tharoor and said his speech would give the impression that it was a pro-Israel rally.

The IUML rally was held in solidarity with Israel, and if anyone listened to the speech of the main speaker, it would give such an impression, he charged in a FB post.

IUML leader P K Kunhalikutty, however, criticised the groups that were allegedly trying to create controversy over the rally.

He said the huge rally organised by the League has helped generate public opinion in favour of the Palestinian cause and Tharoor has already clarified that he is with the Palestinian cause.

The IUML, a key ally of the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) in Kerala, organised a massive rally in northern Kozhikode on Thursday denouncing the reported indiscriminate killings of civilians, including women and children, in the Israeli attack on the Gaza strip.

Tens of thousands of IUML supporters took part in the Palestine Solidarity Human Rights rally, inaugurated by IUML leader Panakkad Syed Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal.

Tharoor, who was the chief guest, had lamented what he termed as 'one of the most distressing human rights catastrophes' witnessed over the past 19 days.

"This may well be one of the most significant political rallies we have seen in India and perhaps across the world in defence of human rights and in favour of peace. This is a rally for peace," the Thiruvananthapuram MP said.

He said that innocent women and children had suffered casualties, initially in Israel and subsequently in Gaza, and emphasised the imperative of ending this conflict.

Tharoor underscored India's historical commitment to peace, tracing it back to the era of Mahatma Gandhi.

"We have always stood for a permanent solution to this crisis," he said.

In unequivocal terms, Tharoor also condemned the attack carried out by Palestinian armed group Hamas in Israel on October 7, describing it as an 'act of terror'.

"On October 7, terrorists attacked Israel and claimed 1,400 lives. Two hundred individuals were taken hostage. In response, Israel killed 6,000 people. The bombing continues," he had said.
The Israeli defence forces said that it launched a drone strike against a Hezbollah cell in southern Lebanon, The Times of Israel reported.

IMAGE: An Israeli soldier looks out from a tank during a military drill near Israel's border with Lebanon in northern Israel, October 26, 2023. Photograph: Lisi Niesner/Reuters

The Hezbollah cell was reportedly getting ready to launch an anti-tank guided missile attack against a border army position.

The IDF has increased airstrikes against terrorists from Hezbollah who are preparing missile and rocket attacks on northern Israel in recent days.

In the midst of the Gaza Strip conflict, the terror group has so far identified 46 members who were killed by Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon.

The IDF has also released video of the most recent attack, The Times of Israel reported.

The Israel defence forces had confirmed a day before that another terror cell in Southern Lebanon was struck near the northern community of Zar'it.

According to the IDF, a drone strike and artillery bombardment were both directed at the cell.

The head of Lebanon's Hezbollah also met with top leaders of Palestinian terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad on Tuesday, according to the Times of Israel.

The Israeli publication posted an image tweeted on social media X to show Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, with Hamas deputy chief Saleh al-Arouri, and Islamic Jihad chief Ziad al-Nakhala.

The screenshot of the tweet published in the daily read, "Among other topics, discussions regarding the appropriate measures that Resistance Axis members must take to reach a definite victory in Gaza and Palestine took place."

The "Axis of Resistance", according to the New York Times report is the term used for a regional network of militias in the alliance of Iran, Palestinian militant groups, Syria, Lebanon's Hezbollah, and other factions.

Since the October 7 attack by Hamas terrorists on Israel from Gaza, Hezbollah has been operating freely against Israel along Lebanon's border with Israel, firing rockets and anti-tank missiles at Israeli towns and army positions and opening fire at troops on a near-daily basis.

The IDF has responded by striking the terror group's cells and posts in southern Lebanon, the Times of Israel said.

IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said on Wednesday that Iran directly aided Hamas ahead of the October 7 attack on southern Israel.

"Iran directly aided Hamas before the war, with training, supplying weapons, money, and technological know-how," Hagari said in a press conference.

"Even now, Iranian aid to Hamas in the form of intelligence and online incitement against the State of Israel, continues," the IDF spokesperson was quoted by Times of Israel.

Previously, Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Hossein Amir-Abdollahian warned that fighting against Israel might open on "other fronts" if Israel continues its bombardment of Gaza.
The United States on Friday imposed a fresh round of sanctions targeting key Hamas-linked officials, financial networks and Iran-based organisations that were involved in the funding of the terror group.

IMAGE: Palestinians inspect the site of Israeli strikes on houses, as the conflict between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas continues, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, October 27, 2023. Photograph: Mohammed Salem/Reuters

The US treasury department informed about the sanctions following the October 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas.

"Today's (Friday) action targets additional assets in Hamas's investment portfolio and individuals who are facilitating sanctions evasion by Hamas-affiliated companies. Treasury is also designating a Hamas official in Iran and members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as well as a Gaza-based entity that has served as a conduit for illicit Iranian funds to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad," the statement by treasury department read.

US deputy secretary of the treasury Wally Adeyemo said that Washington is committed to dismantling Hamas' funding and won't hesitate to take further actions.

"Today's action underscores the United States' commitment to dismantling Hamas's funding networks by deploying our counterterrorism sanctions authorities and working with our global partners to deny Hamas the ability to exploit the international financial system," Adeyemo said.

He added, "We will not hesitate to take action to further degrade Hamas's ability to commit horrific terrorist attacks by relentlessly targeting its financial activities and streams of funding."

One of the major names sanctioned by the US is Khaled Qaddoumi, who is a Jordanian national and longtime Hamas member who is the representative of Hamas to Iran, and acting as a liaison between Hamas and the Iranian government.

Qaddoumi works to maintain strong relationships with Iran by attending delegation meetings with high-ranking Iranian officials and praising Iranian support for Hamas, including its provision of weapons, the statement read.

The US has also sanctioned Turkiye-based company Trend GYO, designated in May 2022 as part of Hamas's investment portfolio, which is a key component of Hamas's global asset holdings which had previously been estimated to be worth over $500 million.

Trend GYO currently has three primary shareholders; Turkiye-based Alaeddin Senguler, Gulsah Yigidoglu, and Arwa Mangoush.

"As a result of today's action, all property and interests in property of the designated persons described above that are in the United States or in the possession or control of US persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC. In addition, any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, individually or in the aggregate, 50 per cent or more by one or more blocked persons are also blocked," the department stated.

It added, "Treasury remains committed to enabling the flow of legitimate humanitarian assistance supporting the basic human needs of vulnerable populations, while continuing to deny resources to malicious actors. Accordingly, OFAC sanctions programs contain provisions for legitimate humanitarian support to vulnerable populations, including authorisations for certain humanitarian transactions in support of nongovernmental organizations' activities".
The United States military forces on Thursday (US local time) conducted self-defence strikes on two facilities in eastern Syria used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and affiliated groups.

IMAGE: Smoke rises from Syria's Kurdish-controlled northeast city of Qamishli, on October 5, 2023. Image used only for representation. Photograph: Orhan Qereman/Reuters

The strikes which were conducted on President Joe Biden's direction, are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against US personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on October 17, as per a statement by the US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin.

As a result of these attacks, one US citizen contractor died from a cardiac incident while sheltering in place; 21 US personnel suffered from minor injuries, but all have since returned to duty.

The US Defence Secretary said Thursday's actions show that President Biden has no higher priority than the safety of US personnel.

Austin said the US will not tolerate 'such attacks and will defend itself, its personnel, and its interests'.

He said: 'The US does not seek conflict and has no intention nor desire to engage in further hostilities, but these Iranian-backed attacks against US forces are unacceptable and must stop. Iran wants to hide its hand and deny its role in these attacks against our forces. We will not let them. If attacks by Iran's proxies against US forces continue, we will not hesitate to take further necessary measures to protect our people.'

Austin said the 'narrowly tailored strikes in self-defence were intended solely to protect and defend US personnel in Iraq and Syria. They are separate and distinct from the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas and do not constitute a shift in our approach to the Israel-Hamas conflict. We continue to urge all state and non-state entities not to take action that would escalate into a broader regional conflict.'

Earlier, White House National Security Council (NSC) spokesman John Kirby had said the US would respond to the attacks at a 'time of our choosing and a manner of our choosing'.

His comments came after the US Department of Defence said US and allied forces in Iraq and Syria had been attacked at least 16 times this month by 'Iranian-backed militia groups'.

According to Al Jazeera, attacks on US forces in the region have spiked since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war.

Biden recently said that he had directly warned Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei against targeting US troops in the Middle East.

"My warning to the Ayatollah was that if they continue to move against those troops, we will respond, and he should be prepared," Biden told reporters, adding it has 'nothing to do' with Israel.

Washington, DC and Tehran do not have formal diplomatic relations, and Biden did not say how the message was communicated.

An aide to Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi Mohammad Jamshidi said: "The US messages were neither directed to the leader of the Islamic Revolution nor were they anything but requests from the Iranian side."

"If Biden thinks he has warned Iran, he should ask his team to show him the text of the messages."

US officials are concerned about the possibility of fighting between Israel and Hamas escalating into a broader regional conflict, as per Al Jazeera.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 27. The names of the commandants of Azerbaijan's Khojaly and Terter have been made public, Trend reports.

Colonel Zaur Nabiyev was appointed Commandant of Azerbaijan's Khojaly, and Colonel Elchin Gasimov was appointed Commandant of Azerbaijan's Terter.

They are the heads of the district police departments, respectively.

Commandants have been appointed for cities, districts, and villages that have returned to Azerbaijani control after local anti-terrorist measures carried out in the Karabakh region.

The Commandant of Azerbaijan's Khankendi is Police Major General Sardar Safarov.
WEST ARLINGTON  Today is the last day of the year that the "OPEN" message painted by hand on the side of an A-frame sign will be turned to fa
WINDHAM  The Windham School Board voted to fire the teaching principal at Windham Elementary who started this school year and was put on admi
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 27.Concerning the fate of money on salaries and plastic cards of Azerbaijan's Mugan Bank, whose license was revoked by a Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) decision, I would like to state that these monies should be compensated by the Deposit Insurance Fund, Member of the Committee on Economic Policy, Industry, and Entrepreneurship of Milli Majlis (Parliament) Vugar Bayramov wrote on Facebook, Trend reports.

He noted that according to the legislation, the money on these cards should be paid to citizens by the state.

"Funds on the current accounts of individuals are also protected. The maximum amount of compensation, as in the case of interest-bearing deposits, is 100,000 manat ($58,823)," Bayramov said.

He further stated that funds on individual credit cards are paid to residents as protected deposits reserved in compliance with the law after the appointment of a liquidator. The liquidator chooses an agent bank for this reason, and the monies are returned in line with the set protocol. The compensation payment process is slated to begin at the end of next month.

Mugan Bank's license in Azerbaijan was revoked this month. It was revoked on October 19, 2023, by the decision of the Board of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) dated October 18, 2023, in accordance with Articles 16.1.6, 16.1.7, 16.1.9, 16.1.18, 57, and 61.1 of the Law of Azerbaijan "On Banks" (the size of the total capital is less than the minimum amount established by the legislation for banks; the ratio of total capital adequacy is less than 3 percent; the bank does not carry out its current activities properly).

A temporary administrator has already been appointed, and a petition to the court was drafted for the bank's liquidation due to its insolvency. The Deposit Insurance Fund was appointed as Mugan Bank's liquidator based on the ruling of the Baku Court of Appeal.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 27. The implementation of major energy projects in Georgia is increasing the country's role in energy security and energy transit issues, stated David Narmania, Head of Georgia's National Energy and Water Supply Commission (GNERC) in a program broadcast on Georgian TV.

"Georgia's role in energy security and, more broadly, in matters related to energy transit, is growing even more. On one hand, we are an energy-producing country, and on the other hand, we play a crucial role in the transit of energy resources. This role is expanding, as the construction of the Black Sea submarine cable is expected with the participation of our country," Narmania said.

As President Ilham Aliyev said, in several months, a full feasibility study of the Caspian-EU green energy corridor, integrated transmission production and consumption facilities, including the electric cable under the Black Sea, will be ready.

"At this moment, the feasibility study is being prepared for 4 gigawatts of renewables," President Ilham Aliyev said.

An agreement for laying the cable, through which electricity from Georgia and Azerbaijan will be transmitted to Europe, was signed by the governments of Georgia, Azerbaijan, Romania, and Hungary in December 2022. The project aims to enhance energy security in Europe and the Caucasus region, promote the development of renewable energy, and increase transit opportunities.
The comment came after the US president met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Washington on Friday.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi looks on during his meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (not pictured) at the State Department in Washington, D.C., Friday, Oct. 27, 2023.

UPDATED at 7:30 p.m. ET on 10-27-2023

A White House official said Friday that preparations are underway for U.S. President Joe Biden to meet his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in San Francisco next month.

Speaking after Biden met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Washington, the senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to comment on the talks, said U.S. officials are making preparations for the Xi-Biden meeting next month.

Were working together toward such a goal, the official said, noting that Chinese leaders often confirm publicly much closer to a trip.

Earlier, Biden vowed during his meeting with Wang to work together with Beijing, according to a readout from the White House, and said the worlds two powers need to manage competition in the relationship responsibly and maintain open lines of communication.

John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan also attended, and that Sullivan was hosting Wang at Blair House for further talks. Wang is scheduled to depart Saturday.

The meeting between Biden and Xi would take place on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco from Nov. 12-18. Kirby that no concrete plans were made Friday.

The pair have met only once since Biden took office  last year in Bali, Indonesia  and Xi has not visited America since an April 2017 trip to then-President Donald Trumps Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

But Kirby cautioned patience, saying both sides acknowledge the importance of leader-level channels of communication and that Biden had repeatedly said he wants to meet soon with Xi.

When theres something to confirm, well confirm it, Kirby said.

Talk it out

Wang arrived in Washington on Thursday evening for his first trip to the United States since before the COVID-19 pandemic, with Blinken welcoming him for a working dinner at the State Department.

Wang told reporters before the dinner that it was important for U.S. and Chinese leaders to ignore jarring voices in their societies and strive for a healthy and stable relationship.

We have disagreements, we have differences. At the same time, we also share important common interests, and we face challenges that we need to respond to together, the Chinese foreign minister said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken shakes hands with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi before meetings at the State Department in Washington, D.C., Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. (Saul Loeb/AFP)

Blinken, in even briefer remarks, said that he was looking forward to constructive conversations over the next few days.

Before Wangs meeting with Biden, the two top diplomats met again for a closed-door meeting on Friday morning, with a State Department readout saying that the pair discussed a range of issues, including both areas of difference and areas of cooperation.

The readout again emphasized the need for open lines of communication with Beijing to responsibly manage tense ties, language that the White House has used since the start of the thaw in relations with China in June, when Blinken visited Beijing.

Warmer ties, though, have been criticized by some in Congress.

Republican leaders on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, for instance, have called on the White House to not fall for false promises from a government they said had proved an unreliable partner.

On Friday, the bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China also issued a statement saying that Biden administration officials who meet Wang "must raise the cases of Uyghurs, Hong Kongers, Tibetans and other political prisoners unjustly detained in China.

Asked whether Biden had raised any such concerns during his meeting with Wang, Kirby said that he could not offer any details.

Unsafe intercepts

Wangs trip also comes as the United States released more footage of a near accident between a Chinese fighter jet and a U.S. B-52 bomber over the South China Sea, which it said occurred on Tuesday and was the latest in more than 180 such incidents since 2021.

A U.S. statement said that the Chinese fighter jet flew at an uncontrolled excessive speed, flying below, in front of, and within 10 feet of the B-52, putting both aircraft in danger of a collision.

A Chinese J-11 jet is seen from a U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber over the South China Sea on Oct. 24, 2023. (U.S. Indo-Pacific Command via AP)

Earlier this month, the Pentagon said it believed the goal of such behavior is to pressure the United States and other nations to reduce or cease lawful operations near areas where Beijing claims territorial sovereignty, such as in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea.

Kirby said American officials routinely raised our concerns about the unsafe intercepts in the South China Sea in talks with Chinese officials.

In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said that the close encounters were the fault of the U.S. military, which she argued had no business flying jets over the South China Sea.

The U.S. military planes traveled thousands of miles to Chinas doorstep to flex muscle, Mao said. That is the source of maritime and air security risks, and is not conducive to regional peace and stability.



Updated to include the White House official's comments about a Biden/Xi meeting.
The technocrat stepped down in March as China shifted towards a leadership made up of unquestioned loyalists.

Then Chinese Premier Li Keqiang speaks at a press conference after the closing session of the National Peoples Congress in Beijings Great Hall of the People on March 15, 2019. Li has died after suffering a heart attack, Chinese media reported on October 27, 2023.

Updated Oct. 27, 2023, 04:45 a.m. ET.

Former Chinese premier Li Keqiang died of a heart attack in the early hours of Friday morning in Shanghai, Chinas state media reported.

Comrade Li was resting in Shanghai in recent days, when he was seized by a sudden heart attack. He died in Shanghai on Oct. 27, 12:10 a.m. when all-out efforts to revive him failed. He was 68, said the statement carried by Xinhua News Agency.

Li was believed to have arrived a day ago in Shanghai, and had checked into the Dong Jiao State Guest Hotel. He was swimming when he experienced the heart attack, according to Radio Free Asias Mandarin service.

"We deeply mourn the tragic passing of Comrade Li Keqiang due to a sudden heart attack," China's foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a regular briefing, adding that an obituary would be published soon.

The former head of Chinas State Council  or cabinet  who was charged with overseeing the Chinese economy, the worlds second-largest, was seen as being sidelined in recent years by President Xi Jinping who has expanded his control and power over a wider spectrum of the economy, society and military. Xis maneuvers came as he removed a previous two-year term ceiling for the role of president and embarked on his third term in 2022.

China's President Xi Jinping (R) and then Premier Li Keqiang hold umbrellas as they arrive for a tribute ceremony at the Monument to the People's Heroes on the 64th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, in Beijing October 1, 2013. Credit: Reuters/File

Under Xis tightened grip, the economy turned towards a statist direction, shifting the focus to elevate the status of state-owned enterprises, even though many are seen to be ailing and inefficient. Xi also cracked down on powerful tech giants like Alibaba Group and Tencent, as well as information-related sectors such as private education and after-school tutoring providers.

Li was premier and head of the State Council for 10 years until he stepped down in March.

Ian Chong, a political scientist from the National University of Singapore noted that Lis departure from the premiership meant the exit of another prominent voice for economic reform and openness.

That leaves the voices advancing a more inward looking economy in the halls of power in Zhongnanhai, he said, referring to the entire Chinese central government and its leadership.

Li Keqiang answers a question during a meeting with executives from foreign companies at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in China's port city Dalian September 9, 2015. Credit: Reuters/File





In fact, according to Alicia Garcia-Herrero, chief economist for Asia Pacific at French investment bank, Natixis, Chinas reform progress and further opening up ended way before Li stepped down from the top echelon of power.

I think it ended much earlier, and I would say that it was always a very asymmetric opening. So yes, it did open to some sectors even under [paramount leader] Deng Xiaoping, but never to all. It was a very cautious, opening and very cautious reform.

That said, Garcia-Herrero pointed out that such a scenario was not uncommon and happens in other countries. The growth deceleration in China is partially a consequence of lack of reforms rather than the other way around.

Secondly, part of that is just natural because China became richer and as you get richer, you tend to grow less. So I would say that Li Keqiang was indeed a reformist, but his influence on the government while he was there was not as large as I would have imagined.

Reaction to Lis death

Following the announcement of his death, Lis previous comments of what people are doing, the sky [or heaven] is watching, the sky has eyes! were reposted and went viral again on Chinese social media.

A hashtag related to his death on Weibo, Chinas equivalent of X, formerly Twitter, drew over 1 billion views in just a few hours. On posts about Li, the like button was turned into a daisy  a common flower for funerals in China, many users commented rest in peace and some said the news was hard to believe.

Netizens are also reminiscing about Li's economic policies, an indication which Hong Kong-based political analyst Johnny Lau described as a tool to use the past to take a stab at the present.

Li had wanted to embark on many reforms but in hindsight, they ended up [delivering] half the result for twice the effort, he said.

Lau said the initiatives included what foreign media dubbed Likonomics  Lis economic policy that centered on no stimuli, deleveraging and structural reform to move an unbalanced economy towards sustainable growth.

They also included street stall economy to reinvigorate small entrepreneurship and create jobs after the-COVID pandemic. But Xi had publicly opposed lifting curbs against street vendors in Beijing. His opposition, albeit directed towards Beijing, would have ramifications nationwide given the current political climate.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed his condolences on the passing of Li, said Matthew Miller, State Department spokesperson. Condolences also came from Japans embassy in China via its official account on Weibo. It said Li played an important role in the relations of both countries.

Li, a native of the eastern Anhui province, joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1976. He received his law degree from Peking University, as well as a Doctor of Economics degree.

He was a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the 17th, 18th and 19th Communist Party of China central committees

He also served as party chief for Henan and Liaoning provinces before rising through the ranks to the central government.

Then Chinese Premier Li Keqiang arrives at the ASEAN - East Asia Summit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Nov. 13, 2022. Credit: AP/FILE





In a press conference in March, Li said, "No matter how the international winds and clouds change, China will unswervingly expand its opening up.

The Yangtze River and the Yellow River will not flow backwards.

Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.

Updated to add comment from China's foreign ministry, analysts insight and reactions from U.S. and Japanese governments, as well as online discussion of Lis policies.
Reports emerge that universities are moving to nip student memorials in the bud, 'online or offline.'

A man bows in front of the former house of former Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in Dingyuan county, Chuzhou city, in China's eastern Anhui province on Friday, Oct. 27, 2023.

"The people's premier." "Rest in peace." "A good premier whose political career shouldn't have ended the way it did."

Chinese people took to social media with candle emojis and condolences to mourn the death of former premier Li Keqiang on Friday  until censors stepped in to ensure that only uniform and formulaic condolences remained for the 68-year-old technocrat, who died of a heart attack in the early hours of Friday morning in Shanghai.

Earlier on Friday, it was still possible to see personal comments from individual users lauding Li's perceived qualities as a national leader, including a widely shared video clip of the late former premier talking about the problems faced by Chinese farmers and descriptions of him as "the people's premier."

But by Friday night, much of the individual content was no longer available, with only state media and official statements turning up in search results for "Li Keqiang" and related keywords.

The majority of condolences on the official state television report on Li's sudden death by heart attack at a Shanghai hotel appeared limited to the "wishing you a good journey," the Chinese equivalent of "rest in peace."

The official government announcement of Li's death on Weibo showed no comments but tens of thousands of likes and reposts, suggesting that comments had been turned off.

Meanwhile, a citizen journalist account on X started posting warnings from the authorities on university campuses across the country not to post anything political online, not to use words to describe Li that were not already approved by state media, and not to leave flowers, hold gatherings or engage in any kind of public mourning, on or offline.

The X account "Mr. Li is not your teacher" posted photos of notices banning any kind of public gathering issued by officials at universities in Shanghai, in the southern province of Hainan and the southwestern province of Guizhou.

News of Li Keqiangs death quickly topped Weibos hot search rankings on Friday. Credit: RFA screenshot

It also posted photos of yellow and white floral tributes on a street in the eastern city of Hefei, the traditional colors for a Chinese funeral.

"As night falls, more and more flowers are laid under Li Keqiangs former residence," the account commented.

The reported bans on public mourning for Li come less than a year after students and other young people flocked to take part in the "white paper" protests after three years of grueling COVID lockdowns.

Student union leaders in Hainan University were told to hold an emergency meeting, and not to record the proceedings, and to ban any online or offline mourning activities, including "rallies, demonstrations, floral tributes and other memorial activities."

Ghosts of 1989

Students at Guiyang Aviation Industry Technology College were warned off posting anything online for the next few days, including comments in group chats, blog posts or livestream video. They have also been barred from talking to the media.

"If any harmful speech occurs or material is disseminated, it will be transferred to the judicial authorities for serious handling," the message warned, according to a photo posted by "Mr. Li is not your teacher."

Staff at Shanghai Jiaotong University were ordered to "immediately get in among the students, pay attention to their thoughts and opinions at this time, and resolutely ban any inappropriate remarks, online or offline."

"Pay attention to students' movements over the next couple of days ... and to any gatherings or mourning activities on campus," the notice said.

The evening news broadcast shows an obituary photo of the former Premier Li Keqiang on a giant LED screen in Beijing, Friday, Oct. 27, 2023. Credit: Ng Han Guan/AP

Li isn't the first Chinese premier to die suddenly of a heart attack.

In April 1989, thousands flocked onto Tiananmen Square in a mass public outpouring of grief over the sudden death of widely loved premier Hu Yaobang. Those gatherings developed into a weeks-long mass pro-democracy movement ending in a massacre of civilians by the People's Liberation Army.

According to late Communist Party official Bao Tong, who was in government at the time: "The whole nation was plunged into grief. In a commemoration that took its cue from that for [former premier] Zhou Enlai, the students began making their way to Tiananmen Square in silence."

"In 1977, people were ostensibly mourning for Zhou, but in fact were turning out against Mao. In 1989, they were ostensibly mourning for Hu, but things were even more complicated. Not only was Hu a former General Secretary who had presided over the throwing out of thousands of trumped up criminal cases, but he was also a politician who was kicked out for falling foul of [late supreme leader] Deng [Xiaoping]."

An era of 'turmoil'

Similarly, the initial outpouring of public grief for Li Keqiang was more of a reflection of public dissatisfaction with life under ruling Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping than an endorsement of Li's performance as premier, according to current affairs commentator Si Ling.

"A lot of people are trying their best to express their condolences or have discussions about Li Keqiang in various online spaces," Si said. "It's like a [collective] sigh over the current difficulties in today's China, and about pessimism over the country's future."

"Li Keqiang's death has become a symbol, and an excuse for people to vent serious dissatisfaction with the status quo," he said.

Financial commentator Xiang Xiang said China's internet users can tell without being told that keyword searches related to Li's death have been classified as having "major political or social sensitivity" by the Chinese government.

"Any discussion of Li Keqiang's merits or faults is totally prohibited," Xiang said.

Instead, readers are directed by keyword search results to state news agency Xinhua's official obituary and other state media content.

Chinese students link arms in solidarity at dawn on April 22, 1989 in Beijings Tiananmen Square after spending the night there in order to be on hand for memorial services for the late purged party chief Hu Yaobang. Credit: Sadayuki Mikami/AP

Si said the topic is particularly sensitive as it comes after China's defense minister Li Shangfu and foreign minister Qin Gang were removed from their posts in relatively quick succession. Neither had been long in office.

"A series of personnel changes at the highest levels of the Chinese government have reminded people that the current era is one of ... turmoil," he said, adding that comparisons with the death of Hu Yaobang in 1989 are inevitable.

"He also handed over the reins of power and then died shortly after leaving office," Si said. "People started to hold public memorials, which led to the 1989 democracy movement, throwing the Chinese government into turmoil for a long time to come."

"Even though Li Keqiang lacks Hu Yaobang's political pedigree or historic status, the Chinese government would rather kill a thousand by mistake than let one go free."

"Any chance that history might repeat itself will be completely nipped in the bud," Si said.



Translated with additional reporting by Luisetta Mudie.
About 10% of weapons came from N Korea while 5% were from Iran: Israeli official.

Major G. of the Israeli army's Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit kneels near a collection of weapons and ammunition which Israel's army says were left behind by Hamas militants in Israel's southern communities following a deadly infiltration by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip, near Ashdod, Israel, October 20, 2023.

Hamas has used weapons sourced from North Korea and Iran to target Israel, the Israeli military said, supporting Radio Free Asias earlier report on the alleged arms connection between the North and Hamas.

Hamas used Iranian-made mortar rounds and North Korean rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) in its attack against Israel on Oct. 7, the Israeli military stated during an official media tour Thursday, as reported by AFP.

I think about 5-10% of the weapons here [were] made in Iran, an Israeli military official, who asked for the condition of anonymity, was cited as saying. And 10% [are] North Korean. The rest of it was made inside the Gaza Strip.

I think the most surprising thing was the amount of weapons that they brought inside Israel, the official added.

Earlier this month, RFA reported on the potential use of North Korean weapons by Hamas militants. RFAs thorough analysis was based on a video that displayed a man holding what seemed to be North Korean-made rocket launchers.

Following the report, South Koreas Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed the findings, with its intelligence indicating a military connection between North Korea and Hamas.

The latest confirmation from Israel followed as Pyongyang has been issuing statements, blaming the United States in the Middle East conflict. The conflict was a tragedy created entirely by the United States, North Koreas official Korea Central News Agency said on Monday, claiming that Washington has turned a blind eye to Israel, its illegal occupation of Palestinian territories, continuous armed assaults, civilian casualties, and the expansion of Jewish settlements.

Bolstering anti-US coalition

The move is widely seen as the Norths attempt to bolster its anti-American coalition, which could potentially strengthen its leverage against the United States and its allies.

Over the past few weeks, North Koreas foreign policy has shown signs of a larger strategy at play. From supporting Hamas to bolstering ties with Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, Pyongyang appears keen on crafting a united front against Washington.

The strategy appears to bear results by aligning those opposed to U.S. policy. Last week, a portrait of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was displayed at an anti-U.S. protest in the West Bank, underscoring the deep sentiments of the Palestinian people against the U.S.

The Oct. 7 attack, in which North Korean and Iranian weapons are used, killed over 1,400 individuals in Israel, primarily civilians, according to an official figure. In response, Israel has launched airstrikes that have led to approximately 7,000 deaths from the Palestine side, with the majority also being civilians, according to Gazas Hamas-run health ministry.

Casualties are anticipated to increase on both sides as Israels military announced on Thursday that it had conducted a ground operation in the Gaza Strip. The Israel Defense Forces reported that its tanks and infantry units struck numerous terrorist cells, infrastructure and anti-tank missile launch posts before withdrawing to Israeli territory.

Edited by Elaine Chan and Taejun Kang.
The comment came after the U.S. and its allies verified an arms trade deal between Moscow and Pyongyang.

The Republic of Koreas Minister of Foreign Affairs Park Jin addresses a ministerial level meeting of the United Nations Security Council on the crisis in Ukraine at U.N. headquarters in New York, September 20, 2023.

The South Korea government has told Russia that it will not stand idly by if Moscow hands over missile development technology to North Korea, said South Koreas foreign minister Park Jin.

In response to a question from lawmaker Ha Tae-keung during a parliament hearing on Friday, as to whether Seoul discussed the issue of Moscows military support for Pyongyang with Russia, Park confirmed it did.

Parks comments came during a question-and-answer session with Ha over communications between the Russian Foreign Ministry and the South Korean embassy in Moscow after last months Russia-North Korea summit.

When Ha asked how Russia briefed South Korea, Park said: There was a dialogue on various issues to promote friendship and relations between the two countries (North Korea and Russia), adding, There were no specifics on military cooperation.

Ha also repeatedly inquired if he had asked whether Russia had agreed to hand over the missile technology or weapons North Korea was demanding. Park responded: We have asked Russia to confirm that as well.

Park also said Seoul is paying close attention to the situation through various information sources and has its own understanding of how it is developing, but avoided specifics on the evidence of North Koreas arms delivery to Russia.

Parks remarks came a day after the United States and its allies issued a stern warning against Russia and North Korea as they verified an arms trade deal between the two countries that could bolster Moscows aggression towards Ukraine.

The United States, Japan, and the Republic of Korea (ROK) strongly condemn the provision of military equipment and munitions by the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) to the Russian Federation for use against the government and people of Ukraine, the joint statement said Thursday, referring to the two Koreas formal names.

Chinas repatriation of North Koreans

Separately, Park also said that he has conveyed his stance over North Korean defectors to Chinese Central Politburo member and Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

We conveyed our concerns through diplomatic channels and made it clear that North Korean defectors should not be forcibly repatriated, Park said in the same hearing.

While stressing the importance of relations with China, Park noted that the issue of North Korean defectors is an issue related to international human rights.

We need to make efforts to help North Koreans go where they want to go, including to South Korea, so we are actively explaining South Koreas position to China and urging China to play a constructive role, he said.

Earlier this month, Human Rights Watch reported that Chinese authorities had forcibly returned over 500 North Koreans to the reclusive nation. The majority of these North Koreans were civilians and religious leaders attempting to travel to South Korea from China, Radio Free Asia has learned.

Edited by Mike Firn and Elaine Chan.
Authorities closed off streets near the plant as residents complained of unbearable odor.

Firefighters in Vientiane wear respirators as water is sprayed to dilute ammonia from a leak at an ice-making plant in the Saysettha district on Oct. 25, 2023.

An ammonia leak from an ice-making plant irritated peoples eyes and throats and enveloped the capital of Vientiane with a strong odor during the evening commute as mechanics worked to fix a broken valve.

Police and military troops blocked off an area around the plant in the citys Saysettha district on Wednesday as firefighters sprayed water on nearby streets in an attempt to dilute the chemicals presence.

One Vientiane resident said that a general notification about the leak was never sent to peoples phones.

I live only 500 meters from the plant. Yesterday, my wife went to pick up my son at school and she said that the smell was unbearable. The odor of the ammonia was so strong, another resident told Radio Free Asia on Thursday. It smelled like hair dye.

Traffic on nearby streets was clogged as commuters attempted to get around the blocked area, according to another resident.

So many cars got stuck in the traffic, and motorcyclists who werent wearing masks were badly affected by the chemical, he said. Some of them were having trouble breathing.

A member of the Capital Vientiane Rescue, Assistance and Relief Team told RFA that they found an oozing chemical when they arrived at the plant after 5 p.m.

The cleanup took six hours, he said.

At around 10:30 p.m., a military expert examined the chemical, he said. At around the same time, the plant mechanical team fixed the valve.

A resident who lives about 6 km (3.7 miles) from the ice plant said he could still smell the gas on Thursday morning. But the resident who lives close to the plant told RFA that the smell had gradually disappeared and workers seem to have returned to the plant.

A doctor at Vientianes Friendship Hospital recommended that people wash their hair and consider throwing away any clothes that have been exposed to ammonia, which he described as a dangerous gas.

Translated by Max Avary. Edited by Matt Reed.
Junta troops arrested 15 people and displaced more than 10,000 during raids in northern Myanmar, residents told Radio Free Asia on Friday.

Around 130 troops entered Sagaing regions Tabayin township on Thursday, prompting more than 10,000 people to abandon some 10 villages in the area.

Soldiers captured 15 people remaining in Shan Taw village to use as human shields, according to locals.

In the evening, the battalion also raided and burned down homes in Boke Htan village, roughly two miles away.

Locals dont know the condition of the detainees or the full extent of the damage in their village, because as of Friday afternoon junta forces still occupied Boke Htan.

"Last night, I saw flames for about an hour, so I think that at least 10 homes will be burned down, said one local who declined to be named for fear of reprisals. They are still in the village, so I can't say exactly.

The number of arrests may be higher than 15, because some people are still missing from Shan Taw village, he added.

The troops have been razing parts of western Tabayin township since Saturday, when another 10,000 villagers fled.

RFA called Sagaing regions junta spokesperson Sai Naing Naing Kyaw seeking comment on the raids, but he did not reply by the time of publication.

Throughout October, junta troops have conducted several devastating multi-day raids through Sagaing regions southern townships.

Residents have accused the convoys of killing nine locals, including teenagers who were beaten and beheaded, in addition to burning villages and ambushing villagers with heavy weaponry and landmines.

A five-day raid from Oct. 12 to 16 displaced more than 45,000 villagers.

More than 800,000 people in Sagaing region have been forced to flee their homes due to violence since the Feb. 1, 2021 coup, according to the United Nations.

Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.
Around 800 homes have been torched along the Mandalay-Myitkyina line since mid-August.

Junta troops sent to repair part of a colonial British-era railway in northern Myanmars Sagaing region have burned down some 800 houses in two townships since mid-August, forcing around 10,000 people to flee for their safety, residents and local armed groups say.

The north-south railway, which covers the 550-kilometer (340-mile) distance between Mandalay and Myitkyina in the north, could become a key strategic transport route linking two major cities in infrastructure-poor Myanmar.

The railway was built in 1896 by the Burma Railway Company under British rule. It served as the only public commuting option for those traveling between northern and central Myanmar for decades.

But since the militarys February 2021 coup detat, the tracks run through townships that have seen some of the fiercest fighting between the junta and armed resistance groups.

In mid-August a team of some 100 workers began repairs on the line in Sagaing citys Ywar Htaung station, accompanied by around 200 troops, residents told RFA Burmese.

About 200 junta troops and 100 railway workers form the team that is repairing the tracks from Mandalay to Myitkyina. Credit: MRTV

As the team worked, the military escort began attacking villages along the tracks, said a person assisting victims of conflict in the eastern regions of Sagaing and Wetlet townships who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on condition of anonymity citing fear of reprisal.

Five people were killed in [Sagaing townships] Kyun U Taw village  and in Wetlet, two residents of Nyaung Pin Gyi Taw village were killed, the aid worker said. Almost the entire village of Htan Gyi was destroyed  only 50 out of more than 400 houses are left  Nearly the entire village of Thone Sint Kan was also destroyed.

And earlier this month, two railway workers were killed and two others lost their legs when they detonated a mine while repairing the track.

Attacking villages

The aid worker said that junta forces have been arresting civilians in Sagaing township and firing artillery shells at villages, wounding residents. Around 10,000 people have fled for safety in anticipation of the marauding troops, he said.

In total, troops have set fire to four villages each in Sagaing and Wetlet townships over the past two months, residents said.

The junta troops are providing security for the train track repair team in Wetlet, said a resident of the township. The column has raided [the villages] along the railway tracks and now they are stationed in Thone Sint Kan, Thar Laing, Wet Lu Aing and Pauk Kan Bu Tar villages to provide security for running trains to repair the tracks  Many locals have fled.

The Mandalay-Myitkyina railroad is more than 340 miles long. Credit: MRTV

Anti-junta Peoples Defense Force, or PDF, paramilitary groups have responded by destroying segments of the line, said Bo Ye Gaung, a fighter with the PDF in nearby Shwebo township.

In the beginning, they carried out clearance operations up to the Wetlet area, he said. After that, they went around the villages near the railroad and burned and destroyed them.

In any case, Bo Ye Gaung said, the junta will not be able to link Shwebo township to Myitkyina, in Kachin state, by railway because the terrain is too difficult to defend against attack.

Repairs impossible amid PDF attacks

A leader of the Kyung Hla-Kanbalu activist group told RFA that the juntas clearance operations are aimed at establishing control of three key supply routes between Mandalay and Myitkyina  a highway, a railway and a waterway along the Irrawaddy River.

As far as we can guess, when transporting to the upper part [of Myanmar], they want to use the Mandalay-Myitkyina Road, said the activist, who also declined to be named. When they cant use this strategic route by land, they have to use a waterway ... But for when this route is inaccessible, we assume they are looking for another supporting route.

Attempts by RFA to contact the juntas spokespersons in Sagaing region and Kachin state for comment on the railway repairs went unanswered Thursday.

However, a regional railway official agreed with the assessment by the PDFs Bo Ye Gaung, saying that even if the route between Mandalay and Myitkyina was repaired, it would be impossible to maintain due to regular attacks by the armed resistance using drones and remote-controlled mines.

Translated by Htin Aung Kyaw. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
Police in Tibet beat and detained a prominent Tibetan language advocate and entrepreneur, and shut down his shop after he posted a video of Chinese government staff refusing his request to register for a business license, two Tibetans with knowledge of the situation said.

The Oct. 17 incident left Tashi Wangchuk, a former political prisoner, with a small gash over his left eye and got him three days in detention before he was released, said a source from inside the region who declined to be identified out of fear of retribution by authorities.

Wangchuk had opened a car wash station in Yushu city and applied for a business license, but his request was denied, the Tibetan said. He recorded the incident on his cell phone and posted the video on his WeChat account.

For that reason, he was detained and beaten by the local Chinese police, he said.

The local Chinese authorities have alleged Tashi Wangchuk of offending them by spreading and sharing videos of the incident on his social media, the source from inside the region said.

Radio Free Asia could not reach Yushu City police by phone for comment.

Wangchuks encounter with police comes at a time when the Chinese government has intensified its efforts to suppress Tibetan culture, language and religion and to forcibly assimilate the Tibetan identity into the dominant Han-Chinese majority.

It has eroded the use of Tibetan language as medium of instruction in schools and persecuted those who advocate for its continuance.

Previous arrest, torture

Another Tibetan, who lives in exile and knows about the matter said the Yushu City Police Bureau Chief and Deputy Mayor Ye Husai were among those who brutally beat Wangchuk.

Tashi Wangchuk never accepted that he violated any law by posting the video on his social media, said the source, who declined to be identified for the same reason. Instead, he was only exercising his freedom of speech.

Chinese authorities arrested and tortured Wangchuk in 2016 because of a New York Times documentary released a year earlier in which he advocated for the use of the Tibetan language in government offices and in education.

He was held in pre-trial detention for two years, and in May 2018 was sentenced to five years in prison for inciting separatism

Wangchuk was released in January 2021, but remains subject to a five-year deprivation of political rights, according to PEN America, a U.S. organization that advocated for freedom of expression worldwide.

This August, a group of unidentified men in eastern Tibet attacked Wangchuk who was staying at a hotel in Darlak county after traveling there to raise awareness about the disappearance of the Tibetan language in schools, RFA reported, based on a report by London-based rights group Free Tibet.

Pema Gyal, a Tibetan researcher at Tibet Watch, a London-based advocacy and monitoring group, condemned Wangchuks latest beating and detention.

Earning a livelihood remains increasingly difficult for former political prisoners who are also deprived of their political rights, he said. Even after their release from prison, they are subjected to constant surveillance and harassment by security officials and the crackdown has been very prominent.

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi of RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.
Bidens visit to Vietnam last month paved the way for authorities to lift the exit ban.

Vietnamese human rights attorney Vo An Don and his family arrive at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C., on Oct. 26, 2023.

A well-known Vietnamese human rights lawyer and his family have arrived in the United States a year after they were stopped by police from boarding a flight to New York.

Vo An Don landed at Washingtons Dulles International Airport on Thursday with his wife and three children. He told Radio Free Asia that they were able to leave Vietnam without any obstacles.

Arriving in a country of freedom made me very happy, he said. Everything went very well as the International Organization for Migration supported and created favorable conditions for us.

Don represented defendants in high-profile, politically sensitive cases, including blogger Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, also known as Mother Mushroom, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison in June 2017 for spreading propaganda against the state.

Last year, he told RFA that he and his family had decided to seek asylum in the United States because they were suffering harassment by authorities in his home province of Phu Yen and economic hardship since he could no longer work as a lawyer.

The Washington-based International Organization for Migration secured funding for the familys airfare, but authorities at Tan Son Nhat Airport in Ho Chi Minh City wouldnt allow them to board their flight in September 2022.

Airport police told him he would need to contact immigration authorities in Phu Yen for an explanation of why he was barred from traveling overseas.

U.S. President Joe Bidens visit last month to Hanoi paved the way for police to allow him to travel, Don posted on Facebook. Just before Biden arrived, police advised Don that the exit ban on him and his family had been lifted, he wrote.

The truth is they wanted me to stay in Vietnam as a hostage for negotiations with the U.S. until they got what they wanted, he wrote. Then they let me go as a human rights gift.

Traded like a type of good

A decade ago, Don represented the wife of a criminal suspect who was beaten to death by police in 2012. He also defended four Vietnamese citizens who were jailed in 2017 after sailing to Australia in search of work.

In 2017, he was stripped of his license to practice law after he posted a comment on Facebook that said lawyers in Vietnam regularly use payoffs to win cases for their clients.

On Thursday, Don and his family flew to Charlotte, North Carolina, after arriving at Dulles. They were scheduled to board another flight to Fayetteville, Arkansas, their final destination.

On Facebook, Don cited Vietnams Constitution, which says citizens have the right to freedom of movement and residence inside and outside the country without any obstruction.

Instead, authorities treat people in Vietnam like dirt, he wrote.

Theyre bullied and oppressed, and when they want to leave the country, they are traded like a type of good, he wrote. I am a human, not a pet for them to give visitors as a gift.

Translated by Anna Vu. Edited by Matt Reed.
Welcome to The Azadi Briefing, an RFE/RL newsletter that unpacks the key issues in Afghanistan. To subscribe for free, click here.

I'm Frud Bezhan, regional desk editor for Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Here's what I've been tracking and what I'm keeping an eye on in the days ahead.

The Key Issue

The Afghan Taliban has issued a fatwa, or Islamic decree, banning its fighters from launching attacks in neighboring Pakistan.

That is according to the Talibans top diplomat in Islamabad, Hafiz Mohibullah Shakir, who told Pakistans Geo News that waging violence in "Pakistan is not jihad," or holy war.

Shakir did not say when and by whom the fatwa was issued.

I want to make it clear: No attacks will be launched from Afghanistan on Pakistan, Shakir said on October 25.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the chief Taliban spokesman, said in August that the group had issued a fatwa that banned its fighters from waging violence outside Afghanistan, without specifically mentioning Pakistan.

The Taliban defined its 19-year insurgency against the U.S.-backed Afghan government and international forces as a jihad against infidels and occupiers.

Why It's Important: The fatwa appears to be aimed at the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) -- an extremist group that has close ideological and organizational ties with the Afghan Taliban.

The TTP, also known as the Pakistani Taliban, has intensified its insurgency against Islamabad since the Afghan Taliban seized power in Kabul in 2021.

Pakistan has accused the Afghan Taliban of harboring the TTP and carried out cross-border attacks targeting TTP hideouts inside Afghanistan.

The fatwa also appears to be a response to growing reports that some Afghan Taliban fighters have joined the TTPs insurgency.

Pakistani officials have said that Afghans have been involved in recent militant attacks in the South Asian country of some 240 million.

What's Next: The Afghan Talibans alleged sheltering of the TTP has soured its relations with Pakistan, its longtime ally.

The fatwa suggests that the Afghan militants are keen on mending ties with Islamabad. Recent tensions have led to costly border closures and deadly clashes.

In June, the Afghan Taliban relocated TTP fighters and their families away from the border with Pakistan to other areas of Afghanistan, a move intended to placate Islamabad.

What To Keep An Eye On

A young Afghan man has committed suicide in a refugee camp in Indonesia. Aqil Ali, 28, hanged himself in a camp in the city of Tanjung Pinang on October 22.

Hossein Azizi, Alis friend, told RFE/RLs Radio Azadi that he was in a bad mental state for weeks. We found him hanging from a tree near the volleyball court in the camp, he said.

Alis body was laid to rest on October 24. He had been in Indonesia since 2014.

Why It's Important: Alis death has highlighted the plight of the over 7,000 Afghan refugees stranded in Indonesia.

Many Afghans saw Indonesia as a short-term stopover en route to Australia. But in 2013 the authorities in Canberra began refusing entry to boats carrying refugees and sent them back to the Southeast Asian nation.

Indonesia is one of the world's least desirable places for refugees. Jakarta is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees or the related 1967 protocol intended to eliminate restrictions on who can be considered a refugee.

Indonesia also has no asylum law of its own and delegates its responsibility to determine who gets refugee protection and finds solutions to the issue to the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The result is that thousands of Afghan refugees are living in limbo in the archipelago, some for more than a decade, with no livelihood or security.

That's all from me for now. Don't forget to send me any questions, comments, or tips that you have. You can always reach us at azadi.english@rferl.org.



Until next time,



Frud Bezhan



If you enjoyed this briefing and don't want to miss the next edition, subscribe for free here. It will be sent to your inbox every Friday.


YEREVAN -- German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock traveled to Armenia's border with the autonomous Azerbaijani exclave of Naxcivan on November 4, the second day of a trip to the tense region.

Baerbock traveled to the Caucasus six weeks after a lightning offensive by Azerbaijani forces retook the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh following decades in which Yerevan-backed ethnic Armenians controlled the Azerbaijani territory.

More than 100,000 ethnic Armenians fled Nagorno-Karabakh for Armenia after the Azerbaijani offensive, virtually emptying out the territory. The German Foreign Office said Baerbock was scheduled to visit a reception facility for refugees while in Armenia.

On November 4, Baerbock participated in a patrol by the civilian EU Mission in Armenia (EUMA) around 70 kilometers from the capital, Yerevan, near the border with Naxcivan, which neighbors Armenia to the southwest. EUMA is tasked with monitoring the security situation along the Armenian side of the border.

On November 3, Baerbock urged Armenia and Azerbaijan to return to the negotiating table and seek a political solution to their decades-old conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.

"There is no other way for long-term peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan than the negotiation table," Baerbock said during a visit to Yerevan.

Mediation efforts led by European Council President Charles Michel "are a bridge that can show the fastest way to peace," Baerbock said after talks with Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan.

Yerevan and Baku have made progress on the various problems, including demarcation, she said, and that has "raised hope that you can come to a peaceful solution."

Mirzoyan acknowledged Germany's efforts to achieve peace in the region but also said Azerbaijan had broken its promise to not engage in hostilities.

"Armenia has the will to take the path of peace in the region," he said, but he also noted humanitarian problems, Armenian prisoners of war, and the need to recognize the territorial sovereignty of both countries.

WATCH: Ethnic Armenian Rafik Sarkisian rode his beloved horse from Nagorno-Karabakh to safety in Armenia after Azerbaijani forces attacked Nagorno-Karabakh on September 19. He traveled for over 24 hours before a local Armenian family took in the exhausted 60-year-old.

Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Paruyr Hovhannisian earlier on November 3 touted Baerbock's visit to discuss possible peace efforts and to honor victims of Ottoman-era mass killings as "important [and] perhaps historic."

Hovhannisian told the Armenian parliament that the stop "shows Germany's commitment to invest in the [peace] process as a weighty member of the European Union."

Hours after her arrival, Baerbock laid a wreath at a memorial to the victims in 1915-16 of mass killings of more than 1 million ethnic Armenians by Ottoman Empire authorities in a tragedy over which Turkey has expressed regret but resisted acknowledging as genocide.

German lawmakers joined many other countries in 2016 by passing a resolution describing it as genocide.

The Azerbaijani-Armenian conflict that remained open since the 1990s has for years threatened to escalate into war that could drag in Russian, Turkish, or Iranian forces in an area where Europe and the West also remain heavily engaged.

Nagorno-Karabakh initially came under the control of ethnic Armenian forces, backed by the Armenian military, as the Soviet Union crumbled in separatist fighting that ended in 1994. During a war in 2020, however, Azerbaijan took back parts of Nagorno-Karabakh along with surrounding territory that Armenian forces had claimed during the earlier conflict.

Last month, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev raised his country's flag in the main city of Nagorno-Karabakh, known as Xankendi to Azerbaijanis and Stepanakert to the territory's ethnic Armenians.

With reporting by dpa
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the only European Union leader to have met with Russian President Vladimir Putin since he launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine, says the blocs strategy with regards to the war has failed and a plan B should be created as Kyiv will not win the frontline battle against Russia.

Speaking in Brussels on the sidelines of the EU summit where discussion was focused on support for Ukraine, Orban said there was a big battle over the matter and added that he saw no reason for Hungary to send its taxpayers money to support Kyiv, which has been battling to repel invading Russian troops sent by Putin since February 2022.



Orbans comments came as the European Commission is seeking unanimous support from member states to increase the long-term EU budget before the end of the year, in particular to ensure the continued flow of financial aid to Ukraine.



The commission proposed a revision of the 2021-27 EU budget worth 1.1 trillion euros ($1.2 trillion) to provide 50 billion euros to Ukraine and spend another 15 billion euros on migration. But the budget top-up needs backing from all member states, who will be required to make additional contributions from their national budgets.

The EU leaders discussed the revision of the budget during the first day of their summit in Brussels, but they did not find an agreement and only decided to take work forward, with a view to reaching an overall agreement by the end of the year.



Orban, whose government continues to cultivate closer ties with Russia, unlike the other EU states, has been seen as a potential opponent of increased aid for Ukraine.



We found this proposal had not been worked out properly and was not suitable to be a basis for serious negotiations, so we rejected it, Orban told his countrys state radio on October 27.



It was a big battle, especially on the Ukrainian issue.



Orban said the biggest problem was that the Brussels strategy to send money and military aid to Ukraine to help its fight against Russia has failed.



Today everybody knows but they do not dare to say it out loud, that this strategy has failed. Its obvious that this will not work... the Ukrainians will not win on the front line, he said, adding that a plan B was needed.



Orbans comments came as Budapest is trying to unlock billions in aid envisaged for Hungary in the EU budget but blocked by the executive European Commission over rule-of-law concerns.



Orbans position drew criticism from other EU leaders. Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel said on October 27 that Hungary should not keep the EU hostage over Ukraine aid.



You cant say: if you want money for Ukraine, we want money for us. We shouldnt be the hostage of Mr. Orban and Im convinced we will find a positive solution, he said.



Bettel was among several EU leaders who criticized Orban for having met Russian President Vladimir Putin in China this month as Moscow wages a war against Ukraine and the EU is shunning the Kremlin.



It is really showing the middle finger to a country that suffers daily under Russian missiles and bombs, Bettel said on October 26.



But Orban defended his decision to meet Putin, saying that he was proud to keep communications open with Moscow.



Orban was not the only EU leader who did not agree on the commissions proposition for a revision of the budget.



Backing up Orban over his fears of what happens to funds headed to Ukraine was his northern neighbor, Slovakia.



Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who was appointed on October 25, said aid to Ukraine should include guarantees that the funds would not be misappropriated.



"Ukraine is among the most corrupt countries in the world and we are conditioning what is excessive financial support on guarantees that European money (including Slovak) will not be embezzled," he said in a statement.



Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said the proposed 50 billion euros for Ukraine was not enough, while Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said that - beyond supporting Ukraine -- joint expenditure should grow to improve EU defense capabilities.



Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo backed continued support for Ukraine but called on the commission to make better use of the cash in its own coffers instead of asking the EU members for bigger contributions.



A decision on the budget revision is expected at the next EU summit in December.

With reporting by Reuters and AP
With the expiration of UN sanctions designed to thwart Iran's development of ballistic missiles, both Tehran and ally Russia have said there is nothing standing in the way of them trading such technology.

The claims have led to concerns that Moscow and Tehran could try to expand their existing arms dealing to include more advanced weaponry, know-how, and technology that could boost both Russia's war effort in Ukraine and Iran's ballistic-missile and drone programs.

But while observers do not discount the possibility that Iran could try to sell previously barred weapons -- chiefly, powerful short-range ballistic missiles -- to Russia, they express skepticism Tehran will follow through.

Among the reasons, they say, are Tehran's need to maintain its own military stockpiles amid increased conflict in the Middle East, the desire to be seen as a compliant and legitimate arms trader by the international community, and the continuation of an already existing strategy of supporting the manufacture of such weaponry in other countries, including Russia.

Hamidreza Azizi, a fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin, told RFE/RL that Iran's suggestion that it is no longer subject to UN sanctions limiting its missile program is more "political, rather than technical" as it seeks to "normalize" its ability to conduct military trades and transfers.

"The actual impact of the expiry of the UN Security Council restrictions on Iran's missile program, in terms of its impact on Iran's ability to develop its missile program, is rather limited," Azizi said. "Because all these years we witnessed that, despite those restrictions being in place, Iran managed to develop not only its missile program, but also its drone program, its military capabilities, to an unprecedented level."

Azizi notes that Iran achieved this in part due to technical and scientific cooperation with other partners, mainly North Korea but also with Russia and Moscow's allies.

Iran set up a manufacturing facility for reconnaissance and combat drones in Tajikistan and Belarus is reportedly seeking to establish a factory to produce the Iranian Shahed-136 kamikaze drone believed to be used extensively by Russia in its war against Ukraine.

Western officials have also revealed the existence of a drone facility being built in Russia with Iran's assistance that would allow Moscow to build domestic versions of Iranian drones in huge numbers and could be in operation by early 2024.

With the expiration of the UN sanctions, which were largely regarded as toothless, Azizi says he expects Iran to stick to its policy "of considering its military capabilities as nonnegotiable" in any international negotiations while "continuing to advance its capabilities."

Iran can already boast some of the most sophisticated missiles and drones in the Middle East at a time when Tehran's support of proxies and militant groups in the region is being watched closely as archenemy Israel battles the Iranian-backed Hamas extremist organization.

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Iran has widely been accused of delivering cheap but effective kamikaze drones to Moscow. While Iran denies the allegations, saying it only sold drones to Moscow before the war started, U.S. officials have repeatedly accused Tehran of supplying Shahed-136 Iranian drones that Russia has used to destroy civilian infrastructure in Ukraine. There has been evidence of Iranian drones rebranded as Russian Geran-2s being used on the battlefield.

And as the two countries have increased military-technical cooperation, Iran's Defense Ministry has routinely showcased its ballistic, cruise, anti-tank, and air-defense missile systems to Russian officials.

The sanctions, in effect since 2015 and enshrined in UN Resolution 2231, expired on October 18 as part of the moribund Iran nuclear deal with world powers known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The United States withdrew from the deal, which offered sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on Iran's nuclear program, in 2018. As European signatories Britain, France, and Germany tried to keep the pact alive, Iran abandoned some of its commitments, but never withdrew from the JCPOA.

The UN sanctions, which were introduced when the Security Council approved the JCPOA, called on Iran, among other things, "not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons." Under the terms, any countries wishing to engage in related trade with Iran were required to first get approval from the UN Security Council.

In separate statements as the sanctions expired, Iran and Russia were quick to claim that they would no longer be bound by the restrictions, although neither side announced any concrete plans for future cooperation regarding Iran's ballistic-missile program.

Iran's Defense Ministry, for its part, said Tehran regarded the development as an opportunity to "strengthen its defense capabilities." But Azizi said Iran now "sees itself free from restrictions to export military technology and weapons, rather than to import them."

Russia, Azizi said, is also interested in underscoring that "there are no more restrictions or special commitments that Iran needs to observe in its military-technical cooperation when it comes to missiles" so that it can also "potentially increase the potential for Iran to send missiles to Russia."

Iran's previous export of Shahed-136 drones to Russia could be explained in part because they "arguably" fell under the UN's classification of conventional weapons, according to Jeremy Binnie, Middle East defense specialist at the global intelligence company Janes.

"We have not seen any evidence of transfers of Iranian missiles to Russia so far, but it is unclear if this has been because the Iranians did not want to be seen to be so obviously violating UNSCR 2231," Binnie told RFE/RL in written comments.

Now that the UN sanctions have expired, he said, Iran "may now be more willing to overtly provide arms" to Russia, Binnie said.

As for Russia seeking Iranian missiles, Azizi said, "as Ukraine's Western allies increase the level of their military support for Ukraine, there might be a moment that the Russian leaders decide [to import Iranian missiles because] it's not going to make any difference."

Whether Iran would actually part with such weaponry is another question, particularly considering the current war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the prospect of direct Iranian involvement in that conflict.

"Another consideration for the Iranians is maintaining their own military capabilities, which would be undermined by transferring significant numbers of missiles to Russia," Binnie said. "The uncertain situation in the Middle East right now is likely to increase Iranian unwillingness to supply weapons to Russia that they feel should be retained at home or supplied to allied groups in support of its regional goals."

One solution, Binnie said, "might be to replicate what has happened with the Shahed-136s, whereby Iran supplies initial batches, then transfers the technology to Russia so it can build them locally."

He said that while Russia had a sophisticated missile production capability of its own, "the Iranians would be teaching them how to make cheaper missiles using supply chains that circumnavigate Western sanctions."

The United States and the European Union moved quickly to impose new obstacles as the UN sanctions -- intended to blunt Iran's ballistic-missile program, and by extension its possible acquisition of nuclear weapons and delivery systems -- expired.

In September, Britain, France, and Germany announced that they would maintain their existing sanctions related to Iran's controversial nuclear program, which Tehran claims is for civilian purposes only, and its development of ballistic missiles.

The United States on October 18, the same day that the UN sanctions expired, announced new sanctions targeting individuals and companies in Iran and Russia, among other countries, in an effort to penalize Iran's efforts to buy or sell technology or equipment related to its missile and drone programs.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 27. Uzbekistan and Georgia have discussed the expansion of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR), Trend reports.

The issue was reviewed at the meeting between Georgia's Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Levan Davitashvili and Uzbekistan's Minister of Transport Ilkhom Makhkamov on the sidelines of the Silk Road Forum in Tbilisi.

During the meeting, the parties discussed the priority areas of bilateral economic cooperation, with a particular focus on transportation and logistics.

The Uzbek side expressed its will to increase freight turnover along TITR, or the so-called Middle Corridor, which is the shortest route between Europe and Asia. Uzbekistan's minister also showed interest in Georgia's logistics capabilities.

Meanwhile, within the forum, an agreement was reached that a joint company will be established in Georgia, consisting of the railway companies of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan, that will enhance the capabilities of this transport route.

The Middle Corridor, a transportation and trade pathway, links Asia and Europe as it traverses numerous countries within the region. It provides an alternative to the conventional Northern and Southern Corridors.

Beginning in China, it spans across Central Asian nations like Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. Subsequently, it extends through the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkiye before reaching the European continent.

This strategic Middle Corridor offers a land-based connection between the eastern regions of Asia, including China, and Europe, offering a shorter path compared to lengthy maritime routes.
CREVEDIA, Romania -- In a cramped shelter, 12-year-old Cristian Andrei Iliescu closes his eyes as he plays Beethoven's Fur Elise. The piano he plays on was gifted to the Iliescu family after their house and everything inside it was destroyed in a series of massive explosions two months ago.

On August 26, a fire broke out at an LPG filling station in Crevedia, Romania, that spread to gas cylinders in the forecourt of the unlicensed business. The explosions that followed left six people dead, scores injured, and damaged or destroyed 97 houses, including the family home of the Iliescus.

In place of the large villa the 10 family members once lived in, the Iliescus now survive in four mobile offices provided by the regional council. Promises of compensation by Flagas, the company that owned the LPG station where the explosions occurred, have not materialized. The Iliescus say they have already sunk some 10,000 euros into their new shelter. I made a hall from timber and chipboard, insulated it, then covered it in tin to stop the rain getting through, Doina Iliescu, Cristians grandmother, says.

After the disaster, which left the Iliescus literally with only the clothes on their backs, their most pressing problem is the lack of running water for the family, which includes four children. We dont have toilets. We cant even wash ourselves properly, Doina told RFE/RL. My husband is already getting sick because its cold. He has respiratory problems and needs decent living conditions.

Flagas company representative Valentin Iancu vowed to RFE/RL in early September that the company would support victims of the explosions. We are open to dialogue and will do everything within our power to provide both financial and material support, he said at the time. RFE/RL contacted Iancu once more on October 23. He declined to speak due to what he said was a family tragedy. He did not respond to further calls the following day. Two owners of Flagas were arrested on September 5 and are currently under investigation.

At least some people have been compensated. RFE/RL visited one house that had its roof restored at a cost of around 10,000 euros. The gas company helped me. They roofed my house and replaced the windows, Crevedia resident Elena Moise says. Despite this, disagreements remain over compensation. I still have damage inside the house. The chandeliers, my stove, bed, and fridge are all broken. Moise says compensation of 15,000 lei (3,000 euros) was initially floated, which then shrank to 10,000 lei. The last conversation I had with the [Flagas] lawyer, he said he can no longer offer 10,000 lei and instead can pay 5,000 lei, that it seemed like a lot for curtains and chandeliers, Moise recalls.
After 22 days of legislative chaos in the U.S. House of Representatives, Republican Mike Johnson -- a little-known lawmaker from Louisiana -- became speaker of the lower chamber of Congress on October 25, reflecting a rightward shift by his party that raises new questions over the future of U.S. aid for Ukraine.

The new speaker inherits a slew of looming policy deadlines, including a potential government shutdown on November 17, but attention has quickly turned to how Johnson will approach a sweeping, nearly $106 billion package that U.S. President Joe Biden sent to Congress. It includes some $60 billion in assistance for Ukraine and $14 billion for Israel, as well as funding for security in the Indo-Pacific and enforcement on the U.S. border with Mexico.



Before becoming speaker, Johnson previously voted against aid to Ukraine, joining some other House Republicans who argue that the money could be better spent at home and that the United States should not be so deeply involved in overseas conflicts.

One day after being elevated to his new role, Johnson once again expressed concerns over Ukraine funding during a Fox News interview on October 26 and said that aid for Ukraine and Israel should be handled separately, suggesting he will not back the White Houses $106 billion aid package in its current form.



Israel is a separate matter -- we are going to bring forward a standalone Israel funding measure [of] over $14 billion, Johnson said in the interview.



We cant allow [Russian President] Vladimir Putin to prevail in Ukraine because I dont believe it would stop there, Johnson continued, but he called for greater scrutiny on aid for Ukraine as Russias full-scale invasion has passed the 20-month mark with no end in sight.



We want to know what the object is there, what is the endgame in Ukraine, Johnson said, echoing calls from various quarters for a clearer explanation of U.S. goals. Biden has said the United States will support Ukraine for as long as it takes, but some on both sides of the debate over aid for Kyiv want more details.

What does Johnsons election mean for U.S. assistance for Ukraine, a crucial element in Kyivs efforts to defend itself and drive Russian forces from the country?



Experts who spoke to RFE/RL said that they expect a tough legislative road ahead, but that bipartisan support for Kyiv is still strong across Congress.



Johnson as Speaker does not doom Ukraine aid, though it may complicate the overall process toward getting a vote on the $60 billion package, Andrew DAnieri, a resident fellow at the Washington-based Atlantic Councils Eurasia Center, told RFE/RL.



Heres what we know so far -- and what analysts are watching as Johnson settles into his new position as speaker for the 435-member House.



Who Is Mike Johnson And What Are His Views On Ukraine?



Shortly after Johnsons election as speaker on October 25, he held back on his views regarding Ukraine, making no mention of the country or Russias war against it in remarks in which he emphasized, We stand with our ally Israel. When a reporter asked whether he supports additional U.S. aid to Ukraine, he said he would not talk about policy and another Republican lawmaker at his side loudly urged the journalist to go away.



Prior to that, Johnson -- a lawyer who also played a leading role in former U.S. President Donald Trumps efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election  has walked an unclear line toward Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022.



He came out forcefully in support of Kyiv later that day, saying in a statement that Moscows invasion constitutes a national security threat to the entire West.



He also called for debilitating sanctions against Russia and concluded that Americas prayers remain with the Ukrainian people. In April 2022, Johnson voted in favor of legislation that made it simpler for Washington to supply weapons to Ukraine.

But in May and December 2022 and in September 2023, Johnson voted against appropriations that included aid to Ukraine.



He has argued for more accountability due to transparency and corruption concerns with Ukraine handling U.S. taxpayer money, echoing statements by some other prominent Republicans, such as then-speaker Kevin McCarthy, that Kyiv should not be granted a blank check.



They deserve to know if the Ukrainian government is being entirely forthcoming and transparent about the use of this massive sum of taxpayer resources, he said in February of this year.

This -- in addition to Johnsons comments since becoming speaker -- have raised questions about the level of support toward Ukraine that can be expected from Republicans in the House under Johnson.



How Has Ukraine Responded?



Kyiv is looking to shrug off the political jostling on Capitol Hill. Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, welcomed Johnsons election as an end to the stalemate in Washington and said in televised comments that he was "more than sure that cooperation will continue, assistance will continue."



Danilov seized on a separate comment in which Johnson, when asked on October 25 whether he supports more aid for Ukraine, told reporters: We all do. We are going to have conditions on that so were working through.



"The statement made by the speaker that they would like to check the assistance they provide -- this is a completely natural thing, Danilov said. We're happy to provide all information about the aid, there are no secrets."

A report card issued by a Republican group that advocates continuing support for Ukraine gives Johnson a very poor rating based on his votes and public comments since the full-scale invasion.



Two of the three Republicans who made unsuccessful bids to become House speaker before Johnson was nominated have been more supportive of Ukraine  which may have hurt their chances because of the stance of hard-right lawmakers such as Matt Gaetz, who led the push to oust McCarthy from the speaker post.



McCarthys ouster on October 3, unprecedented in U.S. history, complicated the Biden administrations efforts to secure new aid for Ukraine.

Four days later, the massive attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas added a major new factor, sparking a new Middle East war that has diverted attention from Ukraine and created a potential competitor for urgent U.S. aid.

The Atlantic Councils DAnieri said that Johnsons past voting record may not be a straightforward rubric for how he will approach Ukraine as speaker, noting that previous aid packages made it through the House with significant bipartisan majorities and Johnson had not faced pressure over the direction of his past votes.



After winning the speakership, Johnson told reporters that he's willing to support aid with conditions and talks with the White House on accountability and [clear] objectives, he said. Now he'll have to make good on those promises, but they may not be such a bad thing [for Ukraine] if he pushes both of those in good faith.



Will Ukraine Be Able To Get Its Funding Approved?



Combining aid to Ukraine in a single package with $14 billion in support for Israel, as well as money for Republican-backed causes such as border security, is an attempt by the White House to convince House Republicans wary of sending additional money to Ukraine and increase the legislations chances of approval.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's full-scale invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here.

On October 25, Biden congratulated Johnson and said it was time for all of us to act responsibly and adopt a measure to avert a U.S. government shutdown next month, as well as providing aid for Ukraine and Israel.



In his interview with Fox, Johnson has now signaled he intends to split Ukraine funding from that of Israel in the proposed funding package, setting up a legislative battle over the coming month.



But doing so will also expose divides within the Republican Party itself over Ukraine.



Republicans in the House are divided over this, but most Republicans in the Senate generally support continuing the assistance to Ukraine, John Deni, a research professor at U.S. Army War College, told RFE/RL. They understand that Ukraine is dramatically degrading the land power of one of the United States two major adversaries in the world.



Deni added that given high support among Democrats in the House and Senate for Ukraine aid, its still likely that the package of military assistance to Kyiv will be bundled with other legislation.



However, with a potential government shutdown in November a real possibility, any future scenario is difficult to predict, and analysts expect tough political battles ahead.



DAnieri said that it was still unclear whether Johnson could succeed in separating Ukraine and Israel funding from the same bundle, and that Johnson probably could not have won the speakers post without assuaging more moderate Republicans who support aid to Ukraine.



The fact that the entire caucus [of Republicans in the House] rallied around the ultraconservative Johnson suggests that moderate members received major assurances of some kind, he said.



D'Anieri added that bipartisan support for both Ukraine and Israel remains high, including from Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer and Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell.



A split funding bill would be dead on arrival in the Senate, he said. So Johnson will face huge pressure from many in his own caucus, Senate Republicans, and the White House to pass a joint Ukraine-Israel spending bill. It will be tough for Johnson to push back against them.

Steve Gutterman contributed to this report.
Russian forces shelled the center of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson on October 27, injuring several people and damaging more than 12 residential buildings, the head of the city's military administration said.

Roman Mrochko said on Telegram that one of the injured people was transported to a hospital for treatment. He posted photos on Telegram showing three sites with piles of rubble.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's full-scale invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here.

Ukraine's State Emergency Service said the center of Kherson was targeted in the evening and "the entire city trembled."

Emergency workers rescued two women, include one in her 80s, who had been unable to escape a building. They also brought a fire under control, the service said on Telegram.

Kherson city, which was partially liberated by Ukrainian troops one year ago, has been constantly targeted by Russian shelling from across the Dnieper River.

The Russian Defense Ministry said the Ukrainian military has lost 485 troops in the Kherson region over the past week "as a result of preemptive operations by Russian forces and artillery fire." The Russian attacks also destroyed 11 field artillery guns and 20 vehicles, the ministry said, according to TASS.

In the area near Avdiyivka, where fighting has been especially intense over the past weeks, a spokesman for a Ukrainian military mechanized brigade told RFE/RL that Ukrainian forces have successfully repelled attacks.

The area is just north of the city of Donetsk in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, where Russian troops have been mounting an offensive.

The spokesman, Anton Kotsukon, said a Russian flag hoisted over the ash pit of the Avdiyivka coke plant did not stand for long.

"Russians like to do this trick -- to run somewhere, put up a flag, take a picture or videotape it, and then spread it [on social media]," Kotsukon said.

But he said heavy fighting for the territory continues and there are no trees or other greenery in which to hide.

"Our defense forces constantly monitor the situation around this place, and as soon as they detect any movement of the occupiers -- even if it is one or two occupiers -- they immediately pour everything possible there," Kotsukon said.

It is not possible for RFE/RL to verify either side's battlefield claims.

WATCH: RFE/RL joins a Ukrainian border patrol as it monitors the Dnieper River in the country's northern Chernihiv region where it borders Belarus. Russian forces entered Ukraine from Belarus at the start of its full-scale invasion in 2022. Kyiv has since strengthened its defenses in the area. One border guard told RFE/RL that the Belarusian military was "very cautious" as Ukrainian boats patrol the waters.

Earlier on October 27, a Russian missile struck a fire department in Izyum in Ukraine's northern Kharkiv region, injuring at least eight rescue workers and damaging the facility, Ukrainian officials said.

The building itself and 13 pieces of equipment were also damaged, the State Emergency Service said in a statement, adding that four of the wounded rescuers were receiving medical treatment in the hospital.

The agency shared several images on social media that showed a wrecked building and fire engines.

Regional authorities said the attack was launched at around midnight, but didnt say what types of missiles had been used.



Russian troops also launched two waves of Shahed drone attacks on the southern regions of Mykolayiv and Kherson overnight, the Ukrainian military said.



Ukraine's air forces destroyed five of the six Russian drones launched in that attack, according to Natalya Humenyuk, a spokesperson for the southern military command.



"Unfortunately, there was a hit on an infrastructure object, a fire broke out, but it is not critical, it was localized, Humenyuk told Ukrainian media. She said that there were no casualties.

The reports could not be independently verified.



Russia, meanwhile, said it had thwarted a Ukrainian drone attack near the Kursk nuclear plant in Russia's south, amid reports of an explosion damaging a warehouse storing nuclear waste.



Russia's Defense Ministry said there were no casualties or damage in the blast, which has not been independently verified, and that radiation levels were normal. Officials said the plant was operating as usual.



Nearly 70 combat clashes took places over the past day, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in its regular updates early on October 27.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 27. The Small and Medium Business Development Agency (KOBIA) has signed a memorandum of understanding to support Azerbaijani and Turkish companies operating in the transportation sector, Trend reports.

According to KOBIA, the memorandum of understanding between the agency, TOBB UND Lojistik Yatrm AS (TOBBUND), the Association of Customs Representations and Logistics Companies of Azerbaijan (AGTL) and the SME Foreign Economic Activity Support Operator (XIFDO) was signed at the Baku SME Center.

The memorandum was signed by Orkhan Mammadov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of KOBIA, Mehmet Uylukcu, General Director of TOBBUND, Kamran Habibov, Executive Director of XIFDO, and Vusal Gasimov, Executive Director of AGTL.

The memorandum, according to KOBIA, envisions various measures to support the foreign economic activities of Azerbaijani and Turkish carriers and SME representatives operating in the relevant field, such as the exchange of information and experience in the field of transit and logistics, the preparation and implementation of joint events and projects, and joint activities to develop business relations.

The challenges raised by the Memorandum of Understanding, as well as potential for cooperation, were discussed during the signing ceremony.
Israel-Palestine War

Spokesman in its investigation found the viral post to be misleading

Israel-Palestine War: In the ongoing war between Israel and Palestine, more than 6,000 people have lost their lives and buildings worth billions have been destroyed. While many people are in support of Israel in this war, many people have also come in support of Palestine. Now in this connection, a video is going viral on social media and a particular community living in India is being targeted. In the viral video, people can be seen rallying in support of Palestine and in this rally, they also have flags in their hands. Users are claiming that a rally was taken out in Kerala with the French flag in support of Gaza. The Indian Muslim community is being targeted by making this video viral.

Many users, including BJP leaders, are making this video viral with similar claims. While sharing the viral video, BJP leader Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga wrote, "Supporters of Hamas terrorists gathered in Kerala, they waved the flag of Italy instead of the Palestine flag."

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Hamas terrorists supporters gathered in Kerala, instead of carrying Palestine flag ???????? they carried Italy Flag ???????? pic.twitter.com/jgBVI5M2Ty  Tejinder Pall Singh Bagga (@TajinderBagga) October 21, 2023

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Many other users are making this video viral with similar claims. Some of these viral posts can be seen by clicking here, here and here.

Spokesman in its investigation found the viral post to be misleading. In the viral video, it is not the flag of France. Flag of Welfare Party Kerala can be seen in the viral video.

-- Spokesman's Investigation

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While starting the investigation, we first watched this video carefully. We found that a big banner with Welfare Party Kerala written on it could be seen at the rally.

"Welfare Party Kerala flag in viral video"

Keeping this information in mind, we visited the official Facebook page of Welfare Party Kerala. We found that the flag of this party was in the viral video.

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We searched this page and found many videos regarding this rally. It can be clearly seen in these videos that during the rally, not the flag of France but the flag of his own party was waved.

You can see the difference between the France Flag and the flag of Welfare Party Kerala in the collage below.

Conclusion- Spokesman in its investigation found the viral post to be misleading. In the viral video, it is not the flag of France. Flag of Welfare Party Kerala can be seen in the viral video.




Australia will on Friday release Q3 numbers for producer prices, highlighting a light day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. In the three months prior, producer prices rose 0.5 percent on quarter and 3.9 percent on year.

Japan will see October figures for Tokyo consumer prices; in September, overall Tokyo CPI was up 2.8 percent on year and core CPI rose 2.5 percent.

China will release September data for industrial profits, in August, profits slumped 11.7 percent on year.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Economic News

What parts of the world are seeing the best (and worst) economic performances lately? Click here to check out our Econ Scorecard and find out! See up-to-the-moment rankings for the best and worst performers in GDP, unemployment rate, inflation and much more.
European stocks were mixed on Friday as weak earnings from the likes of Sanofi, Remy Cointreau and NatWest offset robust U.S. economic data released overnight.

Energy stocks outperformed as oil prices surged on concerns over a widening of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

The pan European STOXX 600 was up 0.2 percent at 433.83 after declining half a percent on Thursday.

The German DAX rose half a percent and the U.K.' s FTSE 100 edged up 0.2 percent while France's CAC 40 was down 0.4 percent.

The euro traded lower against a basket of major rivals, a day after the European Central Bank kept rates steady as expected.

BP Plc jumped 2 percent and Shell added 2.1 percent as crude prices rose by over $2 a barrel after a U.S. military attack on facilities in Syria linked to Iran.

Italian energy giant Eni rose about 1 percent despite reporting a 67 percent fall in Q3 net profit.

Swedish home appliance manufacturer Electrolux slumped nearly 10 percent after third-quarter core profits came in below expectations.



SKF, the world's biggest maker of industrial bearings, gained 1.5 percent after saying it is exploring strategic options to fully or partially exit non-core businesses.

Signify NV soared 10 percent after reporting robust quarterly core earnings.

British Airways-owner IAG declined 1.5 percent despite beating market expectations for profit in the third quarter.

NatWest Group shares plunged more than 10 percent after the Financial Conduct Authority said it had found "potential regulatory breaches" in its report into a banking account scandal that ousted NatWest CEO Alison Rose.

French spirits maker Remy Cointreau plunged 11 percent after slashing its sales outlook and lowering profit guidance.

Drug maker Sanofi plummeted 15 percent after it forecast lower profit next year and announced plans to split its consumer-healthcare and pharmaceutical .

MTU Aero Engines rose 1.3 percent after the German aircraft-engine manufacturer reported higher adjusted sales and earnings for the third quarter and confirmed guidance for the year.

Covestro rallied 2 percent. The plastics and chemicals maker said that it is in talks with suitor Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) over a takeover approach.

On a light day on the economic front, France's consumer sentiment improved marginally in October, survey results from the statistical office INSEE showed earlier today.

The consumer sentiment index moved up to 84 in October from 83 in September. The reading was forecast to remain unchanged to 83.

The survey was conducted between September 26 and October 18.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
Indian shares ended sharply higher on Friday, reflecting some improvement in global risk appetite after data showed the U.S. grew at the fastest pace in nearly two years in the July to September quarter on the back of increased consumer spending.

Delayed Israel's invasion of Gaza also bolstered sentiment but reports later in the day about the U.S. attacks on two facilities in Syria used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Iran-backed groups sent oil prices soaring in European trade.

Investors also ignored reports suggesting that the Israeli troops and tanks had briefly entered northern Gaza.

The overnight incursion was backed by fighter jets and drones that hit targets in Shujaiya area.

The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex jumped 634.6 points, or 1.01 percent, to 63,782.80, snapping a six-session losing streak.

The broader NSE Nifty index rose by 190 points, or 1.01 percent, to close at 19,047.25.

Among the top gainers, Bajaj Auto, SBI, Axis Bank, HCL Technologies and Coal India all rallied around 3 percent in the Nifty pack.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 27. Iran's gas refining capacity is expected to increase by 30 million cubic meters in the next few weeks, Iranian Deputy Oil Minister and the CEO of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), Mohsen Khojasteh Mehr said, Trend reports.

Khojasteh Mehr noted that two gas refineries of the South Pars Gas Company (SPGC) will undergo various operations to increase their output.

The deputy minister also said that pipeline No. 16, which carried 20 million cubic meters of gas daily from the SPGC to the countrys gas network last winter, will be reactivated soon.

Irans South Pars Gas Company (SPGC) processes high-quality gas extracted from the South Pars gas field. This corporation provides more than 75 percent of the gas consumed in the country. The corporation operates 12 gas refineries.

The SPGC processes 580 million cubic meters of gas daily and transfers it to the country's gas network. The company also produces 780,000 barrels of gas condensate, 15,000 tons of ethane, 15,000 tons of propane, 10,000 tons of butane, and 2,500 tons of sulfur per day.

The South Pars gas field (called North Dome in Qatar) is a joint gas field between Iran and Qatar. The proven reserves of the South Pars Gas Field are estimated at 51 trillion cubic meters of gas, of which 36 trillion are extractable. Iran's share in the field is 14 trillion cubic meters of gas and 18 billion barrels of gas condensate.

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Announcing preliminary net sales and earnings results for the third quarter on Friday, Corteva, Inc. (CTVA) now expects third-quarter loss from continuing operations of $0.45 per share on net sales of approximately $2.6 billion.

On average, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report a loss of $0.22 per share on revenues of $2.76 billion for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Looking ahead to fiscal 2023, the company now projects operating earnings per share in a range of $2.50 to $2.70 per share on net sales between $17.0 billion and $17.3 billion.

Previously, the company expected operating earnings per share in the range of $2.75 to $2.90 per share on net sales between $17.9 billion and $18.2 billion.

The Street is looking for earnings of $2.81 per share on revenues of $17.98 billion for the year.

For more earnings news, earnings calendar, and earnings for stocks, visit rttnews.com

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
The United States has launched retaliatory air strikes targeting weapons and ammunition storage facilities used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and affiliated groups in eastern Syria.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement that this was in response to a number of drone and rocket attacks carried out by pro-Iranian militias against U.S. military bases in Iraq and Syria recently.

These precision self-defense strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on October 17, Austin said.

One U.S. contractor died and 21 U.S. troops were injured in these attacks, according to him.

Austin said the aerial strikes were conducted as directed by President Joe Biden "to make clear that the United States will not tolerate such attacks and will defend itself, its personnel, and its interests".

The Defense chief warned that such counter attacks will continue if "Iran's proxies" target U.S. forces again.

Austin made it clear that these narrowly tailored strikes in self-defense were intended solely to protect and defend U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria, and are distinct from the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, and do not constitute a shift in Washington's approach to the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Earlier, the Pentagon said U.S. and coalition forces were attacked a dozen times in Iraq and four times in Syria "by a mix of one-way attack drones and rockets".

"We know that these groups are affiliated with Iran," Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said at a news conference.



He announced that the U.S. is deploying about 900 troops to the Middle East to support regional deterrence efforts and further bolster U.S. force protection capabilities.

"I won't talk specific deployment locations for these forces, I can confirm that they are not going to Israel," he told reporters.

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Business News
Honda Activa and Shine range of scooters and motorcycles accounts for over 80% of the total domestic sales in Sep 2023

Despite facing challenges like the global supply chain disruptions and the ongoing pandemic, Honda continues to be a significant player in Indias two-wheeler industry. In September 2023, Hondas domestic sales reached a total of 4,91,802 units, representing a marginal growth of 0.58% compared to the same period last year when they sold 4,88,950 units.

Honda 2W Sales Sep 2023  Activa Tops

While the growth may appear modest, it is worth noting that the company has managed to maintain stable sales in a challenging environment. Honda Activa retained its top position as the highest-selling model with 2,35,056 units sold, accounting for 47.79% of the total domestic sales. However, the Activa witnessed a 4.30% decrease in sales compared to September 2022.

CB Shine, a favourite among commuter motorcycle enthusiasts, faced a YoY decline of 6.79%. With 1,35,339 units sold in September 2023, it continued to be a significant contributor to Hondas domestic sales. This dip in sales may be attributed to changing consumer preferences and increased competition in the commuter motorcycle segment.

One of the standout performers for Honda in the domestic market was the Dio. This sporty scooter experienced an impressive YoY growth of 29.04%, selling 38,703 units in September 2023. The boost in sales YoY is thanks to the recent addition of the Dio 125cc model to the range.

The introduction of the Shine 100 model marked a new addition to Hondas lineup, and it made a significant impact by selling 26,205 units in its debut month. This demonstrates that Hondas strategy of diversifying its product range is paying off, as the Shine 100 found a place in the preferences of Indian consumers. On the other hand, the Unicorn faced a steep decline of 29.44% in YoY sales, with 25,514 units sold in September 2023. This suggests that Honda may need to revisit its marketing and product strategies for this particular model to stay competitive in the market.

Dream, SP160, Livo, and Hness CB350 have faced varying degrees of decline in sales compared to the previous year. The Dream and Hness CB350, in particular, saw sales decreases of 14.71% and 23.19%, respectively. These results highlight the need for Honda to address evolving consumer demands and preferences in these segments. Hornet 2.0 emerged as the standout performer with a staggering YoY growth of 458.26%, selling 3,852 units. This surge in popularity could be attributed to its sporty design and advanced features, making it a preferred choice for enthusiasts.

Honda 2W India  Exports Performance

Hondas exports performance also demonstrated positive growth in September 2023. The company exported a total of 34,014 units, marking a 14.78% increase compared to September 2022 when they exported 29,635 units. Navi scooter led the way in exports with 10,337 units, reflecting a 46.04% growth from the previous year.

Dio also showed significant growth in the export market with a YoY increase of 210.08%. While the Activa and Dream models contributed to export numbers, the CB Shine experienced a decline in export sales, down 60.93% from the previous year.
The powertrain of production version of Toyota IMV 0 concept may include the companys tried and tested 2.4L diesel and 2.0L strong hybrid petrol

Want to buy something robust, dependable and boasting bullet-proof reliability? Toyota is one brand that pops into the mind when someone mentions any of the above attributes. In India, however, Toyota products command quite a price premium. New reports suggest recently debuted Toyota IMV 0 concept may hold a solution for this price conundrum.

Toyota IMV 0 Concept Showcased

Where Im from, a prospective buyer has to shell out close to Rs. 65 lakh (on-road, Karnataka) for a top-spec Toyota Fortuner Sigma GR-S. While its immediate rival with significantly more tech and features costs over Rs. 10 lakh less (on-road, Karnataka). I wouldnt be surprised if the next generation Fortuner after a couple of price hikes, crosses Rs. 80 lakh (on-road, Karnataka).

Even the Hilux costs over Rs. 47 lakh (on-road, Karnataka), and has never had value as its strong suit. But, what if Toyota was working on a new platform that would spawn more affordable SUVs and pickup trucks in the future? This seems to be a reality and Toyota IMV 0 platform debuted at 2023 Japan Mobility Show may be the key to achieving it.

Just like IMV platform on which current Hilux, Fortuner and Innova Crysta sit, IMV 0 is based on a ladder frame chassis. Due to the modular design of this new platform, Toyota can easily implement multiple body styles across different dimensions with this platform. As shown at 2023 Japan Mobility Show, IMV 0 concept is a single-cab pickup truck.

The rear load bed area allows for multiple applications including a camper, mobile coffee bar, food truck, ambulance and others. President of Toyota Daihatsu Engineering and Manufacturing (TDEM), Yoshiki Konishi, stated that regulations and other reasons have resulted in steep prices that original customers cant afford anymore. Hence the IMV 0 platform was developed for everyday customers.

Is Toyota cooking a more affordable SUV positioned under Fortuner?

It is likely that Toyota will implement a cost-effective measure while creating these future vehicles. Cost efficiency is key here and Toyota may use materials frivolously for lightness and vastly reduce the number of features. Considering that both Fortuner and Hilux were never known for their tech, features and creature comforts, how much more can they reduce?

President of Toyota Motor Asia Pacific (TMAP), Hao Quoc Tien said that there may be an SUV version of IMV 0 concept pickup truck, like Fortuner based on IMV platform. He said they have something new cooking. Regarding features and striking affordability, he said that the brand has to be smart about what they keep and what they take out.

In terms of packaging, these upcoming affordable SUV and pickup truck could have comparable dimensions to a Fortuner and Hilux respectively. Powertrain may probably be just a 2.4L turbo diesel along with a strong hybrid option, similar to the one on Innova Hycross.

Source
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 27. The EU will continue to work closely with Central Asian countries to combat regional and global challenges, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell told Trend.

According to him, since the adoption of the EU Strategy on Central Asia in 2019, cooperation between the EU and Central Asia has advanced in many areas.

He noted that there are many promising opportunities for further development of relations between the EU and Central Asian countries, while adding that areas of cooperation such as transport links, green energy, trade and investment have already been mentioned, where aspects such as security, water supply, climate research, education and science development can also be added, strengthening cultural and interpersonal ties.

Furthermore, Borrell stressed that when solving any challenges, the EU is ready to offer constant support to accelerate its reforms and ensure the successful implementation of the necessary changes.

Meanwhile, on October 23 this year, Luxembourg hosted the 19th EU-Central Asia Ministerial Meeting, which was attended by representatives of all Central Asian countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

The main purpose of this meeting was to discuss issues of cooperation and search for solutions to current problems.
ASTANA, Kazakhstan, October 27. Kazakhstan and Thailand signed a Memorandum of Understanding, which provides for an increase in the total number of permitted flights by 35.4 percent (from 402 to 544 flights per week), Trend reports.

The memorandum was signed in Bangkok by Deputy Chairman of the Civil Aviation Committee of Kazakhstan, Timur Tlegenov, and Deputy Director General of the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand Sarun Benjanirat in Bangkok.

As part of the 35.4 percent increase, an additional 84 flights per week are given between Astana, Almaty, Karaganda, Shymkent, and Bangkok, as well as the regions of Phuket, Krabi, and Utapao, and up to 10 flights per week on other contractual routes.

As discussed at the conference, expanding the number of flights between Kazakhstan and Thailand will hasten the development of tourism, cultural exchange, investment, and business collaboration between the two nations.

The Government of the Kingdom of Thailand introduced a temporary visa-free regime for citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan from September 25, 2023, to February 29, 2024. Thus, Kazakhstanis can stay in Thailand without a visa for up to 30 days.
Dementia presents a significant threat to England and Wales, with an estimated 1.7 million cases by 2040, 42% higher than previous projections. The Lancet published research from the University College London (UCL), emphasizing the potential strain on healthcare and social care systems. This updated data highlights a more extensive challenge than previously forecasted, underscoring the urgency of addressing dementia's impact.

Dementia Incidence in England and Wales

The study revealed a non-linear pattern in dementia incidence in England and Wales, declining from 2002 to 2008 but increasing from 2008 to 2016. If this trend continues, the projected dementia cases may reach 1.7 million by 2040, emphasizing the need to address its impact on individuals and healthcare systems. Dementia cases decreased by 29% from 2002 to 2008 but rose by 25% from 2008 to 2016.

This pattern underscores the urgency of managing dementia's impact. The research also indicates an increase in dementia cases within older age groups. Proactive preparation and support are necessary to ensure individuals affected by dementia can access the help they need.

The Alzheimer's Society stressed that dementia is a significant health and social care challenge, emphasizing the importance of taking action to mitigate its consequences. Alzheimer's Research UK's CEO highlighted the substantial threat dementia poses to the public and healthcare system, calling for improved diagnosis and increased capacity for managing the condition.

On the other hand, some scientists expressed skepticism regarding the study's projections about dementia cases. Professor David Curtis from the UCL Genetics Institute questioned the assumption that dementia rates would continue to rise annually by 2.8%.

He believed this assumption might not hold, and the study's estimates for 2040 might not be accurate. However, Professor Tom Dening from the University of Nottingham emphasized the importance of remaining vigilant and not becoming complacent about dementia as a public health concern.

Professor Dag Aarsland from King's College London recognized dementia as one of society's significant challenges and highlighted the study's findings of an increasing dementia incidence, particularly among those with lower education levels. He stressed the need for intensified efforts to prevent dementia.

As researchers explore new treatments, it's essential for ministers to take action and address the increased risk of dementia in the most deprived communities, according to Hilary Evans of Alzheimer's Research UK. The Department of Health and Social Care affirmed its commitment to improving diagnosis rates, funding research, and expanding social care capacity.

READ ALSO: Watching TV Increases Dementia Risk by 20% But Using Computers May Protect the Brain Against It

Dementia Leading Cause of Death in Britain in the Past Decade

The Alzheimer's Society previouosly revealed in a research the lack of public awareness regarding the significance and personal impact of dementia, despite its widespread prevalence. With over 900,000 individuals currently living with dementia in the UK and numerous caregivers, the scale of the issue is substantial.

There is an urgency of prioritizing dementia within healthcare and social services, utilizing this statistic in their advertising campaigns to challenge the common misconception that dementia is an inevitable consequence of aging. They emphasize that it is a terminal condition, acknowledging that this information may be unsettling, especially for those living with dementia or their families.

Alzheimer's Society's mission is to raise awareness of dementia's critical status and the need for action, seeking support to mitigate the devastating impact of dementia. Their efforts are backed by research and a comprehensive understanding of the condition.

Their analysis of official data from 2012 to 2021 reveals that dementia and Alzheimer's disease have been the leading causes of death in Britain, underlining the urgency of addressing this issue.



RELATED ARTICLE: Possible Link Between HDL Levels and Dementia Risk in Older Individuals Sheds New Light on the Role of 'Good' Cholesterol

Check out more news and information on Dementia in Science Times.
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, October 27. China's Goldwind Science and Technology Co. is set to build wind power stations with a capacity of up to 3 GW in Kyrgyzstan, Trend reports.

The agreement between Kyrgyzstan's Ministry of Energy and the Chinese company was signed in Bishkek following extensive discussions between Akylbek Japarov, Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of Kyrgyzstan, and China's Premier, Li Qiang.

Additionally, the Kyrgyz Ministry of Energy signed an agreement with Chinas Molin Energy Co. for the construction of solar power stations in Kyrgyzstan. In total, 12 agreements were signed following the negotiations.

During the extended discussions, a wide range of topics related to comprehensive cooperation in trade, economics, energy, finance, transportation, agriculture, education, and science were addressed.

The sides also exchanged views regarding the implementation of agreements reached during previous high-level visits.

Li Qiang said that China has been and remains a reliable partner for Kyrgyzstan and expressed full readiness to support projects of mutual interest. He also highlighted China's willingness to deepen cooperation in the agricultural sector.

According to the National Statistical Committee of Kyrgyzstan, the trade turnover between Kyrgyzstan and China reached $3.176 billion from January through August 2023. It increased by $560.1 million, or 21.4 percent, year-on-year. The Chinese share was 33.9 percent of Kyrgyzstans total trade turnover, making it the largest trade partner of the country.
Michigan Foster Care Closet Board Vice President Heather Wing.

Michigan Foster Care Closet Board President Karen Field.

Michigan Foster Care Closet Board Director Jennie Sharp.

The Michigan Foster Care Closet.

The Michigan Foster Care Closet.
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, October 27. A feasibility study for the construction of the "China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan" railway project has been completed as of today, Trend reports.

Akylbek Japarov, Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of Kyrgyzstan, made this statement during extensive discussions with China's Premier, Li Qiang, in Bishkek.

"The construction of this railway will play a crucial role in realizing the "Belt and Road Initiative," which Kyrgyzstan has enthusiastically supported from the beginning," emphasized Japarov.

He added that a feasibility study confirming the technical feasibility and economic viability of the new rail line has been developed through joint financing.

Furthermore, Japarov noted that the full operation of the "Torugart" and "Irkeshtam" border crossing points between Kyrgyzstan and China is a key factor in boosting bilateral trade between the two countries.

To ensure uninterrupted operation and increased throughput of the "Irkeshtam" and "Torugart" border crossings, the Kyrgyz side has proposed transitioning to a 24/7 daily operation.

Japarov also expressed readiness for closer cooperation and joint efforts to open a new crossing point, "Bedel," on the Kyrgyz-Chinese border and the construction of the "Barskoon-Uch-Turfan-Aksu" road.

The "China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan" railway is a proposed 454-kilometer rail route designed to connect the railway networks of China and Uzbekistan through Kyrgyzstan. This railway will further link Turkmenistan, Iran, and Turkiye to the European railway network.
Make Food Not Waste is a Detroit nonprofit that works with restaurants and organizations to keep food out of landfills.

Jose Aste plans a permanent location for Tantay in Lansing in early 2024.

Tony Vu is the executive chef at The Good Bowl Eatery in Traverse City.
Aerial view of demolition work of the ormer Community Service Building. (GMED)

Aerial view of demolition work of the ormer Community Service Building. (GMED)

The efforts to restore the historic Torrent House and demolish the attached former Community Service Building in downtown Muskegon are moving forward, thanks to a $25,000 grant from the Consumers Energy Foundation. The Greater Muskegon Economic Development authored a grant request on behalf of the Community Foundation for Muskegon County to receive funding for this project.The Consumers Energy Foundation, the charitable arm of Consumers Energy, Michigan's largest energy provider, is committed to investments that strengthen Michigan communities. In 2022, the Consumers Energy Foundation, along with Consumers Energy, its employees, and retirees, contributed more than $18.5 million to Michigan nonprofits."Placemaking is an important component of building community and bringing people together," said Cathy Wilson, secretary/treasurer of the Consumers Energy Foundation. "The work the Community Foundation is doing to create a vibrant and thriving downtown Muskegon will support neighborhood and business growth, and we are proud to provide grant funding to support that vision."The grant will be distributed by the Community Foundation for Muskegon County to the Downtown Muskegon Development Corporation to facilitate the work. The Torrent House, at the corner of Webster Avenue and Third Street, is a cornerstone of Muskegon's rich history, and the exterior restoration aims to recapture its original grandeur and beauty.We are grateful to Greater Muskegon Economic Development for assisting our community with necessary applications to secure funding for redevelopment projects, said Todd Jacobs, president/CEO of the Community Foundation for Muskegon County. Our organization works as a natural partner with other nonprofits to receive and distribute grant dollars that benefit the greater Muskegon area.The restoration project represents a significant step in the effort to revitalize downtown Muskegon and create a vibrant community space for residents and visitors. The Community Foundation for Muskegon County and the Downtown Muskegon Development Corporation invite the public to witness the progress of this restoration at the corner of Webster Avenue and Third Street."We are appreciative of the $25,000 grant from the Consumers Energy Foundation," said Steve Olsen, a member of the Downtown Muskegon Development Corporation. "We are grateful to the Consumers Energy Foundation for its commitment to communities and the preservation of our historic resources. We are thrilled that the Torrent House is being restored to its former glory.
Beowulf Mining updated the market on its graphite strategy on Friday as it looked to capitalise on a new, restrictive regulatory move from China.

On 20 October, authorities in China announced the imposition of export controls on natural and synthetic graphite, including graphite anode materials, to take effect from 1 December.

The AIM-traded firm said the decision would affect the global battery industry, as graphite anodes are integral components of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and various other battery technologies.

It said China currently held a dominant position, supplying over 70% of the worlds graphite and refining more than 90% of the graphite anodes used in LIBs.

Analysis by Benchmark Minerals Intelligence suggested that this Chinese policy could disrupt non-Chinese anode production manufacturers relying heavily on Chinas feedstock materials.

Beowulf said it could also incentivise anode manufacturers outside of China to seek alternative sources for raw materials.

In response to the developments, Beowulf said its wholly-owned Finnish subsidiary Grafintec was establishing a graphite processing facility.

The facility in the GigaVaasa area within the Korsholm municipality of Finland would be dedicated to producing coated spherical graphite - a crucial material for enhancing battery performance and cost-effectiveness.

It said the location was chosen as the GigaVaasa areas focus on energy storage and battery technologies would make it an ideal hub for Grafintecs graphite processing and anode manufacturing.

Beowulf also noted that the EUs Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) set ambitious targets for graphite production within the European Union by 2030.

The goal was to have 40% of all processed graphite used in the EU produced within the union, with 10% extracted from EU sources.

Grafintecs strategy aligned with those objectives, starting with developing the GigaVaasa processing facility and later progressing to extracting graphite from its own natural graphite projects in Aitolampi and Raapysjarvi.

Aitolampi, wholly owned by Grafintec, boasted a substantial natural graphite deposit with an estimated 26.7 million tonnes at 4.8% total graphitic carbon (TGC), making it one of Europes most extensive known flake graphite deposits.

Metallurgical testing confirmed that graphite from Aitolampi could yield high-grade concentrate suitable for graphite anode materials production, ranging from 96% to 98% TGC.

Additionally, Grafintec was exploring several early-stage graphite projects, including Raapysjarvi, which showed promising signs of significant flake graphite mineralisation.

With numerous untested conductive zones, there was potential for a substantial tonnage of graphite mineralisation in the area.

While the impact of the export ban imposed by China remains unclear, it does highlight the vulnerability of Europe and the rest of the world to the control China has on graphite and other minerals critical for the green transition, said chief executive officer Ed Bowie.

Grafintecs strategy is to provide a secure, independent, and sustainable source of graphite for use in anodes for LIBs, which is fully aligned with the EUs Critical Raw Materials Act.

At 1123 BST, shares in Beowulf Mining were down 3.23% at 1.4515p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.
A Fire in the Flesh

(A Flesh and Fire Novel) by Jennifer L. Armentrout



Dear Reader, Today is a very special day for me--the release of A FIRE IN THE FLESH. But not only is the day special, the journey to get here has been pretty amazing, too. You see, when I first started writing the Flesh and Fire series, I always knew that the third installment--A FIRE IN THE FLESH--would be a big book. It needed to cover Sera's time in Dalos, how she becomes who you learn about in the Blood and Ash series, what happened in the realms with the gods, the embers... And, of course, Sotorias soul. I knew the book also needed to deal with Nyktos's kardia, his and Sera's relationship, the prophecy, and who and what Callum is. Plus, it had to show you Kolis and more about his motivations (especially since this is your first opportunity to interact with him for any extended period of time). But thats only the start of my list. Beyond all those things, I needed to show you how each character deals with the events in A FIRE IN THE FLESH--and let me tell you, a LOT happens--and give you the Shadow Daddy time I think you might enjoy. *wink* What came about is a big book, but one I hope shows you Sera's journey in a very real way. This is a tough one for her, but to become what she needs to be, the path is crucial. So, Ill repeat what Ive often found myself saying with all things Flesh and Fire and Blood and Ash... brace yourself. As always, thank you for reading. And I hope you enjoy! xoxo,

JLA









Publisher:

Blue Box Press Pub Date:

October 31, 2023 ISBN:

9781957568492 List Price:

$7.99 e-book




Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal will attend the Group of Seven (G7) Trade Ministers' meeting in Japan's Osaka from October 28-29. He will also have bilateral meetings with a few G7 countries, invitee countries and a few international organizations, such as WTO, on the sidelines of the outreach programs. Trade Ministers of G7 member states hold an annual meeting with the aim to meet the current global challenges related to trade and investment and to set the course for a better future. Under its presidency of the G7, Japan has invited India, along with a very few other countries (Australia, Chile, Indonesia, and Kenya), to participate in the outreach program to be held on October 28.

Apart from them, international organization s such as the WTO, the ERIA, and the OECD have also been invited. This year, Japan has selected contemporary topics for the outreach program namely, How to enhance Supply Chain Resilience and Promote Trade and Sustainability- environment, Development and Digital, including prospects for WTO MC13. The G7 is an intergovernmental political forum consisting of the US, the UK, Japan, Italy, France, Canada, and Germany. Additionally, the European Union (EU) is a "non-enumerated member".
Japanese Samurai swords, known as katana, hold a special place in the world of weaponry and are revered for their exceptional craftsmanship and historical significance. Katana's unique design and construction make it distinguishable from other swords. They feature a curved, thin blade with a single edge, which sets them apart from European-style swords like the broadsword. The katana's curvature allows for more efficient cutting and a flowing, graceful combat style.

This article will delve into the legacy and characteristics of katana and compare them to other sword traditions from around the world. We will also explore the modern-day relevance of katana, including the thriving market for katana for sale.

The Legacy Of Katana: A Masterpiece Of Japanese Craftsmanship

A type of Japanese sword, the katana, is very famous and holds a unique place in history and culture. Beyond its practicality, the katana is recognized for its artistic beauty. This single-edged, curved blade has become synonymous with the samurai, the legendary warriors of Japan. The katana's mystique lies in a combination of factors, making it stand out in the world of swords.

Materials And Forging:

Creating a katana sword is a labor-intensive and meticulous craft that involves carefully selecting and manipulating steel. Traditional Japanese swordsmiths, known as "tosho," employed a "tamahagane" technique to produce the blade. This process involved smelting numerous layers of steel and iron to make a blade with a hard, sharp edge and a flexible spine.

Hamon:

A distinctive feature of the katana is the Hamon, a visible temper line along the blade created during the quenching process. It not only adds to the sword's aesthetic appeal but also indicates the quality of the swordsmith's work.

Sharpness And Cutting Ability:

The curved blade is one of the most distinctive features of the katana. The katana's unique properties, razor-sharp edge, and ability to maintain sharpness resulted from these ancient forging methods. The balance between flexibility and hardness in the blade was achieved through precise temperature control and repeated quenching and folding techniques.

Tradition and Symbolism:

The katana holds deep symbolism in Japanese culture. The katana sword is esteemed in Japanese history and culture, often symbolizing the samurai's code of honor and discipline. It signifies the samurai's loyalty and is considered a work of art. Many katana blades are adorned with intricate craftsmanship and design.

Katana Vs. Other Sword Traditions

When comparing katana to swords from other cultures, several distinguishing features come to light. While the katana has a curved blade designed for slashing, many other swords, such as the European longsword or the Chinese Jian, have different shapes and purposes. The uniqueness of katana lies in its elegant simplicity, making it stand out among sword traditions worldwide.

Cultural And Historical Significance

Each sword tradition carries its own unique cultural and historical significance. The katana symbolizes the code of Bushido, samurai culture, and Japan's feudal history. Its craftsmanship reflects the values of honor, loyalty, and discipline.

European longswords are associated with chivalry, the medieval knight, and the epic tales of Arthurian legends. Jian swords are known for their fluid, graceful movements and are often associated with Chinese martial arts. The Indian tulwar is a distinctive sabre with a curved blade and is linked to the Mughal Empire and the rich cultural history of the Indian subcontinent. Middle Eastern scimitars carry the legacy of powerful empires in the region, and African machetes are symbolic of the continent's diverse cultures and practical needs.

Katana In Modern Times

Despite being rooted in history, katana remains relevant in the contemporary world. Modern sword enthusiasts and collectors seek katana for sale as prized possessions. The legacy of katana continues to evolve as it finds its place in various aspects of pop culture, from movies to martial arts.

The Allure Of Japanese Swordsmanship

Japanese swordsmanship goes beyond just wielding the katana. It involves disciplines like Iaido, emphasizing precision, fluidity, and mindfulness. The philosophy of Bushido, the way of the warrior, is intricately connected to the use of the katana, making it a symbol of honour and integrity.

In conclusion, comparing Japanese Samurai swords, particularly katana, to other sword traditions worldwide reveals the unique qualities that set them apart. The legacy, craftsmanship, and cultural significance of katana make it a remarkable symbol of Japan's martial history. It's no wonder that the market for katana for sale thrives among collectors and enthusiasts with time.

Understanding the practicality, symbolism, and cultural context of these swords enhances our appreciation for the artistry and heritage they represent. And for those seeking to add a katana or other swords to their collection, there are options available for purchase, allowing you to own a piece of history and artistry.

FAQs

Are all Katana swords made the same way?

No, Katana swords can vary in quality and craftsmanship. The finest Katana swords are handmade by master swordsmiths.

What is the significance of the curve in a Katana blade?

The curve allows for more efficient slicing and cutting motions, making it a deadly weapon in the hands of a skilled Samurai.

How do Katana swords compare to European medieval swords?

Katana swords are typically lighter and have a unique curve compared to the straight-edged European medieval swords, each designed for their respective combat styles.

What is the role of the tsuba in a Katana?

The tsuba is the handguard in a Katana, designed to protect the wielder's hand. It often has intricate designs and can be a work of art on its own.

Can I learn Japanese swordsmanship even if I'm not a Samurai?

Yes, many people worldwide practice Japanese swordsmanship, and disciplines like Iaido are open to anyone interested in the art and philosophy of the katana.
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, October 27. Taalaibek Ibraev, the Minister of Energy of Kyrgyzstan, and An Taeho, the President of the South Korean Starkoff Energy Company, signed a memorandum to strengthen cooperation in the energy sector, Trend reports.

This occurred following a meeting where Minister Ibraev met with representatives from Starkoff Co. During the meeting, the parties discussed several issues aimed at the development of the energy industry.

They discussed the importance of tracking electricity generation from production to delivery to consumers, further development of Kyrgyz-Korean relations, and the utilization and advancement of information technologies in the energy sector.

Starkoff Co., founded in 2013, has created a system that visualizes and analyzes electricity consumption based on the digitization of IT technologies within the power industry, coupled with innovative intelligence.

Starkoff Co. is a partner of South Korea's state energy company, KEPCO. The company focuses on studying electricity demand through artificial intelligence for extensive energy management. Additionally, it is considered one of South Korea's biggest electric vehicle charging providers, with ownership of more than 20,000 charging stations.
The global outlook remains robust for the robotic surgical systems market, which is set to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 15.7 percent from $3.3 billion in 2023 to $7.2 billion in 2033. This is despite leading player Intuitive Surgical experiencing an 8 percent decline in Q3 share price during pre-market trading, said the report by GlobalData, a data and analytics company. Notably, Intuitive Surgical boasts an estimated global share of 57 percent in the robotic surgical systems market.

Intuitives $1.74 billion revenue reportedly fell just short of analysts predictions of $1.77 billion. However, it is still promising with a 12 per cent increase from Q3 2022 which was led by Intuitives flagship product Davinci and showed a 19 per cent increase in procedures. Another factor that may be contributing to the share drop is increased competition. For example, companies such as CMR Surgical just received $165 million in funding for its product Versius.

In addition, Australia-based Interventional Systems just received US Food and Drug Administration approval for the use of the Micromate in the US. A market-dominating companys decline can often have ripple effects across its industry. However, in this specific scenario, given the ongoing revenue growth and the underlying causes of Intuitives share price decline, GlobalData remains optimistic about the upward trajectory of the robotic surgery market, said Aidan Robertson, Medical Analyst at GlobalData, in a statement.

The increasing demand for robotic surgery is brought on by the growing elderly population as well as a drive towards value-based healthcare, which focuses on improving surgical outcomes for patients. This is providing a push for less invasive procedure development and for improving the overall technology for robotic surgical systems. Some barriers to progress of the market are the high cost of the systems and their maintenance as well as the limited surgeon training with this technology, particularly in developing markets.

While Intuitive Surgicals recent decline appears negative, robotic surgery continues to be an increasingly popular alternative to traditional surgery not only to patients but to companies that are preparing to develop new products. With the major growth and innovation occurring in this market, robotic surgery is sure to have a larger impact on the healthcare sector, Robertson said.
The India Tech Talent League 2023 (ITTL'23) offered a visionary glimpse into the future of technology. In a rapidly evolving tech landscape, the event addressed the seismic shift brought about by AI and Automation, reshaping traditional practices and creating a new era of agile decision-making. ITTL'23 was a multi-city convergence of thought leaders from various sectors, celebrating India's tech talent and innovation.

At the heart of this extravaganza was ITTL'23, presented by MyAnatomy and powered by BW People, in collaboration with various partners. Their mission was to create a Talent Ecosystem that provides equal opportunities for tech talent. The event aimed to confront the challenges posed by evolving technology and talent.

To know more about the event, visit https://myanatomy.ai/events/ITTL-2023 . The curtain has fallen on ITTL'23 Hyderabad that delved deep into the realm of AI technology and its profound impact on our rapidly evolving world. This multicity tech extravaganza showcased disruptive technologies that are shaping the new era, making it an unmissable experience for tech enthusiasts, innovators, and industry leaders.

Held on October 12, 2023, at T-Hub in Hyderabad, ITTL'23 brought together over 350+ prominent leaders, including CEOs, CXOs, CHROs, distinguished academics, and influential visionaries. The event explored the profound impact of AI and Automation on education and employment, emphasizing the interplay between human expertise and cutting-edge technology.

Key moments included an inaugural keynote by Dr. J. A. Chowdary (former Special Chief Secretary & IT Advisor to the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh), and Mr. Srinivas Rao Mahankali (T-Hub, CEO), panel discussions on disruptive technologies and employability, and a journey to the moon with ex-ISRO scientist Dr. Syed Maqbool Ahmed. A round table faceoff featured campus leaders and industry giants discussing talent acquisition.

The event also featured captivating presentations, discussions led by industry luminaries, and a prestigious award ceremony honoring unique minds. Mr. Ganesh Shenoy (Chief Mentor, MyAnatomy) emphasized the fact that theres a similarity or connection between disruption and innovation. Disruption is an action whereas innovation is a process, disruption changes the traditional way an industry operates using the latest technology whereas innovation brings about a change using new ideas and solutions, to make a positive impact and deliver extensive value.

Panel discussions highlighted the complexities of AI integration, the ever-changing job market, and the transformative impact of AI on education. The event showcased cooperative approaches for bridging the gap between industry and academia, equipping students with crucial skills.

The audience was entertained by Mr. Vighnesh Pandey (Ventriloquist) and Mr. Javed Khan (Magician), whose talents extended beyond technology. Dr. Syed Maqbool Ahmed discussed India's space achievements and received the "Lifetime Achievement Award."

A fireside chat between Mr. Shrikant Sinha (CEO of TASK) and Mr. Talees Rizvi (Director BW People & BW CFO World) emphasized the fusion of innovation and knowledge for success in a rapidly evolving world.

The evening recognized visionary contributions with prestigious awards, celebrating individuals whose dedication goes beyond talent. ITTL'23 embodies Bill Gates' vision of seamlessly integrating technology into everyday life.

ITTL'23 is now all set to come to Bangalore on 2nd November23 at Leela Palace, Pune on 22nd November23 at Hyatt Regency, and Delhi on 2nd December23 at The Lalit, ensuring that the dialogue on the future of technology and talent continues to thrive across India. To know more about the event visit: https://myanatomy.ai/events/ITTL-2023
Axis Bank has announced that Munish Sharda has been appointed as the bank's Whole-time Director, including Executive Director, for a period of three years starting from November or the date of approval of his appointment by the Reserve Bank of India. Sharda, who is currently the Group Executive and head of Bharat Banking of Axis Bank Limited, will be liable to retire by rotation. The Mumbai-based bank's board of directors has approved Sharda's appointment.

As part of his current role since September 2021, he is responsible for driving business growth in rural and semi-urban markets by offering all banking products. With over 25 years of experience in the banking and financial services sector, he brings a wealth of leadership experience to the table. He has a proven track record in scaling businesses, utilizing digital and technological tools to drive business outcomes, building employee capabilities, and improving customer experience.

Sharda has worked at Citi Group and also served as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Future Generali India Life Insurance Company Limited for over seven years. The bank also stated that he has experience in the consumer goods industry having worked with Blow Plast Limited, as well as in the engineering sector with Larsen & Toubro Limited.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  Authorities responded to a report of a boat in distress in the waters near the Outerbridge Crossing on Friday afternoon.

The U.S. Coast Guard and the FDNY were among authorities assisting in the incident reported around 1:30 p.m. in the vicinity of the bridge, according to a source with the U.S. Coast Guard.

Based on initial reports, a barge at that location does not appear to be sinking at this time, but is listing, according to the Coast Guard source.

Listing means that a boat is tilting to one side and might be taking on water.

The initial report was made by someone crossing the span.

This is a developing story and additional information will be posted as it becomes available.

Authorities respond to a call of a barge in distress in the water off of Staten Island in the vicinity of the Outerbridge Crossing on the afternoon of Friday, Oct. 27, 2023. (Owen Reiter for the Staten Island Advance)Owen Reiter for the Staten Island Advance
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  Authorities allege that an 18-year-old man was part of a group that brandished what appeared to be a gun at a Jewish person as part of a hate crime in Meiers Corners.

Thomas Agoglia of Lovell Avenue in New Springville stands accused in a bizarre series of events that also include flipping a classic car in Rossville and assaulting a person with a broom in Graniteville, according to authorities.

Agoglia was arrested on Tuesday and faces a charge of felony menacing as a hate crime in connection with an incident on Oct. 2 around 11:15 p.m. in the vicinity of Sunset Avenue and Harold Street, according to the criminal complaint and police.

The victim was a Jewish man who was wearing traditional religious clothing while riding on a scooter around the neighborhood, according to law-enforcement sources.

Agoglia and two unapprehended individuals displayed what appeared to be a firearm toward the victim, the complaint alleges.

The criminal complaint quotes the suspects as saying, Were going to get you.

Agoglias actions were based on the defendants perception regarding informants religion, and caused the victim to experience fear of physical safety, annoyance and alarm, the complaint states.

The suspect also has been charged with misdemeanor aggravated harassment, according to the criminal complaint.

SOURCE DETAILS ENCOUNTER

The alleged episode began when with victim was riding on a scooter and Agoglia and the other suspects were traveling in a car that stopped in the street, authorities say. The occupants of the car allegedly yelled to the victim, asking him what time the Jewish curfew started, a source told the Advance/SILive.com.

The victim told police he replied that he was not aware of a curfew. The suspects then allegedly falsely said that the NYPD had a new curfew, the source said. The victim again stated that he was unaware of a curfew and that he did not want to have a conversation with the suspects, according to the source.

The suspects then allegedly verbally threatened the victim before the car made a U-turn on Harold Street. The suspects allegedly pointed a gray object that appeared to be a firearm before driving away from the scene, the source said.

Individuals are being sought for questioning by the NYPD in connection with a classic Fiat that was purposely flipped over in Rossville on Sept. 30, 2023. (Courtesy of NYPD)

FIAT FLIP IN ROSSVILLE

On Oct. 25, Agoglia was arrested for allegedly being one of the individuals who flipped a classic car overnight between Sept. 30 into Oct. 1 on the 600 block of Rossville Avenue.

The NYPD previously asked for tips regarding the overturned Fiat.

The vehicle, owned by a 64-year-old man, was parked in a lot at that location in Rossville, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation.

Footage from area surveillance cameras captured three individuals pushing the yellow, 1971 Fiat back and forth and then tipping it so that it landed on its side. The suspects then turned the car back so that the wheels were on the ground, according to the criminal complaint.

Two additional suspects remain at large in the Fiat flip, the complaint said.

The individuals left the location in a dark-colored Nissan.

Damages to the Fiat included dents and scratches to the door, fender and hood and internal damage to the vehicle, police said.

Police previously released surveillance images of two individuals sought for questioning, taken from the vicinity of the incident. The NYPD also issued an image of a vehicle whose occupants were sought.

In connection with the damaged car, Agoglia has been charged with felony and misdemeanor criminal mischief.

BROOM ATTACK AT STRIP MALL

The alleged broomstick attack occurred on Oct. 12 at about 1:25 a.m. on the 900 block of Richmond Avenue, according to the criminal complaint and police.

Agoglia intentionally used a broomstick to hit the victim, causing physical injuries that included substantial pain and a laceration to the victims left forearm, the complaint alleges.

The suspect was arrested the next day and charged with assault, criminal possession of a weapon and harassment in connection with the incident in Graniteville.

Agoglia is being held at Rikers Island in lieu of combined bail set at $40,000/$20,000 cash, according to public records.

He has pleaded not guilty to all charges and his next court date is set for Monday, according to public records.

Attorney Louis Gelormino defended the innocence of his client.

After speaking with Mr. Agoglia, it is clear that he is very aware of the plight of Israeli people and does not have an ounce of antisemitism in his body, Gelormino said. He completely denies these allegations and we look forward to a full investigation of this matter.

RISE IN HATE CRIMES IN NEW YORK CITY

In the weeks since the outbreak of conflict in the Middle East, and in the wake of the violence there has been an alarming spike in hate crimes here in New York City, according to the NYPD.

NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny recently addressed the rising figures in a news briefing on Tuesday. He revealed that prior to Hamas attack on Israel, hate crimes across the five boroughs were down 21% when compared with this same time frame last year, as noted by the Daily News.

The tensions in the Middle East seem to be fueling hatred here in the homeland, as Kenny revealed that the 21% decrease has now shrunk to just a 13% decrease. This number comes on the heels of a significant wave of incidents; last week alone saw 51 hate crimes, according to Kenny.

Of the 51 incidents reported over the seven days, a majority were deemed antisemitic, while four were classified as anti-ethnic.

So we had 30 incidents since 10/9, versus six last year deemed to be anti-Jewish, Kenny said. We also had four anti-ethnic incidents since 10/9 versus two last year, and those anti-ethnic would be Palestinian related. So for a lack of a better term, we are seeing an increase in our decrease.

These hate-driven acts can take the form of assault, however, Kenny noted that in most cases the hatred manifested itself through aggravated harassment.

The crime that were seeing is a very small amount of assaults, an even smaller amount of felony assaults. Were seeing a lot of people getting slapped, getting pushed, Kenny stated. The majority of the 30 crimes that we saw that were anti-Jewish, they stemmed from graffiti, criminal mischief, aggravated harassment, basically almost bordering on free speech, where people are yelling back and forth at each other until it takes a weird turn.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  In wrapping up the prosecutions case in the Anthony Fonseca murder trial, Assistant District Attorney Arda Ozdinc on Tuesday recounted for the jury a story about a trip he took over the summer to the shore.

As he watched a Fourth of July parade with his niece, she asked him about horses in the parade that wore blinders. He explained that they were designed to ensure that the horses focused only on what was straight in front of them, he recalled.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  It was in 2015 that Staten Island native and Concord High School/New Ventures teacher Richard Lipscomb responded to an online ad to become one of the zombie dancers for the iconic Michael Jackson Thriller float in the Village Halloween Parade held annually in Greenwich Village.

Lipscomb said his mantra is: Its never too late to pursue your dreams. Yet he felt as if he had abandoned his. Dance has always been my passion, Lipscomb said. It was what drove him to reinvigorate that passion and show his students that there is always the possibility to live out your dreams.

Rain or shine, the Village Halloween Parade is celebrated every year on October 31st. This Halloween night is set to be especially memorable as it commemorates the parades 50th anniversary. And Lipscomb will be leading the Thriller Dance Troupe  in the lead Michael Jackson role  for the second year in a row with great enthusiasm.

The parade draws more than 70,000 costumed participants, and spectators are estimated at two million, making it the third-largest parade in NYC, surpassed only by the Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade and the New York Gay Pride Parade.

I have taken various dance classes all of my life at the top studios, including Alvin Ailey and Broadway Dance, he said. Lipscombs deep-seated passion for dance served as a motivator, driving him to embark on the journey of mastering the iconic Thriller choreography.

I always wanted to learn the dance and I thought it would be a lot of fun, said Lipscomb, who has a 21-year career as a teacher at Concord High School and has been working at New Ventures Charter School for eight years. I never dreamed I would be leading 140 zombies in one of the most iconic dances in musical history.

This year, Lipscomb is once-again rehearsing at Alvin Ailey in Midtown West.

In the beginning, he eagerly anticipated the rehearsals with enthusiasm, yet he realized the challenge of balancing his demanding schedule, which includes three jobs, and ensuring he could make it to the rehearsals in a timely manner.

Richard Lipscomb ready in his Michael Jackson costume to lead the "Thriller" dance mob for the 2022 Village Halloween Parade. (Photo courtesy of Richard Lipscomb)(Derek Alvez for the Staten Isla

Nevertheless, he somehow made it work, with zombie makeup, costume, dance, and all, he put on quite a grave performance in 2015. And it worked so well that it continued for six more years.

Little did Lipscomb know that behind the scenes, the organizers of the Village parade were quietly taking note of his performances and watching his journey unfold. His yearly performances led to his promotion to the lead dancer role, Michael Jackson, in 2022.

It was such a whirlwind of rehearsals with the group and studying MJs moves individually that I didnt really let anyone know about it, Lipscomb said. I was afraid I might fail on national television.

But the exact opposite happened. Being named the Santa Claus float of the Halloween parade, Lipscomb then truly understood the hype. The press and local news praised the decorated dancing group, despite the torrential downpour that year.

Staten Island native Richard Lipscomb leads "Thriller Dance Troupe" at the 2022 Halloween Parade on Oct. 31, 2022 in Manhattan. He will perform in the role again this year. (Photo by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images) Getty Images

The Halloween Parade runs straight up Sixth Avenue from King Street to 15th Street in Manhattan. The event starts at 7 p.m. and ends around 11 p.m. It will be presented live by New York 1 News at 8 p.m. that night. You will be able to view the parade at https://halloween-nyc.com/watch/.

The area between Bleecker and 14th Street tends to get the most crowded, so arriving early for a good viewing spot is recommended.

The event has always been open to the public for free, yet parade organizers offer several packages for attendees who wish to enhance their experience.

Staten Island native Richard Lipscomb leads "Thriller Dance Troupe" at the 2022 Halloween Parade on Oct. 31, 2022 in Manhattan. He will perform in the Michael Jackson role again this year. (Photo by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images) Getty Images

For those looking to splurge this spooky season, these packages provide options to skip the regular entry line for $100, enjoy a VIP viewing experience for $175, or take part in the unique quiet event for $125, which allows participants to dance in the parade while wearing headphones. Theres even an opportunity to lead the parade for $500.

Additionally, those who wish to make a donation to support the event can find more information on how to do so at https://halloween-nyc.com/tickets.

Lipscomb, in the pursuit of his dream, said he looks forward to sharing and inspiring his family, friends, and students with this years thrilling experience.

To those individuals that think its too late to change, too late to pursue their dreams or too late to find happiness, I say life is like a clock, nothing moves backwards, everything moves forward,' he said. Its what you decide to do with your time that matters.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Even after completing perilous, weeks-long journeys to the United States, the migrants currently residing in the city-run shelter at the former Island Shores senior living facility in Midland Beach are still struggling to sleep soundly at night.

The reason? A small, but loud, group of persistent protesters who on multiple occasions have gathered outside the shelter at night in an apparent effort to disrupt the sleep of migrant residents and implore them to leave Staten Island.

A video circulating on social media shows a handful of protesters shining bright lights through the windows and blaring megaphones outside the shelter.

One protester could be heard saying, Illegal aliens, yall thought you was going to bed? You get three hots and cot and some loud music and flashlights every night now.

If we cant get comfortable then they cant get comfortable. Thats it, the protester added.

The Staten Island Advance/SILive.com attempted to contact the owner of the Instagram account where the video was published, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

And the Advance/SILive.com video also captured the same scene on Thursday night.

Visits to the Island Shores shelter on both Wednesday and Thursday nights showed roughly 30 protesters blasting music, waving American flags and shining lights both through the windows and on migrant residents as they entered and exited the facility.

Other protesters were blowing whistles and banging on pots, metal signposts and police barricades in an effort to make as much noise as possible.

A large sign set up at the location read: Our borough. Our decision. Put America first.

An NYPD representative told the Staten Island Advance/SILive.com that the department has been maintaining a police presence at the location and issued two summonses for noise-related violations at the location on Thursday, Oct. 12, though it was unclear if these summonses were issued in relation to a late-night protest.

The migrants residing at Island Shores have been subject to ongoing protests, at least one of which escalated to the point of violence, since the day they first arrived at the shelter on Tuesday, Sept. 19.

Upon arriving at the location, the migrants, who were crowded into an out-of-service MTA bus, were greeted by a crowd of roughly 1,000 anti-migrant shelter protesters, some o whom are off-Island residents.

Four of the migrants who witnessed the protest first-hand recently recounted the experience to the Staten Island Advance/SILive.com, painting a terrifying picture that left them fearing for their lives.

Protesters surrounded the bus chanting, Send them back, while banging American flags against the windows and blocking the exits of the vehicle.

Its OK for people to express their feelings, and its OK for people to have differences, but when a protest that is supposed to be peaceful turns violent, thats something else, one migrant said.

It was very traumatizing, another added. My husband thought we were going to get killed. We were just thinking the worst.

When all was said and done, 10 protesters had been taken into custody, nine of whom received summonses for disorderly conduct and one of whom was arrested and charged with five crimes, including resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer.

When speaking about the non-stop protests, the migrants who spoke to the Advance/SILive.com said they wished the protesters would give them the chance to prove that they have good intentions and simply came here in search of a better life.

These protests are turning into discrimination, are turning into racism and are terrifying. We wish people would give us the opportunity to show who we are, said one shelter resident.

Theres a human side to it, another resident added. Get to know us; were here to contribute. Were going through the legal process. We just wish people would see theres a human element.

Yesenia Mata, executive director of Staten Island-based community organization La Colmena, voiced disappointment that a city with such a storied history of accepting immigrants would respond in this way and expressed genuine concern that the ongoing protests could result in serious injury.

Its unfortunate that people seem to forget the immigration history of New York City and in many cases, even their own familys immigration history, Mata said. What is happening at the moment is further exposing what we have been saying that the immigrants in this shelter are being harassed when they come in and out of the shelter to point that someone will end up being hurt.

Councilman David Carr (R-Mid-Island) and Assemblyman Michael Tannousis (R-East Shore/South Brooklyn), who represent the district where the shelter is located, did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.

Both elected officials have been outspoken in their criticism of the shelters placement within their districts and were quick to fire back when Mata compared their support of the protests to the type of behavior that spurred the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection in the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C.

I dont seem to recall La Colmena speaking out so strongly when hundreds of people were arrested, or were shouting racial slurs and promoting violence against police during the mostly non-violent riots in the summer of 2020, Carr said. Yet, suddenly, when one person is cited for resisting arrest while people are exercising their constitutional right to free speech and assembly, its a violent insurrection they feel compelled to condemn. I unequivocally denounce any violence against any group and especially against our police officers, but I wont be lectured with selective outrage by a group of hypocrites who profit from this crisis.

...anyone criticizing from the bleachers, who is vocally supportive of migrant shelters being placed in my district, can provide their home addresses so we can provide the mayors office with these alternative sites to house the migrants, Tannousis said. I am the son of immigrants. My parents came here for the American Dream and they achieved it. I am not anti-immigration, but I am anti-insanity and having an open border and people entering our nation without any sort of vetting process is the definition of insanity.

Having a city with a policy of spending taxpayer dollars to house and feed anyone that comes through our border, no matter who they are or where they come from, is even bigger insanity. It is a detriment to our community, he added.

Advance Reporter Scott Axelrod contributed to this report.
Investigative reporter Arnold Diaz died at the age of 74 after a battle with cancer.

Born in Brooklyn, the New York-based journalist attended Florida State University for his undergraduate education and earned a masters in journalism from Northwestern University in Chicago.

His career in news spanned 50 years. But what really made him well-known was his Shame on You segments that aired on CBS 2 New York, as well as other outlets in his career.

The segments would often confront the individuals accused of taking advantage of the average New Yorker.

He won over 40 Emmy Awards for his work.

Diaz lost his battle with blood cancer on Tuesday, Oct. 24.

He is survived by his wife, Shawn, three children and two grandchildren, who are twins.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  The NYPD is seeking the publics assistance in locating a 16-year-old boy from Port Richmond who was reported missing.

Donald Brown, who lives on Palmer Avenue, was last seen on Monday, Oct. 23 in the vicinity of 101 Belmont Place at around 2:30 p.m.

He is described as a male, 5 feet, 6 inches tall and weighing 120 pounds. He was last seen wearing a black sweatshirt, blue jeans and black sneakers.

Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPDs Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the CrimeStoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/, or on Twitter @NYPDTips. All calls are strictly confidential.
DUSHANBE, Tajikistan, October 27. The Prime Minister of Tajikistan, Kokhir Rasulzoda, and the First Vice President of Iran, Mohammad Mokhber, discussed the possibility of opening new air routes and expanding the number of flights between the countries, Trend reports.

Their discussions took place in Bishkek within the framework of the meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

It was noted that Tajikistan and Iran are keen on enhancing cooperation in various sectors, including boosting mutual trade, activating the private sector, and collaborating in banking, pharmaceuticals, and healthcare.

Rasulzoda and Mokhber also discussed further strengthening the work of the intergovernmental commission.

Meanwhile, during the 78th session of the UN General Assembly in New York in September of this year, Presidents Emomali Rahmon of Tajikistan and Ebrahim Raisi of Iran expressed their support for simplifying visa procedures and increasing the number of flights between the countries.

Currently, regular air traffic between Tajikistan and Iran is maintained by Iranian "Varesh Airlines" and Tajik "Somon Air."
Join me and @NYPDPC Caban at 1 Police Plaza for a public safety briefing. https://t.co/wXazgn6Y9n  Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) October 26, 2023

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  Mayor Eric Adams was joined by NYPD officials during a public safety briefing Thursday morning addressing an array of matters. Among the information shared was the bolstered efforts of law enforcement in response to the shooting in Maine that left 18 dead, and 13 injured Wednesday night.

According to NYPD officials, in the wake of the heinous act, steps have been taken to ensure the safety of all New Yorkers. As soon as the person of interest, Robert Card, had been identified, the NYPD sent out a mass message to all officers in the department containing details and images of the suspect. Additionally, the NYPD dispatched investigators to Lewiston, Maine, to both gather information as soon as possible and to offer support in any way possible, Police Commissioner Edward Caban noted.

Im extremely proud of our officers, who immediately jumped into action, putting a plan in place in such short notice. New Yorkers need to know the NYPD always stands at the ready to protect them and keep our city safe, Caban said. We will never remain idle when theres a possible threat looming over us, and thats exactly what we demonstrated last night. As this case continues to unfold, and the search intensifies for the suspect, you can count on the NYPD to remain vigilant and ready to do our part.

NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism Rebecca Weiner reported that this horrific crime has no nexus to New York City. Through extensive communication with other agencies, the NYPD worked through the night to make sure there is no impending threat against the city. According to Weiner, such interagency strategizing has been made possible through Operation Sentry, an information sharing network consisting of several hundred law enforcement agencies across the country.

We urge all New Yorkers to continue to go about your business, but to remain alert to your surroundings, Weiner said.

Your NYPD highway officers were out all night on every highway entering New York City & will continue to stay vigilant as this ongoing investigation continues. We urge all New Yorkers to do their part and if you see something, say something. https://t.co/fS6nIjO3gS pic.twitter.com/ciMFu4eFhY  NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) October 26, 2023

NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell shared that license plate recognition (LPR) vehicles were deployed to every city crossing Wednesday night; those vehicles remain in position Thursday. Additionally, Chell announced that the NYPD is currently in a level four activation, and as such, officers have been deployed to various locations out of an abundance of caution.

The aviation unit is joining in the efforts as the NYPD aims to keep a continuous flight up throughout the day should they be needed to jump into action, according to Chell.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  A sharp-eyed North Shore resident recently caught a rare sight in the waters off of Staten Island: a ship belonging to famous Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan.

Well, not the actual ship, but an amazing recreation of Magellans vessel Nao Trinidad built by the non-profit Nao Victoria Foundation in Spain.

The ship sailed by the Island on its way to Delaware City, Del., where it was on display for a few days last week, according to the foundations Maria Esteban.

Replica of Magellan ship Nao Trinidad sails off the North Shore of Staten Island. (Photo courtesy of Jarene Pagilarulo)

Tompkinsville resident Jarene Pagliarulo spotted the ship from her hilltop home on the North Shore and snapped a few photos, which she shared with the Advance. She later journeyed to Delaware City to view the Nao Trinidad in person.

Pagilarulo has lived on the hill for 43 years and from her home has watched cruise liners, container ships, sailboats, fishing vessels and tugboats ply the waters of New York Harbor.

She also imagines she can see the ships that carried her Dutch ancestors here in 1650, her German ancestors in the 1880s and her Italian ancestors around 1910.

The online MarineTraffic app and a spotting scope help Pagliarulo keep track of the vessels as they come and go.

But by far the most unusual vessel Ive seen was on Oct. 16 when a replica of the Nao Trinidad sailed through the Narrows and out to the Atlantic Ocean, Pagliarulo told the Advance. Tracking her on the MarineTraffic app, I saw her sailing behind the John J. Marchi ferryboat and imagined how surprised the commuters were at this unusual sight.

Replica of Magellan ship Nao Trinidad sails toward the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge on its way to Delaware City, Del. (Photo courtesy of Jarene Pagliarulo)

The vessel, a traveling museum and tribute to Magellan and the bygone early and dangerous days of world exploration, had been visiting spots in the Hudson Valley before sailing past Staten Island on its way to Delaware.

Replica of Magellan ship Nao Trinidad at dock in Delaware City, Del. (Photo courtesy of Jarene Pagliarulo)

Upon later seeing the ship in person in Delaware City, Pagliarulo said, I thought, how brave those sailors were to embark on that journey. And when I read that they had to subsist on rotten meat and bread infested with wormsits no wonder many did not survive.

Staten Islander Jarene Pagliarulo is seen aboard replica of Magellan ship Nao Trinidad in Delaware City. (Photo courtesy of Jarene Pagliarulo)

Magellan set out from Spain in 1519 with five ships to discover a western sea route to the Spice Islands, according to the History Channel.

During the voyage he discovered what is now known as the Strait of Magellan, the passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and was the first European explorer to cross the Pacific Ocean.

Magellan was killed during the voyage, but the expedition was completed by navigator Juan Sebastian Elcano. Having sailed the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans, the expedition became the first circumnavigation of the world.

It wasnt the first time that unusual vessels have been seen in Staten Island waters lately.

Last month, two cruise ships were parked in the waters off of Stapleton on their way to Manhattan after they were re-routed to stay clear of Hurricane Lee.

MORE STATEN ISLAND STORIES FROM TOM WROBLESKI

A final look at two since-demolished stations of the Staten Island Railway

13 reasons why Staten Island roads are the worst

Hello, God? Its me, Tom. Dialing a prayer from a pay phone at the St. George Ferry Terminal.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. As Staten Islanders come to grips with a series of recent youth fatalities, community members, interfaith and local leaders, along with elected representatives on the state and city level met at PS 57 to discuss steps that could be taken to sheathe the sword of violence in the communities of Stapleton and Park Hill.

The suggestions range from added resources in schools to opening new community centers.

The meeting was attended in part by New York State Sen. Jessica Scarcella-Spanton (D-North Shore/South Brooklyn); PS 57 Principal Karyn Singleton; Rev. Antoinette Donegan, the community coordinator at Central Life Family Center; Mike Perry, a city-funded violence interrupter and project manager of True2Life Staten Island; Minister Robert Perkins and dozens of other community stalwarts.

Heres a look at three ideas North Shore community members and leaders suggested at the meeting.

1. MENTAL HEALTH RESOURCES

Mental health assistance within borough schools and within the community was a solution several community members suggested.

A lot of our kids have a sense of responsibility that kids should not have, Singleton said. The reality of what they are hearing and seeing is so much.

One community member pulled from her own experience of raising her children to advocate for mental health resources for single-parent households.

When you have a mom who is running on nothing with no help, when you get home its hopeless, said the mother.

She went on to say that many would be able to be more active parents if they had financial resources for mental healthcare.

Another participant suggested encouraging learning emotional intelligence to get children and parents to the point where they can excel academically.

We have to be mindful with what we are teaching our youth, the woman said.

She concluded by posing a question: How can young people excel academically if they dont know how to mentally process and cope with the trauma they have experienced in a healthy way?

2. COLLABORATION

A neighborhood clergy member suggested improving educational outcomes by having community members volunteer a few weeks out of the year to improve literacy in the neighborhoods most impacted by gun violence.

I need about 500 volunteers in order to really cover the literacy hurdle, said the pastor. A little bit of help from all of us could have extraordinary value.

One woman spoke of the importance of having parents interested and involved in wanting a safer and better community for their children.

We need these parents to want to be actively involved the same way we want the city, state, the school to be involved, explained the woman. These are their kids.

Some community members want the governor and mayor to come walk the streets of Park Hill to get a real sense of what is happening in the community

This conversation is a start, said the individual with a sigh. We know the problem, but we need real solutions to give them.

3. MORE PROGRAMS FOR KIDS

Singleton said she would be open to collaborating with community programmers who are interested in establishing a night center for children to go to after school.

We are open,' said Singleton. If someone has funding and you want to open a night center were open. Bring it in because, Id rather them be here than there.

Singleton also suggested strengthening support of early childhood programs so that children experiencing learning difficulties can be helped early on.

I think there needs to be more family programs so that parents can know what to do with kids who are struggling and falling behind, said Singleton.

A 46-year-old lifelong Park Hill community member agreed with Singletons sentiments that there should be community spaces at local schools.

The resident said: Back in the day when we had these programs, we had something to do and we had guidance.

Although the meeting had to come to an end before each person in the room was able to speak, community members said they walked away with hope and tangible ideas about how make progress toward a safer community for youth.

ADDITIONAL COVERAGE: Concerning wave of child violence

>> NYPD identifies 13-year-old boy who was fatally stabbed on Staten Island; 14-year-old boy arrested

>> Gas station worker details stabbing on Staten Island: Kids were crying; 13-year-old boy was lying on floor of MTA bus

>> 4 months after student was shot outside Tottenville HS, parents remain concerned suspects still at large

>> Video of apparent gun in brawl outside Susan Wagner HS goes viral. Another student gun incident reported on Tuesday.

>> Shocking video shows melee where man was stabbed at Great Kills Staten Island Railway station

>> NYPD: Man, 36, fatally stabbed on Staten Island

>> Video posted online shows apparent handgun slide across gym at Staten Island high school
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I dont want to write about monsters  usually I want to understand them. And when I worked for the probation service, a lot of my work was trying to understand what caused people to commit crime, she says. Certainly when I was working within the womens prison, a huge percentage  something like 80 per cent of women  had been abused as children. Which is unsurprising, I guess. And no attempt was being made actually to work with that. We just incarcerate people and then think that somethings going to change about them. Brenda Blethyn plays the unorthodox DCI Vera Stanhope in Vera. The bread arrives and we take a moment to savour it. Cleeves books have been translated into 20 languages, shes a bestseller in Scandinavia and Germany and shes written a book a year since she started writing. Her latest is The Raging Storm, the third in her Two Rivers/Matthew Venn series (which have also been adapted for TV in The Long Call, starring Ben Aldridge). Formal study was not her thing  shes never taken a creative writing course and is dubious about their worth, except for the joy of discussing ideas with other writers. She was awarded an OBE in 2022 for services to reading and libraries. Not bad for someone who dropped out of uni, she quips.

The next book in her Vera series, out in September next year, is driven by anger at the privatisation of social services in Britain. Kids homes are now run by private companies. I think theres something obscene about privatising care of troubled teens: theres lots of abuse and companies are making a lot of money out of it. Emblas pork belly. Credit: Eddie Jim Social commentary is a throughline in the crime genre, as writers explore the extremes of behaviour and what tips people into making bad  and often diabolical  decisions. Although a fan of traditional crime, Agatha Christie is not on her list. She is quite cold and ruthless and I dont have any sense of kindness [in her work]. Remarkably, Cleeves doesnt plot in advance. If ever there were a genre in which plotting and planning, literally, would be required, its crime. But no. Partly because for the first 20 years, I didnt have any commercial success, so it had to be fun. If you know how its going to end I dont think theres any fun in that.

Rather than starting with plot or character, she begins with setting. I need to know a place quite well before I can write a novel ... you have that first response then, the sights and sounds and experience of a place. I think for a novel you need to be able to dig underneath it a bit as well. The trout at Embla. Credit: Eddie Jim When it came to the TV adaptations, the one thing she asked was that they were filmed where shed set them, which clearly meant holding true to something of her vision. Cleeves is not precious about much beyond that, even though she knows some novelists try to control how their work is translated to the screen. Its paid dividends for Shetland, which she says has seen a 45 per cent increase in tourism since the show first aired. Vera is filmed near where she lives on the coast of Northumberland and she loves to attend the first read-throughs and the wrap parties, although lately has been too busy travelling to do so. When it comes to her ability to flesh out a character, thats simple: Im just very curious and nosy about people, I always want to know about them.

On Brenda Blethyn, who seems made for the role of Vera, Cleeves is effusive. Shes such a great actor, shes made for every role shes ever played. She was in Secrets & Lies and then Little Voice and was Oscar-nominated for both those roles. Shes terrific, and loves doing it. The bill for lunch at Embla. Blethyn also happens to be a big reader, so the Vera books are sent to her as soon as they are first published. According to Cleeves, she knows the character so well, she has a sense of whether or not shed behave in a certain way: if something in the script doesnt ring true, shell let the writers know. Likewise, Cleeves has loved Doug Henshall as Shetlands Jimmy, a role hes played for the past seven seasons. The next instalment, which airs next month in Britain, sees Ashley Jensen take over the role. As our mains arrive, looking like artworks on a plate, I ask about why we love crime as a genre. Whether in literature or on our screens, its enduring appeal makes sense to her. Its a panacea in a troubled world. Certainly during COVID, and when peoples politics are getting more uncertain, and with all the climate stuff, there is a sense that all will be well, justice and order will be restored  and some form of resolution, I think. People are wanting that at the minute.

Its precisely what she has always turned to in difficult times, even as a youngster, if she felt miserable with the flu or was heartbroken. Cleeves has spoken about how reading helped her deal with the grief of losing her beloved husband Tim, who died suddenly in 2017. Before that, she had cancer and Tim had health problems. Its been a lifelong source of solace. It was always reading that was such a great escape, a way of being somewhere else. Getting inside someone elses head for a bit. Loading A huge advocate of libraries, Cleeves says they provide a core public service. If we believe in equality of opportunity we must fight not just for the buildings but for the range of books inside and the skilled staff who can promote reading in all its forms. Not only do libraries encourage us to be more tolerant and better informed, they contribute enormously to the wealth of the nation. That she is the brainchild behind the Reading for Wellbeing program in Britain is not surprising. Stories can be healing, she says. Most local authorities in the north of England now run the program and two full-time workers were recently appointed in Newcastle to work with women who have problems with addiction. Its about using reading as a way of bringing people together and alleviating loneliness, she says, but also helping people get out of the house, find a focus and a way of talking through issues. Its such a simple, inspired idea  and seems to be changing peoples lives, Cleeves says, clearly delighted. Libraries are such non-threatening places, so [were] getting people together in a library to talk about books without any sense of judgment. Were certainly not bringing classics for the masses or anything, she says. Youre just setting things up and helping all sorts of conversations. Just not preaching and being where people are.
Jon Fosse, this years winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, has translated the Australian writer Gerald Murnanes novel The Plains into Norwegian. He feels that he and Murnane have something in common.

To meet a literary voice that really talks to you, its rare, he told Merve Emre in the New Yorker in 2022. I feel that Murnane has a quite unique voice and way of seeing. Ive never read anything like The Plains, but it resembles my writing, this sense of distance and closeness. We are writing in different ways, but I can tell that theres a similar way of seeing thats behind it. Fosse is now translating Murnanes Barley Patch.

Norwegian author Jon Fosse, who this month won the Nobel Prize for literature. Credit: Getty

Its no coincidence that Fosse and Murnane have long been favoured candidates for the Nobel literature prize. They sit somewhere outside the mainstream, but both have ardent disciples who respond to their high seriousness and deep dedication to the word and to the human condition.

Of the two, its Fosse who is the better known, particularly in Europe. His career spans more than 70 novels, poems, childrens books, essays and plays. He writes in Nynorsk, spoken by about 10 to 15 per cent of the Norwegian population, and his works have been translated into 50 languages. His plays are performed around the world and his writing has been compared to Bernhardt, Ibsen and Beckett. But its only recently that his books have appeared in English translation.
All the Light We Cannot See

  1/2

Netflix, from November 2

Youre never going to please everyone with an adaptation of a much loved book, but Netflixs new series based on Anthony Doerrs 2014 All The Light We Cannot See might have trouble pleasing anyone who read the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.

Doerrs sprawling book, which has sold more than 15 million copies, features two young protagonists living very different lives during World War II. After much nuanced and intricate storytelling, their lives eventually converge. Its a story about family, connection, fate, morality and duty.

Aria Mia Loberti, in her first acting role, is the highlight of this adaptation. Credit: Katalin Vermes/Netflix

But in the hands of director/producer Shawn Levy, whose credits include the film Free Guy and episodes of Stranger Things, this four-part series becomes an oversimplified, schmaltzy wartime story with a wildly different ending.
Police have released footage of two men they believe could help the investigation into the assassination of major crime figure Alen Moradian in Sydneys east earlier this year.

About 8.30am on June 27, emergency services were called to Spring Street at Bondi Junction following reports Moradian had been shot while sitting in his stationary car at the underground carpark of his apartment.

NSW Police are searching for these two men. Credit: NSW Police

The 48-year-old died at the scene. Police found a burnt-out Porsche near Bondi Junction and a burnt-out Holden Commodore in Zetland a short time later. Three crime scenes were established and forensically examined by specialist police.

Two men have been charged in relation to the alleged murder and remain before the courts.
DUSHANBE, Tajikistan, October 27. The authorities of Tajikistan and the Export-Import Bank of Korea (Eximbank) held discussions on mobilizing financing for priority projects in Tajikistan, particularly the Rogun Hydroelectric Power Plant, Trend reports.

The conversation involved Tajikistan's Ambassador to South Korea, Kirom Salohiddin, and Vice President of Eximbank, Head of the Operational Group of the Korean Economic Development and Cooperation Fund (EDCF), Hee-Sung Yoon.

During the exchange, they explored collaboration prospects in areas such as transportation, healthcare, and environmental protection.

In August, Tajikistan's Minister of Finance, Fayziddin Kakhkhorzoda, announced the government's plans to initiate direct negotiations with potential investors by year-end to secure additional financing for the Rogun HPP project. Potential investors mentioned include the World Bank (WB), the European Investment Bank (EIB), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and others.

The Rogun HPP is planned to have an installed capacity of 3,600 MW, with an anticipated annual electricity generation ranging from 13 to 17 billion kilowatt-hours upon full commissioning, expected by 2033.
A Sydney man has denied intimidating four teenagers who displayed an Israeli flag in the eastern suburbs, after he was ordered to front court despite his lawyers attempts for him to avoid the media.

Abdullah Al-Taay, 23, entered pleas of not guilty to four counts of intimidation with intent to cause fear of physical harm when he faced Downing Centre Local Court on Friday morning.

Abdullah Al-Taay entered pleas of not guilty at Downing Centre Local Court. Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

Police allege Al-Taay verbally threatened the group of teenagers who had the flag on a vehicle on Bellevue Road in Bellevue Hill about 6.30pm on October 9, days after the Israeli-Hamas conflict erupted in the Middle East.

Video published on social media allegedly shows Al-Taay threatening the group, including allegedly saying he would kill them if he saw them with the flag again.
It is a fluke that the oldest photograph in Australia even survived, and the subject identified.

Of convict turned surgeon Dr William Bland in 1845, the daguerreotype was a one-off, a bit like the Polaroids that would come a century later.

Now the public has a rare opportunity to see it as part of the inaugural exhibition of the State Library of NSWs new permanent photographic gallery. Its called Shot, and opens Sunday, with 400 photographs selected by curator Geoff Barker from the librarys collection of two million images.

A photograph by Sam Hood of a polo match where the reporter sleeps through the match. Credit: Sam Hood

Eight of these, like the portrait of Bland, are so rare, light sensitive and valuable that they are unlikely to be shown again in some of our lifetimes.
So brazen is the booming illicit trade that some sellers openly advertise the illegal product in shop windows in busy suburban streets. Others are known to letterbox homes with pamphlets promoting their contraband. Victoria is now the only jurisdiction in Australia that does not require a licence to open a tobacco shop. Queensland will introduce a licensing scheme next September, one of a number of reforms aimed at curbing its burgeoning illicit trade. A police officer inspects the burnt shopfront of a Hadfield tobacconist attacked on Wednesday morning. Credit: Jason South This is despite a state review, completed last year by former Commissioner for Better Regulation Anna Cronin, which recommended sweeping changes to tobacco regulation to combat organised crime, including a licensing scheme similar to liquor licensing with beefed-up enforcement powers handed to a new authority within the justice department. Cronins confidential report also recommends the introduction of a fit and proper person test for licence applicants, the immediate suspension of licences if holders sell illicit tobacco, and stronger penalties for illicit tobacco sales, including imprisonment.

Senior government sources confirmed that while the report had been circulated and discussed within the government, no proposal for action had come to cabinet. The sources said the governments response had been delayed by the state election, cabinet reshuffles, other policy priorities and the departure of former premier Daniel Andrews. Enforcement of tobacco laws in Victoria is primarily left to local council environmental health officers. But councils say they are increasingly concerned about the risks to staff who lack the skills, training, and identity protection to investigate offences involving people and businesses with organised crime links. Municipal Association of Victoria figures show tobacco retail inspections only resulted in eight prosecutions in the five years from mid-2017  including zero in the last two financial years with data available.

One local council contractor, who has managed dozens of health officers, said he had long worried about risks to his workers and their lack of power when dealing with the organised crime-dominated tobacco trade. He spoke to The Age on the condition of anonymity because of his fear for his safety. Its beyond what we can do to control this, the contractor said. Were not really geared to deal with this stuff. Under state tobacco laws, retailers and wholesalers are prohibited from the possession or control of smuggled or prohibited imports. However, there is no licensing requirement for the sale of tobacco products. Currently, anyone can open a tobacco or vape shop in Victoria. There is no fit and proper person test, no criminal background check, and no permit fee.

While the illicit tobacco boom is not peculiar to Victoria, retail and health groups and former police say both the trade and the violence are greater here  in part due to this states lax regulation. This is at a crisis point, said Theo Foukkare, chief executive of the Australian Association of Convenience Stores, and a former executive at British American Tobacco. We have been trying for the last 18 months to work collaboratively with the health department  and enforcement authorities  but to no avail. The illicit tobacco trade includes counterfeit cigarettes as well as legitimate cigarettes from overseas. The most common brands are Marlboro, Manchester and Double Happiness. They mostly come from China and Dubai via sea cargo but also air freight and hidden in the luggage of passengers. They retail for $13 to $24 a packet. Tobacco shops selling vapes, smoking paraphernalia, trinkets and lollies now dot retail strips in Melbourne, sometimes in the dozens. While there is no official data on their number without a licensing scheme, police estimate more than half of Victorias estimated 800 to 1000 tobacconists sell illegal products. The Ages experience suggests this is an underestimate.

This masthead visited multiple tobacconists in the CBD and the suburbs this week and was able to purchase illegal cigarettes with ease, including cartons of packs of ten. At an outlet in Elsternwick, a shopkeeper responded with which one? when The Age asked for a packet of Marlboro. When the journalist said they wanted the cheaper one they were offered a red and white pack of Marlboro-branded cigarettes for $18. Branded cigarettes purchased from Melbourne tobacconists by The Age as part of this story. Credit: Simon Schluter At another tobacconist about 50 metres down the street, this masthead was able to buy a packet of illicit Manchester for $17. The Age then visited five tobacco shops on a street in Prahran  four sold illegal cigarettes, including Double Happiness from China, for just $13 for a pack of 20. Retail groups and tobacco regulation advocates say the sale of illicit cigarettes and vapes has quietly exploded in the past two years, as cost of living pressures and higher excise taxes have bitten households nationwide.

Australia has among the most expensive cigarettes in the world. A packet of legitimate Marlboro 25s retails for as much as $60. Some brands have tripled in price in the last decade. Loading Cancer Council Victoria chief executive Todd Harper said that while the absence of a licensing scheme was a significant gap in tobacco regulation, the government appeared to have limited bandwidth to take it on; this, despite health groups repeatedly calling for action for more than two decades. We dont know where the tobacco retailers are. There is no adequate enforcement training regime in place. That leaves a significant vulnerability, Harper said. Former Victorian upper house MP Tania Maxwell, whose advocacy in part led to then-minister for regulatory reform, Danny Pearson, commissioning the Cronin report in 2021, said she was frustrated by the governments lack of action.

For me, this is a really serious issue, particularly as we know that this is funding organised crime, Maxwell said. I dont understand why they are resting on their laurels on this. The illicit tobacco trade has traditionally been considered a customs issue that falls under the umbrella of federal law enforcement agencies. But with a record number of illicit cigarette shipments arriving at the nations shores, Australian Border Force officers are overrun. There is appropriate legislation at the border, but thats just the first hurdle and thats easily overcome by smugglers who know how to get around it. Post-border, its open slather, said Rohan Pike, an ex-federal police officer who helped set up ABFs tobacco strike force. After standing on the tobacco sidelines for most of its history, Victoria Police launched a dedicated illicit tobacco unit, the Lunar Taskforce, earlier this year amid fears the spate of violence could lead to innocent bystanders being injured or killed.

The taskforce has turned up the heat on tobacconists over the past two weeks, raiding 50 stores suspected of having links to organised crime in Melbourne and regional Victoria. Officers have seized more than 92,000 vapes, 1.3 million cigarettes, 900 kilograms of loose tobacco, two kilograms of cannabis, and one kilogram of cocaine, as well as $43,000 in cash suspected of being the proceeds of crime. Former federal police officer Rohan Pike, who was involved in setting up the tobacco strike force. Credit: Justin McManus Pike said the federal and state governments reluctance to roll out appropriate legislation and beef-up law enforcement agencies had allowed the black market to flourish. He said a licensing scheme would be a first step to address the issue, but without concerted law enforcement, criminals would just get more creative.
The $89 billion JobKeeper program helped keep up to 800,000 people in jobs at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and kept businesses in operation, but some adjustments should be made if a similar scheme needs to be rolled out in future.

An independent review of the JobKeeper scheme, published on Friday, found the wage subsidy scheme helped stabilise the Australian economy during the unprecedented pandemic crisis.

Its estimated that JobKeeper saved up to 800,000 jobs at the start of the pandemic. Credit: Sharon Smith

It played a critical role in addressing the extraordinary and unquantifiable uncertainty at the time, the review said. While there were important benefits associated with JobKeeper, there were also significant costs.

JobKeeper was introduced by the Morrison government in March 2020 after pandemic lockdowns shut down large parts of the economy. It enabled about 4 million workers to stay attached to their jobs while stood down, receiving a payment of $1500 a fortnight through their employer. That moved to a two-tiered payment system when the program was extended in September that year.
Senior Labor minister Tony Burke has supported his local council flying the Palestinian flag and said the country should not engage in competitive grief during the horrors of the Israel-Hamas war.

In the strongest comments yet from an Albanese government minister, Burke said civilian families in Gaza would be the first to die as food, water and fuel ran out, and that the grief of Palestinian Australians whose family members were dying had not been acknowledged in equal ways in the response to the conflict.

Tony Burke is the third Albanese government minister to speak out publicly about the way Palestinian Australians have felt since the Israel-Hamas war broke out. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

There are 79 Australians among 7000 foreign citizens trapped in Gaza who are unable to leave amid intractable negotiations over the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, which is essential to getting humanitarian aid into the enclave as its 2.3 million residents await an Israeli ground invasion in retaliation to Hamas October 7 attack.

Security agencies have warned the federal government that any escalation of the war will threaten social cohesion  particularly in Australias eastern cities  and increase the chance of spontaneous violence at home.
The news

A significant group of more than 30 First Nations figures, community service organisations and eminent legal identity Margaret McMurdo have called for the resignation of embattled Queensland police union president Ian Leavers.

The QPS First Nations Advisory Group along with supporters and allies including Labors former deputy leader in Brisbane City Council, Kara Cook, made the joint statement dismissing Leavers outward racist ideology expressed in a Courier-Mail opinion piece this week.

Doubling down at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Leavers described earlier criticism as water off a ducks back because he was saying things people were too frightened to. Credit: Toby Crockford

These racialised and divisive comments should be condemned in the strongest terms, the statement said.
Tin  a super metal

A

The future needs tin, in solders, printed circuit boards it is an indispensable component.

The applications of tin are many and varied. Food cans are coated with it, it is a component of important alloys, and it serves as corrosion protection for other metals. Construction and transportation materials also often contain tin, as do ceramics, glass and sensors. Tin soldiers, once often represented in children\-s rooms, are no longer made of tin because it would be too expensive. Today, about 35 percent of tin is used for solders. About 30 percent goes into the production of tinplate and the rest is processed in the chemical industry. Even superconducting magnets contain the metal. Tin is so significant because it is used for solder, and the electronics sector uses it to connect components. Around 50 percent of the tin processed in Germany is found in solder.

China produces the most tin, other important countries of origin are Indonesia, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil and Myanmar. China is also the largest consumer of tin, followed by the USA, Japan, Germany, the rest of Europe and Korea. And reserves of tin don\-t seem to last forever. Some experts call tin the commodity with the lowest reserves. Whether the reserves will last another eight or 16 years or even longer, tin is in any case an interesting raw material for investors due to its use, because a rising price is forecast for the metal due to the increasing demand for tin.

One tin company, namely First Tin  https://www.commodity-tv.com/ondemand/companies/profil/first-tin-ltd/  is in the tin business in the Ore Mountains in Germany and in Australia.

Tin One  https://www.commodity-tv.com/ondemand/companies/profil/tinone-resources-inc/  also has a high-quality portfolio of projects (tin, tungsten and lithium) in the Tier 1 mining regions of Tasmania and New South Wales, Australia.

Current corporate information and press releases from First Tin (https://www.resource-capital.ch/en/companies/first-tin-plc/ ).

In accordance with A34 WpHG I would like to point out that partners, authors and employees may hold shares in the respective companies addressed and thus a possible conflict of interest exists. No guarantee for the translation into English. Only the German version of this news is valid.

Disclaimer: The information provided does not represent any form of recommendation or advice. Express reference is made to the risks in securities trading. No liability can be accepted for any damage arising from the use of this blog. I would like to point out that shares and especially warrant investments are always associated with risk. The total loss of the invested capital cannot be excluded. All information and sources are carefully researched. However, no guarantee is given for the correctness of all contents. Despite the greatest care, I expressly reserve the right to make errors, especially with regard to figures and prices. The information contained herein is taken from sources believed to be reliable, but in no way claims to be accurate or complete. Due to court decisions, the contents of linked external sites are also co-responsible (e.g. Landgericht Hamburg, in the decision of 12.05.1998  312 O 85/98), as long as there is no explicit dissociation from them. Despite careful control of the content, I do not assume liability for the content of linked external pages. The respective operators are exclusively responsible for their content. The disclaimer of Swiss Resource Capital AG also applies: https://www.resource-capital.ch/en/disclaimer/
But its not just about Hamas, more broadly actions that incite violence or stir up religious hatred and racial violence are also not acceptable and thats why there's no place in our society for that type of hatred and division, and it will be met with the full force of the law where it happens.
The attack which the perpetrator launched was intended to be lethal; that the helpless victim survived it was mere happenstance. Her selection as the target for this attack was entirely and solely associated with her role as a US government employee in the National Security Agency of the United States. The perpetrator was this defendant, Joshua Bowles, a British former employee at GCHQ, who when speaking in the aftermath of the attack described himself as a terrorist.
Karen Leonard, GMB Scotland organiser in the NHS, said: The radiographers have tried repeatedly to explain their concerns and describe a better way forward, but have been ignored.
Instead we say to them, you are valued. You are our neighbours and our friends. We will stand up against hate and as a community, we will refuse to let anyone make you feel unsafe or unwelcome.
Stewart ended up taking a different portrait home with him from the competition, one painted by an artist who has read his books and is a self-confessed fan. That painting showed him in a pretty heroic light. It made him look really powerful, Levi said. Im more interested in trying to figure out the inner world or the psychology of my sitter.
Its operationally very difficult and thats why weve sent a plane-load of aid, its why weve sent Border Force, its why weve got people there, our International Development Secretary has been working with a lot of people in the region to make sure that were prepared to be able to get this aid to the right place, she said.
Earlier this month, Parliament heard that thousands of Afghans who assisted the UK and took refuge in Pakistan with the promise of resettlement in Britain now face being deported to their Taliban-ruled country due to a lack of housing.
A Labour Party spokesperson said: "Of course, we understand why people want to call for a ceasefire. The Palestinian people are not Hamas, and they are suffering terribly. Thats why we support humanitarian pauses so that aid, fuel, water electricity and medicines can urgently get to those who need it.
The Times and The Independent relay the plea for help from 200 Britons trapped in Gaza, with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak promising to do everything we can to get them out of the region.
It landed in the UK on Friday morning, according to the BBC. Earlier this month, Parliament heard that thousands of Afghans who assisted the UK and took refuge in neighbouring Pakistan with the promise of resettlement in Britain now face being deported to their Taliban-ruled country due to a lack of housing.
According to the US, some of the casualties suffered by Russia near Avdiivka, in eastern Ukraine, were "on the orders of their own leaders".
Now the doctors are blocked in the room with Putins corpse, they are being held by members of the presidential security service on the personal orders of Dmitry Kochnev who is in touch and receives instructions from the Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Nikolai Patrushev.
On topping The Powerlist, he said: Ever since I moved back to take over British Vogue, the Powerlist has always been so supportive, always there in one shape or another.
TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, October 27. President of France Emmanuel Macron will pay a working visit to Uzbekistan on November 2 after his visit to Kazakhstan, Trend reports.

As per the statement of the administration of Macron, France is ready to support Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan on the path of reform and modernization, contribute to the diversification of international relations, support their independence and sovereignty, as well as their intention to strengthen relations with Europe.

The administration noted that the purpose of the rapprochement of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan with France is cooperation in the economic sphere, in particular in the energy sector, in the supply of critical materials, transport, healthcare, agriculture and defense.

Earlier this year, French companies engaged in transport, energy, agriculture, digital, textile and industrial sectors, expressed their readiness to explore Uzbekistan's business potential during a visit of French business delegation of nearly 40 companies to Tashkent to participate in the France-Uzbekistan Business Council of MEDEF International.

The France-Uzbekistan Business Council of MEDEF International noted that it has been very active recently in sustaining the dynamic increase of bilateral relations between both countries. It organized its previous delegation in Tashkent just in July 2022, and organized an important French-Uzbek Business Forum in Paris last November with around 200 participants, during the official visit of President Mirziyoyev to France.
TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, October 27. Uzbekistans Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov proposed to create conditions for the unified operation of the energy systems of the CIS countries, Trend reports.

He made the remark during a meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of CIS countries in Bishkek.

He added that for such work, it is necessary to take into account the capabilities of each of the commonwealth countries in energy generation and consumption.

The concept of development of industrial cooperation of the CIS and a set of measures for its development for the period up to 2030 adopted in June this year initiated by Uzbekistan is big step for the development of CIS, Aripov noted.

The prime minister also advocated the synchronization of national import substitution programs.

This will contribute to the promotion of joint projects in priority sectors of the economy," he added.

The prime minister also proposed to create a single CIS e-commerce platform and accelerate the adoption of an agreement on the elimination of technical barriers for the commonwealth countries.

Abdulla Aripov also reminded about the initiative of Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev on the formation of a free trade zone of the CIS and the revision of the provisions of the relevant agreement without exceptions and restrictions.

Moreoverc Aripov called for the preparation of a separate roadmap with measures to support the partnership of the CIS regions, including the holding of the first interregional forum of the member states, the activation of exhibition events and mutual visits of business representatives.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 28. During the 10th emergency special session, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on the Middle East, which was developed by a group of Arab countries with the support of other states, and submitted for consideration by Jordan, Trend reports.

120 countries voted for the document, 14 were against it, and 45 abstained.

A two-thirds majority of the total number of voters was required to pass the resolution.
The Congress of the "Carol Davila" University of Medicine and Pharmacy, now in its 11th edition, confirms the recognition of the importance of the event in promoting scientific research, education and innovation in the medical area, presidential advisor Diana Paun said on Thursday.

"The Congress is not only a continuation of the rich tradition of this elite university, of which I am honored to be a part, but it underlines its adaptation to the ever-changing context. In today's fast-paced environment, medical research and innovation play a vital role in ensuring the health and well-being of the population. The University of Medicine and Pharmacy is an essential pillar in this direction, contributing significantly to the development and application of medical knowledge," Diana Paun said on Thursday at the opening of the Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy Congress.

She stressed the importance of international partnerships and exchange of best practices to ensure the transfer of the latest knowledge and techniques into medical practice.

"Medical diplomacy has become increasingly important, representing Romania's strong commitment to solving global issues. It is essential to recognise the importance of efforts to create European and international medical cooperation networks and to realise the benefits that can result from close collaboration with renowned physicians abroad. I recently paid a visit to Japan and South Korea, which have deeply impressed me with the progress, experience and expertise of their health systems, and I was particularly pleased with the openness of academics and researchers to collaborate and share their vast experience. We must seize these opportunities for academic and medical scientific cooperation. I hope that this congress will inspire you to continue to find ways to improve the health of the population, because this event grows with each edition," added Paun.

AGERPRES
KDHX (88.1 FM) has officially severed ties with several of its former volunteer DJs who have gone on strike against the St. Louis community radio station. But it is leaving the door open for their possible return.

An email sent Thursday to the striking DJs begins by thanking them with sincere gratitude for their years of service to the station and listeners.

It continues: We understand that you have decided to take a break from your radio show, and acknowledge that this is a challenging time at KDHX. We wanted to give you a little space before reaching out to you.

Since we have not heard from you, your absence and lack of communication regarding your absence indicates that you have resigned, and we accept your resignation from your volunteer role at KDHX.

The email, signed by executive director Kelly Wells and head of the volunteer connections department Andrea Dunn, concludes by stating that they are willing to consider the volunteers return to the station. If any of the DJs do wish to return, the administrators said they would discuss the next steps to bring them back.

At least one of the DJs, Tim Rakel, replied that while he would very much like to return to the station, he would not come back until the 10 DJs fired in September are reinstated.

The DJs were released from the station in September after, according to board president Gary Pierson, they were vocal and disruptive in their support of another DJ, Tom Papa Ray, who had been fired in February, and two others, Drea Stein and Andy Coco, who had been let go in August.

The 10 were among a group of 29 then-current and 16 former volunteers who signed a letter of no confidence that called for the dismissal of Wells and Pierson. The letter was read at a KDHX board meeting.

After the 10 were fired, some others resigned on the air, and another several went on strike, saying they would not return until the dismissed DJs have been reinstated. That is the group that received Thursdays email.

With one of the empty time slots now filled, the station currently has an on-air staff of about 55, down from 80. The unmanned slots are being filled by music programs without announcers. According to a station spokesman, the music for those shows is being curated by a group of volunteers. The station has said that several dozen people have applied to become DJs to fill the empty slots.

The announcerless programming has led to several instances of dead air. In addition, a couple of songs have been played with words that are not permitted on the airwaves by the Federal Communications Commission. In one case, the DJ cut off the song and apologized for the slip.
When American prisoners of war were captured by the Japanese in World War II, they were allowed to bring just one item with them.

Marine Sgt. Albert Puckett kept his canteen.

Years later, Puckett credited that canteen with saving his life.

Puckett was captured on Corregidor in 1942. He did not just use the canteen for water, which was vital in the horrific conditions in a POW camp, but he also cooked food in it. And after the war was over, only the canteen identified him as an American  everything else he had had rotted away.

That canteen and its story are in the St. Louis areas newest museum, the Jefferson Barracks POW-MIA Museum, located in Jefferson Barracks Park, across the street from Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery.

The museums goal, says president Paul Dillon, is to put names, faces and stories to that silhouette in the POW-MIA flag.

The museum opened in September, the culmination of an effort that began with a 2011 conversation between Missouri AmVets (American Veterans) District Commander Joe Grohs and then-U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan about the possibility of building a POW-MIA museum in Missouri.

The National Prisoner of War Museum in Andersonville, Georgia, opened in 1998. But, Dillon says, the one here is the first to honor servicemen who are missing in action as well as those held as prisoners of war.

Housed in what was originally built in 1896 as quarters for junior Army officers, with a replica guard tower standing outside, the museum is still a work in progress. Only the first floor is currently open. There are plans to open the second floor when organizers can raise the money.

Admission to the museum is free, but donations are welcome. A donation jar is located at the front desk under a miniature model of a POW camp guard tower.

Even when the second floor opens, there will never be enough space to give a comprehensive account of those who were prisoners of war or missing in action, Dillon says.

Thats the frustrating thing about it, because they are such extraordinary stories about such ordinary, extraordinary people, he says.

Each one of the pictures in here is an exhibit in itself.

One of the pictures in the museums first room  the officers quarters old kitchen  is of Maj. Rhonda Cornum, a flight surgeon with the 229th Attack Helicopter Regiment. While on a mission searching for a downed pilot in 1991 during the First Gulf War, her helicopter was shot down and she was taken prisoner.

She had to endure some terrible, harsh treatment for eight days, Dillon says.

She testified about these experiences to Congress, and her testimony and her service opened the door to combat roles for women, Dillon says.

Cornum retired from the Army as a brigadier general in 2012.

Its not always with weapons or arms that you struggle against an enemy or adversary. Sometimes, simply enduring is the only weapon or option that you have, Dillon says.

Near Cornums exhibit is one devoted to Air Force Col. John Clark, of Columbia, Missouri. He was held prisoner by the North Vietnamese Army after his RF4 Phantom reconnaissance plane was shot down over the Ho Chi Minh Trail in 1967.

As he later wrote in a book about his experiences, a single thought kept him alive throughout his imprisonment: Make it to the next sunrise.

The museum includes information about fighters from all branches and a wide variety of conflicts. One exhibit honors F. Carl Skip Schumacher, of St. Louis, who was third in command on the USS Pueblo, the ship captured by the North Koreans in 1968. The crew was held and subject to torture for 11 months before their release.

And it even has a place for two Missourians who were part of the Civil Air Patrol, a nonmilitary auxiliary to what was then the U.S. Army Air Forces. Their plane went down off the Mississippi coast in 1943 while on an anti-submarine patrol.

Missing were Civil Air Patrol 1st Lt. Paul Davis, from St. Louis, and 2nd Lt. Martin Coughlin, from Kansas City.

The earliest subject dates back to World War I. Hugo Schroeder was a first-generation American who was injured and caught between American and German trenches. With German parents, he had grown up speaking German at home.

A group of German soldiers, intent on killing every wounded American they found, happened upon him. Schroeder spoke to them in German, so they transported him to behind the German lines. His life was spared, though he lost a leg to the injury.

Gary Dixon, of Independence, Missouri, recently visited the museum. He praised it enthusiastically, saying that he especially enjoyed seeing some of the relics that are on display: a rusted piece of the USS Arizona, a battleship sunk at Pearl Harbor, and a ceremonial Japanese noncommissioned officers sword, also from World War II.

But the best thing about it is this guy here, he says, indicating Dillon. He knows so much history.

With Dillon, the museum is personal. He was an Army specialist toward the end of the Vietnam War, stationed at Fort Benning (now Fort Moore). But his father, Staff Sgt. Richmond P. Red Dillon, was a prisoner of war during World War II. He was held at Stalag XVII-B, the German POW camp made famous in the Academy Award-winning movie Stalag 17.

Much of the museums last room is devoted to Stalag XVII-B, filled with the stories and information only Dillon could get because of his father and the camps other prisoners.

The camp was designated for airmen only, and they never called themselves prisoners of war, Dillon says. Rather, they always used the term Kriegies, short for Kriegsgefangen, or war prisoners.

One of the Kriegies somehow managed to smuggle a camera and film into the camp. His pictures are prominently displayed, showing the camp in detail, including the barbed-wire fences and a guard tower, as well as the men engaged in their daily activities.

As the war was coming to a close and Allied forces were approaching, the Germans marched the Americans 281 miles to Braunau, Austria  coincidentally, the birthplace of Adolf Hitler. Among the most horrifying parts of the museum is the description, by one of the American prisoners, of about 200 Jews being marched the other way to the Mauthausen death camp.

Starving and beaten, many of the Jews died as they marched. The American airman told of seeing a body every 10 or 15 feet.

Dillon spoke to many of the Kriegies, who held their last reunion in 2019 at the dedication of the museum building. What they saw on that march was still on their minds.

When you talk to them, they say, Now we knew why we were there. Why we were fighting. We knew what evil was. This was evil.

The war in Europe was nearing its end. The Germans decided to march their prisoners westward because they determined, with considerable justification, that when they were captured they would be treated better by American soldiers than by Russians.

Americans were approaching from the west. Russians from the east.

The march took three weeks, ending up in a pine forest, where they made camp. Some of the Germans disappeared into the forest, hoping to avoid capture. The rest allowed security to grow lax. Some of the prisoners even made their way to neighboring farms, scavenging for food to eat.

At night, they returned to the camp and waited for their liberation.

Freedom came in the form of the U.S. Army 13th Armored Division.

An Army captain drove into the middle of their encampment, stood up on top of his Jeep and liberated them by saying, OK, you sons of bitches are back in the Army now.
FARMINGTON, Mo.  For nearly 20 years, Kenney Willis was afraid to get a job. He had worked a couple days at a convenience store but was fired after he couldnt find the potato wedges and spilled the pizza sauce.

I worked once, and I failed, and I didnt think I could do it again, said Willis, 40, who has bipolar disorder and lives in a group home in Farmington. Bipolar disorder causes unusual shifts in mood, energy and concentration.

Just recently, Willis celebrated two years working at a Taco Bell near his home  helping guests order at kiosks, cleaning the lobby and making the Cinnamon Twists. He is not only a star employee, but a happier and healthier person.

It makes me feel really good, he said. Ive had a lot of ups and down there, but Im really proud of myself.

Willis says he owes his success to a supported employment program that is part of his mental health care with BJC Behavioral Health, which provides services in four locations across the St. Louis area and one in Farmington in St. Francois County.

Over 10 years ago, BJC Behavioral Health was one of the first providers in Missouri to adopt an employment program model called Individual Placement and Support, which is designed for those with serious mental illness.

The IPS model is unique in that it involves employment specialists helping individuals rapidly get competitive and integrated jobs, while working with employers and supporting individuals as challenges arise. No one is considered incapable of finding work. The specialist is part of the health care team.

The idea is that work is an essential part of treatment.

Across the country, IPS has grown from being offered at 40 sites in 2004, to more than 350 in 26 different states, according to researchers who developed and continue to study the model.

Studies have shown that individuals participating in IPS were nearly 2.5 times more likely to be employed than those in other employment programs. They also earn more and are happier with their jobs.

I think its really grown just because we see the success of it, said the Missouri Department of Mental Healths Rosie Anderson-Harper, director of recovery services. We know how important it is for our mental health to have a job  it helps with their symptoms, it helps give them structure to their day, it helps them form relationships with people.

In programs across the state without the IPS model, about 18% of clients are successfully employed (longer than 90 days), Anderson-Harper said, as opposed to more than 50% where its implemented.

Nearly 2,200 Missourians participate in IPS programs, according to the latest data, which is on the rebound after the COVID-19 pandemic. Providers say they hope to reach even more.

About 258,000 adults in Missouri have a serious mental illness, meaning they have a diagnosable disorder such as schizophrenia or major depression that substantially interferes with daily life, according to a 2020 state report.

State-level data is unknown, but nationwide surveys have found that about two-thirds of people with serious mental illness want to work, but only 10% to 15% are employed.

If I didnt work, Willis said, I wouldnt have self-esteem. Because I dont have a lot of friends, and I dont have a lot of the support, so I need that self-esteem to feel good about myself.

New model

After years of dismal results with traditional vocational rehabilitation programs, the model was developed in 1990s by researchers with Dartmouth University. It continues to be studied by a team of researchers and educators that created the IPS Employment Center to share outcomes and provide training for providers.

Jenise Woolf, supervisor of community services for BJC Behavioral Health, recalls the dramatic change from a traditional supported employment program to the new model.

Requirements like job-readiness training, lengthy interview practicing, in-depth learning style assessments and 90 days of sobriety went by the wayside, Woolf said. Same with the idea that some clients should not even be recommended for employment.

Its hit the ground running, she said. The only requirement is that they are interested in going to work.

Clients used to be advised not to tell employers about their illness because of stigma, Woolf said. Now, they are encouraged to disclose their diagnosis in order to normalize it and receive support.

Employment specialists will work closely with employers to understand their needs and help address challenges as they unfold. We let them know we are invested in their success, Woolf said.

The specialists and the health care team work together to ensure symptoms are kept at bay and other issues, such as substance use disorders, are treated.

In addition, the specialists work closely with Missouri Vocational Rehabilitation counselors within the state education department, which receives federal and state funding to help with the cost of work-related needs such as transportation, job uniforms or developing resumes.

The Vocational Rehabilitation program also pays treatment providers based on employment milestones that specialists reach with their clients.

The Missouri Department of Mental Health, on the other hand, works closely with the models researchers to provide outcomes and training for providers and ensuring the model is being followed.

Anderson-Harper with MDH said the collaboration is unique and part of the reason why more than half of IPS clients across Missouri are successfully employed. We are leaders because of the close partnership with vocational rehabilitation and how we do this together, she said.

This year, the state health department recognized BJCs program in Farmington as the IPS Program of the Year because of its consistently high employment rates, adherence to the model and long-time staff.

Woolf with BJC said the Farmington team refuses to give up on their clients.

They dont look at the barriers a client might be up against, she said. Its about problem-solving  this is what the issue is, and this how we can tackle it to help the person succeed.

Overcoming doubt

Willis was volunteering at BJCs Friends in Action Clubhouse in Farmington when he met his employment specialist, Robert Greif, about five years ago. A clubhouse is a community center with social programs for those with mental illness. It is run by volunteers with mental illness in conjunction with professional staff.

Greif said he noticed Willis was very social and signed up for all the clubhouse activities. Willis gave tours, answered phones and helped run the Snack Shack. Everyone knew him and liked him.

Greif tried to encourage him to see that these skills were transferable, that he had a lot of experience that would make him a great employee. Willis and his grandmother, his legal guardian, were also worried about losing his much-needed disability benefits, which Greif promised to make sure the work schedule would not impact.

It takes time with this program to build up a level of rapport and to build up a level of trust, Greif said. So, we worked on that for a while. He had a lot of self-doubt, a lot of doubt in his abilities, and a lot of fears even going into the interview.

The road was bumpy. Willis first few fast-food jobs caused too much anxiety. The bike he was given to take to work was stolen. But with support, he remained tenacious.

Any time you try new things and gain experience, you grow, and Kenney did that. He grew and became more confident, Greif said. Even the job losses he had, he learned new skills and learned different duties and applied them to the next job.

Willis said he learned how to not let a small problem spiral into something larger, take changes in staff in stride and not take customers complaints personally.

The change has been dramatic, Greif said. Where before something may have really rattled his cage or really got him upset, where he might not want to continue, now hes learned how to work and cope and deal with it.

The Taco Bell where he works no longer has customer surveys, but Willis said he used to get high marks. My GM put on there, I love how our guests actually love you, he said. And Im really liked by my co-workers now too.

While recently sitting next to Greif, Willis said he someday wants to live on his own.

You dont have to stop here, Kenney, Greif told him. Keep moving forward with your life goals. We all have them.

Published in the Sunday, Oct. 29 edition.

Editors note: Updated with the correct names of the Missouri Department of Mental Health and Rosie Anderson-Harper, the departments director of recovery services.
VANDALIA, Mo.  Cannabis cultivation usually elicits images of LED lighting closely illuminating crowded rows of seven-leafed plants. But drive 100 miles northwest of St. Louis and youll be standing among two acres of marijuana plants that reach 8 feet tall and have branches buckling under the weight of hefty buds. Ohio-based Standard Wellness is a multi-state operator and one of Missouris four current licensed cultivators that grow their products outside. But why outside?

Why do we grow cannabis indoors? Joshua Cason, cultivation manager at Standard Wellness in Missouri, countered. It used to be that the worst thing you could do was tell people [youre growing cannabis]. Now its legal. We dont have to be nervous.

Legal sales of recreational adult-use marijuana were approved by Missouri voters in November, and began in February. Sales through September have reached nearly $738 million, according to the state Department of Health and Senior Services. Standard Wellness Missouri branch generates about $13 million annually, with plans to increase production next year.

Most of its product is grown indoors, but Cason said the company sees a future for open-air operations and is trying to establish cannabis as an outdoor cash crop in Missouri, where soybeans, corn and hay generate billions of dollars annually.

The agriculture here is amazing, Cason said. Were jumping in. We want to fit cannabis in that and make Missouri agriculture proud.

Outdoor adventures

This year is the first time both Cason and Standards Missouri operation have grown cannabis outdoors. And, it turns out, Missouri is a great place to cultivate cannabis under the sun.

Cason called the states climate excellent when it comes to growing weed.

In the spring and summer theres heat but it doesnt get over 100 degrees, he said. The humidity is helpful. The plants love high humidity.

Strains that have gotten the fresh air treatment include Northern Lights, Lemon Dreamy and California Dream.

We put some of the tougher strains outside just to see how theyd do, Cason said. Theyre a bit more sturdy. This is my first time growing outside so I wanted to see what worked.

Ideally, the plants are moved outside around Mothers Day after starting indoors for two weeks.

Harvest takes place in October before temperatures begin to drop. Unlike most outdoor crops, the cannabis plants never take root in the earth. Instead, they grow in 45-pound pots above ground to help protect root tips from cold soil temperatures.

But, like any other farmer, Standard Wellness has seen its fair share of moths, caterpillars and rabbits among its 1,400 outdoor plants. So far, rabbits have only disturbed the irrigation system, but the plants get sprayed with a bacteria that eventually dissipates in the sun to combat critters. At about $2,000 for one pound of cannabis, stakes are high.

The plants are protected by a covered chain link fence, which is topped by barbed wire so that the land cannot be accessed from the top or seen from the outside, per state regulations. Each plant also has two camera angles on it at all times.

Still learning

The outdoor crop will be sold to in-state wholesalers or operations that are only licensed to manufacture or distribute, not to cultivate cannabis. Those manufacturers will extract oil from the flowers to use in products rather than sell the buds, Standard Wellness general manager Paul Ray said.

Ray also said the company doesnt market its outdoor plants as such because theyre too new to outdoor growing to tell if the overall quality is higher or consumers regard it as desirable. The company plans to add about 300 more plants outside next spring.

Its like food. Some people like organic, some people dont care, said Sven Svenson, a professor in the agriculture department at Southeast Missouri State University. Growers have their niche. The niche for outdoor cannabis is already there, but people who grow outdoors will continue to grow outdoors and the people who grow indoors will continue to grow indoors.

Standard Wellnesss outdoor plants make up merely a fraction of its overall operation. About 8,000 cannabis plants grow inside Standard Wellness $20 million 33,000-square-foot facility. They are nurtured and rotated on light-specific, temperature- and humidity-controlled shelving three tiers high before being harvested, dried and processed.

You can achieve the perfect climate indoors, Cason said. You can give more time and attention to plants indoors.

But outdoor cultivation allows for larger plants and smaller electricity bills.

According to Cason, the sun is the best, and cheapest, light a plant can get.

You get the full spectrum of light and then the full spectrum of medical benefits, Cason said. Indoor plants only get red or blue light. You cant replicate whats outside.

Plus, the sun encourages higher terpene production, he said. Terpenes are chemical compounds responsible for the aromas and medicinal effects in different strains. Cannabis connoisseurs will seek out high terpene levels instead of THC, which also has psychoactive effects.

Svenson said he knows of outdoor cultivators in Missouri but he doesnt foresee outdoor growing being the future of cannabis. Its too soon to know the scientific evidence of the benefits, or lack thereof, of growing outdoors, he said.

Outdoor-grown cannabis products would benefit from being lab-tested to prove to consumers that pollutants havent made their way into the extracted oil. Its an additional expense, but Svenson said cultivators should pay a little more money to assure customers that their products are safe.

With indoor growing, you can start clean and stay clean. You dont get the pollutants from the soil or air, Svenson said. Will growers grow outside if they can? Yes, because its less expensive.

Photos: Cannabis harvest in Missouri
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

Want to know the difference between a wish and a plan?

Look no further than the recent brouhaha surrounding the St. Louis Board of Aldermens legislation that supporters like to call the Unhoused Bill of Rights.

Too many others call it the pee and poop bill, thanks to a provision it contained that would have made it legal for homeless people to urinate and defecate in public.

(Well pause here a moment to give everyone a chance to re-read that previous paragraph  just in case some were unaware of the bills world-is-a-toilet clause, or some still find it hard to believe it was ever included.)

OK, now back to the homeless bill.

The overall aim of the legislation, three bills introduced simultaneously, embraces the honorable wish to provide homeless people with resources to help them off the street and into permanent housing.

This is not something embraced only by the self-styled politically progressive. Anyone with even a dollop of compassion wants to shelter the homeless, feed the hungry and protect the abused. And to be sure, this proposal contains provisions for providing relief.

Which brings us back to the elephant droppings in the room.

How did anyone on Gods green earth think this proposal would travel through the legislative process with a clause that legalized dropping trou and relieving oneself in public?

Maybe its just a matter of aldermanic seasoning. The lead sponsor, Alderwoman Alisha Sonnier, of Tower Grove East, is in her first year on the aldermanic board. From all accounts, she is smart, energetic and committed.

But her inexperience showed in Post-Dispatch reporter Austin Huguelets recent story about the opposition the legislation, in its current form, faces from Mayor Tishaura O. Jones and several progressive aldermen.

Sonnier told Huguelet that she is willing to work with colleagues on a compromise. As evidence of that, she pointed to the fact that the pee-and-poop provision has been flushed from the bill.

Like it was some kind of a bargaining chip? How could anyone involved in putting this legislation together ever see that distasteful, unsanitary provision as some viable trade-off for anything?

Instead of serving as a chip, the provision was a time bomb, and not even a hidden one. It blew up early and damaged the bill as soon as it left the starting block.

In short, it made the entire legislation look unserious. Unfortunately, it made its supporters look the same.

Helping on the bill is Aldermanic President Megan E. Green, who joined Sonnier in complaining about the opposition from Jones office and some aldermen.

One would think she could have predicted the bumps along this road, given that she was an alderman for eight years before winning the top board spot in 2022.

But Green prides herself on being, by her own description, a policy wonk. And this is not the first time she has shown a penchant for plans that no doubt would earn high marks in a graduate school program.

Right now, in another exercise of policy wonkery, Greens office is conducting a survey on how to use about $250 million in Rams relocation money. The process looks good on paper, or on an overhead projector at a symposium.

But while many city residents keep saying they want better police, street and trash service, Greens office and allies seem more focused on things she and fellow progressives want.

When the public agrees with politicians, politicians applaud the public wisdom; when it doesnt agree, politicians conclude the public is wrong.

This homeless legislation, however, aims to do more than just ignore the public voice.

It sets its sights on taking it away  by eliminating requirements for shelters to get approval signatures from its closest neighbors, thereby making it easier to open homeless shelters in residential neighborhoods.

A good argument can be made for changing restrictive city zoning codes to allow shelters to operate in more places. But its odd that progressives  who seem to love signature drives for most any other reason  want to take power away from the people who could be the most affected.

Did Green and Sonnier both not see the possibility that this disenfranchisement of sorts just might get the public a bit concerned? Really?

Again, no one denies there is a homeless problem that requires both short- and long-term plans to handle current emergencies and correct past inadequacies.

Since this bill was partially a mash-up of several old proposals, a better plan might have been to break it down into segments and introduce them incrementally to address specific issues.

Instead, the bills promoters opted to bring it all forth at once, as a dramatically resonant but ultimately unwieldy bill of rights.

And because of its initial knockdown, it likely will take more time for the board to hold its hearings and negotiate its way past all of the opposition, internal and external, that it has generated.

Good wishes are nice; good plans help the homeless.

Originally published in the Saturday, Oct. 28 edition.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 27. Israel is starting a ground operation in Gaza, an army spokesman said, Trend reports.

A combined attack was carried out on Israel on October 7. From the beginning, a massive rocket attack began from the territory of the Gaza Strip, followed by the penetration of militants by land, water, and air.

Israel declared a state of war after a massive rocket attack from the Gaza Strip. Moreover, Israel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced a mass gathering of reservists.
Tony Messenger Metro columnist Follow Tony Messenger Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today

WARRENTON  It was late September and Judge Jason Lamb decided there would be no more delays.

Lamb is the presiding judge in the 12th Judicial Circuit, which includes Warren, Audrain and Montgomery counties. In Warren County in particular, there had been years of delays in cases, in part because Prosecuting Attorney Kelly King would overcharge and then refuse to work with defense attorneys on reasonable plea bargains.

Six or seven cases would be scheduled for trial on the same day; sometimes, none of them would move forward because the cases werent ready to prosecute.

The delays came to a head, with defense attorneys exercising their clients right to a speedy trial. More often than not, those trials were still being delayed, often by King.

So it would be on Sept. 25, when six cases were set for trial. One of them was for a woman named Brittany Nipper, whom I wrote about in August. For more than five years, shes had the dark cloud of a felony domestic violence charge hanging over her head. She asked for a speedy trial. She had shown up for court only to have the trial canceled. Her attorney says there is no evidence to support the charge.

The weekend before the latest scheduled trial, King asked for another delay. In fact, she did so in five of the six cases scheduled for trial, explaining to Lamb in court briefs that only one  a second-degree murder case involving the death of an infant  would move forward that day.

Lamb said no. He told King to be ready to go to trial on all the cases. King, who is leaving the job voters elected her to do to take a job as a Missouri deputy attorney general, threw the equivalent of a legal temper tantrum.

She dismissed all the cases, including the murder trial. That case, involving the death of an infant in June 2015, is a stark example of how delayed justice in Warren County means no justice at all. The charges werent filed until three years after the baby died, allegedly from head trauma. King filed second-degree murder charges against Charles Anthony Holiday. Hes been in the Warren County Jail since November 2018, with the case never making it to trial.

King dropped the charges on the eve of trial and then almost immediately refiled them, re-starting the clock in the case. Holiday, who has pleaded not guilty, is still jailed. His attorney, Leah Chaney, successfully got the judge to issue a $50,000 bond earlier this month, in part because of the delays. Anthony, who has not been convicted, has been in jail for nearly five years.

When a court system is so clogged that it cant move cases, it risks trampling the rights of defendants.

It also delays justice for victims, like the mom of a Warren County sex assault victim who complained to me recently about the ongoing delays. The womans daughter was 9 when she was assaulted and is 16 now. When I first wrote about her, there was no end in sight for the delays. That changed this month, when Lamb acted by appointing a senior judge  Richard Zerr of St. Charles County  to handle the case, which is now scheduled for trial on Dec. 20.

Other cases that had long been delayed also are finally moving through the system, in part because Lamb asked the Missouri Office of Prosecution Services to provide extra prosecutors and guidance for the people King left behind to handle the backlog.

Judge Lamb called in late September asking for help, said Darrell Moore, executive director of the prosecution services office, which provides training and other help to county prosecutors. Its like when the governors office called and asked us to help in St. Louis.

That, of course, was when former St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner had created similar delays in the city  and often followed an identical practice to King by dropping cases on the eve of trial and refiling them. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey made statewide headlines by helping push Gardner out of office. In Kings case, he offered her a job.

But now that King is gone, defense attorneys who practice in Warren County  and Moore, a former elected prosecutor in Greene County  say things are starting to improve. There are cases, he says, where its obvious that plea bargains are necessary, and he and his fellow prosecutors are making the sorts of offers that will dispose of cases through guilty pleas to more appropriate charges.

We will provide assistance and try to get the docket under control, Moore says. Many of these cases just needed attention.
ST. LOUIS  A former De Soto police sergeant who was fired from the department after he set up a Halloween display mocking Michael Browns death is appealing a federal judges decision to dismiss his lawsuit.

James A. Daly claimed in a lawsuit filed last year that the police department retaliated against him and violated his right to free speech when he was fired after setting up a cemetery decoration featuring a crucifix with the epitaph, Here lies Michael Brown, a fat ghetto clown. The decoration referenced the 2014 killing of the 18-year-old Black man by a white police officer in Ferguson that sparked months of protest and unrest.

But a federal judge dismissed Dalys suit last month, finding that he was fired for several reasons including lying to investigators about the origin of the Halloween decoration and that on several other occasions, Dalys neighbors said they were threatened, insulted and intimidated by Daly.

The city has produced ample evidence demonstrating a legitimate, non-retaliatory reason for termination, U.S. District Judge John A. Ross wrote in his order.

Dalys attorneys announced in a filing Oct. 7 that they would appeal.

Attorneys for the city of De Soto and its police chief, Jeff McCreary, said they were pleased with the judges ruling but declined to comment on the appeal.

Daly first entered the public eye in July 2020, when photos of his previous Halloween yard display surfaced online. The post went viral, causing outrage, protests and a public relations crisis for the city, according to the judges order.

The department conducted an investigation, and Daly was fired later that year.

Weeks later, he was charged with assaulting a handcuffed man in the Jefferson County jail. That case is still pending.

In March 2022, Daly filed a suit alleging he was wrongfully terminated for posting the Halloween decoration that was directly related to a matter of public concern, to wit race relations in the greater St. Louis community. He also said he faced retaliation for raising concerns to supervisors on behalf of a female city employee who said she had been sexually harassed.

But Judge Ross found that Dalys attorneys did not present enough evidence to show he faced actual retaliation or a hostile work environment and that he was actually fired for misconduct and dishonesty, not his lawful speech.

Dalys attorneys are expected to make appeal arguments at a later date.

Update: This story was updated at 3:30 p.m. Friday with a comment from the city of De Soto.
EDWARDSVILLE  A St. Louis County police officer is accused of raping a woman last month.

Gavin Potthast, 25, was charged Thursday with one count of criminal sexual assault in Madison County. Authorities said he raped the woman on Sept. 23.

The victim is a woman he knows, and charging documents said she refused him several times but he continued anyway.

Potthast is in custody in Madison County and made his first appearance in court Friday. Hands and ankles shackled, he was wearing green sweats, a black tee shirt and thick glasses.

Prosecutors have asked the court to keep him in custody until the case is over, and a judge will rule on that request during a hearing on Tuesday afternoon. Illinois no longer operates on a cash bail system so defendants are either released or held until their case makes its way through the court.

His lawyer, Justin Kuehn, declined to comment outside the courtroom after the hearing.

Potthast was put on unpaid administrative leave, according to an internal department memo sent Friday by St. Louis County Police Chief Kenneth Gregory and obtained by the Post-Dispatch. The department had previously told the Post-Dispatch that Potthast was on paid administrative leave that began Oct. 19.

The agency is conducting its own internal investigation too.

In the memo, Gregory called the allegations disturbing. We take any allegations seriously and are cooperating with Edwardsville Police Departments investigation, he wrote.

Potthast has been an officer with St. Louis County since late December 2021. He made $48,708 in 2022, according to the Post-Dispatchs salary database.

Hes at least the second St. Louis County officer to be criminally charged this week. Matthew McCulloch, 39, was charged Monday with four counts of child endangerment, five counts of armed criminal action, one count of making a terrorist threat and one count of unlawful use of a weapon, all of which are felonies.

Hes accused of firing about a a dozen shots in the air at an elementary schools Halloween event over the weekend. No one was injured.

McCulloch is no longer employed by the department.
ST. LOUIS  Federal prosecutors filed charges against the former head of a St. Louis nonprofit that received about $20 million from the government to feed needy children but spent much of that money illegally on personal residences, commercial real estate and luxury goods, including an SUV valued at more than $200,000.

An indictment unsealed Thursday charged Connie Bobo, of St. Charles, with wire fraud and identify theft in connection to her use of federal money when she led New Heights Community Resource Center. It also charged her with obstruction of an official proceeding for altering a document sought by a federal subpoena.

New Heights was among organizations featured in a Post-Dispatch investigation of Missouri nonprofits use of two federal programs, the Child and Adult Care Food Program and Summer Food Service Program, that pay for needy kids meals.

The Post-Dispatch reported in November that Bobos nonprofit had purchased a new home on Spring Mill Creek Drive in St. Charles for nearly $1 million. Bobo admitted that she lived there but said New Heights used it for its office and board meetings.

Bobo also used the money to purchase a vacant Circuit City store  appraised at nearly $2 million  at Natural Bridge Road near Interstate 270 in Bridgeton, the Post-Dispatch reported. She said she had hoped to turn the building into a headquarters for New Heights.

The indictment unsealed Thursday paints a fuller picture, saying Bobo fraudulently claimed millions of additional meals that she didnt serve and was paid $11 million she wasnt entitled to receive.

Bobos attorney, Scott Rosenblum, said Thursday that we have been in communication with the government, and we were expecting the indictment. Bobo will plead not guilty, he said.

According to the indictment, New Heights used food program money to buy five residences in St. Charles County, including Bobos house and a home in St. Peters for her sister. The real estate purchases, including the commercial properties on Natural Bridge, totaled nearly $4.4 million, prosecutors say.

Bobo also took government money to buy luxury goods and gave $1.4 million to her romantic partner, prosecutors say, who used $212,000 of it to buy a Mercedes-Benz G550 Wagon 4X4 Squared. Her partner is identified only as H.H. in the indictment. Prosecutors are seeking forfeiture of the property Bobo used the child nutrition money to purchase.

Public records show Bobo and Howard Hughes III started a business together, Howard Hughes Trucking and Construction LLC. Both are listed as co-organizers on business license paperwork and the companys listed address was the same as Bobos Spring Mill Creek home.

Hughes also runs Howard Hughes Consulting, which offers financial wealth management services and construction and development services on its website. The website also has a picture of a neon yellow Mercedes Wagon on a St. Louis street.

Hughes did not respond Thursday to a phone call, a text and an email.

Bobo told the newspaper last year that she also distributed millions of meals to people in need during an uncertain time.

Nobodys money went to waste, she said last year. We purchased the food, we served the people and those numbers are not doctored. Those are real numbers.

Federal prosecutors, however, said she was doctoring records even before the pandemic. She claimed an associate served as president of her nonprofit, when the person did not. Her use of peoples names she falsely claimed served as New Heights board members led to the identity theft charges.

During the pandemic, prosecutors say Bobo submitted false reimbursement claims for meals New Heights never actually served. She claimed the nonprofit served six million meals to children when in fact it had purchased only enough food to serve less than half that number. Prosecutors say the fraudulent claims netted Bobo $11 million in USDA food reimbursement she was not entitled to.

And as federal authorities were investigating, Bobo in July forged an invoice for the purchase of hundreds of gallons of milk that she never bought. That led prosecutors to charge her with obstruction of an official proceeding in addition to the wire fraud and identity theft.

This indictment shows that we will aggressively pursue those who defraud a program intended to feed needy children, and those who exploited loopholes created by a global pandemic, U.S. Attorney Sayler A. Fleming said in a statement. We will seize the houses and luxury vehicles that they buy with those funds and we will seek punishment that is appropriate for the scale of the crime, which by law includes repayment of the funds.

The wire fraud and obstruction charges carry a penalty of up to 20 years in prison. The identity theft charges are punishable by up to an additional two years in prison.

The FBI and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General investigated the case, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Derek Wiseman is handling the case for the Eastern District of Missouri.

Loosened rules

During the pandemic, the rules governing the two U.S. Department of Agriculture programs were loosened, allowing organizations to distribute a weeks worth of meals at a time in drive-thru style events, with each meal worth as much as $4.56 in federal reimbursement. The setup rewarded scale, becoming lucrative enough for larger nonprofits that could finance bulk orders of food that they were shipping meals far outside their own cities. New Heights and other local groups were trucking food from St. Louis for distribution at sites as far away as Kansas City and Poplar Bluff.

Regulators at the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, who administered the program, became so concerned with the ballooning claims numbers that they ended the waivers allowing grab-and-go meals, requiring beneficiaries to eat on site as the program had required pre-pandemic. The move prompted a national NBC article that singled out Missouri as the only state not to renew the waivers, drawing criticism from state Democrats who sharply criticized Gov. Mike Parsons administration.

But state health department officials defended their decision, citing the enormous claims figures and red flags such as reimbursement paperwork with illegible attendance numbers and meal counts or repeated recipient names.

The food program has sparked other major federal fraud charges. Last year, federal prosecutors in Minneapolis charged nearly 50 people there in connection with a massive, $250 million fraud involving the food programs that authorities said at the time was the largest fraud to date tied to emergency pandemic spending.

Bobos New Heights started out small when she founded it in 2011. Bobo said she struggled at first, putting her modest salary back into the organization and maxing out credit cards to buy food to serve needy kids. By 2019, she had grown relatively large among the hundreds of Missouri nonprofits that participated in the child nutrition programs, claiming $260,000 in food reimbursement and paying herself $60,000 as executive director.

But when COVID-19 hit in 2020, and the rules were changed so children no longer had to eat in congregate settings to limit the spread of the virus, the reimbursement sums grew astronomically. By May 2020, Bobos organization had claimed $350,000 in a single month. That year, she grew to one of the largest program participants, claiming $5 million in USDA meal reimbursement. In 2021, New Heights claimed the largest sum in Missouris summer food distribution program  $11 million.

In all, she billed about $20 million to the programs while they operated under loosened pandemic rules, according to state records.

The state flagged millions of dollars in claims the organization submitted, blocking millions more that would have been paid out to New Heights. Missouri regulators last year placed Bobo, New Heights and the nonprofits president, Anita Carter-Foley, on a USDA blacklist that bars participation in the program for up to seven years. Carter-Foley said, and the indictment confirmed, she was never actually involved with the nonprofit.

Other organizations

{div class=lee-article-text}Bobo and New Heights were not the only Missouri organizations with issues, according to state regulators.

Federal authorities also subpoenaed records related to Influence Church, whose pastor, Darnell West, used a helicopter to fly between his churches. His wife and co-pastor, Rochelle West, is an accountant who managed financial records for the churchs participation in the program.

The largest participant in the program was Springfield-based Life360 Community Services, tied to a church of the same name that billed over $43 million to the programs. State regulators flagged high salaries paid to church leader Ted Cederbloom and his family members on the payroll.

Fleming, the U.S. Attorney, said anyone information about COVID-19 related fraud should contact the National Center for Disaster Fraud at 866-720-5721.

Updated at 5:30 p.m.

{/div}
JEFFERSON CITY  A Missouri House committee evaluating St. Louis 1% earnings tax will hold a public hearing Monday at St. Louis Community Colleges Forest Park campus.

The meeting will begin at 12:30 p.m. on Monday at 5600 Oakland Avenue in St. Louis, Room HS412A/412B, according to a news release issued by the chair of the committee, Rep. Jim Murphy, R-south St. Louis County.

The hearing is expected to last four hours and members of the public may weigh in at the hearing, or they may submit testimony online.

The first portion of the hearing will be on the earnings tax, which is levied on individuals who live and/or work in the city, according to the news release.

The second portion of the hearing will focus on real estate taxes, including Hancock Amendment loopholes that allow for local tax increases without voter approval.

The committee will also discuss improvements to the assessment and appeal process, the release said.

House Speaker Dean Plocher, R-Des Peres, announced the formation of the earnings tax panel in August, teeing up the issue for possible action during the 2024 legislative session that starts in January.

While there have been previous attempts to eliminate the decades-old tax, GOP lawmakers have in recent years sought to clarify the law when it comes to people who work remotely outside the city limits.

Plocher last year led the charge for legislation that created a new process for people to request a refund of the citys earnings tax for any work they performed remotely during the coronavirus pandemic.

The measure was approved in the House on a partisan 106-47 vote, but the legislation died in the Senate.

According to a nonpartisan fiscal analysis, the proposal would cost the city an estimated $66 million in revenue, resulting in less money for police, fire and other city services.

Despite annual attacks on the tax by Republicans who control state government, the earnings tax has wide support in the city. In a 2011 referendum, 88% of voters voted to keep the tax in place. In 2016, that number was 72%. In 2021, the tax was supported by 79% of voters.

In all, the tax brought in $206 million in the most recent fiscal year.

This is critical to the finances of our city, said Rep. Del Taylor, D-St. Louis, when the measure was debated in March.

Plocher said the issue was important amid rising prices and financial difficulty.

As costs rise and more Missourians are facing financial difficulties, its more important than ever to look at the data and have a meaningful discussion about these taxes and see just how they are affecting Missourians as well as employment and economic growth in our state, Plocher said.

Originally published in the Saturday, Oct. 28 edition.
JEFFERSON CITY  A bipartisan panel of lawmakers opened a new chapter Friday in the unfolding drama swirling around the most powerful man in the Missouri House of Representatives.

The House Ethics Committee, which investigates and, if warranted, doles out punishment for ethical lapses by members of the chamber, launched an inquiry into a personnel issue linked to House Speaker Dean Plocher.

After meeting behind closed doors for more than four hours Friday, members scheduled a second round of deliberations for Nov. 8.

Committee chairwoman Hannah Kelly, a Republican from Mountain Grove, reminded her panel that they should not discuss the case publicly until a report is released.

It is very important to protect all parties involved. The work of this committee involves sensitive matters that may impact the lives and well-being of individuals, organizations and society as a whole, Kelly said.

At issue is fallout surrounding the Des Peres Republicans involvement in an unsuccessful effort by a private company to land an $800,000 software contract with the House.

The inquiry comes as Plocher faces calls for his resignation after he began paying back nearly $4,000 he was reimbursed for work-related travel that he had actually paid out of his campaign fund.

Most of the calls have come from Republicans, including Sen. Andrew Koenig, R-Manchester, who weighed in Friday as the hearing was underway.

The recent revelations about Speaker Dean Plocher are troubling, to say the least, Koenig said on social media. He must resign immediately so that we can get back to the business of serving Missourians.

Plocher, who has one more year left in his speakership and has been raising money to run for lieutenant governor next year, said Thursday he will not step down.

Under the committees guidelines, members are held to strict confidentiality guidelines because of discussions about sensitive matters.

Although committee members declined to discuss the subject of their discussions, the focus of their work is related to be Plochers decision earlier this month to fire his chief of staff in the wake of the software controversy.

Kenny Ross, who served three previous speakers, vacated his office after nonpartisan House staff pushed back on Plochers attempt to get the company a contract without going through the normal bidding, budgeting and procurement process.

Plocher said Thursday that Ross firing was not in response to the dust-up over the purchase, but part of a long-range reorganization of his operation.

This has been in ongoing discussion within my office on how I was going to handle it, he said.

In a sign that the scope of the committees work had not widened to include a broader look at Plochers campaign finance problems, Rep. Richard Brown, D-Kansas City, did not recuse himself from the meeting.

Like Plocher, Brown is running for the lieutenant governor post in 2024, raising questions about impartiality if he were to sit in judgment of the speaker.

Kelly did not offer a timeline on when the committee will issue a report.

For Plocher, the next step in his attempt to weather the dust-up comes Nov. 9 when the House Republicans hold a winter meeting in the capital city with some members who have called on him to resign.
JEFFERSON CITY  The backer of a series of abortion-rights initiative petitions in Missouri says Republican-drafted ballot descriptions for the plans are unlawful and should be revised.

Jamie Corley, a Republican political operative from St. Louis County, said in a lawsuit filed Thursday in Cole County Circuit Court that ballot summaries written by Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft described provisions in antagonistic and blatantly incorrect terms likely to prejudice voters against the measures.

She also took aim at fiscal estimates prepared by State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick, which she called argumentative and also likely to create prejudice against the questions.

Missouri law currently allows abortions only in medical emergencies.

Each of Corleys six petitions would allow abortions in cases of rape, incest, fatal fetal abnormalities or to protect the health and safety of the mother.

Some of the plans also allow abortion within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

Among the wording Corley is challenging are Ashcrofts use of the phrase protecting the right to life. She said the phrase is politically charged and will bias voters against the initiative petitions.

She also said that measures would allow government interference in abortions, arguing against Ashcrofts claim that measures would allow abortions at any age without government interference before fetal viability if an exception is met.

The measures explicitly maintain all state laws that do not contradict with the IP (initiative petition) and does not prohibit the general assembly from passing laws in the future, the lawsuit said.

Corley also challenged fiscal estimates for the six petitions prepared by the Republican state auditor, which state: The Attorney Generals office and opponents estimate a potentially significant loss to state and local revenue. The Attorney Generals office estimates increased state litigation costs of up to $21 million. Other state governmental entities estimate no costs or savings. Local governments estimate reduced revenue of at least $51,000 annually.

Corley asserted the estimate is not consistent with the standards of the governmental accounting standards board.

She went on to say the estimated loss in local revenue was based on faulty assumptions, including that the Attorney General will win his election in 2024.

The estimation of litigation costs is based on the Attorney General winning his reelection then choosing to abdicate his duty to defend the laws of the state of Missouri, Corley said.

She added the estimate would likely prejudice voters against the question because it appears to voters that these measures will potentially cause significant losses, when in fact, this is rank speculation and untrue.

The new lawsuit is in addition to a separate legal battle over another set of proposals that go further than Corleys in expanding abortion rights.

Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem rewrote Ashcrofts ballot summaries for those petitions in September, and the states chief election officer has appealed the case to the Missouri Court of Appeals Western District.

Arguments at the appeals court are scheduled for Monday in Kansas City.

Beetem also upheld Fitzpatricks fiscal estimates.

Fitzpatrick and Attorney General Andrew Bailey, a fellow Republican, had fought over those fiscal estimates earlier this year, with Bailey insisting on a larger price tag. Bailey lost that fight at the Missouri Supreme Court.

In response to Corleys lawsuit, Fitzpatrick said Friday that while I understand both proponents and opponents would prefer a fiscal note that favors their position, my commitment to the voters of Missouri will not be swayed by political pressure from either side.

We will defend our work once again and will continue to produce fair fiscal notes and fiscal note summaries the voters can trust, Fitzpatrick said.

Ashcroft, who is running for governor in 2024, also stood by his ballot summaries.

This lawsuit is another example of individuals trying to mask the truth to mislead voters, he said in a statement. The secretary of states office will always fight to protect the right of Missourians to make their own decision on how to vote.

The most recent lawsuit has also been assigned to Beetem and a hearing date had not been set as of Friday morning.
LINCOLN COUNTY  Prosecutors dropped and refiled the high-profile murder case against Pamela Hupp Friday with hopes of moving whats expected to be a monthlong trial closer to the scene of the crime.

Lincoln County Prosecutor Mike Wood originally charged Hupp in July 2021 in the December 2011 murder of her friend Betsy Faria.

Prosecutors allege Hupp killed Faria to cash in on a $150,000 life insurance policy that Faria had switched over to Hupp days before her death. They accuse Hupp of badgering Faria into accepting a ride home from chemotherapy treatments before she stabbed her and then staged the scene to implicate Farias husband, Russell Faria.

The defense filed a motion to move the original case out of Lincoln County, a common tactic to ensure a fair jury pool in highly publicized cases. Prosecutors originally agreed to move the case to Greene County, home to Springfield and about a 3 -hour drive from the St. Louis region.

Wood said Friday that his office recently decided to refile the case to petition for a closer venue. He hopes the move will ease the financial and travel burden on prosecutors, witnesses and Farias family.

It was too much to ask of witnesses and Besty Farias loved ones, he said.

A Greene County judge had scheduled a trial in the case for summer 2025. Wood said Friday he doesnt expect the refile to set that schedule back at all.

In the case dropped Friday, there had been no depositions filed and Hupp waived her right to a preliminary hearing, where prosecutors need to prove there is probable cause for a case to go forward.

The case captured national attention after Russell Faria was convicted of his wifes murder in 2013 and sentenced to life without parole, only to have that conviction overturned amid claims by Farias lawyers that investigators ignored Hupp as a suspect. Faria was acquitted in a retrial and has settled lawsuits against officials connected with his prosecution.

Hupp is already serving life in prison for the 2016 fatal shooting of Louis Gumpenberger in her OFallon, Missouri, home. Hupp claimed Gumpenberger, a mentally and physically disabled man, was trying to kidnap her for the Faria insurance money, but her story quickly fell apart. Hupp entered an Alford plea in St. Charles County Circuit Court, acknowledging that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict her without admitting guilt.

The case was the center of years of local news investigations in the Post-Dispatch and KTVI (Fox2), along with a series of episodes of NBCs Dateline that later turned into a scripted show starring Renee Zellweger called The Thing About Pam.

Wood has said he will seek the death penalty in the case.
From Stalin to Putin, abortion in Russia

TALLINN, Estonia  They were banned under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin but commonplace under later Kremlin leaders. Now, after less than a century, official attitudes about abortion in Russia are changing once again.

Although abortion is still legal and widely available, new restrictions are being considered as President Vladimir Putin takes an increasingly socially conservative turn and seeks to reverse Russias declining population.

Having embraced the Russian Orthodox Church, he is stressing traditional family values  often used as code words to differentiate his country from Western social attitudes toward LGBTQ+ rights and other policies.

Some see it as a throwback to the Stalinist era, when abortion was outlawed in 1936, and women ending unwanted pregnancies often turned to illegal and unsafe procedures.

My grandmother worked as a teacher in a vocational school. She was telling me stories about abortions being performed with wardrobe hangers in the dormitories, said Lina Zharin, a psychotherapist and feminist activist in Kaliningrad, where lawmakers are considering banning abortion in private clinics.

Seemingly, everyone knows about it, about how scary it was, and I think that a lot of people are surprised and outraged that were going back to it, she said.

Two years after Stalins death in 1953, authorities reversed the ban to curtail dangerous illegal abortions. But they didnt endorse contraceptives, says Michele Rivkin-Fish, an anthropologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with the government remaining pro-natalist and wanting women to have children while staying in the workforce.

Abortion became a common way of dealing with an unwanted pregnancy amid the harsh Soviet economy, even though Rivkin-Fish said conditions at clinics often were terrible.

Anesthesia was in short supply.  There was no privacy  you would have your abortion with other people in the ward, she said. Painkillers were of low quality or scarce, she added, so women were often in excruciating pain.

Under Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachevs reforms, a movement for family planning and adequate birth control was launched in the late 1980s by physicians who were mostly women, according to Rivkin-Fish.

After the USSRs 1991 demise, President Boris Yeltsin funded family planning and birth control programs, and doctors were trained to prescribe and administer contraceptives.

They all went through a federal family planning course that I taught and led, said Dr. Lyubov Yerofeyeva, a gynecologist and a reproductive health specialist at the core of the effort.

By the late 1990s, federal funding fizzled because of conservative opposition. Abortion regulations remained less restrictive, however. Women could terminate a pregnancy until 12 weeks without any conditions, and until 22 weeks for many social reasons, such as divorce, unemployment or low income.

In 2003, the authorities cut that list to just four: if a woman was raped, if she was in prison, if her parental rights were restricted, or if her husband died or became severely disabled during her pregnancy.

This was the first sign that I saw that the government is concerned about lowering abortion rates, and theyre going to do so through access, restricting access, Rivkin-Fish said.

Conservative lawmakers proposed more restrictions in 2011, including that women need permission from their husbands or from their parents if underage; that doctors could refuse abortion if they opposed it; and that a woman must wait two to seven days, depending on the stage of pregnancy, to give her a chance to change her mind.

Yerofeyeva and a reproductive health group she ran, Russian Association of Population and Development, pushed back against these proposals, and only two were adopted nationally: allowing doctors to refuse if against their beliefs, and the mandatory waiting period of 48 hours to a week.

In 2012, the number of social reasons for allowing abortion between weeks 12 and 22 was cut to just in the case of rape.

Under Health Ministry regulations adopted in 2015-16, doctors had to offer women the chance to listen to the fetal heartbeat and show them ultrasound images. They also changed an abortion consent form to emphasize its risks, the possibility of not resorting to it, and the preference of carrying a pregnancy to term.

Yerofeyevas Russian Association for Population and Development was declared a foreign agent  a label that implies additional government scrutiny and carries strong negative connotations  and soon ceased activities.

Last year, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova ordered the Health Ministry to look into banning abortions for those under 18 without parental consent.

In a speech to parliament this year, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko criticized women who prioritize education and careers over childbearing, and supported an abortion ban in private clinics  where up to 20% occurred in recent years. He also moved to restrict abortion pills, which are approved to be taken to end a pregnancy in the first 10 weeks.  Dasha Litvinova, Associated Press
UNITED NATIONS  The U.N. General Assembly approved a nonbinding resolution Friday calling for a humanitarian truce in Gaza leading to a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Gazas Hamas rulers, the first United Nations response to the ongoing war.

The 193-member world body adopted the Arab-drafted resolution by a vote of 120-14 with 45 abstentions after rejecting a Canadian amendment backed by the United States. It would have unequivocally condemned the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Israel by Hamas and demanded the immediate release of hostages taken by Hamas.

The votes came part way through a list of 113 speakers at an emergency special session on Israeli actions in occupied Palestinian territories. Jordans U.N. Ambassador Mahmoud Hmoud, speaking on behalf of the U.N.s 22-nation Arab group, had called for action on the resolution because of the urgency of the escalating situation on the ground.

The Arab group went to the General Assembly after the more powerful 15-member Security Council failed to agree on a resolution after four attempts over the past two weeks. While council resolutions are legally binding, assembly resolutions are not, but they do serve as a barometer of world opinion.

The vote on the Canadian amendment was 88-55 with 23 abstentions, but it failed to get a two-thirds majority of all those voting.

Before the vote, Hmoud urged its defeat, saying Israel is responsible for the atrocities that are being committed now, and that will be committed in the ground invasion of Gaza.

While the surprise Hamas attacks killed some 1,400 Israelis, more than 7,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israels retaliatory airstrikes, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Canadas U.N. Ambassador Robert Rae countered that it appears from the resolution that the events of Oct. 7 have been forgotten. The amendment would condemn Hamas, which is responsible for one of the worst terrorist attacks in history.

Pakistans U.N. Ambassador Munir Akran drew loud applause when he said the Arab-drafted resolution deliberately didnt condemn or mention Israel or name any other party. If Canada was really equitable, Akram said, it would agree either to name everybody  both sides who are guilty of having committed crimes  or it would not name either as we chose.

The assemblys emergency special session, which began Wednesday, continued Friday morning with U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield echoing Israels envoy in calling the resolution outrageous for never mentioning Hamas and saying it is detrimental to the vision of a two-state solution.

She called it a perilous moment for Israelis and Palestinians, stressing that there is no justification for Hamas terror, that Palestinians are being used as human shields and that the lives of innocent Palestinians must be protected.

Oman, speaking on behalf of the Gulf Cooperation Council, condemned Israels siege of Gaza, starvation of its population and collective punishment of Palestinians. But it said the Palestinians wont be deterred from demanding their legitimate inalienable rights, chief among them the right to self- determination and the right to establish an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

In addition to calling for an immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities, the resolution adopted Friday demands that all parties immediately comply with their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law requiring protection of civilians and the schools, hospitals and other infrastructure critical for their survival.

The resolution demands that essential supplies be allowed into the Gaza Strip and humanitarian workers have sustained access. And it calls on Israel to rescind its order for Gazans to evacuate the north and move to the south and firmly rejects any attempts at the forced transfer of the Palestinian civilian population.

The resolution also stresses the need to urgently establish a mechanism to ensure the protection of the Palestinian civilian population.

And it emphasizes the importance of preventing further destabilization and escalation of violence in the region and calls on all parties to exercise maximum restraint and on all those with influence to press them to work toward this objective.

During the emergency session on Thursday, speaker after speaker backed the Arab Groups original draft resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, except for Israels U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan who told the assembly, A cease-fire means giving Hamas time to rearm itself, so they can massacre us again.

But the calls for a cease-fire, the protection of Palestinian civilians facing constant Israeli bombardments in Gaza and the delivery of desperately needed food, water, medicine and fuel were passionate and intense.

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. ambassador, said 70% of those killed in Gaza were children and women. If you do not stop it for all those who were killed, stop it for all those whose lives we can still save, he said.
St. Louis is one of the most dangerous cities in America. But you wouldnt know it from the FBIs crime statistics. For three months this year, the city of St. Louis failed to report legally required crime data to the state  the second time in a year  leading the FBI to disavow their own reports. Its also not the first time: the city failed to report stats for eight months leading to a 2021 FBI report that reflected only a portion of the citys crimes for the year.

Unfortunately, this is the least of the citys crime problems. Since state control of the St. Louis Police Department was turned over to local leadership in 2013, the challenges facing the citizens of St. Louis have only increased. Downtown businesses are closing, citizens are scared, and nearly 60% of homicides have gone unsolved since 2017, due to the lack of manpower to assist with canvasses and community engagement. Without proper community engagement, there cant be effective community protection and enforcement.

We all know that most law enforcement officers are severely under-compensated but walk the line anyway. Sadly, St. Louis problems go much deeper.

One of the most critical deficiencies is the lack of resources allocated to police vehicles and the repair of those vehicles. Under state control there was a dedicated facility for maintaining and repairing police vehicles but after the city takeover, this facility is now responsible for the entire city fleet, creating a large backlog of repairs often leaving officers without working vehicles. This hidden defunding has at times led to districts and neighborhoods without adequate law enforcement presence.

Officers traveling to other cities to retrieve offenders often have to return the offender when their maxed-out city credit cards leave them unable to pay for travel back to St. Louis. Unpaid invoices for orders lead to harassment from vendors and even liens on officers personal residences due to the city not paying for equipment and services for the department.

Officers dont always have the uniforms or equipment necessary, paying out-of-pocket, and waiting months for a dysfunctional bureaucracy to reimburse them. Some officers choose to eat the cost.

We ask a lot of law enforcement. We rightly expect them to respond with professionalism and restraint in the face of violent and complex situations. The least we can do is ensure they have the tools necessary to do that.

Mismanagement of the St. Louis Police Departments accounting department often leads to annual budgets getting drained by expenses from previous fiscal years, lagging in the system, and depleting badly needed funds from current operating budgets. This leaves the department scrambling to fill budget holes and creating more management chaos.

While the state of Missouri has nearly doubled its annual budget in the last five years, from $28 billion to $51 billion, little of that has made it to public safety agencies. Meanwhile our officers face unprecedented scrutiny, an elected leadership more tolerant of criminals, and incompetence and mismanagement from their leadership.

Under local control, the focus has been on control rather than public safety. More energy is spent on debates over police presence in various communities rather than what the men and women doing the job need to be effective.

It is well-known that officers are demoralized, feel a lack of support from their leaders, and are at a breaking point. The state of law enforcement in St. Louis is perilous and just one flashpoint event could lead to a collapse. If, God forbid, another Ferguson or Jason Stockley-type protest were to occur, our first responders are not prepared to handle the unrest and many officers would likely walk off the job.

The Ethical Society of Police has publicly opposed local control in favor of state control since the debate first began to return control of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department to the City. Plain and simple, the decade-long experiment of local control has failed.

The security and well-being of our communities rests on our law enforcement officers. For too long, Missouris economic engines  St. Louis and Kansas City  have had a dismal reputation as being lawless and dangerous places. And unfortunately, despite the lack of accurate statistical data, we know these reputations are based in fact.

State control is not about protecting the profession. Its about protecting the people who work in the profession; those who don the badge stand up for what is right in the city of St. Louis and our great state.

It is time to put politics aside and put public safety first. The incompetence and dysfunction putting the people of St. Louis at risk can no longer be tolerated. It is time to act.

Donny Walters is President of the Ethical Society of Police in St. Louis.

Jay Ashcroft is Missouris secretary of state.
Wednesdays split-screen news cycle presented an ironic juxtaposition regarding the current state of American democracy.

On one side was the continuing saga of Donald Trumps former lawyers and advisers flipping on him to work with prosecutors investigating his attempt to overturn the 2020 election.

On the other side was the swearing-in of newly minted House Speaker Mike Johnson, one of the key players in that electoral scheme  who now sits second in line to the presidency.

In finally breaking a logjam that had the House speakerless and paralyzed for three weeks, House Republicans have solved one problem for the nation while potentially creating a bigger one.

Though little-known to most Americans and notably lacking in the bombast that characterizes so many of his fellow MAGA politicians, Johnsons quiet role in the attempted coup of Jan. 6, 2021, was more substantive than that of most of the loudmouthed demagogues in Trumps orbit.

Johnson, an attorney elected to the House from Louisiana in 2016, was the author and chief promoter of a brief to the Supreme Court arguing that the election results in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin  all won by Joe Biden  shouldnt be certified because officials in those states had loosened policies regarding early voting and mail-in voting in light of the pandemic raging in 2020.

It was an attempt to deny the votes of a wide swath of Americans based on the most cynical of technicalities. The Supreme Court threw it out immediately.

But as The New York Times noted in an extensive analysis last year (in a piece that dubbed Johnson the most important architect of the Electoral College objections), his efforts gave a patina of legal legitimacy to the generally unhinged overthrow attempt, which likely drew more House Republicans to it than would otherwise have signed on.

Despite the failure of his argument in court, Johnson ultimately joined 138 of his Republican House colleagues in voting to reject election results.

This is the man who swore Wednesday to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic  something he assertively declined to do before and during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

With Trump likely to be the 2024 Republican nominee, will Johnson use his new powers as House speaker to thumb the scales toward a constitutional crisis that could throw a close election to either a House vote or the Supreme Court? Either outcome would work in Trumps favor, even if he hasnt legitimately won.

Johnson has never repudiated his role in the attempted election overthrow. In fact, in a press conference prior to Wednesdays speakership vote, Johnson shrugged off a reporters question about it  then stood smiling as his fellow Republican House members shouted down the reporter with shut up and go away.

It was a disgraceful display of political arrogance and a reminder that most of the GOP House majority still doesnt get it: The entire attempt to overturn the 2020 election was an illegitimate, arguably criminal, demonstrably dangerous attack on Americans fundamental right to have their votes counted. Any involvement in it at all should be politically disqualifying. Instead, one of democracys assailants now has one of Americas biggest gavels.

While we disagree with Johnsons policy stances on just about everything  hes a hard-right no on abortion rights, LGBTQ rights and further aid to Ukraine, to name a few  thats not even the issue. The next speaker was always going to be conservative on policy.

But true conservatives, who traditionally care about rule of law and fealty to the Constitution, should consider that the House is now led by a man who assertively attempted to disenfranchise millions of voters at the behest of a president determined to hold onto power despite having been voted out of office.

That is not conservative at all. And it should give pause to anyone, of any party or political philosophy, who values democracy.
SoftwareOne Holding AG / Key word(s): Miscellaneous/Miscellaneous

SoftwareOne announces Capital Markets Day



27-Oct-2023 / 07:00 CET/CEST

Release of an ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.





Media Release  ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR

SoftwareOne announces Capital Markets Day

Stans, Switzerland I 27 October 2023  SoftwareOne Holding AG, a leading global software and cloud solutions provider, is pleased to announce it will host a Capital Markets Day alongside its 2023 full-year results on 15 February 2024 at 14 CET.

At the Capital Markets Day, SoftwareOnes Chief Executive Officer Brian Duffy and Chief Financial Officer Rodolfo Savitzky will provide deeper insights into the Companys financial performance and Ignite, Focus, Accelerate strategy, including an update on the delivery of its operational excellence programme.

In the meantime, the strategic review announced on 24 July 2023 remains ongoing as planned and continues in a timely manner. An update will be provided as appropriate. In line with its fiduciary duties, SoftwareOnes Board of Directors remains committed to delivering value to all shareholders while acting in the best interest of all stakeholders.

The Capital Markets Day will take place in person in Zurich and be broadcast live. Further details, including the complete agenda and instructions on how to register, will be published in due course.

CONTACT

Anna Engvall, Investor Relations

Tel. +41 44 832 41 37, anna.engvall@softwareone.com

FGS Global, Media Relations

Tel. +41 44 562 14 99, press.softwareone@fgsglobal.com

ABOUT SOFTWAREONE

SoftwareOne is a leading global software and cloud solutions provider that is redefining how organizations build, buy and manage everything in the cloud. By helping clients to migrate and modernize their workloads and applications  and in parallel, to navigate and optimize the resulting software and cloud changes  SoftwareOne unlocks the value of technology. The companys 9,250 employees are driven to deliver a portfolio of 7,500 software brands with sales and delivery capabilities in 90 countries. Headquartered in Switzerland, SoftwareOne is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange under the ticker symbol SWON. Visit us at www.softwareone.com

SoftwareOne Holding AG, Riedenmatt 4, CH-6370 Stans

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

This media release may contain certain forward-looking statements relating to the groups future business, development and economic performance. Such statements may be subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and other important factors, such as but not limited to force majeure, competitive pressures, legislative and regulatory developments, global, macroeconomic and political trends, the groups ability to attract and retain the employees that are necessary to generate revenues and to manage its businesses, fluctuations in currency exchange rates and general financial market conditions, changes in accounting standards or policies, delay or inability in obtaining approvals from authorities, technical developments, litigation or adverse publicity and news coverage, each of which could cause actual development and results to differ materially from the statements made in this media release. SoftwareOne assumes no obligation to update or alter forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
This correction is being issued to include the current ticker symbol of AADirection Capital Corp.

VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / October 27, 2023 / The Qualifying Transaction of AADirection Capital Corp. (the "Resulting Issuer"); (TSXV Symbol: AAD.P) was completed effective October 26, 2023. Pursuant to an amalgamation agreement, the Resulting Issuer acquired all of the issued and outstanding shares of Centenario Gold Corp. ("Centenario") in consideration for the issuance of 35,499,156 Resulting Issuer common shares ("Common Shares") on a 1:1 basis, with 1403285 BC Ltd. and Centenario amalgamating (the "Amalgamation") and continuing as a wholly owned subsidiary (the "Continuing Subsidiary") of the Resulting Issuer. The Resulting Issuer also issued 7,120,826 warrants to the former securityholders of Centenario and a further 784,986 finder's warrants were issued in connection with the concurrent financing as detailed below.

In connection with the Qualifying Transaction, the Resulting Issuer's name was changed from "AADirection Capital Corp." to "Centenario Gold Corp."

The Resulting Issuer will operate as a Tier 2 exploration issuer listed on the Exchange under the new trading symbol CTG. The Company's new CUSIP number will be 15139A109 and its new ISIN will be CA15139A1093.Shareholders of the Company are not required to take any action with respect to the name change and are not required to exchange their existing share certificates for new certificates bearing the Company's new name. The transfer agent will send registered shareholders a new Direct Registration System advice (DRS) representing the number of Common Shares held by such shareholders in addition to the new warrants held by such warrant holders.

Concurrent Financing

As part of the Qualifying Transaction, Centenario issued 11,703,672 subscription receipts (the "Subscription Receipts") at a price of $0.15 per Subscription Receipt for aggregate gross proceeds of $1,755,550.80 (the "Offering"). Each Subscription Receipt automatically converted, without payment of additional consideration or further action by the holder thereof, into one Centenario unit (each, a "Unit") just prior to the Amalgamation. Each Unit was comprised of one common share (each, a "Common Share") in the capital of the Company and one half of one common share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a "Warrant"), exercisable at $0.30 per Warrant share for a period of two (2) years from issuance which securities were immediately exchanged 1:1 for securities of the Resulting Issuer.

In addition, upon conversion of the Subscription Receipts, Centenario paid to certain finders (the "Finders") cash commissions of $117,748, being 8% of the aggregate gross proceeds raised by such Finders and 784,986 Finder's Warrants (the "Finder's Warrants"), being 8% of the aggregate number of Subscription Receipts issued under the Offering to subscribers introduced by the Finders. Each Finder's Warrant was immediately exchanged 1:1 for finder's warrants of the Resulting Issuer and are exercisable at $0.15 per warrant share for a period of two (2) years following the date of issuance and exchange.

Resulting Issuer Outstanding and Escrowed Shares

Following the closing of the Qualifying Transaction, there are 41,499,156 Common Shares issued and outstanding on an undiluted basis. 11,735,832 Common Share (representing approximately 28.28% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares on an undiluted basis and 89,166 Warrants of the Company have been deposited into escrow with Odyssey Trust Company pursuant to a Tier 2 value security escrow agreement, and an additional 2,000,000 Common Shares remain subject to a capital pool company escrow agreement, subject to initial releases from escrow as at the date of the "Final Exchange Bulletin" confirming acceptance of the Qualifying Transaction and resumption of trading which the Exchange has indicated will be issued shortly.

CEO Commentary

Alain Charest CEO, Director, stated "We are very pleased to have completed the Qualifying Transaction and concurrent financing. The hard work and due diligence of the Centenario and AADirection teams over the last six months has paid off in getting Centenario Gold Corp. listed and, shortly, trading, on the TSX Venture exchange under the symbol CTG. He further stated "We are very excited to start the maiden drill program on the Eden property that, to date, has proven to host exciting high-grade gold and silver targets. This initial drilling program is expected to start in mid-November and should be completed prior to Christmas."

Stock Option Grant

The Resulting Issuer has granted 3,100,000 incentive stock options to directors, officers, employees, and consultants of the Company under its stock option plan. The options are exercisable for a period of five years at a price of $0.15 per share and are subject to acceptance of the Exchange."

About the Resulting Issuer

Centenario Gold Corp. is a junior mineral exploration company formed to focus on exploring and generating high quality mineral prospects in Mexico. During 2020, the exploration team of Centenario visited and evaluated more than 12 mineral prospects before finding the Eden gold- silver property located near the old mining town of Cosala, Sinaloa, in Durango state of Mexico. On March 24th, 2021, after completing the preliminary evaluation work and due diligence review, Durango Gold Corp S.A de C.V., the 100%-owned Mexican subsidiary of Centenario Gold Corp., signed a 4-year option agreement to acquire 100% of the mineral rights to the Eden Au-Ag property, in exchange for annual cash payments, exploration expenditure requirements and a 1% NSR.

The Eden Property is located in the historical Cosala mining district on the border of western Durango State and southeastern Sinaloa State, Mexico, in the southwestern foothills of the Sierra Madre Occidental, approximately 160 kilometres north of Mazatlan, Mexico. The Property consists of two (2) contiguous and titled mineral concessions named El Eden and El Eden 1, totalling 2,489 hectares. The Eden project contains a series of high-grade N to NE trending, epithermal Au-Ag vein structures that had never been systematically explored before. The Property's northern border is adjacent to Americas Gold & Silver's Nuestra Seora producing mine while the southern border is adjacent to Prime Mining's Los Reyes property. On May 2, 2023, Prime announced an updated mineral resource estimate for the Los Reyes project: 2.17 million measured, Indicated and Inferred gold equivalent ounces.

Centenario completed a first phase exploration program on the Eden property in late 2022. During that period, Centenario collected more than 300 rock samples from surface and underground workings and more than 700 soil samples along the Buenavista' prospect's mineralized corridor. Many rock samples returned high grades, as high as 239.94 g/t Au and 1389.91 g/t Ag. Centenario also completed semi-detailed mapping over a 2.8 km portion of the Buenavista' prospect's mineralized corridor, followed by an IP/Resistivity geophysical survey and soil sampling program. Additional geophysical and soil sampling studies were completed across the La Provedora' prospect located 1.5 km further to the east.

Board of Directors and Senior Management

In connection with the Qualifying Transaction, certain members of the board of directors have resigned from the Company. The board of directors and management is now comprised of:

Douglas Fulcher (President, Corporate Secretary and Director)

Alain Charest (Chief Executive Officer, VP Exploration and Director)

Kevin Milledge (Director)

Pablo Mendez (Director)

Xiao Qin (Mary) Ma (Director)

Jonathan Younie (Chief Financial Officer)

Full details of the Qualifying Transaction and related matters are set out in the filing statement of the Company dated May 11, 2023 (the "Filing Statement"). A copy of the Filing Statement can be found on the Company's SEDAR+ profile at www.sedarplus.ca.

The registered and head office of the Resulting Issuer will be located at #615 - 800 West Pender Street, Vancouver, BC, V6C 2V6.

For more information visit www.centenariogold.com.

On behalf of the Board of Directors,

Doug Fulcher

President, Director

For further information, please call:

Doug Fulcher 604-803-5901

Steve McGuire 604-762-7869

Alain Charest 011-52-618-299-9885

Telephone: (604) 684-0279

www.centenariogold.com

The TSX Venture Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Statements in this press release, other than purely historical information, including statements relating to the Company's future plans and objectives or expected results, may include forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on numerous assumptions and are subject to all of the risks and uncertainties inherent in resource exploration and development. As a result, actual results may vary materially from those described in the forward-looking statements

Caution Regarding Forward Looking Statements:

Certain information included in this press release, including information relating to future financial or operating performance and other statements that express the expectations of management or estimates of future performance constitute "forward-looking statements". Such forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements regarding copper, gold and silver forecasts, the financial strength of the Company, estimates regarding timing of future development and production and statements concerning possible expansion opportunities for the Company. Where the Company expresses or implies an expectation or belief as to future events or results, such expectation or belief are based on assumptions made in good faith and believed to have a reasonable basis. Such assumptions may include, without limitation, the price of and anticipated costs of recovery of, copper concentrate, gold and silver, the presence of and continuity of such minerals at modeled grades and values, the capacities of various machinery and equipment, the availability of personnel, machinery and equipment at estimated prices, mineral recovery rates, and others. However, forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, which could cause actual results to differ materially from future results expressed, projected or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks include, but are not limited to, interpretation and implications of drilling and geophysical results; estimates regarding timing of future capital expenditures and costs towards profitable commercial operations. Other factors that could cause actual results, developments or events to differ materially from those anticipated include, among others, increases/decreases in production; volatility in metals prices and demand; currency fluctuations; cash operating margins; cash operating cost per pound sold; costs per ton of ore; variances in ore grade or recovery rates from those assumed in mining plans; reserves and/or resources; the ability to successfully integrate acquired assets; operational risks inherent in mining or development activities and legislative factors relating to prices, taxes, royalties, land use, title and permits, importing and exporting of minerals and environmental protection. Accordingly, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements and the forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements contained herein are made as at the date hereof and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or revise any such forward-looking statements or any forward-looking statements contained in any other documents whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable security law.

SOURCE: Centenario Gold Corp.

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Costway has been recently honored with the prestigious Cross-Border Magazine Award 2023 for its consistent excellence and innovation in the global eCommerce domain.

MARYLAND JUNCTION, WVA / ACCESSWIRE / October 27, 2023 / Costway, the leading online household supplier brand has recently been awarded the prestigious "Cross-Border Magazine Award 2023" for its outstanding achievements in cross-border eCommerce. Presented by Worldline, this accolade recognizes Costway's commitment to global excellence and innovation in the eCommerce landscape.

Worldline, a key partner in this success story, expressed pride in supporting Costway's vision for the European market and is looking forward to a continued successful partnership. This recognition is a testament to Costway's dedication to delivering exceptional service and products in the domain of cross-border eCommerce.

"We are truly honored to receive the Cross-Border Magazine Award this year as the recognition reaffirms our dedication to providing exceptional cross-border eCommerce experiences to our clients," said Jerry Xia, the General Manager of Costway. "At Costway, we are committed to inspiring individuals to build their best homes, and this award is a testament to the hard work and innovation of the entire Costway team. We extend our gratitude to our partners and customers who have been instrumental in our journey."

Furthermore, Costway is gearing up for an exciting Black Friday event, set to kick off its preheating phase on October 28, 2023. Customers can visit the official Costway website to explore exclusive deals on over 5,000 furniture and electrical products, all discounted by more than 20%. This marks an excellent opportunity for consumers to enjoy substantial savings on high-quality items.

Team Costway is gearing up for the holiday season and is expected to expand its reach in the market while helping its customers save big on their purchases. The company further expects to accelerate innovation and maintain excellence while serving its customers and partners alike in the future.

About Costway

The story of Costway began in 2011 when the brand started as a household supplier retailer on Amazon and eBay. By providing high-quality products and thoughtful services, Costway became one of the most well-known online shopping websites for household supplies in 2016. Costway aims to inspire people to build their best home irrespective of their budget, taste, or requirements. The brand offers a wide range of high-quality and stylish home products at affordable rates and a promise of exceptional after-sales services. For more information, visit www.costway.com

Contact Information

Jerry Xia

Marketing Manager

[email protected]

8613738826559

SOURCE: COSTWAY

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National Non-Profit Freedom Reads Returns to Otisville Correctional Facility, Announces Opening of 200th Freedom Library Nationwide

NEW HAVEN, CT / ACCESSWIRE / October 27, 2023 / The national non-profit Freedom Reads announced today the opening of an additional 13 Freedom Libraries at Otisville Correctional Facility in southeastern New York state. Freedom Reads previously opened three Freedom Libraries in August 2022. These additional 13 libraries mean that individuals in every cellblock at Otisville, as well as the staff, now have access to a Freedom Library. The opening yesterday featured a live performance of The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, adapted and developed by our partner Literature to Life from Junot Diaz's award-winning novel.

These libraries mark an ongoing partnership with the New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (NY DOCCS), which have welcomed Freedom Libraries in several facilities statewide, including the Mid-State, Albion, Woodbourne, and Groveland Correctional Facilities. As part of these openings, Freedom Reads celebrates the opening of its 200th Freedom Library nationwide.

The Freedom Libraries, the brainchild of 2021 MacArthur Fellow and Yale Law School graduate Reginald Dwayne Betts, who was sentenced to nine years in prison at age 16, are spaces in prisons to encourage the full realization of self. The libraries are handcrafted out of wood and curved to contrast the straight lines and bars of prisons as well as to evoke Martin Luther King Jr.'s line about the "arc of the universe" bending "toward justice." Centering beauty and dignity, the Freedom Libraries create a space in prisons that encourages community and the exploration of new possibilities.

Betts' nonprofit is a first-of-its-kind organization that empowers people through literature to imagine new possibilities for their lives. Books in the Freedom Library have been carefully curated through consultations with thousands of poets, novelists, philosophers, teachers, friends, and voracious readers, resulting in a collection of books that are not only beloved but indispensable. The libraries include contemporary poets, novelists, and essayists alongside classic works from Homer's The Odyssey to the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass that remind us that the book has long been a freedom project.

"We are grateful to the New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision for their continued support of Freedom Reads and our mission to inspire those incarcerated to imagine new possibilities for their lives," said Reginald Dwayne Betts, Founder and CEO of Freedom Reads. "The 200th Freedom Library is a testament to the vital partnerships we have forged with state corrections departments around the country. It is fitting that we mark this milestone with NY DOCCS as they have been indispensable in our endeavor to ensure incarcerated New Yorkers have dedicated spaces for the type of creativity, community, and hope that we believe can transform lives. And thanks to the commitment of Freedom Reads' supporters to this significant investment in the lives of incarcerated people, the Freedom Libraries, each handcrafted with natural woods and holding a curated collection of 500 brand-new books, come at no cost to the prisons where we open them."

New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision Acting Commissioner Daniel F. Martuscello III said, "The Department is proud to help mark the opening of the 200th Freedom Library with the latest installation at Otisville Correctional Facility. The ability for staff and incarcerated individuals to easily access a wide range of literature within the facility is priceless. I thank Freedom Reads and Reginald Dwayne Betts for their partnership and look forward to continuing this meaningful work together."

About Freedom Reads:

Founded by Reginald Dwayne Betts, who knows firsthand the dispiriting forces of prison, Freedom Reads works to empower people through literature to confront what prison does to the spirit. Supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and inspired by the recognition that freedom begins with a book, Freedom Reads supports the efforts of people in prison to transform their lives through increased access to books and writers. For more information about Freedom Reads and the Freedom Libraries project, please visit https://freedomreads.org/.

For more information, please contact Megan Stencel at [email protected] or (703)-490-8845.

Contact Information

Megan Stencel

Account Executive

[email protected]

7034908845

SOURCE: Freedom Reads

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A recent study published in the Journal of Wound Care (UK) has shed light on a revolutionary approach to diabetic foot care that promises hope and relief for millions worldwide.

LONDON, UK / ACCESSWIRE / October 27, 2023 / LINLINE MEDICAL SYSTEMS, based in Riga, Latvia, has demonstrated the remarkable effectiveness of its distinctive RecoSMA laser technology in treating chronic wounds. The recent study, "Spatially modulated erbium YAG laser as a treatment for diabetic ulcer", published in the Journal of Wound Care (UK), was conducted using a MULTILINE laser system produced by the company.



RecoSMA for Chronic Ulcers

Chronic ulcers treatment: a two-step approach

The study, conducted by a team of esteemed researchers (Prof. Smita P. Andurkar, Dr. Ram M. Chilgar), aimed to address the pressing issue of diabetic foot complications, which affect a substantial portion of the global population. According to the International Diabetes Federation, an alarming 463 million people are currently diagnosed with diabetes, projected to surge by 50% within the next three decades.

Diabetic foot ulcers are one of the most debilitating consequences of diabetes, often leading to severe complications, including amputations and significant financial burdens on patients and healthcare systems.

The dire reality is that individuals with diabetes face a 15-fold higher likelihood of undergoing lower extremity amputations than those without diabetes. Statistics indicate that, globally, a major amputation (above or below the knee) is performed on a person with diabetes every 20-30 seconds.

In this landmark study, researchers explored the use of a novel laser treatment for diabetic foot ulcers designed to revolutionize how we approach this chronic problem. By employing the spatially modulated high-power Erbium YAG (Er-YAG) laser technology, the team aimed to tackle diabetic foot ulcers in a two-step process that involved laser wound debridement and deep tissue biostimulation using the RecoSMA technology (implemented in "MULTILINE" laser system, produced by LINLINE MS).

The study included 59 patients with hard-to-heal diabetic foot ulcers and documented remarkable results.

The mean wound surface area at baseline was 25.7 cm2. The average number of laser treatment sessions required was 4.41, ranging from 1-11. The ulcers gradually reduced in size with each session, ultimately leading to complete wound closure in 100% of cases.

Laser treatment made it possible to clear wounds of necrotic tissue and microbial bioburden without damaging viable tissue. The procedures were painless on an outpatient basis.

The RecoSMA laser operates by activating the body's innate healing processes, fostering neovascularization, and expediting tissue regeneration. This mechanism facilitates wound healing through re-epithelialization originating from the wound's edges and granulation emerging from the wound bed's depths, all without the formation of fibrosis. This unique approach promotes scar-free and unimpeded wound healing, a pivotal factor in effective rehabilitation.

The impact of this research is profound. It suggests a potential paradigm shift in the way we approach diabetic foot ulcers, offering a beacon of hope for those affected by this debilitating condition. By harnessing the power of innovative laser therapy, we have the opportunity to enhance the quality of life for individuals suffering from diabetic foot complications and to reduce the economic strain on healthcare systems.

For more details about the technology, please visit the website:

https://www.non-healing-wound.care/

The link to the study: https://doi.org/10.12968/jowc.2023.32.Sup10a.S21

About us: LINLINE Medical Systems SIA (Riga, Latvia) is a world-leading company specialising in developing and manufacturing advanced medical lasers designed to treat various conditions in surgery, endoscopy, dermatology, gynaecology, wound healing and aesthetic medicine.

Company's website: https://linline-ms.com/.

Contact Information

Alex Troshkin

Co-founder, board member

[email protected]

+37122453227

Related Files

chilgar-andurkar-2023-spatially-modulated-erbium-yag-laser-as-a-treatment-for-diabetic-ulcer (1).pdf

SOURCE: LINLINE MEDICAL SYSTEMS

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"Resin Rockers Revolutionizes Tumbler Artistry with the Launch of Perfect Finish" Tumbler Epoxy Resin, Offering a Fast-Cure, Glass-Like Shine, and USA-Made Excellence for Artists and Crafters Worldwide"

CINCINNATI, OH / ACCESSWIRE / October 27, 2023 / Resin Rockers, the pioneering name in the resin and epoxy artistry world, is proud to introduce its latest creation, the all-new Perfect Finish" Tumbler Epoxy Resin, proudly made in the USA. This innovative product marks yet another milestone for the company, showcasing its dedication to delivering premium-quality supplies to artists and crafters worldwide.

Resin Rockers' journey began during the pandemic when Mandy Hull, the company's visionary founder, embarked on a mission to provide artists with top-notch resin art supplies and much-needed guidance. This commitment has propelled Resin Rockers to the forefront of the industry, offering an extensive range of products, including nine meticulously crafted formulas of UV and epoxy resin.

The forthcoming Perfect Finish" Tumbler Epoxy Resin is set to expand the company's product portfolio by offering consumers a 1:1 formula that simplifies the mixing process, offers a glass-like shine, and provides a fast-cure time with a long working time. This addition is a testament to Resin Rockers' unwavering dedication to supporting the creative journey of its customers.

Mandy Hull, the driving force behind Resin Rockers, shared her enthusiasm for the new product: "Our Perfect Finish" Tumbler Epoxy is the result of our commitment to constant innovation. We've listened to our customers, and we're excited to provide a high-quality, USA-made solution specifically designed for tumbler artistry. This addition solidifies Resin Rockers' position as a one-stop destination for all things resin and epoxy."

The new Perfect Finish formula was released on 10/26/23, making it the perfect holiday gift. Resin Rockers anticipates that this product will appeal not only to seasoned artists but also to those eager to explore the world of tumbler artistry.

With this new addition, Resin Rockers strengthens its foothold in the resin art supply market, ensuring that customers have access to premium quality supplies for all their creative endeavors. As the company celebrates its thriving journey, it continues to inspire and empower artists globally.

Contact Information

Tori Schneller

PR/Events Mgr.

[email protected]

(513) 265-9769

SOURCE: Resin Rockers

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LOUISVILLE, KY / ACCESSWIRE / October 27, 2023 / Truist / Today, Truist Foundation announced a $500,000 grant to Community Ventures Corporation Inc. (Community Ventures), a community development financial institution (CDFI) dedicated to delivering affordable lending solutions and technical assistance to entrepreneurs and small business owners who don't have access to traditional financing. Community Ventures will use the funds to support Equity Boost, its new loan program that aims to drive affordable capital and strengthen small businesses.

The Equity Boost program supports Kentucky entrepreneurs by providing loans of up to $200,000, technical support, education, and networking opportunities to small businesses. The funding provided by Truist Foundation will allow Community Ventures to aid small businesses in Lexington, Louisville and Bowling Green.

"While small businesses are the backbone of our communities, CDFIs are a lifeline that fuels and sustains them," said Lynette Bell, president of Truist Foundation. "Through its dedication to providing access to capital and financial services, Community Ventures is uplifting small businesses, creating jobs, promoting entrepreneurship and ultimately building stronger, more resilient communities across Kentucky, and Truist Foundation is proud to support their effort."

Today, Truist Financial Chairman and CEO Bill Rogers and Tri-States Regional President Calvin Barker joined Jeff O'Brien, Executive Director with Louisville Metro Government's Cabinet for Economic Development, and Community Ventures President and CEO Kevin Smith to formally announce the grant and discuss its impact.

"If we are going to take equity seriously, wealth building must be a priority," said Smith. "I'm grateful to Truist Foundation for contributing $500,000 to our Equity Boost Program and to entrepreneurs like Elixir Kombucha, Luxe and Ashe Candle Co., and Shady's Auto Repair, who have entrusted us with their business dreams."

Since its founding in 1982, Community Ventures has helped more than 8,600 entrepreneurs start or expand their businesses, saved 1,800 households from foreclosure, provided 400,000 small businesses with continuing education opportunities, and created 15,200 jobs.

"Small businesses are the foundation of our economy. Owning and operating a small business is difficult, but through financial and technical assistance, we can help ease the burden on small businesses and help them build- contributing to our local economy and to the uniqueness of our city," added O'Brien. "Louisville Metro Government's Economic Development team is proud to work with partners, including Community Ventures Corp., to support small business and to offer its own low-interest METCO small business loans."

# # #

About Truist Foundation

Truist Foundation is committed to Truist Financial Corporation's (NYSE: TFC) purpose to inspire and build better lives and communities. The Foundation, an endowed private foundation established in 2020 whose operating budget is independent of Truist Financial Corporation, makes strategic investments in a wide variety of nonprofit organizations centered around two focus areas: building career pathways to economic mobility and strengthening small businesses to ensure all communities have an equal opportunity to thrive. Embodying these focus areas are the Foundation's leading initiatives - the Inspire Awards and Where It Starts. Learn more at Truist.com/Foundation.

About Community Ventures Corporation Inc.

Founded in 1982 as a community-based, non-profit organization, Community Ventures strengthens communities and improves the overall quality of life for Kentuckians by supporting job creation, small business ownership, and home ownership. CV is headquartered in Lexington with branch locations in Bowling Green, Campbellsville, Louisville, Mayfield, Millersburg, and Owensboro. For 21 consecutive years, CV has been named Microlender of the Year by the Kentucky Small Business Administration.

Community leaders gathered at Chef Space to celebrate a $500,000 grant from Truist Foundation to Community Ventures on Friday, Oct. 27, 2023, to support small businesses throughout Kentucky. (L-R: Calvin Barker, Tri-States Regional President, Truist Financial; Kevin Smith, President and CEO, Community Ventures; Yasmine Fleming, Owner, Luxe and Ash Candle Co.; Danielle Wood, Co-founder, Elixir Kombucha; Corey Wood, Co-founder, Elixir Kombucha; Shirie Hawkins, President, Everything Equity; Bill Rogers, Chairman and CEO, Truist Financial; and Jeff O'Brien, Executive Director with Louisville Metro Government's Cabinet for Economic Development)

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Truist on 3blmedia.com.

Contact Info:

Spokesperson: Truist

Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/truist

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE: Truist

View source version on accesswire.com:
Today, a regulator is a type of watch, but a long time ago, as early as the 17th century, it was a clock. And not just any clock: an excellent clock used to determine the reference time. Its hands were not on the same axis, for the sake of legibility and therefore reading accuracy. The larger minute hand was in the center of the dial, while the smaller hour hand was generally off-center at noon. A unique dial architecture found on modern regulators

Hamilton, CHF 1,195

A first prize for a perfectly designed mechanical watch that plays the asymmetry card in a contemporary reinterpretation of watchmaking tradition. Legibility is optimized by a silver sunray treatment of the sub-counters on an immaculate white background, and gold hands, Arabic numerals and hour-markers.

Jazzmaster in steel, 42 mm diameter, automatic movement with small seconds, leather strap  Hamilton

Pequignet, CHF 1,380

A very elegant made-in-France regulator thanks to its equestrian-inspired design. The two oversized lugs connecting the case to the bracelet recall the geometry of stirrups. A successful stylistic effect combined with a minimalist silver sunray guilloche dial featuring two blued steel hands and a date window.

Equus Origine in steel, 41 mm diameter, automatic movement with date window, leather strap  Pequignet

Alpina, CHF 1,995

A successful blend of tradition and modernity with excellent value for money. This regulator features an original vintage dial architecture with off-center hours at 10 o'clock, combined with a very contemporary overall aesthetic with its cushion-shaped case, integrated metal bracelet and alternating polished and satin-finished surfaces.

Alpiner Extreme in steel, 42 mm diameter, automatic movement with small seconds, steel bracelet. 888-piece limited edition  Alpina

Louis Erard x Alain Silberstein, CHF 4,000

A highly original version of a regulator made possible by Alain Silberstein's colorful, childlike universe. Against a khaki dial, three central hands are dedicated to the passing of time. Red, off-center and triangular, for the hour; white, arrow-shaped, in the center, for the minutes; and yellow, central and serpentine, for the seconds.

La Semaine Khaki in titanium, 47 mm in diameter, automatic movement with central second hand and date window, canvas strap. 178-piece limited edition  Louis Erard x Alain Silberstein

Chronoswiss, CHF 11,900

A most modern interpretation of the regulator. The skeletonized caliber features deep, hypnotic guilloche patterns similar to carbon fibers, against which, beyond the off-center hours and central minutes, stands a retrograde hand displaying the seconds on an arc of a circle graduated from 0 to 30.

Open Gear Resec Voodoo in DLC steel, 44 mm diameter, automatic skeleton movement, leather strap. 50-piece limited edition  Chronoswiss

Bell & Ross, CHF 19,500

A surprisingly classic model in the Bell & Ross collection  a brand that is better known for its famous square watches  that turns out to be a real success. Elegance and chic are the order of the day, thanks to a case with vintage handles and a superb opaline silver dial worthy of the finest timepieces from the 1950s.

WW1 in rose gold, 42 mm diameter, automatic movement with small seconds, leather strap. 99-piece limited edition  Bell & Ross

Glashutte Original, CHF 26,700

A regulator, but not only: a grand complication offering not only a large date, but also a power-reserve indicator. An indispensable function for a timepiece powered by a hand-wound mechanical caliber. The various indications on the dial in no way compromise legibility, as none are stacked one on top of each other.

Senator Chronometer in red gold, 42 mm diameter, hand-wound movement with small seconds, large date, power-reserve and day-night indicators, leather strap  Glashutte Original

Laurent Ferrier, CHF 37,000

A magnificent timepiece signed by one of the greatest watchmakers of modern times, launched in 2017, which is unfortunately no longer available. But if we are to believe the rumors going around, this regulator may be reintegrated into the Laurent Ferrier collection. Stay tuned, as this sober, rounded line is irresistible, not to mention the quality of its movement.
Otis Worldwide Corporation (NYSE: OTIS), the world's leading company for elevator and escalator manufacturing, installation and service, announced today that Tom Bartlett and Jill Brannon have been appointed to its Board of Directors, effective October 27, 2023.

Bartlett is President and Chief Executive Officer of American Tower Corporation. Brannon is Executive Vice President and Chief Sales Officer at FedEx Corp.

"We are pleased to welcome Tom and Jill to the Otis Worldwide Corporation Board of Directors," said Judy Marks, Otis Chair, CEO & President. "Tom's vast experience in technology and management of real estate dedicated to global wireless infrastructure, and Jill's leadership delivering global services, make them outstanding additions to support our growth strategy and momentum. I look forward to working with Tom and Jill as together we help Otis build a taller, faster, smarter world."

Prior to joining American Tower in 2009 as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Bartlett had a 25-year career at Verizon Communications and its predecessor companies and affiliates. Bartlett previously served on the Board of Directors of Equinix, Inc. He is a member of the World Economic Forum's Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) Board of Governors, the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trust (NAREIT) Executive Committee, and the Business Roundtable.

"It is a privilege to join the Otis board of directors and support the company's mission to be a world-class, customer-centric, service-oriented company," said Bartlett. "I'm eager to support the ongoing programs and innovation that deliver value and meet the unique and evolving needs of Otis' stakeholders around the world."

Brannon has more than three decades of global experience at FedEx. In addition to her role as Chief Sales Officer, Brannon serves on the company's Strategic Management Committee, a select group of the company's top leadership that sets the strategic direction for the enterprise. She has previously held positions leading sales in Europe, Middle East, the Indian Subcontinent and Africa, and in operations, marketing, and strategic planning and analysis. Since 2022, Brannon has served on the advisory board of directors for European Transport Solutions SARL, Luxembourg. She previously served on the boards of the US-ASEAN Business Council and the International Children's Heart Foundation.

"It is an honor to join Otis - the global leader in the industry it founded 170 years ago," said Brannon. "I look forward to bringing my decades of experience and insights gained serving in various global roles to support the Board as we oversee the company's long-term strategy and help ensure its future success."

Harold (Terry) W. McGraw III has announced he will retire from the Otis Worldwide Corporation Board of Directors, effective December 7, 2023. He was an inaugural member of the Otis Board, when the company separated from its previous parent and listed as an independent company on the New York Stock Exchange in April 2020. McGraw served on the Compensation and Nominations and Governance Committees.

"I would like to thank Terry for his contributions and guidance as we navigated Otis through the spin and in our three and one-half years as a public company. He has been a valuable advisor to Otis and to me personally," said Marks.

With the additions of Bartlett and Brannon, and the retirement of McGraw, the Otis Board will have 11 members. Bartlett will join the Audit and Compensation Committees. Brannon will join the Board's Audit and Nominations and Governance Committees.

To learn more about Otis and its Board of Directors, visit www.otis.com.
AMSTERDAM--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- AM Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of A- (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of a- (Excellent) of rsted Insurance A/S (ORIAS) (Denmark). The outlook of these Credit Ratings (ratings) is stable.

The ratings reflect ORIAS balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as very strong, as well as its adequate operating performance, neutral business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management.

ORIAS is the captive insurer for rsted A/S (rsted), a global sustainable energy group headquartered in Denmark.

ORIAS very strong balance sheet strength assessment is underpinned by its risk-adjusted capitalisation, which is at the strongest assessment level, as measured by Bests Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR). The company also benefits from a very conservative and liquid investment portfolio. Offsetting factors in the assessment include the companys high dependence on reinsurance, although the risks associated with this dependence are mitigated partially by ORIAS longstanding relationship with its highly rated reinsurance panel.

The adequate operating performance assessment reflects ORIAS track record of good but volatile underwriting results, as demonstrated by a 10-year weighted average combined ratio of 81.3% (2013-2022). In 2022, ORIAS reported a net loss of DKK 132.5 million (USD 19 million), due to unfavourable claims experience in the year combined with adverse reserve developments on prior year claims (2021: DKK 28.3 million [USD 4.3 million] profit, boosted by reserve releases). Underwriting performance is expected to improve in 2023, benefiting from higher premium income due to new construction projects underwritten by the captive, as well as insurance of a larger share of rsteds operational renewables assets. Prospective performance is subject to volatility due to the companys exposure to potentially large property losses, although moderated on a net basis by the captives comprehensive reinsurance programme.

As a captive monoline insurer providing commercial property and construction insurance covers for rsted, ORIAS underwriting portfolio is concentrated by line of business but well-diversified geographically. ORIAS neutral business profile assessment also reflects its strategic importance to rsted.

AM Best remains the leading rating agency of alternative risk transfer entities, with more than 200 such vehicles rated throughout the world. For current Bests Credit Ratings and independent data on the captive and alternative risk transfer insurance market, please visit www.ambest.com/captive.

This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on AM Bests website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see AM Bests Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Guide to Bests Credit Ratings. For information on the proper use of Bests Credit Ratings, Bests Performance Assessments, Bests Preliminary Credit Assessments and AM Best press releases, please view Guide to Proper Use of Bests Ratings & Assessments.

AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specialising in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

Copyright  2023 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231027762896/en/

Andrea Porta

Financial Analyst

+31 20 308 5428

[email protected]

Christopher Sharkey

Associate Director, Public Relations

+1 908 882 2310

[email protected]

Dr. Mathilde Jakobsen

Senior Director, Analytics

+31 20 308 5427

[email protected]

Al Slavin

Senior Public Relations Specialist

+1 908 882 2318

[email protected]

Source: AM Best
OLDWICK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- AM Best has affirmed the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating (Long-Term ICR) of bbb+ (Good) and the Long-Term Issue Credit Ratings (Long-Term IRs) of Markel Group Inc. (Markel) (Glen Allen, VA). AM Best also has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating (FSR) of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term ICRs of a+ (Excellent) of all the members of the Markel North America Insurance Group (Markel NA). Additionally, AM Best has affirmed the FSR of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term ICRs of a+ (Excellent) of Markel Bermuda Limited (Hamilton, Bermuda) and its affiliate, Markel Global Reinsurance Company (Delaware) (collectively referred to as Markel Bermuda).

Concurrently, AM Best has affirmed the FSR of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term ICRs of a+ (Excellent) of the members of State National Group (State National). All State National companies are headquartered in Bedford, TX. The outlook of all of these Credit Ratings (ratings) is stable. (See below for a detailed list of the companies and ratings.)

The ratings of Markel NA, which is considered the lead rating unit in the Markel enterprise, reflect its balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as strongest, as well as its adequate operating performance, favorable business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management (ERM). The balance sheet strength assessment for Markel NA is supported by its strongest level of risk-adjusted capitalization, as measured by Bests Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR). The balance sheet strength assessment further considers Markel NAs favorable reserve development on prior accident years and the effectiveness of its reinsurance program, as well as other actions taken, to manage net exposures to catastrophe losses. Offsetting these factors somewhat are variability in the capital base resulting from equity investments, as Markel NA maintains common stock leverage, which is substantially elevated relative to peer group averages, and its slightly elevated levels of net and gross leverage that result from its above-average retention of business.

Markel NAs adequate operating performance assessment is based on its underwriting results, which generally outperform peers by a significant margin based on better-than-average loss and loss adjustment expense ratios. This outperformance is offset partially by a weaker-than-average underwriting expense ratio and an operating ratio that has been just slightly better than average over the last five years. Markel NAs investment policy reflects its long-term capital appreciation objectives. As a result, the group typically reports favorable total return metrics, but below-average net investment income due to its above-average allocation to common stocks. Markel NA has demonstrated an ability to increase surplus organically through underwriting profits, offset partially by policyholder dividends in four out of the last five years, which have limited the level of surplus growth. This is reflective of the parents capital management strategy, in which profits are generally funneled upward to allow for greater financial flexibility within the enterprise.

Markel NA maintains a favorable business profile, ranking among the 25 largest property/casualty insurance organizations in the United States, based on consolidated U.S. direct premiums written in 2022. It is the fourth-largest writer of excess and surplus (E&S) business in the United States, after Lloyds, Berkshire Hathaway Insurance Group and American International Group, Inc. Markel NAs business is well-diversified by line of business and state within the United States. The group also includes Markels Europe-based operating companies, providing international diversification. The groups participation in admitted and non-admitted markets provides it with advantages across market cycles.

Markel NAs ERM program is embedded appropriately within the organization to manage the risks of Markels complex global operations, which include insurance and non-insurance sectors. The group has demonstrated an ability to operate effectively at moderately higher levels of leverage than its peers, in part through the effectiveness of its ERM program.

The ratings of Markel Bermuda reflect its balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as very strong, as well as its adequate operating performance, neutral business profile and appropriate ERM. Markel Bermudas balance sheet strength assessment reflects its strongest level of risk-adjusted capitalization, as measured by BCAR, which in recent years has benefited from reduced exposure to natural catastrophes due to its withdrawal from risk-bearing property catastrophe and property excess of loss businesses in its global reinsurance segment, as well as favorable reserve development. The assessment of the business profile acknowledges the diverse geographies and lines of business in which the group operates that is offset by its modest relative position within the global reinsurance market. Markel Bermudas ratings also reflect rating enhancement it receives as a result of its strategic importance to the Markel enterprise, as well as the benefits it receives through its relationship with other Markel subsidiaries.

The ratings of State National reflect its balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as strongest, as well as its strong operating performance, neutral business profile and appropriate ERM. State Nationals balance sheet continues to be supported by a strongest level of risk-adjusted capitalization, as measured by BCAR. State Nationals balance sheet strength is enhanced by the effectiveness with which it has managed its program services business over time. State National continues to produce underwriting and operating results on its lender services business that consistently outperform its peers. The groups business profile reflects its leadership position in lender and program services, while taking into consideration the competitive nature of both segments.

The ratings of Markel reflect the ratings of its operating insurance subsidiaries, as well as its financial leverage and coverage metrics, which remain within AM Bests guidelines. As of June 30, 2023, Markels adjusted debt to total capital ratio measured 21.6%. Unadjusted debt to total capital measured 23.4% as of that date.

The FSR of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term ICRs of a+ (Excellent) have been affirmed with a stable outlook for the following members of Markel NA, including European entities, which are grouped with the rating unit:

Markel Insurance SE

Essentia Insurance Company

Evanston Insurance Company

FirstComp Insurance Company

Markel American Insurance Company

Markel Insurance Company

Markel International Insurance Company Ltd.

SureTec Insurance Company

The FSR of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term ICRs of a+ (Excellent) have been affirmed with a stable outlook for the following members of State National:

State National Insurance Company, Inc.

National Specialty Insurance Company

United Specialty Insurance Company

City National Insurance Company

Pinnacle National Insurance Company

Superior Specialty Insurance Company

The following Long-Term IRs have been affirmed with a stable outlook:

Markel Group Inc.

-- bbb+ (Good) on $300 million 3.5% senior unsecured notes, due 2027

-- bbb+ (Good) on $300 million 3.35% senior unsecured notes, due 2029

-- bbb+ (Good) on $200 million 7.35% senior unsecured notes, due 2034 ($130 million outstanding)

-- bbb+ (Good) on $250 million 5.0% senior unsecured notes, due 2043

-- bbb+ (Good) on $500 million 5.0% senior unsecured notes, due 2046

-- bbb+ (Good) on $300 million 4.3% senior unsecured notes, due 2047

-- bbb+ (Good) on $600 million 5.0% senior unsecured notes, due 2049

-- bbb+ (Good) on $500 million 4.15% senior unsecured notes, due 2050

-- bbb+ (Good) on $600 million 3.45% senior unsecured notes, due 2052

-- bbb- (Good) on $600 million 6.00% preferred stock

The following indicative Long-Term IRs under the existing shelf registration have been affirmed with a stable outlook:

Markel Group Inc.

-- bbb+ (Good) on senior unsecured debt

-- bbb (Good) on subordinated debt

-- bbb- (Good) on preferred securities

This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on AM Bests website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see AM Bests Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Guide to Best's Credit Ratings. For information on the proper use of Bests Credit Ratings, Bests Performance Assessments, Bests Preliminary Credit Assessments and AM Best press releases, please view Guide to Proper Use of Bests Ratings & Assessments.

AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specializing in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

Copyright  2023 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231027438175/en/

Robert Valenta, CPCU

Senior Financial Analyst

+1 908 882 2407

[email protected]

Christopher Sharkey

Associate Director, Public Relations

+1 908 882 2310

[email protected]

Alan Murray

Associate Director

+1 908 882 2195

[email protected]

Al Slavin

Senior Public Relations Specialist

+1 908 882 2318

[email protected]

Naz Botea, ACA

Financial Analyst

+44 20 7397 0313

[email protected]

Source: AM Best
MEXICO CITY--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- AM Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of A (Excellent), the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating (Long-Term ICR) of a (Excellent) and the Mexico National Scale Rating of aaa.MX (Exceptional) of Reaseguradora Patria, S.A. (Patria Re) (Mexico). AM Best also has affirmed the Long-Term ICR of bbb (Good) of Patria Res ultimate parent, Pena Verde, S.A.B. (Pena Verde) (Mexico). The outlook of these Credit Ratings (ratings) is stable. Per AM Bests criteria procedure on insurance holding companies, Pena Verdes rating reflects a standard notching from Patria Res Long-Term ICR.

The ratings reflect Patria Res balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as strongest, as well as its adequate operating performance, neutral business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management (ERM).

The stable outlooks reflect AM Bests expectation that Patria Re will be able to maintain stable profitability metrics along with a strongest level of risk-adjusted capitalization, as measured by Bests Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR) while implementing its business expansion strategy, amid challenging years faced by the Latin American insurance market.

Patria Res balance sheet assessment of strongest is supported by that same level assessment on its risk-adjusted capitalization, low underwriting leverage, robust reinsurance program and the companys strong liquidity metrics. The ratings also reflect its comprehensive ERM infrastructure and expansive knowledge of its core markets in Latin America, which reflects the companys smooth implementation of its expansion strategy with a stable overseas operation outside its niche market.

Patria Re has established a solid niche position in Mexico and other Latin America markets, which allows it to accept profitable business selectively while maintaining a diversified product portfolio tailored to specific markets. This strategy has resulted in consistently favorable underwriting results over the years and has contributed to Patria Res enhanced level of risk-adjusted capitalization. A well-balanced reinsurance program placed among counterparties with a strong security level also reinforces the companys risk-adjusted capitalization. Furthermore, the companys underwriting leverage has remained at a conservative level for the past five years.

During 2022, the company reported positive bottom-line results, despite limitations posted by catastrophe reserve development, mainly driven by underwriting results. The companys efforts to maintain stable claims and management expenses, coupled with strong underwriting practices, have resulted in a profitable first six months for 2023; however, it remains limited by catastrophe reserve development.

Factors that could lead to positive rating actions for the company include a consistent improvement in profitability metrics, while maintaining its strongest level of risk-adjusted capitalization, as well as the continued and successful operation of its overseas expansion. Factors that may lead to negative rating actions include a sustained decline in profitability, as well as a significant deterioration in risk-adjusted capitalization, driven either by unfavorable results or a significant cash withdrawals or unsuccessful operations of the companys overseas expansion plans.

This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on AM Bests website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see AM Bests Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Guide to Bests Credit Ratings. For information on the proper use of Bests Credit Ratings, Bests Performance Assessments, Bests Preliminary Credit Assessments and AM Best press releases, please view Guide to Proper Use of Bests Ratings & Assessments.

AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specializing in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

Copyright  2023 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231027079555/en/

Inger Rodriguez

Financial Analyst

+52 55 1102 2720, ext. 108

[email protected]

Christopher Sharkey

Associate Director, Public Relations

+1 908 882 2310

[email protected]

Eli Sanchez

Director, Analytics

+52 55 1102 2720, ext. 122

[email protected]

Al Slavin

Senior Public Relations Specialist

+1 908 882 2318

[email protected]

Source: AM Best
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The Board of Directors of American Express Company (NYSE: AXP) declared a quarterly dividend on the Companys 3.550% Fixed Rate Reset Noncumulative Preferred Shares, Series D, of $8,973.61 per share (which is equivalent to $8.97361 per related Depositary Share).

The dividend is payable on December 15, 2023 to shareholders of record on December 1, 2023.

ABOUT AMERICAN EXPRESS

American Express is a globally integrated payments company, providing customers with access to products, insights and experiences that enrich lives and build business success. Learn more at americanexpress.com and connect with us on facebook.com/americanexpress, instagram.com/americanexpress, linkedin.com/company/american-express, X.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.

Source: American Express Company

Location: Global

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231026036105/en/

Media:

Andrew R. Johnson, [email protected], +1.212.640.8610

Azar Boehm, [email protected], +1.212.225.4052



Investors/Analysts:

Kartik Ramachandran, [email protected], +1.212.640.5574

Michelle A. Scianni, [email protected], +1.212.640.5574

Source: American Express Company
Iberdrola participates in historic Yorktown Day celebration in Virginia and unveils a dedicated plaque at Lee Mansion in Massachusetts to honor Spanish contributions

ORANGE, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Avangrid, Inc.s (NYSE: AGR) parent company Iberdrola recently marked the end of Hispanic Heritage Month by celebrating Spains contribution to U.S. Independence at events in Virginia and Massachusetts. These events are part of Iberdrola's Unveiling Memories project, which aims to leave a permanent legacy of the crucial contribution of Spain and Latinos and Hispanics to American independence.

First, Iberdrola participated in a Spanish Exhibit Unveiling Ceremony at Yorktown Battlefield Visitor Center in Virginia, the site of the last major battle of the Revolutionary War, as part of the Yorktown Day celebration, which commemorates the 1781 Siege of Yorktown. Iberdrola presented a donation of a Real de a Ochoa silver Spanish dollaras a symbol of the important economic contribution of the Spanish Crown to the victory in Yorktown. The event also included a panel which discussed Spains contributions to the decisive victory and the role of Francisco de Saavedra, a Spanish government official and soldier.

The second event took place at Marblehead Museum in Massachusetts where Iberdrola officials helped unveil a bronze plaque dedicated to Diego Maria de Gardoqui at Lee Mansion. Gardoqui was a merchant from the port of Bilbao in northern Spain who played a critical role during the Revolutionary War by dispatching supplies of arms and other materials to the Continental Army. Gardoqui was appointed the first Spanish ambassador to the Continental Congress and attended the 1789 swearing-in of George Washington as the first President of the United States.

About Avangrid: Avangrid, Inc. (NYSE: AGR) aspires to be the leading sustainable energy company in the United States. Headquartered in Orange, CT with approximately $41 billion in assets and operations in 24 U.S. states, Avangrid has two primary lines of business: networks and renewables. Through its networks business, Avangrid owns and operates eight electric and natural gas utilities, serving more than 3.3 million customers in New York and New England. Through its renewables business, Avangrid owns and operates a portfolio of renewable energy generation facilities across the United States. Avangrid employs more than 7,500 people and has been recognized by JUST Capital in 2021, 2022 and 2023 as one of the JUST 100 companies  a ranking of Americas best corporate citizens. In 2023, Avangrid ranked first within the utility sector for its commitment to the environment. The company supports the U.N.s Sustainable Development Goals and was named among the Worlds Most Ethical Companies in 2023 for the fifth consecutive year by the Ethisphere Institute. Avangrid is a member of the group of companies controlled by Iberdrola, S.A. For more information, visit www.avangrid.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231027248640/en/

Media:

Sarah Warren

[email protected]

585-794-9253

Source: AVANGRID, Inc.
Award is for Significant Contributions and Achievements in the Health Sector

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Betsey Eltonhead was today awarded the Boston University Questrom School of Business Health Sector Management Distinguished Alumni Award. Ms. Eltonhead has been a leader in many sectors of healthcare delivery including both profit and non-profit health plans, provider networks, charitable organizations and consultancies.

The Health Sector Management Distinguished Alumni Award is a special recognition for alumni of the Health Sector Management Program at the Questrom School of Business with significant contributions and achievements in the health sector. The recipient is nominated and selected by Questroms health sector faculty.

In making the announcement, Ned Rimer, Faculty Director of the Questrom Health Sector Management Program, said, among her many achievements Ms. Eltonhead developed innovative behavioral health systems for a major health plan; provided instrumental leadership in the development of Medicare and Medicaid Accountable Care Organizations; measured and identified best practices; managed physician and provider networks; oversaw behavioral health and medical specialty services, developed and managed successful grants, and helped improve access to and the quality of care.

Recently retired, Ms. Eltonhead is currently a consultant for SOAR, a volunteer, nonprofit organization that connects retired executives with greater Boston area small and medium sized nonprofits. She is also a director on the board of the Edinburg Center, a non-profit organization northwest of Boston, which provides services to people with mental health concerns, co-occurring substance use conditions, intellectual and developmental disabilities, autism, and brain injuries.

Ms. Eltonhead holds a Bachelors of the Arts from Beloit College and an MBA with high honors in healthcare management from Boston University Questrom School of Business, where she has been a guest lecturer over the years.

About the Boston University Questrom School of Business

Founded in 1913, the Boston University Questrom School of Business is a global top-tier academic research business school. Led by Allen Questrom Professor and Dean, Susan Fournier, Questrom develops business leaders who create value for the world. Questrom redefines transformational business programs, strengthens partnerships with the business community, advances the impact of research on business, and manages the school as a high-performing enterprise committed to excellence with a service mindset. Comprising a renowned full-time faculty of 173 researchers, teaching faculty, and accomplished practitioners, Questrom generates insights to address todays business challenges and prepares students with the capacities and tools they need to succeed from Day 1 in their professional lives. Questroms portfolio of academic programs is robust and includes a Top 20 undergraduate program of over 2,400 students; distinctive MBA offerings including 900 students in a full- and part-time MBA, the affordable Online MBA with nearly 2000 students enrolled, and specialty MBAs in social impact, health, and digital technology; several thriving specialized masters programs in areas including business analytics, mathematical finance, and management studies; and a rigorous PhD program. Questrom hosts impactful institutes fostering meaningful scholarship and dialogue, including IBMS, the Institute for Business, Markets and Society. More than 50,000 Questrom alumni form a powerful global network of leaders driving value creation that changes the world.

QUESTROM MEANS BUSINESS. For more information, visit bu.edu/Questrom

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231027715471/en/

Paul Alexander

Tel.: 617-470-9772

E-mail: [email protected]

Jill Totenberg

Tel.: 917-697-6900

E-Mail: [email protected]

Source: Boston University Questrom School of Business
ATA-100 is being evaluated in a multi-center phase 1b/2b ATA-001-FKRP study

Completion of enrollment of the first dose cohort of 3 patients

First results of cohort one presented at ESGCT in oral presentation

Good clinical and biological safety/tolerability in the first cohort

Preliminary efficacy documented with biomarkers and functional assessments

DSMB clearance to proceed with enrollment of the 2nd cohort with a 3-times higher dose

EVRY, France--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Atamyo Therapeutics, a biotechnology company focused on the development of new-generation gene therapies targeting muscular dystrophies and cardiomyopathies, today announced the presentation of the first clinical results obtained with ATA-100 in the on-going ATA-001 Phase 1b/2b clinical trial. ATA-100 is a one-time gene therapy for the treatment of fukutin-related protein (FKRP) limb-girdle muscular dystrophy Type 2I/R9 (LGMD2I/R9). Atamyo also announced today that Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) authorized the enrollment of the second dose cohort of the ATA-001 clinical trial.

ATA-100 is being evaluated in a multi-center phase 1b/2b in Denmark, France, and the United Kingdom, and has received IND clearance by FDA.

Preliminary results in the first cohort show:

No unexpected safety signal identified

Marked decline in levels of creatine kinase in all three patients

Improved velocity, sustained at one year

Disappearance of symptoms (cramps, myalgia) and improved quality of life

Correction of centronucleation and evidence of transgene expression on the 3-month muscle biopsy

Pr. John Vissing, principal investigator of the study, noted that the preliminary results from cohort 1 with the first dose tested already show encouraging results from a safety and efficacy perspective. ATA-100 treatment has a life-changing potential in an indication where there is no approved treatment.

These first results will be presented during oral communications in two forthcoming conferences:

1) The 30th Annual Congress of the European Society of Gene & Cell Therapy (ESGCT) that will take place on October 24-27, 2023 in Brussels, (Belgium): Gene therapy for LGMDR9: preliminary results of a dose-escalation study  Oral presentation by Nicolai Preisler, MD, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, during the Cardiovascular and muscular diseases session, on Friday, October 27, 11h30-13h00  Le BEL, Tour & Taxis 2) The 2023 International Limb-Girdle Muscular Dystrophy Conference, which will take place on 28-29 October 2023, Washington, DC. Preliminary experiences with Atamyos FKRP gene therapy  Oral presentation by John Vissing, MD, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, during the Clinical Trials Updates (Part 1) Session, on October 29, 11h00am-12h10pm  Constitution Ballroom, Grand Hyatt

These first results, in particular those related to transgene expression in muscle fibers are really exciting, said Dr. Sophie Olivier, Atamyos Chief Medical Officer. With the DSMB clearance to start the 2nd cohort, we are looking forward to enrolling new patients in Europe and in the US.

LGMD2I/R9 is a rare genetic disease caused by mutations in the gene that produces fukutin-related protein (FKRP). It affects an estimated 5,000 people in the US and Europe. In the most common form, symptoms appear around late childhood or early adulthood. Patients suffer from progressive muscular weakness leading to loss of ambulation. They are also prone to respiratory impairment. There are currently no curative treatments for LGMD2I/R9.

ATA-100, a single-administration gene therapy candidate for LGMD2I/R9, delivers a normal copy of the gene for production of FKRP proteins. The therapy is based on the research of Atamyo Chief Scientific Officer Isabelle Richard, Ph.D., Research Director at CNRS who heads the Progressive Muscular Dystrophies Laboratory at Genethon.

About Atamyo Therapeutics

Atamyo Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharma focused on the development of a new generation of effective and safe gene therapies for muscular dystrophies and cardiomyopathies. A spin-off of gene therapy pioneer Genethon, Atamyo leverages unique expertise in AAV-based gene therapy and muscular dystrophies from the Progressive Muscular Dystrophies Laboratory at Genethon. Atamyos most advanced programs address different forms of limb-girdle muscular dystrophies (LGMD), with one clinical-stage program targeting LGMD-R9. Atamyo is committed to improve the life of patients affected by neuromuscular diseases with life-long efficient treatments. For more information visit www.atamyo.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231027790840/en/

U.S. Contact:

Charles Craig, Opus Biotech Communications

[email protected], 404-245-0591

European contact: [email protected]

Source: Atamyo Therapeutics
WATSONVILLE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Granite (NYSE: GVA) is pleased to announce its participation in a series of upcoming investor events where senior management will meet with investors. Management will use a presentation during meetings that will be posted to our website before market on November 10, 2023.

The events are scheduled as follows:

1. 2023 NYSE Virtual Investor Access Program for Industrials  Date: Tuesday, November 14, 2023 2. UBS Industrials Summit  Date: Wednesday, November 29  Thursday, November 30, 2023  Location: Eau Palm Beach Resort and Spa 3. Wolfe Research 1st Annual Small and Mid-Cap Conference  Date: Wednesday, December 6  Thursday, December 7, 2023  Location: Wolfe Researchs NYC Offices

About Granite

Granite is Americas Infrastructure Company. Incorporated since 1922, Granite (NYSE: GVA) is one of the largest diversified construction and construction materials companies in the United States as well as a full-suite civil construction provider. Granites Code of Conduct and strong Core Values guide the Company and its employees to uphold the highest ethical standards. Granite is an industry leader in safety and an award-winning firm in quality and sustainability. For more information, visit the Granite website, graniteconstruction.com, and connect with Granite on LinkedIn, X, Facebook, and Instagram.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231026491775/en/

Granite Construction Incorporated



Investors

Wenjun Xu, 831-761-7861



Media

Erin Kuhlman, 831-768-4111

Source: Granite Construction Incorporated
MELBOURNE, Australia--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Stationary battery manufacturer Hithium exhibited this week at the most anticipated event in the clean energy sector's annual calendar All-Energy Australia, held in partnership with the Clean Energy Council.

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Hithium 5 MWh energy storage container using the standard 20-foot container structure (Photo: Business Wire)

Hithium presents the new 5 MegaWatt hours container the Block using the standard 20-foot container structure. The more compact second generation (ESS 2.0), higher-capacity energy storage system delivers 46% higher energy density than standard systems based on 280 Ah cells. The product will come pre-installed and ready to connect, outfitted with 48 battery modules based on the manufacturers new 314 Ah LFP cells, each module providing 104.5 kWh capacity and designed to meet the needs of large utility scale systems. The container will also be technically compatible with most top inverter brands power control systems, or bidirectional inverters.

The new energy storage system also comes with Hithiums mature multi-level, liquid-cooling technology, which keeps cell temperature variation below 3 Celsius. Intelligent thermal management enables the system to optimize battery power and reduce internal energy consumption.

Hithiums GM of Australia and New Zealand, Vincent She said, In Australia we have local sales and technical team. Being on the ground in Australia means being able to contribute to the expansion of clean, stable, and affordable energy in a globally leading market. We are ready to support Australia's burgeoning energy storage space with top quality stationary battery products from cell to container.

With 11GWh of battery products already shipped since the company was founded in 2019, Hithium is expanding its production capacity to 70 GWh by the end of this year. The company has developed some of the most advanced production lines in the world, featuring a high degree of automation and intelligence based on the precise and extensive collection and evaluation of big data, in real time. This enables Hithium to guarantee product stability and consistency in multiple dimensions. The manufacturers expansion plans continue into the next several years, with the goal of 135 GWh production capacity by 2025.

About Hithium

Founded in 2019, Hithium is a leading manufacturer of top-quality stationary energy storage products for utility-scale as well as commercial and industrial applications. With four distinct R&D centers and multiple intelligent production facilities, Hithiums innovations include groundbreaking safety improvements to its lithium-ion batteries as well as increases in lifecycle. With decades of cumulative experience in the field among its founders and senior executives, Hithium leverages its specialization in BESS to deliver partners and customers unique advances in energy storage. The company is based in Xiamen, China, with operations in the U.S., Australia, Dubai, and Europe.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231026141092/en/

[email protected]

Source: Hithium
In 1980, the Queen of England, Elizabeth II visited the Kingdom of Morocco in a trip that was later called the tour from hell. Received by King Hassan II, the Queen accompanied by her spouse Prince Philip and her staff stayed in the kingdom from the 27th to the 30th of October and visited Rabat Marrakech and Casablanca. However, her four-day voyage was nothing like what she expected.

Accounts emerged insisting that the Queen was angered by how King Hassan II treated her and her staff. Years later, Robert Hardman, an observer of the modern British royal scene revealed in his internationally-acclaimed film Our Queen (ITV 2013), the details of this notorious trip. In an article published by the Daily Mail, for which Hardman currently works, the true tale of what happened when the Queen paid a state visit to Morocco in 1980 was unveiled.

A tour from hell

It was a unique state visit in that nothing had previously been arranged actually took place as arranged, a Foreign Official who was on the trip told Hardman, adding that :

If it did take place at the time it was arranged, it took place in a different place, probably several hundred miles away.

After the two attempted coups in 1971 and 1972, the Moroccan king then was cautious in a way that was impressive to the Queens staff. This was confirmed by one of the diplomats interviewed by the British royal reporter. King Hassan II of Morocco  might pounce on you at any minute, said the same source, insisting that luncheons were moved from one palace to another at a moments notice or never took place at all.

Annoyed by the king's tardiness

However, that was not the only thing that angered the strict Queen. According to the same account, Elizabeth II was annoyed by the kings tardiness. In one of the parties, attended by the Queen, the King disappeared to issue orders for his chiefs and left the her waiting in the sun until 5pm. More than that, invited for a state dinner, the Queen arrived in the palace to find that it was closed and no one was there.

The Queen started running out of patience when the king mistreated her staff. In the same documentary, Robert Hardman stated that after a belated meeting, King Hassan II pointed at the Queens Assistant Private Secretary, Robert Fellowes, saying : thats the person whos responsible for this terrible muddle.

Responding to the King, she stated : Ill thank you not to speak about my staff like that.

That was certainly not the last bust-up between the King of Morocco and the Queen of England. During her stay in the kingdom, Queen Elizabeth planned to visit a British-funded Leonard Cherishe centre for the disabled, which the king did not want to attend. Speaking to a member of the entourage, Hardman said that he (king Hassan II) thought that sort of thing was beneath his dignity and he told the Queen that it was too late to go to the Leonard Cherishe home and hed take her back to the palace. The Queen refused and told him to stop the car and that she would go by herself.

I think she actually rather enjoyed it

At her farewell banquet, the same thing happened. The Minister of the Court turned up and said the king would be grateful if the banquet could be postponed for a few hours, the former British Foreign Secretary, Lord Hurd, who was with the Queen on her visit told the same source. The Queen of England again refused to delay the dinner and replied saying : I will perfectly understand if His Majesty is late.

54 minutes later, the king arrived to the dinner where he told the British Foreign Secretary that he should oust the British ambassador for the missing of knighthoods.

Despite the ups and downs of this trip, Hardman indicated that the Queen and the British delegation left the kingdom with a smile on the face. A source from the Queens team even stated saying : You know, I think she actually rather enjoyed it.

Once in the Buckingham palace, the Queen sent a letter to the king thanking him for his hospitality : We have been especially touched by the way in which your Majesty took such a personal interest in our programme.
David Younger, CEO of Seattle-based biotech company A-Alpha Bio, Recognized for Entrepreneurial Achievements in the Life Sciences Industry

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Life Science Washington Institute (LSWI), a Life Science Washington affiliate focused on supporting early-stage companies and entrepreneurs in Washington state, announced Dr. David Younger, Ph.D., co-founder and CEO of A-Alpha Bio, as the winner of the Entrepreneurial Achievement Award. Established in 2020, the award celebrates the significant accomplishments of founding leaders from Washington-based life science companies who are reaching milestones, driving innovation, fulfilling unmet needs and/or raising substantial funding. Younger follows in the footsteps of previous winners Dr. Erwin Berthier and Dr. Ben Casavant, Tasso founders, and Dr. Jesse Salk, TwinStrand Bioscience co-founder.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231027611764/en/

David Younger, PhD, Co-Founder and CEO, A-Alpha Bio (Photo: Business Wire)

Younger, 2019 graduate of the LSWI Washington Innovation Network (WIN) program, teamed up with Randolph Lopez five years ago to co-found A-Alpha Bio, a company aimed at improving human health by unlocking the potential of protein-protein interactions. After developing the technology in the University of Washingtons Institute for Protein Design lab under Dr. David Baker, Younger spun out the company and continues to grow it in terms of both fundraising and headcount. To date, the company has secured more than $51 million and has 46 employees.

Since WIN graduate A-Alpha Bio was formed in 2017, David has continued to lead it to new highs, said Richard Giersch, Executive Director of Life Science Washington Institute. In 2023 the company moved into new space, expanded existing collaborations, and added several significant new ones including partners such as Gilead, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Amgen. And just for good measure, they raised an additional $22.4 million. A spectacular round of accomplishments for a year that isnt over yet! I cant think of anyone more deserving of the award this year.

Younger, co-inventor of the companys AlphaSeq platform, is bringing his research to life by merging machine learning with biology to, among other things, measure millions of protein interactions with the promise of discovering and improving high impact drugs. The scientists David has brought together at A-Alpha Bio work in the rapidly growing convergence space of biology and computer science with nearly half the employees holding Ph.D.s. A-Alpha Bio, headquartered in Belltown, Seattle, makes the most of Washingtons unique life science ecosystem, where computer scientists work side by side with biologists to discover cures for our most intractable diseases.

A-Alpha Bios proactive funding comes from local funders like The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Madrona Ventures, in addition to grants provided by The National Science Foundation. With dedicated capital investments spanning both science and technology, Younger has captured the interest of industry leaders that run the gamut between science powerhouse Bristol-Myers Squibb and tech giant Google.

Winning the 2023 Entrepreneurial Achievement Award is an enormous honor for Randolph and me  and for the entire A-Alpha Bio team, Younger said. Recognition from our local life science community is particularly meaningful to us. Building A-Alpha in Seattle has been an incredible experience, largely due to the tremendous support from other local founders, biotech leaders, VCs, and institutions like Life Science Washington Institute. Weve come a long way since our then-two-person company participated in LSWIs WIN Mentoring Program, but we still have a long journey ahead of us and its amazing to have the continued support.

Moving forward, A-Alpha Bio plans to focus its efforts on building its internal pipeline of immunocytokines and molecular glues, foster pharmaceutical partnerships and develop its machine learning platform, AlphaBind.

Hear more from A-Alpha Bio and other WIN participants in a Life Science Washington video: https://vimeo.com/873842986

About A-Alpha Bio

A-Alpha Bio uses synthetic biology and machine learning to measure, discover, predict, and engineer protein-protein interactions.

The companys AlphaSeq platform applies synthetic biology to experimentally measure millions of protein-protein interaction affinities simultaneously. Protein binding data is incorporated into the companys AlphaBind platform to train machine learning models that predict binding from sequence. A-Alpha Bio uses both platforms to discover and optimize high-impact therapeutics for their own pipeline and in partnership with industry leaders.

A-Alpha Bio is based in Seattle and was founded in 2017 at the University of Washingtons Institute for Protein Design and Center for Synthetic Biology. To learn more, please visit: https://www.aalphabio.com/

About Life Science Washington Institute

Life Science Washington Institute, Where Entrepreneurs Come First, is driven by a mission of three closely connected goals: to launch life science companies, mentor entrepreneurs, and connect companies and entrepreneurs to resources they need. It is a vital part of Washington states energetic and connected life science ecosystem, and it works to ensure life science entrepreneurs and companies have access to the right resources at the right time as they are founded and grown. For more information, visit https://www.lswinstitute.org/.

About Life Science Washington

Life Science Washington connects its 500+ members to each other and to funding, talent, partners and essential business services and elevates the industry by promoting policies that strengthen the environment for ground-breaking research and product development that improves and saves lives. For more information, visit https://lifesciencewa.org/.

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Cameron Gordon, A-Alpha Bio, 410-504-9380, [email protected]

Kaitlyn Campitiello, Life Science Washington Institute, 206-456-9572, [email protected]

Source: Life Science Washington Institute
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. (the "Company") hereby gives notice of its intention to request the UK Financial Conduct Authority (the "FCA") to cancel the standard listing of the Companys ordinary shares (ISIN US5717481023) (the "Shares") on the Official List of the FCA and to request the London Stock Exchange plc (the "LSE") to cancel the admission to trading of the Shares on the Main Market for listed securities of the LSE (together, the "Cancellation of the London Listing").

Given that the majority of trading in the Company's securities occurs on the New York Stock Exchange, being its primary listing, the Company is of the view that the costs and administrative burden of maintaining such admissions to listing of the Shares on the Official List and to trading on the Main Market of the LSE are disproportionate to the benefits of such admission. The Company is therefore proposing the Cancellation of the London Listing.

Pursuant to Listing Rule 5.2.8R, the Company is required to give at least 20 business days notice of the intended Cancellation of the London Listing. Therefore, it is intended that the Cancellation of the London Listing will become effective from 8:00 a.m. (GMT) on 27th November 2023, such that the last day of trading of the Shares on the LSE would be 24th November 2023.

Following the Cancellation of the London Listing, the Company will continue to maintain its primary listing on the New York Stock Exchange.

The Cancellation of the London Listing is expected to have limited impact for shareholders who hold their Shares on the New York Stock Exchange. However, should you have any questions in relation to the Cancellation of the London Listing, the Company recommends that you consult your broker.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231027759161/en/

For further information please contact:

Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc.

Investor Relations

(212) 345-1227

[email protected]

Source: Marsh McLennan
Sendle helping to build a brighter future for Canadian small businesses as it adds new flexible options that go beyond parcel pick ups

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Just in time for the peak holiday shopping season, Sendle has bolstered its delivery network in Canada with the opening of more than 300 drop-off locations in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), Montreal, and Vancouver. Canadian small businesses that choose to ship with Sendle now have the ultimate flexibility and choice when it comes to parcel delivery  they can either drop off their parcels where and when its convenient for them or have them picked up at their door.

With over 500% growth in those using the drop off parcel service since Sendle launched drop-off locations in Toronto this summer, its clear that small businesses want choice. And, unlike Canada Post, there are no extra charges, no hidden costs, and no minimum delivery spend requirements for those that use Sendle; small businesses simply get the lowest parcel delivery prices in Canada and convenient drop-off or pick-up delivery options that meet their needs. As Lauren Helstab, Sendles country manager for Canada, notes, You have to pay more for flexibility with Canada Post, but not with Sendle.

As a company that prioritizes the needs of small business, Sendle listens when its customers request new features. A drop-off option was the second most requested feature by small businesses behind cross-border delivery, a service that Sendle launched in April this year. Adding conveniently located drop-off locations complements Sendles door-to-door parcel delivery service, giving small business owners flexibility for those times when they are on the move, to suit their business hours, or if its simply their preference. The convenient drop off locations include spots that operate 24/7 such as retail and convenience stores, providing even greater flexibility when small businesses are pressed for time.

Sendle works fast to help small businesses save time and money. We recently launched our Peak Relief program as a way to support Canadian small businesses this holiday season. We lowered all our rates  which now start from $6.65  and committed to no peak surcharges for the remainder of 2023 while Canada Post increased their rates by more than 3%, says Helstab. At Sendle, we see a bright future for small businesses when they have access to a service that understands their needs and provides flexible and convenient delivery options for time-poor business owners that don't break the bank. The opening of our new drop-off locations is another way we are enabling small business owners to choose when and how they ship to their customers.

As Sendle continues to expand our network and service in Canada, small businesses can count on us to provide the most cost-effective, tailored parcel delivery services, ensuring their unique needs are met," adds Helstab. For this years peak delivery season, we encourage small businesses across the country to stop settling for the status quo. At a time when costs have skyrocketed, Sendle is putting small businesses first by providing an affordable service that delivers conveniently flexible options without any added expense.

Sendle plans to expand its drop-off locations across Canada, including Calgary and Edmonton in the coming months.

More information about Sendles drop-off locations can be found online.

About Sendle

Sendle levels the playing field for small businesses by offering simple, affordable shipping across Canada and across the border to the U.S., with no hidden fees, subscriptions, or warehousing required. Merchants simply purchase a label and their parcels can be picked up from their front door. Sendle is also the first 100% carbon neutral shipping carrier in Canada and is a Certified B Corporation and Climate Neutral Certified. The company was founded in Australia in 2014 and is headquartered in Sydney, Australia; Seattle, Washington; and Toronto, Canada. For more information, visit Sendle.ca.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231027051729/en/

Media:

Lizanne McReelis

Boulevard Public Relations

[email protected]

Source: Sendle
TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Street Haven, a dedicated non-profit housing provider in Toronto, is thrilled to announce that we have been honored with the 2023 Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association (ONPHA) Award of Excellence. This recognition signifies our unwavering commitment to going above and beyond our housing mandate to address the unique needs of our tenants and the community with innovative and insightful solutions.

Our journey began in 1968 when we established Canada's very first women's shelter, marking a historic milestone that continues to define our pioneering spirit. For nearly six decades, we have remained steadfast in our mission to serve vulnerable and homeless women, offering shelter services, supportive housing, residential treatment, training, and outreach services, all geared towards nurturing their path towards independence.

Advocating for more affordable non-profit housing is an integral part of our mission. As co-founders of the Ontario Coalition of Women's Shelter and Supportive Housing Services Providers, we actively engage with elected officials, participate in budget development, and organize advocacy events to secure increased investments in affordable housing. Our focus on addressing the unique needs of chronically homeless women, who are often marginalized by conventional housing approaches, sets us apart. Our client-centered model emphasizes trauma-informed care, comprehensive case management, training, and addiction treatment.

Street Haven's innovative spirit shines through our creative and innovative efforts towards increasing quality affordable and deeply affordable supportive housing stock for homeless women. The organization aims to house double the number of women in the next three years.

Receiving the prestigious 2023 ONPHA Award of Excellence is a testament to our continued commitment to addressing complex housing needs and our innovative approach to housing management. This recognition underscores our dedication to creating a brighter future for homeless and vulnerable women within the Toronto community, and we are deeply honored and grateful for this prestigious award. It is an honour to be recognized by the association of our peers for the hard work we have done and continue to do in serving our neighbourhoods and homeless women in need. It is both a privilege and a passion for Street Haven to be supporting homeless women towards greater independence, says Dr. Siu Mee Cheng, Street Haven Executive Director.

About Street Haven

Street Haven is a Toronto-based non-profit organization womens multi-service health and social care agency committed to providing shelter, supportive housing, addictions treatment and training support to vulnerable and homeless women. Since 1965, Street Haven has been at the forefront of combating homelessness experienced by vulnerable women in Toronto.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231027913508/en/

For media inquiries or further information, please contact:



Street Haven Communications

Phone: (416) 967-6060

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.streethaven.com

Source: Street Haven
SAO PAULO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Suzano, the world's largest producer of market pulp, announces on October 26th a series of projects aimed at expanding its installed production capacity and which will enhance its operational efficiency. It will invest R$650 million in the construction of a tissue paper mill in Espirito Santo, where it will also invest R$520 million to replace a biomass boiler. The company will also invest R$490 million to expand the supply of fluff pulp in Sao Paulo.

The total investment of R$1.66 billion, announced during the disclosure of the 3Q23 results, is aligned with Suzano's strategic business avenues and underscores its commitment to constantly adapt its operations to evolving demand in Brazil and the global markets.

Suzano's competitive edge in the production of sanitary papers and fluff pulp, and the long-term growth of these markets driven by changes in consumption habits, underpin the strategy of strengthening our presence in these segments. We are the leaders in the Brazilian tissue paper market and pioneers in the production of fluff pulp from eucalyptus, which is why we must always be ready to serve our customers, says Walter Schalka, CEO of Suzano.

The new fluff- and tissue-based products will reach the market by the end of 2025 and in 1Q26, respectively, and will add 340 thousand tons of fluff and 60 thousand tons of tissue to Suzano's production capacity.

The third investment announced represents another phase in the process of modernizing its Aracruz Unit. The new biomass boiler will make the mill more efficient and stable, resulting in environmental gains for the operation. The boiler is slated to go operational in 4Q25.

The projects will be unveiled during Suzano Investor Day, to be held on October 27th when the company also will detail the 3Q23 results, which benefited from further improvements in the cash cost of production to R$861 per ton, at a time still marked by weak global pulp prices. Suzano reported adjusted EBITDA of R$3.7 billion and operating cash flow of R$1.9 billion. Pulp sales totaled 2.5 million tons and paper sales reached 331 thousand tons. Net revenue was R$8.9 billion. The company recorded net loss of R$ 729 million, impacted by the weakening of BRL during the quarter, which affected the portion of debt in USD and derivatives.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231026224671/en/

Hawthorn Advisors

Jamie Plotnek

[email protected]

Source: Suzano
BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- HQH, HQL, THQ, THW

Tekla Capital Management LLC (Tekla) announced today that it has completed the sale of its advisory business to abrdn Inc. In addition, effective close of regular business, abrdn was approved as manager to four NYSE listed healthcare and biotech thematic closed-end funds, totaling $2.8 bn in assets under management (AUM) as of October 26, 2023.

In connection with the transaction, the Tekla team previously responsible for the management of the Funds has joined abrdn to form abrdns healthcare and life sciences investment team.

The Funds will continue to be managed in accordance with their existing investment objectives and strategies, by the same team of Boston-based investment professionals pursuing the same investment philosophy and employing the same investment process that has served the Funds well through the years. Effective November 2, 2023, the Funds will commence trading on the NYSE under the new fund names:

Current Fund Name New Fund Name Ticker Tekla Healthcare Investors abrdn Healthcare Investors HQH Tekla Life Sciences Investors abrdn Life Sciences Investors HQL Tekla Healthcare Opportunities Fund abrdn Healthcare Opportunities Fund THQ Tekla World Healthcare Fund abrdn World Healthcare Fund THW

The Funds and their shareholders will benefit from abrdns expertise as a global investment firm with 2,344 investment professionals and anticipated expense savings as a result of abrdns scale and resources. abrdn is a leader in closed-end funds, with $31.1 billion* in US and UK listed closed-end funds under management. [2]

About abrdn

abrdn is a global investment company that helps clients and customers plan, save and invest for the future. abrdns purpose is to enable its clients to be better investors. abrdn manages and administers 496bn of assets for clients (as at 30 June 2023). abrdn is structured around three businesses  Investments, Adviser and Personal  focused on their changing needs. The capabilities in abrdns Investments business are built on the strength of its insight  generated from wide-ranging research, worldwide investment expertise and local market knowledge. abrdns teams collaborate across regions, asset classes and specialisms, connecting diverse perspectives and working with clients to identify investment opportunities that suit their needs. As at 30 June 2023, abrdns Investments business manages 368bn on behalf of clients - including insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds, independent wealth managers, pension funds, platforms, banks and family offices. For more information, please visit www.abrdn.com.

[1] As of June 16, 2023

[2] As of 17 July 2023

 2023 Tekla Capital Management LLC | All rights reserved | Legal Disclaimer

Statements in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined by the United States securities laws. You should exercise caution in interpreting and relying on forward-looking statements because they are subject to uncertainties and other factors that are, in some cases, beyond a Funds control and could cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements.

There can be no assurance that any closed-end fund will achieve its investment objective(s). Past performance does not guarantee future results. The net asset value of any closed-end fund will fluctuate with the value of the underlying securities. Historically closed-end funds have often traded at a discount to their net asset value. A funds distribution rate and income amounts reflect past amounts distributed and may not be indicative of future rates or income amounts. Distribution rates and income amounts can change at any time.

Investors should consider the investment objective and policies, risk considerations, charges and ongoing expenses of an investment carefully before investing. For more information, please contact your marketing and distribution agent, Destra Capital Advisors LLC, at 877.855.3434.

NOT FDIC-INSURED | NOT BANK-GUARANTEED | MAY LOSE VALUE

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231027387331/en/

Destra Capital Advisors LLC, at 877.855.3434

Source: Tekla Capital Management LLC
Solutions will ensure timely and accurate reporting of data to U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

PLANO, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Tyler Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: TYL) announced it has signed a contract with the U.S. National Guard Bureau (NGB), and specifically the NGB-DEI Complaints Management and Adjudication Branch, for Tylers Workforce Case Management application suite. Tyler will provide a web-based case management, complaint tracking, and program management and reporting application for military equal opportunity (MEO) and civilian equal employment opportunity (EEO) professionals.

Today, MEO and EEO complaint tracking is not managed by a centralized system across the National Guard. Different Army and Air Force Guard units in different states and territories, as well as the National Guard Bureau itself, employ various systems and ways of tracking and reporting on EEO and MEO complaints. Additionally, there is no unified mechanism for compiling and reporting the data.

Tylers applications will provide field and program oversight while ensuring transparency to complainants, alleged offenders, commanders, and senior leaders, as well as accountability for substantiated claims and notices of proposed resolutions. The Workforce Case Management suite will manage informal and formal harassment and discrimination complaint activities through the entire workflow.

To meet NGB-DEIs needs, Tyler will deploy the following Workforce Case Management suite of applications in its FedRAMP-certified private cloud environment: EEO; MEO; Anti-Harassment; and Reasonable Accommodation. With its multi-factor authentication, data encryption, and role-based access controls, the Application Platform can securely store a very large volume of sensitive data and documents.

By moving to a centralized system overseen by the NGB-DEI Complaints Management and Adjudication Branch, the entire National Guard, spanning 54 U.S. states, territories, and District of Columbia, will be able to provide prompt, fair, and impartial complaint processing. They will also be able to meet the specified U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and federal timeframes to be compliant with tracking and reporting data that all DoD agencies are required to submit to DoD Office of Secretary of Defense, as well as to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in compliance with federal guidelines.

Were thrilled to bring our expertise in workforce case management and specifically MEO and EEO best practices to the U.S. National Guard Bureau, said Brian Combs, president of Tylers Platform Solutions Division. We know that evolving federal labor laws can make it challenging to stay compliant with EEO regulations and reporting requirements. We are confident in our ability to effectively manage MEO and EEO claims in a timely and accurate manner for the organization.

Currently serving 35 individual systems within the DoD, Tyler has extensive experience providing workforce case management applications in the federal market with solutions tailored to handle specific workforce-related processes and federally mandated reporting requirements. In addition, 80% of federal EEO claims are processed by Tyler software.

About Tyler Technologies, Inc.

Tyler Technologies (NYSE: TYL) provides integrated software and technology services to the public sector. Tylers end-to-end solutions empower local, state, and federal government entities to operate efficiently and transparently with residents and each other. By connecting data and processes across disparate systems, Tylers solutions transform how clients turn actionable insights into opportunities and solutions for their communities. Tyler has more than 40,000 successful installations across nearly 13,000 locations, with clients in all 50 states, Canada, the Caribbean, Australia, and other international locations. Tyler has been recognized numerous times for growth and innovation, including Government Technologys GovTech 100 list. More information about Tyler Technologies, an S&P 500 company headquartered in Plano, Texas, can be found at tylertech.com.

#TYL_Financial

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231026035159/en/

Jennifer Kepler

Tyler Technologies

972.713.3770

[email protected]

Source: Tyler Technologies
The three-day contemporary art event will welcome 10,000+ attendees to San Diego Convention Center, November 3-5, 2023

Partnership with Redwood Art Group furthers UBSs commitment to supporting and encouraging local artistic communities, creating a forum to exchange ideas and inspire

The US art market continues to lead in global rankings as art sales soar worldwide post-pandemic

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- UBS is proud to again serve as presenting sponsor for Art San Diego in 2023, continuing its support for cultural endeavors around the world and affirming its commitment to using contemporary art to bring together ideas, inspiration, and innovation. As the premier contemporary fine art fair in Southern California, Art San Diego returns to the San Diego Convention Center November 3-5, 2023, with exhibits showcasing works by prominent international, national, and local artists.

Art San Diego, produced by Redwood Art Group, features immersive fine art experiences and exhibitions that showcase the thriving art and design landscape of San Diego and beyond. Featured programs include Art Labs, the Spotlight Program, Discoveries Collection, the [LOCAL TALENT] Program and the San Diego Art Prize. More than 90 national and international galleries as well as independent artists will showcase hundreds of extraordinary works from around the world, including live art demonstrations.

Access to Art Philanthropic Program  Hide and Seek: A Surrealistic Celebration of Colors and Dreams

Through the Access to Art program, UBS and Art San Diego partner to provide select charities and the communities they serve with educational and marketing opportunities in art, design and business development. Access to Art was launched in 2018 to focus on childrens education, development, and protection through art.

Art San Diegos 2023 Access to Art partners are Monarch School, Humble Design, and ARTS DISTRICT Liberty Station, and this years theme is the popular childhood game hide and seek. Created by students and families from Monarch School, working in collaboration with professional artists and designers from the 2023 Access to Art partners, guests are invited into a colorful room of the imagination to partake in an interactive scavenger hunt and dream about a world filled with intentional beauty and imaginative design. The exhibit features unexpected juxtapositions of texture and design, hidden messages of symbolic shapes and three-dimensional objects. All artwork is available to take home by making a suggested donation to Monarch School Project, with proceeds going directly to this community of students impacted by homelessness.

Other Fair Highlights

For the first time in over a decade, The (John) Lennon Art Collection will be displayed and available for purchase at Art San Diego.

San Diego artist Sarah Stieber is debuting an expansive collection of paintings made entirely out of tape.

The four San Diego Art Prize 2023 winners will present an exhibition of their innovative works.

Art Market Resilience in the US and Worldwide

In addition to sponsoring Art San Diego, UBS is also the Global Lead Partner of Art Basel and is co-publisher of the annual Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report. The most recent report, published in Spring 2023, showed the US art market is experiencing one of the most robust recoveries of all the major global markets. From a pandemic-induced low in 2020, sales bounced back in 2021, increasing by just over one third in value to $28.0 billion. Growth continued in 2022 with a further increase of 8% year-on-year to $30.2 billion, its highest level to date. This was driven by a major uplift at the high end of the auction sector, along with more moderate but positive growth in dealer sales. The US retained its premier position in the global ranks, with its share of sales by value increasing by 2% year-on-year to 45%.

UBS has a long history of supporting contemporary art and artists. The UBS Art Collection is considered one of the most important corporate art collections in the world with over 30,000 artworks by some of the most influential artists of our time, a practice driven by the company's long-held belief that art provides inspiration, while encouraging the innovative thinking that has shaped UBS's corporate culture.

Notes to Editors

About UBS

UBS is a leading and truly global wealth manager and the leading universal bank in Switzerland. It also provides diversified asset management solutions and focused investment banking capabilities. With the acquisition of Credit Suisse, UBS manages 5.5 trillion dollars of invested assets as per second quarter 2023. UBS helps clients achieve their financial goals through personalized advice, solutions and products. Headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, the firm is operating in more than 50 countries around the globe. UBS Group shares are listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

 UBS 2023. All rights reserved. The key symbol and UBS are among the registered and unregistered trademarks of UBS.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231027209074/en/

Beth Walsh

858-254-2845

[email protected]

https://www.ubs.com

Source: UBS
Sector Faces Challenges of Complex Federal Appropriations Processes, Emerging Global Sanctions, Increasing Need for Risk Mitigation, and Ongoing Geopolitical Volatility

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- FiscalNote Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: NOTE) ("FiscalNote"), a leading AI-driven enterprise SaaS technology provider of policy and global intelligence, today announced a series of customer agreements across the defense and aerospace industry, demonstrating continued growth and momentum for its business and portfolio of award-winning products and services - and strengthening its position as the leader of monitoring, tracking, and analysis of global and U.S. federal policy making and regulatory activity.

FiscalNotes latest customer momentum announcement includes new customer wins, significant renewals of existing accounts, as well as the expansion of agreements - which provide additional products and services to current customers who are leveraging the companys growing suite of award-winning offerings.

FiscalNotes latest defense and aerospace sector contract wins include, but are not limited to, the following*:

Boeing

Northrop Grumman

Northrop Grumman Mission Systems

Northrop Grumman - Space

Lockheed Martin

Lockheed Martin - Corporate Information Security

General Dynamics

Raytheon

SAIC

Peraton

Voyager Space Holdings

Firefly Aerospace

Like other large global enterprises, the worlds leading defense and aerospace companies turn to FiscalNote to leverage our award-winning news and advisory services, innovative AI-powered policy tracking and monitoring, and our risk mitigation SaaS platforms. At this time of great uncertainty and volatility in geopolitical events, complex legislative, legal and regulatory activity, and the evolving dynamics of the budget and appropriations processes, FiscalNote continues to deliver results to enable our customers to have greater engagement, impact, and results, said Josh Resnik, President & Chief Operating Officer, FiscalNote. Whether its our recently introduced FiscalNote Risk Connector, Global Policy Dashboard, or our enhanced EU Issue Tracker platform, we are constantly developing cutting-edge solutions that empower our customers to become more effective, efficient, and impactful in the policymaking ecosystem.

In addition to its commercial defense customer base, FiscalNote has also made several past announcements of its U.S. and global public sector agreements with non-commercial defense agencies, ministries, and departments, including:

- The U.S. Department of Defense (including multiple DoD defense branches, agencies, and services)

- Wide range of Ministries of Defense across Europe, Asia-Pacific, and North America

* todays announcement of defense and aerospace sector customer agreements is a sample of contracts secured by the Company, and not a complete list

About FiscalNote

FiscalNote (NYSE: NOTE) is a leader in policy and global intelligence. By uniquely combining data, technology, and insights, FiscalNote empowers customers to manage political and business risk. Since 2013, FiscalNote has pioneered technology that delivers critical insights and the tools to turn them into action. Home to CQ, FrontierView, Oxford Analytica, VoterVoice, and many other industry-leading brands, FiscalNote serves approximately 5,000 customers worldwide with global offices in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. To learn more about FiscalNote and its family of brands, visit FiscalNote.com and follow @FiscalNote.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231027623087/en/

Media

Nicholas Graham

FiscalNote

[email protected]

Investor Relations

Sara Buda

FiscalNote

[email protected]

Source: FiscalNote
FILE PHOTO: An aerial view shows a crude oil tanker at an oil terminal off Waidiao island in Zhoushan, Zhejiang province, China January 4, 2023/File Photo

By Scott DiSavino

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Oil prices climbed about 3% to a one-week high on Friday on worries that tensions in Israel and Gaza could spread into a wider conflict that could disrupt global crude supplies.

Brent futures rose $2.55, or 2.9%, to settle at $90.48 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose $2.33, or 2.8%, to settle at $85.54.

Brent's premium over WTI rose to its highest since March, making it more attractive for energy firms to send ships to the U.S. to pick up crude for export.

For the week, Brent was down about 2% and WTI down about 4%.

Trading was choppy. Early in the session, oil prices soared by more than $2 a barrel after the U.S military struck Iranian targets in Syria. Then prices briefly turned negative as markets digested various reports on mediation talks between the militant Hamas group and Israel led by Qatar in coordination with the U.S.

"We are at the mercy of the next headline ... and I think that's kind of what we've been seeing today with the price swings," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Price Futures Group.

"You'd like to be trading the fundamentals, but you really can't because you've got to be more worried about ... what's going to happen in the Middle East," Flynn said. "No one wants to be short over the weekend."

Israeli air and ground forces were stepping up operations in the Gaza Strip amid reports of heavy bombing of the besieged enclave.

A Hamas official, meanwhile, conditioned the release of hostages in Gaza on a ceasefire in Israel's bombardment of the Palestinian enclave, launched after a deadly Hamas rampage into southern Israel nearly three weeks ago.

Several countries, including many Arab states, have urged Israel to delay a planned ground invasion that would multiply civilian casualties and might ignite a wider conflict.

RED LINES

Middle East developments have so far not directly affected oil supplies, but many fear disruptions of exports from major crude producer and Hamas backer Iran and others.

"(It) remains incredibly difficult even for the most knowledgeable regional watchers to make high conviction calls about the trajectory of the current crisis, as the red lines that could bring more players onto the battlefield remain largely indiscernible," RBC Capital analyst Helima Croft said.

Goldman Sachs analysts retained their first-quarter 2024 Brent crude price forecast at $95 a barrel but added that lower Iranian exports could cause baseline prices to rise by 5%.

Prospects for oil demand were uncertain.

U.S. consumer spending surged in September but was seen cooling off in early 2024. Some economists believe the U.S. Federal Reserve is done raising interest rates to fight inflation, which can slow economic growth and reduce oil demand.

But, economists told Reuters they expect high inflation will continue to dog the world economy next year.

(Reporting by Scott DiSavino in New York, Natalie Grover in London and Florence Tan and Sudarshan Varadhan in Singapore; Editing by David Evans, Kirsten Donovan, David Gregorio and Jonathan Oatis)
Mass Shooting Manhunt Intensifies in Maine; Police Comb Androscoggin River (Photo : Androscoggin County Sheriff's Office)

In the aftermath of a harrowing mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, that left 18 individuals dead and 13 injured, authorities have heightened their search efforts for the prime suspect, Robert Card, a US Army reservist. The Androscoggin River has become a focal point of the search, drawing divers, helicopters, and foot patrols, according to Maine Safety Commissioner Mike Sauschuk.



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While the river remains a significant interest in the hunt, Sauschuk stresses the search is not confined to the area. "We are on 24/7 and we will be until the suspect in this case is brought to justice," he declared on Friday.



An intriguing development in the case is the discovery of a note at a location linked to Card. Though specifics about the note were not detailed, sources informed the Associated Press that it was a suicide letter directed at Card's son. Alongside the note, authorities found the suspect's cell phone.



Tension ratcheted up when Card's white Subaru Outback was found abandoned near a boat ramp in Lisbon, which is adjacent to the Androscoggin River. This discovery prompted speculation given Card's known ownership of jet-skis and a recreational boat. "I'm not saying the suspect is definitely in the water," Sauschuk clarified.



The scene of the shooting, typically serene New England towns, has been transformed into areas of heightened security and alert. Residents of Lewiston, Bowdoin, Lisbon, and Auburn have been advised to remain in their homes, leading to an eeriness as streets lie vacant with only the presence of armed officers at various junctures.



To further assist in the search, hundreds of FBI agents and other federal law enforcement personnel have converged in Maine. "There are many, many moving parts and coordination of efforts involved between multiple agencies," stated Lewiston Police Chief David St Pierre, asking for the community's patience.



In a bid to prevent Card from possibly fleeing the state, Canadian border guards and police in neighboring states are also on high alert.



Meanwhile, a law enforcement source has disclosed that a rifle was discovered in the abandoned Subaru Outback. This, combined with the cell phone retrieved from Card's residence, might offer more clues as the manhunt intensifies.



As the search continues, community members are anxiously awaiting updates, with hopes for a swift resolution.


Chevron (NYSE: CVX) shares fell 1.7% in pre-open trading after the oil giant reported weaker-than-expected profit figures for the third quarter.

The company reported Q3 EPS of $3.05, way below the expected $3.60. Revenue for the quarter came in at $54.08 billion versus the consensus estimate of $51.36 billion.

Cash flow from operations stood at $9.7 billion.

We delivered another quarter of solid financial results and strong cash returns to shareholders, said Mike Wirth, Chevrons chairman and chief executive officer.

Cash returned to shareholders stands at $20 billion year-to-date, 27% higher than last years record total for the same period.

Chevron is delivering strong financial results while also investing to profitably grow our traditional and new energy businesses to drive superior value for shareholders, Wirth concluded.

The profit miss comes just a few days after Chevron announced a mega deal to acquire Hess Corp (NYSE: HESS) for $53 billion.

By Senad Karaahmetovic
Management to Host Conference Call Tuesday, October 31, at 5 p.m. ET

Expected to be immediately accretive

Adds $4.2 million of annual unaudited revenue and $1.8 million of annual unaudited adjusted EBITDA

Capital light, recurring revenue business in stable and growing market

Latest acquisition under the Kingsway Search Xcelerator platform

(NYSE: KFS) Kingsway Financial Services Inc. ("Kingsway" or the "Company") today announced the acquisition of Digital Diagnostics Imaging, Inc. ("DDI"), a provider of fully managed outsourced cardiac monitoring telemetry services for $11.0 million in an all-cash transaction funded with $5.4 million in cash on hand and $5.6 million in debt financing. Management will host a conference call Tuesday, October 31, at 5 p.m. ET to discuss the transaction.

J.T. Fitzgerald, Kingsway President and CEO, said, "The DDI business is a great fit for our growing Xcelerator portfolio. DDI has established itself as a trusted partner to its customers through its focus on a dependable, high-quality service offering and our focus will be to continue to deliver exceptional value to DDI's customers. Peter Dausman, the Operator-in-Residence for this transaction, will transition into the CEO role for DDI, while the Founder, Thomas Corney, will remain as an advisor during a transition period. We are excited to welcome the DDI team to the Kingsway family."

Digital Diagnostics Imaging (ddimagingusa.com/about-us/) provides fully managed outsourced cardiac monitoring telemetry services to long-term acute care ("LTAC") and inpatient rehabilitation hospitals ("IRHs") throughout the U.S. The business enables remote access to client hospital telemetry systems from an outsourced monitoring station ensuring that a patient's ECG is continuously under watch. All technicians are certified by nationally-recognized organizations. DDI has been operating for over 10 years and currently has a presence in 42 states.

Peter Dausman, Kingsway Operator-in-Residence and newly appointed CEO of DDI, said, "DDI is a dominant player in remote cardiac monitoring with a solid reputation and strong customer referrals that fuel a growing pipeline of new opportunities. Importantly, its business has a high level of recurring revenue, is scalable and operates in a stable, growing market. In assessing this acquisition, it became clear that DDI is the industry standard for outsourced telemetry. I am eager to work with the team to learn more and with a disciplined approach, take this business to the next level."

Thomas Corney, former CEO of DDI, said, "My wife Marissa and I are pleased to transition our business to Peter and the team at Kingsway. Kingsway's approach to business and its care for customers and employees align directly with the values that are core to everything we do at DDI. Over the last decade we have grown this business from a start-up to more than $4 million in annual revenue. We have long been recognized both for the services we provide and the care we give our customers. We are confident Peter and his team will continue this legacy."

The transaction was structured as a purchase of all of the issued and outstanding shares of capital stock of DDI. Financing was provided by Signature Bank (Illinois). Holland & Knight LLP served as legal counsel to Kingsway, and Sichenzia Ross Ference Carmel LLP served as legal counsel to the sellers in connection with the transaction.
Reinsurance Group of America (NYSE: RGA) disclosed:

On October 16, 2023, Reinsurance Group of America, Incorporated (the Company) determined that the Company had experienced a cybersecurity incident in which an unauthorized third party gained access to certain technology systems of the Company. The Company currently believes that this unauthorized third party gained such access on October 15, 2023. Following detection of the incident, the Company initiated response protocols, including deploying a number of containment measures such as taking certain systems offline as a precautionary measure. Additionally, following such detection, the Company launched an investigation, which remains ongoing, engaged the services of cybersecurity and forensics experts and advisors, and notified certain insurance regulatory authorities and law enforcement authorities.

Based on the Companys investigation to date, the Company does not believe that any client policy holder data was accessed or extracted. The Company has also identified no evidence to date of encryption or ransomware. The Company has been working to bring its systems back online and resume normal operations, and the functionality of most of the Companys online systems was restored earlier this week.

Additionally, the Company has been in communication with clients about the incident and its restoration progress. The Company will ensure that any appropriate notification is provided to individuals affected by this incident.

We have incurred, and expect to continue to incur, certain incremental expenses related to this incident, including expenses to respond to, remediate and investigate this incident. While the Companys investigation is ongoing, based on information currently known, the Company does not believe this incident will have a material adverse effect on its business, operations or financial results.

The Company maintains insurance, including cybersecurity insurance, which the Company believes is commensurate with its size and the nature of its operations.
SEATTLE, WA, Oct. 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NewMediaWire  3DX Industries Inc. (OTCM: DDDX), a leading global manufacturing company specializing in cutting-edge additive manufacturing capabilities, announces it is now qualified as an Additive Manufacturer under the United States Department of Defense - Joint Certification Program (JCP).

JCP Qualification: A Milestone in Quality Assurance and Procurement

3DX Industries, Inc. is excited to announce it is now qualified to bid on government contracts through the US Department of Defense JCP program, a pivotal milestone that underscores our dedication to quality and opens doors to new procurement opportunities specifically within the government contract sector. This achievement signifies our company's commitment to meeting the rigorous standards required for government contracts.

The JCP qualification validates our commitment to adhering to the industry's highest quality benchmarks. We are confident that this achievement will pave the way for exciting collaborations in the government sector.

A Testimony to Our Promise: Delivering on Commitments

3DX has consistently communicated its dedication to delivering quality manufacturing solutions. By achieving this qualification 3DX Industries emphasizes its reliability as a manufacturing partner, whether in the private or government sector. We are committed to consistently providing high-quality components, innovative solutions, and top-notch services to our clients and partners.

3DX Industries is excited about the opportunities that lie ahead. We will continue to enhance our processes, elevate our quality standards, and expand our partnerships, striving to exceed the expectations of our clients and shareholders.

For more information about 3DX Industries, Inc., and our recent developments, please visit our official website at www.3dxindustries.com or contact us directly at [email protected]

About the Company: 3DX Industries, Inc. (OTCM: DDDX) is a leading manufacturer specializing in additive and subtractive manufacturing capabilities. The company is committed to pioneering innovative solutions and driving advancements in the manufacturing industry. Through strategic partnerships, extensive research and development, and a steadfast commitment to customer satisfaction, 3DX Industries is poised to capitalize on emerging opportunities and deliver sustainable growth.

Safe Harbor: 3DX encourages those interested in our Company to rely only on information included in our filings. Statements released by 3DX Industries, Inc. that are not purely historical are forward-looking within the meaning of the "Safe Harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding the company's expectations, hopes, intentions, and strategies for the future. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainties that may affect the company's business prospects and performance. The company's actual results could differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. Risk factors include but are not limited to general economic, competitive, governmental, and technological factors as discussed in the company's filings. The company does not undertake any responsibility to update the forward-looking statements contained in this release.

For additional information please contact:

3DX Industries, Inc.

6920 Salashan Parkway Suite D-101

Ferndale WA 98248

Telephone: 360-366-8858

Email: [email protected]

Visit the 3DX Industries, Inc. web site at www.3dxindustries.com. Information included on the Company's website is not incorporated herein by reference or otherwise.
TORONTO, Oct. 26, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Blockmate Ventures Inc (TSX.V: MATE) (FSE: 8MH1) (Blockmate or the Company) announces that it is convening a webinar to discuss the acquisition of BESS Power Innovation Corp, announced yesterday.

The webinar will include a presentation by Blockmate CEO, Justin Rosenberg and BESS CEO, Broderick Gunning. They will provide a summary of the acquisition and immediate plans for the business. A Q&A session with investors will follow the presentation.

Date: Wednesday, 1 November 2023Time: 1.00pm (EDT) Register at: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_QCAqghKJSOWp4Cn7bzcBeQ

Upon registration, investors will receive a joining link for the webinar direct to their registered email.

There is also an option to dial in to join via audio with the following phone number and Webinar ID:

US: +1 386 347 5053 or +1 507 473 4847Webinar ID: 928 3833 9541

Blockmate also announces that it has granted 8,050,000 incentive stock options (the Options) to certain directors, officers and consultants to the Company. With 146,938,374 securities on issue after issue of these options, these incentive options will represent 5.5% of the fully diluted capital. The Options vest quarterly over a twenty-four month period and are exercisable at a price of $0.05 until October 27, 2028.

About Blockmate Ventures Inc.

Blockmate Ventures is a venture creator focussing on building fast growing technology businesses relating to cutting edge sectors such as blockchain, climate and energy storage. Working with prospective founders, projects in incubation can benefit from the Blockmate ecosystem that offers tech, services, integrations and advice to accelerate the incubation of projects towards monetization. Recent projects include Hivello (download our free passive income app at www.hivello.com) and Sunified, digitising solar energy.

The leadership team at Blockmate Ventures have successfully founded successful tech companies from the Dotcom era through to the social media era. Learn more about being a Blockmate at: www.blockmate.com.

Blockmate welcomes investors to join the Companys mailing list for the latest updates and industry research by subscribing at https://www.blockmate.com/subscribe.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Justin Rosenberg, CEOBlockmate Ventures Inc[email protected] (+1-888-218-6863)

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

Forward-Looking InformationThis news release contains "forward-looking statements" or "forward-looking information" (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on the assumptions, expectations, estimates and projections as of the date of this news release. Forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ from those expressed or implied by forward-looking statements contained herein. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Raindrop disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable securities laws. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

Source: Blockmate Ventures Inc.
This award is presented annually to a newer PCCA member who demonstrates a passion for innovation in pharmacy compounding.

Houston, Texas, Oct. 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PCCA has named Dayna Timmer, PharmD, owner of Mountainside Compounding in Tate, Georgia, as the recipient of the 2023 George Roentsch, RPh, New Innovator Award. PCCA Director of Member Engagement Erin Michael, MBA, MS, CPhT, FAPC, presented the award to Timmer on Friday, October 27, during PCCAs ThinkNext: International Seminar 2023, in Houston, Texas.

Established in 2010, this award is given annually to an up-and-coming independent pharmacist and PCCA member who embodies the innovative and sharing nature for which George Roentsch was well-known in the pharmacy compounding community.

Dayna truly exemplifies the innovative and passionate spirit of George, Michael said. Her devotion to patients, coupled with her passion for learning and quest to provide quality compounding services, have benefited her patients, community and the compounding industry.

Wanting to make a difference in patient care through compounding, Timmer has attended PCCAs CORE training and multiple online webinars to stay up to date in the ever-evolving world of compounding. She also networks with other compounders and is a part of the PCCA Concierge Compounding program. Based in a state-of-the-art compounding pharmacy that contains hazardous and non-hazardous compounding areas, Timmers functional medicine practice offers patient consultations to help patients focus on their health and wellness. She also hosts multiple practitioner educational events and is always willing to share her expertise and knowledge of personalized medicine within her community.

Timmer graduated from Purdue University in Indiana, where she earned her Doctor of Pharmacy degree with a minor in Organizational Leadership. After graduating, she worked as a nuclear pharmacist for an independent pharmacy, compounding sterile radiopharmaceuticals and leading continuing education seminars and radiation safety at hospitals and physician groups in the Greenville, South Carolina, area. She transitioned her career to a corporate retail pharmacy, where she was able to do what she loves most: interact with her patients on a personal level. Timmer relocated to Georgia in 2017 with the goal of providing the highest quality compounding services within Pickens, Cherokee and other Georgia counties.

The late George Roentsch, RPh, was the owner and pharmacist of The Apothecary in Keene, New Hampshire, and is fondly remembered for his work, which advanced the art and science of custom-made prescription medications. Roentsch was passionate about pharmacy compounding and generously shared many of his formulas and innovations with fellow compounders.

# # #

ABOUT PCCA

PCCA supports the creation of personalized medicine and innovative products that make a difference in patients lives. As a complete resource for independent compounding pharmacies and health system pharmacies, PCCA provides high-quality products, education and support to more than 3,000 pharmacy members throughout the United States, Canada, Australia and other countries around the world. Incorporated in 1981 by a network of pharmacists, PCCA has supported pharmacy compounding for more than 40 years. Learn more at pccarx.com.

Attachment
The Annual General Meeting (hereinafter  the Meeting) of AB Linas Agro Group (hereinafter  the Company) was held on 27 October 2023.

The total number of the Companys shares is 161,085,933, the number of shares granting voting rights is 160,350,961, and the own shares in amount of 734,972 acquired by the Company do not grant voting rights.

In total 27 Companys shareholders, who owned shares of the Company at the end of the Accounting day of the Meeting (20 October 2023), participated in the Meeting having 139,595,132 share votes, which amounted to 87.06 percent of the total number of the Companys share votes.

26 duly filled General Voting Ballots were presented before the Meeting.

The Board member and CFO of the Company Mazvydas Sileika, deputizing Companys CEO, participated in the Meeting.

The quorum existed.

Decisions of the Meeting:



1. Presentation of the Companys Audit Committee Activity Report.





Presented (enclosed). No voting.



2. Presentation of the independent auditors report.





Presented (enclosed). No voting.



3. Presentation of the Consolidated Annual Report of the Company for the financial year 2022/2023.





Presented (enclosed). No voting.



4. Approval of the Companys Remuneration Report.





Approve the Companys Remuneration Report (enclosed).



Results of voting:

FOR  139,595,132 votes (including 139,593,572 share votes of shareholders who voted in advance).

AGAINST  0.

DID NOT VOTE  0



5. Approval of the consolidated and the Companys set of financial statements for the financial year ended 30 June, 2023.





Approve the consolidated and the Companys set of financial statements for the financial year ended 30 June, 2023 (enclosed).



Results of voting:

FOR  139,595,132 votes (including 139,593,572 share votes of shareholders who voted in advance).

AGAINST  0.

DID NOT VOTE  0



6. Approval of the Distribution of the Companys Profit (Loss).



Approve the Distribution of the Companys Profit (Loss):

1) Retained earnings  profit (loss) of the previous financial year at the end of the accounting financial year EUR 45,829,293 2) Net profit (loss) of the financial year EUR 4 965 178 3) The profit (loss) of the accounting financial year not recognized in the profit (loss) account - 4) The transfers from the reserves EUR 528,331 5) The shareholders contributions to cover the losses of the Company (if shareholders decided to cover all or part of losses) - 6) The total profit (loss) available for appropriation EUR 51,322,802 7) The part of the profit allocated to the legal reserve EUR 153,160 8) The part of the profit allocated to the reserve of the own share acquisition - 9) The part of the profit allocated to the reserve of shares issue EUR 501,217 10) The part of the profit allocated to the other reserves - 11) The part of the profit allocated for the payment of dividends EUR 4,169,125* 12) The part of the profit allocated for payment of annual bonuses to the Board, employees and other purposes - 13) Retained earnings  profit at the end of the financial year carried forward to the next financial year EUR 46,499,300



* Dividends in amount of EUR 4,169,125 are allocated for the financial year ended on 30 June, 2023, which consist EUR 0.026 with taxes per one share of the Company (calculated without own shares acquired by the Company).



Results of voting:

FOR  139,595,132 votes (including 139,593,572 share votes of shareholders who voted in advance).

AGAINST  0.

DID NOT VOTE  0



7. Increase of the Companys share capital.





7.1. In accordance with provisions of AB Linas Agro Group rules for shares issue, to increase the share capital of the Company from EUR 46,714,920.57 up to EUR 48,479,439.49, by issuing 6,084,548 new ordinary registered book-entry shares with the par value of EUR 0.29 and issue price of 691,535 shares equal to EUR 0.705, and issue price of 5,393,013 shares equal to EUR 0,58, issued for the purpose of granting shares of the Company free of charge to the employees and/or members of the Companys corporate bodies (the New Shares).

7.2. Establish that the total issue price of all New Shares equals to EUR 3,615,479.72 of which EUR 1,764,518.92 shall be the nominal value of the New Shares and EUR 1,850,960.80 shall be the share premium.

7.3. Establish that the New Shares are granted free of charge and they are paid by the Company from the reserve set up by the Company for shares issue.

7.4. Establish that right to subscribe and acquire the New Shares free of charge shall be granted to the employees and/or members of the corporate bodies of the Company who have concluded the Share Option Agreement of the Company in 2018 and in 2020 and accordingly in 2023 have submitted notice to the Company regarding the use of the option (the Option Holders). The list of Option Holders, who are entitled to acquire the New Shares is not published in order to ensure the protection of personal data.

7.5. Establish that each Option Holder to whom a right to subscribe for a certain number of the New Shares has been granted shall be informed hereof by the Head of the Company upon signing within 10 (ten) business days from the date of the resolutions adopted by the Meeting.

7.6. Establish that the Option Holders shall have a right to subscribe for a certain number of the New Shares by concluding share subscription agreement with the Company within 30 (thirty) days from the date of the resolutions adopted by the Meeting.

7.7. If during the period for the subscription of the New Shares not all the New Shares are subscribed, the share capital of the Company may be increased by the amount of the nominal values of the New Shares that have been subscribed.

7.8. Details of terms and conditions regarding the payment by the Company for the New Shares shall be provided in the share subscription agreement of the New Shares.

7.9. Authorize (including the power to delegate) the Chief Executive Officer of the Company to sign share subscription agreements with the Option Holders.

7.10. Considering that the Company seeks to grant shares of the Company free of charge to the employees and/or members of the corporate bodies of the Company who have concluded the Share Option Agreement of the Company and have submitted notice to the Company regarding the use of the option, to revoke pre-emption right of all shareholders of the Company to acquire the New Shares.



Results of voting:

FOR  139,595,132 votes (including 139,593,572 share votes of shareholders who voted in advance).

AGAINST  0.

DID NOT VOTE  0



8. Changing the name of the Company.





Change the name of the Company from AB Linas Agro Group to AB Akola Group.



Results of voting:

FOR  139,595,132 votes (including 139,593,572 share votes of shareholders who voted in advance).

AGAINST  0.

DID NOT VOTE  0



9. Approval of a new wording of the Articles of Association of the Company.





9.1. Taking into account the changing name and increase of the share capital of the Company, to amend the Articles of Association of the Company and approve a new wording of the Articles of Association (enclosed).

9.2. Authorize (including the power to delegate) the Chief Executive Officer of the Company to announce the Register of Legal Entities of the Republic of Lithuania about the decision to increase the share capital of the Company, to sign the new wording of the Articles of Association of the Company and to register them with the Register of Legal Entities of the Republic of Lithuania pursuant to the procedure under law, as well to perform other actions provided in the Law On Securities of the Republic of Lithuania and other applicable laws, and to sign other documents associated with the implementation of the resolutions adopted herein.



Results of voting:

FOR  139,595,132 votes (including 139,593,572 share votes of shareholders who voted in advance).

AGAINST  0.

DID NOT VOTE  0



10. Election of the Companys Audit Committee member.





Whereas the Audit Committee member Irma Antanaitiene submitted notice of resignation from the Audit Committee from 16 October, 2023, elect Arunas Bartusevicius, an independent member the Supervisory Board, as a member of the Audit Committee of the Company until the end of current term of the Audit Committee.



Results of voting:

FOR  139,595,132 votes (including 139,593,572 share votes of shareholders who voted in advance).

AGAINST  0.

DID NOT VOTE  0



11. Election of the Companys audit firm and setting conditions for payment for audit services.





11.1. Elect UAB ERNST & YOUNG BALTIC (code 110878442) as the audit firm of the Company for a period of 4 (four) years to perform audit of the consolidated and the Companys annual financial statements.

11.2. Set a salary of EUR 72,000 (seventy two thousand euros), excluding VAT and additional expenses, for the audit of the 2023/24 financial year. For the audit of the financial year 2024/25, a salary of EUR 70,400 (seventy thousand four hundred euros) is set, excluding VAT and additional expenses, and is recalculated using the annual percentage change of the average gross salary of the financial and insurance activities in the private sector published by the State Data Agency. In each subsequent year, the salary is indexed by taking the previous salary. The annual size of the index will be fixed on June 30 of each year.

11.3. Authorize (including the power to delegate) the Chief Executive Officer of the Company to conclude and sign an agreement with the elected audit firm on behalf of the Company.



Results of voting:

FOR  139,595,132 votes (including 139,593,572 share votes of shareholders who voted in advance).

AGAINST  0.

DID NOT VOTE  0





Mazvydas Sileika

CFO of AB Linas Agro Group

Mob. +370 619 19 403

E-mail [email protected]





Attachments







Independent auditors report

The Company's set of Annual Financial Statements and the Annual Report with Sustainability and Remuneration Reports

Articles of Association of AB Akola Group

CV of the new member of the Audit Committee

Audit Committee Activity Report

Attachments
Somerset New Jersey, Oct. 26, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dr. DeForest Buster Soaries, Chairman and CEO of the dfree Global Foundation and Corporate Community Connections Inc., proudly announces Atlanta, GA as the next city to host the dfree Financial Freedom Movement Event. Taking place November 10 & 11, the movements flagship event, dfree FinFe$t, aims to become a bedrock of financial empowerment within the community. Dr. Soaries, whose dfree initiative garnered national attention after its feature in a CNN 90-minute documentary, is driven by his belief in the critical importance of financial wellness for Black Americans.

"The paradigm needs to shift. Financial education shouldnt just target adults, leaving their children in the dark. In partnership with the East Point/College Park Alumnae & Atlanta Suburban Alumnae Chapters of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., Summer Safe Atlanta and Prudential Financial. dfree FinFe$t is designed to be a holistic experience, inclusive of entire families. There will be dynamic presentations crafted to resonate with both parents and the youth," emphasized Soaries. This groundbreaking Family-Focused Financial event will be hosted on the campus of Georgia State University.

The event will tackle todays most enriching topics, led by an impressive list of experts speaking on

Making and Investing Money

Families Building Generational Wealth Together

Money Management Tips for Kids

Entrepreneurship

Jeremiah Dawson, CEO and Founder of Summer Safe Atlanta, a non-profit dedicated to changing the lives of Atlanta youth, affirms, "Summer Safe Atlanta is excited to partner with dfree Finfe$t. Promoting financial literacy is a key factor in reducing violence, especially among our youth. The more we know about money in our community, the less likely we feel desperate to commit criminal acts."

Prudential Financial has enjoyed a productive partnership with Dr. Soaries and the dfree movement since 2011. We are very excited about sponsoring Atlanta dfree Finfest . Our team is looking forward to connecting with Atlanta families at this unique event, says Shane Harris, Vice President of Social Responsibility and Partnerships and President, of The Prudential Foundation at Prudential Financial.

Atlanta Suburban is proud to join the dFree  Financial Freedom Movement as we collaborate to empower metro Atlanta families through financial literacy, stated Sabrina Clark, President of Atlanta Suburban Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated

The dfree FINFE$T, powered by Prudential Financial, is more than just an eventit's a festival with a purpose. It's dedicated to empowering African-American families through the power of financial literacy.

For complimentary registration and to delve deeper into what the event entails, please visit dfree.com/finfest.

About dfree Financial Freedom MovementFounded by Dr. DeForest B. Soaries, Jr. in July 2005, the dfree Movement champions resources that educate, inspire, and bolster individuals aiming for financial independence. Its offerings include comprehensive educational tools and strategies for underserved communities to attain financial sovereignty and close the racial wealth gap. Today, dfree stands as not just a brand or a curriculum, but as a beacon of hope for countless individuals striving for a better financial future.

Attachment

Brittni Smallwood Dfree Global Foundation, Inc. 908-208-7908 [email protected]

Source: Dfree Global Foundation, Inc.
Denver, Colorado, Oct. 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dwelling at New Braunfels, an all-new ground-up premier rental community owned and operated by YES Communities, is excited to announce its upcoming food drive. The collection is running from October 19 through December 29 in the community and aims to support local families.

With the holiday season approaching, Dwelling at New Braunfels is collecting items to support those in need. Local community residents are encouraged to participate by contributing non-perishable food items such as canned goods, pasta, rice, peanut butter, and other staples. A collection bin is located at the Dwelling community for easy drop-off and food donations will go to the New Braunfels Food Bank.

We are thankful that the Dwelling at New Braunfels community is helping with much-needed food donations through their open houses. Many times, we are missing key items that families need, especially as we approach the holiday season, said Nina Salinas, Business Development Manager for the New Braunfels Food Bank.

The food drive is an opportunity for future residents, team members, neighbors, and local businesses to come together and make a difference in the lives of families who may be facing food insecurity. "We believe in the power of community, and this food drive is an opportunity for neighbors to come together in support of a good cause," said Marissa Peterson, Community Manager at Dwelling at New Braunfels.

"Every donation, no matter how big or small, makes a difference," added Misty Rangel, Regional Manager at YES Communities. "Together, we can make the holiday season a little brighter for those who need it most."

In addition to the food drive, YES Communities has selected a wish list of children from the 2023 CASA of Central Texas Tour Drive. Unwrapped toys and gifts can be donated at the Dwelling community. The deadline for toy donations is December 2 and additional information can be requested from the community team.

We are thrilled to announce that our 2023 Holiday Gift Drive is now live! By participating as a sponsor, you have the unique opportunity to sponsor a childs wish list, ensuring that their holiday dreams and wishes come true, said Norma Blackwell, CASA of Central Texas CEO.

The community open house will be hosted on Saturday, October 28, from noon to 4 p.m. at 724 Abode Lane, New Braunfels, Texas.

About YES Communities

YES Communities is a premier operator of manufactured housing communities and is based in Denver, Colorado. YES has been recognized as the Manufactured Housing Institute's "Community Operator of the Year" from 2009 to 2019.

About CASA

CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) is a national volunteer movement founded in 1977. CASA of Central Texas is a member of the National and Texas CASA Associations. There are more than 1,000 CASA programs nationwide and 73 CASA programs in the state of Texas.

About New Braunfels Food Bank

The San Antonio Food Bank is a 501c3 non-profit organization providing millions of pounds of food to more than 500 charitable organizations in Southwest Texas serving those in need. In addition to food distribution, the San Antonio Food Bank provides numerous programs that not only solve the immediate problems of hunger, but help individuals and families gain long-term food security. For more information about the San Antonio Food Bank, visit our website at www.safoodbank.org. Find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/safoodbank or follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/safoodbank.

Attachments

Vanessa Jasinski YES Communities 1-833-625-0269 [email protected]

Source: YES! Communities
According to the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, during the discussion of the revision of the EU budget, "a general consensus was reached on the additional 50 billion euros for Ukraine." However, two countries-Hungary and Slovakia-opposed the aid to Ukraine.

ADVERTISIMENT

In his speech, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico warned of corruption in Ukraine, saying that he would have a hard time explaining the aid to his citizens.

Leaders are discussing a proposed increase in the bloc's overall budget and the Hungarian and Slovak prime ministers were expected to oppose a 50 billion aid package to Ukraine, a diplomat briefed on the leaders' discussions said. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said that EU support is not working.

While Brussels hopes to persuade Hungary to give up its veto. The EU now faces another headache - Slovakia. A decision on updating the bloc's budget should be made by the end of the year to ensure further support for Kyiv, as the current EU funding is about to expire.

As reported by OBOZ.UA, earlier Orban reiterated that Ukraine could not win the war. He believes that the army of the Russian occupiers has all the advantages to achieve their goal.

ADVERTISIMENT

Orban also said that Ukraine's international partners should abandon their beliefs about restoring its territorial integrity and joining NATO. In addition, he suggested that the West should make a deal with Putin without returning Crimea to Ukraine.

Only verified information on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
Toronto, Ontario, Oct. 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- David Rosenkrantz ("Acquiror") announces that he has filed an early warning report under National Instrument 62-103 in connection with the acquisition of 2,250,000 voting common shares ("Shares") and 2,250,000 Share purchase warrants ("Warrants") of Aurora Spine Corporation (the "Company") for total consideration of CAD$675,000.



On October 19, 2023, the Acquiror acquired Shares and Warrants of the Company pursuant to a private placement (the "Private Placement"), which in the aggregate, resulted in the cumulative acquisition of more than 2% of the outstanding Shares of the Company, thereby triggering the requirement to file an early warning report. Immediately prior to the acquisition, the Acquiror beneficially owned 9,625,000 Shares of the Company. The 9,625,000 Shares represented approximately 13.56% of the total number of issued and outstanding Shares prior to the Private Placement. As a result of the acquisition, the Acquiror now beneficially owns 11,875,000 Shares of the Company, which, is equal to 15.34% of the outstanding Shares of the Company, resulting in a 1.78% change to the Acquirors Share holdings. If all of the Warrants were converted, the Acquiror would own, directly or indirectly, or exercise control or direction over, approximately 17.73% of the total number of issued and outstanding Shares, resulting in an increase of 4.17% to the Acquirors Share holdings on a partially diluted basis.

While the Acquiror currently has no plans or intentions with respect to the Company's Shares, depending on market conditions, general economic and industry conditions, trading prices of the Company's Shares, the Company's business, financial condition and prospects and/or other relevant factors, the Acquiror may develop such plans or intentions in the future and, at such time, may from time to time acquire additional Shares, dispose of some or all of the existing or additional Shares or may continue to hold the Shares of the Company.

A copy of the early warning report filed by the Acquiror will be available on Aurora Spine Corporation's SEDAR+ profile at www.sedarplus.ca. The Company's head office is located at 1930 Palomar Point Way, Suite 103, Carlsbad, California, 92008 and the Acquiror's address is located at Patica Corporation, The Exchange Tower, 130 King St. W., Suite 2210, Toronto, Ontario, M5X 1E4.

Aurora Spine Corporation

760-424-2004




ATLANTA, Oct. 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Employbridge, the largest industrial staffing company in the United States, today announced that Stephanie Roberts, Vice President, Infrastructure, Operations and Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), has been named a Top Global CISO for 2023 by Cyber Defense Magazine.

Roberts competed against thousands of other chief information security officers for the coveted award and was chosen for the distinction because of her demonstrated success in communicating with leadership; detecting and stopping breaches and data loss events; complying with regulations; and building powerful risk-reduction programs.

Stephanie is an outstanding security officer and a leader who instills confidence among those around her, said Don Sloan, Chief Digital Officer of Employbridge. She is an evangelist for upholding the integrity of the information security function and is a thoughtful ally to leaders across the company. Every strong security leader must have the ability to not just lead on the technical factors, but to inspire and educate those around them. Security is not particularly glamorous at times, nor is it immediately tied to revenue  but the financial and opportunity cost of making a mistake can indeed be immense. To ensure that cybersecurity receives the right level of attention and investment, the CISO must evangelize the message, educate leadership, and influence decision-making. Stephanie does all these things exceptionally well and we are truly grateful for her leadership at Employbridge.

Roberts spent nearly 20 years in numerous platform development and security management roles at Neilsen, followed by highly visible and impactful information security, infrastructure, and operational leadership positions across multiple industries. Her role at Employbridge is closely intertwined with the value the company provides to clients and talent, who rely on the integrity and security of the companys systems infrastructure and adherence to security and data protection best practices in order to prevent and/or mitigate ever-present security threats. With her background in navigating the complexity of enterprise-wide cybersecurity strategy and program execution, coupled with her reputation as a cross-functional partner and her understanding of the operational realities of service businesses, Roberts has proven to be an adept and valued member of the Employbridge leadership team.

Stephanie Roberts of Employbridge has a passion for security, depth of experience, and proven track record of driving change within her organization, said Gary Miliefsky, publisher of Cyber Defense. We look forward to celebrating with Stephanie at our 2023 Top Global CISOs Awards at CyberDefenseCon 2023.

About Cyber Defense Awards

This is Cyber Defense Magazines 11th year of honoring cybersecurity innovators on the Cyber Defense Awards platform. In this competition, judges for these and other prestigious awards include cybersecurity industry veterans, trailblazers and market makers Gary Miliefsky of CDMG, Dr. Lindsey Polley de Lopez of VentureScope, Robert R. Ackerman Jr. of Allegis Cyber, Dino Boukouris of MomentumCyber and with much appreciation to emeritus judges Robert Herjavec of Cyderes, Dr. Peter Stephenson of CDMG and David DeWalt of NightDragon. View the Top Global CISOs Winners for 2023 list here: https://cyberdefenseawards.com/top-global-cisos-winners-for-2023/.

About Employbridge

Employbridge is the largest industrial staffing firm in the United States. Combining the advantages of national scale and local expertise with the speed and efficiency of its Bluecrew digital platform, the company puts more than 440,000 associates to work annually across a network of approximately 400 offices in 48 states. In 2022, Employbridge served 17,000 customers across the supply chain ecosystem in manufacturing, logistics, transportation, and energy. In addition to authoring the largest survey of U.S. hourly workers for almost twenty years, The Voice of the American Workforce, Employbridge is helping close the supply chain skills gap by providing career training to 20,000 associates through its Better WorkLife Academy and Life Skills Studio. Employbridges family of brands include ResourceMFG, ProLogistix, ProDrivers, Select, RemX, Remedy, Westaff, Decca, Hire Dynamics, and Bluecrew. Employbridge is majority-owned by certain investment funds managed directly or indirectly by Apollo Global Management, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. For more information, please visit www.employbridge.com.

Media Contact: Evan White508.654.0434[email protected]

Source: EmployBridge, LLC
BEIJING, Oct. 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- KE Holdings Inc. (Beike or the Company) (NYSE: BEKE; HKEX: 2423), a leading integrated online and offline platform for housing transactions and services, today announced that it will report its unaudited financial results for the third quarter of 2023 before the U.S. market opens on Wednesday, November 8, 2023.

The Companys management will hold an earnings conference call at 7:00 A.M. Eastern Time on Wednesday, November 8, 2023 (8:00 P.M. Beijing Time on Wednesday, November 8, 2023).

For participants who wish to join the conference using dial-in numbers, please complete online registration using the link provided below at least 20 minutes prior to the scheduled call start time. Dial-in numbers, passcode and unique access PIN would be provided upon registering.

Participant Online Registration:

English Line:https://s1.c-conf.com/diamondpass/10034424-6dgyf8.html

Chinese Simultaneous Interpretation Line (listen-only mode):https://s1.c-conf.com/diamondpass/10034531-nfg7dv.html

A replay of the conference call will be accessible through November 15, 2023, by dialing the following numbers:

United States: +1-855-883-1031 Mainland, China: 400-1209-216 Hong Kong, China: 800-930-639 International: +61-7-3107-6325 Replay PIN (English line): 10034424 Replay PIN (Chinese simultaneous interpretation line): 10034531

A live and archived webcast of the conference call will also be available at the Companys investor relations website at https://investors.ke.com.

About KE Holdings Inc.

KE Holdings Inc. is a leading integrated online and offline platform for housing transactions and services. The Company is a pioneer in building infrastructure and standards to reinvent how service providers and customers efficiently navigate and complete housing transactions and services in China, ranging from existing and new home sales, home rentals, to home renovation and furnishing, and other services. The Company owns and operates Lianjia, Chinas leading real estate brokerage brand and an integral part of its Beike platform. With more than 21 years of operating experience through Lianjia since its inception in 2001, the Company believes the success and proven track record of Lianjia pave the way for it to build its infrastructure and standards and drive the rapid and sustainable growth of Beike.

For more information, please visit: https://investors.ke.com

For investor and media inquiries, please contact:

KE Holdings Inc.Investor RelationsSiting LiE-mail: [email protected]

Piacente Financial Communications Jenny CaiTel: +86-10-6508-0677E-mail: [email protected]

In the United States:Piacente Financial Communications Brandi PiacenteTel: +1-212-481-2050E-mail: [email protected]

Source: KE Holdings Inc.
OAKVILLE, Ontario, Oct. 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As Canadians plan for Halloween celebrations this weekend and next week, MADD Canada is urging everyone to keep the scary moments at the parties and off the roads by planning ahead for a sober ride.

One decision to drive impaired could lead to a tragic outcome that will haunt you forever, said MADD Canada National President Tanya Hansen Pratt. We want everyone to have a fun and safe Halloween. If your party plans include consuming alcohol, cannabis or other drugs, plan a sober ride home.

Every year, hundreds of people are killed and thousands are injured in impairment-related crashes. These tragedies are entirely preventable. Everyone can do their part to keep Halloween celebrations and roads safe by:

Never driving impaired;

Never riding with a driver who is impaired;

Calling 911 to report suspected impaired drivers.

Canadians wanting to plan their sober and reliable drive home this Halloween can do it with just the push of a button - check out Uber, the Official Designated Ride of MADD Canada. Visit https://www.uber.com/ca/en/ for more information.

About MADD CanadaMADD Canada (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) is a national, charitable organization that is committed to stopping impaired driving and supporting the victims of this violent crime. With volunteer-driven groups in more than 100 communities across Canada, MADD Canada aims to offer support services to victims, heighten awareness of the dangers of impaired driving and save lives and prevent injuries on our roads. To learn more, visit www.madd.ca. For more information, contact:Deb Kelly, MADD Canada Communications Manager, 1-800-665-6233, ext. 240 or [email protected].

Source: MADD Canada
This annual award recognizes excellence and leadership in pharmacy compounding.

Houston, Texas, Oct. 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PCCA has named Kevin Borg, PharmD, FAPC, FACA, owner of Potters House Apothecary in Peoria, Arizona, and Prescott Compounding Pharmacy in Prescott, Arizona, the 2023 M. George Webber, PhD, Compounding Pharmacist of the Year. PCCA President Jim Smith presented the award to Borg on Friday, October 27, during the companys ThinkNext: International Seminar 2023, attended by more than 400 compounders from the United States, Canada, Australia and beyond.

Kevin has a giant heart and is devoted to doing good in the world, Smith said. Since becoming a member many years ago, he has relentlessly supported PCCA and the compounding profession  never hesitating to help a fellow compounder or participate in PCCA events. And his commitment to quality and exceptional service are reflected in the success of his compounding pharmacies and the continued recognition he receives from compounding professionals, patients and healthcare providers.

Compounding is the art of preparing customized medications to meet each prescribers and patients unique needs. The M. George Webber Pharmacist of the Year award is presented annually to an independent compounding pharmacist who demonstrates service excellence to patients, health care providers and pharmacy colleagues.

Borg continuously advocates for compounders and is actively engaged in several professional organizations. He regularly invites legislators to tour his pharmacies so they can see, firsthand, the value, quality and care compounded preparations offer patients. Plus, he hosts countless educational events at his pharmacies, so prescribers and patients can learn and understand how compounded preparations can meet an individuals unique needs.

In 2001, Borg earned his doctorate in pharmacy at Midwestern University College of Pharmacy in Glendale, Arizona. As a pharmacy student, he was a member of the Rho Chi Honor Society and received many awards including the Pfizer Outstanding Leadership Award and the Roche Pharmacy Communications Award. As an alumnus, Borg received the prestigious Littlejohn Award by Midwestern University that honors the values of service, caring and commitment to the industry.

After working in retail pharmacy, Borg pursued his passion of assisting patients with unique treatment needs by opening Potters House Apothecary in 2009. Prior to opening Potters House, Borg joined PCCAs Compounding Pharmacy Management Services (CPMS) group and attended pre-marketing classes to ensure he was ready to serve patients within his community. His concern for his community extended to local law enforcement and fire departments when, during the pandemic, he stepped up to provide support, making sure the first responders were well protected. His Potters House team continues to support the mitochondrial disease community by participating in fundraisers, such as walks, and in 2014 hosted a Cream Mito event.

Borg has served on the PCCA Advisory Council, the Association for Pharmacy Compounding (APC) Board of Directors, the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) Compounding Committee, the Pharmacy Compounding Foundation Board of Directors and the Midwestern University Deans Advisory Board. In 2014, Potters House Apothecary was recognized for three local business awards, including as a finalist for the Arizona State University W.P. Carey School of Business Spirit of Enterprise Award for excellence in entrepreneurship. Phoenix Business Journal recognized Potters House Apothecary as one of the Top 10 Best Places to Work for small businesses and as one of the Top 15 Fastest Growing Businesses in Arizona. Borg expanded his compounding services with the opening of Prescott Compounding Pharmacy in Prescott, Arizona, in 2021.

At the ThinkNext: International Seminar 2023 awards ceremony, Borg was welcomed to the stage by previous Pharmacist of the Year honorees, as well as his family and staff members.

The late M. George Webber, PhD, for whom the award is named, was a longtime professor with the University of Houston College of Pharmacy and was instrumental in the formation of PCCA in 1981. Webber was tenaciously committed to meeting patient needs and upholding the highest quality and ethical standards. He shared his expertise and love for compounding with numerous colleagues and students for more than 40 years.

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ABOUT PCCA

PCCA supports the creation of personalized medicine and innovative products that make a difference in patients lives. As a complete resource for independent compounding pharmacies and health system pharmacies, PCCA provides high-quality products, education and support to more than 3,000 pharmacy members throughout the United States, Canada, Australia and other countries around the world. Incorporated in 1981 by a network of pharmacists, PCCA has supported pharmacy compounding for more than 40 years. Learn more at pccarx.com.

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MISSISSAUGA, Ontario, Oct. 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Microbix Biosystems Inc. (TSX: MBX, OTCQX: MBXBF, Microbix), a life sciences innovator, manufacturer, and exporter, announces that its quality assessment products (QAPs) are supporting a testing program for Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) using molecular diagnostic (MDx) technology at Dublins The Coombe Hospital, in the Republic of Ireland, an EU member-state.

Microbixs local distribution partner, The Medical Supply Company of Ireland (MSC), has secured a tender-based contract to supply goods and services to support this national-level MDx and HPV-based cervical cancer screening program. The program is being driven by the instrumentation and reagents of the Roche Diagnostics Corporation cobas 6800/8800 Systems and cobas HPV test system, with Microbix REDx liquid-format IVD-regulated multiplex QAPs providing quality management system support to help ensure test accuracy. It is expected that the program will see regular participation by a majority of women of reproductive age within Irelands overall population of 5.1 million.

HPV is a family of over 100 virus sub-types, 14 of which are deemed high-risk as they may directly cause cancers, most notably cervical cancer, if not resolved by the immune system. Most sexually-active adults become infected with one or more HPV types and such infections can be persistent. MDx tests permit early detection and timely preventative healthcare by identifying those at-risk years before cancer develops.

However, MDx-based screening programs require rigorous quality systems and ongoing revalidation to ensure their accuracy. This includes creating workflow algorithms, implementing strict QC/QA practices, training staff to be proficient, and sourcing materials and methods to evaluate testing workflows. Microbixs portfolio of HPV-directed QAPs are used to help ensure the ongoing accuracy of MDx testing.

Dr. Lisa Tang, Head of Sales and Marketing of MSC commented, We are pleased to support this important womens health initiative with Microbixs HPV QAPs. We now look forward to the roll-out of MDx-based cervical cancer screening throughout the Republic of Ireland.

An initial purchase order for HPV-directed QAPs has been received by Microbix and it is expected that recurring QAPs sales into Ireland will become routine. Microbix and its distribution partners are likewise targeting support of MDx and HPV-based cervical cancer screening programs in other countries, including within the EU and in North America.

Phil Casselli, Senior Vice President of Sales and Business Development of Microbix also commented, Ireland provides an example of Microbixs technological leadership by way of our HPV quality controls being selected to support another national HPV screening program. We are proud to have collaborated with Coombes, MSC, and Roche to help bring this program online.

About Microbix BiosystemsMicrobix Biosystems Inc. creates proprietary biological products for human health, with over 100 skilled employees and annualized sales targeting C$ 2.0 million per month. It makes a wide range of critical ingredients and devices for the global diagnostics industry, notably antigens for immunoassays and its laboratory quality assessment products (QAPs) that support clinical lab proficiency testing, enable assay development and validation, or help ensure the quality of clinical diagnostic workflows. Its antigens drive the antibody tests of approximately 100 diagnostics makers, while QAPs are sold to clinical lab accreditation organizations, diagnostics companies, and clinical labs. Microbix QAPs are now available in over 30 countries, supported by a network of 10 international distributors. Microbix is ISO 9001 & 13485 accredited, U.S. FDA registered, Australian TGA registered, Health Canada establishment licensed, and provides CE marked products.

Microbix also applies its biological expertise and infrastructure to develop other proprietary products and technologies, most notably viral transport medium (DxTM) to stabilize patient samples for lab-based molecular diagnostic testing and Kinlytic urokinase, a biologic thrombolytic drug used to treat blood clots. Microbix is traded on the TSX and OTCQX, and headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.

Forward-Looking InformationThis news release includes forward-looking information, as such term is defined in applicable securities laws. Forward-looking information includes, without limitation, discussion of Coombes, MSC, Roche, or any MDx screening programs, MDx testing for HPV or its relevance, the products or services of Microbix, Microbixs business and business results, goals or outlook, risks associated with financial results and stability, development projects such as those referenced in its corporate presentation, regulatory compliance and approvals, sales to foreign jurisdictions, engineering and construction, production (including control over costs, quality, quantity and timeliness of delivery), foreign currency and exchange rates, maintaining adequate working capital or raising further capital on acceptable terms or at all, and other similar statements concerning anticipated future events, conditions or results that are not historical facts. These statements reflect managements current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations; they are not guarantees of future performance. The Company cautions that all forward-looking information is inherently uncertain and that actual performance may be affected by many material factors, some of which are beyond the Companys control. Accordingly, actual future events, conditions and results may differ materially from the estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations expressed or implied in the forward-looking information. All statements are made as of the date of this news release and represent the Companys judgement as of the date of this new release, and the Company is under no obligation to update or alter any forward-looking information.

Please visit https://microbix.com or www.sedar.com for recent Microbix news and filings.

For further information, please contact Microbix at:

Cameron Groome,CEO(905) 361-8910 Jim Currie, CFO(905) 361-8910 Deborah Honig, Investor RelationsAdelaide Capital Markets(647) 203-8793 [email protected]

Copyright  2023 Microbix Biosystems Inc. Microbix, DxTM, Kinlytic, QAPs, and REDx are trademarks of Microbix Biosystems Inc.Other companies names and products are protected by their respective trademarks.

Source: Microbix Biosystems Inc.
This is a joint press release by RoodMicrotec N.V. (RoodMicrotec and, together with its subsidiaries, the RoodMicrotec Group) and Microtest S.p.A. (Microtest), an entity incorporated under Italian law, controlled by Seven Holding 3 S.a r.l., a wholly owned subsidiary of the private equity fund Xenon Private Equity VII SCA SICAV RAIF, pursuant to the provisions of Article 16 paragraph 1 and 2 and Article 17 paragraph 1 of the Dutch Decree on Public Takeover Bids (Besluit openbare biedingen Wft, the Decree) in connection with the all-cash recommended public offer by Microtest for all the issued and outstanding ordinary shares in the capital of RoodMicrotec (the Offer).

This press release does not constitute an offer, or any solicitation of any offer, to buy or subscribe for any securities. Any offer will be made only by means of the offer memorandum dated 31 August 2023 (the Offer Memorandum), which has been approved by the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (Autoriteit Financiele Markten) (the AFM). This press release is not for release, publication or distribution, in whole or in part, in or into, directly or indirectly, the United States, Canada and Japan or in any other jurisdiction in which such release, publication or distribution would be unlawful.

Terms not defined in this press release have the meaning as set forth in the Offer Memorandum.

MICROTEST ANNOUNCES RESULTS OF THE OFFER FOR ROODMICROTEC AND DECLARES IT UNCONDITIONAL

Vicopisano, Italy / Deventer, the Netherlands, 27 October 2023

87.19% of the Shares on a Fully Diluted Basis have been tendered or irrevocably committed to be delivered to Microtest at settlement of the Offer.

All Offer Conditions are now satisfied.

Microtest declares the Offer unconditional.

Settlement of the Offer will take place on 1 November 2023, at which date the Offer Price of EUR 0.35 per Tendered Share will be paid.

Remaining Shares can be tendered during the Post-Acceptance Period, commencing on 30 October 2023 and ending on 10 November 2023.

Tender Results and Offer declared unconditional

Microtest and RoodMicrotec are pleased to announce that, during the Offer Period, which ended today at 17:40 hours CET, 71,981,050 Shares and Warrants have been tendered or irrevocably committed under the Offer, representing approximately 87.19% of the Shares on a Fully Diluted Basis and an aggregate value of EUR 25,193,367.50 at an Offer Price of EUR 0.35 (cum dividend) per Share. Considering that all Offer Conditions have now been satisfied, Microtest declares the Offer unconditional (doet gestand). Microtest accepts all Shares that have been validly tendered (or defectively tendered, provided that such defect has been waived by Microtest) and not validly withdrawn pursuant to the terms of the Offer in accordance with section 4.3.5 of the Offer Memorandum. Microtest has the right to accept any tender of Shares pursuant to the Offer, even if such tender has not been made in compliance with the terms and conditions of the Offer.

As the Offer has now been declared unconditional, the Warrants that were irrevocably committed to Microtest subject to the Offer being declared unconditional will now either (i) be sold, assigned and transferred to Microtest and subsequently exercised by Microtest, or (ii) exercised by the relevant Warrant Holder, who will subsequently tender the Shares acquired as a result of such exercise in the Post-Acceptance Period. Reference is made to section 5.12 (Irrevocable Undertakings) of the Offer Memorandum for additional information.

Settlement

With reference to the Offer Memorandum, Shareholders who have validly tendered (or defectively tendered provided that such defect has been waived by Microtest) and transferred (geleverd) their Shares for acceptance pursuant to the Offer will receive the Offer Price in respect of each Tendered Share. Settlement of each Tendered Share and payment of the Offer Price will take place on 1 November 2023.

Microtest cannot guarantee that Shareholders holding Shares through an Admitted Institution will actually receive payment on the Settlement Date from the Admitted Institution with whom they hold their Shares.

To date, no Shares were acquired by Microtest outside the Offer. Accordingly, as a result of Settlement, Microtest will (directly or indirectly) be entitled to 71,981,050 Shares, representing approximately 87.19% of the Shares on a Fully Diluted Basis.

Upon Settlement, the appointment of Mr. Luca Civita as member of the Board of Management, as approved at RoodMicrotecs EGM held on 19 October 2023, will become effective.

Post-Acceptance Period

Microtest hereby announces that Shareholders who have not tendered their Shares during the Offer Period will have the opportunity to tender their Shares under the same terms and conditions applicable to the Offer, during the Post-Acceptance Period, which will start on 30 October 2023, at 09:00 hours CET, and end on 10 November 2023, at 17:40 hours CET. Please see section 4.8 of the Offer Memorandum for additional information.

Delisting

If, following the settlement of Shares tendered during the Post-Acceptance Period, Microtest has acquired 95% or more of the Shares, it will together with RoodMicrotec seek to procure delisting of the Shares from Euronext Amsterdam as soon as possible in accordance with Applicable Laws. However, if following settlement of the Shares tendered during the Post-Acceptance Period Microtest has not acquired at least 95% of the Shares and it implements the Post-Closing Restructuring, the listing of the Shares on Euronext Amsterdam will also terminate after a successful Legal Merger as set out in section 5.15.3 (Post-Closing Restructuring) of the Offer Memorandum.

Buy-Out

If, after settlement of the Shares tendered during the Post-Acceptance Period, Microtest holds at least 95% of the Shares, Microtest will as soon as possible commence the Buy-Out. Reference is made to Section 5.15.2 (Buy-Out) of the Offer Memorandum.

Post-Closing Restructuring

If, after settlement of the Shares tendered during the Post-Acceptance Period, Microtest holds less than 95% of the Shares, Microtest will as soon as possible after such settlement implement the Post-Closing Restructuring, as approved at RoodMicrotecs EGM held on 19 October 2023. Reference is made to Section 5.15.3 (Post-Closing Restructuring) of the Offer Memorandum.

Further implications of declaring the Offer unconditional

Shareholders considering not tendering their Shares under the Offer during the Post-Acceptance Period should carefully review the relevant sections of the Offer Memorandum that further explain the intentions of Microtest, such as section 5.14 (Implications of the Offer being declared unconditional) and section 5.15 (Post-Closing Restructurings), which describe certain implications to which such Shareholders will be subject if the Buy-Out or the Post-Closing Restructuring is implemented. Reference is also made specifically to section 9.1.4 (Tax aspects for Shareholders who did not tender their Shares) of the Offer Memorandum.

Announcements

Any announcements in relation to the Offer will be issued by means of a press release. Any press release issued by RoodMicrotec will be made available on its corporate website (https://www.roodmicrotec.com/ and https://www.roodmicrotec.com/en/investor-relations-en/information-about-the-public-offer-by-microtest-for-roodmicrotec-shares). Any press release issued by Microtest will be made available on its corporate website (https://www.microtest.net).

Subject to any applicable requirements of the Merger Rules and without limiting the manner in which Microtest may choose to make any public announcement, Microtest will have no obligation to communicate any public announcement other than as described in the Offer Memorandum.

Settlement Agent

Attn: Corporate Broking (HQ7212)

ABN AMRO Bank N.V.

Gustav Mahlerlaan 10

1082 PP Amsterdam

The Netherlands

For more information:

Huijskens Sassen Communications

Clemens Sassen

+31 6 46 11 11 89

[email protected]



Advisors

On behalf of Microtest, Rothschild & Co is acting as sole financial advisor and Linklaters LLP is acting as legal counsel.

AXECO Corporate Finance B.V. is acting as RoodMicrotecs sole financial advisor and Bird & Bird (Netherlands) LLP is acting as RoodMicrotecs legal counsel.

About RoodMicrotec

With more than 50 years of experience in the semiconductor and electronics industry, RoodMicrotec is a leading independent company for semiconductor supply and quality services. RoodMicrotec is a highly valued partner for many companies worldwide and offers specifically tailored turnkey solutions for each single customer's requirements. The turnkey services include project management, wafer test, assembly, final test, qualification, failure analysis, and logistics. All services provided by RoodMicrotec meet the high quality standards of the automotive, industrial, healthcare, and high reliability aerospace sectors. RoodMicrotec is headquartered in Deventer, the Netherlands, with operational units in Nordlingen and Stuttgart, Germany.

For more information, please visit https://www.roodmicrotec.com.

About Microtest

Microtest is a well-reputed player both in designing and manufacturing automated test equipment and in providing testing services. It is an entity incorporated under Italian law, controlled by Seven Holding 3 S.a r.l., a wholly owned subsidiary of the private equity fund Xenon, a leading mid-cap private equity fund with 33+ years of experience and 175+ investments.

The current CEOs, Giuseppe Amelio and Moreno Lupi, have been leading Microtest since its foundation in 1999 in Altopascio (Lucca), Italy. Over time, Microtest has become a technological partner of some of the worlds leading microchip manufacturers, skilled in developing innovative solutions, thanks to a solid engineering team and good production flexibility. In 2004, Microtest started designing and producing Automatic Test Equipment (the systems used in the semiconductor industry for electronic components and wafter testing) for several applications such as avionics and cars electronic modules, radar and wireless communications for defence and medical devices.

A few years later, Microtest broadened its scope by also offering test house services, furthermore enhanced with a direct presence in the Far East following the opening of a subsidiary in Malaysia in 2018. In April 2022, Xenon Private Equity acquired a majority stake in Microtest, spurring its international expansion strategy. Microtest reached more than 30 million in revenues in 2022, with an Ebitda margin above 38%. Microtest commercial network and customer service are spread over the US, Europe, and Asia. In 2023 Microtest acquired Test Inspire, a highly innovative Dutch company focused on Automatic Testing Equipment.

For more information, please visit https://www.microtest.net.

Disclaimer

This is a joint press release by RoodMicrotec and Microtest pursuant to the provisions of Article 16 paragraph 1 and 2 and Article 17 paragraph 1 of the Decree and contains inside information within the meaning of Article 7(1) of the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information in this press release is not intended to be complete. This press release is for information purposes only and does not constitute an offer, or any solicitation of any offer, to buy or subscribe for any securities.

The distribution of this press release may, in some countries, be restricted by law or regulation. Accordingly, persons who come into possession of this document should inform themselves of and observe these restrictions. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, RoodMicrotec, Microtest and Xenon disclaim any responsibility or liability for the violation of any such restrictions by any person. Any failure to comply with these restrictions may constitute a violation of the securities laws of that jurisdiction. Neither RoodMicrotec, Microtest nor Xenon, nor any of their respective advisors, assumes any responsibility for any violation of any of these restrictions. Any RoodMicrotec shareholder who is in any doubt as to his or her position should consult an appropriate professional advisor without delay. This announcement is not to be published or distributed in or to the United States, Canada or Japan. The information in the press release is not intended to be complete. This announcement is for information purposes only and does not constitute an offer or an invitation to acquire or dispose of any securities or investment advice or an inducement to enter into investment activity. This announcement does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy or acquire the securities of RoodMicrotec in any jurisdiction.

Forward Looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release may be considered forward-looking statements, such as statements relating to the impact of this Offer on RoodMicrotec and Microtest and the targeted timeline for the Offer. Forward-looking statements include those preceded by, followed by or that include the words anticipated, expected or similar expressions. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this release. Although RoodMicrotec, Microtest and Xenon believe that the assumptions upon which their respective financial information and their respective forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, they can give no assurance that these forward-looking statements will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from historical experience or from future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, receipt of regulatory approvals without unexpected delays or conditions, Microtests ability to successfully operate RoodMicrotec without disruption to its other business activities, Microtests ability to achieve the anticipated results from the acquisition of RoodMicrotec, the effects of competition, economic conditions in the global markets in which RoodMicrotec operates, and other factors that can be found in RoodMicrotecs, Microtests and/or Xenons press releases and public filings.

Neither RoodMicrotec, Microtest nor Xenon, nor any of their respective advisors, accepts any responsibility for any financial information contained in this press release relating to the business, results of operations or financial condition of the other or their respective groups. Each of RoodMicrotec, Microtest and Xenon expressly disclaim any obligation or undertaking to disseminate any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in the expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based.

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TORONTO, Oct. 26, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nevada Zinc Corporation (Nevada Zinc or the Company) (TSX-V: NZN) announces that it has decided, at this time, to terminate the non-brokered private placement (the Offering), disclosed in the Companys news releases dated August 23, 2023 and August 30, 2023, and not to proceed to close a second tranche. The Boards decision to terminate the Offering is the result of the Companys current review of several financing options and the need for additional time to assess and pursue the financing structure which is optimal for the Company. Further announcements will be made in due course.

The first tranche of the Offering, disclosed by the Company on August 30, 2023, consisted of the issuance of 1,750,000 units (the Units) at a price of $0.04 per Unit for aggregate gross proceeds of $70,000. Each Unit consisted of one (1) common share of the Company (Common Share) and one (1) Common Share purchase warrant (Warrant). Each Warrant entitles the holder thereof to purchase one Common Share at a price of $0.10 for a period of eighteen (18) months from the date of issuance. Under applicable securities legislation and the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange, the securities issued in the private placement are subject to a four-month hold period, expiring on December 31, 2023. Completion of the Offering is subject to the receipt of all regulatory approvals, including final approval of the TSXV.

Directors and officers of the Company subscribed for all of the Units issued in the Offering. The participation of such directors and officers in the Offering constitutes a related party transaction for the purposes of Multilateral Instrument 61-101  Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions (MI 61-101). The Company is relying on the exemption from the requirements to obtain a formal evaluation and minority shareholder approval in connection with the insider participation in reliance on sections 5.5(a) and 5.7(1)(a) of MI 61-101, as neither the fair market value of the securities to be issued, nor the fair market value of the consideration for the securities to be issued will exceed 25% of the Companys market capitalization as calculated in accordance with MI 61-101.

About Nevada Zinc

Nevada Zinc is a development stage company focused, along with strategic partners, on the production of zinc-based products including zinc oxide and zinc based micro nutrient fertilizers from its Lone Mountain zinc deposit in Nevada. The Company will be completing project studies for the remainder of 2023 and 2024 in addition to concurrently beginning the permitting process for a zinc oxide production plant adjacent to the Lone Mountain deposit.

Additional information about the Company is available on the Companys website: www.nevadazinc.com and on the Companys SEDAR+ profile at www.sedarplus.ca.

For further information please contact:

Mike Wilson, President & CEOT: 416-574-9075Email: [email protected]

Don Christie, CFOT: 416-409-8441Email: [email protected]

Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release may contain forward-looking statements including but not limited to comments regarding regulatory approvals, timing and content of upcoming work programs, geological interpretations, obligations under existing and future agreements, share issuances and ownership positions, expected returns and profits from application of unproven chemical processes to the Companys mineral projects, partnerships and joint ventures, potential mineral recovery processes, etc. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and therefore, involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results relating to, among other things, subsequent tranches for ongoing financings, regulatory approvals, expected proceeds from financings, results of exploration, project development, reclamation and capital costs of the Company's mineral properties, and the Company's financial condition and prospects, could differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements. These and other factors should be considered carefully and readers should not place undue reliance on the Company's forward-looking statements. The Company will be required to complete a PEA and pre-feasibility study to confirm the projects zinc oxide production flowsheet and project economics. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement that may be made from time to time by the Company or on its behalf, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) has reviewed or accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

Source: Nevada Zinc Corporation
By this notice AUGA group, AB (code 126264360, address Konstitucijos ave. 21C, Vilnius, Company) updates the agenda of the extraordinary general meeting of shareholders of the Company on 7th November 2023 (the Meeting) by drafts of decisions, related information and provides general voting ballot to the shareholders.

The Company has received from the shareholders of the Company, who hold shares of the Company carrying more than 1/20 of all the votes, proposals to the Meeting regarding the nominees to the Board of the Company (Item 2 of the agenda of the Meeting) and draft decision regarding question 3 of the agenda of the Meeting.

The following additional candidates for the Company's Board are proposed (Item 2 of the Meeting Agenda) and the draft decisions on Item 3 of the agenda of the Meeting are indicated below:

2. Election of the new Board

The controlling shareholder of the Company, Baltic Champs Group, UAB and the shareholder of the Company European Reconstruction and Development Bank, carrying more than 1/20 of all the votes, propose to elect Peter Bryde to the Company's Board.

The controlling shareholder of the Company, Baltic Champs Group, UAB, carrying more than 1/20 of all the votes, also proposes to elect Justinas Klyviene and Tomas Rudokas to the Board of the Company.

The Company's shareholders ATIISIF "Multi Asset Selection Fund" (management company -AGGRESSIVE CAPITAL, UAB) and UAB "Hoptrans holding", whos together carrying more than 1/20 of all the votes, propose to elect Linas Strelis to the Company's Board.

Considering the submitted proposals, 5 members of the board will be elected from the following 6 proposed candidates:

Peter Bryde (proposed by Baltic Champs Group, UAB and European Reconstruction and Development Bank);

Andrej Cyba (proposed by the Companys Board);

Kestutis Juscius (proposed by the Companys Board);

Justina Klyviene (proposed by Baltic Champs Group, UAB);

Tomas Rudokas (proposed by Baltic Champs Group, UAB);

Linas Strelis (proposed by ATIISIF "Multi Asset Selection Fund" (management company -AGGRESSIVE CAPITAL, UAB) and UAB "Hoptrans holding").

According to the information provided to the Company by the candidates, Peter Bryde, Andrej Cyba, Justina Klyviene, Tomas Rudokas and Linas Strelis are considered to be independent candidates and Kestutis Juscius are considered as dependant candidate. Information about proposed candidates is attached as annex to this notice.

3. Approval of the remuneration for newly elected members of the board

The controlling shareholder of the Company, Baltic Champs Group, UAB, carrying more than 1/20 of all the votes, also proposes following draft decision regarding item 3 of the agenda of the Meeting:

To approve the following remuneration for the newly elected board members for one tenure:

3.1 To set a monthly remuneration of EUR 2 280 (before taxes) for a member of the Board and EUR 3 000 (before taxes) for the Chairman of the Board, irrespective of the annual number of the Board meetings.

3.2 For board members living abroad  compensation of travel and accommodation costs for/during attendance of the board meeting  not exceeding EUR 500 + VAT (Lithuanian tariff) in respect to one board meeting in which he/she participated; if the board member participates in a meeting via communication/IT measures (not physically traveling to Lithuania), travel costs compensation shall not be paid for such participation.

Attached:

1. Information about candidates for the board members;

2. General voting ballot.

CEO

Kestutis Juscius

+370 5 233 5340

Attachments
London, United Kingdom, Oct. 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NYOUM, a London-based artificial intelligence startup, is challenging the current paradigm of Meta, X, or TikTok with a private social network, uniting social media and messaging while safeguarding privacy.

Centred around an AI-powered multimedia feed, communication on NYOUM is fully multi-modal and designed for sharing within an inner circle. To keep conversations fully private, the platform limits the sharing of content publicly and relies on a novel decentral technology architecture. When users download the app, theyre prompted to invite five of their closest loved ones that they want to share their lives with. This feature truly illustrates how NYOUM utilizes a contrarian model for social media.

NYOUM Founder and Chairman Christopher Schlaeffer says that social media platforms were designed to broadcast digital content to friends and followers without a personal connection, lacking adequate content moderation and privacy protection. At the same time, these platforms have incorporated communication capabilities previously only known in traditional messaging platforms. The convergence of social media and messaging platforms, along with the evident shortcomings of social networks, now necessitates a new model. And NYOUM aims to be that new model.

NYOUM is a Swahili word and means you. says Founder and Chairman Schlaeffer, So NYOUM is about you and sharing your life with those you NYOUM. No ads. No likes.

NYOUM also is about a new approach to visual expression as video and audio sharing, both synchronous and asynchronous, prevail over traditional text messaging. In collaboration with leading artists like American contemporary artist Ian Cheng, the platform deploys generative AI to iconograph images for every single frame.

This new visual expression should help users overcome a fundamental shyness to share their own image. But NYOUMs platform utilises AI to also improve accessibility and break down language barriers by means of localised LLMs. Video and Audio Messages can be consumed easily - not only watched or listened to, but read due to live captions. And everything is translated instantly into a recipients native language. We care about using deep tech to unleash magic for our users and make it feel really simple, says Jim Reeves, Co-founder and Chief Technologist of NYOUM.

With a design largely defined by multimedia and not text, NYOUM is last but not least a very suitable tool to include cutting-edge journaling features equal to standalone journal apps like Day One. By uploading photos and videos from a phones gallery or summarising a day in a video within seconds, NYOUM enables users to record their lives effortlessly and share them with close friends.

As of today, NYOUM is available on the AppStore and Play Store in the US, Canada, Latin America, India, Korea, Japan, Pakistan, Indonesia, and the UK. For next year, continental Europe is on the company's launch plan. But first and foremost, 2024 is about viral growth. To achieve this in an industry dominated by giants will require all our creativity and dedication, says NYOUMs Founder.

Provided that its private social network can reach 100 million daily active users (DAU) within five years, NYOUM is committed to democratise the platform by transferring ownership to its users. Thats a first for any social media organization, and its a small step to reimagining who a communication network is supposed to serve.

Media Contact:

Email: [email protected]

Source: NYOUM
The fake about Putin's death is again being spread in Russian public media. This time, he "died" as a result of a cardiac arrest, and a "coup is beginning in Russia."

ADVERTISIMENT

The first to report this was the General SVR Telegram channel, known for its essays on Putin's secret meetings with his inner circle. The Russian dictator allegedly died at his residence in Valdai.

"At 20:42 Moscow time, doctors stopped resuscitation and pronounced him dead. The doctors are locked in a room with Putin's corpse, held by members of the presidential security service on the personal order of Dmitry Kochnev, who is in touch and receives instructions from the Secretary of the Security Council Nikolai Patrushev. The security of the president's double has been reinforced," the publication says.

It is worth noting that the story about the death of the Russian president was published by the same Telegram channel that reported Putin's cardiac arrest a few days ago.

ADVERTISIMENT

After the news of the dictator's "death," the popularity of the query "Putin is dead" increased dramatically. Obviously, just like the last time, the Telegram channel is "catching the hype."

There is a lot of speculation surrounding the death of dictator Volodymyr Putin. "All sorts of astro-experts are warming their hands on this. Some of them "predict" that Putin is already on his last breath and that death will come soon. And there are those who confidently declare that Putin has long since died, and that the world is being shown his doubles instead. In particular, psychic Roman Sheptytsky says this.

"The real Putin, I believe, died more than 8 years ago. Now instead of him, we see his doubles. I don't know when they will die," Sheptytsky said in an interview with UNIAN.

ADVERTISIMENT

We remind you that recently the network spread information that Putin fainted in his room due to cardiac arrest, but doctors who are always on duty in the bunker provided assistance to the dictator. Amid these rumors, Ukrainian comedian Yuri Veliky recorded a new parody.

As reported by OBOZ.UA, Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov denied the rumors about Putin's illness. He also called "absurd" the information about the Russian dictator's double.
Positive aggregate safety data from vafidemstat's fully enrolled PORTICO Phase IIb trial in Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), consistent with safety data from seven completed clinical trials, supporting the drug is safe and well-tolerated

Continues to enroll patients in Phase IIb EVOLUTION trial with vafidemstat in schizophrenia

Continues to recruit patients in FRIDA trial with iadademstat in combination with gilteritinib in relapsed/refractory FLT3-mutant AML patients

Research and development (R&D) expenses of $3.8 and $12.2 million for the quarter and nine months ended September 30, 2023, respectively

MADRID, Spain and BOSTON, Oct. 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Oryzon Genomics, S.A. (ISIN Code: ES0167733015, ORY), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company leveraging epigenetics to develop therapies in diseases with a strong unmet medical need, today reported financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2023 and provided a corporate update on recent developments.

Dr Carlos Buesa, Oryzons Chief Executive Officer, said: Oryzon continued with a strong path in its clinical programs in the third quarter. In CNS, we recently reported positive blinded aggregate safety data of 198 patients from our Phase IIb PORTICO trial with vafidemstat in BPD at the ECNP conference earlier this month. BPD is a highly unmet medical need and an enormous commercial opportunity with limited competition and a low risk of generification. PORTICO is now fully enrolled, and we remain on track to present top-line data early next year. The company has started a structured dialogue with corporate pharma to identify a suitable partner to move forward the asset to Phase III, pending positive results. Our Phase IIb trial with vafidemstat in schizophrenia, EVOLUTION, has also continued to enroll patients. We continue working for a future submission of an IND to initiate HOPE in 2024, the first randomized Phase I/II personalized medicine trial with an LSD1 inhibitor, in Kabuki Syndrome patients.

Dr Buesa continued: In oncology, we also continued to make progress this quarter, with both iadademstats ongoing clinical trials, the FRIDA trial in combination with gilteritinib in relapsed/refractory FLT3-mutant AML patients, where a new cohort has been initiated, and the collaborative trial with the Fox Chase Cancer Center (FCCC) in combination with paclitaxel in neuroendocrine tumors, which is actively recruiting patients. In addition, and broadening our epigenetic pipeline, we reported positive preclinical efficacy data of ORY-4001, our selective HDAC-6 inhibitor recently nominated as a clinical development candidate, in Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) at the Third Annual Global CMT Research Convention in Cambridge, U.S., and the medical team participated in several round tables.

Third Quarter and Recent Highlights

Vafidemstat in large multifactorial CNS indications:

Positive preliminary blinded aggregate safety data from PORTICO, vafidemstats Phase IIb clinical trial in BPD, reported at the 36th European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP) congress 2023, corresponding to the initial 198 randomized patients (data cut-off, August 23rd 2023). As of September 2023, PORTICO randomized 210 participants, and 131 of the originally planned participants (N = 150) already completed the trial. Results presented at ECNP 2023 confirm that PORTICO enrolled a representative real-world BPD population allowing common comorbidities and concomitant medications that are typically exclusionary in other BPD trials, as well as allowed subjects to receive psychotherapy during the trial. The screen failure and dropout rates were lower than in the most recent BPD clinical trial. Finally, the aggregated blinded safety data on the fully enrolled sample supports that vafidemstat has been extremely safe and well-tolerated, with a low discontinuation rate (2%) due to treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) and 0% due to serious TEAEs (STEAEs). Only one serious TEAE deemed severe was reported, which fully recovered/resolved during the study. Current data of PORTICO continue to support that vafidemstat is safe and well-tolerated. Positive results from PORTICOs interim analysis, conducted by the independent DMC in Q1 2023, were previously reported, with the trial being determined to be non-futile and to be continued with the planned enrollment number. PORTICO is a multicenter, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled Phase IIb conducted in the U.S. and EU to evaluate the efficacy and safety of vafidemstat in BPD patients. The trial has two independent primary objectives: reduction of aggression/agitation and overall BPD improvement. The trial is fully recruited and last patient out is expected before the end of 2023. Topline results are expected in Q1 2024, followed by a full data presentation at a psychiatric conference, as well as in a peer-reviewed journal publication.

The EVOLUTION Phase IIb clinical trial with vafidemstat in patients with schizophrenia continues to enroll patients. This Phase IIb study aims to evaluate the efficacy of vafidemstat on negative symptoms and cognitive impairment in patients with schizophrenia. This project is partially financed with public funds from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and is being carried out in various Spanish hospitals.

Vafidemstat in monogenic CNS indications:

We continue the preparations of a new precision medicine trial in Kabuki Syndrome (KS). The company is in a dialogue with the regulatory agencies to refine the final design of this trial and expects to submit an IND for HOPE to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2024.

Iadademstat in oncology:

FRIDA, an open-label, multicenter Phase Ib clinical trial of iadademstat in combination with gilteritinib in patients with relapsed/refractory (R/R) Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) harboring a FMS-like tyrosine kinase mutation (FLT3mut+), continues to enroll patients. The primary objectives of the trial are to evaluate the safety and tolerability of iadademstat in combination with gilteritinib in patients with FLT3mut+ R/R AML and to establish the Recommended Phase 2 Dose (RP2D) for this combination. Secondary objectives include the evaluation of the treatment efficacy, measured as the rate of complete remission and complete remission with partial hematological recovery (CR/CRh), the Duration of Responses (DoR), and the assessment of Measurable Residual Disease (MRD). The study is being conducted in the U.S. and will accrue up to approximately 45 patients. If successful, Oryzon and the FDA have agreed to hold a meeting to discuss the best plan to further develop this combination in this much-in-need AML population.

The collaborative Phase II basket trial of iadademstat in combination with paclitaxel in platinum R/R small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and extrapulmonary high-grade neuroendocrine tumors (NET trial) continues to enroll patients. This trial is being conducted in the U.S. under a collaborative clinical research agreement with the FCCC, under which the FCCC will be conducting different collaborative combination clinical trials with iadademstat, with Oryzon providing funding, the drug, and technical expertise.

Preparations for the STELLAR trial, a randomized, multicenter Phase Ib/II study of iadademstat plus a checkpoint inhibitor in first-line extensive-stage SCLC, are ongoing. The company believes that STELLAR could potentially support an application for accelerated approval.

Earlier stage programs:

Positive preclinical efficacy data in CMT with ORY-4001, a selective histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC-6) inhibitor, was presented at the Third Annual Global CMT Research Convention held in September. ORY-4001 treatment was able to reverse disease progression symptoms in a CMT mice model which reliably recapitulates many of the symptoms of this condition in humans, improving myelination and restoring axon integrity in the sciatic nerve, and improving compound muscle action potential and nerve conduction in comparison with untreated animals. The results presented are fruit of a collaboration entered in 2022 between Oryzon and the CMT Research Foundation (CMTRF), a U.S.-based patient-led, non-profit organization focused on delivering treatments and cures for CMT. ORY-4001 was recently nominated as a clinical development candidate for the treatment of certain neurological diseases as CMT, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and others, and the compound will now enter into IND enabling studies to prepare it for clinical studies. HDAC6 inhibitors have been previously proposed as potentially effective treatments for CMT, ALS and other neurological disorders that lack effective treatments.

Financial Update: Third Quarter 2023 Financial Results

Research and development (R&D) expenses were $3.8 and $12.2 million for the quarter and nine months ended September 30, 2023, respectively, compared to $4.3 and $11.9 million for the quarter and nine months ended September 30, 2022.

General and administrative expenses were $0.7 and $2.9 million for the quarter and nine months ended September 30, 2023, respectively, compared to $0.7 and $3.3 million for the quarter and nine months ended September 30, 2022.

Net losses were $0.8 and $3.4 million for the quarter and nine months ended September 30, 2023, respectively, compared to $0.7 and $3.9 million for the quarter and nine months ended September 30, 2022. The result is as expected, given the biotechnology business model where companies in the development phase typically have a long-term maturation period for products, and do not have recurrent income.

Negative net result was $1.7 million ($0.03 per share) for the nine months ended September 30, 2023, compared to a negative net result of $1.9 million ($0.04 per share) for the nine months ended September 30, 2022

Cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities totaled $8.8 million as of September 30, 2023.

ORYZON GENOMICS, S.A. BALANCE SHEET DATA (UNAUDITED)1 (Amounts in thousands US $) September 30th, 2023 September 30th, 2022 Cash and cash equivalents 8,818 27,083 Marketable securities 0 0 Total Assets 108,303 103,157 Deferred revenue 0 0 Total Stockholders' equity 83,920 69,247

ORYZON GENOMICS, S.A. STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (UNAUDITED)1 (US $, amounts in thousands except per share data) Three Months Ended September 30th Nine Months Ended September 30th 2023 2022 2023 2022 Collaboration Revenue 0 0 0 0 Operating expenses: Research and Development 3,821 4,274 12,237 11,896 General and administrative 674 659 2,934 3,265 Total operating expenses 4,495 4,933 15,171 15,161 Loss from Operations -4,495 -4,933 -15,171 -15,161 Other income, net 3,669 4,248 11,728 11,263 Net Loss -826 -685 -3,443 -3,898 Net Financial & Tax -300 67 1,716 2,016 Net Result -1,126 -618 -1,727 -1,882 Loss per share allocable to common stockholders: Basic -0.02 -0.01 -0.03 -0.04 Weighted average Shares outstanding Basic 58,154,298 53,608,811 57,234,937 53,047,077 1 Spanish GAAP * Exchange Euro/Dollar (1.0594 for 2023 and 0.9748 in 2022)

About OryzonFounded in 2000 in Barcelona, Spain, Oryzon (ISIN Code: ES0167733015) is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company and the European leader in epigenetics, with a strong focus on personalized medicine in CNS disorders and oncology. Oryzons team is composed of highly qualified professionals from the pharma industry located in Barcelona, Boston and San Diego. Oryzon has an advanced clinical portfolio with two LSD1 inhibitors, vafidemstat in CNS and iadademstat in oncology, in several Phase II clinical trials. The company has other pipeline assets directed against other epigenetic targets. In addition, Oryzon has a strong platform for biomarker identification and target validation for a variety of malignant and neurological diseases. For more information, visit www.oryzon.com

About Iadademstat Iadademstat (ORY-1001) is a small oral molecule, which acts as a highly selective inhibitor of the epigenetic enzyme LSD1 and has a powerful differentiating effect in hematologic cancers (see Maes et al., Cancer Cell 2018 Mar 12; 33 (3): 495-511.e12.doi: 10.1016 / j.ccell.2018.02.002.). A FiM Phase I/IIa clinical trial with iadademstat in R/R AML patients demonstrated the safety and good tolerability of the drug and preliminary signs of antileukemic activity, including a CRi (see Salamero et al, J Clin Oncol, 2020, 38(36): 4260-4273. doi: 10.1200/JCO.19.03250). In a recently completed Phase IIa trial in elder 1L-AML patients (ALICE trial), iadademstat has shown encouraging safety and efficacy data in combination with azacitidine (see Salamero et al., ASH 2022 oral presentation). Iadademstatis currently being evaluated in combination with gilteritinib in the Phase Ib FRIDA trial in patients with relapsed/refractory AML with FLT3 mutations. Beyond hematological cancers, the inhibition of LSD1 has been proposed as a valid therapeutic approach in some solid tumors such as small cell lung cancer (SCLC), neuroendocrine tumors (NET), medulloblastoma and others. In a Phase IIa trial in combination with platinum/etoposide in second line ED-SCLC patients (CLEPSIDRA trial), preliminary activity and safety results have been reported (see Navarro et al., ESMO 2018 poster). Iadademstat is being evaluated in a collaborative Phase II basket study with the Fox Chase Cancer Center (FCCC) in combination with paclitaxel in R/R neuroendocrine carcinomas, and the company is preparing a new trial in combination in SCLC. Oryzon has entered into a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) to collaborate on potential further clinical development of iadademstat in different types of solid and hematological cancers. In total iadademstat has been dosed so far to more than 100 cancer patients in four clinical trials. Iadademstat has orphan drug designation for SCLC in the US and for AML in the US and EU.

About Vafidemstat Vafidemstat (ORY-2001) is an oral, CNS-optimized LSD1 inhibitor. The molecule acts on several levels: it reduces cognitive impairment, including memory loss and neuroinflammation, and at the same time has neuroprotective effects. In animal studies vafidemstat not only restores memory but reduces the exacerbated aggressiveness of SAMP8 mice, a model for accelerated aging and Alzheimers disease (AD), to normal levels and also reduces social avoidance and enhances sociability in murine models. In addition, vafidemstat exhibits fast, strong, and durable efficacy in several preclinical models of multiple sclerosis (MS). Oryzon has performed two Phase IIa clinical trials in aggressiveness in patients with different psychiatric disorders (REIMAGINE) and in aggressive/agitated patients with moderate or severe AD (REIMAGINE-AD), with positive clinical results reported in both. Additional finalized Phase IIa clinical trials with vafidemstat include the ETHERAL trial in patients with Mild to Moderate AD, where a significant reduction of the inflammatory biomarker YKL40 has been observed after 6 and 12 months of treatment, and the pilot, small-scale SATEEN trial in Relapse-Remitting and Secondary Progressive MS, where anti-inflammatory activity has also been observed. Vafidemstat has also been tested in a Phase II in severe Covid-19 patients (ESCAPE) assessing the capability of the drug to prevent ARDS, one of the most severe complications of the viral infection, where it showed significant anti-inflammatory effects in severe Covid-19 patients. Currently, vafidemstat is in two Phase IIb trials in borderline personality disorder (PORTICO) and in schizophrenia patients (EVOLUTION). The company is also deploying a CNS precision medicine approach with vafidemstat in genetically-defined patient subpopulations of certain CNS disorders and is preparing a clinical trial in Kabuki Syndrome patients. The company is also exploring the clinical development of vafidemstat in other neurodevelopmental syndromes.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This communication contains, or may contain, forward-looking information and statements about Oryzon, including financial projections and estimates and their underlying assumptions, statements regarding plans, objectives and expectations with respect to future operations, capital expenditures, synergies, products and services, and statements regarding future performance. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally identified by the words expects, anticipates, believes, intends, estimates and similar expressions. Although Oryzon believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, investors and holders of Oryzon shares are cautioned that forward-looking information and statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and generally beyond the control of Oryzon that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied or projected by, the forward-looking information and statements. These risks and uncertainties include those discussed or identified in the documents sent by Oryzon to the Spanish Comision Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV), which are accessible to the public. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and have not been reviewed by the auditors of Oryzon. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they were made. All subsequent oral or written forward-looking statements attributable to Oryzon or any of its members, directors, officers, employees or any persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statement above. All forward-looking statements included herein are based on information available to Oryzon on the date hereof. Except as required by applicable law, Oryzon does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forwardlooking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. This press release is not an offer of securities for sale in the United States or any other jurisdiction. Oryzons securities may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an exemption from registration. Any public offering of Oryzons securities to be made in the United States will be made by means of a prospectus that may be obtained from Oryzon or the selling security holder, as applicable, that will contain detailed information about Oryzon and management, as well as financial statements.

IR, US IR & Media, Europe Spain Oryzon Ashley R. Robinson Sandya von der Weid Patricia Cobo/Daniel Foley Emili Torrell LifeSci Advisors, LLC LifeSci Advisors, LLC Atrevia Chief Business Officer +1 617 430 7577 +41 78 680 05 38 +34 91 564 07 25+34 672 447 094 +34 93 515 1313 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Source: Oryzon Genomics, S.A.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia and ALISO VIEJO, Calif., Oct. 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PowerTap Hydrogen Capital Corp. (NEO: MOVE) (OTC: MOTNF) (PowerTap or the Company or MOVE) is providing this update on the status of a management cease trade order granted on September 29, 2023 (the "MCTO") by the British Columbia Securities Commission under National Policy 12-203  Management Cease Trade Order ("NP 12-203").

On September 29, 2023, the Company announced that, for reasons disclosed in the news release, there would be a delay in the filing of its financial statements and accompanying managements discussion and analysis for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2023 (the "Annual Filings") beyond the period prescribed under applicable Canadian securities laws (the "Default Announcement").

During the MCTO, the general investing public will continue to be able to trade in the Company's listed common shares. However, the Company's Chief Executive Office and Chief Financial Officer will not be able to trade in the Company's common shares.

Further to the last bi-weekly status update made on October 12, 2023, the Company advises that it continues to search for a successor auditor to be appointed following the resignation of SHIM & Associates LLP and it will provide a further update in due course.

The Company also advises that Mr. John Martin and John Zorbas have resigned from the board of directors on October 13, 2023 and October 27, 2023 respectively, and Mr. Lance McIntosh has been appointed to the board, effective October 23, 2023. Mr. McIntosh has more than 40 years of experience in senior management, corporate finance and accounting. He has overseen financial operations, the corporate development function and the going public process for two major Canadian corporations. Mr. McIntosh has specific expertise in financial operations management, financial administration and control, M&A, and both project and acquisition financing. Prior to joining the Company, he held senior financial positions with a number of significant private and public companies.

Mr. McIntosh currently serves as Principal at LEM Consulting and Chief Financial Officer of Previcare Group. He received his designation as a Chartered Accountant in 1977 and is currently a member in good standing of the Institute of Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario and of Canada. Mr. McIntosh graduated cum laude, and holds an H.B.A. from Trinity College, University of Toronto.

The Company wishes to thank Mr. Martin and Mr. Zorbas for their contributions to the Company and wishes them well with their future endeavors.

Other than as disclosed in this news release, there are no material changes to the information contained in the Default Announcement. The Company confirms that it intends to satisfy the provisions of NP 12- 203 and will continue to issue bi-weekly default status reports for so long as it remains in default of the Annual Filings requirement.

ABOUT POWERTAP HYDROGEN CAPITAL CORP.

PowerTap Hydrogen Capital Corp., through its wholly owned subsidiary, PowerTap Hydrogen Fueling Corp. (PowerTap), is focused on installing hydrogen production and dispensing fueling infrastructure in the United States. PowerTaps patented solution has been developed over 20 years. PowerTap is now commercializing its third-generation blue hydrogen product that will focus on the refueling needs of the automotive and long-haul trucking markets that lack hydrogen fueling infrastructure.

www.PowerTapcapital.com www.PowerTapfuels.com

PowerTap Hydrogen common shares are listed on the NEO Exchange. Please visit the company's profile on the NEO Exchange website at https://www.cboe.ca/en/live/security-activity/MOVE#!/market-depth

NEITHER THE NEO EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATIONS SERVICES PROVIDER HAVE REVIEWED OR ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

PowerTap Contact:

Raghu Kilambi [email protected]+1 (949) 284-7060

Certain information contained herein may constitute "forward-looking information" or "forward-looking statements" under Canadian securities legislation. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by words such as "pro forma", "plans", "expects", "may", "should", "could", "will", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", "believes", or variations including negative variations thereof of such words and phrases that refer to certain actions, events or results that may, occur or be taken or achieved. Such forward-looking statements, including but not limited to statements relating to the expected development and operations of the Company, statements concerning the timing, review, completion and filing of the Annual Filings as well as the duration of the MCTO, involve risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or forward-looking information. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. The Company will not update any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information included herein, except as required by applicable securities laws.

All of the forward-looking information contained in this news release is expressly qualified by the foregoing cautionary statements.

This press release contains forward-looking statements pertaining to, among other things, the timing and ability of the Company to complete the development and manufacture of its on-site hydrogen fueling units; finalizing supply chains; obtaining sufficient funding to complete and manufacture its on-side hydrogen fueling units; obtaining all necessary zoning and construction permits for locations hosting the fueling units; and the OEM's expectations for its trucks and market acceptance of electric trucks. Forward-looking information is based on current expectations, estimates and projections that involve a number of risks, including without limitation, and risks related to the rollout of the OEMs business and the timing of expected business milestones; the effects of competition on the Company's future business; the availability of capital; and the other risks detailed from time to time in the Company's reports and documents filed with the applicable securities commissions, which could cause actual results to vary and, in some instances, to differ materially from those anticipated by the Company and described in the forward-looking information contained in this press release.

Source: PowerTap Hydrogen Capital Corp.
NEW YORK, Oct. 26, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, reminds purchasers of common stock of CS Disco, Inc. (NYSE: LAW) between July 21, 2021 and August 11, 2022, both dates inclusive (the Class Period), of the important November 20, 2023 lead plaintiff deadline.



SO WHAT: If you purchased CS Disco common stock during the Class Period you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement.

WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join the CS Disco class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=19221 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] or [email protected] for information on the class action. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than November 20, 2023. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation.

WHY ROSEN LAW: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources or any meaningful peer recognition. Many of these firms do not actually litigate securities class actions, but are merely middlemen that refer clients or partner with law firms that actually litigate the cases. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm has achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs Bar. Many of the firms attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers.

DETAILS OF THE CASE: According to the lawsuit, throughout the Class Period, CS Disco repeatedly touted strong growth in its revenues attributable to customer usage of its cloud-based electronic discovery platform and asserted that it had good advance visibility into changes in the demand from individual customers over time. The lawsuit also alleges that [w]hile the Company also acknowledged that its rapid revenue growth was usage driven and may be subject to volatility, it did not inform investors during the Class Period that it had any indication of significant headwinds to its growth. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.

To join the CS Disco class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=19221 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] or [email protected] for information on the class action.

No Class Has Been Certified. Until a class is certified, you are not represented by counsel unless you retain one. You may select counsel of your choice. You may also remain an absent class member and do nothing at this point. An investors ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff.

Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm, on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm/.

Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

-------------------------------

Contact Information:

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The Rosen Law Firm, P.A.

275 Madison Avenue, 40th Floor

New York, NY 10016

Tel: (212) 686-1060

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All six patients in the first cohort (Cohort A) were successfully implanted with the 8-channel Cell Pouch System with post-transplant follow-up periods ranging from 6 months to 3.5 years;

5 of 6 patients in Cohort A discontinued insulin therapy (insulin independent) following islet transplantation into the Cell Pouch and modest islet top-up via portal vein. All 6 patients achieved HbA1c values in the non-diabetic range (

In Cohort B, the first 6 of 7 planned patients have received the higher capacity 10-channel Cell Pouch and 5 patients have received a first islet transplant;

Stable fasting and stimulated serum C-peptide levels were observed following a single islet transplant into the 10-channel Cell Pouch in the first assessable Cohort B patient who subsequently achieved insulin independence with a modest portal vein top up.

LONDON, Ontario and WINDHAM COUNTY, Conn., Oct. 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sernova Corp. (TSX: SVA) (OTCQB: SEOVF) (FSE/XETRA: PSH), a clinical-stage company and leader in cell therapeutics, today presented interim positive results from its ongoing Phase 1/2 clinical trial investigating islet allotransplantation into pre-vascularized Sernova Cell Pouch during an oral presentation at the 2023 IPITA, IXA, and CTRMS Joint Congress in San Diego, California. Enrollment in Cohort A, which utilizes the 8-channel Cell Pouch, is complete with post-transplant data available for periods of follow-up ranging from 6 months to 3.5 years. Enrollment in Cohort B, which utilizes the higher capacity Cell Pouch and a revised and better-tolerated immunosuppressive regimen, began in November 2022 and 6 of the 7 planned patients have now been successfully implanted.

The primary objective of the study is to investigate the safety and tolerability of islet transplantation into Cell Pouch in patients with T1D, impaired hypoglycemia awareness, and a history of severe hypoglycemic episodes. Secondary study objectives include establishment of islet release criteria predictive of outcomes from islet transplant into the Cell Pouch and optimal dose and concentration ranges for purified islets transplanted into the Cell Pouch.

Interim results from Cohort A demonstrated successful implantations of the 8-channel Cell Pouch in the 6 treated patients that were well tolerated with no seromas and no unexpected AEs (adverse events), chronic pain or discomfort. Data showed histological evidence of surviving and functional islets and positive fasting and stimulated serum C-peptide (a measure of islet insulin secretion) in patients who maintained optimal immunosuppression. All 6 patients eventually received supplemental, marginal-dose islet infusions via the portal vein with the first 5 having achieved sustained insulin independence. All 6 Cohort A patients achieved HbA1c values in the non-diabetic range (

In Cohort B, 6 of the planned 7 patients have been implanted with the higher capacity 10-channel Cell Pouch, without complications. Among the 6 patients that have been implanted, 5 have completed at least one of the two protocol-defined islet transplants to Cell Pouch.

The first assessable patient in Cohort B following the first Cell Pouch islet transplant showed persistent fasting and stimulated serum C-peptide, with stable BETA-2 scores (a measure of islet graft function) that continued at Day 180 following their first islet transplant to Cell Pouch. The same patient showed modest but favorable improvements in HbA1c from 7.5% at baseline to 6.9% also at Day 180.

The day following the second islet transplant to Cell Pouch, results from a sample of the islets taken from the donor pancreas on the day of transplant came back positive for the yeast, Candida albicans. Out of an abundance of caution, Cell Pouches containing the contaminated islets were immediately removed. The Cell Pouches that were previously transplanted with the first dose of uncontaminated, healthy islets were not removed and remained in place, continuing to function. Explantation of the Cell Pouches containing contaminated islets was completed without complications and the patient fully recovered without any wound or systemic blood infection, demonstrating the designed retrievability of the transplanted Cell Pouch. Following recovery, this patient received a modest intraportal islet transplant and remains insulin independent.

The revised immunosuppression protocol, used in Cohort B, continues to demonstrate favorable protection for the islet grafts with no donor islet rejection or donor specific antibodies observed under the new regimen.

I am pleased with the overall patient outcomes and learnings from the first trial cohort. We have applied those learnings to the second patient cohort along with the introduction of the higher capacity 10-channel Cell Pouch, commented Dr. Piotr Witkowski, Director of the Pancreatic and Islet Transplant Program at The University of Chicago, and principal investigator for the Sernova trial. I am encouraged by the positive safety profile observed with Cell Pouch implants longer than 4 years, and early patient outcomes with the enhanced 10-channel device that we are using in the second cohort. Enrollment of the second cohort is nearly complete, and I look forward to reporting further results.

We are very encouraged by the results and our learnings from our trial to date, said Cynthia Pussinen, Chief Executive Officer at Sernova. Having recently advanced the trial into Cohort B, using our higher capacity 10-channel Cell Pouch, we are already seeing positive signals for both safety and efficacy. We look forward to sharing the next trial update, in the coming months.

These results were presented by Piotr Witkowski, Professor of Surgery at the University of Chicago at the International Pancreas and Islet Transplant Association (IPITA), the International Xenotransplantation Association (IXA), and the Cell Transplant and Regenerative Medicine Society (CTRMS) Joint Congress, taking place from October 26  29 in San Diego, CA as an oral presentation entitled Islet allotransplantation into pre-vascularized Sernova Cell Pouch - Lessons learned from the first patient cohort (Abstract #105, Session: Islet Transplantation: Engineering the Islet Site Session, Thursday, October 26, 2023 2:45 p.m. to 3:45 p.m. PT)For more information on the ongoing clinical study, go to clinicaltrials.gov (NCT03513939).

ABOUT SERNOVA CORP. AND THE CELL POUCH SYSTEM PLATFORM FOR CELL THERAPYSernova Corp. is a clinical-stage biotechnology company that is developing therapeutic cell technologies for chronic diseases, including insulin-dependent diabetes, thyroid disease, and blood disorders that include hemophilia A. Sernova is currently focused on developing a functional cure for insulin-dependent diabetes with its lead asset, the Cell Pouch System, a novel implantable and scalable medical device with immune protected therapeutic cells. On implantation, The Cell Pouch forms a natural vascularized tissue environment in the body for long-term survival and function of therapeutic cells that release essential factors that are absent or deficient in the bodies of patients with certain chronic diseases. Sernovas Cell Pouch System has demonstrated its potential to be a functional cure for people with T1D in an ongoing Phase 1/2 clinical study at the University of Chicago. Sernova is also advancing a proprietary technology in collaboration with the University of Miami to shield therapeutic cells from immune system attack with the goal to eliminate the need for chronic, systemic immunosuppression. In May 2022, Sernova and Evotec entered into a global strategic partnership to develop an implantable off-the-shelf iPSC (induced pluripotent stem cells) based islet replacement therapy. This partnership provides Sernova a potentially unlimited supply of insulin-producing cells to treat millions of patients with insulin-dependent diabetes (type 1 and type 2). Sernova continues to progress two additional development programs that utilize its Cell Pouch System: a cell therapy for hypothyroid disease resulting from thyroid gland removal and an ex vivo lentiviral Factor VIII gene therapy for hemophilia A.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

This release contains statements that, to the extent they are not recitations of historical facts, may constitute forward-looking statements that involve various risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, including, without limitation, statements regarding the prospects, plans, and objectives of the company. Wherever possible, but not always, words such as "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential for" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur are used to identify forward-looking statements. These statements reflect managements beliefs with respect to future events and are based on information currently available to management on the date such statements were made. Many factors could cause Sernovas actual results, performances or achievements to not be as anticipated, estimated or intended or to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements contained in this news release. Such factors could include, but are not limited to, the companys ability to secure additional financing and licensing arrangements on reasonable terms, or at all; ability to conduct all required preclinical and clinical studies for the companys Cell Pouch System and or related technologies, including the timing and results of those trials; ability to obtain all necessary regulatory approvals, or on a timely basis; ability to in-license additional complementary technologies; ability to execute its business strategy and successfully compete in the market; and the inherent risks associated with the development of biotechnology combination products generally. Many of the factors are beyond our control, including those caused by, related to, or impacted by the novel coronavirus pandemic. Investors should consult the companys quarterly and annual filings available on www.sedarplus.ca for additional information on risks and uncertainties relating to the forward-looking statements. Sernova expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Source: Sernova Corp.
HOUSTON, Oct. 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Vantage Drilling International ("Vantage" or the "Company") today announced that it will host a conference call at 10:00 AM Eastern Time on November 9, 2023 to discuss operating results for the third quarter of 2023. Vantage will release earnings before the market opens on November 9, 2023. Vantage's earnings release will be posted to the Vantage website at www.vantagedrilling.com.

To access the conference call, click on the Call Link following the instructions below.

Click on the Call Link and complete the online registration form. Once the registration is complete you will receive an email confirmation with the call details (dial-in and a unique PIN to join the call). You will have two options to join the call. Dial-In Option: A dial in number and unique PIN are displayed to connect directly from your phone. Call Me Option: Enter your phone number and click Call Me for an immediate callback from the system.

Please call five minutes ahead of time to ensure proper connection. A replay of the conference call will be available following the call and can be accessed via Webcast Link.

About the Company

Vantage Drilling International, a Cayman Islands exempted company, is an offshore drilling contractor, with a fleet of two ultra-deepwater drillships and two premium jackup drilling rigs. Vantage's primary business is to contract drilling units, related equipment and work crews primarily on a dayrate basis to drill oil and natural gas wells globally for major, national and independent oil and gas companies. Vantage also markets, operates and provides management services in respect of drilling units owned by others. www.vantagedrilling.com

Contact Info:Rafael BlattnerVantage Drilling International c/o Vantage Energy Services, Inc.777 Post Oak Blvd. Suite 440Houston, Texas 77056Tel: +1 281 404 4700

PDF available: http://ml.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/5e4def19-984a-4ddc-8742-f5c972838ff2

Source: Vantage Drilling International
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Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - October 27, 2023) - In a landmark move for the renewable energy landscape, Elapath Energy, a globally renowned solar panel installation and manufacturing leader, has secured a significant contract worth $200,000,000. This transformative step results from extensive negotiations orchestrated by Ratsamy Consulting, a foremost authority in renewable financing from Canada. The pivotal talks took place at the Convention Plaza in Hong Kong, involving prominent representatives from both Ratsamy Consulting and their respected partners in Hong Kong. This event set the stage for this game-changing collaboration.

Ratsamy Consulting Entrusts Elapath Energy

Notably, Elapath Energy's recent securing of a 100MW project in Singapore accentuates its continued commitment to the field. The project will kick off its initial phase in October 2023 and span two months.

Elapath Energy, celebrated for its depth of expertise and unwavering dedication to green initiatives, was a clear choice for this extensive project. Their illustrious history is marked by successful installations worldwide, reinforcing Elapath's position as an unbeatable force in renewable energy.

Mr. Eden Akash, CEO of Elapath Energy, expressed his excitement for the project, "This immense responsibility in Singapore represents not just a business opportunity but our consistent efforts towards solar innovations. Joining hands with Ratsamy Consulting and partners in Singapore signifies a pivotal moment in redefining the region's energy dynamics. We are gearing up to introduce our state-of-the-art manufacturing and installation practices and set new energy benchmarks," said Akash.

Liang Wei-Chen, a distinguished partner at Elapath Energy, echoed these sentiments. "Singapore's dedication to a green energy future is admirable. This project is more than a commercial venture; it signifies a united dream for a sustainable planet. We are eager to witness the revolutionary results from this initiative," shared Wei-Chen.

The instrumental role played by Ratsamy Consulting in forging this alliance reflects their worldwide vision for a sustainable future. Their objective to seamlessly merge leaders in energy solutions with regions ready for sustainable transformation underscores their commitment to a green global story.

Singapore's backing of this project marks a significant stride in its pledge to environmental guardianship. With the combined strengths of industry frontrunners in renewable energy and finance, Singapore will establish a benchmark for global emulation.

Elapath Energy, along with its partners, encourages organizations and nations around the world to realize the critical urgency of adopting renewable energy solutions.

For media inquiries, please refer to www.ratsamyconsulting.com for more details.

About Elapath Energy: Elapath Energy stands at the forefront of solar panel innovation, design, and installation internationally. Their relentless pursuit of excellence has established an unmatched reputation in renewable energy.

About Ratsamy Consulting: Based in Canada, Ratsamy Consulting shines as a pioneer in financial solutions for renewable energy. Their worldwide outreach and emphasis on promoting green energy ventures establish them as leaders in sustainable progression.

Yohan Blake

[email protected]

https://ratsamyconsulting.com/

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/185176
Panama City, Panama--(Newsfile Corp. - October 27, 2023) - CalfSolution S.A., a leading provider of innovative solutions for the cattle feedlot industry, is thrilled to announce its exclusive distribution agreement with HerdWhistle Technologies Inc., the pioneers in advanced livestock tracking and management systems. This exciting partnership will revolutionize the cattle feedlot industry by increasing operational efficiency, improving animal welfare, and enabling data-driven decision-making.

Under this exclusive agreement, CalfSolution S.A. will serve as the sole distributor of HerdWhistle's cutting-edge products and technology in Panama and Costa Rica. This collaboration aims to address the ever-growing demand for advanced cattle management solutions in the region and will ensure that farmers and ranchers have access to the latest technology for optimizing their operations.

The HerdWhistle system utilizes state-of-the-art GPS and IoT technology to provide real-time tracking and monitoring of livestock. Their latest product offering is the HerdWhistle BigEye" - the ultimate 'all in one' precision tool for the livestock industry that offers a comprehensive solution for real-time phenotypic evaluation. With its user-friendly interface and robust functionality, HerdWhistle's technology allows farmers to remotely monitor the location, health, and behavior of individual animals, making it easier to identify any issues that may arise.

CalfSolution S.A., with its deep expertise in the cattle feedlot industry, was the natural choice for HerdWhistle to partner with for exclusive distribution in Panama and Costa Rica. Known for their commitment to innovation and customer-centric approach, CalfSolution S.A. has been providing top-notch solutions to farmers for years.

"We are absolutely delighted to partner with HerdWhistle Technologies Inc. and become the exclusive distributor for their game-changing products in Panama and Costa Rica," said Alejandro Perez, CEO of CalfSolution S.A. "Our mission has always been to help cattle feedlot operators enhance productivity and efficiency, and the addition of HerdWhistle's technology aligns perfectly with our vision. We are excited to bring this revolutionary solution to our customers."

"We are excited to have CalfSolution S.A. as our exclusive distributor in Panama and Costa Rica because we know they are a trusted organization and that our technology will benefit the livestock operations in those countries." said Braden Bjornson, CXO of HerdWhistle Technologies Inc.

Both companies, CalfSolution S.A. and HerdWhistle Technologies Inc., have an unwavering commitment to sustainability and animal welfare. By combining forces, they aim to support the efforts of cattle farmers to improve their operations' overall environmental impact and ensure the humane treatment of animals.

For more information about the exclusive distribution agreement between CalfSolution S.A. and HerdWhistle Technologies Inc., please visit https://www.calfsolution.com and https://www.herdwhistle.com.

About CalfSolution S.A.:

CalfSolution S.A. is a leading provider of innovative solutions for the cattle feedlot industry. With a comprehensive range of products and services, CalfSolution S.A. helps farmers optimize their operations, enhance productivity, and improve animal welfare. CalfSolution S.A. specializes in the development of projects, products and technology for dairy calf breeding.

About HerdWhistle Technologies Inc.:

HerdWhistle Technologies Inc. is an industry-leading provider of advanced livestock tracking and management systems. Their cutting-edge technology revolutionizes livestock monitoring, improving efficiency, and enabling data-driven decision-making while prioritizing animal welfare.

Contact Information:

Media Relations:

HerdWhistle Technologies Inc.

[email protected]

(587) 943-4404

Note: This press release is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation of the mentioned companies.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/185457
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - October 27, 2023) - Evocati Capital Resources Inc. (TSXV: EVOC.P) (the "Company" or "Evocati"), a Capital Pool Company ("CPC") under TSX Venture Exchange ("TSXV") Policy 2.4 - Capital Pool Companies (the "CPC Policy"), is pleased to announce results of the Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on October 25, 2023 and subsequent changes to the Management Team.

Denis Flood, who was one of the founding board members, will replace James Lill as CEO of Evocati as of the date of this press release. Mr. Flood is a mining engineer with extensive experience within the mining industry and the board is confident in his ability to identify a Qualifying Transaction that leverages Evocati's skill set. The Board of Directors would like to thank Mr. Lill for his service as CEO of Evocati since its inception. During these past two years Mr. Lill was directly responsible for navigating the company through the CPC process, including completing the initial public offering. Mr. Lill will continue to serve on the Board of Directors of Evocati.

All resolutions proposed by the Board of Directors and management of the company in the Annual General Meeting passed with an overwhelming majority.

The company would like to thank its shareholders for their continued support.

About Evocati

Evocati was incorporated under the Business Corporations Act (Ontario) on September 17, 2021, and its head office and registered office is located in Toronto, Ontario. The common shares of Evocati ("Evocati Shares") are listed for trading on the TSXV under the stock symbol EVOC.P and Evocati is a reporting issuer in Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Ontario.

Evocati currently has 11,200,000 Evocati Shares issued and outstanding and securities exercisable or exchangeable into 1,620,000 Evocati Shares, being: (i) 1,120,000 stock options issued under Evocati's stock option plan; and (ii) 500,000 broker warrants. There are no other securities of Evocati issued and outstanding and Evocati has not commenced commercial operations and has no assets other than cash.

For further information contact:

Denis Flood P. Eng., CEO

Evocati Capital Resources Inc.,

p: (905) 418 - 3534

e: [email protected]

Cautionary Notes

Investors are cautioned that trading in the securities of a CPC should be considered highly speculative.

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.

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES 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/185523
Calgary, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - October 27, 2023) - FluroTech Ltd. (TSXV: TEST) (OTC Pink: FLURF) ("FluroTech" or the "Company") announces that effective October 30, 2023 the Company's listing on the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV") will be transferred to the NEX Board of the TSXV (the "NEX"). The listing transfer is being made as a result of FluroTech not meeting the requirements of a Tier 2 company in accordance with TSXV Policy 2.5 - Continued Listing Requirements and Inter-Tier Movement.

The trading symbol for the Company will change from TEST to TEST.H. The Company name has not changed, there has been no change to its CUSIP number, and no consolidation of capital has occurred. The Company continues to review strategic opportunities that will qualify the Company to return to the TSXV.

For further information please contact:

Contact Information

FluroTech Ltd.

Danny Dalla-Longa, CEO

601, 256 Stewart Green SW

Calgary, AB T3H 3C8

Email: [email protected]

Phone: (403) 680-0644

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of 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. In this news release, forward-looking statements relate, among other things, to the transfer of the Company from the TSXV to the NEX. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to: general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; and the delay or failure to receive board, shareholder, court or regulatory approvals, including approval from the TSXV. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release. Except as required by law, the Company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change, except as required by law.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy of this release.

Not for distribution to United States newswire services or for dissemination in the United States. Any failure to comply with this restriction may constitute a violation of U.S. securities laws.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/185458
Recently, the eighth film festival "Ukraina!" has ended in Warsaw. The Grand Prix of 2 thousand euros went to the creators of the Ukrainian film La Palisade, and the jury recognized Irma Witowska-Wanz as the Best Actress.

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The film, directed by Philip Sotnychenko, who personally came to receive the prize, tells the story of two old friends - an investigator and a forensic psychiatrist - who are investigating the murder of a colleague. The director of the Ukraina! Beata Beronska-Lyakh toldUkrinform about the event (scroll to the bottom of the page to see photos and videos).

"It was a celebration of Ukrainian cinema, especially of young filmmakers. The film that won the festival was a debut at film festivals, and it was also a debut for the main actor. It's incredible that debut films win awards, but it's not surprising because they are very good," said Beronska-Lyakh.

La Palisade won in the Best Feature Film nomination, and the film 's cinematographer, Volodymyr Usyk, received a special award.

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Irma Witowska-Wanz was honored in the Best Actress nomination. Three films with her participation were shown at the festival.

"From Where to Where by Polish filmmaker Maciej Hameli was recognized as the Best Documentary, and Teacher's Day by Oleksiy Pasichnyk was recognized as the Best Short Film.

Earlier, OBOZ.UA wrote that a Ukrainian series will be banned on Netflix for the first time. The authors of the plots of the feature series Those Who Stayed were inspired by the stories of the citizens who stayed in the capital in February-March 2022.

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Only verified information is available on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
Hainan, China--(Newsfile Corp. - October 27, 2023) - From 12th to 13th October, a delegation from Hainan Province, organised by the Hainan Provincial Government, visited Denmark for a series business events to attract investment and talents. During the events, the first and currently the only special medical zone in China, the Boao Lecheng International Medical Tourism Pilot Zone (Boao Hope City) was featured at the Hainan Free Trade Port Lecheng Denmark Promotion Conference, the delegation also took the opportunity to visit some local pharmaceutical companies and relevant institutions in Denmark, sharing opportunities and showcasing the aspirations to achieve win-win cooperation.





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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFBwpAcdyGc

Representatives and officials from over 30 renowned international pharmaceutical and medical device companies, such as ALK from Denmark, the Nordic Life Science Partners ApS (NLSP), and the Danish Life Science Cluster, gathered to explore potential collaborations and shared goals in the medical sector between Denmark and the Hainan Free Trade Port at the Promotion Event. The discussions primarily focused on the emerging opportunities and future prospects for cooperation, as well as the specific areas of collaboration within the biopharmaceutical industry. Fruitful conversations were held with the Hainan delegation, fostering meaningful exchanges. The upcoming 2nd Boao International Conference on Real World Studies of Medical Products, scheduled for the end of October this year, also captured the interest of the attendees. It is estimated that approximately 800 experts, scholars, and executives from domestic and international pharmaceutical regulatory agencies, research institutes, and pharmaceutical companies will participate in the conference.





On site of the Hainan Free Trade Port Promotion Event in Denmark



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

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During the event, the Boao Lecheng International Medical Tourism Pilot Zone Administration, the Danish Life Science Cluster, and NLSP came together to sign a strategic cooperation agreement. The agreement aims to foster deeper collaboration in various areas such as healthcare, chronic disease prevention and management, telemedicine, digital health, as well as the introduction of innovative drugs and medical devices.





On the 13th October, the delegation visit some local pharmaceutical companies and relevant institutions in Denmark



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On the following day, the Boao Lecheng International Medical Tourism Pilot Zone Administration, along with representatives from medical institutions in the zone, continued their investment and business activities in Denmark. They actively engaged in exchanges and established connections with Healthcare Denmark, ALK, and other innovative pharmaceutical companies and relevant institutions in Denmark, with the aim of advancing cooperation in the biopharmaceutical industry.

Officials from the Hainan Provincial Government acknowledged Denmark's global reputation in the healthcare sector and highlighted the open environment for foreign trade and unique medical policies offered by the Hainan Free Trade Port that could bring benefits to the Boao Hope City. As the benefits and advantages provided by the policies of the Hainan Free Trade Port are gradually becoming evident and accessible and the business environment improves, both Denmark and Hainan can capitalise on their respective strengths to explore substantial opportunities for cooperation in the medical sector.

Representatives from Healthcare Denmark acknowledged the thriving development of the Hainan Free Trade Port, which presents multinational pharmaceutical companies with extensive growth prospects. They expressed their dedication to focusing on Hainan and the Boao Hope City, making the most of the distinctive policy benefits and strategic location offered by the Hainan Free Trade Port and the Boao Hope City. They also emphasised their intention to leverage their institutional connections to high-quality medical resources in Denmark to foster deeper cooperation and explore opportunities for development.





Boao Hope City



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Hainan the Boao Hope City (http://en.lecityhn.com/) has capitalised on the benefits of the "pilot zone" policy and the collaboration with international pharmaceutical and medical device companies. It has forged strong partnerships with more than 170 companies in the pharmaceutical and medical device sectors from over 20 countries and regions. This collaborative effort has facilitated the introduction of over 350 urgently needed imported medical devices for clinical use. Additionally, leveraging the Boao Hope City's real-world evidence-based clinical evaluation, twelve products have successfully obtained registration in the domestic market. As a result, the Boao Hope City has emerged as the primary gateway for international innovative pharmaceutical and medical devices to expedite their entry into the Chinese market.

Moving forward, the Boao Hope City will further enhance its commitment to openness and cooperation. It will strengthen collaborations with global pharmaceutical companies and exceptional expert teams, constantly introducing high-quality medical resources and advanced pharmaceuticals into the technologies from around the world. The aim is to expedite the entry of international innovative Chinese market, ultimately benefiting the general public. These efforts will also contribute to positioning the Hainan Free Trade Port as a leading hub for medical innovation in China.

Media contact: Chen Xi

Phone: 008689862830087

Email: [email protected]

Hashtag: #HainanBoao #BoaoHopeCity

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/185470
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - October 27, 2023) - Happy Belly Food Group Inc. (CSE: HBFG) (OTCQB: VGANF) ("Happy Belly" or the "Company"), a leading consolidator of emerging food brands is pleased to announce it has signed as of October 26th, 2023, a definitive franchise acquisition agreement to acquire smash burger brand Rosie's Burgers ("Rosies"), a boutique QSR restaurant brand serving original recipe smash burgers, poutine, onion rings, milkshakes and more.



"We are very pleased to welcome Rosie's Burgers to our portfolio of emerging brands. The burger category is one that our team has deep knowledge in as we previously helped build The Burgers Priest into a leading brand in Canada. With the signing of this definitive agreement for an asset-light franchising model, we look forward to working with Rosie's founders and their team as we focus on an accelerated franchise development model and real estate growth plan for across Canada," Sean Black, Chief Investment Officer of Happy Belly.

"After announcing our entry into franchising in March of this year, we are excited to add Rosie's Burgers to our franchised operations as our fourth (4th) franchised brand. We are utilizing our experience as we have grown our previous brands such as Extreme Pita, Mucho Burrito, Burger's Priest, Pur Blendz, and Fresh to over 400 franchised and corporate locations. The asset-light franchise model that we are implementing is one that I have worked with previously at Extreme Brandz and MTY Food Group (TSX: MTY). It yielded great success for us and will continue to be a big part of the future growth plans here for Happy Belly."

"We have unfinished business in the burger category, and look forward to helping build Rosie's Burgers into a nationally recognized smash burger brand."

This transaction is aligned with our strategic plan and goals of delivering shareholder value through accretive M&A. Post closing of this accretive transaction we anticipate immediate organic growth from Rosie's Burgers through the existing two (2) locations and net new franchised locations being established throughout 2023 through an aggressive Canada-wide franchising program. Sourcing of suitable new locations is currently underway.



Acquisition Details

Happy Belly and Rosie's Burgers have signed a definitive franchise acquisition agreement. A JVCo was incorporated for the purposes of corporate franchise expansion and growth of Rosie's Burger Restaurants.

Happy Belly will issue to JVCo such number of common shares of Happy Belly equal in value to $250,000 (based on a 10-day VWAP) at time of closing for 50% ownership of the JVCo. The JVCo receiving the shares will be 50% owned by Happy Belly, and the owners of Rosie's Burgers will own the remaining 50% in exchange for Rosie's Burgers franchising rights, brand assets and IP rights. The Company anticipates the closing of this agreement to take place within the next 10 business days. Happy Belly has also obtained the rights to acquire the remaining 50% of the business at its optionality. Rosie's currently operate two locations.





Rosie's Burgers

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"Our approach has always been to focus on the development and growth of emerging brands in the food sector. Rosie's Burgers will be an accretive acquisition by Happy Belly Food Group, and it is anticipated that our franchising program will deliver new franchised locations that will continue to drive both the top line and bottom line of the company."

For franchising inquiries please see www.happybellyfg.com/franchise-with-us/ or contact us at [email protected].

About Happy Belly Food Group

Happy Belly Food Group Inc. (CSE: HBFG) (OTCQB: VGANF) ("Happy Belly" or the "Company") is a leading consolidator of emerging food brands.

Happy Belly Food Group

Shawn Moniz

Chief Executive Officer

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT:

www: www.happybellyfg.com or email [email protected]

If you wish to contact us please call: (604) 737-2303



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, which has been prepared by management.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

All statements in this press release, other than statements of historical fact, are "forward-looking information" with respect to the Company within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking information is frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur, and include the future performance of LumberHeads Food Co. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates at the date the statements are made, and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements. There are uncertainties inherent in forward-looking information, including factors beyond the Company's control. There are no assurances that the business plans for Happy Belly described in this news release will come into effect on the terms or time frame described herein. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information if circumstances or management's estimates or opinions should change except as required by law. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. 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 and other disclosure filings with Canadian securities regulators, which are posted on www.sedar.com.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/185455
A 49-metre, continuous channel sample has been collected at the discovery exposure of the Islander Dyke. 47.5-metres of the channel is located within the spodumene-bearing pegmatite dyke, with an additional 1.5 metres cut in metasedimentary host rocks.

49 samples, each 1 metre in length, were collected and have been sent for assay.

Spodumene (up to 40% in a single sample) was noted in 48 of the 49 metre-long sample cuts.

The dyke has a true width of approximately 30-35 metres and is currently exposed over a strike length of approximately 70 metres.

The dyke consists of a coarse-grained, muscovite-bearing granite with local pegmatitic pods featuring decimeter-sized spodumene megacrysts. Accessory minerals commonly associated with LCT pegmatites, such as beryl, tourmaline, apatite and garnet, have also been noted.

Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - October 27, 2023) - Pegmatite One Lithium and Gold Corp.(CSE:PGA) ("Pegmatite One" or the "Company")is pleased to report completion of its initial channel sample on the Frazer Lake Mound project's new spodumene-bearing pegmatite discovery named the "Islander Dyke", 95 km north-northeast of Thunder Bay, northwestern Ontario, Canada.

Pegmatite One is further pleased to report samples that had previously returned overlimit assay values >2.5% Li 2 O (Sodium Peroxide Fusion), are currently receiving additional higher-grade testing (Sodium Peroxide Fusion with ICP-AES finish) procedures to determine true assay values. The company eagerly anticipates assay results.

Channel sampling has been completed to evaluate the average grade and compositional consistency over the width of the newly discovered spodumene-bearing pegmatite dyke.





Image of a typical channel sample collected at the Frazer Lake Mound Project during this first channel sampling program.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/9391/185456_0943f372744b2bc5_002full.jpg





Image of a spodumene crystal within the Islander Dyke

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/9391/185456_0943f372744b2bc5_003full.jpg





Image of Islander Dyke channel sampling in progress, looking north

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/9391/185456_0943f372744b2bc5_004full.jpg





Aerial image of Islander Dyke and channel sample location

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

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Mr. Kelly Abbott, CEO of Pegmatite One, stated, "We're excited to announce the completion of our first channel sample on the Frazer Lake Mound project. This is a significant step in our exploration efforts, and we eagerly await the overlimit test results. These initial results provide valuable insights into the composition and potential of this newly discovered spodumene-bearing pegmatite."

QUALITY CONTROL/QUALITY ASSURANCE PROCEEDURES

Channel samples were collected as one-metre-long samples, approximately 5 cm wide and 10-15 cm deep, cut from bedrock. The samples were photographed in situ, georeferenced with a handheld Garmin GPS, logged in detail, and photographed in high resolution at the Planet X Exploration Services Ltd. core shack located in Nipigon, ON. The samples were labelled with a sample tag, placed in sealed bags using best practices, and were delivered to ALS Laboratories in Thunder Bay, Ontario (ISO/IEC 17025:2017). The initial batch of samples were analyzed by Sodium Peroxide Fusion (ME-MS89L). Two standards (OREAS 750 and OREAS 999) and two blanks were submitted with the shipment to supplement the labs internal controls. Samples which have returned overlimit assay results will be further tested using Sodium Peroxide Fusion with ICP-AES finish (ME-ICP82b).

Pegmatite One remains committed to responsible and professional exploration best practices and the diligent advancement of our mineral assets. We look forward to the results of this channel sampling program, as we work to unlock the full potential of the Frazer Lake Mound Project.

Technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Mark Smyk, P.Geo., a 'Qualified Person' as defined under Canadian National Instrument 43-101.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors,

Pegmatite One Lithium and Gold Corp.

Kelly Abbott

President & CEO



Phone: +1 (416) 481-2222 x228

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.pegmatiteone.com

About Pegmatite One Lithium and Gold Corp.

Pegmatite One, a listed entity on the Canadian Securities Exchange, focuses its exploration efforts on lithium and gold resources. With a steadfast commitment to responsible mining practices, we operate three strategically positioned mineral exploration properties. Notably, our flagship asset is the Frazer Lake Mound property in Northwestern Ontario, projected to play a significant role in the global shift towards electric vehicles and sustainable technologies. Another cornerstone of our portfolio is the Georgina property, a promising gold prospect on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Through our dynamic approach, we aim to create enduring value for both our shareholders and stakeholders.

Additional information concerning the Company is contained in documents filed by the Company with securities regulators, available under its profile at www.sedarplus.ca.

The Canadian Securities Exchange and its Regulation Services Provider do not take responsibility for the accuracy of the content of this news release.

Forward-Looking Statement

This news release contains forward-looking statements as per applicable securities laws. Such statements, not rooted in historical fact, often use terms like "may," "anticipate," "expect," "potential," "believe," "intend," or their negatives. Key anticipations include: the Morrison River property's lithium potential; Georgina property's gold potential; the Company's exploration plans for Frazer Lake Mound Property; the potential of Frazer Mound Property as a high-grade lithium prospect based on recent analyses; the Company's commitment to updating stakeholders on exploration and to responsible mining at the Morrison River and Georgina properties; and the anticipated global shift to electric vehicles and green technologies.



The statements hinge on several assumptions and expected future events: the Company's capability to conduct timely and cost-effective activities; maintenance of mineral tenures and concessions; managing economic and financial conditions; navigating exploration and mining hazards; future metal prices; potential discoveries; obtaining timely exploration permits; monetizing mineral resources; abiding by environmental laws; dependence on key personnel; and competition in the mining sector.



However, numerous risks could cause actual outcomes to vary significantly from these predictions. These risks encompass: delays and inflated costs; failure to maintain concessions; inability to address economic downturns; unexpected operational hazards; metal price fluctuations; regulatory changes; failure to obtain required permits promptly; inability to realize property potentials or to uphold commitments; and unforeseen shifts in the global transition to green technologies.



Readers should note the inherent risks in forward-looking statements, understanding that plans or expectations might not materialize. While such information is deemed reasonable when created, there is no assurance that the anticipated events will transpire. Changes can occur post the date of this release, and the Company isn't bound to update these statements, barring any legal obligation.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/185456
ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) October weekly 108 straddle is priced for a move of 2.5% into the expected release of quarter results before the bell on October 27. Call put ratio 1.6 calls to 1 put.
By Humeyra Pamuk

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Qatar told the U.S. it was open to reconsidering the presence of Hamas in Qatar once a crisis is resolved to secure the release of scores of hostages taken to Gaza by the Palestinian militant group, a senior U.S. official said on Friday.

The understanding, first reported by the Washington Post, was reached at a meeting in Doha this month between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, the official said.

There was no immediate response from Qatari officials to the news on Friday.

The tiny Gulf state, in coordination with the U.S., is leading mediation talks with Hamas and Israeli officials over the release of more than 200 hostages captured in the Palestinian group's Oct. 7 cross-border attack.

The wealthy gas-producer country has also been instrumental in negotiating with Hamas the safe passage of Americans stuck in Gaza and the opening of the border crossing with Egypt to allow humanitarian aid into the enclave under Israeli blockade.

Its dialogue with Israel and Hamas brought about the release of four hostages, including two Israeli women on Monday.

On Wednesday, Qatar's prime minister said negotiations to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas were progressing and he was hopeful there would soon be a breakthrough.

Qatar's role and the Hamas presence in Qatar have faced criticism in Congress. A bipartisan group of 113 U.S. lawmakers on Oct. 16 sent a letter to President Joe Biden asking him to put pressure on countries who support Hamas, including Qatar.

They asked that Qatar, a major non-NATO U.S. ally and a channel for U.S. dialogue with the Taliban since a U.S. pullout from Afghanistan, to expel Hamas leadership. "The countrys links to Hamas...are simply unacceptable," the letter said.

Hamas opened its political office in Doha in 2012 and several Hamas officials including the group's leader Ismail Haniyeh and former head Khaled Meshaal regularly spend time in Doha.

At an Oct. 13 joint press conference with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, Blinken said there could be "no more business as usual" with Hamas, when asked if the U.S. wanted Doha to shut Hamas' political office.

Sheikh Mohammed said then that the purpose of the political office was "to be as a way of communicating and delivering peace and calm to the region, not to instigate any war." He said it was important to keep communication channels open.

The United States issued sanctions this month aimed at disrupting funding for Hamas after its deadly attack in Israel, singling out people involved in its investment portfolio and a Gaza-based cryptocurrency exchange among other targets.

Hamas is designated a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada, Egypt, the European Union, Israel and Japan.

On Friday, Washington issued a second round of sanctions, including a Hamas official in Iran and members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as well as additional assets in Hamas investment portfolio and people facilitating sanctions evasion by Hamas-affiliated companies.

(Additional reporting by Andrew Mills in Doha, Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Howard Goller)
Paid press release content from The Financial Capital. The StreetInsider.com news staff was not involved in its creation.

As global financial markets grow increasingly complex and unpredictable, investors encounter the limitations of manual trading and traditional risk management methods. Singapore's GPT Finance Company announced the release of TradeGPT, an automated, AI-powered trading bot to address the issue.



When a gap in the international trading industry became apparent, Singapore firm GPT Finance stepped up to fill the void under the guidance of renowned entrepreneur Justin Smith and his team of experts. The company recently announced the upcoming launch of TradeGPT, a trans-era AI trading bot designed to facilitate intelligent trades in the global market while revolutionizing trading with advanced risk management and automated transactions.

TradeGPT is the simplest way to earn cryptocurrency, the founders said. Just register and make a deposit to start earning cryptocurrency cash profits. Our trading robots make money for you.

GPT Finance is a leading AI-driven financial technology (FinTech) company based in Singapore, with subsidiaries in the United States and Canada. The company and its team of seasoned professionals have proven through hard work and innovation that AI and advanced risk management systems are the future trends in financial trading. Investors seeking stable returns in volatile international financial markets can take advantage of numerous benefits using TradeGPT.

A New Era in Intelligent Trading and Risk Management

TradeGPT is a fully automatic artificial intelligence bot. Users only purchase computing power on the decentralized system and make their initial investment to begin making international trades. TradeGPT can trade based on its generated trading strategies, factoring in the client's acceptable risk and helping users save substantial time and money.

Interact with multiple global markets simultaneously with TradeGPT. The AI-powered trading bot supports stocks, gold and other precious metals, forex, futures, cryptocurrencies, and more. The AI tool operates continuously in the international markets, 24 hours a day.

TradeGPT introduces an innovative advanced risk management model built by the industrys top financiers and data analysts. The model allows users to automatically set stop-loss and tale-profit points, dynamically adjust positions, effectively reduce trading risks, and safeguard against Black Swan events. By allowing the system to learn from a vast set of extreme market scenarios and multiple risk control strategies, TradeGPT has established additional measures to improve capital safety.

Powered by the Worlds Most Advanced AI

Developers created TradeGPT using the GPT-4 architecture, the most advanced AI engine in human history. The companys innovative product combines advanced blockchain technology and artificial intelligence with decentralized finance (DeFi) to create transparent asset management.

Join us, TradeGPT representatives said. Begin your investment journey and create your own digital wealth for the future.

Building on the foundation of GPT-4s advanced deep-learning algorithms, TradeGPT creates a system capable of automatically analyzing, predicting, and executing trading strategies. The AI-powered tool significantly reduces human errors and liberates investors to focus their attention on strategy optimization and other aspects of global trading.

Security and Optimization

TradeGPT utilizes multi-layer encryption technologies, including mature blockchain implementation, to ensure user funds and data security. The company continuously optimizes and updates while prioritizing user privacy and data security.

Introducing the Future of Trading

TradeGPTs founders believe it is the future of trading on the global market. The companys founders developed the innovative, intelligent, automated trading bot after attending the 2021 Shanghai World Artificial Intelligence Conference. The three founders saw a phenomenal business opportunity in the ability to simplify the complex international trading market with AI-powered tools.

Meet the TradeGPT Team

Chief Executive Officer, Justin, is a renowned entrepreneur and senior financial professional with extensive experience in analysis and investment. After graduating from an Ivy League college, he has worked with multiple esteemed financial institutions.

Andy, the chief technology officer, has more than 15 years of expertise in technology and leadership in the FinTech and banking industries. He has been instrumental in the founding and growth of multiple globalized digital challenger banks and has held several key positions in the banking industry.

Data Scientist and Chief Strategy Officer, Alex, has a Ph.D. in computer science and over a decade of experience in the AI industry. He is proficient in AI machine learning and deep learning, with a strong background in data analytics, data interpretation, and pattern recognition.

Conclusion

Visit the TradeGPT website to learn more about the upcoming launch of an adaptive, innovative AI-powered tool to facilitate and automate international trading.

We have devoted great enthusiasm and professionalism to every detail, all of which is to bring different investment experiences and real benefits to users, TradeGPTs creators said.



Contact Info:

Name: Public Relations

Email: Send Email

Organization: TradeGPT

Website: http://www.tradegpt5.ai/



Release ID: 89111178

If you encounter any issues, discrepancies, or concerns regarding the content provided in this press release, or if there is a need for a press release takedown, we urge you to notify us without delay at [email protected]. Our expert team will be available to promptly respond within 8 hours  ensuring swift resolution of identified issues or offering guidance on removal procedures. Delivering accurate and reliable information is fundamental to our mission.
Paid press release content from The Financial Capital. The StreetInsider.com news staff was not involved in its creation.



Mizon, a trailblazing South Korean beauty brand renowned for its innovation in beauty products, has proudly established its presence on the Walmart platform. With a commitment to offering high-quality skincare and makeup, Mizon is excited to introduce unbeatable deals to Walmart customers, enabling them to explore the brand's extensive range of beauty solutions. This partnership marks a significant step in Mizon's journey to make exceptional skincare accessible to a broader audience.

Founded in 2007, Mizon has consistently garnered attention for its groundbreaking products, including its bestsellers based on snail mucin formulations. The brand is a testament to the dedication of researchers from Korea's top cosmetics companies, who have harnessed cutting-edge technology to develop a wide array of makeup, skincare, body care, and hair care products. Mizon's portfolio includes customer favorites like the All-in-One Snail Repair Cream and Snail Repair Eye Gel Patch. These products exemplify the brand's unwavering commitment to research and development, backed by extensively researched, high-quality formulations. Importantly, all Mizon products are proudly manufactured in Korea.

Mizon's entry into the Walmart marketplace is a significant strategic move, opening doors to a massive customer base and leveraging Walmart's burgeoning e-commerce store. The brand's partnership with Walmart aligns with its mission to empower everyone's skincare journey and reflects its passion for innovation and technology.

"We are thrilled to partner with Walmart," states the brand's representative. "Walmart is renowned for its growing e-commerce presence, and this collaboration will enable Mizon to reach millions of customers. Our products are affordable and designed to cater to diverse skin types. We are excited to bring unbeatable deals to Walmart, especially anticipating the upcoming Black Friday shopping event."

Mizon is on a mission to create a future-oriented beauty life, embracing the latest skincare technologies and ingredients to make a real difference in the lives of its customers. Mizon's product range is extensive and inclusive, offering a solution for everyone, regardless of their unique skin type or beauty needs.

According to Mizon, their logo is an "open window" because they aim to be a window to the world, listening to people's needs and crafting products that genuinely resonate with their customers. With a focus on research and development, Mizon is a brand that continually seeks to understand the latest advancements in skincare to create products that meet the ever-evolving beauty demands of today's consumers.

One of Mizon's standout offerings is the Cicaluronic Line, a comprehensive skincare range that meets various skincare needs. This versatility allows individuals to seamlessly incorporate Cicaluronic products into their daily skincare routines, whether seeking hydration, soothing properties, or specialized care for specific skin concerns.

Cicaluronic Moisturizer

Cicaluronic Face Moisturizing Cream is suitable for all skin types, offering deep hydration and revitalization. Enriched with Glycerin, Sodium Hyaluronate, Betula Alba Juice, and Macadamia Ternifolia Seed Oil, it leaves the skin soft, supple, and radiant. The innovative Biosaccharide Gum-1 ensures lasting hydration and rejuvenation while protecting against environmental stressors.

Cicaluronic Gel Treatment

The distinguishing feature of a gel treatment is its lighter, non-greasy texture, making it an ideal choice for a weightless feel. In contrast to moisturizing creams that primarily focus on providing general hydration and maintaining the skin's barrier, gel treatments occupy a specific niche in skincare. What sets the Cicaluronic Gel treatment apart is its incorporation of specialized ingredients like Centella Asiatica, renowned for its exceptional skin-soothing and healing properties. Complementing this, the formulation includes Dipropylene Glycol, which provides a burst of moisture without weighing down the skin.

Cicaluronic Serum

This potent serum features a trio of Centella Asiatica extracts known for their soothing and rejuvenating properties. Combined with Glycerin and various forms of Hyaluronic Acid, it provides deep hydration, leaving the skin supple and plump. Allantoin calms and refreshes, while Tocopherol offers antioxidant protection against environmental stressors. A multi-dimensional approach to Hyaluronic Acid ensures thorough, multi-layered hydration for a youthful glow. Plus, the serum incorporates Madecassoside, Asiaticoside, Asiatic Acid, and Madecassic Acid for added revitalization.

Cicaluronic Cleanser

Designated to leave the skin feeling refreshed and revitalized. This luxurious formula combines the power of hydration and gentle cleansing, ensuring that it stays clean and invigorated. This cleanser goes beyond removing impurities; it provides a soothing cleanse with Centella Asiatica extracts and delivers long-lasting hydration through various hyaluronic acid forms. Suitable for all skin types, it leaves the skin clean, refreshed, and beautifully rejuvenated, ready to confidently face the world with a radiant complexion.

Cicaluronic Toner

Meticulously crafted with a powerful blend of nurturing ingredients. Niacinamide, Centella Asiatica Extract, and various forms of Hyaluronic Acid unite to deliver a harmonious symphony of soothing hydration. This alcohol-free toner also incorporates Witch Hazel Water, Tea Tree Leaf Extract, and Chamomile Extract to cleanse and calm, while Adenosine promotes a youthful appearance. Madecassoside and Asiaticoside aid in skin recovery and leave the complexion balanced and refreshed. Ideal for all skin types, Cicaluronic Toner is the essential step in the skincare regimen for achieving a supple, revitalized look.

Conclusion

Mizon's collaboration with Walmart paves the way for beauty enthusiasts to explore and experience these innovative skincare solutions and top-rated products at unmatched prices. The unbeatable deals on Mizon's skincare and makeup products promise to make skincare accessible to all, promoting an inclusive and empowering approach to beauty.

For more information on Mizon Beauty Brand, please see the contact details below.



Contact Info:

Name: Park Vladislav

Email: Send Email

Organization: Mizon

Website: https://www.mizon.co.kr/



Release ID: 89111352

Should any problems, inaccuracies, or doubts arise from the content contained within this press release, we kindly request that you inform us immediately by contacting [email protected]. Our dedicated team will promptly address your concerns within 8 hours, taking necessary steps to rectify identified issues or assist with the removal process. Providing accurate and dependable information is at the core of our commitment to our readers.
YIWU, China , Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Yiwugo.com, the official website of the Yiwu Commodity Market, is the largest commodity wholesale market in the world. As autumn arrives in the northern hemisphere, temperatures drop, sparking the first wave of purchases for thermal products in the China domestic market. According to Yiwugo's data, keywords like "thermal flask" have been steadily climbing the popular keyword rankings over the past two weeks. On the other hand, overseas markets have been sourcing thermal goods since May and June, with shipments gradually crossing the seas. "Foreign markets are one season ahead in procurement compared to the domestic market. Currently, we are mainly focused on seasonal purchases in the domestic market. Once this batch is complete, buyers from South America will also come for purchases," says Chen Liya , a veteran in the thermal flask industry for 12 years. Her company, MIDE Cup Corporation, has recently launched nearly a hundred new products on the Yiwugo platform.

MIDE Cup distinguishes itself from other manufacturers with its adaptable procurement strategy. The company primarily exports its thermal flasks to European and American markets, with a focus on vacuum flasks and large-caliber American-style cups. A well-known American chain store, one of its collaborating partners, places annual orders worth over $10 million . MIDE Cup's exceptional customization services and design capabilities have also enabled them to undertake personalized gift cup orders for prestigious companies such as Bentley Motors. Regardless of the client's size, MIDE Cup consistently delivers top-quality, customizable products, establishing them as a leading player in the industry.

In contrast to MIDE Cup, MEICHEN Cup Corporation is known for its youthful and stylish designs. Its owner, Hu Bin , has been busy at the Guangzhou Trade Fair , where the company's showcased products have gained significant popularity among international buyers. This year's new products feature stunning Morandi and dopamine color schemes, and unexpectedly, they cater to the preferences of both domestic and international markets.

Meanwhile, MEICHEN Cup's store on the Yiwugo platform receives a significant number of inquiry messages every day. According to Hu Bin , conservatively speaking, over 50% of these inquiries eventually result in successful transactions. Furthermore, the customers acquired through Yiwugo are of high quality. In recent years, the company has gained new clients from various countries and regions, including Africa , South America , and India , with the majority of them originating from Yiwugo.

Since 2020, a self-designed thermal flask in the shape of a cola bottle has become a bestseller for the company. Its success has been particularly notable in the Australian market, where one customer began with an initial order of around 100 cases and has since consistently been buying full container loads. This demonstrates a rapid increase in the order volume. Furthermore, MEICHEN Cup has maintained partnerships with renowned brands from South Korea and the United States for over three years, with an average annual transaction value exceeding $2 million .

Hu Bin stated that this success is attributed to the company's unwavering commitment to exceptional quality. In contrast to ordinary factories that perform random sampling inspections, MEICHEN Cup adheres to a comprehensive and meticulous inspection model. The temperature measurement process takes ten times longer than the industry standard, and rigorous self-inspection criteria have been enforced. These factors have significantly contributed to the rapid growth and development of MEICHEN Cup in recent years.

In the Korean market, which shares a climate similar to that of China , buyers have already shown strong interest not only in thermal flasks but also in cotton jackets and down jackets. These items are enjoying significant sales.

Liling, the owner of AKCN Cotton and Down Apparel Factory Outlet, shared that customers who order custom styles usually place their orders early, around July and August. Currently, customers from countries like South Korea and Canada have completed their initial wave of down jacket purchases for this winter season. In the South Korean market, customers have already purchased approximately 2 million winter clothing pieces. Meanwhile, AKCN primarily caters to the American market by supplying classic lightweight down jackets known for their premium craftsmanship, which includes locked thread stitching and fade-resistant properties. As a result, the company consistently sells over 500,000 classic down jackets each year.

Meanwhile, in the European market, there has been a significant increase in sales of warming essentials such as hot water bottles and electric heating pads, driven by the tight energy supply situation in Europe in recent years. Chen Qingqing, as the head of the authorized enterprise for "Shanghai Yongzi Hot Water Bottles" in Yiwu, has managed the factory store for over 30 years, representing the combined achievements of two generations. She said that in the past few years, they have attracted numerous customers from the United Kingdom through Yiwugo. Even this year, British customers continue to favor high-quality classic hot water bottles in white, gray, and blue. Individual order volumes range from approximately 50,000 to 60,000 units. Furthermore, with the growing convenience of the transportation routes along the "Belt and Road" Initiative, there has been a noticeable increase in orders from countries along the route in the past two years. This winter season, customers from Turkey are opting for full container purchases.

With a favorable trading environment, efficient logistics services, and support from e-commerce platforms like Yiwugo, the winter season for warm products is off to a bustling start. Liling mentioned that they are prepared for the first wave of reorders for down jackets, while Hu Bin stated that the factory's order schedule is fully booked until the end of the year.

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SOURCE Yiwugo.com
Integration of Casio Technology Into Open Up's Algebra 1 Program Will Streamline Math Education Program; Improve Equity By Expanding Access to Less Connected Schools

WASHINGTON , Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- As the first step in a new partnership focused on equity in math education, Casio and Open Up Resources (OUR) have joined forces to integrate Casio's ClassPad.net technology into the Algebra 1 Program of Open Up High School Mathematics, the organizations announced today at the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics conference. This collaboration aims to address challenges stemming from limited access to technology resources, aiming to create a more inclusive and enriching learning environment.

Open Up High School Mathematics students and educators now have access to ClassPad.net, an intuitive online tool seamlessly incorporated into OUR's openly accessible curriculum. This platform empowers teachers and students to delve further into the presented mathematical concepts.

The integration of ClassPad.net within Open Up High School Mathematics represents a significant step forward in the shared mission of both organizations to promote equity and accessibility in education. Casio and OUR have developed an Equitable Integration of Technology Framework, which underscores the importance of empowering students with a deeper understanding of mathematics through the strategic use of technology, with a focus on providing equal access and opportunities for all learners.

Built on Casio's long-standing legacy in mathematics hardware development, ClassPad Math draws from the reputable ClassPad series of CAS-enabled calculators. This integration plays a pivotal role in aiding students in comprehending mathematical principles, fostering mathematical reasoning, and facilitating effective communication of their thought processes.

Within the Open Up High School Mathematics Algebra I course, users will find:

An embedded ClassPad Math online scientific and graphing calculator.

Tutorials integrated within select lessons, offering guidance on leveraging ClassPad Math and Casio's fx-9750GIII graphing calculator to enrich the problem-solving experience.

An inclusive technology integration framework within the course guide.

Open Up High School Math is the only high school mathematics curriculum entirely structured around the 5 Practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematics Discussions. This comprehensive three-year curriculum aligns with the College and Career Ready Standards, available in both Integrated and AGA course sequences.

Jason Isaacs , CEO of Open Up Resources said, "This forward-looking collaboration between Open Up Resources and Casio is about harnessing our unique strengths and making math accessible to more learning environments. It's about elevating innovation and advancing equity in mathematics education. We're excited to begin this collaboration by providing teachers with practical tools to enrich students' learning experiences through accessible tech integration in the classroom."

Dr. Kristopher J. Childs , Chief Academics, Equity, and Social Justice Officer at Open Up Resources said, "The OUR x Casio partnership will transform mathematics education by offering teachers practical guidance for incorporating technology in the classroom and enhancing students' mathematics experiences. With a strong emphasis on equity, this partnership will reimagine mathematics education and set a new standard for seamless technology integration."

Hirofumi Takeda , Senior General Manager of the EdTech Division, Casio America, Inc said, "Our alliance with Open Up Resources embodies Casio's profound commitment to fostering equity in education. Through the seamless integration of advanced technology within teaching and learning frameworks, we aspire to inaugurate a progressive phase in mathematics education. This endeavor is fundamentally aimed at empowering educators with robust, innovative tools, and ensuring every student has access to a high-quality, technology-enhanced educational journey."

To access the Casio integration within Open Up High School Mathematics:

Navigate to the Open Up Resources website

Select Open Up High School Math > AGA / Integrated

Select Algebra 1 and teacher or student roles then click "Explore" Teacher accounts include course guide + tutorials + ClassPad Student view gives access to ClassPad + tutorials.

Login to the Open Up Resources website (Creating an account is free.)

Explore units and lessons online

About Casio America, Inc.

Casio America, Inc., Dover, N.J. , is the U.S. subsidiary of Casio Computer Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan , one of the world's leading manufacturers of consumer electronics and business equipment solutions. Established in 1957, Casio America, Inc. markets calculators, keyboards, mobile presentation devices, disc title and label printers, watches, and other consumer electronic products. Casio has strived to realize its corporate creed of "creativity and contribution" through the introduction of innovative and imaginative products. For more information, visit www.casio.com .

About Open Up Resources

Open Up Resources is a non-profit publisher in pursuit of delivering equitable learning experiences for all students by providing educators best in class, research-based PreK-12 curricula and professional learning so they may support every student's academic success and create in-class experiences that celebrate, honor, and empower all students with a keen focus on historically excluded student populations. To learn more about Open Up Resources' mission and work, click here .

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/casio-and-open-up-resources-launch-new-innovative-partnership-to-enhance-mathematics-education-301969722.html

SOURCE Casio America, Inc.
BEIJING , Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The following article was published today by China Daily.

Forum: Openness, actions key to tackling problems

In these uncertain times, when the world is grappling with conflicts and challenges, many countries and their people still yearn for growth, collaboration, peace and common development, and their expectations should not be ignored, eminent scholars and politicians said on Thursday.

They made the remarks at the Global Strategic Dialogue (2023), a high-level forum held in Beijing . The event, themed "Global Opportunities and Challenges: Seeking Certainty in an Uncertain World", was sponsored by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and China Daily.

Gao Xiang , president of CASS, said in his opening remarks that China is ready to work with various parties to bolster joint efforts in safeguarding peace, securing a stable global environment and helping the people of every nation live happily and thrive.

China is willing to join hands to spur growth, "further building on an open world economy amid anti-globalization challenges and constantly injecting impetus for global economic growth and governance," Gao said.

The nation seeks greater collaboration in boosting openness, inclusiveness and exchanges among cultures in order to enjoy the beauty of harmony brought by diversity, he added.

Qu Yingpu, publisher and editor-in-chief of China Daily, told the forum that China , as the world's second-largest economy, has always been a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development and a defender of the international order.

President Xi Jinping proposed successively the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative and the Global Civilization Initiative, outlining the beautiful vision of a global community with a shared future, Qu said.

"I suggest think tanks and media organizations in China and other countries have frank conversations, and jointly promote the building of a new form of international relations that features mutual respect, equity, justness and win-win cooperation," Qu said.

Yasuo Fukuda , a former Japanese prime minister, said that in order to introduce certainty in an uncertain world, countries need to "make productive adjustments in the face of changes and should earnestly work on self-adjustment at the same time."

"I firmly believe that turbulence, bewilderment and the uncertain status are just a fragment of the world's development process," he said in a written speech delivered at the forum.

" China should have full confidence in and stay true to its ideal of building a global community with a shared future, and make its due contribution," he said, adding that this would serve the expectations of a harmonious world.

Observers noted that openness, inclusiveness and actions are key to addressing multiple complications brought by short-term, midterm and long-term factors, including the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, armed conflicts and technological advances.

Getachew Engida , former UNESCO deputy director-general and co-president of the China-Africa Leadership Development Institute at Tsinghua University, said the world is more connected today than ever before with ideas and resources moving across the globe. But, he cautioned, "it doesn't necessarily mean that there is more understanding", nor does it mean that the capacity for working together toward global challenges is being adequately harnessed.

He called on the world to "bridge this gap through capacity building and people-to-people exchanges", and urged nations to better engage younger generations to provide relevant solutions to and wisdom on handling differences.

Hanan Morsy , deputy executive secretary and chief economist at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, said the world has seen a backlash against the progress toward globalization from domestic resistance forces in some countries.

The world should focus on achieving globalization in a way that is more inclusive and more sustainable, and in a way that benefits all, she said.

Grzegorz W. Kolodko , director of Transformation, Integration and Globalization Economic Research at Kozminski University and former deputy prime minister of Poland , lashed out at protectionism, saying that people in many parts of the world are excluded from access to social services, education and healthcare.

He hailed China's efforts in building a global community with a shared future, the country's "smart and intelligent utilization of globalization" and its role in pooling the strengths of different markets, goods and services.

Ashok K. Kantha , former Indian ambassador to China , said the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is being "seriously delayed" as the global population below the poverty line is increasing in the post-pandemic era and the world is witnessing "de-risking" attempts.

Kantha said he does not see "any possibility" of harming the Chinese economy by advancing strategies such as "de-risking". He also voiced his confidence in a multipolar world, saying the rise of developing countries such as India and South Africa "should not be underestimated".

By ZHANG YUNBI

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SOURCE China Daily
After the premiere of the Toyota Land Cruiser 250 SUV, which replaced the Prado, the Japanese company is interested in the appearance of another car. The compact SUV will be the cheapest Land Cruiser model.

ADVERTISIMENT

There is not much information about the car at the moment. Design details are being kept under wraps, but Carscoops has prepared its own version based on leaks and teasers. The small Toyota Land Cruiser is expected to hit the market in 2024.

The car will be the successor to the Toyota FJ Cruiser. It is his name that the company may use again. Previously, it was assumed that the inexpensive SUV would be called Land Hopper (this name was recently patented). But in the end, this name went to an electric scooter. Another possible option is Toyota FC Cruiser.

Insiders report that the new vehicle will be equipped with both classical internal combustion engines and hybrid modifications. In addition, the appearance of a fully electric version is not ruled out.

ADVERTISIMENT

It is obvious that Toyota wants to turn the Land Cruiser line into an image sub-brand, as Land Rover did with the Range Rover models - it all started with one car, now there are four in the line.

Earlier, OBOZ.UA told that a new third-generation Duster is being prepared for the premiere.
GUANGZHOU, China , Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- On the morning of October 26, 2023 , the Guangzhou Historical and Cultural Protection and Inheritance Conference with the theme of "Constructing Historical and Cultural City with Utmost Care and Carrying Forward the Legacy of Chinese Culture" was held in the Liwan District of Guangzhou . More than 180 academicians, experts and industry representatives gathered and witnessed the official unveiling of the Liwan District Historical and Cultural Protection and Inheritance Industry Cluster.

The conference was sponsored by Guangzhou Municipal Commission for the Management of Cultural Relics and the Protection of Famous Historical and Cultural Cities, aiming to provide a higher level and more professional wisdom solution for Guangzhou , and jointly promote the protection and organic renewal of famous cities.

The unveiling ceremony of Liwan District Historical and Cultural Protection and Inheritance Industry Cluster was also held at the conference. It is understood that Shameen, Yongqing Square and Pan Tang have settled in a number of enterprises, institutions and studios.

In the keynote speech, Mr. He Jingtang , Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Mr. Benjamin Wood , founder and chairman of STUDIO SHANGHAI , Wood & Jiapata Design and Consulting Co., Ltd. and other experts and masters shared around the conference theme.

He Jingtang pointed out that we should deeply grasp the internal logic of "old" and "new", promote the coexistence and symbiosis of "old" and "new" in the city, stay abreast with the times on the basis of inheritance, constantly innovate, stimulate the vitality of the city.

Benjamin Wood said, " En Ning Road was one of the best projects I've ever worked on. What we are doing is to bring back the vitality of the past, and the potential vitality of the present and the future."

The Liwan District also held an exhibition of historical and cultural protection and inheritance practice cases such as Shameen, En Ning Road , Fengyuan Street - Liwan Lake historical and cultural areas.

Image Attachments Links:

Link: https://iop.asianetnews.net/view-attachment?attach-id=442896

Caption: Guangzhou Historical and Cultural Protection and Inheritance Conference kicked off.

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SOURCE Guangzhou Municipal Commission for the Management of Cultural Relics and the Protection of Famous Historical and Cultural Cities
OAKLAND, Calif. , Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- EdSource received two grants this month that will allow the nonprofit newsroom to strategically cover national stories on higher education.

One grant that will support EdSource's expansion comes from the Crimsonbridge Foundation, a D.C.-based national philanthropic organization that fosters collaboration to create transformative solutions to improve the lives of the nation's youth and families.

The other grant is from ECMC Foundation, a nationally-focused foundation working to improve higher education for career success among underserved populations through evidence-based innovation.

Both foundations will provide financial support that will allow EdSource to pursue education stories with significance related to California  from examining federal policy to looking at innovative programs in other states. At the same time, EdSource will seek to collaborate with news organizations around the country to amplify this work, as the size and complexity of California's public education system helps inform education coverage elsewhere.

California is home to the nation's largest four-year public university, California State University, and the largest higher education system in the nation, California Community Colleges.

EdSource has produced education analysis in California since 1977. Its reporters and editors have decades of experience covering complex issues, from school finance to equity in teaching.

"As the largest education newsroom in California with deep policy expertise, EdSource is well-positioned to shine a light on national higher education stories," EdSource CEO Anne Vasquez said. "Sometimes California leads the way on higher education policies and sometimes the state can learn from how others are finding their way forward. "

"This grant investment is critical to advancing the conversation around systems change in higher education, both in California and across the nation," said Jacob Fraire , president of ECMC Foundation. "In addition to supporting the work of some of the finest journalists in the field, we are excited about EdSource's desire to bring lessons learned from other states to California leaders. This kind of storytelling will serve to strengthen the field and ultimately benefit millions of students across the state."

ABOUT EDSOURCE

As a nonprofit, independent news organization, EdSource knows that an informed, involved public is necessary to strengthen schools to improve opportunities now and in the future. Since 1977, EdSource has delivered education analysis and continues to report on the most pressing education issues in California and the nation.

FOLLOW EDSOURCE

EdSource.org

EdSource.org/subscribe

twitter.com/EdSource

facebook.com/EdSource



MEDIA CONTACT

[email protected]

ABOUT ECMC FOUNDATION

ECMC Foundation is a Los Angeles -based, nationally focused foundation whose mission is to improve higher education for career success among underserved populations through evidence-based innovation. It is one of several affiliates under the ECMC Group enterprise based in Minneapolis . ECMC Foundation makes investments to remove barriers to postsecondary completion; build the capacity of organizations, institutions and systems; and transform the postsecondary ecosystem using a spectrum of funding structures, including strategic grantmaking and program-related investments, to support both nonprofit and for-profit ventures. Working with grantees, partners and peers, ECMC Foundation's vision is for all learners to unlock their fullest potential. Learn more about ECMC Foundation by visiting www.ecmcfoundation.org and ECMC Group by visiting www.ecmcgroup.org.

ABOUT THE CRIMSONBRIDGE FOUNDATION

Through partnerships with community colleges, universities, and nonprofits, the Crimsonbridge Foundation is building the capacity of the higher education ecosystem to help more learners earn a degree and thrive in their careers and beyond. Crimsonbridge is focused on increasing degrees for first-generation college students and learners underrepresented in higher education, elevating innovations and research to provide solutions to barriers for today's college students, and collaborating with philanthropy to raise awareness about high-impact opportunities that support college success.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/edsource-increases-national-education-coverage-301969559.html

SOURCE EdSource
SHANGHAI , Oct. 26, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Everest Medicines (HKEX 1952.HK, "Everest", or the "Company"), a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development, manufacturing and commercialization of innovative medicines and vaccines, today announced that it will make a late-breaking poster presentation at the upcoming American Society of Nephrology (ASN) Kidney Week 2023 on Nefecon Chinese patient data. The company will hold conference calls after the presentation in English and Mandarin on November 3, 2023 Beijing Time.

Late-Breaking Poster Presentation Details:

Title: Long-term renal benefit with Nefecon in Chinese patients with primary immunoglobulin A nephropathy: 2-year NefIgArd trial results

Date and Time: Thursday, November 2 , 10:00 a.m.  12:00 p.m. ET

Session: Late-Breaking Posters [LB-PO]

Presentation No.: TH-PO1123 (Abstract 3969868)

Presentation Venue: Exhibit Halls BD ( Pennsylvania Convention Center )

Conference Call Details:

For English Session:

Time: 9:00 AM Beijing Time , Friday, November 3, 2023 / 9:00 PM ET , Thursday, November 2, 2023

Pre-Registration Link: https://www.acecamptech.com/eventDetail/60504537

Webcast Link: https://www.acecamptech.com/meeting_live/70506314/5517?event_id=60504537

Alternatively, participants may dial in to the conference call using below dial-in information:

United States : +1 646 2543594 (EN) Mainland China : +86 10 58084166 (EN) +86 10 58084199 (CN) Hong Kong : +852 30051313 (EN) +852 30051355 (CN) United Kingdom : +44 20 76600166 (EN) International: +1 866 6363243 Password: 388208

For Mandarin Session :

Time: 10:00 AM Beijing Time , Friday, November 3, 2023 / 10:00 PM ET , Thursday, November 2, 2023

Webcast Link: https://s.comein.cn/AfPNw

Alternatively, participants may dial into the conference call using below dial-in information:

Mainland China : +86-4001888938 +86-01053827720 Taiwan : +886-277031747 United States : +1-2025524791 United Kingdom +44-2034816288 Singapore : +65-31586120 Hong Kong : +852-57006920 Password: 157383

The replay of English session will be available shortly after the call and can be accessed by visiting the Company's website at http://www.everestmedicines.com.

About Everest Medicines

Everest Medicines is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing transformative pharmaceutical products that address critical unmet medical needs for patients in Asian markets. The management team of Everest Medicines has deep expertise and an extensive track record from both leading global pharmaceutical companies and local Chinese pharmaceutical companies in high-quality clinical development, regulatory affairs, CMC, business development and operations. Everest Medicines has built a portfolio of potentially global first-in-class or best-in-class molecules, many of which are in late-stage clinical development. The Company's therapeutic areas of interest include cardio-renal diseases, autoimmune disorders, and infectious diseases. For more information, please visit its website at www.everestmedicines.com.

Forward-Looking Statements:

This news release may make statements that constitute forward-looking statements, including descriptions regarding the intent, belief or current expectations of the Company or its officers with respect to the business operations and financial condition of the Company, which can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," "confident" and similar statements. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, or other factors, some of which are beyond the control of the Company and are unforeseeable. Therefore, the actual results may differ from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors and assumptions, such as future changes and developments in our business, competitive environment, political, economic, legal and social conditions. The Company or any of its affiliates, directors, officers, advisors or representatives has no obligation and does not undertake to revise forward-looking statements to reflect new information, future events or circumstances after the date of this news release, except as required by law.

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SOURCE Everest Medicines
ISELIN, N.J. , Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Hexaware Technologies proudly announces the appointment of industry veteran Girish Pai as the Global Head of its Data and AI Service Line. Girish Pai's appointment reiterates Hexaware's commitment to empowering clients with data and artificial intelligence, driving transformative business outcomes.

Girish Pai brings an impressive 28-year track record in the services industry, having excelled at companies like Infosys. His career demonstrates remarkable growth leadership in IT, digital strategy, and data and analytics, consistently assuming the role of a trusted advisor to clients. In his most recent position as Chief Customer Officer, he steered a private venture to become a globally acclaimed data and AI consulting powerhouse.

Expressing his enthusiasm for joining Hexaware, Girish shared, "I am excited to be part of Hexaware's leadership team. The data and AI landscape is evolving at an astounding pace, offering immense untapped potential. Enterprises seek partners who can serve as their trusted advisors. I am optimistic about our capability to innovate and provide new solutions, enabling our clients to revolutionize their business with data and AI."

Milan Bhatt , President & Global Head of Cloud & Data Services at Hexaware, expressed his delight, saying, "We are thrilled to welcome Girish to the Hexaware leadership team. Girish possesses an impressive history of building high-growth data businesses and nurturing top-tier talent. Under his guidance, we anticipate our Data and AI service line will become a transformative force for our clients and a key driver of growth for Hexaware."

With Girish at the helm of a robust team committed to relentless innovation, Hexaware expects to make rapid strides toward data and AI leadership. His leadership promises to unlock new horizons and drive innovation in the ever-evolving landscape of technology solutions.

About Hexaware

Hexaware is a global technology and business process services company. Our 27,900 Hexawarians wake up every day with a singular purpose; to create smiles through great people and technology. With 45+ offices in 19 countries, we empower enterprises worldwide to realize digital transformation at scale and speed by partnering with them to build, transform, run, and optimize their technology and business processes.

Learn more about Hexaware at https://www.hexaware.com

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2237417/Hexaware_NEW_Logo.jpg

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hexaware-technologies-appoints-girish-pai-as-global-head-of-data-and-ai-service-line-301969867.html

SOURCE Hexaware Technologies Ltd.
RADNOR, Pa. , Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Triumph Group, Inc. (TRIUMPH) [NYSE: TGI] and Honeywell Aerospace signed a long term agreement across multiple Honeywell engine platforms. The contract includes TRIUMPH manufacturing and maintenance of boost pumps, electronic control units, and hydro-mechanical fuel controls for T55 helicopter engines along with the main fuel pumps for F124 fighter/trainer engine and HTF7000 business jet engines. This work is being performed at TRIUMPH's Systems, Electronics and Controls facility in West Hartford, Connecticut .

"Expanding our relationship with Honeywell through this agreement reaffirms TRIUMPH's position as a leading provider for fuel controls and pumps on military and commercial platforms," said Justin Wolfanger , President of TRIUMPH Systems, Electronics and Controls. "We look forward to providing these and other products over the course of the next five years as a Honeywell preferred partner."

TRIUMPH Systems, Electronics and Controls designs, develops, manufactures, repairs, and overhauls a broad portfolio of aviation and defense components, accessories, subassemblies, systems, and aircraft thermal management systems. We partner with original equipment manufacturers and operators of commercial, regional, and military aircraft worldwide to provide the products and services that solve the hardest of problems.

TRIUMPH , headquartered in Radnor, Pennsylvania , designs, develops, manufactures, repairs, and overhauls a broad portfolio of aerospace and defense systems and components. The company serves the global aviation industry, including original equipment manufacturers and the full spectrum of military and commercial aircraft operators.

More information about TRIUMPH can be found on the company's website at www.triumphgroup.com .

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/honeywell-and-triumph-sign-long-term-agreement-for-multi-fleet-engine-controls-and-fuel-components-301970012.html

SOURCE Triumph Group
BEIJING , Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- This is a report from China Daily:

International reporters and internet influencers were captivated by Jingdezhen's profound ceramic culture during the recent Hi Jiangxi media tour.

The Oct 16-18 tour in Jingdezhen of East China's Jiangxi province was attended by representatives from countries and regions including the United Kingdom , Turkyie, Vietnam and Africa .

"This is my first time to come to Jingdezhen. The city is amazing and interesting and the view is also magnificent," said Mouhamed Diouf , a reporter for the Africasia Media Group and a member of China Storyteller Partnerships.

The tour visited a number of museums in China's "porcelain capital", including the Jingdezhen China Ceramics Museum, the Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Museum, the Jingdezhen Heritage of Ceramic Industry Museum, Sanbao International Ceramic Art Village Museum and Hutian Ceramic Art Museum, to learn about the ceramic history and development of the city.

Mohamed Jihad , an English-Chinese bilingual presenter from Egypt , said he was impressed by the culture of relics at the Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Museum.

"It is amazing to see the wisdom of ancient people shown in the cultural relics; I think ceramics are not just everyday objects or artworks, but a symbol of Chinese civilization's sensitive role in the development of the ancient Silk Road ," he said.

"The ceramic industry in Jingdezhen is very prosperous. There are more trade opportunities between China and Egypt due to the Belt and Road Initiative, and I hope the city can produce more ceramic products to export to my country," he added.

The tour also witnessed production of porcelain at the Hutian Ceramic Art Museum.

"Seeing how the factories make the porcelain and porcelain materials is wonderful, and realizing it is locally sourced is so impressive," said Ahamed Sabbir , a reporter for BDTone24.com and a member of China Storyteller Partnerships.

In addition to museums, cultural and creative zones in Jingdezhen such as Taoxichuan Ceramic Art Avenue and Taoyangli Imperial Kiln historical block brought new experiences of porcelain to the media tour.

"This is my second time visiting this wonderful city. What impresses me most about this place is the culture and its history in China's civilization," said Tobias Symonds , a TikTok influencer from the United Kingdom . "It's wonderful and amazing that the tradition of ceramics and porcelain has been maintained for centuries and that we see young people involved in it today. It is very beautiful."

Members of the tour also participated in the 2023 China Jingdezhen International Ceramic Expo.

"Jingdezhen is a beautiful porcelain city because of its rich ceramic culture, and I'm really happy to be here to explore that beauty," said Neslihan Kilavuz , a YouTube hostess from Turkyie.

Organized by China Daily and the publicity department of Jiangxi province, the Hi Jiangxi media tour invited foreigners to visit Jingdezhen to learn about the historical city's culture as well as its achievements on the Chinese path to modernization.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/media-tour-spotlights-centuries-of-ceramic-culture-301969712.html

SOURCE China Daily
STOCKHOLM , Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Updated data show that the combination fostrox + Lenvima provides improved clinical efficacy compared to Lenvima study data alone in second-line HCC

July  September

Financial summary for the quarter

Net turnover amounted to SEK 0.8 (1.1) million.

(1.1) million. The loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounted to SEK -23.4 (-13.9) million. Basic and diluted earnings per share amounted to SEK -0.42 (-0.27) and SEK -0.42 (-0.27) respectively.

(-13.9) million. Basic and diluted earnings per share amounted to (-0.27) and (-0.27) respectively. Cash flow from operating activities amounted to SEK -21.0 (-19.7) million.

(-19.7) million. Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the period amounted to SEK 61.1 (142.2) million.

Significant events during the quarter

In August, Medivir's Scientific Advisory Council was formed, consisting of five world-leading experts in liver cancer.

was formed, consisting of five world-leading experts in liver cancer. In August, the 15th patient was included in the phase 2a study with fostrox in combination with Lenvima. Interim data from an investigator evaluation showed promising tumor control and good tolerability.

In September, Medivir reported promising interim data from an independent evaluation of the phase 1b dose-escalation arm of fostrox in combination with Lenvima, where, among others, one patient achieved a complete tumor response and two patients a partial tumor response, out of a total of six patients.

In September, Medivir, together with leading cancer experts, arranged a webinar on the treatment landscape and the unique treatment challenges in primary liver cancer (HCC).

In September, data on the additive efficacy of fostrox in combination with Lenvima or Nexavar in non-clinical tumor models were presented at the ILCA Annual Meeting.

In September, Medivir's partner Tango Therapeutics received IND approval from the FDA to start a phase 1/2 clinical trial with TNG348. TNG348 is a USP-1 inhibitor developed by Tango Therapeutics from the preclinical USP1 program that was in-licensed from Medivir in 2020.

January  September

Financial summary for the period

Net turnover amounted to SEK 3.2 (2.1) million.

(2.1) million. The loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounted to SEK -68.5 (-66.9) million. Basic and diluted earnings per share amounted to SEK -1.23 (-1.27) and SEK -1.23 (-1.27) respectively.

(-66.9) million. Basic and diluted earnings per share amounted to (-1.27) and (-1.27) respectively. Cash flow from operating activities amounted to SEK -55.1 (-77.1) million.

(-77.1) million. Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the period amounted to SEK 61.1 (142.2) million.

Events after the end of the period

In October, data from the fostrox + Lenvima combination was presented, showing continued promising tumor control in HCC from an investigator evaluation. All patients in the phase 2a study had dosed at least two treatment cycles at this timepoint.

In October, the Board of Directors announced that Anette Lindqvist is leaving her position as Board Member of Medivir AB due to personal reasons.

is leaving her position as Board Member of Medivir AB due to personal reasons. In October the nomination committee was appointed ahead of the AGM in May 2024 . The Nomination Committee consists of Karl Tobieson, appointed by Linc AB, Richard Torgerson , appointed by Nordea Investment Funds , Anders Hallberg , appointed by HealthInvest Partners and Uli Hacksell , Chairman of the Board, Medivir AB.

. The Nomination Committee consists of Karl Tobieson, appointed by Linc AB, , appointed by , , appointed by and , Chairman of the Board, Medivir AB. This Q3 report and subsequent webcast presents in-depth interim data from the 18 patients in the phase 1b/2a study who have had minimum 12 weeks follow-up. These data continue to demonstrate clear patient benefit for the fostrox + Lenvima combination.

Conference call for investors, analysts and the media

The Interim Report January - September 2023 will be presented by Medivir's CEO, Jens Lindberg .

Time: Friday, October 27, 2023 , at 14.00 (CET).

To access the webcast and find information about the teleconference, please klick HERE!

The conference call will also be streamed via a link on the website: www.medivir.com/investors/calendar .

The presentation will be available on Medivir's website after completion of the conference.

CEO's message

During and after the quarter, we have seen continued promising signs of clinical benefit in the study with fostrox in combination with Lenvima, and at our Q3 webcast today we can present in-depth and more mature data that clearly shows the increased clinical benefit for patients when fostrox is added to Lenvima. This makes us even more convinced of the future role of fostrox in the treatment of primary liver cancer (HCC).

The unmet medical need in the treatment of advanced HCC is very large. In current treatment guidelines, Tecentriq/Avastin is recommended as preferred first-line treatment, but for those who do not respond to that treatment, there are no approved therapeutic options in second-line. The most recent treatment guidelines from NCCN (National Comprehensive Cancer Network) and BCLC (Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer), respectively, emphasize the medical need and recommend clinical studies as a primary second-line treatment option. This shows that there is a clear potential for the combination of fostrox and Lenvima to transform second-line treatment and contribute to patients gaining access to an approved treatment with increased clinical benefit. This is also supported by interim data from our ongoing phase 1b/2a study, an open-label, multicenter, dose-escalation and dose-expansion study.

All patients in the study have now undergone at least two treatment cycles and during the past quarter we have presented interim data that showed both early and durable improved clinical benefit combined with a good safety and tolerability profile when fostrox is combined with Lenvima. It includes a first patient who achieved a complete tumor response, which is extremely rare in this difficult-to-treat patient group.

Today we present even more mature interim data from 18 of a total of 21 patients in the study who underwent at least 12 weeks of follow-up. These data demonstrate further improved clinical efficacy compared to previously presented interim data with, among other things, a 22% Overall Response Rate (ORR) and an extended median time to progression of ~5 months. The benefit of Lenvima in HCC is recognized and today we can present updated data showing that fostrox in combination with Lenvima improves the clinical efficacy with a maintained tolerability profile compared to Lenvima study data alone in second-line HCC. This is encouraging news for a patient group in need of better treatment options and we look forward to providing a more complete review of these data at our regular conference call later today. The compelling data from the phase 1b/2a study and the large, unmet medical need in HCC create an opportunity for a faster path to market. These factors, together with the fact that fostrox has received so-called orphan drug status for the treatment of HCC in the USA and Europe , are the most significant parameters for the possibility of obtaining so-called accelerated/conditional approval by the regulatory drug authorities. Given that the promising results in phase 1b/2a hold the study through, the next step in the clinical development of fostrox will therefore be designed based on the possibility of accelerated/conditional approval. Medivir's newly established Scientific Council of world-leading liver cancer experts unveiled in August, with its collective expertise and clinical experience, is strongly committed to help guiding the design of the continued clinical development plan for fostrox.

The promising interim results enables deepened discussions with potential partners, in accordance with previously communicated plans.

We can also note that several of the projects that Medivir has licensed out to collaboration partners will enter the clinical phase next year. Tango Therapeutics has received FDA approval for its Investigational New Drug (IND) application and will initiate a phase 1/2 trial in 2023 with TNG348, a USP-1 inhibitor developed from the preclinical USP1 program in-licensed from Medivir 2020. INFEX Therapeutics also intends to initiate a phase 1 study in 2024 with the preclinical program MBLI, which was previously in-licensed from Medivir. IGM Biosciences has previously been studying a fifth cohort in the company's phase 1 clinical study in solid tumors with Medivir's clinical project birinapant in combination with its own DR5 agonist antibody IGM-8444, now called aplitabart.

The clinical development of fostrox is still our main focus, and the clear signs of improved patient benefit have further strengthened our belief that fostrox can become an effective treatment against liver cancer that makes a real difference to patients, and thus also to our shareholders. I look forward to keeping you informed of Medivir's continued development.

Jens Lindberg

Chief Executive Officer

For further information, please contact

Magnus Christensen , CFO

Phone: +46 (0)8 5468 3100

E-mail: [email protected]

This report has been subject to auditors' review.

The information was submitted for publication at 08.30 CET on October 27, 2023 .

The following files are available for download:

https://mb.cision.com/Main/652/3863971/2390038.pdf The full report (PDF)

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/medivir-ab--interim-report-january--september-2023-301969891.html

SOURCE Medivir
The pups, found abandoned in Alaska , require 24/7 care by Zoo staff

APPLE VALLEY, Minn. , Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Sea otter pups are highly dependent on their mothers during their first several months of life. When a pup becomes orphaned, their chance of survival is drastically reduced.

Fortunately, the future of two recently orphaned female sea otter pups looks more optimistic thanks to the quick actions of Alaska SeaLife Center and their partnership with the Minnesota Zoo . After receiving initial triage care in Alaska , the pups have been brought to the Minnesota Zoo to continue receiving 24/7 care.

Named Denali (after the tallest peak in North America ) and Nuka (after the Alaskan island off the Kenai peninsula), the young pups already have an extensive life story.

Nuka was found on September 9 , when she was just days old. An off-duty staff member with Alaska SeaLife Center (ASLC) witnessed an orca attack on Nuka and her mother. Nuka's mother never surfaced after the attack, leaving Nuka stranded. Working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFW), ASLC deployed their Wildlife Response team, and brought Nuka into their care.

Just days before this incident, ASLC received reports of an abandoned otter pup in an uncommon area for sea otters  5 miles up a river, on land near Kenai, Alaska . The pup, now named Denali and currently estimated to be close to 5 months old, appeared malnourished and dehydrated. With no mother found near, ASLC, with permission from USFW, brought the pup into their care.

Denali and Nuka, now in the care of the Minnesota Zoo , are receiving around-the-clock care, which includes extensive health monitoring and assistance with eating, grooming, and swimming.

"It's always a challenge working with such young animals, because their health status can change so rapidly," said Dr. Anne Rivas , Minnesota Zoo Director of Animal Health.

"We have separate spaces set up for each of the otters," explained Kurt Heizmann , Minnesota Zoo Director of Animal Care. "The youngest otter will be cared for in her own behind-the-scenes nursery."

The two pups still have a long health journey ahead and will require close monitoring for several more weeks. They will remain behind-the-scenes for the next few months as they continue to grow and acclimate.

Contact:

Zach Nugent

Interim Director of Marketing & Communications

m. 952.250.7293

[email protected]

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NEW ORLEANS , Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- In the competitive realm of Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) in the United States , Rony Jabour stands out. As he celebrates 15 distinguished years as an Environment, Health, and Safety (EHS) Trainer, he is also being recognized for his monumental contributions at the National Safety Conference, particularly for training an impressive 40,000 workers in EHS within the US.

The 2023 NSC Congress in New Orleans marks a significant moment in safety professional collaboration. As 15,000 safety experts gather, the event solidifies its reputation as the world's leading EHS event, promising enlightening seminars and educational sessions.

Jabour's Philosophy:

"I am not just a safety trainer; I am a motivator," reflects Rony Jabour . "My mission goes beyond mere instruction on safety protocolsit's to inspire and motivate workers to prioritize safety." This approach has resonated deeply with safety professionals worldwide.

Jabour's academic accomplishments further underline his authority in the field. With dual master's certificates from the University of Texas in EHS and from Harvard in Leadership & Management, he has left a mark that goes beyond academia. His notable speech at Harvard University in 2012 and his address to the US Department of Labor in 2015 showcase his influence. Further testament to his contributions, Jabour was nominated as one of the top 100 leaders in education in 2021 in Las Vegas at the Global Forum for Education.

Jabour, known for his dynamic training style, has rightfully earned a spot among the U.S. NSC's ' Rising Star of Safety 40 under 40'. Regarding the NSC Safety Congress, he expressed, "Being a part of such a significant event every year is nothing short of exhilarating."

Beyond traditional platforms, Jabour, as the driving force behind United Safety Net, is shaping the future of global safety. Fluent in English, Portuguese, and Spanish, he serves as an ambassador for safety on a global scale.

This year's Congress is not just a gathering of EHS experts; it's a celebration of the extraordinary achievements of leaders like Jabour.

About Rony Jabour :

A towering figure in the global occupational safety arena, Rony Jabour has been instrumental in reshaping safety practices not just in the US but worldwide.

Connect with Rony Jabour & Join the Safety Revolution:

Become a part of a vibrant community where motivation meets safety expertise. For in-depth insights, follow Rony Jabour .

Stay informed. Stay safe. Be inspired.

Press Contact:

Rony Jabour

978.767.0630

[email protected]

52D Cummings Park Drive , Woburn  MA. 01952

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WASHINGTON , Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- A new report from the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) found that Amazon invested $46.5 billion in the United States in 2022, putting it at the top of PPI's new Investment Heroes list. The report, " Investment Heroes 2023 ," published annually since 2012, analyzes publicly available data to identify the top 25 U.S. companies investing in America, powering job growth, and raising living standards. Eight of the top 10 companies on this year's ranking are in the technology, broadband, or ecommerce industries.

The theme of this year's Investment Heroes report is the recovery of the U.S. capital investment from the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic and the benefits these investments provide to workers. Report authors, Dr. Michael Mandel , Vice President and Chief Economist at PPI, and Jordan Shapiro , Director of the Innovation Frontier Project at PPI, analyzed capital spending in "high-investment" sectors and compared the spending levels for the same companies in 2019. Their analysis found that the great majority of companies on the Investment Heroes list have high and growing levels of domestic capital investment compared to before the pandemic.

"Since our first Investment Heroes report in 2012, the companies featured on the list have drastically changed. Back then, only one out of the top 10 companies was in the tech/internet sector. Fast forward to 2022, and we've seen new companies rise to the top of the list because of innovation and growth," said Dr. Michael Mandel . "The dramatic evolution of the Investment Heroes list shows the ever-changing competitive nature of the U.S. economy."

PPI's analysis found that capital investment stimulates massive job creation. Between 2019and 2022, the industries associated with our high-investment sectors added 1.3 million net new jobs, more than the entire rest of the private sector put together. Not only that, but many companies are investing back into training and education for their employees and new workers.

"The 2023 Investment Heroes list and analysis show it is important to recognize not only what companies are investing in America, but what companies are investing in workers," said Jordan Shapiro .

Read and download the full report here .

The Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) is a catalyst for policy innovation and political reform based in Washington, D.C. Its mission is to create radically pragmatic ideas for moving America beyond ideological and partisan deadlock. Learn more about PPI by visiting progressivepolicy.org. Find an expert at PPI and follow us on Twitter.

Media Contact: Amelia Fox  [email protected]

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SOURCE Progressive Policy Institute
The world is approaching six tipping points, the crossing of which could have catastrophic consequences for both people and the planet. They include an increase in space debris, groundwater depletion, melting mountain glaciers, and more.

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This is stated in the "Interconnected Disaster Risks 2023" report, which was compiled by the UN University Institute for Environment and Human Security.

Tipping points are conditional thresholds in natural and social systems that are reached when the system can no longer provide the expected function. Scientists warn that crossing such "points" will actually mean crossing the point of no return when humanity will no longer be able to return the Earth's systems to a sustainable form.

The first point is the extinction of species, which is accelerated by human activity and is now occurring more than 10 times faster than the natural rate. The rapid extinction of individual species can lead to even greater extinctions and, ultimately, to the collapse of ecosystems.

Problems also exist with underground reservoirs used for drinking and agriculture. If these groundwater reservoirs are depleted faster than they are naturally replenished, it will not only cause water shortages but also affect humanity's ability to produce food.

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Mountain glacier meltwater is another vital source of water. But it is already known that glaciers around the world have passed the so-called "peak water". This is a situation when, as in the case of groundwater, mountain glaciers provide the maximum amount of runoff but lose their own reserves.

There is also a space problem. About 75% of all tracked objects in Earth's orbit are debris. If there is too much of it in orbit, it will lead to collisions that could destroy existing satellites that provide telecommunications networks and more.

"If we lose these eyes in the sky, we lose the ability to better monitor things like biodiversity or weather," explained Jack O'Connor of the United Nations University, according to New Scientist.

Another point is the insurmountable heat. In recent years, temperature records have been broken across the planet, and heat waves are becoming more commonplace. In the future, scientists warn, humanity may see heat waves so intense that they will pose a deadly danger even to healthy young people.

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The final tipping point will come when it becomes too expensive for most people to insure their property against extreme weather events or natural disasters. According to forecasts, by 2030, more than 500,000 homes in Australia will be too expensive to insure due to flood risks.

At the same time, as the authors of the report note, some of these tipping points have already been passed in certain parts of the world. Groundwater has been depleted in some parts of Saudi Arabia, while extreme temperatures close to the limit of human survival are observed in Asia.

To avoid these critical points, humanity must move towards transformation. "We have to start taking into account the risk of rising temperatures in the way we build our cities."

"All these things are caused by human behavior, actions, and values. We can change our thinking. This transformation must take place at the individual level, up to the level of governments," said one of the report's authors, Caitlyn Eberle of the United Nations University in Germany.

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As OBOZ.UA previously reported, scientists believe that if the global temperature rises by only 1 degree Celsius, the Earth may be covered by an inhuman heat wave that will cause billions of people to suffer.

Subscribe to OBOZ.UA on Telegram and Viber to keep up with the latest events.
SAN FRANCISCO , Oct. 26, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- On Lok, the San Francisco -based nonprofit organization that empowers older adults to age with dignity and independence, has announced the appointment of Carl Gerlach as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Min Chang as Chief Strategy Officer (CSO).

"I am excited by the addition of both Min and Carl to our executive team," said Grace Li , CEO, On Lok. "Both have significant leadership expertise in healthcare and business and I look forward to their ongoing contributions delivering on our mission as we advance our strategy and growth by serving older adults through our programs and services."

Gerlach and Chang bring significant expertise in healthcare finance and strategy to the San Francisco nonprofit and will help advance the organization's work to support Bay Area seniors with important healthcare resources and support to empower their aging journey.

Carl Gerlach brings five decades of health care finance and executive experience in managed care, physician practices, and hospitals to On Lok. He has held roles as CFO, chief executive officer, board member, and consultant for hospitals, medical groups, clinics, healthcare systems, and managed care organizations, as well as On Lok.

As CFO, Gerlach's expertise in best practices, systems, and regulatory requirements will help shepherd the organization's financial success and stability, including management of On Lok's programs, services, and property portfolio, including On Lok PACE, On Lok 30th Street Senior Center and On Lok's Mission Nutrition. He received his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and has a BA in Economics from Occidental College.

Min Chang brings more than 35 years of experience in business development, senior healthcare, and mergers and acquisitions to On Lok. With a deep understanding of cross-cultural dynamics garnered over years working abroad, she will enrich the organization's strategic approach to serving diverse communities across the Bay Area .

Before joining On Lok, Chang was president and CEO of Microsurgical Technology, a global medical devices company, and CEO at Kin On Health Care Center, a nonprofit in long term care. Her background includes leadership roles at Omnicom Group, Honeywell, and AstraZeneca, and management consulting with Ernst & Young, Booz Allen and Accenture.

Chang holds a Doctorate in International Affairs and a Master of International Public Policy from Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies. She received her MS in Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management and a BS and BA respectively, from the University of Pennsylvania.

About On Lok

On Lok is a nonprofit organization that empowers older adults to age with dignity and independence. Founded in 1971, On Lok is a trusted resource in San Francisco , Santa Clara County , and the Tri-City area of Alameda County . On Lok founded and still operates the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE), which allows eligible seniors to live at home for as long as possible by providing comprehensive medical care and social services. On Lok 30th Street Senior Center, the largest multipurpose senior center in San Francisco , provides a second home, health programs, activities, and case management services to active seniors. On Lok Mission Nutrition provides more than 250,000 meals annually to seniors through its dining locations and meal delivery program. For more information, please visit www.onlok.org.

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SOURCE On Lok
The announcement is expected to contribute to increased foreign investment and job creation in the country

PANAMA CITY, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- In a momentous decision with positive implications for the international financial community and Panamanian economy, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) today excluded Panama from its grey list. This announcement comes following an FATF plenary meeting, held in Paris, France , in which it was determined that the Republic of Panama has strengthened its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing prevention system and implemented substantial regulations and actions that have allowed the country to take an important step forward in international transparency.

In response to Panama's removal from the FATF grey list, Panama's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Janaina Tewaney, released the following statement:

"After being added to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list in June 2019 , our administration took office in July of the same year with a firm commitment to fostering a more robust framework to fight money laundering and terrorist financing, and nurture a more transparent financial system. Since then, Panama has successfully implemented several strategic measures aimed at consolidating our legislative and regulatory framework to reinforce the fight against money laundering and enhance the transparency of our financial system according to international standards. Today, these substantial efforts have been recognized by the international community with the successful removal of Panama from the FATF grey list, an endeavor many years in the making."

Benefits both nationally and internationally include:

Increased foreign investment and job creation: With the recognition of the progress made in preventing money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism implemented by the country, foreign investment is expected to increase, which will boost tourism, trade and the creation of new and more jobs, as well as opportunities in the country. More accessible lines of credit: Cheaper and expanded lines of credit will benefit individuals and businesses seeking financing. Improved banking correspondents and international relations: It will lead to a significant improvement in the relations between Panama's local banks and their international correspondents. The basic links required for financial operations will be strengthened. Less pressure on the financial system: With the removal of the pressure associated with special reviews, Panama's financial system can operate more effectively and with greater confidence. Benefits for the insurance and securities industry: Panama's removal from the grey list will attract the world's leading reinsurers, who will be able to establish themselves in Panama and serve the Latin American market.

Panama's removal from the FATF grey list represents a crucial milestone in the country's economic development. Minister Tewaney further commented on the future implications of the decision for Panama , stating:

" Panama's removal from the grey list solidifies Panama as an attractive, stable and safe destination for foreign investment. Panama boasts a track record second to none in the region in building critical business sectors from financial services to the maritime industry to logistics and shipping. As one of the leading investment destinations in Latin America , Panama welcomes the continued interest of international businesses from a wide variety of sectors. President Cortizo's administration remains committed to maintaining a legacy of the highest international standards for the benefit of all Panamanians and the international community."

For additional details on the announcement, including actions carried out, please refer to the Ministry of Economy and Finances' press release here.

For media inquiries, please contact Kate Cigna at [email protected]

This message is sent on behalf of Panama's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Additional information is available at the Department of Justice, Washington, DC .

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Officials propose new Antarctic marine protected area but offer no new Southern Ocean protections

HOBART, Australia , Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project today praised delegates from 26 nations and the European Union for marking progress toward harmonizing an updated krill fishery management plan with Southern Ocean protections along the Antarctic Peninsula .

This conservation win came at the close of the 42nd annual meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), part of the Antarctic Treaty System and the governing body responsible for protecting Southern Ocean wildlife.

Taking another positive step toward enhancing protections for krill, CCAMLR renewed Conservation Measure 51-07, which distributes the annual krill catch into four different areas around the Antarctic Peninsula , while the Scientific Committee worked to harmonize the designation of the Antarctic Peninsula MPA (D1MPA) and implementation of an updated ecosystem-based krill fishery management approach, including by committing to hold a symposium in July 2024 . Tethering these two krill conservation efforts allows CCAMLR to fulfill its mandate to prevent irreversible impacts on the Southern Ocean ecosystem from human activities such as fishing. Over the past decade, industrial krill fishing has become increasingly concentrated in areas along the Antarctic Peninsula , affecting predators that feed in those same areas. Harmonizing the updated krill management with the D1MPA designation will ensure the catch limits in some of the most important areas for krill predatorsincluding penguins, seals, and rebounding populations of Southern Ocean whalesare spread out in space and time, which will minimize negative impacts in those areas.

Andrea Kavanagh , director of the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project's Antarctic and Southern Ocean work, said:

"With the agreement to couple the designation of the MPA in the Antarctic Peninsula with updated krill fishery management, members will ensure that all of the critical services krill provide to the planet, including carbon sequestration, remain intact, and that krill remain at a healthy population level so that predators can too."

More good news came with Norway's development and submission of a proposed Weddell Sea Phase 2 MPA that would cover areas in the region east of the prime meridian and complement a Phase 1 proposal, which spans areas in the western Weddell Sea . The new protections would cover approximately 720,000 sq km (278,000 square miles) and include two ecologically important areas: the Maud Rise and Astrid Ridge . This region is the source of nutrient upwellings that travel through currents to feed ocean life around the globe, as well as home to a large population of Antarctic krill that supports local populations of important predators such as penguins, petrels, and seals. Norway's Phase 2 proposal shows that CCAMLR members remain committed to establishing a representative network of MPAs around the continent.

Members also agreed to hold a transshipmenttransferring catch between vessels while at sea workshop in 2024 focused on changes needed to close loopholes in krill fishery management that could be masking illegal fishing.

Although there was incremental conservation progress, the meeting marked the eighth time in seven years that CCAMLR failed to designate any additional Southern Ocean MPAs.

Kavanagh added, "What's disappointing is the lack of action to establish the network of MPAs that CCAMLR committed to in 2011. We learned that 9,000 emperor penguin chicks likely died during the 2022 breeding season due to early sea ice melting in the Antarctic. In addition, Antarctica in spring 2022 had the lowest sea ice season ever recorded and scientists say this year could be on an even worse trajectory. Scientists say it would take only two additional years of massive die-off events for emperor penguins to become extinct. Although MPAs will not stop climate change, they will help provide resilience to the Southern Ocean ecosystem. CCAMLR has delayed MPA designations for seven years. How many more seasons like this will continue without any action by CCAMLR? It is clear that members are requiring less science to keep fisheries open than they are to secure protections that are badly needed to protect this spectacular region and the animals that call it home."

To protect this spectacular region and the species that rely on it, the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project and its partners are supporting CCAMLR and its member governments to ensure effective ecosystem-based fisheries management and to establish a network of large-scale MPAs around Antarctica .

Dona Bertarelli , philanthropist, ocean advocate, and Patron of Nature for the International Union for Conservation of Nature, said:

" The Southern Ocean is essential to a healthy planet, but protection efforts have been slowed and weakened by national interests. Our rapidly changing climate demands that countries work together to prioritize marine protection. Nature cannot wait for countries to settle their political differences. Without protection for large areas of the Southern Ocean and new fisheries measures, we will all suffer the consequences."

The Pew Charitable Trusts and Dona Bertarelli created the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project, with the shared goal of establishing the first generation of ecologically significant, large, and effective marine protected areas (MPAs) around the world. Today, the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project also seeks to connect MPAs and help conserve key migratory species and entire marine ecosystems. These efforts build on more than a decade of work by Pew and the Bertarelli Foundation, led by Dona Bertarelli , to create large-scale highly or fully protected MPAs. Between them, they have helped to obtain designations or commitments to safeguard nearly 12.6 million square kilometers (4.8 million square miles) of ocean by working with communities, local leaders, philanthropic partners, Indigenous groups, government officials, and scientists. Dona Bertarelli is a philanthropist, investor, sportswoman, and strong advocate for ocean conservation. The Pew Charitable Trusts addresses the challenges of a changing world by illuminating issues, creating common ground, and advancing ambitious projects including the need for effective marine conservation.

Notes to Editors:

The four proposed designations include the East Antarctic Marine Protected Area (EAMPA), which will encompass three newly protected regionsD'Urville Sea-Mertz, Drygalski, and MacRobertsonand as currently proposed, would cover nearly 1 million square kilometers (more than 374,500 square miles) in the waters off East Antarctica ; the Weddell Sea MPA Phase 1, which will span over 2.2 million square kilometers (849,424 square miles); the Weddell Sea MPA Phase 2, which will span over approximately 720,000 million square kilometers (278,000 square miles) and the Antarctic Peninsula (D1MPA), which will protect 671,000 square kilometers (259,075 square miles) of one of the fastest-warming areas on the planet. The MPAs would also help ecosystems throughout the region build resilience to the changing climate.

Each MPA will protect critical foraging and breeding grounds for penguins, toothfish, seals, and whales and will further CCAMLR's progress on creating a network of MPAs encircling Antarctica , which members agreed to in 2009. Additionally, these new designations increase total global ocean protections by 1%, a significant step forward in achieving the goal of protecting 30% of the global ocean by 2030.

Barb Cvrkel , 202-510-5670, [email protected]

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SOURCE Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project
Operating Profit Attributable to Shareholders of the Parent Company Reaches RMB112,482 Million , Life & Health NBV Sharply Increases by 40.9% YoY

Net Assets Attributable to Shareholders of the Parent Company Exceeds RMB900 Billion

HONG KONG and SHANGHAI , Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. (hereafter "Ping An", the "Company" or the "Group", HKEX: 2318 / 82318; SSE: 601318) today announced its results for the nine months ended September 30, 2023 .

In the first nine months of 2023, China's economy continued to rebound and improve with household consumption picking up steadily. However, global capital markets remained volatile in a complex international environment. It takes time for the domestic economy to pick up and improve, and the foundation for recovery needs to be further consolidated. Facing difficulties and challenges, Ping An focused on core financial businesses and strengthened the insurance protection function to serve the real economy. Following the technology-driven "integrated finance + healthcare" strategy, Ping An remained customer needs-oriented, continuously consolidated its integrated finance advantages, upgraded its digital capabilities, and pursued high-quality development.

Ping An maintained resilient overall business performance with solid fundamentals and stable core financial businesses in the first nine months of 2023. The Group delivered a 16.7% annualized operating ROE, with operating profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company reaching RMB112,482 million and net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company reaching RMB87,575 million , in the first nine months of 2023. Net assets attributable to shareholders of the parent company grew steadily by 3.9% from the beginning of the year to RMB 903.1 billion as of 30 September 2023 . Retail customers approached 230 million and contracts per retail customer reached 2.99 as of September 30, 2023 . Life & Health new business value ("NBV") amounted to RMB33,574 million in the first nine months of 2023, up 40.9% year on year on a like-for-like basis. Ping An continuously advanced its healthcare and eldercare service strategy. Customers entitled to "+ service" benefits accounted for approximately 68% of Ping An Life's NBV in the first nine months of 2023.

NBV sharply increased by 40.9% YoY; Ping An Life achieved steady business development

Ping An Life unswervingly implemented the "4 channels + 3 products" strategy[1]. China's macroeconomy recovered as market demand picked up gradually in the first nine months of 2023. Ping An Life achieved steady business development thanks to comprehensive advancement in channels, improved business quality, and diverse products and services launched. Operating profit of Ping An Life amounted to RMB84,911 million . Life & Health NBV amounted to RMB33,574 million in the first nine months of 2023, up 40.9% year on year on a like-for-like basis.

Channels development under the value proposition of high-quality development. In the agent channel, Ping An Life improved the team structure and per capita productivity of the agent channel by refining the tiered management of high-productivity agents. As a result, productivity climbed sharply with NBV per agent rising 94.4% year on year in the first nine months of 2023. Innovative channels, including bancassurance and Community Grid, accounted for 15.8% of Ping An Life's NBV in the first nine months of 2023. Ping An Life strengthened the coordination and integration of the bancassurance channel with Ping An Bank, and continuously expanded partnership with external banks. Ping An Life continuously promotes Community Grid and has built a team of over 11,000 highly competent specialists as of September 30, 2023 which is gradually maturing.

Upgrade of the insurance product portfolio driven by customer demands. Ping An Life improved "insurance + service" products by leveraging the Group's healthcare ecosystem and built differential advantages by enhancing its three core services, namely healthcare, home-based elderlycare and high-end elderlycare. In respect of healthcare, Ping An Life served over 19 million customers in the first nine months of 2023, up over 10% year on year. Ping An's home-based elderlycare services covered 54 cities across China and over 70,000 customers qualified for the home-based elderlycare services as of September 30, 2023 , of which over 50% activated the services. In respect of high-end elderlycare, a "Ping An Zhen Yi Nian " experience center opened in Sanya, Hainan Province in July 2023 , and the groundbreaking ceremony of "Guangzhou Yi Nian Cheng " was held in August 2023 .

The integrated financial services model continued to progress steadily; Ping An P&C and Ping An Bank maintained steady development.

Ping An continuously promoted its integrated finance model to enhance retail customer development. Ping An's integrated finance strategy is focused on the development of retail customers under a customer-centric philosophy to strengthen cross-selling among customer segments. In retail business, Ping An leverages its ecosystems to build a brand of heartwarming financial services by providing "worry-free, time-saving, and money-saving" one-stop integrated finance solutions. Retail customers increased 1.5% from the beginning of the year to nearly 230 million and contracts per retail customer reached 2.99 as of September 30, 2023 . Retail customers and contracts per retail customer have increased 15.9% and 12.0% respectively since December 31, 2019 .

Ping An P&C maintained stable business growth. Insurance revenue grew 6.8% year on year to RMB235,538 million in the first nine months of 2023, with operating profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company reaching RMB9,965 million . Overall underwriting combined ratio (COR) rose by 1.6 pps year on year to 99.3% in the first nine months of 2023, including an industry-leading 97.4% auto insurance underwriting COR. Auto and non-auto insurance claim cost increased due to disastrous typhoons and rainstorms. Moreover, auto insurance customers' travel needs recovered, and guarantee insurance business was impacted by changes in the market environment. As a result, overall cost fluctuated. The accumulated registered users of the "Ping An Auto Owner" app exceeded 194 million as of September 30, 2023 as Ping An P&C continued to provide auto owners with excellent services.

Ping An Bank maintained stable and healthy business performance. Net profit grew 8.1% year on year to RMB39,635 million in the first nine months of 2023. Non-performing loan ratio declined by 0.01 pps from the beginning of the year to 1.04% and provision coverage ratio was 282.62% as of September 30, 2023 , indicating adequate risk provisions. Ping An Bank continued to increase support for the real economy. Loans to areas including inclusive finance, manufacturing, agriculture, and green finance grew healthily as Ping An Bank improved its business portfolio. Ping An Bank furthered transformation in retail banking. Ping An Bank's retail assets under management ("AUM") rose 11.5% from the beginning of the year to RMB3,998,848 million as of September 30, 2023 . Ping An Bank had approximately 124,823,700 retail customers as of September 30, 2023 , including approximately 1,369,300 wealth management customers, up 8.2% from the beginning of the year.

Capital markets continued to fluctuate in the first nine months of 2023. Ping An pursues long-term returns across business cycles via value investing. The Company's insurance funds investment portfolio achieved an annualized comprehensive investment yield of 3.7% and an annualized net investment yield of 4.0% in the first nine months of 2023. The Company's insurance funds investment portfolio grew 7.1% from the beginning of the year to nearly RMB4.64 trillion as of September 30, 2023 .

Business volumes declined and asset valuations changed due to the impact of the macroeconomic environment in the first nine months of 2023. Moreover, capital markets were volatile and market investment demand was weak. As a result, profit of asset management business declined. Ping An's AUM exceeded RMB6 trillion as of September 30, 2023 . The Company primarily conducts its asset management business through companies including Ping An Securities, Ping An Trust, Ping An Financial Leasing, and Ping An Asset Management.

Ping An continuously advanced its healthcare ecosystem development to build differential advantages.

Ping An's healthcare ecosystem empowered core financial businesses through differentiated "Product + Service" offerings. Nearly 64% of Ping An's nearly 230 million retail customers used services from the healthcare ecosystem as of September 30, 2023 . They held approximately 3.42 contracts and RMB56,100 in AUM per capita, 1.6 times and 3.4 times those held by non-users of these services respectively.

In terms of payers, Ping An made significant progress in both corporate and retail customer development by effectively integrating insurance with healthcare and elderlycare services. The healthcare ecosystem of the Group had over 45,000 paying corporate clients in the first nine months of 2023. Ping An Health had over 44 million paying users over the past 12 months. Ping An achieved over RMB110 billion in health insurance premium income in the first nine months of 2023. Customers entitled to service benefits in the healthcare ecosystem accounted for approximately 68% of Ping An Life's NBV in the first nine months of 2023.

In terms of providers, Ping An integrated premium healthcare resources to improve services. Ping An acquired PKU Healthcare Group and integrated its excellent resources into Ping An's existing healthcare ecosystem. These resources include six 3A/tier-3 hospitals (with 4,000 beds), 13 specialty medical institutions and so on, among which Peking University International Hospital is a flagship hospital. Ping An had 17 health management centers as of September 30, 2023 . By integrating providers, Ping An partnered with 100% of top 100 hospitals and 3A hospitals, and accumulated nearly 4,000 in-house doctors and nearly 50,000 contracted external doctors in China as of September 30, 2023 . Ping An partnered with approximately 228,000 pharmacies as of September 30, 2023 , up by nearly 4,000 from the beginning of the year.

Ping An continuously builds leading technological capabilities, which have been widely utilized to empower its core financial businesses. Ping An has a first-class technology team of over 3,200 scientists as of September 30, 2023 . The Group's patent applications led most international financial institutions, totaling 50,815. Technology benefits are reflected in higher sales, better business efficiency, and stronger risk management. The volume of services provided by Ping An's AI service representatives reached about 1.7 billion times in the first nine months of 2023, representing 82% of Ping An's total customer service volume. Sales realized by AI service representatives accounted for 45% of the total sales volume of all service representatives. AI helped to collect 42% of overdue loans. The Company engages in technology business mainly through subsidiaries, associates and joint ventures, including Autohome, Ping An Health, OneConnect, and Lufax Holding, providing diverse products and services to ecosystem users, with significant synergies. Net profit of technology business declined year on year as its revenue was under pressure in the first nine months of 2023.

Ping An further advanced green finance initiatives, and fulfilled comprehensive corporate social responsibilities. Green insurance premium income amounted to RMB26,276 million in the first nine months of 2023. Ping An has cumulatively provided RMB103,241 million for rural industrial vitalization since the launch of "Ping An Rural Communities Support," and received the 12th "China Charity Award" in September 2023 .

In a complex and fast-changing market environment, the financial services industry was generally impacted to some extent in the first nine months of 2023. But the positive long-term fundamentals of the industry will remain unchanged. The Company will adhere to high-quality development with Chinese characteristics, keep its business resilience under the leadership of the Board of Directors, build its strengths, and make progress while maintaining stability. Ping An will maintain its strategic focus on core financial businesses and continue advancing its technology-driven "integrated finance + healthcare" strategy. The Company will continuously improve operations and management, advance comprehensive digital transformation, and increase cost-effectiveness. Ping An will keep the continuity and stability of its profit distribution policy, and maintain value investing and long-term returns for shareholders.

[1] 4 channels include agent channel, bancassurance channel, Community Grid channel, and lower-tier channel, and 3 products include insurance + healthcare, insurance + home-based elderlycare, and insurance + high-end elderlycare.

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SOURCE Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd.
The initiative is being promoted in collaboration with the Costa Rica Aerospace Cluster (CRAC).

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica , Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- From October 17 to 19 Promotora del Comercio Exterior de Costa Rica (PROCOMER) and ten Costa Rican aerospace companies will participate in the most important fair of the sector: NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exihibition, in Las Vegas .

With more than 23,000 attendees and 1,000 aerospace booths, the fair is the meeting point for professionals and manufacturing companies in the sector, which have spaces for networking and exhibiting to position Costa Rica as a suitable destination and a reliable partner for foreign direct investment in the aerospace sector, generate new leads, and maintain contacts with potential investors interested in establishing nearshoring operations in the country well as following up on export business generated in previous editions.

The Costa Rican delegation, led by PROCOMER, is composed of the companies Avionyx, Aerocalidad, Camtronics, Olympic Precision Machining, BOF Construction Advisor, GJ Cargo, Grupo Mitah Escazu PREINSA, TicoElectronics (both part of G.W. Lisk), which offer machining services, specialized software, electrical, electronics, logistics, real estate, as well as maintenance and repair of aerospace equipment.

Mario Saenz, PROCOMER's Export Development Manager, highlighted how important it is for Costa Rican companies to participate in international events and promote the human talent that Costa Rica has to offer in a sector as specialized as aerospace. "NBAA is the most important event in the aerospace sector, where Costa Rican companies have the space and the necessary exposure to present creative solutions, explore innovations and emerging technologies in the field. Therefore, it is vital to take advantage of the participation of key players and industry leaders in order to position the country in this competitive industry".

Additionally, Esteban Carrillo , Executive Director of Costa Rica Aerospace Cluster (CRAC), a consortium that brings together more than 30 aerospace companies in Costa Rica , emphasized that "the participation of Costa Rica Aerospace Cluster in NBAA 2023 marks an important milestone in the consolidation of the aerospace market. In a global context where regionalization and nearshoring are key trends, Costa Rica is positioned as a strategic partner for U.S. companies. Our political stability, logistical facilities, and advanced manufacturing expertise make us an attractive option for product transfer. With the support of PROCOMER, our goal is to increase business opportunities for companies," he said.

Costa Rica at the forefront of the aerospace industry.

Costa Rica is home to companies that encourage innovation, collaborative work and the talent of Costa Ricans in the development of new technological solutions that adapt to global trends in the aerospace industry. This is the case of Avionyx, a company that specializes in the development of software engineering for embedded systems in aircraft. Its trained professionals using innovative tools and strict quality processes are passionate about delivering superior products to its customers.

In order to support its aircraft certification program with the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration), Joby Aviation, a U.S. company dedicated to developing an electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle (eVTOL) for commercial passenger service, acquired Avionyx in 2022 as a subsidiary company to advance its operations and is currently working with PROCOMER to promote aerospace exports.

Costa Rica not only has the necessary requirements for international companies looking to invest in a country with highly qualified personnel but also continues to drive exports for this industry worldwide. At the end of the first half of 2023, total exports amounted to $5.77 million were delivered mainly to the United States , Ireland and Panama .

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SOURCE PROCOMER
WORTH, Ill. , Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Three years ago in Gaza, Abdelrahman Abu Shammala was a recipient of the Reach Education Fund scholarship, enabling him to pursue his dream of becoming a doctor. Sadly, on October 26th, 2023 , Abdelrahman was tragically killed by an Israeli bombing, along with more than 20 members of his family.

Reach Education is deeply saddened by the loss of Abdelrahman and his family. The organization's thoughts and prayers are with those who knew and loved him, and with all those who are affected by the current devastating events. "At just 23, Abdelrahman's journey as a Reach Education scholarship recipient was one filled with promise, hope, and determination. He was a young man with a bright future, and the loss of his life is a profound tragedy. We remember the day Abdelrahman received his scholarship, thanks to his 96.7% GPA, as a testament to his hard work and dedication to his education. It is a memory we will forever cherish," says Walid Mizyed , Executive Director of Reach Education Fund.

Reach Education extends their sincerest condolences to the survivors and their families, as well as to their dedicated supporters and donors during this incredibly challenging time. Reach Education Fund remains committed to its mission of providing educational opportunities to students in need. They honor Abdelrahman's memory and will continue our work to make education accessible to as many young minds in Gaza and The West Bank as possible, in his spirit of determination and hope.

For those who wish to offer support during this difficult time, the organization encourages contributions to the Reach Education Fund in Abdelrahman's memory. This support will help them continue to make a difference in the lives of students who, like Abdelrahman, aspire to achieve their dreams through education.

For more information and media inquiries:

Contact Ghada Shurrab

(470) 445-7977

[email protected]

About Reach Education:

Reach Education is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing educational opportunities to students in The West Bank and Gaza Strip . Since its inception, Reach Education has awarded scholarships to countless deserving students, helping them achieve their dreams and create brighter futures for themselves and their communities. www.reacheducationfund.com

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SOURCE Reach Education Fund
VANCOUVER, BC, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ - Awale Resources Limited ("Awale" or the "Company") (TSXV: ARIC) wishes to announce that it has issued the balance of 1,812,230 shares in settlement of outstanding debt. Requiring shareholder approval obtained on September 6 th, the Company has issued an aggregate of 3,978,882 shares in settlement of $477,465 of debt. The recent shares issued are subject to a hold period trading restriction expiring February 21, 2024 .

Additionally, the Company wishes to clarify that in its news release dated May 24, 2023 it incorrectly stated that its incentive stock options granted were exercisable at $0.20 . The 3,605,000 options granted are exercisable at $0.12 per share until expiry.

About Awale Resources

Awale is a diligent and systematic mineral exploration company focused on the discovery of large high-grade gold and copper-gold deposits. The Company currently undertakes exploration activities in the underexplored parts of Cote d'Ivoire. Awale's exploration success to date has culminated in a fully funded earn-in Joint Venture with Newmont covering one permit and one application (the "Odienne Project JV") within the greater Odienne Copper-Gold Project in the Northwest of Cote d'Ivoire, where three significant gold and gold-copper-silver-molybdenum discoveries have been made. The Sceptre East and Charger discoveries have significant scope for growth with future discovery and resource development drilling. The project has multiple pipeline prospects that have similar geochemical fingerprints to Iron Oxide Copper Gold ("IOCG") and intrusive related mineral systems. The 400km2 of granted tenure and 400km2 under application remains underexplored and offers significant upside potential. The Odienne Project JV forms a solid foundation for the Company to continue exploring in a pro-mining jurisdiction that offers significant potential for district scale discoveries.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

AWALE RESOURCES LIMITED

Andrew Chubb, CEO and Director

ForwardLooking Information

This press release contains forwardlooking information within the meaning of Canadian securities laws (collectively "forwardlooking statements"). Forwardlooking statements are typically identified by words such as: believe, expect, anticipate, intend, estimate, plans, postulate and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. All statements that are not statements of historical fact are forwardlooking statements. Forwardlooking statements in this press release include but are not limited to statements regarding the Company's presence in Cote d'Ivoire and ability to achieve results, creation of value for Company shareholders, achievements under the Newmont JV, planned drilling, commencement of operations, Although the Company believes any forwardlooking statements in this press release are reasonable, it can give no assurance that the expectations and assumptions in such statements will prove to be correct.

The Company cautions investors that any forwardlooking 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 the potential inability to obtain required regulatory approvals and satisfy other applicable closing conditions; possible adverse impacts due the global outbreak of COVID19; the Company's inability to generate sufficient cash flow or raise sufficient additional financing requirements; volatility in metals prices; the ability of the Company to retain its key management employees and skilled and experienced personnel; conflicts of interest; litigation or other administrative proceedings brought against the Company; actual or alleged breaches of governance processes or instances of fraud, bribery or corruption; exploration, development and mining risks and the inherently dangerous nature of the mining industry, and the risk of inadequate insurance or inability to obtain insurance to cover these risks and other risks and uncertainties; property and mineral title risks including defective title to mineral claims or property; changes in national and local government legislation, taxation, controls, regulations and political or economic developments in Canada and Cote d'Ivoire; equipment shortages and the ability of the Company to acquire necessary access rights and infrastructure for its mineral properties; environmental regulations and the ability to obtain and maintain necessary permits, including environmental authorizations and water use licences; extreme competition in the mineral exploration industry; delays in obtaining, or a failure to obtain, permits necessary for current or future operations or failures to comply with the terms of such permits; risks of doing business in Cote d'Ivoire, including but not limited to, labour, economic and political instability and potential changes to and failures to comply with legislation; the Company's common shares may be delisted from the TSX Venture Exchange if it cannot maintain compliance with the applicable listing requirements; and other risk factors described other filings with Canadian securities regulators, which may be viewed at www.sedar.com. Any forwardlooking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forwardlooking statement, whether because of new information, future events or results or otherwise.

Cautionary Statement

NEITHER TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE

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SOURCE Awale Resources
CARBONDALE, Ill. , Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Southern Illinois University Carbondale has signed a new partnership with Academic Partnerships (AP) to launch and support 12 online master's programs that can be completed in as little as one year.

By working together, SIU and AP will expand access to SIU's high-quality, high return on investment programs for working adults seeking more flexible online options. Launching in 2024, SIU Carbondale will offer the following programs in 8-week courses:

Master of Public Health

Master of Accountancy  general

Master of Accountancy  taxation concentration

Master of Accountancy  auditing/accounting information systems

Master of Public Administration

Master of Science  business analytics

Master of Business Administration

Master of Business Administration  marketing concentration

Master of Business Administration  finance concentration

Master of Business Administration  analytics for managers concentration

Master of Business Administration  accounting concentration

Master of Business Administration  management concentration

"The partnership fits well with SIU Carbondale's strategic plan, Imagine 2030, and its pillar of student success and engagement," said Sheryl Tucker , provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs.

"We are committed to expanding access and opportunities for students, including working adults who want to advance their careers in a timely fashion," Tucker said. "This partnership with AP will help us further our mission."

Founded in 1869, SIU Carbondale is the flagship campus of the Southern Illinois University System. With a Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education classification as a "high research" institution, it serves more than 11,300 students and is home to world-class research. The university offers online programs at the bachelor's, master's and doctoral levels, along with certificate and nondegree programs.

Helping to support this new affordable and quality delivery model is Academic Partnerships. AP is a partner to more than 55 universities across the country, primarily regional public universities, helping those institutions expand access to high-quality, affordable and workforce-relevant education.

"Academic Partnerships is honored to partner with SIU Carbondale as they launch these accelerated graduate degree programs," said Fernando Bleichmar , CEO of Academic Partnerships. "SIU Carbondale has a long history of serving diverse students from Illinois , throughout the country and around the world. With a shared mission of expanding access, we are excited to work side-by-side with SIU Carbondale as they expand their reach and impact."

About Southern Illinois University Carbondale

Southern Illinois University Carbondale is a doctoral research university, with several colleges, a School of Law and a School of Medicine. With a beautiful campus that includes a lake, a forest, university-owned farms and world-class facilities, the university offers unique opportunities such as undergraduate research often reserved for graduate students elsewhere. SIU Carbondale's strategic plan, Imagine 2030, prioritizes five distinct and equally important pillars: student success and engagement; diversity, equity and inclusion; branding and partnerships; research and innovation; and sustainability.

About Academic Partnerships

Academic Partnerships helps regional public universities and small colleges launch and grow their accelerated online programs. Founded in 2007, AP's mission is to expand access to high-quality, affordable, and workforce-relevant education, especially for working and adult students. AP brings single-minded dedication to student success, an integrated set of services, and data-driven performance to our collaboration with university partners. For more information on innovative online learning solutions, please visit www.academicpartnerships.com.

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SOURCE Academic Partnerships
LONDON , Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Stability AI, the UK's leading generative AI firm and a British AI unicorn headquartered in London , is pleased to contribute to the upcoming AI Safety Summit hosted by the UK Government at Bletchley Park.

Emad Mostaque , founder and CEO of Stability AI, and Ben Brooks , Head of Public Policy at Stability AI, will participate in the summit.

Emad Mostaque , CEO of Stability AI said, "As the leading British generative AI company, Stability AI is honoured to participate in the upcoming AI Safety Summit. The UK has a once in a generation opportunity to become an AI superpower and ensure that AI benefits all, not just big tech. Open technology is driving a wave of grassroots innovation in the UK and around the world that will greatly benefit economic growth and which is helping to promote transparency and competition in AI.

At this Summit, we will share our experience as a developer of the most popular generative AI models across image, language, code, audio, 3d, and video. We will encourage the Government and other policymakers to commit to supporting AI safety right across the ecosystem, from corporate labs to everyday researchers and from long-term threats to short-term risks to keep Britain safe and competitive.

We believe this is best achieved through a shared vision of the positive transformation this technology will unleash as well as a clear understanding of the emerging risks, so that we can innovate with integrity and align our efforts and systems to ensure our safety and security."

About Stability AI

Stability AI is a global company, headquartered in London , working to activate humanity's potential through artificial intelligence (AI). Today, Stability AI develops a range of generative AI models for image, language, audio, and video. With appropriate safeguards, these models are shared openly to promote transparency and competition in AI. Stability AI's flagship model, Stable Diffusion, is a family of open-source image models that powers up to ~80% of AI-generated imagery; their open-source language models have been downloaded over six million times; and their audio model, Stable Audio, was recently listed on the TIME Best Inventions of 2023.

Stability AI is committed to the safe development and safe deployment of open models. To that end, Stability AI has joined the White House Voluntary AI Commitments and participated in the first large-scale public evaluation of AI models announced by the White House. Stability AI recently testified in the UK Parliament and the US Congress , and engages widely with researchers and governments around the world as they consider the future of AI oversight.

About the AI Safety Summit

The AI Safety Summit 2023 is a major global event that will take place on the 1 and 2 November at Bletchley Park , Buckinghamshire . The summit will bring together international governments, leading AI companies, civil society groups and experts in research to consider the risks of AI, especially at the frontier of development, and discuss how they can be mitigated through internationally coordinated action.

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SOURCE Stability AI
ARVADA, Colo. , Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- More than 3,400 Colorado nonprofits are gearing up for the state's most impactful 24-hour giving movement, Colorado Gives Day which is Tuesday, Dec. 5 . with early giving starting on Wednesday, Nov. 1 .

Colorado Gives Day is easily the best day to give. For more than a decade, Coloradans have come together to set forth a wave of generosity that ripples across the state. ColoradoGivesDay.org makes giving easy. Log on to find all the causes you care about in one place. You can donate to one or more incredible nonprofits who work tirelessly to make good happen in Colorado . Donations start at $5 and no matter who you give to or how much you give, the result is the same  we help our communities thrive.

Beginning Nov. 1 and continuing through Colorado Gives Day on Dec. 5, all donations made on ColoradoGivesDay.org get a boost from a $1 million+ Incentive Fund that increases the impact of every dollar donated.

"We all have the things we care about and on Colorado Gives Day, you can give to what matter most to you," said Kelly Dunkin , president and CEO of Colorado Gives Foundation, the organization behind Colorado Gives Day. "Last year, 100,000 donors came together to donate more than $53 million for local nonprofits. So whether you want to help find a cure for cancer, protect our rivers, feed the hungry or help pets find forever homes, it's good on a monumental scale. The more fun we have giving, the more our communities thrive."

The online giving platform, ColoradoGivesDay.org, is free for nonprofits to use for online fundraising and makes giving easy and safe. All nonprofits on the platform are vetted to confirm their charitable status and that are in good standing with the Colorado Secretary of State's Office. Since ColoradoGives.org is also a year-round giving platform, Colorado Gives Foundation is offering an additional match for donors who set up a monthly recurring donation. For all new monthly donations set up Nov. 20  Dec. 5 , Colorado Gives Foundation will match it up to $100 , or $250,000 across the site.

FirstBank helped launch and is the presenting sponsor of Colorado Gives Day, providing cash prizes, event support, incentive fund contributions and paid advertising. "By coming together to donate on one of the largest giving days in the nation, we can amplify our giving power and create positive change," said Kelly Kaminskas , Chief Digital Officer for FirstBank and Colorado Gives Foundation board member. "FirstBank's continued support of Colorado Gives Day demonstrates our commitment to investing in the communities we love and serve."

Businesses that want to give can support the nonprofits of their choice through the Corporate Challenge, presented by Delta Dental of Colorado . "It only takes a little to make a big impact and the Corporate Challenge is a great way for businesses big and small to do that," said Andrea Miller , Director of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) for Delta Dental of Colorado . "We hope to inspire companies across Colorado to donate and are thrilled to give the first 100 companies that raise $1,000 an additional $1,000 match for their nonprofits."

"Let's take 'doing good' to new elevations this Colorado Gives Day to discover how much good we can create together," added Dunkin.

Colorado Gives Day is made possible by Colorado Gives Foundation and presenting sponsor, FirstBank, with support from other sponsors including: Delta Dental of Colorado ; Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA); Gary Community Ventures; Janus Henderson Investors; Woodnext Foundation; Amazon; Southwest Airlines; Trinchera Blanca Foundation; Graystone Consulting; Noodles & Company; Ireland Stapleton Pryor & Pascoe, PC; 9News; Entravision; Colorado Public Radio; Rocky Mountain Public Media; BizWest; Colorado Parent; Mile High Outdoor Advertising; iHeart Radio; Comcast; 5280 Magazine; Lamar Outdoor; PBS12; and Mountain Pearl.

About Colorado Gives Foundation

Colorado Gives Foundation connects donors, ideas and Colorado nonprofits to make good happen. Colorado Gives Foundation is a Jefferson County grant maker, investing over $8 million annually to help Jeffco nonprofits. We also work statewide to build the capacity of nonprofits and donors via Colorado Gives 365, nonprofit endowments and donor services. Through ColoradoGives.org, we make it easy for people to donate to the causes they care about, enabling meaningful change to help our neighbors thrive. Our work is rooted in attentive listening and a firm commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion. Colorado Gives Foundation is where donors find and discover the community impact that matters most to them, which is good for everyone.

About FirstBank

FirstBank began providing banking services in 1963. Today, it's known as an industry leader in digital banking. It has grown to be one of the largest privately held banks in the United States , maintaining more than $28 billion in assets and 100 branch locations across Colorado , Arizona , and California . FirstBank offers a variety of consumer deposit accounts, home equity loans, mortgages, rental property loans, and a full range of commercial banking services, including business financing, commercial real estate loans, treasury management, and more. Since 2000, FirstBank has been recognized as a top corporate philanthropist, contributing more than $85 million and thousands of volunteer hours to charitable organizations. The company is also unique in that a large portion of its stock is owned by management and employees, giving employees a financial stake in the bank's success through its Employee Stock Ownership Program. For more information, visit www.efirstbank.com.

Cindy Matthews , 720.898.5909

Director of Communications & Community Outreach

[email protected]

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SOURCE Colorado Gives Foundation
Ukraine has suspended the temporary grain corridor in the Black Sea for security reasons. An official ban on transportation was introduced on October 26, but in fact, ships have not been sailing for several days due to the increased activity of Russian aviation.

ADVERTISIMENT

This was reported by the Barva Invest consulting company, citing data from the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority (USPA). At the same time, there is no official announcement on the USPA website. According to specialized media, the USPA sent such a message directly to market participants working with the temporary grain corridor.

"The de facto suspension has been in effect for the past two days due to the decision of the military... The current ban extends to October 26. However, it may be extended," Barva Invest said.

The information was confirmed by Latifundist's source in the Ministry of Infrastructure. He said that the plans for vessel traffic were not coordinated by the military. "The process looks like this: every day we make a plan for the next day's vessel traffic. Then we coordinate it with the military. It is implemented only after their approval. The traffic was not approved yesterday, and today it is not approved either," he said on October 25.

ADVERTISIMENT

Barva Invest predicts that world grain prices will go up due to logistical difficulties. "Those market participants who are currently paying out of their own pockets for downtime will lay these risks in their future activities in Ukraine and transfer additional costs down the supply chain," analysts believe.

As reported by OBOZ.UA, on October 25, the spokesperson for the South Command, Natalia Humeniuk, said that Russian tactical aviation had become more active in the area of the sea trade route over the Black Sea. In particular, the Russian occupiers dropped unknown explosives in the Black Sea to impede shipping.

Only verified information is available on OBOZ.UA Telegra and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
Subterra's group of companies also acquires Nevada -based Harris Exploration as part of transaction for best-in-class services and state-of-the-art drilling rigs

Acquisition outlines intent to expand coast-to-coast geothermal drilling capabilities, systems equipment and talent to meet renewable energy growth with vertically integrated operations

Subterra President Matthew Tokarik leads west-coast operations with launch of Calgary office

TORONTO , Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ - Subterra Renewables ("Subterra" or the "Company"), North America 's leading geothermal energy utility provider, is pleased to announce its expansion into Western Canada and the United States following its affiliated companies' recent acquisition of privately held, Alberta -based Earth Drilling Co. Ltd. ("Earth Drilling"). As one of the west coast's leading drilling suppliers, the transaction includes the acquisition of Nevada -based Harris Exploration ("Harris") - a trusted source for drilling and installation services in Nevada , California , and Arizona .

We are establishing ourselves as a vertically integrated geothermal utility provider whose reach spans across North America

Earth Drilling and Harris are now part of Subterra's group of companies that provides coast-to-coast access to geothermal drilling for geo-exchange system installations.

Subterra also confirmed the launch of its Calgary, Alberta office headed up by Matthew Tokarik , President of Subterra Renewables: "We are thrilled to officially welcome our valued colleagues from Earth Drilling and Harris Explorations to our growing network of experienced talent as we scale up our operations and ramp-up assets to meet the rapidly growing demand for community developments powered by renewable energy. Aligning ourselves with seasoned leaders that bring a combined 115 years of geo-drilling and exploration experience across North America provides us with immediate access to best-in-class services as we build out our coast-to-coast business. An opportune time as electrification and renewables take their place in a Net-Zero world."

"We are excited and proud to be combining our visionary teams and resources as we diversify our geo-drilling operational opportunities to support a rapidly growing renewables industry under the Subterra group of companies," said John Paul Wegleitner , CEO of Earth Drilling. "Alongside our colleagues at Harris, we are embarking on a pivotal cultural transformation rooted in sound experience, innovative leadership and the shared ethos of a skilled and agile talent pool."

"This is a strategic move to ensure our renewable energy sector's supply chain is adequately equipped with nation-wide access to expeditious and precision-tested talent and services," said Kareem Mirza , Chief Revenue Officer, Subterra Renewables. "We are establishing ourselves as a vertically integrated geothermal utility provider whose reach spans across North America  best suited to meet the fast-growing renewable energy movement as district communities transition to electrification, powered by geothermal exchange systems."

According to a recent fact-sheet issued by the Pembina Institute , a national think-tank that advocates for strong policies to support Canada 's clean energy transition, it is estimated that more than C$5.0 billion worth of renewable energy investment has flowed into Alberta since 2019. Additionally, Climate Power US is reporting that over US$4.15 billion worth of investments into new clean energy projects has flowed into the state of Arizona throughout 2023. This makes both Alberta and Arizona optimal bases for centralizing Subterra's west-coast drilling fleets.

Earth Drilling brings close to 50 years of experience in geotechnical and environmental drilling, and Harris Exploration brings over 67 years of industry leadership. Together with Subterra's subsidiaries, they have amassed the continent's largest geothermal drilling fleet with 68 rigs and plans to expand the fleet to over 100 in the next 12 months. The Company rigs are easily transported to work sites in the Canada and the U.S. from their east and west coast bases.

About Subterra Renewables

Subterra Renewables is a geothermal exchange utility company with the largest drilling fleet in North America , operating the most energy-efficient and resilient heating and cooling technology in the world. Most recently placing No. 1 in the Globe and Mail's 2023 Report on Business ranking of Canada 's Top Growing Companies, Subterra is a fully vertically integrated company that custom engineers, installs, owns and operates first-of-its-kind geothermal exchange systems. As a leader in the sustainability and decarbonization movement, its best practices align with government ESG initiatives, expediting building approvals, and accelerates a path to Net Zero. Available under Subterra's energy as a service utility model, Aura, the company serves all North America .

For more information visit: www.subterrarenewables.com

Follow us on social: LinkedIn , Instagram , X (Twitter) ,

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SOURCE Subterra Renewables
Union Urges Council to Pass Proposal Unanimously

LOS ANGELES , Oct. 26, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Teamsters are applauding Los Angeles City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez for introducing a motion yesterday that urges the State of California to address public safety concerns surrounding autonomous vehicles and to regulate the expansion of robotaxis in the city.

"It is critical that the city council prioritize public safety ahead of the interests of big tech companies seeking to use public roadways as testing grounds for unsafe technology. The Teamsters are grateful to Councilmember Soto-Martinez for introducing this important motion to demand serious oversight of autonomous vehicles in Los Angeles ," said Chris Griswold , Teamsters International Vice President At-Large and President of Teamsters Joint Council 42. "Autonomous vehicles have proven that they are not ready for primetime, and we simply cannot afford to have this unsafe technology on our streets jeopardizing public safety. We urge the Los Angeles City Council to pass this motion without delay."

The motion calls attention to the fact that public officials and California residents have legitimate concerns about the ongoing safety problems associated with the hasty introduction of robotaxis, such as Waymo, on public roadways. The recent expansion of Waymo in Los Angeles has been met with both apprehension and outrage. On Wednesday, the Teamsters and other community groups protested outside the headquarters of Google, the parent company of Waymo, to highlight ongoing safety concerns associated with robotaxis.

"These machines won't just put millions of good-paying, union jobs at risk  they pose a serious threat to pedestrian safety," said Soto-Martinez. "We need actual regulations on robotaxis, and we should not be putting lives at risk by allowing our city to be a test subject for the tech industry."

The motion also urges the Los Angeles City Attorney to support a re-hearing of the California Public Utilities Commission's recent decision to permit the expansion of robotaxis in San Francisco . Waymo's primary competitior, Cruise, had its license to operate in the state suspended after it lied during an investigation by the California Dept. of Motor Vehicles about an incident where one of its robotaxis dragged a woman for 20 feet.

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.2 million hardworking people in the U.S. , Canada , and Puerto Rico . Visit Teamster.org for more information. Follow us on Twitter @Teamsters and "like" us on Facebook at Facebook.com/teamsters.

Contact:

Matt McQuaid (202) 624-6877

[email protected]

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SOURCE International Brotherhood of Teamsters
MSTS Refuses to Provide a Fair Wage

LAS VEGAS , Oct. 26, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, members of Teamsters Local 631 working for Mission Support and Test Services (MSTS), the contractor for construction services at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) expanded their picket line to the MSTS office in Las Vegas .

Talks with MSTS broke down after Teamsters Local 631's offer to continue discussions over the weekend was rebuffed.

"Yesterday, we proposed a fair contract to MSTS  one with wages consistent with the other MSTS collective bargaining agreements  and it was rejected," said Tommy Blitsch , Teamsters Local 631 Secretary-Treasurer. "Today, we have expanded our picket line outside the NNSS to include the company's corporate office here in Las Vegas . It is unfortunate that MSTS has forced us out on strike. We are committed to achieving a fair collective bargaining agreement that provides our members with good wages. We hope MSTS will begin to negotiate with us in good faith."

Local 631 is one of multiple labor organizations in the Southern Nevada Building Trades Unions alliance that are signatories to a Project Labor Agreement with MSTS. Over the past few weeks, MSTS has reached tentative agreements with other signatory unions that provide more than what is being offered to members of Teamsters Local 631. Negotiations on a fair tentative agreement are set to resume at 2 p.m. this afternoon.

"It is disappointing that MSTS thinks they can pit the Teamsters against other unions and bully our members into accepting lackluster compensation," Blitsch said. "We are prepared to fight for fair wages and urge the company to present us with an amendable collective bargaining agreement before the end of the day."

Teamsters Local 631 represents workers in gaming, construction, logistics, transit, and other industries throughout Southern Nevada . For more information, go to teamsterslocal631.org.

Contact:

Matt McQuaid (202) 624-6877

[email protected]

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SOURCE Teamsters Local 631
District Incorporates zSpace in CTE Program, Honored with "District of Distinction" Award

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. , Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Cumberland County Schools (CCS) was honored for achieving a groundbreaking milestone in the use of educational technology. Through innovative teamwork and meticulous planning, CCS successfully rolled out zSpace AR/VR laptops (501) districtwide, empowering ten (10) high schools and two (2) middle schools with immersive 1:1 Career and Technical Education (CTE) instruction. zSpace, Inc. a Silicon Valley education company, is proud to honor CCS as a "District of Distinction" in recognition of its innovative approach to education technology. By incorporating zSpace into its CTE program, CCS has demonstrated a commitment to providing students with cutting-edge learning experiences, setting a benchmark for educational excellence.

The Challenge:

CCS faced the challenge of implementing zSpace AR/VR laptops districtwide to enhance CTE education across 12 schools in diverse urban and rural communities, accommodating over 50,000 students in total.

The Solution:

Under the leadership of CCS, a multifaceted strategy emerged. The strategy, emphasizing quality professional development, IT expertise, and seamless curriculum integration, leverages zSpace's 3-dimensional AR and VR technology to create an unparalleled learning experience for students.

Keys to Success:

Strategic, Comprehensive Teacher Support:

Collaborative efforts between zSpace professionals and CCS teachers resulted in targeted professional development. The approach allowed educators to fully harness the potential of AR/VR technology. Chip Lucas , Executive Director of Cumberland's CTE program, highlighted the importance of such training, stating, "Targeted professional development is an essential component for our premier professionals to prepare and focus on career and technical essential standards." IT Teamwork:

Simultaneously, CCS's IT team worked diligently to ensure the seamless functioning of the technology. From setting up student logins to scheduling regular updates, their focus on usability streamlined the implementation process. Curriculum Integration:

Teachers immersed themselves in zSpace's lesson offerings, integrating them into their teaching guides and learning management system. Through dedicated workshops and support from zSpace experts, educators crafted a curriculum aligned with zSpace standards, ensuring a smooth transition for both teachers and students.

Chip Lucas emphasized the crucial role of zSpace's support, stating, "The support received from the different experts at zSpace was critical to the success of our curriculum development workshop. Teachers could see themselves as lead learners, ready to share content in a new and exciting way to students."

Looking Ahead:

With this successful implementation, CCS is poised to revolutionize classroom learning experiences this academic year. Students will engage in active, immersive education while building, dissecting, and experimenting in the virtual realm.

Cumberland County Schools' strategic approach and collaborative spirit exemplify the future of education, embracing technology to create enriching learning environments for students.

About Cumberland County Schools:

Cumberland County Schools, located in Fayetteville, North Carolina , is a diverse district serving over 50,000 students across urban and rural communities. As a pioneering force in education, CCS is dedicated to providing innovative and immersive learning experiences to prepare students for a dynamic future.

About zSpace:

zSpace is a leading provider of AR/VR technology for education. Their Inspire AR/VR laptops offer immersive, interactive learning experiences, transforming classrooms into dynamic hubs of exploration and discovery. By partnering with educational institutions, zSpace is shaping the future of education through innovative, technology-driven solutions.

Media Contact:

Amanda Austin

zSpace, Inc.

(408) 638-9413

[email protected]

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SOURCE zSpace, Inc.
GLENDALE, Ariz. , Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Prominently featured in The Inner Circle , James Geisbush is acknowledged as a Top Pinnacle Professional for his contributions to the Engineering Field.

Mr. Geisbush began his scholarship journey at Washington State University in 1990 where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering. He then pursued a Master of Science in Civil Engineering at the University of Arizona in 1994, and is capping his higher education experience working towards a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering at the University of Arizona State University, which should be completed in 2023.

Mr. Geisbush has exceptional experience in the field of Civil Engineering. He began working as a project manager/engineer at HDR Engineering Inc. from 2002 to 2006. He then joined the Central Arizona Project (CAP) in 2006, where his leadership and expertise were recognized resulting in increased responsibility, beginning as a project manager and subsequently as a senior civil engineer between 2009 and 2017. Adding to his diverse work history, Mr. Geisbush began his engineering career with the U.S. Navy in facilities maintenance.

Mr. Geisbush is a registered engineer who holds credentials as a professional civil engineer in the state of Arizona since 1997 and California since 2011. He received credentials as a project management professional through the Project Management Institute in 2008. A leader in his field, Mr. Geisbush is currently a senior civil reliability engineer who has been affiliated with the Central Arizona Project (CAP) for more than 17 years. He notes that CAP is the state's largest resource for renewable water supplies, serving more than five million customers, approximately 80% of the state's residents. Mr. Geisbush provides extensive expertise in large-diameter water pipelines and manages the maintenance of the pipelines and tunnels.

Known as an experienced professional and a pipe expert, Mr. Geisbush has been called upon by a multitude of professional agencies and institutes for his expertise. He has also served on numerous teams of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation concerning pipeline maintenance. A testament to his accomplishments, Mr. Geisbush developed a Pipeline Equipment Maintenance Plan (EMP), which outlines the proper time to conduct inspections on pipelines and tunnels and developed maintenance and repair procedures. Mr. Geisbush is heavily sought after to give presentations to national and international groups on pipeline maintenance.

In his future plans, Mr. Geisbush aspires to teach at the university level and also aims to work with several water agencies throughout the country to develop a textbook on pipeline maintenance because of the limited amount of information available. Additionally, he plans to catalogue all CAPs pipeline condition records before he retires.

Mr. Geisbush is dedicated to keeping abreast of the most state-of-the-art advancements in his field through his affiliations, including the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), where he is an elected Fellow of the organization. He also served on the executive committee of the UESI Pipelines Division from 2017 to 2022 and is a former chair of the committee, having served in this position between 2021 and 2022. He has also served on project advisory committees of the Water Research Foundation and remains a member of Tau Beta Pi.

Mr. Geisbush was recognized for his work with an Excellence in Pipeline Award from the ASCE in 2022. He attributes his success to his parents for encouraging him to pursue an education and for teaching him the importance of leadership. His mentors are Randy Randolph and David Gunn and he would like to dedicate this honor to his dear parents, Jon and Penny, and thanks them for their love and support.

Contact: Katherine Green , 516-825-5634, [email protected]

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CARMEL, Ind. , Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Prominently featured in The Inner Circle , Tyrone L. Thomas is acknowledged as a Pinnacle Life Professional Member for his contributions to the field of Business Optimization.

Mr. Thomas pursued higher education at Concordia University where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Management and continued at the Milwaukee School of Engineering where he received a Bachelor of Science degree.

Mr. Thomas has more than 23 years of experience in the field, serving in many capacities over the years. In his current position, he is the business optimization specialist for the telecommunications company Schooley Mitchell. He previously worked as the chief executive officer of Valiant 1 Consulting; the director of operations for the Chassis Division of Fritz Winer North America LP; and in the field with NTN Driveshaft Anderson; Chrysler Group LLC; and the Chrysler Kokomo Transmission Plant.

Highly respected in the business community, Mr. Thomas was recognized with the Businessman of the Year Award through the Madison Chamber of Commerce in 2019, which has been one of the highlights of his career. When reflecting on his career, Mr. Thomas believes the cornerstone of his success lay in treating people with respect as well as being successful in the field for more than 23 years.

A dedicated community member, Mr. Thomas is on the board of directors for the Madison County Chamber of Commerce and contributes to his community through Rotary International and the United Way of Madison County. Looking to the future, Mr. Thomas intends to experience the continued growth and success of his career and intends to create something that he can leave to his children.

Contact: Katherine Green , 516-825-5634, [email protected]

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Members can now enjoy better rewards and perks, up to 20% off hotels

SINGAPORE , Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading global travel service provider Trip.com is pleased to announce its 6th anniversary with a gift to its valued customers  an enhanced loyalty program that features a renewed membership tier mechanism and enhanced member rewards globally.

During Trip.com's 6th anniversary promotion campaign, from now to Oct 31 , Trip.com members can enjoy additional benefits on top of basic membership privileges.

Schubert Lou, Chief Operating Officer, Trip.com, said, "We are thrilled to celebrate this significant milestone for Trip.com as we continue journeying with our valued customers. As a sign of our continued commitment and gratitude to our loyal members, we hope these exciting new benefits and features add greater value to our customers, ultimately enhancing convenience and ensuring a safe, seamless and rewarding travel experience with Trip.com."

Enhanced Loyalty Program: Membership Tiers

Customers can sign up for free to become a Silver member to earn rewards and enjoy discounts on bookings. Membership tier upgrades are determined by the number of valid bookings made within twelve months. Members who attain an upgrade by completing a certain number of bookings will have their new membership tier extended by one year from the date of their membership upgrade. Trip.com will reset membership tiers according to the member's most recent settlement date.

New Services and Perks

Trip Coins already allow Trip.com members to enjoy many rewards and savings. This year, Trip.com will be rolling out new services for members to further support its ongoing commitment to excellent customer service, and mission to become a true travel companion for its global customer base.

For all member tiers, a new Emergency Assistance will be introduced that offers customers comprehensive help services ranging from medical support to translation assistance, child repatriation, and assistance with missing baggage. This service is available in all English-language regions.

Platinum and Diamond members can enjoy an exclusive Priority Assistance for Calls & Chats service for high-priority and fast access to a live Trip.com agent; a VIP Customer Specialists service for access to prompt and specialised assistance that has all of customer's travel details; and a Free Airport VIP Lounge Access (once per calendar year for Platinum members, twice per calendar year for Diamond members). The VIP Service is available for the following countries and regions: Australia , Great Britain , Singapore , Korea , Japan , Hong Kong , Taiwan , Spain , Denmark , Italy .

Gold, Platinum, and Diamond tier members can now enjoy a full waiver of the train handling fee, using the No Refund Handling Fee for Trains feature (once, twice, and four times per calendar year, respectively).

Commitment to Enhancing Customer Experiences

Trip.com continues to ensure world-class customer service, encapsulated in its all-in-one app offerings. Not only limited to flights, accommodations, attractions and car rentals, the global travel platform reiterates its commitment to customers through TripGenie  an advanced AI travel assistant designed to revolutionise travel planning and booking; the Trip Moments Community  a vibrant, travel-related social media experience that connects travellers globally; and Trip.com's unrivalled Customer Service team, who ensure smooth customer experiences with prompt service. With this upgraded loyalty program, Trip.com aims to be the trusted travel companion for global travellers.

Download the Trip.com app now, and start exploring, befitting, and experiencing our enhanced loyalty program today.

About Trip.com

Trip.com is an international one-stop travel service provider, available in 24 languages across 39 countries and regions in 31 local currencies and sites. Trip.com has an extensive hotel and flight network consisting of more than 1.2 million hotels and flights from over 480 airlines covering 2,600 airports in 200 countries and regions around the globe. Trip.com's world-class 24/7 multilingual customer service as well as additional centres in Edinburgh , Tokyo and Seoul , help to 'create the best travel experience' for its millions of customers worldwide. To book your next trip, visit trip.com.

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SOURCE Trip.com
Company celebrates grand opening, improves patient access in Florida's north panhandle

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. , Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Trulieve Cannabis Corp. (CSE: TRUL) (OTCQX: TCNNF) ("Trulieve" or "the Company"), a leading and top-performing cannabis company in the United States , today announced the opening of a new medical dispensary located at 4256 Lafayette Street in Marianna, Florida .

On Saturday, October 28 , Trulieve will host a grand opening celebration beginning at 9 a.m. featuring partner giveaways, music, specials, discounts, and opportunities to register for upcoming patient education sessions.

"We are constantly looking for new ways to engage with customers and expand access to cannabis," said Trulieve's Chief Executive Officer Kim Rivers . "This new location makes it easier for patients in the Marianna community to enjoy our superior customer service and top-quality products."

Located along U.S. Highway 90 and less than five miles from Interstate 10 , the new Marianna dispensary offers greater convenience to Florida patients and caregivers in Jackson , Washington , and Calhoun counties.

The new location will offer a wide variety of popular products including Trulieve's portfolio of in-house brands such as Alchemy, Co2lors, Cultivar Collection, Modern Flower, Momenta, Muse, Roll One, Sweet Talk and Trekkers. Customers will also have access to beloved partner brands such as Alien Labs, Binske, Black Tuna, Blue River , Connected Cannabis, DeLisioso, Khalifa Kush , Love's Oven, Miami Mango , O.pen, Seed Junky and Sunshine Cannabis, all available exclusively at Trulieve in Florida .

Trulieve offers statewide home delivery, convenient online ordering, and in-store pickup. Veterans receive 20% off every order when they show their military ID, and all first-time guests are eligible for a 60% new customer discount at any Florida Trulieve location.

The new Marianna dispensary will be open 9 a.m.  8:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m.  8 p.m. on Sundays . For more information, or to learn how to become a registered patient, please visit Trulieve.com and connect on Instagram or Facebook.

About Trulieve

Trulieve is an industry leading, vertically integrated cannabis company and multi-state operator in the U.S. , with established hubs in the Northeast, Southeast, and Southwest, anchored by leading market positions in Arizona , Florida , and Pennsylvania . Trulieve is poised for accelerated growth and expansion, building scale in retail and distribution in new and existing markets through its hub strategy. By providing innovative, high-quality products across its brand portfolio, Trulieve delivers optimal customer experiences and increases access to cannabis, helping patients and customers to live without limits. Trulieve is listed on the CSE under the symbol TRUL and trades on the OTCQX market under the symbol TCNNF. For more information, please visit Trulieve.com.

Facebook: @Trulieve

Instagram: @Trulieve_

Twitter: @Trulieve

Investor Contact

Christine Hersey , Vice President of Investor Relations

+1 (424) 202-0210

[email protected]

Media Contact

Phil Buck , APR, Corporate Communications Manager

+1 (406) 370-6226

[email protected]

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SOURCE Trulieve Cannabis Corp.
Kaplan Lawyers is now Tucker Lawyers

NEW YORK , Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Kaplan Lawyers, a reputable and trusted legal practice serving the communities of New York , is pleased to announce a significant milestone in its history. As part of our ongoing commitment to providing exceptional legal services, we are proud to introduce our new name: Tucker Lawyers.

Our decision to rebrand and adopt a new name reflects our dedication to growth, innovation, and continued excellence in the legal field. It also reflects an honor to our managing and lead attorney, John J. Tucker . While the name of the firm is changing, our core values and unwavering commitment to clients remain steadfast.

Tucker Lawyers will continue to offer specialized and focused legal services across a range of legal areas, including:

Vehicle Accident Law

Work Injury Law

Workers' Compensation Law

Personal Injury Law.

Our approach to law, and serving valued clients, is to foster transparent and communicative relationships. We pride ourselves on keeping you abreast of your case and ensuring that your needs are met every step of the way.

Our experienced team of attorneys will continue to deliver the highest level of legal knowledge and personalized attention that our clients have come to expect. We are committed to maintaining and strengthening client relationships as we embark on this new chapter.

Our exceptional team of lawyers and case managers  Adam Lepzelter, Adeniyi Taiwo , Nick DeFraia , Ralph Sabatino , Tom Durand , Justin Friedman and Kenneth Madera -- who our clients have come to know and love, remain an integral part of our team and will continue to serve our clients with integrity and dedication.

Lead attorney John Tucker says, "We are excited about the opportunities this change will bring, ushering in a new era of our firm's growth, vision, and momentum."

Tucker Lawyers expresses gratitude to our clients, partners, and employees for their continued support and trust over the years. We look forward to continuing to serve the community and clients under our new name: Tucker Lawyers. If you or a loved one requires earnest, supportive, and fierce legal representation, we're the firm for you.

About Tucker Lawyers:

Tucker Lawyers is a New York -based law firm dedicated to fighting on behalf of victims of personal injury accidents. The skilled team of attorneys has decades of combined experience serving clients in cases involving work injuries, vehicle accidents, medical malpractice, and more. Tucker Lawyers serves clients across the state of New York . For excellent legal services that meet your needs, contact Tucker Lawyers at (516) 399-2364.

This press release was issued through 24-7PressRelease.com. For further information, visit http://www.24-7pressrelease.com.

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SOURCE Tucker Lawyers
PHOENIX , Oct. 27, 2023 U-Haul, the industry leader in DIY moving and self-storage, today announced an exclusive partnership with resident technology company Moved.

The agreement includes exclusive rights for both U-Haul and Moved's business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) software, which streamlines the onboarding and offboarding process for tenants of multifamily communities.

It's a first-of-its-kind commercial agreement for U-Haul, which has been providing movers with affordable mobility solutions since 1945. This also marks the first outside investment of U-Haul in a software firm.

The U-Haul Tenant Moving Services division is an ideal partner for Moved, which addresses the need of multifamily housing owner-operators to offer tenants an easy and efficient "one-stop shop" for move-in and move-out services.

Visit Moved.com to learn more or book a demo.

"Renters have been turning to U-Haul for 78 years, and we've been there with the expertise to help," stated John "JT" Taylor, President of U-Haul International.

"This partnership is another way for us to reach renters and make their moving experience better. It puts the world's largest DIY moving fleet at their fingertips, as well as U-Haul self-storage, U-Box portable moving containers, moving supplies, and localized access to 7,000 Moving Help Service Providers and 23,000 U-Haul rental locations. Putting customers first is what U-Haul is about. Moved is another way to help us achieve that."

Renters move every two years on average. As the multifamily housing landscape continues to change, owner-operators face challenges like increasing costs, lower occupancy rates and evolving resident expectations.

When residents move in (or out) of apartments, they anticipate a smooth and user-friendly experience. Moved and U-Haul help alleviate stress and improve tenant satisfaction while providing the most cost-effective solutions.

Moved streamlines administrative tasks for management companies, reduces inefficiencies and, most importantly, provides a better moving experience for tenants.

"Moved is on a mission to eliminate stress from moving  for multifamily owners and operators, as well as their residents," stated Adam Pittenger , CEO of Moved. "Partnering with an iconic brand like U-Haul marks a significant milestone in our journey to achieving that goal and delivering a world-class moving experience."

About U-HAUL

Founded in 1945, U-Haul is the No. 1 choice of do-it-yourself movers with more than 23,000 rental locations across all 50 states and 10 Canadian provinces. The enhanced U-Haul app makes it easier for customers to use U-Haul Truck Share 24/7 to access trucks anytime through the self-dispatch and self-return options on their smartphones through our patented Live Verify technology. Our customers' patronage has enabled the U-Haul fleet to grow to 192,200 trucks, 138,500 trailers and 44,500 towing devices. U-Haul is the third largest self-storage operator in North America with 959,000 rentable units and 82.3 million square feet of self-storage space at owned and managed facilities. U-Haul is the top retailer of propane in the U.S. and the largest installer of permanent trailer hitches in the automotive aftermarket industry. We were recently named one of America's Best Large Employers (Forbes, 2023); a Best for Vets Employer (Military Times, 2022); and one of the Healthiest Workplaces in America (Healthiest Employers, 2022). Find careers at uhauljobs.com . Get the U-Haul app from the App Store or Google Play .

About Moved

Moved is a fully integrated, web-based software platform designed specifically for multifamily communities to create efficiency on-site by automating the move-in and out process, delivering an unforgettable experience for residents, and driving ancillary revenue. The interface guides residents through tasks required by the property they're moving to or from - everything from uploading renters insurance, reserving elevators and loading docks to scheduling key pick-ups. This transparent, self-serve dashboard makes moving easy for residents while automating tasks for property management teams. Moved is an open platform that integrates easily with Yardi, RealPage, ResMan, Entrata, and more.

Contact:

Jeff Lockridge

Sebastien Reyes

E-mail: [email protected]

Phone: 602-263-6194

Website: uhaul.com

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SOURCE U-Haul
On October 26, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky signed a bill on lifelong financial monitoring of politically exposed persons (PEPs): officials, MPs, employees of state institutions, and state and local authorities. This status will now become lifelong again, a change that was a condition for the start of negotiations on Ukraine's membership in the EU and at the same time a structural beacon for the IMF.

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Members of the Verkhovna Rada approved the relevant draft law No. 9269 in the second reading on October 17. It was supported by 276 MPs. "In general, this is probably the most complex law that we have at this session of the parliament," Danylo Hetmantsev, chairman of the Verkhovna Rada's Tax Committee, commented on the importance of the document's adoption.

He explained that Ukraine has fulfilled the requirement to start negotiations on EU membership and at the same time implemented a "very important structural beacon" of the memorandum with the IMF. "By adopting this law, we are limiting ourselves in certain financial transactions and burdening ourselves with additional financial monitoring for virtually a lifetime. But despite this and by neglecting their own interests, the deputies supported this law, which is important for the country as a whole. In fact, this is a very positive characterization of the responsible state position of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine," Hetmantsev said.

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Thus, with the lifetime status of a permanent resident, even those Ukrainians who worked in government, for example, in the 90s, should fall into this category. Banks should check their transactions with special care, but not all in a row.

"The status of a politically exposed person is established for life, but mechanisms to prevent a formal approach of primary financial monitoring entities to servicing clients with this status have also been developed. This approach previously led to the categorization of PEPs as high-risk clients without a real analysis of the feasibility and numerous cases of unjustified denial of financial services to politically exposed persons, their relatives and persons related to them. The law adopted by the parliament stipulates that when establishing business relations with PEPs and servicing them, primary financial monitoring entities are obliged to apply a risk-based approach and will be liable for its improper application," the NBU explained.

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What preceded it

Earlier, on October 16, the decision to restore the lifetime status of the PEP was made by the relevant committee of the Verkhovna Rada, Hetmantsev reported. This was the second decision of the committee. Before that, the document was recommended to be adopted in a different version, which provided for the return of the lifetime status of the PEP only after Ukraine joined the EU. This could have disrupted negotiations on Ukraine's full membership in the EU.

In addition, the previous version of the draft law contradicted Ukraine's agreements with the IMF, said IMF Resident Representative in Ukraine Vahram Stepanian. According to him, the adoption of the law on financial monitoring of the CES is one of the most important structural beacons for the second review of the Extended Fund Facility program and Ukraine's cooperation with the Fund in general.

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Stepanian reminded that the Ukrainian side was supposed to fulfill this structural milestone by the end of September. The deadline was not met, so the IMF expects the reform to be adopted immediately.

As reported by OBOZ.UA, Ukrainian banks conduct financial monitoring and have to control the transactions of all their clients. Large transfers, transactions involving politically exposed persons, and cash transactions are subject to mandatory verification. However, any "suspicious" transaction can be checked.

Only verified information is available on our Telegram OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
DALLAS , Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Mr. Vivek Ramaswamy will present his comprehensive crypto policy and deliver a keynote address entitled, American Leadership in Digital Assets at the North American Blockchain Summit in Fort Worth, Texas on November 16 th.

"We are thrilled to host presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy so he can share his vision for American leadership in digital assets," said Lee Bratcher , President of the Texas Blockchain Council, the organization hosting the conference. Bratcher stated further that, " Mr. Ramaswamy has garnered increasing interest and support for his willingness to disrupt the status quo and offer bold and differentiated policy for the future. This keynote address will be the next step in building on that momentum with a specific policy platform for bitcoin and American leadership in the digital economy."

"Our country is in the midst of a national identity crisis, in part caused by the gridlock and bitter partisan divide in Washington , which has created a leadership void filled by unelected bureaucrats who regulate through arbitrary enforcement," said Ramaswamy, 2024 Republican candidate for President of the United States . "Agencies and regulators are serving as a wet blanket on economic growth. They stifle innovation and push economic opportunity abroad. Our nation stands at a crossroads, and the decisions we make today will shape the future for generations to come."

Join us at the North American Blockchain Summit to hear from Mr. Ramaswamy and be a part of a growing movement to demand that the United States honor its founding principle of liberty for all. We should be empowering the millions of Americans that already own and invest in digital assets to build the digital economy of tomorrow based on decentralization and freedom instead of government central planning. " Mr. Ramaswamy has been a leading voice calling for a radical reduction in the size and scope of the federal government," said Steve Kinard of the Texas Blockchain Council. The vision of this conference is to provide an environment in which we can chart a course towards a stronger, more prosperous America.

For more information, visit: https://www.northamericanblockchainsummit.com/

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SOURCE North American Blockchain Summit
ELM Solutions recognizes clients for their innovative approach to legal spend management

HOUSTON , Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Wolters Kluwer ELM Solutions, part of Wolters Kluwer's Legal & Regulatory division, announced the winners of its seventh annual Legal Innovator Awards during the business' ELM Amplify 2023 conference in Bonita Springs, Florida . ELM Solutions clients Chubb and Marsh & McLennan Companies were celebrated for their innovative approach towards improving the delivery of legal services.

"It's an honor to celebrate these remarkable clients who continue to demonstrate the power of technology to drive new efficiencies, insights and value to the legal operations function," said Barry Ader , Vice President of Product Management and Marketing at Wolters Kluwer ELM Solutions. "Mastering legal spend will be crucial as corporate legal departments position themselves to navigate boldly into the future."

The annual Legal Innovator Awards recognize ELM Solutions clients who have successfully leveraged technology to transform legal operations. Chubb, the world's largest publicly traded property and casualty insurance company  not to mention a 2019 Legal Innovator Awards winner  worked with ELM Solutions to successfully streamline its electronic claims expense billing and matter management capabilities to gain operational efficiencies in the claims process by automating the process of sending invoices to external parties and customers.

Meanwhile, Marsh and McLennan Companies also utilized Passport to successfully coordinate its global legal spend through a single solution. A leading professional services firm in the areas of risk, strategy and consulting, Marsh and McLennan Companies was able to achieve the near elimination of paper invoices, better reports to senior management, and more relevant analysis of data to make cost effective decisions for stakeholders.

About Wolters Kluwer

Wolters Kluwer (EURONEXT: WKL) is a global leader in information, software, and services for professionals in healthcare, tax and accounting, financial and corporate compliance, legal and regulatory, and corporate performance and ESG. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with specialized technology and services.

Wolters Kluwer reported 2022 annual revenues of 5.5 billion. The group serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries, and employs approximately 20,900 people worldwide. The company is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands .

For more information, visit www.wolterskluwer.com, follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.

Media Contacts

Paul Lyon

Senior Director, External Communications

Global Branding & Communications

Wolters Kluwer

Office: +44 20 3197 6586

Email: [email protected]

Frank Ready

Senior Specialist, External Communications

Legal & Regulatory

Wolters Kluwer

Office: 717-205-3647

Email: [email protected]

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SOURCE ELM Solutions
By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) - As Israel prepares to open a ground offensive in Gaza after weeks of relentless bombardments, some residents of the Palestinian enclave say they are ready to fight the Middle East's most powerful military with their bare hands.

"Even if all our men die, we will fight," said Um Moatasem Al-Alami, whose house was hit by an Israeli air strike.

"We are not deterred by all they do, despite the wounds. We will get them out of our land even with our nails," she said.

Israel says it is preparing a ground invasion, but it has been urged by the United States and Arab countries to delay an operation that would multiply the number of civilian casualties in the densely populated coastal strip and might ignite a wider conflict.

There are also fears about what a ground invasion would mean for the more than 200 hostages reported to be held there by Gaza's ruling Islamist Hamas movement and other militant groups.

Mohammad Abu Daqqa and his family are not taking any chances especially since Israel mounted a series of small incursions. He left his home in the town of Abassan Al-Kabira east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip because of the intensity of the Israeli bombing.

They are staying in a tent inside a U.N. shelter. Like other Palestinians he does not want a repeat of the Nakba, the Arabic word for catastrophe that refers to the 1948 war of Israel's creation that led to their mass dispossession.

In the war surrounding Israel's founding, some 700,000 Palestinians, half the Arab population of what was British-ruled Palestine, fled or were driven from their homes, and have been denied return. Many ended up in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria as well as in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

"This is our land and they are fighting us inside it, for how long we will be in this bloodshed and this hardship?" said

Abu Daqqa. "Anyone who will come up here we will kill him, whoever comes."

The Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry said on Thursday that 7,326 Palestinians had been killed in the retaliatory air strikes, including 3,038 children.

Israel and the United States say they doubt the Gaza health ministry's figures but they have not supplied estimates of their own.

Israel says Hamas killed some 1,400 people including children in its Oct. 7 rampage.

Palestinian militants clashed with Israeli troops in at least two areas inside the Gaza Strip, the latest of several small-scale incursions, Hamas-affiliated media reported. The Israeli military did not immediately confirm the sortie.

Residents of central Gaza said they had heard what sounded like an exchange of fire as well as heavy shelling and air strikes along the border, with Israeli planes dropping flares and bombs.

Aside from the fear of losing their land, Gaza residents are facing a growing humanitarian crisis with shortages of food, water and medicine.

Some aid was allowed in from the Egyptian border but Palestinians and aid agencies say it is not nearly enough.

Israel has already tightened its blockade of Gaza, fully banning food and fuel imports and cutting the electricity supply. Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has warned that the price Gaza would pay "will change reality for generations".

At an intensive care unit of Gaza's Nasser hospital, doctors cannot keep up with the casualties.

"We had to open new intensive-care unit, but these units are not fully equipped, they lack artificial respiratory systems and machines to monitor the patients," said Dr. Hamouda Shaath.

"Because of the war and the current conditions we can't receive abdominal or heart cases. The fate of those cases, patients who suffer chronic illnesses or other diseases is unknown," he said.

The U.N. food agency said on Friday severe fuel shortages may force it to stop supplying emergency food aid to thousands of displaced families in Gaza.

"Only two of our contracted bakeries have fuel to produce bread at the moment and tomorrow there might be none," World Food Programme (WFP) representative Samer Abdeljaber said.

"This would be a terrible blow to the thousands of families living in shelters who have been relying on the daily bread deliveries," he said in a statement.

(Additional reporting by Alvise Armellini; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Joe Biden delivers a prime-time address to the nation about his approaches to the conflict between Israel and Hamas, humanitarian assistance in Gaza and continued support for Ukraine in their war with Russia, from the Oval Offi

()

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden met with China's top diplomat Wang Yi on Friday, the White House said.

The White House said Biden emphasized that the United States and China "need to manage competition in the relationship responsibly and maintain open lines of communication."

(This story has been refiled to add a dropped letter in the headline)

(Reporting by Jasper Ward; Editing by Doina Chiacu)
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the State Department in Washington, U.S., October 27, 2023. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz

By Humeyra Pamuk and Michael Martina

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. and China have agreed to work together toward an expected summit between presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping next month, U.S. officials said on Friday, following hours of meetings between Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi and senior U.S. diplomats in Washington.

In the first visit by a Chinese foreign minister to Washington since 2018, veteran diplomat Wang Yi also met Biden for an hour, talks that the White House described as a "good opportunity" in keeping lines of communication open between the two geopolitical rivals with deep policy differences.

Wang's meetings with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. national security advisor Jake Sullivan spanning over two days totaled nine hours, U.S. officials said, describing these interactions as "candid and in-depth".

Biden's top aides raised Washington's key concerns: the need to restore military-to-military channels between the two countries, Beijing's actions in the East and South China Sea, Taiwan, human rights, the flow of fentanyl precursors and the cases of Americans detained in China, U.S. officials said.

There were also "frank exchanges" between Blinken and Wang over the erupting conflict in the Middle East.

The key area that appeared to show some positive momentum was toward an expected meeting between Biden and Xi on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit next month in San Francisco.

"We are making preparations for such a meeting," said one of the senior administration officials briefing reporters on condition of anonymity. "Obviously, Chinese leaders often confirm publicly much closer to a trip, so I will leave it to the Chinese side to figure out if and when they make that announcement," the official said.

Wang told Biden that the objective of his visit was to help "stem the decline" in U.S.-China ties "with an eye on San Francisco", without giving any details, according to a brief statement from the Chinese foreign ministry.

The foreign ministry readouts for Wang's meetings with Blinken and Sullivan said that "both sides agreed to work together to achieve a meeting between the two heads of state in San Francisco."

"China attaches importance to the U.S. side's hopes of stabilizing and improving U.S. ties with China," Wang was quoted as saying in his meeting with Biden.

The Biden administration has seen direct leader-level engagement with Xi as particularly important in managing tensions as it seeks to prevent relations from veering into conflict.

"A big part of a potential meeting would be the two leaders sitting down together and having those conversations on strategic intent," the U.S. official said.

On Thursday, Wang told Blinken that the two countries have disagreements and need "in-depth" and "comprehensive" dialogue to reduce misunderstandings and stabilize ties. "Not only should we resume dialogue, the dialogue should be in-depth and comprehensive," Wang said.

Wang's three-day visit follows a flurry of bilateral diplomatic engagements in recent months, largely at U.S. request, aimed at salvaging what were rapidly deteriorating ties early in the year following the U.S. downing of an alleged Chinese spy balloon.

But some in Washington have questioned whether a slate of mostly unreciprocated U.S. cabinet-level official visits to Beijing over the past six months, including by Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, played into Beijing's hand.

The trips by Yellen and Raimondo led to new bilateral economic and commercial working groups, which critics worry will only pull U.S. focus away from - and possibly delay - sanctions, export controls and broader measures intended to enhance U.S. competition with China.

U.S. officials have maintained that increased diplomacy does not mean a let up in policy.

CONCERN OVER MIDDLE EAST

The Israel-Hamas conflict has added a fresh dynamic to the testy relationship between the superpowers, and Washington is hoping Beijing can use its influence with Iran to prevent an escalation into a wider war in the Middle East.

U.S. officials said the issue came up frequently during Wang's meetings but it was unclear whether Washington was able to get Beijing on board to commit to using its influence to help contain the conflict.

"We expressed our deep concern with the situation and pressed China to take a more constructive approach, and that would include, of course, their engagements with the Iranians, to urge calm," another of the senior administration officials said.

China has condemned violence and attacks on civilians in the conflict, and while Wang has declared Israel's actions "beyond the scope of self-defense" he has not named Hamas in his comments.

The second official said Blinken raised U.S. concerns about Chinas recent actions in the South China Sea and the East China Sea, including its dangerous and unlawful obstruction of the Philippine resupply mission to Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea and its unsafe intercept of a U.S. aircraft.

(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk, Michael Martina and Steve Holland; editing by Jonathan Oatis, Shri Navaratnam and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
FILE PHOTO: Chinese Premier Li Keqiang delivers a speech during a reception at the Great Hall of the People on the eve of the Chinese National Day in Beijing, China September 30, 2022. REUTERS/Florence Lo/File Photo

By Laurie Chen and Yew Lun Tian

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese former Premier Li Keqiang died of a heart attack on Friday, barely seven months after retiring from a decade in office during which his reformist star had dimmed. He was 68.

Once viewed as a top Communist Party leadership contender, Li was sidelined in recent years by President Xi Jinping, who tightened his grip on power and steered the world's second-largest economy in a more statist direction.

The elite economist Li had supported a more open market economy, advocating supply-side reforms in an approach dubbed "Likonomics" that was never fully implemented.

Ultimately, he had to bend to Xi's preference for more state control, and his former power base waned in influence as Xi installed his own acolytes to powerful positions.

"Comrade Li Keqiang, while resting in Shanghai in recent days, experienced a sudden heart attack on Oct. 26 and after all-out efforts to revive him failed, died in Shanghai at ten minutes past midnight on Oct. 27," state broadcaster CCTV reported.

An official obituary published by state media Xinhua on Friday called his death a "huge loss to the party and nation", describing him as an "outstanding leader".

"We must turn our grief into strength, learn from his revolutionary spirit, noble character and fine style," Xinhua said.

The obituary listed his policy achievements and said four times that Li carried out his work under the "strong leadership" of Xi.

There was an outpouring of grief and shock on Chinese social media, with some government websites going black-and-white in an official sign of mourning. The Weibo microblogging platform turned its "like" button into a "mourn" icon in the shape of a chrysanthemum on its mobile app.

"He's only 68. He probably hasn't enjoyed his life yet, right? He's been busy all the time taking care of the countrys important responsibilities," said a 74-year-old Shanghai retiree surnamed Xu. "We're all very sad."

Li was premier and head of China's cabinet under Xi for a decade until stepping down from all political positions in March.

Laying a wreath in August 2022 at a statue of Deng Xiaoping - the leader who brought transformational reform to China's economy - Li vowed: "Reform and opening up will not stop. The Yangtze and Yellow River will not reverse course."

Video clips of the speech, which went viral but were later censored from Chinese social media, were widely viewed as a coded criticism of Xi's policies.

Li also sparked debate on poverty and income inequality in 2020 when he said that 600 million people in the increasingly rich nation earned less than $140 per month.

END OF AN ERA

Some Chinese intellectuals and members of the liberal elite expressed shock and dismay on a semi-private WeChat channel at the passing of a beacon of liberal economic reform, with some saying it signalled the end of an era.

"Li will probably be remembered as an advocate for the freer market and for the have-nots," said Wen-Ti Sung, a political scientist at Australian National University. "But most of all, he will be remembered for what could have been."

Alfred Wu, associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore, said: "All these types of people no longer exist anymore in Chinese politics."

Li was less influential than his immediate predecessors as premier, Zhu Rongji and Wen Jiabao, Wu said. "He was sidelined, but what more could he have done? It was very hard for him, with the constraints he faced under Xi."

Adam Ni, an independent China political analyst, described Li as "a premier who stood powerless as China took a sharp turn away from reform and opening".

A glowing 2014 state media profile of Li, praising him as "a calm and tough wall-breaker", went viral shortly after his death was announced. It emphasised his hard work and tenacity in pushing for economic reforms.

Li's frequent visits to disaster sites and his easy camaraderie when speaking to ordinary people were also highlighted on Chinese state media.

Some social media users mentioned a song called "Sorry it wasn't you", in another veiled reference to Xi. The song went viral around the death of former President Jiang Zemin in November last year before being censored.

REFORMIST FACTION WANED

Retired Chinese leaders typically keep a low profile. Li was last seen in public during an August private tour of the Mogao Grottoes, a tourist attraction in northwest China. Social media videos showed him in good spirits, walking up stairs unaided and waving to excited crowds. Reuters could not independently verify the footage.

Li was born in Anhui province in eastern China, a poor farming area where his father was an official and where he was sent to work in the fields during the Cultural Revolution.

While studying law at the prestigious Peking University, Li befriended ardent pro-democracy advocates, some of whom would become outright challengers to party control.

The confident English speaker was immersed in the intellectual and political ferment of the decade of reform under Deng. That period ended in the 1989 pro-democracy Tiananmen Square protests that the military crushed.

After graduation, Li joined the Communist Party's Youth League, then a reformist-tinged ladder to higher office.

He rose in the Youth League while completing a masters degree in law and then an economics doctorate under Professor Li Yining, a well-known advocate of market reforms.

Before entering elite politics in Beijing he served as the provincial party chief in Henan, a poor region in central China, and the rustbelt province of Liaoning bordering North Korea.

His patron was Hu Jintao, a former president from a political faction loosely based around the Youth League. After Xi took over as party chief in 2012, he took steps to break up the faction.

Li is survived by his wife Cheng Hong, a professor of English, and their daughter.

(Reporting by Laurie Chen and Yew Lun Tian; Additional reporting by Nicoco Chan in Shanghai and Liz Lee in Beijing; Editing by William Mallard and Hugh Lawson)
A person holds a photo of late Haitian President Jovenel Moise, who was shot dead earlier this month, during his funeral at his family home in Cap-Haitien, Haiti, July 23, 2021. REUTERS/Ricardo Arduengo/File Photo

(Reuters) -Former Colombian army colonel German Rivera was on Friday sentenced to life in prison by a U.S. court for his role in the plot to kill Haitian President Jovenel Moise, whose 2021 assassination left a power vacuum that destabilized the country.

Rivera last month became the second of three defendants who have so far pleaded guilty to charges of participating in a plot to kill Moise, who was shot dead in his bedroom and his wife injured when armed men broke into their home at night.

There are a total of 11 defendants on the case, and last week police in Haiti arrested former justice official Joseph Felix Badio, who is accused of ordering the hit - which investigators say was carried out by Colombian mercenaries.

Several businessmen have also been accused of helping fund and supply the mission with weapons.

According to a signed plea document, Rivera, known as Colonel Mike, was part of the convoy which headed toward Moise's hillside Port-au-Prince residence on the night of the killing.

Rivera also relayed information to co-conspirators that the original plan to kidnap the president had become a plan to murder him, according to his plea.

Armed gangs have massively expanded their control since the killing, amassing arsenals of semi-automatic weapons believed to be largely trafficked from the United States and growing their wealth through frequent ransom kidnappings and extortion.

Around two million Haitians are estimated to live under gang control, and some 200,000 are internally displaced amid attacks as various gangs and police fight over neighborhoods.

Countries are mulling sending troops to support a U.N.-ratified force requested by Haiti's government a year ago to help outgunned police fight the gangs, but this has yet to materialize.

(Reporting by Sarah Morland and Kylie Madry)
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's defence ministry on Friday confirmed the appointment of Colonel-General Viktor Afzalov as commander of the country's aerospace forces, replacing General Sergei Surovikin who was removed from the role in August.

Russian state-run RIA and TASS news agencies had reported his appointment last week, citing sources.

Russia's Aerospace Forces comprise the air and space branches of its armed forces.

Afzalov, 55, had been acting head of the aerospace forces after Surovikin's dismissal. Kyiv says Afzalov played a direct role in the planning and prosecution of Russia's "special military operation" launched against Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

Surovikin, dubbed "General Armageddon" for his use of carpet bombing tactics during Russia's intervention in Syria's civil war, briefly headed Russias campaign in Ukraine last year before being demoted in January.

He became popular among hardline critics of the Russian military establishment including Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, who led a failed mutiny on June 24. Prigozhin died in a plane crash in August.

Surovikin, who had been praised publicly by Prigozhin, disappeared from public view after the mutiny. The New York Times reported that U.S. intelligence believed he had known in advance about the revolt, the biggest challenge to President Vladimir Putins authority in his 24 years in power.

In September Surovikin apparently returned to official duties as he was a part of a Russian Defence Ministry delegation that made a trip to Algeria, a major buyer of Russian weapons.

(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Gareth Jones; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The leaders of France, Germany and Italy called on Serbia on Friday to "deliver on de-facto recognition" of Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008 but which Belgrade has continued to regard as its province.

In a statement the day after holding talks with both sides, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said it was time for the Balkan neighbours to deliver on previous commitments.

Their move follows growing international concerns that the former wartime foes could return to open conflict following a series of violent incidents in recent months.

Much of the tension has focused on northern Kosovo, where ethnic Serbs form a majority. The rest of Kosovo is overwhelmingly ethnic Albanian.

In their statement, Macron, Scholz and Meloni repeated longstanding calls for Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti to establish an association of Serb-majority municipalities in the north, giving local Serbs a degree of self-government.

Serbia and Kosovo have spent years talks mediated by the European Union to normalise their relations. As that process has stalled, leaders of the EU's three biggest countries have become increasingly involved in trying to get relations back on track.

While the EU has previously shied away from the politically sensitive question of de facto recognition of Kosovo, the three leaders made clear that was what they expected from Serbia, putting pressure on Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.

"We call on Kosovo to launch the procedure to establish the Association of Serb-Majority Municipalities in Kosovo as prescribed in the draft Statute, and on Serbia to deliver on de-facto recognition," the statement said.

Vucic has previously said he will neither formally nor informally recognise Kosovo.

But both Serbia and Kosovo aspire to join the EU one day and the bloc has insisted that the two will need to settle their differences before they can become members.

"Without progress in normalising relations, both sides risk missing important opportunities," the three leaders said.

(Reporting by Andrew Gray and Angelo Amante;Editing by Alistair Bell)
Russian Federation troops fired at the village of Pozhnia, Sumy region, which is located near the Ukrainian-Russian border. The war criminals killed a teenager, who was only 16 years old.

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The Russian Armed Forces opened fire on the village around 13:00 on Thursday, October 26. This was reported by the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Ihor Klymenko on his Telegram channel.

He confirmed the death of a civilian. The 16-year-old boy was hit by enemy artillery right on the porch of his own house.

According to the minister, there are private houses of locals that were destroyed by the shelling.

"This is another attack on civilians. And Russia will definitely be held accountable for this," the Interior Minister assured.

The Prosecutor General's Office added that a 16-year-old boy was killed in the yard of his relatives' house. A pre-trial investigation into the violation of the laws and customs of war, combined with premeditated murder (Part 2 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) has been initiated.

ADVERTISIMENT

As OBOZ.UA previously reported:

- On October 25, the Russian terrorist army killed a 13-year-old child by shelling the territory of the Kherson region. At least two more civilians were wounded that day.

- Natalia Humeniuk, head of the press center of the "South" military command, said, "The Russian Federation has paused the use of missiles for now because it is preparing for future attacks on Ukraine. "It is possible that the enemy will use strategic cruise missiles X-101 and high-precision cruise missiles Kalibr to attack our critical infrastructure."

Only verified information is available on OBOZ.UA Telegram and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
FILE PHOTO: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presents a "communication" detailing the EU's "Green Deal Industrial Plan" to ensure the bloc plays a leading role in clean tech production, partly in EU's response to the U.S. Inflation Reduc

By Martin Coulter

LONDON (Reuters) - Two of the European Union's most senior officials plan to attend Britain's artificial intelligence (AI) safety summit next week, a two-day event that organisers hope will kickstart international dialogue on AI regulation.

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, and Vera Jourova, a vice president, will attend the summit, according to an update to their official calendars published on Friday.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is set to host around 100 guests at Bletchley Park, the country estate in southern England where mathematician Alan Turing helped crack Nazi Germany's Enigma code.

While Sunak hopes to secure Britain's role as a world leader in AI regulation, some have questioned what the summit will achieve in practice. Last week, Bloomberg reported a number of world leaders - including Germany's Olaf Scholz and Canada's Justin Trudeau - would not be attending.

The Commission previously declined to confirm whether any EU representatives would be at the event, saying in September that officials were reflecting on potential EU participation.

While several world leaders, including U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, are expected to attend the summit, the full guest list has not been made public.

The UK government's agenda for the event, published earlier this month, includes discussions on the unpredictable advances of the technology and the potential for humans to lose control of it.

Matt Clifford, a tech investor and one of two chief organisers of the event, recently told Reuters the aim of the summit was to kickstart international dialogue on AI regulation.

"It's not a parliament," Clifford said. "We're not making laws. We're not making treaties. We're trying to bring different people into the conversation with very different opinions."

(Reporting by Martin Coulter; editing by Christina Fincher; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
LONDON (Reuters) - Former British prime minister Boris Johnson said on Friday he would join television station GB News, adding another media role to his job as a columnist for the Daily Mail newspaper.

"I'm going to be giving this remarkable new TV channel my unvarnished views on everything from Russia to China, the war in Ukraine, how we meet all those challenges, to the huge opportunities that lie ahead for us," Johnson said on X.

GB News said Johnson would work as a presenter, programme maker and commentator starting in early 2024 and would play a key role covering Britain's next national election, which is expected next year, as well as elections in the United States.

The TV channel launched in 2021 with a mix of news, opinion and analysis that is more similar to U.S. networks such as Fox News than other British broadcasters. Britain's broadcasting watchdog has ruled the station breached impartiality rules on various occasions.

Johnson, who was the main political leader behind the movement to take Britain out of the European Union, became prime minister in 2019 and won a large majority in an election later that year. But he resigned in 2022 after a string of scandals which cost him the support of many Conservative Party lawmakers.

Johnson, who worked as a journalist before entering politics, began writing columns for the Daily Mail in June.

(Writing by William Schomberg, Editing by Paul Sandle)
FILE PHOTO: An illuminated Google logo is seen inside an office building in Zurich, Switzerland December 5, 2018. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo

By Krystal Hu

(Reuters) -Alphabet's Google has agreed to invest up to $2 billion in the artificial intelligence company Anthropic, a spokesperson for the startup said on Friday.

The company has invested $500 million upfront into the OpenAI rival and agreed to add $1.5 billion more over time, the spokesperson said.

Google is already an investor in Anthropic, and the fresh investment would underscore a ramp-up in its efforts to better compete with Microsoft, a major backer of ChatGPT creator OpenAI, as Big Tech companies race to infuse AI into their applications.

Amazon.com also said last month it would invest up to $4 billion in Anthropic to compete with growing cloud rivals on AI.

In Amazon's quarterly report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission this week, the online retailer detailed it had invested in a $1.25 billion note from Anthropic that can convert to equity, while its ability to invest up to $2.75 billion in a second note expires in the first quarter of 2024.

Google declined to comment, and Amazon did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The Wall Street Journal earlier reported the news of Google's latest agreement with Anthropic.

The rising number of investments shows ongoing maneuvering by cloud companies to secure ties with the AI startups that are reshaping their industry.

Anthropic, which was co-founded by former OpenAI executives and siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, has shown efforts to secure the resources and deep-pocketed backers needed to compete with OpenAI and be leaders in the technology sector.

(Reporting by Krystal Hu in New York and Chavi Mehta in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Jeffrey Dastin; Editing by Anil D'Silva, Devika Syamnath and Chris Reese)
FILE PHOTO: Luxembourg's Prime Minister Xavier Bettel attends the informal meeting of European heads of state or government, in Granada, Spain October 6, 2023. REUTERS/Juan Medina/File Photo

(Reuters) - Hungary shouldn't frustrate the EU's decision-making over new financial assistance to Ukraine in a bid to unblock its own frozen EU funds, Luxembourg's Prime Minister Xavier Bettel said on Friday.

"You can't say: if you want money for Ukraine, we want money for us. We shouldn't be the hostage of Mr Orban and I'm convinced we will find a positive solution," Bettel said before a meeting of EU leaders in Brussels.

(Reporting by Bart Meijer)
FILE PHOTO: A Reserve Bank of India (RBI) logo is seen inside its headquarters in Mumbai, India, April 6, 2023. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas/File Photo

By Jaspreet Kalra

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Indian banks are offering incentives for conducting transactions using the central bank digital currency, the e-rupee, nudged by the Reserve Bank of India to boost volumes, three sources said.

The incentives range from cash-backs to reward points, similar to those offered by the banks on credit and debit cards, they said.

The sources declined to be named as they were not authorised to speak to the media. The RBI did not respond to an email seeking comment.

The RBI started a pilot program for the e-rupee in December and is targeting a million transactions daily by year-end. But retail transactions are still tracking below the target, averaging around 25,000 a day, prompting the central bank's push, the first of the three sources told Reuters.

The central bank also introduced new features, including linking the digital currency to India's popular real-time payments system, Unified Payment Interface (UPI), to attract users, Reuters reported last month.

HDFC Bank, India's largest private lender, has rolled out such offers to expand the scale of such transactions, said Parag Rao, country head for payments, liability products, consumer finance and marketing at the bank.

Rao did not identify the specific offers it is running.

Smaller private lenders Yes Bank and IDFC First Bank are offering reward points that can be encashed for travel bookings, mobile recharges and cashbacks via FastTag, a highway toll collection system, according to the second of the three sources.

Other banks, including ICICI Bank and Union Bank, are also expected to roll out similar incentives, according to two executives at the respective banks.

Such "time-bound promotional incentives," for the CBDC are part of Yes Bank's digital strategy, a spokesperson for the bank said in an emailed response.

Emails sent to the other banks were not answered.

The banks are funding the offers themselves, all three of the sources cited earlier said.

Globally, countries like Nigeria offer rewards like discounts on auto-rickshaw rides to spur adoption of their digital currency but with limited success.

The incentives are largely "short-term measures," that will help drive volumes up temporarily, a senior banker at a private lender said. Banks, however, won't keep offering such incentives for long unless there is a clear business proposition, this person added.

(Reporting by Jaspreet Kalra; Editing by Dhanya Ann Thoppil)
By Krishn Kaushik and Andrew Mills

NEW DELHI/DOHA (Reuters) - Eight Indian former naval officers who were handed the death penalty by a court in Qatar on Thursday were charged with spying for Israel, a source in India and another in Qatar said.

Neither New Delhi nor Doha has officially stated the charges against the eight who were arrested in August 2022.

In India, a government official aware of Doha's stance said the Qatar authorities had accused them of spying for Israel.

The eight Indians will be able to appeal the death sentence, the source briefed on the case in Qatar told Reuters, as well as also saying they had been charged with spying for Israel.

Both sources spoke on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the case.

A spokesperson for India's foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment about the sources' comments.

There was no immediate reply from Qatars foreign ministry.

There was no immediate response from the prime ministers office in Jerusalem, which oversees Israels intelligence services.

The ruling comes as Doha is trying to negotiate with the Palestinian militant group Hamas for the release of over 200 hostages seized during its Oct. 7 rampage in Israel, which is pummelling Gaza with aerial strikes in response.

The case involving the eight Indians, who were working on a submarine project with a private company for the Qatari authorities, could also become a diplomatic headache for New Delhi, which depends heavily on Qatar for its natural gas needs.

The Indian government said on Thursday that it was "deeply shocked" that Qatar's Court of First Instance had awarded the death penalty to the eight Indians, adding it was "exploring all legal options".

New Delhi had said that it attaches "high importance to this case" and will "take up the verdict with Qatari authorities".

The government said it would not comment further due to the "confidential nature of the proceedings".

Jairam Ramesh, a spokesperson for India's opposition Congress party urged the Indian government on Thursday to "use its diplomatic and political leverage with the Qatar government" to do utmost to get them released at the earliest.

More than 800,000 Indian citizens live and work in Qatar.

(Reporting by Krishn Kaushik in New Delhi, Andrew Mills in Doha; Additional reporting by Dan Williams in Jerusalem; Editing by Alison Williams)
Emergency personnel work at the site of Israeli strikes on houses, as the conflict between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas continues, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, October 27, 2023. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israeli air and ground forces are stepping up operations in the Gaza Strip, Israel's chief military spokesperson said on Friday, amid reports of heavy bombing of the besieged enclave, where internet and mobile phone services were cut off.

"In the last hours, we intensified the attacks in Gaza," Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told a televised news briefing.

He said the air force was conducting extensive strikes on tunnels and other infrastructure.

"In addition to the attacks carried out in the last few days, ground forces are expanding their operations tonight," he said, raising expectations that the long-anticipated ground invasion of Gaza may be beginning.

Israeli forces have massed outside Gaza, where Israel has been conducting an intense campaign of aerial bombardment since a deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel by the Islamist movement Hamas.

Earlier on Friday, Palestinian mobile phone service provider Jawwal said that services including phone and internet had been cut by heavy bombardment.

A statement from the Palestine Red Crescent Society said it had completely lost contact with its operations room in Gaza and all its teams operating on the ground.

(Reporting by Henriette Chacar; editing by James Mackenzie, Chris Reese and Howard Goller)
FILE PHOTO: Egyptian volunteers gather next to a truck carrying humanitarian aid as it drives through the Rafah crossing from the Egyptian side, amid the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas. Rafah, Egypt October 22, 2023. REUT

ROME (Reuters) - The U.N. food agency said on Friday that "severe fuel shortages" may force it to stop supplying emergency food aid to thousands of displaced families in the Israeli-besieged Gaza Strip.

"Only two of our contracted bakeries have fuel to produce bread at the moment and tomorrow there might be none," World Food Programme (WFP) Representative Samer Abdeljaber said.

"This would be a terrible blow to the thousands of families living in shelters who have been relying on the daily bread deliveries," he added in a statement.

The Rome-based agency said it provides daily bread supplies, on average, for 200,000 people in shelters, but this fell to 150,000 on Wednesday due to the lack of fuel.

It also said that "essential food commodities are rapidly running out in Gaza's shops", as they are unable to restock "due to damaged roads, safety concerns and shortage of fuel".

On Thursday, WFP chief Cindy McCain told Reuters that "insane bureaucracy" at the Rafah crossing from Egypt into Gaza was slowing the flow of humanitarian aid to a "dribble".

(Reporting by Alvise Armellini; Editing by David Holmes)
FILE PHOTO: U.S. Rep. George Santos (R-NY) stands alone at the back of the House chamber during a second round of voting that once again failed to elect a new Speaker of the House at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., October 18, 2023. REUTERS/Elizabet

By David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A New York state Republican on Thursday made a privileged motion in the U.S. House of Representatives to expel indicted fellow Republican George Santos from Congress, a move that forces the chamber to hold a vote on the question.

The action was precipitated by the filing of 23 fresh federal criminal counts against the first-term U.S. congressman earlier this month, accusing him of inflating his campaign's fundraising numbers and charging campaign contributors' credit cards without their consent.

"George Santos is not fit to serve his constituents as a United States representative," said Representative Anthony D'Esposito, who stood on the House floor flanked by fellow New York Republicans Nick LaLota, Marc Molinaro and Mike Lawler.

Santos, who represents a district including parts of New York City and its eastern suburbs, has been enmeshed in scandal since his November 2022 election, first facing accusations that he fabricated much of his resume and then criminal indictment.

Santos pleaded not guilty to an initial May indictment and has said he will do the same for the new one. Free on $500,000 bail, he is due back in court on Friday for a status conference.

"Three points of clarification: 1. I have not cleared out my office. 2. I'm not resigning. 3. I'm entitled to due process and not a predetermined outcome as some are seeking. God bless!" Santos tweeted on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, after D'Esposito's motion.

Under House rules, lawmakers must act on a privileged motion within two legislative days. The House is next expected to hold votes on Wednesday.

With a narrow 221-212 majority, the House's Republican leadership has not taken action against Santos.

Newly elected Speaker Mike Johnson said in an interview on Fox News late on Thursday that Santos has a right to due process. "If we're going to expel people from Congress just because they're charged with a crime ... that's a problem," Johnson said.

Republican leaders could try to avoid an expulsion vote by moving to table the measure or refer it to a committee.

D'Esposito and his fellow New York Republicans announced plans to seek Santos' expulsion on Oct 11. But until Wednesday, the House had been shuttered for three weeks following the ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

The charges against Santos include false statements, aggravated identity theft and credit card fraud, accusing him of using the credit card information of people who had already donated to his campaign to make additional contributions.

"He has had plenty of time to do the right thing and resign," LaLota said in a statement. "The only logical step is to expel him from Congress."

In order to pass, the motion would require support from two-thirds of members in the House, meaning 290 votes. Democrats have repeatedly called for Santos to be expelled, and over a dozen Republicans have done the same.

(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Stephen Coates and Christian Schmollinger)
The United Kingdom will soon provide Ukraine with new air defense systems and demining equipment. This equipment will arrive in Ukraine in the coming months, joining other equipment funded by the International Fund for Ukraine (IFU).

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This was reported on Facebook by the press service of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, citing the British Secretary of State for Defense Grant Shapps. In particular, this aid package from the UK will include equipment for minefield clearance, bridge structures to provide crossings over rivers and trenches, and heavy equipment to destroy Russian obstacles and create defensive positions to protect Ukraine's key infrastructure.

"The UK has been steadfast in its support for Ukraine and its most urgent needs. I am proud to announce that the United Kingdom, along with our allies, are signing new contracts for delivering critical air defense systems to protect civilians from Putin's barbaric bombing campaign, as well as over 100 million of new equipment promised to give Ukrainian soldiers what they need to pierce Russia's deadly minefields," said Grant Shapps.

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At the same time, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, emphasized that Russia underestimates the resilience of the international community that assists Ukraine.

He also noted that this support package is the result of unprecedented efforts by 50 countries to provide Ukraine with the necessary tools to counter Russian aggression and de-occupy territories. During winter, Russia may try to undermine the morale of the Ukrainian people and divide the international community, but Putin underestimates the strength and resilience of his opponents.

"If we stick together and continue the course, then Russia will continue to lose, Ukraine will win, and the rules that are important for global security will remain in force," Radakin emphasized.

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As noted, Ukraine is currently the most mined country, which creates significant obstacles to the Armed Forces' counteroffensive. Therefore, demining capabilities will be key to the advancement of Ukrainian forces.

Earlier it was reported that the European Union countries are behind schedule in supplying artillery shells to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Earlier, the EU promised to provide 1 million rounds of ammunition by March, but now the deadline is being pushed back.

As reported by OBOZ.UA, the Ukrainian defense ministry allowed several new models of unmanned aerial vehicles to be used under a simplified procedure for the first time. It means that the military will be able to receive drones at the front within a few days. Previously, this process took months.

Only verified information is available on our Telegram OBOZ.UA and Viber . Do not fall for fakes!
A crashed car carrying migrants is seen near Asotthalom, Hungary, near the Serbian border, October 27, 2023. REUTERS/Stringer

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - One person died and eight people including four children were injured in Hungary near the Serbian border on Friday when a car carrying migrants crashed with a truck, authorities said.

Renata Papp, mayor of Asotthalom village where the accident occurred, said on Facebook the car driver, a smuggler, was lifted from the wreckage by another smuggler and whisked away in another car.

An ambulance spokesman Jozsef Hanga said three children suffered life-threatening injuries.

Police figures have shown a jump in illegal migrant crossings on Hungary's southern border with Serbia in the past months, arriving on the so-called Balkans route. With the help of smugglers they head for Slovakia or Austria.

The migrants, predominantly from the Middle East and Afghanistan, enter Hungary from Serbia despite a steel fence that Prime Minister Viktor Orban had built after the 2015 migration crisis that rocked Europe.

(Reporting by Krisztina Than and Krisztina Fenyo; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
FILE PHOTO: View of the Cobre Panama mine, of Canadian First Quantum Minerals, in Donoso, Panama, December 6, 2022. REUTERS/Aris Martinez/File Photo

By Valentine Hilaire

(Reuters) -Panama will reject all new mining projects, the president said on Friday, as his government defends a controversial contract extending operations for two decades at a major copper mine that has sparked growing protests demanding its cancellation.

President Laurentino Cortizo announced that the new mining restrictions will apply to both future mining projects as well as those currently seeking permits.

"All of them will be rejected," he wrote in a post on X. "This ban will go into effect from today."

The abrupt mining pause comes barely a week after Cortizo hailed the revised contract that allows the local unit of Canada's First Quantum to continue operating its lucrative Cobre Panama project.

The extended First Quantum concession for the sprawling open-pit mine guarantees state coffers at least $375 million annually while allowing it to operate for at least 20 more years, with the possibility of further extensions.

Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets to criticize the deal, as well as the mine's environmental costs, and demand its withdrawal.

Earlier on Friday, Economy Minister Hector Alexander echoed Cortizo's support for the contract.

"Panama is a mining country," Alexander told Reuters, arguing that without the mine, the country's economy would barely grow this year, versus the robust 6% growth the government estimates.

The Cobre Panama mine alone accounts for nearly 5% of Panama's economy.

Also on Friday, Panama's top court agreed to consider a second lawsuit challenging the contract.

In recent days, protesters have erected road blockades to pressure authorities, which also led to the suspension of classes nationwide earlier this week.

In an interview, Edison Broce, a lawmaker who opposes the contract, predicted that politicians who support it will be punished in elections next year.

He urged Cortizo and his government to heed the protesters.

(Reporting by Valentine Hilaire; Editing by Christian Plumb, Marguerita Choy and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
File Photo: Panama's President Laurentino Cortizo Cohen addresses the 78th Session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York City, U.S., September 19, 2023. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz/File photo

By Elida Moreno and Valentine Hilaire

PANAMA CITY (Reuters) -Panama has been removed from the gray list of financial crime watchdog FATF, a register which includes countries deemed to be doing too little to combat money laundering, according to a government statement on Friday.

The Central American country's first stint on the Financial Action Task Force's (FATF) so-called gray list, which can impact a country's investment ratings and reputation, was from 2014 to 2016.

It was added back again in 2019.

Panamanian Economy and Finance Minister Hector Alexander told Reuters on Friday that systemic changes made by the government in the financial sector are solid enough for the country not to rejoin the list in the future.

Deputy Financial Minister Jorge Almengor had told Reuters in June he expected Panama to be excluded from the list this month.

Exiting the list will unlock international investments to the country, especially from Europe, Alexander added, without disclosing a specific estimate for upcoming transactions.

"Panama is a small country, and as a small country we have to grow outwards," Alexander said.

Panamanian President Laurentino Cortizo celebrated the decision on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

(Reporting by Elida Moreno and Valentine Hilaire; Editing by Sarah Morland and Sandra Maler)
(Reuters) - The Australian Federation of Pilots (AFAP) said on Friday it has advised an unit of Qantas Airways it will stop work on Wednesday to Thursday next week in a bid to negotiate wages.

AFAP members make up over 90 per cent of the pilot group employed by Qantas' unit Network Aviation. The union has been negotiating with airline management over wage policy revisions in the resource-rich state, which is home to large deposits of iron ore and natural gas.

Qantas in a separate statement deemed the actions by the union "unreasonable escalation of the dispute".

"It is disappointing that there has not been any indication in that last four weeks that Qantas management might shift its position to bring its WA-based pilots' wages and conditions into line with those of other Qantas Group pilots," said Chris Aikens, senior industrial officer of AFAP.

Qantas is currently trying to explore available avenues to make an agreement that benefits its pilots and meets the needs of the business, it added.

(Reporting by Nausheen Thusoo, additional reporting by Echha Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Sohini Goswami and Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
Pope Francis looks on, on the day of the weekly general audience in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican, October 25, 2023. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) -Pope Francis has ordered a review of the Church's handling of the case of an internationally known religious artist who was expelled from the Jesuit religious order after being accused of sexual, psychological and spiritual abuse of adult women.

A statement on Friday said the pope had asked the Vatican's doctrinal office to review the case of Father Marko Ivan Rupnik and had lifted any statute of limitations, meaning he could eventually face a Church trial and be removed from the priesthood if found guilty.

It said the pope made the decision after a Vatican commission on the prevention of sexual abuse "brought to the pope's attention that there were serious problems in the handling" of the Rupnik case, as well as a "lack of outreach to victims".

About 25 people, mostly former nuns, have accused Rupnik, 69, of various types of abuse, either when he was a spiritual director of a community of nuns in his native Slovenia about 30 years ago or since he moved to Rome to pursue his career as an artist.

Allegations against Rupnik began surfacing in Italian media late last year, after which the Jesuit headquarters acknowledged that he had been banned in 2019 from hearing confessions and leading spiritual retreats.

The order expelled him in June for disobeying superiors.

Victims complained about not having been believed at first years ago and more recently expressed outrage after he was allowed to work as a priest in the diocese of Koper, in his native Slovenia. The diocese said he had been accepted because he was not convicted in either a Church or civil court.

The Vatican commission that asked the pope to consider reopening the case said in a separate statement on Friday that the Church had to face the "inadequacies" in disciplinary processes and would "remain watchful in ensuring the adequate administration of justice".

Rupnik has never publicly responded to the accusations against him, which the Jesuits said last February were "very highly" credible.

One ex-nun told an Italian newspaper how he used what she called psychological control to force her into sexual acts, and deployed "cruel psychological, emotional and spiritual aggression" to "destroy" her, particularly after she refused to have three-way sex.

The Jesuits, the Vatican's doctrinal department have come under criticism for their handling of the case. There has also been Italian media speculation that the Vatican bureaucracy gave him special treatment because the pope, too, is a Jesuit.

The order disclosed that in 2020 the Vatican's doctrinal department excommunicated Rupnik for "absolution of an accomplice," referring to when a priest has sex with someone and then absolves the person in confession. Rupnik repented and the sanction was lifted after only a month, an unusually short period.

Rupnik specialised in mosaics and came to prominence when the late Pope John Paul II commissioned him to redesign a chapel in the Vatican between 1996 and 1999. He later designed chapels around the world.

(Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
The Dome of the Rock is seen in the Al-Aqsa compound, also known to Jews as the Temple Mount, ahead of Friday prayer in Jerusalem's Old City, October 27, 2023. REUTERS/Latifeh Abdellatif

JERUSALEM/RAMALLAH (Reuters) - Israeli security forces restricted young Palestinians from entering Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem for prayers on Friday and deployed in strength across the Old City and beyond to quell any unrest spilling over from the conflict in Gaza.

In the occupied West Bank, Israeli troops killed four Palestinians during raids, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA said. Two of the dead were identified by militant factions as their members.

Large numbers of Israeli police kept guard around Al-Aqsa, a perennial flashpoint and often the scene of clashes, as Palestinians gathered for Friday prayers, Reuters journalists said. At one point they fired teargas.

It was the third week in row that Palestinians have been restricted from praying at the mosque following the Hamas assault on southern Israel on Oct. 7 and the ensuing Israeli bombardment and siege of Hamas-ruled Gaza.

They were made to say prayers outside the Old City, gathering by roadsides while Israeli security forces watched.

Eventually about 5,000 elderly worshippers were allowed to enter. The authority in charge of the mosque, the Jerusalem Islamic Endowments Department, said that normally about 50,000 would take part.

The mosque is sited on a hill known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as The Noble Sanctuary.

In the West Bank, the Israeli military said that during arrest operations, its troops came under attack in the city of Jenin and fired back, killing two men.

The Islamic Jihad militant group confirmed one of them belonged to it, and Hamas said one its fighters was killed in the Jenin fighting.

WAFA said another two Palestinians were killed, one in Jenin and one in the town of Qalqiya, saying their deaths took the number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank since the Hamas-Israel conflict broke out to 110.

The military said that in Qalqiya, troops came under fire while shutting down a store whose owner was accused of incitement to violence. They returned fire, hitting at least one person, a military statement said.

Protests also took place in Hebron in the West Bank.

In the capital of neighbouring Jordan, thousands of people took to the streets to denounce Israel and voice support for the Palestinians. Many waved the green, red white and black Palestinian flag.

"We are with Palestinians and with Gazans. We also came to stress that we are standing behind the resistance until the end," said participant Mahmoud Aqalan.

Another protester, Hassan Sultan, said: "It is our brothers who are being killed in Gaza. This is the least we could do - to make our position known to the world."

(Reporting by Reuters in Jerusalem, Ali Sawafta in Ramallah, Writing by Clauda Tanios and Angus MacSwan; Editing by Toby Chopra)
Russia's President Vladimir Putin, accompanied by head of the Roscosmos space corporation Yuri Borisov, visits the centre of the Rocket and Space Corporation "Energia" in Korolyov outside Moscow, Russia, October 26, 2023. Sputnik/Sergei Bobylev/Pool via R

(Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday the first segment of Russia's new orbital station, which Moscow sees as the next logical development in space exploration after the International Space Station (ISS), should be put into operation by 2027.

In a meeting with space industry officials, Putin also vowed to proceed with Russia's lunar programme despite the failure in August of its first moonshot in 47 years, Russian news agencies reported.

Putin said Moscow's decision to extend to 2028 its participation in the ISS, now 25 years old, was a temporary measure.

"As the resources of the International Space Station run out, we need not just one segment, but the entire station to be brought into service," Putin was quoted as saying of the new Russian orbital station.

"And in 2027, The first segment should be place in orbit."

He said the development of the station had to proceed "all in good time" or the Russian programme risked falling behind in terms of the development of manned space flight.

The new station, he said, had to "consider all advanced achievements of science and technology and have the potential to take on the tasks of the future".

Yuri Borisov, head of the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, endorsed Putin's position as a means of maintaining the country's capabilities in manned space flight.

"The ISS is getting old and will come to an end sometime around 2030," Russian agencies quoted him as telling reporters.

"If we don't start large-scale work on creating a Russian orbital station in 2024 it is quite likely that we will lose our capability because of the time gap. What I mean is the ISS will no longer be there and the Russian station won't be ready."In his remarks, Putin also said he had been informed fully about the technical mishaps that led to the crash landing of the Luna-25 craft in August on the moon's south pole.

"We will of course be working on this. The lunar programme will continue. There are no plans to close it," Putin said.

"Mistakes are mistakes. It is a shame for all of us. This is space exploration and everyone understands that. It is experience that we can use in the future."

Borisov said the next moon launch might be moved forward to 2026 from 2027 as now planned.

(Reporting by Ron Popeski; Editing by Sonali Paul)
Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with members of the Security Council via video link at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia October 27, 2023. Sputnik/Gavriil Grigorov/Pool via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY

(Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin called on Friday for measures to curb the illegal circulation of weapons and ammunition in Russia, including from Ukraine.

"We need to think about how weapons and ammunition enter the territory of the Russian Federation illegally... including from the territory of Ukraine," Putin told a meeting of Russia's Security Council.

"We need to look at all these channels, look at how departmental control measures are organised, and see what needs to be done additionally to strengthen the regulatory framework."

He invited the head of the National Guard and the interior minister to give a detailed briefing to the Council on the issue. No further information was immediately available.

Russian society has become more militarised since Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, which Moscow continues to call a "special military operation".

There are no signs of any let-up in a war that has also seen Ukrainian drone and missile strikes on targets inside Russia, including Moscow, and cross-border raids by pro-Ukrainian "saboteurs".

Last autumn, Putin ordered a special mobilisation of 300,000 reservists with previous military experience, the first of its kind since World War Two.

Russia also called up 147,000 men aged 18 to 27 between April 1 and July 15 to perform their compulsory military service as part of its longstanding twice-yearly conscription cycle.

Defence spending will account for almost one third of Russia's total budget expenditure in 2024, according to government draft plans, as Moscow diverts ever more resources to the war.

(Reporting by Gareth Jones; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
(Reuters) - Russia said on Friday that it had thwarted a Ukrainian drone attack near a nuclear plant in the country's south, where two news outlets said an explosion had damaged the facade of a warehouse storing nuclear waste.

The defence ministry said air defences foiled "an attempt by the Kyiv regime to carry out a terrorist attack" when they intercepted a drone late on Thursday near the settlement of Kurchatov in the southern region of Kursk.

Kurchatov is the location of the Kursk nuclear power station, which said in a separate statement that an attempt to attack it with not one but three drones had been thwarted.

It said there were no casualties or damage, and that radiation levels were normal and the plant was operating as usual.

Baza and Shot, two Russian news outlets with good security sources, both said that two of the drones failed to detonate but the third exploded near the waste storage building.

Kursk is one of several southern regions of Russia that have regularly come under drone attack in the course of the 20-month war that began with Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The governor of Kursk reported a previous drone attack on Kurchatov on Sept. 1.

Ukraine generally declines to confirm or deny military operations inside Russian territory.

Thursday night's incident came a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said a Russian drone attack in Ukraine's western Khmelnitskyi region had probably targeted the area's nuclear power station.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog said that attack destroyed "numerous windows" at the site but did not affect the Ukrainian plant's operations or its connection to the electricity grid.

(Reporting by Mark Trevelyan; editing by Mark Heinrich)
(Reuters) - Russian physicist Anatoly Gubanov was sentenced by a Moscow court on Friday to 12 years in a maximum security penal colony for treason, state news agency TASS reported.

He was the latest of a number of Russian scientists to be charged with treason in recent years on suspicion of passing sensitive material to foreigners. Critics of the Kremlin say the arrests sometimes stem from unfounded paranoia, something the authorities deny.

Gubanov, who worked at a Moscow institute, was arrested in December 2020 and accused of betraying classified information about Russia's aviation industry.

His colleague at the same department, Valery Golubkin, received a similar 12-year jail sentence for treason in June after being found guilty of handing over state secrets to "representatives of foreign organisations".

Russia's parliament voted in April this year to increase the maximum penalty for treason to life imprisonment, up from 20 years. Three hypersonic missile scientists based at an institute in Siberia are also currently on trial facing treason charges.

(Reporting by Gareth Jones; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
On Friday, October 27, Germany handed over a new military aid package to Ukraine. This time, it includes one IRIS-T surface-to-air missile launcher, four armored personnel carriers and other weapons.

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This was reported by the press service of the German government. This is the fourth package from Germany in October.

The new aid package includes, in particular:

IRIS-T SLM (long-range) air defense systems;

missiles for IRIS-T;

TRML-4D RADAR;

4 armored personnel carriers (unknown name);

4 HX81 tank tractors;

4 tank trailers;

6 border guard vehicles;

8 Vector UAVs;

5 surface drones;

4 GO 12 counter-battery radars;

M26 cluster munitions for HIMARS;

10 thousand protective goggles.

The German government noted that this year Ukraine received a total of 5.4 billion euros in military aid from Berlin.

It is worth noting that Germany is the largest partner in Europe and the second largest partner in the world after the United States in supporting Ukraine. Since the beginning of the full-scale war, Germany has provided Kyiv with almost 24 billion euros in aid, and is currently preparing a winter package worth 1.4 billion. It includes, among other things, Patriot, Iris-T6, Gepard air defense systems and other weapons.

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As OBOZ.UA reported, in October, Ukraine received a new batch of military aid from Germany. It included, among other military equipment and machinery, three Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft systems, which the defenders of our skies use, among other things, to eliminate enemy drones.
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Tata Group is seen at a business meeting organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in New Delhi March 23, 2009. REUTERS/Vijay Mathur/File Photo

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Tata Group is set to start assembling Apple iPhones in India after Wistron Corp approved the sale of its Indian manufacturing unit to the salt-to-software conglomerate, a minister said on Friday.

A Tata company will start making iPhones in India for domestic and global markets, Deputy Minister for Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on social media platform X.

The Wistron board approved the sale of Wistron InfoComm Manufacturing India Private Limited to Tata Electronics Private Limited for an estimated $125 million, according to a statement from the Taiwan-based supplier shared by the minister.

Wistron did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Apple has been touting India as its next big growth driver as it looks to move some production away from China.

The tech giant began iPhone assembly in the country with Wistron in 2017, before expanding through contracts with firms including Foxconn, and Pegatron Corp.

In December 2020, the Wistron plant in Karnataka state's Narasapura was forced to shut for three months after workers destroyed property during protests over non-payment of wages, causing millions of dollars in losses.

(Reporting by Munsif Vengattil; Writing by Blassy Boben; Editing by Alexander Smith)
SARAJEVO (Reuters) - Three migrants died in a shootout near Serbia's border with Hungary early on Friday, local media reported, along an EU entry route increasingly used by people smugglers and where Serbian police have stepped up patrols.

The gunbattle, in which a fourth migrant was wounded, occurred in abandoned buildings near the border village of Horgos, N1 television reported, citing police. Reuters calls to the local police station went unanswered.

It was not immediately clear who had fired the shots, which were reported by villagers.

A Serbian NGO said last month that criminal gangs are fighting for control of the area as they try to smuggle migrants into the European Union.

Hungary, which after the shootout urged EU authorities in Brussels to act to stem migrant flows in the area, is a member state of the bloc while Serbia is not.

Serbian police figures show a jump in unauthorised crossings by migrants, predominantly young men from the Middle East and Afghanistan, on Hungary's southern frontier with Serbia.

Despite the steel border fence that Hungary built after the 2015 migration crisis that rocked Europe, NGO Centre for Asylum Seekers says some 1,500 now attempt to cross into Hungary every day.

Government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said Hungary has repeatedly warned the EU over "the rising rate of violence and terror committed by migrant gangs" along its borders, to no apparent effect.

"I think it should be high time for Brussels to realise, it's not quotas and migrant camps we need, but a quick and organised effort to protect our borders, and ensure the safety of our citizens," Kovacs said on social media platform X.

(Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; additional reporting by Krisztina Than in Budapest; editing by John Stonestreet)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy drinks coffee at a petrol station after visiting positions near the front line, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk region, Ukraine June 26, 2023. Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via REUTERS ATT

By Tom Balmforth

(Reuters) - President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's top diplomatic adviser said officials from up to 70 nations will meet in Malta to discuss Ukraine's vision for peace this weekend, rejecting the idea that cracks are appearing in allied support for Kyiv.

The talks on Saturday and Sunday will bring together national security advisers and foreign ministry officials to discuss Zelenskiy's 10-point blueprint for a peace settlement, as Russia's war grinds through its 21st month with no end in sight.

The talks, which do not involve Russia, will help gauge Ukraine and the West's ability to drum up continued and broader support, particularly in the Global South, as the conflict in Israel dominates headlines, moving the focus from Kyiv.

Ihor Zhovkva, Zelenskiy's adviser, said some nations were still confirming their plans, but that up to 70 were expected in Malta, up from the 43 who attended the previous round in Jeddah in August, and the 15 who went to Copenhagen for talks in June.

"You can clearly see this is a growing number of countries compared to Jeddah and it's very important it will be representatives of countries of all the continents," he told Reuters in an interview in his office in Kyiv late on Thursday.

The Zelenskiy formula's 10 points include calls for the restoration of Ukraine's territorial integrity, withdrawal of Russian troops, protection of food and energy supplies, nuclear safety and the release of all prisoners.

Zhovkva declined to name the countries that will attend, saying that could help Moscow lobby them not to come, but, asked whether Beijing would send an emissary, he said: "We are working with many countries, including China."

China, which has maintained close economic and diplomatic ties with Russia during the war, attended the talks in Jeddah.

Zhovkva said Kyiv still aimed to convene a Global Peace Summit this year.

"I cannot predict the discussion, but one of the most possible and desirable outcomes (of the Malta talks) will be to define the place and date of a peace formula summit at the level of heads of state and government."

MIDDLE EAST FALLOUT

Privately, Western officials say they are concerned the conflict in the Middle East will deal a setback to Ukraine's push to win over the Global South and that it will also distract attention from Ukraine's cause.

This week, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said he was worried that accusations of double standards in the West's view of the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East could result in fewer votes of support for Ukraine at the United Nations.

Zhovkva said he saw no evidence of diplomatic setbacks in the Global South, pointing to recent phone calls between Zelenskiy and the president of Turkey, the Saudi crown prince, the emir of Qatar and the president of South Africa. He said more contacts were planned.

He also said he did not believe the election of Mike Johnson as the new speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives will deal a blow to vital military aid from the United States.

Johnson said on Thursday that he had concerns about Ukraine funding in general and he wanted to understand the "end game" in Ukraine.

Zhovkva said the election of a House speaker was a positive as it ended a three-week political vacuum and that he and Zelenskiy had not seen any signs of opposition to funding for Ukraine from either U.S. party when they visited Washington in September.

"I analysed the words of newly elected speaker Mr Johnson before he was elected or even after he was elected and I haven't heard that he himself or members of his party are deciding to cut military support to Ukraine," he said.

Separately, in Brussels, most EU leaders said on Friday they backed a plan to support Ukraine with 50 billion euros ($53 billion) over the next four years, though Hungary and Slovakia voiced reservations ahead of a decision the bloc needs to take unanimously in December.

(Reporting by Tom Balmforth; additional reporting by Andrew Gray in Brussels; editing by Giles Elgood)
GENEVA (Reuters) - A U.N. committee on racism voiced concern on Friday about a "sharp increase in racist hate speech and dehumanisation" directed at Palestinians by Israelis, including senior officials, since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks.

Israel's diplomatic mission in Geneva criticised the statement which it said "failed all the victims of the October 7 massacre and the victims of antisemitic attacks worldwide".

Israel says some 1,400 people were killed and more than 220 taken hostage when Hamas gunmen carried out attacks in southern Israel, prompting weeks of Israeli strikes on Gaza. The health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza says more than 7,000 Palestinians have been killed in the air strikes.

Israel has also stepped up operations against Islamist groups in the West Bank.

Since the start of the conflict there have been a growing number of reports of both antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents in places such as the United States and Britain.

The Geneva-based committee said it was "highly concerned" by recent comments including those made by senior Israeli officials, politicians and public figures and called for Israel to condemn hate speech and investigate and punish such acts.

It made specific reference to remarks made by Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on Oct. 9 in which he referred to Palestinians as "human animals" and said such language "could incite genocidal actions". Gallant's comments have already drawn condemnation from Palestinians and others.

The committee also repeated a past recommendation for Palestinian authorities to combat hate speech and incitement to violence.

Israel's diplomatic mission to the U.N. in Geneva said the committee's statement ignored surging antisemitism, including attacks on Jews and what it said were calls by protesters to murder them. "This has all been cynically cast aside by the Committee," it said.

The comments from the U.N. committee follows Israel's criticism of the global body's Secretary-General Antonio Guterres whom it accused of justifying Hamas attacks on Israel. Guterres rejected Israel's accusation, calling them a misrepresentation of his remarks.

The U.N. committee is made up of 18 independent experts and tasked with monitoring compliance with a 1965 treaty against racism which Israel and Palestinian authorities have both ratified.

(Reporting by Emma Farge; Editing by Alison Williams)
Palestinians with animal-drawn carts collect water from a water desalination plant, amid water shortages, as the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas continues, in central Gaza Strip October 27, 2023. REUTERS/Mohammed Fayq Abu

By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -The United Nations General Assembly on Friday overwhelmingly called for an immediate humanitarian truce between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas and demanded aid access to the besieged Gaza Strip and protection of civilians.

The resolution drafted by Arab states is not binding but carries political weight, taking the global temperature as Israel steps up ground operations in Gaza in retaliation for the worst Hamas attack on civilians in Israel's 75-year-old history.

It passed to a round of applause with 120 votes in favor, while 45 abstained and 14 - including Israel and the United States - voted no. Iraq later changed its vote to yes from an abstention after complaining of a technical difficulty, so the final tally was 121 votes in favor and 44 abstentions.

A two-thirds majority was needed for the resolution to pass, in which abstentions do not count. The General Assembly voted after the Security Council failed four times in the past two weeks to take action.

"It sends the message to everyone enough is enough. This war has to stop, the carnage against our people has to stop and humanitarian assistance should begin to enter the Gaza Strip," Palestinian U.N. envoy Riyad Mansour told reporters.

Israel's U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan rejected the resolution, saying the U.N. no longer holds any legitimacy or relevance and accused those who voted yes of preferring to support "the defense of Nazi terrorists" instead of Israel.

"This ridiculous resolution has the audacity to call for truce. The goal of this resolution truce is that Israel should cease to defend itself to Hamas, so Hamas can light us on fire," he told the General Assembly after the vote.

A Canadian-led bid to amend the resolution to include a rejection and condemnation of the "terrorist attacks by Hamas ... and the taking of hostages" failed to get the two thirds majority needed, garnering 88 votes in favor, 55 against and 23 abstentions.

ASSEMBLY STRESSES PREVENTING WIDER WAR

As fears grow that the conflict could spark a wider war, the assembly stressed the "importance of preventing further destabilization and escalation of violence in the region" and called on "all parties to exercise maximum restraint and upon all those with influence on them to work toward this objective."The General Assembly called on Israel to rescind its order for civilians in Gaza to move to the south of the enclave. Israel ordered some 1.1 million people in Gaza - almost half the population - to move south on Oct. 12.

The General Assembly also "firmly rejects any attempts at the forced transfer of the Palestinian civilian population."

Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas, which rules Gaza, after the militants killed 1,400 people and took hundreds of hostages in an Oct. 7 attack. Israel has struck Gaza from the air, imposed a siege and is preparing a ground invasion. Palestinian authorities say more than 7,000 have been killed.

The General Assembly called for "the immediate and unconditional release of all civilians who are being illegally held captive." It did not name Hamas anywhere in the text.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; editing by Grant McCool)
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III addresses a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group ahead of a two-day NATO Defense Ministers Council at the alliance headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, October 11, 2023. Olivier Matthys/Pool via REUTERS/Fi

By Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. military carried out strikes against two facilities in eastern Syria used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and groups it backs, the Pentagon said on Thursday, in response to a spate of attacks against U.S. forces in both Iraq and Syria.

As tensions soar over the Israel-Hamas conflict, U.S. and coalition troops have been attacked at least 19 times in Iraq and in Syria by Iran-backed forces in the past week.

A total of 21 U.S. forces have suffered minor injuries, the vast majority of them traumatic brain injuries.

"These precision self-defense strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on October 17," U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement.

The strikes were ordered by President Joe Biden.

"These Iranian-backed attacks against U.S. forces are unacceptable and must stop," Austin said in the statement.

"If attacks by Iran's proxies against U.S. forces continue, we will not hesitate to take further necessary measures to protect our people."

The strikes took place at roughly 4:30 a.m. on Friday in Syria (0130 GMT) near Abu Kamal, a Syrian town on the border with Iraq, and were carried out by two F-16 fighter jets using precision munitions, a senior U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said.

The targets were weapons and munitions storage facilities, the official added, speaking late on Thursday to reporters in Washington.

The United States has occasionally carried out retaliatory strikes against Iranian-backed forces in the region after they attack American forces. In March, the U.S. military carried out multiple air strikes in Syria against Iran-aligned groups that it blamed for a drone attack that killed an American contractor.

President Biden has sent a rare message to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warning Tehran against targeting U.S. personnel in the Middle East, the White House said earlier on Thursday.

The United States has 900 troops in Syria, and 2,500 more in neighboring Iraq, on a mission to advise and assist local forces trying to prevent a resurgence of Islamic State, which in 2014 seized large swathes of both countries but was later defeated.

There is growing concern that the Israel-Hamas conflict could spread through the Middle East and turn U.S. troops at isolated bases into targets.

"What we want is for Iran to take very specific actions, to direct its militias and proxies to stand down," a senior U.S. defense official said.

The United States did not coordinate the strikes with Israel, the official added.

Last week off the coast of Yemen, a U.S. warship shot down more than a dozen drones and four cruise missiles fired by Iranian-backed Houthis.

During a false alarm at Al-Asad air base in Iraq last week, a civilian contractor died from cardiac arrest.

The United States has sent warships and fighter aircraft to the region since the Israel-Hamas conflict erupted on Oct. 7, including two aircraft carriers, to try to deter Iran and Iran-backed groups. The number of troops added to the region is in the thousands.

Reuters reported this week the U.S. military was taking new measures to protect its Middle East forces during the ramp-up in attacks by suspected Iran-backed groups, and was leaving open the possibility of evacuating military families if needed.

The measures include increasing U.S. military patrols, restricting access to base facilities and boosting intelligence collection, including through drone and other surveillance operations, officials say.

(Reporting by Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart; Editing by Jamie Freed and Michael Perry)
MAPUTO (Reuters) - Police suppressed violent protests in Mozambique on Friday as opposition supporters took to the streets to decry the results of local elections earlier this month which they say were rigged.

Nine civilians and one police officer were injured in protests in the city of Nampula on Friday, a police spokesperson told reporters. Police arrested 70 people, including 60 in Nampula and others in capital Maputo, Nacala and Quelimane, he said.

Mozambique's Public Integrity Center, an independent non-profit entity, said one young man was confirmed dead in Nacala and two people were shot by police in Nampula. One police officer was also killed by mobs in Nampula, it said.

"Mozambique police was obliged to go out to the streets across the country and use force to quell violent protests," police spokesperson Orlando Mudumane said in a statement.

"The police, under the law, will use all available and proportionate means to suppress violence," he said. He did not take questions or mention any deaths.

Demonstrations started shortly after the Oct. 11 municipal elections as results trickled in. The ruling party, FRELIMO, was declared the winner in 64 out of 65 municipalities and has denied fraud.

The main opposition party, RENAMO, said it would go to the Constitutional Court to challenge the results.

"Police in Mozambique regularly use excessive and unnecessary force to kill, injure and detain protesters," rights group Amnesty International said in a statement last week.

Amnesty said it had documented the use of live ammunition against protesters and called for an investigation into the death of a 16-year-old boy during earlier demonstrations in Chiure municipality.

(Reporting by Manuel Mucari; Writing by Nellie Peyton; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
By Yuliia Dysa

(Reuters) - President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday Russian forces have lost at least a brigade worth of troops trying to advance on Ukraine's eastern town of Avdiivka.

Russia renewed a push to encircle the embattled town in mid-October, trying to overwhelm Ukrainian positions with constant barrages of artillery and waves of troops and fighting vehicles, according to local and military authorities in Ukraine.

"The invaders made several attempts to surround Avdiivka, but each time our soldiers stopped them and threw them back, causing painful losses. In these cases, the enemy lost at least a brigade," Zelenskiy told British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in a phone call, the president's office said in a statement.

Reuters could not independently verify the assertion and there was no immediate comment from Russia.

Brigades vary in size and can number between 1,500 and 8,000 troops. Battlefield losses are a state secret in Russia and Ukraine, though they are believed to run into the many tens of thousands on both sides since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Russian military bloggers have reported territorial gains by Moscow's troops in the area, while Ukraine has described the situation as extremely difficult and said Moscow was throwing a huge number of forces into the assault.

Russia's offensive at Adviivka has become the battlefield focus nearly five months after Kyiv launched a counteroffensive in the occupied south and east. Kyiv has made slower progress than it wanted to due to vast Russian trenches and minefields, but it continues to report small gains in the strategic south.

The Institute for the Study of War, an American non-profit research group, said on Thursday that Russia had taken heavy losses in equipment near Avdiivka that would "likely undermine Russian offensive capabilities over the long term".

In a battlefield update on Friday, the Ukrainian General Staff said the military "steadfastly holds the defence and causes significant losses" to Russian troops, adding they were not giving up in their attempts to encircle the town.

Avdiivka, about 25 km (16 miles) from Russian-occupied Donetsk, is surrounded by Russian-held territory to the north, east and south, leaving only its west for Kyiv's troops to resupply and evacuate people.

The town, which is home to a vast coking plant, has been under attack since 2014 when conflict first broke out between Ukraine and Russian-backed forces. Vitaliy Barabash, head of Avdiivka's military administration, said the renewed attacks to capture the town were the largest since 2014.

(Reporting by Yuliia Dysa; Editing by Tom Balmforth and Jonathan Oatis)
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UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 8-K

CURRENT REPORT

Pursuant to Section 13 OR 15(d) of The Securities Exchange Act of 1934

Date of Report (Date of earliest event reported)

Legend Spices, Inc. (Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

Nevada 333-271201 38-4247159 (State or other jurisdiction of incorporation) (Commission File Number) (IRS Employer Identification No.)

14 Kajaznuni Street , Apt. 70 , Yerevan , Armenia 0070 (Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code)

Registrants telephone number, including area code +374 ( 99 ) 432000

N/A

(Former name or former address, if changed since last report.)

Check the appropriate box below if the Form 8-K filing is intended to simultaneously satisfy the filing obligation of the registrant under any of the following provisions:

 Written communications pursuant to Rule 425 under the Securities Act (17 CFR 230.425)

 Soliciting material pursuant to Rule 14a-12 under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14a-12)

 Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 14d-2(b) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14d-2(b))

 Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 13e-4(c) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.13e-4(c))

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Title of each class Trading Symbol(s) Name of each exchange on which registered Common Shares N/A N/A

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an emerging growth company as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act of 1933 (230.405 of this chapter) or Rule 12b-2 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (240.12b-2 of this chapter).

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. 

1

Item 4.01 Changes in Registrants Certifying Accountant

On October 3, 2023, LEGEND SPICES INC. (the Company) was informed that Gries & Associates, LLC (Gries) had sold its business to GreenGrowth CPAs (GreenGrowth).

On October 17, 2023 the Company engaged and executed an agreement with GreenGrowth CPAs (GreenGrowth), as the Companys new independent accountant to replace Gries.

The reports of Gries regarding the Companys financial statements for the fiscal years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, being the two most recent fiscal years for which the Company has filed audited financial statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC), did not contain any adverse opinion or disclaimer of opinion and were not qualified or modified as to uncertainty, audit scope or accounting principles, except to indicate that there was substantial doubt about the Companys ability to continue as a going concern.

The board of directors of the Company, acting as the audit committee, approved the decision to change independent accountants.

During the fiscal years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, and through October 17, 2023, the Company had no disagreements (as defined in Item 304(a)(1)(iv) of Regulation S-K and the related instructions to Item 304 of Regulation S-K) with Gries on any matter of accounting principles or practices, financial statement disclosure or auditing scope or procedures, which disagreements, if not resolved to the satisfaction of Gries would have caused Gries to make reference thereto in connection with its report.

During the fiscal years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, and through October 17, 2023E, the Company did not experience any reportable events (as defined in Item 304(a)(1)(v) of Regulation S-K), except that management of the Company discussed with Gries the continued existence of material weaknesses in the Companys internal control over financial reporting.

The Company requested Gries to furnish it with a letter addressed to the SEC stating whether or not Gries agrees with the above statements and, if it does not agree, the respects in which it does not agree. A copy of the letter, dated October 17, 2023, is filed as Exhibit 16.1 to this current report on Form 8-K.

During the Companys fiscal years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, and through October 17, 2023, neither the Company nor anyone on the Companys behalf consulted with Gries regarding any of the following:

(i) either the application of accounting principles to a specified transaction, either completed or proposed, or the type of audit opinion that might be rendered on the Companys financial statements, and neither a written report nor oral advice was provided to the Company that Gries concluded was an important factor considered by the Company in reaching a decision as to any accounting, auditing or financial reporting issue; or (ii) any matter that was either the subject of a disagreement (as defined in Item 304(a)(1)(iv) of Regulation S-K and the related instructions to Item 304 of Regulation S-K) or a reportable event (as defined in Item 304(a)(1)(v) of Regulation S-K).

Item 9.01 Financial Statements and Exhibits.

(d) Exhibits:

_______

* Filed herewith

2

SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned hereunto duly authorized.

(Legend Spices, Inc.) Date: October 27, 2023 By: /s/ Khachactur Mkrtchyan Name: Khachactur Mkrtchyan Title: Chief Executive Officer

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Dawnell Parker, 52, pleaded guilty Oct. 26, 2023, to conspiracy to commit bribery after accepting free meals from Navy contractors. (File)

A Navy official pleaded guilty recently to a bribery conspiracy charge after accepting free meals at fancy restaurants from two defense contractors who were later awarded millions of dollars in government contracts.

Dawnell Parker, 52, admitted guilt Thursday in a plea deal whose terms were not disclosed in public court documents. The sentencing in Southern California federal court is scheduled for January 2024.

Parker accepted thousands of dollars in meals from the contractors while working in contracting at the Naval Information Warfare Center in San Diego, according to court records.

The two unidentified contractors are a Fredericksburg, Va., defense firm and a company with offices in Stafford, Va., and San Diego, the Justice Department said Thursday in a statement.

Ms. Parkers actions directly undermined the fair competition that ensures our warfighters always have the technological advantage over potential adversaries, Tyler Hatcher, an IRS special agent, said in the Justice Department statement.

Prosecutors said Parker began conspiring with a co-worker to accept the bribes in March 2016.

Thats three years after the first arrests in the ongoing Fat Leonard investigation, a scandal that has led to guilty verdicts from at least 17 Navy officers and civilians for accepting payouts and gifts from contractor Leonard Glenn Francis.

Parker and her co-worker accepted at least 11 meals valued at almost $6,000, the plea agreement said.

Parker and her co-worker first accepted a free meal worth more than $600 at Ruths Chris Steak House in Arlington, Va., on March 31, 2016.

Days later, Parker served on a board evaluating the contractor. The next day, the company was awarded a roughly $1 million contract, according to the stipulations in the plea deal.

Other freebies accepted included a $697 tab at the De Medici Cucina in San Diego, a sushi lunch worth $852 and another trip to Ruths Chris Steak House in Arlington for a $917 meal.

In exchange for the meals, Parker and her co-worker submitted glowing contractor evaluations and gave the company information to help them win bids, the agreement said. In Sept. 2016, the company was awarded a contract worth $2.1 million over five years.

Another contractor also provided the pair with meals and employed Parkers co-workers wife, prior to winning a $47 million contract, the plea agreement said.
The Russian invaders decided to hide the number of their aircraft stationed at the Belbek airfield in Crimea from the eyes of the partisans and the Ukrainian Defense Forces. The invaders simply added a few MiG-31 aircraft there.

ADVERTISIMENT

This was pointed out by OSINT investigator MT Anderson. On social network X (formerly Twitter), he published satellite photos that expose the lies of the Russian military (to view the news, scroll down to the end).

We would like to remind you that after the occupation of Crimea in 2014, the aggressor country turned the Belbek International Airport, which served Sevastopol and other cities of the peninsula, into an air base of the Russian Aerospace Forces. Since then, the airport has been closed to civil aviation, and the occupiers use it for their military purposes.

Last week, MT Anderson reported that the Russian Armed Forces had deployed additional MiG-31 aircraft there, which in the K modification are capable of launching Kinzhal missiles.

ADVERTISIMENT

Now the OSINT specialist has emphasized that the Russian two-seat supersonic all-weather long-range fighter interceptors at the airfield near Sevastopol turned out to be a fake.

He cited several facts that can be clearly seen on satellite images. According to him, various fighters and attack aircraft are indeed visible at the airfield - for example, Su-27, Su-30 and Su-34, as well as four MiG-31s.

However, the expert says that the last additional aircraft were simply painted on the parking lot by the Russians. The satellite image shows a clear absence of the MiG-31's shadow.

ADVERTISIMENT

"The Russian VKS use hangars to hide/protect aircraft," the investigator added.

As OBOZ.UA reported earlier, the Air Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces commented on the deployment of MiG-31 aircraft by the occupiers near Sevastopol. They emphasized that the enemy's deployment of aircraft is nothing new, as Russia uses about 40 airfields in total.

Only verified information is available on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang. (Giulia Marchi)

The sudden death of ex-Premier Li Keqiang has handed his old boss Xi Jinping fresh risks, as an outpouring of emotion for a popular reformer threatens to spill into discontent over a slowing economy.

Lis death from a heart attack, age 68, comes as a property crisis threatens to wipe out the savings of millions and unemployment hits a record high among Chinas youth.

Xis recent firing of his defense and foreign ministers has already raised questions around the stability of his government, and any attempts to use the occasion to express dissent could inflame those concerns. Chinese citizens have used the sudden deaths of Communist Party leaders in the past to challenge their grip on power.

Xi will probably try to get in front of any potential use of Lis death to make political arguments, by leading the mourning for his former colleague, said Neil Thomas, a fellow for Chinese politics at the Asia Society Policy Institutes Center for China Analysis. Therell be a concerted effort to suppress attempts to use Lis death to oppose his leadership.

The passing of Zhou Enlai in 1976 was a catalyst for widespread protests that year. A similar episode in April 1989  the death of ousted Communist Party official Hu Yaobang  prompted an outpouring of public grief that led to pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square.

Communist Party leaders sent troops into Tiananmen Square and surrounding streets to violently clear those protesters, with estimates of the death toll ranging from hundreds to as many as 2,600.

Xi has recent experience in managing such challenges. President Jiang Zemins death last year on Nov. 30 came at another sensitive moment, days after rare nationwide protests against Chinas rigid Covid controls. Those street demonstrations even included calls for the Chinese leaders removal.

Xi abruptly lifted his Covid Zero policy days after Jiangs death, jettisoning key tenets of his virus elimination strategy as he tried to quell public discontent.

Jiangs funeral was a heavily scripted affair. The people that lined the streets of Shanghai and Beijing to watch his hearse pass by apparently organized by the government. Photos that circulated online seemed to show people being bussed to specific locations.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said Lis funeral arrangements would be announced in due time at a regular press briefing in Beijing on Friday. We mourn over the tragic passing away of Comrade Premier Li Keqiang due to a sudden heart attack, she added.

Man of the people

Many users on Chinas microblogging platform Weibo, where the news of his death was viewed some 1.3 billion times on Friday, expressed regret that Li hadnt lived a longer life.

One user wrote that people can identify with Lis story, as Chinese citizens are also trying to pull through but have been continuously losing ground during the last 10 years.

During Lis decade as premier he was sidelined as Xi took over key responsibilities traditionally reserved for the premier and amassed the most power of any leader in China since Mao Zedong. Nostalgia for Lis vision of a more open China could resonate with those frustrated with the Chinese leaders more inward-looking era of slower growth and greater focus on national security.

Li was also popular for being a rare candid voice in a sea of terse propaganda speak. In 2020, for example, he set off a nationwide debate on poverty alleviation, after complaining two-fifths of Chinas populations earned not even enough to rent a room in a medium-sized Chinese city.

Perhaps in a bid to avoid lingering speculation around Li, the ruling Communist Party announced the former premiers death hours after he died, according to timing provided in a statement on the governments website. By contrast, rumors of Jiangs death were circulating online for weeks before being made public.

Beijings initial announcement that an obituary will be issued later suggests the party was caught off-guard by his death, said Neo Wang, Evercore ISIs New York-based managing director for China research.

Joseph Torigian, an assistant professor at the American University, wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, that the immediate task facing the Chinese leadership was to come up with an obituary that pleases Lis family, suits the regimes political agenda, and does not inflame popular sentiment.

You want to give due credit, but at the same time, Xi Jinping has accentuated a narrative about all of his accomplishments and how much he was in control, Torigian told Bloomberg. So, how do you square that while doing justice to Li Keqiangs career will probably be something that theyre trying to figure out.

Adam Ni, publisher of the China Neican newsletter on Chinese politics, said that while Lis death could turn out to be an important and delicate political moment, the overall effects will likely be moderate.

I dont think there is enough discontent to cause political tides like the deaths of Zhou and Hu, Ni said. I suspect the average Chinese would have forgotten about Lis death by this time next month.

With assistance from Xiao Zibang and Jacob Gu.
U.S. and South Korean soldiers watch as a multiple launch rocket system fires in Gangwon Province, South Korea, Aug. 31, 2022. ()

CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea  U.S. and South Korean troops joined forces this week to prepare for Hamas-style surprise attacks, potentially out of Pyongyang.

In case of war, roughly 5,400 troops kicked off the three-day exercise Wednesday focused on responding to long-range artillery strikes from the air and on the ground, South Koreas Ground Operations Command said in a news release Friday.

Around 300 artillery weapons and 1,000 vehicles were used in the exercise, along with Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs and South Korean F-15K Slam Eagle fighter jets, the release added.

The training wrapped up Friday with South Korean K-9 Thunder and K-55A1 self-propelled howitzers firing live-rounds at a training site in Cheorwon county, roughly five miles from the Demilitarized Zone separating the Korean Peninsula, according to the release.

The Ground Operations Command release did not mention North Korea by name; however, the Souths military has warned that an attack from the communist regime could mimic Hamas deadly Oct. 7 assault on Israel.

If the North strikes the South, its troops pattern of warfare would be similar to the pattern of Hamas invasion, South Korean army Gen. Kim Seung-kyum, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told lawmakers in Seoul on Oct. 12.

Kim noted that North Koreas military capabilities are a more serious threat than that of Hamas. Pyongyang possesses more than 700 long-range artillery systems, of which 300 constitute a threat to the Seoul metropolitan area, he said.

The allies routinely train near the border. During Marchs Warrior Shield exercise, around 800 U.S. and 400 South Korean troops equipped with American Stryker vehicles and South Korean K1A2 main battle tanks carried out live-fire training in Pocheon city, roughly 16 miles from the DMZ.

North Koreas state-run Korean Central News Agency regularly condemns the joint drills and describes them as a rehearsal of an invasion. The communist regime has fired 21 ballistic missiles  four of them intercontinental range  in 14 days of testing so far this year.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, left, speaks with European Council President Charles Michel during a round table meeting during an EU summit in Brussels, Friday, Oct. 27, 2023. European Union leaders conclude a second day of meetings on Friday in which they will discuss, among other issues, migration. (Omar Havana/AP)

BRUSSELS  As distant as the prospect of peace might seem, European Union leaders believe it is time to start laying the foundations for a future relationship between Israel and the Palestinians where the militant group Hamas doesnt control Gaza.

Mindful that resentment and even conflict in the wider Middle East and Gulf regions have been fueled by decades of tensions between Israel and the Palestinians, the 27-nation bloc has begun exploring ways to realize a long-held EU ideal  two states living peacefully side by side.

As the Palestinian death toll climbed beyond 7,000 and Israel carried out airstrikes on Friday in response to the Hamas incursion into southern Israel, EU leaders meeting in Brussels for a second day encouraged broader diplomatic and security initiatives to stop the conflict from spreading, and ultimately from ever starting again. A peace conference and political settlement would be part of that.

The history of this conflict didnt begin with the attacks on Oct. 7 and wont end with a land war in Gaza, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said. Its very, very clear: 75 years of conflict between Israel and the Arabs, wars, terrorist attacks, huge instability. This wont end because of a military solution. It cant.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said that a pure security policy and a pure security solution is part of the reason (this conflict) has happened. So at some point a political dialogue needs to start.

Apart from its aid and trade leverage, the EU bloc has no obvious security role to play in the conflict. It backs Israels right to defend itself against Hamas, which killed more than 1,400 people in Israel. Hamas is holding at least 229 captives inside Gaza, including dozens of EU citizens.

But as civilian casualties in Gaza mount, it also wants Israel to respect international law. Hamas is on the EUs list of terror organizations and receives no funding from the bloc. Indeed, a review of its substantial assistance to the Palestinians is underway to ensure that none leaks to the group.

The EU member nations have long been divided in their positions on the region  Austria, Germany and Hungary staunch backers of Israel, Spain and Ireland more vocal in their support for the Palestinians  but the bloc does have credibility as a European project founded on peace.

All 27 countries agreed to this, Varadkar told reporters. That there should be a two-state solution, and that we need to have a peace conference, and that the European Union needs to be part of that.

The EU has for years tried to promote the idea of an Israeli and a Palestinian state with borders set mostly as they were in 1967  before Israel captured and occupied the West Bank and Gaza  with some land swaps agreed between them. Both would have Jerusalem as their shared capital.

In a statement agreed overnight, the leaders said they are ready to contribute to reviving a political process on the basis of the two-state solution. They also said the EU welcomes diplomatic peace and security initiatives and supports the holding of an international peace conference soon.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said that the peace conference must be held within six months.

It will mean working more closely with Israels neighbors, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon, as well as with Gulf countries like Qatar, which has the kind of relations with Hamas that could help get hostages released. Irans demands would have to be managed. Saudi Arabia and Turkey could play key roles.

Top EU officials concede that their international peace efforts so far havent been effective. This is the fifth war between Israel and Hamas, and the number of deaths in the past three weeks exceeds the combined tally of those killed in the previous four, which is estimated to be around 4,000.

If we dont stop this cycle of violence, it will happen again in the future. The level of trust between Israeli and Palestinian, which was already extremely low in recent years, is now at the level of the Dead Sea, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell wrote in a blog this week.

Peace will not come by itself; it has to be built, added Borrell, who leads international diplomatic efforts on behalf of the EU. The two-state solution remains the only viable one we know. And if we only have one solution, we must put all our political energy into achieving it.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during their meeting in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2020. Russia and Israel have steadily expanded trade and other contacts and strengthened security ties, and Moscow has been guarded in commenting on the Gaza fighting. (Maxim Shemetov/Pool Photo via AP)

A senior Iranian envoy met with Hamas representatives in Moscow following talks with Russian diplomats that underscored Moscows efforts to expand its clout as a power broker in the latest Israel-Hamas war, Russian and Iranian media said Friday.

During the meeting with Hamas representative Moussa Abu Marzouk, Irans deputy foreign minister, Ali Bagheri Kani, emphasized the need for a cease-fire, lifting the blockade of the Gaza Strip and providing humanitarian assistance, according to a statement Friday by the Iranian Embassy in Moscow. The statement was carried by Russian state news agencies.

Irans state-run IRNA news agency said Abu Marzouk told Bagheri Khani that he appreciated Irans support for the Palestinian people.

Prior to the meeting, Abu Marzouk held talks Thursday with Russian diplomats. His Moscow visit drew strong condemnation by Israel. The Russian Foreign Ministry said they discussed the release of hostages in the Gaza Strip and the evacuation of foreigners.

The talks highlighted Russias efforts to insert itself as a mediator in the wake of Hamas deadly Oct. 7 incursion into southern Israel  even though it continues to be occupied with its war in Ukraine. At least 19 Russian citizens have died in the Israel-Hamas war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin declared earlier this month that Moscow could act as mediator because of its friendly ties with both Israel and the Palestinians, adding that no one could suspect us of playing up to one party.

Despite that claim of even-handedness, a U.N. Security Council resolution that Russia previously submitted condemning violence against civilians made no mention of Hamas. The statement was rejected by the council.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry slammed Russias decision to invite Hamas representatives to Moscow as an act of support of terrorism, and called for the delegation to be expelled from Russia.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded Friday by saying that Moscow believes it is necessary to maintain contacts with all parties. It is not clear if representatives from Russia, Iran and Hamas all met together on Thursday.

Abu Marzouk told Russias state RIA Novosti news agency in remarks published on Friday that he and Russian diplomats discussed issues related to the Palestinian problem and how we can jointly determine a future for the region and the entire humankind that would differ from (the one) that the U.S. tries to paint.

He noted that Russias invitation to Hamas to visit was a message to the entire world that Russia considers Hamas not a terrorist but a liberation movement that defends the rights of its people and wages a war for justice.

Moscow has been guarded in commenting on the war between Israel and Hamas as it has steadily expanded trade and other contacts and strengthened security ties with Israel over the past years. However, Hamas visit reflects Moscows view of its relationship with the group and its backer Iran as crucial to maintaining its influence in the region.

According to Washington-based think tank the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, for Moscow, the war in Gaza is an opportunity to pitch itself ... as a diplomatic partner in a region it considers strategically important.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia and Israel have steadily expanded trade and security ties and many Russians moved to Israel after Putin invaded Ukraine. But that invasion has tested relations  Israel has voiced support for Kyiv but refused to provide it with weapons, while many Israelis were angered by Putins claim that Ukraines Jewish president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is a neo-Nazi.

Putins war in Ukraine has also led Moscow to deepen ties with Iran. Iran has provided Moscow with hundreds of Shahed exploding drones that the Russian military has used against Ukraines energy facilities and other key infrastructure. Iran also has reportedly shared its drone technology with Russia, which built a facility to produce them.

In return, Moscow is expected to offer Iran advanced fighter jets and other modern weapons.

On Thursday, Bagheri Khani met with Russias Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, who serves as the Kremlin envoy to the Mideast, and other senior Russian diplomats. The Russian Foreign Ministry said their talks also focused on ceasing hostilities in Gaza and providing humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Health Minister Mikhail Murashko, visit the Federal Childrens Rehabilitation Centre of the Russian Childrens Clinical Hospital at Pirogov National Medical Research University, in Podolsk, 36 kilometers (22.5 miles) south of Moscow, Russia, on June 1, 2023. In the span of three decades, Russia went from having some of the worlds least-restrictive abortion laws to being what officials call a bulwark of traditional values, with Murashko condemning women for prioritizing careers over childbearing. (Sergey Fadeichev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

TALLINN, Estonia  Despite its last-minute scheduling, the meeting at a bookstore in Russias westernmost city of Kaliningrad still drew about 60 people, with many outraged by a lawmakers efforts to ban abortions in local private clinics.

The weeknight turnout surprised and heartened Dasha Yakovleva, one of the organizers, amid recent crackdowns on political activism under President Vladimir Putin.

Right now, there is no room for political action in Russia. The only place left is our kitchens, Yakovleva, co-founder of the Feminitive Community womens group, told The Associated Press. And here, it was a public place, well-known in Kaliningrad, and everyone spoke out openly about how they see this measure, why they think its unjustified, inappropriate.

Although abortion is still legal and widely available in Russia, recent attempts to restrict it have touched a nerve across the increasingly conservative country. Activists are urging supporters to make official complaints, circulating online petitions and even staging small protests.

A GRADUAL EROSION OF ABORTION ACCESS

While only a proposal for now in Kaliningrad, private clinics elsewhere have begun to stop providing abortions. Nationwide, the Health Ministry has drawn up talking points for doctors to discourage women from terminating their pregnancies, and new regulations soon will make many emergency contraceptives virtually unavailable and drive up the cost of others.

Its clear that there is a gradual erosion of abortion access and rights in Russia, and this is similar to what has taken place in the U.S., said Michele Rivkin-Fish, an anthropologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Last years U.S. Supreme Court decision rescinding a five-decade-old right to abortion has reshaped American abortion policy, shifting power to states. About half of U.S. states have adopted bans or major restrictions, although not all are being enforced due to legal challenges.

In the Soviet Union, abortion laws meant that some women had the procedure multiple times due to difficulties in obtaining contraceptives.

After the USSRs collapse, government and health experts promoted family planning and birth control, sending abortion rates falling. At the same time, laws allowed women to terminate a pregnancy up until 12 weeks without any conditions; and until 22 weeks for many social reasons, like divorce, unemployment or income.

That changed under Putin, who has forged a powerful alliance with the Russian Orthodox Church, promoting traditional values and seeking to boost population growth. Health Minister Mikhail Murashko has condemned women for prioritizing education and career over childbearing.

WAITING PERIODS, CONSULTS, APPROVAL BY A PRIEST

Over the decades, the number of abortions in Russia fell from 4.1 million in 1990 to 517,000 in 2021.

Only in instances of rape is an abortion legally allowed between 12 and 22 weeks. Some regions hold Days of Silence, when public clinics dont provide them. Women must wait 48 hours or even a week - depending on what stage of pregnancy - between their first appointment and the abortion, in case they reconsider. They also are offered psychological consultations designed to discourage abortions, according to state-issued guidelines reviewed by AP.

Health authorities have introduced an online motivational questionnaire outlining state support if women continue the pregnancy, according to a state clinic gynecologist who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

She said the waiting periods were psychologically hard for some of her patients. During that week (of waiting), she might start getting nauseous and experience other symptoms of pregnancy, she added. They dont understand the point.

State clinics in one region referred women to a priest before getting an abortion. Authorities maintained the consultation was voluntary, but some women told the media they had to get a priest to sign off to get an abortion.

RESTRICTING ABORTION PILLS

The anti-abortion push comes as Russian women appear to be in no rush to have more children amid the war in Ukraine and economic uncertainty. Sales of abortion pills in 2022 were up 60%, according to Nikolay Bespalov, development director of the RNC Pharma analytical company. They fell 35% this year, still higher than pre-2022 levels. Sales of contraceptive medications also have been rising in 2022-23, he said.

A recent Health Ministry decree restricted circulation of abortion pills, used to terminate pregnancies in the first trimester. The decree puts mifepristone and misoprostol, used in the pills, on a registry of controlled substances requiring strict record-keeping and storage.

For hospitals and clinics, where the pills are usually dispensed, the move will add more paperwork but not much else, said Dr. Yekaterina Hivrich, head of gynecology at Lahta Clinic, a private clinic in St. Petersburg.

But it will affect the availability of emergency contraceptives, sometimes known as morning-after pills, which are taken within days of unprotected sex to prevent pregnancy. Three out of six brands available in Russia contain mifepristone in a lower dose, meaning theyll be severely restricted once the decree takes effect Sept. 1, 2024.

They will require a special prescription, and not all pharmacies will stock them, said Irina Fainman, an activist in the northern region of Karelia, adding that getting a prescription takes time that women might not have when they need the pills.

The Health Ministry did not respond to questions on whether it will exclude morning-after pills in the decree. Officials earlier promised it wont affect those pills, but some pharmacies already list those with mifepristone as available only under strict prescription conditions.

After the restrictions were announced, Fainman said she and other activists stocked up on the pills to distribute in case of shortages.

Sales of emergency contraceptives soared 71% through August 2023, over the same period last year, according to Bespalov. Those containing mifepristone account for about half the market. New measures likely will increase the cost of unrestricted medications and possibly lead to short-term shortages.

ABORTION BANS IN PRIVATE CLINICS

Senior lawmaker Pyotr Tolstoy said that by spring, lawmakers would strive to adopt a nationwide ban on abortion in private clinics, where about 20% took place in recent years, according to state statistics.

Conservative lawmakers failed to enact such a ban before, but the Health Ministry now says it is ready to consider it.

To Irina Volynets, an abortion opponent and childrens rights ombudswoman in the Tatarstan region, it gives hope that this procedure will be taken out of private clinics eventually. She also wants increased state support for women with children as an incentive for boosting birthrates.

Regional authorities have tried to get private clinics to stop offering abortions, with varying success. Kaliningrad is mulling a region-wide ban. In Tatarstan, about a third of all private clinics no longer provide them, officials said. In the Chelyabinsk region in the Urals, three clinics agreed to halt them.

Its important to understand that the pressure on women will be growing even in the absence of a total ban, said Kaliningrad psychotherapist and activist Lina Zharin, who helped organize the recent bookstore meeting. An online petition against the ban in Kaliningrad has gathered nearly 27,000 signatures.

PRESSURED TO GIVE BIRTH

In seven other regions, the Health Ministry is using another pilot project: having gynecologists try to get women to reconsider having an abortion.

A document obtained by AP and cited by other media outlines language doctors are told to use, including saying pregnancy is a beautiful and natural condition for every woman, while an abortion is harmful to your health and a risk of developing complications.

Natalya Moskvitina, founder of Women For Life, which aids women who decide against abortion, said she helped develop the instructions and is introducing similar scripts for doctors in several regions.

Moskvitina made headlines in August after the region of Mordovia adopted a law she helped draft to ban encouraging abortions. At least one other region is considering a similar ban. Her program, which instructs doctors to congratulate women on being pregnant and gives baby-themed presents and information on support resources, has driven the abortion rate down 40% in Mordovia, she and local officials said.

For women with doubts about abortion, such conversations might indeed help them reach a decision but for others, they could be deeply uncomfortable.

Olga Mindolina was contemplating an abortion in 2020, traumatized by an earlier, difficult pregnancy. But when a doctor in a state clinic in the western city of Voronezh asked her what she wanted to do, she said she didnt know - and was told, In this case, you should give birth.

A clinic psychologist told her that women sometimes regret abortion, advising her to talk to her husband. A lawyer also told her about state benefits she could get if she gave birth. Mindolina decided to continue the pregnancy.

Anastasia, a Muscovite who sought an abortion in 2020, said it wasnt very pleasant when a doctor urged her to change her mind.

I simply dont want any children, she told AP, asking that her last name not be used for fear of reprisals.

Dr. Lyubov Yeroveyeva, a gynecologist who spearheaded family planning projects in the 1990s, believes the key is preventing unwanted pregnancies with education about birth control and making contraceptives widely available.

Instead of talking a woman out of an abortion, authorities should do everything so she doesnt have to seek one, she said.
Relatives of soldiers hold a poster reading Soldiers need terms of service while attending a meeting on Independence square in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Oct. 27, 2023. Families of Ukrainian servicemen gathered to demand their loved ones return home after serving 18 months in the military as the war with Russia nears its second year. (Alex Babenko/AP)

KYIV, Ukraine  Scores of protesters gathered on the streets of Ukrainian cities on Friday to demand a cap of 18 months on mandatory military service, amid new suggestions of possible Ukrainian and international weariness with the 20-month war.

Both the warring sides are striving to keep their military momentum, though neither side has been able to land a knockout blow, and the fighting is expected to drag on deep into next year.

Ukraine ordered a general mobilization of the male population between the ages of 25 to 60 when Russia launched its invasion on Feb. 24, 2022. The vast majority joined up as volunteers. As the war grinds on, Ukraine has ramped up the draft.

The 18-month service limit sought by the protesters would be the same maximum as before the war. It is currently open-ended for draftees. The protesters, who are part of a loose national network, want the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraines parliament, to consider possible alternatives on service time.

About 100 wives, mothers, children and relatives of Ukrainian soldiers attended a demonstration in the capital, Kyiv.

They chanted Demobilize the soldiers and carried banners calling for the return of their loved ones. Why is dad not coming back? asked one placard carried by a child.

I live in constant fear for his life, Valeriia Koliada, 35, said of her husband, who volunteered for the military.

Its nerve-wracking for me. He is tired as well, she said. We are a young family. I also want to have a child and sleep calm at night.

Protesters also gathered in at least six other cities.

There are no signs that Ukrainian public support for the fight against Russias invasion is waning. In Russia, meanwhile, authorities have cracked down on anti-war protests, and critics of the Kremlins policies are on the whole swiftly silenced.

Even so, U.S. officials say that Russian forces are experiencing morale problems as another winter campaign looms. The White House said Thursday that Russia is executing soldiers who disobey orders and threatening entire units with death if they retreat from Ukrainian artillery fire.

The latest hot spot draining resources is Avdiivka, a city in the eastern Donetsk region that Russian forces partially occupy. Avdiivkas location provides Ukrainian forces with artillery advantages over the city of Donetsk and could serve as a launch pad for them to liberate the rest of Donetsk.

Avdiivka lies in ruins after weeks of bitter fighting in a costly effort, mostly for the Russian attackers, according to analysts.

The bid to overrun the city has backfired on the Kremlins forces, robbing it of troops and heavy equipment that will likely undermine Russian offensive capabilities over the long term, the Institute for the Study of War said late Thursday.

The Washington-based think tank noted that Ukrainian military officials said that around 5,000 Russian soldiers have been killed and wounded, and 400 armored vehicles lost in the area since Oct. 10.

Satellite images show the Russian military lost at least 109 military vehicles, mostly armored fighting vehicles and tanks, near Avdiivika between Oct. 10 and 20, the institute said.

The Kremlins forces have failed in their weekslong effort to surround the city, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he told U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in a phone call on Friday.

Our soldiers stopped them and inflicted significant casualties, amounting to at least a brigade of personnel, Zelenskyy said on his Telegram channel.

The Avdiivika fight and other battles are draining both sides resources.

Moscow has stepped up its military production and has reportedly turned to North Korea and Iran to replenish its stockpiles, observers say, while Kyiv is urging its Western allies to keep providing vital support.

The U.S. statement about Russian morale came as President Joe Biden met Thursday with new House Speaker Mike Johnson, a staunch conservative whose support for Ukraine has been more muted than that of the administration. He told Biden, who wants billions of dollars in new support for Kyiv, that Congress is not going to abandon Ukraine, but demanded more information about U.S. strategy in the conflict.

Meanwhile, cracks are showing in the unity of the 27-nation European Union over its backing for Ukraine.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, attending an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday, said that he was right to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, insisting he was actively seeking peace in Ukraine. He recently gained a Russia-friendly ally in the bloc with the election of new Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico.

In an address by videoconference to the EU summit, Zelenskyy urged the bloc to stand firmly together against Putin.

Russia is reported to be receiving supplies from Iran, North Korea and other countries.

Germany this week handed over a third IRIS-T SLM air defense system to Ukraine, the Defense Ministry said Friday. The first two of the sophisticated systems were supplied in recent months.

Even if the security policy situation worldwide is further escalating and we are looking with great concern at the moment at Israel and the Middle East, we will not stop supporting Ukraine, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said in a statement. This war will not be forgotten. Associated Press writers Hanna Arhirova and Nebi Qena in Kyiv and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.
Two U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons from the 125th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron fly over Iraq, Nov. 9, 2011, providing top cover for U.S. forces as they transition personnel and equipment out of the country. The 125th EFS consists of F-16s, pilots, maintenance specialists and support personnel from the Oklahoma Air National Guards 138th Fighter Wing in Tulsa, Okla., the Ohio Air National Guards 180th Fighter Wing in Toledo, Ohio, and the Arizona Air National Guards 162nd Fighter Wing in Tucson, Ariz. (U.S. Air Force)

WASHINGTON  The U.S. military launched airstrikes on two locations in eastern Syria linked to Irans Revolutionary Guard Corps and affiliated groups believed to be responsible for more than a dozen rocket and drone attacks on U.S. bases in the region, the Pentagon announced Thursday night.

These precision self-defense strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on Oct. 17, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement. President [Joe Biden]  directed todays action to make clear that the United States will not tolerate such attacks and will defend itself, its personnel, and its interests.

The strikes were carried out near al-Boukamal by two F-16 fighter jets that struck two weapons and ammunition storage areas, according to a senior U.S. military official who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity. The facilities were known to be aligned with Iranian militia. The U.S. did not have an assessment of damage or casualties. The official did not say how much ammunition was launched by the F-16s.

The senior defense official said the sites were chosen because the IRGC stores the types of munitions there that were used in the strikes against the U.S. bases in Syria and Iraq.

I want to emphasize that the United States does not seek conflict, nor do we desire further hostilities. However, the Iran-backed attacks against U.S. forces are unacceptable and must cease, the senior defense official said. We are prepared to take further measures to protect our people if necessary.

Since the surprise attack by Hamas militants against Israel on Oct. 7, the Pentagon and White House have said the U.S. has taken actions to contain the war between Israel and Hamas and prevent it from spreading into a regional conflict with Iran and its proxy forces in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq.

American troops stationed in Iraq and Syria have air-defense systems to help stop rocket and drone strikes that have been carried out by militants sponsored by Iran.

Soldiers deployed to al-Tanf garrison in Syria fire an 81 mm mortar during an exercise in April 2020. (William Howard/U.S. Army)

In March, for example, the U.S. struck sites in Syria used by groups affiliated with Irans Revolutionary Guard after an Iranian-linked attack killed a U.S. contractor and wounded seven other Americans in northeast Syria. American F-15 fighter jets flying out of Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar struck several locations near Deir al-Zour.

The U.S. recently deployed two aircraft carriers to the Eastern Mediterranean and additional fighter squadrons and air-defense systems to the Middle East to deter Iran or Hezbollah, the Iran-sponsored militant group that operates in southern Lebanon, from getting involved in the Israel-Hamas war.

Austin decided several days ago to put 2,000 troops on pre-deployment orders to prepare for possible missions in the Middle East. On Thursday, the Pentagon said some of those orders have been activated.

Approximately 900 troops have  deployed or are in the process of deploying, said Air Force Brig. Gen Pat Ryder, the Pentagons top spokesman. These include forces that have been on prepare-to-deploy orders and which are deploying from the continental United States.

Ryder said the deploying troops are part of existing plans that were previously announced to send a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense battery from Fort Bliss, Texas, and Patriot batteries from Fort Sill, Okla. Patriot and Avenger batteries are also being sent from Fort Liberty, N.C., and Associated Air Defense headquarters elements from Fort Bliss and Fort Cavazos, Texas.

THAAD is an air defense system that can intercept short-, medium- and long-range ballistic missiles with radar and shoot them down. Patriot and Avenger systems work in a similar way.

U.S. military bases throughout the Middle East continue to see drone and missile attacks from militant groups. Since Oct. 17, there have been 16 missile or drone attacks on American bases  12 in Iraq and 4 in Syria, where U.S. and coalition forces are fighting terrorist groups such as the Islamic State, Ryder said. The number of attacks was 13 on Tuesday.

A senior military official told reporters later Thursday night that the Pentagon was tracking three additional attacks, bringing the total to 19.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
An Israeli soldier passes a familys home riddled with bullet holes in Kibbutz Kissufim, Israel, on Oct. 18. Hamas militants attacked the kibbutz on Oct. 7, 2023. (Heidi Levine for The Washington Post)

KISSUFIM, Israel  When Hamas militants arrived in the tiny kibbutz of Kissufim, less than a mile from the border with the Gaza Strip, they attacked a carefully picked first target: the white and red metal communication towers on its outskirts.

They made a beeline for the small fenced compound that housed the critical equipment, shooting at it and using a ladder to scale a barbed wire fence to get inside, videos obtained by The Washington Post show.

They knew exactly what they were doing, said Shai Asher, 50, a member of the armed kibbutz security squad that battled Hamas gunmen that day, struggling to communicate with each other and unable to call for backup.

The phone network doesnt work, WhatsApp doesnt work, everything is broken down, our radio doesnt work, all the channels of command are missing, he recalled. They had a flawless battle plan that they executed flawlessly.

For hours, volunteers such as Asher were left to fend for themselves, outnumbered and outgunned. The soldiers that were supposed to protect them were blind to the unfolding disaster, or had been killed or kidnapped.

In a simultaneous wave of attacks on at least seven military posts across the border, Hamas sought to systematically disable key detection, communications and warning systems, using snipers and commercial drones armed with explosives. The strategy allowed its gunmen to advance deep into Israeli territory with little resistance and scrambled the subsequent military response.

The Washington Post spoke to more than a dozen current and former Israeli intelligence and security officials and studied footage from Hamas body cameras to build a picture of how militants were able to overwhelm Israeli military installations and rampage through more than 20 residential communities.

There werent enough soldiers; there werent enough capabilities, said Eyal Hulata, the head of the countrys National Security Council from 2021 to 2023. The first line of defense became the last line of defense, and this should never happen. Israel knows that.

The attack, in which more than 1,400 people were killed and 229 others taken hostage, exposed the vulnerabilities of Israels border security system, long believed to be one of the most advanced and indomitable in the world. At least 309 Israeli soldiers are among the dead.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had boasted for years of multimillion-dollar investments in an expansive smart wall, running the length of the enclave above ground and extending deep into the ground.

Claiming in recent years that Hamas had been successfully contained in Gaza, Netanyahu oversaw the gradual withdrawal of troops from the south. Forces left behind at the military and intelligence bases were trained to rely on sophisticated cameras and sensors to monitor for border infiltrations, and to alert forces on the ground in case of unusual events.

But in the early hours of Oct. 7, at least 1,500 Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants broke through some 30 points along the border barrier. They overran some bases so rapidly that soldiers were killed in their bunks, and the militants took out communication networks so efficiently that the area became a blind spot for the military.

They coordinated it, in sync, to get the maximum impact, Hulata said. The fact we failed doesnt mean the IDF isnt prepared to respond, he added.

The assault came on a Saturday morning, on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah  the end of a two-week string of holidays  ravaging a sleeping nation that had been assured repeatedly by its top security officials that Hamas posed no immediate threat.

Despite a series of actions that we carried out, unfortunately on Saturday we were unable to generate a sufficient warning that would have thwarted the attack, said Ronen Bar, the head of the Shin Bet internal security service, in a letter to his employees and their families.

Asked for comment by The Post, the Israeli military replied: Currently the IDF is focused on the ongoing war, we will get to questions of your kind later on. The prime ministers office did not respond to a request for comment.

The coordinated attack began with rocket fire from Gaza  a regular occurrence that caused no particular alarm among soldiers and civilians. As the air raid sirens sounded just before 6:30 a.m., Israeli officers stayed below their lookouts.

Then came the familiar booms from the Iron Dome antimissile defense system, drowning out the gunfire from snipers, who shot at a string of cameras dotting the border, and the explosions from more than 100 remotely operated drones that took out watchtowers, according to security experts who analyzed the footage  most of it posted in real time by the militants.

The towers were outfitted with machine guns and cameras, both connected to the borders thermal imaging sensors and to optical and radar detection systems. They relied partly on automation, partly on remote control.

Once the systems were disabled, fighters from the Nukhba, Hamass special operations unit, were able to breach the border with relative ease, videos show, using bulldozers, trucks and motorcycles. From there, it was less than a miles drive to the first military installations, which were mostly unguarded outside.

Israeli soldiers recover the bodies of Palestinian fighters at a Kibbutz near the Gaza border on Oct. 14, 2023. (Heidi Levine for The Washington Post)

Front-line observation troops were caught off guard when the militants stormed their bases, navigating confidently through facilities and barracks, security officials familiar with the situation told The Post.

Soldiers managed to kill some Hamas gunmen with remotely controlled guns but, within minutes, hundreds more had taken their place. They killed soldiers in their safe rooms and took others hostage while ransacking weapons caches, loading up trucks and motorbikes already laden with AK-47s, grenades and other weaponry.

Only at 8:06 a.m.  an hour and a half after the start of the assault  did the Israel Defense Forces report a combined attack. At 8:25, with a large number of Israelis already dead, it declared a state of alert for war.

Placing key command centers so close to the border was a key mistake, said a former senior Israeli intelligence officer, who spoke to The Post on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

Thats what happens when you suffer a catastrophic systemic failure, he said, and military headquarters and other installations are so close to the border. Thats what happens when you forget that all defense lines can eventually be breached and have been historically. Thats what happens when you underestimate your enemy.

The Israeli militarys regional command-and-control center, near Kibbutz Reim, suffered a complete destruction of communications systems, their antennas, even the systems that activated the sensors on the fence itself, said Lt. Col. Alon Eviatar, a member of the reserves and an expert in Palestinian militancy as well as being a former officer in 8200, Israels elite intelligence unit.

In parallel, according to footage reviewed by security analysts, a separate Hamas unit stormed an 8200 installation near Urim, about 10 miles inside Israeli territory, detonating an explosive at the entrance to an underground bunker that housed an expansive intelligence apparatus  synthesizing data from Israel, the Palestinian territories and around the world.

It is the largest and most significant intelligence base in Israel, one of the countrys greatest assets, said Eviatar. It was a top priority for them.

Hamas fighters battled with Israeli forces outside the bunker, Eviatar said. It is still unclear whether any of the militants survived the battle or managed to take espionage documents or equipment back to Gaza, which he said could be extremely valuable to Hamas leadership and to Iran.

Forty-five miles to the north, in Zikim, troops at a training base for the Israeli militarys search-and-rescue brigade were among the few units not affected by the disabling of communication systems. They belonged to a separate command center that was spared the blackout that affected most of the other installations.

When a rocket struck the base, the duty officer was able to report the attack to Col. Elad Edri, the brigades commander, who sped to the scene.

We managed to speak to each other by radio, by phone. It was clear, it was OK, he told The Post. The bombs didnt influence my unit. They obviously influenced the units that were there to defend the fence.

An Israeli soldier holds a family portrait inside a damaged home in Kissufim on Oct. 18, 2023. (Heidi Levine for The Washington Post)

Edri lost seven soldiers but managed to repel the attack and maintain control of the base.

The breadth and speed of the assault points to deep planning by Hamas. Asher, the security guard in Kissufim, estimates that the militants were at his kibbutz just a few minutes after 6:30 a.m., shortly after the first rocket barrage.

At 6:45 a.m., he got a voice note in the kibbutzs security group on WhatsApp. This is real action, real action, a real situation, a member of the team said, as gunfire sounded and sirens wailed in the background.

Do you have any connection with the IDF? Asher asked, as squad members tried in vain to call in military reinforcements. The internet would cut out soon after. Asher didnt know until 10 p.m. that his wife and two children, barricaded in their safe room at home, had survived.

It was a nightmare, he said.

After entering the kibbutz, the militants went straight to the house of the communitys head of security, who was forced to retreat to a safe room with his family. He could not join the fight, but he survived.

It was a pattern repeated in other communities, Asher said, citing conversations with residents.

Their success wasnt tech; it was preparation, said Miri Eisin, a former senior intelligence officer in the IDF. They used military tactics to carry out a terror attack.

As the hours wore on and the death toll climbed, the rare messages that did make it back to Israels main military headquarters in Tel Aviv were interpreted with a lot of question marks, said Michael Milshtein, a former senior adviser to COGAT, the Israeli military agency in charge of the Palestinian territories. After so many years of discounting Hamas, he said, military leaders struggled to grapple with the scale of the unfolding calamity.

Initially, the IDF sent in special operations units, trained to respond to infiltrations from Gaza. But none of their war games resembled what confronted them on Oct. 7.

[Hamas] knew exactly where they were going, what they were doing, even though it was their first time there, said Milshtein, who said that Shin Bet has been trying to crack down on espionage networks from Gaza over the past two years.

Israeli forces that were able to fight their way into communities under attack struggled to manage the situation, lacking higher-altitude assessments of a vast and chaotic battlefield.

Without an overall picture, we had to make a lot of quick decisions, said Maj. Palmach, one of the Israeli reservists who, without waiting to be called up, put on their uniforms and jumped in their cars that Saturday, speeding south to fight alongside the special operations forces. He shared his story on the condition that he be identified only by his last name because of IDF ground rules.

Palmach battled Hamas gunmen at the entrance to Alumim, preventing them from entering. He then joined an improvised convoy to Beeri, one of the hardest-hit kibbutzim. Guided by word of mouth and frantic WhatsApp messages, Palmach rescued people from their safe rooms, many as their houses were burning. Militants lit tires on fire and wheeled them into homes to smoke out families that were in hiding, according to other officers who arrived at the scene that day.

Israels southern border region is a military zone now. Its tightknit towns are charred and abandoned. Bodies are still being found. Many survivors feel betrayed by a government that promised them safety even as it withdrew protection.

In December 2021, Netanyahu tweeted that the installation of an underground barrier that stops Hamass tunnel weapons amounted to a historic day. He had completed the project, he said, despite great opposition from other politicians and the defense establishment.

Amir Tibon, a journalist from the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, moved to Nahal Oz in 2014. At least 14 of his neighbors were killed there Oct 7.

When he began living there, combat units were stationed in every community. In recent years, they were redeployed to the West Bank to protect Jewish settlements and to counter new Palestinian militant groups.

After that fancy underground obstacle that Netanyahu was so proud of, it was decided that the forces werent needed anymore, Tibon said in a recent Haaretz podcast. If in every community on that dark Saturday there were forces of 20 people, everything would have looked differently.

Some Israeli soldiers stationed along the border now say they feared a Hamas incursion was imminent and tried to sound the alarm.

It was clear that something would happen. It was only a matter of time, Maya Dasiatnik, an observation officer in the Nahal Oz base, said an interview with the Kan public broadcaster on Wednesday.

She said that she and dozens of fellow soldiers had repeatedly reported suspicious activity: people approaching the fence with maps, appearing to study it for its weak spots, getting closer every week. There also were tractors and large groups of armed men, carrying out exercises that looked like military drills.

Roni Eshel, who served alongside Dasiatnik, is believed to be among the hostages held in Gaza.

She reported all kinds of breakdowns along the border, Eyal, her father, told The Post. His last contact with Roni was a text message at 9:27 a.m., three hours after her base was raided. The beds, the safe rooms and the central war room were torched.

It could have been prevented, he said, if someone in the army had opened their eyes and ears.
Palestinians inspect the damage of destroyed buildings following Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City, Friday, Oct. 27, 2023. (Abed Khaled/AP)

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip  Israel knocked out internet and communications in the Gaza Strip in stepped-up bombardment Friday night, largely cutting off its 2.3 million people from contact with each other and the outside world and creating a near-blackout of information, as the military said it was expanding ground operations in the territory.

The militarys announcement signaled it was moving closer to an all-out invasion of Gaza, where it has vowed to crush the ruling Hamas militant group after its bloody incursion in southern Israel three weeks ago.

Explosions from continuous airstrikes lit up the sky over Gaza City for hours after nightfall. The Palestinian telecom provider, Paltel, said the bombardment caused complete disruption of internet, cellular and landline services. The cutoff meant that casualties from strikes and details of ground incursions could not immediately be known. Some satellite phones continued to function.

Already plunged into darkness after most electricity was cut off weeks ago, Palestinians were thrown into isolation, huddling in homes and shelters with food and water supplies running out.

Relatives outside Gaza panicked after their messaging chats with families inside suddenly went dead and calls stopped going through.

I was so scared this was going to happen, said Wafaa Abdul Rahman, director of a feminist organization based in the West Bank city of Ramallah. She said she hadnt heard for hours from family in central Gaza.

Weve been seeing these horrible things and massacres when its live on TV, so now what will happen when theres a total blackout? she said, referring to scenes of families that have been crushed in homes by airstrikes over the past weeks.

Lynn Hastings, U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the occupied territories, posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that without phone lines and internet, hospitals and aid operations would be unable to operate. The Red Crescent said it could not contact medical teams and residents could no longer call ambulances, meaning rescuers would have to chase the sound of explosions to find the wounded. International aid groups said they were only able to reach a few staffers using satellite phones.

The Committee to Protect Journalists expressed alarm, saying the world is losing a window into the reality of the conflict. It warned that the information vacuum can be filled with deadly propaganda, dis- and misinformation.

Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said ground forces were expanding their activity Friday evening in Gaza and acting with great force ... to achieve the objectives of the war. Israel says its strikes target Hamas fighters and infrastructure and that the militants operate from among civilians, putting them in danger.

The Hamas media center reported heavy nighttime clashes with Israeli forces, including tanks, at several places by the border fence. The Israeli military did not comment on that.

Israel has amassed hundreds of thousands of troops along the border ahead of an expected ground offensive. Earlier Friday the military said ground forces conducted their second hourslong incursion inside Gaza in as many days, striking dozens of militant targets over the past 24 hours.

The Palestinian death toll in Gaza has soared past 7,300, more than 60% of them minors and women, according to the territorys Health Ministry. A blockade on Gaza has meant dwindling supplies, and the U.N. warned that its aid operation helping hundreds of thousands of people was crumbling amid near-depleted fuel.

More than 1,400 people were slain in Israel during Hamas Oct. 7 attack, according to the Israeli government, and at least 229 hostages were taken into Gaza. Palestinian militants have fired thousands of rockets into Israel, including one that hit a residential building in Tel Aviv on Friday, wounding four people.

The overall number of deaths far exceeds the combined toll of all four previous Israel-Hamas wars, estimated at around 4,000.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told foreign reporters that Israel expects a long and difficult ground offensive into Gaza soon. It will take a long time to dismantle Hamas vast network of tunnels, he said, adding that he expected a lengthy phase of lower-intensity fighting as Israel destroys pockets of resistance.

His comments pointed to a potentially grueling and open-ended new phase of the war after three weeks of relentless bombardment. Israel has said it aims to crush Hamas rule in Gaza and its ability to threaten Israel. But how Hamas defeat will be measured and an invasions endgame remain unclear. Israel says it does not intend to rule the tiny territory but not who it expects to govern  even as Gallant suggested a long-term insurgency could ensue.

The conflict has threatened to ignite a wider war across the region. Arab nations  including U.S. allies and ones that have reached peace deals or normalized ties with Israel  have raised increasing alarm over a potential ground invasion, likely to bring even higher casualties amid urban fighting.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi warned on X that the outcome will be a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions for years to come.

U.S. warplanes struck targets in eastern Syria that the Pentagon said were linked to Irans Revolutionary Guard after a string of attacks on American forces. Two mysterious explosions hit coastal towns in Egypts Sinai Peninsula, wounding six people. Egypt said they were caused by drones coming from the south over the Red Sea, and Israel blamed Yemens Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, who have tried to fire rockets toward Israel since the war began.

The loss of internet and phones deals a further blow to a medical and aid system that relief workers say was already on the verge of collapse, overwhelmed by wounded and running out of supplies under Israels weeks-long seal. More than 1.4 million people have fled their homes, nearly half crowding into U.N. schools and shelters. Aid workers say a trickle of aid Israel has allowed to enter from Egypt the past week is a tiny fraction of what is needed.

Gaza hospitals have been scrounging for fuel to run emergency generators that power incubators and other life-saving equipment.

Gallant said Israel believes that Hamas would confiscate any fuel that enters. He said Hamas uses generators to pump air into its hundreds of miles of tunnels, which originate in civilian areas. He showed reporters aerial footage of what he said was a tunnel shaft built right next to a hospital.

For air, they need oil. For oil, they need us, he said.

Late Friday the army released photos showing what it said were Hamas installations in and around Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Gazas largest. Israel has made such claims before, but they declined to say how they obtained the photos.

Little is known about Hamas tunnels and other infrastructure. Claims by the military and Gallant couldnt be verified.

Speaking at Shifa Hospital, Hamas media chief Salama Maroof called Israels claims lies and said they were a precursor for striking this facility.

I ring the alarm bell. There is imminent danger hovering above the medical facility and those in it, Maroof said. The hospital has been overwhelmed by thousands of patients and wounded people, and around 40,000 displaced residents have crowded in and around its grounds for shelter, the U.N. says.

Asked if the military plans to target Shifa, Hagari said, We will not be able to allow terror activity against Israel from hospitals, and we will have to, together with the rest of the world, confront this red flag. He said Hamas uses its own population as a human shield.

Hundreds of thousands remain in northern Gaza, unable or unwilling to evacuate to the south as Israel has ordered. Israeli leaflets dropped in Gaza have said those who remain might be considered accomplices of Hamas.

Federman reported from Tel Aviv and Mroue from Beirut. Najib Jobain in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Jack Jeffery in Cairo, Isabel DeBre in Jerusalem, and Brian Melley in London, contributed to this report.
In this undated image taken from video released by Israeli Defense Forces, a line of Israeli tanks is shown during an incursion into the Gaza Strip. (Israeli Defense Forces)

The Biden administration is urging Israel to rethink its plans for a major ground offensive in the Gaza Strip and instead to opt for a more surgical operation using aircraft and special operations forces carrying out precise, targeted raids on high-value Hamas targets and infrastructure, according to five U.S. officials familiar with the discussions.

Administration officials have become highly concerned about the potential repercussions of a full ground assault, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic matters, and they increasingly doubt that it would achieve Israels stated goal of eliminating Hamas. They also are concerned that it could derail negotiations to release nearly 200 hostages, particularly as diplomats think they have made significant advances in recent days to free a number of them, potentially including some Americans, one of the officials said.

The Biden administration also is worried that a ground invasion could result in numerous casualties among Palestinian civilians as well as Israeli soldiers, potentially triggering a dramatic escalation of hostilities in the region, the officials said. U.S. officials think a targeted operation would be more conducive to hostage negotiations, less likely to interrupt humanitarian aid deliveries, less deadly for people on both sides and less likely to provoke a wider war in the region, the officials said.

At a moment when many Israelis feel rage and grief over the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, there has been considerable public pressure on Israeli officials to mount a sweeping ground incursion into Gaza. Israeli officials said Friday they had expanded ground operations, but the scope or nature of the expansion was unclear.

In public, President Biden and his top officials have indicated support for a planned ground offensive if Israel concludes that that is its best move, while adding that they are asking tough questions about the idea. The private advice is a significant departure from the administrations public posture, and it is a distinct shift from the administrations position in the days immediately after the Hamas attack inside Israel.

The White House declined to comment on the administrations push for a surgical operation instead of a full-scale ground invasion, an effort that has not previously been reported. Officials pointed to Bidens comments stating that Israel makes its own military decisions.

But those involved say the administrations change of posture is unmistakable  and intentional. They have clearly shifted from an initial We have your back; well do whatever you want to now You really need to rethink your strategy. And theyre doing it in a careful way, said a person familiar with the conversations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private and sensitive deliberations.

Despite their private warnings, American officials do not have great confidence that Israel will reverse its intent to wage a large-scale ground offensive. Although the United States has considerable leverage over Israel as its largest military, political and economic backer, U.S. officials have not threatened to withdraw support or impose any consequences on the Jewish state if it forges ahead with its own plans.

On the contrary, the Biden administration is working to provide Israel a new $14 billion security package to replenish its Iron Dome missile interceptors and its munitions and to provide additional military financing.

As U.S. officials have conveyed their preference for a lighter operation, Israeli forces have conducted limited raids into Gaza in recent days, although it is not clear that those forays were in response to Washingtons urging.

The Israel Defense Forces announced Friday that a targeted, sea-launched raid had been conducted in the southern Gaza Strip against Hamas military infrastructure. A previous ground raid, early Thursday morning, was designed to strike Hamas rocket launching positions, reveal enemy positions and prepare the ground for the next stages of the war, the IDF said.

U.S. officials said they are advising Israel to adopt such raids as a central part of its strategy for hunting Hamas. But Israel has cast them as part of preparations for the next stages of combat, an apparent reference to the full-scale ground offensive. Daniel Hagari, a spokesman for the IDF, said Friday that Israel was expanding its ground operations, but he did not announce an invasion or say that forces had entered Gaza.

U.S. Defense Department officials recently dispatched a team of officers, including Marine Lt. Gen. James Glynn, to Israel to offer recommendations on how to carry out military operations in an urban environment. Although Glynn served in conventional operations in the Iraq War as an infantryman, he also has deep experience in counterterrorism, having led a Special Operations task force that hunted Islamic State militants in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2017 and 2018.

Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, said Tuesday that Glynn and his colleagues were dispatched to help Israeli officials think through the kinds of questions that they need to consider as they conduct their planning, including advice on mitigating civilian casualties. Pentagon officials, asked whether they were recommending that Israel lean on surgical strikes and raids, declined to comment but did not dispute the idea.

Palestinian gunmen from Hamas broke through Israels sophisticated border fence with Gaza on Oct. 7 and killed at least 1,400 Israelis, hunting civilians in their homes and cars, burning people alive, and taking scores of people hostage, including children. Israel responded with a full siege of Gaza that has cut off food, water, electricity and fuel, as well as with an unrelenting air bombardment campaign that Palestinian health authorities say has killed more than 7,000 people, many of them children. On Friday, officials in Gaza reported that internet connectivity had plummeted.

The Israeli siege and airstrikes in Gaza, a densely populated enclave of more than 2 million people, have led to a deepening humanitarian crisis, and the Biden administration is facing increasing pressure to respond to the growing reports of civilian suffering. Only a handful of aid trucks have been able to get into Gaza, and U.S. officials so far have not been able to reach a deal with Israel, Egypt and Hamas that would establish a humanitarian corridor and allow at least 400 Palestinian Americans stuck in Gaza to leave.

In the immediate aftermath of the Hamas attacks, many senior U.S. officials privately supported a massive Israeli response, which they viewed as necessary to deter Iran and Hezbollah from opening a second front in Israels north.

But as days went by and Israeli officials briefed Washington on their plans, U.S. officials became increasingly concerned that a ground assault would turn into an open-ended quagmire. After Defense Secretary Lloyd Austins visit to Israel on Oct. 13, Pentagon leaders began sharing their worries with the State Department.

Three days later, Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a nearly eight-hour meeting with Israels war cabinet in Tel Aviv, and U.S. diplomats left the meetings worried that the Israelis had not developed a sound and workable military plan. Although the meeting dealt mostly with humanitarian issues, officials also discussed military strategy, and U.S. officials came away more concerned, not less, about the prospects of regional escalation.

They were particularly concerned that a sweeping offensive would put U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria at risk from Iranian proxy groups, increasing the chance of a direct military confrontation between the United States and Iran. U.S. personnel have come under repeated assault from rockets and one-way attack drones in the past 10 days, prompting Biden to say he had warned Iran that he would respond if it continued. The United States launched airstrikes Thursday in eastern Syria in response, but at least one more attack was recorded Friday in Iraq.

As doubts about the advisability of a ground invasion have grown in the United States and even among some in Israel, some Jewish Democratic lawmakers have called for a humanitarian pause in the violence to allow aid to get into Gaza. Reps. Jamie B. Raskin (Md.), Sara Jacobs (Calif.) and Susan Wild (Pa.) issued a joint statement this week calling for such a pause.

While we are grateful for the Biden administrations successful efforts to deliver humanitarian aid through the Rafah crossing over the weekend, it is clear this aid alone is insufficient, the lawmakers said. The 2 million civilians in Gaza cannot survive without access to water, food, medicine, and fuel  and resources cannot get to those who need it without a temporary cessation of hostilities for humanitarian workers to do their jobs safely.

Republicans, meanwhile, have strongly opposed any criticism of Israels actions and have condemned liberal Democrats for questioning Israels tactics. Not standing with our greatest ally, Israel, weakens the global fight against terrorism, Rep. Elise Stefanik (N.Y.), who chairs the House Republican Conference, said this week.

But Biden and his top officials have noticeably shifted their public rhetoric in recent days.

In remarks at the White House in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, Biden said the United States would provide Israel any support it needed, adding that he had told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel has the right to defend itself and its people. Full stop. He made no mention of Palestinian civilians.

But in the first week of Israels air campaign, the IDF dropped 6,000 bombs on Gaza in addition to cutting off access to water and other basic necessities. As Blinken met the leaders of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the Palestinian Authority, the Arab allies reinforced concerns that the civilian suffering and deaths were infuriating their domestic populations and raising the specter of mass instability.

Concern about the unfolding crisis has been evident in the United States as well, as liberals have been increasingly outspoken in criticizing Biden for not taking stronger action to restrain Israel.

Biden, while maintaining his vocal support of Israel, has shown signs of heeding these messages. This week, he made his most forceful comments to date about the importance of keeping in mind a vision for the Middle Easts future and underlined his calls for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Biden also stressed that Israel must limit civilian casualties, regardless of whether that poses a burden on its military forces.

When this crisis is over, there has to be a vision of what comes next, Biden said. And in our view, it has to be a two-state solution. And it means a concentrated effort from all parties  Israelis, Palestinians, regional partners, global leaders  to put us on a path toward peace.

The presidents instincts to be wary of a wide-scale assault by Israel match his history on earlier conflicts, especially the war in Afghanistan. In 2009, as the Obama administration weighed deploying tens of thousands of additional forces there, then-Vice President Biden cautioned President Barack Obama against doing so.

Obama, writing in his 2020 memoir, A Promised Land, said Biden had voiced his misgivings about surging tens of thousands of troops to Afghanistan, counseling that doing so could plunge the United States deeper into a quagmire from which it would be difficult to extricate itself. He was the only top adviser to do so, warning the commander in chief that the Pentagon was not presenting him with a wide range of choices, Obama wrote.

Biden pulled U.S. troops out of Afghanistan just a few months after becoming president. And he seemed to glancingly refer to the Afghanistan debate while returning home from Israel this month, telling reporters traveling with him that the United States had made mistakes after the al-Qaida attacks in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.

He added, I cautioned the government of Israel not to be blinded by rage.

Michael Birnbaum contributed to this report.
On October 25, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced the alleged successful downing of two ATACMS missiles in the Luhansk region. However, it later became known that the information about the "success" was somewhat exaggerated: both missiles successfully hit the position of a Russian air defense group in the Luhansk region.

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As a result of the strike, Russian troops lost three S-400 systems located there. This was reported by the Russian Telegram channel Cheka-ODPU, citing sources.

"The Ministry of Defense reported the downing of two ATACMS. The source of the Cheka-OGPU described the reality in such an ironic way: "That's exactly what happened. Two ATACMS missiles were destroyed as a result of a direct hit on the position of the Russian Armed Forces air defense group in the Luhansk region and at the cost of 3 S-400 systems located there," the message says.

The occupiers in the Luhansk region also claimed a "strike on the territory of the LPR," apparently not having read the victory report of the Russian Defense Ministry. However, they traditionally claimed that the strike was allegedly against civilians.

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"This morning, Ukrainian armed groups struck at the territory of the LPR, damaging infrastructure and residential buildings in the Lutuginsky district," Russian mass media wrote on October 25.

They also published a photo with the wreckage of an ATACMS missile that allegedly flew to the village of Bilorichensky. However, they misrepresented the situation a bit: the photo of the missile fragment stuck in the ground shows it sticking out of a square hole. A user of social network X, formerly known as Twitter, with the nickname khersoncoon, drew attention to this

"The Russians literally just dug a square hole with an excavator and put the ATACMS in it," the observant user wrote.

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In the comments to the tweet, another social media user noted that the photo showed "the rocket engine separating from the warhead, so it is evidence of a successful strike."

On October 25, the Russian Defense Ministry boasted that it had shot down two ATACMS missiles. This was allegedly the first time they had done so. However, the department, headed by Sergei Shoigu, traditionally did not provide any evidence of such success, which raised questions even among Russians.

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In comments on z-publics, users massively expressed doubts that the Russian Defense Ministry was telling the truth, in particular, about how Western missiles and weapons were being "destroyed."

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that they had reached an agreement with the United States that Ukraine would receive ATACMS missiles on a regular basis.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken listens as Chinas Foreign Minister Wang Yi speaks after a bilateral meeting at the State Department in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. (Jose Luis Magana/AP)

WASHINGTON  President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping have agreed to meet on the sidelines of next months Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco, according to a U.S. official familiar with the planning.

The two sides worked out an agreement in principle to hold a meeting during the summit as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met Friday with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, according to the official, who was not authorized to comment and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The official added that two sides have still not worked out details on the exact day of the meeting, venue and other logistics.

The White House said in a statement following Fridays meetings that the two sides were working toward a Biden-Xi face-to-face on the sidelines of APEC, a forum of 21 Pacific countries.

President Biden met Friday with Chinas top diplomat, a conversation thats viewed as the precursor to a potential sit-down with Chinese President Xi Jinping next month.

The encounter with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was the latest in a series of high-level contacts between the two countries as they explore the possibility of stabilizing an increasingly tense relationship at a time of conflict in Ukraine and Israel.

The White House said Biden emphasized that both the United States and China need to manage competition in the relationship responsibly and maintain open lines of communication, and he underscored that the United States and China must work together to address global challenges.

Biden and Wang met in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan were also present, according to administration spokesman John Kirby.

Kirby said Biden viewed the meeting as a positive development, and a good opportunity to keep the conversation going.

Biden had been widely expected to talk with Wang, a reciprocal action after Xi met with Blinken in June.

Beijing has yet to confirm if Xi will travel to San Francisco for the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit next month. But Biden has said a meeting between the two leaders on the sidelines was possible.

Kirby said Biden fully expects to meet again with Xi, and were confident thats going to happen.

Wang is in the midst of a three-day visit to Washington, where hes been meeting with top U.S. officials. He sat down with Blinken on Friday morning for the second time during his trip.

On Thursday, after their initial meeting, the Chinese side said the two sides had an in-depth exchange of views on China-U.S. relations and issues of common concern in a constructive atmosphere.

In its readout, the U.S. State Department said the two men addressed areas of difference and areas of cooperation, while Blinken reiterated that the United States will continue to stand up for our interests and values and those of our allies and partners.

Wang said before Thursdays meeting that Chinas goal was to push the relationship as soon as possible back to the track of healthy, stable and sustainable development.

U.S. officials have said they would press Wang on the importance of China stepping up its role on the world stage if it wants to be considered a responsible major international player. The U.S. has been disappointed with China over its support for Russia in the war against Ukraine and its relative silence on the war between Israel and Hamas.

China should use whatever ability it has as an influential power to urge calm in the Middle East, said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller. We know China has relationships with a number of countries in the region, and we would urge them to use those relationships, the lines of communication they have, to urge calm and stability.

U.S. officials believe the Chinese have considerable leverage with Iran, which is a major backer of Hamas.

Wang has come to Washington at a time when tensions between the two countries remain high, including over U.S. export controls on advanced technology and Chinas more assertive actions in the East and South China seas.

On Thursday, the U.S. military released a video of a Chinese fighter jet flying within 10 feet (three meters) of an American B-52 bomber over the South China Sea, nearly causing an accident. Earlier this month, the Pentagon released footage of some of the more than 180 intercepts of U.S. warplanes by Chinese aircraft that occurred in the last two years, part of a trend U.S. military officials call concerning.

The U.S. also has renewed a warning that it would defend the Philippines in case of an armed attack under a security pact, after Chinese ships blocked and collided with two Filipino vessels off a contested shoal in the South China Sea.

Beijing has released its own video of close encounters in the region, including what it described as footage of the USS Ralph Johnson making a sharp turn and crossing in front of the bow of a Chinese navy ship. The U.S. destroyer also was captured sailing between two Chinese ships.

Senior Col. Wu Qian, the spokesman of the Chinese defense ministry, said the videos showed that the U.S. is the real provocateur, risk taker and spoiler.

The Pentagon rejected Chinas characterization of the USS Ralph Johnsons movements, saying the video includes only cropped segments of a 90-minute interaction. The ship complied with international law and operated in a lawful, safe and resolute manner, the Pentagon said.

During his visit to Washington, Wang also is expected to discuss Taiwan, a self-governed island that Beijing considers to be part of Chinese territory. Beijing vows to seize it by force if necessary, but Washington, which has a security pact with Taiwan, opposes the use of force.

Neither side has confirmed whether Biden and Xi will meet next month on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders gathering in San Francisco. But Wangs trip indicates the likelihood is extremely high, said Scott Kennedy, senior adviser and trustee chair in Chinese business and economics at the Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies.

His visit is most likely about nailing down the agenda and negotiating potential deliverables, Kennedy said.

The Chinese president last came to the U.S. in 2017, when former President Donald Trump hosted him at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Biden, who took office in 2021, has yet to host Xi on U.S. soil. The two men last met in Bali, Indonesia, in November 2022, on the sidelines of the Group of 20 meeting of leading rich and developing nations.

The U.S.-China relationship began to sour in 2018 when the Trump administration slapped hefty tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods. It deteriorated further over a range of issues, including rights abuses, the South China Sea, Taiwan, technology and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Associated Press writer Chris Megerian contributed to this report.
Law enforcement personnel in Bowdoin, Maine, on Thursday. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post)

The man police suspect killed 18 people in shootings in Lewiston, Maine, on Wednesday night had so alarmed people around him that he was hospitalized and received mental health treatment this summer, according to a person familiar with the investigation.

Police say 40-year-old Robert R. Card of Bowdoin, Maine, is wanted in connection with the Lewiston mass killings, which officials said took place Wednesday night just minutes apart at a bowling alley and a restaurant in the small city about 35 miles north of Portland.

These killings, the deadliest American shooting rampage in more than a year, set off a sprawling manhunt that stretched overnight Wednesday and continued throughout Thursday, with the attacker still at large as night set in.

Col. William G. Ross, who leads the Maine State Police, said that the investigation into the shootings brought officials to a vehicle parked at a boat landing area in Lisbon, Maine. The vehicles registration pointed to Card, Ross said, and an arrest warrant was issued for him.

Investigators delving into Cards background quickly found evidence suggesting that his life had begun spiraling out of control over the summer, according to the person familiar with the case so far. This person, like others interviewed, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe an ongoing investigation.

Card has been in the Army Reserve for more than half his life. He enlisted in December 2002 and has not served in any combat deployments, but instead was a petroleum supply specialist, according to his service record, which the Army released following the shooting.

During the summer, his military reserve commanders became so concerned by statements he made targeting his own unit that he was sent to a hospital, according to the person familiar with the investigation. Card received about two weeks of inpatient psychiatric treatment, the person said. It is not clear if any other consequences followed.

The episode that saw Card hospitalized occurred while he was at Camp Smith, N.Y., a New York Army National Guard installation that is used for training, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Investigators have also been told by people who knew Card that in recent months he described hearing disturbing voices, and had increasingly become fixated on the bowling alley and the restaurant where he allegedly opened fire, according to two people familiar with the investigation.

Maine does not have a red-flag law that would allow law-enforcement officials or relatives to try to have weapons taken away from individuals who are viewed as posing a danger to themselves or others. Speaking on Thursday, while the manhunt was still gripping the region, police emphasized that they viewed Card as dangerous but declined to say much more about him. Ross emphasized only that the suspected attacker should not be approached by the public.

Ross told reporters that an arrest warrant had been issued for Card for eight counts of murder. While 18 people were killed, Ross said, only eight of the victims had been identified as of Thursday morning, so the warrant only included those counts. The arrest warrant was sealed, according to the Maine State Police. Card had been an engineering technology student at the University of Maine from 2001 until 2004, but did not graduate, according to the school. He was a familiar sight around Bowdoin, according to Liam Kent, who grew up in the area, not far from Cards family.

Ive seen him smoking cigarettes with, with the guys out front after they went hunting in November with all their hunting gear on, Kent, 24, said in an interview.

Kent said Card came from one of the biggest families in Bowdoin, which he described as a small town. But, he added, he did not have any close ties to Cards family, suggesting they were not his style. The family, Kent said, could be heard shooting guns all the time, a sound that would reverberate up the valley.

Attempts to speak with the suspected shooters family were unsuccessful Thursday. A reporter went to an address associated with his parents, but the person who answered the door declined to answer questions or make a statement. People in the home had called police about other journalists who also attempted to visit. The shooting ignited a furious search that reverberated beyond the shattered community of Lewiston, whose residents waited anxiously Thursday while the manhunt continued.

Law enforcement personnel flocked to Maine from a constellation of nearby states, including New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New York, along with federal officials from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, among others.

Investigators scrutinizing the Maine attacks suspect that the shooter used a .308 rifle to commit the attacks, two people familiar with the matter said.

One of the people said that investigators have not yet found any indication that the purchase of the weapon was illegal. Both people familiar with the matter noted that the investigation is still in its early stages and that their understanding of events could change.

Robert Klemko in Bowdoin, Maine, Kelsey Ables in Seoul, Lori Rozsa in West Palm Beach, Fla., Joseph Menn in San Francisco, and Alice Crites, Alex Horton and Danielle Paquette in Washington contributed to this report.
An F-35 Lightning II fighter jet releases an inert B61-12 bomb during a test in December 2021. The Pentagon said Friday, Oct. 27, 2023, that its seeking to develop a modern variant of the bomb, the B61-13. (Department of Defense/F-35 Joint Program Office)

WASHINGTON  The U.S. military is developing a modern version of the B61 nuclear gravity bomb, which has been a mainstay in its arsenal for decades, the Pentagon said Friday.

The U.S. has made several variants of the B61 in the last 50 years. The new version, the B61-13, would be built by the Department of Energys National Nuclear Security Administration, officials said. The Pentagon underscored the B61-13 is necessary to maintain readiness in a rapidly changing international climate but did not indicate when the weapon is expected to enter service.

Todays announcement is reflective of a changing security environment and growing threats from potential adversaries, said John Plumb, the assistant secretary of defense for space policy. The United States has a responsibility to continue to assess and field the capabilities we need to credibly deter and, if necessary, respond to strategic attacks and assure our allies.

The new B61 nuclear bomb could be dropped by various modern aircraft, the Defense Department said, and would give future presidents additional options against certain harder and large-area military targets. The B61-13 would replace some of the B61-7 variants that are now in the U.S. nuclear stockpile and produce a larger explosion than the most recent version of the bomb  the B61-12, which has been in production since 2021.

Developing the new bomb supports the 2022 Nuclear Posture Review, which said other countries are expanding, modernizing and relying more on their nuclear capabilities, according to the Defense Department. The review called for new investments in U.S. deterrence efforts while at the same time seeking arms-control and other risk-reduction measures.

Developing the B61-13 ultimately will require congressional approval and authorization, the Pentagon said.

The fielding of the B61-13 is not in response to any specific current event, the Pentagon said. It reflects an ongoing assessment of a changing security environment.

The department said production of the new bombs, however, will not expand the U.S. arsenal.

The number of B61-12s to be produced will be lowered by the same amount as the number of B61-13s produced, it said.

Previous versions of the B61 were deliverable by several aircraft, including the B-1 Lancer, B-2 Spirit, B-52 Stratofortress and F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet. It wasnt initially clear which aircraft will deploy the B61-13, but officials said the new weapon will help retire older legacy weapons such as the B83 bomb, which has been in service for 40 years.

The United States has about 5,200 nuclear weapons in its stockpile, and Russia has almost 5,900, according to the Federation of American Scientists, a nonprofit Washington think tank that studies global security. Both totals are dramatically lower than the number each nation had at their peak  31,000 for the U.S. in the late 1960s, and 41,000 for Russia in the mid-1980s.

Earlier this month, the U.N. Disarmament and International Security Committee cautioned the threat of nuclear war will persist for as long as countries keep stockpiling the weapons. One committee representative said the mere existence of nuclear weapons creates a temptation and risk of use.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) wields the gavel in the House chamber on Oct. 25, 2023. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

On its surface, the elevation of Mike Johnson to House speaker would seem to be bad news for Ukraine funding. The Louisiana congressman has an F rating from the Republicans for Ukraine advocacy group, having consistently voted with a minority of House Republicans against sending money.

With Ukraine funding opponents now approaching a crucial majority in the House GOP conference and forming the most vocal part of the GOP base, you could forgive them for thinking theyve notched a major victory by elevating Johnson.

But the reality is more complicated. Despite his voting record, Johnsons rhetoric has often aligned with the partys Russia hawks. And since winning the gavel, hes saying the kind of things that suggest the funding is a priority.

That was the case during his first long-form interview as speaker, on Thursday night with Fox Newss Sean Hannity.

Although Johnson distanced himself from the plan of the White House and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for a joint Israel-Ukraine funding bill, he seemed to go out of his way to play up the need to aid Ukraine.

Now, we cant allow Vladimir Putin to prevail in Ukraine, because I dont believe it would stop there, and it would probably encourage and empower China to perhaps make a move on Taiwan, Johnson said. We have these concerns. Were not going to abandon them.

Perhaps most notable, Johnson actually broached Ukraine funding before Hannity did. Johnson mentioned it alongside other immediate concerns, while downplaying other issues.

We have such big priorities in this moment right now, Sean. We have Israel being attacked. We have unrest. We have the Ukraine situation we have got to deal with, Johnson said, also mentioning China, Iran, the economy, the border and fentanyl.

Johnson also connected the Russian threat to China and Iran, seemingly aligning with McConnells axis of evil talking point. Johnson cited China, Russia and Iran working together.

Johnsons comments build on what he said shortly after winning the gavel, when he suggested that we all support Ukraine funding  something that isnt technically true of the House GOP  but that Kyiv needs to be more accountable.

That seems to be the rub with Johnson. Unlike the Marjorie Taylor Greenes and Matt Gaetzes of the party, he has repeatedly emphasized that the United States has a crucial foreign policy objective in Ukraine  and even that Russias aggression threatens the United States:

 If we do not show decisive strength in this moment, Putins aggression will increase, he said in February 2022 when Russian troops were mobilizing.

 Russias invasion of Ukraines sovereign territory threatens the greatest destabilization of the world order since [World War II] and constitutes a national security threat to the entire West, he said days later, upon the actual invasion.

 Ukraine has to prevail, he added last month.

Johnson has also occasionally spoken the language of the more staunch Ukraine funding skeptics. Last year, he suggested not only that the funding needs more scrutiny but that theres too much of it, and that other issues are more pressing.

 We should not be sending another $40 billion abroad when our own border is in chaos, American mothers are struggling to find baby formula, gas prices are at record highs, and American families are struggling to make ends meet, without sufficient oversight over where the money will go, he said in May 2022, after becoming one of just 58 House Republicans to vote against a $40 billion package.

But that kind of talk is more the exception than the rule when it comes to Johnsons relatively infrequent public commentary. After repeatedly emphasizing the need to help Ukraine for moral reasons as well as the United States own purposes  as he did Thursday  it would be discordant for him not to push pretty hard for the funding.

There remain big questions. Among them: whether he might push for less funding than others want, what kinds of accountability he would require, whether he will demand potentially tricky spending offsets similar to those hes talking about for Israel funding, and whether the bifurcated approach he has adopted toward Israel and Ukraine funding might harm Ukraines prospects.

The ascendant Ukraine funding skeptics could certainly make this an arduous process for a man just getting his feet beneath him as speaker. Or they could decide to give him some leeway, given his credibility with them. As with former speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), it might ultimately come down to just how much political capital he is willing to spend on something his public comments suggest is a matter of principle.

But for now, he has made some significant overtures in Ukraines direction.
U.S. United Nations Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield address the U.N. General Assembly, Friday, Oct. 27, 2023 at U.N. headquarters. (Bebeto Matthews/AP)

UNITED NATIONS  The U.N. General Assembly approved a nonbinding resolution Friday calling for a humanitarian truce in Gaza leading to a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Gazas Hamas rulers.

It was the first U.N. response to Hamas surprise Oct. 7 attacks on Israel and Israels ongoing military response and vow to obliterate Hamas.

The 193-member world body adopted the resolution by a vote of 120-14 with 45 abstentions after rejecting a Canadian amendment backed by the United States to unequivocally condemn the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas and demand the immediate release of hostages taken by Hamas.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. APs earlier story follows below.

UNITED NATIONS (AP)  The U.N. General Assembly scheduled a vote Friday on a nonbinding resolution calling for a humanitarian truce in Gaza leading to a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Gazas Hamas rulers.

Jordans U.N. Ambassador Mahmoud Hmoud, speaking on behalf of the U.N.s 22-nation Arab group, which drafted the resolution, called for an afternoon vote before all 112 speakers get to the assemblys rostrum, because of the urgency of taking action.

The Arab group is seeking action by the 193-member world body because of the failure of the more powerful 15-member Security Council to agree on a resolution after four attempts.

Unlike the Security Council, there are no vetoes in the General Assembly so the resolution is certain to be adopted. While council resolutions are legally binding, assembly resolutions are not, but they do serve as a barometer of world opinion.

It would be the first response from the United Nations to Hamas surprise Oct. 7 attacks on Israel and Israels ongoing military response and vow to obliterate Hamas. While the Hamas attacks killed some 1,400 Israelis, more than 7,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israels retaliatory airstrikes, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

The assemblys emergency special session on Israeli actions, which began Wednesday, continued Friday with U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield echoing Israels envoy in calling the resolution to be voted on outrageous for never mentioning Hamas and saying it is detrimental to the vision of a two-state solution.

She said the United States backed a Canadian amendment, which will be voted on first, that would unequivocally reject and condemn the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas and demand the immediate and unconditional release of hostages taken by Hamas. For adoption, the amendment must be approved by two-thirds of assembly members.

Thomas-Greenfield called it a perilous moment for Israelis and Palestinians, stressing that there is no justification for Hamas terror, that Palestinians are being used as human shields and that the lives of innocent Palestinians must be protected.

Oman, speaking on behalf of the Gulf Cooperation Council, condemned Israels siege of Gaza, starvation of its population and collective punishment of Palestinians. But it said the Palestinians wont be deterred from demanding their legitimate inalienable rights, chief among them the right to self- determination and the right to establish an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

In addition to calling for an immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities, the proposed resolution demands that all parties immediately comply with their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law requiring protection of civilians and the schools, hospitals and other infrastructure critical for their survival.

The resolution also demands that essential supplies be allowed into the Gaza Strip and humanitarian workers have sustained access. And it calls on Israel to rescind its order for Gazans to evacuate the north and move to the south and firmly rejects any attempts at the forced transfer of the Palestinian civilian population.

The resolution also stresses the need to urgently establish a mechanism to ensure the protection of the Palestinian civilian population.

And it emphasizes the importance of preventing further destabilization and escalation of violence in the region and calls on all parties to exercise maximum restraint and on all those with influence to press them to work toward this objective.

During the emergency session on Thursday, speaker after speaker backed the Arab Groups original draft resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, except for Israels U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan who told the assembly, A cease-fire means giving Hamas time to rearm itself, so they can massacre us again.

But the calls for a cease-fire, the protection of Palestinian civilians facing constant Israeli bombardments in Gaza and the delivery of desperately needed food, water, medicine and fuel were passionate and intense.

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. ambassador, said 70% of those killed in Gaza were children and women. If you do not stop it for all those who were killed, stop it for all those whose lives we can still save, he said.
On Friday morning, the Central Criminal Court heard from Dr Flanagan, a scientist with Forensic Science Ireland.

Gardai beside the Grand Canal in Tullamore, where Ashling Murphy was found dead (Niall Carson/PA)

Jozef Puska has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Ashling Murphy

A MALE DNA profile found under the fingernails of Ashling Murphy matched a blood sample taken from murder accused Jozef Puska as well as a second sample taken at Tullamore Garda Station, a court heard.

Dr Lorna Flanagan said the likelihood of this male DNA belonging to someone unrelated to murder accused Jozef Puska was "one in 14,000"

Dr Flanagan was giving evidence in the trial of Mr Puska (33), who has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Ashling Murphy at Cappincur, Tullamore on January 12, 2022.

On Friday morning, the Central Criminal Court heard from Dr Flanagan, a scientist with Forensic Science Ireland.

Dr Flanagan told prosecutor Anne-Marie Lawlor SC that she had worked in the DNA section of FSI for eight years.

She said she carried out male specific DNA profiling - known as Y-STR - on a sample provided to her.

Gardai beside the Grand Canal in Tullamore, where Ashling Murphy was found dead (Niall Carson/PA)

This sample was generated from scrapings taken from the fingernails on the left and right hand of Ms Murphy, the court heard.

Dr Flanagan said females only have X chromosomes, but men have X and Y chromosomes. By focusing purely on the Y chromosome this meant that she could ignore all the DNA in the sample that was female.

Dr Flanagan said she would generally expect to see a person's own DNA under their fingernails. She said that other DNA found under a person's fingernails could "indicate more than social contact".

Dr Flanagan said she was provided with two other samples - a blood sample given by Mr Puska in St James' Hospital and a sample provided by him in Tullamore Garda Station.

Dr Flanagan said that the Y-STR profile she generated from the fingernail swabs was a match to the blood sample and the sample taken in the garda station.

Dr Flanagan said the likelihood of this male specific DNA profiling coming from someone unrelated to Mr Puska was one in 14,000.

Dr Flanagan accepted that a father and son, or fraternal male cousins could have the same Y-STR profile.

Ms Lawlor said there was no suggestion that any other male relative of Mr Puska had any contact with Ms Murphy.

Cross examined by Michael Bowman SC, Dr Flanagan said the Y-STR statistic was generated from a Western European database of 28,000 Y-STR profiles.

This database extended as far as Latvia, Ukraine and Romania, she said.

Dr Flanagan also confirmed to Mr Bowman that the database included "ethnic Romy Slovak" profiles.

The trial continues before Mr Justice Tony Hunt and a jury of nine men and three women.
Darragh Baldrick is charged with assault causing harm to a woman at Cathal Brugha barracks, Rathmines on May 9

A former soldier charged with assaulting and injuring his partner at an army barracks in Dublin is facing trial on the charge.

Darragh Baldrick (24) had his case adjourned for the preparation of a book of evidence when he appeared in Dublin District Court today.

Judge David McHugh remanded him on continuing bail to a date in December.

Mr Baldrick is charged with assault causing harm to a woman at Cathal Brugha barracks, Rathmines on May 9.

He was charged that month and the case came back before the court today for the directions of the DPP.

The accused took a seat in the dock after being invited by the judge to sit down.

State solicitor Mark Donnelly said the DPP's directions were for trial on indictment and he was seeking an adjournment.

The judge granted this, and heard an extension of the time for the service of the book of evidence was not required.

Mr Baldrick did not address the court during the brief hearing.

He will be sent for trial to Dublin Circuit Criminal Court when the book of evidence is ready.

Previously, Garda Brendan O'Callaghan said he arrested the accused at the barracks and brought him to Rathmines garda station where he was charged and made no reply after caution.

Bail was set with conditions that Mr Baldrick must stay away from the alleged victim and her home in west Dublin.

He is to have no contact with her, directly or indirectly including by social media. Mr Baldrick has not yet entered a plea to the charge, which is under the Non Fatal Offences Against the Person Act.
Keogh told gardai he was trying to make money, that he was in debt and selling a couple of bags of cocaine, but was just holding the cannabis

A man who was caught with over 180,000 of cannabis and cocaine in his home has been jailed for two and a half years.

Mark Keogh (51) admitted to selling cocaine, holding cannabis in his home and transporting drugs for others after gardai discovered the illicit items during a search of his home.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that Keogh began taking drugs following the death of his wife from cancer.

Keogh, of Dunsink Green, Finglas, Dublin, pleaded guilty to possession of drugs for sale or supply at his address on May 25, 2019. He has no previous convictions.

Passing sentence today, Judge Melanie Greally said that since committing this offence, Keogh's lifestyle has changed from chaotic to one that is family-centred and pro-social. He has rehabilitated himself from drugs and has not committed any further offences since.

Earlier this year, Keogh suffered acute renal failure and remains in poor health, the court heard.

Judge Greally said the drugs were of a high street value, but she found she could depart from the mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years given the circumstances of the case.

Taking into account a number of mitigation factors, including his remorse, his lack of previous criminal offending, the fact he is now drug-free, his cooperation with the investigation and his current poor health, she handed down a sentence of four years. The judge suspended the final 18 months of that sentence on a number of conditions.

Members of Keogh's family who were in court for the sentence sobbed as he was taken into custody.

At a previous sentence hearing, Garda Shane Guinan told Simon Matthews BL, prosecuting, that gardai received confidential information regarding the supply of drugs at Keogh's address in Finglas and obtained a search warrant.

Keogh identified himself as the homeowner and told gardai where the drugs would be found in the house.

Gardai found large bags of cannabis in a cardboard box in the kitchen, as well as cannabis and cocaine in a press under the stairs. They also found small amounts of heroin and ecstasy.

The total value of all of the drugs found in the house was 185,385.

Keogh told gardai he was trying to make money, that he was in debt and selling a couple of bags of cocaine, but was just holding the cannabis.

He said he used heroin by smoking it and was getting paid money for what was found in the house. He said he would pick things up and drop them off.

Keogh told gardai he got involved after his wife died in 2017. He said his whole world came crashing down, and his mortgage was in negative equity.

Gda Guinan agreed with Padraig Dwyer SC, defending, that his client was of good character prior to the offence and has not come to garda attention since.

The garda agreed with counsel that his client had been used by these people and that there were no trappings of wealth in his house. Immediately after the commission of the offence, Keogh began residential drug treatment.

Mr Dwyer said the passing of his client's wife hit him very hard, and he ultimately spiralled downwards into addiction. He said his client became more and more vulnerable and presented as an easy target for the individuals who used him.
On Friday, October 27, the Air Defense Forces of Ukraine destroyed three X-59 missiles and two Lancet attack UAVs. It was done in Mykolaiv and Kherson regions.

ADVERTISIMENT

This information was released by the South Air Command. "In the south of Ukraine, 3 x-59 guided missiles and 2 Lancet attack drones were destroyed," the statement said.

In particular, on October 27, as a result of air defense operations, the following were destroyed:

in Mykolaiv region - 3 X-59 guided missiles;

in Kherson region - 2 Lancet attack drones.

It is worth noting that on the night of October 26-27, the aggressor country Russia attacked the southern regions of Ukraine with attack drones: air defense forces shot down five of the six Shahed kamikaze drones. One of the enemy UAVs landed in Mykolaiv region.

ADVERTISIMENT

As reported by OBOZ.UA, during an enemy attack on the night of October 25, Ukrainian air defenders destroyed all 11 Shaheds. The air defense forces shot down the drones over Kherson, Mykolaiv, Poltava, Cherkasy, Zhytomyr, and Khmelnytsky regions.

Only verified information is available on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
He is currently serving an eight year sentence for assault causing serious harm.

A man who attempted to rob an e-scooter from a woman at knifepoint in Dublin City Centre has been given a five year jail term.

Christopher Coakley (32), of no fixed abode, appeared before Ms Justice Patricia Ryan in the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court today.

He pleaded guilty to the attempted robbery of an e-scooter valued at 500 at knifepoint on O'Connell Street, Dublin 1 on February 4, 2021.

The court heard Coakley held a knife to the throat of the injured party and demanded that she hand over her e-scooter. He was shoved to the ground, lost the knife and fled the scene.

He was subsequently arrested and detained by gardai.

He is currently serving an eight year sentence for assault causing serious harm. His release date for this charge is May 2030. Coakley also has a conviction for another robbery which occurred on the same day, also on O'Connell Street. He was sentenced to four years' imprisonment for this offence.

Garrett McCormack BL, defending, said that Coakley describes his behaviour as disgusting and dirty and that he wanted to express his apologies to the victim of the crime. He said he struggles with drink and drug issues.

Sentencing Coakley, Judge Ryan noted he committed the crime because he needed drugs. If he doesn't get those drugs, he'll be back before these courts again and again and again, she said.

Judge Ryan said Coakley can get drug rehabilitation and stop it or face the rest of his life in and out of prison. That's his call.

Judge Ryan said the aggravating factors included the fact the offence was part of a spree and the adverse psychological effects the robbery had on the injured party which continue to be endured.

The mitigating factors were that Coakley pleaded guilty. The realization of what he has done to somebody seems to have impacted upon Mr Coakley, the judge said.

She handed down a five year sentence, which she backdated to when he first went into custody in March last year.

The serial offender  who is a cousin of Dublin gangland feud murder victim Derek Coakley-Hutch  has been in and out of prison since he was aged 13.
Jake Emmet (21) of Glen Hostel, Gardiner Street Dublin 1, went to the man's home and told his mother that he would come back to the family home and torch the house

A young man who threatened to burn down the family home of someone he claimed owed a drug debt of 500 has been told by a judge that his anti-social behaviour must stop.

Jake Emmet (21) of Glen Hostel, Gardiner Street Dublin 1, went to the man's home and told his mother that he would come back to the family home and torch the house.

He pleaded guilty to making unwarranted demands with menace at a house on May 16, 2022, at Seabury Heights, Malahide, Co Dublin. He has no previous convictions.

Imposing sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court today, Judge Martina Baxter said Emmet had shown clear blatant disregard by going to the house and making threats to burn it. She said this is an aggravating feature, noting that Emmet went to the house twice that day.

She said this would have been a frightening experience for the occupants and commended them for their bravery.

Judge Baxter said she took into consideration the mitigation, including his guilty plea, lack of previous convictions and expressions of remorse. She also noted his young age, the progressive and positive changes in his life, his pro-social prospects and his engagement with relevant agencies.

She said neither Emmet nor society would be served by his incarceration at this time and imposed a sentence of two and a half years, which she suspended in full for three years on strict conditions.

Judge Baxter said Emmet needs to realise that anti-social behaviour must stop. She said while Emmet has a lot going for him, this is his one and only chance.

At a previous sentence hearing, the court heard that the incident at the front door of the family home was recorded on a doorbell camera. The footage, which was played in court, shows Emmet telling a woman that her son owed money for green and a little bit of cocaine.

The woman told Emmet she was shocked, and Emmet said that her son got drugs off me Da. The court heard Emmet's father was a career criminal who was serving a prison sentence and who had walked out on Emmet and his mother when Emmet was a child.

At one point, the woman tells Emmet, This is ridiculous, and Emmet agrees, saying, I know, and adding that I've had to come all the way out here. Emmet told the woman twice that he would burn the house and told her that his Dad had told him to say that.

Before leaving, Emmet told the woman that he would come back by 6 pm and torch the house and later asked her, what time do you want me to come back at?. He left, saying he'd be back up at six or seven before saying bye.

Emmet returned around 3 pm, and the woman told Emmet that her son had since told her that Emmet had added a tax to the debt he owed. Emmet disagreed and told her, That's how much he owes.

The woman's husband then told Emmet he was being recorded, and Emmet replied, Ring the guards, is it and then left. Garda Joe Robinson said that Emmet was easily identified because he had given the woman his first name and later gave her his mobile number.

Gda Robinson agreed with Miceal OConnor BL, defending, that at one stage, Emmet apologised to the woman. Counsel said that at the time, his client had a total lack of understanding of the trauma he was causing.

He said Emmet has since shown insight into his actions and wished to apologise to the victim. Counsel said his client had a problem with cocaine use, which had escalated and caused him to end up homeless.

Counsel said that Emmet now said that it wasn't his father that had put him up to the offending, but it was more serious people he was hanging around.
The 43-year-old has been on a fitness regime in the jail and regularly works out in the gym.

A major security operation has been put in place to allow gangland criminal Freddie Thompson attend hospital, the Sunday World has learned.

Armed gardai were involved in the escort of the convicted killer from Portlaoise Prison to a nearby medical facility last week.

Thompson was returned to the high security facility within 24 hours.

However, its understood the need for Thompson to attend hospital may require ongoing armed escorts.

Because of the individuals gangland connections, armed gardai had to be involved in the escort and a security operation was put in place, a source said.

The prison service said: The Irish Prison Service does not comment on individual prisoner cases.

The 43-year-old has been on a fitness regime in the jail and regularly works out in the gym.

Fat Freddie Thompson

It is understood that his hospital visit last Thursday was the first time that Thompson had a day release from prison since he was granted compassionate leave to pay his respects to his mother Lisa at Massey Brothers' funeral home in The Coombe, Dublin, in April.

Lisa Thompson was aged in her in her late 60s and had been in ill health for some time and suffered from a severe lung condition.

He went on a vandalism rampage on hearing of the death of his mother, smashing a TV, a toaster and microwave oven.

A letter to his mother was read out at the funeral as he watched via webcam from prison.

He had been refused temporary release to attend in person because of security concerns.

A month later he was caught with an illegal mobile phone which he smashed off the ground and then swallowed the SIM card as he left an exercise yard.

Thompson received a life sentence in 2018 after he was found guilty at the Special Criminal Court of the gun murder of David Daithi Douglas in 2016 and he has spent time in a number of different prisons across the country since first being jailed.

David Daithi Douglas was gunned down while working in a shoe shop

It was not the States case that he pulled the trigger but that he was involved directly in the operation.

Thompsons finger prints were found in two cars used by the gang - a stolen Ford Fiesta and stolen Blue Mitsubishi car.

The court heard evidence that Thompsons DNA was also found in the Mitsubishi. While his DNA was also recovered from an air freshener and hand sanitiser in the silver Ford Fiesta.

Separately two gardai, Detective Sergeant Adrian Whitelaw and Garda Seamus ODonovan identified Thompson from CCTV footage.

The trial heard that Douglas was in the door of his shop in the Liberties area at 4pm on the day of his murder.

He was eating a microwaved curry when he was shot to death at point blank range by a man wearing black clothes.

In sentencing Thompson, Mr Justice Tony Hunt said this was an execution involving "intricate advanced planning and coordination".

The judge pointed out that the prosecution did not suggest that Thompson was the person who fired the shots, but that he was one of the people involved.

In April at the Court of Appeal, Thompsons lawyers said that his conviction should be overturned due to the lack of records on how he was identified by gardai from CCTV footage.

John D Fitzgerald SC, for Thompson, said the State's case was a circumstantial one, with one strand being the CCTV identification made by two gardai relating to Thompson driving the Fiesta in convoy with a Mercedes-Benz, known in the trial as "the murder car", a Suzuki Swift, which was the ultimate getaway car, and a burned out Mitsubishi Mirage.

Mr Fitzgerald said four CCTV montages were used in the trial tracking the movements of the convoy throughout the day around Dublin.

They traced Thompson and his associates to and from the scene, culminating in the group going to Little Caesar's restaurant off Grafton Street in Dublin city centre at around 8pm on the evening of the murder.

The barrister said that the trial had allowed into evidence the four CCTV excerpts that had been objected to by the defence on grounds of procedure and the quality of the images.

The barrister said no record or notes of the procedure around the Garda identification had been taken, and therefore it was not possible to test the validity of the identification, which he said was a "very important part of the State's case".

The court has reserved judgement in the appeal.

As a cousin of the Liam and David Byrne he was at the heart of a Kinahan cartel network that also included Thomas Bomber Kavanagh, another major gangland figure now serving a long prison sentence in the UK.

He was a leading figure in the infamous Crumlin-Drimnagh feud which has claimed the lives of 16 people after a split in the gang.
The N3 inbound is expected to remain closed for a number of hours

Members of the gardai on the M3 following a fatal incident in Blanchardstown, Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney/Collins

Gardai say they are at the scene of a fatal Incident on the N3 at Blanchardstown, Dublin 15.

The incident occurred at approximately 10.50am this morning.

The N3 inbound is expected to remain closed for a number of hours to facilitate an examination of the scene.

Local diversions are in place and motorists are advised to avoid the area.

More to follow..
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar told the Dail that Ireland is reaching its capacity limit.

Enforcing a time limit on State provided accommodation for Ukrainian refugees would be unethical, the Irish Refugee Council has said.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar this week told the Dail that Ireland is reaching its capacity limit after Integration Minister Roderic O'Gorman proposed that asylum seekers be offered State accommodation for just 90 days.

New arrivals would then have to go through the private rental sector or an offer a home scheme to find accommodation.

However, Irish Refugee Council Chief Nick Henderson told Newstalk Breakfast that the 90-day limit is "unethical".

Also, practically, it's not going to be realistic, he said.

Where would people go after those three months, that 90-day period?

Mr Henderson said people need to be reminded of the horrors caused by the war in Ukraine.

Just yesterday, it seemed that there was a nuclear power plant targeted by Russian drones," he said.

The war rages on and I think it's important for us to step back and go back to the moment in spring (2022) when Ireland did do everything it could.

Mr Henderson said there is only a limit on capacity for refugees because of the countrys current accommodation model.

The Government has done a huge amount of work to support refugees from Ukraine, but there has been too much of a reliance on emergency accommodation, he said.

Its nearly completely reliant on hotels and Airbnbs - I don't think that's the right model.

There are good ideas about medium and long-term accommodation, but were struggling in terms of scale.

There are ideas around modular homes, rapid-build homes, but they need to be scaled up.

There is a huge success story in the number of people who are hosting refugees from Ukraine, currently around 14,000 people hosted Ukrainians, but that can be scaled up as well.

Ireland is hosting a significant number of refugees from Ukraine but there are other countries across Europe that are smaller in population that are hosting more  Moldova for example, 113,000.

Recent research by the Oireachtas concluded that Ireland pays one of the highest rates of social welfare to Ukrainian refugees in the EU at 220 per week, but Mr Henderson disagreed that this payment is the only reason why asylum seekers are travelling to Ireland.

That choice could be based on family connections, language distance from Ukraine, he said.

Some people wanted to be close, some people wanted to be far from the war.

Some people may choose where they will get support that would enable them to start a new life.
The latest details of the outbreak of cryptosporidiosis  mainly around Salou  come as schools break up for mid-term next week and some families will travel abroad.

People are being urged to take precautions. Photo: Getty

Five Irish holidaymakers who returned home after picking up a severe stomach bug in Spain had to be hospitalised, with 64 cases associated with the outbreak reported here since August.

The latest details of the outbreak of cryptosporidiosis  mainly around Salou  come as schools break up for mid-term next week and some families will travel abroad.

The Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) said earlier this month there was a widespread increase in cryptosporidiosis in August and September and more Irish holidaymakers were returning with gastrointestinal illness, including symptoms of diarrhoea and vomiting.

A spokeswoman said yesterday that, as of October 25, there have been 44 lab-confirmed cryptosporidiosis cases since August associated with travel to Salou.

Twenty people who were ill were not lab-confirmed cryptosporidiosis cases.

There have been five hospitalised cases linked to the outbreak and no deaths.

The most common symptom is diarrhoea. Some people may also experience dehydration, weight loss, stomach cramps, fever, nausea and vomiting, while others may not have symptoms at all.

Symptoms usually last between one to two weeks.

While it is a mild disease in healthy people, it can be worse in small children and elderly people, and can be very serious for people who are immunocompromised.

The advice is that if you are travelling to an area where there might be outbreaks of gastrointestinal disease, including cryptosporidiosis, take measures around water and food to protect yourself and your family to reduce the risk of infection abroad and spreading it on your return to Ireland.

Wash your hands frequently using soap and clean water before eating and drinking, before and after preparing food, particularly raw meat, after using the toilet or changing nappies, after visiting food markets, after hand contact with items in public areas and after touching live animals.

The bug can spread among swimmers in pools, even those well maintained with chlorine.

Check to see if the tap water is treated and smell it for the bleachy odour of chlorine.

Ask your accommodation manager if they consider the tap water safe.

If unsure, avoid drinking tap water where possible. Do not use ice in your drinks, and if you are not happy to drink the water, do not brush your teeth with it  use bottled water instead.
The rescue team, following a request for assistance from the PSNI, sent 12 members into the mountains, near Annalong, at around 7pm on Tuesday evening.

The body of a man recovered from the Mourne Mountains on Tuesday night has been confirmed to be that of missing Portadown man Gareth Prideaux (41).

The father-of-three had been reported missing to police, who then prompted a large-scale search for Mr Prideaux, with the help of the Mourne Mountain Rescue Team (MMRT).

The rescue team, following a request for assistance from the PSNI, sent 12 members into the mountains, near Annalong, at around 7pm on Tuesday evening.

The operation was stood down just after 11pm.

Mr Prideaux was from Glendinning Way in the Co Armagh town.

A funeral notice states that he was the devoted husband of Julie-Anne and a treasured father of Ashton, Tom and Jamie-Lee.

The home house strictly private. Family and friends will be made most welcome at Milnes Funeral Home on Saturday 4pm  6pm, the notice continues.

Funeral service on Wednesday at 12.30pm in Thomas Street Methodist Church, followed by a private cremation.

Family flowers only please, donations for the benefit the Royal British Legion and the Mourne Mountain Rescue Team via www.milnefuneralservices.co.uk/donate or cheques made payable to Milne Funeral Services donations account c/o59 Seagoe Road, Portadown, BT63 5HS.

Very deeply regretted and sadly missed by the entire family circle.

Mr Prideaux served for five years in the British Army as an infantry soldier, both home and abroad, including in Afghanistan.

Upon returning to Northern Ireland, he then worked as a retail assistant before having many duties as a construction worker.

He most recently was employed as a medical laboratory assistant for the Southern Health and Social Care Trust.

Tributes have already poured in online for the young dad.

One co-worker said that Mr Prideaux had a unique ability to get a laugh and a smile out of people even on their bad days.

Paying a direct tribute to him, she continued: The joy you brought to lab life was infectious and you could lift the mood in any room. I will miss your playfulness and witty banter.

"Many happy memories are held in my heart and something I will forever treasure. I still cant believe this.

"Sending love and prayers to Julie- Ann, Ashton, Tom , Jamie- Lee and the family circle x

Another wrote: Gareth you were one of a kind & always made us laugh out loud anytime you walked into the lab. You will be sorely missed by us all in Craigavon. Words completely fail at this heartbreaking time.
Concerns grow that the Israel-Hamas conflict may spread in the Middle EastPoll shows almost half of Israelis want to hold off on Gaza invasionPoll results show concern over hostages top agenda

US President Joe Biden speaks about the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine. Photo: AP

Two U.S. fighter jets struck weapons and ammunition facilities in Syria on Friday in retaliation for attacks on U.S. forces by Iranian-backed militia as concerns grew that the Israel-Hamas conflict may spread in the Middle East.

U.S. President Joe Biden ordered strikes on the two facilities used by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps and militia groups that it backs, the Pentagon said, warning the U.S. will take additional measures if attacks by Iran's proxies continue.

U.S. and coalition troops have been attacked at least 19 times in Iraq and in Syria by Iran-backed forces in the past week. Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Lebanon's Hezbollah are all backed by Tehran.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said at the United Nations on Thursday that if Israel's offensive against Hamas did not stop, the United States will "not be spared from this fire".

The U.S. air strikes took place at roughly 01.30am GMT near Abu Kamal, a Syrian town on the border with Iraq, and were carried out by two F-16 fighter jets using precision munitions, a U.S. defence official said.

"These precision self-defence strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on October 17," U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement.

"These Iranian-backed attacks against U.S. forces are unacceptable and must stop," Austin said.

Biden has sent a rare message to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warning Tehran against targeting U.S. personnel in the Middle East, the White House said earlier on Thursday.

"What we want is for Iran to take very specific actions, to direct its militias and proxies to stand down," a senior U.S. defence official said. The United States did not coordinate the air strikes with Israel, the official added.

The United States has sent warships and fighter aircraft to the region over the last three weeks. On Thursday the Pentagon said about 900 more U.S. troops have arrived in the Middle East or are heading there to bolster air defences for U.S. personnel.

Israel said on Friday military raids into Gaza were preparing "the next stage of the operation", amid fears that a ground invasion of the Palestinian enclave could spark a wider Middle East conflict.

Israel has bombarded the densely populated Gaza Strip following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israeli communities. Israel says Hamas killed some 1,400 people including children, and took more than 200 hostages, some of them infants and older adults.

The Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry said on Thursday that 7,028 Palestinians had been killed in the retaliatory air strikes, including 2,913 children.

Reuters could not independently verify the tolls.

A missile launched as part of fighting between Hamas and Israel struck an Egyptian resort town about 220 km from the Gaza Strip early on Friday, Egypt's Al Qahera News reported, citing sources.

The missile hit a medical facility in Taba, injuring at least six people, Al Qahera reported. A witness in Taba confirmed hearing an explosion and seeing smoke rising, but Reuters was not immediately able to identify the blast's source.

Israel said on Friday that its fighter jets had struck three senior Hamas operatives who played significant roles in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. They were commanders in the Daraj Tuffah Battalion, part of the Gaza City Brigade, Israel said.

There was no official announcement by Hamas.

Palestinian militants clashed with Israeli troops in at least two areas of the Gaza Strip on Friday, Hamas-affiliated media reported.

Reuters was unable to immediately confirm the reports.

As the plight of Palestinian civilians grows more desperate, the issue of whether to have humanitarian pauses or ceasefire agreements in the Hamas-run coastal enclave will come before the 193-member U.N. General Assembly on Friday in a draft resolution submitted by Arab states calling for a ceasefire.

Palestinian ambassador to UN calls for vote to 'stop the killing'

Unlike in the Security Council where resolutions on Gaza aid failed this week, no country holds a veto in the General Assembly. Resolutions are non-binding, but carry political weight.

More than 613,000 people were estimated to have been made homeless by the Israeli bombardment of Gaza and were being sheltered by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.

Meanwhile, almost half of Israelis want to hold off on any invasion of Gaza, according to a poll published on Friday.

Asked if the military should immediately escalate to a large-scale ground offensive, 29pc of Israelis agreed while 49pc said "it would be better to wait" and 22pc were undecided, the poll published in the Maariv newspaper said.

The daily said the results contrasted with its Oct. 19 poll that found 65pc support for a major ground offensive.

Maariv said "it is almost certain that the developments on the matter of the hostages, which is now topping the agenda, have had a great impact on this shift (in opinion)".

Hamas freed four hostages over the last week amid efforts by regional mediator countries to arrange a larger-scale release. Hamas says around 50 hostages have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza.
Life goes on as normal in Opotiki, residents say, despite a police crackdown following gang tensions in the Bay of Plenty town.

Stuff has contacted a number of community leaders, including the mayor and district councillors, but none have been willing to speak about the current situation for residents.

But those in the community who did speak off the record, say life continues fairly normally, with main street businesses still operating and residents able to do their shopping as usual.

On Monday, the police acting area commander for Eastern Bay of Plenty, Senior Sergeant Tristan Murray, said an operation is underway to suppress gang-related violence in Opotiki, following at least two recent incidents in the town involving firearms.

On Saturday, a 20-year-old woman was shot in the back of the arm. She told police she had been injured when the car she was in was shot at. The woman was taken to Whakatane hospital in a serious condition and was discharged from hospital on Monday.

On Tuesday, Eastern Bay of Plenty commander Inspector Nicky Cooney said police had executed nine search warrants over Labour Weekend, seizing $27,000 cash, weapons  but not firearms, ammunition, and LSD and cannabis.

Cooney said Opotiki and Whakatane police were using powers granted under the Criminal Activity Intervention Legislation Act (CAIL) 2023 to quell ongoing gang tension in the area.

This legislation, which came into effect in April, allows police to apply for special search powers during times of gang conflict.

Two men were arrested and were due to appear in Opotiki District Court on Thursday, with a 22-year-old facing charges of possessing class A and class C drugs, and unlawful possession of ammunition. While a 36-year-old man is charged with possession of offensive weapons.

In June, Mongrel Mob president Steven Rota Taiatini was killed in Opotiki when he was run down in a street during a stoush between Mongrel Mob Barbarians and Black Power.

At the time, Opotiki mayor David Moore denied the town was being held to ransom by gangs when there was an influx of family members and gang members for the tangi.

On Wednesday, police said investigations were continuing into the events of the past week, which included police engaging with key community leaders, iwi and gangs.

On Tuesday, Cooney said police would continue to be out in the community, ready to respond to any unlawful behaviour by gangs and anyone who believes that they are above the law.

We are sending a clear message to all gangs and the wider public that police do not tolerate unlawful behaviour and will work hard to hold people to account, she said.

-Erin Johnson/Stuff.
Police have made 24 arrests and seized firearms and significant quantities of illegal drugs, as part of two long-running investigations targeting a Class A drug supply chain.

Those arrested face serious charges including dealing Class A drugs, possession of firearms and money laundering.

"For more than 12 months New Zealand Police National Organised Crime Group have run Operation Italian Sky (Christchurch) and Operation Sumatra (Auckland), targeting organised crime groups running a multi-million dollar Class A drug supply chain between Auckland and Christchurch," says Detective Inspector Darrin Thomson, New Zealand Police National Organised Crime Group.

A seized firearm.

"The operations have concluded over the past four weeks with Police executing a total of 32 search warrants in Christchurch and Auckland. More than 50 vehicles were also searched as part of Police activity.

"The operations have significantly disrupted and impacted the activity of several organised crime groups, who have been working together to enable a drug-dealing network which has caused significant harm in our communities.

"The 24 arrests include 11 people in Christchurch and 13 in Auckland, of which 22 are males and two are females, all aged between 20 and 50. All those charged have appeared or are due to appear in Christchurch and Auckland courts."

The 80+ charges laid include:

 Supplying Methamphetamine

 Supplying Cocaine

 Participation in an Organised Criminal Group

 Possession of Firearms

 Money laundering

 Possession of Drug Manufacturing Equipment

Seizures have included:

 5kg of methamphetamine

 3.5kg of cocaine

 Three firearms (pistol, shotgun & rifle)

 $80,000 Stolen vehicle

 Jewellery

 $500,000+ cash

NOCG with the support of Police Specialist Groups and Canterbury and Auckland Police staff have deployed more than 100 staff members at any one time to disrupt these groups over the past four weeks.

The seizures of cocaine and methamphetamine have an estimated street value of almost $3 million dollars. The volume seized equates to more than 235,000 doses and an estimated $5,500,000 of social harm.

Some of the cash seized.

"This has been a well-planned investigation with a focus on disrupting a substantial Class A drug supply chain and holding to account those responsible for distributing serious harm into our communities," says Darrin.

"The mix of Class A drugs and firearms is a lethal cocktail and Police will continue to act with urgency when such opportunities present themselves.

"Police have also been supported by New Zealand Customs during the Auckland searches and further investigation is being undertaken in respect to the supply chain and origin of the Class A drugs being supplied.

"Our communities are a safer place as a result of this investigation, with these illicit substances off the street and with the reduction in the associated harm and misery that impacts our communities.

"The investigations are ongoing and may lead to more searches and arrests.

"As the matters are now before the courts, Police are not in a position to provide further detail."
The occupying Russian forces complained that they were running out of people to storm the positions of the Ukrainian Defense Forces at the front. The enemy has suffered significant losses in manpower as a result of the invasion of Ukraine.

ADVERTISIMENT

A Russian army soldier told his brother that his brigade was running out of men. The interception of their conversation was published on Thursday, October 26, on the YouTube channel of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (scroll to the bottom of the page to watch the video).

He acknowledged that the occupiers were having more and more setbacks at the front and that there were fewer and fewer people left. At the same time, he noted that "the forecasts leave much to be desired".

"How are you? Are you not involved in the assault? The forecasts leave much to be desired... We also have no one to storm. We have three cripples..." the invader said.

ADVERTISIMENT

According to the DIU, the occupier is talking about the loss of manpower of the assault units of the 3rd Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade, Which is part of the 1st Army Corps of the aggressor country of Russia.

This illegal armed formation is called "Berkut" by the occupiers and is formally subordinated to the "DPR" terrorist group. The brigade was created back in 2014 of militants who fought in Horlivka (Donetsk region), known as the Bezler Group.

As OBOZ.UA reported earlier, a Russian military officer said that the Russian army has no chance of advancing at the front. The invaders cannot move forward and capture even the smallest settlements, not to mention cities like Kupiansk, which the occupiers are trying to storm.

ADVERTISIMENT

Only verified information is available on our Telegram OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
Every week, 12 babies are born with or acquire a congenital heart condition in New Zealand  affecting about 600 whanau a year.

Other children will also be diagnosed with a heart condition due to childhood illness, such as Rheumatic Fever or Kawasaki Disease.

Heart Kids NZ is a not-for-profit organisation that services children, teens, young adults and whanau living with a childhood heart condition. It is the only national organisation in Aotearoa dedicated to supporting heart kids throughout life.

Established in August 2001, Heart Kids Bay of Plenty currently supports more than 160 heart families from Katikati to Paengaroa.

With more babies being born in the Bay of Plenty, and an increase in the Bays population there are more babies with heart conditions living in the area and now, more whanau needing support.

Diagnosing a childhood heart condition can be devastating for whanau as it is often the first step in a long journey, often filled with long periods of separation from family members, isolation, high stress, financial hardship and loneliness.

Heart Kids NZ walk beside heart families to provide practical, financial and emotional support so parents and the wider whanau do not have to go through this journey alone.

Heart Kids NZ Communications Advisor Laurel Ketel says talking to people who understand what you are going through is a huge emotional support for parents, heart children, and adults.

We have a dedicated Family Support Taituara in the Bay of Plenty that supports heart children, youth, adults and their whanau. They organise family days, coffee groups and information evenings so heart families can get together, talk and connect.

This provides the chance to speak to others going through the same thing, share ideas, and just have some fun during what is often a fraught time in their lives..

The part-time Family Support Taituara in Bay of Plenty works with about 300 members to support families and provide care tailored to each family. They provide emotional, practical and financial support and go above and beyond to ensure whanau are looked after on their heart journey.

Usually, Heart Kids NZ Bay of Plenty supports about six babies under 12 months old, whereas the Heart Kids NZ Bay of Plenty branch currently supports 10 to 12 babies with childhood heart conditions.

Our Family Support Taituara offers genuine on-the-ground support and will text, call and visit to ensure families are okay and help with the support they need. If support is needed, our staff check in with families at all hours.

There are always more services that Heart Kids NZ could provide. However, without government funding, Heart Kids NZ relies on donations and grants to survive. TECT recently funded $5,000 to Heart Kids Bay of Plenty to assist with operational costs.

Kate Barry-Piceno, TECT Trustee says that the purpose of the community trust is to benefit the people and community of the Tauranga and Western Bay district. By funding Heart Kids Bay of Plenty, TECT supports community wellbeing, resiliency and safety while promoting social inclusion and belonging for whanau going through a life-changing diagnosis.

Whanau will often have extended periods off work caring for their child and as a result, face extra costs visiting Aucklands Starship Hospital when separated. This funding will give these whanau the support they need when returning home, says Kate.

To learn more about Heart Kids NZ head to their website, or the Bay of Plenty branch Facebook Page.
The Tauranga Womens Lifestyle Expo is returning for 2023, bringing together 140 of the best lifestyle companies under one roof on November 11 and 12 at Mercury Baypark.

The expo will have something for everyones taste.

Whether you are looking for the perfect gift for a friend or family member with the unique range of artisan goods and giftware, after a bit of pampering for yourself, or need to stock up on your eco-friendly essentials, you can be sure youll find what you need, says a statement from event organisers.

The best of local companies will be exhibiting at the expo, alongside a number of national companies who will travel to Tauranga especially for the event.

Its the perfect opportunity for a girls day out, or to treat yourself to a day leisurely wandering between exhibitors.

Organisers says there are some incredible companies exhibiting this year, from young entrepreneurs to larger well-known brands.

There are some amazing new businesses like Dust & Glow, a sustainable beauty brand who offer powder-based beauty solutions from shampoo to cleansers, The Book Shoppe, a book subscription giftbox, and Sweat Sisters & Co, New Zealands home of activewear that celebrates body positivity and self-confidence.

The popular Artisan Zone will include artisan crafters from all over New Zealand with unique products including soaps and organic beauty goods, jewellery, original art, home decor, clothing and more.

Appreciating that shopping, pampering, trying and testing can be hard work, the expo Taste Zone (a mini food show) will be on hand to offer pick-me-ups, tasty treats and bites to keep you going. Sample an array of gourmet food and beverages with everything from gin and vodka to plant-based cheeses, boutique condiments and spices, decadent fudges and cheesecakes, and so much more.

Buy what you love to take away and enjoy at home.

The expo is happening on Saturday, November 11 (10am to 5pm) and Sunday, November 12 (10am to 4pm) at Mercury Baypark in Mount Maunganui.

Earlybird tickets are available on iTICKET and door sales will also be available across the event weekend.

Follow the buzz on the Womens Lifestyle Expo Facebook Page or find out more on the website.

SunLive has a two double passes to the expo to giveaway.

Enter online here to be in to win. Entries must be received before Friday, November 3.
Today is the annual observance of Te Putake o te Riri  He Ra Maumahara, the National Day of Commemoration for the New Zealand Wars.

Tauranga is the host this year, in what is the sixth year of officially commemorating a part of New Zealands history that for decades had been put to the side and, for many, forgotten about.

The New Zealand Wars took place between 1845 and 1872, with a series of skirmishes and battles at various sites around the North Island. The impact was extensive, with nearly 3000 fatalities and millions of acres of Maori land confiscated as a result.

A petition organised by a group of Otorohanga College students and presented to Parliament in 2015 was instrumental in getting a national day of recognition across the line.

The first year of official commemorations took place in 2017 in Russell, 145 years after the wars ended.

Now, six years on, historian Vincent OMalley says Aotearoa is turning a corner in terms of how we view and recognise this dark and controversial chapter in New Zealand history.

I think that there is a greater interest in understanding these difficult aspects of our past and people understand that we can't turn away from these events. Even though a lot of our history is stuff that many people would prefer not to remember, we need to be big enough to remember those aspects of the past that are bloody and brutal, OMalley says.

In Tauranga, where the commemorations this year are being held, local New Zealand Wars historian Buddy Mikaere (Ngati Pukenga, Ngati Ranginui) says more people than ever are taking an interest in the wars.

Historian Buddy Mikaere says more people than ever are taking an interest in the New Zealand Wars. Photo: SunLive.

I run a number of events every year to commemorate two of the battles that took place here, and I have noticed that the numbers have just continued to grow.

Mikaere says this is partly down to the change in the school history curriculum.

So many more schools come. We would probably see somewhere near 2000 kids every year coming to visit the sites and hearing the stories.

He says the evolution of New Zealand society has also played apart, something he calls Maori becoming more mainstream.

It's just an ongoing reflection of things. Like everybody says kia ora these days and nobody thinks twice about it. So we have all these little things across the board and I think this is just one of the outputs of that.

OMalley says a number of factors influenced the lack of keenness to acknowledge the New Zealand Wars previously.

One is that huge numbers of New Zealanders were denied an awareness of New Zealand history in their school years, or if they did learn anything about New Zealand history, it was a rose-tinted version of it.

There was also a disjunction in terms of how Maori and Pakeha remembered these wars for a long time. For example, Pakeha often referred to the commemorations as celebrations because they thought that battles like Orakau had brought Maori and Pakeha closer together. So while Pakeha publicly celebrated this history, Maori privately grieved it.

Vincent O'Malley has written several books on the history of the New Zealand Wars. Photo: Ross Giblin/Stuff.

This is why, OMalley says, having an official day of commemoration for the New Zealand Wars and learning about the history of them is important to help end what he calls historical ignorance around the wars.

There was this view that talking about these conflicts was a recipe for division, and it made people feel uncomfortable. I think my message has always been that having that dialogue is actually a basis for genuine reconciliation about our past and allows us to come together as a nation if we have that basic sheer understanding of our history.

Mikaere agrees and says that to understand why things are as they are now, you have to understand how the past was, so the same mistakes are not repeated.

The site of the Orakau battle as it looks today. Photo: Sam Smith/Stuff.

Even though the war was over 150 years ago, it came to have an impact on the way things are for my family and how things are in Tauranga, Mikaere says.

Our land got taken off us because we were assumed to be in rebellion. That pushed us all out to the outer edges of the city. But now, the city is expanding, it's coming to us. So it does continue to impact today.

Despite the success of the annual commemorations and the fact New Zealand history is being rolled out across all schools for the first time, OMalley says there are still things we can do to recognise the significance of the New Zealand Wars.

For OMalley, this starts with the battle sites themselves, many of which have been left in a state of disrepair and neglect.

Ruapekapeka Pa in Northland. Site of one of the most important battles in the New Zealand Wars. Photo: Ryan Anderson/Stuff.

The way we've marked them historically is to demolish the pa and run a road through the middle, OMalley says.

We've got to work on protecting the sites and promoting them. For example, wouldn't it be great to have an app so that people who were driving by these places were alerted that a historical site was coming up so that they could make a decision as to where they wanted to stop and investigate it.

OMalley says the development of the Rangiriri and Ruapekapeka pa sites and plans for a New Zealand Wars heritage centre on the site of the Gate Pa battle in Tauranga are just some of the positive things being done at the sites so far.

He also hopes in the future the official day of commemoration for the New Zealand Wars could become somewhat akin to Anzac Day in the consciousness of the New Zealand public.

Then prime minister Jacinda Ardern and then Governor-General Patsy Reddy attend the 175th anniversary of the battle of Ruapekapeka. Photo: Ricky Wilson/Stuff.

I think our understanding will grow over time. As I say, I think we've started to turn a corner in the last four or five years. There's still a long way to go, but I'm hopeful for the future, OMalley says.

I know there's been some debate around whether it should be a public holiday or not. I think at the moment, that's probably not the really important point. The point is to get the day well established and for awareness of it to grow over time.

Mikaere says Tauranga is a great example of how far New Zealand has come in terms of growing awareness of the New Zealand Wars and people beginning to engage more with this history.

The entrance to the Rangiriri Pa site. Photo: Sam Smith/Stuff.

I'm particularly encouraged by what I see in Tauranga. We've got lots of new businesses coming to town, and I've just been so impressed by how those businesses embrace the whole thing. The attitude I am seeing is we are in Tauranga now, we had better find out a bit more about what happened here.

We also have lots of business groups wanting to do the historical tour. We go around and do the history of the city, which, of course, a big part of it is going to the Gate Pa battle site and talking about what happened there. So it has been a very interesting development but one I am very pleased about.

-Sam Smith/Stuff.
The lunch was held in the Guildhall, London.

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Nigel Feetham KC, Gibraltar's financial services minister, hosted a lunch at the Guildhall in London on 23 October for over 300 guests.

The lunch, to which many professionals of the UK financial sector attended, marked the first in a series of five financial services events.
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Trafalgar Day, the anniversary of the historic battle of the British Navy commanded by Horatio Nelson against the French and Spanish fleets on 21 October 1805, is commemorated around the world.

Gibraltar, where HMS Victory underwent repairs with Nelson's body onboard and where some of the sailors killed in the battle are buried, marked it by laying wreaths at Nelson's statue followed by a religious service.

The event was attended by the Royal Navy's Parade Commander, Chief Petty Officer Brian Morris, the Governor of Gibraltar Vice Admiral Sir David Steel; the Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo and the Commander of British Forces in Gibraltar, Rear-Admiral Tom Guy.
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In English, the name pumpkin originated from the Greek word for 'large melon' which is 'pepon'. The French nasalised the Greek 'pepon' into 'pompon', which the English changed later to 'pumpion'.

William Shakespeare referred to the 'pumpion' in his Merry Wives of Windsor, where vegetable references are in great abundance.

Eventually, American colonists changed 'pumpion' into 'pumpkin.'

However, the Spanish word 'calabaza' comes from a language that was spoken on the Spanish peninsula before the incursion, dominance and spread of Latin by the Roman Empire.

Food for lords

It is believed that after Columbus's discoveries and the Spaniards arrived in Yucatan, a large peninsula in southeast Mexico, they were served a dish called 'papadzules', consisting of corn tortillas dipped into a pumpkin seed sauce. Unsurprisingly, it was immediately dubbed 'food for lords'.

The Spaniards liked it and reportedly brought the nutritious calabaza back home.

Since then, pumpkins have spread throughout the world and diversified over several centuries. Today, pumpkin is mostly associated with Halloween and a dessert pie with a spiced, pumpkin-based custard filling, and the phrase 'When life gives you pumpkins, make pie' became idiomatic.

As an antaphrodisiac

However, in the Spanish language pumpkin can idiomatically hint something negative, or rather... is used for expressing dissent, refusal, or a failure.

The expression 'dar calabazas' - literally, to give pumpkins - can have two main meanings. More generally, this phrase is used simply to say that someone says 'no' to a proposal, to someone who makes an amorous proposition.

'Dar calabazas' (to give pumpkins) can also mean that a person has failed an exam. For example, Jose went to the job interview but 'le dieron calabazas'. It means, he was not taken on.

It is interesting that the phrase 'to give pumpkins' has its origins in ancient Greece, where pumpkin was used as an antaphrodisiac.

In this context, much later in the Middle Ages, pumpkin was recommended to ward off lascivious thoughts.

For example, pumpkin seeds were used during religious prayers to remove sexual thoughts from the mind.

In some regions of Europe pumpkin-based dishes were even offered to ward off the suitors of a daughter of the family.

Pumpkins are also quite often associated also with humility. However, this might be due to the Cinderella fairy-tale. And that is definitely another story.

Pumpkin and chocolate tart

Ingredients

700g roasted pumpkin flesh, 4 eggs, 150g sugar, 200ml whipping cream, 200g fondant chocolate, 25g butter, half a glass of water

Method

Heat oven to 250 C. Beat the eggs with the sugar until thick and foamy. Add the roasted pumpkin flesh and mix until smooth. Whip the cream and fold into the pumpkin mixture.Grease a shallow tin or ovenproof dish and pour in the mixture. Lower the heat to 200 C and bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer poked into the middle comes out clean. Leave the tart to go cold before tipping it out of the tin. Break the tablet of fondant chocolate into small pieces, place in a bowl and add the water. Microwave until melted. Add a tablespoon of butter and mix well. Spread over the top of the tart and chill.
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Fans of British television and radio dramas will be excited to learn that British actor Simon Williams is coming to speak on the Costa del Sol this month. In fact he is giving a talk about his life as an actor and the famous people he has worked with along the way at the Arts Society Benahavis on Tuesday 31 October.

Williams is probably best known for playing James Bellamy in the 1970s British television series Upstairs, Downstairs and is currently the voice of Justin Elliott in the long-running BBC Radio 4 drama The Archers.

In an interview with SUR in English he reveals that he has a long connection with the Costa del Sol as a friend had a house in Sotogrande for many years; his brother, poet Hugo Williams, used to have a house on the Costa del Sol too. Williams says that he loves this part of the world.

However, this will be a very brief stop as he will be staying here for just one night before flying back to the UK. After a break from Justin Elliott, the actor is recording again for the Archers with a storyline coming up later in autumn.

Williams was born in Windsor, Berkshire in 1946. Coming from a family of actors - his father was Hugh Williams and his mother was Margaret Vyner - he says that acting "is in the blood" and that he first fell in love with the theatre when he would visit his father backstage.

"My father was always in a good mood," he says of the happy memories that sparked that love. It was theatre buildings that he first fell in love with and "the magic of the theatre - whether it's empty or full".

Williams is married to actress Lucy Fleming - the niece of James Bond creator Ian Fleming - and his own children have also gone into acting.

Big break

He first appeared on television in 1967 in Man in a Suitcase, and in 1969 he played the lead role in Slim John. However, he got his big break in 1971 when he starred as James Bellamy in Upstairs, Downstairs,

Television fans will also recognise Williams from appearances in series such as Bergerac, Dinnerladies, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Heartbeat, The Bill, Holby City and Dr Who and a long list of etceteras.

However, in a career that spans theatre, television, films and radio, Williams points out that while many actors say their first love is the theatre, he doesn't have a preference.

"I'm a Gemini; I always want to do what I'm not doing. I flibbertigibbet between all of them. When I am doing theatre I think I might like to do some television and when I'm doing television I think I might like to do some radio," he admits.

For anyone who remembers James Bellamy or regularly tunes in to the Archers and is aware of Justin Elliott's reputation as somewhat of a cunning, and not always trustworthy, businessman, the actor points out he has also "played some very nice characters", but that even with the less savoury ones, "you have to fight their corner" and "find their redeeming features".

Williams is also a renowned playwright and novelist. His most recent play opened in August to good reviews and his play, Nobody is Perfect (Nadie es perfecto) went down very well in Spain.

As well as the acting, Williams is often invited to give after-dinner talks on his experiences and has been "on the Arts Society's books" for about a year. When he isn't working, he says his favourite activities are walking (he has a Cockapoo called Gus), sitting in cafes watching the world go by and being with his seven grandchildren.

David Jason

Without wanting to give away any spoilers about his talk, Williams does reveal that having worked alongside some of the biggest names in British television - David Jason, Glenda Jackson and Michael Crawford to name but a few - he will be talking about his experiences and the people he has come across, as well as the "ups and downs of being an actor, those awkward love scenes and keeping your feet on the ground".

There will be some insight into working on The Archers and Williams says that he will be keeping his talk on 60 years in the business "fun and lighthearted".

Simon Williams is speaking at The Arts Society Benahavis (Hugo Investing, Urb. La Carolina, Edf. Aries, Local N, 29602 Marbella) on Tuesday 31 October at 7pm. Doors open at 6pm and there is a complimentary glass of wine on arrival. Guests are welcome and tickets cost 15 euros. Members of other Arts Societies pay 10 euros.
Lorena Cadiz Benalmadena Compartir Copiar enlace

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The deputy mayor of Benalmadena, Presi Aguilera, has announced that a foreign investment fund is very interested in the troubled Tivoli World amusement park on the Costa del Sol. Aguilera explained that the town hall is carrying out mediation work between the possible investors and the company that owns the park, Grupo Tremon. She said the council is excited about the possibility of an agreement that will see the reopening of the park, which has been closed for three years.

Almost 80 workers' jobs have been left in the balance while the judicial process tries to find a solution to their predicament. The workers have continued to perform maintenance, cleaning and security tasks, organising 24-hour shifts to monitor the facilities to prevent looting and squatters.

The PSOE has demanded that the current council takes action to reopen Tivoli World, and has urged the regional government to respond to the request made during the plenary session in April to declare this space of autonomous interest.

However, Aguilera said the regional authority has rejected this as it is a private space, and this could only proceed if a business investment has first been declared of strategic interest.

In the five months since the PP took over, we have held many meetings to discover first-hand what the real problem is with regards to Tivoli. None of us want it to be used for anything other than an amusement park, she said,

 Tivoli World: an amusement park abandoned by its owners but cared for by its workers

 In photos: the condition of Tivoli World behind closed doors

She pointed out the importance of the unanimous approval of the previous mandate for a specific modification of the PGOU town plan to protect the park so that the site on which it is located can only be used for recreational use.

This space must be non-residential, but it could have a hotel or be used for commercial activity, but it must be linked to the opening of the amusement park, she explained.
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National Police on the Costa del Sol have arrested a man in Benahavis in a major operation for his alleged links to the perpetrator of the jihadist attack committed in Belgium on 16 October, in which a Tunisian national murdered two Swedish citizens.

According to the force, the arrested man had an International Arrest Warrant against his name issued by the Belgian authorities for drug trafficking, arms trafficking, money laundering and membership of a criminal organisation. At the time of his arrest he was carrying false documents.

On the basis of information provided by the Belgian police, an investigation was launched into the possible relationship between the perpetrator of the attacks and an individual who had settled in Spain. The investigations led to the conclusion that both were linked to criminal activities associated with organised crime.

Eventually, the investigation located the man living in Benahavis, where he had based himself in order to escape justice using false documentation. This led to a large police deployment in the middle of the night in which the suspect was arrested in the house where he was living.

Officers also searched the property, where they found documents, electronic devices and a significant amount of money. For the time being, police continue to analyse the seized items in order to clarify the degree of connection between the two individuals.

A court has ordered the immediate imprisonment of the arrested fugitive.
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A woman who was admitted to a hospital in Malaga with severe pains in her abdominal area has been arrested after an X-ray revealed she was carrying 15 hashish pellets inside her body.

National Police officers were called to the hospital in Malaga city on Saturday 21 October about 6.15pm after the results were confirmed by medical staff.

It is believed the 63-year-old ingested the pellets under circumstances that are still under investigation. She felt unwell afterwards and decided to make her own way to a hospital.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky held a special military cabinet meeting. The participants discussed a plan for further actions at the front with specific deadlines and calculations and agreed on positions.

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The head of state announced this on Telegram. He emphasized that the military command frankly discussed the most important topics during the meeting.

Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, Commander of the Land Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Brigadier General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, Commander of the Tavria Operational-Strategic Group of Forces, Andriy Hnatov, Deputy Commander of the Southern Operational Command, Major General Eduard Moskalev, Deputy Commander of the Eastern Operational Command, and Marine Corps Commander Yuriy Sodol made reports on their areas of responsibility.

According to Zelensky, the meeting was also attended by Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, Chief of the Defense Intelligence Service Kyrylo Budanov, and Head of the Security Service Vasyl Maliuk.

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"The plan of further actions with specific deadlines and calculations is backed by supplies from our partners and our own production. Building up the capabilities of our defense industry. We have agreed on our positions. We are moving on," Zelensky said.

The day before, the president also held a daily conference call with the military command of the state. The participants discussed preparations for Kremlin terrorists' attacks on energy infrastructure. Zelensky assured that this year Ukraine would not only defend itself but also respond.

As reported by OBOZ.UA:

- Zelensky summed up the results of the Crimean Platform summit, which took place on Tuesday, October 24, in the Czech Republic. He said that the presence of Russian occupiers on our land will not last forever.

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- The President informed that Ukraine is working to expand partnership in the joint production of air defense systems. To ensure a reliable air shield over Ukrainian cities, the state is building special relations with the most powerful countries in the world, including Germany.
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As part of the Malaga Swing Festival, which is taking place in different locations in the city this weekend, an event that will bring together more than 200 dancers from all over Spain, the UK, Italy, Poland and Switzerland will be staged in Muelle Uno in Malaga port on Sunday 29 October.

This is the second year that Malaga has hosted the festival, which attracts fans of the genre from all over the province. The gathering will offer an afternoon of live music supplied by The Swinguettes, a group that captures the essence of a style of jazz that developed in the USA during the late 1920s and early 30s.

The event kicks off at 4.30pm with a parade of the participating dancers from the Centre Pompidou to the main stage, located in the port (next to the co-working centre).

The event will also present several local bands, along with lindy hop and solo jazz classes.
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The multinational community of Puebla Blanca in Torreblanca, Fuengirola, are coming together this weekend to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the construction of their residential estate. The residents, who today consist of Spanish, British, Scandinavian and Estonian, among other nationalities, will hold a special party to mark the occasion, during which a special 50th anniversary plaque will be presented to the son of the original president of the community, who died several years ago. The community will cook traditional dishes from their country of origin, while previous presidents will offer talks about the development's long and interesting history.

1973 More than 100 families of 23 nationalities moved into the 84 homes constructed on an elevated plot of land that was considered a "bad purchase" as it was covered with fig trees

The typical Andalusian-style complex was built in 1973 by local developer Vicente Pitarch Ortiz, and it was one of the most adventurous real estate projects of its kind at that time.

Puebla Blanca, as it is today. SUR

Pitarch purchased the plot in 1969. The elevated land was covered with fig trees, and the locals believed he had "made a bad purchase", as figs had little value. However, Pitarch had other plans: the creation of a quaint village-type development constructed with antique doors, rejas and roof tiles that he had purchased in different villages in the province, as well as a glorious clocktower, which contained an 18th-century original mechanism Belfry clock, purchased in the rural village of Penarrubia.

Although a new clock was installed in 2006, the original has been preserved in a glass cabinet in the grounds of the complex.

The early history of Puebla Blanca was preserved in a handwritten booklet produced by Anne Pullen - one of the original residents - to mark its 20th anniversary, and this includes information about who the first residents were, and also some interesting anecdotes about them.

Infamous owner

The first person to purchase a property in the complex was French writer Henri Charriere, author of Papillon, a book he wrote while serving a prison sentence for murder. Anne Pullen notes that Charriere insisted that one room in his house had to be "like a small prison cell", which is where he intended to write his second novel, although the writer never actually took up residence in the house.

She also points out that "our Puebla was very nearly stillborn", as Renfe had other plans for the land. The Malaga to Fuengirola Cercanias local train line was planned to run through the middle of the estate, even though the project had been approved and work had already begun. After several meetings with the authorities in Madrid, the route was changed and the line on this section of the route was put underground.

More than 100 families of 23 nationalities moved into the 84 homes when the project was finished. While today none of the original owners still reside there, some of their children now own and live in their parents' properties.

One of the longest-standing residents, Gitta Falck-Muus, purchased her house in 1977, and she was the first person to have a telephone installed.

"I was the first resident to have a landline and all the other residents gave my number to their family and friends. My telephone was always ringing," Gitta told SUR in English.

"I remember when there were no other housing developments in this area, and the goat herders used to bring their animals to the natural water spring, which was just outside our urbanisation. Everybody, even people from Fuengirola, came to fill up containers to get fresh drinking water, especially during the frequent water cuts," she added.

A little white village

Current vice-president Karen Skirrow moved from the UK into Puebla Blanca in 1983, and she remembers it as "a beautiful little white village with winding streets and squares with an array of colourful flowers".

"Today, nothing much has changed in our little oasis away from the hustle and bustle of the Costa del Sol," she said. This is reiterated by another of the latest residents, current president Bjrn Bang, who purchased his house in 2019.

"We looked at many houses before discovering Puebla Blanca. Walking through the streets with original Spanish style white houses was like stepping back in time. We felt in our hearts that this was the place we wanted to be. Peaceful and tranquil," he said.

The community's social secretary Shelly Pickard, who purchased her home in 2010, explained that the anniversary party, which will take place tomorrow (Saturday 28 October), has been organised to bring everyone together to mark "such a special occasion".

She is also hoping that Vicente Pitarch Ortiz will make an appearance, seeing as it was his foresight that turned an old fig orchard into what she describes as "a charming place to live".

"We are hoping the anniversary party will help rekindle our community spirit, because we used to have regular day trips, barbecues and social events, but these have all been on hold for a while because of different things that have happened along the way, especially the pandemic," she said.
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Flying from Malaga Airport to New York daily and non-stop will be possible from 2 May next year. United Airlines has announced it is tripling its flight offering from to and from the Costa del Sol, after its successful first summer of operations this year. The company will increase the number of transatlantic flights from 52 to around 150 between Malaga and Newark Airport. It will also start operating a month earlier compared to this year. The airline will operate the route until 25 September with a Boeing 757-200 aircraft, as before.

In a statement United Airlines said that "although the demand for transatlantic summer trips remains at peak levels, United has increasingly seen customers search for spring season breaks. Due to a 33% increase in demand the airline has committed to the ramping up of the schedule. United Airlines said the decision to resume several of its most popular routes early would "give customers more time and options to visit Europe.

At its other Spanish destinations  Palma de Mallorca and Tenerife  where it is heading to the third season, the company will maintain its three weekly summer connections. On the Malaga Airport route, the head of United Airlines Sales in Spain, Antonio de Toro, said that the reinforcement of the flight to New York is a clear commitment to the Andalusian market which is also an action taken for the growth of the airline in Spain.

More transatlantic destinations

United Airlines Vice President of Alliances and Planning, Patrick Quayle, said that United flies to more transatlantic destinations than all other US airlines and remains the only airline that directly connects the US with Dubrovnik, Malaga, Mallorca and Tenerife. "United has the largest number of flights to most destinations across the Atlantic and we are now giving our customers even more flexibility and options when planning their trips abroad," he said.

The Junta's regional Minister of Tourism, Arturo Bernal, applauded United Airlines' solid commitment to Malaga and Andalucia which underlined the great margin of growth in the destination. It is very positive news. We are very happy and sure that other actors will get the message of the Andalusian potential.

Tickets to fly non-stop between Malaga and New York from May next year are already on sale at travel agencies and on the company's website.
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Eligible people can now apply for 2023-2024 season Imserso trips  Spain's bargain-price holiday scheme for retired people. There are a total of 886,269 places up for grabs, some 70,000 more than last year.

Applications started being accepted on Thursday 26 October in the regions of Aragon, Asturias, Castilla La Mancha, Catalonia, Galicia, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, La Rioja, Navarre and the Basque Country. Tomorrow, on Saturday 28 October, those in Andalucia, Cantabria, Castile and Leon, Valencia, Extremadura, Madrid, Melilla and Murcia will be able to apply.

During October about 200,000 letters have been sent every day, to a total of 2,697,264 addresses that will reach a potential 4,219,157 beneficiaries during the month. Participants can book their trips to destinations through the official Imserso website (www.turismosocial.com) with their ID card and accreditation code or at any of the authorised travel agencies with just their ID card.

"The Imserso tourism programme contributes to active ageing and the promotion of an active lifestyles, while favouring intergenerational solidarity, generating employment and economic activity and favouring inter-territorial solidarity through travel between different regions," the Ministry said.

Destinations and prices

Prices for this season vary according to the destination and the number of nights (between three and nine) and range from 124 euros to 435 euros.

In Spain's coastal area, stays in Andalucia, Catalonia, Murcia and Valencia (with transport included) cost 290.07 euros for nine nights and 228.93 euros for seven nights. If transport is not included, nine nights are offered for 253.65 euros and seven nights for 210.72 euros.

For the islands, trips to the Balearic Islands (with transport) cost 331.49 euros and 267.63 euros for stays of nine and seven nights, respectively, while without transport the price is 253.77 euros and 210.47 euros.

As for the Canary Islands, nine-night stays (transport included) cost 435.95 euros and seven-night stays cost 355.30 euros. Without transport, travel to the archipelago will cost 253.65 euros and 210.39 euros, respectively.

For getaway tourism, the prices are as follows: Cultural tours (five nights and 293.16 euros), nature tourism (four nights and 286.82 euros), province capitals (three nights and 124.68 euros) and Ceuta or Melilla (four nights and 286.82 euros).
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The European Commission has given the green light to a joint business venture between Iberdrola and British Petroleum to install, operate and maintain electric vehicle charging stations across the Iberian Peninsula.

After analysing the documentation, Brussels concluded this Friday (27 October) that this would not pose competition problems, given its limited impact on the markets in which the two companies operate. The operation mainly refers to the markets for the installation, operation and maintenance of a network of electric vehicle charging stations, with fast and ultra fast loading speeds in Spain and Portugal.

The Commission added, in a statement, that this operation does not pose competition problems due to the presence of a sufficiently large number of alternative charging point operators. Brussels expects these markets to grow significantly in the next three years. The decarbonisation of road transport is one of the environmental priorities of the European Union which, in March, approved the ban on the sale of combustion cars from 2035.

According to a report published by ECODES and the Sustainability Observatory, it is estimated that by 2030, between 22,900 and 289,130 connectors for electric vehicles will be needed in the Iberian Peninsula; to reach that figure it will be necessary to install 25,860 connectors each year.

Five billion euros

Approval of the joint venture comes as the Basque electricity company, Iberdrola, announced on Thursday that it hopes to end the year with a double-digit percentage increase over profit reaped in 2022, which will place the company's net return at around five billion euros.

Iberdrola presented an upward revision of its economic forecasts for this year that points to a new profit record next December. Results for the first nine months of the year, also unveiled on Thursday, show that the company earned 3.6 billion euros, which represents an increase of 17.7% compared to the same period of the previous year. The increase is 22% if the effect derived from various generation facilities in Mexico is left out of the equation.

The strong results, which follow a 7.7-billion-euro investment by Iberdrola this year, come from a substantial increase in the companys renewable energy production and from an improvement in weather conditions compared to 2022.
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Spanish supermarket giant Mercadona has launched a new campaign that favours national produce on its shelves.

The Valencian chain revealed it is starting the 2023-24 season for nationally-produced citrus with a forecast purchase of 220,000 tonnes, a 10% increase compared to the previous season. The new season started in October with the sale of mandarins and lemons, before Spanish oranges are rolled out from November.

As part of its commitment to local fruit and vegetable growerss, Mercadona will sell citrus fruits from orchards in the Valencia region, Andalucia, Murcia, Catalonia and the Canary Islands. Freshly squeezed orange juice will also be available in the fruit and vegetable section in three packaging formats: 250-millilitre-bottles, 500 millilitres and 1 litre.

The mandarin season started this month and ends in May, and the lemon season also started in October and will last until June - while the orange season will start in November and last until August. Mercadona's 24 national suppliers work with more than 2,800 farmers throughout Spain.

Seasonal products, balanced basket

Consuming seasonal products, in this case citrus fruits, is beneficial for not only its taste, but also taking care of the environment. As Greenpeace reports on its website, eating seasonal fruit and vegetables reduces our environmental impact.
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Besides being the fiftieth anniversary of Picasso's death this year, it was also 142 years since his birth last Wednesday, 25 October.

To commemorate the event, the Casa Natal (Picasso's birthplace in the city), is celebrating a programme of activities for the annual Picasso October which is being held until 29 November. The focus for the events is on promoting his life and work from a different perspective of his biography to unveil lesser-known aspects.

Tomorrow, Saturday, is a theatrical poetry recital called Picasso: El Entierro del Conde Orgaz. Four actors and a musician will bring to life excerpts from Picasso's last literary text, The Burial of the Count of Orgaz, in a world premiere performance by the Angel Baena company. There will be four, 20-minute showings, at 8pm, 8.30pm, 9pm, and 9.30pm, with a capacity of 15 people for each performance.

The auditorium of the Casa Natal is also the venue for the presentation of the book 'Picasso. Conversations Book,' by its compiler, Rafael Inglada, and its editor, Raul Alonso. This event will take place on 31 October at 7pm.

The book compiles interviews and conservations in which Picasso is heard not only as an artist, but also a human being, a family man in his private world.

On 13 November, the 36th Picasso October will move to the Sociedad Economica de Amigos del Pais, for a roundtable discussion at 7pm.

On 21 November, 7pm, the art historian Nadia Hernandez Henche, will give a lecture (in Spanish) titled Objetivo Picasso. La Picassofobia en el tardofranquismo (Objective Picasso: Picasso-phobia in Late Francoism). It demonstrates how Picasso inspired critical and intellectual attitudes during the Franco regime.

On 28 November, the book Un Extranjero Llamado Picasso (A Foreigner Called Picasso) will be presented by its author, Annie Cohen-Solal. This work reveals how, during a period that spanned World War I, the Nazi occupation and the Cold War, Picasso had to fight to preserve his career, and his life in general, until he left Paris for good in 1955.

The last lecture , by Pablo Salazar, 29 November, is titled En el Nombre de la Madre: Maria Picasso Lopez (1855-1938) (In the Name of the Mother: Maria Picasso Lopez), which reveals aspects of Picasso's relationship with his mother, based on constant contact and the exchange of confidences.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a phone conversation with Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Rishi Sunak. The leaders discussed the situation on the battlefield and Russia's attempts to encircle Avdiivka.

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Volodymyr Zelenskyy also thanked the United Kingdom for its unwavering support for our country.

"I spoke with Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Rishi Sunak.

The United Kingdom's support for Ukraine remains unwavering. I really appreciate it.

I informed Rishi about Russia's attempts to encircle Avdiivka. Our soldiers stopped them and inflicted significant losses on the enemy, which amounted to at least a brigade of personnel.

We discussed further defense cooperation, including strengthening Ukraine's air defense system with missiles and anti-drone weapons.

I informed Rishi about Russia's actions in the Black Sea, which threaten civilian shipping. The Ukrainian grain corridor will continue to work despite everything.

We also exchanged views on the Middle East and agreed that stopping the escalation of the conflict would be in the interests of the international community," Zelenskyy said in a statement.

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The news is supplemented...
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On the 20th day of hostilities in Israel, which is fighting Hamas and other terrorist groups, a rocket hit the Egyptian resort town of Taba near the Israeli border. It hit a medical facility and injured six people.

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The incident occurred on the morning of Friday, October 27, 220 kilometers from the Gaza Strip, The Times of Israel reported, citing the Egyptian TV channel Al Qahera News. Later, the media reported another similar incident (to see photos and videos, scroll down to the bottom of the article).

In a commentary to the media, a witness allegedly confirmed that he heard an explosion and saw smoke rising over the site of the strike in Taba.

However, it has not yet been established whether the missile was related to the fighting or whether it was a mistaken launch.

The city of Taba is located on the Egyptian border near the Israeli port of Eilat on the Red Sea. The Israeli Defense Forces indicated that they were aware of a security incident outside the country.

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Reuters recalled that on October 25, Hamas said it had fired a rocket at Eilat, which, according to the Israeli military, hit the neighborhood. That incident was the farthest Palestinian attack in the entire war in the Gaza Strip, which has been going on since October 7.

After the explosion in Taba on Friday morning, no one has claimed responsibility for it. Analysts pointed out that the current incident underscores the danger faced by Egypt and other countries in the region amid the intensification of hostilities between Israel and Hamas.

"Egypt has been actively involved in negotiations on Palestinian access to aid, trying to secure the release of hostages held by militants and advocating for a ceasefire. But its proximity to the front line has exposed it to risks," the statement said.

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It added that on October 22, several Egyptian border guards were injured by accidental shell fragments from an Israeli tank. At the time, Tel Aviv apologized for the incident.

On Friday afternoon, the Ar-Rai portal, citing Reuters, which in turn quoted two sources in the Egyptian security services, reported that another shell had fallen in Egypt near the Israeli border. In particular, in the deserted part of the resort town of Nuweiba on the Red Sea. An eyewitness allegedly reported hearing a loud explosion and seeing clouds of dust in the distance. The information was not confirmed by the authorities.

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As reported by OBOZ.UA, after the Hamas attack on Israel in Egypt, a police officer opened fire on a bus with Israeli tourists , after the Hamas attack on Israel in Egypt. The incident occurred on October 8 in the city of Alexandria, killing at least three people.

Only verified information on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
Vegans ditch dairy for many reasons, from animal welfare to the planets well-being, but theres one dairy delight that tugs at the heartstrings of many: cheese.

Lucky for them, the plant-based cheese revolution has come to the rescue, and one dairy-free brand based in Upstate New York is letting vegans indulge in top-notch cheesy goodness without the ethical baggage.

Readers of USA Today have voted Hudson Valleys Treeline Dairy-Free Blueberry Goat Cheese as the best vegan cheese in the country.

Treelines spreadable vegan Blueberry Goat Cheese has replicated the flavors and textures of goat cheese without the dairy, the publication wrote, adding that it as the familiar tartness that one would expect with traditional goat cheese.

The company has been making dairy-free artisanal nut cheeses in Kingston, New York since 2011. Its founder and CEO, Michael Schwarz, had given up all dairy products after his increasing concerns about the cruelty of the dairy industry, according to the company website. However, he missed the taste and texture of artisanal cheeses and could not find a vegan cheese that could compare.

His goal with Treeline was to create healthy and nutritious products made with minimal processing and wholesome vegan ingredients, instead of tropical oils and startchy plant-based substitutes.

Treelines blueberry goat cheese is a cashew cheese which they suggest to drizzle with a little syrup and serve alongside a bright, crisp Sauvignon Blanc. Other flavors include original and garlic basil.

In addition to their selection of goat cheeses, they also make dairy-free French style, cream cheese, ricotta, pimento, sour cream, bleu, brie, and aged artisanal plant-based cheese wheels.

Treeline Cheesemakers selection of dairy-free and vegan foods can be found in natural food stores and Wegmans supermarkets across Upstate New York.

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Who makes the best milk, ice cream, cheese in NY? Judges find...
Join NY Cannabis Insider for our next full-day conference on Nov. 16 at the Sonesta White Plains.

A court injunction stemming from a lawsuit against New Yorks Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary program has barred hundreds of retail licensees from opening their doors and now many are applying for general licenses.

The Office of Cannabis Management licensed more than 450 CAURD businesses before Judge Kevin Bryant ordered the injunction on Aug. 8, which restricts most licensees from opening their stores, and prevents the OCM from processing more applications.

However, amid the ongoing litigation, the OCM launched the general licensing process on Oct. 4.

Due to the continuing injunction  and concerns that the judge may find the CAURD program unconstitutional, nullifying its licenses  many CAURD businesses who already applied for, and in many cases received, retail licenses are embarking on yet another application process.

We advised everybody to reapply if they had that ability to do so, said Jayson Tantalo, a CAURD applicant who operates Flower City Hydroponics and co-founded the New York Cannabis Retail Association  formerly the NY CAURD Coalition.



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While the OCM hasnt publicly stated that CAURD licensees should apply for general licenses, staffers there are telling members of the CAURD Coalition that they should make this move, Tantalo said. Tantalo and his wife, business partner and president of the CAURD Coalition, Britni Tantalo, applied in the general licensing round two days after it opened, he said.

The uncertainty of how long the injunction will drag on and the possibility that the judge could rule against the CAURD program are weighing heavily on everyones minds, Tantalo said, including people who have applied for an exemption to the court injunction.

During the first court proceeding for the lawsuit that led to the injunction, Judge Bryant said he would exempt from the enjoinment CAURD businesses that met all approvals before Aug. 7.

Judge Bryant is currently providing exemptions for some of these businesses on a case-by-case basis  hes exempted at least five so far: Elevate ADK in Saranac Lake, Air City Cannabis in Rome, (delivery only), Terp Bros in Astoria, Queens, Gotham Buds in Harlem, and CONBUD in New York Citys Lower East Side.

Even those that are stuck in the injunction, waiting for their pending [exemption], theyre reapplying, Tantalo said. If its deemed unconstitutional and theres a block in transitioning and they didnt pivot, theyre in trouble, Tantalo said.

Its a well-founded concern, said Lauren Rudick, founder and managing principal of Rudick Law Group, a law firm that is heavily focused on cannabis issues.

I see a big risk in not reapplying, Rudick said. The potential that CAURD goes away or that general retail happens first, defeating the first-to-market opportunity, is real, she said.

Paula Collins, a New York tax attorney dedicated to the cannabis industry, agrees that the uncertain timeline the lawsuit and injunction present means that CAURD licensees who are serious about opening their stores should apply for general or social and economic equity licenses in the current round of applications. Collins also pointed out that the OCM is giving similar advice.

The application fee is $1,000 for general applicants and $500 for social and economic equity applicants. Collins said that if OCM waives that fee for CAURD licensees and applicants, it could cause legal problems if Judge Bryant rules the CAURD program unconstitutional  because then those CAURD licensees could still be eliminated.

Im not even sure that we are safe with the check box indicating whether someone was a CAURD applicant, Collins said, referencing a question that appears in the general license application. I suppose the people reading the applications could simply ignore that, and not let it factor into consideration of the application.

Thats the position in which Samuel Coronado finds himself  likely filing yet another application after receiving a CAURD license, because he cannot open his store due to the court injunction.

The Buffalo-based owner of MARY JANES  A LEGACY 2 LEGAL DISPENSARY, received a CAURD license and had closed on a location in his hometown when the injunction came down. Coronado requested an exemption but doesnt know when lawyers representing the OCM will put his exemption request before the court  or if they will at all.

I actually emailed the OCM at the beginning of this week, and they basically told me that they couldnt give me any information on where I stand, Coronado said  adding that the OCM told me Id be better off if I apply again, which I think Im going to do.

For now, Tantalo said, CAURD licensees who are reapplying are experiencing a familiar lack of communication from the OCM  emails going unanswered, and receiving no information about whether their CAURD status will give them a leg-up in the general application process.

Its the same nonsense as before, theres so many unknown factors and changes, Tantalo said. Nobody really knows what to expect or what to anticipate.
Mark L. Buzzard, 72, of Cicero, died on Wednesday following a brief battle with cancer, according to his obituary.

He was originally from Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and became a resident of Central New York in 1968.

His obituary states that he served with the 107th Military Police in the New York Army National Guard, attaining the rank of Sergeant.

He served in law enforcement in Oneida County, Canastota and the State Park Police, according to the obituary.

He joined the Town of Manlius police in 1985 and remained there until his retirement in 2018. He served for 33 years with the department. He was previously president of the Manlius Police Benevolent Association.

In this August 1999 photo, Manlius police officer Mark Buzzard is shown with one of the new radios that have an orange button for officer in distress.Photo by Dick Blume

One friend posted this on his tribute page: Such a dedicated police officer, hard working family man and cherished friend...Mark would fight at any cost for what was right...

Calling hours will take place from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday at R.H. Schepp & Son Minoa Chapel, 6530 Schepps Corners Road, Minoa.

A funeral service will be held at 10 a.m. on Monday at the funeral home. Burial will be in Assumption Cemetery.

Donations may be made to the Town of Manlius Police Benevolent Association, Inc., 1 Arkie Albanese Ave., Manlius, NY 13104.

See the full obituary

Leave a condolence

You may contact our newsroom by email at citynews@syracuse.com or call 315-470-2265.
Rochester, N.Y.  Police have asked the public for help finding a University of Rochester professor who disappeared last week in Upstate New York.

Heikki Rantakari, 44, was last seen Friday, Oct. 20, in the 1000 block of Exchange Street in Rochester, the Rochester Police Department said in a news release. The professor may be in danger, police said.

Rantakari is an associate professor at the Simon Business School, according to the University of Rochesters website. Hes an expert in economics and management, according to his faculty page, and teaches courses about game theory and managerial economics.

The professor was reported missing after he failed to show up to teach a class on Saturday morning, reported the Democrat & Chronicle.

URs Simon Business School shared a post on Facebook asking the public for help finding our colleague, friend, and teacher  tagging the post with #FindHeikki.

Rantakari also works as a visiting associate professor of applied economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, according to MITs website. He lives in the Boston area but commutes to Rochester, family and police told the Democrat & Chronicle.

The professor did not have a car, police told 13 WHAM ABC, but rented an Airbnb on Exchange Street that was walking distance of the university. Police declined to say why investigators believe Rantakari is in danger.

Rantakari is about 5 feet 11 inches tall, his family told 13 WHAM ABC, and has a Finnish accent. When he disappeared, he was wearing dark pants, a light-colored jacket and a light-colored shirt, reported Rochester Area Crime Stoppers.

Police asked anyone with information about the missing professor to call 911.

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25-year-old Upstate NY man dies when his pickup collides with semitruck

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On the night of Oct. 21, a 62-year-old from Ilion failed to return from a hunt in the Pepperbox Wilderness, about 20 miles north of Old Forge. The missing hunter had mobility issues and his ATV was still at his camp.

Two New York State Department of Environmental Conservation forest rangers searched for the hunter through the night. At 3 a.m., they discovered the hunters tracks, which led them to a spruce swamp where they eventually found him hours later.

The hunter was suffering from mild hypothermia due to the cold temperatures and heavy rain. Rangers warmed him up and transported him back to his camp.

Ranger Martin (left) and Smokey Bear (right) take a ride in the Catskill Thunder gondola.Photo by NYSDEC

The following reports are excerpted from DEC:

On Oct. 18, a 58-year-old hunter from Pleasant Valley failed to return to his hunting club in Stony Creek where he was last seen around 4 p.m. Rangers searched overnight, with nine rangers joining the search the next morning. They found the missing hunter at 9 a.m. in good health after hed gotten lost behind the club and had hiked along a drainage, ending up approximately one mile from a road.

A 60-year-old hiker from Florida broke his ankle near Chapel Pond on the afternoon of Oct. 17. Rangers reached the man, splinted his ankle, and helped him back to the trailhead in just a little over an hour.

A 52-year-old from Rotterdam Junction hurt his knee on the evening of Oct. 19 near the summit of Hurricane Mountain in the Adirondacks. Four rangers hiked up the mountain, splinted the hikers knee, and gave him a set of crutches. Rangers guided the man down the mountain in the dark to his vehicle, where he declined further medical attention.



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Rangers find vulnerable adult who went missing in woods near Hudson Valley town - newyorkupstate.com

Brooklyn hiker injured in steep Catskills terrain carried out by forest rangers - newyorkupstate.com

Forest rangers conduct seven wilderness rescues in Adirondacks and Catskills - syracuse.com

Rangers rescue elderly hiker who smashed face on rock in Adirondacks - newyorkupstate.com

Rangers uproot pot plants growing in Upstate NY forest - newyorkupstate.com

Steve Featherstone covers the outdoors for The Post Standard, syracuse.com and NYUP.com. Contact him at sfeatherstone@syracuse.com or on Twitter @featheroutdoors. You can also follow along with all of our outdoors content at newyorkupstate.com/outdoors/ or follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/upstatenyoutdoors.
Washington  Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman pleaded guilty Thursday to a misdemeanor count for triggering a fire alarm as lawmakers scrambled to pass a funding bill before a government shutdown deadline.

He will pay a $1,000 fine and serve three months of probation, after which the false fire alarm charge is expected to be dismissed from his record under an agreement with prosecutors.

The alarm forced the evacuation of a House office building for over an hour on Sept. 30. The New York lawmaker acknowledged pulling the alarm but said it was a mistake as he tried to open an unexpectedly locked door in a rush to get to vote. The funding package was ultimately approved with most Republicans and almost all Democrats, including Bowman, supporting the bill.

I really regret that this caused so much confusion and that people had to evacuate, and I just caused a disturbance. I hate that. Its pretty embarrassing, Bowman told reporters after his plea hearing.

Republicans have criticized Bowman, calling his explanation an excuse and pointing out he passed several police officers without telling them he had pulled the alarm. At the time of the evacuation, House Democrats were working to delay a vote on a funding bill to keep federal agencies open, saying they needed time to review a bill that Republicans abruptly released to avoid a shutdown.

Bowman said he didnt tell officers about the error because he was rushing to make the vote, not delay it.

The case was filed by the District of Columbia attorney generals office, which said Bowman was treated like anyone else who violates the law.

Bowman will also formally apologize to Capitol police as part of his plea deal. Hes set to return to court for a sentencing hearing on Jan. 29, when the charge will be dropped after the completion of his probation.
By Joshua Solomon | Times Union, Albany

Albany, N.Y.  The morning after migrants protested sub-par living conditions at the Super 8 motel in Rotterdam, the company tasked with managing their care publicized a letter from a state official that detailed how living conditions were satisfactory at the upstate hotels that have been converted to shelters for nearly 2,000 individuals.

It marks the latest effort by DocGo, the publicly traded company hired by New York City to care for thousands of migrants, to try and sharpen its image amid questions about its work as well as the actions of its former CEO, Anthony Capone, who had falsified his professional biography.

Migrants at the hotels, many of whom fled oppressive government regimes, told state officials they felt safe, did not feel bullied or intimidated and expressed no concerns, according to a letter sent to New York City officials on Oct. 10 by Cheryl Contentoc, a deputy commissioner for the Division of Shelter Oversight and Compliance at the state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance.

The states letter noted the hotels were found to have enough diapers, baby formula and menstrual products. Migrants, according to the state, had access to food, transportation, casework and medical services, as DocGo is required to provide pursuant to its controversial $432 million contract with New York City.

The conclusion of the inspections stands in contrast to multiple news reports and information from advocates who have been assisting the migrants, often without assistance from the private company. The inspections, according to an agency spokesman, were unannounced.

Events at both the Super 8 in Schenectady County and the Red Roof Inn in Erie County around the time of the inspections cast doubt on the thoroughness of the reviews.

A few days after a state inspector arrived at the Super 8 motel in August, and found no issues, DocGo told a local advocacy group it could not hold a donation drive, citing health and safety of our clients.

The event would go on, albeit with limited access for migrants in Albany seeking charitable items. It would also mark the end of the previously cordial relationship between the local group, Allies for Justice, and DocGo.

A text exchange between the two sides includes a DocGo official respectfully leaving this group as messages began to become agitated about, as one advocate put it, the bug-infested motel.

Its unclear whether the motel was dealing with a bed bug issue at the time of the Aug. 21 inspection. Three days later, there were reported concerns of bed bugs at that location. On Sept. 5, a DocGo spokeswoman, responding to a question about bed bugs at the motel, said that bed bugs are a common issue in multifamily homes and hotels, unrelated to cleanliness.

They can be brought in through various means, including guests, asylum seekers or visitors, said the companys spokeswoman, who declined to be identified. DocGo educates all parties on prevention and advocates for quick intervention. Affected rooms are professionally treated and left vacant for 10 days for re-inspection. Contaminated items are securely disposed of, and ongoing checks ensure the problem is fully resolved.

This week, migrants stood outside the Rotterdam motel with signs that read: The hotel is full of bed bugs, We need immigration help, and The food they give us is worse than a dogs.

The letter from the state also appears to inaccurately characterize who provided bicycles to migrants at the Super 8; it was a local advocacy group, not local law enforcement.

In the scheme of things, it doesnt matter who provided the bikes, said Bill Sherman with Allies for Justice of Schenectady County.

But, to me, when you see something that is absolutely not true, it makes me wonder the veracity of their so-called inspection, Sherman said. What it tells me is theyre taking whatever theyre being told at face value. He noted that multiple news stories, easily accessible online, had already indicated who donated the bikes.

In Amherst at the Red Roof Inn, the letter said that when state officials arrived, the hotel did not know what rooms families were staying in

and at the time of inspection residents did not have a key to their room.

A local advocate, Monica Graesser, said she was there at the time of the inspection in late August. She asserted staff knew which rooms had migrants in them, because they were the ones who held the keys and assigned the rooms, but were concerned about showing the inspectors rooms with bed bugs. Videos from residents showed mattresses covered in bed bugs and a baby with a swollen arm from the insect bites. The Times Union could not immediately verify the date the photos were taken.

The states letter was submitted by DocGo on Tuesday to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, where it would be distributed to the companys investors. In the days prior to submission, DocGos public relations team had been quietly pitching stories to reporters on the contents of the letter.

Immediately after the widespread publication, the companys stock value bumped up for its biggest gains since Capone, DocGos CEO, resigned after the Times Union reported he falsified his professional biography and lied to investors about it.

While the letter appears to give DocGo positive marks for its management of the shelter sites during the August inspections, it also acknowledges the company should be doing more to assist migrants with asylum applications.

If the migrants can work legally, Gov. Kathy Hochul has repeatedly said, then they can plug the labor shortage in the state and sustain their own housing. DocGos contract has allowed it to charge New York City $5,100 per month, per hotel room, despite rates often being below that amount.

The Hochul administration has said it has invested tens of millions of dollars toward legal assistance, although it is unclear how much, if any, of the money is geared toward help upstate.

As of last month, there were about 1,800 individuals being lodged at 14 upstate hotels in Schenectady, Albany, Erie, Dutchess, Monroe, Orange and Westchester counties, according to the state.

The states letter regarding DocGos inspection also noted a potential gap in state law. The state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance said it does not technically have oversight to the shelters run by New York Citys Department of Housing Preservation and Development, as opposed to the citys shelter agency.

City officials handed off shelters to the citys housing agency to handle the overflow of migrants coming there, which also placed regulations to the shelters under more limited oversight. The housing agency, unlike the shelter agency, entered into a major contract with a for-profit company to assist with its work. State lawmakers have not yet appeared to raise concern about the gap in shelter oversight.

If state shelter regulations were in place in the upstate shelters, it may have required specific casework that would have assisted migrants earlier with their asylum cases.

___

(c)2023 the Times Union (Albany, N.Y.)

Visit the Times Union (Albany, N.Y.) at www.timesunion.com
By Kathleen Moore | Times Union, Albany

Bethlehem, N.Y.  This school year, Bethlehem and Shenendehowa administrators were rattled after witnessing drones buzzing around school grounds.

In Bethlehem, it turned out to be a licensed drone pilot working on behalf of an international real estate company. At Shen, at least two drones were seen, with one also piloted on behalf of a real estate company.

While there is no Federal Aviation Administration restriction on low-flying drones, the Bethlehem incident inspired state legislators to propose banning such filming around schools and critical infrastructure sites such as electrical towers and plants.

State Assemblywoman Pat Fahy is introducing the legislation; she said she expects bipartisan support. Local politicians and police gathered at Eagle Elementary School in Bethlehem Thursday to announce the effort.

The Federal Aviation Administration no longer regulates drones operating below 400 feet in most areas (though some sensitive areas, including airports, are still regulated). States are allowed to add their own limits below 400 feet, and several states have now banned low-flying drones from critical infrastructure.

Fahys legislation would do the same, but would include schools in a list of critical infrastructure. Water treatment plants and chemical manufacturing plants are also on that list, in additional to more traditional infrastructure.

She called filming at schools an extraordinarily serious issue.

Given all that is going on, we live in very tumultuous times. Very few are feeling safe these days, she said.

Bethlehem Police Department detective and school resource officer Mike Berben said he was disturbed when he located the drone pilot filming at Eagle Oct. 12. The pilot also filmed that day at Slingerlands Elementary School. The pilot noted correctly that there were no laws stopping him from filming school grounds while students were present. He told Berben he was making a video tour by mapping the grounds, to show prospective home buyers, Berben said.

We never want someone to basically surveil a school and define weak points of entry, Berben said, noting that such footage could then be easily found online.

After school hours, people routinely walk the grounds of local schools. But Albany County Legislator Matt Miller said that openness must be balanced with some security.

Theres a great desire to ensure schools stay as open and accessible to everybody, he said. But we live in a post-Columbine world.

Fahy added that the real estate video tour was somewhat innocuous.

But it drew attention to the need, she said. I was quite surprised there are no restrictions when you are under 400 feet.

The real estate company that filmed outside the Bethlehem elementary school did not immediately respond to a Times Union call seeking comment.

Bethlehem Superintendent Jody Monroe said the company has agreed to notify the school district and the Bethlehem Police Department in advance in the future before photographing school grounds.

___

(c)2023 the Times Union (Albany, N.Y.)

Visit the Times Union (Albany, N.Y.) at www.timesunion.com
North Korea has almost certainly supplied Russia with ammunition or weapons, more than 1,000 containers in the past few weeks, according to media reports. If this pace continues, Pyongyang will become one of the most significant foreign arms suppliers to Moscow, along with Tehran and Minsk.

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This was stated by British intelligence. The report was published on October 26 on the Twitter account of the Ministry of Defense of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The ministry noted that the Kremlin refused to recognize the fact of the supply of military goods from the DPRK. However, "North Korean munitions have almost certainly reached warehouses in western Russia." The weapons stored there are used by the army of the aggressor country, in particular, to wage a full-scale war against Ukraine.

It is not yet known whether North Korea will maintain the recent scale and pace of deliveries. However, according to British intelligence, it is unlikely that the contract is complete.

There is also no confirmed information that Moscow has agreed to provide Pyongyang with anything in return.

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"This likely was one of the main topics of discussion during the recent visits of senior officials to North Korea," London suggested.

They believe that Russia is likely to pay for some of the goods, provide other economic support to the DPRK, and may provide access to military technology, as well as expand cooperation in other areas such as the space industry.

As OBOZ.UA wrote:

- In October 2023, it was reported that the Russian and North Korean dictators, Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un, may have agreed on large-scale arms supplies for the Russian occupation army. The cooperation between the two totalitarian countries could have serious consequences for the war in Ukraine, as well as affect the dynamics of international security in East Asia.

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- The head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Kyrylo Budanov, said that North Korea began transferring ammunition to Russia a month and a half ago.

- The United States said that from September 7 to October 1, Pyongyang sent 1,000 containers of military equipment and munitions to Russia.

Only verified information is available on OBOZ.UA Telegram and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
- Renovating the "expansive" ranch at 4120 Gibbs Road just outside of Manlius has been a "constant project" for Nick and Lisa Petosa since 1996. "We had a lot of fun here," Lisa said. The home's lower level has a long narrow room, which Nick said, had "no purpose." They made their own Italian cafe there, with vintage restaurant tables and tablecloths. Nick's uncle, Augusto Collacchi, an artist, painted the mural depicting an area of Italy. Courtesy of Simply Heidi PhotographyCourtesy of Simply Heidi Photography
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP)  A city of Buffalo employee was killed and two others were wounded Thursday when the city pickup truck they were in was struck multiple times by gunfire from a passing vehicle, state police said.

The shooting in the southbound lanes of Interstate 190 just north of downtown Buffalo was reported at 11:20 a.m.

State police were searching for a dark-colored Jeep Grand Cherokee believed involved in the shooting and asked other motorists who might have been traveling on the busy highway at the time to come forward with dashcam video.

We have several leads that we are working on, but currently we do not have a motive for the shooting, state police Maj. Eugene Staniszewski said at a news conference. This is believed to be an isolated incident and we have no information that there is a threat ongoing to the community at this time.

The victims were employees of the Buffalo Sewer Authority and had just finished a job when they were shot as they drove back to the Sewer Authority building, Mayor Byron Brown said.

The driver of the pickup tried to evade the gunfire but was struck, along with the two passengers, Brown said. The driver survived.

Who could have ever imagined that something like this would happen to three Sewer Authority employees as they are at work, doing the right thing, doing the peoples business? Brown said after meeting with the victims relatives and co-workers. This has to stop.

One employee was in serious condition Thursday afternoon. The other had what were believed to be non-life threatening injuries, Staniszewski said.

Traffic cameras showed traffic in the southbound lanes stopped with an ambulance and several law enforcement vehicles in the roadway in the hours after the shooting. Traffic was diverted off the highway, which runs north and south through Buffalo and Niagara Falls from the mainline New York State Thruway, until about 3 p.m.

The names of the employees were not immediately released.
Albany, N.Y.  New York Gov. Kathy Hochuls office on Thursday announced taxpayers will cover the costs of her recent visit to wartime Israel, reversing course after a nonprofit was supposed to pick up the tab but has yet to receive clearance from a state ethics panel.

The Democratic governor and a handful of staff and state police were in Israel last week, touring the country and meeting with officials and families displaced by the conflict.

Hochul had sidestepped multiple questions on who funded the trip, with her office saying only that a nonprofit group pledged to pay and that an ethics panel was reviewing the arrangement.

On Thursday, Hochul spokesperson Avi Small said the state will instead pay for the trip because the ethics board has not yet made a formal determination on the nonprofit group. He said the trip was initially going to be reimbursed by the UJA-Federation, a nonprofit that has previously paid for elected officials to travel to Israel.

The cost of the visit, including airfare, food and hotels for the governor and her staff, was about $12,000, Small said.

A spokesperson for the state Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government has said state law blocks them from commenting.

Hochul, who as governor has no direct role in diplomatic affairs, justified the trip as a way for her to show support for the Israeli people during the ongoing war. New York has the highest population of Jewish people outside of Israel.

Blair Horner, executive director for the New York Public Interest Research Group, said Hochul should have gotten the trip approved by state ethics officials to ensure the nonprofit did not have ties to business before the state or other connections that could raise ethical issues.

The governor should have gotten preclearance from the ethics commission before she did anything, before wheels lifted from the tarmac, Horner said.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom made a one-day trip to Israel last week to meet with people affected by Israels war with Hamas, stopping there on his way to China for a weeklong tour focused on climate change policies.

Newsoms office said his international travel is paid for by the California State Protocol Foundation, which can accept donations on the governors behalf to pay for travel and other expenses so the state doesnt have to use tax dollars. Newsom has transferred at least $4 million from his inaugural fund to the foundation since he was elected in 2019. That fund includes money from campaign donors.
An entrepreneur who supplied military goods to Russia was arrested in Germany. In particular, we are talking about components for drones.

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This was reported by the German newspaper Tagesschau. It is noted that the entrepreneur supplied components for Russian military drones and other goods to Russia, which is contrary to current sanctions.

According to the Frankfurt Public Prosecutor's Office and the Main Customs Office, an arrest warrant was executed on Wednesday for a 47-year-old resident of the Kassel district. The investigation also included searches of the man's office and residential premises with Russian citizenship. But the authorities did not specify where exactly.

In particular, the 47-year-old man is suspected of violating the law on foreign trade. In 2022 and 2023, he reportedly exported "various electronic components", aircraft engine models, and other goods to Russia for a total of about two million euros through "additional bypass deliveries".

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According to the investigation, the engines were installed, in particular, on the Russian Orlan-10 drone. This type of drone is used by the Russian occupiers in the war against Ukraine, for example, to direct artillery fire.

In addition, this person exported two "expensive cars" to Russia, which is also illegal under current sanctions rules.

According to the investigation, the entrepreneur first delivered the goods to an intermediate recipient in Hong Kong, through whom the components were delivered to St. Petersburg, Russia, a company owned by the suspect's partner.

It is noted that some of these supplies were successfully stopped in the summer of 2023: 120 engines were seized, which prevented exports to Russia.

As a reminder, Russia receives foreign components necessary for the production of anti-aircraft systems and Kalibr missiles used in the war against Ukraine. The supplier company is connected to the family of the Vice Speaker of the Federation Council, managing to avoid sanctions.

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Only verified information is available on OBOZ.UA Telegram and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
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Teagasc Conference on 50 years of EU membership and Irish Agriculture

A conference to mark 50 years of Irelands membership of the European Union and its impact on agriculture, is taking place at the Teagasc Research Centre Ashtown, County Dublin today, Friday, 27 October 2023.

Pictured from (L to R): Professor Frank OMara, Director Teagasc, European Commissioner Mairead McGuinness; Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue T.D. and Marc Fesneau, French Minister for Agriculture, at the Teagasc Conference on 50 years of EU membership and Irish Agriculture

Teagasc Director Professor Frank O Mara welcomed the keynote speakers Mairead McGuinness, European Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets; Charlie McConalogue TD, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine and Marc Fesneau, the French Minister for Agriculture.

Speaking at the event, Mairead McGuinness, European Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets said; Ireland has come a long way over the past 50 years and experienced many changes and challenges  not least in the agriculture sector. Joining the EEC in 1973 saw Ireland move from the periphery to the heart of Europe, with greater access to markets for beef, dairy and sheep. There have been swings in the fortunes of Irish agriculture through those 50 years, price and income shocks, beef and butter mountains and weather related challenges. The coming years will see an intense focus on sustainability. Farmers as custodians of the land are vital in achieving our climate and environment goals. They need all the research and advisory services to assist them in this transition. Farmers have adopted technologies and new ways of working over the last 50 years and they can do that again in the years ahead.

The conference was also addressed by Charlie McConalogue TD, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine and by Marc Fesneau, the French Minister for Agriculture.

Speaking at the event, Minister McConalogue said; I would also like to extend a very special welcome to my colleague, Marc Fesneau, the French Minister for Agriculture. Irelands accession into the European Economic Community, now the European Union, in 1973 was a pivotal moment in our Nations history. Few events have been as transformative. The decision to join the European Community was overwhelmingly supported by the people of Ireland, and was driven by their desire for peace, unity, and shared prosperity. Those convinced Irelands future lay in Europe showed courage, courage in a new vision for our country, as members of a bigger European family.

Speaking at the Teagasc EU 50 event, Minister Fesneau said; Within the European Union, Ireland and France are trusted partners, particularly when it comes to agriculture. The Common Agricultural Policy, which came into force in 1962, is one of the oldest European policies and one of the major foundations of European construction. Within the EU, Ireland and France share a common vision of agriculture: sustainable, resilient and successful, based on a family model.

The conference heard how the Irish agriculture sector has modernised, mechanised and specialised. Irish farming continues to be dominated by dairy and beef production. There has been a move away from mixed farming systems over the 50 years to more specialised farms. There has also been a decline in the number of farmers and in the numbers working in farming with the latest figures indicating 135,000 farms and accounting for about 4% of Irelands labour force. That is 90,000 fewer farms than there were in 1975. Average family farm income per farm has increased between 1973 and 2022. But in real terms, incomes are largely similar. Dairy and tillage farmers incomes are higher than sheep and cattle farms and there has been increased divergence.

The area under tillage has declined by 100,000 hectares, but crops yields have increased. Pig production has increased but there are way fewer pig farmers today compared to 50 years ago. Since milk quotas were lifted in 2015, there has been a growth in milk production in Ireland but not across the EU.
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Re: Did you ever get cheated by a builder while buying a house? Share tips & advice here I'm glad to see a topic which impacts so many of us being discussed - real estate! Since times immemorial, we Indians have had this 'lust' for real estate and that has led to so much grief over the recent few years. Actually, this consumer behaviour and subsequent real estate trends are quite unique to our country and could very well be the subject of an altogether new topic of discussion.



Having spent more than a decade in the real estate industry in the country across a few large cities, here are my much-more-than two bits!



1. It absolutely doesn't make sense to buy real estate for investment. Gone are they hey-days of property appreciating by 100% in a short span of time. In all likelihood, if you purchase property with a loan component, the appreciation will hardly beat inflation if you account for the interest costs. There are several other avenues for safer and better returns.



2. With rental yields in the range of 1.5-2% for residential property (amongst the lowest in the world), it makes much more sense to rent. I agree it is a hassle to shift every now and then and not all landlords are convinced to make your life smoother. In the same breath, if you're buying for self use (assuming that self use will last several years and perhaps decades), it makes sense to buy. Thereafter, of course one needs to evaluate the options wisely before taking the plunge.



3. Undoubtedly, buying ready to use real estate is safest - buy / get what you see. I noticed some people recommending buying in projects that are nearing completion. This is a fallacy as several other unlucky buyers have pointed out. I'll enumerate the reason here. Most developers are used to managing the business as 'cash-flow management' compared to 'project profitability'. In a nutshell, a developer would 'buy' land from the land-owner by paying only part of the actual value, then start marketing the real estate directly to consumers. With the advances received from the consumer, he would pay the land-owner off and some of the remaining money would be invested to start construction. Gullible prospective buyers would see the progress and be convinced to buy, thereby the project sees more buyers, more downpayments. By this time, the developer has used some money to acquire land for some other projects and the cycle continues. Needless to say, he has siphoned off a lot of money being circulated for his self use and probably some Swiss account. The moment any of these links in the 'roll-over' business stopped, the whole thing came crashing down. In most cases it so happened that the developer was not be able to attract more buyers (and their advances) and so he has no money to launch new projects to attract more buyers, or pay for construction or for approvals and so on. Effectively, he would go bust.



Buying in a 70-90% complete project is the riskiest because by then the developer has sold most of the inventory in the project and has received a large sum of money from the buyers already (construction-linked payments). However, he has been siphoning money for other projects or to his Swiss accounts and has no money to pay the contractor who will eventually stop work. So he has say 10% money due from the customer but 30% that he owes his vendors. Not much incentive to take the project further (apart from perhaps reputation and the law, which we all agree is twisted by the mighty to their whims and fancy). As a buyer, you paid 70-90% of the value of the apartment / real estate and got zilch for it. An apartment 90% completed is as good as that completed 0% - you can only dream about it.



4. Someone mentioned it not making sense to buy in a saturated market like Mumbai. I would differ on it. Eventually, the city would run out of land to exploit and the increase in apartments in a given area would slow down while the demand for it continues to grow (Mumbai attracts massive volumes of migrants looking for jobs). Hence, rents would continue to increase and yields would possible improve from the current 1.5-2% to maybe 6 - 8% (like in developed economies). This improves the pay-back period of your investment. Imagine an INR 2 crore apartment that pays itself back in 12-15 years and then keeps throwing out cash for a long period of time (we generally consider the life of real estate at 60 years). Nice annuity business eh! This is exactly why large organized investments are flowing into commercial real estate (IT Parks, Hotels, etc.). However, the difference there is yields are currently in the range of 7 - 8% which are expected to reduce, thereby increasing the valuations. I hope that isn't too much of confusing finance jargon!



5. To comment on yet another opinion I see - that of buying with established and reputed business houses like Godrej, Tata, etc. I would agree with this but there can still be surprises (quite similar to big car manufacturers launching dud products). There was a case of a 100 plus year old business house completing a project in Goa with sub-standard windows which resulted in a toddler's death. The mention of another project in Pune also reiterates the same.



6. If you can afford it, invest in commercial property - buy a shop or a small office unit. It will appreciate at least at the same rate as residential (or more) and you'll be able to rent it out at much better yields than residential. Within residential, it makes much more sense (subjective point) to buy into a small project as compared to a large gated community / township. The monthly maintenance is likely to be lower, there is better opportunity to form a 'community bond' and few shouting matches during society meetings. Moreover, years later when your property is up for upgrades / redevelopment, a smaller society moves faster down that route to unlock value.



Peace! Last edited by Mlanuk : 21st February 2020 at 16:44 . Reason: typos
A delegation from the Hamas terrorist organization arrived in Moscow on October 26. Also on that day, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani arrived in the Russian capital and met with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin.

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This was reported by Russian propaganda Telegram channels. The visit of Hamas representatives was also confirmed by Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova.

This is the first such visit since the beginning of the conflict in the Gaza Strip, and it has not been publicly announced. It was not specified whom the delegation would meet.

The delegation was headed by Abu Mazrook, a member of the Hamas political bureau who is a recognized and wanted terrorist. As noted in the "Israel Today" Telegram channel, Mazook has been searching for sponsors to finance Hamas through money laundering in the United States and Europe for years. He was also convicted in absentia in the United States. But despite this, he, like many other terrorist leaders, lived in Doha (Qatar).

It should be noted that the Russian Federation did not condemn the terrorist attack on Israel. In addition, Russia has traditionally maintained relations with Hamas and does not recognize this organization as a terrorist one. This visit is the first since the beginning of the new conflict in the Gaza Strip, which was caused by the militant movement's attack on Israel and hostage-taking. According to Israel, 23 Russian citizens were killed in the attack.

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As a reminder, as of the morning of October 26, 21 Ukrainian citizens have become victims of the Palestinian-Israeli war. One more person is missing. Children are among the killed and wounded Ukrainian citizens in Israel and the Gaza Strip.

As reported by OBOZ.UA, soldiers of the Israeli Defense Forces entered Gaza City on Thursday night, October 26, with tanks and infantry. They crossed the border in the northern part of the Strip, calling it a "targeted raid". During this nighttime raid, soldiers discovered and struck numerous militants, the terrorist group's infrastructure, and anti-tank missile launchers.

Earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron commented on Israel's plans to conduct a ground operation in the Gaza Strip. According to him, this "would be a mistake" for Tel Aviv, which would not guarantee the country's security in the future and would only endanger civilian lives.

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Only verified information is available on OBOZ.UA Telegram and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
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Re: Work From Home (WFH): Is this the future for many? Quote: V.Narayan Originally Posted by Ultimately the customer and economics drive everything.



This thread keeps veering off to the IMHO narrow view that lousy managers and Vice Presidents are pushing the WFO agenda for their daily power dose. In the end, it is the customer who influences what he wants and how.



And just to put things in perspective we are talking here of 5.4 million in the IT sector out of ~147 million workers in the service sector alone in India.



Yes, in the end, it is about customers and economics (company financials), there is no doubt about it. I have found that having highly motivated, loyal and competent employees makes it a lot easier to meet my customer demands and my financial targets. So I spend a lot of my time and energy understanding what my employees like, need and want and how I can support and grow them.



I can tell you, that every person that I ever met, wherever in the world, likes to have more control over their work, when they do it, how they do and so. They prefer an emphatic manager who helps them grow, rather than one who checks up on them.



Do employees need to learn those traits as you suggested? I am sure many do, but to me, that is a huge part of being a manager. You are not responsible for the employees that are in the department you take over. But you are responsible for how you develop every one of them.



How many companies have systems and policies in place that hold managers accountable for growing their employees in these different aspects, other than their field of expertise? (which is the easy one).



I do believe, to your point, there is not a one-size-fits-all WFH or WFO model as such. In practice, you will very often see some kind of hybrid model if you like. So people will work at the office and home in many cases.



I have seen many companies making the same mistake during the COVID years. They were forced to go WFH, and made a few changes, but did not fundamentally change their ways of working. That is a recipe for disaster. And it shows. A lot of the negative comments concerning WFH simply show a lack of adaption and finding new ways of working to overcome those. Again, that is just poor management. People need to stop moaning about not meeting at the coffee machine. Find a different way to meet and bump into people.



Although some of my experience is in Telecom and IT, my comments are more related to WFH in general and certainly not restricted to the IT industry or India as such. All my kids, my son-in-law and my daughter-in-law work in very different industries than IT and Telecom. None of them work full time, none of them WFO full time.



I just came across this article on enterpeneur.com:



https://www.entrepreneur.com/growing...tations/463696



A couple of interesting quotes:



Quote: Let's be brutally honest: Would you stick with your company if it failed to prioritize your wellbeing? You're not alone if the answer is a resounding "no." Workers are sending a clear message to the corporate world  wellbeing is non-negotiable. Forget the antiquated notion that a hefty paycheck is the ultimate carrot on the stick. The data is in, and it's irrefutable: workers really care about their wellbeing and flexibility, and corporations better listen if they want to win the talent wars.



This shift is most pronounced among men, particularly those with college degrees and those in their main working years. It signals that the individuals who traditionally occupied power seats in the corporate world are stepping back, reassessing their options, and consciously opting for a reality that allows them to live fuller lives outside their cubicles. And here's where it gets interesting: It's those men who were already logging in more hours and earning more who have chosen to pull back the most. What does that tell us? These are not decisions of necessity but are based on the realization of an unspoken need for balance, wellness and, dare we say it, happiness.



What was merely a hunch or a buzzword in corporate seminars is now backed by empirical evidence: Workers are not just saying they desire more from life than work  they are manifesting these desires through tangible actions. This act of self-determination is altering the landscape of labor availability, making this a two-edged sword. On one hand, we are moving toward a more balanced and humane concept of work; on the other, it brings about challenges of labor shortages that cannot be ignored.



In the corporate arena, this leads to a potentially seismic shift. If you are a business leader failing to account for this fundamental transformation in worker attitudes, prepare for a rude awakening. Worker wellbeing is no longer a "nice-to-have," it's a "must-have" if you hope to attract and retain the top-tier talent needed to fuel innovation and growth in an increasingly competitive market.



Gympass' annual State of Work-Life Wellness Report this October has gifted us some startling figures from a survey of over 5,000 global employees that reinforce the Fed's findings. A whopping 87% said they would consider jumping ship from a company that disregards employee wellbeing, a notable increase from 77% just a year ago. Moreover, 93% equate wellbeing with salary in terms of importance, up 10 points from last year's 83%. The clincher? An overwhelming 96% will consider only those companies that give prime importance to employee wellbeing for their next job hunt.



When it comes to wellbeing and the workplace, there's a myth that has long been shattered: One size fits all. In reality, our surroundings wield considerable influence on our emotional and psychological states.



Employees operating in work environments that don't resonate with their preferences for flexibility  such as remote-capable workers forced to do in-office work due to a top-down mandate against their will  are not just mildly inconvenienced: many are categorically struggling. According to Gympass, workers who find themselves in such discordant settings are twice as likely to describe their condition as "struggling" or "really struggling" than those fortunate enough to be in their ideal work environments. Let's pause to consider the weight of that statement. It means that a vast swath of employees are grappling with a work setup that not only affects their daily satisfaction but potentially curtails their longer-term mental wellbeing.



But the report doesn't stop there; it draws a stark picture of how drastically our sense of wellbeing can be impacted. While 77% of employees working in their preferred flexible environments feel equipped to take care of their wellbeing, this percentage nosedives to a startling 65% for those who don't have the luxury of such alignment. That 12% differential isn't merely statistical noise; it's the loud cry of an unsatisfied and disengaged workforce. And more than a third of employees wish they worked in a different work environment that aligns with their preference.



Let's call it what it is: this is a seismic shift in employee expectations. Flexible work arrangements are no longer just attractive benefits to be dangled in front of potential hires. They have transitioned into non-negotiable components of an employment package. Why is this so vital? Because of the nexus between flexibility and wellbeing underpinning workplace satisfaction, engagement, and productivity.



First, it's time to let go of your traditional "nine-to-five, in-the-office" mindset, a relic that is increasingly at odds with today's dynamic workforce. For those still clinging to a rigid structure, this might feel like a leap into the abyss. However, the alternative is a debilitating anchoring bias  relying too heavily on the first piece of information encountered (in this case, traditional work models) when making decisions. Shake off this outdated mooring and embrace hybrid and even fully remote work options. Use this as an opportunity to gather data on productivity, engagement and wellbeing, adjusting your course as needed.



Second, pivot to a team-led model for flexibility, where collective decision-making takes precedence over a one-size-fits-all approach. Allow teams to collaboratively determine their work environment  be it remote, in-office or hybrid. This not only fosters a sense of ownership and engagement but also optimizes the unique strengths and requirements of each team. Teams can decide when face-to-face interactions are most beneficial for creative brainstorming or complex problem-solving and when remote work can maximize individual focus and productivity. This approach transcends mere optimization of individual roles; it creates an ecosystem where the team, as a cohesive unit, is empowered to make decisions that maximize its collective effectiveness.



Third, invest substantively in employee wellbeing through targeted financial support. In an era where 93% of employees view their wellbeing as equally important to salary, your investment in wellness programming is more than just an employee perk  it's a strategic imperative. Consider offering stipends for mental health support, from licensed therapy to mindfulness apps. Subsidize fitness memberships or offer in-house wellness programs ranging from nutrition seminars to stress management workshops. Financially support ongoing education, not just in terms of professional development but also in areas that contribute to general wellbeing, such as financial literacy courses or parenting classes. By dedicating actual dollars to these initiatives, you're not only enhancing the quality of life for your employees but also setting a cultural tone that prioritizes wellbeing as much as quarterly earnings. After all, when employees feel their wellbeing is taken seriously, they're more engaged, productive and less likely to seek opportunities elsewhere.



Finally, for those concerned about the economic implications of reduced hours, as highlighted by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, it's important to recognize that wellbeing and productivity often exist in a symbiotic relationship. My advice? Focus on outcomes rather than hours. Assess performance through deliverables and milestones instead of the antiquated metric of "time spent at the desk."





To add to the symbiotic relationship between wellbeing and productivity; the same has been proven true for due care for the environment (ESG) and productivity.



Jeroen



Jeroen I hope I did not offend you, that was not my intention. I was just sharing my point of view, experience and opinion. And of course, as I always say, never believe what you read on the internet!Yes, in the end, it is about customers and economics (company financials), there is no doubt about it. I have found that having highly motivated, loyal and competent employees makes it a lot easier to meet my customer demands and my financial targets. So I spend a lot of my time and energy understanding what my employees like, need and want and how I can support and grow them.I can tell you, that every person that I ever met, wherever in the world, likes to have more control over their work, when they do it, how they do and so. They prefer an emphatic manager who helps them grow, rather than one who checks up on them.Do employees need to learn those traits as you suggested? I am sure many do, but to me, that is a huge part of being a manager. You are not responsible for the employees that are in the department you take over. But you are responsible for how you develop every one of them.How many companies have systems and policies in place that hold managers accountable for growing their employees in these different aspects, other than their field of expertise? (which is the easy one).I do believe, to your point, there is not a one-size-fits-all WFH or WFO model as such. In practice, you will very often see some kind of hybrid model if you like. So people will work at the office and home in many cases.I have seen many companies making the same mistake during the COVID years. They were forced to go WFH, and made a few changes, but did not fundamentally change their ways of working. That is a recipe for disaster. And it shows. A lot of the negative comments concerning WFH simply show a lack of adaption and finding new ways of working to overcome those. Again, that is just poor management. People need to stop moaning about not meeting at the coffee machine. Find a different way to meet and bump into people.Although some of my experience is in Telecom and IT, my comments are more related to WFH in general and certainly not restricted to the IT industry or India as such. All my kids, my son-in-law and my daughter-in-law work in very different industries than IT and Telecom. None of them work full time, none of them WFO full time.I just came across this article on enterpeneur.com:A couple of interesting quotes:I believe the whole WFH is not a stand-alone phenomenon. It is part of a far bigger shift in how organisations are likely to become and stay successful. It is a massive change and it is worrying to see that quite a number of organisations worldwide struggle with it.To add to the symbiotic relationship between wellbeing and productivity; the same has been proven true for due care for the environment (ESG) and productivity.JeroenJeroen
A hot potato: The rule about being careful what you put on social media appears to be especially relevant for anyone entering the US. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has used an AI-powered tool to scan through social platforms to identify any visa applicants' posts that are "derogatory" to the US.

The system, called Giant Oak Search Technology (GOST), ranks a person's social media scores from one to 100 based on what it thinks is relevant to the user's specific mission. The database is searchable using identifiers such as a person's name, address, email address, and country of citizenship.

After clicking on a specific individual, analysts can review images collected from the subject's social media accounts and elsewhere, and give them a thumbs up or thumbs down rating. It's also possible for the analysts to look at the person's social media profiles, and their "social graph," themselves to see any potential connections with others.

404 Media reports that a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit brought by both the ACLU and the ACLU of Northern California showed GOST has been used by immigration services and multiple government agencies since 2014. ICE has paid Giant Oak Inc. more than $10 million since 2017, according to public procurement records.

GOST was part of a 2016 pilot called the HSI [Homeland Security Investigations] PATRIOT Social Media Pilot Program that targeted potential overstay violators from countries of concern.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the State Department, the Air Force, and the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, which is part of the US Treasury, have all paid for Giant Oak services over the last nearly ten years.

The GOST website states that it leverages information on the open and deep web and applies search parameters focused on behavioral patterns rather than identity labels.

"The government should not be using algorithms to scrutinize our social media posts and decide which of us is 'risky.' And agencies certainly shouldn't be buying this kind of black box technology in secret without any accountability," said Patrick Toomey, Deputy Director of the ACLU's National Security Project. "DHS needs to explain to the public how its systems determine whether someone is a 'risk' or not, and what happens to the people whose online posts are flagged by its algorithms."

The records state that the contract between the DHS and Giant Oak ended in August 2022.

Back in 2019, the Trump administration brought in new rules first proposed in March 2018 in which visa applicants must hand over details of any social media channels they have used in the past 5 years. The State Department and the Department of Homeland Security can hold onto this information indefinitely, share it with other federal agencies, and disclose it - in some circumstances, to foreign governments.

2019 was the same year that a Harvard student was denied entry to the US because of his friends' social media activity.
What just happened? London-based oil and gas company BP has announced that it has signed a deal with Tesla to buy $100 million worth of EV chargers, marking the first time Tesla's DC fast-charging hardware is being purchased on a large scale by another company for deployment in a third-party charging network. The agreement is part of BP's plans to invest up to $1 billion in EV charging across the U.S. by 2030.

In a press release announcing the deal, BP said that the new chargers will be acquired by its EV charging business, named BP Pulse, which has already installed more than 27,000 charge points globally and plans to increase that to more than 100,000 by 2030. The company also said that it is buying the super-fast 250 kilowatt chargers, which are known as Superchargers in Tesla parlance. However, they will not look like traditional Tesla Superchargers, and will be branded with a 'BP Pulse' logo instead.

BP will use an in-house charge management software called 'Omega' to optimize charging at its locations. While the press release didn't reveal a great deal, The Verge is reporting that it supports a Plug-and-Charge protocol that eradicates the need for a card tap or app activation. That would make charging super easy, enabling drivers to simply pull up, plug in, and let the software take care of everything else.

BP Pulse will begin installing the Tesla Superchargers next year across its U.S. network, including at key BP, Amoco, Thorntons, and TravelCenters of America locations. Some of the chargers will also be installed at the company's Gigahub charging sites, near airports and in major metropolitan areas, as well as select third-party locations, including those operated by car rental company Hertz. The first cities where BP will install the Tesla chargers include Houston, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington D.C.

The chargers will be compatible with most EVs currently on U.S. roads, thanks to Tesla's 'Magic Dock' adapters that work not only with the company's own North American Charging Standard (NACS) connectors, but also the Combined Charging System (CCS) charging port used by most other EV manufacturers, including BMW, Daimler, Honda, Hyundai, Nissan, Polestar, Rivian, Ford, GM, and others.
Ride-hailing is a big part of robotaxi services, but Waymo and Uber's collaboration earlier this May has expanded more of what it has to offer, with the venture now live in Phoenix, Arizona. Months after the announcement of their collaboration, Waymo and Uber are now looking to give people to experience the driverless ride-hailing offers it has, available through the app.

Autonomous rides are expanding in the country, with two renowned companies leading the service, already available in multiple cities, and not only in San Francisco.

Waymo, Uber's Robotaxi Service Now Available in Phoenix

(Photo : Waymo Blog)

Waymo and Uber's robotaxi collaboration is now available for all users in Phoenix to enjoy, with the autonomous ride-hailing service confirming this feature for all earlier today. Through the Uber app, users may be given a driverless car to pick them up and take them to the other end of their booked ride, no longer requiring users to download and sign up via the Waymo app.

"Starting today, Uber customers can get matched with a fully autonomous, all-electric Waymo ride - with no human driver behind the wheel in the 225+ square miles of Metro Phoenix where Waymo currently operates," said Waymo.

Read Also: Waymo is Coming to Austin, Texas-Its Fourth Autonomous Ride-Hailing Service Expansion

Book a Robotaxi via Uber's Clean Energy Offers

According to Waymo, "When an Uber customer requests an UberX, Uber Green, Uber Comfort, or Uber Comfort Electric ride through the Uber app, they'll have the option to confirm a ride in a Waymo vehicle if matched to one."

The good thing is that users who do not prefer getting a driverless ride could opt out of the experience via the Uber app, and there would be no forcing the customer to get in the robotaxi.

Apart from this, users who prefer to go driverless all the way may download the Waymo One app for their rides in the Metro Phoenix area.

Waymo and its Autonomous Rides

Earlier this year, Waymo announced that Alphabet's priority for the autonomous ride-hailing company is the Waymo One service and this centers on its self-driving service cars for all. The company said that while it is not canceling its trucking business and partnership, it is temporarily setting it aside to prioritize the Waymo One service, focusing on its robotaxi expansion.

It was also announced that Waymo is expanding to more cities, with Metro Phoenix being its chosen place to bring its autonomous services, offering more rides for all. However, the Waymo One service is not the only thing that the company has brought to Phoenix, as it was also announced that it signed a partnership with Uber to let users access the robotaxis via the famed ride-hailing app.

The earlier announcement confirmed what is coming to Uber users in Phoenix, but this recent one is now celebrating the arrival of the initial robotaxi ventures between the Alphabet-owned company and Uber. Through the Uber app, users who book any ride, mostly centering on clean energy, would get a chance to experience the driverless ride, with Waymo giving them an option if they wish to continue.

Related Article: Waymo Launches New Simulator 'Waymax' for Large-Scale Autonomous Driving Research

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The controversial case of US v. Sam Bankman-Fried has recently seen the defendant facing the seven criminal charges against his name taking the stand, testifying to a juryless court. With Bankman-Fried citing his testimony only to the judge and spectators, US District Judge Lewis Kaplan will then decide whether his testimony would be admissible and be reiterated when the jurors are present.

Amidst the statements from the disgraced CEO, it was found that SBF did not fully read the Terms of Service on his crypto exchange company, FTX.

Sam Bankman-Fried Testified in Court Without the Jury

(Photo : SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

The Wall Street Journal gave live updates from the recent court session of Sam Bankman-Fried's criminal trial, and here, it was revealed that SBF was finally allowed to take the stand and testify for himself. It was said that Bankman-Fried saw a hard time in delivering his initial testimony today, with Judge Kaplan instructing him to stop being evasive amidst Assistant US Attorney Danielle Sassoon's questioning.

It was reported that Kaplan issued an order that prohibits Bankman-Fried from using the "advice-of-counsel" defense, and this centers on claiming that he only received advice from company lawyers, was told that it was legal, and relied on it "in good faith."

Still, there were various statements that SBF used this, as Kaplan allowed this "on a case-by-case" basis," said the report.

Read Also: FTX's Nishad Singh Testifies: Details the One-on-One Meetings with SBF Amidst Company's Fall

SBF 'Skimmed' FTX's Terms of Service, He Claims

Bankman-Fried claimed that he believed Alameda could borrow funds from FTX, as stated in the FTX's Terms of Service, but when asked by the judge whether he read the entire document, he claimed that he "skimmed" some parts. There are some parts where SBF claimed that he read "in-depth," but the other parts, are only partial.

It is known that customers are recommended to always read the full terms of service, but in SBF's case, not all of it.

The Sam Bankman-Fried Trial

The ongoing court trial of Sam Bankman-Fried will decide whether the criminal charges against him are true, with the former CEO facing as much as 110 years in prison for the seven charges. However, that is not yet the end of it, as another criminal trial would commence to hear his case by March 2024, and in this proceeding, Sam Bankman-Fried is set to face five additional charges against his name.

SBF's trial is a controversial one, especially as he is the only FTX and Alameda executive who claimed that he is not guilty of the charges brought against him. With that, the other disgraced executives including Gary Wang, his former colleague and best friend, and Caroline Ellison, former Alameda CEO and ex-girlfriend, have testified against him in the past weeks.

After different former colleagues and close friends showed up in court, divulging all the unknown information against Sam Bankman-Fried, now came the time when the defendant was taking the stand, but first without any jurors. While it remains unknown if Bankman-Fried will get to say all of his sides in front of a jury, massive revelations were made, including his not reading fully his former company's Terms of Service.

Related Article: Sam Bankman-Fried Trial: Crypto Culture and Legal Minds Collide

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Remember when internet speeds were only bringing kilobytes per second speeds (Kbps) for users? In the modern day, different companies are competing to bring humongous speeds, with Google's Fiber now claiming that its 20 Gbps service is now available for early access, particularly for those who are part of the pilot testing experience from the company.

Despite a slow rollout now, Google promises that all users will get to receive their 20 Gbps and WiFi 7-capable routers soon, for all users.

Google Fiber: 20 Gbps Early Access Is Here

(Photo : GFiber Labs)

Google Fiber and the GFiber Labs announced the massive upgrade for all, with its 20 Gbps internet speeds now available for early access users.

The company said that this upgrade was thanks to its use of the new Nokia technology, allowing them to take advantage of 20 Gbps speeds.

"GFiber will be one of the first ISPs to deploy Nokia's 25G PON technology, which will allow our customers to break the 10 Gig barrier that limited existing architectures. Nokia's 25G PON provides up to 10x speeds energy efficiently and without requiring any changes to the existing fiber in the ground," said Nick Saporito, Head of Product at GFiber Labs.

The company is looking to bring the experience to all users soon, with the early access now getting the upgrade to access this outrageous speeds, paired with the next-gen WiFi.

Read Also: Google Fiber 5GB Internet Service Pilots to 4 Cities-How Much is the Subscription?

Google Fiber 20Gbps, WiFi 7 Coming

While the humongous internet speeds are still in early access, GFiber Labs also bundles this with another upgrade, centering on the 20 Gbps + Wi-Fi 7 for users. This means that those who are eligible to enjoy the service will get an upgrade soon.

GFiber Labs claimed that the residential 20 Gig + Wi-Fi 7 will come to users by the end of the year, looking to expand beyond 20 Gbps in the future.

Google Fiber and Its Capabilities

While Google is a trusted name in internet browsing, its internet service is slowly looking to expand in the country, and up until late 2020, the company only offered 2 Gbps speeds in Nashville, Tennessee, and Huntsville, Alabama. Still, this did not mean that it was slow to roll out improvements and technology to its famed internet service, centering on fiber optics connections.

Fast forward to 2023, Google promised that it would launch new internet capacity plans for its users, offering as much as 5 Gbps and 8 Gbps to users, made available almost three years later. One of the most notable features of Google Fiber is its straightforward subscription tiers, and it centers on an all-internet service, as the company already dropped its television bundles for users.

In three years, Google Fiber improved its internet speeds by as much as ten times more than what it initially offered in 2020, back when the company was looking to expand more of what it has to offer. With 20 Gbps coming soon for all and now available for early access, users may get to enjoy an outrageous browsing experience, as well as WiFi 7 connections for their needs.

Related Article: Google Explores AI-Powered Search for Advertising Potential

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Alleged blocking of content supporting the Palestinians has been raised by Malaysia's communications minister, stating that this will be met with firm action against TikTok and Meta, according to Reuters.

Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil has stated that the platforms are accused of blocking and restricting pro-Palestinian content. "I will not hesitate to take a very firm approach and stance," according to a post by Fahmi on X.

(Photo : LIONEL BONAVENTURE/AFP via Getty Images)

This picture taken on January 12, 2023 in Toulouse, southwestern France shows a smartphone and a computer screen displaying the logos of Instagram app and its parent company Meta.

The warning comes after various parties have allegedly urged the communications minister and the Malaysian government to take firm action against the accused social media platforms.

According to a report, Fahmi says, "Malaysians have the freedom to express their opinions on Palestinian issues."

A Meta spokesperson has stated that there is "no truth" to the accusations; moreover, the spokesperson clarified that the platforms' "policies are designed to keep people safe... while giving everyone a voice," according to Reuters reports.

TikTok, on the other hand, has yet to respond regarding the allegations but has recently answered in a report by Al Jazeera regarding the alleged blocking of pro-Palestinian content.

The report states that a TikTok spokesperson reiterated that the company "does not moderate or remove content based on political sensitivities", and that the platform removes "content that violates community guidelines... equally to all content on TikTok."

Read Also: EU Warns Google Over YouTube 'Illegal Content and Disinformation' Related to Israel-Hamas War

TikTok's Cases of Alleged Banning

TikTok, as well as other social media platforms, has been accused of restricting pro-Palestinian content, most notably during the ongoing Israeli-Hamas conflict. Al Jazeera reports that from the US, Europe, and up to India, various users have accused the social media giants of blocking pro-Palestine voices.

According to the report, Thomas Maddens, a filmmaker and activist, posted a video about Palestine on TikTok containing the word "genocide" and suddenly stopped getting engagement on the platform. Aside from individual accounts, news outlets have reportedly been part of the content restrictions.

Mondoweiss, a pro-Palestine news organization in the United States, claimed TikTok suspended its account a few days after Hamas launched its initial strike on Israel and restored it hours later in response to a public uproar.

Meta's Cases of Alleged Banning

Meta has also received a fair share of accusations from users and pages alike; recently, it reportedly banned the Instagram, Facebook, and Threads accounts of Eye on Palestine (@eye.on.palestine), which has more than 6 million followers and is popular among Palestine supporters, was not available.

The accounts concentrated on disseminating priceless first-person stories of the situation in Gaza, along with videos and pictures of the injured.

The censorship was quickly met with criticism among followers, with others claiming that the pages' deletion was an instance of anti-Palestinian censorship.

Meta spokesperson Andy Stone responded, "These accounts were initially locked for security reasons after signs of compromise, and we're working to make contact with the account owners to ensure they have access." Meta has already reportedly reached the owners of the Eye of Palestine account owners and administrators, with it set to be reactivated.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Azmat Khan posted on X that their posts had been "shadow-banned" after her Instagram stories regarding the war in Gaza, claiming it as "an extraordinary threat to the flow of information and credible journalism about an unprecedented war."

Related Article: Big Tech Under EU Scrutiny: Meta and TikTok's Actions During Israel-Hamas War Questioned

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Ford is postponing a $12 billion EV investment, including a Kentucky battery factory. This delay is due to consumer reluctance over premium EV pricing, extending Ford's transition timeline. In the latest quarter, Ford's EV division reported a $1.3 billion loss, contributing to a year-to-date loss of $3.1 billion.

(Photo : KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

Ford logo is seen on top of the Ford's Chicago Assembly Plant in Chicago, Illinois, on September 29, 2023. Another 7,000 members of the biggest US automobile workers' union on Friday joined an already major strike against the top three Detroit car manufacturers.

Facing Delays in $12 Billion EV Investment

Ford, a major player in the automotive industry, has made the significant decision to postpone a colossal $12 billion investment in its electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing initiatives. This deferment encompasses various projects, including the suspension of plans for a battery factory in Kentucky.

The primary driving force behind this postponement lies in the consumer market's hesitancy to embrace Ford's electric vehicles due to their premium pricing, which has rendered them seemingly unaffordable to a substantial portion of potential buyers.

Consequently, Ford's previously ambitious transition into the burgeoning EV market is now encountering a considerable extension in its projected timeline. In the most recent financial quarter, Ford's EV division encountered a notable setback, reporting a substantial loss of approximately $1.3 billion in adjusted earnings.

This financial downturn was not an isolated incident, as the company's foray into EV technology throughout the current year has resulted in a cumulative loss of $3.1 billion. Alarming as this figure may be, Ford anticipates an even more substantial annual loss, projected at $4 billion.

This financial predicament highlights the formidable challenges that Ford currently grapples with as it endeavors to solidify its presence in the highly competitive and rapidly evolving EV sector.

Also Read: UAW, Ford Near Resolution to Month-Long Strike, Reaching Agreement with Autoworkers



CNBC reported that the postponement of its substantial investment and the recurring financial losses underscore the complexity of Ford's mission to navigate the electrified landscape of the automotive industry.

While the "mega campus" in Kentucky responsible for producing lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles is being postponed, Ford's Blue Oval City project in Tennessee remains in progress.

However, Ford isn't the sole company grappling with such challenges. General Motors is also delaying the production of its upcoming lineup of electric trucks and SUVs.

Introducing New Models

In response to this pricing challenge, Ford has introduced new models like the F-150 Lightning Flash, which offers a mid-range pricing option within their electric truck lineup. This move demonstrates Ford's commitment to making electric vehicles more accessible and appealing to a broader customer base.

Still, the automaker is acutely aware that the success of their EVs will ultimately depend on customer demand. As a result, they have chosen to take a more cautious approach in terms of pursuing extensive and costly projects in the EV sector until the market demonstrates a stronger appetite for these vehicles.

However, Bloomberg reported that not everything is discouraging for Ford. They recently achieved a notable milestone by reaching a tentative agreement with the United Auto Workers, becoming the first of the Big Three U.S. automakers to do so.

While this agreement is a significant step forward, it was not without its costs, as the strike associated with the negotiations reportedly incurred around $1.3 billion in expenses for Ford.

Additionally, the company's decision to withdraw its guidance for 2023 suggests a level of uncertainty regarding its ability to meet the targets previously set for that year. Nonetheless, the agreement with the United Auto Workers is a positive development for Ford in an automotive landscape filled with challenges and uncertainties.

Related Article: Ford's Joint Venture Partner Plans to Increase Wages at 2 EV Battery Factories Amid UAW Strike

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Elon Musk has laid out an ambitious vision for X, aiming to make it the central hub for all financial matters, offering a comprehensive solution to streamline various aspects of individuals' financial lives. This plan was unveiled during a recent company-wide meeting, where Musk announced his intention to launch these groundbreaking features by the conclusion of 2024, underlining his confidence in their remarkable capabilities.

(Photo : CHRIS DELMAS/AFP via Getty Images)

US-INTERNET-TECH-TWITTER-X This photo illustration shows the X logo (formerly Twitter) on a smartphone screen in Los Angeles, California, on July 31, 2023.

Challenging Employees to Eliminate Their Bank Accounts

In a recent company-wide gathering, Elon Musk unveiled an audacious vision for X, aiming to transform it into the epicenter of people's financial world. The Verge reported that his plan is to launch a comprehensive suite of features by the end of 2024 that will revolutionize the way individuals manage their finances, and he exudes unwavering confidence in the remarkable potential of these offerings.

Musk's vision extends beyond conventional payment services. He envisions X as a one-stop platform that addresses every facet of a person's financial life, transcending the boundaries of conventional banking. His vision includes not only transactions but also handling securities and various financial instruments, all within the realm of X, eliminating the need for a traditional bank account.

This ambitious initiative has garnered the support and enthusiasm of X's CEO, Linda Yaccarino, who views it as a significant opportunity poised to fully materialize in 2024. Musk's optimism is palpable as he remains steadfast in his belief that they will successfully roll out this groundbreaking financial ecosystem by the end of the coming year.

Securing Remaining Licenses

Coin Desk reported that the company is actively pursuing licenses for money transmissions across the United States as part of its strategy to provide financial services. Elon Musk, speaking to employees on Thursday, expressed his hope to secure the remaining licenses that X requires within the next few months.

In the context of this financial transformation, Musk envisions the platform offering a range of financial products, including high-yield money market accounts, debit cards, check services, and loans. The ultimate goal is to enable users to transfer money globally in real-time, facilitating seamless financial transactions on a global scale.

Transforming X

Musk's long-standing commitment to his original vision for X.com remains evident, ever since he acquired the company. In an internal X call, he revisited the past, reflecting on the product roadmap he and David Sacks crafted in July 2000.

He expressed his surprise that PayPal, which later absorbed X.com and became eBay's property, not only failed to implement the roadmap's remaining features but also rolled back some crucial functionalities. In Musk's perspective, PayPal is now a less comprehensive product compared to the vision conceived over two decades ago.

Musk's aspiration to transform X into a holistic financial services hub aligns with his overarching goal of creating an "everything app" akin to super apps like WeChat in China, which offer a wide array of services within a single platform, including shopping and transportation.

Also Read: Elon Musk's One Year Acquisition of X, Formerly Twitter, Leads to Significant Decline in Web, Mobile Users: Report



Nonetheless, Musk is well aware that he faces substantial challenges on this journey. One of the primary obstacles is convincing individuals of the necessity of such an all-encompassing platform.

Additionally, building trust among users to entrust their entire financial life to X is another formidable task. These challenges underscore the monumental undertaking ahead as Musk endeavors to redefine how people engage with their finances and digital services.

Related Article: Elon Musk's One Year Acquisition of X, Formerly Twitter, Leads to Significant Decline in Web, Mobile Users: Report

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Daimler has finally started the production of its highly anticipated medium-duty electric truck, the Freightliner eM2, at its manufacturing facility in Oregon. Once ready, these electric trucks will be distributed to select commercial leasing firms in the United States and Canada.

Daimler Starts Production of Freightliner eM2 Electric Truck

Daimler's recent commencement of production for the Freightliner eM2, a medium-duty electric truck, represents a significant milestone in sustainable transportation.

This state-of-the-art electric truck is being manufactured at Daimler's facility in Portland, Oregon, signaling the company's commitment to advancing electric mobility solutions.

(Photo : Daimler Truck)

Freightliner, a leading manufacturer of medium- and heavy-duty trucks and a division of Daimler Truck North America LLC (DTNA), today unveiled the series production eM2 for pick-up and delivery applications, which is ready to order and will start production in fall this year.

While the specific release date for the initial production units has not been officially disclosed, Engadget reported that the company plans to eventually make these electric trucks available to handpicked commercial leasing companies operating in the US and Canada.

This strategic distribution approach aims to ensure the efficient integration of the eM2 into commercial fleets across North America. The Freightliner eM2 is powered by the innovative battery-electric Detroit ePowertrain, a cutting-edge electric propulsion system known for its efficiency and reliability.

What sets this electric truck apart is its two-speed transmission system, meticulously designed to enhance energy efficiency on a per-mile basis. According to the company's press release, the eM2's range capability depends on the battery capacity of the specific model.

The class 6 single-motor variant, equipped with a 194 kWh battery, is poised to cover an impressive distance of up to 180 miles on a single charge. In contrast, the class 7 dual-motor version is outfitted with a larger 291 kWh battery, granting it an extended range of up to 250 miles on a single charge.

Read Also: Daimler's New EV Has Higher Range Than Tesla Model S? But the New EV is Still a Concept

Freightliner eM2 Electric Delivery Truck in Development Since 2019

The Freightliner eM2 electric delivery truck, a project in development since 2019, achieved an impressive milestone during its testing phase with Penske. Specifically, the vehicle demonstrated its ability to recharge and gain a 200-mile range in just 60 minutes.

However, Electrek reported that it's important to note that this particular test took place four years ago, and the latest announcement did not provide any updates or details regarding the current state of charging times for the eM2.

Access to charging infrastructure is critical in ensuring the successful rollout of Daimler's eM2 trucks. This includes the development of charging stations, an effort that Penske has been actively involved in.

These stations play a crucial role in enabling EV owners to efficiently recharge their vehicles, thereby supporting the adoption of electric transportation.

In a similar vein, Volvo, a direct competitor to Daimler in the electric long-haul trucking segment, has been focusing on enhancing the battery ranges of its electric truck models. The Volvo FE electric truck, which directly competes with the eM2, offers a range of up to 170 miles.

This range, combined with other factors such as charging infrastructure and overall vehicle performance, contributes to the ongoing competition and development in the electric truck industry.

Volvo's electric truck is expected to enter delivery service in the upcoming autumn, further intensifying the competition in the electric truck market.

Related Article: Daimler Delivers Freightliner eCascadia Electric Semi Trucks to Penske for Leasing

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Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban made another anti-Ukrainian statement. He said that it was "quite obvious" that Ukraine would not be able to win the war with Russia and again praised Russian President Vladimir Putin.

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Orban made these statements after participating in the European Union summit. He was also outraged by the EU's intention to continue to help Ukraine, the Hungarian newspaper PestiSracok reports.

In a conversation with a journalist, the Hungarian prime minister said that during the summit he had strongly opposed the continuation of the EU's assistance to Ukraine, as "everyone knows that Ukrainians cannot win at the front." In addition, he was outraged by the EU leadership's position on continuing to accept refugees in the Union.

According to Orban, the debate lasted "until late at night".

"Three years have passed, we have an effective budget for seven years, and they want to rewrite it to add another 100 million. One item of expenditure is Ukraine, the other is migration. The conflicts that were 1000 kilometers away are now here in Europe," the Hungarian prime minister said.

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He also emphasized that Hungary does not seem to have a problem with migrants, as it categorically refused to accept them, but in other European countries "these problems exist and are commonplace".

However, Orban said that much more debate than around migration policy has arisen around the continuation of aid to Ukraine.

"In the case of Ukraine, it was a very big battle," the Hungarian "friend of Putin" said.

He emphasized that he saw no reason to help Ukraine and that Kyiv was obliged to provide a new strategy for defense against Russian aggression before it could apply for new funding.

"The strategy they have chosen has failed. It is quite obvious that Ukrainians will not win at the front. Politicians do not dare to admit it. But we have talked about this in Brussels before. There was no doubt (among European leaders - Ed.) that the Russian president would fail in Russia because there would be chaos, but this did not happen," Orban said.

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He also habitually criticized the EU. In his opinion, this association is unable to respond effectively to the challenges provoked by the war. In fact, according to Orban, it is time to replace the EU leaders.

"We are facing a leadership problem. We have leaders who cannot solve this problem, so they need to be replaced because they can only make decisions in peacetime," Orban said.

Earlier, it was reported that another EU country joined Hungary in blocking EU aid to Ukraine. Now, Orban's rhetoric has been adopted by the newly appointed Prime Minister of Slovakia, Robert Fico.

Hungary and Slovakia tried to block the allocation of additional funding for Ukraine. However, according to the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, during the discussion of the EU budget revision, "a general consensus was reached on the additional 50 billion euros for Ukraine."

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Microsoft's Xbox platform has unveiled a series of updates earlier this month, catering to the diverse needs of its gaming community.

"This month's update includes keyboard mapping for Xbox controllers, offers an easy way to import game captures from Xbox to edit in Clipchamp, and gives the ability to set your preferences for optional diagnostic data across your Xbox devices. Also, a subset of people will see an experiment in which we're making it easier to jump into a game with your friends from your profile," Xbox said in its official announcement.

Keyboard Mapping for Microsoft Xbox Controllers

Among the new features is the introduction of keyboard mapping for specific Xbox controllers, a development highly anticipated by the PC gaming and accessibility communities.

This enhancement aims to broaden controller input capabilities, particularly in games with complex commands or limited remapping options.

With this update, users can now map buttons on the Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 and the Xbox Adaptive Controller to their keyboards. This feature grants greater flexibility, enabling players to utilize both controllers and keyboards seamlessly.

For example, in a game like "Sea of Thieves," players can now employ the keyboard for swift tool or weapon selection while relying on the controller for other in-game actions.

The Xbox Accessories app will support this controller-to-keyboard input mapping on both PC and console platforms, allowing users to remap buttons according to their preferences.

This development opens up new possibilities for gamers, ensuring a more personalized and adaptable gaming experience.

Microsoft Clipchamp

Additionally, gamers can now effortlessly import their game captures from the Xbox network directly to Microsoft Clipchamp, a built-in video editing tool for Windows PCs and browsers.

This integration simplifies the process of editing and creating personalized videos showcasing their most exciting gaming moments. Users can trim, crop, and add text, transitions, and other effects to their clips before sharing them with friends, family, and followers.

Xbox has also updated its controls for optional diagnostic data. By opting to share this data, users contribute to the ongoing improvement of their console experience.

This data encompasses app and feature usage and enhanced error reporting aimed at refining console performance and troubleshooting. Starting this week, Xbox is transitioning to an account-based system for managing these preferences.

Once users set their preferences on one gaming device, they will be automatically applied to all their gaming devices, eliminating the need for redundant configurations.

Read Also: Global Gamers Enhance AI Recommendation in the Gaming Industry, New Research From Cornell, Xbox and Microsoft Reveals

Gaming with Friends Experiment

Furthermore, Xbox is piloting an experiment aimed at streamlining the process of gaming with friends. A select group of users will be able to easily view what games their friends are playing and seamlessly join them in a game directly from their profile page.

Related Article: 'SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake' Debuting October 16 on Xbox Series, PS5: Here's What to Expect

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The New South Wales (NSW) government of Australia has announced its decision to employ aerial shooting from helicopters to cull the surging population of wild horses in Kosciuszko National Park, News.com.au reports.

The brumby, a feral horse introduced to Australia during colonial times, has seen its population explode in the pristine landscapes of Kosciuszko National Park.

The park, known for its scenic beauty and unique wildlife, has witnessed severe environmental degradation due to the unchecked growth of the brumby population.

Why the Need to Cull Brumby Population

As per a legal mandate, NSW is obligated to reduce the wild brumby population in Kosciuszko National Park to 3,000 by mid-2027.

However, a 2022 survey revealed a staggering estimate of more than 14,000 brumbies, a clear indication of the urgency of action.

The environmental impact of this population explosion is dire. Reports say brumbies have been found to pose a significant threat to more than 30 native species, including the critically endangered southern and northern corroboree frogs, broad-toothed rats, and the she-oak skink.

Additionally, these feral horses contribute to the destruction of native plants, increased soil erosion, and the pollution of waterways and soil.

Penny Sharpe, the NSW Environment Minister, acknowledged the cultural significance of brumbies but emphasized that aerial shooting was a necessary measure to safeguard the welfare of the park's ecosystem.

"There are simply too many wild horses in Kosciuszko National Park. Threatened native species are in danger of extinction, and the entire ecosystem is under threat. We must take action," she stated.

Read Also: Can Cats Glow in the Dark? New Study Says 125 Mammal Species Have 'Apparent Fluorescence'

Shooting Down Wild Horses

The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service will undertake a preliminary program in collaboration with the RSPCA NSW to refine a standard operating procedure for aerial shooting.

A carcass management plan and an updated population survey will also be made publicly available to ensure transparency in the culling process.

Sharpe highlighted that the shooting would be conducted as humanely as possible, and the decision was backed by the view that aerial shooting provides the best animal welfare outcomes when executed correctly.

Currently, aerial shooting is employed to control other invasive species, such as wild deer, pigs, and dogs.

The government will amend the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan to facilitate aerial shooting, which previously relied on on-ground shooting, trapping, and relocation. These methods proved insufficient, especially after the brumby population increased by 4,434 between 2020 and 2022.

The move to employ aerial shooting came after a Senate inquiry recommended lifting the ban on aerial shooting of wild horses in Australia's alpine regions and urged the Commonwealth to increase funding to state governments for such initiatives.

According to local reports, Brumby supporters believe the pest should be protected because of its historical significance in settler life. They also claim that the brumby numbers are inflated.

Stay posted here at Tech Times.

Related Article: UK Scientists Unveil Traps to Battle Against Invasive Chinese Mitten Crabs

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United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres came up with a key step toward tackling international artificial intelligence (AI) governance on Thursday by forming a group of 39 consultants to deliberate on these vital concerns.



This consulting panel includes a variety of personalities, such as notable academics from the US, Russia, and Japan, technological industry leaders, and foreign government representatives.



Notable individuals from Microsoft, OpenAI, Sony, and other tech behemoths are included on the list, underscoring the knowledge and clout contributed. Hiroaki Kitano from Sony, Mira Murati from OpenAI, and Natasha Crampton from Microsoft, who oversee responsible AI, are ready to speak on behalf of their respective companies.



With members from six continents, this multi-faceted AI advisory group seeks to improve AI governance worldwide. The breadth of backgrounds includes prominent AI specialist Vilas Dhar from the United States, eminent Chinese professor Yi Zeng, and Egyptian lawyer Mohamed Farahat.

Working Together to Develop AI 'for Good'

Guterres shared his thoughts on the potential for AI to revolutionize society and the potential drawbacks that it may have."The transformative potential of AI for good is difficult even to grasp. And without entering into a host of doomsday scenarios, it is already clear that the malicious use of AI could undermine trust in institutions, weaken social cohesion and threaten democracy itself," he said, as quoted by Reuters.



The formation of the UN AI advisory group coincides with a rise in interest in AI throughout the world, as tech firms such as OpenAI are introducing innovative technology. Consequently, politicians and tech experts have expressed apprehension about the possible hazards associated with AI and have advocated for global collaboration.

Read Also: Elon Musk to Donate $1 Billion to Wikipedia for Name Change: Wikipedia Founder Responds



The UN views the AI advisory council as a crucial connection, with possibilities to address wider artificial intelligence matters beyond its starting point, which is "AI for good," according to a TechCrunch report.



The newly established advisory council of the UN is expected to produce preliminary suggestions by the end of this year and final recommendations by the summer of 2024. Developing international cooperation on AI governance and reaching a worldwide scientific agreement on the dangers and complications presented by AI are among the top concerns.

UK Prime Minister Warns Regulating AI Should Not Be Rushed

In a similar development, United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak voiced his reservations about rushing AI regulations. Although he acknowledged the potential hazards associated with AI technology, he issued a warning against enacting regulations too quickly, stressing the need to thoroughly understand the technology before placing any limitations.



Rishi Sunak listed other AI threats, including the ease of manufacturing chemical or biological weapons, terrorist groups using AI for fear-mongering, and hackers using AI for assaults and fraud. He emphasized that governments, not tech firms, should bear the primary responsibility for mitigating the hazards associated with AI.



According to AP News, the British Prime Minister stated, "Only governments can properly assess the risks to national security. And only nation-states have the power and legitimacy to keep their people safe." He emphasized that, due to the complex and ever-evolving nature of AI technology, authorities must "not to rush to regulate" AI and should think deeply before implementing any regulatory actions.

On Nov. 1 and 2, international leaders and tech companies will meet in the UK for the inaugural AI Safety Summit to explore AI's rising impact.

Related Article: OpenAI's New 'Preparedness' Team Focuses on Countering 'Catastrophic' AI Risks, 'Human Extinction'

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A United States federal trade agency ruled in a landmark decision on Thursday that Apple had infringed upon the patent of a rival technology business, which might lead to the importation of certain Apple wearable models being banned.



The legal battle stems from a complaint that medical technology company Masimo filed with the US International Trade Commission (ITC) in 2021, claiming that Apple had violated its patents about blood-oxygen level testing. Since 2020, Apple has included a pulse oximeter sensor in the majority of its new Watch models, according to Gizmodo.

Can Apple Prevent the Looming Apple Watch Ban?

After the ITC investigation concluded Apple was in breach of United States trading standards, a limited exclusion order was enacted.

This order bans certain types of Apple watches from being imported into the US. Now, it falls on the Biden Administration to either uphold or reject this ITC ruling within 60 days. Apple is free to challenge the ruling if the administration moves to decline, according to the Wall Street Journal.



There are many options available to Apple to prevent a possible Apple Watch ban. They may either work with Masimo to reach a civil settlement via discussions or update their software so that it no longer depends on Masimo's disputed technology.



Masimo and Apple have been embroiled in a protracted court dispute for the last three years over claims of staff poaching and technology theft. Joe Kiani, the CEO of Masimo, stressed that "even the largest company in the world is not above the law."

In response, Apple claimed that Masimo had abused the ITC to prevent US consumers from purchasing its products while simultaneously releasing a watch that allegedly imitated Apple's technology.

Read Also: UN Forms High-Level AI Advisory Board to Guide Global Governance

According to Reuters, the continuing intellectual property battle between Apple and Masimo, which spans various jurisdictions, includes numerous cases, including the one before the ITC.

A related issue was the mistrial in May of a jury trial concerning Masimo's claims of Apple stealing technology in a federal court in California.

Simultaneously, Apple has filed a lawsuit in federal court in Delaware against Masimo for patent infringement. Apple claims that Masimo is using legal action as a calculated move to clear the way for its rival wristwatch.

Apple's Mounting Legal Issues

AliveCor, a medical technology startup, and Apple are engaged in a separate patent battle that might result in an import ban. The ITC issued a ban in February, but it is still pending while legal actions over AliveCor's patent validity are taking place.

From what company documents reveal, Apple's wearable tech, home devices, and other accessories-including popular products like AirPods headphones and Apple Watches-had sales totaling over $8.28 billion in the third quarter of 2023.

More recently, Masimo introduced them to an ever-growing line of companies accusing Apple of illicit tech theft. As expected, the tech giant has repeatedly refuted these claims.

Apple maintains that many of the patents it is being accused of violating are very broad, a claim consistent with other legal issues like the one it had with AliveCor, which the company promptly contested and dodged.

Related Article: Apple Safari Browser Remains Vulnerable to Spectre Attacks That Can Steal Passwords, Emails

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Researchers at the University of California, Davis, have developed a groundbreaking web application called "When2Fly."

A report shared by Phys.org tells us that this app is set to transform the way farmers and industry workers utilize drones and uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) to gather crucial data for more efficient and climate-resilient farming practices.

Associate Professor Alireza Pourreza, director of the UC Davis Digital Agriculture Lab, and postdoctoral researcher Hamid Jafarbiglu have created When2Fly to address a critical issue that has long plagued drone-based data collection: hotspots.

These glare-like anomalies in collected data have remained a persistent challenge until now.

The Power of Precision Timing

When2Fly empowers drone users to maximize the accuracy and effectiveness of their data collection process.

Users simply input the date they intend to fly, specify the type of camera they're using, and pinpoint their location either on a map or by entering precise coordinates.

The app then does the rest, calculating the optimal times during the chosen day for drone flights to capture crop data with minimal hotspot interference.

The significance of this development lies in its potential to enhance farming efficiency while mitigating agriculture's carbon footprint.

Providing farmers with the most accurate data, including insights into the spatial variability of crops, such as variations in nutrient requirements or disease detection, When2Fly empowers producers to allocate resources more precisely and sustainably.

Traditionally, farming practices have assumed uniformity across entire fields, assuming that all plants require identical inputs and will produce uniform yields.

This oversimplified approach, as Pourreza points out, does not accurately reflect the real-world variability of crops. Drones, with their unique capabilities, can address this challenge, but they must be used effectively.

Read Also: Students Invent RoboCup to Keep Wheelchair Users Hydrated

Hotspot Finding

The pivotal breakthrough came when Hamid Jafarbiglu observed discrepancies in the data collected from aerial images of walnut and almond orchards.

Despite meticulous calibration efforts, the data remained subpar. Jafarbiglu's investigation led him to the revelation of hotspots - bright white spots in the calibrated images. These hotspots appeared despite the sun being behind the drone during data capture.

A hotspot occurs when the alignment of the sun and UAV creates a focal point in the camera's field of view, resulting in a gradual increase in brightness in that area.

These hotspots are problematic because, in agriculture, where precise data collection relies on multiple images taken from various angles, the observed differences should be attributed to plant variations, not glare. However, hotspots compromise data reliability.

Remarkably, the research uncovered that hotspots consistently occurred during drone flights at solar noon in mid-summer. Contrary to conventional belief, this time was revealed to be a hotspot hotspot, which increased the chance of hotspots in images due to the sun's varying geometrical relationship with the Earth based on location and time of year.

Global Implications for Agriculture

The implications of this discovery extend far beyond California. Researchers like Troy Magney, an assistant professor of plant sciences at UC Davis, who mainly uses towers to scan fields, also benefit from this breakthrough.

Magney reached out to Jafarbiglu after reading his research, noting that end users in remote sensing of plants often ignore the issue of hotspots.

The When2Fly app significantly strides in deploying technology to solve agricultural challenges. As the global population grows, agricultural efficiency becomes more critical than ever.

Stay posted here at Tech Times.

Related Article: Insect-Inspired Smartphone-Controlled Tiny Camera Takes Flight

 2023 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Samsung recently announced the launch of the Galaxy Z Flip 5 Retro Edition which sparked curiosity among techies. This unique moniker left many wondering about the story behind this unconventional title. Fortunately, a recent report from South Korea provides some intriguing insights.

Celebrating Legacy With Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 Retro Edition

As Sam Mobile spotted, the Galaxy Z Flip 5 Retro Edition is scheduled to make its debut on Nov.1 exclusively in South Korea. This limited-edition device serves as a tribute to the SGH-E700, a flip phone that gained fame when Samsung introduced it in 2003.

The SGH-E700 earned the endearing nickname "Benz Phone" because of its exceptional design, akin to the luxury of a Mercedes Benz.

Related Article: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5, Z Flip 5 Get Jaw-Dropping Price Drops of $200-$300 on Amazon!

The Legacy of SGH-E700

The SGH-E700 was a pioneering device in Samsung's history, marking the company's first phone with an internal antenna and an external OLED color screen. It enables users to capture selfies, a concept ahead of its time. It was also the first Samsung mobile phone to reach an astounding 10 million units in sales.

The Galaxy Z Flip 5 Retro Edition proudly emulates the dark blue and silver color combination that distinguished the SGH-E700 two decades ago.

The Vintage Lineup

In a fascinating twist, the South Korean tech titan is reportedly sourcing these vintage flip phones from the early 2000s to add to the Galaxy Z Flip 5 Retro Edition's unique charm. These historical models include SGH-E700, SCH-E470, SPH-E3200, SPH-E3200A, SPH-E3250, SPH-E3250A, SGH-E720, SPH-S4800, SPH-S4850, and SCH-S480.

If you're eager to get your hands on the Galaxy Z Flip 5 Retro Edition, there's a catch; it will be available in limited quantities.

In South Korea, Samsung fans can find this nostalgic marvel at Samsung Universe (Seongsu-dong, Seoul), Samsung Online Store, and Samsung Store in Gangnam.

Since the Z Flip 5 Retro Edition is an exclusive item, Samsung will offer only 30 lucky attendees the chance to participate. Better yet, eight of these fortunate individuals will walk away with the limited-edition device through a raffle.

According to Android Headlines, Samsung has not yet announced the availability of the phone outside South Korea. To give you an idea about its pricing, the standard Galaxy Z Flip 5 starts at $999.

Pioneering in the Smartphone Market

Samsung has reclaimed its status as the global leader in smartphone shipments during Q3 2023, and the introduction of the Galaxy Z Flip 5 Retro Edition serves as a testament to the company's innovative spirit.

In recent years, the company has been actively pushing the boundaries of foldable phones to elevate its Average Selling Price (ASP) and overall profitability.

By celebrating the past and embracing the future, Samsung continues to shape the smartphone industry, inspiring other brands to venture into the realm of foldable devices.

The Galaxy Z Flip 5 Retro Edition is not just a smartphone; it's a tribute to the iconic history of mobile technology.

Read Also: Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5's Outer Screen Can Play YouTube Videos; Use Google Maps, Messages

 2023 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Samsung is giving us a glimpse of what could be in store for the Galaxy S24 Ultra, and the camera enthusiasts are in for a treat.

The early tease that the tech giant made is enough for fans to know that its flagship smartphone is about to receive huge camera upgrades soon.

ISOCELL Zoom Anyplace: A Sneak Peek

In a move to build anticipation, Samsung has unveiled a teaser for the ISOCELL Zoom Anyplace camera feature. This feature is poised to make a remarkable entrance, potentially gracing a 200MP image sensor powered by Qualcomm's recently announced Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC.

The Power of AI: E2E AI Remosaic Image Processing

One of the most exciting enhancements, thanks to advanced AI software, is the E2E AI Remosaic image processing, according to GSM Arena.

Samsung promises that this technology will turbocharge your photo-capturing experience, enabling the device to snap pictures "2x faster" while maintaining exceptional quality.

The crux of this upgrade is that the camera can now process colors, tone, HDR, noise reduction, and sharpening simultaneously, eliminating the need for a step-by-step approach. This not only results in faster image processing but also a noticeable improvement in overall image quality.

Related Article: Samsung is Launching Galaxy Z Flip 5 Retro Edition on Nov. 1: Return of Benz Phone?

AI-Powered Subject Tracking

Samsung's choice to harness Qualcomm's new chip isn't accidental. The AI-focused features of this chip are the driving force behind Samsung's "automatic subject tracking." This smart tracking system is driven by AI algorithms, allowing users to effortlessly zoom in and track the movements of their desired subject.

Zoom Anyplace: The Full View Experience

As per another story by Android Central, the Zoom Anyplace function is no ordinary zoom feature. It's designed to capture the full view and the zoomed-in details in stunning 4K quality.

Whether you're zooming in 2x or 4x, rest assured that your images will retain their quality, and you won't need to adjust your angle for the perfect shot.

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra Has a Bright Future Ahead

Although the teaser doesn't explicitly mention the device's name, all signs point to the next-generation Galaxy S24 Ultra.

While the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3's inclusion was almost certain, there have been rumors suggesting a formidable 200MP camera for this device. The ISOCELL HP2SX main camera sensor could be the key to unlocking new possibilities for the Galaxy S24 Ultra, elevating its camera capabilities to the next level.

In other news, X boss Elon Musk plans to launch a payments system on X, the old Twitter that we know.

According to the latest report, the tech billionaire is preparing to transform the platform into a bank that people can use for transactions.

Musk describes X to be an "everything app" to the point that you won't need a bank account anymore just to get money.

Read Also: Samsung's Batteries will be on Hyundai's Electric Vehicles by 2026

 2023 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has expressed his desire to transform X (formerly known as Twitter) into an everything app since he acquired the microblogging platform last year. He wants X to be an emerging platform for social networking, news, video streaming, online shopping, banking, and financial services

Now, according to an internal audio recording obtained by The Verge, Musk has said that X will introduce features capable of handling financial services on its platform by the end of 2024 to create a better banking experience for customers.

Making the announcement during an all-hands call with X employees on Thursday, Musk, who was joined by Xs CEO Linda Yaccarino, said that X users wont even need a bank account as this social media platform will be able to take care of the financial needs of the people. He added that users will be surprised to see how just powerful it is.

When I say payments, I actually mean someones entire financial life. If it involves money. Itll be on our platform. Money or securities or whatever. So, its not just like send $20 to my friend. Im talking about, like, you wont need a bank account, The Verge quoted him as saying.

Yaccarino, too said that the company sees this becoming a full opportunity in 2024. It would blow my mind if we dont have that rolled out by the end of next year, the billionaire added.

Currently, X is trying to obtain money or currency transmitter licenses across the U.S. to become an app offering financial services. The license will allow X to facilitate wire and electronic transfers.

Until now, the company has acquired a currency transmitter license for the social media platform in four U.S. states, namely Arizona, Michigan, Missouri, and New Hampshire. Musk hopes to obtain all the necessary licenses that X needs in the next few months.

In addition, the billionaire has prior experience in the financial technology sector, as he founded the company that eventually became PayPal Holdings Inc.

The X/PayPal product roadmap was written by myself and David Sacks actually in July of 2000, Musk said, adding, And for some reason PayPal, once it became eBay, not only did they not implement the rest of the list, but they actually rolled back a bunch of key features, which is crazy. So PayPal is actually a less complete product than what we came up with in July of 2000, so 23 years ago, The Verge reported.

Musk envisions turning X into an everything app, a one-stop solution just like WeChat in China, which offers users access to multiple services, including messaging, finance, online shopping, and much more.
NATO fully supports Moldova's sovereignty and territorial integrity. Russia must withdraw all its troops from the country.

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This statement was made by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on X (ex Twitter). He also voiced his position during a meeting in Brussels with Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean.

"It is a pleasure to meet with Prime Minister Dorin Recean of our valued partner Moldova. NATO fully supports your sovereignty and territorial integrity. We call on Russia to fully withdraw its troops from your territory. You can continue to count on NATO's support," Stoltenberg said.

It should be noted that the Operational Group of Russian troops, which is the successor of the 14th Guards Combined Arms Army of the U.S..S.R. and the Russian Armed Forces, is deployed on the territory of the unrecognized Transnistrian Moldovan Republic, which is legally part of the Republic of Moldova. The tasks of this group are to train military personnel to participate in and carry out a "peacekeeping" operation and to implement decisions of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces regarding changes in the region.

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The Moldovan authorities have repeatedly demanded the withdrawal of the group of troops from the territory of the region, and the Moldovan parliament considers its presence to be one of the main threats to the country's national security.

As OBOZ.UA previously reported:

- Moldova will block 22 Russian propaganda Internet portals. According to the government decree, it is planned to stop access to such Internet portals as RT, Zvezda, Tsargrad, NTV, VGTRK, Ren-TV, Mir, RTR-Planeta, Vesti, TVC, Spas-TV, 5TV, Smozhem, TV Channel 360, Moscow 24, and others.

- The so-called Russian peacekeepers in Russia-occupied Moldovan Transnistria are serving in extremely horrible conditions. However, despite this, they desperately hold on to their jobs because they are afraid of going to Russia and then being sent to war in Ukraine.

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Science: The reading recommendations of the week from the editorial team of SPIEGEL

"A Unique Case in U.S. History": How Indians Defeated the American Army in the Red Cloud War

Israeli media: We face the problem of lack of trust in the army and Israel is no longer safe for Jews

New island formation off Iwo Jima "If the eruption continues, the island will expand" Experts

International Journalism. Life is non-existent in Gaza and the Israeli army is on alert

"Mistakes by the River": The "Wrong" Life Story There is no right answer

Visit the first YMCA Athletes' Village: Nearly 1,000 delicacies are provided, and the intangible cultural heritage experience is popular

'Excellent schedule': Rublev beats de Minor, but follows Sinner in complaining about the organization of the Masters in Paris

The curtain of the Chinese Super League has come to an end, and these 5 keywords review the 2023 season

The slowdown in the labour market leaves 84,300 people out of work in October

(The 6th CIIE) The "Intangible Cultural Heritage Dream" of Fathers and Daughters of Overseas Chinese in Shanghai: Let Shanghai-style Art Shine

The first domestic cruise ship is delivered today You are only one ticket away from the big cruise

The National Data Bureau was unveiled, how to wake up the sleeping data

Retirement Planning: Four Tricks Baby Boomers Can Use Now to Increase Their Pension

Polishing the "golden signboard" Zhejiang "Long Fair" has received an investment of more than 400 billion yuan

Directly hit the China Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival: "Golden Rooster" and Ludao Ten Years of Covenant More than Half of Xiamen's "Chicken" Lays "Eggs"

Sam Bankman-Fried: The verdict against the crypto star and what it means

Participating in the 6th CIIE German companies look forward to continuing their practical cooperation with their Chinese partners

Siluanov noted the stabilization of the ruble against the background of the measures taken

Patrushev said that Russia was ahead of competitors in nuclear missile weapons for the first time

One in ten people in Vastra Gotaland are worried about losing their job because of AI

Between Bombs and Hope: Families of Israeli Hostages Agonize over Fate of Loved Ones

Marble runs in the test: Hubelino, Gravitrax, Gecko Run, Connetix and Co. are so good.

School in the Philippines after Corona: "Many older children still can't read and do arithmetic"

ERC attacks Junts for its doubts about the investiture by recalling that it agreed with the PSOE "an amnesty for all"

The Ancient Tea Horse Road Documentary Photography Exhibition Opens in Taipei Young people on both sides of the strait record the changes of the ancient road

What is the curse of the "eighth decade" that Ehud Barak feared and Abu Obeida waved?

Matthew Perry's Estate: His Parents and Five Siblings, the Possible Heirs to His Million-Dollar Fortune

In Moldova, candidates from the opposition party "Chance" were excluded from the elections

What is the secret of the steadfastness of the people of Gaza? Campaign inside America to meditate on the Holy Quran

The websites of the Rossiya exhibition were subjected to a cyberattack from Ukraine and other countries

 Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.
On Thursday, a delegation of the Hamas terrorist organization visited the capital of the aggressor country, Moscow. Israel condemned the meeting between the militants and Russian officials.

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This statement was made by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel. It was reported by CNN.

"Israel condemns the invitation of high-ranking Hamas officials to Moscow, which is an act of support for terrorism and legitimizes the atrocities of Hamas terrorists," the Foreign Ministry said.

They demanded that the militants be expelled immediately.

"We call on the Russian government to immediately expel Hamas terrorists," the ministry summarized.

A delegation of the Hamas terrorist organization arrived in Moscow on October 26. On that day, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani also arrived in the Russian capital and met with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin.

This is the first such visit since the beginning of the conflict in the Gaza Strip and was not publicly announced. It is not specified whom the delegation will meet.

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It should be noted that the Russian Federation did not express any condemnation of the terrorist attack on Israel. In addition, Russia has traditionally maintained relations with Hamas and does not recognize the organization as a terrorist one. This visit is the first since the beginning of the new conflict in the Gaza Strip, which was caused by the militant movement's attack on Israel and hostage-taking. According to Israel, 23 Russian citizens were killed in the attack.

As a reminder, as of the morning of October 26, 21 Ukrainian citizens have become victims of the Palestinian-Israeli war. One more person is missing. Children are among the killed and wounded Ukrainian citizens in Israel and the Gaza Strip.

As reported by OBOZ.UA, soldiers of the Israeli Defense Forces entered Gaza City on Thursday night, October 26, with tanks and infantry. They crossed the border in the northern part of the Strip, calling it a "targeted raid". During this nighttime raid, soldiers discovered and struck numerous militants, the terrorist group's infrastructure, and its anti-tank missile launchers.

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Earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron commented on Israel's plans to conduct a ground operation in the Gaza Strip. According to him, this "would be a mistake" for Tel Aviv, which would not guarantee the country's security in the future and would only endanger civilian lives.

Only verified information is available on OBOZ.UA Telegram and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
A Vestas wind turbine spins over the North Sea near Belgium. In effort to further boost U.S. renewable power, the Biden administration on Friday announced that four new zones have been selected in the Gulf of Mexico for offshore wind development.
Three days after one of the deadliest interstate highway pileups in Louisiana history, the St. John the Baptist Parish coroner released the names of seven motorists who perished in catastrophe, precipitated by a superfog that dropped visibility to dangerously low levels.
In 2023, learn the historical and legal agreements and principles that solidified the status of Ceuta and Melilla as Spanish territories within the African land of Morocco. Both Ceuta and Melilla are enclaves, which are pieces of land completely surrounded by the territory of another country. Ceuta and Melilla are approximately 250 miles or 400 kilometers apart from each other.

Ceuta and Melilla are geographically separated from the Spanish mainland and surrounded entirely by Moroccan territory.

Imagine if there were two small U.S. territories, let's call them Thisismine and Iclaimthis, located within the borders of Mexico. These territories have no direct land connection to the United States and are entirely surrounded by Mexican territory. Like Ceuta and Melilla in Spain, Thisismine and Iclaimthis would be enclaves within another country, with special geographical and political considerations.

Both Ceuta and Melilla are enclaves, which are pieces of land completely surrounded by the territory of another country. Situated on the African continent within Morocco, off the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, and across from the southern coast of Spain, Ceuta and Melilla hold a crucial strategic position in the Mediterranean and the Strait of Gibraltar. The distance from Ceuta to Spain is 14 miles or 23.4 kilometers across the Strait of Gibraltar, and the distance from Melilla to Spain across the Mediterranean Sea is roughly 130 miles or 209 kilometers.

Ceuta and Melilla, as Spanish enclaves, have erected border fences to control the migration of people and goods between these territories and the surrounding Moroccan territory. The fences serve as a barrier to prevent unauthorized migration into the Spanish enclaves. These fences also play a crucial role in demarcating the Spanish enclave and Moroccan territory's border. They define the limits of the autonomous cities of Ceuta and the larger city, Melilla.

The geographical location of Ceuta and Melilla on the African continent and their status as European territories have made them focal points for migrants seeking access to the European Union. Despite efforts by Moroccan and Spanish security forces to forcibly expel these undocumented migrants and address Europe's security concerns, such measures have proven ineffective. The construction of border fences has also not succeeded in lessening the gravity of the situation.

Morocco, Ceuta and Melilla

Ceuta and Melilla, Spain's continued colonial presence in Morocco.

Before the year 1415, at the turn of the 15th century, Ceuta was a strategic and prosperous city located on the northern coast of Morocco. It was under the rule of the Marinid dynasty, which was centered in Morocco. Ceuta had long been a prominent trade center in the Mediterranean, and European powers highly sought its control.

The Portuguese forces besieged Ceuta, with the siege beginning in May 1415. The siege lasted for several weeks, during which the Portuguese launched assaults on the city's defenses, including its fortifications and walls.

The military conquest of Ceuta was led by Portuguese forces, particularly King John I of Portugal and his sons, including Prince Henry the Navigator. The Portuguese had been actively involved in overseas exploration and maritime trade, and they viewed Ceuta as a valuable prize due to its strategic location and economic potential.

The defenders of Ceuta, known as the Marinids and led by Abu Sa'id Uthman III, put up a strong fight against the Portuguese siege. Abu Sa'id Uthman III was the Sultan of Morocco under the Marinid dynasty, which was a Berber Muslim dynasty that ruled parts of North Africa, including what is now Morocco.

Despite the fierce resistance, the fortifications of Ceuta eventually succumbed to the Portuguese siege tactics, which included the use of cannons. This resulted in the destruction of the once prosperous North African city and marked the end of the Marinid dynasty's rule.

On August 21, 1415, the Portuguese successfully breached Ceuta's defenses and captured the city. The capture of Ceuta was a significant achievement for Portugal, allowing them to establish a strategic base on the North African coast. The city was a valuable trading post and provided access to trade routes in the Mediterranean and across the Strait of Gibraltar.

Portugal held control of Ceuta for over a century. Ceuta's capture was a precursor to further European expansion into North Africa and marked the beginning of the Age of Exploration.

In 1494, the Treaty of Tordesillas was signed between Spain and Portugal. This treaty divided newly discovered lands outside of Europe between the two countries. The Treaty of Tordesillas primarily focused on addressing the overseas territories that European powers explored during the Age of Exploration. It was signed in the Spanish town of Tordesillas and aimed to resolve conflicts and disputes over the newly discovered lands.

The treaty drew an imaginary line from north to south, running through the Atlantic Ocean and the newly discovered lands. This line, known as the Tordesillas Line, was located a certain distance west of the Cape Verde Islands. The treaty established that everything to the east of this line fell under the influence and control of Portugal, while everything to the west was under the influence and control of Spain.

Spain and the Treaty of Tordesillas, Treaty of Lisbon and the principle of Uti Possidetis claim over Ceuta and Melilla.

Treaties and principles that established a legal framework for Spain to claim, explore, and colonize their respective territories of Ceuta and Melilla were the Treaty of Tordesillas, the Treaty of Lisbon, and the principle of Uti Possidetis.

The legal authority for Spain's claim to Ceuta and Melilla derives from a combination of historical acquisition through conquest and international agreements such as the Treaty of Tordesillas. These agreements and the principle of Uti Possidetis, which upholds the continuity of colonial borders, have supported Spain's authority over these enclaves.

Uti Possidetis supports the idea that colonial borders should continue to be recognized when new states emerge. Uti Possidetis says that when countries become independent, they should keep those borders the way they were when they gained independence.

Thus, because of treaties and Uti Possidetis, even though Ceuta and Melilla are geographically separated from the Spanish mainland and surrounded entirely by Moroccan territory since Morroco was not under Spain's rule during decolonization, but Ceuta and Melilla were, therefore, they belong to Spain.

Spain obtained Ceuta from Portugal in 1668 as part of a territorial exchange. This agreement was formalized in the Treaty of Lisbon. In the Treaty of Lisbon, Portugal ceded Ceuta to Spain, and in return, Spain ceded seven towns in the region of Brazil to Portugal.

Spain obtained Melilla in 1497 when Pedro de Estopinan, a Spanish conquistador, captured it. This marked the beginning of Spanish control over Melilla, and it has remained under Spanish sovereignty since that time.

Spanish conquistador

Morocco has sought to reclaim Ceuta and Melilla from Spain

Morocco has sought to reclaim Ceuta and Melilla from Spain, viewing these enclaves as integral parts of its territory. Morocco's claims are rooted in its literal geographic bond, historical ties to the region and that these territories were colonized during a period of European colonial expansion.

The issue has led to diplomatic tensions and disputes between the two countries, with Morocco asserting its authority over these enclaves. Over the years, Morocco has taken various diplomatic and political measures to assert its claims and address the status of these territories.

Still, the issue remains unresolved, and Ceuta and Melilla continue to be under Spanish sovereignty. The enclaves' historical and political intricacies have made it a sensitive and longstanding subject in the relationship between Spain and Morocco.

Did you know?

Ceuta and Melilla are the only piece of European territory on mainland Africa; however, Lampedusa and Lampione islands are closer to the African coast than to Italy and are considered part of Italy's territory.
Most of the supply is coming from Western Australia, which provides half the global output of lithium. Lithium began to gain serious attention between 2014 and 2018, when an army of rusted-on retail shareholders piled into the sector, motivated by the materials importance to the electric vehicle revolution which was starting to take shape just six years after Tesla unveiled its first car. Interest in the mineral really took off in 2021 after President Joe Biden gained power in the United States on the promise of rolling out an ambitious carbon reduction agenda. But local investors had already made a killing. Vulcan Energy had risen from a low of 23 in 2020 to as high as $9.95 in January 2021, making it the best performing ASX stock despite being years away from commercial production.

Galaxy Resources, which later merged with Orocobre to former global giant Allkem, rose more than 500 per cent over the same period. Pilbara Minerals rose more than 600 per cent. Gina Rineharts Liontown raid thwarted a multibillion-dollar takeover by US group Albemarle. Credit: Trevor Collens It underlines why some of Australias richest people are trying to build controlling stakes in lithium miners, big and small, despite the price of lithium plunging this year on fears that a production surge in places such as China and Australia could lead to a glut. Loading Rinehart is now the largest shareholder in lithium developer Liontown Resources, after a month of raids on the miners stock. Her 19.9 per cent holding  just short of the threshold that would require her to launch a takeover  helped defeat a $6.6 billion bid from US chemical giant Albemarle.

Liontown is close to finishing development of a lucrative high-quality hard-rock lithium deposit in Kathleen Valley, which was the source of Albemarles interest. It sits along what mining veteran David Flanagan has dubbed the lithium corridor of power  the stretch of lithium-rich soil where West Australian billionaires clash with global giants for control of this crucial ingredient for decarbonisation. Falling prices have not deterred Chris Ellison from moving to secure the Bald Hill lithium mine from receivers. Flanagan, until recently the chairman of Delta and its soon-to-be-ready Mt Ida project  south of Liontowns Kathleen Valley deposit  departed after another local mining billionaire, Chris Ellison, snatched up a 17 per cent stake in Delta and effectively took control. Ellison has installed himself as non-executive chairman at Delta with his lithium head, Josh Thurlow, also joining the board.

Deltas site in WAs goldfields region north of Kalgoorlie is close to another patch of dirt being explored by mining junior Juno, which lists Hancock as its biggest shareholder. Its not Rineharts only lithium play. Around the time she first raided Liontowns register, she also took a cornerstone stake in junior lithium explorer Future Battery Minerals. Rineharts Hancock Prospecting also has a substantial stake in lithium explorer Vulcan Energy. But after outlaying close to $1 billion through Hancock Prospecting on Liontown, its definitely her largest investment so far. Hancocks share of the miner is now bigger than company chair Tim Goyders and signalled lithiums coming of age as a sector to be taken seriously. Goyder, the cousin of Qantas chairman Richard Goyder, became a billionaire himself on the back of his successful bet on lithiums future  via Liontown  when it was on the speculative prospecting fringe of the mining industry.

Tim Goyder became a billionaire on the back of his successful bet on lithiums future. Credit: Trevor Collens Ellison has also been busy. He sits on 9.6 per cent stake in another WA explorer, Global Lithium, and is involved in a complicated dance for control of Essential Metals along with its Pioneer Dome lithium project near Kalgoorlie. The $11 billion MinRes is already riding the lithium boom thanks to its two large operating lithium mines. It co-owns Mt Marion, also in WAs goldfields region and within the corridor of power, with one of the worlds largest lithium producers, Chinas Jiangxi Ganfeng Lithium Co. It also has a 40 per cent stake in the Wodgina lithium mine in WAs north along with Albemarle. But not everyone is joining the lithium party. BHP boss Mike Henry has remained cautious, telling investors recently it would only invest in sectors with the scale and margins to guarantee significant returns.

Rio Tinto, by comparison, remains supportive and has pegged out exploration sites in the lithium corridor of power  not far from Liontowns Kathleen Valley project. In a market update this month, it signalled that the 50 per cent drop in lithium prices had not dimmed its long-term view of the sector. Strategy? We kind of make it up as we go along Mining billionaire Chris Ellison Longer term, market fundamentals for lithium remain strong as EV [electric vehicle] adoption continues to rise on supportive government policies and supply shortfalls requiring further investment, it said.

MinRes declined to comment about its lithium plays, but when Ellison was asked at a full-year financial briefing in August if there was an overarching strategy, he quipped: Strategy? We kind of make it up as we go along. Rinehart, too, is tight-lipped about her lithium adventure, apart from brief statements that accompany each new batch of shares she buys. In them, Hancock has hinted at taking a board seat on Liontown and has urged the miner to use Hancocks demonstrated project development and operations ramp-up capability. The frenzy of deals is playing out as some analysts continue to question the demand outlook for lithium amid rising production levels. Lithium prices have more than halved this year amid worries of softening demand and worries about demand in the largest EV market  China  which has been roiled by a consumer funk.

Pilbara Minerals highlighted the change in fortunes on Thursday, reporting that lithium prices were down 47 per cent compared with the prior September quarter, which sent its revenue down 43 per cent to $493 million. It dropped plans for a special dividend noting that, market conditions have softened in a period where the group is undertaking major capital investment programs. Lithiums price weakness is said to have played a role in the merger and acquisition boom that drew global giants such as Albemarle to the bargain assets on offer in Australia after three years of booming prices. Albemarles exit from a Liontown deal is not expected to temper the feverish M&A activity.

Were going to see another wave of consolidation, Regal Funds chief investment officer Phil King told Bloomberg this week. Were focused on those companies that, we think, are targets. Loading The fund manager owns shares of Pilbara Minerals and Lithium Power International. The latter agreed to a takeover this month by the worlds largest copper producer, Chiles state-owned Codelco. Another of Kings investments, lithium explorer Azure Minerals, announced a deal on Thursday to be acquired by Chilean lithium giant Sociedad Quimica y Minera (SQM) for $1.6 billion or $3.50 a share, which sent its shares soaring more than 40 per cent. The stock is up more than 1000 per cent this year.
A proposal to use underwater sound blasts to search for oil and gas across a huge area between Victoria and Tasmania has run into opposition from environmentalists and First Nations people.

The plan, a joint venture between data company TGS and offshore drilling company SLB-Schlumberger, would be one of the worlds largest 3D seismic testing surveys, the Australian Marine Conservation Society said.

Lisa Deppeler and Mitch Pope from Otways Climate Emergency Action Network at Barwon Heads near Geelong. Credit: Jason South

It would cover an area of more than 45,000 square kilometres off the coast between Ocean Grove and Portland.

Seismic testing is the use of high-powered underwater air guns towed behind a ship that release sound blasts at regular intervals to record echoes of geological formations below the seabed.
Truth is, all the sea creatures along this remote coast are living wonders. Pods of orcas, known as killer whales, have visited in the past couple of weeks. Shortly after the orcas were seen hunting around Bridgewater Bay, a great white shark washed up on the beach, chomped clean in two. Orcas, wolves of the sea, enjoy a meal of shark liver. They have no shortage of menu. Great whites have been tracked cruising all the way from Ballina in northern NSW to hunt fur seals in Victorias south-west. Out on the point of Bridgewater Bay, a cave opens to the water, home to the largest mainland colony of seals in Australia.

When pups are born in November and December (female seals can delay their pregnancies, so the colony becomes a giant nursery as summer begins), juveniles soon learn to surf the waves. Seal pups surf the waves of Bridgewater Bay, south-west Victoria Credit: Allen McCauley In a few weeks, the coast will be torn by south-easterly winds, forcing the surface of the sea out to the west. To compensate, chilled water rushes up from the deep through the canyons of the continental shelf, where the Australian land mass finally tore from Antarctica about 30 million years ago. The chilled water of the upwelling brings to the surface clouds of phytoplankton and trillions of tiny krill. It sets off a riot. Gannets and other seabirds wheel and dive on schools of fish gathering for the nutrients that suddenly fill the waters.

Gannets rely on a healthy, fish-rich sea, for their existence. Credit: Allen McCauley Blue whales, the largest creatures to inhabit the Earth, follow to feast on the krill. Here is a chain of life, every species reliant on all the others, the whales singing. Portland has produced communities of hardy amateur photographers who perch on cliffs all year round, happily capturing the parade. A doyen of Portlands camera people, a bearded fellow named Allen McCauley, has become so attuned to the rhythm of the sea that he swims in it each morning before setting out to capture the latest episodes of the maritime spectacle.

Allen McCauley, doyen of the south-wests community of photographers documenting the riot of coastal sea life. I find McCauley perched on a rock near Sammi, quietly contemplating the giant visitor from sub-Antarctica. Sammi is still a juvenile, judges McCauley, maybe seven years old. McCauley and his fellow photographers have an embarrassment of choices with which to fill the lenses of their cameras. Humpback whales breach within sight of the cliffs, hurling themselves clean out of the water. Southern right whales arrive in winter to calve. Fur seals dance. Dolphins leap. Tuna hurtle along in schools. Birds wheel. But if photographers find themselves enchanted by the coast, so do giant energy companies whose interests have less to do with the bursting energy of the creatures than the energy that might lie beneath the seabed.

Right now, one such company is seeking permission to undertake seismic testing to establish whether gas sits beneath the waters all along Victorias south-west coast into South Australia and south to Tasmania. It means blasting the seabed with high-powered airguns every 10 seconds for months at a time  each blast producing an immense 250 decibels, about double the level of a jackhammer or the explosion of a shotgun. The echoes are measured to map potential gas reserves. A humpback whale breaches beneath the cliffs of Cape Nelson, near Portland. Credit: Allen McCauleyh Numerous environmental, community, fisher and First Nations groups are mightily opposed. They fear an artificial and continuous underwater cacophony will disturb the marine chain of life, deafen whales or destroy their ability to communicate through singing, remove the ability of lobsters to get off their backs if toppled, and kill vast areas of krill. In other words, empty the sea of its great festival.

Loading My colleague, environment reporter Miki Perkins, explains it in detail. Meanwhile, Sammi lolls on his adopted beach, his journey home  which at some point he must undertake to seek out and fight for a harem  an obstacle course of killer whales and sharks and the vastness of the ocean. And maybe, much, much worse: ceaseless human-made underwater noise, upending the food chain, confusing creatures that rely on sound to communicate and navigate. And for what?
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In editing this years Good Food Guide, we sunk our spoons into a small islands worth of creme caramels and ate too many frites to count (or tell our doctors about). Big steaks were shared. Anchovy toast was had. We ate things on skewers and from hollowed-out bones. Offal stole our hearts, eel went from under-the-radar to the best thing since sliced kingfish, and celeriac and kohlrabi were transformed from bit-part to scene-stealing on multiple occasions. $200 steak and extra for sauce? The restaurant food trends we never want to see again Reviewing for the Guide gives you a whole new vocabulary: you become fluent in pastry preparations, chilli varieties, tiramisu riffs and the universe of som tum. You also start to spot trends from a mile off  and tire of them about 4.5 times quicker than the average diner. With all that in mind, consider this a highly subjective snapshot of two professional eaters loves and hates of the past 12 months. Things we loved

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Crazy caramels Move over butterscotch. This year we saw that there are many shades of caramel, from seaweed-infused to amaro-spiked. North & Commons sesame version is nutty, sticky and a perfect plus-one for chocolate mousse. Cap off an extravagant night at Society with a caviar and creme fraiche sundae, complete with funky kelp caramel. And fish sauce caramel crowns pate with chips at Odd Culture in Fitzroy, completes barramundi wings at Castlemaines Wild, and sharpens creme caramel at Mornington newcomer Colt Dining. Fish sauce caramel crowns pate at Odd Culture in Fitzroy. Supplied Surf and turf, but make it pork and seafood Once relegated to jumbo prawns and a big hunk of beef at old-school steakhouses, surf and turf has been born again and its spectacular. CBD bar Apollo Inn takes Baker Bleu baguette, smears it with Spains spreadable sausage sobrasada and tops it with diced tuna. The spicy, soft Calabrian pork sausage nduja amps up both crisp-skinned dory at Kews Centonove and plump prawns at Grill Americano in the city. Ettas pork and mussel salad shows how its done delicately, while at the other end of the spectrum, the porky richness of tonkotsu at Gomi Ramen Shop is boosted with pungent prawn-head oil.

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Restaurants show their soft side Its time to put the Scandi minimalism years behind us. All those hard surfaces and bright spaces are trumped by softness in all forms: heavy velvet drapes that make us feel like the only ones in the room. Cushy, sound-absorbing carpet underfoot. Gentle lighting. And padded bar stools, a subtle surprise for our backsides that allow us to eat at the bar without feeling like were sitting on a park bench. At the risk of sounding like a toilet paper advertisement, softness is luxury. Half serves (as long as theyre half price) Generally, receiving half the dish you ordered or a 75ml glass of wine is cause for concern. But it can be a strategic move, a way to try more without spending more. Negotiate with your waiter and youll find plenty of restaurants and bars that will happily accommodate a solo diner with half serves, or split a single by-the-glass pour into two. Its a signifier of the high-flex, low-commitment way we dine today, and one of the rare occasions where doing things by halves pays off. Kinilaw kangaroo bone marrow at Serai. Chris Hopkins

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Hello, bone marrow The very definition of a sometimes food, this wobbly collagen-rich goo brings buttery heft to everything it touches. Saffron-stained risotto at Roccos Bologna Discoteca, beef tartare at Il Bacaro, skewers of celeriac at La Pinta and silken mash at Reine & La Rue all benefited from bone marrows fatty magic. Serais bone boats cradling hunks of lightly cured kangaroo might be the most ridiculously OTT example we ate. If this is what happens when restaurants try to rein in their food costs, were all for it. Chicken mousse eclairs at Lilac Wine. Jason South Pastry chameleons Hang on. Why is there cannoli on my table when Im still on my first martini? Look a little closer at that cannoli (or eclair, or choux bun), though, and youll see its piped with pate: a new cross-breed of pastry that doesnt care for labels like sweet or savoury. Doughnuts at Auterra might burst with confit duck and plum. Pigs head pies on Ca Coms evening menu are wrapped in sweet tissue-paper-like taro pastry. And eclairs piped with chicken liver mousse are a mandatory order at Lilac Wine.

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Smoked oysters at Freyja, an earlier iteration of its mussel dish. Eddie Jim Hot molluscs Bake em, smoke em, fry em up: after a couple of decades on the outer, warm oysters and their bivalvia buddies are so hot right now. Head to Society for deep-fried oysters with a chicken-skin crumb. Scallops au gratin made repeat appearances, perhaps most memorably at Gimlet  the shellfish warm and sweet under a velvety herb-flecked sauce. And Freyjas smoked mussels might be one of the years most spectacular dishes, the meaty molluscs ferried out on still-smoking pine, beech and juniper sprigs. Things we did not love so much Tiny wine lists

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Its not 1994. You cant smoke inside, Friday lunches go for 90 minutes, tops, and few of us are polishing off a whole bottle of wine on the reg. Most of the time we want to drink by the glass, and wed like more than two whites and two reds to choose from. Weredrinking less, sure, but were also more informed and more adventurous, and were at a bar to explore different styles. At least throw in a wildcard or two. And tiny pours Ever wonder if someones been sneaking sips of your wine when your back is turned? You, friend, might be another victim of the 120ml pour. Its nothing new, but its more widespread than ever, seeing a net loss of 30ml from what many would consider a standard wine pour in Australia (not to be confused with a standard drink). Some venues use it to make super-primo drops more accessible, which is fair enough. But when its not clearly marked on the wine list  and especially if were drinking a run-of-the-mill chardonnay  we can be forgiven for feeling a little bit ripped off. Tiramisu, the pick me up dessert wed like to put down. Quentin Jones Tiramisu

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Tiramisu is well and truly done. Its over. Pack it up. Sorry, nonnas everywhere  we know its not your fault. But restaurants, please give us literally any other dessert. We get that its a killer combo: the rich cream, the coffee kick, the boozy undertones. But we simply cannot stomach one more wodge, slice or jumbo spoonful from a big communal bowl. Walk-ins arent actually all that welcome A no-bookings policy can be a thing of beauty. Theoretically, its equal-opportunity eating  the playing field for seats is evened out. Many places nail it. Plenty dont. Signs youre at the latter? Youre forced to hover in the entryway, seatless and on show until a waylaid staff member spots you. Theres no indication of wait time, nowhere nearby to drink the wait away, not even a courtesy text when your turn comes. You might want to think about walking right back out again. The pushy booking platform Would you like fries with that? How about a truffle supplement, a $200 bottle of champagne or a piece of jewellery? Reservation platforms are big business and the preemptive upsell is one way they help venues make extra coin. They might also appear to find you a table at that hard-to-book restaurant  but when you look more closely, you may be headed to its less popular sibling instead. Resy, Seven Rooms, Open Table and others also mean many venues no longer list their phone numbers. But what use is a mute reservations platform if we need to get in touch? At least let us send a text.

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A 46-year-old woman from Sydneys eastern suburbs has been taken into custody after she was found guilty by a jury of the sexual assault of a 14-year-old boy.

The boy had alleged the woman said words to the effect of dont tell your father about this, performed oral sex for 10 to 15 minutes and then straddled him and had intercourse for one hour and 20 minutes.

The woman denied sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy in 2021. Credit: Nick Moir

The jury of eight men and four women retired to deliberate on Wednesday on the eighth day of the trial in Downing Centre District Court. Shortly before noon on Friday, they found the woman guilty of both counts of aggravated sexual intercourse with a child under 16.

Crown prosecutor Emma Blizard made a detention application following the verdicts, which was not opposed by the defence. In those circumstances, I grant the application and bail is revoked, Judge Sarah Hopkins said.
A beast of a blaze that has claimed a life and destroyed homes continues to burn in southern Queensland after defying firefighters for another night.

There were hopes that the dangerous Tara bushfire, west of Brisbane, that has burnt 11,000 hectares over four days would be contained by Friday.

But Western Downs Mayor Paul McVeigh said firefighters may have to battle on through to the weekend as they take on three blazes that are threatening the region.

Firefighters are on high alert across the state, attending a total of 420 blazes this week with reports of up to 32 houses destroyed.
Councils across Victoria are forking out millions in legal expenses each year, revealing the high costs of legal advice for local government and, in some cases, of internal disputes.

Fifty Victorian councils have spent about $64 million on legal expenses since 2021 according to Council Watch, which requested a breakdown of legal fees from the states 79 councils, 31 of which are in metropolitan Melbourne.

The biggest spenders were Yarra City Council and Kingston council, which have racked up close to $6 million and $4.5 million in legal fees respectively since 2021.

Yarra spent more than $4 million on lawyers in the 2021-22 financial year alone. It is unclear what the work was for, and the council did not respond to a request to provide details.
Washington: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told US officials he is clear-eyed about the threat posed by China, as he made final rounds of Washington to allay concerns that Americas nuclear secrets and shipbuilding capacity would be jeopardised by the AUKUS submarine pact.

Unable to address a joint session of US Congress while Capitol Hill dealt with internal chaos, Albanese instead met personally with more than 60 Democrats and Republicans on Thursday morning (Friday AEDT)  including brand new House Speaker Mike Johnson  urging them to advance AUKUS legislation by the end of 2023 so his government can get on with the $368 billion plan.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese met Mike Johnson shortly after he was elected speaker of the US House of Representatives. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Top officials from the US Navy and the Department of Defence also threw their weight behind Albaneses push, rejecting suggestions that helping Australia acquire nuclear-powered submarines could strain American defence manufacturing centres, which have struggled to meet the countrys own targets.

AUKUS is a call to action to strengthen our trilateral defence ecosystem, Department of Defence under-secretary Marla Karlin said at a congressional hearing on Wednesday, backed by similar testimony from Navy Under Secretary Erik Raven, Commander William Houston, and Rear Admiral Jonathan Rucker.
Israeli forces killed four Palestinians in the West Bank during a wide-scale overnight arrest raid, Palestinian health officials said Friday, noting that a militant commander was among those killed.

Palestinian officials said three of the Palestinians were killed when a firefight with local gunmen erupted in the Jenin refugee camp.

The Israeli military said: "Forces responded with live fire when assailants hurled explosive devices and shot at troops in the camp."

Israeli forces killed a fourth Palestinian early Friday morning in the West Bank city of Qalqiliya, Palestinian health officials said.

This brings the number of Palestinians killed by Israel in the occupied West Bank since the outbreak of the Israeli war on Gaza on 7 October to 109.

Meanwhile, according to figures released by the Palestinian Prisoners' Club, Israel has detained at least 1,200 Palestinians in the West Bank since the outbreak of the war.

A quarter of those detained in the West Bank, home to three million Palestinians living under Israeli occupation since 1967, are minors and elderly individuals, as highlighted by the Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Authority, cited by WAFA.

This surge in killing and arrests of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank comes as Israel intensified its bombardment of Gaza, now in its 21st consecutive day.

The Palestinian health ministry said on Friday that Israeli airstrikes in Gaza have killed more than 7,326 and injured more than 19,000 since the start of the conflict on 7 October.

Also on Friday, Israeli occupation forces fired teargas to prevent Palestinians from reaching the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem to perform Friday prayers.

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Acapulco: Sitting in his empty cab as another taxi driver pushed it from behind, Miguel Angel Dorantes surveyed the scene of devastation left by the most powerful hurricane to hit the Pacific coast of Mexico, wondering if he would be able to reach home. Mudslides blocked off his hillside house in Acapulco. Basic goods were scarce because of aggressive looting following the storm.

We have no gas, no water, no food, he said, as people ran past his car and other gridlocked vehicles, carrying bottles of water, bags of beans and anything else from nearby stores. Everything has been looted. Theres nothing to take any more.

Damaged buildings stand after hurricane Otis ripped through Acapulco, Mexico. Credit: AP

The extent of the destruction left by hurricane Otis, which turned a once popular tourist destination into a scene of chaos, only started to come into view that morning. More than two dozen people were killed and three were missing after the storm made landfall in the early hours of Wednesday (US time) with an intensity that shocked forecasters and government officials.

Thousands of military officers, medical teams and government officials confronted a devastated Guerrero state the next day. Communication and power systems remained largely off in much of the state, making the scope of the hurricanes toll difficult to ascertain.
Rivian Apprenticeship Program to Support Georgia Plant

SEE AL:SO: Auto Channel Rivian News Archive

Irvine, California, October 27, 2023 - American all-electric vehicle manufacturer Rivian today announced the launch of a new apprenticeship program to support the development of trained staff at its future manufacturing plant in Stanton Springs North, Georgia.

The program will recruit an initial group to support future industrial maintenance needs through a 24-month, in-depth training period. Local Georgia community colleges are able to accelerate in-person learning for 24 weeks, after which all apprentices will travel to Rivians plant in Normal, Illinois for 12-18 months of on-the-job training, a requirement of the apprenticeship program.

Program tuition will be covered by the State of Georgias HOPE Grants, with incremental expenses (textbooks, materials, etc.) paid for by Rivian. Throughout the program duration, all participants will be paid employees as maintenance technicians for Rivian. Upon completion of the program, the graduated apprentices will relocate to Stanton Springs North to support production and operations at Rivians future facility.

Were excited to launch this apprenticeship program as an important milestone toward launching our R2 manufacturing plant in Georgia, said Rivian Founder and CEO RJ Scaringe. Critical for the launch of this facility is to establish a pipeline of talent that will help us hit the ground running once the facility is operational.

I am always proud to support companies who come to Georgia because of our great business environment, said Lt. Governor Burt Jones. I think it is important for the state to partner with companies like Rivian to create critical job opportunities through initiatives like the apprenticeship program.

Rivians Stanton Springs North site, near the City of Social Circle, will be constructed in multiple phases and will employ 7,500 people by 2030. Rivian will continue to scale its recruiting efforts in the Peach State as it approaches vertical construction and prepares for facility operations thereafter.

About Rivian:

Rivian exists to create products and services that help our planet transition to carbon neutral energy and transportation. Rivian designs, develops, and manufactures category-defining electric vehicles and accessories and sells them directly to customers in the consumer and commercial markets. Rivian complements its vehicles with a full suite of proprietary, value-added services that address the entire lifecycle of the vehicle and deepen its customer relationships. Learn more about the company, products, and careers at www.rivian.com.
Biden Administration Unilaterally Subsidizes $100 Million Cost Of bp EV Charging Network Expansion







SEE ALSO: Biden Using YOUR Tax Money to Pay For Radical Dem's Electric Mobility Monopoly.

Deal with bp pulse marks first time Tesla's ultra-fast chargers will be purchased for deployment on an independent EV charging network.

Agreement forms part of bp's plans to invest up to $1 billion in EV charging across the US by 2030.

bp pulse, bp's EV charging business, has already installed more than 27,000 charge points and aims to roll out more than 100,000 globally by 2030.

As early as 2024, Tesla chargers will be installed across the bp pulse network, including at key bp, Amoco, ampm; and Thorntons-branded sites, TravelCenters of America locations and at bp pulse's large-scale Gigahub charging sites, near airports and in major metropolitan areas across the US.

HOUSTON, Oct. 26, 2023 -- Today bp (NYSE: bp) announced a deal in which bp pulse, bp's EV charging business, will acquire ultra-fast charging hardware units from Tesla for $100 million. The investment will facilitate the expansion of the bp pulse public network across the US, while also enabling support for EV fleet customers by deploying chargers at their private depots. The introduction of Tesla's chargers to the bp pulse network is the first time the hardware will be purchased for an independent EV charging network.

The roll-out is planned to begin in 2024 and locations will include key sites across the bp family of brands, including TravelCenters of America, Thorntons, ampm; and Amoco, as well as at bp pulse's large-scale Gigahub charging sites in major metropolitan areas and at third-party locations, such as Hertz locations, as part of previously announced collaborations. The first installation sites have been identified in Houston, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Chicago; and Washington D.C.

Tesla's chargers will also be deployed at select bp pulse fleet customer depots. By pairing bp pulse's industry-leading, intelligent charge management software, Omega, with Tesla's fast and reliable chargers, bp pulse gains the distinctive capability to oversee the entire charging process for EV fleets, providing a comprehensive solution for its fleet customers.

"Strengthening the bp pulse network with Tesla's industry-leading hardware is a major step forward in our ambitions for high speed, open access charging infrastructure in the US and advances our ambition to delivering an exceptional customer experience," said Richard Bartlett, global CEO of bp pulse. "Combined with our vast network of convenience and mobility sites on and off the highway, this collaboration with Tesla will bring fast and reliable charging to EV drivers when and where they need it."

The Tesla ultra-fast chargers, which have an output of 250 kW, will be branded, installed and operated by bp pulse. The chargers will be fitted with Tesla's 'Magic Dock', which is compatible with both North American Charging Standard (NACS) and Combined Charging System (CCS) connectors. This enables EVs from other major vehicle manufacturers to use the Tesla chargers on the bp pulse's network, regardless of whether they use CCS or NACS ports. To further improve user experience, the Tesla chargers will support use of the Plug and Charge protocol, which simplifies and automates payments. As is Tesla's current policy, third-party operated ultra-fast chargers meeting Tesla's reliability and functionality requirements are featured in Tesla's vehicle UI and apps, and bp pulse expects to uphold those requirements on its network.

Rebecca Tinucci, Tesla's Senior Director of Charging Infrastructure said: "At Tesla, we're driven to enable great charging experiences for all EV owners. Selling our fast-charging hardware is a new step for us, and one we're looking to expand in support of our mission to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy. We appreciate bp's partnership in this area  it's the right step towards a more sustainable future. "

"This is another example of how bp pulse is collaborating with leaders across the industry, in areas including real estate, charging technology and automakers, to advance EV infrastructure growth across the US, and to deliver the fast and reliable charging experience we know our customers demand." said Sujay Sharma, CEO bp pulse Americas. "We remain open and committed to expanding alliances with EV industry leaders even further and we look forward to welcoming the growing number of EV drivers across the country to our network."

In addition to this deal with Tesla, bp pulse aims to continue deploying additional fast and reliable charging points at high-demand locations, such as airports, major metropolitan areas, and bp-owned and properties along Alternative Fueling Corridors. Furthermore, bp has been awarded grant funds through programs like National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) and California Energy Commission (CEC) to provide charging infrastructure at sites in California, Pennsylvania, Colorado; and Kentucky.

In February 2023, bp announced plans to invest $1 billion in America's EV charging infrastructure by 2030 with an aim of investing $500 million in the next two to three years. Our five transition growth engines -- bioenergy, convenience, EV charging through our charging business bp pulse, hydrogen, renewables and power -- made up around 30% of bp's total investment in 2022, up from around 3% in 2019.

Notes to editors:

bp pulse is plugging in high-speed charging points in the right locations to boost consumer confidence in driving electric.

Since 2019, we've increased our charge points by 150% worldwide and we are continuing to grow our network in Germany , China , the UK, Europe , the US, Australia and more.

, , the UK, , the US, and more. Almost all new public charge points that bp pulse rolls out now are rapid (>50kw) or ultra-fast (>150kw)  it is what our customers want.

In the UK, bp pulse is one of the largest charging point operators.

In Germany , Aral pulse, is one of the largest ultrafast charge point operators and has been awarded best charge point operator in the country following connect' s 2023 charging network test (German) - Test winner Aral pulse offers customers the best charging experience | Press | Home

, Aral pulse, is one of the largest ultrafast charge point operators and has been awarded best charge point operator in the country following connect' s 2023 charging network test (German) - Test winner Aral pulse offers customers the best charging experience | Press | Home In the US, bp pulse also provides EV charging and energy management to fleets that operate heavy-, medium- and light-duty vehicles. Key offerings for these fleets include intelligent charge management software, Omega, and a Charging-as-a-Service solutionallowing bp pulse to manage the charging of an EV fleet from start to finish, while optimizing energy costs and vehicle utilization.

About bp

bp's purpose is to reimagine energy for people and our planet. It has set out an ambition ?to be a net zero company by 2050, or sooner and help the world get to net zero, and a ?strategy for delivering on that ambition. For more information visit bp.com.?

About bp pulse

bp pulse is bp's electric vehicle (EV) charging business. Focused on fast and reliable charging, bp pulse deploys charging points for EV drivers and commercial fleets on the go; at destination hubs, at the depot and bp retail sites.

Around the world bp pulse is partnering with some of the world's biggest businesses, while developing the Gigahub network, a series of large EV high-speed charging hubs in high-demand locations.

Electric vehicle charging is one of five growth engines of bp's transformation into an integrated energy company. The company has already installed more than 27,000 charge points and aims to expand its network of public EV charging stations to more than 100,000 worldwide by 2030.

In the US, bp is planning to invest up to $1 billion in EV charging by 2030

https://www.bppulse.co.uk
23:30 The Pentagon said that there was an attempted attack at Irbil air base in Iraq but there were no casualties and only minor damage to the facilities.

Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, declined to detail which Iranian-backed groups may be responsible for the recent spate of attacks at bases in Iraq and Syria.

He said there have been at least 12 attacks in Iraq and four in Syria, and that 21 U.S. personnel received minor injuries in two separate attacks early last week. Of those, 19 people had some type of traumatic brain injury, and all 21 returned to duty.

22:40 EU leaders on Thursday called for "humanitarian corridors and pauses" to get aid into Gaza, after hours of negotiations at a summit of the bloc in Brussels.

"The European Council expresses its gravest concern for the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza and calls for continued, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access and aid to reach those in need through all necessary measures including humanitarian corridors and pauses for humanitarian needs," a statement said.

21:40 The European Central Bank (ECB) is "very attentive" to economic risks posed by "the conflict between Israel and Hamas", ECB President Christine Lagarde said Thursday.

Referring to the crisis in the Middle East as well as the war in Ukraine, she said: "We are monitoring the situation, we are very attentive to the economic consequences that could have, whether in terms of direct or indirect impact on energy prices, or the level of confidence that economic actors will continue to display."

21:35 Israel army spokesman Daniel Hagari says the army will continue limited ground raids in the Gaza Strip after last night infantry forces and tanks operated for a number of hours over the border fence to attack Hamas positions and members.

Hagari says raids will be carried out tonight as well, and it will continue all the more forcefully in the coming days.

21:20 In response to scepticism from American President Joe Biden about the number of Palestinian causalities from the Israeli war on Gaza, the Ministry of Health in Gaza published an exhaustive 212-page document that includes the names, ID numbers, gender, and ages of 7,028 Palestinians who have been killed by Israeli airstrikes since 7 October.

The report also features a dedicated section listing the names of children. The spokesperson for the Ministry of Health in Gaza stated, We would not have revealed the names of the martyrs if it weren't for the doubts raised by Washington and Tel Aviv.

21:00 UN Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine Riyadh Mansour urged the UN General Assembly Thursday to act against the indiscriminate Israeli killing of Palestinians "under the bombs" in Gaza and to allow humanitarian aid into the Palestinian territory.

We are meeting here while Palestinians in Gaza are under the bombs, the Palestinian Ambassador to the UN exclaimed.

Citing circumstances on the ground, Mansour stressed that humanitarian aid was badly needed and that hospitals were operating without anaesthetics.

20:40 Egyptian General Intelligence Service Chief Abbas Kamel held a conversation on Thursday with Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the Hamas Political Bureau, to discuss the latest developments in Gaza amid ongoing Israeli attacks, as announced by the Palestinian movement on Thursday afternoon.

According to a statement issued by Hamas on its Telegram channel in Arabic, Kamel and Haniyeh discussed the latest developments related to Gaza. The movement said Kamel reviewed Egypt's efforts to ensure a ceasefire in Gaza and the urgent delivery of necessities to the Palestinian people, adding that Haniyeh expressed his appreciation for Egypt's stance, both the government and the people.

19:00 Representatives of Hamas and Iran are in Moscow Thursday for talks, Russia's foreign ministry said.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani was in Moscow and confirmed reports that a Hamas delegation was in the Russian capital.

17:15 In a joint statement issued on Thursday, Egypt and eight other Arab countries expressed strong condemnation and rejection of the targeting of civilians and the violation of international law amidst the ongoing escalation in Gaza. The statement was released by the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan, the UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, and Morocco.

The Arab ministers underscored that the right to self-defense, as enshrined in the UN Charter, should not serve as a pretext for "blatant" violations of international law and international humanitarian law, or the deliberate disregard of the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people in their pursuit of an independent state.

15:05 Hamas called on Arab and Muslim nations to participate in a movement on Friday and Sunday, advocating for "the opening of the Rafah crossing" to facilitate humanitarian aid and to call for "an end to Israeli genocide in Gaza".

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), on October 14, 2023, accused Israel of committing mass ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and, on October 20, of posing a risk of genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza.

This accusation has garnered support from various international leaders, including Lula the President of Brazil, whose country currently presides over the Security Council.

14:55 Gaza Health Ministry Spokesperson says that the death toll from the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip has reached 7,028, including 2,913 children and 1,709 women.

       ..        #    #_ pic.twitter.com/5FvscHWFYB    (@AJArabic) October 26, 2023

14:35 A 17-year-old boy, Asid Hamdi Hamidat, has been killed by Israeli gunfire in the Jalazone camp north of Ramallah, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. His death raises the total number of Palestinians killed by Israel in the West Bank since the beginning of this year to 313, including 105 since 7 October"

14:10 Muslim civil rights groups say theyve seen large increases in reports of harassment, bias and sometimes physical assaults against members of their communities since the war in Gaza.

A spokesperson for the Council on American-Islamic Relations said that the organizations chapters and national office had received 774 reports of bias-related acts between 7 and 24 October. The councils leaders believe its the largest wave of complaints since December 2015, when then-presidential candidate Donald Trump declared his intent to ban Muslim immigration to the U.S.

The reported acts since include an Illinois landlord fatally stabbing a 6-year-old Muslim boy and wounding the boys mother, police say, as well as the arrest of a Michigan man after police say he asked people in a social media post to join him in hunting Palestinians.

13:40 According to Al Arabiya correspondent, Israel targeted the village of Aita al-Shaab in southern Lebanon with a phosphorus missile.

Lebanese state media say Israel conducted airstrikes and drone attacks early Thursday in southern Lebanon, near the tense Israel-Lebanon border where exchanges between Israeli forces and Lebanese Hezbollah militants have intensified amid the war in Gaza.

Strikes ignited fires in the fields near in the border town of Aita al Shaab, the National News Agency reported.

On Wednesday night, Israeli strikes hit the Tyre district and a mattress factory there, NNA said, while small-arms fire was exchanged between militants and Israeli troops along the border.

Hezbollah announced that Israel's attacks have kille two of its members in southern Lebanon, bringing the total casualties to 46.

13:00 Intensive preparations are currently being made to deliver the sixth aid convoy into the Gaza Strip through the Rafah Border Crossing, the only entry point not controlled by Israel, reported AlQahera New Channel on Thursday.

The channel added that the fifth aid convoy, which entered the strip late on Wednesday, is now being offloaded on the Palestinian side.

12:45 Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz said that restoring Israeli security after the Gaza attack will take years.

Tough times are expected for us, Gantz told reporters in Tel Aviv.

He also said that Israel will ultimately make its own decisions regarding war plans, in light of several reports saying Israel has bowed to American pressure to delay its Gaza ground invasion.

12:08 US Republican Florida governor Ron DeSantis is taking the extraordinary step of ordering state universities to ban a pro-Palestinian student organization from campuses, saying it illegally backs Hamas.

DeSantis, who is running for president, has ramped up his pro-Israel stance since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in southern Israel, which led to pro- and anti-Israel demonstrations around the world and prompted Israel to respond with airstrikes. The governor has sent planes to Israel to provide supplies and return Floridians there who want to come back.

Students for Justice in Palestine has been on U.S. campuses for decades, with frequent protests calling for the liberation of Palestinians and boycotts against Israel. The network says it has more than 200 chapters across the United States.

Palestine Legal, a group that provides legal support for pro-Palestinian groups, said the ban on SJP is part of a broader effort by DeSantis to suppress freedom of speech on campuses.

Under DeSantis, Florida has limited how race can be discussed in schools, prohibited state universities from spending money on diversity, equality and inclusion programs and taken other actions that critics say limit free speech on campus.

12:00 Brazil's Lula says war in the Middle East is genocide.

Its not a war, its a genocide that has killed nearly 2 thousand children who have nothing to do with this war, they are victims of this war. And frankly, I dont know how a human being is capable of war knowing that the result of that war is the death of innocent children, he declared.

11:50 Turkey's Erdogan told Pope Francis in a phone call that Israeli attacks on Gaza amount to massacre and the silence of international community "embarrassing" and "is shame for humanity."

Erdogan was also quoted as telling Francis during their telephone conversation that everyone should support efforts to deliver uninterrupted aid to innocent civilians in Gaza.

On Wednesday, he defended Hamas as "liberators" and condemned the West for not stopping Israel's assault on Gaza.

He said "Western powers shed tears for Israel and do nothing else," as hecancelled plans to go to Israel. Erdogan condemned Israel, affirming you will not find any other state whose army behaves with such inhumanity.

11:45 The Israeli occupation army reports 309 soldiers killed since the start of the war on Gaza. Israel also said that the confirmed number of people detained in Gaza is 224.

11:30 17 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli raid behind Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, south of Gaza, media reports said.
5 LeT ultras killed





SRINAGAR,

FIVE Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) terrorists were killed on Thursday as security forces foiled an infiltration bid along the Line of Control (LoC) in Kupwara district of J&K. A huge cache of arms and ammunition including five AK series rifles and other incriminating materials were recovered from the site of the gunfight in Machhil sector, officials said. Additional Director General of Police Kashmir Vijay Kumar said five terrorists have been killed in the operation so far. Based on an Intelligence input generated by Kupwara Police, an infiltration bid was successfully foiled in a joint operation launched by Police and Army along the Line of Control in Machhil sector of Kupwara district. In this swift and coordinated operation, five terrorists were neutralised, a police spokesperson said.

Besides, multiple ambushes were laid by the joint teams along the LoC. Today, the joint team observed movement of terrorists in the thick dense forests. Employing meticulous tactics, the terrorists were intercepted, leading to the elimination of five unidentified terrorists, the spokesperson said. He said the identification of the slain terrorists is being ascertained. All the recovered materials have been taken into case records for further investigation. In this regard, Police have registered a case under relevant sections of law and investigation has been initiated. Extensive search of the area is being carried out and further details if any will be shared accordingly, the spokesperson added.

While officials maintain that infiltration attempts have come down significantly, attempts by terrorists to sneak into Indian territory have continued this year. Two terrorists were killed in a failed infiltration bid four days ago in Uri sector. A total of 11 infiltrators were shot dead in June - four of them in Macchil sector and five in nearby Jumagund area of Keran sector.
Alka Kubal-Athlye The human side of a great actress





Staff Reporter

An actress and a human being. These may be two different roles, different entities altogether. But when the person playing these two roles happens to be the legendary Marathi actress Alka Kubal-Athlye, then one senses a conscious effort on her part not to allow too much compromise with her personality and sense of self worth and dignity in real life. Playing different characters is all right, but I do draw a line beyond which I have never gone. For, besides being an actress, I also am engaged in multiple real-life roles of a wife, a mother, a daughter-in-law. So, I have chosen my own priorities, she asserts. This comes to fore in a pronounced manner when the iconic actress appears in a public interview in front of a capacity-packed audience at the Golden Jubilee celebrations of Saraswati Mandir in Ram Nagar. Interviewer being noted actress and anchor Prabha Deoskar, the interview lasting for about an hour extracts different dimensions of the reel-life and real-life personae of Alka Kubal-Athlye -- whose iconic Marathi film Maherchi Sadi had done a stunning business of over Rs 500 crore a quarter of a century ago.

Of course, Alka Kubal-Athlye rues having been typecast in melancholic roles of a suffering woman of soft personality. Yet, she also shows a consciousness that those roles have given her the status of a true legend. I would have loved to do other roles as well. But the reality is that out of my 350-plus movies, I played characters of suffering women in more than 200 outings, she says. The questions are designed smartly to extract best of answers from Alka Kubal-Athlye whose looks defy her sixty years of age. Yet, the actress plays it cool, taking her own time to respond, flashing her inimitable smile, partly throwing back her head and narrowing her eyes while responding to a tricky question. But the ease with which she responds to questions shows how seasoned she is in this game of public outings -- fully conscious of the place she occupies in the minds of Marathi audiences for well over forty years. So comes the conscious effort to ensure that no wrong impression, no wrong message goes out. I never made compromises with my personal values and personality, she insists. Once, I was asked to indulge in an unnecessary exhibition of my physical assets. I refused, because I realised that what the Directors expected me to do was actually totally unnecessary for the role I was playing, she adds.

She then lingers in the memory of the public adulation she receives all the time. People take me like something of a goddess or an epitome of virtue. They shower upon me so much appreciation for the reel-life characters I have played. At times, it is quite embarrassing, I must say. Yet, that is the way the audiences -- especially the Marathi audiences -- are, very emotionally involved, very sentimentally attached to the characters they happen to love and adore on the screen, she says. All times are not the same, the actress says, recalling how many producers behaved with her when she met with a terrible accident while driving a car on a rainy day, hurting her spine. The moment they realised that I was to be out of commission for a long time, they came to me to take back the signing amounts for the six films I had signed at that time, Alka Kubal-Athlye says with a tinge of sadness in her voice. As she says this, the audience senses certain numbness, certain disgust with the ways of the world. But then, at this point in the interview, one senses the amazing ability of the great actress to communicate her feelings to audiences. Though she is speaking in real life, the actress does demonstrate her ability to capture the peoples attention in the most honest manner. She answers questions about the role she would love to play if given another opportunity, about how her husband and her two daughters and in-laws have treated with so much love and respect for her art ...!

Why did you not turn to Hindi cinema and make more money?, Prabha Deoskar asks. Oh no. That was the last thing I would have done. For, having been at the top in Marathi films for so many years, I would never want to stray into Hindi cinema playing side-roles and insignificant characters. I am not made for that kind of a life only for money. And, believe me, I have been extremely satisfied with my earnings -- of money and popular respect and adulation, she says in a firm tone. Of course, the smile on Alka Kubal-Athlyes face never wanes, no matter the tone and tenor of the question posed to her. Flashes of pain of vagaries of life do sweep across her beautiful face, all right, but that is always momentary. She says, she always looks forward to doing something special, something she has not done so far. But nothing will come through compromise with my values, she says. The details of her filmography are well known to people. But what the public interview brings out is the emotional persona of the virtuoso actress. I have won many honours in my life. But the honour you have bestowed upon me has obviously come from simple people without any flashiness. That is what I value the most, Alka Kubal-Athlye says with a disarming smile.
Candidates will have to give info about criminal cases: Rajan





Staff Reporter

Chief Electoral Officer Anupam Rajan held a meeting with representatives of recognised national political parties at Nirvachan Sadan in Bhopal on Thursday. Information was given about the preparations being made for the Madhya Pradesh Assembly Elections 2023 and the nominations received till October 25. Additional Chief Electoral Officer Rajesh Kumar Kaul, Joint Chief Electoral Officer Rakesh Singh, Ruchika Chauhan, Basant Kurre, Manoj Khatri, Deputy Chief Electoral Officer Pramod Shukla, S S Uppal from Bharatiya Janata Party. J P Dhanopia from Indian National Congress, C L Gautam from Bahujan Samaj Party, Sumit Singh Chauhan from Aam Aadmi Party P V Ramachandran from Communist Party of India (Marxist) were present.

Rajan said that seizure action of more than Rs 140 crore has been taken by joint teams in the state. This includes seizure of money, illicit liquor, drugs, precious metals, gold, silver, jewellery and various types of materials. A total of 152 general observers, 35 police observers and 102 expenditure observers have been appointed in the state. Till October 25, 290 candidates have submitted 327 nomination papers. Rajan said that apart from the Voter ID card, voters will be able to vote on the basis of 12 alternative documents recognized by the Election Commission of India. Voter slips and voter guides will be distributed to voters. This time QR code will be used in the voter slip.
DANGEROUS





THE situation in the Middle-East has really, really turned very dangerous. With united Nations Secretary General Mr. Antonio Guterres making a clear, unambiguous statement about justifying the Hamas attack (as a response to the Israeli occupation of Palestine for 56 years), Tel Aviv has unleashed an angry reaction asking the UN chief to quit because he is supporting terrorism. And as their reaction to Israels stance that it is its right to destroy Hamas, Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestine have resolved to halt the treacherous, brutal aggression by Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). All in all, the situation in the Middle-East has gone from bad to worse and still worse in just a matter of one single day. A heaven and an earth will have to move now to calm down the troubled atmosphere -- which would be possible only if all the global forces come together to settle contentious issues by applying every possible lever to corner both, the Arabs supporting Palestine and Hamas and Israel. If this is not done on a very urgent basis, then the world may get pushed into a conflict that possibly cannot be sorted out unless there is an extended and expanded confrontation -- armed and diplomatic -- involving the whole world.

We may still decline to describe that condition as a world war, but we have every reason to suspect that the world may be travelling to that critical point of incalculable complications and consequences. As the conflict is getting dirtier every passing day, the world leaders are seen trying to find out honourable escape routes for themselves to ensure that they do not get termed as villains of the piece. Hence the latest statement by United States President Mr. Joe Biden linking the Indian initiative of the proposed India-Middle East-Europe economic corridor as a possible cause of the issue. This is absolutely juvenile, to say the least, since Mr. Biden was very much present personally when that initiative was first announced during the G-20 leaders summit in New Delhi recently. That time, he had appreciated the initiative for its forward and dynamic vision. And now has come the undiplomatic and poorly-verbalised twist of Mr. Bidens U-turn on the issue. He may be pointing to the reaction of hostile powers to the initiative which they wanted to stall. Such a cheap escapism will never resolve the current conflict. Much to the contrary, it will only worsen the situation still further since both the parties to the conflict are appearing trigger-happy, to say the least.

Of course, calling Israel and Hamas as trigger-happy parties may still be only a superficial way of describing the situation. For, every evidence is available to prove that it was Hamas that launched a totally unprovoked stealth attack on Israel killing countless innocent people, in the process inviting a fierce Israeli response. It is in this context that the statement of UN chief Mr. Antonio Guterres appears totally surprising and one-sided appreciation of the situation based on some cheap political consideration. If the chief of the United Nations indulges in such cheap verbalisation of an uncouth idea, then the world will have no place to turn to in case of intensely hostile situations like the one between Israel and Hamas. Obviously, Mr. Guterres has only added fuel to the already fiercely burning hostile fire. It may be too hasty to ask for his resignation, all right. But it is obvious that he has acted absolutely undiplomatically and unwisely. Mr. Guterres, thus, has only complicated the situation to a terrible low. Its repair will now claim a lot of international capabilities in the days to come.
ED raids premises of Rajasthan Cong President in paper leak matter





JAIPUR,

TURNING the heat on the ruling Congress in poll-bound Rajasthan, the Enforcement Directorate on Thursday raided the premises of State Congress President Govind Singh Dotasra in Jaipur and Sikar as part of a money laundering probe into the alleged exam paper leak case and summoned Chief Minister Ashok Gehlots son in a foreign exchange violation case.

Besides the premises of the 59-year-old Dotasra, a former Minister for school education, the agency is also searching the premises of a party candidate from Mahua seat in Dausa, Omprakash Hudla, and some others, official sources said.

The raids are being undertaken under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). An armed escort of central paramilitary force CRPF accompanied the ED teams.

The Congress slammed the Centre over the EDs action against its leaders in Rajasthan and accused Prime Minister Modi of taking the help of probe agencies in fighting polls, and said people would give the BJP a befitting reply. Chief Minister Gehlot flayed the ED action, saying terror has been unleashed in the country. He alleged the BJP was targeting him through ED raids as they could not topple his Government. Elections for the 200-member Rajasthan Assembly will be held on November 25. The results will be declared on December 3. Dotasra is the party candidate from Lacchmangarh seat of Sikar against BJPs Subhash Maharia. He is also the sitting MLA from this seat while Hudla is an independent MLA and the Congress has fielded him from the Mahua Assembly seat this time.
Death sentence For 8 ex-Indian Navy sailors in Qatar India describes penalty as shocking





NEW DELHI :

EIGHT former Indian Navy personnel were on Thursday handed death penalty in Qatar by a local court, a verdict that India described as deeply shocking. The Indian nationals, all employees of Al Dahra company, were taken into custody in August last year in an alleged case of espionage. The charges against the Indian nationals were not made public by Qatari authorities. In its reaction, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said it is attaching high importance to this case and is exploring all legal options.

We have initial information that the Court of First Instance of Qatar has today passed a judgement in the case involving eight Indian employees of Al Dahra company, it said. We are deeply shocked by the verdict of death penalty and are awaiting the detailed judgement. We are in touch with the family members and the legal team, and we are exploring all legal options, it said. The Ministry of External Affairs said it will continue to extend all consular and legal assistance to the Indians. We attach high importance to this case, and have been following it closely.

We will continue to extend all consular and legal assistance. We will also take up the verdict with Qatari authorities, it said in a statement. Due to the confidential nature of proceedings of this case, it would not be appropriate to make any further comment at this juncture, it added. Indias ambassador to Qatar met the men in prison on October 1 after being granted consular access.
Israel agrees to delay Gaza invasion





JERUSALEM :

ISRAEL has agreed to delay the invasion of Gaza as of now, media reports said. The US military officials are trying to convince Israel against carrying out a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip in response to Hamass October 7 attacks, CNN reported. American officials advised the IDF against a counter-invasion, with the fear it could endanger hostages, civilians, and further inflame tensions in the region, Jerusalem Post reported. Instead, the IDF was urged to deploy a combination of precision airstrikes and targeted special operations raids across the Strip, Jerusalem Post reported. The United States has sent a significant amount of naval power to the Middle East in recent weeks, including two aircraft carriers, their support ships and about 2,000 Marines. Washington is on heightened alert for activity by Iran-backed groups as regional tensions soar during the Israel-Hamas war, Jerusalem Post reported. Israeli tanks raid northern Gaza Strip: Military: ISRAELI tanks and infantry carried out a targeted raid in the northern Gaza Strip in a predawn attack on Thursday before withdrawing from the enclave, the military said in a statement.

In its statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the raid was part of preparations for the next stages of combat, in which the Jewish nation is planning a ground offensive in Gaza, reports Xinhua news agency. During the raid, soldiers located and struck numerous militants, infrastructure and anti-tank missile launch posts and operated to prepare the battlefield, IDF said. According to the statement, the soldiers have since exited the area and returned to Israeli territory. There were no reports of casualties on the Israeli side, and the soldiers exited the area at the end of the incursion. Video published by the IDF showed tanks and armoured vehicles, including a bulldozer, moving on a road near a fence. The tanks fired artillery, and some destruction could be seen nearby, reports CNN. IDF spokesperson Peter Lerner described the raid as large but limited in scope. , saying it was a clear and sweep operation intended to create better terms for ground operations if and when that comes in. We actually engaged the enemy, killing terrorists who were planning to conduct attacks against us with anti-tank guided missiles, he told CNN.

Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, in response to its October 7 deadly terror attacks and kidnap rampage in which 1,400 people, mostly civilians, were killed and more than 200 taken hostage. In a televised address on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that Israeli is preparing for a ground incursion, into Gaza following nearly three weeks of airstrikes on the coastal strip. The Israeli strikes have killed 6,546 people, and injured 17,000 others since the conflict erupted,. Meanwhile, limited skirmishes between Israel and Hamas militants have already taken place on the ground in Gaza, reports CNN. An Israeli soldier killed in a clash with Hamas on Sunday is the first publicly announced Israeli military death inside the enclave since the Hamas attack, according to the IDF.
Kidnapping Case: Cops reach Delhi in search of doctor whose call recording had surfaced in investigation





Staff Reporter

The Crime Branch personnel have reached Delhi to search the associate doctor of accused who were recently arrested for abducting two minor girls during the festival. Police said that there are chances of involvement of this gang in organ trafficking and they are investigating the case from all angles. Police said that the statements of the accused are misleading and there may be some other story in the case. Inspector Ashok Marawi said that they have accessed videos from their phones which suggest they would torture the girls in their captivity. Police had recovered a high-end car, pet animal of expensive breeds, bills of their stay in luxury hotels, and other belongings of the accused.

The cops said that they have found videos from his mobile phone where Suraj is seen assaulting the abducted girl and forcing her reiterate what he was saying. They tried to feed the girl their words so that she would give statements of their choice. Police said that the girl can be seen reiterating the statement that she was being tortured by her parents and Suraj Bhaiya rescued her. The accused, Suraj has revealed about a woman doctor in Delhi on whose insistence he had kidnapped the girls. His statements indicate that the Delhi-based doctor was also involved in organ trade and we are probing the case from all angles, said the inspector.

The accused has only provided us basic details of the doctor who is practising in Delhi and now a team is searching her. Once our team traces the accused doctor in Delhi we will be able to trace the other likely victims and gang members in the case, he added. Notably, the two minor sisters were abducted from near the Curfew Mata temple by the accused who took them on the pretext of Kanya Bhoj. The children as well as two others were rescued by the Crime Branch on Monday. The cops also found that the accused were involved in human trafficking as suggested.
Kirtankar Baba Maharaj Satarkar no more







THANE,

NOTED kirtankar Baba Maharaj Satarkar died at Nerul in Navi Mumbai township of Maharashtra on Thursday after a prolonged illness, family sources said. He was 89. Satarkar used to give religious discourses across Maharashtra and foreign countries. Political leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, paid tributes to Satarkar. Prime Minister Modi said Satarkars work of raising social awareness through kirtan and pravachan will keep inspiring generations to come.

Chief Minister Shinde said Satarkars death was a great loss to the State. He was like a guiding light in his field. Baba Maharajs mellifluous voice and his style of presentation were melodious. The contribution of Baba Maharaj will always be remembered.
Nangia Cars delivers 51 MG cars on Dussehra





Business Reporter

Nangia Cars, one of the leading dealers of MG Motors, delivered 51 cars on the day of Dussehra. Dussehra is an auspicious day for buying new vehicles and to celebrate this day the customers came with their families to the showroom to take home their favorite MG cars. To add to the seasons festivities, MG Motor India is also celebrating 100 years of rich history (that stands as a testament to its resilience, innovation, and customer  centricity) by rolling out a 100-day customer campaign with offers including special pricing, exchange benefits, loyalty schemes, extended warranty and service offer for new customers. Driven by technology and smiles, the brand takes pride in its India growth story, fostering communities, promoting diversity, and bolstering the electric vehicle (EV) ecosystem.

Since commencing its India journey in 2019, MG Motor India has been at the forefront of CASE mobility (Connected, Autonomous, Shared, and Electric), starting with MG Hector, Indias first Internet SUV followed by MG ZS EV  the first fully-electric Internet SUV. The brand also introduced cutting-edge innovations  all MG cars have connected technology* and are up to Autonomous level 2**. The manufacturer also offers an industry-first personal AI assistant and the first-in-segment Autonomous Level 2 technology, both featured in the mid-size SUV - Astor. This year, the company also launched a futuristic and practical urban commuter, MG Comet - The Smart EV. Nangia Cars has full range of MG Cars at their showrooms in Nagpur, Amravati and Chandrapur. For details contact MG NAGPUR (Nangia Cars), Opp Nangia Specialty Hospital, MIDC Hingna, Nagpur (7775022000).
Rules For Cyber Warfare





By Johanna Weaver

THERE are rules in war. International humanitarian law regulates what combatants can and cant do, with the goal of protecting civilians and limiting suffering. Most of these laws were developed during the 19th and 20th centuries. But in our own century, a new kind of battlefield has emerged: the domain of cyber attacks, digital campaigns and online information operations. All these have played a heightened role in Russias war in Ukraine and, increasingly, in the current IsraelHamas conflict. There is a persistent myth that cyberspace is a lawless wild west. This could not be further from the truth. There is a clear international consensus that existing laws of war apply online. In the past month, we have seen three significant developments in this area. Rules for civilian hackers have begun to gain traction. A new international humanitarian report has recommended ways forward for governments, tech companies and others. And the International Criminal Court has for the first time signalled that it considers cyber warfare to fall within its jurisdiction. Rules for hacktivists: On October 4 2023, two advisers to the International Committee of the Red Cross proposed a set of rules for civilian hackers during war. The proposals include things like do not conduct any cyber operation against medical and humanitarian facilities and when planning a cyber attack against a military objective, do everything feasible to avoid or minimise the effects your operation may have on civilians.

The authors were motivated by evidence of online attacks disrupting banks, companies, pharmacies, hospitals, railway networks and civilian government services. Cyber, digital and information operations  used alongside real-world military operations  have risen into the mainstream during Russias war in Ukraine. Many operations are carried out by civilian groups not formally connected to the military. These manoeuvres are not spectacular. However, as Jeremy Fleming (former head of GCHQ, United Kingdoms electronic spy agency) put it: It was never our understanding that a catastrophic cyber attack was central to Russias use of offensive cyber in their military doctrine. To think otherwise, misjudges how cyber has an effect in military campaigns. Thats not to say that we havent seen cyber in this conflict. We have  and lots of it. After the proposed rules for civilian hackers were published, something extraordinary happened. Two of the largest hacktivist groups actively engaged on opposite sides of the war in Ukraine are the Russian-affiliated Killnet and the Ukrainian IT Army. Spokespeople for both groups vowed to the BBC they would uphold the rules. Digital threats during armed conflict: It is not just actors in Ukraine, and not just hacktivist groups, who must comply with the laws of war in cyberspace.

On October 18, the International Committee of the Red Cross published the final report of its global advisory board on digital threats during armed conflicts. The report is the culmination of two years of work. The board comprises a diverse group of experts spanning the geopolitical spectrum, including the United States, Russia, China, South Africa, Mexico, India and Australia (including me). We worked on the international consensus that the established principles and rules of [international humanitarian law] apply to all forms of warfare and to all kinds of weapons, be they new or old, digital or physical. To safeguard civilians against digital threats, the report includes 25 action-oriented recommendations for belligerents, states, tech companies and humanitarian organisations. Since 2013, negotiated agreements at the United Nations have recognised that existing international law applies to what states do in cyberspace. In 2021, Russia, China, the US, Australia and every country in the United Nations went one step further, explicitly recognising the application of the laws of war to cyber operations. The International Committee of the Red Cross  its mission being to prevent suffering by promoting and strengthening humanitarian law and universal humanitarian principles  has also affirmed this many times, including via the reports above. The International Criminal Court weighs in: Of course, agreeing to the rules doesnt prevent irresponsible actors from breaking them. And this is where the third significant development comes in.

In September 2023, Karim A.A. Khan, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, signalled the court would begin collecting and reviewing evidence of cyber warfare. It will also examine misuse of the Internet to amplify hate speech and disinformation, which may facilitate or even directly lead to the occurrence of atrocities. This is the first time the International Criminal Court has expressly indicated cyber warfare and misuse of the Internet fall within its jurisdiction. This puts governments, militaries, tech companies and hacktivists on notice that they do not act with impunity in cyberspace. As the war drags on in Ukraine and conflict escalates between Israel and Hamas (including increasing reports of hacktivism), all parties would do well to reflect that the rules of cyber warfare are clear. Bombs or bytes, missiles or malware, international humanitarian law applies.
Strict regulations on firecrackers





Our Correspondent

BILASPUR,

IN a bid to curb air pollution and promote a greener, quieter festive season, Chhattisgarh State has introduced strict regulations on the sale and use of firecrackers. These measures, guided by directives from the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal, are set to come into effect during the upcoming Diwali, Chhath Puja, Guru Parab, New Year, and Christmas celebrations. As per official sources, the State Administration has taken a significant step towards environmental responsibility by allowing only green firecrackers to be sold and used. These eco-friendly firecrackers are known for emitting reduced levels of pollutants, ensuring a cleaner environment. For revelers looking forward to lighting up the sky with fireworks, there is a time constraint in place. As per the guidelines, firecrackers can be ignited for a duration of two hours during the designated festive occasions. These time slots have been carefully chosen to minimize noise pollution and discomfort to the public. The permitted time for fireworks on Diwali is from 8 pm 10 pm.

During Chhath Puja, the window for fireworks is from 6 am to 8 am. On Guru Parab, the firecrackers will be allow to be burn from 8 pm to 10 pm. On New Year's Eve and Christmas, the specified time for firecrackers is from 11:55 pm to 12:30 am. In urban areas including Raipur, Bilaspur, Bhilai-Durg, Raigarh and Korba, residents and businesses are required to adhere to these regulations. Notably, the use of firecrackers is entirely banned in these regions from December 1 to January 31, aligning with the winter season when pollution levels tend to spike. These rules align with the provisions subsection-5, Section 19 of the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981, and reflect the state government's commitment to environmental protection and public health. The Supreme Court's orders issued on November 23, 2018, have provided additional guidelines.

These emphasize sale of improved and green firecrackers solely by licensed traders, ensuring that only firecrackers meeting prescribed noise level standards are available in market. String firecrackers and those with potential environmental hazards, such as lithium, arsenic, antimony, lead, and mercury, are prohibited. Manufacturers who fail to comply with these requirements risk having their licenses revoked. Furthermore, the sale of firecrackers through online commercial platforms, such as Flipkart and Amazon, has been prohibited. District administrations have been entrusted with the task of rigorous enforcement to ensure strict compliance with these guidelines, underscoring the states commitment to safeguarding the environment and public well-being.
US President Joe Biden sent a message to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warning against strikes on US troops amid the Israeli war on Gaza, the White House said on Thursday.

"There was a direct message relayed. That's as far as I'm going to go," US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters, declining to say how it was delivered.

The Pentagon says US and allied forces in Iraq and Syria have been attacked at least 16 times this month as tensions rise in the Middle East. It blamed "Iranian-backed militia groups."

Biden told a press conference on Wednesday that he had warned Khamenei of a response if the attacks continue.

"My warning to the Ayatollah was that if they continue to move against those troops, we will respond, and he should be prepared. It has nothing to do with Israel," he said.

Iran meanwhile warned Washington at the UN General Assembly over Israel's campaign of air strikes and artillery against Gaza.

"I say frankly to the American statesmen and military forces who are now managing the genocide in Palestine, that we do not welcome the expansion and scope of the war in the region," Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said.

"But I warn if the genocide in Gaza continues, they will not be spared from this fire."

Later Thursday, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said US forces conducted precision strikes on two facilities in eastern Syria used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Austin also ordered Sunday the activation of air defense systems in the region and notified additional forces that they may be deployed soon.

The US has moved two aircraft carrier groups near Israel since the start of the conflict, in what it says is "a bid to deter Iran and its allies from broadening the conflict."

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Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO  Get Free Report)s stock price gapped down before the market opened on Wednesday after Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on the stock from $660.00 to $530.00. The stock had previously closed at $458.26, but opened at $423.00. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a buy rating on the stock. Thermo Fisher Scientific shares last traded at $416.96, with a volume of 1,733,864 shares.

Several other brokerages have also recently commented on TMO. KeyCorp cut Thermo Fisher Scientific from an overweight rating to a sector weight rating in a report on Thursday. Citigroup dropped their target price on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $625.00 to $530.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $640.00 to $600.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Barclays dropped their target price on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $625.00 to $585.00 in a report on Friday, September 29th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from an underweight rating to an equal weight rating and set a $475.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Thermo Fisher Scientific currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $593.94.

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In other Thermo Fisher Scientific news, EVP Gianluca Pettiti sold 3,000 shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 30th. The shares were 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 filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website . In other Thermo Fisher Scientific news, EVP Gianluca Pettiti sold 3,000 shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 30th. The shares were 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 filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website . Also, CEO Marc N. Casper sold 10,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $549.00, for a total transaction of $5,490,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 141,330 shares in the company, valued at $77,590,170. 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.

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich grew its holdings in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 100,798.8% during the 2nd quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 406,539,228 shares of the medical research companys stock valued at $212,111,842,000 after acquiring an additional 406,136,310 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 31,423,285 shares of the medical research companys stock valued at $18,111,439,000 after purchasing an additional 633,163 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,116,956 shares of the medical research companys stock valued at $8,414,693,000 after purchasing an additional 55,458 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 17.7% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 11,730,063 shares of the medical research companys stock valued at $6,459,629,000 after purchasing an additional 1,764,312 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 1.7% in the 1st quarter. FMR LLC now owns 11,354,044 shares of the medical research companys stock valued at $6,544,130,000 after purchasing an additional 194,602 shares during the last quarter. 87.06% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.42. The firms 50 day moving average is $507.96 and its 200-day moving average is $527.61. The firm has a market cap of $169.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.79.

Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE:TMO  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 25th. The medical research company reported $5.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.61 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $10.57 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.60 billion. Thermo Fisher Scientific had a net margin of 13.14% and a return on equity of 18.59%. Thermo Fisher Scientifics quarterly revenue was down 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $5.08 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. will post 22.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Company Profile

(Get 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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Above, the old Scotiabank location on Paradise Island. Below is an artists impression of Psomi Holdings Limiteds Wendys and Marcos Pizza location at the site.
The Defence Headquarters has said the Nigerian troops have eliminated more than 100 terrorists in airstrikes carried out on the border between Niger and Zamfara states.

Maj.-Gen. Edward Buba, Director, Defence Media Operations, stated this on Thursday in Abuja while giving an update on military operations across the country in the last one week.

Showing the battle damage assessment pictures of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) air interdictions, he said the operations also decimated many insurgents in other parts of the country.

Buba said the military in a surgical operation targeted at the residence of an ISWAP terrorist commander in Niger, made several arrests and discoveries.

He said that other operations conducted in the last week by troops in various theatres neutralised 73 terrorists and led to the arrest of 182 others.

According to him, the troops also arrested 14 suspected oil thieves and rescued 68 hostages in the South-South, as well as denied oil thieves an estimated N1.212 billion from the illicit business.

Furthermore, troops recovered 119 assorted weapons and 1,537 assorted ammunition.

The breakdown is as follows: one GPMG, three PKT guns, 39 AK47 rifles, five locally fabricated rifles, one locally made double barrel gun, one Barretta pistol, four locally made pistols, five RPG bombs and five pump action guns.

Also recovered were one short gun, one hand grenade, two dane guns, one AK47 rifle loaded with 14 rounds of 7.62mm special, and one locally made pistol loaded with live cartridges.

Others are 586 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, a bag containing 287 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 389 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, 141 rounds of 7.62mm special (belted) ammo, 12 rounds of 9mm ammo.

Also, 113 rounds of live cartridges, 25 empty magazines, 13 vehicles, 3 motorcycles, 10 mobile phones, 2 HH radio, one boafeng radio and the sum of N3.3 million amongst other items, he said.

In the North East, Buba said the troops of Operation HADIN KAI neutralised 39 Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorists, arrested 22, rescued 18 hostages and recovered large cache of arms.

In the North Central, the troops of Operations Safe Haven and Whirl Stroke neutralised 12 terrorists, arrested 109, rescued 22 kidnapped hostages and recovered several arms and ammunition, he added.

In North West, Buba said the troops of Operation Hadarin Daji neutralised 10 terrorists, arrested 11, and rescued 11 hostages, while the troops of Operation Whirl Punch neutralised three terrorists, arrested 38, and rescued 12 hostages.

He also gave an update on the operation in the Niger Delta where troops of Operation Delta Safe, destroyed 63 illegal refining sites and recovered stolen products.

Troops discovered and destroyed 15 dugout pits, 45 boats, 87 storage tanks, 13 vehicles, 127 cooking ovens, one pumping machine, four outboard engines and 63 illegal refining sites.

Troops recovered 962,500 litres of stolen crude oil; 35,420 litres of illegally refined AGO and 38,450 litres of DPK.

Troops also neutralised one criminal, apprehended 14 suspected oil thieves and recovered one locally made double barrel, one Barretta pistol loaded with cartridges, one locally made pistol, five rounds of 9mm ammo, three live cartridges and two mobile amongst others, he said.

In the South East, Buba said the troops of Operation UDO KA neutralised three terrorists, arrested nine suspected criminals and rescued three hostages.

Troops recovered four locally made pistols, 48 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, six rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, one motorcycle, one HH radio and the sum of N22,100 among others.

All recovered items, arrested suspects and rescued hostages were handed over to the relevant authority for further action, the defence spokesman said.
Five United Nations (UN) Special Procedure mandate holders have released a Letter of Allegation that was sent to the Government of Nigeria regarding the public lynching of Christian student Deborah Emmanuel on 12 May 2022, and the subsequent detention of Rhoda Jatau in Bauchi State on 20 May 2022, after she reportedly shared a video on WhatsApp condemning Ms Emmanuels murder.

Ms Emmanuel was killed by a mob at her school in Sokoto State, following an unsubstantiated blasphemy allegation.

The Letter of Allegation, also known as a communication, was sent to the Nigerian authorities in August, but was published on 26 October, after the government failed to respond within the required 60-day deadline.

The signatories to the letter are Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Nazila Ghanea; Vice-Chair on communications of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Matthew Gillett; Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Morris Tidball-Binz; Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Irene Khan, and Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Fernand de Varennes.

In the communication the Special Procedures express utter concern at the lynching and burning alive of Ms. Emmanuel; the apparent negligence of the police prosecution and the lack of accountability for the perpetrators of her murder. They also express concern at the arrest and detention of Ms. Jatau, accused of blasphemy, who has been imprisoned for over a year for what appears to be her mere peaceful exercise of her right to freedom of expression and freedom of religion or belief.

The letter continues: More broadly, we express concern over the criminalization of blasphemy in Nigeria contrary to international human rights law and standards and the rising episodes of violence relating to accusations of blasphemy targeting religious minorities in Nigeria by mob attacks and killings.

Nigeria acceded to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in July 1993. However, should they be confirmed, these allegations would contravene articles 3 (non-discrimination), 6 (right to life), 7 (prohibition of torture and ill-treatment), 9 (liberty and security of person), 14 (right to a fair trial), 19 (right to freedom of opinion and expression), 26 (equality before the law) and 27 (rights of minorities) of the ICCPR.

The Special Procedures also stressed that blasphemy laws have repeatedly shown to violate freedom of religion and belief as well as have a stifling effect on open dialogue and public discourse. Furthermore, they reminded the Nigerian authorities that the repeal of such laws has been continuously called for by the Special Rapporteurs on freedom of religion or belief and freedom of opinion and expression and is a recommendation of the Rabat Plan of Action  and Human Rights Committee General Comment No. 34.

The letter concludes with seven requests for clarifications, including about the status of the investigations and trial in the case of the killing of Ms. Deborah Emmanuel  [and] the factual grounds which led to this public lynching. The Special Procedures also request information on the factual and legal grounds for the arrest and detention of Mrs Jatau, how it is compatible with Nigerias international human rights obligations, and information on the compliance of Ms. Jataus arrest with guarantees of due process and relevant international human rights standards.

The publication of the Letter of Allegation coincided with a controversial ruling by the Supreme Court of Nigeria on 26 October, which affirmed the victory of Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the flawed 2023 Presidential Election. The Supreme Court judges had rejected sworn testimony from a court in the United States (US) in which the Registrar of Chicago State University (CSU) stated that the educational certificate submitted by Mr Tinubu to Nigerias electoral commission purporting to be from CSU was not from that establishment.

CSWs UN Officer Claire Denman said: CSW welcomes the Letter of Allegation from the five Special Procedures, including their findings of police negligence and lack of accountability, among other violations and abuses. We commend their robust questioning of the government of Nigeria on the circumstances surrounding Deborah Emmanuels brutal death and the unjust detention of Mrs Jatau for peacefully exercising her fundamental rights. We continue to extend our deepest condolences to Ms Emmanuels family, and to urge both state and federal authorities to prioritise the arrest and prosecution of Ms Emmanuels murderers, to release Mrs Jatau unconditionally, and to end the impunity currently enjoyed by those who weaponise religion to justify the taking of innocent lives. The repeal of the blasphemy provision also remains essential. It is incompatible with the countrys constitutional and international obligations, and is a driver of religious extremism and violence, which in turn critically undermines social cohesion.
Youths are facing both unemployment and underemployment, and experts are stressing the need for immediate interventions to address the growing issue of youth unemployment. They warn that young individuals who solely depend on traditional schools for their livelihoods are likely to suffer, but should instead embrace the acquisition of competitive skills. ODIMEGWU ONWUMERE reports that Nestle can provide such opportunities

Yusuf A., a member of the Department of Business Administration at a polytechnic, states that the main goal for all graduates is to obtain a well-paying job upon completing their studies. However, this hope is shattered even after fulfilling the obligatory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).

He said, "In the Nigerian labor sector, the reality has shown the opposite, as there are no significant job opportunities available after graduates complete the mandatory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) program.

He highlights the important role that young people have in the progress of a country, especially in developing nations such as Nigeria. He expresses worry about the limited job opportunities for Nigerian youths, even after they have completed their university education.

Furthermore, individuals who were unable to pursue higher education are also facing difficulties, he says.

He mentions that if young people do not actively participate, it can have negative effects on the nation's security, economy, and politics, as can currently be seen in Nigeria with issues like kidnapping, banditry, political unrest, separatist movements, and other unfavorable incidents.

However, experts say that this does not represent the perspective on young people not being gainfully employed in present-day Nigeria.

Factors contributing to youth unemployment

According to experts, it is important for individuals like Yusuf to acknowledge that there are multiple factors, especially in Nigeria, that play a role in this problem. Yusuf agrees with this perspective and highlights the current situation by stating that those who finished their education fifty years ago had a wide range of job opportunities that matched their skills.

Research suggests that the problem arises from factors such as rapid population growth, urbanization caused by migration to rural areas, and a lack of skills and work experience among young people.

Regrettably, Jobbermann Nigeria recently disclosed that over 50% of Nigerian youths are currently grappling with both unemployment and underemployment, underscoring the urgent need for immediate interventions to tackle the escalating problem of youth unemployment.

Developing along significant changes

Oluwakemi Ann-Melody Areola, who previously served as the Special Assistant to the Minister of Communications and later as the Special Assistant on Youth, ICT, and Business Relations to the Minister of Youth and Sports, aims to help individuals like Yusuf comprehend the substantial transformations occurring in the Nigerian labor market.

Areola states that around 30 million jobs will become obsolete by 2030.

However, "this does not mean that these positions will go unfilled. Instead, there will be new opportunities and work will continue.

According to Areola, it is crucial for people, especially the youth, to adapt their skills and education accordingly as relying solely on traditional educational institutions and acquiring a university or college degree is no longer sufficient.

Oluwakemi Ann-Melody Areola adds that young individuals should consider exploring alternative methods, such as taking short courses, and giving priority to digital literacy.

Identifying the skills needed for the future and making efforts to acquire them is extremely important, she says.

Areola concludes that instead of learning subjects that are no longer in demand or will be phased out, young people need to realize the benefits of having competitive skills.

"Being skilled in information and communication technology (ICT) or having relevant work experience often distinguishes candidates when competing for job opportunities," she advices.

According to her, it is crucial for young individuals to comprehend the significance of having multiple sources of income.

They ought to contemplate initiating their own ventures, while it is the government's duty to aid the expansion of small businesses and facilitate their progression into small and medium enterprises.

This growth will contribute to job creation, as any business has the potential to hire more individuals, thereby reducing unemployment and underemployment in the country," she says.

Technical training program

During the launch of the third technical training facility at the Nestle Technical Training Center in Sagamu, Ogun State on February 10, 2023, Wassim Elhusseini, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Nestle Nigeria, states to people like Yusuf that the technical training program is a part of the Nestle Needs Youth initiative, which is a global flagship program.

This program aims to address the technical needs of the industry and provide young Nigerians with economic opportunities, he says.

With thousands of young people benefiting from the program since its inception, Nestle believes that young people are at the heart of innovation and are the future.

They are the entrepreneurs and innovators of tomorrow, and the next generation who will buy into our growing population. They help their communities thrive and their innovative ideas, diversity and energy benefit Nestle, says the source.

Elhusseini emphasizes how crucial it is for young individuals to play a role in shaping the envisioned future. Furthermore, he underlines Nestle's dedication to addressing the issue of youth unemployment by equipping them with the necessary skills and capabilities to actively contribute to the expansion of our economy.

Elhusseini asserts that by providing them with skills, knowledge, and opportunities, we can enhance their individual economic circumstances as well as contribute to the social progress of their nation.
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Area Controller of Oyo/Osun Area Command, Dr Ben Oramalugo, during the week, embarked on a familiarization visit to outstations in Border towns/areas of Oyo and Osun States.

The visit which was done on the 24th and 25th of October, was a bid to further strengthen the ties between Nigeria Customs Service of the Oyo/Osun Area Command and its host communities.

Photos from the Ataoja of Osogbo Palace

According to a statement made available to The Nigerian Voice on Friday by SC. Kayode Wey, Command Public Relations Officer, the Area Controller paid homage to the Soun of Ogbomoso land, the Okere of Saki land both in Oyo State; the Ataoja of Osogbo land, the Ogunsua of Modakeke land and the Ooni of Ife land all in Osun State.

During the visit, Controller Oramalugo stated that the initiative was directed by the Comptroller General Of Customs Bashiru Adewale Adeniyi who aims to foster stronger relationships between the Oyo/Osun Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service and the host Communities, promote mutual understanding and cooperation and mitigate conflict between members of the respective communities and Officers of the Command.

Photos from the Okere of Saki Palace

The Customs Area Controller, along with a delegation of high ranking Customs Officials, also engaged in discussions with the respective esteemed Traditional Rules in the region.

Their discussions focused on various matters of interest, including trade facilitation, revenue generation, community development, and suppression of smuggling and the promotion of lawful trade practices.

The Customs Area Controller expressed his gratitude for the warm reception received and emphasized the importance of collaboration between the Nigeria Customs Service and Traditional Rulers for the effective implementation of Federal Government policies and regulations which are to be enforced by the Oyo/Osun Command, the statement read.

Recognizing the vital role of traditional rulers as custodians of culture and leaders of their respective community Dr. Ben Oramalugo FCIA FNIM, stated that the visit is also aimed at increasing the understanding and raising awareness about Customs operations, regulations and the importance of compliance amongst the respective host communities. He added the engagement, endeavors to promote a harmonious relationship between the Nigeria Customs Service and the Citizens it serves.

Dr. Ben Oramalugo FCIA FNIM underscores the commitment of Nigeria Customs Service to promote trade facilitation, combat smuggling of contraband items, arms and ammunitions and hard drugs and enhance revenue generation through the enforcement of laws and regulations. He reiterated the importance of publics support in achieving his objectives and expressed optimism for future collaboration and partnership with the respective Traditional Rulers in Oyo and Osun states.

Photos from the Ooni of Ife Palace

The event served as a platform for dialogue, enabling the respective Traditional Rulers to share their invaluable insights and experiences regarding Custom related issues affecting their respective communities.

The respective Traditional Rulers expressed their appreciation for the visit and the opportunity to engage directly with the Customs Controller Area and his management team. They acknowledged the significance of Customs operations in maintaining National security, Economic Stability and the overall wellbeing of their communities, as they all called on the Federal Government to better equip the Nigeria Customs Service and its Commands for better service delivery. The respective Traditional Rulers assured the Customs Area Controller Dr. Ben Oramalugo FCIA FNIM, of their support and commitment to work hand in hand with the Oyo/Osun Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service to promote legal trade activities and combat illicit trade practices within their respective domains.

Photos from the Ogunsua of Modakeke Palace

The Customs Area Controller Oyo/Osun Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service; Dr. Ben Oramalugo FCIA FNIM, assured the respective Traditional Rulers that the Command remains dedicated to building strong relationship with the host communities including traditional rulers as part of its ongoing efforts to promote transparency, efficiency and accountability in Customs operations within Oyo and Osun States. He added that by fostering collaboration and understanding, the Oyo/Osun Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service aims to create an enabling environment for legitimate trade activities, economic growth and community development, it added.
The U.N. General Assembly approved a nonbinding resolution Friday calling for a humanitarian truce in Gaza leading to a cessation of the Israeli aggression on the strip.

It was the first U.N. response since the outbreak of the war on 7 October.

The 193-member world body adopted the resolution by a vote of 120-14 with 45 abstentions after rejecting a Canadian amendment backed by the United States to unequivocally condemn the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas and demand the immediate release of captives taken by Hamas.

The votes came part way through a list of 113 speakers at an emergency special session on Israeli actions in occupied Palestinian territories. Jordans U.N. Ambassador Mahmoud Hmoud, speaking on behalf of the U.N.s 22-nation Arab group, had called for action on the resolution because of the urgency of the escalating situation on the ground.

The Arab group went to the General Assembly after the more powerful 15-member Security Council failed to agree on a resolution after four attempts over the past two weeks. While council resolutions are legally binding, assembly resolutions are not, but they do serve as a barometer of world opinion.

The vote on the Canadian amendment was 88-55 with 23 abstentions, but it failed to get a two-thirds majority of all those voting.

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Immigration chief orders charges, lifetime ban after Phuket villa siege

PHUKET: Pol Lt Gen Itthiphon Itthisanronnachai, the new Commander-in-Chief of the Immigration Bureau, has ordered that the foreigner at the centre of the luxury villa siege in Cherng Talay yesterday (Oct 26) be charged for causing fear or fright in others by threatening and banned from re-entering Thailand for life.

immigrationtourismcrimepoliceviolence

By The Phuket News

Friday 27 October 2023 05:00 PM

Pol Lt Gen Itthiphon Itthisanronnachai, the new Commander-in-Chief of the Immigration Bureau in Phuket today (Oct 27). Photo: PR Phuket)

Pol Lt Gen Itthiphon Itthisanronnachai, the new Commander-in-Chief of the Immigration Bureau in Phuket today (Oct 27). Photo: PR Phuket)

Pol Lt Gen Itthiphon Itthisanronnachai, the new Commander-in-Chief of the Immigration Bureau in Phuket today (Oct 27). Photo: PR Phuket)

Pol Lt Gen Itthiphon Itthisanronnachai, the new Commander-in-Chief of the Immigration Bureau in Phuket today (Oct 27). Photo: PR Phuket)

Pol Lt Gen Itthiphon Itthisanronnachai, the new Commander-in-Chief of the Immigration Bureau in Phuket today (Oct 27). Photo: PR Phuket)

UPDATE: The Phuket office of the Public Relations Department later confirmed that Pol Gen Itthiphol was in Phuket in person this afternoon (Oct 27) to deliver his orders.

Phuket Immigration publicly posted Pol Gen Itthiphols instructions to press charges and invoke the lifetime ban through a notice clearly branded Good guys in, Bad guys OUT on their official Facebook page earlier today.

The notice identified the foreign man an ethnic Indian from Vanuatu Nikhil Arora, who was staying in Thailand under a Thailand Privilege Visa.

Pol Lt Gen Ittiphon is concerned about the injured police officers under his command. Therefore, he ordered Pol Col Thanet Sukchai, Phuket Provincial Immigration Superintendent, to proceed as follows, the notice read.

The notice continued:

Proceed with foreigners who commit crimes and revoke their stay in the Kingdom along with being added to the list of prohibited persons (ban from entering the country for life) to make Phuket a safe and sustainable tourist city according to the Prime Ministers tourism promotion policy Take care of the welfare of the police officers who were injured while performing their duties in order to boost morale in accordance with the policy of Royal Thai Police Commander Pol Gen Torsak Sukwimon.

Phuket Immigration was instructed to arrest Mr Nikhil under the arrest warrant issued by Phuket Provincial Court for causing fear or fright in others by threatening

Phuket Immigration was also instructed to press charges against all the private security detail who fought to obstruct six officials who were carrying out their duties by using violent force (including Mr Nikhil).

The three persons already charged with overstaying in the country were to face prosecution, and the owner of the luxury villa is to be investigated for not complying with Section 38 of the Immigration Act, B.E. 2522, which requires land owners and property managers to report to Immigration all foreigners staying at their properties.

In total, three Phuket Immigration officers were injured in the incident, which resulted in a four-hour standoff by police that was finally ended by a Special Operations and Tactics unit (SWAT) entering the luxury villa property at Laem Singh and securing the grounds.

The incident began when two Phuket Immigration officers arrived at the villa to present to an Indian national notice of overstaying by two days. (See full story here.)
New Zealand fugitive with history of arrests nabbed upon landing in Phuket

PHUKET: A New Zealand man, who was apprehended by Immigration Police at Phuket International Airport earlier this week, was found to have a prior history of arrests in Kenya, Cambodia, and Malaysia, along with an outstanding warrant in Thailand. This warrant was the reason for his immediate arrest upon arrival on the island.

crimedrugstourism

By The Phuket News

Friday 27 October 2023 02:44 PM

A screenshot of Jan 2017 report by The Standard about Selby Dean Freeman. Image: The Standard

A screenshot of Aug 25, 2017, report by The Cambodia Daily about Selby Dean Freeman. Image: Matichon

Selby Dean Freeman after his most recent arrest in Phuket on Oct 24. Photo: Phuket Immigration Checkpoint

Immigration Police officers stationed at Phuket International Airport reported the arrest of a man on an outstanding warrant this Tuesday (Oct 24). The suspect, who was apprehended around 11.30am, was not identified in the report, and no additional information was provided except that he would be transferred to Pattaya Court for further legal action.

The mans identity was disclosed by the Matichon website on Thursday (Oct 26). The well-known Thai news outlet posted the same photo as Phuket Immigration and identified the man as Selby Dean Freeman, a 40-year-old New Zealand national. Phuket Immigration then shared Matichons report on its Facebook page.

According to Matichon, Mr Freeman arrived in Phuket from Singapore and was apprehended on warrant No. 838/2009 issued in Pattaya on Aug 25, 2009.

In January that year, the New Zealand man was charged with Category 1 drug possession but fled after having been released on bail, Matichon explained.

The Aug 25 warrant thus included charges of both illegal drug possession and fleeing prosecution.

It was not explained why Mr Freeman decided to visit Thailand again 14 years later. Yet all the information about him and biometric data were in the database, leading to his arrest.

Mr Freemans arrest in Phuket was not his first since fleeing Thailand to evade prosecution in 2009. Several other cases have been reported by foreign media since then.

In August 2017, The Cambodia Daily reported that Selby Dean Freeman (34 years old at that time) was arrested in Cambodia when he applied to renew his visa.

Having checked the mans identity, officials discovered that he had been wanted by Malaysian authorities since 2012 for illegal drugs.

According to Cambodian officials, Mr Freeman had been charged in Malaysia but somehow managed to flee to Cambodia. The Cambodia Daily said that the New Zealand man, who also possessed a British passport, would be "deported".

"Cambodian police are currently filing paperwork for his deportation and have alerted Malaysian authorities of his impending return," the newspaper said, citing a local official.

Nothing was reported about Mr Freemans transfer to Malaysian authorities, but some three years later, the man emerged in Kenya.

In early 2020, The Standard reported that Selby Dean Freeman was arrested in Mombasa for drug possession. The report identified the suspect as a British national who also held a Swiss passport and was "wanted by Seychelles and Malaysian police."

According to The Standard, Mr Freeman was arrested on Jan 11, 2023, after being found in possession of 11.9 grams of cocaine and 355.3 grams of cannabis.

Mr Freeman was "denied bond by a Mombasa court after he was charged with trafficking narcotics," The Standard said. Nothing was reported about the development of the case.

The next known appearance of Mr Freeman in criminal news was in the Matichons publication about his arrest in Phuket on Oct 26, 2023.
Two more Thais confirmed dead in Israel

BANGKOK: Two more Thai workers were confirmed killed in Israel on Wednesday (Oct 25), bringing the total number of Thais who have lost their lives in the conflict, which began on Oct 7, to 33, Foreign Affairs Minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara said.

deathSafetymilitary

By Bangkok Post

Friday 27 October 2023 10:30 AM

Another group of Thai workers arrived from Israel at the air forces airport in Don Muang district yesterday (Oct 26). Photo: Royal Thai Air Force via Bangkok Post

He said that 18 Thai workers had been injured as of yesterday, while 18 others had been taken as hostages by the fighters from the militant group Hamas - not 19, as previously reported.

That said, an update released by the Israeli government on Wednesday and cited by Reuters showed out of the 220 people taken hostage by Hamas, 54 were Thais.

Citing information released by Israeli authorities, Mr Parnpree said the identities of 24 out of the 33 Thais killed in the conflict have been confirmed, reports the Bangkok Post.

The government will strive to repatriate Thai workers who have registered to come back, the minister said, adding a team of negotiators has been dispatched to help secure the release of the hostages.

According to the ministrys data, a total of 547 Thais arrived back in Thailand from Israel yesterday.

It said 268 arrived on El Al flight LY085 and landed at Suvarnabhumi airport at 10:20am yesterday; 145 on a Royal Thai Air Force aircraft landed at Don Mueang airport at 11:50am; and 134 on Thai Lion Air flight SL7005, landed at Don Mueang airport at 2:50pm.

Meanwhile, the bodies of seven Thai workers killed in the conflict also arrived on El Al flight LY083, which landed at Suvarnabhumi airport at 10:35am yesterday.

Pairoj Chotikasathien, the Labour Ministrys permanent secretary, said so far 4,531 Thais have been repatriated from Israel on 27 flights.

Addressing the House of Representatives yesterday, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin responded to inquiries about the governments plan to help Thais stuck in Israel.

He said that out of about 8,000 Thais who have registered for repatriation, more than half have been brought home.

Mr Srettha acknowledged the challenges faced by evacuation teams over the past four to five days, as many Israeli employers have begun to offer higher salaries as an incentive for Thai workers to remain in the country.

The prime minister urged the workers not to worry about their wages, as the government will find ways to help clear their debts.
Hostilities in the Middle East are reverberating in the U.S., where homeland security and law enforcement officials are tracking a steady increase in threats to Jewish, Arab and Muslim communities.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the FBI issued an updated advisory late Wednesday, warning "the volume and frequency of threats have increased" in just the past week.

"These threats have included hoax bomb threats targeting houses of worship and violent rhetoric online encouraging attacks against the Jewish, Arab American, and Muslim communities," the advisory said. It also pointed to the Oct. 14 stabbing attack in Illinois that killed a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy and severely wounded his mother.

Law enforcement agencies across the country, including in New York, Los Angeles and Washington, increased police patrols and other security measures in the days following the Oct. 7 terrorist attack by the Hamas militant group that killed more than 1,400 Israelis.

Additional measures were put in place ahead of calls by a former Hamas official for a day of rage in response to Israel's air campaign against Hamas, which according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry has killed more than 6,500 people.
Man remanded for assaulting daughter

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IMPHAL, Oct 27: The Court of Special Judge, POCSO Imphal West today remanded a 33-year old man from Noney district to judicial custody for committing sexual assault and torturing his own daughter during in June this year.

The accused (biological father of the minor victim) was on the run and hiding somewhere in Chennai before he was arrested by a team of Manipur Police on October 22 from Adambakkam, St Thomas Mount, Chennai, Tamil Nadu

The accused was produced before the Court today after completion of police custody period along with a prayer for judicial custody remand.

The case was on against the accused after his wife lodged a complaint at the police station concerned of Noney district stating that her minor daughter was sexually assaulted and tortured by her own biological father during the summer vacation in June at her parental home.

The same Court issued a non-bailable warrant of arrest against the accused on October 20.

The accused was produced before the Court on October 24 and taken into police custody till today

The Court after hearing the submission of special PP, IO of the case and on perusal of the material on record remanded the accused to judicial custody till November 10.
Scripting 2023 for posteritySaluting human resources

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It may be premature to raise such a question at this point of time, for there is nothing much to suggest that Manipur has started walking the road to normalcy. Yet one must raise certain posers, even if it is only within oneself, for such questions can prepare the people to look ahead and see if they have scripted a tale that the people can look back to with dignity. How will the world, particularly the people of Manipur look back to 2023, say ten or fifteen years down the line ? What type of story is being scripted right now that one can look back with pride, down the years ? Difficult to say but there are facts which must not be allowed to be obliterated by those who are hell bent on distorting the history of the land and the people. This is where it becomes very, very important for the State and the people as a whole to educate their children on the history of the land. This is not the time when people should be satisfied with reading only the stories of the Mughal Empire or the History of Great Britain. What is the history of Manipur before the British came ? How was the social composition and the geography of the land, say before 1835 ? A year which has been picked on the basis of a status put up by a young man on the social media and one need to look at this with the seriousness it deserves. History of a people cannot start in 1917 for at best this is just a mark on the calendar, a tiny speck on the whole spectrum understood as history of the land and her people. Education, this is what is important and education here should be seen beyond the certificate that one receives after a course, but awakening the inner self to understand the present by looking at the past and equipping a mind to look beyond the immediate. So how will history remember the Manipur of 2023 ? For one it should go down as the year that awoke everybody to the urgent necessity of understanding ones land and ones people as well as ones immediate neighbour. This is where it becomes important to understand and know Mount Thangjing as something more than just a hill. Same is the case with Mount Koubru. This is where the idea that the understanding of valley is inextricably linked to the understanding of hills, as espoused by a Professor of Jawaharlal Nehru University, becomes extremely relevant. This is one of the points which the people, particularly the younger lot, should explore, digest and imbibe.

The lessons from 2023 should also mean jolting the people awake to the significance of human resources. The battle is being fought on different fronts and each have its own significance and importance. So while many went to the frontline to take head on the adversary, there were yet many more who went out of their way to put forth the correct narrative. The young girl rubbishing the religious tinge that was sought to be given to the ongoing clash in front of a live audience at the United States some days back exemplifies the power of human resource. Far away from the public eyes are the hundreds of young men and women, who have diligently sought to right the totally wrong and malicious propaganda on different media, with some even having taken up the needed steps to put across the story of Manipur before the United Nations to blunt a wrong narrative. Yet there are countless others who have chipped in and mobilised resources to make life a little bit more easier for the thousands who are still languishing at the different relief centres set up across the length and breadth of Manipur. Lest one forgets, Manipur should not forget the role of the drivers and their helpers who have put in everything to transport the basic necessities to the people through the National Highways which have been made very treacherous by those whose sole intention is dismember the existence of Manipur as a geo-political entity. Ultimately it is the human resources that should be saluted for it this which has helped Manipur to keep standing on her two feet despite the over 150 crippling days.
Hundreds of police and law enforcement agents fanned out across the northeastern U.S. state of Maine on Thursday in search of a 40-year-man who authorities linked to the shooting deaths of 18 people at a bowling alley and a bar and grill in the small city of Lewiston.

Maine State Police Chief Col. William Ross told a morning news conference that the suspect, Robert Card, "should be considered armed and dangerous" and that any people who might encounter him should call police rather than confront him.

Police said that Card, a trained firearms instructor and member of the U.S. Army Reserve who recently reported that he had mental health issues, walked into the bowling alley, called Just-In-Time Recreation, late Wednesday and unleashed a torrent of gunfire from a semi-automatic weapon.

Then, authorities say, he drove to the nearby Schemengees Bar & Grille, where 12 minutes later he fired more gunshots inside the arcade style restaurant.

Ross said seven people were killed at the bowling alley and eight at the restaurant, with three others dying from their gunshot wounds at local hospitals. Thirteen others were injured in the mayhem. "Currently, there is an arrest warrant for eight counts of murder for Mr. Card," Ross said. "And the reason it's eight counts, because ten people have not yet been identified. As those people are identified, the counts will probably go to the total of 18."
In a bold act of protest against years of neglect and environmental degradation, activists from Jalangi Nadi Samaj, Paschim Banga Vigyan Mancha and other concerned citizens joined forces today to reconnect the Anjana river with the Jalangi river at its source point near Smashan Kali Bari in Krishnagar.

The Anjana river, a 29-km long waterway in the Bhagirathi-Hooghly basin, had been gradually dwindling due to human encroachment and lack of proper maintenance. The activists, numbering 20, embarked on a mission to dismantle the barriers that had cut off Anjana from Jalangi, causing water to stagnate and adversely affecting the surrounding ecosystem.

The problem stemmed from the shallower depth of the Bhagirathi river channel near Nabadwip, causing the water level of Jalangi to be lower than that of Bhagirathi near the estuary in Nabadwip. Consequently, excess water from Jalangi failed to merge with Bhagirathi and instead returned to the riverbed, forming the Anjana river as a tributary of Jalangi. The Anjana river covers a course of 11 kilometres from its source to Hat Boalia. The river divides into two tributaries near Hat Boalia.

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Debanjan Bagchi, an activist from Nadia Banchao Samaj, expressed his frustration, stating, This is not our job. But, we have done this as a symbol of protest. Year after year, the district administration has done nothing to rejuvenate the Anjana by reconnecting it with Jalangi. The Anjana river holds historical significance, once being an integral part of the regions cultural and economic landscape. It played a pivotal role in the 18th century when Nadia district emerged as a hub for indigo cultivation.

The river was not only a source of livelihood but also found its place in the literary works of renowned poets and writers, including Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam. After several appeals and petitions to the local administration, the activists decided to take matters into their own hands. Todays successful reconnection of Anjana with Jalangi stands as a powerful testament to grassroots activism and the communitys determination to preserve their natural heritag
A massive political slugfest has erupted in West Bengal following the arrest of state forest minister and former state food & supplies minister Jyotipriya Mallick on Friday by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the multi-crore ration distribution case in West Bengal.

While Trinamool Congress leadership has echoed Mallicks conspiracy theory against him by BJP, the Opposition leaders have claimed that more and bigger influential personalities in the ruling party will be netted by the central agencies in the coming days.

According to Trinamool Congresss state spokesman Kunal Ghosh, Mallicks arrest was the result of conspiracy hatched by BJP where the principal mastermind in the conspiracy was the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the state Assembly Suvendu Adhikari.

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The person who had been in the central agency custody himself in relation to his involvement in the Saradha chit fund and Narada video scam is now hatching the conspiracy whose latest victim is Mallick, Ghosh said.

The LoP has countered claiming that the rate at which the ministers and ruling party legislators are being netted by central agencies time is not far away when the meetings of the state cabinet will have to be conducted at a correction home.

CPI(M) central committee member Dr Sujan Chakraborty claimed that the ration distribution scam is one of the biggest scams in West Bengal in the recent past, where every week ration items meant for 2.5 crore of people are being looted by the minister and leaders of the ruling party.

The state Congress president and five-time party Lok Sabha member Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury claimed that the alleged ration distribution scam seems to be of bigger magnitude than of the cash-for-school job case in the state. This is organised loot conducted mainly during the lockdown period in wake of COVID-19 pandemic, Chowdhury said.
Hina Khan, a former contestant on Bigg Boss 11, recently took to Instagram to share a mirror selfie from her hospital room, without disclosing the reason for her hospitalization at Mumbais Kokilaben Hospital.

In the photo, Hina can be seen wearing hospital attire with a bandage on her hand. She captioned the picture with, Spread Love and happiness, adding, No matter where you are or what state of mind youre in, if you find a mirror, dont miss the chance to take a mirror selfie.

Hina Khan gained fame through her role as Akshara in the popular TV series Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai and as the antagonist Komolika in Kasautii Zindagii Kay 2. She has also participated in reality shows such as Khatron Ke Khiladi Season 8 and Bigg Boss 11.

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Recently, Hina garnered attention as she walked the runway at the Lakme Fashion Week 2023 in New Delhi. Speaking to ANI, she expressed her enthusiasm for the world of fashion, saying, Fashion is always my comfort zone, and I truly enjoy the opportunity to walk the ramp or simply dress up. When I was offered this, I didnt want to miss the chance. I eagerly anticipated this event, and it went very well, receiving many compliments. (ANI)

[The story, originally from a syndicated feed, has been revised for improved coherence.]
Hollywood actor Michelle Lee, who specialises in shooting extreme fight sequences, will be seen doing some action with actress Katrina Kaif in the upcoming Tiger 3.

Lee has acted with Scarlett Johannson in Black Widow, Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean, Brad Pitt in Bullet Train & Tom Hardy in Venom.

Lee reveals Katrina and she had rehearsed for over two weeks before they shot the sequence at the Hammam.

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She said: Im not surprised. I thought it was pretty epic when we were shooting it. We learned and practiced the fight for a couple weeks and then shot it. The set design was absolutely gorgeous and the fight was really fun to do. It was wonderful being on an International film.

Lee is all praises for Katrina whose dedication towards perfecting action sequences has bowled her over.

She said: Katrina was as graceful and professional as can be. She worked really hard on getting the movements precise and making sure all the movements flow. It was clear she had experience in choreography so it was super easy to work with her. We worked up a sweat!

Lee says managing the towels wrapped around their bodies was the biggest challenge of this Hammam sequence.

The actress said: One of the main challenges was definitely the wardrobe! Our towels needed to stay in the proper place and with so much movement and fight choreography, it was definitely a challenge. We ended up having the towels sewn closed at certain points and that helped a lot.

She added: Another challenge was striking each other in the perfect amount of distance so that it looks close enough to be dangerous and strong but far enough to not actually hurt each other.

Can you imagine if I actually got her?! But Im a professional lol. So things went smoothly, neither of us got hit so we just had to make it work for the camera.

Tiger 3, from the YRF Spy Universe, has been produced by Aditya Chopra and directed by Maneesh Sharma. It is set to release this Diwali, November 12, Sunday in Hindi, Tamil & Telugu.
A political row has triggered in Kerala over the speech made by Congress Working Committee member Shashi Tharoor at a rally organised by Congress ally Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) in Kozhikode on Thursday in solidarity with Palestine.

In his speech as chief guest at the rally, Tharoor referred to Hamas as a terror outfit and called the rally it launched against Israel on 7 October a terrorist act. The reference drew onstage criticism from IUML leaders, MK Muneer, MLA, and Abdussamad Samadani. Following this, Tharoor faced intense attack from a section of CPI-M leaders and pro-Hamas groups.

In a Facebook post, CPI-M state secretariat member M Swaraj alleged that Tharoor had used the IUMLs public platform to relay his solidarity with Israel. Mr. Tharoor appeared to imply somewhat reductively that the incendiary Palestine problem had its genesis in Hamas attack on Israel on October 7. And the current genocidal attacks on the besieged people of Palestine were Israels legitimate response. Mr. Tharoor seemed pointedly disinclined to term Israel a terrorist nation, wrote Swaraj.

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CPI-Ms independent MLA and former minister KT Jaleel said the IUML rally seemed to express solidarity with expansionist and imperialistic Israel and its backers instead of solidly rallying behind the tyrannised and terrorised people of Palestine.

CPI-M state secretary M V Govindan seemed to have taken a relatively softer line. He said since Tharoor clarified that he was with Palestine it needed to be considered.

IUML leader M K Muneer, apparently upset over Tharoor calling Hamas a terrorist outfit has justified Hamas terrorism as resistance.

When Bhagat Singh and Subhas Chandra Bose fought for the freedom of the country, it was recorded in British history as an act of terrorism and extremism. In Gaza, the fight of Palestine for freedom would be an act of terrorism in the eyes of imperialist forces. But the children in Gaza now say they were offering namaz not five times a day, but six times. The children say every day they have janaza (funeral prayer). The fight of Palestine is a freedom struggle and that of Israel is genocide. We are with that defence of Palestine. We should be able to differentiate between resistance and attack, Muneer said

Mr. Tharoor found some support from BJP leader and actor Suresh Gopi, who termed Hamas a terrorist organisation inimical to the welfare of Palestinians. While justifying Tharoors remark on Hamas, he accused him of playing a vote-bank politics.

BJP state president K Surendran took a harsher line against Tharoor and the IUML. He alleged that the Congress and the IUML were justifying terrorist outfit Hamas for vote bank interest.

Meanwhile, Shashi Tharoor slammed his opponents for spreading the message that he was a supporter of Israel. He said he has always been with the people of Palestine and that he does not agree with the propagation of just one sentence from his speech, which he made at the IUML rally.

The Congress leader said some quarters had cherry-picked his speech to inject parochial politics into a global humanitarian cause. The address was solidly and unequivocally pro-Palestine when viewed in its entirety.

IUML national general secretary P K Kunhalikutty sought to end the controversy over the speech of Tharoor. He welcomed Tharoors clarification and said provincial politics had no bearing on the IUMLs decision to rally public opinion in favour of Palestines oppressed, starved, and terrorised people.

Addressing the rally, Tharoor urged Israel to put an end to the war on Gaza by hearkening on a message of peace, coexistence and brotherhood from Kerala, the only land in the world that never discriminated against the Jews.

He further said that the death toll in the latest bout of crisis in the last 19 days is more than the casualty that took place in the last 15 years. Around 1,400 Israelis and 6,000 Palestinians have been killed so far. The West Bank region had not witnessed any terrorism. However, 102 Palestine people and one Israeli were killed, he said.
Jyotripriya Mallick, a West Bengal minister and leader of the Trinamool Congress, was taken into custody late on Thursday by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in relation to a suspected case of corruption in the distribution of rations.

Prior to taking up his current position as the minister of forest affairs, he served as the West Bengal governments minister of food and supply.

The investigation agency issued an official statement stating, West Bengal minister Jyoti Priya Mallick has been arrested by the ED in connection with an alleged case of corruption in rationing distribution.

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His arrest happened the day after searches at his Salt Lake, Kolkata, home were carried out by the ED.

Jyotripriya Mallick declared himself a victim of a grave conspiracy as he was led out of his home by the police.

Mamata Banerjee, the leader of the TMC and the chief minister of West Bengal, had threatened to file a police case against the BJP and ED hours before Mallick was arrested if something happened to him during the searches at his home. Mallick, she had stated, was not well.

Furthermore, the chief minister of Bengal had said that the raids went ahead even though there was no proof of wrongdoing.

If they conduct raids at the residences of all the leaders, then what is left of the government? News agency PTI cited Banerjee as saying.

In 2022, Partha Chatterjee, the former minister of education for West Bengal, and Arpita Mukherjee, his assistant, were taken into custody in relation to the teacher recruitment scandal. Following the discovery of a substantial quantity of cash in Arpitas home, they were arrested.

Anubrata Mondal, the president of the TMC Birbhum district and a close aide of Mamata Banerjee, was also detained in 2022 in relation to a livestock smuggling case.

In addition, the ED frequently called and questioned Abhishek Banerjee, the general secretary of the TMC and nephew of the chief minister, over allegations of corruption.
Commenting on the incidence of cross-border firing by Pakistani troops, Union minister Dr. Jitendra Singh said on Friday that such sporadic incidents and continued infiltration bids prove that we cannot lower the guard against the mischief of Pakistan.

Nevertheless, the minister noted that there was a sharp decline in the cross-border firing along the LoC and International Border and violence was also down in the Union Territory of J&K during the last nine years, especially in the four years since Article 370 was revoked in August 2019.

Dr. Jitendra Singh was addressing a gathering after inaugurating a gate in memory of Martyr Colonel Narayan Singh (OBE) at Samba district of Jammu.

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On the occasion, he recounted several path-breaking decisions Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken for the welfare of kin of martyrs, unlike the earlier governments. The Modi government is deeply sensitive and concerned about the welfare of armed forces and kin of martyrs, he said.

The Union minister said the government provides an ex gratia of Rs 25 to 45 Lakh to the next of kin of the martyred soldiers. In addition to this, Rs 8,00,000 is provided to them in the form of ex gratia by the Army Central Welfare Fund. State governments also provide an ex gratia amount as per their provisions. This is in addition to the Liberalised Family Pension and regular service benefits. In case of the death of Agniveer in the line of duty, the next of kin will receive over Rs. 1 crore, he added.

The minister said reservation of seats has been ensured in Medical and Dental Colleges for the wards of defence personnel. A total of 42 MBBS seats and 3 seats in BDS courses are allotted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. For this, priority is given to wards of personnel killed in action. Besides, several other reservations have been made for them.
U.S. lawmakers are seeking to designate Nov. 22 as "Kimchi Day" across the entire country.

According to the Museum of Korean American Heritage on Wednesday, the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability will submit a resolution to this end on Dec. 6.

The move is being led by Korean-American Republican Representative Young Kim with support from more than a dozen lawmakers and comes as Seoul and Washington celebrate the 70th anniversary of their alliance. This year also marks the 120th anniversary of the first Korean immigrants to arrive in the U.S.

The resolution claims that kimchi has been widely acknowledged as a healthy dish with growing popularity in the U.S.

Nov. 22 was first designated Kimchi Day in Korea in 2010 and was also officially recognized in the U.S. states of California, Virginia, New York, Michigan and Washington, D.C. as well as the Royal Borough of Kingston in London, U.K.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami pitched for organising Uttarakhand-Tamil Sangamam on the lines of the Kashi-Tamil Sangamam held in Varanasi in 2022 for ushering in religious ties between the hill state and Tamil Nadu.

He made the announcement during the Chennai leg of his roadshow on Thursday to garner attention towards the Uttarakhand Global Investors Summit 2023 to be held in Dehradun on December 8 and 9.

He also tried to portray Adi Kailash and Manaskhand temples in the state, which were recently visited by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as one of the main attractions of Uttarakhand.

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Addressing a gathering of investors, Dhami said, We will hold a similar Uttarakhand-Tamil Sangamam to further integrate the religious ties between Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand.

The two states are spiritually connected. Rameshwaram, Kedarnath and Adi Kailash are renowned tourist destinations with lord Shiva as a common connect between the two states. The Uttarakhand-Tamil sangamam will be taken forward in coming days, he said.

As the chief minister appealed to investors in Chennai to come to Uttarakhand for doing their businesses, he said his government signed MoUs worth Rs 10,150 crore with various industrial groups in the southern state.

These included mainly industries pertaining to healthcare, pharma and energy sector, he said.

Dhami underlined that apart from being the world-class tourist destination, there is immense potential in the hill state for investment in sectors like food processing, auto component manufacturing, education and health. He said Uttarakhand is proactive and investment friendly with the basic mantra of Peace to Prosperity.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said India saw the fastest roll-out of 5G technology last year and that the country is now working on becoming a leader in 6G technology.

India is not only expanding the 5G network but also laying emphasis on becoming a leader in 6G, he said at his inaugural address at the 7th Edition of the India Mobile Congress 2023 here.

Underling the fast pace of technology, the prime minister said, The future is here and now. He praised the exhibition placed for the occasion to provide glimpses of the future in telecom, technology, and connectivity.

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Inaugurating 100 5G labs, strategically located in renowned engineering colleges across the country, Modi talked about 6G, artificial intelligence (AI), cyber security, semiconductors, drone or space sectors, deep sea, and green tech.

The future is going to be entirely different and it is a matter of happiness that our young generation is leading the tech revolution, he said.

Praising the milestones achieved by the 5G technology, Modi highlighted that within one year of 5G rollout, 4 lakh 5G base stations were developed which cover more than 97 per cent of cities and 80 per cent of the population.

He underlined that the speed of median mobile broadband has increased three times within one year. He further added that India moved from the 118th position to the 43rd position in terms of broadband speed.

He added that unlike in 2014, when India was a net importer of mobiles, today, it is the worlds second-largest mobile manufacturer. India is also manufacturing electronic goods worth Rs 2 trillion for exports.

The PM also threw light on the recent announcement by Google to manufacture pixel phones in India. Samsung Fold Five and Apple iPhone 15 are already being manufactured here, he said.

Need of the hour is to take forward the success in mobile and electronics and establish a strong semiconductor manufacturing sector in the country, he said.

Today semiconductor companies from around the world, in collaboration with Indian companies, are investing in semiconductor assembly and testing facilities in the country, he said, adding that a scheme worth Rs 80,000 crore has been designed for the development of semiconductors.

Reach of tech: The biggest social justice

Modi said beyond ranking and number, improvement in internet connectivity and speed lead to enhanced ease of living. He narrated the benefits of improved connectivity and speed in education, medicine, tourism, and agriculture.

We believe in the power of democratization. The benefit of development should reach every section and region, everyone should benefit from the resources in India, and everyone should have a life of dignity. We are working rapidly in this direction, he said. For me, this is the biggest social justice, he added.

Modi also mentioned that collateral-free loans under the Mudra scheme, access to toilets, and DBT through JAM Trinity have one thing in common that is they are ensuring previously inaccessible rights for the common citizens.

Highlighting the role of telecom technology , especially Bharat Net which has connected about 2 lakh gram panchayats with broadband., he said 10,000 Atal tinkering labs are exposing about 75 lakh children to cutting-edge technology.

He expressed hope that the newly-launched 5G use labs will have a similar impact. These labs prompt the youth to dream big and give them the confidence to achieve them, he added.

With the theme Global Digital Innovation, IMC 2023 aims to strengthen Indias position as a developer, manufacturer, and exporter of key cutting-edge technologies.

The three-day congress will highlight technologies such as 5G, 6G, and AI and discuss issues pertaining to the semiconductor industry, green technology, cyber security, among others.
Former chief minister and TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu has complained to the special judge of the Anti Corruption Bureau Court about security lapses in the Central Prison, Rajahmundry where he is currently lodged, and sought foolproof security arrangements in and around the prison commensurate with his Z category security cover.

Meanwhile, YSRCP MP Gorantla Madhav has triggered a controversy by claiming that Naidu would die in 2024 and YS Jagan Mohan Reddy would again become the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh.

In his letter dated 25 October Naidu complained about an anonymous tipoff received by the superintendent of police, East Godavari about left wing extremists planning his assassination, drones flying over the prison, a prisoner trying to film other inmates with pen camera as well ganja packets thrown by miscreants inside the jail premises.

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All (the aforementioned) incidents bring to the fore the lapses in the security arrangements. Keeping these incidents in view it is requested to undertake foolproof security arrangements in and around the Central Prison, Rajamahendravaram commensurate with the Z category security provided to me, wrote the former chief minister who was sent to judicial remand on 11 September in connection with the multi-crore Skill Development Scam and has been in the prison ever since.

Naidu also complained that out of the 2,200 inmates in the prison, 750 were apprehended for offences committed under NDPS (Narcotic Drug and Psychotropic Substances). He also apprised the judge about the state governments attempt to scale down his security before High Court restored it and multiple attacks on him accusing the YSRCP government of abetting attacks.

Speaking at a public gathering yesterday, YSRCP MP Madhav, a former police official known for frequently putting his foot in his mouth, said, In 2024, we will rule again. YS Jagan Mohan Reddy will become the chief minister again in 2024 and Chandrababu Naidu will die then. This is certain.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted that a new India can be realised with real development following in the footsteps of Lord Ram, who embraced the tribals and Adivasis. He listed many welfare schemes his government has implemented for the benefit of the two sections.

Addressing a function organised to commemorate the 100th birth anniversary of Indian business tycoon and eminent philanthropist late Arvind Mafatlal, at Chitrakoot in the Satna district of Madhya Pradesh, the prime minister lauded the late chairman of the Mafatlal Group for his undaunted spirit and dedication to the welfare of the poor, tribals and adivasis.

I first met Arvind Bhai in Gujarat when I was very young and was working in the service of adivasis who had been affected by a severe famine, the PM recollected.

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The way Arvind Bhai carried out his mission for the uplift of the drought-hit tribals left an indelible impression on me and ever since I feel an emotional connect with the mission and trust started by him, Mr. Modi said while paying tributes to the late Arvind Bhai Mafatlal.

The mission of Arvind Bhai has taught us that resources are indeed a necessity for service but dedication is the priority, the PM asserted.

He said we all must learn from Arvind Bhai Mafatlals life and works.

The PM said the Mafatlal Group started the first petrochemical complex of India and it made a name in the country and globally in the field of textiles, agriculture, and many other sectors because of Arvind Mafatlals vision and dedication.

He said not only in the industrial sector but the Mafatlal Group holds a very distinguished position in the social sector too.

The PM said the Sadguru Netra Chikitsalaya run by the Sadguru Seva Sangh Trust, which was founded by the late Arvind Mafatlal, is today one of the most renowned eye hospitals in the country and the world. The hospital that started with 12 beds now treats more than 15 lakh people annually.

This hospital has a special connection with my Kashi too, as doctors of the hospital have performed eye surgeries of around 90,000 people, especially the old, in and around Banaras, the PM said.

Kashi is PM Modis Lok Sabha constituency.

The PM said the Sadguru Seva Sangh inspired him and many other people. He hoped the new wing of the Jankikund Hospital inaugurated today would give a new life to lakhs. He pointed out that Chitrakoot is also the birthplace of Nanaji Deshmukh, who too worked tirelessly for the welfare and uplift of tribals and adivasis.

Mr. Modi said he was fortunate to have come to Chitrakoot, a land blessed by Lord Ram. He said that Lord Rams act of embracing the tribals and adivasis would lead us to develop a new India in the future.

During his more than two-and-a-half-hour stay in Chitrakoot this afternoon, the PM visited the Raghuveer Temple Trust, the multispecialty hospital being run by the trust, inaugurated a new wing of the hospital and also sought the blessings of Jagad Guru Rambhadracharya of the Tulsi Peeth.

MP Governor Mangu Bhai Patel, CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, and other dignitaries were present on the occasion.
Accusing the BJP and the Congress of playing dynastic politics, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday said the next chief minister of Telangana will be from the backward class if BJP forms the government in the southern state.

His remarks come on a day the saffron party announced its second list of candidates for the upcoming state polls. Interestingly, the party has fielded A P Mithun Kumar Reddy, the son of former MP A P Jitender Reddy, from Mahabubnagar Assembly Constituency.

Shah was addressing a Praja Garjana Sabha at Suryapet in Nalgonda district, a region considered the stronghold of the Congress and Left.

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I want to tell the people of Telangana that bless the BJP so that we form the government. We have decided that the next BJP chief minister in Telangana will be from the backward classes, he said.

The OBCs (other backward classes) form more than 50 per cent of the population of the state and the BJP is trying to woo them wholeheartedly.

The home minister also labeled the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) as anti-poverty, anti-Dalit and anti-backward classes, and questioned Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on his promise of making the son of a Dalit the chief minister of the state, or to give 3 acres of land to Dalit families. He also questioned him about his promise to set apart Rs 50,000 crore in the budget for the scheduled castes.

He said only the BJP was concerned with the welfare of the poor while the other family-oriented parties only looked out for the welfare of their own families. He then accused the chief minister of wanting his son K T Rama Rao to succeed him and former Congress president Sonia Gandhi wants her son Rahul Gandhi to be the next prime minister.

Telangana will go to polls on November 3.
A massive political row erupted in Bihar over Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MLA Fateh Bahadur Singhs remarks that Maa Durga is imaginary, with the Opposition BJP terming the RJD leaders objectionable statement against a Hindu deity minority appeasement.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Singh said that Manuwadis wrote that Godess Durga fought with Mahishasuras army of crores of demons and asked where was she when handful of British enslaved India.

According to Manuwadis there are 33 crore Gods and Goddesses. Indias population during the British period was 30 crores. When the country was enslaved, where was Maa Durga at that time and why did she not kill the British people? Maa Durga is imaginary, Singh said.

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The RJD MLA further asked, Who are those Manuwadis wrote that Maa Durga fought with crores of army against Mahishasura? What was Maa Durga doing at the time when a handful of British enslaved India?

His remarks didnt go down well with the Opposition BJP in Bihar and the saffron party accused the ruling alliance of minority appeasement. Union Minister Giriraj Singh slammed Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and RJD supremo Lalu Yadav for insulting Sanatana Dharma.

The Union Minister said that both, Nitish and Lalu, were testing the tolerance of the Hindus by allowing their leaders to make such remarks.

In Bihar, there is a government of Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar, and their leaders are continuously attacking Sanatan Dharma. It seems the tolerances of Hindus is being tested. If similar statements were made against Islam, then surely, they would be beheaded, Giriraj Singh said.

Earlier last month, Bihar Education Minister and senior RJD leader Chandrashekhar has triggered a similar controversy when he said that the Ramcharitmanas, an epic poem based on the Ramayana, spread hatred in society.
After allegations were made that Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leaders have been verbally attacking and threatening the Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi, TN Chief Minister MK Stalin took aim at the TN Governor and said on Friday that everyone knows what lies the Governor has been peddling.

TN Governors Deputy Secretary, T Sengottaiyan, on Wednesday, wrote a letter to the Greater Chennai Police Commissioner mentioning that on Wednesday afternoon, some miscreants who were armed with petrol bombs tried to barge in through Main Gate number 1 of Raj Bhavan and two petrol bombs were even hurled at the main entrance by them.

Sengottaiyan in his letter further said that there have been multiple verbal attacks and threats to the Governor and he alleged that most of them have been made by workers of DMK and its allies.

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Tamil Nadu CM and DMK President, M K Stalin while participating in a DMK functionarys marriage event today lashed out at the Governor for these allegations.

Today someone (Governor) sitting in a big position is asking things. Firstly, that post is itself a waste. He is asking questions like what is Dravidam while he sits in his Raj Bhavan, said Stalin.

This wedding that is taking place right now is Dravidam, he added.

Stalin, during his speech at the wedding, said, For the past two days you all know what lies he (Governor) has been peddling. I wish that this person who is peddling lies and asking questions like What is Dravidam should continue being here as this is going to help us in campaigning.

The Tamil Nadu CM further said, I request the Union government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah to please let this Governor continue in Tamil Nadu and not change him ever, at least till the Parliament elections, he should be here.

We have many benefits of him staying as he talks about whatever he wants and people are considering that, said Stalin.
In the realm of international relations, convergences of interests often lead to intriguing alliances. One such alliance that has captured the worlds attention is the blossoming partnership between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. These leaders, who affectionately addressed each other as dear friend during Mr Putins visit to Beijing last week, have demonstrated an evolving camaraderie that is emblematic of shifting geopolitical dynamics.

In a world marked by great power rivalries and global challenges, the Russia-China alliance raises compelling questions about the future of international politics. At first glance, the closeness of Russia and China might appear to be a reaction to Western pressure and isolation. Mr Putin, who has faced harsh sanctions and diplomatic ostracism over Russias invasion of Ukraine, found a reliable partner in President Xi.

China stands by Moscows side in the Ukraine conflict, positioning its trade with Russia as normal economic cooperation. While this may seem opportunistic, it reflects a calculated strategy to challenge the global influence of the United States and Western democracies. The Ukraine war has become a defining feature of this partnership. Beijings reluctance to condemn Russias actions, coupled with its willingness to expand economic ties with Moscow, underscores the significance of the alliance.

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Chinas support for Russias pursuit of national sovereignty and security, framed as normal economic cooperation, allows Moscow to paint itself as part of a new world order, defying Western attempts to isolate it. However, this alliance is not merely a marriage of convenience. It has deeper roots, as both nations share a vision for a more equitable and multipolar world order. Their strategic partnership serves as a counterbalance to the USA-led global order, which they perceive as challenging their interests.

The collaboration extends to efforts within multilateral mechanisms like BRICS, where Russia and China aim to defend international law and promote a just and reasonable global governance system. Russia and Chinas partnership also extends to economic endeavours, notably the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Over the past decade, the BRI has extended Chinas influence by investing in infrastructure projects in the developing world. However, the initiative faces growing concerns about debt and project sustainability. While both leaders work to reinvigorate the BRI, they must navigate these challenges to ensure its continued success.

The Israel-Hamas conflict presents another area of interest for Presidents Putin and Xi. Their exchange of views on this issue highlights the complexities of their roles as mediators in West Asia. Russias warm ties with Israel, contrasted by its military support for Iran, create a delicate diplomatic dance, while China balances its objections to Israeli actions against its broader ambitions in West Asia. The collaboration between Russia and China is not without its critics. Many in the West view this partnership with suspicion and concern. Russia and Chinas shared goals run counter to the principles of open and democratic governance that the West advocates.
Taliban forces recently stopped around 100 Afghan girls from going abroad to pursue their higher education at the University of Dubai. Since the takeover in 2021, the Taliban regime has banned or restricted education for girls beyond class six in Afghanistan.

The state of education is as bad as that of human rights, economy, culture, safety, medicine, etc. but the worst sufferers in these arrangements are women, irrespective of their class and age. Taliban leaders claim to establish Islamic Rule in Afghanistan. In their opinion, it is a sin for a woman to step out of the house to get education or work in a public place.

Thus, banning education and work of women is an integral part of their Islamic agenda. Women are expected to play their traditional role of serving the family. Yet, there are about 57 other Islamic nations that have not taken the extreme step of banning girls education the way Taliban forces have done it in the name of Islam.

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The other concern of the Taliban regime is the co-educational system and women taking jobs in the public sector as the same results in interaction with the opposite sex which is again a sin in the eyes of the regime. The ban on women in public workplaces was imposed immediately and the ban on education of girls came later.

Actions of radical organisations and Islamophobic propaganda made people in general see Islam as a radical religion which discriminates with women in the sphere of ownership, marriage, succession and divorce as compared to others. It is nothing but a case of misinterpretation and misunderstanding at least in respect of education. It is pertinent to go through a few verses from Islamic textbooks like Hadith.

Surah Iqra Chapter No.96 Verse 1- 5 of the Holy Quran says, read, recite proclaim in the name of the Lord who created the men from something which clings a leech like substance. Read in the name of the Lord whose most bountiful who taught men the use of the pen who taught men that which he did not know the first guidance given by Allah Subhan Allah. It reads equivocally for men and women.

In Sunan Ibn Maajah Vol.1 of Hadith 224, The Prophet said: It is obligatory on every Muslim Man or Woman to acquire knowledge. Even during the early period of Islam, there were many women scholars including the wife of Prophet Mohammad, Aishah Bint Abi Bakr. She had great knowledge of the Quran, literature, law, mathematics, medicine, poetry, etc. She even taught many Scholars after the demise of the Prophet.

It is also claimed that 2,210 Hadith are reported only on the deemed authority of Aaishah. Another reference goes to Jami At-Tirmidhi Hadith No.3883. It narrated Abu Musa saying: Never was a Hadith unclear to us  the Companions of the Messenger of Allah  and we asked Aishah, except that we found some knowledge concerning it with her.

As per Abu Musa many people used to discuss the complicated issues related to succession with Aishah after the death of the Prophet due to her expertise in the matter. Sahih Bukhari Vol.1 Hadith No.101 mentions the story of women requesting the Prophet to fix a day for teaching or educating them.

The Prophet accepted their request and used to especially dedicate time to educate women. Islamic textbooks/authorities are full of references where education of women is not considered a sin but an organisation claiming itself to be the protector of Islam and establishing an Islamic state has banned girls education without referring to any strictures. Apart from the verses, the views of Islamic scholars also suggest that there is a rich history of education for women in Islam and there were many women scholars who contributed in the field of education.

A YouTuber, Ramsha Sultan, shares that an Arab lady namely Fatimi Al Fihri built the first Qarawiyyin mosque and university in Morocco in 857-859 AD and it was open to students from all castes, religions and genders. Dr. Israr Ahmed, a well-known scholar and former President of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind believes that even though there is no limit for womens education in Islam, women should be allowed to pursue education related to Islam, Home-economics, Child Psychology and Medicine but no other professions which are dominated by men as their primary role is to look after the family.

Malala Yousafzai, a victim and survivor of Taliban violence, in her speech before the Oxford Union expressed that terrorists have misused the name of Islam for their own personal benefits. She added that these extremist groups fear the change that education will bring in society. Dr. Shabir Ally, a famous Canadian Islamic Preacher and Apologist in his interview expressed his views on the ban on education of girls by Taliban as something not related to Islam and quite impractical in modern times.

He spoke about the wife of Prophet Muhammad, Aishah, who was the prime example of women leaders in the Prophets time. The ban imposed by Taliban forces in the name of Islam or to bring Islamic rule is not only impractical, unlawful, illogical but also un-Islamic as it attacks the very basic tenets of Islam and aims at subjugation of women.

The ban on education of women violates the human rights of women in Afghanistan and will affect the progress of the nation. Stopping girls who wish to leave the country and pursue education in other countries leads to a situation where Afghan women are being held hostage in their own nation. In several interviews the Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid mentioned that their regime is working on providing a safe environment for women education. The ban on secondary and higher education of girls with immediate effect without providing any alternative seems unreasonable and arbitrary.

This will deprive many girls from availing the opportunities related to education and jobs both in Afghanistan and in other countries. The Taliban regime is also ensuring that women receive no aid/support from the outside world. They are blocking all the routes through which Afghani women can represent their situation and challenge the authority of the regime.

Even though Afghan women have time and again protested against the oppressive policies of the Taliban, they have been unable to overcome the situation. There is a need for intervention of the UN along with developed and developing nations who are providing humanitarian relief (including India) to the Taliban regime. The worlds silence will deprive women in Afghanistan of their rights and liberties and will only add to their struggle to lead a respectable life.

(The writer is a practising High Court advocate.)
Amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, on Thursday Pentagon spokesperson Brigadier General Pat Ryder said that approximately 900 US troops have been deployed or are being deployed to the Middle East, according to media reports.

He stated that deployed or deploying units include Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery from Fort Bliss Texas, Patriot batteries from Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and Patriot and Avenger batteries from Fort Liberty, North Carolina.

Addressing a press briefing, Ryder said, I can confirm that since our initial Force posture announcement approximately 900 troops have subsequently deployed or are in the process of deploying to the US Central Command area of responsibility these include forces that have been on prepared to deploy orders and which are deploying from the continental United States.

Ryder did not disclose the detailed deployment location for these forces. However, he noted that these forces were not heading to Israel and they were intended to support regional deterrence efforts and further bolster US force protection capabilities.

Deployed and deploying units include a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery from Fort Bliss Texas, Patriot batteries from Fort Sill, Oklahoma, Patriot and Avenger batteries from Fort Liberty, North Carolina, and associated air defence headquarters elements from Fort Bliss and Fort Cavazos Texas while I wont talk specific deployment locations for these forces I can confirm that they are not going to Israel and that again they are intended to support regional deterrence efforts and further bolster US force protection capabilities, Ryder said.

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The Pentagon official added that between October 17 and 26, US and coalition forces were attacked at least 12 separate times in Iraq and four separate times in Syria by a mix of one-way attack drones and rockets.

He announced that the US is planning to provide the two US iron dome systems to Israel to help further bolster its defence capabilities.

I can confirm that in addition to the iron dome interceptors were flowing to Israel. Were also planning to provide the two US iron dome systems currently in our inventory to Israel to help further bolster their air defence capabilities and protect citizens from rocket attacks for operation security reasons Im not going to discuss shipment timelines or delivery dates and well defer to Israel to make any announcements regarding future deployment and use of these systems, Ryder said.

His remarks come after the Pentagon put roughly 2,000 US troops on prepare-to-deploy orders last week, which US Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh had said were focused on providing air defence, security, logistics, medical, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and transportation support, according to a CNN report.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin has spoken with Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and discussed the need to facilitate humanitarian aid into Gaza and to ensure the protection of civilians.

Today I spoke with Israeli Minister of Defense Gallant. We discussed the need to facilitate humanitarian aid into Gaza and to ensure the protection of civilians. I expressed the US commitment to deterring escalation, and our hope for the release of the remaining hostages, the US Defence Secretary posted on X on Thursday.

A readout by the US Department of Defense stated, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III spoke with Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant today to receive updates on Israels operations to restore security following the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack.

The department said Austin reiterated his appreciation for Israels role in facilitating humanitarian aid convoys into Gaza and repeated his calls for Israel to ensure the protection of civilians.

The two leaders acknowledged the release of two hostages on October 23 and called for the release of the remaining hostages, the statement read.
The United Nations has begun an effort to help the world manage the risks and benefits of artificial intelligence.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday launched a 39-member advisory body of tech company executives, government officials and academics from countries spanning six continents.

The panel aims to issue preliminary recommendations on AI governance by the end of the year and finalize them before the UN Summit of the Future next September. "The transformative potential of AI for good is difficult even to grasp," Guterres said. He pointed to possible uses including predicting crises, improving public health and education, and tackling the climate crisis.

However, he cautioned, "it is already clear that the malicious use of AI could undermine trust in institutions, weaken social cohesion and threaten democracy itself."
As Israel Defence Forces (IDF) intensified their air strikes in Gaza and announced expansion of the ground operation, Hamas on Friday called on Arab and Muslim countries to act immediately to stop Israels intense bombardment in the Palestinian territory.

We call on the Arab and Muslim countries and the international community to take responsibility and act immediately to stop the crimes and series of massacres against our people, Hamas said in a statement.

The statement from Hamas comes moments after Israeli military said that it has intensified its air strikes in the Gaza strip to target underground facilities of Hamas militants.

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Addressing a press briefing, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said that Israel has increased its attacks in Gaza and again asked civilians to flee north and move south.

In recent hours we have increased the attacks in Gaza. The air force widely attacks underground targets and terrorist infrastructure, very significantly, the Israeli military spokesperson said.

In continuation of the offensive activity we carried out in the last few days, the ground forces are expanding the ground activity this evening, he said, hinting towards the launch of full-scale ground offensive.

Earlier, the IDF claimed that Hamas is using Gaza hospitals as command centres and that its main operations base located beneath the al-Shifa hospital, where thousands of displaced people are sheltering.

Hamas terrorists operate inside and under Shifa hospital  and other hospitals in Gaza  with a network of terror tunnels, Hagari had said in a separate briefing. Shifa is not the only hospital  it is one of many. Hamas use of hospitals is systematic.

However, Hamas denied Israeli militarys allegations that it is using Gaza hospitals as command centres, terming them baseless and a prelude to a new massacre against our people, greater than the one of the al-Ahli Baptist Hospital.
In a heart-wrenching moment on Wednesday, an Al Jazeera anchor struggled to hold back tears as he reported a tragic incident involving a colleague. The family of a fellow Al Jazeera journalist fell victim to an Israeli air strike in Gaza.

The anchor, broadcasting on the Qatar-based network, bravely delivered the heartbreaking news. The family of Al Jazeeras Gaza correspondent, Wael Al-Dahdouh, was caught in the crossfire and tragically lost their lives. His wife and two children were among the casualties of an air strike that hit the Nuseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.

The anchor struggled to make the announcement while fighting back emotions. He conveyed the tragic incident, saying, We note this breaking news that we transmit on the Al Jazeera network. A number of family members of our colleague, Wael Al Dahdouh were killed, including his wife, son, and daughter. Al-Dahdouh was in the field, reporting on the very bombing that took the lives of his family members.

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The journalists family had sought refuge in a temporary residence after evacuating Gaza City. This move came after Israels warnings to residents to relocate to the southern areas as the Israeli military intensified its strikes, particularly targeting Hamas strongholds. The anchor pointed out the tragic irony, saying, This is the safe zone the occupation (Israeli) army was talking about.

Wael Hamdan Ibrahim Al-Dahdouh, a prominent Palestinian journalist, held the position of bureau chief for Al Jazeera in Gaza City. His career in journalism began in 1998 when he worked as a correspondent for the Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds in Gaza. He later contributed to various Palestinian magazines. In the early 2000s, he served as a correspondent for the Voice of Palestine radio and the Sahar satellite channel during the Second Intifada in 2000.

In 2003, he expanded his career by becoming a correspondent for Al Arabiya. However, his most significant role was yet to come. In 2004, he transitioned to working as a reporter and held an official position in the Al-Jazeera office in the Gaza Strip.

The loss of Al-Dahdouhs family is a stark reminder of the human toll that conflicts like the one in Gaza can exact. It underscores the personal sacrifices that journalists and their families often make in their pursuit of truth and information. Our hearts go out to Al-Dahdouh and his family, as well as to all those affected by the ongoing situation in Gaza.
The White House has clarified US President Joe Bidens remarks linking Hamas militants brutal October 7 attack on Israel to the mega India-Middle East-Europe that was announced during the last months G20 Summit in India.

Addressing a media briefing, US National Security Councils Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby said that President Biden was misunderstood and what he meant by the regional integration for Israel was the normalisation of bilateral ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel.

Biden had earlier said, Im convinced one of the reasons Hamas attacked when they did I have no proof is because of progress towards regional integration for Israel.

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Responding to a media query on why Biden said that, Kirby said that the what President Biden said was in context with the the normalisation and agreement the US was trying to reach between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

I think you misunderstood him. What he said was that he believed the normalisation process and agreement we were trying to reach (between Israel and Saudi Arabia) an important step to a two-state solution may have motivated Hamas to conduct those attacks. I think you misunderstood what he actually said, he said.

Earlier this month, Hamas launched a brutal attack on Israel after some 2,500 of its militants invaded the Jewish state and murdered more than 1,400 people, mostly non-combatant children, women and foreign nationals.

The attack prompted an even stronger response from Israel as the country declared a war against Hamas and launched massive air strikes in the Gaza Strip, from where the Palestinian militant group operates.

The Israel-Hamas war has deteriorated the security situation in entire Middle East as several other parties, including Iran-backed Hezbollah, provoking Israel towards a wider regional conflict.
Mid-November will see a joint naval exercise between the Chinese and Pakistani military, with an eye on the ongoing fighting between Israel and Hamas. Along with the Pakistan Navy, Chinese warships and submarines are heading towards the Persian Gulf.

India, meanwhile, has been keeping an eye on these developments virtually. India tracked Chinas Type 039 submarine, known as the Song-class, and saw it cross into the Indian Ocean. As per information, the Chinese submarine is expected to join the Pakistan Navy in the Persian Gulf.

India is using its P-8I anti-submarine warfare plane to monitor the movements. Predator drones and other tools were also employed.

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Senior government sources said that the Chinese Navys warships, including a destroyer, frigate, and a tanker vessel, are in the Persian Gulf since early October after the 45th Anti Piracy Escort Force was given anti-piracy duties.

The source further stated that the three vessels in the Persian Gulf belonged to the 44th anti-piracy force, which had been stationed there since May 2023 under the name 44th APEF.

A submarine support vessel accompanied the Chinese submarine that India was tracking in order to provide operational support from a remote area.

The warships from China and Pakistan might venture further into the Persian Gulf to keep an eye on the US warships that have been stationed there ever since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 in a multi-pronged surprise strike.
Samrat Choudhary, the president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Bihar, asserted that Lalu Yadav is functioning like the in charge of the Congress party in the state. He said this after Lalu Prasad, the chairman of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), attended a Congress party function at Sadaqat Ashram in Patna the day before.

His remarks followed the RJD chiefs declaration that the caste survey in Bihar had started.

A convicted person cannot be a political factor. He can speak whatever he wants as he is provided a platform by a party that does not have a leader and is no more a factor in Bihar, Choudhary said.

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He stated that the RJD is the target of the BJPs battle in Bihar, not the Congress or the Chief Minister Nitish Kumars Janata Dal-United.

Congress has no option but to ride piggyback on the RJD. Laluji will determine what the Congress has to do, Choudhary said claiming that the caste census was conducted for social upliftment rather than political benefit, Choudhary stated that it is not a significant issue.

It was (caste census) for social upliftment, not a political tool that Lalu Ji is trying to make it appear. But he cannot see beyond politics and family, Choudhary added.

The Bihar BJP chief said that the people could easily read between the lines. Had Laluji been serious about the caste survey, he could have done it when his party was in power for 15 years. But he only fooled the people and now wants to take credit for what he did not do. He wants to fan caste hatred, and the BJP will not allow it to happen. Narendra Modi government works for all poor, irrespective of caste and creed, he added.
The commander of Hamas Western Khan Yunis Battalion, Madhath Mubshar, was eliminated by an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) aerial strike on Thursday night

For the second consecutive night, Israeli troops carried out targeted strikes inside Gaza, as confirmed by the Israel Defence Forces, bracing them for their preparations for the next phase in the conflict against Hamas.

Additionally, the IDF also hit over 250 Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip in the past day.

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Madhath MubasharCommander of Hamas Western Khan Yunis Battalionwas eliminated by an IDF aerial strike. Furthermore, the IDF struck 250+ Hamas targets, including a terrorist tunnel network in Gaza that detonated the secondary explosions, posted the IDF on X.

Military spokesperson, Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said, Midhat took part in sniping attacks and large explosives against IDF forces and Israeli settlements.

The targets included Hamas tunnels, command centres, rocket launch positions, and dozens of operatives, the IDF said, adding that a Skylark 3 drone crashed in the Gaza Strip earlier today as a result of a technical error.

Hagari also said that there is no fear of sensitive information leaking from the device.

The IDF has also confirmed the killing of Ayser Mohammad Al-Amer, a field commander in the Palestinian Islamic Jihads Jenin wing, during clashes in the Jenin refugee camp overnight.

The army also confirmed clashes with Palestinian gunmen in the Jenin refugee camp and the city of Qalqilya, with earlier reports of four casualties, including Al-Amer, in these two locations, as reported by The Times of Israel.

The IDF said it returned fire at Palestinians who were shooting at their forces and dealing with rioters hurling explosive devices. There were no reported injuries on the Israeli side.

In overnight arrest raids across the West Bank, IDF troops detained 17 members of the Hamas terror group and 19 other wanted Palestinians, according to the IDF.

Since the war in the Gaza Strip began on October 7, the IDF has arrested around 1,030 wanted Palestinians in the West Bank, including approximately 670 individuals affiliated with Hamas.

The IDF has faced several clashes with Palestinians in the West Bank over the past two weeks, as well as thwarted attempted terror attacks, it said.

According to the Palestinian Authority health ministry, Israeli forces and, in some cases, settlers, have been responsible for the deaths of 110 West Bank Palestinians since October 7.

Separately, the IDF said that the head of the Central Command, Maj Gen Yehuda Fox, has approved a demolition order for a home owned by Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri, located in the town of Arura, near Ramallah.

Arouri is believed to reside in Turkey, The Times of Israel reported.

At least 7,028 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since October 7 and more than 1,400 people were killed in the Hamas attack on Israel.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) on Friday claimed that Hamas is using medical facilities as command centres and its main operations base is located in an underground facility beneath the Gazas biggest al-Shifa hospital.

Addressing a press briefing, IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said that the Palestinian militant outfit has several underground complexes under Shifa hospital and the group is using them to direct and coordinate attacks against Israel.

We have concrete evidence that hundreds of terrorists flooded into the hospital to hide there after the massacres of October 7, Hagari said.

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He also claimed that Israel has confirmed intelligence that there are several tunnels leading to the underground base from outside the hospital, allowing Hamas officials and militants to reach it without entering the hospital.

Moreover, Hagari added, that there is also an entrance to the underground complex from within one of the hospital wards.

Hamas terrorists operate inside and under Shifa hospital  and other hospitals in Gaza  with a network of terror tunnels, he said. Shifa is not the only hospital  it is one of many. Hamas use of hospitals is systematic.

According to the Israeli military, Hamas internal security also has a command centre inside the Shifa Hospital, which is used to direct rocket attacks on Israel. The command centre, the IDF claimed, also stores weapons.

Meanwhile, Hamas has denied Israeli militarys allegations that it is using Gaza hospitals as command centres, terming them baseless and a prelude to a new massacre against our people, greater than the one of the al-Ahli Baptist Hospital.

Izzat al-Rishq, a member of the the terror groups political bureau, said, Over 40,000 have sought refuge in Al-Shifa hospital, as they were displaced by the bombing that hit everythingWe call on the leaders of Arab and Muslm countries to take action and stop the genocide against our people.
As Middle East continues to be in a tumultuous situation due to the war in Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas, the US Friday said that it struck two facilities in eastern Syria that were being by Iranian forces and its proxies in the region.

In a statement, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the US has carried out precision self-defense strikes to protect its defence personnel in Iraq and Syria.

These Iranian-backed attacks against US forces are unacceptable and must stop. Iran wants to hide its hand and deny its role in these attacks against our forces. We will not let them, Austin said, adding the US will take further measures if the attacks continued.

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The strikes, the US secretary of defence said, were not linked to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.

The US strikes were separate and distinct from the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, and do not constitute a shift in our approach, Austin added.

According to Pentagon, a total of 21 US military personnel have been injured in drone and rocket strikes on its military bases in Iran and Syria in the recent days. A civilian contractor, who worked in a US military base, have also died after suffering cardiac arrest while sheltering from an incoming attack.

The attacks against the US and coalition troops have risen significantly in view of the Israel and Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. According to American officials, US personnel have been attacked at least 12 times in Iraq and four times in Syria since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7.

In view of the recent attacks and the war in Gaza, the Pentagon has said that it has about 900 troops in Syria and 2,500 in Iraq. Additionally, the US has said that 900 more troops have either been deployed or being deployed in the Middle east.

The US has been backing Israel, while Hamas is backed and funded by Iran. The White House has said that US President Joe Biden, in a rare message to Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has warned Tehran against targeting US troops.
A Chinese J-11 fighter jet came within 10 feet of a US Air Force B-52 bomber conducting routine operations over the South China Sea, the US military said, slamming the China for the unsafe conduct of the fighter pilot.

A Peoples Republic of China J-11 pilot executed an unsafe intercept of a U.S. Air Force B-52 aircraft which was lawfully conducting routine operations over the South China Sea the military said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

The US militarys Indo-Pacific Command said that the intercept was conducted at night and that the Chineses pilot demonstrated poor airmanship.

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src%5Etfw>#USINDOPACOM Statement on #PRC Unprofessional Intercept: A Peoples Republic of China J-11 pilot executed an unsafe intercept of a U.S. Air Force B-52 aircraft which was lawfully conducting routine operations over the South China Sea Read morehttps://t.co/UnCmnneAr7 pic.twitter.com/6k79Koah3V  U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (@INDOPACOM) October 26, 2023

The J-1 fighter jet pilot demonstrated poor airmanship by closing with uncontrolled excessive speed, flying below, in front of, and within 10 feet (of the B-52), putting both aircraft in danger of collision, it said.

intercept was conducted at night, with limited visibility, in a manner contrary to international air safety rules and norms. Military aircraft, when intentionally approaching another, shall operate with professional airmanship and give due regard for safety

We are concerned this pilot was unaware of how close he came to causing a collision, the US military added.

A video shared by the US Indo-Pacific Command shows the Chinese J-11 fighter jet approaching the American B-52 bomber and passes dangerously close to it.

With the latest incident, according to experts, the Chinese wants the US to back down from the South China Sea region it wants to control. However, the US military reiterated it will continue to fly, sail, and operate wherever international laws allow.
A member of Hamas delegation, who is on a visit to Moscow, has declared that the Palestinian militant out will not release any more hostages until a ceasefire is agreed, Russian media reported on Friday.

Hamas took more than 226 hostages from Israel during their brutal assault on October 7, in which more than 1,400 people were also murdered by its militants.

According to Russian newspaper Kommersant, Hamas representative Abu Hamid, who met Russian authorities in Moscow, said that the group will need time to locate all the hostages who are being kept at different locations across the Gaza Strip.

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They seized dozens of people, most of them civilians, and we need time to find them in the Gaza Strip and then release them, Hamid was quoted as saying.

So far, Hamas has released four hostages on what it called humanitarian grounds. Hamas first released Judith and Natalie Raanan, American mother and daughter on the intervening night of October 20 and 21. It was followed by the release of two more elderly Israeli women  85-year-old Yocheved Lifschitz and 79-year-old Nurit Cooper  on Monday.

The development comes a day after Hamas announced some 50 hostages have been killed since Israeli air strikes began. However, the claim could not be verified but Israel had termed a similar claim made earlier this month as fake propaganda, saying it has its own information on hostages.

The development comes as Israel looks all set to launch a full-scale ground assault in Gaza. The Israeli military today said that it carried out fresh overnight raid in the Gaza Strip and struck Hamas targets.

The Israel Defence Forces or IDF said that dozens of Hamas targets were struck in the past 24 hours as it continued its targeted raids in central area of the Gaza Strip.

Ground forces accompanied by fighter jets and drones struck targets in the Shujaiyya area. Other sites throughout the Gaza Strip were also hit, the IDF said in a statement.

The Israeli Army also claimed to have killed a top Hamas commander, who helped plan the brutal October 7 attacks. The IDF has said that its targeted raids in Gaza are part of its preparations for the next stage of the war  a full-scale ground invasion.
Lee Kang-in of Paris Saint-Germain sent the home crowd of over 40,000 spectators at Parc des Princes into raptures of ecstasy in the French capital on Tuesday.

In the club's UEFA Champions League group match against AC Milan, Lee came off the bench in the 26th minute and scored his team's third and decisive goal in the 44th minute, securing a 3-0 victory.
EU summit turns its eyes away from Ukraine despite a commitment to stay the course with Zelenskyy

The European Union summit showed that Ukraine will be facing tougher times to get all the attention and political, economic and military aid that it wants
A doctor has been booked for supplying illegal drugs to "Parasite" star Lee Sun-kyun and G-Dragon of moribund boy band BigBang, who face charges of drug abuse.

Incheon police said Thursday that the doctor, who works in a hospital in Seoul, was booked without detention.

His name came up in recent investigations based on a tipoff of rampant drug use in a members-only speakeasy in Seoul's Gangnam district.

A police investigator said, "In some cases, drug peddlers supply free drugs for those they have a close relationship with."

This brought the total number of drug abuse suspects under investigation by Incheon police to 10. Earlier, police also booked a female manager of the bar for blackmailing Lee and extorting W350 million from him (US$1=W1,360).

The previous day, police claimed the G-Dragon case had "nothing to do" with the investigation of Lee, but they changed their tune on Thursday and admitted there had been a "misunderstanding."

G-Dragon on Friday denied the allegations. "It is not true that I've used drugs," he said in a statement read by his lawyer. "But I know that many are concerned, and I will cooperate fully with the police investigation."

Police are considering banning him and Lee from leaving the country.
Job Title: Air Operations Assistant

Organisation: United Nations Organisation Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO)

Vacancy Code: 23-Transportation-MONUSCO-220428-R-Entebbe (M)

Duty Station: Entebbe, Uganda

Grade: G5

About US:

Following the signing of the Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement in July 1999 between the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and five regional States (Angola, Namibia, Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe) in July 1999, the Security Council established the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) by its resolution 1279 of 30 November 1999, initially to plan for the observation of the ceasefire and disengagement of forces and maintain liaison with all parties to the Ceasefire Agreement. Later in a series of resolutions, the Council expanded the mandate of MONUC to the supervision of the implementation of the Ceasefire Agreement and assigned multiple related additional tasks.

Job Summary: This position is in the Aviation Section of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO). The incumbent will be based in Entebbe (Uganda), and will report to the Chief Air Operations Officer  Entebbe Logistics Base.

Key Duties and Responsibilities: Within delegated authority, the Air Operations Assistant will be responsible of the following duties:

Carry out Flight operations tasks including assisting with scheduling of UN Flights, arranging airspace and landing clearances, and ordering Ground Handling services.

Assist aircrew in their dispatch at the airport, Coordinate with the Ground Handling Agent regarding all requirements for aircrew facilitation.

Coordinate with the Ground Handling Agents for all issues related to operations with Mission aircraft, including but not limited to the following: cleaning services, ground handling equipment, refueling, transportation and verification of service ordered.

Check weather forecast, NOTAMs.

Use radios and Flight Tracking systems to monitor the position and movements of UN aircraft.

Maintain accurate records of activities, related to flight following, aircraft dispatch and technical compliance.

Enter reports into the radio log, complete radio logs in accordance with DFS Aviation standards.

Complete the Operations Risk Management Checklist.

Coordinate with local Authorities (Civil Aviation Authority, Airport Authority and Air Force Base Authority), all requirements in support of Mission air operations, including but limited to airport passes, authorizations, escorting staff in and out of the airport, plan and coordinate the maintenance hangar space, support equipment required, etc.

Collect and analyze AURs (Aircraft Use Report) and prepare FHR (Flight Hour Reports) to each flight and for all types of aircraft on daily basis.









Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

The applicant for the United Nations Organisation Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) Air Operations Assistant job must hold a High School Diploma or equivalent. Required.

Technical or vocational certificate in Air Transportation, Safety Management, Air Traffic Control or graduation from equivalent military establishment or military/air traffic control training is required.

At least five years of progressively responsible experience in Air Transport Operations is required.

Experience in air transportation, air traffic control operations, aviation safety or aviation engineering is required.

Languages: Fluency in English, both oral and written, is required; Knowledge of French is desirable.

Competencies

Professionalism: Shows pride in work and in achievements; Demonstrates professional competence and mastery of subject matter; Is conscientious and efficient in meeting commitments, observing deadlines and achieving results; Is motivated by professional rather than personal concerns; Shows persistence when faced with difficult problems or challenges; remains calm in stressful situations; Takes responsibility for incorporating gender perspectives and ensuring the equal participation of women and men in all areas of work.

Shows pride in work and in achievements; Demonstrates professional competence and mastery of subject matter; Is conscientious and efficient in meeting commitments, observing deadlines and achieving results; Is motivated by professional rather than personal concerns; Shows persistence when faced with difficult problems or challenges; remains calm in stressful situations; Takes responsibility for incorporating gender perspectives and ensuring the equal participation of women and men in all areas of work. Planning and organizing: Develops clear goals that are consistent with agreed strategies. Identifies priority activities and assignments; adjusts priorities as required. Allocates appropriate amount of time and resources for completing work. Foresees risks and allows for contingencies when planning. Monitors and adjusts plans and actions as necessary. Uses time efficiently.

Develops clear goals that are consistent with agreed strategies. Identifies priority activities and assignments; adjusts priorities as required. Allocates appropriate amount of time and resources for completing work. Foresees risks and allows for contingencies when planning. Monitors and adjusts plans and actions as necessary. Uses time efficiently. Client orientation: Considers all those to whom services are provided to be clients and seeks to see things from clients point of view. Establishes and maintains productive partnerships with clients by gaining their trust and respect. Identifies clients needs and matches them to appropriate solutions. Monitors ongoing developments inside and outside the clients environment to keep informed and anticipate problems. Keeps clients informed of progress or setbacks in projects. Meets timeline for delivery of products or services to client.

How to Apply:

All suitably qualified and interested candidates who wish to join the United Nations should apply online at the link below

Click Here

Deadline: 22nd November 2023

For more of the latest jobs, please visit https://www.theugandanjobline.com or find us on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/UgandanJobline
Air India has made significant senior level appointments, including the appointment of Klaus Goersch as the Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer. Goersch, a licensed B777/787 pilot, brings extensive experience from his previous positions in British Airways and Air Canada. In his new role, he will oversee various functions such as flight operations, engineering, ground operations, Integrated Operations Control, and cabin crew functions.

The newly created position aims to harmonise the operating procedures of the four Tata airlines, facilitate the Airbus A350 entry-into-service program, and assist in establishing Air India's new training academy. R S Sandhu, the current chief of operations, will transition to an advisory role.

Furthermore, Manish Uppal, who joined AirAsia India a few months ago, has been appointed as the Senior Vice President for flight operations. Henry Donohoe's role in corporate safety, security, and quality will be expanded to include emergency response, and he will now hold the title of Senior Vice President for safety, security, and quality.

Other appointments include Rajesh Dogra, who will oversee the inflight product and service design functions in his role as part of the Customer Experience portfolio. Pankaj Handa will lead ground operations, Choorah Singh will be the Divisional Vice President of the Integrated Operations Control Centre, and JuLi Ng will serve as the Divisional Vice President for cabin crew.

All three senior level appointees, Goersch, Dogra, and Donohoe, will report directly to Air India's Managing Director and CEO, Campbell Wilson. The existing management committee members will continue in their unchanged roles and report to Wilson as well.

These appointments are part of Air India's strategy to manage succession, streamline the organization, optimize talent within the Tata airline group, and position the airline for future growth and success. Wilson expressed confidence in Goersch's knowledge and experience, emphasising Air India's commitment to building top leadership and investing in the necessary resources to elevate the airline's position in the global aviation industry.

Under the control of Tata Group since January last year, Air India is undergoing consolidation within the Tata airline business. The consolidation includes the merging of AirAsia India (now AIX Connect) with Air India Express and the merging of Vistara with Air India. Vistara, a joint venture between Tatas and Singapore Airlines, will contribute to the strengthening of Air India's operations.

(With inputs from PTI)
Infosys co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy faced criticism on social media over his recent request to youngsters of the country to work for 70 hours a week to increase India's productivity.

During a conversation with former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai in the first episode of 3one4 Capital's podcast 'The Record,' Murthy said that youngsters should put in additional hours at work for India to compete with leading economies.

"India's work productivity is one of the lowest in the world. Unless we improve our work productivity...we will not be able to compete with those countries that have made tremendous progress," he said, adding, "So therefore, my request is that our youngsters must say, 'This is my country. I'd like to work 70 hours a week."

His remarks did not go down well with a section of social media users who criticized him for promoting an "overwork culture."

An X user said "overwork" gave him a heart attack at the age of 38. "Overwork gave me a Heart Attack at 38. And a lifetime dependency on medicines! Please don't listen to these people. Bloodsucking leeches who sit on their high chairs giving lectures," the user said.

"Delete Sundays from calendar. We must sacrifice everything to make billionaire businessmen richer & richer. If the rich are happy, then we are proud, right?," said anther.

Popular author Chetan Bhagat pointed out that one can work 35 hours a week and still achieve a lot. "But make those 35 hours really, really count. You can still achieve a lot. A lot of people spend long hours supposedly working but no real productive work is happening," he wrote.

He also asked youngsters to work for themselves.

Work hard. 70 80 90 whatever hours per week. But on yourself and your whole overall life. Merely slaving away in a job with no overall strategic plan, purpose and direction for your life will only end up in you getting used by some capitalist. Work damn hard. But for yourself.  Chetan Bhagat (@chetan_bhagat) October 27, 2023

"Lifes hard. You meet a girl, fall in love, get married. Her dad wants you to work 70 hours a week. You cant work that hard, you just wanna chill and run England," wrote stand-up comic Vir Das.

If youre working 70 hours a week, 5 days a week, essentially from 9am to 11pm. Getting home by 12.30, leave home by 7.30? You should be allowed to fart in your bosses office. If youre going to request relationship like time commitment, youve got to accept the intimacy too.  Vir Das (@thevirdas) October 27, 2023

Murthy also found support from a section of users, including Bhavish Aggarwal, CEO, Ola Cabs, who wrote: "Totally agree with Mr Murthy's views. It's not our moment to work less and entertain ourselves. Rather it's our moment to go all in and build in 1 generation what other countries have built over many generations!"

"I wholeheartedly endorse Mr. Narayan Murthy's statement. It's not about burnout, it's about dedication. We have to make India an economic superpower that we can all be proud of in India 2047. A 5-day week culture is not what a rapidly developing nation of our size needs," Sajjan Jindal, chairman, JSW Group, said.
Apple TV+ has announced that it is coming out with a documentary series on the life and murder of iconic musician John Lennon. The three-part series takes a close look at the 1980 murder of the Beatles front-man. The documentary titled John Lennon: Murder Without A Trial, will be narrated by Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland.



The docu-series will feature eyewitnesses interviews and previously unseen pictures of the crime scene. The series will also follow the investigation and conviction of Lennon's killer Mark David Chapman. There will also be interviews with Lennon's closest friends. Lennon was shot outside his home in New York by Chapman, a troubled fan. Chapman pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He remains incarcerated at Green Haven Correctional Facility in New York.

Reportedly, the production was granted extensive Freedom of Information Act requests from the New York City Police Department, the Board of Parole and the District Attorneys office to gain access to the interviews. The series, reportedly, also features interviews with Chapman's defence lawyers, psychiatrists and prosecutors. The series is directed by Nick Holt and Rob Coldstream and is being produced by 72 films.

Chapman's story was dramatized in 2005 as a film titled Chapter 27. It featured Jared Leto. Also on Thursday, a track recorded by Lennon before his death was completed with help of AI by his bandmates Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. It was released as the Beatles final new song.

The release date of the docu-series hasn't been announced.
The Armed Forces Medical Services is offering an exciting job opportunity for MBBS graduates to become Short Service Commissioned Officers. This opportunity is open to both men and women, and the online application process is ongoing until November 5th, 2023. There are a total of 650 vacancies available, with 585 positions for male candidates and 65 positions for female candidates .

Eligibility: To be eligible for this position, candidates must have an MBBS degree or a post-graduate degree in a relevant field. The age limit for MBBS candidates is not more than 30 years, while for post-graduate applicants, it is 35 years (as of December 31, 2023).

Selection Process: The selection process for these positions involves an interview that will be conducted in Delhi. Candidates will be shortlisted based on their marks in the NEET PG exam.

To apply for these positions, interested candidates should complete the online registration process on the official website of the Armed Forces Medical Services at www.amcssentry.gov.in. The application fee for this recruitment is Rs. 200, and it must be paid online.

See details on website: www.amcsscentry.gov.in
Slamming the Centre over the ED's action against its leaders in poll-bound Rajasthan, the Congress on Thursday alleged that faced with the prospect of "certain defeat", Prime Minister Narendra Modi has resorted to tactics of "FDI fear, deception and intimidation".

The party said people would give a befitting reply to the BJP for resorting to such tactics.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday raided the premises of Rajasthan Congress president Govind Singh Dotasra and party candidate from the Mahua assembly seat as part of a money laundering investigation into the alleged exam paper leak case in the state, official sources said. It also summoned Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's son Vaibhav Gehlot for questioning in a Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) case.

Several Congress leaders, including party president Mallikarjun Kharge, spoke out on the matter.

Kharge alleged that agencies such as the ED, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Income Tax Department become the real 'panna pramukh' (party workers) of the BJP as soon as elections come.

"Seeing its certain defeat in Rajasthan, the Bharatiya Janata Party made its last throw of the dice! After Chhattisgarh, the ED has also entered the election campaign in Rajasthan and started action against Congress leaders," Kharge said.

"The dictatorship of the Modi government is fatal for democracy. We will continue to fight against the misuse of agencies, and the public will give a befitting reply to the BJP," the Congress chief said in a post on X.

Ashok Gehlot said that the Congress launched "guarantees" (poll promises) for women of Rajasthan on Wednesday and the ED's action against Dotasra and Vaibhav Gehlot came just a day later.

"Now you can understand what I have been saying... ED's raids happen everyday in Rajasthan because the BJP does not want women, farmers and poor in the state to get the benefit of the guarantees given by Congress," Gehlot said in a post in Hindi on X.

Elections for the 200-member Rajasthan Assembly will be held on November 25 and results be declared on December 3.

In a post on X, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh claimed that the prime minister has been taken aback by the popularity of the schemes of the Congress government in Rajasthan over the last five years.

"Faced with the prospect of certain defeat, the Prime Minister has resorted to his usual FDI tactics Fear, Deception and Intimidation, and has unleashed the ED on Congress leaders in the state," he said.

"This sort of vendetta politics and the politics of polarisation is all that the BJP stands for today. The people of Rajasthan will give a befitting reply to the Prime Minister and his party in the forthcoming elections," Ramesh said.

Former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot alleged that the ED's action against Congress leaders was "politically motivated" and an indication that the BJP is trailing in all five poll-bound states.

Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters here, Pilot said, "Elections are set to take place in Rajasthan in a few days from now and the Model Code of Conduct is in place but the timing, intent and objective of the government of India agencies' action in various places in Rajasthan is suspicious."

The Congress is against corruption and in favour of action being taken if there is an impartial inquiry and any evidence is found, but the government is specifically targeting leaders without any facts seeing an "imminent defeat" of the BJP in the upcoming polls in Rajasthan, Pilot said.

"This is to give a message that if the BJP becomes weaker politically it will misuse various agencies and intimidate people. The Congress opposes this...The BJP is trailing in all five states and today's action is a clear indication of that," he said.

Slamming the ED's action, Ashok Gehlot at a press conference in Jaipur said the BJP is unleashing "terror" in the country.

He also said the ED swung into action after he announced two poll promises on Wednesday for women of the state.

He said that five more promises are also going to be declared on Friday and dared the ED to find five more Congress leaders to take action.

The chief minister also likened the ED action to locust attack and said the ED raids would destroy BJP's crops .

Ashok Gehlot claimed that ED's raids happen wherever elections are held. Be it Chhattisgarh, Karnataka or Himachal Pradesh, ED's raids happened just before elections, the chief minister said.

"Raids happened but the Congress won the elections. The situation is worrisome. They have unleashed terror in the country," Gehlot said at the presser.

Asserting that the Congress "will not be scared no matter how hard they try", he alleged the BJP was targeting him through ED raids as they could not topple his government.

"We will win the elections," the chief minister asserted.

Congress' media and publicity department head Pawan Khera also lashed out at the Union government over the ED's action.

"Just last week, Ashok Gehlot ji held a press conference in Delhi and raised questions on the role of central agencies in the elections. Today again, ED has become very active in Rajasthan. Modi ji, contest elections directly, stop taking the help of agencies," Khera said in a post in Hindi on X.

Ashok Gehlot last week alleged that the BJP-led Centre is misusing probe agencies to target opposition leaders even after the enforcement of the model code of conduct, and urged PM Modi and the Election Commission to intervene.
Park ruled the country with an iron fist but is also credited with laying the groundwork for its rapid economic development and remains a hero to hardline conservatives.

"We should engrave the spirit and achievements of Park and use them as a stepping stone to make a leap forward for the country," Yoon said.

President Yoon Suk-yeol attended a memorial service on the 44th anniversary of the death of former President Park Chung-hee on Thursday.

He was assassinated by his own head of security after a heavy drinking session in 1979.

Yoon also met with Park's daughter, disgraced ex-President Park Geun-hye, as they paid their respects at Park senior's tomb.

During the memorial service at the National Cemetery, Yoon told Park Geun-hye, who was ousted in 2017 over a massive corruption scandal, "I offer heartfelt words of comfort for the sorrow you have endured."

In a personal conversation afterwards, he told her Park senior "laid the foundation for what Korea is today" and said he keenly felt his "greatness."

This marks the first time that a sitting president has attended the memorial service, which has been held annually since 1980 but mostly attracted diehard rightwingers.

Park Geun-hye said during the service, "We face many difficulties today, but I believe that the Korean government and the people will overcome them."

Key figures from the ruling party also attended the memorial service.
The eight Indian former naval officers who were handed the death penalty in Qatar were charged with spying for Israel, Reuters reported on Friday quoting sources.



According to the report, a government official aware of Qatar's stance told Reuters that the eight men were accused of spying for Israel. Neither New Delhi nor Doha has officially stated the charges against the ex-Navy men who were arrested in August 2022.



ALSO READ: 8 ex-Indian Navy personnel awarded death penalty in Qatar; India to contest sentence

The eight Indians will be able to appeal the death sentence, the source briefed on the case in Qatar told Reuters, after confirming that they had been charged with spying for Israel. Both sources spoke on condition of anonymity given thesensitivity of the case, the report added.

When arrested, the eight were working on a submarine project with a private company for the Qatari authorities. The Indian government said on Thursday that it was "deeply shocked" that Qatar's Court of First Instance had awarded the death penalty to the eight Indians, adding it was "exploring all legal options".



New Delhi had said that it attaches "high importance to this case" and will "take up the verdict with Qatari authorities". The government said it would not comment further due to the "confidential nature of the proceedings."



Earlier, India will fight a legal battle to bring back all eight former Indian Navy personnel who have been sentenced to death by a court in Qatar, the BJP was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

Replying to a related question at a press conference here at the party headquarters, BJP national spokesperson Ajay Alok said the Ministry of External Affairs is already looking into the matter.



"And, India has duly placed its stand also on the issue," he told reporters.

"We are surprised to see that such things also happen. We will fight a legal battle in this matter. The international court of justice is there. I think government of India will place its stand and we will definitely succeed in bringing them back from there," Alok added.
As the two Hindi heartland states--Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan--go to polls, there are chances of several triangular contests. Its not a new party that is posing the challenge, but the rebels from these two parties, who may contest as independents after being denied tickets.

Both the BJP and the Congress have been facing protests since the candidates lists were announced. Both opponents took jibes on each other over the escalating protests. Since the protests broke out, the Congress has replaced seven candidates in Madhya Pradesh; the last day for filing nomination papers is October 30.

The BJP too has been facing protests and rebellion over the ticket distribution. The party is engaging with the rebels, asking them not to contest. Our is the worlds largest party. Everyone has aspirations. We are talking to all. The issue will be resolved, V.D. Sharma, party president had said.

As Madhya Pradesh goes to polls on November 17, both parties are racing against time to contain rebellion. The parties are known to use all means, be it counselling or coercing to make the rebels fall in line.

The rebels spoil the chances in case of a close fight and often dent the parties they have left as they are assured of votes from the same ideological family. The BJP had suffered due to rebels in past polls like those in Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka.

The challenge emerges for the party when the new entrants are given tickets over the cadre who had been toiling for years. Similar rebel trouble exists for the parties in Rajasthan where elections are scheduled to be held on November 25. The BJP is said to be facing resentment over ticket allocation in over two dozen seats. As the BJP hopes to win the election owing to the convention of revolving doors in each election, the ticket aspirants are much higher. Also, the satraps are trying to push their candidates as the party has not declared any CM face; which means, CM hopefuls will try to get in as many tickets for their loyalists. Both parties have deputed leaders to deal with the rebels asking them for a compromise, to fall in line or face action.

The situation will be clear to all the parties after the last date of withdrawal of names. The rebellion also comes as a boon for the smaller parties as they get established leaders to contest.
A constable of the Border Security Force and a native woman suffered minor injuries in unprovoked firing by Pakistan rangers along the India-Pakistan border in Jammu on Thursday night. The firing continued till the early hours of Friday.



In a statement, BSF said, On the evening of October 26, 2023, at about 8pm, Pakistan Rangers resorted to unprovoked firing along the Indo-Pak International Border in Sector Jammu. In response, BSF troops immediately retaliated to the firing. Subsequently, Pak Rangers extended their firing to target our adjacent BOPs, prompting retaliation from own Forward Defense Posts in these areas in a befitting manner.

BSF said Pakistan forces resorted to mortar firing around 9.15pm and targeted other border outposts and civilian areas. Some of the shells landed in Arnia town, resulting in minor injuries to one civilian, Rajni Devi, wife of Balbir Singh, Arnia, Jammu.

The Force said, Around 10.40pm, Pak Rangers used heavy machine gun fire from Pakistan and targeted our Posts, which was again retaliated by own troops in a befitting manner. Firing continued till the early hours of Friday, till 2.45am, BSF said.

Dev Raj Chowdhary, Sarpanch, at border village Bulleh Chak in Sai Kalan, Arnia told ANI, "There was a lot of firing by Pakistan overnight. No person was injured but houses were damaged. This kind of firing from the Pakistani side has been witnessed after almost six years. Our security forces retaliated to the firing." Ekta, another villager from Arnia told the publication that her house got damaged in the firing, at around 8pm on Thursday night. Mortal shells were found by villagers at another border village Bulleh Chak as well.
The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday night arrested West Bengal minister and Trinamool Congress leader Jyotipriya Mallick in the alleged multi-crore ration distribution scam.

"West Bengal minister Jyotipriya Mallick has been arrested by ED in connection with an alleged case of corruption in rationing distribution," the agency stated in an official release.



Mallick was arrested at 3.23 am on Friday. While being escorted by the ED officials and CRPF jawans from his home in Salt Lake to the ED office in the CGO complex, the minister told reporters that he was the "victim of a grave conspiracy".



#WATCH | Kolkata: West Bengal minister Jyotipriya Mallick has been arrested by ED in connection with an alleged case of corruption in rationing distribution.



He says, "I am the victim of a grave conspiracy." pic.twitter.com/gARyddVT41  ANI (@ANI) October 26, 2023

The arrest came hours after the central agency conducted raids at the residences of Mallick and eight others in connection with the scam. The ED officials searched the minister's Salt Lake flats and the residence of Mallicks personal assistant Amit Dey in Nagerbazar in the North 24 Paraganas district.



West Bengal minister Jyotipriya Mallick being produced before the Bankshall court in Kolkata | Salil Bera

The agency is probing Mallicks links to businessman Bakibur Rahman, who was recently arrested in the case. Rahman, who owns several hotels, resorts and bars, is alleged to have made an investment of over Rs 50 crore in the companies. ED sources said over 100 documents with stamps of government offices were found in his flat.



TMC chief and Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee had termed the raids as "a dirty political game" and questioned the "atrocities, lawlessness going on". Banerjee said the BJP was playing a dirty game ahead of the elections. "I want to ask whether there has been a single such raid at any BJP leader's residence?" she questioned.



The chief minister also threatened to file a police case against the BJP and ED if anything happened to Mallick during the searches at his residences in Kolkata. "Jyotipriya Mallick is unwell. I will lodge an FIR if anything happens to him during the ED raids," Banerjee said.



Banerjee is yet to respond to the arrest.



Mallick is the third TMC leader to be arrested by the ED this year. The agency had arrested former West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee and his aide Arpita Mukherjee in connection with the teachers' recruitment scam. TMC's Burbhum district president Anubrata Mondal also been arrested earlier in connection with a cattle smuggling case in May.


The Haryana government has released images it claims are from NASA, purportedly showing more than double incidents of stubble-burning in Punjab as compared to Haryana. The images were reportedly taken on October 25 and 26.

Haryana's move comes as Punjab claimed on Thursday that the number of stubble-burning incidents came down by 53 per cent between September 15 and October 25 in the state, as compared to the same period last year. According to the Punjab government, while there were 5,798 incidents last year, it was 2,704 this year.



The state government, led by AAP's Bhagwant Mann, cited timely distribution of machines, utilisation of machines lying idle, efforts to ensure maximum utilisation of stubble in various industries and awareness programmes to have contributed to the reduction.



However, the political row over farm fires between BJP and AAP took a new turn on Friday with the Haryana Government released the images, alleging that Punjab still reports over double the stubble burning incidents than Haryana.



The images released by Haryana government claiming to be from NASA showing more than double stubble burning incidents in Punjab as compared to Haryana on October 25 and 26 | ANI

While the AAP has blamed the BJP government in Haryana for the "threefold rise" in the number of stubble-burning cases in the state over the last year, the BJP accuses the Delhi government led by AAP of trying to cover up for Punjab. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) too had issued notices to the Punjab chief secretary and member secretary of the Central Pollution Control Board.



After releasing the images, Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattars OSD (Officer on Special Duty) Jawahar Yadav told ANI that the images from NASA clearly show where more farm fires are rampant. "More than double stubble burning has occurred in Punjab as compared to Haryana. The Haryana government has brought it down. The silence of Arvind Kejriwal about the NASA data creates suspicion. He has alleged that Indian agencies are not giving data on pollution. Why does he need it now?," Yadav said. He added that the Punjab government has failed and "Kejriwal's face has been exposed in front of the public".

Delhi AQI is still poor



The national capital continued to suffer with the air quality still in the 'poor' category for the fifth consecutive day on Friday. The situation is likely to worsen in the coming days.



The city's average air quality index (AQI) stood at 256 at 9 am on Friday. Several areas recorded their AQI in the 'very poor' category. Delhi's 24-hour average AQI was 256 at 4 pm on Thursday, 243 on Wednesday and 220 on Tuesday. The Centre's Air Quality Early Warning System for Delhi has predicted that the city's air quality is likely to deteriorate to 'very poor' category on Saturday.


A few months ago, when the Congress' central leadership convened a meeting to discuss the preparations for the upcoming Assembly elections in Rajasthan, it was announced that the party's candidates for the polls would be declared much in advance.



However, the Congress appears to be exercising extreme caution in declaring its candidates for the state election and it has proved to be a long wait for the Congress' nominees for the coming polls. The first list of 33 candidates was announced on October 21, and the second list of 43 candidates was released the following day, a third list comprising 19 names was made official on October 26. In all, 95 candidates have been announced so far by the Congress for the election slated to be held on November 25. At present, the Congress has 108 MLAs in the 200-member Vidhan Sabha.

In the lists announced so far, the majority of the party MLAs have been retained. A balancing act on part of the Congress leadership is also evident, which is significant in the backdrop of the bitter tussle for power between Gehlot and Pilot that has been witnessed. Both factions can claim to have got their people in when one looks at the lists of candidates announced so far.

The discussion within the party about replacing a substantial number of MLAs to deal with the feeling of anti-incumbency against the legislators has not translated into any action, as far as the first three lists are concerned. Most sitting MLAs and ministers have been retained in the seats for which names have been announced so far.

MLAs loyal to Pilot, who had taken his side during his rebellion against the Gehlot government in 2020 feature in the list, so do independent MLAs whose support had proved crucial to keep the government safe.

Suspense continues though about the fate of two cabinet ministers Shanti Dhariwal and Mahesh Joshi, and Dharmendra Rathore, Chairman of Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation, with their names not figuring in the candidates' lists so far. The three leaders, known to be close to Gehlot, are accused of having had a role to play in the scuttling of the Congress Legislature Party in September 2022.

Congress appears to be exercising caution in the crucial election and erring on the side of safety in choosing candidates.
To mark the Navy Day on December 4, the Southern Naval Command will roll out a host of programmes from the last week of November. The news conference at the Ernakulam Press Club was addressed by Commodore V.Z. Job, commanding officer of INS Venduruthy and station commander, Kochi area.

Also present were Captain Ajay Chellappan, executive officer of INS Venduruthy, and Commander Atul Pillai, defence PRO in Kochi.

The commodore said that Navy Day marks the daring attack launched by the missile boats of the Indian Navy on Karachi during the Indo-Pak War of 1971. The theme of the Navy Week 2023 is Indian Navy: Combat Ready, Credible and Future Proof.

Ships at Southern Naval Command will open to children with special needs and senior citizens on November 18 and then to invited school students from November 20 to 21. During the visit, exhibition stalls will showcase advanced weapons and equipment.

From November 17 to 19, the Indian Naval Symphonic Band will perform at the Indian Naval Maritime Museum in Fort Kochi. Additionally, an exclusive photo exhibition is scheduled at Lulu Mall, Kochi, from November 17 to 19, displaying images captured by journalists across the country.

Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Vice Admiral M.A. Hampiholi, will address the media onboard a naval ship on December 2. On the evening of December 3, the Southern Naval Command Band will perform a special symphonic band performance at the Naval Base in Kochi for a restricted audience.

Navy Day on December 4 will begin with Admiral M.A. Hampiholi laying a wreath at the War Memorial at the Southern Naval Command, followed by the naval operations demonstration on the evening of December 4 at Rajendra Maidan, Ernakulam.

The demonstration will display the operational capabilities of navy ships, along with aircraft operations and special operations. Other events like synchronised drills performance by NCC cadets and illumination by ships are also planned. The At Home Reception hosted by Vice Admiral M.A. Hampiholi, in the Navy House, will be attended by distinguished persons from government and civil society, including serving and retired defence personnel.
US President Joe Biden may be vociferous in his support for Israel in its war against the militant group Hamas, but the White House has suddenly increased its outreach to Muslim and Arab Americans. On Thursday, Biden reportedly met with Muslim-American leaders at the White House in private to discuss the "anti-Muslim attitudes."

The meeting comes in the wake of reports that the President could see his support base erode among young, progressive voters and American Muslims who feel he isn't showing enough sympathy for the Palestinians.



Biden came under fire on Thursday for saying that he has "no confidence" in the death tally from the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.



According to media reports, Thursday's meeting focused on the White Houses efforts to combat Islamophobia amid the recent incident wherein a 6-year-old Palestinian-American was stabbed to death by an American man in Chicago. Police say the child and his mother were targeted due to their religion and heritage background.



In his speech from the Oval Office on October 10, Biden made no mention of Gazans who lost their lives in the air raids, He failed to mention that Palestinians had died. Some Arab and Muslim Americans feel "dumbfounded" and "disheartened" at this.



"It felt like Muslim blood was cheap. All lives are not equal in the eyes of the Biden administration. There's more precedent given to Israeli lives than there are to Muslim lives," said Niala Mohammad, director of policy and strategy at the Muslim Public Affairs Council and former senior policy analyst for the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.



This growing frustration among Arab Americans and Muslims could be reflected in next year's Presidential elections.



While Arab Americans and Muslims are just a small portion of the electorate, they can be significant in tightly contested battleground states like Michigan and Pennsylvania. Exit polls show a clear majority of Muslims voted for Biden in 2020.



In hotly-contested Michigan, Arab Americans account for 5% of the vote. In other battleground states, Pennsylvania and Ohio, they are between 1.7% to 2%, Reuters quoted Jim Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute. Biden won Michigan with 50.6% of the vote in 2020, compared to 47.8% for Trump, and Pennsylvania with 50.01% to Trump's 48.84%, a difference of less than 81,000 votes.



While political analysts think Arab and Muslim Americans are unlikely to back Trump, they could decide not to vote altogether. "I do think it will cost him Michigan," said Laila El-Haddad, a Maryland-based author and social activist from Gaza, told Reuters.



"The voters are heartbroken. They dont want to vote for Trump. But right now theyre asking themselves, How can we vote for the other side given the refusal to call upon Israel to abide by a ceasefire and the continued rhetoric that were seeing here domestically?" Wael Alzayat, CEO of the Muslim advocacy group Emgage, told Politico. "What Im most concerned about is actually not whether theyre going to vote for Trump or not, but whether these voters are going to stay home."



The message has reportedly reached Biden. Mmany Democratic members of Congress have alerted the White House officials about the need to address the isolation and fear their Muslim constituents were experiencing.



Things have slightly changed since then as Biden repeatedly said Hamas doesnt represent the Palestinian people and expressed concern for Palestinian civilians. He has since pushed Israel to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.


On Thursday, Qatar shocked India by awarding eight former Indian Navy personnel death sentences in an alleged "espionage case." The verdict, which came out of the blue, shocked India which has now "vowed to explore all legal options in the case".

Ironically, the details of the "high importance" espionage case or the charges the Indians faced were not made public by the Qatari authorities. The Indian side too has so far kept mum on the 'crimes' of the Indian nationals, who worked with the private Qatari company, Al Dahra.



The Indians awarded the death penalty include former Indian Navy captain Saurabh Vashisht, commander Purenendu Tiwari, captain Birendra Kumar Verma, commander Sugunakar Pakala, commander Sanjeev Gupta, commander Amit Nagpal and sailor Ragesh.



All eight were former Indian Navy officials with "unblemished service records" and had taken voluntary retirements in search of greener pastures. They moved to Qatar to join the Al Dahra security company, which had a pact with Qatari authorities for facilitating training to naval personnel.



According to the old website of Al Dahra, the company provided training, logistics and maintenance services to the Qatari Emiri Naval Force (QENF). However, the website is now revamped and the company name changed to 'Dahra Global' and it no longer boasts any connection with the QENF.



The owner of the company was an Omani national, Khamis al-Ajmi, a retired squadron leader of the Royal Oman Air Force. al-Ajmi too was jailed along with the eight Indians, but he was released in November 2022.



A report that appeared in Al Jazeera in May claims the Indians are accused of passing information about a stealth-capable submarine, allegedly to Israel.



In 2020, Qatar signed a pact with Italian-based shipbuilding firm Fincantieri SpA to build submarines as part of a larger project involving the construction of a naval base and maintenance of its military fleet. The project now seems to have been dropped.



Even after the spy case broke out, Israel did not officially comment on the issue. But Al Jazeera said Tel Aviv "has stakes in preventing the development of military technologies across the Middle East, as it fears it could undercut its United States-backed military edge."



The arrests reportedly happened on 30 August, 2022, under the cover of darkness. The Qatars State Security Bureau, their spy agency, did not inform the Indian Embassy about the arrest and only a month later could they call their families to inform them about the development.



There were speculations that the ex-Indian Navy officers were being "framed" by Pakistani intelligence agencies. But, Indian officials never confirmed these rumours. Indian Ambassador to Qatar and the Deputy Chief of Mission met them in prison and they had legal representation in court. This hinted that the Indian government are aware of the charges, but has decided against revealing them to the public.



What's next



Now that the Ministry of External Affairs said that they are awaiting the detailed judgement in the case and are exploring all legal options, talks may have started with the Qatari side. The government said it would continue to extend all consular and legal assistance to the Indians. "We attach high importance to this case and have been following it closely. We will continue to extend all consular and legal assistance. We will also take up the verdict with Qatari authorities," the MEA statement said.



Unconfirmed reports say families of the former Indian Navy personnel have reportedly filed a mercy plea to the Emir of Qatar.
South Korea's constitutional court, on Thursday, has upheld two anti-LGBTQI laws. This includes a law banning same-sex relations in the military. In a judgement, the court said that same-sex relations would be a 'threat' to combat readiness.

The court desisted from calling a clause in the Military Criminal Act that bans anal intercourse or any other indecent act during service as unconstitutional. Such acts are banned even if they are consensual or the military personnel are on leave.

Engaging in such an act could lead to punishments of up to two years in prison. LGBTQ activists have decried the ruling and view it as discriminatory. Previously, the law has been used to arrest several people. One of the judges stated that opportunities for same-sex relations were frequent as there were many men in the military. Same-sex relations among civilians, however, isn't a crime. It is unclear whether same-sex relations between women is banned.



Lim Tae-hoon, head of the Center for Military Human Rights Korea, which assists soldiers including those accused of breaking the anti-sodomy law, said the decision was absurd, illogical, regressive and driven by prejudice, The Guardian reported.





In South Korea, all able-bodied men between ages 18 and 28 are required to serve at least 20 months in the military. While homosexuality in South Korea is no longer considered to be 'harmful and obscene, discrimination against the LGBTQ community is still widespread. In 2021 two soldiers were criminally punished for a consensual sexual act. At the time, a court said their actions bordered on rape.
Korea signed a wide range of business deals with contractors in Saudi Arabia and Qatar during President Yoon Suk-yeol's recent state visit to the Middle East. Korean construction companies, automakers and petrochemical companies are competing globally and are widely viewed as optimum partners for Middle Eastern countries. Korea has now inked US$79.2 billion worth of deals in the fields of energy, infrastructure, electric vehicles and defense with companies in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE over the last two years.

According to the UN Industrial Development Organization, Korea ranks third in the world after Germany and China in terms of manufacturing competitiveness as of 2018, up from 17th place in 1990. It ranks first in shipbuilding and displays, fourth in petrochemicals and sixth in cars, machine tools and steel. Korea is also virtually top-ranked in terms of memory chips and rechargeable batteries and is the world's eighth-largest arms exporter. This was possible due to the innovative efforts and sweat of Korean entrepreneurs and workers.

But whether Korea will retain that competitiveness 10 to 20 years down the road is doubtful. Last year, it saw a record high number of export products lose competitiveness, requiring the country to rely on imports instead. Nine out of Korea's top 10 exports to China lost competitiveness. Korea used to achieve a surplus in trade with China since the two countries established diplomatic ties in 1992, but this year it is expected to shift into deficit. There are 136 Chinese companies on the Fortune Global 500 list, and only 16 are Korean. Last year, Taiwan, home to chipmaker TSMC, beat Korea in terms of per-capita GDP. Korea's exports are precariously dominated by semiconductors, continues to be at the mercy of the volatile chip market.
The Pentagon has said that the US forces carried out air strikes on two locations in eastern Syria linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The attacks were in retaliation for drone and missile attacks against U.S. bases and personnel in the region last week.

The strikes were ordered by U.S. President Joe Biden, the Pentagon said, adding that the U.S. will take additional measures if attacks by Iran's proxies continue.



A senior US military official said the air strikes took place at roughly 4:30 a.m. on Friday in Syria (0130 GMT) near Abu Kamal, a Syrian town on the border with Iraq. Two F-16 fighter jets using precision munitions to strike weapons and ammunition storage areas connected to the IRGC. Though there is no information yet about the casualties, the US official clarified that there had been Iranian-aligned militia and IRGC personnel on the base but no civilians.



Another senior defence official told The Associated Press that the sites were chosen because they stored the kind the munitions used by the IRGC against the US forces.



The al-Tanf military outpost in southern Syria | AP

A statement by U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin read: "These precision self-defence strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on October 17."



"These Iranian-backed attacks against U.S. forces are unacceptable and must stop," Austin said. He added that Biden directed the narrowly tailored strikes to make clear that the United States will not tolerate such attacks and will defend itself, its personnel, and its interests. He added that the operation was separate and distinct from Israel's war against Hamas.



Austin added that the "F-16 airstrikes will have a significant impact on the ability of Iranian proxy groups to continue to attack U.S. forces." He did not name the groups targeted, stating that they "could have different names, but the U.S. holds Tehran responsible for funding, arming, equipping and directing the proxies".



According to the Pentagon, there have now been at least 19 attacks on U.S. bases and personnel in Iraq and Syria since Oct. 17, including three new ones on Thursday. Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said 21 U.S. personnel were injured in two of those assaults that used drones to target al-Asad Airbase in Iraq and al-Tanf Garrison in Syria. While the injured personnel returned to duty, a contractor suffered a cardiac arrest and died while seeking shelter from a possible drone attack.



Biden had earlier warned Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei against targeting the U.S. personnel in the Middle East, the White House said earlier on Thursday. The officials at the Pentagon and the White House too made it clear for the past week that the U.S. would respond and "it would be at the time and place of our choosing."



"I think we've been crystal clear that we maintain the inherent right of defending our troops and we will take all necessary measures to protect our forces and our interests overseas," Ryder told reporters during a Pentagon briefing.





(With inputs from agencies)
Israel's defence minister said on Friday that it expects to launch a ground offensive into Gaza soon that will be long and difficult, and aim to destroy a vast network of tunnels used by the territory's militant Hamas rulers.

Yoav Gallant spoke to a small group of foreign reporters after Israeli forces backed by fighter jets and drones carried out a second ground raid into Gaza in as many days, striking the outskirts of Gaza City.

He said the ground invasion would include large forces, backed by airstrikes, and will take a long time, without elaborating.

He said it would be followed by a third phase of lower-intensity fighting, as Israel destroys pockets of resistance."

The Palestinian death toll has already soared past 7,300 as Israel has carried out waves of devastating airstrikes in response to a bloody Hamas incursion into southern Israel on October 7.

The health ministry in Gaza, which tracks the toll, released a detailed list of names and identification numbers on Thursday. The toll includes more than 3,000 minors and more than 1,500 women.

The overall number of deaths far exceeds the combined toll of all four previous wars between Israel and Hamas, estimated at around 4,000.

A ground invasion is expected to cause even higher casualties on both sides as Israeli forces and Hamas battle each other in dense residential areas.

More than 1,400 people in Israel, mostly civilians, were slain during the initial Hamas attack, according to the Israeli government. Hamas is holding at least 229 captives inside Gaza, including men, women, children and older adults.

Hospitals have been scrounging for fuel to run emergency generators that power incubators and other life-saving equipment after Israel cut off all fuel deliveries to Gaza at the start of the war, forcing its only power plant to shut down.

Only a trickle of food and medicine have been allowed in since the war began.

Gallant said Israel believes that Hamas would confiscate any fuel that enters. He said Hamas uses generators to pump air into its hundreds of kilometres (miles) of tunnels, which originate in civilian areas. He showed reporters aerial footage of what he said was a tunnel shaft built right next to a hospital.

For air, they need oil. For oil, they need us, he said.

Little is known about Hamas' secretive tunnels and other infrastructure, and it wasn't possible to independently confirm Gallant's claims.

Lynne Hastings, the UN aid coordinator for the Palestinian territories, declined to comment on Gallant's remarks, saying we don't know what Hamas has or doesn't have.

We have been bringing fuel into Gaza in coordination with the government of Israel for decades. We know fuel is a high-risk item and are working with the Israelis to make sure what we will be using for our operations is done securely, she said.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, which provides basic services to hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza, said it has been forced to ration fuel among lifesaving machines in hospitals, bakeries, and desalinisation plants, and only has enough for a few more days.

The siege means that food, water and fuel basic commodities are being used to collectively punish more than 2 million people, among them, a majority of children and women, Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, told reporters.

Earlier on Friday, the military said ground forces raided inside Gaza, striking dozens of militant targets over the past 24 hours.

It said aircraft and artillery bombed targets in Shijaiyah, a neighbourhood on Gaza City's outskirts that was the scene of an urban battle in the 2014 Gaza war.

The military said the soldiers exited the territory without suffering any casualties. It reported an earlier, hourslong raid into northern Gaza on Thursday.

The damage to Gaza from nearly three weeks of bombardment showed in satellite photos of several locations taken before the war and again in recent days.

Entire rows of residential buildings simply disappear in the photos, reduced to smears of dust and rubble.

A complex of 13 high-rises by the sea was pounded to dust near Gaza City's al-Shati refugee camp, leaving only a few tottering bits of facade, according to the photos by Maxar Technologies.

The military says it only strikes militant targets and accuses Hamas of operating among civilians in an attempt to protect its fighters.

Palestinian militants have fired thousands of rockets into Israel, including one that hit a residential building in Tel Aviv on Friday, wounding three people.

The conflict has threatened to ignite a wider war across the region.

US warplanes struck targets in eastern Syria that the Pentagon said were linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guard after a string of attacks on American forces, and two mysterious objects hit towns in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said the strikes were a response to ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against US personnel in Iraq and Syria over the past 10 days. He said the operation was separate from the Israel-Hamas war.

Iran-backed fighters later fired rockets at an oil facility housing US troops in eastern Syria, according to Syrian opposition activists. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the US strikes had wounded seven Iran-backed Iraqi fighters.

Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed ally of Hamas in Lebanon, has repeatedly traded fire with Israel along the border, and Israel has carried out airstrikes targeting Iran-linked groups in Syria.

The United States has sent two aircraft carrier strike groups to the region, along with additional fighter jets and other weaponry and personnel, in part to deter Iran and its allies from entering the war on the side of Hamas.

Egypt's military, meanwhile, said a drone crashed into a building in the Red Sea town of Taba, on the border with Israel, slightly wounding six people.

In a separate incident, the state-run Al-Qahera news said a strange object landed near a power station in the Red Sea town of Nuweiba, further south. Footage showed debris and smoke rising from the side of a nearby mountain.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesperson, said an aerial threat was identified in the area of the Red Sea, which appeared to be the source of the Taba incident.

He said fighter jets were dispatched to the area and that Israel, Egypt and the US were tightening their defences in the region.

Last week, a US Navy destroyer in the northern Red Sea shot down three cruise missiles and several drones launched toward Israel by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in northern Yemen.

About 1.4 million of Gaza's 2.3 million residents have fled their homes, with nearly half of them crowding into UN shelters.







Hundreds of thousands remain in northern Gaza, despite Israel ordering them to evacuate to the south and saying that those who remain might be considered accomplices of Hamas.

Over the past week, Israel has allowed more than 80 trucks with aid enter from Egypt through the Rafah crossing, the only entry point into Gaza not controlled by Israel.

But aid workers say the convoys meet only a tiny fraction of the territory's mounting humanitarian needs. Before the war, an average of 500 trucks entered Gaza each day, according to the United Nations.

The US has been working with other mediators to send in more humanitarian aid, but Israel is insisting on strict screening procedures for all trucks that enter.

Washington says Hamas has refused to open the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing to let hundreds of foreign passport holders leave.

AP
Westerly, RI (02891)

Today

A mix of clouds and sun during the morning will give way to cloudy skies this afternoon. High 59F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy after midnight. Low 41F. Winds light and variable.




In the midst of two active and potentially world-changing conflicts in the Middle East and Europe, the U.S. is hoping to find at least a small measure of common ground with China as Chinas top diplomat visits Washington this week.

Over three days of meetings that begin Thursday evening, top Biden administration officials, including possibly the president himself, will press Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the importance of China stepping up its role on the world stage if it wants to be considered a responsible major international player.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Bidens national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, are expected to urge China to play a constructive role in both the Israel-Hamas and Russia-Ukraine wars. Those meetings could set the stage for a summit between President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping next month on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders gathering in San Francisco.

The U.S. has been disappointed with China over its support for Russia in the war against Ukraine and its relative silence on the Middle East. In addition, the worlds two largest economies are at odds on issues such as human rights, climate change, Taiwan, the South China Sea and North Korea.

Still, both sides have expressed a willingness to talk with each other since Blinken canceled a planned visit to China in February after the shootdown of a Chinese spy balloon over the U.S., which marked a low point in recent relations.

In the months that followed that crisis, however, Blinken rescheduled his trip and went to China in June. He was followed in quick succession by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, climate envoy John Kerry and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.

In addition, Sullivan met with Wang in Malta in mid-September ahead of Blinkens discussions with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng later that month on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York. And Blinken spoke just last week with Wang about the Israel-Hamas crisis.

The goal, according to U.S. officials, is to set the stage for another Biden-Xi summit at which the two leaders could explore cooperation or at least easing outright hostility on the most pressing matters of the day.

Wang Yis visit will serve as one of the final touchpoints in laying the groundwork for the Biden-Xi meeting, said Ryan Hass, director of the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institute, a Washington-based think tank. Wangs meetings in Washington will set the contours for the topics the two leaders will discuss when they meet in November.

It opens the possibility of the worlds two largest powers pursuing coordinated efforts to limit escalation or expansion of violence in Ukraine and the Middle East, he said.

Yun Sun, director of the China Program at the Stimson Center, another Washington think tank, said Wangs trip signals that the Xi-Biden summit is almost certain.

Wang is here to pave the ground for Xis San Francisco trip. Thats the core focus of the trip. It means issues will be negotiated, solutions will be discussed and details will be deliberated and inked, Sun said. The APEC summit is 20 days away, so time is of essence. His trip means that Xi is coming. Xis coming means meeting with Biden. The Xi-Biden summit means efforts to stabilize bilateral ties.

Scott Kennedy, senior adviser and trustee chair in Chinese business and economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said it is important for Wang and the Americans to discuss points of contention in the Indo-Pacific region and elsewhere but that it is unlikely the two sides will reach much agreement.

However, Wangs trip could yield results such as additional direct flights between the two countries, visas for more journalists and even agreements on climate change and resumption of high-level military dialogue, Kennedy said.

On Thursday, the Pentagon confirmed Chinese reports that Cynthia Carras, principal director for China, Taiwan, Mongolia, will represent the U.S. Defense Department at the Xiangshan Forum, which begins Sunday in Beijing. The forum organizers earlier this week said she had registered for the event, along with Chad Sbragia, a former Pentagon official.

Wu Qian, a spokesman for the Chinese Defense Ministry, said relevant Chinese officials will conduct exchanges with her. He also said Beijing attaches great importance to the development of military-to-military relations between the two countries.

During Wangs visit to Washington, he will have in-depth exchanges of views with U.S. officials on a range of issues and state Chinas principled position and legitimate concerns on relations between the two countries, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.

The Chinese president last came to the U.S. in 2017, when former President Donald Trump hosted him at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Biden, who took office in 2021, has yet to host Xi on U.S. soil. The two men last met in Bali, Indonesia, in November 2022, on the sidelines of the Group of 20 meeting of leading rich and developing nations.

Wangs trip is one of a string of meetings and activities to warm up Xis visit to the U.S.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is visiting China this week, had a surprise meeting with Xi on Wednesday in Beijing. The Chinese president told the governor that the achievements of China-U.S. relations have not come easily and should be cherished all the more, according to the official news agency Xinhua.

Earlier this month, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer led a delegation of six senators to China, in the first visit by U.S. lawmakers since 2019. Schumer was also received by Xi, who said the Thucydides Trap is not inevitable. The Thucydides Trap is a political term for the tendency of major clashes when an emerging power challenges an existing power.

The U.S.-China relationship began to sour in 2018 when the Trump administration slapped hefty tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods. It deteriorated further over a range of issues, including rights abuses, the South China Sea, Taiwan, technology and the COVID-19 pandemic.

(AP)




Authorities searched forests, waterways and small towns Thursday for a U.S. Army reservist who they say killed 18 people and wounded 13 in a mass shooting at a bowling alley and a bar that sent panicked patrons scrambling under tables and behind bowling pins and gripped the entire state of Maine in fear.

Schools, doctors offices and grocery stores closed and people stayed behind locked doors in cities as far away as 50 miles (80 kilometers) from the scenes of Wednesday nights shootings in Lewiston.

President Joe Biden ordered all U.S. flags to be flown at half-staff as condolences poured in from around the nation and at home, including from Maine native and author Stephen King, who called it madness. The attacks stunned a state of only 1.3 million people that has one of the countrys lowest homicide rates: 29 killings in all of 2022.

The suspect, Robert Card, is considered armed and dangerous and should not be approached, authorities said at a news conference. Card underwent a mental health evaluation in mid-July after he began acting erratically during training, a U.S. official told The Associated Press.

Police said they have had no reported sightings of Card since the shootings at Schemengees Bar and Grille and at Sparetime Recreation, a bowling alley about 4 miles (6 kilometers) away. The Androscoggin County Sheriffs Office released two photos of the suspect walking into the bowling alley with a rifle raised to his shoulder.

A telephone number listed for Card in public records was not in service.

Several FBI agents and other heavily armed officers gathered Thursday afternoon off a road where several relatives of Card lived near Bowdoin. A military-style vehicle and a white van arrived as a helicopter hovered overhead and someone repeatedly yelled, FBI! Open the door! Several loud bangs were heard a short time later. Nearby, several police officers armed with rifles stood on alert in the back of a pickup truck.

The Canada Border Services Agency issued an armed and dangerous alert to its officers stationed along the Canada-U.S. border.

Maine Gov. Janet Mills promised to do whatever was needed to find Card and to hold whoever is responsible for this atrocity accountable  and to seek full justice for the victims and their families.

We are not, and we will not, rest in this endeavor, she said.

Eight murder warrants were issued for Card, 40, after authorities identified eight of the victims, police said. Ten more will likely be issued once the names of the rest of the dead are confirmed, said Maine State Police Col. William Ross.

Three of the 13 people wounded in the shootings were in critical condition and five were hospitalized but stable, Central Maine Medical Center officials said.

The attack started at Sparetime, where a childrens bowling league was taking place, just before 7 p.m. Wednesday. One bowler, who identified himself only as Brandon, said he heard about 10 shots, thinking the first was a balloon popping.

I had my back turned to the door. And as soon as I turned and saw it was not a balloon  he was holding a weapon  I just booked it, he told the AP.

Brandon said he scrambled down the length of the alley, sliding into the pin area and climbing up to hide in the machinery.

Less than 15 minutes after the shooting began, numerous 911 calls started coming in from Schemengees, which was offering 25% discounts to customers who work in the bar or restaurant industry.

Patrick Poulin was supposed to be at the bowling center with his 15-year-old son, who is in a league that was practicing Wednesday. They stayed home, but he estimates there were probably several dozen young bowlers, ages 4 to 18, along with their parents, in the facility. Poulins brother was there, he said, and shepherded some of the children outside when the shooting began.

Hes pretty shook up, Poulin said Thursday. And its just sinking in today, like, wow, I was very close to being there. And a lot of the people that got hurt, I know.

April Stevens lives in the same neighborhood where one of the shootings took place. She turned on all her lights overnight and locked her doors. She knew someone killed at the bar and another person injured who needed surgery.

Im still working because I can work from home. My husband canceled his jobs today to stay home with me. Were praying for everyone, Stevens said through tears.

Authorities launched a multistate search for Card on land and water. The Coast Guard sent out a patrol boat Thursday morning along the Kennebec River, but after hours of searching, they found nothing out of the ordinary, said Chief Petty Officer Ryan Smith, who is in charge of the Coast Guards Boothbay Harbor Station.

A car believed to belong to Card had been discovered by a boat launch in the town of Lisbon near the Androscoggin River, which connects to the Kennebec, and Cards 15-foot (4.5-meter) boat remains unaccounted for, Smith said.

A bulletin sent to police across the country after the attack said Card had been committed to a mental health facility for two weeks this past summer after hearing voices and threats to shoot up a military base.

A U.S. official said Card was assigned to support training with the Army Reserves 3rd Battalion, 304th Infantry Regiment in West Point, New York, when commanders became concerned about him.

State police took Card to the Keller Army Community Hospital at West Point for evaluation, according to the official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss the information and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Immediately after the shooting, police armed with rifles took positions around Lewiston, Maines second largest city, with a population of 37,000. The once overwhelmingly white mill community has become one of the most diverse cities in northern New England after a major influx of immigrants, mostly from Somalia, in recent years.

Schools 50 miles (80 kilometers) away in the town of Kennebunk closed as the search continued. Maines largest city, Portland, closed its public buildings.

In many past U.S. mass shootings, the suspect was found  whether dead or alive  within minutes. But Card was still on the loose Thursday. Lewiston was mostly empty on an unusually warm fall day. Changeable message signs reminded people to stay behind locked doors.

Art teacher Miia Zellner was one of the few people out. She came with friends to downtown Lewiston, where they hammered about 100 paper hearts into trees with the words To My Neighbors.

This is just my way of showing my love and my support for the community, she said. I just hope that people, when they see this, get some type of positivity from it and feel some sense of hope.

In Bates College in Lewiston, students stayed in dorms with the blinds closed, said Diana Florence, whose son is a sophomore. She has a daughter who is a senior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which was locked down twice last month for a shooting and a man with a gun.

I could not believe it  that this is happening again. Its happening to my son after it just happened to my daughter, she said in a phone interview Thursday.

The shootings mark the 36th mass killing in the United States this year, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.

Maine doesnt require permits to carry guns, and the state has a longstanding culture of gun ownership that is tied to its traditions of hunting and sport shooting. Keeping in mind the strong support for gun rights, lawmakers passed a yellow flag law in 2019 that would require police to seek a medical evaluation of anyone believed to be dangerous before then trying to take their guns away. However, critics charged that it was a weaker version of the tougher red flag laws that many other states have adopted.

Author Stephen King responded to the shootings Thursday morning in a pair of posts on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The shootings occurred less than 50 miles from where I live. I went to high school in Lisbon. Its the rapid-fire killing machines, people. This is madness in the name of freedom. Stop electing apologists for murder, he wrote.

(AP)
The life of an Iranian filmmaker is marked by two choices: either go into exile to preserve an artistic career or endure a life fraught with persecution and censorship. Fear permeates everything in Iran, and the constant stream of news about repression, threats and even death is a glaring reminder of the challenges they face. Iranian directors Sepideh Farsi, Ali Ahmadzadeh and Mehran Tamadon met with us at 2023 Valladolid International Film Festival in Spain, thousands of miles from Irans Islamic fundamentalist regime, to denounce a system obsessed with image control. Less than two weeks ago, acclaimed filmmaker Dariush Mehrjui and his wife, screenwriter Vahideh Mohammadifar, were murdered in Iran. The three directors have come to Valladolid to present films and documentaries about the fear, current events and social context of a homeland ravaged by the great problem of Islamic fanaticism.

Our conversation is full of insights, freely shared in a manner that would be impossible in Iran. Sepideh Farsi settled in France in 1984 and has not been able to travel to Iran since 2009, when authorities began to crack down on Iranian artists in every medium. Farsis The Siren is an animated film about the brutality of the war between Iraq and Iran. The story revolves around a teenager searching for his brother amid the ruins  a poignant narrative that reflects the harsh reality of many lives in her country. Iranians each have their own unique story and relationship with the regime, and every time someone we know or even someone we dont even know dies, it feels like the whole sky comes crashing down on us. Farsi recalls a time when Iranian cinema had some freedom within the country, but now the oppression is such that even two-time Oscar-winning filmmaker Asghar Farhadi has been targeted.

Constant instability prevents filmmakers from presenting a consistent picture of the country. Farsi recalls having to change the ending of a film shot in Tehran years ago because of all the social and institutional changes that had happened since. But you cant stop showing whats going on there, she said. Mehran Tamadon listens attentively and interjects his thoughts on fear in Iran, likening it to malleable clay when capturing the essence of a constantly shifting present  particularly in the realm of documentary filmmaking. He has also settled in France and is presenting two films at the Valladolid Festival: My Worst Enemy and Where God is Not. Both premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in February, and depict the dehumanizing violence, interrogations and detentions in Iran. They start off with threats, then comes arrest, followed by jail and death, warn the three filmmakers.

Regarding the Israel-Hamas war, they agree that they need to do better to expose the truth as it really is. Farsi criticizes the news medias reporting of the war. During several recent international trips, she noticed that media reports only presented one perspective, leading to manipulated, unbalanced and incomplete narratives. Tamadon, on the other hand, feels overwhelmed by the war. He had plans to make a film highlighting the commonalities of these two communities, but the intensity of the violence has convinced him that there is no way to unite them.

From left, Iranian filmmakers Ali Ahmadzadeh, Mehran Tamadon and Sepideh Farsi; October 25, 2023; Valladolid, Spain. Emilio Fraile

The youngest of three is Ali Ahmadzadeh, who won the Golden Leopard for Critical Zone at this years Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland. The film about the drug subculture in Iran was shot clandestinely and presented without government permission at Locarno. Were all quite used to fear  its become normal because something happens every single day. But we cant stop living our lives. The circumstances are unfortunate and tragic, but weve learned to adapt and carry on, he said sadly, thinking about the endless stream of news about the excesses of the Iranian regime. Ahmadzadeh is outraged at countries that deal with terrorists and have commercial and strategic relations with countries like his. Isnt it unbelievable that the entire world fails to recognize that the problem lies in Islamic fanaticism and Islamic regimes?

Ahmadzadeh explains how the government cracks down on people who try to draw attention to the hardships in Iran. He cites the example of the veil, an obligation that many women choose to disregard. While the authorities dont arrest these women, they actively work to prevent such disobedience from spreading. Theyre worried that it looks like they dont have complete control of the country  the external image, you know. Its like they dont want anyone to know whats really going, said Ahmadzadeh. Theyre obsessed with image control, adds Farsi.

Would this conversation even be possible in Tehran? They burst into laughter.

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Sam Bankman-Fried got a test run at testifying at his fraud trial Thursday when a judge sent jurors home so he could hear snippets of testimony and decide what the FTX founder will be allowed to tell the jury.

Bankman-Fried has decided to testify Friday to tell his version of how his multibillion-dollar cryptocurrency empire grew into a giant in the industry and then collapsed, causing billions of dollars in losses that prosecutors blame on his extravagant spending on investments, donations and a lavish lifestyle.

It seemed on Thursday that Bankman-Fried was about to start his testimony before the jury after lunch when Judge Lewis A. Kaplan changed the plans, saying hed prefer to make rulings on what Bankman-Fried can testify about before he starts. He had previously said hed conduct a hearing and make those rulings on Friday.

Were in the home stretch, Kaplan told jurors as he sent them home for the day, saying he knew it was a little surprise for them to have the rest of the afternoon off. He told them they were likely to get the case in the first few days of next week.

Since early October, prosecutors have presented their case through witnesses and dozens of exhibits including financial records.

After prosecutors rested Thursday, defense lawyers immediately asked Kaplan to acquit Bankman-Fried on the grounds that prosecutors had failed to present sufficient evidence. The judge rejected the request.

The California entrepreneur has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy charges accusing him of diverting billions of dollars from his clients and investors to make risky investments, buy luxury housing, engage in a star-studded publicity campaign and make large political and charitable donations.

Bankman-Fried, 31, has remained quiet through a three-week trial as several members of his executive inner circle have testified against him in cooperation deals they made with the government before pleading guilty to criminal charges.

In their testimony, the executives insisted that Bankman-Fried directed them to spend billions of dollars taken from the accounts of FTX customers and funneled through Alameda Research, a hedge fund he started in 2017, two years before he created the FTX cryptocurrency exchange.

Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas and extradited to the United States last December, a month after his businesses collapsed.

Initially, he was freed on a $250 million personal recognizance bond and required to remain at the Palo Alto, California, home of his parents, longtime Stanford University law professors.

Kaplan revoked the bail in August after concluding that Bankman-Fried had tried to influence potential trial witnesses and ordered him jailed.

Those testifying against Bankman-Fried have included Caroline Ellison, his former girlfriend who was chief executive of Alameda before it was publicly revealed that billions of dollars were missing last November.

She told jurors that the collapse of the businesses brought her relief that I didnt have to lie anymore and she blamed Bankman-Fried for corrupting her moral compass by creating justifications for doing things that she knew to be wrong and illegal.

She also admitted doctoring financial balance sheets to try to hide that Alameda was borrowing about $10 billion from FTX customers by June 2022, a discrepancy that was revealed when customers rushed to withdraw deposits last November as word got out that their money was not safe.

(AP)




President Joe Biden met with the new House Speaker Mike Johnson and Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries at the White House on Thursday to discuss his request for nearly $106 billion for Israel, Ukraine and other national security needs.

Johnson, a staunch conservative allied with Donald Trump, has shown little interest in providing additional money from Congress to support Ukraine in its war with Russia. Biden met briefly with Johnson and Jeffries before a classified briefing for them and other congressional leaders on the assistance package, according to a White House official.

It was a productive meeting, Johnson told reporters back at the Capitol. I enjoyed my visit with the president.

Johnson, who inherited many of the same political problems that tormented past GOP leaders and challenged their tenure as speaker, had a busy first full day in office. He planned to meet later with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell. Earlier, Johnson said prayer is appropriate as a response to the mass shootings in Maine.

This is a dark time in America, Johnson said at the Capitol. He added: Prayer is appropriate at a time like this, that the evil can end and the senseless violence can stop.

Johnson, an evangelical Christian, declined to take questions, including about the possibility of any gun violence legislation from Congress.

The House convened with a bustle of activity, making up for lost time during the weeks of chaos since Rep. Kevin McCarthy was ousted as speaker. But the initial goodwill toward Johnson, R-La., blurs the political fault lines challenging his ability to lead the GOP majority in the face of daunting issues ahead.

By Nov. 17, the Congress must fund the government again or risk a federal shutdown. Biden wants nearly $106 billion in military and humanitarian aid for Israel and Ukraine. And Republicans are eager to resume their impeachment inquiry into Biden over his son Hunters business dealings.

Enough of the chaos, enough of the dysfunction, said Jeffries, D-N.Y., adding it was time for Congress to get back to business.

Jeffries said Democrats were heartbroken over the latest shootings and stand with the people of Maine in every way possible, including discussing how Congress can address gun violence.

The briefing in the Situation Room for Johnson and other House leaders on the emergency funding request was the first time the new speaker, who opposes the aid to Ukraine, was getting a close airing from White House officials about Bidens case for the money. The White House has conducted similar briefings in recent weeks.

Biden had called Johnson to congratulate him after his election Wednesday and said it was time for all of us to act responsibly to fund the government and provide that foreign aid. We need to move swiftly, the president said in a statement.

Johnson, 51, swept through on the first ballot with support from all Republicans anxious to put weeks of tumult behind and get on with the business of governing. He was quickly sworn as speaker and is now second in line to the presidency, after the vice president.

While not the Republicans top choice, Johnson had few foes and an important backer in Donald Trump.

Hes a tremendous leader, Trump said Wednesday at the New York courthouse where the Republican front-runner for the White House in 2024 is on trial over a lawsuit alleging business fraud.

Johnson heard from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who told Johnson in a call that a bipartisan agreement with Democrats is the only way to avoid a shutdown.

At the Capitol on Thursday, Johnson sat down with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who told reporters afterward that he had a very good meeting with the new speaker.

In winning the gavel, Johnson, who has been in the House for less than a decade, drew together fellow Republicans through his faith, conservative roots and Trumps nod after more seasoned leaders had failed. Far-right members in the House had refused to accept a more traditional speaker, and moderate conservatives did not want a hard-liner.

You watch and see how much this House of Representatives can actually get done under Mike Johnson, said Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, who led the eight hard-liners in ousting McCarthy.

Democrats said Johnson, a lawyer specializing in constitutional issues, was an extreme conservative, a strict opponent of abortion access and an architect of Trumps legal effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election he lost to Democrat Biden.

Republicans have chosen a MAGA acolyte to push an extreme agenda in the House at the expense of middle-class families, said Washington Rep. Suzan DelBene, the chair of the Democrats campaign committee, referring to Trumps Make America Great Again campaign slogan.

After Johnsons election, lawmakers approved a resolution Wednesday saying the House stands with Israel and condemns Hamas brutal war. They next turned to a stalled government funding bill.

Rather than take a scheduled work period at home, Republicans rearranged the House calendar to return to Washington next week and keep pushing through the various government funding bills before the Nov. 17 deadline.

In a letter to colleagues, Johnson outlined priorities that include providing a short-term funding bill, into next year, to prevent a November shutdown  almost the same move that led to McCarthys ouster.

While Johnson has spoken of the importance of helping fund Israel in the fight against Hamas, he has shown little interest in providing more money for Ukraine as it battles Russia.

Most Republicans voted against the budget deal McCarthy, R-Calif., struck with Biden earlier this year, demanding steeper spending cuts. Johnson will need to navigate the far-right demands with the realities of keeping the government functioning.

Similar Republican infighting chased three other GOP speakers  John Boehner of Ohio, Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Newt Gingrich of Georgia  to early departures. The difference now is that Republican rules allow any single lawmaker to force a vote to remove the speaker from office, the threat that ultimately toppled McCarthy.

(AP)




The White House on Thursday said Russia is executing soldiers who have failed to follow orders and threatening entire units with death if they retreat from Ukrainian artillery fire.

Its a development that U.S. national security officials believe reflects Russias morale problems 20 months into its grinding invasion of Ukraine, said White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.

Its reprehensible to think about that you would execute your own soldiers because they didnt want to follow orders and now threatening to execute entire units, its barbaric, Kirby told reporters. But I think its a symptom of how poorly Russias military leaders know theyre doing and how bad they have handled this from a military perspective.

The White House has downgraded and released intelligence findings about Russian action over the course of the war. In the past, the administration has said it has acted to disclose the intelligence to highlight plans for Russian misinformation and other activity so allies remain clear-eyed about Moscows intent and Russia thinks twice before carrying out an operation.

This latest unveiling of intelligence about Russias struggles comes as President Joe Biden is pressing the Republican-controlled House to go along with providing more funding for Ukraine as Kyiv tries to repel Russia in a war that has no end in sight.

Kirby pointed to the information as he renewed a plea for Congress to pass a nearly $106 billion supplemental funding request that Biden unveiled last week. The funding request includes more than $61 billion for Ukraine.

President Putin is not giving up on his aspirations to take all of Ukraine and as long as Russia continues its brutal assault we have to continue to support the Ukrainian people and their self defense, because his intentions are clear, Kirby said. Putin basically said that if Western weapons to Ukraine stop, Ukraine would have a week to live. So to ensure that we can continue to do that its critical that Congress step up and pass the supplemental requests that the president put forward last week.

Kirby did not provide any details on how many Russian troops have been executed for failing to follow orders or any specific examples of units threatened with execution for retreating from Ukrainian fire.

The Wagner Group military contractor was reported to have had a practice of executing those who fled. The contract soldiers were pulled out of Ukraine after their leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, mounted an armed rebellion in June. There also have been reports, including from the British Defense Ministry, that the regular Russian military has deployed barrier troops that threaten to shoot any deserters.

They are in such desperate need to make some kind of progress, particularly in the Donbas, the Donetsk areas, that they are literally throwing young men into the fight who havent been properly trained, havent been properly equipped, and certainly are not being properly led, Kirby said.

(AP)




A man accused of murder, attempted murder and a hate crime in an attack on a Palestinian-American woman and her son was indicted Thursday by an Illinois grand jury.

The eight-count indictment against Joseph Czuba, 71, tracks the charges that were filed soon after the fatal stabbing of Wadea Al-Fayoume, 6, and the wounding of Hanaan Shahin on Oct. 14. Authorities said the victims were targeted because of their Muslim faith.

Shahin told police that Czuba, her landlord in Plainfield in Will County, was upset over the Israel-Hamas war and attacked them after she had urged him to pray for peace.

Shahin, 32, is recovering from multiple stab wounds. Hundreds of people attended her sons funeral on Oct. 16.

The murder charge in the indictment against Czuba describes the boys death as the result of exceptionally brutal or heinous behavior.

Defense attorney George Lenard has said he wont comment on the case outside court. Czuba, who is in jail, is expected to return to court Monday in Joliet, 50 miles (80 kilometers) southwest of Chicago.

Earlier this week, Shahin issued a statement through the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. She asked the public to pray for peace and said her son was her best friend.

The stabbings are part of rising hostility against Muslims and Palestinians in the U.S. since Hamas attacked Israel. Elsewhere in Illinois, a Chicago-area man was charged with a hate crime in an assault against two Muslims, and an Islamic day school canceled class after receiving threats.

(AP)




A month after federal officials recommended new versions of COVID-19 vaccines, 7% of U.S. adults and 2% of children have gotten a shot.

One expert called the rates abysmal.

The numbers, presented Thursday at a meeting held by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, come from a national survey of thousands of Americans, conducted two weeks ago.

The data also indicated that nearly 40% of adults said they probably or definitely will not get the shot. A similar percentage of parents said they did not plan to vaccinate their children.

In the late summer, government health officials made the nations COVID-19 vaccination campaign more like the annual flu campaign.

Officials approved updated shots that have a single target, an omicron descendant named XBB.1.5. They replaced vaccines that targeted the original coronavirus strain and a much earlier omicron version. Last month, the CDC recommended the new shots for everyone 6 months and older.

The government also transitioned to a commercialized system that relied on the health-care industry  not the government  to handle the distribution of the shots. Many people who immediately went for shots said pharmacies or doctors didnt have them.

Americans have been urged to get different iterations of the vaccines for more than 2/12 years. This year, COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations fell to lower levels than seen in the previous three years.

Cases remain low compared with the pandemics early months. Even so, health officials say about 18,000 hospitalization and 1,200 deaths are still being reported each week.

One expert at the meeting, Dr. Camille Kotton of Harvard Medical School, called the numbers abysmal and said part of the problem may be patient confusion. She urged stepped-up public education efforts.

Dr. David Kimberlin, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, also expressed dismay.

The recommendations are not being heard, he said.

(AP)




An explosive claim that Russian President Vladimir Putin had suffered a heart attack spread across the globe this week, amplified by news outlets and social media users.

The news didnt come from the Kremlin, which dismissed it as a hoax, nor verified reporting in Russia. It came from a single anonymous account on the messaging service Telegram that provided no evidence, yet was viewed hundreds of thousands of times.

Misinformation researchers warn the account isnt credible and has spread baseless claims about Putins health in the past. But the case highlights the dangers of seeking information on the loosely moderated messaging platform that has surged in popularity amid Russias war in Ukraine.

Here is a closer look at the facts.

CLAIM: Russian President Vladimir Putin suffered a serious heart attack on Sunday and needed to be resuscitated.

THE FACTS: Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday called the claim just another hoax, telling reporters that everything is fine.

Photos released by Russian media that day showed Putin at a meeting at the Kremlin. On Wednesday, he was seen on state television directing a simulated nuclear strike drill via video call.

The denial came after news of the supposed cardiac arrest was picked up earlier that day by multiple online and television news outlets around the world, including in Australia, the United Kingdom and India. It was also widely shared across social media.

The source of all of these reports was a popular Telegram account, General SVR, which claims to have insider information from the Kremlin. But misinformation researchers warn its not reliable.

Its mocking and dismissive attitude toward the Kremlin also appeals to English-speaking audiences. Yet this channel lacks credibility, having made (most likely) false claims about Putins health before, Scott Radnitz, a professor of Russian and Eurasian Studies at the University of Washington, told the AP in an email. Many posts describe Putins body double giving speeches at international summits. And the late Yevgeny Prigozhin is supposedly alive and well in Venezuela.

Indeed, in the post Monday, the account not only alleged that Putin was found in his bedroom on Sunday convulsing on the floor, it also claimed that a body double has recently been appearing in his place at all official meetings and events.

The Telegram post in Russian has nevertheless been viewed more than 400,000 times and has been forwarded to other channels around 22,000 times, according to data from Telegram analysis tool TGStat. The channel also gained at least 5,000 subscribers between Monday and Tuesday.

The account did not return a request for comment this week. Experts say that while there has been much speculation about who runs the channel, its author remains anonymous.

This isnt the first time the accounts dubious claims about Putins health have been believed by media outlets abroad, according to Jon Roozenbeek, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Cambridge whose research focuses on misinformation.

For example, the account, which has been around since 2020 and has more than 374,000 subscribers, posted a similar claim about Putin falling down stairs in December last year, which was also picked up by multiple tabloids at the time.

Telegram, already a popular messaging service in Eastern Europe, has become especially prominent in Russia amid the war in Ukraine because Western social media has been restricted and state media is not a reliable source of information, experts said.

Telegram has emerged as an important information battlefield following Russias re-invasion of Ukraine, said Eto Buziashvili, a research associate at the Atlantic Councils Digital Forensic Research Lab who specializes in Russia and influence operations.

But the platform, which is only lightly moderated, has been a hub of misinformation around the conflict. Telegram did not respond to a request for comment.

Most Russians dont necessarily rely on sensationalist channels like General SVR, Roozenbeek said. But the accounts content could be a blind spot for outside observers.

Experts noted that posts such as the one falsely suggesting a heart attack play into prior speculation and rumors around the 71-year-old Russian leaders health, which have been spread by everyone from anonymous internet users to Russian intelligence services. A Telegram account that claims to offer access to secret, inside information could also be appealing to readers, Buziashvili said.

It is simply one of those things that many Western observers, including journalists, kind of want to be true (because of their justifiable opposition to the war and dislike of Putin), and so we sometimes become a bit careless, Roozenbeek wrote.

You see the same with outrageous stories about Kim Jong-un, he added, referring to the North Korean leader.

(AP)




Conservative talk radio host Larry Elder announced Thursday that he was ending his 2024 Republican campaign for president and endorsing former President Donald Trump.

Elder, who sought to replace California Gov. Gavin Newsom in a failed 2021 recall effort, said in a statement that he had made the difficult decision to end his bid after careful consideration and consultation with his team and to throw his support behind Trump. Trumps leadership, he said, was instrumental in advancing conservative America-first principles and policies that have benefited our great nation.

He said now was the time to unite behind Trump to beat President Joe Biden. He also said he hoped his campaign had shined a light on the issues important to him, including fatherlessness, fighting crime and opposition to the idea that the U.S. is a racist country.

Elder is the fourth major candidate to suspend or end his 2024 GOP bid, following Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, former Texas congressman Will Hurd and businessman Perry Johnson. Johnson also backed Trump on his way out of the race, while Hurd endorsed former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley.

He announced his long-shot campaign in April, saying that America is in decline, but this decline in not inevitable.

We can enter a new American Golden Age, but we must choose a leader who can bring us there. Thats why Im running for President, he wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Elder found little visibility in a primary race dominated by Trump and including other high-profile figures such as Haley, former Vice President Mike Pence, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, U.S. Sen. Tim Scott and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.

Elder wasnt among the GOP candidates on stage for either presidential debate after failing to meet the polling and donor qualifications required by the Republican National Committee to participate. He said he filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission after missing the first one, alleging the rules about debate participation werent equally applied to all candidates.

Elder made his first bid for public office in 2021, when he received the most votes out of 46 people who were hoping to replace Newsom in a recall effort. But a majority of voters ended up voting against removing Newsom, making the vote count in the replacement contest irrelevant.

Some Democrats say Elders role as a foil to Newsom helped the Democratic governor inspire voters in liberal California to turn out and reject the recall. Newsom attacked Elder for his support of Trump and his conservative positions, such as opposing abortion rights and restrictions imposed to slow the spread of COVID-19, such as mask mandates.

But Elder said the experience of running for office  and the millions of votes he received  showed he had a message that resonated with voters. A lawyer who grew up in Los Angeles rough South Central neighborhood, Elder attended an Ivy League college and then law school. He has a following among conservatives through his radio programs and has been a frequent guest on Fox News and other right-wing media.

Elder, who is Black, has criticized Democrats woke agenda, Black Lives Matter and the notion of systemic racism, positions that have put him at odds with many other Black people.

(AP)




IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari revealed on Friday that Hamas operates its primary headquarters beneath Gaza Citys Shifa Hospital.

According to Hagari, multiple underground facilities exist under Shifa  the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip. These structures serve as command centers for the terror group, enabling them to orchestrate attacks on Israel.

Drawing attention to the Simchas Torah massacre, Hagari stated, Our evidence indicates that after the incidents on October 7, hundreds of individuals affiliated with Hamas sought refuge in the hospital.

The spokesman said there are multiple tunnels leading to the underground base from areas outside the hospital, negating the need for Hamas officials to access the hospital directly. However, there is also a known entryway to this underground setup from one of the hospital wards.

Further, the IDF alleges that Hamass internal security operates a command center within Shifa Hospital, overseeing rocket attacks on Israel and storing weapons.

Hagari went on to accuse Hamas of strategically utilizing the facility, which accommodates approximately 1,500 patients and employs around 4,000 staff members, as a shield to protect their operations.

The IDF spokesman stressed that this intelligence, amassed from the efforts of the Military Intelligence Directorate and the Shin Bet security agency, has already been shared with their allied partners.

(YWN World Headquarters  NYC)




By Rabbi Yair Hoffman

Currently, Klal Yisroels situation in Eretz Yisroel is one where their American brethren must help out. We can do this with a strengthening of Torah, a strengthening of Tefillah, and, of course, Tzedakah.

Soldiers need backpacks, combat boots, helmets, bullet-proof vests, and rifle scopes for their sharp-shooters. Hundreds of the non-observant soldiers are also requesting tzitzis and tefillin. Seeing the interaction between these soldiers and Rav Yitzchok Dovid Grossman shlita can bring anyone to tears.

Entire communities in both the south and the north have been displaced. The displaced refugees number more than 80,000 people. Their needs are great.

Communities and Yishuvim need security upgrades to their perimeters as well. The IDF has its hands full and individuals of means need to step up their charitable giving. The halachic questions that have arise are many.

Which tzedakahs come first? Is the prohibition of giving more than 20% still in effect? What follows is an analysis of some or part of these questions  each person should ask his own Rav or Posaik, however.

The prohibition of giving more than 20% and its exceptions

The Ramah in Yore Deah 249:1 writes that one may not give more than 20 percent and it is a takanas Usha. After the persecutions of Hadrian in 135 CE  the Sanhedrin which was in Yavneh moved to Usha (2/3rds of the way from Tveria to Haifa if you draw a straight line west).

The implication of this Ramah, and the way most Poskim understand this Ramah is that there is a true, across the board 20% limit. The Chasam Sofer in a responsum (YD 229) writes that prior to the Takana made by the Sanhedrin in Usha  by Torah law  he would have had to give the money but that Usha limited the Biblical obligation to 20%. The Maharam Shick (YD 230) understands it in a slightly different manner. He writes that the Biblical obligation was always a maximum of 20%. It was forgotten, however, and at Usha the original Biblical parameters were restored. As a proof, he cites a Yerushalmi in the first chapter of Peah.

The Chochmas Odom (144:10) understands it in a very different manner. He writes that a very very wealthy individual (an ashir muflag) may give more than 20% of his income. The Chofetz Chaim, in chapter two of his Ahavas Chessed gives a few illustrations that back up this position. He writes that if genuine poor people are standing in front of him that need to be fed and clothed  he should go over the twenty percent.

However, it is this authors view that one can infer from the exact wording of the Chofetz Chaim that the poor people need to be before him right now  and that it would not be sufficient to have a Gabbai serve in their place to create this obligation.

As in all matters of halacha, one should of course always consult with ones own Rav or Posaik.

A work printed a few years ago in Yerushalayim by Rabbi Avrohom Moshe Zemmel, entitled Ahavas Tzedakah, provides us with a number of answers.

THREE CHARITIES PRECEDE ALL OTHERS

There are three types of tzedakah where the phrase kodemes lakol (it precedes everything else) is employed. The three types are:

Charity given to a Torah educational institute whose very existence is threatened with closure and the future of Torah for Klal Yisrael, the Jewish People, is at stake. There are only three things for which we must sacrifice our livesto avoid the sins of murder, arayos, and idol worship. Yet we see that Rabbi Akiva sacrificed his life in order to teach Torah. How could this be? The answer is that it involved the future of Torah for the Jewish People. (This is based upon the words of Rav Boruch Ber Leibowitz ztl in the introduction to the Birchas Shmuel on Bava Basra.) Charity given to save a Jew from conversion in a situation where it is permissible to violate the Shabbos in order to save him (see Orach Chaim 306:14). Charity given to save a lifeor to possibly save a lifei.e., pikuach nefesh. Many of the situations mentioned above fall into this category.

Regarding charity for the poor, the precedence is as follows:

A poor person who is a relative receives precedence over a poor person who is unrelated. (Of course, if he will starve, the hungry poor person comes first.) A related poor person takes priority over the unrelated poor person even if the unrelated one is a Torah scholar (see Rabbi Akiva Eiger, Y.D. 251:3).

The question is which relative beats the other relatives in a claim for charity? Are there criteria as to which relative should be supported first?

The answer is also yes.

THE PRECEDENCE OF RELATIVES

The first relative that deserves ones charity is yourself. If you cannot make a living, you should not be giving to others before yourself. This is based upon the pasuk Vchai achicha imachand your brother shall live with you; your existence comes first (Tur, Yoreh Deah, chapter 251, citing Rav Saadya Gaon).

The next relative is ones parents. A father and mother come before anyone else.

A son and daughter come next.

A brother and sister come next.

A paternal sibling comes before a maternal sibling.

Ones spouses relatives come before strangers.

Shockingly to many people, ones ex-spouse comes before others (see Rema 119:8). There are a number of people that will be pretty upset about this one  but halacha is halacha.

A talmid chacham (Torah scholar) non-relative precedes a non-relative who is not a talmid chacham, even if the talmid chacham is not from ones own city.

Unrelated poor people from ones own city precede poor people from another citybut not when the poor of another city have greater needs (see Y.D. 251:3 and Responsa Chasam Sofer Y.D. 234).

The poor of Eretz Yisrael have precedence over the poor of another city, but not over the poor of ones own city (see commentaries of Shach and Bach, Y.D. 251:6).

This last criterion is key. According to most poskim our local charitable cases beat out the poor of Eretz Yisrael. This would mean that the local charity fund would have precedence over the Israel charity cases. (There is, however, an opinion of the Debreciner Ravs older brother, the BeTzel HaChochmah [Vol. IV, 163:16] that there are two mitzvos involved regarding the poor in Israel: the mitzvah of settling the Land as well as the mitzvah of tzedakah. He opines that the poor of Israel would beat out the poor in our own city. One should consult ones rav, but the simple answer seems to be like the Shach and Bach, that the local poor people have precedence.)

TWO EQUALLY RELATED RELATIVES

What about where we have two equal relatives? Is there another criterion that comes into play? For example, if one has two siblings, both in need of assistance, which one comes first?

The one who is a greater Torah scholar receives precedence over the other.

The next criterion is based upon gender; a sisters needs take precedence to a brothers.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF TORAH SCHOLARS

Are there different grades of talmidei chachamim? In other words, if there are two Torah scholars and one of them has a much wider breadth of knowledge but the other has a deeper breadth of knowledge, who precedes the other? The Vilna Gaon (Shulchan Aruch 251:18) cites the Talmud Yerushalmi that the breadth-of-knowledge scholar receives precedence to the depth-of-knowledge scholar.

It is important to note that one should make every effort possible to avoid supporting ones parents with tzedakah money. The Gemara tells us (Kiddushin 32a) that a curse should come upon a person who supports his parents through money that is destined for charity. This means that the money he should spend on them should be aside from money that he should give to charity. Of course, if there is no other optionif he cannot afford to give boththen there is nothing wrong with giving to his parents. The Talmud is only referring to a case where a person could have afforded to do otherwise.

PRIORITIES OF DIFFERENT TZEDAKOS IN GENERAL

There are also other criteria for priority of tzedakah:

Pidyon shvuyim (redeeming captives) is primary.

Supporting a mikveh, in a place where there is no other mikveh and there is a chance that people will stumble in prohibitions that involve kareistakes precedence over supporting a yeshiva.

Charity so that children can study Torah is next (i.e., a yeshiva).

There is a debate as to whether tzedakah to run the day-to-day activity in the beis haknesses (for example, the electricity bill) receives precedence over tzedakah to poor people.

The Shulchan Aruch (Y.D. 251:16) rules that the synagogue needs come first, while the Vilna Gaon (Y.D. 251:20) rules that the poor people receive precedence. Clearly, everyone agrees that it is only the day-to-day activities being discussed and not the building fund (see Aruch HaShulchan, ibid). Indeed, Rav Vosner questions how some institutions can be requesting tzedakah funds to build beautiful edifices when there are poor people who are literally starving.

The issue of need is also important. If one person needs money now while another needs it later, Rav Moshe Feinstein writes that the more pressing need takes precedence (Igros Moshe, Y.D. Vol. I, No. 144).

The bottom line is that tzedakah precedence and the decision of who to give to is not something that should be approached flippantly or without thought.

The author can be reached at [email protected]

Rabbi Hoffman has 3 needs that could use a boost: 1] protection of a Yishuv 2] soldiers needs, and 3] Displaced family needs. If anyone would like to assist, please reach out to the above email. Tizku lMitzvos.




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A refinery in Punto Fijo (Venezuela), in August 2023. Betty Laura Zapata (Bloomberg)

Alejandro Arreaza has been sleeping very little for more than a week. The economist at Barclays investment bank is responsible for analysis of Venezuela, his native country, and ever since the United States eased some financial sanctions against the Latin American country, his phone has not stopped ringing. I think Ive slept three hours a night, he says on a video call from his office in New York. No one expected such a broad easing of sanctions.

On October 18, the U.S. Treasury Department announced that it will allow operations linked to the oil and gas sector in the South American country for the next six months, thus lifting a restriction in place since 2019. Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world, but the government of Nicolas Maduro has been forced to sell it on the black market and at a discount due to U.S. prohibitions, so the lifting of this ban has important implications. On the other hand, U.S. funds and banks still cannot buy Venezuelan debt bonds, but they can go to the secondary market to buy old bonds on which Venezuela defaulted. This move has injected life into the stock, which rose in price after the announcement.

There are a mix of reasons that led to this decision by Washington. Since Russia began its military offensive in Ukraine, Western countries have sought alternative sources of oil to avoid financing Putins regime. Venezuelan oil, therefore, is now more attractive and it is even expected that new production could alleviate fuel prices on an international scale. A second factor is local politics in Venezuela, since the government has committed to holding elections next year.

Other factors are also added to the energy market. I think that today the immigration issue weighs more than the oil issue and local politics, says Arreaza. The same day that the easing of sanctions was announced, the Biden Administration sent the first flight of deported undocumented immigrants back to Venezuela. The numbers of Venezuelans arriving at the border with Mexico and requesting the right to live in the United States has increased; the government of New York State warned on October 5 that the states finances can no longer sustain the flow of immigrants. That also played a role in putting pressure on some kind of change, Arreaza continues, which explains why the sanctions went far beyond what Wall Street expected.

Venezuelan migrants are escorted onto a repatriation flight, on October 18 in Harlingen (Texas). DANIEL BECERRIL (REUTERS)

This week, a committee representing bondholders holding more than $11 billion of Venezuelas debt (out of a total of $60 billion circulating in the market today), on which Venezuela defaulted in 2016, issued an optimistic statement. The Venezuela Creditors Committee said it was confident the actions by the U.S. government and the commitments of the Maduro administration and Venezuelan opposition will ultimately lead to the orderly restructuring that Venezuela so desperately needs. The Committee said it is willing to engage constructively with all interested parties to move forward.

A report published by the analysis firm Latinometrics on Wednesday indicates that Venezuela owns 18% of all the oil in the world. At its peak, the country produced more than three million barrels per day, while today it produces quantities similar to those of Ecuador, a much smaller country, with reserves equivalent to only 3% of Venezuelas. Wall Street is betting that oil production will lift the economy of the country, where there is a humanitarian crisis and a large part of the population suffers from hunger.

Theres an expectation that without that much investment, you could get at least some more oil flowing out of the country, maybe get to 500,000 to 700,000 barrels a day and that could get to a million very quickly, says Steve Bodzin, a reporter for the firm Redd Intelligence, specialized in the fixed income market in the Andean region. The size of Venezuelas economy is not known with certainty, since the government stopped publishing data and indicators years ago. But considering its dramatic contraction, a small injection of oil resources could have a significant impact. The view is that this is a country and an economy like one of those giant inflatables thats just laying on the ground and you just turn on a fan and it blows right back up.

A fisherman navigates past the ruined infrastructure of a PDVSA platform on Lake Maracaibo in May 2019. Michael Robinson Chavez (The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Such an increase in oil resources could be equivalent to 8% of Gross Domestic Product, says Arreaza, but there has been a deterioration in the capacity of the state-owned company to extract and produce crude oil, so it is not in a position to be a true energy alternative for the West. The American company Chevron received a license to operate in the Latin American country a year ago and it is expected that most of the increase in production will come from its fields.

This is a partial return of Venezuela, but we still do not know to what extent, says Arreaza. From the markets perspective, it is seeing this as an oil story, thinking that, regardless of what happens on the political level, the oil factor could open a door to restructuring the debt. I would be a little more careful. I believe that there is still a lot of fabric to be cut and Venezuela, at this moment, remains essentially a political bet. A lot will depend on what happens on the political level.




Two Jewish shepherds were injured on Thursday morning after Palestinian Arabs beat them with clubs and pummeled them with large sharp rocks while they were picking olives near the Rimonim intersection in Binyamin.

One shepherd suffered a serious head injury and was knocked unconscious. Paramedics evacuated him and the second victim, who was lightly to moderately wounded, to Shaare Tzedek Hospital in Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, the Arab terrorists fled to the village of Dier Jarr.

An initial investigation showed that the Arabs waited in ambush for the Jews under the cover of the olive harvest.

Eliyahu Ochiyon, a resident of Kochav HaShachar, described the scene: This was a very serious incident. When I arrived at the scene, I saw two injured shepherds, one unconscious and having convulsions.

The terrorists who were holding clubs approached the shepherds under the auspices of an Arab harvest that was taking place near the intersection, suddenly emerged from among the olive trees and carried out a brutal lynching of the shepherds. These are dedicated shepherds, who live with their families on the nearby farm.

The writing was on the wall in bright red. Recently, the residents of the area have repeatedly warned that the Arab harvest is a cover for planning violent attacks against Jews but the IDF ignored it and decided to allow this terrible disaster. Today we received its results in the form of dear Jews who were seriously injured.

(YWN Israel Desk  Jerusalem)




In a fiery and compelling address delivered in the presence of President Vladimir Putin, Russian Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar called for concerted efforts to free hostages in Gaza and expressed gratitude for Russias commitment to combating antisemitism within its borders.

Against the backdrop of ongoing turmoil in Israel, President Putin convened a gathering of religious leaders, including Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar, along with representatives from various faiths and distinguished guests from around the nation.

Chief Rabbi Lazars impassioned speech addressed the plight of Jews not only in Israel but also across the globe, including within Russia itself. The audience, including President Putin, listened attentively to his every word.

In his address, Rabbi Lazar emphasized the urgent need to strengthen the fight against extremism, asserting that terrorist organizations must be isolated and dismantled.

Mr. President! Every person of faith knows that nothing in life occurs by chance. We have assembled here today, just before November 4, which is celebrated as National Unity Day. National unity is a hallmark of Russia. Here, a spirit of mutual peace and respect thrives among individuals from diverse cultures and varying faiths, Rabbi Lazar remarked.

In many other nations, the prospect of joint initiatives and peaceful coexistence remains elusive, but, thanks to divine providence, Russia has long maintained a tradition of unity, which has grown even more significant in recent years. In Russia, we do not contend with tension or enmity among our fellow citizens.

Here, people do not take to the streets in support of terrorist organizations because we understand that such protests only serve to embolden extremists everywhere. Even seemingly peaceful demonstrations often escalate into violence.

Our gathering today must convey a resounding message: We champion mutual respect, friendship, and cooperation, but we will not tolerate those who espouse intolerance and promote extremism and violence. Sadly, the line between hatred and violence is exceedingly thin. The ideology of hatred invariably leads to violence and terror. Thankfully, we have not witnessed state-sanctioned antisemitism in many years, nor is it prevalent on our streets. Nonetheless, we draw wisdom from our history. Our primary appeal to both federal and local authorities is an unyielding and unwavering battle against extremism.

Just a few days ago, we commemorated the 80th anniversary of the Sobibor Nazi extermination camp uprising. Red Army officer Alexander Pechersky, the architect of that revolt, understood that one cannot compromise when confronted by evil and must shield oneself and others from the inhumane grip of murderers.

We all pray for peace, hoping that wars will cease. However, peace with murderers is inherently unattainable. Thus, as we mourn and remember the hundreds of innocent victims claimed by terrorists on October 7 and pray for the release of over two hundred hostages, we acknowledge that negotiation or compromise with terrorists is impossible. Every terrorist organization must be isolated and dismantled. Peace among religions, as exemplified in Russia, can only thrive when terrorists are not permitted to wield influence. Fortunately, in Russia, the fight against terrorism is robust, and the outcomes are evident. Russias experience stands as a model not only for the Middle East but also for other regions grappling with similar challenges, he concluded.

Chief Rabbi Lazars words resonated deeply with millions of viewers across Russia, garnering substantial interest and attention.

(YWN World Headquarters  NYC)
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Teachers and schools can have a huge effect on their pupils' future careers. Car makers are acutely aware of that as they seek talented, creative young people to produce the motors of tomorrow.

Polestar chief executive Thomas Ingenlath told me he thanks his grammar school philosophy teacher in Germany, Frau Tzimas, for his position at Polestar as it enters a pivotal era of expansion, including the launch of the new second generation Polestar 2 from 44,950.

Talking at Polestar's HQ in Gothenburg, Sweden, he told me his excellent grades in 1982 won him a place on to a top engineering course, in a land where engineers are as renowned and respected as doctors and physicians.

Clear vision: Polestar boss Thomas Ingenlath with one of his firm's designs

However, he also had a keen interest in art and architecture, so Frau Tzimas urged him to abandon engineering and instead follow his heart and his passion and to take up design. He did.

Ingenlath said Frau Tzimas told him: 'Thomas, you are throwing away your talent!.'

After a design degree at Germany's Pforzheim University and an MA in vehicle design at the Royal College of Art in London, he progressed through the Volkswagen Group to top positions at Audi, Skoda (with the Yeti, Fabia and Superb to his credit).

From 2012 until 2017 he was head of design at Volvo, before becoming CEO at Polestar.

His vision has given Polestar, now spun off from Volvo, its clean lines, and green credentials.

Dressed informally but smartly in a black shirt, light chino's and designer sneakers, the super-fit chisel-featured executive who cycles regularly to work, was speaking to me in his office at 'The Cube', Polestar's chic but minimalist headquarters on the outskirts of Gothenburg.

Whether it's the restrained and minimalist look of the cars, the purist style of the showrooms, or even the stylish design of the black letter fonts on a white background, Swedish electric car firm Polestar exudes cool.

But cool, he insists, it not something that can be designed on purpose. It has to be earned, and bestowed on you by others: 'You don't create a cool brand by trying to create something cool. You are never cool if you say you are cool.'

But if you set out with 'conviction and confidence' it's then up to other people to decide 'that's a cool brand'.

From 2012 until 2017 Thomas Ingenlath, pictured with Ray, was head of design at Volvo, before becoming CEO at Polestar

Given his design background he says it's a privilege to expand his career from designing one car at a time to creating and leading from scratch a complete brand, range of cars, and the company behind them. He said: 'It's a natural development.

'I enjoy the creativity of designing something and creating something  to create a company with this line-up of products. I'm really proud that people like the brand Polestar.'

He is on the cusp of a big expansion from this year as the line-up grows from just one car  the Polestar 2  to five as it is joined over the coming years by the Polestar 3, 4, 5 and 6.

Polestar 2, the electric performance fastback first unveiled in 2019 and launched to customers the following year, has just been updated and is produced in a shared production facility in Taizhou, China.

It is joined by the Polestar 3 SUV which made its debut at this summer's Goodwood Festival of Speed and goes into production in the first quarter of 2024. The crossover SUV-coupe Polestar 4 will launch in phases throughout 2023 and into 2024 while Polestar 5, an electric four-door GT, and the feisty Polestar 6 electric roadster are to follow.

The firm's first car  Polestar 1  was a plug-in hybrid.

Having sold more than 150,000 cars in total so far (including more than 20,000 in the UK) Ingenlath says: 'We want to establish 100,000 cars a year as the new norm.'

Eventually that will exceed 200,000 per year, but he won't put a timescale on that: 'Our path is not to go into mass production', he says. 'The cars we sell are expensive and exclusive We want to deliver that premium experience.'

Great efforts are also taken to ensure they are built in an environmentally friendly way.

Ingenlath's vision has given Polestar, now spun off from Volvo, its clean lines, and green credentials

'The design language is super simple. This purist design style translates into super-modern product designs.'

But it is the 'fine-tuning' that gives Polestar cars their character and individuality: 'You have the ingredients, like any cook. It's what you make out of them  that creates the personality.'

Although the Polestar name is spun-off from Volvo's performance arm, he said: 'Polestar had to be anything but Volvo.

'But you have to work with passion for the car and your love for the product. It's not about saying 'It's just a computer on wheels'.'

The 'Polestar 0' project is the company's ambitious goal of creating a truly climate-neutral production car by 2030.

Polestar in the UK is based at Bicester in Oxfordshire. All cars are sold online-only but the company currently has boutique-like retail locations known as 'Polestar Spaces' in Manchester, Birmingham, London, Bicester, and Bristol, with Glasgow to follow on track to eight by the end of the year.

As I left, I spotted a simple plaque in the main entrance to 'The Cube' HQ which concisely sets out Polestar's 'guiding star' philosophy. It says: 'We are an electric performance brand, determined to improve the society we live in.

'Our focus is on uncompromised design and technology.

'Passion and emotion drive us, electricity and innovation drive our cars. Our products are excellent, efficient, and entertaining.

'In Polestar's future there is no room for shortcuts, excuses or compromises.'

And it ends: 'At Polestar, the sky is the limit.'

Frau Tzimas would be proud.

Jaguar Land Rover has launched a Schools Partnership Programme to support 40 secondary schools and their teachers in Coventry, Birmingham and Liverpool to help 40,000 students build their careers. The initiative covers areas such as electrical and software engineering, digital and data roles and autonomous technologies. JLR engineers visit schools to help teachers apply the curriculum to 'real-world' careers, especially science, technology engineering and maths, with projects including building mini-electric vehicles. JLR will also run careers workshops and help pupils submit job applications. This year 700 apprentices, undergraduates and graduates started their careers with the Midlands car maker. More details at www.jaguarlandrovercareers.com

Mazda e-Skyactiv MX-30 R-EV plug-in hybrid launched

Motorists in Liverpool and North Wales may have spotted Mazda's new e-Skyactiv MX-30 R-EV plug-in hybrid during its UK launch.

The 170 horse-power MX-30 R-EV combines a 17.8KWh battery with a new 830cc single-rotor petrol engine to give an electric range of 53 miles

Priced from 31,250, the 170 horse-power MX-30 R-EV combines a 17.8KWh battery with a new 830cc single-rotor (Wankel) petrol engine to give an electric range of 53 miles.

But the Japanese firm's engine also acts as a generator to power the EV motor longer 'without charge anxiety'.

Would you pay 25,000 for a child's pedal car?

Zero emissions aside, would you pay 25,000 for a child's pedal car?

That's the price of the new Austin A40 Continuation. It's a model of the classic J40 pedal-car produced between 1949 and 1971. Just 49 Legacy Editions are being built by Salisbury-based Austin Pedal Cars.

The new Austin A40 Continuation is a model of the classic J40 pedal-car produced between 1949 and 1971

Based on the 1948 A40 Devon and Dorset, some 32,098 original Austin J40 pedal cars were made from 1949 by Austin Motor Company Limited at its 'not for profit' Austin Junior Car Factory in South Wales which employed disabled former coal miners.

They were made from scrap metal from Austin's Longbridge factory near Birmingham, austinpedalcars.com.
Some 15 years have passed since the Great Financial Crisis and at times it looks as if NatWest has been running on the spot.

In spite of a series of grand panjandrums in the chairman's seat and four chief executives (discounting Fred Goodwin) the bank's governance is shot, the share price is tumbling and the Government is stuck with a 38.6 per cent stake.

That may seem unimportant but with a Labour administration around the corner, there must be a risk that NatWest will be suborned for a more political role.

The contrast between NatWest and the Wall Street titans since the financial crisis could not be more startling. The US government took stakes in most of the major lenders. The holdings were disgorged within months.

NatWest, the former Royal Bank of Scotland, discarded assets and curtailed its international ambitions as if there were no tomorrow.

Running on the spot: The bank's governance is shot, the share price is tumbling and the Government is stuck with a 38.6 per cent stake

In contrast, JP Morgan Chase rescued investment bank Bear Stearns, retail chain Washington Mutual and most recently Silicon Valley lender First Republic.

Throughout one of most challenging periods in global finance, it has had one boss in Jamie Dimon. Only this week investment bank Morgan Stanley disclosed it would be switching chief executives, with insider James Pick set to succeed Aussie-American James Gorman, 65, after 14 years.

One might have hoped that if anyone was going to stabilise NatWest, it was the combination of chairman Sir Howard Davis, with unrivalled regulatory experience, and Alison Rose with her intense focus on customers and doing good.

The full story of the poor performance over the cancellation of Nigel Farage's account at its posh and woke Coutts offshoot was laid bare by the Information Commissioner.

NatWest's decision to call in law firm Travers Smith to review the circumstances of the Farage bank account closure was an attempt to close down the public debate. Even though the Financial Conduct Authority chose in a statement to describe its report as 'independent' when the paymasters were NatWest and is a moot point.

The objective of such internally appointed probes is to plough the field, making it more difficult for regulators to do the job. We can be thankful that in this case the Information Commissioner arrived at the core of the issue before the flaccid Travers Smith study was issued.

NatWest deserves praise for making the report available rather than keeping it under lock and key.

Nevertheless, the review pulls its punches, arguing that the decision to eject Farage's account was 'primarily commercial and therefore legal.'

Readers of the internal Coutts documents, disparaging Farage for racism, sexism, and xenophobia, would reach a different conclusion. Even though Farage's finances may have fallen below the requirement for new clients, one might have expected the private bank to have shown an existing customer some forbearance.

Rose made an unforgiveable mistake in sharing confidential information with an experienced and highly-respected BBC journalist at a dinner. When the reporter followed up the next day, in line with best practice, he was provided with confirmation. Rose takes comfort from the Travers Smith report largely because it pulls its punches. The disclosure may have been inadvertent but the confirmation was not.

The defence that the 'impact' around the Farage disclosure was 'minimal' is an argument unworthy of her. If one politician's personal finance details could be leaked, then customers from the largest corporation to the sole trader could no longer trust that their privacy would remain intact.

Rose distances herself from the Coutts assessment of Farage describing it as 'deeply unpleasant.' But there is not a hint of apology for the damage it has done to Coutts, NatWest and all its stakeholders.

A combination of the release of Travers Smith and a downgraded outlook for the bank sent the stock skidding.

Rose clearly is anxious not to say anything which might come between her and a contractual payout of up to 11m made up of her salary and share options. There is a legal and moral case for the bank to claw back a portion of this outsized sum.

Rose prided herself of doing good, turning the Gogarburn HQ outside Edinburgh into a food bank. Taking money from shareholders, including the taxpayer, in a cost of living crisis, would be unconscionable.
This week Microsoft and other titans of tech announced bumper profits driven by the generative artificial intelligence (AI) industrial revolution.

But Scottish Mortgage, the 9.18billion FTSE 100 member investment trust that backs innovation in AI and every other form, is not fizzing with excitement.

The trust's shares, which have fallen by 35 per cent since 2020, stand at an embarrassingly wide 19 per cent discount to its net asset value (NAV) although it owns stakes in two AI powerhouses, equipment manufacturer ASML and semiconductor maker Nvidia.

This week I was granted a rare opportunity to look one of the Scottish Mortgage managers in the eye, to quiz him about what was being done to improve prospects for disappointed investors.

Lawrence Burns, deputy manager, acknowledges the pain being felt by shareholders in the trust, formerly the most eminent name in the Baillie Gifford stable, but now lagging behind its benchmark index - the FTSE All World. He also recognises there may be more volatility ahead.

But he argues that AI is set to have an impact on the economy and society equal to the invention of Gutenberg's printing press in the early 15th century. Investing in such progress is the mission of Scottish Mortgage.

But, as Burns puts it, 'sometimes progress does not go in a straight line'.

This may be true. But should shareholders shrug their shoulders and take a five-year view, having faith that ASML and Nvidia will continue to dazzle, and that lesser known stocks, such as the Korean e-commerce entity Coupang, could also excel?

According to Burns, Coupang's systems make those of Amazon, which Scottish Mortgage also owns, appear almost archaic.

Or should shareholders conclude that Scottish Mortgage's structure  about 30 per cent is invested in private companies - will be a persistent obstacle to the revival of Scottish Mortgage's share price?

Scottish Mortgage has delivered an impressive return over ten years but has the trust's share price has sunk a long way below its pandemic peak

These 52 unlisted stakes are a source of increasing concern, especially, as Jason Hollands of Bestinvest points out, their number now exceeds that of the 47 quoted holdings.

The list includes ByteDance, owner of TikTok, the video app which has 1bn users worldwide; Space X, Elon Musk's rocket company; Stripe, the payments company; Ant Group, part of the Chinese giant Alibaba and battery developer Northvolt.

Earlier this year, a former member of the trust's board, academic Amar Bhide, questioned whether Scottish Mortgage had 'the capabilities and governance clout to be able to monitor these illiquid investments'.

The managers disputed this assertion and Burns considers that 'these holdings are not our Achilles heel, they are our strength'.

They are very large businesses, not start-ups and much more frequently revalued than before.

In normal circumstances, some of these enterprises would be seeking to go public through an IPO (initial public offering). But Burns says that they are being deterred by the chilly conditions in the IPO sphere.

However, this poses another problem for Scottish Mortgage, as Hollands highlights: 'The trust would struggle to provide additional funding to any of these companies as this would breach the 30 per cent limit approved by shareholders. Unable to participate, Scottish Mortgage risks ending up being diluted.'

Burns comments: 'This is not a permanent situation. At some point the IPO market will come alive.'

He is also hoping for reassessment of the potential of some of the quoted stakes, such as Delivery Hero, whose shares have tumbled by 47 per cent this year. The Berlin-based food delivery business is 'making real strides in the shift towards profitability'.

In recent years, Scottish Mortgage has been linked with every type of transport, with bets on flying taxis and Ferrari. Tesla, Elon Musk's electric vehicle group, is a major holding.

Asked whether this is wise, given Musk's acquisition of Twitter/X, Burns says that Tesla and SpaceX have good managers.

The hours that Musk is now devoting to Twitter/X may be about the same as he used to spend posting on the platform.

Burns says that the trust's connection with the automobile goes back to its beginnings in 1909, as a vehicle for the financing of Malaysian rubber plantations whose product went to make the tyres of the Model-T Ford.

This is a novel interpretation. Burns is convinced that the name of the trust has history and brand recognition. But I consider that it sounds solid, rather than racy which some investors may have not fully grasped to their cost.

Those who bought into the trust one, three or five years ago have experienced what Ed Monk of Fidelity International calls 'a rollercoaster ride'.

Like other analysts, Monk does not think the discount will narrow soon. He adds, however: 'Things can change, of course, and now would appear to be the moment of maximum pessimism - often a great time to buy.'

As someone who has been putting money into Scottish Mortgage for about a decade, I have seldom felt so pessimistic, despite the profit I have made. Like other investors, I want to see progress made soon on the shrinking of the discount.
In this series, we bust the jargon and explain a popular investing term or theme. Here it's fund concentration.

This sounds a bit boring...

You may have a point there, but fund concentration, although complex, is something you need to know about as it almost certainly affects the performance of your investments. The issue, which has been a source of confusion, is at the centre of a row.

The regulations covering fund concentration form part of a series of rules set out by the watchdog Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

These rules  which are designed to protect you  relate to OEIC (open ended investment company) funds in which savers have billions invested. They do not cover investment trusts which are closed-ended.

How do these rules work?

To avoid potentially risky concentration, funds cannot have more than 10 per cent of their portfolio invested in a single company.

Common sense: To avoid potentially risky concentration, funds cannot have more than 10 per cent of their portfolio invested in a single company

Also individual holdings that each make up more than 5 per cent of the fund's assets cannot together exceed 40 per cent of the fund's assets. This is the '5/10/40' rule. So a fund must have at least 20 holdings. It all sounds eminently sensible, but the rules are causing problems.

Why is that?

Nobody disputes the benefits of the diversification that the regulations should produce. But, suddenly this month, there has been a focus on their drawbacks. For example, many funds use a particular stock market index as their benchmark. In some cases, a major company, such as a giant tech group, may make up more than 10 per cent of the index, presenting a dilemma. Should managers comply with the rules, or try to achieve the best returns for investors?

Is anybody speaking out?

One of the most vocal critics is Terry Smith, manager of the 23billion Fundsmith fund. In an interview earlier this month, he described the system as a 'headache'.

Smith believes that the rules obstruct the operation of the fund, since they force him to concentrate less on delivering for investors than pleasing the FCA. He acknowledges that the rules are designed to protect investors, but says that he is being obliged to sell holdings purely to comply with the regulations.

Any other issues?

It has been reported that the popular five Vanguard Life Strategy funds  in which about 40billion of the nation's savings is invested  may have breached the concentration limits. The LifeStrategy funds  which invest in funds that are also managed by Vanguard  have a 40 per cent stake in the Vanguard FTSE UK All Share index fund. Under a separate FCA rule, such umbrella funds are permitted to own a maximum of 25 per cent of such a 'collective investment vehicle'. But it is not clear whether the FCA has granted Vanguard a waiver, causing a lot of comment on the way the rules are being implemented.

Vanguard has said it is satisfied with its approach after engagement with the FCA, but the latter's silence adds to confusion.
British Airways' parent company IAG said its profits rose 56 per cent in the three months to the end of September, as it hailed strong performances on its North and South Atlantic routes.

The group, which also owns Iberia, Aer Lingus and Vuelling, revealed pre-tax profit rose year-to-year in the third quarter to 1.6billion (1.4billion), up from just over 1billion (879 million).

IAG also reported flight capacity was up 17.9 per cent and revenue rose 18 per cent to 8.6billion (7.5billion) during the period.

IAG also reported that flight capacity was up 17.9 per cent and revenue rose 18.0 per cent to 8.6billion (7.5billion) during the period

The cost of fuel dropped 6.2 per cent compared with a year ago while revenue per passenger rose 2.2 per cent and is up by almost a quarter since 2019.

The firm also revealed that it was able to reduce its gross debt by 2.4billion (2.1 billion) to 17.2billion (15billion) in the three months to the end of September.

Luis Gallego, chief executive of IAG, said: 'This quarter represents a record third-quarter performance for IAG. This is allowing us to invest in the business and reduce a significant amount of our debt.

'During the third quarter we saw sustained strong demand across all our routes, in particular the North and South Atlantic and in all leisure destinations around Europe.

'We continue to develop our hubs of Barcelona, Dublin, London and Madrid, supported by our fleet deliveries and future orders.'

Neil Shah, of research firm Edison Group, said: 'IAG now expects full year 2023 capacity to be around 96 per cent of pre-Covid levels.

'Despite this, the group has flagged risks of recession and rising oil prices due to conflict in the Middle East as operational considerations  painting a picture of an industry poised for pre-pandemic return, but not without ongoing macroeconomic factors that will require strong leadership and decisive action to address.'

In July, IAG swung back to profit in the first half thanks to strong demand for flights and higher ticket prices.

The firm posted a pre-tax profit of 1.04billion (900million) in the first six months of the year, having recorded a loss of 843million (721million) a year before, as revenues surged 45 per cent to 13.6billion (11.6billion).

IAG shares are down by 1.1 per cent to 141.25p in morning trading on Friday.
Armenia is launching a charm offensive in the City to attract UK investment.

The country's economy minister and diplomats held meetings this week with major banks in the City as it looks to pivot away from Russia.

Vahan Kerobyan, Armenia's minister of economy and a former HSBC banker, has been shuttling around the UK capital in a bid to strengthen ties between the two countries.

Located in the Caucus region between Russia and the Middle East, Armenia is looking to boost its connections with Western financial centres and shift its geopolitical alignment following war in Ukraine.

While it is not a major trading partner for the UK, the value of goods and services exchanged between the nations has been growing rapidly. Last year, trade between the two countries amounted to 92m, up 156 per cent year-on-year.

Charm offensive: Armenia's economy minister and diplomats held meetings with major banks in the City as it looks to pivot away from Russia

Kerobyan told the Mail that the government is aiming to increase this to around 1bn within the next three years, ideally with the help of investment from Western banks.

The delegation has already met with HSBC, his former employer, and also arranged a meeting with US banking giant JP Morgan yesterday.

'We really need to diversify our economic ties,' he said.

No floats of Armenian companies are planned on the London market yet but Kerobyan says this is a possibility for the future.

The government is keen to promote its tech sector, concentrated in the capital Yerevan. Its status as a tech hub dates back to the USSR, when as one of its constituent republics it served as a centre for research. It has previously been dubbed the 'Silicon Valley of the Soviet Union.'

Armenia is now looking to regain that crown, with Kerobyan noting that multinational tech giants such as computer chip group Nvidia, IT giant Oracle and communications group Cisco all have a presence in the country.

The minister also noted Armenia's vast reserves of copper, key for electrification and renewable energy, as well as what he said was its 'booming' solar power industry.

Recent events in the region have also accelerated Armenia's drive to boost its economy. The country is accommodating around 100,000 refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian-populated enclave which last month was seized by its neighbour Azerbaijan.

But Kerobyan seemed outwardly unfazed by the flare-up in the region, saying the assault on Nagorno-Karabakh would not present risks to Armenia's fiscal stability.

He noted that the country's credit rating had been upgraded in August by S&P Global Rating, a leading US rating agency, after an influx of professionals from Russia. The emigres boosted the IT sector, which grew by 51 per cent last year.
StockNews.com began coverage on shares of WestRock (NYSE:WRK  Free Report) in a research report report published on Monday morning. The firm issued a hold rating on the basic materials companys stock.

Several other equities analysts have also issued reports on WRK. UBS Group decreased their price objective on WestRock from $42.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Friday, June 30th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on WestRock from $37.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Friday, August 4th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on WestRock from $33.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a sector perform rating in a research report on Friday, August 4th. Finally, Truist Financial boosted their price objective on WestRock from $34.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a research report on Thursday, September 21st. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, WestRock has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $37.57.

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WestRock Price Performance

WestRock stock opened at $35.24 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.03 billion, a P/E ratio of -6.36 and a beta of 1.15. WestRock has a 1 year low of $26.84 and a 1 year high of $39.30. The business has a 50-day moving average of $34.77 and a 200-day moving average of $31.58. The company has a current ratio of 1.49, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86.

WestRock (NYSE:WRK  Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The basic materials company reported $0.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.39. The company had revenue of $5.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.16 billion. WestRock had a positive return on equity of 8.75% and a negative net margin of 6.82%. The companys revenue for the quarter was down 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.54 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that WestRock will post 3.02 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On WestRock

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of WRK. OLD Point Trust & Financial Services N A acquired a new position in WestRock during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Ancora Advisors LLC acquired a new position in WestRock during the 1st quarter worth approximately $29,000. Gyon Technologies Capital Management LP acquired a new position in WestRock during the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. Global Retirement Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of WestRock by 203.8% during the 1st quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 1,118 shares of the basic materials companys stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 750 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cornerstone Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of WestRock by 75.0% during the 1st quarter. Cornerstone Management Inc. now owns 1,050 shares of the basic materials companys stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 450 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.51% of the companys stock.

About WestRock

(Get Free Report)

WestRock Company, together with its subsidiaries, provides fiber-based paper and packaging solutions in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. It operates in four segments, Corrugated Packaging, Consumer Packaging, Global Paper, and Distribution. The Corrugated Packaging segment produces containerboards, corrugated sheets, corrugated packaging, and preprinted linerboards to consumer and industrial products manufacturers, and corrugated box manufacturers.

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When Nevith was five years old, her heart began to hurt. She used to tell her mother that it beat fast, as if it was going to jump out of her little chest. When she walked fast her heartbeat quickened, but sometimes it also happened when she was asleep, and she woke up scared, says Lleida Carrillo, from Monterrey, Mexico. The years went on and her daughter was not growing or gaining weight. She did not understand what was happening to her. Until Nevith was able to express herself, and we took her to my neighborhood clinic, says the woman. They could not diagnose her there; she needed a pediatric cardiologist. But we didnt have the money to pay a specialist. So my husband and I started to save money for her tests, she says.

At the Miller Hospital, a private health center, they performed an echocardiogram. The diagnostic test showed that the girl had an atrial septal defect, a malformation in which the heart has a hole in the upper chambers and oxygenated blood mixes with non-oxygenated blood. An opening that, during pregnancy or after childbirth, closes in the newborn, unless there is an anomaly in embryonic development.

In Mexico, 30% of children with congenital heart disease are not diagnosed, and 90% of those affected do not receive adequate medical care, according to a scientific study. Like Nevith, more than 20,000 babies are born in the country with a heart malformation, the main congenital condition and the second cause of death in children under 5 years of age. Lacking specific statistics, an estimate of the reported global prevalence and the number of annual births is calculated, explains Jorge Cervantes, a pediatric cardiac surgeon at the National Institute of Cardiology in Mexico City.

Congenital heart diseases originate when the heart is forming, at the beginning of pregnancy, and they are one of the most common birth defects, explains the surgeon, who has more than 25 years of experience treating children with cardiovascular disorders. Thanks to prenatal diagnosis, doctors and families can be better prepared for when the child is born. Planning the patients care in a timely manner and providing emotional support for the parents helps a lot, points out Cervantes. However, due to the lack of standardization of screening programs, the difficulty accessing them and the lack of adequate training of professionals, detection rates are very low, he says. In Mexico, the current legislation for this test is limited to the first trimester or in very specific cases.

The symptoms associated with heart malformations are very variable. While some diseases require no immediate treatment, many of them cause severe symptoms and require surgical correction during the first weeks of life, says the cardiologist. According to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), half of congenital heart diseases require surgery in the first year to survive: an emergency operation that a large number of children in Mexico cannot access. There is a great deficit of resources, there is a lack of specialized centers and doctors, says Cervantes. Care for this type of patient must be comprehensive, with a multidisciplinary team that covers many different areas. And few centers have that capacity. Its a lag that the public health system has been suffering for years, he laments.

When they explained Neviths problem to me, I began to cry in the doctors office. How were we going to pay for such an expensive operation? My husband is a construction worker and I am a stay-at-home mom. We had no money, and I was going to lose my child, remembers Carrillo. Then they told her about an organization that helps families in her situation. Cardio Chavitos is an association that provides medical care to minors with congenital heart disease from economically vulnerable families in Monterrey.

I called them and explained our case, that Nevith had an atrial septal defect and needed emergency surgery, says the mother. One month later, they contacted her. I remember the moment perfectly because I was washing dishes when I received the news, and I was speechless. Our baby had been accepted into their program and they would take care of all the medical expenses!

Nevith underwent surgery in December of last year. It was a three-hour procedure in which a device was placed to close the hole that the malformation with which her heart was born had caused. We were very nervous, but the time flew by. The entire medical team treated us very well, says Carrillo.

Since its creation in 2008, Cardio Chavitos has assisted more than 300 families who required emergency surgeries; a huge help that changed the destiny of many children and their parents, but not nearly enough, considering the amount of people who need it. Although we have several centers that do have the capacity to provide care, most of them are located in the same areas, points out Cervantes, deputy director of the National Cardiology Hospital. According to a census carried out in 2019, 85% of congenital heart surgeries took place in large healthcare facilities in three cities: Monterrey, Guadalajara and Mexico City. The latter receives patients from all over the country, which greatly saturates our services, states the surgeon.

The lack of specialized pediatric cardiology clinics throughout the country leads to another problem: the high cost of traveling to qualified hospitals for families without financial resources. Families that travel from Oaxaca and spend all their money on transportation and lodging because their children are very sick and require emergency care, says Cervantes, who is one of the promoters of an initiative to implement the regionalization of congenital heart disease care in Mexico.

The plan consists of two main points. On one hand, creating a database of existing care in each state in order to see the greatest number of patients and achieve the best clinical results. Because right now there is no national registry or accurate statistics on diagnoses and the number of patients operated on, essential information for establishing priorities in health policies, explains the expert.

The second measure focuses on consolidating work teams in the High Specialty Regional Hospitals, like the one to which Cervantes belongs, and finding state hospitals with infrastructure and capacity to perform pediatric cardiac surgeries that can be trained by the former, which have greater experience and resources. In this way, centers specialized in congenital heart diseases would be promoted in different regions, so that all attention is not concentrated in a few points of the territorial map, explains Cervantes, for whom the Ministry of Health urgently needs to consider attention to these pathologies as a national priority, taking into account the dimension of the health problem it represents in the country.

When her daughter was diagnosed, Carrillo thought her case was very rare. But then we learned more about it and met many families who were going through the same thing. It is terrible that there are not enough hospitals to provide care, that doctors dont know, that parents dont receive any help from the government, says the mother. If it werent for Cardio Chavitos, I dont know what would have happened to my daughter. They saved her life, she reflects.

After the successful operation, the girl gained weight and grew in size. Experts assure that the life expectancy of patients who undergo this type of surgery is the same as the rest of the population. Almost a year later, Nevith leads a normal life: playing, running and jumping around like the other children. And shes sleeping very well now, her mother announces, with a tone that conveys deep relief. The first thing that my girl tells me sometimes when she wakes up in the morning is that her little heart no longer hurts.

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Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Edison International (NYSE:EIX  Free Report) from an in-line rating to an outperform rating in a research report released on Monday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has $68.00 target price on the utilities providers stock, down from their prior target price of $74.00.

Several other equities analysts have also commented on EIX. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Edison International from $68.00 to $71.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 27th. Mizuho raised shares of Edison International from a neutral rating to a buy rating and lifted their price target for the company from $73.00 to $75.00 in a report on Tuesday, August 22nd. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH raised shares of Edison International from a sell rating to a neutral rating in a report on Tuesday, August 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Edison International from $79.00 to $75.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 17th. Finally, Guggenheim decreased their price target on shares of Edison International from $74.00 to $63.00 in a report on Monday, October 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Edison International currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $71.42.

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Edison International Trading Up 0.6 %

EIX opened at $63.69 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.68, a P/E/G ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87. Edison International has a twelve month low of $56.67 and a twelve month high of $74.92. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $66.78 and a 200 day simple moving average of $69.06.

Edison International (NYSE:EIX  Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The utilities provider reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.95 by $0.06. Edison International had a net margin of 6.81% and a return on equity of 12.69%. The firm had revenue of $3.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.28 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.94 EPS. The businesss quarterly revenue was down 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Edison International will post 4.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Edison International Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 31st. Investors of record on Friday, September 29th will be given a dividend of $0.7375 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 28th. This represents a $2.95 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.63%. Edison Internationals dividend payout ratio is presently 118.95%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Caroline Choi sold 11,222 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.64, for a total value of $803,944.08. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 20,881 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,495,914.84. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 1.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of EIX. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Edison International by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 44,530,226 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $3,121,569,000 after acquiring an additional 731,841 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. lifted its position in shares of Edison International by 2.6% during the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 37,085,024 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $2,575,555,000 after acquiring an additional 946,430 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its stake in Edison International by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 28,623,789 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $1,987,922,000 after purchasing an additional 244,115 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in Edison International by 30.3% during the 1st quarter. FMR LLC now owns 14,924,771 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $1,053,540,000 after purchasing an additional 3,468,195 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pzena Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Edison International by 2.7% during the 1st quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 13,994,142 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $987,846,000 after purchasing an additional 374,257 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.17% of the companys stock.

Edison International Company Profile

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Edison International, through its subsidiaries, generates and distributes electric power. The company supplies electricity to approximately 50,000 square mile area of southern California to residential, commercial, industrial, public authorities, agricultural, and other sectors. It also provides decarbonization and energy solutions to commercial, institutional, and industrial customers in North America and Europe.

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JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund (NYSE:BXSL  Free Report) from a neutral rating to an overweight rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has $28.50 price objective on the stock, up from their previous price objective of $28.00.

A number of other research firms have also commented on BXSL. Raymond James raised their price objective on shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund from $28.00 to $29.50 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Monday, August 14th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund from $28.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Friday, August 11th. Truist Financial started coverage on shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund in a research report on Tuesday, October 10th. They set a buy rating and a $29.00 target price for the company. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Friday, August 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $28.86.

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Blackstone Secured Lending Fund Price Performance

Shares of BXSL stock opened at $27.37 on Monday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $27.33 and a 200-day moving average of $26.79. The company has a market cap of $4.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.83 and a beta of 0.51. 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 released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 9th. The company reported $1.06 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $0.99 by $0.07. Blackstone Secured Lending Fund had a net margin of 48.55% and a return on equity of 14.15%. The company had revenue of $290.37 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $276.36 million. As a group, research analysts expect that Blackstone Secured Lending Fund will post 3.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Blackstone Secured Lending Fund

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund by 57.1% in the second quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 1,034 shares of the companys stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 376 shares during the last quarter. Fortis Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund in the first quarter worth $27,000. Sound Income Strategies LLC grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund by 181.2% in the third quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 1,209 shares of the companys stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 779 shares during the period. PSI Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund in the third quarter worth $34,000. Finally, Belpointe Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund by 1,090.7% in the first quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC now owns 1,286 shares of the companys stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 1,178 shares during the period. Institutional investors 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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StockNews.com upgraded shares of Bank of Nova Scotia (NYSE:BNS  Free Report) (TSE:BNS) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Monday.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on BNS. Barclays raised their target price on Bank of Nova Scotia from $63.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an underweight rating in a report on Monday, August 21st. Scotiabank reduced their target price on Bank of Nova Scotia from $68.00 to $66.00 and set a hold rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have issued a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Bank of Nova Scotia presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $69.33.

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Bank of Nova Scotia Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:BNS opened at $40.59 on Monday. Bank of Nova Scotia has a twelve month low of $40.29 and a twelve month high of $55.91. The firm has a market cap of $48.92 billion, a PE ratio of 8.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.05. The business has a fifty day moving average of $45.37 and a 200-day moving average of $47.95.

Bank of Nova Scotia (NYSE:BNS  Get Free Report) (TSE:BNS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 29th. The bank reported $1.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.28 by $0.45. The business had revenue of $8.09 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $8.16 billion. Bank of Nova Scotia had a return on equity of 13.31% and a net margin of 12.25%. The firms quarterly revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.63 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Bank of Nova Scotia will post 5.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank of Nova Scotia Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 27th. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 3rd will be given a $0.7801 dividend. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 29th. Bank of Nova Scotias dividend payout ratio is presently 65.55%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in BNS. AMF Tjanstepension AB boosted its stake in shares of Bank of Nova Scotia by 55.4% during the 2nd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 457,352 shares of the banks stock worth $22,981,000 after acquiring an additional 163,118 shares during the period. Avalon Investment & Advisory grew its holdings in Bank of Nova Scotia by 11.0% in the 1st quarter. Avalon Investment & Advisory now owns 91,363 shares of the banks stock valued at $4,601,000 after buying an additional 9,066 shares in the last quarter. Cardinal Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in Bank of Nova Scotia by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. Cardinal Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,970,561 shares of the banks stock valued at $98,662,000 after buying an additional 22,616 shares in the last quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC grew its holdings in Bank of Nova Scotia by 6.4% in the 2nd quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC now owns 14,661 shares of the banks stock valued at $734,000 after buying an additional 881 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Avantax Advisory Services Inc. grew its holdings in Bank of Nova Scotia by 21.5% in the 1st quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 33,796 shares of the banks stock valued at $1,702,000 after buying an additional 5,990 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 43.18% of the companys stock.

About Bank of Nova Scotia

(Get Free Report)

The Bank of Nova Scotia provides various banking products and services in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Colombia, the Caribbean and Central America, and internationally. It operates in four segments: Canadian Banking, International Banking, Global Wealth Management, and Global Banking and Markets.

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HubSpot (NYSE:HUBS  Free Report) had its target price trimmed by Piper Sandler from $520.00 to $515.00 in a research note released on Monday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a neutral rating on the software makers stock.

Several other equities analysts have also weighed in on HUBS. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of HubSpot from $425.00 to $525.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a report on Tuesday, July 25th. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their price target on shares of HubSpot from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, September 7th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an outperform rating and issued a $625.00 price target on shares of HubSpot in a research note on Thursday, September 7th. William Blair reissued an outperform rating on shares of HubSpot in a research note on Thursday, September 7th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC increased their price target on shares of HubSpot from $570.00 to $630.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, September 7th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $542.96.

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HubSpot Stock Down 0.2 %

HUBS opened at $410.82 on Monday. HubSpot has a twelve month low of $249.99 and a twelve month high of $581.40. The company has a quick ratio of 2.25, a current ratio of 2.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $492.45 and a 200 day moving average price of $493.52. The company has a market cap of $20.55 billion, a PE ratio of -99.23 and a beta of 1.59.

HubSpot (NYSE:HUBS  Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 2nd. The software maker reported ($1.17) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of ($0.90) by ($0.27). The business had revenue of $529.14 million during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $504.45 million. HubSpot had a negative return on equity of 11.28% and a negative net margin of 10.51%. Sell-side analysts expect that HubSpot will post -1.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Kathryn Bueker sold 179 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $500.00, for a total value of $89,500.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 35,038 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,519,000. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CFO Kathryn Bueker sold 179 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $500.00, for a total value of $89,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 35,038 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $17,519,000. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CTO Dharmesh Shah sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $505.71, for a total transaction of $10,114,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer now directly owns 1,411,014 shares in the company, valued at $713,563,889.94. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 47,967 shares of company stock worth $23,913,211. 4.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of HUBS. HM Payson & Co. purchased a new position in HubSpot during the 2nd quarter worth $27,000. Altshuler Shaham Ltd purchased a new position in HubSpot during the 2nd quarter worth $29,000. Valley National Advisers Inc. grew its position in HubSpot by 1,100.0% during the 1st quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 72 shares of the software makers stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust grew its position in HubSpot by 630.0% during the 1st quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 73 shares of the software makers stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Smithfield Trust Co grew its position in HubSpot by 60.5% during the 2nd quarter. Smithfield Trust Co now owns 61 shares of the software makers stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 23 shares during the last quarter. 87.06% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About HubSpot

(Get Free Report)

HubSpot, Inc provides a cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) platform for businesses in the Americas, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The company's CRM platform includes marketing, sales, service, and content management systems, as well as integrated applications, such as search engine optimization, blogging, website content management, messaging, chatbots, social media, marketing automation, email, predictive lead scoring, sales productivity, knowledge base, commerce, conversation routing, video hosting, ticketing and helpdesk tools, customer NPS surveys, analytics, and reporting.

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Regions Financial (NYSE:RF  Free Report) had its price objective reduced by Morgan Stanley from $26.00 to $24.00 in a research report sent to investors on Monday morning, Benzinga reports. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the banks stock.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on RF. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on shares of Regions Financial from $22.50 to $19.50 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Monday. StockNews.com raised shares of Regions Financial from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note on Friday, October 13th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an outperform rating and issued a $23.00 price target on shares of Regions Financial in a research report on Monday, July 24th. Stephens reiterated an equal weight rating and set a $20.00 price objective on shares of Regions Financial in a research report on Monday, August 7th. Finally, Bank of America dropped their target price on Regions Financial from $21.00 to $18.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Regions Financial has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $19.74.

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Regions Financial Trading Up 2.6 %

Shares of Regions Financial stock opened at $14.43 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. Regions Financial has a twelve month low of $13.72 and a twelve month high of $24.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.54 billion, a PE ratio of 6.01, a P/E/G ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 1.19. The firms 50-day moving average price is $17.25 and its 200 day moving average price is $17.98.

Regions Financial (NYSE:RF  Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Friday, October 20th. The bank reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.58 by ($0.09). Regions Financial had a net margin of 26.39% and a return on equity of 15.86%. The firm had revenue of $1.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $1.89 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.56 EPS. The businesss revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Regions Financial will post 2.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Regions Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 8th will be paid a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 7th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.65%. Regions Financials payout ratio is presently 40.00%.

Insider Activity at Regions Financial

In other news, EVP Ronald G. Smith sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.93, for a total transaction of $209,300.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 281,151 shares of the companys stock, valued at $5,884,490.43. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.32% of the companys stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Regions Financial

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Inspire Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Regions Financial by 10.4% during the third quarter. Inspire Advisors LLC now owns 47,353 shares of the banks stock worth $814,000 after buying an additional 4,461 shares in the last quarter. Graypoint LLC lifted its stake in Regions Financial by 6.0% in the third quarter. Graypoint LLC now owns 23,638 shares of the banks stock worth $407,000 after acquiring an additional 1,338 shares during the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC acquired a new position in Regions Financial during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $312,000. Advisor Partners II LLC increased its position in shares of Regions Financial by 103.8% in the 3rd quarter. Advisor Partners II LLC now owns 83,313 shares of the banks stock valued at $1,433,000 after purchasing an additional 42,437 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Regions Financial by 5.5% in the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 300,345 shares of the banks stock valued at $5,166,000 after purchasing an additional 15,632 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.84% of the companys stock.

Regions Financial Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Regions Financial Corporation, a financial holding company, provides banking and bank-related services to individual and corporate customers. It operates through three segments: Corporate Bank, Consumer Bank, and Wealth Management. The Corporate Bank segment offers commercial banking services, such as commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, and investor real estate lending; equipment lease financing; deposit products; and securities underwriting and placement, loan syndication and placement, foreign exchange, derivatives, merger and acquisition, and other advisory services.

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Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL  Free Report) had its price target lowered by Royal Bank of Canada from $56.00 to $54.00 in a research note issued to investors on Monday morning, Benzinga reports. Royal Bank of Canada currently has an outperform rating on the financial services providers stock.

WAL has been the topic of a number of other reports. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Western Alliance Bancorporation from $61.00 to $66.00 in a report on Thursday, July 20th. Piper Sandler restated an overweight rating and set a $60.00 price objective on shares of Western Alliance Bancorporation in a report on Friday, August 25th. DA Davidson lifted their price target on shares of Western Alliance Bancorporation from $52.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, July 20th. Stephens reiterated an overweight rating and issued a $65.00 price target on shares of Western Alliance Bancorporation in a research note on Wednesday, July 19th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on shares of Western Alliance Bancorporation in a research note on Wednesday, June 28th. They issued a hold rating and a $41.00 price target on the stock. Three equities research 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 stock currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $54.87.

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Western Alliance Bancorporation Trading Up 2.2 %

WAL opened at $41.53 on Monday. The firms fifty day moving average is $46.50 and its two-hundred day moving average is $41.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.94, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 1.04. The firm has a market cap of $4.55 billion, a PE ratio of 5.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.50 and a beta of 1.42. Western Alliance Bancorporation has a twelve month low of $7.46 and a twelve month high of $81.17.

Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 20th. The financial services provider reported $1.97 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $1.91 by $0.06. Western Alliance Bancorporation had a net margin of 20.97% and a return on equity of 18.70%. The business had revenue of $716.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $686.59 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.42 earnings per share. The firms quarterly revenue was up 7.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Western Alliance Bancorporation will post 8.11 EPS for the current year.

Western Alliance Bancorporation Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 11th were given a $0.36 dividend. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 10th. Western Alliance Bancorporations dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 18.27%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. WINTON GROUP Ltd bought a new position in shares of Western Alliance Bancorporation in the 1st quarter valued at about $667,000. Grandeur Peak Global Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Western Alliance Bancorporation during the 1st quarter worth about $1,066,000. DNB Asset Management AS boosted its holdings in shares of Western Alliance Bancorporation by 6.6% during the 2nd quarter. DNB Asset Management AS now owns 162,486 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $5,926,000 after buying an additional 10,019 shares during the period. Evoke Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Western Alliance Bancorporation during the 1st quarter worth about $225,000. Finally, Wescott Financial Advisory Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Western Alliance Bancorporation during the 1st quarter worth about $355,000. Institutional investors own 72.04% of the companys stock.

About Western Alliance Bancorporation

(Get Free Report)

Western Alliance Bancorporation operates as the bank holding company for Western Alliance Bank that provides various banking products and related services primarily in Arizona, California, and Nevada. It operates through Commercial and Consumer Related segments. The company offers deposit products, including checking, savings, and money market accounts, as well as fixed-rate and fixed maturity certificates of deposit accounts; demand deposits; and treasury management and residential mortgage products and services.

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Whirlpool (NYSE:WHR  Get Free Report) and SharkNinja (NYSE:SN  Get Free Report) are both mid-cap consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, earnings, valuation, analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership and risk.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Whirlpool and SharkNinjas top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

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Gross Revenue Price/Sales Ratio Net Income Earnings Per Share Price/Earnings Ratio Whirlpool $19.72 billion 0.29 -$1.52 billion ($28.47) -3.71 SharkNinja $3.72 billion 1.51 $232.35 million N/A N/A

SharkNinja has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Whirlpool.

Analyst Ratings

Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score Whirlpool 1 2 1 0 2.00 SharkNinja 0 0 2 0 3.00

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Whirlpool and SharkNinja, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

Whirlpool currently has a consensus target price of $131.00, indicating a potential upside of 23.90%. Given Whirlpools higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Whirlpool is more favorable than SharkNinja.

Profitability

This table compares Whirlpool and SharkNinjas net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets Whirlpool -8.13% 29.70% 4.89% SharkNinja N/A N/A N/A

Insider & Institutional Ownership

90.9% of Whirlpool shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.9% of Whirlpool shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 11.1% of SharkNinja shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

SharkNinja beats Whirlpool on 6 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Whirlpool

(Get Free Report)

Whirlpool Corporation manufactures and markets home appliances and related products and services in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and Asia. The company's principal products include refrigerators, freezers, ice makers, and refrigerator water filters; laundry appliances, and commercial laundry products and related laundry accessories; cooking and other small domestic appliances; and dishwasher appliances and related accessories, as well as mixers. It markets and distributes its products primarily under the Whirlpool, Maytag, KitchenAid, JennAir, Consul, Brastemp, Amana, Bauknecht, Hotpoint, Indesit, InSinkErator, Yummly, Affresh, Gladiator, Swash, everydrop, Speed Queen, Ignis, Privileg, Eslabon de Lujo, Acros, and Ariston brands. The company sells its products to retailers, distributors, dealers, builders, and other manufacturers, as well as directly to consumers. Whirlpool Corporation was founded in 1911 and is headquartered in Benton Harbor, Michigan.

About SharkNinja

(Get Free Report)

SharkNinja, Inc., a product design and technology company, engages in the provision of various solutions for consumers worldwide. It offers cleaning appliances, including corded and cordless vacuums, as well as other floorcare products; cooking and beverage appliances, such as air fryers, multi-cookers, outdoor and countertop grills and ovens, coffee systems, cookware, cutlery, kettles, toasters, and bakeware products; food preparation appliances comprising blenders, food processors, ice cream makers, and juicers; and beauty appliances, home environment products, and garment care products. The company sells its products through retailers, online and offline, and distributors. SharkNinja, Inc. was incorporated in 2017 and is headquartered in Needham, Massachusetts.

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State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D raised its holdings in SM Energy (NYSE:SM  Free Report) by 13.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 91,131 shares of the energy companys stock after acquiring an additional 11,107 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D owned 0.08% of SM Energy worth $2,882,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Signaturefd LLC increased its stake in SM Energy by 28.1% in the second quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 2,372 shares of the energy companys stock valued at $75,000 after purchasing an additional 521 shares during the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of SM Energy during the 2nd quarter worth about $279,000. Meritage Portfolio Management boosted its position in shares of SM Energy by 19.3% in the second quarter. Meritage Portfolio Management now owns 11,234 shares of the energy companys stock worth $355,000 after acquiring an additional 1,820 shares during the last quarter. Cubic Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in SM Energy by 19.7% in the second quarter. Cubic Asset Management LLC now owns 15,675 shares of the energy companys stock valued at $496,000 after purchasing an additional 2,580 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC increased its position in SM Energy by 14.8% during the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 18,923 shares of the energy companys stock worth $599,000 after purchasing an additional 2,435 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.26% of the companys stock.

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SM Energy Stock Down 2.8 %

NYSE SM opened at $40.54 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $4.81 billion, a PE ratio of 4.59 and a beta of 4.33. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $40.41 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $34.14. SM Energy has a fifty-two week low of $24.66 and a fifty-two week high of $48.55. The company has a quick ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48.

SM Energy Announces Dividend

SM Energy ( NYSE:SM Get Free Report ) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 2nd. The energy company reported $1.28 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.02 by $0.26. The business had revenue of $550.75 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $555.46 million. SM Energy had a net margin of 41.36% and a return on equity of 22.48%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that SM Energy will post 5.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The firm also recently announced a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, October 24th will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, October 23rd. This represents a dividend yield of 0.8%. SM Energys dividend payout ratio is presently 6.80%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. TheStreet upgraded shares of SM Energy from a c+ rating to a b- rating in a report on Monday, July 10th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a sector perform rating and issued a $46.00 target price on shares of SM Energy in a report on Thursday, October 5th. Susquehanna upped their price target on SM Energy from $32.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised SM Energy from a neutral rating to an overweight rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $45.00 to $47.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 16th. Finally, Raymond James boosted their target price on SM Energy from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Monday, July 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $42.10.

Check Out Our Latest Report on SM Energy

Insider Transactions at SM Energy

In related news, CAO Patrick A. Lytle sold 6,494 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.46, for a total value of $249,759.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 10,098 shares of the companys stock, valued at $388,369.08. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CAO Patrick A. Lytle sold 6,494 shares of SM Energy stock in a transaction on Monday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.46, for a total value of $249,759.24. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 10,098 shares in the company, valued at $388,369.08. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Rose M. Robeson sold 30,000 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.65, for a total transaction of $1,189,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 39,531 shares in the company, valued at $1,567,404.15. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 52,164 shares of company stock valued at $2,083,923. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

SM Energy Company Profile

(Free Report)

SM Energy Company, an independent energy company, engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, and production of oil, gas, and natural gas liquids in the state of Texas. It also has working interests in oil and gas producing wells in the Midland Basin and South Texas. The company was formerly known as St.

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Perigon Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of iShares Russell Mid-Cap Value ETF (NYSEARCA:IWS  Free Report) by 34.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,106 shares of the companys stock after purchasing an additional 1,041 shares during the quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLCs holdings in iShares Russell Mid-Cap Value ETF were worth $451,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. King Luther Capital Management Corp lifted its stake in iShares Russell Mid-Cap Value ETF by 2.8% in the first quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp now owns 7,570 shares of the companys stock valued at $804,000 after acquiring an additional 205 shares during the last quarter. Financial Counselors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of iShares Russell Mid-Cap Value ETF by 11.7% during the 1st quarter. Financial Counselors Inc. now owns 15,177 shares of the companys stock worth $1,612,000 after buying an additional 1,593 shares during the last quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. lifted its stake in shares of iShares Russell Mid-Cap Value ETF by 10.9% during the 2nd quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 1,315,706 shares of the companys stock worth $144,517,000 after buying an additional 129,776 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of iShares Russell Mid-Cap Value ETF during the 1st quarter worth about $224,000. Finally, Ridgewood Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of iShares Russell Mid-Cap Value ETF during the 1st quarter worth about $65,000.

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iShares Russell Mid-Cap Value ETF Stock Performance

NYSEARCA IWS opened at $98.87 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $105.76 and a 200-day moving average of $107.11. The stock has a market cap of $11.45 billion, a PE ratio of 12.62 and a beta of 1.08. iShares Russell Mid-Cap Value ETF has a 52-week low of $98.47 and a 52-week high of $116.73.

iShares Russell Mid-Cap Value ETF Company Profile

iShares Russell Mid-Cap Value ETF (the Fund), formerly iShares Russell Midcap Value Index Fund, is an exchange-traded fund (ETF). The Fund seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the Russell Midcap Value Index (the Value Index). The Value Index measures the performance of the mid-capitalization value sector of the United States equity market.

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LSV Asset Management lifted its stake in shares of Central Pacific Financial Corp. (NYSE:CPF  Free Report) by 16.4% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 493,040 shares of the financial services providers stock after buying an additional 69,511 shares during the quarter. LSV Asset Management owned about 1.82% of Central Pacific Financial worth $7,746,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. EA Series Trust acquired a new stake in shares of Central Pacific Financial during the 2nd quarter worth about $925,000. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC acquired a new stake in Central Pacific Financial in the 2nd quarter worth about $410,000. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Central Pacific Financial in the 2nd quarter worth about $192,000. Bailard Inc. raised its stake in Central Pacific Financial by 51.1% in the 2nd quarter. Bailard Inc. now owns 34,900 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $548,000 after purchasing an additional 11,800 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Louisiana State Employees Retirement System raised its stake in Central Pacific Financial by 12.7% in the 2nd quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 14,200 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $223,000 after purchasing an additional 1,600 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.79% of the companys stock.

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Central Pacific Financial Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of Central Pacific Financial stock opened at $15.79 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $426.96 million, a PE ratio of 6.37 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40. The firms 50 day moving average is $16.52 and its 200 day moving average is $16.35. Central Pacific Financial Corp. has a 1 year low of $13.22 and a 1 year high of $24.55.

Central Pacific Financial Dividend Announcement

Central Pacific Financial ( NYSE:CPF Get Free Report ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.52 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $82.46 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $62.35 million. Central Pacific Financial had a net margin of 22.26% and a return on equity of 14.70%. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.61 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Central Pacific Financial Corp. will post 2.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.59%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 29th. Central Pacific Financials dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 41.94%.

Insider Activity at Central Pacific Financial

In other Central Pacific Financial news, Director Agnes Catherine Ngo sold 3,333 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $16.41, for a total value of $54,694.53. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 105,354 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,728,859.14. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In the last three months, insiders have sold 7,025 shares of company stock valued at $115,932. 2.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CPF has been the subject of several analyst reports. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Central Pacific Financial in a research note on Thursday, October 5th. They issued a hold rating for the company. TheStreet raised shares of Central Pacific Financial from a c+ rating to a b- rating in a report on Friday, August 4th.

View Our Latest Research Report on CPF

About Central Pacific Financial

(Free Report)

Central Pacific Financial Corp. is a bank holding company, which engages in the provision of commercial banking services through its wholly owned subsidiary, Central Pacific Bank. It operates through the following segments: Banking Operations, Treasury, and All Others. The Banking Operations segment includes construction and real estate development lending, commercial lending, residential mortgage lending and servicing, indirect auto lending, trust services, and retail brokerage services.

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It was a good thing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had his videoconference address to the European Union summit pre-slotted for the opening session. Immediately afterward, EU leaders switched off and went to the order of the day  the Israel-Hamas war. They didnt come back to the issue of Russias war in Ukraine again before Fridays closing day of the summit.

After dominating summit after summit since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, Zelenskiy will now find it challenging to get all the attention and the political, economic and military aid that Ukraine wants.

That may extend beyond Europe, too, since the new U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson has shown little interest in providing additional money from Congress to support Ukraine. He has said now is the moment we must stand with our important ally in the Middle East, and thats Israel.

Not only have the geopolitics in general shifted, some of the EU politics in particular are no longer as kind to Zelenskiy. Ukraine is one of the most corrupt countries in the world, new Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said when he assessed the summit on his Facebook page on Friday. After the summit, he added: we are ready to help, but not militarily, because I do not believe in a military solution of this conflict in Ukraine. Zelenskiy wants a military victory ahead of peace.

Slovakia is a nation of just 5.5 million people, dwarfed by nations like Germany and France in a bloc of almost 450 million. But Ficos threats of denying military aid must be seen as more than just bluster. Thats because the EU gives veto rights to members on most money issues affecting Ukraine.

Ficos counterpart from neighboring Hungary, Viktor Orban, has been leveraging the threat of vetos for years. And he also poured cold water on Zelenskiy on Friday. Orban said in his weekly interview on state radio that the EUs strategy for assisting Ukraine in its war has failed, and signaled that he may not be willing to approve an EU proposal that would provide more financial assistance to Kyiv.

The Ukrainians are not going to win on the battlefield, the Russians are not going to lose on the battlefield, and theres no way that the Russian president will be defeated in Moscow in the chaos of a lost war, Orban said.

Moscow is certainly pushing more funds into the war effort. Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told lawmakers in Moscow that nearly a third of government spending next year will go into defense for a total about 109 billion euros ($115 billion), noting that the amount is significantly higher compared to previous years.

After reclaiming some ground during a counteroffensive that began in June, Ukraine forces failed to break through Russias multi-echeloned defenses to achieve their goal of cutting a land link to the Crimean Peninsula they crave. Offensive operations are now expected to slow down as the winter sets in. All this despite billions in support from Europe and the United States.

With Ukraine funding in jeopardy in the U.S. Congress, Zelenskiy is hoping Europes financial lifeline stays open. By the end of the year, EU leaders have to approve a four-year 50-billion-euro (nearly $53 billion) package for Ukraine to provide budget support, promote investment and help with reconstruction  and here the veto powers of member states come into play. There is also a four-year 20-billion-euro ($21 billion) military and security package in the pipeline.

Orban said that he was unwilling to move forward on financing to Ukraine that aimed to help it win the war militarily, a strategy he said was no longer tenable. I was forced to clearly and directly say that the strategy that those in Brussels adopted and brought us into has failed, he said. Whatever we do, before we spend the money, there has to be a clear strategy, he said Friday. That stance has irked a large majority of EU nations that see Ukraine as a bulwark for the kind of democracy they want to see across the globe.

This week, Germany handed over a third IRIS-T SLM air defense system to Ukraine after two of the sophisticated systems were supplied over the past year. Even if the security policy situation worldwide is further escalating and we are looking with great concern at the moment at Israel and the Middle East, we will not stop supporting Ukraine, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said. This war will not be forgotten.

Others were asking what strategy Fico and Orban would propose other than full backing for Ukraine. If we dont help Ukraine, then what is the alternative, really, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said. I mean, Russia wins! And so what happens next? Why do you think that youre safe then? Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said. If we dont stop Putin in Ukraine, he wont stop there. So it is a threat to all of us.

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LSV Asset Management cut its stake in Sealed Air Co. (NYSE:SEE  Free Report) by 41.6% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 180,300 shares of the industrial products companys stock after selling 128,600 shares during the quarter. LSV Asset Management owned approximately 0.12% of Sealed Air worth $7,212,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board increased its stake in shares of Sealed Air by 6.0% in the second quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board now owns 7,060 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $282,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC acquired a new position in Sealed Air during the first quarter worth $207,000. Ieq Capital LLC increased its position in Sealed Air by 17.1% during the first quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 6,760 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $310,000 after buying an additional 987 shares during the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC increased its position in Sealed Air by 7.5% during the first quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 96,858 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $4,447,000 after buying an additional 6,718 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ProShare Advisors LLC increased its position in Sealed Air by 42.4% during the first quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 25,556 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $1,173,000 after buying an additional 7,609 shares during the last quarter. 89.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Sealed Air Price Performance

Shares of SEE opened at $30.81 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $4.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.50, a P/E/G ratio of 6.76 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a quick ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 11.24. Sealed Air Co. has a 12 month low of $28.50 and a 12 month high of $56.43. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $32.85 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $39.03.

Sealed Air Dividend Announcement

Sealed Air ( NYSE:SEE Get Free Report ) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 8th. The industrial products company reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $0.68 by $0.12. Sealed Air had a net margin of 7.04% and a return on equity of 154.56%. The company had revenue of $1.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $1.41 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.01 earnings per share. Sealed Airs quarterly revenue was down 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Sealed Air Co. will post 2.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 1st will be paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.60%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 30th. Sealed Airs dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 29.85%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com assumed coverage on Sealed Air in a research report on Thursday, October 5th. They issued a hold rating on the stock. William Blair downgraded Sealed Air from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a research report on Tuesday. Citigroup lowered their price target on Sealed Air from $41.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 10th. Bank of America raised Sealed Air from a neutral rating to a buy rating and lowered their price target for the company from $61.00 to $52.00 in a research report on Monday, July 10th. Finally, Credit Suisse Group raised Sealed Air from a neutral rating to an outperform rating and lowered their price target for the company from $59.00 to $47.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 13th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Sealed Air presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $43.55.

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Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Edward L. Doheny II bought 10,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 8th. The stock was bought at an average price of $33.85 per share, for a total transaction of $338,500.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 658,360 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $22,285,486. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.44% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Sealed Air Profile

(Free Report)

Sealed Air Corporation provides packaging solutions in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australia, and NewZealand. It operates through two segments, Food and Protective. The Food segment offers integrated packaging materials and automation equipment solutions to provide food safety and shelf life extension, reduce food waste, automate processes, and optimize total cost for food processors in the fresh red meat, smoked and processed meats, poultry, seafood, plant-based, and dairy markets under the CRYOVAC, CRYOVAC Grip & Tear, CRYOVAC Darfresh, Simple Steps, and Optidure brands.

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Perigon Wealth Management LLC trimmed its stake in shares of BlackRock MuniHoldings California Quality Fund, Inc. (NYSE:MUC  Free Report) by 11.8% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 39,710 shares of the companys stock after selling 5,307 shares during the quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLCs holdings in BlackRock MuniHoldings California Quality Fund were worth $431,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MUC. Bank of Montreal Can acquired a new stake in BlackRock MuniHoldings California Quality Fund during the 1st quarter worth approximately $262,000. UBS Group AG increased its position in BlackRock MuniHoldings California Quality Fund by 5.5% during the 1st quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 254,426 shares of the companys stock worth $3,328,000 after purchasing an additional 13,215 shares during the period. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. acquired a new position in BlackRock MuniHoldings California Quality Fund during the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,024,000. Guggenheim Capital LLC increased its position in BlackRock MuniHoldings California Quality Fund by 3.9% during the 1st quarter. Guggenheim Capital LLC now owns 1,178,881 shares of the companys stock worth $15,420,000 after purchasing an additional 44,371 shares during the period. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased its position in BlackRock MuniHoldings California Quality Fund by 9.7% during the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 46,060 shares of the companys stock worth $602,000 after purchasing an additional 4,071 shares during the period. 25.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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BlackRock MuniHoldings California Quality Fund Trading Up 0.9 %

NYSE MUC opened at $9.29 on Friday. The businesss 50 day moving average is $9.92 and its two-hundred day moving average is $10.45. BlackRock MuniHoldings California Quality Fund, Inc. has a 12-month low of $9.19 and a 12-month high of $11.71.

BlackRock MuniHoldings California Quality Fund Announces Dividend

BlackRock MuniHoldings California Quality Fund Profile

The company also recently declared a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, October 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.0335 per share. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 13th.

(Free Report)

BlackRock MuniHoldings California Quality Fund, Inc is a closed ended fixed income mutual fund launched by BlackRock, Inc It is managed by BlackRock Advisors, LLC. The fund invests in fixed income markets. It invests primarily in a portfolio of long-term investment-grade municipal obligations, the interest on which is exempt from Federal and California income taxes.

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State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D reduced its holdings in Ternium S.A. (NYSE:TX  Free Report) by 5.5% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 75,920 shares of the basic materials companys stock after selling 4,383 shares during the quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund Ds holdings in Ternium were worth $3,010,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of TX. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ternium by 11.5% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 14,601 shares of the basic materials companys stock worth $602,000 after acquiring an additional 1,503 shares during the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. boosted its holdings in shares of Ternium by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 392,983 shares of the basic materials companys stock worth $16,214,000 after purchasing an additional 1,114 shares in the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management SA bought a new position in shares of Ternium during the 1st quarter valued at about $4,064,000. Ninety One North America Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Ternium by 9.1% during the 1st quarter. Ninety One North America Inc. now owns 532,081 shares of the basic materials companys stock valued at $21,954,000 after buying an additional 44,401 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC bought a new stake in Ternium in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $307,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 12.07% of the companys stock.

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Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have commented on TX shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Ternium from $51.50 to $53.50 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Monday, August 21st. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Ternium in a report on Thursday, October 5th. They set a strong-buy rating on the stock. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ternium currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $47.36.

Ternium Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of Ternium stock opened at $37.93 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 2.29 and a current ratio of 3.99. Ternium S.A. has a 52-week low of $26.01 and a 52-week high of $45.81. The companys 50 day moving average price is $39.32 and its 200-day moving average price is $40.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.24 and a beta of 1.58.

Ternium (NYSE:TX  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $1.96 by $1.23. Ternium had a net margin of 7.87% and a return on equity of 8.51%. The business had revenue of $3.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.11 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $4.07 EPS. The companys revenue was down 12.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Ternium S.A. will post 7.92 EPS for the current year.

Ternium Company Profile

(Free Report)

Ternium SA, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures, processes, and sells various steel products in Mexico, Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, Bolivia, Uruguay, Brazil, the United States, Colombia, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. It operates through two segments, Steel and Mining.

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Barnes Group Inc. (NYSE:B  Free Report)  Investment analysts at Zacks Research reduced their Q3 2023 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for Barnes Group in a research note issued on Thursday, October 26th. Zacks Research analyst E. Haque now anticipates that the industrial products company will post earnings of $0.52 per share for the quarter, down from their prior forecast of $0.54. The consensus estimate for Barnes Groups current full-year earnings is $2.15 per share. Zacks Research also issued estimates for Barnes Groups Q4 2023 earnings at $0.58 EPS, Q3 2024 earnings at $0.60 EPS, FY2024 earnings at $2.49 EPS and Q1 2025 earnings at $0.56 EPS.

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Several other research firms have also issued reports on B. Truist Financial dropped their target price on Barnes Group from $40.00 to $37.00 and set a hold rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 20th. StockNews.com began coverage on Barnes Group in a report on Thursday, October 5th. They set a buy rating on the stock.

Barnes Group Stock Down 2.1 %

Shares of Barnes Group stock opened at $29.98 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.41, a current ratio of 2.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. Barnes Group has a 12 month low of $29.79 and a 12 month high of $47.36. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $35.23 and a 200 day simple moving average of $38.77. The stock has a market cap of $1.52 billion, a PE ratio of 24.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.22.

Barnes Group (NYSE:B  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 28th. The industrial products company reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.04. Barnes Group had a return on equity of 7.92% and a net margin of 4.84%. The business had revenue of $339.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $340.43 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.56 earnings per share. The firms quarterly revenue was up 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Barnes Group

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC bought a new position in shares of Barnes Group in the 2nd quarter valued at $31,000. WFA of San Diego LLC bought a new position in shares of Barnes Group in the 2nd quarter valued at $49,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Barnes Group in the 2nd quarter valued at $51,000. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its stake in shares of Barnes Group by 275.3% in the 1st quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 1,715 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $69,000 after acquiring an additional 1,258 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Counterpoint Mutual Funds LLC bought a new position in shares of Barnes Group in the 3rd quarter valued at $82,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.03% of the companys stock.

Barnes Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 8th. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 22nd will be given a dividend of $0.16 per share. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.13%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 21st. Barnes Groups dividend payout ratio is currently 52.03%.

Barnes Group Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Barnes Group Inc provides engineered products, industrial technologies, and solutions in the United States and internationally. It operates in two segments: Industrial and Aerospace. The Industrial segment offers precision components, products, and systems used by various customers in end-markets, such as mobility, industrial equipment, automation, personal care, packaging, electronics, and medical devices.

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State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D boosted its stake in AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ  Free Report) by 21.1% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 68,629 shares of the industrial products companys stock after acquiring an additional 11,955 shares during the quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D owned 0.27% of AZZ worth $2,983,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Crawford Investment Counsel Inc. increased its stake in shares of AZZ by 23.8% during the first quarter. Crawford Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 192,062 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $7,921,000 after purchasing an additional 36,872 shares in the last quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AZZ during the second quarter worth approximately $203,000. Legato Capital Management LLC raised its stake in AZZ by 12.2% in the 1st quarter. Legato Capital Management LLC now owns 38,590 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $1,591,000 after purchasing an additional 4,205 shares during the last quarter. Moody National Bank Trust Division boosted its stake in AZZ by 39.2% during the 1st quarter. Moody National Bank Trust Division now owns 16,113 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $664,000 after purchasing an additional 4,537 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of AZZ during the first quarter worth $549,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.16% of the companys stock.

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AZZ Trading Up 2.0 %

Shares of AZZ stock opened at $46.57 on Friday. AZZ Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $34.59 and a fifty-two week high of $50.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.33 and a current ratio of 1.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.92 and a beta of 1.30. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $46.73 and a 200 day moving average of $42.67.

AZZ Announces Dividend

AZZ ( NYSE:AZZ Get Free Report ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 11th. The industrial products company reported $1.27 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $1.08 by $0.19. AZZ had a return on equity of 11.94% and a net margin of 2.49%. The business had revenue of $398.50 million during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $396.91 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.24 EPS. The companys revenue was down 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that AZZ Inc. will post 4.08 earnings per share for the current year.

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 18th will be issued a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, October 17th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.46%. AZZs dividend payout ratio is currently 77.27%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on AZZ. StockNews.com downgraded shares of AZZ from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Wednesday, October 18th. Noble Financial started coverage on AZZ in a research note on Monday, August 21st. They set an outperform rating and a $60.00 price objective on the stock. TheStreet raised AZZ from a c+ rating to a b- rating in a research note on Monday, July 10th. Finally, B. Riley started coverage on shares of AZZ in a research report on Wednesday, August 30th. They set a buy rating and a $64.00 price target on the stock. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AZZ presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $57.33.

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About AZZ

(Free Report)

AZZ Inc provides hot-dip galvanizing and coil coating solutions in the United States, Canada, Brazil, China, the Netherlands, Poland, Singapore, and India. The company operates through AZZ Metal Coatings and AZZ Precoat Metals segments. The AZZ Metal Coatings segment offers metal finishing solutions for corrosion protection, including hot-dip galvanizing, spin galvanizing, powder coating, anodizing, and plating to steel fabrication and other industries.

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State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D raised its holdings in Lincoln National Co. (NYSE:LNC  Free Report) by 5.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 114,523 shares of the financial services providers stock after buying an additional 6,123 shares during the quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D owned 0.07% of Lincoln National worth $2,950,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in Lincoln National by 11.6% during the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 17,600 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $1,151,000 after buying an additional 1,835 shares during the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Lincoln National by 4.2% in the 1st quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 6,980 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $456,000 after acquiring an additional 284 shares in the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund grew its position in Lincoln National by 2,066.8% during the 1st quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 17,768 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $1,161,000 after acquiring an additional 16,948 shares during the last quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Lincoln National by 24.7% during the 1st quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 46,808 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $3,059,000 after purchasing an additional 9,279 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Panagora Asset Management Inc. raised its position in Lincoln National by 107.8% in the 1st quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 10,455 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $683,000 after purchasing an additional 5,423 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.89% of the companys stock.

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Lincoln National Stock Up 2.8 %

LNC stock opened at $21.85 on Friday. Lincoln National Co. has a 1-year low of $18.50 and a 1-year high of $54.59. The company has a current ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 0.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.23. The businesss 50-day moving average price is $24.51 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $24.03.

Lincoln National Announces Dividend

Lincoln National ( NYSE:LNC Get Free Report ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 2nd. The financial services provider reported $2.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.92 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $4.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.65 billion. Lincoln National had a negative return on equity of 22.54% and a negative net margin of 18.67%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.23 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Lincoln National Co. will post 7.09 earnings per share for the current year.

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, October 10th will be given a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, October 9th. Lincoln Nationals dividend payout ratio is presently -10.23%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently commented on the company. Raymond James initiated coverage on Lincoln National in a report on Wednesday, July 26th. They set a market perform rating on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of Lincoln National from $27.00 to $25.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 17th. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on shares of Lincoln National from $29.00 to $27.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 2nd. Barclays upped their price objective on Lincoln National from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock an underweight rating in a report on Monday, August 7th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on Lincoln National from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the company an underperform rating in a research note on Thursday, September 14th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $29.92.

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Lincoln National Company Profile

(Free Report)

Lincoln National Corporation, through its subsidiaries, operates multiple insurance and retirement businesses in the United States. It operates through four segments: Life Insurance, Annuities, Group Protection, and Retirement Plan Services. The company's Life Insurance segment provides life insurance products, including term insurance, such as single and survivorship versions of universal life insurance; variable universal life insurance; indexed universal life insurance products; and critical illness and long-term care riders.

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State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D decreased its position in Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. (NYSE:CFR  Free Report) by 9.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 28,446 shares of the banks stock after selling 2,856 shares during the quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund Ds holdings in Cullen/Frost Bankers were worth $3,059,000 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 company. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in Cullen/Frost Bankers by 10.3% in the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 5,345 shares of the banks stock worth $740,000 after purchasing an additional 501 shares during the last quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. bought a new stake in Cullen/Frost Bankers in the first quarter worth about $1,736,000. BlackRock Inc. boosted its stake in Cullen/Frost Bankers by 0.8% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 5,032,068 shares of the banks stock valued at $696,489,000 after acquiring an additional 39,554 shares during the last quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can grew its position in shares of Cullen/Frost Bankers by 9.0% during the 1st quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can now owns 31,607 shares of the banks stock valued at $4,501,000 after acquiring an additional 2,600 shares during the period. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board bought a new position in shares of Cullen/Frost Bankers during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $211,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.39% of the companys stock.

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Cullen/Frost Bankers Trading Up 10.0 %

Cullen/Frost Bankers stock opened at $92.05 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $5.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.63, a PEG ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 1.05. Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $82.25 and a fifty-two week high of $160.60. The firms fifty day moving average price is $92.30 and its 200-day moving average price is $101.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a current ratio of 0.57.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Cullen/Frost Bankers ( NYSE:CFR Get Free Report ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 27th. The bank reported $2.47 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.40 by $0.07. Cullen/Frost Bankers had a return on equity of 22.93% and a net margin of 29.14%. The company had revenue of $512.12 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $496.85 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.81 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. will post 9.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

A number of analysts have issued reports on CFR shares. Wedbush decreased their target price on Cullen/Frost Bankers from $120.00 to $112.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 28th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on Cullen/Frost Bankers from $122.00 to $108.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 10th. Stephens lowered their price target on shares of Cullen/Frost Bankers from $121.00 to $117.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 28th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on shares of Cullen/Frost Bankers from $111.00 to $98.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 10th. Finally, DA Davidson reduced their price objective on shares of Cullen/Frost Bankers from $134.00 to $126.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $115.55.

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About Cullen/Frost Bankers

(Free Report)

Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Frost Bank that provides commercial and consumer banking services in Texas. It operates in two segments, Banking and Frost Wealth Advisors. The company offers commercial banking services to corporations and other business clients, including financing for industrial and commercial properties, interim construction related to industrial and commercial properties, equipment, inventories and accounts receivables, and acquisitions; and treasury management services, as well as originates commercial leasing services.

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Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV increased its position in shares of Easterly Government Properties, Inc. (NYSE:DEA  Free Report) by 9,775.0% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,975 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock after acquiring an additional 1,955 shares during the quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADVs holdings in Easterly Government Properties were worth $29,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Easterly Government Properties by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,646,010 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $167,888,000 after acquiring an additional 247,551 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its position in Easterly Government Properties by 0.6% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,702,647 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $89,931,000 after purchasing an additional 33,501 shares during the period. GW&K Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Easterly Government Properties by 3.0% in the first quarter. GW&K Investment Management LLC now owns 2,122,036 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $29,157,000 after purchasing an additional 61,419 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Easterly Government Properties by 3.6% during the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,962,586 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $26,966,000 after purchasing an additional 67,289 shares during the period. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. raised its stake in shares of Easterly Government Properties by 4.4% during the 1st quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 1,910,930 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $40,397,000 after buying an additional 80,930 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.68% of the companys stock.

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Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently commented on the company. Royal Bank of Canada lowered Easterly Government Properties from a sector perform rating to an underperform rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $15.00 to $13.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 16th. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on shares of Easterly Government Properties from $16.00 to $14.00 and set a hold rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 14th. Finally, StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Easterly Government Properties in a report on Thursday, October 5th. They set a hold rating for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $14.70.

Easterly Government Properties Stock Up 1.8 %

DEA opened at $10.52 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 5.46, a current ratio of 5.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86. The company has a market cap of $982.78 million, a PE ratio of 37.57 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $12.12 and a 200 day moving average price of $13.52. Easterly Government Properties, Inc. has a twelve month low of $10.33 and a twelve month high of $17.43.

Easterly Government Properties Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 29th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 17th were issued a $0.265 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 16th. This represents a $1.06 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 10.08%. Easterly Government Propertiess dividend payout ratio is presently 378.57%.

Easterly Government Properties Company Profile

(Free Report)

Easterly Government Properties, Inc (NYSE: DEA) is based in Washington, DC, and focuses primarily on the acquisition, development and management of Class A commercial properties that are leased to the U.S. Government. Easterly's experienced management team brings specialized insight into the strategy and needs of mission-critical U.S.

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Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. boosted its position in Invesco S&P 500 Low Volatility ETF (NYSEARCA:SPLV  Free Report) by 12.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 51,376 shares of the companys stock after buying an additional 5,492 shares during the quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.s holdings in Invesco S&P 500 Low Volatility ETF were worth $3,227,000 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. Barrett & Company Inc. bought a new stake in Invesco S&P 500 Low Volatility ETF in the second quarter valued at about $25,000. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. bought a new position in shares of Invesco S&P 500 Low Volatility ETF during the second quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Fiduciary Alliance LLC bought a new position in shares of Invesco S&P 500 Low Volatility ETF during the second quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Assetmark Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Invesco S&P 500 Low Volatility ETF by 852.2% during the first quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 638 shares of the companys stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 571 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Toronto Dominion Bank grew its holdings in shares of Invesco S&P 500 Low Volatility ETF by 584.0% during the first quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 684 shares of the companys stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 584 shares during the last quarter.

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Invesco S&P 500 Low Volatility ETF Trading Down 0.2 %

NYSEARCA:SPLV opened at $58.28 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.53 billion, a PE ratio of 20.07 and a beta of 0.69. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $59.90 and a 200-day moving average of $61.68. Invesco S&P 500 Low Volatility ETF has a 52 week low of $57.17 and a 52 week high of $66.32.

About Invesco S&P 500 Low Volatility ETF

The Invesco S&P 500 Low Volatility ETF (SPLV) is an exchange-traded fund that is based on the S&P 500 Low Volatility index. The fund tracks a volatility-weighted index of the 100 least-volatile stocks in the S&P 500. SPLV was launched on May 5, 2011 and is managed by Invesco.

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Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Reinsurance Group of America, Incorporated (NYSE:RGA  Free Report) by 1.0% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 31,029 shares of the insurance providers stock after acquiring an additional 310 shares during the period. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc.s holdings in Reinsurance Group of America were worth $4,303,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Financial Management Professionals Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Reinsurance Group of America by 20,900.0% during the second quarter. Financial Management Professionals Inc. now owns 210 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 209 shares during the period. Bay Harbor Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Reinsurance Group of America during the first quarter valued at approximately $36,000. AllSquare Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Reinsurance Group of America during the first quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Allworth Financial LP lifted its stake in Reinsurance Group of America by 33.9% in the first quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 300 shares of the insurance providers stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 76 shares during the period. Finally, Graham Capital Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Reinsurance Group of America in the first quarter worth $401,912,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.78% of the companys stock.

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Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on RGA. StockNews.com began coverage on Reinsurance Group of America in a research note on Thursday, October 5th. They issued a buy rating for the company. Citigroup dropped their price target on Reinsurance Group of America from $170.00 to $162.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 9th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on Reinsurance Group of America from $160.00 to $159.00 and set a hold rating for the company in a report on Thursday, September 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Reinsurance Group of America from $168.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Friday, October 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Reinsurance Group of America from $160.00 to $162.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a report on Friday, August 18th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $165.18.

Reinsurance Group of America Price Performance

NYSE RGA opened at $147.63 on Friday. Reinsurance Group of America, Incorporated has a one year low of $120.99 and a one year high of $156.08. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $143.78 and a 200 day moving average of $142.75. The company has a market capitalization of $9.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.56 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.14 and a current ratio of 0.14.

Reinsurance Group of America (NYSE:RGA  Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Friday, August 4th. The insurance provider reported $4.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.12 by $0.28. The business had revenue of $4.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $4.30 billion. Reinsurance Group of America had a return on equity of 20.35% and a net margin of 5.61%. The businesss revenue for the quarter was up 6.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $5.78 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Reinsurance Group of America, Incorporated will post 18.15 EPS for the current year.

Reinsurance Group of America Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 29th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 15th were given a $0.85 dividend. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.30%. This is a boost from Reinsurance Group of Americas previous quarterly dividend of $0.80. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 14th. Reinsurance Group of Americas dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.32%.

About Reinsurance Group of America

(Free Report)

Reinsurance Group of America, Incorporated engages in reinsurance business. The company offers individual and group life and health insurance products, such as term life, credit life, universal life, whole life, group life and health, joint and last survivor insurance, critical illness, disability, and longevity products; asset-intensive and financial reinsurance products; and other capital motivated solutions.

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A battle of ideas has erupted within American universities. In response to the Israel-Hamas war, campuses are abuzz with outraged protestors shouting strident manifestos and angry accusations amplified by social media. The tension quickly intensified to dangerous incidents of harassment and assault. In a move reminiscent of the student mobilizations against the Vietnam and Iraq wars, university trustees and donors are now threatening to suspend or withdraw funding if their interests are not upheld.

The college campus is a vital, intellectual universe deeply embedded in the American social and cultural imagination. However, the war in Gaza has transformed numerous universities into battlegrounds where ideas become weapons in an increasingly bellicose inquisition. These institutions now face the delicate balancing act of shaping measured responses without upsetting any of their stakeholders  students, professors, alumni and donors.

The conflict is exposing the dividing lines in universities, places where you can and should be able to safely disagree, dissent and talk, said Kristen Shahverdian, who runs PEN Americas free expression program. Its a never-ending task, but its crucial to establish a safe space for disagreement, even in social media, which can be positive or negative when used to spread misinformation. In times of crisis, colleges cannot use evasive or unclear language, she said, acknowledging that the history and complexity of Middle Eastern conflict makes everything all the more difficult.

Several Ivy League universities have already made a series of corrections to their official statements. After addressing the widespread violence in the Middle East, Indiana University President Pamela Whitten was obliged to clarify her initial message. Harvards governing board also revised its statement concerning the death and destruction resulting from Hamass attack on Israeli citizens. Meanwhile, President Carol Folt of the University of Southern California, home to 3,000 Jewish students, was roundly criticized for her initial message that failed to condemn Hamas terrorism.

On the West Coast, a large Stanford University group, including three Nobel Prize winners, denounced the timid statement issued by university authorities. Downplaying the severity of the October 7 Hamas attack in southern Israel, they used the term conflict in the Middle East, conveniently sidestepping the grim reality of over 1,000 deaths and the abduction of more than 200 hostages. Fearing riots, the Stanford law school canceled classes on October 20 and asked its students to connect online.

In New York, a city with nearly 1.5 million Jewish residents (the largest population outside of Israel), the tension is palpable. Columbia University postponed its annual Giving Day fundraiser, which raised $30 million last year, over the growing divisions on campus. University rector Nemat Minouche Shafik, who is of Egyptian origin, was denounced for permitting anti-Israel protests that she hoped would encourage a moral and intellectual debate. Administrators later criticized the recent disturbing acts of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia on campus, which involved intimidation and outright violence. However, no action has been taken against any specific group of students or faculty for expressing their opinions.

Shai Davidai, an assistant professor at Columbia Business School, is angry about the lack of strong leadership. This is not about politics, but more about denouncing terror. Im actually quite critical of Israel, and I support the Palestinian cause and the two-state solution. However, I also think its important for universities to clearly distance themselves from organizations that have been hijacked by a few hundred radicals, said Davidai about a protest at Columbia by a pro-Palestinian group that has not responded to our request for comment.

What we are witnessing is not just an issue for Israel, but for the entire world and civilization. We would never tolerate an ISIS march on our campus. We have witnessed the terror of 9/11 and the train bombings in Madrid... Its not merely a political matter, but a moral one, representing humanitys battle against terror. If we fail to establish this boundary, we will lose the ability to distinguish right from wrong, said Davidai. Within just a few hours, a video of his impromptu speech in support of Israel amassed an astonishing one million views on social media. Assuming he could lose his job for his words, Davidai nevertheless openly called out Columbia and Shafik for their cowardice. Weve seen it throughout history, like in Germany [in the 1930s], as well as in Russia, Iran and North Korea. If we stay silent, were just being complicit.

The call for a more committed stance has resonated throughout campuses nationwide. The Palestinian struggle isnt isolated  its connected to the struggles of all people of color, said Anahit Kirakosian, an American student with Armenian and Mexican roots at Arizona State University (ASU). Supporters of the Arab cause at ASU called off a scheduled demonstration on October 13 due to the tense atmosphere, and held it a week later. The protestors criticized Israels colonialism, a theme that has struck a chord with American students who are critical of the Netanyahu administration.

Liberal campuses with angry donors

According to a recent AP-NORC poll, college campuses nationwide lean heavily to the liberal side of the free speech debate, while the ongoing war has further inflamed liberal-conservative tensions. At the University of California, Berkeley, a group of law school students calling themselves Justice for Palestine has banned speakers with Zionist views from participating in their events. But the war in Gaza has confirmed what many already suspected  university students in the U.S. are mostly pro-Israel.

The ideological friction has reached into university coffers. Major donors are challenging universities for their statements on the Hamas attack, levelling allegations of anti-Semitism. Marc Rowan, CEO of an investment bank and a major contributor to the prestigious Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania, has urged donors to withhold funding. He also called for university authorities to resign for their involvement in organizing a Palestinian literary festival in September that allowed anti-Semitic rhetoric. Ron Lauder, heir to the Estee Lauder cosmetics empire, says he is reconsidering his financial support.

Penn donors are also lambasting the university for its inconsistent application of free speech. Look, its not about being woke or antiwoke. Its about whats right and whats wrong. Hamas believes that all Jews must die, said Rowan in an interview with CNBC. Financier Clifford Asness, another major Wharton donor, recently wrote a letter saying he has long been dismayed by the move away from genuine freedom of thought. Asness said he would not consider donating until he sees significant change. Shai Davidai believes that any measure, including economic pressure, is valid if it wakes up university leadership.

Some people are not swayed by threats. Faculty members at Penn released a public letter saying that donor demands for the resignation of the president and provost were excessive. Academic freedom is at the heart of our educational and research missions... and we demand that it continue to be free of internal or external pressure and coercion.

Israeli billionaire Idan Ofer and Victorias Secret founder Leslie Wexner recently ended their association with Harvard. The decision came after student groups signed a statement holding Israel responsible for the Hamas attack. Although the amount is still unknown, the loss in funding is expected to hit hard, despite the substantial endowments of elite American universities. The University of Pennsylvania has a $21 billion endowment, while Harvard boasts an extraordinary $50 billion endowment.

Gone are the days when wealthy donors gave money to secure admission for their children and grandchildren. Now they want to use their leverage to influence fundamental academic principles and even get university leaders fired like they would at a public corporation. The relative autonomy of university administrators in protecting the role of academia is now being jeopardized by financial ultimatums amid a rancorous political discourse.

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Namoi Cotton Limited (ASX:NAM  Get Free Report) announced a interim dividend on Thursday, October 26th, MarketIndexAU reports. Investors of record on Thursday, November 30th will be given a dividend of 0.005 per share on Thursday, November 30th. This represents a dividend yield of 1.37%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, October 30th.

Namoi Cotton Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 38.93, a current ratio of 1.51 and a quick ratio of 0.33.

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About Namoi Cotton

(Get Free Report)

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Namoi Cotton Limited, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the ginning, and supply chain and marketing of cotton in Australia, China, Japan, South Korea, and Thailand. It operates network of cotton gins in New South Wales and Queensland. The company is also involved in the purchase and sale of lint cotton from growers.

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Steel Peak Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Invesco S&P SmallCap Low Volatility ETF (NYSEARCA:XSLV  Free Report) by 13.0% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 14,584 shares of the companys stock after acquiring an additional 1,678 shares during the period. Steel Peak Wealth Management LLC owned approximately 0.14% of Invesco S&P SmallCap Low Volatility ETF worth $581,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Invesco S&P SmallCap Low Volatility ETF by 21.6% in the 1st quarter. Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. now owns 112,037 shares of the companys stock worth $4,745,000 after acquiring an additional 19,871 shares during the period. Armbruster Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in Invesco S&P SmallCap Low Volatility ETF by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. Armbruster Capital Management Inc. now owns 178,874 shares of the companys stock valued at $7,575,000 after buying an additional 3,774 shares during the last quarter. Sweet Financial Partners LLC grew its holdings in Invesco S&P SmallCap Low Volatility ETF by 50.0% during the 2nd quarter. Sweet Financial Partners LLC now owns 7,500 shares of the companys stock valued at $299,000 after buying an additional 2,500 shares during the last quarter. Grey Fox Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Invesco S&P SmallCap Low Volatility ETF by 83.8% during the 1st quarter. Grey Fox Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 17,084 shares of the companys stock valued at $723,000 after buying an additional 7,788 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sculati Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Invesco S&P SmallCap Low Volatility ETF by 2.1% during the 1st quarter. Sculati Wealth Management LLC now owns 58,729 shares of the companys stock valued at $2,487,000 after buying an additional 1,201 shares during the last quarter.

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Invesco S&P SmallCap Low Volatility ETF Stock Performance

Shares of NYSEARCA:XSLV opened at $38.43 on Friday. The businesss fifty day moving average price is $39.99 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $40.50. The stock has a market cap of $399.29 million, a PE ratio of 16.54 and a beta of 0.93. Invesco S&P SmallCap Low Volatility ETF has a one year low of $38.00 and a one year high of $48.23.

About Invesco S&P SmallCap Low Volatility ETF

The Invesco S&P SmallCap Low Volatility ETF (XSLV) is an exchange-traded fund that is based on the S&P SmallCap 600 Low Volatility index. The fund tracks a volatility-weighted index of the 120 least volatile securities from the S&P 600. XSLV was launched on Feb 15, 2013 and is managed by Invesco.

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Prosperity Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:PB  Free Report)  Stock analysts at DA Davidson decreased their FY2023 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for shares of Prosperity Bancshares in a note issued to investors on Thursday, October 26th. DA Davidson analyst P. Winter now anticipates that the bank will post earnings of $4.98 per share for the year, down from their prior forecast of $5.01. The consensus estimate for Prosperity Bancshares current full-year earnings is $4.96 per share. DA Davidson also issued estimates for Prosperity Bancshares Q4 2023 earnings at $1.21 EPS and FY2024 earnings at $5.06 EPS.

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Prosperity Bancshares (NYSE:PB  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 25th. The bank reported $1.20 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $1.16 by $0.04. Prosperity Bancshares had a return on equity of 7.09% and a net margin of 30.16%. The firm had revenue of $419.10 million for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $278.16 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.49 EPS.

A number of other research firms have also recently weighed in on PB. Wedbush lowered their price objective on Prosperity Bancshares from $58.00 to $55.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Hovde Group raised Prosperity Bancshares from a market perform rating to an outperform rating and set a $66.50 price target on the stock in a report on Monday, September 18th. Stephens lowered their price target on Prosperity Bancshares from $64.00 to $61.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on Prosperity Bancshares from $72.00 to $74.00 in a report on Thursday, July 27th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on Prosperity Bancshares from $62.00 to $61.00 and set a sector perform rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Prosperity Bancshares presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $65.63.

Read Our Latest Analysis on Prosperity Bancshares

Prosperity Bancshares Stock Up 4.7 %

PB stock opened at $54.56 on Friday. Prosperity Bancshares has a twelve month low of $49.60 and a twelve month high of $78.76. The stock has a market cap of $5.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.87, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 0.95. The businesss 50-day moving average price is $54.70 and its 200-day moving average price is $57.97.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Prosperity Bancshares

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of PB. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. increased its position in shares of Prosperity Bancshares by 3.1% during the 1st quarter. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. now owns 5,935 shares of the banks stock valued at $411,000 after purchasing an additional 181 shares during the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Prosperity Bancshares by 12.1% during the 1st quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 19,485 shares of the banks stock valued at $1,353,000 after purchasing an additional 2,102 shares during the last quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Prosperity Bancshares during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $274,000. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS increased its position in shares of Prosperity Bancshares by 10.5% during the 1st quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 33,779 shares of the banks stock valued at $2,344,000 after purchasing an additional 3,222 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BlackRock Inc. increased its position in shares of Prosperity Bancshares by 3.1% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 8,212,796 shares of the banks stock valued at $569,805,000 after purchasing an additional 244,440 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 81.70% of the companys stock.

Prosperity Bancshares Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, January 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 15th will be paid a $0.56 dividend. This is an increase from Prosperity Bancsharess previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 14th. This represents a $2.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.11%. Prosperity Bancsharess payout ratio is presently 43.82%.

Prosperity Bancshares Company Profile

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Prosperity Bancshares, Inc operates as bank holding company for the Prosperity Bank that provides financial products and services to businesses and consumers. It accepts various deposit products, such as demand, savings, money market, and time accounts, as well as and certificates of deposit. The company also offers 1-4 family residential mortgage, commercial real estate and multifamily residential, commercial and industrial, agricultural, and non-real estate agricultural loans, as well as construction, land development, and other land loans; consumer loans, including automobile, recreational vehicle, boat, home improvement, personal, and deposit account collateralized loans; and consumer durables and home equity loans, as well as loans for working capital, business expansion, and purchase of equipment and machinery.

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Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI  Free Report)  Investment analysts at Zacks Research lifted their Q1 2024 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for shares of Acuity Brands in a note issued to investors on Thursday, October 26th. Zacks Research analyst A. Ram now expects that the electronics maker will post earnings of $2.64 per share for the quarter, up from their previous forecast of $2.63. The consensus estimate for Acuity Brands current full-year earnings is $12.55 per share. Zacks Research also issued estimates for Acuity Brands Q2 2024 earnings at $2.61 EPS, Q3 2024 earnings at $3.31 EPS, Q4 2024 earnings at $3.41 EPS, FY2024 earnings at $11.97 EPS, Q2 2025 earnings at $2.78 EPS, Q3 2025 earnings at $3.17 EPS, Q4 2025 earnings at $3.39 EPS and FY2025 earnings at $12.17 EPS.

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Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 4th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.73 by $0.24. The business had revenue of $1.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $1.02 billion. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 21.41% and a net margin of 8.75%. The businesss quarterly revenue was down 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.72 EPS.

Several other research analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Acuity Brands from $180.00 to $200.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 5th. StockNews.com cut Acuity Brands from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research report on Friday, October 13th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Acuity Brands from $170.00 to $180.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 5th. Finally, reissued a reiterates rating on shares of Acuity Brands in a research report on Friday, June 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $186.60.

Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on Acuity Brands

Acuity Brands Trading Down 0.3 %

NYSE:AYI opened at $159.17 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $166.20 and a 200-day simple moving average of $162.83. The stock has a market cap of $4.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.78, a P/E/G ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.49. Acuity Brands has a 1 year low of $149.30 and a 1 year high of $202.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 1.72 and a current ratio of 2.34.

Institutional Trading of Acuity Brands

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Inspire Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $692,000. Park Avenue Securities LLC acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $474,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 9.8% during the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 169,716 shares of the electronics makers stock worth $28,904,000 after acquiring an additional 15,122 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 12.5% during the 3rd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,215 shares of the electronics makers stock worth $371,000 after acquiring an additional 246 shares during the period. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 14.0% in the 3rd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 33,707 shares of the electronics makers stock valued at $5,741,000 after buying an additional 4,140 shares during the period. 95.58% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 18th will be given a dividend of $0.13 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, October 17th. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.33%. Acuity Brandss payout ratio is 4.83%.

Acuity Brands Company Profile

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Acuity Brands, Inc provides lighting and building management solutions in North America and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Acuity Brands Lighting and Lighting Controls (ABL); and the Intelligent Spaces Group (ISG). The ABL segment provides commercial, architectural, and specialty lighting solutions, as well as lighting controls and components for various indoor and outdoor applications under the Lithonia Lighting, Holophane, Peerless, Gotham, Mark Architectural Lighting, Winona Lighting, Juno, Indy, Aculux, Healthcare Lighting, Hydrel, American Electric Lighting, Sunoptics, eldoLED, nLight, Sensor Switch, IOTA, A-Light, Cyclone, Eureka, Lumniaire LED, Luminis, Dark to Light, RELOC Wiring Solutions, and OPTOTRONIC brands.

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Molina Healthcare (NYSE:MOH  Get Free Report) announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The company reported $5.05 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $4.87 by $0.18, Briefing.com reports. The company had revenue of $8.55 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.24 billion. Molina Healthcare had a net margin of 2.80% and a return on equity of 36.40%. Molina Healthcares quarterly revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $4.36 EPS.

Molina Healthcare Price Performance

Shares of NYSE MOH opened at $331.43 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $19.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.66, a PEG ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 0.63. Molina Healthcare has a 52 week low of $256.19 and a 52 week high of $372.13. The companys 50-day moving average price is $329.87 and its 200 day moving average price is $306.75. The company has a current ratio of 1.52, a quick ratio of 1.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66.

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Analyst Ratings Changes

MOH has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Molina Healthcare from $340.00 to $350.00 in a research report on Thursday, July 27th. Stephens reiterated an equal weight rating and issued a $350.00 price target on shares of Molina Healthcare in a report on Tuesday, October 3rd. Morgan Stanley reiterated an overweight rating and issued a $365.00 price target on shares of Molina Healthcare in a report on Friday, July 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Molina Healthcare from $348.00 to $341.00 in a report on Friday, July 7th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Molina Healthcare from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a report on Thursday, October 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $349.38.

Insider Activity at Molina Healthcare

In related news, CAO Maurice Hebert sold 692 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $328.15, for a total value of $227,079.80. Following the sale, 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 filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Molina Healthcare news, CAO Maurice Hebert sold 692 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $328.15, for a total transaction of $227,079.80. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,528 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $2,798,463.20. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Marc Russo sold 2,523 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $312.72, for a total transaction of $788,992.56. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 37,093 shares in the company, valued at $11,599,722.96. 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. Insiders own 1.10% of the companys stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Molina Healthcare

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Coppell Advisory Solutions Corp. acquired a new stake in shares of Molina Healthcare during the 4th quarter worth about $34,000. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. purchased a new position in shares of Molina Healthcare during the 1st quarter worth about $40,000. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust lifted its holdings in shares of Molina Healthcare by 85.9% during the 1st quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 132 shares of the companys stock worth $44,000 after acquiring an additional 61 shares during the period. Zions Bancorporation N.A. purchased a new position in shares of Molina Healthcare during the 1st quarter worth about $59,000. Finally, Stonebridge Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Molina Healthcare by 169.2% during the 1st quarter. Stonebridge Capital Advisors LLC now owns 350 shares of the companys stock worth $117,000 after acquiring an additional 220 shares during the period. 98.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Molina Healthcare Company Profile

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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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Wealth Alliance increased its stake in shares of STMicroelectronics (NYSE:STM  Free Report) by 44.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,043 shares of the semiconductor producers stock after purchasing an additional 1,858 shares during the period. Wealth Alliances holdings in STMicroelectronics were worth $302,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of STM. Glass Jacobson Investment Advisors llc acquired a new position in shares of STMicroelectronics during the 2nd quarter worth about $31,000. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of STMicroelectronics by 63.0% in the 2nd quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 779 shares of the semiconductor producers stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 301 shares during the period. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of STMicroelectronics in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $42,000. PSI Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of STMicroelectronics by 60.0% in the 1st quarter. PSI Advisors LLC now owns 800 shares of the semiconductor producers stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the period. Finally, Psagot Value Holdings Ltd. Israel purchased a new stake in shares of STMicroelectronics in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $66,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 5.62% of the companys stock.

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Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently weighed in on STM shares. TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of STMicroelectronics from $56.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Friday, July 28th. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of STMicroelectronics in a research report on Thursday, October 5th. They set a buy rating for the company. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of STMicroelectronics from an underperform rating to a hold rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 12th. Finally, Susquehanna lowered their price objective on shares of STMicroelectronics from $65.00 to $55.00 and set a positive rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, STMicroelectronics currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $56.50.

STMicroelectronics Price Performance

STMicroelectronics stock opened at $40.24 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $35.42 billion, a PE ratio of 8.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.63. STMicroelectronics has a 52-week low of $29.57 and a 52-week high of $55.85. The company has a quick ratio of 1.92, a current ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The companys 50 day moving average is $43.97 and its two-hundred day moving average is $46.35.

STMicroelectronics (NYSE:STM  Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 26th. The semiconductor producer reported $1.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $1.09 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $4.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.42 billion. STMicroelectronics had a net margin of 25.36% and a return on equity of 33.67%. The firms quarterly revenue was up 2.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.16 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that STMicroelectronics will post 4.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

STMicroelectronics Company Profile

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STMicroelectronics N.V., together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, manufactures, and sells semiconductor products in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Americas, and the Asia Pacific. The company operates through Automotive and Discrete Group; Analog, MEMS and Sensors Group; and Microcontrollers and Digital ICs Group segments.

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Whirlpool (NYSE:WHR  Get Free Report) released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. The company reported $5.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.38 by $1.07, Briefing.com reports. Whirlpool had a negative net margin of 8.38% and a positive return on equity of 38.55%. The firm had revenue of $4.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.79 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $4.49 EPS. The companys revenue was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Whirlpool updated its FY23 guidance to ~$16.00 EPS.

Whirlpool Stock Performance

Shares of WHR stock opened at $105.73 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.80 billion, a PE ratio of -3.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.53. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $132.19 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $137.95. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.92. Whirlpool has a 12 month low of $104.50 and a 12 month high of $160.74.

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Whirlpool Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 17th will be paid a dividend of $1.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 16th. This represents a $7.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.62%. Whirlpools dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -23.70%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on WHR. TheStreet downgraded shares of Whirlpool from a c rating to a d+ rating in a research report on Wednesday. Credit Suisse Group reiterated a neutral rating and set a $150.00 target price on shares of Whirlpool in a research report on Tuesday, July 25th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Whirlpool from $118.00 to $121.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 26th. Bank of America dropped their target price on shares of Whirlpool from $90.00 to $87.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 18th. Finally, StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Whirlpool in a research report on Thursday, October 5th. They set a hold rating on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $131.00.

Read Our Latest Research Report on Whirlpool

Institutional Trading of Whirlpool

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. grew its stake in shares of Whirlpool by 30.1% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 6,001,651 shares of the companys stock worth $792,338,000 after acquiring an additional 1,389,657 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Whirlpool by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,140,080 shares of the companys stock worth $467,213,000 after acquiring an additional 72,732 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Whirlpool by 4.4% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,154,882 shares of the companys stock worth $199,541,000 after acquiring an additional 48,510 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Whirlpool by 1.6% in the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,135,788 shares of the companys stock worth $149,837,000 after acquiring an additional 18,214 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Whirlpool by 21.6% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 754,474 shares of the companys stock worth $130,358,000 after acquiring an additional 134,251 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.89% of the companys stock.

Whirlpool Company Profile

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Whirlpool Corporation manufactures and markets home appliances and related products and services in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and Asia. The company's principal products include refrigerators, freezers, ice makers, and refrigerator water filters; laundry appliances, and commercial laundry products and related laundry accessories; cooking and other small domestic appliances; and dishwasher appliances and related accessories, as well as mixers.

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RiverNorth/DoubleLine Strategic Opportunity Fund, Inc. (NYSE:OPP  Get Free Report) was the target of a significant decline in short interest during the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 13,900 shares, a decline of 20.6% from the September 30th total of 17,500 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 106,500 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 0.1 days.

RiverNorth/DoubleLine Strategic Opportunity Fund Stock Performance

OPP stock opened at $7.31 on Friday. RiverNorth/DoubleLine Strategic Opportunity Fund has a 1-year low of $7.26 and a 1-year high of $9.74. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $7.99 and a 200-day moving average price of $8.25.

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RiverNorth/DoubleLine Strategic Opportunity Fund Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 31st. Investors of record on Friday, October 13th will be issued a $0.1021 dividend. This represents a dividend yield of 16.16%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 12th.

Institutional Trading of RiverNorth/DoubleLine Strategic Opportunity Fund

RiverNorth/DoubleLine Strategic Opportunity Fund Company Profile

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of OPP. Baird Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of RiverNorth/DoubleLine Strategic Opportunity Fund by 2.8% in the first quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 56,007 shares of the companys stock worth $698,000 after acquiring an additional 1,529 shares during the period. NewEdge Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of RiverNorth/DoubleLine Strategic Opportunity Fund by 4.7% in the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 82,406 shares of the companys stock worth $1,027,000 after acquiring an additional 3,700 shares during the period. Centaurus Financial Inc. grew its holdings in shares of RiverNorth/DoubleLine Strategic Opportunity Fund by 33.0% in the first quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. now owns 238,871 shares of the companys stock worth $2,976,000 after acquiring an additional 59,225 shares during the period. Royal Bank of Canada grew its holdings in shares of RiverNorth/DoubleLine Strategic Opportunity Fund by 21.8% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 33,201 shares of the companys stock worth $413,000 after acquiring an additional 5,937 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can bought a new stake in shares of RiverNorth/DoubleLine Strategic Opportunity Fund in the second quarter worth $265,000.

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RiverNorth/DoubleLine Strategic Opportunity Fund, Inc is a closed ended fixed income mutual fund launched and managed by RiverNorth Capital Management, LLC. The fund is co-managed by DoubleLine Capital LP. It invests in fixed income markets. The fund seeks to benchmark the performance of its portfolio against the Barclays Capital U.S.

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Perigon Wealth Management LLC trimmed its position in Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL  Free Report) by 6.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,360 shares of the transportation companys stock after selling 626 shares during the period. Perigon Wealth Management LLCs holdings in Delta Air Lines were worth $445,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Delta Air Lines by 1.2% in the second quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 19,304 shares of the transportation companys stock valued at $918,000 after acquiring an additional 220 shares in the last quarter. Navalign LLC raised its holdings in shares of Delta Air Lines by 1.3% in the second quarter. Navalign LLC now owns 17,716 shares of the transportation companys stock worth $842,000 after buying an additional 220 shares during the last quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC raised its holdings in shares of Delta Air Lines by 3.3% in the first quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC now owns 9,113 shares of the transportation companys stock worth $318,000 after buying an additional 291 shares during the last quarter. Forum Financial Management LP raised its holdings in shares of Delta Air Lines by 3.5% in the first quarter. Forum Financial Management LP now owns 8,675 shares of the transportation companys stock worth $343,000 after buying an additional 292 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Louisiana State Employees Retirement System raised its holdings in shares of Delta Air Lines by 0.7% in the first quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 41,700 shares of the transportation companys stock worth $1,456,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. 71.29% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Delta Air Lines Stock Up 0.6 %

DAL opened at $31.61 on Friday. Delta Air Lines, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $30.98 and a fifty-two week high of $49.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 0.39 and a current ratio of 0.44. The company has a fifty day moving average of $38.09 and a two-hundred day moving average of $39.64. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.99, a PEG ratio of 0.16 and a beta of 1.32.

Delta Air Lines Dividend Announcement

Delta Air Lines ( NYSE:DAL Get Free Report ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 12th. The transportation company reported $2.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $1.95 by $0.08. Delta Air Lines had a net margin of 5.94% and a return on equity of 54.95%. The company had revenue of $15.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $14.55 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.51 earnings per share. The firms revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Delta Air Lines, Inc. will post 6.08 earnings per share for the current year.

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, November 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 12th will be paid a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.27%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, October 11th. Delta Air Liness dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 7.58%.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Steven M. Sear sold 12,129 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.52, for a total value of $552,112.08. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 85,708 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $3,901,428.16. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, EVP Steven M. Sear sold 12,129 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.52, for a total transaction of $552,112.08. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 85,708 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $3,901,428.16. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Peter W. Carter sold 17,944 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.00, for a total transaction of $807,480.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 166,192 shares in the company, valued at $7,478,640. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 49,549 shares of company stock valued at $2,104,753. Company insiders own 0.89% of the companys stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. StockNews.com cut shares of Delta Air Lines from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Friday, October 13th. TheStreet raised shares of Delta Air Lines from a c rating to a b rating in a report on Thursday, July 13th. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their price target on shares of Delta Air Lines from $62.00 to $61.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 26th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Delta Air Lines from $70.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Friday, July 14th. Finally, Susquehanna reduced their target price on shares of Delta Air Lines from $60.00 to $44.00 and set a positive rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of Buy and a consensus price target of $54.40.

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Delta Air Lines Company Profile

(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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Valmark Advisers Inc. raised its position in iShares Core Growth Allocation ETF (NYSEARCA:AOR  Free Report) by 57.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 10,614 shares of the companys stock after buying an additional 3,870 shares during the period. Valmark Advisers Inc.s holdings in iShares Core Growth Allocation ETF were worth $546,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. FFT Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in iShares Core Growth Allocation ETF by 6.8% during the 2nd quarter. FFT Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,947 shares of the companys stock worth $460,000 after purchasing an additional 570 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can purchased a new stake in iShares Core Growth Allocation ETF in the 2nd quarter valued at $8,724,000. EFG Asset Management Americas Corp. acquired a new stake in iShares Core Growth Allocation ETF during the second quarter worth about $460,000. Chesapeake Wealth Management purchased a new position in iShares Core Growth Allocation ETF during the second quarter worth about $204,000. Finally, Pacific Capital Wealth Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in iShares Core Growth Allocation ETF by 5.5% in the 2nd quarter. Pacific Capital Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 22,369 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,151,000 after purchasing an additional 1,174 shares during the last quarter.

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iShares Core Growth Allocation ETF Price Performance

Shares of NYSEARCA AOR opened at $47.73 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.10 and a beta of 0.61. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $49.79 and a 200-day simple moving average of $50.40. iShares Core Growth Allocation ETF has a 1 year low of $45.10 and a 1 year high of $52.27.

About iShares Core Growth Allocation ETF

iShares Growth Allocation ETF, formerly iShares S&P Growth Allocation Fund (the Fund), is an open-end management investment company. The Fund seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the S&P Target Risk Growth Index (the Growth Allocation Index). The Growth Allocation Index seeks to measure the performance of an asset allocation strategy targeted to a growth-focused risk profile.

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A protester holds a sign with the phrase "Panama is not for sale", during one of the protests against the mining contract, in Panama City, October 24.

The decision to award a 20-year extended concession to a Canadian company to exploit the largest open pit copper mine in Central America has triggered unprecedented protests in Panama. Several people were injured and dozens arrested in clashes between police and protesters, while major roads experienced cuts throughout the Latin American country. The protests reached the doors of the Marriott Hotel in the capital, where environment ministers, representatives of non-profit groups, and regional decision-makers were meeting for Climate Week in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Climate change and mining kill, read one of the signs held by protesters who approached the event to show their rejection of the mining contract signed between the Panamanian State and Minera Panama, a subsidiary of the Canadian company First Quantum Minerals. Lawmakers gave final approval to the extended concession on Friday of last week. The document is injurious to the Panamanian State in practically all of its clauses, said Raisa Banfield, director of the Sustainable Panama Foundation.

The reasons for this rejection boil down to two main arguments: one, the contract seems to have been drafted behind the communitys back. The law was debated, approved and sanctioned by the government in record time: just three days. Furthermore, according to Banfield, people were not allowed to consult the document properly before it reached the floor for debate. It was not until this document entered the first debate in the National Assembly that, at the proposal of deputy Juan Diego Vasquez, a discussion with citizen participation was established, explained the activist.

For lawyer and former diplomat Roberto Ruiz Diaz, this represents a violation of the Escazu Agreement, of which Panama is a party. Above all, because greater citizen participation was needed to greenlight the continuation of a project of this magnitude. Cobre Panama is a copper mine of about 12,000 hectares, located in the Panamanian Caribbean, in the province of Colon, on the Mesoamerican biological corridor. That is, it sits over a protected area. Although the mine has been operating since 1997, the government has now approved a new contract for 20 years, which could be extended to 40.

A protester holds a Panamanian flag, during one of the protests against the mining contract, in Panama City, on October 25. Bienvenido Velasco (EFE)

Environmentalists are concerned. In terms of water, they will be able to divert, retain and create their own reservoirs, from natural water sources, putting at risk the water for consumption of the surrounding population and, in the future, the possible expansion of the sources from the Panama Canal, said Banfield. A Bloomberg analysis found that the project, which was operating with an old contract, has six ongoing investigations for possible damage to the environment, historical heritage and public administration, in addition to having received 11 complaints. The company Minera Panama has not responded to this newspapers requests for comment.

Roberto Cuevas, president of the Chamber of Mining of Panama (Camipa), considers that the fact the mine is on protected land has actually helped its conservation. He said that before the company showed up, the state had never allocated resources for its preservation. Its not just about declaring protected areas, you also have to invest money to do it, he said in statements to this newspaper. He asserted that the company has an environmental management plan with more than 100 points that must be fully complied with, and recalled that there are more than 7,500 mine-related jobs that could be lost if the contract extension had not been approved.

A long history

The relationship of Panamanians with this great copper mine, the largest open pit mine in Central America, is not new. The first contract was signed in 1997, but it was legally challenged by the Environmental Advocacy Center in 2008 on grounds that it was unconstitutional. In 2017, the Supreme Court of Justice declared it unconstitutional, but it was not until 2021 that this decision was published in the Official Gazette after appeals were filed by the companys lawyers. It was during this period, explains Ruiz Diaz, that Minera Panama began exporting copper in 2019.

The new contract began to be negotiated between the company and the government in 2022, but it was not until March 2023 that people learned about it. The previous contract [the one from 1997] provided many benefits to the company, said Cuevas, explaining that the newly approved version is a great improvement. For example, it requires the company to pay taxes  which the old one did not  and imposes a plan to close and dismantle mines. Likewise, it is agreed that the company must pay the government at least $375 million annually to exploit the mine even if the price of copper falls.

Riot police during a day of protests, in Panama City, on October 24. Bienvenido Velasco (EFE)

But for many it is still a contract that requires further discussion, which is why the new document has already been legally challenged on three occasions, so far. It is not just about a mine, said Serena Vamvas, an environmental activist, but about whether the country wants to open the doors to the other 130 concessions that are being attempted. Its about whether we want to go from being a transit economy [with the Panama Canal] to an extractive one. And that is what must be decided.

In the midst of the marches and protests against him, on Tuesday, President Laurentino Cortizo spoke out against the protesters: Panama is in the process of economic recovery, but the street closures affect the economy, they prevent people from reaching their workplaces, they disturb the peace, medical appointments are lost and care for patients at risk is made difficult, he said in a televised address picked up by X ( formerly Twitter). The president also defended the contract law, stating that it would safeguard 9,387 jobs and that the resulting revenue would allow the state to better provide for Panamas retired and pensioned population.

Meanwhile, the protests are carrying on to shouts of Panama is not for sale. On Wednesday, the doctors union and public educators joined in the fight, suspending classes for Thursday and Friday. Local media have reported shortages of products in supermarkets, heavy security and the use of tear gas to disperse protesters.
Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund reduced its stake in Raymond James (NYSE:RJF  Free Report) by 26.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 70,088 shares of the financial services providers stock after selling 25,568 shares during the period. Illinois Municipal Retirement Funds holdings in Raymond James were worth $7,273,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Raymond James by 1.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,689,564 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $2,383,900,000 after buying an additional 410,025 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in Raymond James by 19.4% in the 1st quarter. FMR LLC now owns 9,993,550 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $932,098,000 after acquiring an additional 1,625,771 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in Raymond James by 3.3% during the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,876,933 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $921,222,000 after purchasing an additional 312,384 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in Raymond James by 26.7% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 6,876,054 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $641,330,000 after purchasing an additional 1,448,047 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Raymond James by 1.9% in the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,018,058 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $373,915,000 after purchasing an additional 76,385 shares during the last quarter. 75.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com started coverage on Raymond James in a report on Thursday, October 5th. They set a hold rating for the company. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Raymond James from $120.00 to $115.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 22nd. Bank of America started coverage on shares of Raymond James in a report on Monday, September 11th. They set a buy rating and a $122.00 price target on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on shares of Raymond James from $128.00 to $118.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 10th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. initiated coverage on Raymond James in a research note on Tuesday, September 19th. They issued a neutral rating and a $121.00 target price on the stock. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $119.78.

Raymond James Stock Performance

NYSE:RJF opened at $96.40 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $20.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.11, a PEG ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The businesss 50-day moving average price is $101.90 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $99.48. Raymond James has a twelve month low of $82.00 and a twelve month high of $126.00.

Raymond James (NYSE:RJF  Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 25th. The financial services provider reported $2.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.28 by ($0.15). Raymond James had a net margin of 13.39% and a return on equity of 18.48%. The company had revenue of $3.05 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.99 billion. As a group, equities analysts predict that Raymond James will post 9.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Raymond James Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, October 16th. Investors of record on Monday, October 2nd were given a $0.42 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 29th. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.74%. Raymond Jamess dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 21.11%.

Insider Activity at Raymond James

In other Raymond James news, insider Horace Carter sold 3,753 shares of Raymond James stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $109.12, for a total transaction of $409,527.36. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 19,515 shares of the companys stock, valued at $2,129,476.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 9.46% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Raymond James Company Profile

(Free Report)

Raymond James Financial, Inc, a financial holding company, through its subsidiaries, engages in the underwriting, distribution, trading, and brokerage of equity and debt securities, and the sale of mutual funds and other investment products in the United States, Canada, Europe, and internationally. The company operates through Private Client Group, Capital Markets, Asset Management, RJ Bank, and Other segments.

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Toho Gas Co., Ltd. (OTCMKTS:THOGF  Get Free Report) was the target of a significant decline in short interest during the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 121,700 shares, a decline of 21.0% from the September 30th total of 154,100 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 0 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently ? days.

Toho Gas Price Performance

Shares of OTCMKTS THOGF opened at C$18.75 on Friday. Toho Gas has a 1 year low of C$18.75 and a 1 year high of C$18.75. The stocks 50-day simple moving average is C$18.75 and its 200-day simple moving average is C$18.75.

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Toho Gas Company Profile

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Toho Gas Co, Ltd. engages in the gas, LPG/other energy, electric power, and other businesses in Japan and internationally. It is also involved in the development, purchase, and sale of natural gas and other energy resources; production, transportation, and sale of high-pressure gases, including LNG, LPG, and liquefied carbon dioxide; sale of coke, tar, and crude oil products; and production and sale of chemical industrial products, such as methanol and plasticizers.

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Yousif Capital Management LLC reduced its stake in Edison International (NYSE:EIX  Free Report) by 2.7% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 62,978 shares of the utilities providers stock after selling 1,751 shares during the period. Yousif Capital Management LLCs holdings in Edison International were worth $4,374,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Fiduciary Alliance LLC bought a new stake in Edison International in the second quarter worth approximately $25,000. Capital Analysts LLC increased its holdings in Edison International by 64.0% in the first quarter. Capital Analysts LLC now owns 438 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 171 shares in the last quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. bought a new stake in Edison International in the second quarter worth approximately $36,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Edison International by 61.4% in the first quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 615 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 234 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ancora Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Edison International in the first quarter worth approximately $41,000. 88.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Edison International Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of Edison International stock opened at $63.69 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $66.78 and a 200 day simple moving average of $69.06. Edison International has a 12-month low of $56.67 and a 12-month high of $74.92. The company has a market capitalization of $24.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87.

Edison International Cuts Dividend

Edison International ( NYSE:EIX Get Free Report ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The utilities provider reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.95 by $0.06. Edison International had a return on equity of 12.69% and a net margin of 6.81%. The business had revenue of $3.96 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.28 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.94 earnings per share. Edison Internationals revenue was down 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Edison International will post 4.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 29th will be given a $0.7375 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 28th. This represents a $2.95 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.63%. Edison Internationals dividend payout ratio is currently 118.95%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Edison International news, SVP Caroline Choi sold 11,222 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Friday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.64, for a total value of $803,944.08. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 20,881 shares of the companys stock, valued at $1,495,914.84. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.03% of the companys stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on EIX shares. Evercore ISI upgraded Edison International from an in-line rating to an outperform rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $74.00 to $68.00 in a report on Monday. Mizuho upgraded Edison International from a neutral rating to a buy rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $73.00 to $75.00 in a report on Tuesday, August 22nd. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Edison International from $53.00 to $52.00 and set an underweight rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Barclays boosted their price objective on Edison International from $68.00 to $71.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 27th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an outperform rating and set a $81.00 price objective on shares of Edison International in a report on Tuesday, September 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $71.42.

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Edison International Profile

(Free Report)

Edison International, through its subsidiaries, generates and distributes electric power. The company supplies electricity to approximately 50,000 square mile area of southern California to residential, commercial, industrial, public authorities, agricultural, and other sectors. It also provides decarbonization and energy solutions to commercial, institutional, and industrial customers in North America and Europe.

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Steel Peak Wealth Management LLC reduced its position in Teledyne Technologies Incorporated (NYSE:TDY  Free Report) by 11.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,265 shares of the scientific and technical instruments companys stock after selling 166 shares during the period. Steel Peak Wealth Management LLCs holdings in Teledyne Technologies were worth $520,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Kistler Tiffany Companies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Teledyne Technologies during the second quarter worth $25,000. TCI Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Teledyne Technologies by 236.4% during the first quarter. TCI Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 74 shares of the scientific and technical instruments companys stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares during the period. Beacon Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Teledyne Technologies during the first quarter worth $41,000. Clear Street Markets LLC grew its stake in shares of Teledyne Technologies by 91.7% during the first quarter. Clear Street Markets LLC now owns 92 shares of the scientific and technical instruments companys stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the period. Finally, Global Retirement Partners LLC grew its stake in Teledyne Technologies by 1,422.2% in the first quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 137 shares of the scientific and technical instruments companys stock valued at $56,000 after acquiring an additional 128 shares during the period. 87.57% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Teledyne Technologies news, CEO Robert Mehrabian sold 45,500 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $416.13, for a total transaction of $18,933,915.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 196,052 shares of the companys stock, valued at $81,583,118.76. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, CEO Robert Mehrabian sold 45,500 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $416.13, for a total value of $18,933,915.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 196,052 shares of the companys stock, valued at $81,583,118.76. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Melanie Susan Cibik sold 13,000 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $422.40, for a total value of $5,491,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 27,305 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,533,632. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 61,646 shares of company stock valued at $25,717,295 over the last 90 days. 2.14% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Teledyne Technologies Stock Performance

TDY opened at $372.24 on Friday. Teledyne Technologies Incorporated has a 52-week low of $371.03 and a 52-week high of $448.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.53 billion, a PE ratio of 22.57, a PEG ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.68. The businesss 50-day simple moving average is $407.43 and its 200 day simple moving average is $406.82.

Teledyne Technologies (NYSE:TDY  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 25th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $5.05 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $4.76 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $1.40 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.43 billion. Teledyne Technologies had a return on equity of 10.86% and a net margin of 14.02%. The businesss revenue was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $4.54 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Teledyne Technologies Incorporated will post 19.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have issued reports on TDY shares. StockNews.com started coverage on Teledyne Technologies in a research note on Thursday, October 5th. They issued a hold rating for the company. Needham & Company LLC reissued a buy rating and issued a $455.00 target price on shares of Teledyne Technologies in a research note on Tuesday. BNP Paribas initiated coverage on Teledyne Technologies in a report on Thursday, October 5th. They issued an outperform rating and a $530.00 price target on the stock. UBS Group initiated coverage on Teledyne Technologies in a report on Wednesday, September 27th. They issued a buy rating and a $495.00 price target on the stock. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Teledyne Technologies from a neutral rating to a buy rating and boosted their price target for the company from $423.00 to $495.00 in a report on Monday, August 14th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Teledyne Technologies presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $503.86.

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Teledyne Technologies Profile

(Free Report)

Teledyne Technologies Incorporated, together with its subsidiaries, provides enabling technologies for industrial growth markets in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, and internationally. The company's Instrumentation segment offers monitoring and control instruments for marine, environmental, industrial, and other applications, as well as electronic test and measurement equipment; and power and communications connectivity devices for distributed instrumentation systems and sensor networks.

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Steel Peak Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Devon Energy Co. (NYSE:DVN  Free Report) by 769.2% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 8,961 shares of the energy companys stock after acquiring an additional 7,930 shares during the quarter. Steel Peak Wealth Management LLCs holdings in Devon Energy were worth $433,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Wahed Invest LLC increased its stake in shares of Devon Energy by 2.1% during the first quarter. Wahed Invest LLC now owns 7,933 shares of the energy companys stock worth $469,000 after acquiring an additional 161 shares during the period. MCF Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Devon Energy by 8.5% during the second quarter. MCF Advisors LLC now owns 2,459 shares of the energy companys stock worth $119,000 after acquiring an additional 192 shares during the period. Duncker Streett & Co. Inc. increased its stake in shares of Devon Energy by 13.2% during the second quarter. Duncker Streett & Co. Inc. now owns 1,715 shares of the energy companys stock worth $83,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the period. Securian Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Devon Energy by 0.4% during the first quarter. Securian Asset Management Inc. now owns 55,450 shares of the energy companys stock worth $2,806,000 after acquiring an additional 201 shares during the period. Finally, Janiczek Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Devon Energy by 6.0% during the second quarter. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,543 shares of the energy companys stock worth $171,000 after acquiring an additional 202 shares during the period. 68.34% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Devon Energy Stock Down 1.4 %

Shares of NYSE DVN opened at $47.17 on Friday. Devon Energy Co. has a 12-month low of $42.59 and a 12-month high of $78.82. The company has a market capitalization of $30.22 billion, a PE ratio of 6.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.16 and a beta of 2.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.90. The firms 50-day moving average is $48.89 and its two-hundred day moving average is $49.79.

Devon Energy Cuts Dividend

Devon Energy ( NYSE:DVN Get Free Report ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 1st. The energy company reported $1.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.18. The company had revenue of $3.45 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.26 billion. Devon Energy had a net margin of 28.10% and a return on equity of 37.89%. The companys revenue for the quarter was down 38.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.59 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Devon Energy Co. will post 5.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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 $0.49 per share. This represents a $1.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.16%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 14th. Devon Energys payout ratio is 10.94%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

DVN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Devon Energy in a research note on Thursday, October 5th. They set a hold rating on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on shares of Devon Energy from $63.00 to $60.00 and set a sector perform rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 13th. Raymond James lowered their target price on shares of Devon Energy from $70.00 to $62.00 and set a strong-buy rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 24th. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on shares of Devon Energy from $52.00 to $50.00 in a research report on Monday, July 10th. Finally, Susquehanna lowered their target price on shares of Devon Energy from $72.00 to $62.00 and set a positive rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 18th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $60.44.

Read Our Latest Report on DVN

Insider Activity at Devon Energy

In related news, EVP Dennis C. Cameron sold 7,870 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.13, for a total transaction of $402,393.10. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 210,548 shares of the companys stock, valued at $10,765,319.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.63% of the companys stock.

Devon Energy Profile

(Free Report)

Devon Energy Corporation, an independent energy company, explores for, develops, and produces oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids in the United States. It operates in Delaware, Anadarko, Williston, Eagle Ford, and Powder River Basin. The company was incorporated in 1971 and is headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

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Picton Mahoney Asset Management lowered its position in iShares MSCI United Kingdom ETF (NYSEARCA:EWU  Free Report) by 39.6% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 13,960 shares of the companys stock after selling 9,140 shares during the period. Picton Mahoney Asset Managements holdings in iShares MSCI United Kingdom ETF were worth $452,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Glass Jacobson Investment Advisors llc purchased a new stake in iShares MSCI United Kingdom ETF in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC purchased a new stake in iShares MSCI United Kingdom ETF in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $3,703,000. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC lifted its stake in iShares MSCI United Kingdom ETF by 10.8% in the 1st quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 9,207 shares of the companys stock valued at $297,000 after buying an additional 901 shares in the last quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in iShares MSCI United Kingdom ETF by 35.3% in the 1st quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 309,267 shares of the companys stock valued at $9,977,000 after buying an additional 80,766 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lineweaver Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in iShares MSCI United Kingdom ETF in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $1,453,000.

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iShares MSCI United Kingdom ETF Stock Performance

EWU stock opened at $30.52 on Friday. iShares MSCI United Kingdom ETF has a 1 year low of $27.30 and a 1 year high of $34.04. The stocks 50 day moving average price is $31.67 and its 200 day moving average price is $32.41. The firm has a market cap of $2.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.02 and a beta of 0.83.

iShares MSCI United Kingdom ETF Profile

The iShares MSCI United Kingdom ETF (EWU) is an exchange-traded fund that is based on the MSCI United Kingdom index. The fund tracks a market cap-weighted index of British companies. It covers the top 85% of British companies by market cap. EWU was launched on Mar 12, 1996 and is managed by BlackRock.

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EastGroup Properties (NYSE:EGP  Get Free Report) updated its FY23 earnings guidance on Tuesday. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of $7.73-$7.77 for the period, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.66. EastGroup Properties also updated its Q4 guidance to $1.98-$2.02 EPS.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Citigroup increased their price objective on EastGroup Properties from $195.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Friday, July 14th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on EastGroup Properties from $195.00 to $215.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 27th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an equal weight rating and issued a $158.00 price objective on shares of EastGroup Properties in a research note on Tuesday, August 1st. BTIG Research increased their price objective on EastGroup Properties from $198.00 to $218.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 26th. Finally, KeyCorp increased their price objective on EastGroup Properties from $174.00 to $188.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 12th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $186.08.

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EastGroup Properties Price Performance

EastGroup Properties Increases Dividend

EastGroup Properties stock opened at $158.29 on Friday. EastGroup Properties has a 1-year low of $144.40 and a 1-year high of $188.85. The stock has a market cap of $7.19 billion, a PE ratio of 40.07, a P/E/G ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.94. The stocks fifty day moving average is $170.93 and its two-hundred day moving average is $171.15.

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 29th were given a dividend of $1.27 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 28th. This represents a $5.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.21%. This is a boost from EastGroup Propertiess previous quarterly dividend of $1.25. EastGroup Propertiess payout ratio is 128.61%.

Institutional Trading of EastGroup Properties

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. MML Investors Services LLC increased its position in shares of EastGroup Properties by 2.4% during the first quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 2,844 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $470,000 after purchasing an additional 68 shares in the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC increased its position in shares of EastGroup Properties by 10.3% during the first quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 1,212 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $246,000 after purchasing an additional 113 shares in the last quarter. Cibc World Markets Corp increased its position in shares of EastGroup Properties by 0.7% during the first quarter. Cibc World Markets Corp now owns 20,479 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $4,163,000 after purchasing an additional 141 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in shares of EastGroup Properties during the second quarter worth about $27,000. Finally, Gotham Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of EastGroup Properties by 8.6% during the first quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC now owns 1,973 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $326,000 after purchasing an additional 157 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.69% of the companys stock.

EastGroup Properties Company Profile

(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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Highwoods Properties (NYSE:HIW  Get Free Report) updated its FY23 earnings guidance on Tuesday. The company provided EPS guidance of $3.73-$3.77 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS estimate of $3.77.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on HIW. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Highwoods Properties in a report on Thursday, October 5th. They set a hold rating for the company. Mizuho dropped their target price on shares of Highwoods Properties from $31.00 to $24.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 18th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Highwoods Properties from $22.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 1st. Morgan Stanley reiterated an equal weight rating and set a $22.00 price target on shares of Highwoods Properties in a research report on Wednesday, July 19th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of Highwoods Properties from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $27.00 to $22.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 30th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $25.83.

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Highwoods Properties Stock Up 1.9 %

Highwoods Properties Dividend Announcement

Shares of NYSE HIW opened at $17.88 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $1.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.86 and a beta of 1.19. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $21.31 and a 200 day moving average price of $22.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a current ratio of 1.17. Highwoods Properties has a 52-week low of $17.06 and a 52-week high of $31.88.

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 12th. Investors of record on Monday, November 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 11.19%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 17th. Highwoods Propertiess dividend payout ratio is currently 155.04%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Quarry LP acquired a new position in Highwoods Properties during the first quarter valued at approximately $27,000. CENTRAL TRUST Co grew its holdings in Highwoods Properties by 76.6% during the third quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 1,095 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 475 shares during the period. Quantbot Technologies LP lifted its stake in Highwoods Properties by 165.3% in the second quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 2,181 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $74,000 after buying an additional 1,359 shares in the last quarter. First Manhattan Co. bought a new position in Highwoods Properties in the first quarter valued at approximately $100,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd lifted its stake in Highwoods Properties by 82.8% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 2,298 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $105,000 after buying an additional 1,041 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.31% of the companys stock.

Highwoods Properties Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Highwoods Properties, Inc, headquartered in Raleigh, is a publicly-traded (NYSE:HIW) real estate investment trust (REIT) and a member of the S&P MidCap 400 Index. The Company is a fully-integrated office REIT that owns, develops, acquires, leases and manages properties primarily in the best business districts (BBDs) of Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Nashville, Orlando, Raleigh, Richmond and Tampa.

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Moodys Co. (NYSE:MCO  Get Free Report)s share price gapped up before the market opened on Wednesday following a better than expected earnings announcement. The stock had previously closed at $305.61, but opened at $319.02. Moodys shares last traded at $316.00, with a volume of 158,483 shares traded.

The business services provider reported $2.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.35 by $0.08. Moodys had a return on equity of 55.27% and a net margin of 26.42%. The business had revenue of $1.47 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.46 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.85 earnings per share. Moodyss revenue was up 15.5% compared to the same quarter last year.

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Moodys Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 15th. Investors of record on Friday, November 24th will be issued a dividend of $0.77 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 22nd. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.99%. Moodyss dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 37.47%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on MCO shares. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on Moodys from $344.00 to $333.00 and set a hold rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on Moodys from $328.00 to $362.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Monday, July 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Moodys from $390.00 to $380.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 18th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Moodys from $346.00 to $365.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 26th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an outperform rating and issued a $381.00 price objective on shares of Moodys in a research note on Thursday. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $344.13.

Read Our Latest Stock Report on Moodys

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Caroline Sullivan sold 297 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $339.04, for a total transaction of $100,694.88. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 891 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $302,084.64. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Moodys news, SVP Caroline Sullivan sold 297 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $339.04, for a total value of $100,694.88. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 891 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $302,084.64. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Robert Fauber sold 2,546 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $320.28, for a total value of $815,432.88. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 60,838 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,485,194.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 30,829 shares of company stock valued at $10,416,097. Corporate insiders own 0.42% of the companys stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Moodys

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Natixis bought a new stake in shares of Moodys in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Clearstead Trust LLC bought a new stake in shares of Moodys in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $27,000. Compass Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Moodys in the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. Ancora Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Moodys by 4,900.0% in the 1st quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 100 shares of the business services providers stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 98 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL bought a new stake in shares of Moodys during the first quarter valued at approximately $31,000. 90.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Moodys Stock Down 1.4 %

The company has a quick ratio of 1.65, a current ratio of 1.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.04. The company has a market capitalization of $56.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a 50-day moving average of $326.50 and a two-hundred day moving average of $327.81.

Moodys Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Moody's Corporation operates as an integrated risk assessment firm worldwide. It operates in two segments, Moody's Investors Service and Moody's Analytics. The Moody's Investors Service segment publishes credit ratings and provides assessment services on various debt obligations, programs and facilities, and entities that issue such obligations, such as various corporate, financial institution, and governmental obligations, as well as and structured finance securities.

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Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund grew its position in Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS  Free Report) by 94.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 76,603 shares of the casino operators stock after purchasing an additional 37,200 shares during the period. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Funds holdings in Las Vegas Sands were worth $4,443,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of LVS. MAI Capital Management raised its holdings in shares of Las Vegas Sands by 9.9% during the first quarter. MAI Capital Management now owns 5,471 shares of the casino operators stock worth $314,000 after acquiring an additional 491 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Las Vegas Sands by 775.0% during the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 361,505 shares of the casino operators stock worth $20,167,000 after acquiring an additional 320,191 shares during the period. EA Series Trust acquired a new stake in shares of Las Vegas Sands during the second quarter worth $3,081,000. Mutual Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Las Vegas Sands during the second quarter worth $323,000. Finally, Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Las Vegas Sands by 146.6% during the first quarter. Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,528 shares of the casino operators stock worth $145,000 after acquiring an additional 1,503 shares during the period. 39.16% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Las Vegas Sands Stock Performance

Shares of LVS opened at $47.53 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $48.60 and a 200-day moving average of $55.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.82, a current ratio of 1.50 and a quick ratio of 2.75. The company has a market cap of $36.34 billion, a PE ratio of 54.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 1.22. Las Vegas Sands Corp. has a one year low of $34.73 and a one year high of $65.58.

Las Vegas Sands Dividend Announcement

Las Vegas Sands ( NYSE:LVS Get Free Report ) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 18th. The casino operator reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts consensus estimates of $0.55. The company had revenue of $2.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $2.72 billion. Las Vegas Sands had a net margin of 7.81% and a return on equity of 21.05%. Las Vegas Sandss quarterly revenue was up 178.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted ($0.27) EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Las Vegas Sands Corp. will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current year.

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 6th. Las Vegas Sandss dividend payout ratio is presently 90.91%.

Las Vegas Sands announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase program on Wednesday, October 18th that authorizes the company to buyback $2.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the casino operator to reacquire up to 5.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the companys board believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on LVS shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Las Vegas Sands from $71.00 to $64.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 26th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Las Vegas Sands from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Thursday, October 19th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of Las Vegas Sands from $71.00 to $69.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 20th. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Las Vegas Sands from $70.00 to $69.00 in a research report on Thursday, July 20th. Finally, Argus decreased their target price on shares of Las Vegas Sands from $72.00 to $68.00 in a research report on Friday, July 21st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Las Vegas Sands currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $69.12.

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About Las Vegas Sands

(Free Report)

Las Vegas Sands Corp., together with its subsidiaries, develops, owns, and operates integrated resorts in Macao and Singapore. It owns and operates The Venetian Macao Resort Hotel, the Londoner Macao, The Parisian Macao, The Plaza Macao and Four Seasons Hotel Macao, Cotai Strip, and the Sands Macao in Macao, the People's Republic of China; and Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.

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It has been a quarter of a century since Mohamed Farra last saw his sister, Simat. Now he knows he will never see her again. The current war has provided the final blow for thousands of Palestinian families who have been living in the West Bank for decades, cut off and divided by the Israeli blockade of Gaza. Cameraman Mohamed Farra, 45, a native of the Strip, was live on Al Araby television Wednesday during a protest in the West Bank city of Ramallah when he learned that an Israeli bombardment  a campaign that has already killed more than 7,000 people  had just taken the lives of his sister, brother-in-law, and three nieces. The siblings had last spoken that morning at around 7 a.m., he says.

We have no hope as a people, he laments, devastated and red-eyed, in the living room of his home. The room hosts something akin to a wake without the dead. Im sorry I cant do anything, he says between phone calls from people offering condolences. He is also aware that he has to go through the bitter mourning from a distance, despite the fact that only a hundred kilometers (61 miles) as the crow flies separate Ramallah from Khan Yunis, where the attack took place. If before Farra could not enter Gaza, now, under the bombs and surrounded by an army preparing a land invasion, it is an impossible prospect. Barely able to speak and in tears, it is left to one of his sons to offer coffee and dates to visitors.

We are fine, was the message the cameraman waited for daily, either by phone or through social networks, to confirm that his relatives were still alive under the constant bombardment. Since violence erupted 20 days ago when Hamas launched an attack on Israel, Farra has been trying to maintain contact with his family despite the complications affecting communications. He had instructed them to never be in the same place together at the same time, to avoid a missile killing them all at once.

01:34 Palestinian journalist loses family members during bombardement of Gaza. Palestinian journalist loses family members during bombardement of Gaza. Video: Al Araby.

The editor who accompanied him Wednesday, Fadi al Asa, explains that when they learned of the fatal outcome, they tried to keep Farra away from the scene while trying to decide how to break the news to him. But misfortune, like violence, spreads quickly and soon his phone rang. He was still wearing his bulletproof vest, as can be seen in the video recorded at the scene as he was being taken away in a car.

Life goes on, and so does the war. Al Asa kept up the pace of live connections Thursday and covered a demonstration in Ramallahs central square in solidarity with the victims in Gaza. A sign made of traditional pottery marks the distance to Jerusalem: 15 kilometers (9.3 miles). Separating the two stands the concrete fortress of the Qalandia crossing, which is controlled by the Israel Defense Forces.

Around 200 people, who are handed photographs of dead bodies from Gaza to display, march through the streets around the square in Ramallah, the administrative capital of the West Bank. They chant slogans against the occupation, deny being terrorists, and raise their voices against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Please make our words heard, says Ama Matjar, a 61-year-old attendee.

Yasser Amor, a 45-year-old professor of acting at Bir Zeit University, holds a white poster board in his hands explaining the reason for his presence at the protest. An end to [Israeli] terrorism, an end to Israels occupation of Palestine and the right to self-determination, he says. Since 1948, everything has been getting worse, he adds, referring to the date of the creation of the State of Israel. That same year, the Palestinian people were subjected to the Nakba (catastrophe, in Arabic), when 700,000 people  more than half of the total population, according to the UN  were expelled from their homes by Israeli forces. Following the Hamas attack on October 7, one million civilians have been forcibly displaced under bombardment from northern Gaza following the ultimatum issued by Israel. An exodus reminiscent of that of 75 years ago, to which Palestinians are constantly alluding amid the latest conflict.

Farra is originally from Gaza, but he married a woman from the West Bank in 1998 and has been living in Ramallah ever since. In the 25 years that have passed, he has not been able to return home. The last time he set foot in the Strip was when he returned from his honeymoon in Tunisia, he recalls. On five occasions he has tried to return to Gaza, but Israeli forces prevented him from doing so. The enclave is surrounded and isolated from the rest of the world by a veritable fortress made up of concrete walls, barbed wire fences, surveillance cameras, turrets and hundreds of Israeli soldiers who control the entrance and exit points.

The home in a four-story building in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza, where Farras sister Simat lived with her husband Esam and their five children, was hit by a shell Wednesday morning. In addition to the parents, the three daughters  Adian, Rosol and Tuka  were killed, and the two sons  Hatem and Khalil  who were rescued from the rubble, were wounded. We are all fighters for the homeland! Hatem says, among other religious phrases, from a hospital stretcher in a video posted on social networks showing his uncle Mohamed. The teenager is still covered in dust and blood and with his head bandaged. This is not a war. They are simply killing us, Farra says, as he stands up to shake hands with two new visitors who have arrived at his home.

The attack that killed five members of Farras family came just hours before another Israeli bombing killed the wife and two children of Wael Dahdouh, chief correspondent for Al Jazeera television in the Strip. Since the Hamas attack, a dozen Palestinian reporters have been killed by airstrikes and the headquarters of 50 media outlets have been destroyed or damaged. Farra is broken just 24 hours after losing a large part of his family, but he is already thinking of returning to the streets. We have to keep telling stories as soon as possible, he states.

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Forsta AP Fonden reduced its position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE  Free Report) by 14.7% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 590,800 shares of the technology companys stock after selling 101,500 shares during the period. Forsta AP Fondens holdings in Hewlett Packard Enterprise were worth $9,925,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 152,566,180 shares of the technology companys stock worth $2,549,380,000 after purchasing an additional 1,824,331 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 2.9% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 70,328,694 shares of the technology companys stock worth $1,183,418,000 after purchasing an additional 1,959,250 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 12.5% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 59,288,867 shares of the technology companys stock worth $944,472,000 after purchasing an additional 6,572,347 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 27.8% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 27,661,680 shares of the technology companys stock worth $440,651,000 after acquiring an additional 6,019,701 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 27,039,043 shares of the technology companys stock worth $430,081,000 after acquiring an additional 238,050 shares in the last quarter. 81.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Hewlett Packard Enterprise Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise stock opened at $15.13 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $19.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.22. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a 52-week low of $13.57 and a 52-week high of $18.14. The companys 50-day simple moving average is $16.88 and its 200-day simple moving average is $16.30. The company has a quick ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Dividend Announcement

Hewlett Packard Enterprise ( NYSE:HPE Get Free Report ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 29th. The technology company reported $0.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $7 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $6.99 billion. Hewlett Packard Enterprise had a net margin of 3.64% and a return on equity of 5.32%. The firms revenue for the quarter was up .7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.31 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Hewlett Packard Enterprise will post 1.42 earnings per share for the current year.

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 14th were issued a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 13th. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.17%. Hewlett Packard Enterprises dividend payout ratio is currently 58.54%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Alan Richard May sold 343,016 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.48, for a total transaction of $5,995,919.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 249,511 shares of the companys stock, valued at $4,361,452.28. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Hewlett Packard Enterprise news, CEO Antonio F. Neri sold 434,884 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.48, for a total transaction of $7,601,772.32. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,370,291 shares in the company, valued at $23,952,686.68. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Alan Richard May sold 343,016 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $17.48, for a total transaction of $5,995,919.68. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 249,511 shares in the company, valued at $4,361,452.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.53% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on HPE shares. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 30th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Monday. Citigroup started coverage on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in a research note on Thursday, June 29th. They set a neutral rating and a $18.00 price target on the stock. Raymond James lifted their price target on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Friday, October 20th. Finally, Credit Suisse Group dropped their price objective on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $17.54.

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Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company Profile

(Free Report)

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company provides solutions that allow customers to capture, analyze, and act upon data seamlessly in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and Japan. It operates in six segments: Compute, HPC & AI, Storage, Intelligent Edge, Financial Services, and Corporate Investments and Other.

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Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund raised its stake in McDonalds Co. (NYSE:MCD  Free Report) by 5.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 23,562 shares of the fast-food giants stock after acquiring an additional 1,253 shares during the period. Illinois Municipal Retirement Funds holdings in McDonalds were worth $7,031,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. MV Capital Management Inc. increased its position in McDonalds by 1.0% during the second quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,943 shares of the fast-food giants stock worth $1,177,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the period. Gables Capital Management Inc. raised its position in McDonalds by 0.6% in the 2nd quarter. Gables Capital Management Inc. now owns 14,730 shares of the fast-food giants stock valued at $4,396,000 after purchasing an additional 95 shares during the last quarter. Pavion Blue Capital LLC boosted its stake in McDonalds by 20.5% during the 2nd quarter. Pavion Blue Capital LLC now owns 6,958 shares of the fast-food giants stock worth $2,076,000 after purchasing an additional 1,186 shares during the period. Goldstream Capital Management Ltd grew its position in McDonalds by 73.9% during the 2nd quarter. Goldstream Capital Management Ltd now owns 2,022 shares of the fast-food giants stock worth $603,000 after purchasing an additional 859 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Psagot Value Holdings Ltd. Israel increased its stake in McDonalds by 25.3% in the second quarter. Psagot Value Holdings Ltd. Israel now owns 3,384 shares of the fast-food giants stock valued at $996,000 after purchasing an additional 684 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.60% of the companys stock.

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McDonalds Price Performance

Shares of McDonalds stock opened at $255.80 on Friday. McDonalds Co. has a 1 year low of $245.73 and a 1 year high of $299.35. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $268.48 and a 200 day moving average price of $283.48. The company has a market capitalization of $186.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.53, a P/E/G ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 0.65.

McDonalds Increases Dividend

McDonalds ( NYSE:MCD Get Free Report ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The fast-food giant reported $3.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.77 by $0.40. McDonalds had a net margin of 33.06% and a negative return on equity of 139.57%. The company had revenue of $6.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $6.30 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.55 EPS. The firms revenue for the quarter was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that McDonalds Co. will post 11.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 15th. Investors of record on Friday, December 1st will be given a $1.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 30th. This is a boost from McDonaldss previous quarterly dividend of $1.52. This represents a $6.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.61%. McDonaldss dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 55.93%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on MCD. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on McDonalds from $330.00 to $315.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 11th. Wedbush restated an outperform rating and set a $330.00 price target on shares of McDonalds in a research note on Friday, July 28th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of McDonalds from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating and set a $310.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, September 7th. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of McDonalds from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Friday, July 28th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of McDonalds from $315.00 to $330.00 in a research note on Friday, July 28th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $318.67.

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Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Heidi B. Capozzi sold 688 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.54, for a total value of $194,387.52. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 20,019 shares of the companys stock, valued at $5,656,168.26. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Christopher J. Kempczinski sold 5,606 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total value of $1,569,680.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 29,031 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,128,680. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Heidi B. Capozzi sold 688 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.54, for a total transaction of $194,387.52. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 20,019 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $5,656,168.26. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 24,443 shares of company stock valued at $6,731,860 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.27% of the companys stock.

McDonalds Company Profile

(Free Report)

McDonald's Corporation operates and franchises McDonald's restaurants in the United States and internationally. The company's restaurants offer hamburgers and cheeseburgers, chicken sandwiches and nuggets, fries, salads, shakes, frozen desserts, sundaes, soft serve cones, bakery items, soft drinks, coffee, and beverages and other beverages, as well as breakfast menu, including muffins, Sausages, biscuit and bagel sandwiches, oatmeal, hash browns, breakfast burritos and hotcakes.

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Mackenzie Financial Corp reduced its stake in shares of Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. (NYSE:BAM  Free Report) (TSE:BAM.A) by 22.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 3,840,706 shares of the financial services providers stock after selling 1,141,131 shares during the quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp owned 0.93% of Brookfield Asset Management worth $125,364,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in BAM. Signaturefd LLC lifted its holdings in Brookfield Asset Management by 288.8% during the 1st quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 762 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 566 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC raised its stake in shares of Brookfield Asset Management by 107.9% in the first quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,021 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 530 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Arbitrage SA boosted its holdings in shares of Brookfield Asset Management by 35.5% in the 2nd quarter. BNP Paribas Arbitrage SA now owns 1,057 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $47,000 after acquiring an additional 277 shares in the last quarter. HBC Financial Services PLLC bought a new stake in Brookfield Asset Management during the 1st quarter worth approximately $39,000. Finally, Credit Agricole S A acquired a new stake in Brookfield Asset Management during the 2nd quarter valued at $46,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 61.92% of the companys stock.

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Brookfield Asset Management Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE BAM opened at $29.65 on Friday. Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. has a 52-week low of $26.76 and a 52-week high of $36.50. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $33.31 and a 200 day moving average price of $32.82.

Brookfield Asset Management Announces Dividend

Brookfield Asset Management ( NYSE:BAM Get Free Report ) (TSE:BAM.A) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 9th. The financial services provider reported $0.32 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.32. The business had revenue of $985.00 million for the quarter. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. will post 1.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 29th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 31st were paid a $0.32 dividend. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.32%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 30th.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently commented on the company. TD Securities increased their target price on Brookfield Asset Management from $47.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an action list buy rating in a report on Thursday, August 10th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price objective on shares of Brookfield Asset Management from $35.00 to $34.00 and set a hold rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 11th. Scotiabank assumed coverage on shares of Brookfield Asset Management in a report on Thursday, July 13th. They issued an outperform rating for the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on Brookfield Asset Management from $33.00 to $31.00 and set an underperform rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 11th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on Brookfield Asset Management from $45.00 to $41.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Brookfield Asset Management has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $38.00.

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Brookfield Asset Management Profile

(Free Report)

Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. provides alternative asset management services. Its renewable power and transition business includes the ownership, operation, and development of hydroelectric, wind, solar, and energy transition power generating assets. The company's infrastructure business engages in the ownership, operation, and development of utilities, transport, midstream, data and sustainable resource assets.

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Jackson Creek Investment Advisors LLC lessened its stake in Laboratory Co. of America Holdings (NYSE:LH  Free Report) by 16.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,777 shares of the medical research companys stock after selling 354 shares during the period. Jackson Creek Investment Advisors LLCs holdings in Laboratory Co. of America were worth $429,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of LH. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Laboratory Co. of America by 7.3% during the 2nd quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 9,105 shares of the medical research companys stock valued at $2,197,000 after acquiring an additional 623 shares during the last quarter. MUFG Securities EMEA plc bought a new stake in shares of Laboratory Co. of America during the 2nd quarter valued at $401,000. Alpine Woods Capital Investors LLC raised its position in shares of Laboratory Co. of America by 33.3% during the 2nd quarter. Alpine Woods Capital Investors LLC now owns 22,475 shares of the medical research companys stock valued at $5,424,000 after acquiring an additional 5,613 shares during the last quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Laboratory Co. of America by 2.6% during the 2nd quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 12,680 shares of the medical research companys stock valued at $3,060,000 after acquiring an additional 325 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can bought a new stake in shares of Laboratory Co. of America during the 2nd quarter valued at $40,850,000. Institutional investors own 89.37% of the companys stock.

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Laboratory Co. of America Trading Up 4.2 %

Laboratory Co. of America stock opened at $205.92 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $204.61 and a 200-day moving average of $215.56. Laboratory Co. of America Holdings has a one year low of $172.30 and a one year high of $222.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 2.35 and a quick ratio of 2.12. The company has a market cap of $18.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.21 and a beta of 1.07.

Laboratory Co. of America Dividend Announcement

Laboratory Co. of America ( NYSE:LH Get Free Report ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 27th. The medical research company reported $3.42 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $3.47 by ($0.05). The business had revenue of $3.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.77 billion. Laboratory Co. of America had a return on equity of 14.62% and a net margin of 5.89%. The companys quarterly revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $4.96 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Laboratory Co. of America Holdings will post 13.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 12th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 8th will be issued a $0.72 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 7th. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.40%. Laboratory Co. of Americas payout ratio is 31.07%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on LH. Credit Suisse Group dropped their target price on shares of Laboratory Co. of America from $247.41 to $231.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 2nd. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on shares of Laboratory Co. of America from $251.00 to $237.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a report on Monday, September 18th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Laboratory Co. of America in a report on Thursday, October 5th. They issued a hold rating for the company. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Laboratory Co. of America from $255.00 to $250.00 in a report on Monday, September 18th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Laboratory Co. of America from $290.00 to $270.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 14th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $244.55.

Check Out Our Latest Analysis on LH

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Kerrii B. Anderson sold 5,000 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $211.57, for a total value of $1,057,850.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 15,275 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $3,231,731.75. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.65% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Laboratory Co. of America Company Profile

(Free Report)

Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings operates as a life sciences company that provides vital information to help doctors, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, researchers, and patients make clear and confident decisions. It operates in two segments, Labcorp Diagnostics and Labcorp Drug Development.

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Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund grew its holdings in shares of The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG  Free Report) by 33.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 207,137 shares of the companys stock after buying an additional 51,877 shares during the quarter. Procter & Gamble accounts for about 0.6% of Illinois Municipal Retirement Funds investment portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest holding. Illinois Municipal Retirement Funds holdings in Procter & Gamble were worth $31,431,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in PG. Premier Fund Managers Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Procter & Gamble by 1,363.6% in the 2nd quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd now owns 80,500 shares of the companys stock valued at $12,026,000 after acquiring an additional 75,000 shares during the last quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in Procter & Gamble by 2.0% during the second quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. now owns 22,340 shares of the companys stock valued at $3,390,000 after purchasing an additional 428 shares during the last quarter. Gables Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Procter & Gamble by 0.6% in the 2nd quarter. Gables Capital Management Inc. now owns 21,206 shares of the companys stock worth $3,218,000 after buying an additional 130 shares during the last quarter. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Procter & Gamble by 294.2% in the 2nd quarter. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. now owns 150,021 shares of the companys stock valued at $22,764,000 after buying an additional 111,968 shares during the period. Finally, AMG National Trust Bank grew its position in shares of Procter & Gamble by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. AMG National Trust Bank now owns 52,845 shares of the companys stock valued at $8,018,000 after buying an additional 681 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 63.43% of the companys stock.

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Procter & Gamble Price Performance

NYSE PG opened at $149.80 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a current ratio of 0.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $353.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.32, a P/E/G ratio of 3.12 and a beta of 0.44. The businesss fifty day moving average is $150.10 and its two-hundred day moving average is $151.02. The Procter & Gamble Company has a 1 year low of $130.96 and a 1 year high of $158.38.

Procter & Gamble Dividend Announcement

Procter & Gamble ( NYSE:PG Get Free Report ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 18th. The company reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $1.71 by $0.12. Procter & Gamble had a return on equity of 33.49% and a net margin of 18.30%. The firm had revenue of $21.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $21.58 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.57 EPS. Procter & Gambles revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that The Procter & Gamble Company will post 6.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 15th. Investors of record on Friday, October 20th will be paid a $0.9407 dividend. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 19th. Procter & Gambles dividend payout ratio is 61.04%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Balaji Purushothaman sold 12,629 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $157.19, for a total value of $1,985,152.51. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 13,051 shares of the companys stock, valued at $2,051,486.69. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, insider Balaji Purushothaman sold 12,629 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $157.19, for a total transaction of $1,985,152.51. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 13,051 shares in the company, valued at $2,051,486.69. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Matthew W. Janzaruk sold 33,022 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $156.26, for a total transaction of $5,160,017.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 888 shares in the company, valued at approximately $138,758.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 111,509 shares of company stock worth $17,247,985. Corporate insiders own 0.17% of the companys stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PG has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Morgan Stanley reissued an overweight rating and issued a $174.00 target price on shares of Procter & Gamble in a report on Tuesday, August 1st. William Blair initiated coverage on Procter & Gamble in a research report on Friday, September 8th. They set a market perform rating for the company. They noted that the move was a valuation call. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Procter & Gamble from $165.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock a sector perform rating in a research note on Monday, July 31st. Barclays cut their target price on Procter & Gamble from $166.00 to $154.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 12th. Finally, Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Procter & Gamble from $170.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Tuesday, August 1st. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $163.84.

Get Our Latest Stock Analysis on Procter & Gamble

Procter & Gamble Profile

(Free Report)

The Procter & Gamble Company provides branded consumer packaged goods worldwide. It operates through five segments: Beauty; Grooming; Health Care; Fabric & Home Care; and Baby, Feminine & Family Care. The Beauty segment offers conditioners, shampoos, styling aids, and treatments under the Head & Shoulders, Herbal Essences, Pantene, and Rejoice brands; and antiperspirants and deodorants, personal cleansing, and skin care products under the Olay, Old Spice, Safeguard, Secret, and SK-II brands.

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Coldstream Capital Management Inc. decreased its position in shares of Lockheed Martin Co. (NYSE:LMT  Free Report) by 3.5% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 10,480 shares of the aerospace companys stock after selling 377 shares during the quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc.s holdings in Lockheed Martin were worth $4,825,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of LMT. Mcdonald Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Lockheed Martin by 1.1% in the first quarter. Mcdonald Partners LLC now owns 1,865 shares of the aerospace companys stock valued at $882,000 after buying an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Amplius Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Lockheed Martin by 2.6% during the 1st quarter. Amplius Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 815 shares of the aerospace companys stock worth $385,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares in the last quarter. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Lockheed Martin by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,262 shares of the aerospace companys stock worth $1,502,000 after acquiring an additional 22 shares during the last quarter. Accel Wealth Management raised its position in shares of Lockheed Martin by 2.9% during the second quarter. Accel Wealth Management now owns 784 shares of the aerospace companys stock worth $361,000 after purchasing an additional 22 shares during the period. Finally, Connecticut Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Lockheed Martin by 4.8% during the first quarter. Connecticut Wealth Management LLC now owns 498 shares of the aerospace companys stock valued at $235,000 after purchasing an additional 23 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.26% of the companys stock.

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Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Lockheed Martin from an underweight rating to an equal weight rating and set a $440.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Monday, September 18th. Susquehanna cut their price objective on Lockheed Martin from $575.00 to $550.00 and set a positive rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 19th. UBS Group started coverage on shares of Lockheed Martin in a research report on Tuesday, October 10th. They set a neutral rating and a $470.00 price objective on the stock. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Lockheed Martin from $532.00 to $510.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 18th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on shares of Lockheed Martin from $505.00 to $455.00 and set a hold rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, Lockheed Martin presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $484.07.

Lockheed Martin Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE LMT opened at $445.97 on Friday. Lockheed Martin Co. has a 12 month low of $393.77 and a 12 month high of $508.10. The company has a quick ratio of 1.16, a current ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86. The company has a market cap of $110.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.29, a P/E/G ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.67. The businesss 50 day moving average is $431.94 and its two-hundred day moving average is $449.91.

Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT  Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 17th. The aerospace company reported $6.77 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.67 by $0.10. Lockheed Martin had a net margin of 10.29% and a return on equity of 75.46%. The firm had revenue of $16.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $16.73 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $6.87 EPS. The businesss quarterly revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Lockheed Martin Co. will post 27.16 EPS for the current year.

Lockheed Martin Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 1st will be given a $3.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 30th. This represents a $12.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.83%. This is an increase from Lockheed Martins previous quarterly dividend of $3.00. Lockheed Martins dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 43.84%.

Lockheed Martin Company 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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Hussman Strategic Advisors Inc. cut its holdings in shares of The Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR  Free Report) by 40.0% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 46,500 shares of the companys stock after selling 31,000 shares during the period. Hussman Strategic Advisors Inc.s holdings in Kroger were worth $2,186,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Sanders Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Kroger during the 1st quarter worth about $622,480,000. Boston Partners boosted its position in shares of Kroger by 5,992.3% during the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 4,299,033 shares of the companys stock worth $212,221,000 after purchasing an additional 4,228,468 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Kroger in the 4th quarter valued at $156,126,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its stake in Kroger by 82.0% during the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 5,667,159 shares of the companys stock worth $252,642,000 after buying an additional 2,552,989 shares during the period. Finally, Ninety One UK Ltd acquired a new position in Kroger in the second quarter valued at about $64,087,000. Institutional investors own 78.98% of the companys stock.

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Kroger Stock Performance

KR opened at $44.77 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.78. The businesss 50-day simple moving average is $45.34 and its 200 day simple moving average is $46.89. The firm has a market capitalization of $32.20 billion, a PE ratio of 19.99, a PEG ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.48. The Kroger Co. has a 52-week low of $42.62 and a 52-week high of $50.41.

Kroger Cuts Dividend

Kroger ( NYSE:KR Get Free Report ) last released its earnings results on Friday, September 8th. The company reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.05. Kroger had a net margin of 1.10% and a return on equity of 30.61%. The business had revenue of $33.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $34.12 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.90 earnings per share. The firms revenue was down 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that The Kroger Co. will post 4.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 15th will be given a dividend of $0.29 per share. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.59%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 14th. Krogers dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.79%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

KR has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Telsey Advisory Group reaffirmed an outperform rating and set a $55.00 price target on shares of Kroger in a research report on Wednesday, September 20th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Kroger in a report on Thursday, October 5th. They set a buy rating on the stock. Finally, HSBC assumed coverage on shares of Kroger in a research report on Friday, September 22nd. They set a hold rating and a $52.00 price objective for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $52.57.

Read Our Latest Report on Kroger

Insider Buying and Selling at Kroger

In related news, SVP Timothy A. Massa sold 23,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.46, for a total transaction of $1,045,580.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 194,956 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $8,862,699.76. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, VP Carin L. Fike sold 6,000 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $46.50, for a total value of $279,000.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 44,090 shares of the companys stock, valued at $2,050,185. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Timothy A. Massa sold 23,000 shares of Kroger stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.46, for a total value of $1,045,580.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 194,956 shares of the companys stock, valued at $8,862,699.76. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 33,798 shares of company stock worth $1,542,985 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 1.38% of the companys stock.

Kroger Company Profile

(Free Report)

The Kroger Co operates as a food and drug retailer in the United States. The company operates combination food and drug stores, multi-department stores, marketplace stores, and price impact warehouses. Its combination food and drug stores offer natural food and organic sections, pharmacies, general merchandise, pet centers, fresh seafood, and organic produce; and multi-department stores provide apparel, home fashion and furnishings, outdoor living, electronics, automotive products, and toys.

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Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in The Charles Schwab Co. (NYSE:SCHW  Free Report) by 1,303.8% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 2,261,769 shares of the financial services providers stock after purchasing an additional 2,100,654 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corps holdings in Charles Schwab were worth $128,197,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of SCHW. Quilter Plc purchased a new stake in shares of Charles Schwab during the 2nd quarter valued at $424,700,000. Key Financial Inc grew its stake in shares of Charles Schwab by 144.3% during the 2nd quarter. Key Financial Inc now owns 447 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 264 shares during the period. Beacon Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Charles Schwab during the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. Your Advocates Ltd. LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Charles Schwab during the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. Finally, AlphaMark Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Charles Schwab during the 2nd quarter valued at $28,000. 81.61% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Charles Schwab Stock Performance

Shares of SCHW stock opened at $51.43 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $91.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.14, a P/E/G ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.93. The companys fifty day moving average price is $55.52 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $55.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.39 and a quick ratio of 0.39. The Charles Schwab Co. has a 12 month low of $45.00 and a 12 month high of $86.63.

Charles Schwab Announces Dividend

Charles Schwab ( NYSE:SCHW Get Free Report ) last issued its earnings results on Monday, October 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $4.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.62 billion. Charles Schwab had a net margin of 30.14% and a return on equity of 24.86%. The companys revenue for the quarter was down 16.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.10 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that The Charles Schwab Co. will post 3.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 10th will be paid a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 9th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.94%. Charles Schwabs dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 33.33%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Charles A. Ruffel bought 833 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 17th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $60.55 per share, for a total transaction of $50,438.15. Following the purchase, the director now owns 3,386 shares in the company, valued at approximately $205,022.30. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, General Counsel Peter J. Morgan III sold 8,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.61, for a total transaction of $476,880.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 8,014 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $477,714.54. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Charles A. Ruffel acquired 833 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 17th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $60.55 per share, with a total value of $50,438.15. Following the transaction, the director now owns 3,386 shares in the company, valued at $205,022.30. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 18,710 shares of company stock worth $1,039,961. 6.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently issued reports on SCHW shares. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Charles Schwab from $65.00 to $75.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 19th. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on shares of Charles Schwab from $86.00 to $75.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 9th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Charles Schwab from $71.00 to $64.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 11th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on shares of Charles Schwab from $66.00 to $62.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 10th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Charles Schwab from $71.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Thursday, July 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $69.91.

Check Out Our Latest Stock Report on Charles Schwab

About Charles Schwab

(Free Report)

The Charles Schwab Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a savings and loan holding company that provides wealth management, securities brokerage, banking, asset management, custody, and financial advisory services. The company operates in two segments, Investor Services and Advisor Services.

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Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position in The Bank of New York Mellon Co. (NYSE:BK  Free Report) by 759.1% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 3,053,263 shares of the banks stock after purchasing an additional 2,697,860 shares during the quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp owned approximately 0.39% of Bank of New York Mellon worth $135,931,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Quilter Plc purchased a new stake in Bank of New York Mellon in the 1st quarter worth $446,850,000. Nemes Rush Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Bank of New York Mellon during the second quarter worth about $27,000. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. raised its stake in Bank of New York Mellon by 97.1% during the 1st quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 609 shares of the banks stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the period. Duncker Streett & Co. Inc. bought a new position in Bank of New York Mellon in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $33,000. Finally, Glass Jacobson Investment Advisors llc purchased a new stake in Bank of New York Mellon during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $35,000. 81.29% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Bank of New York Mellon Stock Performance

Bank of New York Mellon stock opened at $42.01 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.71 and a quick ratio of 0.72. The Bank of New York Mellon Co. has a 1-year low of $39.65 and a 1-year high of $52.26. The firm has a market capitalization of $32.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.09. The companys 50-day moving average is $43.28 and its 200 day moving average is $43.47.

Bank of New York Mellon Announces Dividend

Bank of New York Mellon ( NYSE:BK Get Free Report ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 17th. The bank reported $1.27 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $1.15 by $0.12. Bank of New York Mellon had a net margin of 11.81% and a return on equity of 11.84%. The company had revenue of $4.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.32 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.21 EPS. The firms revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that The Bank of New York Mellon Co. will post 4.87 EPS for the current year.

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, November 9th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 27th will be paid a $0.42 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 26th. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.00%. Bank of New York Mellons dividend payout ratio is currently 39.44%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BK has been the subject of a number of research reports. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Bank of New York Mellon in a research report on Thursday, October 5th. They set a hold rating for the company. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Bank of New York Mellon from $48.00 to $46.00 and set an underweight rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 3rd. Bank of America cut their price target on Bank of New York Mellon from $55.00 to $53.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 10th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on Bank of New York Mellon from $58.00 to $55.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 19th. Finally, Evercore ISI reduced their price target on shares of Bank of New York Mellon from $47.00 to $45.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $52.40.

Read Our Latest Research Report on Bank of New York Mellon

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Bank of New York Mellon news, insider Kurtis R. Kurimsky sold 14,045 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.64, for a total value of $641,013.80. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 23,816 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,086,962.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.10% of the companys stock.

Bank of New York Mellon Profile

(Free Report)

The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation provides a range of financial products and services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through Securities Services, Market and Wealth Services, Investment and Wealth Management, and other segments. The Securities Services segment offers custody, trust and depositary, accounting, exchange-traded funds, middle-office solutions, transfer agency, services for private equity and real estate funds, foreign exchange, securities lending, liquidity/lending services, and data analytics.

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Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Cactus, Inc. (NYSE:WHD  Free Report) by 6.0% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,913,864 shares of the companys stock after acquiring an additional 109,051 shares during the quarter. Van ECK Associates Corps holdings in Cactus were worth $80,995,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio lifted its holdings in shares of Cactus by 59.9% in the 3rd quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 678 shares of the companys stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 254 shares during the period. Private Trust Co. NA purchased a new stake in shares of Cactus in the 1st quarter worth $27,000. Belpointe Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cactus in the 1st quarter worth $27,000. State of Wyoming purchased a new stake in shares of Cactus in the 4th quarter worth $28,000. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cactus by 886.7% in the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 740 shares of the companys stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 665 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.11% of the companys stock.

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Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Donna L. Anderson sold 1,921 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.01, for a total value of $99,911.21. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 3,823 shares in the company, valued at $198,834.23. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, CAO Donna L. Anderson sold 1,921 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.01, for a total value of $99,911.21. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 3,823 shares in the company, valued at $198,834.23. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, President Joel Bender sold 141,300 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.41, for a total value of $7,829,433.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now owns 114,982 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,371,152.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 300,791 shares of company stock valued at $16,614,715. Company insiders own 17.72% of the companys stock.

Cactus Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE:WHD opened at $47.70 on Friday. The businesss 50-day moving average is $51.03 and its 200 day moving average is $45.32. Cactus, Inc. has a 1 year low of $31.36 and a 1 year high of $58.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.52, a P/E/G ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 2.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 2.76 and a quick ratio of 1.60.

Cactus (NYSE:WHD  Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Monday, August 7th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $305.82 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $297.99 million. Cactus had a return on equity of 22.22% and a net margin of 14.35%. The firms quarterly revenue was up 79.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.44 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Cactus, Inc. will post 2.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cactus Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 28th were issued a $0.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 25th. This is a positive change from Cactuss previous quarterly dividend of $0.11. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.01%. Cactuss dividend payout ratio is currently 23.76%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on WHD shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. started coverage on Cactus in a report on Wednesday, September 13th. They issued a neutral rating and a $60.00 target price for the company. Benchmark restated a buy rating and set a $60.00 price objective on shares of Cactus in a research note on Tuesday, August 8th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Cactus from $61.00 to $68.00 in a research note on Thursday, August 10th. Citigroup upped their price objective on Cactus from $40.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 18th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Cactus from $46.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Monday, August 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cactus has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $58.00.

Get Our Latest Stock Analysis on Cactus

About Cactus

(Free Report)

Cactus, Inc designs, manufactures, and sells a range of wellheads and pressure control equipment in the United States, Australia, China, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The company's principal products include Cactus SafeDrill wellhead systems, Cactus SafeLink monobore, SafeClamp, and SafeInject systems, as well as frac stacks, zipper manifolds, and production trees.

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Luxury homes, penthouses and apartments in dream skyscrapers. The former Chavista leaders  who looted more than $2 billion from Petroleos de Venezuela, SA (PDVSA)  put some of their ill-gotten gains in a real estate portfolio of 21 exclusive properties, which are valued at around $52 million. This is according to a confidential report from the Financial Intelligence Unit of Andorra (UIFAND), to which EL PAIS has had access.

The criminal network made these investments while carrying out the looting of the state-owned oil company between 2007 and 2012. This was done through the organizations alleged frontman, Luis Mariano Rodriguez Cabello. And, through several shell companies (none registering activity), the businessman  according to his testimony  purchased 19 luxury homes in Venezuela between 2008 and 2014. These properties were priced between $304,000 and $5.5 million.

Rodriguez Cabello used his 11 accounts in the Banca Privada dAndorra (BPA)  where he moved over $1.1 billion between 2007 and 2015  to camouflage the trail of money. This is according to the confidential document which was drafted by UIFAND in November of 2022. A chunk of this cash ended up in real estate.

The Campo Norte building in Caracas was the criminal networks favorite project. Through an intricate corporate structure, the group acquired at least six units in this complex between 2008 and 2012. The most expensive apartment cost $5.5 million dollars and was purchased through the shell company Inversiones y Asesorias Aditus CA.

In 2011, the alleged frontman also turned to this firm to acquire $7 million worth of real estate, consisting of two apartments and several parking spaces in the same residential complex. This is according to what Rodriguez Cabello communicated to the BPA. He also ordered three cash transfers from his financial institution  a total of $5 million  between 2008 and 2012, to acquire three other apartments in the Campo Norte building in Caracas. One of them was acquired through a transfer of $1.5 million via an account in Switzerland.

Rodriguez Cabello informed the bank that a transfer of $3.3 million  ordered in September of 2008 to a Wells Fargo account in the United States  was part of the acquisition of offices in Venezuela for the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD). This organization  which is linked to the World Bank  has a mandate to fight against poverty. EL PAIS has tried  without success  to obtain the IBRDs version of events.

In 2007  when the looting of the Venezuelan state-owned energy company began  the plot also allegedly purchased four offices for a total of $2.5 million on the eighth floor of the Torre Edicampo building in Caracas. The operation was arranged through a transfer to the company Interquimica Ltd., at the Safra National Bank in New York.

Rodriguez Cabello told this bank that he purchased an apartment in the Villa Lucia building in Caracas in January of 2008 for $629,000. In the purchase and sale contract, a Venezuelan of Spanish origin  Estibaliz Basoa  appeared alongside him. And, in May of 2009, through the company Inversiones Powerball 550 CA  represented by the frontman  he acquired a $750,000 penthouse in another residential complex in the Venezuelan capital.

The tracking of the transactions also shows how the plunderers of the public company bought a $600,000 apartment in the Torre Mar Residences building in Caracas in June of 2009. And, in September of 2012  through the company Inversiones y Asesorias Belloto  they snapped up another property worth $2.2 million, in the Pena Blanca complex in the capital.

Rodriguez Cabello not only used his financial network in Andorra  a country that, until 2017, was shielded by banking secrecy laws  to acquire luxurious properties. He also resorted to his secretive financial structure to deposit funds from the sale of real estate. For instance, he received $1.7 million in December of 2008 for the sale of an office in the JWM Tower in Chacao, a wealthy district in Caracas. And, three months later, he received $1.2 million from a Deutsche Bank account in the Netherlands for the sale of another office in the same administrative complex.

Buying properties for third parties was another one of his practices. Rodriguez Cabello allegedly acquired a home for a woman in August of 2009. I am attaching the order for a transfer of $500,000 for the purchase of an apartment with a parking space for Mrs. Silvia F. in Argentina, the frontman explained to a BPA employee in an email.

EL PAIS has revealed that Cabello also used this ruse in 2010, to gift a $950,000 apartment in the Parque Residencial Campo de Oro building in Caracas to Claudia Paola Suarez Fernandez  the model who represented Venezuela at the Miss World 2007 pageant.

The next investment made by the PDVSA plunderers leads to the One Thousand Museum skyscraper in Miami. Its an architectural prodigy that stands 699-feet high. Designed by the Iranian architect Zaha Hadid, it houses a helipad, glass elevators and a state-of-the-art aquatic center. Enjoying one of its 100 units costs up to $20 million.

Former political bigwigs tied to the government of Hugo Chavez (1999-2013) and Nicolas Maduro (2013-present) acquired two properties in this Miami skyscraper for more than $21 million in total. The project also attracted the attention of celebrities such as David Beckham.

Through 10% under-the-table commissions from Chinese companies  firms that later received contracts from PDVSA  the network amassed a succulent fortune, which was stashed in over thirty shell companies located in tax havens such as Switzerland, Belize or Andorra.

The looters  among whom were leaders from the first wave of Chavismo, such as Nervis Villalobos and Javier Alvarado, both former vice-minister of energy  camouflaged their million-dollar commissions under the cover of advisory and consulting jobs. According to financial investigators, these jobs never existed.

Since 2015, an Andorran court has been unraveling this nefarious scheme. In 2018, a judge from the small principality  which is home to less than 80,000 people  prosecuted businessman Diego Salazar, the cousin of Venezuelas former oil minister Rafael Ramirez. He was charged for money laundering in a banking establishment.

Along with him, PDVSA executive Francisco Jimenez Villarroel has also been indicted in Andorra, where the network deposited over $2 billion between 2007 and 2012. Others who have been indicted include the companys former lawyer, Luis Carlos de Leon Perez; Venezuelan insurance magnate, Omar Farias; Salazars frontman, Luis Mariano Rodriguez Cabello, as well as Salazars attorney, Jose Luis Zabala.

In 2018, the Andorran justice system also prosecuted a dozen former directors of the Banca Privada dAndorra (BPA), the financial institution chosen by the corrupt network to hide its loot. The BPA was raided in March of 2015, for allegedly engaging in money-laundering activities.

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Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY  Get Free Report) had its price objective lowered by stock analysts at Morgan Stanley from $56.00 to $50.00 in a report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an underweight rating on the biopharmaceutical companys stock. Morgan Stanleys target price would suggest a potential downside of 5.63% from the stocks previous close.

BMY has been the topic of several other reports. SVB Leerink reissued a market perform rating on shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb in a report on Monday, July 10th. Bank of America lowered their price target on shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb from $85.00 to $80.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 28th. BMO Capital Markets downgraded shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb from an outperform rating to a market perform rating and set a $60.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Friday. Atlantic Securities reduced their price target on Bristol-Myers Squibb from $90.00 to $85.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 28th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an overweight rating and issued a $75.00 price objective on shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb in a research report on Monday, October 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Bristol-Myers Squibb currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $66.20.

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Bristol-Myers Squibb Trading Down 6.4 %

BMY opened at $52.99 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.39. The stocks 50 day moving average price is $58.85 and its 200-day moving average price is $62.97. Bristol-Myers Squibb has a one year low of $52.92 and a one year high of $81.43. The stock has a market cap of $110.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 0.43.

Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY  Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 26th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $2.00 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.76 by $0.24. Bristol-Myers Squibb had a return on equity of 50.51% and a net margin of 17.62%. The business had revenue of $10.97 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.96 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.99 earnings per share. The businesss revenue for the quarter was down 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Bristol-Myers Squibb will post 7.37 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Bristol-Myers Squibb

In other Bristol-Myers Squibb news, EVP Robert M. Plenge sold 732 shares of the 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 sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 6,584 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $402,545.76. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Ann Powell sold 17,986 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 24th. The shares were 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 owns 27,868 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $1,706,915. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Robert M. Plenge sold 732 shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 3rd. The shares were 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 of the companys stock, valued at $402,545.76. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.09% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Bristol-Myers Squibb

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BMY. Gratus Capital LLC raised its position in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 7.2% in the third quarter. Gratus Capital LLC now owns 7,284 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock worth $423,000 after acquiring an additional 491 shares during the period. Conning Inc. increased its position in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 7.3% in the third quarter. Conning Inc. now owns 595,701 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $34,520,000 after buying an additional 40,340 shares in the last quarter. Punch & Associates Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 32.7% in the third quarter. Punch & Associates Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,247 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $246,000 after buying an additional 1,047 shares in the last quarter. Steph & Co. lifted its position in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. Steph & Co. now owns 11,149 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $647,000 after buying an additional 322 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Graypoint LLC grew its stake in Bristol-Myers Squibb by 30.2% in the 3rd quarter. Graypoint LLC now owns 11,927 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $692,000 after acquiring an additional 2,767 shares during the period. 74.98% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Bristol-Myers Squibb

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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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Coldstream Capital Management Inc. reduced its stake in Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX  Free Report) by 0.7% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 39,775 shares of the oil and gas companys stock after selling 300 shares during the period. Coldstream Capital Management Inc.s holdings in Phillips 66 were worth $3,794,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Crescent Sterling Ltd. increased its position in Phillips 66 by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. Crescent Sterling Ltd. now owns 17,320 shares of the oil and gas companys stock valued at $1,652,000 after purchasing an additional 319 shares during the period. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lifted its holdings in Phillips 66 by 14.7% during the second quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 125,791 shares of the oil and gas companys stock worth $11,998,000 after buying an additional 16,092 shares during the period. Jackson Creek Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in Phillips 66 by 47.4% during the 2nd quarter. Jackson Creek Investment Advisors LLC now owns 6,487 shares of the oil and gas companys stock valued at $619,000 after acquiring an additional 2,087 shares in the last quarter. Steel Peak Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Phillips 66 in the 2nd quarter valued at $202,000. Finally, MONECO Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Phillips 66 by 11.6% in the 2nd quarter. MONECO Advisors LLC now owns 5,364 shares of the oil and gas companys stock worth $512,000 after acquiring an additional 558 shares in the last quarter. 71.83% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Phillips 66 Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE:PSX opened at $110.00 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. Phillips 66 has a 52-week low of $89.74 and a 52-week high of $125.19. The stock has a market cap of $48.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.77, a PEG ratio of 0.37 and a beta of 1.33. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $115.96 and a 200-day moving average price of $105.78.

Phillips 66 Dividend Announcement

Phillips 66 ( NYSE:PSX Get Free Report ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 27th. The oil and gas company reported $4.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $4.57 by $0.06. Phillips 66 had a net margin of 6.81% and a return on equity of 26.25%. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $6.46 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Phillips 66 will post 15.89 EPS for the current year.

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 1st. Investors of record on Friday, November 17th will be given a dividend of $1.05 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 16th. This represents a $4.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.82%. Phillips 66s dividend payout ratio is presently 18.22%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Phillips 66

In other Phillips 66 news, EVP Timothy D. Roberts sold 127,578 shares of Phillips 66 stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $116.68, for a total transaction of $14,885,801.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 77,313 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,020,880.84. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In related news, Chairman Greg C. Garland sold 169,400 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $111.44, for a total transaction of $18,877,936.00. Following the sale, the chairman now directly owns 662,366 shares of the companys stock, valued at $73,814,067.04. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Timothy D. Roberts sold 127,578 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Friday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.68, for a total transaction of $14,885,801.04. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 77,313 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,020,880.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 360,648 shares of company stock valued at $41,396,371. 4.57% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have issued reports on PSX. Morgan Stanley reiterated an equal weight rating and issued a $125.00 target price on shares of Phillips 66 in a research note on Wednesday, July 19th. Argus increased their target price on shares of Phillips 66 from $125.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Monday, August 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of Phillips 66 from $125.00 to $141.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Friday, September 1st. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Phillips 66 from $130.00 to $144.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Friday, September 8th. Finally, StockNews.com initiated coverage on Phillips 66 in a research note on Thursday, October 5th. They set a hold rating on the stock. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Phillips 66 presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $129.93.

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About Phillips 66

(Free Report)

Phillips 66 operates as an energy manufacturing and logistics company in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and internationally. It operates through four segments: Midstream, Chemicals, Refining, and Marketing and Specialties (M&S). The Midstream segment transports crude oil and other feedstocks; delivers refined petroleum products to market; provides terminaling and storage services for crude oil and refined petroleum products; transports, stores, fractionates, exports, and markets natural gas liquids; provides other fee-based processing services; and gathers, processes, transports, and markets natural gas.

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Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its stake in The Estee Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL  Free Report) by 8.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 557,284 shares of the companys stock after purchasing an additional 45,722 shares during the quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corps holdings in Estee Lauder Companies were worth $110,342,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in EL. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Estee Lauder Companies by 1.2% in the first quarter. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,500 shares of the companys stock valued at $863,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the period. Connecticut Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Estee Lauder Companies by 3.7% in the 1st quarter. Connecticut Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,167 shares of the companys stock valued at $288,000 after buying an additional 42 shares during the last quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC raised its holdings in Estee Lauder Companies by 6.4% in the 1st quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 752 shares of the companys stock worth $185,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the period. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC lifted its position in Estee Lauder Companies by 3.1% during the 1st quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC now owns 1,523 shares of the companys stock worth $375,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Money Concepts Capital Corp lifted its position in Estee Lauder Companies by 32.3% during the 4th quarter. Money Concepts Capital Corp now owns 209 shares of the companys stock worth $52,000 after acquiring an additional 51 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 55.15% of the companys stock.

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Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on EL shares. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on Estee Lauder Companies from $216.00 to $185.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 10th. Telsey Advisory Group reaffirmed an outperform rating and issued a $210.00 target price on shares of Estee Lauder Companies in a report on Thursday. Evercore ISI cut their price target on Estee Lauder Companies from $250.00 to $200.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 21st. Citigroup reduced their price objective on Estee Lauder Companies from $165.00 to $155.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 11th. Finally, Piper Sandler dropped their target price on shares of Estee Lauder Companies from $164.00 to $155.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 10th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $198.67.

Insider Activity

In other Estee Lauder Companies news, Director Charlene Barshefsky sold 1,796 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $151.93, for a total transaction of $272,866.28. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 48,845 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $7,421,020.85. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Jane Lauder sold 12,661 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $152.75, for a total value of $1,933,967.75. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 55,800 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,523,450. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Charlene Barshefsky sold 1,796 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.93, for a total value of $272,866.28. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 48,845 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $7,421,020.85. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 12.77% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Estee Lauder Companies Stock Performance

Estee Lauder Companies stock opened at $134.14 on Friday. The Estee Lauder Companies Inc. has a 12-month low of $133.38 and a 12-month high of $283.62. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $147.77 and a 200 day simple moving average of $181.24. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27. The stock has a market capitalization of $47.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.05.

Estee Lauder Companies (NYSE:EL  Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Friday, August 18th. The company reported $0.07 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of ($0.04) by $0.11. Estee Lauder Companies had a net margin of 6.32% and a return on equity of 21.79%. The company had revenue of $3.61 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.48 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.42 earnings per share. The companys revenue was up 1.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that The Estee Lauder Companies Inc. will post 3.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Estee Lauder Companies Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 31st were given a dividend of $0.66 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 30th. This represents a $2.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.97%. Estee Lauder Companiess payout ratio is currently 94.96%.

About Estee Lauder Companies

(Free Report)

The Estee Lauder Companies Inc manufactures, markets, and sells skin care, makeup, fragrance, and hair care products worldwide. It offers skin care products, including moisturizers, serums, cleansers, toners, body care, exfoliators, acne care and oil correctors, facial masks, and sun care products; and makeup products, such as lipsticks, lip glosses, mascaras, foundations, eyeshadows, nail polishes, and powders, as well as compacts, brushes, and other makeup tools.

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Mackenzie Financial Corp grew its stake in Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY  Free Report) by 19.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 323,674 shares of the companys stock after purchasing an additional 53,501 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corps holdings in Eli Lilly and Company were worth $149,350,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Silicon Valley Capital Partners bought a new position in Eli Lilly and Company during the first quarter valued at $25,000. Bogart Wealth LLC grew its holdings in Eli Lilly and Company by 193.3% during the 1st quarter. Bogart Wealth LLC now owns 88 shares of the companys stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Activest Wealth Management purchased a new stake in Eli Lilly and Company in the 2nd quarter worth about $40,000. Laffer Tengler Investments bought a new stake in Eli Lilly and Company in the first quarter worth about $33,000. Finally, Raleigh Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Eli Lilly and Company by 156.4% during the first quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 100 shares of the companys stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 61 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 81.38% of the companys stock.

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Insider Buying and Selling

In other Eli Lilly and Company news, major shareholder Lilly Endowment Inc sold 204,409 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $523.74, for a total value of $107,057,169.66. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 100,823,810 shares in the company, valued at $52,805,462,249.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In related news, major shareholder Lilly Endowment Inc sold 204,409 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $523.74, for a total value of $107,057,169.66. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 100,823,810 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $52,805,462,249.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Donald A. Zakrowski sold 600 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $546.51, for a total transaction of $327,906.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 5,378 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,939,130.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 907,655 shares of company stock worth $21,078,714,805 in the last ninety days. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Eli Lilly and Company Stock Down 3.2 %

Shares of Eli Lilly and Company stock opened at $567.85 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.63. The company has a market cap of $539.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 78.98, a PEG ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 0.33. The firms 50 day moving average price is $568.51 and its 200-day moving average price is $485.61. Eli Lilly and Company has a 52-week low of $309.20 and a 52-week high of $629.97.

Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY  Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 8th. The company reported $2.11 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.98 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $8.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.58 billion. Eli Lilly and Company had a net margin of 22.01% and a return on equity of 65.00%. Eli Lilly and Companys revenue was up 28.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.25 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Eli Lilly and Company will post 6.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

LLY has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Eli Lilly and Company from $490.00 to $580.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Tuesday, August 8th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Eli Lilly and Company from $500.00 to $590.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 9th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Eli Lilly and Company from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Thursday. Argus boosted their price objective on shares of Eli Lilly and Company from $470.00 to $620.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 5th. Finally, HSBC began coverage on shares of Eli Lilly and Company in a research report on Friday, July 14th. They set a buy rating and a $560.00 target price on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and nineteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $555.83.

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Eli Lilly and Company Company Profile

(Free Report)

Eli Lilly and Company discovers, develops, and markets human pharmaceuticals worldwide. It offers Basaglar, Humalog, Humalog Mix 75/25, Humalog U-100, Humalog U-200, Humalog Mix 50/50, insulin lispro, insulin lispro protamine, insulin lispro mix 75/25, Humulin, Humulin 70/30, Humulin N, Humulin R, and Humulin U-500 for diabetes; and Jardiance, Trajenta, and Trulicity for type 2 diabetes.

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The Israeli army has increased aerial bombing on Gaza and announced an expansion of ground operations this Friday. Shortly afterwards, Gaza residents have reported the entry of Israeli troops into the enclave, which has been virtually cut off as telephone and internet communications have been disrupted, according to local media reports. The army has not clarified whether the troop movement constitutes the ground invasion to overthrow Hamas that it has been announcing for days or whether it is a temporary incursion with tanks and infantry like those of the last few days. The former, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi has warned, would mean a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions.

In the last few hours, we have increased the attacks, Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said on Friday afternoon. The bombings have focused on underground targets, referring to Hamas network of tunnels, and terrorist infrastructures, he posted on the social network X (formerly Twitter). The Netblocks observatory recorded a collapse of connectivity, amid reports of heavy bombardment. The Palestinian company Jawal also reported the outage, which puts the Strip in an information blackout.

All this, three weeks after Hamas struck a surprise attack at dawn on October 7, also in the middle of the Jewish Shabbat and with the country half asleep, killing 1,400 people in an incursion never before seen in Israeli territory.

Earlier, the United Nations had raised its tone on what is happening in Gaza. The agencys human rights office has warned that war crimes are being committed. Both the collective punishment of the Palestinian population and the capture of hostages in Israeli territory by Hamas fall into that category, according to a statement released on Friday by the agency headed by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk.

This is the first time that the term war crime has been used at the institutional level to talk about what is happening in Gaza. The UN Human Rights office warns that collective punishment is a war crime. Israels collective punishment of the entire population of Gaza must immediately cease. The use of dehumanizing language against Palestinians must also be halted. The statement also says that indiscriminate attacks by Palestinian armed groups, including through the launching of unguided rockets into Israel, must stop. They must immediately and unconditionally release all civilians who were captured and are still being held. The taking of hostages is also a war crime.

A Palestinian shouts as he stands over bodies of people killed in an Israeli strike outside Al-Najjar Hospital. Abed Rahim Khatib (DPA / Europa Press)

The statement comes the same week in which Israel has already engaged in a bitter confrontation with the United Nations and announced the blocking of visas for the humanitarian chief and other officials of the organization after accusing Secretary-General Antonio Guterres of justifying Hamas for saying the October 7 attacks did not happen in a vacuum but after 56 years of suffocating occupation.

Beyond the attacks, the commissioner general of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, said that the trickle of trucks being allowed into the area from the Rafah crossing in Egypt are nothing more than crumbs that will not make a difference for 2 million people.

We should avoid conveying the message that a few trucks a day means the siege is lifted for humanitarian aid. It is not. The current system in place is geared to fail, said Lazzarini in a statement. What is needed is meaningful and uninterrupted aid flow. To succeed, we need a humanitarian ceasefire to ensure this aid reaches those in need. This is not too much to ask for.

Ten foreign doctors and 10 trucks with medicine, food and water  but no fuel, which Israel refuses to accept  were allowed in on Friday morning, a border official confirmed to Reuters. That brings the total since the current conflict began on October 7 to 84. That is a drop in the ocean, says Nebal Farsakh, spokesman for the Palestinian Red Crescent.

During the early hours of the morning, the Israeli army carried out a new ground incursion in Gaza in preparation for the invasion with which they intend to wipe out Hamas, which governs the Strip and whose armed wing led the major attack on Israeli territory three weeks ago. The Israeli army has reported hitting 250 of the groups targets and killing Madhath Mubashar, its leader in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza. The death toll in the Strip stands at 7,326, of whom 3,038 are children, according to data from the Gaza Health Ministry.

Meanwhile, there are signs that the sparks of conflict may spread to the region. In neighboring Egypt, the tourist cities of Taba and Nuweida, on the shores of the Red Sea and close to Israel, were the scene of attacks this Friday with six people reported wounded, said the countrys military authorities. The United States reported last week that one of its warships in the Red Sea intercepted projectiles launched from Yemen, probably towards Israel, by the Huthi rebels, who are backed by Iran, also an ally of Hamas. Israel will work with Egypt and the United States to strengthen regional defense against threats from the Red Sea region, said Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari, during a television statement cited by Reuters.

That comes on top of U.S. strikes against pro-Iran groups in eastern Syria in response to missile launches in recent days. At the same time, Israeli troops carried out new operations in the occupied West Bank with a death toll of four in the early hours of Friday.

The agreement between Israel and the United States to allow access to basic goods for the survival of Gazans has gone in a week from glimmer of hope to crumbs that distract from the fact that water, food, fuel and medicine are being used to collectively punish more than two million people, UNRWAs top official lamented Friday. The UN claims that 450 trucks were entering the Strip every day before. The estimates to be able to face the current crisis would be a hundred daily. Antonio Guterres called Friday for speeding up inspections at the Rafah crossing, which separates Gaza from Egypt, to allow many more trucks to enter Gaza without delay, according to a statement.

Twenty days have elapsed since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, killing some 1,400 people, and the Israeli army began bombing the Strip indiscriminately, resulting in more than 7,300 fatalities according to Gaza officials. An Israeli ground offensive into the Palestinian enclave, as promised by the government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, would make it even more difficult for residents to have access to the essentials for survival in a territory where electricity and water is barely reaching the population.

Empty shelves

In the beginning, people could go to the market or to the stores. Now, no more. Stores have empty shelves. People are struggling to get food, but there are already people starving in Gaza, warns Nebal Farsakh, spokesman for the Palestinian Red Crescent, speaking over the phone.

At a press conference in Jerusalem, UNRWAs Lazzarini insisted that many Palestinians will die soon, not because of the bombings, but because of the consequences of the complete blockade imposed by Israel. His colleagues in Gaza, 57 of whom have lost their lives in the three weeks of air strikes, have begun to report to him the first cases of starvation inside the Strip, he added.

Fuel

Fuel, which Israel is preventing from entering because it claims Hamas has its own and has also stolen it from UNRWA, was at the center of much of what Lazzarini said. The agency has been forced to drastically limit its use in recent days, through difficult decisions such as determining whether it is needed more by the 50 or so bakeries to which it provides it, by medical centers or by its own staff.

Lazzarini insisted that he has no knowledge of fuel thefts, nor any idea of how much fuel the Hamas government may have. He also stressed the importance of it coming from outside Gaza, although he has opened the door to accessing some deposits in the interior that store some of the fuel that entered at the time by agreement between Israel and Qatar. His personnel will only be able to do so, he added, with the green light from the Armed Forces.

Only two of the bakeries working for the World Food Program (WFP) have fuel, probably only until Saturday, according to a representative of this UN agency. The WFP says that, since Wednesday, they can only serve 150,000 people due to lack of fuel, when they used to serve 200,000 people.

Meanwhile, in the West Bank, incursions by Israeli troops in the early hours of Friday morning caused at least four deaths, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, three of them in Jenin and one more in Qalqilia. This other region of occupied Palestine is experiencing its most convulsive and deadly weeks since the outbreak of the Second Intifada (2000-2005).

Palestinian men carry the body of 17-year-old Osayed Hmaidat during his funeral at the al-Jalazone Palestinian refugee camp, north of the West Bank city of Ramallah on October 27, 2023. AFP

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A few months ago it was ColaCao, the chocolate drink brand, that ditched its decades-old song about the negrito  a patronizing term for a black man  and replaced it with another jingle devoid of racist overtones. Now, it should be time for Conguitos, a popular Spanish chocolate candy, to follow suit and get rid of its adorable mascot as the Black Lives Matter movement gains momentum in the wake of the George Floyd killing in Minnesota. Thats what a petition on the Change.org platform is saying about Lacasa, the company that produces the candy. With almost 5,000 signatures, the initiative has caused a stir on social media, where the disproportionately large red lips of the Conguito caricatures have been remarked upon, as well as the fact that it has taken the death of George Floyd to make us aware in Spain that racism can begin with a bag of sweets.

The mascot was thought up by an ad agency in 1961  more than 50 years ago. It is dated, like the 1985 Frigo ice cream ad with lyrics including the term negrito, and which is no longer shown on Spanish TV. Or like the caramel custard sold in the 1950s under the brand name Mandarin inside a yellow box, which would be considered highly suspect in this day and age.

On the back of the Black Lives Matter movement, international brands have been taking a closer look at some of their products and rebranding them. Nestle is renaming the popular Colombian candy Beso de Negra (Kiss of the Black Woman), and Pepsi has announced that its Aunt Jemima products are to get a makeover.

Lacasa and the Belgian Congo

The white chocolate version of Conguitos. LACASA

Conguitos is made by Lacasa, which sells other brands of chocolate candy, such as Lacasitos or Mentolin. The company was created in 1852 in Jaca, Huesca, by Antonio Lacasa, the great-grandfather of the current owners. With four factories spread throughout Spain, as well as affiliates in Portugal and France, its annual turnover is around 150 million. To be fair, the name Conguitos is not of their choosing. It came with the Zaragoza company they bought out in 1987.

The name and the imagery were inspired by the Belgian Congo, which had gained independence the previous year. Although the company insists that the image simply represents one conguito sweet on top of another, videos on the companys YouTube channel quite clearly depict the small cartoon figures involved in tribal activity. Indeed, in an interview with El Periodico de Aragon, Juan Tudela Ferez, the man behind the famous mascot, explained that now, I would not have done it like that. It was an era when it was common to give those kinds of products a touch of the exotic. It was when the Belgian Congo got its independence, and a song about the country became popular.

Far from considering modifying the imagery, company officials insist on the adorable nature of the mascot, adding that: Since Lacasa Group acquired the product, it has got rid of its original connotations, giving it positive values that are linked to the product and not to any particular race. To back their argument, they point out that white Conguitos have a white mascot on the packet. But this argument is making little headway with the people behind the Change.org petition, who are demanding a public apology from Lacasa to the black community and suggesting that some corporate profits should be donated to organizations fighting racism.

We sincerely believe that the mascot is respectful to everyone without exception, and that it is accepted and appreciated as such Lacasa company statement

The brand has a long, 59-year history and we have all grown up with the slogan Somos los Conguitos [We are the Conguitos], says a statement from Lacasa. But what we think as manufacturers is of no importance; it is what the consumer thinks that matters, which is why we frequently and systematically gather consumer opinion. And for now, we are seeing that for the vast majority, the values associated with Conguitos are also associated with fun times and positive energy. If we thought that the product or its representation was derisive, we would be the first to change it. However, we sincerely believe that the mascot is respectful to everyone without exception, and that it is accepted and appreciated as such.

Lacasa believes that most Spaniards  usually white  have a certain fondness for the Conguitos mascot, an opinion that shared by the regional chief of Industry, Trade and Development of Aragon, Arturo Aliaga, and by the far-right political party Vox. But what about the countrys minorities?

The voice of non-whites

If Conguitos is no longer to be called Conguitos, does this mean that brown sugar is under suspicion? Or that Valencian blanquet (white) sausage is a symbol of Aryan purity? Lets use common sense. It is the association of a race with values generally based on unfounded cliches with no biological basis that is politically incorrect. The concepts of hyper-sexualization, cannibalism and animalization have long been exploited by the coffee and chocolate industry with regard to people of color, not only during colonial times, but also in contemporary advertising.

The problem with the adorable Conguitos figure is that it is only adorable for people who are not black. There was a They called me Conguito in school too Facebook group once and it wasnt exactly funny, notes the writer and activist Lucia Asue Mbomio.

Mbomio does not understand how Lacasa can deny the human aspect of the mascot as in certain ads, it speaks a language thats meant to sound African and still has a spear shape in its hand. Even the name itself has negative connotations  It means small Congo, besides the fact that the Belgian Congo was the site of one of the greatest genocides in recent history, with forced labor and the mutilation of human beings, she says.

A global wave of protests in the wake of the George Floyd killing has put pressure on brands like Conguitos and ColaCao.

The Conguitos caricature that exaggerates the features of black people is known to have shocked people outside of Spain too. For example, on Twitter in 2017, a young Welshman wrote: There is a strange racist chocolate in Spain called Little Congolese.

According to Mbomio: We have normalized things that have rarely been discussed since complaints have been labeled the result of thin skins. That is how advertising has become just another pillar supporting an image of black people associated with underdevelopment, poverty or savagery. And that view doesnt allow us to advance.

The Afro-feminist communications expert Desiree Bela-Lobedde agrees. Lacasa needs to recognize that the origin of Conguitos identity is racist, she says. As for the use of culture in advertising, she feels that if it becomes a source of insult to an entire community, it is offensive. In fact, she finds the idea of donating part of the companys profits to the fight against racism entirely rational. Its a way of raising awareness and making amends, she says. There are companies that focus their corporate social responsibility on environmental issues. But when it comes to racism, nobody does anything, because nobody considers themselves to be racist.

Forward-looking societies and the private companies that are part of them must take measures to make amends to the groups that have historically been damaged, says Maitane Arnoso, the president of the Guipuzcoa branch of the non-profit group SOS Racismo. What was thought a few years ago to be requetebien [super]  is fortunately now considered requetemal [terrible]. As in other contexts, it is necessary to implement restorative measures. She adds that this would involve apologizing for the damage caused and owning up to the profits made from the use of racist images. When it comes to these issues, what is important is not just how to address the past, but how to move toward the future. To move from the politics of gestures to the politics of action and anti-racist commitment.

Rebranding

Can a product be racist simply because it exists? As an article in the journal Puro Marketing says: The time has come to ask ourselves how cultural racism is unconsciously linked to our DNA. Stereotypes are intrinsic to many products, and we often cannot detect them because we see them all the time, and even consider them part of our childhood. Then suddenly, #BlackLivesMatter takes off and we see everything from a different angle.

The journalist Patricia Moreno and the designer Africa Pitarch are behind the project Somos unas Exageradas, which advises brands, agencies and the media on diversity, inclusiveness, feminism and racism. Its time to bring all those conversations that were on the back burner to the fore. The time is right, they say. Although there are many racially aware voices that are doing great things educationally, we white people treat this issue as if it had little to do with us, when, in fact, it is a structural and endemic issue.

This is not the first time that Lacasa has been criticized for its Conguitos imagery, and it seems that they have run out of wiggle room. We are no longer discussing whether it is racist or not; it is racist, period, say Moreno and Pitarch. We are talking about cultural appropriation, because it is not a Congolese product that has a positive impact on the community, but a large company, in the hands of a white family, that stigmatizes and treats Congolese people as pets.

The South African human rights activist and cleric, Desmond Tutu, believed that remaining neutral in the face of injustice puts you on the side of the oppressor. According to this line of thought, the worst thing a brand can do is nothing. Silence is also a position and it implies a lack of sensitivity to social criticism, say Moreno and Pitarch. The right thing to do would be to admit the wrong and then launch a 360 campaign for analysis and change.

When it comes to rebranding the product, they suggest relying on people from the community of African descent, which exists in Spain and has a real presence. What are now known as Conguitos should be renamed, accordingly. They have no excuse for not revamping, beyond what is comfortable, say Moreno and Pitarch.

Scrapping the racism

As for Aunt Jemima, Spaniards do not generally eat pancakes for breakfast, but Americans and Mexicans have grown up with a black womans face stamped on their breakfast syrups and flours. In 1890, Nancy Green, the daughter of a Kentucky slave family, was hired to be the face of the brand. As the years went by, Aunt Jemima went from being portrayed as a colonial mammy to an elegant woman with pearl earrings, but no matter. Pepsi bought the firm in 2001 and has recently got rid of Aunt Jemima altogether  a decision that has been applauded by American society.

Aunt Jemima products. FLICKR

Mars, which owns Uncle Bens rice products, has taken note and recently came out with a statement. We recognize that now is the right time to evolve the Uncle Bens brand, including its visual brand identity. Consequently, they are ridding themselves of the Uncle Tom black farmer image that has helped to sell it since the 1940s.

The Black Lives Matter movement is powering forward and companies are clearly bending to the pressure. Outside the food sector, Colgate-Palmolive has ditched Darlie toothpaste  originally known as Darkie.

Of course, no one is to blame for what their grandfather or father did, but we do have a responsibility when it comes to making any necessary changes. The world is moving fast and, according to the laws of evolution, only those brands that adapt to the new ecosystem  environmental, sexual and, of course, racial  will survive.

English version by Heather Galloway.
Irish premier Leo Varadkar has said it was essential to not lose focus on the war in Ukraine as global attention focuses on the Israel-Palestine conflict.

The Taoiseach was speaking ahead of a two-day meeting of the EUs 27 leaders in Brussels on Friday.

Mr Varadkar said on the first day of the summit that some countries wanted attention to be drawn away from the Russian invasion of Ukraine and towards the threat of an escalating conflict in the Middle East.

Because of all the other things that are happening in the world, not least in the Middle East, itd be very easy to lose focus on the war in Ukraine, and it is essential that we dont do that, he told reporters on Friday.

We need to continue, if not continue, double down on  our support for Ukraine, in terms of political, military, financial and other support.

He said European leaders will also discuss migration but there is no expectation of any new conclusions.

He added: We have a very strong view that Ukraine has a right to defend its sovereignty, its independence, its democracy.

If we dont stop (Vladimir) Putin in Ukraine, he wont stop there.

So it is a threat to all of us and Ireland will continue with support for Ukraine until victory.

His comments come as the Irish government debate on how to change their offering to the thousands of Ukrainians fleeing the war and arriving in Ireland.

As of this month, 96,338 Ukrainian refugees have arrived in Ireland since the start of the war in February 2022.

The Government has said that as a further 30-50,000 are expected to arrive in the next year, it must change the current open-ended accommodation it is offering, and potentially reduce entitlements to social welfare supports.

There were disagreements at Cabinet this week after it was proposed a three-month limit would be placed on the period the state would be obliged to provide accommodation to Ukrainians.

Irelands Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe has said any change to state provisions for Ukrainian refugees must be sustainable, while cautioning that no decision had yet been taken.

The minister, who is attending the EU summit in Brussels in his capacity as president of the Eurogroup of Eurozone finance ministers, said cabinet would come to a decision soon.

This is an issue thats already been discussed at many different levels within government, its been discussed a number of times in the Ukraine cabinet sub-committee, and we regularly discuss policy issues in relation to migration and our support for the people of Ukraine who are facing this terrible war and the discussion that happened in cabinet earlier in the week is just part of that deliberative process, he said.

So Id expect that it will conclude soon.

The Government has not made a decision on that.

This is a complex matter.

The Irish people, the Irish state have shown a remarkable ability to support nearly 100,000 people that have come to our country in the last two years.

We just need to consider how we can continue to do this in the future and do so in a way that is sustainable.

Government hasnt made the decision on the matter.

Were aware of the many consequences of any decision that we make.

And Id expect that in the next few weeks the matter will be considered again, he said.
[October 27, 2023] Flash News: Blockchain Leader OKG Partners with FTChinese.com to Co-Host Web3 Security Seminar in Hong Kong Tweet

HONG KONG, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- OKG, a leading blockchain technology company, has issued updates for October 27, 2023. Blockchain Leader OKG Partners with FTChinese.com to Co-Host Web3 Security Seminar in Hong Kong Blockchain leader OKG announced today that it has partnered with FTChinese.com to co-host a Web3 security seminar titled "FT innovation talk #LinkWeb3.0 Security Seminar." The seminar will take place on October 28 from 13:30 to 16:30 (GMT+8) at HKU iCube in Hong Kong. The event is supported by organizations such as HKU Business School. The main objective of the seminar is to address the protection of investor interests and enhance the security and compliance of virtual asset trading. It will serve as a platform for speakers and attendees to explore existing risks facing the virtual economy, industry compliance issues, future regulatory trends and how Virtual Asset Trading Platforms (VATPs) can mitigate rsks and achieve "security and compliance advancement."



In addition, Hedy Bi, Chief Researcher of OKG Research, will deliver a keynote on "leveraging RegTech in the Digital World" from 14:50 to 15:10 (GMT+8). She will also participate in a panel discussion on "improving security and compliance in virtual asset transactions," alongside FTChinese.com Editor in Chief Feng Wang, University of Hong Kong Associate Vice-Chancellor Kong Chen Lin, Ashurst Law Firm Partner Lance Jiang, Hashkey Group Head of Compliance Samuel Lok and University of Hong Kong Assistant Professor Yushun Huang. The panel will take place from 15:30 to 16:10 (GMT+8).

To register for the event, click here. For further information, please contact:

[email protected] About OKG One of the earliest blockchain companies founded in China, OKG is now a conglomerate and a leader in the world of blockchain. Established in 2013, OKG has been dedicated to the R&D and commercialization of blockchain technology. OKG has now become a global blockchain service provider with offices in more than 10 countries and regions such as Mainland China, Hong Kong, U.S., Europe, Singapore, Japan, amongst others. OKG consists of multiple industry-leading brands and entities that cover a wide range of fields, including blockchain big data, blockchain R&D, industry investment, blockchain incubation, and digital assets trading services, and other businesses. One of OKG's subsidiaries, OKG Technology Holdings Limited, is listed on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong ("HKEx") (01499.HK). View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/flash-news-blockchain-leader-okg-partners-with-ftchinesecom-to-co-host-web3-security-seminar-in-hong-kong-301969996.html SOURCE OKG

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[October 26, 2023] Effective Data Governance is Foundational for a Secure, Agile, and Data-Driven Organization, Says Info-Tech Research Group Tweet

In order to thrive, APAC organisations must have well-governed data to support their value streams and associated business capabilities. Failure to do so can result in higher operating costs, missed opportunities, decreased stakeholder satisfaction, and increased business risks. SYDNEY, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- As data within organisations continues to grow exponentially, it has become necessary to establish and adopt a formal approach to data governance. However, many APAC organisations remain uninformed on how to effectively govern their data. Comprehensive data governance should define leadership, accountability, and responsibility related to data use and handling, supported by an operating model and relevant policies and procedures, ensuring the proper management and distribution of data. To help APAC organisations build and implement a strategic data governance program, global IT research and advisory firm Info-Tech Research Group has published a new blueprint titled Establish Data Governance  APAC Edition. "With a lot of organisations in the APAC region invested in AI technology and machine learning, data governance is necessary when it comes to improving data quality to create AI-enhanced products and services that build trust and lead to valuable outcomes.," says Annabel Lui, APAC Research Director at Info-Tech Research Group. "An effective data governance is an enabling framework that ensures the organisation's data management program is adaptive to evolving business demand and technology trends over time." The recently published research explains that many organisations struggle to adapt to changing data landscapes, evolving business models, industry disruptions, regulatory and compliance obligations, and shifting user demands. Although the need for a data governance program is often evident, it only delivers measurable business value when it is aligned with key strategic initiatives, as well as value streams and their underlying business capabilities. Some APAC organisations may face barriers when implementing effective data governance, such as gaps in communicating he strategic value of data and its governance, misinterpretation or lack of understanding about the program, and a perception that it is inhibiting or adding unnecessary complications. According to Info-Tech's blueprint, establishing the organisational drivers for data governance and measuring success and performance is important to demonstrate its measurable business value. Aligning data governance with enterprise governance is also crucial for sustained success.



The firm's blueprint recommends establishing and sustaining effective data governance anchored in the strong alignment of organisational value streams and business capabilities with key data governance dimensions and initiatives. The research suggests that organisations should: Build Business and User Context  Align data governance with enterprise governance, business strategy, and value streams to ensure the program delivers measurable business value.





Understand Current Data Governance Capabilities  Understand current capabilities so as to build out a future state that is right-sized and relevant.



Build a Target State Roadmap and Plan  Define data leadership, accountability, and responsibility. Support these with an operating model that effectively manages change and communication and fosters a culture of data excellence. An enterprise-wide perspective is essential when building a data governance roadmap, as it enables awareness of other initiatives that may impact or require alignment with data governance milestones. Factors like the organisation's fiscal cycle, typical or potential year-end demands, and monthly/quarterly reporting periods and audits should be considered, as these types of initiatives may monopolise the time and focus of personnel critical to delivering on milestones. Planning accordingly can help ensure the successful implementation of a data governance program. For exclusive and timely commentary from Annabel Lui, a Sydney-based data and analytics expert, or to access the complete Establish Data Governance  APAC Edition blueprint, please contact Senior PR Manager Sufyan Al-Hassan at [email protected]. About Info-Tech Research Group Info-Tech Research Group is one of the world's leading information technology research and advisory firms, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals. The company produces unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. For 25 years, Info-Tech has partnered closely with IT teams to provide them with everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organisations. Media professionals can register for unrestricted access to research across IT, HR, and software and over 200 IT and industry analysts through the firm's Media Insiders program. To gain access, contact [email protected]. For more information about Info-Tech Research Group or to access the latest research, visit infotech.com and connect via LinkedIn and Twitter. Media Contact: Sufyan Al-Hassan, Senior PR Manager, Info-Tech Research Group, [email protected] | +1 (888) 670-8889 x2418 View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/effective-data-governance-is-foundational-for-a-secure-agile-and-data-driven-organization-says-info-tech-research-group-301969483.html SOURCE Info-Tech Research Group

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[October 26, 2023] Hithium Exhibits at All-Energy Australia, Presenting the New 5 MWh Container Product Tweet

Stationary battery manufacturer Hithium exhibited this week at the most anticipated event in the clean energy sector's annual calendar All-Energy Australia, held in partnership with the Clean Energy Council. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231026141092/en/ Hithium 5 MWh energy storage container using the standard 20-foot container structure (Photo: Business Wire) Hithium presents the new 5 MegaWatt hours container the 8Block using the standard 20-foot container structure. The more compact second generation (ESS 2.0), higher-capacity energy storage system delivers 46% higher energy density than standard systems based on 280 Ah cells. The product will come pre-installed and ready to connect, outfitted with 48 battery modules based on te manufacturer's new 314 Ah LFP cells, each module providing 104.5 kWh capacity and designed to meet the needs of large utility scale systems. The container will also be technically compatible with most top inverter brands' power control systems, or bidirectional inverters.



The new energy storage system also comes with Hithium's mature multi-level, liquid-cooling technology, which keeps cell temperature variation below 3 Celsius. Intelligent thermal management enables the system to optimize battery power and reduce internal energy consumption. Hithium's GM of Australia and New Zealand, Vincent She said, "In Australia we have local sales and technical team. Being on the ground in Australia means being able to contribute to the expansion of clean, stable, and affordable energy in a globally leading market. We are ready to support Australia's burgeoning energy storage space with top quality stationary battery products from cell to container."

With 11GWh of battery products already shipped since the company was founded in 2019, Hithium is expanding its production capacity to 70 GWh by the end of this year. The company has developed some of the most advanced production lines in the world, featuring a high degree of automation and intelligence based on the precise and extensive collection and evaluation of big data, in real time. This enables Hithium to guarantee product stability and consistency in multiple dimensions. The manufacturer's expansion plans continue into the next several years, with the goal of 135 GWh production capacity by 2025. About Hithium Founded in 2019, Hithium is a leading manufacturer of top-quality stationary energy storage products for utility-scale as well as commercial and industrial applications. With four distinct R&D centers and multiple "intelligent" production facilities, Hithium's innovations include groundbreaking safety improvements to its lithium-ion batteries as well as increases in lifecycle. With decades of cumulative experience in the field among its founders and senior executives, Hithium leverages its specialization in BESS to deliver partners and customers unique advances in energy storage. The company is based in Xiamen, China, with operations in the U.S., Australia, Dubai, and Europe. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231026141092/en/

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The quiet town of Lewiston joined the list of American place names  from Uvalde to Parkland, from Columbine to Sandy Hook  forever associated with the tragic epidemic of gun violence on Wednesday night. A military reservist named Robert Card, a 40-year-old shooting instructor with a history of mental health problems, killed at least 18 people in two mass shootings, one at a bowling alley where a childrens tournament was being held and the other at a popular restaurant with pool tables and darts. The attacks also left 13 people wounded.

With about 40,000 inhabitants, Lewiston is the second largest city in Maine, a sparsely populated state in the northeast of the country. On Thursday, it woke up, along with much of Androscoggin County, turned into a ghost town. The killer, described at a morning press conference at City Hall by Democratic Governor Janet Mills as armed and very dangerous, went on the run after the killing, and almost 24 hours later there was still no sign of him.

Police urged (but did not order) residents to stay indoors and to exercise extreme caution. The warning was extended in the afternoon to the southern part of neighboring Sagadahoc County. The streets of the towns where the events took place, Lewiston and Lisbon, looked like something out of a post-apocalyptic movie with a handful of underpaid extras: a mix of homeless people, stripped-down drug addicts and rough-looking men, hardly eager to do what others tell them to. Guys like Al, who tossed out a theory about Cards whereabouts while refueling his truck. Hes a long way from here, lost in a forest. Im not afraid of him; Im armed, too.

Journalists from all over the country gathered in the early morning at the epicenters of the tragedy, where access was blocked by heavily armed police. From the Spare Time Recreation bowling alley, where Card burst in shortly before 7 p.m. armed with a military-style rifle equipped with a scope and killed seven people, to the Schemenggees Bar & Grille, where he killed eight others. Dozens of agents from various local, state and federal agencies, including 80 FBI agents, were deployed throughout a vast wooded area, already tinged with autumn colors, a serious matter in this part of the world, where finding someone with the resources to escape seemed an almost impossible mission. Meanwhile, the Coast Guard patrolled the Kennebec River.

Between the two killing sites, Card drove through streets of single-family homes in a white SUV once he had finished the first part of his mission. About four miles and a 10-minute drive separate the locations. Bowling alley neighbor Melissa Holmes was picking up one of her three children from a nearby gym when it all happened. She didnt hear the shots. It could have been any one of them, she recalled while still in shock outside her home on a rundown residential street. I cant believe this is happening here; you always watch on TV when it happens somewhere else, and you pray for those people; now we need people to pray for us. And that they find this bastard as soon as possible so we can begin our collective mourning.

Near Schemengees, Laurie Ford, who opened her home so that reporters and police could use the bathroom (this is what we do in Maine, we help each other), explained that she knew three of the eight identified victims (the names of the other 10 have yet to emerge from an investigation conducted with extreme precaution by local authorities). This is a small community with strong ties, Ford added. She was almost convinced that Joe Walker, manager of the restaurant, who tried to confront the killer with a knife, and Ron Morris, an old friend from many years ago, were at the bar together. William Brackett, one of her co-workers at the package delivery company where she works, died at the bowling alley.

The wounded from the massacre were taken to the hospital in the center of the city, to which the police blocked access. Three of the victims did not survive the night. About five kilometers from there, in Lisbon, the road was also cut off around the place where Card left his car in a hurry to continue his escape.

The authorities investigations initially focused on that area and, as the day progressed, also on Bowdoin, where the fugitives parents and siblings live, and more details became known as the hours went by. His colleagues in the Army began to notice disturbing behavior in the summer, which they reported. He spent two weeks in psychiatric treatment, until he was left unsupervised. He had opened a Twitter account (now X) in April, in which he showed sympathy for some prominent members of the American right, from Congressman Kevin McCarthy to Canadian essayist Jordan B. Peterson.

On top of that, he was a shooting instructor, an experience that turned him into a deadly killer with a dreaded dexterity on Wednesday. With its low population density, outdoorsy lifestyle and passion for hunting, Maine is one of the easiest states in which to buy a gun. They can be carried in public and there is no pre-screening for someone to buy one, even if its a military-style assault rifle like the one Card used, or if that person has a history of mental health issues or gender-based violence.

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[October 26, 2023] Sungrow Debuts New High-Powered Residential Single-Phase Hybrid Inverters Tweet

MELBOURNE, Australia, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Sungrow, the global leading inverter and energy storage system supplier, introduced its brand new high-powered residential single-phase hybrid inverters SH8.0RS and SH10RS at All Energy Australia 2023. A simplified multi-layer high protection design and compatibility with large capacity SBR/SBH batteries allow more families to enjoy clean power backup for their entire houses. Clean power with whole home backup Both the SH8.0 and SH10RS series products support DC/AC ratio oversizing, allowing two times the power rating to be applied to PV panels in each power class. In addition, the new product adopts the Sungrow Global MPPT function to keep the system in the best condition. Compared to the conventional solution, the yield is increased by 2%, further reducing family power costs. As the rated power of the new SH8.0-10RS increases, the overload capacity increases by 1.3 times. When equipped with the Sungrow SBH/SBR large capacity battery, it can easily support entire home power backup. In the event of a power outage, home energy can be switched seamlessly to backup power within 10ms with Sungrow's hybrid inverters, ensuring uninterrupted clean power and a more comfortable user experience. Upgraded design and digital maagement platform make O&M more convenient



The SH8.0-10RS is equipped with a horizontal device on its mounting bracket, which reduces manual operation steps and speed up the installation process. Plus, by logging into Sungrow's iSolarCloud, users can monitor system operation and device status online in real time to efficiently manage their renewable energy assets. Multiple safety protections make clean energy more suitable for families

The SH8.0-10RS uses AFCI 2.0 technology to detect arc faults within a distance of 200m with 99.9% accuracy. It can cut the power supply within 0.2s to ensure system safety. Moreover, it uses a three-layer EMC wave filter of Class B white goods level, which shields people from magnetic interference while protecting electrical equipment. The use of high powered intelligent electrical appliances, such as heat pumps, smart switches, and smart home appliances, is increasing in accordance with carbon neutrality. In the future, Sungrow will continue to innovate and upgrade its PV and storage systems and expand product applications to more fields including smart microgrids, to provide clean energy for everyone by promoting safer, more efficient, and user-friendly solutions. About Sungrow Sungrow Power Supply Co., Ltd. ("Sungrow") is the world's most bankable inverter brand with over?405?GW installed worldwide as of?June?2023. Founded in 1997 by University Professor Cao Renxian, Sungrow is a leader in the research and development of solar inverters with the largest dedicated R&D team in the industry and a broad product portfolio offering PV inverter solutions and energy storage systems for utility-scale, commercial & industrial, and residential applications, as well as internationally recognized floating PV plant solutions, NEV driving solutions, EV charging solutions and renewable hydrogen production systems. With a strong 26-year track record in the PV space, Sungrow products power over 150 countries worldwide.?For more information about Sungrow, visit www.sungrowpower.com. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/sungrow-debuts-new-high-powered-residential-single-phase-hybrid-inverters-301969666.html SOURCE Sungrow Power Supply Co., Ltd.

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[October 27, 2023] Arctech Shines at All Energy Australia 2023, Reinforces Commitment to the Australian Solar Market Tweet

MELBOURNE, Australia, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Arctech, the globally renowned solar tracking solution provider, demonstrated its unwavering dedication to the Australian renewable energy landscape at the prestigious All Energy Australia 2023 event, held at the Melbourne Convention Center on October 25th and 26th. Australia has seen rapid growth in solar PV adoption in recent years, driven by high electricity prices, favorable policies like solar rebates, and excellent solar resources across much of the country. Forecasts indicate Australia is on track to generate over 30% of its electricity from solar by 2030. The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) estimates up to 75GW of solar capacity by 2040. With a portfolio of 640MW in solar projects spanning 13 initiatives across the country, mainly in Queensland and Victoria, Arctech has firmly established Australia as a key strategic market. The company's presence at the tradeshow marked a significant milestone in its ongoing commitment to the Australian solar industry. During the event, Arcteh's dedicated team, encompassing technical experts, sales professionals, project specialists, and marketing gurus, engaged in insightful discussions with internationally acclaimed developers and EPC companies. Notable participants included Gentari, Iberdrola Australia Melbourne, Total Energy, and many more. These discussions paved the way for exciting collaborations and partnerships that will further catalyze the growth of renewable energy in the Australian market.





A focal point of Arctech's presence at All Energy Australia 2023 was the unveiling of a 3D model showcasing their flagship product, the SkySmart II. This 2P solar tracking solution boasts a cutting-edge Multi-point drive mechanism, ensuring optimal efficiency and performance. SkySmart II, together with SkyLine II and Skywings embedded with Multi-point drive mechanism, has made a significant impact since Arctech's entry into the Australian market in 2018, providing innovative solutions for the evolving renewable energy landscape. Arctech's participation at All Energy Australia 2023 exemplifies its dedication to advancing sustainable energy solutions in Australia and fostering collaborations with key stakeholders in the region. The company's impressive track record, commitment to innovation, and unwavering support for the Australian solar sector continue to position Arctech as a leader in the global renewable energy industry. About Arctech Arctech is a world-leading provider of solar tracking solutions, dedicated to harnessing the power of the sun to create sustainable energy sources. With a strong commitment to innovation and excellence, Arctech plays a pivotal role in shaping the future of renewable energy across the globe. Australia holds a special place in Arctech's strategic plans, and the company remains committed to fostering a greener, more sustainable future for the country. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/arctech-shines-at-all-energy-australia-2023-reinforces-commitment-to-the-australian-solar-market-301969807.html SOURCE Arctech

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[October 27, 2023] Hexaware Technologies appoints Girish Pai as Global Head of Data and AI Service Line Tweet

MUMBAI, India, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Hexaware Technologies proudly announces the appointment of industry veteran Girish Pai as the Global Head of its Data and AI Service Line. Girish Pai's appointment reiterates Hexaware's commitment to empowering clients with data and artificial intelligence, driving transformative business outcomes. Girish Pai brings an impressive 28-year track record in the services industry, having excelled at companies like Infosys. His career demonstrates remarkable growth leadership in IT, digital strategy, and data and analytics, consistently assuming the role of a trusted advisor to clients. In his most recent position as Chief Customer Officer, he steered a private venture to become a globally acclaimed data and AI consulting powerhouse. Expressing his enthusiasm for joining Hexaware, Girish shared, "I am excited to be part of Hexaware's leadership team.The data and AI landscape is evolving at an astounding pace, offering immense untapped potential. Enterprises seek partners who can serve as their trusted advisors. I am optimistic about our capability to innovate and provide new solutions, enabling our clients to revolutionize their business with data and AI."



Milan Bhatt, President & Global Head of Cloud & Data Services at Hexaware, expressed his delight, saying, "We are thrilled to welcome Girish to the Hexaware leadership team. Girish possesses an impressive history of building high-growth data businesses and nurturing top-tier talent. Under his guidance, we anticipate our Data and AI service line will become a transformative force for our clients and a key driver of growth for Hexaware." With Girish at the helm of a robust team committed to relentless innovation, Hexaware expects to make rapid strides toward data and AI leadership. His leadership promises to unlock new horizons and drive innovation in the ever-evolving landscape of technology solutions.

About Hexaware Hexaware is a global technology and business process services company. Our 27,900 Hexawarians wake up every day with a singular purpose; to create smiles through great people and technology. With 45+ offices in 19 countries, we empower enterprises worldwide to realize digital transformation at scale and speed by partnering with them to build, transform, run, and optimize their technology and business processes. Learn more about Hexaware at https://www.hexaware.com Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2237417/Hexaware_NEW_Logo.jpg View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/in/news-releases/hexaware-technologies-appoints-girish-pai-as-global-head-of-data-and-ai-service-line-301969860.html

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[October 27, 2023] The energy storage market in the Asia-Pacific region is booming, and high-quality energy storage enterprises stand out. Tweet

MELBOURNE, Australia, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- From October 25 to 26, the All Energy Australia , a high-profile renewable energy exhibition in Australia, was grandly held in Melbourne. As the only fully clean and renewable energy professional in the Asia-Pacific region, it attracted much attention. EVE Energy brought a series of key products of Utility ESS, Residential ESS and Telecom ESS to the exhibition, showing its full-scenario solutions in the field of energy storage. The AEA is a long-established industry exhibition in Australia. It stands out among the "renewable energy series" of exhibitions, covering the Asia-Pacific region. The exhibition includes various forms of clean and renewable energy, such as solar energy, wind energy, wave and tidal energy, clean coal, and carbon sequestration, as well as inverters and energy storage systems. At present, Australia has ranked among the top in the global battery energy storage market, and the Asia-Pacific region will dominate the growth of global energy storage demand in the future. As of 2023, the total installed capacity of energy storage projects deployed in Australia has exceeded 40GW. According to Wood Mackenzie's analysis, thanks to the support from the Australian government and a surge in energy generation, the installed capacity of battery energy storage systems deployed in Australia is expected to increase by 28% by 2032. The Asia-Pacific region is expected to account for 68% of the global batery energy storage market by 2026, according to data analytics firm Global Data. The rapid growth of energy storage demand in the Asia-Pacific region has attracted many excellent energy storage enterprises.



At the AEA 2023, EVE Energy brought power energy storage, household energy storage and communication energy storage application products, providing solutions for the rapid development of the Asia-Pacific energy storage market. As a global core energy storage battery solution provider, EVE Energy can comprehensively meet the needs of different types of customers in a multi-scenario and customized way. At present, the Company has reached cooperation with global power energy enterprises. It has participated in the construction of smart grids of State Grid and China Southern Power Grid and launched an energy storage battery project together with Linyang Energy in China. EVE Energy has signed strategic cooperation agreements with Powin, Wartsila and ABS respectively overseas. Innovation is the driver for industry development. It is worth noting that the "Mr. Big" brought by EVE Energy at this exhibition is the first super-large laminated smart cell dedicated to energy storage in the industry, with an ultra-large capacity of 628Ah and 12,000 ultra-long cycles, which can meet the high economic requirements of the energy storage market, making the operating cost of energy storage power stations lower than that of pumped storage power stations.

The new "Mr. Giant" 5MWh standard energy storage system is configured with "Mr. Big". By reducing the number of battery cells by 35% and simplifying 47% of pack components, EVE Energy has increased the energy storage container capacity by 45.7%. By implementing automotive NTP non-thermally propagating technology,the stability and safety protection of the system can be greatly enhanced.In addition, the minimalist design makes it possible for a 5MWh energy storage container product to use a standard 20-foot container structure, reducing the cost of the battery cell system by 10%. It can be said that Mr. Giant has redefined ESS (energy storage system) with three advantages of "Easier, Safer and Superb-economic", which can cope with the subsequent growth of GWh large-scale projects and future long-term energy storage projects in the energy storage industry ahead of schedule. As the world's top 3 energy storage battery company in terms of shipment, EVE Energy is capable of global manufacturing, global delivery and global services. It has 13 production bases and multiple sales and service centers worldwide. Since this year, it has purchased land for its factory in Hungary and started construction for its factory in Malaysia. Recently, EVE Energy announced that it plans to invest in the construction of battery capacity in the US. EVE Energy is deepening its globalization layout and accelerating global carbon reduction actions. It can be foreseen that the green future of energy is not far away. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/the-energy-storage-market-in-the-asia-pacific-region-is-booming-and-high-quality-energy-storage-enterprises-stand-out-301969625.html SOURCE EVE Energy

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[October 27, 2023] Zerich Securities Rebrands into Mind Money, an Innovative European Investment Technology Hub Tweet

LIMASSOL, Cyprus, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Zerich Securities, a prominent name in investment and finance since 2010, proudly announces its rebranding to Mind Money , marking a significant shift towards innovation and data analytics in the financial landscape. With a refreshed vision and a dynamic approach, Mind Money is set to revolutionize how individuals and institutions engage with financial markets. Headquartered in Limassol, Cyprus, and regulated by CySEC CIF License 115/10, Mind Money evolved into a leading European investment technology and financial engineering hub under the visionary leadership of CEO Julia Khandoshko and Head of Portfolio Management Alexey Afanassievskiy. Both leaders are seasoned financial managers with a strong background in the IT sector, perfectly positioning them to drive Mind Money's shift towards innovation and a data-driven approach. The company's services encompass seamless access to a wide arry of financial instruments, including stocks, exchange-traded funds, and bonds on major stock markets, as well as exclusive opportunities for pre-IPO and IPO investments in global markets. Mind Money's classic financial instruments, complemented by a scientific approach and advanced technologies, also include custody and portfolio management for clients, along with efficient tax planning for the swift movement of funds between diverse financial markets and institutions operating in various tax jurisdictions.



Mind Money takes a scientific data-driven approach to investment strategies, thus enhancing risk management and enabling the customization of trading strategies for clients based on their unique financial goals. One of the key foundations of Mind Money's approach is its reliance on advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications, which underpin their trading strategies. These strategies are developed by a team of adept data scientists led by Alexey Afanassievskiy, who boasts over three decades of finance and computational mathematics experience. Julia Khandoshko, CEO of Mind Money, expresses her excitement about the company's new chapter, saying, "Mind Money's rebranding is not just a name change; it is a testament to our dedication to innovation and excellence in the world of finance. The company's transformation and the adoption of advanced technologies will empower clients and investors with services designed to meet the challenges of the ever-evolving financial landscape."

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/zerich-securities-rebrands-into-mind-money-an-innovative-european-investment-technology-hub-301968750.html SOURCE Mind Money

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GO Inc. Raises Funds from Fidelity International & Ryobi Group

GO Inc. (Head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President: Hiroshi Nakajima; hereinafter, the "Company") has raised funds through the third-party allotment of shares to Fidelity International and Ryobi Group; Japanese Taxi Operator (the Company's Series D extension funding round). With the mission of "Empowering Happiness through Mobility," the Company aims to solve various societal issues with a focus on the mobility sector.

About Fidelity International

Fidelity International offers investment solutions and services and retirement expertise to more than 2.5 million customers globally. As a privately held, purpose-driven company with a 50-year heritage, we think generationally and invest for the long term. Operating in more than 25 locations and with $728.6 billion in total assets, our clients range from central banks, sovereign wealth funds, large corporates, financial institutions, insurers and wealth managers, to private individuals.

Nicholas Price, Portfolio Manager, Fidelity International

The formation of Japan's digital society will likely provide many growth opportunities, and mobility is an exciting area where we expect to see better efficiency and solutions for business and social issues. GO Inc.'s innovative mobility platform has the potential to transform Japan's taxi market.

Reference

About GO Inc.: Empowering Happiness through Mobility.

GO Inc. offers various technology services that evolve Japan's mobility industry.

Notes:

All websites listed are in Japanese.

The company names and product names listed are the trade names or registered trademarks of the relevant companies (including those that are pending).

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231027062847/en/
[October 27, 2023] Evermos Introduces Its First Sustainability Report: "Fostering Local Culture" Tweet

BANDUNG, Indonesia, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have long been the backbone of Indonesia's economy, contributing significantly to its growth and playing a vital role in combating unemployment. Recent data reveals that more than 62 million businesses operate within the nation's borders, with 99% categorized as micro size businesses. These enterprises collectively employ millions of Indonesians, providing job opportunities that aid in alleviating the country's unemployment challenges, affecting over 8.4 million individuals, as reported by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS). Nevertheless, SMEs face numerous challenges that must be confronted. Evermos, one of Indonesia's leading connected commerce, has released its inaugural Sustainability Report under the theme "Fostering Local Culture." Through extensive research, underscores the common obstacles faced by SME and aspiring entrepreneurs, including business scale, remote business locations, limited managerial experience, initial capital constraints, and restricted market exposure. Evermos stands committed to providing essential services and training, actively supporting Indonesian SMEs growth to strengthen their value chain and foster entrepreneurship. This report was meticulously crafted through extensive on-ground assessments of Evermos' vast value chain ecosystem, primarily focusing on resellers and local brands throughout the year 2022. It is prepared with reference to the GRI (Global Reporting Initiative), a framework that is widely used for sustainability reporting and UN Women's WEPS (Women Empowerment Principles). In addition, some of our business practices are referring to the International Finance Corporation (IFC) Performance Standards. Thereport is designed and intended for the public and relevant stakeholders as a valuable study and reference on how local culture can be harnessed and empowered to enhance local economic productivity.



As outlined in the report, the challenges faced by SMEs can be effectively addressed by enabling a sustainable value chain, encompassing the holistic and environmentally responsible management of all processes and activities involved. Evermos has already initiated this endeavor by providing education on sustainability practices and conducting ESG assessments for SMEs. Simultaneously, with a specific focus on female resellers, Evermos remains unwavering in its commitment to granting access, opportunities, and training. This dedication to training is exemplified by the remarkable milestone of conducting over 15,000 hours of training sessions for resellers, granting them the potential to earn monthly income of USD 43 in average and USD 191, for the top performer resellers. Iqbal Muslimin, Co-Founder and Chief of Sustainability at Evermos, asserts, "Our goal is to enhance the productivity of SMEs and local entrepreneurs. Through this report, we wish to convey our existing initiatives, serving as a foundation and baseline for our sustainability endeavors. The impact it has generated is just a glimpse of what we aspire to achieve, motivating us to make an even more profound and extensive impact on the community."

In looking to the future, Evermos is firm in its commitment to advancing sustainability initiatives that will not only uplift the productivity for SMEs and local entrepreneurs but also drive lasting positive change in the community and the environment. Our aspiration is to continue expanding our impact, fostering responsible and environmentally conscious practices across the value chain, and providing even more comprehensive support to resellers and local brands. For more information about Evermos' "Fostering Local Culture" Sustainability Report, please visit https://evermos.id/impact/sustainability-report-2022/ About Evermos Evermos is a connected commerce platform that empowers local brands and underserved communities by providing a distribution network and commerce services focused on curated products based on Sharia principles. Evermos is a one-stop platform that offers comprehensive support services for local brands and a network of resellers. It is equipped with various training programs to support the success of all resellers regardless of their gender, educational background, geographic location, or income level. Established in November 2018, Evermos has built the largest reseller-based connected commerce network in Indonesia, with over 165,000 active sellers across the country and 1,600 MSME (Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises) partners. To date, Evermos has received numerous industry awards, including the Forbes Asia 100 to Watch award in the Asia-Pacific region, the UN Women 2022 Indonesian Women Empowerment Principles (WEPs) award, and membership in the global Endeavor Entrepreneur network. Evermos is also a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Innovators Community, an invitation-only group of the most promising startup and scale-up companies worldwide at the forefront of technological innovation and ethical business models. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/evermos-introduces-its-first-sustainability-report-fostering-local-culture-301970000.html SOURCE Evermos

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[October 27, 2023] Standard Chartered US named to Seramount's Top 10 for 2023 100 Best Companies Tweet

Standard Chartered United States (the "Bank") has been recognized as one of the top 10 companies on the 2023 100 Best Companies list for working parents by Seramount, a strategic professional services and research firm. Additionally, two Standard Chartered colleagues have been named Working Parents of the Year 2023. This year's winners continue to set the standard by providing inclusive benefits for families, including paid gender-neutral parental leave, subsidized childcare, bereavement leave after miscarriage, reimbursement for fertility expenses, and increased mental health benefits for employees. "We are deeply grateful to be named to Seramount's 100 Best Companies list and are particularly honored to have achieved a top 10 ranking," said Steven Cranwell, Chief Executive Officer and Regional Head of Client Coverage, Standard Chartered Americas. "We take immense pride in our organization as a welcoming and supportive environment, where our commitment to progressive benefits such as parental leave, diversity in hiring and career growth, and mental health support are essential components of our inclusive and thriving workplace." "Our 100 Best Companies are going the extra mile to create inclusive work environments for their parents and caregivers," says Subha V. Barry, President of Seramount. "In addition to gender-neutral parental leave, organizations are upping their benefit offerings to cover necessities like childcare and sick-child care. Not only that, they recognize that this generation of workers will likely have to care for a sick family member at some point and are providing the support to do so. We are proud to honor these forward-thinking companies." The top 10 companies for 2023 (in alphabetical order) are as follows: AbbVie, Bank of America, Ernst & Young LLP, Goldman Sachs & Co., Johnson & Johnson, KPMG LLP, Merck, S&P Global, Inc., Standard Chartered Bank, and Takeda. Key findings from the 2023 100 Best Companies: The 100 Best Companies offer an average of 11 weeks of fully paid parental leave for full-time employees, the same as 2022.

Ninety-one percent of the 100 Best Companies offer bereavement leave after a miscarriage, as compared to 77 percent that offered bereavement leave for miscarriages in 2022.

More 100 Best Companies are subsidizing everyday childcare (39 percent in 2023 vs. 36 percent in 2022) as well as sick-child care (72 percent in 2023 vs. 68 percent in 2022). Sick-child care may take the form of sick-child care provided at on-site or near-site childcare centers, hospitals, or other sick bay facility, or by a service that provides for in-home sick-child care.

Eighty-five percent of the 100 Best Companies offer caregiving leave (e.g., to care for a sick family member over an extended period of time), with an average of 40 days of caregiving leave offered per year.

More 100 Best Companies are offering reimbursement for fertility procedures such as egg freezing (89 percent in 2023 vs. 74 percent in 2022) and surrogacy expenses (76 percent in 2023 vs. 61 percent in 2022). Reimbursement for in vitro fertilization has increased to 94 percent, up from 90 percent in 2022.

Among the 10 Best Companies, 88 percent offer coverage for travel for healthcare services where access is limited by state legislative action.

Ninety-four percent of the 100 Best Companies have policies supporting workplace mental health, compared to 92 percent in 2022.



Standard Chartered US is also named among Seramount's Best Companies for Multicultural Women and Top 75 Company for Executive Women, one of America's 50 Most Community-Minded Companies by The Civic 50, and a Great Place to Work-Certified and Newsweek's Top 100 Most Loved Workplace-Certified organization. Visit our Careers page if you are interested to learn more about a work environment where you can make an impact and advance your skills and abilities.

About Standard Chartered We are a leading international banking group, with a presence in 53 of the world's most dynamic markets, and serving clients in a further 64. Our purpose is to drive commerce and prosperity through our unique diversity, and our heritage and values are expressed in our brand promise, here for good. Our history in the US dates back to 1902, and we are currently present in eight locations throughout the Americas. Our Americas franchise focuses on financial institutions and select corporations and plays a key role in facilitating trade and investment flows between the Americas and Asia, Africa, the UK and Europe and the Middle East. Standard Chartered PLC is listed on the London and Hong Kong Stock Exchanges. For more stories and expert opinions please visit Insights at sc.com. Follow Standard Chartered on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook. About the Methodology The 2023 Seramount 100 Best Companies application includes more than 300 questions related to leave policies, workforce representation, benefits, childcare, advancement programs, flexibility, and more. It surveys the availability and usage of these programs, as well as the accountability of the many managers who oversee them. The names of applicants that do not make the list are kept confidential. Company profiles and data come from submitted applications and reflect 2022 data. About Seramount Seramount is a strategic professional services and research firm dedicated to supporting high-performing, inclusive workplaces. Over four decades, we've established a strong, data-driven understanding of the employee experience, which lays the groundwork for everything we do. Seramount partners with over 450 of the world's most influential companies, large and small, to offer pragmatic solutions including best practice DEI research, workplace assessment, employee learning and development, and talent sourcing. These offerings empower companies to navigate a dynamic corporate environment and to cultivate a resilient, connected workforce that achieves extraordinary outcomes. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231027350865/en/

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[October 27, 2023] BiomX to Present Data from Ongoing Phase 1b/2a Study Evaluating BX004 for the Treatment of Chronic Pseudomonas aeruginosa Pulmonary Infections in Patients with Cystic Fibrosis at the 37th Annual North American Cystic Fibrosis Conference Tweet

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. and NESS ZIONA, Israel, Oct. 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BiomX Inc. (NYSE American: PHGE) (BiomX or the Company), a clinical-stage company advancing novel natural and engineered phage therapies that target specific pathogenic bacteria, today announced that the Company will present data from Part 1 of its ongoing Phase 1b/2a study evaluating the novel phage product candidate, BX004, for the treatment of chronic Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PsA) pulmonary infections in people with cystic fibrosis (CF) at the 37th Annual North American Cystic Fibrosis Conference, which is being held November 2-4, 2023, in Phoenix, Arizona. The abstract was selected for an oral presentation at the conference.

The Phase 1b/2a data for BX004 will also be available as an e-poster on the virtual congress platform. Details of the oral presentation are as follows: Title: A phase 1b/2a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter study evaluating nebulized phage therapy in cystic fibrosis subjects with chronic Pseudomonas aeruginosa pulmonary infection Session Name: W22-Whats New in Clinical Trials in CF?

Session Date and Time: Friday November 3, 2023, 9:30 AM - 11:30 AM MST

Location: 104 AB (West) The poster will also be made available on the publications section of the BiomX website on November 3, 2023. About BX004 BiomX is developing BX004, utilizing its proprietary BOLT platform, for the treatment of CF patients with chronic pulmonary infections caused by P. aeruginosa, a main contributor to morbidity and mortality in patients with CF. In September 2021, BX004 was cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to initiate a Phase 1b/2a study in CF patients with chronic pulmonary infections caused by P. aeruginosa. BX004 is being developed for the treatment of chronic respiratory infections caused by P. aeruginosa, a main contributor to morbidity and motality in patients with CF. The Phase 1b/2a trial is composed of two parts. Part 1 of the study evaluated the safety, pharmacokinetics, and microbiologic/clinical activity of BX004 in nine CF patients in a single ascending dose and multiple dose design. Part 2 of the study will evaluate the safety and efficacy of BX004 in at least 24 CF patients randomized to a treatment or placebo cohort in a 2:1 ratio. Results from Part 2 of the trial are expected in November 2023.



About BiomX

BiomX is a clinical-stage company developing both natural and engineered phage cocktails designed to target and destroy bacteria in the treatment of chronic diseases. BiomX discovers and validates proprietary bacterial targets and customizes phage compositions against these targets. For more information, please visit www.biomx.com, the content of which does not form a part of this press release. Safe Harbor

This press release contains express or implied forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as: target, believe, expect, will, may, anticipate, estimate, would, positioned, future, and other similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters. For example, when BiomX discusses the potential safety or efficacy of BX004, and the expected timing, design and patient enrollment of Part 2 of the Phase 1b/2a study, BiomX is making forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are neither historical facts nor assurances of future performance. Instead, they are based only on BiomX managements current beliefs, expectations and assumptions. Because forward-looking statements relate to the future, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict and many of which are outside of BiomXs control. Actual results and outcomes may differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Therefore, investors should not rely on any of these forward-looking statements and should review the risks and uncertainties described under the caption Risk Factors in BiomXs Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC) on March 29, 2023 and additional disclosures BiomX makes in its other filings with the SEC, which are available on the SECs website at www.sec.gov. Forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release, and except as provided by law BiomX expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to update forward-looking statements. BiomX Contacts:



Investor Relations:

LifeSci Advisors, LLC

John Mullaly

(617)-698-9253

[email protected]



BiomX, Inc.

Anat Primovich

Corporate Project Manager

+972 (50) 697-7228

[email protected] Source: BiomX Inc.



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[October 27, 2023] Government of Canada and FCM Support Sustainable Affordable Housing Plans in Communities Across Atlantic Canada Tweet

FOGO ISLAND, NL, Oct. 27, 2023 /CNW/ - Sustainable affordable housing solutions in local communities can contribute to both climate action and securing housing for low-income residents. Reducing energy consumption in these developments helps reduce emissions and they can also lower costs for Canadians. Today the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, and Scott Pearce, President of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, announced a series of investments totalling $82,300 through the Green Municipal Fund's Sustainable Affordable Housing initiative to support the exploration of more affordable and energy-saving housing options in Atlantic Canada.



Residences Cocagnes Inc., a new non-profit organization in the small rural community of Cocagne, New Brunswick, receives $25,000 to explore the feasibility of constructing a 20-unit, energy-efficient affordable housing building for seniors. The Municipality of Saint-Isidore, New Brunswick, receives $20,000 to develop a plan to provide more affordable and sustainable housing for seniors in its community. Fogo Island Growth Incorporated, a non-profit organization based in Newfoundland and Labrador, receives $19,220 to conduct an assessment to better understand the housing and sustainability needs of the coastal island community of Fogo Island. The Spryfield Social Enterprise & Affordable Housing Society, a non-profit organization in Nova Scotia, receives $18,080 to study how best to incorporate green building practices and technologies into a 40-to-60-unit affordable housing project in Halifax. The funding announced today comes from a $300-million endowment from the federal government to the Sustainable Affordable Housing initiative, which is part of a $950-million expansion of GM in Budget 2019. This funding helps housing providers build new, affordable and net-zero housing or retrofit existing units for higher energy performance.



Quotes "Today's announcement in Atlantic Canada will support communities in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador in reducing household energy costs while creating a more sustainable and prosperous economy from coast to coast to coast."

The Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources

"By investing in energy-efficient housing, we are building healthy and sustainable communities in Atlantic Canada. Innovative housing solutions create jobs, build climate resilience, and make life more affordable. Initiatives like the one we are announcing today support the development of more affordable and energy-saving housing options in Atlantic Canada."

The Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change "Seniors have built this country  and they deserve to retire in dignity. At a time when many seniors in Cocagne and across New Brunswick are finding it challenging to keep up with the cost of living, this investment is a meaningful step in offering them an affordable and comfortable place to enjoy their retirement."

The Honourable Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Public Safety, Democratic Institutions and Intergovernmental Affairs "Today's announcement in Nova Scotia furthers Halifax's position as a leading city in sustainable development. These investments will advance the development of clean buildings across our community for a clean and prosperous future."

Andy Fillmore, Member of Parliament for Halifax



"Municipalities have influence over half of all greenhouse gas emissions in Canada. That is why it is so crucial that they and their partners in local communities are part of the solution to build a more sustainable Canada. Thanks to the funding announced today, FCM's Green Municipal Fund is not only contributing to reducing energy consumption and emissions but it is also lowering costs for affordable housing tenants. Today is further proof that together, alongside the federal government and other partners, a greener and more affordable Canada is possible."

Scott Pearce, FCM President Associated links

Federation of Canadian Municipalities

Green Municipal Fund

2030 Emissions Reduction Plan: Clean Air, Strong Economy Contacts Natural Resources Canada

Media Relations

343-292-6100

[email protected]

Follow us on LinkedIn Carolyn Svonkin

Press Secretary

Office of the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources

(343) 292-6837

[email protected] FCM Media Relations

613-907-6395

[email protected] SOURCE Natural Resources Canada

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U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. EVELYN HOCKSTEIN (REUTERS)

Amid rising tensions in the Middle East, the United States has launched air strikes against pro-Iranian militia groups in eastern Syria, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has confirmed. The move comes in response to drone and rocket strikes against U.S. military bases in Syria and Iraq over the past ten days. Austin issued a statement late Thursday saying President Joe Biden had authorized the action to make clear that the United States will not tolerate such attacks and will defend itself, its personnel and its interests.

Senior Pentagon officials said the facilities attacked were weapons and ammunition storage dumps near the Syrian town of Abu Kamal, on the border with Iraq. The attacks, carried out with precision missiles launched from F-16 fighters, took place early Friday morning in Syria.

The airstrikes are designed to send a strong message to Iran to stop the anti-U.S. activities of the militia groups it backs, but limited enough not to trigger an escalation of violence in the region at a time when tensions are running high over the war between Israel and Hamas. The United States does not seek conflict and has no intention nor desire to engage in further hostilities, but these Iranian-backed attacks against U.S. forces are unacceptable and must stop, Austin said.

More than 14 attacks on U.S. positions have been recorded in Iraq and four in Syria, resulting in the death of a U.S. contractor in Iraq as a result of a heart attack. A further 21 military personnel have suffered minor wounds. In addition, the destroyer USS Carney intercepted a rocket and drone launch in the Red Sea, fired by Houthi militias in Yemen allied with Iran. The Defense Department stressed that the ship was not the target of the attack, which launched in a northerly direction, possibly towards Israel.

Washington believes that the attacks were coordinated by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and related pro-Iranian militias. The Pentagon also suspects that Tehran is behind the campaign, which began after Hamas killed more than 1,400 people in Israel on October 7 and Washington pledged to provide the government of Benjamin Netanyahu with whatever it needs to defeat the extremist Palestinian militia. Biden himself issued a stern warning to Iran on Wednesday, stating that the U.S. would respond swiftly to any attack.

In an address to the UN General Assembly Thursday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian warned that if the Israeli offensive in the Strip is not stopped, the United States will not be spared from this fire. Washington maintains a contingent of 900 troops in Syria and 2,500 in Iraq, both tasked with advising local forces against a possible resurgence of Islamist militias.

Iran wants to hide its hand

Iran wants to hide its hand and deny its role in these attacks against our forces. We will not let them, Austin added. " If attacks by Irans proxies against U.S. forces continue, we will not hesitate to take further necessary measures to protect our people.

Austin stated that the narrowly tailored strikes in self-defense had very specific objectives and were launched solely to protect and defend U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria.

They are separate and distinct from the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, and do not constitute a shift in our approach to the Israel-Hamas conflict, the defense secretary emphasized. We continue to urge all state and non-state entities not to take action that would escalate into a broader regional conflict.

Washington fears that its forces could continue to be the target of increasingly frequent and more serious attacks in the region as the conflict between Israel and Hamas drags on and the number of civilian casualties caused by Israeli bombardments of the Gaza strip rises. To prevent such strikes, the U.S. has announced the deployment of a THAAD (Thermal High Altitude Area Defense) system and an unspecified number of Patriot batteries. This hardware will be stationed in the Middle East, in places that Pentagon spokesman General Pat Ryder did not wish to specify, although he underlined that it will not be in Israel.

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[October 27, 2023] Government of Canada highlights renewed funding for the Advanced Manufacturing Cluster Tweet

A total of up to $427 million to support the commercialization of transformative projects that develop, scale up and apply advanced technology solutions in manufacturing WOODBRIDGE, ON, Oct. 27, 2023 /CNW/ - The unique collaborative model of the Global Innovation Clusters is making key connections for the development of critical advancements in the innovation ecosystem, giving Canada a competitive advantage worldwide. Minister Champagne would like to congratulate the Advanced Manufacturing Cluster (NGen) on its recently renewed funding, which brings the total Government of Canada funding of the cluster to up to $427 million. This reinvestment in the cluster supports the commercialization of transformative projects that develop, scale up and apply advanced technology solutions in manufacturing, attracting talent and investments from within Canada and around the world. Through the Global Innovation Clusters program, the government established a new approach to innovation: building accelerated and strong ecosystems in industries where Canada leads and has a significant competitive advantage. Since the launch of the program, the clusters have been finding new ways to build connections, bringing together experts in their respective fields to create high-quality, well-paying jobs, invest in promising projects, help firms scale up and position Canada as a global leader in the innovation space. The collaboration between Martinrea and PolyML, a predictive maintenance and AI-driven smart welding, zero downtime, zero defects and output optimization project, is a great example of how the unique model of the Global Innovation Cluster program enabled the Advanced Manufacturing Cluster to make meaningful connections that delivered practical and affordable solutions to its manufacturing partner, and then to a broader range of Canadian manufacturers. The solutions from this project will provide the foundations to offer the fastest path for other Canadian manufacturers to implement similar capabilities. Quotes "On behalf of the Government of Canada, I would like to congrtulate NGen on announcing 165 projects to date, making a significant contribution to the advanced manufacturing ecosystem, both here in Canada and abroad. I look forward to seeing future made-in-Canada innovations in advanced manufacturing and a deepening talent pool as a result of the our renewed support."





Philippe Champagne , Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry "Canada is investing in its manufacturing sector and promoting innovation in Vaughan and beyond. The Global Innovation Cluster and strategic partnerships with NGen and its partners are enhancing our manufacturing ecosystem, resulting in industry-leading collaborations like the one between Martinrea and PolyML. So far, 165 projects have been announced to scale up technology solutions in manufacturing, attract talent and broaden investments in Canada's manufacturing sector."

 Francesco Sorbara, Member of Parliament for VaughnWoodbridge

"Collaboration is a driver of innovation in Canada's advanced manufacturing sector. At NGen, we're proud to support partnerships that drive remarkable results like what we've seen between Martinrea and PolyML. By working with cutting-edge technology providers and world-class manufacturing organizations, NGen is supporting the development of new, world-leading capabilities that generate new business opportunities and economic benefits for Canada."

 Jayson Myers, CEO, NGen Quick facts Budget 2022 confirmed Canada's commitment to the Global Innovation Clusters, with an additional investment of $750 million through to 2028, to support their further growth and development.

commitment to the Global Innovation Clusters, with an additional investment of through to 2028, to support their further growth and development. As of June 2023 , the clusters have announced more than 510 projects worth $2.29 billion , involving more than 2,520 partners.

, the clusters have announced more than 510 projects worth , involving more than 2,520 partners. Building on their success to date, the five clusters will continue growing their innovation ecosystems through joint missions aligned with key government priorities such as fighting climate change and addressing supply chain disruptions.

The clusters are on track to meet the overall job creation target of 15,000 direct, indirect and induced jobs by 2023 and 50,000 by 2028.

The clusters are also helping to build a skilled and diverse workforce by creating opportunities for women, racialized Canadians, Indigenous communities and other under-represented groups, and they are offering workshops and formalized training in response to the industry's need for members of these groups to develop their talent, learn about topics or gain new skills. Associated links Global Innovation Clusters

Advanced Manufacturing Cluster Stay connected Find more services and information at Canada.ca/ISED. Follow Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada on social media.

Twitter: @ISED_CA, Facebook: Canadian Innovation, Instagram: @cdninnovation and LinkedIn SOURCE Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada

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[October 27, 2023] Government of Canada will support organizations to counter harmful disinformation Tweet

The government launches call for proposals to combat disinformation OTTAWA, ON, Oct. 27, 2023 /CNW/ - The Government of Canada has made it a priority to strengthen our democracy by providing Canadians with resources and tools to stay safe online and to think more critically about the information they see online. Today, the Honourable Pascale St-Onge, Minister of Canadian Heritage, announced a new call for proposals totalling almost $7 million under the Digital Citizen Initiative (DCI). The DCI supports civil society organizations and researchers in creating and sharing evidence-based resources that help Canadians stay safe and informed online. This open call for proposals will fund projects that increase digital media and civic literacy, help Canadians identify content created by artificial intelligence, develop and publish resources to prevent and address online violence and cyberbullying, and build capacity in Canada to fight disinformation and other online harms. Quotes "We see the digital landscape evolving quickly. There are many tactics used every day to mislead the public. As a government, we support projects that will help people tell the real from the fake online, because we believe that an informed and resilient population is the best defense against disinformation and harmful content online." The Honourable Pasale St-Onge, Minister of Canadian Heritage



Quick Facts Since January 2020, the Digital Citizen Contribution Program (DCCP) has provided over $21 million to thirdparty organizations undertaking research and carrying out learning activities, such as public awareness tools and online workshops. These projects reach Canadians on a national and local scale, online and offline, in minority communities, in both official languages and in Indigenous communities.

The Digital Citizen Initiative is one of many programs in place to build citizen resilience to harmful online content and protect democracy in Canada. The Government of Canada is tackling online disinformation through additional initiatives like the G7 Rapid Response Mechanism and developing safeguards like the Critical Election Incident Public Protocol to further defend our democratic institutions The government also builds resilience to other forms of harmful content online through the Community Resilience Fund. Learn more about the resources available on how to identify misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation. Associated Links Digital Citizen Contribution Program SOURCE Canadian Heritage

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[October 27, 2023] The AI Revolution: Surgeons Share Insights on Integrating AI into Surgical Care Tweet

Unprecedented AI integration is changing the landscape of surgery, drawing on data-driven insights to enhance patient outcomes BOSTON, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- A panel of leading surgeons convened recently to discuss the transformative role of artificial intelligence (AI) in modern surgical practices. The surgeons, all pioneers in adopting AI into their work and studying potential applications, illustrated how this technology is revolutionizing patient care before, during, and after surgery. The panel took place on Monday, October 23, during the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Clinical Congress 2023 in Boston, Massachusetts. During the news briefing, the experts highlighted how AI is not just a futuristic concept but a present-day game-changer in surgical care. "Artificial intelligence is poised to transform surgery in the same way that the use of anesthesia, the discovery of antibiotics, and the introduction of minimally invasive surgery have altered surgical care," said Danielle S. Walsh, MD, FACS, FAAP, professor and vice chair of surgery for quality and process improvement, University of Kentucky, specialist in pediatric surgery, who moderated the briefing. The promise of AI in predictive analysis One of the critical advancements discussed was AI's role in predicting adverse events and complications. Tyler J. Loftus, MD, FACS, assistant professor of surgery and director of research, UF Intelligent Critical Care Center, University of Florida, a specialist in trauma and acute care surgery, explained how machine learning models could help in postoperative care decisions. "That post-operative triage decision is important in the patient's care path. And we use machine learning to make recommendations for which patients ought to go to an intensive care unit and which patients should go to a hospital floor," he said. Enhancing decision-making in high-pressure situations Rachael A. Callcut, MD, FACS, associate dean of data science and innovation, University of California, Davis, School of Medicine, and a specialist in trauma surgery, spoke about the applications of AI in high-stakes, high-pressure surgical environments. "Decision-making is extremely complex for providers, where a tremendous amount of data comes at themthat they can't synthesize all in real time. So, we developed technology in my lab that allows people to leverage the power of AI to make those decisions safer, timelier, and ultimately be able to export that expert knowledge to places that perhaps don't have people who are as experienced in the conditions in which they're caring for," she noted.



AI's Role in Surgical Precision Dr. Walsh provided a tangible example of how AI technology is making surgical procedures safer. "When we take out a gallbladder, the gallbladder has a branch, kind of like a branch on a tree. There's one branch that goes over the gallbladder, and out of all the different branches, you have to find exactly the right one," Dr. Walsh explained. "One of the mistakes that can happen in surgery is somebody cuts the wrong branch. And if you were a surgeon in the operating room about to cut the wrong one, you might get a red flashing signal warning you are about to cut the wrong structure."

Human aspect remains crucial in AI integration However, amidst these technological strides, the panelists emphasized the irreplaceable aspect of human touch in healthcare. "While AI will change everything in surgery, it won't impact the things that matter most, like the patient-physician connection. We will still need to moderate these human elements," said Hassan A. Tetteh, MD, MBA, FACS, FACHE, associate professor of surgery at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Inova Fairfax Hospital surgeon, a specialist in thoracic surgery. Tailoring AI to individual patient care The discussion also touched on AI's potential to personalize patient care. Dr. Loftus elaborated on AI's role in assisting patients facing complex surgical decisions by providing precise outcome predictions and understanding patient values to offer tailored recommendations. "When artificial intelligence automates routine tasks, then the doctors and nurses can focus on and attend to deeper, more important aspects of patient care and leveraging the wisdom of experience plus intuition," he added, suggesting that AI's role is supportive, enhancing the capacity for human connection in patient care. Navigating potential liabilities With new technology comes new responsibilities and potential liabilities. Christopher J. Tignanelli, MD, FACS, associate professor of surgery, University of Minnesota Medical School, and a specialist in critical care and acute care surgery discussed the legal implications for various stakeholders, including physicians, health systems, and AI developers or manufacturers. He highlighted scenarios where these entities might face liability issues, emphasizing the importance of defining standard practices and understanding the legal landscape as AI integration becomes more prevalent. Combining human insights with AI Gabriel A. Brat, MD, MPH, FACS, assistant professor of surgery, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and instructor in biomedical informatics at Harvard Medical School, specialist in trauma and critical care emphasizes the symbiotic relationship between surgeons' intuition and AI algorithms. "If you take the surgeon's intuition about what's happened to the patient and roll that in with the algorithms that have already been built to predict postoperative complications, you get better performance," he explained. Augmenting Surgical Expertise: The Supportive Role of AI Jennifer A. Eckhoff, MD, postdoctoral research fellow in surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital commented that "the ultimate goal for AI would be to augment and improve and assist surgeons rather than replacing them." The experts' insights from the event are available in a detailed recording on the ACS YouTube channel. About the American College of Surgeons

The American College of Surgeons is a scientific and educational organization of surgeons that was founded in 1913 to raise the standards of surgical practice and improve the quality of care for all surgical patients. The College is dedicated to the ethical and competent practice of surgery. Its achievements have significantly influenced the course of scientific surgery in America and have established it as an important advocate for all surgical patients. The College has approximately 90,000 members and is the largest organization of surgeons in the world. "FACS" designates that a surgeon is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-ai-revolution-surgeons-share-insights-on-integrating-ai-into-surgical-care-301970279.html SOURCE American College of Surgeons

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[October 27, 2023] PROCOMER promotes the Costa Rican aerospace industry at the most important international trade fair of the sector. Tweet

The initiative is being promoted in collaboration with the Costa Rica Aerospace Cluster (CRAC). SAN JOSE, Costa Rica, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- From October 17 to 19 Promotora del Comercio Exterior de Costa Rica (PROCOMER) and ten Costa Rican aerospace companies will participate in the most important fair of the sector: NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exihibition, in Las Vegas. With more than 23,000 attendees and 1,000 aerospace booths, the fair is the meeting point for professionals and manufacturing companies in the sector, which have spaces for networking and exhibiting to position Costa Rica as a suitable destination and a reliable partner for foreign direct investment in the aerospace sector, generate new leads, and maintain contacts with potential investors interested in establishing nearshoring operations in the country well as following up on export business generated in previous editions. The Costa Rican delegation, led by PROCOMER, is composed of the companies Avionyx, Aerocalidad, Camtronics, Olympic Precision Machining, BOF Construction Advisor, GJ Cargo, Grupo Mitah Escazu PREINSA, TicoElectronics (both part of G.W. Lisk), which offer machining services, specialized software, electrical, electronics, logistics, real estate, as well as maintenance and repair of aerospace equipment. Mario Saenz, PROCOER's Export Development Manager, highlighted how important it is for Costa Rican companies to participate in international events and promote the human talent that Costa Rica has to offer in a sector as specialized as aerospace. "NBAA is the most important event in the aerospace sector, where Costa Rican companies have the space and the necessary exposure to present creative solutions, explore innovations and emerging technologies in the field. Therefore, it is vital to take advantage of the participation of key players and industry leaders in order to position the country in this competitive industry".



Additionally, Esteban Carrillo, Executive Director of Costa Rica Aerospace Cluster (CRAC), a consortium that brings together more than 30 aerospace companies in Costa Rica, emphasized that "the participation of Costa Rica Aerospace Cluster in NBAA 2023 marks an important milestone in the consolidation of the aerospace market. In a global context where regionalization and nearshoring are key trends, Costa Rica is positioned as a strategic partner for U.S. companies. Our political stability, logistical facilities, and advanced manufacturing expertise make us an attractive option for product transfer. With the support of PROCOMER, our goal is to increase business opportunities for companies," he said. Costa Rica at the forefront of the aerospace industry.

Costa Rica is home to companies that encourage innovation, collaborative work and the talent of Costa Ricans in the development of new technological solutions that adapt to global trends in the aerospace industry. This is the case of Avionyx, a company that specializes in the development of software engineering for embedded systems in aircraft. Its trained professionals using innovative tools and strict quality processes are passionate about delivering superior products to its customers. In order to support its aircraft certification program with the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration), Joby Aviation, a U.S. company dedicated to developing an electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle (eVTOL) for commercial passenger service, acquired Avionyx in 2022 as a subsidiary company to advance its operations and is currently working with PROCOMER to promote aerospace exports. Costa Rica not only has the necessary requirements for international companies looking to invest in a country with highly qualified personnel but also continues to drive exports for this industry worldwide. At the end of the first half of 2023, total exports amounted to $5.77 million were delivered mainly to the United States, Ireland and Panama. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/procomer-promotes-the-costa-rican-aerospace-industry-at-the-most-important-international-trade-fair-of-the-sector-301970286.html SOURCE PROCOMER

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[October 27, 2023] Hydrogen Canada Corp. Announces World Scale Blue Hydrogen/Ammonia Facility with Product Bound for South Korea Tweet

CALGARY, AB, Oct. 27, 2023 /CNW/ - Hydrogen Canada Corp. ("HCC") is pleased to announce the closing of its C$10 million seed round financing and the signing of a letter of commitment on an offtake agreement with E1 Corporation ("E1"), to develop a low-carbon hydrogen/ammonia supply chain from Western Canada to South Korea and other Asian markets (the "Project"). HCC intends on developing a world-scale, low-carbon hydrogen/ammonia production facility (the "Facility") in the Alberta Industrial Heartland near Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta. "This project represents an opportunity to use cost advantaged, low carbon natural gas in Alberta to support the decarbonization of South Korea and other Asian countries and to provide a level of energy security to those countries as well," said Dr. Bryan Moon, Hydrogen Canada's President. "Access to cost effective carbon sequestration also creates a material strategic advantage for this project in Alberta's Industrial Heartland. Our partner, E1 Corporation, is major trader of LPG in Asia, including significant volumes of Canadian LPG and it recognizes the marketability of low cost, reliable energy products sourced from western Canada". The government of South Korea has committed to Net Zero by 2050 and is seeking to reduce its carbon emissions by 40% by 2030. South Korea has stated that it believes that the use of hydrogen and ammonia for power generation and mobility will support those efforts. South Korea already has one of the largest fleets of hydrogen cars and refueling stations in the world and continues to expand that market. The South Korean government is putting in place long term energy plans to support the adoption of hydrogen and ammonia in energy generation to reduce the carbon footprint and is running auctions for the long-term supply of hydrogen for fuel cells through the Korean Power Exchange. Alberta is currently one of the leading areas in Canada for production o ammonia and HCC's Project is another opportunity to support development of a hydrogen and low-carbon economy.



"E1, a global leader in the LPG industry and South Korea's longest-standing LPG provider, has embarked on a transformative journey. Drawing from its extensive LPG industry expertise and inherent strengths, E1 is positioning itself as a leading supplier of clean ammonia, hydrogen, and LPG in South Korea. The foundation for this ambitious endeavor lies in the partnership with Hydrogen Canada Corp., which promises to deliver cost-effective, low-carbon hydrogen and ammonia to South Korea, made possible by Canada's abundant and affordable natural gas resources, a robust CCUS infrastructure, and the strategic advantage of shorter maritime routes from Western Canada to the Far East. As this promising collaboration unfolds, we are optimistic about securing crucial support from the Canadian Government, a pivotal step towards the project's success. This initiative not only reaffirms Canada's position as a reliable LPG supplier for E1 Corporation but also assumes a pivotal role in the supply of clean ammonia and hydrogen to us." said E1 Corporation Chairman JY Koo. "We know that Alberta has the opportunity and ability to provide energy security around the world. Our abundant natural resources, including hydrogen and ammonia, are enabling us to continue to grow our energy industry and pursue new technologies. Alberta is open for business and we're pleased to see Hydrogen Canada Corp partner with South Korea's E1 Corporation to invest here." Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.

Initial feasibility studies with respect to the Facility have been completed by HCC and the Facility has an anticipated design capacity of approximately one million tonnes per annum of low-carbon ammonia. The Facility is also planning to utilize innovative technology to capture and permanently sequester a significant amount of the CO2 emissions. The low-carbon ammonia will be transported via rail to Canada's West Coast and then shipped to South Korea and other Asian markets. About Hydrogen Canada Corp. Hydrogen Canada Corp. is a private, Alberta based company seeking to build and operate a world class hydrogen/ammonia facility in the Alberta Industrial Heartland. Hydrogen Canada Corp. seeks to supply low carbon, cost advantaged energy to South Korea and other countries in Asia with its South Korean partner, E1 Corporation. Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains certain forward-looking information and forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities legislation (collectively "forward-looking statements"). Forward-looking statements are frequently characterized by words such as "will", "planning", "intend", "possible", "anticipated" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. 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 forward-looking statements should not be unduly relied upon. Actual results achieved may vary from the information provided herein as a result of numerous known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors. HCC believes the expectations reflected in those forward-looking statements are reasonable, but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date hereof. HCC will not update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required except as required by law. SOURCE Hydrogen Canada Corp.

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Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP Announces Investigation of INNOVATE Corp. (VATE)

Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP ("GPM") announces its investigation of INNOVATE Corp. (NYSE: VATE) concerning the Company and its directors' and officers' possible violations of state laws.

If you own INNOVATE stock, would like to learn more about these claims, or have any questions concerning this announcement or your rights or interests with respect to these matters, please contact Tom Kennedy, of GPM, 230 Park Avenue, Suie 358, New York, NY 10169 at [email protected], or at 212-682-5340. If you inquire by email please include your mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased and held.







This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231027211202/en/
[October 27, 2023] AM Best Affirms Credit Ratings of Markel Group Inc. and Its Subsidiaries Tweet

AM Best has affirmed the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating (Long-Term ICR) of "bbb+" (Good) and the Long-Term Issue Credit Ratings (Long-Term IRs) of Markel Group Inc. (Markel) (Glen Allen, VA). AM Best also has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating (FSR) of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term ICRs of "a+" (Excellent) of all the members of the Markel North America Insurance Group (Markel NA). Additionally, AM Best has affirmed the FSR of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term ICRs of "a+" (Excellent) of Markel Bermuda Limited (Hamilton, Bermuda) and its affiliate, Markel Global Reinsurance Company (Delaware) (collectively referred to as Markel Bermuda). Concurrently, AM Best has affirmed the FSR of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term ICRs of "a+" (Excellent) of the members of State National Group (State National). All State National companies are headquartered in Bedford, TX. The outlook of all of these Credit Ratings (ratings) is stable. (See below for a detailed list of the companies and ratings.) The ratings of Markel NA, which is considered the lead rating unit in the Markel enterprise, reflect its balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as strongest, as well as its adequate operating performance, favorable business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management (ERM). The balance sheet strength assessment for Markel NA is supported by its strongest level of risk-adjusted capitalization, as measured by Best's Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR). The balance sheet strength assessment further considers Markel NA's favorable reserve development on prior accident years and the effectiveness of its reinsurance program, as well as other actions taken, to manage net exposures to catastrophe losses. Offsetting these factors somewhat are variability in the capital base resulting from equity investments, as Markel NA maintains common stock leverage, which is substantially elevated relative to peer group averages, and its slightly elevated levels of net and gross leverage that result from its above-average retention of business. Markel NA's adequate operating performance assessment is based on its underwriting results, which generally outperform peers by a significant margin based on better-than-average loss and loss adjustment expense ratios. This outperformance is offset partially by a weaker-than-average underwriting expense ratio and an operating ratio that has been just slightly better than average over the last five years. Markel NA's investment policy reflects its long-term capital appreciation objectives. As a result, the group typically reports favorable total return metrics, but below-average net investment income due to its above-average allocation to common stocks. Markel NA has demonstrated an ability to increase surplus organically through underwriting profits, offset partially by policyholder dividends in four out of the last five years, which have limited the level of surplus growth. This is reflective of the parent's capital management strategy, in which profits are generally funneled upward to allow for greater financial flexibility within the enterprise. Markel NA maintains a favorable business profile, ranking among the 25 largest property/casualty insurance organizations in the United States, based on consolidated U.S. direct premiums written in 2022. It is the fourth-largest writer of excess and surplus (E&S) business in the United States, after Lloyd's, Berkshire Hathaway Insurance Group and American International Group, Inc. Markel NA's business is well-diversified by line of business and state within the United States. The group also includes Markel's Europe-based operating companies, providing international diversification. The group's participation in admitted and non-admitted markets provides it with advantages across market cycles. Markel NA's ERM program is embdded appropriately within the organization to manage the risks of Markel's complex global operations, which include insurance and non-insurance sectors. The group has demonstrated an ability to operate effectively at moderately higher levels of leverage than its peers, in part through the effectiveness of its ERM program.



The ratings of Markel Bermuda reflect its balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as very strong, as well as its adequate operating performance, neutral business profile and appropriate ERM. Markel Bermuda's balance sheet strength assessment reflects its strongest level of risk-adjusted capitalization, as measured by BCAR, which in recent years has benefited from reduced exposure to natural catastrophes due to its withdrawal from risk-bearing property catastrophe and property excess of loss businesses in its global reinsurance segment, as well as favorable reserve development. The assessment of the business profile acknowledges the diverse geographies and lines of business in which the group operates that is offset by its modest relative position within the global reinsurance market. Markel Bermuda's ratings also reflect rating enhancement it receives as a result of its strategic importance to the Markel enterprise, as well as the benefits it receives through its relationship with other Markel subsidiaries. The ratings of State National reflect its balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as strongest, as well as its strong operating performance, neutral business profile and appropriate ERM. State National's balance sheet continues to be supported by a strongest level of risk-adjusted capitalization, as measured by BCAR. State National's balance sheet strength is enhanced by the effectiveness with which it has managed its program services business over time. State National continues to produce underwriting and operating results on its lender services business that consistently outperform its peers. The group's business profile reflects its leadership position in lender and program services, while taking into consideration the competitive nature of both segments.

The ratings of Markel reflect the ratings of its operating insurance subsidiaries, as well as its financial leverage and coverage metrics, which remain within AM Best's guidelines. As of June 30, 2023, Markel's adjusted debt to total capital ratio measured 21.6%. Unadjusted debt to total capital measured 23.4% as of that date. The FSR of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term ICRs of "a+" (Excellent) have been affirmed with a stable outlook for the following members of Markel NA, including European entities, which are grouped with the rating unit: Markel Insurance SE

Essentia Insurance Company

Evanston Insurance Company

FirstComp Insurance Company

Markel American Insurance Company

Markel Insurance Company

Markel International Insurance Company Ltd.

SureTec Insurance Company The FSR of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term ICRs of "a+" (Excellent) have been affirmed with a stable outlook for the following members of State National: State National Insurance Company, Inc.

National Specialty Insurance Company

United Specialty Insurance Company

City National Insurance Company

Pinnacle National Insurance Company

Superior Specialty Insurance Company The following Long-Term IRs have been affirmed with a stable outlook: Markel Group Inc.- -- "bbb+" (Good) on $300 million 3.5% senior unsecured notes, due 2027

-- "bbb+" (Good) on $300 million 3.35% senior unsecured notes, due 2029

-- "bbb+" (Good) on $200 million 7.35% senior unsecured notes, due 2034 ($130 million outstanding)

-- "bbb+" (Good) on $250 million 5.0% senior unsecured notes, due 2043

-- "bbb+" (Good) on $500 million 5.0% senior unsecured notes, due 2046

-- "bbb+" (Good) on $300 million 4.3% senior unsecured notes, due 2047

-- "bbb+" (Good) on $600 million 5.0% senior unsecured notes, due 2049

-- "bbb+" (Good) on $500 million 4.15% senior unsecured notes, due 2050

-- "bbb+" (Good) on $600 million 3.45% senior unsecured notes, due 2052

-- "bbb-" (Good) on $600 million 6.00% preferred stock The following indicative Long-Term IRs under the existing shelf registration have been affirmed with a stable outlook: Markel Group Inc.- -- "bbb+" (Good) on senior unsecured debt

-- "bbb" (Good) on subordinated debt

-- "bbb-" (Good) on preferred securities This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on AM Best's website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see AM Best's Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Guide to Best's Credit Ratings. For information on the proper use of Best's Credit Ratings, Best's Performance Assessments, Best's Preliminary Credit Assessments and AM Best press releases, please view Guide to Proper Use of Best's Ratings & Assessments. AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specializing in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com. Copyright  2023 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231027438175/en/

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[October 27, 2023] Onewheel introduces Onewheel GT S-Series, the first ever performance-focused Onewheel with massive increases in voltage, power and torque. Tweet

SANTA CRUZ, Calif., Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Future Motion, makers of the popular Onewheel electric boards, today released the all-new Onewheel GT S-Series, the first board designed with pro riders for unparalleled performance. Announced at Future Motion's Unleashed launch event in the Santa Cruz Mountains, S-Series is available for purchase and shipping immediately from $3,200 at www.onewheel.com . Onewheel introduces Onewheel GT S-Series, the first ever performance-focused Onewheel. "S-Series has the power and performance most Onewheel riders dreamt of but didn't think was possible," says Founder and CEO, Kyle Doerksen. "This was the first time we truly set out to create a board for those who are pushing the boundaries of the sport. It took over a year of development and intensive testing with the best riders, but the proof is in the pudding. Even casual riders will notice a huge difference in the capability and confidence that the S-Series inspires." Onewheel GT S-Series is completely reimagined to empower riders and push progression. The core of the S-Series powertrain architecture is a new industry-leading 113V drivetrain that has 50% more voltage than the Onewheel GT, and delivers phenomenal torque at speed and efficiency from the higher voltage. This is powered by next generation, ultra-high power Molicell battery cells and a new cell block configuration with a totally redesigned battery management system nd power electronics. The S-Series motor is factory tuned for maximum power, and includes upgraded magnets and ultra-premium NSK bearings, imported from Japan for ultimate smoothness and reliability.



Onewheel GT S-Series has several new, key features and capabilities that improve performance including: Increased Power , cutting edge 113V high voltage drivetrain with 50% more torque than GT for increased performance, hill climbing and speed.

, cutting edge 113V high voltage drivetrain with 50% more torque than GT for increased performance, hill climbing and speed. Upgraded S-Series Motor , factory upgraded motor with ultra-premium Japanese NSK bearings for improved efficiency.

, factory upgraded motor with ultra-premium Japanese NSK bearings for improved efficiency. Lowboy Footpads , a more comfortable concave footpad design that lowers ride height by 5mm to give riders more control and boardfeel.

, a more comfortable concave footpad design that lowers ride height by 5mm to give riders more control and boardfeel. GT Performance Treaded Tire , constructed with compliant sidewalls and a lower durometer compound for more passive stability and control at speed.

, constructed with compliant sidewalls and a lower durometer compound for more passive stability and control at speed. Lighter weight, weight reduction of over two pounds from Onewheel GT. Together, these improvements mark a dramatic leap from the Onewheel GT product with more control at higher top speeds, improved hill climbing performance and double the torque headroom at speed for a more confident ride any rider can appreciate.

"Right away I knew something was different with this board," explained Onewheel Factory Pro Team member and test rider, Neil Bennet. "The safety of the extra torque and the higher speed threshold, anyone performance-minded, they're going to want to ride this thing." Onewheel GT S-Series also features two important new innovations released for GT: Custom Shaping 3.0, allowing riders to harness the power of the new drivetrain, and customize their ride in numerous ways, and Haptic Buzz which gives riders additional feedback on the performance envelope of the board. Like every Onewheel since day one, Onewheel GT S-Series is proudly assembled in the USA. GT S-Series is available at Onewheel.com and at selected retailers for $3200, and available with payments as low as $110/mo. Orders in the first 48 hours will benefit from $300 in launch exclusive deals and orders begin shipping immediately. Future Motion products are available at www.onewheel.com and at select dealers worldwide. Additional images are available in our press kit. About Future Motion, Inc

Founded in 2013, Future Motion is committed to designing and developing inspiring vehicles that include both elegant form and unprecedented function. Future Motion's products, Onewheel Pint, Pint X, GT and Onewheel GT S-Series exemplify its dedication to crafting products that bridge recreation and transportation. Future Motion designs not only the Onewheel product line but also all the subsystems that power it, including custom brushless motors, power electronics, and battery modules. Onewheel, which provides a riding experience similar to surfing but on paved or unpaved trails, is perfectly situated in Santa Cruz where the mountains meet the sea. Its products are protected by over 110 issued patents in the U.S. and worldwide. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/onewheel-introduces-onewheel-gt-s-series-the-first-ever-performance-focused-onewheel-with-massive-increases-in-voltage-power-and-torque-301970422.html SOURCE Future Motion, Inc.

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[October 27, 2023] AM Best Affirms Credit Ratings of Atlantic Casualty Insurance Company and Certain Affiliates and Subsidiaries; Revises Outlooks to Negative for Members of Auto-Owners Insurance Group Tweet

AM Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating (FSR of A+ (Superior) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating (Long-Term ICR of "aa-" (Superior) of Atlantic Casualty Insurance Company (Atlantic Casualty) (Goldsboro, NC). AM Best also has affirmed the FSR of A- (Excellent) and the Long-Term ICR of "a-" (Excellent) of Auto-Owners Specialty Insurance Company (AOSIC) (Dover, DE). In addition, AM Best has affirmed the FSR of A+ (Superior) and the Long-Term ICR of "aa-" (Superior) of Auto-Owners Life Insurance Company (AOLIC) (Lansing, MI), which is also a wholly owned subsidiary of Auto-Owners Insurance Company (Auto-Owners) (Lansing, MI). In addition, AM Best has affirmed the FSR of A+ (Superior) and the Long-Term ICRs of "aa-" (Superior) of the members of Concord Group Insurance Companies (Concord Group), which is led by Concord General Mutual Insurance Company (Concord General) (Concord, NH). The outlook of these Credit Ratings (ratings) is stable. Concurrently, AM Best has revised the outlooks to negative from stable and affirmed the FSR of A++ (Superior) and the Long-Term ICR of "aa+" (Superior) of Auto-Owners and its four wholly owned property/casualty (P/C) companies that compose Auto-Owners Insurance Group (AOIG). At the same time, AM Best has revised the outlook to positive from stable for the Long-Term ICR and affirmed the FSR of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term ICR of "a" (Excellent) of California Capital Insurance Company (Monterey, CA) and its subsidiaries, which operate under an intercompany pooling arrangement, collectively referred to as Capital Insurance Group (Capital). The outlook of the FSR is stable. (See below for a detailed listing of the companies). The ratings of AOIG reflect its balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as strongest, as well as its very strong operating performance, favorable business profile and appropriate ERM. Although AOIG had historically generated very strong operating performance, its recent trend has reversed due to weather-related events, as well as similar challenging market conditions faced by its peers. Management continues to proactively implement initiatives to reduce volatility and enhance its operating performance. AOIG continues to be resourceful and leverage its expertise in other operational areas, including asset management and innovation. AOIG also has an interactive ERM program, which is standardized for all rating units in the organization. The ratings of Atlantic Casualty reflect its balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as strongest, as well as its adequate operating performance, neutral business profile and appropriate ERM. As a surplus lines carrier, Atlantic Casualty offers innovative products that add diversity to the organization's overall book of business. It has also experienced rapid new business growth and continues to reinvest in its systems to remain efficient and meet customers' expectations. As with other rating units within the Auto-Owners organization, Atlantic Casualty continues to receive explicit support from its parent during its rapid expansion phase. The ratings of AOSIC reflect its balancesheet strength, which AM Best assesses as very strong, as well as its adequate operating performance, very limited business profile and appropriate ERM. AOSIC serves as a potential source of specialty business for the overall organization. Thus far, new business growth has been limited but future growth remains a primary focus.



The ratings of AOLIC reflect its balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as very strong, as well as its strong operating performance, neutral business profile and appropriate ERM. Although small in magnitude relative to other entities within the organization, AOLIC is strategically important to the organization as it provides cross-selling opportunities by offering life and annuity products to new and existing Auto-Owners' customers. These products provide diversification outside of the property/casualty space and support business retention throughout the organization. The ratings of Concord Group reflect its balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as strongest, as well as its adequate operating performance, neutral business profile and appropriate ERM. As a regional carrier, Concord focuses on providing personal and commercial lines products to four states within the New England region. In addition to enhancing the organization's diversification strategy, Concord produces consistent profitable growth.

The ratings of Capital reflect its balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as very strong, as well as its marginal operating performance, neutral business profile and appropriate ERM. As a regional carrier with exposure heavily concentrated in California, Capital previously had faced challenges from wildfire exposure. As a result of de-risking initiatives, Capital now manages this exposure adequately, as evidenced by improving underwriting results over the last few years. Their geographic footprint and product offering also serves to complement that of the greater Auto-Owners organization. The FSR of A+ (Superior) and the Long-Term ICRs of "aa-" (Superior) have been affirmed with stable outlooks for the following members of Concord Group Insurance Companies: Concord General Mutual Insurance Company

Green Mountain Insurance Company, Inc.

State Mutual Insurance Company

Sunapee Mutual Fire Insurance Company

Vermont Accident Insurance Company, Inc. The FSR of A++ (Superior) and the Long-Term ICRs of "aa+" (Superior) have been affirmed with the outlooks revised to negative from stable for Auto-Owners Insurance Company and the following wholly owned P/C subsidiaries: Home-Owners Insurance Company

Owners Insurance Company

Property-Owners Insurance Company

Southern-Owners Insurance Company The FSR of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term ICR of "a" (Excellent) have been affirmed with the outlook of the Long-Term ICR revised to positive from stable and the outlook of the FSR maintained as stable for the following members of Capital Insurance Group: California Capital Insurance Company

Eagle West Insurance Company

Monterey Insurance Company

Nevada Capital Insurance Company This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on AM Best's website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see AM Best's Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Guide to Best's Credit Ratings. For information on the proper use of Best's Credit Ratings, Best's Performance Assessments, Best's Preliminary Credit Assessments and AM Best press releases, please view Guide to Proper Use of Best's Ratings & Assessments. AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specializing in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com. Copyright  2023 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231027069862/en/

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[October 27, 2023] University of Phoenix Professional Development Provides Webinar on Effective Skill Development Strategies for Employee Training Tweet

University of Phoenix Professional Development is pleased to lead a Chief Learning Officer (CLO) webinar for workplace leaders on how to identify and address skills gaps that may exist within an organization and the evolving job market. The webinar, "Closing Skills Gaps: Crafting and Evaluating Effective Skill Development Strategies for Employee Training," will be led by Michael Kolodziej, Ed.D., MBA, director, Educational Programming and Development in Professional Development at University of Phoenix, on Tuesday, November 7, 2:00pm ET. According to University of Phoenix Career Institute 2023 Career Optimism Index study, even though 29% of employers say they don't invest in reskilling/upskilling programs because of limited employee interest and lack of time/resources for hands-on training programs, 70% of Americans say if their company gave them more opportunities to apply new skills, they would be more likely to stay throughout their career. "Employers can tap into workers' desires to be challenged to learn new skills and take on new roles," states Kolodzij. "In a world of evolving skills and dynamic workplaces, it's important to bridge the gap between learning and practice. Join me for a discussion into how to identify and address skills gaps that may exist within your organization."



Kolodziej serves as Director of Educational Program Development for University of Phoenix, developing a Skills Center of non-college-credit Professional Development training to help employers deliver career-focused skills through online learning programs and help learners enhance their careers. He is the founder and Lead Nerd at Instructional Designerd, an independent Learning Design and Innovation Consultancy, based in San Diego, CA. This webinar is designed to benefit business operations by providing essential knowledge and practical strategies required to foster a highly skilled and adaptable workforce. Workplace leadership will have the opportunity to explore how addressing skills gaps can improve productivity and performance, employee retention and satisfaction, workforce skills, adaptability and innovation as well as tangible aspects such as cost savings identified through measurable outcomes.

In the webinar, workplace leadership learners will: Distinguish skills from knowledge and why it matters

Effectively identify skills gaps within an organization and the marketplace

Assess skills for a team to make the greatest impact

Develop the most appropriate skills based on organizational objectives and three domains of learning (cognitive, affective and psychomotor)

Discover strategies for skill development to enhance team performance Professional Development training is available online through University of Phoenix's innovative learning platform, allowing busy working adult learners to access training conveniently and at their own pace. Participants will receive certificates of completion from University of Phoenix. Learn more here about Professional Development online training at University of Phoenix. 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/20231027983762/en/

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KYODO NEWS - Oct 27, 2023 - 22:55 | World, All, Japan

Around 1 million nuisance calls have been made to the Japanese Embassy in Beijing since the release of treated radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea began in late August, Japanese government sources said Friday.

Tokyo has repeatedly asked the Chinese government to deal with the calls, saying they impede operations at the embassy, but the situation has yet to improve, according to the sources.

On the back of growing anti-Japan sentiment in China amid Beijing's fierce opposition to the discharge, the daily number of harassing calls received by the embassy peaked at more than 40,000 on Aug. 25, a day after the release started, and has stayed at around 15,000 per day recently, they said.

In most cases, callers harshly criticize Japan over the water release or remain silent. The calls have also included bomb threats, the sources said.

Japanese Ambassador to China, Hideo Tarumi, addressed the harassing calls and emphasized the necessity of "recovering our senses" to enhance bilateral relations in his speech at a forum held in Beijing last week.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said at a press conference Friday that China has "always protected the safety of embassies" in accordance with the law, as well as "the legitimate rights and interests of foreign citizens in China."

In response to the water discharge, China imposed a blanket import ban on Japanese fishery products.

Related coverage:

China, Japan experts seek dialogue ahead of anniversary amid frosty ties

IAEA wraps up safety review of Fukushima treated water discharge

2 hospitalized after radioactive liquid exposure at Fukushima plant
[October 27, 2023] Greater Boston's William James College Selects YuJa Enterprise Video Platform as All-In-One Video Creation and Management Solution Tweet

William James College, a leader in educating mental health professionals, has selected the YuJa Enterprise Video Platform to serve the institution with a media creation, hosting, storage and distribution solution campuswide. YuJa will replace VidGrid, its former video platform, which has phased out its education offering. Institutional leaders were seeking a Video Platform that provided similar functionalities as its former vendor and that will provide a seamless transition for users. In addition to traditional use cases such as recording and editing lectures, the college will benefit from auto-captioning and the ability to edit captions, video editing, embedding video quizzes, in-video commenting, and the ability to share media both internally and externally. Comprehensive analytics, gradebook integration, adaptive bitrate streaming, device compatibility, and other user-friendly features will help enable success for instructors and students. In addition, YuJa's Video Platform will integrate directly with Canvas, the institution's learning management system. "At YuJa, we take pride in creatig a seamless transition for institutions as they work through the implementation and migration process," said Nathan Arora, Chief Business Officer at YuJa, Inc. "We look forward to getting William James College up and running, so instructors and students can see and benefit from all the innovative features the Video Platform offers."



ABOUT WILLIAM JAMES COLLEGE Located in Greater Boston, Massachusetts, William James College is a leader in educating the next generation of mental health professionals to support the growing and diverse needs of the mental health workforce. Integrating field work with academics, the College prepares students for careers as organizational leaders and behavioral health professionals who are committed to helping the underserved, multicultural populations, children and families and veterans. William James College graduates can be found making an impact in a variety of settings, including schools, the courts, clinical care facilities, hospitals, the community and the workplace.

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/20231027028289/en/

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Things go from bad to worse for this former Kansas City law man who is now rotting in a cell as his supporters desperately work to debunk a sketchy story about a planted gun and police search laws.

Take a look . . .



"Attorneys for DeValkenaere requested he be released on bond while he appealed his case to the Missouri Supreme Court. In a one-page ruling Thursday, the Missouri Court of Appeals denied his request to continue his bond. "

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

Former Kansas City detective who killed Cameron Lamb will stay in prison after judge denies bond Former Kansas City Police detective Eric DeValkenaere asked to be released from jail while he appeals his manslaughter conviction in the 2021 fatal shooting of Cameron Lamb. DeValkenaere was transferred to prison Wednesday.

Detailed timeline | Shooting of Cameron Lamb, conviction of ex-KCPD officer Eric DeValkenaere A detailed timeline of the shooting of Cameron Lamb on Dec. 3, 2019, in the 4100 block of College Avenue and the case against Eric DeValkenaere, the former KCPD officer convicted in his death.

Former KCPD detective transferred to prison where he will remain after appeal bond request is denied Former detective Eric DeValkenaere was convicted and sentenced to six years in prison for the 2019 deadly shooting of Cameron Lamb

Mother urges Gov. Parson not to pardon Kansas City, Missouri, police detective convicted of killing her son A letter from the mother of a man killed by a Kansas City, Mo., police detective urged Gov. Parson not to pardon the convicted detective.

Developing . . .


TKC is a scumbag blogger with a bad attitude and a new pizza recipe . . . It's not our biz to offer financial advice.

However . . .

A local power player is leaning on the courthouse and seems to be flexing a great deal amid ongoing legal battles.

Here's the word . . .



"I truly, truly hope that the judge will intervene and set us back to the 2022 rates," he said. "It will be enormously complex for the county and for cities and school districts at this point."



"Attorney Ken McClain urged residents to hold off on paying their property taxes until at least Nov. 30th."

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

Attorney: Jackson County residents should wait until November 30th to pay property taxes It's not too hard to find someone who is upset regarding property taxes in Jackson County, Missouri.

Jackson County property tax bills go out as lawyers seek restraining order Lawyers have asked a judge for a temporary restraining order regarding bills and advise people to hold off on making any payments until a judge weighs in.

Attorney says wait to pay your Jackson County property taxes An attorney suing Jackson County says residents should wait a couple of weeks to pay their property tax bills while the courts decide whether a temporary restraining order is put into place.

Developing . . .
Once again our local numbers spike to the near record breaking pace of 2020.



Here are the deets that we have right now . . .

A late death this afternoon occurred after a woman succumbed to gunfire injuries several days earlier.

And this evening a fatal shooting at 56th & Park has been recorded.



Again . . .

Unofficially, this is the 155th homicide so far this year compared to 145 last year and, of course, nearing the 2020 pace of 156 at this date on the calendar.



Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

Woman dies 5 days after becoming unintended target of shooting in Kansas City According to KCPD, Courtney L. Wickman died Thursday from the critical injuries she sustained 5 days prior

Woman dies from gunfire in weekend shooting on Kansas City's Main Street One woman was killed Saturday night in Kansas City, Missouri, after a suspect fired multiple shots toward a business as the victim and others were exiting, according to KCPD.

Man dies in shooting at 56th and Park A man was killed in a shooting in the area of 56th and Park.

Kansas City police investigating homicide after shooting victim found unresponsive in car at 56th, Park Officers called out to a shooting just before 10 p.m. at 56th and Park Avenue.

Related . . .

Kansas City police investigating two separate shootings; one victim suffered 'serious injuries' There's no suspect information in either shooting.

Developing . . .
This morning we notice more than a bit of mainstream media love for a group that has recently been confronted by questions of antisemitism in support of terrorists attacking Israel.

TKC readers might remember the main character who was defeated after Northland voters witnessed footage of her outright demanding police defunding and denouncing working for a "white man's profit" during Country Club Plaza protests.

SPOILER ALERT . . .

She lost to some 6'1 white lady hand-picked by the former council member power player and the victory was secured without having to say a word to TV cameras.

To be fair . . . This documentary reports on an election with less than 10% turnout wherein most voters decided to politely ignore a protest group pretending to have a mandate.

Ponder that one the next time somebody mentions the power of protest and civil disobedience.

Accordingly . . .



Check the description and the lovingly crafted footage that doesn't address the many criticisms against this group and their tactics . . .



"KC Tenants is organizing poor and low income tenants in Missouri, with ambition to create a new political class of renters. This short documentary follows a KC Tenants activist running for city council in Kansas City. "

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .
Q: I live in a small community where I grew up, and at 43, I pretty much know everyone here from school, sports, and my work in the insurance field.

Like many of my girlfriends, I married in my mid-20s, had two children, and was very busy raising them while also developing my business reputation. Eight years later, my husband and I realized we hardly knew each other.

We both felt the same way  i.e., distanced. A good local therapist was very helpful. We parted amicably three years ago, and he regularly visits the children.

That leaves me trying to maintain my busy work life and run a family home, but often tired and lonely.

Friends say I should try online dating. But small towns are very different from big cities. I already know everyone here in my dating range, and have no time to travel any distance required to meet strangers.

However, someone whos moved here recently, has me wondering if theres a chance. Hes also divorced, though a family man at heart, visiting his grown children whenever possible.

We shared a coffee recently when he came to my office to discuss his insurance needs but we talked about everything else  where hes lived, travelled and his attraction to our community.

Hes late-50s, and since I was so young in my first marriage, I really enjoy his range of knowledge, from business ventures to appreciation of culture, and sports.

Suddenly, I feel my life could be at a positive turning point. Whats your advice?

Single in the sticks

A: Go slow, but keep going forward, so long as you sense that this man is sincerely interested in getting to know you in a meaningful and unrushed way.

New relationships need time to build, not rushed to a fairy-tale view of forever when youre still learning to trust someone.

Yes, this could be the turning point youre hoping for, and I wish you all that you desire in a truly loving partner.

So, I strongly advise that you value yourself and what you bring to the relationship equally as much as you value him.

Readers Commentary My wife of 11 years (two children, ages nine and seven) has shocked me, my parents, our close friends, everyone. Shes left me for a man from an entirely different background, and claims we had too little connection to stay together.

Im a businessman with responsibility for my company and employees. I returned home for dinner most nights. My wife studied at night to complete her Masters degree and claims I never helped with the childrens homework or bedtime.

Shes determined to live with this man in the house weve jointly owned. I believe shes having a breakdown because shes taken on too much.

How do I convince her that shes making a terrible mistake?

No need for divorce

A: I believe that approach would be a serious mistake.

Since you seem genuinely unaware of how strongly you two would need professional guidance to rebuild your marriage, I suggest you not worry about reactions of your parents or close friends.

Instead, focus on the children, and discuss with your wife how best to keep their young lives as uncomplicated as possible during this time.

Yes, see a lawyer to discuss parental visits and obligations, financial matters, asset splitting and other concerns.

You believe your wife is overburdened by her studies. But theres more going on here, with her choosing someone from an entirely different background. Hopefully, having a truthful conversation together may help you both understand.

Q: Ive married a man from a different country, and a different race. Were in our early 60s (both previously married), so there are late-teens and younger stepchildren in the family and we love the connections between us all.

Mostly, our life together is without serious problems other than rising costs. But what annoys my husband and me, is the questions outsiders ask, e.g. Did you adopt some of your children? How did your parents react to your marrying him (or her)? Comments are even made in front of our children! Your thoughts?

Race erase

A: Ignore, ignore, ignore. Even if a close friend of yours asks a curiosity-based question, you dont have to answer. Your personal family life, your partner in marriage and your love relationship are all none of other peoples business.

If your children and stepchildren have questions, however, these are the important people to hear out, and to discuss together any concerns or confusion they express.

Ellies tip of the day: If you value yourself as much as your new love interest, the future will brighten.

Ellie Tesher and Lisi Tesher are advice columnists for the Star and based in Toronto. Send your relationship questions via email: ellie@thestar.ca or lisi@thestar.ca.
A new Costco in northwest Toronto will be celebrating its grand opening next week and is offering a behind-the-scenes look.

Costco is inviting shoppers to attend the grand opening of their new Toronto store located at 2260 Islington Ave. in Etobicoke on Nov. 2.

There will be special grand opening savings, extra free samples and more. The new store will feature underground parking, giant elevators, a large product selection and a new gas station.

The general manager of the new location offered a behind-the-scenes look at the new store on the Facebook event page for the grand opening.

Come in for a sneak peek, he said in a Facebook reel. We have a pharmacy, optical and hearing aid centre, 24 gas pumps, multi-level parking and Costco-sized elevators.

There will also be the classic Costco food court, as well as a tire service centre.

The new location will be open from 9 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. Monday to Friday and from 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.
A man was rushed to a trauma centre after a pedestrian was struck by a vehicle early Friday morning, said Toronto paramedics.

An adult male was taken to a Toronto trauma centre with serious, but non-life-threatening injuries, said the paramedic service.

According to Toronto Police Service, a pedestrian was struck around 7:15 a.m., on Oct. 27 near the intersection of Steeles Avenue East and McCowan Road.

Toronto police later said York Regional Police would be investigating the collision.

According to York police, the driver remained at the scene, and the northbound McCowan Road lanes were closed to Elson Street.
Investigators are looking into a hate-motivated threat directed at a physician affiliated with Trillium Health Partners (THP) in Mississauga, say Peel police.

According to the Toronto Star, the doctor, who identifies as Jewish, received an antisemitic death threat on Oct. 24 at a work site not located at either of the two Trillium hospitals in the city.

In an emailed statement to the Toronto Star, Rene Dunkley, a spokesperson for THP said, immediate supports and a safety plan were activated to ensure safety for the impacted person and our broader THP community.

Dunkley added that security has been increased and that THP is continuously working with community partners, including police and peer hospitals, to assess and respond to all risks.

THP said no information would be provided about which hospital the doctor is affiliated with.

Added Dunkley: THP unequivocally stands against all forms of hate, including this act of antisemitism. We have zero tolerance for threats of any kind against our staff, professional staff, volunteers, learners, patients and community. We continue to support and take care of each other during our times of need.

The Peel police force said it is working with the hospital network to ensure the safety and security of all staff and patrons.

We have zero tolerance for hate, threats or violence against anyone in our community, and all reported incidents will be investigated to the fullest extent, said Nishan Duraiappah, Peels chief of police, in a statement.

Anyone with information is asked to call investigators at 905-4532121, extension 1133.

Those who have experienced any hate-motivated incidents are asked to call police or the hate-motivated crime hotline at 905-456-5905.

~ With files from the Toronto Star




A man was allegedly stabbed inside a home early Thursday morning near West Deane Park and The East Mall, say Toronto police.

Officers were dispatched to an Etobicoke address just after 5 a.m. on Oct. 26 after receiving reports of a man stabbed inside a residence, police say.

A suspect was arrested at the scene and a male victim was transported to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, say police.
By Takuya Karube, KYODO NEWS - Oct 27, 2023 - 13:16 | All, World

The top diplomats of the United States and China agreed Thursday on the need to promote dialogue, regardless of many disagreements, to help reduce misunderstanding and stabilize bilateral relations.

Wang Yi, the most senior foreign policy official in China's Communist Party, said the two countries "share important common interests and challenges that we need to address together" as he began a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington.

About three weeks ahead of a potential summit between the presidents of the countries, Wang said by resuming and deepening dialogue, they can pursue cooperation that will benefit both sides and bring relations back "as soon as possible to the track of healthy, stable and sustainable development."

After Wang concluded, Blinken said he agreed with his Chinese counterpart's remarks in the presence of the media.

Their discussions, set to continue through Friday, could pave the way for the first face-to-face talks in a year between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Following their meeting and working dinner on Thursday, the State Department said the two discussed "a range of bilateral, regional and global issues," without elaborating.

It also said Blinken reiterated that "the United States will continue to stand up for our interests and values and those of our allies and partners," adding he expressed condolences on the death of former Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.

Despite long-running bilateral tensions over numerous issues, Biden and senior U.S. officials have repeatedly said that in-person conversations with their Chinese counterparts are indispensable for minimizing the risk of miscalculation.

Biden has referred to the possibility of a one-on-one meeting with Xi in mid-November in San Francisco, where he will host this year's leaders' gathering of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation grouping.

On Wednesday, while meeting the press with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Biden said the United States will "compete with China" based on international rules, but "I'm not looking for conflict."

Wang arrived in the U.S. capital on Thursday for a three-day visit. After wrapping up talks with Blinken on Friday, he is due to meet separately with Biden's top national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, and possibly also the U.S. president.

Wang has been doubling as foreign minister since late July after his predecessor Qin Gang was removed from the post without explanation from Beijing.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Thursday the United States is prepared to address areas of concern it continues to have with some of China's behavior, "particularly in the South China Sea."

China claims the vast majority of the strategically important South China Sea, where it is locked in territorial disputes with smaller countries such as the Philippines and Vietnam.

On Sunday, in the latest confrontation in the disputed sea, the Philippines accused China of "dangerous, irresponsible and illegal" actions that resulted in two collisions involving their vessels.

Kirby also said he has "no doubt" the war between Israel and the militant group Hamas will be part of the agenda, suggesting that the United States will encourage China to be helpful in preventing the conflict from escalating.

U.S. officials have said other issues expected to be on the agenda include coordination toward reopening military-to-military communication channels, the situation around the Taiwan Strait where China has intensified its military pressure, as well as North Korea's nuclear and missile development programs, and Russia's war on Ukraine.

The United States and China have been increasing high-level contacts since Blinken's trip to Beijing in June, during which he also met with Xi.

Xi had a meeting with California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday in Beijing, telling him that China and the United States have "great potential for cooperation" in areas such as climate change.

Newsom extended a friendly invite to California for the APEC summit. China has yet to confirm whether Xi will take part in the summit of 21 member economies, also including Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore and Thailand.

Related coverage:

China's Xi seeks Sino-U.S. climate cooperation before possible summit

China's top diplomat to visit Washington for 3 days from Oct. 26
Toronto firefighters rescued a man early Friday morning who had become stuck after falling into a 10-foot-deep hole.

Emergency crews were called to 417 Spadina Rd. at 6:12 a.m. on Oct. 27 after receiving reports of a person trapped in a large hole at a construction site and unable to get out, said Toronto Fire Services.

It took firefighters about 10 minutes to rescue the man, added the fire service.

Toronto paramedics said a man was taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

"As longer nights approach always be aware of your surroundings," added the Toronto fire department.
KYODO NEWS - Oct 27, 2023 - 20:53 | All, World

Sultan Ibrahim from Malaysia's southern state of Johor was named the country's next king Friday under the country's rotational monarchy system, with the current Sultan Abdullah and the ruler of the central Pahang state completing his five-year term in January.

Sultan Ibrahim was selected by the Council of Rulers, made up of the nine state rulers, said Syed Danial, keeper of the Rulers' Seal, in a statement, adding that the sultan will begin his reign on Jan. 31.

The dominantly Malay-Muslim country's king plays a largely ceremonial role as the head of state. But Sultan Abdullah has become increasingly involved in politics amid an unstable political environment following the 2018 general election that ended the six-decade rule of the National Front coalition.

After the November 2022 general election, which resulted in a hung parliament, Sultan Abdullah mediated leaders of political parties and contributed to the formation of the administration of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim from the multiethnic Alliance of Hope party.

Sultan Ibrahim received military training, including in the United States. He is known for being outspoken and having a wide range of business interests.

Malaysia's constitutional monarchy gives each hereditary ruler from the nine states a chance to be king for five years in rotation. This system was established just before Malaysia gained independence from Britain in 1957.

==Kyodo
KYODO NEWS - Oct 27, 2023 - 18:33 | All, Japan

A former professional boxer and death-row inmate accused of a 1966 quadruple murder in central Japan is innocent, his elderly sister said Friday, in the first hearing of his retrial that is likely to lead to his exoneration.

Iwao Hakamata, 87, was exempted from attending the retrial at the Shizuoka District Court, as his mental state has deteriorated after spending nearly half a century behind bars before new evidence led to his release in 2014.

"I will plead my brother's innocence for him. Please grant Iwao true freedom," 90-year-old Hideko said, appearing at the trial in his place.

Prosecutors say Hakamata is guilty, arguing in their opening statement that it was possible for him to have committed the crime at the miso shop where he was working as a live-in employee, as the suspect was likely to be someone related to the company.

Hakamata was arrested for killing the firm's senior managing director, his wife and two of their children. They were found stabbed to death at their Shizuoka Prefecture home, which had burned down.

His defense team claimed that Hakamata has had his life stolen from him and that the responsibility lay not just with the investigative authorities, but also with his counsel and judges.

"What really needs to be tried in this retrial is our country's judicial system, which brought about false charges," the defense said.

Presiding Judge Koshi Kunii said he exempted Hakamata from appearing in court because he "still has symptoms associated with detention" based on his doctor's diagnosis.

It is the first such case in which a surviving defendant has been exempt from attending hearings of their retrial, according to his defense team.

About 30 people gathered near the Shizuoka District Court to express their support for Hakamata, while he stayed at home in the city of Hamamatsu.

Holding banners and signs, they urged a swift acquittal, pointing to his advanced age.

According to the supporters, Hakamata seemed to act the same as usual as he ate his breakfast of fruit and corn and took his daily walk in the afternoon.

It is likely that Hakamata will be acquitted, as the criminal procedure law says that a retrial will be opened if there is "clear evidence to find the accused not guilty."

He initially confessed to the killings during intense interrogation but pleaded not guilty at his trial, where he was indicted for murder, robbery and arson.

His death sentence was finalized in 1980 based on a ruling that blood on five clothing items found in a miso tank 14 months after the murder matched the blood types of the victims and Hakamata.

The retrial comes after the Tokyo High Court, which was ordered by the Supreme Court in 2020 to re-examine its 2018 decision not to reopen the case, reversed course and ordered the retrial in March, citing the unreliability of the main evidence used.

The high court said there was a strong possibility that the five pieces of blood-stained clothing that Hakamata allegedly wore during the incident had been planted by investigators in the tank of miso soybean paste in which they were found.

Prosecutors argue there was no basis for fabricating the evidence and plan to question a forensic scientist.

The Shizuoka District Court put aside five days for the hearings, but proceedings are unlikely to conclude by the end of this year.

It is the fifth time in postwar Japan that a retrial has been finalized for a case in which the death penalty had been given. The four previous cases all resulted in acquittals in the 1980s.

Related coverage:

1st hearing for 1966 Japan murder retrial set for October 27

Prosecutors plan to prove guilt at 1966 Japan murder retrial

Prosecutors to seek conviction at retrial of 1966 Japan murder
Hi, no its not. Most likely you will be left alone and if anyone says anything most likely it will be a friendly comment or compliment. As long as you don't act inappropriately while wearing it you'll be perfectly fine. To buy the full gear head to Madinat Zayed shopping center where you will findeverything at very reasonable prices. Here are the names for each item :white dress : Kandoora (actually comes in any color you like but white is the most common) it also comes in different fabrics so look for one with the most cotton content to keep you cool. White /red head cover :Ghotra. Black ring that keeps the Ghotra in place : Agal. The shop keeper will show you how it all fits together. Enjoy the experience.

Edited: 8 years ago
South Korea and the United States will conduct a joint large-scale aerial exercise, involving stealth fighter jets, next week to enhance combined operational capabilities, Seoul's Air Force said Friday.

This was reported by Yonhap, Ukrinform reported.

According to Yonhap, the five-day Vigilant Defense 24 will kick off Monday.

In total, about 130 aircraft from South Korea and the United States will be involved, including South Korean F-35A fighters, as well as American F-35A and F-35B fighters and other combat aircraft.

"Combined flying training events like Vigilant Defense 24 are entirely defensive in nature, are not related to any current real-world threats or situations and are not intended to be threatening or provocative toward any other country," the statement reads.

North Korea has long accused the allies' joint military drills of being rehearsals for an invasion.

As reported, the United States, South Korea, and Japan conducted joint air exercises near the Korean Peninsula for the first time.
Ukraine and Spain discussed the key areas of strengthening economic cooperation between the countries, including ensuring global food security.

These issues were discussed at a meeting between Yuliia Svyrydenko, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy of Ukraine, and Ricardo Lopez-Aranda Jagu, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Kingdom of Spain to Ukraine, Ukrinform reports with reference to the Ministry of Economy.

"Global food security is one of the areas where we count on close cooperation between our countries. Despite Russia's military aggression, Ukraine remains the guarantor of global food security. Thus, we must restore the economic potential of our lands as soon as possible and ensure the unhindered delivery of Ukrainian food to those countries that need it. Therefore, we are counting on Spain's support in the field of demining Ukrainian agricultural lands and in matters of food export," said Svyrydenko.

Among other issues discussed at the meeting were the localization of production in Ukraine, war risk insurance for Spanish companies that cooperate with Ukrainian business, etc.

As reported, to support Ukraines private sector, Spain in July 2023 decided to allocate EUR 70 million through the European Investment Bank for the development of Ukrainian SMEs. Spain is also introducing two financial instruments, each worth EUR 30 million: loan guarantees and risk reimbursement for Spanish companies that will work in Ukraine to implement reconstruction projects.
About 30 German companies are considering the possibility of investing in Ukraines economy.

"This week, the government team had an important visit to Berlin and a meeting with the leadership of the Federal Republic of Germany. Weapons, financial support, investments by German businesses, recovery, European integration, sanctions, confiscation of Russian assets were discussed. Germany is one of the leaders in supporting Ukraine in all areas. Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced a winter aid package for Ukraine worth EUR 1.4 billion. About 30 German companies are currently considering the possibility of investing in our economy, and there are also those that already implement new projects," Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal said at the Cabinets meeting.

In particular, the German defense concern Rheinmetall and the Ukrainian defense industry formed a joint venture for the repair and production of military equipment in Ukraine.

"Germany will also contribute an additional 54 million euros to the Energy Recovery Fund and hand over about 30 repair machines for Ukrainian regional energy companies. Germanys total support for energy workers this winter may amount to about 200 million euros," the Prime Minister emphasized.

Shmyhal thanked the German partners for their systematic support for Ukraine.
Ministers for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and Saudi Arabia, Dmytro Kuleba and Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, have discussed the situation in the Middle East, the Peace Formula summit and joint efforts to strengthen global food security.

During our call, Saudi Foreign Minister HH Prince Faisal bin Farhan and I discussed the situation in the Middle East. I underscored the importance of protecting civilians in Israel and Gaza. We discussed the problem of the evacuation of foreign nationals from Gaza. I emphasized the urgency of opening a humanitarian corridor, Kuleba posted on the social network X.

He added that Ukraine appreciates the Kingdoms contribution to Ukraines Peace Formula and look forward to the meeting in Malta.

In addition, the parties discussed joint efforts to strengthen global food security, particularly the upcoming Grain From Ukraine summit.

As reported by Ukrinform, the third peace summit on Ukraine with the leaders of the Global South countries will take place in Malta on October 28-29.
Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal held a meeting with new Ambassador of Canada to Ukraine Natalka Cmoc.

This is reported on the Telegram channel of the Ukrainian Prime Minister, according to Ukrinform.

"I am pleased to meet new Ambassador of Canada to Ukraine Natalka Cmoc. We continue to strengthen and develop close and friendly relations between our countries," Shmyhal said.

He emphasized that Canada has consistently demonstrated leadership in issues important to Ukraine, including defense and financial support, as well as the confiscation of Russias assets.

"We discussed this area in detail. Thank you for your understanding and support. We are also strengthening economic cooperation. The updated free trade agreement has opened up wide opportunities for the businesses of our countries. We agreed with the Ambassador to organize a visit of a Canadian business delegation to Ukraine. War risk insurance remains a key component in attracting investments. We are counting on the support of the Government of Canada in this area," Shmyhal said.

As reported, Larisa Galadza completed her tenure as Canada's ambassador to Ukraine in August. Natalka Cmoc was appointed a new ambassador to Ukraine.

Photo: Denys Shmyhal, Telegram
Turkey has already sent 213 tons of humanitarian aid to Gaza and calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire

This was announced today by the Turkish Defense Ministry at a weekly briefing, Ukrinform reported.

"As of today, 213 tons of food, blankets and medical supplies have been delivered to the region by nine aircraft. On this occasion, we emphasize that the conflicts between Israel and Palestine and the attacks on civilians in Gaza must stop immediately and a humanitarian ceasefire must be declared immediately," said Rear Admiral Zeki Akturk Press and Public Affairs Advisor.

He also emphasized that Turkey continues to fulfill its role in providing humanitarian assistance and taking the necessary initiatives to resolve the conflict.

As reported, yesterday the Turkish President announced that he had canceled his previously planned visit to Israel. He also announced that he considers HAMAS not a terrorist organization, but 'liberators'.
KYODO NEWS - Oct 27, 2023 - 07:30 | All, Japan

The Supreme Court's landmark decision on the unconstitutionality of requiring sterilization surgery for transgender people seeking to legally change gender came as Japan moves toward giving sexual minorities the same rights protection they have in other advanced economies.

But changing the law may not be an easy task, with conservative lawmakers and some civic groups immediately expressing opposition to the decision.

The top court, meanwhile, also left some transgender people in limbo as it withheld a decision on another legal surgery requirement -- that the genital organs of people who want to change gender should resemble those of the opposite gender.

Although three of the 15 justices said this clause similarly violates the Constitution, the Supreme Court requested a high court to look at it again.

In general, a person born a woman can have their genitals appear male through hormone therapy, but for a man to have female-looking genitalia, surgery is almost always needed.

"For people seeking to change from a man to a woman, the latest decision has no benefits," said Marina Kurashina, vice head of the General Incorporated Association Japan People with Gender Identity Disorder.

The clause is in focus as conservative members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party have raised concerns that eliminating the requirement on genital resemblance could cause social disruption, citing the examples of transgender people entering sex-segregated spaces such as bathrooms and traditional public baths.

One LDP lawmaker angrily called the Supreme Court's decision "unbelievable" while another said it would "obviously cause social confusion."

When Japan enacted a law to promote understanding of sexual minorities in June, conservative LDP lawmakers launched a parliamentarians' group to protect the "safety and security of all women" and ensure "fairness in women's sports."

Even before the top court reached the decision Wednesday, the group's co-leader, LDP lawmaker Eriko Yamatani, in September asked Ken Saito, the justice minister at the time, to maintain the current legal requirements for gender change.

Among civic groups, Midori Miyama, 61, a member of a coalition of groups seeking to protect women's spaces, said, "It is an abnormal decision. I must say that the judiciary made a reckless move at a time when the public discussion has not matured."

Born as a man, Miyama has undergone surgery to become a woman.

She said transgender women like herself who have undergone surgery "have gained trust from women and have been accepted by society by removing male genitals," adding that the high court reexamining the clause on genital resemblance "should decide to maintain it."

"Women are afraid and angry that when the requirements are eased, they could be exploited," Miyama said.

Taro Takimoto, a lawyer for the coalition, criticized the top court's decision, saying, "Its logic is based on the idea that gender identity should prioritized over the rights of others."

The historic decision came as Japan slowly moves to implement policies to protect the rights of sexual minorities.

The legislation to promote understanding of sexual minorities was enacted following intense debate between the ruling and opposition parties. The country previously had no law prohibiting discrimination against LGBT individuals.

In the absence of legal recognition of same-sex partnerships in Japan, some local governments have taken steps to recognize same-sex partnerships, such as issuing certificates, which are not legally binding but help same-sex couples apply for municipal housing, among other benefits.

Pressure from the courts to do more has also mounted, with some recently ruling the non-recognition of same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional or "in a state of unconstitutionality" -- with the latter term indicating that the court would rule it unconstitutional if legislative action is not taken in a reasonable period.

In a unanimous decision, the top court has also ruled against the trade ministry's imposition of restrictions on the use of women's restrooms by a transgender official.

"In recent years, the partnership system (for same-sex couples) has expanded rapidly," said Justice Mamoru Miura in his opinion attached to the Wednesday's decision, stressing the change in the social environment toward sexual minorities.

While the clauses effectively requiring surgery in switching gender on a family registry were not hot-button issues when the law containing them was debated in 2003, the mood changed after the World Health Organization in 2014 called for the elimination of forced and involuntary sterilization, sending shockwaves through the community of health and medical specialists in the country.

According to the Hamamatsu branch of the Shizuoka Family Court that ruled the surgical requirement unconstitutional earlier this month, of around 50 countries that allow gender change by law, 40 do not require the removal of reproductive capacity.

"Forcing surgery that damages genitals against one's will is a significant violation of human rights and (such a requirement) has been reviewed internationally," said Yuko Higashi, professor at the Osaka Metropolitan University specializing in sexology.

"The Supreme Court said that the clause effectively requiring surgery to remove reproductive capacity for a person to change gender is unconstitutional, but it should have also said the clause mandating that the genitals closely match that of the gender the individual seeks is unconstitutional," Higashi said.

Miura, one of the three justices who said the resemblance requirement clause violates the Constitution, said in his opinion that even without the clause, bath operators could still decide what policy to take, adding that there is little need to impose restrictions in law on people seeking to change gender.

Justice Koichi Kusano stated his opinion that the clause likely existed so that people would not feel embarrassed or uncomfortable at the sight of genitalia of the opposite sex in places such as public baths.

But a "serene society" has only been realized at the expense of constant oppression of the liberties of people with gender dysphoria, Kusano said.

Related coverage:

Japan's top court says surgery need for gender change unconstitutional

PM Kishida cautious on same-sex marriage, separate spouse surnames

Growing number of Japan municipalities ban outing LGBT individuals
ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Oct, 2023) Deputy Commissioner (DC) Irfan Nawaz Memon on Friday chaired a review meeting regarding the anti-dengue campaign and directed the authorities to improve sanitation arrangements and remove garbage from all places to prevent the breeding of mosquitoes.

He also assured that all possible resources would be used to control the deadly virus and protect the lives of the citizens.

Additional Deputy Commissioners, District Health Officer, Assistant Commissioners, Magistrates, and other stakeholders attended the meeting.

The deputy commissioner said that dengue was not a dangerous disease, but it was important to take precautionary measures.

He directed the authorities to improve sanitation arrangements in different areas of the city to prevent the breeding of mosquitoes.
ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Oct, 2023) The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday dismissed the post-arrest bail petition of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman in the cipher case registered under the Official Secrets Act.

The court also rejected his request to quash the first information report registered against him in connection with the cipher.

Chief Justice Aamer Farooq pronounced the verdict which was reserved on October 16, after hearing arguments. The special court formed under the Official Secrets Act had earlier already rejected the bail plea of PTI chairman.

The IHC, in its written order, declared both the petitions of PTI chairman PTI as without merit and accordingly dismissed.

The verdict said, It is clarified that any observations, made hereinabove, are tentative in nature and shall not prejudice learned trial court during the trial.

It stated that the petitioner had the efficacious and alternate remedy by way of moving an appropriate application under section 249-A (power of magistrate to acquit accused at any stage) of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Moreover, the petitioner is co-accused in the case and even if the arguments advanced for quashment of FIR on his behalf are accepted, FIR cannot be quashed in as much as there are other co-accused and there cannot be a partial quashing of FIR, it added.

The court said it showed that the contents of cipher were such that they only called for demarche and not any further strict action, as there was no conspiracy of any kind.

The verdict said the PTI chairman, when addressed the public gathering, was not doing so pursuant to the performance of his duties as prime minister, rather it was a political engagement.

It further stated,The case law cited by the petitioner for grant of bail in the facts and circumstances is not relevant in as much as undoubtedly the evidence is all documentary but according to the prosecution, the copy of cipher is still in custody of the petitioner and where allegations are serious and prima facie link the accused with the commission of the offence, bail is to be denied in case of Official Secrets Act, 1923.

The PTI chairman had also challenged the indictment proceedings in the cipher case in the IHC, which was dismissed as well previously. The IHC had rejected the request to stop the trial.
FAISALABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Oct, 2023) The Kashmir Black day was observed across the district here on Friday to express solidarity with the people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

In this connection, the district administration had arranged a rally which started from Zila Council and the participants holding banners and placards marched on various roads up to Kutchehry Bazaar Chowk.

They chanted slogans against Indian atrocities in Held Kashmir and vowed to continue their support for Kashmir independence.

Speaking on the occasion, Deputy Commissioner (DC) Abdullah Nayyar Sheikh said that it was sheer violence of human rights to keep deprived Kashmiri people of their right to self-determination. He paid rich tribute to the martyrs of Kashmir freedom movement and said that Pakistani nation stood with their Kashmir brethren for their freedom.

He said that October 27 was a Black Day in the history of Indian Held Kashmir when the India illegally occupied the valley and practised all modes of cruelty and barbarism on innocent Kashmiri people.
ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Oct, 2023) To commemorate 40 years of diplomatic relations between Pakistan and the Republic of Korea, the Department of Archeology and Museum (DOAM) in collaboration with the Embassy of the Republic of Korea organized a photographic exhibition titled "40 Years of Diplomatic Relations between the Republic of Korea and Pakistan."

The exhibition, which opened on Friday, features photographs of historical sites and monuments in Pakistan and Korea, including Buddhist sites in Pakistan. It also showcases the work done during excavations, conservation, and restoration of important Buddhist sites in both countries.

In his opening address, notable speakers were Park Kijun, the Korean Ambassador, the Executive Director of the Korea Cultural Heritage Foundation (KCHF), and Dr. Abdul Azeem, the Director General of DOAM.

The Joint Secretary of the National Heritage and Culture Division emphasized the longstanding friendship and cooperation between Pakistan and South Korea, which have resulted in substantial advancements in their bilateral relations over the past four decades. He highlighted the shared interest of both countries in ensuring a peaceful and prosperous South Asia, and their cooperation in various multilateral forums.

The Joint Secretary also stressed the broad spectrum of cooperation between Pakistan and Korea, encompassing areas such as cultural heritage. He mentioned that Buddhism, with its diverse tapestry of traditions and life teachings, was introduced to the ancient Baekje Kingdom in Korea from present-day Pakistan by Monk Maranantha nearly 1,500 years ago.

The Ambassador Park Kijun, in his speech, highlighted the vast potential for mutually beneficial collaboration in diverse fields. He said that the special exhibition promises to bring the cultural heritage of Pakistan and Korea together.

The exhibition features a diverse range of photographs, capturing the rich cultural heritage of both Pakistan and Korea. Some of the notable photographs include:

A panoramic view of the ancient city of Taxila in Pakistan, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A close-up of a Buddha statue from the Gandhara region of Pakistan, dating back to the 2nd century AD.

A photograph of the Bulguksa Temple in Korea, another UNESCO World Heritage Site. A photograph of the Seokguram Grotto in Korea, home to a magnificent 7th-century Buddha statue.

The exhibition also features photographs of the ongoing conservation and restoration work at important Buddhist sites in both countries. For example, one photograph shows archaeologists working at the site of the ancient city of Mohenjo-daro in Pakistan, while another photograph shows conservators restoring a Buddhist mural at the Donggung Palace and Wolji Pond in Korea.

The photographic exhibition "40 Years of Diplomatic Relations between the Republic of Korea and Pakistan" is a timely and important celebration of the deep cultural ties between the two countries. It is also a reminder of the shared commitment of Pakistan and Korea to preserving and promoting their cultural heritage. The exhibition is open to the public until November 10, 2023, at the Pakistan National Museum in Islamabad.
PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Oct, 2023) Caretaker Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Muhammad Azam Khan, strongly condemned the Indian atrocities against Kashmiris on Friday.

He reiterated the resolve to continue moral, political, and diplomatic support for Kasmiris and said that the people of Kashmir were not alone in this tough time; each and every Pakistani stood by them, and we will continue to support their just struggle at every forum.

Speaking to media persons on the occasion of the Kashmir Black Day rally here, the Chief Minister termed October 27, 1947, the darkest day of Kashmiri history and remarked that for the last seven decades, India has gone all out and resorted to extreme cruelty to deprive the Kashmiri people of their right to self-determination.

He added that on August 5, 2019, India started a new chapter of atrocities and tyranny by revoking the special status of Kashmir. The chief minister stated that Kashimris had been facing severe lockdown for the last few years, which is evidence of the aggression and brutality of the Indian government and a blatant violation of not only international laws but fundamental human rights as well.

Muhammad Azam Khan called upon the international community, especially the United Nations and other human rights organizations, to take serious notice of fundamental human rights violations in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir and play their effective role in giving the Kashmiris their right to self-determination so that they could decide their fate as per their desires and aspirations.

He made it clear that sustainable peace in the region was not possible without a just and fair solution to the Kashmir issue.

The chief minister also paid rich tribute to the struggle of the Kashmiri people and reiterated his commitment to support them at every forum.

The people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa stood by the people of Kashmir and will continue to stand by them in the future as well, he said.Earlier, a rally to mark October 27th (Kashmir Black Day) was arranged, which started from the Chief Ministers House and ended at the Governors House. The rally was jointly led by the caretaker Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Muhammad Azam Khan and Governor Haji Ghulam Ali.

Besides caretaker cabinet members, government functionaries, members of civil society, representatives of All Parties Hurriyat Conference Azad Kashmir, people from different walks of life, and a large number of students participated in the rally.

The participants of the rally strongly condemned Indian atrocities against innocent Kashmiris and expressed solidarity with the people of India who illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir. They were carrying banners and placards inscribed with slogans against the barbarism and oppression of Indian forces by innocent Kashmiris.
RAWALPINDI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Oct, 2023) Caretaker Punjab Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi along with Caretaker Sindh Chief Minister Maqbool Baqar on Friday visited the Rawalpindi Ring Road Project to review progress of the construction work.

Chief Minister Naqvi appreciated the Commissioner Rawalpindi and Frontier Works Organization over their performance.

The work on the project should be completed swiftly, he said and directed the authorities to provide necessary project drawings to NESPAK as soon as possible.

The Sinch CM appreciated the ongoing projects in Punjab, especially the construction work of Rawalpindi Ring Road.

He said the problems being faced by the commuters in Karachi could be resolved through the Lyari Expressway and Karachi Circular Railway projects.

Mohsin Naqvi offered full support of the Punjab government to his Sindh counterpart in the execution of different projects in the province.

CM Naqvi drove the vehicle himself and inspected the project site with the Sindh chief minister.

They also reviewed the progress of the project at Union Council Trahia.

In order to speed up the work on the Ring Road, CM Naqvi directed the authorities to use additional road leveling machinery at the project site.

He said the Rawalpindi Ring Road was an important project of public interest and all-out efforts should be made to complete it before the stipulated time frame.

He directed the authorities to ensure construction work on the project in three shifts so that the targets could be achieved as soon as possible.

The completion of Ring Road would permanently resolve the traffic congestion problem in Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Mohsin Naqvi added.

Both the chief ministers also had an aerial view of the ongoing work on the entire road.

The FWO officials, during a briefing, informed the CM that six-lane Rawalpindi Ring Road would be 38.3 kilometers long. The construction work on its Banth and Chak Beli interchanges was underway while the work to remove the structures on the right of way had also been started.

The Commissioner Rawalpindi, Regional Police Officer, City Police Officer and Deputy Commissioner, and FWO officials were present on the occasion.
ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Oct, 2023) Senator General (retd) Abdul Qayyum on Friday urged the British Government to play its role in achieving an everlasting solution of Palestinian and Kashmir disputes and to immediately stop the blatant violations of international law and Geneva conventions which guaranteed human rights and strictly forbid attacks on population centres and hospitals.

"If serious issues like East Timor and Southern Sudan can be resolved by peaceful means, why the oldest disputes like Palestine and Kashmir are being deliberately ignored," he questioned.

During his breakfast meeting with former British National Security Advisor (NSA) and ex Britains permanent representative in UN Sir Mark Lyall Grant in London, the senator further questioned Will merciless slaughter of human beings , blasting of multi-storey buildings and even physical occupation of entire Ghaza strip solve Palestinian issue?" The answer is surely in negative until Israel vacates illegally occupied Palestinian land and recognises their right to live an honourable life in an independent sovereign state established as per UN charter and resolutions, he added.

Sir Mark Lyall Grant, in response showed his concern over the highly volatile situation prevailing in the middle East which he said could explode and go beyond control if concerned groups do not show diplomatic prudence.

Mark Lyall Grant and Senator Abdul Qayyum agreed to continue their endeavours to further strengthen UK-Pakistan bilateral politico economic and defence ties and for achieving international peace.
Brussels, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Oct, 2023) EU leaders on Thursday called for "humanitarian corridors and pauses" in Israel's war with Hamas to get aid into Gaza, after hours of negotiations at a summit of the bloc in Brussels.

The European Union has struggled for both unity and influence in the face of the crisis that has engulfed the middle East since Hamas launched its bloody attack on Israel on October 7.

The surge in bloodshed has divided Europe's attention at a time of rising doubts about the West's ability to keep supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russia.

After five hours of talks, the leaders called for "continued, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access and aid to reach those in need through all necessary measures including humanitarian corridors and pauses for humanitarian needs".

They said the EU "will work closely with partners in the region to protect civilians, provide assistance and facilitate access to food, water, medical care, fuel and shelter".

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen insisted early on Friday there was "no contradiction between showing solidarity to Israel and, of course, acting on the need of humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza" after the leaders' talks ended.

The 27-nation bloc has long been split between more pro-Palestinian members such as Ireland and Spain, and staunch backers of Israel including Germany and Austria.

There has been strong condemnation of the Hamas attack, which Israel says killed at least 1,400 people and resulted in more than 220 people being taken hostage.

But there was less consensus on urging any halt to Israel's retaliatory bombardment of Gaza, which the Hamas-run health ministry says has killed more than 7,000 people.

The EU's call fell short of the demands from the United Nations for a "ceasefire", despite a last-ditch push from Spain to toughen the language.

Germany and other strong supporters of Israel had sought to temper any wording that could be seen as tying Israel's hand in going after Hamas.

"All the fantasies of truces, ceasefires, etc. have the effect of strengthening Hamas in its determination to continue its action and perpetuate this terrible terror," Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said ahead of the talks.

The EU leaders said in their statement that they supported a Spanish proposal on "holding of an international peace conference soon" to discuss trying to find a lasting, two-state solution.

The conference should be held within the next six months, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said before the talks began on Thursday.

Diplomats from some EU nations had warned that delays over finding the right words as the death toll mounts in Gaza were hitting the bloc's global standing.

"We can feel that some in the world are using the circumstances to try to rally a part of the international community to attack the European Union," European Council President Charles Michel said.

The eruption of violence in the Middle East has sparked fears the West could get distracted from Russia's war on Ukraine, 20 months into the invasion.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said the EU had "no right for war fatigue" over Kyiv's fight.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky called into the summit and backed efforts to "prevent an even larger international fire from breaking out in the Middle East".

"The enemies of freedom are very interested in bringing the free world to the second front... We must clearly see this scenario and counter it -- together," he said.

A fracture in EU unity appeared on Thursday when Slovakia's new populist Prime Minister Robert Fico said his government was stopping its military aid to Ukraine.

Together with Hungary's Viktor Orban -- Russia's closest ally in the EU -- Fico could now form a block on further efforts to support Kyiv or punish the Kremlin.

Chief among EU measures meant to reassure Kyiv is a plan -- earlier estimated at 20 billion Euros ($21 billion) over four years -- for a defence fund for Ukraine as part of broader Western security commitments.

Leaders are set to task the bloc's foreign policy chief to report back on the issue in December.

There is also a push to impose new sanctions on Moscow that could include banning Russian diamond imports once the G7 agrees on a way of tracing them.

A plan for using the revenues from frozen Russian assets to aid Ukraine will also be discussed.
Dingyuan, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Oct, 2023) As dusk fell on a remote village in eastern China on Friday, a small group gathered around a mud and thatch house to pay tribute to its most famous resident -- former premier Li Keqiang, who died Friday aged 68.

Once in the running to take over the country's top job before being passed over for President Xi Jinping, Li had a relatively humble upbringing in rural Anhui province.

On Friday a cluster of bouquets was laid against the walls of his family home in Jiuzi village, Dingyuan county, where he lived throughout many of his school years.

"Li Keqiang was an amiable premier and was loved by people all over the country," said one man, who stood staring at the display for some time, looking moved.

"When I heard the news, I was shocked, unable to accept the truth. I happened to be here in Dingyuan, his hometown, and came here to mourn our beloved premier," he told AFP.

It was not clear whether some of the people milling around were present in an official capacity, with the pile of bouquets slowly added to as the evening went on.

A small group of people gathered, with some laying bunches of yellow and white chrysanthemums -- a symbol of mourning in China -- and bowing before the house.

"He has done a lot of good things for the people and the country. We are very grateful to him," one man told AFP.

The mourners speaking to AFP didn't want to give their Names for privacy reasons.

Arriving with a large standing floral arrangement, a delivery man told AFP he had been summoned from about an hour away, as there were no closer flower shops.

The rural surroundings were a far cry from the lofty halls of power in Beijing where Li spent a decade as China's nominal second in command.

Li reportedly still has relatives living in Jiuzi, a small settlement surrounded by fields of hay, where the sides of the roads are lined by beans left out to dry.

One woman told AFP she felt "very sad" at Li's passing.

"My mum is related to him in some way," she said. "We share the same ancestor."

The son of a minor party official, Li's path out of Anhui began when he was accepted into the prestigious Peking University, first for a law degree, then a doctorate in economics.

At a small restaurant next to the house, two young men said they had travelled from Hefei, about an hour away, to pay their respects to a fellow alumnus.

"After learning the news, we came here in the afternoon," Zhang, the Youth Secretary of Anhui Peking University Alumni Association said.

He showed AFP a video online from Hefei, where people were also laying flowers outside places connected with Li.

"There will probably be more people here on the weekend," said his companion.
This photo taken on Oct. 25, 2023 shows the handover ceremony for the repatriation from Australia of Chinese cultural objects at the Chinese embassy in Australia, in capital Canberra. (Photo by Chu Chen/Xinhua)

"Cultural exchange is not an exchange of what we have. It's an exchange and acknowledgment of who we are," said Australian Minister for the Arts Tony Burke at the handover ceremony for repatriation of Chinese cultural objects.

CANBERRA, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- A handover ceremony for the repatriation of Chinese cultural objects was held Wednesday in Australian capital Canberra.

The ceremony, held in the Chinese embassy in Australia, witnessed five objects back to China. Among them, three are returned by the Australian government.

The trio includes a Hyphalosaurus fossil, part of the Jehol Biota ecosystem of northeast China between 133 million and 120 million years ago, a Buddhist gilt bronze figurine of Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, and a polychrome horse and rider figurine. Both of the latter two objects are from China's ancient times close to or during the Tang Dynasty.

There is also a sacrificial bronze wine vessel of Zun with features indicating craftsmanship of the Ming and Qing dynasties, donated by the National Gallery of Australia.

What's more, there is an object donated by John MacDonald, an Australian from Melbourne. It is a hairpin with a jade inlaid from the Qing Dynasty.

A sacrificial bronze wine vessel of Zun with features indicating craftsmanship of China's Ming and Qing dynasties is displayed at a handover ceremony for the repatriation from Australia of Chinese cultural objects at the Chinese embassy in Australia, in capital Canberra, Oct. 25, 2023. (Photo by Chu Chen/Xinhua)

"Today's ceremony is a grand event for the cultural exchanges between China and Australia. As you can see, we gather here for the four cultural objects and one fossil in front of us, all of them are returned or donated by the Australian government, the National Gallery of Australia, and even by local Australian friend," Chinese Ambassador to Australia Xiao Qian addressed the ceremony before signing the handover documents with Australian Minister for the Arts Tony Burke.

"I'd like to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt gratitude to all of you for your invaluable contributions in this regard."

It is not the first time for the Australian government to return Chinese cultural objects. In 2015, the Australian side returned a Qing Dynasty Avalokiteshvara statue to China.

"We are very pleased to see the National Gallery of Australia has also joined our endeavor by donating a sacrificial bronze Zun for the first time. We hope this will become a new starting point for our future cooperation," Xiao said.

A hairpin with a jade inlaid from China's Qing Dynasty is displayed at a handover ceremony for the repatriation from Australia of Chinese cultural objects at the Chinese embassy in Australia, in capital Canberra, Oct. 25, 2023. (Photo by Chu Chen/Xinhua)

Xiao believed that, through joint efforts of the two sides, the relations between China and Australia will further improve and develop. In this process, cultural and artistic exchanges will definitely play an important role.

"Cultural exchange is not an exchange of what we have. It's an exchange and acknowledgment of who we are," Burke, in his speech, expressed his "deepest respect and I would say love of Chinese culture for a very long time."

The Australian minister introduced every object in detail, saying that Australians have a very strong view about returning stolen works. "I'm very proud while the items that are being returned today were stolen probably last century," he said that from the day they arrived and were seized by border force and authorities in Australia, the work could be done is leading to their return. "Australia does not believe that works like these should be anything other than returned."

"When we sign the documents, it's not Australia giving China or anything, (but) simply China taking something to which China was always entitled, which should never have been stolen," said Burke.

Nick Mitzevich, director of the National Gallery of Australia, said at the ceremony that the Gallery is looking forward to continuing to build stronger ties with the Chinese side. 
Jerusalem, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Oct, 2023) The UN warned Friday that "many more will die" in Gaza from catastrophic shortages after nearly three weeks of bombardment by Israel in response to Hamas staging the deadliest attack in its history.

As the conflict raged into its 21st day, the Israeli army said its soldiers backed by fighter jets and drones mounted a land incursion into the Gaza Strip, as it prepares for a ground offensive.

Concern is growing about regional fallout from the conflict, with the United States warning Iran against escalation while striking facilities in Syria it says were used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and others.

Israel has heavily bombarded Gaza since Hamas gunmen stormed across the border on October 7, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, kidnapping more than 220 others, according to Israeli officials.

The health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip says the strikes have killed more than 7,000 people, mainly civilians and many of them children, leading to growing calls for protection of innocents caught up in the conflict.

"People in Gaza are dying, they are not only dying from bombs and strikes, soon many more will die from the consequences of (the) siege imposed on the Gaza Strip," Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), told reporters in Jerusalem.

Israel has cut supplies of food, water and power to Gaza, notably blocking all deliveries of fuel saying it would be exploited by Hamas to manufacture weapons and explosives.

"Basic services are crumbling, medicine is running out, food and water are running out, the streets of Gaza have started overflowing with sewage," he said of the devastated territory where around 45 percent of all housing has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN which cited local authorities.
(@FahadShabbir)

Washington, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Oct, 2023) From fake street art to doctored media reports demonizing President Volodymyr Zelensky, a torrent of online disinformation seeks to erode Western support that is crucial for Kyiv's war effort against Russia.

The falsehoods, experts say, are aimed at provoking anti-Ukraine sentiment in Western countries while lending credence to the notion that war-weary European and American allies are turning against Zelensky.

The wave of disinformation comes as Kyiv is scrambling to retain Western support -- while attention shifts to the war between Israel and the militant group Hamas - ahead of what is expected to be another winter bombing campaign by Russia.

"The (disinformation) campaigns take place in multiple countries and languages, and their intensification suggest concerted efforts," Roman Osadchuk, from the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab), told AFP.

"The main objective of Russia here is to put a wedge in Western societies, polarizing them and portraying the help for Ukraine as 'problematic.'

"These efforts are aimed at political elites and the general population, some of whom might not closely follow the war, making them more vulnerable" to the false narratives.

AFP's factcheckers have exposed a series of doctored images of street art mocking Zelensky, who has faced an avalanche of disinformation since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022.

That includes fake photos -- shared across social media platforms -- of graffiti in cities such as Warsaw, Berlin and Paris depicting Zelensky devouring money from his Western allies. No such graffiti was found.

AFP factcheckers have also uncovered fabricated German and French media reports about graffiti depicting Zelensky engaging in cannibalism. The media outlets confirmed that the posts circulating on platforms such as Facebook and Telegram were fake.

When Zelensky visited the United States last month, a doctored online video appeared to show a New York city billboard with the words "glory to urine" alongside an image of the Ukrainian leader.

The manipulated clip was watermarked with the logo for Fox news Digital, but a network spokesperson told AFP that it had not posted any such footage.

It remains unclear precisely who is behind the false claims but they fit a broader pattern of anti-Ukraine disinformation by Russia, which for decades has engaged in information warfare focused on fueling anti-Western sentiments, researchers say.

"There has been a visible growth of Russian propaganda in Europe" compared to the first few months of 2022, Ruslan Trad, a resident fellow for security research at the DFRLab, told AFP.

"The Kremlin is capitalizing on war fatigue and apathy, as well as the Euroscepticism and fears of Western and Central European societies."

Raising concerns about cracks in Western support for Kyiv, Slovakia's new populist Prime Minister Robert Fico on Thursday said he had "informed" the European Union's executive of his decision to stop military aid to Ukraine.

Soon after last month's general election -- which Fico won on pledges to end assistance to Ukraine -- Slovakia accused Moscow of interfering in the vote by deliberately disseminating falsehoods.

Even in the United States -- Kyiv's biggest donor of security aid -- there are concerns that opposition from hardline Republican lawmakers has put future assistance for Kyiv in doubt.President Joe Biden is currently pushing Congress to approve a massive $106 billion security bill, which includes $61 billion in military aid for Ukraine.

On Thursday, Washington announced a new $150 million military assistance package for Ukraine that includes artillery and small-arms ammunition as well as anti-tank weapons.

Zelensky thanked the US for the assistance, saying "strengthening air defense is critical to protect Ukrainian cities and infrastructure" as winter approaches.

Ukraine is bracing itself for a renewed Russian bombing campaign on its energy infrastructure, which last year plunged millions of civilians into extreme hardship.

The European Union has also vowed steadfast support. Earlier this month, the European Parliament endorsed a proposal to provide an extra 50 billion Euros ($53 billion) for Ukraine's recovery.

But despite these robust pledges, US officials cited by local media have warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin seeks to end American and European support for Ukraine by using his spy agencies to push propaganda and conspiracy theories.

"Russia is benefiting right now (from) decades of information activities," said Adam Lelonek, from the International Republican Institute's Beacon Project.

"Russia cannot win this conventional war but still aspires to win in the information dimension."
Jerusalem, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Oct, 2023) The United Nations said Friday that "uninterrupted" aid was needed in Gaza after nearly three weeks of Israeli bombardment in retaliation for Hamas attacks this month that has triggered a humanitarian crisis in the besieged Palestinian territory.

Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general for UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said "meaningful and uninterrupted" aid was needed for the Gaza Strip, calling the trickle of aid entering the area "crumbs".

"The current system in place is geared to fail. What is needed is meaningful and uninterrupted aid flow. And to succeed, we need a humanitarian ceasefire to ensure this aid reaches those in need," Lazzarini told reporters in Jerusalem during a press conference.

The commissioner also confirmed 57 of the agency's staff had been killed during the war.

"At least 57 colleagues of mine are confirmed killed," said Lazzarini. "Wonderful people who have just dedicated their lives to their communities.

"

Lazzarini also weighed in on a controversy over the civilian death toll given by the Hamas-run health ministry in the territory, saying their figures had proven credible during past conflicts.

"In the past, the five, six cycles of conflict in the Gaza Strip, these figures were considered as credible and no-one ever really challenged these figures," he told reporters.

On October 7, throngs of Hamas gunmen poured from Gaza into Israel, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 224 more, according to Israeli officials.

In retaliatory Israeli air and artillery strikes, at least 7,028 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip, including 2,913 children, according to figures released by the Hamas-controlled health ministry.

The fatalities in Gaza are the highest there since Israel unilaterally withdrew from the Palestinian territory in 2005.
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UNITED NATIONS, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Oct, 2023) The U.N. General Assembly Friday adopted, by a large majority, a Jordanian-led resolution, co-sponsored by Pakistan, calling for "an immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce" in Gaza leading to a cessation of hostilities in the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict.

The Vote in the 193-member Assembly was 120 in favour to 14 against, with 45 abstentions.

Before voting for the resolution, the Assembly rejected an amendment by Canada that would have condemned Hamas by name for its attacks against Israeli border towns in which many Israelis were killed and nearly 200 taken hostage. The vote in favour of the Canadian amendment, backed by many Western countries, was 88 in favour to 55 against, with 23 abstentions. The amendment failed to get the two-thirds majority needed to pass.

The opposition to the amendment was led by Pakistani Ambassador Munir Akram, who in a passionate speech, said it was one-sided as the Jordanian resolution does not specifically name Israel, the occupying power.

There was no justification for naming Hamas with condemning Israel as well.

Ambassador Akram said the Canadians' well-known advocacy for balance and equity was missing in its amendment to the Jordanian text. Why this double standard, he said.

He vigorously advocated the rights of Palestinian people and said they are human beings too. They have suffered under 50 years of occupation, Ambassador Akram added.

The resolution, which among other elements, calls on all parties to comply with international law and continuous and unhindered aid into the Gaza Strip.

It demands that all parties comply with international humanitarian law and for continuous, sufficient and unhindered provision of essential supplies and services into the Gaza Strip.

The resolution also calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all civilians held captive as well as demanding their safety, well-being and humane treatment in compliance with international law.

APP/ift
(@FahadShabbir)

Jerusalem, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Oct, 2023) The United Nations warned Friday that "many more will die" as a result of Israel's ongoing siege of Gaza, which has also caused sewage to flow into the Palestinian territory's streets.

Israel laid a total siege on Gaza following the October 7 attacks by Hamas, cutting off food, fuel, water and power supplies to the enclave.

"People in Gaza are dying; they are not only dying from bombs and strikes: soon many more will die from the consequences of (the) siege imposed on the Gaza Strip," said Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).

"Basic services are crumbling, medicine is running out, food and water are running out, the streets of Gaza have started overflowing with sewage."

Alongside the siege, Israel has bombarded Gaza with air and artillery strikes since October 7.

The health ministry says the strikes have killed more than 7,300 people, mainly civilians and many of them children.

During a press conference in Jerusalem, Lazzarini -- who said 57 UNRWA staff had been killed in Gaza during the war -- called for more aid to be allowed into the territory immediately.

"The current system in place is geared to fail. What is needed is meaningful and uninterrupted aid flow. And to succeed, we need a humanitarian ceasefire to ensure this aid reaches those in need," he said.

- 'Drastically limited' fuel use -

Limited convoys of aid -- food, water and medicine -- have entered through Gaza's Rafah crossing with Egypt, but the UNRWA chief noted that they have not included fuel, which is vital to keep critical services running.

"Bakeries, water stations, life support machines in a hospital -- all this needs fuel to function," he said.

"As far as UNRWA is concerned, we have fuel for today," said Lazzarini.

The agency normally needs 160,000 litres per day for its operations, but has now "drastically limited" its fuel consumption.

"We have solid monitoring mechanisms... UNRWA does not and will not divert any humanitarian aid into the wrong hands," Lazzarini said.

At a briefing in Geneva, via video-link, Lynne Hastings, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory, said before October 7, some 46 trucks of fuel per day crossed into Gaza.
USM Doctor of Nursing Practice-Nurse Practitioner Programs Earn High Ranking

Fri, 10/27/2023 - 01:37pm | By: Van Arnold

The University of Southern Mississippis (USM) online Doctor of Nursing Practice-Nurse Practitioner (DNP-NP) programs have been ranked among the nations Top-10 in affordability by the online resource guide NPSchools.

USM climbed from No. 13 in 2022-23 to the No. 8 spot in the 2023-24 rankings. USM is the only college or university in Mississippi included in the 2023-24 rankings.

The ranking system assigns an AdvanceU score to each school. It is strictly quantitative, factoring in admissions flexibility, program variety, and cost. All ranked schools offer online programs accredited by one of three major nursing accreditors: the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN), the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE), or the Accreditation Commission for Midwifery Education (ACME).

Dr. LaWanda Baskin, Director, School of Leadership and Advanced Nursing Practice at USM, says the lofty ranking reflects the high quality of the online DNP-NP programs in the College of Nursing and Health Professions.

This ranking suggests that the Universitys programs are not only affordable but also provide a strong educational foundation and valuable skills for nurse practitioners, demonstrating their commitment to deliver top-tier education in this field, said Baskin.

USMs current DNP enrollment includes:

BSN-DNP Family Nurse Practitioner: 15 students

BSN-DNP Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner: 9 students

Clinical DNP (Post Masters): 11 students

The Universitys Nurse Anesthesia Program, which is not included in the rankings, includes 67 students.

NPSchools also ranked the Most Affordable Online Post-Masters NP Certificate Programs for 23-24. USM earned a No. 18 national ranking and again is the only Mississippi college or university making the list.

Our Doctor of Nursing Practice programs stand out from others because the DNP programs are known for being affordable and this makes our programs more accessible to a wider range of students, said Baskin. We also provide the opportunity for students to focus on areas of nursing that match their goals, such as family nurse practitioner or psychiatric-mental health nursing practitioner.

Added Baskin, USM has experienced and well-qualified faculty members who actively engage in research and clinical practice and provide opportunities for research and scholarly activities allowing students to contribute to the advancement of nursing practice and healthcare. Finally, many of our courses are offered online and that appeals to working nurses who need to balance their studies with their professional and personal responsibilities.

See the entire rankings.

To learn more about DNP-NP programs at USM, call 601.266.5527.
ISTANBUL, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- The extended connectivity offered by the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) will bring prosperity to the whole world through enhancing win-win cooperation, said Gulru Gezer, a former Turkish diplomat and foreign policy analyst.

She told Xinhua that over the past decade, the BRI has become a multi-trillion-U.S. dollar initiative that spans across three continents and has reached Latin America.

Backed by more than 150 countries and 30 international organizations, the BRI positively impacts the countries' development, she said.

"My country, Turkiye as well, takes part in the BRI, and we find it particularly important because we know that through the development of economic and trade ties, prosperity can flourish," Gezer said. "Connecting via such an initiative, I think, will bring prosperity and peace to the world."

In Gezer's view, the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation held in Beijing on Oct. 17-18 was very timely, marking the 10th anniversary of the BRI.

Gezer saluted China's contributions to underdeveloped countries by financing their projects and helping them overcome their difficulties in many fields within the framework of the BRI.

"When we talk about the BRI, it's not a single initiative. It has many other areas of cooperation ... like other branches of the BRI," Gezer said.

She said she believes that these BRI branches also provide important financial instruments for developing countries.

"Today's biggest challenge is finding financial resources for countries in need. And in that sense, I think the BRI has been an important tool in financing projects in developing and underdeveloped countries," the expert said.

Turkiye and China have been increasing their cooperation through connecting the Middle Corridor Initiative and the BRI, according to the expert.

Gezer said one of the most important topics of discussion between Turkish and Chinese diplomats has been how to harmonize the Middle Corridor with the BRI.

"We know that Turkish and Chinese officials are willing to cooperate more in this area. So I don't see the Middle Corridor actually as an alternative to the BRI. On the other hand, I think that we can actually somehow make the two overlap and benefit from both initiatives," she said. 
Investment Opportunities in Vietnams Garment and Textile Industry

Vietnams garment and textile industry has been a cornerstone of the countrys rapid economic development. Despite global challenges, the sector has proven somewhat resilient and still presents a wealth of opportunities for foreign firms.

The garment and textile industry is one of the key industries in Vietnam. In 2022, the industrys export value topped US$36.9 billion. The countrys exports has already reached US$24.6 billion in the first nine months (Jan-Sept) this year, according to the General Department of Customs.

These huge export numbers have been driven by a number of factors, including low labor costs and free trade agreements (FTAs) with key export markets that have in many cases eliminated tariffs on garments and textiles altogether.

Notably, however, there has been a marked decline in production on the back of lower demand in key export markets this year. S&Ps Purchasing Managers Index has consistently found itself below the 50-point mark indicating production in Vietnam is in a contraction. Furthermore, there have been layoffs around the country in the apparel sector on the back of lower-than-expected orders. Taiwanese footwear manufacturer Pou Yuen, for example, has reduced its workforce by almost 10,000 workers across three rounds of job cuts.

This downturn, however, may be only temporary as signs of a recovery are starting to take shape. Vietnams GDP growth, for example, has increased all three quarters of this year, and as the economy recovers, the garment and textiles industry should too.

With this in mind, heres what Vietnams garment and textile sector looks like at the back end of 2023.

Garment and textiles in Vietnam: Overview

Vietnams garment and textile industry consists of 3 sub-sectors: the upstream sector (fiber production), the midstream sector (fabric production and dyeing), and the downstream sector (garment manufacturing).

Sub-sectors that produce fibers or fabric are mainly used for domestic consumption because they are often of a lower quality. The downstream sector of garment manufacturing accounts for the bulk of the apparel and textile sector in Vietnam with cut-make-trim (CMT) models being their main activities. CMT accounts for about 70 percent of the output of domestic garment and manufacturing firms, while the more advanced business models, like original equipment manufacturing (OEM) and original design manufacturing (ODM) account for around 30 percent.

The US, Europe, Japan, and South Korea are the main export destinations of Vietnams textile and garment products.

Top 10 export markets for Vietnams garments and textiles, 2022

Country Value $US United States of America 17,359,654,958 Japan 4,072,768,217 Korea (Republic) 3,309,446,324 Canada 1,311,234,139 China 1,200,981,253 Germany 1,067,313,569 Netherlands 1,032,197,613 Cambodia 876,337,017 United Kingdom 803,990,213 France 658,049,227

Although Vietnam has a huge potential for cotton cultivation and production, the textile industry imports most of the cotton inputs. In 2022, Vietnam imported US$3.76 billion worth of cotton. This came mostly from the USA, Australia, Brazil, India, and Argentina.

See also: Why Vietnam is Now the Biggest Importer of Australian Cotton

Growth factors

Increased market access through FTAs and technology are major growth drivers for the garment and textile industry. Vietnams bilateral and multilateral FTAs continue to provide Vietnamese manufacturers access to new markets. With new FTAs in effect, such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and Vietnam-EU FTA (EVFTA), Vietnam should see increased exports and a push to further develop the industrys supply chain so that they can take full advantage of preferential tariffs.

Further, manufacturing shifts from China to Vietnam due to the labor cost advantage and rocky trade relations between China and the USA should also help expand Vietnams textile and garment industry.

That said, moving forward, market access alone will not be enough to generate growth. Vietnamese manufacturers will also need to invest in technology to increase productivity and quality in order to remain competitive.

Vietnams garment and textile manufacturing hub

Whereas northern Vietnam is most known for electronics manufacturing, southern Vietnam, is considered the garment and textiles hub of Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh City and the surrounding provinces of Dong Nai and Binh Duong are home to a large number of garment factories servicing a broad range of international brands. There are a number of reasons for this, but infrastructure and workforce are two of the most prominent.

Infrastructure in southern Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh City is home to Vietnams biggest port. As of 2019, the Port of Saigon was the 26th biggest container port in the world and the fifth biggest in the ASEAN region after the Port of Singapore, Malaysias Port Klang and Tanjung Pelepas, and Thailands Laem Chabang.

As a result, ports in HCMC are responsible for around 67 percent of Vietnams seaport throughput.

Around 80 km to the south of HCMC there is also the Cai Mep-Thi Vai Port. The Cai Mep-Thi Vai Port is a deep-water port, which allows for bigger ships to transport goods into and out of Vietnam. This can significantly reduce shipping costs for manufacturers. It is also connected by a multi-lane highway to Dong Nai and Binh Duong.

See also: Port Infrastructure in Vietnam 3 Regional Hubs for Importers and Exporters

Labor in southern Vietnam

Southern Vietnam has been a textile and garment hub for decades and now boasts a relatively high-skilled workforce in garment manufacturing. This low-cost labor can produce high value when managed and utilized correctly.

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnams biggest city, is also located in the south. This is Vietnams biggest population center and has the full gamut of amenities of any big city in the world. Workers from Ho Chi Minh City can have a high quality of life within its borders while also commuting to factories outside of the metropolis in the surrounding provincesits common for many companies to bus their employees into and out of the city.

Foreign brands manufacturing in Vietnam

There are hundreds of international brands manufacturing in garments and textiles in Vietnam but two of the most well-known are Adidas and Nike.

Adidas

In 2021, roughly 40 percent of Adidas footwear was produced in Vietnam. This follows a big shift over the past decade, with Adidas moving more of its supply chain out of China and south to Vietnam.

This is part of a broader trend in the garment and apparel manufacturing sector as wages in China rise and companies look for new low-wage workforces to produce their goods.

Not only that, but trade tensions between China and key export markets like the US, and supply chain disruptions as a result of COVID-19 border restrictions, have also provided impetus for sportswear companies to diversify their supply chains.

See also: Where Adidas Factories are Located in Vietnam

Nike

As one of the biggest, most well-known brands in the world, Nike is well and truly embedded in the fabric of international sports. This, however, would not be possible without the huge manufacturing operations Nike has developed in Southeast Asia. In particular, Vietnam has become an essential component of Nikes supply lines.

In fact, 51 percent of Nikes footwear in 2021 was produced in the Southeast Asian manufacturing powerhouse alone.

And this number is increasingin 2021 Nike had just 138 suppliers in Vietnam. By November of 2022, however, that number had increased to 155.

See also: Where Nikes Factories are Located in Vietnam

Government support policies

The government has centered its support for the textile industry by expanding industrial parks for textiles and stimulating domestic supporting industries. Local governments are being encouraged to assist firms in research and development activities, technology transfer, and innovation.

Corporate income tax (CIT) incentives

Corporate income tax (CIT) incentives are one of the most attractive features of the Vietnamese business landscape and tend to be one of the most important investment incentives to foreign investors.

There are two main CIT incentives in Vietnam: preferential tax rates, which are reduced tax rates, and tax holidays, which are essentially tax exemptions. These tend to vary based on the location, industry, investment zone, and a number of other factors.

Preferential tax rates

The different preferential rates include:

10 percent for the lifetime of the entire project;

10 percent for 15 years from the first year of income generation;

17 percent for the lifetime of the entire project; and

17 percent for 10 years from the first year of income generation.

Tax holiday rates

Tax exemptions include:

Tax exemption for 4 years, 50 percent reduction of payable tax amounts for 9 subsequent years;

Tax exemption for 4 years, 50 percent reduction of payable tax amounts for 5 subsequent years; and

Tax exemption for 2 years, 50 percent reduction of payable tax amount for 4 subsequent years.

Looking ahead

Although the garment and textile industry has struggled this year, it is still strong and holds significant opportunities for foreign firms looking for a low-cost manufacturing base in Asia.

For its part, Vietnam intends to focus on moving up the value chain and building a national brand image that is competitive and quality driven. With these goals in mind and a proven track record of foreign firms making garments and textiles in this burgeoning Southeast Asian nation, Vietnams garment and textile sector is well poised to return to its upward trajectory as a global clothing manufacturing powerhouse in the very near future.

Note: This article was first published in May 2018. It was last updated October 27, 2023.
Orban doubles down at EU summit to defend meeting Putin. One leader calls it a very wrong message

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has joined an EU summit saying that he was right to meet the EUs foremost enemy, Russian President Vladimir Putin
MANILA, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines' foreign investments yielded net outflows of 698 million U.S. dollars in September, the Philippine central bank has said.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said on Thursday that the September net outflows resulted from the gross outflows of 1.6 billion dollars and the gross inflows of 888 million dollars for the month.

"The recorded net outflows were a reversal of the net inflows posted in August amounting to 153 million dollars," the BSP said in a statement.

The net outflows in September were also larger than the net outflows of 367 million dollars recorded for the same period last year. 
French President Emmanuel Macron said he would help to build a humanitarian coalition to offer support to Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, following a two-day summit of European Union leaders in Brussels that wrapped up Friday.

We are going to build a humanitarian coalition with several European countries, particularly Cyprus, which will serve as a base for the humanitarian sea corridor, Macron told reporters.

Helicopter carrier

France announced on Thursday it was deploying a helicopter carrier to support hospitals in Gaza.

Macron reiterated calls for Israel to protect civilian lives as it targets Hamas fighters in Gaza after the militant group staged a cross-border attack October 7, killing more than 1,400 Israeli soldiers and civilians.

Palestinian health officials said more than 7,000 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes since the latest fighting began, including thousands of children. More than 600,000 people have been made homeless.

We consider that in the case of a total blockade or indiscriminate shelling  or worse, a massive ground operation  it is not possible to offer the required protection to the civilian population, Macron said. We think that a humanitarian pause would now be useful in order to protect people on the ground who have been victims of shelling.

Macron earlier suggested that the international coalition of nations that came together to fight the Islamic State terror group in Iraq and Syria could help Israel tackle Hamas militants.

EU statement

In a statement issued following the summit, EU leaders called for humanitarian corridors and pauses to help bring in relief for the population of Gaza.

Hamas has provoked a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. For the Commission, it is very important that we continue to intensify our efforts to deal with the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The aid needs to reach Gaza unhindered and quickly, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at a press conference Thursday.

EU divisions

Europe has backed Israels right to defend itself in line with international law, but analysts say the conflict has exposed internal divisions in the bloc.

Weve got some sort of agreement. It does paper over the cracks, said Ian Bond, director of foreign policy at the Center for European Reform.

It took them some time to agree on the eventual formula. They seem to have spent a long time arguing about whether there should be a pause for humanitarian purposes, or pauses. A lot of people apparently thought that the former sounded a bit too close to a ceasefire, which they didn't want to call for, Bond said.

Peace conference

The EU called for renewed focus on a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict. The bloc also proposed that an international peace conference should take place as soon as possible.

Israel shows little willingness to pause its bombardment of Hamas targets, and the EUs statement is unlikely to have a big impact, Bond said.

The reality in any case is that the EU's influence over Israel in particular has been quite limited for quite a long time, particularly under the [Israeli] Netanyahu government. He is clearly not a fan of the EU, and so Im not sure that he will have been all that interested in whether they called for a pause or pauses,  Bond said.

Ukraine aid

The European Union also discussed a further four-year, $53 billion support package for Ukraine as it fights Russias invasion, although final agreement on the details is not expected until December.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a longtime critic of Western assistance to Ukraine, said he was seeking stronger justification for the aid proposal before he could agree to it. Orban met Russian President Vladimir Putin last week in Moscow, prompting widespread criticism from Western allies. Meanwhile, the newly elected Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico cited corruption concerns in Ukraine.

Irelands Prime Minister Leo Varadkar criticized both their positions. If we don't stop Putin in Ukraine, he won't stop there. So, it is a threat to all of us, he said.

Most EU states strongly support the continuation of military and financial assistance to Kyiv, Bond said. I wouldn't exaggerate the divisions in the EU. Orban says a lot publicly, but he tends not to block consensus in the European Council on assistance to Ukraine.

Most member states are still firmly behind Ukraine, firmly behind aid for Ukraine and supportive of Ukraine's ambitions to become a member of the European Union and to start accession negotiations, probably in the new year, Bond told VOA.

Gaza distraction

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the EU would not be distracted in its support for Ukraine by the conflict in the Middle East.

In my last contact with [Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy], a telephone conversation I had with him, I assured that our support for Ukraine will not diminish and will not be affected by the fact that we now have this bitter new problem created by the terrible, brutal attack by Hamas on Israel and many citizens there, Scholz said at a press conference Friday.
The White House has high confidence that Israel is not responsible for last weeks explosion at a Gaza hospital, an administration spokesman told VOA on Thursday.

The blast, which the United Nations says killed more than 470 civilians, has stirred anti-American sentiment in the Arab world and the Global South and prompted calls for an inquiry.

John Kirby, director of strategic communications at the National Security Council, said President Joe Biden absolutely respects the fear, the anxiety, the uncertainty, of American Muslims as Israel prepares its ground operation in Gaza. He added that Biden is not giving up on a possible normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia, or on a two-state solution for the troubled region.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

VOA: Yesterday, President Biden defended Palestinians in the West Bank from attacks by extremist settlers. What signal is he sending to Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who distributed the weapons used by the settlers?

Kirby: This wasn't a message sent to one particular Cabinet member. It was certainly a message sent to the extreme violence that we're seeing by settlers in the West Bank. The casualty numbers have been rising there, and it's unacceptable. As he said, this is like pouring fuel  gasoline  on a fire.

VOA: Thats a remarkable shift from the presidents first speech after the Hamas attack, where he did not mention Palestinian civilian casualties. What prompted this shift in tone or rhetoric?

Kirby: There's no shift in tone or rhetoric. No civilian casualty is acceptable. We've said it for weeks now. The proper number is zero. We don't want to see anybody hurt  Israeli or Palestinian. And what needs to be done is, of course, the Israelis need to continue to work to minimize civilian casualties, and Hamas needs to let people go  they need to stop presenting targets that are in and amongst the civilian population. None of these civilian casualties should be acceptable to anybody.

VOA: The White House has said we cannot trust Hamas on the numbers of civilian casualties. But does the president believe his message could be perceived as insensitive, particularly to American Muslims and Muslims around the world?

Kirby: "Cant trust the numbers" doesn't mean that we don't trust or believe that there have been civilian casualties. What the president was speaking to was the discrete numbers. He wasn't talking about the tragedy that is the civilian casualties. The president has, over the course of his long career, reached out to people of all faith communities, and he'll continue to do that. And he absolutely respects the fear, the anxiety, the uncertainty, that so many Muslim Americans are feeling right now. And he and the team will continue to reach out to them and make sure that they know that they're valued, they're respected and that threats to them, we take those seriously  all of them.

VOA: Many Arab countries, including U.S. partner Jordan, say they doubt the intelligence the U.S. has been sharing on who is behind the Gaza hospital blast. Many Arab countries and the Global South still blame Israel for that explosion and demand an independent inquiry. Will the administration support that?

Kirby: We believe that the intelligence that we have seen, the intelligence that we have shared, have shown with high confidence that Israel was not responsible for that hospital attack.

VOA: Do you support an independent inquiry?

Kirby: We believe that the intelligence that we have made public and that we have talked about demonstrably shows with high confidence that Israel is not responsible for that airstrike.

VOA: So, I take it the answer is "No."

Kirby: Im going to leave it there.

VOA: Iran's foreign minister today said Hamas will release hostages in exchange for the release of 6,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails, and that Tehran, along with Qatar and Turkey, is ready to assist. What is the U.S. position on the offer?

Kirby: I'm not going to get into negotiations publicly. ... We want to see all these hostages released. We are in touch with our partners on the ground to try to make that happen. Obviously, we have particular interest in [not only] the American hostages, but all of them.

VOA: The president of Turkey, a NATO ally, recently said Hamas was not a terror organization. Your response to that?

Kirby: We believe Hamas is a terrorist organization that is funded and resourced and has been facilitated by the regime in Tehran. We also believe that Israel has a right and a responsibility to go after that threat to their people that was perpetrated in the historic terrorist attacks of Oct. 7. I'll let President [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan and other foreign leaders speak for themselves. President Biden, as commander in chief of the United States of America, has spoken plainly and clearly about the threat to the Israeli people that is posed by Hamas and about our support for the Israeli people in trying to eliminate that threat.

VOA: What President Erdogan is saying is emblematic of how the Arab world and the Global South view this conflict. Theres this sense that the U.S. is just backing Israel without any 

Kirby: Let me just stop you there. The president is also supportive of the Palestinian cause. He mentioned yesterday his desire to get to a two-state solution. He understands the suffering, the aspirations of the Palestinian people, and he fully supports their right to live in peace and security with their own state. That's why he's not giving up on the normalization agreement potentially between Israel and Saudi Arabia, and why he wants to see progress made towards a two-state solution.

VOA: Do you think the U.S.s unwavering support of Israel will drive the countries of the Global South to China and Russia?

Kirby: Ill let these countries speak for themselves. I can't possibly anticipate what their foreign policy objectives are going to be. If you just look at what we've done, working with the Global South  the president's [Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment] has already helped provide other means of infrastructure improvement in these countries so that they don't have to go to China for a high-interest loan that they're eventually going to go bankrupt trying to pay back.

The president is working on this economic corridor, connecting India to the Middle East, to Europe. And then also, a rail line across the stretch of the grand expanse of Africa. All these things that we're doing  including the summit for democracy  are demonstrable, tangible, initiatives that President Biden has taken to try to lift up and look after the needs of lower middle-income countries.

VOA: You recently said that Russia is executing soldiers who refuse to follow orders. What is the basis of this information, and why are you sharing it now?

Kirby: It is based on information that we have received. And we believe that as they try to continue to conduct offensive operations, it is important to make that public and to show the world how desperate theyre becoming.

VOA: Next week, Malta will host the third Ukraine Peace Formula Summit. Who's representing the U.S., and does the administration believe President Volodymyr Zelensky's peace plan is gaining more support?

Kirby: We believe that his peace formula is important, and we're doing everything we can to help actualize it and operationalize it. I don't have an agenda or participation list to speak to right now, but we fully support the efforts of Ukraine to continue to work with the international community to move that peace formula forward. It is vitally important to us that whatever peace looks like in Ukraine is acceptable to President Zelensky and the Ukrainian people. And that has to start with his peace formula.
President Joe Biden has sent a rare message to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warning Tehran against targeting U.S. personnel in the Middle East, the White House said Thursday after a spate of attacks on American forces in the region.

"There was a direct message relayed," National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said at a news briefing, declining to elaborate.

Iran's mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

U.S. officials want to avoid a wider conflict in the Middle East following the October 7 attack by the militant Hamas group on Israel that killed at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians.

About 900 additional U.S. troops are headed to the region or have recently arrived there to bolster air defenses to protect U.S. personnel amid a surge in attacks in the region by Iran-affiliated groups, the Pentagon said.

U.S. troops have been attacked at least 12 times in Iraq and four times in Syria in the past week, it added.

On Wednesday, Biden said he had warned the ayatollah the United States would respond if U.S. forces continued to be targeted but did not say how the message was communicated.

"My warning to the ayatollah was that if they continue to move against those troops, we will respond, and he should be prepared. It has nothing to do with Israel," he told reporters.

In a comment posted on social media before Kirby spoke, an aide to Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi disputed Biden's account.

"The U.S. messages were neither directed to the leader of the Islamic Revolution nor were they anything but requests from the Iranian side. If Biden thinks he has warned Iran, he should ask his team to show him the text of the messages," Mohammad Jamshidi wrote.

Separately, Iran's state news agency IRNA cited an unnamed source as saying the United States had sent Iran, as well some Iranian allies including Lebanon's Hezbollah, messages that it was not seeking to expand the war and urging them to exercise restraint.

"The United States cannot both send military equipment to the Israeli regime and take charge of managing the war with one hand, while issuing political messages with the other hand, and speak about its opposition to the expansion of the war," IRNA cited the unnamed source as saying, adding Iran's allies "act independently and are not subject to Tehran's orders."

Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas, which rules Gaza, in retaliation for the October 7 attack in which the militant group also took about 200 people hostage. Israel has struck Gaza from the air, imposed a siege and is preparing a ground invasion.

Palestinian authorities say more than 7,000 have been killed, though Biden has voiced skepticism about such numbers. Reuters has been unable to independently verify the death toll.

On Thursday, Iran's Foreign Minster Hossein Amirabdollahian said at the United Nations that if Israel's retaliation against Palestinian militants Hamas in the Gaza Strip didn't end, then the United States would "not be spared from this fire."

One way Iran projects power is by arming and funding militant groups, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Houthis in Yemen and Shiite militias in Iraq.

In the last such known U.S. retaliation, the U.S. military carried out multiple airstrikes in Syria on March 23 against Iran-aligned groups it blamed for a drone attack that killed an American contractor, wounded another and hurt five U.S. troops.
Cameroon is asking Chad to withdraw its troops from a fishing and agriculture island in the volatile region of Lake Chad.

Cameroon says it wants its own troops to take total control of Birnigoni. Chads military began occupying the island in 2014 to fight Boko Haram militants and protect civilians.

The central African states military says peace is gradually returning to a majority of the 2,000-square-kilometer (770-square-mile) lake and its islands, including Birnigoni.

Even so, top Cameroonian military commanders are meeting with civilians who want assurances of their safety before Chads military departs.

Col. Tiokap Pierre Loti, commander of Cameroonian troops in the Multinational Joint Task Force fighting Boko Haram, said Cameroon and Chad have always preferred the rule of law, diplomacy and dialogue in settling disputes along their more than 1,100-kilometer (680-mile) porous land border.

Birnigoni was one of several hiding places for Boko Haram fighters when they were under heavy attack by army forces in Chad, Cameroon or Nigeria.

Cameroon says it approved Chadian troops occupying the island after a July 2014 Boko Haram attack killed at least 20 civilians.

Mahamat Souleymane, Chad's infantry chief of staff, said President Mahamat Idriss Deby wants troops from Cameroon and Chad to launch joint operations to protect civilians before Chad's army eventually leaves.

Souleymane did not give a specific date for withdrawal but said Chadian forces will leave as soon as Birnigoni civilians acquaint themselves with the new forces and start feeling protected by Cameroon government troops.

Amunitah Sule, a cattle rancher on Birnigoni, said people living on the island want the Cameroon military to work with their peers from Chad in protecting civilians for a few months before Chad withdraws its forces.

He predicted that several hundred ranchers and fishers who fled raids and heavy fighting between Boko Haram terrorists and Chadian troops would want to return to the island if Cameroonian troops can assure their safety.

He also said he hopes that roads and solar energy will be provided in areas that are relatively free from Boko Haram attacks.

Sule said Birnigoni has been attacked at least seven times within the past three months, with scores of civilians either killed or wounded. He said several Chadian soldiers were wounded in the latest attack, on September 16.

Chad's military acknowledges there are regular jihadist attacks but denies some of its troops were killed.

The Lake Chad basin where Birnigoni is found encompasses parts of Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria. It is home to over 42 million people, mostly ranchers, fishers and crop farmers.

The 14-year Boko Haram insurgency and frequent attacks from other armed groups have destabilized the region and displaced millions of people.

In response, the Lake Chad countries, plus Benin, created the Multinational Joint Task Force in 2014. The force now has 11,000 soldiers fighting the jihadists.
It was an emotional scene at Sohrab Goth bus terminal when Jannat Bibi, a 50-year-old Afghan woman, bid farewell to the only home her children have ever known. After 35 years in Karachi, she and her eight children were making the difficult journey back to Afghanistan.

The terminal has become a hub for Afghan families forced to leave Pakistan because of a government mandate. Authorities have given a deadline of November 1 for those without legal documentation to leave or face forced eviction.

Jannat, her daughters draped in black Burqas, stood anxiously awaiting their departure. As the minutes ticked away, her son kept them updated on the bus's schedule. They were hesitant to sit on the rough floor, not wanting to soil their clothes.

Jannat shared her family's struggle, highlighting the abruptness of the decision. "We spent our entire lives in Pakistan. I got married here. My children were born here. ... Now they have suddenly decided that we cannot live in this country."

The lack of legal documentation further complicated their situation. "When my family reached Pakistan [35 years ago], some of my family members were able to get cards after much struggle. Some of us were never able to get cards. My husband and I were one of those people," Jannat explained.

The tipping point for Jannat was the repeated arrests of her two sons. Fearful for their safety, she made the painful decision to return to Afghanistan. She had to sell their home and belongings at a fraction of their value, taking only their essentials.

Her daughter, Khanum, expressed her sorrow about leaving behind the life they had built. "Even before the Taliban took control of Kabul, two years ago, my elders did not think about going back to Afghanistan. We were happy here," she lamented.

The uncertainty of their destination weighed heavily on many families. Fatima, a 21-year-old resident of Mominabad, Karachi, grappled with the reality of leaving behind everything she held dear. "You ask anyone here why they are going back [to Afghanistan], they will tell you the same: the police will arrest our men, our sons and take them to prison, so we are leaving from here."

As the departure time approached, emotions ran high. Families embraced, tears flowed, and prayers were whispered for safety and blessings. Jannat's final words resonated, "You heard our pain. I'll remember you always."

Several buses, bound for the Chaman border, stood ready to carry families on their journey into an uncertain future. Fatima and her sister, engaged in a last-minute plea to keep a small wooden box of cherished mementos, spoke volumes about the sacrifices they were making.

The departure of Jannat Bibi and countless others from the only home they've ever known is a poignant reminder of the challenges faced by Afghan refugees. As they embark on this new chapter, they carry with them the weight of their past and the hope for a brighter tomorrow.

This story originated in VOA's Urdu Service.
BEIJING, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- China saw over 3.67 billion domestic tourist visits in the first three quarters of this year, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism said Friday.

The figure marked an increase of 1.58 billion tourist visits, or 75.5 percent year on year.

Of these trips, nearly 2.85 billion were made by urban tourists, surging 78 percent year on year, while trips made by rural residents increased by 67.6 percent to 828 million, according to statistics released by the ministry.

During the period, expenditures by tourists amounted to 3.69 trillion yuan (about 514.06 billion U.S. dollars), soaring 1.97 trillion yuan, or 114.4 percent, the data showed. 
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French President Emmanuel Macron is proposing that a global coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria widen its scope to fight the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Experts are skeptical about the idea's practicality. VOA Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.
The White House says Russia is executing its own soldiers for not following orders. Republicans are sympathetic to Israel, but will they support Ukraine? Fears are growing for the well-being of a Ukrainian journalist who has been missing for three months.
One day after his family was killed in an Israeli airstrike, Al Jazeeras Gaza bureau chief Wael al-Dahdouh was back reporting on air.

Late Tuesday, Dahdouhs wife, son and daughter were killed in an airstrike that struck their house in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza.

They had moved there following Israels warning on Oct. 13 for those in the northern half of the territory to leave for the south. Dahdouhs grandson and eight other extended family members were also killed in the attack.

The tragedy underscores the risks facing journalists covering the war between Israel and Hamas, which was sparked after the militant group invaded southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing more than 1,400 people.

Following the airstrike, Al Jazeera aired footage showing Dahdouh entering the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah on Wednesday to see his dead wife, son and daughter in the morgue.

What happened is clear. This is a series of targeted attacks on children, women and civilians. I was just reporting from Yarmouk about such an attack, and the Israeli raids have targeted many areas, including Nuseirat, Dahdouh told Al Jazeera on his way out of the hospital.

Al Jazeera strongly condemns the indiscriminate targeting and killing of innocent civilians in Gaza, which has led to the loss of Wael al-Dahdouhs family and countless others, the Qatari network said in a statement.

Youmna ElSayed, an Al Jazeera correspondent in Gaza, told the broadcaster, Its heartbreaking to be reporting about Waels family and to see how broken he is. He calms everyone. He speaks to us like a big brother, not just a bureau chief.

As of Thursday, at least 27 journalists have been killed in the war, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ. Among them, 22 were Palestinian, four were Israeli, and one was Lebanese.

Ive got to give credit to a lot of journalists who are very brave and trying to cover this. The world needs to see whats happening, James Cunningham, the former U.S. ambassador to Israel, told VOA.

Journalists in Gaza are facing particularly high risks, CPJ said, due to Israels airstrikes and the threat of a looming Israeli ground invasion. The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said Thursday that more than 7,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began.

The main challenge for journalists covering the military confrontation in Gaza is their own safety  being killed while covering airstrikes or clashes, Sherif Mansour, CPJs Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, told VOA.

Journalists in Gaza have paid and continue to pay unprecedented tolls and face exponential threats, Mansour later added.

Spotty internet connections and unreliable electricity access exacerbate the challenges facing reporters in Gaza, VOA reported shortly after the war began.

Last week, the Israeli government approved emergency regulations that may lay the groundwork for blocking Al Jazeera in Israel.

The regulations will allow the cessation of activities of a foreign broadcasting organization that harms the security of the state, for the duration of the war, the Communications Ministry said, according to The Jerusalem Post.

Shloma Karhi, the communications minister, called Al Jazeera a propaganda mouthpiece for Hamas.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, meanwhile, has asked the Qatari prime minister to bridle Al Jazeeras rhetoric about Gaza. Al Jazeera is funded by the Qatari government but operates independently.

Al Jazeera did not immediately reply to VOAs request for comment.

Press freedom groups have urged Israel to refrain from closing Al Jazeera. A plurality of media voices is essential in order to hold power to account, especially in times of war, CPJs Mansour said in a statement.

Shutting that agency down and removing them would be a very chilling step for freedom of expression and the media in the region that would open the floodgates to other kinds of restrictions, Quinn McKew, executive director of the free expression group Article 19, told VOA.

The liberal Israeli newspaper Haaretz lambasted the regulations in an editorial over the weekend, saying, The state should not be authorized to decide for the public which information it can be exposed to, as is done in countries such as China and Iran.


Eight Indian former naval officers who were handed the death penalty by a court in Qatar on Thursday were charged with spying for Israel, a source in India and another in Qatar said.

Neither New Delhi nor Doha has officially stated the charges against the eight, who were arrested in August 2022.

In India, a government official aware of Doha's stance said the Qatar authorities had accused them of spying for Israel.

The eight Indians will be able to appeal the death sentence, the source briefed on the case in Qatar told Reuters, who also said they had been charged with spying for Israel.

Both sources spoke on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the case.

A spokesperson for India's foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment about the sources' comments.

There was no immediate reply from Qatars foreign ministry, nor from the prime ministers office in Jerusalem, which oversees Israels intelligence services.

The ruling comes as Doha is trying to negotiate with the Palestinian militant group Hamas for the release of over 200 hostages seized during its October 7 rampage in Israel, which is pummeling Gaza with aerial strikes in response.

The case involving the eight Indians, who were working on a submarine project with a private company for the Qatari authorities, also could become a diplomatic headache for New Delhi, which depends heavily on Qatar for its natural gas needs.

The Indian government said Thursday it was "deeply shocked" that Qatar's Court of First Instance had sentenced the eight Indians to death, adding it was "exploring all legal options."

New Delhi had said that it attaches "high importance to this case" and will "take up the verdict with Qatari authorities."

The government said it would not comment further because of the "confidential nature of the proceedings."

Jairam Ramesh, a spokesperson for India's opposition Congress party, urged the Indian government on Thursday to "use its diplomatic and political leverage with the Qatar government" to do the utmost to get the prisoners released as soon as possible.

More than 800,000 Indian citizens live and work in Qatar.
An Iranian court on Thursday ordered the U.S. government to pay $420 million in compensation to victims of an abortive 1980 operation to free hostages held at the U.S. Embassy, the judiciary said.

Shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution toppled the Western-backed shah, Iranian students stormed the embassy in Tehran and took more than 50 Americans hostage for 444 days.

The students called for the extradition of the deposed shah, who was receiving medical care in the United States.

In April 1980, Washington attempted to free the hostages in the top-secret Operation Eagle Claw, which ended in disaster after running into sandstorms and mechanical problems.

As the rescue force withdrew, two U.S. aircraft collided, killing eight servicemen.

In its Thursday report, the judiciary's Mizan Online news agency said that during the operation, U.S. forces had attacked a bus carrying Iranian passengers. It did not elaborate.

"Following the complaint filed by families of the victims of U.S. Operation Eagle Claw, a court ordered the U.S. government to pay $420 million," Mizan said, without specifying the number of the victims.

Iranian media have reported that a local commander of the Revolutionary Guards was accidentally shot and killed by Iranian forces while standing guard over U.S. military equipment abandoned during the operation.

Five months after the hostage crisis, Washington severed diplomatic relations and imposed an embargo on Tehran.

The hostages were released in January 1981.

In August, a Tehran court ordered the U.S. government to pay $330 million in damages for "planning a coup" in 1980 against the fledgling Islamic republic.

The suits filed against Washington in Iranian courts followed a series of multibillion-dollar compensation awards against Tehran by U.S. courts.

In 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered that Iranian assets frozen in the United States should be paid to victims of attacks that Washington blamed on Tehran, including the 1983 bombing of a U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut and a 1996 blast in Saudi Arabia.

This March, the International Court of Justice ruled that Washington's freezing of funds belonging to several Iranian individuals and companies was "manifestly unreasonable."

But it ruled it had no jurisdiction to unblock nearly $2 billion in Iranian central bank assets frozen by the United States.

Tehran, which denies all responsibility for the attacks blamed on it by Washington, has said that U.S. court judgments have awarded victims a total of $56 billion in damages.
Latest Developments:

Israels military conducts ground incursion into Gaza for the consecutive second day, followed by a barrage of fresh airstrikes.

Pentagon says U.S. military launched airstrikes early Friday on two locations in eastern Syria linked to Irans Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Israel says 1,400 people killed since Oct. 7's Hamas attack

Gaza health officials say move than 7,000 Palestinians killed in Israeli airstikes.

UNRWA chief, who confirms 57 staff members killed in Gaza since war began, including 15 in one day, announces plan to visit Gaza.

Israels military said late Thursday it again carried out a ground operation in the Gaza Strip, where Israeli forces have been conducting airstrikes targeting Hamas militants for nearly three weeks.

The Israel Defense Forces said the raid was brief as its tanks and infantry engaged Hamas fighters and struck anti-tank weapons before returning to Israeli territory.

The IDF operation  the second of its kind in as many days  was its latest incursion as it makes preparations for a promised full-scale ground invasion.

Additional airstrikes, which have ravaged swaths of the Gaza Strip, where residents are running out of food, water and other supplies, followed the latest incursion. Meanwhile, the U.S. military launched airstrikes early Friday on two locations in eastern Syria linked to Irans Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder.

These precision self-defense strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on October 17, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said in a statement.

Israeli officials have pledged to ensure Hamas can no longer carry out attacks that threaten Israel following its October 7 massacre of about 1,400 people, mostly civilians.

The death toll in Gaza has reached at least 7,000 people, the majority women and children, according to Gazas Ministry of Health. The ministry, which tracks the death toll, released a detailed list of names and ID numbers on Thursday, including more than 2,900 minors and more than 1,500 women.

World Health Organization official Richard Peeperkorn said on Friday the agency had received estimates that some 1,000 unidentified bodies are still buried under the rubble in Gaza which are not yet included in death tolls, according to Reuters. Peeperkorn did not specify the source.

In an early Friday press conference, Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, or UNRWA, in the Near East, confirmed that 57 staff members have been killed in Gaza since war began, including 15 in one day.

Lazzarini denied accusations that aid was being diverted to Hamas militants and said he plans to visit Gaza, to express solidarity and amplify the voice of the communities and our staff.

Gaza is where I was when I started my career as a humanitarian more than 30 years ago, he said. This is where I need to be today.

European Union leaders on Thursday called for pauses in Israeli bombing and Hamas rocket attacks to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.

At a summit in Brussels, the leaders of the EUs 27 countries expressed the "gravest concern for the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza."

The European leaders called for "continued, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access and aid to reach those in need through all necessary measures including humanitarian corridors and pauses for humanitarian needs."

The Israeli military has called up 300,000 reservists and stationed troops near the Gaza border.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a televised statement Wednesday, said Israel was "preparing for a ground invasion. I will not elaborate on when, how or how many."

Benny Gantz, a retired general and member of Netanyahus war Cabinet, said any ground offensive would be only "one stage in a long-term process that includes security, political and social aspects that will take years."

"The campaign will soon ramp up with greater force," he said.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel has no interest in expanding the war front beyond Gaza, although it is prepared to fight Iranian-backed Hezbollah fighters based in Lebanon.

"We are waging war on the southern front against Hamas, prepared for any development in the north. Hezbollah is suffering many losses, Gallant told reporters.

A senior Hamas political official speaking to The Associated Press in Beirut late Thursday said the Palestinian militant group had expected stronger intervention from Hezbollah in its war with Israel. The comments, made by Hamas political bureau member Ghazi Hamad, were a rare public appeal by Hamas to its allies in the region.

A delegation from Hamas visited Moscow late Thursday for talks on the release of foreign hostages including Russian citizens that the militant group is currently holding in Gaza, Russian news agencies reported, citing the foreign ministry.

U.S. Senator Ben Cardin, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who was part of a congressional delegation that recently visited Israel, said it was up to Israeli leaders to decide when to launch any ground invasion into Gaza.

"We have not called for a delay, Cardin told VOA. I think every day, we think it's going to be that day or night or the next day. So, Israel is going to do when they want to do it. It is their judgment."

It was clear to all of us that Hamas is evil, Cardin said. That they are comparable to ISIS, that their objective is to prevent a Jewish state from existing in the Middle East. They believe it's right to execute Jews that pose no threat to them and have taken a page out of the Nazi book. And I think we all agreed that they have to be taken down  that there is no future for the Palestinians with Hamas in Gaza."

Meanwhile, the United Nations humanitarian aid agency said that from last Saturday through Tuesday, 62 trucks with water, food and medical supplies traveled through the Rafah crossing at the Egyptian border into Gaza. But that total was far short of the daily average of 500 trucks allowed into Gaza before the hostilities.

U.N. World Food Program Executive Director Cindy McCain told Reuters on Thursday that unduly strict checks on trucks at the Rafah crossing had slowed the flow of aid to a dribble.

"Weve gotten a few  a dribble, just a dribble  of trucks in," McCain said. "We need to get a large amount in. We need safe, unfettered access into Gaza so that we can feed and make sure that people dont starve to death, because thats whats happening."

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, meanwhile, warned Israel on Thursday against starving Gaza.

Israel has a right to take action and to prevent future attacks. But that is never an excuse for blocking a whole region, for blocking humanitarian aid. It cannot be an excuse to starve a population, he said at the EU summit.

Despite limited food deliveries, Israeli authorities have continued to ban fuel transports into Gaza for fear Hamas militants will take it for their own use.

Some 1.4 million people in Gaza are internally displaced, with some 629,000 staying in 150 UNRWA-designated emergency shelters. Officials are worried about overcrowding, with the average number of displaced people per shelter now 2.7 times their designated capacity.

Wire news outlets citing local media reported early Friday that a missile launched as part of fighting between Hamas militants and Israel struck the Egyptian resort town of Taba, which lies some 220 kilometers south of the Gaza Strip.

Al-Qahera news, which has close ties to Egypts intelligence service, reported that six people suffered minor injuries in the strike, which hit near a medical facility where ambulances were parked, and that an investigation is underway.

Congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson contributed to this report. Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
Jordan has spearheaded Arab calls for a cease-fire in the Gaza war as casualties mount. An Israeli ground invasion to destroy Hamas, Arab analysts warn, could escalate into a wider regional conflict. Israel's peace partners, Jordan and Egypt, decry any mass transfers of Palestinians to their countries.

As civilian deaths rise and the humanitarian situation deteriorates in Gaza, Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas, designated by Israel, the United States and the European Union as a terrorist organization.

Former Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher told an online Carnegie Mideast panel this week that eliminating the militants may prove difficult, as Hamas has become an ideology and not just a movement.



Muasher warned: If the Hamas military machine is destroyed, I am afraid many other Hamases will spring up."

Military solutions of this kind cannot solve this issue. Only a political process can. The problem with a political process, I just dont see who is going to lead one."

Muasher says that if Israel does not engage in a peace process leading to the establishment of a Palestinian state nor wants to govern the Palestinian majority inside the country, then he warns it may try to effect a mass transfer of Palestinians to Jordan and Egypt  which is unacceptable.

The logical conclusion that Jordan and Egypt have is that if Israel does not want the first two options, then only the third option is to try get rid of as many Palestinians as possible. That is the real concern," Muasher said.

Former Egyptian lawmaker Amr Hamzawy says while Egypt is working to allow aid in for the people in Gaza, it also is very worried about any scenario of displacement.

The Egyptian government position is fully backed by popular sentiment. We will not let our national sovereignty or the borders be abused to solve an Israeli problem of not accepting a two-state solution, of not accepting an end to the occupation, and getting rid of the Palestinian issue, Hamzawy said.

On Thursday, Arab foreign ministers from Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates condemned what they called the targeting of civilians and violations of international law in Gaza.

They said Israel's right to self-defense does not justify breaking the law and neglecting Palestinians' rights. They also expressed concern about a wider regional conflict developing.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told a press conference that Israel had "no interest in expanding the war."
Li Yuhan, the Chinese human rights lawyer who won the 2020 Franco-German Prize for Human Rights and the Rule of Law, has been sentenced to six and a half years in prison. Detained six years ago, she was charged with picking quarrels and provoking trouble.

Li, who was tried in 2021, was sentenced on Oct. 25 in the First Courtroom of Heping District Court in the Liaoning Province city of Shenyang. She will receive credit for her time in detention and has filed to appeal the sentence.

She represented Chinese rights lawyer Wang Yu during the "709 Crackdown" in 2015, when China launched a sweeping crackdown on more than 300 lawyers and human rights defenders.

The ailing Li Yuhan, 74, has been detained at the Shenyang No. 1 Detention Center since her arrest on Oct. 9, 2017. Authorities added a third charge against her, fraud in 2018, and canceled her trial repeatedly without explanation.

Human rights officials from Germany, France, the European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom and other countries had hoped to observe the trial but were unable to as authorities packed the room with selected spectators.

Li Yuhan's younger brother, Li Yongsheng, told VOA Mandarin, "In this so-called open trial, except for me, a family member, everyone else was kept away by the government. The Heping District Court treated this ordinary criminal case like that of a formidable enemy. They surrounded the court with iron fences and deployed many undercover police and auxiliary police."

Wang, Lis onetime client, told VOA Mandarin that Shenyang Heping District Court violated international norms against illegal detention and went against China's Criminal Procedure Law, which mandates issuance of a verdict within five years.

Paul Mooney, an American human rights advocate and former Reuters journalist, said, "The sole 'crime' of lawyer Li Yuhan is her courage in handling highly sensitive cases related to religious freedom, including Falun Gong and house churches, and her defense of the distinguished human rights lawyer Wang Yu.

Detaining a human rights lawyer like Li Yuhan arbitrarily for over six years without a verdict not only violates Chinese law but also underscores the Chinese Communist Party's lack of confidence and a concerning trend of increasing political repression."

Li's son, Ma Wenting, who lives in Germany, told VOA Mandarin, "She has coronary heart disease and arrhythmia. She has undergone coronary artery bypass grafting and stent surgery.  My mother suffered multiple heart attacks in prison. Our family applied for medical parole three times but were all rejected."

Teng Biao, a prominent human rights lawyer in China who has lived in the U.S. since 2014, said in a phone interview on Oct. 25, "Li Yuhan is over 70 years old and seriously ill and has been detained for more than six years. The refusal of her medical parole is not only a violation of legal procedures but also a violation of humanity."

Li Yongsheng told VOA Mandarin that his sister had questioned the Shenyang Heping District Court's jurisdiction since the beginning of the trial, as she did not have a registered address in the district, and she wasnt arrested there.

"This is an illegal trial. In addition, the testimony and evidence from the prosecutor's office cannot prove my sister is guilty at all," he said. "The defense lawyer He Wei's defense is very good. It is a pity that the power of judgment lies in the hands of the authorities, and the court still pronounced my sister guilty. We will have to continue to appeal and complain that the authorities violated the law."

Teng said, "The heart of the Li Yuhan case lies in the blatant disregard for the law and proper procedures by the authorities. Her arrest and charge of 'picking quarrels and provoking trouble' are clearly retaliatory actions against her human rights activities. The primary and direct motive for this retaliation is her involvement in the case of Wang Yu, the first lawyer arrested in the Chinese Communist Party's 709 crackdown. Additionally, Li Yuhan has a long history of petitioning and human rights work. This clearly indicates that the authorities are targeting her."

Ma told VOA Mandarin, "Although the sentence of six years and six months is relatively severe, compared with the previous indefinite extended detention, our family can see more hope. ... I hope my seriously ill mother can be released from prison as soon as possible and receive medical treatment. I also hope the prison will guarantee my mother's basic human rights and the right to see a doctor."

Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.


North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is using his renewed diplomatic engagement and arms dealings with Russian President Vladimir Putin to enhance his position with China as the three socialist countries move to counter the U.S., according to analysts.

North Korea vowed Tuesday to continue its military cooperation with Russia despite international objections voiced at meetings on conventional weapons at the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

"The DPRK will further develop traditional relations of friendship and cooperation with the Russian Federation and other independent sovereign countries," said North Korea's U.N. Representative Kim In Chul. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is North Korea's official name.

At the U.N. meeting continuing Wednesday, U.S. Representative to the Conference on Disarmament Bruce Turner said the U.S. assessed that North Korea's delivery of more than 1,000 containers filled with weapons to Russia for its war Ukraine will destabilize international security.

The White House said on Oct. 13 that North Korea made shipments of military equipment and munitions to Russia.

In return, the White House said, Pyongyang expects to obtain military hardware including fighter aircraft, surface-to-air missiles, armored vehicles and other advanced weapon technologies.

On Thursday, Washington, Seoul, and Tokyo issued a joint statement condemning North Korea for transferring arms to Russia.

According to the U.S., the shipments that North Korea delivered are thought to be a result of arms deals that Kim and Putin made at their summit in Russia on Sept. 16. Before then, Kim last met with Putin in 2019.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in Pyongyang on Oct. 18. The next day, Lavrov met with Kim, who stressed the two countries should "faithfully" implement unspecified agreements he made at the summit with Putin, according to North Korea's state-run KCNA the following day.

Lavrov said Moscow wants to hold regular security talks with Pyongyang as well as with Beijing over "intensifying" military activities by the U.S., Japan and South Korea, according to an Oct. 20 report from the Russian state news agency, Tass.

Putin has accepted an invitation from Kim to visit North Korea. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Oct. 11 the details of Putin's trip to Pyongyang were yet to be worked out.

Chinese Embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu told VOA Korean Service on Thursday, "As far as China is concerned, we will maintain the continuity and stability of neighborhood diplomacy, seek more friendly political relations, stronger economic ties, deepening security cooperation and closer people-to-people exchange with our neighbors and build with them a community with a shared future."

VOA Korean contacted the North Korean Mission to the U.N. seeking comments on how its relations with Moscow affect its ties with Beijing but did not receive a response.

Daniel Russel, who served as the assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific affairs in the Obama administration, told VOA Korean that Kim is using his renewed ties with Moscow to boost Pyongyang's standing with Beijing in a similar way that "China is using its leverage with Russia as a political tool against the United States."

"Pyongyang is signaling to Beijing that it has other friends and other options as a way to strengthen its hand ... in the very lopsided power dynamics between the PRC and the DPRK," said Russel, now the vice president for International Security and Diplomacy at the Asia Society Policy Institute.

China's official name is the People's Republic of China (PRC).

Although historically close, North Korea and Russia became distant after the Soviet Union collapsed at the end of 1991 and Moscow reduced financial support for Pyongyang.

Since then, Beijing has been North Korea's primary economic backer, and Pyongyang continues to depend heavily on China, its top trading partner, especially for assistance in the face of global sanctions that have left it isolated.

According to Ken Gause, director of CNA's Special Projects for Strategy and Policy Analysis Program and an expert on North Korean leadership, Pyongyang has been looking for ways to reduce its reliance on its northern neighbor, and Moscow provided an option.

"It is using Russia as a counterweight to China," said Gause. Moscow is giving Kim "a second source of funding and supplies, especially for military technology that he is not getting from China."

Gause said even if Beijing were to support international sanctions on North Korea, Pyongyang knows that Russia, also heavily sanctioned for invading Ukraine in 2022, will block any U.N. resolutions.

China, Russia and the U.S. are permanent U.N. Security Council members with veto power, a set-up that prevented the passage of repeated U.S.-proposed sanctions on North Korea over its ballistic missile launches over the past two years.

Although North Korea is economically dependent on China, it does not fully trust Beijing, especially when it comes to military support, according to Bruce Bennett, a senior defense analyst at the Rand Corporation, in a commentary published in September.

Diplomatic relations between the two countries soured after Kim took power in 2011.

China was wary of then 27-year-old Kim taking control of the regime, and according to Bennett in his September article, Beijing felt betrayed when Kim executed his uncle Jang Song Thaek, a high-ranking official close to China.

Jang was executed for treason. He wanted Kim's half-brother, Kim Jong Nam, to be the new leader, according to NHK, the Japanese broadcaster. Kim Jong Nam was assassinated in Malaysia in 2017.

Kim visited Beijing in 2018 at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, who was engaged in trade disputes with Washington.

They met three times that year followed by two summits in 2019. Xi's outreach is seen as an attempt to match a diplomatic breakthrough between Pyongyang and Washington during the Trump administration that resulted in two summits and an impromptu meeting from 2018 to 2019 but failed to produce results on denuclearization.

Evans Revere, a former State Department official with extensive experience negotiating with North Korea, said Pyongyang is keeping Beijing close as its main source of food, fuel and other assistance while propping up the military leg of its national security with Moscow.

"North Korea is focusing on improving relations with Russia not as an alternative to improve ties with the PRC, but in order to establish an additional pillar of support," Revere said.

"Pyongyang seeks an opportunity to greatly improve relations with Russia and secure additional support from Moscow for its military, as well as its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs. Pyongyang's goal is not to move away from Beijing or Moscow. Rather, the goal is to grow closer to both."

Kim rejected food aid Moscow offered when he met Putin in September, said Russian Ambassador to North Korea Alexander Matsegora in an interview with a Russian TV program on Sept. 17.


The Russian military is executing soldiers who do not follow orders related to the war in Ukraine, the White House said Thursday, in what is believed to be a reflection of low morale among Russian soldiers.

We have information that the Russian military has been actually executing soldiers who refuse to follow orders, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told a press conference.

We also have information that Russian commanders are threatening to execute entire units if they seek to retreat from Ukrainian artillery fire, Kirby added, calling the practice barbaric.

Russias Washington embassy did not immediately reply to VOAs email requesting comment.

Some of the recent casualties of Russian soldiers near the Ukrainian town of Avdiivka were on the orders of their own leaders, the White House said.

Ukrainian and Russian troops have been fighting for Avdiivka, a frontline town in the Donetsk region since mid-October. The town had essentially been reduced to rubble because of a recent spate of Russian bombing, the Ukrainian military said.

But recently, Russian troops have been refusing to attack Ukrainian positions near the town because of great losses, a Ukrainian army spokesperson said, adding that some Russian units had experienced mutinies.

Russias mobilized forces remain under-trained, under-equipped and unprepared for combat, as was the case during their failed winter offensive last year, Kirby said, adding that Russia appears to be employing human wave tactics.

No proper equipment, no leadership, no resourcing, no support. It is unsurprising that Russian forces are suffering from poor morale, Kirby added.

Meanwhile, the United States announced Thursday that it will be providing Ukraine with an additional $150 million military assistance package. The package will include artillery and small-arms ammunition as well as anti-tank weapons.

To date, Washington has provided Kyiv with $43.9 billion in security aid since Russia invaded, meaning the United States is Ukraines biggest security donor. However, future U.S. aid for Ukraine may be in jeopardy due to rising Republican opposition.

The latest package also included air defense missiles and cold weather gear.

As winter approaches, strengthening air defense is critical to protect Ukrainian cities and infrastructure, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

With winter looming, Ukraine also said Thursday that its Black Sea grain corridor is working, contrary to recent reports that the corridor had been paused.

Ports of Big Odesa continue to process ships that passed through the temporary #Ukrainian_corridor, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said on X.

All available routes established by the Ukrainian Navy are valid and being used by civilian vessels, he added.

Some information in this report came from Reuters, Agence France-Presse and The Associated Press.


VLADIVOSTOK, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that the first module of the Russian Orbital Station could be launched into orbit by 2027, as the International Space Station (ISS) resources are exhausted.

Speaking at a meeting with young scientists and space industry specialists, Putin said that Russia aims to build a complete station, not just a single segment.

"We want to avoid any gaps in our manned space program and work steadily as the ISS runs out of resources. We saw one of the segments today. It should be ready for launch by 2027," he said.

Putin regarded manned spaceflight as essential for advancing space and space-related fields.

"Everything must be done in a timely manner. If the financial groundwork is not made in a timely manner, and, therefore, technological and technical, a gap may arise in manned space exploration," he said. 
Australias oldest city, Sydney, is reviewing statues of well-known colonial figures after an Indigenous leader said the statues ignored historical atrocities.

Sydney has 25 government-funded statues of Australias early colonial leaders. Plaques for the monuments are being reviewed by the City of Sydney council to assess whether they should be changed to reflect Australias complicated and at times brutal colonization after the arrival of British settlers in 1788.

Yvonne Weldon, Sydneys first Aboriginal councilor, told VOA she believes many of the statues inscriptions are inaccurate, misleading and offensive.

A plaque on a memorial to the former New South Wales state Governor Lachlan Macquarie, a Scot, said he was a "perfect gentleman" despite once telling colonial soldiers to shoot hostile natives and hang them in trees.

Weldon said the truth about Macquarie should be told.

He did have a profound impact on the colony. He was not a guardian angel for my people," said Weldon. "At one point he called for Aborigines to be made prisoners of war and if they resisted to be shot and their bodies hung from trees as to strike fears into the hearts of surviving natives. That is not a guardian angel of New South Wales and I think we need to make sure we have a balanced history-telling in this country.

Weldon called an inscription stating that the famous British explorer Captain James Cook "discovered" Australia in 1770 inaccurate and upsetting.

Theres others such as Captain Cook saying that he discovered the lands. Like, my people have been here for 65,000 years plus. There is nothing discovered because we have always been here," said Weldon.

Statues of colonial figures are frequently targeted and damaged by activists. Some Aboriginal campaigners have said the memorials should be removed. In 2017 former conservative Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull dismissed calls to change colonial-era monuments, saying it was a "Stalinist" exercise in rewriting history.

Canberra radio Stephen Cenatiempo on Tuesday told Australia's Sky News that it was absolutely ridiculous that the City of Sydney council wants to wipe out certain parts of history.

Aboriginal leaders say that amending inscriptions on the statues should be part of a truth-telling and healing process after Australians overwhelmingly rejected a referendum to recognize First Nations people in the constitution on October 14.
Ugandan economists and officials expressed confidence in the countrys economy and urged investors to ignore a U.S. government advisory about risks they may face if they conduct business there.

The advisory, in the U.S. 2023 Investment Climate Statements, warned of the financial and reputational risks posed by endemic corruption in Uganda.

The statement also noted Ugandas enactment of the Anti-Homosexuality Act in May, a move condemned by LGBTQ+ advocates worldwide.

Morrison Rwakakamba, chairperson of the Uganda Investment Authority, a government arm mandated with promoting investment in the country, told VOA that organizations such as the Oxford University Center of African Economies have ranked Uganda as one of the least risky economies on the continent.

The African Development Banks 2023 report also ranked Uganda among the top investment destinations in East Africa.

According to the African Development Bank, Ugandas gross domestic product is projected to grow 6.5% in 2023 and 6.7% in 2024, assuming any global growth slowdown will be short lived.

Rwakakamba said current investors are rational and know they will continue to make money in Uganda.

Investors follow money. Investors dont follow geopolitics, he said. They dont follow cultural wars that seem to be what is embedded in that advisory.  We even also continue to encourage our American investors that there is money to be made in Africa. Theres money to be made in Uganda because of the market, because of the return on investment. We are not worried about these advisories.

The Uganda Investment Authority said the country has seen exponential growth in direct foreign investment over the past four years from investors in United Arab Emirates, China, Germany, Japan and the Netherlands, among others.

However, Corti Paul Lakuma, a senior research fellow and head of the macroeconomics department at the Economic Policy Research Centre in Kampala, said the advisory is a disadvantage for Uganda because the country still wants to attract investors.

Despite investments from China, India and Europe, Lakuma said, Uganda cannot disregard the fact that the United States is still the biggest social and public investor in the sectors of health and education.

Those other countries, yes, they are good and dependable, but their kind of investments are different from the investments America makes, Lakuma said. America makes investments with long-term repayment period and return period. Not many countries are willing to take that risk.

Rwakakamba argued that even though there is corruption in Uganda, the East African country has set up online mechanisms that enable direct contact between potential investors and Ugandan officials, in an effort to cut out middlemen who demand bribes.

Regarding the Anti-Homosexuality Act, Uganda has experienced a political backlash for what has been described as the harshest law against the LGBTQ+ community in the world.

Lakuma said Uganda may need to reconsider the law.

The world is becoming very sensitive [to] issues of diversity, inclusivity, he said. I think it demanded for some sensitivity from our lawmakers. We dont live in a vacuum, even though we want to keep our cultures and morals. But also, you must observe what is the changing world order.

In August, the World Bank said the Anti-Homosexuality Act contradicted its values. The bank said it would halt new loans to Uganda until it could test measures to prevent discrimination in the Ugandan projects it finances.
Ukrainian pro-Russian entrepreneur Oleg Tsaryov was shot twice and seriously wounded late Thursday in Russian-annexed Crimea where he lives, his family and Russian officials said Friday.

Russia's top investigative body said it had opened a criminal inquiry into the attempt on his life, the latest incident in a series of attacks since the start of the war on several prominent pro-Moscow figures.

Tsaryov was found unconscious and bleeding. A Russian-installed official in southern Ukraine, Vladimir Rogov, said he is in intensive care. The former Ukrainian lawmaker was lined up to lead a puppet administration in Kyiv if Russia succeeded in occupying Kyiv, Reuters reported, citing sources in Moscow.

The shooting of Tsaryov was a special operation conducted by the Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, a source in the Ukrainian intelligence agency said Friday.

Tsaryov, a wealthy hotel businessman in Crimea, was previously a member of the Ukrainian parliament and then speaker of the parliament of "Novorossiya"  an entity formed after Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine broke away in 2014 and began fighting Ukrainian forces.

Ukraine, the United States and several other Western countries have imposed sanctions on him. He is listed as a "traitor to the motherland" by Myrotvorets, Peacemaker in Ukrainian, a vast unofficial database of people considered to be enemies of the country. The website lists personal information about Tsaryov, including an email address, a passport number and an address in Yalta.

Several pro-war Russian figures in the Myrotvorets database have been assassinated since the start of the war, including journalist Darya Dugina, war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky and former submarine commander Stanislav Rzhitsky.

Dugina and Tatarsky died in bombings, while Rzhitsky was shot while out on an early morning run.

No comment was immediately available from Ukrainian intelligence.

War commitment

Ukrainians remain deeply committed to keeping up their countrys defensive fight against Russia, despite some weariness with their countrys 20-month struggle against Russias invasion.

According to a recent Gallup survey, Ukrainians remain steadfast in their desire to win the war that Russia started in February 2022, but less so than a year ago.

Three in five (60%) Ukrainians interviewed in July and August said they want Ukraine to keep fighting until it wins, twice as many as those who want Ukraine to negotiate to end the war as soon as possible (31%). Ukrainians commitment is slightly muted from what it was in September 2022, when 70% of Ukrainians said they wanted their country to keep fighting, but the majority still staunchly support the war, the survey shows.

The fighting is expected to drag on into the winter as both sides remain deadlocked in fierce battles.

War-weary mothers, wives and children gathered on the streets of Ukrainian cities Friday, demanding an 18-month limit on mandatory military service.

Chanting Demobilize the soldiers, about 100 wives, mothers, children and relatives of Ukrainian soldiers attended a demonstration in the capital, Kyiv.

I live in constant fear for his life," Valeriia Koliada, 35, said of her husband, who volunteered for the military.

Its nerve-wracking for me. He is tired as well, she said. We are a young family. I also want to have a child and sleep calm at night.

Protesters gathered in at least six other Ukrainian cities.

Ukraine ordered a general mobilization of the male population between the ages of 25 and 60 when Russia launched its invasion on February 24, 2022. The vast majority joined as volunteers.

In Russia meanwhile, forces are experiencing morale problems as another winter campaign looms, the White House said.

We have information that the Russian military has been actually executing soldiers who refuse to follow orders, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told a press conference on Thursday.

We also have information that Russian commanders are threatening to execute entire units if they seek to retreat from Ukrainian artillery fire, Kirby said, calling the practice barbaric.

Russias mobilized forces remain undertrained, underequipped and unprepared for combat, as was the case during their failed winter offensive last year, Kirby said, adding that Russia appears to be employing human wave tactics.

No proper equipment, no leadership, no resourcing, no support. It is unsurprising that Russian forces are suffering from poor morale, Kirby said.

Russias Washington Embassy did not immediately reply to VOAs email requesting comment.

Some of the recent casualties of Russian soldiers near the Ukrainian town of Avdiivka were on the orders of their own leaders, the White House said.

Ukrainian and Russian troops have been fighting for Avdiivka, a frontline town in the Donetsk region, since mid-October. The town had essentially been reduced to rubble because of Russian bombing, the Ukrainian military said.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that Russian forces have lost at least a brigade worth of troops trying to advance on Ukraines eastern town.

"The invaders made several attempts to surround Avdiivka, but each time our soldiers stopped them and threw them back, causing painful losses. In these cases, the enemy lost at least a brigade," Zelenskyy told British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in a phone call, the president's office said in a statement.

Ukraine aid

Meanwhile, the United States said Thursday it will be providing Ukraine with $150 million in additional military assistance. The package will include artillery and small-arms ammunition, as well as anti-tank weapons.

To date, Washington has provided Kyiv with $43.9 billion in security aid since Russia invaded, meaning the United States is Ukraines biggest security donor. However, future U.S. aid for Ukraine may be in jeopardy due to rising Republican opposition.

President Joe Biden met with new House Speaker Mike Johnson and Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries at the White House on Thursday to discuss his request for nearly $106 billion lumping together funding for Israel and Ukraine, as well as for bolstering security at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Johnson, a staunch conservative allied with Donald Trump, said Congress is not going to abandon Ukraine. He said House Republicans would first bring a separate bill to provide $14.5 billion in aid to Israel, adding that they need more information about the Biden administration's Ukraine strategy.

We cant allow Vladimir Putin to prevail in Ukraine because I don't believe it would stop there, Johnson said on Fox News' Hannity, referring to the Russian president. But he added, We must stand with our important ally in the Middle East, and that's Israel.

Germany has stepped up efforts to supply air defense systems to Ukraine ahead of the impending winter to help protect critical infrastructure there from Russian attacks. The defense ministry in Berlin said Friday it delivered a third IRIS-T SLM air defense system to Kyiv.

Some information in this report came from Reuters, Agence France-Presse and The Associated Press.
Ukrainian pilots have started F-16 training in Arizona with the Arizona Air National Guard, bringing Kyiv one step closer to acquiring the U.S.-made fighter jets that Ukraine says it needs to help defend its sovereign territory and citizens from Russian troops.

U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink announced the training on X, saying, This is an essential part of building Ukraines air defense. The United States is proud to work with European partners to support Ukraine against Russias brutal aggression.

A National Guard spokesperson told VOA on Thursday that the 162nd Wing of the Arizona Air National Guard in Tucson began training a small number of Ukrainian pilots this week in F-16 fundamentals, with the training expected to last several months.

Usually, F-16 training courses last about eight months, according to the Pentagon.

The training at Morris Air National Guard Base follows English language training at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas last month. English proficiency is required to fly F-16s.

During a news conference in Brussels earlier this month, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the F-16 fighter jets could arrive in Ukraine next spring.

The vice chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force, General David Allvin, has said that the F-16 aircraft will be important for Ukraine in the long run, as the Ukrainian air force is able to fully integrate the new fighters into its military.

The news came as the United States announced that it was providing up to $150 million in additional military aid for Ukraine.

The package includes more GMLRS rockets for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, munitions for the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System, TOW anti-tank missiles, AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles and 155 mm rounds.

The availability of 155 mm rounds has raised concerns in recent days as U.S. partners Ukraine and Israel both need them to fight their wars - one against Russias invasion, the other against Palestinian militant group Hamas, which killed hundreds of Israelis and kidnapped more than 200 others in an attack on October 7.

Washington has said it is able to support Tel Avivs and Kyivs military needs.
Israel expanded its military ground operation Friday night as the international community called for an immediate humanitarian truce and U.N. leaders warned that the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip was nearing total collapse.

Misery is growing by the minute, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement. Without a fundamental change, the people of Gaza will face an unprecedented avalanche of human suffering.

Limited humanitarian assistance only started entering the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip on October 21, but it has been slow, sporadic and insufficient to meet the rising needs. Fuel is urgently needed, but Israel has forbidden it, saying it believes Hamas will divert it for its war machine and that it is hoarding large fuel reserves for military use.

Guterres said the United Nations would not be able to continue to deliver aid inside Gaza without an immediate and fundamental shift in how it was going in. He said the mechanism to inspect goods at the Egyptian border must be adjusted so trucks can be inspected faster.

"Everyone must assume their responsibilities, he said. This is a moment of truth. History is judging us all.

More than 2.2 million people live in the Gaza Strip, and the United Nations estimates more than 1.4 million of them have been displaced by the hostilities that erupted following Hamas October 7 terror attack on Israeli towns and cities that killed 1,400 people. Hamas is a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization.

Earlier Friday in Jerusalem, the head of the U.N. agency that assists Palestinian refugees warned that Gazans were being strangled.

"As we speak, people in Gaza are dying, Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, told reporters. They are dying only from bombs and strikes. Soon, many more will die from the consequences of [the] siege imposed on the Gaza Strip. Basic services are crumbling. Medicine is running out. Food and water are running out.

Humanitarian truce

The U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly Friday for a resolution calling for a humanitarian truce.

The text, proposed by Jordan on behalf of Arab states, calls for an immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities, allowing for the safe provision of aid to Gaza and for the release of all civilians who are being held captive, among other elements.

The General Assembly loudly applauded the result of the vote: 120 countries in favor and 14 against. The 45 abstentions did not count toward the two-thirds majority required for adoption. The bodys resolutions are not legally binding, but they express the will of the international community.

A lengthy debate preceded the vote, and Canada offered an amendment it said would make the Jordanian draft more balanced. It condemned the Hamas terror attack and the taking of hostages and called for their immediate release. The assembly voted against including it.

The United States supported the Canadian amendment but did not vote for the resolution when the amendment was not included.

This ridiculous resolution has the audacity to call for a truce, Israels ambassador, Gilad Erdan, said after the vote. The goal of this resolutions truce is that Israel should cease to defend itself to Hamas, so Hamas can light us on fire.

He said Israel was closely monitoring the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

And we know that there is no humanitarian crisis in accordance with international humanitarian law. Trusting the reports coming out of Gaza is exactly like trusting reports from ISIS, he said, referring to the Islamic State terror group.

The Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza has put the death toll at more than 7,000 Palestinians and more than 18,000 injured. Those numbers cannot be independently verified.

The General Assembly convened its special session after the Security Council failed to adopt a similar resolution calling for a humanitarian cease-fire. The council considered four different texts, but each failed to garner the necessary support or was blocked by a veto.

As the assembly voted, the Israel Defense Forces announced they were expanding their ground operations in Gaza and heavy airstrikes were reported from the territory.

The U.N. resident and humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, Lynn Hastings, said on the social media platform X that phone, internet and mobile networks had been cut to Gaza and that U.N. officials were unable to communicate with aid workers there.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk is appealing for an end to the violence and carnage in the Gaza Strip, where Israeli forces continue daily airstrikes in response to the brutal October 7 assault by Hamas militants on Israel.

Turk said Friday that thousands of Palestinian civilians in Gaza have endured relentless bombing by Israel for almost three weeks. He said thousands have been killed and injured, and many residential buildings, mosques, health facilities and bakeries have been destroyed.

His spokesperson, Ravina Shamdasani, said entire families have been killed by airstrikes on their homes, including the families of their own staff members. She said terrified people have been spending sleepless nights in the open air.

Despite its repeated orders to residents of northern Gaza to move to the south, suggesting it is safe, Israeli forces strikes on two southern governorates and Middle Gaza have intensified in recent days," Shamdasani said. "Meanwhile, heavy strikes on northern communities, including in Gaza city, Continue. Nowhere is safe in Gaza.

The World Food Program has warned that the catastrophic conditions facing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza risk getting worse.

Israel partially lifted its siege of Gaza a week ago. Since then, around 74 trucks carrying food, water and medication have been allowed to enter through the Rafah crossing with Egypt. U.N. aid agencies call this just a drop in a big ocean. Before this crisis, they said, 450 trucks of humanitarian supplies were going into Gaza every day.

Speaking from Jerusalem, the WFP representative for Palestinians, Samer Abdeljaber, said Israel was not allowing essential supplies of fuel to enter Gaza. He warned that severe fuel shortages were threatening to bring food and other humanitarian operations to a standstill.

He warned that bakeries that had been providing bread would shut down within days if fuel was not allowed in.

In the beginning, WFP worked with bakeries to provide fresh bread that was supposed to be reaching 200,000 people in shelters," Abdeljaber said, "but with the shortage of fuel today, only two bakeries are able to operate. Tomorrow there might be none. We cannot sit and wait for people to starve.

Abdeljaber said WFP was continuing to position food in different locations outside Gaza, so it could immediately respond once access was granted. He said WFP planned to reach more than 1 million people over the next two months with a lifeline of food.

However, he added, this will not be possible without safe, scaled-up access and additional fuel to allow bakeries to run and food to be distributed.
U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria have been attacked with drones or rockets at least 17 times in recent days, including on Thursday, according to U.S. officials.

"I can tell you that we are aware of an attack today against U.S. forces," Pentagon press secretary Brigadier General Pat Ryder told reporters, referring to the air base in Irbil, Iraq. "It was unsuccessful. No casualties. Some minor damage to infrastructure. But again, we will make sure that we're able to update that information. I'm not tracking a second one at this point in time, but again, as that information comes in."

Two U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the attacks, told VOA that a drone landed on the base in Irbil but did not explode.

Hours later, another drone exploded outside the base, causing no injuries or damage, according to the officials.

Another attack on Thursday was reported in northeastern Syria, with two rounds of indirect fire near a base in al-Shaddadi, an official told VOA.

Ryder reiterated previous comments blaming Iranian-backed proxies for the near daily attacks on U.S. forces.

"We know that these are Iranian-backed militia groups that are supported by Iran and, of course, we hold Iran responsible for these groups," Ryder said.

Asked whether the United States planned to respond to the attacks, Ryder told reporters the military would "do something at a time and place of our choosing, should we choose to do so."

"We will always reserve the right to self-defense, and we will take all necessary actions to ensure that our forces are protected and that our interests overseas are protected," Ryder said.

Officials have raised concerns about the prospect of "more significant escalation" against U.S. military forces and personnel in the region from Iranian proxy groups.

The attacks have resulted in 17 minor injuries to Americans in Syria and four minor injuries to American personnel in Iraq, with U.S. officials continuing to monitor any potential traumatic brain injuries, Ryder said.

One U.S. contractor at Al-Asad Air Base in Iraq suffered a cardiac episode while sheltering in place during a false alarm for an air attack and died.

In addition to the three attacks on Thursday, officials said three rockets targeted a base that houses U.S. forces near Kharab al-Jir, Syria, on Wednesday, causing no injuries.

US increasing protection in region

About 900 troops have either deployed or are in the process of deploying from the United States to the Middle East to increase force protection. These units include a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery from Fort Bliss, Patriot batteries from Fort Sill and Patriot and Avenger batteries from Fort Liberty.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin placed an undisclosed number of troops on prepare-to-deploy orders Saturday.

These moves came after Austin had placed more than 2,000 military personnel on heightened alert with a prepare-to-deploy order earlier last week.
U.S. forces have struck two facilities in eastern Syria used by Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and affiliated groups during the early morning hours of Friday.

These precision self-defense strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on October 17, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said in a statement.

The President has no higher priority than the safety of U.S. personnel, and he directed todays action to make clear that the United States will not tolerate such attacks and will defend itself, its personnel, and its interests, he added.

A senior military official told reporters two F-16s used precision munitions against a weapons storage facility and an ammunition storage facility near Abu Kamal. Officials could not say at this time whether there were any casualties during the attacks.

We hit precisely what we aimed at, the official said.

Attacks on US forces

Another senior military official said U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria now have been attacked with drones or rockets at least 19 times in recent days. VOA has confirmed 17 of these attacks.

Two U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the attacks, told VOA that a drone landed on al-Harir Air Base Irbil but did not explode.

Hours later, another drone exploded outside the base in Irbil, causing no injuries or damage, according to the officials.

Another attack on Thursday was reported in northeastern Syria, with two rounds of indirect fire near a base in al-Shaddadi, Syria, an official told VOA.

Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder reiterated previous comments blaming Iranian-backed proxies for the near daily attacks on U.S. forces.

"We know that these are Iranian-backed militia groups that are supported by Iran and, of course, we hold Iran responsible for these groups," Ryder said.

A senior defense official told reporters that the strikes were in defense of U.S. forces in the region and were not connected to any U.S. support to Israel.

What you saw us demonstrate is readiness to take military action to defend our forces, and we're ready to do it again, the senior defense official said.

Officials have raised concerns about the prospect of "more significant escalation" against U.S. military forces and personnel in the region from Iranian proxy groups.

The attacks have resulted in 17 minor injuries to Americans in Syria and four minor injuries to American personnel in Iraq, with U.S. officials continuing to monitor any potential traumatic brain injuries, Ryder said.

One U.S. contractor at al-Asad Air Base in Iraq suffered a cardiac episode while sheltering in place during a false alarm for an air attack and died.

In addition to the three attacks on Thursday, officials say three rockets targeted a base that houses U.S. forces near Kharab al-Jir, Syria, on Wednesday, causing no injuries.

At least 13 attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria occurred between Oct. 17 and Oct. 23, the Pentagon announced on Tuesday.

US increasing protection in region

About 900 troops have either deployed or are in process of deploying from the United States to the Middle East to increase force protection. These units include a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, battery from Fort Bliss, Patriot batteries from Fort Sill, and Patriot and Avenger batteries from Fort Liberty.

Austin placed an undisclosed number of troops on prepare-to-deploy orders on Saturday.

These moves come after Austin had placed more than 2,000 military personnel on heightened alert with a prepare-to-deploy order earlier last week.
The U.S. Treasury Department announced a second round of sanctions Friday on the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Hamas-linked officials in response to its October 7 attack on Israel that killed more than 1,400 people, including women and children.

The Treasury Department said in a statement the new sanctions, imposed through its Office of Foreign Asset Control, target Hamas financial networks, additional assets in Hamass investment portfolio and individuals who have facilitated the evasion of previous, existing sanctions.

The sanctions include members of Irans Revolutionary Guard Corp and a Gaza-based organization that funneled illicit funds from Iran to Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

The new sanctions follow an initial round of sanctions, imposed October 18, which designated Hamas operatives and financial facilitators, as well as its May 2022 sanctions designating officials and companies involved in managing Hamass secret international investment portfolio.

The agency said the secret Hamas portfolio is estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, with companies operated under the guise of legitimate businesses in Sudan, Algeria, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and other countries. Their representatives have attempted to conceal Hamass control over their assets.

The department release said Fridays sanctions also are meant to underscore the critical role Iran plays in providing financial, logistical and operational support to Hamas.

In the statement, Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said the latest sanctions demonstrate the U.S. commitment to dismantling Hamass funding networks by deploying our counterterrorism sanctions authorities and working with our global partners to deny Hamas the ability to exploit the international financial system.

In a separate statement, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States will continue to work with its partners to deny Hamas access to the international financial system as part of our broader effort to prevent and deter its terrorist activity.

Some information in this report was provided by Reuters.
A Chinese fighter jet came within 10 feet of an American B-52 bomber flying over the South China Sea, nearly causing an accident, the U.S. military said, underscoring the potential for a mishap as both countries vie for influence in the region.

In the night intercept, the Shenyang J-11 twin-engine fighter closed on the U.S. Air Force plane at an uncontrolled excessive speed, flying below, in front of, and within 10 feet of the B-52, putting both aircraft in danger of a collision, the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement released late Thursday.

We are concerned this pilot was unaware of how close he came to causing a collision, the military said.

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but in a similar incident in May, the Chinese government dismissed American complaints and demanded that Washington end such flights over the South China Sea.

China has been increasingly assertive in advancing its claims on most of the South China Sea as its territorial waters, a position rejected by the U.S. and other countries that use the vast expanse of ocean for shipping.

China's claims have led to longstanding territorial disputes with other countries in the South China Sea, one of the world's busiest trade routes. A Chinese coast guard ship and an accompanying vessel last week rammed a Philippine coast guard ship and a military-run supply boat off a contested shoal in the waterway.

Following that incident, President Joe Biden renewed a warning that the U.S. would be obligated to defend the Philippines, its oldest treaty ally in Asia, if Filipino forces, aircraft or vessels come under armed attack. He spoke in a news conference with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday at the White House.

China reacted by saying the U.S. has no right to interfere in Beijings disputes with Manila.

The U.S. defense commitment to the Philippines should not undermine Chinas sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea, nor should it support the illegal claims of the Philippines, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Thursday in a news conference in Beijing.

The U.S. and its allies regularly conduct maritime maneuvers in the South China Sea, and also regularly fly aircraft over the area to emphasize that the waters and airspace are international.

The B-52 was "lawfully conducting routine operations over the South China Sea in international airspace" when it was intercepted by the J-11 on Tuesday, the U.S. military said.

Intercepts are common, with the U.S. saying that there have been more than 180 such incidents since the fall of 2021.

They are not often as close as Tuesday's incident, however, and with tensions already high between Beijing and Washington, a collision would have had the potential to lead to an escalation.

The U.S. military said in its statement that the incident will not change its approach.

The U.S. will continue to fly, sail and operate  safely and responsibly  wherever international laws allow, the military said.
Palestine's UN ambassador Riyad Mansour speaks at the 10th Emergency Special Session of the General Assembly on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the UN Headquarters in New York, on Oct. 26, 2023. The UN General Assembly on Thursday resumed its 10th Emergency Special Session on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (Manuel Elias/UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua)

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- The UN General Assembly on Thursday resumed its 10th Emergency Special Session on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

General Assembly President Dennis Francis, in his opening remarks, condemned both the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel's indiscriminate targeting of civilians and the destruction of critical infrastructure in Gaza.

"The brutality of the Hamas assaults is shocking and unacceptable, and has no place ... in our world," he said. "The ceaseless bombardment of the Gaza Strip by Israel and its consequences are deeply alarming. The right of self-defense does not and cannot lawfully give license to undertake indiscriminate and disproportionate reprisal."

Francis said all parties to this conflict must abide by international humanitarian law and immediately create the necessary conditions to allow for an opening of a humanitarian corridor to the Gaza Strip.

"We must ensure that urgently needed life-saving assistance reaches those in need - from the delivery of basic foodstuff to the safe passage of humanitarian and medical staff. Any action to the contrary - to deprive the people of Gaza of unimpeded access to essential livelihood supplies - would be a clear violation of their human rights and an affront to international humanitarian law," he said.

"We, the United Nations, cannot allow the fundamental principles of human rights and of international law to be compromised. As the United Nations, we are obliged to uphold them - without any conditions, or reservations, and certainly without any exceptions," Francis noted.

At this juncture, the most immediate step is clear: "the violence must cease, and further bloodshed must be prevented," he said, calling for the prompt and unconditional release of all hostages; an immediate, unconditional humanitarian cease-fire; and an immediate, unconditional opening of corridors of humanitarian assistance and relief.

The only path to a comprehensive, just, and lasting peace is a negotiated two-state solution, consistent with international law, the UN Charter, and relevant UN resolutions - a solution that fulfills Israel's legitimate needs for security and that fulfills the state of Palestine's legitimate aspirations for an independent state, said Francis.

He urged all parties to set aside their animosities and focus instead on averting war by prioritizing saving lives.

"I urge the (UN) membership to use today's session not to further fan the flames of hate, division and revenge. Let us seize the opportunity, instead, to unify our purpose and our actions to save lives and to end violence."

The resumed Emergency Special Session is expected to run into Friday and a resolution tabled by Jordan is expected to be voted on.

The UN Security Council, which holds the primary responsibility for international peace and security, has failed to adopt any resolution on the latest escalation in the past two weeks.

In an emotional speech, Palestine's UN ambassador Riyad Mansour said Israel's war on Gaza is not defendable.

Some 7,000 Palestinians have been killed since Oct. 7, 70 percent of them were women and children. Almost all of the killed were civilians, he said.

"Is this the war some of you are defending? Can this war be defended," he asked Western delegations. "These are crimes. This is barbarianism."

Mansour called on delegations to vote in favor of the Jordanian-drafted resolution.

"Vote to stop the killing. Vote for humanitarian aid to reach those whose very survival depends on it. Vote to stop this madness," he said. "Choose justice, not vengeance. Choose peace, not more wars. Vote to put an end to two, almost three weeks of the worst double standards we have seen in decades, to restore some credibility of this place and the rules it is supposed to embody."

"Lives are hanging in the balance. And every life is sacred. Please save lives, save lives, save lives," said the ambassador.

Jordanian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, who spoke on behalf of the Arab Group, said the draft resolution his country is putting forward seeks what the United Nations was established to achieve: peace and compliance with international law.

"Let's make a collective cry. Cry out against more bloodletting. Let's unite for peace. Let's unite for justice. Let's unite for the right of every Palestinian and every Israeli child to live free from the horrors of war, free from fear, looking for a life full of promise and full of opportunity," he said.

"For the sake of Palestinian people and for the sake of Israeli people, vote YES," said Safadi. "Let the passing of the draft resolution be a message to Palestinians, suffering from the inferno of this Israeli war on them. Let it be a message that the international community sees them, feels their pain, and believes that Palestinian lives matter too." 

The 10th Emergency Special Session of the UN General Assembly on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is held at the UN Headquarters in New York, on Oct. 26, 2023. The UN General Assembly on Thursday resumed its 10th Emergency Special Session on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (Manuel Elias/UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua)

Jordanian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi speaks at the 10th Emergency Special Session of the General Assembly on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the UN Headquarters in New York, on Oct. 26, 2023. The UN General Assembly on Thursday resumed its 10th Emergency Special Session on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (Manuel Elias/UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua)

UN General Assembly President Dennis Francis speaks at the 10th Emergency Special Session of the General Assembly on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the UN Headquarters in New York, on Oct. 26, 2023. The UN General Assembly on Thursday resumed its 10th Emergency Special Session on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (Manuel Elias/UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua)
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP)  A German tourist who went missing in a national park teeming with wild animals in northern Zimbabwe has been found alive and in good health along with his rental car three days later, a spokesperson for the national parks agency said Tuesday.

Tinashe Farawo with the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority said Andreas Hoberg had last been seen buying a drink at the park shop in Matusadona National Park before going for a game drive around 3.30 p.m. on Saturday.

He failed to return by 6 p.m., when all game drives should end, and the car rental company failed to locate him on its GPS tracking system, Farawo said.

Authorities deployed a helicopter, vehicles and sniffer dogs to scour the remote 1,400-square-kilometer (540-square-mile) park that is home to lions, buffalo, leopards, elephants and all the dangerous animals you can expect in the bush, Farawo said.

The spokesman said the telephone network is poor in the area and he was yet to get more information about the tourists age, whether he was with others or how deep in the park he had ventured.

We were gravely worried. We are happy he is well," Farawo said. "He says his car developed a mechanical fault. Its a white car, so we were hopeful we would find it."
(Reuters) - Sibanye Stillwater's planned restructuring, which could see it close four loss-making platinum group metal (PGM) shafts in South Africa, could potentially result in the loss of 4,095 jobs, the mining firm said on Wednesday.

High operating costs and declining PGM prices have significantly affected the profitability of the PGM industry, Sibanye, South Africa's biggest mining sector employer, said in a statement.

The affected workers include 3,500 permanent employees and 595 contractors.

"Certain operating shafts are now loss-making and pose a risk to the sustainability of the remaining operations," Sibanye said.

The company, which also has gold mining operations in South Africa as well as PGM assets in Zimbabwe and the United States, said it had initiated consultations with representatives of affected employees in line with South Africa's labour laws.

Sibanye said two of the shafts are mature, with one having ceased production in late 2022 and the other is at the end of its operating life, due to the depletion of available economic ore reserves. The other two shafts would be restructured to achieve viability.

Last month, Sibanye Stillwater CEO Neal Froneman told Reuters that job cuts had become inevitable in the platinum mining sector due to the decline in the prices of the precious metals.

(Reporting by Nelson Banya; editing by Jason Neely and Sharon Singleton)
Kanye West in 2022. Photo: Gotham/GC Images

Adidas allowed Kanye Wests erratic behavior, which included allegations of antisemitism and sexual harassment, to go unchecked for nearly a decade until the company ended their partnership last year, a New York Times report alleges. West entered the Yeezy collaboration with the German sportswear company in 2013, and Adidas made billions of dollars while employees claim they suffered through forced screenings of pornography, tense work environments filled with shouting and tears, and the rappers increasing admiration of Hitler, according to the New York Times, which interviewed current and former staffers and combed through hundreds of internal documents for the story.

On multiple occasions, the rapper who now goes by Ye is accused of making executives watch sexually explicit films, including an ambush at the Los Angeles office after he encouraged high-profile friends like Diddy and Swizz Beatz to threaten a boycott in 2022, just before the company cut ties with him over his public antisemitic and anti-Black comments. (An internal letter reported by Rolling Stone accused Adidas of condoning Wests problematic behavior in 2022.) Staffers complained about angry, sexually crude comments he reportedly made at his first Yeezy runway show in 2015. He also showed executives pornographic films at a meeting in his Manhattan apartment in 2013, the report alleged. Just weeks before the 2013 incident, he allegedly drew a swastika over a sketch of a shoe while the Adidas team pitched ideas. Other cases of antisemitism include advising a Jewish Adidas manager to kiss a picture of Hitler every day and telling an executive he paid a seven-figure settlement to senior employees who accused him of repeatedly praising the architect of the Holocaust, according to the Times. Despite employee complaints and a Yzy hotline group chat between executives to address issues, the company agreed to give him a $100 million annual expenditure in 2019 that on paper was for Yeezy marketing but was in practice, a fund that he could spend with little oversight.

Though Adidas terminated their partnership, the company restarted the sale of $1.3 billions worth of Yeezys previously stored in warehouses all over the world in May, taking in $437 million in sales through June and cutting the companys projected annual loss from $700 million to about $100 million, per the Times. The current CEO, Bjorn Gulden, lamented the end of the profitable era for the company in a podcast interview last month  one of the most successful collabs in history  and apologized to the Anti-Defamation League for his remarks days later, the Times reported. A small portion of the proceeds from the warehouse sale of Yeezys will be donated to causes battling racism and antisemitism. Ye will likely still get his cut.
Saudi Deputy Minister of Investment Saleh Khabti speaks during an interview at the venue of the seventh Future Investment Initiative (FII7) forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Oct. 25, 2023. Saudi Deputy Minister of Investment Saleh Khabti said China has strengths in infrastructure, high-tech and logistics, and the possibilities of the two countries' business cooperation are "unlimited." (Xinhua/Wang Dongzhen)

RIYADH, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- Saudi Deputy Minister of Investment Saleh Khabti said China has strengths in infrastructure, high-tech and logistics, and the possibilities of the two countries' business cooperation are "unlimited."

In an interview with Xinhua on Wednesday, the Saudi official said the cooperation between Saudi Arabia and China in trade and investment has been improving over the years.

"In 2023, we see Saudi investments in China more than doubled, reaching more than 20 billion U.S. dollars. Also, the Chinese are investing in Saudi Arabia," he revealed.

He said Saudi Arabia is open to Chinese investors. "I think China has areas of strength, such as infrastructure, high-tech and logistics," the official noted, adding that companies from the two countries could have a win-win partnership.

"I believed it showed areas of joint interest when a lot of Chinese companies wanted to go out and invest in Saudi Arabia. We plan to bring in more than 3 trillion dollars in capital investments. So, Chinese companies are welcome to invest with Saudi partners with 100 percent ownership. We will help by providing facilities," he said.

Khabti listed the possible cooperation areas as energy, value chains in energy, chemicals, mining, logistics, smelting, refining, and precious metals, adding that the possibilities are "unlimited."

The Saudi minister also shared his memories in China as a student and later as an employee in joint projects.

"The Arab and Chinese people have a lot of similarities. It was a good experience due to the people, culture, language, Chinese food and Chinese friends. It was amazing," he noted, speaking of his visits to China.

He studied the Chinese language and chemical engineering at Xiamen University from 1998 to 2005. Then, he visited China from 2015 to 2021 to oversee Saudi Aramco's joint ventures in China as a development and administration official.

Khabti said he traveled to many other Chinese cities during his stay and saw the country's vast transformation. "I closely witnessed the transformation from 1998 to 2021; Improvement happened every two to three months. The maturity of the business landscape improves every year," he said. 

Saudi Deputy Minister of Investment Saleh Khabti speaks during an interview at the venue of the seventh Future Investment Initiative (FII7) forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Oct. 25, 2023. Saudi Deputy Minister of Investment Saleh Khabti said China has strengths in infrastructure, high-tech and logistics, and the possibilities of the two countries' business cooperation are "unlimited." (Xinhua/Wang Dongzhen)
Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

Bella Hadid has taken to Instagram to call for humanity and compassion in a statement addressing violence in Palestine and Israel. The half-Palestinian supermodel has been a vocal supporter of Palestinian rights, and previously marched in protests supporting the Free Palestine movement. She opened her lengthy October 26 statement  which comes a little over a week after her older sister Gigi was called out by the State of Israels official Instagram  by asking followers to forgive her for her silence. Ive been sent hundreds of death threats daily, my phone number has been leaked, and my family has felt to be in danger, Hadid wrote. But I can not be silenced any longer. Fear is not an option. The people and children of Palestine, especially in Gaza, cannot afford our silence. We are not brave - they are.

Referencing the aftermath of airstrikes in Gaza, Hadid expressed, My heart is bleeding with pain from the trauma I am seeing unfold, as well as the generational trauma of my Palestinian blood. She noted that she is also mourning for Israeli families who have suffered losses and separations, writing, Regardless of the history of the land, I condemn the terrorist attacks on any civilians, anywhere. Harming women and children and inflicting terror does not and should not do any good for the Free Palestine movement. I believe deep in my heart, that no child, no people anywhere, should be taken away from their family either temporarily or indefinitely.

Hadid went on to push back against the perception of Palestinians as nothing more than terrorists resisting peace. She pointed to her own familys history, sharing that her father and grandparents were expelled from their home of Palestine, becoming refugees nine days after his birth in 1948. My family witnessed 75 years of violence against Palestinian people - most notably, brutal settler invasions which led to the destruction of entire communities, murder in cold blood and the forcible removal of families from their homes, she wrote. The practice of settlements on Palestinian land still continues to this day. The pain of that is unimaginable.

Ultimately, Hadid issued a call for humanity and compassion, noting, We are one, and God has created all equal. All bloodshed, tears, and bodies should be mourned with the same respect. Her statement concluded by urging for a global response to humanitarian needs in Gaza. We need to keep pressure on our leaders, wherever we are, not to forget the urgent needs of the people of Gaza, and to ensure that innocent Palestinian civilians are not the forgotten casualties of this war, she said. I stand with humanity, knowing that peace and safety belong to us all. Read Hadids full statement below.
Photo: NBC

First off, I want to give Jimmy Kimmel Live! the award for most devastating Mike Johnson burn this week. Everyone got their licks in on the new Speaker of the House, but Kimmel saying he ranks lower than country musics No. 1 Black yodeler Mike Johnson on the all-time Mike Johnsons list? Quality burn. Both Kimmel and The Daily Show did a swipe way far right joke, but the specifics in the Mike Johnson is a generic name riff on Kimmel really set it over the edge.

Speaking of The Daily Show, Desus Nice happened to be the guest host when noted Desus Nice enemy DJ Envy was implicated in a real-estate Ponzi scheme  and it was a slightly wasted opportunity! Desus dutifully read from the cue cards and pretended he was on a serious show. Thats fine  thats a fine running bit to do. But its not maximizing Desus Nices potential. Dude is a shit-talker; let him talk his shit. Even if the things Desus said off the cuff wouldnt have been as cleverly constructed as a pre-written bit, it would have been meaner. And isnt that what topical humor is really all about: being a dick to other dicks?

5. Jimmy Kimmel Pulls Some Strings

You know who doesnt waste a single opportunity? Jimmy Kimmel. The late-night host has Olivia Rodrigo booked, James Corden is off the air, and my man does the math! Kimmel is taking perfect advantage of his fame in order to give his children some truly buck-wild core memories. Thats how you fucking be famous. Plus, he takes the summer off every year and lets many guest hosts take a shot at helming a late-night show. Thats not just work-life balance, thats praxis.

4. Desus Talks to Real New Yorkers

See, this is where Desus Nice excels. Let the man speak extemporaneously, and mostly about chopped cheese! Desus did the work of a Daily Show correspondent while actually serving as a Daily Show host by doing some man-on-the-street interviewing. Its a classic, endlessly repeatable format for a reason. And real New Yorker is a perfect thing to interview people on. New Yorkers will love to hear their name on TV, and nonNew Yorkers will delight in the internecine drama that has nothing to do with them. Other peoples drama is the foundation of the internet, and it could be mined to a greater extent on late night, frankly.

3. Mick Jaggers Impeccable Delivery on The Tonight Show

Mick Jagger sells this recurring segment by just being a good sketch-comedy performer. Dude has had a lot of practice  hes cameoed on SNL over so many years, it must make Kenan Thompson jealous. It must be so weird to be Mick Jagger  for infinite reasons, but one of those reasons is Jimmy Fallon. Your bestie Lorne liked this random kid from Boston, who pretends to be you sometimes, and you have to let him! And sometimes you let him do an impression of you at you. Then you see this joker around for the rest of your life, because bestie gave Boston a talk show. Many public figures meet someone who does an impression of them, but Jagger and Fallon have an ongoing relationship. Thats kind of beautiful.

2. Mae Martin and Stephen Colbert Compare Hands

Something I really appreciate about Stephen Colberts interview style is that hes not always going for a joke. That sounds like a read, but its actually a very human desire to know another human without projecting your bullshit onto them, and its commendable. Colbert got to know comedian Mae Martin and let them introduce themself to a wider audience. Colbert stepped in with a quip when necessary, but also held space open for Martin to just be Martin. Sometimes the job is just to be enchanted by another human being.

1. John Oliver Talked His Shit

This clip took place on Late Night With Seth Meyers, but it belongs to Last Week Tonight host John Oliver. He started with recounting some light negging from his parents, but thats just British culture. The moment this clip took flight was when he described being a little shit at a Sesame Street fundraising gala sponsored by Bank of America. Oliver cant help biting the hand that feeds him (maybe because the first hand to feed him was always negging him), and in this segment, he talks about calling out Bank of America for being less than kind with mortgages during the housing crisis. He got booed surrounded by Muppets, and thats a top-tier feat.
Clockwise from top: Five Nights at Freddys, Pain Hustlers, The Gilded Age, and The Holdovers. Photo-Illustration: Vulture

Happy Halloween! I hope your costumes are ready to go and not in transit because youre a procrastinator like me. Some Halloweens are better spent inside watching scary movies anyway. If thats exactly what youre looking for, youre in for a treat this weekend: There are new titles to watch about killer animatronics, a killer nun, and killer A.I., just to name a few. Savor the last days of spooky season while you can. Savannah Salazar

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Theres no new Halloween movie coming out in theaters and on Peacock this All Hallows Eve like there have been for the past couple years, but instead theres an adaptation of the popular, jump-scare-heavy horror video game series Five Nights at Freddys. Josh Hutcherson plays a night watchman whose shift at a Chuck E. Cheeseesque pizza parlor takes a turn when the animatronics start trying to kill him. James Grebey

Streaming on Peacock

 Josh Hutcherson went from fighting for his life in The Hunger Games to fighting for his life in a haunted pizza parlor.

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Sometimes dramas with the pettiest stakes are the most satisfying viewing, and this series has some of the smallest, most devastating stakes around. Bertha Russell cant get a box at the opera? Competition over the best Newport mansion?! Glorious. Kathryn VanArendonk

Streaming on Max

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In this romantic political thriller, Matt Bomer and Jonathan Bailey star as two men who fall for each other in the 1950s, and in the decades that follow their romance must endure the homophobic Lavender Scare, McCarthyism, the Vietnam War, and *shudder* disco. Allison Williams co-stars in her first role since M3GAN. J.G.

Streaming on Paramount+ (With Showtime)

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The great Paul Giamatti plays a prickly high-school teacher at a tony boarding school who has to oversee the kids who remain on campus through the winter holidays. Set in the early 70s and at times filmed like a movie from that era, this is one of the best things director Alexander Payne has ever done. Bilge Ebiri

In theaters now

 Gotta respect a Christmas movie that comes out on Halloween Weekend.

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A failing pharmaceutical company in Central Florida engages in a criminal conspiracy? What an incredibly cursed sentence! (And, a pretty good premise for a movie.) Emily Blunt stars opposite Chris Evans as a high-school dropout who gets herself involved in the deadly drug happenings. J.G.

Streaming on Netflix

 Because Netflix doesnt think its movies merit a full theatrical release, its only fair that The Killer being in theaters for a hot second this weekend doesnt merit a full entry, either. (Its streaming on November 10.)

The Last Days of Spooky Season

The Enfield Poltergeist

The alleged haunting of a home in London circa 1977 is the subject of this four-episode docuseries, which relies on audio recordings from the paranormal investigation lip-synced by actors during reenactments. Even if you know this story, this is still a creepy watch. Jen Chaney

Streaming on Apple TV+

When Evil Lurks

We all like a horror movie thats more fun and silly than it is scary, but if Five Nights at Freddys left you hungering for some genuine horror, itll be hard to beat When Evil Lurks, now streaming on Shudder. The latest from Argentinian director Demian Rugna, When Evil Lurks might be the scariest movie of 2023, and it follows the residents of a small town once they discover that a demon is about to be born. Their attempts to flee or to prevent the demon from entering the world dont, ah, go well. J.G.

Streaming on Shudder

The Nun II

Its too weird to explain my reasoning for which horror movies I can tolerate, but The Conjuring franchises are on that list  even The Nun series! The two movies arent exactly knockouts in the world of horror, but they get the job done for me. The Nun II is actually much better than the original as Taissa Farmigas Sister Irene must investigate the return of Valak, the scary looking nun/demon from The Conjuring 2. History and horror! Sign me up. S.S.

Streaming on Max

 Instead of The Sister Act, its The Sister AAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!

American Horror Stories

The spinoff of American Horror Story, this episodic anthology series returns with four new stories. While the cast wont include AHS regulars like Emma Roberts, Sarah Paulson, or Billie Lourd, Petra Collins will be directing an episode of internet dating gone wrong with Raul Castillo and Emily Browning as the leads. The three additional episodes include Bestie, Tapeworm, and Daphne in a very Black Mirroresque season. S.S.

Streaming on Hulu

Make It a Double Feature

Night at the Museum

Formative for children of the 2000s, Shawn Levys film is still a whole lot of fun and a great pairing for Five Nights at Freddys. From one night security haunt to another, Ben Stiller stars as security guard Larry Daley who finds out that thanks to an Egyptian curse, the museum literally comes to life at night. Apart from the scary premise of dealing with long-dead pharaohs and creatures, Night at the Museum is a chiller hang than the bloodthirsty shenanigans at Five Nights at Freddys, but together theyre a reminder to ask your future employers why the security guard position is constantly open. S.S.

Streaming on Disney+

Want more? Read our recommendations from the weekend of October 20.
This photo taken on Oct. 19, 2023 shows a new energy power and energy storage battery manufacturing base funded by China's battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Ltd. (CATL) in Guian New Area of southwest China's Guizhou Province. The first phase of the battery base, which covers an area of 59 hectares, started operation on Friday. (Photo by Shi Zhaochang/Xinhua)

GUIYANG, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- The first phase of a new energy power and energy storage battery manufacturing base in southwest China, funded by China's battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Ltd. (CATL), started operation on Friday.

The first phase of the battery base, located in Guian New Area, Guizhou Province, covers an area of 59 hectares. With a total investment of about 7 billion yuan (about 0.98 billion US dollars), it is designed to have an annual production capacity of 30 GWh.

After the battery base achieves the designed production capacity, its annual output value is expected to reach 15 billion yuan, creating more than 3,000 local jobs, the company said.

Founded in 2011, CATL has set up 13 battery manufacturing bases around the globe. Its power battery shipments and energy storage battery shipments have ranked first in the world for six and two consecutive years, respectively.

Data show that Guizhou's large-scale new energy battery and material industry realized an industrial output value of 53.28 billion yuan in 2022. By 2025, Guizhou aims to build itself into an important R&D and production base for new energy power batteries and materials. 
BEIJING, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- China is closely following the conflict in Myanmar and calls on relevant parties to cease fire as soon as possible, a foreign ministry spokesperson said on Friday.

Spokesperson Mao Ning also said that China calls on relevant parties to settle disputes in a peaceful manner through dialogue and consultation, avoid escalation of the situation, and take effective measures to ensure the security and stability of China-Myanmar border areas.

Mao made the remarks at a press conference when answering a question on recent military conflict between the Myanmar military and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA). 
All Saints Day, or Ognissanti, on 1 November is a public holiday in Italy.

In 2023 the national holiday - also known as Tutti i Santi - falls on a Wednesday meaning that the country's schools and public offices will be closed.

Some businesses in Italy will also take a couple of days off either side of the holiday to create a long "ponte" weekend.

The celebration of the saints is followed on Thursday 2 November by All Souls' Day, a Catholic tradition of mourning the dearly departed.

In Italy this is a particularly important day, when people gather to visit family graves.

The capitals three main cemeteries - Verano, Flaminio and Prima Porta - will be open on 1 and 2 November from 07.30-18.00.

The Non-Catholic Cemetery in the Testaccio district is open on both days from 09.00-17.00, with last entry at 16.30.

For details about visiting Romes cemeteries see city website. Photo credit: DedMityay / Shutterstock.com.
Rottweiler plunged around 10 metres and died from impact.

A pregnant woman was hit and seriously injured by a Rottweiler dog that fell out of a third-floor building in the centre of Rome on Friday.

The woman, a 28-year-old Italian citizen, was rushed to hospital following the surreal incident which occurred on Via Frattina at around midday.

She is reportedly in a serious condition but her life is not in danger.

The dog died in the street "after more than an hour of agony", according to Rome newspaper Il Messaggero which reports that the animal's owner is distraught and had been unaware of what happened.

The police are working to reconstruct the exact dynamics of the accident, with one theory being that the dog fell while in pursuit of a cat in the apartment.

Photo La Repubblica
Mayor under fire from Rome motorists as 10-year project gets underway.

Rome's mayor has come under criticism from Roman drivers over the intense traffic in the city centre following the partial closure of Piazza Venezia to facilitate works for the Metro C subway station.

In a letter to Corriere della Sera newspaper on Thursday, the centre-left mayor Roberto Gualtieri apologised for the inconvenience to motorists and commuters but insisted that the Metro C works "could no longer be postponed".

The frustration of drivers that pass through the crucial city-centre junction is compounded by the fact that the 700 million subway project is scheduled to take around 10 years to complete.

The new reality for Rome drivers as Piazza Venezia is taken over by Metro C works pic.twitter.com/o1PDDBMec7  Wanted in Rome (@wantedinrome) October 27, 2023

"We need adequate mobility infrastructure for a large capital like Rome" - Gualtieri told the Corriere - "The construction site in Piazza Venezia, the central station of Metro C, which we are finally completing, should have been opened 13 years ago according to the timetable."

After days of traffic bedlam, the city introduced new measures on Friday, obliging motorists coming towards Piazza Venezia from Via del Corso to turn right, moving the bus stop from Via del Plebiscito to Via Cesare Battisti, and increasing the number of traffic police on duty in the area.

During a site visit last Friday, Gualtieri said: "This phase of the construction site, with the related changes to the traffic system, will continue like this for two years, then we'll change and move on to the other side of the piazza."

The current chaotic traffic situation in the centre of Rome is the result of numerous large-scale infrastructure projects underway simultaneously, notably the Piazza Pia underpass near the Vatican, as the city prepares for an influx of millions of pilgrims for Jubilee 2025.

Photo Wanted in Rome
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Hostage-taking, like collective punishment, is among the most barbaric but also oldest tactics in human warfare. And yet something qualitative changed on Oct. 7, when Hamas went on its murderous rampage in Israel and abducted more than 200 innocent people into the Gaza Strip. What Hamas, Israel and others do in the coming days and weeks will set new precedents that may open a tenth circle of hell in this and other conflicts to come.

The terror already touches the whole world. In part, thats because the hostages include citizens of not only Israel but also some 25 other countries  from the US to Thailand, Argentina, Germany, France, Nepal, Russia, China, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and beyond. Almost all humanity now has a chamber of its heart held captive somewhere in the tunnels under Gaza.

But the shock waves will radiate widely for other reasons as well. Most obviously, the hostage situation has become one, if not the, factor that determines the progression of this war and may decide whether the conflict spreads to the region and beyond.

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For now, US President Joe Biden and others have counseled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to delay a full-scale invasion of Gaza, in order to increase the chances of getting hostages out alive. Several have been released, after intermediation by Qatar. But most remain in captivity. And any moment now the Israelis will enter the strip with full force to destroy Hamas, with gruesome street and tunnel fighting to follow, and incalculable outcomes for the captives.

Even before that happens, the world has already witnessed that innocent Palestinian civilians also became hostages of a sort on Oct. 7. And although many people choose to see it differently, its again Hamas, not Israel, that took them captive. The militants are cynically using the population theyre supposed to govern as human shields, knowing that Gazans are in effect trapped, with nowhere to go. What these civilians are suffering is not intended by Israel to be collective punishment, but looks and feels like it to Gazans.

The worst is probably still to come. Hamas has in recent weeks been compared to the Islamic State, the group that beheaded hostages on video and reveled in a new genre of terror porn. The coming weeks will tell where the current spirals of hate lead.

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But the biggest reason Oct. 7 has already changed the world is that it reminded everybody, everywhere, of the nihilistic logic that makes people take other human beings hostage. Especially when the adversary is militarily superior, like the US or Israel vis-a-vis almost any opponent, combatants will look for asymmetries. And, as long as theyre willing to be more ruthless than their foes, they will always find targets among the most vulnerable on the other side.

This wasnt always the primary context in which hostages were taken. Throughout antiquity and the Middle Ages, the practice was an accepted, and sometimes even mutual, measure that accompanied ceasefires and peace treaties. The ancient Romans, for example, routinely took the kith and kin of the enemys aristocracy or ruling class captive. These hostages were often treated well. Their purpose was to guarantee compliance by the other side.

In modern times, though, hostage-taking became frowned upon. The Geneva Conventions prohibit the practice and the International Criminal Court considers it a war crime. In 1979, the United Nations adopted the International Convention against the Taking of Hostages. So much for all that.

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For the unscrupulous and weak hoping to defeat the strong, the tactics advantages remain glaring. This makes the US especially vulnerable, as it was in 1979, when Iranian students after the revolution took more than 50 Americans hostage for 444 days. It also turned Israelis into recurring targets, most notoriously during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, the first games held on German soil since Adolf Hitlers in 1936. Palestinian terrorists took nine Israeli athletes hostage, all of whom were killed in a botched rescue attempt by the Germans.

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For the victims nations, the correct response is an imponderable, ethically and strategically. What is the value of a life? In 2006, Hamas captured a 19-year-old Israeli soldier named Gilad Shalit, and held him for five years before trading him for 1,027 Palestinians, many of whom had killed Israelis. What did that 1-to-1,000 ratio teach Hamas then? What is todays hostage crisis teaching other terrorists, state or non-state, now?

The reality is that hostage-taking exploits both asymmetries in strength and in value systems. Armies of democratic nations that are accountable to their citizens shy away from kidnapping, abducting or capturing innocents (how to reliably tell those from combatants is another matter). Thats because doing so is evil, but also because the condemnation at home and abroad would turn any tactical victory into strategic defeat.

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By contrast, the worlds most ruthless leaders  from the Iranian mullahs to North Koreas Kim Jong Un and Russias Vladimir Putin  think nothing of human life other than their own, care little about opprobrium as long as they can stay in power, and coldly calculate whether kidnapping hostages would further their personal aims.

Oct. 7, 2023, has been compared to Sep. 11, 2001, in the United States. But it was different, in that 9/11, traumatic as it was, didnt become a hostage crisis. Nor does Oct. 7 really compare to the 1972 Olympics, the capture of Gilad Shalit or even the grisliest acts of the Islamic State  if only because it so greatly exceeds those atrocities in scale.

And so the 200-odd innocent people cowering in the tunnels under Gaza, and the 2 million innocents whimpering above, now take center stage in world politics. Their fate is intertwined with people in the future taken hostage by imitators, and with hatreds and wars to come in distant places. Americans are at risk, Israelis are at risk, all of us are at risk. This is what Hamas has wrought, the tenth circle of hell.

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Elsewhere at Bloomberg Opinion:

 Israels Friends Are Urging Patience. Thats Good Advice: Marc Champion

 Is the Market Calm About the Mideast Wise or Dangerous?: John Authers

 For Oil, Its Not 1973 Again, But It Could Be Ugly: Javier Blas

Want more Bloomberg Opinion? S ubscribe to our daily newsletter .

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Andreas Kluth is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering US diplomacy, national security and geopolitics. Previously, he was editor-in-chief of Handelsblatt Global and a writer for the Economist.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
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MONTGOMERY, Ala.  An Alabama judge dismissed Birmingham-Southern Colleges lawsuit against the state treasurer over a loan denial on Wednesday, a decision that could put the future of the 167-year-old private college in jeopardy. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Birmingham-Southern College filed a lawsuit last week against state Treasurer Young Boozer, saying Boozer wrongly denied a $30 million loan from a program created by lawmakers to provide a financial lifeline to the college. Montgomery Circuit Judge James Anderson granted the states request to dismiss the lawsuit Wednesday on the grounds that the state treasurer could not be sued for exercising his duties. Anderson said the legislation gave discretion to the treasure to decide who qualified for a loan.

Im sympathetic to the college and the position they are in, but Im looking at the legislative language, Anderson said.

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Birmingham-Southern is exploring an appeal to the Alabama Supreme Court, college President Daniel Coleman said in a statement. The college had argued it met the loan requirements set out in the law and that Boozer was acting in bad faith or under a misinterpretation of the requirements.

Our good faith was betrayed over the several months of working with Treasurer Boozer to deliver this bridge loan to the college, Coleman said. The timeline of our interactions clearly demonstrates that his behavior was arbitrary and capricious. We also believe he is misinterpreting the language of the act pertaining collateral.

The Alabama Legislature created the Alabama Distressed Institutions of Higher Education Revolving Loan Program this year after Birmingham-Southern officials, alumni and supporters lobbied for money to help the college stay open. Supporters of the loan legislation said it was a way to provide bridge funding while the college worked to shore up its finances.

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Birmingham-Southern applied for a loan and was told by Boozer on Oct. 18 that that the loan was being denied.

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The college will likely close without emergency relief from the court, lawyers wrote in the lawsuit. The private college, located a few miles from downtown Birmingham, has 731 full-time students and 284 employees.

The legislation set off criteria for qualifications for the loan, including that an institution had sufficient assets to pledge as collateral. The lawsuit accused Boozer of trying to settle a grudge against a bank that had loaned the college money and that during legislative discussions focused on the collateral the College would pledge as security for the loan, including subordinating the first position of ServisFirst Bank in the colleges physical assets.

During a hearing Wednesday, Deputy Attorney General Jim Davis, representing the state treasurer, said the college was seeking to have the judge supplant his judgement for that of the state treasurer.

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The application has been looked at, Davis said. Whether the assets were sufficient, that requires judgement.

Republican State Sen. Jabo Waggoner, of Vestavia Hills, sponsored the legislation creating the loan program and said the intent was for the money to go to help Birmingham-Southern. He said the loan denial likely puts the future of the college in doubt.

Im hearing from a lot of people. Some are crying. Some are angry, Waggoner said. Of course, Im very disappointed, too, and I dont understand it.
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BOISE, Idaho  A woman sentenced to life in an Idaho prison in the the murders of her two youngest children and another woman could soon be taken to Arizona to face similar charges. Lori Vallow Daybell was convicted in Idaho earlier this year of killing her two kids and conspiring to kill a woman she saw as a romantic rival. On Wednesday, an extradition warrant signed by Idaho Gov. Brad Little was delivered to other state officials, allowing Arizona officials to temporarily take custody of Vallow Daybell so she can face charges of conspiring to kill her estranged husband as well as her nieces ex-husband.

The complicated case began in 2019, when Vallow Daybell still lived in a Phoenix suburb with her children, 7-year-old Joshua JJ Vallow and then-16-year-old Tylee Ryan. She was estranged from her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, at the time, and he had written in divorce filings that she claimed to be a goddess sent to usher in the Biblical apocalypse.

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Charles Vallow was shot and killed by Vallow Daybells brother, Alex Cox, that summer. Cox told police he acted in self-defense, and he was never charged. Cox died later that year of what investigators said were natural causes.

Shortly after Charles Vallow died, Vallow Daybell and her kids moved to Idaho. Prosecutors said she made the move to be closer to her then-boyfriend, Chad Daybell, and that together the two plotted to remove any obstacle to their happiness.

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Chad Daybell has also been charged in the murders of the two kids and his late wife. He has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.

Over the next several weeks Vallow Daybells two children disappeared and Chad Daybells then-wife, Tammy Daybell, died of what was initially believed to be natural causes. But authorities became suspicious when Lori Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell married just two weeks later, later determining Tammy Daybell had been asphyxiated.

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Extended family members had also grown worried about the missing kids, and police launched a multi-state investigation looking for the children. Their bodies were later found buried in Chad Daybells yard.

Meanwhile, another person connected to the family reported an attempted shooting. Brandon Boudreaux, who had recently divorced Vallow Daybells niece, said someone driving a Jeep had shot at him outside his home. The Jeep matched the description of one that had been purchased by Charles Vallow before his death.

The Arizona indictment charges Vallow Daybell with conspiring to kill Charles Vallow and Boudreaux.

Jim Archibald, who represented Vallow Daybell in the Idaho trial, said he was not representing her in the Arizona case and that she had not yet been appointed an attorney there.

Ive talked to the public defenders in Phoenix, so theyre waiting for her to get there, and when she gets there theyll assign an attorney, Archibald said. He declined to comment on the Arizona charges.
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Later, the new Republican speaker insisted Congress is not going to abandon Ukraine.

Instead, Johnson said House Republicans would first bring a separate bill to provide $14.5 billion in aid to Israel, but they need more information about the Biden administrations Ukraine strategy.

We cant allow Vladimir Putin to prevail in Ukraine because I dont believe it would stop there, Johnson said on Fox News Hannity, referring to the Russian president. But he said, We must stand with our important ally in the Middle East and thats Israel.

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The new Republican leader who swept into office nearly a month after the ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy as speaker had a busy first full day in office, having inherited many of the same political problems that tormented past GOP leaders and challenged their tenure as speaker.

In the morning, Johnson said prayer is appropriate as a response to the mass shootings in Maine.

Johnson, an evangelical Christian from Louisiana, declined to take questions, including about the possibility of any gun violence legislation from Congress.

Prayer is appropriate at a time like this, that the evil can end and the senseless violence can stop, he said.

The House convened with a bustle of activity, making up for lost time during the weeks of chaos since McCarthy's ouster as speaker. But the initial goodwill toward Johnson blurs the political fault lines challenging his ability to lead the GOP majority in the face of daunting issues ahead.

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By Nov. 17, the Congress must fund the government again or risk a federal shutdown. Biden wants nearly $106 billion in military and humanitarian aid for Israel and Ukraine. And Republicans are eager to resume their impeachment inquiry into Biden over his son Hunters business dealings.

Enough of the chaos, enough of the dysfunction, said Jeffries, D-N.Y., adding it was time for Congress to get back to business.

Jeffries said Democrats were heartbroken over the latest shootings and stand with the people of Maine in every way possible, including discussing how Congress can address gun violence.

Johnson said he and Biden met together for more than 15 minutes before the other party arrived.

It was a productive meeting, Johnson told reporters back at the Capitol. I enjoyed my visit with the president.

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Biden met with Johnson and Jeffries before the House leaders joined a classified briefing with other congressional lawmakers on the assistance package, according to a White House official.

The briefing in the Situation Room for Johnson and other House leaders on the emergency funding request was the first time the new speaker, who opposes the aid to Ukraine, was getting a close airing from White House officials about Bidens case for the money. The White House has conducted similar briefings in recent weeks.

Biden had called Johnson to congratulate him after his election Wednesday and said it was time for all of us to act responsibly to fund the government and provide that foreign aid. We need to move swiftly, the president said in a statement.

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Johnson, 51, swept through on the first ballot with support from all Republicans anxious to put weeks of tumult behind and get on with the business of governing. He was quickly sworn as speaker and is now second in line to the presidency, after the vice president.

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While not the Republicans top choice, Johnson had few foes and an important backer in Donald Trump.

At the Capitol on Thursday, Johnson sat down with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who told reporters afterward that he had a very good meeting with the new speaker.

Johnson met later with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who said on social media they had a great meeting. He has also heard from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who told the new speaker in a Wednesday call that a bipartisan agreement with Democrats is the only way to avoid a shutdown.

In winning the gavel, Johnson, who has been in the House for less than a decade, drew together fellow Republicans through his faith, conservative roots and Trumps nod after more seasoned leaders had failed.

Im a Bible-believing Christian, Johnson told Foxs Sean Hannity.

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The speaker said when hes asked his views on the issues, he advises: Well, go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it, thats my worldview. Thats what I believe.

Democrats said Johnson, a lawyer specializing in constitutional issues, was an extreme conservative, a strict opponent of abortion access and an architect of Trumps legal effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election he lost to Democrat Biden.

After Johnsons election, lawmakers approved a resolution Wednesday saying the House stands with Israel and condemns Hamas brutal war. They next turned to a stalled government funding bill.

Rather than take a scheduled work period at home, Republicans rearranged the House calendar to return to Washington next week and keep pushing through the various government funding bills before the Nov. 17 deadline.

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In a letter to colleagues, Johnson outlined priorities that include providing a short-term funding bill, into next year, to prevent a November shutdown  almost the same move that led to McCarthys ouster.

Speaker Johnson has been very clear that weve got to secure Americas border, we want to support Israel, said Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who conferred with Johnson ahead of the White House meeting. But all of the other items that the President is talking about run secondary.

Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Johnson is thoughtful and smart, and understands that aid for Ukraine is a national security issue, despite opposition from other Republicans in their majority.

And what I saw in the Situation Room was I thought he was very open to the idea, said McCaul.

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To avoid a shutdown, Johnson will need to balance far-right demands with the realities of keeping the government functioning. Most Republicans voted against the budget deal McCarthy, R-Calif., struck with Biden earlier this year, demanding steeper spending cuts.

Similar Republican infighting has chased three other GOP speakers to early departures. The difference now is that Republican rules allow any single lawmaker to force a vote to remove the speaker from office.

___

Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in New York, Darlene Superville and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.
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NEW DELHI  India on Wednesday announced an easing of its visa ban on Canadian nationals imposed more than a month ago after Canada alleged that India was involved in the assassination of a Sikh separatist in Canada. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight India announced that it will resume services for entry, business, medical and conference visas starting Thursday, according to a press release issued by the Indian High Commission in Ottawa. Emergency services will continue to be handled by the Indian High Commission and the consulates in Toronto and Vancouver, it said.

Wednesdays announcement could ease tensions between the two countries.

A diplomatic spat erupted between them after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last month that there were credible allegations of Indian involvement in the killing of Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar in suburban Vancouver in western Canada. Nijjar was a 45-year-old Sikh activist and plumber who was killed by masked gunmen in June in Surrey, outside Vancouver.

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For years, India had said that Nijjar, a Canadian citizen born in India, had links to terrorism, an allegation Nijjar denied.

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Canada did not retaliate against Indias halting the issuing of new visas for Canadian nationals. India previously expelled a senior Canadian diplomat after Canada expelled a senior Indian diplomat.

India has accused Canada of harboring separatists and terrorists, but dismissed the Canadian allegation of its involvement in the killing as absurd.

The Indian easing of the visa ban Wednesday came days after Canada said it was recalling 41 of its 62 diplomats in India. That decision came after Canada said New Delhi warned it would strip their diplomatic immunity  something Canadian officials characterized as a violation of the Geneva Convention.

The Indian government last week rejected any notion that it violated international law in asking Canada to recall diplomats so that both governments have roughly the same number stationed in each country.

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India had not publicly stated it would withdraw diplomatic immunity from the Canadian diplomats, nor did it give a deadline for their departure. But it said it wanted Canada to reduce its number of diplomats in India to match the amount that India has in Canada.

Resolving differences requires diplomats on the ground, Matthew Miller, a Canadian State Department spokesman, said in a statement last week. We have urged the Indian government not to insist upon a reduction in Canadas diplomatic presence and to cooperate in the ongoing Canadian investigation.
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DAKAR, Senegal  A lawyer for Senegalese opposition leader Ousmane Sonko said Thursday that the detained politician had regained consciousness but remains in a very precarious condition on hunger strike. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Sonko, a popular figure with young Senegalese who placed third in the last presidential election, first began refusing food after he was placed in detention in late July. He later suspended the protest measure following mediation but resumed a hunger strike on Oct. 17, according to lawyer Juan Branco.

Branco told The Associated Press that the opposition leader is still being treated by a resuscitation team with the risk of a major relapse. That assessment comes after Sonkos supporters said earlier this week he had lapsed into a coma.

Sonkos supporters believe the slew of criminal allegations brought against him since 2021 are part of an orchestrated campaign to derail his political aspirations ahead of a presidential election in February.

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In June, Sonko was acquitted on charges of raping a woman who worked at a massage parlor and making death threats against her. But he was convicted of corrupting youth and sentenced to two years in prison, which ignited deadly protests across the country.

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In late July, Senegalese authorities formally dissolved Sonkos political party and placed him in detention. He is now facing charges of calling for insurrection, conspiracy against the state and other alleged crimes.

The government has not commented on Sonkos health since August, when he was transferred to a hospital presenting a general weakness linked to his refusal to eat. He was later transferred to the intensive care unit for treatment before suspending his strike after the mediation effort.

Sonko was removed from the electoral roll by the Interior Ministry following his conviction. But this decision was overturned by a judge in the southern city of Ziguinchor, who ordered that he be allowed to have sponsorship forms for the presidential election in the same way as other candidates.

Sonkos chances of taking part in the upcoming election are uncertain, as the Supreme Court has yet to rule on the decision taken by the judge of the Ziguinchor district court.
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CAIRO  The Sudanese army and its rival paramilitary force resumed peace talks Thursday in a new push to end the nearly seven-month conflict between Sudans warring factions, Saudi Arabia said. The revived talks between representatives from the Sudanese army, led by Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and the Rapid Support Force paramilitary, commanded by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, are underway in the Saudi coastal city of Jeddah, the kingdoms foreign ministry said in a statement. The talks are being brokered by both Riyadh and Washington, the statement said.

The RSF and the army both confirmed on Wednesday that they would participate in the talks.

Sudan was plunged into chaos in mid-April, when simmering tensions between the military and the RSF exploded into open warfare in the capital, Khartoum, and other areas across the east African nation.

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The conflict has reduced the capital, Khartoum, and other urban areas into battlefields, wrecking the countrys already dilapidated infrastructure.

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The previous peace talks were held in Jeddah earlier this year but broke down in late June. Washington and Riyadh accused both sides of failing to abide by cease-fire deals they had agreed to. Since April there have been at least 9 temporary cease-fire deals and all have foundered.

In its statement, the Saudi foreign ministry said it hoped the fresh negotiations will lead to another cease-fire agreement and also a political agreement that will return security, stability and prosperity for Sudan and its people.

More than 9,000 people have been killed in the conflict, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data project, which tracks Sudans war.

The fighting has driven over 4.5 million people to flee their homes to other places inside Sudan and more than 1.2 million to seek refuge in neighboring countries, the U.N. migration agency says.
Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares (L) and Leapmotor CEO Zhu Jiangming shake hands at Stellantis and Leapmotor Strategic Cooperation Signing Ceremony in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, Oct. 26, 2023.(Stellantis/Handout via Xinhua)

THE HAGUE, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- Stellantis, a multinational auto company headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, has announced a plan to invest about 1.5 billion euros (1.59 billion U.S. dollars) to acquire 20 percent of the shares of Leapmotor, a Chinese maker of electric cars.

In addition, the second largest auto company in Europe also announced the establishment of a global strategic partnership with Leapmotor and plans to establish an international joint venture.

The deal, which was formally announced by Stellantis and Leapmotor on Thursday, outlines the formation of Leapmotor International, a 51/49 Stellantis-led joint venture that gives Stellantis "exclusive rights for the export and sale, as well as manufacturing, of Leapmotor products outside Greater China."

"The partnership aims to further boost Leapmotor's sales in China, the biggest market in the world, while leveraging Stellantis' established global commercial presence to significantly accelerate Leapmotor brand sales in other regions, starting with Europe," Stellantis said in a press release. The joint venture expects to begin shipments in the second half of 2024.

It described Leapmotor as one of China's fastest-growing "pure-play new energy vehicles (NEVs) tech leaders with a unique vertical integration model and full-suite of in-house R&D and manufacturing capabilities."

With their global strategic partnership, the two parties will leverage their advantages to create highly competitive and efficient electric vehicle travel solutions in China and around the world, it said.

"We feel it's the perfect time to take a leading role in supporting the global expansion plans of Leapmotor, one of the most impressive new EV players who has a similar tech-first, entrepreneurial mindset to ours," Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said.

"Through this strategic investment, we can address a white space in our business model and benefit from Leapmotor's competitiveness both in China and abroad," he added.

Stellantis Group was established in early 2021 by the merger of Italian and American conglomerates Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (FCA) and French PSA Group. It owns brands such as Chrysler, Citroen, Fiat, Jeep, Maserati and Opel. As of 2022, the group has become the fourth largest automaker in the world and the second largest in Europe. (1 euro = 1.06 U.S. dollar) 
Police have charged the 77-year-old husband of Perth mother Sharon Fulton with her murder, 37 years after she went missing.

Raymond Reddington, previously known as Robert Fulton and Maxwell Fulton, appeared in Perths Magistrate Court on Friday, accused of committing wilful murder on March 18, 1986, at Duncraig  the same day the mother of four was allegedly last seen alive.

Sharon Fulton went missing in 1986.

Reddington, who now uses a wheelchair, appeared via audio link from Perth Watch House where he was asked if he understood the charges against him.

I havent been given anything, no papers or anything, he said.
A group of four women will spend a week visiting Florence, Portofino and the Cinque Terre in May 2024. Is train the best way to get to Florence from Rome and use it as a base to explore the Cinque Terre and Portofino? Any suggestions for cheapish, central accommodation? I have stayed in monasteries previously.

A. Maplestone, Eltham , Vic

The village of Riomaggiore in Cinque Terre. Credit: iStock

Train is the best way to get from Rome to Florence but the city is not a practical base for visiting the Cinque Terre. The return journey by train takes around five hours leaving little time for exploring. Youre better off staying in a coastal town and taking day trips and since you also want to include Portofino, I suggest Sestri Levante. The railway line from Sestri Levante has stops at each of the five Cinque Terre villages. This makes it easy to hop off at one of the villages, explore and re-board the next train. You could even walk from one village to another and take the train from there. The best views are between Monterosso and Vernazza but beware, there are lots of steps. Another option is to take a boat cruise along the coast, and this is easily arranged through hotels in Sestri Levante. To get to Portofino you can also take a boat or, at much lower cost, the bus, which takes around 25 minutes. You can find several monasteries that offer accommodation to travellers on the Monastery Stays website (monasterystays.com).

We are two fit 80s-plus travellers wishing to visit Sicily and Malta in May 2024. Are there any easy tours we could do, spending days in each place instead of one-night stops?

S. Bailey, Black Rock, Vic

Malta is compact, and basing yourselves in Valletta and organising day trips from there is the best way to experience this rich and intriguing Mediterranean island. Take a look at Viator (viator.com), theres a big selection of tours with various themes including cultural, food, boat trips to the Blue Lagoon and historic sites around Malta. Alternatively, hotels in Valletta can suggest tours. Since Sicily is much larger, you need to choose your base with care and one possibility is Ortigia, an island connected to Syracuse by a bridge on the east coast of Sicily. From there youre within easy reach of Noto, Ragusa, Modica, the city of Catania, Taormina and Mount Etna, all available as a day tour from Ortigia. Plan a couple of days just for relaxing in Ortigia and exploring its piazzas and meandering streets, its one of Sicilys loveliest towns. Other places worth visiting in Sicily are Palermo and the Aeolian Islands, each of which would add another three days to your itinerary.
Tel Aviv: The Israeli military on Saturday night released a video message reiterating its calls for residents of northern Gaza to evacuate ahead of an impending ground operation.

The Israel Defence Forces had already intensified its operations in Gaza as it prepared for a long-expected ground invasion, claiming to have identified a Hamas military base hidden underneath the strips largest hospital.

Smoke is seen over Beit Hanoun in the Gaza Strip as a result of the attack from the Israeli side of the border on Friday. Credit: Getty Images

Internet and mobile phone services were cut off in the Palestinian territory earlier on Saturday (AEDT). The United Nations childrens agency and the World Health Organisation said they had lost touch with all their staff in Gaza because of the blackout.

The Israeli military confirmed its tanks and ground troops were conducting shooting missions in Gaza, but refused to be drawn on whether these incursions were the beginning of a major ground invasion.
A member of Hamas has told Russian media that around 50 hostages taken by the terrorist group had been killed by airstrikes and insisted more hostages would not be released until a ceasefire was agreed.

Several hostages were released this week.

A spokesman for Hamas armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, said about 50 captives had been killed in Gaza due to Israeli strikes. He gave no further details and Reuters was not able to verify the numbers.

A Hamas delegation is currently in Moscow alongside officials from Iran by invitation of President Vladimir Putin.

The Russian newspaper Kommersant is quoting Hamas Abu Hamid as saying the group needed time to locate all of those who had been taken from Israel to Gaza by various Palestinian factions in a Hamas attack on October 7.

They seized dozens of people, most of them civilians, and we need time to find them in the Gaza Strip and then release them, Hamid said.

Hamas is designated a terrorist group by the Australian government.

Israel has urged Russia to expel the visiting Hamas delegation, calling their invitation to Moscow deplorable.

Russia has repeatedly blamed the current crisis on a failure of US diplomacy, and called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and the resumption of talks aimed at finding a peace settlement.

With Reuters
US and coalition troops have been attacked at least 19 times in Iraq and in Syria by Iran-backed forces in the past week. Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Lebanons Hezbollah are all backed by Tehran. All three are designated terror organisations in the US and Australia. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said at the United Nations earlier in the day that if Israels offensive against Hamas did not stop, the United States would not be spared from this fire. The UN agency providing aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza said it may have to shut down operations very soon if no fuel reaches the Hamas-ruled territory amid a desperate need for shelter, water, food and medical services. Israel has carried out nearly three weeks of intense bombardments of the densely populated Gaza Strip following the October 7 Hamas attack on Israeli communities which it says killed 1405 people. Gazas Hamas-ruled Health Ministry said that 7131 Palestinians had now been killed in the retaliatory air strikes, including 2913 children.

The day before, Biden cast doubt on the Palestinian casualty figures, which an Israeli military spokesman said could not be trusted. However the military has not provided any assessment of its own and Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra rejected the statements questioning the figures. The Health Ministry published a 212-page document which it said contains the names of all the victims identified, with their ID numbers. Israeli army radio said the military had overnight into Thursday staged its biggest incursion into northern Gaza of the current war.

Military video showed armoured vehicles crossing the fortified barrier from Israel. The vehicles blew up buildings in preparation for the next stages of combat. Tanks and infantry struck numerous terrorist cells, infrastructure and anti-tank missile launch posts, it said. Palestinians said Israeli air strikes had pounded the territory and people living in central Gaza, including near the Bureij refugee camp, reported intensive tank shelling all night.

Arab criticism As the bloodshed continued with no sign of a let-up, the foreign ministers of the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Egypt and Morocco condemned the targeting of civilians and violations of international law in Gaza. Their joint statement said the right to self-defence did not justify breaking the law and neglecting Palestinians rights. The Arab ministers also condemned forced displacement and collective punishment of the Palestinians in Gaza.

They criticised Israels continued occupation of Palestinian areas and called for more efforts to implement a two-state solution to the decades-long conflict - an idea that has been the foundation of a long-moribund peace process. The absence of a political solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has led to repeated acts of violence and suffering for the Palestinian and Israeli peoples and the peoples of the region, it said. Support for Israel came from European governments. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said EU leaders meeting in Brussels on Friday will send a clear signal of backing for Israel in what he called its self-defence efforts. Hostages Concern also grew over the fate of more than 200 hostages seized by Hamas in the October 7 assault and taken to Gaza.

A spokesman for Hamas armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, said about 50 captives had been killed in Gaza due to Israeli strikes. He gave no further details and Reuters was not able to verify the numbers. Biden discussed efforts to locate and secure Americans believed held hostage in Gaza in a phone call with Netanyahu. Israel said there were 224 hostages, whose presence complicates any Israeli ground invasion. Some of those held include a number of foreign passport holders. Hamas has freed four captives since last Friday and Gaza began receiving a small amount of aid the following day. Merav Mor Raviv, centre left, and others in front of photos of Israeli relatives believed to be held hostage by Hamas, during a press conference in Madrid, Spain. Credit: AP A Qatari negotiator told Sky News that a pause in fighting could help get more hostages released in the coming days.

Qatari Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Mohmmad Aal-Khulaifi said: Its a very, very difficult negotiation ... With the bombing continuing every day, our task becomes more difficult. But despite that we remain hopeful, we remain committed. More deaths In Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, an Israeli airstrike hit a house, killing a mother, her three daughters and a baby boy, whose father held his body in hospital. Did he kill? Did he wound someone? Did he capture someone? They were innocent children inside their house, he said.

Assaults on the southern half of Gaza continued. The director of the Nasser hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, Nahed Abu Taaema, said the bodies of 77 people killed in air strikes had been brought in overnight, most of them women and children, Hamass al-Aqsa radio station reported. Loading Many Palestinians are sheltering in Khan Youniss hospitals, schools, homes and existing refugee camps and on the street after Israel warned them to leave their homes in the north. Israel did not respond directly to the report but said its forces had struck a Hamas missile launch post in the Khan Younis area that was next to a mosque and kindergarten. It was not clear if both sides were referring to the same incident.

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said it urgently needed fuel to maintain life-saving humanitarian operations in Gaza. Israel has refused to let in fuel with aid shipments, saying it could be seized by Hamas. Loading More than 613,000 people made homeless by the war are sheltering in 150 UNRWA facilities across the shattered territory. In the last 24 hours another three UNRWA staff members have been killed, bringing the total to 38 staff killed, said UNRWA. Around midday on Thursday, according to officials at Nasser Hospital in the southern town of Khan Younis, Israel bombed an area not far from a UNRWA shelter for displaced people, killing at least 18 people and causing panic among the displaced.

Mahmoud Shameya, sheltering there with his wife and three children, said they lived in constant terror because of ongoing Israeli bombing. I urge the whole world to protect us, he said. We sleep amid the sounds of explosions and we wake up to the sounds of explosions, the children are always blocking their ears with their hands. Humanitarian supplies are critically low but world powers failed at the United Nations to agree on how to call for a lull to the fighting to deliver significant amounts of aid. Reuters
UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- Only 62 trucks passed through the Rafa crossing into Gaza in the last four days when 500 trucks a day was the pre-war average, UN humanitarians said on Thursday.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the latest payloads of water, food and medical supplies ferried by the trucks from Egypt already were distributed to medical sites and the displaced in besieged Gaza.

"Fuel, which is desperately needed to run backup generators, remains banned by the Israeli authorities," OCHA said. "As a result, the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has almost exhausted its fuel reserves and began to significantly reduce its operations."

Lynn Hastings, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory, issued a statement in which she said the Israeli Defense Forces continue to notify people in Gaza City that those who stay in their homes will put themselves in danger.

She said that advance warnings make no difference for people who can't evacuate because they have nowhere to go or are unable to move.

"When the evacuation routes are bombed, when people north as well as south are caught up in hostilities, when the essentials for survival are lacking, and when there are no assurances for return, people are left with nothing but impossible choices," Hastings said. "Nowhere is safe in Gaza."

The coordinator reminded that the conduct of armed conflict anywhere is governed by international humanitarian law, meaning that civilians must be protected and have the essentials to survive wherever they are and whether they choose to move or stay.

"It also means that hostages, all hostages, must be released, immediately and unconditionally," she said.

OCHA said an estimated 1.4 million of the approximately 2 million people living in Gaza are internally displaced, with 629,000 sheltering in 150 UNRWA-designated emergency shelters. The average number of displaced people per shelter has now reached 2.7 times the designated capacity.

Water supply in areas south of Wadi Gaza temporarily improved after UNRWA and the UN Children's Fund delivered small quantities of fuel retrieved from their existing reserves to critical facilities. However, the available fuel in these facilities will be exhausted, likely quite soon, and the supply of piped water is expected to cease again, it said.

Wadi Gaza is a river valley and wetland cutting across the northern part of the Gaza Strip's midsection. 
A Sub-regional Workshop for the ASEAN Member countries on the Harmonized System (HS) and Advance Rulings for the classification of goods was held in Bangkok, Thailand, from 16 to 20 October 2023. The Workshop was organized jointly by the WCO, Thai Customs and the ROCB Asia-Pacific (AP), with the sponsorship of the Customs Cooperation Fund (CCF) of Japan. It was facilitated by two experts of the WCO Secretariat, an expert from Japan Customs, a WCO accredited expert from Cambodia, and attended by 19 officials from Customs administrations of Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, who work on tariff classification related areas.

In her opening remarks, Ms. Nunthita Sirikup, the Deputy Director-General of Thai Customs, highlighted the importance of HS classification as one of the pillars of Customs work. She pointed out the impact of tariff classification in international trade and recognized the need of imparting the necessary knowledge to the officials working in this area to be compliant with the provisions of the latest edition of the HS. She also emphasized the pivotal role of the HS and tariffs in ensuring correct and efficient administration of various trade measures, and expressed her appreciation to the WCO and Japan Customs for working together with the ASEAN Member countries to strengthen this important technical area.

Mr. Norikazu Kuramoto, the Director of the ROCB AP, thanked the WCO and Japan Customs for the ongoing capacity building support. He expressed his confidence on the practical benefits for the participants and their Customs administrations after the discussions on a wide range of topics on tariff classification held during the Workshop.

During the Workshop, participants from Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand presented their respective HS classification work model and Advance Rulings systems. The presentations by these administrations gave the opportunity to all participants to discuss their common challenges and possible solutions related to HS classification and Advance Ruling processes.

The main focus of the Workshop was to ensure uniformity in the interpretation and application of the HS Nomenclature 2022 and to improve institutional capacity to implement classification in an efficient manner, including through the Advance Rulings system. Furthermore, the Workshop offered an opportunity to better explore the WCO tools and instruments to assist HS classification. At the request of the participants, the experts explained in more detail the classification of products of Sections XVI to XVIII.

The participants worked on case studies of tariff classification in different sectors such as agricultural products, plastics, rubber, textiles, machinery and mechanical appliances, electrical equipment, and vehicles.

All participants expressed their appreciation to the WCO and Japan Customs for the support provided to the capacity building in the HS and in other areas.

In closing the Workshop, Ms. Namthip Pongsa-ngiam, the Director of Thai Customs Academy,emphasizedthe importance of the Workshop to create opportunities for effective exchange of information and fruitful discussions on the HSbetween the WCO experts and the participants.
From October 9th to 13th, 2023, the World Customs Organization (WCO) successfully organized a regional workshop on integrity promotion in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. The workshop brought together officials from Customs Administrations across the Europe Region and was made possible through the generous financial support of the Customs Cooperation Fund of Korea (CCF-Korea).

The Deputy Chairman of the Turkmenistan Customs Service officially inaugurated the workshop, emphasizing the crucial role of integrity in advancing Customs services globally. He highlighted the significance of the Revised Arusha Declaration as a vital international instrument in combating corruption and promoting integrity in Customs.

In his video message, the Vice-Chair of the WCO for the Europe region expressed gratitude to the WCO for organizing the workshop and stressed the importance of collective efforts to ensure integrity. He acknowledged his governments active participation in the WCO Anti-Corruption and Integrity Promotion (A-CIP) Programme, demonstrating their commitment to the integrity agenda.

Mr. Antonio Lo Parco, Director of ROCB Europe, in his video address emphasized the crucial link between capacity building and effective human resources management, underlining the necessity of integrity for the proper functioning of Customs administrations. ROCB Europe pledged support for initiatives in the region and emphasized the importance of maintaining high employee satisfaction and professional pride through innovation.

During the workshop, participants received comprehensive insights into the WCOs integrity instruments and tools for promoting integrity in the Customs environment. These included the Revised Arusha Declaration, the Integrity Development Guide, and a compilation of integrity practices, among others. The experts from the WCO also presented the latest developments in integrity promotion. They encouraged participants from various Customs Administrations to play a more active role in promoting integrity in their respective countries after the workshop, emphasizing the need for strong commitment from all Customs officers in combating corruption.

Additionally, participants shared effective strategies and approaches employed by their Customs Administrations to implement the key factors of the Revised Arusha Declaration. The meeting fostered interactive discussions, enabling participants to exchange views on opportunities and challenges related to the implementation of the Declaration in Customs.

The workshop concluded with unanimous agreement among participants that forums on integrity promotion should be encouraged by the WCO whenever resources permit, including human, financial, and other necessary means.

For more information, contact capacity.building@wcoomd.org.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang meets with Iran's First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber on the sidelines of the 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Oct. 26, 2023. (Xinhua/Liu Bin)

BISHKEK, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- China stands ready to strengthen communication and coordination with Iran within the United Nations, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), BRICS and other multilateral mechanisms, practice true multilateralism, and safeguard the common interests of developing countries, Chinese Premier Li Qiang said here Thursday.

Li made the remarks when meeting with Iran's First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber on the sidelines of the 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the SCO Member States.

Since the establishment of China-Iran diplomatic ties more than 50 years ago, bilateral relations have withstood the test of the fluctuating international situation and made steady progress, said Li, noting that President Xi Jinping and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi met twice this year and reached a series of important consensuses.

Li added that China is ready to work with Iran to implement the important consensuses reached by the two heads of state, enrich the connotation of the China-Iran comprehensive strategic partnership and bring more benefits to the two peoples.

China will continue to firmly support Iran in safeguarding its national sovereignty, territorial integrity, and national dignity, and will strongly oppose any external forces interfering in Iran's internal affairs, he stressed.

The two sides should implement the comprehensive cooperation plan between the two countries, promote the Belt and Road cooperation, strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields and cultural and people-to-people exchanges in such areas as education, culture, tourism and think tanks, and promote new achievements in China-Iran cooperation, Li said.

For his part, Mokhber said that China is a comprehensive strategic partner of Iran and the two countries enjoy a long history of friendship.

Iran appreciates China's assistance for its economic and social development and is firmly committed to deepening Iran-China relations, he added.

Iran is willing to work with China in the Belt and Road cooperation, strengthen connectivity and mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields, deepen mutual coordination within multilateral frameworks and push for continuous and in-depth development of Iran-China relations, Mokhber said. 

Chinese Premier Li Qiang meets with Iran's First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber on the sidelines of the 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Oct. 26, 2023. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu)
ISLAMABAD, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan's Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Umar Saif said the government is actively pursuing various initiatives to support the information technology (IT) and telecom industry, recognizing its pivotal role in ensuring the country's economic stability.

Addressing the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signing ceremony for a strategic partnership between Pakistan's leading bank HBL and the Pakistan Software Houses Association on Thursday, Saif said this collaboration would significantly contribute to the growth and development of the IT sector, both nationally and internationally.

Highlighting the recent announcement by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), which allows IT companies to retain 50 percent of their revenue in U.S. dollar accounts, he said that the initiative aims to boost export earnings and increase foreign exchange inflow into the country.

He said that with the new facilitation by the SBP, each freelancer could earn up to 30,000 U.S. dollars annually, which would significantly contribute to the national economy by increasing the IT sector's exports by 3 billion dollars.

The minister said the government is also working on providing easy access to loans and investments for IT startups, with the expectation of attracting foreign direct investments of up to 1 billion dollars within the next six months.

He said that to promote the IT industry and provide opportunities for freelancing, the government would provide interest-free loans to freelancers for establishing e-working centers. 
As the Israel-Hamas conflict entered the 20th day, Israeli tanks and infantry raided the northern Gaza Strip, while the death toll of Palestinians increased to 7,028. Nine Arab countries urged the UN Security Council (UNSC) to oblige the warring parties to an immediate and sustainable cease-fire. #GLOBALink





Produced by Xinhua Global Service
CAIRO, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- Nine Arab countries called Thursday on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to oblige the warring parties in the Gaza Strip to an immediate and sustainable cease-fire.

The call came in a joint press statement by the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, and Morocco.

The nine countries condemned targeting civilians, all acts of violence against them, and all violations and transgressions of international law, including international humanitarian law and international human rights law, by any party.

They also condemned and rejected attempts at individual or collective forced displacement, as well as the policy of collective punishment.

The Arab foreign ministers also underscored the importance of immediately releasing hostages and civilian detainees, emphasizing the role of the International Committee of the Red Cross in this regard.

The ministers demanded the UNSC to ensure and facilitate rapid, safe and sustainable access for humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip without obstacles in accordance with relevant humanitarian principles, and to mobilize additional resources in cooperation with the UN and its affiliates.

They expressed deep concern about the possibility of the current confrontations and conflict to expand to other regions in the Middle East, calling on all parties to exercise the utmost restraint.

They also cautioned about the escalation of violence in the West Bank, calling on the international community to support and strengthen the Palestinian National Authority, and provide financial support to the Palestinian people.

In addition, the top Arab diplomats highlighted international efforts to implement the two-state solution on the basis of relevant United Nations resolutions.

The Israel-Hamas conflict, as it entered the 20th day, has killed around 7,028 Palestinians in Gaza and at least 1,400 people in Israel, according to official figures from both sides. 
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP)  A shooting between migrants near Serbia's border with Hungary early Friday left three people dead and one other person seriously wounded, Serbia's state RTS television reported on Friday.

The shooting happened at abandoned farming warehouses near the village of Horgos, the report said. A large number of police officers were sent to the scene, RTS said. Police have yet to issue an official statement.

Reports of violence and gunbattles have become common near the border between Serbia and European Union member nation Hungary. Thousands of migrants have been camping in the area, looking for ways to cross with the help of people smugglers.

The Serbia-Hungary border area lies on the so-called Balkan land route of migration toward Western Europe, which leads from Turkey to Greece and Bulgaria, and then on to North Macedonia, Serbia, or Bosnia.

Hungary's staunchly anti-immigrant government has put up razor wire fence on the border with Serbia to stop the influx. People smuggling gangs, however, have multiplied in the border area, often clashing for control.

Serbian police have raided the border area on several occasions over the past several months. They later reported rounding up hundreds of migrants, arresting people smugglers and finding various weapons in the forested area.

Follow APs coverage of migration issues at https://apnews.com/hub/migration
WASHINGTON (AP)  President Joe Biden met with new House Speaker Mike Johnson and Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries at the White House on Thursday to discuss his request for nearly $106 billion for Israel, Ukraine and other national security needs.

Johnson, a staunch conservative allied with Donald Trump, has shown little interest in providing additional money from Congress to support Ukraine in its war against Russia.

Later, the new Republican speaker insisted Congress is not going to abandon Ukraine.

Instead, Johnson said House Republicans would first bring a separate bill to provide $14.5 billion in aid to Israel, but they need more information about the Biden administration's Ukraine strategy.

We cant allow Vladimir Putin to prevail in Ukraine because I don't believe it would stop there, Johnson said on Fox News' Hannity, referring to the Russian president. But he said, We must stand with our important ally in the Middle East and that's Israel.

The new Republican leader who swept into office nearly a month after the ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy as speaker had a busy first full day in office, having inherited many of the same political problems that tormented past GOP leaders and challenged their tenure as speaker.

In the morning, Johnson said prayer is appropriate as a response to the mass shootings in Maine.

Johnson, an evangelical Christian from Louisiana, declined to take questions, including about the possibility of any gun violence legislation from Congress.

Prayer is appropriate at a time like this, that the evil can end and the senseless violence can stop, he said.

The House convened with a bustle of activity, making up for lost time during the weeks of chaos since McCarthy's ouster as speaker. But the initial goodwill toward Johnson blurs the political fault lines challenging his ability to lead the GOP majority in the face of daunting issues ahead.

By Nov. 17, the Congress must fund the government again or risk a federal shutdown. Biden wants nearly $106 billion in military and humanitarian aid for Israel and Ukraine. And Republicans are eager to resume their impeachment inquiry into Biden over his son Hunter's business dealings.

Enough of the chaos, enough of the dysfunction, said Jeffries, D-N.Y., adding it was time for Congress to get back to business.

Jeffries said Democrats were heartbroken over the latest shootings and stand with the people of Maine in every way possible, including discussing how Congress can address gun violence.

Johnson said he and Biden met together for more than 15 minutes before the other party arrived.

It was a productive meeting, Johnson told reporters back at the Capitol. I enjoyed my visit with the president.

Biden met with Johnson and Jeffries before the House leaders joined a classified briefing with other congressional lawmakers on the assistance package, according to a White House official.

The briefing in the Situation Room for Johnson and other House leaders on the emergency funding request was the first time the new speaker, who opposes the aid to Ukraine, was getting a close airing from White House officials about Bidens case for the money. The White House has conducted similar briefings in recent weeks.

Biden had called Johnson to congratulate him after his election Wednesday and said it was time for all of us to act responsibly to fund the government and provide that foreign aid. We need to move swiftly, the president said in a statement.

Johnson, 51, swept through on the first ballot with support from all Republicans anxious to put weeks of tumult behind and get on with the business of governing. He was quickly sworn as speaker and is now second in line to the presidency, after the vice president.

While not the Republicans' top choice, Johnson had few foes and an important backer in Donald Trump.

At the Capitol on Thursday, Johnson sat down with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who told reporters afterward that he had a very good meeting with the new speaker.

Johnson met later with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who said on social media they had a great meeting. He has also heard from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who told the new speaker in a Wednesday call that a bipartisan agreement with Democrats is the only way to avoid a shutdown.

In winning the gavel, Johnson, who has been in the House for less than a decade, drew together fellow Republicans through his faith, conservative roots and Trumps nod after more seasoned leaders had failed.

Im a Bible-believing Christian, Johnson told Fox's Sean Hannity.

The speaker said when he's asked his views on the issues, he advises: Well, go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it, thats my worldview. Thats what I believe.

Democrats said Johnson, a lawyer specializing in constitutional issues, was an extreme conservative, a strict opponent of abortion access and an architect of Trump's legal effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election he lost to Democrat Biden.

After Johnson's election, lawmakers approved a resolution Wednesday saying the House stands with Israel and condemns Hamas brutal war. They next turned to a stalled government funding bill.

Rather than take a scheduled work period at home, Republicans rearranged the House calendar to return to Washington next week and keep pushing through the various government funding bills before the Nov. 17 deadline.

In a letter to colleagues, Johnson outlined priorities that include providing a short-term funding bill, into next year, to prevent a November shutdown  almost the same move that led to McCarthy's ouster.

Speaker Johnson has been very clear that weve got to secure Americas border, we want to support Israel, said Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who conferred with Johnson ahead of the White House meeting. But all of the other items that the President is talking about run secondary.

Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Johnson is thoughtful and smart, and understands that aid for Ukraine is a national security issue, despite opposition from other Republicans in their majority.

"And what I saw in the Situation Room was I thought he was very open to the idea, said McCaul.

To avoid a shutdown, Johnson will need to balance far-right demands with the realities of keeping the government functioning. Most Republicans voted against the budget deal McCarthy, R-Calif., struck with Biden earlier this year, demanding steeper spending cuts.

Similar Republican infighting has chased three other GOP speakers to early departures. The difference now is that Republican rules allow any single lawmaker to force a vote to remove the speaker from office.

Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in New York, Darlene Superville and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.
ACAPULCO, Mexico (AP)  Desperate families made missing posters Friday and joined online groups to look for loved ones out of touch since Hurricane Otis devastated the Mexican Pacific coast city of Acapulco.

Officials said they were moving in supplies and evacuating people from the devastated metropolis of 1 million people.

As cellphone service returned to some parts of the city, many residents had help from friends and relatives living in other parts of Mexico and in the United States.

Residents joined together by neighborhood using online messaging platforms. On Thursday there were some 1,000 people in 40 chats, which grew in number through the day. Late Thursday, Guerrero state Gov. Evelyn Salgado followed their lead, urging people to send messages to government WhatsApp accounts about the missing.

Norma Manzano spent a day debating whether to make a digital missing poster, like so many people have done, for her two brothers, whom she had not heard from since shortly after Otis made landfall early Wednesday.

Manzanos brothers drove to Acapulco from Mexico City last weekend with three co-workers to build an installation for an international mining conference in a big hotel. The bachelors  31-year-old Victor Manuel Manzano Lopez and 38-year-old Alejandro Manzano Lopez  are hard-working jokesters, their sister said.

They were staying in an AirbnB rental in Acapulcos Diamond Point district, a seaside area hit hard by the storm and flooding.

Entire walls of beachside high rises were ripped off. Hundreds of thousands of homes remained without electricity. People lacking even the most basic resources were emptying stores out of everything from food to toilet paper. Miguel Angel Fong, president of the Mexican Hotel Association, told The Associated Press that 80% of the citys hotels were damaged.

Alejandro called his sister around 2 a.m. Wednesday, about an hour after Otis made landfall. She didnt hear the call. She awoke at 3 a.m. and saw the missed call and a number of increasingly frantic messages.

He sent me a lot of messages that it was really bad, that the windows were breaking, that they tried to put mattresses against the windows, and he told me, Im sending you my location so that if something happens you know where we are, Manzano said.

That was the last message.

I feel so powerless not being able to do anything, she said.

So she started joining groups on WhatsApp and Facebook. She joined so many that she lost count and made a poster of her brothers and their co-workers. She scours lists shared by others of people inside shelters.

So far, nothing.

It makes me feel not alone, thinking that Im not the only one going through this, that we have a lot of families who are worried about ours, Manzano said from her home in Toluca, west of Mexico City.

Defense Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval announced Friday that the official number of 27 dead and four missing had not changed, but some in Mexico were skeptical of official tolls because the city remains largely cut off. Some local media have reported there were bodies in the city that had not yet been recovered.

Nature, the creator, protected us, even from the fury of the hurricane, it appears, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said at his morning news briefing. We still have to wait to have all of the information about the missing people.

But it appears, even though the death of any person is unfortunate, there werent very many, he said.

Acapulco is at the foot of steep mountains. Luxury homes and slums alike cover the hillsides with views of the glistening Pacific Ocean. Once drawing Hollywood stars for its nightlife, sport fishing and cliff diving shows, the port has in recent years fallen victim to competing organized crime groups that have sunk the city into violence, driving away many international tourists.

The Pacific storm strengthened with shocking swiftness before slamming into the coast early Wednesday, and the Mexican government deployed around 10,000 troops to deal with the aftermath. But equipment to move tons of mud and fallen trees from the streets was slow in arriving.

Acapulcos municipal water system was down and around half a million homes lost power. Lopez Obrador said that restoring power was a top priority, but by Thursday evening there were still 250,000 homes and businesses with no electricity.

Follow APs climate coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment
READING, Pa.  Heartbreak is felt in Maine and across the country as the city of Lewiston in Maine experiences loss and anguish over a mass shooting at a bowling alley and restaurant.

A father says his son died while trying to save others.

Leroy Walker, the father of the victim, said his son was the manager of the establishment where the shooting took place.

"He picked up a butcher knife and went after the gunman to try to stop him from killing other people, and that's when he shot my son to death."

One woman was bowling with her sister when she heard a loud noise.

"I wasn't sure what it was 'til I heard another shot, and I knew and I couldn't see her," says Bobbi Nichols, the sister of a victim. "I kept asking, 'Where's my sister? Where's my sister?' She's in there."

Her sister didn't make it.

Officials with Central Maine Medical Center say they aren't used to dealing with the level of emergency care required following the shooting, but the staff was trained for it.

Charles Barbera, CEO of Reading Hospital, says that in cases of emergencies involving crowds of people, the hospital implements the emergency incident command system to assess the situation.

"From the intelligence we get from the outside, we begin to develop those and collect those internal resources that we need to meet the demand that comes in," Barbera said.

The hospital recently implemented this during the RM Palmer explosion.

"When we activate incident command, we will put all non-essential functions of the hospital on hold." Barbera says.

That could involve delaying non-emergency surgeries and discharging patients who are ready to make room for those who need the hospital.
EASTON, Pa. - Wednesday night, some Easton City Council members were so frustrated, they got up from their seats before the meeting was officially adjourned. For about two hours, they debated about a resolution that the majority insist is one-sided.

"We are talking about humanity, human rights," Easton City Councilwoman Taiba Sultana said at the meeting.

"I don't think you heard anybody up here say anything different," responded Easton Mayor Sal Panto.

One community member speaking in support of the resolution during public comment had the microphone turned off after she went past her alotted five minutes and refused to stop talking.

"We're not against human rights," said Easton City Councilman David O'Connell. "There is a procedure for doing this."

These heated moments came after Easton City Council voted 5-2 to take a resolution off the agenda. The measure introduced by Sultana calls for a ceasefire in the Middle East. The majority's main issue was the language they considered pro-Palestine.

"The resolution is just lopsided, and it doesn't even mention Hamas," said Panto.

"It doesn't even mention Israel's right to independence. I think it's a very poor resolution," said O'Connell.

"Ms. Sultana has an agenda," said Hagai Feiner, an Easton developer who grew up in Israel. "We have a city council member misrepresenting the facts."

Council members also said the resolution should have been vetted by a committee beforehand.

"It should have went though the proper channels," said Councilman Ken Brown. "We have different tiers of government. We're a local government."

"I don't want my city council to speak about complex foreign policy issues for me as a citizen," said Easton City Solicitor Joel Scheer.

Multiple meeting goers supported Sultana's resolution.

"It will change something at least for all of us here, and that it'll start being a step," said Yaseen Saleh, a student at Lafayette College.

"My focus is on ceasefire...just on civilians who have been killed these last 18 days and the genocide that's continued. That's the purpose," Sultana said, prompting some audience members to clap.

Sultana did not immediately respond to an interview request from 69 News.

The Mayor told us he was disappointed about the divisiveness.

"It was all for a show," said Panto. "For new council coming in on January 1, I will have policies and procedures for all city council to go by, and everything will have to go to committee first."

The Mayor says one of the challenges is the city doesn't have a committee that goes over these types of resolutions. The resolution was referred to the public safety committee.

Sultana sent the following statement to 69 News on Friday:

"I am extremely disappointed to see Easton Council members refusing to call for peace and harmony. I have confirmed with my city clerk. The resolution was advertised properly and followed the procedure."
ALLENTOWN, Pa. - In Coca-Cola Park in Allentown, the Lehigh Valley IronPigs played host to some young ghouls and goblins on Thursday night. It was an unusually warm, late October day for the team's annual "Suites N Treats" event.

The beautiful weather may "trick" you, but it is that time of year again to "treat" yourself.

"Suites N Treats, it's our yearly Halloween event that we host here at Coca-Cola Park," Aaron Weisberg, Community Relations Manager of the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, said.

Weisberg tells 69 News the name comes from back when the organization used to hold the event up in its suites. When COVID hit, he says, they moved the event outside, with tents giving out treats set up around the entire park.

Weisberg says the outdoor space allows for more people, both kids and companies or organizations setting up tents. This year, 26 tents and some 850 children participated.

Kids lined up early evening Thursday night, all decked out in costumes and ready to collect, dressed in everything from Super Mario Brothers to Woody from Toy Story to intergalactic green guys.

"We're being abducted by aliens," 11-year-old Jonathan Raub said.

"I think an alien is just giving me a piggyback ride," 9-year-old Evan Feldhaus said.

The IronPigs provided a free safe space for kids and their families.

"To give anyone in the Lehigh Valley a way to feel safe while trick or treating with no risk, no thinking what could go wrong," Weisberg said.

Alicia Eroh and Morgan Keschl both work for ADP. They and their colleagues were dressed head to toe in pink and sequins. A male coworker wore a shirt saying, "I'm Ken-ough." ADP had a Barbie-themed tent, handing out goodies to the kids.

"There's no traffic they could run into," Eroh said. "It's just a much more controlled environment for the trick-or-treat experience."

ADP was just one of 26 companies and organizations setting up tents, offering up everything from toys, books, and of course lots and lots of candy.

"It's a smorgasbord," Keschl said. "You know candy, we also separate it for folks who are more peanut sensitive, versus not. We have chocolate versus not."

Other themes included Under the Sea and Haunted Mansion.

"We're part of the community, it's what we want to do," Weisberg said. "Our job is to think, Okay, we have a stadium, we have staff, how do we utilize our resources to make it beneficial for the community and give them what they need?"

It's the Pigs' way of making candy gathering for kids a walk in the park.
MOSCOW, Idaho  The judge in Bryan Kohberger's case dismissed defense attorneys' bid to have his grand jury indictment dismissed or to have his case sent back to a preliminary hearing.

The Poconos man faces first-degree murder charges for the brutal stabbing deaths of four Idaho college students.

On Thursday, Kohberger's attorney Jay Logsdon went through much of the history of the law, trying to get his case dismissed on the grounds that the Idaho State Constitution establishes that the standard of proof for a grand jury to legally indict a person is "beyond a reasonable doubt."

Logsdon argued that the grand jury for Kohberger's case was given a lower standard of proof. Because the grand jury was not properly instructed, Logsdon said, the indictment should be dismissed or the case should be sent back to a preliminary hearing.

"I think I've had three or four district judge decisions denying the motion and the argument," Latah County District Judge John Judge said toward the end of the hearing. "So I am going to deny that argument."

Judge said "probable cause" has been the standard used in Idaho, maybe for a hundred years.

It happened during a hearing where Judge made the surprising move to allow cameras in the courtroom, after Kohberger's lawyers have been trying to keep cameras out.

"What I am going to do is take control of cameras in courtroom," Judge said. "I'm not going to ban cameras in courtroom, but I need to have more control over what the cameras are doing."

Judge, during Thursday's hearing, mentioned he's been disappointed with what he's found the video used for by people who are not part of the media.

"That's why I continue to urge people to be patient and have some dignity and some restraint," he said.

Kohberger, of Monroe County, Pennsylvania, was extradited from his home state last January. He's accused of killing four University of Idaho students in November 2022. On Thursday, he returned to Latah County court in Idaho for the two-part hearing. The first part was sealed.

"We were dealing with the procedures of the grand jury," Judge said. "And the grand jury is secret."

In the part of Thursday's hearing open to the public, Kohberger's lawyer spent a long time and large effort going through the history of law, trying to prove a hole in the system and issues with the interpretation of the law related to the standard of proof for the grand jury.

The prosecution argued back that the law, as it stands in Idaho, just didn't support the defense's argument.

"As much as I enjoy the frolic through legislative history," Deputy Attorney General Jeff Nye said, "as a trial attorney, we usually have a shortcut. And that is to check to see if Supreme Court has ruled on the issue. And in this case, it has multiple times."

The judge eventually sided with the prosecution.

"I appreciate the argument. I think it's really creative," Judge said. "But the Idaho criminal rules...expressly states that probable cause is the standard. Not beyond a reasonable doubt."
Allentown, PA (18103)

Today

More clouds than sun, but still some sun from time to time; dry and seasonable. .

Tonight

Partly to mostly cloudy and not as cold; lows remaining above freezing. Don't forget to turn back the clocks one hour before bed.
Tourists visit the Xiaoqikong scenic spot in Libo County, southwest China's Guizhou Province, Oct. 26, 2023. Situated on the steep mountainside of Guizhou, Libo County has spectacular views in abundance and has seen a boom in tourism in recent years. (Xinhua/Hu Zhixuan)

This photo taken on Oct. 25, 2023 shows the night view of a scenic spot in Libo County, southwest China's Guizhou Province. Situated on the steep mountainside of Guizhou, Libo County has spectacular views in abundance and has seen a boom in tourism in recent years. (Xinhua/Hu Zhixuan)

An actor performs for tourists at a scenic spot in Libo County, southwest China's Guizhou Province, Oct. 26, 2023. Situated on the steep mountainside of Guizhou, Libo County has spectacular views in abundance and has seen a boom in tourism in recent years. (Xinhua/Hu Zhixuan)

This aerial photo taken on Oct. 26, 2023 shows a view of Yaoshan Yao Township in Libo County, southwest China's Guizhou Province. Situated on the steep mountainside of Guizhou, Libo County has spectacular views in abundance and has seen a boom in tourism in recent years. (Xinhua/Hu Zhixuan)

This aerial photo taken on Oct. 26, 2023 shows a scenic spot in Libo County, southwest China's Guizhou Province. Situated on the steep mountainside of Guizhou, Libo County has spectacular views in abundance and has seen a boom in tourism in recent years. (Xinhua/Hu Zhixuan)
Shares of Sanofi  a drug company with operations in Monroe County  fell Friday after the company projected a "low-single digits" drop in 2024 earnings per share.

The company also plans a spinoff of its consumer products unit to focus on research into new drugs. The consumer business sells over-the-counter products such as the Allegra allergy medicine.

At 9:35 a.m. Friday, Sanofi shares traded in the U.S. under the ticker symbol SNY were down 17% to $44.26. The closing price Thursday was $53.33.

During a conference call Friday, Chief Executive Officer Paul Hudson noted what he called "an exciting moment" in the company's history.

"We're driving solid performance," he said. Sanofi products include Ambien, a sleeping aid; Altuviiio, which treat hemophilia, and Beyfortus, a vaccine for respiratory illness in infants.

Paris-based Sanofi is the parent company of vaccine maker Sanofi Pasteur in Pocono Township, Monroe County. Sanofi projects more than 10 billion euros in vaccine sales by 2030.

Hudson noted that business during the call.

"We continue to lead the flu vaccine market," he said.

Also Friday, Sanofi reported third-quarter revenue of 11.96 billion euros ($12.64 billion), up 3.9% after excluding the effects of currency fluctuations.

Adjusted net income for the quarter was 3.2 billion euros, or 2.55 euros ($2.70) per share. Adjusted net excludes items the company considers to be one-time or unusual.

The forecast for a "low-single digits" drop in 2024 earnings per share is based on increased spending on research and development, and an expected higher tax rate, according to the earnings statement.

"In 2025, Sanofi expects a strong rebound in business (adjusted) EPS growth," according to the company statement.

Sales of anti-inflammatory drug Dupixent were 2.85 billion euros, with annual sales projected to be close to 11 billion euros. Dupixent was developed with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals of Tarrytown, New York. It treats eczema, asthma and other illnesses.

Sanofi reports results for four segments. The largest in terms of revenue is Specialty Care, 4.64 billion euros, followed by Vaccines, 3.1 billion euros. Close behind is general medicines, 2.99 billion euros, and then Consumer Healthcare, 1.25 billion euros.

Hudson said making the consumer business a separate company is "the logical next step" to allow the business to pursue its own strategy.

"The separation could be at the earliest in Quarter Four 2024," he said.
NORRISTOWN, Pa. - Two people have been charged after the drug overdose death of a 6-year-old boy in Montgomery County.

Kristen Sabatino, 31, and Matthew Santiago, 35, both of the 1000 block of Willow Street in Norristown, are charged with involuntary manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child for the overdose death of Sabatinos 6-year-old son, according to a news release from the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office.

Norristown Police were called to the home at 12:38 p.m. on Sunday, July 16 for a report of an unconscious boy who was not breathing. They arrived to find Dominic Lyons in his bedroom obviously deceased, the DA's office said.

An autopsy was performed on July 17 by Dr. Khalil Wardak with the Montgomery County Coroners Office and the results then were pending further testing. Results of testing of the boys blood found fentanyl and xylazinea veterinary sedative known on the street as Tranqin high levels, which indicated that the boy had ingested the drugs as that amount in his blood could not be caused by trace contact with the drugs, according to the news release.

Dr. Wardak subsequently determined that the cause of Lyons' death was drug intoxication from fentanyl and xylazine, and the manner of death was homicide, according to the DA's office.

Norristown Police and Montgomery County Detectives launched a joint homicide investigation. The DA's office said the investigation found that both Sabatino and Santiago had a history of drug use.

Cell phone records, interviews and other investigative methods revealed that Sabatino and Santiago had purchased and consumed illegal drugs in the days leading up to when boy was found dead on Sunday, according to the DA's office. The defendants said they put the boy to bed at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, when he said he did not feel well, the DA's office said. They then found him dead in his bunk bed after noon the next day and immediately called 911, according to the news release.

Santiago was arrested on Wednesday. He was arraigned by Magisterial District Judge Juanita Price, who set bail at $1 million cash with a condition of no unsupervised contact with a minor and comply with the Office of Children and Youth. A bail review hearing was held on Thursday by Court of Common Pleas Judge Steven T. ONeill, who declined to modify bail. Santiago was unable to make bail and was remanded to the Montgomery County Correctional Facility.

A preliminary hearing for Santiago is scheduled for 10 a.m., Nov. 3 before Magisterial District Judge Todd Barnes.

Sabatino was arrested Friday by the Lancaster City Police at a hotel in Lancaster, Pa. She is being transferred to the Montgomery County Correctional Facility, where she will be arraigned and bail will be set. At the arraignment, the preliminary hearing will also be scheduled.
WARRINGTON TWP., Pa. - Police in part of Bucks County say they are investigating after a small swastika was painted on a telephone pole.

Officers took a report of criminal mischief on Folly Road near County Line Road in Warrington Township shortly before 9:45 a.m. Friday, according to a news release from the township police department.

A township resident was on a walk and noticed a small swastika painted in white spray paint on a telephone pole, police said. It was about 1 foot by 1 foot, according to police.

Chief Daniel J. Friel stated: This symbol of hate was removed immediately, and we are thankful to the resident who reported this to us.

The responding officer had traffic marking paint in his vehicle and was able to paint over the symbol right away, police said.

Chief Friel went on to say: The Warrington Township Police will investigate any crimes of hate and racism using all our investigative resources."

The police department is asking those who may have surveillance footage or any information of these incidents to send it over to police to help identify the people responsible.

The Police Incident # is 2023-10-1125. The investigating officer is Timohty Stinger # 136, tstinger@warringtonpd.org. Information / tips can be submitted anonymously using the Crimewatch Platform.
PHILLIPSBURG, N.J. - We're learning new details about the biggest drug bust in Warren County history. Investigators say it happened Thursday morning in Phillipsburg.

Law enforcement believes the community is safer now that they have who they're calling the largest drug dealer in the county, plus his alleged accomplice. This comes after a long investigation with local, county and state agencies and the FBI.

$100,000 worth of narcotics were seized from a Phillipsburg home on Mercer Street. Among the drugs were four pounds of meth, 10 ounces of cocaine, four and a half pounds of marijuana, and 42 bricks of heroin.

"We're talking about 2,000 doses of heroin," said Warren County Prosecutor Jim Pfeiffer. "That's just an incredible amount of heroin that was going to be flooded onto the streets of Phillipsburg and the other parts of the county, so how many lives were saved here?"

The Warren County Prosecutor believes lives were saved and addictions may have been prevented, when Charlie Cole and Shakiera Armstrong were taken into custody at their home Thursday morning.

"Mr. Cole was charged with being the leader of a narcotics trafficking network, which is the most serious charge and that carries the potential of life in prison, so he certainly was the lead individual here, but Ms. Armstrong was very, very involved," said Pfeiffer.

They're both facing several drug charges, and are accused of endangering the welfare of a child, because investigators say in addition to the drugs in the house, there was a loaded .40 caliber handgun.

"The handgun was also really very troubling for us...to see that handgun that was really in a position where it could have been accessed by the child," said Pfeiffer.

Law enforcement found $14,000, too.

"You mentioned the investigation is ongoing. What are the next steps?" asked 69 News Reporter Priscilla Liguori.

"The drugs have to be tested. Everything was basically cataloged," said Pfeiffer. "Our task force along with the Phillipsburg Police Department, the New Jersey State Police and the FBI are continuing to look at individuals that had been identified through this investigation."

Cole and Armstrong are behind bars at Warren County Prison.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP)  Israel knocked out internet and communications in the Gaza Strip in stepped-up bombardment Friday night, largely cutting off its 2.3 million people from contact with each other and the outside world and creating a near-blackout of information, as the military said it was expanding ground operations in the territory.

The militarys announcement signaled it was moving closer to an all-out invasion of Gaza, where it has vowed to crush the ruling Hamas militant group after its bloody incursion in southern Israel three weeks ago.

Explosions from continuous airstrikes lit up the sky over Gaza City for hours after nightfall. The Palestinian telecom provider, Paltel, said the bombardment caused complete disruption of internet, cellular and landline services. The cutoff meant that casualties from strikes and details of ground incursions could not immediately be known. Some satellite phones continued to function.

Already plunged into darkness after most electricity was cut off weeks ago, Palestinians were thrown into isolation, huddling in homes and shelters with food and water supplies running out.

Relatives outside Gaza panicked after their messaging chats with families inside suddenly went dead and calls stopped going through.

I was so scared this was going to happen, said Wafaa Abdul Rahman, director of a feminist organization based in the West Bank city of Ramallah. She said she hadn't heard for hours from family in central Gaza.

Weve been seeing these horrible things and massacres when its live on TV, so now what will happen when theres a total blackout? she said, referring to scenes of families that have been crushed in homes by airstrikes over the past weeks.

Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said ground forces were expanding their activity Friday evening in Gaza and acting with great force ... to achieve the objectives of the war. Israel says its strikes target Hamas fighters and infrastructure and that the militants operate from among civilians, putting them in danger.

The Hamas media center reported heavy nighttime clashes with Israeli forces at several places, including what it said was an Israeli incursion east of the refugee camp of Bureij in the central Gaza Strip. Asked about the report, the Israeli military reiterated early Saturday that it had been carrying out targeted raids and expanding strikes with the aim of preparing the ground for future stages of the operation.

Israel has amassed hundreds of thousands of troops along the border ahead of an expected ground offensive. Earlier Friday the military said ground forces conducted their second hourslong incursion inside Gaza in as many days, striking dozens of militant targets over the past 24 hours.

The Palestinian death toll in Gaza has soared past 7,300, more than 60% of them minors and women, according to the territorys Health Ministry. A blockade on Gaza has meant dwindling supplies, and the U.N. warned that its aid operation helping hundreds of thousands of people was crumbling amid near-depleted fuel.

More than 1,400 people were slain in Israel during Hamas Oct. 7 attack, according to the Israeli government, and at least 229 hostages were taken into Gaza. Palestinian militants have fired thousands of rockets into Israel, including one that hit a residential building in Tel Aviv on Friday, wounding four people.

The Israeli military released the names of 310 soldiers killed during the initial Hamas attack and its aftermath. The vast majority were killed Oct. 7, according to the military. The slain soldiers are part of the overall death toll in Israel.

The overall number of deaths far exceeds the combined toll of all four previous Israel-Hamas wars, estimated at around 4,000.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel expects a long and difficult ground offensive into Gaza soon. It will take a long time to dismantle Hamas' vast network of tunnels, he said, adding that he expects a lengthy phase of lower-intensity fighting as Israel destroys pockets of resistance.

His comments pointed to a potentially grueling and open-ended new phase of the war after three weeks of relentless bombardment. Israel has said it aims to crush Hamas rule in Gaza and its ability to threaten Israel. But how Hamas defeat will be measured and an invasions endgame remain unclear. Israel says it does not intend to rule the tiny territory but not who it expects to govern  even as Gallant suggested a long-term insurgency could ensue.

In Washington, the Pentagon said U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with Gallant on Friday and underscored the importance of protecting civilians during the Israel Defense Forces operations and focusing on the urgency of humanitarian aid delivery for civilians in Gaza. The Pentagon said Austin also brought up the need for Hamas to release all of the hostages.

The conflict has threatened to ignite a wider war across the region. Arab nations  including U.S. allies and ones that have reached peace deals or normalized ties with Israel  have raised increasing alarm over a potential ground invasion, likely to bring even higher casualties amid urban fighting.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi warned on X that the outcome will be a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions for years to come.

With no electricity, no communications and no water, many of those trapped in Gaza had little choice but to wait in their homes or seek the relative safety of schools and hospitals as Israel expanded its bombing early Saturday.

Throughout the night, orange fireballs exploded on the horizon above the apartment buildings and refugee camps of Gaza City, briefly illuminating clouds of white smoke hanging in the air from previous strikes. Some bombs hit in tight groups, apparently slamming into the same location.

Lynn Hastings, U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the occupied territories, posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that without phone lines and internet, hospitals and aid operations would be unable to operate. The Red Crescent said it could not contact medical teams and residents could no longer call ambulances, meaning rescuers would have to chase the sound of explosions to find the wounded. International aid groups said they were only able to reach a few staffers using satellite phones.

The Committee to Protect Journalists expressed alarm, saying the world is losing a window into the reality of the conflict. It warned that the information vacuum can be filled with deadly propaganda, dis- and misinformation.

The loss of internet and phones deals a further blow to a medical and aid system that relief workers say was already on the verge of collapse under Israel's weekslong seal. More than 1.4 million people have fled their homes, nearly half crowding into U.N. schools and shelters. Aid workers say a trickle of aid Israel has allowed to enter from Egypt the past week is a tiny fraction of what is needed.

Gaza hospitals have been scrounging for fuel to run emergency generators that power incubators and other life-saving equipment.

Gallant said Israel believes that Hamas would confiscate any fuel that enters. He said Hamas uses generators to pump air into its hundreds of kilometers (miles) of tunnels, which originate in civilian areas. He showed reporters aerial footage of what he said was a tunnel shaft built right next to a hospital.

For air, they need oil. For oil, they need us, he said.

Late Friday the army released photos showing what it said were Hamas installations in and around Gaza City's Shifa Hospital, Gazas largest. Israel has made such claims before, but declined to say how the photos were obtained.

Little is known about Hamas tunnels and other infrastructure. Claims by the military and Gallant couldnt be verified.

Speaking at Shifa Hospital, Hamas media chief Salama Maroof called Israel's claims lies and said they were a precursor for striking this facility.

I ring the alarm bell. There is imminent danger hovering above the medical facility," Maroof said. The hospital has been overwhelmed and around 40,000 displaced residents have crowded its grounds for shelter, the U.N. says.

Asked if Israel plans to target Shifa, Hagari said, We will not be able to allow terror activity against Israel from hospitals.

Hundreds of thousands of people remain in northern Gaza.

In related developments:

 The U.N. General Assembly approved a nonbinding resolution calling for a humanitarian truce in Gaza leading to a cessation of hostilities. It was the first U.N. response to Hamas surprise Oct. 7 attacks and Israel's ongoing military response and vow to obliterate the militant group.

 In New York City, hundreds of protesters calling for a cease-fire filled the famed Grand Central Terminal during rush hour Friday, wearing T-shirts saying Jews say cease-fire now and Not in our name. Police said approximately 200 protesters were taken briefly into custody, issued summonses and released.

Federman reported from Tel Aviv and Mroue from Beirut. Najib Jobain in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Jack Jeffery in Cairo, Isabel DeBre in Jerusalem, and Brian Melley in London, contributed to this report.

This story has been updated to correct the name of the Hamas spokesman, Salama Maroof.
WASHINGTON  The U.S. military launched airstrikes early Friday on two locations in eastern Syria linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Pentagon said, in retaliation for a slew of drone and missile attacks against U.S. bases and personnel in the region that began early last week.

The U.S. strikes reflect the Biden administration's determination to maintain a delicate balance. The U.S. wants to hit Iranian-backed groups suspected of targeting the U.S. as strongly as possible to deter future aggression, possibly fueled by Israel's war against Hamas, while also working to avoid inflaming the region and provoking a wider conflict.

According to the Pentagon, there have been at least 12 attacks on U.S. bases and personnel in Iraq and four in Syria in recent weeks. Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said 21 U.S. personnel were injured in two of those assaults that used drones to target al-Asad Airbase in Iraq and al-Tanf Garrison in Syria.

In a statement, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the "precision self-defense strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on October 17."

He said President Joe Biden directed the narrowly tailored strikes "to make clear that the United States will not tolerate such attacks and will defend itself, its personnel, and its interests." He added that the operation was separate and distinct from Israel's war against Hamas.

The Biden administration has not accused Iran of having a direct role in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and said it appears so far that Tehran was not aware of it beforehand. However, the U.S. noted that Iran has long supported Hamas and raised concerns that Iran and its proxies could turn the conflict into a wider war.

Austin said the U.S. does not seek a broader conflict, but if Iranian proxy groups continue, the U.S. wont hesitate to take additional action to protect its forces.

According to the Pentagon, all the U.S. personnel hurt in the militant attacks received minor injuries and all returned to duty. In addition, a contractor suffered a cardiac arrest and died while seeking shelter from a possible drone attack.

The retaliatory strikes came as no surprise. Officials at the Pentagon and the White House have made it clear for the past week that the U.S. would respond, with Ryder saying again Thursday that it would be "at the time and place of our choosing."

"I think we've been crystal clear that we maintain the inherent right of defending our troops and we will take all necessary measures to protect our forces and our interests overseas," he told reporters during a Pentagon briefing earlier in the day.

U.S. officials have not publicly tied the recent string of attacks in Syria and Iraq to the violence in Gaza, but Iranian officials openly criticized the U.S. for providing weapons to Israel that have been used to strike Gaza, resulting in civilian deaths.

The U.S., including the Pentagon, repeatedly has said any strike response by America would be directly tied to the attacks on the troops, and not connected to the war between Israel and Hamas. Such retaliation and strikes against Iranian targets in Syria after similar attacks on U.S. bases are routine.

In March, for example, the U.S. struck sites in Syria used by groups affiliated with Irans Revolutionary Guard after an Iranian-linked attack in northeast Syria. American F-15 fighter jets flying out of al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar struck several locations around Deir el-Zour.

U.S. officials routinely stressed that the American response is designed to be proportional, and is aimed at deterring strikes against U.S. personnel who are focused on the fight against the Islamic State group.

The Pentagon beefed up air defenses in the region to protect U.S. forces. The U.S. previously said it is sending several batteries of Patriot missile systems, a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery and additional fighter jets. The THAAD is being sent from Fort Bliss, Texas, and the Patriot batteries are from Fort Liberty in North Carolina and Fort Sill in Oklahoma. An Avenger air defense system from Fort Liberty is also being sent.

Officials said as much as two battalions of Patriots are being deployed. A battalion can include at least three Patriot batteries, which each have six to eight launchers.

Ryder said Thursday about 900 troops were deployed or are in the process of going to the Middle East, including those associated with the air defense systems.

Read more:
SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  South Korean and U.S. troops have been conducting live-fire exercises this week to hone their ability to respond to potential Hamas-style surprise artillery attacks by North Korea, South Koreas military said Friday.

The two forces regularly conduct live-fire and other training, but this weeks drills come after Hamas Oct. 7 assault on Israel raised security jitters in South Korea, which shares the worlds most heavily fortified border with rival North Korea.

Experts say the Norths forward-deployed long-range artillery guns can fire about 16,000 rounds per hour in the event of a conflict, posing a serious threat to Seoul, which is about 40-50 kilometers (25-30 miles) from the border.

The three-day firing exercises, which began Wednesday, involved 5,400 South Korean and U.S. soldiers, 300 artillery systems, 1,000 vehicles and air force assets, according to South Koreas military.

In a simulated response to the enemys (possible) Hamas-style surprise artillery attacks, the exercises practiced strikes designed to remove the origins of the enemys long-range artillery provocations at an early date, South Koreas Ground Operations Command said in a statement.

North Korea didn't immediately react to the drills. It typically views major U.S.-South Korean military training as invasion rehearsals and responds with missile tests.

South Korea and the United States have been expanding their regular military drills in the face of North Korea's advancing nuclear program. Since last year, North Korea has carried out more than 100 missile tests, some of them simulated nuclear attacks on South Korea and the U.S.
BEIJING, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- The China-U.S. financial working group held its first meeting via video link on Wednesday, China's central bank said Friday.

The two sides had professional, pragmatic, candid and constructive communication on monetary and financial stability, financial regulation, sustainable finance, anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism, global financial governance, and other key issues of common concern, according to a statement of the People's Bank of China (PBOC).

The two sides agreed to maintain communication, the central bank said.

The meeting followed through on the important common understandings reached between the presidents of the two countries at their meeting in Bali and the consensus reached by He Lifeng, Chinese vice premier and Chinese lead person for China-U.S. economic and trade affairs, and U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

Vice-ministerial officials from the PBOC and the U.S. Department of the Treasury co-chaired the meeting on Wednesday, with the attendance of Chinese officials from the National Financial Regulatory Administration and the China Securities Regulatory Commission, as well as U.S. officials from the U.S. Federal Reserve and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 
The South Africa Conversations, 2023

When: Wednesday, 01 November 2023 - Friday, 03 November 2023 Where: Hybrid Event



WiSER (Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research), 6th Floor Richard Ward Building, University of the Witwatersrand. Start time: 18:00 Enquiries: Najibha.Deshmukh@wits.ac.za RSVP: here

The Holberg Prize and The Innovation Foundation for Democracy present: The South Africa Conversations, 2023.

On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Holberg Prize, a series of events in Johannesburg from 1 to 3 November are co-hosted by the Holberg Prize and the Innovation Foundation for Democracy.

Summary:

Keynotes by 2022 Holberg Laureate Professor Sheila Jasanoff, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, and Professor Achille Mbembe, Director or the Innovation Foundation for Democracy, University of the Witwatersrand. They will be joined by key academics and research stakeholders in discussion of important technological, political and societal changes of our time.

Programme:

Overview page: The South Africa Conversations 2023

1 November

18:0019:30 Constitutions 2.0: Self, Sovereignty, and Scale in the Age of AI

2 November

12:30-13:45 Co-production in the Anthropocene: Views from the South

16:00-17:30 Symposium on Democracy & the Future of Institutions

3 November

16:0018:00 Imagining, Framing, Disciplining

Registration: Register for the event here .

Livestream: Each event will be livestreamed. Please see the event pages for streaming links.

Organisers:

The Holberg Prize is one of the largest international research prizes awarded to scholars who have made outstanding contributions to research in the arts and humanities, social science, law or theology. The Prize is worth NOK 6 million (EUR 600,000). The Prize was established by the Norwegian Parliament in 2003. It is funded by the Norwegian government and administered by the University of Bergen, Norway.

The recipient of the 2024 Holberg Prize will be announced on March 14. The award ceremony will take place on June 7, 2024 in Bergen, Norway. Nominations are now being accepted for the 2024 award. To learn more about the Holberg Prize and how to nominate candidates, please visit holbergprize.org.

The Innovation Foundation for Democracy is an initiative that was established in 2022. The Foundation aims to rejuvenate democracy in Africa, particularly amongst young people, through research and training initiatives and innovative democratic projects. The Foundation is hosted by the Wits University, from where it serves the continent.
CALS to challenge definition of sexual offences

CALS will appear in the High Court in Pretoria on Monday representing ISLA in an important case challenging consent as an element of sexual offences

On 30 October 2023, the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS), based at the University of the Witwatersrand, will appear before the High Court in Pretoria. CALS is making an unopposed application to join a case which has important implications for how sexual offences are prosecuted. The matter was first brought in November last year by the Embrace Project and an individual rape survivor. The applicants seek to challenge sections of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Act which fail to criminalise sexual violence where the perpetrator unreasonably believed the complainant consented.

In October 2021, the Eastern Cape High Court handed down judgment in an appeal by Loyiso Coko, who had been found guilty of raping his then-partner by a lower court. The order overturning the rape conviction found that even though the complainant explicitly said no to having sex with the accused, he still mistakenly believed that she had consented. The court found that when the complainant consented to kissing Mr Coko, he interpreted this as tacit consent to intercourse. This finding prompted public outrage and is currently being appealed by the National Prosecuting Authority. CALS has also applied to join this case, representing the Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa (ISLA). The appeal will be heard at the Supreme Court of Appeal on 14 November 2023.

The reaction to the High Courts ruling in Coko v S drew attention to the way in which current legislation treats rape and other sexual offences. Unlike some crimes where consent can be used as a defence, sexual offences are defined as unlawful and intentional acts of sexual violence without consent. The judgments interpretation of the law is that the burden lies with the prosecution to prove all elements of this crime, including that the accused did not mistakenly believe that they had the consent of the complainant  even if the belief is unreasonable or irrational. CALS does not support this view given that many of these beliefs perpetuate myths and stereotypes about sexual violence, including that victims must resist sexual violation by force.

In response to the judgment in Coko v S and other similar cases relying on the defence of mistaken belief of consent, the Embrace Project and an individual rape survivor approached the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria for relief. Their application asks the Court to declare portions of the legislation governing sexual offences unconstitutional to the extent that they allow a perpetrator to claim a mistaken belief in consent which is clearly wrong and unreasonable.

CALS has applied to join the matter in the public interest as a third applicant to support the other applicants claims. We argue that the issue is not with the existence of the defence of mistaken belief in consent, but rather with having rape and other sexual offences defined in terms of a lack of consent. We thus contend that the current definition places a limitation on a number of intersecting rights of victims and survivors and should be deemed unconstitutional.

We further make the case that this change should apply not only to matters prosecuted under the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Act, but also common law crimes of rape and sexual assault from before the Act came into effect in 2007. Victims and survivors may still come forward at any time to report sexual offences perpetrated. In addition, we hope to present evidence that retaining consent as a definitional element of sexual offences limits survivors rights to equality, dignity and access to courts.

The current definitions of rape and other sexual offences place an added burden on the state, but also on complainants to show that they did not consent, says Dr Sheena Swemmer, head of Gender Justice at CALS. In this situation, the complainants actions become the courts focus rather than the accuseds actions. This process puts victims and survivors on trial, expecting them to demonstrate how well they resisted the accused, buying into harmful rape myths and stereotypes.

This discrepancy in how certain crimes are defined constitutes indirect discrimination, agrees CALS attorney Basetsana Koitsioe. We have a situation in our law where offences which primarily affect women and gender minorities face an additional hurdle when being prosecuted. This contributes to the high levels of attrition we see in sexual offences, where only a small portion of the cases that are reported result in a conviction. We cannot allow this to continue.

CALS is represented in the matter by in-house counsel Jatheen Bhima and Letlhogonolo Mokgoroane.

The matter is set to be heard on 30 October 2023 before the Gauteng Division of the High Court, Pretoria.

Read our founding papers in the matter here.

For inquiries, please contact:
People shop at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco, the United States, Oct. 26, 2023. The U.S. real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 4.9 percent in the third quarter of 2023, outpacing expectations, the Commerce Department reported on Thursday. (Photo by Li Jianguo/Xinhua)

WASHINGTON, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 4.9 percent in the third quarter of 2023, outpacing expectations, the Commerce Department reported on Thursday.

In the second quarter, real GDP increased 2.1 percent, according to the "advance" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Compared to the second quarter, the acceleration in real GDP in the third quarter reflected accelerations in consumer spending, private inventory investment, and federal government spending and upturns in exports and residential fixed investment.

These movements were partly offset by a downturn in nonresidential fixed investment and a deceleration in state and local government spending.

Personal consumption expenditures grew by 4.0 percent in the third quarter, up from 0.8 in the previous quarter. Nonresidential fixed investment, an indicator of business investment, contracted 0.1 percent in the third quarter, after surging 7.4 percent in the second quarter.

"The economy is slowing faster than recent data suggests," Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman recently said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

"Once the strong Q3 GDP is behind us, and people start focusing on Q4, which is likely to be much lower, then we may start to see some talk of (rates) 'high for not much longer'," Dean Baker, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, told Xinhua.

According to the International Monetary Fund's World Economic Outlook released earlier this month, the U.S. economy is projected to grow 2.1 percent in 2023, and the growth will slow to 1.5 percent in 2024.

The second estimate for the third quarter, based on more complete data, will be released on Nov. 29. 

People shop at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco, the United States, Oct. 26, 2023. The U.S. real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 4.9 percent in the third quarter of 2023, outpacing expectations, the Commerce Department reported on Thursday. (Photo by Li Jianguo/Xinhua)
Mackenzie Financial Corp reduced its position in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 4.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,893,175 shares of the financial services providers stock after selling 224,032 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corps holdings in Bank of America were worth $142,881,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. FNY Investment Advisers LLC raised its position in shares of Bank of America by 75.9% during the 2nd quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC now owns 920 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 397 shares during the period. Marquette Asset Management LLC grew its position in Bank of America by 333.2% in the second quarter. Marquette Asset Management LLC now owns 953 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 733 shares during the period. Castleview Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Bank of America during the first quarter worth $28,000. Global Trust Asset Management LLC raised its position in Bank of America by 45.7% in the second quarter. Global Trust Asset Management LLC now owns 1,036 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 325 shares during the period. Finally, Ahrens Investment Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Bank of America in the 1st quarter valued at $31,000. 68.06% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BAC has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on Bank of America from $31.00 to $28.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 10th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of Bank of America from $43.00 to $40.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 23rd. HSBC began coverage on shares of Bank of America in a research note on Thursday, September 7th. They issued a buy rating and a $35.00 price target on the stock. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $34.00 to $32.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 3rd. Finally, Evercore ISI cut their target price on Bank of America from $35.00 to $33.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Bank of America presently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $35.37.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider James P. Demare sold 75,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.53, for a total transaction of $2,364,750.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 185,108 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,836,455.24. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 0.27% of the companys stock.

Bank of America Price Performance

Bank of America stock opened at $26.12 on Friday. Bank of America Co. has a 12-month low of $25.18 and a 12-month high of $38.60. The company has a current ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12. The stock has a market cap of $207.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.36. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $27.70 and a 200-day simple moving average of $28.74.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 17th. The financial services provider reported $0.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.83 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $25.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $25.13 billion. Bank of America had a return on equity of 12.08% and a net margin of 18.69%. The businesss quarterly revenue was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.81 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Bank of America Co. will post 3.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 1st will be given a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 30th. Bank of Americas dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 26.89%.

Bank of America Profile

(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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Perigon Wealth Management LLC decreased its stake in shares of BlackRock MuniHoldings California Quality Fund, Inc. (NYSE:MUC  Free Report) by 11.8% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 39,710 shares of the companys stock after selling 5,307 shares during the quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLCs holdings in BlackRock MuniHoldings California Quality Fund were worth $431,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of MUC. LPL Financial LLC lifted its holdings in BlackRock MuniHoldings California Quality Fund by 12.2% in the second quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 194,767 shares of the companys stock worth $2,113,000 after acquiring an additional 21,216 shares during the last quarter. Dakota Wealth Management increased its stake in shares of BlackRock MuniHoldings California Quality Fund by 17.5% in the second quarter. Dakota Wealth Management now owns 165,252 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,793,000 after purchasing an additional 24,607 shares during the period. Intellectus Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of BlackRock MuniHoldings California Quality Fund by 8.9% in the second quarter. Intellectus Partners LLC now owns 116,034 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,263,000 after purchasing an additional 9,513 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of BlackRock MuniHoldings California Quality Fund by 33.3% in the second quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 13,737 shares of the companys stock valued at $149,000 after purchasing an additional 3,433 shares during the period. Finally, EP Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of BlackRock MuniHoldings California Quality Fund in the first quarter valued at approximately $25,976,000. Institutional investors own 25.47% of the companys stock.

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BlackRock MuniHoldings California Quality Fund Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:MUC opened at $9.29 on Friday. The firms 50 day moving average is $9.92 and its two-hundred day moving average is $10.45. BlackRock MuniHoldings California Quality Fund, Inc. has a 52 week low of $9.19 and a 52 week high of $11.71.

BlackRock MuniHoldings California Quality Fund Announces Dividend

BlackRock MuniHoldings California Quality Fund Company Profile

The business also recently disclosed a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 1st. Investors of record on Monday, October 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.0335 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 13th. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.33%.

(Free Report)

BlackRock MuniHoldings California Quality Fund, Inc is a closed ended fixed income mutual fund launched by BlackRock, Inc It is managed by BlackRock Advisors, LLC. The fund invests in fixed income markets. It invests primarily in a portfolio of long-term investment-grade municipal obligations, the interest on which is exempt from Federal and California income taxes.

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Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY  Get Free Report) had its price target reduced by equities researchers at Morgan Stanley from $56.00 to $50.00 in a report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an underweight rating on the biopharmaceutical companys stock. Morgan Stanleys price objective suggests a potential downside of 5.63% from the stocks current price.

Several other analysts have also weighed in on BMY. Truist Financial reissued a buy rating and issued a $84.00 target price on shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb in a report on Friday, October 6th. Bank of America dropped their target price on shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb from $85.00 to $80.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 28th. Atlantic Securities lowered their price target on shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb from $90.00 to $85.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 28th. HSBC upgraded Bristol-Myers Squibb from a reduce rating to a hold rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $55.00 to $53.00 in a research report on Friday. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an overweight rating and set a $75.00 price target on shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb in a research report on Monday, October 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $66.20.

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Bristol-Myers Squibb Stock Performance

NYSE:BMY opened at $52.99 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08. Bristol-Myers Squibb has a fifty-two week low of $52.92 and a fifty-two week high of $81.43. The firms fifty day simple moving average is $58.85 and its 200-day simple moving average is $62.97. The stock has a market cap of $110.69 billion, a PE ratio of 14.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 0.43.

Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY  Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 26th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $2.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $1.76 by $0.24. The company had revenue of $10.97 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $10.96 billion. Bristol-Myers Squibb had a net margin of 17.62% and a return on equity of 50.51%. The firms quarterly revenue was down 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.99 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Bristol-Myers Squibb will post 7.37 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Bristol-Myers Squibb

In related news, EVP Robert M. Plenge sold 732 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.14, for a total value of $44,754.48. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 6,584 shares in the company, valued at $402,545.76. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, EVP Ann Powell sold 17,986 shares of the companys 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 27,868 shares of the companys stock, valued at $1,706,915. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 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 $402,545.76. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.09% of the companys stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in BMY. Dakota Wealth Management purchased a new position in Bristol-Myers Squibb in the 1st quarter valued at about $332,000. Covestor Ltd grew its stake in Bristol-Myers Squibb by 111.5% during the 1st 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 increased its holdings in Bristol-Myers Squibb by 53.2% during the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 165,336 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock worth $12,075,000 after purchasing an additional 57,444 shares during the last quarter. Ergoteles LLC acquired a new position in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $1,997,000. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its stake in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 25.1% during the 1st quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 338,563 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $24,725,000 after buying an additional 68,018 shares during the last quarter. 74.98% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company Profile

(Get 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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Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE:CMG  Get Free Report) had its target price boosted by stock analysts at KeyCorp from $2,200.00 to $2,250.00 in a report released on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the restaurant operators stock. KeyCorps price target suggests a potential upside of 24.55% from the companys current price.

CMG has been the topic of several other reports. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on Chipotle Mexican Grill from $2,400.00 to $2,200.00 in a report on Thursday, July 27th. Guggenheim raised their price objective on shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill from $1,550.00 to $1,950.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Friday, July 14th. TD Cowen reiterated an outperform rating and issued a $2,200.00 target price on shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill in a research note on Wednesday, September 20th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill from $2,300.00 to $2,250.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 27th. Finally, StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill in a report on Thursday, October 5th. They issued a hold rating for the company. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $2,159.11.

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Read Our Latest Analysis on CMG

Chipotle Mexican Grill Price Performance

NYSE:CMG opened at $1,806.47 on Friday. Chipotle Mexican Grill has a 1-year low of $1,344.05 and a 1-year high of $2,175.01. The company has a market capitalization of $49.84 billion, a PE ratio of 45.12, a P/E/G ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.30. The firms 50-day moving average price is $1,875.37 and its 200-day moving average price is $1,955.45.

Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE:CMG  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 26th. The restaurant operator reported $12.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $12.25 by $0.40. Chipotle Mexican Grill had a net margin of 12.00% and a return on equity of 45.85%. The business had revenue of $2.51 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $2.53 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $9.30 earnings per share. The businesss revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Chipotle Mexican Grill will post 43.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Chipotle Mexican Grill

In other Chipotle Mexican Grill news, CEO Brian R. Niccol sold 1,063 shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,949.84, for a total transaction of $2,072,679.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 23,347 shares of the companys stock, valued at $45,522,914.48. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other Chipotle Mexican Grill news, CEO Brian R. Niccol sold 1,044 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,830.95, for a total value of $1,911,511.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 23,347 shares in the company, valued at approximately $42,747,189.65. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Brian R. Niccol sold 1,063 shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,949.84, for a total transaction of $2,072,679.92. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 23,347 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $45,522,914.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 3,165 shares of company stock valued at $6,024,185. Insiders own 0.96% of the companys stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Chipotle Mexican Grill

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Addison Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill by 350.0% in the first quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 18 shares of the restaurant operators stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 14 shares in the last quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. lifted its position in shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill by 90.0% during the first quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 19 shares of the restaurant operators stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 9 shares during the last quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in Chipotle Mexican Grill during the second quarter valued at approximately $32,000. IMA Wealth Inc. grew its holdings in Chipotle Mexican Grill by 185.7% in the first quarter. IMA Wealth Inc. now owns 20 shares of the restaurant operators stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 13 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Horizon Bancorp Inc. IN lifted its holdings in shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill by 240.0% during the 2nd quarter. Horizon Bancorp Inc. IN now owns 17 shares of the restaurant operators stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 12 shares during the last quarter. 91.19% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Chipotle Mexican Grill

(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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Coldstream Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF (NYSEARCA:AGG  Free Report) by 21.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 16,504 shares of the companys stock after purchasing an additional 2,904 shares during the period. Coldstream Capital Management Inc.s holdings in iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF were worth $1,617,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in AGG. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management increased its position in iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF by 145.5% in the first quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 6,590 shares of the companys stock worth $705,000 after buying an additional 3,906 shares in the last quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF by 36.2% during the 1st quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 52,003 shares of the companys stock valued at $5,570,000 after acquiring an additional 13,829 shares during the period. Worth Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF in the 1st quarter worth approximately $44,000. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF during the 1st quarter worth approximately $241,000. Finally, West Michigan Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF by 2.0% during the first quarter. West Michigan Advisors LLC now owns 14,640 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,568,000 after purchasing an additional 292 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.21% of the companys stock.

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iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF Price Performance

Shares of NYSEARCA AGG opened at $92.62 on Friday. iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF has a 1 year low of $91.58 and a 1 year high of $101.15. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $94.47 and a 200-day moving average price of $96.86.

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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Coldstream Capital Management Inc. cut its stake in shares of Elevance Health, Inc. (NYSE:ELV  Free Report) by 4.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 3,554 shares of the companys stock after selling 177 shares during the quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc.s holdings in Elevance Health were worth $1,579,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich grew its holdings in shares of Elevance Health by 97,501.7% in the second quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 83,475,802 shares of the companys stock worth $37,087,464,000 after purchasing an additional 83,390,275 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in Elevance Health by 4.3% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 13,277,170 shares of the companys stock valued at $6,104,976,000 after purchasing an additional 551,614 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Elevance Health by 1.4% during the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,278,337 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,962,387,000 after purchasing an additional 59,126 shares during the last quarter. Sanders Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of Elevance Health by 3.5% during the first quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 4,017,654 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,847,357,000 after buying an additional 135,877 shares during the period. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its holdings in Elevance Health by 12.9% in the 1st quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,622,916 shares of the companys stock worth $1,664,416,000 after purchasing an additional 414,592 shares in the last quarter. 87.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on ELV. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of Elevance Health from $564.00 to $585.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Monday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Elevance Health from $585.00 to $587.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Thursday, October 19th. Wolfe Research downgraded Elevance Health from an outperform rating to a peer perform rating in a report on Wednesday, July 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Elevance Health from $572.00 to $535.00 in a report on Friday, July 7th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an outperform rating and set a $572.00 target price on shares of Elevance Health in a research note on Thursday, July 20th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Elevance Health presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $565.17.

Elevance Health Price Performance

Shares of Elevance Health stock opened at $449.64 on Friday. Elevance Health, Inc. has a one year low of $412.00 and a one year high of $549.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 1.41 and a current ratio of 1.41. The stock has a market cap of $105.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.65, a P/E/G ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 0.83. The stocks fifty day moving average is $450.53 and its 200 day moving average is $455.74.

Elevance Health (NYSE:ELV  Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 18th. The company reported $8.99 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $8.45 by $0.54. The company had revenue of $42.48 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $42.69 billion. Elevance Health had a net margin of 3.61% and a return on equity of 20.71%. The firms revenue was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $7.53 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Elevance Health, Inc. will post 33.07 earnings per share for the current year.

Elevance Health Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 21st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 6th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 5th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.32%. Elevance Healths dividend payout ratio is currently 23.24%.

Insider Activity at Elevance Health

In related news, CAO Ronald W. Penczek sold 64 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $454.35, for a total transaction of $29,078.40. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 2,842 shares of the companys stock, valued at $1,291,262.70. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.35% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Elevance Health Profile

(Free Report)

Elevance Health, Inc operates as a health benefits company. The company operates through four segments: Commercial & Specialty Business, Government Business, CarelonRx, and Other. It supports consumers, families, and communities across the entire care journey connecting to the care, support, and resources to lead healthier lives.

Further Reading

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Corning Incorporated (NYSE:GLW  Get Free Report) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of Moderate Buy from the nine brokerages that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $34.89.

GLW has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered shares of Corning from a buy rating to a hold rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $37.00 to $30.00 in a research note on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Corning from $38.00 to $33.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. TheStreet lowered shares of Corning from a b- rating to a c+ rating in a research note on Thursday, October 12th. UBS Group lowered shares of Corning from a buy rating to a neutral rating and increased their target price for the stock from $38.00 to $39.00 in a research note on Friday, July 14th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Corning from $39.00 to $36.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday.

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Check Out Our Latest Report on GLW

Corning Price Performance

NYSE GLW opened at $26.93 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 1.70 and a quick ratio of 1.03. The stocks fifty day moving average price is $30.44 and its 200 day moving average price is $32.19. Corning has a 1 year low of $25.26 and a 1 year high of $37.10. The company has a market cap of $22.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.60, a PEG ratio of 4.61 and a beta of 1.06.

Corning (NYSE:GLW  Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 24th. The electronics maker reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.46 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $3.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.51 billion. Corning had a net margin of 4.50% and a return on equity of 12.73%. Cornings revenue was down 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.51 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Corning will post 1.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Corning Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 17th will be paid a $0.28 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 16th. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.16%. Cornings dividend payout ratio is presently 164.71%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Corning

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of GLW. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System raised its holdings in Corning by 0.6% during the first quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 49,500 shares of the electronics makers stock worth $1,746,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd raised its holdings in Corning by 0.3% during the second quarter. IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd now owns 117,692 shares of the electronics makers stock worth $4,124,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV raised its holdings in Corning by 35.3% during the first quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 1,176 shares of the electronics makers stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 307 shares in the last quarter. City Holding Co. raised its holdings in Corning by 70.5% during the first quarter. City Holding Co. now owns 747 shares of the electronics makers stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 309 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hartford Funds Management Co LLC raised its holdings in Corning by 4.5% during the first quarter. Hartford Funds Management Co LLC now owns 7,586 shares of the electronics makers stock worth $268,000 after purchasing an additional 326 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.74% of the companys stock.

About Corning

(Get Free Report

Corning Incorporated engages in the display technologies, optical communications, environmental technologies, specialty materials, and life sciences businesses worldwide. The company's Display Technologies segment offers glass substrates for flat panel displays, including liquid crystal displays and organic light-emitting diodes that are used in televisions, notebook computers, desktop monitors, tablets, and handheld devices.

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Crescent Sterling Ltd. boosted its holdings in The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG  Free Report) by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 28,635 shares of the companys stock after buying an additional 178 shares during the quarter. Procter & Gamble accounts for about 4.1% of Crescent Sterling Ltd.s investment portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest position. Crescent Sterling Ltd.s holdings in Procter & Gamble were worth $4,345,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Horizon Bancorp Inc. IN raised its stake in Procter & Gamble by 28.4% during the 2nd quarter. Horizon Bancorp Inc. IN now owns 570 shares of the companys stock valued at $86,000 after purchasing an additional 126 shares during the period. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S raised its stake in Procter & Gamble by 5.2% during the 2nd quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S now owns 448,316 shares of the companys stock valued at $68,027,000 after purchasing an additional 22,028 shares during the period. Harbor Advisory Corp MA raised its stake in Procter & Gamble by 5.5% during the 2nd quarter. Harbor Advisory Corp MA now owns 9,071 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,376,000 after purchasing an additional 471 shares during the period. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund raised its stake in Procter & Gamble by 33.4% during the 2nd quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 207,137 shares of the companys stock valued at $31,431,000 after purchasing an additional 51,877 shares during the period. Finally, Premier Fund Managers Ltd boosted its holdings in Procter & Gamble by 1,363.6% in the second quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd now owns 80,500 shares of the companys stock worth $12,026,000 after purchasing an additional 75,000 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 63.43% of the companys stock.

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Insider Activity at Procter & Gamble

In related news, CFO Andre Schulten sold 806 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $152.85, for a total value of $123,197.10. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 28,373 shares of the companys stock, valued at $4,336,813.05. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Procter & Gamble news, CAO Matthew W. Janzaruk sold 33,022 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $156.26, for a total value of $5,160,017.72. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 888 shares of the companys stock, valued at $138,758.88. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Andre Schulten sold 806 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $152.85, for a total transaction of $123,197.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 28,373 shares in the company, valued at $4,336,813.05. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 111,509 shares of company stock valued at $17,247,985 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.17% of the companys stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on PG shares. DZ Bank upgraded shares of Procter & Gamble from a sell rating to a hold rating and set a $155.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, October 20th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on shares of Procter & Gamble from $170.00 to $173.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Monday, July 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Procter & Gamble from $172.00 to $169.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 12th. HSBC began coverage on shares of Procter & Gamble in a report on Friday, September 22nd. They set a buy rating and a $179.00 price target for the company. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Procter & Gamble from $165.00 to $167.00 and gave the company a sector perform rating in a report on Monday, July 31st. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $163.84.

Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on PG

Procter & Gamble Stock Performance

NYSE PG opened at $149.80 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $353.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.32, a PEG ratio of 3.12 and a beta of 0.44. The company has a 50 day moving average of $150.10 and a 200-day moving average of $151.02. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The Procter & Gamble Company has a 1-year low of $130.96 and a 1-year high of $158.38.

Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 18th. The company reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.71 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $21.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $21.58 billion. Procter & Gamble had a net margin of 18.30% and a return on equity of 33.49%. The companys revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.57 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that The Procter & Gamble Company will post 6.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Procter & Gamble Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 15th. Investors of record on Friday, October 20th will be issued a $0.9407 dividend. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.51%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 19th. Procter & Gambles dividend payout ratio is currently 61.04%.

Procter & Gamble Company Profile

(Free Report)

The Procter & Gamble Company provides branded consumer packaged goods worldwide. It operates through five segments: Beauty; Grooming; Health Care; Fabric & Home Care; and Baby, Feminine & Family Care. The Beauty segment offers conditioners, shampoos, styling aids, and treatments under the Head & Shoulders, Herbal Essences, Pantene, and Rejoice brands; and antiperspirants and deodorants, personal cleansing, and skin care products under the Olay, Old Spice, Safeguard, Secret, and SK-II brands.

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Dutch Bros (NYSE:BROS  Free Report) had its price objective trimmed by Barclays from $30.00 to $26.00 in a report published on Monday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an equal weight rating on the stock.

Several other research analysts have also weighed in on BROS. UBS Group initiated coverage on Dutch Bros in a research report on Thursday, September 21st. They issued a neutral rating and a $28.00 price objective for the company. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on Dutch Bros from $41.00 to $35.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 3rd. Piper Sandler upped their price target on Dutch Bros from $30.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 23rd. Wedbush restated an outperform rating and set a $37.00 price target on shares of Dutch Bros in a research note on Wednesday, August 9th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on Dutch Bros from $36.00 to $32.00 and set a hold rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, September 11th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $34.45.

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Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on BROS

Dutch Bros Price Performance

Shares of Dutch Bros stock opened at $24.61 on Monday. Dutch Bros has a fifty-two week low of $22.67 and a fifty-two week high of $41.44. The company has a current ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 0.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $26.24 and a 200 day moving average of $28.42.

Dutch Bros (NYSE:BROS  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 8th. The company reported $0.07 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.01 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $249.88 million during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $254.26 million. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Dutch Bros will post -0.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Joth Ricci sold 80,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.29, for a total value of $2,423,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,976,335 shares in the company, valued at $59,863,187.15. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 49.70% of the companys stock.

Institutional Trading of Dutch Bros

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of BROS. WealthPLAN Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Dutch Bros in the first quarter valued at $28,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its stake in Dutch Bros by 500.0% in the second quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 900 shares of the companys stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 750 shares in the last quarter. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC raised its stake in Dutch Bros by 61.4% in the third quarter. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC now owns 1,091 shares of the companys stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 415 shares in the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors raised its stake in Dutch Bros by 87.9% in the second quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 1,114 shares of the companys stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 521 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameritas Advisory Services LLC acquired a new stake in Dutch Bros in the first quarter valued at $36,000.

Dutch Bros Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Dutch Bros Inc operates and franchises drive-thru shops. The company offers coffee-based beverages, including custom drinks, cold brews, and freeze blended beverages, as well as Blue Rebel energy drinks. It also provides tea, lemonade, sodas, smoothies, and other beverages through company-operated shops and online channels.

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HSBC started coverage on shares of Hyatt Hotels (NYSE:H  Free Report) in a research note published on Monday, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage issued a buy rating and a $133.00 price objective on the stock.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their target price on shares of Hyatt Hotels from $136.00 to $147.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Monday, August 14th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Hyatt Hotels from $132.00 to $138.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Monday, October 16th. TheStreet cut shares of Hyatt Hotels from a b- rating to a c+ rating in a research note on Thursday, September 7th. 22nd Century Group reiterated a reiterates rating on shares of Hyatt Hotels in a research note on Friday, June 30th. Finally, Citigroup reiterated a neutral rating and set a $122.00 target price on shares of Hyatt Hotels in a research note on Friday, June 30th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Hyatt Hotels presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $129.60.

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View Our Latest Analysis on H

Hyatt Hotels Price Performance

NYSE H opened at $100.52 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $107.48 and a 200 day simple moving average of $112.40. The company has a market cap of $10.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.52, a P/E/G ratio of 19.28 and a beta of 1.39. Hyatt Hotels has a 1 year low of $87.59 and a 1 year high of $127.80.

Hyatt Hotels (NYSE:H  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 3rd. The company reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.83 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $1.71 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. Hyatt Hotels had a return on equity of 13.30% and a net margin of 6.88%. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.46 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Hyatt Hotels will post 2.45 EPS for the current year.

Hyatt Hotels Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 8th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 25th were issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.60%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 24th. Hyatt Hotelss payout ratio is 14.63%.

Insider Transactions at Hyatt Hotels

In other news, Director Richard C. Tuttle bought 1,250 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 21st. The shares were acquired at an average price of $104.49 per share, with a total value of $130,612.50. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 35,877 shares in the company, valued at $3,748,787.73. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other Hyatt Hotels news, Director Michael A. Rocca sold 1,508 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.87, for a total transaction of $171,715.96. Following the sale, the director now owns 18,285 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $2,082,112.95. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Richard C. Tuttle acquired 1,250 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 21st. The shares were bought at an average cost of $104.49 per share, for a total transaction of $130,612.50. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 35,877 shares in the company, valued at $3,748,787.73. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 21.24% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Hyatt Hotels

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. State of Wyoming grew its holdings in Hyatt Hotels by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 2,180 shares of the companys stock worth $197,000 after acquiring an additional 88 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Hyatt Hotels by 3.0% in the 2nd quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 2,997 shares of the companys stock valued at $343,000 after purchasing an additional 88 shares during the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC boosted its stake in shares of Hyatt Hotels by 10.5% in the 1st quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 948 shares of the companys stock valued at $106,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares during the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Hyatt Hotels by 80.4% in the 1st quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 276 shares of the companys stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 123 shares during the last quarter. Finally, M&T Bank Corp boosted its stake in shares of Hyatt Hotels by 4.2% in the 3rd quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 3,284 shares of the companys stock valued at $266,000 after purchasing an additional 132 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 46.03% of the companys stock.

Hyatt Hotels Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Hyatt Hotels Corporation operates as a hospitality company in the United States and internationally. It operates through Owned and Leased Hotels, Americas Management and Franchising, ASPAC Management and Franchising, EAME/SW Asia Management and Franchising, and Apple Leisure Group segments. The company manages, franchises, licenses, owns, and leases portfolio of properties, consisting of full-service hotels and resorts, select service hotels, resorts, and other properties, including timeshare, fractional, residential, vacation, and condominium units.

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TEHRAN, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Iranian army's Ground Force started a two-day military drill in central Isfahan Province on Friday, the official news agency IRNA reported.

The drill involves the Ground Force's infantry, armored vehicle, missile, artillery, drone, engineering, cyber security, communication and information technology units, etc., as well as the transport and support aircraft of the army's Air Force, IRNA quoted the exercise's spokesman Karim Cheshak as saying.

Cheshak added that during the drill, the army units would assess their equipment's capabilities in terms of firing range, precision in hitting targets, smart features, automation capacities, and network-based adaptability.

The spokesman said the drill aims to evaluate the capabilities of the Ground Force, practice ground battle tactics, estimate the operational capabilities of new weapons, improve the armed forces' deterrence power, and ensure lasting security.

He listed the operations to be carried out during the drill as the simultaneous land and air transfer of brigades, intelligence collection using drones and electronic systems, coastal defense, and offensives against invading forces.

A number of senior Iranian military officials, including the army's chief commander Abdolrahim Mousavi, attended the opening event of the drill. 
Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lessened its position in shares of The Estee Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL  Free Report) by 8.1% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 37,006 shares of the companys stock after selling 3,252 shares during the quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Funds holdings in Estee Lauder Companies were worth $7,267,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in EL. Summit Trail Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Estee Lauder Companies by 56.1% during the first quarter. Summit Trail Advisors LLC now owns 1,339 shares of the companys stock worth $330,000 after acquiring an additional 481 shares during the last quarter. Lincoln National Corp increased its stake in Estee Lauder Companies by 38.6% in the first quarter. Lincoln National Corp now owns 3,186 shares of the companys stock valued at $785,000 after purchasing an additional 887 shares during the period. Wedbush Securities Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Estee Lauder Companies by 21.8% during the first quarter. Wedbush Securities Inc. now owns 3,485 shares of the companys stock worth $859,000 after buying an additional 623 shares during the period. Brookstone Capital Management boosted its stake in shares of Estee Lauder Companies by 10.1% during the first quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 2,587 shares of the companys stock worth $655,000 after buying an additional 237 shares during the period. Finally, Congress Wealth Management LLC DE grew its holdings in shares of Estee Lauder Companies by 1.0% during the second quarter. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE now owns 74,558 shares of the companys stock worth $14,642,000 after buying an additional 761 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 55.15% of the companys stock.

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Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Jane Lauder sold 12,661 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $152.75, for a total value of $1,933,967.75. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 55,800 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $8,523,450. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, EVP Jane Lauder sold 12,661 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $152.75, for a total transaction of $1,933,967.75. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 55,800 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $8,523,450. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Charlene Barshefsky sold 1,796 shares of Estee Lauder Companies stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.93, for a total transaction of $272,866.28. Following the sale, the director now owns 48,845 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,421,020.85. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 12.77% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have commented on the company. Telsey Advisory Group reaffirmed an outperform rating and set a $210.00 price objective on shares of Estee Lauder Companies in a research report on Thursday. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded shares of Estee Lauder Companies from an outperform rating to a market perform rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $230.00 to $160.00 in a research report on Thursday, August 24th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on shares of Estee Lauder Companies from $265.00 to $195.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 16th. Raymond James dropped their target price on Estee Lauder Companies from $195.00 to $180.00 and set a strong-buy rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price target on Estee Lauder Companies from $165.00 to $155.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Estee Lauder Companies currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $198.67.

View Our Latest Stock Analysis on EL

Estee Lauder Companies Price Performance

Estee Lauder Companies stock opened at $134.14 on Friday. The Estee Lauder Companies Inc. has a 12-month low of $133.38 and a 12-month high of $283.62. The firms 50-day moving average is $147.77 and its two-hundred day moving average is $181.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $47.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 0.99.

Estee Lauder Companies (NYSE:EL  Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Friday, August 18th. The company reported $0.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of ($0.04) by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $3.61 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.48 billion. Estee Lauder Companies had a net margin of 6.32% and a return on equity of 21.79%. Estee Lauder Companiess revenue was up 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.42 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that The Estee Lauder Companies Inc. will post 3.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Estee Lauder Companies Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 31st were issued a $0.66 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 30th. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.97%. Estee Lauder Companiess payout ratio is 94.96%.

Estee Lauder Companies Profile

(Free Report)

The Estee Lauder Companies Inc manufactures, markets, and sells skin care, makeup, fragrance, and hair care products worldwide. It offers skin care products, including moisturizers, serums, cleansers, toners, body care, exfoliators, acne care and oil correctors, facial masks, and sun care products; and makeup products, such as lipsticks, lip glosses, mascaras, foundations, eyeshadows, nail polishes, and powders, as well as compacts, brushes, and other makeup tools.

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Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its holdings in shares of JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd. (NYSE:JKS  Free Report) by 33.5% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,184,056 shares of the semiconductor companys stock after acquiring an additional 547,687 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corps holdings in JinkoSolar were worth $97,540,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of JKS. Handelsbanken Fonder AB raised its position in shares of JinkoSolar by 25.8% during the 2nd quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 1,494,085 shares of the semiconductor companys stock worth $66,307,000 after purchasing an additional 306,605 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. increased its position in JinkoSolar by 43.8% during the second quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 5,752 shares of the semiconductor companys stock worth $255,000 after buying an additional 1,752 shares in the last quarter. Shell Asset Management Co. raised its holdings in shares of JinkoSolar by 14.5% in the second quarter. Shell Asset Management Co. now owns 7,709 shares of the semiconductor companys stock worth $342,000 after acquiring an additional 979 shares during the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of JinkoSolar in the second quarter valued at $580,000. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI boosted its stake in shares of JinkoSolar by 4,593.2% during the second quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 68,755 shares of the semiconductor companys stock valued at $3,069,000 after acquiring an additional 67,290 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 35.82% of the companys stock.

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Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on JKS shares. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of JinkoSolar in a report on Thursday, October 5th. They set a hold rating for the company. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price 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.

JinkoSolar Stock Performance

NYSE:JKS opened at $26.32 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $1.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 3.77 and a beta of 0.88. The firms 50 day moving average is $30.10 and its two-hundred day moving average is $38.87. JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $25.84 and a fifty-two week high of $61.27. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59.

JinkoSolar (NYSE:JKS  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 14th. The semiconductor company reported $3.36 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $2.08 by $1.28. JinkoSolar had a return on equity of 11.84% and a net margin of 3.21%. The business had revenue of $4.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.18 billion. Analysts expect that JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd. will post 10.27 EPS for the current year.

JinkoSolar Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a  dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 24th will be given a $1.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 22nd.

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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Mackenzie Financial Corp reduced its stake in Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX  Free Report) by 28.6% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 543,408 shares of the credit services providers stock after selling 217,901 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corps holdings in Equifax were worth $124,511,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Penserra Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Equifax by 8.5% in the 4th quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC now owns 637 shares of the credit services providers stock valued at $123,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the period. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC increased its holdings in Equifax by 4.4% in the 4th quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 1,188 shares of the credit services providers stock valued at $231,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. BSW Wealth Partners raised its position in Equifax by 3.5% in the first quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 1,518 shares of the credit services providers stock valued at $308,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares during the period. United Capital Financial Advisers LLC lifted its stake in Equifax by 4.0% during the first quarter. United Capital Financial Advisers LLC now owns 1,411 shares of the credit services providers stock worth $334,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund boosted its position in shares of Equifax by 0.6% during the first quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 9,447 shares of the credit services providers stock worth $1,916,000 after buying an additional 56 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.37% of the companys stock.

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Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com assumed coverage on Equifax in a research note on Thursday, October 5th. They set a hold rating on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on shares of Equifax from $232.00 to $208.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Equifax from $238.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Friday, July 21st. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Equifax from $215.00 to $200.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 20th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on Equifax from $204.00 to $221.00 in a research report on Monday, July 10th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $215.19.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Equifax news, EVP Bryson R. Koehler sold 10,000 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Monday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.00, for a total value of $2,000,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 18,310 shares in the company, valued at $3,662,000. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Equifax news, EVP Bryson R. Koehler sold 10,000 shares of Equifax stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.00, for a total transaction of $2,000,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 18,310 shares of the companys stock, valued at $3,662,000. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO John W. Gamble, Jr. sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $201.33, for a total value of $503,325.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 44,026 shares of the companys stock, valued at $8,863,754.58. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 19,500 shares of company stock worth $3,912,985 in the last ninety days. 1.57% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Equifax Trading Up 1.2 %

NYSE:EFX opened at $166.18 on Friday. Equifax Inc. has a 1 year low of $157.41 and a 1 year high of $240.35. The stock has a market cap of $20.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.38, a P/E/G ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 1.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a current ratio of 1.01. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $189.07 and a 200-day simple moving average of $204.01.

Equifax (NYSE:EFX  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 19th. The credit services provider reported $1.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $1.78 by ($0.02). Equifax had a net margin of 10.15% and a return on equity of 19.15%. The business had revenue of $1.32 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.33 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.73 earnings per share. The businesss revenue for the quarter was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Equifax Inc. will post 6.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Equifax Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 6th were given a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.94%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 5th. Equifaxs dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.97%.

About Equifax

(Free Report)

Equifax Inc operates as a data, analytics, and technology company. The company operates through three segments: Workforce Solutions, U.S. Information Solutions (USIS), and International. The Workforce Solutions segment offers services that enables customers to verify income, employment, educational history, criminal justice data, healthcare professional licensure, and sanctions of people in the United States; and employer customers with services that assist them in complying with and automating payroll-related and human resource management processes throughout the entire cycle of the employment relationship.

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Mackenzie Financial Corp reduced its holdings in shares of Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. (NYSE:BAM  Free Report) (TSE:BAM.A) by 22.9% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,840,706 shares of the financial services providers stock after selling 1,141,131 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp owned about 0.93% of Brookfield Asset Management worth $125,364,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in shares of Brookfield Asset Management by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 38,228 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $2,161,000 after purchasing an additional 268 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Arbitrage SA raised its stake in shares of Brookfield Asset Management by 35.5% in the second quarter. BNP Paribas Arbitrage SA now owns 1,057 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $47,000 after buying an additional 277 shares during the period. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Brookfield Asset Management by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. now owns 54,530 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $3,085,000 after buying an additional 313 shares in the last quarter. Summit Trail Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Brookfield Asset Management by 4.9% in the first quarter. Summit Trail Advisors LLC now owns 7,901 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $259,000 after purchasing an additional 372 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Blue Fin Capital Inc. increased its stake in Brookfield Asset Management by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. Blue Fin Capital Inc. now owns 21,748 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $710,000 after buying an additional 424 shares in the last quarter. 61.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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Brookfield Asset Management Stock Down 0.5 %

BAM opened at $29.65 on Friday. Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. has a one year low of $26.76 and a one year high of $36.50. The stocks 50 day moving average price is $33.31 and its 200-day moving average price is $32.82.

Brookfield Asset Management Dividend Announcement

Brookfield Asset Management ( NYSE:BAM Get Free Report ) (TSE:BAM.A) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 9th. The financial services provider reported $0.32 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.32. The business had revenue of $985.00 million for the quarter. Equities analysts forecast that Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. will post 1.32 earnings per share for the current year.

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 29th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 31st were paid a dividend of $0.32 per share. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.32%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 30th.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BAM has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their target price on Brookfield Asset Management from $33.00 to $31.00 and set an underperform rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 11th. HSBC initiated coverage on shares of Brookfield Asset Management in a research report on Friday, October 6th. They set a buy rating and a $39.00 target price for the company. Scotiabank started coverage on shares of Brookfield Asset Management in a report on Thursday, July 13th. They issued an outperform rating on the stock. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Brookfield Asset Management from $33.00 to $34.00 and gave the company a market perform rating in a research report on Thursday, August 10th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on Brookfield Asset Management from $45.00 to $41.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $38.00.

Get Our Latest Stock Analysis on BAM

About Brookfield Asset Management

(Free Report)

Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. provides alternative asset management services. Its renewable power and transition business includes the ownership, operation, and development of hydroelectric, wind, solar, and energy transition power generating assets. The company's infrastructure business engages in the ownership, operation, and development of utilities, transport, midstream, data and sustainable resource assets.

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Mastercard (NYSE:MA  Get Free Report) had its price objective dropped by equities research analysts at KeyCorp from $440.00 to $430.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the credit services providers stock. KeyCorps price target suggests a potential upside of 17.94% from the stocks current price.

Several other research analysts also recently commented on the stock. Truist Financial lifted their target price on shares of Mastercard from $450.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Monday, September 25th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $463.00 to $488.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Friday, July 28th. HSBC began coverage on Mastercard in a research note on Friday, October 13th. They issued a hold rating and a $424.00 target price on the stock. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on Mastercard from $433.00 to $486.00 and gave the stock a positive rating in a research report on Friday, July 28th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Mastercard from $435.00 to $450.00 in a report on Friday, July 28th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have assigned a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Mastercard presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $449.52.

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Mastercard Stock Down 5.6 %

Shares of NYSE MA opened at $364.59 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $343.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.17, a PEG ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.09. Mastercard has a one year low of $308.60 and a one year high of $418.60. The firms 50 day simple moving average is $401.65 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $389.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.57, a current ratio of 1.13 and a quick ratio of 1.13.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA  Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The credit services provider reported $2.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.84 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $6.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $6.18 billion. Mastercard had a return on equity of 178.10% and a net margin of 43.37%. Mastercards quarterly revenue was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.56 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Mastercard will post 12.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Mastercard news, CFO J. Mehra Sachin sold 10,838 shares of the businesss 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 owns 20,707 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $8,166,426.66. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, CFO J. Mehra Sachin sold 10,838 shares of Mastercard stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.38, for a total value of $4,274,290.44. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 20,707 shares in the company, valued at $8,166,426.66. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Timothy H. Murphy sold 7,419 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $397.28, for a total transaction of $2,947,420.32. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 39,007 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,496,700.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 418,446 shares of company stock valued at $166,076,098 over the last ninety days. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Mastercard

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of MA. ERTS Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Mastercard by 1.9% during the second quarter. ERTS Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,376 shares of the credit services providers stock valued at $541,000 after buying an additional 25 shares during the last quarter. Werba Rubin Papier Wealth Management lifted its position in Mastercard by 3.0% during the second quarter. Werba Rubin Papier Wealth Management now owns 869 shares of the credit services providers stock valued at $342,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. Acropolis Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Mastercard by 1.6% during the second quarter. Acropolis Investment Management LLC now owns 1,677 shares of the credit services providers stock valued at $660,000 after purchasing an additional 26 shares in the last quarter. New World Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Mastercard by 2.0% in the second quarter. New World Advisors LLC now owns 1,300 shares of the credit services providers stock worth $511,000 after buying an additional 26 shares during the period. Finally, Cassia Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Mastercard by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Cassia Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,240 shares of the credit services providers stock valued at $491,000 after buying an additional 26 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.94% of the companys stock.

About Mastercard

(Get 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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Moodys Co. (NYSE:MCO  Get Free Report) shares gapped up prior to trading on Wednesday following a better than expected earnings announcement. The stock had previously closed at $305.61, but opened at $319.02. Moodys shares last traded at $316.00, with a volume of 158,483 shares traded.

The business services provider reported $2.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.35 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $1.47 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.46 billion. Moodys had a return on equity of 55.27% and a net margin of 26.42%. The firms quarterly revenue was up 15.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.85 earnings per share.

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Moodys Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 15th. Investors of record on Friday, November 24th will be issued a $0.77 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 22nd. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.99%. Moodyss payout ratio is currently 37.47%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently weighed in on MCO shares. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Moodys from $328.00 to $362.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Monday, July 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Moodys from $344.00 to $333.00 and set a hold rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Moodys from $332.00 to $318.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Moodys from $350.00 to $340.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an outperform rating and issued a $381.00 target price on shares of Moodys in a report on Thursday. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $344.13.

View Our Latest Analysis on Moodys

Insider Activity at Moodys

In other Moodys news, insider Michael L. West sold 2,641 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $352.79, for a total value of $931,718.39. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,251 shares of the companys stock, valued at $2,910,870.29. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Moodys news, insider Michael L. West sold 2,641 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $352.79, for a total value of $931,718.39. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,251 shares of the companys stock, valued at $2,910,870.29. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Robert Fauber sold 2,546 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.99, for a total value of $875,798.54. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 62,838 shares of the companys stock, valued at $21,615,643.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 30,829 shares of company stock worth $10,416,097 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.42% of the companys stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. BlackRock Inc. raised its stake in shares of Moodys by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 13,160,187 shares of the business services providers stock worth $4,027,280,000 after buying an additional 210,068 shares during the period. TCI Fund Management Ltd. raised its stake in Moodys by 12.6% in the 1st quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. now owns 10,369,479 shares of the business services providers stock valued at $3,173,268,000 after purchasing an additional 1,157,192 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in Moodys by 2.3% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,659,254 shares of the business services providers stock valued at $2,315,556,000 after purchasing an additional 148,804 shares during the last quarter. Akre Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Moodys by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Akre Capital Management LLC now owns 5,659,712 shares of the business services providers stock valued at $1,909,643,000 after purchasing an additional 38,615 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised its stake in Moodys by 29.7% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,994,497 shares of the business services providers stock valued at $1,112,947,000 after purchasing an additional 914,530 shares during the last quarter. 90.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Moodys Trading Down 1.4 %

The company has a 50 day moving average of $326.50 and a 200 day moving average of $327.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.04, a quick ratio of 1.65 and a current ratio of 1.78. The stock has a market capitalization of $56.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.71, a P/E/G ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.30.

Moodys Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Moody's Corporation operates as an integrated risk assessment firm worldwide. It operates in two segments, Moody's Investors Service and Moody's Analytics. The Moody's Investors Service segment publishes credit ratings and provides assessment services on various debt obligations, programs and facilities, and entities that issue such obligations, such as various corporate, financial institution, and governmental obligations, as well as and structured finance securities.

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Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. trimmed its position in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV  Free Report) by 0.6% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 97,462 shares of the airlines stock after selling 625 shares during the period. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.s holdings in Southwest Airlines were worth $3,529,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in LUV. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich increased its position in Southwest Airlines by 74,645.8% in the 2nd quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 29,236,805 shares of the airlines stock valued at $1,058,665,000 after buying an additional 29,197,690 shares in the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines by 91,675.0% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 15,296,139 shares of the airlines stock worth $515,021,000 after buying an additional 15,279,472 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines by 39.7% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 21,991,802 shares of the airlines stock worth $715,615,000 after buying an additional 6,244,136 shares during the last quarter. Provident Trust Co. boosted its stake in shares of Southwest Airlines by 161.8% in the 1st quarter. Provident Trust Co. now owns 6,693,394 shares of the airlines stock worth $217,803,000 after buying an additional 4,136,264 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC purchased a new position in shares of Southwest Airlines in the 1st quarter worth approximately $93,082,000. 78.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LUV has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on Southwest Airlines from $34.00 to $30.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 17th. Bank of America downgraded Southwest Airlines from a buy rating to a neutral rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $45.00 to $35.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 27th. StockNews.com started coverage on Southwest Airlines in a research note on Thursday, October 5th. They issued a hold rating on the stock. Redburn Partners downgraded Southwest Airlines from a neutral rating to a sell rating and set a $27.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Monday, August 7th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded Southwest Airlines from a buy rating to a hold rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $52.00 to $38.00 in a research report on Friday, July 28th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $33.18.

Southwest Airlines Stock Down 0.9 %

LUV opened at $23.39 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $13.93 billion, a PE ratio of 26.58, a P/E/G ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. Southwest Airlines Co. has a 52 week low of $22.82 and a 52 week high of $40.38. The businesss fifty day simple moving average is $28.16 and its 200 day simple moving average is $31.19.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV  Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 26th. The airline reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts consensus estimates of $0.38. The business had revenue of $6.53 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $6.56 billion. Southwest Airlines had a return on equity of 5.81% and a net margin of 2.31%. The firms revenue was up 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.50 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Southwest Airlines Co. will post 1.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southwest Airlines Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 27th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 6th were paid a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 5th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.08%. Southwest Airliness dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 81.82%.

Southwest Airlines Company Profile

(Free Report)

Southwest Airlines Co operates as a passenger airline company that provide scheduled air transportation services in the United States and near-international markets. As of December 31, 2022, the company operated a total fleet of 770 Boeing 737 aircrafts; and served 121 destinations in 42 states, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, as well as ten near-international countries, including Mexico, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Aruba, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Belize, Cuba, the Cayman Islands, and Turks and Caicos.

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Valmark Advisers Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM  Free Report) by 82.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,785 shares of the companys stock after selling 21,922 shares during the quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc.s holdings in Philip Morris International were worth $467,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PM. Gratus Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Philip Morris International by 7.0% in the second quarter. Gratus Capital LLC now owns 4,696 shares of the companys stock valued at $458,000 after buying an additional 309 shares in the last quarter. Opes Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Philip Morris International in the second quarter valued at $307,000. Catalyst Financial Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Philip Morris International by 5.6% in the second quarter. Catalyst Financial Partners LLC now owns 11,746 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,147,000 after buying an additional 621 shares in the last quarter. Blue Chip Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Philip Morris International by 1.4% in the second quarter. Blue Chip Partners LLC now owns 162,567 shares of the companys stock valued at $15,870,000 after buying an additional 2,317 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wealth Alliance grew its stake in shares of Philip Morris International by 6.1% in the second quarter. Wealth Alliance now owns 26,859 shares of the companys stock valued at $2,622,000 after buying an additional 1,553 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.70% of the companys stock.

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Philip Morris International Price Performance

Shares of NYSE PM opened at $89.71 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $139.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 0.71. The business has a 50-day moving average of $93.65 and a two-hundred day moving average of $95.27. Philip Morris International Inc. has a 1 year low of $88.17 and a 1 year high of $105.62.

Philip Morris International Increases Dividend

Philip Morris International ( NYSE:PM Get Free Report ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 19th. The company reported $1.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $1.62 by $0.05. Philip Morris International had a negative return on equity of 129.48% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company had revenue of $9.14 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.21 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.53 EPS. Philip Morris Internationals revenue for the quarter was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Philip Morris International Inc. will post 6.22 earnings per share for the current year.

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 12th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 27th were issued a $1.30 dividend. This is an increase from Philip Morris Internationals previous quarterly dividend of $1.27. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 26th. Philip Morris Internationals payout ratio is presently 100.97%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a buy rating and issued a $114.00 price objective on shares of Philip Morris International in a research note on Monday, October 2nd. StockNews.com started coverage on Philip Morris International in a research note on Thursday, October 5th. They issued a hold rating for the company. Bank of America lowered their target price on Philip Morris International from $118.00 to $111.00 in a research note on Friday, September 29th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Philip Morris International from $118.00 to $113.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 2nd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on Philip Morris International from $111.00 to $105.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $109.42.

Read Our Latest Stock Report on Philip Morris International

Philip Morris International 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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BEIJING, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, on Friday presided over a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

The meeting reviewed a guideline on policies and measures to further promote a new breakthrough in the full revitalization of northeast China in the new era.

The revitalization of northeast China was a major strategic decision made by the CPC Central Committee, the meeting noted.

With its rich resources, solid industrial foundation, unique geographical location advantages and enormous potential for development, northeast China has a significant strategic position in the country's overall development, the meeting said.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the implementation of the northeast China revitalization strategy.

The meeting stressed the importance of promoting industrial innovation through scientific and technological innovation, of transforming and upgrading the traditional manufacturing sector, and of actively fostering strategic emerging industries and future industries.

It also urged the development of large-scale modern agriculture, an increase in the overall grain production capacity, and strengthened efforts to ensure the stability of grain production and supply.

On strengthening ecological conservation, efforts should be made to develop the "under-forest" economy and the ice-and-snow economy, the meeting said.

Northeast China should accelerate its development of clean energy, including wind, solar and nuclear power, and build energy bases that integrate the restoration of wind, solar, thermal and nuclear power.

The meeting highlighted that the planning and construction of infrastructure in border areas need to be enhanced, and industries with distinctive characteristics need to be developed actively.

It is also necessary to vigorously develop basic education and increase support for colleges and universities in northeast China, the meeting said. 
Picton Mahoney Asset Management decreased its stake in iShares MSCI United Kingdom ETF (NYSEARCA:EWU  Free Report) by 39.6% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 13,960 shares of the companys stock after selling 9,140 shares during the quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Managements holdings in iShares MSCI United Kingdom ETF were worth $452,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in iShares MSCI United Kingdom ETF by 309.6% in the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 61,163 shares of the companys stock worth $2,058,000 after purchasing an additional 46,230 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its holdings in iShares MSCI United Kingdom ETF by 14.3% in the 1st quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 25,435 shares of the companys stock worth $856,000 after purchasing an additional 3,178 shares during the period. Bank of Montreal Can raised its holdings in iShares MSCI United Kingdom ETF by 3.9% in the 1st quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 151,249 shares of the companys stock worth $5,157,000 after purchasing an additional 5,653 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. raised its holdings in iShares MSCI United Kingdom ETF by 3.1% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 1,158,217 shares of the companys stock worth $38,962,000 after purchasing an additional 34,341 shares during the period. Finally, Blair William & Co. IL raised its holdings in iShares MSCI United Kingdom ETF by 7.2% in the 1st quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 127,032 shares of the companys stock worth $4,273,000 after purchasing an additional 8,559 shares during the period.

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iShares MSCI United Kingdom ETF Price Performance

Shares of iShares MSCI United Kingdom ETF stock opened at $30.52 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $31.67 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $32.41. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.02 and a beta of 0.83. iShares MSCI United Kingdom ETF has a 12 month low of $27.30 and a 12 month high of $34.04.

iShares MSCI United Kingdom ETF Company Profile

The iShares MSCI United Kingdom ETF (EWU) is an exchange-traded fund that is based on the MSCI United Kingdom index. The fund tracks a market cap-weighted index of British companies. It covers the top 85% of British companies by market cap. EWU was launched on Mar 12, 1996 and is managed by BlackRock.

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PROG (NYSE:PRG  Get Free Report) issued its earnings results on Wednesday. The company reported $0.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.62 by $0.28, Briefing.com reports. The company had revenue of $582.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $570.10 million. PROG had a return on equity of 30.59% and a net margin of 6.40%. The businesss revenue was down 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.68 EPS. PROG updated its Q4 guidance to $0.61-0.71 EPS and its FY23 guidance to $3.55-3.65 EPS.

PROG Stock Performance

PRG opened at $28.35 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.81 and a beta of 2.09. The stocks 50 day moving average price is $32.23 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $32.52. The company has a quick ratio of 1.78, a current ratio of 3.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99. PROG has a 12-month low of $14.53 and a 12-month high of $44.81.

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Institutional Trading of PROG

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PRG. Bank of Montreal Can acquired a new stake in PROG in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $4,770,000. MetLife Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of PROG by 30.3% in the 1st quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 65,818 shares of the companys stock worth $1,894,000 after acquiring an additional 15,302 shares during the period. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS lifted its position in shares of PROG by 10.5% in the 1st quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 20,787 shares of the companys stock worth $598,000 after acquiring an additional 1,982 shares during the period. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can lifted its position in shares of PROG by 6.0% in the 1st quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can now owns 30,504 shares of the companys stock worth $902,000 after acquiring an additional 1,728 shares during the period. Finally, Ergoteles LLC lifted its position in shares of PROG by 55.0% in the 1st quarter. Ergoteles LLC now owns 36,717 shares of the companys stock worth $1,056,000 after acquiring an additional 13,026 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.24% of the companys stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on PRG. Loop Capital lowered their price objective on PROG from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a hold rating on the stock in a report on Monday, September 11th. Stephens lowered their price objective on PROG from $68.00 to $37.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. KeyCorp lowered their price objective on PROG from $48.00 to $44.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on PROG from $49.00 to $42.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 10th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat, PROG presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $40.25.

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PROG Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

PROG Holdings, Inc (NYSE:PRG) is a financial technology holding company based in Salt Lake City, Utah with three business segments: Progressive Leasing, which offers lease-to-own transactions primarily to credit-challenged consumers through e-commerce and point-of-sale retail partners, via online, mobile, and in-store solutions; Vive Financial, which provides consumers who may not qualify for traditional prime lending with a variety of second-look, revolving credit products through private label and branded credit cards; and Four Technologies, which provides consumers of all credit backgrounds Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) options through four interest-free installments via its platform, Four.

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Steel Peak Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Devon Energy Co. (NYSE:DVN  Free Report) by 769.2% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 8,961 shares of the energy companys stock after buying an additional 7,930 shares during the quarter. Steel Peak Wealth Management LLCs holdings in Devon Energy were worth $433,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in DVN. AlphaCrest Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Devon Energy in the first quarter valued at $364,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Devon Energy in the first quarter valued at $188,000. Blair William & Co. IL boosted its holdings in Devon Energy by 52.1% in the first quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 99,120 shares of the energy companys stock valued at $5,861,000 after purchasing an additional 33,936 shares during the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. boosted its holdings in Devon Energy by 9.2% in the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 414,354 shares of the energy companys stock valued at $24,500,000 after purchasing an additional 34,870 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board purchased a new stake in Devon Energy in the first quarter valued at $26,000. 68.34% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Insider Buying and Selling at Devon Energy

In other Devon Energy news, EVP Dennis C. Cameron sold 7,870 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.13, for a total value of $402,393.10. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 210,548 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,765,319.24. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.63% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Devon Energy Stock Down 1.4 %

DVN opened at $47.17 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $30.22 billion, a PE ratio of 6.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.16 and a beta of 2.32. The company has a quick ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. Devon Energy Co. has a twelve month low of $42.59 and a twelve month high of $78.82. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $48.89 and a 200 day moving average price of $49.79.

Devon Energy (NYSE:DVN  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 1st. The energy company reported $1.18 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts consensus estimates of $1.18. The company had revenue of $3.45 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.26 billion. Devon Energy had a net margin of 28.10% and a return on equity of 37.89%. Devon Energys quarterly revenue was down 38.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.59 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Devon Energy Co. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Devon Energy Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 15th were issued a $0.49 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 14th. This represents a $1.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.16%. Devon Energys payout ratio is 10.94%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Devon Energy from $51.00 to $50.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 17th. Mizuho lowered their target price on shares of Devon Energy from $62.00 to $58.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 12th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered shares of Devon Energy from an outperform rating to a market perform rating and set a $48.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, October 17th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on shares of Devon Energy from $63.00 to $60.00 and set a sector perform rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 13th. Finally, StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Devon Energy in a research note on Thursday, October 5th. They set a hold rating on the stock. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $60.44.

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Devon Energy Profile

(Free Report)

Devon Energy Corporation, an independent energy company, explores for, develops, and produces oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids in the United States. It operates in Delaware, Anadarko, Williston, Eagle Ford, and Powder River Basin. The company was incorporated in 1971 and is headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

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Bank of New York Mellon Corp cut its position in shares of TE Connectivity Ltd. (NYSE:TEL  Free Report) by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,895,915 shares of the electronics makers stock after selling 59,064 shares during the quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp owned 0.92% of TE Connectivity worth $405,891,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cibc World Market Inc. grew its position in shares of TE Connectivity by 63.8% during the 1st quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 11,366 shares of the electronics makers stock valued at $1,489,000 after buying an additional 4,427 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its holdings in shares of TE Connectivity by 16.2% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 25,817 shares of the electronics makers stock valued at $3,382,000 after purchasing an additional 3,598 shares during the last quarter. Dakota Wealth Management raised its position in shares of TE Connectivity by 23.0% during the 1st quarter. Dakota Wealth Management now owns 4,259 shares of the electronics makers stock worth $558,000 after purchasing an additional 797 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of TE Connectivity by 108.9% in the 1st quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 3,336 shares of the electronics makers stock worth $437,000 after purchasing an additional 1,739 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in TE Connectivity by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,621,186 shares of the electronics makers stock valued at $3,617,824,000 after purchasing an additional 308,580 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.75% of the companys stock.

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Insider Activity

In other news, Director Terrence R. Curtin sold 70,721 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Monday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $143.02, for a total value of $10,114,517.42. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 54,969 shares in the company, valued at $7,861,666.38. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

TE Connectivity Stock Up 0.9 %

TEL stock opened at $117.55 on Friday. The firms 50-day moving average is $125.29 and its two-hundred day moving average is $129.16. The company has a market capitalization of $36.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 1.35. TE Connectivity Ltd. has a 52 week low of $110.88 and a 52 week high of $146.60. The company has a current ratio of 1.80, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34.

TE Connectivity (NYSE:TEL  Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 26th. The electronics maker reported $1.77 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.66 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $4 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $4.05 billion. TE Connectivity had a return on equity of 19.55% and a net margin of 12.63%. The firms quarterly revenue was down 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.86 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that TE Connectivity Ltd. will post 6.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on TEL shares. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on TE Connectivity from $149.00 to $153.00 in a research report on Thursday, July 27th. Truist Financial increased their price objective on shares of TE Connectivity from $127.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a report on Thursday, July 27th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of TE Connectivity in a research note on Thursday, October 5th. They set a buy rating for the company. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded shares of TE Connectivity from a market perform rating to an outperform rating and raised their price target for the company from $115.00 to $140.00 in a research note on Friday, October 6th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $143.90.

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TE Connectivity Company Profile

(Free Report)

TE Connectivity Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells connectivity and sensor solutions in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the AsiaPacific, and the Americas. The company operates through three segments: Transportation Solutions, Industrial Solutions, and Communications Solutions.

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Van ECK Associates Corp lessened its stake in Helmerich & Payne, Inc. (NYSE:HP  Free Report) by 7.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,331,022 shares of the oil and gas companys stock after selling 179,492 shares during the quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp owned approximately 2.34% of Helmerich & Payne worth $82,635,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. BlackRock Inc. increased its position in Helmerich & Payne by 1.8% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 17,910,973 shares of the oil and gas companys stock worth $640,317,000 after purchasing an additional 319,188 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Helmerich & Payne by 0.7% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,891,665 shares of the oil and gas companys stock valued at $439,634,000 after acquiring an additional 86,545 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Helmerich & Payne by 6.1% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,990,631 shares of the oil and gas companys stock valued at $178,415,000 after acquiring an additional 284,938 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in Helmerich & Payne by 7.7% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,335,243 shares of the oil and gas companys stock valued at $154,985,000 after acquiring an additional 310,770 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Boston Trust Walden Corp increased its position in Helmerich & Payne by 4.7% during the second quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 2,235,284 shares of the oil and gas companys stock valued at $79,241,000 after acquiring an additional 100,679 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 96.05% of the companys stock.

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Insider Transactions at Helmerich & Payne

In other news, SVP Raymond John Adams III sold 2,500 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.00, for a total transaction of $112,500.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 69,025 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $3,106,125. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, Director Hans Helmerich sold 25,627 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.46, for a total transaction of $1,088,122.42. Following the transaction, the director now owns 1,340,288 shares in the company, valued at approximately $56,908,628.48. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Raymond John Adams III sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.00, for a total value of $112,500.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 69,025 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,106,125. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 34,127 shares of company stock valued at $1,455,502 in the last 90 days. 4.16% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

HP has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Benchmark upgraded shares of Helmerich & Payne from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, July 19th. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Helmerich & Payne from $45.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Monday, July 31st. Royal Bank of Canada cut shares of Helmerich & Payne from an outperform rating to a sector perform rating and cut their price target for the stock from $53.00 to $45.00 in a report on Monday, July 10th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Helmerich & Payne in a report on Thursday, October 5th. They issued a buy rating on the stock. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Helmerich & Payne from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an underweight rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 17th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $49.64.

Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on HP

Helmerich & Payne Stock Performance

HP opened at $39.46 on Friday. Helmerich & Payne, Inc. has a 52-week low of $30.41 and a 52-week high of $54.45. The company has a quick ratio of 2.06, a current ratio of 2.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The company has a market cap of $3.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.36 and a beta of 1.67. The firms 50-day moving average price is $42.15 and its 200-day moving average price is $38.37.

Helmerich & Payne (NYSE:HP  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 26th. The oil and gas company reported $1.09 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.20. Helmerich & Payne had a net margin of 14.14% and a return on equity of 14.98%. The company had revenue of $723.96 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $702.05 million. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Helmerich & Payne, Inc. will post 4.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Helmerich & Payne Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 4th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 17th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.53%. Helmerich & Paynes payout ratio is 26.25%.

About Helmerich & Payne

(Free Report)

Founded in 1920, Helmerich & Payne, Inc (H&P) (NYSE: HP) is committed to delivering industry leading levels of drilling productivity and reliability. H&P operates with the highest level of integrity, safety and innovation to deliver superior results for its customers and returns for shareholders.

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Van ECK Associates Corp decreased its stake in IAMGOLD Co. (NYSE:IAG  Free Report) (TSE:IMG) by 12.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 44,969,988 shares of the mining companys stock after selling 6,204,145 shares during the quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp owned 9.35% of IAMGOLD worth $118,272,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its stake in IAMGOLD by 0.7% in the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 17,085,400 shares of the mining companys stock valued at $46,308,000 after buying an additional 124,300 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in IAMGOLD by 2.9% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,240,870 shares of the mining companys stock valued at $17,378,000 after buying an additional 460,969 shares during the period. Polunin Capital Partners Ltd lifted its stake in IAMGOLD by 0.3% in the second quarter. Polunin Capital Partners Ltd now owns 10,323,857 shares of the mining companys stock valued at $27,151,000 after buying an additional 31,100 shares during the period. Two Sigma Investments LP lifted its stake in IAMGOLD by 492.0% in the first quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 7,284,801 shares of the mining companys stock valued at $19,742,000 after buying an additional 6,054,262 shares during the period. Finally, Two Sigma Advisers LP raised its position in shares of IAMGOLD by 269.0% during the first quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 5,687,600 shares of the mining companys stock worth $15,413,000 after purchasing an additional 4,146,200 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 49.40% of the companys stock.

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IAMGOLD Stock Up 0.8 %

IAG stock opened at $2.50 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.87, a current ratio of 2.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $2.29 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $2.62. The company has a market cap of $1.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 82.69, a P/E/G ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 1.49. IAMGOLD Co. has a twelve month low of $1.30 and a twelve month high of $3.34.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

IAMGOLD ( NYSE:IAG Get Free Report ) (TSE:IMG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 11th. The mining company reported ($0.01) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of ($0.02) by $0.01. IAMGOLD had a negative return on equity of 0.05% and a net margin of 1.99%. The firm had revenue of $238.80 million during the quarter. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($0.01) earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that IAMGOLD Co. will post 0.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

A number of research firms have recently commented on IAG. CSFB dropped their price target on IAMGOLD from $3.00 to $2.50 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 17th. Royal Bank of Canada raised IAMGOLD from an underperform rating to a sector perform rating and raised their price target for the stock from $1.75 to $2.75 in a research report on Tuesday, September 12th. StockNews.com began coverage on IAMGOLD in a research report on Thursday, October 5th. They set a hold rating on the stock. Finally, TD Securities dropped their price target on IAMGOLD from $6.00 to $5.50 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $3.17.

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IAMGOLD Profile

(Free Report)

IAMGOLD Corporation, through its subsidiaries, explores, develops, and operates gold mining properties in North America and West Africa. The company owns 100% interest in the Westwood mine, covers an area of 1,925 hectare and located in Quebec and the Cote gold project, which covers an area of 596 square kilometer located in Ontario, Canada; and 90% interests in the Essakane mine situated in Burkina Faso and Boto gold project located in Senegal, West Africa.

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Over 100 legal representatives from countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative attended an international forum on Maritime Silk Road judicial cooperation. Check out what its participants have to say on the cooperation.

Produced by Xinhua Global Service
A medical worker from east China's Shandong Province gives free consultation in Kashgar, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Sept. 16, 2023. [Xinhua/Wang Fei]

URUMQI, Oct. 26 (Xinhua)  Through years of medical assistance, hospitals in China's Tibet Autonomous Region and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region have seen notable improvements in healthcare services, management, and human capital, said the National Health Commission (NHC).

In 2015, China initiated a national program of sending teams of medical and education personnel to offer support to Tibet and Xinjiang.

Since then, more than 3,100 high-caliber personnel from provinces and municipalities relatively advanced in the medical sector have been dispatched to hospitals in both regions, Xing Ruoqi, an NHC official, told a press conference held in Kashgar, Xinjiang, on Wednesday.

Xing said these healthcare workers, encompassing medical practitioners and managers, have guided over 1,000 local medical teams and trained more than 7,600 medical personnel.

Target-Oriented Assistance

Yan Xinjian, a doctor from southern China's Guangdong Province, began assisting the cardiovascular surgery center at the First People's Hospital of Kashgar Prefecture in April. His primary task is to develop the surgery of acute DeBakey type I aortic dissection, which carries high risks and is complex.

"Treating this disease is a race against time. Our center is making efforts to improve the surgery level," said Yan, adding that it is important to cure patients locally and timely rather than referring them to more advanced hospitals in Urumqi, the regional capital over 1,400 km away.

"We send assistance teams oriented to the medical needs of the assisted regions," said Wang Hongbin, deputy director of the Guangdong provincial health commission.

According to Zou Xiaoguang, deputy director of Xinjiang's health commission, medical assistance has significantly improved the local treatment capabilities, with clinical specialty numbers increasing from 180 in 2016 to 258 in 2022.

"Furthermore, the program has also created positive spillovers to the county-level hospitals," said Zou.

Empowering Local Capacity

"Many young local medical workers have now become 'pillars' in their departments," said Ding Qiang when he revisited the People's Hospital of Kizilsu Kirgiz Autonomous Prefecture. He assisted the hospital from 2017 to 2019 and is currently a revered administrative staffer at the Jiangsu Provincial People's Hospital.

Since 2016, medics from Jiangsu have supported over 30 clinical specialties and become tutors of over 300 healthcare workers in Xinjiang, Ding added.

Since the pairing assistance program was launched, the number of level-4 surgeries, which is of the highest risk in China's classification, conducted in eight of Tibet's assisted hospitals, had increased to 8.8 percent in 2022, allowing more seriously ill patients to receive better and more timely treatment.

As released in the press conference, over 4,300 healthcare professionals from assisted hospitals have received education and training in regions with relatively advanced medical resources.

The NHC has held training courses to promote health education in villages, families, and schools as an integral part of the program, according to Mi Feng, an NHC official, adding that free visits to clinics and free healthcare lectures have also been conducted to popularize health knowledge to the public in the two regions.

(Source: Xinhua)
TIANJIN, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- From April to September, it took just over five months for European aircraft manufacturer Airbus to break ground on its second final assembly line in north China's Tianjin Municipality after signing the agreement.

This is a powerful vote of confidence in the future of aviation here in China, Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury said, adding that it also underlines Airbus' long, trustful, and successful relationship with partners in China.

The comprehensive advantages of the Chinese market, featuring its large scale, complete industrial system, a favorable environment for scientific and technological innovation, and continued opening-up, have attracted more and more foreign investments.

In May, refrigeration industry giant Danfoss inaugurated its global refrigeration research and development (R&D) and testing center in Tianjin. With a total construction area of about 7,000 square meters and a total investment of about 140 million yuan (about 19 million U.S. dollars), the center is the company's most advanced and largest one worldwide.

Arthur Xu, president of Danfoss China, said it is significant for the group to move from "producing" in China to "creating" in China, which reflects the company's confidence in China's green development and the long-term prospects of the Chinese economy.

In recent years, it has become a trend for foreign companies to choose China as their R&D centers to cater to the vast Chinese market demands and serve a larger global market.

In June, Honeywell, a U.S. industrial conglomerate, unveiled its Sustainability and Digitalization Innovation Center in Tianjin, another strategic layout of the company in China.

Henry Liu, vice president and general manager of Honeywell Performance Materials and Technologies Asia-Pacific, said Honeywell has set up a number of R&D centers and innovation institutions in China in 2023 alone and has worked with many Chinese partners to promote more innovative technologies and mature solutions.

Liu said Honeywell is optimistic about the opportunities brought by China's "dual carbon" target. "We will work with Chinese partners to shape a sustainable future by developing products and technologies that meet our customers' energy-saving and environmental protection needs."

British-headquartered global pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca's Qingdao regional headquarters was inaugurated in east China's Shandong Province recently. According to the MOU signed in August, AstraZeneca will further invest 250 million U.S. dollars in its Qingdao pMDI inhalation manufacturing and supply site.

At the end of this year, SMC (Tianjin) Manufacturing Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Japan's pneumatic component manufacturer SMC Corporation, will start the second phase of its expansion project.

After the new plant is put into operation, the annual output value of the Tianjin company is expected to reach 1.5 billion yuan, which will make it SMC's largest base in China, said Ma Qinghai, general manager of the company.

As the Chinese economy recovers and the foreign investment environment further improves, increasing high-value-added industries around the world will cluster in China, said Bai Ming, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under the Ministry of Commerce. 
A Lake in the Hills, Illinois community is alarmed after an instructor at Ha's Taekwondo Academy is charged with child porn.
For most Americans, when the clock struck 2 a.m. Sunday, it was 1 a.m. all over again, providing an extra hour to sleep, party or maybe go over that sample ballot before voting in Tuesdays election.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang meets with Mongolian Prime Minister Luvsannamsrai Oyun-Erdene on the sidelines of the 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Oct. 26, 2023. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu)

BISHKEK, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- China stands ready to work with Mongolia to firmly support each other in safeguarding sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, Chinese Premier Li Qiang said here Thursday.

He called on both sides to fully understand and firmly support each other on issues concerning their respective core interests and major concerns.

Li made the remarks during his meeting with Mongolian Prime Minister Luvsannamsrai Oyun-Erdene on the sidelines of the 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States.

Noting that China and Mongolia are adjacent to each other by mountains and rivers, Li said that friendship and cooperation have always been the main tone of bilateral relations.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Mongolian President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh held a fruitful meeting in Beijing not long ago, and reached a series of important consensuses on promoting the building of a China-Mongolia community with a shared future and deepening Belt and Road cooperation, which have provided strategic guidance for the sound and steady development of bilateral relations, Li said.

China is ready to work with Mongolia to implement the consensus reached by the two heads of state and always be a good neighbor and good brother who can be trusted and relied on, Li said.

He called on both sides to take the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations and the 10th anniversary of the establishment of comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries next year as an opportunity to carry forward the friendly tradition, build up political mutual trust, strengthen exchanges and cooperation in various fields, and provide more impetus for their respective development and revitalization, so as to create more benefits for their people.

The two sides should continue to deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, consolidate the existing gains and plan for future growth, Li said.

China is ready to strengthen cooperation with Mongolia in such fields as port connectivity, economy and trade, and green development to further expand the pie of common interests, so as to achieve win-win results, Li said.

China is ready to strengthen cooperation with Mongolia under the SCO and other multilateral frameworks to better safeguard the common interests and build a community with a shared future for mankind, Li added.

For his part, Oyun-Erdene noted that in recent years, the comprehensive strategic partnership between Mongolia and China has been continuously deepened, with close high-level exchanges and deepening mutual understanding between the two countries, adding that the economic and trade cooperation has developed rapidly.

Mongolia firmly abides by the one-China principle and opposes external interference in China's internal affairs, he said, adding that his country is ready to work with China to continuously enhance political mutual trust and mutual support and to closely synergize development strategies and initiatives put forward by the two sides.

Mongolia stands ready to work with China to strengthen border port capacity building and connectivity, promote the Belt and Road cooperation, deepen cooperation in areas including trade, railway, green development, tourism and culture, and deepen multilateral cooperation, so as to lift Mongolia-China relations to a higher level, he said. 

Chinese Premier Li Qiang meets with Mongolian Prime Minister Luvsannamsrai Oyun-Erdene on the sidelines of the 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Oct. 26, 2023. (Xinhua/Yue Yuewei)
On Wednesday an Israeli airstrike in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the south of Gaza targeted and killed the family of Al Jazeeras Gaza bureau chief, Wael al-Dahdouh. The victims of Dahdouhs family include his wife, his high-school-aged son, seven-year-old daughter, and a grandson. According to reports from Al Jazeera, 12 members of the Dahdouh family are dead, nine of whom were children, and others are still missing.

The family was staying in the camp, having fled to the south of the Gaza strip after the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) dropped leaflets in the north urging civilians to evacuate. Dahdouh remained behind to continue covering the bombardment. Al Jazeeras Walid al-Omary told the press that the murders were part of Israels relentless targeting of Palestinians, and stated that in spite of the fact that the family had evacuated, the Israeli army targeted them. This is proof that there isnt a single safe zone in Gaza.

Al Jazeera released a statement condemning the targeting of journalists and their families, and encouraging the international community to intervene and put an end to these attacks on civilians, thereby safeguarding innocent lives.

The murder of Dahdouhs family followed reports on Monday that just two weeks ago, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Qatar to tone down the state-owned news networks coverage of the slaughter in Palestine.

Axios reported that three sources who attended a meeting with Blinken said he asked the Qataris to turn down the volume on Al Jazeeras coverage because it is full of anti-Israel incitement.

Shlomo Karhi, Israels communications minister, has been pushing for harsh censorship measures through emergency regulations to tamp down on opposition to Israels massively unpopular assault on Palestine. Al Jazeeras broadcasts and reports constitute incitement against Israel, help Hamas-ISIS and the terror organizations with their propaganda, and encourage violence against Israel, he said.

According to the draft emergency regulations, titled Limiting Aid to the Enemy through Communication, any media outlet deemed a threat to national security will be shut down. On October 20, the Israeli government signed off on the regulations. Karhi then announced he would bring forth a formal proposal to shut down Al Jazeeras operations in Israel altogether at the next security cabinet meeting.

According to Haaretz, the emergency regulations will apply to both the general public and the media, as well as both local and foreign media (in contrast to the stated objective to limit Al Jazeera). It will also apply to the publication of factually correct statements, at the ministers discretion The draft defines aiding the enemy through communication as the dissemination of information that undermines the morale of Israels soldiers and residents in the face of the enemy, or information that serves as a basis for enemy propaganda, including the spreading of the enemys propaganda messages, or information that aids the enemy in its war against Israel, its residents, or Jews.

The publication later notes in the same article that it is unlikely to be approved by the governments legal counsel as it conflicts with Israels democratic values.

The targeting and censorship of journalists is a longstanding policy of the Israeli regime in its effort to cover up and whitewash the crimes committed by the IDF against Palestinians.

In May 2022, Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was targeted and gunned down by the IDF while covering a raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank. Her murder was an open attempt to prevent objective reporting on the brutal suppression of Palestinians, which has now escalated to open genocide.

The International Federation of Journalists reports that at least 23 journalists have been killed since October 7 as of this writing. Dozens more have been injured and more are missing. The Egyptian Journalists Syndicate reports that in addition to the deaths, injuries and missing journalists, over 50 media institutions have been destroyed in the airstrikes which have targeted the homes of journalists, and a further 30 journalists have been arrested in the West Bank.

A Palestinian journalist comfort his niece wounded in an Israeli strike on her family home in Nusseirat refugee camp, in a hospital in Deir el-Balah, Gaza Strip, Sunday, Oct. 22, 2023 [AP Photo/Ali Mahmoud]

Late Wednesday night, two more journalists, Saed al-Halabi and Mohammed Labad, were killed in a targeted attack. [T]he Israeli occupation army continued to target the houses of journalists, where the bombing of the house of journalist Said Al-Halabi led to his martyrdom, according to a press release from the Forum of Palestinian Journalists (PJS).

Al-Halabi worked for Al-Aqsa TV and was killed at his home in Jabalia, north of the Gaza Strip. Labad was killed in a blast near his home in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City.

Motaz Azaiza, a photojournalist on the ground in Palestine with over 8.7 million followers on Instagram, has had his X/Twitter account shut down this week for violating rules. Following a devastating video posted to the journalists Instagram account on October 13, showing the ruins and rubble after an IDF bomb destroyed residential buildings, his Instagram account was suspended and not reinstated until days later. His X/Twitter account currently remains suspended.

Meta, parent company of Facebook and Instagram, released a statement last updated on October 18 blatantly denying censorship, insinuating that posts showing the devastation of Palestine and the murder of civilians equates support for terrorism and are therefore not allowed. [C]ontent containing praise for Hamas, which is designated by Meta as a Dangerous Organization, or violent and graphic content, for example, is not allowed on our platforms, it says.

Language from the original statement published October 13 places blame for the Israeli attack on Gaza on the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack.

Like many, we were shocked and horrified by the brutal terrorist attacks by Hamas, and our thoughts go out to civilians who are suffering in Israel and Gaza as the violence continues to unfold, it reads. Since the terrorist attacks by Hamas on Israel on Saturday, and Israels response in Gaza, expert teams from across our company have been working around the clock to monitor our platforms, while protecting peoples ability to use our apps to shed light on important developments happening on the ground.

The massive international outrage over the brutal assault by Israel on Palestine has gone beyond the control of the ruling class and its mainstream media outlets. Photos and videos of the bombings and deaths, and of the protests against it, have been shared widely on social media platforms in spite of the lack of mainstream media reports.

The hashtag Genocide Joe has been trending on X/Twitter, following US President Joe Bidens open embrace of Netanyahu and call for $105 billion to escalate war efforts in Ukraine and the Middle East, as workers and young people view with horror and disgust content from accounts like Azaizas, which show the reality of the situation in Palestine.
After centuries of brutal colonial rule by Britain, the Irish population has long been deeply sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinians. Every outburst of Israeli violence over the decades has generated powerful opposition.

Numerous demonstrations and protests against the Israeli governments genocidal assault on Gaza have been held since October 7. Last Saturday, October 21, several thousand people waving Palestinian flags marched through central Dublin to a rally in Merrion Square. The previous week, thousands marched to the Israeli embassy in Shelbourne Road, where police barricades were set up to protect the building.

Both marches in Dublin demanded the Israeli ambassador be expelled from the country. Midweek protests outside the embassy raised the same demand. A Galway doctor, Palestinian Abdullah Al Bayvari, told RTE, Its reminiscent of 1948, when we were asked to leave our homes and we held onto our keys, and we held onto our deeds, in the hope that as they promised we could return, and we never returned.

On October 19, protestors occupied the European Parliament Liaison Office in Dublin to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, and for immediate humanitarian relief. The newly formed Dublin for Gaza spokesperson, academic David Landy, commented on X/Twitter that the EU is offering full vocal support to these atrocities in defiance of any norms of international law and in defiance of the wished of decent European citizens. We believe that Israels campaign of mass murder and ethnic cleansing amounts to an act of genocide, under the legal definition adopted by the United Nations. We are occupying the EU Commission offices as an act of protest against EU complicity in these genocidal acts.

A section of the anti-war march in Belfast on October 15, 2023

In Belfast, capital of British-controlled Northern Ireland, on successive weekends, thousands of people have marched through the city centre. Last Saturday, in an event organised by Belfast Stands with Palestine, protestors marched from Belfast City Hall to the BBCs Broadcasting House in Ormeau Avenue before hearing speeches denouncing US President Joe Biden, Britains Rishi Sunak and the European Unions (EU) Ursula von der Leyen.

In Derry, around 2,000 people filled the citys Guildhall Square and staged a Rally for Palestine. Catherine Hutton of the Derry branch of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign told Derry Now, A child has been killed every 15 minutes since October 7 in Gaza. Let that sink in. The Palestinian people need us now.

Emergency protests have also been held in Cork, Ennis, Tralee, Lurgan, Dundalk, Omagh, Dungannon and Longford. This week, protests were planned in Ballincollig, Newry, Castlebar and Limerick.

Protesters at the anti-Israeli war rally in Dundalk, Ireland, October 25, 2023

But while millions have been horrified by Israels genocidal violence, the Irish political establishment, balancing between the US, the EU and the UK, and dependent on investment from all three, has doggedly covered for its imperialist patrons on both sides of the Atlantic.

Opening an October 18 debate in the Dail Eireann, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister, Fianna Fails Micheal Martin, condemned the October 7 attack by Hamas, describing the desperate and suicidal uprising against the concentration camp conditions in Gaza as heinous', savage and brutal and reprehensible. He underlined that there is no justificationnonefor such terror. But he then dutifully endorsed Israels right of self defence, cynically calling for this to be within the framework of international law.

The debate was held in the immediate aftermath of the bombing of the Al-Ahli Arab hospital by Israeli forces, likely with an American bomb. Yet Martin groveled over the intense diplomatic engagement being undertaken by the United States at this time. Secretary of State Blinken is engaged with several key partners in the region. The visit of President Biden to Israel today is also very significant, although I very much regret that Arab leaders who were scheduled to meet him in Amman will no longer do so.

Martin called for the EU, whose leading powers and politicians have all backed Israeli bombing, to play a constructive and credible role in this crisis and requested that EU funding for the Palestinians be sustained.

Prospective coalition partners and currently topping opinion polls, Sinn Fein took a marginally more critical line, aware of the deeply rooted support for the Palestinians among the partys members and more broadly in the working class.

In the same debate, party President Mary Lou McDonald denounced Israeli violence: As we speak, the Gazan people face annihilation. Entire families are being wiped out, hundreds of thousands are being displaced from their homes, and their schools, hospitals and vital infrastructure are being obliterated. They are now running out of food. They are drinking unsanitised water in a desperate attempt to stay alive.

But McDonalds fundamental point, as with the government, was to call for the imperialist powers to uphold the international laws they are now trampling over. As the people of Gaza cling to their very existence, the leadership of the international community must now resurrect those values it claims to hold dear.

McDonald was backed by Sinn Feins Foreign Affairs spokesman Matt McCarthy, who threw in an attack on Hamas for good measure. Let us be very clear. Hamas breached international law on 7 October. It targeted innocent civilians in the most callous and inhumane manner and its actions have been rightly condemned by right-thinking people around the world. McCarthy then listed Israels countless breaches of international law and again appealed to the international community to tell Israel to stop the blockade, the apartheid, the annexation and the genocide.

The international community invocation barely conceals an appeal to the rampaging imperialist powers and their allies to politely urge Israel to be more civilised.

The Irish bourgeoisie, claiming to have a degree of independence, is entirely dependent on the imperialist powers and complicit in their crimes.

This is confirmed by the detachment of Irish troops on the Lebanon/Israel border. Ireland has maintained a small number troops as part of Unifil, the United Nations 10,500 strong Interim Force in Lebanon, since 1978. Established as a multinational monitoring force, the UN operation currently assists the Lebanese Armed Forces in policing a blue line defined after Israels attack on Lebanon in 2006.

Fighting is escalating sharply around the blue line and another Israeli attack has been threatened repeatedly by the Netanyahu government, as the US seeks a wider war in the region targeting Iran and its alliesSyria, and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The 123rd Battalion, made up of 334 soldiers, is to be dispatched to the Lebanese border imminently. The BBC reported Thursday that Irelands Department of Foreign Affairs has warned its citizens to leave Lebanon immediately, while it is still possible.

Meanwhile, the Irish government has committed 170 troops to participate in the EUs Battlegroup system, comprised of 18 battle groups of 1,500 soldiers, aimed at rapid response peacekeeping and warfighting in conditions of a new violent redivision of the world. Training for the Irish troops is to commence in Germany next year.

The only genuinely international power that can stand against war is the working class, to the extent its struggles are unified globally and directed towards the fight for socialism and the abolition of the nation state system in the Middle East, and worldwide.
Mark Meadows, Donald Trumps last White House chief of staff, has given testimony under oath before the grand jury convened by Special Counsel Jack Smith in the federal case against the former president. In exchange, Meadows has been given prosecutorial immunity, meaning his statements cannot be used against him, according to a report by ABC News on Tuesday.

Smith is prosecuting the federal case against Trump for a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election that culminated in the January 6, 2021 fascist assault on the US Capitol aimed at preventing the certification of Joe Biden as president.

ABC News reported that unnamed sources said, Meadows informed Smiths team that he repeatedly told Trump in the weeks after the 2020 presidential election that the allegations of significant voting fraud coming to them were baseless, a striking break from Trumps prolific rhetoric regarding the election.

The report said further, Meadows also told the federal investigators Trump was being dishonest with the public when he first claimed to have won the election only hours after polls closed on Nov. 3, 2020, before final results were in.

Meadows testified at least three times before the grand jury empaneled to hear evidence against Trump in the election interference case. As one of Trumps closest advisers and White House chief of staff from March 2020 to January 2021, Meadows testimony is key to proving the former president knew his claims that Biden and the Democrats stole the 2020 electionwhich became the basis for the mobilization of fascist political forces behind himwere completely fabricated.

The ABC News report said, Smiths investigators were keenly interested in questioning Meadows about election-related conversations he had with Trump during his final months in office, and whether Meadows actually believed some of the claims he included in a book he published after Trump left officea book that promised to correct the record on Trump.

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows speaks on a phone on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, on Oct. 30, 2020. [AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File]

Meadows book The Chiefs Chief, which was published in December 2021, includes assertions that the 2020 election was stolen and rigged with support from allies in the liberal media, that ignored actual evidence of fraud, right there in plain sight for anyone to access and analyze.

Contradicting the claims in his book, the ABC News report says that Meadows privately told Smiths investigators that he has yet to see any evidence of fraud that would have kept now-president Joe Biden from the White House, and he told them he agrees with a government assessment at the time that the 2020 presidential election was the most secure election in U.S. history.

The grant of immunity to Meadows was approved by US District Court Judge James Boasberg, the chief judge in a Washington D.C. court, days before Meadows appeared before the grand jury in March, the ABC News sources said. If Meadows attorneys had not secured the immunity, it is likely that the former Trump chief of staff would have invoked his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination during grand jury questioning.

Meadows immunity in the federal case against Trump does not extend to the case against the former president for election interference in the state of Georgia. There, Meadows has been charged by the Fulton County prosecutor, along with Trump and 17 others, with a series of felonies, including racketeering, conspiracy to impersonate a public officer and conspiracy to commit forgery.

In that case, Meadows filed a motion to have the proceedings against him moved to federal court, but that effort was denied, and he is now appealing that decision.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has charged many accomplices of Trumps effort to submit to Congress a bogus roster of Republican electors from Georgia and to falsely certify the vote in favor of himself rather than Democrat Biden, who actually won the state by a margin of nearly 12,000 votes.

The strategy pursued by Willis is to force as many of the accomplices into plea bargains as possible where they will accept responsibility for lesser charges in exchange for testifying against Trump and the other key defendants, such as Giuliani and Meadows. So far, this strategy has driven three defendants directly linked to Trumps inner circleattorneys Sidney Powell, Kenneth Chesebro and Jenna Ellisto plead guilty and agree to give testimony against Trump. A fourth defendant, bail bondsman Scott Graham Hall, has also accepted a plea deal.

The plea hearing of Jenna Ellis on Tuesday showed that the cabal of fascist figures around Trump, including those who are pleading guilty to crimes connected with their attempt to overthrow the US Constitution, are continuing to defend their claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. As Ellis stated during her plea deal public apology, she faults herself for not making sure the facts the other lawyers alleged to be true were, in fact, true.

Furthermore, Ellis stated that in the frenetic pace of attempting to raise challenges to the election in several states including Georgia, I failed to do my due diligence. In other words, even after she pleaded guilty to the felony of aiding and abetting false statements and writings, Ellis maintains that the claims in seven states that the election was stolen were entirely legitimate.

On Wednesday, CNN reported that Fulton County prosecutors had discussed potential plea deals with at least six additional co-defendants in the Georgia case. Some of these defendants are local Republican Party officials who took part in the fake elector scheme at different levels. The CNN report said the network had confirmed the names of the defendants with Fulton County prosecutors, but agreed not to name them after sources expressed concerns about speaking about the case at this phase.

To date, according to CNN, no plea deal has been offered to Donald Trump, Mark Meadows or Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, and it is apparent that Willis strategy centers around focusing on co-defendants listed at the top of the indictment [those four] and securing cooperation from those considered less important in the broader case 

Meanwhile, in the civil fraud trial against Trump in New York City, the former president was summoned to the witness stand by Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron to answer questions about comments he made in a court hallway during a break in the proceedings.

Interrupting the second day of testimony by former Trump fixer Michael Cohena key witness against the fascist candidate for the Republican Party nomination in the 2024 presidential racethe judge asked about comments Trump made about the person sitting alongside the judge in the courtroom, presumably his law clerk, who he said was biased.

To whom were you referring? Engoron asked Trump, to which the defendant replied, You and Cohen. The judge found the response to be a lie and declared, I find the witness is not credible, and fined Trump $10,000. Trump had previously criticized the law clerk on social media and that caused the judge to impose a gag order barring participants in the trial from making public comments about the court staff.

The judge said he was concerned that Trumps comments were an incitement to violence. I dont want anyone to get killed, Justice Engoron said.
The support of Washington and the European powers for Israels genocidal war on the Palestinians in Gaza and the looming prospect of a US war with Iran have provoked a desperate crisis in Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogans government.

After the Israel-Gaza war broke out on October 7, Erdogan initially tried to block a mass movement against Israeli bombings in Gaza. Turkish riot police assaulted solidarity protests with Gaza, as Erdogan called for de-escalation and a ceasefire, equating the violence of the Palestinians with the imperialist-backed Israeli state. On Wednesday, however, as the Israeli regime ignored his calls for restraint and outrage mounted in the overwhelming majority of the Turkish people, he was forced to suddenly shift his policy.

In a speech at a meeting of his party, Erdogan said: We have made every effort in order for this crisis to not further escalate, and will continue to do so  We have clearly stated that we never approve of any acts against civilians, including Israeli civilians, no matter who carries these acts out. He added: We do not have any problem with the State of Israel, but we never have and never will approve of Israeli oppression and their course of action, which resembles that of an organization rather than a state.

In this February. 5, 2020 photo, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan holds up a placard with a series of maps of historical Palestine, the 1947 United Nations partition plan on Palestine, the 1948-1967 borders between the Palestinian territories and Israel, and a current map of the Palestinian territories without Israeli-annexed areas and settlements, during a speech at the parliament in Ankara, Turkey. [AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici]

Having stated that he has no problem with the Zionist regime, whose existence is based on the dispossession and now the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, Erdogan continued: Israel has since October 7 been conducting one of the bloodiest, the most hideous and the most violent attacks in history against the innocent people in Gaza Merely this fact is enough to show that the intention is not to protect themselves but a brutality aimed at committing a deliberate crime against humanity.

Erdogan had recently re-developed diplomatic ties with the Israeli government to share Eastern Mediterranean energy reserves and exclude the Palestinians from them. Now, however, he accused Tel Aviv of abusing his good intentions and cancelled a previously-scheduled visit. He announced that the first mass rally protesting the Gaza war by his Justice and Development Party (AKP) will be held on October 28, in Istanbul.

In his speech, Erdogan rejected one of the imperialist powers main justifications for the Israeli massacre in Gaza. He said, This Israel is killing children, we have seen the condition of these children, and we will never allow them to be torn to pieces because we have a share in humanity Hamas is not a terrorist organization; it is a group of liberation and mujahedeen fighting to defend its lands and citizens.

On his X/Twitter account, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat condemned Erdogans remarks. Haiat wrote: The Turkish presidents attempt to defend the terrorist organization [Hamas] and his provocative words will not change the brutality and the absolute truth that the whole world has seen: Hamas is equal to ISIS, the Al Qaeda-linked Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

The Israeli state and the imperialist capitals clearly sense that Erdogans speech threatens their policy in the region. Indeed, having already criticized the US deployment of aircraft carriers to the region, Erdogan pointedly attacked Washington, saying: All actors should act responsibly to prevent the spread of war, and extra-regional powers should stop adding fuel to the fire in the name of solidarity with Israel.

Indeed, the Turkish government is dismayed by the imminent prospect of the imperialist powers plunging the entire Middle East into war. As Erdogan spoke, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan went to Doha, Qatar, where he said: Our region is literally at a tipping point. The current conjuncture will either lead to a greater war or a greater peace. All those I speak to share this assessment, even if they do not say so publicly.

The NATO imperialist powers support for genocide in Gaza and their threat to attack Iran present the Turkish bourgeoisie with an impossible dilemma. On the one hand, it has the closest ties with imperialism and for decades has asserted its foreign policy interests through NATO. On the other, it is virtually impossible for the Turkish government to join the other NATO powers in supporting a genocide in Gaza and waging a US-led war on Iran.

Firstly, such an utterly criminal policy must be rejected by the overwhelming majority of the Turkish peopleabove all, by the working class. Moreover, it would also theaten fundamental interests of the Turkish ruling class.

Turkey, which shares a long land border with Iran, is home to the US-NATO Incirlik air base in Adana and the Kurecik radar base in Malatya. These bases could easily become the targets of Iranian strikes, should war break out between the United States and Iran.

The Turkish bourgeoisie fears that a victory in a Middle East war of Washington and Tel Aviv, both of whom back Kurdish-nationalist militias on Turkeys borders in Iraq and Syria, could lead to the formation of a Kurdish state. However, the Turkish bourgeoisie has historically been willing to take the most far-reaching measures to block the emergence of a Kurdish state and maintain the oppression of the Kurds inside Turkey.

Leading Turkish officials are therefore discussing military intervention against Israel or other NATO allies in the region.

In his speech, Erdogan warned that Turkish military intervention is on the table, stating: We, as a country and a nation, will continue to shout the truth and to use all political, diplomatic and, if necessary, military means to this end.

On Sunday, Devlet Bahceli, the leader of the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) that is the de facto coalition partner of Erdogans AKP, called for military intervention in Gaza. He stated: If a ceasefire cannot be achieved within 24 hours, if the attacks do not stop, if bombs continue to be dropped on the oppressed, Turkey must quickly step in and do whatever is required by its historical, humanitarian and religious responsibilities. Undertaking the mission of protecting and protecting Gaza is the legacy of our ancestors.

Erdogan tied his criticisms of the imperialist support for Israeli crimes against humanity in Gaza to planned attacks on Kurdish militias in Syria or Iraq that he denounces as terrorist.

He said, With the operations we carry out by saying We might come one night all of a sudden, we will foil the projects sought to be realized through terrorist organizations and crush their heads.  Although they do not abide by what statecraft and international law require, we will never give up on fulfilling what our dignity requires us to do. We will continue to destroy the terror corridor sought to be established along our borders, and to stand up against the dirty campaigns conducted against our country and faith.

The imperialist powers green light to the Israeli regime for genocide in Gaza is tearing apart the institutions through which imperialism has dominated the region for decades. More perceptive imperialist commentators are warning of a possible collapse of the NATO alliance.

Commenting on Erdogans speech, retired US Army Colonel Douglas MacGregor said: Hes warning the Israelis and hes warning us that youre playing with fire, and youre going to get a full-scale war. Thats the message. I hope we get it. We, by putting an aircraft carrier  in the Eastern Mediterranean and another one either in the Persian Gulf or the Red Sea, are attempting to provoke people like President Erdogan and the mullahs that run the government of Iran.

MacGregor added that the war escalation poses serious dangers for Israel: Its really setting the stage for a larger regional war thats the issue right now. And we always tend to forget the Turks have the largest army in NATO, a very large air force. They dont have as many missiles and rockets in their arsenal as Iran does. But if you put Iran together with Turkey and they end up in a coalition that includes the Peninsula Arabs  then, you know, the stage is set for something that I think could end up destroying the Israeli State.

Humanity is confronted with a breakdown of the imperialist-dominated capitalist nation-state system in the Middle East. Neither Erdogan nor any other capitalist government has any perspective to peacefully unify the many peoples of the regionArab, Jewish, Turkish, Kurdish and Iranian. That task falls to the working class, mobilizing in an international movement against imperialism, war and capitalism, fighting to build the United Socialist States of the Middle East.
Seventy-eight years after the fall of the Third Reich, the German ruling class is again intoxicated by genocidal violence. There is hardly any other country in which the government, political parties and media, support the criminal war of the far-right Netanyahu regime against the Palestinian civilian population in such a united and aggressive manner.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, center, speaks during a pro-war rally in solidarity with Israel's genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people, in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, October 22, 2023. [AP Photo/Markus Schreiber]

On Monday, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) brusquely rejected the call for a humanitarian ceasefire for Gaza, which had been raised as a possibility by some European Union (EU) states and the World Health Organization (WHO). There will only be peace and security for Israel and the Palestinians if terrorism is combated, Baerbock said. This is nothing less than a call for the continuation of the genocide of the Palestinians.

Official propaganda cannot hide the fact that Israel, under the guise of fighting terrorism, is persecuting an entire people and trying to kill as many Palestinians as possible. The procedure is reminiscent of the methods by which the Nazis suppressed uprisings against their tyranny and razed entire cities to the ground oras in the case of Leningradstarved them to death.

The Israeli military has completely blocked the Gaza Strip. For over two weeks, it has denied water and electricity, and ordered more than a million people in the north to flee en masse to the south, only to attack them anyway. There have already been nearly 7,000 dead and 15,000 wounded. The majority of them are women and children. According to the Hamas governments Ministry of Health, among the more than 6,500 people officially killed are more than 2,000 children under the age of 18 and more than 1,100 women. In a 24-hour period to Tuesday, 704 Palestinians were killed.

It is considered likely that the true death toll is much higher. According to its own statements, the Israeli Air Force has so far attacked more than 10,000 targets in the Gaza Strip. Their huge bombs and missile warheads, all allegedly precision weapons, are deliberately fired at crowds, whether indoors or outdoors. Hundreds of people were killed in the attack on the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City on October 17 alone.

Even before the imminent ground offensive, large parts of the Gaza Strip are in ruins. According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), about 40 percent of the entire enclaves housing stock was destroyed or damaged by Israeli bombing. More than half of the nearly 2.3 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip had to flee their homes, with over half a million living in emergency shelters.

This violence and destruction is supported by Germanys entire ruling class. On Sunday, all established parties from the governing Social Democrats, Green, and Free Democrats to the opposition Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) and Left Party, the employers and industrial associations, the churches and the DGB trade union federation closed ranks behind Israels genocide at the Rally in Solidarity with Israel in front of the Brandenburg Gate.

The tone was set by the Israeli ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor. We must now eliminate the entire infrastructure of terror in the Gaza Strip, he bellowed. And when we do, I really dont want to hear yes, but anymore. This time we have to go to the end.

This call for total war was enthusiastically supported by all participants. No one uttered a word of criticism of Israels war crimes. On the contrary, the speakers excelled in expressions of solidarity. They agitated against foreigners and Muslims in the style of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), demanded mass deportations and an aggressive trumpeting of German imperialism on Israels side, as well as the suppression of any opposition to it. The entire rally had a decidedly fascist character.

We have a big problem in Germany with political Islam, which also includes Jew-hatred, said CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann. People looked the other way here for too long. We must intensify deportations and stop the immigration of antisemites.

The Secretary General of the FDP, Bijan Djir-Sarai, commented similarly, We have to make it clear that people who reject our values have no place here. ... We dont want these people here.

The co-chairman of the Left Party, Martin Schirdewan, agreed with this chorus and criticized the German governments actions against Iran from the right. Iran and the emirate of Qatar are the main sponsors of Hamas terror and preferred partners also of German business. He hoped that the Federal Government will finally make it clear to them that antisemitic terror must not be financed indirectly.

The keynote speech was given by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. He went so far as to blame not Israel, but the Palestinians themselves for the genocide in the Gaza Strip and the danger of a wider Middle East war. It is the terrorists who have led Gaza into a destructive military war, he declared. A war that we all fear could become a regional conflagration. Everything must be tried to prevent this.

This turns reality upside down. In fact, the imperialist powers not only support the destruction of Gaza, but are preparing for a broader war against Iran and its allies that would turn the entire region into an inferno and threaten millions of lives, including in Israel itself. So much for Steinmeiers claim that he was concerned with protecting Jewish life.

When Steinmeier and other leading politicians propagate genocide and war in the name of the fight against antisemitism and never again (a popular slogan internationally following the horrendous extermination of European Jewry by the Nazis) this is the height of cynicism. The stench of fascism is back. But it does not emanate from the oppressed Palestinians and desperate refugees, but from the ruling class, which waged a war of extermination under the Nazis and murdered 6 million Jews and is now committing massive crimes again.

This is particularly evident in the war offensive against Russia in Ukraine. In the war against Russia, Berlin and the leading NATO powers are arming a regime in Kiev that celebrates Nazi collaborators like Stepan Bandera and relies on overtly fascist army units like the Azov Battalion. In the pro-Western coup of 2014, fascist shock troops from Right Sector and the neo-Nazi Svoboda Party played the key role. Steinmeier himself, as foreign minister at the time, welcomed the chairman of the Svoboda party and avowed antisemite Oleh Tyahnybok at the German embassy in Kiev.

Since then, the ruling class has been working systematically to rehabilitate the Nazis. It is building a fascist party in Germany with the AfD, whose leaders refer to the Holocaust memorial in Berlin as a monument of shame (Bjorn Hocke) and Hitler and the Nazis as bird shit in over 1,000 years of successful German history (Alexander Gauland).

At the end of September, the German ambassador to Canada, Sabine Sparwasser, participated in the standing ovation for the Waffen-SS veteran and Nazi war criminal Yaroslav Hunka in the Canadian Parliament. And in Berlin, the far-right Humboldt University Professor Jorg Baberowski (Hitler was not vicious) is defended by the same political forces that marched outside the Brandenburg Gate on Sunday.

It is significant that the parties of war essentially remained among themselves at the event. Despite the broad publicity for the rally, just under 10,000 people gathered, far fewer than the tens of thousands who took to the streets against the German-Israeli war policy, despite massive repression, that same weekend. Millions protested around the world.

Workers and youth in Germany and worldwide reject Israels genocide of the Palestinians precisely because it is reminiscent of the Nazi crimes in World War II. Never again means dealing with todays capitalist warmongers and preventing them from plunging the world into the abyss again. This requires a united struggle of the working class on the basis of an international socialist program.
Chinese Ambassador to Myanmar Chen Hai addresses a seminar to jointly promote the Belt and Road Cooperation between China and Myanmar in Yangon, Myanmar, Oct. 26, 2023. The seminar held on Thursday featured discussions on China-Myanmar cooperation projects under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). (Photo by Myo Kyaw Soe/Xinhua)

YANGON, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- A seminar has been held in Myanmar to jointly promote the Belt and Road Cooperation between China and Myanmar, which will work together to share development and prosperity.

The seminar held on Thursday featured discussions on China-Myanmar cooperation projects under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Union Minister for Union Government Office 1 U Aung Naing Oo said the BRI plays a pivotal role in connecting nations and developing human civilizations.

"The BRI has already promoted cultural exchanges and shared learning on harmonious coexistence," the minister said.

He added that the seminar serves as a platform for sharing views and leveraging a unique perspective and experiences to contribute to enhancement of future cooperation in Myanmar as well as in the region and the world.

Chinese Ambassador to Myanmar Chen Hai called for further development of the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor, saying that Myanmar is one of the countries that actively responded to the BRI.

Under the BRI cooperation, China and Myanmar have been working together on various projects including Kyaukphyu deep-sea port and industrial zone, Muse-Mandalay railway and Mandalay-Kyaukphyu railway.

About 100 representatives from both countries, including government officials, business people and media, participated in the event in Yangon. 

Guests from China and Myanmar attend a seminar to jointly promote the Belt and Road Cooperation between the two countries in Yangon, Myanmar, Oct. 26, 2023. The seminar held on Thursday featured discussions on China-Myanmar cooperation projects under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). (Photo by Myo Kyaw Soe/Xinhua)

Guests from China and Myanmar attend a seminar to jointly promote the Belt and Road Cooperation between the two countries in Yangon, Myanmar, Oct. 26, 2023. The seminar held on Thursday featured discussions on China-Myanmar cooperation projects under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). (Photo by Myo Kyaw Soe/Xinhua)
As millions of workers respond to the Israeli bombardment with shock and horror, the Zionist regime is only able to proceed with its genocide in Gaza due to a chain of political support extending from the worlds imperialist governments and their satellites.

In Australia, the Labor administration, one of Washingtons chief allies, has been as aggressive as any in its insistence of Israels supposed right to defend itself, through the mass murder of Palestinian civilians. The central backer of the Labor government on this question, and on all attacks on social and democratic rights, is the trade union bureaucracy.

For more than a week after the Netanyahu regime declared war on the Palestinian people, Australias union leadership said nothing at all, signalling their support for the onslaught.

Health workers protest Israels attack on Gaza hospital in Melbourne on October 19, 2023

Diametrically opposed to the unions stance, a groundswell of working-class opposition to the genocide has emerged, including worker-organised protests by doctors, nurses, university staff and students, as well as mass rallies around the country.

There is a growing recognition at these demonstrations of the Australian governments role, with protesters chanting shame, shame, Albanese and carrying placards declaring that the prime minister has blood on his hands.

Only in reaction to this did the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) come out with a statement, designed to cover its filthy role and head off a broader eruption of opposition to Israel and the complicit Labor government.

In the October 19 statement, the ACTU makes its adherence to the government line clear, drawing a false equivalency between the explosive anger of the oppressed Palestinian people and the Israeli state, which is backed by the full might of US and global imperialism.

Workers, Palestinian, Israeli, Australian or otherwise do not rate a mention in the statement, which calls on the Australian Government to exercise all avenues of diplomacy to stop the bombing and the ground assault by Israel into Gaza and call for an immediate ceasefire.

The hollow character of this plea is emphasised by the fact that the statement does not contain a single word of criticism of any Australian government, whether for their continuing support of the Netanyahu regime, or their efforts to criminalise pro-Palestine rallies at home.

In other words, Australias leading union bureaucrats are declaring that workers must stand aside and wait for a diplomatic solution to emerge from the same forces of world imperialism that have unfailingly backed 75 years of brutal occupation, and presided over decades of devastating attacks throughout the Middle East.

The ACTUs attempt to conceal the unions total support for the Labor government with a mealy-mouthed statement of concern is exposed as a fraud by the actions of other unions, which have threatened and cracked down on rank-and-file workers who have opposed Israels war crimes.

Perhaps the most striking demonstration of the unions hostility to the cause of oppressed Palestinians was an attempt last week by the United Services Union (USU) to distance itself from a petition signed by more than a thousand workers.

The petition, drafted by members of the New South Wales (NSW) branch of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), called for an immediate suspension of all hostilities and an immediate end to the blockade of Gaza an end to the illegal occupation of Palestinian land and an end to apartheid and ethnic cleansing.

The statement was not by any means a call to arms directed towards workers, but a plea to the state and federal Labor governments, declaring, We support the demonstrations around Australia for Palestine, and call on governments and police authorities to facilitate them.

Even this was completely unacceptable to the USU bureaucracy, which responded by sending members a communique declaring, All members are advised the United Services Union was not consulted about the circulation of this petition nor was the union a party to its distribution. Members who choose to sign this petition do so independently of the Union.

In utterly cynical fashion, the message concluded with the unions customary slogan, By your side. The USU leadership has made clear whose side it stands bynot workers calling for an end to apartheid and ethnic cleansing, but Zionist oppressors and the Australian governments that support them.

The NSW Nurses and Midwives Association (NSWNMA) also issued a statement disavowing the petition, declaring, While it is the democratic right of all people to hold their own views on complex matters such as this conflict, the NSWNMA remains steadfast in opposing all war, and like many others, we call for a peaceful outcome.

The position of the NSWNMA is clearly expressed in the fact that the union said nothing until after both a snap protest by health workers at Liverpool Hospital in Sydney and the circulation of the petition.

Even then, the NSWNMA bureaucracy could not bring itself to condemn, or even mention, Israels targeted bombing of the Al Ahli Hospital. An organisation that says nothing about the mass murder of doctors and nurses, in Palestine or anywhere else, has branded itself as an enemy of health workers everywhere.

According to the Daily Telegraph, the Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) also issued a statement declaring that the petition does not represent the views of the RTBU.

The USU response was reported on Twitter/X by Fahad Ali, a University of Sydney academic, NTEU member and co-organiser of recent pro-Palestinian rallies in Sydney. In a subsequent post, Ali wrote: A very angry @USUNSW official called me to claim that the union has had to spend $7000 on a mass SMS campaign because we dont care about death on both sides and misrepresented our petition as an official USU initiative.

Firstly, the USU claim is false on both counts. The petition calls for peace, equality and justice for Palestinians, Israelis, and everyone in the Middle East. Far from any misrepresentation, the USU is not mentioned at all.

But what is of far more significance to members of the USU is what the bureaucracys response reveals: The union leadership is so closely aligned with the Labor governments support for the genocidal Netanyahu regime that it will readily spend thousands of dollars (of members dues) to try to discredit any opposing political view.

That the union bureaucracy is tacitly, and in some instances, actively supporting the worst war crimes of this century, exposes its class character. The bureaucracy is anti-working class, instead representing the interests of an affluent and parasitic layer, tied by a thousand strings to the Labor government, the major corporations and imperialism.

It should be noted that historically, and no doubt today, Australias union leaders have had the closest ties, not only to big business Labor politicians, but also to the US embassy, out of which American imperialisms intelligence agencies operate.

The rotten foreign policy of the unions is entirely bound up with their reactionary domestic role. For forty years, the union bureaucracies have been the chief force suppressing the class struggle and imposing one assault after another on workers jobs, wages and conditions.

The unions alignment with the Israeli war is a signal that they will step up this onslaught, in the face of growing rank-and-file opposition. As the WSWS has explained, the bombardment of Gaza is one front in a developing global war spearheaded by the US, against Iran, Russia and China.

The Australian Labor government is playing a frontline role in this new imperialist redivision of the world, particularly functioning as an attack dog in Washingtons plans for a devastating conflict with Beijing. The associated military build-up requires the diversion of vast social resources to the war machine, an accompanying assault on workers living standards and a crackdown on widespread anti-war opposition.

With their line on Gaza, the unions are signalling that they will act as the police force for this agenda. Organisations that do nothing amid crimes that recall nothing so much as the horrors of the Nazi regime are making plain that there is no line that they will not cross, including supporting a militarist agenda that threatens world war.

The position of the Australian unions is a direct rejection of an urgent plea issued by Palestinian unions and professional associations. In an October 16 statement, An Urgent Call from Palestinian Trade Unions: End All Complicity, Stop Arming Israel, they called on unions and workers organisations worldwide to take urgent action, including:

To refuse to build weapons destined for Israel.

To refuse to transport weapons to Israel.

To pass motions in their trade union to this effect.

To take action against complicit companies involved in implementing Israels brutal and illegal siege, especially if they have contracts with your institution.

Pressure governments to stop all military trade with Israel, and in the case of the US, funding to it.

The Australian unions are doing the direct opposite, ensuring that there is no disruption whatsoever to the major corporations, including in the ports and arms sectors, as the genocide proceeds.

That demonstrates that a response to the Palestinian call must come from workers themselves, in a rebellion against the pro-imperialist union bureaucracies. Independent factory and workplace committees should be established everywhere, to rally opposition to the onslaught on Gaza, and to plan concrete measures to end the genocide, including strikes and other industrial action.

The Socialist Equality Party urges all workers seeking to participate in this struggle to contact us and discuss establishing a rank-and-file committee today.
The Socialist Equality Group and the International Youth and Students for Social Equality in New Zealand is holding a public meeting calling for an end to the genocidal war being unleashed on the Palestinian population in Gaza.

The meeting will be on Monday, November 13, at 6.00 p.m. in room AM 103 in the Alan Macdiarmid Building, Victoria University of Wellington (Kelburn campus). Register here and make plans to attend.

Israels assault on Gaza is an historic crime, perpetrated by the Netanyahu regime and its imperialist accomplices led by the United States. Millions have protested throughout the world, including tens of thousands in New Zealand, against the horrific bombing of the city of more than two million people. These demonstrations have united people of different nationalities and faiths, including large numbers of Jewish people, and are overwhelmingly young. An entire generation is being politicised.

They are taking a stand not only against the Zionist regime, but its imperialist backers in the Biden administration in Washington, the war propagandists in the media, and the New Zealand political establishment. The outgoing Labour Party government and the new National Party government have responded to the mass murder of Palestinians by declaring their support for Israels right to defend itself. This is a fraudulent pretext for ethnic cleansing.

The eruption of mass anti-imperialist sentiment must now be armed with the political perspective necessary for victory. The United Nations and human rights groups will only issue appeals for a ceasefire that will be ignored by Israel and its backers. This gives the US and its NATO allies free rein to prepare a broader conflict in the entire region targeting Iran, Syria and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The Australian and New Zealand ruling class, allies of US imperialism, support this agenda; all the imperialist powers view the conflict in the Middle East as one front of a global war that includes the conflict with Russia in Ukraine and preparations for war against China.

The only force that can defend the Palestinians and put an end to the global eruption of imperialist violence is the international working class. The mass movement in support of the Palestinians comes amid a global strike wave by workers in every part of the world and in every industryincluding recent strikes in New Zealand by tens of thousands of healthcare workers, teachers and others. The class struggle will only intensify in the months ahead, as the ruling class carries out an escalating assault on social and living conditions to funnel billions of dollars to war.

The working class must be mobilised. Industrial action must be taken to deprive the Israeli regime of the resources they need to prosecute this war. Above all, such a struggle necessitates a fight against capitalism.

At this meeting, members of the Socialist Equality Group and the International Committee of the Fourth International will discuss the socialist and internationalist program required to stop the war against Gaza and the descent into a Third World War. We urge students, workers and young people to join us in this urgent discussion.

Register here to attend.
Workers picket near a General Motors Assembly Plant in Delta Township, Michigan on September 29, 2023. [AP Photo/Paul Sancya]

Autoworkers: Join an emergency meeting Friday at 7 p.m. Eastern / 6 p.m. Central to discuss the implications of the UAW-Ford deal and how to organize to defeat the sellout. Register here to attend.

Sign up for text message updates on the Detroit Three contract fight by texting AUTO to (866) 847-1086.

The United Auto Workers bureaucracy is trying to ram through an agreement with Ford Motor Co. that will entail a massive assault on the jobs, living standards and factory conditions of nearly 150,000 Ford, GM and Stellantis workers.

The only thing historic about the UAW-Ford deal is the scope and cynicism of the betrayal. The UAW leadership unilaterally shut down strikes at Ford on Wednesday night, before many workers even knew an agreement had been reached, let alone seen and voted on. The deal they announced Wednesday was worked out months ago, and the stand up strike was just theater to keep most workers on the job without a contract.

In a livestream Wednesday, UAW Vice President for Ford Chuck Browning sought to justify this blatantly anti-democratic action with the absurd argument that it was a strategic move to keep the pressure on Stellantis and GM.

What a cynical lie! The real aim of the UAWs shutdown of the strike is to make ratification of its deal seem like a foregone conclusion, divide Ford workers from their brothers and sisters at GM and Stellantis, and weaken the position of workers throughout the Big Three.

Workers at GM and Stellantis should take the UAWs shutdown of the Ford strike as a warning that their own strikes are in imminent danger. Media reports Friday morning indicated that the UAW is close to announcing an agreement with GM, one which will be no less of a betrayal than the one at Ford.

The bureaucracy is attempting to get ahead of and suppress opposition because it knows its deals with Ford, GM and Stellantis will be unpopular. The few details the UAW revealed Wednesday already makes clear that it is a complete betrayal of workers demands:

It contains only a 25 percent base wage increase over a nearly five-year contract, far below the 40 percent or more raise demanded by workers, and nowhere near enough to make up for decades of declining wages. Meanwhile, the UAW has released no details about the COLA it says it won, what the formula is, who it will apply to, or when.



Any modest increases in wages will be more than made up by the companies through the forced retirements of higher-paid workers, mass layoffs, plant closings, speed-up and cost-cutting. Ford CFO John Lawler said Thursday there was no doubt the company would remain profitable under the agreement, and Ford would find efficiency and productivity throughout the system and throughout the company to help mitigate the impacts of the higher labor costs.

The deal maintains the tier system. It only shortens the wage progression scheme to three years and does not restore pensions and retiree health benefits for all current workers and new hires. The UAW has said nothing about what the path is to full-time employment for newly hired temporary workers, and how long they will be kept in temp status by the companies.

It paves the way for the destruction of hundreds of thousands of jobs during the transition to electric vehicles. The right to strike over plant closures held up by Fain is meaningless. The UAW leadership accepts that there will be mass job cuts during the EV transition, and only wants to make sure they have control over job placement to the low-wage EV battery plants, so that they get the dues.

It is certain that many more concessions will emerge in the coming days. But the UAWs deal is already provoking broad opposition among autoworkers. Unofficial polls in autoworker Facebook groups with thousands of members show a majority would reject the contract if a vote were held today.

To prevent the defeat of their struggle, workers in every factory must begin organizing now. Urgent measures are needed to ensure that the will of rank-and-file workers is not again overridden by the pro-corporate UAW bureaucracy:

1. The full contract and all letters of understanding must be released immediately, not selective highlights and change pages!



All plans for plant closures which have been discussed at any of the Big Three companies must be made public immediately. There must be at least one week for workers to carefully study and discuss the full contents of the contract. Mass membership meetings must be held at every local where workers can ask questions and campaign against the contract.

2. The rank and file must have oversight over the vote and ballot-counting.



Autoworkers have already had many bitter experiences with the UAW bureaucracys anti-democratic methods, including ballot-stuffing, voter intimidation and other dirty tricks. The UAW deliberately failed to inform the vast majority of workers that a national union election was taking place last year, leading to turnout of just 9 percent.



To prevent another rigged election, rank-and-file workers should organize delegations to monitor the contract vote and oversee all ballot-counting.

3. Rank-and-file committees must be expanded throughout every plant and workplace.



In every factory and workplace, workers should form or expand rank-and-file committees. These committees have already played a critical role in organizing the resistance to UAW-backed sellout contracts, such as at Mack Trucks, where workers overwhelmingly voted down a pro-company deal endorsed by Fain.



Rank-and-file committees are the organizing centers of opposition, providing a means for workers to exchange information and unite across all tiers, plants, companies, and even countries.

As the WSWS has warned, Fain and the UAW apparatus have planned from the beginning to betray this struggle. Fains administration was brought into power earlier this year in order to counter a militant rank and file that is in no mood for another sellout. That is why Fain and his pseudo-left PR department (led by the Democratic Socialist of America) have used radical sounding rhetoric and rolled out their fraudulent stand up strikes, which did more economic damage to the workers than the corporations.

Thursday afternoon, Ford reported that it made $2.2 billion in profits in the third quarter, an increase of more than 20 percent from last year. The $1.3 billion in lost income that Ford predicted from the 41-day strike is less than one third of the $4 billion GM lost from a 40-day national strike in 2019which itself ended in yet another sellout.

For the UAW bureaucrats to claim that they have won a record contract at Ford after striking just three plantswith far less of an impact than the 2019 GM strikeonly shows that they have nothing but contempt for the intelligence of workers.

For months, the UAW apparatus has conspired with the Biden administration to impose a deal that will allow automakers to decimate jobs and create a new low-paid workforce in the EV battery plants. After the UAW announced its deal Wednesday, Biden immediately hailed Ford and the UAW for coming together and producing a contract that helps businesses succeed.

Biden has been focused on working with the UAW bureaucracy throughout to contain the struggle so that 1) it does not spread and galvanize a much broader movement in the working class for higher wages, and 2) it does not interfere with Washingtons escalation of the war against Russia in Ukraine, and the US-backed war by Israel against Gaza, and plans for war against China. Last weekend, the UAW announced a tentative agreement for 1,100 General Dynamics workers who build tanks and armored vehicles for the US military.

All over the world, the ruling class is confronting both a growing strike movement and mass protests against war. In the past week, thousands of GM workers in Brazil initiated strike action to fight layoffs.

Workers at Ford have powerful allies among autoworkers in the US, Canada, Mexico, and other countries who are also looking to fight for a decent standard of living and against exploitation.

But for the enormous social power of the working class internationally to be unleashed, structures which are genuinely under workers control are needed. Rank-and-file committees throughout the auto industry will provide the mechanism for workers to transfer power to the rank and file and prepare to launch an all-out strike.
Canadas trade union-sponsored New Democratic Party (NDP) has joined a vicious ruling-class witch hunt of Ontario NDP legislator Sarah Jama for her defence of the Palestinian people.

Ontario NDP leader Marit Stiles unilaterally booted Jama from the partys provincial parliamentary caucus last Monday. Federal NDP leader and onetime Ontario NDP deputy leader Jagmeet Singh has signalled his approval for Stiles action by remaining silent on the entire affairincluding a Progressive Conservative government-authored censure motion that strips Jama of the right to speak in Ontarios legislature.

Jamas crime from the standpoint of the Canadian political establishment was her issuing of an Oct. 10 statement on X (the former Twitter) comparing the oppression of the Palestinians with apartheid and demanding an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land.

As Israels savage bombardment of Gaza got under way, Jama called for an immediate ceasefire and de-escalation. We must look to the solution to this endless cycle of death and destruction: end all occupation of Palestinian land and end apartheid. Canada must hold true to its tradition of peacemaking, and refrain from military intervention. My heart genuinely goes out to all those impacted by this on-going violence.

In the past, Jamas statement would hardly have seemed exceptional. As numerous United Nations resolutions have affirmed, Israels occupation of Palestinian lands captured in the Six Day War of 1967including its de facto imprisonment of 2.3 million Palestinians in Gazais illegal. Israels systematic and brutal regime of oppression against the Palestinians has been described as akin to apartheid by many Israeli legal scholars and by Amnesty International, hardly an organization renowned for its radicalism. But today, under conditions in which the imperialist powers have fallen over each other to demonstrate their full-throated support for the far-right Netanyahu governments genocide on Gaza, such statements are intolerable.

Jamas statement prompted a torrent of abuse and threats from all quarters. Right-wing forces raised the demand that she go back to Somalia, her familys homeland. She has been universally denounced by the capitalist media, hard-right Ontario Premier Doug Ford, and Zionist organizations as an anti-Semite and a defender of Hamas terrorists. Editors and columnists demanded that Jama remove her tweet, apologize and resign her seat.

After her office was inundated with death threats, Jama was forced to work from home. Premier Ford poured political fuel on this fire. He demanded Jama be ejected from the legislature, citing her history of antisemitism, which supports the rape and murder of Jewish people. Unbowed, Jama went on the offensive, and launched a libel suit against the Ontario Premier, a perfectly justified act of self-defense.

In response to the initial torrent of denunciations, Jama issued a short appendix to her initial tweet, stating, I understand the pain that many Jewish and Israeli Canadians, including my own constituents, must be feeling. I apologize. To be clear, I unequivocally condemn terrorism by Hamas on thousands of Israeli civilians. I also believe that Israels bombardment and siege on civilians in Gaza, as was also noted by the United Nations, is wrong. As a member of the Ontario NDP caucus, I stand by the position of our federal party, and believe that violence against civilians is never justified, and that there is no military solution to this conflict.

Her retreat only encouraged the hard-right agitators, who stepped up their calls for Jama to resign.

Sara Jama (left) joined Steelworker officials and federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh last July in a token show of support for striking workers at the National Steel Car plant in Hamilton [Photo: Sarah Jama/X (Twitter)]

At every point, this right-wing political witch hunt has been facilitated by the NDP. Before this weeks expulsion, Ontario party leader Stiles had insisted that Jama enter into an agreement with her, the purpose of which was to effectively muzzle Jama from expressing her views on the massacre in Gaza.

This treatment is typical for a party that has consistently barred pro-Palestinian candidates from contesting elections on an NDP ticket and suppressed discussion of pro-Palestinian motions and resolutions at its conventions. At the federal level, the NDP secures the parliamentary majority of the pro-war Trudeau government, which has been no less emphatic in its support for the Israeli regime than the Biden administration. The trade union bureaucracy, for which the NDP serves as a mouthpiece, has responded to the eruption of protests in support of the Palestinians by issuing a statement urging protesters to put their faith in the Trudeau government calling for a ceasefire. This is the same government that has massively hiked Canadas military spending and positioned Ottawa as a key player in US imperialisms war on Russia and preparations for war with China.

It was the agreement Stiles prevailed on Jama to accept that subsequently became the pretext for throwing the disability rights activist out of the caucus. In a politically filthy statement justifying Jamas exclusion, the ONDP leader accused her of unilateral actions which have undermined our collective work, and broken the trust of her colleagues. This was apparently a reference to her libel suit against Ford, an erstwhile Donald Trump enthusiast and notorious political thug.

Stiles went on to claim, Some of Ms. Jamas actions have contributed to an unsafe work environment for staff, thereby blaming the wheelchair-bound legislator for the fact that far-right forces, incited by the likes of Ford and the Toronto Sun, have threatened NDP officials. Needless to say, Stiles statement had nothing to say about the unsafe, or more accurately deadly, conditions in Gaza produced by the imperialist-backed Israeli onslaught on the enclave, which her party is playing a key role in facilitating.

With Jama abandoned and ostracized by her own party, the Ford government felt emboldened in pushing its motion of censure against her through the provincial legislature. It bars Jama from speaking in the Ontario parliament until she deletes her Oct. 10 statement from her X account and formally apologizes to the legislature.

In addition to silencing Jama, the censure effectively disenfranchises the 100,000 residents of her working class Hamilton Centre riding. It constitutes a virtually unprecedented attack on the democratic rights of an elected legislator, with the Tory dominated Ontario parliament deploying censure powers not used for decades.

Jamas censure and ousting from the Ontario NDP caucus is part of a broader witch hunt, which has seen the Ford government demand universities discipline students and student groupsincluding the elected leaders of the York Federation of Studentsfor issuing statements denouncing the Israeli dispossession and suppression of the Palestinians and upholding their right to resist. Last week Ontario Minister of Colleges and Universities Jill Dunlop made a lengthy McCarthy-style statement from the floor of the Ontario legislature naming and shaming students and academics as anti-Semites and supporters of terror. Their public naming and vilification is a form of incitement, aimed at making them the object of official sanctions, if not physical attacks by the Ford governments allies among far-right groups.

The true target of the calumny poured on Jamas head is not Jama herself, but the growing movement of youth and workers which has spontaneously risen up against the genocide being carried out against the Palestinians. Protests have steadily grown during the nearly three weeks of US and Canadian imperialist-backed Israeli bombardment of Gaza, including mobilizations of more than 4,000 in Toronto and Montreal last weekend. The ruling elite is terrified the opposition to the onslaught against the Palestinians could trigger a broader upsurge of workers against war and austerity.

Canada is aggressively participating in the US/NATO war on Russia in Ukraine, pouring $2.4 billion in weapons and $9 billion in total aid to the far-right Kiev regime since Feb. 2022. This war is the opening battle of a global imperialist war to redivide the world, and it now threatens to spread throughout the Middle East as the US undertakes a massive military build-up. Under these conditions, the ruling elites in every major imperialist power cannot tolerate dissent and are abrogating democratic rights.

Jamas expulsion has thrown the Ontario NDP into crisis. Certain sections of the party, supported by local union bureaucrats in Jamas hometown of Hamilton, have sharply attacked Stiles blatant violation of democratic rights and support for Israeli genocide. These criticisms are bound up with the fear that the NDP is losing what little remains of its political credibility as a left and oppositional force. Under conditions of a growing political radicalization, some elements of the labour bureaucracy calculate Canadas social democrats will better be able to perform their assigned task of diverting and derailing the development of genuine left-wing opposition to the ruling class, if they allow certain limited criticisms of the Israeli onslaught to be heard.

Typical of this type of criticism was that of Svend Robinson, a former federal NDP MP and long-time leader of its anemic left-wing. He re-tweeted Stiles statement with a single word, Shame.

In response to Jamas ouster from the NDP caucus, the Hamilton District Labour Council tweeted that she remained their working class MPP and that The Hamilton and District Labour Council have been long-time members of the party, holding seats at the partys Provincial Council and conventions. We will soon have the opportunity to decide on the future of our relationship with the partyWe will work to ensure she is re-elected whether she stands under a party banner or not.

By contrast, the thousands of commenters who flooded social media to denounce Stiles expulsion of Jama express justified anger and disgust at the despicable actions of Canadas social democrats. Many resignations came from the partys layer of young activists, who have maintained illusions, fostered by pseudo-left ideology and identity politics, that the NDP somehow represents a progressive political alternative, or even socialism.

Activist Selma Tobah declared, If you cannot use your voice in positions of power to stand up for a people undergoing genocide, who have endured over 75 years of brutal occupation, then at what point does your conscience move? Please remove me from your email and phone lists. I wont be volunteering for the NDP in the next federal or provincial election but will be actively reminding Londoners of your lack of Principles.

The critical task facing young people and workers outraged by the NDPs bitter hostility to the rights of the Palestinians and contempt for democratic rights is to draw a political balance sheet of and break fromthis right-wing party of austerity and war. Like social democratic parties around the world, the NDP long ago abandoned even the most tenuous association with a reformist program aimed at ameliorating capitalisms worst excesses in favour of an open embrace of unrestrained corporate profiteering and imperialist war.

As the Socialist Equality Party explained in its recent statement Union-NDP supported Trudeau government waging war on two fronts published in July 2023, If the Trudeau government is waging a war on two fronts, the union and NDP leaders are its labour lieutenants. Their specific task is to contain, divert and derail mounting working class opposition

Workers must repudiate the Liberal-union-NDP alliance, which for decades has served as one of the key political mechanisms for suppressing the class struggle, as well as the Canadian and Quebec nationalist politics of the unions and pseudo-left which divide workers within Canada and from their class brothers and sisters in the US, Mexico and around the world.
The crisis rocking the opposition Labour Party following its leader Sir Keir Starmers statement backing Israels right to carry out war crimesincluding switching off water and electricity supplies to Gazaescalated this week.

Speaking on October 11 to LBC radios Nick Ferrari, Starmer said, Israel does have that right, must have that right, to defend herself, and Hamas bears responsibility. Ferrari asked, A siege is appropriate? Cutting off power, cutting off water, Sir Keir?, to which the Labour leader responded, I think Israel does have that right

Palestinians evacuate wounded from a building destroyed in Israeli bombardment in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023 [AP Photo/Fatima Shbair]

Forced onto the defensive by the mass opposition in Britain to the war, Starmers belated efforts to stem the crisis have only backfired.

Amid widespread dissent in Labours ranks, centred mainly on its Muslim representatives at local council level, Starmer engaged in damage limitation, which only confirmed that the resignations of 23 mainly Muslim party councillors was a pale reflection of popular hostility.

Starmers efforts consisted of making a trip to a mosque in Wales last Sundaythe South Wales Islamic Centreand holding a meeting with the partys Muslim MPs on Wednesday, alongside deputy leader Angela Rayner.

Both backfired spectacularly. Starmers tweet report of the visit to the mosque was denounced by its leaders, who said his version of events gravely misrepresented the meeting.

Starmer said he had made clear [to the mosque leaders] it is not and has never been my view that Israel had the right to cut off water, food, fuel or medicines. International law must be followed.

This was rebuffed by a statement from the centre which said, Members of the community directly challenged Keir on his statements made on the Israeli governments right to cut food, electricity and water to Gaza, warranting war crimes, as well as his failure to call for an immediate ceasefire. They added, We affirm, unequivocally, the need for a free Palestine. We implore all those with political authority to uphold international law, and the end to the occupation of Palestine.

Speaking to Politico about the incident, one Labour MP said Starmer had used the mosque as a f*cking prop and a backdrop.

Starmer was at this point repeating the line handed down from Washington that a humanitarian pause to Israels bombardment could be allowed to let a few trucks of minimal aid in, but no ceasefireas the death toll in Gaza at that point neared 7,000, including over 2,000 children.

The crisis escalated Wednesday, with Starmer seeking to avoid more damage by refusing to address Gaza in any of the six questions he is allowed of Rishi Sunak at Prime Ministers Questions. This was to no avail as one his frontbenchers Yasmin Qureshi stood up to read an email from a constituent with family in Gaza reading, My heart cant handle this anymore. We are being massacred, relentlessly bombed. Homes destroyed. No water, no food, no electricity. Qureshi asked Sunak, and by implication Starmer, How many more innocent Palestinians must die before the prime minister calls for a humanitarian ceasefire?

By this point, on top of the 23 councillors who had resigned, 250 Muslim councillors, and dozens of Labour MPs had demanded Starmer back an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The Labour Muslim Councillor Network organised the letter signed by the 250 which read, As Labour councillors elected to serve our constituents, the message we have been hearing repeatedly over the past 2 weeks is simple, people just want an end to the bloodshed and the loss of innocent life. Therefore, as Labour Party councillors, as members, and as members of the Muslim community we urge the Labour Party to urgently adopt a position of calling for an immediate ceasefire.

On Thursday, the Guardian reported that nearly a quarter of the partys 199 MPs had either signed an Early Day Motion (EDM) in Parliament calling for a cessation of hostilities or had publicly called for a ceasefire. That day, Imran Hussain, a shadow levelling up minister, became the first Labour frontbencher to sign the motion.

According to The Times, up to four Labour MPs were considering resigning from Labours front benchincluding Sarah Owen, the shadow minister for faith, and Rachel Hopkins, shadow Cabinet Office minister.

The LabourList website reported it had spoken to a a Leicester councillor who said he had never seen the bottom fall out of the Labour vote so fast among predominantly very loyal Muslim voters. He said the anger was worse than over Iraq.

The Blair Labour government took Britain into an illegal war against Iraq in 2003 based on lies that Saddam Hussins regime possessed weapons of mass destruction which threatened the UK. Blair never recovered and is so widely despised since being forced to step down as prime minister in 2007 that he ranks alongside Margaret Thatcher as a hate figure in the working class.

Also Thursday, the Open Democracy organisation reported on a survey by Research group Muslim Census which launched October 17 and has received more than 30,000 responses. The survey, shared across social media, asked respondents who they voted for in 2019 and who they would vote for if there were an election tomorrow. Some 71 percent of people said they voted for Labour three years agobut just 4.9 percent said they would do so now.

An October 19 YouGov poll showed that more than three-quarters of Britons said they would back an immediate ceasefire.

This revolt does not imply any principled politics on the part of those longtime Labour representatives opposing Starmer. What has caused them to consider any opposition to Starmer, of the mildest kind, is the revolt from below revealed in the many thousands of e-mails and messages Labour councillors and MPs are receiving denouncing its backing for Israels war of extermination on Gaza.

Politico reported Friday that One Labour MP in London said they have had 3,000 emails and letters. Even a colleague in a less diverse constituency has had 150. It added, One Starmer-friendly frontbencher said Muslim MPs are being called traitors, adding, I think MPs will be going back to protests outside their constituency offices, demands to make statements.

These events express a far wider opposition to Labour, now seen as a single parliamentary party of war alongside the Sunak government. That the most consequential crisis Starmer has faced in his three years as leader prompts none of the Labour left to make a stand and resign is in line with their long record of propping up the party against the working class. After more than two week since Israel started bombing Gaza, all the Corbynites have done is draft a toothless parliamentary motion which, as with the vast majority of Early Day Motions, will never be debated let alone voted on.

At successive rallies in London against Israels onslaught on Gaza, attended by hundreds of thousands, neither Jeremy Corbyn (speaking twice) or his former shadow chancellor John McDonald (speaking once last week) have even dared to mention Starmer by nameinstead referring to political leaders who support war crimes! Corbyn was booted out of the parliamentary party almost three years ago and is not even subject to the party whip.

With Parliament prorogued on Friday for the autumn recess until November 7, all McDonnell was prepared to do after Wednesdays PMQs was to urge a recall if Israel begins a ground invasion of Gaza.

The crisis shows the devastating consequences of Corbyns refusal to make a stand against the filthy left anti-Semitism campaign concocted by the Blairitesin league with the Tories, Zionists, Washington and the UK intelligence agenciesthat ended with Corbyns anti-democratic ouster as party leader. Had he have fought against this campaign from the off, instead of capitulating at every grotesque turn, this would have dealt a powerful blow to the machinations of British imperialism as the junior partner of the US.

The mass opposition to Israels war crimes is a devastating indictment not just of Corbyn, but the entire milieu of political opportunist and cowards who still routinely hail him as the best prime minister we never had.
Amid the largest US naval buildup in the region in decades, the United States is continuing to surge troops, warships and aircraft to the Middle East in an overt threat against Iran. The US military escalation takes place as Israel continues its unrelenting airstrikes against civilians sheltering in Gaza, bringing the death toll of its genocide against the Palestinians to over 7,000.

The USS Gerald R. Ford steams alongside the USNS Laramie during a fueling in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, October 11, 2023. The Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group is currently operating in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, at the direction of the Secretary of Defense. [Photo: Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Jacob Mattingly ]

On Thursday, Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder announced that another 900 US troops had been deployed or were deploying to the Middle East, joining the more than 10,000 sailors, airmen and soldiers that have been sent to the region since Hamass October 7 attack on Israel.

On Wednesday, Biden publicly threatened Irans Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, My warning to the Ayatollah was that if they continue to move against those troops, we will respond. And he should be prepared. On Tuesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken threatened, If Iran or its proxies attack U.S. personnel anywhere, make no mistake. We will defend our people.

On Thursday, the US officials claimed that US troops had come under attack 12 times in Iraq and four times in Syria. As a result, the US claimed, 21 American troops have suffered minor injuries from these attacks. Under conditions in which the United States has declared a vast array of political forces throughout the Middle East to be Iranian proxies, these alleged attacks could serve as a direct casus belli for a US attack on Iran.

On Wednesday, retired Gen. Joseph Votel, whose final posting was as head of U.S. Central Command, urged Biden to use military force against Iran in response to the alleged attacks. We will have to do that, Votel said. I think we are at the point where we can probably do that now, and we should. He added, We can and should respond more directly to these threats on our troops.

Irans foreign minister, meanwhile, warned at the United Nations Thursday that Iran would be drawn into a war with the US if Israels genocide of the Palestinians continued.

Hossein Amirabdollahian warned Thursday at the United Nations, I say frankly to the American statesmen, who are now managing the genocide in Palestine, that we do not welcome expansion of the war in the region. But if the genocide in Gaza continues, they will not be spared from this fire.

USNI News, the official publication of the US Navy, wrote Thursday, The Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group is more than halfway across the Atlantic on its way to join the mass of U.S. naval forces in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East. It added, Within the next few days, the carrier and its escorts are expected to transit the Strait of Gibraltar. The Eisenhowers carrier strike group includes two Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, a Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser, as well as its carrier air wing.

The Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group, meanwhile, is stationed in the Mediterranean, providing support for Israels massacre of the Palestinians. USNI wrote, Initially tasked to operate in tandem with the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group, Ike will instead travel through the Mediterranean, through the Suez Canal to the Middle East to operate in U.S. 5th Fleet.

Haaretz speculated, however, that the true destination of the Carrier strike group may be the Persian Gulf.

It will be operating alongside the US amphibious warships, effectively mini-carriers, USS Bataan and USS Carter Hall, which are currently in the Gulf of Aden and approaching the Red Sea. Another amphibious assault ship, the USS Mesa Verde, arrived in the eastern Mediterranean last week.

USNI News reported, The collection of ships will be among the largest mass of U.S. ships in the region in decades, citing the comments of Adm. James Foggo, who said it was probably more ships that weve had in that area since 1993.

This massive US armada is joined by the French Mistral-class amphibious warship Tonnerre, along with two other French guided-missile frigates. The British Royal Navy has also sent two warships to the region.

On Thursday, Haaretz reported, Over the past two weeks, close to 80 U.S. military cargo planes have landed in the region, in addition to dozens of civilian aircraft retained by the U.S. and Israeli defense establishments.

The Israeli newspaper continued: Open-source information reveals even larger numbers of U.S. military transport aircraft being used to deploy troops, equipment and armaments throughout the Eastern Mediterranean. They show that eight heavy-cargo planes that took off from supply depots in the United States and Europe have landed at a Jordanian base. Two U.S. fighter squadrons of F-15E fighter-bombers and A-10 attack planes have also been deployed at the base, as have Florida-based special forces.

On October 16, the World Socialist Web Site warned, The dispatch of an armada of over a dozen warships to the Middle East is not simply to threaten Hamas, which has no navy. The United States is preparing for a much broader conflict in the Middle East, including war with Iran. We added, The US is using the present crisis to put into effect longstanding plans for a war with Iran, as the Middle Eastern front of the US war with Russia and war plans against China.

The rapid escalation of US threats against Iran takes place amid a dramatic acceleration of Israels bombing campaign, whose aim is the ethnic cleansing of Gaza and the genocide of the Palestinian people.

On Wednesday, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres accused Israel of carrying out the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.

The next day, Martin Griffiths, the UNs humanitarian aid chief, warned that 20 days on, heavy bombardments on Gaza continue and are getting worse, even in areas supposed to be safer The world itself is failing to meet the bare entitlements of a part of humanity. The rules of war are clear: Civilians must be protected and have the essentials to survive.

On Wednesday, the international charity Oxfam condemned Israel for using mass starvation as a weapon of war. Sally Abi Khalil, Oxfams regional Middle East director, said, The situation is nothing short of horrificwhere is humanity? Millions of civilians are being collectively punished in full view of the world, there can be no justification for using starvation as a weapon of war.

And in response to the statement of President Joe Biden Wednesday, declaring he did not have any confidence in the numbers of dead in Gaza being reported by the health ministry, because it was run by Hamas, the agency released a list of 6,747 people killed so far by Israeli bombing, with their age, gender and ID number. Another 281 bodies had been recovered which could not be identified, the ministry said, bringing the total to 7,028. Of these, 2,931 were children.
Veteran American director Martin Scorseses new film, Killers of the Flower Moon, takes up the wave of killings and other crimes committed against Native Americans in Oklahoma in the 1920s. The Osage Nation, after being driven from their homes in modern-day Kansas by US authorities, unexpectedly found themselves sitting on top of great oil wealth.

As documented in David Granns Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, the book on which Scorseses film is based, the attack on the Osage was an elaborate criminal operation, in which various sectors of society were complicit. The Indian Rights Association, in 1924, as Grann points out, conducted an investigation into what it described as an orgy of graft and exploitation.

Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio in Killers of the Flower Moon

The Reign of Terror, which lasted from the end of World War I to 1931, involved the murder of at least 60 wealthy, full-blood Osage Natives, but Grann argues that the actual total of suspicious deaths may number in the hundreds. In many cases, individuals were slain so that their rights to lucrative royalties could be stolen or inherited by members of the conspiracy, including in some cases husbands and wives of the victims.

This is an appalling episode and an entirely legitimate subject for a film, part of the history of the blood-soaked rise to continental power (Socialist Equality Party Statement of Principles) of American capitalism at the expense, in the first place, of the Native American population.

However, Scorsese does not treat the subject well. The three-and-a-half hour work is muddy, murky, repetitive and misanthropic, and even interminable in certain stretches.

Leonardo DiCaprio features as Ernest Burkhart, a World War I veteran, who returns to rural Oklahoma in 1919 and goes to work as a driver for his uncle, wealthy rancher William King Hale (Robert De Niro), who postures as a great friend and benefactor of the local Native population.

Ernest pays special attention, encouraged by Hale, to Mollie Kyle (Lily Gladstone), an Osage whose full-blood family possesses headrights, entitling the owner to a share of the Osage Mineral Estate, worth millions of dollars in oil revenue.

Ernest obediently becomes part of the conspiracy, headed by Hale, along with his brother and various lowlifes and criminals, to kill off members of Mollies family, so the rights will go to Ernest, Hale and their family and associates. Poisonings, bombings, shootingsthe Hale gang stops at nothing. Moreover, Ernest becomes a willing accomplice in the slow, attempted poisoning of his own wife. She stays with him until his role in the filthy business, including the murders of two of her sisters, is exposed.

After years of inaction by state and local authorities, many of them bribed by Hale or indifferent to the fate of the Native Americans, the stench of scandal in Oklahoma becomes so great that the federal government and J. Edgar Hoover feel it necessary to intervene. What was then known as the Bureau of Investigation (BOI) dispatches Tom White (played in the film by Jesse Plemons) to look into the series of crimes. It becomes evident to White and his fellow investigators that Hale is one of the masterminds, but the latter meanwhile busily covers his tracks, including by seeing to it that his own hired killers, potential informers against him, are done away with one by one. Eventually, the authorities get a break in the case.

Lily Gladstone in Killers of the Flower Moon

The history is significant and virtually unknown. Scorsese deserves praise for bringing it to the publics attention. Moreover, the presence of numerous Native performers, men and women one generally does not see in American films or television, is entirely welcome. It is not correct to argue, as some Native spokespeople have, that only a Native director should have taken on this assignment. Scorsese had every right to create the film.

However, there are major difficulties.

Scorseses film has a markedly different emphasis than Granns non-fiction work. Whereas Grann focuses on federal agent White and his investigation, the filmmakers place Ernest and his relationship with Mollie at the center of the film. It is not clear that anything is gained by this.

What are we to draw from Mollies supposed reluctance to give up on Ernest?

That theirs was a great love, which it eventually required evidence of utterly monstrous wrongdoing on Ernests part to overcome? The film doesnt provide much evidence of this. DiCaprio grimaces and mutters his lines, and does what he can to make himself unappealing. His pronouncements of affection for the most part come across as forced and unconvincing.

That there is inertia (and the element of wishful thinking) in human relationships? That a woman who shares a life and children with a man will hold on to the bitter end, perhaps even beyond the bitter end? This doesnt seem an important revelation, and we dont know enough about the actual relationship even to draw that conclusion. Scorsese is largely speculating. Burkhart may have acted semi-decently in everyday life, and a Native woman, feeling besieged and threatened by white society, might have hoped he could offer her some protection. Mollie was horribly wrong, and once she realized this, never had anything to do with her husband again.

Scorsese has certain valuable instincts and feelings. He explains he has wanted to do something about the mistreatment of Native Americans for decades. Again, that is to his credit.

But what does one make of the content of this history, so pregnant with meaning? In the end, Scorsese has little of importance to say about it, other than common-sense banalities at best.

Speaking of the actions of Hale, Burkhart and the others, the director asks rhetorically, Well, what is in us that makes us do that? What is our flaw in our own human nature, that makes us take advantage of others, that sees us as superior? In regard to the government of the time, How did that government get into power? Well, a lot of good decent people let that government get into power. Look at the world and Europe between 1930 and 1940. Theres a lot of good people who maybe through letting one thing slide and letting another thing slide and another thing slide, that they could have taken a moral stand on? They didnt.  And they become complicit.

Killers of the Flower Moon

As for Hale in particular, If he could do it, that means that in our own human nature, anyone could do it. And thats the fear: that maybe were all capable of this sort of thing. Scorsese, as they say, should speak for himself.

Blaming historical crimes like this on all of us and explaining events by the rottenness of human nature doesnt illuminate anything, it only obscures. Nothing is more changeable, more flexible than human psychology. The human essence, as was explained some time ago by Karl Marx, is no abstraction inherent in each single individual. In its reality it is the ensemble of the social relations.

Scorsese has all too often let the social order off the hook in this inexcusable manner. As we wrote about his Gangs of New York in 2002, The real implication of this view is that the selfishness, greed and racism of humanity as a whole (including its suffering portion), not definite, capitalist socioeconomic relations, have brought about the current state of affairs, that people are essentially unworthy and one has no obligation to struggle against existing conditions because they are, after all, inherent in the human condition.

Scorsese told an interviewer recently that a director may make only one film over and over again. Of course, any serious artist develops themes that are critical to him or her and works away at them. But no serious artist remains essentially unaffected by social and historical events, as Scorsese claims to have been. Since he began making short films in the late 1960s, a good deal has happened in the world, including the economic, political and cultural transformation of American society. There is little conscious expression of this in his films, although of course it finds unconscious, generally unhealthy expression.

Intense violence and its traumatic emotional consequences comprise one of Scorseses primary and recurring concerns, but as we noted in 2006 (in a review of The Departed), the filmmaker, who once considered the priesthood as a vocation, has never taken the trouble to trace violence in the US to its roots in history and social relations, to the essential harshness of American class society. He prefers, self-servingly, to see violence as a part of fallen human nature, which both enthralls and disgusts him. Scorsese has a fixed, frozen view of life and human character that has not evolved or deepened in more than three decades of making films.

The static quality of his films is one of their gravest weaknesses. One feels a work like Killers of the Flower Moon rocking back and forth repeatedly over the same small bit of psychological-moral ground. One has the sensation that there are a hundred scenes between DiCaprio, with his turned down mouth, and De Niro, with his face assumingas one commentator has described itthat by now well-known pinched expression, which the actor has tritely relied on in film after film in recent decades, mouth down, eyes pleading, wrinkles creasing sharply on his forehead and along his cheeks. Both leading performances are tedious and devoid of telling content. Unfortunately, there are no memorable lines or scenes to cite from the film, which is a succession of scenes in which people with almost entirely fixed characters merely bump up against one another. (Lily Gladstone does her best, in a losing cause.)

After each of the encounters between the central characters, one is tempted to ask, Now what was the point of that?

Leonardo DiCaprio in Killers of the Flower Moon

We perceive Hales dishonesty and hypocrisy early on. Dozens of further examples are not helpful. Revealingly, the director admits that I dont get how he can make that dichotomy in his thinking. What world does Scorsese live in? The American ruling class at every level has developed that dichotomy, piety and pacifism in words, and boundless violence and cruelty in action, to new heights, as we see in the present situation in the Middle East.

At the very time of the horrible goings-on in Oklahoma in the 1920s, Leon Trotsky, not one to be fooled, pinpointed American imperialism as ruthlessly rude, predatory, in the full sense of the word, and criminal.

What was Hale, but a Woodrow Wilson on a miniature Osage County, Oklahoma stage, a shadow of that racist provincial professor, as Trotsky described Wilson, dripping from blood up to his knees and elbows, but who appeared in Europe as the apostle of pacifism and pacification?

Speaking of which, what was the impact of World War I, that imperialist slaughter? Neither Grann nor Scorsese make much of the fact that Ernest Burkhart was a war veteran, as was Kelsie Morrison (Louis Cancelmi), one of the worst of the cold-hearted killers, and no doubt others. The industrial-style killing helped brutalize them, and taught them as well that force and mass murder were legitimate, irreplaceable means in the pursuit of power and wealth. They were simply imitating their betters.

Scorseses gloomy view bears some relationship to the 1619 Project version of American history, and it wont wash here either. As noted above, a generally misanthropic mood pervades Killers of the Flower Moon. While the Native characters are given a certain amount of dignity, the film implies that virtually every white person in Oklahoma at the time was a murderer, a thief or a racist. No doubt there were a good many of those, and the scent of oil money attracted some of the worst.

If Oklahoma had its share of greedy cutthroats and villains, it also had more than its share of working class and small farmer radicalism, socialism.

The Socialist Party in Oklahoma had thousands of members and tens of thousands of supporters. In several counties it received as high as one-third or more of the vote in state and federal elections during the 1910s. As the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture points out, the Socialist Party of Oklahoma consistently ranked as one of the top three state socialist organizations in America. At the height of the partys success in the state, in the elections of 1914, the Socialist Party candidate for governor, Fred W. Holt, received more than 20 percent of the vote statewide. In Marshall and Roger Mills counties, where the Socialist Party was strongest, Holt captured 41 and 35 percent of the vote, respectively. More than 175 socialists were elected to local and county offices that year, including six to the state legislature.

In the short-lived Green Corn Rebellion of August 1917, tenant farmers and others, belonging to the multi-racial tenant farmers group, the Working Class Union, raised the prospect of marching on Washington and forcing Wilson to end the war. Hundreds were arrested as a result of the abortive uprising.

The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) also found fertile soil for its anti-capitalist teachings and activity in Oklahoma. Not coincidentally, Frank Little, whose mother was Cherokee, grew up in Oklahoma and became one of the IWWs most remarkable leaders and organizers, before being lynched during the strike by thousands of copper miners in Butte, Montana, in August 1917.

Unfortunately, this history is a book sealed with seven seals for Scorsese. He has never treated history or society in a serious fashion, preferring to pry individuals out of their actual, concrete social circumstances. The results for decades have been accordingly weak.

Grann, in his book, is relatively straightforward. He notes that the scheme against the Osage was organized by crooked guardians and administrators who were typically among the most prominent white citizens: businessmen and ranchers and lawyers and politicians. So were the lawmen and prosecutors and judges who facilitated and concealed the swindling (and, sometimes, acted as guardians and administrators themselves).

Why not concentrate on that, the egregious and unending criminality of the American ruling elite? Scorsese continues to gaze off in a different direction.
Former diplomat-turned-whistleblower Craig Murray is in Switzerland, appealing for United Nations (UN) protection after British police informed the human rights activist that he is the subject of a counter-terrorism investigation.

Murray was detained under Section 7 of the Terrorism Act (2000) at Glasgow Airport on October 16. Counter-terrorism police interrogated the 65-year-old about his political activity in defence of imprisoned WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange, and his opposition to Israels war on Gaza.

Craig Murray speaking at a public meeting in London in defence of Julian Assange

On Tuesday, Murray issued a defence fund appeal to help meet legal costs, announcing on his popular blog, Incredibly, I Face Investigation for Terrorism. It featured a photograph of the letter he received from Police Scotlands Border Policing Command, informing him that his mobile phone, seized at Glasgow Airport three days earlier, was being retained under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act for further investigation.

Murrays targeting under anti-terror laws is a warning to the working class. Under conditions of mass popular opposition to Israels genocidal war on Gaza, backed by US and British imperialism, a terrified ruling class is moving to criminalize left-wing, anti-war and socialist activity.

Under Britains draconian anti-terror laws, Murray had no right to a lawyer during his hour-long detention, and no right to remain silent. He was forced to provide passwords for his electronic devices.

As Murray wrote on October 24, This is an enormous abuse of human rights. The abuse of process in refusing both a lawyer and the right to remain silent, the inquiry into perfectly legal campaigning which is in no way terrorism-associated, the political questioning, the financial snooping and the seizure of material related to my private life, were all based on an utterly fake claim that I am associated with terrorism.

The British states persecution of Murray eerily resembles its vindictive witch-hunt of Assange. The WikiLeaks founder is detained without charge at Londons Belmarsh prison, facing US extradition under the Espionage Act, in retribution for his courageous exposure of US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Earlier today, Murray outlined the extraordinary steps he took to reach Switzerland: travelling by public transport from Edinburgh to Belfast, and then a late-night taxi to Dublinall to avoid transit through British airports where he rightly fears further detention and harassment.

He explained, I didnt really volunteer to fight the British police state, it came after me. But here we are, and here I am, in Switzerland, seeking the protection of the United Nations.

I still dont actually know whether the terrorism investigation into me is focused on Palestine or on Wikileaks. It seems to be both and anything else they can get.

Lawyers acting on Murrays behalf have sent a formal complaint to five UN Special Rapporteurs, CCd to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and to the President of the UN Human Rights Council, protesting his persecution with bogus terrorism investigations. The letter is signed by Douwe Korff, Emeritus professor of international law at London Metropolitan University, and Sharof Azizov, founder of Justice for All.

We believe this constitutes a violation of human rights, specifically his rights to freedom of expression, privacy, and due process and international law, they write.

The letter draws attention also to the British authorities violation of journalistic privilege. They explain, The use of Section 7 of the Terrorism Act... raises concerns about the misuse of anti-terror laws to intimidate and silence journalists and activists. The line of questioning included inquiries into his political affiliations, sources of income, and participation in human rights campaigns, among other topics.

The letter states, We express our grave concern about the unfettered powers of the UK security authorities and police to download and keep information from private devices under the guise of fighting terrorism, and that Murrays treatment is part of a broader pattern affecting journalists and human rights defenders in the UK.

Murrays lawyers cited the recent interrogations under British anti-terror laws of Grayzone journalist Kit Klarenberg and French left-wing publisher and political activist Ernest Moret. They conclude that Murrays detention under the Terrorism Act, is not isolated, but is part of a pattern of harassment and intimidation that Mr. Murray has been subjected to, and it has broader implications for the state of human rights and freedom of expression in the UK, particularly for journalists and human rights defenders.

As Murray explained earlier today, referring to his four-month imprisonment on frame-up charges related to his media commentary on the trial of former Scottish National Party leader Alex Salmond for sexual offenses, for which he was acquitted on all counts, This is the third time since my imprisonment on an outrageous contempt of court finding, that I have been harassed and interviewed by the police.

Murrays combative statement explained, the abuse of special anti-terrorism powers at ports in order to seize all papers and communications of journalists is becoming commonplace. Three other journalists I know personallyVanessa Beeley, Kit Klarenberg and Johanna Rosshave suffered this. There are many other examples, most notably David Miranda. This really is police state stuff, yet there is an extraordinary lack of outrage from human rights organisations and the mainstream media.
At least 10,000 people marched from downtown San Jose, Costa Rica, to the presidential building on Wednesday to protest the escalation of the assault on living standards and deepening social austerity under President Rodrigo Chaves, who is openly following the diktats of his former employer, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund.

Workers march on the office of the presidency in San Jose

Broad sectors of the population already engaged in an escalating wave of social protests against Chaves coalesced around numerous demands in the largest demonstration since at least 2019, with the defense of public healthcare and education being the most central issues.

Since thousands protested in August 2022 to oppose cuts to universities, the country has seen an ongoing wave of protests, including in March 2023 by farmers associations, in July and August 2023 by high school students against budget cuts, along with several partial strikes and demonstrations by healthcare workers, among others.

This upsurge takes place in the context of a resurgence of the class struggle internationally. In the rest of Central America, Panamanians opposing a destructive mining concession and Guatemalans resisting an attempt by prosecutors to prevent the elected President Bernardo Arevalo from taking office have carried out mass protests and roadblocks for weeks.

The demonstration on Sunday was convoked by a Mesa de Dialogo Social and the National Front of Struggle for the Defense of Social Gains comprised of over 60 organizations, including trade unions, public universities, high school and university student groups, professional associations and neighborhood, peasant and farmers movements.

The leaderships of these organizations explicitly seek to channel the social ferment in the working class behind talks with the Chaves administration.

For decades, the political establishment, including all political parties, trade unions and university and state bureaucrats have betrayed countless efforts by workers to resist attacks against their social and democratic rights. There is nothing to be gained for workers through back-room talks between these forces.

Workers and youth marching in San Jose, on the other hand, expressed a clear radicalization and militant determination to put a stop to these attacks on their social and democratic rights.

Yorleny, a nurse at the Jimenez Nunez Clinic in San Jose, explained: We must raise our voices. We must demand that every day we are paid what is fair. The sacrifices our families makeone deprives oneself of many thingsat least it should be recognized economically. We are demonstrating because of the waiting lists [for medical services], because of all the lies they are telling that the Caja is bankrupt while the Government does not pay the debt it owes. We have had our salaries frozen for many years. We do not earn the millions that they say public employees earn. We are nurses and we are paid as auxiliaries. They overload us with work and dont pay us for those nursing services. And if something happens, we are judged as nurses.

The Chaves government outright refuses to pay an accumulated debt to the healthcare and pension system, called the Caja, of $5.8 billion. Meanwhile, next years public debt repayments for bankers and bondholders will amount to $11 billion, which could more than cover the debt to the Caja. But the 2024 healthcare budget will not even cover two-thirds of its yearly operational needs, according to official figures.

Yamileth and Yorleny, nurses at the Ricardo Jimenez Nunez Clinic

Her co-worker Yamileth, added: For every 10 people there is one assistant or nurse. Its too exhausting, we work so hard and dont get any recognition at all. Besides, with the pandemic, they recruited a lot of people, and as soon as it was over, they sent a lot of people home. Now they are unemployed. Internationally, its the same issues. Frontline workers were laid off, and now we are all facing money problems to provide for our family.

Elena, a worker and student at the Tecnologico college (TEC) said, There are many countries in South America that for years have been taking to the streets to defend their rights and we have been late. We all should demand and have the right to demand improvements in education, food, security.

The time to fight is now, Sergio, another worker at TEC said. We are running out of time. If we could unite across countries, it would be much better. The cuts are obviously due to the governments preference to distribute funds to other financial entities to further impoverish the country. Like education. If it were to be private, only the rich would be able to study.

A co-worker explained: It is a profitable business. Without public education, without access, people are cornered into going into debt for private education. Because of the long waiting lists, if you are deprived of access to public healthcare, you have to pay for private services.

Marta, a professor at TEC, noted: I am a product of a public school, a public high school, and a public university. In Costa Rica, education has always been our Sunday dress, something we can be proud of, and now it is not. Public education is being limited in all its aspects. What some people in the government want is to have people without education.

As a result of a massive assault against the jobs, wages and benefits in the public sector, compensation has dropped from over 7 percent of GDP in 2013 to 3.66 percent last year. Meanwhile, the fastest growing expenditure has been servicing the debt. The government plans to spend nearly half of the 2024 budget in debt repayment and interests to the local and global financial aristocracy. This compares to 22.3 percent for employee compensations, 20.6 percent for education, 13.1 percent for social programs, 7.9 percent for security, 3.1 percent for infrastructure, 2.8 percent for healthcare and 0.4 percent for the environment.

Chaves has prided himself on opposing the constitutionally mandated 8 percent of the GDP for public education and plans to spend 5.2 percent next year.

Gustavo, a student at the University of Costa Rica who was holding a Palestinian flag, connected the fight for social rights in Costa Rica with the struggle in defense of Palestinians and against war.

I came to march against the government, in defense of the Caja, but this takes place in the context of a genocide being carried out in Palestine by the illegitimate and terrorist state of Israel, he explained and added:

Today, in spite of all the propaganda in favor of Israel in the imperialist media, people are no longer buying the story that there are child terrorists and that they organize terrorism. It is not true. The genocide that Israel has been carrying out for decades is terribly disproportionate in terms of human lives killed and technical, scientific, military and other tools that Israel has against the Palestinians, who use extremely rudimentary weapons to defend themselves. The numbers speak for themselves. I connect their struggle with the struggles here, which are precisely about the people removing the yoke of imperialism. They only care about the people paying with what we have won historically, such as the Caja, so that they can have their profits. We must be very conscious of this: the children who are dying in Gaza, the brave people who are rising up in Niger and other African countries, the Ukrainians and Russian brothers and sisters fightingbecause in the end they are brothers!have much more in common with us here in Costa Rica trying to get rid of the IMF cuts, than politicians who are very Costa Rican but who sell us out. Costa Rica is not an island isolated from the world. It is a cog in a much larger machine.

Johanna, an activist of the Committee of Struggle for Housing La Morocha in the working class suburb of Alajuelita explained that Chaves is cutting funds for the Bank for Housing (Banhvi), the CEN-CINAI [daycare] and other social programs.

Johana, a worker fighting for housing in Alajuelita, and her son

Banhvi, which develops social housing and provides housing assistance, warned earlier this year that the cuts planned by the Chaves administration would leave 6,000 families homeless and affect the jobs of 28,000 construction workers.

She explained:

If they cut off our water and electricity, how can we iron our childrens uniforms? The struggle for housing should not be cut back any further. We are hundreds of families who need that housing. Not only for me, but for the children. There are single mothers who cannot work. I am one of them. I have four children; how can I work? Drive out those officials who want to make cuts against the poor, who work so hard to pay for decent insurance for our children! They want to take this away from us. It is not fair.

A fellow member of the committee added: We are broke. We are in bad shape. We have had to struggle too much.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- U.S. forces conducted precision strikes Thursday against two facilities used by Iran in eastern Syria, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said in a statement.

Austin said the strikes targeted two facilities used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and affiliated groups and were carried out at President Joe Biden's direction.

The strikes were "self-defense" in nature, Austin said, and were meant to retaliate "a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on October 17."

Due to attacks against U.S. forces, "one U.S. citizen contractor died from a cardiac incident while sheltering in place; 21 U.S. personnel suffered from minor injuries, but all have since returned to duty," he said. 
Notifications of various safeguard actions received since the committee's May 2023 meeting, regarding 27 products, were reviewed at the 25 October meeting, which was chaired by Mr Eungkil Jeon (Republic of Korea).

China, Japan and Australia noted that the initiations of investigations and impositions of measures in the safeguard sector seem to have decreased for now, but at the same time, they reiterated their general concern about, for example, misuse of the instrument, less than satisfactory notifications and numerous extensions.

Review of legislative notifications

The committee reviewed notifications of new or amended safeguard legislation or regulations from Japan, Mauritania, Mauritius and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It continued its review of the legislative notifications of Liberia, Cameroon and Ghana.

Specific notifications of safeguard actions

Notifications of various safeguard actions from the following members were reviewed by the committee: Costa Rica, the European Union; India (three investigations); Indonesia (seven investigations); Madagascar (four investigations); Morocco (three investigations); Peru (two investigations); South Africa; Turkiye (three investigations); the United Kingdom; and the United States.

Seven members took the floor in respect of the latest status of the European Union's safeguard measure on certain steel products.

Six members took the floor in respect of the United Kingdom's latest status of its safeguard measure on certain steel products.

Japan raised two specific items, in respect of which it raised various concerns. The first item concerned Viet Nam's measure on certain semi-finished and finished products of alloy and non-alloy steel. The second item concerned Indonesia's measure on articles of apparel and clothing accessories.

The committee adopted its report to the Council for Trade in Goods (CTG) in the context of WTO reform regarding the functioning of the committee. This report outlined the efforts made in this area and the issues on which agreement was reached. In this regard, the committee also agreed to continue discussing the joint proposal made by the delegations of Canada, Japan, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The committee also agreed on an update of the format of its annual report in order to improve transparency.

Under Other Business, the Republic of Korea raised concerns with a measure imposed by India, and the Chair announced that the WTO Secretariat is embarking on the creation of an online safeguards notification portal.

Next meeting

As part of the steps agreed by members to improve the functioning of the committee, the timing of the two regular meetings of 2024 was set: the week of 22 April 2024 and the week of 28 October 2024.

Under the WTO rules, a member may apply measures to imports of a product temporarily (take safeguard actions) through higher tariffs or other measures if it determines, through an investigation, that increased imports of the product are causing or threatening to cause serious injury to its domestic industry. Unlike anti-dumping duties, safeguard measures cover imports from all sources, although imports from developing country members with a small share of imports are exempted through special and differential treatment provisions.

More background on safeguards is available here.
BEIJING, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- An aquatic products alliance in China refuted the accusation of so-called "forced labor" and denounced relevant overseas news reports as highly irresponsible.

"'Forced labor' is a fabricated story," the China Aquatic Products Processing and Marketing Alliance said in a recent statement.

The news reports, citing information from The Outlaw Ocean Project, speculate that employing Uygur workers is equivalent to forced labor without any factual basis and incite companies in the United States and the European Union to boycott seafood from relevant Chinese aquatic products processing plants, according to the alliance.

The continuous spread of the news has resulted in some buyers ceasing shipments from Chinese processing plants. This not only directly jeopardizes the normal operation of Chinese processing plants, affecting the interests of partners, but also severely disrupts the global seafood supply chain, said the statement.

The China aquatic products processing industry is closely monitoring the situation and has conducted prompt investigations into the Chinese companies mentioned, finding no evidence of forced labor, the statement said.

Workers from all ethnic groups work in the same conditions, and enjoy equal rights and equal pay for equal work, it added.

The falsely accused companies are angered and dumbfounded by the "forced labor" accusation.

There is no such a thing as "forced labor" here, said a manager of an aquatic products company based in east China's Shandong Province. 
GAZA, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- Rana al-Najjar and her family watched in dismay as their hard-earned four-story house in Gaza was reduced to rubble during an Israeli attack.

In densely populated Gaza, where land is scarce, many residents are forced to construct additional floors on their existing houses as their families grow. For al-Najjar's family, the four-story home was their sole sanctuary.

"I have no ties to any military activities against Israel, and I can't understand why Israel is holding us accountable," al-Najjar, a mother of six, lamented, saying that "we've lost family members, homes, and our way of life. We're exhausted and can't endure anymore."

For three weeks, Israel has launched massive airstrikes and limited ground operations against Gaza in retaliation for a surprise attack by Gaza-ruling Hamas militants on Israeli military targets and towns on Oct. 7, which, so far, has killed at least 1,400 people in Israel.

The death toll of Palestinians from Israeli military strikes on Gaza has risen to 7,326, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said on Friday, adding another 18,967 Palestinians have been injured.

The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) said on Thursday that approximately 96 percent of Gazans have been plunged into poverty due to the ongoing conflict, compared to a 45-percent poverty rate in 2017-2018.

"In just three weeks, the airstrikes have decimated our life in Gaza," Khader Bashir, another resident in the Palestinian enclave, said, stressing that Israel's quest to dismantle Hamas has led to the destruction of all of Gaza, affecting innocent civilians.

"We're defenseless civilians caught in this deadly conflict," said the father of three, adding that being caught in such a conflict equates to a death sentence without a set date.

Both al-Najjar and Bashir yearn for a humanitarian cease-fire to enable them to assess the damage to their homes and chart a path forward amid the tragic circumstances.

Notwithstanding the complex situation in Gaza, reports suggest that Qatar and Egypt are mediating between Hamas and Israel to broker a prisoner exchange deal, which could pave the way for a cease-fire.

Israeli media outlets indicate that Israel has signaled its readiness to consider a substantial prisoner exchange agreement with Hamas, who in return is seeking an increase in humanitarian aid, fuel deliveries to Gaza, the release of Palestinian detainees, and a truce to solidify the exchange arrangement.

However, with Israel gearing up for a significant ground offensive against Gaza and the escalating hostilities resulting in rising casualties, the hope for a Gaza truce is again dwindling.

"Even if a cease-fire is agreed and humanitarian aid is allowed to enter Gaza, poverty and deprivation will affect a significant share of the population for years to come," ESCWA Executive Secretary Rola Dashti said in a statement.

The international community now has a compelling responsibility to ensure the flow of sufficient amounts of critical humanitarian aid to Gaza, she noted.

The UN official also called for the design and enactment of a recovery and sustainable development plan for Gaza beyond the immediate humanitarian needs, in line with a peace process that addresses the root causes of the recurring conflicts. 
JERUSALEM/GAZA, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Israeli military announced Friday morning it had conducted another "targeted raid" into the Gaza Strip over the past day with the use of ground forces.

According to a statement released by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), the troops were accompanied by fighter jets and other weapons as they entered the central Gaza Strip.

"The Israeli army entered an open area near the separation fence in the town of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip and the Bureij camp in the central east of the Gaza Strip," Palestinian and Israeli security sources told Xinhua.

At the end of the operation, the ground troops returned to Israel. The raid was the third one that was reported by the IDF.

Israel is now preparing for a massive ground operation in the Gaza Strip, as stated by Israeli leaders and senior military officials. 
ROME, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- President of the Italy China Council Foundation (ICCF) Mario Boselli said on Thursday that China could play a key role for Italian businesses for its huge market.

Boselli made the remarks in an interview with Xinhua as the ICCF unveiled its latest report "China 2023" in Milan, taking stock of the Italian firms operating in the Chinese market.

In order to successfully enter the market, Boselli urged Italian firms to develop a good knowledge of China's business environment as well as the country's culture, and he also advised local companies eager to expand in China to develop "a medium-long term vision."

The ICCF report showed 1,133 Italian companies were operating in China by the end of 2020.

"It is a universe of 1.4 billion people ... studying China is crucial," Boselli said, adding that China could play a key role for Italian businesses not only for its huge market, but also as a platform for markets in Southeast Asia.

"Again, this requires a medium-term vision and strategy on the part of our firms ... Southeast Asia is expected to grow more than any other areas in the world," he said.

As for the Italian sectors most appealing to Chinese consumers, the ICCF president cited food (including wine), fashion, and home furbishing.

"My overall advice is to bring our best products to China ... and it doesn't mean the '3 Fs' only (food, fashion, furbishing), but (also) mechatronics, pharmaceuticals, robotics, and other cutting-edge productions," he said. (1 euro = 1.06 U.S. dollars) 
This undated file booking photo provided by the Fulton County, Ohio, Sheriffs Department shows James Worley. Worley, who spent three years in prison after the 1990 abduction of a female cyclist, was arrested July 22, 2016, three days after University of Toledo student Sierah Joughin disappeared and the same day her body was found in a northwest Ohio cornfield. Worley was charged with aggravated murder on July 26, 2016. | Fulton County Sheriffs Department via Associated Press





Fridays 20/20 episode will examine the case of Sierah Joughin, an Ohio woman who was abducted and murdered just half a mile from her home in a small, close-knit community.

According to ABC, the episode, titled She Was Almost Home, will uncover details about the case, including the discovery of the barn of horrors that led to the arrest of her killer.

Who was Sierah Joughin?

Sierah Joughin was 20 years old when she was abducted on July 19, 2016. She was a student at the University of Toledo and was studying business, per Justice for Sierah.

Her boyfriend, Josh Kolasinski, who was the last person to see her alive, told ABC13 she had a gift for lifting spirits.

Her family members remember her as a vivacious and fun young woman in a trailer for the episode.

She was the life of the party, Joughins friend Kelsie Langenderfer said.

What happened to Sierah Joughin?

Joughin and Kolasinski went for a bike ride on July 19, 2016, in their home of Fulton County, Ohio. According to Crime Junkie, the two parted ways in order to make it to their respective homes, but Kolasinski grew worried later in the day when he tried to contact Joughin and couldnt reach her.

Her family alerted police, who began searching the cornfields where Kolasinski had last seen Joughin and found her bike and signs of a struggle, per ABC.

What did James Worley do to Sierah Joughin?

Investigators began looking at local violent felons and decided to question local resident James Worley because of his history of abduction, per Crime Junkie.

When authorities searched Worleys property, they found what ABC calls a barn of horrors. CNN and ABC report the barn had a hidden area with zip ties, mace, womens lingerie and a bloody freezer.

Worley was arrested and charged with her abduction on July 22, 2016, per ABC. Later that day, Sierah Joughins body was found buried in a shallow grave in a cornfield near Worleys home. He was charged with and later convicted of aggravated murder.

Worleys execution date is set for May 20, 2025, per WTOL.

What is Sierahs Law?

After her death, Joughins family created Justice for Sierah, an organization dedicated to preventing assaults and abductions via self-defense education.

They also campaigned for Sierahs Law, which was signed into law as Senate Bill 231 in the Ohio state legislature in 2018, per Justice for Sierah. Sierahs Law created a violent offender database that law enforcement and residents can use to identify violent felons in their area.

Joughins family continues to campaign for the law to be passed in all 50 states.

The man who murdered Sierah was a repeat violent offender who lived just miles from her home, but Sierahs family never knew a predator lived so close, the Justice for Sierah website says. (Sierah) was robbed of fulfilling (her) dreams on earth because of preventable violence and a system that failed to keep (her) safe.

She Was Almost Home will air Friday at 8 p.m. MDT on ABC and will be available for streaming Saturday on Hulu.
Bella Hadid is breaking her silence on the Israel-Hamas war.

The supermodel, who is of Palestinian descent, took to Instagram to speak out on the conflict and humanitarian crisis in the region.

Forgive me for my silence, she began. I have yet to find the ideal words for this deeply intricate and horrific past 2 weeks, weeks that have turned the worlds attention back towards a situation that has been taking innocent lives and affecting families for decades. I have much to say, but for today, I will keep it short.

Bella, who is known for her advocacy for Palestine, shared that shes been the target of hate in recent weeks.

Ive been sent hundreds of death threats daily, my phone number has been leaked, and my family has felt to be in danger, she wrote. But I cannot be silenced any longer. Fear is not an option. The people and children of Palestine, especially in Gaza, cannot afford our silence. We are not brave  they are.

Bella continued, My heart is bleeding with pain from the trauma I am seeing unfold, as well as the generational trauma of my Palestinian blood. Seeing the aftermath from the airstrikes in Gaza, I mourn with all the mothers who have lost children and the children who cry alone, all the lost fathers, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunties, friends that will never again walk this earth.

I mourn for the Israeli families that have been dealing with the pain and aftermath of October 7th, the Ramy actress added. Regardless of the history of the land, I condemn the terrorist attacks on any civilians, anywhere. Harming women and children and inflicting terror does not and should not do any good for the Free Palestine movement. I believe deep in my heart, that no child, no people anywhere, should be taken away from their family either temporarily or indefinitely. That goes for Israeli and Palestinian people alike.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Bella  (@bellahadid)

Bella emphasized that its important to understand the hardship of what it is to be Palestinian, adding that its harmful and shameful that the world sees us as nothing more than terrorists resisting peace.

The runway model went on to share the story of her father, real estate developer Mohamed Hadid, who was born in Palestine.

My father was born in Nazareth in the year of the Nakba (the displacement of 750,000 Palestinians in 1948), she wrote. Nine days after he was born, he, in his mothers arms, along with this family, were expelled from their home of Palestine, becoming refugees, away from a place they once called home. My grandparents, never being allowed to return. My family witnessed 75 years of violence against Palestinian people  most notably, brutal settler invasions which led to the destruction of entire communities, murder in cold blood and the forcible removal of families from their homes. The practice of settlements on Palestinian land still continues to this day. The pain of that is unimaginable.

Bella then shared a call to for all to stand together in defending humanity and compassion and demand the same from their leaders.

All religions are peace  it is governments that are corrupt, and intertwining the two makes for the greatest sin of all, she wrote. We are one, and God has created all equal. All bloodshed, tears, and bodies should be mourned with the same respect.

There is an urgent humanitarian crisis in Gaza that must be attended to, Bella added. Families need access to water and food. Hospitals need fuel to power generators, tend to the wounded and keep people alive. Wars have laws  and they must be upheld, no matter what. We need to keep pressure on our leaders, wherever we are, not to forget the urgent needs of the people of Gaza, and to ensure that innocent Palestinian civilians are not the forgotten casualties of this war.

I stand with humanity, knowing that peace and safety belong to us all, she concluded her post.

NBC News reports than 7,000 people have been killed in Gaza, citing Palestinian health officials, and that about 1,400 people have been killed in Israel, per the Israel Defence Forces.
Grab some pure honey for your popcorn and get your fans ready for December.

Beyonce is bringing her critically acclaimed Renaissance World Tour to theaters, announcing earlier this month that a concert film based on the tour will hit the silver screen on Dec. 1.

The movie "Renaissance: A Film by Beyonce" will allow fans to follow the songstress' tour stops across the globe, from the first show on May 10 in Stockholm, Sweden, to the show's finale in Kansas City, Missouri, on Oct. 1.

In addition to concert footage, the film will also include portions of the visual album for Beyonce's latest album "Renaissance" and a documentary-style account of the album and tours creation.

For the Floridian members of the Beyhive, here's everything you need to know before swarming your local theater.

Beyonce draws worldwide crowds: Beyonce and Taylor Swift's summer concerts drew fans from afar: Was the travel worth it?

What is 'Renaissance: A Film by Beyonce' about?

According to a description of the film, it is about "Beyonces intention, hard work, involvement in every aspect of the production, her creative mind and purpose to create her legacy, and master her craft. Received with extraordinary acclaim, Beyonces Renaissance World Tour created a sanctuary for freedom, and shared joy for more than 2.7 million fans.

"When I am performing, I am nothing but free. The goal for this tour was to create a place where everyone is free and no one is judged. You're unique," Beyonce says in a trailer of the movie as concert footage flashes in the background. "Start over, start fresh, create the new  that's what the Renaissance is about."

What is the run time for 'Renaissance: A Film by Beyonce?'

According to Billboard Magazine, the movie will be two and a half hours long.

How can I get tickets for Beyonce's concert movie in Florida?

Tickets are available now, with purchasing information is available on beyoncefilm.com. AMC, Cinemark, Regal and Fandango are the official sellers for the movie.

Where can I buy tickets to see Beyonce's concert movie?

For those wanting to relive the Renaissance Tour, they can visit their respective local theater's website to purchase tickets ahead of time:

Will there be any specialized merchandise for Beyonce's concert movie?

As of Oct. 27, there have not been any theaters to announce any themed "Renaissance" merchandise for the film.

What songs might I hear in the 'Renaissance World Tour' movie?

The nearly three-hour setlist leans heavily on her current "Renaissance" album, but there are plenty of throwbacks to pander to OG fans, with "Crazy in Love," "Love on Top" and "Formation." While the movie might not include every song, the set list includes:

"Dangerously in Love 2

Flaws and All

1+1

I Care / I'm Goin' Down (Mary J. Blige cover)

I'M THAT GIRL

COZY

ALIEN SUPERSTAR / Sweet Dreams (Medley)

Lift Off (from Jay-Z and Kanye West's WATCH THE THRONE)

7/11 (Interlude)

CUFF IT / CUFF IT - WETTER REMIX

ENERGY (ft. Beam)

BREAK MY SOUL / BREAK MY SOUL - THE QUEENS REMIX (ft. Madonna)

No Angel

Haunted

Formation

Diva

Run the World (Girls)

MY POWER (from The Lion King: The Gift)

BLACK PARADE

Savage Remix (Megan Thee Stallion ft. Beyonce)

Partition

Yonce

CHURCH GIRL

Get Me Bodied / Freakum Dress

Before I Let Go

Rather Die Young

Love on Top

Crazy in Love (ft. Jay-Z)

PLASTIC OFF THE SOFA

VIRGO'S GROOVE

Naughty Girl

MOVE (ft. Grace Jones)

HEATED

THIQUE

ALL UP IN YOUR MIND

Drunk in Love

AMERICA HAS A PROBLEM

PURE/HONEY

Blow

SUMMER RENAISSANCE

What should I wear to the concert movie?

Obviously, it's a movie, you can wear whatever you want. However, dedicated Beyhive members have frequently latched onto the theme of "futuristic alien-cowboy goes to the nightclub" and turned events for the superstar's world tour into a fashion show.

Social media posts online show attendees showing out with chromatic pieces, glittery silver outfits, and cowboy hats galore. To please Queen B, Refinery29 gave this advice to concert-goers back in summer  stick to glitter, silver, chrome, cowboy boots, and hats.

What special dances or chants should I know ahead of time?

While we won't know exactly what songs will make the cut for the film, it's better to be prepared.

Get your fans ready but instead of cooling off, it's time to get "HEATED." During the hit Renaissance song, fans online have come up with a routine to flick their fans in time with the music and visuals on stage.

Also during the song "Energy," fans are expected to completely go silent following the lyrics "  Look around, everybody on mute." Some fans even take it upon themselves to pass out small cards before the concert to remind others of the special move.

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Beyonce concert movie coming in December 2023. Here's what to know
Bryan Kohberger, who allegedly murdered four University of Idaho students on November 13, 2022, remains in custody at the Latah County Jail. Police reportedly arrested the suspected killer on December 30, 2022. He has since been in prison and now faces four counts of first-degree murder. The victims are Ethan Chapin, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Madison Mogen.

Sources confirmed that Kohberger and his defense filed two motions to have the murder indictment thrown out. They cited a biased grand jury and lack of sufficient evidence, among other things. The second motion alleged that the jury received improper instructions. The 28-year-old made two separate court appearances on hearings for the same.

According to CNN, the judge presiding over the hearings denied one out of the two motions to have the murder indictment thrown out. The alleged quadruple murderer is now set to stand a highly-anticipated trial.

Where is Idaho Murders suspect Bryan Kohberger now?

A recent KING-TV report confirmed that the suspect of Idaho student murders, Bryan Kohberger, is being held at the Latah County Jail. Police arrested him on December 30 last year. The former criminology Ph.D. student has remained in custody as the only suspect in the murders of Ethan Chapin, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Madison Mogen.

Kohberger faces four counts of first-degree murder in connection with the brutal stabbings of the four University of Idaho students. He allegedly murdered them in an off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho, on November 13 last year. Police arrested the 28-year-old from his parents Pennsylvania home the following month. A not-guilty plea has been entered on his behalf, as per CNN.

The New York Post reported that earlier this year in July, Kohbergers defense attorney filed a motion to have the indictment thrown out. They claimed that the grand jury was given improper instructions when they voted to indict the accused. Kohbergers defense requested Latah County Judge John C. Judge to schedule a preliminary hearing instead. His lawyers only revealed that the suspect was on a late-night solo drive that night.

Two separate hearings were held on October 26, 2023. The district court judge denied the motion to dismiss the murder indictment. John Judge said, I am constrained by what I believe is settled law in Idaho. This is certainly an issue that you would have to bring with a higher court, like the Idaho Supreme Court. I think the argument is good, but I cant go that far, not today, reported CNN.

The post Bryan Kohberger Today: Where Is the Suspected Idaho Student Murders Killer Now? appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More.
Cardi Bs nail tech lost her new salon in a fire.

The New York Post reports that Jenny Buis husband, Nguyen Bui, lit the fire in the Bronx walk-in salon on Sept. 28. He was later arrested on Oct. 11 and charged with arson, criminal mischief, and reckless endangerment. He pleaded not guilty in Bronx Criminal Court and was released without bail.

Footage of the incident shows a man lighting napkins on fire and throwing them onto boxes in the middle of the salon, Cianna Creations Nails & Spa in Throggs Neck. The clip shows the man walking out of the space; the room then fills with smoke and a huge fire starts spreading.

Rather than leave her husband, Jenny has decided to stay and help him.

"Give my husband one more one more chance, he's a good man," she said, per ABC 7. "He said he was stressed and I didn't question him because there's too much going on already.  A lot of people in the comments say divorce him, but I won't.

According to the couples lawyer, Darnell Crosland, Nguyen was stressed out after working to finish the studio from 2 p.m. until 4 a.m. the next day. That, coupled with having a few drinks, led to a mental breakdown. Crosland also said that the footage doesnt show the moment Nguyen tried to put out the flames. Cianna Creations Nail & Spa was set to open on Oct. 27.

"He wasn't looking for financial gain when he lit that match, so there's no fraud here, it's just frustration, it's just that human thing where you just meltdown," Crosland said.

More on this

According to the Post, Nguyen will have to go to an alternative to incarceration program, which provides mental health treatment.

She estimates the fire caused $100,000 in damages, including nail products, nail stations, massage chairs, sinks, and chandeliers. Jenny is looking to rebuild her store.

At the time of the fire, the 54-year-old was visiting her sick brother in Canada and learned about the incident from her neighbor. Jenny was enthusiastic about the new salon, even telling Cardi about it while doing her nails for the MTV VMAs last month.

I was telling her how hard I worked on opening the salon, Jenny said.

She has since launched a GoFundMe, but has only raised $8,483 of its $150,000 goal as of this writing.
Rapper Chris Brown is facing a lawsuit after he allegedly smashed a Don Julio 1942 Tequila bottle over the head of a producer.

According to legal documents, obtained by The Blast, during his 2023 'Under the Influence' tour, promoted by Live Nation in the United Kingdom, Chris Brown "brutally assaulted" a producer at a TAPE nightclub in London.

The "Run It!" artist allegedly chucked a large bottle of Don Julio Tequila at the victim's head, which he then suffered from severe and lasting injuries.

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The victim reportedly was left lying unconscious on the ground, but that did not stop Brown from "ruthlessly stomping" on him for approximately 30 seconds.

Chris Brown Smashes Tequila Bottle Over Producer's Head

MEGA

In the filing, the victim claims he ended up in the hospital with lacerations on his head and torn ligaments in his leg following the altercation with Chris Brown at the London nightclub.

After the information was released, the rapper fled the country and the suit claims he is now considered a "fugitive at large" in the United Kingdom.

The victim is suing Chris Brown for an undisclosed amount, but the lawsuit does mention the hospital and medical expenses.

The incident occurred in the early house of February 19, 2023, while on Brown's 2023 'Under the Influence' Tour and reportedly started with him "Wielding a large bottle of Don Julio 1942 Tequila as his weapon," and assaulting the producer, leaving severe head injuries before he "ruthlessly stomped" on the "defenseless" victim.

Lawsuit: Chris Brown's Assault Should Come As No Surprise

MEGA

This recent incident comes as no surprise, considering Chris Brown's "extensive history of violence".

Over the last 15 years, Brown has been involved in many instances of assaults, many of which have even been worldwide news. Some of these instances, though far from an exhaustive list, are "reminders of Brown's brutal nature and his inability to live within the boundaries of the law," the docs state.

Live Nation and Chris Brown Profit While Victim Was Hospitalized

MEGA

The "Under the Influence" Tour was named as a way to attract fans who were aware of Chris Brown's prior criminal behavior history, and "monetize Brown's hotheaded persona," which clearly worked as the tour grossed over $10,000,000.

The victim is now suing, claiming that after the assault at the nightclub, he was left in the hospital to recover from "serious and permanent injuries" while Chris Brown and Live Nation walked away with millions from the tour.

Brown's history of substance abuse and physical violence may have contributed to the incident, according to the suit, as the rapper was reportedly drinking, which "impaired his judgment and contributed to his irrational and aggressive behavior that led to the vicious attack" on the victim.

Chris Brown's Assault Caught On Tape

Mega

According to the lawsuit, the entirety of the assault was captured in surveillance footage by TAPE Club, which was obtained by the Metropolitan Police in London.

The police department showed the victim the footage, in which he identified Chris Brown.

Once the Metropolitan Police went to question Chris Brown regarding the assault, he failed to appear at the scheduled meetings, and instead, fled the United Kingdom, back to the United States. He is currently considered a fugitive in the United Kingdom.

Brown has not responded to the allegations.
It starts south of Boston, both the story and the conversation. My heart is in Massachusetts, Dicky Barrett tells me, recently spending some time in his hometown of Norwood, catching up with old friends, including Jerry Lehane of the Dogmatics, a Boston-based, self-described garage band, who are keeping up the homegrown-gig tradition. The Dogmatics, like Dickys previous band, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, were formed in the early 80s amidst an electrifying East Coast rock scene. Dicky, and the nine-piece he fronted, with their single The Impression That I Get topping the Modern Rock Tracks Chart in 97, would go on to make an indelible mark on music and a definite influence on the flurry of ska-punk bands that followed.

More from Spin:

The last time we spoke it was 2021, only over two years ago but an entirely different time, with most of the world volleying between lockdowns and impending COVID scares. This was right before the May release of the Bosstones 11th and, wed find out later, final studio album, When God Was Great, a record I listed as one of the best of the year. In January 2022, the band released a statement that after decades of brotherhood they were not continuing as a band. With Dicky an open supporter of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. , speculation broke that the COVID vaccine mandate could be the issue, with Dickys departure from his long-standing stint as the announcer of Jimmy Kimmel Live! happening shortly before.

Dicky with Bosstones Joe Gittleman in 97. (Credit: Patti Ouderkirk/WireImage)

My fatherwas in sales most of his life until he was bartending, Dicky tells me. He was a very successful salesman. He was classic 70s, like, All right, this is what you need. You cant afford not to do this. Here you go. He could move anything. Not necessarily a skilled carpenter, Dickys dadsuited, cigarette in handsold sheetrock until he worked as a pharmaceutical salesman. Theres the story right there: Dicky Barretts father was a pharmaceutical salesman, Dicky says. Why is that important? Its becausehe knew less about pharmaceuticals than he knew about sheetrock. He didnt know shit about either one of them, but he sold a ton of them. His job was to go into a doctors office and say, Okay, this is what you need. Put this right up front. Set this here. When your patients come in, push this, use this, here you go. Now lets go have a scotch and soda down the street. Did he know what he was putting on the shelf? No, that didnt matter. He was told to do that. I dont think that that game has changed a whole lot. I think thats the objective.

Dicky jokes that hes a salesman, too, selling ska corea ska core salesman from the Eastern seaboarda blend of ska and hardcore punk, a term that he claims he coined. No one pushed that. Did people want it? Did people need it? Probably not. I made sure you got it. I put it on the shelves, he laughingly boasts.

Dickys new band, The Defiant, is releasing their first album, If Were Really Being Honest, on October 27. Dicky again is the frontman, with musicians from some of alts most notable bands: The Offsprings Pete Parada on drums, Smash Mouths Greg Camp on guitar, Street Dogs Johnny Rioux on bass, and The Briggs Joey La Rocca on guitar. Songs like Dead Language immediately harken great late-70s English bands  scrappy, punky power-pop  with each seasoned band member contributing his own resonance, fueled by undeniable passion and purpose.

The Defiant (Credit: Aspen Luzier)

Theres four other very smart guys in the band, he says, describing the tough process of choosing their name. I knew I wanted it to be definite, and I wanted to have some impact, and I wanted it to make certain people feel uncomfortable and other people go, Yes.

The online Britannica Dictionary defines defiance as: a refusal to obey something or someone : the act of defying someone or something.

Why were The Defiant? I think Ill leave that up to anybody that wants to say Other people wanted us to call ourselves the Cranky Old Boomers.

In a recent interview for our 5 Albums I Cant Live Without series, Greg (who penned huge 90s hits, including Smash Mouths All Star) called his work with The Defiant absolutely the most important music Ive ever been a part of. If Dead Language challenges the dumbing down of a digitized society, their newest release, Celtic-influenced Where Did Lady Liberty Go? takes us back to March of 2020, with lyrics such as Keep your eye on the shepherd and not on the sheep, imploring its audience to think for themselves, especially when it comes to their freedom.

These are incredibly serious topics with a message  but theyre also great songs. From the Sex Pistols God Save The Queen to Green Days American Idiot, to pretty much anything by The Clash, protest and anti-establishment are as synonymous with punk as unity is with ska  both produce some inarguably epic music.

Ive written songs about writing songs and why I write songs and what the music means and the value of it, Dicky says, of creating music with purpose. Its always been important.

Dicky with Joe Strummer. (Credit: Photo courtesy of Dicky Barrett private collection)

The discussion turns to punk, and my hyperbolic, overarching catch-phrase all roads lead to punk, the launch-genre of choice of so many alt bands. Dicky describes it as a call to arms: Come do this. Come be part of this. Were saying Fuck this to everything and were saying it in a way that everybody can share that voice. For Dicky, he started as a punk and will always be one. I feel like its in my heart, he says. If it didnt serve me, or if it betrayed me, or if it was filled with ugliness, or there was all kinds of wrongdoing in it, I wouldnt be. Its my belief. It gave me so much.

Dicky asks that you judge the songs by their own merit. Thats the beauty of it, if you want to attack me for supporting Robert F. Kennedy Jr., fine. Its going to be very difficult for people to attack these songs because theyre strong and theyre good. (He says that he has been a supporter of Bobby Kennedy for years. Hes dedicated his life to serving and helping people. I raise my glass to that. I dont see an ulterior motive. RFK Jr. announced he was running for President in April.)

While its possible, by his own accord, hes wandered far from traditional skaI did that wandering years and years agopolitically hes remained constant. Ive voted Democrat my whole life, he says. All I wanted out of any president was to please stop the bullying, stop the policing, and stop the wars, stop the dying. Who can do that? This is who looks to be the person thats going to end these conflicts and stop these wars. Thats how I would cast my vote.

The conversation shifts to Joe Strummer and his aforementioned anti-establishment early years, as well as his humanist legacy, grounded in compassion for all people.

Were doing something wrong, Dicky says, of the lack of humanity in our world. I didnt roll with the ARA [anti-racist action] group and have them come on our tours [with the Bosstones] because I was pretending to be anti-racist. I wasnt fake. The record company would come to me, Why do you have to be political? Im talking about in the 90s. Ive got things to say and things I believe in and things I stand behind that are going to be in my art. My decisions werent arbitrary.

Young Dicky Barrett (Credit: Courtesy of Dicky Barrett private collection)

He says that while hell never stop loving the BosstonesThe Defiant is The Defiant, and its these five guysthat I put together. The Bosstones were the Bosstones and they wore this, and they sounded like this. They had a horn section, and their messaging was strong and clear. It wasnt vapors. It was something you could hold onto. All of that was my art, all of that. Thats the way I started building this [new band], and was lucky enough to find four other like-minded guys that wanted to do something like that, too. If you want to attack us, feel free, but the strength [is] we believe in what were doing, we believe in what were saying, and I think weve earned the right to.

Way back when we first spoke, nearly two and a half years ago now, Dicky told me about one wild night in the 80s at Bostons legendary nightclub the Channel, a warehouse-like building that sat on the site of the Boston Tea Party. After a show, Dicky got into a fight with some shady characters that worked there, who chased him out of the building and through the neighborhood. There were gangsters running the place, he recalls, laughing. The bouncing staffI think they were all bank robbers. There was a lot of like, All right, Barrett, youre out of here! Fuck you! Fuck you! Im like, Really? Youre saying fuck you to murderers?

You were a real outlaw, right? I say.

At a time when it was safe to be an outlaw, he says.

Then he adds: I think my outlaw days might be in front of me.

The Defiant (Credit: Aspen Luzier)

To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.
Northern Ireland has always had a special relationship with punk music. The original 1977 movement gave young people a place away from the horrific sectarian conflict that was taking place around them, and inspired homegrown bands such as Stiff Little Fingers, The Undertones, Rudi and more. Punk was both a form of escapism and a place to reject violence. Today, our government is consistently more unstable than those in neighbouring countries, and always a few years behind in granting basic rights to women and LGBTQ+ people. Our rage is specific to us, and so our punk music is uniquely cathartic.

Belfast-based DIY feminist queer-punk quartet Problem Patterns are the perfect manifestation of this singular spirit, and their debut album Blouse Club might well be the most fiercely outspoken, no-holds-barred punk album of the year.

Throughout the album, they take on all of the inequalities plaguing Northern Ireland and beyond. Starting out with the heart-racing power of Y.A.W with the war cry A womans worth should not come down / To how much you wanna fuck her. Lesbo 3000 is a screaming reclamation of homophobic slurs, taking a verbal weapon and turning it towards the oppressor. TERFs Out condemns transphobia with similarly intense passion, an anthem that plainly defends trans rights and slams exclusionary feminism.

The quartet - Ciara King, Beverley Boal, Bethany Crooks and Alanah Smith - also face lesser-explored topics head-on. Poverty Tourist makes razor-sharp observations like You bought out the stock at Oxfam / To cut it up and make a profit, a DIY punk take on Pulps Common People. Who Do We Not Save draws attention to a healthcare system on the brink of collapse in Northern Ireland (where waiting lists are much longer than anywhere else in the UK). Amidst the rage towards corrupt (or largely absent) governments, there is still an overwhelming sense of community and solidarity at the heart of these lyrics.

Blouse Club has its lighter moments, too. Pity Bra tells the story of a Sleater-Kinney concert in Dublin where a Problem Patterns t-shirt was hurled at the stage, hitting riot-grrrl legend Corin Tucker right in the head. It pays tribute to the musicians that influenced them while showcasing what a special band they are in their own right. This is a band who arent afraid to break the punk mould and subvert expectations - for example, dont have a set front-person, often swapping roles between songs.

Blouse Club is an exceptional debut album from perhaps the most ferocious new punk band on the scene right now. Problem Patterns ferocity is unmatched and inspirational, and their passion, anger and gut-punching delivery will remind you why you fell in love with punk in the first place.
Claim:

An image shows a Facebook post from actor Mel Gibson that references Israel with the words, "Soon the end and they know it, that's why they want to destroy everything in the way."

Rating:

Rating: Fake

In October 2023, social media users shared an image of an alleged Facebook post authored by actor Mel Gibson in support of Palestinians. The image circulated amid the war in Israel and Gaza.

The supposed post included an image of an altered Israeli flag with an hourglass, as if to say that the country's time was running out. The words next to Gibson's name read, "Soon the end and they know it, that's why they want to destroy everything in the way."

The post apparently referenced the fact that Israel had continued to conduct airstrikes in Gaza while at the same time preparing its military for a ground assault. The war plans came in the wake of a surprise attack carried out in Israel by the militant group Hamas on Oct. 7.

Posts claimed that Mel Gibson said Israel's time was coming to an end and that's why they're destroying everything in the way.

However, the truth was that Gibson had no public-facing social media accounts. We also found no credible reporting that published the remark as belonging to Gibson. Further, the first few words of the caption appeared to have been a poor translation to English by the person who created the post.

While it's true that Gibson had expressed some anti-Semitic views in the past, the post in question was fake.

The independent Lebanese newspaper An-Nahar also debunked the same fake Gibson post, calling it "false and fabricated."

For the latest news regarding developments from Israel and Gaza, we recommend live updates from The Associated Press.

Sources:

Federman, Josef, and Issam Adwan. Hamas Surprise Attack out of Gaza Stuns Israel and Leaves Hundreds Dead in Fighting, Retaliation. The Associated Press, Oct. 7, 2023, https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-gaza-hamas-rockets-airstrikes-tel-aviv-11fb98655c256d54ecb5329284fc37d2.

Jobain, Najib, et al. Gaza Awaits Aid from Egypt as Israel Readies Troops for Ground Assault. The Associated Press, Oct. 19, 2023, https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-gaza-hamas-war-b084e9c453cc99f7bec6f66d7b5913d9.

Live Updates: Gaza Health Ministry Asks Anyone with Spare Liter of Fuel to Help out Hospitals. The Associated Press, Oct. 19, 2023, https://apnews.com/live/israel-hamas-war-news-10-19-2023.

Mel Gibson Addresses Accusations of Anti-Semitism. ABC News, Oct. 12, 2006, https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/LegalCenter/story?id=2557656&page=1.

           FactCheck#. An-Nahar, Oct. 19, 2023, https://www.annahar.com/arabic//282687/-----------factcheck.
The actor was accused of stealing more than $100 worth of merchandise from a Target in Burbank, California

Leon Bennett/Getty Adam Wylie attends the red carpet event for The Disney Channel original movie "Under Wraps 2" on September 24, 2022

Adam Wylie was arrested for shoplifting at a Target in Burbank, California earlier this month.

The Burbank Police Department confirmed to PEOPLE that the Under Wraps actor, 39, was arrested on Friday, Oct. 13 after Target security observed Wiley picking out health and beauty products and proceeding to the self-check-out, where he allegedly only scanned some of the items in his cart.

The former child star was then confronted by the Target security outside the store and escorted back inside, according to authorities. The items that Wylie was accused of stealing were worth $108.05.

Hallmark Entertainment/ Everett Adam Wylie in 'Under Wraps'

Related: 25 Years of Disney Channel Original Movies! Cast of First DCOM 'Under Wraps' Reflect on Film's Legacy

The Burbank Police Department then responded and officers issued a citation for petty theft. He was later released by authorities.

PEOPLE has reached out to Wylie's rep for comment.

TMZ was first to report the news of the Gilmore Girls actors arrest.

Wylie is a former child star who starred as Zachary on the '90s family drama Picket Fences and as Gilbert in the 1997 Disney Channel Original Movie, Under Wraps. He went on to play Brad Langford on Gilmore Girls. He also made guest appearances on NCIS, Malcolm in the Middle, Veronica Mars, General Hospital and Castle.

The WB Adam Wylie on 'Gilmore Girls'

Related: The Cast of Under Wraps: Where Are They Now?

He also portrayed Jack in Into the Woods on Broadway in 2002, according to Playbill.

Most recently, he starred in the 2022 Disney Channel Original Movie sequel, Under Wraps 2. He also became known as a popular magician on TikTok with more than 1.4 million followers.



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Read the original article on People.
GAZA/JERUSALEM, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- Fire is being exchanged between the Israeli army and Palestinian militants on the Gaza Strip border as the Israel Defense Forces(IDF) announces an expanded ground assault into the enclave Friday night, Palestine's Al-Quds Newspaper reported.

Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said in a statement "we are confronting an Israeli ground incursion into Beit Hanoun and east of Bureij, and violent clashes are taking place on the ground." Bureij lies in the central part of the Gaza Strip, whereas Beit Hanoun is in the northwest of the Palestinian enclave.

The IDF spokesperson confirmed to Xinhua that "following the activities which were carried out over the last few days, (IDF) ground forces are extending their ground activities this evening."

In Gaza, eyewitnesses told Xinhua that heavy Israeli bombardment has been ongoing, while local media reported Palestinian militants fired barrage of rockets targeting Israeli tanks deployed along the border. 
Get Gotti is a crime documentary series streaming on Netflix. It revolves around the life of John Gotti, an American mobster and the head of New Yorks Gambino crime family. Season 1, comprising three episodes, premiered on October 24, 2023, and garnered mixed reviews from the critics, with some claiming that the series glorifies the notorious criminal. If you are wondering when Get Gotti Season 2 is coming out, we got you covered.

Heres all the Get Gotti Season 2 release date information we know so far, and all the details on when it is coming out.

Is there a Get Gotti Season 2 release date?

There is no Get Gotti Season 2 release date as the documentary was developed as a miniseries.

Although Get Gotti has only three episodes, it fully covers the rise and fall of one of the most infamous mobsters in the history of America, so unless Netflix and the producers decide to make the documentary into an anthology series that will focus on other noted criminals in future seasons, Get Gotti season 2 is not likely to happen.

The cast includes Laura A. Ward as self, Eric Shawn as self, Andrea Giovino as self, Anthony Ruggiano Jr. as self, Barbara Nevins Taylor as self, and more.

Where is Get Gotti Season 2 coming out?

Get Gotti Season 2 isnt confirmed to release on Netflix. ComingSoon will provide an update if the circumstances change.

The official synopsis for Get Gotti reads:

Told from both sides of the law this documentary series from the makers of Fear City follows the FBIs battle to bring down infamous mob boss John Gotti.

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A senior Hamas official fled an interview on Thursday after a BBC correspondent asked him how the terrorist organization could justify killing Israeli civilians in their sleep.

I want to stop this interview, Hamas political bureau member Ghazi Hamad muttered before storming off.

Sitting down with BBC Middle East correspondent Hugo Bachega, Hamad was repeatedly pressed on the horrific Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks that resulted in over 1,400 Israeli deaths, most of which were civilians. This also included Hamas militants paragliding over the border, surrounding a music festival, and murdering over 250 concertgoers.

According to Hamad, though, the hundreds of Israeli residents killed by Hamas gunmen was unintentional and merely the result of the group attacking military targets. Bachega, however, wasnt buying the Hamas spokespersons spin.

You say this was a military operation but the result of it was that hundreds of civilians were killed, the BBC journalist pushed back.

Interesting little interview by @BBCNews @hugobachega with Hamas politburo member Ghazi Hamad: pic.twitter.com/lQg2TtWrjG  teresa smith (@treesey) October 27, 2023

Yes, because that area is very wide and there are many people there, and there was clashes and confrontation, Hamad insisted.

Its not confrontation, you invaded houses, Bachega retorted.

I dont have details [of] what happened inside, Hamad replied. But I can tell you we didnt have any intention or decision to kill civilians.

Regardless of Hamads objections, overwhelming evidence has emerged that Hamas instructed its militants to deliberately murder civilians and take others captive, including young children. Earlier this week, the Israeli government showed 200 members of the foreign press a 43-minute presentation that included scenes of decapitation and torture, gathered from Hamas terrorists bodycam feeds.

How do you justify killing people as they sleep? You know, families? How do you justify killing hundreds of people in, Bachega wondered before Hamad interjected, deciding it was time to leave.

I want to stop this interview. I want to stop this interview, the Hamas official meekly stated before ripping off his mic.

Since the deadly Hamas onslaught, Israel has responded with a brutal barrage of airstrikes on Gaza thats left thousands of Palestinians dead amid an escalating humanitarian crisis. The Israeli military forces, meanwhile, have begun expanding ground operations as they prepare to fully invade Gaza, threatening to spark a full-blown geopolitical crisis.

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Patrick Dempsey shared an emotional response on Instagram to the shootings in his hometown of Lewiston, Maine, that killed 18 people and injured 13 more on Wednesday.

I am shocked, and deeply saddened by last nights tragedy in my hometown, Lewiston, Maine, wrote the actor, known for roles such as Greys Anatomy and Enchanted, in a post on Thursday.

Maines great strength is its sense of community, and now we are being asked to come together to support everyone that has been devastated by this senseless act. My family and I are heartbroken for the victims, their families, and the community, he continued.

Dempsey was born in Lewiston, per his official website, and grew up in the nearby towns of Turner and Buckfield, according to a biography on his fundraisers website.

The actor also founded the Dempsey Center, which has a location in Lewiston, in 2008 to honor his mother, Amanda, who had ovarian cancer.

The center provides personalized and comprehensive cancer care at no cost, according to its website, and also has a location in South Portland, Maine.

Dempsey, whose mother died in 2014, told People magazine earlier this year that his mother is the real inspiration behind the center as there was nothing in the community that would be supporting her like we do.

This is the purpose for living, building this out and building awareness, he said of the center during an event hosted by SurvivorNet.

The center closed both its Lewiston and South Portland locations out of an abundance of caution on Thursday in response to the shootings.

The actors comments arrive as officials continue the manhunt for Robert Card, a U.S. Army reservist who authorities named as a suspect in the shootings.

Authorities described Card as armed and dangerous while Maine State Police ordered residents to shelter in place in Lewiston, the states second-largest city.

The Maine killings are among 566 mass shootings in America this year, as of Friday morning according to the Gun Violence Archive. (There is no standard definition for a mass shooting, but the Gun Violence Archive defines it as a shooting in which four or more people are shot or killed, not including the shooter.) Over 35,300 people have been killed over the course of the year as a result of gun violence in the country, according to the organizations tally.

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Jimmy Kimmel said on Thursday that the judge presiding over Donald Trumps New York civil fraud trial missed the mark when he fined the former president $10,000 this week for violating a gag order.

The judge warned that future violations could even lead to jail time, but Kimmel said he had a better idea.

If you really want to shut Trump up, you dont threaten him with jail time or fines. Threaten him with Eric time, he said, referring to one of Trumps adult sons. Trust me: Put him in a room with Eric. Hell clam up like hes at a brunch with Melania.

See more in his Thursday night monologue:
Influential Kenyan citizens and expatriates have told The Daily Beast they want King Charles to use his forthcoming visit to the country to make a full and frank apology for crimes perpetrated by British overlords as they crushed the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya between 1952 and 1960, one of the bloodiest episodes in colonial history.

One man, a Kenyan-born British lawyer and councilor, whose elderly grandfather was killed by British troops in 1956 while he was harvesting honey, described it as very offensive for Charles to contemplate traveling to the country without offering an apology and opening a discussion on reparations.

How King Charles Can Deal With Britains Racist, Colonial Legacy

So far, the Palace has refused to be drawn in detail on the question of how the king will deal with the divisive and toxic legacy of British colonialism in Kenya, with advisers only saying that he would acknowledge painful aspects of the countries shared history.

Shared history may seem to some a rather inadequate way of describing the events of 1952 to 1960, which saw a state of emergency declared in the country after a million-strong army of indigenous Kenyans, who called themselves the Mau Mau, rose up with the goal of taking back land seized by the British and expelling their colonial masters.

The British response was savage: tens of thousands of supporters, many of whom had themselves been violently forced to declare allegiance to the Mau Mau, were herded into concentration camps, where they were subjected to beatings, rape, castration and summary executions. The Kenya Human Rights Commission found that 90,000 Kenyans were executed, tortured or maimed. Official figures show that 1,090 people were hanged and say another 10,000 died, but academics such as David Anderson, professor of African Politics at Oxford University, estimated to the BBC that the death toll in the conflict was 25,000.

By contrast, just 32 white settlers were killed over the eight years the state of emergency was in place.

British policemen hold men from the village of Kariobangi at gunpoint while their huts are searched for evidence that they participated in the Mau Mau Rebellion of 1952. Bettmann/Getty Images

The British government in 2013 admitted wrongdoing and said it would pay out 19.9m ($24.1m) in costs and compensation to more than 5,000 elderly Kenyans who suffered torture and abuse during the Mau Mau uprising in the 1950s and admitted that Kenyans were subjected to torture and other forms of ill-treatment at the hands of the colonial administration.

However, a further 40,000 Kenyans who then sued the U.K. government for compensation were not compensated, and lost their case in 2019. According to a report in the Guardian, the judge concluded that the passage of time since the alleged ill-treatment was so great that it was impossible for the crown to mount a meaningful defense, especially in the absence of virtually any corroborative evidence, as nearly all those alleged to have committed the claimed offenses were either dead or not traceable.

It is unsurprising, therefore, that the issue is a hugely emotive one, with many arguing that vague and generalized expressions of regret will not suffice.

Take, for example, Dominic Kirui, a Kenyan athlete and double Olympian turned writer. In a telephone interview, he told The Daily Beast: A royal visit in itself is not something that many Kenyans would have wanted or needed, because it awakens thoughts and feelings about the colonial past that many people have buried and never want exhumed.

Kirui comes from a region in the Rif Valley where, he says, the scars of colonialism can still be felt and seen. The people in Kericho were driven out of their homes and their ancestral lands and forcibly resettled in Nyanza, on lands that were infested with the tsetse fly, which it was hoped would kill them. A royal visit only serves to remind people about the injustices that were committed and the pain they suffered, so I cannot believe it is something Kenyans would be eager to see or witness.

Kirui points out that stories of oppression are common all over Kenya especially where huge tea farms comprising thousands of acres were carved out.

Kikuyu tribe members held in an internment camp by the British government during the Mau Mau Rebellion. Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis via Getty Images

The people whose land was stolen... still live among the farms, Kirui said, adding, I see the visit by the royals as a way of the colonists saying to Kenyans, We are still around. You are not as sovereign as you think you are.

Kirui dismissed the generalized expressions of contrition made by Charles office saying that what was needed was reparations to ensure people are compensated.

A spokesperson for Buckingham Palace asked about the prospect of an apology said that as the king is traveling to Kenya at the request of the British Government questions about an apology would be a matter for them. They directed the Daily Beast towards the text of the 2013 apology. (The Foreign Office did not respond to a request for comment.)

An official source in the kings office added: The visit will acknowledge the more painful aspects of the U .K. and Kenyas shared history. His Majesty is fully aware of the context and will take time during his visit to hear from Kenyans who experienced, or whose loved ones experienced, the wrongs of this period first hand, to deepen his understanding. As well as acknowledging the wrongs of the past, the visit will look to the future, celebrating the strong and dynamic partnership which exists between Kenya and the U.K.

British troops during the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya. Bettmann/Getty Images

James Mugo, a Kenyan-born lawyer who has lived in the U.K. for 26 years, has a very personal sense of outrage about what the British did in Kenya. In the mid-1950s, his grandfather, who was in his late seventies, was shot and killed at point-blank range by British soldiers as he emerged from a forest where he had been gathering honey from beehives he kept there. He was far too old to be mistaken for a Mau Mau fighter.

Mugo told The Daily Beast: Unless King Charles delivers anything less than an outright apology for the crimes committed by the colonists, he will not be welcome in Kenya. There are millions of people who are still languishing in poverty right now as a result of the Britishs actions. They lost their land and were put in concentration camps and villages and exploited for cheap labor. I dont see why Kenyans cannot be compensated.

Speaking about his grandfathers murder by British troops, he said: He was not fighting. He was 70 years old and he was shot by British soldiers collecting honey. So I personally find it very offensive that King Charles can go there and not apologize for what happened. Very offensive. It is adding insult to injury.

Kenya is an enormous country, about the size of Texas, with 53 million inhabitants, which has been riven with political division since long before independence. It is not entirely surprising, therefore, that many Kenyans take a different view of the forthcoming visit of the king.

Robert Kibet, a freelance Kenyan journalist who writes about the region for numerous Western outlets, told The Daily Beast: There are strong historical ties between the countries, and these kinds of trips offer significant opportunities for cultural exchange and building bilateral diplomatic relations, but of course it all depends on the focus of the itinerary.

Economic partnership is key for us, trade relationships which will attract investment and give business opportunities to Kenyans. Russia wants to be in Africa, China wants to be here, and so it is not surprising the U.K. wants to be here too.

Kibet says the issue of the environment and the climate crisis is likely to be an important area of common ground because Kenya is a regional leader on the issue, having recently hosted the African climate summit, and Charles is well-known for his interest in the subject.

One white British charity executive who previously worked in the voluntary sector in Kenya told The Daily Beast: The colonial legacy isnt as much of an issue in daily political discourse as you might expect just because the country has faced and continues to face so many other political and economic challenges, as well as security issues and natural disasters. These are what actually preoccupy people day to day in my experience.

Dr. Samson Ruben Ndegwa, 75, a community leader living in Nairobi, who saw his father imprisoned by the British in a concentration camp during the Mau Mau uprising, told The Daily Beast: The British rule in Kenya has got two sides to it. They brought education to this country, for example. On the flip side of it, there was the oppression, the forced labor and the colonization which particularly affected people from the Central Province. They rebelled, they went to live in the forest, they fought.

My father was one of them, but he didnt die, he survived. He came out, he started a business and he educated us. He moved on. Of course there was some bitterness but many people, after independence, like him, just decided to move on.

Asked if he supported the visit, Ndegwa said: Let him come, by all means.

On what Charles could or should say, Ndegwa said, If Charles was bold enough to apologize on behalf of the British government, I think that would solidify the relationship between Kenya and Britain. The President said, You forgive, but you dont forget, and I think that is probably how a lot of Kenyans feel about the kings visit.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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William Speer, 49, has been on death row in Texas for decades

Texas Department of Criminal Justice via AP, Wally McNamee/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty William Keith Speer

Less than five hours before William Keith Speers slated lethal injection, the Texas Board of Criminal Appeals stayed his execution yesterday pending further order by the court.

Speer, who has spent all but the first 16 years of his life behind bars  most of them on death row for strangling to death fellow inmate Gary Dickerson in 1997  was supported in his request to halt his execution by Dickersons sister, Sammie Martin.

Related: After Brother's Murder, Sister Pleads to Stay Killer's Execution: He 'Has Something Left to Offer the World'

I have spent much time reflecting on what justice my brother and my family deserved, Martin wrote in a letter filed in federal court earlier this week, the Associated Press reported. In my heart, I feel that he is not only remorseful for his actions but has been doing good works for others and has something left to offer the world.

In the two-page stay order, reviewed by PEOPLE, the judges  who did not agree unanimously on the stay  shied from taking a stance on much of anything: Listing Speers five claims for the stay without sharing their findings and reserving any final decision about a future execution for a later, unspecified date.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice William Keith Speer, in an old mug shot around the time of Gary Dickerson's 1997 murder

Despite his uncertain future, Speers supporters took the win yesterday.

Will Speer will live to see another day and continue to spread his message of hope and healing in Texas prisons, Burke Butler Executive Director of Texas Defender Service, a group that litigates and advocates to end the death penalty and who led a social media campaign for clemency in Speers case, said in a press release. He noted that thousands of people had joined Dickersons sister and faith leaders across the country to tell Texas that Wills life was worth saving.

Speer, who was baptized in a giant kiddie pool in the prison yard, is now a frequent voice on the 6 a.m. prison radio Faith Based Program show. His supporters say his faith in God has given him the grounded stability he craved growing up and that he could spend the rest of his life in jail working as a field minister, making the lives of other inmates better, as he has already begun doing as an official mentor among his fellow prisoners.

David Santiago Renteria, himself slated for execution next month, wrote that Speers willingness to lay himself bare before others [has] served as inspiration for many in our community, and made a difference in how we as a group relate to one another as part of creation, according to a press release by the Death Penalty Information Center, which tracks nationwide executions and quoted his letter. Renteria added that Speers testimony has caused many [on death row] to look deeper when it comes to repenting of our own broken paths.

Related: Arizona Death Row Inmate Walks Free After 29 Years in Prison: 'Finally Coming Home'

Donna Coltharp, an assistant federal public defender with the Western District of Texas who is part of Speers legal team, told Houston Landing that they are in a holding pattern, waiting on a final decision regarding his execution. She added that the order gives Speer a minimum of 90 more days.

The last-minute stay came on the heels of a letter Martin submitted to the court on behalf of Speer earlier this week.

Aaron M. Sprecher via AP The Huntsville "Walls" Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Huntsville Unit, where the death chamber is located.

But other court filings this week suggest it will remain an uphill battle for Speer. Lawyers for the Texas Attorney Generals Office have maintained their interest in pursuing his execution, saying in documents filed ahead of the judges decision that the state retains its interest in deterring gang murders and prison violence, as well as seeing justice done for Dickerson, the AP reported.

And although Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has the authority to commute Speers death sentence to life in prison, he has done so only once, Houston Landing reported, on behalf of Thomas Bartlett. Over the course of his more than 8 years as governor, 66 inmates have been executed, according to the outlet.

Speers appeal  which will continue to slug through the Texas federal court system  is based on a handful of legal claims about the case, laid out in the stay order: That his Brady rights were violated, that prosecutors presented false testimony at two different points in the trial, that he had ineffective counsel during his sentencing and that the Attorney Generals Office Special Prosecution Unit overstepped in their prosecuting of his case. The panel of judges would likely make any future decision about his execution based on those arguments.

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Anibal Canales, Jr.  the second inmate convicted of killing Dickerson in his own prison cell  remains on death row, according to his online file with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Canales was scheduled for execution earlier this year, but it was also postponed, the AP reported in March.

Related: South Carolina Begins Offering Firing Squad Executions for Death Row Inmates, Now 1 of 4 States

Twenty inmates in five states have been put to death across the country so far this year, according to an execution list updated earlier this month by the Death Penalty Information Center. More than half of those executions have occurred in Florida and Speers home state of Texas.

Nobody's entitled to  to any of this, Speer said a video where he pleaded the state for his life. I'm appealing for this opportunity to give more  to give back. Not because I've done something and Ive become entitled to a different change. That's not what I'm saying at all. But what I am asking is for the opportunity to be able to give the love that I've been given.



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The Duchess of Sussex used her nickname in a sweet text following the snafu

Ben Stansall - WPA Pool/Getty Meghan Markle at the Endeavour Fund Awards Ceremony in London in February 2018.

Meghan Markle's background as an actor may have come in handy when there was a mix-up with her first public speech before marrying Prince Harry.

On the latest episode of Hello! A Right Royal Podcast, the Invictus Games Foundation director David Wiseman joined the show to discuss the latest iteration of the event in Germany, his friendship with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and why Meghan wasnt mad when he accidentally delivered the wrong script for her first public address as Prince Harrys fiancee in 2018. Meghan hit the stage for the awards for The Endeavor Fund, which Harry established to support the ambitions of wounded, injured and sick service personnel and veterans  but struggled to start speaking due to the snafu!

"I messed up at work! Wiseman said on the podcast when asked to recall an anecdote and turned to the 2018 Endeavor Fund Awards in London. It was the first time she'd spoken in public as the [future] Duchess of Sussex. There werent many of us at The Royal Foundation, so everyone sort of mucked in for everything."

Chris Jackson/Getty Prince Harry and David Wiseman at the 2023 Invictus Games in Germany.

Related: Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's Family Guy Spoof Sparks Cheeky Reply from Del Taco

I was writing the scripts, and there was a last-minute request for a change from her team  yeah, no problem, put it in. But she got the old version, and the new version was sent to her co-host, my mate, [British Army veteran] Neil Heritage. And there were there on stage, and they had two different versions of the script, he explained.

I don't know if you remember, they were both sort of not arguing, but saying No, this is the version,' and so there was a fluff of the lines in front of everybody on her first opening speech as the [future] Duchess of Sussex, Wiseman said. As seen in a video shared to X by Rebecca English of the Daily Mail, Meghan and Heritage quietly laughed and couldnt seem to locate the correct piece of paper on the podium to present the Celebrating Excellence Award.

Joking that he died a little bit inside from his front-row spot next to Harry, Wiseman (an Invictus Games alum who appeared in the August docuseries Heart of Invictus) said he was relieved as the duo moved through the moment and the event received positive press coverage.

Ben Stansall - WPA Pool/Getty Meghan Markle at the Endeavour Fund Awards Ceremony in London in February 2018.

Related: Why Halloween Is an Extra Special Holiday for Meghan Markle and Prince Harry

Wiseman, who first met Prince Harry and Prince William years before as students at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, said he later sent Harry apologetic texts about the accident and Meghan hopped on the phone.

Meghan jumped on the text, David, it's M, honestly, really really, don't worry about it.' She was just so kind, he said on Hello! A Right Royal Podcast.

It was an unusual move for Meghan to present a prize that evening, as she was not yet officially in the royal family given her May wedding to Harry was still a few months away. In contrast, Kate Middleton did not give her first speech until nearly a year after her royal wedding to Prince William in 2011.

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The Endeavor Fund merged with the Invictus Games Foundation in June 2020, separating it from the Royal Foundation. The change came a few months after Prince Harry and Meghan stepped back from their royal roles and relocated across the pond, ultimately settling in Meghans home state of California.

The couple had a date night at the Endeavour Fund Awards in 2019 (while Meghan was pregnant with Prince Archie, 4) and attended the ceremony again the following year. The 2020 event was one of their last royal engagements in the U.K. before their transatlantic move, and their entry was glamorously captured in a now-iconic image below an umbrella by royal photographer Samir Hussein.

Getty Meghan Markle and Prince Harry at the 2020 Endeavour Fund Awards in London.

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Christopher Patrick Haynes had complained about an ankle injury and was transported to the hospital where police say he assaulted an officer and fled

Washington D.C Metropolitan Police Christopher Patrick Haynes, a homicide suspect who escaped from Washington, D.C.

A murder suspect who escaped police custody last month has been recaptured in Washington D.C.

Christopher Patrick Haynes, 30, was taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force at approximately 10:30 a.m. local time off of Iverson Street in Oxon Hill, the U.S. Marshalls said in a press release.

Washington D.C.s Metropolitan Police Department said in its own statement that Haynes was captured with the help of its MPD Falcon 1 helicopter. Police said after his capture, he was taken to the Homicide Branch where he will be charged with the escape in addition to the August 2023 murder of Brent Hayward.

Police said in the statement that Haynes was arrested in Manassas, Virginia on Sept. 6 in connection to the murder of Brent Hayward on Aug. 12, in accordance with a DC Superior Court Arrest warrant.

Related: Manhunt Underway for 4 Ga. Inmates  Including Murder Suspect  Who Escaped Jail

He was later transported to George Washington Hospital after he complained of ankle pain from a pre-existing injury while being processed, according to police.

While at the hospital, an officer tried to change his handcuffs to cuff one of his hands to a gurney when Haynes physically assaulted the officer and fled from the hospital with one handcuff still attached to his right wrist, per the statement. Police said two officers who had been with Haynes at the time tried to chase him but were unable to catch him.

Following his escape, the Metropolitan Police Department issued a public alert on social media that Haynes had escaped custody from George Washington Hospital at around 3:38 p.m.

Related: Murder Suspect Escapes Prison Using Bed Sheets After Evading Capture for Weeks

Washington D.C Metropolitan Police

Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that they placed temporary, precautionary closures as well as support units in the area around the White House, which was located less than a mile from the hospital where Haynes escaped.

George Washington University also said it had canceled all in-person classes, events and other activities as a precaution, per NBC News.

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.

During a press conference on Thursday on Haynes recapture shared by DC News Now, Commander Don Snyder with the Capital Area Regional Fugitive Taskforce said that the reason why it took them some time to find him was because we basically had to reestablish the investigation from the start. He added that Haynes had also been taking evasive actions to avoid capture.

This isnt the first time Haynes has been accused of assaulting officers. In September 2020, he allegedly tried to strike three Prince William County police officers with his vehicle and pleaded guilty to three counts of attempted malicious wounding on law enforcement officers, per Fox 5 News.



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Paul Reiser Gets Into a Family Feud in The Problem with People Trailer (Exclusive)

Paul Reiser co-wrote and stars in the new movie 'The Problem with People'

Paul Reiser goes to battle with a distant relative in his latest movie.

PEOPLE has the exclusive first trailer for Reiser's The Problem with People ahead of its world premiere at the Austin Film Festival Saturday.

In the comedy, Reiser, 67, who also co-wrote it, plays Barry, an American man whose long-lost Irish cousin Ciaran (Colm Meaney) invites him to visit their family in Ireland. Ciaran makes this ask at the behest of his elderly father, who wishes to reunite their extended family that moved to the U.S. decades before.

When Barry arrives in Ireland, he is greeted happily by his extended family  until Ciaran's father dies unexpectedly and it's revealed he left property in Ireland to Barry and his family.

Tensions rise as Barry finds out and determines to build a home near Ciaran's, giving way to a family rivalry that gets out of hand.

Related: Paul Reiser Says It's Unclear If He'll Return for 'Stranger Things' Season 5: 'I Literally Don't Know'

Courtesy of Gorman Family Films 'The Problem with People' poster

"Two distant cousins whove never met  one in N.Y.C., the other in the smallest town there is in Ireland  come together to finally put an end to a generations-long family feud," reads a synopsis, which adds: "It doesnt go well."

The movie is described as "a heartwarming comedy about family, world peace ... and sheep."



Courtesy of Gorman Family Films Paul Reiser and Colm Meaney in 'The Problem with People'

Aside from Reiser and Meaney, the film also stars Jane Levy, Lucianne McEvoy and Des Keogh. Reiser co-wrote it with Wally Marzano-Lesnevich, an actor and screenwriter who previously wrote 2016's Almost Paris. Chris Cottam directed the movie.



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Courtesy of Gorman Family Films Colm Meaney and Paul Reiser in 'The Problem with People'

The Problem with People makes its world premiere at the Austin Film Festival on Saturday, and will also premiere at DTLA Film Festival on Thursday.

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There was once an era in Nashville where legendary stories remembered by echoes state that every great song came together like Shy Carter and Frank Ray 's new single " Jesus At The Taco Truck."

The song that Carter tells the Tennessean is "shockingly titled" on purpose is described as an "amazing" anthem that continues to define the genre's current era of top performers as timelessly gifted in the art of "outlaw"-style storytelling that still arrives deep in the genre's most commercial and critically-acclaimed pockets of success.

"This is a judgment-free song about pure love and care for others."

Shy Carter performs at the Amp Stage during the CMA Fest in Nashville, Tenn., Sunday, June 12, 2022.

The song tells of a conversation "in broken Spanish over Topo Chicos" with a taco truck worker that has numerous religious allegories to the New Testament story of Christ -- the undocumented Mexican feels "crucified" by some Tennessee natives, plus recalls how his immigration scarred his feet and hands.

It's a relatively simple guitar-led ballad that saw Burgess, Carter and Chapman realize the gravitas of the song's lyrics and not knowing how to reflect that in the track's composition.

"The guitar needed to cry, too," says Carter.

"When you play a minor sixth chord in a song, you're getting at a chord that can convey the truest, darkest truth that resolves in a light, positive way," Ray says to The Tennessean.

A Memphian, New Mexican, and two Song of the Year caliber writers -- one a BMI award-winning Dallas native who loves writing cowboy songs and murder ballads and the other a Grammy-winning Nashville native renowned for his work with Taylor Swift -- have combined forces for the song that combines equal parts empathy, religiosity, timelessness and a universal message of goodwill.

Carter's the Memphian. He's best known for recently appearing in Amazon Music's critically acclaimed "For Love and Country" documentary about the progression of African-American civil rights causes in country's mainstream. Moreover, he's also a multi-genre chart-topping No. 1 songwriter with credits alongside Sugarland, Rob Thomas and Meghan Trainor.

Country music singer Frank Ray poses for a portrait in Nashville, Tenn., Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2022.

Ray's the New Mexican and a recent top 20-charting country artist whose success extends a multi-generational history of Mexican-American artists breaking onto country radio.

Ben Burgess is from East Dallas and penned the 2020 BMI Song of the Year winner "Whiskey Glasses" for Morgan Wallen. As well, Nathan Chapman is signed to Jody Williams Songs and produced Taylor Swift's debut album, plus the four records that followed: "Fearless," "Speak Now," "Red" and "1989."

Ray's not one of the song's original writers. Still, as a collaborator, he brings a unique cultural sensitivity to a song about an undocumented Mexican immigrant selling tacos to attempt to make a better life -- and perhaps create legal immigration access -- for his family on the other side of the border.

"The song's a great idea that, for me, resonates because my brother-in-law has dealt with issues connected to undocumented American citizenship," Ray adds.

"Watching my sister bawl her eyes out and try to figure out how she would support her family when her husband got deported is something that happened to me. I know that millions of other people can understand my perspective."

Millions of people have already connected with the song in the two months since Carter and Ray's version began circulating on TikTok and Instagram reels.

Artists including Jelly Roll and Brittney Spencer are early champions of the track.

Seeing social media responses from people moved to tears by the song about issues faced by themselves and their families was a soul-touching moment for both Carter and Ray.

"We tried to write a song that could authentically speak to all segments of the country music fanbase to the best of our abilities," Ray adds.

"Sometimes you think you've achieved that and you end up missing the mark. But this is a prominent moment for Latin culture and country music in how we hit the mark in discussing shared lived experiences."

Carter appreciated how co-writers Burgess and Chapman authentically and empathetically connected with people who shared the song's difficult circumstances.

"This song offers a voice to people who themselves -- or their family and friends -- can relate to the lyrics."

Frank Ray, attends the CMA Foundation's Music Teachers of Excellence Event at Belmont's Fisher Center for the Performing Arts in Nashville , Tenn., Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2023.

Whether it is immigrants, those who have first-hand awareness of the issues surrounding those either illegally or legally in America and struggling for survival -- or most importantly, those who share knowledge and love for Jesus Christ and scripture-borne notions of "loving others as you love yourself" in their lives.

"Jesus unconditionally sacrificed his life for the world and we parallel that to [how the song's protagonist] does the same thing for his family," Carter adds.

"Despite your religion, in a way, this song asks the [quintessential] question that religious people often ask: 'If Jesus -- even if he appeared in the body of a stranger on a street corner -- showed up at your doorstep, would you feed and house him?' Singing compassionately in response to that is important," says Ray.

"This song represents country music's timeless values: we're telling a real, beautiful story with beautiful chords."

Carter "cannot wait" to evolve the song from a social media moment to "deep, live experiences" where he can "share goosebumps" with fans who desire to engage with "Jesus At The Taco Truck" beyond commercialized marketing and spreadsheet-driven expectations.

This song reflects pure artistic truth that attempts to make a connection driven by faith and respect shared between musicians and everyday people."

Shy Carter performs during the BMIs 70th Annual Country Awards at the BMI Music Row Headquarters in Nashville, Tenn., Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Shy Carter, Frank Ray discuss new, timely, empathetic single 'Jesus At The Taco Truck'
People search for survivors among the rubble of buildings destroyed in Israeli airstrikes in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, on Oct. 26, 2023. (Photo by Yasser Qudih/Xinhua)

The resolution was adopted with 120 votes in favor, 14 votes against, and 45 abstentions.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- The General Assembly on Friday adopted a resolution that calls for a humanitarian truce in Gaza.

The resolution calls for "an immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities."

It also demands "the immediate, continuous, sufficient and unhindered provision" of essential goods and services to civilians throughout the Gaza Strip, including but not limited to water, food, medical supplies, fuel and electricity.

It calls for immediate, full, sustained, safe, and unhindered humanitarian access to Gaza.

The resolution was adopted with 120 votes in favor, 14 votes against, and 45 abstentions.

An amendment to the draft resolution, introduced by Canada, failed to be adopted as it did not win the necessary two-thirds majority of votes.

The amendment would have condemned the Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the taking of hostages by Hamas and would have called for the release of hostages.

Pakistani UN ambassador Munir Akram, in his explanation of vote before the vote, said the Jordanian draft does not explicitly condemn Israel for its atrocities in Gaza. The Canadian amendment would have made the resolution unbalanced and unjust. He also pointed out that the Jordanian draft contains language for the release of hostages. 
Authorities searched forests, waterways and small towns Thursday for a U.S. Army reservist who they say killed 18 people and wounded 13 in a mass shooting at a bowling alley and a bar that sent panicked patrons scrambling under tables and behind bowling pins and gripped the entire state of Maine in fear.

Schools, doctors offices and grocery stores closed and people stayed behind locked doors in cities as far away as 50 miles from the scenes of Wednesday nights shootings in Lewiston.

RELATED: Police Hunt Armed and Dangerous Massachusetts Air Force Vet Wanted for Allegedly Gunning Down Wife

President Joe Biden ordered all U.S. flags to be flown at half-staff as condolences poured in from around the nation and at home, including from Maine native and author Stephen King, who called it madness. The attacks stunned a state of only 1.3 million people that has one of the countrys lowest homicide rates: 29 killings in all of 2022.

The suspect, Robert Card, is considered armed and dangerous and should not be approached, authorities said at a news conference. Card underwent a mental health evaluation in mid-July after he began acting erratically during training, a U.S. official told The Associated Press.

Police said they have had no reported sightings of Card since the shootings at Schemengees Bar and Grille and at Sparetime Recreation, a bowling alley about 4 miles (6 kilometers) away. The Androscoggin County Sheriffs Office released two photos of the suspect walking into the bowling alley with a rifle raised to his shoulder.

Police stand by the scene of the mass shooting in Lewiston Maine

Police stand by the scene in the parking lot of Schemengees Bar and Grille which was the scene of a mass shooting the night prior. Photo: John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

A telephone number listed for Card in public records was not in service.

Maine Gov. Janet Mills promised to do whatever was needed to find Card and to hold whoever is responsible for this atrocity accountable... and to seek full justice for the victims and their families.

We are not, and we will not, rest in this endeavor, she said.

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Eight murder warrants were issued for Card, 40, after authorities identified eight of the victims, police said. Ten more will likely be issued once the names of the rest of the dead are confirmed, said Maine State Police Col. William Ross.

Three of the 13 people wounded in the shootings were in critical condition and five were hospitalized but stable, Central Maine Medical Center officials said.

The attack started at Sparetime, where a childrens bowling league was taking place, just before 7 p.m. Wednesday. One bowler, who identified himself only as Brandon, said he heard about 10 shots, thinking the first was a balloon popping.

I had my back turned to the door. And as soon as I turned and saw it was not a balloon  he was holding a weapon  I just booked it, he told the AP.

Brandon said he scrambled down the length of the alley, sliding into the pin area and climbing up to hide in the machinery.

Law enforcement search for the suspect in the Lewiston Maine mass Shooting

Law enforcement officials load into a tactical vehicle at Lisbon High School at daybreak as a manhunt resumes for the suspect in a mass shooting that took place the day prior. Photo: Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

Less than 15 minutes after the shooting began, numerous 911 calls started coming in from Schemengees, which was offering 25% discounts to customers who work in the bar or restaurant industry.

Patrick Poulin was supposed to be at the bowling center with his 15-year-old son, who is in a league that was practicing Wednesday. They stayed home, but he estimates there were probably several dozen young bowlers, ages 4 to 18, along with their parents, in the facility. Poulins brother was there, he said, and shepherded some of the children outside when the shooting began.

Hes pretty shook up, Poulin said Thursday. And its just sinking in today, like, wow, I was very close to being there. And a lot of the people that got hurt, I know.

RELATED: Alex Murdaugh Gets First Win in Request for Murder Case Retrial Over Alleged Jury Tampering

April Stevens lives in the same neighborhood where one of the shootings took place. She turned on all her lights overnight and locked her doors. She knew someone killed at the bar and another person injured who needed surgery.

Im still working because I can work from home. My husband canceled his jobs today to stay home with me. Were praying for everyone, Stevens said through tears.

Authorities launched a multistate search for Card on land and water. The Coast Guard sent out a patrol boat Thursday morning along the Kennebec River but after hours of searching, they found nothing out of the ordinary, said Chief Petty Officer Ryan Smith, who is in charge of the Coast Guards Boothbay Harbor Station.

Cards car had been discovered by a boat launch near the Androscoggin River, which connects to the Kennebec, and Cards 15-foot boat remains unaccounted for, Smith said.

Police officers close the road after the mass shooting in lewiston maine

Police officers close the road as they patrol around the street during inspection after a gunman's multiple shootings in Maine, United States on October 26, 2023. Photo: Fatih Aktas/Anadolu via Getty Images

Several FBI agents and other heavily armed officers gathered Thursday afternoon off a road where several relatives of Card lived near Bowdoin. A military-style vehicle and a white van arrived and someone repeatedly yelled, FBI! Open the door!

The Canada Border Services Agency issued an armed and dangerous alert to its officers stationed along the Canada-U.S. border.

A bulletin sent to police across the country after the attack said Card had been committed to a mental health facility for two weeks this past summer after hearing voices and threats to shoot up a military base.

A U.S. official said Card was training with the Army Reserves 3rd Battalion, 304th Infantry Regiment in West Point, New York, when commanders became concerned about him.

State police took Card to the Keller Army Community Hospital at West Point for evaluation, according to the official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss the information and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Immediately after the shooting, police armed with rifles took positions around Lewiston, Maines second largest city, with a population of 37,000. The once overwhelmingly white mill community has become one of the most diverse cities in northern New England after a major influx of immigrants, mostly from Somalia, in recent years.

Schools 50 miles (80 kilometers) away in the town of Kennebunk closed as the search continued. Maines largest city, Portland, closed its public buildings.

In many past U.S. mass shootings, the suspect was found  whether dead or alive  within minutes. But Card was still on the loose Thursday. Lewiston was mostly empty on an unusually warm fall day. Changeable message signs reminded people to stay behind locked doors.

Art teacher Miia Zellner was one of the few people out. She came with friends to downtown Lewiston, where they hammered about 100 paper hearts into trees with the words To My Neighbors.

This is just my way of showing my love and my support for the community, she said. I just hope that people, when they see this, get some type of positivity from it and feel some sense of hope.

In Bates College in Lewiston, students stayed in dorms with the blinds closed, said Diana Florence, whose son is a sophomore. She has a daughter who is a senior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which was locked down twice last month for a shooting and a man with a gun.

I could not believe it  that this is happening again. Its happening to my son after it just happened to my daughter, she said in a phone interview Thursday.

RELATED: Prosecutors Plan to Re-Charge Alec Baldwin with Involuntary Manslaughter for Death of "Rust" Cinematographer

The shootings mark the 36th mass killing in the United States this year, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.

Maine doesnt require permits to carry guns, and the state has a longstanding culture of gun ownership that is tied to its traditions of hunting and sport shooting. Keeping in mind the strong support for gun rights, lawmakers passed a yellow flag law in 2019 that would require police to seek a medical evaluation of anyone believed to be dangerous before then trying to take their guns away. However, critics charged that it was a weaker version of the tougher red flag laws that many other states have adopted.

Author Stephen King responded to the shootings Thursday morning in a pair of posts on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The shootings occurred less than 50 miles from where I live. I went to high school in Lisbon. Its the rapid-fire killing machines, people. This is madness in the name of freedom. Stop electing apologists for murder, he wrote.
The maximalist pop epic 1989 was released into a very different time in Taylor Swiftlandia. It was 2014. Rumours were swirling that she and Katy Perry had become arch-rivals over a sabotaged tour. Spotify was the first international corporation to feel Swifts wrath, as she pulled her catalogue from the service over its stance on music royalties. An incident in the woods with her then recent ex Harry Styles was the most A-list snow-related accident until Jeremy Renner ran himself over last winter. And 1989 itself  housing smash hits including Blank Space and Shake It Off  transformed Swift from a very good pop-country crossover artist into an industry unto herself.

The sheer reach of 1989, along with its exceptional production by Swedish pop savant Max Martin (of ... Baby One More Time fame), means it was always going to be the trickiest Swift album to replicate. 1989 is the fourth of six early albums Swift is in the process of re-recording and re-releasing, following a dispute over the selling of her masters in 2019. Notably, however, 1989 (Taylors Version) is missing Martin. Presumably even newfound billionaire Swift was unable to cough up the GDP of a small island required to get him back in the studio.

His absence means that 1989 (Taylors Version) is more immediately different from its original incarnation. This time around, production is handled almost entirely by Swifts regular collaborators Christopher Rowe and Jack Antonoff, and the Martin-backed tracks struggle to take off without him. Style, a relentless headrush that feels like speeding down a highway at night, sounds punishingly compressed here, as though the mastering is off. New Romantics and the surging All You Had to Do Was Stay, both fan favourites, are rendered similarly deflated.

Appropriately, the handful of tracks not produced by Martin on the original 1989 fare better blown out and enhanced. Out of the Woods, a cacophony of reverb and vocal urgency inspired by the aforementioned snowmobile accident, feels even more staggering in its new, beefed-up form, while the polarising album opener Welcome to New York, a bit of geographic joy thats always fallen on the right side of Swiftian cringe, goes harder with its synths. It just feels bigger. Clean, a gorgeous ode to post-breakup survival that Swift wrote and produced with Imogen Heap, has even more of the latters vocals folded into its production  its practically a duet between the pair now.

Gone is the raw mania she embodies on the original Blank Space  an incredible bit of self-satire on the reporting of her dating life that almost shifted the axis of her career single-handed

One unusual drawback to much of the album, though, is in Swifts vocals. Past re-recordings have benefited from the bittersweetness of hearing a woman in her thirties revisiting songs shed written in adolescence and her earliest years of adulthood  tracks such as Reds All Too Well, or Fifteen from Fearless, became, in their re-records, wistful and nostalgic, like flicking through old diaries. Here, though, Swifts overall improvements as a vocalist in recent years dent 1989s power. Gone is the raw mania she embodies on the original Blank Space  an incredible bit of self-satire on the reporting of her dating life that almost shifted the axis of her career single-handed. Similarly, I Know Places  best known for its shocking mid-track yell of We run!  is annoyingly muted. Theres a polish to the vocals that is technically better, but it lacks the yearning strain of those original outings.

Accompanying the re-recordings are five new tracks, lifted from the original 1989 sessions. All are undeniably mid-tier Swift, but there are some nuggets of gold. The arrestingly titled Slut! isnt quite the angsty riot grrl tribute one might assume, but its still nicely gentle and airy. Is It Over Now?, with its echoey reverb and further snowmobile references, feels a bit like the sleepier cousin of Out of the Woods; its lyrics  I think about jumping off of very tall somethings/ Just to see you come running  are classic bits of Swift melodrama.

Its doubtful that anyone outside of Swifts most dedicated acolytes will abandon the original 1989 out of anything but sheer loyalty, but this revamp does at least serve as a reminder of the albums untouchable greatness. This is some of the best pop of the 21st century. Potentially some of the best pop ever made. A few bits of middling production, or some slightly-too-good vocals, wont change that.

1989 (Taylors Version) is out now via Republic Records
The shoyu ramen from Cafe Mochiko.

With the numerous James Beard Award nods it received this year and the national media coverage that accompanied it, Cincinnati is getting a lot of attention from outsiders as of late. Since taking this job three years ago, Ive fielded phone calls from out-of-town reporters, editors, chefs and tourists, asking me about the places that best showcase all we have to offer.

While I always throw a few chili parlors and beloved local institutions into the mix, I try to focus my answers on the restaurants where chefs are flexing their muscles by serving the most innovative cuisine you can find in these parts. So, without further ado, here are the 10 restaurants that I recommend the most often.

Cafe Mochiko, Walnut Hills

You can track down good ramen in any mid-sized city these days. But the level at which Erik Bentz is crafting his gives Cincinnatians something to shout about. From shoyu to tsukemen to a ramen served in a Cincinnati chili-spiced broth, Bentz often has customers lined up out the door, eager to slurp them down. His broccoli gomae tossed in sweet sesame dressing might be my favorite side in town.

Then there's Bentz's wife, Elaine Uykimpang Bentz, whose savory and sweet Filipino pastries made her a finalist for the James Beard Award this year. Together, the Bentzs might be Cincinnati's most gifted culinary power couple.

1524 Madison Road, Walnut Hills, 513-559-1000, cafemochiko.com.

Mid-City Restaurant, Downtown

The herb-stuffed duck at Mid-City Restaurant, Downtown.

Mid-City offers food that's unlike anything I've come across in Greater Cincinnati. Chef Joe Cheek and his team offer a shrimp boat with fresh basil, Parmesan and a Peruvian yellow pepper sauce; cauliflower tossed with guanciale, fish sauce and red miso spiked with chili crisp, and some of the best soup specials in town. (I must have eaten a gallon of the chilled pea soup they offered this summer.)

Aside from lighter fare, Mid-City also lets you go full carnivore with a gorgeous duck breast, a peanut butter burger or a meat plate of bratwurst, porchetta, franks, sauerkraut and the best potatoes you'll ever eat. Owner Mike Stankovich always takes good care of you, whether you're seated at the bar (where you'll often find me) or at a table in its warmly lit dining room.

40 E. Court St., Downtown, midcitycinti.com.

The Pickled Pig, Walnut Hills

The pork burger at the Pickled Pig in Walnut Hills is made with ground pork, kimchee and gouda.

This is the kind of deli you might expect to find on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. But what Gary Leybman serves on this odd little stretch of McMillian Street  just before the Interstate 71 exit  is truly unique, a testament to his early childhood in Belarus, his Jewish roots and his obsession with perfecting the art of smoking meats and pickling, well, you name it.

I recommend new customers start with his pork burger with kimchi and gouda, or the smoked turkey sandwich with house-made sauerkraut and Russian dressing, before moving on to Leybman's selection of fermented deli salads and constantly changing specials.

645 E. McMillan St., Walnut Hills, 513-748-7114, smokedandpickled.com.

Kiki, College Hill

A bowl of ramen at Kiki restaurant, in College Hill.

When Chicago Magazine food critic John Kessler reached out for recommendations before he came to town last year, I made sure Kiki was high on his list. I think he liked it.

"Its as good as any casual Japanese restaurant Ive been to anywhere in the country," he wrote. "Their precision-cut toro hand roll set, miraculous heap of greaseless fried kakiage veggies in curry salt, and balanced ryokucha green tea martini all thrill me."

If you've never been to Kiki, my guess is that it will thrill you, too.

5932 Hamilton Ave., College Hill, 513-541-0381, kikicincinnati.com.

Nolia Kitchen, Over-the-Rhine

Stewed okra with tomatoes and jimmy red corn grits at Nolia Kitchen, in Over-the-Rhine.

Some people refer to Nolia Kitchen as either a New Orleans restaurant or a Southern-themed restaurant. But what chef and owner Jeff Harris has created on this quiet corner of Over-the-Rhine is something much more than that. Nolia Kitchen is a testament to Harris' many culinary influences, from his grandmother's cooking to the dishes of West Africa.

Along with his spins on traditional Louisiana gulf oysters and corn maque choux, Harris always provides an element of surprise every time I visit, whether it's his jerk rabbit in mole sauce or his current menu that features swordfish paired with andouille sausage or West African goat pepper pot with Dominican fried bread.

1405 Clay St., Over-the-Rhine, 513-384-3597, noliakitchen.com.

Le Bar a Boeuf, East Walnut Hills

The seared duck breast with grits, wild mushrooms, fava beans, baby carrots, spring onion, dried cherry compote and sauce poivrade, at Le Bar a Boeuf, in Walnut Hills.

To know Cincinnati, you also have to know the late Jean-Robert de Cavel. And while he is gone, a visit to the restaurant to which he dedicated his final days is essential.

Maitre d' Marilou Lind will always make you feel welcome, while chef Jordan Brauninger, who worked with de Cavel until his death, continues to honor Chef with dishes that range from traditional escargot and French onion soup to bacon-wrapped salmon with couscous, bitter greens, oyster mushrooms and a bright sauce vierge.

This is a restaurant that one can easily fall in love with.

2200 Victory Parkway, East Walnut Hills, 513-751-2333, lebaraboeuf.com.

Mitas, Downtown

The poached rock shrimp dish at Mita's, Downtown.

When recommending restaurants to people on tight schedules, I have a hard time deciding between Jose Salazars eponymous OTR restaurant Salazar or Mita's, since both punch far above their mid-sized-city weight. I tend to lean toward Mitas, since it's where Salazar took his cooking to an entirely new level.

Under the leadership of executive chef Tim McLane, the tapas-style restaurant offers dishes that are meant to sear themselves into your memory: empanadas, inspired by Salazar's grandmother; a poached rock shrimp with cool and crunchy jicama, cucumbers and corn nuts; rustic papusas stuffed with sausage and refried beans, topped with fermented cabbage, and bok choy in romesco sauce.

Salazar and McLane are Cincinnati treasures, and Mita's lets you know why.

501 Race St., Downtown, 513-421-6482, mitas.co.

Abigail Street, Over-the-Rhine

The hummus with duck confit and roasted grapes at Abigail Street, in Over-the-Rhine.

Vine Street was Over-the-Rhine's original restaurant row. And after almost 14 years in operation, Dan and Lana Wright's Abigail Street is still the best place to experience it. By continuing the restaurant's mission to blend African, French and Mediterranean flavors, chef Joe Bedel offers a knockout bouillabaisse in saffron broth (one of my favorite dishes in the city), along with charcoal-grilled Mediterranean spiced short ribs. Try the restaurant's signature grilled octopus with merguez and fried chickpeas, and fried Moroccan-spiced broccoli.

While Abigail Street's excellence might be old news to some, an expanded dining room that opened last year  and a menu that continues to take chances  makes me feel like this joint is just getting started.

1214 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine, 513-421-4040, abigailstreet.com.

Tuba Baking Co., Dayton, Ky.

Spelt spatzle with gruyere, fresh herbs and crispy onions at Tuba Baking Co., in Dayton, Ky.

In a region with such a strong Teutonic heritage, you would think we'd have more restaurants that specialize in German cuisine. One place that takes Greater Zinzinnati's German roots seriously is Tuba Baking, where owner Drew Rath focuses on the cuisines of Swabia, offering his takes on chicken schnitzel, served breaded with house-made pretzel breadcrumbs and topped with mushroom gravy, and pan-seared rainbow trout in a mustard and white wine cream sauce accompanied by spaetzle sauteed with leeks and dill.

The beer selection here is especially good, featuring locally brewed versions of classic German styles, as well as a great selection of imports.

517 Sixth Ave., Dayton, Ky., 859-835-2171, facebook.com/tubabakingco.

Cafe Alma, Pleasant Ridge

The shakshuka from Cafe Alma.

Vegetarian and vegan options abound at Cafe Alma, but this leisurely breakfast and lunch spot is about much more than that. Husband and wife team Lainey and Yair Richler offer shakshuka in four variations (a green goddess version is particularly good), as well as an excellent house-made Montreal bagel platter served with lox, capers, pickled red onions, cream cheese and sliced hard-boiled eggs.

Challah French toast with pomegranate whipped cream will satisfy your sweet tooth and the turmeric latte is like a warm hug on a cold day.

6111 Montgomery Road, Pleasant Ridge, 513-620-8526, cafealmacincy.com.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: The top 10 Cincinnati restaurants I recommend the most
The editor in chief of Artforum has said he has no regrets after being fired Thursday night by the respected art magazines publishers after an open letter surrounding the Israel-Hamas crisis appeared on its website. Claiming the open letter failed to meet the organizations standards, David Velasco fired back, telling The New York Times: Im disappointed that a magazine that has always stood for freedom of speech and the voices of artists has bent to outside pressure. Velasco had been with the company since 2005. The open letter has been signed by thousands of those in the art industry, including Velasco, and said, in part: We support Palestinian liberation and call for an end to the killing and harming of all civilians, an immediate ceasefire, the passage of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and the end of the complicity of our governing bodies in grave human rights violations and war crimes. In a follow-up statement, publishers Danielle McConnell and Kate Koza did not comment on Velascos termination, but claimed the letter was not consistent with Artforums editorial process. They did not respond to comment from the Times. It is unclear who wrote the letter.

Read it at The New York Times

Read more at The Daily Beast.
Carlos Gutierrez of Centreville bought a lottery ticket at a sandwich shop and matched five out of six numbers, according to the Virginia Lottery

Getty A hand holds an expired Arizona Powerball lottery ticket with a black background on December 20, 2021 in North Las Vegas, Nevada.

A Virginia man lost his chance to win $1.5 billion by switching his Powerball numbers at the last minute but became a millionaire anyway, according to multiple reports.

On his way to work, Carlos Gutierrez of Centreville made a stop at Lees Sandwiches in Falls Church to order coffee and a chicken sandwich, per a press release by the Virginia Lottery. While waiting for his order, he noticed a lottery machine and bought a ticket for the Oct. 9 Powerball drawing, per the release.

The next day, when he stopped at the same location on his way to work, the store was buzzing with excitement, the release said. "A ticket bought there had won $1 million in the previous nights drawing."

Getty A Washington state Powerball lottery ticket

Maybe its me, Mr. Gutierrez thought, per the release, which added he was right. Gutierrez won the million-dollar prize by matching the first five numbers on his ticket. The numbers drawn that night were 16-34-46-55-67, with 14 as the Powerball number.

Mr. Gutierrez said he initially selected all six of those numbers but at the last minute changed his Powerball number to 19, the release said. Had he stuck with those initial numbers, he would have won the jackpot.

Related: Michigan Man Wins His Second Big Lottery Prize in 10 Years: 'Its Hard to Believe'

As a small business owner, Gutierrez said expanding his business is one of the things he might do with some of his winnings, per the release.

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

In March, a California man made another big purchase since winning the record-breaking $2.04 billion Powerball lottery prize.

Related: Md. Man Wins $50K on Lottery 3 Times in 11 Months with the Same Exact Number: 'You Never Know'

After splurging $25.5 million on a mansion in the Hollywood Hills, Edwin Castro acquired a second property in Altadena, close to the gas station where he purchased his winning lottery ticket, according to Dirt.

The grand lottery prize was announced on Nov. 8, but the winner did not come forward for several months. The Powerball jackpot was won by one lucky ticket sold at Joes Service Center in Altadena that matched all six numbers. On Feb. 14, Castro was revealed as the winner by California lottery officials. He took home $997.6 million after taxes.

Another man filed a lawsuit claiming to be the rightful winner of the jackpot instead of Castro a week later.

Jose Rivera said he bought the ticket at Joes Service Center in Altadena on Nov. 7  the day before the winning numbers came out  but claimed someone named Reggie stole the tickets, according to the complaint that PEOPLE reviewed at the time.

However, in a statement to PEOPLE, California lottery officials maintained that Castro was the correct winner.

"When it comes to the vetting process for big winners, California Lottery has the utmost confidence in its process for doing so," California Lottery spokesperson Carolyn Becker said. "California Lottery remains confident that Edwin Castro is the rightful winner of the $2.04 billion prize stemming from the Powerball drawing in November of 2022."

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Read the original article on People.
The disappearance of a young woman from rural Ohio in the summer of 2016 left behind chilling clues discovered in a dark cornfield and a so-called barn of horrors owned by a local man with a history of abduction.

Sierah Joughin, 20, was on break from the University of Toledo when she vanished while riding her bicycle home from her boyfriends house on the evening of July 19, 2016. Her boyfriend had followed her on his motorcycle for part of the trip. At her request, the two parted ways a short distance from her home in the town of Metamora.

I remember exactly what I said. I kissed her, I told her I loved her and to text me when she got home, Josh Kolasinski, Joughin's boyfriend, told ABC News.

But Joughin never made it home, and that was the last time she was ever seen alive.

PHOTO: Sierah Joughin is seen smiling in an undated photo. (Kellee Laser)

A new 20/20 airing Oct. 27 at 9 p.m. ET explores the abduction case, featuring interviews from investigators and Joughins loved ones.

After Joughin didnt return home from the bike ride, her family alerted police. Later that evening, a sheriffs deputy found her purple bicycle in a cornfield just a half mile away from the home.

Megan Roberts, a special agent with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, got a call around 1 a.m. in the morning asking her to assist in processing the crime scene.

MORE: Parents, investigators recall long quest for answers after Jacob Wetterling's 1989 abduction

Investigators combed the area and found more clues tucked into the cornfield -- a screwdriver, mens sunglasses, a sock, a set of fuse boxes, motorcycle tracks and evidence of a struggle indicated by broken cornstalks and cornstalks with streaks of blood on them.

It made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. You just had this eerie feeling that you knew that this was an abduction site, Roberts said.

Authorities kept a tight lid on what they found and blocked the road leading to the site. Joughins family were left on edge and wondering what authorities had discovered.

They said, We're not letting anybody down there, Joughins mom, Sheila Vaculik, told ABC News. All's they could say was that they were investigating.

PHOTO: Sheila Vacuilk, the mother of Sierah Joughin, is seen in an interview. (ABC News)

When the FBI alerted the family of the bikes discovery the next morning, they knew something was seriously wrong. The community launched a massive search, walking through the cornfields and scanning for any signs of Joughin.

Police received a bloodstained helmet from a farmer who found it on the side of the road the night Joughin went missing. The farmer brought it to police the next day when he saw the news of Joughin's disappearance.

Based on the evidence, investigators believed someone riding a motorcycle was involved. They say they had to look at Joughins boyfriend as a potential suspect, since he rode a motorcycle and was the last person to see her alive, according to retired Cleveland FBI agent Vicki Anderson-Gregg, who worked on the case.

Kolasinski cooperated with authorities. He drew a map for them of Joughins route showing where the couple departed and consented to searches of his residence, motorcycle and truck, according to investigators.

Joughins family said Kolasinski took good care of Joughin and they never had any suspicion he was involved with her disappearance.

We weren't able to find anything that put us in the direction that Josh had any involvement, investigator Mark Evans said.

Having cleared her boyfriend, investigators then turned to the likelihood that a stranger may have abducted Joughin on her ride home, possibly in a crime of opportunity.

A break in the case came while investigators were knocking on nearby residents' doors. Maj. Matt Smithmyer with the Fulton County Sheriffs Office said there were several stops he wanted to make, one being the home of James Worley -- a man who lived on County Road 6 -- the same road that Joughin lived on. Investigators showed up on just a hunch, but to their surprise, they said Worley began acting suspiciously and even made self-incriminating statements placing himself at the scene of Joughin's suspected abduction.

Mr. Worley makes a statement about how he was riding his motorcycle. And his bike is having issues. It sputters out. He goes into a cornfield. And he mentions that he lost his helmet, his fuses, his screwdriver and his sunglasses, Cleveland FBI agent Devon Lossick said.

PHOTO: Devon Lossick, special agent with FBI Cleveland, is seen in an interview. (ABC News)

I kind of had to stop my jaw from falling. None of that had been released to the media yet, Lossick said.

MORE: What happened to Arizona teen Alissa Turney, who disappeared in 2001?

When police executed a search warrant on Worleys barn, they found a crate filled with womens lingerie and an empty, blood-stained freezer buried underground.

Three days after Joughins disappearance, Worley was arrested and charged with her abduction. Later that day, Joughins body was discovered tied up, bound and gagged in a shallow grave in another cornfield 2 miles from Worleys home. Worley was then hit with additional charges, including aggravated murder, kidnapping and felonious assault.

Vaculik said of learning about the heart-wrenching discovery, It was horrible. Everybody was sobbing and crying and falling to their knees. It was painful, and it just literally sucks the life right out of you."

PHOTO: Sierah Joughin is seen posing in an undated photo. (Kellee Laser)

Based on the forensic evidence collected at the abduction site and Worleys barn, investigators believe Worley passed by Joughin on his motorcycle, hid in a cornfield further up the road, then attacked Joughin as she rode by on her bicycle, hitting her in the head with his helmet. They believe Worley then left the scene and returned with his truck, abducted her and took her to his barn, where he kept her until she asphyxiated and then disposed of her body.

There was no evidence of sexual assault, according to investigators.

Investigators say each crime scene was linked to Worley and Joughin through DNA found on the items obtained as evidence.

But before Sierah Joughin there was Robin Gardner, a woman who was abducted by Worley under eerily similar circumstances in 1990 and lived to tell her story. She detailed her ordeal in an interview with ABC News.

Gardner testified in court at the murder trial for Worley, who had pleaded guilty to abducting Gardner and served three years in prison.

I felt very strongly I had to be [Sierahs] voice. I knew the fear. She wasn't there. I had to speak for her, Gardner told ABC News.

PHOTO: Robin Gardner is seen an undated photo. (Courtesy of Robin Gardner)

Worley pleaded not guilty to all charges at his murder trial. His defense argued that the lack of Worleys DNA on some of the evidence meant there was reasonable doubt he kidnapped and murdered Sierah.

The jury found Worley guilty on all counts against him. He was sentenced to death and is on death row awaiting execution. His conviction was upheld by the Ohio Supreme Court, but Worley is now exploring a federal appeal.

In 1996, Worley was questioned by police over the disappearance of Claudia Tinsley after her mother reported she last saw her daughter leaving in Worleys car, retired Toledo police detective Rick Molnar said.

Molnar said that Worley told police he drove around for 45 minutes before dropping her off. Worley denied playing any role in Tinsleys disappearance, something he recently reiterated to "20/20" in a prison letter. He has never been charged with any crime related to the case.

In the aftermath of the tragedy, Joughins aunt, Tara Ice, founded Justice for Sierah, a non-profit organization dedicated to making the community safer from repeat offenders. Their advocacy resulted in the passage of Sierahs Law  an Ohio statute that created a searchable violent criminal database.

Its just amazing that [Sierah] is continuing to make changes in this world, said Cathy Shaffer, Sierahs grandmother.

'Barn of horrors': Investigators recall clues that led to body of missing Ohio woman Sierah Joughin originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Maine massacre among worst mass shootings in modern US history

One of the deadliest mass shootings in recent United States history unfolded in Maine on Wednesday.

At least 18 people were killed and more than a dozen others injured after a gunman opened fire at two locations in Lewiston: a bowling alley where a children's league was taking place and a local bar, officials said.

PHOTO: A heart shape sign is seen attached to a tree, following a deadly mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, Oct. 26, 2023. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)

The incident -- the deadliest shooting of the year -- joins the grim ranks of nearly a dozen other mass shootings that have taken place at music festivals, nightclubs and other schools in the past nearly quarter-century in America's unparalleled gun violence epidemic.

These are the mass shootings with the highest death tolls in recent American history, based on an ABC News analysis.

MORE: Maine shooting live updates

1: Oct. 1, 2017 -- Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas, Nevada

60 deaths

Fifty-eight people were killed and hundreds injured after a gunman opened fire from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, targeting concertgoers below at the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival. Two victims additionally succumbed to injuries in the years following the massacre. The shooter, Stephen Paddock, killed himself in his hotel suite.

2: June 12, 2016 -- Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida

49 deaths

A gunman opened fire inside the crowded nightclub at around 2 a.m., killing 49 people and wounding dozens. Many of the victims were Latinx and part of the LGBTQ+ community. The shooter -- Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old former security guard -- was killed in a shootout by responding police.

MORE: The Pulse and Club Q shootings shut down her local bars. Shes fighting to protect the next generation's LGBTQ+ safe spaces.

3: April 16, 2007 -- Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia

32 deaths

Twenty-seven students and five professors were killed after Virginia Tech senior Seung-hui Cho, 23, opened fire on the campus in a dorm room and several classrooms. He then turned a gun on himself, dying of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

4: Dec. 14, 2012 -- Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut

26 deaths

Twenty first-graders and six staff members were killed in minutes when 20-year-old Adam Lanza forced his way into the school with a semi-automatic rifle. Lanza also fatally shot his mother at their Newtown home that day and took his own life after the deadliest shooting at an elementary, middle or high school in U.S. history.

MORE: Parkland survivor, Sandy Hook parent weigh in on Texas school shooting

5: Nov. 5, 2017 -- First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas

25 deaths

Twenty-five people between the ages of 5 and 72 were killed after a gunman opened fire during a Sunday service, marking the worst mass shooting at a house of worship in the U.S. ever. One of the shooting victims was pregnant. The shooter, Devin Kelley, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after he was chased and shot by two men.

PHOTO: People gather at a makeshift memorial honoring victims outside Walmart in El Paso, Texas, Aug. 15, 2022. (Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images, FILE)

6: Aug. 3, 2019 -- Walmart in El Paso, Texas

23 deaths

Twenty-three people were killed in the shooting rampage, including one victim who died nearly nine months after the incident. The gunman, 25-year-old Patrick Crusius, reportedly told investigators that he set out to kill as many Mexicans as he could. He was sentenced in July to 90 consecutive life sentences after pleading guilty to dozens of federal hate crimes and firearms charges. He is also facing capital murder charges in state court.

7: May 24, 2022 -- Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas

21 deaths

Nineteen children and two teachers were killed after a gunman opened fire with an AR-15-style rifle at Robb Elementary School. The suspect, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, was shot and killed by a responding law enforcement officer. Ramos also shot his grandmother at their home in Uvalde, critically wounding her, before driving to the school, authorities said.

PHOTO: An officer walks outside of Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, May 24, 2022. (Allison Dinner/AFP via Getty Images)

8. Oct. 25, 2023 -- Just-In-Time Recreation and Schemengees Bar & Grille in Lewiston, Maine

At least 18 deaths

Seven people were killed at Just-In-Time Recreation -- a bowling alley -- and eight people were killed in the billiards room at Schemengees Bar & Grille restaurant in the mass shooting, officials said. An additional three victims died at the hospital and 13 others were injured. The shootings were reported within 12 minutes of each other, police said. A massive manhunt is underway for the suspect, identified as 40-year-old Robert Card, a U.S. Army reservist.

MORE: What to know about the Maine mass shooting victims

9. Feb. 14, 2018 -- Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida

17 deaths

Fourteen children and three staff members were killed after a gunman brought an AR-15 into the high school. The shooter, Nikolas Cruz, 25, a former student at the school, pleaded guilty to 17 counts of murder and in 2022 was sentenced to life in prison, with the 34 counts of the indictment to be served consecutively.

10: Dec. 2, 2015 -- Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California

14 deaths

Fourteen people were killed and another 21 injured in a terrorist attack at the Inland Regional Center, a facility aimed at providing services for the developmentally disabled. The shooters -- Syed Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik -- both died in a shootout by law enforcement that day.

11: April 3, 2009 -- American Civic Association in Binghamton, New York

13 deaths

Immigrants and staff were among those killed and wounded after 41-year-old Jiverly Wong opened fire at the immigration center. Wong took dozens of students hostage before turning the gun on himself and dying by suicide.

MORE: Texas shooting highlights how guns are the leading cause of death for US kids

12: April 20, 1999 -- Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado

13 deaths

Twelve students and a teacher died when two students, seniors Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, opened fire at their high school before killing themselves. In the wake of the massacre, active shooter drills became more common at schools.

13. Nov. 5, 2009 -- Fort Hood in Fort Hood, Texas

13 deaths

Twelve soldiers and one civilian were killed and dozens injured when Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan opened fire on his fellow soldiers, who were preparing to deploy to Afghanistan, at the Texas Army facility. He is currently on the military's death row after being convicted in what is considered the largest mass shooting at a U.S. military base in history.

Maine massacre among worst mass shootings in modern US history originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
A Connecticut dog trainer pled not guilty to charges related to the death of French Bulldog she was caring for.

Dog parent reported Connecticut dog trainer to authorities

Josephine Josie Ragland appeared in Woburn District Court for an arraignment on Wednesday. According to Boston.com, she faced charges of larceny over $1,200 by false pretenses and intimidation of a witness. These charges related to the death of a 3-year-old French Bulldog, Charlie. The North Reading dog allegedly died while in Raglands care.

Dog trainer accused of scamming North Reading family whose dog died appears in court https://t.co/Yw976OpnNd  WBZ | CBS News Boston (@wbz) October 25, 2023

The criminal complaint described how 43-year-old Bart Hanson, Charlies dog dad, paid Ragland for two weeks of training in Raglands home. The training began in early September. However, at the end of the two weeks, Ragland didnt return the dog. Instead, she claimed Charlie ran away.

Hanson reported the ordeal to the North Reading police, who launched an investigation. Ragland allegedly lied to police several times. Finally, she admitted that a few days after arriving at her home, Charlie died. Instead of telling Hanson what happened, she sent the dog dad pictures of Charlie taken while he was still alive.

Police recovered Charlies emaciated body from a Connecticut roadside. Officers also rescued four other malnourished pups from Raglands residence. Then, they returned the dogs to their parents, who live in various locations across New England.

More dog parents come forward

Other dog parents and former clients of Ragland, some as far away as California, have joined in the accusations of neglect and abuse. In one case, a German Shepherd from Palo Alto went missing while in Raglands care.

After Ragland pled not guilty to the charges, authorities released her on personal recognizance. However, she had to surrender her passport. Also, she is not allowed to work or volunteer for organizations that help animals.

This case is far from over. Next, Ragland will attend a pretrial hearing on Jan. 10, 2024.

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A police officer in Canton, Ohio, fatally shoots a Cane Corso dog while she is in her own yard.

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Children's health experts have called for corporal punishment to be "abolished." So why is it still legal in many states? (Getty Images) (Tomwang112 via Getty Images)

When children head to school each morning, they have a lot on their minds. They might be worried about whether there will be a pop quiz or if they'll be able to smooth things over with a friend. But, in some states where corporal punishment is not expressly banned, students also walk into school knowing they might be paddled or spanked that day.

Corporal punishment, which can take the form of paddling, spanking or another deliberate infliction of physical pain, is the harshest form of punishment that can be delivered in schools. The United Nations (UN) calls it a human rights violation. According to UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Kyung-wha Kang, corporal punishment, "conflicts with the child's human dignity and the right of the child to physical integrity. It also prevents children from reaching their full potential, by putting at risk their right to health, survival and development. The best interests of the child can never be used to justify such practice."

And in August 2023, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released a statement from the Council on School Health calling for the practice to be "abolished in all states by law." While Colorado banned the corporal punishment in public schools in 2023, 17 states have yet to ban it, and 14 still practice it. Only four states  New Jersey, Iowa, Maryland and New York  have made banned corporal punishment in private schools.

"The use of corporal punishment in schools is not an effective or ethical method for management of behavior concerns and causes harm to students," the statement reads. "The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that corporal punishment in all school settings be abolished in all states by law and replaced by alternative forms of student behavior management. Corporal punishment remains legal in many public and private schools in the United States and is disproportionately used among Black students and children with disabilities."

What happens when a child is paddled at school?

Tessa Davis from Little Rock, Ark. thought corporal punishment was best for her now 9-year-old son. When her son was 5, Davis received a call from his school asking for permission to paddle the then-kindergarten student because he had been physically aggressive toward another student. Davis asked to see a video of the incident, but says the school wouldn't show it to her. The school told her if she didn't agree to paddling, her son would be suspended for three days instead.

Davis says she and her husband agreed, in part because they grew up in an environment where the statement, "they just need a good spanking," was ingrained into their way of life. Another major factor in their decision was that both parents work full-time and could not afford to take three days off if their son was sent home. Davis didn't think she really had a choice at all.

Davis's son was paddled by the school's assistant vice principal. "When I picked [my son] up from school he was defeated and he was sad," she recalls. The child, who had been through the foster care system and is adopted, had already been through a great deal of trauma in his short life. "I realized we had caused him more pain," she says, noting the incident broke his trust in the assistant vice principal and made him afraid to go to school.

The punishment was also confusing for him because he was punished for "putting his hands on someone," by someone, in turn, putting their hands on him. Davis immediately regretted her decision to consent to the paddling.

Does corporal punishment breed shame and fear in kids?

Despite all of this, Davis says many parents in her community support the practice because they were spanked at home and school, "and turned out just fine." She wonders how well they really turned out, saying she was spanked at home as a child and it only taught her to lie to cover up her mistakes, hide her feelings and shut herself off because she was afraid of getting hit. "I was afraid to admit I made a mistake or ask for help," Davis says, explaining that even telling someone she didn't understand how something should be done might have led to a spanking if an adult in her life thought wasn't following the rules.

Since her son was paddled, Davis has sought out support for alternatives to paddling. She thinks schools need to do a better job understanding how trauma affects children like hers, leading to bad behavior. Davis's son also has multiple learning disabilities, and she says his frustration sometimes results in meltdowns. She's now working with a therapist to come up with alternatives, including working on her son's self-esteem and giving him color-coded cards he can use to indicate when he needs a break to address the root cause of why he acts out. Although he struggles at times, his behavior has improved.

The alternative to corporal punishment

Ross Greene, founder of Lives in the Balance, thinks adults should address children's behavior when they act out, whether it's at home or at school. However, since consequences like corporal punishment harm children while not doing anything to hold them accountable, he does't believe spanking or paddling is the right approach.

Instead, Greene explains, children who act out are struggling. Like Davis's son, they may be having a hard time understanding class material or coping with a past trauma. Alternatively, they might be having problems concentrating. They may be preoccupied with a bully or problems at home. According to Greene, children do well when they can, and they may act out when they can't meet expectations. That means corporal punishment is not likely to lead to any lasting change because the root cause of what led to the behavior in the first place is never addressed.

Instead of using behavior modification strategies like corporal punishment, Greene thinks parents and school administers should focus on problem-solving. He advocates for the use of collaborative and proactive solutions that identify the problems that are leading to outbursts, then working with the child to solve those problems. With this model, the child is fully accountable and engaged in problem-solving rather than being the passive recipient of punishment. Using collaboration also avoids many of the risks of corporal punishment to the child, including the loss of trust of adults in their life and an unwillingness to ask for help or talk about their problems.

Since Davis started using a similar approach with her son, she's noticed a big difference. Now, instead of hiding things from his mom because he's afraid of getting in trouble, Davis's son will tell her if he's had a bad day and they talk about what he could have done differently.

Greene says schools are currently spending an inordinate amount of time addressing discipline. Instead of putting their resources toward punishment, he thinks their time and efforts would be much better spent focusing on why kids are acting out. Schools that have moved away from punishment and started using a collaborative and proactive approach have universally reported this approach saves time, with better outcomes. According to Greene, some of these schools have gotten to the point where they no longer have any behavioral referrals.

What's it like to administer corporal punishment to kids?

Jeffrey, an administrator from Arkansas who prefers to keep his last name anonymous for privacy reasons, saw the harm of corporal punishment firsthand and sees the benefit of a collaborative and proactive approach. In his previous job he was the person responsible for paddling students. He usually paddled a child at least once a day, although he did not make the decision about whether a child should be paddled or not. Offenses ranged from not staying on task in class to being in physical altercations.

At first Jeffrey just picked up the paddle because it was part of his job. However, eventually he began questioning what he was doing and why.

"[There was no] change in the behavior whatsoever," he tells Yahoo Life. "All it did was give the adults satisfaction because they saw the kid cry on their way back to class." On top of that, Jeffrey started noticing the long-term impact paddling had on some children including, "trauma, humiliation and even being subjected to teasing from peers when they returned to the classroom."

He also realized parents were offered only a "false choice" in opting out of paddling. This is because, just as at the school Davis's son attended, if parents opted out of paddling, children were suspended for three days as an alternative and most parents could not afford to take off of work for so long. Jeffrey finally reversed his pro-paddling stance completely once he realized Black students were paddled more frequently, even though they made up a small percentage of the student population at his school.

The long-term affects of spanking and paddling

At that point, Jeffrey started looking into the practice  which he hadn't before questioned because he grew up with paddling and thought it was common everywhere. Once Jeffrey learned more about how harmful paddling can be, he started advocating for children and playing a role in the "school to prison pipeline." According to the United States Department of Justice, "for identical offenses, those punished severely were more likely to be in prison than those who were punished lightly, or not at all."

Although Jeffrey no longer works at the school where he was responsible for paddling students, he still works as a school administrator in Arkansas. Now, he uses, "restorative approaches, conscious discipline, trauma-informed care and teaching conflict resolution skills."

"I believe in building relationships and 'connecting before correcting' with students," he says.

Davis and Jeffrey now advocate for banning the use of paddling in schools through Arkansans Against Paddling. Both emphasize they don't hold anything against those who are still pro-paddling, but think more education is needed about both the risks of corporal punishment and alternatives to the practice.

Progress is slow because in some communities, corporal punishment has been used for generations and is accepted as a way of life. Although Davis reaches out to teachers directly to talk to them about why she is against corporal punishment, she believes federal legislation might be the only way to end the practice nationwide.

This article was originally published on Sept. 23, 2022, and has been updated.
Engelbert Straussnot to be confused with denim giant Levi Strausswill open its first store in the United States on Oct. 27.

The German workwear brand, a family-run company since 1948 based nearly six hours southwest of Berlin, makes the leap at a time when workwear is booming as a fashion statement and competitors like Carhartt are trending with style watchers. The brand commonly known as Strauss will open a direct-to-consumer store in Venice Beach, Calif. on Friday.

More from Sourcing Journal

Henning Strauss, the companys CEO, said his ties to California make the project personal. He attended Pepperdine University in Malibu, and has since photographed Engelbert Strauss products in Los Angeles.

The exterior of Engelbert Strauss new store in Los Angeles.

Strauss said he sees the expansion across the pond as a completely different offering than its business in Europe.

We very much like to look at our newest venture as a startup situation, meaning we are willing to evolve as a brand, he said. We are a legacy brand, in a way, but our product range over here should really be more contemporary and more forward-looking than some of the established companies that we find here in the United States.

One of those established companies is Levi Strauss, which, by revenue, is nearly 20 times the size of Engelbert Strauss. Levis has multiple stores in the Los Angeles area, which could prove confusing for consumers.

Engelbert Strauss and Levi Strauss each have a red-and-white logoand both brands sell denim products, though the CEO said that denim isnt a major foundation of the German brands identity, nor is it a major selling point for European consumers.

I wouldnt consider ourselves a denim brand. It really stems from workwear in Europe not being very denim-driven whereas obviously [in the United States], denim is a key when it comes to workwear, Strauss said. We have a very small selection [of denim] in [our new] store. I mean, lets seethat may grow over time, but even when looking at phase two, phase three in the U.S., I would not expect us to very much move into denim, because it is such a big offering over here, and its really not so much part of our brand.

The chief executive told Sourcing Journal that Engelbert Strauss has a legally binding agreement with Levi Strauss related to the use of the name Strauss on garments. That agreement, signed in 2019, encompasses Engelbert Strauss business globally and in perpetuity.

Strauss said the two businesses continue to operate separately and without conflict.

We have no interest in being confused with someone else. We have our own identity, and we are quite proud of what we bring to the table, Strauss said.

A Levi Strauss spokesperson declined to comment on the agreement and its terms. The brand has a reputation of being a trademark bully, and has previously filed lawsuits against other denim brands, like Coperni and Hammies.

As of now, Strauss said, zero percent of Engelbert Strauss e-commerce revenue comes from the United States. Engelbert Strauss primarily operates direct-to-consumer, and Strauss said the brand does not have plans to work with wholesale retailers in the United States at the moment.

Engelbert Strauss best-selling classic workwear pants will be the highlight of the new store, taking up 60 percent of the real estate. Strauss expects jackets to do well as Engelbert Strauss expands into Northern states, where the weather is more comparable to Germany.

Strauss said he understands that the U.S. market will likely deviate from European trends, and sees that as an opportunity to expand Engelbert Strauss product offerings.

But despite that, he said the brand will continue to remain true to its beginnings.

We very much make a strong effort to stick with our workwear DNA, which means fashions nice, the look is cool, but the functionality of the piece of building is still number one, Strauss said. Our audience is very much [of] the expectation that the product does not fall apart, so durability is key.

Click here to read the full article.
Photo taken on Oct. 27, 2023 shows the voting result during the 10th Emergency Special Session of the UN General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York. The General Assembly on Friday adopted a resolution that calls for a humanitarian truce in Gaza. (Evan Schneider/UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua)

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- The General Assembly on Friday adopted a resolution that calls for a humanitarian truce in Gaza.

The resolution calls for "an immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities."

It also demands "the immediate, continuous, sufficient and unhindered provision" of essential goods and services to civilians throughout the Gaza Strip, including but not limited to water, food, medical supplies, fuel and electricity.

It calls for immediate, full, sustained, safe, and unhindered humanitarian access to Gaza.

It encourages the establishment of humanitarian corridors and other initiatives to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza, and welcomes efforts in this regard.

The resolution demands that all parties immediately and fully comply with their obligations under international law, particularly in regard to the protection of civilians and civilian objects, and enable and facilitate humanitarian access for essential supplies and services to reach all civilians in need in Gaza.

It also calls for the rescinding of the order by Israel for Palestinian civilians and UN staff, as well as humanitarian and medical workers, to evacuate all areas in the Gaza Strip north of the Wadi Gaza and relocate to southern Gaza.

The resolution firmly rejects any attempts at the forced transfer of the Palestinian civilian population.

It calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all civilians who are being illegally held captive, demanding their safety, well-being and humane treatment in compliance with international law.

It also calls for respect and protection, consistent with international humanitarian law, of all civilian and humanitarian facilities, including hospitals and other medical facilities, as well as their means of transport and equipment, schools, places of worship, and UN facilities, as well as all humanitarian and medical personnel and journalists, media professionals and associated personnel, in armed conflict in the region.

The resolution was adopted with 120 votes in favor, 14 votes against, and 45 abstentions.

An amendment to the draft resolution, introduced by Canada, failed to be adopted as it did not win the necessary two-thirds majority of votes.

The amendment would have condemned the Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the taking of hostages by Hamas and would have called for the release of hostages.

Pakistani UN ambassador Munir Akram, in his explanation of vote before the vote, said the Jordanian draft, for the purpose of moderation, does not explicitly condemn Israel for its atrocities in Gaza. The Canadian amendment would have made the resolution unbalanced and unjust. He also pointed out that the Jordanian draft contains language for the release of hostages. 

Photo taken on Oct. 27, 2023 shows the voting during the 10th Emergency Special Session of the UN General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York. The General Assembly on Friday adopted a resolution that calls for a humanitarian truce in Gaza. (Evan Schneider/UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua)
There's no doubt that Kentucky is the bourbon hub of the world. According to the Kentucky Distillers' Association, Kentucky produced 95% of the entire world's supply of bourbon in 2022. As a "distinctive product of the United States" (per Senate Concurrent Resolution 19), bourbon must be made in the United States, though there is no such requirement that it be made in a specific state. So just how did come to be that Kentucky became the undisputed bourbon capital that it is? History and geography.

In 1776, Virginia passed the "Corn Patch and Cabin Rights" Act, which promised settlers 400 acres of land in their Kentucky territory if they built a cabin and planted corn, a crop that grew abundantly in the fertile land of the region. This attracted Scottish, Irish, and German immigrants, who brought with them the knowledge of how to distill whiskey. Producing more corn than they could consume, or easily transport, many turned to distilling that corn into whiskey, in a distinctive form that eventually became bourbon. By the time of the Whiskey Rebellion, just two years after Kentucky became a state in 1792, there were already an estimated 500 distilleries in the state, whiskey historian Fred Minnick notes to History. Among those were strong families that remained involved in bourbon production for generations, weathering through downturns and helping the industry grow, Minnick explains.

Read more: The 25 Best Bourbon Brands, Ranked

The Ideal Conditions For Bourbon

glass of bourbon, bottle, and barrel - Evgeny Karandaev/Shutterstock

Kentucky also benefits from ideal geography and climate. According to the Kentucky Geological Survey, more than half of the surface rocks of the state are made up of limestone, which acts as a natural water filter. As a result, Kentucky has the ideal mineral water for making bourbon  low in iron and high in magnesium and calcium. Kentucky also has the ideal weather for maturing bourbon  hot and humid summers and cold and dry winters that cause the bourbon to cycle in and out of the wood of the barrel as it's maturing.

Kentucky is also home to numerous rivers and waterways, making it easy to transport the bourbon for sale to key markets, such as the saloons of Bourbon Street in New Orleans, which some credit for giving bourbon its name (with the other main theory being that much of the bourbon was being produced in Bourbon County, Kentucky). The bourbon industry has only grown in Kentucky since then, becoming the $9 billion industry that it is today (via Kentucky Distillers' Association), thanks to a combination of history and geography.

Read the original article on Tasting Table.
Brianna Barbour is roped up the 35-foot mineshaft with the bird dog in the back of her vest.

If it wasnt for GPS collars, a length of climbing rope, and the help of two friends, New Mexico bird hunter Tyler Sladen would have lost his youngest bird dog Sunday night. While he was chasing Montezuma quail on U.S. Forest Service land this weekend, Sladens pup, an English Setter, fell down an abandoned mineshaft. After finally locating her, the three hunters pulled off a successful rope rescue, and the dog walked away without an injury.

Tillo, shes only seven months old and she fell down a 35-foot mineshaft  and there was nothing wrong with her, Sladen tells Outdoor Life. Shes back to 100 percent, and she did a 15-mile run last night at a normal pace. You would have never known it happened.

A diehard uplander who prefers raptors over shotguns , Sladen was joined on Oct. 22 by two of his buddies from Alaska, Elijah and Brianna Barbour. Around 5 p.m. that evening, one of the dogs went on point and the group flushed a covey. Sladen's goshawk, Jimmy, caught one of the birds, and Sladen figured hed get his youngest dog, Tillo, into the mix. The last time he checked his GPS, the setter was only 100 yards away. But when he looked at his unit again, Tillos collar had disconnected.

These collars only disconnect for two reasons: Either the dog is out of line of sighti.e. down a well or over a rocky ridgeor the collars broken, Sladen explains. But when we walked toward the last signal, the Garmin reconnected, and that became even weirder.

The seven-month old English Setter lies down at the bottom of the abandoned mineshaft.

As he followed his handheld GPS unit, it showed Tillo was 50 yards away, then 30 yards, then 20. Eventually they got to within eight feet and the dog was still nowhere to be seen.

Im looking around and its wide open and I dont see the dog. Then I looked behind a bush and saw an old mineshaft, and my heart just sank.

Read Next: The Wonder Dogs: Tales of Six Incredible Hunting Dogs

Sladen called the local police but was told that since it was a dog and not a human, the hunters were on their own. Fortunately, he had a length of climbing rope in his truck along with the know-how to use it. (Sladen owns a nuisance wildlife removal company and has years of experience repelling.) He fashioned a makeshift harness known as a swiss seat and they walked back to the mineshaft, where Brianna, the lightest hunter in the group, volunteered to be lowered down.

We sent her down wearing an upland vest, and when she kicked some rocks while climbing down, the dog picked up its head, Sladen says. Up until then the dog hadnt moved and I was already telling myself were recovering a dead dog.

Brianna and Elijah Barbour are all smiles after a successful rescue ; a close-up view of the old mineshaft.

When she reached the bottom of the 35-foot mineshaft, Brianna put Tillo in the bird bag, and they were pulled back up by the two men at the top. As soon as they cleared the sandy hole, the pup hopped out and started wagging her tail.

Sladen spoke with the Forest Service after the incident and shared coordinates for the old mineshaft, which the agency plans on covering. He says in the seven-plus years hes hunted the area, hes come across hundreds of abandoned mine shafts, but that most of those are covered up, filled in, or fenced off. Hes also pretty sure hes walked within 15 yards of this particular shaft numerous times over the years. Its just another reminder that there are plenty of ways for a bird dog to get hurt or trapped, and it pays to be prepared.

Read Next: The Best GPS Dog Collars of 2023, Tested and Reviewed

It really stresses the importance of GPS collars. We would have been looking around for her like she ran off, and you couldve had a hundred people out there and never found her, Sladen says. Its also a reminder that it never hurts to have a couple extra ropes in your truck. They dont take up much space.
Renewcells stock was up nearly 43 percent Friday morning after Inditex threw its support behind the Swedish maker of Circulose, the fiber produced from cotton-rich textile waste.

News of the Zara owners commitment to purchase the first available 2,000 metric tons of Circulose comes amid a period of fits and starts for the nearly three-year-old public company. Though it has steadily added mills and more to its Circulose supplier network since it launched this summer, Renewcell quickly installed a new CEO earlier this month after warning that Circulose sales arent performing up to snuff.

More from Sourcing Journal

With a slower adoption in the value chain, and thus lower sales growth than expected, the Board has decided that a new leadership in the company is necessary, said Michael Berg, Renewcell board chairman, in a statement dated Oct. 16. I would like to thank Patrik [Lundstrom] for his contribution to the development of Renewcell, he has been instrumental in taking the company from the development stage to listing, factory construction and production.

Magnus Hakansson takes the reins at Renewcell after three years with Media Mrkt Sweden, part of a multinational chain of consumer electronics stores. The onetime McKinsey associate spent time at AlixPartners, earned an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management and wields experience in the pulp industry.

A fresh face isnt the only new development at Renewcell. Last month, analyst Tiffany Hua with Bostons Lux Research explained how Renewcells new partnership with Spinnova, a fellow Nordic innovator, could double the Circulose makers production capacity in the coming years.

Renewcells Circulose pulp with high cellulosic content and low contamination levels is ideal for Spinnovas microfibrillated fiber spinning process, she said.

Inditex, meanwhile, is no stranger to Circulose. Zara produced an undyed womens fashion capsule made with the cellulosic fiber last year, illustrating that circularity in this industry is possible, German Garcia Ibanez, head of sustainable product and supply chain for Inditex, said at the time.

Inditexs new Circulose commitment is with viscose powerhouse Tangshan Sanyou, one of several Chinese fiber producers plugged into Renewcells network. Under the terms of their deal, Tangshan Sanyou will produce for Inditexs suppliers a fiber that blends Circulose with a forest-friendly cellulosic.

This week Inditex also announced yet another deal with a materials innovator, agreeing to purchase 70 million euros ($74 million) worth of Cycora-branded regenerated polyester from Ambercycle. Inditex said these deals advance its commitment to source only low impact textiles by the end of the decade.

Fridays stock surge comes as a welcome relief to Renewecell investors who have seen shares in the company plummet from an earlier high of $111.20 to as low as $6.06 following the recent sales warning.

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Fresh off the massive success that was Painkiller, which followed the Sackler family's role in the opioid epidemic, Netflix is here with another story about a pharma company and its ties to the crisis. Pain Hustlers, which dropped on the streamer on October 27, is already getting buzz for its portrayal of a company that bribed doctors to buy its highly addictive drug, called Subsys. The doctors would then prescribe the drug to patients.

The movie stars big A-listers like Emily Blunt, Chris Evans, and Catherine OHara, so you know its going to be good.

But is Pain Hustlers based on a true story like Painkiller was? Or is this just really good fiction? Heres what to know deal.

Is Pain Hustlers based on a true story?

Yup, the new movie is loosely based on a true story. And the movie is actually based on a book called Pain Hustlers: Crime and Punishment at an Opioid Startup, by Evan Hughes, which was originally called Hard Sell. Hughes' book stemmed from a New York Times article he wrote, published in May of 2018, called "The Pain Hustlers."

The book (and article) tells the story of pharma exec John Kapoor, who founded a company called Insys Therapeutics in the early 2000s. The Arizona-based pharmaceutical company had "only one branded product, a new and highly potent opioid painkiller called Subsys," which hit the market in 2012, Hughes' article explains. Kapoor developed the new formulation of the incredibly addictive opioid, and recruited a team of dedicated sales people who targeted doctors who were receptive to their marketing and bribery tactics.

The drug was a niche product, approved only for cancer patients in dire condition, but the companys leadership pushed it more widely, and together they turned Insys into a Wall Street sensation, the book's Amazon description reads.

What is Subsys?

Subsys is a opioid painkiller that belonged to a specific class of highly-addictive fentanyl products called TIRF drugs, which "are approved exclusively for the treatment of 'breakthrough' cancer pain," per the NYT. So basically, that meant it helped address any pain that couldn't be managed by longer-acting opioids cancer patients were already taking.

Is Insys a real company?

Yes, Insys is a real companyor, it was. It was based in Arizona, per the U.S. Attorneys Office.

Is John Kapoor a real person?

Yes, John Kapoor was a real person. He was born in India and went to college in America on scholarship, according to Forbes. Kapoor develop a spray called Subsys that used fentanyl to help with pain. While it was approved to help cancer patients in serious pain, Kapoor built a team who bribed doctors into prescribing the medication to patients, even when it wasnt medically necessary.

What happened to John Kapoor?

Kapoor became a billionaireForbes once called him one of the most successful pharmaceutical entrepreneurs in Americabut law enforcement eventually caught wind of the company's bribery techniques.

In 2018, Kapoor and six other senior Insys execs were eventually charged with bribery and fraud, but pled not guilty, per the NYT.

In 2019, he was convicted by a federal jury of racketeering (dishonest business dealings) conspiracy along with four other Insys executives. Then, in 2020, Kapoor was sentenced to 66 months (five and a half years) in jail for orchestrating a scheme to bribe practitioners to prescribe Subsysoften when medically unnecessary, per the U.S. Attorneys Office.

The 80-year-old former exec is currently serving time at a federal prison in Phoenix with an expected release date of December 17, 2023, per the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

What happened to Insys?

Insys was ordered to pay $225 million to the U.S. government and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 2019 after Kapoor was convicted of racketeering conspiracy, according to Frontline. The company's medication Subsys was sold to Wyoming-based BTcP Pharma.

Pain Hustlers is now streaming on Netflix.

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Puerto Vallarta is one of the best resort towns on the Pacific coast of Mexico. It offers stunning beaches, a metropolitan and central area, lively nightlife and adventurous water sports. The beach destination has a charming ambiance, modern accommodations, shopping and outdoor activities. Its a perfect spot for people wanting to unwind, relax and enjoy some down time. But, is Puerto Vallarta safe?

The town of Puerto Vallarta offers an array of experiences to every type of traveler and is less congested than hot spots like Cancun, which can attract a lot of volume. Travelers who set their sights on Puerto Vallarta can experience serene beaches and many arts and culture hubs.

Although some issues occur in the area, it is relatively safe for travelers. Regardless, those making a trip soon to the area can learn more about the safety level of Puerto Vallarta and how travelers can best enjoy their trip to Mexico.

How Safe Is Puerto Vallarta?

Puerto Vallarta is among the safest places to visit in Mexico and has stunning views. Pictured: city lights brightening the night view in Puerto Vallarta

The crime rates in Mexico can be a concern for travelers, but what a lot of tourists may not recognize is that the questionable areas of Mexico are far from tourist spots. Puerto Vallarta itself is a safe destination for travelers to visit. In fact, the city is safer than many cities in the United States and even has a more welcoming atmosphere.

Puerto Vallarta has a lower crime index level and higher safety scale score than both California and Hawaii. The areas main types of violations are non-violent (and do not target tourists), with corruption and bribery being among the main issues in the city. Puerto Vallarta has a small population (around 250,000), so petty crimes are more common and visitors have little to worry about.

Precautions and Advisories for Solo Travelers in Puerto Vallarta

Using public transportation is a great way for solo travelers to stay safe while traveling. This is a way of blending in with locals so travelers can get to know the authentic culture of their destination. Tourists should also have emergency numbers saved, keep a low profile, secure valuables and stay in well lit and populated areas. Keeping up to date with local travel advisories is key to avoiding any areas of concern.

In terms of health safety, Puerto Vallarta is in good standing. The city earned the SafeTravels Stamp, which is important for travelers who prefer to travel to places with a high standard for safety and hygiene. Travelers will note that the tap water in Puerto Vallarta is exceptional and has earned a certificate of purity for 30 consecutive years.

Best Times To Visit Puerto Vallarta

Puerto Vallarta can be enjoyed throughout the year. Check out more about the safest times to visit the city. Pictured: stunning sunset silhouette

The proximity of Puerto Vallarta to the airport makes it a reliable destination for travelers who want to have easy access to their accommodations or activities. There are plenty of convenient direct flights to the city and the international airport (PVR) is just a short drive from downtown Puerto Vallarta.

Puerto Vallarta is a great destination for year-round vacationers. On average, days are typically sunny for the city and the rainy season is usually around June to October (with the brunt of the short rain spurts happening in August and September). For travelers who want to partake in outdoor activities like the Los Arcos Marine Park, visit Boca De Tomates beach, see the Palo Maria Waterfall or go ride an ATV or hike, any time of the year is ideal.
SI Swimsuit model Myla Dalbesio appeared in four consecutive magazine issues, from her gorgeous beach debut with Ben Watts in Curacao in 2017, to her most recent Western-themed feature with Ruven Afanador in Wyoming in 2020. Her rookie appearance was accompanied by a powerful essay about modern feminism and how posing for the franchise was a liberating experience.

In 2018, she double dipped for a photoshoot in Aruba and a powerful in-studio project titled In Her Own Words with photographer Taylor Ballantyne. The following year, the 36-year-old traveled to Kangaroo Island, Australia to model for Josie Clough.

"There have been so many [favorite SI Swimsuit moments]! The Maldives, Kangaroo Island, Seychelles, South Africa, Morocco. I could go on and on, Dalbesio told the magazine of having a tough time choosing a favorite location. I love to travel and see new places, so when a job takes me somewhere Ive never been before, Im so grateful. Its extra special when its a place with a totally different culture and lifestyle. I like to step outside my box when I travel and expand my worldview. To be able to do it on a job is a huge bonus."

Dalbesio, who is married to Nathan Hageman, moved to New York City at the age of 18 to pursue modeling. Today she is a photographer, model and creative director, as well as the co-owner of the One & Only restaurant in Madison, Wis.

Below are five of our favorite photos from Dalbesios 2018 photoshoot with Yu Tsai in Aruba.

Yu Tsai/Sports Illustrated

Yu Tsai/Sports Illustrated

Yu Tsai/Sports Illustrated

Yu Tsai/Sports Illustrated

Yu Tsai/Sports Illustrated

Now through Nov. 1, 100% of SI Swimsuits portion of proceeds from cover prints purchased here will be donated to the Maui Strong Fund, which is helping to support the people and places of Maui affected by the recent wildfires.

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Though I try to stay atop the never-ending stream of new gun releases, the Springfield 2020 Redline caught me off guard. I hadnt heard any pre-release rumors or whispers about it, and I knew one thing when it came across my computer screen a few short weeks before my annual Dall sheep hunt here in Alaska: I had to have one.

Since hunters have been packing rifles into the mountains, gun makers have been working to make them weigh less and still shoot accuratelywith varying degrees of success. Cutting weight is a tradeoff that affects a rifles precision on paper, but also makes it more difficult to shoot accurately in the field. Finding the optimal balance of weight, ergonomics, and backcountry functionality is a mountain hunters holy grail. Thats the goal that the Springfield 2020 Redline aspires to. It does so by applying some of the same ergonomic features as the 2020 Waypoint in a lighter packageI couldnt wait to get it into the mountains.

Specs and Features

Cartridge: 6.5 Creedmoor (tested), .308 Win.

Capacity: 3+1, detachable AICS-style box magazine

Weight: 6 pounds, 5 ounces (measured)

Receiver: Stainless steel

Receiver Finish: Military green Cerakote

Action: Bolt action, two-lug

Barrel: 20-inch, BSF, stainless steel, carbon-wrapped, 1:8 twist, threaded -24 at the muzzle

Optics Mounting: One-piece Picatinny rail atop receiver, Remington 700 pattern

Stock: Grayboe Trekker synthetic stock

Overall Length: 40.5 inches (measured, adjustable L.O.P)

Trigger: Triggertech adjustable, Curved shoe

Trigger Pull: 3 pounds, 9 ounces (measured)

Price: $2,190

A Modern, Light Mountain Rifle

The core of the Springfield 2020 Redline is the 2020 action that Springfield first introduced with the 2020 Waypoint. You can read more detail about the action in Shooting Editor John B. Snows initial review of the 2020 platform , but I'll give you the basics. The 2020 Redline action is essentially an optimized Remington M700. It uses a two-lug bolt thats fluted and uses a sliding claw extractor, as opposed to the smaller Remington extractors that fit into the recess of the bolt face. It comes with a Triggertech adjustable trigger and the action features a bolt release button along the left side of the receiver rather than inside the trigger guard. Many custom mountain rifles use the M700 as their foundation, and that choice serves the 2020 Redline well.

The Springfield 2020 Redlines Modern Barrel

Before carbon-wrapped barrels came along, a light mountain rifle usually came with a spaghetti-thin barrel that after two or three shots would get hotter than a uranium rod during a nuclear meltdown. Many still do. The trade-off is acceptable for many hunting situations but, all else equal, a barrel that can shed heat and hold its point of impact for more than a few rounds is better. Complicating matters, the awakening of the masses to the pleasantries and benefits of using suppressors leaves the thin-tubed ultralight rifles wanting. Suppressors can work fine on ultralight rifles, but small-diameter all-steel barrels are very sensitive to the weight of a suppressor, with drastic shifts in point of impact, and many of them are long, spindly, and awkward when a can is attached.

The 2020 Redline comes with a radial brake and thread protector. You can see the nut that holds the carbon fiber sleeve in place.

Like the 2020 Waypoint, the Springfield 2020 Ridgeline leverages carbon-barrel technology, using BSF stainless steel barrels that feature a carbon-fiber sleeve. Its not correct to say these barrels are carbon-wrapped, because unlike barrels that are turned down and wrapped with laminated layers of carbon, these are turned down, fluted, then fitted with a carbon-fiber sleeve thats held by the compression from a front cap that appears to be threaded over the muzzle.

Barrel heat isnt much of an issue in most hunting scenarios, but I did lots of bench work with the Redline 2020, and both the barrel and solid-steel chamber area seemed to heat more slowly and dissipate heat more quickly than all the other rifles I shot alongside it.

Optimized for a Suppressor

A benefit of the larger diameter and stiffer carbon-fiber barrel on the 2020 Redline is that the rifle is a perfect fit for suppressors. The rifle comes in either 20-inch-barrel, or 16-inch-barrel configurations, and chambered in either 6.5 Creedmoor or .308 Winchester. These shorter barrels will result in a small velocity loss, but they can be fitted with a lightweight suppressor like the Silencerco Scythe Ti or Silencer Central Banish Backcountry without becoming gangly or cumbersome. I also shot the rifle with a Silencerco Omega 36M, but deemed it too heavy to carry on a sheep hunt.

The 16- and 20-inch barrel configurations are ideal for an ultralight suppressor like the Silencerco Scythe Ti.

On a backpack hunt, I'm only willing to hunt with a suppressor until it becomes inconvenient. This rifle is able to incorporate one seamlessly. Though I generally despise muzzle brakes , this rifle comes with a radial brake installed. Fortunately, it also includes a plain, matching-color thread protector.

A Light Stock with Precision Rifle Ergonomics

The most visually striking feature of the Springfield 2020 Redline is its stockthe Grayboe Trekker . As with barrels, selecting a stock for a lightweight hunting rifle is a trade-off. Traditionally, slimmed down M700s, Winchester Model 70s, and their clones use dainty stocks with thin fore-ends to save weight. The near mythical Kifaru Rambling Rifle basically eliminated the fore-end altogether. Grayboe took a different approach with the Trekker. Its a slimmed-down stock that still maintains some of the favorable features of a full-size target stock: a tall cheekpiece, palmswelled vertical grip, and a flat fore-end. It weighs 23 ounces on my postage scale.

The Grayboe Trekker stock features a hollowed-out, trimmed down buttsock.

The bottom of the buttstock looks like that of a target stock thats had the underside cut away and hogged out, and the stiff fore-end makes no contact with the barrel whatsoever. The stock comes with two sling swivel studs on the fore-end, and its a good platform for an ultralight bipod mount like those from Spartan Precision (thats what I outfitted mine with). Its also nice to rest on a shooting bag . The length of pull is adjustable by adding or removing included plastic shims between the stock and one-inch rubber recoil pad. A smart and handy feature is the small bubble level thats built into the tang of the stock.

The Springfield 2020 Redline in the Field

The best test for any mountain rifle is to bring it to the field. The boring fact about mountain rifles is that most of the time youre just lugging them around. You might carry a rifle around for two weeks and 80 miles in the mountains and not even get to fire the damn thing. Ask me how I know. As a result, the handling characteristics of an alpine rifle are equally as valuable as their accuracy.

Setting up for Sheep

I hastily set up my Redline, chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor with a 20-inch barrel, about a week before my hunt. Given more time, Id have ordered a set of Talley Lightweight Rings and removed the one-piece Picatinny rail that came with the gun. I mounted a Leupold VX2 2-7x33mm CDS , which is one of my favorite scopes for a sheep rifle.

I had some handloads sitting on the shelf, so I set out to see if one would work for my sheep hunt. With my first shots, I was impressed by the ergonomics of the stock. Being a light rifle, its definitely not as easy to shoot accurately as a heavy chassis gun. But the cheek piece and grip allow much better control of the rifle than more attractive, traditional-style lightweight stocks. The swell on the grip filled my hand and allowed me a deep, solid hook on the trigger. My shots broke clean and I didnt need to make any adjustments to the trigger weight.

The 2020 Redline uses lightweight components like a carbon-sleeved barrel.

The bolt has a 90-degree throw, but the downward-angling bolt handle allows smooth operation without banging your fingers or knuckles on the scope. When running this rifle, the bolt lift was light, it ran smoothly in the raceways, and ejected brass crisply.

I had two handloads using Hornady 143-grain ELDX bullets , one with H4895 and one with Superformance powder. Both printed 10-shot groups between .9 and .95 inches, so I chose the Superformance loadI had more of it. I zeroed the rifle and verified my elevation solutions out to 700 yardswell beyond the range I would ever make a first shot at a ram. I was ready to hunt.

A Backpacking Rifle

As mentioned, most of a wilderness hunt for sheep is simply carrying your rifle around in your backpack. There are a number of different packs and ways to carry a rifle in those packs, but I found that the 2020 Redline was as convenient to carry as any others, and the cutout in the buttstock made it especially nice for securing with a compression strap.

The magazine release is located in the bottom front corner of the trigger guard, keeping it protected from accidental activation.

The bolt doesnt lock when the rifles safety is engaged, but I usually secure a rifle with the bolt handle against my backpack. I have heard stories of unlucky or careless hunters losing their rifle bolt in the field when its pushed open by brush and then the release button is pressed against a tightly-stuffed pack.

Though it forces the user to put their booger-picking finger inside the trigger guard, the magazine release is smartly positioned for a hunter whos carrying their rifle in a backpack. Many other magazine release designs are prone to accidentally dropping the magazine free of the rifle when carried on a pack. Hell, with some rifles, I'll even tape the magazine so it cant be removed accidentally.

After carrying that rifle around an acceptable number of miles, I decided it was time to shoot a sheep with it. My shot was at 300 yards from a relatively awkward position, lying prone facing uphill, but shooting down over the edge of a cliff. I used the top lid of my backpack as a shooting bag, and just like on the bench, the geometry of the stock helped me break a clean, solid shot, putting an old ram down within a few yards of where hed stood.

The author with a 9-year-old Dall ram, taken at 300 yards with his Springfield 2020 Redline in 6.5 Creedmoor.

Guaranteed Accuracy?

Like many rifles adorning gun store racks, the 2020 Redline comes with an accuracy guaranteea three-quarter-MOA guarantee to be exact. More specifically, it guarantees a three-shot group at 100 yards with quality match-grade factory ammunition, in the hands of a skilled shooter.

Though we often disparage those accuracy guarantees , theres no way that a reasonable person could say that my rifle doesnt satisfy the terms. Its a damn fine-shooting gun, especially considering its weight. After my sheep hunt, I switched to a Leupold Mark 5HD 3-18x44 scope for additional accuracy testing. I recorded 41 5-shot groups with 7 types of ammo, and the average of the top 10 groups, the formula we use in our annual gun test , measured .701 inches. The overall average of the 41 groups was 1.111 inches. Factory ammo standouts were Federal Premium Centerstrike 140-grain BTHP , which averaged .844 inches and Hornady 140-grain ELD Match which averaged .917 inches. Handloaded 143-grain ELD-X bullets averaged .831 inches.

The Springfield 2020 Redline produced tight groups with a number of 6.5 Creedmoor loads.

What The Springfield 2020 Redline Does Well

The 2020 Redline does a great job of incorporating features that make it accurate and easier to shoot accurately while remaining lightweight. The shorter barrels allow the rifle to remain a reasonable length when paired with a suppressor.

Where The Springfield 2020 Redline Could Do Better

I havent been able to find many gripes about the 2020 Redline, but long-term, I would exchange the one-piece base for Talley rings, and I think it would be more aesthetically pleasing if the fore-end of the stock didnt have an unnecessarily large gap between it and the barrel.

Read Next: Great Rifles for Mountain Hunting

Final Thoughts

Though there are some lighter options on the market such as some of Kimbers offerings, or the ever-resilient NULA rifles, the Springfield holds its own. There arent many rifles in this price range that can objectively beat the 2020 Redline when it comes to the complete package of accuracy, shootability, heat dissipation, and suppressor compatibility.
A new lawsuit claims that Maersk owes Target $5.8 million for losing dozens of containers back in 2021.

Starr Indemnity & Liability Co., the insurer for Minneapolis-based Target, filed the lawsuit in in the Southern District of New York. The complaint alleges Maersk was negligent when it lost 57 containers filled with Target goods in the Pacific Ocean.

More from Sourcing Journal

The Maersk Eindhoven containership can haul 13,100 20-foot-equivalent units (TEUs). It briefly failed during turbulent seas off of northern Japan on Feb. 17, 2021 en route from Xiamen, China, to Los Angeles.

A Maersk spokesperson told Sourcing Journal that the company is reviewing the complaint, but decliend to comment on the lawsuit. Sourcing Journal reached out to Starr and Target.

At the time of the incident, Maersk reported that the ship couldnt be steered when the engines shut down for three to four minutes. It was later confirmed that the shutdown occurred when an indicator recorded low engine oil pressure and triggered a safety feature.

Around 260 containers were lost overboard during the incident while 65 were damaged on deck.

The ship turned around and docked at a terminal in Yokohama, Japan for minor repairs. On March 2, the Eindhoven resumed its voyage and arrived at Los Angeles by March 21. Starr claimed Maersk was negligent because it failed to discharge all the containers at the Port of Los Angeles and deliver the cargo in good order.

According to the lawsuit, the 57 lost containers were collected Jan. 12-Feb. 4, when the Eidenhoven loaded goods from the ports of Phnom Penh, Cambodia and Yantian, China for transport to California.

The suit values the cargo at just over $5.8 million, but Starr claims it has not been paid for the losses. The insurer reserved the right to increase the value of loss while also seeking a judgment against both Maersk and the Eindhoven.

Further, the insurer is asking the court to detain the vessel and order it to be sold to satisfy the judgment.

The cargo incident occurred when Target was enjoying breakneck e-commerce spending at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

While the mass merchant has since fallen back to Earth, it saw revenue rise 23.4 percent to $24.2 billion in the first quarter of 2021 on net income of $2.1 billion.

Just one month prior to the Eindhoven event, another Maersk vessel, the Maersk Essen, lost nearly 750 containers in heavy seas while operating on the same route.

Nearly 4,000 containers went overboard in 2020 and another 2,000 in 2021, according to data from the World Shipping Council. The trade association reported losses had fallen to just 661 in 2022.

While container loss can be a problem for the maritime shipping industry, it accounts for just a fraction of the cargo volume sailing the seas. Only a small percentage of the approximately 250 million containers transported by ships each year are lost at sea. Mays World Shipping Council survey reported that an average of 1,566 containers were lost per year from 2008-2022.

Last year marked the lowest loss rate since the survey started in 2008, with 0.00026 percent of total containers shipped.

Although this case doesnt fall under the purview of the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC), shipper complaints related to ocean freight are drawing attention to problems at sea.

In the 12 months through September, the FMC resolved 36 cases related to excessive charges and contract breaches by ocean carriers, with civil penalties and reached settlements totaling almost $3 million.

Thats not even accounting for private cases brought to the commission such as that of Florida-based furniture retailer OJ Commerce. In June, the FMC ruled that Maersk subsidiary Hamburg Sud owed the company $9.8 million for breach of cargo service agreements. Bed Bath & Beyond currently has two active complaints with the FMC against Orient Overseas Container Line Limited and Yang Ming.

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My earliest memory of Halloween was the year I dressed as Joe Jonas. The year was 2008  Jonass Camp Rock era. Even with his noticeably flat-ironed black hair, I still squealed every time he kicked back his microphone stand to sing Play My Music in the Disney Channel film. I couldnt tell you why I decided to dress as the brooding rocker that year, but it was the first time I remember feeling creative. Although my tucked in white T-shirt and skinny jeans combo wasnt exactly revolutionary, assuming the teen heartthrob for a night felt particularly original.

Of course, as an eight-year-old child old enough to develop class consciousness, I begged my mother to take me to the street with three-story homes and king-sized candy bars. I remember the thrill pulsing through me as I stood in front of my brothers  and by brothers, I mean my two friends dressed as Kevin and Nick Jonas  to knock on the towering doors.

By the end of the night, counting the amount of Milky Ways, Snickers, Reeses and (if there were no better options) mini-Hersheys bars, left me with an air of irreplaceable triumph and satisfaction. The sad part - and what I didnt know at the time - once the trick-or-treating stopped, my perception of the holiday would change.

Sometime between prolonged candy expeditions to dressing up for back-to-back Halloweekend parties, my spooky season spirit began to tire. Candy-filled pillowcases soon became liquor-infused cocktails, and I found the buzz to be far less appealing. This year, what little Halloween morale I mightve had left now feels as though its fizzled out  and I know Im not the only one.

The advertised terror and creative pressures of the commercialised holiday can get to be too much as you get older. Sipping orange-coloured martinis just doesnt feel the same compared to the candy-filled excitement of Halloweens past, and it never amounts to the expectation.

Call me a pessimist, and maybe I am, but theres something to be said about the diminishing interest in Halloween after the innocence of trick-or-treating is lost. The costumes - whether theyre well thought-out or affordably assembled - are less important when the only people who actually see them are those standing in line at bar that isnt worth the wait - or the entry fee. If the purpose of Halloween is no longer dressing up as someone new, indulging in sugary delights, or taking pleasure in being the most animated version of yourself, then willingness to take part in the 31 October festivities will soon be lost.

There are a few factors that contribute to the inevitable absence of Halloween enthusiasm, the first being the inability to trick-or-treat past a certain age. The promise of sweet treats is every childs first introduction to Halloween. When youre young, youre expected to fill a bag or bowl with an amount of candy that could put you in a sugar coma.

Unfortunately, this can only go on for so long. Most places have laws making it illegal for individuals to trick-or-treat over a certain age. According to a 9News report, the town of Chesapeake, Virginia, prohibits anyone over the age of 14 of trick-or-treating on Halloween. If theyre caught doing so, they could potentially be charged with a Class 4 misdemeanor. In Virgina Beach, Portsmouth, Suffolk, and Norfolk, the age limit to trick-or-treat is 12 and under. Meanwhile, South Carolina prohibits anyone over the age of 16 from not only trick-or-treating but wearing a spooky mask in public.

By law, individuals past a certain age are deemed too old to trick-or-treat, but one study proves people have a different perspective. Per a 2021 YouGov report, more than a quarter of adults believe no child is too old to partake in the Halloween tradition. Whats more, a 2019 survey by Today indicated that 46 per cent of parents agree with the sentiment.

Whether you think individuals, no matter their age, should be allowed to trick-or-treat or not, we always somehow end up abiding by the state statutes. Maybe your friends think theyre too old or too cool to politely ask their neighbours for candy. Maybe you decided collecting all that sugar wasnt worth it, if more than half of it would end up thrown away. Regardless, there comes a point in adolescence when something forces you to leave behind this sacred part of Halloween thats most likely the reason you fell in love with the holiday.

Some could make the argument that this childhood loss is typical, and a part of growing up is learning to accept that your interests change as you mature. Fine. However, with maturity comes a newfound understanding of monetary necessity.

Halloween is a cash vaccuum. According to the National Retail Federations 2023 Prosper Insights & Analytics survey, the Halloween spending expectation for this year is set at $12.2bn, $1.6bn more than the reported amount in 2022. Capital One estimated $3.6bn of that total is spent on candy. Between candy, costumes, greeting cards, and decorations, the average amount an invidual will spend is $100, and that doesnt include plans for the night of 31 October.

Furthermore, only 40 per cent of Halloween customers shop at discount stores, meaning the remaining 60 per cent are making their purchases online, at speciality stores, markets, and department stores. About 12 per cent of Halloween shoppers go to thrift or consignment shops, per Capital Ones report.

The holiday practically begs you to spend money  on a costume, decorations, candy, drinks, tickets, etc. When youre no longer spending the night roaming around the streets, picking up freebie treats, youre forced to arrange other plans. Childrens costumes no longer fit you, so you come up with more elaborate ideas and spend money ordering props ahead of time. From fake blood to long wigs, a race car driver suit, and a set of handcuffs, often when your costume creativity expands, your expenses do too.

The frustrating part is that theres this unspoken burden of having to come up with something new each year, and if youre in college or out of school, its very possible therell be multiple nights of festivities - meaning an expectation to come up with two to four costume ideas. Lets say youre a ballerina one year and then you decide to be a vampire the next, what do you do with the tutu and tiara you spent around $20 on last Halloween? After some time, Halloween spins a web of wasted props. If youre savvy, you can potentially come up with a few ideas to reuse your leftovers. But theres only so much you can do with a baton and magicians hat.

One experienced night life worker added insight into why clubs and bars, specifically in New York City, raise their entry fees for the occasion.

So on these popular weekends, like Halloween, New Years Eve, venues view it as an opportunity to cash in on a time where people are willing to spend money for an experience, Ariana Nathani, host of the Drinks First podcast, said. Entry alone, youre looking at anywhere between $80 to $100.

The most upsetting factor that damages your Halloween spirit is the unavoidable destruction of costume artistry. Once the purpose shifts from candy collection to partying, you unconsciously stray from dressing for yourself. The urge to piece together a look that attracts the male or female gaze, or is inherently trendy, often becomes a driving force in deciding on the character you want to assume. For many revellers, the inclination to be the Regina George or Aaron Samuels at the party trumps the desire to throw on a look that screams Halloween, like Cady Heron in Mean Girls.

Conversations online have also erupted over how Halloween seemingly caters to a certain size demographic, with costume shops only offering a small size range. Style mogul and influencer Remi Baders known for her realistic costume hauls, in which she orders plus-size options online and exposes how they really fit  a number of which dont.

Statistics derived from the Yahoo/YouGov poll of US adults this year supports the hypothesis that Halloween really does have an age cap  people over a certain age arent motivated to participate. The survey reported that only 22 per cent of adults in the US are dressing up for the holiday this year, 63 per cent arent dressing up, and 14 per cent havent decided if theyre going to or not.

Famed fashion TikToker Kate Bartlett has also shared her true feelings about how the high expectations of Halloween have led her to hate the holiday. The 22 year old questioned when the spooky night turned into a multi-day bash with festivities taking place long before the actual night.

What I want to know is when did Halloween turn into a week-long thing. It used to just be one night. I will preface this rant by saying I am a very social person, the influencer confessed. I am not a hater of many things, Im really not. But I am a hater of Halloween.

All this being said, how do we hold on to the innocence of Halloween, so we dont end up metaphorically ageing out?

Expectations are often born from societal norms. Just because others your age are willing to shimmy themselves between hundreds of people inside an overpriced club while holding cumbersome accessories doesnt mean thats the only way to celebrate Halloween in your 20s, 30s, 40s and so on. When some of the only traditions associated with the holiday becomes unapplicable, its time to make new ones.

You can dress up like your favourite actor or object, don a get-up thats reminiscent of a book you love, or you can take the opportunity to wear an outfit youve always wanted to. You could also not dress up and just stay in. The beautiful part of Halloween is there are no rules. Halloween is a night to make the imaginary a reality, and its okay if that looks different for you than it does for everyone else.

If youre really at a loss for how to steer clear of the crowded spots filled with people dressed as the same stale characters, heres what you can do on Halloween instead.
Bella Geraci

People may be dialing it back on lip filler  there was a 57% increase in filler reversals between 2020 and 2021  but they do still want the look of fuller lips. Patients are definitely still interested in lip rejuvenation, just not full-on augmentation," says Mona Gohara, MD, a board-certified dermatologist in Hamden, Connecticut. "They dont want to look like a Real Housewife.

Good timing for the founders of Droplette: Their 17-Volt Lip Plumper claims to make lips look fuller without the need for the usual party tricks such as tingly plumping glosses, extreme lip-lining techniques, or costly injections. Droplette's lip-plumping formula is something you spray on your lips, and it's the newest addition to Droplette's line.

The 17-Volt Lip Plumper, a skin-care device that looks a bit like a really chic egg, dispenses serums as gentle mists made up of large molecules packaged into thousands of microscopic droplets. These are intended to penetrate deeper into the skin  in this case, on the lips  than typical serums you'd smooth on with your fingers.

Using Droplette's spray-on technology to treat lips to a cloud of plumping serum has the experts we speak with feeling very excited: This is the first totally new lip-plumping product I've seen in years. Its innovative, says Los Angeles-based makeup artist Robin Black.

We put the device to the test on four different editors to see if it really delivers fuller lips. Here's what we found.

In this story:

Overview: The Droplette 17-Volt Lip Plumper

Collagen. Glycerin. Hyaluronic Acid. The ingredients in the 17-Volt Lip Plumper treatment may not be novel, but the application sure is. First, youll need the Droplette device, which costs $200 and is about the size of an avocado, to disperse the formula in a light mist. The device comes with a charging cord and dock, and can also be used with the brands various skin-care formulas, including Glycolic Illuminator, Tranexamic Eraser, and Retinol Renewer. The 17-Volt Plumper capsules start at $60 for a box of 14.

As with any of Droplette's formulas, you insert a thimble-size capsule full of the treatment, in this case for lips, into the device. Turn it on, hear the buzzing, and the device begins to gently spray the treatment, which you aim directly over your lips for 30 seconds (the brand recommends 15 seconds for each lip).

Each capsule contains glycerin, marine collagen, and hyaluronic acid; that last one, says Dr. Gohara, is the major player in the formula. Hyaluronic acid is a potent humectant that helps to absorb water from the ambient environment to enhance and plump, she explains.

In product testing done by Droplette, subjects had up to 40% fuller-looking lips immediately after use, and those plumping results lasted up to six hours. According to Madhavi Gavini, CEO and cofounder of Droplette, the benefits were cumulative: The baseline surface area of lips displayed a 30% increase  as long as participants continued to use the device once a day  over a 14-day period.

Even when using an injectable hyaluronic acid, it requires, at the minimum, half a syringe to note a difference to this degree," says Dr. Gohara. "A topical product would have to be supercharged and scientifically very unique to create these same results.

The technology behind the product:

Gavini was working as a therapeutic drug designer when she attended a conference and heard about a rare pediatric dermal disease that was tricky to treat. Researchers were struggling to effectively deliver the necessary drugs to the affected areas of the skin. So, Gavini rolled up her sleeves and grabbed her colleague Rathi Srinivas, a chemical engineer and medical diagnostics developer, and now the CTO and cofounder of Droplette, to build a solution.

Gavini describes the result of their collaboration as a transdermal drug delivery system that could get large therapeutics into the skin in a way that wouldn't hurt. She and Srinivas looked, initially, to needle-free jet injections, which use a high-pressure stream of fluid to deliver drugs into the bloodstream. But we didnt want anything to get in the bloodstream, we just wanted it to get into the skin," notes Gavini. "So instead of a jet, we thought, What if we have a spray with tiny droplets [of liquid] to get [hard-to-deliver] ingredients gently into the skin?

They named the device Droplette, secured funding from NASA and the Department of Defense, and worked with Tufts Medical Center in Boston to develop it. They also realized  after talking to family, friends, and we assume some Allure readers  that the same elements that make the device effective for drugs could make it effective for over-the-counter products like a glycolic acid, retinol serum, or perhaps a lip plumper.

When we sent the Droplette to cosmetic chemist Perry Romanowski, he described it as a Keurig for skin," adding, "I've never seen a product like this before. After you insert a capsule into the device, an atomizer turns the serum inside into a suspension of tiny particle droplets, which are delivered as a gentle mist.

The idea is that smaller particles, misted onto skin, may penetrate deeper than a traditional serum or cream: Much of the published delivery data [on Droplette] is actually with much larger molecules relative to what we [at Droplette] deliver in skin care, explains Srinivas. For example, molecules larger than 500 daltons cannot pass through the skin barrier. But in a study published in the journal Pharmaceutics, Droplette delivered two antibiotics over 1,000 daltons in molecular weight several skin layers deep.

The data shows that the Droplette 17-Volt Lip Plumper gives a transient plump thats more noticeable than [you'd expect from] a topical, says Dr. Gohara. And thats something Black tells us she experienced firsthand: Its definitely more effective than any plumping gloss Ive tried, with the exception of the Forget the Filler lip gloss, which I tried the month after I tested the 17-Volt.

Romanowski, on the other hand, has found it to be on par with plumping glosses, but says his lips feel better afterward than they do with a gloss: It left my lips softer and more supple."

So, what do Allure editors think?

Allure reviews:

With all this promising science, Allure editors have been eager to put the 17-Volt Plumper capsules to the test. Droplette says you should see results right away (as you would with a plumping lip gloss), so the four reviews here are based on what we see in the mirror immediately after use. Each reviewer has tried the device on three separate occasions, always on bare lips. We didnt layer any additional products on top. Keep reading for our honest thoughts.

Jesa Marie Calaor, senior editor

I was really excited to try the Droplette, says Calaor. A device that promises pillowy lips without the pain of an injection or the spiciness of a traditional lip plumper sounds like a dream come true. It takes about a minute to use, and creates a tingling sensation during application and shortly after it shuts off. My lips don't look that different afterward. (My top lip appears ever-so-slightly plumper.) But they feel supersoft and hydrated  the way they would if I rubbed on a really great, non-sticky balm.

Annie Blay, associate beauty editor

I rarely use lip-plumping glosses so I didnt have much of a reference point to compare the Droplette 17-Volt Lip Plumper, Blay says. Even after I mist my lips with Droplette twice in a row, I dont see much difference in their shape, plumpness, or feel. However, my lips are already pretty full naturally, so that could be why the plumper falls a bit flat for me.

Jenny Bailly, executive beauty director

My lips can perhaps be best described as unassuming, Bailly says. There's just not much there. So I was hopeful that Droplette could at least offer me a few hours of increased surface area for testing a group of brightly colored Best of Beauty lipstick finalists. It takes a couple of attempts to feel comfortable holding this palm-size pod about half an inch above my lips, per the directions. With one push of the button, you get two 15-second spray sessions with a 5-second break in between. Afterward, my lips feel very soft and dewy. But when I nestle the device back in its cradle and turn to the mirror, I see no more plumpness than I would after massaging in my favorite lip balm. (I'm currently enjoying Glow Recipe Plum Plump Hyaluronic Gloss Balm.)

Sam Escobar, site director

Like many of my Allure coworkers, I fall at the intersection of beauty fan and tech fan, so I love anything that hits both of those interests, Escobar says. Ive also had lip fillers five or six times, so a little gadget like the Droplette that promises lip-plumping powers naturally piques my interest. While the instructions initially confuse me a bit  I just dont find it as intuitive as other beauty devices Ive used  it is fairly simple once I figure it out.

Escobar continues, The results are okay, albeit underwhelming: I like that my lips feel softer after using it, but dont feel that the difference between my before-and-after photos is noticeable enough to justify the high price tag. That said, if you have realistic expectations and simply want soft, moisturized lips, it may be worth trying.

Pricing and value

Based on the experiences of our editors, the Droplette 17-Volt Lip Plumper just doesn't deliver the kind of plumping we were hoping for. If you already own a Droplette (a $200 device), trying the 17-Volt Lip Plumper Capsules will run about $4 per application. If your results are anything like ours, your lips will be smoother and more hydrated afterwards, but you may not see a very noticeable difference in fullness.

Where to buy it

You can purchase the Droplette on the brands web site and its authorized Amazon store.

Discover more reviews:

Now, watch Jenna Lyons closet tour:

Originally Appeared on Allure
ABUJA, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- Nigeria's supreme court on Thursday upheld the ruling of an election tribunal that earlier affirmed the victory of President Bola Tinubu in the presidential poll held in February this year in Africa's most populous country.

The apex court's verdict, which was delivered in a unanimous decision by a seven-member panel of justices, came after several months of legal wrangling. The case was brought before the highest court in Nigeria by the main opposition People's Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labor Party (LP), which had alleged irregularities in the election process.

The supreme court effectively dismissed petitions by the opposition parties and ruled that Tinubu was legitimately elected president of Nigeria, having met the constitutional requirements as laid out by law.

Abubakar Atiku of the PDP and Peter Obi of LP, who respectively came second and third in the presidential election won by Tinubu, had approached the court to dismiss the election results announced by the country's election body.

Tinubu was declared the winner of the presidential election with over 8.7 million votes while Atiku and Obi polled over 6.9 million and 6.1 million votes, respectively.

On Sept. 6, a panel of five judges from the country's election tribunal unanimously ruled that the petitions "lacked merit" and dismissed them, saying the PDP and LP, which filed the petitions, had failed to prove their allegations beyond reasonable doubt.

Both Atiku and Obi disagreed with the judgment of the election tribunal, saying they would further seek redress in court.

In his reaction to the verdict Thursday, Tinubu said he accepted the court's ruling "with an intense sense of responsibility and a burning desire to meet the great challenges" that Nigerians were confronted with.

"The victory (of today) has further energized and strengthened my commitment to continue to serve all Nigerians of all political persuasions, tribes, and faiths, with honor and total respect for the diverse opinions and uniting values of our citizens," he added. 
Portugals Y.Chroma Apparel is ushering in autumn with a denim reboot.

The Lisbon-based mens lifestyle brand, which claims to have broken the midlife forgettability uniform mold with its Ready Wardrobe color-coded capsule collections and mens pants, shirting and outerwear, is shining a spotlight on jeans with its latest collection.

More from Sourcing Journal

Denim has been on autopilot for ages in terms of what makes it work on a midlife physique, creative director Max Israel said. Its too tight in the morning, then its right for about 15 minutes, then it looks schlubby the rest of the day. Honestly, there was no reason we couldnt fix thatand we did.

Israel said the reimagined mens denim jeans were designed to flatter, with an updated waistband offering greater comfort. Strategically placed elastic points help ensure that the jeans maintain their shape while promoting comfort and fit. Upleveling the denim experience required a rethink on structure, he added. We also doubled down on materials where even expensive jeans just seem to take the easy way out.

Y.Chroma denim is made with a premium Italian material blend with a touch of stretch, he said. The brand also rethought the internal tailoring, using its Cognac Silk lining material and new hardware fixtures for visual interest. We love that black, camera-grade metal, so it was natural to custom-cast all the fittings that way, Israel said.

Denim features in the Lagos canvas work shirt, made with distressed artisan cotton, a silk-lined interior and a Japanese block fastening system on the pockets, as well as the Enduro button-fly jean.

The denim in the line is complemented by athleisure styles, also a newer offering for the brand. With fabrics made in Japan and Italy, the Drucken gym pant and the Mazarin Cut rain shell were designed for versatility. The rain jackets structural yet supple shell is finished with a leather trim and a magnetic pocket closure.

Our Fall collection, with its denim-inspired staples, is just the beginning of our journey to transform the way men dress, Israel said.

Available for pre-order on the brands e-commerce site, the line is priced at $158-$698.

Click here to read the full article.
When 20-year-old Ed Harm landed in the Caribbean nation of Grenada in October 1983, he first noticed the heat.

As the doors to the military aircraft he was aboard opened, Harm saw and heard tracer fire and explosions.

We exited the aircraft and went to a drainage ditch and took cover, and the first thing I can remember is one of the first sergeants who was a Vietnam vet said, Man, this looks just like Vietnam," Harm, a retired staff sergeant, said during a 40th-anniversary event of Operation Urgent Fury held in Fayetteville last week.

Capt. Ben Morris, commander of Company C, 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, briefs paratroopers on Pope Airfield on Oct. 24, 1983, before they loaded onto aircraft bound for the island nation of Grenada.

Troops with B Company, 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment check a house near Pearls Airport in Grenada in November 1983.

Harm and fellow paratroopers from then-Fort Bragg were sent to Grenada as reinforcements in response to the aftermath of a coup overthrowing Marxist Prime Minister Maurice Bishop .

President Ronald Reagan called upon U.S. forces to rescue 600 American students and 400 foreigners living in Grenada, to protect American interests.

About 8,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines worked with 353 Caribbean allies to restore the countrys government.

Though the fighting only lasted a few days, the mission was about 51 days, according to a report from the Joint Chiefs of Staff History Office.

Paratroopers roles in Urgent Fury

Harm, of Dayton, Ohio, was an artillery forward observer originally serving with Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 319th Field Artillery Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division.

For Operation Urgent Fury, he was attached to the 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment tasked to provide air and artillery support.

The unit, he said, was one that stayed the longest on the island, leaving Dec. 15, 1983.

The battalion was under the command of now-retired Col. Keith Nightingale.

Retired Col. Keith M. Nightingale was the assault force commander during Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada, leading 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment through the mission.

Nightingale said Friday that the first couple of days were spent fighting the enemy followed by clearing the island.

The battalion's Charlie Company helped capture Hudson Austin, the chairman of the People's Revolutionary army and leader of the coup, Nightingale said.

From then on the war was over essentially, and then we started going out basically looking for ex-members of the Revolutionary Guard, thugs, hoodlums and outlaws, he said.

Unidentified paratroopers talk to a child in Grenada in November 1983.

Troops of B Company 2nd Battalion,505th Parachute Infantry Regiment patrol in Grenada in November 1983.

Retired Col. Mark Rocke was also attached to the battalions Charlie Company and remembers landing on the island between 1 and 2 p.m. after a counterattack led by the 75th Ranger Regiment.

Rocke was on the 82nd Airborne Divisions third aircraft onto the island on Oct. 25, 1983.

After the runway and airhead were secured at Point Salines, Rockes unit secured a compound 12 kilometers north at Frequente, he said.

We secured an enormous amount of Soviet munitions, ammunition, vehicles, weapons, binoculars and six pigs, Rocke said.

Rocke credited the enlisted soldiers he worked with for remaining professional while interacting with the citizens of Grenada, which he said helped with the mission.

By building trust, Rocke said, his soldiers were able to learn from locals where any remaining enemy activity was on the island, along with ammunition and weapons stockpiles.

Retired Sgt. 1st Class John Sulek, of Virginia, was assigned to the 319th's Bravo Company and landed on the island Oct. 24, 1983.

We spent the first night on the airfield, and the next day we moved out to the pig farm, Sulek said.

The pig farm, he said, was where his unit set up a base camp.

His unit patrolled the islands wooded areas after Austin and Bishop were captured and then moved toward Pearls Airport after the Marines left.

Paratroopers with the 82nd Airborne Division patrol the island nation of Grenada in October 1983.

Staff Sgt. Dennis Tuggle of B Company, 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment asks a kid for information in the Grenada highlands in November 1983.

Sulek said his unit patrolled near the islands jungles, before leaving Dec. 9, 1983.

Retired Lt. Col. Ernie Washington, of Columbus, Georgia, was a battery commander for Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 319th Field Artillery Regiment.

Washington said his unit followed the Rangers for illumination missions near Point Salines and used threat fires, which is continuously firing rounds at about five or six targets, while the Rangers attacked.

Washington said after the Rangers succeeded, the artillery battery split its operation on one side of the island near the end runway at Pearls Airport.

His unit was back at Fort Bragg by Thanksgiving, he said.

Rescued medical students react

Washington said he saw the rescued medical students brought to the runway to leave the island. They spent a couple of harrowing days locked away not knowing what was going on, hearing gunfire explosions and things like that, he said. So, they were happy to see us and get off the island.

Nightingale said about 650 airborne troops were in the area when the first Red Cross plane landed to airlift the students out.

On pure emotional response, the students all broke ranks and ran toward my troops and began thanking them for rescuing them even though my guys physically had nothing to do with the rescue  they sort of represented what soldiers did, Nightingale.

Views of the operation

Nightingale said that while paratroopers didnt operate as a traditional infantry organization during the mission because of being scattered over too many islands, they did adapt quickly.

During the mission, a photojournalist with NBC News was embedded with Charlie Company and sent video and audio back to the U.S. for the nightly news, Nightingale said.

In my mind, that really put Vietnam behind us, he said. It was one of the first times the public could see the good that the Army was doing.

Any screw-ups, he said, were more so known internally to military personnel.

At the same time, the mission was not without losses.

Of the American forces, 19 were killed and 116 were wounded.

Remembering the fallen

Veteran paratroopers marched through the rain Friday night on Fort Liberty to participate in the installations nightly Sunset Liberty March to remember the fallen paratroopers and honor others who served during Operation Urgent Fury.

Retired Gen. Charles Jacoby Jr., who led Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment during Urgent Fury, read the names of the Fort Libertys fallen paratroopers from the conflict:

 Capt. Michael Ritz, commander of Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment from Petersburg, Virginia, who died when a patrol he was leading was ambushed.

 Staff Sgt. Gary Epps, a squad leader in Bravo Company from Horton, Alabama, who died after after a round he was attempting to remove from a captured recoilless rifle exploded.

 Sgt. Sean Luketina, who was wounded after a Navy jet accidentally struck his unit's tactical operations center.

Staff writer Rachael Riley can be reached at rriley@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3528.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Paratroopers mark 40th anniversary of Operation Urgent Fury
** FILE ** Abercrombie & Fitch's chairman and chief executive Michael Jeffries, shown in this Feb. 16, 1998, file photo, has signed a lucrative contract that includes a $1 million annual salary and a retirement package not tied to the company's performance. When he retires in December 2008, Jeffries is guaranteed $12 million in cash, 1 million shares of Abercrombie stock, worth about $28 million today, and half of his salary for the rest of his life. (AP Photo/The Columbus Dispatch, Mike Munden)

A class-action lawsuit has been filed against New Albany-based Abercrombie & Fitch and its former CEO, Michael Jeffries, alleging the retailer looked the other way while Jeffries ran a sex-trafficking ring and sexually assaulted numerous young men.

"In exchange for providing the position of power and unfettered access to corporate funds necessary for Jeffries to sexually terrorize aspiring male models, Abercrombie knowingly and intentionally benefited and received things of value from Jeffries and his sex-trafficking operation, including the value Jeffries himself brought to the brand," the lawsuit says.

The case was filed in federal court in New York City by David Bradberry, who claims to have been sexually assaulted by Jeffries and other men several times at Jeffries' former mansion in New York City, the Hamptons, London and France.

Bradberry, a resident of Pennsylvania, is among 100 young men or more who were victims of the assaults, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit said Bradberry's relationship with Jeffries and the company dates to 2010 where he was forced to engage in sex acts with Jeffries and his associates in return for the chance to become an Abercrombie model.

Beyond Jeffries and Abercrombie, Jeffries' partner Matthew Smith and the Jeffries Family Office based in Columbus also are defendants.

Lawsuit filing comes after explosive BBC report

The filing of the case comes weeks after a BBC report that charged Jeffries and Smith with exploiting young men for sex.

The company declined to comment on Friday on the case though after the report from the British news agency said it was "appalled and disgusted" by it. It said it was hiring a law firm to investigate.

Jeffries' attorney, Brian Bieber, also decline to comment.

"The courtroom is where we will deal with this matter," he said Friday.

Jeffries became president and CEO of Abercrombie in 1992 when the small, money-losing chain formerly known for selling sporting equipment and clothes was part of Leslie H. Wexner's retail empire called The Limited at the time.

Jeffries became chairman in 1996 and The Limited spun off the chain into an independent company in 1998.

Jeffries left the company in 2014.

Lawsuit provides graphic details of Jeffries' alleged exploitation

The 128-page filing lays out in graphic terms how Jeffries groomed young men to sexually exploit and alleges that Abercrombie turned a blind eye as long as the company benefited financially from Jeffries' leadership.

Jeffries used modeling scouts to identify attractive young men who wanted to be an Abercrombie model, the lawsuit said. The scout would require a meeting in person and if the meeting went well, the potential would be invited to a casting at Jeffries' home.

"Often these prospective models turned sex trafficking victims were later sent to other places, including New York, Morocco, England, and France, to be sexually abused by Jeffries and other men under Jeffries control under the guise of becoming the next Abercrombie model," the lawsuit said.

These models would be required to wear Abercrombie clothes to the visits.

"The models were led to believe that being sexually abused by the CEO of Abercrombie and his partner at a remote private location arranged by the company was the price that was paid to obtain one of the most coveted roles in the industry  an Abercrombie model," the lawsuit said.

The company, meanwhile, continue to reward Jeffries with bigger and bigger pay packages, including $71.8 million in 2008, the lawsuit said. When he retired in 2014, he left with a pay package of $25 million.

"Specifically, Abercrombie financially benefited by retaining Jeffries as its cash cow CEO, who required as part of his employment, complete autonomy to utilize any methods of brand building he wanted, including the blatant use of a sex trafficking and sexual abuse scheme.," according to the lawsuit.

mawilliams@dispatch.com

@BizMarkWilliams

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Lawsuit: Sexual exploitation at Abercrombie by former CEO Jeffries
A bear made its way into a hotel kitchen before attacking a security guard (Colorado Parks and Wildlife)

A security guard was injured in a surprise attack at an Aspenresort after a bear found its way into the hotels kitchen.

The male security guard received a report on Monday around 11pm that there was a bear somewhere in the hotel, so he went to investigate, Colorado Parks & Wildlife said in a statement on Tuesday.

When he got to the kitchen, he startled the bear as he went around a corner into another area of the kitchen.

The bear then attacked the guard by swiping at him and knocking him down to the ground.

The guard luckily got away and called 911 after sustaining injuries to his back.

The Aspen Police Department arrived at the scene, and he was transported to hospital, where he received treatment for the scratches on his back and was released the next day.

CPW wildlife officers arrived at the scene just after midnight to try to find the bear and found out how the wild animal got into the hotel.

They believe that the bear managed to break in through a series of doors near the courtyard.

They also got a description of the bear from witnesses and specific identification markers to locate the bear.

CPW have told people around Aspen to be bear aware" (Colorado Parks and Wildlife)

By the next morning, the wildlife officers were able to locate the bear near the hotel, but they said that due to public safety, they were unable to safely tranquilise and capture the bear.

They followed up to say that their officers would return to the area on Tuesday evening to find the bear, although it is unclear if they have yet to capture the surprise attacker.

CPW issued a warning to people around Aspen to be bear aware as the bears are still active as they prepare to go into hibernation.

The officers warn that human-bear conflicts have been on the rise due to the increase of people taking to the Colorado countryside for camping and hiking trips.

There are an estimated 17,000 to 20,0000 black bears found in Colorado, which can weigh between 175-275 pounds depending on their gender, according to CPW.

While they are not naturally aggressive creatures, if they are intent on getting food, they can harm people who get in their way.

The CPW say that any bear they see become too comfortable around humans have to be destroyed.
Beyond Utopia follows several North Korean defectors, including Soyeon Lee whose son attempts to escape the dictatorship which was "agonising" for Madeleine Gavin to film (Roadside Attraction)

Beyond Utopia director Madeleine Gavin found some parts of filming the documentary "agonising", namely following North Korean defector Soyeon Lee's struggle over her son's attempted escape and capture she tells Yahoo UK.

Lee defected to South Korea years earlier, telling her son -who was then a child- that she was going to go across the border to China in order to sell goods on the black market and help earn some money, but actually took the opportunity to defect with the hope of bringing him with her at a later date.

In the documentary the camera follows as Lee discovers her son is attempting to defect, is captured, and then interrogated under torture before being sent to a political prison camp, where he is now. Filming with Lee during this time was particularly difficult, Gavin says.

"Following Soyeon's story was one of the most difficult experiences of my life," the filmmaker reflects.

"We were with her through periods of hope and heartbreak and this was not a short journey. This was well over a year of painstaking effort to get any accurate information out of North Korea.

"It was agonising. But the commitment we all, as filmmakers and subjects, had made to each other when we began this, is that we would bear witness and be there for each other no matter what."Madeleine Gavin

How Beyond Utopia came to be

Madeleine Gavin agreed to make Beyond Utopia after diving deep into the history of the country (Getty Images for SCAD) (Cindy Ord via Getty Images)

Beyond Utopia began life as a biopic for Heyonseo Lee, the North Korean defector who wrote the critically-acclaimed memoir The Girl with Seven Names, but when Gavin was approached she knew she wanted to do something different.

"I didn't know that I was the right person to make this movie because, for me, I felt if I were to do anything that I do I want to have a strong personal connection to it, and feel also like I'm contributing something," Gavin explains.

"[Like] there's a reason for me to be doing this as opposed to anyone else, and that actually started me on the path of research because my producer said 'just read her book'.

"I read [Hyeonsoo Lee's] book. It was beautiful, it was haunting, and it opened my eyes to North Korea because I've never read anything like that.

"What it really did, though, was spark my curiosity, and that's when I started to read everything and I went into months of research. Barbara Demick's book [Nothing to Envy] was one of the key ones, but I read everything I get my hands on."

During her research Gavin came to hear of Pastor Kim (pictured) whose underground network helps other defectors escape (Roadside Attraction)

It was through her research that Gavin came to learn of Pastor Kim, a North Korean defector who founded an underground network to help his fellow countrymen escape and find freedom, and who has also helped smuggle hidden cameras into the country so that footage of what the regime are doing can be seen by the outside world.

"Pastor Kim and I had to get to know each other for many months because he's been approached by so many filmmakers and networks, and he's very protective of the people he helps and of his very vast network, as he should be."Madeleine Gavin

"But at a certain point we just came to really trust each other and also to feel like we really wanted to do the same thing. We had the same ideas of what was important and what we would want this film to be."

Gavin adds: "We decided to work together and... we knew we wanted to follow two escapes. I mean, three would have been more prudent, but we couldn't do everything so that was our decision. That was our mandate. The next two groups who contacted Pastor Kim were the two stories in the film."

Filming the escapes

Beyond Utopia follows the Ro family as they escape North Korea through various countries (Dogwoof)

As well as following Lee's experience, the film charts the escape of the Ro family consisting of five people, a father, mother, grandmother and two girls from China to South Korea, a perilous journey that took them through Laos, Vietnam and Thailand.

It is also the first time in which anyone has been able to document North Korean defectors before they have made it to South Korea, and been put through the programme the country has to help teach them about the outside world and undo the indoctrination of the Kim regime.

In the case of the Ro family, the grandmother of the group shared her surprise when upon meeting Americans like Gavin they weren't immediately intent on killing her  as North Koreans are taught.

Gavin met with the Ro family during their escape, which is the first time any interview has been taken of defectors as they are in the process of escaping (Dogwoof)

"We met the Ro family a few weeks after they literally fled across the river from North Korea to China, and most of the weeks that they had spent in China they were hiding on Changbai Mountain in a hut," Gavin reflected.

"So really we met them just days after they had left the border of North Korea and [got into] China, and that was the most amazing experience."Madeleine Gavin

"The grandma of the family, she still firmly believed in Kim Jong-un, she would talk for hours about [how] her biggest regret in life was that she was not allowed by the regime to join the Communist Party.

"She felt tremendous guilt for having left with her daughter, she felt that she had abandoned Kim Jong-un. This woman for 80 years has believed all of this, she also for 80 years had believed that North Korea is the centre of the universe, that they were the most important country in the universe.

"Yes, life may be difficult, but it's way worse everywhere else. So they are actually lucky to be living where they are, and Americans are the worst people in the world.

The grandma of the Ro family (pictured) was interesting for Gavin to meet as she believed wholeheartedly in the Kim regime and felt "tremendous guilt" at leaving when they first met (Roadside Attraction)

"Not only that, they only exist to make North Koreans unhappy. We basically don't exist as human beings, our only goal is to hurt and kill these pure people, because there's this whole mythology about the pure North Korean race that the Kim regime problem propagates.

"So, with her, to have her have these 80 years of firm beliefs not just beliefs she knew these things to be true and then to be experiencing the outside world where she was seeing showers and toilets, and greenery, and then to be meeting Americans and having like a simpatico and finding that we actually connected, it was mind-blowing."

Gavin adds: "And it was mind blowing to witness that peeling of the onion of what she's always known to be true versus what she's experiencing personally, and the evolution of how she dealt with those really competing experiences."

Hope for the future

(L-R) The Ro family: Sunok Park, Jinhae Ro, Jinpyeong Ro, Yeongbok Woo, with Pastor Kim and Soyeon Lee. (Getty Images) (Emily Assiran via Getty Images)

Gavin also spoke about the way in which she hopes the documentary will help change perceptions of North Korea, and its people who are "unseen and unheard" in the public sphere.

"When we hear about North Korea, we hear about the nukes and the "Dear Leader" and the pageantry, but rarely do we hear about the actual people who live inside that country," the director says.

"My hope is that the empathy audiences feel for the subjects in our film will extend to the 26 million other North Koreans who are cut off, shrouded inside the walls of that country - unseen and unheard - and who desperately need our attention, our advocacy and our help."

Beyond Utopia is out in cinemas now.

Read more

Watch the trailer for Beyond Utopia:
For the fifth time in recent years, residents at Bourne special town meeting on Nov. 6 are faced with articles that would permit the sale of recreational marijuana or maintain an existing ban.

The meeting warrant contains 15 articles, 12 of which deal with funding or other routine business.

Article 15, which would lift the ban and allow recreational marijuana sales, was submitted by citizen petition by Lori Hough and her husband, Kevin Hough of Bourne, who co-own Capeway Cannabis in Carver.

Kevin Hough called the passage of Article 15 a matter of freedom of choice for residents since the sale of recreational marijuana is legal in Massachusetts. He also said 60% of the customers at the Carver store are over 50, many of them using marijuana for pain and sleep issues.

Kevin Hough of Capeway Cannabis speaks in Carver, in a 2020 photo.

The Carver customers include a number from Bourne.

They shouldnt have to leave town, Hough said.

None of the marijuana stores in surrounding towns have had any problems, he said, and he believes those opposing the shops are spreading misinformation. The petitioners are urging supporters to attend the town meeting and vote, Hough said.

Out of the 15 towns on Cape Cod, seven prohibit the sale of cannabis. In total, 17 medical and recreational dispensaries are on the Cape and Islands, according to the Cannabis Control Commission.

What is the history of marijuana sales in Bourne

A vote in March 2018 permitted recreational marijuana sales, but a second vote that year passed the current ban that was upheld again in 2019. In May, overturning the ban failed by one vote, 249 to 248. A simple majority is needed to pass.

The Select Board and Finance Committee are split on the subject, but ended up recommending approval of Article 15. The Finance Committee vote was 4-3 with one abstention and the Select Board voted 2-1 with two abstentions.

In Article 13, the Planning Board has proposed a zoning bylaw that creates a special zone in which sales of medical marijuana and recreational marijuana are permitted. The district would include North Sagamore, South Sagamore, downtown Buzzards Bay and MacArthur Boulevard. Main Street is not included. The Planning Board will serve as the site plan review and special permit granting authority under the zoning bylaw. That article requires a two-thirds majority to pass.

Anti-marijuana advocacy group Bourne Alliance is sponsoring Article 14 to adopt a zoning bylaw ban to prohibit all non-medical marijuana establishments. Approval would make future efforts to lift the ban on marijuana shops more difficult in the future, according to the explanation in the warrant. The measure needs a two-thirds vote to pass.

Some opponents, including Select Board member Anne-Marie Siroonian, fear lifting the ban would create a bad climate for children.

The town meeting warrant specifies that after the first 12 articles are dispensed with, Article 15 will be taken up first and Article 13 immediately afterward. Article 14 will be taken up immediately after Article 13, regardless of the order drawn in the lottery. Article 13 could still be passed if Article 15 fails and would only take effect if the prohibition is repealed in the future, according to an opinion by Town Counsel Bryan F. Bertram.

What is a town meeting?

A town meeting is both an event and an entity, according to the Secretary of the Commonwealth's website. As an event, it is a gathering of a towns eligible voters ,and is referred to as the town meeting. As an entity, it is the legislative body for towns in Massachusetts, and is referred to simply as town meeting. Thirteen of the 15 Cape Cod towns including Bourne have open town meetings, meaning all voters who live in that town may vote on all matters. Falmouth has a representative town meeting, where all voters elect town meeting members who then vote on all town meeting matters. The town of Barnstable is governed by an elected town council rather than by a town meeting.

When and where is the Bourne town meeting?

The meeting is at 7 p.m. on Nov. 6 at the auditorium of Bourne High School at 75 Waterhouse Road.

Where can I find the warrant?

The town meeting warrant can be found on opening page of the town website, www.townofbourne.com.

Thanks to our subscribers, who help make this coverage possible. If you are not a subscriber, please consider supporting quality local journalism with a Cape Cod Times subscription. Here are our subscription plans.

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Bourne group sponsors article to continue ban on recreational pot
There has been an average nine percent rise in female breast cancer cases

The number of people being diagnosed with cancer in Northern Ireland has continued to rise.

Over the last five years there has been an average 9% increase in female breast cancer cases and 6% increase in lung cancer.

Figures from the Northern Ireland Cancer Registry also suggest that more people are surviving and living longer.

The report highlights the importance of screening, in particular access to the new FIT test for bowel screening.

It is believed that an aging population and an increase in cancers screenings are partly behind the rise in diagnoses.

This latest study focuses on five cancers - breast, lung, melanoma, colorectal and oesophageal.

Survival rates

Between 2012 and 2016, five-year survival rates improved for a number of cancers including lung, colorectal, female breast cancer, oesophageal and stomach cancer.

This is attributed to improved treatment and early detection.

According to the data, improvement in survival rates is also linked to better access to screening where cancers are detected earlier and can be treated sooner.

For example, five-year survival is 8% for late-stage colorectal cancer compared to 94% for early stage.

Five-year survival is 20% for late-stage breast cancer, compared to 97% for early stage, and 2% for late-stage lung cancer, compared to 52% for early stage.

Covid-19 had a significant impact on cancer diagnosis.

In terms of new cancers diagnosed, there was considerable recovery in the number of cases detected in 2021 compared to 2020 - the first year of the pandemic.

There was a rebound increase in bowel cancer (up 17%) and breast cancer (up 9%) in 2021 compared to 2018-19

For bowel cancer, the review found a higher proportion of bowel cancer patients aged 55 to 64, which according to the review is "likely related to the resumption of cancer screening programs as well as the introduction of new FIT test for bowel screening in January 2021".

It has been a different picture in terms of lung cancer.

Findings show a significantly higher proportion of people were diagnosed at a later stage with poorer one-year survival rates for patients in 2021 compared to 2018-19.

48% were found to have a more advanced disease in 2021 compared to 42% pre-pandemic.

A lower proportion of lung cancer patients also had surgery, which is likely due to it being detected later.

Male breast cancer

The Northern Ireland Cancer Registry has also produced a separate, extensive report on male breast cancer for the first time.

It shows that it is a rare cancer with one in 714 men developing breast cancer by the time they are 85 years old compared to one in eight women.

The report shows men are also likely to be on average 10 years older than women when they are diagnosed, with a median age for diagnosis of 72.

In 2021, there were 85 male breast cancer survivors in Northern Ireland compared to 17,663 women.
EL PASO, Texas (Border Report)  As Mexico enters a presidential election cycle, there are no indications the drug violence that is claiming tens of thousands of lives every year is going to stop, according to a Virginia-based international security firm.

In fact, the violence could get worse in 2024 due to escalating conflicts between rival criminal organizations and fissures inside that countrys largest drug cartel.

We dont see any reason the violence will not continue to grow as AMLO (Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador) continues to deploy the military and plays whack-a-mole with these different groups, said Michael Ballard, director of intelligence for Global Guardian. You can arrest as many people as you want but theres always someone who wants to take their place  maybe the ones who give them up in the first place. There is a lot of backstabbing down there.

Treason is endemic in the drug trade, even among old friends and inside families. Ballard and others say the Sinaloa cartels designated caretaker Ismael El Mayo Zambada is now at war with the Chapitos, or Little Chapos, the sons of long-time friend and jailed cartel cofounder Joaquin El Chapo Guzman.

Mexico finding 1.8 clandestine graves daily, nonprofit says

We are going to continue to see these two groups fight until there is a winner. There is so much valuable territory, so many connections to the producers in (South America) that they are going to keep fighting for access to those drugs, to traffic them into the United States, Ballard said. And you dont really have ceasefires in Mexico.

If Guzmans sons overcome their former mentor, will they even share power among themselves?

Even with the Chapitos its hard to tell where they stand because they have four, five brothers  are they going to lead equally, or will one want to take the reins and are the others willing to be lieutenants in that operation? Ballard said. I think the fighting is going to continue and its going to be concentrated in Western (Mexico) and border states where we have seen the violence historically.

Sinaloa cartel employing public relations, trading resources with Chinese gangs

The Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels are flooding American cities with fentanyl, which last year contributed to many of the more than 100,000 overdose deaths in the country, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration told a House subcommittee this summer.

Mexico denies producing fentanyl; Texas Republicans baffled

But on Oct. 2, a total of 11 banner signs appeared overnight in the state of Sinaloa, blaming the news media for spreading misinformation regarding the Chapitos faction of the Sinaloa cartel trafficking in fentanyl.

The Chapitos stated in the signs that it is strictly prohibited to sell, fabricate or transport the substance known as fentanyl, including the sale of chemical products for its manufacture. The signs also warned for violators to be ready for the consequences.

The Baja California-based Arellano-Felix cartel purportedly hung banners in Tijuana saying they were joining the Chapitos faction of the Sinaloa cartel in banning the production of fentanyl. (Courtesy Baja California State Attorney Generals Office)

And this week, the Baja California-based Arellano-Felix cartel purportedly hung banners in Tijuana saying, We share the ideals of our friends, the Chapitos, in totally eradicating the production of fentanyl. The Arellano-Felix gang said whoever doesnt follow the mandate will have his head chopped off.

Mexico extradites to US one of DEAs most wanted

However, the news portal Proceso reported the Chapitos made a similar assertion last May. The fentanyl has continued to flow into the United States since May, CBP monthly seizure data shows.

Troy A. Miller, the acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, was at the San Ysidro Port of Entry on Thursday. He was asked if he believed the cartels pledge to stop trafficking fentanyl. I put no stock in it, he told Border Report.

Ballard said the banner sign campaign likely is meant to defuse the pressure for the Mexican government to make good on its vow to the United States to cooperate in slowing the flow of fentanyl north.

There does seem to be some public pressure they need to stay within the bounds of what is tolerable when it comes to some of the drugs they continue to traffic, he said.

Fentanyl frenzy driving up cartel employment in Mexico

The Sinaloa cartel and other transnational criminal organizations not only know the power of public relations but also the value of international trade. According to Ballard, the major Mexican drug cartels are now targeting mining operations in Mexico to ship stolen ore to China in exchange for precursor chemicals to manufacture fentanyl.

There is a nexus that exists between the cartels in Southwestern Mexico who are illegally mining or extorting mining companies they are taking (metals) to the ports, shipping them off to China as cheap raw materials and metals, Ballard said. So, you have the cartels and the triads and other organized criminal groups in China that say, I got what you need, you got some of what I need, lets trade. Theres a little bit of that going on.

An increasingly unsafe world for travelers, investors

Global Guardian this week released its 2024 Global Risk Map assessment to assist businesspeople and travelers in planning how to stay safe or safeguard their interests abroad.

Obvious safety risks exist in war zones like Ukraine, Israel and the Gaza Strip, while Taiwan and China at times appear to be a ticking time bomb with the potential to disrupt the worlds economies. But for most Americans, the proximity and boldness of bad actors in Mexico are a more immediate concern.

12 officers, local security secretary gunned down in Guerrero state

Tourist resorts like Acapulco have recorded a spate of recent drug-related killings. And now the two cartels are at war along the Mexico-Guatemala border.

Mexican news media late last month reported multiple shootouts, highway closures, a growing list of missing persons and residents of rural communities packing their belongings and moving elsewhere. On Sept. 23, El Universal and La Jornada reported that shootings and a show of force were reported simultaneously in Camalapa, El Maiz, Ciudad Cuauhtemoc and San Gregorio Chamic.

DEA takes down alleged dealers, seizes 130,000 fentanyl pills

Those are areas where not only drugs from South America are transported into Mexico for distribution into the U.S., but also profitable corridors for the smuggling of economic migrants and would-be asylum seekers in the United States, security experts say.

We have seen more and more evidence of the Jalisco and Sinaloa folks being seen in Guatemala and Central America and Colombia. Theyre operating there, maybe not controlling things directly but as these cartels get bigger, they want to become more vertical. They want to control and own more of the process, from growing to manufacturing, refining, shipping and selling (these drugs) and getting the cash back, Ballard told Border Report.

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

The Mexican cartels are extending their tentacles to Central and South American countries that are poorer than Mexico, Ballard said. That means law enforcement resources there are limited, public servants arent well-paid, and the drug traffickers can come in offering wads of cash or a bullet to the head, he said.

(Border Report San Diego correspondent Salvador Rivera contributed to this report.)

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego.
In the wake of two Wednesday mass shootings in Lewiston, Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, announced Thursday that he had reversed his stance on gun control, calling on Congress to ban assault weapons, CBS News reports. "I have opposed efforts to ban deadly weapons of war, like the assault rifle used to carry out this crime," Golden told reporters at a news conference Thursday. "The time has now come for me to take responsibility for this failure, which is why I now call on the United States Congress to ban assault rifles like the one used by the sick perpetrator of this mass killing in my hometown of Lewiston, Maine."

A gunman killed 18 people and wounded 13 others after opening fire at a bowling alley and restaurant in Lewiston, Maine, Wednesday night. The suspect, believed to be 40-year-old Robert Card, is still at large. Golden, who previously departed from his party to vote against gun control bills, said he's now interested in working with his colleagues to further and pass such legislation. "For the good of my community, I will work with any colleague to get this done in the time that I have left in Congress," he said.

The representative also asked for forgiveness because of his previous opposition to gun control measures, including his joining a handful of Democrats in voting against a bill last year that would have banned specific semi-automatic weapons in the aftermath of mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas; Buffalo, New York and Highland Park, Illinois. "To the people of Lewiston, my constituents throughout the 2nd District, to the families who lost loved ones, and to those who have been harmed, I ask for forgiveness and support as I seek to put an end to these terrible shootings," Golden said.
CAIRO, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- Five people were wounded in a blast related to the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict Thursday in Taba, an Egyptian Red Sea resort town near the Israeli border, according to local media.

Egypt's Al Qahera News TV reported a rocket fell in the town and a residential building was damaged. It broadcast images of the blast on live television. 
Denmark has pledged a military aid package to Ukraine worth 3.7 billion Danish kroner ($520 million), including T-72EA tanks, BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles, artillery shells, drones, and small arms, the Danish Defense Ministry announced on Oct. 26.

The tranche also includes engineering and recovery vehicles, which have been co-financed by Germany, the ministry said.

The package further encompasses support to NATO's Comprehensive Assistance Package, which coordinates non-lethal defense assistance to Kyiv, and to the EU's joint artillery shells procurement plan.

The tranche's content has been based upon consultations between Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen and his Ukrainian counterpart Rustem Umerov in Kyiv earlier this week, Poulsen said.

"Today's donation confirms that Ukraine can count on Denmark's unwavering support in their fight for freedom. This is support that is crucial for Ukraine to continue the fight," Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said.

"The donation also sends an important signal to both Ukraine and Russia that we do not lose focus, even though much of the world's attention these days is directed at Israel and Palestine."

According to the Danish Foreign Ministry's statement from Oct. 6, Copenhagen has already provided Ukraine with $2.3 billion in military aid and $354 million in civilian contributions since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion.

Denmark is also one of the few countries that have pledged to supply Kyiv with the much-desired F-16 fighter jets.

Read also: Biden all in on aid to Ukraine, yet House remains an issue

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
It's been 60 years since Doctor Who first premiered on British television, and the storied science-fiction franchise is marking the occasion with a trio of new specials featuring the return of fan-favorite star David Tennant. Having previously portrayed the Tenth Doctor, Tennant is back as the Fourteenth Doctor in the new trailer for the first of three specials overseen by returning showrunner Russell T Davies.

Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Specials | Official Trailer | Disney+

Disney Plus/YouTube David Tennant in new 'Doctor Who' special

Tennant's original run as the Tenth Doctor ended with a similar series of specials, which bid farewell to his incarnation of the time-traveling alien to make room for Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor (though Tennant returned to the role exactly a decade ago to celebrate the show's 50th anniversary alongside Smith in "The Day of the Doctor"). Now that he's back again, Tennant's character has to make up for one of his greatest failures: Wiping the mind of Donna Noble (Catherine Tate), including all the space-faring adventures that freed her from the banalities of her life, in order to protect her from knowledge that would destroy her.

Now that she's back, her knowledge will prove useful, as she seems to recognize the Toymaker (Neil Patrick Harris) from his battle with the Doctor long, long ago. Donna gets to stand alongside the Doctor again  but it might have a cost.

"I don't know if I can save your life this time," the Fourteenth Doctor warns her in the new trailer.

Tennant's return will only last through these specials, however. When the new season begins in 2024, he will officially be replaced by Ncuti Gatwa (Sex Education, Barbie) as the Fifteenth Doctor.

The first of the three Tennant-Davies specials is titled "The Star Beast," and will premiere Nov. 25 on the BBC in the U.K. and Ireland and on Disney+ everywhere else. "Wild Blue Yonder" follows on Dec. 2, and "The Giggle" on Dec. 9.

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

Related content:
The Palestinian Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas, released a list identifying all those it says has been killed by Israel in Gaza during the nearly 20-day war. Photo by Ismael Mohamad/UPI.

Oct. 27 (UPI) -- As its credibility is questioned by the Biden administration and the Israeli military, the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Ministry of Health released a list identifying the 6,747 people it says were killed in Gaza during Israel's 20-day war against the militant organization.

It said in a statement accompanying the figures that its doors "are open to all institutions to examine the healthcare system ... so that the world knows that behind every number is a human story with a known name and identity, and our people are not faceless entities that can be ignored."

Israel has been incessantly bombing Gaza in its war against Hamas since the militant group killed some 1,400 Israelis in a surprise attack on Oct. 7.

Palestinian health officials have been daily releasing a death toll of those killed in Israel's bombardment of the enclave. On Thursday, as questions have been raised about its figures' validity, the ministry released a document that gives a death toll of 7,028, with all but 281 having been identified by name, age, gender and identification number. By gender, 3,899 are female and 2,813 are male. There are also 2,665 deceased children, according to the ministry.

The report was released a day after U.S. President Joe Biden dismissed the ministry's death toll during a joint press conference alongside Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

The U.S. leader has publicly said he has asked Israel to minimize civilian casualties during its war in Gaza, and when asked Wednesday if the health ministry's figures say the Middle Eastern country is ignoring his request, Biden said: "I have no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using."

On Thursday, John Kirby, the National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, explained during a press conference in Washington that the ministry is run by Hamas and anything it reports can't be taken "at face value."

He said the Biden administration "would not dispute that" thousands of Palestinians have been killed but that "what we're saying is that we shouldn't rely on numbers put forth by Hamas and the Ministry of Health."

Israel Defense spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus further attacked the credibility of the ministry during his Thursday morning update on X, accusing it of having previously lied to inflate Palestinian death tolls.

However, Omar Shakir, with Human Rights Watch's Israel and Palestine director, told The New York Times that his international human rights group finds the ministry's death tolls consistent with other figures it has seen.

Shakir added that focus on the ministry's credibility was a distraction from the brutal war.

"Our focus should be on how to prevent further mass atrocities, instead of debating whether or not the number is exactly accurate or not," he said. "We know that Palestinians are being killed in unprecedentedly high numbers, and that needs to end."

In its statement Thursday, the Palestinian health ministry chastised the Biden administration for adopting Israel's position without scrutiny and of "speaking in the language of the criminal occupier and shamelessly casting doubt on the accuracy of the numbers announced by the Ministry of Health."
Biden team sees 2024 opportunity with Republicans' new speaker, and more campaign takeaways

The House at last has a new speaker and the 2024 presidential field has thoughts.

Meanwhile, Vivek Ramaswamy says he's scheduled another debate -- but not with a GOP rival. And Nikki Haley picked up a notable endorsement.

Here are campaign takeaways for Wednesday.

Republican hopefuls weigh in on new Speaker Mike Johnson

Mike Johnson's election by his Republican colleagues in the House ended three weeks in which the chamber didn't have a leader -- paralyzing half of Congress.

In the wake of his win, Republican candidates have struck a supportive tone.

Notably, however, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said he "vehemently" disagrees with Johnson's actions in support of blocking the certification of the 2020 presidential election results but said that he wants to judge Johnson based on his upcoming actions.

Former President Donald Trump tied Johnson's victory to his own "strong SUGGESTION" on social media to back Johnson, later telling reporters in New York: "I wanted to congratulate Mike Johnson, who will be a great speaker of the House, and we were very happy to help. I've known him for a long time."

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson was more succinct, writing on social media: "I, like most Americans, am eager to see Congress get back to work. Best of luck in your leadership position, Mr. Speaker!"

-ABc News' Oren Oppenheim, Nicholas Kerr, Lalee Ibssa, Soo Rin Kim and Libby Cathey

Biden and team react

Joe Biden's reaction as president was cordial and discussed working together with Johnson -- but his campaign's rhetoric was much more critical of the new speaker, labeling him "MAGA Mike" and echoing how Biden has sought to single out a segment of Trump-aligned Republicans as "MAGA" extremists.

"The American people have made clear that they expect House Republicans to work with me and with Senate Democrats to govern across the aisle  to protect our urgent national security interests and grow our economy for the middle class," Biden said in his statement.

But a campaign spokesperson said, in part, "The American people have rejected the extreme MAGA ideology at the ballot box because they understand what's at stake. And so to every MAGA Republican who supported this choice: We'll see you in November."

-ABC News' Fritz Farrow, Gabriella Abdul-Hakim and Libby Cathey

Ro vs. Ramaswamy?

Ramaswamy, an entrepreneur and commentator who has built a national profile while running for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, now says he's scheduled a location and date to debate Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California -- an event the two have gone back and forth over for months.

Ramaswamy and Khanna will finally face off at St. Anselm College in New Hamsphire on Nov. 1, the campaign says, though the school isn't confirming the event yet and Khanna hasn't commented.

While the Republican Party has been strict in preventing debates with 2024 candidates that involve only Republicans, they have allowed others -- like an upcoming event between California's Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

-ABC News' Kendall Ross and Kelsey Walsh

Haley gets a boost in N.H.

Former U.N. Ambassador Haley received the endorsement of Judd Gregg, a former New Hampshire governor and senator, who wrote in the local Union Leader newspaper that she is an "exceptionally strong leader" who can "not only our party together but importantly the nation together."

The endorsement is a major pick-up for Haley, who is currently sitting in second place in the state, according to the latest 538 polling average --- though still nearly 30 points behind Trump, the front-runner.

"Granite Staters are ready to leave the drama behind & elect a new generational leader. I'm honored to have Sen. Gregg's support," Haley wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

-ABC News' Nicholas Kerr

Biden team sees 2024 opportunity with Republicans' new speaker, and more campaign takeaways originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Non-white Democrats upset as Dean Phillips expected to launch challenge to Biden in New Hampshire

Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips ' expected decision to launch a long shot Democratic primary challenge against President Joe Biden on Friday has upset several major non-white members of the party who think him starting a campaign by filing for the New Hampshire primary will be emblematic of what they argued was his "disregard" for Democrats' emphasis on the South and diverse voters.

"He's skipping a very diverse state to go to a non-diverse state," one senior Black Democrat, who requested anonymity to speak candidly, told ABC News, adding, "I think that is a telltale sign of where your values are."

Phillips' team did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

He has repeatedly teased a bid against Biden in the primary but hasn't confirmed one yet, though he is thought to be gearing up to file for New Hampshire's nominating contest on Friday -- the deadline to enter.

MORE: Democratic lawmaker calls for 'well-positioned' primary challenger to Biden

"I think the country would be well served by a new generation of compelling, well-prepared, dynamic Democrats to step up," Phillips, a former member of House Democratic leadership, said last year.

He noted then that "I have respect for Joe Biden. I think he has -- despite some mistakes and some missteps, despite his age -- I think he's a man of decency, of good principle, of compassion, of empathy, and of strength."

Beginning a campaign with New Hampshire, which has traditionally been the nation's first primary state, would ensure Phillips receives the traditional media attention the state attracts during presidential cycles.

Phillips did not file to run in Nevada's Democratic primary against Biden and author and speaker Marianne Williamson, another long shot candidate, and he has only a few weeks to file to be in South Carolina's Democratic primary.

PHOTO: Rep. Dean Phillips walks down the House steps after the last votes of the week in the Capitol, April 20, 2023. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

The Democrats who spoke with ABC News said they feel Phillips is snubbing South Carolina, which was selected by the Democratic National Committee and backed by Biden to lead the party's new nominating calendar because it is seen as better representing the geographic and racial diversity of the party's voters, including Black Democrats, a key bloc.

Nevada will follow South Carolina in the new calendar.

That change drew the ire of New Hampshire Democrats, who themselves feel slighted in the calendar shuffle and argue New Hampshire remains more competitive in the general election than South Carolina. As a result of the scheduling dispute, at least some of the state's delegates are likely to be stripped away.

The senior Black Democrat suggested that by avoiding South Carolina, Phillips would be dodging scrutiny and questions from the sizable share of Black voters there.

"I think it's BS and it's all about him," this person said.

Phillips has also not consulted the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), an influential group of colleagues when it comes to getting a better understanding of the constituency, CBC member and institute chair Rep. Bennie Thompson told ABC News.

Thompson, D-Miss., said he and other Black congressional leaders were "concerned" at the lack of outreach, and whatever overtures Phillips may have made privately have "not resonated."

Thompson said he finds the idea of a Phillips launch in New Hampshire "divisive and it's disrespectful to a large population and support base for the Democratic Party."

The South Carolina Democratic Party told ABC that Phillips has not made contact with them. The deadline for him to file for the state primary is Nov 10.

PHOTO: President Joe Biden, left, speaks with Rep. Bennie Thompson at the White House in Washington, DC, July 25, 2023. (Samuel Corum/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

"The congressman from Minnesota's choice to disregard South Carolina's historic first in the nation primary, where Black voters, rural voters, and Southern voters will finally be at the forefront ... is saying the quiet part out loud," the state chair, Christale Spain, said. "He's an unserious candidate."

Phillips has not reached out to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus either, the group's chair, Rep. Nanette Barragan said.

Barragan, D-Calif., like other leading Democrats, has pledged support for Biden's reelection -- unity that has also attracted criticism from Williamson and voices like Phillips, who say the party should seek what they see as fresh leaders given Biden's poor approval ratings.

Antjuan Seawright, a Democratic political strategist, called Phillips' potential preference for New Hampshire a mistake because of South Carolina's larger political importance in the 2024 primary race.

"I think he'll quickly learn that the road to Heaven in the White House goes through South Carolina. And you can't get any political traction without having strong equal support in South Carolina," Seawright said.

Biden's own fortunes were reversed during his 2020 run after he won the South Carolina primary.

"For those of us who've labored long and hard to grow upon and to make sure that the party represents America  I think he's taken it in a different direction," the senior Democrat said of Phillips. "And that direction is a path to losing, not winning."

ABC News' Isabella Murray contributed to this report.

Non-white Democrats upset as Dean Phillips expected to launch challenge to Biden in New Hampshire originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
The U.S. retains the ability to defend itself and hasn't ruled out retaliatory operations after the Pentagon said American forces were attacked by Iran-backed militants at least 13 times in the Middle East in the last week, President Joe Biden said Wednesday.

"My warning to the ayatollah [is] that if they continue to move against those troops, we will respond, and he should be prepared," Biden told reporters, referring to Iran's supreme leader.

Pentagon officials have echoed that.

"We will always maintain the inherent right of self-defense. And if there is a response, should we choose to have one, we would do that at a time and place of our choosing," Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters on Tuesday.

"We are preparing for this escalation both in terms of defending our forces and responding decisively," he said.

There is precedent for a potential military response: In recent years the U.S. has conducted retaliatory airstrikes targeting Iran-backed groups in Iraq following previous attacks on U.S. military bases.

PHOTO: Men chant slogans as they hold up Kalashikov assault rifles during a tribal meeting in the Houthi rebel-held capital Sanaa, Yemen, Sept. 21, 2019. (Mohammed Huwais/AFP via Getty Images)

Tensions have been rising in the Middle East in the wake of a Hamas terror attack on Israel on Oct. 7 which killed more than 1,400 people, according to Israeli officials.

Israel subsequently launched a war on Hamas in Gaza, the neighboring Palestinian territory controlled by the extremist group. More than 6,500 people have since been killed in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry that is run by Hamas. ABC News has not independently confirmed this casualty figure.

Leaders from Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian militant group, and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah -- all of whom, the U.S. says, are sponsored by Iran -- reportedly met in Beirut on Wednesday.

Amid the unfolding conflict, the U.S. has surged military assets to the Middle East both in support of Israel's response to Hamas and as a deterrent to other countries, like Iran and their proxies, becoming involved, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Sunday on ABC's "This Week."

"We're concerned about potential escalation. In fact, what we're seeing is the prospect of a significant escalation of attacks on our troops and our people throughout the region," Austin told "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl.

PHOTO: The U.S. Navy destroyer USS Carney sets sail in the Bosphorus in Istanbul, Turkey, July 14, 2019. (Yoruk Isik/Reuters)

One of the American warships, the USS Carney, last week shot down multiple missiles and drones as they crossed the Red Sea after being launched by Iran-backed Houthis from Yemen, the Pentagon has said.

Ryder said on Wednesday that the missiles had the capability of reaching Israel, though the U.S. hasn't concluded who the target was.

Two U.S. officials told ABC News around 20 service members have sustained minor injuries, such as cuts and tinnitus, in the 13 attacks by the Iran-sponsored militias in Iraq and Syria since Oct. 17.

The attacks have included one-way drone assaults and rocket launches, according to the Pentagon. In the U.S. view, Iran bears responsibility because they have funded and supplied these militias, Ryder said Tuesday.

Ahead of any potential retaliatory moves, the U.S. has also sought to tamp down fears that the Israel-Hamas war could spiral out in the Middle East -- in the kind of escalation not seen there in decades.

"The United States does not seek conflict with Iran. We do not want this war to widen," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday. "But if Iran or its proxies attack U.S. personnel anywhere, make no mistake: We will defend our people, we will defend our security -- swiftly and decisively."

ABC News' Matt Seyler contributed to this report.

US not ruling out retaliation against Iran-backed groups after attacks on soldiers in Middle East originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
GRINNELL, Iowa  Hundreds of Grinnell College students staged a walkout on Wednesday morning to express solidarity with Palestine and demand that the college stop any financial support of Israeli apartheid.

Demonstrators gathered in the Humanities and Social Studies Center to hear student organizers call for a ceasefire before marching to Nollen House to deliver the demands to college administrators.

Students carried signs reading FREE PALESTINE and Zionism is white supremacy and chanted Netanyahu, you cant hide, we charge you with genocide, in reference to Israels prime minister.

Grinnell Students for Justice in Palestine organized the walkout to demand an end to the siege of Gaza and U.S. military funding and arms to Israel. The walkout at Grinnell was part of an international day of demonstrations facilitated by the Palestinian Youth Movement, an organization with more than 200 college chapters in America and Canada.

Grinnell SJP leaders distributed to demonstrators a list of demands for the college, asking students, alumni, faculty, staff and community members to apply coordinated, unified pressure on the administration and trustees.

Hundreds of Grinnell College students organized a walkout in support of Palestine and demanded that the college cease its financial support of Israeli oppression on Wednesday, Oct. 25.

The demands included more transparency from Grinnell on its investments and immediate divestment from any and all investments that financially support Israel or its military, pointing to Grinnells history as one of the first academic institutions to divest from South African apartheid.

Students also insisted that Grinnell release a statement acknowledging the genocidal violence and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to U.S. military aid to Israel. Students urged that a scholarship fund be created for Palestinian students and more Palestinian scholarship incorporated into course curricula.

We cannot call ourselves a socially just institution while continuing to stay silent in the face of Israeli apartheid and oppression, wrote Grinnell SJP.

The Israel-Hamas war: A backdrop

Israel formally declared war against Hamas Oct. 7 after the Islamist militant group fired rockets into Israel and stormed southern Israeli cities, killing and injuring thousands of soldiers and civilians and taking more 200 hostages.

The Israeli military responded with counter-attacks and a siege of Gaza, halting the supply of electricity, food, water and fuel to the Palestinian enclave.

Grinnell SJP leaders wrote in a statement of solidarity on Oct. 11 that peace is contingent on lifting the blockade, ending the illegal Israeli occupation, and dismantling the Israeli apartheid state, adding that there can be no peace without Palestinian liberation.

Recently, President Biden requested a $106 billion national security package that includes $14 billion to help Israel defend itself against Hamas. Biden is hoping that bundling aid for Israel and Ukraine will increase the likelihood of passage through a Congress increasingly divided on aid packages. Included in the administrations request is $10 billion for humanitarian relief for Israel, Gaza and Ukraine.

Tensions rise in US colleges over Israel-Palestine stances

The demonstration at Grinnell came at a time when tensions are high between students, administrators, donors and lawmakers across the United States.

Prominent Harvard University alumni recently denounced a pro-Palestinian statement signed by 34 student organizations that held the Israeli government entirely responsible for all unfolding violence. Some alumni also threatened to stop donations unless the university took action against the signatories.

Similar controversies have played out at other colleges, including three Ivy League students losing job offers after their employers learned of their pro-Palestinian and, in some cases, pro-Hamas stances.

Protesters gather in response to the Palestine and Israel conflict, Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023, at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind.

In Florida, governor and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis ordered the State University System of Florida on Oct. 24 to shut down chapters of SJP.

In Iowa, Republican Sen. Joni Ernst advocated for the federal defunding of some colleges that are promoting antisemitism.

Grinnell College administration responds to the protest

The promotion of the walkout Tuesday through Grinnell platforms prompted a response from the administration Wednesday morning. At least one member of Grinnell SJP sent emails to numerous student organization distribution lists, encouraging students to participate in the walkout.

Grinnell President Anne Harris wrote in an all-campus email sent Wednesday that the college does not endorse the content of these communications.

Hundreds of Grinnell College students organized a walkout in support of Palestine and demanded that the college cease its financial support of Israeli oppression on Wednesday, Oct. 25.

As an institution, we affirm the right to assembly and support free speech and expression in the form of protest and demonstration, Harris wrote. We simultaneously have responsibilities to each other. We have a responsibility to sustain an environment free from harassment and discrimination.

Grinnell College has not released a statement on the Israeli-Hamas conflict since Oct. 9, when Harris shared a message mourning the loss of life on both sides.

Grinnell SJP leaders encouraged students to contact the Colleges Board of Trustees and continue demonstrating support for Palestine moving forward.

The S&B requested comment from Harris and was directed to Ellen de Graffenreid, vice president of communications and marketing. De Graffenreid said Harris was traveling and referred the S&B to Harris email sent on Wednesday morning.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Grinnell College students rally for Palestine
A hero father-of-four has died after saving two of his sons from an electroc shock incident at a shopping mall on Sunday.

Nate Davenport, a US Navy veteran who served in the Iraq War, was electrocuted in a fountain at the Harbourside Place shopping center in Florida and later died from his injuries. Four others were injured in the incident.

The Jupiter Police Department and Palm Beach County Fire Rescue were called to the mall at around 3.30pm on Sunday after reports of a possible drowning, the fire team wrote on Facebook.

Callers said that there was a juvenile in the fountain who reportedly looked in distress, now believed to be one of Mr Davenports sons.

Authorities found multiple people who possibly went into the fountain to help the panicking child and had allegedly received electrical shocks while in the water.

Mr Davenports mother, Mary Davenport described the incident on Sunday, telling WPBF that her son headed for the fountain after hearing his children screaming, Were getting shocked  were getting shocked.

So he rushed in to save them, she said. But the father-of-four was shocked during the rescue, along with other bystanders.

He took a hit for his kids. We had 45 years with him. God blessed us with him. Hes an amazing man, she added. Hes loyal. Hes a good father. Hes a great husband. He loves Jesus. And yeah, he gave his life for his kids.

And we obviously know that he did exactly what we would expect him to do, Mr Davenports brother-in-law, Mike Bishop, added. And you know what any father would do, hopefully, but him, especially just his character, thats what he was.

While eight people were assessed in total, five people had to be transported to hospital after the horrific incident, including Mr Davenports 8-year-old and 11-year-old sons, as well as another child and an adult.

Mr Davenport was also transported to hospital, where he regained consciousness but later died. His wife, parents and children were unable to say goodbye, according to reports.

Friends and colleagues of the 45-year-old paid tribute to him following news of his death. Everything Nate did was to try and make his family better. He was just such a good person. He was like a brother to everybody, Scott Gorman, a longtime friend, told The Palm Beach Post.

Harbourside Place, a mall in Jupiter, Florida, has a large fountain that doubles as an amphitheatre on the edge of its complex.

Police have launched an investigation into how the incident happened. Florida Power and Light (FPL) shut off the power at the fountain to assist authorities in their investigation.

The fountain at Harbourside Place with the No Climbing signs (Google Maps)

Representatives from Harbourside Place said that the fountain has No Climbing written on the edge of the fountain to forewarn that the area is restricted.

"Our focus is on the people involved and their families. We ask the community to join us in praying for them," the shopping mall said in a statement to WPBF-TV.

FPL said in a statement to Fox35 that they are aware of the serious incident that occurred at the mall on Sunday.

Our crews responded quickly to ensure the site was safe for first responders to access the area, they said. 

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of those involved."

The Independent has contacted Harbourside Place and FPL for further comment.
House Republicans on Wednesday chose the previously little-known conservative Rep. Mike Johnson to be the next speaker on Thursday, and Democrats were quick to push forward with attack ads on Johnson's record on abortion.

In January 2022, the congressman from Louisiana said "a child in the womb" is a "unique human being with unique DNA" from the moment of conception. He called for the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade long before the justices issued their decision in the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization in June 2022.

Since then, Democrats have run on Republicans' opposition to abortion rights, a strategy that helped stave off what had been predicted as a red wave in the 2022 midterm elections.

Ahead of Wednesday's speakership vote, House Judiciary Democrats posted a video on X of Johnson saying Roe v. Wade "gave constitutional cover to the elected killing of unborn children in America, period. You think about the implications of that on the economy. We're all struggling here to cover the bases of social security and medicare and medicaid and all the rest. If we had all those able bodied workers in the economy, we wouldn't be going upside down and toppling over like this."

Newly elected Speaker of the House Mike Johnson delivers remarks with fellow Republicans on the steps of the U.S. Capitol on Oct. 25, 2023. / Credit: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

Johnson is a constitutional lawyer and he served on the House Judiciary Committee prior to becoming speaker. As House speaker, he controls whether any legislation dealing with abortion will see the floor. His views are also important given the division within the GOP on the issue.

"Abortion takes a baby's life  a person  made in God's image," he tweeted in Jan. 2022 as he expressed his hope that the Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade.

CBS News has reached out to Johnson's office for comment.

In 2005, Johnson wrote an op-ed for a newspaper in his home state of Louisiana that compared the judicial philosophy that legalized the right to an abortion to Hitler's and called abortion "a holocaust." The op-ed came in response to the death of Terri Schiavo, the Florida woman whose vegetative state triggered a long legal battle and federal action from Congress.

In the opinion piece published by the Shreveport Times, Johnson wrote, "The prevailing judicial philosophy is no different than Hitler's. Because the life of an unborn child (or a disabled Terri Shiavo [sic], or the elderly and infirm) may be difficult or inconvenient or even costly to society now means it can be terminated."

Earlier this year, Johnson co-sponsored a bill that sought to declare "that the right to life guaranteed by the Constitution is vested in each human being at all stages of life, including the moment of fertilization, cloning, or other moment at which an individual comes into being."

As a staunch abortion opponent he has also put forth multiple other pieces of legislation seeking to restrict the procedure, including co-sponsoring a bill to defund Planned Parenthood.

In February, Johnson introduced a bill that would make it illegal for minors to be transported across state lines to get an abortion "without satisfying parental involvement law." That legislation also sought to allow a parent to take civil action against anyone who does transport their child to receive an abortion unless the parent was involved in an incestual relationship with the minor.

Last year, he proposed the Unborn Child Support Act, which would allow expecting mothers to collect child support payments while they are pregnant.

Johnson has also championed Lousiana's abortion law, which is a near-total ban and allows physicians to be fined or jailed for performing the procedure.

The Planned Parenthood Action Fund, meanwhile, jumped into the fray on Tuesday saying Johnson has a "long and disastrous record of attacking abortion rights and the full suite of sexual and reproductive health care services."

"House Republicans, including those claiming to be moderates, know exactly what they are doing by electing him as speaker: they are fully embracing extremism and a plan to ban abortion nationwide," Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Action Fund said in a statement on Tuesday.

Israeli forces in close combat with Hamas fighters as they advance into Gaza City

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Palestinians look for survivors after an Israeli airstrike on buildings at Shati refugee camp, Gaza Strip, Friday, Oct. 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Mohammed Al Masri)

Palestinians look for survivors after an Israeli airstrike on buildings at Shati refugee camp, Gaza Strip, Friday, Oct. 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Mohammed Al Masri)

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP)  Israel knocked out internet and communications in the Gaza Strip in stepped-up bombardment Friday night, largely cutting off its 2.3 million people from contact with each other and the outside world and creating a near-blackout of information, as the military said it was expanding ground operations in the territory.

The militarys announcement signaled it was moving closer to an all-out invasion of Gaza, where it has vowed to crush the ruling Hamas militant group after its bloody incursion in southern Israel three weeks ago.

Explosions from continuous airstrikes lit up the sky over Gaza City for hours after nightfall. The Palestinian telecom provider, Paltel, said the bombardment caused complete disruption of internet, cellular and landline services. The cutoff meant that casualties from strikes and details of ground incursions could not immediately be known. Some satellite phones continued to function.

Already plunged into darkness after most electricity was cut off weeks ago, Palestinians were thrown into isolation, huddling in homes and shelters with food and water supplies running out.

Relatives outside Gaza panicked after their messaging chats with families inside suddenly went dead and calls stopped going through.

I was so scared this was going to happen, said Wafaa Abdul Rahman, director of a feminist organization based in the West Bank city of Ramallah. She said she hadnt heard for hours from family in central Gaza.

Weve been seeing these horrible things and massacres when its live on TV, so now what will happen when theres a total blackout? she said, referring to scenes of families that have been crushed in homes by airstrikes over the past weeks.

Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said ground forces were expanding their activity Friday evening in Gaza and acting with great force ... to achieve the objectives of the war. Israel says its strikes target Hamas fighters and infrastructure and that the militants operate from among civilians, putting them in danger.

GAZA STRIP, GAZA - OCTOBER 27: Smoke rises and billows in different regions of Gaza as the Israeli army conducts the most intense air attacks on the 21st day in Gaza Strip, Gaza on October 27, 2023. Due to Israel cutting off electricity and not allowing fuel supplies, Gaza was plunged into darkness, and the sky was frequently illuminated by the bombs being dropped by Israeli aircraft. (Photo by Ali Jadallah/Anadolu via Getty Images)

GAZA STRIP, GAZA - OCTOBER 27: Smoke rises and billows in different regions of Gaza as the Israeli army conducts the most intense air attacks on the 21st day in Gaza Strip, Gaza on October 27, 2023. Due to Israel cutting off electricity and not allowing fuel supplies, Gaza was plunged into darkness, and the sky was frequently illuminated by the bombs being dropped by Israeli aircraft. (Photo by Ali Jadallah/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The Hamas media center reported heavy nighttime clashes with Israeli forces at several places, including what it said was an Israeli incursion east of Bureij. Asked about the report, the Israeli military reiterated early Saturday that it had been carrying out targeted raids and expanding strikes with the aim of preparing the ground for future stages of the operation.

Israel has amassed hundreds of thousands of troops along the border ahead of an expected ground offensive. Earlier Friday the military said ground forces conducted their second hourslong incursion inside Gaza in as many days, striking dozens of militant targets over the past 24 hours.

The Palestinian death toll in Gaza has soared past 7,300, more than 60% of them minors and women, according to the territorys Health Ministry. A blockade on Gaza has meant dwindling supplies, and the U.N. warned that its aid operation helping hundreds of thousands of people was crumbling amid near-depleted fuel.

More than 1,400 people were slain in Israel during Hamas Oct. 7 attack, according to the Israeli government, and at least 229 hostages were taken into Gaza. Palestinian militants have fired thousands of rockets into Israel, including one that hit a residential building in Tel Aviv on Friday, wounding four people.

The overall number of deaths far exceeds the combined toll of all four previous Israel-Hamas wars, estimated at around 4,000.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel expects a long and difficult ground offensive into Gaza soon. It will take a long time to dismantle Hamas vast network of tunnels, he said, adding that he expects a lengthy phase of lower-intensity fighting as Israel destroys pockets of resistance.

His comments pointed to a potentially grueling and open-ended new phase of the war after three weeks of relentless bombardment. Israel has said it aims to crush Hamas rule in Gaza and its ability to threaten Israel. But how Hamas defeat will be measured and an invasions endgame remain unclear. Israel says it does not intend to rule the tiny territory but not who it expects to govern  even as Gallant suggested a long-term insurgency could ensue.

In Washington, the Pentagon said U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with Gallant on Friday and underscored the importance of protecting civilians during the Israel Defense Forces operations and focusing on the urgency of humanitarian aid delivery for civilians in Gaza. The Pentagon said Austin also brought up the need for Hamas to release all of the hostages.

The conflict has threatened to ignite a wider war across the region. Arab nations  including U.S. allies and ones that have reached peace deals or normalized ties with Israel  have raised increasing alarm over a potential ground invasion, likely to bring even higher casualties amid urban fighting.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi warned on X that the outcome will be a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions for years to come.

With no electricity, no communications and no water, many of those trapped in Gaza had little choice but to wait in their homes or seek the relative safety of schools and hospitals as Israel expanded its bombing early Saturday.

Throughout the night, orange fireballs exploded on the horizon above the apartment buildings and refugee camps of Gaza City, briefly illuminating clouds of white smoke hanging in the air from previous strikes. Some bombs hit in tight groups, apparently slamming into the same location.

Lynn Hastings, U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the occupied territories, posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that without phone lines and internet, hospitals and aid operations would be unable to operate. The Red Crescent said it could not contact medical teams and residents could no longer call ambulances, meaning rescuers would have to chase the sound of explosions to find the wounded. International aid groups said they were only able to reach a few staffers using satellite phones.

The Committee to Protect Journalists expressed alarm, saying the world is losing a window into the reality of the conflict. It warned that the information vacuum can be filled with deadly propaganda, dis- and misinformation.

The loss of internet and phones deals a further blow to a medical and aid system that relief workers say was already on the verge of collapse under Israels weekslong seal. More than 1.4 million people have fled their homes, nearly half crowding into U.N. schools and shelters. Aid workers say a trickle of aid Israel has allowed to enter from Egypt the past week is a tiny fraction of what is needed.

Gaza hospitals have been scrounging for fuel to run emergency generators that power incubators and other life-saving equipment.

Gallant said Israel believes that Hamas would confiscate any fuel that enters. He said Hamas uses generators to pump air into its hundreds of kilometers (miles) of tunnels, which originate in civilian areas. He showed reporters aerial footage of what he said was a tunnel shaft built right next to a hospital.

For air, they need oil. For oil, they need us, he said.

Late Friday the army released photos showing what it said were Hamas installations in and around Gaza Citys Shifa Hospital, Gazas largest. Israel has made such claims before, but declined to say how the photos were obtained.

Little is known about Hamas tunnels and other infrastructure. Claims by the military and Gallant couldnt be verified.

Speaking at Shifa Hospital, Hamas media chief Salama Maroof called Israels claims lies and said they were a precursor for striking this facility.

I ring the alarm bell. There is imminent danger hovering above the medical facility, Maroof said. The hospital has been overwhelmed and around 40,000 displaced residents have crowded its grounds for shelter, the U.N. says.

Asked if Israel plans to target Shifa, Hagari said, We will not be able to allow terror activity against Israel from hospitals.

Hundreds of thousands of people remain in northern Gaza.

In related developments:

 The U.N. General Assembly approved a nonbinding resolution calling for a humanitarian truce in Gaza leading to a cessation of hostilities. It was the first U.N. response to Hamas surprise Oct. 7 attacks and Israels ongoing military response and vow to obliterate the militant group.

 In New York City, hundreds of protesters calling for a cease-fire filled the famed Grand Central Terminal during rush hour Friday, wearing T-shirts saying Jews say cease-fire now and Not in our name. Many were detained and removed, their hands zip-tied behind their backs. Police couldnt immediately provide a number of arrests.

___

Federman reported from Tel Aviv and Mroue from Beirut. Najib Jobain in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Jack Jeffery in Cairo, Isabel DeBre in Jerusalem, and Brian Melley in London, contributed to this report.

___

This story has been updated to correct the name of the Hamas spokesman, Salama Maroof.
CAIRO, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- A projectile hit near an electric power plant in Egypt's Nuweiba city in South Sinai province on Friday, local media reported.

Egypt's Al Qahera News TV aired a video, showing "a strange body hitting near an electric plant, while a cloud of smoke was rising."

Meanwhile, eyewitnesses told Al Qahera News TV that Egyptian warplanes have been hovering over Nuweiba since dawn till now.

Earlier on Friday, the Egyptian army said an "unidentified drone" fell near a hospital in Taba, a Red Sea resort town bordering Israel, approximately 60 kilometers northeast of Nuweiba, resulting in minor injuries to six people.

The Egyptian army said it is investigating the incident in Taba.

Eyewitnesses told Xinhua that a hotel in Taba asked guests to leave for other hotels in South Sinai, but most of the guests opted to leave the place and took a bus to Cairo.

On Sunday, several Egyptian soldiers were slightly injured by fragments of an Israeli tank shell that accidentally hit an Egyptian army watchtower along the border, according to a statement from the Egyptian army. 
Ipswich's Novotel, on the Greyfriars Road/Star Lane roundabout, has been housing asylum seekers for about a year

A hotel in Ipswich will be among the first to stop housing migrants following a government announcement.

The town centre Novotel has been used by the Home Office to house asylum seekers since October last year.

Immigration minister Robert Jenrick has told MPs 50 hotels will be closed to asylum seekers by January.

Ipswich's Conservative MP Tom Hunt said the Ipswich Novotel would be one of those, and he was pleased the hotel could "be put back to its proper use".

A specific timetable for the 50 hotels was not announced, but Mr Hunt said the Novotel should stop housing refugees "by the end of next month".

Ipswich MP Tom Hunt said he was pleased the Novotel would be a hotel once again

In a statement to Parliament, Mr Jenrick said agreements with France and Albania, along with stricter penalties for those connected to illegal migration, had helped reduce the numbers arriving in small boats, enabling the government to start ending the use of asylum hotels.

"These hotels should be assets for their local communities, serving businesses and tourists - not housing illegal migrants at an unsustainable cost to the taxpayer," said Mr Jenrick.

A letter seen by the BBC revealed that the 2022 plan to house migrants at the Ipswich Novotel meant some hotel staff would be replaced by workers brought in by the Home Office.

Mr Hunt said with the latest announcement, he now hoped those who "were pressured to resign should be not only offered their jobs back but ideally on better terms than before".

According to Mr Hunt, refugees housed in the hotel could either be moved to ex-military barracks in Essex, transported to barges, or "depending on what happens with the Supreme Court, some will be eligible for going to Rwanda".

Martin Simmons, from Suffolk Refugee Support, said: "Hotels have never been used in the past for this purpose. This only came about because of a failure to process people's asylum claims that left people in limbo."

He said he would welcome the closure of hotels for this purpose "if it meant that people were getting fair and quick hearings on their asylum claims and being allowed to move on with their lives".

The Illegal Migration Act became law in July, meaning the home secretary has a legal duty to detain and remove anyone entering the UK illegally.

Mr Hunt confirmed his position on the issue of asylum seekers and other migrants, stating "if you come to the country illegally, under no circumstances should you be able to stay".

"The Illegal Migration Act, which was passed three or four months ago, made it explicitly clear that if you arrive illegally in the UK from a safe European county, ie France, then you won't be eligible for asylum in this country, which I agree with.

"France is a perfectly safe country and I think you should apply for asylum in the first safe country you get to, not break our immigration laws by coming in illegally."

Migrants have been staying on the Bibby Stockholm barge moored at Portland in Dorset since August

In July, the Home Office began housing migrants at MDP [Ministry of Defence Police] Wethersfield, near Braintree in Essex, while their applications to stay in the UK were processed

Follow East of England news on Facebook, Instagram and X. Got a story? Email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp 0800 169 1830
Startling before and after satellite images demonstrate the scale of destruction in Gaza during the war between Israel and Hamas. (Maxar Technologies/Reuters)

Gaza has now faced nearly three weeks of unrelenting air strikes from Israel.

The bombardment began after more than 1,400 people in southern Israel were killed by gunmen from Hamas - the UK-proscribed terrorist organisation which runs Gaza - during its assault on 7 October.

Since then, the Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry has said more than 7,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israels retaliatory strikes, which have caused destruction to civilian neighbourhoods.

It comes amid diplomatic wranglings to get aid into Gaza following Israel's blockade on supplies. Some aid trucks have been allowed in from Egypt, but the UN - which has called for a ceasefire - said this has only provided "crumbs".

The following before and after satellite pictures, newly released by Maxar Technologies, show the scale of the damage caused to areas in the north of Gaza.

1. Beit Hanoun

This is a view, 11 days apart, of Beit Hanoun. The city is in the north-east of Gaza, close to the Israel border.

It was among the first places hit hard by the retaliatory strikes, with many roads and buildings destroyed and thousands of people displaced.

Father-of-four Yamen Hamad, 35, whose home in the city was destroyed in the strikes, said on 11 October: "I lived through all the wars and incursions in the past, but I have never witnessed anything worse than this war."

2. Beit Hanoun

This is a wider view of Beit Hanoun, and this time with the images taken five months apart.

The city's hospital stopped operations early in the conflict because of the intense bombardment of the area, something which is highlighted by the second image above.

3. Al-Karama

The al-Karama district is another neighbourhood in the north of Gaza which has suffered destruction.

Like Beit Hanoun, it was one of the first districts to be targeted. On 11 October, civilians were pictured trying to navigate piles of rubble, with many people carrying plastic bags filled with their belongings after seeing their homes destroyed.

4. Al-Atatra

The al-Atatra neighbourhood is in the northern city of Beit Lahia, also near the Israel border.

The stark before and after comparison demonstrates the extent of the damage caused by the strikes, with the second picture, taken on Saturday, showing the district filled with debris.

On Thursday, pictures showed smoke continuing to rise from Beit Lahia with further buildings demolished by air strikes.

Inside the Hamas 'web' of tunnels under Gaza
Ivanka Trump must testify in a civil fraud trial stemming from a blockbuster lawsuit targeting her father, adult brothers and the Trumps business empire.

Ms Trump, who was dropped from the lawsuit earlier this year, recently tried to quash a subpoena for her testimony in the case, noting that she is no longer a defendant and no longer lives in the state. She formerly lived at Trump Park Avenue.

After hearing arguments from Donald Trumps attorneys and counsel from the office of New York Attorney General on the motion on 27 October, Judge Arthur Engoron ruled from the bench that the former presidents oldest daughter must testify, finding that she still conducts business and owns property in the state and has failed to show any evidence disputing that.

In a court filing on 26 October, New York Attorney General Letitia James argued that Ms Trump remains financially and professionally intertwined with the Trump Organization and can be called as a person still under their control.

Her address at Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue was consistently used by Ms Trump for transacting business through three separate entities under or partially under her control, according to the 12-page filing.

During a hearing before the trial resumed in New York Supreme Court in lower Manhattan on Friday, the judge asked Ms Trumps attorney Bennet Moskowitz whether she submitted a sworn statement about her allegedly severed ties in New York. He offered to submit one.

Ms Trump can appeal the judges decision; she will not be ordered to testify until at least 1 November to give her attorneys time.

The trial, now in its fourth week, follows a $250m lawsuit from Ms James, who alleged Mr Trump, his adult sons and chief associates fraudulently inflated his wealth and assets over a decade to obtain favourable financial benefits to support his business empire.

Judge Engoron already has determined that a trial is not necessary to prove the claims of fraud outlined across more than 200 pages in Ms Jamess complaint filed last year.

The former president  who is not obligated to attend the trial, which could last up until the weekend before Christmas  has sat with his attorneys at the defence table for several days of hearings.

Steps outside the courtroom, he has railed against the case, Ms James, the judge and the chief clerk who sits beside him  comments that drew a gag order blocking all parties from speaking out about the court staff, which Mr Trump violated twice within one week.

This week, Mr Trump heard testimony from his former attorney Michael Cohen, who testified that he was tasked by Mr Trump to increase the total assets based upon a number that he arbitrarily elected for his statements of financial condition, the documents at the centre of the case.

Cohen and convicted former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg were instructed to reverse engineer the various different asset classes  increase those assets  in order to achieve the number that Mr Trump had tasked us with, Cohen said.

Asked by counsel for the attorney generals office what that number was, Cohen replied: Whatever number Mr Trump told us to.

But under hours of combative cross examination from Mr Trumps attorneys, Cohen agreed that his former boss never asked him to inflate the figures at the centre of the case. He said Mr Trumps commands were implicit rather than explicit.

Donald Trump speaks like a mob boss, Cohen testified. He tells you what he wants without specifically telling you  Thats what I was referring to.

Mr Trump has used the substantial press coverage at the courthouse on Centre Street to cast himself as a victim of political prosecution, statements he has amplified across his social media platforms and in fundraising messages to supporters as he seeks the 2024 Republican nomination for president.

Judge Engorons partial summary judgment ordered the dissolution of Mr Trumps business licenses in the state, but an appeals court decision has blocked those sanctions as the trial continues and Mr Trumps attorneys launch their appeal.
The interim superintendent of the Johnston Community School District is now the district's next permanent superintendent.

The district on Wednesday in a news release named Nikki Roorda as the new superintendent. Roorda will start Nov. 1 and is expected to be formally approved by the Johnston Community School District Board of Education on Nov. 6.

Roorda took on the interim position in June after the previous superintendent, Laura Kacer, resigned in February.

Roorda has worked for the district since August 2019, when she started as the executive director of teaching and learning. She became an associate superintendent in July 2021.

She previously worked as the regional director for the Heartland Area Education Agency, was a K-12 literacy coordinator in Ankeny and has classroom teaching experience in Ankeny, West Des Moines and Montezuma, as well as Highlands Ranch, Colorado.

"As many of you know, it has been a longtime goal and dream of mine to be a superintendent. I am so proud of the work we've done here together these past four years, and we've only just begun," Roorda said in the district's news release on Wednesday.

Roorda was one of two finalists who interviewed on Oct. 24 with groups of students, parents, teachers and community members, according to the news release. The Johnston School Board worked with Grundmeyer Leader Services to conduct a search for candidates.

School board president Alicia Clevenger said in the news release, "We are confident that (Roorda's) expertise and dedication will propel the district to new heights in both educational excellence, as well as in developing a culture here where everyone feels welcome, valued and heard.

More: Johnston has parent-teacher conferences on Election Day. Can teachers, parents still vote?

Phillip Sitter covers suburban growth and development for the Des Moines Register. Phillip can be reached via email at psitter@gannett.com. He is on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @pslifeisabeauty.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Johnston school district names Nikki Roorda as new superintendent
KANSAS CITY, Mo.  The Kansas City Police Department is investigating a deadly shooting that happened late Thursday night.

Police got a call about a shooting at 56th and Park around 10:00 p.m. Thursday, according to KCPD.

View the latest headlines from Kansas City, Missouri, and Kansas at fox4kc.com

Officers found a man inside a vehicle who had been shot. He was declared dead at the scene. As of Friday morning, there has not been any information released about any suspects.

If you know anything about the shooting, call the tips hotline at 816-474-TIPS.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports.
Former Chinese premier Li Keqiang died on Friday after suffering a heart attack at the age of 68.

Li passed away in Shanghai despite "all-out efforts" to revive him, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

He was the second-most powerful person in the Chinese Communist Party and the head of China's cabinet under president Xi Jinping for a decade until stepping down in March last year.

"No matter how the international winds and clouds change, China will unswervingly expand its opening up," Li said at his last public appearance in a press conference in March.

"The Yangtze River and the Yellow River will not flow backwards," he said.

The bureaucrat was sidelined in recent years by Mr Xi, who tightened his own grip on power and steered the world's second-largest economy in a more statist direction.

Li served two terms as a premier from March 2013 to 2023 and was the second-ranked member of the Communist Party from 2012 to 2022.

Li was dropped from the Standing Committee at a party congress last year despite being two years below the informal retirement age of 70. The same day, Mr Xi awarded himself a third five-year term as party leader, discarding a tradition under which his predecessors stepped down after 10 years.

Li was an English-speaking economist and considered a contender to succeed then-Communist Party leader Hu Jintao in 2013 but was passed over in favour of Mr Xi.

He was seen as a supporter of a more liberal market economy but his ambitions were curtailed by Mr Xi's preference for more state control.

In a 2010 speech, Li acknowledged challenges including too much reliance on investment to drive economic growth, weak consumer spending and a wealth gap between prosperous eastern cities and the poor countryside.

The former premier inspired the unofficial Li Keqiang Index, created by The Economist to measure the nations economic growth using three indicators. Li preferred to use high-frequency indicators, such as rail cargo, electricity consumption and bank loans, to figure out how well the country's economy fared.

Li, in his first annual policy address in 2014, received praise for promising to pursue market-oriented reform, cut government waste, clean up air pollution and root out pervasive corruption that was undermining public faith in the ruling party.

However, Mr Xi took away Lis decision-making powers on economic matters by appointing himself to head a party commission overseeing reform.

The ex-premier sparked debate on poverty and income inequality in 2020, saying 600 million people in China earned less than the equivalent of $140 per month.

Adam Ni, an independent China political analyst and author, described Li as a premier who stood powerless as China took a sharp turn away from reform and opening.

Born in Anhui province in eastern China, Li was sent to the countryside to work as a manual labourer during Chinas Cultural Revolution.

While studying law at the prestigious Peking University, Li befriended ardent pro-democracy advocates, some of whom would become outright challengers to party control.

After graduation, he joined the Communist Partys Youth League, then a reformist-tinged ladder to higher office.

He rose in the Youth League while completing a masters degree in law and then an economics doctorate under professor Li Yining, a well-known advocate of market reforms.

His reputation was tainted by his administrations handling of an Aids epidemic, which stemmed from a state-sponsored blood donation programme while he was party boss in Henan.

He also served as party chief of Liaoning, a rustbelt province striving to attract investment and reinvent itself as a modern industrial heartland.

Additional reporting by agencies.
Amnesty International said gender-affirming surgery in Japan should be a quick, accessible and transparent administrative process - YUICHI YAMAZAKI/AFP/Getty Images

Japans Supreme Court has ruled that a law obliging transgender people to undergo sterilisation surgery to officially change their gender is cruel and unconstitutional.

The 2003 law requiring the removal of sex organs to obtain a state-recognised gender change has long been criticised by international rights and medical groups as discriminatory as well as invasive and risky for health.

On Wednesday, the courts 15-judge grand bench agreed, ruling against the cruel choice between embracing the sterilisation surgery that requires an intense level of bodily invasion and relinquishing important legal benefits of being treated according to their gender identity.

However, the decision was not a full legal victory for those wishing to change gender, as the Supreme Court sent the case back to a lower court to deliberate the requirement for gender-affirmation surgery.

Several other conditions for official recognition of changed gender still remain, including being unmarried, not having children and being diagnosed with gender dysphoria.

Amnesty International called the ruling a landmark decision for transgender rights in Japan, adding that it was a further encouraging sign that countries in the region are re-evaluating discriminatory practices or laws affecting LGBTI people.

Hong Kong this week ruled in favour of same-sex couples equal inheritance rights, while in May, Taiwan passed a bill that granted same-sex partners the right to jointly adopt a child neither of them are related to, taking one of the final steps towards achieving full marriage equality.

However, Boram Jang, Amnestys East Asia researcher, said that while the ruling was an important step forward, the fight for LGBT rights in Japan remained an uphill battle.

Individuals self-determination

Amnesty International continues to call on the Japanese authorities to ensure legal gender recognition is not contingent on psychiatric diagnosis, medical treatment such as gender-affirming surgery or other abusive or discriminatory requirements such as being unmarried or not having children, she said.

It must be a quick, accessible and transparent administrative process based on an individuals self-determination.

Wednesdays case was triggered by a transgender woman who wanted to challenge a refusal to list her as female without surgery.

She filed the case in 2020 after her request for a gender change in her family registry  to female from assigned male at birth  was turned down by lower courts.

Grave human rights violation

The claimant, identified only as a resident of western Japan in her late forties, has called the forced sterilisation a grave human rights violation and unconstitutional, pointing out that it creates a huge economic and physical burden on individuals.

Kazuyuki Minami, her lawyer, told reporters that it was extremely rare for the Supreme Court to rule a law unconstitutional.

But he added that it was sad that his client will have to live tomorrow and beyond with her gender not recognised by the law as the further review at the lower court would delay the final settlement of the issue.

The decision comes at a time when the rights of the LGBT community are rising in visibility in traditionally conservative Japan, which remains the only Group of Seven member that does not allow same-sex marriage or legal protections, including an effective anti-discrimination law.

In July, Japans Supreme Court ruled in favour of a transgender bureaucrat who sued the government over access to female lavatories at work, and opinion polls have shown growing support for LGBT-friendly laws, especially among the younger generation.

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.
Lori Vallow Daybell sits during her sentencing hearing at the Fremont County Courthouse in St. Anthony, Idaho, July 31, 2023. On Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023, an extradition warrant signed by Idaho Gov. Brad Little was delivered to other state officials, allowing Arizona officials to temporarily take custody of Daybell so she can face charges of conspiring to kill her estranged husband as well as her nieces ex-husband. | Tony Blakeslee, EastIdahoNews.com via Associated Press

Lori Vallow Daybell, the mother sentenced to life in prison this summer for the murder of her two children and another woman, may soon be extradited to Arizona, where she faces more conspiracy charges.

Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed an extradition warrant this week allowing the state of Arizona to take custody of Vallow Daybell. In addition to the six counts she was found guilty of in Idaho, Vallow Daybell faces two conspiracy to commit murder charges in Arizona for the death of her estranged husband, Charles Vallow, and the attempted murder of her nieces ex-husband, Brandon Boudreaux.

Related

It is hereby agreed by the undersigned, the Governor of the State of Idaho and the Governor of the State of Arizona, that Lori Vallow  will be extradited pursuant to this agreement from the State of Idaho to the State of Arizona for trial, reads the executive agreement, signed Oct. 31. Said fugitive may be transferred back and forth between the State of Arizona and the State of Idaho.

According to the agreement, Arizona will pay to transport Vallow Daybell.

Death of Charles Vallow deemed murder, not self-defense

Charles Vallow was killed by Lori Vallow Daybells brother, Alex Cox, in summer of 2019 in a shooting that was initially determined to be self-defense. Cox was never charged, and died of natural causes in December 2019.

During Vallow Daybells trial this spring, expert witnesses detailed several abnormalities surrounding Charles Vallows death.

Related

Nathan Duncan with the Chandler Police Department told the court he has never seen a shooting with so little blood, and that it appeared that Cox had not performed CPR on Charles Vallow. And when officers removed the body, there was a bullet hole in the floor, meaning it was likely Charles would have been laying on the ground when that second shot was fired.

An investigation was opened, revealing texts and calls suggesting Charles Vallow was killed because he was a dark spirit, a zombie, an accusation stemming from Vallow Daybells fringe religious beliefs that prosecutors say she used to justify murder.

In 2021, a grand jury in Arizona indicted Vallow Daybell for conspiracy to commit murder in connection to the shooting.

The attempted murder of Brandon Boudreaux

In October 2019, not long after Charles Vallow was killed, Boudreaux was shot at while he was in his driveway, shattering his car window.

Boudreaux told prosecutors he was in the middle of a contentious divorce with Vallow Daybells niece, Melani Pawlowski. He had moved to a new house, the location of which was known to only about five people, he said. Besides his neighbor, Pawlowski would be one of the few people who knew of his location the day he was shot at.

In February 2022, a grand jury indicted Vallow Daybell with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in connection to the shooting.

According to the two-page indictment, Vallow Daybell agreed with Alexander Cox that at least one of them or another would engage in conduct constituting the offense of First Degree Premeditated Murder.

In addition to the two Arizona incidents, Cox is believed by prosecutors to be an accomplice in the murders of Vallow Daybells two children, 7-year-old Joshua JJ Vallow and 17-year-old Tylee Ryan. Both children disappeared in September 2019  it was later discovered that they had been murdered and buried in a shallow grave behind the Rexburg home of Chad Daybell.

Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow Daybell were believed to be having an affair at the time. Prosecutors also say he pushed his own fringe religious beliefs.

In October 2019, Tammy Daybell was killed by what investigators said was asphyxiation in her sleep, though at the time her death was ruled natural. Just two weeks later, while her children were still unaccounted for, Lori Vallow married Chad Daybell on a beach in Hawaii.

That December, Tammy Daybells body was exhumed and Tylee and JJ were declared missing. A court ordered Vallow Daybell to produce her children by Jan. 30, 2020. She was arrested in Hawaii about four weeks later after she failed to comply.

On June 9, 2020, police executed a search warrant and found the bodies of Tylee and JJ buried in Daybells backyard. Chad Daybell was arrested that day. Nearly three years later, Vallow Daybell was found guilty on six counts.

Vallow Daybell is currently in the Pocatello Womens Correctional Center, after she was given three consecutive life sentences in July in connection to the murder of her two youngest children, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old JJ Vallow, and Tammy Daybell, the spouse of Chad Daybell whom she later married.

She also received two life sentences for conspiring to murder her children and 10 years for grand theft, with those prison terms running concurrently to the life sentences for the three murder convictions.

An attorney for Vallow Daybell recently filed an appeal to the multiple life sentences, questioning her mental competency and claiming there were several issues during the trial.
The new College of Wooster president, Anne E. McCall, will be inaugurated Saturday.

Her enthusiasm for her new position is academic and personal. The College of Wooster and the city of Wooster attracted her on many levels.

Even in larger institutions where she has worked, McCall has "always tried to strengthen the smaller units" within each of them to advance the mission of liberal arts.

Her previous academic and administrative positions include provost and senior vice president of academic affairs at Xavier University of Louisiana and associate dean of Tulane University.

At The College of Wooster, she recognized, "This is the kind of place I should really be."

Anne McCall

The College's history also was a big draw.

Because of her affinity for, and scholarly interest in, the 19th century, "its very exciting to me" to be affiliated with a college founded in 1866.

McCall also commended The College's forward-looking perspective.

"Wooster didn't wait for globalization," she said, but rather combined the local and global from its inception.

Reflection of the heritage of students

The College's history and even its buildings reflect a heritage of students who early on trained to be missionaries and then returned to some of the buildings now in use for student housing.

They brought with them knowledge of many languages, cultures and conversations.

The College of Wooster's commitment to racial diversity and gender equity and to enlarging access to higher education is key to McCall.

A lot of institutions do one or the other, she said. "We do both."

Speaking to The College's international commitment and listing the many nations from which students come, she said, "We have students from Uzbekistan and from right around the corner."

Among the educational roles from which McCall has always derived the most pleasure is mentoring senior honors theses.

Joining a college where every student completes an independent study and "the entire curriculum is built to take students to that place, was a big draw."

An Ohio native

Last but not least, she said, in elaborating on the many reasons she is grateful to be in Wooster, "I grew up in Ohio."

Although she has traveled, lived and studied all over the world, Ohio retains "a certain familiarity, (with) things that speak to me from that part of my life," making relocating to Wooster "a special treat."

"I have never lived in a town where the public has access to such incredible public amenities," she added, also admiring the city's "smart philanthropy."

In pursuing her priorities of diversity, equity and inclusion, she will incorporate "a lot of wisdom" from the people with whom she works, taking advantage of integration of efforts and external partnerships.

"This work is never done."

There are companies and organizations The College may not yet have been in touch with in a formal way, McCall said, noting, "We may not be as well-known for the work we're doing as we should be."

'Tons of ideas' on diversity, equity, inclusion

On the topic of diversity, equity and inclusion, she said, "I have tons of ideas, some not as exciting to hear, but important," such as increasing accessibility of buildings. Her own office building, Galpin Hall, has issues with stairs.

Encouraging students to have difficult conversations is another, she said, pointing out some of those discussions might not be pursued because students care about each other and don't want to hurt other students or seem inconsiderate of their beliefs.

"It's extremely important to me that we be a place where we can have those conversations and have them regularly.

"We can like each other and really disagree on topics," McCall said, and must model that dynamic for students. "We're an institution of learning."

"We may not agree with ourselves over time," she pointed out. "We give each other opportunities to learn."

McCall lauds the College of Wooster and other liberal arts colleges for contributions to society, the economy and the work force. Concerning the marketability of a variety of college degrees, she said, it's unfair to tell a student he or she shouldn't worry about a future job or income.

Rather, they should understand the skills they're learning are going to be applicable to jobs that don't yet exist.

They will be creating the jobs for which they will be qualified, she said.

Some of the hype surrounding liberal arts education results from the types of knowledge it fosters "that can be disruptive to our society."

Inaugural activities begin Friday at College of Wooster

As part of the inaugural activities, a series of panel discussions to be held Friday will focus on "Celebrating Disruptions in the Liberal Arts" and the changes in perspective resulting from new knowledge.

McCall advises students to take each semester a course that might seem "weird" and outside their areas of interest to them.

For McCall, who earned a bachelor's degree in French and German from the University of Virginia and spent nine years in Europe obtaining a master's and doctoral degree in French literature, it was economics.

Her interest in literature stems from it being "the way we express ourselves, the way we see the world, the way that we can imagine someone else's."

Literature from our own country and other countries has "the potential to make us more empathetic, to pull us into someone else's reality."

"If it works properly, it should broaden the vision of what people are and can be."

If McCall had the opportunity to teach a gender studies class, she would teach sex and gender in a global context.

A question Americans tend to ask is, "What is the other side?" as if there is only one.

There are many points of view, she said, not just among other countries, but between urban, rural and "all the kinds of identities people bring."

"What is highly politicized in one country may be a no-brainer in another," she said. "We have a lot to learn from other people  not that we will do what they do," but for the sake of understanding.

In working in a psychiatric hospital as part of her broad experience, "I learned a lot about human suffering," McCall. said, and about anger, hurt and pain.

"You've just got to go out there," she said.

One of her biggest takeaways as she approaches her inauguration is gratitude  "how grateful I am for the welcome I've gotten in the community."

She is looking forward to meeting other people in the business community and civic organizations.

McCall will be inaugurated as the 13th president of The College of Wooster at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 28, at the Gault Recreation Center of Scot Center.

A full schedule of events accompanying the inauguration which are now under way is available at wooster.edu.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: College of Wooster president drawn to school by its heritage, diversity
News Channel 5 Reporter Phil Williams and parent company Scripps Media, Inc. have filed a lawsuit against the Davidson County District Attorney's Office asking a judge to turn over records related to a state wiretapping investigation.

The suit, filed Oct. 25 in Davidson County Chancery Court, says the district attorney's office denied the station's public records request for documents about cameras and microphones that had been placed in public areas around the Nashville office.

"The district attorney's denials of access are willful and improper," the lawsuit said. It also asks the office's record keeper to "immediately appear and show cause, if they have any, why the petition should not be granted."

News Channel 5 is asking the district attorney's office to pay for all costs incurred by obtaining the records.

When reached Thursday, Williams deferred comment to Nashville attorney Ronald Harris, who is representing the reporter and station. Harris declined to comment, saying he would let the lawsuit speak for itself.

The lawyer representing the district attorney's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this story Thursday.

In February, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti opened a wiretapping investigation into Nashville District Attorney General Glenn Funk's office to determine whether he or his staff violated state criminal laws  including wiretapping laws  after a News Channel 5 investigation found that listening devices had been placed around Funk's office as a security measure.

Skrmetti's letter asked Funk to preserve all records tied to the purchase, installation, maintenance and operation of the recording devices. Deputy Attorney General Scott Sutherland also signed the letter.

In the lawsuit, News Channel 5 is seeking multiple records, including access to inspect notes taken by every member of Funk's staff who participated in a Feb. 21 meeting to discuss the state's investigation as well as copies of search warrants and documents related to the installation of microphones in Funk's conference room or any other room under his control disguised as sprinklers.

Funk has denied any wrongdoing.

"We have never conducted any unauthorized audio or video recording of any area where a person has a legitimate expectation of privacy," Funk said in a letter earlier this year. "We know what the law allows and what the law prohibits."

Reach reporter Craig Shoup by email at cshoup@gannett.com and on X @Craig_Shoup. To support his work, sign up for a digital subscription to www.tennessean.com.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: News Channel 5, Williams seek records in lawsuit against Nashville DA
Its been almost five years since Katherin Garcia escaped her home country of Venezuela, uprooting her life as a family doctor and trudging through seven different countries to reach the United States.

She recounts living in constant fear about being persecuted because of her profession in the health sector and her political views against the government.

Armed groups aligned with the government saw her as a traitor and targeted her family. Eventually her husband Raul was attacked, and she realized they'd never be safe if they stayed in their home country.

Asylum seekers receive donated diapers and clothing at St. Paul and St. Andrew United Methodist Church in Manhattan Oct. 16, 2023 where they were getting support from Venezuelans and Immigrants Aid, a non-profit organization that provides assistance to asylum seekers. The organization provides a weekly orientation into the asylum process that includes assistance in filing asylum and temporary protected status applications. It also provides english classes, peer support groups, and humanitarian assistance including clothing and food distribution.

Garcia and her husband left Venezuela in 2018 with their 1-year-old son Jeremias. The young family arrived in the U.S. in August of this year.

I was facing danger in my country, Garcia said in Spanish.  To have to leave your comfort, your life, your profession and take on a voyage of more than seven countries, a jungle I think were very brave.

She was given shelter shortly after arriving at the Roosevelt Hotel  serving as the epicenter for asylum seekers in New York City. Within weeks, she filed for political asylum and has received help from Venezuelans and Immigrants Aid (VIA), a nonprofit focused on providing orientation to new arrivals. Numerous NYC nonprofits are helping address new flows of migration and assisting asylum seekers in getting acclimated to life in a new country.

Asylum seekers wait inside St. Paul and St. Andrew United Methodist Church in Manhattan Oct. 16, 2023 where they were seeking support from Venezuelans and Immigrants Aid, a non-profit organization that provides assistance to asylum seekers. The organization provides a weekly orientation into the asylum process that includes assistance in filing asylum and temporary protected status applications. It also provides english classes, peer support groups, and humanitarian assistance including clothing and food distribution.

Helping hands guide asylum seekers to self-sufficiency

VIA was founded in 2016 by Niurka Melendez and her husband Hector Arguinzones. Venezuelan asylum seekers themselves, the two started the organization after experiencing the hardships firsthand. The two applied for asylum in the U.S. in 2016 and have been waiting ever since.

Other asylum seekers in their community could use help navigating that long and complicated process, they realized.

A child sits on his motherOs lap as asylum seekers wait inside St. Paul and St. Andrew United Methodist Church in Manhattan Oct. 16, 2023 where they were seeking support from Venezuelans and Immigrants Aid, a non-profit organization that provides assistance to asylum seekers. The organization provides a weekly orientation into the asylum process that includes assistance in filing asylum and temporary protected status applications. It also provides english classes, peer support groups, and humanitarian assistance including clothing and food distribution.

No one had to tell me about the process, I lived it," said Melendez in Spanish.

The organization focuses on legal orientation and humanitarian assistance through raising awareness of legal and humanitarian resources.

A few times a month, VIA hosts lawyers who give information sessions on how to navigate the asylum seeking process. They believe managing your immigration status needs to take priority because of the timely nature of many immigration forms that are not always presented to new arrivals.

How much asylum seeker care costs in NY: How much is NYS spending on asylum seeker care as shelter costs rise?

We understand that theres a need for many migrants beyond to have clothes, food [and] a MetroCard, Melendez said. To establish your immigration status will give you independence and self-sufficiency so that you dont have to wait for anyone.

Aside from legal orientations, VIA also provides services such as:

Emotional support through psychologists and group sessions

English classes through volunteer teachers

Cultural community programs that connect migrants to each other

The programs operate on a recurring 10-day cycle.

Quarterly, VIA offers a program called Dando una Mano, or Giving a Hand, where they will donate food, clothes and other necessities to families in need. They do this by reaching out to families, documenting their specific needs and going out and buying in bulk. This also serves as an incentive to get more families to listen to the information they need, Melendez said.

Connecting asylum seekers with jobs: How a Rockland nonprofit connects migrants with employers who need workers

Local church a home base for hundreds to learn about U.S. life

Though they may not have an established center for their operations, St. Paul and St. Andrew United Methodist Church has opened its doors every Monday for orientation sessions.

K Karpen, senior pastor at the church expressed how their partnership with VIA has been extremely fantastic."

Starting a little over a year ago, the weekly meetings have attracted hundreds of people. The weekly service has surged in attendees hoping to learn more about asylum cases and receive other resources the church provides such as discounted MetroCards and clothes.

As newcomers began arriving from the southern border on buses last year, the church began collaborating with VIA to respond to their needs more holistically.

The nonprofit had to start placing a cap of 100 families per week to ensure it could provide their best services to attendees.

In the past, the group utilized video formats to help as many newcomers as possible  now, they livestream some of their informational sessions and provide these and other video material on Youtube and social media.

Our Instagram account is one of our main offices, Melendez said. That consistency is what causes people to find you because youre always there  either virtual or in-person. It creates a foundation of trust.

Asylum seekers being placed upstate? NYC moved about 2.2K asylum seekers to upstate NY. Have those efforts stalled? What we know

Fighting misinformation about the asylum seeker's journey

Melendez says that the profile of new arrivals has changed in the past few years and she has found herself having to debunk a lot of false information.

New arrivals are coming with a false perspective, very disoriented and falsely informed, Melendez said. This misinformation has made us adapt to migrants that are starting from zero.

For many who were brought by human traffickers and guides, they were fed misinformation of the reality of newcomers, Melendez said. They believe that arriving in the U.S. grants them automatic asylum. That is not the case.

Its very different to escape your country and be a forced migrant than to come here in search of a dream, Melendez said.

According to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services website, to apply for asylum, one must do so within one year of arriving in the U.S. Without this application, a person is not considered an asylum seeker.

To seek asylum, a person needs to have suffered persecution or fear due to things like race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion.

Asylum seekers listen to Niurka MelZndez, co-founder of Venezuelans and Immigrants Aid, as she holds an orientation session at St. Paul and St. Andrew United Methodist Church in Manhattan Oct. 16, 2023. Venezuelans and Immigrants Aid is a non-profit organization that provides assistance to asylum seekers. The organization provides a weekly orientation into the asylum process that includes assistance in filing asylum and temporary protected status applications. It also provides english classes, peer support groups, and humanitarian assistance including clothing and food distribution.

They say the asylum seeking process is broken, Melendez said. Its a truth that the governors and mayors are discovering now, but its disrespectful to asylum seekers like us who have been waiting for seven years and have known for seven years that the system is broken.

Other NYC organizations helping asylum seekers

Project Rousseau

Project Rousseau, founded in 2011, is a nonprofit organization aimed at helping and empowering youth.

They have four pillars focused on student social needs, academics, community service and broadening horizons, and aim to help students reach their full potential. Participants range from unaccompanied minors to parents seeking immigration assistance.

Executive director and supervising attorney Andrew Heinrich said the primary need for newcomers is immigration legal services.

"We knew that to fulfill our mission to help those in the greatest need, we needed to be on the front lines, he said.

Members of the organization are going into shelters and the hotels every day to see where they can provide aid.

A woman waits outside St. Paul and St. Andrew United Methodist Church in Manhattan Oct. 16, 2023 where asylum seekers were getting support from Venezuelans and Immigrants Aid, a non-profit organization that provides assistance to asylum seekers. The organization provides a weekly orientation into the asylum process that includes assistance in filing asylum and temporary protected status applications. It also provides english classes, peer support groups, and humanitarian assistance including clothing and food distribution.

Migrant Kitchen Initiative

The organization started in 2020 as a catering business. As the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in March 2020, they began donating their meals to health care workers and people in need. During the pandemic, they made nearly 10,000 meals a day and donated them to NY residents.

As the pandemic subsided, they opened a restaurant  the Migrant Kitchen  and a portion of the proceeds goes directly to the Migrant Kitchen Initiative. The organization works on meal distribution, reaching out to shelters and hotels with an aim to provide meals for anyone who needs one.

We try to feed as many people as we can, said Erica Maillet, program coordinator for the Migrant Kitchen Initiative. We were founded by immigrants. Our menus are inspired by immigrants. Our chefs are from different places  We make sure our meals are culturally appropriate.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: How hundreds of asylum seekers found help, hope at NY nonprofit
She just wanted to see their culture in the classroom.

Expecting her third baby upon landing in Delaware, Amna Latif was ready to raise her children in the First State. She followed her husband to the University of Delaware while finishing her own doctorate in education. They had already followed one another before, all the way from Pakistan.

In no time, her oldest daughter bounced around daycares.

I tried to find a place where my daughter could have a sense of belonging, Latif remembered.

To end this journey, Latif would launch her own school. The now-director would take her degree and develop a curriculum dedicated to integrating different cultures and the study of Islam, all starting from inside her own home. Enrollment grew exponentially. Today, Tarbiyah School serves just under 200 students in Newark.

Amna Latif, director of the Tarbiyah School, oversees the food program that provides meals for children throughout northern Delaware and as far south as Dover. The Bear school has worked to distribute 1.3 million meals since the start of the pandemic.

Latif knew she couldnt be the only Asian Delawarean who hoped for this reflection, even on a small scale. Last month, she was reminded.

Make Us Visible Delaware just launched this fall, under the mission to push for more Asian American history to infuse with K-12 curricula in Delaware. The budding arm of a national organization hopes to engage with residents, schools and lawmakers throughout the state to see legislation crafted to the same end, followed by active implementation. These hopes mirror efforts in Connecticut, New Jersey, Florida and others.

The group brings together educators, parents, local school board members and a college student. And its primary goals are two-fold  to reduce anti-Asian violence and bullying, as well as celebrate and humanize the role of Asian Americans in U.S. history.

Tarbiyah School, founded in 2009, aims to provide a learning environment infused with Islamic principles, so they can achieve the highest level of character, creativity and academic excellence, in Newark, Delaware.

The way they teach Asian American history right now is traumatizing, said Devin Jiang, co-founder and junior at University of Delaware, sitting in a Newark coffee shop. His mind jumped to Japanese internment camps, Chinese railroad labor, historic immigration restrictions.

And this makes people see Asian Americans as separate from American history. They're like victims, right? They're not part of the American story.

His team wants to change that. And theyre confident a state of educators will jump on board.

Pop quiz: 20 facts to know for the next Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

Oh, them Americans'

Make Us Visible Delaware leaders host a launch event  under the mission to push for more Asian American history to infuse with K-12 curricula in Delaware  in the Chinese American Community Center, of Hockessin, on Sept. 30, 2023.

He was raised in Lewes.

Y.F. Lou has led most of his life in the U.S., as the now-Christina School Board member moved to the beachside city alongside his Chinese family when he was young. His childhood came with identity crises. He hardly saw himself in most other classmates and residents. He was often treated as foreign by default.

As he grew up, he caught himself believing it.

As I had conversations with people, I always had a tendency to slip up by saying, Oh, them Americans, he said, fellow members nodding beside him. I'm like, wait a minute. Why am I saying them Americans? I am American. Why do I still not completely feel that I am part of this country?

Now a father himself, Lou finds himself introspective. More conversations are needed, he decided, on the accomplishments of Asian people right here at home, to highlight their roles in American history that often go untold.

There are more than 22 million Asian Americans  about 6% of the national population  marking the fastest growing racial or ethnic group among eligible voters, according to Pew Research Center, with nearly 50 ethnic groups and some 100 languages represented.

Delawares New Castle County is slightly above overall statistics, at 6.3%, having seen a 44% increase in Asian population from 2010 to 2021, according to Census data. In the same data, Christina school district residents reflect roughly 7%.

We need to do a better job as parents, we need to do a better job as community leaders, Lou said. Make us visible is not a platform to air grievances of racism, per se, but it is somewhere we're going to start the conversation, saying: Hey, we are Americans. We help build this country.

He believes the classroom is the right place to start.

University of Delaware: Jewish students host hundreds for Shabbat at UD, as many communities watch tragedy unfold

A long road ahead for Asian American studies in Delaware

Devin Jiang speaks at a Make Us Visible Delaware event  launching under the mission to push for more Asian American history to infuse with K-12 curricula in Delaware  in the Chinese American Community Center, of Hockessin, on Sept. 30, 2023.

George Yod Dupont was a Thai immigrant who fought in the American Civil War for the North and participated in key battles like Gettysburg and Chancellorsville.

Saint Malo Village was the first Asian American settlement, formed in the 1700s on the shores of Louisiana. Nicknamed the Manilamen, many of these Filipino settlers later joined the U.S. army to fight in the War of 1812, when they werent redefining the shrimping industry.

Echoing a history of exclusionary legislation nationally and in certain states, Washington had its own alien land laws blocking Asian American immigrants from buying or renting land in the state well into the 1930s. That is, until 1939, when Filipino immigrant Pio DeCano successfully fought the law all the way to the Supreme Court and saw it struck down.

Most racist laws against Asians remained in force until the late 1940s, when civil-rights activism defeated similar restrictions on Black Americans. As Columbia University's Professor Mae M. Ngai noted in a 2021 Atlantic essay, racism is a notable part of the Asian American experience, past and present.

National: Violence, bigotry toward Palestinian Americans spiking across US

More: ACLU points to one Delaware charter school to spotlight lessons in inclusive culture

This is American history. This is not somebody else's history. These are Americans who have made these contributions, said Naveed Baqir, flipping through pages of a Make Us Visible coloring book with other brief historic profiles. People who fought in the Revolutionary War, who fought for independence. Asian Americans. How many how many Americans know about them? How many Asian kids know about them?

Baqir  a fellow Christina board member, member of Delaware's chapter and husband to educator Amna Latif  sees this effort as elevating American history, not adding or taking away.

His team has a long road ahead.

Devin Jiang speaks at a Make Us Visible Delaware event  launching under the mission to push for more Asian American history to infuse with K-12 curricula in Delaware  in the Chinese American Community Center, of Hockessin, on Sept. 30, 2023.

Some six laws requiring AAPI studies have passed across the country. Make Us Visible, alongside other affinity organizations, students, parents and educators, passed legislation in 2022 to make New Jersey the second state to require the inclusion of AAPI history in K-12 schools. Connecticut was the first, the same year, with a committee-led bill carrying 99 co-sponsors and legislative support from both the Progressive and Conservative Caucuses.

For the New England state, last fall marked the start of implementation. Organizers say much work remains.

We knew all along that it wasn't just going to be about people signing off on a piece of paper, said Jenny JHD Heikkila Diaz, co-chair on Asian Pacific American Coalition of Connecticut, among her many activist roles in the state.

With nearly 170 school districts and local control laws in Connecticut, advocates now continue to monitor implementation in schools. JHD has been working with educators across the state on strategies, materials and more as the Activist in Residence with UConns Asian & Asian American Studies Institute.

We don't want this to be a course that only some students will take, she said. We want this to be integrated across every student in Connecticut who attend who attends public schools want to integrate across their K-12 experience.

JHD credits much of the success so far to collaboration across groups  including constituents who gave input on possible elements to add to curricula.

Neighbors: Murphy signs bills making NJ second state to implement Asian American studies curriculum

Back in Delaware, a different historic legislation passed in 2021, requiring all Delaware public schools  both district and charter  to infuse instruction of Black History and experience into K-12 curricula. Delaware Department of Education reports show HB198's implementation has varied across districts so far, with some stakeholders questioning accountability measures.

Gathered around a coffee shop table in October, Make Us Visible Delaware shared similar aims, hoping to build from a community launch just days before. The group said it saw nearly a hundred people, including elected officials and residents, pack a room in the Chinese American Community Center, with discussion and momentum flowing.

Amna Latif was just one voice in the audience.

Within the goals of this Delaware group, she hears echoes of her own hopes for her kids, and for her school. Theyre the same hopes that led her to building the growing Tarbiyah School community in New Castle County.

Tarbiyah School, founded in 2009, aims to provide a learning environment infused with Islamic principles, so they can achieve the highest level of character, creativity and academic excellence, in Newark, Delaware.

She has already agreed to use the Make Us Visible coloring book for younger learners, as a starting point, and hopes to see more spread.

I feel that each one of us needs to feel a sense of belonging in this country, said the director and principal. Making that connection with history fulfills that for a lot of our students, for them to be able to see that they have ownership, to see how they are viewed in this country.

That kind of connection is extremely important  and history provides that for us."

Got a story? Kelly Powers covers race, culture and equity for Delaware Online and USA TODAY Network Northeast, with a focus on education. Contact her at kepowers@gannett.com or (231) 622-2191, and follow her on Twitter @kpowers01.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Group aims to boost Asian American history in Delaware K-12 schools
NEW YORK  Hes Puerto Rican, culturally Christian, a member of the Progressive Caucus, and  until this term  barely had a Jewish constituency to speak of.

But Rep. Ritchie Torres can say it: There are few people in American politics who have been as visibly and vocally supportive of Israel as I've been.

Dozens of progressive activists protested outside Torres district office for a Bronx Solidarity with Palestine rally Tuesday, accusing the Democrat of focusing too much on Israel, and not on his district, the poorest in the country.

Torres has promulgated hate-rhetoric against constituents critical of Israel, a spokesperson for Bronx Anti-War Coalition said in a statement to POLITICO. He has long chosen to be a notably visible spokesperson for defending Israeli ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people.

At the same time, hundreds of Torres Jewish constituents  many of them students from the Modern Orthodox SAR Academy, told to come after school  attended a counter-rally in Riverdale, in the Bronx, on the other side of the district, praising Torres for his support.

We have to stand with our Congressman Ritchie Torres as he fights for us and fights for Israel and fights against antisemitism, Assemblymember Jeff Dinowitz, whos Jewish, said at the rally.

Torres was ardently defending Israel well before he ran for Congress, but now in office, donors have appreciated the support. Despite running uncontested, he received more campaign contributions last cycle from pro-Israel sources than any New York member other than House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

Torres was in Washington during the Bronx rally, but hes been everywhere in the news, and particularly on social media sites like X, speaking out for Israel and against its critics since Hamas attacked the country earlier this month.

Torres believes in a two-state solution, but rejects a cease-fire, he said in an interview with POLITICO. Israel has every right to do to Hamas what the United States did to ISIS and al Qaeda.

The interview is edited for length and clarity.

Jeff Coltin: You have a notable Jewish population in your district now, since 2023. But your vocal support for Israel preceded that redistricting. How did that become so central to your politics?

Ritchie Torres: From my first year in the [New York] City Council, I was invited by the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York to go on a delegation to Israel [in 2015]. It was the first time I had an opportunity to travel abroad. And my experience in Israel was love at first sight. It was one of the most formative and transformative experiences of my life. I was deeply affected by my experience of Yad Vashem [the Holocaust memorial] and Masada [an ancient fortress] and Sderot, which is one of the civilian communities along the Gaza border. And so, my pro-Israel advocacy is based on a decade of engaging deeply with the subject of Israel.

Coltin: Are you personally religious?

Torres: No, my belief in Israel as a Jewish state is based not on religion, but history. There's a long and ugly history of antisemitism. When you study the history, you begin to see clearly the moral and historical necessity of Israel as a sanctuary for the Jewish people.

Coltin: Have you considered converting to Judaism?

Torres: No. I am a Zionist, but I'm culturally Christian and intend to remain culturally Christian for the foreseeable future. I have no intention of converting to a faith. My Zionism has nothing to do with religion, at all.

Coltin: Youve gotten a lot of pushback  and you never just take the criticism without responding.

Torres: I'm a fighter from the Bronx. I'm pugnacious. And I will fight for what I believe in, I will fight for what I think is right.

Coltin: Youve been criticized, especially in the past couple weeks, for focusing too much on Israel in public statements and on Twitter.

Torres: Anyone who is mistaking Twitter for the real world is living in an echo chamber. The majority of my constituents in the Bronx are not on Twitter. And I can assure you that I am far more ubiquitous in The Bronx Times and on News 12 The Bronx than just about any elected official in the Bronx.

On Oct. 7, (the day Hamas attacked Israel) I was in Puerto Rico. And I was not on vacation, I was receiving a briefing about the state of the energy grid.  I regard it as the worst infrastructure crisis in America.

Coltin: I've heard you talk about crime in your district, and the issues of divestment and deprivation. Many progressives apply that same lens to the conflict in Israel and see it as a class-based conflict and find an explanation, or an excuse, for the hatred and the violence. Do you see the same factors at play?

Torres: Imagine a mother whose baby has been butchered to death. I cannot imagine anything more callous and cold hearted and cruel than telling that mother you had this coming. You and your people brought this terror upon yourself. For me, this is not about geopolitics. This is not about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This is about human decency. It is indecent to blame the victims of terrorism rather than the terrorists themselves.

Coltin: An adviser of yours told me there are people looking to show their appreciation for your support, and that includes campaign donations. How much have you raised since the beginning of the month?

Torres: It's been an outpouring of phone calls and messages on Twitter and Instagram and Facebook and elsewhere. And the rally was itself an outpouring of support. No comment (on the fundraising).

Coltin: Some pro-Israel groups are supporting a challenge to Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.). Have you had any discussions with them, and would you consider supporting Westchester County Executive George Latimer for that seat?

Torres: I would never weigh in against a colleague unless a colleague weighed in against me. I have a rule of reciprocity. Bowman and I have a good relationship.

A version of this interview first appeared Friday in New York Playbook. Subscribe here.
Vivek Ramaswamy confronted Sen. Joni Ernst over her criticism of his position on Israel at an Iowa political fundraising event last Friday, according to two sources who witnessed the tense exchange and video obtained exclusively by NBC News.

The two politicians ran into each other as Ernst, R-Iowa, was exiting a podcast studio at Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks' "Triple MMM Tailgate fundraiser and Ramaswamy was heading in. Ramaswamy shook Ernst's hand and held onto it for most of a minute as he aired his frustration.

"You might want to understand my Israel policy before commenting," said Ramaswamy, who was upset about Ernst's remarks at a panel discussion on foreign policy in New Hampshire a week earlier. "I'd be glad to talk to you, because I heard you had some perspectives."

As both smiled through their tough talk, Ernst said: "Well, I was asking, what is your policy?"

Ramaswamy, a political newcomer who is seeking the GOP presidential nomination, has come under heavy fire from fellow Republicans for an interview he did with conservative pundit Tucker Carlson this month that touched on America's interest in the war between Israel and Hamas.

The private interaction illustrated some of the pushback Ramaswamy has been receiving  and how he's working to overcome it as the conflict has become a key issue splintering the party ahead of a conference with Republican Jewish voters and the third primary debate on Nov. 8.

"The selective nature of ignoring certain other conflicts  while even more importantly ignoring the interests of the U.S. right here at home  is what irritates the heck out of me, out of the politicians in both parties, Ramaswamy said in the interview with Carlson on X. It is shameful, and I think that there are, frankly, financial and corrupting influences that lead them exactly to speak the way they do. Thats just the hard truth.

Many Republicans reacted with outrage at Ramaswamy for what they perceived to be the conjuring of an old trope about Jewish power, aggravating long-standing wariness that some in the GOP have about his policies on Israel.

At a Bastion Institute and Polaris National Security forum in New Hampshire on Oct. 13, Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota, who is also running for the GOP presidential nomination, blasted Ramaswamy for suggesting that American supporters of Israel are "bought and paid for."

Ernst, sitting next to Burgum onstage, let out a whoop of approval and thanked him several times.

"Having people running for high elected office here in the United States shifting the blame away and saying its all about fundraising, its abhorrent," Ernst said, clearly alluding to Ramaswamy. "We need to stand with our friends, Israel."

In Iowa last week, as they continued their long handshake, Ramaswamy bored into Ernst about her participation in talks about the prospect of Saudi Arabia's developing civil nuclear energy as part of a broader pact with Israel.

The U.S. should "deeply rethink" allowing Saudi Arabia to have "nuclear capabilities outside of ... a normalized U.S. civilian nuclear transfer," Ramaswamy said.

Ernst, who led a congressional delegation to Saudi Arabia and who had just met with the prime minister, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, when Hamas struck Israel on Oct. 7, replied that any Saudi civil nuclear program would be overseen by a U.S. entity.

Ramaswamy, who is polling fourth nationally in the RealClearPolitics average of several GOP primary surveys, moved back to the topic of the war in the Middle East.

"The most pro-Israel thing we could do right now is to debate what is actually happening before we get into another Iraq or Afghanistan," he said. "So that's where I'm at."

Ernst responded that she is not "fully supportive of a ground invasion," either.

Ramaswamy said he had heard, "maybe secondhand, some of the comments in New Hampshire, I think relating to your awareness of my Israel policies."

Then, he was beckoned to join the podcast.

"But anyway," Ernst said as they shook hands again, "don't make assumptions about where I am [on policy], either."

Ramaswamy retorted one last time: "And vice versa."

A top aide said Ramaswamy believed the U.S.-mediated negotiations between Saudi Arabia and Israel were most likely a factor in the Oct. 7 terrorist assault on Israel.

The idea of the U.S. transferring nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia this year is absolute lunacy  and almost surely played a role in catalyzing the recent attack on Israel, said Tricia McLaughlin, the Ramaswamy aide. You cant simply parrot slogans like We stand with Israel while explicitly advancing policies that catalyzed the attacks on Israel without acknowledgment of that reality.

The unusually frank confrontation with Ernst reflects Ramaswamys approach to politics, McLaughlin said.

Unlike career politicians, Vivek prefers to ... debate those who disagree with him directly, rather than to do it like a coward behind their backs, she said.

Ernst, whose delegation traveled to Israel on Oct. 10 for meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials, served in Iraq and Kuwait in the Iowa National Guard during the Iraq War.

Her spokeswoman, Kelsi Daniell, said there was little need to elaborate on the exchange.

"Retired Lt. Col. Ernst's words in the video speak for themselves," Daniell said in a text message.

Ramaswamys stance on Israel has been the subject of intense scrutiny on the right since long before Hamas launched its terrorist attack this month. During the first GOP presidential debate in August, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, a staunch supporter of Israel, lambasted Ramaswamys call to cut off aid to the country after 2028. Ramaswamy had said such aid would no longer be necessary by then, because he pledged to negotiate Abraham Accords 2.0 with the aim of fully incorporating Israel with its Middle Eastern neighbors.

You have no foreign policy experience, and it shows, Haley said of Ramaswamy in a viral moment from the Milwaukee debate.

Now, Ramaswamy, who is cautioning the U.S. against getting involved in a potential broader war in the region, called on lawmakers to reject President Joe Bidens proposed aid package of more than $100 billion for Israel and Ukraine and said aid to Israel should be contingent on the countrys providing clear objectives for its military effort.

Destroy Hamas is not on its own a viable or coherent strategy, he said in a statement.

He has said, though, that the U.S. should provide the Israelis with intelligence and diplomatic support, as well as weapons for sale or transfer. In a lengthy tweet promoting the interview with Carlson, Ramaswamy called the Hamas-led attacks, during which roughly 1,400 people were killed and more than 200 were taken hostage, barbaric," adding they "cannot be condoned.

We require a rational response that supports Israel while avoiding another U.S.-led disaster in the Middle East, he said.

After the interview, Ramaswamy published a statement forcefully pushing back against the idea that he was promoting an antisemitic trope about the influence of Jewish funding when he discussed the impact of financial and corrupting influences" on his rivals' positions on Israel policy.

Theres plenty of actual anti-Semitism in the world, as has been made painfully clear with Hamas murderous assault on Jews and the reaction by their apologists, whether its BLM chapters or Harvard student groups, he said. Anti-Semitism is morally outrageous, and its wrong to artificially manufacture more of it.

Ramaswamy will no doubt have to address his position on Israel more in the coming days when he speaks with Jewish voters Saturday morning at the Republican Jewish Coalition conference in Las Vegas.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Queen Rania of Jordan has accused Western countries of aiding and abetting the killing of Palestinians by supporting Israels war against Hamas, in an extraordinary intervention that could signal an escalation of of tensions across the Arab world.

Rania, who was born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents and grew up in the West Bank, accused Israel of being an apartheid regime, claiming the conflict began before Hamas killed 1,400 Israelis on October 7.

The monarch also accused those backing Israels bombing of Gaza in response to Hamass terror attack as an example of Western double standards.

The people all around the Middle East, including in Jordan, we are just shocked and disappointed by the worlds reaction to this catastrophe that is unfolding, she told CNN.

In the last couple of weeks, we have seen a glaring double standard in the world.

Jordan remains an ally of Britain and the US, and is seen as a stable partner in a region often marred in violence and unrest. But Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and President Joe Bidens support of Israel is testing relationships with allies across the Middle East.

When October 7 happened, the world immediately and unequivocally stood by Israel and its right to defend itself and condemned the attack that happened  but what were seeing in the last couple of weeks, were seeing silence in the world.

Many in the Arab world are looking at the Western world as not just tolerating thisbut aiding and abetting it, the monarch added.

Meanwhile, King Abdullah of Jordan warned against any efforts to force refugees from Gaza towards Jordan or Egypt, calling the further relocation of Palestinians to other countries a red line that would not be tolerated.

Queen Ranias comments came as Israel and Hamas continued bombing each other, with airstrikes in Gaza killing more than 750 people between Tuesday and Wednesday, according to the territorys health ministry.

The Israeli military said its strikes had killed militants and destroyed tunnels, command centers, weapons storehouses and other military targets, which it has accused Hamas of hiding among Gazas civilian population.

Queen Rania of Jordan says Arab world is shocked by events in Gaza (CNN)

Gaza-based militants have also been launching unrelenting rocket barrages into Israel since the conflict started.

The death toll, following a reported 704 killed the day before, was unprecedented in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Even greater loss of life could come when Israel launches an expected ground offensive aimed at crushing Hamas militants.

The UN says about 1.4 million of Gazas 2.3 million residents are now internally displaced, with almost 600,000 crowded into UN shelters.

A Palestinian stands outside the building destroyed i the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip in Rafah (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Gazas residents have been running out of food, water and medicine since Israel sealed off the territory following the attack on southern Israel by Hamas, which is sworn to Israels destruction.

In recent days, Israel allowed a small number of trucks filled with aid to come over the border with Egypt but barred deliveries of fuel  needed to power hospital generators  to keep it out of Hamas hands.

The UN said it had managed to deliver some of the aid in recent days to hospitals treating the wounded. But the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, the largest provider of humanitarian services in Gaza, said it was running out of fuel.
Actor and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he would make a great president of the United States in recent comments.

I feel like I would make a great president, Schwarzenegger said in a recent interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). But I feel that, at the same time, everything Ive accomplished was because of America.

Schwarzenegger legally cant run for president because he was born in Austria, where he lived until he was 19, but he may not have given up all hope of becoming president despite not legally being able to.

I mean OK there is the constitution, he said in the interview. We need some immigration reform, absolutely, to change that. But it would be a little bit selfish if I go out and try to change the law.

The 76-year-old actor-turned-politician is best known for his role in The Terminator movies. A registered Republican, he served as the 38th governor of California from 2003 to 2011.

America gave me so many opportunities and the American people were so embracive, and they just received me with open arms, he said. There was no one there that stopped me from my success.

With a potential 2020 presidential rematch that is looking increasingly more likely in 2024 between 80-year-old President Biden and 77-year-old former President Trump, Schwarzenegger said he hopes America finds young blood.

To me, it is a little bit odd that we are having a battle between people today in the late seventies and early eighties, he said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Newly elected Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson was featured on Fox News Hannity Thursday evening, addressing his previous stances on LGBTQ+ issues in his first interview since becoming second in line to the presidency.

Johnson, a conservative figure from Louisiana, has been sharply criticized for his opposition to LGBTQ+ rights in the past, including his support for criminalizing gay sex.



During the segment, host Sean Hannity revisited Johnsons past remarks about homosexuality being sinful and destructive and his opposition to marriage equality. He pointed out that Johnson had once argued there was no explicit right to sodomy in the Constitution.

Related: How Anti-LGBTQ+ Is Newly Elected House Speaker Mike Johnson? Very.

Responding, Johnson claimed a lapse in memory regarding his previous remarks on homosexuality, stating, I dont even remember some of them. He then recounted his tenure as a litigator in the early 2000s, when he defended state marriage amendments.

Johnson suggests his position is that abortion should be left to the states and then quickly changes the topic  (@)

He said, I was a religious liberty defense lawyer, and I was called to go in and defend those cases in the courts. Johnson clarified his position, saying, I am a rule of law guy.  When the Supreme Court issued the Obergefell opinion, that became the law of the land. OK? I respect the rule of law, but I also genuinely love all people regardless of their lifestyle choices.

Related: Yes, New House Speaker Mike Johnson Once Wrote in Support of Criminalizing Gay Sex

He further explained his religious stance, noting, I am a Bible-believing Christian. Someone asked me today  in the media, they said, Its curious, people are curious. What does Mike Johnson think about any issue under the sun? I said, Well, go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it. Thats my worldview.

The conversation also ventured into abortion issues, with Johnson expressing his satisfaction with the Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, advocating for states rights in determining abortion laws, often banning access to the essential medical procedure.

He remarked, We argued my entire career for 25 years that the states should have the right to do this.

Aside from social issues, Johnson highlighted several pressing global concerns, such as the situations in Ukraine, Israel, and China and the border crisis. He emphasized the necessity to focus on these frontline matters.

Related: Watching the Armageddon of the House GOP and Speaker Johnson

Moreover, the discussion veered towards the recent charges against Republican Rep. George Santos and talks of censure surrounding some Congress members.

Johnson claimed he supported the principle of due process, stating, Hes not convicted; hes charged. And so if were going to expel people from Congress just because theyre charged with a crime or accused, thats a problem.
CAIRO, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- At least six people were wounded in a blast related to the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict early Friday in Taba, an Egyptian Red Sea resort town near the Israeli border, local media reported.

"The rocket targeted an ambulance facility and residential building of administrative workers of the Taba hospital," Egypt's Al Qahera News TV said, quoting sources as saying that the blast was related to Israel-Hamas conflict.

TV footage showed damage in the building.

"The victims suffered slight injuries, and already left hospital," the report added.

Egypt reserves the right to respond in due course, security sources told Al Qahera News TV.

The Israeli Defense Fores said it is aware of a security incident on the other side of its border with Egypt.

On Sunday, some Egyptian soldiers were slightly injured by fragments of an Israeli tank shell that accidentally hit an Egyptian army watchtower along the border, according to a statement from the Egyptian army. 
State police are investigating multiple rock-throwing incidents on Interstate 83 in northern York County.

A "softball" size rock crashed through the windshield of vehicle traveling southbound on the highway during the early morning hours of Oct. 21, according to a news release. It nearly struck the victim.

The rock was thrown from the Reeser's Summit overpass in Fairview Township, the release states. Cameras showed two males walking away from the area.

Earlier in the month, a Harrisburg woman was traveling southbound on the highway when her windshield was struck by a rock. It happened in the early morning hours of Oct. 8 at the Pleasantview Road overpass in Fairview Township.

State police investigated and determined that the only way the rock could have struck the car was by someone throwing or dropping it.

The victim, who was not injured, was taken home, state police said.

State police said a similar incident also was reported on Oct. 6.

Rock-throwing from I-80 in central Pa. severely injured woman in 2014

Sharon Budd of Uniontown, Ohio was severely injured in the summer of 2014 when a rock thrown from an Interstate 80 overpass crashed through the windshield of the car and struck her in the face, according to PennLive reports at the time. Budd was a passenger in the family car her daughter was driving.

She lost an eye and endured multiple surgeries, the newspaper reported.

Four men were convicted in the rock-throwing that injured Budd, PennLive reported.

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: Multiple I-83 rock-throwing cases under investigation by state police
SAN ANTONIO  The Texas House approved a bill that would allow local and state peace officers to detain and remove to Mexico people who they think are here illegally, dismissing pleas from a Latino lawmaker who scolded, "Y'all don't live in our f---ing skin."

The bill's passage came early Thursday morning after Republicans truncated debate on the legislation, employing a rarely used procedure to cut off amendments Democrats could propose beyond those that were on the House speaker's desk.

State Rep. Armando Walle poses for a portrait in Warren Park in Houston. (James Nielsen / Houston Chronicle via Getty Images file)

After Democrats failed to undo that restriction, Rep. Armando Walle , D-Houston, lit into Republican members. Several versions of the passionate, expletive-laced video posted on social media show Walle chastising Republicans on the bill and for their refusal to allow for a longer "civil" debate that would "let us blow some steam."

Rep. Cody Harris, R-Palestine, whom Walle addressed as his friend, sponsored the motion to cut off debate.

"You're my friend, man, I love you, but this f---ing hurts. The s--- that happens on this godd---ed floor hurts. I can't go hang out with my," Walle said, swallowing the end of the sentence as he became emotional. "I can't hang out with my brother, my cousin, OK. I can't take them anywhere, bro? I can't go to a boda (wedding), I can't go to a baptism, because my community is being attacked?"

Reached Thursday afternoon, Walle told NBC News he does not regret his comments. He sees a direct connection between the legislation and the 2024 election season.

Ive been in the Legislature 16 years and over time there has been this salacious appetite to feed Republican primary voters by demonizing border issues, Walle said.

In a statement, Harris defended his motion to limit the number of amendments that Democrats could propose, saying Democrats had filed 50 more amendments as a stalling tactic. He said spikes in numbers of people arriving at the border or crossing illegally has spurred passion on both sides.

"While Democrats argue that this motion was an attempt to shut down debate over the bill, that simply isnt true. My motion prevailed and we went on to debate the bill and their amendments until 4:00 in the morning when the House passed HB 4," Harris said in the statement.

Open season on people of color

Jennefer Canales-Pelaez, Texas policy attorney and strategist for the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, said the state deportation bill the House approved is worse than Arizonas SB 1070 law, signed in 2010, that allowed officers, while enforcing other laws, to investigate the citizenship or immigration status of suspects and people theyve stopped.

Passage of that law led to court challenges, boycotts, protests and demonstrations and invigorated voter mobilization among Latinos who favored Democrats.

The Texas bill goes further than SB 1070 because it would allow any peace officer to not only question, but arrest and remove them, Canales-Pelaez said. The authority is not only extended to law enforcement, but the broad definition means a peace officer could be someone who sits on the dental examiners board," she said.

The way that the law is written is just so vague, so essentially it is just open season on people of color throughout the state of Texas, Canales-Pelaez said.

She said the bill does not address some of the logistics involved in removals, such as what the line of questioning would look like, where it would happen, or what would happen if Mexico does not accept the non-Mexican people Texas tries to remove. Immigration enforcement, including deportation, is a federal responsibility.

The House bill now goes to the state Senate.

Walle's comments were also referring to a bill on its way to the governor that sets a 10-year mandatory minimum penalty for human smuggling and another still to go to the Senate that provided $1.5 billion to buy land and construct a border wall.

"Y'all don't understand the s--- that you do hurts our community. It hurts us personally, bro. It hurts us," he said. "It hurts us to our f---ing core and y'all don't understand that. Y'all don't live in our f---ing skin."

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Hispanics outnumber whites in Texas and the state is majority minority.

Though Walle lives in and was born and raised in Houston, as was his mother, his father is from Mexico. His parents and many other relatives live along the border, he said. The border has its problems, he acknowledged, but "nobody wants to solve the problems, at least from a state perspective. This has been a big bag of flaming horse manure that people are throwing back and forth, and instead of putting the fire out, the state of Texas wants to put more gas on the fire."

"But in that process it affects families. It demonizes communities of color like mine," he said.

Walle said it was offensive that Republicans cut off debate on future amendments to the immigration bill since under the Legislature's rules anyone can propose an amendment to a bill brought to the floor. Legislation authors should "stand by their bill," he said.

Republicans were able to cut off amendments by obtaining signatures and subjecting the cutoff proposal to a vote. Several members were not in the House when the vote was taken.

"I will never lie down when I feel my community is being attacked. I don't regret what happened last night, period. If I had to do it all over again, I would do it all over again," Walle said. "We are not going to take it anymore."

The Legislature has approved the bill in the midst of a special session rocked by revelations that the leader of the conservative political action committee Defend Texas Liberty met with white supremacist Nick Fuentes. The PAC gave Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican, $3 million in political contributions. House Speaker Dade Phelan, also a Republican, has called for Patrick and several state GOP members who also got money from the PAC to return it, causing a rift in the party.

Lawmakers should have gone home in May, but Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has called them back for three special sessions as he has pushed to get approval for tax money to be used for subsidizing private school tuition. Along with that, he made border and immigration issues an item for the latest special session, which began Oct. 9 and ends Nov. 7.

In 2017, Texas passed its own "show me your papers" law that allows law enforcement officers to ask people about their citizenship and immigration status and allowed for those who didn't to be removed from their jobs, including elected officials. It was upheld on appeal.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
The relationship between the Biden White House and the newly minted highest-ranking Republican in the country, House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA), is already off to a testy start.

The White House rebuked comments Johnson made to Fox News host Sean Hannity on Thursday night, a day after 18 people were killed in two mass shootings in Maine, in which Johnson said that guns are not the cause of Americas unique mass shooting crises.

Saying that it was not the time to talk about gun control, he told Hannity, The problem is the human heart. Its not guns, its not the weapons. At the end of the day, we have to protect the right of the citizens to protect themselves, and thats the Second Amendment, and thats why our party stands so strongly for that.

White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates issued a blistering response to the notion.

We absolutely reject the offensive accusation that gun crime is uniquely high in the United States because of Americans hearts, he said. Gun crime is uniquely high in the United States because congressional Republicans have spent decades choosing the gun industrys lobbyists over the lives of innocent Americans.

The shooting was the 37th mass killing in the U.S. so far this year, according to a database set up by the Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University. At least 190 people have died in those massacres.

The body of Robert Card, the 40-year-old Army Reservist accused of using an assault rifle to kill 18 people at a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston, was discovered in woods near his abandoned car on Friday evening, following a two-day manhunt. Card had suffered acute mental health issues in recent months, his sister-in-law told The Daily Beast.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Y-12 National Security Complex broke ground on a sprawling facility that will take nearly 10 years to build and will steward the nation's stockpile of enriched lithium at a perilous moment for global security.

The Lithium Processing Facility will move operations on a critical element in nuclear weapons from a deteriorating Manhattan Project building. Construction on the 245,000-square-foot facility is expected to be completed in 2031, and full operations are expected to begin in 2034. The estimated cost of the project is between $1.2 billion and $1.6 billion.

Y-12 is part of the National Nuclear Security Administration, an agency of the Department of Energy, and is the department's only facility with lithium production capabilities.

The immediate backdrop of the Oct. 19 groundbreaking ceremony was excavators and dump trucks, but the stage was set with invocations of Y-12's critical role in nuclear deterrence at a time when U.S. adversaries are flexing their growing nuclear capabilities.

Like our Manhattan Project predecessors, todays NNSA faces a daunting task in a very hostile world, said Frank Rose, the administration's second-highest ranking official. Each of our main adversaries are engaged in some kind of destabilizing behavior.

A rendering shows what the Lithium Processing Facility, a key project at Y-12 National Security Complex, may look like when it is completed in 2031. Staff broke ground for the facility on Oct. 19.

Standing before the workforce that will build and operate the Lithium Processing Facility, Rose ran through a list of threats to global nuclear security, from Russia and China to Iran and North Korea.

Russia took control of one of the world's largest nuclear power plants early in its offensive against Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin said the country had deployed nuclear warheads to Belarus, closer to Ukraine and to U.S. allies in NATO.

At the same time, China has rapidly expanded its arsenal of nuclear weapons. The nation has more than 500 operational nuclear warheads and will likely have over 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030, the Pentagon said in its annual report on China's military released Oct. 19.

We are for the first time confronting the possibility of facing two near-peer nuclear adversaries, Rose said. "We are asked to do more at a faster pace at any time since World War II. The key to meeting our expanded mission requirements is an enterprise that is resilient and flexible.

U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, a regular at Oak Ridge ceremonies, sent a representative from his office. U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty also sent representatives in their place.

Staggering investments in Y-12 projects

Frank Rose, NNSA's principal deputy administrator, speaks during a groundbreaking ceremony for the Lithium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge on Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023.

The National Nuclear Security Administration has bulked up its infrastructure investments as nearly 60% of its facilities nationwide are past their life expectancy. Rose said the push to modernize facilities was most evident at Y-12, which plans to demolish its remaining World War II-era buildings in partnership with the Department of Energy's Office of Environmental Management, beginning with the Alpha-2 building next spring.

In place of outdated buildings are already rising new state-of-the-art facilities. Y-12 celebrated the opening of a new fire station and Emergency Operations Center in January, a combined $68 million investment that piloted a faster, more efficient construction method for the Department of Energy.

A massive new Uranium Processing Facility, the product of decades of careful planning and construction, is quickly moving toward its scheduled completion in 2025. The $6.5 billion project, with a 252,000-square-foot main building, is one of the largest in state history and will allow Y-12 to move uranium processing operations away from Building 9212, which is nearly 75 years old.

Y-12 is designated by the National Nuclear Security Administration as both its Uranium Center of Excellence and its Lithium Center of Excellence, leading the nation's nuclear security around two key ingredients of nuclear weapons. As with uranium, the nation has not enriched lithium since the postwar period, but continues to process and recycle materials in the U.S. stockpile.

We are the nations steward of the stockpile of lithium, said Gene Sievers, Y-12 site manager. We dont go mine and then enrich and then use lithium. We recycle the lithium that we enriched decades ago, and its Y-12s mission to be the careful stewards of that, so we dont have to go back and engage again in that, what I will just say, chemically hazardous process.

When Y-12 was built in the 1940s to enrich uranium for the world's first nuclear weapon used in warfare, its buildings were expected to operate for 10 to 15 years. Eighty years later, nine of the original Manhattan Project buildings are still standing and four are still used for critical national security missions.

Y-12 Site Manager Gene Sievers speaks at the new Lithium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge.

The highest-risk building is also where Y-12 currently processes lithium, a site called Building 9204-2, or Beta 2. Workers will remain at the facility until the new site is completed.

We have a really old ship, but a really good crew, Sievers said. We invest in that infrastructure to make sure that its safe for the workers and it also means that we have to do some additional engineering inspections throughout the year so that we understand how the building is continuing to age.

Safety upgrades on a site rich with scientific discovery

The Lithium Processing Facility will improve worker and environmental safety with new techniques to minimize the amount of personal protective equipment needed.

It will sit in the 18-acre footprint of the former Biology Complex, a site where Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers uncovered the effects of radiation on genetics until the 1980s. It was owned by the Department of Energy's Office of Science, which owns ORNL, and was nicknamed the "Mouse House" because of the thousands of unwitting rodent research participants housed there.

When the Biology Complex was fully operational, it was home to more individuals with doctorates than any other facility in the world, according to the Department of Energy.

Both the Uranium Processing Facility and the Lithium Processing Facility are initial steps in a transformational project to modernize Y-12, the Department of Energy's largest employer in the region, one that sits on 811 acres in Bear Creek Valley.

The site, managed by Consolidated Nuclear Security, maintains the U.S. nuclear stockpile, deters nuclear threats worldwide by transporting and storing nuclear weapons materials and provides nuclear fuel for the U.S. Navy, whose submarines and aircraft carriers are powered by nuclear reactors.

Before he came to work at Y-12, Sievers was in the U.S. Navy for 27 years, serving on four nuclear submarines in the Atlantic and Pacific.

When we cross the blue line and go through the gate of Y-12 every morning, we really stop being normal citizens and we start being national security, Sievers said. That is a very empowering and important part of our culture here at Y-12.

Daniel Dassow is a growth and development reporter focused on technology and energy. Phone 423-637-0878. Email daniel.dassow@knoxnews.com.

Support strong local journalism by subscribing at knoxnews.com/subscribe.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Y-12 National Security Complex moving lithium processing
On the second floor of the Valley Mall, boxes sit stacked on top of each other. Dark tablecloths cling to their edges, weighed down by floral arrangements, framed photos and other ofrendas. Its almost November and the Yakima-Morelia Sister City Associations annual Dia de los Muertos exhibition is days from opening.

During the exhibition, which is set to run from this Saturday to Nov. 4, dozens of families will get a chance to honor and celebrate their loved ones who have died. Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is a holiday mainly celebrated in Mexico but observed across the globe.

Margaret Luera, board historian for the YMSCA, has been helping to set up the altars like she has every year for nearly two decades. She talked about the universality of not just wanting to commemorate our loved ones, but of Dia de los Muertos itself.

We have a lot of community members here who are going to honor this tradition, Luera said. Its similar to our Memorial Day here in the states but it's on a grander scale. Its not scary or sad. Its a celebration of the lives of our loved ones. Its celebrated not only in Mexico and other South American countries but pretty much all over the world.

The exhibition will run from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day and will feature the altars, some of them works of art in their own right, folk dances by local student groups and workshops. Dia de los Muertos celebrations also are planned in Tieton on Sunday and in Sunnyside on Wednesday.

People build altars, ofrendas in Spanish, that represent their loved ones through the inclusion of their favorite foods, pictures and other keepsakes. While most altars were still being worked on Thursday, a few were finished. They were lovingly adorned with framed biblical passages and handwritten notes.

This is the second year the exhibition is held inside the Valley Mall. Before that, it was put on in downtown Yakima.

Luera expects about 25 altars will be featured this year, including some from community partner organizations like La Casa Hogar and Coordinated Care Health.

Marleni Hernandez, a Yakima Valley College student and member of the schools Spanish Club, was one of the community partners present during the setup phase of the exhibition. She said multiple club members, including herself, will be put up photos and other memories of their loved ones.

Hernandez said she would include a picture of her grandparents. Growing up and back in Mexico, she said Dia de los Muertos was an important celebration.

My family believes strongly in Dia de los Muertos and we have an altar thats bigger than the one were building here Our entire family fills it with pictures, Hernandez said in Spanish.

Were going to decorate the altar with marigolds and papel picado (colorful paper cutouts), Hernandez said. We have sugar skulls and candles too. Were also going to include pictures of past YVC faculty members who have passed.

Hernandez set up the altar with the help of YMSCA intern, Eileen Hernandez, no relation. Eileen said shes eager to see others enjoy the stands shes helped put together and to commemorate two friends from her childhood.

One of the people Ill be putting up a picture of is a dear friend who felt like a brother to me who died at a young age and the second is a pet, Eileen said. It was my teachers cat, who died while under my care and we got along really well.

Eileen said she hopes the exhibit will draw in visitors. She said to her, Dia de los Muertos is a good time to look back on memories with loved ones and focus not on their absence but on their continued presence in a persons mind.

Its a celebration of our loved ones. Its a happy time to remember them, Eileen said.

A full list of the events being hosted by the YMSCA can be found on its website. Guest set to perform during the exhibit include an Aztec dance group, MLK and West Valley folkloric dancers and a clay skull workshop held by Oregon-based artist Samuel Becerra.
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.
Local author John Saul photographed at his home in Seattle, Sept. 29, 2023. Saul has written over 30 horror novels and received the Horror Writers Association Lifetime Achievement Award in June. (Kevin Clark / The Seattle Times)
CAIRO, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian army said its probe showed two unmanned drones were the falling objects that had injured six in South Sinai province on Friday morning.

The incident occur when the drones were heading from the south of the Red Sea to the north, and one of them was targeted outside Egyptian airspace in the Gulf of Aqaba region, the Egyptian army said in a statement.

The statement added that some of the debris of the targeted drone fell in an uninhabited area in Egypt's coastal town of Nuweiba in the South Sinai province, and other fell in Taba, an Egyptian town near the northern tip of the Gulf of Aqaba.

Egypt's Air Force and Air Defense Forces are intensifying the work of securing Egyptian airspace on all strategic directions of the country, the statement added.

Earlier in the day, the Egyptian army said an "unidentified drone" fell near a hospital in Taba bordering Israel, resulting in minor injuries to six people.

Also on Friday, local media reported that a projectile hit near an electric power plant in Egypt's Nuweiba.

On Sunday, several Egyptian soldiers were slightly injured by fragments of an Israeli tank shell that accidentally hit an Egyptian army watchtower along the border. 
Israel steps up air and ground attacks in Gaza and cuts off the territory's communications

The Israeli army says its ground forces are expanding their activity in the Gaza Strip, as it moves closer to a full-on ground invasion of the besieged territory
Homes were razed by the Gray Fire on the western shore of Silver Lake in August. (Daniel Kim / The Seattle Times)
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Writers are limited to one published letter per calendar month.
PHNOM PENH, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has promoted sustainable growth, green development and digital innovation, a Cambodian expert said on Friday.

Neak Chandarith, director of the Cambodia 21st Century Maritime Silk Road Research Center, said recognizing the importance of sustainable development, the BRI has promoted green and sustainable practices.

"This includes encouraging the use of renewable energy sources, ecological conservation, and biodiversity protection," he told Xinhua. "The BRI emphasizes sustainable resource management and environmental cooperation among participating countries."

Chandarith said in recent years, the BRI has demonstrated a growing commitment to environmental concerns, responding to global anxieties over coal-fired power plants and other large-scale infrastructure projects.

"The establishment of a 'green BRI' emphasizes the importance of adhering to international best practices in environmental risk management," he said.

The expert said the BRI has also acknowledged the significance of digital connectivity and innovation in an era of rapid technological advancement.

"It seeks to bridge the digital divide by promoting high-speed Internet networks, e-commerce, and digital infrastructure development, and the areas of cooperation include 5G networks, artificial intelligence, e-commerce, and the development of smart cities," he said.

The BRI consists of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. It was initiated by China in 2013 to build trade and infrastructure networks connecting Asia with Europe and Africa on and beyond the ancient Silk Road trade routes.

For Cambodia, Chandarith said the BRI's infrastructure development projects such as roads, bridges, hydropower plants, airports, ports, expressways and the Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone have improved transportation networks, attracted foreign investment and boosted trade.

"These developments have the potential to spur economic diversification, create jobs, and alleviate poverty, empowering communities and improving the quality of life for millions of people," he said.

He added that the BRI's future in the Southeast Asian country is intricately tied to the principles of sustainable growth, green development and digital innovation, saying that the kingdom envisions a path that embraces environmental sustainability and the utilization of green technologies.

"This commitment not only ensures a healthier environment but also aligns with global goals for climate action," he said.

Furthermore, he said, the BRI's future in Cambodia includes a strong emphasis on digital innovation.

"With the rapid advancement of technology, Cambodia aims to bridge the digital divide, promote e-commerce and foster the development of smart cities. These innovations will not only drive economic progress but also enhance the quality of life for Cambodians," he said.

Chandarith said Cambodia's vision of sustainable growth, green development and digital innovation will contribute to the broader success of the BRI. 
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TOKYO, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- The average number of influenza patients per regularly monitored medical institution in Japan this week came to 16.41, exceeding the alert level of 10 for the second consecutive week, the health ministry said on Friday.

About 5,000 such designated facilities across the country reported 81,160 flu cases, up more than 26,000 from the previous seven-day period, the National Institute of Infectious Diseases said.

The per-institution count was highest in Ehime, at 39.90, exceeding the threshold of 30 cases for local authorities to issue a warning.

Thirty prefectures surpassed the threshold of 10 for an advisory, including Chiba Prefecture with 29.39, Saitama 28.41, Fukushima 27.09 and Hyogo 23.36.

Meanwhile, the per-institution number of COVID-19 infection cases in the country stood at 3.25 in the week through Sunday, down for the seventh consecutive week. 
Joc bun, rezultat nemeritat! Dumbravavita, peste Steaua, dar pana la urma remiza

Peste 1.200 de spectatori au ales sa vada Dumbravita  Steaua de la fata locului, sambata de la orele 11. Si a fost o alegere buna, chiar daca in meci nu s-a marcat. Scorul inregistrat dupa 90 de minute, nu reflecta realitatea din [citeste mai departe]
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Launched in January 2014, this newsletter published on week days covers 'everything you need to know about whats going on in Hungary and beyond', according to its publisher the state media agency MTI.
VIENTIANE, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Lao government and its development partners have pledged to intensify cooperation to meet development targets, during a two-day National Conference on Population and Development that took place in Lao capital Vientiane.

At the conference, which ended on Tuesday, the government and development partners reached a landmark consensus on accelerating implementation of the ninth National Socio-Economic Development Plan (NSEDP) for 2021-2025 and the National Population and Development Policy for 2019-2030, Lao national TV reported on Friday.

This will be achieved by empowering adolescents and youth, investing in sexual and reproductive health and rights and gender-based violence response programs, as well as data for development, according to the report.

The conference brought together government institutions, civil society, private sector and development partners to strategize around key population and development issues and agree on sustainable solutions.

Addressing the conference, Lao Deputy Prime Minister Kikeo Khaykhamphithoune said that since the adoption of the International Conference on Population and Development Program of Action in 1994, Laos has made significant progress.

This includes a decline in the proportion of the population living below the poverty line from 48 percent in 1990 to 18.3 percent in 2018-2019, and a decline in the maternal mortality ratio from 530 per 100,000 live births in 2000 to 126 per 100,000 live births in 2020. In addition, 69 percent of births are attended by trained personnel and primary school enrolment has reached 89.6 percent.

The United Nations Resident Coordinator in Laos Bakhodir Burkhanov said, "As Laos is expected to graduate from 'least developed country' status by 2026, it requires a combination of meaningful policies and their steadfast implementation, backed by the continued collective support of all development partners, in order to rise to the promise of the Sustainable Development Goals." 
New Delhi: A Ghazipur court on Friday sentenced the gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari to 10 years in prison with hard labor in connection with the 2009 Gangster Act case. In addition to the imprisonment, the former MLA has been ordered to pay a fine of Rs 5 lakh. This verdict was delivered a day after he was found guilty in the case.

Mukhtar's close associate and co-accused in this case, Sonu Yadav, has been sentenced to five years in prison and fined Rs 2 lakh. This marks the sixth instance since September 2022 when Mukhtar has faced legal penalties. In 1991, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Awadhesh Rai, and he received ten years in prison for two additional cases.

On Thursday, after convicting Mukhtar and Sonu, Additional Session Judge-III (MP-MLA) Arvind Kumar Mishra pronounced their sentences late Friday afternoon. Mukhtar has been sentenced to ten years of rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 5 lakh, with the possibility of an additional two years of imprisonment if the fine is not paid, as stated in the verdict.

In 2009, Mukhtar was implicated in multiple cases under the Gangster Act by Ghazipur police, including two cases involving murder attempts and criminal conspiracies filed by Mir Hasan, as well as the Kapildeo Singh murder case that occurred in the Karanda police station area.
A Qatar court on Thursday sentenced eight former Indian Navy personnel to death. These individuals, who work for the Al Dahra Company, were arrested last year under allegations of espionage. The specific charges made by Qatari authorities against these Indian citizens have not been disclosed to the public. Meanwhile, India expressed profound shock at the court's decision and is now exploring all available legal avenues in response. In Today's DNA, Zee News Anchor Sourabh Raaj Jain analysed the Qatar court's decision to impose a death sentence on eight former Indian navy personnel.

Eight former marines who used to work at 'Al Dahra Global' in Qatar have been given the death penalty. They were arrested in August 2022 and accused of spying in March of this year. 'Al Dahra Global' was a special company for the Qatar Navy, linked to submarines, and had about 75 Indian employees, most of them being ex-Indian Navy officers. Last May, Qatar shut down this company and told 70 workers to leave the country. In August, they arrested eight former Indian marines, including their boss, Khamis Al Ajami.

The accusation against these people is that they shared submarine info with Israel, but Qatar hasn't officially said anything about it. There's no official word from Qatar or India about the charges. The death penalty for these Indian sailors is a big concern for India, but it's a hush-hush topic that's hard to talk about.

These former Navy men have been in a Qatar jail for a year, and efforts are being made to get them legal help. It's strange that Qatar hasn't shown any evidence to India about the spying accusations. Some people think Qatar's actions are part of a hidden plan, especially since Khamis Al Ajmi, who was also arrested for spying, was released in just two months, while the Indian Navy men are still in jail without bail.

The death sentences for former Indian Navy personnel are seen as a message to India because of its support for Israel. This issue has been going on since last year, but suddenly announcing the death penalty is seen as a way to protest India's stance on Israel. Qatar's actions are seen as a way to oppose the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, which was discussed at the G-20 conference in India this year.
Bihar has removed around 22 lakh students' names from state schools. The Additional Chief Secretary of Bihar's Education Department, KK Pathak, ordered this removal because these students were not attending school. This decision is part of a campaign by the state government to identify and exclude students who are not regularly going to school.

The Bihar Education Department is concerned that many students are frequently absent from school. Surprisingly, among the students whose names have been removed from the school registers, approximately 1.5 lakh were supposed to appear in board exams next year. This raises questions about how these 1.5 lakh students will be able to take their board exams.

Over the past four months, government schools in Bihar have been inspected as per the Bihar Education Department's instructions. Schools were initially asked to cancel the registration of students who were absent for 30 days, which was later reduced to 15 days. Finally, schools were instructed to remove the names of students who were absent for three consecutive days without notifying school authorities. During the investigation, it was discovered that although the names of these students were marked in the attendance book, they were not actually attending school.

Reports indicate that more than 70,000 schools in 38 districts of Bihar have removed the names of 22 lakh students from classes 1 to 12 in the school attendance records. This includes 2,66,564 students from class 9 to 12 who have been excluded. The Bihar School Examination Board has banned these students from participating in upcoming matriculation and intermediate exams.

Before removing students' names, the Education Department's order requires schools to assess how many days a student's attendance has been below 50 percent and to notify students and their parents when a student is absent for three consecutive days. Even after this, if students do not attend school for 15 days, their enrollment can be canceled. An anonymous Education Department official mentioned that many students enroll in both government and private schools, which leads to these actions. The Education Department has received reports from districts about this issue, and students whose names have been removed will not receive benefits like uniforms, scholarships, or bicycles.

This move by the Education Department aims to ensure efficient use of government resources and to provide benefits only to deserving students. It also aims to streamline the mid-day meal scheme and prevent schools from falsely inflating student attendance during meal times.

The extended absences of students are attributed to parents or guardians making them work in fields or family businesses. The government wants dedicated students in schools to focus on their development and receive government benefits and scholarships.

However, this decision has affected schools across Bihar, and many are questioning the government's approach, especially the sudden removal of students' names without prior notice. Teachers and students argue that a more flexible approach is needed, as unexpected circumstances can lead to students being absent for three days.
New Delhi: U.S. President Joe Biden ordered strikes on two facilities in Syria after U.S. troops were attacked more than a dozen times in Iraq and Syria in the past week, the Pentagon said, warning that the U.S. will not tolerate attacks by Irans proxies. The U.S. suspects that Iran-backed groups such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah are behind the attacks. Irans Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said at the U.N. on Thursday that the U.S. will not be spared from this fire if Israels offensive against Hamas does not stop.

The U.S. military carried out strikes on Thursday against two facilities in eastern Syria used by Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and groups it supports, the Pentagon said. These precision self-defence strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on October 17, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement.

These Iranian-backed attacks against U.S. forces are unacceptable and must stop, Austin said. Biden has sent a rare message to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warning Tehran against targeting U.S. personnel in the Middle East, the White House said earlier on Thursday.

Israel said on Friday that it was preparing the next stage of the operation in Gaza, amid fears that a ground invasion of the Palestinian enclave could spark a wider Middle East conflict. Israel has pounded the densely populated Gaza Strip following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israeli communities. Israel says Hamas killed some 1,400 people including children, and took more than 200 hostages, some of them infants and older adults.

The Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry said on Thursday that 7,028 Palestinians had been killed in the retaliatory air strikes, including 2,913 children. A missile launched as part of fighting between Hamas and Israel struck an Egyptian resort town about 220 km (135 miles) from the Gaza Strip early on Friday, Egypts Al Qahera News reported, citing sources.

The missile hit a medical facility in Taba, injuring at least six people, Al Qahera TV reported. A witness in Taba confirmed hearing an explosion and seeing smoke rising, but Reuters was not immediately able to identify the blasts source. Taba is located on Egypts border with Israels Red Sea port of Eilat. Israels military said it was aware of a security incident outside its borders.

Israel said on Friday that its fighter jets had struck three senior Hamas operatives in the Daraj Tuffah Battalion, part of the Gaza City Brigade. Israel said the three commanders had played a significant role in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

There was no official announcement by Hamas. Palestinian militants clashed with Israeli troops in at least two areas of the Gaza Strip on Friday, Hamas-affiliated media reported.

Israeli military vehicles raided the central area of Al-Bureij and troops were clashing with militants near the border there, the reports said. In the south, in a border area near the town of Rafah, Hamas militants were trading fire with Israeli troops, according to the reports.

As the plight of Palestinian civilians grows more desperate, the issue of whether to have humanitarian pauses or ceasefire agreements in the Hamas-run coastal enclave will come before the 193-member U.N. General Assembly on Friday in a draft resolution submitted by Arab states calling for a ceasefire.
New Delhi: Pooja Batra is an Indian actress and model who has appeared in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Punjabi films. She is also a former Miss India Asia Pacific. Batra is known for her outspoken personality and her willingness to speak her mind, which has led her to be involved in a number of controversies throughout her career.

Five Most Notable Controversies Of Pooja Batra:



'Mahabharata' Genetics



Pooja Batra co-authored a book called 'The Mahabharata Genetics' with her former husband Dr Sonu Ahluwalia in 2001. The book was met with controversy for its claims that the 'Mahabharata' was based on real events and that the characters in the epic were genetically related to each other. The book also made claims about the genetics of the Indian people, which were disputed by many scholars.

Lord Ganesha's Surgery



In 2002, Pooja Batra made a controversial statement on television that Lord Ganesha's elephant head was the result of a plastic surgery procedure. The statement sparked outrage among Hindus, who accused Batra of being insensitive to their religious beliefs. Batra later apologised for her statement.

The Sacredness of the Cow



In 2006, Pooja Batra wrote an article for a magazine in which she criticized the Hindu practice of cow worship. She argued that cows were simply animals and that there was nothing sacred about them. The article sparked a debate about the role of religion in Indian society.



Marriage to Nawab Shah



Pooja Batra was accused of hiding her marriage with actor Nawab Shah. In 2019, the actress admitted that the two tied the knot in a hush-hush private ceremony and are married. Rumours were there that Pooja and her first husband Sonu had marital disputes over embracing parenthood, however, there was no confirmation to this.

Support For 'Black Lives Matter' Movement



In 2020, Pooja Batra publicly supported the Black Lives Matter movement. She posted a message on social media in which she condemned racism and police brutality. The message was met with some criticism from people who felt that Batra should not be interfering in American politics. Batra has defended her right to speak out on social issues and has said that she will continue to support the Black Lives Matter movement.

It is important to note that Pooja Batra has been a vocal critic of religious extremism and intolerance. She has also spoken out against discrimination against women and minorities. She is a strong advocate for social justice and equality.
New Delhi: WhatsApp has recently launched a new feature called "Protect IP address in Call." This feature is designed to hide your IP address during WhatsApp calls. However, this feature has raised concerns among cybersecurity experts not only because they oppose it but also because it might benefit cybercriminals and terrorists.

When you make a WhatsApp call, whether it's an audio call or a video call, it's an IP to IP call. This means the caller uses their IP address to connect to the recipient's IP address. This information is also recorded in the phone's metadata. So, if there's a cyberfraud happening during a WhatsApp call, investigation agencies can trace the cybercriminal's IP address from the victim's phone.

However, with WhatsApp's new "Protect IP address in Call" feature, the call will first go through the caller's IP address to WhatsApp's servers, and then from there to the recipient's IP address. In this process, instead of the caller's IP address, WhatsApp's IP address will be saved in the recipient's phone metadata. This means that when a cybercrime occurs during a WhatsApp call, it will take longer for investigation agencies to gather information, potentially weeks or even months.

Renowned cybersecurity experts in India, such as Amit Dubey, who provide cyber forensic training to various investigation agencies, are also opposing this new feature. They argue that features like hiding IP addresses during calls have been available on platforms like Telegram for a while. This is why such platforms have become major hubs for cybercriminals. With WhatsApp's "Protect IP address in Call" feature, it not only raises concerns about the rise in cybercrimes but also makes it harder for investigation agencies to track down cybercriminals.

It's important to note that the Indian government has accused WhatsApp publicly on several occasions of not cooperating with investigation agencies in matters related to privacy. Therefore, according to cybersecurity expert Sunny Nehra, WhatsApp's launch of this feature makes it more challenging for investigation agencies to reach cybercriminals. While WhatsApp did release its Monthly Transparency Report, showing that it removed over 7.1 million accounts in India from August 1st to August 31st for unlawful activities, experts like Amit Dubey believe that with the new "Protect IP address in Call" feature, WhatsApp may become a safe haven not only for cybercriminals but also for terrorists.

An IP address is a unique 12-digit digital address used by a user's device to communicate over the mobile network and the internet. It can also reveal information about the user's location and their network provider. This is a crucial tool in the world of cyber forensics, helping investigation agencies reach individuals involved in cybercrimes.

After WhatsApp launched the "Protect IP address in Call" feature, they haven't officially shared any information with users. Even when Zee News asked WhatsApp for their perspective on this feature, there has been no response from WhatsApp, despite two days passing since the inquiry.
New Delhi: As the Israel-Hamas war continues, the US has deployed or is deploying about 900 troops to the Middle East, Pentagon spokesperson Brigadier General Pat Ryder said on Thursday (local time), CNN reported. He said that the units being sent include Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery from Fort Bliss Texas, Patriot batteries from Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and Patriot and Avenger batteries from Fort Liberty, North Carolina.

At a press briefing, Ryder said, I can confirm that since our initial Force posture announcement approximately 900 troops have subsequently deployed or are in the process of deploying to the US Central Command area of responsibility these include forces that have been on prepared to deploy orders and which are deploying from the continental United States.

Ryder did not disclose the exact location of these forces. However, he said that they were not heading to Israel and they were meant to support regional deterrence efforts and further bolster US force protection capabilities.

Deployed and deploying units include a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery from Fort Bliss Texas, Patriot batteries from Fort Sill, Oklahoma, Patriot and Avenger batteries from Fort Liberty, North Carolina, and associated air defence headquarters elements from Fort Bliss and Fort Cavazos Texas while I wont talk specific deployment locations for these forces I can confirm that they are not going to Israel and that again they are intended to support regional deterrence efforts and further bolster US force protection capabilities, Ryder said.

Pentagon official says US and coalition forces attacked 12 times in Iraq and four times in Syria

The Pentagon official also said that between October 17 and 26, US and coalition forces were attacked at least 12 separate times in Iraq and four separate times in Syria by a mix of one-way attack drones and rockets.

He announced that the US is planning to provide the two US iron dome systems to Israel to help further bolster its defence capabilities.

I can confirm that in addition to the iron dome interceptors were flowing to Israel. Were also planning to provide the two US iron dome systems currently in our inventory to Israel to help further bolster their air defence capabilities and protect citizens from rocket attacks for operation security reasons Im not going to discuss shipment timelines or delivery dates and well defer to Israel to make any announcements regarding future deployment and use of these systems, Ryder said.

His remarks come after the Pentagon put roughly 2,000 US troops on prepare-to-deploy orders last week, which US Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh had said were focused on providing air defence, security, logistics, medical, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and transportation support," according to a CNN report.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin has spoken with Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and discussed the need to facilitate humanitarian aid into Gaza and to ensure the protection of civilians.

Today I spoke with Israeli Minister of Defense Gallant. We discussed the need to facilitate humanitarian aid into Gaza and to ensure the protection of civilians. I expressed the US commitment to deterring escalation, and our hope for the release of the remaining hostages, the US Defence Secretary posted on X on Thursday.

A readout by the US Department of Defense stated, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III spoke with Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant today to receive updates on Israels operations to restore security following the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack.

The department said Austin reiterated his appreciation for Israels role in facilitating humanitarian aid convoys into Gaza and repeated his calls for Israel to ensure the protection of civilians.
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New Delhi: A political activist from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), Professor Sajjad Raja, has spoken out against Pakistans claim to be a party to the Kashmir dispute. In a tweet, Raja said that the only two parties are the people of Jammu and Kashmir and India, and Pakistan has no right to interfere in their matters.

Pakistan has made this. Pakistan has been given this legitimacy by Indian government. We invited India to come and rescue us and instead what they did they went to the United Nations on 1 January 1948 and there in United Nations they agreed to the formula which was presented by western forces and agreed that Pakistan is a legitimate party to the dispute, Sajjad said in his address.

He further said, If I enter this room with guns, with my friends, with guns in my hands and grenades and I occupy this room, would you consider me as a legitimate party later on when its being decided that I should be thrown out of this parliament house? So these are different standards for us and different standards for the western world and for others.

Speaking at the British Parliament, he said, So it has been too long. I apologize. Im sorry. Let me emphasize it is still not too late. Pakistan must be forced to give us all basic human rights and fundamental freedoms. We must not be treated like animals. We are also human beings. We have got all the right to live peacefully and enjoy the facilities of modern day life. And people in mainland Jammu Kashmir and Ladakh are enjoying. Thank you very much.

In #British Parliament today, I very categorically and without any ambiguity made it clear to the MPs and other dignitaries that #Pakistan is not a legitimate party to the dispute of #JammuAndKashmir and that there are only two parties to the dispute, the people of #JammuKashmir pic.twitter.com/xghJviCCwD  Professor Sajjad Raja (@NEP_JKGBL) October 26, 2023

Raja is the chairman of the National Equality Party Jammu Kashmir Gilgit Baltistan and Ladakh (NEP JKGBL), a political party that advocates for the rights of the people of PoK. He has been vocal about Pakistans oppression and exploitation of PoK and has demanded a plebiscite to decide the future of the region.
Karwa Chauth is a cherished Hindu festival celebrated by married women across India. It's a day when wives fast from sunrise to moonrise for the longevity and well-being of their husbands. While the festival is deeply rooted in tradition, it's also an occasion for women to dress up and look their best.

Karwa Chauth is a festival where tradition and style come together beautifully. Whether you prefer traditional elegance, a contemporary twist, or a minimalist look, the key is to feel comfortable and confident in your chosen outfit. Here are some outfit ideas to celebrate Karwa Chauth in style.

Also read: When Is Karwa Chauth? Check Correct Date, City-Wise Puja Timings, Rituals And More

1. Traditional Elegance:

Karwa Chauth is all about traditional rituals, and what better way to embrace this than by donning a beautiful traditional outfit. A classic choice is a stunning silk saree with intricate embroidery or a vibrant lehenga choli. These outfits not only showcase the richness of Indian culture but also exude elegance and grace.

2. Contemporary Twist:

For those who love to blend tradition with modern fashion, opt for a contemporary outfit. A stylish anarkali suit with a unique design or a fusion gown with Indian and Western elements can be a great choice. These outfits allow you to celebrate tradition while making a fashion statement.

3. Bold Reds and Rich Maroons:

Red is the quintessential color of Karwa Chauth. It symbolizes love and commitment. Red sarees, lehengas, or suits are always in vogue during this festival. You can choose varying shades of red, from deep maroons to bright scarlet, to suit your personal style.

4. Minimalist Elegance:

If you prefer a more understated look, consider minimalistic outfits. A plain saree with a beautifully embellished blouse or a simple yet chic salwar kameez can radiate elegance. Minimalism is all about letting your natural beauty shine through.

5. Handcrafted Dupattas:

For those who want to add a touch of tradition to a contemporary outfit, consider a handcrafted dupatta. It can be a beautiful Banarasi or Phulkari dupatta that adds a traditional touch to your outfit, making it Karwa Chauth-ready.

6. Jewelry Choices:

Complete your Karwa Chauth look with the right jewelry. Traditional jewelry such as Kundan, Polki, or temple jewelry complements traditional outfits perfectly. For a contemporary look, consider statement pieces like chokers or long earrings to add that extra oomph to your ensemble.

7. Mehndi Designs:

No Karwa Chauth look is complete without intricate mehndi designs on your hands. It's a tradition to apply mehndi patterns that signify love and prosperity. You can choose from various designs, from classic motifs to more contemporary patterns.

8. Hair and Makeup:

Accentuate your outfit with a well-coordinated hairstyle and makeup. Classic bun hairstyles adorned with flowers or contemporary loose curls can enhance your look. Red lips and kohl-rimmed eyes are perfect for the occasion.
New Delhi: Interpol has issued a Red Notice for Indian fugitive Yogesh Kadian, who is facing charges including criminal conspiracy, attempted murder, and unlawful possession and use of prohibited firearms and ammunition. Kadian, a 19-year-old originally from Haryana, is currently affiliated with the Bambiha gang in the United States, having reportedly entered the country using a fraudulent passport two years ago.

Who Is Yogesh Kadian? All About Fugitive Gangster

According to the information shared on the official website of Interpol, Yogesh Kadian hails from Beri town of Jhajjar district in Haryana and was born on July 12, 2004. Sharing the identification marks and physical description of the fugitive, the international organization stated that Khadin has a mole on his left hand and has black eyes and hair.

Kadia is believed to have strong connections with the infamous 20-year-old gangster Himanshu Bhau from Haryana, who has also gone to the United States to hide. 19-year-old Kadian is facing grave criminal charges including involvement in criminal plots, attempted murder, actions carried out by multiple individuals with a common purpose, and the possession and use of illegal weapons and ammunition.
New Delhi: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Friday accused the central government of misusing agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax Department, contending that it poses a threat to democracy. He asserted that for the past nine years, these agencies have been employed by the Centre as a political tool to target opposition leaders.

The Rajasthan Chief Minister stated that his government would extend a warm welcome if the agencies uncover any financial irregularities and prosecute those responsible. However, he lamented that these agencies have been reduced to mere political instruments, selectively targeting leaders from opposition parties. He added that as soon as a politician joins the BJP, the charges against them seem to vanish as if "they've been laundered in a washing machine." Taking aim at Prime Minister Modi Gehlot said, "Modi ji you may not realise it yet but your countdown has begun."

#WATCH | Jaipur: Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot says, "What's happening in the country? Democracy is under threat. The Constitution has been tattered. ED, Income Tax and CBI are following instructions (of the Central government)...They have become political weapon for the past 9 years pic.twitter.com/9anuLBG09o  ANI (@ANI) October 27, 2023

"What is happening in the country? Democracy is under threat... The Constitution is being torn apart. The ED, Income Tax, and CBI are adhering to the directives of the Central government... They have turned into political tools over the last nine years, exclusively targeting opposition leaders in their raids," said Ashok Gehlot.

Ashok Gehlot's statement comes after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted raids on Thursday at the residences of state Congress president Govind Singh Dotasara in Jaipur and Sikar and summoned the Chief Minister's son Vaibhav Gehlot for questioning in a Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) case. Rajasthan is scheduled to go for polls for the Assembly Elections 2023 on November 25.
Islamabad: Incarcerated former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan in a message from jail, has alleged that "another attempt" could be made on his life through "slow poisoning" and urged the people to fight for "their rights and country's freedom". The message of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) Chairman was posted on his X handle through his family. Imran Khan also slammed the caretaker government over the return of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif and the series of reliefs granted to him by the courts in different graft cases.

"In the last few days, we have witnessed a total mockery of the law. All that is happening today is not just an execution of a London "plan" but London "agreement" that was signed between a cowardly fugitive and corrupt criminal and his facilitators. The only way a convicted criminal could be allowed to return to politics with a clean chit is by destroying State institutions. And hence, what we are witnessing is a complete collapse of our justice system," Khan stated.

He further said that all the cases against him are "completely bogus and politically motivated" and concocted only to keep him in jail till after the elections or much longer.

The former PM said the "growing political awareness" and "increasing resistance against closed-room conspiracies" in Pakistan scare the establishment.

Stating that two attempts have already been made against his life, Khan alleged that another attempt could be made through "slow poisoning" as he has refused to leave the country. "At the moment I am physically fit. I would know if my body was experiencing change from weakness. But they have already made two public attempts to take my life. Since I won't agree to leave my country there is of course a danger they will try to make another attempt on my life while I am in jail. Such an attempt could also be through slow poisoning," Khan said.

He added, "Our struggle is entering its decisive phase. You will have to fight for your own rights and your country's freedom". Khan added that he has directed his lawyers and party office bearers to hold conventions all across the country and commence the campaign whenever elections are held.

Pakistan district and sessions court on August 5, sentenced Imran Khan to three years in prison in the Toshakhana case i.e. for illegally selling state gifts and disqualified him from politics for a period of five years, local media reported. The court also imposed a fine of Pakistani Rupees (PKR) 100,000 on Imran Khan, Geo News reported. However, the Islamabad HC later suspended Imran Khan's three-year sentence in the Toshakhana case.

But, a special court in Islamabad ordered Attock Jail authorities -- where the former premier was incarcerated -- to keep the PTI chairman in judicial lockup in the cypher case. Imran Khan is presently imprisoned at Adiala Jail. The cypher controversy first emerged on March 27, 2022, when Imran Khan just days before his ouster brandished a letter, claiming that it was a cypher from a foreign nation, which mentioned that his government should be ousted from power, according to The News International report.

However, a few days later Imran Khan named the United States and said that US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Affairs Donald Lu had sought his removal. The PTI chairman had claimed that he was reading contents from the cypher and said that "all will be forgiven for Pakistan if Imran Khan is removed from power".
New Delhi: Rhea Chakraborty is one of the most beautiful actresses who, despite going through a lot of ups and downs in life, has come out only stronger. The actress has faced several criticisms on her personal front, but despite all this, she chose to remain strong mentally and has faced every battle with a strong mind that came her way. The actress has always left an impact on the masses through the statements she made, and recently, she shared her experience about jail life on a chat show.

Throwing light on the experience of spending time in jail, Rhea said, "So you are basically removed from society and put as a number in prison because you are deemed unfit for society. So there itself, this personality or these things youve created about yourself are completely broken. I was in an under-trial prison, which means it's not a convicted prison, and unfortunately, all the women over there were still innocent because they were not proven guilty. Seeing them and interacting with them, I experienced a unique kind of love and resilience within those women. They found happiness in small things. They grabbed happiness when they got it. They know how to enjoy a moment, and they are some of the happiest people I have met."

Continuing the same, Rhea said, "Of course, it's frustrating; they're languishing, but they know when and how to catch that happiness. And it can be as small as a samosa on a Sunday. It can be as small as somebody dancing for them. So it's just perspective; it's how you look at it. At that point, yes, my life was in the worst hell it could have been. But heaven or hell is a choice in your head that you can make. It's difficult to choose heaven each time. But the battle is of the mind, and if you have the strength and desire in your heart, you'll most definitely battle the mind and win."

Sharing the video, Rhea Chakraborty captioned, "Perspective shift. #rhenew"

After the video was uploaded to Rheas Instagram, fans stormed her comment section with support and positivity. One fan wrote, Go Rhea! This entire covers areas so powerful, love this. Another said, Every suffering is worth it, if there will be no low days, there will be no transformation!!. One wrote, strongest woman in the world! I love you while another said, You are a shining example of resilience and womanhood at its best! keep shining and one added, Inspiring Keep going, informing all the negative comments!

Meanwhile, on the professional front, the actress who started her journey with MTV India has made her return to the small screen with the show 'MTV Roadies: Karm Ya Kaand', where she is essaying one of the Gang leaders in the show.
This is the second part of the article about pattern matching in Ruby; that article is itself a part of the series about recent language features, their design, and pragmatics. Please start (at least) from the first part; the series intro and table of contents are here.

Last time, we discussed why there was a demand to introduce pattern matching in Ruby and how it was introduced. As it is rather a big feature with a lot of details to handle, I wouldnt fully cover all those details in the blog post. If you are interested in the full feature definition, I suggest reading the official docs; they are quite accessible.

Now, lets discuss the pains and gains it have brought!

Irks and Quirks

With all the good things that Ive said in the previous article about chosen pattern syntax looking natural, it still stands as a separate syntactic area of the code. This is mostly unusual for Ruby, which, once you get to know it closer, is characterized by a uniformity of semantics.

A lot of things that in other languages are represented by separate grammar elements, in Ruby, are just methods calls on objects:

class A # here just a regular code execution environment # where you can do anything, like... p self #=> prints "A", current object inside which we execute # It is just a `attr_reader()` method that receives `:a` argument, # and defines a getter, not a special language construct attr_reader :a # This is just private() method, which receives an argument with # `:foo` (name of the method defined), which `def` statement returns. private def foo # ... end # Class methods could are defined like this, # but that's not a special syntax, any `def obj.method` works, # and `self` is the class object here def self . bar # ... end end # Even object creation is not a special construct, but # call to `.new` method of `A` object, which can be introspected, # redefined, and removed. a = A . new

In these circumstances, pattern syntax stands out: what you see in it is like things matched, but not because it is the same grammatical entity: it is a completely different entity, making sense only in patterns context, but made to look the same. Or, if you wish, patterns are visually integrated into the language but not fully semantically integrated.

This separateness might manifest in patterns themselves when the check against non-literal objects suddenly requires pinning, as if the illusion of full integration is broken:

# This (literal range) works: number in 1 .. 10 # This (almost the same?) is syntax error: time in Time . new ( '2023-10-01' ) .. Time . now # Can be written like this, though: time in ^ ( Time . new ( '2023-10-01' ) .. Time . now )

Modern pattern matching also defies the intuition that Ruby users previously had about pattern-alike things (like regexps or ranges): that pattern is an object that can be put into a variable, sent to a method, etc.

# I can do this: # "old" `===` check to select collection items that are integer arguments . grep ( Integer ) # ...but not this: # seems similar: select "pair of integers"?.. But wouldn't work arguments . grep ([ Integer , Integer ]) # The closest we can have is this: arguments . select { _1 in [ Integer , Integer ] }

Consequently, there is a pattern noun in terminology but no Pattern class to extend and play with: say, define custom unpacking strategies. Again, this is logically explainable (patterns might include references to local variables, and it would be just borderline impossible to implement a pattern object that wraps them), but it is still intuitively irritating.

On the other hand, pattern as a statement applicability is also quite limited. In functional languages where pattern matching is the only form of assignment, it works in implicit assignment contexts, too, like passing arguments to a method. Say, in Elixir,

# If this works: { x , y } = data # ...this works too, by the same match/unpack logic def m ({ x , y }) do # do something with x and y end

In Ruby, => might look like a form of assignment, but there is no way to use it implicitly. In other words, there is no way to define a method or code block that declares to accept patterns.

Lets, for example, look at a common case of handling an array of uniform hashes or structs:

events = [ { type: 'create' , role: 'admin' , some: 'details' }, { type: 'delete' , role: 'user' , buy: 'coffee' }, { type: 'create' , role: 'user' , some: [ :other , :stuff ]}, ]

You can do this (explicit assignment):

events . first => type :, role :, ** data

And even this (check type, then unpack role and the rest):

events . first => type: 'create' | 'delete' , role :, ** data

But as it is not a real assignment, but a completely separate syntax, nothing follows from it. Like, there is no way to do this (implicit check/assignment of params):

# Not a real Ruby! events . select { | type :, role :| type == 'create' || role == 'admin' }

The closest you can go is this, but having an explicit rightward assignment:

events . select { _1 => type :, role :; type == 'create' || role == 'admin' }

which is almost as compact by character count but has a different perception: two statements (which most linters would like you to write on separate lines), and the unpacking reads as a work done in the block instead of a part of the block declaration.

This shallow integration and many ways it breaks intuitions in more complex usages (say, the pattern Array[*Integer] array of any size of integerslooks logically possible, but it is a syntax error) is not a show-stopper, of course. It is just a bit of bitterness to recognize while embracing the style that pattern matching brings.

Note: Those irks and quirks are analyzed from the perspective of a Ruby user who is given a new tool and tries to apply their intuitions to it. If well approach it from a perspective of somebody already familiar with pattern matching in functional languages, a common irky thing is seemingly inverted order of pattern and value: in most of them, it is pattern = value , more corresponding to matching-as-assignment logic. But all things considered, rightward assignment aligns in an interesting way with chained computations style, as shown in the previous article. On the other hand, a developer coming from the perspective of other pattern matching implementations, might find the why is it not an object? question irrelevant.

A weekly postcard from Ukraine Please stop here for a moment. Since this article, I intend to make small reminders right in the middle of the text about how we live now. I am a living person from a country at war. If you enjoy my writings about tech, please take a toll of knowing what happens here. It is not a news digest a situation briefing, but a small event of the week that passed. Last Saturday, Russia bombed a post terminal in my home city, Kharkiv. Six post workers died, and seventeen others were injured. Our colleagues spent their last seconds alive helping - sorting parcels with medicine and humanitarian aid for the civilian suffering from the war. The russia destroyed a civilian building and should be convicted of war crimes. Please, spread the word #RussiaIsATerroristState pic.twitter.com/2GkIlE2FRp    (@NP_official_ua) October 22, 2023 Please proceed with the rest of the article.

Consequences

There are many consequences of introducing a feature that big into a mature languageand most of them will probably manifest themselves slowly with further adoption of pattern matching (if it will happen).

But the most important thing here is making the specific code style easier and more acceptable: the style where data and algorithm are separated. (I know how it sounds in 2023, but stay with me for a minute!)

The classic Object Oriented Code (from the times when you were supposed to follow exactly one clearly defined paradigm) answered the problem of branching by data shape/content with polymorphism.

Like, if you have several if event.type == ... process_that_type(event) , you just wrap events into different classes and invoke event.process() , with every class encapsulating how I should be processed. OO programmer who writes a big branchy if is frequently guilt-tripped into Of course, it is dirty code, should be refactored into proper small classes with small methods as soon as we have time to handle all that technical debt!

However, in our multi-paradigm and pragmatic times, the common wisdom seems to value both approaches: big classes with matching interfaces, polymorphically implementing same algorithms for different contexts (say, DB adapters) and small passive structs/objects, whose processing is chosen by external (to those objects) code.

Comparing those two ways of handling things:

def handle_event_oo ( event_data ) # Choose the class dynamically event = Event :: EVENT_TYPES [ event_data [ :type ]]. new ( event_data ) # Implementation is defined in a corresponding class event . process end def handle_event_case ( event_data ) case event_data [ :type ] when 'create' if event_data [ :role ] == 'admin' admin_create ( event_data . except ( :type , :role )) else call_create ( event_data . except ( :type )) end when 'update' call_update ( event_data . except ( :type )) # ... end

the developer might choose one or another depending on the length and complexity of event processing code, desired layering architecture, and many other factors. When branches are reasonably small (like in the code above), some 15 or 20-line case clearly providing a full overview of what can happen depending on the event contents might increase the readers comprehension velocity magnificently.

And in that case, pattern matching is a welcome ability to make it even clearer, making what kinds of events handling we are talking about a flat, declarative list:

case event_data in type: 'create' , role: 'admin' , ** data admin_create ( data ) in type: 'create' , ** data call_create ( data ) in type: 'update' , ** data call_update ( data ) # ...

This line of reasoning is not even about how we organize branching, and rather about do we put data and algorithms to handle it in the same object. In this context, it is interesting to meditate on the co-existence of two patterns of object-relational mapping in the modern discourse: Active Record with big classes of data and related methods, and Repository fetching small, mostly-passive, context-appropriate structs.

Following this logic, introducing pattern matching in Ruby, which always was a pragmatic multi-paradigm language, seems reasonable enough, right?..

There is one small problem, though.

Wheres all that data?

Being a child of OO-first times and having extremely object-oriented Smalltalk as its main inspiration, Ruby has no concept of data at all, just opaque objects sending messages to each other. Ruby follows the terminology of calling methods as other mainstream languages do, but even call method by name is still object.send(name) , as a bow to that Smalltalks terminology about sending messages.

This is an important difference from the neighbor languages, even if it isnt that noticeable at first sight.

E.g., if in Python or JS code, you see dog.name and dog.bark() this transparent dog object has attributes (core language concept) name and bark , the latter is also callable if you attach () to it.

In Ruby code, when you see dog.name and dog.bark() , it means the opaque dog object responds to methods name and bark : both are just method callswhich in Ruby allows to omit () . Unlike Python or JS, you could also write dog.name() and dog.bark with exactly the same effect.

Even Rubys Struct (and the recently added Data with more narrow and strict semantics) are just shortcuts to create objects with necessary methods that would look like data structures of the desired shape (immutable in Data s case).

This Rubys deep distinction from similar languages might not be that obvious to pragmatic Rubyists and might even be perceived as fun/boring trivia, but it severely affects the languages perception of itself and the way new features can be integrated.

Getting back to pattern matching, Rubys feature design allows to match not only bare data structures like dictionaries and arrays but (some) objects, too:

class Point # skip end # Tries to match and unpack Point to pattern Point . new ( 0 , 0 ) => x :, y: # this works, too (with explicit class check): Point . new ( 0 , 0 ) => Point ( x :, y :)

But if all Ruby objects are opaque (and there is no such public concept as whats this objects data, only internal representation), how would pattern matching know whether Point instance matches the pattern? With the help of the methods, of course!

Here is the minimal Point implementation which would work with pattern matching:

class Point def initialize ( x , y ) @x = x @y = y end # That's the method pattern matching will call when it will see # deconstruction with keys, like `point => x:, y:` def deconstruct_keys ( * ) = { x: @x , y: @y } # And that's the method it will call to check for a positional # deconstruction, like `point => [x, y]` def deconstruct_keys = [ @x , @y ] end

So, the deconstruction-friendly representation of the object is fully objects authors responsibility: for custom classes, Ruby neither helps to define trivial implementation nor limits the non-trivial definitions.

There are default implementations, though, for Struct and Data , so the actual minimal implementation of the Point is just this:

Point = Data . define ( :x , :y ) Point . new ( 0 , 0 ) => x :, y: # x = 0, y = 0

This, BTW, opens a lot of small yet important possibilities for borrowing approaches from functional programming, like tagged data and Result monad:

Success = Data . define ( :value ) Error = Data . define ( :message ) # The definitions above are enough to handle # some function's results this way: case my_cool_func ( something ) in Success ( value ) # work with bare `value` in Error ( message ) # work with bare error's `message`

Note that an effect that in some other languages requires separate concepts like enums or case classes, here achieved by very minimal and generic means.

But most importantly, it shifts the perspective to (probably passive) value objects that are matchable and algorithms that work on them (which also can be contained in classes, passed as stateful objects, and even use polymorphic implementations!).

Pretty far from a soup of objects sending messages to each other, So I might imagine why some are angry. On the other hand, one might say that this is how we write the most maintainable code anyway.

You know what?.. This is still not the end of it, but the end of the text that can reasonably be written in a week by a person mostly working on it at night. So, it seems there would be a third part in roughly a week! Which will close this investigation with

How others do it;

Taking it further;

Conclusions.

UPD: Here it is. Thankfully, it is really the last one!

Thats the price of taking a big and complicated feature and trying to cover it in the same way small evolutions of syntax are covered! (A person should have the strength to recognize mistakes but also should have the persistence to follow the promises, so the pattern matching part of the series would be finished, and the series will continue further.)

You can subscribe to my Substack to not miss the next part, or follow me on Twitter.

Thank you for reading. Please support Ukraine with your donations and lobbying for military and humanitarian help. Here, youll find a comprehensive information source and many links to state and private funds accepting donations.

If you dont have time to process it all, donating to Come Back Alive foundation is always a good choice.

If youve found the post (or some of my previous work) useful, I have a Buy Me A Coffee account now. Till the end of the war, 100% of payments to it (if any) would be spent on my or my brothers necessary equipment or sent to one of the funds above.
VIENTIANE, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- A renminbi (RMB) clearing bank has opened in Laos, making it easier for businesses and financial institutions in China and Laos to carry out cross-border transactions and further facilitate bilateral trade and investment.

The opening ceremony of the bank, held in Lao capital Vientiane on Monday, was attended by Lao Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone, Governor of Laos' central bank Bounleua Sinxayvoravong, Charge d'Affaires of the Chinese embassy in Laos Wang Chang, and Vice President of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) Zhang Weiwu.

The RMB clearing bank will create a fast, safe and economical cross-border settlement channel between China and Laos.

Wang said the establishment of the RMB clearing bank in Laos is an important landmark in financial cooperation between China and Laos and will be an additional facility for traders from the two countries to arrange transactions in the local currency.

Wang added that the bank is aimed at helping enterprises and financial institutions carry out Chinese currency transactions between China and Laos, reducing the cost of the exchange rate, facilitating trade investment between the two countries, maintaining the financial stability in Laos and strengthening the economic-commercial relations between the two neighbors.

At the opening ceremony, Sinxayvoravong said the launch of RMB clearing is very important for the socio-economic development of Laos, as it supports the cooperation policy of the two sides to promote trade and investment for continuous and strong growth.

China is the main trading partner of Laos, and the volume of trade and investment continues to expand.

The main Chinese goods imported from Laos in 2022 included machinery, electrical appliances and equipment, car parts, and steel. Meanwhile, mixed gold, gold bars, bananas, gold ores, iron ores, wood and furniture products, paper and paper products, fertilizers, latex, and fruits were exported to China.

The ICBC reaffirmed that it will use its outstanding potential to provide high-quality financial services, contribute to the Belt and Road Initiative in the framework of the China-Laos Economic Corridor, promote trade and investment cooperation between China and Laos to another important level, as well as continue to contribute to the construction of a shared future community between the two countries.

The ICBC Vientiane Branch has been working to apply for the establishment of RMB clearing in Laos since 2019, and the People's Bank of China, China's central bank, signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Lao central bank on the establishment of RMB clearing arrangements in Laos on Sept. 20, 2022. 
CANBERRA, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- Australia's tax system is inadequate to properly fund government responsibilities, experts have warned.

In a speech to Canberra-based think tank the Australia Institute's Revenue Summit at Parliament House on Friday, former Department of Finance head Michael Keating called for a full-scale public review of the funding needed for the adequate provision of government services.

Keating, who served as secretary of the department between 1986 and 1991, told the summit that by his estimation Australia's structural budget deficit, which occurs when public spending exceeds government revenues, would surpass 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) within a decade.

He said spending cuts are unlikely to remedy the problem, instead advocating for new taxes that "improve efficiency" including congestion charges and a tax on greenhouse gas emissions.

The summit coincided with the release of a report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) calling for Australia's federal government to raise and broaden its consumption tax -- the general sales tax (GST).

According to the economic survey report, 26.5 percent of Australia's total taxation revenue comes from GST compared to an average of 32 percent among OECD member nations.

It said that the government relying on personal income tax was risky considering Australia's aging population and recommended eliminating GST exemptions for education, healthcare, food and water.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has previously ruled out making any change to GST, which has remained at 10 percent for most goods and services since it was introduced in 2000, but told the Australian Associated Press that the government's economic plan "aligns" with the OECD's agenda. 
BRUSSELS, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Thursday that he was in favor of a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine and that communication channels between Hungary and Russia remain open to achieve peace.

Orban was speaking to reporters before attending a meeting of European Union (EU) leaders in Brussels.

"We have a very clear policy ... we have a peace strategy, and we want to do our best to achieve peace," Orban said, adding that "all our channels of communication with Russia remain open."

EU leaders met here on Thursday in a planned two-day meeting, focusing on the conflicts between Israel and Hamas and between Russia and Ukraine. The EU's long-term budget, the economy, migration and external relations are also on the agenda. 
STOCKHOLM, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- Building upon the great achievements of the past ten years, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) will only go forward with new energy and diversified components, a Swedish expert told Xinhua on Friday.

"It will be greener with new investments in clean technology and infrastructure, and it will be shared by all nations," said Hussein Askary, vice chairman of the Belt and Road Institute in Sweden (BRIX), who has just returned to Sweden after participating in the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF).

The high-profile forum, held in Beijing last week, celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which was proposed by China in 2013 and aims to build a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe, Africa and beyond.

"While the talk elsewhere in the world was about wars, destruction, and existential dangers to humankind, here the discussion was about peace, construction, and prosperity for all nations," Askary said.

The concepts presented, such as "China can only do well when the world is doing well" and "when China does well, the world will get even better," overturned all geopolitical and zero-sum game notions, said Askary.

The BRF shows that "the world majority are eager to intensify cooperation with China to jointly build the BRI into the world's most significant development initiative," he added.

"Many voices in the West were saying that the BRI will be 'scaled down' or even 'rolled back,' but here we saw that the BRI will grow by leaps and bounds," said Askary.

"Together with the Global Development Initiative (GDI), the Global Security Initiative (GSI), and the Global Civilization Initiative (GCI), the BRI will create the best platform to pull the world off the brink of abyss we find ourselves facing due to wars, financial crises, and threat of pandemics," said Askary.

The GDI, GSI, and GCI proposed by China guide the advance of human society across these three dimensions, offering China's solutions to major challenges pertaining to peace and development for humanity.

The BRI will contribute more to bridging the gap of infrastructure deficit in the developing countries, he said, adding that it will bring higher quality of development through new technologies and digitization.

The first ten years witnessed much experimenting in uncharted waters, and the BRI has been more "concrete and practical," he said. "In the next ten years, we will see a real transformation of the BRI into a truly global process." 
Photo taken on Oct. 25, 2023 shows books of the "China in Maltese Eyes" at a launch event in Valletta, Malta. The English version of the book "China in Maltese Eyes" was launched here on Wednesday by Heritage Malta and the China Cultural Center, which began collaborating on the project two years ago. The book features contributions from over 20 Maltese people of diverse backgrounds, who have shared their experiences of Chinese culture, history, and contemporary development. (Photo by Jonathan Borg/Xinhua)

VALLETTA, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- The English version of the book "China in Maltese Eyes" was launched here on Wednesday by Heritage Malta and the China Cultural Center, which began collaborating on the project two years ago.

The book features contributions from over 20 Maltese people of diverse backgrounds, who have shared their experiences of Chinese culture, history, and contemporary development.

It provides a glimpse of China's exquisite natural landscapes, its rich and profound culture, and the evolving social landscape of modernization in the country.

"Their narratives not only shed light on the profound cultural heritage and beauty of China, but also offer unique and valuable perspectives," said Peng Yijun, charge d'affaires at the Chinese Embassy in Malta, at the book launch event.

"China in Maltese Eyes" is "a testament to the collective wisdom of all its contributors, and serves as a significant milestone in the enduring friendship between China and Malta," Peng added.

Albert Marshall, executive chairman of Arts Council Malta and one of the contributors to the book, was inspired to write the poetry collection "Six Chinese Lanterns" after being invited by the China Cultural Center to visit the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southwest China in 2019.

Marshall highlighted that the collaboration between Arts Council Malta and the Cultural Center has promoted cultural exchange and cooperation, and deepened understanding between Malta and China.

"China in Maltese Eyes" demonstrates the ways in which international relations can be fortified through culture, Marshall said.

Mario Cutajar, chairman of Heritage Malta, has just returned from his latest visit to China, which he said had strengthened his understanding of China's ancient history and culture.

He was particularly impressed by China's rapid development, he said.

The publication of "China in Maltese Eyes" marks a new beginning for cultural exchange and cooperation between the two countries, Cutajar said.

During the book launch, Yuan Yuan, director of the China Cultural Center in Malta, highlighted the Center's two-decades-long commitment to introducing Chinese culture to Maltese people through a wide range of events and programs.

"We've been working consistently to build a bridge that spans the geographical distance between our nations and bring our two peoples together to celebrate rich history, diverse traditions, and common humanity," Yuan said. 

Mario Cutajar (R), chairman of Heritage Malta, speaks during the launch event of the book "China in Maltese Eyes" in Valletta, Malta, on Oct. 25, 2023. The English version of the book "China in Maltese Eyes" was launched here on Wednesday by Heritage Malta and the China Cultural Center, which began collaborating on the project two years ago. The book features contributions from over 20 Maltese people of diverse backgrounds, who have shared their experiences of Chinese culture, history, and contemporary development. (Photo by Jonathan Borg/Xinhua)

Albert Marshall (R), executive chairman of Arts Council Malta, speaks during the launch event of the book "China in Maltese Eyes" in Valletta, Malta, on Oct. 25, 2023. The English version of the book "China in Maltese Eyes" was launched here on Wednesday by Heritage Malta and the China Cultural Center, which began collaborating on the project two years ago. The book features contributions from over 20 Maltese people of diverse backgrounds, who have shared their experiences of Chinese culture, history, and contemporary development. (Photo by Jonathan Borg/Xinhua)

Albert Marshall, executive chairman of Arts Council Malta, speaks during the launch event of the book "China in Maltese Eyes" in Valletta, Malta, on Oct. 25, 2023. The English version of the book "China in Maltese Eyes" was launched here on Wednesday by Heritage Malta and the China Cultural Center, which began collaborating on the project two years ago. The book features contributions from over 20 Maltese people of diverse backgrounds, who have shared their experiences of Chinese culture, history, and contemporary development. (Photo by Jonathan Borg/Xinhua)

People read the book "China in Maltese Eyes" during a launch event in Valletta, Malta, on Oct. 25, 2023. The English version of the book "China in Maltese Eyes" was launched here on Wednesday by Heritage Malta and the China Cultural Center, which began collaborating on the project two years ago. The book features contributions from over 20 Maltese people of diverse backgrounds, who have shared their experiences of Chinese culture, history, and contemporary development. (Photo by Jonathan Borg/Xinhua)
WASHINGTON, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here Thursday that China and the United States need to have dialogue.

Not only should China and the United States resume dialogue, the dialogue should be in-depth and comprehensive so that the two sides can increase mutual understanding, reduce misunderstanding and misjudgment, constantly seek to expand common ground and pursue cooperation that will benefit both sides, said Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

Wang made the remarks when he and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken briefly appeared in front of the press before they held a meeting. 
With the attorney generals of more than 40 states teamed up and alleging that a multi-billion dollar company's product is addictive and harming youth, the stakes couldn't be any higher.

That was the situation in 1998, when Philip Morris, along with several other of the world's largest tobacco companies, ended years of litigation with 46 states through a master settlement agreement that has now resulted in more than $200 billion in payments. Nearly three decades later, a burgeoning legal battle looks strangely familiarthis time with the internets social media giants in the role of Big Tobacco.

On Tuesday, 42 state attorneys general sued Instagram-parent company Meta for allegedly damaging childrens mental health with its social media technologies. The complaint, which is 233 pages long, mentions addiction over 30 times, featuring evidence from the company as well as psychology experts who allege Meta has intentionally and deceptively addicted children to its technologies with the goal of maximizing profits.

And on Friday, Northern California District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers will rule on a personal injury lawsuit against YouTube, Snap, TikTok and Meta claiming that the platforms addicted youth, and spurred a mental health crisis with associated injuries. The plaintiffs leading this suit include attorneys from Lieff Cabraser and Motley Rice, two of the law firms involved in 1998s landmark tobacco settlement. Levin Sedran & Berman, which represented plaintiffs in recent suits against JUUL that effectively made its e-cigarette products illegal in the U.S, is also involved in the case.

For years, critics of social media have likened the feeds of viral videos, photos, and likes to digital cigarettes. Now the effort to rein in social media may be adopting the same legal playbook that anti-smoking activists used in the 1990s to hold tobacco companies accountable.

A source close to the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against TikTok and the other social media firms told Fortune that the tobacco litigation is an apt parallel to the current situation. In particular, the current lawsuits take a page from tobacco by focusing on how social media platforms allegedly compel kids to keep using over and over and over again.

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Representatives from TikTok and Meta did not respond to Fortune by the time of this article's publication, though Meta noted in its latest 10-Q filing that it believes the lawsuits "are without merit, and we are vigorously defending them." A YouTube spokesperson said that the allegations in the lawsuits are false. "Protecting kids across our platforms has always been core to our work. In collaboration with child development specialists, we have built age-appropriate experiences for kids and families on YouTube, and provide parents with robust controls."

A spokesperson for Snap distanced the company from its social media peers, noting that the Snapchat app opens directly to a camera rather than onto a feed that would encourage "passive scrolling," and that the app doesn't encourage perfection or popularity. "While we will always have more work to do, we feel good about the role Snapchat plays in helping friends feel connected, informed, happy, and prepared as they face the many challenges of adolescence."

Social media algorithms versus Joe Camel

Its not clear if the attorneys general will combine with the private personal injury suits filed by the law firms, or hire some of the leading plaintiffs lawyers to advise and work with the states, as was the case in the 1990s. But the source close to the plaintiffs said the fact that the attorneys general have filed a concurrent suit in California, the same state as the ongoing master personal injury suit litigated by the big tobacco plaintiffs is a vote of confidence in the strategy and a sign that the states are serious about regulating social media.

An advertisement for Camel cigarettes on the side of a building in New York City. (Photo by  Viviane Moos/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

The allegations in the complaints echo those made against Big Tobacco decades ago, with claims of marketing and deceiving the public about social media's benefits while allegedly being fully aware of its addictiveness and harmful impact on mental health.

In the litigation against Big Tobacco, the plaintiffs argued that R.J. Reynolds Tobacco companys adorable Joe Camel cartoon mascot was a ploy to attract children to cigarettes. The plaintiffs in the social media lawsuits allege that personalized recommendation algorithms, likes features, visual filters and content presentation formats that include infinite scroll, are similarly attractingand subsequently addictingchildren.

The claim was that [Joe Camel] was meant to bring in young people and get them started on tobacco as a lifelong habit that would be extremely deleterious to their health, says Kenneth Rashbaum, an adjunct professor of law at Fordham Law School and partner at Barton LLP focused on technology regulation. In the case against Meta: substitute algorithms for Joe Camel.

The social media lawsuits are far from perfect parallels to the tobacco litigation. First, social media users do not experience physical withdrawal in absence of the platforms, says Erin Calipari, the Associate Director of Vanderbilt Universitys Center for Addiction Research. This will make it harder for the attorneys general to argue that social media is an addiction akin to drugs or tobacco ones. Whats more, Calipari notes that social media has some benefits, such as helping people foster connections with others and to communicate with people around the world. The question is, how do you balance that with the potential risk? she asks.

The legal attack on social media companies may also run against the Supreme Courts decision last May on Gonzalez v. Google, which ruled that platforms cannot be held liable for users content that they host under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. Rashbaum says that the attorneys general will argue their case is not about content, but promotion; therefore, outside of Section 230s scope. Meta will counteract on the grounds that promotion is, at the end of the day, content, predicts Fordhams Rashbaum.

Its going to be marketing versus content, says Rashbaum, who believes the case will eventually make it to the Supreme Court.

The courtroom showdowns

In an encouraging sign for the plaintiffs, a Los Angeles judge earlier this month declined to dismiss the personal injury lawsuits levied against Meta, TikTok, Snap and Google on the grounds of Section 230. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carolyn Kuhl rejected the companies motion to invoke the companies motion to wield Section 230, saying the fact that the design features of the platformsand not the specific content viewed caused users injuries.

Though users addicted to social media will not experience physical withdrawal in its absence, some experts argue it is more nefarious than cigarettes in other ways. [Social media algorithms] are akin to each time you smoke a cigarette, the cigarette itself increases in nicotine content, says Vikram Bhargava, an assistant professor at George Washington School of Business who researches ethics and technology policy. Social media is vastly more sophisticated [than cigarettes] and has the ability to influence the psychologies of large populations.

For Meta and the other social media companies, the risk of facing similar legal consequences as the tobacco companies did in the 1990s is no trivial matter. In its third quarter earnings release on Wednesday, Meta cited "legal and regulatory headwinds" that could "significantly impact our business and our financial results."

If the attorneys general and personal injury plaintiffs are successful, could regulated social media industry wind up looking like tobacco today?

Imagine: users are subjected to warning labels prior to logging on, the companies are forced to fund social media use prevention groups as well as treatment programs for people maimed by addictions, and obligated to curb or eliminate features that are harmful or particularly appealing to children. And of course, theyd have to pay billions of dollars for damaging society.

We're still a long way from anything like that and the social media companies do not currently seem to have any desire to negotiate. But a social media future that resembles the post-1998 tobacco industry looks like a good one to GWUs Bhargava. We really need to take digital health literacy seriously, he says.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
Yulia Gusterina / iStock.com

The biggest barrier women face in achieving their financial goals is a lack of money. Although many women enjoy successful careers, there is still a gender wage gap to contend with. According to Salary.com, over a 40-year career at median incomes, a woman would take home about $400,000 less than a man. Geography plays a role too; with women in Vermont making 90% of what their male counterparts earn, but women in Wyoming only making 65%.

Maximize Your Paycheck: Best Banks for Early Direct Deposit

Find Out: What To Do If You Owe Back Taxes to the IRS

Its going to take more than a side hustle or selling pre-worn clothing and belongings on e-commerce marketplaces for women to boost their overall earnings. GOBankingRates spoke with Pam Krueger, CEO and founder of Wealthramp, a fiduciary advisor matching platform, to learn about the six best steps women can take to boost their wealth.

Be Proactive

Now is not the time to wait for a raise or a new opportunity to come to you. Krueger said to take the reins and be in a proactive mindset.

If youre seeking a raise, create a list of your outstanding accomplishments and their return on investment on the business. Gather credible salary data for your role and location as part of due diligence for negotiations. Consider other benefits that you may be able to take advantage of, like an education stipend, to better support your lifestyle. If you dont see certain benefits offered that could act as a financial boost to you, put in a request or suggest it.

Tap Into Valuable Work Benefits

This includes your HSA, FSA and a full match on 401(k) if your company offers these benefits.

You may also want to consider working longer, deferring Social Security benefits, maxing out retirement accounts and using long-term care, said Krueger.

Dont Overlook Your 401(k)

Your 401(k) is here to help you invest smartly by using dollar-cost averaging, one of the most proven investment strategies. When you systematically contribute from each paycheck to your 401(k) at work, you automatically buy shares of stock sometimes when stock prices are lower, and other times when prices are higher, said Krueger.

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This means that instead of playing a guessing game about when to buy into the market, dollar-cost averaging smooths out the highs and lows. Over time, you wind up buying shares at an average price and thus you reduce your risk of always buying at the top of the market, said Krueger.

Daily Profits With ChatGPT: Strategies To Make Up To $1,000 a Day

Take Control of Your Financial Life

Its time to take total control of every aspect of your financial life. This is especially true of any women in a relationship or married that has been the one to sit back and not engage in their finances.

Not engaging in your finances costs you more than you realize. Krueger said that in taking control of your financial life, make sure you have an understanding of the following areas.

Any debt you carry

Your credit score

How much you have in emergency cash savings

Your money philosophy and approach to spending, saving and investing

Your ability to negotiate and ask for what you want

All of that confidence comes from within when you know your finances, said Krueger.

Consider Help From a Fiduciary Financial Advisor

Consulting a fiduciary financial advisor for help does mean spending money, but Krueger said getting this advice more than pays for it in the long run. A qualified fiduciary financial advisor will be able to complete a cash flow analysis based on your personal situation and audit your investments, including a 401(k), to make sure youre not overpaying in fees. From there, this advisor will make recommendations.

If you are considering working with an advisor, Krueger recommends taking your time to find the right person. Do not rush into picking an advisor or choose someone with questionable credentials in the hopes of cutting corners to make more money.

Carefully interview them and make sure they are truly looking out for your best interests. A lack of income can be a big financial barrier, but receiving bad financial advice can derail your financial future and even cause you to lose money.

Fortifying your finances and sense of financial security starts by getting educated and then creating new wealth-building habits and making smart money decisions, said Krueger. Knowledge is power when it comes to money.

More From GOBankingRates

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: 5 Steps Women Can Take To Boost Their Income
Some say volatility, rather than debt, is the best way to think about risk as an investor, but Warren Buffett famously said that 'Volatility is far from synonymous with risk.' It's only natural to consider a company's balance sheet when you examine how risky it is, since debt is often involved when a business collapses. Importantly, Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) does carry debt. But the real question is whether this debt is making the company risky.

Why Does Debt Bring Risk?

Generally speaking, debt only becomes a real problem when a company can't easily pay it off, either by raising capital or with its own cash flow. In the worst case scenario, a company can go bankrupt if it cannot pay its creditors. However, a more common (but still painful) scenario is that it has to raise new equity capital at a low price, thus permanently diluting shareholders. Of course, debt can be an important tool in businesses, particularly capital heavy businesses. When we think about a company's use of debt, we first look at cash and debt together.

Check out our latest analysis for Verizon Communications

What Is Verizon Communications's Debt?

As you can see below, Verizon Communications had US$147.4b of debt, at September 2023, which is about the same as the year before. You can click the chart for greater detail. However, it also had US$4.21b in cash, and so its net debt is US$143.2b.

How Strong Is Verizon Communications' Balance Sheet?

The latest balance sheet data shows that Verizon Communications had liabilities of US$55.7b due within a year, and liabilities of US$230.1b falling due after that. Offsetting these obligations, it had cash of US$4.21b as well as receivables valued at US$23.6b due within 12 months. So its liabilities total US$257.9b more than the combination of its cash and short-term receivables.

This deficit casts a shadow over the US$144.9b company, like a colossus towering over mere mortals. So we definitely think shareholders need to watch this one closely. After all, Verizon Communications would likely require a major re-capitalisation if it had to pay its creditors today.

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In order to size up a company's debt relative to its earnings, we calculate its net debt divided by its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) and its earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) divided by its interest expense (its interest cover). The advantage of this approach is that we take into account both the absolute quantum of debt (with net debt to EBITDA) and the actual interest expenses associated with that debt (with its interest cover ratio).

Verizon Communications has a debt to EBITDA ratio of 3.0 and its EBIT covered its interest expense 6.2 times. This suggests that while the debt levels are significant, we'd stop short of calling them problematic. Sadly, Verizon Communications's EBIT actually dropped 4.6% in the last year. If earnings continue on that decline then managing that debt will be difficult like delivering hot soup on a unicycle. The balance sheet is clearly the area to focus on when you are analysing debt. But it is future earnings, more than anything, that will determine Verizon Communications's ability to maintain a healthy balance sheet going forward. So if you want to see what the professionals think, you might find this free report on analyst profit forecasts to be interesting.

Finally, a company can only pay off debt with cold hard cash, not accounting profits. So we always check how much of that EBIT is translated into free cash flow. Considering the last three years, Verizon Communications actually recorded a cash outflow, overall. Debt is far more risky for companies with unreliable free cash flow, so shareholders should be hoping that the past expenditure will produce free cash flow in the future.

Our View

We'd go so far as to say Verizon Communications's level of total liabilities was disappointing. But at least its interest cover is not so bad. We're quite clear that we consider Verizon Communications to be really rather risky, as a result of its balance sheet health. So we're almost as wary of this stock as a hungry kitten is about falling into its owner's fish pond: once bitten, twice shy, as they say. There's no doubt that we learn most about debt from the balance sheet. But ultimately, every company can contain risks that exist outside of the balance sheet. These risks can be hard to spot. Every company has them, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for Verizon Communications you should know about.

At the end of the day, it's often better to focus on companies that are free from net debt. You can access our special list of such companies (all with a track record of profit growth). It's free.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
(Bloomberg) -- Acapulcos international airport has partially reopened for flights that transport aid and to allow stranded travelers to leave the area.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Airlines Aeromexico, Viva Aerobus and Volaris started flights from Mexico City Friday, bringing doctors, food and officials into the area while taking passengers out, said Ricardo Duenas, chief executive officer of Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte SAB (OMA), in a telephone interview. Flights will continue over the course of the day but are restricted to daylight hours due to damage to the airports control tower, he added.

The first step is to safely get out the passengers who require it. Once finished, we will focus on reestablishing normal operations to later also focus on the reconstruction and restoration of the terminal, he said. Its too early to predict when commercial operations will be able to resume, Duenas added.

Hurricane Otis tore into historic beach town Acapulco early Wednesday, with 27 deaths and four missing reported so far. The economic damages are estimated to be as much as $15 billion. Losses could rise because the regions high season for tourism is December to March.

Tourists leaving in the humanitarian flights were bussed to the airport from two sites in the city, one along the iconic bay near a major mall and the other among the higher-end hotels on the so-called Diamond Coast. They were asked to bring only carry-on bags.

Read More: Hurricane Disaster in Mexico Spurs Criticism of AMLO Response

OMA has been one of three airport operator groups that were affected by an announcement earlier this month that the government was changing their concession fees as it seeks to lower passenger air fares. Company shares sank earlier by as much as 9.4% amid uncertainty on regulatory risk, even as the company posted third quarter results in-line with analyst estimates.

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The results were very good, Duenas said. We have already reached an agreement with the authorities on the regulatory side.

The Acapulco airport represents less than 4% of OMAs traffic, he added. The company will hold its 3Q call with analysts Oct. 30 at 10am local time.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Key Insights

Institutions' substantial holdings in Alaska Air Group implies that they have significant influence over the company's share price

A total of 15 investors have a majority stake in the company with 51% ownership

Ownership research along with analyst forecasts data help provide a good understanding of opportunities in a stock

If you want to know who really controls Alaska Air Group, Inc. (NYSE:ALK), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. With 82% stake, institutions possess the maximum shares in the company. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Given the vast amount of money and research capacities at their disposal, institutional ownership tends to carry a lot of weight, especially with individual investors. Therefore, a good portion of institutional money invested in the company is usually a huge vote of confidence on its future.

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Alaska Air Group.

See our latest analysis for Alaska Air Group

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Alaska Air Group?

Institutional investors commonly compare their own returns to the returns of a commonly followed index. So they generally do consider buying larger companies that are included in the relevant benchmark index.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Alaska Air Group. 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 Alaska Air Group's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

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Institutional investors own over 50% of the company, so together than can probably strongly influence board decisions. Alaska Air Group is not owned by hedge funds. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is The Vanguard Group, Inc. with 11% of shares outstanding. The second and third largest shareholders are Victory Capital Management Inc. and BlackRock, Inc., with an equal amount of shares to their name at 6.3%.

Looking at the shareholder registry, we can see that 51% of the ownership is controlled by the top 15 shareholders, meaning that no single shareholder has a majority interest in the ownership.

While studying institutional ownership for a company can add value to your research, it is also a good practice to research analyst recommendations to get a deeper understand of a stock's expected performance. There are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of Alaska Air Group

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.

I generally consider insider ownership to be a good thing. However, on some occasions it makes it more difficult for other shareholders to hold the board accountable for decisions.

Our data suggests that insiders own under 1% of Alaska Air Group, Inc. in their own names. It's a big company, so even a small proportional interest can create alignment between the board and shareholders. In this case insiders own US$15m worth of shares. It is good to see board members owning shares, but it might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 18% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. 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 Alaska Air Group 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.
Key Insights

Using the 2 Stage Free Cash Flow to Equity, Alfa Financial Software Holdings fair value estimate is UK1.12

Alfa Financial Software Holdings is estimated to be 34% overvalued based on current share price of UK1.51

Our fair value estimate is 49% lower than Alfa Financial Software Holdings' analyst price target of UK2.20

Today we'll do a simple run through of a valuation method used to estimate the attractiveness of Alfa Financial Software Holdings PLC (LON:ALFA) as an investment opportunity by projecting its future cash flows and then discounting them to today's value. We will use the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model on this occasion. Don't get put off by the jargon, the math behind it is actually quite straightforward.

Remember though, that there are many ways to estimate a company's value, and a DCF is just one method. Anyone interested in learning a bit more about intrinsic value should have a read of the Simply Wall St analysis model.

See our latest analysis for Alfa Financial Software Holdings

What's The Estimated Valuation?

We're using the 2-stage growth model, which simply means we take in account two stages of company's growth. In the initial period the company may have a higher growth rate and the second stage is usually assumed to have a stable growth rate. To start off with, we need to estimate the next ten years of cash flows. Where possible we use analyst estimates, but when these aren't available we extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the last estimate or reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years.

A DCF is all about the idea that a dollar in the future is less valuable than a dollar today, so we discount the value of these future cash flows to their estimated value in today's dollars:

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10-year free cash flow (FCF) estimate

2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 2031 2032 2033 Levered FCF (, Millions) UK23.2m UK24.2m UK22.4m UK21.4m UK20.8m UK20.4m UK20.3m UK20.3m UK20.3m UK20.5m Growth Rate Estimate Source Analyst x2 Analyst x2 Est @ -7.32% Est @ -4.71% Est @ -2.88% Est @ -1.60% Est @ -0.71% Est @ -0.08% Est @ 0.36% Est @ 0.66% Present Value (, Millions) Discounted @ 7.2% UK21.6 UK21.1 UK18.2 UK16.2 UK14.7 UK13.4 UK12.5 UK11.6 UK10.9 UK10.2

("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St)

Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF) = UK150m

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 (1.4%) to estimate future growth. In the same way as with the 10-year 'growth' period, we discount future cash flows to today's value, using a cost of equity of 7.2%.

Terminal Value (TV)= FCF 2033  (1 + g)  (r  g) = UK20m (1 + 1.4%)  (7.2% 1.4%) = UK356m

Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= UK356m ( 1 + 7.2%)10= UK177m

The total value, or equity value, is then the sum of the present value of the future cash flows, which in this case is UK328m. To get the intrinsic value per share, we divide this by the total number of shares outstanding. Compared to the current share price of UK1.5, the company appears reasonably expensive at the time of writing. Remember though, that this is just an approximate valuation, and like any complex formula - garbage in, garbage out.

dcf

The 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 Alfa Financial Software Holdings as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 7.2%, which is based on a levered beta of 0.986. 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 Alfa Financial Software Holdings

Strength

Earnings growth over the past year exceeded its 5-year average.

Currently debt free.

Dividends are covered by earnings and cash flows.

Weakness

Earnings growth over the past year underperformed the Software industry.

Dividend is low compared to the top 25% of dividend payers in the Software market.

Opportunity

Good value based on P/E ratio compared to estimated Fair P/E ratio.

Threat

Annual earnings are forecast to decline for the next 3 years.

Moving On:

Whilst important, the DCF calculation ideally won't be the sole piece of analysis you scrutinize for a company. DCF models are not the be-all and end-all of investment valuation. Preferably you'd apply different cases and assumptions and see how they would impact the company's valuation. If a company grows at a different rate, or if its cost of equity or risk free rate changes sharply, the output can look very different. Why is the intrinsic value lower than the current share price? For Alfa Financial Software Holdings, we've compiled three additional elements you should explore:

Risks: Every company has them, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for Alfa Financial Software Holdings (of which 1 is significant!) you should know about. Future Earnings: How does ALFA'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 LSE 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.
AMSTERDAM, October 27, 2023--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AM Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of A- (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of "a-" (Excellent) of rsted Insurance A/S (ORIAS) (Denmark). The outlook of these Credit Ratings (ratings) is stable.

The ratings reflect ORIAS balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as very strong, as well as its adequate operating performance, neutral business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management.

ORIAS is the captive insurer for rsted A/S (rsted), a global sustainable energy group headquartered in Denmark.

ORIAS very strong balance sheet strength assessment is underpinned by its risk-adjusted capitalisation, which is at the strongest assessment level, as measured by Bests Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR). The company also benefits from a very conservative and liquid investment portfolio. Offsetting factors in the assessment include the companys high dependence on reinsurance, although the risks associated with this dependence are mitigated partially by ORIAS longstanding relationship with its highly rated reinsurance panel.

The adequate operating performance assessment reflects ORIAS track record of good but volatile underwriting results, as demonstrated by a 10-year weighted average combined ratio of 81.3% (2013-2022). In 2022, ORIAS reported a net loss of DKK 132.5 million (USD 19 million), due to unfavourable claims experience in the year combined with adverse reserve developments on prior year claims (2021: DKK 28.3 million [USD 4.3 million] profit, boosted by reserve releases). Underwriting performance is expected to improve in 2023, benefiting from higher premium income due to new construction projects underwritten by the captive, as well as insurance of a larger share of rsteds operational renewables assets. Prospective performance is subject to volatility due to the companys exposure to potentially large property losses, although moderated on a net basis by the captives comprehensive reinsurance programme.

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As a captive monoline insurer providing commercial property and construction insurance covers for rsted, ORIAS underwriting portfolio is concentrated by line of business but well-diversified geographically. ORIAS neutral business profile assessment also reflects its strategic importance to rsted.

AM Best remains the leading rating agency of alternative risk transfer entities, with more than 200 such vehicles rated throughout the world. For current Bests Credit Ratings and independent data on the captive and alternative risk transfer insurance market, please visit www.ambest.com/captive.

This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on AM Bests website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see AM Bests Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Guide to Bests Credit Ratings. For information on the proper use of Bests Credit Ratings, Bests Performance Assessments, Bests Preliminary Credit Assessments and AM Best press releases, please view Guide to Proper Use of Bests Ratings & Assessments.

AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specialising in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

Copyright  2023 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231027762896/en/

Contacts

Andrea Porta

Financial Analyst

+31 20 308 5428

andrea.porta@ambest.com

Christopher Sharkey

Associate Director, Public Relations

+1 908 882 2310

christopher.sharkey@ambest.com

Dr. Mathilde Jakobsen

Senior Director, Analytics

+31 20 308 5427

mathilde.jakobsen@ambest.com

Al Slavin

Senior Public Relations Specialist

+1 908 882 2318

al.slavin@ambest.com
SINGAPORE, October 27, 2023--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Rob Curtis, managing director and chief executive officer of AM Bests Singapore operations, will participate in a one-on-one discussion on the subject of insurance regulation during the 2023 International Insurance Societys (IIS) Global Insurance Forum, which will be held 5-7 November 2023 at Hilton Singapore Orchard in Singapore.

The session with Curtis is titled, "Regulatory Priorities from a Rating Agency Perspective;" it will explore the evolving landscape in insurance regulation, the changing methodologies from credit rating agencies that may influence or complement regulation, new insurance capital standards and the evolution toward risk-based capital requirements. The session is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. SGT on Monday, 6 November.

The event is being presented by the IIS and the Pacific Insurance Conference. The Global Insurance Forum is marking its return as an in-person event for the first time since 2019. Key themes include the rise of Asian economies, capital market innovations for insurers, the impact of Artificial Intelligence, and how to manage an uncertain future. For more information, please visit the event website. AM Best is a bronze partner of the IIS.

AM Bests market development team for Asia Pacific will be attending the conference. To arrange a meeting at the conference to learn more about AM Best, its role in the insurance industry and the resources it offers to insurance professionals, including Bests Credit Ratings, please contact Curtis, who also is head of market development for the Asia-Pacific region, at robert.curtis@ambest.com, or KaiJun Chan, market development associate, at kaijun.chan@ambest.com.

AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specializing in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

Copyright  2023 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231026971445/en/

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Contacts

Christopher Sharkey

Associate Director, Public Relations

+1 908 882 2310

christopher.sharkey@ambest.com

Al Slavin

Senior Public Relations Specialist

+1 908 882 2318

al.slavin@ambest.com
AS Tallinna Sadam

AS Tallinna Sadam (hereinafter: Tallinna Sadam) signed an annex to the agreement with the Estonian branch of Akciju Sabiedriba BMGS and Insenerehitus AS for the design and construction of multi-functional quay no 6A and the area beyond the quay in the Paldiski South Harbour. The results of the additional construction geological studies carried out in the initial phase of the construction work revealed that in order to continue the construction work in the safest and most economical way, a different construction technology must be used to exclude the risk of a general landslide of the soil at the base of the fence dams to be built. The change in construction technology results in an increase in the cost of the contract by 8 million euros, the new total cost of the contract is 61.2 million euros, and according to the possibility of indexing provided in the contract, it can reach up to 63.9 million euros. In addition, the term date for the completion of the quay and the area beyond will be extended by five months. The construction work will be completed by the end of 2025, the term date for the quay's final readiness for use is 28.02.2026.



The extension of the term of readiness for use of the quay and the area beyond; and the increase in the cost of the investment do not significantly affect the long-term yield of the project or its competitiveness as a construction port for offshore wind farms.

More information about the project is available in the stock exchange announcement of Tallinna Sadam published on 22.05.2023 .

Tallinna Sadam is one of the largest cargo- and passenger port complexes in the Baltic Sea region. In addition to passenger and freight services, Tallinna Sadam group also operates in shipping business via its subsidiaries  OU TS Laevad provides ferry services between the Estonian mainland and the largest islands, and OU TS Shipping charters its multifunctional vessel Botnica for icebreaking and construction services in Estonia and offshore projects abroad. Tallinna Sadam group is also a shareholder of an associate AS Green Marine, which provides waste management services.

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Additional information:

Marju Zirel

Head of Investor Relations

Tel. +372 5342 6591

m.zirel@ts.ee








Ameris Bancorp (ABCB) reported $270.93 million in revenue for the quarter ended September 2023, representing a year-over-year decline of 2.7%. EPS of $1.16 for the same period compares to $1.32 a year ago.

The reported revenue represents a surprise of -1.35% over the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $274.65 million. With the consensus EPS estimate being $1.13, the EPS surprise was +2.65%.

While investors closely watch year-over-year changes in headline numbers -- revenue and earnings -- and how they compare to Wall Street expectations to determine their next course of action, some key metrics always provide a better insight into a company's underlying performance.

As these metrics influence top- and bottom-line performance, comparing them to the year-ago numbers and what analysts estimated helps investors project a stock's price performance more accurately.

Here is how Ameris Bancorp performed in the just reported quarter in terms of the metrics most widely monitored and projected by Wall Street analysts:

Efficiency ratio : 52.2% versus the four-analyst average estimate of 53.9%.

Net Interest Margin : 3.5% versus 3.5% estimated by four analysts on average.

Net charge-offs to average loans : 0.2% versus 0.2% estimated by three analysts on average.

Average Balances-Interest earning assets : $23.56 billion compared to the $23.69 billion average estimate based on two analysts.

Net Interest Income(FTE) : $208.70 million versus the four-analyst average estimate of $209.16 million.

Total Non-Interest Income : $63.18 million versus $67.68 million estimated by four analysts on average.

Net Interest Income: $207.75 million versus $208.25 million estimated by two analysts on average.

View all Key Company Metrics for Ameris Bancorp here>>>



Shares of Ameris Bancorp have returned -5.5% over the past month versus the Zacks S&P 500 composite's -3.4% change. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), indicating that it could perform in line with the broader market in the near term.

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To read this article on Zacks.com click here.

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HYANNIS  Andrew Fisher was at his desk in the processing department at RogersGray Insurance Company last Friday. The 25-year-old was coming to the end of a 30-hour week, one hes had for five years. Its a feather in his cap, as it is for Cape Abilities and RogersGray, coming as it does during Disability Employment Awareness Month.

This year the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Disability Employment is recognizing the 50th anniversary of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 which prohibited discrimination based on disability in employment in federal agencies, contractors and recipients of federal funds. This years theme: Advancing Access and Equity.

October is such a perfect month to highlight this, said Christie Macomber, marketing and communications coordinator for Cape Abilities.

Andrew Fisher sits at his desk in the Processing Department at RogersGray Insurance in Hyannis.

What is Cape Abilities?

The nonprofit has been helping individuals with disabilities by providing counseling, residential, social and employment support for decades. Established in 1968, the nonprofit now works with about 40 Cape businesses and offers community employment services that help more than 100 individuals going into the workforce., according to James Barnes, vice president of philanthropy and engagement.

The job has been a gamechanger for Fisher, allowing him to work, to contribute, to be part of a company and to be part of a wider community.

When asked, he says without hesitation that he has pervasive developmental disorder. Now known as autism spectrum disorder, symptoms can include social communication and interaction problems, repetitive behaviors, and a host of other characteristics.

According to Fisher, it manifests itself in his being adamant about routines. He calls himself an introvert and said he likes spending time by himself because he finds it can be draining to be around other people.

Fisher went through Cape Abilities preemployment transitions and vocational services program. The programs taught him how to dress, how to behave, what to say, and how to conduct himself, he said during an interview. He visited two businesses before deciding he wanted to work at RogersGray.

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Something about the office environment and the work reminded him of the movie, Office Space, a 1999 comedy that satirizes office work, office politics and the foibles of its main characters. It also reminded him of the animated movie character Mr. Incredible working as an insurance claims adjuster. These days he is in charge of distributing digital mail to the companys 200 employees.

Working at RogersGray is a success story for Andrew Fisher

Case Manager Thatcher Hoyt calls Fisher a success story. Hoyt checks in on Fisher weekly or biweekly, and he is available to help whenever a need arises. He is also available to the employer when needed.

I provide help when they need it, but a lot of times Im just checking in, Hoyt said. Hes (Fisher) been working here longer than Ive been with Cape Abilities.

Twenty-one percent of people with a disability in the U.S. are employed, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. And one in 36 people in the U.S. have autism, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Those numbers represent a wide range of disabilities, and a wide range of symptoms on the autism spectrum.

Disability is part of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, said Laura Stout, director of contract operations for Blue Cross Blue Shield during a panel discussion on Oct. 4. Sponsored by the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Persons with Disabilities, the five-person panel spoke about the barriers people with disabilities face when trying to find employment.

Their discussions centered around access, inclusion, building relationships with business and community leaders and the need for programs to be business-focused in order to be sustainable. Stout said it was important to put less stress on disability and more on finding ways to be inclusive.

It can be challenging for businesses. Barnes said its necessary to build trust with business leaders, to work with businesses that have solid managers who want to build diverse teams.

Hiring differently abled people is a choice managers make

You have to want to employ people with disabilities first, Barnes said. Some challenges are finding management teams who think like that.

RogersGray has been partnering with Cape Abilities for more than two decades, helping employ new individuals and as a sponsor and community partner, Hoyt said. Its part of his job to work with businesses, build relationships, be there for them when the need arises. Having that trust that Cape Ablities will be there to support them makes all the difference.

For a lot of businesses, its a leap to bring in people like Andrew to be working with them, Hoyt said. They are the ones making it possible.

Cheryl Van Gelder is Fisher's manager at RogersGray. She admits there are challenges, but some are challenges all workers and managers face. Eighteen months ago, RogersGray moved the processing department from Dennis to Hyannis. They outsourced the management of the companys physical mail.

It was a big change, Van Gelder said. Andrews responsibilities changed. We all struggled to adapt.

Barnes, who started working as a manager at Cape Abilities farm, said working with disabled people has helped him become a better manager.

Becoming a better manager

"You get rid of sarcasm, he said. You speak directly to people and wait for their response to make sure they understand. Those best practices are no different than what any manager should be doing in their business or organization.

Stop & Shop, area restaurants, cafes, hotels and stores hire people seasonally to help with the busy tourist season. The nonprofit runs Cape Abilities Farm. And they have a program geared to those 14 to 22 that prepares them for the workforce.

Fisher said hes always been personable in a lot of ways, he tries to engage with people as much as he can, provides help when its needed, asks for help when he needs it.

"Its just those little moments when someone needs help moving something or someone is having a rough time and they need someone to talk to, I always try to be there for them, he said.

Andew does a great job, Hoyt said. There's nothing that makes Andrew any different than any of the other people they are working with. I think thats the reward that a lot of our community partners get from being willing to hire folks from our program.

Denise Coffey writes about business and tourism. Contact her at dcoffey@capecodonline.com.

Thanks to our subscribers, who help make this coverage possible. If you are not a subscriber, please consider supporting quality local journalism with a Cape Cod Times subscription. Here are our subscription plans.

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Showcasing success in the RogersGray-Cape Abilities partnership
To avoid investing in a business that's in decline, there's a few financial metrics that can provide early indications of aging. A business that's potentially in decline often shows two trends, a return on capital employed (ROCE) that's declining, and a base of capital employed that's also declining. This reveals that the company isn't compounding shareholder wealth because returns are falling and its net asset base is shrinking. And from a first read, things don't look too good at Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad (KLSE:ASTRO), so let's see why.

Understanding Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)

For those who don't know, ROCE is a measure of a company's yearly pre-tax profit (its return), relative to the capital employed in the business. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad:

Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT)  (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)

0.087 = RM354m  (RM5.7b - RM1.6b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to July 2023).

Therefore, Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad has an ROCE of 8.7%. On its own that's a low return on capital but it's in line with the industry's average returns of 8.8%.

View our latest analysis for Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad

roce

In the above chart we have measured Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad's prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you'd like, you can check out the forecasts from the analysts covering Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad here for free.

How Are Returns Trending?

There is reason to be cautious about Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad, given the returns are trending downwards. Unfortunately the returns on capital have diminished from the 19% that they were earning five years ago. And on the capital employed front, the business is utilizing roughly the same amount of capital as it was back then. This combination can be indicative of a mature business that still has areas to deploy capital, but the returns received aren't as high due potentially to new competition or smaller margins. So because these trends aren't typically conducive to creating a multi-bagger, we wouldn't hold our breath on Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad becoming one if things continue as they have.

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The Key Takeaway

In summary, it's unfortunate that Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad is generating lower returns from the same amount of capital. Investors haven't taken kindly to these developments, since the stock has declined 59% from where it was five years ago. With underlying trends that aren't great in these areas, we'd consider looking elsewhere.

On a final note, we found 3 warning signs for Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad (1 is a bit concerning) you should be aware of.

While Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad isn't earning the highest return, check out this free list of companies that are earning high returns on equity with solid balance sheets.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves

When carriers think of operational costs, what comes to mind is typically driver wages and benefits, fuel costs, repairs and lease payments. Trucking insurance costs, however, have crept higher over the better part of the last decade and are a growing, yet controllable, expense for carriers.

According to the American Transportation Research Institutes (ATRI) Operational Cost of Trucking report, truck insurance premiums have risen from 6.4 cents per mile in 2013 to 8.8 cents per mile in 2022. In the context of costs per hour, that is $2.57 in 2013 and $3.57 in 2022.

Andrew Haun, senior VP of sales and strategic accounts at Reliance Partners, a Tennessee-based trucking insurance agency, attributes this rise partly to rising costs of equipment and medical expenses and litigation abuse.

Small carriers are especially impacted by the rising costs.

According to ATRI, per-mile truck insurance premiums for small carriers rose from 10.2 cents in 2021 to 13.6 cents in 2022. Meanwhile, for large carriers, premiums decreased from 8.2 cents in 2021 to 7.2 cents in 2022.

Carriers with riskier safety practices see a rise in insurance prices, Haun said. Because of the freight boom in recent years, many smaller carriers, especially those that were new entrants to the industry, fell into unsafe habits.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administrations Roadside Inspection Visualization tool can quantify the severity of the issue. For fleets with one to 20 power units, the number of violations grew by 338,311 from 2021 to 2022. Fleets with 21 to 100 or more power units, however, only saw an increase of 91,737 violations from 2021 to 2022.

[Small fleets] were running over hours, they were hiring drivers with less experience. Insurance companies view that as a risk.  All youre doing is transferring the risk [to the insurance company], Haun explained.

Controlling insurance costs requires having solid safety practices, keeping Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) scores in good standing and hiring experienced drivers. Haun recommends carriers take advantage of all the safety tools and data at their disposal, including electronic logging devices and dashcams.

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The data is there to show that [dashcams] help in litigation.  If you can prove that you werent negligent, your driver wasnt negligent, for someone who hired an attorney off of a billboard and made those claims, thats more power in your pocket, Haun explained. That will reduce your claims better than anything, and if you can reduce your claims, then your loss ratios are better. If your loss ratios are better, then insurance companies want to insure you.

Carriers can also control costs by working with an insurance agent that shops for their insurance each year. As agents, Reliance Partners aims to educate trucking companies and help them find and procure better insurance coverage at a better price. Reliance Partners has access to a significant part of the insurance marketplace. It helps find the best insurance for their businesses and explains the reasons behind their premiums.

To learn more about Reliance Partners, click here.

The post Whats behind rising insurance costs? appeared first on FreightWaves.
Fundamental Analysis

A short-term decline in yields from bonds while risk appetite has been somewhat lower might continue to support the price.

This week traders are monitoring American GDP data most closely, which are likely to be at least somewhat positive, plus personal consumption expenditures at the end of the week.

Bitcoin Price Analysis by Antrea Themistokleous & Michael Stark

Watch our market outlook for more:

This article was originally posted on FX Empire

More From FXEMPIRE:
LPETTET / iStock.com

With food prices soaring, consumers on a budget need to be extra resourceful when shopping for groceries. Clipping coupons is still a useful trick, as is shopping with a list to resist impulse buys and enrolling in the stores loyalty rewards program. Another proven practice is to buy certain items in bulk  like frozen vegetables and canned foods.

Speaking of bulk, thrifty shoppers want to know: Should they be buying groceries at Costco? According to a recent GOBankingRates survey, 8% of Americans buy their groceries at Costco  but is this just throwing money away?

See: Dont Shop at Walmart on This Day of the Week

Find: 8 Frugal Habits of the Past To Save Money Today

The legendary big-box retailer has built its brand around being the destination for discounts, but rock-bottom prices and fresh, wholesome foods dont tend to go together in modern society. Additionally, there are plenty of instances when Costco is surprisingly not the most cost-effective choice out there. So is this retail giant really the best place to buy groceries?

It really depends on what youre shopping for, but usually yes, its a great idea to buy groceries and food at Costco, said Julie Ramhold, consumer analyst at DealNews. Mostly youll want to focus on purchasing groceries that you use often as thatll be where youre most likely to see significant savings. And by focusing on those types of groceries, youll also be more likely to use them up rather than risking having to toss something out because its gone off. Many grocery items at Costco can be frozen as well, so as long as you have the room to store them, you should consider shopping for groceries there.

Here are more factors to consider when shopping for groceries at Costco, as well as a list of dos and donts when it comes to buying.

Check Unit Prices

Consumers should always check unit prices when buying in bulk to ensure theyre getting the best deal.

Buying in bulk wont always save you money, so its a good idea to make sure that youre getting the best deal by checking the unit price, Ramhold said. Remember, too, that though it may be more expensive to buy a huge box of organic macaroni and cheese mix, as long as the price per box breaks down to better than what youd pay in other stores, youre still saving money, even if youre paying more up front.

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Know the Downsides  Like Lack of Variety

Buying groceries at Costco is generally a great way to save, but there are potential downsides. Like, for instance, fewer varieties to choose from.

If you step into a cereal aisle at a standard grocery store, youre going to be inundated with a number of choices, often for just one type of cereal, Ramhold said. For instance, at Target, you may find regular Cheerios, Honey Nut Cheerios, Apple Cinnamon Cheerios, Cheerios Oat Crunch, Multi Grain, Very Berry, Chocolate Peanut Butter, Frosted, Cinnamon, etc. But if youre shopping at Costco, while you may be able to find Cheerios, youll be seriously limited on the flavors available. In fact, youll likely only be able to purchase the most popular flavors  in this case, Honey Nut, regular and Oat Crunch varieties.

This possible lack of variety extends to many other items as well, such as juice smoothies and yogurt.

Related: 8 Ways Youre Wasting Money at the Grocery Store

Items (Especially Produce) Can Go Bad Before You Eat Them

Another potential downside to Costco groceries is buying something that simply doesnt stay good long enough for you to get to it.

Items that cant be frozen may go off before you can eat them, Ramhold said. This isnt just things like fresh produce  it could be other things like milk and cheese, as well. We always caution against buying fresh produce at Costco unless you have a plan for it. That may be to split it with friends and family, or turn 3 lbs. of apples into apple butter, or go on a salad-eating binge with a 2.5 lb. bag of fresh spinach. However, if you dont have a plan for produce, its best to not be lured in by the excellent prices. If you end up having to throw items out because theyve gone off, youre just wasting money.

To Buy or Not To Buy These Grocery Items at Costco

So, what grocery specifics should you buy or avoid at Costco? Ramhold laid it out for us.

Dont Buy: Pastries or Bread That Cant Be Frozen

There are so many delicious pastries in Costcos bakery section, but if you cant freeze any of them, you run the risk of them going off and having to be tossed before they can be eaten, Ramhold said. In most cases, as long as you wrap them well, you may find its fine to freeze things like the jumbo muffins, but when it comes to things like Danishes, the texture may change with freezing which means you may not get the same enjoyment from them later on.

Dont Buy: Name-Brand Alcohol

In some cases, this may be your only option, and in those cases its perfectly fine to spring for Fireball, Disaronno or Grand Marnier, Ramhold said. However, if theres a Kirkland Signature version of it, you should definitely give that a try instead.

Buy: Rotisserie Chicken

Theres a reason why the rotisserie chicken lands on every Costco must-buy list out there: it makes such an easy dinner as-is, but you can also pull the meat off the bones to add to pasta, casseroles or make your own chicken salad, then use the bones to make stock, Ramhold said. And if you cant be bothered with that amount of work, you can also buy packages of the rotisserie chicken meat so that all you have to do is open the package and add it to whatever dish youre making.

Buy: Dried Fruit

If youre looking for a healthy snack, or just need dried fruit for baking, you cant go wrong with the selection at Costco, Ramhold said. From Craisins to dried cherries and blueberries, plus things like chili-dried mango and chewy dried strawberries, there are so many options. Ive even seen dried watermelon there which Ive never seen anywhere else.

Buy: Prepped Meals

These may be a pricier investment, but theyre usually plenty big enough to feed two with some left over or a family of four easily, Ramhold said. The giant chicken pot pie is so good and filling, and can easily feed eight, while the ravioli lasagna is perfect for a family of four. There are also dishes like yakisoba, street tacos, enchilada bake, salmon with basil pesto butter and more.

Buy: Honey

Whatever you like to use honey for, you can buy a ridiculous amount at Costco for a pretty affordable price, Ramhold said. And the good thing about honey is that it wont [expire]  it may crystallize if it hangs around long enough, but in that case, you just need to gently heat it up to liquify it again.

Gabrielle Olya contributed to the reporting for this article.

More From GOBankingRates

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Should You Buy Groceries at Costco or Is This Just Pouring Money Down the Drain?
To avoid investing in a business that's in decline, there's a few financial metrics that can provide early indications of aging. Typically, we'll see the trend of both return on capital employed (ROCE) declining and this usually coincides with a decreasing amount of capital employed. This reveals that the company isn't compounding shareholder wealth because returns are falling and its net asset base is shrinking. On that note, looking into Louisiana-Pacific (NYSE:LPX), we weren't too upbeat about how things were going.

Understanding Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)

Just to clarify if you're unsure, ROCE is a metric for evaluating how much pre-tax income (in percentage terms) a company earns on the capital invested in its business. To calculate this metric for Louisiana-Pacific, this is the formula:

Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT)  (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)

0.16 = US$317m  (US$2.3b - US$267m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2023).

So, Louisiana-Pacific has an ROCE of 16%. That's a relatively normal return on capital, and it's around the 18% generated by the Forestry industry.

View our latest analysis for Louisiana-Pacific

roce

Above you can see how the current ROCE for Louisiana-Pacific compares to its prior returns on capital, but there's only so much you can tell from the past. If you're interested, you can view the analysts predictions in our free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

What Can We Tell From Louisiana-Pacific's ROCE Trend?

We are a bit worried about the trend of returns on capital at Louisiana-Pacific. To be more specific, the ROCE was 28% five years ago, but since then it has dropped noticeably. And on the capital employed front, the business is utilizing roughly the same amount of capital as it was back then. Since returns are falling and the business has the same amount of assets employed, this can suggest it's a mature business that hasn't had much growth in the last five years. If these trends continue, we wouldn't expect Louisiana-Pacific to turn into a multi-bagger.

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The Bottom Line On Louisiana-Pacific's ROCE

In summary, it's unfortunate that Louisiana-Pacific is generating lower returns from the same amount of capital. The market must be rosy on the stock's future because even though the underlying trends aren't too encouraging, the stock has soared 139%. In any case, the current underlying trends don't bode well for long term performance so unless they reverse, we'd start looking elsewhere.

Louisiana-Pacific does have some risks, we noticed 3 warning signs (and 1 which is significant) we think you should know about.

While Louisiana-Pacific may not currently earn the highest returns, we've compiled a list of companies that currently earn more than 25% return on equity. Check out this free list 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.
Chart Industries Inc (NYSE:GTLS) reported strong Q3 2023 results with a record backlog of $4.1 billion, a 4.4% increase compared to Q2 2023.

The company achieved a total of $297.9 million commercial synergies related to the Howden acquisition, exceeding its year-one commercial synergy target of $150 million.

Q3 2023 sales of $897.9 million increased 9.8% when compared to the third quarter of 2022.

Chart Industries Inc (NYSE:GTLS) completed the divestiture of its American Fan business for $111 million all-cash to Arcline Investment Management, L.P.





On October 27, 2023, Chart Industries Inc (NYSE:GTLS) announced its Q3 2023 financial results, reporting strong performance with several record achievements. The company also completed the divestiture of its American Fan business for $111 million all-cash to Arcline Investment Management, L.P.

Financial Highlights





Chart Industries Inc (NYSE:GTLS) reported a record backlog of $4.1 billion, a 4.4% increase compared to Q2 2023. The company also achieved a total of $297.9 million commercial synergies related to the Howden acquisition, exceeding its year-one commercial synergy target of $150 million. Q3 2023 sales of $897.9 million increased 9.8% when compared to the third quarter of 2022. The company reported a gross profit of $276.2 million and associated reported gross profit as a percent of sales of 30.8%.

Divestitures and Acquisitions





Chart Industries Inc (NYSE:GTLS) signed a definitive agreement on July 26, 2023, to sell its Cofimco fans business to PX3 Partners for $80 million. The company also signed and closed on the divestiture of its American Fan business for $111 million all-cash to Arcline Investment Management, L.P. on October 26, 2023. The company expects to close on the sale of Cryo Diffusion for 4.25 million euros next week.

Outlook





The company updated its full year 2023 sales guidance to $3.45 billion to $3.50 billion, down from the prior outlook of $3.66 billion to $3.80 billion. This adjustment is due to the accelerated timeline of divestitures versus the original forecast as well as revenue timing between quarters. The company also increased its adjusted FCF full year 2023 outlook to $335 million to $350 million.

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CEO Commentary





We are extremely pleased with our third quarter and year-to-date 2023 performance and execution, including record operating income, adjusted operating income growth, record backlog, and exceeding our year-one commercial synergy target by 100%, all of which set us up to deliver our 2024 outlook stated Jill Evanko, Charts CEO and President.





Explore the complete 8-K earnings release (here) from Chart Industries Inc for further details.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.


Chemed Corporation (NYSE:CHE) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript October 26, 2023

Holley Schmidt: Good morning. Our conference call this morning will review the Financial Results for the Third Quarter of 2023 ended September 30, 2023. Before we begin, let me remind you that the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 apply to this conference call. During the course of this call, the company will make various remarks concerning management's expectations, predictions, plans, and prospects that constitute forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those projected by these forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors, including those identified in the company's news release of October 25 and in various other filings with the SEC.

You are cautioned that any forward-looking statements reflect management's current view only, and that the company undertakes no obligation to revise or update such statements in the future. In addition, management may also discuss non-GAAP operating performance results during today's call, including earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization or EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP results is provided in the company's press release dated October 25, which is available on the company's website at chemed.com. I would now like to introduce our speakers for today, Kevin McNamara, President and Chief Executive Officer of Chemed Corporation; Dave Williams, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Chemed; and Nick Westfall, President and Chief Executive Officer of Chemed's VITAS Healthcare Corporation subsidiary.

I will now turn the call over to Kevin McNamara.

Kevin McNamara: Thank you, Holley. Good morning. Welcome to Chemed Corporation's third quarter 2023 conference call. I will begin with highlights for the quarter, and Dave and Nick will follow up with additional operating details. I will then open up the call for questions. Our third quarter 2023 operating results released last night, reflect continued improvement in VITAS' operational metrics. In the quarter, our admissions increased 7.5% over the prior year period. These strengthening admissions continued to drive higher patient census. In the third quarter, our Average Daily Census, or ADC, expanded 1,617, an increase of 9.4%, when compared with the prior year and 2.5% when compared with the second quarter of 2023. VITAS' improving operating metrics are a direct result of our retention and hiring program launched July 1st of last year.

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This program was designed to stabilize turnover in our tenured staff and expand patient capacity. Since July 1, 2022, our staffing has methodically increased on a sequential basis over this 12-month period. This increase in staffing and related patient capacity has been converted into increased admissions and census in roughly 60 to 90 days. This 12-month retention program generated an aggregate increase of 784 licensed healthcare professionals, the majority of which are licensed nurses. This retention bonus program ended in the second quarter of '23. However, in the third quarter, we continued to expand our licensed staff and related patient capacity. VITAS net bedside headcount increased by 157 licensed professionals in the quarter. Our September 2023 was ADC -- excuse me, in September 2023, our ADC was 19,047 patients.

This compares to our September 2022 ADC of 17,325 for a net increase of 1,722 patients. This raw ADC patient increase translates into $123 million of increased annualized billable revenue. Our revised guidance assumes continued sequential ADC growth in the fourth quarter of 2023. Now let's turn to Roto-Rooter. As I discussed last quarter, Roto-Rooter continues to manage through what I can only describe as headwinds on consumer spending. Overall, our call volume was down approximately 13.6%, when compared to the prior-year quarter. Although call volume is a crude measurement, it does indicate consumers are moderating their behavior in terms of discretionary plumbing and drain cleaning services. Roto-Rooter has offset a significant portion of the softening demand with a material increase in close rates.

Our call center's conversion rate, the rate at which a call is converted into a technician-scheduled ticket, has improved 4.8%. Our ticket void rate, which is the rate of canceled jobs before technicians can be dispatched, improved 4.6%. Our technician conversion rate, the percentage of time a tech arrives at a home or business and converts a scheduled ticket into billable work, was essentially equal to the prior year. These improved conversion rates combined with price increase resulted in Roto-Rooter increasing revenue 40 basis points when compared to the prior year. We continue to see stabilization of our demand in our weekly revenue. Our guidance assumes Roto-Rooter will help modest fourth quarter sequential growth when compared to our third quarter of 2023.

This conservative revenue guidance for Roto-Rooter's fourth quarter seasonality demand assumes continued consumer spending headwinds for the remainder of the year. To summarize, I am pleased with the accelerated improvement in VITAS post-pandemic. Our increased growth in licensed healthcare professionals, strong admissions and corresponding growth in the patient census have returned to VITAS to normalized operating conditions. Roto-Rooter is well-positioned, in spite of economic headwinds on consumer spending. We anticipate continued expansion of market share by pressing Roto-Rooter's core competitive advantages in terms of excellent brand awareness, customer response time, 24/7 call centers, and aggressive internet presence. With that, I would like to turn this conference over to David.

Dave Williams: Thanks, Kevin. VITAS' net revenue was $334 million in the third quarter of 2023, which is an increase of 12.5% when compared to the prior-year period. This revenue increase is comprised primarily of a 9.4% increase in days of care, a geographically weighted average Medicare reimbursement rate increase of approximately 2.7%. The acuity mix shift positively impacted revenue growth 24 basis points in the quarter when compared to the prior year revenue and level of care mix. The combination of Medicare Cap and other contra-revenue changes increased revenue growth by approximately 20 basis points. Our average revenue per patient per day in the third quarter of 2023 was $196.43, which is 296 basis points above the prior-year period.

Reimbursement for routine homecare and high acuity care averaged $172.52 and $1,026.48, respectively. During the quarter, high acuity days of care were 2.8% of our total days of care, which is an increase of 5 basis points compared to the prior-year quarter. Adjusted EBITDA, excluding Medicare Cap, totaled $54.9 million in the quarter, which is an increase of 53.4%. Adjusted EBITDA margin in the quarter, excluding Medicare Cap, was 16.5%, which is 441 basis points above the prior-year period. Now let's take a look at Roto-Rooter. Roto-Rooter generated quarterly revenue of $231 million in the third quarter of 2023, an increase of 0.004% compared to the prior-year quarter. Roto-Rooter branch commercial revenue in the quarter was $56.8 million, an increase of 1.5% over the prior year.

A close-up of an experienced nurse administering hospice and palliative care.

The aggregate commercial revenue growth consisted of drain cleaning revenue declining 4.2%, plumbing increasing 1.8%, excavation expanding 11.9%, and water restoration increasing 2%. Roto-Rooter branch residential revenue in the quarter totaled $155 million, an increase of 0.003% over the prior-year period. This aggregate residential revenue growth consisted of drain cleaning decreasing 6.7%, plumbing expanding 0.003%, excavation expanding 3.2%, and water restoration increasing 4.3%. Adjusted EBITDA in the third quarter of 2023 totaled $66.9 million, a decrease of 3.7%. The adjusted EBITDA margin in the quarter was 29%, which is 124 basis points below the prior-year period. Now let's take a look at our updated guidance. VITAS' 2023 revenue, prior to Medicare Cap, is estimated to increase 9.3% to 9.5% when compared to 2022.

Full year 2023 revenue growth is negatively impacted by 75 basis points as a result of the sequestration relief in the first half of 2022 compared to a full year of sequestration in 2023. Our Average Daily Census, or ADC, is estimated to increase 7.3% to 7.5%. And full year adjusted EBITDA margin, prior to Medicare Cap, is estimated to be 15.4% to 15.7%. The total pre-tax cost of the retention program in 2023 is estimated at $23.8 million. This reduced our adjusted EBITDA margin guidance for 2023 by approximately 180 basis points. We are currently estimating $8 million for Medicare Cap billing limitations in calendar year 2023. Roto-Rooter is forecasted to achieve the full year 2023 revenue growth of 1.6% to 2%. Roto-Rooters adjusted EBITDA margin for 2023 is guided to 28.4% to 28.6%.

Based upon the above, full year 2023 earnings per diluted share, excluding non-cash expense for stock options, tax benefits from stock option exercises, cost related to litigation, and other discrete items, is estimated to be in the range of $19.82 to $20.02. This guidance includes $1.18 per share of after-tax costs related to the 2023 portion of the retention program. This revised 2023 guidance compares to previous guidance, as recast to no longer exclude costs related to the retention program of $18.72 to $18.92. Current 2023 guidance assumes an effective corporate tax rate and adjusted earnings of 23.6%, and a diluted share count of 15.2 million shares. Chemed's 2022 adjusted earnings per diluted share was $18.78, that includes $0.97 per share for costs associated with the 2022 retention program.

During the third quarter, the company finalized a realignment of its state and local corporate tax structure. This realignment, effective January 1, 2022, was based on the location of operating resources and profitability by business segment. This reduced state taxes for 2022 and 2023 and is estimated to result in a 24.3% effective tax rate starting in 2024. I will now turn this call over to Nick Westfall, President and Chief Executive Officer of our VITAS Healthcare business segment.

Nick Westfall: Thanks, David. As Kevin discussed, our 12-month retention and hiring bonus ended on June 30, 2023. This program was very effective in stabilizing and expanding our patient capacity. All retention bonus payments are individually cliff vested and paid out after the employee has successfully completed 12 months of continuous employment. I'm also very pleased that we have continued to expand our workforce and patient capacity in the third quarter without this retention program. In the quarter, VITAS increased net bedside headcount by 157 licensed professionals. Similarly, I'm pleased that we've continued to see strong retention of our team members, who received their retention bonus payment, illustrating the sustainability of improvements in culture and morale at our locations.

In the third quarter of 2023, our Average Daily Census of 18,859 patients, an increase of 1,617 or 9.4% when compared to the prior year, and an increase of 467 or 2.5% sequentially. As Kevin mentioned, we crossed the 19,000 ADC mark in September of 2023, at 19,047 patients. This compares to our September '22 ADC of 17,325 for a net increase of 17,022 patients. VITAS has generated quarterly sequential ADC growth over the last four quarters. In the third quarter of '23, total VITAS admissions were 15,774. This is a 7.5% increase when compared to the third quarter of '22. In the quarter, our nursing home admissions increased 2.8%, assisted living facility admissions expanded by 17.1%, hospital-directed admissions increased by 6.5%, and our home-based patient admissions expanded by 9.2% when compared to the prior-year period.

Our average length of stay in the quarter was 103.1 days. This compares to 106.2 days in the third quarter of '22 and 99.5 days in the second quarter of 2023. Our median length of stay was 17 days in the quarter and compares to 17 days in the third quarter of '22 and 16 days in the second quarter of '23. To recap what our team has accomplished, we've now generated five quarters of sequential growth in licensed healthcare workers and four quarters of sequential growth in ADC. We've developed what I believe is a very sustainable path to methodically build our clinical capacity and patient base to pre-pandemic levels and beyond. These accomplishments were a result of the unwavering commitment, dedication, and focus each VITAS team member has toward fulfilling our mission in every community we serve.

I want to take this opportunity to thank our entire VITAS team for what we have done to get us here today, and I look forward to what we will accomplish going forward. With that, I'd like to turn this call back over to Kevin.

Kevin McNamara: Thank you, Nick. It's now an appropriate time to entertain any questions people might have.

Operator: Okay. Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Ben Hendrix of RBC Capital Markets. Your line is open.

See also Top 10 Cryptocurrencies to Buy and Hold for 10 Years: Evaluating Crypto Predictions and 40 Best Selling Items on Etsy in 2023.

To continue reading the Q&A session, please click here.
Press Release

October 27, 2023 Bong Go highlights continuing efforts to promote welfare of Filipino health workers abroad Senator Christopher "Bong" Go shared updates on the official visit of the Philippine Senate to the United Kingdom, where he, along with Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri and Senator Grace Poe who are co-heads of the delegation, engaged in interparliamentary discussions with their British counterparts aimed at enhancing bilateral relations. The visit transpired as a result of an invitation from the British Group Inter-Parliament Union, marking an initiative to strengthen ties between legislators of the two nations while fostering economic security, exploring areas of cooperation between the two countries, and promoting the welfare of Filipinos working there. One of the concerns raised during the dialogues revolved around the welfare of approximately 200,000 Overseas Filipino Workers in UK, including 40,000 Filipino health workers, primarily nurses, who have significantly contributed to the UK's healthcare sector. "OFWs are indeed modern-day heroes. They help boost our economy but more importantly, they help uplift the lives of their families to give them a better future and also showcase the talents, skills and work ethic of Filipinos to the world," Go stated earlier. As Vice-Chair of the Senate Committee on Migrant Workers, Go shared that during his meetings with his counterparts in the UK parliament, he was able to raise some concerns of Filipino nurses particularly in terms of protecting their welfare, promoting their rights to proper benefits and compensation, as well as in ensuring a safe working environment for them in the UK. In an interview on Tuesday, October 24, during a visit to projects he earlier supported in Kapalong, Davao del Norte, Go further articulated the appeal of Filipino nurses in UK for a re-evaluation of their benefits and compensation. "Nakiusap po tayo (sa UK) na pag-aralang mabuti ang benepisyo ng ating health workers doon, karamihan ay mga nurses... Kaya nagpapasalamat ako sa kanila, sa mga benepisyong binibigay nila and to revisit also 'yung mga kompensasyon o 'yung mga benefits na dapat ibigay po sa kanila once they apply (and work in UK)," expressed Go. He shared that Philippine Senators present also further appealed to their UK counterparts to make it easier for Filipino nurses to access better salary grades and benefits. His statements underscored the diligence and compassion of Filipino nurses, describing them as among the best in the field. "Take for example May Parsons, a Filipina-British nurse who became known globally for administering the first COVID-19 vaccine outside of a clinical trial, and who was a recipient of the UK's George Cross Award. I have co-sponsored a Senate resolution earlier recognizing and commending her achievement," he shared. Meanwhile, as Chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Go also shared that he expressed his gratitude towards the UK government, particularly for their vaccine donation during the crucial times of the pandemic. "Pasalamat also doon sa binigay nilang bakuna sa panahon ng pandemya. Nag-donate po sila ng mga vaccines during the time of the pandemic. Malaking tulong po ang mga bakunang ibinigay nila," noted Go. As a member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Go also thanked his counterparts for other development assistance extended by the UK to the Philippines as well as their help in strengthening the Bangsamoro Region particularly in formulating the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL). "Nagpapasalamat din po tayo sa mga tulong nila kasi parte rin po sila sa tumulong sa Bangsamoro, 'yung pag-formulate ng BOL o Bangsamoro Law. Naging parte sila na ma-achieve po natin ang kapayapaan dito sa ating bayan," he said. During his visit to UK, Go met with OFW leaders and shared some legislative updates such as the establishment of the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW), aimed at addressing the concerns of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) more efficiently. "Masaya akong ibalita rin na mayroon tayong DMW... Ako po ang isa sa mga author at co-sponsor at iyan 'yung pinangarap natin noon, DMW," Go mentioned. Go is one of the authors and co-sponsors of the Senate version of Republic Act No. 11641 which created the DMW. The law streamlined the organization and functions of all government agencies related to overseas employment and migration through the creation of the DMW including services from pre-employment to reintegration. Go also brought attention to the operational OFW Hospital in San Fernando City, Pampanga, as a realization of a long-cherished dream to provide dedicated healthcare facilities to OFWs and their families. The OFW Hospital, a donation from the provincial government of Pampanga, commenced its operations in May 2022. It consists of six floors and can accommodate 100 beds, primarily intended for the use of OFWs and their eligible dependents. A Malasakit Center has also been established in the OFW hospital to make medical assistance programs more accessible to those in need. According to Go, the establishment of the DMW, the OFW Hospital and its own Malasakit Center are just a few of our dreams before that are now realities for Filipinos to benefit from. "These are testaments of our commitment to promote the welfare of migrant workers and their dependents. However, we acknowledge that there is more work to be done. That is why we continue to listen to their concerns, serve them to the best of our abilities, and pursue initiatives to further their cause," he said. Go has also filed Senate Bill No. (SBN) 2297, seeking to institutionalize the OFW Hospital and ensure its continuous operation. The bill aims to improve healthcare services for OFWs and their families by strengthening the existing facility and allocating necessary funds for its personnel, equipment, maintenance and operation. Finally, the senator likewise filed SBN 2414, or the OFW Ward bill, which aims for the establishment of OFW wards in every Department of Health (DOH)-retained hospital across the country if enacted into law.
(Bloomberg) -- Chevron Corp. is supplying gas to Israel and Jordan from wells in the Mediterranean Sea even after shutting the key Tamar platform at the outbreak of the conflict with Hamas.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Chevrons Leviathan platform increased production to help ease the 1 billion cubic feet per day loss from Tamar, Chief Financial Officer Pierre Breber said during an interview on Friday. Tamar is located in Israeli waters about 12 miles (kilometers) from the Gaza Strip and was shut on government orders shortly after this months deadly attack.

The Israeli domestic market is prioritized in that event, Breber said. We continue to supply Jordan customers and we continue to supply part of our Egyptian contracts, but not all of our contracts for our Egyptian customers.

Read More: Israeli Gas Fields Ramp Up Production After Conflict Shuts Tamar

If Tamar remains closed through the end of the year, it would reduce Chevrons overall global production by about 1%, Breber said.

--With assistance from Ruth Liao.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Yangtze Memory Technologies Co (YMTC), China's leading memory chip producer, has manufactured the "world's most advanced" 3D NAND memory chip known to be in a consumer device in a "surprise technology leap", according to a report by TechInights.

YMTC's memory chip, found in a solid-state drive launched quietly in July, shows that the manufacturer has continued to develop advanced technology despite being hampered by sanctions after it was placed on the US Commerce Department's Entity List, according to a Wednesday report by the semiconductor analysis firm.

The development follows an earlier teardown analysis by TechInsights of the Kirin 9000S 5G processor found in US-blacklisted Huawei Technologies' Mate 60 Pro smartphone released in August, which was said to be made by Chinese foundry Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC). The powerful home-grown chip surprised many industry analysts given the tough US restrictions in place.

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"Like the innovation revealed by TechInsights in the Huawei Mate 60 Pro's HiSilicon Kirin 9000s processor (which used the SMIC 7-nm (N+2) process), evidence is mounting that China's momentum to overcome trade restrictions and build its own domestic semiconductor supply chain is more successful than expected," said TechInsights in its report.

YMTC's 64-layer 3D NAND Flash memory wafer. Photo: Handout alt=YMTC's 64-layer 3D NAND Flash memory wafer. Photo: Handout>

3D NAND memory is at the forefront of memory chip design and is an important component for high-performance computing in applications such as artificial intelligence and machine learning.

YMTC and 21 other "major" Chinese players in the chip sector were added to the US Entity List in mid-December 2022 amid escalating trade and geopolitical tensions between the world's two largest economies.

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At the time, the Wuhan-based chip manufacturer had been on track to challenge memory chip leaders Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Micron Technology with a new flagship 3D NAND flash chip, the 232-layer X3-9070. Prospects for mass production of this chip faltered after US equipment suppliers KLA and Lam Research stopped sales and services to YMTC.

However, a recent downturn in the memory chip market and a renewed focus on cost-saving measures in the industry, may have provided YMTC with an opportunity to pull ahead with a more advanced, higher-bit density chip, according to TechInsights.

YMTC's latest progress in memory chip advancement was first reported in April when unnamed sources told the South China Morning Post that YMTC had doubled down on efforts to work with Chinese suppliers to help manufacture its most advanced chips. This effort was based on YMTC's "Xtacking 3.0" architecture and the sources said progress had been made in a top-secret project code-named Wudangshan.

Sources said that the project intended to use Chinese equipment only and that YMTC had placed big orders with domestic equipment suppliers, including Beijing-based Naura Technology Group, a leading Chinese maker of etching tools, which are also the primary product line of US-based Lam Research.

However, at the time, analysts flagged many outstanding choke points in China's chip manufacturing supply chain, such as the lack of viable domestic Chinese alternatives for chip-making tools, such as lithography systems available from Dutch company ASML Holding. The Dutch firm has a near monopoly position in the production of the world's most advanced extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines.

TechInsights did not comment in its report on whether YMTC's memory chips are thought to have been produced with exclusively Chinese-manufactured tools and components.

On Wednesday, Bloomberg released a report citing unnamed sources that said SMIC had used retooled equipment from ASML, specifically its deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography systems, to manufacture the advanced processor in the landmark Huawei smartphone.

The DUV process - when producing at scale - is estimated to be more expensive than using more advanced EUV lithography systems, which ASML has been prohibited from selling to China since 2019.

However, stricter curbs on ASML's sales to China are coming. From January 2024, the company will be prohibited from selling its 2000-series DUV machines to China under The Hague's latest restrictions.

While recent chip breakthroughs in China have stirred domestic excitement about the country's progress in making home-grown advanced chips, some experts caution that Chinese firms still remain years behind in producing the lithography systems needed to make real progress.

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.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called for "in-depth" and "comprehensive" Sino-American dialogue to stabilise bilateral relations on Thursday, just before his meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington.

Wang voiced hoped of "constructive" and "forward-looking" talks with his diplomatic counterpart, yet did not mention the prospect of a highly anticipated meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco next month.

China and the US "share important common interests and we face challenges that we need to respond to together", Wang said. It has been widely expected that his three-day visit to Washington would secure the summit between Xi and Biden.

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The two countries should seek to expand common ground towards cooperation benefiting both sides "so that we can stabilise China-US relations from deterioration and bring the relations back to the track of healthy, stable and sustainable development" the senior envoy added.

Wang and Blinken are expected to lay the groundwork for a summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden. Photo: Reuters alt=Wang and Blinken are expected to lay the groundwork for a summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden. Photo: Reuters>

Blinken said he looked forward to "constructive" conversations with Wang Yi over the next few days and that he agreed with the foreign minister's remarks.

Wang was also slated to meet National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on Friday to maintain the "strategic channel of communication", according to the White House. Sullivan and Wang met in Vienna in May and Malta in September.

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Biden is expected to speak with Wang on Friday as well, Reuters reported, citing two US officials. In June, Blinken met with Xi while in Beijing.

Wang's meeting with Blinken comes as both the Israel-Hamas war and Russia's invasion of Ukraine continue. Yet in their remarks before they met on Thursday, neither mentioned events in Gaza, although the situation there was expected to weigh heavily on their discussions.

Regarding the Middle East crisis, Washington has asked Beijing to use its influence to stop the conflict from spreading, a goal it said both sides shared. China has called for a ceasefire and presented itself as a possible peacekeeper in the intensifying conflict.

On Wednesday, China joined Russia in vetoing a US-backed resolution at the UN Security Council concerning Gaza, calling it "evasive" and "seriously out of balance".

The resolution called for pauses in fighting to permit humanitarian aid access, the protection of civilians and a stop to arming Hamas and other militants in Gaza.

Last week, the US vetoed a resolution drafted by Brazil, arguing more time was needed for US-led diplomacy.

While bilateral relations have foundered, Xi has restricted his appearances outside the country. In August, the Chinese leader skipped a business forum during the Brics summit in South Africa, then in September declined to attend either the Group of 20 leaders summit in New Delhi or the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Wang's US visit follows trips by Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao to Detroit and Washington in May and Chinese Vice-President Han Zheng to address the UN General Assembly.

Top American officials have also travelled to Beijing this year in a concerted effort to smooth relations, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and climate envoy John Kerry.

Neither side has confirmed Xi's attendance at the Apec summit next month. Were he to attend, it would be Xi's first trip to the US since April 2017.

Biden and Xi last met in November on the sidelines of the G20 leaders' summit in Bali, Indonesia. But bilateral relations deteriorated after the US shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon in February, and the two sides have been at loggerheads on a range of issues including Taiwan, the South China Sea, economics and technology.

On Tuesday, Chinese ambassador Xie Feng helped to warm bilateral relations ahead of Wang's arrival, saying in an address at the National Committee on US-China Relations in New York that reversing the downward spiral in relations was a "shared wish".

"We hope the US side will work with China in the same direction, shorten that negative list, expand that positive agenda, and bring China-US relations back to the right track of sound and stable growth," Xie said.

As a reminder of the distrust and hostility China faces in Washington, two House Republicans issued a statement opposed to Wang's visit.

Michael McCaul of Texas, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Young Kim of California, who heads the Indo-Pacific subcommittee, described the trip as "the first time a Chinese foreign minister has visited the United States since 2019".

"Unfortunately we have seen the Chinese Communist Party become increasingly aggressive during that time period."

"During its meetings with Wang Yi, the Biden administration should not fall for false promises but demand deliverables such as releasing Americans taken hostage in China, stopping the export of fentanyl precursors and halting its military expansionism in the Indo-Pacific," they said.

Wang resumed the role of foreign minister in July after the removal of Qin Gang from the post. He had served as China's foreign minister from 2013 through 2022, and was promoted to the powerful 24-member Politburo last year.

Additional reporting by Bochen Han and Robert Delaney in Washington

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.
For the quarter ended September 2023, Cincinnati Financial (CINF) reported revenue of $2.27 billion, up 8.9% over the same period last year. EPS came in at $1.66, compared to $0.73 in the year-ago quarter.

The reported revenue represents a surprise of +1.17% over the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.24 billion. With the consensus EPS estimate being $1.07, the EPS surprise was +55.14%.

While investors closely watch year-over-year changes in headline numbers -- revenue and earnings -- and how they compare to Wall Street expectations to determine their next course of action, some key metrics always provide a better insight into a company's underlying performance.

Since these metrics play a crucial role in driving the top- and bottom-line numbers, comparing them with the year-ago numbers and what analysts estimated about them helps investors better project a stock's price performance.

Here is how Cincinnati Financial performed in the just reported quarter in terms of the metrics most widely monitored and projected by Wall Street analysts:

Commercial Lines Insurance - Combined ratio : 95.2% compared to the 95.2% average estimate based on four analysts.

Excess and surplus lines insurance - Combined ratio : 90.5% versus 90.9% estimated by four analysts on average.

Personal Lines Insurance - Combined ratio : 99.9% compared to the 102.5% average estimate based on four analysts.

Commercial Lines Insurance - Loss and loss expenses : 64% versus the four-analyst average estimate of 64.5%.

Revenue- Excess and surplus lines insurance- Earned premiums : $135 million versus $139.38 million estimated by four analysts on average. Compared to the year-ago quarter, this number represents a +8% change.

Total revenues- Property Casualty Insurance : $1.96 billion versus $1.96 billion estimated by four analysts on average. Compared to the year-ago quarter, this number represents a +8.2% change.

Total revenues- Life Insurance Subsidiary : $125 million versus $101.76 million estimated by four analysts on average. Compared to the year-ago quarter, this number represents a +6.8% change.

Total revenues- Commercial lines insurance : $1.06 billion versus the four-analyst average estimate of $1.09 billion. The reported number represents a year-over-year change of +3.3%.

Total revenues- Personal lines insurance : $528 million versus the four-analyst average estimate of $502.63 million. The reported number represents a year-over-year change of +22.2%.

Revenues- Commercial lines insurance- Fee revenues : $1 million versus $1 million estimated by four analysts on average.

Revenues- Property Casualty Insurance- Earned premiums : $1.96 billion versus the four-analyst average estimate of $1.96 billion. The reported number represents a year-over-year change of +8%.

Revenues- Personal Lines Insurance- Earned premiums: $527 million compared to the $501.88 million average estimate based on four analysts. The reported number represents a change of +22.3% year over year.

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View all Key Company Metrics for Cincinnati Financial here>>>



Shares of Cincinnati Financial have returned -6% over the past month versus the Zacks S&P 500 composite's -3.4% change. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), indicating that it could outperform the broader market in the near term.

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Civeo Corp (NYSE:CVEO) reported Q3 2023 revenues of $183.6 million and net income of $9.0 million.

The company reduced its total debt by $32.9 million to $103.2 million as of September 30, 2023.

Civeo Corp (NYSE:CVEO) announced a definitive agreement to sell McClelland Lake Lodge for approximately C$49 million, or US$36 million.

The company initiated a regular quarterly dividend of $0.25 per share and renewed its share repurchase program.





On October 27, 2023, Civeo Corp (NYSE:CVEO) released its financial and operating results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2023. The company reported revenues of $183.6 million, net income of $9.0 million, and operating cash flow of $36.8 million. Civeo Corp (NYSE:CVEO) also delivered Adjusted EBITDA of $32.9 million and free cash flow of $31.7 million.

Financial Performance





Compared to the third quarter of 2022, Civeo Corp (NYSE:CVEO) generated slightly lower revenues of $183.6 million, down from $184.2 million. However, the company reported a higher net income of $9.0 million, up from $5.2 million in Q3 2022. The company's operating cash flow was $36.8 million, slightly down from $38.7 million in the same period last year.

Debt Reduction and Shareholder Returns





Civeo Corp (NYSE:CVEO) successfully reduced its total debt by $32.9 million to $103.2 million as of September 30, 2023. The company also returned capital to shareholders through the initiation of a quarterly dividend and renewal of its share repurchase program. The company's board of directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.25 per common share, payable on December 18, 2023.

Business Segment Results





In the third quarter of 2023, the Canadian segment generated revenues of $95.1 million, operating income of $10.8 million, and Adjusted EBITDA of $23.0 million. The Australian segment generated revenues of $87.9 million, operating income of $9.1 million, and Adjusted EBITDA of $18.8 million.

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Outlook for 2023





For the full year of 2023, Civeo Corp (NYSE:CVEO) is increasing its previously provided revenue and Adjusted EBITDA guidance ranges. The revised revenue and Adjusted EBITDA guidance ranges are $675 million to $685 million and $95 million to $100 million, respectively.

Conclusion





Civeo Corp (NYSE:CVEO)'s Q3 2023 results reflect solid operating results and strategic milestones. The company's commitment to returning capital to shareholders while maintaining the flexibility to deploy capital to fund growth opportunities and support existing operations is commendable.

Explore the complete 8-K earnings release (here) from Civeo Corp for further details.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.


Thirteen top tourism companies from 'The Country of Beauty' will have the opportunity to establish business connections with 20 Canadian travel agents and prove why Colombia is meant to be the next favorite destination for Canadian travelers.

MONTREAL, Oct. 27, 2023 /CNW/ -- A captivating showcase of Colombian beauty is set to make its debut in Canada. From October 30th to November 1st, Montreal will transform into an exceptional stage for the Colombia-Canada Tourism Forum 2023, organized by ProColombia, the promotion agency of the country part of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Tourism.

Mavecure Hills, Photo Credit Courtesy of PROCOLOMBIA.

With local stakeholders, opinion leaders, travel agencies, and airlines, this event promises to be a unique and immersive experience. Companies like Canandes; Esprit d'Aventure; and Atypika Tours, among others, will have the chance to engage with Colombia's tourism offerings and establish crucial connections. Additionally, attendees will gain valuable insights into the preferences of Canadian travelers when it comes to exploring the wonders of Colombia.

The forum will be inaugurated by the Ambassador of Colombia to Canada, Carlos Arturo Morales, and the General Consul of Colombia in Montreal, Luz Stella Jara.

During the event, ProColombia will launch the new promotional slogan: 'Colombia, The Country of Beauty', which symbolizes Colombia's main attributes, such as its biodiversity and dazzling territories.

According to Carmen Caballero, President of ProColombia, "Canadians are drawn to explore Colombia's tropical climate year-round, its culture, and natural wealth. It is also worth noting that our country is leading the Meetings Industry on the continent, which captures the attention of Canadian planners seeking new destinations for incentives, congresses, conventions, weddings and other events".

As a matter of fact, Canada is a key market that has shown dynamism, with a 55% increase in travelers from January to August, compared to the same period in 2022. It currently ranks as the 12th largest market for international arrivals in Colombia, benefiting from 13 direct flights and 2,862 seats available per week, connecting both countries in less than 7 hours.

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With a peak travel season typically spanning from November to February, this flourishing partnership between Colombia and Canada provides travelers with the opportunity to explore the magic of both nations.

"We want Canadians to think of Colombia as a trendy destination with unparalleled beauty, and meaningful travel experiences that leave both tourists and locals touched forever", Caballero concluded.

To know more, visit Colombia.travel.

SOURCE ProColombia

Cision

View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/October2023/27/c4369.html
A patent dispute over technology that measures blood oxygen levels could force Apple to stop importing its watches following a ruling by the U.S. International Trade Commission. (Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times)

Orange County entrepreneur Joe Kiani has just notched a startling victory in his years-long court battle against one of the most powerful companies in the world. And as a result, one of Apple's key products may be banned from import into the United States.

I recently detailed Kiani's David-vs.-Goliath legal fight against Apple, which Kiani claims has infringed on patents owned by his company, the Irvine-based medical device manufacturer Masimo.

It turns out the United States International Trade Commission agrees. It just sided with Kiani, issuing a ruling that the Apple Watch contains technology that violates Masimo's patents, and handing down an exclusion order that, if it stands, would result in the devices being banned from import into the United States unless the infringing technology is removed.

The ruling upholds an initial finding in January that determined Apple had infringed on Masimos pulse-oximetry technology, which allows users to take readings of blood-oxygen levels. Earlier this year, a separate federal trial over whether Apple had profited from trade secrets stolen from Masimo, to the tune of $1.85 billion, ended in a hung jury.

The ITC ruling will now undergo a 60-day presidential review period in which President Biden has the power to veto the ruling. (Such vetoes are rare, but Apple, currently the most valuable company in the world by market cap, has more lobbying might than the typical petitioner.) The decision can also be appealed, and Apple has signaled it intends to.

Read more: An Orange County entrepreneur's $60-million legal battle to stop Apple from steamrolling startups

In recent years, the hard-fought legal contest has vexed Apple and strained the much smaller Masimo. For founder Kiani, the fight was over more than protecting Masimos patented technology  it was about standing up to tech giants that use their power to shut out smaller competitors like him.

Todays ruling by the USITC sends a powerful message that even the worlds largest company is not above the law, Kiani said in a statement. This important determination is a strong validation of our efforts to hold Apple accountable for unlawfully misappropriating our patented technology.

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Kiani has claimed in legal filings that Apple first approached Masimo more than a decade ago, floating the idea of a partnership, and potentially an acquisition. Instead, he says, the tech giant began a campaign to hire away his top talent and to plunder his companys intellectual property. He estimates that he has spent $60 million in legal fees waging a fight that few others are willing to undertake against the tech giants.

For Kiani, the ITCs ruling is a vindication.

Injunction is the best repellent to IP infringers and fundamental to patent rights, Kiani told me.

In a statement, an Apple spokesperson said, Masimo has wrongly attempted to use the ITC to keep a potentially lifesaving product from millions of U.S. consumers while making way for their own watch that copies Apple. While todays decision has no immediate impact on sale of Apple Watch, we believe it should be reversed, and will continue our efforts to appeal.

Read more: Column: Forget the metaverse. For $3,500, Apple offers a new way to be alone

Weeks before the decision was handed down, Kiani was clear about what he hoped to see from the result.

I want this to sting so bad for them  they dont care about the money, he told me. I want Apple to change their ways and conduct themselves in a moral, ethical way. They can use their power to make the world a better place.

He wished that Apple would stop trying to steamroll smaller competitors, making more room for innovation outside the oligopolies of Silicon Valley.

The ITC's ruling offers a glimmer of hope that such a future is possible.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Coursera (COUR) Shares Skyrocket, What You Need To Know

What Happened:

Shares of online learning platform Coursera (NYSE:COUR) jumped 18.5% in the pre-market session after the company reported third quarter results that beat analysts' revenue, EPS, adjusted EBITDA, and free cash flow estimates. Its outperformance was driven by healthy user growth in its consumer division; the company benefitted from increased demand for newly launched entry-level Professional Certificates created by Google, IBM, and Microsoft. On top of that, Coursera recently launched the first entry-level Professional Certificate from Amazon Web Services. Given the increasing importance of technology in our world and the shortage of software engineers and other technical white collar workers, these certificates could be a tailwind to growth for years to come. Overall, this quarter's results were great and shareholders should feel optimistic. After the initial pop the shares cooled down to $17.41, up 1.4% from previous close.

Is now the time to buy Coursera? Access our full analysis report here, it's free.

What is the market telling us:

Coursera's shares are somewhat volatile and over the last year have had 20 moves greater than 5%. But moves this big are very rare even for Coursera and that is indicating to us that this news had a significant impact on the market's perception of the business.

The biggest move we wrote about over the last year was three months ago, when the stock gained 11.5% on the news that the company reported a "beat and raise" quarter. Second quarter results exceeded Wall Street's revenue, adjusted EBITDA and earnings per share expectations. Notably, EPS exceeded expectations by a whopping 27%. Management attributed the strong topline growth to "differentiated value of our branded, job-relevant credentials to learners and institutions around the world." These include courses offered by top institutions such as Google and Microsoft to help learners develop skills in fields such as cloud and AI. Moving ahead, the company raised revenue and adjusted EBITDA guidance for the full year, surpassing Consensus. Similarly, revenue guidance for the next quarter also beat.

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Following the results, analyst Brett Knoblauch, of Cantor Fitzgerald released a research report in which he raised the stock's rating from Neutral (Hold) to Overweight (Buy) and the target price from $13 to $17. The price target implied a potential 30% upside from where shares were traded when the report was released. Overall, it was a really good quarter with ample reasons for shareholders to remain optimistic.

Coursera is up 41.2% since the beginning of the year, and at $17.41 per share it is trading close to its 52-week high of $19 from October 2023. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Coursera's shares at the IPO in March 2021 would now be looking at an investment worth $387.56.

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cruise car

The self-driving car company Cruise has pulled all its driverless cars off the roads days after its operations were banned in California.

The company, a subsidiary of car making giant General Motors, said it had voluntarily suspended driverless operations because it wanted to take steps to rebuild public trust.

It is the latest setback for one of the worlds most prominent developers of autonomous vehicle technology.

Cruise has faced growing pressure over a litany of incidents in San Francisco, including crashes with emergency vehicles, traffic jams and hitting a pedestrian at low speed.

California regulators took the vehicles off the road earlier this week, saying they presented an unreasonable risk to public safety and that Cruise had misrepresented what had happened in incidents.

It came just weeks after the company was given the green light to provide round-the-clock robo taxi services in parts of San Francisco.

On Thursday night, Cruise said it would pause all driverless operations, while continuing testing that involves a backup safety driver. The company has operations in Phoenix, Houston, Austin, Dallas and Miami. It also recently announced a deal to launch robo-taxis in Japan with Honda from 2026.

The most important thing for us right now is to take steps to rebuild public trust. Part of this involves taking a hard look inwards and at how we do work at Cruise, even if it means doing things that are uncomfortable or difficult, it said.

In that spirit, we have decided to proactively pause driverless operations across all of our fleets while we take time to examine our processes, systems, and tools and reflect on how we can better operate in a way that will earn public trust.

This isnt related to any new on-road incidents, and supervised AV [autonomous vehicle] operations will continue. We think its the right thing to do during a period when we need to be extra vigilant when it comes to risk, relentlessly focused on safety, and taking steps to rebuild public trust.

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It came after US regulators revealed it was asking questions about the companys cars aggressively braking without any obstructions ahead, leading cars to drive into the back of them.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it was investigating incidents in which inappropriately hard braking results in the Cruise vehicles becoming unexpected roadway obstacles and may result in a collision with a Cruise vehicle.

Cruise has said that driverless cars will prove to be safer than human drivers, but a series of damaging incidents have hit confidence in the technology. In one case, a car drove into a pedestrian at 1.4mph, leading emergency services to be called to the scene. In another, a driverless car failed to detect a fire engines siren meaning it crashed into it while proceeding through a traffic light.

The cars have also frozen when several of them are attempting to navigate junctions at once, leading to traffic jams, and in one case, a car had to be rescued after driving into wet cement.

Waymo, a subsidiary of Google parent company Alphabet, continues to operate its cars in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix.

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In a recent blog post, the Ramsey Solutions team, founded and headed by noted financial personality Dave Ramsey, addressed the issue of converting a traditional 401(k) to a Roth 401(k). While somewhat of a newcomer in the field, the Roth 401(k) option, according to the Plan Sponsor Council of America, is now offered by 86% of employers that provide a 401(k).

Dave Ramsey: 6 Biggest Retirement Myths You Should Stop Believing

Learn: The Simple, Effective Way To Fortify Your Retirement Mix

But what exactly is a Roth 401(k), what does it mean to convert to one, and is it the right choice for you? Read on to learn about your options and to see what Dave Ramsey has to say on the topic.

What Is a Roth 401(k)?

In most ways, a Roth 401(k) is the same as a traditional 401(k). Both allow for maximum employee contributions of $22,500 for 2023  or $30,000 if youre 50 or older  and you dont have to declare the capital gains and interest you earn in the accounts when you file your tax return. The big difference is how contributions and withdrawals are taxed.

With a traditional 401(k), your contributions are removed from your paycheck before they are taxed. But when you take any withdrawals, those are fully taxable as ordinary income. With a Roth 401(k), however, the situation is reversed. You cant make pre-tax contributions, meaning all the money you put into the account has already been taxed. But the reward comes when you make your withdrawals. Both contributions and earnings can be taken out completely tax-free, assuming youre at least 59  and youve had the account open for at least five years.

Downsizing for Retirement? Stay Away From These 7 Homes

What Are the Ramifications of Converting Into a Roth 401(k)?

If you convert a traditional 401(k) into a Roth 401(k), you are essentially moving money from a pre-tax account to an after-tax account. As contributions to a Roth 401(k) can only be made with after-tax money, youll have to pay tax on the entire balance of your traditional 401(k) at the time of conversion.

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After that one-time tax hit, all future contributions and earnings to your Roth 401(k) can be withdrawn tax-free, assuming you make a qualified distribution as described above.

Is It Worth Converting Into a Roth 401(k)?

Whether or not conversion makes sense for you depends on your personal financial situation. While youll no doubt enjoy taking tax-free withdrawals after you retire, the upfront tax hit might not be an option for you.

Imagine you have a $200,000 traditional 401(k) balance and youre in the 22% tax bracket. At the time of conversion, youll trigger a $44,000 tax bill. Even worse, adding that $200,000 to your income will almost certainly move you up at least one tax bracket. If youre a single filer earning $80,000, for example, that additional $200,000 income will push you from the 22% tax bracket all the way up to the 35% bracket, making your bill even more onerous.

Ramseys Take

Dave Ramsey stresses that if you choose to go this route, its critical that you have the available cash to pay that tax bill. Although some opt to deduct it from the amount they transfer, thats a big no-no for at least two reasons.

First, if youre still under age 59 , youll owe a 10% early withdrawal penalty on top of your taxes.

But even more significantly, taking that $44,000-plus out of your retirement plan will cause major damage to your future account balance. If you leave $44,000 in your account for 20 years at a 10% annual return, it will grow to over $322,000. Withdrawing that money to pay your taxes will take a huge chunk out of your nest egg.

What Are the Steps To Convert Into a Roth 401(k)?

The prep work is the hard part in converting into a Roth 401(k), as the actual process is relatively straightforward.

Before you begin, you should first verify exactly how much money is available for the transfer. Most employer contributions, for example, take years to season before they become vested and available for transfer, so dont assume that the balance you see on your account statement is the same as the amount you can convert.

Second, calculate the exact tax hit youll take if you make the conversion. Speaking with a tax advisor might be a good suggestion at this point.

Lastly, if youre ready to go ahead with the conversion, speak to your companys HR department. They will provide you with the necessary forms. After you complete them, the whole process shouldnt generally take more than a few business days.

More From GOBankingRates

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Dave Ramsey: Is It Worth Converting Your Traditional 401(k) Into a Roth 401(k)?
The Georgian parliamentary delegation is currently in Luanda, the capital of Angola, where they are participating in the 147th Assembly of the World Parliamentary Union and engaging in bilateral meetings.The Chairman of the Georgian Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, stated that meetings with countries crucial for supporting the non-recognition policy continue, and he emphasized that any deviation from this policy was strictly ruled out in all the meetings."We had meetings with those countries that refrain from supporting resolutions at the UN or do not support these resolutions. We explained to them how important the resolutions are not only for Georgia, but also for the international legal order in general and, ultimately, for each country. We hope these countries will change their position to a positive one and we will have more support from the United Nations. We talked about why their support is important," Papuashvili said.The Parliament Chairman stated that the central focus of their discussions was non-recognition. The Georgian side received a firm commitment to recognizing Georgia's territorial integrity and upholding the non-recognition policy.The Prime Minister of Georgia, Irakli Gharibashvili, held a meeting with the Prime Minister of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Ali Asadov, as reported by the Government of Georgia's press service.During the meeting, the leaders emphasized the strong, strategic partnership between their countries and their longstanding good neighborly relations.They discussed significant regional projects, underscoring that as of January-September 2023, Azerbaijan stands as Georgia's fifth-largest trading partner. Additionally, they explored opportunities to enhance cooperation to attract direct investments.Irakli Gharibashvili expressed Georgia's readiness to deepen regional cooperation with Azerbaijan, particularly in the realm of energy security, in line with common interests. Both parties recognized the importance of the Georgia-Turkey-Azerbaijan trilateral cooperation.The Head of the Government of Georgia expressed gratitude to the Prime Minister of Azerbaijan for his country's consistent and unwavering support for Georgia's sovereignty, territorial integrity, and non-recognition policy. In return, Irakli Gharibashvili reaffirmed Georgia's steadfast commitment to the territorial integrity of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
The former Des Moines Cold Storage warehouse next to Riverview Park. Neighborhood Development Corp. has recieved a $1.5 million in state brownfield tax credits for a proposed revamping of the structure to accommodate apartments, a restaurant and shops.

A sprawling, run-down warehouse at the gateway to Des Moines' Riverview Park could be transformed into a mixed-use building with 36 apartments, a bike shop, office space, a gym and a restaurant.

The long-empty property at 2814 Seventh St., parts of it 116 years old, was a cold storage facility. By the time Des Moines Cold Storage sold it in 2018, the 103,000-square-foot building, occupying a 3-acre site, had declined in condition to the point where parts of the roof was held up in places by stacked pallets.

Polk County assessor's records show it changed hands twice again before the Neighborhood Development Corp., a city and county-funded nonprofit redevelopment group, purchased it in February for just over $1 million, with the total project anticipated to cost about $13.5 million.

More: Des Moines' seven most endangered buildings at risk of demolition

It received Iowa Economic Development Authority approval Oct. 20 for a brownfield tax credit of up to $1.5 million.

Plans call for part of the space, which features large concrete columns and brick walls, to be converted to a restaurant with a patio and 16 high-end apartments above. An addition also is planned, potentially bringing another 20 housing units to the site.

Some older additions and the most deteriorated portions of the historic structure will be demolished, leaving space for outdoor activities and access to nearby bike trails and waterways. The building is steps away from the entrance to Riverview Park, where the Neal Smith Trail tops a levee protecting the low-lying area from the Des Moines River.

Plans could change, but retail space anticipated

Neighborhood Development's many previous projects include the Madison Flats in the Columbus Park neighborhood and the renovation of a former guitar shop in the Drake University Dogtown business district into Lucky Horse Beer & Burgers. That building also houses the group's offices.

Previously: Affordable housing project proposed near Drake University

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While its concept for the old warehouse is still fluid, it's confident it will be able to fit four to five retailers in the space.

"At the end of the day, the market always tells you what it's going to be," said Abbey Gilroy, executive director of the group. "Maybe it's a bike shop, maybe it's a bookstore. But these are the things we are going to chase."

Spotting an opportunity

The former Des Moines Cold Storage warehouse is steps away from the entrance to Riverview Park.

Riverview Park, once home to an amusement park, is now the city's property. It has seen millions of dollars in improvements in recent years, including a playground and a concert venue, the Prairie Meadows Riviera Stage.

Neighborhood Development helped put on concerts at the venue, which opened in 2021. Gilroy recalls turning away from the stage one night during a show to gaze out across the park's lake and spotting the decrepit warehouse on the opposite bank.

"It's a magical experience. The stars are out, the music is going. It's all beautiful," she said. "Then, you look across the water and see this monstrosity."

But Gilroy spotted an opportunity in the dingy eyesore.

There's still a long way to go. Neighborhood Development has struggled with safety issues at the site since acquiring it, expediting some demolition in an effort to head off trespassers, and is now seeking grants and other funding, like the brownfield tax credits, to help move the project along "a little quicker," Gilroy said.

Restoration and new construction could begin in 2025, she said.

Early efforts made challenging by debris, asbestos

Demolition work is underway as Neighborhood Development Corp. prepares the former Des Moines Cold Storage warehouse for redevelopment.

The aging structure has posed its fair share of challenges. The interior was littered with barrels of hydraulic-type fluids, large cooling equipment, pipes, appliances and substantial debris, according to Iowa Economic Development Authority records. In addition to the condition, IEDA said, the building contained an "exorbitant" amount of asbestos, which cost about $400,000 to remove.

Demolition will wrap up in November, with the grand total to prepare the building for reuse nearing $900,000.

City of Des Moines spokesperson Devin Perry said that while the city is aware of the project, Neighborhood Development has yet to ask it to partner on the development.

While the development is still in its early stages, Gilroy hopes it will provide residents with new ways to experience Riverview Park.

Our biggest thing was that we want to compliment Riverview, not compete with it. We want to bring people here, she said. "People might come for the restaurant and look across and go, 'Oh, my gosh, I didn't know that was there.' Or come for Riverview and go, 'Oh, my gosh, I didn't know that was there.'"

Addison Lathers covers growth and development for the Des Moines metro. Reach her at ALathers@registermedia.com and follow her on Twitter at @addisonlathers.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Empty Riverview warehouse to be converted into apartments, bike shop
The trucking industry is increasingly leveraging sophisticated new technology solutions to tackle some of its most pressing challenges.

Echo Global Logistics, a top provider of technology-enabled supply chain management services, rejects a one-size-fits-all approach to technology. It leverages a variety of intelligence capabilities to provide shippers and carriers with solutions that meet them where they are in their technology adoption journeys.

Echo provides larger shippers or carriers dealing with a high volume of shipments with access to a full suite of API and EDI integration capabilities that directly connect with their internal systems. Zach Jecklin, CIO at Echo Global Logistics, said Echo integrates with just about every TMS or enterprise resource planning system thats out there, allowing businesses to integrate quoting, booking, tracking, document retrieval, invoicing and settlement capabilities directly to their core systems.

The industry continues to remain volatile, and accurate pricing prediction has become an integral way for businesses to budget and forecast. Echo leverages data science to confidently predict prices, which shippers and carriers can take advantage of across its platforms and technologies.

For small or midsize companies, Echos EchoShip platform gives them the ability to quote, book and track orders all from an industry leading front end for LTL and truckload shipping. Soon, this will include partial shipments as well. The pricing provided on EchoShip is driven by the advanced cost predicting algorithms that use this data science.

For carriers, the predicted pricing gives Echo the ability to provide access to their freight for carriers to bid and negotiate in an automated way directly through the portals.

Technology is only one side of the equation for how Echo handles over 16,000 shipments per day across its large network of shippers and carriers. Intelligent people are the other essential part, as Echo employees help solve transportation issues on behalf of clients and carriers. This leads to strong relationships between Echo and the shipper and carrier community.

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We still very much rely on people in those areas because we feel thats the most value-added work that a person can do. All of the day-to-day mundane tasks  thats where we put the RPA, AI, machine learning [and] the data science to work to automate those tasks so the people can do the things that really matter, Jecklin said.

Click here to learn more about Echo Global Logistics.

The post Echo Global Logistics goes beyond AI to drive value appeared first on FreightWaves.
BRUSSELS (AP)  It was a good thing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had his videoconference address to the European Union summit pre-slotted for the opening session.

Immediately afterward, EU leaders switched off and went to the order of the day  the Israel-Hamas war. They didn't come back to the issue of Russia's war in Ukraine again before Friday's closing day of the summit.

After dominating summit after summit since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, Zelenskyy will now find it challenging to get all the attention and the political, economic and military aid that Ukraine wants.

That may extend beyond Europe, too, since the new U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson has shown little interest in providing additional money from Congress to support Ukraine. He has said now is the moment we must stand with our important ally in the Middle East, and thats Israel.

Not only have the geopolitics in general shifted, some of the EU politics in particular are no longer as kind to Zelenskyy.

Ukraine is one of the most corrupt countries in the world, new Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said when he assessed the summit on his Facebook page on Friday. After the summit, he added: "we are ready to help, but not militarily, because I do not believe in a military solution of this conflict in Ukraine. Zelenskyy wants a military victory ahead of peace.

Slovakia is a nation of just 5.5 million people, dwarfed by nations like Germany and France in a bloc of almost 450 million. But Fico's threats of denying military aid must be seen as more than just bluster. That's because the EU gives veto rights to members on most money issues affecting Ukraine.

Fico's counterpart from neighboring Hungary, Viktor Orban, has been leveraging the threat of vetos for years. And he also poured cold water on Zelenskyy on Friday.

Orban said in his weekly interview on state radio that the EU's strategy for assisting Ukraine in its war has failed, and signaled that he may not be willing to approve an EU proposal that would provide more financial assistance to Kyiv.

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The Ukrainians are not going to win on the battlefield, the Russians are not going to lose on the battlefield, and theres no way that the Russian president will be defeated in Moscow in the chaos of a lost war, Orban said.

Moscow is certainly pushing more funds into the war effort. Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told lawmakers in Moscow that nearly a third of government spending next year will go into defense for a total about 109 billion euros ($115 billion), noting that the amount is significantly higher compared to previous years.

After reclaiming some ground during a counteroffensive that began in June, Ukraine forces failed to break through Russia's multi-echeloned defenses to achieve their goal of cutting a land link to the Crimean Peninsula they crave. Offensive operations are now expected to slow down as the winter sets in. All this despite billions in support from Europe and the United States.

With Ukraine funding in jeopardy in the U.S. Congress, Zelenskyy is hoping Europe's financial lifeline stays open.

By the end of the year, EU leaders have to approve a four-year 50-billion-euro (nearly $53 billion) package for Ukraine to provide budget support, promote investment and help with reconstruction  and here the veto powers of member states come into play. There is also a four-year 20-billion-euro ($21 billion) military and security package in the pipeline.

Orban said that he was unwilling to move forward on financing to Ukraine that aimed to help it win the war militarily, a strategy he said was no longer tenable.

I was forced to clearly and directly say that the strategy that those in Brussels adopted and brought us into has failed, he said. Whatever we do, before we spend the money, there has to be a clear strategy," he said Friday.

That stance has irked a large majority of EU nations that see Ukraine as a bulwark for the kind of democracy they want to see across the globe.

This week, Germany handed over a third IRIS-T SLM air defense system to Ukraine after two of the sophisticated systems were supplied over the past year.

Even if the security policy situation worldwide is further escalating and we are looking with great concern at the moment at Israel and the Middle East, we will not stop supporting Ukraine, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said. This war will not be forgotten.

Others were asking what strategy Fico and Orban would propose other than full backing for Ukraine.

If we dont help Ukraine, then what is the alternative, really, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said. I mean, Russia wins! And so what happens next? Why do you think that youre safe then?

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said. If we dont stop Putin in Ukraine, he wont stop there. So it is a threat to all of us.

___

Geir Moulson in Berlin, Sylvie Corbet in Paris and Justin Spike in Budapest, Hungary, contributed to this report.
FILE PHOTO: The company logo is seen on the headquarters of China Evergrande Group in Shenzhen

(Reuters) - China Evergrande Group held talks this week with creditors who had opposed its restructuring plan, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday citing people familiar with the matter.

Representatives of Evergrande told some investors about the discussions with the creditors who are part of the so-called "Class C" group, the report said, adding that details of the talks were not available.

Last week, Evergrande said it was revising the terms of a proposed offshore debt restructuring deal to meet the firm's situation and creditors' demand.

(Reporting by Jose Joseph in Bengaluru; Editing by Tom Hogue)
(Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc.s last product unveiling of the year kicks off on Monday, when the company is set to update a device thats coming up on its 40th anniversary: the Mac.

Most Read from Bloomberg

The event will take place at 5 p.m. California time. Thats an unusual hour for an Apple launch and the timing on Halloween eve is likely meant to fit the spooky theme, dubbed Scary Fast. In another twist, the company isnt holding an in-person gathering at its headquarters in Cupertino, California, making it an online-only affair.

Apple hasnt said what it will reveal at the event  beyond showing a Mac software icon in the invite  but Bloomberg has reported that the company is preparing fresh MacBook Pro laptops and iMac desktops. The machines probably wont have a radical new look, but will likely include Apples first M3 3-nanometer processors. Those chips are expected to be a significant improvement over the M2 line, which was first rolled out in June 2022.

The new models come at a critical moment for Apple. The personal computing market is finally pulling out of a post-pandemic slump, and new competitors are looking to push into the industry. That includes Nvidia Corp., which is developing its own PC processors, Bloomberg reported this week. Qualcomm Inc., best known for smartphone chips, also is making a play for the PC market.

Read More: Qualcomm Says New PC Chip Can Outperform Apple, Intel

Apple is looking to new products to help drive a resurgence during its all-important holiday period. Its coming off several quarters of declining sales. The company will reveal its latest financial results three days after the event, on Nov. 2.

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An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment.

Apple has already unveiled several new Macs this year. In January, it rolled out MacBook Pros with M2 Pro and M2 Max chips, in addition to a Mac mini. In June, Apple released its first 15-inch MacBook Air and faster Mac Studio models, as well as its first Mac Pro that uses the companys home-grown chips  known as Apple Silicon.

While the Mac is no longer at the center of Apples business, its still a key moneymaker. The division represents about 10% of annual sales, making it bigger than the iPad and around the same size as Apples wearables lineup. Wall Street estimates that the Mac will bring in just under $8.1 billion in the holiday quarter, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That would be up from last year, but down considerably from the same period two years ago  when the home office boom was still fueling sales.

Here is everything that can be expected on Monday:

MacBook Pro:

High-end MacBook Pros codenamed J514 and J516. The machines will look nearly identical to current models, but will probably include speedier new M3 Pro and M3 Max processors.

The company has been testing multiple different versions of the M3 Pro processor. One baseline version in the works has 12 main processor cores, made up of six high-performance blocks and six high-efficiency cores. Generally speaking, the more cores you have, the more powerful the chip. The product also has 18 cores for processing graphics. That would be an increase of two main processing cores  known as CPU cores  and two graphics cores over the current model. Another M3 Pro chip seen in testing by developers has 14 main processing cores, including 10 for high performance and four for efficiency, and 20 graphics cores.

There are multiple versions of the M3 Max in testing, including a top-end version with 16 main processing cores  12 for high performance and four for efficiency  and 40 graphics cores.

Apple has also tested updated configurations for memory, or RAM, including new 24-gigabyte and 48-gigabyte options.

While its unclear which chip configurations will ultimately ship, the components are likely to include improved gaming capabilities  similar to the iPhone 15 Pros A17 chip.

iMac:

An updated iMac for the first time in more than 900 days  an unusually long stretch. But dont expect a bold new design. Like the MacBook Pros, the iMacs will look nearly identical to the existing versions. The current iMac design was announced in April 2021 when the company shifted to the M1 chip.

The new 24-inch iMac  codenamed J433 and J434  includes internal design changes and a revamped stand. The company has tested the machine in similar colors as the current models, but Apple could still change up the options at the unveiling.

Apple developed this new iMac with the M3 chip. In testing, the company has used versions with the same number of main processing cores as the M2: four for high performance and four for efficiency. But it has tried new graphics configurations, including a chip with 10 graphics cores.

As part of a broader shift to USB-C connectors, the company will likely roll out updated versions of accessories  including its trackpad, mouse and keyboard  that ditch the old Lightning ports.

This year also marks the 25th anniversary of the iMac, which was one of the first products Steve Jobs introduced after returning to Apple in the late 1990s. The very first Mac, then called the Macintosh, debuted in early 1984.

Coming Later:

While the company has been working on a low-end MacBook Pro codenamed J504 with a base version of the M3 chip, that machine likely wont appear Monday.

New 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Airs with M3 chips  codenamed J613 and J615  are also in development, but those arent scheduled for release until the first half of 2024.

Though Apple typically introduces updated iPads around the same time as Macs, the company isnt planning to debut new tablets until the spring. Its working on an iPad Pro with an M3 chip, in addition to refreshed versions of the iPad Air, iPad mini and entry-level iPad. The company also announced a cheaper Apple Pencil earlier this month.

AirPods wont be updated again until next year. The company is working on new low-end models and AirPods Max headphones for late 2024. The AirPods Pro will get updated in 2025.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
An actor has filed a class action lawsuit accusing former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries of running a "widespread sex-trafficking operation." The lawsuit also alleges that Abercrombie & Fitch had "participation and intentional involvement" in the operation.

Plaintiff David Bradberry claims that Jeffries used his power and influence to prey upon attractive young men by leading them to believe he would hire them as Abercrombie models, and that the clothing company enabled the abuse.

The financial success of the Abercrombie fashion brand fueled Jeffries' alleged sex trafficking organization, which he ran from at least 1992 through 2014, the lawsuit, filed in District Court for the Southern District of New York Friday, claims. Abercrombie & Fitch declined to comment on the lawsuit, noting that it doesn't comment on pending litigation, while Jeffries' attorney didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

The company enabled Jeffries, allowing him to "sexually terrorize aspiring male models," the lawsuit alleges.

Jeffries lured attractive young men to his Hamptons estate in what were described as casting interviews. He forced them to strip down, sign non-disclosure agreements, then take drugs and engage in sex acts with himself, his partner Matthew Smith, and others, the lawsuit claims.

It's not the first time Jeffries has faced such allegations, with a BBC News investigation earlier this month reporting that he faced allegations of exploitation by men recruited for sex events he hosted around the world.

The price of being an Abercrombie model

"The models were led to believe that being sexually abused by the CEO of Abercrombie and his partner at a remote private location arranged by the company was the price that was paid to obtain one of the most coveted roles in the industry an Abercrombie model," the lawsuit alleges.

Abercrombie's support of Jeffries enabled him to "successfully rape, sexually assault, and coercively sex traffic David Bradberry" and others, the suit claims.

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The lawsuit accuses the company of prioritizing profits over the law by propagating the notion that succumbing to sexual abuse was a normal part of the casting process.

In the legal filing, Bradberry detailed his own alleged abuse by Jeffries in 2010. It started with a "scout" forcing him to allow the scout to perform oral sex on him in order to secure a meeting with Jeffries. Bradberry was rewarded with cash, the lawsuit claims. Bradberry later met Jeffries in Washington, D.C., and London, England, where he was coerced into "commercial sex acts" with Jeffries and others, it claims.

Bradberry claims he understood that if he complied, he'd be in the running to become an Abercrombie model. He was later invited to a casting event at Jeffries' Hamptons house, along with six other hopeful models. Bradberry alleges Jeffries and Smith escorted him into a room where two men were having sex, and was given party drugs known as "poppers."

Bradberry claims Jeffries anally raped him. He was later paid $2,500 and flown to France, where he was allegedly forced to perform more sexual acts on Jeffries. At the time, he still aspired to be an Abercrombie model, the lawsuit states.
File - Seen is the Chevron Richmond Refinery in this view from Point Richmond, Calif., Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2023. The San Ramon, California, company posted a third-quarter profit of $6.53 billion, or $3.48 per share. Earnings, adjusted for pretax gains, came to $3.05 per share. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)

Exxon Mobils third-quarter profit declined compared with last year when the oil giant put up record numbers as oil prices soared, but net income jumped 15% compared with the previous quarter. It also raised its quarterly dividend.

Those lofty crude prices have fueled an Exxon shopping spree. In July, the company agreed to pay $4.9 billion for Denbury Resources, an oil and gas producer that has entered the business of capturing and storing carbon and stands to benefit from changes in U.S. climate policy. Then a few weeks ago, Exxon topped that deal by announcing that it would buy shale operator Pioneer Natural Resources for $60 billion.

Exxon isn't alone. Earlier this week, Chevron said it would spend more than $50 billion to acquire Hess.

Exxon Mobil Corp. earned $9.07 billion, or $2.25 per share in the period. That compares with $19.66 billion, or $4.68 per share, a year earlier.

Removing certain items, earnings were $2.27 per share.

Analysts polled by Zacks Investment Research predicted higher earnings of $2.36 per share, but Exxon does not adjust its reported results based on one-time events such as asset sales as most companies do.

Revenue slipped to $90.76 billion from $112.07 billion, but still topped Wall Street's estimate of $89.29 billion.

Production dipped 0.8% to 3,688 thousand oil-equivalent barrels per day.

Exxon said Friday that it delivered its best ever third-quarter global refinery throughput at 4.2 million barrels per day.

We delivered another quarter of strong operational performance, earnings and cash flows, adding nearly 80,000 net oil-equivalent barrels per day to support global supply," Chairman and CEO Darren Woods said in a prepared statement.

Exxon's results come just a few weeks after announcing that it would acquire Pioneer Natural Resources for nearly $60 billion. It's the company's largest buyout since acquiring Mobil two decades ago. The deal with Pioneer Natural vastly expands Exxons presence in the Permian Basin, a massive oilfield that straddles the border between Texas and New Mexico.

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Exxon is flush with cash. The company posted unprecedented profits last year of $55.7 billion, breezing past its previous record of $45.22 billion in 2008 when oil prices hit record highs.

Elevated levels of cash for all big producers are driving a massive consolidation in the energy sector. Just this week, Chevron said it would buy Hess Corp. for $53 billion.

Chevron also reported its quarterly results on Friday. The San Ramon, California, company posted a third-quarter profit of $6.53 billion, or $3.48 per share. Earnings, adjusted for pretax gains, came to $3.05 per share.

Wall Street was calling for earnings of $3.68 per share, but - like Exxon - Chevron does not adjust its reported results based on one-time events such as asset sales.

Overseas production was down 112,000 barrels per day from a year ago. The company said that this was mostly due to higher impacts from turnarounds, shutdowns and normal field declines.

Chevron's quarterly revenue totaled $54.08 billion, coming in above the $54 billion analysts expected.

Crude prices rose sharply in early 2022 with Russias invasion of Ukraine and are hovering around $90 per barrel after ticking another 9% higher this year. That has made big drillers cash rich and they are looking for places to invest.

Oil markets are being stretched by cutbacks in oil production from Saudi Arabia and Russia, and now, a war between Israel and Hamas runs the risk of igniting a broader conflict in the Middle East. While attacks on Israel do not disrupt global oil supply, according to an analysis by the U.S Energy Information Administration, they raise the potential for oil supply disruptions and higher oil prices.

The industry is likely to keep a close eye on events in the Middle East which continue to escalate, as Israeli forces backed by fighter jets and drones carried out a ground raid into Gaza and U.S. warplanes struck targets in eastern Syria on Friday.

Exxon also announced Friday that it raised its fourth-quarter dividend to 95 cents per share from 91 cents per share.

Exxon shares dipped slightly at the opening bell, while shares of Chevron slumped more than 5%.
William Clay Ford Jr., Executive Chair of Ford Motor Company, spoke to employees during an event to celebrate the first shipment of the 2023 F-Series Super Duty truck at the Ford Truck Plant on Chamberlain Ln. in Louisville, Ky. May 24, 2023

An earlier headline on this story incorrectly stated what is happening with the second of two BlueOval SK electric vehicle battery plants in Hardin County, Kentucky. Construction of the plant will continue but production at the second facility (Kentucky 2) will be delayed. The story has also been updated to include a statement from BlueOval SK.

Ford Motor Co. has delayed the start of production at one of its electric vehicle battery plants planned for Hardin County, Kentucky, Ford executives revealed in its third-quarter earnings call Thursday evening.

The decision to stretch out Ford's investment in electric vehicles is due to the market demand for the products not being where the automaker company anticipated.

"EV sales are growing everywhere, including ours. But the pace of adoption is slower than what folks in the industry, including Ford, originally expected," Ford spokesperson T.R. Reid told The Courier Journal Thursday evening.

As a result, the automaker is reevaluating its speed of investment in electric vehicles, though executives say the company is not moving away from its next generation of electric products.

Two plants are part of BlueOval SK, a joint venture between Ford and Korean partner, SK, in Hardin County. According to Ford, the plants are set to create 5,000 new jobs in Kentucky.

The first plant remains on track to open in 2025, Reid said. While the second plant was originally slated to begin production the following year, in 2026, that date is now uncertain, Reid said.

BlueOval SK Battery Park will train 5,000 new workers at the new Elizabethtown Community and Technical College BlueOval SK Training Center, located on the 1,500-acre BlueOval SK Battery Park site.

"The first (plant) is full speed ahead," Reid said. "The transition to EVs is continuing without interruption, but it's gonna happen a little bit more slowly than we originally anticipated."

"Demand for electric vehicles continues to increase in the U.S. but not at levels anticipated. To meet demand and ensure our success, BlueOval SK Battery Park in Kentucky will postpone production at its second plant, known as Kentucky 2," Ursula Madden, BlueOval SK external affairs director, said in a statement Friday. "Well continue building Kentucky 2 to ensure the construction site is safe. Our ultimate goals have not changed, but the time to reach those goals has been revised. This change will not impact our Kentucky 1 plant or the BlueOval SK plant at BlueOval City in Tennessee which remain on schedule with production beginning in 2025."

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Thursday's earnings call comes after Ford reached a tentative agreement on a new labor contract with the United Auto Workers, the union representing roughly 150,000 autoworkers nationwide, following months of negotiations and a "stand up" strike against the Detroit Three automakers.

The tentative agreement includes an 11% wage increase the first year and totals 25% over a 4.5-year contract, plus a $5,000 ratification bonus and cost-of-living adjustments, two sources familiar with the deal but not authorized to speak publicly told the Detroit Free Press.

No agreement has been reached between the UAW and General Motors or Stellantis, which owns the Jeep, Ram, Chrysler, Dodge and Fiat brands.

As the negotiations dragged on, points of contention focused on battery plants and the transition to electric vehicle, EV production, the Courier Journal previously reported. The UAW wants to see battery and EV plants such as the BlueOval SK plants in Glendale and Stanton, Tennessee be unionized once they open in coming years. Ford sources have previously said this is not something that can be brought under the National Master Agreement since these plants are joint ventures with a South Korean company.

More: Ford reports UAW strike has cost it $1.3 billion, vows to improve quality issues

Business reporter Olivia Evans contributed to this report. Reach Public Safety reporter Rachel Smith at rksmith@courier-journal.com.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: BlueOval SK delays production at one of two Ky. electric battery plants
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The global gantry robot market is expected to approach US$ 4.4 billion by 2030, with an annual growth rate of more than 5.8%.

Wilmington, Delaware, Oct. 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Global Gantry Robot Market value is estimated at a whopping US$ 3 billion in 2023 and is expected to grow at a significant CAGR of over 5.8% over the forecast period of 2023-2030, according to the latest market report by RationalStat





Market Definition, Market Scope, and Report Overview

The global gantry robot market is expected to grow at a significant CAGR of around 5.8% during the forecast period 2023-2030. Gantry robots are increasingly being used in manufacturing to automate tasks such as material handling, welding, and painting. This is due to the need to improve productivity and quality while reducing costs and labor.

Manufacturing processes are becoming increasingly complex, and gantry robots are well-suited to handle these complex tasks. Gantry robots are precise and accurate, and they can be programmed to perform a wide range of tasks. Moreover, Emerging markets such as China and India are experiencing rapid economic growth, and this is leading to an increase in the adoption of gantry robots in these markets. Gantry robots are helping businesses in these markets to improve their productivity and competitiveness.

According to a deep-dive market assessment by RationalStat, the global gantry robot market has been analyzed on the basis of market segments, including type, crop type, application 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.

Market intelligence for the global gantry robot 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 gantry robot 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 Gantry Robot Market: Segmental and Market Share Analysis

On the basis of type, 4-Axis gantry robots are the most versatile type of gantry robot. They can move in four axes, which gives them a wide range of motion. This makes them suitable for a wide range of applications, such as material handling, welding, painting, and assembly.

Based on application, the Handling segment is dominating the global gantry robot market. Gantry robots are well-suited for handling applications due to their large workspace and high payload capacity. Gantry robots can be used to handle a wide range of materials, including raw materials, finished products, and work-in-progress.

Report Synopsis

Report Metrics Details Base Year 2023 Forecast Period 2023-2030 Base Year Market Size US$ 3 billion Market Size Forecast US$ 4.4 billion Growth Rate 5.8% Key Market Drivers Rising demand for automation in manufacturing

Increasing complexity of manufacturing processes

Growing adoption of gantry robots in emerging markets

Technological advancements in gantry robots Companies Profiled KUKA AG

Liebherr

Bosch

Yamaha Motors

Macron Dynamics

IAI

Fisnar

Yaskawa

STON ROBOT

Hirata

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Competition Analysis and Market Structure

These players adopt various strategies in order to reinforce their market share and gain a competitive edge over other competitors in the market. Mergers and acquisitions, partnerships and collaborations, and product launches are some of the strategies followed by industry players. Some of the key developments in the global gantry robot market include,

In March 2023, Berkshire Grey Inc. announced that it entered into a definitive merger agreement with SoftBank Group Corp. and its affiliate. SoftBank has been an investor in Berkshire Grey since 2019.

In June 2020, Caterpillar Inc. announced theyve acquired select assets and hired employees from San Francisco, California-based robot and autonomy technology solutions company Marble Robot, Inc. The acquisition is part of the companys automation and autonomy strategy and demonstrates a commitment to the next generation of jobsite solutions.

Some of the prominent players and suppliers operating and contributing significantly to the global gantry robot market growth include KUKA AG, Liebherr, Bosch, Yamaha Motors, Macron Dynamics, IAI, Fisnar, askawa, STON ROBOT, and Hirata, among others.

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RationalStat has segmented the global gantry robot market based on type, application and region.

Global Gantry Robot Market Value (US$ Million), Volume (Units), and Market Share (2019-2030) Analysis by Type 1-Axis 2-Axis 3-Axis 4-Axis

Global Gantry Robot Market Value (US$ Million), Volume (Units), and Market Share (2019-2030) Analysis by Application Handling Assembling & Disassembling Welding & Soldering Processing Others

Global Gantry Robot Market Value (US$ Million), Volume (Units), and Market Share (2019-2030) Analysis by Region North America Gantry Robot Market US Canada Latin America Gantry Robot Market Brazil Mexico Rest of Latin America Western Europe Gantry Robot Market Germany UK France Spain Italy Benelux Nordic Rest of Western Europe Eastern Europe Gantry Robot Market Russia Poland Hungary Other CIS Countries Rest of Eastern Europe Asia Pacific Gantry Robot Market China Japan India South Korea Australia ASEAN Indonesia Thailand Philippines Vietnam Malaysia Rest of ASEAN Rest of Asia Pacific Middle East & Africa Gantry Robot 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 Gantry Robot Report:

What will be the market value of the global gantry robot market by 2030?

What is the market size of the global gantry robot market?

What are the market drivers of the global gantry robot market?

What are the key trends in the global gantry robot market?

Which is the leading region in the global gantry robot market?

What are the major companies operating in the global gantry robot market?

What are the market shares by key segments in the global gantry robot market?

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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.

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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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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.

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Law concept - Open law book with a wooden judges gavel on table in a courtroom or law enforcement office on blue background.

KANSAS CITY, Missouri  The final day of the second week of the Sitzer/Burnett commission lawsuit trial began with some procedural news.

After filing a motion for a judgment as a matter of law late Thursday, the National Association of Realtors request was denied by Judge Stephen Bough. The other defendants in the suit, HomeServices of America and Keller Williams, had previously filed motions for judgment as a matter of law, but both were denied.

Gary Keller takes the stand

Friday mornings testimony marked the start of Keller Williams defense. The firm called its co-founder and CEO Gary Keller to the witness stand first. Like the other defendants before him, Keller noted that Keller Williams as a corporation has nothing to do with setting commission rates. He told the jury that Clear Cooperation policies are made locally and that commission rates are set on a case-by-case basis.

Keller also noted that he does not like people in the industry telling agents what they should and should not do in their business.

During his testimony, Keller also discussed his books and the models he uses during conferences, which had been previously discussed during the plaintiffs testimony.



Keller reiterated what he had said in his deposition that the items are templated and serve as examples of how an agent might practice real estate. He also noted that when his book first came out in 1996, there was no data on commissions. When examples in the book assume a 6% commission rate, its just an educated guess, rounding up from the 5.6% to 5.7% range he saw in the industry at the time.

Keller then discussed the presentations he gives at Keller Williams Family Reunion events, which usually have up to 15,000 attendees. In the presentations, Keller said he discusses a variety of economic statistics, including commissions.



Two of the slides he uses show average commissions on the sell side and the buy side for KW agents between 2002 and 2019. The slide shows that on the sell side, commissions have fluctuated from roughly 2% in 2002 to around 2.5% in 2010, before gradually climbing to 2.67% in 2019. The buy side, however, has much less fluctuation. After reaching 3% in 2008 and 2009, it fell to 2.72% in 2019.

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Keller testified that he uses these slides to dispel the notion that there is a standard commission rate.

We started producing this to point out there isnt a standard commission, Keller said. They vary year by year. Theyre reflective of market conditions.

Keller said the main message to agents is that they should be aware that local markets change, and they have to be flexible. He also argued that the national average commission slide has no relevance to an agent in any particular market because the markets are all different.

The 6% commission is a mythical animal, Keller said. As a national average, it does not exist.

He also noted that showing the commissions slides does not violate Keller Williams antitrust policy, which is designed to prevent agents from discussing commission rates with competitors. He added that the firms co-opetition model is merely an acknowledgement that although agents compete fiercely for business and negotiate, later in the transaction they have to cooperate to get the deal done.

Keller also addressed the plaintiffs claim that he has conspired to keep commissions at their current rate is ludicrous and lacks any proof.



According to his testimony, he has no involvement in NAR or local association boards, but he does encourage agents to get involved and be members of their local association to have access to their local MLS, which he called the single-best marketplace created. However, Keller notes that if an agent does not have to be a member of NAR if their do not want and their team leader agrees.

During his cross-examination, Michael Ketchmark, lead attorney for the plaintiffs, homed in on commissions and on emails Keller sent regarding the threat of the internet on the real estate industry.

As he began his time on the floor, Ketchmark disputed Kellers claim that he has no idea what commission rates are going to be next year, because they change year to year based on market conditions.



He told the jury that he was 100% certain that commissions would be 3% next year in Kansas City, citing a Keller Williams slide showing their agents average offered commission in the city. He also did this for other cities in Missouri, nearly all of which had a roughly 3% average commission, except for St. Louis, which reported a 2.7% average offered commission.

Ketchmark then moved on to the threat of the internet. He showed Keller and the jury an email Keller sent stating that commissions are under siege because of the battle on the Internet for data.

Keller replied that the statement was taken out of context. He said he was talking about Zillow and other internet companies that are taking what he felt was his companys data and selling it back to agents through lead generation for up to 45% of the net on their commission.



He also testified that it is not about the commission rate, but about the net commission; Zillow takes money from agents, something Keller would like them to stop. He referred to this as a relentless battle that wont stop until every piece of data is collected and every commission dollar is rung from the agents pocket.

Keller told the jury he plans to combat this but control everything in-house, which means that he would have to set up his own mortgage, title and real estate services companies.

Ketchmark concluded his questioning by asking Keller if he agreed with the statement that if technology companies control listings data, Keller Williams would lose control and its market centers would make less money. Keller did not dispute the statement.

The defense is expected to wrap up their case Friday evening. Closing arguments in the commission lawsuit trial are expected on Monday.

Editors note: Keep checking HousingWire.com for ongoing, live coverage from Kansas City from our editorial team on the commission lawsuit trial.
(Bloomberg) -- Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the German government is in productive talks with Siemens Energy AG over as much as 16 billion ($16.9 billion) in loan guarantees.

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Siemens Energy is a very important company, Scholz said Friday during a press conference in Brussels. I can report that were in very good and confidential discussions.

Germanys Economy Ministry, led by the Green partys Robert Habeck, is prepared to support the company, viewing it as a strategic asset that will play an important role in protecting energy supplies, according to people familiar with the ministrys position.

The government wants to avoid repeating mistakes that effectively killed its solar industry more than a decade ago. That view is driving talks for loan guarantees Siemens Energy was forced to seek after ballooning problems with faulty onshore wind turbines started spilling into the companys profitable units, said the people, who discussed the matter on condition of anonymity.

Prior to any federal guarantees, the government is insisting that the companys largest shareholder and former parent company, Siemens AG, step up, the people said. Siemens has reduced its stake as the wind-turbine losses mounted and indicated it didnt want to provide further support.

The Economy Ministry sees state backing as low risk, according to the people. Any decision to support the company, which still has a 110 billion order backlog, would still need the approval of the liberal Free Democrats, who control the Finance Ministry and have taken a hard line on spending and state interference in the economy. The two ministries are jointly negotiating with Siemens Energy, though may not see eye to eye.

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Finance Minister Christian Lindner on Friday described Habecks plans to support the energy transition over the next few years as regulation, bureaucracy and subsidies that you all pay.

Siemens Energy makes and develops key technologies for the green transition. Despite problems with certain onshore wind turbines, the company is a leading producer of high-efficiency gas turbines, offshore wind platforms and grid technology to transport renewable energy to consumers. The Economy Ministry views its work to be at the core of Germanys energy policy.

In terms of industrial policy, we are at a turning point, and it would be wrong to think that if you dont face competition, we will benefit as an economy, Habeck said Friday at an event in Ankara. These technologies will be produced anyway and the question is whether Europe will have to import them.

German thinking is shaped by the experience of the countrys photovoltaic panel producers, who had been at the global forefront in the early 2000s thanks to strategic government policies and funding, with more than 150,000 employees in 2011. But with energy policies shifting, and subsidies drastically cut, annual solar installations plummeted, wiping out a range of startups and around 100,000 jobs. Both the US and EU said that China was subsidizing its solar industry.

Since then, Chinese competitors have taken the global lead: Today, around 90% of Europes solar components come from China. The government is now trying to rebuild a photovoltaic industry in Germany again, and has presented a strategy for the sector.

Europe has taken a more aggressive stance toward Chinese competition in recent months, launching an anti-subsidy probe into electric vehicles manufactured there. Despite concerns in various sectors that Beijing could retaliate, the EU wants to act now given the precedent in other subsidized industries such as solar panels.

In the wind industry, China is now home to nine of the worlds 15 largest turbine manufacturers. They cost about half the price of European turbines, according to industry data, in part because of generous Chinese government support.

The economic environment has become tougher, said Barbel Heidebroek, chairwoman of the German Wind Energy Association. Prices for raw materials and components have risen by 30 to 40 percent along the entire value chain.

At Siemens Energy, the problems are partly home grown. A fault in thousands of wind turbines has left the company with a repair bill of at least 1.6 billion ($1.7 billion) alongside an expected 4.5 billion net loss for the year. With Siemens withdrawing support, the company turned to the government for financial guarantees needed to win large-scale contracts. Investors on Thursday responded by wiping out more than a third of the companys value, the second such move this year.

The speed of Germanys energy transition accelerated after Russias invasion of Ukraine cut off gas supplies and forced the country to redefine its energy strategy in the immediate and longer term. The country phased out its last nuclear reactors this year and wants to reduce its heavy dependence on coal. To do so, it will need to rely heavily on renewables.

Wind, the second most important energy source after coal, will have to almost double to reach the governments target of 80% clean power production by 2030. For onshore, that translates into about 27 new plants per week, but Germany has only added about five units a week in the first half of the year. Progress has stalled due to slow area designation and permitting, with local resistence against wind farms adding to the problem.

The Federal Government is aware that Siemens Energy is a company that is relevant for the transformation of Germany as a business location, a government spokesman said Friday at a regular press conference. He declined to comment further on the talks.

Siemens Energy and Siemens declined to comment.

--With assistance from Wilfried Eckl-Dorna.

(Updates with Scholz comment in first paragraph.)

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2023 Bloomberg L.P.
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Between shoplifting, return scams and even acts of violence, crime is on the rise at grocery stores. But now, criminals are targeting not just supermarkets, but unsuspecting shoppers who are simply there to buy food.

See: 8 Ways Youre Wasting Money at the Grocery Store

Learn: How To Get Cash Back on Your Everyday Purchases

The next time youre in the grocery store, stay alert, be aware of your surroundings and watch out for these scams  which often take place at or near the checkout line.

Beware of These Supermarket Scams

Law enforcement organizations are warning shoppers to be vigilant when grocery shopping. Both individuals and groups of criminals are targeting people with the following scams near the checkout line.

Distraction Theft

The Bethel Park Police Department issued a crime watch alert on Facebook about an increase in so-called distraction thefts.

The scam  which is not unique to small-town Pennsylvania  involves organized groups of thieves who target shoppers, typically women with purses open and exposed in shopping carts. One member of the group distracts the shopper and another swipes money, a wallet, credit cards or other valuables from the open bag.

BPPD received reports of three such crimes in a single weekend.

More: 8 Frugal Habits of the Past To Save Money Today

The Found Money Scam

The Elkhart, Indiana, Police Department issued its own Facebook warning about a scam similar to distraction theft  but this one targets shoppers at self-checkout.

Here, too, the scam involves multiple criminals working in tandem. One drops a $10 bill by the victims feet, points it out and uses the seemingly kind gesture as a cover to stand close and watch as the victim punches a pin number into the keypad.

The scammer then follows the victim to the parking lot, where a cooperating suspect approaches the victim and says the $10 bill belongs to them. While the victim is distracted, the original suspect swipes the victims card associated with the pin number they observed inside.

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The Gift Card Scam

USA Today recently reported on a clever new scam involving gift cards, which are often placed close to the register for shoppers to grab as last-minute presents on the way out.

Criminals open gift cards, copy the information and replace them in a way that makes the packaging look undisturbed. When an unsuspecting customer buys the gift card, its automatically activated and the scammer spends the funds before the purchaser or card recipient ever has a chance.

Experts recommend buying gift cards online or only in stores where theyre secured behind the counter, and never to purchase whose packaging shows evidence of tampering.

The Kind-Hearted Shopper Scam

When youre at the grocery store, be aware of scammers looking to prey on your good nature. Several people have reported buying items like diapers and baby formula at the request of people claiming to be down-and-out parents who cant afford basic necessities for their newborn babies. The scammers ask the kind-hearted shopper to get a receipt just in case while they wait outside, beyond the watch of store employees who might recognize them from previous encounters.

When the good Samaritan leaves, the scammer brings the items back and returns them for cash.

Not All Checkout Line Money Traps Are Scams

Grocery stores made an art out of parting shoppers from their money at the checkout line long before scammers decided to get in on the action. Julie Ramhold, consumer analyst with DealNews, warns against the following money traps designed to snare shoppers as they approach the register.

Warranty Upsells

If youre buying pricey electronics or appliances, expect the clerk to try to wring a little more out of you when its time to pay.

Very often, associates will try to sell you extended or additional warranties at the register for these expensive purchases, but they may not be necessary, said Ramhold. Depending on your credit card company, you may get an extended warranty just for using it to buy the item in question, but even if not, the warranty may be more expensive than what its actually worth for the product. Unless you really feel like the extra protection is needed  and its offering substantially more for the cost  its best to skip these.

Credit Card Applications

Associates at many stores are trained to tell you that you can save money on your purchase or get some other perk by applying for a store credit card.

However, unless youre a regular shopper, theres a good chance these credit cards wont be worth it and can just end up being an easy way to rack up debt, especially if youre unable to pay off the bill each month, said Ramhold. Odds are good that if youre a regular shopper at a particular store, youre at least somewhat familiar with the credit card options available. If theres a legitimate benefit and it wont cause you financial issues to apply for one, then go for it.

But if youre only doing so in an effort to save on one particular purchase, its likely not worth it.

Impulse Purchases

Store planners deliberately and strategically choose the items that stare you down in the checkout line  and its all about tempting you to make unplanned, often unnecessary purchases on your way out.

If youre shopping at a grocery store or a big-box store, the drinks and snacks near the register probably arent going to be the thing that breaks the bank for you, said Ramhold. However, other impulse purchases can include things like gift cards, earbuds and even health and beauty

items like small packets of OTC meds or lip balms. While you might legitimately need those items and not realize it until youre staring at them while waiting to check out, the odds are good youll find better deals by stepping out of line and going to the relevant department elsewhere in the store. Skip the impulse purchase and buy a product with good reviews elsewhere to make sure youre getting the best deal.

More From GOBankingRates

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: New Grocery Store Scams: Watch Out for These Money Traps at the Checkout Line
Regular readers will know that we love our dividends at Simply Wall St, which is why it's exciting to see Armstrong World Industries, Inc. (NYSE:AWI) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next four days. Typically, the ex-dividend date is one business day before the record date which is the date on which a company determines the shareholders eligible to receive a dividend. The ex-dividend date is important as the process of settlement involves two full business days. So if you miss that date, you would not show up on the company's books on the record date. Accordingly, Armstrong World Industries investors that purchase the stock on or after the 1st of November will not receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 16th of November.

The company's upcoming dividend is US$0.28 a share, following on from the last 12 months, when the company distributed a total of US$1.12 per share to shareholders. Based on the last year's worth of payments, Armstrong World Industries has a trailing yield of 1.5% on the current stock price of $73.23. Dividends are a major contributor to investment returns for long term holders, but only if the dividend continues to be paid. We need to see whether the dividend is covered by earnings and if it's growing.

Check out our latest analysis for Armstrong World Industries

Dividends are typically paid out of company income, so if a company pays out more than it earned, its dividend is usually at a higher risk of being cut. Armstrong World Industries has a low and conservative payout ratio of just 21% of its income after tax. That said, even highly profitable companies sometimes might not generate enough cash to pay the dividend, which is why we should always check if the dividend is covered by cash flow. Fortunately, it paid out only 33% of its free cash flow in the past year.

It's positive to see that Armstrong World Industries's dividend is covered by both profits and cash flow, since this is generally a sign that the dividend is sustainable, and a lower payout ratio usually suggests a greater margin of safety before the dividend gets cut.

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Click here to see the company's payout ratio, plus analyst estimates of its future dividends.

Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?

Stocks in companies that generate sustainable earnings growth often make the best dividend prospects, as it is easier to lift the dividend when earnings are rising. If business enters a downturn and the dividend is cut, the company could see its value fall precipitously. With that in mind, we're encouraged by the steady growth at Armstrong World Industries, with earnings per share up 4.4% on average over the last five years. Recent growth has not been impressive. Yet there are several ways to grow the dividend, and one of them is simply that the company may choose to pay out more of its earnings as dividends.

Many investors will assess a company's dividend performance by evaluating how much the dividend payments have changed over time. Armstrong World Industries has delivered an average of 9.9% per year annual increase in its dividend, based on the past five years of dividend payments. We're glad to see dividends rising alongside earnings over a number of years, which may be a sign the company intends to share the growth with shareholders.

To Sum It Up

Has Armstrong World Industries got what it takes to maintain its dividend payments? Earnings per share growth has been growing somewhat, and Armstrong World Industries is paying out less than half its earnings and cash flow as dividends. This is interesting for a few reasons, as it suggests management may be reinvesting heavily in the business, but it also provides room to increase the dividend in time. It might be nice to see earnings growing faster, but Armstrong World Industries is being conservative with its dividend payouts and could still perform reasonably over the long run. There's a lot to like about Armstrong World Industries, and we would prioritise taking a closer look at it.

So while Armstrong World Industries looks good from a dividend perspective, it's always worthwhile being up to date with the risks involved in this stock. Our analysis shows 1 warning sign for Armstrong World Industries and you should be aware of it before buying any shares.

If you're in the market for strong dividend payers, we recommend checking our selection of top dividend stocks.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
If we want to find a stock that could multiply over the long term, what are the underlying trends we should look for? Typically, we'll want to notice a trend of growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and alongside that, an expanding base of capital employed. Basically this means that a company has profitable initiatives that it can continue to reinvest in, which is a trait of a compounding machine. However, after investigating MYT Netherlands Parent B.V (NYSE:MYTE), we don't think it's current trends fit the mold of a multi-bagger.

What Is Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)?

If you haven't worked with ROCE before, it measures the 'return' (pre-tax profit) a company generates from capital employed in its business. The formula for this calculation on MYT Netherlands Parent B.V is:

Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT)  (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)

0.0029 = 1.4m  (694m - 194m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2023).

Therefore, MYT Netherlands Parent B.V has an ROCE of 0.3%. In absolute terms, that's a low return and it also under-performs the Specialty Retail industry average of 13%.

See our latest analysis for MYT Netherlands Parent B.V

roce

In the above chart we have measured MYT Netherlands Parent B.V's prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free report for MYT Netherlands Parent B.V.

What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us

On the surface, the trend of ROCE at MYT Netherlands Parent B.V doesn't inspire confidence. Around five years ago the returns on capital were 5.4%, but since then they've fallen to 0.3%. Although, given both revenue and the amount of assets employed in the business have increased, it could suggest the company is investing in growth, and the extra capital has led to a short-term reduction in ROCE. If these investments prove successful, this can bode very well for long term stock performance.

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The Bottom Line

Even though returns on capital have fallen in the short term, we find it promising that revenue and capital employed have both increased for MYT Netherlands Parent B.V. But since the stock has dived 71% in the last year, there could be other drivers that are influencing the business' outlook. Therefore, we'd suggest researching the stock further to uncover more about the business.

One more thing, we've spotted 2 warning signs facing MYT Netherlands Parent B.V that you might find interesting.

While MYT Netherlands Parent B.V isn't earning the highest return, check out this free list of companies that are earning high returns on equity with solid balance sheets.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
Key Insights

Experience Co's Annual General Meeting to take place on 2nd of November

CEO John OSullivan's total compensation includes salary of AU$539.8k

The overall pay is 78% above the industry average

Over the past three years, Experience Co's EPS grew by 79% and over the past three years, the total loss to shareholders 9.1%

In the past three years, the share price of Experience Co Limited (ASX:EXP) has struggled to generate growth for its shareholders. However, what is unusual is that EPS growth has been positive, suggesting that the share price has diverged from fundamentals. Shareholders may want to question the board on the future direction of the company at the upcoming AGM on 2nd of November. They could also try to influence management and firm direction through voting on resolutions such as executive remuneration and other company matters. Here's our take on why we think shareholders may want to be cautious of approving a raise for the CEO at the moment.

View our latest analysis for Experience Co

Comparing Experience Co Limited's CEO Compensation With The Industry

At the time of writing, our data shows that Experience Co Limited has a market capitalization of AU$155m, and reported total annual CEO compensation of AU$1.2m for the year to June 2023. Notably, that's an increase of 20% over the year before. While this analysis focuses on total compensation, it's worth acknowledging that the salary portion is lower, valued at AU$540k.

For comparison, other companies in the Australian Hospitality industry with market capitalizations below AU$317m, reported a median total CEO compensation of AU$691k. Hence, we can conclude that John OSullivan is remunerated higher than the industry median. Moreover, John OSullivan also holds AU$681k worth of Experience Co stock directly under their own name.

Component 2023 2022 Proportion (2023) Salary AU$540k AU$514k 44% Other AU$694k AU$511k 56% Total Compensation AU$1.2m AU$1.0m 100%

On an industry level, roughly 57% of total compensation represents salary and 43% is other remuneration. It's interesting to note that Experience Co allocates a smaller portion of compensation to salary in comparison to the broader industry. If non-salary compensation dominates total pay, it's an indicator that the executive's salary is tied to company performance.

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A Look at Experience Co Limited's Growth Numbers

Over the past three years, Experience Co Limited has seen its earnings per share (EPS) grow by 79% per year. In the last year, its revenue is up 95%.

This demonstrates that the company has been improving recently and is good news for the shareholders. It's great to see that revenue growth is strong, too. These metrics suggest the business is growing strongly. Historical performance can sometimes be a good indicator on what's coming up next but if you want to peer into the company's future you might be interested in this free visualization of analyst forecasts.

Has Experience Co Limited Been A Good Investment?

Given the total shareholder loss of 9.1% over three years, many shareholders in Experience Co Limited are probably rather dissatisfied, to say the least. This suggests it would be unwise for the company to pay the CEO too generously.

To Conclude...

Shareholders have not seen their shares grow in value, rather they have seen their shares decline. A huge lag in share price growth when earnings have grown may indicate there could be other issues that are affecting the company at the moment that the market is focused on. If there are some unknown variables that are influencing the stock's price, surely shareholders would have some concerns. These concerns should be addressed at the upcoming AGM, where shareholders can question the board and evaluate if their judgement and decision making is still in line with their expectations.

CEO compensation is a crucial aspect to keep your eyes on but investors also need to keep their eyes open for other issues related to business performance. We did our research and spotted 2 warning signs for Experience Co that investors should look into moving forward.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking at a different set of stocks. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies.

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.
This new partnership will enable EL Specialists and math teachers to better serve English learners (EL) by developing their academic language and key concepts for the math classroom.

Ellevation Math is a supplemental program that helps teachers provide access to rich language support so students can fully participate in the classroom.

Districts in Idaho can opt-in to Primers that build academic language, background knowledge, and problem-solving skills.

The partnership will enable student agency with rigorous content that promotes academic language development.

BOISE, Idaho, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Idaho schools have partnered with Ellevation, the nation's leading K-12 software solution for English learners and the educators who serve them, to provide math support aligned to state-specific standards.

Ellevation is the nations leading K-12 software solution for English learners and the educators who serve them.

Districts can opt-in to research-backed preparation activities called Primers, which prepare ELs with mathematical academic vocabulary. Other supports, like confidence questions, give students opportunities for written practice explaining and arguing math ideas.

"The English Learner Program at the Idaho State Department of Education is excited to provide state-wide licenses to LEAs across Idaho for all English learner students. Our goal in partnering with Ellevation is to support English learners in developing their language of mathematics to support their academic achievement and increase confidence in the content classrooms. Ellevation will provide teachers with additional pre-teaching and intervention support for their multilingual learners. While historically we have focused on ELA supports, we are eager to be able to provide additional support for teachers and students in math," said Maria Puga, English Learner Program Coordinator.

The partnership will save teachers time and allow district leaders to seamlessly monitor student progress so that educators can focus on what they love  helping their English learners thrive.

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"At Ellevation, our mission is to help English Learners achieve their highest aspirations. This new partnership with the Idaho State Department of Education will equip educators all across the state with the tools they need to support their students," said Teddy Rice, President & Co-Founder of Ellevation.

About Ellevation

Ellevation is the nation's leading K-12 software solution for English learners and the educators who serve them. We partner with school district administrators, teachers, and students across the nation, who use our solutions to manage complex program requirements, strengthen teacher knowledge through high-quality professional learning, and empower students with the academic language necessary for success in school.

Learn more at www.ellevationeducation.com

Contact

Mandy Weger

Ellevation Education

mandy.weger@ellevationeducation.com

Ellevation Education (PRNewsfoto/Ellevation Education)

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/idaho-state-department-of-education-partners-with-ellevation-to-empower-english-learners-with-academic-language-301969508.html

SOURCE Ellevation Education
Key Insights

The considerable ownership by state or government in Meridian Energy indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy

51% of the company is held by a single shareholder (New Zealand)

Recent sales by insiders

A look at the shareholders of Meridian Energy Limited (NZSE:MEL) can tell us which group is most powerful. With 51% stake, state or government possess the maximum shares in the company. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Individual investors, on the other hand, account for 32% of the company's stockholders.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of Meridian Energy, beginning with the chart below.

See our latest analysis for Meridian Energy

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Meridian Energy?

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.

Meridian Energy already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. This suggests some credibility amongst professional investors. But we can't rely on that fact alone since institutions make bad investments sometimes, just like everyone does. If multiple institutions change their view on a stock at the same time, you could see the share price drop fast. It's therefore worth looking at Meridian Energy's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Meridian Energy. Our data shows that New Zealand is the largest shareholder with 51% of shares outstanding. This implies that they have majority interest control of the future of the company. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 4.0% and 1.8%, of the shares outstanding, respectively.

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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 Meridian Energy

The definition of company insiders can be subjective and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. 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.

Most consider insider ownership a positive because it can indicate the board is well aligned with other shareholders. However, on some occasions too much power is concentrated within this group.

Our information suggests that Meridian Energy Limited insiders own under 1% of the company. It is a pretty big company, so it would be possible for board members to own a meaningful interest in the company, without owning much of a proportional interest. In this case, they own around NZ$8.2m worth of shares (at current prices). It is always good to see at least some insider ownership, but it might be worth checking if those insiders have been selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 32% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. 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 Meridian Energy is showing 2 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those is potentially serious...

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.
Mommy N Me Resale has officially opened in the former EcoBuns in Holland Town Center.

HOLLAND  As a mother, Jennah Almanza knows how quickly children grow out of clothes.

It was December when she had the idea to start a children's resale shop, specializing in items for infants and mothers-to-be.

Now, her shop will fill the former EcoBuns space in Holland Town Center.

We would travel all the way to Grand Rapids to get clothes because kids grow super fast and wont wear most things more than once or twice in the first few months, Almanza said. We kept going back and forth ... and we began asking why there isnt something like that in Holland.

She conducted research to gauge interest, and found other parents were having similar problems. So, she answered the call, filling her store with clothes throughout the summer and gathering feedback from other moms.

Children's toys are available for purchase at Mommy N Me Resale on Holland Town Center.

Last weekend, she and her husband, Angel, officially opened Mommy N Me Resale at 12330 James St. The store operates as a consignment shop, where customers can drop off clothes to be resold. Once the store decides which items to sell, they're put in the system, Ricochet, and sellers can track progress from their phones.

Items will remain on the shelves for 90 days. Once sold, there's a 50/50 split between the store and seller.

The goal is to make shopping more enjoyable for families. Mommy N Me has coloring activities, movies playing, and their own version of Elf on the Shelf.

Clothes hang on the racks at Mommy N Me Resale on Tuesday, Oct. 24.

With my son, he can only stay focused for a little bit, Almanza said. That distraction can definitely help.

Almanza hopes to continue to increase offerings, including more infant clothing and clothing for older children. Shoppers will also find a selection of toys, strollers and bassinets.

Subscribe: Get all your breaking news and unlimited access to our local coverage

Almanza said the store wouldn't have been possible without the support of family and friends, and the local community.

For more information, visit mommy-n-me-llc.square.site.

 Contact reporter Austin Metz at ametz@hollandsentinel.com.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: New infant, maternity clothing store opens at Holland Town Center
On October 24, 2023, Scott Allen, Chief Accounting Officer of Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MU), sold 8,882 shares of the company. This recent transaction is part of a larger trend of insider selling at Micron Technology Inc, which we will explore in this article.



Scott Allen is a key figure at Micron Technology Inc, serving as the company's Chief Accounting Officer. His role involves overseeing the company's financial reporting, internal controls, and compliance with financial regulations. His insider trades provide valuable insights into the company's financial health and future prospects.



Micron Technology Inc is a leading global provider of semiconductor systems. The company's portfolio includes memory technologies, such as DRAM, NAND, and NOR Flash. These technologies are integral to the creation of a broad range of innovative solutions, including personal computers, workstations, network servers, mobile phones, automotive electronics, and industrial automation.



Over the past year, Scott Allen has sold a total of 22,569 shares and has not made any purchases. This trend is mirrored in the broader insider transaction history for Micron Technology Inc, which shows zero insider buys and 28 insider sells over the past year.



Insider Sell: Scott Allen Sells 8,882 Shares of Micron Technology Inc

The insider's selling activities often raise questions about the company's current valuation and future prospects. On the day of the insider's recent sell, shares of Micron Technology Inc were trading for $67.79 apiece, giving the stock a market cap of $70.85 billion.



According to GuruFocus Value, the stock is significantly overvalued with a price-to-GF-Value ratio of 1.44. The GF Value of $47.14 is an intrinsic value estimate developed by GuruFocus, calculated based on historical multiples, a GuruFocus adjustment factor, and future estimates of business performance from Morningstar analysts.



Insider Sell: Scott Allen Sells 8,882 Shares of Micron Technology Inc

The significant overvaluation and the insider's selling activities may suggest that the stock's current price does not reflect its intrinsic value, potentially indicating a bearish outlook. However, investors should also consider other factors, such as the company's financial health, industry trends, and market conditions, before making investment decisions.



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In conclusion, the insider's recent sell of Micron Technology Inc shares, along with the stock's overvaluation, may raise concerns among investors. However, it's crucial to conduct thorough research and consider multiple factors before drawing conclusions about the company's future prospects.



This article, generated by GuruFocus, is designed to provide general insights and is not tailored financial advice. Our commentary is rooted in historical data and analyst projections, utilizing an impartial methodology, and is not intended to serve as specific investment guidance. It does not formulate a recommendation to purchase or divest any stock and does not consider individual investment objectives or financial circumstances. Our objective is to deliver long-term, fundamental data-driven analysis. Be aware that our analysis might not incorporate the most recent, price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative information. GuruFocus holds no position in the stocks mentioned herein.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.


Company Logo

Dublin, Oct. 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Italy Construction Market Size, Trend Analysis by Sector (Commercial, Industrial, Infrastructure, Energy and Utilities, Institutional and Residential) and Forecast, 2023-2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The publisher forecasts that Italy's construction industry will drop back from recent high levels of activity in the early part of the forecast period. In 2022, construction output was 25% higher than in 2019 in real (constant prices) terms owing to the impact of generous incentive schemes to support residential construction.

The downturn in 2023-2024 will mainly be driven by the downturn in the residential sector reflecting the winding down of government-funded support for works in the sector. In a major blow to the industry, in February 2023, the Italian government scrapped the tax credit scheme that was aimed at making homes more energy-efficient, amid warnings of dire effects on the construction industry.

The 'Superbonus 110' initiative allowed homeowners to take advantage of a tax credit of up to 110% on the cost of upgrading their home. The initiative led to a surge in home renovations and helped soften the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the country's economy.



The medium-term recovery will be aided by the continued execution of transportation and energy development projects, under the EU-funded National Recovery and Resilience Plan (Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza, PNRR).

In February 2023, the government set a EUR4.5 billion ($4.6 billion) budget for this year's execution of major road development projects in the regions of Sicily, Calabria, Puglia, and Lazio, with the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport (MIT) providing initial of EUR355.2 million ($362.7 million) for highway maintenance and improvement works connecting Umbro and Laziale in February 2023, and ANAS, an Italian road concession firm, launching seven road tenders worth more than EUR1.4 billion ($1.4 billion) in March 2023.

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The Ministry of Energy and Environment reported in January 2023 that 4-5 GW of new renewable energy generation capacity had been added in 2022, up from 1.4GW brought online in 2021. Also, In October 2022, government announced that EUR3.9 billion ($4 billion) will be spent on improving water infrastructure and reducing leaks in cities and agricultural areas.

Scope

Historical (2018-2022) and forecast (2023-2027) valuations of the construction industry in Italy, featuring details of key growth drivers.

Segmentation by sector (commercial, industrial, infrastructure, energy and utilities, institutional and residential) and by sub-sector

Analysis of the mega-project pipeline, including breakdowns by development stage across all sectors, and projected spending on projects in the existing pipeline.

Reasons to Buy

Identify and evaluate market opportunities using the publisher's standardized valuation and forecasting methodologies.

Assess market growth potential at a micro-level with over 600 time-series data forecasts.

Understand the latest industry and market trends.

Formulate and validate strategy using the publisher's critical and actionable insight.

Assess business risks, including cost, regulatory and competitive pressures.

Evaluate competitive risk and success factors.

Key Topics Covered:



1 Executive Summary



2 Construction Industry: At-a-Glance



3 Context

3.1 Economic Performance

3.2 Political Environment and Policy

3.3 Demographics

3.4 Risk Profile



4 Construction Outlook

4.1 All Construction

Outlook

Latest news and developments

Construction Projects Momentum Index

4.2 Commercial Construction

Outlook

Project analytics

Latest news and developments

4.3 Industrial Construction

Outlook

Project analytics

Latest news and developments

4.4 Infrastructure Construction

Outlook

Project analytics

Latest news and developments

4.5 Energy and Utilities Construction

Outlook

Project analytics

Latest news and developments

4.6 Institutional Construction

Outlook

Project analytics

Latest news and developments

4.7 Residential Construction

Outlook

Project analytics

Latest news and developments

5 Construction Outlook



5 Key Industry Participants

5.1 Contractors

5.2 Consultants



6 Construction Market Data



7 Appendix





For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/oqk8x0



Source: GlobalData

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

CONTACT: CONTACT: ResearchAndMarkets.com Laura Wood,Senior Press Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./ CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900




AFP: It was reported that former Premier Li Keqiang passed away suddenly at the age of 68. Can you share your impression of him and a few words of mourning?

Mao Ning: We deeply mourn for Comrade Li Keqiang who passed away due to a sudden heart attack. Xinhua News Agency has issued a press release on that.

CCTV: We noted that the 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the SCO Member States was held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan yesterday. Premier of the State Council Li Qiang attended the meeting and delivered a speech. Could you share more information about this meeting? What proposals did China put forward?

Mao Ning: On October 26, Premier of the State Council Li Qiang attended the 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the SCO Member States in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Premier Li Qiang had an in-depth exchange of views with leaders of participating countries on the founding aspiration, the key to success and future development of the SCO and offered four proposals on deepening SCO cooperation. First, we need to work together to strengthen the shield of regional security. We need to resolutely resist external interference, improve the SCOs mechanism for tackling security threats and challenges as quickly as possible, and crack down hard on the forces of terrorism, separatism and extremism and transnational organized crimes. Second, we need to work together to speed up economic recovery. We need to jointly develop safe and efficient transportation systems, promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, and keep industrial and supply chains stable and smooth. Third, we need to work together to advance Belt and Road cooperation. China is ready to work with all parties to further synergize high-quality Belt and Road cooperation with the development strategies of other countries, and push forward the building of important economic corridors. We need to work to establish an SCO development bank. Fourth, we need to work together to promote mutual understanding and amity between our peoples. We need to continuously deepen cooperation in such areas as education, culture, tourism and sports, and ensure the success of signature programs such as the SCO Forum on People-to-People Friendship.

Premier Li Qiangs speech received positive response from all parties. All sides attending the meeting have agreed that we should stay true to the founding mission of the SCO, continue to promote the Shanghai Spirit, make solid progress in implementing the outcomes of the summit, promote cooperation in all fields, and build a closer SCO community with a shared future.

The meeting produced fruitful outcomes. A joint communique was signed and issued, and 13 SCO cooperation documents and resolutions on economy and trade, railways and institution building, among other areas, were approved.

Bloomberg: Just a follow up on the Li Keqiang question. The Xinhua News is very very brief. I was hoping that you could elaborate a little bit today. Maybe point us to some indications as to what might be the funeral arrangements, and whether you think any foreign representatives will be invited or coming? Im just curious, if you could give us a little bit more?

Mao Ning: Please refer to the obituary that is to be released. As to arrangements of foreign representatives attending mourning activities, we will release information in due course.

Beijing Daily: The International Symposium to Commemorate the 10th Anniversary of Chinas Principle of Amity, Sincerity, Mutual Benefit and Inclusiveness in Neighborhood Diplomacy has been a great success and received warm response. Whats your comment?

Mao Ning: The International Symposium to Commemorate the 10th Anniversary of Chinas Principle of Amity, Sincerity, Mutual Benefit and Inclusiveness in Neighborhood Diplomacy has indeed attracted great attention and active participation of neighboring countries. President Xi Jinpings written message and Director Wang Yis speech at the opening ceremony have been widely echoed and supported by participants.

Pakistani Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar expressed to the Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan that the principle of amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness proposed by President Xi Jinping is full of wisdom and vision. Pakistan highly commends the principle and expressed readiness to work with China to put it into practice. Dignitaries from Mongolia, Nepal, Cambodia and other countries said that the principle of amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness reaffirmed Chinas commitment to win-win cooperation with its neighbors. The principle meets the needs of peace and prosperity in the region, is of great significance to forging harmonious relations among countries, and can help remove barriers in international relations. China always advocates peace and addressing differences through dialogue, and respects its neighbors as friends and partners. We believe that guided by the principle of amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness, Chinese modernization will benefit more countries and people and advance the modernization drive of Asia. Experts and scholars from neighboring countries in interviews and articles pointed out that the principle of amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness reflects Chinas sincerity and good faith in safeguarding peace and prosperity in its neighborhood.

The warm response from various quarters shows that the principle of amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness follows the prevailing trend and is supported by the people. China will keep its neighborhood diplomacy consistent and stable, uphold the principle of amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness, deepen friendly cooperation and convergence of interests with neighboring countries and build our shared home a better place.

Reuters: A delegation from Hamas visited Moscow yesterday. Given that China also has ties to all the key players in the Middle East and Special Envoy Zhai Jun has already spoken with the head of the Palestinian Authority, Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE as well as special representatives of the United Nations. Does China plan to speak with Hamas or has it already spoken with Hamas? Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said that China will continue to play a constructive role in handling global hotspot issues after all.

Mao Ning: Thank you for your interest in Chinas efforts to actively communicate with other parties and promote peace talks. You are right in saying that China is in communication with parties concerned. We also call on relevant parties of the international community to work together for an early ceasefire and avert further deterioration of the situation. China will continue to make unremitting effort to this end.

Reuters: Still on Hamas. What is Chinas position on Hamas specifically and engaging it not necessarily in the context of the conflict between Israel and Gaza, but just Hamas as an organization on its own?

Mao Ning: China always hopes that all factions in Palestine will achieve reconciliation and cooperation. However, we believe that the pressing priority now is to end the fighting as soon as possible, and all parties should abide by international humanitarian law and protect civilians. This is what China has been doing all along and we will continue to call on parties concerned to work together to de-escalate the situation.

Beijing Youth Daily: It is learned that China will hold the 21st East Asia Forum. Could you share more information? What is Chinas expectation for the Forum?

Mao Ning: The 21st East Asia Forum will be held in Yuxi, Yunnan Province from October 29 to 30. Representatives from governments, businesses and the academia of ASEAN Plus Three (APT) countries and the ASEAN Secretariat will hold in-depth discussions under the theme of Joining Hands to Create New Development Opportunities for Shared Peace and Prosperity in East Asia. Assistant Foreign Minister Nong Rong will lead a delegation to the meeting.

The East Asia Forum is a major platform for exchanges among governments, businesses and the academia under the APT framework. Since its launch 20 years ago, the Forum has played an important role in promoting exchange and cooperation among all APT countries and regional integration in East Asia. We believe that this Forum will actively contribute to bolstering momentum for regional economic development, promoting regional economic integration and building a more resilient East Asia Community with a stronger internal driving force.

Reuters: Will Foreign Minister Wang Yi meet with US President Joe Biden while he is in Washington D.C.?

Mao Ning: On Foreign Minister Wang Yis visit to the US, we will release information in due course. Please check back for updates.

Bloomberg: Just following up on US-China. Will Chinese leader Xi Jinping attend the upcoming APEC summit in San Francisco?

Mao Ning: I dont have any information to share at the moment.

AFP: The website of the Xiangshan Forum says that Russian Defense Minister will deliver remarks next Monday to the event. Can the Foreign Ministry confirm that the Defense Minister will visit China and deliver remarks?

Mao Ning: On the information about the Xiangshan Forum, Id refer you to Chinas competent authorities.

Dragon TV: It was reported that military conflict broke out between Myanmars military and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA). What is Chinas comment on this?

Mao Ning: China is closely following the conflict. We call on relevant parties to cease fire as soon as possible, settle disputes in a peaceful manner through dialogue and consultation, avoid escalation of the situation, and take effective measures to ensure the security and stability of China-Myanmar border areas.

The Associated Press: The US Indo-Pacific Command had issued a statement saying that a PRC J-11 pilot executed an unsafe intercept of a US air force B-52 aircraft in the South China Sea. The release also says that the PRC pilot flew in an unsafe and unprofessional manner demonstrating poor airmanship by closing with uncontrolled excessive speed. Is there any comment on the incident from the Chinese foreign ministry?

Mao Ning: Please refer to competent authorities for your specific question. What I want to say is that the US military aircraft, which traveled halfway around the world to Chinas doorsteps to show off military muscle, is exactly the source of maritime and air security risks and dangers to regional peace and stability. China will take resolute measures to safeguard its sovereignty, security and territorial integrity.

Kyodo News: According to reports, following the release of treated water from Fukushima into the sea, the Japanese Embassy still receives 15,000 nuisance calls a day now and such situation continues. Do you have any comment on this?

Mao Ning: Im not aware of the specifics. China always protects the safety of foreign diplomatic and consular missions and the lawful rights and interests of foreign citizens in China in accordance with law.

The Associated Press: On Tuesday there were reports with the Finnish police saying that the anchor of a Chinese container vessel had caused damage to the Balticconnector gas pipeline. I understand this question has been asked before, but I was wondering if there were any further comments from the foreign ministry on this incident.

Mao Ning: I answered this question the other day. We are in communication with parties concerned. The incident is still under investigation. We hope that what happened will be found out soon in an objective, fair and professional manner.

The following question was raised after the press conference: Can you share with us the schedule of French Presidents diplomatic counselor Emmanuel Bonne in China and Chinas expectation?

Mao Ning: During French Presidents diplomatic counselor Emmanuel Bonnes stay in China, Director Wang Yi will co-chair the China-France Strategic Dialogue with him to have strategic communication on how to follow through on the common understandings between the two heads of state and deepen bilateral and multilateral cooperation. They will also exchange views on international and regional issues of mutual interest.

China-France relations enjoy sound growth. In April this year, French President Emmanuel Macron paid a state visit to China. In June, Premier Li Qiang paid a successful visit to France and attended the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact. The year 2024 marks the 60th anniversary of China-France diplomatic relations and the China-France Year of Culture and Tourism. China hopes to take this Dialogue as an opportunity to further consolidate political mutual trust, deepen practical cooperation, advance cultural and people-to-people exchange and step up communication and coordination on multilateral issues, so as to deepen the China-France comprehensive strategic partnership, promote the sound and steady growth of China-Europe relations, and contribute to upholding multilateralism and addressing global challenges.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon plans to sell 1 million shares of company stock currently valued at roughly $141 million, his first such sale since taking over as boss in 2005.

The CEO and his family intend to do so starting in 2024, according to a regulatory filing from JPMorgan Friday that described the sale as being "for financial diversification and tax-planning purposes."

A JPMorgan spokesman said Friday that the disclosure does not relate to any near-term succession planning. Dimon, 67 years old, is currently the longest-serving CEO of a major national bank. JPMorgan is the largest lender by assets in the US.

JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon has been CEO since 2005. (Elizabeth Frantz/REUTERS) (Elizabeth Frantz / reuters)

"Mr. Dimon continues to believe the companys prospects are very strong and his stake in the company will remain very significant," JPMorgan said in the filing.

JPMorgan stock fell 3.6% Friday. Since the beginning of the year, it has outperformed its peers.

The planned stock sale announced by the bank Friday represents roughly 12% of the holdings belonging to the CEO and his family, excluding uninvested shares and stock appreciation rights. Dimon and his family currently own roughly 8.6 million shares of stock worth approximately $1.2 billion as of Thursdays closing price.

Dimon also holds uninvested share units related to 561,793 shares and other stock appreciation rights for 1.5 million shares that are subject to performance targets.

The board awarded Dimon the 1.5 million options in 2021 as a special retention bonus. He can't exercise those options until 2026, and he has to stay at the bank the entire time while meeting certain performance targets.

But the retention plan does have one interesting provision that allows Dimon to exit earlier: He can exercise the options if he leaves for a government job, according to a regulatory filing. Elected or unelected.

Dimon has frequently been linked over the years to top roles in Washington. During President Obamas time in office, Dimon was frequently mentioned as a possible Treasury secretary. Billionaire Warren Buffett even offered his endorsement in 2012, saying Dimon would be the best pick for that job.

Story continues

"I cant do this forever, I know that," Dimon told analysts on May 22. "But my intensity is the same. I think when I don't have that kind of intensity, I should leave."

The company released a statement in June saying Dimon had "no plans to run for office" and that "he is very happy in his current role."

The statement came after the CEO admitted in an interview with Bloomberg that the thought of running for public office had crossed his mind. Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman later that same day on Twitter urged the executive to run for president.

Jamie Dimon is one of the world's most respected business leaders. Politically he is a centrist. He is pro-business and pro-free enterprise, but also supportive of well-designed social programs and rational tax policies that can help the less fortunate. He is extremely smart,  Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) May 31, 2023

He would still, however, like to "serve our country in some way" after JPMorgan, a person familiar with his thinking said in June.

A JPMorgan spokesperson said the Friday disclosure of a stock sale "has nothing to do" with any plans for a potential appointment to public office.

The bank does have a list of internal candidates who could replace him depending on the circumstances and notice of any potential departure.

David Hollerith is a senior reporter for Yahoo Finance covering banking and crypto.

Click here for the latest stock market news and in-depth analysis, including events that move stocks

Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance
ANNVILLE, Pa., October 27, 2023--(BUSINESS WIRE)--L2P Research, LLC, a leading preclinical CRO, today announced the award of a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Osteoarthritis is a debilitating disease that affects an enormous number of people. No treatments other than arthroplasty have been developed to stop its progression, reduce pain, and increase range of motion.

This grant will explore a cell therapy approach for the treatment of osteoarthritis via delivery of human mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) and adipose-derived stem cells (ASC) in the form of three-dimensional hydrogels.

L2P Labs will aim to combine the use of hydrogel, stem cells, and ultrasound therapy to develop a new treatment for osteoarthritis. These approaches have shown promise alone and their combination will pave the way for a new therapy to reduce Osteoarthritisassociated pain and improve mobility.

Dr. Suresh Anaganti, Chief Executive Officer of L2P Research, added "This research will address a huge unmet need for disease modification (compared to mere pain management) in the osteoarthritis field. Importantly, these experiments have been designed to facilitate a rapid proof-of-concept to pave the way for future clinical studies."

About L2P Research

L2P Research, LLC is a Pennsylvania based Research organization that provides integrated R&D support in all the key areas of Pharmaceutical development. With a large worldwide customer base, L2P provides a complete array of research services as required for Investigational New Drug Applications (IND).

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231027595379/en/

Contacts

Ms. Kerry Lucas, Administrative Manager

L2P Research, LLC

51 Oxford Road

Annville, Pa 17003

Kerry@l2presearch.com

(844) 527-5227
(Bloomberg) -- Chinas former Premier Li Keqiang, who gained a reputation as a reformer but later found himself sidelined by President Xi Jinping, died of a heart attack just months after stepping down as the nations No. 2 official. He was 68.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Li passed away in the early hours of Friday in Shanghai after all rescue efforts failed, according to a statement posted on the governments website. His death sparked a huge outpouring of grief on Friday on Chinas tightly controlled internet, with most comments expressing shock and sadness over his passing.

Rest in peace, peoples premier, one top comment said on microblogging platform Weibo, where the news was viewed some 1.3 billion times.

A trained economist who once rivaled Xi for the nations top job, Li championed pro-market reforms and extolled the benefits of a more liberal economic vision while steering the worlds second-largest economy through a trade war with the US, a property crisis and the coronavirus pandemic.

But his influence steadily declined over his decade as head of government, with Xi taking over key responsibilities traditionally reserved for the premier as he amassed the most power in China since Mao Zedong.

Xis push to shape economic policy was a harbinger of a bigger shakeup in the Communist Party that played out last year, when he secured a precedent-defying third term. Despite being eligible to stay on the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee, Li was left off Chinas most powerful body and replaced as premier by a Xi ally, Li Qiang.

Some are suggesting that Li is a symbol of a bygone reform era, said Richard McGregor, senior fellow for East Asia at the Lowy Institute in Sydney who has written several books about Chinese politics, including The Party. He is more a symbol of the Xi Jinping era, in which putative reformers like Li were sidelined and stripped of agency, even though he was ranked number two in the party hierarchy.

Story continues

Chinas state media published an official obituary, commending Lis work as premier, including promoting economic reform and resolving problems relating to peoples livelihoods  such as job creation, education and housing. It also highlighted Lis work under Xis leadership and noted Lis continued backing of Xi after stepping down as premier, saying he firmly supported anti-corruption efforts, without further elaborating.

The son of a minor Communist Party official, Li was born in Anhui province in central China in July 1955. During the Cultural Revolution he was sent to work in the provinces countryside, spending several years doing manual labor while becoming his units party branch secretary.

His reputation as a relatively liberal official took hold in the 1980s, when he translated English works on constitutional law by a British judge. Li later studied for a doctorate in economics under one of Chinas leading advocates for market reform.

Seen as a protege of former President Hu Jintao, Li was a member of the Communist Youth League. That put him in a different camp of the ruling party to Xi, who belongs to an elite class of well-connected revolutionary families.

Lis political rise came via challenging stints as party chief in both the central province of Henan and Liaoning in the northeast. In Henan, he oversaw strong growth, although his tenure was marred by a blood donation scandal that infected rural residents with HIV.

In Liaoning, Li used electricity consumption, rail cargo volume and bank loans as proxies for growth, a method that became one of his trademarks. The Economist created the Li Keqiang Index to measure the nations economic growth based on his three preferred indicators.

After losing out in 2012 to Xi for the chance to rule the Communist Party, Li became Chinas first premier with an economics doctorate, and went on to carve out a policy platform based on cutting red tape and taxes on business.

Likonomics

Early in his tenure, he cracked down on extravagant spending to rein in an economy dependent on investment following a massive government stimulus in 2008 that he helped design. His policies were dubbed Likonomics by economists  a phrase that took hold. As premier he also championed new style urbanization, which encouraged city growth to be linked with the provision of employment and public services.

As Xi moved key economic policy decisions to a series of party committees led by himself and a trusted economic aide, Li spent much of his time responding to crises such as natural disasters  tasks that allowed him to develop a more personal connection with the public.

In 2020, Li set off a nationwide debate on poverty alleviation when he reminded the public that two-fifths of Chinas population earned just 1,000 yuan a month on average. Its not even enough to rent a room in a medium-sized Chinese city, he said during the annual national parliament meeting in May.

Last year, when Chinas economy ground to a halt due to stringent Covid controls, which eventually sparked rare nationwide protests, Li repeatedly urged local officials to better balance economic growth with pandemic controls. In an emergency meeting with thousands of local officials, Li warned of dire consequences if they didnt move decisively to prevent the economy from sliding further.

But while other economic leaders have continued to influence policy after stepping down, Li did not seem to hold enduring sway.

There were rumors he would play some behind the scenes role after leaving office, said Josef Gregory Mahoney, a politics and international relations professor at Shanghais East China Normal University. But that never seemed to materialize.

Marginalized by Xi

On Friday, users paid tribute to Li on Chinas internet, with many highlighting his comments on poverty. Others shared his remark that once Chinas door is opened, it will never be closed again  a statement that stands in contrast with the nations widening divisions with the US and Europe as Xis power expands.

Lis moves to push financial market reforms and capital account liberalization made him an ally to reform-minded technocrats in China, according to Eswar Prasad, former head of the IMFs China division whos now an economics professor at Cornell University.

He seemed well attuned to the many challenges and hidden dangers the economy faced and did his part to keep growth on an even course, Prasad said of Li. His legacy will, however, be limited on account of his having been marginalized by Xi Jinping.

--With assistance from Xiao Zibang, Lucille Liu and Rebecca Choong Wilkins.

(Updates with Lis official obituary in the eighth paragraph.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
(Bloomberg) -- Lithium mining giant SQM has won over Perth-based Azure Minerals Ltd. with a sweetened A$1.6 billion ($1 billion) cash offer, the latest deal as large battery-metal producers race to secure supply in Australia, home to some of the worlds richest deposits.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Azures board will back the new binding bid from SQM, which increased its cash offer by 52% to A$3.52 per share, the Australian producer said Thursday. Thats a 44% premium over Azures closing price on Oct. 20, and follows a previously rejected non-binding offer of A$2.31 made in August.

The companys shares jumped as much as 44% on Thursday to A$3.52, their highest price since June 2008.

The proposal comes amid a recent frenzy of interest in the Australian lithium sector among the worlds biggest mining heavyweights and battery manufacturers, as companies including Rio Tinto Plc and Tesla Inc. chase deals with firms with even early-stage or pre-production projects. Thats helped spark a stunning rally for many newly founded and previously little-known companies in Australia, where lithium mining is dominated by small and mid-sized firms.

Azure shares are more than 15 times higher than they were at the end of 2022, helped by news in June of exceptional drilling results at its Andover site in Western Australia, one of the most lithium-rich regions in the world. SQMs offer is not subject to due diligence conditions.

Read More: Lithium Craze Sparks 1,100% Stock Gains as Well as Deep Losses

Still, the metals price is looking increasingly volatile, with the crucial battery ingredient now down about 64% from a record earlier this year. SQM, the worlds second-biggest lithium producer and Chiles largest, recently batted off price concerns and reiterated an upbeat view for electric-vehicle sales growth  but investors are eyeing a looming wave of consolidation as lower valuations create a new slew of potential takeover targets.

Story continues

Last week, one of the largest battery-metals deals to date was scuppered when top producer Albemarle Corp. walked away from a A$6.6 billion proposal to buy Liontown Resources Ltd.  after Australias richest woman Gina Rinehart muscled her way into a takeover battle for the Perth-based miner.

US-based Livent Corp. has agreed to combine with Allkem Ltd. to create a $10.6 billion producer. Chiles Codelco will buy Lithium Power International Ltd. in its first lithium takeover. Meanwhile, Chinese producer Tianqi Lithium Corp. made an unsuccessful attempt to acquire Essential Metals Ltd.

SQM is expanding in Australia as it faces the possibility of its Chilean contract expiring in 2030. The company is in talks with state-owned Codelco for a new contract under the governments public-private-participation model in which it would give up a majority stake in future operations.

The Chilean miner in January bought 20% of Azure, and is the companys largest shareholder. SQM also made a conditional off-market takeover offer of A$3.50 a share if the scheme of arrangement is not successful.

--With assistance from Georgina McKay and James Attwood.

(Corrects magnitude of Azure share increase in paragraph 5)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Logitech's Q2 FY 2024 sales were $1.06 billion, down 8% in US dollars and 9% in constant currency compared to the prior year.

GAAP operating income was $157 million, up 23% compared to the prior year. Non-GAAP operating income was $183 million, up 17% compared to the prior year.

GAAP earnings per share (EPS) was $0.86, up 72% compared to the prior year. Non-GAAP EPS was $1.09, up 30% compared to the prior year.

Cash flow from operations was $223 million, up $150 million compared to the prior year.





Logitech International SA (XSWX:LOGN) released its earnings report for the second quarter of Fiscal Year 2024 on October 24, 2023. Despite a decrease in sales, the company reported an increase in operating income and cash flow from operations.

Financial Performance Overview





Logitech's sales for Q2 FY 2024 were $1.06 billion, marking an 8% decrease in US dollars and a 9% decrease in constant currency compared to the prior year. However, the company's GAAP operating income was $157 million, reflecting a 23% increase compared to the prior year. The non-GAAP operating income was $183 million, up 17% compared to the prior year.

The company's GAAP earnings per share (EPS) was $0.86, up 72% compared to the prior year. The non-GAAP EPS was $1.09, up 30% compared to the prior year. Cash flow from operations was $223 million, up $150 million compared to the prior year. The quarter-ending cash balance was $1.16 billion.

Management Commentary





The Logitech team stepped up execution this quarter and delivered results that demonstrate the underlying potential of our business, said Guy Gecht, Logitech interim chief executive officer. We made great progress toward a return to growth and exceeded our pre-pandemic profit levels. Our design-led innovation capabilities were on full display, with 16 new product introductions during the quarter. I'm proud of what our team has accomplished in this challenging environment. We remain focused on developing market leading products, operational excellence, and value creation for shareholders."

Story continues

Updated Full Year Outlook





Logitech raised its full-year outlook for Fiscal Year 2024. The company now expects sales to be between $4.0 billion and $4.15 billion, up from the previous outlook of $3.8 billion to $4.0 billion. The expected sales decline year over year has been adjusted from 16%-12% to 12%-9%. Non-GAAP operating income is now expected to be between $525 million and $575 million, up from the previous outlook of $400 million to $500 million.

Financial Tables Summary





The financial tables provided in the earnings report show a detailed breakdown of Logitech's performance. The GAAP condensed consolidated statements of operations show net sales of $1,057,008 for the three months ended September 30, 2023, and $2,031,507 for the six months ended September 30, 2023. The condensed consolidated balance sheets show current assets of $2,492,224 as of September 30, 2023, and total assets of $3,425,030. The condensed consolidated statements of cash flows show net cash provided by operating activities of $223,264 for the three months ended September 30, 2023, and $463,059 for the six months ended September 30, 2023.

Company's Performance Analysis





Despite the decline in sales, Logitech has managed to increase its operating income and cash flow from operations. This suggests that the company has been successful in reducing its operating expenses and improving its operational efficiency. The increase in GAAP and non-GAAP EPS also indicates that the company has been able to deliver a strong financial performance for its shareholders. The raised outlook for FY 2024 further demonstrates the company's confidence in its future performance.

Explore the complete 8-K earnings release (here) from Logitech International SA for further details.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.


Key Insights

Lechwerke's estimated fair value is 71.51 based on 2 Stage Free Cash Flow to Equity

With 85.50 share price, Lechwerke appears to be trading close to its estimated fair value

Industry average of 19% suggests Lechwerke's peers are currently trading at a lower premium to fair value

Today we'll do a simple run through of a valuation method used to estimate the attractiveness of Lechwerke AG (FRA:LEC) as an investment opportunity 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. It may sound complicated, but actually it is quite simple!

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 Lechwerke

The Model

We're using the 2-stage growth model, which simply means we take in account two stages of company's growth. In the initial period the company may have a higher growth rate and the second stage is usually assumed to have a stable growth rate. To begin with, we have to get estimates of the next ten years of cash flows. Seeing as no analyst estimates of free cash flow are available to us, we have extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the company's last reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years.

Generally we assume that a dollar today is more valuable than a dollar in the future, so we need to discount the sum of these future cash flows to arrive at a present value estimate:

10-year free cash flow (FCF) forecast

2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 2031 2032 2033 Levered FCF (, Millions) 105.8m 104.6m 103.9m 103.5m 103.3m 103.3m 103.4m 103.6m 103.8m 104.1m Growth Rate Estimate Source Est @ -1.77% Est @ -1.14% Est @ -0.69% Est @ -0.38% Est @ -0.16% Est @ -0.01% Est @ 0.10% Est @ 0.18% Est @ 0.23% Est @ 0.26% Present Value (, Millions) Discounted @ 4.4% 101 96.0 91.4 87.3 83.5 80.0 76.8 73.7 70.8 68.0

("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St)

Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF) = 829m

Story continues

After calculating the present value of future cash flows in the initial 10-year period, we need to calculate the Terminal Value, which accounts for all future cash flows beyond the first stage. The Gordon Growth formula is used to calculate Terminal Value at a future annual growth rate equal to the 5-year average of the 10-year government bond yield of 0.4%. We discount the terminal cash flows to today's value at a cost of equity of 4.4%.

Terminal Value (TV)= FCF 2033  (1 + g)  (r  g) = 104m (1 + 0.4%)  (4.4% 0.4%) = 2.6b

Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= 2.6b ( 1 + 4.4%)10= 1.7b

The total value, or equity value, is then the sum of the present value of the future cash flows, which in this case is 2.5b. To get the intrinsic value per share, we divide this by the total number of shares outstanding. Compared to the current share price of 85.5, the company appears around fair value at the time of writing. The assumptions in any calculation have a big impact on the valuation, so it is better to view this as a rough estimate, not precise down to the last cent.

dcf

Important Assumptions

Now the most important inputs to a discounted cash flow are the discount rate, and of course, the actual cash flows. If you don't agree with these result, have a go at the calculation yourself and play with the assumptions. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at Lechwerke 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 4.4%, which is based on a levered beta of 0.800. Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility, compared to the market as a whole. We get our beta from the industry average beta of globally comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business.

SWOT Analysis for Lechwerke

Strength

Earnings growth over the past year exceeded the industry.

Currently debt free.

Weakness

Dividend is low compared to the top 25% of dividend payers in the Electric Utilities market.

Current share price is above our estimate of fair value.

Opportunity

LEC's financial characteristics indicate limited near-term opportunities for shareholders.

Lack of analyst coverage makes it difficult to determine LEC's earnings prospects.

Threat

Dividends are not covered by earnings.

Moving On:

Valuation is only one side of the coin in terms of building your investment thesis, and it is only one of many factors that you need to assess for a company. It's not possible to obtain a foolproof valuation with a DCF model. Instead the best use for a DCF model is to test certain assumptions and theories to see if they would lead to the company being undervalued or overvalued. 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 Lechwerke, there are three further items you should explore:

Risks: Case in point, we've spotted 2 warning signs for Lechwerke you should be aware of, and 1 of them makes us a bit uncomfortable. 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! Other Top Analyst Picks: Interested to see what the analysts are thinking? Take a look at our interactive list of analysts' top stock picks to find out what they feel might have an attractive future outlook!

PS. Simply Wall St updates its DCF calculation for every German 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.
Key Insights

Using the 2 Stage Free Cash Flow to Equity, Wellcall Holdings Berhad fair value estimate is RM1.75

Current share price of RM1.56 suggests Wellcall Holdings Berhad is potentially trading close to its fair value

Analyst price target for WELLCAL is RM1.64 which is 6.6% below our fair value estimate

Today we'll do a simple run through of a valuation method used to estimate the attractiveness of Wellcall Holdings Berhad (KLSE:WELLCAL) as an investment opportunity by taking the expected future cash flows and discounting them to their present value. This will be done using the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model. It may sound complicated, but actually it is quite simple!

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.

See our latest analysis for Wellcall Holdings Berhad

The Method

We're using the 2-stage growth model, which simply means we take in account two stages of company's growth. In the initial period the company may have a higher growth rate and the second stage is usually assumed to have a stable growth rate. To begin with, we have to get estimates of the next ten years of cash flows. Seeing as no analyst estimates of free cash flow are available to us, we have extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the company's last reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years.

A DCF is all about the idea that a dollar in the future is less valuable than a dollar today, so we discount the value of these future cash flows to their estimated value in today's dollars:

Story continues

10-year free cash flow (FCF) estimate

2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 2031 2032 2033 Levered FCF (MYR, Millions) RM53.6m RM57.4m RM60.9m RM64.2m RM67.3m RM70.2m RM73.2m RM76.1m RM79.0m RM82.0m Growth Rate Estimate Source Est @ 8.76% Est @ 7.20% Est @ 6.11% Est @ 5.34% Est @ 4.80% Est @ 4.43% Est @ 4.16% Est @ 3.98% Est @ 3.85% Est @ 3.76% Present Value (MYR, Millions) Discounted @ 10% RM48.6 RM47.2 RM45.4 RM43.4 RM41.2 RM39.0 RM36.9 RM34.7 RM32.7 RM30.8

("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St)

Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF) = RM400m

The second stage is also known as Terminal Value, this is the business's cash flow after the first stage. The Gordon Growth formula is used to calculate Terminal Value at a future annual growth rate equal to the 5-year average of the 10-year government bond yield of 3.6%. We discount the terminal cash flows to today's value at a cost of equity of 10%.

Terminal Value (TV)= FCF 2033  (1 + g)  (r  g) = RM82m (1 + 3.6%)  (10% 3.6%) = RM1.3b

Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= RM1.3b ( 1 + 10%)10= RM473m

The total value, or equity value, is then the sum of the present value of the future cash flows, which in this case is RM873m. The last step is to then divide the equity value by the number of shares outstanding. Relative to the current share price of RM1.6, the company appears about fair value at a 11% discount to where the stock price trades currently. The assumptions in any calculation have a big impact on the valuation, so it is better to view this as a rough estimate, not precise down to the last cent.

dcf

Important Assumptions

Now the most important inputs to a discounted cash flow are the discount rate, and of course, the actual cash flows. If you don't agree with these result, have a go at the calculation yourself and play with the assumptions. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at Wellcall Holdings Berhad as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 10%, which is based on a levered beta of 0.989. 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 Wellcall Holdings Berhad

Strength

Earnings growth over the past year exceeded the industry.

Currently debt free.

Dividends are covered by earnings and cash flows.

Weakness

Dividend is low compared to the top 25% of dividend payers in the Machinery market.

Opportunity

Annual earnings are forecast to grow for the next 3 years.

Current share price is below our estimate of fair value.

Threat

Annual earnings are forecast to grow slower than the Malaysian market.

Next Steps:

Whilst important, the DCF calculation ideally won't be the sole piece of analysis you scrutinize for a company. It's not possible to obtain a foolproof valuation with a DCF model. Instead the best use for a DCF model is to test certain assumptions and theories to see if they would lead to the company being undervalued or overvalued. If a company grows at a different rate, or if its cost of equity or risk free rate changes sharply, the output can look very different. For Wellcall Holdings Berhad, there are three additional aspects you should look at:

Risks: For instance, we've identified 1 warning sign for Wellcall Holdings Berhad that you should be aware of. Future Earnings: How does WELLCAL's growth rate compare to its peers and the wider market? Dig deeper into the analyst consensus number for the upcoming years by interacting with our free analyst growth expectation chart. Other High Quality Alternatives: Do you like a good all-rounder? Explore our interactive list of high quality stocks to get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing!

PS. Simply Wall St updates its DCF calculation for every Malaysian stock every day, so if you want to find the intrinsic value of any other stock just search here.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
Fremont, California--(Newsfile Corp. - October 27, 2023) - Enablence Technologies, (TSXV: ENA) a leading provider of photonic semiconductors for data center, telecom, automotive, and industrial automation applications announced a new series of low loss, low power, Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) optical devices. The new Gaussian and Flattop optical DWDM devices enable data centers' interconnectivity to optimize bandwidth and data traffic across much longer distances. This makes them especially useful for mission-critical networks. The new DWDM devices comply with Telcordia GR-1221-CORE.

DWDM is a form of wavelength division multiplexing designed to afford organizations more flexibility and cost benefits in solving increased network bandwidth capacity requirements. Enablence's new devices support high channel density within the 1525 to 1565 nm C-Band spectrum. As result, the new devices can transmit large quantities of data through a single fiber. This enables more wavelengths to be packed onto the same fiber. These low-loss devices support the temperature range of -40C to +85C (-40F to +185F).

Enablence's new DWDM devices extend signal quality over longer distances and lengthen data rates by densely packing data streams at different wavelengths. By using optical amplifiers, Enablence's DWDM family of devices also enable the transport of higher amounts of data up to thousands of kilometers. DWDM plays a significant role in the convergence of the metro, wireless, and DCI networks across both telecom and data center service providers.

"Demand for optical networking solutions is exploding, and data centers in particular are turning to DWDM photonics devices as one of a handful of solutions to meet their immediate and growing need for increased bandwidth and distance," commented Todd Haugen, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Enablence. "Our DWDM roll out follows the release of a new family of CWDM devices both based on proven planar lightwave circuit (PLC) technologies and all of which supports our strategic plan to expand our photonics roadmap to capitalize on immediate and longer-term growth opportunities in datacom, telecom and LiDAR markets."

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About the New DWDM Mux/Demux Devices

Based on PLC technologies, the DWDM optical devices are low insertion loss and unpowered devices. They are used in applications within and between data centers, front and back haul of wireless communications, and edge network of the telecom service providers. Enablence offers the DWDM devices in different grid pitches and mechanical footprints. The devices are also available in both curved-cut format or rectangular-cut format. Optical performance is based on the 85/85 Damp Heat and other common industry standards. For pricing and availability email technical sales at sales-ENA@enablence.com.

About Enablence

Enablence Technologies Inc. is a publicly traded company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV: ENA). The Company designs, manufactures, and sells optical components, primarily in the form of planar light wave circuits (PLC) and LiDAR technologies on silicon-based chips. Enablence products support a broad range of customers in the multi-billion, datacenter, telecom, automotive, and industrial automation industries. Enablence operates a wafer fab in Fremont, California with design centers in Canada and China supported by sales and marketing operations worldwide. For more information contact sales-ENA@enablence.com.

# # #

For more information contact:

Media and Market Analysts

Alison Parnell

Hill & Kincaid Marketing & PR

Press@hillandkincaid.com

Investor Relations

Ali Mahdavi, Capital Markets & Investor Relations

am@spinnakercmi.com

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains forward-looking statements regarding the Company based on current expectations and assumptions of management, which involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties associated with our business and the economic environment in which the business operates. All such statements are forward-looking statements under applicable Canadian securities legislation. Any statements contained herein that are not statements of historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. By their nature, forward-looking statements require us to make assumptions and are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties. These statements are based on current expectations that involve several risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ from those anticipated. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements contained in this news release, and the assumptions on which such forward-looking statements are made, are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. We caution our readers of this news release not to place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements as several factors could cause actual results or conditions to differ materially from current expectations. Additional information on these and other factors that could affect the Company's operations are set forth in the Company's continuous disclosure documents that can be found on SEDAR ( www.sedarpluc.ca ) under Enablence's issuer profile. Enablence does not intend, and disclaims any obligation, except as required by law, to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether because of new information, future events or otherwise.

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. No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/185424
As mortgage rates continue to soar, the real estate market in North Jersey continued to see a decrease in new home listings and an increase in median listing prices in September.

Nationally, the average mortgage rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage has surpassed 8%, and New Jersey accounted for just 8,100 of the total 357,956 new home listings last month across the country.

How much has North Jersey's inventory declined from last year?

According to housing data from Realtor.com for September, all of New Jersey's 21 counties experienced a decline in new home listings compared with September 2022.

North Jersey's five counties, Bergen, Passaic, Morris, Essex and Sussex, as well as Hudson County, all experienced a more than 10% decrease in new home listings.

Bergen and Passaic counties had the greatest decline in new listings, down 25.82% and 24.18%, respectively.

Essex and Sussex counties experienced a similar drop, at 18.88% and 18.08%. Hudson county had a 14.51% decrease in new inventory, while Morris County had the smallest decline in North Jersey at 11.46%.

A house with a "for sale" sign in front of it.

How long are homes staying on the market?

Active home listings have also stayed on the market for a shorter period for all of these counties, compared with the same time last year.

In Bergen and Sussex counties, properties stay on the market for a median of 40 days  the longest in North Jersey. In comparison, listings stay on the market for the shortest time in Morris County, at a median of 33 days.

Listings are typically active for 39 days in Hudson County, 37 days in Passaic County and 36 days in Essex County.

What about median listing prices?

Median listings prices have also continued to rise across North Jersey.

Bergen County and Morris County both had the highest listing increases  16.8% and 13.8%  and the highest median listing prices  $788,389 and $697,000.

Listing prices increased by just over 9% in Passaic ($479,000), Essex ($513,000) and Hudson ($618,450) counties. In Sussex, prices increased the least, at 4%, for a median listing price of $385,000.

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Here's how all 21 New Jersey counties stacked up in September:

Maddie McGay is the real estate reporter for NorthJersey.com and The Record, covering all things worth celebrating about living in North Jersey. Find her on Instagram @maddiemcgay , on X @maddiemcgayy , and sign up for her North Jersey Living newsletter. Do you have a tip, trend or terrific house she should know about? Email her at MMcGay@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ real estate: New home listings declining in North Jersey
BEIJING, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- This is a report from China Daily:

International reporters and internet influencers were captivated by Jingdezhen's profound ceramic culture during the recent Hi Jiangxi media tour.

A group photo of the 2023 Hi Jiangxi media tour, which took place in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province, on Oct 16-18.

The Oct 16-18 tour in Jingdezhen of East China's Jiangxi province was attended by representatives from countries and regions including the United Kingdom, Turkyie, Vietnam and Africa.

"This is my first time to come to Jingdezhen. The city is amazing and interesting and the view is also magnificent," said Mouhamed Diouf, a reporter for the Africasia Media Group and a member of China Storyteller Partnerships.

The tour visited a number of museums in China's "porcelain capital", including the Jingdezhen China Ceramics Museum, the Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Museum, the Jingdezhen Heritage of Ceramic Industry Museum, Sanbao International Ceramic Art Village Museum and Hutian Ceramic Art Museum, to learn about the ceramic history and development of the city.

Mohamed Jihad, an English-Chinese bilingual presenter from Egypt, said he was impressed by the culture of relics at the Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Museum.

"It is amazing to see the wisdom of ancient people shown in the cultural relics; I think ceramics are not just everyday objects or artworks, but a symbol of Chinese civilization's sensitive role in the development of the ancient Silk Road," he said.

"The ceramic industry in Jingdezhen is very prosperous. There are more trade opportunities between China and Egypt due to the Belt and Road Initiative, and I hope the city can produce more ceramic products to export to my country," he added.

The tour also witnessed production of porcelain at the Hutian Ceramic Art Museum.

"Seeing how the factories make the porcelain and porcelain materials is wonderful, and realizing it is locally sourced is so impressive," said Ahamed Sabbir, a reporter for BDTone24.com and a member of China Storyteller Partnerships.

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In addition to museums, cultural and creative zones in Jingdezhen such as Taoxichuan Ceramic Art Avenue and Taoyangli Imperial Kiln historical block brought new experiences of porcelain to the media tour.

"This is my second time visiting this wonderful city. What impresses me most about this place is the culture and its history in China's civilization," said Tobias Symonds, a TikTok influencer from the United Kingdom. "It's wonderful and amazing that the tradition of ceramics and porcelain has been maintained for centuries and that we see young people involved in it today. It is very beautiful."

Members of the tour also participated in the 2023 China Jingdezhen International Ceramic Expo.

"Jingdezhen is a beautiful porcelain city because of its rich ceramic culture, and I'm really happy to be here to explore that beauty," said Neslihan Kilavuz, a YouTube hostess from Turkyie.

Organized by China Daily and the publicity department of Jiangxi province, the Hi Jiangxi media tour invited foreigners to visit Jingdezhen to learn about the historical city's culture as well as its achievements on the Chinese path to modernization.

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SOURCE China Daily
Abbas Ganbay

Vivek Ramaswamy, who did not know what he was thinking and even lost his self-control while talking about Armenia, confused the world map and turned himself into a laughing stock. Perhaps it would not be surprising for an ordinary person to do this. But such illiteracy of a candidate who wants to lead America can even be considered the greatest tragedy in American history.

It can also be said that Ramaswamy, of Indian origin, momentarily lost himself from the Armenian euphoria. However, it is difficult to call this true love or some kind of effect of the bribe he received for the next of his unprofessionally prepared campaign against Azerbaijan.

Having no proper knowledge of the history of the Caucasus, he has the audacity to accuse Azerbaijan of supporting the separatist views of the Hay (Armenians). Taking advantage of the popularity and illiteracy of the part of the American population that supports him, pro-Armenian Ramaswamy, using the cover and support of the Armenian Diaspora, groundlessly condemns Azerbaijan over the so-called ethnic cleansing against Armenians in Garabagh, and opposes U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan in a talk held at the Hudson Institute.

The United States of America, experiencing cataclysms, economic and social decline of population, derailment of a dozen (as if by accident) trains with food and chemical waste spills, critical percentages of mass murders for 2023 to the mark of more than 500 cases, hundreds of fires at socially and nationally important factories, the national debt has reached the mark of 33 trillion dollars, and yet there is someone who will take up the problems of Armenians and baselessly condemn Azerbaijan.

The candidate himself, while playing to the public with President Trump's words about the "deep state" that he needs to end and prevent the start of World War 3, conducted interviews with noted "conspiracy theorist" Ales Jones to keep the masses in the same ignorance as Jones once did on his InfoWars channel. So why does candidate Vivek, while preaching and promising like America's 45th President to drain the swamp of the deep state, find time to promote a false story about Martian Armenians settling the Earth and condemn Azerbaijan? Maybe the candidate and the Hays are united by India?

According to British expert and journalist Neil Watson, who made a comment for AZERNEWS, there are several reasons explaining the anti-Azerbaijani bias of the candidate. First of all, the British journalist noted that Ramaswamy represents the American dream, where he became a billionaire as the son of immigrants.

"He desperately wants to attract to support his presidential campaign the wealthy, vocal, and politically active Armenian-American diaspora, which is one of the most active supporters of the illegal Armenian occupation of Garabagh and seven surrounding territories. Second, it is of South Indian Hindu origin. Historically, Soviet influence in India was significant, and so he has a natural predisposition to an Armenian point of view. In addition, there are parallels between the Kashmir and Garabagh issues, with India supporting Armenia, while Pakistan unequivocally supports Azerbaijan and does not even recognise Armenia's independence," the expert said.

Another issue that binds the candidate, according to the journalist, is that as a young man, Ramaswamy was immersed in the machinations of the American religious right, most of whom support the Republican Party, and so it is a win-win for a presidential candidate to support a Christian country against what is classified as an Islamic country, which largely supports the victim mentality of Armenia.

According to Watson, the years-long PR campaign deployed by the Armenian diaspora, especially in the U.S. and France, has contributed to making only the Armenian voice heard in political circles.

"However, until it is proven that any laws have been violated, nothing can be done to stop it. Moreover, European politicians and media are overwhelmingly anti-Islamic and Turkophobic. Azerbaijan should develop an effective lobbying strategy in all countries and international organisations so that its rightful position is understood and heard," the journalist added.

The ongoing pro-Armenian statements of politicians in most of the countries of the "Crusader" powers have increased in great progression. After Azerbaijan achieved justice on its territory by conducting a successful anti-terrorist action in eradicating separatists from Garabagh, false statements and condemnations of Baku in political circles continued unabated, and this can be traced back to Ramaswamy's talk at the Hudson Institute.

In a conversation with Michael Doran of the Hudson Institute, described as "the most ardent supporter of Azerbaijan in Washington," Ramaswamy made the misfire of referring to Garabagh as part of Armenia, calling it "Nagorno-Karabakh" where he was immediately corrected by Michael Doran that the candidate may not believe and check it out on Google Map that Garabagh is Azerbaijan, and this has been confirmed by the world community, as has the Prime Minister of Armenia, and is important to know for the education of America's population.

"In addition to wanting to garner political support and deeply held personal beliefs based on his background, I am sure Ramaswamy is pursuing his own interests. He wants to enlist the support of Armenian industrialists as well as their Jewish and conservative Christian counterparts for his next biotech venture. Ramaswamy worships money, and that's basically his only motivation." British expert Neil Watson added in conclusion.

It is important to add information linking Armenians to India. Any aggression, ethnic cleansing, or annexation policy has a serious ideological justification and, of course, structures.

According to official information, the first Armenian-language newspaper was published on October 16, 1794, in Madras, India. This day is National Press Day in modern Armenia. It must have surprised many people that the first Armenian newspaper was published in India. The largest Armenian community at that time lived exactly in India, mainly in Madras. It can be assumed that if Armenian society continues with this kind of mentality, they can claim territory in India in the next hundreds of years.
(Bloomberg) -- In the race to rebound from a two-year slowdown in spending on cloud computing, Microsoft Corp. is pulling ahead of its chief rivals, Amazon.com Inc. and Google.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Microsofts Azure cloud business posted 29% sales growth in the September quarter, faster than analysts estimated, in part because of corporate customers interest in new artificial intelligence products. In its own report the same day earlier this week, for the same period, Google parent Alphabet Inc. struck a more subdued tone, saying that cloud clients are still in cost-cutting mode. And on Thursday, Amazon.com Inc.s cloud-revenue picture was mixed, with sales slightly less than projected and operating income ahead of analysts predictions. Microsoft  which is No. 2 in the market, behind Amazon but ahead of Google  noted that it took cloud market share from competitors, but didnt say which.After a spree of investment during the pandemic, businesses spent much of 2022 and 2023 in what the biggest software companies euphemistically called optimization  making better use of stuff theyre already paying for and looking for places where they can save. That has meant the biggest cloud providers are vying to land big contracts in a more challenging environment, leading them to look for ways to entice businesses, including by offering to incorporate the latest artificial intelligence-based products that promise to boost efficiency.

The world is going to be driven by workloads accelerating into the cloud, said Stefan Slowinski, an analyst at BNP Paribass Exane. CEOs make that decision based on gut, and right now theyre still being cautious.

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New interest in developing and running AI applications has almost certainly influenced recent corporate decisions about which cloud partner to sign with. Microsoft offers ways to work with a number of AI tools, and has gained a reputation as a leader in the burgeoning space because of its partnership with OpenAI, which makes the popular ChatGPT program for generating content. That alliance helped fuel new customer growth, Microsoft said  a service called Azure OpenAI, which lets Microsofts cloud customers use the startups technology for their own applications, attracted more than 18,000 customers, up from 11,000. Microsoft has also invested $13 billion in OpenAI and serves as its cloud provider, so that firms increasing need for computing power also benefits Microsoft.Amazon, for its part, is trying to appeal to clients with a menu of different options, as well as a partnership with AI developer Anthropic, which makes the Claude chatbot. Alphabet Inc.-owned Google says it is a popular choice among big companies and AI startups alike, with CEO Sundar Pichai saying on a conference call that more than 60% of the worlds 1,000 largest companies are Google cloud customers, as well as more than half of all funded generative AI startups.

Amazon Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy told analysts on the e-commerce giants conference call Thursday that generative AI represents an opportunity worth tens of billions of dollars for Amazon Web Services, the companys cloud unit, which he ran in his prior role. AWS revenue growth came in at 12%, about the same pace as the previous quarter. But operating income was about $1.3 billion ahead of analyst expectations, pushing operating margin for the cloud unit  which tends to account for all of the companys profit  to the highest level since the first quarter of 2022.

On a conference call with reporters, Amazon Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said that some companies are still working on optimization, but the pace has started to slow down. Some businesses were making new commitments to AWS, or resuming projects that had been paused earlier, he said. On a later call with analysts, the company said several new deals with customers were signed late in the third quarter and wont show up as revenue until the current period. The comments helped push Amazon shares higher in late trading Thursday.At Microsoft, the 29% jump in sales from Azure cloud services outpaced the 26% growth for in the previous quarter, sending the companys stock higher in New York trading the next day. CFO Amy Hood said that while the optimization trends were similar to the previous quarters, consumption  a measure of the amount of Azure services used  was better than expected, and the company saw growth in the number of contracts worth more than $10 million for both Azure and Office cloud services.

Googles cloud unit, which includes both of the types of infrastructure services that are part of AWS and Azure and adds in results from productivity software, saw growth rise 22% in the quarter from a year earlier. Thats a deceleration from the previous quarters growth. Sales for the unit were $8.4 billion, falling short of Wall Street projections of $8.6 billion. Profit also came in short of estimates. Alphabet President Ruth Porat said in an interview that the units sales had been affected by some customers belt-tightening. The shares fell 9.5% the following day, their biggest decline since March 2020.

Cloud computing is a much lumpier business than advertising, and one where Google is facing stiff competition, said Max Willens of Insider Intelligence. While the traction it has among AI startups may bear fruit in the long run, it is not currently helping Google Cloud enough to satisfy investors.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
HONG KONG, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Mirae Asset Global Investments (Hong Kong) Limited (the "Company" or "Mirae Asset") is pleased to announce that, Global X Hang Seng Tech ETF (2837), the first eligible ETF under the Company will participate in the ETF Connect Scheme (the "Scheme") on November 6, 2023. This marks a significant milestone as the Company will be the first Korean asset manager to tap into the mainland China market through the Scheme thus reinforcing its global presence and its commitment to the mainland China market.

(PRNewsfoto/Mirae Asset Global Investments (Hong Kong) Limited)

The Scheme announced by the China Securities Regulatory Commission and the Securities and Futures Commission on May 27, 2022, serves to further deepen the interaction and integration of the two capital markets of mainland China and Hong Kong, offer more diverse investor choices and promote liquidity as well as sustainable development in both of the ETF markets.

Global X Hang Seng Tech ETF (2837) as Mirae Asset's first ETF participated in the Scheme, showcases the company's commitment to innovation and expanding its global ETF capabilities. Mirae Asset's entry as the first Korean manager illustrates its pioneering spirit and determination to seize new opportunities.

Mr. Wanyoun CHO, Chief Executive Officer of Mirae Asset Global Investments (Hong Kong) Limited, said "We are delighted to be the first Korean Asset Manager to participate in the Scheme, opening doors to the vast China market. This achievement underscores our unwavering commitment to delivering intelligent and innovative investment opportunities and reinforces our position as a leading global asset manager. The Company remains dedicated to offering investors with innovative investment solutions and upholding its position as a trusted partner in achieving their financial goals.

About Mirae Asset Global Investments Group

Mirae Asset Global Investments Group (the "Group") is an asset management organization with over US$214 billion in assets under management as of June 30, 2023. The organization provides a diverse range of investment products including mutual funds, exchange-traded funds ("ETFs"), and alternatives. Operating out of 20 offices worldwide, the group has a global team of more than 1,000 employees, including more than 300 investment professionals. [ Source: Mirae Asset, March, 2023.]

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The Group's global ETF platform features a line-up of 530 ETFs that offer investors high-quality and cost-efficient exposure to newly emerging investment themes and disruptive technologies in the global markets. As of June 2023, the group's ETFs had combined assets under management of US$100 billion and are listed in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, the United Kingdom, and the United States. [ Source: Mirae Asset, July, 2023.]

About Global X ETFs

Global X ETFs was founded in 2008. For more than a decade, our mission has been empowering investors with unexplored and intelligent solutions. Our product line-up features over 230 ETF strategies and over US$49 billion in assets under management. While we are distinguished for our Thematic Growth, Income, and International Access ETFs, we also offer Core, Commodity, and Alpha funds to suit a wide range of investment objectives. Global X is a member of Mirae Asset Financial Group, a global leader in financial services, has a presence in 18 Global markets and the group's managed assets worldwide exceed US$565bn Total AUM. [ Source: Mirae Asset, June, 2023.]

Global X Hang Seng Tech ETF (2837) (the "ETF")

The ETF tracks the Hang Seng TECH index which represents the 30 largest technology companies listed in Hong Kong that have high business exposure to technology themes and pass the index's screening criteria. It targets those with high business exposure to the selected themes, such as Cloud, Digital, e-commerce, FinTech, Internet and autonomous activities.

Mirae Asset Global Investments (Hong Kong): https://www.am.miraeasset.com.hk/

Global X ETFs Hong Kong: https://www.globalxetfs.com.hk/

Important Information

Investors should not base investment decisions on this document alone. Please refer to the Prospectus for details including product features and the risk factors. Investment involves risks. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. There is no guarantee of the repayment of the principal. Investors should note:

Global X Hang Seng TECH ETF (the "Fund") seeks to provide investment results that, before deduction of fees and expenses, closely correspond to the performance of the Hang Seng TECH Index (the "Index").

The Fund's investments are concentrated in companies with a technology theme. Technology companies are often characterised by relatively higher volatility in price performance. Companies in the technology sector also face intense competition, and there may also be substantial government intervention, which may have an adverse effect on profit margins. These companies are also subject to the risks of loss or impairment of intellectual property rights or licences, cyber security risks resulting in undesirable legal, financial, operational and reputational consequences.

The Fund's investments are concentrated in securities listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (the "SEHK") of companies that are active in technology sector may result in greater volatility in the value of the Fund than more diverse portfolios which comprise broad-based global investments. The value of the Fund may be more susceptible to adverse economic, political, policy, foreign exchange, liquidity, tax, legal or regulatory event affecting the technology sector.

The Index is subject to concentration risk as a result of tracking the performance of securities incorporated in, or with majority of revenue derived from, or with a principal place of business in, the Greater China region. The Fund's NAV is therefore likely to be more volatile than a broad-based fund.

As part of the securities lending transactions, there is a risk of shortfall of collateral value due to inaccurate pricing of the securities lent or change of value of securities lent. This may cause significant losses to the Fund. The borrower may fail to return the securities in a timely manner or at all. The Fund may suffer from a loss or delay when recovering the securities lent out. This may restrict the Fund's ability in meeting delivery or payment obligations from realisation requests.

The trading price of the Fund unit (the "Unit") on the SEHK is driven by market factors such as demand and supply of the Unit. Therefore, the Units may trade at a substantial premium or discount to the Fund's net asset value.

Dividends may be paid from capital or effectively out of capital of the Fund, which may amount to a return or withdrawal of part of an investor's original investment or from any capital gains attributable to that original investment and result in an immediate reduction in the Net Asset Value per Unit of the Fund.

Disclaimer

This document is for Hong Kong investors only. This document is provided for information and illustrative purposes and is intended for your use only. It is not a solicitation, offer or recommendation to buy or sell any security or other financial instrument. The information contained in this document has been provided as a general market commentary only and does not constitute any form of regulated financial advice, legal, tax or other regulated services.

Certain of the statements contained in this document are statements of future expectations and other forward-looking statements. Views, opinions and estimates may change without notice and are based on a number of assumptions which may or may not eventuate or prove to be accurate. Actual results, performance or events may differ materially from those in such statements.

Investment involves risk. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. It cannot be guaranteed that the performance of the Funds will generate a return and there may be circumstances where no return is generated or the amount invested is lost. It may not be suitable for persons unfamiliar with the underlying securities or who are unwilling or unable to bear the risk of loss and ownership of such investment. Before making any investment decision, investors should read the Prospectus for details and the risk factors. Investors should ensure they fully understand the risks associated with the Funds and should also consider their own investment objective and risk tolerance level. Investors are advised to seek independent professional advice before making any investment.

Information and opinions presented in this document have been obtained or derived from sources which in the opinion of Mirae Asset Global Investments (Hong Kong) Limited ("MAGIHK") are reliable, but we make no representation as to their accuracy or completeness. We accept no liability for a loss arising from the use of this document.

Products, services and information may not be available in your jurisdiction and may be offered by affiliates, subsidiaries and/or distributors of MAGIHK as stipulated by local laws and regulations. This document is not directed to any person in any jurisdiction where the availability of this document is prohibited. Persons in respect of whom such prohibitions apply or persons other than those specified above must not access this document. It is your responsibility to be aware of and to observe all applicable laws and regulations of any relevant jurisdiction. Please consult with your professional adviser for further information on the availability of products and services within your jurisdiction.

This document is issued by MAGIHK (Licensed by the Securities and Futures Commission for Types 1, 4 and 9 regulated activities under the Securities and Futures Ordinance). This document has not been reviewed by the Securities and Futures Commission or the applicable regulator in the jurisdiction in which this article is posted and no part of this publication may be reproduced in any form, or referred to in any other publication, without express written permission of MAGIHK.

Copyright  2023 Mirae Asset Global Investments. All rights reserved.

Cision

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SOURCE Mirae Asset Global Investments (Hong Kong) Limited
DHAKA, Bangladesh, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Nagad Digital Bank Ltd. has secured the much-awaited permission from the Bangladesh Bank (BB) to launch its operation, thus getting a shot in the arm to take digital financial transactions to a new high.

On 22 October 2023, the central bank gave its seal of approval to two out of 52 applicants to set up the country's first-ever digital bank.

Later, on 25 October, Bangladesh Bank Governor Abdur Rouf Talukdar handed over the approval letter to Tanvir A Mishuk, founder and managing director of Nagad Ltd., at the governor's office.

At that time, Abdur Rouf Talukdar extended his heartfelt wishes for Nagad Digital Bank Ltd. and hoped for its continued success.

Among others, BB Deputy Governor Abu Farah Md. Nasser, BB Director (BRPD) Mohammad Shahriar Siddiqui, Additional Director (BRPD) Md Monirul Islam, and Executive Director of Nagad Ltd. Niaz Morshed Elite were present there.

Nagad, the world's fastest-growing mobile financial service provider based in Bangladesh, has rapidly amassed a substantial customer base and claimed a notable market share through its innovative products and services.

With the trust of over 85 million customers, Nagad has spearheaded transformative advancements in mobile financial services, fostering healthy market competition to the benefit of consumers. Notably, this state-owned MFS operator also earned recognition from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for becoming the fastest-growing unicorn in the country.

Over the past three years, Nagad diligently pursued regulators for permission to introduce digital banking services in Bangladesh. With the green light from the Bangladesh Bank, Nagad Digital Bank Ltd. has already started its preparation to take banking services to people's doorsteps. For example, it has developed AI-based credit rating system to assess its customers' creditworthiness and loan them quickly.

Tanvir A Mishuk, founder and managing director of Nagad Ltd., said, "Today, we have received approval from the Bangladesh Bank to establish the country's first digital bank. Nagad Digital Bank Ltd. aims to serve those who face challenges visiting traditional banks for various reasons. We will bring banking services to people's fingertips. This exemplifies another facet of financial inclusion for our nation. We aspire to provide single-digit loans to individuals outside conventional business sectors without collateral requirements. Furthermore, alongside introducing small savings schemes, the digital bank will address the day-to-day needs of common people. This endeavour will pave the way for an even more accessible journey towards a Smart Bangladesh."

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Tanvir A Mishuk also emphasised that Nagad Digital Bank will promptly start its services on completion of all formalities and necessary preparations.

About Nagad Ltd (https://www.nagad.com.bd/)

Nagad Limited is one of the leading MFS operators in Bangladesh's payment industry with 85 million registered customers and an average daily transaction of about USD 112 million. The digital payment platform, known as a successful public-private partnership between Bangladesh Postal Department and the private sector, was inaugurated in 2019 by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of the people's republic of Bangladesh.

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SOURCE Nagad Limited
(Bloomberg) -- NatWest Group Plc said there were serious failings in its treatment of the Brexit campaigner-turned-television presenter Nigel Farage, including how it handled his confidential information, as the months-long debanking saga continues to dent its reputation.

Most Read from Bloomberg

The lender said it would make a number of changes to its policies and procedures around exiting clients and will disclose its decision on whether it will cut the pay of former Chief Executive Officer Alison Rose as soon as possible, according to a statement released alongside its third-quarter results on Friday.

This report sets out a number of serious failings in the treatment of Mr. Farage, Chairman Howard Davies said in the statement. The findings set out clear shortcomings in how it was reached as well as failures in how we communicated with him and in relation to client confidentiality.

The report, while finding that the decision to debank Farage was lawful, set out a litany of problems and is set to increase the scrutiny of the bank just as its latest set of results underlined the intensifying competition it faces in the UK deposit market, which sent its shares tumbling.

The Financial Conduct Authority said on Friday it is scrutinizing the firms governance, systems and controls. And earlier this week, it was revealed that the UKs Information Commissioners Office has concluded that Rose breached data protection laws when she discussed the closure of Farages bank account with a reporter.

In an emailed statement, Rose said NatWests report by law firm Travers Smith showed everything she had told the board in July was correct and that she only confirmed to a journalist what was already widely reported. She also pointed to the ICOs view that the impact of her disclosure was minimal.

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Travers Smith is clear that there was no leak of specific detailed financial information, she added in the statement. Travers Smith also confirmed I knew nothing about the comments made by Coutts staff about Mr. Farage, which were deeply unpleasant and unfair.

Farage described the report as a whitewash in a separate statement. The Travers Smith report is inconclusive and ignores the elephant in the room, he said. What really matters now is the next steps that the ICO takes and, perhaps more importantly, what the FCA, the regulator of this industry, does about this scandal.

The banks findings arose as part of an independent review conducted by Travers Smith into its decision to close Farages accounts and the circumstances surrounding a potential breach of confidentiality by Rose relating to his customer information. While the review confirmed the lawful basis for the exit decision, it said the bank had failed to treat Farage fairly.

Rose left NatWest by mutual consent in late July after she apologized for speaking to a journalist about Farage following his complaint that the bank had written to him saying it was planning to close his account. The overall pay package potentially at stake is worth more than 10 million ($12.1 million) in pay and unvested shares, according to calculations by Bloomberg.

Key conclusions of the Travers Smith report include:

The exit decision  which Rose played no part in  was predominantly a commercial decision;

Coutts relationship with Farage was significantly loss-making and the NatWest unit also perceived Farage as a reputational risk because of his views on the environment, race, gender and migration, but this was not a driving factor in the decision;

The process to review Farages accounts was sparked by press reports in January 2022 relating to comments made by Farage about the Black Lives Matter movement, and in April 2022, relating to his alleged Russian links;

There was no evidence that Farages pro-Brexit stance or his party-political affiliations were factors in the decision to close his accounts;

Some of the tone and language in the Wealth Businesses Reputational Risk Committees submission seen by Farage was inappropriate and illadvised and could have given the impression that the decision was made on the basis of his views;

Confidential customer information concerning Farage was conveyed, whether expressly or impliedly, from Alison Rose to the BBC in early July although there was no leak of Farages detailed financial information.

The statement noted that a further review of other account closures at Coutts over the last two years by Travers Smith is still ongoing, with the findings expected later this year.

--With assistance from Anders Melin.

(Updates with comment from Alison Rose in paragraphs 6 and 7)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
By Scott DiSavino

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Oil prices climbed about 3% to a one-week high on Friday on worries that tensions in Israel and Gaza could spread into a wider conflict that could disrupt global crude supplies.

Brent futures rose $2.55, or 2.9%, to settle at $90.48 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose $2.33, or 2.8%, to settle at $85.54.

Brent's premium over WTI rose to its highest since March, making it more attractive for energy firms to send ships to the U.S. to pick up crude for export.

For the week, Brent was down about 2% and WTI down about 4%.

Trading was choppy. Early in the session, oil prices soared by more than $2 a barrel after the U.S military struck Iranian targets in Syria. Then prices briefly turned negative as markets digested various reports on mediation talks between the militant Hamas group and Israel led by Qatar in coordination with the U.S.

"We are at the mercy of the next headline ... and I think that's kind of what we've been seeing today with the price swings," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Price Futures Group.

"You'd like to be trading the fundamentals, but you really can't because you've got to be more worried about ... what's going to happen in the Middle East," Flynn said. "No one wants to be short over the weekend."

Israeli air and ground forces were stepping up operations in the Gaza Strip amid reports of heavy bombing of the besieged enclave.

A Hamas official, meanwhile, conditioned the release of hostages in Gaza on a ceasefire in Israel's bombardment of the Palestinian enclave, launched after a deadly Hamas rampage into southern Israel nearly three weeks ago.

Several countries, including many Arab states, have urged Israel to delay a planned ground invasion that would multiply civilian casualties and might ignite a wider conflict.

RED LINES

Middle East developments have so far not directly affected oil supplies, but many fear disruptions of exports from major crude producer and Hamas backer Iran and others.

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"(It) remains incredibly difficult even for the most knowledgeable regional watchers to make high conviction calls about the trajectory of the current crisis, as the red lines that could bring more players onto the battlefield remain largely indiscernible," RBC Capital analyst Helima Croft said.

Goldman Sachs analysts retained their first-quarter 2024 Brent crude price forecast at $95 a barrel but added that lower Iranian exports could cause baseline prices to rise by 5%.

Prospects for oil demand were uncertain.

U.S. consumer spending surged in September but was seen cooling off in early 2024. Some economists believe the U.S. Federal Reserve is done raising interest rates to fight inflation, which can slow economic growth and reduce oil demand.

But, economists told Reuters they expect high inflation will continue to dog the world economy next year.

(Reporting by Scott DiSavino in New York, Natalie Grover in London and Florence Tan and Sudarshan Varadhan in Singapore; Editing by David Evans, Kirsten Donovan, David Gregorio and Jonathan Oatis)
Peabody Energy Corp (BTUUQ) reported a net income of $119.9 million for Q3 2023, compared to $179.2 million in Q2 2023.

Adjusted EBITDA for Q3 2023 was $270.0 million, compared to $358.2 million in the prior quarter.

Company exceeded anticipated PRB volumes by 8 percent, shipping ~23 million tons in the quarter.

Peabody Energy Corp (BTUUQ) reached an agreement to acquire a large portion of the Wards Well coal deposit, extending the mine life of North Goonyella mine by over 20 years.

Peabody Energy Corp (BTUUQ) released its earnings report for the third quarter of 2023 on October 26, 2023. The company reported a net income attributable to common stockholders of $119.9 million, or $0.82 per diluted share, compared to $179.2 million, or $1.15 per diluted share in the second quarter. The company had an Adjusted EBITDA of $270.0 million in the third quarter of 2023 compared to $358.2 million in the prior quarter.

Financial Highlights





Peabody Energy Corp (BTUUQ) reported higher production levels at three of its four operating segments compared to the prior quarter. The company exceeded anticipated PRB volumes by 8 percent, shipping approximately 23 million tons in the quarter. The company also reported lower than anticipated costs per ton in three of its four operating segments during the quarter.

Peabody Energy Corp (BTUUQ) also reached an agreement to acquire a large portion of the Wards Well coal deposit, an underground premium hard coking coal resource immediately adjacent to its existing North Goonyella mine. This acquisition represents a strategic opportunity to extend the mine life of the North Goonyella mine by over 20 years.

Segment Performance





The seaborne thermal segment shipped 4.2 million tons, including 2.7 million export tons. The average realized export price was 29 percent lower than the prior quarter due to coal product mix and lower average seaborne thermal benchmark prices. The segment reported Adjusted EBITDA margins of 39 percent and Adjusted EBITDA of $115.5 million.

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The seaborne met segment shipped 1.5 million tons at an average realized price of $162.02 per ton. The segment reported Adjusted EBITDA margins of 32 percent and Adjusted EBITDA of $78.6 million.

The PRB segment shipped 22.7 million tons at an average realized price of $13.79 per ton. The segment reported Adjusted EBITDA margins of 17 percent and Adjusted EBITDA of $54.1 million.

The other U.S. thermal segment shipped 4.2 million tons at an average realized price of $53.89 per ton. The segment reported Adjusted EBITDA margins of 22 percent and Adjusted EBITDA of $49.1 million.

Shareholder Return Program





From the start of 2023 through October 20, 2023, the Company has returned $307.4 million to shareholders, including a fixed dividend of $20.7 million and share repurchases of $286.7 million. The Company has repurchased 13.4 million shares, or 9.3% of shares outstanding.

Peabody Energy Corp (BTUUQ) is a leading coal producer, providing essential products for the production of affordable, reliable energy and steel. The company's commitment to sustainability underpins everything it does and shapes its strategy for the future.

Explore the complete 8-K earnings release (here) from Peabody Energy Corp for further details.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.


Officials propose new Antarctic marine protected area but offer no new Southern Ocean protections

HOBART, Australia, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project today praised delegates from 26 nations and the European Union for marking progress toward harmonizing an updated krill fishery management plan with Southern Ocean protections along the Antarctic Peninsula.

Credit: John B. Weller

This conservation win came at the close of the 42nd annual meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), part of the Antarctic Treaty System and the governing body responsible for protecting Southern Ocean wildlife.

Taking another positive step toward enhancing protections for krill, CCAMLR renewed Conservation Measure 51-07, which distributes the annual krill catch into four different areas around the Antarctic Peninsula, while the Scientific Committee worked to harmonize the designation of the Antarctic Peninsula MPA (D1MPA) and implementation of an updated ecosystem-based krill fishery management approach, including by committing to hold a symposium in July 2024. Tethering these two krill conservation efforts allows CCAMLR to fulfill its mandate to prevent irreversible impacts on the Southern Ocean ecosystem from human activities such as fishing. Over the past decade, industrial krill fishing has become increasingly concentrated in areas along the Antarctic Peninsula, affecting predators that feed in those same areas. Harmonizing the updated krill management with the D1MPA designation will ensure the catch limits in some of the most important areas for krill predatorsincluding penguins, seals, and rebounding populations of Southern Ocean whalesare spread out in space and time, which will minimize negative impacts in those areas.

Andrea Kavanagh, director of the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project's Antarctic and Southern Ocean work, said:

"With the agreement to couple the designation of the MPA in the Antarctic Peninsula with updated krill fishery management, members will ensure that all of the critical services krill provide to the planet, including carbon sequestration, remain intact, and that krill remain at a healthy population level so that predators can too."

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More good news came with Norway's development and submission of a proposed Weddell Sea Phase 2 MPA that would cover areas in the region east of the prime meridian and complement a Phase 1 proposal, which spans areas in the western Weddell Sea. The new protections would cover approximately 720,000 sq km (278,000 square miles) and include two ecologically important areas: the Maud Rise and Astrid Ridge. This region is the source of nutrient upwellings that travel through currents to feed ocean life around the globe, as well as home to a large population of Antarctic krill that supports local populations of important predators such as penguins, petrels, and seals. Norway's Phase 2 proposal shows that CCAMLR members remain committed to establishing a representative network of MPAs around the continent.

Members also agreed to hold a transshipmenttransferring catch between vessels while at sea workshop in 2024 focused on changes needed to close loopholes in krill fishery management that could be masking illegal fishing.

Although there was incremental conservation progress, the meeting marked the eighth time in seven years that CCAMLR failed to designate any additional Southern Ocean MPAs.

Kavanagh added, "What's disappointing is the lack of action to establish the network of MPAs that CCAMLR committed to in 2011. We learned that 9,000 emperor penguin chicks likely died during the 2022 breeding season due to early sea ice melting in the Antarctic. In addition, Antarctica in spring 2022 had the lowest sea ice season ever recorded and scientists say this year could be on an even worse trajectory. Scientists say it would take only two additional years of massive die-off events for emperor penguins to become extinct. Although MPAs will not stop climate change, they will help provide resilience to the Southern Ocean ecosystem. CCAMLR has delayed MPA designations for seven years. How many more seasons like this will continue without any action by CCAMLR? It is clear that members are requiring less science to keep fisheries open than they are to secure protections that are badly needed to protect this spectacular region and the animals that call it home."

To protect this spectacular region and the species that rely on it, the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project and its partners are supporting CCAMLR and its member governments to ensure effective ecosystem-based fisheries management and to establish a network of large-scale MPAs around Antarctica.

Dona Bertarelli, philanthropist, ocean advocate, and Patron of Nature for the International Union for Conservation of Nature, said:

"The Southern Ocean is essential to a healthy planet, but protection efforts have been slowed and weakened by national interests. Our rapidly changing climate demands that countries work together to prioritize marine protection. Nature cannot wait for countries to settle their political differences. Without protection for large areas of the Southern Ocean and new fisheries measures, we will all suffer the consequences."

The Pew Charitable Trusts and Dona Bertarelli created the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project, with the shared goal of establishing the first generation of ecologically significant, large, and effective marine protected areas (MPAs) around the world. Today, the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project also seeks to connect MPAs and help conserve key migratory species and entire marine ecosystems. These efforts build on more than a decade of work by Pew and the Bertarelli Foundation, led by Dona Bertarelli, to create large-scale highly or fully protected MPAs. Between them, they have helped to obtain designations or commitments to safeguard nearly 12.6 million square kilometers (4.8 million square miles) of ocean by working with communities, local leaders, philanthropic partners, Indigenous groups, government officials, and scientists. Dona Bertarelli is a philanthropist, investor, sportswoman, and strong advocate for ocean conservation. The Pew Charitable Trusts addresses the challenges of a changing world by illuminating issues, creating common ground, and advancing ambitious projects including the need for effective marine conservation.

Notes to Editors:

The four proposed designations include the East Antarctic Marine Protected Area (EAMPA), which will encompass three newly protected regionsD'Urville Sea-Mertz, Drygalski, and MacRobertsonand as currently proposed, would cover nearly 1 million square kilometers (more than 374,500 square miles) in the waters off East Antarctica; the Weddell Sea MPA Phase 1, which will span over 2.2 million square kilometers (849,424 square miles); the Weddell Sea MPA Phase 2, which will span over approximately 720,000 million square kilometers (278,000 square miles) and the Antarctic Peninsula (D1MPA), which will protect 671,000 square kilometers (259,075 square miles) of one of the fastest-warming areas on the planet. The MPAs would also help ecosystems throughout the region build resilience to the changing climate.

Each MPA will protect critical foraging and breeding grounds for penguins, toothfish, seals, and whales and will further CCAMLR's progress on creating a network of MPAs encircling Antarctica, which members agreed to in 2009. Additionally, these new designations increase total global ocean protections by 1%, a significant step forward in achieving the goal of protecting 30% of the global ocean by 2030.

Barb Cvrkel, 202-510-5670, bcvrkel@pewtrusts.org

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SOURCE Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project
Allied Market Research

The global point of care diagnostics market growth is attributed to the rise in the prevalence of chronic diseases and several helpful initiatives administered by government and non-governmental organizations.

Wilmington, Delaware, Oct. 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Allied Market Research recently published a report, titled, "Point of Care Diagnostics Market by Product (Cholesterol Test Strips, Glucose Monitoring Kits, Hematology Testing Kits, Urinalysis Testing Kits, Drugs Abuse Testing Kits, Pregnancy and Fertility Testing Kits, Cardiometabolic Monitoring Kits, Infectious Diseases Testing Kits, and Others), by Mode Of Prescription (Otc Based Devices and Prescription Based Devices), by End User (Home Care, Research Laboratories, Professional Diagnostic Centers, and Others): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2020-2030." According to the report, the global point of care diagnostics industry is projected to reach $55,275.73 million by 2030, having witnessed a value of $29,478.63 million in 2020, exhibiting a CAGR of 6.5% from 2021 to 2030.



The global point of care diagnostics market growth is attributed to the rise in the prevalence of chronic diseases and several helpful initiatives administered by government and non-governmental organizations. On the other hand, the stringent government regulations for POC diagnostic device approval and reimbursement issues restrict the market growth to some extent. Moreover, the technological advancement in Point of Care (POC) diagnostic equipment and the emergence of home-based point-of-care (POC) devices offer new opportunities for market growth in the coming years.

Request Sample of the Report on Point of Care Diagnostics Market Forecast 2032- https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/161

The glucose monitoring kits segment to maintain its lion's share throughout the forecast period

By product, the glucose monitoring kits segment held the major share in 2020, accounting for more than two-fifths of the global point of care diagnostics market and is anticipated to maintain its lion's share throughout the forecast period. The growth is attributed to the increase in the incidence of target diseases, such as diabetes. On the other hand, the infectious diseases testing kits segment would cite the highest CAGR of 12.7% during the forecast timeframe. This is due to the increase in the number of infections, including hepatitis, flu, COVID-19, and HIV.

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Recent Developments for Point of Care Diagnostics Market:

In November 2022, Boditech Med, a healthcare company, announce that it has obtained domestic use approval of Boditech Quick COVID-19 Ag Saliva from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. It can determine the infection of COVID-19 within 15 minutes using saliva sample. This approval is expected to boost exports of Boditech Quick COVID-19 Ag Saliva. In some Southeast Asian countries require the approval for domestic use from the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety separately for getting the export license.

In September 2022, QuantuMDx, a progressive medical technology company passionate about creating rapid multiplex PCR solutions for the point of care, announces it has entered into a cooperation agreement with Sansure Biotech Inc. (Sansure), an in-vitro diagnostic solution provider based in Changsha, Hunan province, China, to accelerate the regional commercialization of Q-POC and its assays, in China. It is a portable and simple to use, the Q-POC platform is a rapid multiplex PCR testing system that delivers fast, accurate and actionable results in approximately 30 minutes at the point of care.

In April 2022, BioLytical Laboratories Inc., a global leader in rapid in-vitro medical diagnostics, announced that it has launched its iStatis COVID-19 antigen home test after receiving health canada interim order authorization, allowing its immediate entry into the Canadian market. The iStatis COVID-19 antigen home test is built for use in everyday settings. The test is portable and can be performed in the comfort and privacy of home with a simple platform and easy-to-understand results.

Want to Explore More, Connect to our Analyst- https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/connect-to-analyst/161

The professional diagnostic centers segment to maintain its dominant position during the forecast timeframe-

By end user, the professional diagnostic centers segment accounted for the largest market share in 2020, holding more than half of the global point of care diagnostics market revenue, and is expected to maintain its dominant position during the forecast timeframe. The growth is attributed to the availability of advanced diagnostic techniques, the enhancement of health insurance coverage, and cost-effectiveness. However, the research laboratories segment would showcase the highest CAGR of 7.8% from 2021 to 2030. This is due to the increase in the prevalence of a variety of chronic and infectious diseases.

North America garnered the major share by 2030-

By region, North America accounted for the highest market share in 2020, contributing to around two-fifths of the global point of care diagnostics market revenue, and is expected to maintain its dominance throughout the forecast period. Simultaneously, the Asia-Pacific region would portray the highest CAGR of 7.8% from 2021 to 2030. The growth is attributed to the advancement of healthcare systems and the prevalence of chronic and targeted disorders, including diabetes, cancer, and others.

For Procurement Information - https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/161

Industry Leading Players: -

Becton Dickinson and Company

bioMrieux SA

Siemens AG

Danaher Corporation

Sinocare Inc.

Johnson and Johnson

Hoffmann La Roche Ltd.

Abbott Laboratories

Nova Biomedical

Sysmex Corporation

The report offers a thorough review of the leading players in the global point of care diagnostics market. These players have employed various strategies, including the launch of new products, geographical expansion, partnerships, collaborations, and agreements, to expand their market presence and remain dominant in various regions. The report represents the top segments, product portfolio, business performance, and strategic actions of market participants to emphasize the competitive landscapes.

Comprehensive Healthcare Industry Research Studies: -

Protein Therapeutics Market - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20222032

Ophthalmic Drugs Market - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20222032

Infant Incubator Market - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20222032

Single-use Bioprocessing Market - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20222032

Drug Screening Market - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20222032

About Allied Market Research:

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" 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 domains. AMR offers its services across 11 industry verticals including Life Sciences, Consumer Goods, Materials & Chemicals, Construction & Manufacturing, Food & Beverages, Energy & Power, Semiconductor & Electronics, Automotive & Transportation, ICT & Media, Aerospace & Defense, and BFSI.

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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One of the best investments we can make is in our own knowledge and skill set. With that in mind, this article will work through how we can use Return On Equity (ROE) to better understand a business. We'll use ROE to examine Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE:RCL), by way of a worked example.

Return on equity or ROE is a key measure used to assess how efficiently a company's management is utilizing the company's capital. In simpler terms, it measures the profitability of a company in relation to shareholder's equity.

View our latest analysis for Royal Caribbean Cruises

How Is ROE Calculated?

ROE can be calculated by using the formula:

Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations)  Shareholders' Equity

So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Royal Caribbean Cruises is:

20% = US$925m  US$4.6b (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2023).

The 'return' is the profit over the last twelve months. That means that for every $1 worth of shareholders' equity, the company generated $0.20 in profit.

Does Royal Caribbean Cruises Have A Good ROE?

Arguably the easiest way to assess company's ROE is to compare it with the average in its industry. However, this method is only useful as a rough check, because companies do differ quite a bit within the same industry classification. The image below shows that Royal Caribbean Cruises has an ROE that is roughly in line with the Hospitality industry average (17%).

roe

That's neither particularly good, nor bad. Although the ROE is similar to the industry, we should still perform further checks to see if the company's ROE is being boosted by high debt levels. If a company takes on too much debt, it is at higher risk of defaulting on interest payments. You can see the 2 risks we have identified for Royal Caribbean Cruises by visiting our risks dashboard for free on our platform here.

The Importance Of Debt To Return On Equity

Companies usually need to invest money to grow their profits. That cash can come from issuing shares, retained earnings, or debt. In the first and second cases, the ROE will reflect this use of cash for investment in the business. In the latter case, the use of debt will improve the returns, but will not change the equity. In this manner the use of debt will boost ROE, even though the core economics of the business stay the same.

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Combining Royal Caribbean Cruises' Debt And Its 20% Return On Equity

It seems that Royal Caribbean Cruises uses a huge volume of debt to fund the business, since it has an extremely high debt to equity ratio of 4.34. Its ROE is decent, but once I consider all the debt, I'm not really impressed.

Summary

Return on equity is one way we can compare its business quality of different companies. Companies that can achieve high returns on equity without too much debt are generally of good quality. If two companies have the same ROE, then I would generally prefer the one with less debt.

But when a business is high quality, the market often bids it up to a price that reflects this. It is important to consider other factors, such as future profit growth -- and how much investment is required going forward. So you might want to take a peek at this data-rich interactive graph of forecasts for the company.

Of course Royal Caribbean Cruises may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see this free collection of other companies that have high ROE and low debt.

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.
The place for all things cold chain.

Your latest info on all things cold chain

Hello, and welcome to the coolest community in freight! Here youll find the latest information on warehouse news, tech developments and all things reefer madness-related. Im your controller of the thermostat, Mary OConnell. Thanks for having me!

All thawed out

(Photo: NewCold)

Lebanon, Indiana, is about to become the coolest place to be. Netherlands-based NewCold has opened one of the largest cold storage facilities in the world for a casual $300 million. NewCold specializes in food supply chain resilience. The new facility has over 100,000 pallet positions at opening, but phase 2 has begun and will add another 100,000 pallet positions come next summer.

To improve the food supply chain, why was Lebanon the new hot spot? The local government was very helpful in locating space for the 150-foot-tall building and made setting up shop a breeze. Not only that but it turns out Indiana has become a major food hub. This new facility has automation at the highest scale.Through its advanced technology and processes, NewCold can do in 400,000 square feet what others need a million for.

Jonas Swarttouw, executive vice president and chairman of NewCold in North America, said in a news release, None of our warehouses shut down during COVID. That period underlined the importance of building resilience into the supply chain of leading food companies in the US. Thats aside from the positive economic impact, including over 250 high-quality employment opportunities, the Lebanon facility has created.

Temperature checks

(Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves)

Drones in the supply chain is not a new concept. There have been a lot of drone pilot programs, especially in trials with direct-to-consumer goods. Well, its time for the cold chain to take to the skies as well. The pharmaceutical industry has taken to involving drone technology to get medicines to people. Drones are perfect for time-sensitive goods and most packaging solutions can work with them.

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For example, in remote places in Rwanda and Ghana, where roads can become impassable due to weather conditions, Ziplines drone technology is helping hospitals get blood, medicines and anything they need to treat patients.

An Air Cargo news article said: Dr. Radhika Batra, founder and president of Every Infant Matters, explained that the industry was helping by finding and promoting innovative solutions to bridge the gaps in the supply chain, with drones being just one example. There are 1.5 million children dying every year from vaccine-preventable illnesses and many more living with blindness and other disabilities that dont need to be, she said.

Food and drugs

(Photo: Business Wire)

Why bother with a trip to Flavortown when it can come to you? Guy Fieri is bringing Flavortown to the freezer aisle with his new line of frozen food. This new collection is available exclusively at Walmart. The first representatives of Flavortown are sweet and sour pork, cheesy lasagna with pepperoni, sloppy joe mac and cheese, and the cheesy chicken enchilada bowl.

The Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives host has risen to mass popularity, particularly with Gen Z. It turns out Gen Z has a massive love for Fieri. His approachable nature and down-to-earth attitude have made him beloved by all.

All this popularity has paid off because now I dont have to leave my house to experience the glory that is Flavortown. I just have to walk to the freezer.

Cold chain lanes

(SONAR ROTRI heat map)

This weeks SONAR chart is the Reefer Outbound Tender Reject Index. The markets with the darker blue maps indicate there is a higher rate of tender rejections in that market. The Pacific Northwest and the northern Midwest are the areas with the most significant rejection rates. Bismarck, North Dakota, while a smaller market, brings home the top spot with reefer outbound tender rejection rates at 38.46%. Roughly a third of all reefer loads are rejected in Bismarck and Fargo, North Dakota (33.68%). As the produce and harvest season comes to a close in the North, reefer rejection rates will likely fall in the coming weeks to bring some of the capacity back to the market.

Is SONAR for you? Check it out with a demo!

Shelf life

Fighting Food Inflation Through a Sustainable Supply Chain

Investors Have Stopped Feeding The Supply Chain

Convoys shutdown exposes the desperate state of trucking

UPS reports higher volume diversions due to labor unrest

Trucking congestion costs hit record $94.6B

Wanna chat in the cooler? Shoot me an email with comments, questions or story ideas at moconnell@freightwaves.com.

See you on the internet.

Mary

If this newsletter was forwarded to you, you must be pretty chill. Join the coolest community in freight and subscribe for more at freightwaves.com/subscribe.

The post Running on Ice: Indiana is the coolest place to be appeared first on FreightWaves.
By Azernews

Abbas Ganbay

"Georgia is ready to mediate between Azerbaijan and Armenia from a neutral position," Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said while giving a speech at the groundbreaking ceremony of the Heydar Aliyev State Drama Theatre in Tbilisi, Azernews reports.

"The Georgian government is ready to participate in establishing long-term peace in the region," Garibashvili emphasized.

Noting that the building of the theatre was constructed within the framework of the 100th anniversary of Azerbaijan's national leader, Heydar Aliyev, the Prime Minister said it testifies to the fruitful cooperation between Azerbaijan and Georgia.

The Prime Minister recalled that President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev visited Georgia some time ago and the meeting held there was very productive.

PM thanked Prime Minister Ali Asadov for coming to Tbilisi to participate in the 4th International Silk Road Forum and highly appreciated his visit.
NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / October 27, 2023 / Ozon Holdings, one of the first e-commerce companies in Russia, aims to take advantage of China's Double 11 Shopping Festival via promotions worth tens of billions of rubles to boost cross-border business.

Ozon will offer subsidies during the annual shopping extravaganza in China from Oct. 18 to Nov. 13, Simon Huang, China president of the Moscow-based firm, said during the 2023 Global China Summit on October 19.

The internet company will also launch Black Friday promotions late next month. Sales turnover during the whole peak season is expected to increase by more than four times from a year earlier.

Ozon is one of the top two e-commerce platforms in Russia with RUB832.2 billion (USD8.6 billion) in gross merchandise value last year. The firm listed 38 million new stock-keeping units from China with 40,000 Chinese sellers on the platform. Orders for China-made goods surged by about six times from the previous year, while the GMV soared by about seven times.

For next year, the firm will set a goal of boosting GMV in China by four times from this year, helping 100,000 Chinese sellers to earn a profit, Huang added.

Growth is supported by increasingly efficient delivery and strong brands. The number of users has surged, customs clearance and logistics are quicker, and import tariffs are low. Moreover, Chinese consumer electronics and smart home appliances are of high quality, fashion manufacturers are quick to respond to new trends while merchants are active on the platform.

The two nations are getting closer in trade. In the first nine months of this year, trade between China and Russia jumped by 30 percent to USD176.4 billion from a year ago, per Xu Poling, director of the Institute of East European, Russian and Central Asian Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

More specifically, China's exports to Russia surged by 57 percent to USD81.4 billion, while its imports from Russia rose by 13 percent to USD95 billion. In total, 40 percent of Russia's imports came from China, and over 75 percent of that was paid in yuan.

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Despite the slowdown of global consumption and retail growth, the Russian market has widened quicker than any other e-commerce market in the world, Xu said, adding that Russian consumers are becoming used to online shopping, bringing opportunities to Chinese enterprises.

However, challenges remain as the long period of payments, and fluctuations in the exchange rate of the ruble cause risks. In the past year, Ozon settled payments with Chinese sellers in yuan or US dollars to solve the problem, Huang explained.

About Yicai Global

Launched in August 2016, Yicai Global is the English-language news service of Yicai Media Group, the financial news arm of Shanghai Media Group, which is one of China's largest state-owned media conglomerates. Focused primarily on China's business world, Yicai Global is dedicated to provide reliable and insightful information and analysis of the economy, finance, tech, startups, and entrepreneurs.

Media Contact:

Contact person: Zhu Liming

Email: yicaiglobal@yicaiglobal.com

SOURCE: Yicai Media Group





View source version on accesswire.com:

https://www.accesswire.com/797086/russian-online-retail-giant-ozon-looks-to-chinas-double-11-for-growth




Facing decades in prison on fraud and money laundering charges, FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried testified in his own defense on Friday.

After his attorneys first asked him how FTX protected customers assets, they then asked Bankman-Fried if FTX had a risk management department.

We sure should have, he answered.

FTX filed for bankruptcy protection in November 2022 after customers got nervous about its health and began withdrawing their money. It soon emerged that billions of dollars in customers' assets had been transferred to Alameda Research, a cryptocurrency hedge fund that was FTX's "sister" firm.

He also testified that he borrowed money from Alameda because he owned the company, and that he saw no reason he could not borrow from its substantial profits.

FTX co-founder Gary Wang testified earlier that Bankman-Fried directed him to make the transfer because Bahamian regulators were friendly to him and seemed willing to let Bankman-Fried stay in charge of the company.

Bankman-Fried's lawyers say he was acting in good faith and trying to do right by customers.

The prosecution rested its case early Thursday morning and the defense began presenting its case shortly after noon Eastern Time. Two other defense witnesses testified before Bankman-Fried did. He then took the stand without the jury present as part of a hearing about what types of evidence would be admissible in court.

Courtroom sketch of Sam Bankman-Fried (Elizabeth Williams / via AP)

Bankman-Fried also testified that he never directed former FTX CEO Ryan Salame or former engineering director Nishad Singh to make political donations. He also said he didn't recall an incident where, according to Singh, he asked employees to find a way to make it look like FTX had more than $1 billion in annual revenue.

Court filings from Bankman-Frieds lawyers show that he also plans to testify that he approved of the transfer of FTX assets to regulators in the Bahamas, where FTX was based, because he believed they would act in customers best interests.

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It's often risky for defendants to testify in their defense in high-profile cases, but Bankman-Fried may not have much to lose.

Earlier in the trial, Wang, Singh, and Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison, who also dated Bankman-Fried, all testified for the prosecution. They said that they committed crimes alongside Bankman-Fried, including misleading investors about the financial state of FTX and its sister hedge fund, Alameda Research, and stealing $10 billion from FTX customers and giving it to Alameda.

Wang, Ellison and Singh have all pleaded guilty to criminal charges and are cooperating with the federal government in the hope they will get lighter sentences.

Bankman-Fried is charged with wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering that defrauded FTX's customers and Alameda's lenders.

His lawyers argue that Bankman-Fried did not defraud anyone, that startups like FTX are complex and often fail, and that the government is looking for someone to blame for customers' losses.

Bankman-Fried is expected to finish testifying Monday, and prosecutors are expected to cross-examine him afterward.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried told a jury Friday that he didnt commit fraud and didnt take customer funds, beginning his defense against criminal charges that he stole billions from his cryptocurrency exchange and spent the money on investments, political donations, and real estate.

He did, however, say that he "made a number of small mistakes and a number of big mistakes." His biggest mistake, he said, was not having a chief risk officer.

"A lot of people got hurt," he said.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is questioned during a hearing before a judge on Thursday in this courtroom sketch. (Jane Rosenberg/REUTERS) (JANE ROSENBERG / reuters)

His highly anticipated testimony began Friday morning with questions from his attorney Mark Cohen that attempted to address the heart of the governments case against his client.

Prosecutors have alleged that Bankman-Fried deliberately stole funds that belonged to FTX customers and secretly lent the assets to his crypto trading firm Alameda Research. They produced several key witnesses over the last month who corroborated those claims.

Cohen on Friday asked his client if he defrauded anyone.

"No, I didnt," Bankman-Fried said.

Then Cohen asked if Bankman-Fried took customer funds.

"No," Bankman-Fried said.

Sam Bankman-Fried's defense lawyer Mark Cohen. (Brendan McDermid/REUTERS) (Brendan McDermid / reuters)

Bankman-Fried, wearing a suit and tie, faced a jury for the first time Friday after the judge overseeing the criminal trial said he would allow the FTX founder to testify about some legal advice he received while running the cryptocurrency exchange.

Thursday, in a hearing without the jury present, the 31-year-old entrepreneur said FTX lawyers had a hand in drafting the companys policies that he then followed.

Bankman-Fried said during that hearing that he believed that his crypto trading firm Alameda Research was allowed to borrow customer money deposited with FTX due to a "terms of service" document and another non-public agreement drafted with the help of FTXs top lawyer.

Criminal defense attorney Adam Kamenstein said an attempt to cast some level of blame on his lawyers could backfire.

"It's a cliche ... its a story thats been told many times," Kamenstein said.

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Bankman-Fried's lawyers have said in court that the defendant is not looking to raise a formal "advice of counsel" defense and that instead, Bankman-Fried wants to explain that he took comfort that FTX lawyers created terms of service, loan, and other documents used by the exchange and Alameda.

"The biggest thing I'd be looking for is this guy on the stand is disciplined in what he's saying," Kamenstein said.

'I couldn't have told you the details'

Bankman-Fried spent a lot of time Friday morning discussing how Alameda interacted with FTX, distancing himself from certain decisions and making it clear his executives handled some of the details.

He said some FTX customer funds were routed to Alameda and housed there originally because FTX was not able to get its own bank account, although he said he wasn't exactly sure what was happening with the customer funds that were sent to his trading firm.

He also acknowledged that in FTX's early days, Alameda was the exchange's primary market maker. It was difficult initially to attract other third-party market makers, he said, and Alameda, which had its own account on FTX, could make cryptocurrency available for FTX customers to buy if no other user on the platform was willing to sell.

Alameda and other market makers were given a line of credit to borrow money from FTX so that they could easily buy and sell on the platform, he said. The money that Alameda borrowed he understood to come from other "margin traders" on FTX or "assets that were earning interest on the platform."

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is questioned by lawyer Mark Cohen in front of a jury, in this courtroom sketch. (Jane Rosenberg/REUTERS) (JANE ROSENBERG / reuters)

FTX, he said, didnt have restrictions on what could be done with that borrowed money as long as "we believed the risk was being managed," meaning that assets exceeded liabilities.

"We didnt care if the users withdrew funds to buy muffins," he said.

Several former colleagues have testified that Alameda had what amounted to an unlimited credit line at FTX and could carry a negative balance (a feature known as "allow negative") without being liquidated  and that Bankman-Fried was aware of all this.

Bankman-Fried on Friday said his colleagues had a lot of say over how the exchange's automated computer functions worked.

About the line of credit, he said, he was aware of roughly the amount it was utilizing but not aware of a "theoretical maximum."

He said he did suggest to former FTX executives Gary Wang and Nishad Singh that there could be "an alert or delay" in the liquidation of Alamedas balance to prevent a repeat of a 2020 error that caused Alameda's balance to be drained. But he said he didnt know what was being put in place.

"At the time, I couldnt have told you the details," he said, but now knows that was the "allow negative" feature.

'Net positive'

Bankman-Fried also discussed some key events in 2022 as the crypto market began to melt down.

Between May and June of that year, he said, Alameda, which largely held long positions in cryptocurrencies, suffered significant losses. By June Alameda's net asset value had tanked to roughly $10 billion, down from $40 billion in June 2021.

To add to Alameda's challenges, he said, Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison informed him in June 2022 that Alameda might be bankrupt. Singh and Wang double-checked the calculation, he said, and found instead that Alameda appeared insolvent due to a bug, but actually had a positive balance of $8 billion.

Bankman-Fried said he instructed Ellison to pay back Alameda's lenders. Soon after, Bankman-Fried testified, Singh and Wang told him about another Alameda liability stemming from an account on FTX called fiat@.

Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison. (Cheney Orr/REUTERS) (Cheney Orr / reuters)

"I didn't know at the time what fiat@ was," he said, explaining that he first learned about the nature of the account by looking it up in an FTX database.

But it wasn't until October or November 2022, Bankman-Fried testified, that he learned the account had a negative $8 billion balance.

"I was very surprised," he testified, saying he had previously known of $2 billion in Alameda liabilities. The additional $8 billion brought Alameda's negative balance to $10 billion.

"Did you believe it could be paid back?" his lawyer asked him. "Yes," Bankman-Fried said, explaining that he told Ellison he was "more than happy" to pledge his own assets as a solution.

Bankman-Fried said he had suggested that Ellison hedge Alameda's positions, a move that would have mitigated the risk of the company's long cryptocurrency positions. Ellison never hedged, he said.

At the end of Friday's testimony, Bankman-Fried described an exchange he had with Singh on the balcony of their luxury Bahamas penthouse. Bankman-Fried said he discussed Singh's concerns about Alameda's mounting liabilities.

But Bankman-Fried told him he thought Alameda was "quite net positive."

Read the latest news about Sam Bankman-Fried and the FTX fraud trial:

Click here for the latest crypto news, updates, values, prices, and more related to bitcoin, ethereum, dogecoin, DeFi, and NFTs

Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance
Laurel Haak, owner of Might Red Barn and a SCORE mentor

In writing this weekly column, it is the goal of the Green Bay SCORE Chapter (score.org/greenbay) to familiarize current and prospective business owners with the free mentoring services offered. For those not aware, SCORE is part of the Small Business Administration and is the nations largest network of volunteer, expert business mentors.

As noted on the national website, it is dedicated to helping small businesses plan, launch, manage and grow through mentoring and educational workshops.

That said, the column doesnt often feature the experience of the mentors who have volunteered their time to assist. Although SCORE originally was formed as a network of retired business executives, that has changed over time and now includes a roster of professionals at various stages in their careers.

One of those volunteers, and now co-chair of the Green Bay chapter, is Laurel Haak, owner of Mighty Red Barn (mightyredbarn.com), a global consultancy company. A review of Haaks website will attest to her successful career. She holds a neuroscience doctor of philosophy degree from Stanford University School of Medicine and is an entrepreneur, strategist, researcher, and author.

After spending decades living in areas around the country with a stint in Germany, Haak decided to apply her vast experience to going out on her own as a consultant.

I was the CEO of a nonprofit startup," Haak said. "During my tenure, I built it from being a 40-person organization to one, after a number of mergers, with 1,000 members in 41 countries. It took just eight years. When it got to that point, I wondered, What do I do next? And I decided it was time to start my own business.

Setting it up was not difficult because of everything she had learned in working with other startups. She knew how to set up an accounting system, develop a marketing plan, determine pricing, and build a website.

Having built infotech startups from the ground up, in commercial and nonprofit environments, I understood the importance and interaction of mission focus, product strategy, business model, team motivation, and stakeholder alignment in ensuring company success, Haak said.

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Also, as a frequent speaker and writer on research policy, she had a network that she could call on for projects and ideas. However, it was 2020 when she launched and she found herself in the middle of a pandemic.

Mighty Red Barn was founded amidst a global pandemic, economic recession, and time of desperate societal challenges, she said.

The name was selected because, she noted, barns symbolize community, cooperation, craft, and pragmatism. It also fit her location. She had originally planned to spend half of the year in Maryland and half on a piece of lakefront land she owned in Townsend, but when COVID-19 hit, she decided to stay in the smaller, rural community and build a home.

From that location, she communicates with clients around the globe. Because consulting tends to be extremely competitive, Haak decided to specialize in consulting with nonprofits, her forte. A benefit of having been in the nonprofit world was that she had been an early adopter of virtual meetings and was prepared for the Zoom meetings that became a staple during the pandemic.

But more challenges were ahead. Shortly after launching, her father became ill and her parents needed help. She had to step away from the new business for several months to help care for her dad. After his death, she said that dwindling resources meant she had to get busy with marketing.

I thought that it was time to start generating some income; so, I sent a note to friends and asked if they had any projects I could do," Haak said. "I got a number of cool projects out of that, and those projects led to other projects. I like being my own boss and just want to be able to pay my own way.

To accomplish that, she leans on something learned from her dad who started a business when he was 50 years old. After getting let go from a long career in the steel industry, he turned to something he knew and decided to start a specialty welding business.

He went to his network for help and did all of the marketing and sales to start it, she said. It was wonderful to see. I learned about business cycles and how you cant depend on consistent sales. Dad sold spare parts when it was slow and I picked up on the need to develop other revenue streams when it is slow.

Her spare parts business is using her skill to build websites for nonprofits, do research, and write research papers. But the variety of projects she works on is her greatest joy.

Im really, really curious and like to solve problems. If I see a problem, Im all in, Haak said. The special thing I add to a project is me  my experience, my connections, my knowledge in infrastructure, how the research process works, and experience as a CEO.

The mission of Mighty Red Barn is to help organizations craft a business plan, devise a governance model, develop a team, and create a collaborative operational infrastructure. She says that it is imperative for businesses to understand that it takes more than passion to succeed. That is something she shares with SCORE clients.

Haak said, One of the biggest issues startups have is that they come up with an idea, but dont do research to see if there is a market for it. They need to ask themselves why they want to start the business and what skills theyre bringing to the table. They also need to reach out to a group like SCORE.

When they do reach out, they will have the benefit of talking to incredibly knowledgeable mentors like Haak. Clients are matched both online and in person with those who can provide the greatest assistance in that category. Haak, who has been an avid volunteer for a variety of organizations throughout her life, says SCORE was a good fit.

With my experience, I have a lot to offer the business community, she said. But there was another more personal reason. I am living in a community of less than 1,000 people. Its a fabulous place for live but there isnt a lot going on here. This has always been the get away place for me, but I needed a way to plug in and reground myself. SCORE gives me the opportunity to know the local business community.

Tina Dettman-Bielefeldt is co-owner of DB Commercial Real Estate in Green Bay and past district director for SCORE, Wisconsin.

This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: SCORE mentor Laurel Haak also owns her own business, Might Red Barn
Sephora is fulfilling Advent calendar dreams this year, with not one but four Advent calendars to cater to all beauty enthusiasts during the holiday season.

Prices for the calendars range from $30 to $99 with a variety of makeup, skincare and body care products from face masks and nail polish to mascara and lipstick. Three of the calendars have products from the SEPHORA COLLECTION brand only, while one of them, the priciest of them all, has a collection of bestselling products from brands including Rare Beauty, Anastasia Beverly Hills, Glow Recipe, Armani Beauty, Drunk Elephant and Laura Mercier.

Here's a list of the Advent calendars and what is included in them.

Beauty Must Haves Advent Calendar

A "beauty must-have," this limited-edition set contains 27 sample-size and full-size products from different best-selling brands at a cost of $99. It is only available in-store.

The Sephora "Beauty Must Haves Advent Calendar" includes:

Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz in "Medium Brown"

Beautyblender Original Beauty Blender Makeup Sponge Deluxe Sample

Chloe Eau De Parfum

CLEAN RESERVE Radiant Nectar Eau de Parfum

Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare Alpha Beta Universal Daily Peel 3-Pack

Drunk Elephant Protini Polypeptide Cream

Ellis Brooklyn Myth

First Aid Beauty KP Bump Eraser Body Scrub

Armani Beauty Lip Power Long Wear Satin Lipstick in "Shade 104"

Glow Recipe Strawberry BHA Pore-Smooth Blur Drops

Grande Cosmetics Grandelash

GXVE BY GWEN STEFANI Anaheim Shine High-Performance Lipstick in "Original Recipe"

LANEIGE Water Bank Blue Hyaluronic Cream Moisturizer

Laura Mercier Translucent Loose Setting Powder

Maison Louis Marie No. 13 Nouvelle Vague Perfume Oil

Milk Makeup Lip + Cheek Cream Blush Stick in "Werk"

Moroccan Oil Treatment

Paulas Choice Skin Perfecting 2% BHA Liquid Exfoliant

Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez Perfect Strokes Universal Volumizing Mascara

REFY Brow Sculpt

Smashbox Photo Finish Smooth & Blur Oil-Free Foundation Primer

Sol de Janeiro Rio Radiance Perfume Mist

Summer Fridays Lip Butter Balm in "Vanilla Beige"

Supergoop! Glowscreen SPF 40 In "Golden Hour"

Topicals Slathe Exfoliating Body Serum with Retinol and AHAs

Vegamour Hydr-8 Leave-In Conditioner

Youth To The People Superfood Cleanser

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A customer browses for cosmetics at Kohl's in Brookfield, Wisconsin.

Spooky savings: 23 businesses offering Halloween discounts from DoorDash, Red Lobster, Chipotle, more

Premium Advent Calendar

The "Premium Advent Calendar" priced at $85 comes with 18 full-size products, two travel-size products, and four accessories. All products in box, available online only, are by the Sephora brand.

Sephora recommends following Advent calendar rules and opening the flaps day by day from Dec. 1 to 24 "to discover your gift", instead of all at once.

The Sephora "Premium Advent Calendar" includes:

Glossed Lip Gloss in Boss

Mini Vitamin C+E Super Glow Serum

Mini Face Gua Sha

Cucumber Hand Masks

Makeup Sponge

Coconut Face Mask

Watermelon Lip Balm

Glossy Effect Lipstick in "Under the Spotlight"

Almond Milk Hand Balm

Gel Effect Top Coat

Caffeine Eye Mask

Exfoliating Glove

Mini "Big by Definition" Mascara

All Day Hydrator

Watermelon Face Mask

Colorful Blush in "Flirt It Up"

Cucumber Tonic Lotion

Cream Lip Stain in "Always Red"

Eyeshadow Brush

Papaya + Vitamin C Eye Mask

Micellar Water Makeup Remover

Waterproof 12H Contour Pencil Eyeliner in "Tiramisu"

Do Not Drink Perfume in "Mandarin + Matcha"

Charcoal Nose Strip

Comfort Calendar: Stouffer's releases first ever frozen meal advent calendar

Advent Calendar

The Advent Calendar for $49 is an "essential" one with 24 makeup, skincare, bath, and accessory surprises. Open the flaps each day from Dec. 1 to 24 for exciting products from the Sephora brand.

The Sephora "Advent Calendar" includes:

Mini "Big by Definition" Mascara in "Black"

Mini Hydrating Cleansing Wipes - Aloe Vera

Effect Top Coat

Cucumber Eye Masks

Mini All Day Hydrator

Mini Lip Pencil in "Classic Red"

Cotton Flower Shower Cream Capsule

Makeup Sponge

Mini Clean Skin Gel

Mini Facial Gua Sha

Charcoal Nose Strip

Nail Polish in L04 Strawberry Macaron

Monoi Shower Cream Capsule

Matcha Face Mask

Cream Lip Stain in "Always Red"

Pocket Mirror

Cherry Lip Mask

Hair Tie

Nail Polish in "Cherry Popsicle"

Nail Files

Caffeine Eye Mask

Mini Brightening Eye Cream

Face and Nail Rhinestones

Waterproof 12H Contour Pencil Eyeliner in "Black Lace"

After Advent Calendar

The Sephora After Advent Calendar is priced at $30 and includes 11 full-size items.

This Advent calendar by Sephora is designed to help you recover from post-holiday blues.

"From Dec. 25 through 31, treat yourself with the "SEPHORA COLLECTION After Advent Calendar," says Sephora about the set. "This must-have gift for the holidays contains 11 hidden surprises in seven pop-up boxes. Simply open them up each day to discover makeup, skincare, or accessory gifts."

The calendar also features a QR code that will take buyers to a customizable Instagram filter.

Priced at $30, the set, available online only, includes 11 full-size items which are:

Pomegranate Eye Masks

Cherry Lip Mask

Nail Polish in "It Girl"

Nail Files

Size Up Waterproof Mascara

12H Contour Pencil Eyeliner in "Tiramisu"

3-in-1 Pencil Sharpener

Colorful Blush in "Shame On You"

Satin Bullet Lipstick in "Excessively Good"

Face and Nail Rhinestones

Hair Tie

First of its kind: Victoria's Secret releases collection of adaptive garments for people with disabilities

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: Sephora drops four beauty advent calendars ahead of the holidays
ServiceNow, Inc. (NYSE:NOW) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript October 25, 2023

ServiceNow, Inc. beats earnings expectations. Reported EPS is $2.92, expectations were $2.54.

Operator: Good day everyone and welcome to the Third Quarter 2023 ServiceNow Earnings Call. Today's call is being recorded. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise and after the speaker's remarks there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to Darren Yip, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Darren Yip: Good afternoon and thank you for joining ServiceNow third quarter 2023 earnings conference call. Joining me are Bill McDermott, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Gina Mastantuono, our Chief Financial Officer; and CJ Desai, our President and Chief Operating Officer. During today's call, we will review our third quarter 2023 results and discuss our guidance for the fourth quarter and full year 2023. Before we get started, we want to emphasize that the information discussed on this call, including our guidance, is based on information as of today, and contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. We undertake no duty or obligation to update such statements as a result of new information, or future events.

Please refer to today's earnings press release and our SEC filings, including our most recent 10-Q and 2022 10-K for factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from our forward-looking statements. We'd also like to point out that we present non-GAAP measures in addition to, and not as a substitute for financial measures calculated in accordance with GAAP. Unless otherwise noted, all financial measures, and related growth rates we discuss today are non-GAAP, except for revenues, remaining performance obligation or RPO, current RPO, and cash and investments. To see the reconciliation between these non-GAAP and GAAP measures, please refer to today's earnings press release and investor presentation which are both posted on our website at investors.servicenow.com.

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A replay of today's call will also be posted on our website. With that I'll turn the call over to Bill.

Bill McDermott: Thank you, Darren, and thank you everyone for joining us today. On behalf of Gina, CJ, and our entire company, I'd like to first make a brief statement about recent events. ServiceNow has a very special team in Israel. One of our own colleagues Shlomi Sividia was at the Supernova Music Festival. He was murdered in the unprecedented and heinous attack. Shlomi was highly respected, admired, and a good friend to many. We stand in solidarity with our team and with their families. Terrorism has caused the unfathomable humanitarian crisis and now engulfs millions of people in Israel and Gaza. Our hearts pray for the innocent on all sides. Even with optimism in short supply, we choose to honor the dream of a peaceful and prosperous future for the Middle East region.

God bless and protect all those in harm's way. Now for business. Of course, that's the reason we're here to discuss ServiceNow's Q3 results. We're proud that our company once again delivered beyond expectation. ServiceNow has delivered subscription revenue that grew by 24.5% in constant currency, over one point above our guidance. cRPO grew a strong 24%. That's 2.5 points above our guidance. Operating margin was 30%, more than 2.5 points above our guidance. We had 83 deals greater than 1 million in net new ACV, up from 69 a year ago, a 20% increase year-over-year. Our focus on landing the right new customers, continued to deliver. Large new logo growth accelerated for the third consecutive quarter. ServiceNow's traction as the intelligent platform for end-to-end digital transformation has intensified.

All of our workflow businesses were in 14 or more of the top 20 deals, ITSM, ITOM, ITAM, security and risk, customer, employee, and creator. Within our technology workflows, security and risk had a very strong quarter, with 10 deals over 1 million. Employee workflows had a stellar quarter with seven deals over 1 million and one deal over 10 million. From an industry perspective, this was the best US Federal quarter in ServiceNow's history. NNACV was up over 75% year-over-year. US Federal agencies are standardizing on a single platform with a core set of end-to-end solutions. We had 19 federal deals over 1 million, including three deals over 10 million. Our top deal in the quarter, the United States Air Force was the third largest deal in the company's history.

You'll hear from Gina that this performance has heightened our confidence for a strong Q4. We're increasing the full year guidance on the top line and the bottom line and here is the key takeaway. AI has strengthened the market dynamics for enterprise software. ServiceNow is the fastest-growing company in this market at relative scale. We have the highest rule of 50 plus across our peer set with the highest growth of any other large-cap software company. We are the best performing enterprise software company to IPO. This is a unique, highly differentiated company that is rewriting the benchmarks to be best-in-class in the SaaS industry. Looking beyond the quarterly results, while the world's challenges are sobering, the digitization imperative is stronger than ever.

Gartner forecasts that $3 trillion will be spent on AI and GenAI between 2023 and 2027. GenAI represents 36% of AI spending overall. We believe every dollar of global GDP will be impacted by AI over the next several years. This isn't a hype cycle. It is a generational movement. In the last year, ServiceNow has doubled down on our AI investments. Our Vancouver release includes generative AI-powered Now Assist for every workflow. Others issued press releases. We released product. At ServiceNow, our strategy isn't about exuberance. It's about execution. We carefully laid the groundwork for success and talent and resources and technology. This investment is accelerating our already robust pipeline with customers lining up to be first-movers in this next wave of business transformation.

The question we've been asked repeatedly, does AI drive growth? The definitive answer is, yes, it does. GenAI represents a tailwind of growth for ServiceNow. We have over 300 customers in our pipeline from every industry, every buying center and every stage of testing. Our GenAI SKU drove the highest number of customer requests for a pre-release product in our history. We launched Vancouver on September 29th. That left us one day in Q3 to sign deals, and we signed four large deals. A US government agency selected our premium SKU offerings, to be an early adopter of GenAI. Real estate leader, CBRE is harnessing generative AI with ServiceNow to deliver superior service to customers and employees, while reducing costs. NVIDIA is accelerating its own ServiceNow journey with generative AI.

Among other leading companies, Teleperformance joined ServiceNow's AI Lighthouse program. They will collaborate on new generative AI use cases that boost productivity while increasing customer and employee satisfaction in key industries. We have a wide range of other customer wins in the quarter as well. FedEx is using ServiceNow to simplify their IT workflows, while building a universal employee portal to improve employee experience for a 0.5 million global employees. One of the world's largest automakers selected ServiceNow to help consolidate dozens of applications into a new modern platform to accelerate their push into the EV market. Philips, Mars, Bank of California, Cleveland Clinic, the US Department of Defense, Fujitsu, Asahi Mutual Insurance, and the State of California are among many others.

We see a meaningful path for all customers to recognize value from generative AI, in the quarters to come. Our innovation velocity is very high. Pipeline is growing fast and capacity to execute is well proven and this is just the beginning. Looking holistically at our business, we see progress everywhere. We have an aspiration to significantly increase the percentage of net new revenue, sourced by our partners in the coming years. This is about partners making the ServiceNow platform the core of their emerging business models. One exciting example is our customer Trane Technologies. They are a global climate innovator, which recently announced plans to acquire ServiceNow partner Nuvolo. With Nuvolo, Trane Technologies can bring world-class digital solutions, engineered on the ServiceNow platform to their global customer base.

A team of software engineers at desks working on code for a cutting-edge cloud computing solution.

This creates a flywheel effect to ServiceNow, more use cases, drive more workflow automation. And today, we're excited to share that Deloitte and ServiceNow announced an expansion to our alliance. Deloitte will become a pioneering partner, integrating our generative AI capabilities into their leading operate services globally. This addition underscores Deloitte's commitment to enhance performance with cross-industry solutions built on the ServiceNow platform. We're also scaling our ecosystem globally, with today's announcement of a co-investment in ANSR, a market leader in enabling companies to scale technology centers. Another area that we expect to fuel long-term sustainable growth is industry verticalization. Our product development roadmap is expanding with use cases and telecommunications, financial services, retail and the public sector.

And beyond any one industry, we increasingly see both intra and inter-enterprise workflow opportunities on the ServiceNow platform. This new generation of business networks is creating value chains that transcend traditional business boundaries. Our rapid pace of workflow innovation creates an even greater demand for our training and skills initiative, RiseUp with ServiceNow. As one example, FutureSkills Prime, a digital skilling initiatives of the Indian government will train thousands of learners across India in new digital skills. This partnership offers clear pathways to build careers as businesses worldwide grow at ServiceNow workforce. Bottom line this all points to grow at ServiceNow. In closing, we are building a company for the ages, by concentrating on customer value, we are creating immense shareholder value.

At a strategic level, we chose to set the bar high, to be the defining enterprise software company of the 21st Century. We have an inspired team that is committed to our exponential dream. A company is only as great as each member of the team and the team is only as great as the company. That is what culture is all about. Our employee engagement scores increased across the board this year, so did our retention rates, which are already best-in class. We never went for layoffs. We went for thoughtful, careful expansion. When you look at the ongoing momentum from Knowledge '23, it's clear the approach is working. A profitable growth profile of this company speaks for itself. The market is there for us and now we're focused on Q4, delivering a strong full year and a fast start in 2024 as well.

Thank you for your time today. I look forward to your questions. Now, I'll turn it over to our outstanding CFO, Gina Mastantuono. Gina, over to you.

Gina Mastantuono: Thank you, Bill. Q3 marks another quarter of strong execution, as we once again significantly surpassed the high end of our topline growth and profitability guidance metrics. ServiceNow continues to demonstrate its resilience as the intelligent platform for end-to-end digital transformation. Customers are seeking enhanced productivity solutions in the current macroenvironment and ServiceNow is delivering. In Q3, subscription revenues of $2.216 billion, growing 24.5% year-over-year in constant-currency, exceeding the high end of our guidance range by over 100 basis points, amazing organic growth at massive scale. RPO ended the quarter at approximately $14.4 billion, representing 23.5% year-over-year constant-currency growth.

Current RPO was approximately $7.43 billion, representing 24% year-over-year constant-currency growth, and a 250 basis point beat versus our guidance. As Bill highlighted, Federal has best net new ACV quarter ever, growing over 75% year-over-year. I want to give a quick shout out to the Federal team, who has just been crushing it. Among the other industries, transportation and logistics was very strong, growing over a 100% year-over-year, followed by education, which grew over 75%. Manufacturing and CMC also saw robust growth. We had some outstanding achievements from a workflow standpoint as well. I'm pleased to announce that Creator Workflows crossed 1 billion in ACV in Q3, a monumental milestone, and our Employee Pro SKU saw over 100% growth in net new ACV year-over-year.

Retention remained exceptional with the renewal rate of 98% in Q3 reaffirming the essential role the Now Platform plays in our customers' operations. Our customer cohorts displayed solid expansion as the quarter closed with 1,789 customers contributing over 1 million in ACV, with 58% year-over-year growth in those contributing over $20 million. In Q3, we successfully closed 83 deals greater than 1 million in net new ACV, with four deals greater than 10 million. Notably, 18 of our top 20 net new ACV deals included eight or more products. By launching at the end of the quarter we have already -- we have also already closed four GenAI-related enterprise deals and we're seeing strong pipeline build for our plus SKUs. Turning to profitability, non-GAAP operating margin was 30%, over 250 basis points above our guidance, driven by disciplined spend management, and the top-line outperformance.

Our free cash flow margin was 9%, up 300 basis points year-over-year. We ended the quarter with a robust balance sheet, including $7 billion in cash and investments. In Q3 we repurchased, 0.5 million shares as part of our first-ever share repurchase program, with the primary objective of managing the impact of dilution. As of the end of the quarter, we have approximately $1.2 billion remaining of the original $1.5 billion authorization. Together, these results continue to demonstrate our ability to drive a strong balance of world-class growth, profitability and shareholder value. Moving to our guidance. We are raising the full-year outlook to reflect the strength of Q3. As we have done all year, we continue to prudently factor the macro cross-wins into our guidance.

This includes incremental FX headwind from a strengthening US dollar. For 2023, we are raising our subscription revenues outlook by $48 million at the midpoint to a range of $8.635 billion to $8.640 billion, representing 25% year-over-year growth or 25% on a constant-currency basis. We're also raising our full year operating margin target from 26.5% to 27%. And we continue to expect subscription gross margin of 84%, free cash flow margin of 30%, and GAAP-diluted weighted average outstanding shares of 206 million. For Q4, we expect subscription revenues between $2.320 billion and $2.325 billion, representing 24.5% to 25% year-over-year growth or 23% to 23.5% on a constant currency basis. We expect cRPO growth of 20.5% or 21% on a constant currency basis.

Notably, the strength of our federal business has resulted in a higher mix of 12-month contracts that will create a one point headwind to Q4 cRPO growth and remain a headwind into 2024. We expect that these contracts will renew in 2024 as ServiceNow's federal contract renewal rate are 99%. We expect an operating margin of 27.5% and we expect 206 million GAAP-diluted weighted average outstanding shares for the quarter. In conclusion, our team delivered an exceptional performance across the board. With a culture focused on customer success, our people have worked relentlessly to provide solutions to meet enterprise's needs, and it's showing in our robust results. Businesses are looking to consolidate vendors and standardize on a platform with a core set of products, so they can build a predictable and reliable roadmap to drive digital transformation.

ServiceNow is that strategic platform. With the addition of our Vancouver release, and the capabilities presented by GenAI, the window of opportunity is even more expansive than ever before. The result is a more powerful, and intelligent platform, that enables customers to ignite end-to-end action, across the enterprise in ways not seen before. It's an exciting opportunity to further improve productivity, and employee satisfaction, optimize processes, reduce costs, and create organizational agility. The possibilities are endless. Bill and I extent our gratitude to all our employees worldwide for their unwavering dedication and commitment that puts us at the forefront of this opportunity, and further driving ServiceNow towards its ambition of becoming the defining enterprise software company of the 21st Century.

With that, I'll open it up for Q&A.

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Singapore Exchange Limited (SGX:S68) has announced that it will pay a dividend of SGD0.085 per share on the 9th of November. Based on this payment, the dividend yield will be 3.6%, which is fairly typical for the industry.

View our latest analysis for Singapore Exchange

Singapore Exchange's Dividend Is Well Covered By Earnings

While it is always good to see a solid dividend yield, we should also consider whether the payment is feasible. Prior to this announcement, Singapore Exchange was quite comfortably covering its dividend with earnings and it was paying more than 75% of its free cash flow to shareholders. The company is clearly earning enough to pay this type of dividend, but it is definitely focused on returning cash to shareholders, rather than growing the business.

Looking forward, earnings per share is forecast to fall by 0.1% over the next year. If the dividend continues along recent trends, we estimate the payout ratio could be 63%, which we consider to be quite comfortable, with most of the company's earnings left over to grow the business in the future.

Singapore Exchange Has A Solid Track Record

The company has been paying a dividend for a long time, and it has been quite stable which gives us confidence in the future dividend potential. Since 2013, the annual payment back then was SGD0.28, compared to the most recent full-year payment of SGD0.34. This means that it has been growing its distributions at 2.0% per annum over that time. Dividends have grown relatively slowly, which is not great, but some investors may value the relative consistency of the dividend.

The Dividend Has Growth Potential

Investors could be attracted to the stock based on the quality of its payment history. Singapore Exchange has seen EPS rising for the last five years, at 9.5% per annum. Since earnings per share is growing at an acceptable rate, and the payout policy is balanced, we think the company is positioning itself well to grow earnings and dividends in the future.

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In Summary

In summary, we are pleased with the dividend remaining consistent, and we think there is a good chance of this continuing in the future. The payments look okay by most measures, the lack of cash flow could definitely cause problems for them in the future. Taking all of this into consideration, the dividend looks viable moving forward, but investors should be mindful that the company has pushed the boundaries of sustainability in the past and may do so again.

Companies possessing a stable dividend policy will likely enjoy greater investor interest than those suffering from a more inconsistent approach. Still, investors need to consider a host of other factors, apart from dividend payments, when analysing a company. For example, we've picked out 1 warning sign for Singapore Exchange that investors should know about before committing capital to this stock. If you are a dividend investor, you might also want to look at our curated list of high yield dividend stocks.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
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Shoppers heading to Costco this November have more than a few must-haves to pick up from the warehouse club. The holidays, and winter weather season, are right around the corner and Costco members will want to stock up on essentials ranging from cleaning supplies to cooking supplies.

Stock Up: 7 Bulk Food Items You Need To Be Buying at Costco This Fall

Find Out: How To Get Cash Back on Your Everyday Purchases

Depending on your household needs, some shoppers might choose one of our runner-up items or beeline for the winning item, which has been going viral online thanks to its price point and functionality. See if you agree that this is the single best thing to buy at Costco this November.

Runner-up: Home and Body Holiday Wishes Hand Soap

If you have a lengthy guest list attending your Thanksgiving meal or are looking for festive stocking stuffers, Costco members should consider adding Home and Body Holiday Wishes Hand Soap to their shopping carts. Julie Ramhold, consumer analyst at DealNews.com, said theres a special incentive for in-store shoppers who do it.

According to Ramhold, in-store Costco shoppers can get a four-pack of these winter scented hand soaps for just $9.99 from November 24 to November 27 as part of Costcos holiday savings event. Members may also shop online and buy an eight-pack of these soaps for $34.99 now or with additional savings during Black Friday.

Check It Out: 10 Costco Meals That Are Cheaper Than Buying Takeout

Runner-up: Starbucks Organic Winter Blend Whole Bean Coffee

Greet the upcoming daylight saving time change with delicious Starbucks Organic Winter Blend Whole Bean Coffee.

Starting October 25 through November 19, Ramhold said this coffee will be $5 off its original price of $31.99. This means Costco members will pay $26.99 for a 2.5-pound package of this seasonal coffee.

Winner: over&back Open Kitchen 2-Piece Bakeware Set

Savvy Costco shoppers have likely seen or heard their social media feeds raving about over&backs Open Kitchen 2-Piece Bakeware Set. A post from @costcosisters on Instagram described the oven-to-table set as perfect for the holiday hosting season.

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An over&back representative told GOBankingRates the two-piece set costs $18.99 in-store. They also come in two colors: classic white or a simple blue and white. While the set isnt available to purchase online from the Costco website, shoppers are heading to Costco stores to buy the sets while theyre still in stock to serve up holiday casseroles, oven baked French toast and more sumptuous meals everyone will love.

Speaking of casseroles, Costco is currently selling over&backs 2-piece Casserole Set online for $24.99. Get it while its still available this November!

More From GOBankingRates

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: The Single Best Thing To Buy at Costco This November
Halloween spending is expected to hit an all-time high. But here's the trick: treat yourself to a good deal when you find one.

Most of us are looking forward to celebrating Halloween this year, with nearly three-fourths (73%) of people expected to join in  the highest participation recorded in the National Retail Federation's annual survey. Halloween spending is expected to surpass $12 billion, according to the NFR survey, conducted Sept. 1-6 with 8,084 consumers about their shopping plans.

Even though inflation was expected to have a scary effect on the country's Halloween spending bill, this goes beyond an inflationary boost. Weve really seen an increase in the holidays popularity, and that is whats driving spending this year, Katherine Cullen, NRF's vice president of industry and consumer insights, said in a statement.

Halloween 2023: Spooky season deals for those on a budget

Brands have boosted their social media activity ahead of Halloween "to promote a new or in-market product offering," Eileen Kwok, social marketing specialist for social media management company Hootsuite, shared.

And some of those involve deals, with one of the most successful  and, unfortunately, expired  promotions from Marvel and Party City giving kids 20% off superhero costumes, according to Hootsuite's analysis of social media data from X, formerly known as Twitter.

That deal ended Oct. 20, but some other deals are also scaring up engagement on social media, the company found. Burger King created a scary 60-second film called "The Call," to scare up excitement about the chain's Halloween-themed limited time items, the Ghost Pepper Whopper and Ghost Pepper Chicken Fries. As a result, the #GhostPepperWhopper hashtag became popular on TikTok for reviews of the sandwich, Kwok said.

Jack in the Box also posted a horror short called "Feeding Time," with an Easter egg that unlocks free Monster Tacos on the Jack app.

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Booze free frights: How to make Witches Brew Punch and other Halloween mocktails

Burger King: More Halloween deals

The fast-food chain has launched a Trick or Heat game with its app giving you the chance to win a daily treat and members of the Royal Perks loyalty program can order special meals through Oct. 31:

Trick or Heat Bundle ($13): Ghost Pepper whopper, small fries, small drink, 4-piece ghost pepper chicken fries, and a Hershey Sundae Pie.

Spooky Special ($13) Whopper, small fries, small drink, 4-piece regular chicken fries, and a Hershey Sundae Pie

Burger King is also offering limited edition "Trick or Heat" buckets for $1 at locations in four cities: Atlanta, Charlotte, N.C., Las Vegas, and Nashville, Tenn.

McDonald's: Fast-food chain brings back its Boo Buckets for Halloween

Chipotle's Halloween Boorito deal

It's easier than ever to take advantage of Chipotle's annual Halloween promotion because there's no costume required as in some past celebrations at the fast-casual chain.

Starting at 3 p.m. local time on Tuesday, Oct. 31, members of its Chipotle Rewards loyalty program can get $6 entrees  the burritos, tacos, bowls and salads typically cost about $10 to $12  on the Chipotle app or Chipotle.com and use the promo code BOORITO (limit one per transaction). And closing time will be extended at some locations in 53 college towns, where Chipotle will stay open until midnight.

Dunkin' has deals on Halloween

Through the rest of October, members of the Dunkin' Rewards loyalty program can get $1 off a half dozen classic donuts and $2 medium cold brew drinks (limit 1 per member). Limited-time menu items include the Spider Donut, Pumpkin Cake Donut and Pumpkin Muffin.

This Halloween season, Dunkin' has a Spider Donut and chocolate & orange sprinkled versions of the classic chocolate, vanilla and strawberry frosted donuts.

You can also get a free coffee on Monday, Oct. 30 (limit 1 per member per day).

Rewards members get triple points on purchases of hot or iced signature lattes.

Still available online is a six-foot-tall inflatable Spider Donut ($99.99 on the Dunkin website).

Dunkin has a six-foot-tall Inflatable Spider Donut ($99.99) available on ShopDunkin.com.

Krispy Kreme: Get a free donut with your Halloween costume

Wear your costume to Krispy Kreme on Halloween and get a free doughnut of your choice, no purchase necessary. That includes the allnew Scooby-Doo Halloween Doughnuts the chain started serving earlier this month.

Wendy's Spooky Good Deals include BOGO sandwiches

Wendy's has several Spooky Good Deals from Friday, Oct. 27 through Halloween in the Wendy's mobile app good at participating Wendy's for a limited time. Account registration is required and offers must be redeemed in the Wendy's App or on the Wendy's website. The offer is not valid for delivery orders placed outside of the Wendy's App or website.

Friday, Oct. 27: Buy-one-get-one-free premium sandwich, such as the Loaded Nacho Cheeseburger

Saturday, Oct. 28: Free Crispy Chicken Sandwich with any purchase

Sunday, Oct. 29: BOGO Breakfast Croissant or Biscuit Sandwich

Monday, Oct. 30: Get a small coffee (Hot, Chillingly Cold, or Frosty Cream Cold) for 99 cents.

Tuesday, Oct. 31: Free 6-piece Nuggs with any purchase

You can still get Wendy's Frosty Boo! Books coupon book ($1), which comes with five coupons  good until the end of 2023  for a free Jr. Frosty (including the Pumpkin Frosty) and a bonus coupon for a Wendy's Kids' Meal with any purchase. For a limited time, Wendy's Kids' Meals will come with collectible DC toys and special-edition packaging. Proceeds from the coupon book benefit the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption.

Smoothie King's 15% off treat

From Sunday, Oct. 29 through Halloween, members of Smoothie King's Healthy Rewards loyalty program can get 15% off one app order daily including all smoothies and newest Smoothie Bowls including the Acai Cocoa Haze and Coco Pitaya-Yah.

Halloween help from Doordash

Need a hand with your last-minute Halloween plans? DoorDash can deliver costumes, candy and more from Spirit Halloween, Party City/Halloween City, Aldi, CVS, Dollar General and DashMart, DoorDash's own convenience stores. Here are the deals:

Get 30% off costumes and other retail orders of $30 or more (discount of up to $20) until Oct. 31 with code TRICK30 (one per customer and you must have an existing DoorDash account).

Get $5 off candy and other grocery and convenience orders of $20 or more until Oct. 31 with code 5TREAT (one per customer and you must have an existing DoorDash account).

Uber Eats: Know your horror films to get 60% off Halloween delivery

You can get 60% off Halloween candy, decorations and costumes delivered by Uber Eats if you know your horror movies. At horrorcodes.com, each day there's a different horror film quote you can solve to get the discount code.

When you've solved it, open the Uber Eats app, go to your Account, then Promotions, then type in the quote as a promo code without spaces or punctuation. The discount will apply automatically across Uber Eats on candy, Halloween decor and costumes, and orders from Party City and Halloween City. (One redemption per customer, while supplies last. Terms apply. See horrorcodes.com for details. Codes vary between U.S. and Canada.)

Safe holiday snacks: Want a candy bowl that's safe for all? Try these allergy-friendly Halloween treats

Wingstop's 70-cent boneless wing deal for Halloween

WingStop on Monday, Oct. 30, and Tuesday, Oct. 31, will have 70-cent boneless wing deals  that's a discount of 40% to 45%.

Red Lobster: Crab Your Way on Halloween

Red Lobster has a Crab Your Way deal on Tuesday, Oct. 31  a pound of snow crab legs prepared your way over crispy potatoes, with a choice of one side for dine-in or to go (starts at $20, prices may be higher in some states and price excludes beverages, applicable taxes and gratuities, third-party delivery excluded).

The seafood chain also has family-sized meals such as the new Family Taco Meal Deal and the Ultimate Family Feast should you need dinner before or after trick-or-treating.

Denny's Kids Eat Free on Halloween deal

It's no trick. Kids eat for free at Denny's on Oct. 31  for the record, they eat free every Tuesday at the restaurant chain. The deal is good from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. with an adult's order of an entree of $6 or more. Children under the age of 10 can choose any entree from the Dennys Kids Menu including favorites such as Jr. Chocolate Chip Pancakes, Build Your Own Jr. Grand Slam, chicken tenders, and mac and cheese.

Zaxby's BOGO boneless wings meal deal for Halloween

At Zaxbys on Monday, Oct. 30 and Tuesday, Oct. 31, you can order in the Zaxby's app to get a special buy-one-get-one free offer for a Boneless Wings Meal with a choice of eight signature sauces, plus fries and Texas toast (starts at $7.99). In the app, you can join Zax Rewardz and earn points for purchases. Plus, when you join, you get a free 5-piece order of Chicken Fingerz.

Auntie Annes Confetti Pretzel Nuggets deal

You can add Auntie Anne's new Confetti Pretzel Nuggets to your Halloween gathering for 20% if you are a member of the pretzel chain's Auntie Annes Rewards program. Order within the app and you also get 20% off any drink (good through Nov. 13). Also, when you join the program, you get a free pretzel after your first order.

Carvel: Get $5 off any order of $25 or more

This Saturday through Halloween, Carvel is giving $5 off orders of $25 or more placed on delivery services Uber Eats, Grubhub and DoorDash. Newest treat option? The Cinnabon soft serve flavor.

Church's Texas Chicken scary big meal and Trick-or-Treat bag

Church's limited-time Texas-Sized Grande Meal ($30) comes with either 16-piece legs and thighs or 8-piece legs and thighs with eight tenders with Churchs Purple Pepper sauce, plus three large sides of mashed potatoes, coleslaw, mac and cheese, and six Honey-Butter Biscuits.

And while supplies last you can get a free Church's Trick-or-Treat bag with the purchase of any Churchs family meal.

Halloween playlist: Spooky songs to get your night jumping, including Alice Cooper, AC/DC and Black Sabbath

Jeremiah's Italian Ice: Free treat on Halloween

On Halloween, Jeremiahs Italian Ice is offering a free small ice or gelati for anyone in costume from 5 p.m. until closing time. When you order treats, you can get Premium Layer-Ins and Flavorites for just $0.99.

There's also three new Halloween-themed Flavorites:

Franken Frog: Scoop Froggy Frog (mint chocolate chip) ice and chocolate ice cream with an Oreo cookie crumble Layer-In.

Vampire Bite: Strawberry ice and vanilla ice cream with a chocolate chip and chocolate sprinkle Layer-In.

Witchs Brew with Mystery Ice: Spooky Witchs Brew ice  a mystery flavor  with vanilla ice cream and a rainbow sprinkle Layer-In.

7-Eleven Halloween deals

While you wait for Halloween arrival, you can go try the citrus-flavored Mountain Dew Pitch Black Slurpee, which is available for a limited time at 7-Eleven and Speedway stores. Members of the 7Rewards and Speedy Rewards loyalty programs can get small Slurpees for $1.

More 7-Eleven deals:

Until Oct. 25-31: Loyalty members can get standard size Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Starburst, Nerds Ropes and more candies for $1.

On Oct. 30 and Oct. 31: Buy any large pizza and get another one for free if you are a 7Rewards or Speedy Rewards member.

7-Eleven also has some new Area 7-11 clothing available online, too.

Baskin-Robbins' Halloween deal: 31% off scoops

On Halloween at Baskin-Robbins, you can get 31% off scoops including Apple Cider Donut, made with pieces of apple cider donuts and cinnamon sugar. You can also get free delivery through DoorDash and Uber Eats until Nov. 8. Maybe treat yourself to the Zombie Unicorn Cake, made with a Oreo crumb-dipped cone and cake base, your favorite ice cream and cake flavors, with dark chocolate ears, green icing and red gel "blood."

Buffalo Wild Wings' has BOGO traditional wings on Halloween

On Tuesday, Oct. 31, get 50% off all traditional wings at participating Buffalo Wild Wings. Available for delivery, takeout or dine-in.

On Halloween, Buffalo Wild Wings has a buy-one, get-one free special for traditional wings at participating locations, available for delivery, takeout or dine-in.

Blaze Pizza Halloween contest

It's no trick. Sign up for Blaze Pizza's rewards loyalty program and all new app users will get a $5 off $15 reward within 5-10 minutes. Simply go to the Rewards section of your account for use online or in-restaurant.

Also, you can win free pizza for a year as part of the #BlazeTrickorEatChallenge. Decorate yourself, your pizza, or a Blaze Pizza box for Halloween  your entry must feature one Blaze Pizza item, tag @BlazePizza and share it on Instagram with the hashtag #BlazeTrickorEatChallenge. For the official rules go to the Blaze Pizza web site. Don't delay, five finalists will be posted Oct. 30 and Instagram followers will get to vote.

Oh, there's also a special Halloween menu item: the Sausage Garlic pizza ($8.99)  Get it? Garlic. Vampires.

Make your own scary short film for a year's supply of Airheads candy and $2,000

Scary videos have been big this Halloween with shorts released by Burger King and Jack in the Box. Four filmmakers have created short videos for Airheads candy's online A.I.Heads Scarefest and you can create your own, too, for a chance to win a year's supply of Airheads candy and a $2,000 cash prize. Submissions must be 1-to-3-minutes long and use artificial intelligence tools and the Airheads mascot (deadline is Nov. 6).

Schlotzskys Pizza Bundle special

Schlotzsky's new 4-pack pizza bundle includes four 10-inch pizzas or flatbreads and one entree veggie salad starting at just $34.99  a starting discount of 27%  after 2 p.m. online, in-app or in-store. The offer is good through Jan. 1, 2024, excludes Kids Menu items and doesn't include taxes and fees or additional costs for premium toppings, add-ons or substitutions including gluten-free options.

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McAlisters Deli has Witchs Brew and cookies, too

Buy an entree at McAlisters and get 50% off its Witch's Brew, a lemonade made with cane sugar, lemon juice, and caramel apple syrup. The offer is good for McAlisters Loyalty Members from Saturday, Oct. 28, to Tuesday, Oct. 31 (for up to two drinks with entree purchase).

Also available through Halloween: A limited-edition Halloween Cookie Tray with 52 assorted mini cookies, plus decorations and candies, starting at $24.99.

TGI Fridays' Spook-tacular Starters deal for Halloween

On Oct. 31, members of the Fridays Rewards loyalty program can get free chips & salsa or $3 off any appetizer. Ten of Fridays' lunches, including the Whiskey-Glazed Chicken Slammer Combo and Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo Pasta, are priced at $10, until 3 p.m. at participating locations. Also: during Happy Every Hour, which is daily and every hour the restaurant is open, there's $2 beers, $4 cocktails, and $5 wine.

Sonic Drive-In's Halloween deals: 50 cent corn dogs and half-priced cheeseburgers

Sonic is bringing back its Halloween special: 50-cent corn dogs. Also on Halloween night, you can get half-priced cheeseburgers after 5 p.m. in the Sonic app.

Sonic also is serving up an easy way to get favorite trick-or-treat candies in one stop: Sonic's Trick or Treat Blast has chunks of Heath bars, M&Ms Minis and Oreo cookie pieces, all mixed with soft serve. The treat ($4.59 for a medium) is available until Dec. 31, while supplies last. And a portion of the price supports the Sonic Foundation.

Sonic's Trick or Treat Blast has chunks of Heath bars, M&Ms Minis and Oreo cookie pieces, all mixed with soft serve. The treat ($4.59 for a medium) is available until Dec. 31, while supplies last.

Kung Fu Tea costumes and Spirit Spooky Slush

You may have to hurry to score this one, but if you wear a Kung Fu Tea costume from Spirit Halloween to your local Kung Fu Tea store on Halloween you get a free drink. Check out the five costumes on the Spirit Halloween online store. There's also a limited-edition Spirit Spooky Slush, made with matcha slush, a brand-new Taro Milk Cap and topped with Oreo cookie pieces.

Rubios Spooky-rito Burritos deal on Halloween

On Halloween, Rubios Rewards members get any burrito on the menu for $8.99 including the Puerto Nuevo Burrito with Langostino Lobster and the Ancho Citrus Shrimp Burrito. Place your order online, in the app, or scan your in-app QR code at the register.

Pizza Hut $7 value menu deals and ... Girl Math?

OK, this isn't officially a Halloween deal, but it's happening now and almost until Christmas  and is a play on the Girl Math meme on TikTok. You can get a free item from Pizza Hut's new $7 Deal Lovers Menu, which includes 17 options. Among them: medium one-topping pizza, Meat Lover's Melt, 8-piece boneless wings, double order of breadsticks, Chicken Alfredo Pasta, a 4-pack of Pepsi, and three new menu items. Those menu items are: Roasted Garlic Cheese Sticks, Bacon Cheddar Cheese Sticks and Chocolate Donut Bites.

Here's the deal: go to https://www.hutmath.com and TikTok influencer Anna Sitar will fill you in, but you will eventually want to link to a TikTok post of yours or write out how your $7 Deal Lovers purchase is basically free, and Pizza Hut will send you a $7 electronic gift card for your next Deal Lovers Menu order while supplies last. If that day's codes are gone, come back the next day. Prices and participation may vary and there is a two-item minimum. Taxes and delivery fees are not included. This deal ends on Dec. 23.

Papa John's: Jack-o'-lantern pizza and Twix Papa Bites

You don't have to go trick or treating for this treat: Papa John's New Twix Papa Bites, made with bits of Twix Cookie Bars and served with caramel dipping sauce is here in time for Halloween night. These are available only for members of the Papa Rewards loyalty program ($4.99).

Also for the Halloween season: the Jack-o-lantern pizza ($10.99) available through Oct. 31.

Marco's Pizza: Deal on new Pizzoli handheld

Ohio-based Marco's Pizza, now in 34 states, has created a new pizza monster: the Pizzoli. This mashup of pizza and stromboli has arrived just in time for Halloween, available for a limited-time introductory price of $5.99 at participating Marco's locations, flavors include: pepperoni, Buffalo chicken, pepperoni and sausage, and chicken bacon ranch.

Earlier this month, Marco's Pizza also unleashed the Hot Honey Magnifico Pizza, the chain's Pepperoni Magnifico pizza in collaboration with Mike's Hot Honey drizzled on top.

Marcos expands its menu offerings with the launch of the Pizzoli, a new handheld item inspired by pizza and stromboli and available in four delicious varieties.

The origins of candy corn: A divisive delicacy, destined to be a Halloween tradition

Free Tombstone Pizza for ... Jason?

Tombstone Pizza is giving all those named Jason  the baddy in the Friday the 13 horror films  a chance to win free pizza and a $5,000 prize (it's suggested the winner spend it for a weekend at a cabin on a lake or at a camp. Oh, you can also enter if your legal name is Crystal or Pamela (fans of the movies will get it). Just to to the Tombstone contest site to enter before midnight on Halloween.

Moes Southwest Grill Chips and Dips Trio special

From Halloween to Nov. 12, when you order a Chips and Dip Trio at Moe's, members of its Moe Rewards loyalty program will get 10 bonus points.

From Halloween to Nov. 12, when you order a Chips and Dip Trio at Moe's Southwest Grill restaurants, members of its Moe Rewards loyalty program will get 10 bonus points.

Follow Mike Snider on X and Threads: @mikesnider & mikegsnider.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Halloween food deals 2023: Discounts at Chipotle, 7-Eleven and more
Salt River Project has adopted a long-term power-generating roadmap that aims to expand the use of green sources of energy. The vision also aims to ensure that the utility can meet its power needs reliably without pushing customer bills sharply higher or triggering outages.

The utility's framework for power use from 2025 to 2035 doesnt abandon coal or natural gas but allocates them a smaller slice of an expanding energy pie. The utility contends that multiple sources for producing electricity are needed to meet an expected doubling or even tripling of power-generating capacity by the end of that decade, as the Valley's rapid growth continues.

Among the highlights in the roadmap: SRP plans to add generating capacity to provide 7,000 megawatts of power through renewable resources, with solar contributing 6,000 of that. The latter figure is enough to power roughly 1.35 million average-sized homes. Smaller contributions are expected from wind energy, customer programs designed to reduce demand at peak periods and other sources.

But environmentalist critics say the strategy still relies too heavily on coal and natural gas. SRP plans to add about 2,000 megawatts of gas generating capacity by 2035, which the utility said is needed to support the grid while the company transitions to more solar, battery storage and other renewable energy sources. Gas plants can turn on or off relatively quickly.

Several factors pushing up demand

The projected demand increases reflect expectations for continued residential growth around metro Phoenix, more businesses forming and locating here, and increased adoption of electric vehicles, said Angie Bond-Simpson, SRP's senior director of resource management. The roadmap incorporates customer preferences, as elicited in surveys and focus groups conducted over the past two years.

Our customers are asking for balance, Bond-Simpson said. Affordability was the prime concern cited by respondents.

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Arizona gas prices fall again: Here's where you'll pay the most and the least to fill up

Balance means using more renewable energy sources but also ensuring that power needs can be met reliably and affordably.

SRP, which serves 1.1 million customers throughout the Phoenix area, currently can generate about 12,000 megawatts of power, with expectations that that will double or even triple by 2035. Recent extreme summer heat, if it persists like it did this past summer, will place additional burdens on the electric grid at peak periods.

Ending reliance on coal and natural gas power plants sooner would have raised prices for customers and strained the grid at a time when SRP faces considerable ongoing and new power needs, Bond-Simpson said. SRP faced peak energy demand when it delivered an hourly record of 8,163 megawatts late in the afternoon on July 18.

Customers to pay more for electricity

To meet the expected growth in electricity demand, SRP expects that it will need to increase residential billing to outpace inflation over the next decade or so.

In its new roadmap, the company is aiming to wean the power grid from polluting sources gradually without imperiling reliability or significantly raising costs that would be passed along to customers.

Pricing for commercial customers likely would be similar but a bit lower, as businesses consume a smaller portion of their power at peak times.

Arizona's ecosystem: Environmental justice, climate resiliency projects to receive federal funding

Rates would be notably higher if SRP retired all of its coal and natural gas plants and didn't add any new generation from fossil fuels.

In addition to generating electricity, the long-term strategy also envisions installing hundreds of miles of power lines and related infrastructure to connect that transmission to our customers, Bond-Simpson said in an interview. These are huge investments that will need to be financed over decades.

The plan adopted by SRPs board in early October does not require regulatory approval.

Sandy Bahr of the Sierra Club speaks during a hearing on HB 2540, Jan. 29, 2019, at the Arizona House of Representatives' Committee on Natural Resources, Energy and Water at the Arizona Capitol.

Too much reliance on polluting sources?

Power to be supplied by renewable energy by 2035 is expected to be significantly larger than what is being provided today, Bond-Simpson said.

Still, the company's strategy isn't sitting well with some critics. Sandy Bahr, director of the Sierra Club's Grand Canyon chapter, said SRP still relies heavily on both coal- and natural-gas power plants, with no announced plans yet to retire the coal generating station it operates in Springerville in eastern Arizona.

"We still have a lot of coal-fired plants compared to a lot of states," said Bahr during a lightly attended protest near SRP's gas-fired Kyrene Generating Station in Tempe.

More homes mean more heat: Can new building codes help save metro Phoenix from disaster?

Bahr also called SRP's long-term fuel-use forecast more of a strategy than an actual plan and said the utility will rely more on natural gas-generated electricity in coming years than is currently the case.

Sandy Whitley, a retired nurse and climate activist, said natural gas plants not only contribute to global warming and rising sea levels but also exacerbate a range of health issues from asthma and heart and lung ailments to diseases borne by expanding mosquito populations.

Similar generating challenges for APS

Arizona Public Service also sees heady demand coming. The Phoenix-based utility will unveil its own long-range forecast on Nov. 1. It will map out energy use for the next 15 years. The company earlier said it expected energy use would surge by 40% over the next eight years.

APS, which serves 1.4 million homes and businesses across 11 of Arizona's 15 counties, recorded 18 days of record peak energy use in July and August amid daily-high temperatures consistently hitting or exceding 110 degrees. APS delivered a record 8,162 megawatts during its peak hour on July 15.

APS said 51% of its current power mix is supplied by clean fuels including that provided by the Palo Verde Generating Station nuclear plant in the west Valley, which also provides power for SRP.

Reach the writer at russ.wiles@arizonarepublic.com.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: SRP adding solar to deliver reliable, affordable power as Ariz. grows
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has signed an order appointing Arif Mammadov as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Azerbaijan to Greece, Azernews reports.

By another presidential decree, Arif Mammadov was dismissed from the post of chairman of the Board of the State Maritime and Port Agency.
TORONTO, October 27, 2023--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Street Haven, a dedicated non-profit housing provider in Toronto, is thrilled to announce that we have been honored with the 2023 Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association (ONPHA) Award of Excellence. This recognition signifies our unwavering commitment to going above and beyond our housing mandate to address the unique needs of our tenants and the community with innovative and insightful solutions.

Our journey began in 1968 when we established Canada's very first women's shelter, marking a historic milestone that continues to define our pioneering spirit. For nearly six decades, we have remained steadfast in our mission to serve vulnerable and homeless women, offering shelter services, supportive housing, residential treatment, training, and outreach services, all geared towards nurturing their path towards independence.

Advocating for more affordable non-profit housing is an integral part of our mission. As co-founders of the Ontario Coalition of Women's Shelter and Supportive Housing Services Providers, we actively engage with elected officials, participate in budget development, and organize advocacy events to secure increased investments in affordable housing. Our focus on addressing the unique needs of chronically homeless women, who are often marginalized by conventional housing approaches, sets us apart. Our client-centered model emphasizes trauma-informed care, comprehensive case management, training, and addiction treatment.

Street Haven's innovative spirit shines through our creative and innovative efforts towards increasing quality affordable and deeply affordable supportive housing stock for homeless women. The organization aims to house double the number of women in the next three years.

Receiving the prestigious 2023 ONPHA Award of Excellence is a testament to our continued commitment to addressing complex housing needs and our innovative approach to housing management. This recognition underscores our dedication to creating a brighter future for homeless and vulnerable women within the Toronto community, and we are deeply honored and grateful for this prestigious award. "It is an honour to be recognized by the association of our peers for the hard work we have done and continue to do in serving our neighbourhoods and homeless women in need. It is both a privilege and a passion for Street Haven to be supporting homeless women towards greater independence", says Dr. Siu Mee Cheng, Street Haven Executive Director.

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About Street Haven

Street Haven is a Toronto-based non-profit organization womens multi-service health and social care agency committed to providing shelter, supportive housing, addictions treatment and training support to vulnerable and homeless women. Since 1965, Street Haven has been at the forefront of combating homelessness experienced by vulnerable women in Toronto.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231027913508/en/

Contacts

For media inquiries or further information, please contact:



Street Haven Communications

Phone: (416) 967-6060

Email: ea@streethaven.com

Website: www.streethaven.com
(Bloomberg) -- The co-founders of Web Summit, Europes largest technology conference, are calling on ousted Chief Executive Officer Paddy Cosgrave to sell his majority stake in its parent company after a firestorm over his remarks on social media about Israel.

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David Kelly and Daire Hickey, who are the only other shareholders in Web Summits holding company, wrote to the board arguing Cosgrave's continued ownership puts the future of the business at risk, according to a person familiar with the matter. Kelly and Hickey asked the board to pursue all options, including a possible sale, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the letter was not public.

Cosgrave resigned last weekend after his posts on the Israel-Hamas war prompted high-profile investors and companies to withdraw from his flagship event, which is scheduled to start on Nov. 13 in Lisbon. Filings show that Cosgrave owns 81% of Manders Terrace Ltd., the firm that controls Web Summit.

A Web Summit spokesperson and lawyers representing Kelly and Hickey declined to comment, while Cosgrave did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Kelly and Hickey have been embroiled in legal battles with Cosgrave for several years in Irish courts over the proceeds from their business and other matters.

In a blog post this week, Web Summit said Cosgrave also stepped down from its board. The remaining directors include three people who work for the conference and Nathan Hubbard, a former executive with Ticketmaster and Twitter. Hubbard didnt respond to a request for comment.

Web Summits annual event in Lisbon draws some 70,000 technologists, politicians and celebrities. Several investors canceled their participation after Cosgrave criticized western support for Israel on X, formerly Twitter, earlier this month. They were followed by a wave of companies pulling out, including Google parent Alphabet Inc., Meta Platforms Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Intel Corp.

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The scandal has extended to Cosgraves venture capital firm that is affiliated with the conference, Web Summit Ventures. Rob Frohwein, the former CEO of online lender Kabbage, told Bloomberg he was disappointed with Cosgraves comments and has begun the process to withdraw his money from the fund.

--With assistance from Lizette Chapman.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
People buy and sell vegetables ahead of the lunar new year in Taipei

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan's trade-dependent economy likely grew faster in the third quarter than the second thanks to resilient domestic consumption and a tentative rebound in exports, a Reuters poll showed on Friday.

Gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to have expanded 2.1% in the July-September period versus a year earlier, the poll of 20 economists showed. GDP grew 1.36% year-on-year in the second quarter, having slipped into recession in the first.

The economists' forecasts for preliminary GDP data due on Tuesday varied widely from an expansion of just 0.5% to as much as 3.75%.

Taiwan's exports emerged from a year-long decline in September, rising for the first time in 13 months on increased demand from the United States ahead of the year-end holiday shopping season.

Third quarter exports dropped 5.1% compared with the same period in 2022, a marked improvement on the second quarter's annual contraction of 16.9%.

Kevin Wang, an economist at Taishin Securities Investment Advisory in Taipei, said although external demand for made-in-Taiwan goods was picking up, the momentum was not strong.

"Private consumption was the bright spot in the third quarter, owing to the contribution of the peak summer vacation season," he added.

The government's statistics bureau said in August it expects full-year 2023 growth of 1.61%, its slowest pace in eight years and lower than the 2.45% growth for 2022.

The economy in China, Taiwan's largest export market, grew at a faster-than-expected clip in the third quarter, expanding 4.9% from the year earlier.

Taiwan is a key hub in the global technology supply chain for giants such as Apple Inc, and home to the world's largest contract chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC).

Taiwan's preliminary GDP figures will be released in a statement with minimal commentary. Revised figures will be released a few weeks later, with more details and forward-looking forecasts.

(Poll compiled by Veronica Khongwir, Anant Chandak and Carol Lee; Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Jeanny Kao; Editing by Sam Holmes)
(Bloomberg) -- A London-based investment firm led by former JPMorgan Chase & Co. banker Alessandro Barnaba unveiled a surprise plan for Telecom Italia SpA that would halt the sale of its landline network and replace the companys chief executive officer.

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Merlyn Advisors Ltd, a minority investor in Telecom Italia, wrote to the companys board on Friday calling on the phone carrier to keep the grid while selling its consumer division and its Brazilian unit Tim SA, according to a document seen by Bloomberg.

The plan proposes an eventual merger between Telecom Italia and Open Fiber SpA without the smaller rivals metropolitan areas, which would eliminate antitrust risks, according to the document.

Merlyns plan calls for Italys state lender Cassa Depositi Prestiti to have a strategic role in the proposed new company. CDP owns about 10% of Telecom Italia and controls Open Fiber.

Merlyn called Telecom Italia CEO Pietro Labriolas performance truly disappointing and proposed former Telecom Italia deputy managing director Stefano Siragusa to replace him. Siragusas alternative asset manager company RN Capital Partners joined Merlyn in the proposal.

Representatives for Telecom Italia, Merlyn and RN Capital declined to comment.

We want a state-led national network like Terna, because this will create great value for everyone, Barnaba said in an interview with Italian newspaper la Repubblica on Saturday, referring to Italys state-controlled electricity grid operator.

We dont want a foreign fund, Barnaba added, clarifying that Merlyn hasnt yet held talks with CDP nor with the French media company Vivendi SE, Telecom Italias largest investor.

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Read more: KKR Makes Binding Offer for Telecom Italias Phone Network

The network sale is Labriolas brainchild and would be a milestone for Telecom Italia as it seeks to slash about its gross debt of about 30 billion.

Network Dilemma

US private equity giant KKR & Co. made a binding offer this month that will be reviewed by Telecom Italias board next week. KKR valued the companys landline grid at about 23 billion, including some earn-outs, people familiar with the matter have said.

Merlyns move could be a strategic assist for the French media conglomerate Vivendi SE, which has opposed the deal for months saying it wouldnt accept any network offer of less than 30 billion. A spokeswoman for Vivendi declined to comment on the Merlyn letter.

Merlyn owns less than 3% of Telecom Italia, but the firms letter said it would consider raising its stake to slightly more than the 5% threshold to call a shareholder meeting if the board fails to remove Labriola.

--With assistance from Alberto Brambilla.

(Updates with Barnaba comments from 7th paragraph.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
YULIN, China, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Recently, The 15th Small and Medium Enterprises Expo (Yulin, China), The 13th China (Yulin) Traditional Chinese Medicine Expo and the 2023 China-ASEAN Expo Spices Exhibition were unveiled at the Yulin International Convention and Exhibition Center.

Leaders and guests jointly commencing the "Two Expos and One Exhibition" of Yulin

At the opening ceremony, the National Backbone Cold Chain Logistics Base City Interconnectivity Cooperation was launched, the Xinhua-Yulin Spice Price Indices were released, and the strategic cooperation agreements, the "Return of Yulin Businesses" project agreements and other industrial project agreements were signed, according to the Publicity Department of Yulin Municipal Government. Wang Chen, Secretary of CPC Yulin Municipal Committee, Assistant to the Minister of Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs of Indonesia Totok Hari Wibowo, Chae Hong-kyung, Vice Mayor of Jecheon of South Korea, and delegates from various Chinese industrial associations, commerce chambers and research institutes attended the opening ceremony and addressed the audience. Leaders and guests then jointly commenced The 15th Small and Medium Enterprises Expo (Yulin, China), The 13th China (Yulin) Traditional Chinese Medicine Expo and the 2023 China-ASEAN Expo Spices Exhibition. After the conclusion of the opening ceremony, attendees toured the venues of this year's expos and exhibition.

Themed "Big Economy for Small and Medium Enterprises, New Opportunities at the Yulin Expo", this year's Small and Medium Enterprises Expo was held in two separate venues: Yulin International Convention and Exhibition Center and Jiangnan Park. The theme of this year's China (Yulin) Traditional Chinese Medicine Expo is "Health, Development, Cooperation, Mutual Benefits", and the main venue was the Yulin Yinfeng International Traditional Chinese Medicine Port. Meanwhile, the Spice Exhibition focused on the central theme of "Spices Gather in Yulin, Fragrances Spread across the World", and the venue was Yulin International Spices Convention and Exhibition Center. In addition, a myriad of other events, like academic symposium, Yulin "Shizi Street" City Culture and Art Festival, and online expo, took place concurrently.

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Caption: Leaders and guests jointly commencing the "Two Expos and One Exhibition" of Yulin

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SOURCE The Publicity Department of Yulin Municipal Government
Heidi Kuhn, this year's World Food Prize winner, got a big surprise at the Iowa Capitol ceremony honoring her work to help war-torn countries rebuild their agricultural economies: The cash award that came with the prize was doubled to $500,000.

The trust that funds the World Food Prize, which Des Moines trucking magnate John Ruan Sr. permanently endowed with $10 million in 1990, had grown enough to increase the award, often referred to as the Nobel Prize of agriculture, Nicole Barreca Prenger, senior director of communications for the World Food Prize Foundation, said Friday.

The World Food Prize Foundation board decided earlier this year to increase the cash award, keeping it a secret until Thursday night's ceremony, Barreca Prenger said.

World Food Prize laureate Heidi Kuhn, with her husband, Gary, reacts as she learns the $250,000 prize has been doubled to $500,000. The announcement was made Thursday during the World Food Prize ceremony at the Iowa Capitol in Des Moines.

World Food Prize Foundation President Terry Branstad, a former Iowa governor and U.S. ambassador to China, made the announcement after Kuhn's acceptance speech, saying, "Heidi, before we close tonight, we have a special surprise for you."

Branstad, who assumed leadership of the foundation in January, recalled how the late Ruan in 1990 saved the prize with his endowment and increased it to $250,000 from $200,000.

"So tonight, on what would be the 34th anniversary of that first $250,000 prize, the World Food Prize Foundation is honored to announce to you, Heidi, effective immediately, the World Food Prize is increased to a $500,000 award," he said.

World Food Prize laureate Heidi Kuhn, founder of Roots of Peace, reacts as she learns the $250,000 prize has been doubled to $500,000. The announcement was made during the World Food Prize ceremony Thursday at the Iowa Capitol in Des Moines.

Kuhn stood mouth agape in astonishment before turning to embrace Janis Ruan, widow of Ruan Sr.'s son John Ruan III, who led the prize until his death in 2021.

The award was founded in 1985 by Iowa native Norman Borlaug, a winner of the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in fostering "Green Revolution" agricultural improvements that saved millions from famine. It is given to individuals and groups for exceptional work in addressing world hunger. This year, 1,300 people from 76 countries came to the three-day event, setting a record, Barreca Prenger said.

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The senior Ruan, who died in 2010, said with his endowment that he hoped his family would continue the initiative. Barreca Prenger said Ruan's wish continues to be fulfilled. John Ruan IV has embraced the work of his grandfather and father, and Ruan III's daughter, Rachel Ruan McLean, helps lead the foundation board. Ruan Sr.'s three great-grandchildren attended Thursday night's ceremony.

Kuhn founded Roots of Peace, a California group that helps farmers in former battlegrounds including Afghanistan and Vietnam grow fruit, nuts and other crops in fields once filled with landmines. Kuhn has said she plans to use the award's cash prize to challenge large U.S. tech companies to donate to efforts to remove mines in embattled Ukraine.

Participating in the World Food Prize Borlaug Dialogues, held Tuesday through Thursday at the Iowa Events Center in advance of the prize ceremony, executives at large U.S. agricultural companies this week said they're investing billions of dollars annually to develop products that will help farmers maintain good yields while facing damaging drought, wind, pests and other threats tied to the changing climate.

Chuck Magro, Corteva Agroscience's CEO, said the company is spending $1.5 billion annually on research and development, in part to help farmers be more resilient in the face of extreme weather challenges.

"That's about $4 million a day in developing new technology, and that's where I get excited," said Magro, who spoke at the gathering.

Magro said part of Corteva's investment is taking place in Johnston, home of the company's Pioneer seed business. Statewide, Corteva employs about 3,000 people, he said.

Farmer Julie Kenney and Chuck Magro, CEO of Corteva Agriscience, have a "Fireside Chat" during the Borlaug International Dialogue held by the World Food Prize Foundation. They discussed the challenges farmers face.

"There are some worrying trends globally around food security," he said. "I'm no expert in climate change, but we're starting to see insect and disease pressure migrate to parts of the world that we haven't seen before."

He cited locust swarms in Africa and Asia two years ago that spanned about 100 square miles. In Kenya, one swarm was "25 miles by 37 miles wide," he said. "Locust are normal for that part of the world, but not that size."

Previously: Former Iowa Gov., U.S. Ambassador Terry Branstad named World Food Prize president

The reason for the massive swarms was extreme moisture followed by extreme heat, he said.

At the same time, Europe is struggling with bacteria that's destroying millions of olive trees. And in the U.S., a fungus caused by insect disease is affecting citrus production. In Florida, "the forecast is for the crop to be one of the worst since the 1930s," Magro said.

More: Derechos, rare haboob in Iowa raise concerns: Is the Midwest headed to another Dust Bowl?

The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization says plant diseases annually cost the global economy around $220 billion, and invasive insects, around $70 billion.

Here's what Corteva, Bayer and other leading agriculture industry leaders speaking at the annual Des Moines gathering had to say about climate change and their effort to help agriculture withstand its effects.

Bayer, Stine working on more climate-resilient short-stature corn

Kevin Lucke, president of Chevron Renewable Energy Group in Ames, speaks on a panel during the Borlaug Dialogue held by the World Food Prize Foundation.

Bayer AG, which finalized a merger with Monsanto in 2018, is investing about $2.6 billion, work that includes developing about 500 new seed hybrids each year, said Jacqueline Applegate, president of Bayer's St. Louis-based North America Crop Science.

"The volatility of weather is more dramatic than ever," said Applegate, but the company's seed breeding and crop protection developments are giving farmers "greater stability in yields and overall health."

Heidi Kuhn of California works in Jalapa, Guatemala, to harvest coffee beans. She received the World Food Prize Thursday at the Iowa Capitol for her work to turn minefields into productive farmland.

One of the products Bayer will introduce is a short-stature corn that performed well in the 2020 derecho that swept across Iowa and other states with winds up to 140 mph, leaving behind fields of flattened corn and soybeans.

Bayer and Stine Seed Co., an Adel company owned by Iowa billionaire Harry Stine that specializes in short-stature corn, both said their crops withstood the hurricane-level winds better than tall corn in neighboring fields.

Applegate said the short-stemmed plant's bigger root mass helps it survive strong winds as well as drought. And it's yielding over 300 bushels per acre on some of the 30,000 acres in Iowa and other states where it's being tested, she said.

Panelists discuss where agriculture, energy and food security intersect during the Borlaug International Dialogue held by the World Food Prize Foundation.

Bayer also is studying how much the larger root system can contribute to the sequestration of carbon, Applegate said. Plants can store carbon dioxide in the soil, preventing the greenhouse gas from contributing to climate change.

How are companies turning a weed into cash?

Chuck Magro, CEO of Corteva Agriscience, speaks during the Borlaug International Dialogue held by the World Food Prize Foundation.

Bayer, Bunge Ltd. and Chevron Corp. are developing CoverCress, the commercial name for a kind of pennycress that can be seeded on fields in the fall to protect soil over winter and be harvested in late spring, potentially generating a third cash crop for farmers.

"Pennycress is a weed ... that normally we're trying to kill," said Jennifer Ozimkiewicz, vice president of Bayer's global corn and soybean crop strategy. But "we had really brilliant scientists and breeders 10 years ago that took this ordinary weed and turned it into a cash cover crop."

In coming years, the pennycress may be used to help make low-carbon biodiesel fuel, said Ozimkiewicz, who was part of a World Food Prize panel discussing competition between food and fuel producers for crops.

Especially during times of drought, some livestock producers and bakers' groups have complained that demand for corn and soybeans to make ethanol, biodiesel and other renewable fuels has strained supplies and significantly increased prices. Iowa is the nation's leading producer of ethanol and biodiesel, as well as corn.

Twenty years ago, when ethanol and biodiesel production began, "It was clearly fuel versus food, but that narrative has changed," said Kevin Lucke, president of the Chevron Renewable Energy Group in Ames. Chevron purchased Renewable Energy Group last year.

"Now agriculture is really providing both for the U.S. and world," Lucke said.

Production of ethanol, for example, yields as a byproduct a high-protein livestock feed called dried distillers grain and oil that can be used to make biodiesel and other products.

Increased corn and soybean yields and new crops like pennycress are helping to meet demand for low-carbon fuels, Lucke said. "Innovation is really the answer," he said.

When will Iowa farmers begin growing CoverCress?

Lucke, who farms 1,300 acres in western Iowa near Harlan, said pennycress probably won't be a viable cash crop for farmers north of Interstate 80 because the region's growing season isn't long enough, but it could be feasible in southern Iowa.

"It will be harvested in the middle of May to early June," Lucke said, after which farmers can grow a short-season corn or soybean crop.

A processing plant in Louisiana will be expanded so it can crush pennycress and winter canola by 2026-27, he said. In addition to being used to make renewable fuel, the crop also can provide high-protein meal for animals.

Farmers are encouraged to plant a cover crop in the fall to prevent soil erosion and the loss of nitrogen and fertilizer, which degrades water quality. At the same time, cover crops help build soil health.

Using diplomacy to tackle America's thorniest trade issues

Ramin Toloui, U.S. assistant secretary of state for economic and business affairs, said the Biden administration has gained access to India to sell pork; expanded U.S. beef exports to Japan; and is in discussions about an Indo-Pacific economic trade agreement that could open doors for U.S. farm goods in fast-growing markets that include the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia.

Farmer Julie Kenney, left, and Chuck Magro, CEO of Corteva Agriscience, have a "Fireside Chat" during the Borlaug International Dialogue held by the World Food Prize Foundation on Wednesday. They discussed the challenges farmers face.

Toloui said the U.S. Department of Agriculture and State Department also are working to stop Mexico's plan, announced in 2020, to ban genetically modified corn. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says about 91% of the corn grown in the U.S. is genetically engineered for traits that help improve yields, like reducing insect damage and better drought tolerance.

"It's important to the well-being not only of Americans and American farmers, but also Mexicans who are benefiting from these crops," he said.

Mexico is the largest buyer of U.S. corn. And Iowa is the nation's largest corn producer, expected to account for about 2.5 billion bushels of the nation's 15.1 billion bushels this year.

Toloui, a native Iowan, said the U.S. has launched a dispute settlement as outlined under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

"We're trying address this issue diplomatically, and using the tools and recourse we have under our trade agreements," he said.

Donnelle Eller covers agriculture, the environment and energy for the Register. Reach her at deller@registermedia.com or 515-284-8457.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: World Food Prize boosts award to $500,000 in surprise to winner






The UAW announced a surprise stand-up strike at the Stellantis Assembly Plant in Sterling Heights, Michigan, where members build one of the company's most profitable models  the Ram 1500, nearly half a million of which were sold in 2022. The strike brings the total number of workers who have walked off to more than 40,000, the Union said in its announcement Monday.

"Despite having the highest revenue, the highest profits (North American and global), the highest profit margins, and the most cash in reserve, Stellantis lags behind both Ford and General Motors in addressing the demands of their UAW workforce," the UAW said. "Currently, Stellantis has the worst proposal on the table regarding wage progression, temporary worker pay and conversion to full-time, cost-of-living adjustments (COLA), and more."

UAW President Shawn Fain said Friday that there was "serious movement at Stellantis and GM" but that "these extremely profitable companies have more to give."

"Time is on our side, the American public is on our side, and the facts are on our side," he said.

This is the latest in a new phase of stand-up strikes that began October 11, when UAW workers truck Ford's Kentucky Truck Plant, where Local 862 members build Ford Super Duty pickups, the Ford Expedition and the Lincoln Navigator.

Stellantis announced Friday that it will not attend SEMA, the Los Angeles Auto Show or CES due to the ongoing strike. The UAW strike now spanned five full weeks with no end in sight. The union has targeted specific plants from each U.S. automaker, including Stellantis, General Motors and Ford and the union has threatened to expand to more factories.

UAW, General Dynamics avert strike

Reuters

The United Auto Workers (UAW) union and General Dynamics have reached a tentative agreement over a new labor contract covering hundreds of workers at some of the U.S. defense contractor's facilities, the company said on Monday, staving off a potential strike.

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Shares of the company cut early losses to trade about flat in morning trading.

Earlier this month, over 1,000 UAW members in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania plants had voted to authorize a strike after a four-year agreement was set to expire on Oct. 22, 11.59 pm ET.

General Dynamics, one of the largest U.S. defense contractors, manufactures weapons systems, munitions, combat vehicles such as Abrams tanks - which are being used by Ukraine to repel Russian forces - and submarines. Its biggest customer is the U.S. government.

Like its peers, General Dynamics has struggled with supply and labor shortages at a time when weapons demand is on the rise due to the war in Ukraine, conflict in the Middle East and tensions in U.S.-China relations over Taiwan.

UAW members at the company make military vehicles including tanks and light armored vehicles, according to the union.

UAW did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Details of the proposed agreement, which needs to be ratified by UAW workers, were not immediately available.

A tight U.S. labor market, the expiry of multiple union contracts and high living costs have led to tough negotiations for pay hikes and benefits, triggering strikes and protests across industries.

General Dynamics has said it expects to negotiate the terms of 28 agreements with unions and works councils, covering about 12,600 employees this year. The company has a global workforce of 106,500 employees as of February.
(Bloomberg) -- Ukraine is imposing tighter controls over grain traders to boost revenues to fund its wartime defenses, a move that may further complicate shipments from the countrys Danube and Black Sea ports.

Most Read from Bloomberg

The Cabinet of Ministers will require exporters of grains and oilseeds either to get licenses or to provide tax records going back before the invasion, an official with knowledge of the matter said, asking not to be identified to discuss decrees passed at a government meeting on Friday. The mechanism may be amended further, should the situation change, the official said.

The government aims to squeeze out fly-by-night companies, repatriate more foreign currency revenue and raise tax collection as Ukraines international allies, which are providing billions of dollars of aid, scrutinize its anti-corruption efforts. However, the efforts are taking time and costs for traders are racking up as their cargoes suffer delays.

Audits of exporters stalled agricultural shipments from ports in the Odesa region earlier this week, triggering numerous complaints, while traders shipping grain through the Danube said issues related to export documents have caused big delays in recent weeks.

The sudden change in regulations has created problems for exporters and is causing further delays, grain trader Filipe Pohlmann Gonzaga from Bryce SA said. He has chartered three vessels to pick up grain via the Sulina branch on the Romanian side of the Danube.

The bureaucracy, along with delays due to overcrowding of the channel, bad weather and de-mining operations means its taking almost twice as long as usual for ships to start loading, according to the trader. One of his ships has been waiting 11 days to berth in Ukraines riverport of Reni, while a second has been waiting 14 days to get clearance to pass the Sulina channel and pick up its cargo in Izmail and each day of delays can cost as much as $4,000 extra in demurrage costs, he said.

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Atria Brokers Christina Serebryakova said the changes in customs declarations for grain exports, together with long waiting times to pass the Sulina canal, mean that delays can be up to one month or more. Buyers are asking exporters for extra discounts, she said. Some vessels are being cancelled in Danube or Sulina, because traders are forced to take a pause in execution in order to restructure their work.

Shipments from deep-sea ports on the Black Sea resumed on Friday, with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy promising the route will keep functioning despite multiple threats, including the risk of Russias air-strikes.

Ukraine is a major exporter of agricultural commodities, which are a key source of its wartime revenues. Kyiv had opened a unilateral corridor to allow ships to export commodities such as grains and metals from its deep-sea ports in Greater Odesa, after Moscow in July pulled out of the United Nations-backed Black Sea grain initiative that had guaranteed safe movement of crop vessels.

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2023 Bloomberg L.P.
china ai

China is to play a key role in Britains AI summit next week despite demands that Rishi Sunak should rescind Beijings invitation.

A top professor from the state-controlled Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yi Zeng, will lead a private discussion on the risk that AI tools could unexpectedly develop dangerous capabilities, according to plans seen by The Telegraph.

As well as Prof Yi, scientists from several top Chinese universities were last week invited to a gathering at Bletchley Park in preparation for the summit, a source said.

These included Andrew Yao, of Tsinghua University, Ya-Qin Zhang, the former president of technology company Baidu, and Hongjiang Zhang, of the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences is a state-founded science organisation consisting of tens of thousands of researchers.

A recently published code of conduct for academics stresses they must be a model of patriotism for the party and that members public statements must be consistent with the major policies of the Party Central Committee.

The role of Chinese delegates at the summit has proved controversial. Liz Truss, the former prime minister, on Thursday urged Mr Sunak to reconsider the invitation. Mr Sunak, however, said it was absolutely the right thing to have invited officials from Beijing.

He added: It is right to try and engage with the worlds leading AI powers. It doesnt mean that it is going to be successful, it doesnt mean you are going to agree on everything.

His argument has yet to win over China-sceptic Conservative MPs. Writing in The Telegraph, Sir Iain Duncan Smith warned: Inviting China to participate in the AI summit sends the wrong message to both our international partners and academic institutions.

A Chinese government delegation from the Ministry of Science and Technology, as well as representatives of tech companies Tencent and Alibaba are also due to attend the summit.

Prof Yis research has included work on the development of low risk, safe, and ethical AI models and studies on brain-inspired artificial intelligence. This week, he was appointed to the UNs AI Advisory Body. He did not respond to a request for comment.

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The panel discussion he will lead will explore whether AI systems can drive unexpected new abilities that were not predicted or necessarily intended by their creators.

It came as ministers told The Telegraph spies will be drafted in to block China from weaponising AI to infiltrate the state and spy on Britain.

Downing Street said security services will review how public sector bodies use the technology to ward off the threat of infiltration by Beijing.

Despite the concerns of senior Conservatives, Mr Sunaks view was backed up by a top White House adviser on Thursday.

Arati Prabhakar, a scientific adviser to the White House, said it was important to have good dialogue going on with every part of the world and that inviting Beijing was a terrific idea.

The UKs AI safety summit will see leading companies, including OpenAI and Google Deepmind, gather alongside academics and world leaders to debate the risks of so-called Frontier AI.

Mr Sunak is hoping the national delegations will agree to sign a joint communique on the risks posed by AI. The Telegraph previously revealed this could include warning over the potential of catastrophic harms to humanity, should mankind lose control of powerful AI systems.

Separately on Friday, it emerged that Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission President, will attend the AI safety summit next week. Antonio Guterres, the secretary general of the United Nations, will also attend.

The presence of the global leaders is a boost for the Prime Minister, after the gathering was snubbed by US President Joe Biden and Frances Emmanuel Macron. He is due to be in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan next week.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will also not be in attendance, his spokesman confirmed to The Telegraph on Friday, although Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni is expected to attend.

A government spokesman said: As the Prime Minister said just this week, there can be no serious strategy for AI without at least trying to engage all of the worlds leading AI powers.

As is routine for summits of this nature, we wont speculate on potential invitees.

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Exploring the Dividend Performance and Sustainability of Value Line Inc

Value Line Inc (NASDAQ:VALU) recently announced a dividend of $0.28 per share, payable on 2023-11-09, with the ex-dividend date set for 2023-10-27. 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 delve into Value Line Inc's dividend performance and assess its sustainability.

Introduction to Value Line Inc

Warning! GuruFocus has detected 1 Warning Sign with HBCP.

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Value Line Inc is a U.S based company that produces investment periodicals based on underlying research. It also makes available copyright data, including a ranking system and other information, to third parties under written agreements for use in third-party managed and marketed investment products and for other purposes. The company markets under well-known brands including Value Line, the Value Line logo, The Value Line Investment Survey, Smart Research, Smarter Investing and The Most Trusted Name in Investment Research. Its only operating segment is Publishing.

Value Line Inc's Dividend Analysis

Value Line Inc's Dividend History

Value Line Inc has maintained a consistent dividend payment record since 1984, with dividends currently distributed on a quarterly basis. The company has increased its dividend each year since 2013, earning it the status of a dividend achiever, a title given to companies that have increased their dividend each year for at least the past 10 years.

Value Line Inc's Dividend Analysis

Value Line Inc's Dividend Yield and Growth

As of today, Value Line Inc currently has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 2.89% and a 12-month forward dividend yield of 3.09%. This suggests an expectation of increased dividend payments over the next 12 months.

Over the past three years, Value Line Inc's annual dividend growth rate was 8.30%. Extended to a five-year horizon, this rate decreased to 6.70% per year. And over the past decade, Value Line Inc's annual dividends per share growth rate stands at 5.60%.

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Based on Value Line Inc's dividend yield and five-year growth rate, the 5-year yield on cost of Value Line Inc stock as of today is approximately 4.00%.

Value Line Inc's Dividend Analysis

Assessing Dividend Sustainability: Payout Ratio and Profitability

The sustainability of a company's dividend can be assessed through its payout ratio. The dividend payout ratio indicates the portion of earnings the company distributes as dividends. A lower ratio suggests that the company retains a significant part of its earnings, ensuring the availability of funds for future growth and unexpected downturns. As of 2023-07-31, Value Line Inc's dividend payout ratio is 0.54.

Value Line Inc's profitability rank, as of 2023-07-31, is 7 out of 10, suggesting good profitability prospects. The company has reported positive net income for each year over the past decade, further solidifying its high profitability.

Growth Metrics and Future Outlook

For a company to sustain its dividends, robust growth metrics are crucial. Value Line Inc's growth rank of 7 out of 10 suggests that the company's growth trajectory is good relative to its competitors.

Revenue is the lifeblood of any company, and Value Line Inc's revenue per share, combined with the 3-year revenue growth rate, indicates a strong revenue model. Value Line Inc's revenue has increased by approximately 0.20% per year on average, a rate that underperforms approximately 65.2% of global competitors.

The company's 3-year EPS growth rate showcases its capability to grow its earnings, a critical component for sustaining dividends in the long run. During the past three years, Value Line Inc's earnings increased by approximately 7.20% per year on average, a rate that underperforms approximately 56.81% of global competitors.

Lastly, the company's 5-year EBITDA growth rate of 11.10% underperforms approximately 51.77% of global competitors.

Concluding Remarks

In conclusion, Value Line Inc's consistent dividend payments, respectable growth rate, manageable payout ratio, and notable profitability indicate a sustainable dividend. However, the company's growth metrics, including revenue per share, 3-year EPS growth rate, and 5-year EBITDA growth rate, suggest that there may be room for improvement. Investors should continue to monitor these aspects to make informed decisions regarding Value Line Inc's dividends.

GuruFocus Premium users can screen for high-dividend yield stocks using the High Dividend Yield Screener.

This article, generated by GuruFocus, is designed to provide general insights and is not tailored financial advice. Our commentary is rooted in historical data and analyst projections, utilizing an impartial methodology, and is not intended to serve as specific investment guidance. It does not formulate a recommendation to purchase or divest any stock and does not consider individual investment objectives or financial circumstances. Our objective is to deliver long-term, fundamental data-driven analysis. Be aware that our analysis might not incorporate the most recent, price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative information. GuruFocus holds no position in the stocks mentioned herein.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.


Abbas Ganbay

This is not the first time that France has deployed double standards under the pretext of covering up the defence of cultural values. While on a visit to Yerevan, the French Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul Malak, a French politician of Lebanese origin, arrived on a plane with Anne-Laurence Petel, the French parliamentarian acting as the spokesperson of the Armenian lobby and chairman of the French-Armenian friendship group in the French National Assembly, also known for her anti-Azerbaijani stance.

Continuing the slanderous rhetoric of corrupt politicians, as if they received a mass mailing, in any incomprehensible situation to accuse Azerbaijan, will be what will be. The French Minister of Culture, together with her propaganda partner, made a statement about the alleged "destruction of Armenian cultural monuments" in Garabagh, which in reality is just words and is not substantiated by evidence.

On the one hand, Armenia expressed its desire to establish transport communications with its neighbours after the first meeting of the 3+3 format held in Iran, and on the other hand, the French are pressing in with a whip. Is it a double game, or are the Armenians attempting an imaginary, illusory act of retaliation?

Knowing the hatred of Armenians and their "great pride", one will not find in the headlines reproaches and accusations of Armenians and the French for the colonial policy of the union of the two sister countries.

Azerbaijan, after a successful anti-terrorist operation in Garabagh, electrocuted the pro-Western forces. The impact and consequences can be characterised by the diagnosis of a patient in a psychiatric hospital. How could it be otherwise? They don't want to admit their mistakes and won't; the same sister in the person of France, with the same song and the same chorus, stands up in defence.

We began to perceive the accusations of the Armenians as the trauma of the patients in the ward of the psychiatric hospital, like in the film "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest". The doctors try to "see through" and see what the Armenian patient needs from the given wall opposite him, where the patient shouts "Mine!". In their reality, they can see green reptiles too, but in reality, there is a wall there.

With "Crusader" clans and international support behind them, France is undermining the new road that could lead Armenia to a brighter future. It will not be possible to grasp the 3+3 format, the economic ties, the corridor, the arms buildup, and India at the same time. Either in peace or to hell in a handbasket.

Neither UNESCO nor PACE have found the justice to stand up for the countries and nations that were subjected to French colonisation; there are none. Did the G7 powers take up the defence of Corsica, Guadeloupe, and a million Azerbaijani IDPs expelled under Armenian oppression? Azerbaijan came forward to raise the issue of the oppression of nations and countries colonised by France.

Empty accusations against Azerbaijan are not acceptable or proven. Two UN missions to Garabagh have proved the opposite. There is no "ethnic cleansing" and there is no "cultural genocide". Azerbaijan still keeps under strict protection the cultural values, monuments, and sacred places of Armenians, unlike the latter.

The French keep the skulls and bones of colonised nations in museums, where there are exhibitions of paintings of a "vile nature" in Paris, and this information is not reported. Why? The corrupt media of the West is controlled by the "Crusaders," and this is not on their agenda.

The cultural heritage in the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan, regardless of origin or secular or religious affiliation, embodies the cultural diversity of the Azerbaijani people, which Azerbaijan values and protects.

Moreover, it is Azerbaijan that, for almost 30 years, has been persistently appealing to international organisations to carry out assessment missions related to the deliberate destruction, appropriation, alteration, and illicit transfer of our cultural heritage in the former occupied territories of Azerbaijan to Armenia. Unfortunately, this has not been realised due to obstacles on the part of Armenia. UNESCO itself confirmed this fact in its 2005 report.

As long as there is a shadowy connection between the corrupt coalitions, no fair research on the horrible deeds of the French and Armenians towards the nations they oppressed should be expected. What you sow is what you reap. No power has ever taken up the defence of those nations Azerbaijan has taken up.
SINGAPORE, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Vietjet reached a new milestone today as the airline took delivery of the 101st aircraft at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City. The arrival of the new 240-seat A321neo ACF aircraft represents Vietjet's commitment to constant fleet expansion, with a total of 384 aircraft on order from leading manufacturers worldwide. In 2023 alone, Vietjet has continuously introduced new aircraft, furthering their mission to conquer the skies and fulfill the flight dreams of millions of passengers worldwide.

Vietjets brand-new A321neo ACF aircraft welcomed by a water cannon salute upon arrival at Tan Son Nhat International Airport.

Vietjet Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao (middle), Vietjet's management and flight crew welcome the 101st aircraft to the airlines fleet.

Vietjet's cabin crew purser, Minh Huyen, who was there to welcome the airline's first aircraft in 2011, joined the ceremony for the 101st aircraft and expressed her pride. "I am honored to witness this historical moment as Vietjet welcomes the 101st aircraft to Vietnam today. Together with our colleagues, we have been a part of realizing the flying dreams of hundreds of millions of passengers. We would like to extend special thanks to our beloved passengers for their trust and companionship throughout this journey. Vietjet's fleet will continue to grow as we strive to make every flight a joyful and pleasant experience for passengers around the world."

Adorned with their vibrant red-and-yellow livery and featuring the iconic "Hello Vietnam" song onboard, Vietjet's fleet has become a symbol of connectivity and happiness, reaching numerous destinations across the globe. Despite the challenges faced, Vietjet has successfully served over 178 million passengers, connecting countries and contributing to business ties and trade opportunities. Furthermore, the airline has played a significant role in the growth of Vietnam's aviation industry and the Asia-Pacific region, solidifying the region's position on the global aviation map.

As the festive season approaches, Vietjet and Thai Vietjet are well-prepared to welcome global travelers on our new aircraft. Vietjet's professional and cheerful flight crew are dedicated to providing excellent service across our expanding flight network, which includes destinations such as Australia, India, China, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Southeast Asia, and beyond.

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The introduction of the new A321neo ACF aircraft allows Vietjet to achieve significant reductions in fuel consumption, with at least a 16% decrease, as well as up to 75% less noise and up to 50% fewer emissions. Boasting the world's leading modern fleet with optimized operating costs, Vietjet aims to provide passengers with more affordable flights while also prioritizing environmental protection and sustainable development. It is worth noting that since 2019, Vietjet has been the first airline worldwide to operate the new A321neo ACF 240-seat aircraft.

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 (PRNewsfoto/Vietjet Air)

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SOURCE Vietjet Air
Sifting through the flood of data generated by the stock markets is a daunting task  but Wall Streets professional stock analysts are up to it. Theyve made careers, and reputations, by finding the golden nuggets in the data stream, the stocks that are ready for gains and are showing solid returns. The Streets best analysts, who have compiled enviable records of success in recommending stocks to buy or avoid, bring analytical minds and deep experience to their calls  and investors would be wise to follow them.

Which brings us to Neal Dingmann, a 5-star analyst with Truist  and the best of the best, according to TipRanks rating of Wall Streets professional stock watchers. Dingmann holds the #1 spot out of nearly 8,600 analysts, and boasts a 78% success rate with this stock calls. An investor who had followed Dingmanns advice over the past 12 months would have realized a return of 31.3%.

Dingmann has been following his personal expertise, in the energy stock sector, and has pointed out three stocks in particular for investors to consider. All three show Buy ratings, and Dingmann sees between 30% and 60% upside for them in the coming year. We can follow his lead, and dig into the details on these stocks, using the TipRanks platform to find their latest data.

Dont miss

Viper Energy

The first stock on our list of Dingmann picks is Viper Energy, a partnership company formed by Diamondback to operate as the owner of the parent companys royalty interests. Put short, Viper owns land holdings in premier hydrocarbon production basins  primary in the Permian Basin of Texas  and collects royalties on the gas and oil extracted by the production operators. At the end of 2Q23, Vipers mineral and royalty interest footprint totaled 27,178 net royalty acres.

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In recent months, Viper has made some announcements that should interest investors. In July, the company announced its intent to change its corporate structure form a limited partnership company to a Delaware-based corporation. The shift, which is expected to be complete before the end of this year, will not affect Vipers land or mineral holdings, or its mineral interests. Limited partners will see their equity interests converted into outstanding shares, and common shareholders will be able to vote on stockholder matters.

Following this, in September, Viper announced a large acquisition purchase in the Permian Basin. The company bought 7,300 net royalty acres from Warwick Capital Partners and GRP Energy Capital, for which it paid 9.02 million shares of common stock plus $750 million in cash. The cash portion was funded by cash on hand, borrowings against a credit facility, and up to $200 million in equity from Diamondback.

Turning to the financials, in its last quarterly report, from 2Q23, Vipers top line came to $160.8 million. While down some 32% year-over-year, this result still beat the estimates by $2.25 million. At the bottom line, Vipers earnings per share came to 47 cents by non-GAAP measures. This figure was 20 cents per share better than had been anticipated.

Viper pays out a common stock quarterly dividend, and is known to adjust the payment, or pay out a supplemental dividend, to keep the dividend in-line with distributable earnings. The dividend was last declared at the end of July and paid on August 17; the base payment of 27 cents per common share and the supplement of 9 cents combined for a 36-cent total dividend. The annualized base payment of $1.08 gives a yield of 3.68%.

In Dingmanns view, Vipers activity presents several positives for investors, including a solid return from dividends and buybacks. Dingmann writes of the company, Viper continues to set production records driven by stable activity and incremental efficiencies by its key operator/parent FANG along with other producers driving cash available for distribution The companys payout (unit repurchases and total dividends) remains a strong 75% of cash available with the ability to simultaneously repay debt and make acquisitions.

Looking ahead, Dingmann also notes that Viper has a smart strategy for expanding its holdings: The incremental acreage appears contiguous to the companys existing position setting up VNOM nicely for future operational upside. VNOM continues to be methodical with acquisitions adding only reasonably priced strategic deals versus growing for growth sake.

All in all, Dingmann rates VNOM shares as a Buy, with a $47 price target to point toward a 60% one-year upside potential. (To watch Dingmanns track record, click here)

Vipers Strong Buy consensus rating is unanimous, based on 9 positive analyst reviews. The stock is selling for $29.34, and its average target price of $38.25 suggests an upside of 30% in the coming year. (See Viper stock forecast)

Magnolia Oil & Gas

Next up is Magnolia Oil & Gas, a hydrocarbon production company operating in south Texas. Specifically, Magnolia works in the Eagle Ford Shale and Austin Chalk formations of the Texas oilpatch, where the company has approximately 460,000 net acres. The daily production on these holdings averaged 81.9 Mboe/d in 2Q23, a result that was up 10% year-over-year. The increase reflects both continued demand for oil and gas as well as the highly productive nature of Texas oil deposits.

Earlier this summer, Magnolia completed its acquisition of a small bolt-on oil and gas property in the Giddings area of its holdings. This acquisition was outside of Magnolias core area, but was made based on company knowledge of the local geology through its operations in Giddings. Magnolia is working its holdings in that region as a redeveloping emerging play. The company paid $40 million for the bolt-on assets.

The companys Q2 report was a mixed affair. The top line figure came to $280.3 million, down over 42% y/y, while missing the estimates by almost $8.2 million. The bottom-line figure, an EPS of $0.48, was also down sharply from the $1.32 per share reported in 2Q22. However, it was 2 cents ahead of the forecast. The company had $676.6 million in cash on hand at the end of Q2, up 35% year-over-year.

For Dingmann, the key points here are Magnolias extensive footprint and its solid cash holdings. Magnolia continues to own more acres than not only any small cap E&P but most large cap operators, Dingmann said. While the company still works to delineate its Giddings asset, we continue to believe a large amount of the acres will have positive prospective wells. Further, in our view, MGY has one of the best balance sheets with a material cash position that could lead to notably higher shareholder returns and the potential to largely mitigate any potential large holder sales. We believe some investors are overreacting on the near-term GOR (gas/oil ratio) and production with both likely returning to more average levels late this year and/or 2024.

Quantifying his stance, Dingmann rates the shares as a Buy. He gives Magnolia a $30 price target, implying an upside of 33% on the one-year timeline.

There are 9 recent analyst reviews of this stock, split to 5 Buys and 4 Holds for a Moderate Buy consensus rating. The shares are trading for $22.59 and the $27.83 average price target suggests a 23% increase from that level. (See Magnolia stock forecast)

Permian Resources

Last on our Dingmann-backed list is Permian Resources, another of the energy exploration and production companies operating in Texas. Its only natural that these firms have Dingmanns attention; the redevelopment of the Texas oilpatch in the last two decades has put that state on the world map as a major energy exporter. Permian Resources is a pure-play production company working in the Delaware Basin, one of the richest hydrocarbon formations of the larger Permian Basin.

In all, PRs holdings include some 180,000 net leasehold acres, in both the Texas panhandle and in New Mexico, as well as approximately 40,000 net royalty acres. As of the end of 2Q23, the companys production numbers were strong, showing an 8% quarter-over-quarter increase. In crude oil, the company was putting out 84.4 MBbls/d, and its total average production, of all products, came to 165.9 Mboe/d.

Shares in PR are up some 76% year-to-date, an excellent performance even in the face of disappointing Q2 financial results. In the quarter, Permian reported revenues of $623.4 million, a result that was up 32% y/y but missed the forecast by $19.7 million. At the bottom line, the non-GAAP EPS came to 27 cents per share, 5 cents below expectations.

The Q2 results were followed by an agreement to acquire Earthstone Energy through an all-stock transaction worth approximately $4.5 billion. The acquisition, when completed, will establish Permian Resources as a leading producer in its namesake region, with a footprint exceeding 400,000 net acres.

Turning again to Dingmann, we find him upbeat on PRs prospects whilst alleviating current investor worries around equity offerings. We continue to consider the company one of the premiere producers as judged by their low operating costs and solid organic/external execution, Dingmann said. We believe PR is set up for a solid 2H23 along with 24 potentially achieving a +20% yield. We believe much of investors future concerns over PRs equity overhang should largely be put to bed after seeing the results of the last two equity issuances.

To this end, Dingmann rates PR as a Buy, with a $20 price target to point toward a 34% upside on the one-year horizon.

There is a Strong Buy consensus rating on PR shares, based on 13 reviews that break down 10 to 3 in favor of Buy over Hold. The stock is selling for $14.96 and its $17.31 average target price suggests a one-year gain of 16%. (See PR stock forecast)

To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks equity insights.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analysts. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.
By Svea Herbst-Bayliss

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Byron Wien, who guided investors on what to buy and sell and authored a widely anticipated yearly list of "10 Surprises" as one of Wall Street's most prominent and enduring market strategists, has died, Blackstone Inc said in a statement.

Wien was 90.

Wien built his wide following on Wall Street during two decades at investment bank Morgan Stanley where he rose to be the firm's chief investment strategist of the United States. He also wrote the annual list, a monthly strategy essay, and worked with colleagues on putting together a model portfolio of stocks.

He moved from the investment bank to hedge fund Pequot Capital Management where he worked until it went out of business in 2009. Soon after, at age 76, when most people were enjoying retirement, Wien joined private equity firm Blackstone to offer direction and guidance. He was vice chairman of Blackstone's Private Wealth Solutions group.

"Byron's life was remarkable in so many ways," Blackstone Chief Executive Officer Steve Schwarzman and President Jon Gray said in a statement to Blackstone employees. "He was always building new relationships and pushed everyone around him to think about the risks and opportunities that lay ahead."

His annual list, which he published for 38 consecutive years, focused on a range of topics from who might win U.S. presidential elections, to the role China would play in markets, to where the stock index would move next.

He called the list a "defining product" adding people all over the world identified him with it. "I put myself at risk by going on record with these events, which I believe are probable and hold myself accountable at year-end," he said earlier this year.

While the list was closely watched, it also drew some scorn.

"My wife hopes I give this up as soon as possible," Wien told the New York Times about writing it. "While people are enjoying the holidays, between Thanksgiving and Christmas I am in a total panic, working quite hard on developing these," he told the newspaper in 2001.

Story continues

In addition to calling how markets might move, he offered life advice and encouraged people to "read all the time," to "get enough sleep" and "travel extensively."

Wien was orphaned as a young man but was sent by a guidance counselor at school to apply to Harvard where he ended up earning his undergraduate and graduate business degrees.

He found his way to Wall Street after stints in advertising and consulting.

He told the New York Times in 1985 "I'm not sure I can do this job," about the strategist role at Morgan Stanley. "But if I can do it, I will derive more satisfaction from this job than from going somewhere else and being a portfolio manager."

One of his life lessons, published in February, was "never retire."

"If you work forever, you can live forever. I know there is an abundance of biological evidence against this theory, but Im going with it anyway," he said.

(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Editing by Chris Reese)
Two Omaha-based medical staffing firms have confirmed recent layoffs of employees, citing scaled-back use by hospitals and other health facilities of temporary health care workers as they have come down from the peaks of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Medical Solutions, which is headquartered in Omaha but has offices across the U.S., has reduced its enterprise-wide workforce by 10% nationwide, spokeswoman Amber Ireland said in an email Wednesday. She declined, however, to specify how many employees were affected.

"Hospitals and healthcare facilities continue to reduce their use of temporary staff coming out of the pandemic," she said in an emailed statement. "The internal staff reduction is the result of matching our workforce to the demands of our customers post-pandemic."

Omaha-based Fusion, now composed of Fusion Medical Staffing and Fusion Workforce Solutions, also has reduced its workforce by about 10%, or about 70 employees, said Calli Hite, a spokeswoman.

"Unfortunately, due to the changing market conditions in healthcare staffing, Fusion made the difficult decision to reduce the size of our internal workforce," she said in an emailed statement.

The demand for temporary health care workers rose during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic as hospitals and other health care facilities sought to bolster their strained workforces.

As the peak of the pandemic subsided, however, health systems have sought to scale back their use of workers contracted through agencies, which filled a need but came at a higher cost.

Timothy Landhuis, vice president of research with Staffing Industry Analysts, said effects are being seen across the travel nurse industry.

Landhuis said his organization, a global research and advisory firm, estimated the travel nurse market at $6.5 billion in 2019. That market grew to $42.7 billion in 2022.

The pandemic had exacerbated a nursing shortage that already was underway, he said. And part of the market growth that occurred was because of the pay raises offered to traveling nurses when health facilities were facing crisis-level need, particularly during COVID spikes. He credited agencies for helping meet that demand.

Hospital executives, however, recognized that such outlays were not sustainable. Locally, many health systems responded by offering their own wage increases and hiring incentives.

CHI Health, for instance, is using about half the travelers it was using during peak COVID times, according to a spokeswoman. Some travelers transitioned to internal regional travelers who receive a premium to go between different metro Omaha CHI locations.

Landhuis said his organization estimated in September the travel nurse market in 2023 at $29.9 billion, a 30% decrease.

Omaha is a national hub for medical staffing companies, a development that dates to the 1980s and '90s. One of the original firms was situated in Omaha, and it spawned a number of offshoots.

The Medical Solutions and Fusion spokeswomen said impacted employees at both firms had been provided severance and career assistance to help them find new positions.

"We recognize the impact this has on impacted employees, especially with the coming holidays, and have offered outplacement services and financial support through the end of the year," Fusion's Hite said in a statement.

Medical Solutions' Ireland said in her statement that the company "took several steps to treat all those impacted with dignity and respect."

However, some Medical Solutions employees complained anonymously on social media about the manner in which the layoffs were handled.

Our best Omaha staff photos & videos of October 2023
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The Israeli military accused the Islamist movement Hamas on Friday of using the main hospital in Gaza as a shield for its tunnels and operational centres.

"Hamas has turned hospitals into command and control centres and hideouts for Hamas terrorists and commanders," Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, Israel's chief military spokesman, told a news conference.

He showed photographs, diagrams and audio recordings he said showed how Hamas was using the hospital system and Al Shifa Hospital in particular to hide a variety of command posts and entry points into the extensive tunnel network under Gaza.

"Hamas terrorists operate inside and under Shifa hospital and other hospitals in Gaza," he said.

Hamas official Ezzat El-Reshiq, a member of the movement's political bureau, said on Telegram: "There is no basis in truth to what was reported by the enemy army spokesman," accusing Israel of spreading lies as "a prelude to committing a new massacre against our people".

The comments came as Israeli forces have massed outside Gaza and conducted raids into the enclave in preparation for an expected ground offensive in retaliation for the deadly Hamas attack on Israel that killed some 1,400 people.

Israeli jets and artillery have since pounded the enclave, destroying large areas and killing more than 7,000 people, according to Gaza health ministry figures.

It was not possible to verify Hagari's statements. The Israeli military has regularly accused Hamas of basing leadership and operational centres in residential areas or around schools or hospitals.

U.N. officials have called for a pause in fighting to allow aid into the enclave, where more than 1 million people have been displaced, and have warned they may have to cease operations if no fuel supplies get through.

Israeli officials have said that Hamas has significant reserves of fuels it uses for its own operations.

"There is fuel in hospitals in Gaza and Hamas is using it for its terrorist infrastructure," Hagari said.

(Reporting by James Mackenzie; Editing by Alison Williams)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Newly elected U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said on Thursday that funding to support Ukraine and Israel should be handled separately, suggesting he will not back President Joe Biden's $106 billion aid package for both countries.

Johnson, speaking in an interview on Fox News, has concerns about Ukraine funding in general, and believes any money for Israel will need to be funded by cuts elsewhere.

He met Biden on Thursday and said he told White House staff "our consensus among House Republicans is we need to bifurcate those issues."

Biden wants Congress to provide $106 billion in supplemental funding, with the bulk of the money going to bolster Ukraine's defenses and the remainder split among Israel, Indo-Pacific and border enforcement.

Johnson said of Ukraine funding: "We want to know what the object is there, what is the end game in Ukraine.

"The White House has not provided that," he added.

Biden is betting that including money for Israel and immigration will help convince House Republicans wary of sending additional money to Ukraine to support the measure.

"Israel is a separate matter  we are going to bring forward a standalone Israel funding measure (of) over $14 billion, Johnson said in the interview. He said House Republicans will look for other areas to cut in the budget in order to finance the funding for Israel.

The package includes $14.3 billion for Israel to fund air and missile defense support and other initiatives, as well as $61 billion for Ukraine.

(Reporting by Eric Beech and Chris Sanders; Editing by Jamie Freed and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
By Daphne Psaledakis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. on Friday issued a second round of sanctions aimed at Palestinian militant group Hamas following its attack this month on Israel, including a Hamas official in Iran and members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The measures target additional assets in a Hamas investment portfolio and people facilitating sanctions evasion by Hamas-affiliated companies, the U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement.

A Gaza-based entity that Treasury said has served as a conduit for illicit Iranian funds to Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) group was also targeted, the department said. Iran backs Hamas and other militant groups in the Middle East.

"We will not hesitate to take action to further degrade Hamass ability to commit horrific terrorist attacks by relentlessly targeting its financial activities and streams of funding," Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo wrote, adding the sanctions aimed "to deny Hamas the ability to exploit the international financial system."

Adeyemo said some firms in the digital asset space were not doing enough to stop the flow of illicit finance.

Israel has bombarded the densely populated Gaza Strip following the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that Israel says killed some 1,400 people. The group took more than 200 hostages, some of them infants, in the assault.

The Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry said on Thursday that 7,028 Palestinians had been killed in Israel's retaliatory air strikes.

Reuters could not independently verify the tolls.

Friday's action freezes any U.S. assets of the targeted groups and generally bars Americans from dealing with them. Those that engage in certain transactions with them also risk being hit with sanctions.

The Treasury said it imposed sanctions on a Jordanian national who lives in the Iranian capital, Tehran, and who it said serves as the representative of Hamas in Iran, as well as Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force (IRGC-QF) officials who train and assist members of Hamas and other militant groups.

An Iran-based commander of the Saberin Special Forces Brigade of the IRGC Ground Force was also targeted. The U.S. Treasury said the Saberin Brigade has deployed to Syria and has provided training to Hamas and members of the Lebanon-based Hezbollah.

Sudan and Spain-based companies were also targeted under Friday's measures, as were Turkey-based shareholders of a company previously designated as part of the Hamas investment portfolio.

The United States has said that the Hamas portfolio of investments, estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, includes companies operating in Turkey, as well as Sudan, Algeria, the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere.

This month's violence has led to fears of a broader conflict in the Middle East.

The U.S. military on Thursday carried out strikes against two facilities in eastern Syria used by Iran's Revolutionary Guards and groups it backs following a spate of attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria.

(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis; editing by Robert Birsel and Susan Heavey)
A Chinese fighter pilot flew "within 10 feet" of a nuclear-capable U.S. B-52 bomber flying over the South China Sea, where a territorial dispute between China and a key U.S. ally threatens to flare into a crisis.

"During the night time intercept, the [People's Republic of China] pilot flew in an unsafe and unprofessional manner, demonstrated poor airmanship by closing with uncontrolled excessive speed, flying below, in front of, and within 10 feet of the B-52, putting both aircraft in danger of collision," the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command announced Thursday. "We are concerned this pilot was unaware of how close he came to causing a collision."

JAMAAL BOWMAN PLEADS GUILTY TO PULLING FIRE ALARM AND AGREES TO PAY FINE

That incident occurred on Tuesday after a weekend that saw a pair of collisions between Chinese vessels and Philippine boats attempting to deliver supplies to a Philippine military outpost in the Second Thomas Shoal. The United States has a mutual defense treaty with the Philippines, which won a case against China in an international court that rejected Beijing's territorial claims, but Chinese officials refuse to honor that ruling and maintain President Joe Biden's affirmation of the alliance will not sway them.

"The U.S. is not a party to the South China Sea issue and has no right to interfere in the issue between China and the Philippines," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said Thursday. "The U.S. defense commitment to the Philippines should not undermine China's sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in South China Sea, nor should it support the illegal claims of the Philippines."

Screenshot from video of "Unprofessional Intercept of U.S. aircraft over South China Sea" by a People's Republic of China J-11 pilot, October 24, 2023



U.S. Indo-Pacific Command Public Affairs







Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping's regime has asserted sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, the maritime corridor between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific. Philippine officials regard that as a "ridiculous assertion to suit its expansionist ends," as Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro put it this week.

"It is clear that we are not at war with China," Teodoro said, per the South China Morning Post. "We are just protecting what is ours under international law."

The Chinese fighter pilot's intercept adds to the tally of "more than 280 coercive and risky intercepts in the air domain against the U.S. and its allies and partners over the past roughly two years" that Pentagon officials described on Monday.

"Although we do maintain working level communications on a pretty routine basis, we've seen, unfortunately, the PRC largely denying, canceling, or ignoring most of our requests for everything from routine annual dialogues to senior leader engagements," the Pentagon's Michael Chase, a deputy assistant secretary of defense, said Monday.

The collisions and the harassment of the U.S. bomber occurred as China's top diplomat, Wang Yi, made his final preparations for a visit to Washington that began on Thursday. Yet American analysts surmised that the timing of the confrontation around the Second Thomas Shoal could have more to do with the Philippine need to deliver supplies to the outpost, which is an intentionally grounded ship in major need of maintenance and fortification, which China is keen to prevent.

"Some of the Chinese efforts are to prevent Philippine resupplying, right, so some of the timing is also determined by what the Philippines are doing there," Center for Strategic and International Studies senior fellow Bonnie Lin, the defense secretary's senior adviser for China from 2015 to 2018, told the Washington Examiner. "But preventing the resupply and reinforcement doesn't mean that China has to engage in such aggressive tactics. That's where it's unclear why China is using these tactics, such as, for example, directly, directly running into or colliding with Philippine vessels to prevent the resupply."

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The near collision between the B-52 and the Chinese warplane occurred as the USS Ronald Reagan Carrier Group sailed through the region in a show of solidarity with the Philippines.

"Visits by aircraft carrier are not very common but this is already the second visit by the Ronald Reagan in the year that I have been here in the Philippines," U.S. Embassy Manila spokesman Kanishka Gangopadhyay told local reporters on Wednesday, per the Manila Bulletin. "We are here to support your exercise of your sovereign rights in your [exclusive economic zone], and we are very happy to reiterate our ironclad alliance with the Philippines."

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An analyst quoted by Chinese state media insisted those pledges are all for show. "The US is unlikely to stand up for the Philippines," China's Institute of Maritime Law and Policy deputy director Ding Duo told Global Times. "It will certainly emphasize its 'security commitments' to its allies, otherwise that would directly affect the US' reputation in the eyes of its allies. But the question is, do others believe what the US says? China has never felt threatened and will not fall for this trick."

Chinese forces are trying to spook the U.S. military into withdrawing from areas that Beijing has claimed as its own, according to defense officials. "We understand that they have ambitions to drive the United States out of the region," Dr. Ely Ratner, who leads the Pentagon's Indo-Pacific Security Affairs bureau, said Monday. "[They are] trying to interfere with lawful behavior. And I think it's part and parcel of a broader effort by the PRC to refashion the Indo-Pacific Region away from the kind of free and open Indo-Pacific that we're trying to build."

Original Location: Chinese warplane flies 'within 10 feet' of US B-52 bomber over South China Sea

Washington Examiner Videos
Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) is eyeing a collision course with President Joe Biden as the Minnesota Democrat announced his presidential primary challenge against the incumbent late Thursday.

"I am. I have to," Phillips told CBS News in response to being asked if he was running for president. "I think President Biden has done a spectacular job for our country. But it's not about the past. This is an election about the future."

WHY TRUMP'S FULTON COUNTY CO-DEFENDANTS KEEP TAKING PLEA AGREEMENTS

"I will not sit still; I will not be quiet in the face of numbers that are so clearly saying that we're going to be facing an emergency next November," the House Democrat continued.

Phillips is expected to officially launch his candidacy in Concord, where he'll file to run in New Hampshire's Democratic primary. He has already missed the deadline to appear in Nevada's primary.

The 54-year-old lawmaker is a third-term congressman from Minnesota's Minneapolis suburbs, coming from the state's deep red 3rd Congressional District, becoming the first Democrat to win the seat since 1958.

Just as Biden presents himself, Phillips is considered to be a centrist Democrat. He left House Democratic leadership on Oct. 1, when he announced he would step down from his role as co-chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee. To most, the writing was on the wall that his 2024 primary challenge was coming.

Phillips's bid is an extreme long shot, as it is unlikely anyone will be able to usurp Biden from the Democratic throne. But that does not mean his campaign comes without complications for the incumbent president soon to turn 81.

Phillips, the multimillionaire behind Talenti Gelato, is believed to be one of the wealthiest members of Congress. While he has given "almost 100% support" to Biden, as White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre put it, he has also been critical of the president's decision to "not pass the torch," raising concerns about his age.

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The Republican 2024 primary has been laced with attacks between challengers. While former President Donald Trump has avoided the debates, contenders in Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, and others have lambasted him along their campaign trails, naturally seeing him as their main threat for the Republican nomination.

Biden  despite brief blitzes made by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who no longer is running as a Democrat  has largely been able to skate over any opposition within his own party. Phillips's challenge for the nomination, however far-fetched, will likely change that, and Biden could be faced with additional pressure regarding his age and competency.

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Even if Phillips's bid flames out quickly, the sheer fact of discordance within the Democratic Party could play into Republicans' hands in the general election, namely Trump's, who polls far ahead of his GOP peers.

The "emergency" Phillips mentions is likely referring to the threat Trump poses to Biden's reelection prospects. RealClearPolitics polling average currently has Trump just edging out Biden by 0.7%

Original Location: Dean Phillips launches Democratic primary challenge to Joe Biden

Washington Examiner Videos
Qabil Ashirov

Pakistani Embassy in Azerbaijan held a special event to commemorate Kashmir Black Day in Baku, Azernews reports.

Officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, think tanks, and journalists representing print and electronic media attended the event.

The ceremony started with the anthems of Pakistan and Jammu and Kashmir.

Later, the representative of Azerbaijani NGO gave a speech about the conflict. Thereupon, Charge d`Affaires Sara Ijaz gave detailed information about the conflict and noted that October 27, 2023, marks 75 years of Indias illegal occupation of the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir. She stated that the hapless people of the Indian Illegal Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) continue to suffer under the brutal occupation.

It was noted that the sufferings of the Kashmiri people had increased manifold after India abrogated the special status of IIOJK through the revocation of Articles 370 and 35-A of the Indian Constitution on August 5, 2019. Since then, a fresh wave of state-sponsored terror and oppression has been unleashed, marked by curfews, cordon and search operations, media curbs and blackouts, arbitrary arrests and detention of true Kashmiri leadership, extra-judicial killings, settlement of non-Kashmiris in IIOJK to change its demography and distinct cultural identity, among others. These actions are in clear violation of international law, relevant UNSC resolutions, and the 4th Geneva Convention.

The CdA further emphasized that Jammu and Kashmir is an internationally recognized dispute, and unilateral actions by the Indian government can neither alter the disputed status of the territory nor hold legitimate rights to self-determination for the Kashmiri people.

Participants in the event reiterated Azerbaijans consistent support for the cause of Jammu and Kashmir under UN resolutions.

Following the event, guests were invited to see the photo exhibition depicting the plight of Kashmiris under Indian brutality in the IIOJK.

To recall, on October 27, 1947, India invaded the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir and forcibly occupied it against the will of the people. Each year, October 27 is observed as Kashmir Black Day to mark the forced occupation of the valley by the Indian Occupation Forces.
After nearly two months on the run, Washington, D.C., police recaptured murder suspect Christopher Haynes on Thursday in Oxon Hill, Maryland.

Haynes, 30, escaped police custody from George Washington University Hospital on Sept. 6, and police are confirming he'll face an additional charge for fleeing in addition to the original homicide charge.

ECONOMIC GROWTH SURGED IN THIRD QUARTER TO 4.9% RATE DESPITE HIGH INTEREST RATES

"Finding Christopher Haynes remained a top priority for the Metropolitan Police Department," the Metropolitan Police Department said in a statement announcing his recapture. "MPD worked closely with our local and federal partners to ensure that Haynes was brought to justice. MPD extends deep gratitude to the members of the community who assisted in providing information regarding Haynes' whereabouts."

During a news conference, U.S. Deputy Marshal Robert Dixon said Haynes was taken into custody "without incident" but declined to provide additional details about how Haynes was able to remain at large for so long and if others are being charged. Police previously said anyone who aided and abetted Haynes would also be criminally charged.

Police said Haynes was arrested in Virginia on a Washington, D.C., warrant for the murder of 33-year-old Brent Hayward. He was charged with first-degree murder while armed for the killing of Hayward on Aug. 12 outside a convenience store on Kenilworth Avenue in Northeast Washington. Haynes was taken to the hospital after complaining of ankle pain from a preexisting injury.

Haynes escaped from the emergency room in Foggy Bottom while police were attempting to change his handcuffs, assaulting officers in the process, and was seen in surveillance footage shortly after appearing to be in a fenced yard. At the time of his escape, Haynes was last seen with handcuffs dangling from his wrists and wearing one red shoe.

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Authorities offered a $30,000 reward for information leading to his arrest a week after he managed to escape.

Police said in their news release that a helicopter assisted in locating Haynes, and he was arrested and transported to the Homicide Branch.

Original Location: Escaped DC homicide suspect Christopher Haynes in custody after seven-week manhunt

Washington Examiner Videos
In a recent legal development, a district court judge rejected a motion to dismiss a grand jury indictment in the case of Bryan Kohberger, who stands accused of fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students last November.

Kohberger's defense team argued during a hearing Thursday that a critical error occurred in the grand jury instructions, attempting to raise the grand jury's standard of proof from "sufficient probable cause" to "beyond a reasonable doubt."

NOVEMBER TO REMEMBER: RANKED CHOICE VOTING TAKES CENTER STATE IN SALT LAKE CITY MAYORAL RACE

Judge John Judge of Idaho's 2nd Judicial District in Latah County denied the motion, agreeing with prosecution that the burden of proof was properly met during Kohberger's grand jury proceeding, which is settled law in Idaho.

The judge also said on Thursday that he'll continue to allow cameras during hearings but that he'll need more control over them.

"I'm not going to ban cameras in the courtroom, but I need more control over what cameras are doing and what media, not media is doing with the filming," Judge said, according to attendees. "I know I can only control so much, and that's why I continue to urge people to be patient and have some dignity and some restraint."

Previously, lawyers for both the defense and prosecution have said that cameras should not be allowed in the courtroom, but the families of Kaylee Goncalves and Xana Kernodle, two of the four victims, have requested cameras to ensure accountability and transparency.

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Kohberger, 28, a criminology graduate student from Washington State University, is facing four counts of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of Goncalves, Kernodle, Ethan Chapin, and Madison Mogen, all University of Idaho students. They were found murdered at a rental house near Moscow, Idaho, across the street from the University of Idaho campus, on Nov. 13, 2022, leaving the community devastated.

In May, Judge entered a not guilty plea on behalf of Kohberger after the defendant chose to stand silent rather than enter a plea himself. Kohberger has also waived his right to a speedy trial. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Kohberger.

Original Location: Idaho student murders: Judge denies request to dismiss Bryan Kohberger indictment, allows continued use of cameras

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Israeli military leaders have accused Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization in power in Gaza, of embedding itself in and underneath Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces, held a briefing on Friday in which he alleged that Hamas had several underground complexes under the largest hospital in Gaza, which Hamas used to direct the attacks against Israel. Shifa Hospital has 1,500 beds and more than 4,000 staffers.

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"Hamas uses Shifa Hospital as a shield for Hamas terror infrastructure," Hagari said. "Hamas wages war from hospitals. By operating from these hospitals, Hamas not only endangers the lives of Israeli civilians but also exploits innocent Gazan civilians."

Hagari alleged that Hamas is using fuel from the hospital to further its own gains, even as humanitarian concerns rise in the Gaza Strip. The IDF released aerial imagery that supposedly identified the different wings of the hospital and also pointed out where Hamas's underground complexes were located. The imagery supposedly showed how Hamas used the hospital to hide a number of command posts and entry points into the tunnel system.

The Israel Defense Forces released imagery of Hamas's headquarters under Shifa Hospital in Gaza. (Image courtesy of the IDF, 10/27/2023)

He said Israel has "concrete evidence" that "hundreds of terrorists flooded into the hospital to hide" following the Oct. 7 massacre in which Hamas terrorists burst through the border and slaughtered roughly 1,400 people in southern Israel. The vast majority of the victims were civilians, including women and children.

Hamas has built a maze of tunnels underneath some of the most densely populated areas of Gaza in an effort to move freely without fear of Israeli airstrikes and to hide their weapons caches. The intent is also for Israel to cause civilian casualties amid the country's pursuit of terrorists, which only inflames international concerns and outrage.

Izzat al Rishq, a senior member of Hamas's political bureau, said the Israeli military's allegations were false, according to the Times of Israel.

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"There's no basis in truth in what the spokesman of the enemy army stated," the senior member said. Rishq also accused the IDF of falsifying the allegations in order to "pave the way for a new massacre to be committed against our people."

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Israel has long accused Hamas of using Palestinians as human shields to protect themselves.

The IDF announced on Friday night that its "ground forces are expanding the ground activity this evening," though it's unclear if this is the beginning of its full-scale invasion of Gaza.

Original Location: IDF claims Hamas has operations base under Shifa Hospital in Gaza City

Washington Examiner Videos
The Israeli navy conducted a targeted raid from the Mediterranean Sea into southern Gaza, where authorities said they destroyed Hamas's naval infrastructure.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have continued to conduct strikes and limited incursions into Gaza ahead of their upcoming ground offensive. Israeli military officials said the compound the Flotilla 13 unit targeted was used by Hamas's naval commando forces.

JAMAAL BOWMAN PLEADS GUILTY TO PULLING FIRE ALARM AND AGREES TO PAY FINE

"As part of the operation, the forces destroyed terrorist infrastructures of the terrorist organization Hamas and operated in a compound used by the organization's naval commando forces. Additional vessels of the navy and aircraft took part in the attack," the IDF said in a statement. "The troops left the area upon completion of the mission."

Israel also sent tanks and troops into Gaza for a limited incursion overnight for the second consecutive night. The raid took place near the Shejaiya neighborhood in eastern Gaza City, while Israeli drones and combat helicopters provided air cover, according to the military. The forces struck anti-tank missile launch sites, command and control centers, and terrorists themselves. No troops were injured in the brief incursion, and the troops left Gaza after the mission.

Separately, the IDF said it killed a Hamas commander, Madhath Mubashar, who was commander of the western battalion for the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.

Israeli leaders have announced that a full ground invasion will come, but operational details have remained tightlipped. They have said the goal of the invasion, which will be very difficult and bloody given a variety of circumstances on the ground, is to render Hamas no longer a threat to Israel.

The current war was sparked by the Hamas terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, where militants crossed over the border and proceeded to kill roughly 1,400 people, the vast majority of whom were civilians. Some of the victims were burned alive, tortured, and executed, and there were instances of beheadings and sexual violence.

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Israel has launched thousands of airstrikes, pulverizing much of Gaza's infrastructure, leading to the deaths of thousands of civilians. The Hamas-controlled Palestinian health ministry has claimed that Israeli strikes have killed thousands, but those numbers cannot be independently verified, and the Biden administration has cast doubt on the validity of those figures.

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Both Israeli, United States and most Western leaders have expressed concern about the possibility of the conflict broadening with Israel's adversaries joining the war. Iranian proxies in the region have launched a dozen and a half attacks against U.S. troops in the Middle East over the last week and a half, while U.S. forces responded on Thursday night with strikes against two Syrian facilities used by Iranian forces.

As Israel prepares for the possibility of a two-front war, the government is preparing to advance new measures that would allow Israeli police to use live fire ammunition against citizens who are blocking roads or entrances to towns, according to the Times of Israel. The policy had been pushed earlier this year by far-right politician Itamar Ben-Gvir.

Original Location: Israel says navy unit destroyed Hamas infrastructure overnight

Washington Examiner Videos
Senate Republicans are divided on how to approach President Joe Biden's $106 billion supplemental funding request, which pairs aid packages for Israel and Ukraine.

Members ranging from defense hawks to populists have lambasted the approach of combining the bills since Biden sent Congress the request last Friday, and the party has leverage to demand changes are made to the package. Democrats control the Senate by a 51-49 margin, leaving them in need of 9 GOP votes to bypass the legislative filibuster and pass the bill.

JAMAAL BOWMAN PLEADS GUILTY TO PULLING FIRE ALARM AND AGREES TO PAY FINE

In addition to the $61 billion for Ukraine and $14 billion for Israel, the supplemental requests billions in funding for Taiwan and for border security.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who has largely been supportive of the Biden administration's efforts to pass all four items together, said at his weekly press conference on Tuesday that it was "pretty clear that the supplemental that was sent up is just a certain starting point."

"We're gonna go over it with a fine-tooth comb," he added. "As you can see, there's a lot of passion among our members about having a credible border security provision in there, and we're gonna make other changes as well."

The vast majority, if not all, of the Senate GOP conference is in favor of Israel aid. The same cannot be said for Ukraine assistance. While more than half of the 49 Republicans support some type of continued U.S. aid to Ukraine, there is a vocal population of the conference that strongly opposes such measures.

Those members, backed by a number of pro-Ukraine colleagues, have urged Senate leadership to separate the package into individual aid bills. These Republicans have argued doing so would improve the chances of the Israel bill passing faster and would prevent members who oppose Ukraine aid from having to vote for more aid.

A group of four GOP senators, including one who has voted for Ukraine assistance in the past, introduced legislation on Thursday that would act as stand-alone Israel aid legislation. The bill, led by Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS), has the support of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who has backed Ukraine support but says Israel aid should not be held up as part of a larger package.

"They should be separated," Cruz said of his concerns. "What Biden is trying to do is hold Israel military assistance hostage in order to try to force through his other priorities."

"This bill is a cynical bill, designed to take the wide bipartisan support for military assistance to Israel and use that as a Christmas tree to hang every other left-wing priority onto it," he explained of the president's $106 billion request. "We should vote on Israel military assistance, free and clear, and it would pass overwhelmingly. And every other thing attached to it is the swamp at its very worst."

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Not everyone in the Senate GOP conference agrees that the aid bills should be brought up individually.

Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK), the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services subcommittee that handles military readiness, has argued for months that Ukraine and Taiwan aid should be packaged together in order to ensure the bill has enough bipartisan support to pass through both chambers in a divided Congress.

"There's all this focus on Ukraine, but the aperture of threats is much bigger than just Ukraine. And I think, by the way, you get a lot more votes when it's that way," Sullivan told the Washington Examiner in September.

Sullivan's fellow defense hawks echoed their support this week for combining the bills, including Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Susan Collins (R-ME), the ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

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Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD) has not taken a stance on the matter, at least not publicly. A GOP senator who attended Wednesday's conference luncheon told the Washington Examiner that Thune, the No. 2 Senate Republican, did not make his position known during the weekly meeting.

Asked about the matter later Wednesday, Thune told reporters: "We're still having conversations about that. I think we have to figure out where the conference is."

Original Location: Senate Republicans splinter over Biden's request to link Israel and Ukraine funds

Washington Examiner Videos
Members of the progressive House "Squad" are being hit over their votes against a resolution in support of Israel.

Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) heaped more criticism onto the young House Democrats in an appearance on Fox News, calling them a "complete disgrace." While condemning their other positions, such as defunding the police, he pointed to their refusal to vote in favor of a resolution expressing support for Israel following a deadly surprise attack from Hamas on Oct. 7.

JAMAAL BOWMAN PLEADS GUILTY TO PULLING FIRE ALARM AND AGREES TO PAY FINE

"Those nine Democrats are a complete disgrace," Smith said. "Cori Bush comes from my home state. She advocates for defunding the police. The city she represents, in my home state, per capita, has more murders than anywhere else in the United States. These people are not rational. They want to destroy our society, and they promote propaganda that is as fake news as you possibly can find. The fact that they're harboring and supporting terrorists who have killed more Jewish people since the Holocaust is absolutely unacceptable, and these people do not deserve to serve in the halls of Congress."

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) speaks during a demonstration calling for a ceasefire in Gaza near the Capitol in Washington on Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023. Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/AP

Six of the eight Squad members voted against the resolution  Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), Summer Lee (D-PA), and Cori Bush (D-MO). The remaining two, Reps. Greg Casar (D-TX) and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), voted "present."

Tlaib gave a statement explaining her opposition to the bill, saying it was "incomplete and biased."

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"I have and continue to denounce the killing of civilians, no matter their faith or ethnicity," she wrote. "Targeting civilians is a war crime, no matter who does it. Do not confuse my vote against this one-sided resolution with a lack of empathy for all those who are grieving. I voted against this resolution because it is a deeply incomplete and biased account of what is happening in Israel and Palestine, and what has been happening for decades."

The resolution was called "Standing with Israel as it defends itself against the barbaric war launched by Hamas and other terrorists." It garnered overwhelming support in the House, with 412 yes votes, 10 no votes, six present, and five not voting. All no votes were Democrats, except Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY).

Original Location: 'Squad' Democrats hit for voting against Israel support resolution: 'They want to destroy our society'

Washington Examiner Videos
The Maine Department of Public Safety will give an update at Lewiston City Hall Friday morning as authorities continue to search for the suspect of a mass shooting on Wednesday evening. The tragedy marks the deadliest mass shooting of 2023.

A manhunt has been underway for days for Robert Card, the suspect in the Lewiston mass shooting that left 18 dead and 13 injured, according to authorities.

MAINE SHOOTING: GOV. JANET MILLS ANNOUNCES 18 PEOPLE KILLED IN MASS SHOOTING

An arrest warrant was issued for 40-year-old Card, charging him with eight counts of murder, which officials said will rise, following shootings at the two locations: Schemengees Bar and Grille and Sparetime Recreation, a bowling alley.

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Card is still at large, and shelter-in-place orders have been issued for Lewiston, Lisbon, and Bowdoin in Maine. The press conference will start at 10 a.m.

Original Location: WATCH LIVE: Maine Department of Public Safety to hold press conference on second day of manhunt for mass shooting suspect Robert Card

Washington Examiner Videos
Colorado Parks and Wildlife officers have captured and killed a bear that was involved in an early morning attack involving a resort security guard in Aspen on Oct. 25, with footage of the scary encounter having since been released.

The attack occurred as a security guard was investigating a kitchen area at the St. Regis Aspen Resort after a report was received of a bear on the property, with the bear sneaking onto the property via doors in a courtyard area.

Video footage from the kitchen showed a distinct white marking on the bear's chest, which was ultimately used to track the bear down. In the footage, the guard is seen surprising the bear, with the bear responding by charging at the man and swiping him, causing the man to fall back to the ground. The guard sustained injuries from the swiping and was hospitalized, released the next morning.

The bear was located hours after the attack, but officers were unable to tranquilize it at that time. They returned the following night and found the bear near the town's Conner Park.

Once the bear was positively identified, officers were able to haze it into a tree and tranquilize it. The bear was then removed from the tree with a crew using an Aspen Fire ladder truck.

The bear was then taken from the area and euthanized per Colorado Parks and Wildlife policy.

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Colorado Parks and Wildlife described their policy as follows:

"Bears in Colorado are euthanized for one of three reasons: dangerous bears, depredating bears, and nuisance bears that receive two strikes. Nuisance bears are bears which pose an immediate threat to or damage property, but do not threaten public safety. Depredating bears are bears which have injured or killed livestock as defined by statute, or pose a threat to agricultural products or resources as defined by statute. Dangerous bears are bears which pose an immediate threat to human safety. CPW takes no action on the vast majority of bears deemed nuisance bears, but must occasionally relocate them."

Officers also noted that while searching for the bear, they encountered eight other bears in downtown Aspen.

This case goes to show how curious and innovative bears can be when they're on the hunt for food. They often have no problem sneaking into indoor spaces, even if that means opening doors or windows.

In this case, Colorado Parks and Wildlife staff noted a lack of food-related attractants and a high level of cleanliness in the hotel kitchen, but that still wasn't enough to keep the bear away.
Jimmy Sengenberger is an investigative journalist, public speaker, and host of The Jimmy Sengenberger Show Saturdays from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. on News/Talk 710 KNUS. Reach Jimmy online at Jimmysengenberger.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @SengCenter.
The Gazette Bobby Lively pushes a cart of his belongings across Logan Street during the sweep of an encampment in September near Logan Street and East 8th Avenue in Denver.
Turkish security forces arrested 28 people in Istanbul and the Aegean province of Izmir over their suspected links to the Daesh/ISIS terrorist group, security sources said on Friday, Azernews reports, citing Anadolu Agency.

As part of an investigation by prosecutors in Izmir against Daesh/ISIS, Turkish police conducted an anti-terror operation to arrest 26 suspects. The suspects are accused of carrying out activities on behalf of the terrorist group in conflict zones in the past and have been acting together and meeting with people with links to the terrorist group in Izmir.

During the operation, 21 suspects were arrested, and efforts are ongoing to arrest the remaining five suspects.

As part of an investigation by the terror investigation bureau of the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office in Istanbul, nine suspects were identified as being active in Daesh/ISIS.

Istanbul police arrested seven suspects and efforts are ongoing to arrest the remaining two suspects.

In 2013, Turkiye became one of the first countries to declare Daesh/ISIS a terrorist organization.

The country has since been attacked by the terror group multiple times, with over 300 people killed and hundreds more injured in at least 10 suicide bombings, seven bomb attacks, and four armed attacks. In response, Turkiye launched anti-terror operations at home and abroad to prevent further attacks.
Paul J. Batura is a local writer and host of WHAT A LIFE! Lessons from Legends radio program heard on Saturdays at 6 a.m. on AM 1460 and 100.7 FM KGFT on Sunday afternoons at 1 p.m. You can reach him via email: Paul@PaulBatura.com or Twitter @PaulBatura.
LETTERS: They want more of our money ; suggestions for issues
Last winter's better-than-average snowfall, coupled with promises of less water use by Arizona, California and Nevada, means less drastic actions between now and 2026 for the Colorado River from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
Milk. Dark. White.

An entire day  Saturday, October 28  to celebrate the staple sweet of chocolate.

You could head to the nearest gas station to grab a KitKat or Hershey's bar. Or you could even get a Toblerone or a box of Ferrero Rocher on Amazon.

But, because National Chocolate Day only happens once a year, celebrate the right way and head to a chocolatier!

Here are seven places to go for the best bon bons, truffles, fudge, ice cream and other chocolate-covered goodies in Colorado Springs:

Cacao Chemistry Chocolatier & Patisserie

In the heart of downtown Colorado Springs at 109 North Tejon St., lies a sweet-smelling, chocolate-filled store. According to their website, Cacao Chemistry uses "organic, fair-trade Valrhona chocolate sourced from partnership farms located in 12 equatorial countries."

Chocolate Bark  Hot Chocolate Mixes  Chocolate Pearls  House-made Truffles

Most "chocolatey" item: Drinking Chocolate

This European-inspired hot chocolate is thicker and richer than normal hot chocolate.

High-end Colorado Springs chocolate-maker hoping for sweet success Sam Lang is the co-owner of Cacao Chemistry, a local business that makes creative gourmet chocolates. Some of the chocolates created by Lang a

Pikes Peak Chocolate & Ice Cream

Head over to Manitou Springs at 739 Manitou Ave. for a chocolate tasting adventure, ice cream included. According to their website, Pikes Peak Chocolate & Ice Cream's "chocolatiers create over 70 different delectable homemade chocolates on premise each and every day."

Bear Paws  Coconut Haystacks  Truffles  Toffee  Hand-rolled Salted Caramels

Most "chocolatey" item: Dutch Chocolate ice cream in a milk chocolate dipped waffle cone

Choose between milk, dark and white chocolate dipped waffle cones at Pikes Peak Chocolate & Ice Cream.

b7c0d731a1c5e6bdf2e667e2acca929b Otho Spencer mixes ingredients to be microwaved while making homemade Cracker Jack Tuesday, March 19, 2013, at Pikes Peak Chocolate and Ice Cr

Patsy's Original Candies

Located west of downtown Colorado Springs at 1540 South 21st St., Patsy's has been in the Pikes Peak region since 1903. According to their website, Patsy's treats "start with the best ingredients; real butter, pure chocolate, real cream and no additives, or preservatives."

Coconut Snowballs  Almond Toffee Milk Chocolate  Assorted Truffles  Assorted Chocolates

Most "chocolatey" item: Chocolate Popcorn

If you usually get caramel popcorn, why not opt for a bag of rich, chocolate popcorn instead? The melt-in-your-mouth crunch of this combo is sure to please.

Legendary Colorado Springs candy business back in family's hands Patsy's Candies has a more than 100-year history in the area. It had been in the hands of the Niswonger family since the '50s. They sold the b

Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory

With two locations around the Colorado Springs area at 1605 Briargate Parkway Suite 111 and 2431 West Colorado Ave., Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory has been a staple franchise for chocolate around Colorado. What all started in 1981 as a small chocolate shop in Durango is now a well-known chocolate hub.

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Ganache Truffles  Milk Chocolate Caramels  Nut Patties  Chocolate Peanut Butter Buckets

Most "chocolatey" item: Chocolate drenched Oreos

Find these in the "Scrumptious Snacks Assortment" along with chocolate covered pretzels and graham crackers.

f7f6b04b621160a002fc332a40cc5f88 Norma Jean Parker dipped a strawberry into white chocolate Friday afternoon, increasing the Valentine's Day treat inventory where she works at

The Candy Bar on Tejon

On the west side Tejon, across from Cacao Chemistry, one can find The Candy Bar at 124 North Tejon St., which was established in 2012. Among their chocolate truffle flavors are wedding cake, birthday cake and carrot cake.

Dark Chocolate Toffee  Cappuccino Truffles  Milk Chocolate Cake Batter Bites  Malt Balls

Most "chocolatey" item: Double Chocolate Truffles

These truffles have a rich dark chocolate center and are dipped in dark chocolate.

021521-news-valentines 01.JPG You cant have Valentines Day without candy, even if its on of the coldest Valentines Days on record. Shahnee Foltz shovels snow for custom

See's Candies

Located at 7630 North Academy Blvd., See's Candies chocolate shop features a candy counter where you can create your own custom box of assorted chocolates. Choose between fruity combinations like lemon, key lime and pineapple truffles or nutty flavors like almond and cafe hazelnut. Visit here to view more.

Dark Caramel Patties  Milk Rum Nougat  Chocolate Coffee Beans  Dark Peanut Crunch

Most "chocolatey" item: Milk Chocolate Buttercream Truffles

This truffle's creamy center is paired with chocolate liquor.

FOOD-SEES-CANDIES-3-LA A box of Sees Candies commemorating 100 years. (Ricardo DeAratanha/Los Angeles Times/TNS)

Cole Market

Head to 7830 North Academy Blvd. in north Colorado Springs for artisan chocolate made in-house at Cole Market. Gourmet popcorn is also offered within the categories of buttery, kettle, cheese & savory, candied, caramel, chocolate drizzle and more.

Mexican Hot Chocolate Bar  Butter Rum Truffles  Churro Bark  Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Popcorn

Most "chocolatey" item: Chocolate Chip Dipped Pretzels

Check out Cole Market's other dipped pretzels on their website.

Other sweet tooth lists:
Saudi Arabia's commercial property sector sees new record high for investment sentiment in Q3, thanks to the demand for offices which continues to accelerate, particularly strongly with net balance demand reporting a +73%, according to The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

The topline overall Occupier Demand figure reported a +60% figure  marginally up from the +59 result in the previous quarter. Demand for offices continues to accelerate particularly strongly with net balance demand reporting a +73%, which is up from +62% in Q2, it stated.

Saudi Arabia continues to deliver robust Occupier Sentiment Index (OSI) and Investment Sentiment Index (ISI) readings (+26 and +39, respectively), with the latter series posting a fresh record high across the nation since the ISI for Saudi Arabia began in Q4 2018, noted its Q3 2023 Global Commercial Property Monitor while Saudi Arabias market continues to present a rosy picture..

Development starts reported rises, with the overall figure rising to +77%  another record high since 2018 and up significantly from the +36% recorded in the prior quarter. Every sector is contributing to the rise in development starts, but the retail sector in particular is leading the pack, responding with an exceptional +92% reading, rising from +38% last quarter.

Looking to the future, the outlook remains stable. Overall three-month capital valuations were up a touch from +72% to +75% this quarter, while overall twelve-month rent expectations softened a little from +74% to +65%, rental expectations in the office sector strengthened to +90% from +77% in the previous quarter.

In the anecdotal responses to the monitor, a respondent relays an exceptionally positive atmosphere towards Riyadhs commercial property market, while another reported the increased role that prime office space is contributing to this positive picture.

Practically all metrics for Saudi Arabias commercial property market are in solidly positive territory, reflecting an exceptionally strong and stable market with a positive future outlook. The impact of the Kingdoms Giga Projects continues to make their mark in the monitor results, cementing the nations commercial property sector as one of the worlds leading lights.
O Ibovespa (IBOV) operates sideways this Friday (27), after increasing 1.73% in the last trading session. At around 1:20 pm, the main index of the Brazilian Stock Exchange rose 0.01%, to 114.7 thousand points.

At the same time, the actions of Hypera (HYPE3) fell 6.73% after the Bradesco BBI downgrade the stock recommendation. In the third quarter of 2023, the pharmaceutical company recorded net profit from continued operations of R$499.5 million.

B3 (B3SA3), Hapvida (HAPV3) It is Magalu (MGLU3) were among the casualties, falling, respectively, 2.30%, 1.02% and 0.68%.

The day was also bad for banks, with Itau (ITUB4) losing 0.31%, Bank of Brazil (BBAS3) falling 1.66% and Bradesco (BBDC4) devaluing 0.21%.

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Ibovespa Highs

Usiminas (USIM5) rose 5.69% and led the biggest gains of the day, even after reporting a net loss of R$166 million in 3Q23, reversing the gains seen in 2022 and the second quarter of 2023.

OK (VALE3) gained 3.31%. Bradesco BBI said, in a note sent to clients, that the announcement of the mining companys dividends should serve as a protection for the shares performance in the short term. From the same sector, CSN (CSNA3) It is CSN Mineracao (CMIN3) earned 2.30% and 1.01%, respectively.

Sugar Loaf (PCAR3), Minerva (BEEF3) It is Bradespar (BRPA4) rose 4.05%, 2.24% and 2.80%, respectively.
BIOGRAPHY: Abby Bauman attended Clear Lake Community Schools. After graduating from Clear Lake, she graduated from Drake University with a doctor of pharmacy degree. She works as a pharmacist.

Q. What made you decide to run for school board?

A. Running for school board has been on my heart for a while. I am running because I feel I have unique personal experiences within the school district.

I grew up in Clear Lake and graduated from Clear Lake schools. My mother is a former Clear Lake special education teacher, and my father is a retired Clear Lake schools janitor/district maintenance and bus driver. I am now a mother of two children who attend Clear Lake schools. Through all of this, I have gained understanding of different perspectives within the school district and community. I understand the importance of strong relationships between the school district, families, the community and local businesses. I care about all aspects of the Clear Lake Community School District and desire a well-rounded education for all our students.

I feel we need our schools to be safe and functional to enable learning for our students.

Q. Do you have children or relatives who are students at Clear Lake schools?

A. My two sons attend Clear Lake schools, middle school and elementary school. I also have two nephews in the Clear Lake Community School District, and many friends with children in Clear Lake. I want the same education for all students who attend Clear Lake, the same quality of education that I received from Clear Lake schools.

Q. Can you name a specific action taken by the Clear Lake School Board that you oppose?

A. No specific actions that I oppose with the Clear Lake School Board.

Q. How about positive actions taken either by the board or the state?

A. The Clear Lake Community District School Board was instrumental in helping lead our schools through the pandemic. This was not an easy job. The school board never lost focus of the purpose of education of our students.

I feel our school board continues to maintain the focus on education of our students as a top priority. I want to make sure that the focus on quality education continues and the Clear Lake Community School Board vision remains steadfast.

Q. Do you believe the state did the right thing by implementing SF 496?

A. While I believe in the intentions of Iowa implementing SF 496, I also believe this is a very complex issue. I agree with the restrictions for age-appropriate materials (kindergarten through grade six) and parent/guardian rights; I do not agree with the banning of books.

Q. What is the biggest challenge faced by the Clear Lake School District?

A. Keeping a balance on all the different areas of education: classroom size, teacher and staff pay, busing, maintenance of building and grounds, and extracurricular activities.

Q. What would you most like to accomplish with a four-year term on the school board?

A. I want to make sure that the focus on quality education continues and that the Clear Lake Community School Boards vision remains steadfast.

Bauman is one of four candidates vying for three open seats on the board.

The best fall-scented candles to make your home smell like autumn 1. Literie Apple Picking in the Hudson Valley Candle 2. Homesick Autumn Hayride Candle 3. Capri Blue Pumpkin Dulce Candle 4. Skyler Lane Caramel Apple Candle 5. Arthur Avenue Autumn Leaves Candle
North Iowa area students have an abundance of programs, clubs and extracurricular activities to help them reach their goals. The Youth Investing Energy in Leadership Development through the Mason City Chamber of Commerce is one of those programs.

YIELD students come from area schools, and this year's class consists of Mason City High School, Newman Catholic, North Iowa Christian and Mason City Alternative students. They join together to learn the art of leadership through service.

Lucia Hadacek is a junior at Newman Catholic High School. She's spent most of her Wednesday afternoons along with Mazie Marquis, Noah O'Connell and Sam Steidl to paint the Meredith Willson Footbridge.

"This past year, I've been focused on being a better leader in my community. YIELD gives me the opportunity to grow in leadership," said Hadacek.

Mason City Chamber Vice President and YIELD Director Allyson Krull says students who join the program get out of it what they put in. "There are some that are quiet, but mighty. The kids really enjoy the program," Krull said.

Students in the YIELD program are high school juniors who have been nominated by someone else. Hadacek said students who are nominated should take a chance on the program. "If you get nominated, do it. Put yourself out there and talk to people."

YIELD participants chose the footbridge as their project so they could be a part of Mason City history. "We want to keep it looking nice," said Hadacek.

Krull said city crews came out to get the bridge ready.

"The city did the power washing so our paint will stick. I've done a little scraping here and there, but it's going smoothly," she said.

The Mason City Chamber of Commerce 2023 YIELD class consists of Colin Bleile, Austin Cornell, Hadacek, Adam Henrich, Marquis, O'Connell, Blythe Peterson and Steidl of Newman Catholic High School; Savannah Davis, Cadence Rish, Maya Sajadian, Claire Sampson, Machaela Trask, Ava Watson and Oliva Wickman from Mason City High School; William Mora represents Mason City Alternative School; and Daltyn Jones is a North Iowa Christian School student.

Contact the Mason City Chamber of Commerce for questions about the YIELD Program at (641) 423-5724.
Whether you call it trick or treat or beggar's night, Halloween is Tuesday, Oct. 31, and North Iowa is ready for some fun.

This year's forecast calls for cold, windy weather, so be sure to bundle up your little ghouls and goblins before heading out into the neighborhood.

Here's what area towns have planned for Halloween:

Rockwell will have trick or treat from 5-7 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 28

The following cities will hold trick or treat on Tuesday.

Mason City and Clear Lake - 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Plymouth - 5-7 p.m.

Nora Springs  5-7 p.m.

Rudd  5-7 p.m.

Rockford  Parade at 5 p.m. with trick or treat to follow until 7 p.m.

Charles City  5:30-7:30 p.m.

Manly  6-8 p.m.

Ventura  5-7 p.m.

Garner  5-7 p.m.

Forest City  Treats on Main from 5-7 p.m.

Sheffield  5-7:30 p.m.

Other community celebrations include:

Manly American Legion Aux. Unit #110 Halloween Fun Day, Saturday, Oct. 28, 110 E Elmore, Manly. The Legion hosts an afternoon of family fun from 2-4 p.m. with bounce houses, trunk or treat and more. From 8 p.m.-midnight there will be an adult costume party with cash prizes and DJ Sweet Sounds.

Healing Hands and More's Holistic Spooktacular Fair, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 29, at the Best Western Holiday Lodge 2023 Seventh Ave. N., Clear Lake. This second annual fall event will feature lectures and intuitive readers, healing practitioners, and vendors. There will be a costume drawing, as well. Admission is $5.

North Iowa Figure Skating Club Halloween Party. This family friendly event will be 5:30-7 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 29, at Mason City Arena, 11 S. Washington Ave. Cost is $10 per person and includes skate rental, on-ice activities, off-ice activities and a treat! Wear a skate-safe costume for extra fun.
JOHNSTON  It is critical that America remain a moral compass to help Israel, both now and beyond next years presidential election, Israels Consul General to the Midwest said Thursday in Iowa.

Yinam Cohen discussed the Israel-Hamas war, and the rise in antisemitism in the U.S. during this weekends episode of Iowa Press on Iowa PBS.

Cohen praised U.S. President Joe Biden for his leadership on the world stage since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. He also expressed his appreciation for the widespread, bipartisan support for Israel from the U.S. Congress.

President Biden really showed a lot of leadership since the beginning of the violence in our region, since the heinous attack that cost the lives of more than 1,400 Israelis, Cohen said.

He has really been a moral compass, not just only here in America, but also to the world, and his leadership and setting the goal for really eliminating Hamas, and this is very important.

Republican candidates for president, who have spent a lot of time campaigning in Iowa before the states first-in-the-nation Republican caucuses, have been discussing the Israel-Hamas war on the campaign trail.

Cohen said regardless of who wins next years presidential election, the U.S. must lead the world with its values.

We want the world to be led by the values of freedom and democracy of America, not by other values that are promoted by other countries maybe in other sides of the world, Cohen said.

We need the world to be led by America. We need the world to be led by the values of freedom and democracy. And this is why I think it is very important that America continues to play a major role in setting the right moral compass for the world.

While discussing the conflict, Cohen said he agrees with Bidens remarks earlier this week, in which he said it is important for Israels military to focus its effort on eradicating Hamas, and not at the expense of the Palestinian people who live in Gaza.

Cohen said Israel is coordinating daily with the U.S. administration on every humanitarian issue, including efforts to help American citizens currently in Gaza  estimates put that number at roughly 500 to 600  who are trying to leave.

I think the President (Biden) is very correct because  we have declared war on Hamas. Hamas is a terrorist organization that is inspired, financed and trained by Iran. Their only aim is not to advance Palestinian well-being or the two-state solution or whatever that would be. Their declared goal is to destroy the one and only true state, the state of Israel, and to kill as many Jews as they can, Cohen said.

So, we have declared war, and our goal is to eradicate the leadership and the terrorist capabilities of Hamas in the Gaza strip.

At the same time, he said, Israel is well aware of the civilian population in Gaza and that the nation will really try to distinguish between Hamas and civilians.

If Israels military is successful in eliminating Hamas, a coalition of nations must help broker a long-term solution for peace in a region that has not had peace for decades, Cohen said.

This is the most important question. When we think of the military goal, fully eradicating Hamass capability of perpetrating terror attacks, we should also think of the day after the war. How should the Gaza strip be ruled and managed? Cohen said.

I think that the most important thing on the day after is to make sure that both the international community but also our Arab friends and allies in the region  to make sure that the day after Hamas, they are able, the Palestinian population there, to set a road map and future for the civilian population there for a better life, better infrastructure, better education, eradicating the radicalism that is so deeply rooted right now among the population.

This is our goal.  It is a plan, a road map for the next years. And we need the whole international community and the Arab allies to do that.

Cohen also expressed concern for a spike in antisemitic incidents around the world, including in the U.S., since the Oct. 7 attacks.

According to preliminary data from the Anti-Defamation League, reported antisemitic incidents of harassment, vandalism and assault from Oct. 7 to Oct. 23 increased by 388% over the same period last year.

Iowa Press airs on Iowa PBS at 7 p.m. Friday and noon Sunday and at 8:30 a.m. Saturday on Iowa PBS World. The program also can be viewed at iowapbs.org/iowapress.

Misinformation about Israel-Hamas war floods social media; here are the facts Claim: Black flag calls Muslims to action Claim: Kim Jong Un blames Biden for war Claim: Israel confirms it bombed hospital Claim: BBC reports Ukraine provided weapons to Hamas Claim: Hamas fighters storm sports field to attack Israelis Claim: Putin warns US to stay away from war
Curtis Gore had strong words for the man who shot and killed Gores adopted son last year at Purdum Woods.

You are a coward, Gore said to 26-year-old Andrew Jovanni Menjivar during testimony in Menjivars sentencing hearing in Danville Circuit Court on Thursday morning.

Menjivar will serve a total of 12 years for the fatal shooting of 29-year-old Brandon Alexander Gore on May 17, 2022, at the Purdum Woods apartments on Richmond Boulevard in Danville.

Menjivar pleaded guilty last month to voluntary manslaughter, discharge of a firearm in public resulting in injury and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

He was originally charged with second-degree murder but that count was downgraded due to the nature of the act.

The incident occurred during the heat of passion amid a love triangle.

On May 17, 2022, Menjivar had been staying at a womans apartment at Purdum Woods. She had been dating him and Gore off and on.

Menjivar was at her apartment the morning of the incident. He had been staying there, helping the woman pay rent and utility bills.

Gore came over that morning, knocked on the door and demanded $100 from the woman for marijuana he had given her.

When Menjivar answered the door, both men realized they are involved with the same woman.

Brandon wants the $100, Danville Commonwealth Attorney Michael Newman told the Danville Register & Bee last month. Andrew says, Were not going to pay it now, and shuts the door in his face.

Gore refuses to leave after being told to do so.

Hes banging on the door, Newman added.

At some point, Menjivar came back out of the apartment. The neighbors hear a scuffle and multiple gunshots.

Menjivar shot Gore and fled, taking the weapon  a 9 mm Hi-Point  with him.

He was arrested in North Carolina a few days later.

During testimony Thursday morning, Menjivar argued that after he had closed the door and Gore started banging on it and shouting, he went and grabbed a firearm. He added that he told Gore that he needed to leave.

Menjivar testified that when he opened the door and Gore spotted his weapon, Gore said to him, Youre still a [expletive]. Youre not going to do anything with that.

He said Gore then grabbed his neck and started to choke him.

At that moment, I cant breathe, Menjivar said. I panicked and fired until he let go. It was fast.

He fired seven shots, one of which grazed a 13-year-old child  in a neighboring apartment  who witnessed the incident.

Menjivar said he ran away into the woods with his weapon and left it under a rock by a stream. He came upon a home, told the resident that he had been robbed and the homeowner called someone for Menjivar to come pick him up.

Menjivar, who lived in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, at the time of the incident, was on the run for three days.

He said he started to make arrangements to turn himself in to police.

But Newman cast doubt on his story after Menjivar said Gore was choking him with his right arm, adding that the woman at the apartment said Menjivar went through Gores pockets after shooting him.

Menjivar and his defense attorneys vehemently denied the latter allegation.

We contend thats not correct, said Mark Williams, part of Menjivars defense team that included Baker Williams.

He also questioned why Menjivar felt the need to lie to the resident about being robbed if the shooting was in self-defense.

Also, Newman questioned the claim that Gore was choking Menjivar with his right arm since Gore had gunshot wounds on his right shoulder and the outside of his right arm.

You lied, Newman told Menjivar.

Princess Brown, Gores biological mother who put him up for adoption when he was born and met him for the first time four years before his death, said, I had no idea I would be impacted this way by his killing.

I got to learn so much about him, Brown said about meeting him, adding that they had much in common.

She had kind, merciful words for Menjivar.

I have no ill will against you, she said. I forgive you, Andrew Menjivar.

Gores adoptive father and the mother of Gores two children described Gore as a loving and dedicated father.

You left two little girls to grow up without their father, Curtis Gore told Menjivar.

When the youngest daughters first words were Dada, Curtis Gore said he had to correct her because Brandon Gore was no longer alive, he said.

I had to teach her Papa, because hes no longer here, he told Menjivar. You did this.

He called Menjivars shooting of Gore a cowardly act.

Im being nice when I say, cowardly, Curtis Gore said.

Gore occasionally stopped, shook his head and collected himself while reading a statement in court.

You are the first person in my life that I have pure hatred for, he told Menjivar.

Latondra Pannell, the mother of Gores children, said of his role as a father, Brandon was their best friend. Im the disciplinarian, Brandon was their best friend. Were still trying to find our way in this world without him.

Pannell also delivered a powerful statement to Menjivar.

While Princess forgives you, I dont, Pannell said. I dont understand why you took him away from us.

Gore was smart, ambitious, he was caring, she added.

And we can never get him back, Pannell said.

During testimony and his statement to the court, Menjivar expressed remorse for his actions.

Im very sorry, he told Gores relatives. One day, just please forgive me, because it has affected me as well.

He added that not a day goes by that I dont see his [Gores] face.

Judge Joseph Milam, before handing down the sentence, called the case a tragedy.

This a tragedy primarily for the children, for both families, Milam said, referring to Menjivars child as well. This should not have happened.

He added that it was not the first time Menjivar has been convicted of a firearm offense.

This is troubling, Milam said.

He sentenced Menjivar to 10 years on the manslaughter charge, with three suspended.

For the possession charge, Milam imposed five years with two suspended, and handed down five years for the shooting in a public place charge, with three years suspended.

The sentences totaled 12 years.
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NEOM Green Hydrogen Company (NGHC) Chairman Nadhmi Al Nasr, has announced that following the successful financial close on the worlds largest green hydrogen plant, its CEO David Edmondson will return to US-based Air Products Company.

In this planned leadership transition, Edmondson will remain CEO until the end of the year to ensure a smooth and seamless handover of responsibilities. He will be succeeded by Wesam Y. Alghamdi at NGHC.

As of January 1, 2024, Edmondson will return to Air Products, where he will continue to play an instrumental role in the development of Air Products green hydrogen strategy in support of the energy transition market.

Since joining NGHC, Edmondson has led the development of the plant in collaboration with NGHC shareholders such as Acwa Power, Air Products, and NEOM, ultimately resulting in the establishment of the company.

In July 2021, Edmondson took on the position of CEO, becoming responsible for overseeing project financing and the initial company build-out.

According to NGHC, Edmondson has been instrumental in developing human capital capabilities in line with Saudi Vision 2030, while effectively managing the successful conclusion of all project agreements.

Under his guidance, NGHC accomplished full financial close on the plant in May, with a total investment value of $8.4 billion. The funding includes a significant amount of $6.1 billion in non-recourse financing from 23 local, regional, and international banks and financial institutions.

Joining NGHC this month, Alghamdi brings over 25 years of cross-function senior leadership, including engineering, operations, and project management in diverse industry segments with Maaden, Sabic and Shell.

An alumnus of King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), Alghamdi has a strong track record of performance anchored in strategic planning and technical execution, which will be pivotal in leading the companys next era of growth.

NEOM Chairman and CEO Nadhmi Al-Nasr said: "With full financial close on the plant, we are a significant step closer to revolutionising the global energy market through the production of green hydrogen at scale."

"The focus of the next two years at NGHC will be to complete the construction of the giga-scale facility for the operational phase of the project." he stated.

Located at Oxagon in Saudi Arabias northwestern region, NGHCs mega-plant is an equal joint venture between Acwa Power, Air Products, and NEOM.

Once operational by the end of 2026, the plant will integrate up to 4GW of solar and wind energy to produce approximately 600 tonnes per day of carbon-free hydrogen, specifically in the form of green ammonia.

Air Products has an exclusive 30-year off-take agreement for all the green ammonia produced at the facility, which will be used in transportation and industrial sectors worldwide. This agreement will unlock the economic potential of renewable energy throughout the entire value chain.-TradeArabia News Service
Find sparkle and shine at fundraiser

Generous donations of gently-worn jewelry of all types, styles and categories  vintage, exotic, contemporary  will sparkle, shine and command attention at Greensboros Temple Emanuel fundraiser to provide activities for its Friendship Circle seniors group.

Open to the public, the fundraising event is scheduled from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Oct. 29 in the synagogues social hall, 1129 Jefferson Road, Greensboro. Admission is free. For security, no backpacks or large bags will be permitted. All of the jewelry is priced low.

Hogans Creek Park opening

The Dan River Basin Association will celebrate the official opening of Hogans Creek Park at 4:30 p.m. Nov. 1 at 128 Stanley Road in Stokesdale.

The DRBA has been working hard for the past three years with partners to open this beautiful park across from Belews Lake in Stokesdale. Join them in touring the 1/4 mile trail, amenities and additional opportunities for future amenities.

For information, call 336-627-6270.

Code Academy meetings

Greensboros Code Compliance Division is starting a series of discussions with residents throughout Greensboro about what its inspectors are responsible for and what they arent, and explain the importance of knowing a little bit about their code of ordinances.

Two inaugural Code Academy meetings are set for Nov. 9: 11 a.m. at Glenwood Recreational Center, 2010 Coliseum Blvd. and 6:30 p.m. at Brown Recreational Center, 302 E. Vandalia Road.

Code compliance inspectors will talk about what folks should contact them for, which is making sure the citys Chapter 11 Housing Code and Chapter 17 Nuisances are adhered to by everyone.

The housing code outlines what a property owner is responsible for, conditions that make a building unfit for humans and how infractions are addressed.

The nuisance code outlines what nuisances are, who is responsible for enforcing those situations, and again, how infractions are addressed.

According to Code Compliance Manager Larry Roberts, with the Housing and Neighborhood Development Department, his office gets many calls daily about issues such as excess noise, alleged zoning infractions and oversized vehicles parked in residential areas.

Three different departments cover each of those three issues, Roberts says, and they arent HND.

Learn more at Code Academy, which is free and open to the public. Additional monthly sessions will be scheduled in the near future.

Accelerating Appalachia announcement

Accelerating Appalachia, an organization with more than a decade of experience building regenerative agricultural systems and resilient, regional commodities in the Appalachian region and rural southeast, has announced the launch of its Building Soil, Building Equity initiative. Accelerating Appalachia is now accepting food, fiber and forest farmer applications to enroll in the project, with the ultimate goal of building soil health and expanding climate-smart farming practices across Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, West Virginia, Virginia, southern Ohio and northern Georgia.

BSBE aims to enroll 400+ farmers in the initiative during the multi-year grant and will provide resources, technical skill development, capacity building, and operational support to strengthen farmer businesses. In order to be eligible farmers must adopt at least one of the 12 selected farming practices, ranging from no-till to agroforestry, applied to the following commodities: Beef, cotton, fruits, pork, row crops, rice, specialty crops and wool.

Farmers who participate in the BSBE initiative will be incentivized to adopt Climate-Smart Agriculture Farming practices (also referred to as regenerative or conservation practices) with access to $12 million in cash incentives, free training and marketing support with increased incentives for BIPOC (Black and Native American) producers.

For information, visit www.acceleratingappalachia.org or contact LeShae Robinson at Leshae@acceleratingappalachia.org or 859-279-2075.

Only God Choir openings

Newly formed Only God Choir is connecting students and the community in song and faith. The choir is composed of middle school youth between the ages of 10 to 14 with a mix of backstories and personalities all with a singular mission  to minister and inspire others through music and service.

Founded by three students and led by choir director, Xavier Kelley, the Only God Choir was created so students from different schools and churches could participate in the groups endeavor to spread music and the Word of God to all types of audiences, including nursing homes, prayer meetings, preachers fellowships and churches of several denominations.

Only God Choir is open to any student in fifth through eighth grades in the Stokesdale and surrounding area, regardless of their school affiliation. However, students must maintain good standing in all core academic classes to participate. The choir also benefits from a wide range of pastoral support as well as executive officers.

The choir is available to perform at churches, ministries, and events across North Carolina. Performances include gospel and/or patriotic music that is enthusiastic in its approach and passionate in its meaning.

In addition to the choir, Kelley teaches at Shining Light Academy in Greensboro and evangelizes at different churches upon request.

Patrons, sponsors and members are welcome; visit OnlyGodChoir.org.

Guilford Metro 911 survey

Beginning Oct. 25, city of Greensboro and Guilford County residents will be some of the first in the state to use a new community engagement and feedback solution after an interaction with Guilford Metro 911. This new service uses text messaging to contact some 911 callers that have recently reported or been involved in non-life threatening incidents.

These text messages are sent hours or even days, after the incident and will ask residents to take a quick survey about their experience with the 911 Center. It will also allow residents to provide their own comments, feedback and words of gratitude after receiving public safety service.

With PowerEngage, text message surveys are sent to those whose cellphone number is recorded as part of a call for service. Text messages containing the survey should come from a 336-344-9726 or 336-438-2859 number.

Residents who do not want to participate can simply not respond to the text message. As with all texts, anyone may reply with STOP and that will opt them out of all future text surveys from the department.

These surveys should not be used to report any type of emergency. As always, call 911 for any emergency.

Archeology Day

In partnership with UNCG, the Greensboro History Museum is offering Archeology Day from 1-4 p.m. Oct. 28 at the museum, 130 Summit Ave. Discover what archeology can teach about the past at this family-friendly event.

Visitors to the museum can meet with archaeology instructors and students; learn about archaeological digs and explorations locally and around the world. There will also be hands-on activities to understand how archaeologists learn about the past. Archaeology Day is free and open to all ages.

Community open house events

The High Point 2045 Comprehensive Plan initiative will offer two final community open house events from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Nov. 1 at the High Point Museum at 1859 Lexington Ave. and from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Nov. 2 in the Morgan Room at the High Point Public Library at 901 N. Main St.

Community members are invited to attend either drop-in session to review the results of the participation to date and to give feedback as the citys proposed long-term growth plan takes final shape.

Both open houses are open to anyone who lives, works and plays in High Point and will have no formal presentation.

The High Point 2045 Comprehensive Plan initiative began in February 2023 to engage the public in creating a long-range decision-making guide that establishes the general direction for policymaking and public investment for the next 20 years or more.

Through a variety of engagement efforts, including in-person open houses and online surveys, more than 1,000 people have participated in the process. They weighed in on outcomes for the major focus points the plan must include and on future growth and development scenarios. Feedback received from the final open houses will be used to clarify and formalize strategies to achieve the communitys goals.

For information, visit HighPoint2045.org.

Veterans Day ceremony

A Veterans Day ceremony will be held at 11 a.m. Nov. 11 at the Carolina Field of Honor at 9652 W. Market St. in Kernersville.

The rain or shine ceremony will feature color guards, special music, the laying of the wreath, taps and other commemorative activities to honor all those who serve the country, past and present. Comments will be made by several distinguished veterans, and as a special treat, the keynote speaker will be retired Lt. Col. Shaun Conlin, a decorated airborne ranger and veteran of the U.S. Army. A graduate of West Point, who later returned as a professor, he commanded military organizations throughout his 23 year career.

Though the traffic issue at the entrance has been addressed making the entrance and exit into the park much faster, it is recommended that attendees come early. The ceremony and parking are free and lawn chairs are encouraged.

For information, visit www.carolinafieldofhonor.org.
GREENSBORO  The northernmost trestle bridge on the Atlantic and Yadkin Greenway, between Strawberry Road and Bur-Mil Park, will be closed to all traffic.

The bridge wont reopen until it can be replaced and no paved detour route will be available, according to a news release from the city.

City officials said the closure is necessary based on the findings and recommendations of an engineering firm that completed a structural assessment in late September of the greenways two bridges spanning Lake Brandt.

The city is prioritizing efforts to bring that section of greenway up to design standards and is pursuing the funding for its planning and construction. Preliminary cost estimates are $2.5 million, according to the city.

To that end, the Greensboro Urban Metropolitan Planning Organization is seeking federal funding in the amount of $2 million, which will be combined with a $500,000 local match, according to the news release. The design and permitting is expected to begin in early 2024 with construction in 2025, due to, among other things, the sensitive watershed habitat surrounding the bridge.

This is a very important greenway and we are eager to initiate the work necessary to improve and expand it, Parks and Recreation Director Phil Fleischmann said in a statement. We regret that the bridge closure is necessary and understand that this causes a significant disruption to those who use the greenway for transportation and recreation north of Bur-Mil Park.
UPDATE: Timmy Brady died at the hospital Monday night, High Point police said in a news release on Tuesday. The crash investigation is complete. No charges will be filed, police said.

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HIGH POINT  A 57-year-old man was critically injured when he was struck by a car while standing near his disabled vehicle shortly after 1 a.m. Friday, High Point police said in a news release.

Police said Timmy Brady was taken by ambulance to Moses Cone Hospital with life-threatening injuries.

At 1:07 a.m., officers responded to Jamestown Parkway near North Scientific Street about an accident involving a Toyota Corolla and a Ford F-150.

Investigators determined that the Ford pickup truck had a mechanical issue and was stopped partially in the eastbound travel lane.

Brady had exited his truck and was standing in the roadway. His vehicle did not have any lights on, and the roadway has no street lighting, police said.

The driver of a Toyota traveling in the same direction did not see Brady or his truck, and struck the left rear corner of Bradys truck and Brady.

Police said there is no additional information to release at this time.
In a recent News & Record op-ed, UNCG Chancellor Frank Gilliam criticized a group of faculty for using scare tactics about a routine review of academic programs on campus. He misses the point.

Faculty, students and alumni are scared for the future of a beloved university. At a time when people are calling for institutions like UNCG, serving large numbers of first-generation college students, to become more skills- and trade-oriented, we are proud to teach at a university that has maintained a commitment to providing all students with a robust education that teaches them to write and think critically, communicate across cultures, and take informed positions on the world around them.

We believe in UNCGs mission and fear that the administrations recent imposition of a flawed academic program review process will set it on a dangerous path from which it cannot recover.

And were not alone. More than 186 faculty, 1,800 current students and 914 alumni are among the 3,802 people who have signed a petition to end the Academic Portfolio Review.

How we got here

Academic Portfolio Review began last fall with the administrations hiring of an outside consulting firm, rpk GROUP, which has been contracting with higher education institutions across the country to collect data and make recommendations to close academic programs and departments. The business model used by rpk GROUP measures the success of a program according to the number of credit hours generated and degrees awarded, ignoring their quality and their importance to students, local economies and communities.

Elsewhere, the results have been devastating. For instance, after receiving rpk GROUPs cost-efficiency recommendations, West Virginia University eliminated 28 academic programs and 143 faculty positions. Equally alarming, after Emporia State University, which is part of the University of Kansas system, fired 33 faculty and staff and eliminated around 40 degree programs, its enrollment this fall plunged by 12.5%.

Students didnt want to attend a hollowed-out university so they headed in droves to other campuses within the University of Kansas system. If UNCG continues down its current path, we fear it may meet the same fate.

Not the answer

To be sure, UNCG has faced real challenges since the pandemic. We experienced more enrollment loss in real numbers than any other UNC campus and have seen deep budget cuts each year as a consequence. On top of that, Chancellor Gilliam warned us that the new state funding model for higher education would adversely impact our campus.

But the worst-case scenarios thus far have been averted. Total enrollment remains the most important factor in UNC system funding and first-year admissions at UNCG increased this year and seem to have stabilized. UNCG has also amassed a large reserve fund by making deep cuts over the past several years and now stands in solid financial shape, as an outside analysis by accounting expert Howard Bunsis demonstrated.

A divisive approach

One of the most disturbing elements of the Academic Program Review is that it pits our departments and programs against each other and requires committees of faculty to make recommendations about which programs to cut. Since weve been told to expect faculty who work in discontinued programs to be fired after a teach-out period (which would enable current students to graduate), administrators are asking faculty to make decisions that will help determine which of their colleagues could lose their jobs.

To make matters worse, the data collected by rpk GROUP was so flawed that the administration has altered the numerical ratings of programs multiple times in response to errors pointed out by department heads. Administrators also have failed to present a consistent or unified message about which factors they will consider when determining which programs to cut. All of this has created tremendous stress and confusion.

The issue isnt change

Faculty are not opposed to change; in fact, one of the things that attracted us to academic life is that its incredibly fast-moving and stimulating because new knowledge and methods of teaching are always being produced. UNCGs programs are reviewed regularly by accrediting bodies and outside evaluators who conduct extensive on-site visits and deliver detailed reports on how we can improve. The outside reviews measure the strength of programs by reading written assessments and directly interviewing faculty and students about our struggles and accomplishments. They compare our data with similar programs at peer institutions (such comparative institutional data was banned by the Academic Profile Review process), not by comparisons of their cost vis-a-vis other programs at UNCG. Deans, acting through faculty committees, periodically make recommendations about programs to eliminate, combine or reorganize to the Faculty Senate, which exercises ultimate authority over the undergraduate curriculum.

Gilliam has justified the significant expenditures on rpk GROUP and the imposition of the Academic Program Review by claiming that cutting programs will help UNCG to cater to student demand and anticipate and respond to new trends in society (building on our recent investments in esports). Yet, as Aaron R. Hanlon points out in a recent piece on the crisis at WVU, such bets on future student interest and enrollment and future economic needs reflect the short-term thinking of business management.

In fact, neither consultants like rpk GROUP nor administrators can predict the future. History abounds with examples of areas of study that had been written off becoming vitally important (consider the upsurge in interest in Middle Eastern and Arabic languages and culture after 9/11). While we cant predict the future job market, we know that a well-rounded education that introduces students to ideas and subjects they might never have even considered before coming to UNCG will equip them with the skills and habits of mind they need to succeed.

UNCG faculty teach their students to stand up for themselves and find their voice in matters that not only concern their own interests, but also the interests of their campus, community and society at large. We intend to keep teaching them to think critically, ask questions and speak out when an institution that is important to them embarks on major initiative without informing them.

And as faculty at a public university, we feel an obligation to share our concerns when an institution we cherish embraces a flawed strategy to remake itself without offering a compelling justification.
Foxxs behavior

Based upon the latest 2023 Republican-gerrymandered N.C. voter-redistricting maps, it appears that, depending upon how Greensboro is actually sliced and diced, Republican Congresswoman Virginia Foxx may very well become the representative for a number of us next year.

With the new maps heavily on my mind, I was thoroughly appalled when I saw the Oct. 25 video of Rep. Foxx loudly yelling, Oh, shut up! Shut up! at Rachel Scott, an ABC News reporter, cutting off her question in mid-sentence.

Ms. Scotts transgression? She attempted to ask newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson about the 2020 election. As you may know, the speakers position in the past has been that the 2020 election was rigged. He has yet to say otherwise in spite of mounds of evidence to the contrary.

It appeared that Ms. Scotts question was meant to find out if the speaker has changed his mind about the election outcome. Congresswoman Foxxs behavior toward Ms. Scott  as well as that of the numerous other Republicans standing with her who also yelled at Ms. Scott  was not only unprofessional but extremely unbecoming of an elected U.S. official. It was a poor reflection on the state of North Carolina.

If we have nothing else in this country, we still have a free press. Unfortunately, Foxxs unfitting behavior calls into question her belief in this critical institution  an institution that is at the heart of any democracy.

A real professional would step forward and apologize for her inappropriate behavior and acknowledge the indispensable role of the free press in our great country.

Ken Stiles

Greensboro

Common humanity

The common denominator of the human family is our essence as conscious human beings. When our focus shifts from our common denominator, unimaginable tragedies occur. The innocent lives lost in Maine, Israel, Gaza, Illinois, Maryland, etc., reflect the lost connections of not seeing the human value in each other.

How many lives must be lost before we realize our human value? Wars and rumors of more wars have been loudly echoed because some elements have dismissed our common human value.

If we can see that taking one innocent life is as if you have taken the life of all humanity, and that saving one innocent life is the same as saving all of humanity, then perhaps we can visualize again that humanity is one.

Fleming El-Amin

Winston-Salem

All Gods children

I was at lunch a few weeks ago and an acquaintance was talking about a recent vote at her church. I asked what about it and she said that their church had voted to disaffiliate from the United Methodists. She continued to say that we do not have anything against gay people but we do not want our ministers to marry gays because God and the Bible say that marriage is between a man and a woman.

I was taken aback by her comments but I did not really know this woman and did not respond at the time. But it has haunted me ever since to think that well-meaning Christian people do not think they are doing any harm by taking away peoples rights under the guise of religion.

It was not long ago that this same kind of thinking was used by some Christian churches to ban interracial marriage; to oppose desegregation; to subjugate women and Black and brown people to second-class citizenship; and to uphold spousal and child abuse and slavery.

In the case of effectively banning gay marriage in a church, aside from being against what Jesus preached, it takes away spousal survivorship rights for such things as Social Security, retirement benefits and the right for gay partners to be next of kin and to make medical and legal decisions together.

When you take away a groups rights to full citizenship, you are doing harm to them and therefore you are against them. God loves us ALL. Amen.

Marcia Foutch

Greensboro

Repeal it

Its time to repeal the Second Amendment. Long past time.

Whatever your position may be on the wisdom of one or another restriction on accessibility to weapons, you cannot really disagree with this: The Second Amendment inhibits, if not suppresses, an honest debate on the reasonableness of any proposed restriction. No matter the merits of any proposal  no can do, says the amendment. Unless, says the current Supreme Court, it is consistent with this Nations historical tradition of firearm regulation.

This assumes that tradition is an objectively verifiable fact and uniform throughout the land as of any given point in time. Which point, incredibly, the court leaves open, saying it could be 1791 when the Bill of Rights was adopted, or 1868 when the 14h Amendment was ratified. Whatever. The upshot is that what might make sense today is irrelevant because of the Second Amendment.

The court has put public policy decision-making in a historical straitjacket. Ironically, this undermines rather than reinforces public safety, the putative purpose of the Second Amendment.

Repeal of the amendment would remove these shackles and free up the potential for rational discourse.

Who knows what insights and consensus on firearm regulation might flow from unfettered public debate, where good and bad ideas battle it out?

One thing is for sure: So long as the Second Amendment rules, we wont know. Well remain at a dead end. Literally.

Steve Fletcher

Lexington
Lt. Gov. Kristen Juras will hand out Halloween goodies to trick-or-treaters from 4-6 p.m. on Tuesday on the south side of the state Capitol building.

Montana State Auditor Troy Downing, Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen, Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen, the Department of Labor and Industry, the Department of Public Health and Human Services, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Corrections, and the Legislative Services Division will also have treats for trick-or-treaters.

The lieutenant governor urges trick-or-treaters to be safe on Halloween, including following these safety tips:

Avoid trick-or-treating alone and walk in groups or with a responsible adult.

Make trick-or-treaters more visible to motorists by using a flashlight and putting reflective tape on costumes and bags.

Be safe when crossing the street  look both ways, use crosswalks when possible, and walk, dont run.

Teach your children never to enter a strangers home or car.

Stick to well-lit areas and approach well-lit homes.

With the governors residence at the corner of East Broadway and Carson streets in Helena closed for renovations and the governor leading a trade mission to Taiwan, Juras is welcoming trick-or-treaters to the state Capitol.
Sexual intercourse without consent charges have been dropped against a Plentywood man at the request of the state of Montana, saying the two developmentally disabled women he was accused of raping have either changed stories or asked not to continue with the case.

Assistant Attorneys General Michael Gee and Thorin Geist filed a motion Oct. 25 asking that the charges against Timothy Marsh be dropped. Jury selection in Montana 15th Judicial District Court in Sheridan County was to begin Monday.

Judge Brenda Gilbert of the 6th District Court of Livingston was to preside over the trial because the defendant and previous Sheridan County judge lived in close proximity. She dismissed the case Wednesday afternoon "in the interest of justice with prejudice." She vacated the trial, exonerated bail for Marsh and released him "from all existing conditions of release."

Efforts to reach Marshs attorney, Samantha Howard, for comment were unsuccessful.

In their three-page motion, Gee and Geist said they had met with one of the women dozens of times, who maintained Marsh had sex with her. The state said in earlier court documents the two women meet the state's definition of "mentally defective" and were incapable of consenting to sexual contact.

During an Oct. 24 meeting the woman recanted to her claims. She said sex never happened but Marsh had come to her apartment late a night and rubbed her body. She said her sister pressured her to say more happened, then said she was not told what to say and then denied anyone was pressuring her to change her story, the state's attorneys said.

They said they talked with the woman and explained why they would have to dismiss her case and were ethically obligated to drop the charges.

The womans family declined comment.

Gee and Geist said they met with the other woman who maintained she was sexually assaulted, but had difficulty in providing details due to her disability. She requested to be done with the case, according to the motion to dismiss.

They asked the judge to dismiss the charges "in the interest of justice." They said they contacted the opposing counsel and confirmed that the motion to dismiss was unopposed.

Marsh was charged in August 2021 with three counts of sexual intercourse without consent of two developmentally disabled women. He pleaded not guilty.

The alleged incidents occurred in 2015 and in 2018, according to court documents. Marsh at one time worked as a maintenance worker at Glenwood Inc., a facility in Plentywood for adults with disabilities. He is no longer employed there.
Educators from across Montana this week participated in the Montana Judicial Institute, a chance for teachers to get a look behind the curtain of complex and often rigid proceedings.

On Thursday, a federal defendant shared her experience with the group of being sentenced to 54 months in prison and shipped to facilities around the country, from Seattle to North Carolina, under the purview of the federal Bureau of Prisons.

Through a number of rehabilitation programs, she had navigated the years of her prison term and returned to Missoula; the challenges now included rebuilding a relationship with her son, who had been traumatized by the events around her criminal case. But her prison sentence also created some much-needed space between her old friends, and old habits.

"It uprooted me from everything," the woman, whose first name is LeAnn, told her attorney, Peter Lacny, in a talk before the group of Montana teachers. She said it was hard to cut loose from her old life, but she had since felt empowered to make a choice not to engage with that lifestyle. "I can choose to have a conversation, or not."

The Montana Judicial Institute's biennial, three-day seminars began in 2008 when U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy interviewed a number of jurors after a trial and found several could use a civics refresher on the court system and the fundamental rule of law.

"And he decided that the way to do that was to work with educators," said Karl Englund, a Missoula attorney who took a leading role in this week's seminar. "It's to show people there's a system in place, that the system has got logic behind it that is rooted in the idea that we're governed by the rule of law. And that's true whether you're talking about a criminal case, a civil case or a separation of powers issue."

The federal clerk's office puts a notice out to Montana school districts and teachers apply to attend. This year's events saw participants from public and private schools, from Missoula to as far as the Fort Peck Reservation.

Ashley Moffit, a history and government teacher at Billings Christian School, said the examination of criminal proceedings was engaging. She was also struck by the room judges have to make compassionate decisions in a system that's known for operating by the book.

"They make their own, moral judgements," Moffit said.

Still, the court system's many moving pieces present a complex structure to decipher.

The seminar include presentations on civil law, criminal law, bankruptcy proceedings and tribal jurisdictions in relation to the federal system.

Maylinn Smith, managing attorney for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribal prosecutor's office, told teachers of the routes from criminal act to criminal courts.

The tribes' lack of jurisdiction over non-tribal members is unique, she said, from other justice systems. A non-member can't be held accountable by the tribe for a crime, the same way, for example, a Canadian citizen can be held accountable for a crime committed in Montana. Tribal law enforcement would pass the suspect who is a non-member off to county authorities for a crime committed on the reservation. By contrast, a Canadian is currently in state custody and sitting on death row for a crime committed in Montana, Smith said.

"People continually talk about it as a significant learning experience for them," Englund said. "We try to give them stuff they can use in their classroom, so that they can go back and explain to people what's important about Griswold v. Connecticut."
Ahead of the United Nations climate change conference taking place in Dubai (November 30-December 12), COP28 President Dr Sultan Al Jaber said he was determined to take a business unusual approach to close a massive emissions gap and deliver climate outcomes.

Dr Al Jaber was in Baku, Azerbaijan, for the inauguration of Abu Dhabi Future Energy Companys or, Masdars Garadagh Solar Park, when he said how his Presidency of COP28 would be underpinned by inclusivity and a focus on action.

Paris unified the world around a common goal, but since then, we have not seen enough action to close a massive emissions gap, he said, indicating the scale of the climate challenge.

To deliver on these global targets, Dr Al Jaber said: We need innovative approaches to climate finance to ensure a pipeline of viable projects can be developed and delivered in record time.

I have seen how new technologies combined with strong political will and results-driven private enterprise can make game-changing progress for the climate and our economies.

And I have learned that it is critical to bring everyone to the table to be part of the solution. This is the spirit of inclusivity I want to bring to COP28. I want to bring the world together to focus on solutions and results. A little less conversation, a lot more action. This is the business unusual approach I am determined to take, Dr Al Jaber said.

In Azerbaijan, Masdar, which Dr Al Jaber chairs, signed agreements for two further solar projects and one onshore wind project with a total capacity of 1GW. This is part of the first phase of a 10GW pipeline of renewable energy projects that Masdar is developing in Azerbaijan.

The 230MW Garadagh Solar Park, the inauguration of which was overseen by President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, will power more than 110,000 homes and reduce carbon emissions by 200,000 tonnes a year.

Dr Al Jaber said, this event perfectly illustrates the practical action needed to turn the goals of the Paris Agreement into tangible reality.

While investment in renewable energy continues to grow, with a record 500GW added globally this year, the world must triple renewable energy capacity by 2030 to keep 1.5 within reach.

He noted that Garadagh was achieved through a partnership between Masdar and the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development, the Asian Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Japans International Co-operation Agency.

This is a great example of multilateral and bilateral institutions coming together from around the world in innovative blended finance to deliver real results, especially across the Global South. This is a catalytic model for project finance that Masdar has developed over nearly two decades to successfully deliver renewable energy projects in over 40 countries. he said.

Speaking of the importance of investments in grid infrastructure to enable the tripling of global renewable energy capacity, Dr Al Jaber also noted that by connecting the electricity grid to Georgia, Hungary and Romania, this country will be a regional exporter of renewable and low carbon energy.

The four pillars of the COP28 Presidencys Action Agenda are fast tracking the energy transition, fixing climate finance, focusing on people, lives, and livelihoods, and fostering inclusivity.  TradeArabia News Service
DECATUR  Finding lost history can be exciting, according to the Decatur Genealogical Society members.

Studying genealogy, you have to prove each fact that youre putting in your history, said member Linda Williams. A lot of people dont. They just look at the internet.

Its very addictive, said member Bonnie Hawkins. If you are interested in history, and you get into genealogy research, the things you discover, its amazing.

Decatur Genealogical Society will soon have more room to store the growing collection of historical information. On Thursday, members of the community met during a groundbreaking ceremony for the genealogical societys future building, located at 2623 E. Pershing Road in the former Blank Wesselink Cook and Associates Architect Engineer building. With a move-in date expected for the summer of 2024, the addition will extend east of the current building for a total of 16,000-square-feet. The funding for the new building was bequeathed to the society.

According to the President and Librarian Cheri Hunter, the Decatur Genealogical Society was established in 1964 and is the largest non-tax supported genealogical library in Illinois.

This will be our fifth move, each time in larger quarters, she said. We are staffed entirely by volunteers.

Approximately 300 members are affiliated with the agency. But in our first four years we had 900 members, Hunter said.

However, the genealogical society began at the dining room table of the librarian. Then the next librarian carried the holdings around in the trunk of her car, Hunter said.

The Decatur Genealogical Society is currently located at 1255 W. South Side Drive. Documents are stored in various locations on two floors. The hours for visitors is 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday and Saturday.

Right now we do have some things in the basement and some things behind the desks, Hunter said. Weve got 6,000-square-feet on the main floor, but its full.

The new building, which is expected to be one of the largest genealogical society facilities in the state, will have more digital resources and other research options available to visitors. Genealogical agencies located in other counties or out of Illinois have contacted the local members for help on their research, according to Hunter. With more than 190 books published through the Decatur Genealogical Society, Macon County research has often led to other areas and countries.

Several of the resource books have been donated through estates. Cook books, Bibles, yearbooks and other personal and ancestral books are part of the collection.

Sangamon County Genealogical Society disbanded in 2008, giving the Decatur Genealogical Society the resources and members.

The society is a repository for original Macon County records, such as probate records from 1830 to 1995, inheritance tax records and microfilm of vital records. This is the go-to place for family history, Hunter said. Theres a lot thats in our library thats never going to be on the internet.

When Williams mother passed away more than 35 years ago, many of the photos she found were not labeled with names or dates. Then I got really interested, she said. I went to the library, took a class, then joined (the genealogical society) and Ive been doing it ever since.

11 memorable Decatur companies that are no longer with us General Electric Block & Kuhl Goldblatt's Linn & Scruggs Borg-Warner Corp. Marvel-Schebler Decatur Brewing Co. Houdaille-Hershey Kelly Food Products Bridgestone/Firestone Decatur Signal Depot
Js Rolled Ice Cream opens on Decaturs northside

Ice cream has a new look in Decatur.

Js Rolled Ice Cream and Drinks, located at 4280 Prospect Drive in the strip mall near Walmart and Sams Club, is now open to the public.

Its a unique preparation of ice cream that originated from Thailand, said Kelly Kwok, manager of Js Rolled Ice Cream. Its also called stir fried ice cream.

Js Rolled Ice Cream, owned by the same people who operate Js Patisserie on Oakland Avenue, is open from noon to 9 a.m. every day except Tuesdays.

Along with the extra creamy texture is the interesting way the treat is prepared, Kwok said.

A favorite scoop of ice cream is flattened out on a cold surface with added mixings such as cookies or fruit, then pushed into rolls. I call them rosette shapes, she said.

The dish is then completed with various toppings. Specialty names go with each of the 18 unique ice cream concoctions, such as Brownie Points with lots of chocolate, Sunday Morning with fruity cereal added in, and Cookie Monster made with blue butter cookie ice cream.

The menu also offers various hot and cold drinks, including milk teas, frappes, and coffees.

For families, the restaurant has toy machines that offer a prize with a $5 token. They make noise when you touch them, Kwok said. The kids really light up when they see them.

TWM Engineering and Geospatial Services opens in Decatur

Decatur has a new engineering firm.

Thouvenot, Wade and Moerchen, Inc., located at 2905 N. Main St, Ste A, is an employee-owned firm furnishing civil and structural engineering, land surveying, and other geospatial services. TWMs primary focuses include transportation, survey/geospatial services as well as land development, structural and water infrastructure.

TWM Engineering and Geospatial Services is one of the top 10 engineering and geospatial firms in the greater St. Louis area, the company stated.

Were thrilled about the opportunity to establish a presence in Decatur bolstering our presence in the Central Illinois business community, said Robert DeConcini, President. This new office will allow us to more efficiently engage our existing clients while helping us forge valuable relationships with new clients in the region.

Bradford Supply Company expands Eldorado business

Bradford Supply Company, located at 982 E. Eldorado St., Decatur, has taken over and expanded the former Pump House, a well water supply business.

According to branch manager Jerry McKee, Bradford Supply Company expanded the plumbing offerings. Weve moved into septic systems and other things like that, he said.

Business hours are 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

The Decatur Regional Chamber of Commerce will host a ribbon cutting ceremony at 11:30 a.m. Monday. The staff will offer a tour and snacks introducing the business to the community.

Bradford Supply Company purchased the Wabel Tool Company building, located adjacent to their new facility. Thats part of the warehouse as well as our storefront, McKee said.

The business sells wholesale plumbing products, such as water wells, septic systems, sewer, industrial and municipal water services, to contractors and plumbers. We will sell certain things to the general public as well, McKee said. Typically anything that does not require a licensed plumber.

The Pump House was part of the Decatur business community for more than 50 years. We just want to carry on their tradition in the well service and plumbing supplies, McKee said.

11 memorable Decatur companies that are no longer with us General Electric Block & Kuhl Goldblatt's Linn & Scruggs Borg-Warner Corp. Marvel-Schebler Decatur Brewing Co. Houdaille-Hershey Kelly Food Products Bridgestone/Firestone Decatur Signal Depot
URBANA  A Decatur man has been convicted of federal charges of sexual exploitation of a minor, receipt of child pornography and possession of child pornography.

The jury during returned the verdict Thursday against Kevin Dial, 52, following three days of testimony.

According to a news release from the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Central District of Illinois, the prosecution presented evidence to establish that Dial directed another individual to sexually abuse three minor victims, all of whom were under the age of 11 at the time, and to video record that abuse. Dial then ordered the individual to send the video recordings of the sexual abuse to him.

Dial remains in the custody of the United States Marshals Service.

Dial faces statutory penalties of 15 to 30 years imprisonment on each of the sexual exploitation counts and up to 20 years imprisonment for receiving and possessing child pornography. Sentencing is set for Feb. 26.

The case investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Springfield Field Office, with assistance from the Philippine National Police.
CHICAGO  A Mount Zion man has been sentenced to probation after pleading guilty to exposing himself to a female coworker at the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

According to a news release from the Illinois Attorney Generals Office, James Mayes, 48, pleaded guilty on Thursday to one count of official misconduct.

The release stated that Mayes, a former law enforcement captain with the IDNR Office of Law Enforcement, exposed his genitals to a female coworker with whom he shared an office and desk in the departments Benton office.

The case was initially investigated by the IDNR, and then referred to the Office of the Executive Inspector General. The attorney generals office prosecuted the case based on a referral from the OEIG.

Mayes was sentenced by Franklin County Circuit Judge Thomas J. Tedeschi to 30 months of probation and will be required to undergo a sex offender evaluation and any recommended treatment.

2023 mugshots from the Herald & Review Lourash Hirstein Phillip Gehrken Joseph A. Williams Jetrevius O. Jarrett Edwards King-Woods Wilson Derrickson Colby J. Park
Top Republican leaders in the North Carolina House have consolidated their support behind four-term Rep. Destin Hall to become speaker once Tim Moores time at the post is complete.

Theres been a shadow campaign this year within the House Republican Caucus to build support to become the next speaker, as Moore has said his record fifth two-year term leading the chamber would be his last. The next scheduled election for speaker is January 2025.

Hall, the current House Rules Committee chair from Caldwell County, and Majority Leader John Bell, of Wayne County, have been the leading candidates.

On Wednesday, the two men along with two other key House GOP leaders told a caucus meeting that they backed a plan whereby Hall would become the caucus nominee to be the next speaker. If ultimately backed by the caucus and elected by a majority in the 120-seat chamber, Hall also would select Bell as the next rules chair, the lawmakers said.

Hall said Thursday that he and Bell  friends who sit next to each other on the House floor  talked in the last few weeks about what makes sense for us and for our caucus as a whole.

Hall and Bell said in separate interviews that contrasting work and family obligations contributed to the proposed power arrangement. Being speaker requires a lot of time in Raleigh for administrative duties and travel elsewhere to raise campaign funds.

The Republican infighting on Capitol Hill this month over the choice of a new U.S. House speaker also served as an impetus to avoid hostilities that could split the caucus, Hall said.

We were confident that we could avoid the kind of problems that theyve had in D.C., Hall said about the arrangement, which was first reported by Axios.

Hall, Bell and Rep. Jason Saine, of Lincoln County, the senior chair of the House Appropriations Committee, all said they believe Hall had the support of a strong majority of House Republicans to become speaker.

The plan was very well received by the caucus, Bell said.

Rep. Keith Kidwell, of Beaufort County, also announced this summer he would run for speaker. Kidwell, the leader of the House Freedom Caucus, was absent this week in Raleigh as lawmakers wrapped up this years work session. He didnt immediately respond Thursday to questions sent to his office asking about his candidacy.

Moore has said he expected to serve out the remainder of his House term through 2024 and would be speaker during the budget-adjusting work session that begins in April. He said this week he was considering a run for a U.S. House seat next year.

The legislature, which has been controlled by Republicans since 2011, approved a new set of General Assembly districts for use starting in 2024 that appear to put GOP lawmakers in good shape to retain their House and Senate majorities.

Should Moore continue as speaker through the end of next year, a House Republican Caucus composed of people who were elected in November 2024  not the current grouping of legislators  would decide on a speaker nominee for a January 2025 chamber election.

Hall, 36, is a Granite Falls lawyer first elected to the House in 2016. By 2020, he was the rules committees co-chair, and a few months later he was the sole chair, managing the flow of legislation in the chamber.

As a leader of the House Redistricting Committee, Hall has helped shepherd electoral district maps through his chamber since 2019, bringing him attention as a witness in redistricting litigation.

Saine said Hall has a sharp legal mind and is also considered quite measured and calm: Hes seen as fair, and I think that helps us moving forward as well.
In the latest Civitas Poll, 49% of North Carolinians likely to vote in the Republican primary say theyd pick Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson to be the GOP nominee for governor in 2024. Of the remaining voters, 41% are undecided and the rest support other candidates such as State Treasurer Dale Folwell or former congressman Mark Walker.

So, is Robinson the inevitable nominee? Thats been the conventional wisdom. Keep in mind that the threshold to win a primary outright, without a runoff, is only 30%. Robinson is already well above that, uh, mark.

Most North Carolina Democrats agree with that conventional wisdom  and find it delightful. They have a thick binder of opposition research on Mark Robinson. Theyre looking forward to playing up his checkered financial past, unimpressive tenure as lieutenant governor, and history of outrageous comments.

Given the recent terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians by Hamas thugs, in particular, Robinsons past use of anti-Semitic tropes in social-media posts will appear not just in attack ads but in appeals to out-of-state donors. Democrats think the resulting river of campaign cash will wash away not just Robinson but other Republican candidates down the ballot in 2024.

The lieutenant governor and his political team are clearly worried about this. Thats why Robinson called a press conference a couple of weeks ago, while Gov. Roy Cooper was in Japan on a trade mission. As acting governor, Robinson proclaimed North Carolinas Solidarity with Israel Week and argued that his prior complaints about the financial and cultural power of Jews had been misinterpreted.

There have been some Facebook posts that were poorly worded on my part, he allowed, even as he insisted that there is no antisemitism standing here in front of you.

With the gubernatorial primary still five months away, Republican politicians, consultants, donors, and activists are not of one mind about how to respond to the Robinson problem (which virtually everyone acknowledges, at least in private). Based on numerous conversations, Ive concluded there are three schools of thought.

Call the first the Accommodationists. They agree with Democrats that Robinson is inevitable but disagree that hes destined to lose. They observe, correctly, that the 2024 election cycle will be dominated by the presidential contest. President Biden is unpopular. If he loses, they reason, the Democratic nominee for governor (presumably Attorney General Josh Stein) will likely go down with him. On the other hand, if Donald Trump is nominated and goes down in felonious flames, it wont matter whether Robinson is the nominee. Stein will win, anyway.

Given this scenario, why not endorse Robinson, help his campaign, and hope for the best? If he wins, theyll be in a position to help staff and advise his administration. And if he loses, no one will blame them.

The second camp, the Challengers, refuse to accept Robinson as inevitable. They observe, correctly, that Republican primary voters actually know very little about the lieutenant governor. The latest entrant to the GOP field, attorney Bill Graham, has pledged to spend at least $5 million on ads in the coming weeks. Much of that will, presumably, be used to warn voters about Robinsons many political vulnerabilities.

A Republican Party led by Mark Robinson, they reason, is a party that can neither win close races nor govern a closely divided state with credibility and prudence.

The third camp, the Hedgers, include many Republican leaders in the General Assembly. They dont relish being on a ballot with Robinson, though theyre not sure this can be avoided. On the other hand, if he happens to win, they doubt hed be an effective governor. They observe, correctly, that the legislation they just passed to strip the governor of appointments to such panels as the State Board of Elections and the Board of Transportation would apply equally to a Governor Josh Stein or a Governor Mark Robinson.

By strengthening legislative supremacy, which was already their default position, theyve made the gubernatorial election less consequential.
The leaves are changing, the first frost has arrived, and harvest is already nearing completion in some parts of the country. Attention is quickly turning to the holiday season with Thanksgiving approaching. Butter is flying off the shelves at grocery stores as consumers prepare for the holiday season, with cheese demand healthy as well. At the farm gate level, milk prices have improved versus the dismal levels noted a few months ago. However, is optimism warranted as farmers look ahead with concerns about tight margins lingering into the next several months?

From a milk production perspective, supply is not burdensome. August milk production fell 0.2% versus the prior year, marking the second consecutive month of weaker output. July production, initially reported as down 0.5% in the initial data, was revised lower to a 0.7% year-over-year decline. The August slide was anticipated, given the weaker farmer margins in recent months, a declining herd size, and lower milk per cow. Less volume from California and Texas has been persistent, impacting national milk output recently. Looking ahead, Rabobank expects milk production to be flat to lower throughout the end of this year.

National herd size was steady from July to August at 9.39 million head. During August, the dairy herds in California and Kansas shrunk, while those in Idaho, Iowa, and Michigan expanded. The U.S. dairy herd is down 54,000 head versus the March peak, but with slaughter rates slowing in recent weeks compared to summer, the herd size reduction trend will likely cease in the coming months.

Lower milk output has subsequently reduced the processing of many dairy products into the third quarter of this year. Total August cheese production was lower versus the prior year for the second consecutive month, again negatively impacted by less Italian-style output offsetting stronger American-style production. Output has been down year-over-year during four of the past five months but remains 0.2% higher on a year-to-date basis. Butter production dropped 2.1% in August compared to last year, breaking a 10-month streak of greater output. Cream availability likely tightened as milk production declined, causing less product to flow to churns. Combined nonfat dry milk/skim milk powder fell 14.4% for the third consecutive monthly decline.

Overall, some price optimism has emerged. Butter recently hit a new record high, following a similar upward trend versus one year ago and supporting the Class IV value. Slow but steady gains in the nonfat dry milk price are also positive for the Class IV complex, with producers outside of cheese-heavy regions especially likely to feel the benefits of the climbing price. Cheese has retreated slightly from its highs recently but has found a seemingly healthy equilibrium as supply and demand seem relatively balanced. With dry whey seeing improvement, Class III also noted slight support.

Margins are much closer to breakeven levels as we move into the last three months of this year versus the struggles in recent months, an improvement for dairy farmers. The worst of the pain has likely been felt, with a brighter outlook emerging for the coming months.

To comment, email your remarks to intel@hoards.com.

(c) Hoard's Dairyman Intel 2023

October 26, 2023
Google pays Apple billions every year to keep Safari as the default search engine. The exact amount of this payment, the conditions associated with it, and the possible consequences of the termination of the payment were also the subject of debate in the ongoing US vs. Google lawsuit. Most of these details were discussed behind closed doors.

A recent report by The New York Times shed some light on the matter, which revealed that Google paid Apple about $18 billion in 2021. That figure matches speculation earlier in the lawsuit, which ranged from $10 billion to $20 billion.

This substantial amount ensures Googles prominent position on Apples devices,

and prevented Apple from developing its own search engine.

John Giannandrea, a former Google executive who now oversees machine learning and AI at Apple, revealed during the trial that while Apple had considered options such as acquiring Bing or creating its own search engine, Googles concerns about competing with and jeopardizing their agreement prevailed.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella also suggested another reason for Apple to pursue the Google deal:

potential retaliation by Google should it cease.

Google could leverage its hugely popular apps like Gmail, Maps and YouTube to promote Chrome and the Google app, drawing users away from Safari and potentially undermining any deal Apple might strike with another search engine. In this context, the agreement between Google and Apple can be considered not only mutually beneficial, but also a kind of peace treaty.

The Times report confirms Nadellas theory. In recent years, when improvements to Apples built-in Spotlight feature threatened Googles dominance, Google reportedly looked for ways to undermine Spotlight by building a similar feature into Chrome. Google also began looking at how it could use new EU competition rules to encourage more users to switch to Chrome.

The U.S. Department of Justice says the deal amounts to an anticompetitive monopoly, as several witnesses testified that any search engine that gained access to Apples massive market share would immediately become a major competitor. Nadella himself testified that Apples choice of default search engine could virtually crown the industry king.

Google argues in the lawsuit, which began Thursday, that its success is not due to stifling competition, but to offering the best search engine.

Cover image source: Portfolio
UAE Minister of Climate Change and Environment Mariam bint Mohammed Almheiri welcomed 13 more businesses to the UAE Climate Responsible Companies Pledge at Dubai Chambers' annual Retail Summit, bringing the overall total to 131.

The pledge is a commitment and dedication to embedding sustainability in their operations and inspiring customers and partners to embrace sustainable action.

Speaking at the 13th National Dialogue for Climate Ambition (NDCA), a monthly stakeholder forum organised by the Ministry to raise sector climate ambition and advance all-inclusive participation, she underlined the influential role the UAEs retail sector can play in achieving the nations goal to be Net Zero by 2050.

Almheiri said: For the UAE to meet its climate goals we need every part of the economy working towards creating a greener future  and that includes retail. I welcome 13 more signatories of the UAE Climate Responsible Companies Pledge, which underline their commitment to climate action. At COP28 next month, UAE businesses will not be sitting on the sidelines. They will be front and centre, showcasing sustainable action, innovation, and ambition. They will show that business must be part of the climate solution.

According to reports, global retail supply chains are responsible for 25 percent of global emissions and for 40 percent of plastic usage worldwide. And today, the world produces twice the plastic compared to two decades ago  and just 9 percent is recycled. Addressing how the retail sector views and manages both emissions and plastic usage is an important part of the UAEs strategic vision and climate goals.

Addressing how the retail sector views and manages both emissions and plastic usage is a strategic imperative for climate action, said Almheiri. This is also because less than 20 percent of retailers are on track to supporting the world in meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement. Here in the UAE, we are fortunate to not only have a very strong leadership steer and commitment but also such an inspiring business community that is ready to convert climate action as a tangible reality.

She added: We must also support customers make the green transition and change behaviour. We can do this by enabling retailers, consumers and supply chains move in the same direction towards sustainability. A move that is in everyones interests. Businesses that are embracing the green transition are feeling the economic benefits. From jobs to technological efficiencies, sustainable practices can help drive growth. The UAE, through its Green Agenda 2030 is encouraging businesses to grow in a more sustainable way.

The Minister concluded her speech by stressing that businesses that are embracing the green transition are feeling the economic benefits, and that a move towards a greener future must allow all businesses to take advance of these opportunities.

She highlighted that the UAE, through its Green Agenda 2030 is encouraging businesses to grow in a more sustainable way through awareness and incentive schemes for businesses such as supporting green manufacturing; encouraging the use of alternative fuels; promoting of green jobs to fresh graduates.

The 13 businesses that have signed newly signed the signed the UAE Climate Responsible Companies Pledge are: Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB); Tristar; Transworld; Arabian Gulf Steel Industries (AGSI); Future Glass; FIVE Holdings; HITACHI; IN2 Communications; M42 Mubadala Health; Middle East Solar Industry Association (MESIA); Abu Dhabi National Insurance Company (ADNIC); AMEA Power; Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD); and Ricardo.

The National Dialogue for Climate Ambition (NDCA) is an initiative launched by the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment (MOCCAE) as a platform to define and raise sectoral climate ambition and advance participation in the UAEs Net Zero by 2050 Strategic Initiative.

The 13th session was titled Shifting to A Responsible Consumer Behavior in the Retail Industry.

Discussions and roundtables covered topics including, Greening Retail and Driving Retail Towards Net Zero: Opportunities, Incentives and Challenges.

Speakers included Omar Khan, Head of Center for Business Studies and Research, and Mohammad Lootah, President and CEO of Dubai Chambers.--OGN/ TradeArabia News Service
Friday, Oct. 27

The Concord Duplicate Bridge face-to-face games through Concord Parks and Recreation at Hartsell Recreation Center, 60 Hartsell School Road, at noon. Cost is $5 per player. You must have a partner.

Hot dogs at McGill Baptist Church, 5300 Poplar Tent Road, will be sold along with fried bologna and barbecue sandwiches and desserts from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Saturday, Oct. 28

The Piedmont Farmers Market is open from 8 a.m. to noon at 518 Winecoff School Road. It features lots of local produce, meat, flowers and other products.

Hot dogs at Center United Methodist Church at 1119 Union St., S., are offered on the second and fourth Saturday of each month from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Dine in and take out. Call-in orders are welcomed at 704-782-1785.

Calvary Lutheran Church will host a trunk-or-treat and cookout. Children may trick-or-treat from 4-5 p.m. Afterward enjoy a hot dog supper and outdoor games until 6 p.m. It is a free event. All are welcome. To enter your vehicle to give out treats please visit: Trunk or Treat Vehicle Signup: Calvary Trunk or Treat Vehicle Signup (signupgenius.com) https://bit.ly/3Qd9xEp

The 70th annual Cold Springs Global Methodist Church barbecue and Brunswick stew starting at 9 a.m. with carry-outs only.

The Walk to End Alzheimers  Rowan-Cabarrus calls on participants of all ages and abilities to join the fight against the disease. The funds raised support the care, support and research programs of the Alzheimers Association. This rain or shine event will be held from 9 a.m. to noon at Atrium Health Ballpark, 1 Cannon Baller Way in Kannapolis.

Blues Fall Festival Trunk or Treat starts at 4 p.m. runs until 8 p.m. Food, games and music, will be held at Caldwell Park, 362 Georgia Sr. Concord. It is a free event.

Sunday, Oct. 29

The fall festival at Poplar Tent Presbyterian Church at 6841Poplar Tent Road, is free to the community from 5-7 p.m. There will be, trunk-or-treat, live music, food truck, face painting, corn hole, games and more.

Cold Springs Global Methodist will have a trunk-or-treat from 3-5 p.m. at the church at 2550 Cold Springs Road, Concord.

The Commons, a community prayer space in Concord, invites you to join a time of prayer for Israel and Gaza, at 5 p.m. in their space at 75 Church St. N, Concord at First Presbyterian, Concord. For more info visit: www.thecommonsprayerroom.com

Monday, Oct. 30

The Concord Duplicate Bridge face-to-face games through Concord Parks and Recreation at Hartsell Recreation Center, 60 Hartsell School Road, at noon. Cost is $5 per player. You must have a partner.

A Caregiver Support Group via Zoom at 7:30 p.m.. For the Zoom link please check the Calvary Lutheran Church Facebook page or website http://www.clconcord.org, or call the church office at 704-782-6923.

Tuesday, Oct. 31

TOPS #437 (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) meets every Tuesday at 10 a.m. (weigh-in begins at 9:30 a.m.) at Lakeview Baptist Church, 2532 Lane St., Kannapolis. Visitors are welcome.

If you need help and encouragement after the death of a spouse, child, family member or friend, you are invited to join us for A Griefshare Support Group at Pitts Baptist Church, 140 Pitts School Road, NW, Concord, weekly on Tuesdays, through Oct. 31, from 9:30-11:30 a.m. For more information, call Linda Bounds at 704-793-8155.

Wednesday, Nov. 1

The Sportscenter Weekly Bible Study will be at 1:30 a.m. at the Sportscenter, 233 Country Club Drive, NE, Concord. All are welcome.

Centering Prayer Weekly via Zoom meets at 7:30 p.m. For the Zoom link check the Calvary Lutheran Church Facebook page or website http://www.clconcord.org, or call the church office at 704-782-6923.

Thursday, Nov. 2

Epworth United Methodist Church will have a hot dog sale from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Epworth is at 1030 Burrage Road NE, Concord. For deliveries, call 704-786-5500.

Poplar Tent's 76th Bar-B-Que will be at Poplar Tent Presbyterian Church at 6841 Poplar Tent Road. The event features wood smoked, pit cooked pork barbeque. Plates include barbecue, Brunswick stew and slaw. Also available are BBQ sandwiches, pounds of BBQ, pints of stew, slaw and BBQ sauce.

Friday, Nov. 3

The Concord Duplicate Bridge face-to-face games through Concord Parks and Recreation at Hartsell Recreation Center, 60 Hartsell School Road, at noon. Cost is $5 per player. You must have a partner and provide proof of vaccination.

Hot dogs at McGill Baptist Church, 5300 Poplar Tent Road, will be sold along with fried bologna and barbecue sandwiches and desserts from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Today is the deadline to pre-register for the Kick-Off the Holiday Season program by Cabarrus County Extension and Community Association (ECA). The program is Wednesday, Nov. 8, at the Cabarrus Rooms at the Cabarrus Arena and Events Center. The cost is $12 and is payable to: Cabarrus County ECA, may be mailed to Joyce Kluttz, ECA treasurer, 3201 Old Salisbury Concord Road, Concord, NC 28025. Registration, in a sealed envelop, may be left at the N.C. Cooperative Extension, 715 Cabarrus Ave., West, Concord, NC 28027 weekdays. For additional information, call the N.C. Cooperative Extension, Cabarrus Center, at 704-920-3310 during weekdays.

Saturday, Nov. 4

The Piedmont Farmers Market is open from 8 a.m. to noon at 518 Winecoff School Road. It features lots of local produce, meat, flowers and other products.

Hot dogs at Center United Methodist Church at 1119 Union St., S., are offered on the second and fourth Saturday of each month from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Dine in and take out. Call-in orders are welcomed at 704-782-1785.

A quilt show, bake sale and silent auction will be held at Epworth UMC, 1030 Burrage Road, NE, Concord, on Saturday, Nov. 4, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The event features new and historic pieced quilts, quilting material for sale, silent auction items, and cash-and-carry baked goods! The Quilt Show is sponsored by members of the Epworth United Women in Faith. If you want to display a quilt, call Jewell Parker at 704-918-7250.

The Concord Chapter of Disabled American Veterans and DAV Auxiliary will be placing flags on veteran graves at West Concord Cemetery, 331 Union Cemetery Rd, starting at 10 a.m.. Come out and help honor our veterans for their service.

A Womens Conference lead by Dr. Tricia Scribner will be held at Second Presbyterian Church from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The conference is based on Scribners book, Under the Wing. The church is located at 1578 Dale Earnhardt Blvd., Kannapolis.

Friendship United Methodist Church is having a Ham and Chicken Dinner from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Take out or drive by. Individual plates are $11 and combo plates are $13. Includes potato salad, green beans, slaw, dessert and bread. The church is located at 4695 Mt. Pleasant Road S. Concord or call 704-786-3335.

Monday, Nov. 6

The Concord Duplicate Bridge face-to-face games through Concord Parks and Recreation at Hartsell Recreation Center, 60 Hartsell School Road, at noon. Cost is $5 per player. You must have a partner.

A Caregiver Support Group via Zoom at 7:30 p.m. For the Zoom link check the Calvary Lutheran Church Facebook page or website http://www.clconcord.org, or call the church office at 704-782-6923.

Tuesday, Nov. 7

TOPS #437 (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) meets every Tuesday at 10 a.m. (weigh-in begins at 9:30 a.m.) at Lakeview Baptist Church, 2532 Lane St., Kannapolis. Visitors are welcome.

Wednesday, Nov. 8

The Sportscenter Weekly Bible Study will be at 1:30 a.m. at the Sportscenter 233 Country Club Drive, NE, Concord. All are welcome.

Centering Prayer Weekly via Zoom meets at 7:30 p.m. For the Zoom link check the Calvary Lutheran Church Facebook page or website http://www.clconcord.org, or call the church office at 704-782-6923.

Cabarrus County Extension and Community Association (ECA) and N.C. Cooperative Extension, Family and Consumer Sciences Program has a special program  Kick-Off the Holiday Season in the Cabarrus Rooms at the Cabarrus Arena and Events Center, Highway 49, Concord. Doors will open at 10 a.m. to view holiday tables decorated by local Cabarrus County ECA Clubs. Pre-registration is required by Friday Nov. 3. A $12 registration fee should be made payable to Cabarrus County ECA, may be mailed to Joyce Kluttz, ECA treasurer, 3201 Old Salisbury Concord Road, Concord, NC 28025. Registration, in a sealed envelop, may be left at the N.C. Cooperative Extension, 715 Cabarrus Ave., W., Concord, NC 28027 weekdays. For additional information call the N.C. Cooperative Extension, Cabarrus Center, at 704-920-3310 during weekdays.

Thursday, Nov. 9

Epworth United Methodist Church will have a hot dog sale from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Epworth is at 1030 Burrage Road, NE, Concord. For deliveries, call 704-786-5500.

Friday, Nov. 10

The Concord Duplicate Bridge face-to-face games through Concord Parks and Recreation at Hartsell Recreation Center, 60 Hartsell School Road, at noon. Cost is $5 per player. You must have a partner and provide proof of vaccination.

Hot dogs at McGill Baptist Church, 5300 Poplar Tent Road, will be sold along with fried bologna and barbecue sandwiches and desserts from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Saturday, Nov. 11

The Piedmont Farmers Market is open from 8 a.m. to noon at 518 Winecoff School Road. It features lots of local produce, meat, flowers and other products.

Hot dogs at Center United Methodist Church at 1119 Union St., S., are offered on the second and fourth Saturday of each month from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Dine in and take out. Call-in orders are welcomed at 704-782-1785.

Monday, Nov. 13

The Concord Duplicate Bridge face-to-face games through Concord Parks and Recreation at Hartsell Recreation Center, 60 Hartsell School Road, at noon. Cost is $5 per player. You must have a partner.

A Caregiver Support Group via Zoom at 7:30 p.m. For the Zoom link check the Calvary Lutheran Church Facebook page or website http://www.clconcord.org, or call the church office at 704-782-6923.

Tuesday, Nov. 14

TOPS #437 (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) meets every Tuesday at 10 a.m. (weigh-in begins at 9:30 a.m.) at Lakeview Baptist Church, 2532 Lane St., Kannapolis. Visitors are welcome.

Pitts Baptist Church, 140 Pitts School Rd., NW, Concord will be hosting a GriefShare Surviving the Holidays from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The holiday season can be especially painful after the loss of a loved one. Please join us for this encouraging seminar. For more information contact Linda Bounds at 704-793-8155.

Wednesday, Nov. 15

The Sportscenter Weekly Bible Study will be at 1:30 a.m. at the Sportscenter 233 Country Club Drive, NE, Concord. All are welcome.

Centering Prayer Weekly via Zoom meets at 7:30 p.m. For the Zoom link check the Calvary Lutheran Church Facebook page or website http://www.clconcord.org, or call the church office at 704-782-6923.

Thursday, Nov. 16

Epworth United Methodist Church will have a hot dog sale from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Epworth is at 1030 Burrage Road, NE, Concord. For deliveries, call 704-786-5500.

Friday, Nov. 17

The Concord Duplicate Bridge face-to-face games through Concord Parks and Recreation at Hartsell Recreation Center, 60 Hartsell School Road, at noon. Cost is $5 per player. You must have a partner and provide proof of vaccination.

Hot dogs at McGill Baptist Church, 5300 Poplar Tent Road, will be sold along with fried bologna and barbecue sandwiches and desserts from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Saturday, Nov. 18

The Piedmont Farmers Market is open from 8 a.m. to noon at 518 Winecoff School Road. It features lots of local produce, meat, flowers and other products.

Hot dogs at Center United Methodist Church at 1119 Union St., S., are offered on the second and fourth Saturday of each month from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Dine in and take out. Call-in orders are welcomed at 704-782-1785.

A Thanksgiving Food Give-A-Way will be from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Free fruits, vegetables and turkey will be given out. The pick-up sites are Grace Lutheran Church, 88 Chestnut Dr. SW, Concord, www.glconcordnc.org and Zion Hill ANE Zion Church, 86 Skipwith St. SW, Concord, www.zionhillamez.com.

Midway United Methodist Church is holding a sausage biscuit sale from 8 a.m. to noon and a BBQ plate sale from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. There will also be a bake sale, craft sale, vendors sale, and raffle. The church is located at 708 South Main Street in Kannapolis.

Got news or events?

Does your community group or nonprofit agency have an upcoming event that would be of interest to the public? Email it to mplemmons@independenttribune.com.
KANNAPOLIS  Rod Armstrong, president of Kannapolis Rotary Club, received a plaque for a successful FY 2024 Rotary Year from visiting Rotary District Governor Debra Corbett.

Corbett visited the club on Oct. 17 at the Kannapolis Train Station. She was paying the Kannapolis Club a visit as just one of many such visits she performs each year as oversight of Rotary Clubs in the Charlotte District, which includes Kannapolis and Concord.

After the meeting, Armstrong gave her a tour of Kannapolis, including Village Park where the Rotary Express Train operates, and also showed her the Clam Shell stage where the Charlotte Symphony presents a July 4 patriotic concert to thousands of area residents each year.

Corbett said she enjoyed her tour of Kannapolis and was impressed when Armstrong told her the story of the Rotary Express Train. She was thrilled to know that the Kannapolis Rotary Club had helped the city with a major financial contribution for such a wonderful gift for the residents of the Kannapolis area.

Corbett, during her visit, congratulated Bill Overcash, a long-serving member of Kannapolis Rotary Club. Overcash is a proud 89-year-old who has been a member of Rotary for 38 years. He recently retired from Hilbish Ford. Corbett and other Rotary member said his many years of service to Rotary make him a very special member and his service has been much appreciated over the years.
CHARLOTTE  Halloween is just days away and little superheroes, cartoon and television characters will soon be out in their neighborhoods for trick or treat fun! The American Red Cross has tips parents can follow to help keep the kids safe while enjoying the festivities.

1. Trick-or-treaters need to see and be seen. Use face makeup instead of masks which can make seeing difficult. Give trick-or-treaters a flashlight to light their way. Add reflective tape to costumes and trick-or-treat bags. If possible, have everyone wear light-colored clothing.

2. Use flame-resistant costumes.

3. When choosing costumes, stay away from long trailing fabric.

4. Make sure adults know where the kids are going. A parent or responsible adult should accompany young children door-to-door.

5. Be cautious around animals, especially dogs.

6. Walk, dont run.

7. Only visit homes that have a porch light on. Accept treats at the door and never go inside.

8. Walk only on sidewalks, not in the street. If there are no sidewalks, walk at the edge of the roadway, facing traffic. Look both ways before crossing the street, and cross only at the corner. Dont cross between parked cars, and dont cut across yards or use alleys.

9. Drivers  use extra caution as youngsters may forget to look both ways before crossing.

10. A grown-up should check all goodies before eating. Make sure to remove loose candy, open packages and remove any choking hazards. Discard any items with brand names that you are not familiar with.

Welcoming Trick-or-Treaters

If you are planning to welcome trick-or-treaters to your home, follow these safety steps:

Light the area well so young visitors can see.

Sweep leaves from your sidewalks and steps. Clear your porch or front yard of obstacles someone could trip over.

Download the free American Red Cross First Aid app for instant access to first aid advice for common emergencies. Simple step-by-step tips and videos make learning easy and engaging. Select English or Spanish language with a button within the application. Find all of the Red Cross apps in smartphone app stores by searching for the American Red Cross or going to redcross.org/apps.
Toyota Battery Manufacturing of NC is planning to provide another economic treat  this time on Halloween  at its production campus in Liberty.

The manufacturer said Tuesday it will make an announcement about the future of battery manufacturing at 9 a.m. Oct. 31 at the site at 5938 Julian Airport Road.

Toyota only disclosed that Sean Suggs, president of the Toyota business unit, will conduct a press conference during the event.

The manufacturer has pledged to create at least 2,100 jobs at the $5.9 billion electric-vehicle battery plant under construction. The N.C. plant is Toyotas first dedicated to EV and hybrid battery production.

As of Oct. 5, the Toyota business unit has hired more than 200 employees.

When at full production, the plant will become the largest single economic-development project commitment in North Carolina history. First battery production is set for early 2025 with full production in 2027.

Although most of the hiring and training will take place in the temporary Greensboro facility until the plant opens, Toyota human resources officials plan to conduct Day of Work type events in several Triad communities.

The hiring overview also was an acknowledgement of the challenges of trying to hire at least 350 employees by years end, and between 750 and 800 by early 2025 in a tight Triad job market with an ever-expanding number of advanced manufacturers.

Those include Avgol Americas Inc., Boom Supersonic, Deere & Co., Egger Wood Products, Honda and Honda Aircraft Co., Marshall Aerospace USA, Nucor Corp., ProKidney Corp., Renfro Corp., Siemens Mobility North America, Tex-Tech Industries, Vecoplan LLC and Ziehl-Abegg Inc.

As of Oct. 5, the more than 200 Toyota hires are from the Triad, including 60 for production and maintenance facility work, said Tim Stanton, the plants senior human resources manager.

The main hiring focus thus far has been on production assessment, machine operators, quality and internal logistics, maintenance assessment, and maintenance and facilities workers.

The starting hourly pay is $18 for logistics employees, $23 for production and quality employees and a range of $20.30 to $41.50 for maintenance and facilities employees.

For those who dont pass the assessment process, they can reapply after three months.

Production scale

Employees will work in what will be 2 million square feet of space spread over three buildings.

Two 500,000-square-foot buildings are dedicated to hybrid electric vehicle battery production, while a 1 million-square-foot building will be focused on electric vehicle battery production.

There will be initially six battery production lines  four for hybrid electric vehicles and two for battery electric vehicles.

The Toyota subsidiary plans to build lithium-ion batteries at the plant for about 200,000 hybrid and electric vehicles annually.

Toyota plans to roll out 30 battery electric vehicle models by 2030.

The $2.1 billion expansion will feature two additional production buildings of an undetermined square footage size.

Toyota spokeswoman Emily Wilemon-Holland said that as buildings are completed, there will be a major hiring push.

Toyota has said it will make a new electric SUV at its Kentucky plant, also starting in 2025.

The manufacturer said the SUVs, the first produced in the U.S., will be powered by batteries from the Liberty plant.
Nurse practitioners say a licensing requirement in Indiana is contributing to higher health care costs and lack of access for patients. The American Association of Nurse Practitioners includes Indiana among the states that limit nurse practitioners from doing the full scope of their job.

Indiana requires collaborative practice agreements, which are contracts that require nurse practitioners to work under the supervision of a physician.

Many nurse practitioners said they already have the proper training, and requiring additional supervision contributes to Indianas high health care costs.

Megan Engelman, the president of the Indiana Association of Nurse Anesthetists, told a recent Health Care Cost Oversight Task Force that hospitals pay for two providers, but only one of them actually provides the service.

There are some hospitals that will employ an anesthesiologist just to sit there outside of my room, maybe on the other side of a hospital to supervise, Engelman said. And I already have a supervising physician in that room.

READ MORE: Nurses ask for legislative support to address burnout, turnover driving higher health care cost

Angela Lyttle, a certified nurse midwife and owner of Sacred Roots Midwifery, said collaborative practice agreements were removed during the COVID-19 public health emergency and it showed concerns about safety are outdated.

All of the terrible things that we've always been told would happen if the collaborative agreement was removed did not happen, Lyttle said. It's a barrier, pure and simple.

Lyttle said collaborative practice agreements act as a barrier for parents who want the midwife model of care and contribute to unfair pay practices for midwives.

We have to get paid equitably, Lyttle said. We can't exist if we're not getting paid. That's the be all, end all.

Lyttle said states without these agreements tend to have more midwife-attended births, which research shows improves patient outcomes by 56 different measures.

Abigail is our health reporter. Contact them at aruhman@wboi.org
Industries most targeted by cyberattacks in Australia during the third quarter of 2023 include telecommunications, Internet, Information Technology and Services, computer software, and marketing and advertising, according to one security firm which says it blocked an average of 350 million cyber threats targetting Australia per day in the quarter.

According to research by cloud cybersecurity company Cloudflare it was confronted by 350 million threats each day in Q3 represented a 20% increase Quarter on Quarter, with attackers bombarding the telecommunications industry rather than the gaming and gambling industries which was the most attacked industry globally.

Other key Australian takeaways from the research were

Daily Request Traffic : In Q3 2023, Cloudflare served an average of 48 billion daily content requests to Australia. Of those daily requests, an average of 1.2 billion were mitigated each day, primarily classified as DDoS attacks originating in Australia.

: In Q3 2023, Cloudflare served an average of 48 billion daily content requests to Australia. Of those daily requests, an average of 1.2 billion were mitigated each day, primarily classified as DDoS attacks originating in Australia. Overall Traffic Increase / Decrease : Australia saw a 7% increase in Internet traffic in Q3 2023, compared to Q2 2023. Mitigated traffic originating in Australia remained the same QoQ.

: Australia saw a 7% increase in Internet traffic in Q3 2023, compared to Q2 2023. Mitigated traffic originating in Australia remained the same QoQ. Main Defenses Against Application Layer Attacks: WAF rules (79%) and DDoS Mitigation (17%) were the main defenses. Looking at WAF rules, the most commonly used mitigation categories included Cross-Site Scripting or XSS (18%), SQLi (17%), and File Inclusion (15%).

Even though Australia hasnt had any high-profile attacks recently, this quarter there was still a significant increase when it came to daily cyber threats as Cloudflare had to block an additional 20% of threats in Australia QoQ, at an average of 350 million a day, Cloudflare said.

This isnt dissimilar to global narratives where Cloudflare has seen an exponential increase in HTTP DDoS traffic, including the largest attack in internet history.

In its DDoS threat report for 2023 Q3, Cloudflare notes that in the third quarter it faced one of the most sophisticated and persistent DDoS attack campaigns in recorded history, adding that:

Cloudflare mitigated thousands of hyper-volumetric HTTP DDoS attacks, 89 of which exceeded 100 million requests per second (rps) and with the largest peaking at 201 million rps  a figure three times higher than the previous largest attack on record (71M rps).

The campaign contributed to an overall increase of 65% in HTTP DDoS attack traffic in Q3 compared to the previous quarter. Similarly, L3/4 DDoS attacks also increased by 14% alongside numerous attacks in the terabit-per-second range  the largest peaked at 2.6 Tbps.

Gaming and Gambling companies were bombarded with the largest volume of HTTP DDoS attack traffic, overtaking the Cryptocurrency industry from last quarter.

Welcome to the third DDoS threat report of 2023. DDoS attacks, or distributed denial-of-service attacks, are a type of cyber attack that aims to disrupt websites (and other types of Internet properties) to make them unavailable for legitimate users by overwhelming them with more traffic than they can handle  similar to a driver stuck in a traffic jam on the way to the grocery store, warns Cloudflare.

We see a lot of DDoS attacks of all types and sizes, and our network is one of the largest in the world spanning more than 300 cities in over 100 countries. Through this network we serve over 64 million HTTP requests per second at peak and about 2.3 billion DNS queries every day.

On average, we mitigate 140 billion cyber threats each day. This colossal amount of data gives us a unique vantage point to understand the threat landscape and provide the community access to insightful and actionable DDoS trends.

In recent weeks, we've also observed a surge in DDoS attacks and other cyber attacks against Israeli newspaper and media websites, as well as financial institutions and government websites. Palestinian websites have also seen a significant increase in DDoS attacks. View the full coverage here.

See here for the full Q3 DDoS report and here for the Internet Disruptions summary.
COMPANY NEWS: Getac has announced that its ZX10 fully rugged Android tablet has been chosen by Thames Water as part of a multi-year IT upgrade project designed to streamline operations and optimise productivity for its field-based workforce.

The deal will see Getac provide rugged tablets, accessories and support to Thames Water and work closely with the company as it implements a flexible new Android-based ecosystem over the next 12 months.

As the UKs largest private utility company, Thames Water delivers both drinking water and wastewater removal services to more than 15 million customers every day. The company is currently undergoing a major organisational transformation, utilising the latest hardware and software to future-proof operations and bolster its customer service capabilities. Getacs ZX10 fully rugged tablet, combined with a detachable keyboard and rotating hand strap, will enable Thames Waters field engineers to take a proactive approach to asset management and customer support, using intelligent technologies to deliver more all-important first-time fixes.

Thames Water chose Getacs solution due to its combination of powerful best-in-class hardware and accessories, guaranteed long-term support for its new Android enterprise program, and ability to deliver the desired solution both on time and on-budget.

With advantages of cost efficiency, energy efficiency, variety and customisation, Android OS is now an effective alternative that allows enterprises of all sizes to tailor solutions to their exact needs. As demand for Android rugged devices has grown in recent years, so too has Getacs portfolio of Android-based solutions. Customers opting for Android can now choose from a range of rugged devices, software and solutions, all designed to bring precision and convenience to IT managers and field-based workforces.

Paul Waddilove, managing director of Getac UK Ltd, said, We look forward to working with Thames Water, helping transform its field-based capabilities through the power of both Android and rugged technology. Field engineers need technology they can rely on all year round in a wide range of weather conditions, temperatures and operating environments. The Getac ZX10 will enable them to do just that, meaning they can stay focused on the task at hand without worrying about their devices.

Ade Ayajo, senior project manager, Thames Water, said, As we make the transition to an Android-based ecosystem for the first time, we want a long-term technology partner that can not only provide us with an industry-leading Android solution but also support us every step of the way. With Getac, we know that both are guaranteed for the months and years to come.

About Getac

Getac Technology Corporation is a global leader in rugged mobile technology and intelligent video solutions, including laptops, tablets, software, body-worn cameras, in-car video systems, digital evidence management and enterprise video analytics solutions. Getacs solutions and services are designed to enable extraordinary experiences for frontline workers in challenging environments. Today, Getac serves customers in over 100 countries spanning defence, public safety, ambulance, fire & rescue, utilities, automotive, natural resources, manufacturing, transport, and logistics. For more information, visit: https://www.getac.com. Participate in the Getac Industry blog or follow the company on LinkedIn and YouTube.
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Secretary of State Blinken spoke to a United Nations Security Council meeting concerning the Middle East conflict this week and once again, we have our administration trying to have it both ways. Yes, they support Israel's right to defend itself, but don't hit back too hard because some innocent Palestinians could be hurt or killed.

Since the Gaza invasion on October 7th of Israel, Biden and his handlers have been playing both sides against the middle. And by the way, the attack was definitely an invasion by the government of Gaza into Israel. Remember, the so-called Palestinians living in Gaza elected Hamas as their ruling government. Hamas represents the Palestinians the same way that the Nazis represented the Germans during World War II.

Blinken began with the right tone, but it ended weakly. He called on the international community to recognize that Israel has a right to defend itself from Hamas' "barbaric terrorist attack." He spoke of the atrocities committed by Hamas then said, "Where is the outrage? Where is the revulsion? Where is the rejection? Where is the explicit condemnation of these horrors? We must affirm the right of any nation to defend itself and to prevent such horror from repeating itself. No member of this council, no nation in this entire body could or would tolerate the slaughter of its people."

So far so good, right? But then Blinken addressed concerns from the Palestinians and other foreign officials over Israel's bombardment of Gaza and the Palestinian civilians caught in the crossfire. Never mind that this whole thing started with Hamas crossing into Israel and going on a rampage of murder, rape, torture, and beheading of innocent Israeli (along with American) civilians.

"Palestinian civilians must be protected. That means Hamas must cease using them as human shields," he said. That was good, but then he also called on Israel to restart the flow of food, water, medicine and other essential humanitarian assistance into Gaza and to ensure that civilians can "get out of harm's way." So here we go again. It's up to Israel to keep its enemies safe, healthy, and well-fed.

By all polls taken and by all written documents obtained, most Palestinians (which are nothing more than Arabs living in Gaza) are supportive of Hamas' goal of destroying the state of Israel and killing the Jews. The media never says this, and of course the Biden administration would never say it in a thousand years, but it is absolutely true and has been since the founding of Israel. They teach this to their children and have said it out loud.

Did America and its allies send German civilians food, water, medicine and other humanitarian assistance while we were at war against the Nazis? And was it our responsibility to ensure German civilians were out of "harm's way?" Uh, no. That would have been giving aid and comfort to the enemy. Although we never deliberately targeted civilians, we didn't spend a lot of time figuring out ways to make absolutely sure no innocent civilian was hurt. In war that is impossible. Our goal then was to defeat the German regime at all costs. We demanded nothing less than total unconditional surrender. The same for the Japanese. We fought with everything we had until our enemies were completely defeated. Only then did we turn our attention to helping the civilians of those countries. Only after we won the war. An important distinction.

Another little fact that is never mentioned by anyone is that the Arab Israeli conflict is not about land. It never was. As uncomfortable as it is to say so, this thing is a holy war. It is extremist Muslims against all other people, especially the Jews. Islamists simply cannot abide with having Jews living in the Middle East. Period. Their chant, "Palestine from the river to the sea" refers to the Jorden River to the Mediterranean Sea. Israel is smack in the middle of that. So in other words, they're calling for the extermination of the Jews and the Jewish state.

Israel (and I would hope the U.S.) must focus on defeating the Islamist faction of the Arabs who want to control the Middle East, and by the way, the world. It won't be an easy thing or a quick thing to accomplish, but it will never happen if the United States keeps holding Israel back and continues supplying the enemy (including Iran) with money, food, and other assistance. Bad enough Biden and the U.N. is engaged in that, but making Israel a part of it too is despicable, self-destructive, and plain stupid.

It is well past time to get serious and honest about what is really going on in the Middle East and what the consequences are to Western Civilization if we don't act and act fast.

(COMMENT, BELOW)
MATTOON  A water main break along the north side of Charleston Avenue/Illinois Route 16 closed the north lane of this roadway to traffic and necessitated that part St. John's Lutheran School dismiss early on Friday.

The City of Mattoon reported at about 1:45 Friday that the break has been repaired and water service has been restored, but both sides of Charleston Avenue from First to Sixth streets will be under a boil order for the next 24 hours.

Principal Curtis Wudtke posted at about noon on the school's Facebook page that the St. John's church building, which houses some grade levels, did not have water service due to the break. He said the main school building and the First Presbyterian Church building to the east, which also houses some St. John's grade levels, were not affected by the break.

Wudtke said uncertainty about when water service would be restored to St. John's church building prompted the early dismissal there at 12:30 p.m. Friday.

City crews had the north westbound lane of Charleston Avenue/Route 16 closed to traffic late morning Friday as they excavated the broken water main. They were working on reburying the repaired main late afternoon.

Close NAC Director of Operations J.D. Laster talks about a directional borer, shown at center, as Oakland High School students visit Curry Construction in Mattoon during the 2023 Industry Day on Wednesday. Charleston High School students pose for a photo in front of a crane while visiting Curry Construction in Mattoon during the 2023 Industry Day on Wednesday. HLC Fabrication's head fabricator Greg Cottrell, at right, leads a tour of his workshop as Oakland High School students and faculty visit Curry Construction in Mattoon during the 2023 Industry Day on Wednesday. Consolidated Communications network operations manager Sam Jurka displays a network interface device and a fiberoptic connection pedestal to Oakland High School students during the 2023 Industry Day on Wednesday in Mattoon. Consolidated Communications field operations specialist Chad Weber shows demonstrates a fiberoptic cable fusion splicer for Oakland High School students during the 2023 Industry Day on Wednesday in Mattoon. Charleston High School students tour Lester Building Systems LLC in their hometown during the 2023 Industry Day on Wednesday. One of the hangars at the Coles County Memorial Airport hosted tours and served as a gathering place for Charleston, Mattoon and Oakland high school students during the 2023 Industry Day on Wednesday. Students from Mattoon High School toured Mattoon Precision Manufacturing during the 2023 Industry Day on Wednesday. Photos: Industry Day 2023 for Coles County high school students Students from Charleston, Mattoon and Oakland high schools in Coles County toured local businesses, factories and other facilities on Wednesday as part of the 2023 Industry Day organized by Coles Together. NAC Director of Operations J.D. Laster talks about a directional borer, shown at center, as Oakland High School students visit Curry Construction in Mattoon during the 2023 Industry Day on Wednesday. Charleston High School students pose for a photo in front of a crane while visiting Curry Construction in Mattoon during the 2023 Industry Day on Wednesday. HLC Fabrication's head fabricator Greg Cottrell, at right, leads a tour of his workshop as Oakland High School students and faculty visit Curry Construction in Mattoon during the 2023 Industry Day on Wednesday. Consolidated Communications network operations manager Sam Jurka displays a network interface device and a fiberoptic connection pedestal to Oakland High School students during the 2023 Industry Day on Wednesday in Mattoon. Consolidated Communications field operations specialist Chad Weber shows demonstrates a fiberoptic cable fusion splicer for Oakland High School students during the 2023 Industry Day on Wednesday in Mattoon. Charleston High School students tour Lester Building Systems LLC in their hometown during the 2023 Industry Day on Wednesday. One of the hangars at the Coles County Memorial Airport hosted tours and served as a gathering place for Charleston, Mattoon and Oakland high school students during the 2023 Industry Day on Wednesday. Students from Mattoon High School toured Mattoon Precision Manufacturing during the 2023 Industry Day on Wednesday.
CHICAGO  Every school day, when the bell rings at Shields Elementary School, more than 100 kindergarten to fourth grade students head to the after-school program inside the Brighton Park school, where they can find homework help, a warm meal and activities ranging from Zumba to Lego club.

Run by the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council for the past decade, the program provides Shields families a safe haven, according to the staff. Yet, the program is one of around 250 across Illinois facing the prospect of closure when grants administered by the Illinois State Board of Education expire at the end of June 2024, according to advocates.

Serving an estimated 42,000 primarily low-income students, the programs need $50 million annually from the state to stay open  and to remedy an accounting error by ISBE thats already resulted in closures, according to Susan Stanton, executive director of the statewide Act Now coalition of after-school program advocates.

Among its five programs, the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council provides 2,000 students daily with access to sports, educational and workforce development programs and counseling and mental health services, said Executive Director Patrick Brosnan. The nonprofit is one of nearly 70 organizations with grants expiring in June, according to Act Now.

Of 33 after-school programs that already lost funding in July, 27 have since closed their doors, affecting around 6,000 students across the state, Stanton said.

It breaks to my heart to know that so many kids were deprived of after-school program opportunities because of this funding error, state Rep. Theresa Mah, a Chicago Democrat, said at an Act Now news conference Wednesday.

When we talk about what it takes to have strong communities, safe communities, tightknit communities, it really is our after-school programs that do a lot of the work, Mah said. If were talking about investing in our communities, this is how we do it.

After an initial five-year award, organizations that receive federal 21st Century Community Learning Centers grants to offer academic enrichment opportunities in high-poverty communities during nonschool hours can typically apply for renewals, or submit new applications if theyve already received a renewal.

But because the state education board miscalculated the amount of grant funds available  resulting in a shortfall of at least $12.4 million  neither new nor renewal funds were available this school year, and funding for next school year will be limited at best, State Superintendent of Education Tony Sanders wrote in a weekly message in May.

A Chicago Public Schools spokesperson said Wednesday that the district is awaiting an update from ISBE on the availability of renewal funds and that CPS has allocated $5 million to support programs at district schools through the school year. ISBE didnt provide comment regarding the availability of 21st Century Community Learning Centers grants for new and renewal applicants in the 2024-25 school year.

Without help from the state, many other providers, particularly community organizations, cant similarly cover costs, Stanton said. Act Now estimates at least 2,000 after-school jobs will be lost, and nonprofits largely reliant on 21st Century Community Learning Centers grants could be forced to close altogether.

The governor and the General Assembly need to come together and get this done, State Sen. Ram Villivalam, a Chicago Democrat, said at the news conference Wednesday. It is often said that a budget is a document of priorities and values and I say that its time to prioritize and value after-school programs, he said.

More than 70% of students at each of two 21st Century Community Learning Centers programs in Villivalams district are from low-income households of color, he added.

State Sen. Celina Villanueva, a Chicago Democrat, said she started her career in public service as an after-school program mentor and has seen the best and the worst of what happens when we have after-school programs and when we dont have after-school programs.

These programs help to transform lives, Villanueva said at the news conference Wednesday. Whether its cultural education, whether its music education, whether its just a little bit of extra homework help  having other community members surround (students) and support them.

Mah, Villanueva, Villivalam and around 20 other state legislators signed an Oct. 18 letter to Gov. J.B. Pritzker, House Speaker Emanuel Chris Welch and Senate President Don Harmon, urging the General Assembly to pursue the $50 million annual appropriation in support of the community learning center programs. As of Wednesday, Act Now spokesperson Emma Spencer said, the organization isnt aware of any lawmaker committed to proposing an amendment to the budget.
Anantara has unveiled its latest masterpiece  a 25 metres new adults-only infinity pool in its Qasr Al Sarab Desert Resort, Abu Dhabi.

The infinity pool is the latest development in this resort that is preparing to welcome guests in November, as it continues to elevate itself as a unique and tranquil Arabian getaway.

In addition to the breathtaking surroundings and direct sunset views from the pool, an experiential food and beverage menu featuring signature drinks will be served, complemented with lounge music.

Nestled within the vast expanse of the Empty Quarter, one of the worlds largest uninterrupted sand deserts, this new addition will offer guests unparalleled views of the flame-coloured dunes, adding a fresh dimension to the majestic palaces exceptional collection of the main pool and 53 private pool villas.

Designed to absorb the regions distinctive custom, the interiors of every suite and villa are inspired by the simple grandeur of an old desert fortress and boast locally hand-crafted furnishings. Guests can immerse themselves in rich carpets and embroidered fabrics which evoke ambient warmth and an inescapable sense of romance, said a statement.

Diners can experience a plethora of restaurants across the resort. Cosmopolitan dining against breath-taking natural backdrops can be found at rooftop bar and restaurant, Suhail  a spectacular spot for sundowners and enjoying the finest grills under the stars, while Middle Eastern and international delights await at Al Waha.

Part of the poolside experience, Ghadeer offers relaxed dining during the day and which transforms into a candlelit retreat with a global menu in the evening. Naseem Pool Bar offers relaxed daytime dining, and tea, coffee, whilst fine snacks are served at Al Liwan lobby lounge.

For a traditional Arabic experience amongst the sand dunes of the Liwa Desert, complemented with starry skies, and the flickering light of the bonfire, Al Falaj welcomes guests to a traditional Bedouin setting. The menu features a selection of mezzeh, roasted whole lamb, Arabian mixed grill and Arabic sweets handmade by Qasr Al Sarabs own Oriental pastry chef.

On the other hand, Dining by Design is considered as one of the most romantic and charming experiences, perfect to celebrate a special occasion in the sand dunes.

Qasr Al Sarab Desert Resort by Anantara is located just 90 minutes from Abu Dhabi, and 2 hours 30 minutes from Dubai. TradeArabia News Service
CHICAGO  More than 19,000 migrants have arrived in Chicago since the first two buses sent by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott arrived at Union Station on Aug. 31, 2022. What began as a political stunt by Abbott to draw attention to strained resources in border cities handling surging numbers of migrants has ballooned into a full-blown crisis. Southern border governments and charities are sending migrants on bus and train to Chicago and other immigration-friendly U.S. interior cities that have no clear plan to care for them.

Though Chicago has created more than two dozen temporary shelters across the city to house migrants in abandoned buildings, there are still thousands sleeping on the floors of police stations or outside of them  and hundreds at OHare International Airport. The migrants, most from Venezuela, often dont have family or connections here, and many come with little or nothing. City and state offices offering social services are overwhelmed.

Experts say there are no parallels to Abbotts busing program in recent years. According to an Oct. 9, 2023, report from Abbotts office, hes sent over 13,500 migrants to Chicago on charter buses since August 2022 as part of his 2021 border security initiative Operation Lone Star.

And while the busing has cost Abbott millions of dollars, its changing the national conversation about immigration, as governments that have never had to grapple with the strain of mass migration are now forced to face migrants congregating in public parks, begging at grocery store entrances and loitering on street corners. The result is a more universal plea for organization and aid at a federal level  from interior and border cities alike.

Minal Giri, chair of the Immigrant Child Health Initiative at the Illinois Chapter at the American Academy of Pediatrics, said people are fleeing harm and trudging through jungles, which will have long-lasting implications on their mental and physical health. Many migrants coming to Chicago are families with children.

The kids are the ones who suffer the most because they cant advocate for themselves, she said. Theyre playing in the streets, living in the streets.

What does it mean to be a welcoming city?

Chicago is a sanctuary city, which means city employees can avoid enforcing federal immigration laws.

The citys sanctuary status began under its first Black mayor, Harold Washington, whose Dont Ask policy in 1985 banned city officials from inquiring about citizenship. Mayors have since expanded protections, and state laws have also been enacted to protect immigrants. Gov. J.B. Pritzker has repeatedly said he wants Illinois to be the most welcoming state in the country.

Abbott began sending migrants north as a criticism to President Joe Bidens immigration policies, arguing that liberal Northern cities that profess to be sanctuaries should welcome them.

Texas communities ... should not have to shoulder the unprecedented surge of illegal immigration caused by President Bidens reckless open border policies. I have directed the Texas Division of Emergency Management to deploy additional buses to send these migrants to self-declared sanctuary cities and provide much-needed relief to our overrun border towns, Abbott said at the time. Until President Biden upholds his constitutional duty to secure Americas southern border, Texas will continue to deploy as many buses as needed to relieve the strain caused by the surge of illegal crossings.

Abbott also sent migrants to Denver and New York, which have dealt with their population differently. New York has limited the amount of time migrant families with children can stay in city shelters, and Denver has bought one-way Greyhound and Amtrak tickets for migrants to get to their final destinations, including Chicago.

Why are migrants coming to the U.S.?

In recent years, record numbers of people are trekking from South America to the United States  across a dangerous jungle known as the Darien Gap.

Soledad Alvarez Velasco, a social anthropologist and human geographer at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said the number of people traversing to the U.S. continues to grow, due mainly to unprecedented levels of unemployment following the pandemic, crime and climate change.

Its a new situation in terms of migration. Its not a war, but its a forced displacement, she said.

Laura Cruz-Acosta, strategic communications director for the city of El Paso, Texas, one of the largest border cities in the nation, said El Paso experienced two surges of Venezuelan migrants at the beginning of this year and last. What distinguishes Venezuelan migrants from other refugees, she said, is their lack of resources and often their absence of familial ties in the United States.

Though migrants come from other Central and South American countries, most migrants arriving in Chicago are from Venezuela  a country that used to have a vibrant economy, according to Michelle Ellner, Latin America campaign coordinator of the nonprofit CODEPINK.

Venezuelans are not used to migrating. Theyre used to, on the contrary, receiving people, she said.

Experts point to Venezuelas plunging oil prices and the leadership of far-left President Nicolas Maduro as reasons for the mass migration of 7.3 million people, the second-largest internal displacement crisis in the world. After Maduro took office in 2013 and Venezuelas economy declined sharply shortly thereafter, citizens became more reliant on welfare assistance from the government like monthly food handouts.

Migrants who have arrived in Chicago say they couldnt make more than $25 a week in their country of origin. Many Venezuelans have fled to surrounding countries, but thousands make their way to the United States, seeking economic opportunities.

Maduros social programs  funded in the past by oil revenues  have been cut by unilateral sanctions by the United States over nearly two decades, according to a report by United Nations Special Rapporteur Alena Douhan. The U.S. imposed harsh sanctions on Venezuela following Maduros 2018 reelection, which many Western governments didnt regard as legitimate.

The United States in October agreed to ease some sanctions on Venezuela, which some hope will stabilize the country and the economy. But the series of harsh sanctions have led to a devastating effect on social programs serving the entire population, said Adrienne Pine, an anthropologist and professor at California Institute of Integral Studies.

If you look at the statistics themselves, it becomes abundantly clear that Venezuela only starts to be a net out-migration country in the year following the implementation of the sanctions, Pine said.

Why are migrants coming to Chicago?

Migrants are people who have left their countries of origin by choice in search of a better opportunity, while immigrants are people who leave a country with the intention of taking up permanent residence. Most migrants arriving in Chicago are asylum-seekers, or people in search of protection due to dangers in their home country.

The U.S. government currently allows up to 30,000 qualifying individuals per month  from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela  to come to the United States for a period of two years.

Some migrants arrive illegally, crossing between border entry points. Migrants who arrive legally  by scheduling an appointment through an official mobile application used by Customs and Border Protection to inspect and document arrivals and departures in the United States  enter shelter systems in border cities. They often have little knowledge about where they are or where they should go.

Those who can will connect with family in the United States, but many decide to relocate to cities in the U.S. because of social media or by word-of-mouth from people who have already arrived. Government-funded shelters, faith-based groups or nonprofit organizations in border cities will often help them arrange and plan transportation to their destinations.

Many arriving in Chicago say they came because they heard it was easier to work here and people were receiving benefits and shelter space.

Migrants arent just coming to Chicago on chartered buses. Theyre also being sent on sponsored tickets from Denver and planes by Catholic Charities in San Antonio, while some arrive to the city after pooling their own resources, hearing Chicago is friendlier than other cities.

What happened in the early days of the crisis?

In late August 2022, after learning that the first bus was about to arrive, then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot promised to find shelter for and take care of incoming migrants. But no one could have predicted just how much migrants would strain Chicagos infrastructure and resources.

At various times over the first year, the crisis led to conflict between the city and state about lack of funding. There have been repeated calls for more federal resources.

In the first days of busing, facing steadily increasing numbers of migrants, Chicago had trouble finding workers to staff city-run shelters, especially for overnight shifts. Lightfoot immediately piggybacked off a contract the state signed during the COVID-19 pandemic with an out-of-state company called Favorite Staffing.

And as numbers of migrants climbed, the city opened more shelters  some in historically disinvested neighborhoods, raising pushback from residents. Though the number of migrants arriving in Chicago slowed through the winter, in January 2023 the first migrants began to sleep on the floors at police stations as city shelters had run out of space.

What is Mayor Brandon Johnson doing?

Mayor Brandon Johnson was sworn into office in May 2023 and inherited a quickly thrown-together shelter system about to experience another surge. The city was facing another large increase in migrants, many staying in police stations waiting for shelter placement.

Though migrants have come in waves over the first year, numbers of migrants have increased substantially in Chicago throughout 2023  with Gov. Abbott threatening to send 20 to 25 buses a day in October 2023 and new shelters popping up around the city almost weekly.

Johnsons administration immediately extended the citys contract with the vendor Favorite Staffing.

A recent Tribune investigation into the company revealed its high price and overworked staff, and the current administration said it hoped to move away from the expensive contract and hire locally. But on Oct. 23, 2023, Johnsons administration renewed the controversial contract and signed a $40 million extension through October 2024.

The city estimates that costs associated with migrants since August 2022 could reach above $360 million by the end of 2023.

Meanwhile, mutual aid networks have stepped in to help feed, clothe and provide resources to migrants staying at police stations.

Faith-based groups are also pooling their resources. But no volunteers are currently allowed inside city-run shelters, and questions remain about what will happen as winter approaches and thousands of migrants with no place to go are now sleeping outside.

Johnsons 2024 budget includes only $150 million in funding for migrants, less than half of what likely will have been spent on migrant assistance over the past year. And with colder months ahead, the mayor is moving forward with plans to put up winterized base camps across the city under a nearly $30 million contract with GardaWorld Federal Services and its subsidiary Aegis Defense Services.

The city hasnt provided concrete details on those plans.

What is temporary protected status, and why is it important?

Almost all migrants who have come to Chicago over the past year have one goal  to work. But many arent legally able to.

So they scrounge for what they can find, trusting strangers who pick them up from police stations and shelters to bring them to construction sites where they spend their days painting or roofing.

In late September, in response to pressure from officials in Chicago and elsewhere, the Biden administration allowed nearly 500,000 Venezuelans to be able to apply for temporary work permits, which in theory will help migrants be self-sufficient and move out of shelters.

And while many immigration advocates cheered the decision, those working with migrants on the ground pointed out some serious obstacles.

Yanira Arias, national campaigns manager for Alianza Americas, a Chicago-based transnational organization rooted in Latino immigrant communities in the United States, said temporary protected status applications, which migrants must fill out to apply for the work permits, are long and expensive. Temporary status allows migrants with unsafe conditions in their countries of origin to reside and work legally in the United States.

But just one application asks for pages of documentation. In addition to filling out the temporary protected status application, a work authorization application for an adult costs more than $400. Migrants need to visit a local immigration field office to provide biometrics, which costs another $85.

Migrants who cant afford the application can request a fee waiver, and some organizations have initiatives that help provide funding for migrants who demonstrate they cant pay the hefty fees.

The next step for community-based organization is to figure out how to make sure everyone can access a work permit. This is the hope of many Venezuelans in Chicago. They want to work. They want to have a permit to work, Arias said.

Where does Chicago stand now?

In early October, President Biden announced he would resume deportation flights to Venezuela. The federal government had not been deporting people to Venezuela because of severed ties with the South American countrys government.

The first deportation flight from Texas to Caracas, the capital city of Venezuela, happened about two weeks later. The flights will prioritize criminals or people who just came across the border illegally. They will also be for Venezuelans who lost their asylum bids and were given final removal orders.

State and local officials say it is too early to tell how the deportation flights will affect the migrant population in Chicago and Illinois.

El Paso Communications Director Laura Cruz-Acosta said she has seen a decline in migrants crossing at the border since that federal policy was passed. But there are still thousands of migrants just on the other side of the border waiting to cross, said Beatriz Ponce de Leon, Chicagos deputy mayor of immigrant, migrant and refugee rights, on a phone call with the Tribune from a trip to El Paso with a delegation from Mayor Johnsons team.

Its a very temporary law. We dont know when numbers will start growing again, she said.

Meanwhile, in Chicago, social services are buckling under increasing numbers of migrants.

Hundreds of migrants from Venezuela line up outside the Illinois Department of Human Services office in Sauganash most weekdays, hoping to be seen by the program serving foreign-born victims of trafficking, torture, or other serious crimes, known as the VTTC. The program provides migrants access to food, cash and medical benefits, but state officials have told the Tribune it wasnt meant for this many people.

The Resurrection Project, a nonprofit organization in Pilsen that helps defend immigrant rights, has the same staff they did before numbers of migrants increased.

Theres now a lot of people who are interested in applying for or need to apply for immigration benefits, on top of all of the other people who already live here who need legal assistance, said Katherine Greenslade, director of the immigrant justice legal clinic at The Resurrection Project.

Greenslade said the immigration process is especially difficult for migrants who live in temporary shelters and dont have a permanent address to receive follow-up documents.

Keith South, immigration attorney and founder of Southam Law LLC, said the asylum process can take years. It is so confusing and bureaucratic that some migrants avoid applying for asylum altogether.

And so one thing Im seeing with a lot of these Venezuelan migrants is theyre not touching the whole process at all, Southam said. And theres so many of them that theres no way to enforce it.

The city has pointed to resettlement as their long-term solution to addressing the crisis, with a government assistance program covering up to six months of housing costs for migrants staying in city-run shelters. But Chicago has resettled just over 5,500 migrants since December, and more than three times that amount have arrived since last year.

How can people help?

Karina Ayala-Bermejo, president and CEO of Instituto del Progreso Latino, said the nonprofit is asking Chicagoans for drop-off donations of new or unused clothes and essential items in front of their building, 2555 S. Blue Island Ave. She suggested residents can also donate to the organizations Rapid Response Wish List on Amazon or on its website.

New Life Centers, which helps families move into their new apartments with money from the state, is accepting gently used furniture to the Chicago Furniture Bank. Furniture can be dropped off at the bank, 4801 S. Whipple St., or arrangements can be made for furniture to be picked up.

Cradles to Crayons Chicago is also partnering with New Life Centers to provide clothing and essential items to new arrivals. There are multiple drop-off locations around the city.

One Warm Coat is leading drives to collect gently worn coats and outerwear  hats, earmuffs, gloves, mittens, scarfs  to migrant sleeping outside in the winter. President and CEO of One Warm Coat Beth Amodio encourages people to register to hold their own coat drive at their workplace, place of worship, neighborhood school and more, or provide a monetary donation.

To support the Greater Chicago Food Depositorys efforts to provide meals at shelters, people can also donate to their food bank.

There are a number of mutual aid organizations listed on the citys website, for those who want to be more directly involved in volunteer efforts. Ayala-Bermejo said there is an especially high need for people who can provide health care support.

All of us need to be ready to go to maximize our coordination. All of us can figure out a way to be a part of the solution to this, she said.
Altria Group has joined rival British American Tobacco Plc in issuing a warning about the surge in illicit synthetic nicotine electronic cigarettes in the U.S. vaping market.

Both companies have estimated those synthetic products represent about half of the overall domestic market.

BAT subsidiary R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co. holds the top market share at 41.8% as of the latest Nielsen convenience store report released Oct. 7.

NJoy, which Altria purchased for $2.75 billion in June, has struggled to increase its No. 3 market share.

The current state of the (vaping) market is intolerable for both legitimate manufacturers and consumers, Billy Gifford, Altrias chief executive, said in his prepared remarks during Fridays third-quarter analyst conference call. As we have noted repeatedly for months, the regulated market is being overrun by illegal-flavored disposable e-vapor products made and distributed by companies violating virtually every rule and guidance FDA has issued since 2016.

A lot of these products are imported. Theyre imported illegally and then theyre sold illegally.

In July, BATs president and chief executive Tadeu Marroco expressed his frustration to analysts about the proliferation of unauthorized products in the the U.S. vapor market.

Marrocos concerns come in large part because of the pivotal revenue role Vuse is playing toward BAT achieving its fiscal 2024 goal of achieving annual profitability for its new-category products, and its 2025 goal of at least $6.4 billion in new-category product revenue.

We will continue to advocate for and support enforcement activities against illicit products to help ensure that available products adhere to high consumer safety standards and support a level, competitive playing field, Marroco said.

Saying a strong course correction is needed, Gifford noted that Altria has filed federal lawsuits in California against 34 organizations that include manufacturers, distributors and online retailers.

Even with the illicit e-cigarette products, both Vuse and NJoy are playing a role in transitioning adult smokers to a potentially reduced-risk product, one expert believes.

It is very much worth noting that this rapid apparent substitution is happening in an environment where half the vapor market is illicit, the FDA has hugely hampered vaping products making it onto the legal market and consumers are hugely misled on relative risks, said David Sweanor, an adjunct law professor at the University of Ottawa and author of several e-cigarette and health studies. As with other markets seeing similarly historic drops in cigarette use as alternative sales soar, it raises the question of just how rapidly cigarette sales could fall if policies were aimed at facilitating that rather than doing things to stymie it.
North Carolina rose slightly  going from 10th to ninth  in the annual Tax Foundation report comparing state corporate tax costs across the country.

The study, released Thursday and covering 2024, ranks states in five primary tax categories: corporate; individual income; property; sales; and unemployment insurance.

North Carolina ranked fifth for corporate, sixth for unemployment insurance, 12th for property, 15th for individual income and 20th for sales.

North Carolina has the lowest corporate income-tax rate in the country at 2.5% for states that have such a tax.

Employers pay a tax into the states UI system in a range of 0.06% and 5.76% based on their number of workers. Employers can pay a higher rate based on their history of job cuts and layoffs.

North Carolina has been ranked between ninth and 11th since 2017.

The modern market is characterized by mobile capital and labor, with all types of businesses, small and large, tending to locate where they have the greatest competitive advantage, the foundation said in its news release.

The evidence shows that states with the best tax systems will be the most competitive at attracting new businesses and most effective at generating economic and employment growth.

While the foundation acknowledges that taxes are but one factor in business decision-making.

Other concerns also matter, such as access to raw materials or infrastructure or a skilled labor pool.

But, a simple, sensible tax system can positively impact business operations with regard to these resources. Changes to the tax code can quickly improve a states business climate.

North Carolinas successful balancing act in recruiting and retaining major employers  particularly involving advanced manufacturing in the Triad  enabled the state to maintain its top ranking in several high-profile business climate analyses.

In July, CNBC listed North Carolina as its top state for business for the second consecutive year. Its only the second time a state has repeated in the CNBC rankings.

However, CNBCs coverage did not shy away from citing two divisive issues facing the state: secondary and higher education funding; and the Republican-sponsored abortion ban bill that went into effect on July 1.

In explaining North Carolinas return to the top, CNBC touted North Carolinas top-ranked workforce quality and political collaborations between Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and Republican legislative leaders on high-level socioeconomic projects.

That includes the GOP-controlled state legislature passing a Medicaid expansion bill that is projected to benefit between 450,000 and 650,000 North Carolinians, some starting as soon as Dec. 1.

Educated workers are flocking to the Tar Heel state, and worker training programs are among the best in the country, CNBC said. North Carolina also boasts the third-best economy with solid growth, stable state finances and a healthy housing market.

However, the political harmony that has helped make the state so competitive is fading. North Carolina is one of the only states with no statewide antidiscrimination protections, and it recently enacted a 12-week abortion ban, both hurting its score for life, health and inclusion.

In May, North Carolina was ranked as the nations top state for economic and business development projects, claiming the 2023 Prosperity Cup from Site Selection magazine for the third consecutive year.

The award is shared by the Economic Development Partnership of N.C. and N.C. Commerce Department.

Criteria include: the total number of new and expanded facilities in the state; total capital investment in new and expanded facilities; total number of new jobs created; and business-climate attractiveness.

Among projects cited was Boom Supersonic with a supersonic airliner manufacturing and assembly plant at Piedmont Triad International Airport, representing a capital investment of $500 million with a pledge of 1,750 jobs.

Altogether, N.C. had 151 new projects announced during 2022 totaling 27,144 new jobs for residents and $15.58 billion in capital investments.

In January, N.C. received another No. 1 economic designation from a media outlet, this time the 2022 State of the Year from Business Facilities magazine.
Virginia Foxx  that would be U.S. representative to you there in the front  doesnt particularly need to care what you think.

Unless youre a big money donor or corporate fat cat, that is.

She happily accepts the votes of Republicans in the 5th District, of course. Their cash, too. She has since she won the seat in 2004.

But the rest of her constituents who might be put off by bad behavior? They can step off.

And reporters, too, at least those outside the friendly confines of Fox News and the like, whom she clearly views as irritants that need to be silenced.

Common courtesy and human decency have no place. Especially if cameras are rolling that could document where true loyalty lies.

A long shadow

Exhibit A happened at the capitol Tuesday evening where Republicans finally crashed the clown car theyd been driving to coalesce around a candidate for speaker of the House whod worked to undo the 2020 presidential election and refused to certify the results.

In a near viral clip circulated across the Twitter-sphere and national media, we see Rep. Foxx shouting Shut Up! Shut Up! at a reporter attempting to ask now-Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., a simple question.

Mr. Johnson, you helped lead the effort to overturn the 2020 election results  the reporter began.

He shook his head indicating that the soon to be second in line to the presidency would not answer for his attempts to undermine democracy.

And Foxx helpfully bleated her two-cents worth in a scene reminiscent of something straight out of George Orwells classic Animal Farm.

Four legs good! Two legs bad!

How hard is it to say the obvious  that the 2020 election was legitimate? Three years into a new administration?

Apparently thats impossible if Donald Trump might be watching. And continues to wield enough influence to end cushy gigs in Congress on impulse.

Or if you dont like being asked about, say, supporting insurrection and mindlessly repeating lies about a stolen election  which more than 60 judges determined were baseless.

Hissing and shouting down anyone with the temerity to speak truth to power is apparently the way to go.

Theyre anti-democratic and anti-free speech, said John King, an anchor and chief political correspondent at CNN. They dont want to answer questions they dont like.

Well, welcome to America.

At least the part of it that still supports questioning public officials about their support for the rule of law. All of them.

Safely ensconced

That Foxx (and others) can get away with such boorish behavior is due in part to the fact that she (and they) are safely ensconced in a bubble, surrounded by yes people and being taken care of by like-minded legislators who continue to carve out safe districts where extremists need not fear electoral consequences.

Election results typically show that nearly 60 percent of voters of the 5th District support Republican candidates in statewide races for governor, the U.S. Senate and council of state offices. About 39 percent backed Democratic candidates  including whatever sacrificial lamb the Ds ran against Foxx.

Districts dont get much safer.

And under new maps approved Wednesday, Foxx will continue to enjoy a free pass.

Congresswoman for life.

The only vaguely competitive congressional race shes ever had to run was her first, a Republican primary in 2004 in which a herd of candidates ran for the right to succeed Richard Burr, who was running for a first term in the Senate.

His career didnt exactly end in glory. Dumping stock in the face of the pandemic wasnt a good look.

But say this for Sen. Burr: He stood up when it mattered.

While its true hed decided to retire and therefore immune to pressure from President Trump, its equally true that he had enough intellectual honesty to vote to impeach a man who summoned a mob that ransacked the very building where Foxx shouted at the free press.

Four legs good! Two legs bad!

And while the memes of the outburst continue to make the rounds, note who the congresswoman was standing next to during the outburst.

Fellow boor U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colorado.

By comparison  a low bar admittedly  Foxx looks like a statesman. At least she wasnt vaping or groping a date while in a public theater.
A substitute teacher at Mount Tabor High School in Winston-Salem is facing an assault charge after he was involved in an incident with a student Thursday, authorities said Friday.

Desmond Emmanuel Williams, 36, is charged with assault on a female, the Forsyth County Sheriffs Office said.

Williams was released from custody after he signed a written promise to appear Nov. 27 in Forsyth District Court, the sheriffs office said.

A sheriffs deputy, a school resource officer at Mount Tabor High School, received information from several witnesses that Williams was involved in an incident with a student, the sheriffs office said.

Williams then confirmed his actions with school officials and was banned from the school by the Mount Tabors principal, the sheriffs office said.

The students parents wanted to pursue criminal charges against Williams, and Williams was arrested on the assault charge, the sheriffs office said. The sheriffs office didnt provide details about the incident.

Mount Tabor Principal Donald Wyatt sent a message Friday to the parents about the incident. Chris Runge, a spokesman for the school district, said Wyatts statement will be the only statement that school systems will make on this incident.

(Thursday), some of our students reported to school administrators that a substitute teacher allegedly displayed some aggressive and inappropriate actions toward a student, Wyatt said.

The substitute is not an employee of WS/FCS, but (works for) ESS Education Staffing and Management Solutions, the company that hires and places substitutes for WS/FCS, Wyatt said.

Upon being made aware of the allegations, an investigation was immediately started and is ongoing, Wyatt said. WS/FCS has instructed ESS to remove the substitute from working in any of our schools.

We understand that the substitute may face criminal charges, and we especially want to thank our law enforcement partners for immediately investigating the allegations, Wyatt said.

WS/FCS appreciates students making us aware anytime someone does something that concerns them or may be inappropriate at school, Wyatt said. The district wants all students to feel safe and welcome at school.

ESS, a Knoxville, Tennessee company, provides substitute teachers for the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools.
A juvenile was arrested Friday in connection with the shooting death of a male teenager in June, authorities said.

The juvenile is charged with felony murder in the death of Trevon Lajean Mitchell, 16, of Kernersville, Winston-Salem police said.

Police didnt identify the juvenile and declined to provide further details about the case.

At 9:50 p.m. on June 10, officers responded to an area near Ashley Crossing and Morgan Circle after they received several reports of gunfire and people being shot, police said at that time.

When officers arrived, they found Mitchell lying in a parking lot with multiple gunshot wounds, police said. Mitchell was pronounced dead at the scene.

Officers also found Mitchells brother, Nassia Lashawn Winfrey, 19, nearby with a gunshot wound to his leg. Winfrey was taken to the hospital with a non-life-threatening injury.

Prior to the shooting, Mitchell was visiting his brother at a nearby apartment, police said.

The two of them left to meet someone in a parking lot when gunfire erupted, hitting both brothers, police said. The suspects left the scene in a vehicle.

Investigators determined that Mitchell was the intended target, police said.

Police believe that many people saw the shooting on June 10.

Anyone with information about Mitchells death can call Winston-Salem police at 336-773-7700 or Crime Stoppers at 336-727-2800 or its Spanish line at 336-728-3904.

The Text-A-Tip program at 336-276-1717 allows people to text tips, photos and videos to the police.
A .223 cartridge and a 9mm bullet each sit on podiums in the center of Fiendish Plots. A row of bullets shares another stand with a stack of copied pages from a pamphlet. Another pamphlet with its back on view sits on a shelf. A corner of a burnt flag is encased in a frame. And the gallerys three walls are adorned with very faint drawings.

Thats everything in Statecraft, the site-specific exhibition by Mexican artist Joaquin Segura that brings together several of his bodies of work to pointedly examine politics and ideology, the history of U.S. relations with Latin America and the use of writings to both amplify and critique U.S. policy.

The easiest critique can be found in A round-up which reproduces the title and font of the Xeroxed pamphlet Latin American Terrorism  A round-up," drawn using the bullets in the cartridges directly on the wall.

The page from the Intelligence Digest Strategic Briefing Paper, with the underlined text theres little chance that the world community will agree on the type of insurgency-sponsored violence that can be described as terrorist exposes its intent  to sell the notion that, at the time of its writing in the early 1990s, there were more than 200 terrorist organizations operating in Latin America.

Stopping the terrorists would require American intervention. But another of the wall drawings subtly demonstrates the U.S. has been interfering in and manipulating Latin American countries.

Taking its title from the motto of the organization, Freedom, Peace and Fraternity, drawn with the 9mm bullet, faintly outlines the countries Argentina, Chile, Peru and Venezuela that have participated in the School of the Americas, a U.S. military training program with 60,000 graduates that, Congress found, included dictators, death squad operatives and assassins.

The hard-to-see image, that Segura said was difficult to draw onto the wall, is itself an analogy of America's shadowy, largely out-of-sight presence in the politics and governance of those countries.

Even more subtle, the pamphlet on the shelf is shown with its back cover, which resembles a Mark Rothko painting, facing the viewer. Titled Study for Debt Cancellation or The Political Death of Democratic Processes in Latin America, the pamphlet serves as the model for a large-scale painting. It was written by Fidel Castro.

In North Lynx, the other wall piece, Segura critiques his homeland by using the .223 cartridge to draw the outlines of the five Mexican states that experienced the most dramatic increase in violence and crime rates in the past decade, mostly attributed to organized crime and institutionalized corruption.

The burned flag G8 (United States of America), is a fragment for a sculptural installation composed by the remains of charred flags. The selection of the countries corresponded to the nations that constitute the Group of Eight, the international forum that brings together the governments of the worlds largest national economies.

The burning, Segura said, also defied the laws of many of the countries, which prohibit flag burnings and chemically treat their flags to make them difficult to burn.

Segura, a former artist-in-residence and current board member at Omahas Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, created the exhibition over a few days at Fiendish Plots, rounding up the ammunition, making copies and doing the drawings, which can be purchased in conceptual art fashion.

That conceptual nature of Statecraft is the smartest, most deeply considered socio-political exhibition in Lincoln in years, demonstrating that art about ideas of history, power and truth can be effectively conveyed with just a few objects and marks.

Statecraft will be on view at Fiendish Plots, 2130 Magnum Circle, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Photos: Ukraine smith turns guns, ammo into art
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If you build it, the DJs will come.

That was, in a sense, the logic of the Royal Grove's new owners when they poured more than $2 million into a renovation project to turn the northwest Lincoln music venue into a state-of-the-art nightclub that caters to the electronic and DJ music scene.

And, and as the Grove will prove when it hosts Belgian-born Canadian DJ Apashe for a Halloween show Tuesday, that logic has worked. Apashe, who is known for his genre-bending approach to electronic music, combining the purity of his symphonic orchestral compositions with raw electronic sound, is the biggest act the Grove has pulled since it opened in September following the extensive renovation project by Alexandru Grigorescu and Violet Rowell, the married couple who bought the venue this past summer.

"I think the most important thing is having the infrastructure to support shows like this," said Grigorescu, better known as Grig, alluding to the venue's new sound and lighting equipment and revamped performance stage, among other renovations that make the Grove more amenable to hosting electronic music acts. "So having all the infrastructure in terms of lighting, video production and meeting all the requirements that (performers) have  made the act a little easier to book."

That act, Apashe, is certainly no lightweight in the DJ and electronic music scene, boasting more than 2.2 million listeners on Spotify behind such hits as "Majesty," which combines hints of hip-hop with classical music, and the 2020 album "Renaissance."

Notably, the Brussels-born artist, who is touring the U.S. before heading to Europe, is also coming to Lincoln with a brass ensemble, including trumpets, trombones and French horns.

"It's really combining the band and the DJ in one act," Grigorescu said. "And it's really impressive the way they can sync digital music and DJing with live instrumentation."

The Grove had already been in conversation with Apashe before Grigorescu and Rowell were approached in June by Eli Mardock, the venue's previous owner, who asked if they were interested in buying it. Grigorescu, who came to the U.S. from Romania in 2016, was familiar with the venue through his music production company, and the couple quickly signed on.

"It was a really challenging time because we were trying to close on the venue and get into possession of the venue and we didn't know how the venue was going to look the day of the show," Grigorescu said. "We had to sell to the artist and his agency that this venue is going to look the way we promised it was going to look."

They kept that promise, closing down the Grove for a few weeks for the sweeping renovations before it reopened Sept. 1.

The Apashe show on Tuesday will be the culmination of a number of Halloween-themed events at the venue at 340 W. Cornhusker Highway this weekend, including a college night Friday, a Latin-themed party and costume contest Saturday and a hip-hop show Sunday.

The wide array of offerings is part of the Grove's goal of offering something for everybody  it recently hosted a Taylor Swift night, for example  while also serving as a destination for the stars of the electronic music scene.

"I think this is the beginning of a series of a lot of new, great things," Grigorescu said. "I think this show is really going to show the potential of what the new Royal Grove is, and it's our biggest show so far since we had the venue, and we are super excited to close the whole Halloween weekend with an event like this."

IF YOU GO

Apashe

WHERE: The Royal Grove, 340 W. Cornhusker Highway.

WHEN: Tuesday, 8 p.m.

TICKETS: Start at $20 at theroyalgrove.com or at the door.

The 10 most popular musical artists in the world The Weeknd, 111.4 million monthly users Miley Cyrus, 82.4 million Shakira, 81.6 million Ariana Grande, 80.6 million Taylor Swift, 80.2 million Rihanna, 78.5 million Ed Sheeran, 77.5 million Justin Bieber, 74.3 million David Guetta, 71.7 million SZA, 68.7 million
A 39-year-old man got prison time Thursday for pulling a knife on a driver in a road rage incident last year in a north Lincoln parking lot.

Jerry Dunlap Jr. pleaded no contest to two counts of terroristic threats and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person for what happened in the afternoon on Oct. 30, 2022.

At Dunlap's sentencing Thursday, his attorney, Mark Rappl, argued for probation, saying while Dunlap obviously had exercised "extremely poor judgment," the incident only resulted in property damage.

"Obviously this is a very serious incident and it could have ended much worse than it did," he said.

Lincoln police say it started when Dunlap blew a stop sign, nearly crashing into a couple's car, while pulling into the Hog Wild Pit BBQ parking lot.

In response, the driver threw a bottle at Dunlap's car and Dunlap followed the couple into the drive-thru, shouting expletives. First, the 18-year-old woman got out and told him to leave them alone, but he kept yelling.

Then, when they tried to leave the lot, Dunlap threw something at their car. The 23-year-old driver said he got out to plead with the stranger to stop, and Dunlap approached him with a hooked knife, asking what he was going to do about it.

The driver got back in his car. And Dunlap slashed at the car with the knife, hitting the back window, trunk and windshield.

Rappl said he understood the facts were troubling in some respects, as was Dunlap's prior history, which included assaults.

"But his sole intent was to do property damage in retaliation for the victim throwing something at his car," he said.

Rappl said Dunlap didn't threaten to hurt the couple and since has learned of a previously undiagnosed mental health disorder and is responding well to treatment.

On the other side, Deputy Lancaster County Attorney Eric Miller said you don't have to tell a person that you're going to hurt or kill them to be threatening.

"His actions were threat enough," he said.

Miller said it would have been a threatening situation for anybody.

Lancaster County District Judge Susan Strong said Dunlap had a somewhat sporadic criminal history, the most recent offense being in 2015.

"But this particular incident involving a random act of violence is something that everyone in the public fears, and that the court tries to protect the public from," she said.

She found a prison sentence warranted, and gave him four years, plus a year and a half on post-release supervision.
Two people, including a 17-year-old girl, have been arrested and charged in connection with a series of four assaults and robberies that took place Monday, police said.

Police said earlier this week that they were searching for a masked, hammer-wielding man who assaulted and robbed four people in southwest Omaha on Monday evening. The robber was described as wearing a Halloween mask depicting movie character Michael Myers.

The alleged robber has been identified as a 20-year-old Omaha man, and his 17-year-old girlfriend is accused of being the getaway driver. The man was charged with two counts of robbery and two counts of attempted robbery, and the girl was charged with two counts of robbery, one count of attempted robbery and one count of criminal mischief.

All of the incidents took place between 6:11 p.m. and 7:05 p.m. on Monday evening, police said. According to an arrest affidavit for the man, the attacks followed a similar pattern: The pair would drive up in a gray sedan, and the masked man would exit the vehicle with a hammer before demanding money and/or cellphones from the victims.

Only two of the four robberies were successful, according to the affidavit. The man allegedly robbed one woman of a cellphone near 102nd Street and Washington Drive, and he stole the wallet of a 79-year-old man who was walking through his neighborhood near 102nd and Harrison Streets. The 79-year-old was also physically assaulted and had bleeding facial injuries, according to a police report.

In the other two incidents, which took place near 90th and L Streets and 105th Street and Mockingbird Drive, the man allegedly demanded cellphones from the victims and chased them a short distance before getting back in the car and fleeing.
Ajman Department of Tourism Development (ADTD) in collaboration with Thumbay University Hospital, recently provided training to the staff of hotel establishments and museums in the areas of basic life support and first aid, in accordance with the American Heart Association's guidelines.

The initiative, which seeks to boost collaboration, exchange of knowledge and expertise, and the promotion of medical tourism in Ajman, also aims to strengthen the tourism environment and healthcare services in the emirate.

The interactive courses aim at providing participants with the necessary skills and techniques to respond effectively to medical emergencies. The programme places a significant focus on hands-on training, ensuring that participants not only acquire vital skills but also develop the confidence to apply them.

This training will empower attendees to address medical emergencies without fear and administer first aid safely within the scope of their expertise.

Mahmood Khaleel Alhashmi, Director General of the Ajman Department of Tourism Development, said: "Our mission is to develop and sustain the tourism sector in Ajman through our strategic partners and continuous innovation.

We believe that by equipping our partners, especially those in hotel establishments and museums, with the skills and knowledge necessary for handling medical emergencies, we are not only enhancing the overall tourism experience but also ensuring the safety and well-being of our visitors and residents. These courses reflect our commitment to excellence in every aspect of the tourism sector."

Sarah Mohammed Al Suwaidi, Director of Strategic Partnership Section, said: "The development of these courses was carefully tailored to meet the specific needs of our strategic partners in the hospitality and tourism sectors. This initiative underscores Ajman Tourism's dedication to upholding the utmost safety and healthcare standards within the emirate, thereby ensuring a secure and comprehensive experience for both residents and visitors."  TradeArabia News Service
RAYMOND  About 30 parents and community members demonstrated Tuesday night to demand accountability, transparency and better communication from the Raymond School Board.

Wearing shirts that said Silenced and Silenced but still roaring and holding signs that said Real leaders listen, community members voiced their objection to the School Board not having public comment during Tuesdays special board meeting at Raymond School, 2659 76th St.

Parents and community members are asking for transparency from the board on a number of areas, including the ongoing investigation of Raymond School Principal Jeff Peterson, school district finances, open meeting laws and election laws.

As a form of accountability, a group of concerned parents and community members filed recall petitions Tuesday against School Board members Janell Wise and Gwen Keller.

We are still going to be holding you accountable, said parent Mitchell Berman, who submitted the petitions. The fact that youre not going to let us speak doesnt mean that we arent going to stand in support of our school and children and educators and Mr. Peterson.

Board meeting

Superintendent Michael Garvey did not offer any substantive remarks during an administrative comments agenda item at Tuesdays meeting, and no board member spoke during a board member comments agenda item.

Several people took issue with the lack of communication from school district officials.

Thats insulting, parent Jillian Berman said. We are starved for information. We are asking for rationale for the decisions that theyre making or not making.

The Raymond School Board completed its open session agenda in 12 minutes Tuesday. It then met in closed session for about two hours before returning to open session and adjourning shortly thereafter.

The School Board met in closed session to discuss personnel and to confer with legal counsel for the governmental body who is rendering oral or written advice concerning strategy to be adopted by the body with respect to litigation in which it is or is likely to become involved, according to the board agenda. Specifically, to discuss and take action, if appropriate, concerning a complaint and threats of litigation regarding school district meetings, discrimination and administrator employment/resignation.

Complaints against the board

A complaint was filed with the Wisconsin Elections Commission against the Raymond School district regarding the handling of a School Board election recount this spring. The complaint alleges that Garvey and Keller both conducted themselves inappropriately in the recount.

Garvey and Keller did not respond to requests for comment about the WEC complaint.

Mitchell Berman filed an open meeting complaint with the Racine County District Attorneys Office regarding an alleged illegal Raymond School Board meeting last December. That complaint is being investigated by the Racine County Sheriffs Office. Berman said he filed the complaint on behalf of numerous concerned residents.

Garvey and Raymond School Board President Audrey Kostuch did not respond to a request for comment about the open meeting complaint.

Peterson filed a discrimination complaint last month after being placed on paid administrative leave on Sept. 28, pending the results of a district investigation into his conduct.

The Raymond School Board voted 4-1 during a special meeting on Sept. 27 in favor of a motion to consider non-renewal of Petersons contract.

The principal alleges that the school district is discriminating against him because he is gay.

In a statement, the Raymond School Board said that any notion that the school district or its board members would tolerate any discrimination, including that which is based on sex, sexual orientation, or any other protected classification, is ridiculous and extremely disappointing.

Recall petitions

Mitchell Berman submitted recall petitions of Keller and Wise to Keller, the board clerk, before Tuesdays board meeting.

In a statement regarding the recall petition, Keller said she is passionate about giving back to the Raymond community where she grew up and is raising her children.

Keller thanked board members, teachers and staff for weathering the storm in this extremely difficult environment. For me, the most difficult part has been the inability to share information with community members and seeing the disruption in our school.

Teachers and staff have been stepping up to cover additional responsibilities, and I personally want to thank them for continuing to make their students the top priority, Keller wrote in her statement. The issues in front of us are not easy and the process is still unfolding. Im praying for reconciliation and restoration in our community and our school.

In a statement, Wise the board vice president, said she believes the recall petition is premature and creating more distractions for the board members.

The board members should be focused on addressing the critical issues at hand and ensuring our staff has the resources they need to focus on the education of our student population, Wise wrote in her statement.

Wise said she understands community members frustration with the limited information available on this complex situation, but she believes Petersons contract situation is overshadowing the many great qualities of our school and community.

Financial questions

During Tuesdays meeting, the School Board approved a tax levy of $2.47 million for this school year.

This years tax levy rate for property owners in the Raymond School district will be about $3.80 per $1,000 of equalized property value, according to Garvey.

Community member Dean Langenfeld is concerned with the school district not reporting its monthly financial statements at board meetings.

I have no idea where our tax dollars are going, Langenfeld said. I want to see the books. I want to know what were spending money on. Its our tax dollars that were paying to the school  I dont know where the moneys going. Does anybody?

Community discussion

While the School Board was in closed session Tuesday, around 60 attendees spoke about a variety of issues.

Topics included Peterson being on leave, the complaints, recalls and financial transparency.

Many people wore black as a symbol of mourning, saying that school spirit has been gone since Peterson was placed on leave.

Community member Deb Mikolajczyk has known Peterson for more than two decades and said he is a great educator and principal. Two of her children previously attended Raymond School, and she was shocked Peterson was placed on leave.

Mikolajczyk believes the School Board is taking actions that are not in the best interest of the community.

Many people shared similar sentiments, saying they believe board members are not representing their constituents.

A few attendees voiced support for the board and direction of Raymond School.

One mother said her kid is thriving at the school.

A man said board members are working to fulfill their duties.

Theyre good people trying to do a job, the man said. They didnt come in with an agenda.

However, many more attendees expressed numerous concerns with the School Board.

Community member Dianna Bartelt said her granddaughter, who attends Raymond School, and other children have been severely impacted by the absence of Peterson, who she called an excellent principal.

Bartelt is concerned that school district officials are bringing politics into school operations.

The School Board should buck up and realize that the world is changing, Bartelt said. I cannot tolerate cultural insensitivity, and I want my granddaughter  to go to this school and be taught how to treat all people of all races, classes, sexual orientations fairly, and right now were not getting it.

Supporting teachers, students

Shelly Kurhajec, a former Raymond School Board member, believes Garvey is leading the School Board and school in a negative direction.

This superintendent is pulling everybodys strings, Kurhajec said. That is not right. That is not what I pay taxes for  That is not the way the district should be running.

Several people expressed issues with the School Board being too involved in curriculum decisions and not listening to Raymond educators.

The community needs to help our teachers, and that means by having the School Board listen, and thats not whats being done, Kurhajec said.

According to a spring 2023 Wisconsin Education Association Council survey about Garveys work that was filled out by 23 of 34 Raymond School teachers, 96% of respondents either somewhat disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement, My district administrator has a good rapport with teachers and has established a firm trust level between administration and staff.

According to the survey, 91% of respondents either somewhat disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement, The district administrator generally involves faculty in the decision-making process. He seeks our input and actually takes our views seriously when making final decisions.

Jillian Berman said she has spoken to teachers who were in tears because of the toxic work environment school district officials have created.

She worries that some of the excellent educators will leave Raymond School, a K-8 building with about 400 students.

Its only a matter of time before they cant take it anymore, and once we start losing these good teachers, whats going to replace them? Jillian Berman said. How are we going to draw in the brightest and the best when were having these current problems?

The Bermans have one child who attends Raymond School and another who will soon start school.

The couple said the building has great educators, but they have discussed sending their children elsewhere if their concerns with the School Board remain.

As much as I would hate to take out my kids  if this continues and if we dont right the ship soon, we will pull our children, Mitchell Berman said.

Because of issues with the School Board and Garvey, Megan Rios stepped down this spring as Raymond School PTO president and transferred her daughter to a different school this year.

That School Board failed my child, Rios said. They are failing all of our children.

Parent Alison Ebert has two children at Raymond School. She does not believe the School Board is helping her children and their classmates.

Lets remember what this is about, and that is all of our children, Ebert said. Im fighting for my children.

After Tuesdays meeting, many questions from parents and community members remain unanswered, but they plan to continue making their voices heard.

Its an important part of living in the United States and having these opportunities to have representatives and be able to look them in the face and hold them accountable, Jillian Berman said. Thats what were trying to do. Thats our right as citizens.

This school collected 2,000 pounds of food for the Racine County Food Bank
Kenosha County Circuit Court Judge Bruce Schroeder has announced he will retire next month.

Schroeder is the longest serving circuit court judge in Wisconsin. Having been first appointed in 1983 by then-Gov. Tony Earl, he has won elections ever since.

He will serve until Nov. 27, according to his office.

Colleagues offered warm sentiments on Friday when reached for comment after Schroeders announcement.

Chief Judge Jason Rossell said Schroeder has been a blessing to Kenosha County for his entire career.

I have always been impressed with his scholarship, his thoughtfulness and his care for citizens of Kenosha, Rossell said. As an attorney, I always knew that Judge Schroeder was prepared and was fully versed in the law. You had to be equally prepared and ready to answer good questions about how the law applied.

When I became a judge, Judge Schroeder was one of my go-to judges, who I would go to with complex questions or problems. He never failed to provide good advice and point me right to the statute or the law. Judge Schroeder has spent his entire career serving Kenosha County and he will be missed by all of us, he said.

Judge Chad Kerkman expressed similar sentiments.

Judge Schroeder has been an excellent mentor and friend to me, Kerkman said. Ive enjoyed his wit, humor and enthusiasm for trivia both as an attorney appearing in front of him and as a colleague. I will miss seeing him at the courthouse every day, but I am very happy for him and his family in his well-deserved retirement.

Judge Anthony Milisauskas said Schroeder has a very sharp and smart legal mind.

He was dedicated, diligent and efficient when he presided over a legal case in his courtroom, Milisauskas said. He also was a mentor and reliable source of information for many young judges. He always willing to hear cases for other judges when an emergency arose. He will be missed.

Judge Jodi Meier said she practiced law before Schroeder for many years and has always had a deep appreciation of his mind, wisdom, insight and humor.

For the last seven years, it has been a tremendous honor to be his colleague on the judiciary where, through his mentoring, Judge Schroeder has taught on me how to balance fairness and accountability as well as how to mandate efficiency for litigants and victims to have their voices heard, Meier said.

By Novembers end there will be a colossal void of scholar, personality and work ethic at the courthouse. In the waning moments of his remarkable legal career it is appropriate to reflect, smile and nod in great respect regarding the gift of Judge Bruce Schroeder to this community.

Judge Angelina Gabriele congratulated Schroeder on his retirement.

I congratulate Judge Schroeder on his career as a dedicated and longest serving judge in Wisconsin. The Kenosha courthouse will not be the same without him. I hope he enjoys his well-deserved retirement with his family and friends, Gabriele said.

Judge Gerad Dougvillo said he is sad to see Schroeder leave but is thankful for his time serving Kenosha County.

Personally, I am also saddened that someone who has been a mentor and friend will no longer be holding court here in Kenosha, Dougvillo said, adding he has known Schroeder since he was 15.

As a young man taking one of his daughters to the homecoming dance, I found it to be a very surreal, and intimidating experience, to be warned by this larger-than-life figure to be sure to have his daughter home before 10 p.m. I think he drove us so thankfully I wasnt too worried about being late! Dougvillo said. His presence and demeanor made a lasting impression on me. We remained in touch over the years and our relationship has now turned to one of colleagues and friends.

Dougvillo said being sworn into the bench by Schroeder is undoubtedly one of the best days of my legal career.

County Clerk Rebecca Matoska-Mentink said with Schroeders departure the court is losing decades of facts and tales of the Kenosha courts history and she was fortunate to have heard many of his stories and lectures he was prone to share.

This is a well-deserved retirement, Matoska-Mentink said. I will miss his common sense approach to courtroom management. He said many times that his job was to administer the law, and the administration and safety was left to the clerk and the sheriff. He always treated me and the entire court staff with respect.

Matoska-Mentink said there will be an election to fill his seat.

County Executive Samantha Kerkman said that during her time as a state legislator Schroeder was always someone I respected and counted on to offer insightful opinions of how the laws enacted in Madison affected the courts locally.

As Wisconsins longest-serving judge, he brings a wealth of knowledge that will be missed when he leaves the bench, Kerkman said. I hope he enjoys his next chapter in life with his wife and family, rooting for his beloved Milwaukee Brewers.

Schroeder, who graduated from Marquette Law School in 1970, has presided over some of the highest profile and impactful trials in Kenosha County and Wisconsin history.

Some of his more recent trials include the first homicide trial of Mark Jensen, who was first convicted of poisoning and killing his wife in Pleasant Prairie in 2008 and convicted again after a 2023 retrial; the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, who was acquitted of all counts in 2021 and pleaded self-defense in deadly Kenosha 2020 shootings that sparked headlines across the globe; and the lengthy trial of Zachariah Anderson, who was convicted of killing a man in his Kenosha apartment and disposing of his body in 2023.

Before becoming a judge, Schroeder served as an assistant district attorney, before being appointed and later elected district attorney.
It's time for American Jews to put their scruples aside

and learn the responsible use of firearms.



Guns and ammunition. Photo: Kiattipong/Shutterstock

As I write this, Israel continues to mourn its deaths and fight its enemies. At the same time, the full extent of Hamas's savagery has been revealed.

Some of the world supports and empathizes with Israel, but much of it continues to demonize Israel and all Jews. Meanwhile, the so-called "social justice warriors"both Jewish and non-Jewish are rightfully being chastised for their unfathomable moral obtuseness.

Recently, the president of a Detroit synagogue was murdered, possibly by a "lone wolf" Muslim terrorist. Violent anti-Israel protests have taken place in Brooklyn and Rhode Island. Muslim children in Philadelphia are chanting, "We will chop off their heads!" Absurdly, the White House press secretary's answer to a question about rising antisemitism mainly focused on the safety of Muslims.

Clearly, Jews have been put on notice. We are experiencing what the Passover Haggadah warned us of: In every generation, there are those who seek our destruction.

The question is: How will this generation respond? Of course, it will respond with official outrage, sermons from the pulpit, letters to legislators, vigils, rallies, renewed calls for educational programs and dialogue with our foes.

But there is one way to respond that American Jews have avoided. They should avoid it no longer.

The time has come for American Jews to learn and become proficient in the defensive use of firearms. .....
Copperas Cove, TX (76522)

Today

Some clouds in the morning will give way to mainly sunny skies for the afternoon. High 77F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

A few clouds from time to time. Low 56F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.
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.

Vote

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KEARNEY  The public is invited to sign petitions to place two issues regarding medical marijuana on the 2024 ballot.

Signatures will be accepted 9:30-11:30 a.m. Saturday at the Full Circle Bakery at 3324 Second Ave.

The drive is being led by Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, which describes it as an energized movement for more compassionate cannabis laws. Each petition contains a statutory measure that NMM hopes to have enacted into law.

One is the Medical Cannabis Regulation Act, which would establish the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission to regular private businesses that prescribe medical cannabis to qualified patients.

The second is the Patient Protection Act, which would protect people with serious health issues, and their caregivers, from being arrested for using medical cannabis as recommended by their health care provider.

This is not an effort to win support for medical marijuana, NMM has said. It is simply to put both issues on the 2024 ballot.

For more information, visit www.medicalmarijuana.org.
After more than three weeks, the U.S. has a Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Multiple GOP candidates failed to receive a majority of House votes in the past few weeks, but a unanimous vote from congressional Republicans Wednesday installed Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana as Speaker. The powerful position is second-in-line to the presidency, behind the vice president.

Johnson is a socially conservative attorney who played a leading role in congressional efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

The Republicans slim 9-seat majority in the 435-member House made nearly all their votes essential, as Democrats repeatedly backed their minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, a customary move from the party in the minority. Three Democrats did not vote.

Rep. Derrick Van Orden, a Republican from Prairie du Chien, was the only Republican not to vote. He has been in Israel for several days on a fact-finding trip. Its apparently a self-assigned mission. Van Ordens press secretary did not respond to emailed questions.

When he departed for the Middle East last week, Van Orden released a statement explaining why he was leaving during an unprecedented time, one in which his vote might have been needed by his party.

Currently, as I write this piece, there is no path for a new Speaker, and Congress remains rudderless and in disarray, he wrote in a statement released Friday titled My commitment to Israel in the midst of congressional chaos. There is no sense of urgency to elect a Speaker despite the many challenges we face at home, including an open southern border and skyrocketing gas and grocery prices.

Van Orden wrote that he had several reasons for taking the trip.

As a retired Navy SEAL and combat medic, I am uniquely qualified to objectively ascertain the ground truth and bring that information back to Congress where I can hopefully increase the sense of urgency for my colleagues of both parties to put aside their petty personal and significant political differences and act in the best interest of America and our beleaguered allies, he continued.

Yesterday, presumably from Israel, Van Orden tweeted Mike Johnson is an outstanding man and will make a fantastic Speaker.

The eight congressional Republicans from Wisconsin voted yea for the Speaker candidate in all previous votes, including to retain former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and twice for Rep. Jim Jordan, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin, to take the top spot. The remaining seven Wisconsin Republicans all voted for Johnson.

The two Wisconsin Democrats Reps. Gwen Moore of Milwaukee and Mark Pocan of Madison joined the rest of their party to vote for their minority leader in all four Speaker elections this month.
Railroads did not exist in the eastern United States during the first five decades of the 19th Century. Readers have often asked me how did people who lived in Vermont and upstate New York move to the new territory of Wisconsin which had been established in 1836. Did they walk? Did they ride on horses or in horse-drawn wagons? The answer is relatively mundane.

Most took boats south on Lake Champlain to the Hudson River to Albany, New York where they took a boat west on the Mohawk River west to the Interstate Highway of the time, the Erie Canal (which had opened in 1825) and then boarded a canal boat on the Erie Canal which took them all the way west across upstate New York to Buffalo where they boarded a lake schooner which took them on Lake Erie to Lake Huron and then on to Lake Michigan to the new port cities of Milwaukee and Southport (todays Kenosha) where they disembarked and then walked, road a horse or rode in a horse-drawn wagon to their destination in Wisconsin.

Most north-south transportation routes in southern Wisconsin during those years were along lakes or rivers: Lake Michigan, the Fox River, the Rock River and the Mississippi River.

Land routes were dirt roads. A land route in southern Wisconsin ran west from Southport (Kenosha) through the village of Geneva to Delavan where it split into two routes, one went southwest to Beloit on the Rock River and the other west to Janesville on the Rock River. These routes today are approximately Highway 50, Highway 11, U.S. 14, and Interstate 43.

Another question that readers frequently ask me is what motivated people from Vermont and upstate New York easterners to move to the Midwest? There are two answers to this question. The common law known as primo genitor meant that only the eldest son could inherit a familys property. Thus the second, third, and fourth sons had to move elsewhere. They had to move beyond the already settled area in order to acquire land. The western edge of the settled area was called the frontier and the frontier which was always in the process of moving west.

The second reason why so many people from Vermont and upstate New York moved west was that the soil in Vermont was very rocky and not very fertile. Accounts of rich soil far to the west drew individuals from Vermont to move to the midwest and the territory of Wisconsin.

One of the major destinations of people moving from the east to the midwest was the new village of Chicago which had been founded in 1833. Among those who moved form the east to Chicago were seven men who in 1837 purchase a parcel of land in Wisconsin 30 miles west of Lake Michigan and six miles north of the border between the state of Illinois and the territory of Wisconsin.

The land that they purchased lay on the edge of a beautiful lake that had been named Geneva in honor of his home town of Geneva, New York by the person who had surveyed the area, John Brink. The seven men hired an Irish-born surveyor, Thomas McKaig, to lay out a plat of the village on the land that they had purchased. The village that Thomas McKaig platted eventually became the city of Lake Geneva.
As Turkey's Christians Celebrate a New Church, Religious Minorities Still Call for Respect

People attend the inauguration of Mor Ephrem Syriac Orthodox Church, Sunday, Oct. 15, 2023, in Istanbul, Turkey. It is the first Christian church to be built since the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923. ( RNS/David I. Klein) ISTANBUL (RNS) -- On Oct. 15, hundreds of Turkey's Assyrian Syriac Christians gathered in Istanbul's leafy Yesilkoy neighborhood to witness the inauguration of Mor Ephrem Syriac Orthodox Church, the community's first new church in more than a century.

A generation ago, the vision of building a new Syriac Christian church in Istanbul would have been a fantasy. One of the oldest branches of the church, Syriac Orthodox Christianity still uses a dialect of Aramaic, the language of Jesus and his disciples, for its liturgy. "We're a very ancient people, a Mesopotamian people," said Katia Arslan, an Assyrian who studies Turkey's minority peoples.

But today only about 25,000 Assyrian Christians live in Turkey, represented across the Syriac Church, the Assyrian Church of the East and Latin Uniate Churches adhering to Rome, but most are Syriac Orthodox.

They are the last remnant of a community that once numbered in the hundreds of thousands in Turkey's southeast but faced genocide at the close of the Ottoman Empire. Further persecution in the early days of modern Turkey kicked off a mass emigration abroad or to western Turkish cities. During the exodus, the state expropriated Assyrian properties, including churches and monasteries.

But at the inauguration of the new Istanbul church this month, the Syriac metropolitan of Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir, Yusuf Cetin, was met with cheers and ululation from the crowd as he anointed the church's gates and recited a prayer.

As important, and perhaps more surprising, the previous Sunday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has done much to make Islam part of the Turkish identity, made a visit to celebrate the church's completion.

"The church we have built is a symbol of freedom of religion and belief in our country," said the president. "At a time when divisions, conflicts and hate crimes based on religious and ethnic origin are increasing in our region and the world, this embracing attitude of Turkey is very important," he said.

Erdogan has had a complicated relationship with Turkey's Christians since he rose to power in the late 1990s. While restoring Islam to the public sphere in Turkey after nearly a century of a firm policy of secularization by his predecessors, he has also allowed several churches and synagogues that the state had expropriated to reopen as museums and cultural centers or even as active houses of worship.

In 2019, when construction on Mor Ephrem began, Erdogan laid the foundation stone.

"As a community, we believed in him and trusted his sincerity," Metropolitan Yusuf Cetin told Turkish media at the Oct. 15 inauguration. "He honored not only Assyrians in Turkey, but also diaspora Assyrians."

Ozgur Kaymak, a lecturer in political science at MEF University in Istanbul, explained that AKP's policies toward religious minorities are part of his government's break with Turkey's secularist past, but that they also reflect its political pragmatism.

David Vergili, editor of Sabro, a journal covering the Syriac diaspora, agreed. "We see clearly that the AKP is trying to benefit from the presence of the minorities, especially in periods of conflict and in the eyes of Western countries," he told RNS.

Indeed, Mor Ephrem's opening was celebrated not only by Syriac leaders but by other Christian sects: The church isn't just the first Assyrian structure, but the first church of any sect to be built anew since the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923 -- The republic's early years were defined by policies of Turkification that resulted in the repression of ethnic and religious minorities in the name of shoring up a unitary, and nationalist, Turkish identity.

The Rev. Luka Refatti, the Dominican pastor of the Mary Queen of the Rosary Catholic Church, which stands near the Syriac church, stood alongside other clergy at the front of the church at Mor Ephrem's inauguration.

For years, Refatti's was one of several Christian congregations -- Armenian and Greek Orthodox, Latin Catholics and others -- to host the Assyrian community, which has only one existing church in Istanbul, located in the rougher Tarlabasi neighborhood and far from where most of Istanbul's 18,000 Assyrians are clustered.

"Now, for them, it is a new stage," Refatti said. "I hope that this won't just be a place to show and display their own identity, but also to pray and meet God. Not just for Syriac Christians but all denominations," he added.

The new building, which can hold as many as 750 people for a service, is five stories tall and mixes modern construction with traditional Syriac styles. Its facade includes a sandstone design that echoes Syriac churches in Turkey's southeastern Mardin province, a historically Syriac area, while the sanctuary is decked out with frescoes of early church figures such as its fourth-century namesake, Saint Ephrem the Syrian.

While the church is a happy turn of events for many Christians, some who have long tracked the affairs of Turkey's religious minorities are skeptical. Successive Turkish constitutions have granted equal rights to non-Muslim minorities, Kaymak noted, but real equality seldom followed.

Erdogan's rapport with Christians has had its vagaries as well. Just a year after laying the foundation of Mor Ephrem, Erdogan incurred the ire of the Christian world when he converted Hagia Sophia, a UNESCO World Heritage site that had been a center of both Byzantine Orthodox Christianity and Ottoman Islam, back into a mosque.

A month later, the ancient Chora Church/Kariye Mosque, which had been maintained neutrally as a museum since the founding of the Turkish Republic, also reverted to a Muslim sacred space. Greece's foreign ministry called it "a provocation against all believers."

The move wasn't missed by the Syriac community, either.

"Converting Hagia Sophia in Istanbul and other churches in the country, the destruction of Christian heritage alongside long-held obstacles and difficulties for the ancient Christian communities in the country are real concerns for our people," Vergili said.

The same week that Erdogan attended the opening ceremony at Mor Ephrem, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Turkey had violated the rights of the Assyrian community in a dispute over property owned by the Mor Gabriel Syriac monastery, in Turkey's southeast.

In 2011, Turkey seized more than 60% of the monastery's land. Much of it was returned in 2018 by the Turkish parliamentary measure that returned dozens of historic properties to the Syriac church, but one plot of land in the city of Mardin remains under dispute.

"The government's approach to the Syriac community is a bit vague and ambiguous," Arslan said. "On the one hand, in the southeast region, it has one politics, while in the western region, it has another."

The 2021 arrest and imprisonment of a Syriac monk, Aho Bilecen, in southeastern Turkey also sparked protests from the Assyrian community worldwide.

For Christians of all kinds, Erdogan's policy toward minorities' place in public life needs to restore respect for a truly pluralistic society as much as for church property.

"The protection and well-being of Syriac people and Christian communities need a long-term project in line with truth, transparency and democratic principles," Vergili said.
China launched its youngest-ever crew for its orbiting space station Thursday. The launch is part of the countrys plan to put astronauts on the moon before 2030.

The Shenzhou 17 spacecraft lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China at 03:14 UTC. The China Manned Space Agency said the average age of the three-member crew is the youngest since the launch of the space station. Their average age is 38, state media China Daily said.

The three astronauts are Tang Hongbo, Tang Shengjie, and Jiang Xinlin. They will replace a crew that has been on the station for six months.

The new crew will perform experiments in space medicine, space technology, and other areas during their mission. And they will help to place and do possible repairs to equipment inside and outside the station, the agency said.

New space race

China also has plans to place astronauts on the moon before the end of 2030 in competition with the United States in space exploration. This follows other competition for influence between the worlds two largest economies in the technology, military, and diplomatic fields.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Chinese space agency also announced plans to send a new telescope to look deep into the universe. Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said the telescope would permit for mapping of the sky, but no timeline was given for when it would be placed.

In 2022, the Chinese government built its own space station after it was not permitted to join the U.S.-led International Space Station. The Americans worried that the Chinese space program was under the control of its military, the Peoples Liberation Army.

Chinas first manned space mission in 2003 made it the third country after the former Soviet Union and the U.S. to put a person into space using its own resources.

The American space program is believed to be far ahead of China at this time. But, China has made some important steps. They include bringing back samples from the moons surface for the first time in many years and landing a vehicle on the less explored far side of the moon.

The U.S., meanwhile, aims to put astronauts back on the moons surface by the end of 2025. It is aided by private American companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin.

In addition to their moon, or lunar, programs, the two countries have also separately landed vehicles on Mars. And China plans to follow the U.S. in landing a spacecraft on an asteroid.

Im Gregory Stachel.

Andy Wong reported this story for The Associated Press. Gregory Stachel adapted the story for VOA Learning English.

_______________________________________________

Words in This Story

spacecraft  n. something (such as a leaf, skeleton, or footprint) that is from a plant or animal which lived in ancient times and that you can see in some rocks

mission  n. a flight by an aircraft or spacecraft to perform a specific task

sample  n. a small amount of something that gives you information about the thing it was taken from

asteroid  n. any one of thousands of small planets that circle around the sun
From January to September, the Transport Bureau (DSAT) seized 2,700 cars for unpaid road tax and cancelled their registration. The authorities said that, for the first nine months, nearly 36,000 vehicles were inspected on streets in various districts. In March this year, the DSAT revealed that over 110,000 vehicle owners had not yet paid their annual road tax.

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In the midst of two active and potentially world-changing conflicts in the Middle East and Europe, the U.S. is hoping to find at least a small measure of common ground with China as Chinas top diplomat visits Washington this week.

Over three days of meetings that begin yestrday, top Biden administration officials, including possibly the president himself, will press Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the importance of China stepping up its role on the world stage if it wants to be considered a responsible major international player.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Bidens national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, are both expected to urge China to play a constructive role in both the Israel-Hamas and Russia-Ukraine wars. Those meetings could set the stage for a summit between President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping next month on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum leaders gathering in San Francisco.

The U.S. has been disappointed with China over its support for Russia in the war against Ukraine and its relative silence on the Middle East. In addition, the worlds two largest economies are at odds on issues such as human rights, climate change, Taiwan, the South China Sea and North Korea.

Still, both sides have expressed a willingness to talk with each other since Blinken canceled a planned visit to China in February after the shootdown of a Chinese spy balloon over the U.S., which marked a low point in recent relations.

In the months that followed that crisis, however, Blinken rescheduled his trip and went to China in June. He was followed in quick succession by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, climate envoy John Kerry and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.

In addition, Sullivan met with Wang in Malta in mid-September ahead of Blinkens discussions with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng later that month on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York. And Blinken spoke just last week with Wang about the Israel-Hamas crisis.

The goal, according to U.S. officials, is to set the stage for another Biden-Xi summit at which the two leaders could explore cooperation or at least easing outright hostility on the most pressing matters of the day.

Wang Yis visit will serve as one of the final touchpoints in laying the groundwork for the Biden-Xi meeting, said Ryan Hass, director of the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institute, a Washington-based think tank. Wangs meetings in Washington will set the contours for the topics the two leaders will discuss when they meet in November.

It opens the possibility of the worlds two largest powers pursuing coordinated efforts to limit escalation or expansion of violence in Ukraine and the Middle East, he said.

Yun Sun, director of the China Program at the Stimson Center, another Washington think tank, said Wangs trip signals that the Xi-Biden summit is almost certain.

Wang is here to pave the ground for Xis San Francisco trip. Thats the core focus of the trip. It means issues will be negotiated, solutions will be discussed and details will be deliberated and inked, Sun said. The APEC summit is 20 days away, so time is of essence. His trip means that Xi is coming. Xis coming means meeting with Biden. The Xi-Biden summit means efforts to stabilize bilateral ties.

Scott Kennedy, senior adviser and trustee chair in Chinese business and economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said Wangs trip could yield results such as additional direct flights between the two countries, visas for more journalists and even agreements on climate change and resumption of high-level military dialogue.

But while it is important for Wang and the Americans to discuss points of contention in the Indo-Pacific region and elsewhere, Kennedy said it is unlikely the two sides will reach much agreement.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said Wang will have in-depth exchanges of views with U.S. officials on a range of issues and state Chinas principled position and legitimate concerns on relations between the two countries.

The Chinese president last came to the U.S. in 2017, when former President Donald Trump hosted him at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Biden, who took office in 2021, has yet to host Xi on U.S. soil. The two men last met in Bali, Indonesia, in November 2022, on the sidelines of the Group of 20 meeting of leading rich and developing nations.

Wangs trip is one of a string of meetings and activities to warm up Xis visit to the U.S.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is visiting China this week, had a surprise meeting with Xi on Wednesday in Beijing. The Chinese president told the governor that the achievements of China-U.S. relations have not come easily and should be cherished all the more, according to the official news agency Xinhua.

Earlier this month, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer led a delegation of six senators to China, in the first visit by U.S. lawmakers since 2019. Schumer was also received by Xi, who said the Thucydides Trap is not inevitable. The Thucydides Trap is a political term for the tendency of major clashes when an emerging power challenges an existing power.

The U.S.-China relationship began to sour in 2018 when the Trump administration slapped hefty tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods. It deteriorated further over a range of issues, including rights abuses, the South China Sea, Taiwan, technology and the COVID-19 pandemic.

DIDI TANG & MATTHEW LEE, WASHINGTON, MDT/AP
Chinas Environment Minister Huang Runqiu said yesterday his country wants to strengthen cooperation with the United States to combat climate change, as he met in Beijing with California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Newsom is on a weeklong tour of China where he is pushing for climate cooperation. His trip as governor, once considered routine, is drawing attention as it comes after years of heightening tensions between the U.S. and China.

The climate is one of the few issues where the U.S. and China have agreed to work together.

Huang said yesterday that his ministry would continue to carry out agreements under a memorandum of understanding signed last year between China and California in carbon market investment, climate adaptation, environment law implementation and human-to-human exchange to strengthen cooperation and have a positive effect on China-US. environmental cooperation.

California has been a leader in regulating air pollution and other climate-related issues, Newsom said in opening remarks.

But we recognize the limits of subnational leadership. We need more partners. And Im here in that light and in that spirit of partnership and also humility, recognizing we dont have all the answers, the California governor said.

Both sides spoke about a rise in extreme weather in their countries.

California and China issued a declaration on Wednesday pledging to work together to combat climate change, including in offshore wind, advanced energy storage technologies and zero-emission vehicles, according to the text.

Newsom was greeted in Beijing with a warmth and friendliness rarely seen between U.S. and Chinese officials. On Wednesday, he met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, as well as other senior leaders including top diplomat Wang Yi and Vice President Han Zheng.

Newsom has highlighted climate as an area where both sides needed to cooperate, as it concerns the survival and future of the human population.

Governors of California, which has an economy larger than most countries, have a long history of climate collaboration with China. HUIZHONG WU, BANGKOK. MDT/AP
China launched its youngest-ever crew for its orbiting space station yesterday as it seeks to put astronauts on the moon before 2030.

The Shenzhou 17 spacecraft lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on the edge of the Gobi Desert in northwestern China atop a Long March 2-F rocket at 11:14 a.m. (0314 GMT)

According to the China Manned Space Agency, the average age of the three-member crew is the youngest since the launch of the space station construction mission, state broadcaster CCTV earlier reported. Their average age is 38, state media China Daily said.

Beijing is pursuing plans to place astronauts on the moon before the end of the decade amid a rivalry with the U.S. for reaching new milestones in outer space. This reflects the competition for influence between the worlds two largest economies in the technology, military and diplomatic fields.

The trio  Tang Hongbo, Tang Shengjie and Jiang Xinlin  will replace a crew that has been on the station for six months. Tang is a veteran who led a 2021 space mission for three months.

The new crew will conduct experiments in space medicine, space technology and other areas during their mission and will help install and maintain the equipment inside and outside the station, the agency said.

On Wednesday, the agency also announced plans to send a new telescope to probe deep into the universe. CCTV said the telescope would enable surveys and mapping of the sky, but no timeframe was given for the installation.

China has researched the movement of stars and planets for thousands of years while in modern times, it has pushed to become a leader in space exploration and science.

It built its own space station after it was excluded from the International Space Station, largely due to U.S. concerns over the control of the program by the Peoples Liberation Army, the military branch of the ruling Communist Party.

Chinas first manned space mission in 2003 made it the third country after the former Soviet Union and the U.S. to put a person into space using its own resources.

American spending, supply chains and capabilities are believed to give it a significant edge over China, at least for now. China has broken out in some areas, however, bringing samples back from the lunar surface for the first time in decades and landing a rover on the less explored far side of the moon.

The U.S., meanwhile, aims to put astronauts back on the lunar surface by the end of 2025 as part of a renewed commitment to crewed missions, aided by private sector players such as SpaceX and Blue Origin.

In addition to their lunar programs, the two countries have also separately landed rovers on Mars, and China plans to follow the U.S. in landing a spacecraft on an asteroid. ANDY WONG, JIUQUAN SATELLITE LAUNCH CENTER, MDT/AP
Prominent cases of purported lying continue to dominate the news cycle. Hunter Biden was charged with lying on a government form while purchasing a handgun. Republican Representative George Santos allegedly lied in many ways, including to donors through a third party in order to misuse the funds raised. The rapper Offset admitted to lying on Instagram about his wife, Cardi B, being unfaithful.

There are a number of variables that distinguish these cases. One is the audience: the faceless government, particular donors and millions of online followers, respectively. Another is the medium used to convey the alleged lie: on a bureaucratic form, through intermediaries and via social media.

Differences like these lead researchers like me to wonder what factors influence the telling of lies. Does a personal connection increase or decrease the likelihood of sticking to the truth? Are lies more prevalent on text or email than on the phone or in person?

An emerging body of empirical research is trying to answer these questions, and some of the findings are surprising. They hold lessons, too  for how to think about the areas of your life where you might be more prone to tell lies, and also about where to be most cautious in trusting what others are saying. As the recent director of The Honesty Project and author of Honesty: The Philosophy and Psychology of a Neglected Virtue, I am especially interested in whether most people tend to be honest or not.

Figuring out the frequency of lies

Most research on lying asks participants to self-report their lying behavior, say during the past day or week. (Whether you can trust liars to tell the truth about lying is another question.)

The classic study on lying frequency was conducted by psychologist Bella DePaulo in the mid-1990s. It focused on face-to-face interactions and used a group of student participants and another group of volunteers from the community around the University of Virginia. The community members averaged one lie per day, while the students averaged two lies per day. This result became the benchmark finding in the field of honesty research and helped lead to an assumption among many researchers that lying is commonplace.

But averages do not describe individuals. It could be that each person in the group tells one or two lies per day. But its also possible that there are some people who lie voraciously and others who lie very rarely.

In an influential 2010 study, this second scenario is indeed what Michigan State University communication researcher Kim Serota and his colleagues found. Out of 1,000 American participants, 59.9% claimed not to have told a single lie in the past 24 hours. Of those who admitted they did lie, most said theyd told very few lies. Participants reported 1,646 lies in total, but half of them came from just 5.3% of the participants.

This general pattern in the data has been replicated several times. Lying tends to be rare, except in the case of a small group of frequent liars.

Does the medium make a difference?

Might lying become more frequent under various conditions? What if you dont just consider face-to-face interactions, but introduce some distance by communicating via text, email or the phone?

Research suggests the medium doesnt matter much. For instance, a 2014 study by Northwestern University communication researcher Madeline Smith and her colleagues found that when participants were asked to look at their 30 most recent text messages, 23% said there were no deceptive texts. For the rest of the group, the vast majority said that 10% or fewer of their texts contained lies.

Recent research by David Markowitz at the University of Oregon successfully replicated earlier findings that had compared the rates of lying using different technologies. Are lies more common on text, the phone or on email? Based on survey data from 205 participants, Markowitz found that on average, people told 1.08 lies per day, but once again with the distribution of lies skewed by some frequent liars.

Not only were the percentages fairly low, but the differences between the frequency with which lies were told via different media were not large. Still, it might be surprising to find that, say, lying on video chat was more common than lying face-to-face, with lying on email being least likely.

A couple of factors could be playing a role. Recordability seems to rein in the lies  perhaps knowing that the communication leaves a record raises worries about detection and makes lying less appealing. Synchronicity seems to matter too. Many lies occur in the heat of the moment, so it makes sense that when theres a delay in communication, as with email, lying would decrease.

Does the audience change things?

In addition to the medium, does the intended receiver of a potential lie make any difference?

Initially you might think that people are more inclined to lie to strangers than to friends and family, given the impersonality of the interaction in the one case and the bonds of care and concern in the other. But matters are a bit more complicated.

In her classic work, DePaulo found that people tend to tell what she called everyday lies more often to strangers than family members. To use her examples, these are smaller lies like told her (that) her muffins were the best ever and exaggerated how sorry I was to be late. For instance, DePaulo and her colleague Deborah Kashy reported that participants in one of their studies lied less than once per 10 social interactions with spouses and children.

However, when it came to serious lies about things like affairs or injuries, for instance, the pattern flipped. Now, 53% of serious lies were to close partners in the studys community participants, and the proportion jumped up to 72.7% among student volunteers. Perhaps not surprisingly, in these situations people might value not damaging their relationships more than they value the truth. Other data also finds participants tell more lies to friends and family members than to strangers.

Investigating the truth about lies

It is worth emphasizing that these are all initial findings. Further replication is needed, and cross-cultural studies using non-Western participants are scarce. Additionally, there are many other variables that could be examined, such as age, gender, religion and political affiliation.

When it comes to honesty, though, I find the results, in general, promising. Lying seems to happen rarely for many people, even toward strangers and even via social media and texting. Where people need to be especially discerning, though, is in identifying  and avoiding  the small number of rampant liars out there. If youre one of them yourself, maybe you never realized that youre actually in a small minority.

Christian B. Miller, Wake Forest University, MDT/The Conversation
Mahmoud Shalabi did not evacuate his home in northern Gaza despite the frightful Israeli warnings of a looming, far more brutal assault to come as it presses ahead with its war against the Hamas militant group.

The Palestinian aid worker is among hundreds of thousands who have remained. Others who initially heeded the Israeli warnings to head south have returned to the territorys north, where Israel says it considers all those who stay possible accomplices of Hamas.

Shalabi said leaving his home in Beit Lahia didnt make sense considering the relentless bombardment of southern Gaza, where Israel has repeatedly urged the more than 1 million northern residents like him to seek refuge. The overcrowded shelters and shortages of water and food in the south played a part in their decisions, said Shalabi and others who remained.

Risk death at home, or elsewhere in Gaza, they said.

Leaving would be reasonable only if Israel stopped targeting the south, said Shalabi, who works for Medical Aid for Palestinians, a U.K.-based charity providing health services. It doesnt make sense to me that I should leave my home to go and get killed in a tent in the south of Gaza, he said.

The risks for those staying in the north are likely to rise exponentially in the event of an expected Israeli ground offensive, after two-and-a-half weeks of heavy bombardments have already claimed more than 6,500 lives in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.

With tens of thousands of troops massed along Israels border with Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday [Macau time] Israel was preparing for a ground incursion. He refused to say when it would begin.

Israeli military officials have said they are determined to crush Hamas in response to its brutal Oct. 7 attack on Israeli border communities, and the focus will be on the north, including Gaza City, where Israel says key Hamas assets, tunnels and bunkers are located.

Some 350,000 Palestinians are still in northern Gaza, according to Israeli estimates. Military officials have repeatedly exhorted Palestinians to move south, but have not said whether the presence of a large number of civilians would be a factor in deciding whether to send in tanks and ground troops.

Israel says it seeks to strike Hamas and doesnt target civilians, but Gaza health officials say many of those killed have been women and children. Those numbers are expected to climb with a ground offensive, which would likely see fierce fighting inside crowded urban areas.

International rights groups have sharply criticized the Israeli evacuation orders, saying they cannot be considered effective warning to civilians, under the rules of international law, because of a lack of realistic options for those fleeing.

When the evacuation routes are bombed, when people north as well as south are caught up in hostilities, when the essentials for survival are lacking, and when there are no assurances for return, people are left with nothing but impossible choices, said Lynn Hastings, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories. Nowhere is safe in Gaza.

Those staying put in the north are bracing for worse to come. They live among the ruins of once bustling neighborhoods while facing dire shortages of fuel, food and water amid looming hospital shutdowns.

Services in the north have deteriorated since Israels evacuation order prompted at least 700,000 Palestinians to flee south. Most homes have no electricity, water or fuel.

More than 1.4 million Gaza residents are now displaced across the narrow strip, out of a population of 2.3 million, and U.N. shelters are packed at triple their capacity, U.N. agencies say.

In the north, entire neighborhoods have been reduced to rubble.

Everywhere there is debris, there are destroyed cars, there are destroyed houses. And its really difficult to get from one location to the other because there is no fuel, Shalabi said.

He said he walked for two hours to find a bakery still selling bread to feed his family of 10. Shop shelves are empty; residents are living on canned beans, pineapple, corn.

The little fuel still available, often from private stockpiles, is sold for exorbitant prices. Some rent out small water pump motors, demanding 50 shekels ($12) an hour, a huge amount for the average Gaza resident.

This week Shalabi ran out of cash, and scoured the blocks of dilapidated streets to find a functioning ATM. There were none.

About 50,000 people are sheltering on the grounds of Shifa Hospital, Gazas largest, in Gaza City. It is overwhelmed by a steady stream of wounded from airstrikes amid warnings that severe shortages of fuel, needed to power generators, could trigger a shutdown. No new fuel has been allowed into Gaza since the Oct. 7 raid.

Still, many Palestinians are choosing to return north, tired of moving from place-to-place under Israeli fire as shelters become overcrowded and unlivable. U.N. monitors estimate 30,000 have returned. SAMY MAGDY & WAFAA SHURAFA, DEIR AL BALAH, MDT/AP
The Public Security Police investigated cases of false employment, extortion and sex work, arresting six men and women from Hong Kong, Macau and the mainland. Among them, a mainland woman in her 20s paid RMB80,000 to obtain a work permit and engage in prostitution in Macau. Last week, two men and women had an argument near a police station in Taipa. The police officers who attended the scene revealed that the mainland woman was suspected of sex work and was blackmailed by the other party

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The SAR government issued a statement in response to the United States earlier report on the need to prevent and combat human trafficking in Macau, criticizing the US for blatantly and seriously interfering in the internal affairs of the Macau SAR.

The SAR government and security authorities have expressed strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to the report, noting efforts and achievements made over the years in preventing and combating human trafficking.

The respective determination by the US was issued without full knowledge of the information, in light of unrealistic data and based on incorrect information about Macau from the so-called Trafficking in Persons Report, published recently, in an attempt to create confusion in international society, the statement read.

The Office of the Secretary for Security emphasized that the prevention and control of human trafficking crimes in Macau has been effectively carried out with the support of the central government and the coordination of the local government.

In the statement, the Office states that it has never relied on, sought, or received relevant funding or any form of support from the United States.

The SAR government will, as always, unwaveringly cooperate with all sectors of Macau to prevent and control human trafficking, the statement read.

According to an earlier report, the US criticized the Macau government for having inadequate protection efforts and maintaining minimal efforts to prevent trafficking.

Authorities did not report identifying or providing services to any victims for the fifth consecutive year and the government has never identified labor trafficking victims exploited in Macau, the report read.

The US has placed Macau on Tier 3, a category it reserves for countries and territories whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so.

Further, the report noted that the local government has not convicted a trafficker since 2019 and has never identified a victim of forced labor exploited in Macau.

According to a statement from the SAR, there have always been low instances of human trafficking in Macau.

Staff Reporter
Secretary for Transport and Public Works Raimundo do Rosario queried why lawmaker Leong Hong Sai asked about direct designation of land concession yesterday, given existing laws have prohibited this practice for nearly 10 years.

Leong raised several questions about land management and development during yesterdays oral inquiry session, and said that government was unclear about the procedure used by the government when directly designating land concession.

Before answering the lawmakers question, Rosario spent a few minutes defending himself. He emphasized that the current land law had been in place for nearly 10 years and does not permit direct designation of land concession.

I dont understand why the issue of direct designation is still being raised, Rosario said.

Tomorrows newspaper headlines are likely to read, Lawmaker Leong questions governments messy land designation. Is this the result you are seeking?

Rosario recalled that he had been asked similar questions at a previous parliamentary inquiry session in April, during which he had emphasized that direct designation of land concession is not lawful.

He felt that the parliament had not been fair to him in respect of government construction projects running behind schedule and over budget. He noted that when the government rectified these problems, similar questions continued to be raised.

On land resource management, the senior official emphasized that in his nearly nine years in office as the secretary, he had treated matters of land management and development with the utmost seriousness among about a dozen topics under his remit.

His branch of government is concerned with areas ranging from urban and public construction to matters of weather, transport and environmental protection.

Before, we called our land government land, but now it is referred to as state-owned land, Rosario said. I dont believe any secretary treats matters relating to state-owned land trivially. He added that if he had done so, he would have lost his job.

State-owned land is also his defense against calls by lawmakers and the public to convert certain unused land for public leisure facilities. Lawmaker Ron Lam mentioned the Singaporean practice of declaring state-ownership of land via signage, while offering it up for public leisure use, and encouraged the government to follow suit.

While recognizing the merits of this idea, Rosario said that state-owned land must be treated more seriously than other matters.

Some lawmakers held the view that land may be better used to store building products or for waste management, while others were of the view that leaving undeveloped land unattended would cause safety and security concerns.

However, Rosario was concerned that tenants may ultimately come to expect to be able to use the land for such purposes and that the government would be faced with additional questions about where existing land users could relocate their industrial resources when asked to vacate in the future.

Similarly, Rosario was concerned that the public would have similar concerns once the government decided to repurpose or develop land that had been temporarily used for leisure.

Rosario also asked why the business sector had set their sights on state-owned land to ease operational burdens. Instead, he suggested that ordinary business protocols be followed, such as the leasing of dedicated storage spaces.

By way of analogy, the official compared land reserves to an emergency savings account that should only be used when necessary.

Moving on to discuss matters of political transparency, Rosario said that information is publicly available on the websites of the relevant bureaus or departments. He pledged that any information identified as not currently available would be published on the relevant websites as soon as practicable.

In response to Leongs call for systematic improvement to avoid future breaches, Rosario expressed his openness to improvement, noting that appropriate procedures and practices are safeguarded in the Land Law and Urban Planning Law. In addition, as Urban Planning Committee plenaries are publicly accessible and Planning Conditions Graphs are available for public opinion and input 10 days prior to each plenary, the secretary asserted that the system was as transparent as possible.

Leong also asked about repayment of land debts, referring to land that the government promised developers in exchange for land originally owned by them or that was designated land. Rosario maintained that the issue is extremely complicated, so more time to resolve the debt would be needed.
Dreamily gazing at the album covers of Elvis Presley was not, statistically speaking, a rare habit among American teen girls in the late 1950s and early 60s.

But for Priscilla Beaulieu, teenage fantasy became a strange and surreal reality. Sofia Coppolas Priscilla, starring Cailee Spaeny, captures all the dreaminess, the absurdity and, finally, the nightmare of falling in love with Elvis.

Priscilla was just 14 years-old  a 9th grader  when she first met him. It was 1959. She was living in West Germany, where her Air Force officer stepfather was stationed.

Coppola, the writer-director of The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation and Somewhere, has always been innately attuned to the forming identities, swelling desires and intimate revelations of young women. In the story of Priscilla Presley (the film is based on her 1985 memoir, Elvis and Me ), Coppola has found a tale tailor-made for her delicately perceptive style of filmmaking.

As a movie, Priscilla is the diametric opposite of Baz Luhrmanns Elvis. Where Luhrmanns film was lurid and careening, Coppolas is muted and textured. Her film is a kind of fairy tale that turns claustrophobic and cautionary.

Priscilla is, at least at first, quite funny.

Their courtship [flows] in somewhat traditional fashion. Elvis, played with relaxed magnetism by Elordi (The Kissing Booth, Saltburn), is drawn to Priscilla because she reminds him of home; its clear her purity is part of her appeal to him. Its a long time before they have sex, though her youth remains tacitly problematic. Wow, shes young, says one woman watching Elvis lead Priscilla upstairs. Like a little girl.

Their life together is initially sweet if deranged. Priscilla drifts through a dream world even if Elvis extremes are glaring to us. His bedroom in Graceland is comically gaudy. I got this for you, we hear Elvis say kindly, before a handgun is handed over.

No Presley songs play in Priscilla.

And like they do for Holly in Badlands, things turn increasingly dark for Priscilla. Elvis treats her like a doll he keeps at home while he goes in and out. Its either me or a career, baby, he tells her. Coppola, who dedicates the movie to her mother, Eleanor Coppola, has long specialized in gilded cages (Marie Antoinette, The Bling Ring). Graceland turns out to be a prison to Priscilla.

There arent many false notes in Coppolas richly layered film, handsomely shot by Philippe Le Sourd, with sumptuous production design from Tamara Deverell and fine, toned-down costumes by Stacey Battat.

But Priscilla fades where Elvis found its footing. When Presleys downturn accelerates in Las Vegas, Luhrmanns movie swelled with tragedy. In the same time period here, Priscilla awakens. Yet it feels underdeveloped, coming too quickly, in a sudden rush  albeit a terrific rush, with Dolly Parton playing.

A constant throughout, though, is Spaeny. This is a deft breakthrough performance perfectly poised between youthful fantasy and adult reality. JAKE COYLE, MDT/AP Film Writer

Priscilla, an A24 release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for drug use and some language. Running time: 113 minutes. 
The sudden death of Chinas former second-ranking leader, Li Keqiang, has shocked many people in the country, with tributes offered up to the ex-official who promised market-oriented reforms but was politically sidelined.

Li, 68, who died early today (Friday) of a heart attack, was Chinas top economic official for a decade, helping navigate the worlds second-largest economy through challenges such as rising political, economic and military tensions with the United States and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Li was extolled as an excellent (Communist Party of China) member, a time-tested and loyal communist soldier and an outstanding proletarian revolutionist, statesman and leader of the Party and the state, the official Xinhua News Agency said in its brief obituary.

Li was known for his advocacy of private business but lost much of his influence as President Xi Jinping accumulated ever-greater powers and elevated the military and security services in aid of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

A hashtag related to his death on the Chinese social media platform Weibo drew over 1 billion views in just a few hours. On posts about Li, the like button was turned into a daisy  a common flower for funerals in China, and many users commented rest in peace. Others called his death a loss and said Li worked hard and contributed greatly to China.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning asked reporters to refer to information from official news agency Xinhua and the obituary released later.

We deeply mourn over the tragic passing of Comrade Li Keqiang due to a sudden heart attack, she said.

Beijing resident Xia Fan, 20, said she was saddened by the death of Li, whom she called a really conscientious and responsible premier. She said her mind was blank when she first heard about the news.

He really accompanied the growth of our generation, thats how it feels in my heart, she said.

Designer Chen Hui said Li contributed greatly to Chinas development. If I were to talk about it, its impossible to finish it in one day. Its a pity, Chen said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed his condolences on the passing of Li, said Matthew Miller, State Department spokesperson.

Nicholas Burns, U.S. ambassador to China, also extended his condolences to Lis family, the Chinese government and the Chinese people in both English and Chinese on X.

Japans embassy in China expressed its condolences on Weibo. It said Li had visited Japan in 2018 and he played an importance role in the relations of both countries.

Li, an English-speaking economist, was from a generation of politicians schooled during a time of greater openness to liberal ideas. Introduced to politics during the chaotic 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, he made it into prestigious Peking University, where he studied law and economics, on his own merits rather than through political connections.

Li had been seen as former Communist Party leader Hu Jintaos preferred successor as president about a decade ago. But the need to balance party factions prompted the leadership to choose Xi, the son of a former vice premier and party elder, as the consensus candidate.

The two never formed anything like the partnership that characterized Hus relationship with his premier, Wen Jiabao  or Mao Zedongs with the redoubtable Zhou Enlai  although Li and Xi never openly disagreed over fundamentals.

Last October, Li was dropped from the Standing Committee at a party congress despite being more than two years below the informal retirement age of 70. He stepped down in March and was succeeded by Li Qiang, a crony of Xis from his days in provincial government. His departure marked a shift away from the skilled technocrats who have helped steer Chinas economy in favor of officials known mainly for their unquestioned loyalty to Xi.

MDT/AP

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Three Malaysians, victims of human trafficking by a Macau scam syndicate in Peru, were rescued by the South American countrys authorities and have returned home safely, according to a report issued Malaysian media outlet Malay Mail. The trio consisted of two women and a man aged between 23 and 25. Deputy Foreign Minister Datuk Mohamad Alamin said the three victims were among the 43 Malaysian citizens who were deceived into working for the Macau scam syndicate, and were rescued by Peruvian police on October 7.

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Traffic will be redirected in the first half of 2024 at the Inner Harbour end of San Ma Lo in preparation for the pumping station project, director of Public Works Lam Wai Hou disclosed to parliament yesterday.

Lam attended an oral inquiry session at the parliament yesterday afternoon with his superintendent, Secretary for Transport and Public Works Raimundo do Rosario.

The government has separated the pumping station or flood management work on Inner Harbour into two sections  North and South. Construction on the northern section has concluded successfully, according to the government, while construction on the south section is currently underway.

The two sections are separated by Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro, known as San Ma Lo in Cantonese and English.

Work will be carried out on the Inner Harbour end of San Ma Lo, an arterial throughfare in Macau, early next year to facilitate consolidation and connection of the two sections. At that time, traffic will be rerouted.

The current construction on Inner Harbour South has had a heavy impact on traffic, Lam said, disclosing that a larger section of the motor roads at that location will be altered or blocked off as the project progresses, although the official did not mention an exact date.

The project currently affects about one-third of the entire motor traffic area, Lam added.

In her oral inquiry, lawmaker Wong Kit Cheng asked about adjustments that the government had made so far in the decade-long disaster plan. She requested an explanation of the impact of these adjustments on the actual capacity of these projects to mitigate against disasters.

Citing government announcements that many projects designed to address disasters of the once-in-200-years scale had been halted or terminated, she asked whether existing projects will be able to withstand phenomena of a similar scale.

In response to her questions, Lam assured that all on-going projects are designed with the appropriate safeguards in place and, in addition, the pumping stations are designed to discharge rainwater.

Lawmakers also asked why the government had terminated the construction of a high-altitude reservoir, which had been planned to address outages in water supply should local water plants be out of order.

Reiterating that the Coloane and Ka-Ho reservoirs have been expanded, Lam said that the water reserve for Macau is set at 12 days should no external supplies be available. Additionally, the public works official said that the odds of a complete service break-down at water supply facilities are very slim.

He added that plans for an underground water tank at Ponte e Horta Plaza have been scrapped.

Lawmaker Jose Pereira Coutinho called for the restoration of the plan, citing Singapore as an example. He said that under heavy rainfall conditions, the influx of water is collected by these tanks and gradually released. Such a system would allow time for pipe networks to adjust and accommodate for the inflows efficiently. He added that if flooding problems in Inner Harbour could not be completely resolved, the business sector in the area would fail to thrive.

In response, Lam said that the government did not believe the underground water tanks were essential, given the satisfactory results from the Inner Harbour North pumping station.
ACAPULCO, Mexico  Hurricane Otis killed at least 27 people as it devastated Acapulco and survivors spent Thursday searching for acquaintances and necessities and hoping aid arrives quickly.

The Mexican government deployed about 10,000 troops but equipment to move tons of mud and fallen trees from the streets was slow to arrive.

Resentment grew in impoverished neighborhoods as residents worried that government attention would go to repairing infrastructure for tourism, the city's economic engine, rather than helping the neediest. At least four people remained missing.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Otis toppled every power pole where it hit as a Category 5 hurricane Wednesday. Acapulco's municipal water system was down and about 500,000 buildings lost power; as of Thursday evening, 300,000 still had no electricity.
A Madison woman who pleaded guilty in August to causing a traffic crash that killed the director of Wisconsins public broadcasting system was jailed Friday after a judge revoked her bail following her arrest last week for an alleged weapon-related offense.

Shawnicia N. Youmas, 33, had remained free on $3,000 bail after she pleaded guilty to homicide by negligent driving  but not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect  for the July 27, 2021, crash that killed Wisconsin Public Media Director Gene Purcell, 61, on the Beltline frontage road just outside the WPM building. WPM is the parent organization of Wisconsin Public Television and Wisconsin Public Radio.

Left open after Youmas plea was a determination as to whether she was suffering from a mental illness at the time of the crash that made her not legally responsible for her actions. Prosecutors said they would seek an evaluation of Youmas.

On Friday, Assistant District Attorney Lexi Keyes said the evaluation has been done and she intends to take the issue to trial.

Purcell was riding his motorcycle to work at WPM and was turning into its parking lot when Youmas tried to pass him at high speed and struck him. Data downloaded from the airbag system in Youmas car indicates she was traveling nearly 65 mph 1.5 seconds before the crash. The speed limit in the area is 30 mph.

More recently, Youmas was arrested on Oct. 19 after her former boyfriend told police she had swung a knife at him and threatened to kill him during an incident at a bus stop on North Pinckney Street on the Capitol Square. According to a criminal complaint, a witness also told police she heard Youmas make the threat.

Youmas was charged Monday with felony bail jumping and disorderly conduct involving the use of a dangerous weapon. She was released after posting $300 bail set in that case.

Youmas attorney, Emily Bell, argued that Youmas was a victim in the Oct. 19 incident, which happened, she said, after Youmas former boyfriend, Ronald R. Grant, 32, had stalked and harassed Youmas, in violation of bail set in a domestic abuse case filed against him in June that barred him from having contact with Youmas.

Bell said police found no knife, despite what Grant and the witness said Youmas had said. Bell argued that even if there was a knife, Youmas has a legitimate self-defense case. She asked that Youmas bail not be revoked.

More to consider

Circuit Judge Mario White said, however, that he was not going to decide Friday whether Youmas was guilty in the new case or whether she has a self-defense argument that would excuse her actions. Instead, he said, he was to evaluate how she has behaved on bail before and after entering her guilty plea in Purcells death.

Certainly, there is no good time for someone to violate bond conditions, White said. Certainly, the worst time is after a conviction and before sentencing.

While he appreciated Bells advocacy for Youmas, White said, At some point I have to draw a line.

Youmas has had multiple opportunities to remain free on bail, White said, despite arrests for such things as misdemeanor criminal damage to property and another instance of disorderly conduct involving a dangerous weapon. Both of those cases were dismissed at the time of Youmas guilty plea for Purcells death.

I just cannot take the risk that some future criminal activity will occur, White said.

Family input

Whites decision also followed statements he heard from members of Purcells family urging him to revoke Youmas bail.

How many times does she need to break the rules before shes held accountable? asked Ruth Purcell, the widow of Gene Purcell. She added that she doesnt hate Youmas, she only hates what she did.

Joe Purcell, Gene Purcells brother, said the other incidents that led to Youmas arrests have been treated as if they never happened.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me, he said. The question is, will the court be fooled after this?
WASHINGTON  President Joe Biden wasn't successful in unseating New Hampshire from the first-in-the-nation primary slot it has held for more than a century, but his campaign's announcement this week that he won't appear on the state's 2024 primary ballot has nonetheless added a new wrinkle to the contest and created complications for his campaign, state election officials, and voters.

Although several key details about next year's New Hampshire primary have yet to be determined, the event has begun to take shape.

When is the 2024 New Hampshire primary?

State law gives New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan exclusive authority to set the date for the 2024 primary, but he has yet to do so. For 40 years, it has been held the Tuesday following the Iowa caucuses, which are scheduled for Jan. 15. State law also says the primary must be held at least seven days before any similar contest. The South Carolina Democratic primary on Feb. 3 is the earliest contest on the Democratic National Committee's official calendar. The only Tuesday that fits within these parameters is Jan. 23.

Why won't Biden's name appear on the New Hampshire primary ballot?

The move is the latest development in a long-simmering dispute within the Democratic Party over which states and regions should have the first say in determining the party's presidential nominees every four years. Iowa and New Hampshire have traditionally kicked off the nomination process for both parties, but other states have challenged their prime placement in the calendar over the years. This has resulted in states leapfrogging one another and a steadily earlier start to the primary campaign season.

Biden, who placed fifth in New Hampshire in 2020, urged Democratic Party officials last year to rejigger the primary calendar with South Carolina in the lead-off position. His 29-point win in the 2020 South Carolina primary ended his string of embarrassing early-state losses that year and put his campaign on positive footing to win the nomination. The DNC adopted the president's proposal and scheduled the South Carolina primary to lead the party's nomination process on Feb. 3, with New Hampshire and Nevada to follow on Feb. 6.

However, New Hampshire indicated its intent to maintain its first-in-the-nation primary status in violation of party rules and risk possible penalties from the DNC down the road. Rather than flout the rules he urged the national party to adopt, Biden chose to stay off the ballot in New Hampshire.

Will Biden still be a factor in the New Hampshire primary?

Biden's name will not appear as a printed option on the New Hampshire primary ballot. However, some state Democratic leaders have begun organizing a write-in effort on Biden's behalf. The move is not without precedent. President Lyndon Johnson won the New Hampshire primary in 1968 as a write-in candidate, although he dropped out of the race 19 days later.

State Democratic Party Chairman Raymond Buckley said in a social media post, "The reality is that Joe Biden will win the (New Hampshire primary) in January, win renomination in Chicago and will be re-elected next November."

How will write-in votes be counted?

According to the secretary of state, local officials will process ballots with write-in votes on election night and tabulate them along with votes for other candidates. Under state law, they must post their results publicly and submit their tallies to the secretary of state by 8 a.m. the following morning. It's not clear whether these election night write-in totals will be broken down by individual candidates.

In elections across the country, it is rare for officials to provide vote totals for individual write-in candidates on election night. It is more common to release a cumulative total for all write-in candidates on election night and then provide a more detailed breakdown at a later date. That was the case in Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski's successful write-in reelection campaign in Alaska in 2010. In that race, Murkowski received 99% of the write-in votes cast, but the final result wasn't known until more than two weeks after Election Day.

Scanlan said he will urge towns to enlist additional help to speed up the count, but he sounded optimistic about the process in comments to reporters on Tuesday.

"It sounds like it would be a big job, but you have to remember, it is one race where it is 'vote for one,' and it's fairly easy to sort through the ballots," he said. "I think it is a challenge that can be overcome."

In the 2020 New Hampshire Democratic primary, write-in votes comprised 2% of the total vote, or about 6,000 votes.

What happens to New Hampshire's Democratic delegates?

Party rules don't bar a write-in candidate from winning delegates. Delegates are allocated proportionally based on the statewide vote and the vote in each of the state's two congressional districts.

The larger question is whether, and how, the national party would punish New Hampshire Democrats for holding their primary earlier than allowed. One option would be to strip the state of all its delegate votes at next year's national convention in Chicago. This would risk alienating the state's most influential Democrats who would be critical in turning out supporters in a general election swing state. Another option would be seating all of New Hampshire's delegates but giving them half or some fraction of a full vote on the convention floor. Or the national party could decide to do nothing.

In 2008, when Michigan and Florida held primaries earlier than allowed under party rules, the DNC opted to try all three. Initially, it said both states would be stripped of all their delegates. Then, after negotiations with the campaigns of then-Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, it announced that delegates from both states could each cast half a vote. Finally, shortly before the convention began, party officials voted to grant Michigan and Florida delegates full voting rights in the interest of party unity.

What will a Biden-less primary ballot look like?

The simplest path to get on the New Hampshire presidential primary ballot is to submit a Declaration of Candidacy and pay a $1,000 filing fee. The minimal filing requirements usually result in a crowded field. In the 2020 primary, there were 33 Democratic and 17 Republican candidates on the ballots. Voters may write the name of another candidate in the blank space marked "WRITE-IN" at the end of the list of candidates.

The candidate filing period ends Friday at 5 p.m. ET. As of Wednesday, 13 Democrats had submitted the necessary paperwork to appear on the ballot, including 2020 hopeful Marianne Williamson. Minnesota U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips has not filed but is widely expected to do so. Twenty-one Republicans filed, including all of the major candidates.

What vote coverage will the Associated Press provide on election night?

The AP will report vote totals in both the Democratic and Republican New Hampshire primaries. For Democrats, this will include any write-in vote totals and details by candidate that the New Hampshire Secretary of State's office makes available. The AP does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it's determined there is no scenario that would allow the trailing candidates to close the gap. A significant amount of write-in votes may slow the race-calling process if elections officials don't immediately provide a breakdown by candidate.

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Associated Press writers Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire, and Will Weissert in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

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The 10 Senate seats most likely to flip in 2024 1. West Virginia 2. Montana 3. Ohio 4. Pennsylvania 5. Arizona 6. Nevada 7. Wisconsin 8. Michigan 9. Texas 10. Florida Analysis: Pennsylvania moves up list of contested Senate seats in 2024
The attempt by an off-duty pilot to shut down the engines of a U.S. airliner in midflight highlights the threat that insiders pose to aviation safety with their ability to go where passengers are prohibited.

Events like the one Sunday on a Horizon Air jetliner are very rare, but they are potentially devastating.

The captain and co-pilot prevented disaster by subduing the off-duty Alaska Airlines pilot who  from his perfect vantage point in the cockpit jump seat  tried to cut fuel to the engines.

Were just lucky he wasnt flying the plane when he decided to do this. Whats going to stop that? said Jon Loffi, a longtime law enforcement officer who teaches aviation security at Oklahoma State University and wrote a paper on identifying insider threats.

There is something of a see-something, say-something mindset in aviation, where employees are encouraged to voluntarily report anything that raises a safety concern, including suspicious behavior of colleagues. It's not clear how often that happens, however  if ever.

The pilot who was arrested after Sunday's flight didn't appear to raise alarms. Neighbors and fellow members of a flying club where he was an instructor described him as a great guy who was obsessed with safety. The pilots who let him in the cockpit Sunday said they didn't see anything out of the ordinary before takeoff.

Pilots are required to undergo psychological screening as part of their regularly scheduled medical exams. The pilot involved in Sunday's incident got his most recent exam in September, according to Federal Aviation Administration records.

However, the pilot, Joseph David Emerson, told police that he had been depressed for about six months  starting long before his last medical exam  and was having a nervous breakdown," according to an FBI agent's affidavit.

During FAA-required exams, pilots are supposed to go through an interview and report whether they have received psychiatric treatment and what medicines they take. The FBI agent's affidavit didn't indicate whether Emerson was being treated for depression.

The FAA says its approved medical examiners are trained to gauge a pilot's mental health.

Airlines frequently conduct their own interviews that include a psychological evaluation, but most of those are to determine whether the pilot is a good fit for the company, not whether they are mentally unstable, said Jeffrey Price, an aviation-security expert at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

The Horizon close call could result in the re-examination of the practice of letting off-duty pilots or other airline employees sit in the cockpit jump seat.

Air travel changed after the 9/11 terror attacks. The Transportation Security Administration was created to screen passengers. Cockpit doors were hardened. For a time, jump-seat riders were banned.

Pilots fought to restore their ability to hitch a ride in the cockpit. Many of them commute to their jobs, and letting them use the jump seat means the airline doesn't have to bump a passenger off a full flight to make room for a pilot.

Im afraid this will put that privilege in jeopardy now, said Ross Aimer, a retired airline pilot who is now CEO of an aviation-consulting firm. He said air travel won't function  it will come to a grinding halt  if off-duty pilots can't use the jump seat to commute to work.

Airlines must approve people to sit in the jump seat, and pilots wishing to do it must present their credentials to the crew. The captain can deny access.

Our flight crew vetting system is just that  its based on trust, Price said. We have to trust personnel to a certain extent, or the system doesnt work.

Loffi, the Oklahoma State professor, said banning pilots from the jump seat would be silly because a pilot intent on crashing the plane could simply wait until their turn to operate a flight.

Investigators concluded that is what happened on board a Germanwings plane in 2015. They determined that the co-pilot deliberately crashed the plane in the French Alps. The man had been treated for suicidal tendences but did not tell the airline.

A FedEx pilot riding on a cargo plane tried to kill the crew and crash the plane in 1994 but was stopped by the on-duty pilots. In 1987, a fired employee who still had his security badge hijacked a Pacific Southwest Airlines jet, which crashed in California, killing everyone on board.

On rare occasions, other employees including a mechanic have been accused of sabotaging planes.

Loffi said pilots could be subjected to more rigorous psychological examinations, as is often done with police officers, but thats not foolproof either.

I think we're doing a pretty good job of managing the insider threat," he said. "How often does this happen? Darn seldom. And it's just so hard to predict this kind of behavior.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the FAA will look into any safety considerations" that come out of investigations of the Horizon Air incident.

Security experts say it would be difficult if not impossible to stop every determined criminal or terrorist who targets aviation. They say there are steps that could make such an attack more difficult, but they would come at a cost of time and money.

One possibility is to make airline and airport employees go through the same type of security checkpoints as passengers. Currently many of those insiders can go behind security perimeters with the right credentials.

Federal law requires that people seeking to work in secure areas of an airport must pass a criminal-records check and a "security threat assessment that includes checking their names against a terrorism watch list. The vetting is conducted by the Transportation Security Administration.

The off-duty Alaska Airlines pilot who was arrested Sunday joined Horizon as a first officer or co-pilot in 2001. In 2012, he went to work at Virgin America, which was bought by Alaska in 2016. Emerson was promoted to captain in 2019.

Alaska Airlines said Emerson met all requirements for medical exams and at no point were his certifications denied, suspended or revoked.

Alaska said Tuesday that Emerson was relieved from all duties" on Sunday, the day of the flight. His next flight had been planned for Thursday. The airline indicated it was talking to the pilots' union regarding his employment status.

On Tuesday, Emerson was being held in the Multnomah County, Oregon, jail on one federal count of interfering with a flight crew and 83 state counts of attempted murder, a felony, 83 counts of misdemeanor reckless endangerment, and one count of endangering an aircraft, a felony. He was due to be arraigned Tuesday in Portland.

Emerson's neighbors in Pleasant Hill, California, a suburb about 30 miles east of San Francisco, describe him as friendly, and officials of a local flying club say he is meticulous about safety.

No sign he was off. Nothing, Karen Yee, a neighbor whose grandchildren play with Emerson's two elementary-school kids, told The (San Jose) Mercury News. He is everything you would want to have in a good neighbor. We see him over the fence and on walks. Great guy. Great family.

Allen Scott, former president of a flying club where Emerson served as a flight instructor several years ago, told the San Francisco Chronicle he has flown with Emerson and he was fanatical about safety.

Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon, contributed to this report.
TWIN FALLS  A Hailey woman was found guilty Thursday of being involved in a hit-and-run crash that left a motorcyclist with serious leg injuries.

It took about one hour for the jury to reach the conclusion that Destiny Jasmine Guisasola, 28, was driving the black GMC Yukon that collided with a Harley Davidson driven by Jeremy Way at about 9 p.m. Aug. 14, 2022, at Cheney Drive and Washington Street North.

Ways right tibia was shattered, and both his right eye socket and right ankle were fractured, records say. The crime, leaving the scene of an accident that resulted in injury or death, is a felony with a maximum punishment of five years in prison and/or a $5,000 fine.

A security camera captured video of the crash, in which the Yukon apparently turned in front of the motorcycle, and the footage was posted on social media, records say. An ex-boyfriend saw the video and notified law officers that the vehicle might belong to Guisasola, according to testimony.

She had left his Twin Falls home minutes before the collision, he said.

Video of the crash showed the Yukon slow momentarily, then pull into the Walmart parking lot, where an individual got out of the vehicle and looked at its damage, got back in and left the scene, court records say.

Deputy Prosecutor Justin Seamons showed the jury photos of the damaged vehicle that were found on Guisasolas phone, along with text messages that indicated she was in a crash.

Evidence showed that instead of her traveling to her home in Hailey, she went toward Boise, but ran out of gas.

Detective Tracy Thompson said he believed it showed Guisasola was fleeing the scene, and evidence indicating that she was texting and taking photos while driving was endangering herself and her child, who was also in the vehicle.

Defense attorney Richard Henry, in cross-examination, pointed out that there is no proof that Guisasola took the photos.

Guisasola was arrested two weeks after the crash when she returned to Twin Falls. When confronted, she admitted to having been in a hit-and-run crash, Jordan said. The affidavit of probable cause said Guisasola told police that a white vehicle had struck her on Aug. 14, and she was a victim.

However, no police report was taken and there was no indication of the crash, records say.

Sentencing has been set for Jan. 8.
Wood River Museum plans Wall of Honor

The Wood River Museum of History and Culture is seeking submissions for a Wall of Honor to recognize United States veterans who served and sacrificed for our country, our freedom, and our liberty, according to a news release.

The Wall of Honor will be on display from Nov. 8-22 at the museum, located at 580 4th St. E. in Ketchum. Submission forms can be downloaded from The Community Library website; paper copies are available at the museum, Gold Mine stores and the main circulation at the library.

We thank our veterans for their service and the sacrifices they made, said Brigid Miller, the museums community engagement manager, said in the release. We hope that the community will join us in honoring and thanking the veterans in the Wood River Valley and in all our lives, by filling out a form and/or visiting the Wall of Honor at the museum.

Nominated veterans can be living or deceased. Submissions are due Nov. 6.

Study: Idaho ranks No. 7 for safest states

Idaho is ranked as the No. 7 safest state, according to a new study from the research firm Hubscore that graded all 50 states in five categories including crime rates, firearms, and personal and social welfare.

In the study, Idaho was No. 1 for welfare and personal security, largely due to significant statewide declines in larceny and property crimes. The Gem State ranked ninth for crime and law enforcement, No. 19 for firearms and violence, No. 21 for safety and social equity, and No. 39 for transportation safety.

For the full state-by-state breakdown of data and detailed insights in each of the five categories, go online to https://hubscore.co/ranking/safest-states.

Also:

The city of Ketchum will host a pair of public presentations to review the preliminary draft design for Project Main Street

, on Nov. 8 at 5:30 p.m. in the Silver Creek Room at the Limelight Hotel and on Nov. 9 at 11:30 a.m. at Ketchum City Hall. To RSVP, email participate@ketchumidaho.org.

Times-News
BUREAU of Customs agents have intercepted in Zamboanga City a motorized wooden boat ferrying hundreds of boxes of smuggled cigarettes worth P24.6 million.

The seizure of smuggled goods was accomplished in coordination with the militarys 2nd Zamboanga City Mobile Force Company Seaborne off Brgy. Sinunuc, Zamboanga City, according to a BOC statement.

The team conducted a joint maritime patrol operation, leading to the interception of a motorized wooden watercraft marked MB Utoh Mat Mat, loaded with boxes of cigarettes, the statement read.

The BOC said the five crewmen of the seized vessel claimed they were bound to Zamboanga City from Jolo, Sulu, but failed to provide documents proving the lawful importation of cigarettes.

An inventory conducted by the BOC on October 23, 2023 revealed that the vessel was carrying 423 boxes of cigarettes of various brands such as President and Cannon Menthol.

Acting District Collector, Arthur G. Sevilla Jr. said the Port of Zamboanga is closely coordinating with other operating units in conducting maritime patrol operations pursuant to the directive of Commissioner Bienvenido Rubio to improve strategies in BOCs fight against the illicit cigarette trade.

Meanwhile, Rubio ordered a thorough investigation into alleged pilferage at a Pasay City warehouse, which was recently padlocked for alleged infringement on intellectual property rights.

The bureau will also investigate 77 people, including 10 Chinese nationals, who have been arrested and may face criminal charges.

On Thursday, the authorities conducted an operation leading to the arrest of the suspects who were caught carrying the forfeited illicit goods while inside the padlocked warehouse onAcosta Street in Barangay 77, Pasay.

A truck van was also spotted while being loaded with the forfeited goods.

One of the suspects, a woman, claimed they were instructed by their Chinese employer to go to the warehouse to ship some goods. Upon arrival, they discovered the gate was already open.

We dont know who opened that gate. Its already open and were in a hurry, she said.

Operatives of the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service  Manila International Container Port (CIIS-MICP) conducted the operation with the help of the Enforcement and Security Service  Quick Reaction Team, the Coast Guard, the Bureau Action Team Against Smuggling, and the local barangay.

Rubio gave assurance that the goods will remain in custody pending filing of appropriate cases against the owners.

He said the success of each operation, including seeing them through legal proceedings, is crucial to the health of the Philippine industry and sends the right message to businesses that want to invest in the country.

Counterfeit goods are becoming a significant issue in the Philippines, with the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) requesting assistance from agencies like the Bureau of Customs to combat the proliferation of fake and pirated goods.

Bogus signature apparels were the most common subject of complaints, followed by gadgets and cosmetics.

Violations of copyright law is punishable of up to three years in prison and a fine of up to P150,000 for the first offense, up to six years imprisonment and a maximum fine of P500,000 for the second offense, and up to nine years imprisonment and a fine of up to P1.5 million for subsequent offenses.
Israel said Thursday that a column of tanks and infantry had launched an overnight raid into Hamas-controlled Gaza, striking numerous targets before retreating to home soil.

The military announced the incursion into the north of the Palestinian territory hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared preparations for a ground war were underway.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) described the operation as a targeted raid that hit numerous terrorist cells, infrastructure and anti-tank missile launch posts.

It said the operation was preparation for the next stages of combat adding that the soldiers have since exited the area and returned to Israeli territory.

In Manila, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Thursday said three Filipinos are still in Gaza City, the center of hostilities between the IDF and Hamas terrorist group. Some 133 have already fled to the south of Gaza and are waiting to leave through Egypt.

Black-and-white video footage posted by the military showed a column of armored vehicles and bulldozers winding toward what appeared to be a border fence and breaking through it.

Agence France-Presse verified the location as south of the Israeli city of Ashkelon but could not verify when the footage was recorded.

Another video appeared to show an airstrike and later buildings being struck with munitions, sending debris flying high into the air, along with a thick plume of smoke.

Just hours earlier Netanyahu had delivered a nationally televised address to Israelis still grieving and furious after Hamass bloody Oct. 7 attacks, telling them we are in the midst of a campaign for our existence.

The shock attack saw throngs of Hamas gunmen pour from Gaza into Israel, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 222 more, according to official tallies.

Israel has retaliated with heavy bombing that Gazas Hamas-run health ministry said has killed more than 6,500, with the toll expected to rise substantially if tens of thousands of Israeli troops massed near Gaza move in.

Raining down hellfire

Netanyahu, in the face of ever-louder international calls to temper the ferocious bombing campaign, vowed to press ahead with plans for a ground war.

Boasting of raining down hellfire on Hamas and killing thousands of terrorists, Netanyahu said his war cabinet and the military would determine the timing of a ground offensive.

He pledged to eliminate Hamas and bring our captives home but stressed that I will not detail when, how or how many forces would take part.

The ground raid into Gaza was not the first of its kind, a spokesman for the military said. But it was likely to raise tensions in an already anxious region.

US President Joe Biden is among the foreign leaders stepping up public calls for Israel to protect innocent civilians and to follow the laws of war as it pursues Hamas targets.

Biden on Wednesday said he had privately suggested Israel should get hostages out if possible before any ground invasion.

Its their decision, but I did not demand it, Biden said, as he called on Congress to allocate more money for Israeli defense.

Speaking in Cairo, French President Emmanuel Macron warned: A massive intervention that would put civilian lives at risk would be an error.

Its a massacre

Gazas Hamas-controlled health ministry on Wednesday said the death toll had surged by about 700 in a day to above 6,500, including many children.

Biden has stated he has no confidence in the Hamas ministry figures.

While the exact death toll may be unclear, the depth of the suffering is not in question.

Entire neighborhoods have been razed, surgeons in hospitals overwhelmed with wounded carry out procedures without anesthetic, and ice cream trucks have become makeshift morgues.

Theyre not waging war on Hamas, theyre waging war on children, charged one resident, Abu Ali Zaarab, after his family home was bombed in the southern town of Rafah. Its a massacre.

About 1.4 million people  more than half of Gazas population  have been displaced, according to the United Nations.

The UN says 12 of the territorys 35 hospitals have closed due to damage or insufficient fuel, and a key UN aid agency serving almost 600,000 Palestinians said it began to significantly reduce its operations.

Israel has cut off Gazas normal supply corridors for water, food and other necessities, and fewer than 70 relief trucks have entered the impoverished territory since the war began.

None contained fuel, which Israel fears Hamas will use for rockets and explosives.

Aid agencies have warned that more people will die if medical equipment, water desalination plants and ambulances stop operating because of a lack of fuel.

Once the generators stop, hospitals will turn into morgues, the Red Cross has warned. Hospitals are also struggling with a shortage of medicines and equipment.

We performed a number of surgeries without anesthetic, said Ahmad Abdul Hadi, an orthopedic surgeon working at Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis.

Its tough and painful, but with the lack of resources, what can we do?

A regional explosion

The war has sparked fears of a regional conflagration if it draws in more of Israels enemies.

Since Oct. 7, Israel has launched thousands of strikes in Gaza, but it has also hit targets in Lebanon and Syria.

Late Wednesday, Lebanon-based Hezbollah fired what Israel said was a surface-to-air missile at an Israeli drone.

Israels military said it had intercepted the missile and struck the source of the launch.

Hamas, Hezbollah and Syrias government are backed by Iran, which denies Israels right to exist.

Tehrans top diplomat on Wednesday accused Israel of carrying out genocide in Gaza.

Jordans King Abdullah became the latest leader to warn that ongoing violence could lead to an explosion in the region.

His wife Queen Rania accused Western leaders of a glaring double standard for not condemning Israels killing of Palestinian civilians in its bombardment of Gaza.

Violence has also risen sharply in the occupied West Bank, where health officials said more than 100 Palestinians had been killed, mostly in raids by Israeli troops or in clashes with Israeli settlers.

The DFA said on Thursday a fourth batch of Filipino repatriates from Israel is expected to arrive by the end of October.

DFA Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Eduardo de Vega said of the 136 Filipinos in the Gaza Strip, three are still in Gaza City, despite IDF warnings to leave. Of the three, one is a 63-year-old nun who doesnt want to leave, he said.

De Vega said there has been no news when the Egyptian border will be open to those fleeing the war.

They have been waiting for more than a week for the border to open, and theres an attack. Their safety is not assured, although Israel said they are not targeting that area, De Vega said.

De Vega also said it was possible that the two missing Filipinosa man and a womanare being held hostage by Hamas.

While they have heard no word about the Filipina, De Vega said the Israeli government reported that the man is being held as a hostage.

Meanwhile, of the 30,500 Filipinos in Israel, about 120 Filipinos have requested government assistance to return to the Philippines.

Fifty-nine of them have already been flown back in the past two weeks.

The DFA also said some 113 Filipinos want to leave Lebanon as fighting has flared between Israel and the Islamist group Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas.

De Vega said it is still easy to repatriate Filipinos from Lebanon because commercial flights are still available.

And they dont need to pass through another country like whats happening to Gaza now, De Vega said.

If you have relatives in Lebanon, urge them to go home because its still possible now, its easy, he added.

There are an estimated 17,000 Filipinos in Lebanon, 99 percent of them caregivers.  AFP, Rey E. Requejo
Japanese Ambassador to the Philippines Koshikawa Kazuhiko on Friday said that Japan is committed to continuing its investments in the Philippines big-ticket projects due to the growing interest of Japanese businessmen to invest in the country.

In his speech before the Philippine Business Conference and Expo in Manila Hotel, the Japanese ambassador said there is room for the Philippines and Japans partnership to grow even further considering that both countries have very strong, solid economic ties.

The Japanese diplomat stressed that the presence of different chambers at the event on Thursday proved that there is a big vote of confidence on the Philippine economy, and the region.

Koshikawa noted that two potent tools for success of the Philippines-Japan economic relations, namely: accelerating investments and creating innovation.

On accelerating investments, Kazuhiko said Tokyo would share its strength with Manila in terms of infrastructure development, energy security, global warming prevention, and the improvement of the business environment.

The Philippine economy is on the upswing, and this creates a bigger window of opportunity for everyone, he stressed.

We believe that aside from the revenues from the service industries and international remittances from overseas workers, it is vital for the Philippines to create a level-playing field for its business environment that is as attractive as, or more attractive than that of the other ASEAN countries, he said.

On creating innovations, Kazuhiko said, Tokyo would support entrepreneurs and start-ups and develop human resources.

According to him, it is vital for both countries to encourage more innovations from the private sector that should design an enabling environment for entrepreneurs and startup businesses to thrive.

To achieve such a goal, Kazuhiko said, Tokyo will implement the following: build human resources and networks for startup creation; strengthen the supply of funds for startups and diversifying strategies; and promote open innovation.

Kazuhiko also said that there is a need for more trained and skilled workers as the Philippines Information Technology and Business Process Management (IT-BPM) industry is improving remarkably.

This is an issue that Japan is currently dealing with as well. As industries related to information and communication technologies continue to emerge, there is an ever-growing need to train people with advanced IT and data analysis skills, he said.

What they do in Japan, he said, is that the government is establishing a system of preferential treatment to accelerate the inflow of highly skilled foreign professionals.

As both sides forge commitments in priority industries, Kazuhiko said: We want to assure you that Japan will continue to invest in big-ticket projects to help shape a thriving future for our fellow Filipinos and for our investors.
Washington, DC  President Joe Biden sent a message to Irans supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warning against strikes on US troops amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, the White House said yesterday.

There was a direct message relayed. Thats as far as Im going to go, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters, declining to say how it was delivered.

Later Thursday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said US forces conducted precision strikes on two facilities in eastern Syria used by Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The Pentagon says US and allied forces in Iraq and Syria have been attacked at least 16 times this month as tensions rise in the Middle East. It blamed Iranian-backed militia groups.

Biden told a press conference on Wednesday that he had warned Khamenei of a response if the attacks continue.

My warning to the Ayatollah was that if they continue to move against those troops, we will respond, and he should be prepared. It has nothing to do with Israel, he said alongside visiting Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Iran meanwhile warned Washington at the United Nations General Assembly over Israels campaign of air strikes and artillery against Gaza following the October 7 Hamas attacks.

I say frankly to the American statesmen and military forces who are now managing the genocide in Palestine, that we do not welcome the expansion and scope of the war in the region, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said.

But I warn if the genocide in Gaza continues, they will not be spared from this fire.

The United States has moved two aircraft carrier groups near Israel since the Hamas attacks in what it says is a bid to deter Iran and its allies from broadening the conflict.

On Sunday Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also ordered the activation of air defense systems in the region and notified additional forces that they may be deployed soon.

There are roughly 2,500 American troops in Iraq and some 900 in Syria as part of efforts to prevent a resurgence of the Islamic State group, which once held significant territory in both countries but was pushed back by local ground forces backed by international air strikes in a bloody multi-year conflict. AFP
The reaffirmation by Washington and Manila of their commitment to the Mutual Defense Treaty signed in 1951 is heartening, after Chinas latest aggressive action during a routine resupply mission to the Filipinos at the Ayungin Shoal this week.

The reaffirmation was made Friday during a conference call between Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. in Manila and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin III in Washington, DC.

A joint statement said the two defense chiefs discussed the incident on Sunday at the Ayungin Shoal, only 200 kilometers off Palawan, particularly Chinas dangerous and unlawful maneuvers that caused collisions with Philippine resupply and Coast Guard ships, putting the safety of Philippine vessels and crew at risk.

It is consoling that in the same phone call, Austin reinforced Washingtons support for Manila after the Ayungin Shoal incident, which has raised the level of tension in the region.

The Secretaries reaffirmed that the MDT extends to both countries public vessels, aircraft, and armed forces  to include the Coast Guard  anywhere in the Pacific to include the South China Sea, the joint statement added.

The MDT, signed on August 30, 1951 by their representatives in Washington, DC, has eight articles and requires both nations to support each other if another party attacks the Philippines or the United States.

There have been increased concerns among neighboring countries, with China making aggressive territorial claims and deploying military assets to disputed islands in the South China Sea including the West Philippine Sea, with Beijings mythical Ten-Dash Line which practically gobbles up the whole South China Sea.

Such concerns have escalated since the Philippines-China standoff at Scarborough Shoal in 2012.

Secretary Austin reiterated his commitment to the Philippines and the Indo-Pacific is ironclad, the statement said.

Both Teodoro and Austin commended the military cooperation between Manila and Washington, including the bilateral sail last month off the coast of Palawan and committed to increasing the pace and scope of US-Philippines engagements.

We are buoyed up that in face of Chinas assertiveness, the United States has reiterated its commitment to the Philippines and its willingness to defend the countrys sovereignty in the South China Sea.
The calculated collision was purposely done to prevent us from delivering our supplies to our navy personnel manning the hand-me-down surplus from the US navy

Quite strange is the report made by an American security expert by the name of Raymond Powell.

Through tweeter, he alleged that Chinas coast guard, on August 8, 2023, fired water cannon at our coast guard vessel.

The incident was repeated on October 22 when the Philippine vessel was monitored stealthily moving towards the Chinese coast then stationed to secure the floating rafters they place around the shoal.

Yes, there was a somewhat intended collision because Chinas coast guard wanted to prevent our fishing boat from crossing the rafters.

The Chinese coast guard knew our fishing boat wanted to cross to deliver supply to our personnel manning our purposely grounded BRP Sierra Madre stationed inside the contested Shoal.

Both vessels suffered a negligible dent as the purpose was only to merely prevent the Philippine fishing boat from crossing the rafters.

The calculated collision was purposely done to prevent us from delivering our supplies to our navy personnel manning the hand-me-down surplus from the US navy.

Nonetheless, it caused a slight dent to our fishing boat.

The US navy tried to make an issue of the incident in that there was reconnaissance spy plane from the US navy watching the incident as it happened.

The purpose of the Australian-based spy agency was to monitor any unfavorable incident in the area and make sure to immediately report the incident to the media.

Our vessel was out to resupply our navy personnel guarding the grounded BRP Sierra Madre in the Ayungin Shoal or Scarborough Shoal since 1999.

I remember Chinas former ambassador to the Philippines, Madame Fu Ying, argued with the Philippine media by exhibiting a Philippine-made map indicating that Scarborough Shoal as belonging to China.

The ambassador claims Scarborough Shoal known in China as Huangyan Shoal is submerged during high tide, which reason why the International Arbitration Court ruled that no state can establish sovereignty over a piece of rock or establish boundary line of 200-mile exclusive economic zone just to expand further Chinas EEZ which is separated by a great body of water in the South China Sea.

Awarding the whole of SCS will render the concept of freedom of navigation meaningless.

The Ayungin Shoal is beyond the 200-mile EEZ of China from its own coastline.

The same can be said of the Scarborough Shoal.

The area is not within the 200-mile EEZ from the Philippines from the Orani town in Bataan.

China, on the other hand, rather based its claims as historic right aptly named as Nine-Dash Line under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS).

(Editors Note: Beginning in 1952, the Peoples Republic of China used a revised map with nine dashes, removing the two dashes in the Gulf of Tonkin.

(In September this year, China unveiled its 2023 standard map with a ten-dash line  an updated version of its nine-dash line used to make territorial claims in the South China Sea which sparked outrage among Chinas neighbors.

(The nine-dash line already covers more than 90 percent of the SCS, but the new edition features an additional dash located east of Taiwan, seemingly extending Chinas territorial claims in the region.)

Only China and Taiwan commonly agreed on this claim of historic right, which if one may say is self-serving, as it serves only the interest of the two countries.

The Philippines is objecting in allowing China to expand another 200 miles, for that would unduly destroy the purpose and objective of the EEZ.

The US legally remains a non-claimant to any of the islands in the SCS.

Legally, the US and the Philippines are estopped from claiming as parties to any of the islands.

Our concurrence of the treaty signed by the US and Spain means the US relinquished our sovereignty over all those islands and territories after it signed the treaty of Paris on December 10, 1898, except for that minor amendment granting a narrow passage to international shipping in the Sibutu Strait in Mindanao.

Despite the proximity of the boundary that separates the Philippines from the island of Palawan which now constitutes part of the SCS, with the edges of the boundary of less than 12 miles under international law, the Philippines can exercise legitimate sovereignty and enjoy indisputable right over the area. Read full article on manilastandard.net

In 1950, a certain Tomas Cloma, a Filipino navigator claimed to have discovered a group of islands.

He called the islands freedom island.

Much later, when President Marcos realized that Cloma wanted to own the islands as his private property, he issued PD 1529 declaring the so-called Freedom Islands of Cloma shall form part of the Municipality of Kalayaan in the province of Palawan, it being the closest province.

The islands cannot be classified as res nullius or not owned by anybody.

Long before the Spaniards and the Americans came, the Chinese have long been sailing into these islands. Although no formal claim of ownership or title was established.

Our claim in some of the disputed islands in the SCS was on the basis that that the area constitutes a rich fishing ground for claiming that the area has long been considered as our historic fishing ground for our fishermen.

But never can the country claim that Ayungin Island is part of the Philippine archipelago.

In fact, before the US withdrew their naval base in Zambales, the area was part of its base in Subic and had been used for their aerial target practice or bombing run.

When the US withdrew their base at Subic, Scarborough was altogether forgotten and abandoned.

To fully understand the history behind the conflicting claims, it is imperative to know what this Ayungin Shoal is and to recall chronological events.

Hence, Second Thomas Shoal, also known as Ayungin Shoal is an atoll in the Spratly Islands of the South China Sea, 194 km west of Palawan.

Claimed by several nations but exclusively located in the economic zone of the Philippines, the atoll is currently militarily occupied by several countries.

Located south-east of the Mischief Reef(0955N 11532E), Second Thomas Shoal is near the center of Dangerous Ground in the northeastern part of the Spratly Islands; there are no settlements north or east of it.

It is a tear-drop shaped atoll, 20 km long northsouth and fringed with coral reefs.

The coral rim surrounds a lagoon which has depths of up to 27 meters and is accessible to small boats from the east. Drying patches are found east and west of the reef rim.

On July 12, 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration concluded that Second Thomas Shoal is, or in its natural condition was, exposed at low tide and submerged at high tide and, accordingly, has low-tide elevations that do not generate an entitlement to a territorial sea, exclusive economic zone or continental shelf.

Second, Thomas Shoal is claimed by the Philippines and China.

The Philippine navy maintains a presence of less than a dozen navy personnel on the 100 meter- long WWII-built landing ship BRP Sierra Madre, deliberately made to run aground the atoll in 1999 in response to the Chinese reclamation of Mischief Reef.

The Philippines claims the atoll is part of its continental shelf, while parts of the Spratly group of islands, where Second Thomas Shoal lies, are claimed by China, Brunei, the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam.

In 2014, the Chinese government asked the Philippines to remove the grounded ship.

Philippine supply ships subsequently avoided Chinese blockades.

Chinese coast guard vessels blocked the two attempts to resupply the garrison on March 9, 2014.

Supplies were airdropped to the garrison three days later.

A supply ship with replacement troops successfully reached the atoll on March 29, 2014 by sailing through shallow waters where the PRC vessels, having deeper drafts, were unable to follow.

During the approach, Philippine crew members and troops on the resupply ship waved the peace sign at the pursuing Chinese coast guard crew.

Since then, the Philippine military has been sending monthly relief missions in the form of air-dropped provisions to the troops stationed in the shoal.

This explains why PBBM considers the incident as a grey area indicating that either the West wants him to remain ignorant of the situation and promote a proxy war in the South China Sea.

Many Filipinos to this day are wondering why our territorial waters in the South China Sea have been demarcated too close to Palawan that they even violated our 12-mile territorial waters where our oil and natural gas are found and where service contracts have been awarded to private companies.

Instead of antagonizing China, the Philippines should seek better relations with China by examining what economic gains we could obtain by improving our relationship with China over the Scarborough like exploring oil and natural gas the area similar to what Vietnam did in developing the Paracel Islands; revitalizing some of the promised investments made by China in Mindanao.

Vietnam extended peace offering to cultivate economic and developmental projects which it hopes could enhance their own security while Malaysia is mainly concentrating to mind its own business, knowing its position is the most tenuous among the claimant countries in the South China Sea like extending the countrys rail system to the South.

We should instead befriend China to help us rebuild our fertilizer plant to promote our agriculture, and so with the promotion of our fishing industry.

The Philippines should promote an increased Asian economic and free trade integration to be assured in the export of our fruits in that country. (rpkapunan@gmail.com)
At a regular meeting on Tuesday, the Henry County Board of Supervisors accepted a $25,000 donation from the family and friends of Randolph Tyler Stone, a Martinsville native, who recently passed away.

Stone died in his apartment in Las Vegas on Sept. 21, 2022, after several years of declining health. He was a 1993 graduate of Martinsville High School and served as a Judge Advocate General Corps (JAG) officer in the U.S. Navy, including tours of duty in Iraq during the Iraq War and in Bahrain.

He was keenly interested in the welfare of the community in which he loved, said Henry County Administrator Dale Wagoner. In memory of Tyler, staff is recommending the donation help fund the preliminary work for phase seven of the Dick and Willie Passage Trail that will be used by residents and visitors for years to come.

We are extremely grateful, said Horsepasture District Supervisor Debra Buchanan. For those unaware, Tyler was a proud native of this area; named after a grandfather for which the William F. Stone Highway is named. In his will, he wanted to promote economic development in his hometown.

Tyler made this will before going to Iraq. He knew his community, so it was personal for him. This came from his will, said his father, William F. Stone Jr., retired chief judge for the Western District of Virginia Bankruptcy Court. I would like to thank each of you for your service. Our family has a high regard for people who choose to serve in this way. We appreciate the courtesy.

Board grants tax relief

The board voted unanimously to grant additional real estate tax relief for certain elderly, disabled, and handicapped residents of Henry County.

Residents who meet the criteria and have an annual income of less than $24,000, will be eligible for an exemption up to $500.

We understand the tough financial circumstances many of our residents face and we are committed to easing that burden whenever its feasible, said Board Chair Jim Adams. Granting additional relief for our elderly and disabled residents was a goal outlined during this years budget planning process and thanks to the diligent work of our county staff, we were able to deliver on that promise.

The Code of Virginia allows localities to provide tax relief for eligible residents. In order to qualify, residents must be over the age of 65 or be permanently disabled.

Previously, the threshold for Henry County residents to qualify was an income below $17,000 and the maximum exemption was $300.

In other matters, the board:

Amended the countys transient occupancy tax ordinance to increase the rate from two percent to five percent, effective Jan. 1, 2024.

Accepted a donation of approximately 120-acres of land, and its associated personal property, from EIDP, Inc. The land surrounds the Henry County Adult Detention Center and Public Safety headquarters, and is currently being leased by the county.

Purchased approximately 7.5-acres adjacent to Fieldale Park for $11,775. The Textile Heritage Trail is located on this property.

Approved an additional appropriation of $3,094,088 received from the Virginia Department of Emergency Management for the purchase of 12 emergency generators, and awarded site-specific contracts to Fidelity Power Systems, of Henrico, for the purchases.

Awarded a contract in the amount of $118,926 to Sheehy Ford for three police interceptor utility vehicles for the Sheriffs Office.

Approved an additional appropriation of $31,911 received from the Department of Justice for the purchase of bulletproof vests for the Sheriffs Office.

Approved an additional appropriation of $32,400 received from the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles grant for traffic enforcement by the Sheriffs Office.

Approved an additional appropriation of $5,876 received from state asset forfeiture funds for the purchase of replacement office furniture for the Commonwealths Attorneys Office.

Approved an additional appropriation of $65,000 received from a Virginia Department of Emergency Management grant for stipends for 911 center employees.

Approved an additional appropriation of $3,000 received from a Virginia Department of Emergency Management grant for GIS software.

Approved a contract with Fidelity Power Systems in the amount of $225,615 for the purchase and installation of emergency generators at the Oak Level and 10th Street, Fieldale water booster pump stations.

Approved a contract with Shoulder Run Nutrient Bank in the amount of $90,000 to purchase the phosphorous credits necessary for grading Lot #2 at Commonwealth Crossing Business Centre.

Selected Joe Bryant as Henry Countys voting representative at the 2023 Virginia Association of Counties Annual Business Meeting. Garrett Dillard was selected as the countys alternate voting representative.

Conducted a public hearing and approved a request to rezone approximately 5.6-acres of the Blackberry District from Rural Residential District (R-R) to Agricultural District (A-1). The applicant wishes to continue keeping chickens on the property.

Conducted a public hearing and approved a request to rezone approximately 12.5-acres of the Blackberry District from Rural Residential District (R-R) to Agricultural District (A-1). The applicant wishes to market the property for potential agricultural purposes.

Conducted a public hearing and approved a request to rezone approximately 3.42-acres of the Blackberry District from Mixed Residential District (M-R) to Agricultural District (A-1). The applicant wishes to build accessory structures on the property larger than what is allowed under its previous zoning.

Conducted a public hearing and denied a request to rezone approximately 1.79-acres of the Reed Creek District from Industrial District (I-1) to Commercial District (B-1). The applicant wished to establish a restaurant in the existing building.

Reappointed Richard Hall, Terry Cundiff, Nubby Coleman, and Gary Gibson to the Patriot Centre/CCBC Advisory Board for two-year terms set to expire on December 31, 2025.

Set a public hearing on Nov. 28, to consider a siting agreement with Rocky Ford Solar.
OLD FORT  A local hunter who went missing Wednesday was rescued after Thursday after a nearly 16-hour search by emergency personnel.

The lost hunter was located injured at around 11 a.m. on Thursday near Old Fort and airlifted to Mission Trauma Center in Asheville for treatment of the injuries.

More than 60 emergency personnel along with numerous bear hunters safely rescued the injured hunter in the Pisgah National Forest. A helicopter from the N.C. National Guard performed a technical rescue by hoisting the patient from the forest floor shortly after he was located, according to a news release.

The patient was then transported to a nearby landing zone where the MAMA helicopter from Mission Health completed the final transfer to Mission Trauma Center in Asheville. The injured hunter suffered a fall on Wednesday in the Pisgah Forest just northeast of Old Fort, leading to the 16-hour search and rescue mission.

Shortly before 7 p.m. on Wednesday, crews were dispatched to the Curtis Creek Campground off Curtis Creek Road in Old Fort searching for the lost hunter. Crews searched a large area of the Pisgah Forest between Curtis Creek and Mackeys Creek.

More than 60 emergency personnel, multiple drones and local hunters looked for the hunter throughout the night.

We are extremely grateful for all the assistance provided by local, state and federal agencies, along with the dedicated hunters who worked tirelessly to find their friend and assist emergency services, said Emergency Services Director Will Kehler.

Emergency officials said they want to thank the public for their support and prayers during this long search and rescue operation, according to the news release.
Forty-one state employees, including two from McDowell County, were honored with the Governors Awards for Excellence during a recent ceremony at the North Carolina Museum of History. The employees spanned across nine state agencies and four University of North Carolina System institutions.

The two local recipients were Rich Becker and William Boone, members in Region 8 of the Wildlife Resources Commission, Law Enforcement division. As law enforcement officers for the states Wildlife Resources Commission, Boone and Becker are responsible for helping enforce North Carolinas hunting, fishing, trapping and boating laws in the region that includes McDowell County and specifically Lake James.

Each year, there are employees who go above and beyond to serve our state, and this years recipients certainly did that, said Gov. Roy Cooper in video remarks delivered to honorees. Thanks to your dedication, North Carolina is the best state to live, learn, work and raise a family. Congratulations on this well-deserved honor.

The Governors Award for Excellence recognizes accomplishments and actions that are outside the usual scope of their job duties and is the highest honor a state employee may receive for dedicated service to the state and the people of North Carolina.

This year, awards are presented in six categories: Customer Service, Efficiency and Innovation, Human Relations, Outstanding Government Service, Public Service, and Safety and Heroism which is the specific award that Becker and Boone received.

It is a distinguished, select few that are honored with the Governors Awards for Excellence each year, said State Human Resources Director Barbara Gibson. Each one of this years recipients is enacting the changes they want to see in their communities and making our state a better place. Their commitment to service inspires those around them, myself included.

The award for Boone and Becker was based off a medical emergency that occurred while the two were on patrol last summer. While patrolling Lake James on July 23, 2022, Boone became aware of a member of a boating party going into anaphylactic shock from a bee sting.

Boone realized that the individual needed help and radioed emergency medical services to meet at the designated access point where hed directed the boaters. Upon hearing the call, Becker jumped into action. He quickly hopped into his patrol vehicle and met Boone at the access point.

As the boating party arrived to shore, the officers learned that the patient was unconscious. Boone assessed the individual and noted a slow pulse and shallow breathing. Waiting on EMS was no longer an option; Boone used an epinephrine auto injector, or Epi-pen, as a lifesaving measure just as the patients breathing stopped. After further observation, the officers determined that one epinephrine dose was insufficient.

Becker used his personal medication to administer a second dose to the still-unconscious patient. Finally, the patients heartbeat and breathing steadied. With the outlook improving, the officers waited for EMS to arrive, at which point the patient received the additional medical attention needed to survive.

Both officers provided lifesaving care during a crisis. The pair even loaded the patients boat after EMS arrived to alleviate the stress placed on the rest of the boating party.

This annual event is made possible by funding from the State Employees Credit Union Foundation. The honorees attended a luncheon in the Executive Mansion before receiving their awards at a special ceremony in the auditorium of the N.C. Museum of History.

A video highlighting the heroic measures of Becker and Boone can be seen on the North Carolina Office of State Human Resources YouTube Channel.
Angola plans to reach an installed capacity of 8,000 megawatts and an electrification rate of 50% by 2027, which will require an investment of 17.2 billion dollars (16.3 billion euros), the government said on Thursday October 26.

The goal of increasing coverage from the current 43% to 50% was announced by Angolas Minister of Energy and Water, Joao Baptista Borges, at the opening of the 7th edition of Africa Energy Market Place 2023, promoted by the African Development Bank (AfDB).

Joao Baptista Borges began by pointing out that the African continent is still struggling with a low electrification rate, and that Angola has achieved exponential growth in its installed electricity production capacity in recent years, rising from 2,356.36 megawatts (MW) in 2015 to around 6,319.43 megawatts today, thanks to important investments.

The Angolan government official highlighted the recent completion of the Lauca Hydroelectric Plant, which produces around 2,070 MW, the expansion of the Cambambe Plant, the construction of the Soyo Combined Cycle Power Plant and the construction of the Caculo Cabaca Hydroelectric Plant, which will produce around 2,172 MW, which will bring the countrys installed capacity to 9,644.09 MW by 2027, surpassing the 8,000 MW projected.

According to the minister, alongside investments in hydroelectric power, Angola has begun the process of restructuring its energy matrix, having recently completed the Biopio Photovoltaic Plant with around 188 MWdc (MW photovoltaic) and Baia Farta, with around 96 MWdc, which contribute around 3.8% to the Public Electricity System.

Despite the investments, Joao Baptista Borges considered that the challenges are still immense, given the need to guarantee the expansion of the energy transportation network to the south and east of the country.

By the end of 2027, we aim to achieve a 50% access rate, considering a population of 33 million people, which presupposes making around 1,700,000 new home connections, he said, pointing to the expansion of the electricity grid, increased efficiency and sustainability in the sector and a commitment to renewable energies and private participation as strategies for achieving the goal.
Mozambique expects to set a new record for gold production in 2024, with more than 1.5 tons, which will represent an increase of 3% compared to estimates for this year, according to government projections announced on Thursday October 27.

The gold production plan indicates growth of 3% compared to the projections for the year 2023, reads the supporting documents for the proposed Economic and Social Plan and State Budget (PESOE) for 2024.

The document adds that this expected growth is the result of greater control of artisanal mining, but also due to the positive performance of the countrys producing companies.

With a greater focus on the company Explorator, Lda., due to the fact that, on one of the exploration fronts, the company has Mutapa Mining Processing, Lda. On the other hand, we have the resumption of the activities of the company KD Prospero, reads furthermore the document.

Next year, production is expected to reach 1,583 kilograms of gold, compared to 1,537 kilograms this year and 1,087 kilograms in 2022. According to government figures, in 2021 official gold production in Mozambique was 764.4 kilograms and in 2020 487.9 kilograms.

Overall, the Mozambican government expects the extractive industry sector to grow by 18.6% in 2024, which includes an increase in the production of most minerals with great weight in the global structure, namely gold, heavy sands, graphite and thermal coal. Gold production in Mozambique increased by 53% in the first quarter of the year, compared to the same period in 2022, to 346.3 kilograms, according to official figures previously reported.
Sudans warring parties have resumed negotiations in Saudi Arabia in an attempt to end the six-month war that has claimed more than 9,000 lives, the Saudi Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday 27 October.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia welcomes the resumption of negotiations between representatives of the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the city of Jeddah, the statement said. Since April, the war between the forces of army chief Abdelfattah al-Burhane and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdane Daglo, at the head of the RSF, has left more than 9,000 dead  according to an underestimated toll  and more than 5.6 million displaced and refugees.

Both sides announced on Wednesday October 25 that they had accepted an invitation to resume negotiations in Jeddah (west), under the aegis of the United States and Saudi Arabia. Previous attempts at mediation resulted in truces that quickly fell apart. Representatives of the Igad countries, the East African bloc made up of Kenya, Djibouti, Ethiopia and South Sudan, are taking part in the Jeddah talks on behalf of the African Union, the Saudi statement said.

The Saudi ministry called on negotiators to respect an earlier agreement announced on May 11 to protect civilians and a ceasefire agreement signed on May 20. It urged the warring parties to put an end to the bloodshed and alleviate the suffering of the Sudanese people. Riyadh also expressed its hope for a political agreement ensuring the security, stability and prosperity of Sudan and its brotherly people.

Before the suspension in June of the latest round of negotiations in Jeddah, mediators had grown increasingly frustrated with the reluctance of both sides to work towards a lasting truce. According to experts, General Burhane and his rival Daglo appear to have opted for a war of attrition, in the hope of obtaining greater concessions at the negotiating table at a later date.
On Thursday October 26, Nigerias Supreme Court rejected the appeals of the two opposition candidates  Atiku Abubakar (2nd) and Peter Obi (3rd)  who had challenged Bola Ahmed Tinubus election in the February 2023 presidential election, putting an end to the eight-month dispute.

The Supreme Court also validated the judgement of a Court of Appeal in Abuja, which on September 6 had upheld the election of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the duly elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Justice John Inyang Okoro said in his ruling on Mr. Abubakars appeal. These rulings put an end to an eight-month electoral dispute, following the disputed February 25 poll.

In the past, elections in Nigeria have often been marred by allegations of fraud and challenged in court. But the countrys highest court has never overturned the results of a presidential election since the end of military rule and the return to democracy in 1999.

Former governor of Lagos and candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) party, Bola Tinubu won the February presidential election with 37% of the vote, beating Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Atiku Abubakar (29%) and Labour Party (LP) candidate Peter Obi (25%), in one of the closest contests in the countrys modern history.
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A cancer cell undergoing abnormal mitosis and dividing into three new cells rather than two following treatment with a microtubule poison. Credit: Beth Weaver, University of WisconsinMadison

A new study from the University of WisconsinMadison suggests that chemotherapy may not be reaching its full potential, in part because researchers and doctors have long misunderstood how some of the most common cancer drugs actually ward off tumors.

For decades, researchers have believed that a class of drugs called microtubule poisons treat cancerous tumors by halting mitosis, or the division of cells. Now, a team of University of WisconsinMadison scientists has found that in patients, microtubule poisons don't actually stop cancer cells from dividing. Instead, these drugs alter mitosissometimes enough to cause new cancer cells to die and the disease to regress.

Cancers grow and spread because cancerous cells divide and multiply indefinitely, unlike normal cells which are limited in the number of times they can split into new cells. The assumption that microtubule poisons stop cancer cells from dividing is based on lab studies demonstrating just that.

The new study was led by Beth Weaver, a professor in the departments of oncology and cell and regenerative biology, in collaboration with Mark Burkard in the departments of oncology and medicine.

Published Oct. 26 in the journal PLOS Biology the study broadens previous findings the group made about a specific microtubule poison called paclitaxel. Sometimes prescribed under the brand name Taxol, paclitaxel is used to treat common malignancies including those originating in the ovaries and lungs.

"This was sort of mind-blowing," Weaver says about the previous research. "For decades, we all thought that the way paclitaxel works in patient tumors is by arresting them in mitosis. This is what I was taught as a graduate student. We all 'knew' this. In cells in a dish, labs all over the world have shown this. The problem was we were all using it at concentrations higher than those that actually get into the tumor."

Weaver and her colleagues wanted to know if other microtubule poisons work the same way as paclitaxelnot by stopping mitosis but by messing it up.

The question has significant implications for scientists searching for new cancer treatments. That's because drug discovery efforts often hinge on identifying, reproducing and improving upon the mechanisms believed to be responsible for a compound's therapeutic effect.

While microtubule poisons are no panacea, they are effective for many patients, and researchers have long sought to develop other therapies that mimic what they believe the drugs do. These efforts are ongoing even though past attempts to identify new compounds that treat cancer by stopping cell division have reached frustrating dead ends.

"There's still a lot of the scientific community that's investigating mitotic arrest as a mechanism to kill tumors," Weaver says. "We wanted to knowdoes that matter for patients?"

With Burkard, the team studied tumor samples taken from breast cancer patients who received standard anti-microtubule chemotherapy at the UW Carbone Cancer Center.

They measured how much of the drugs made it into the tumors and studied how the tumor cells responded. They found that while the cells continued to divide after being exposed to the drug, they did so abnormally. This abnormal division can lead to tumor cell death.

Normally, a cell's chromosomes are duplicated before the two identical sets migrate to opposite ends of the cell mitosis in a process called chromosomal segregation. One set of chromosomes is sorted into each of two new cells.

This migration occurs because the chromosomes are attached to a cellular machine known as the mitotic spindle. Spindles are made from cellular building blocks called microtubules. Normal spindles have two ends, known as spindle poles.

Weaver and her colleagues found that paclitaxel and other microtubule poisons cause abnormalities that lead cells to form three, four or sometimes five poles during mitosis even as they continue to make just one copy of chromosomes. These poles then attract the two complete sets of chromosomes in more than two directions, scrambling the genome.

"So, after mitosis you have daughter cells that are no longer genetically identical and have lost chromosomes," Weaver says. "We calculated that if a cell loses at least 20% of its DNA content, it is very likely going to die."

These findings reveal the likely reason why microtubule poisons are effective for many patients. Importantly, they also help explain why attempts to find new chemo drugs based solely on stopping mitosis have been so disappointing, Weaver says.

"We've been barking up the wrong tree," she says. "We need to refocus our efforts on screwing up mitosison making chromosomal segregation worse."

More information: Amber S. Zhou et al, Diverse microtubule-targeted anticancer agents kill cells by inducing chromosome missegregation on multipolar spindles, PLOS Biology (2023). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002339 Journal information: PLoS Biology
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A new near-infrared photoimmunotherapy biomarker paves the way for targeted cancer treatments. Credit: Kazuhide Sato

Researchers at Nagoya University in Japan and their collaborators have used a biomarker based on microbubbles to evaluate the success of near-infrared photoimmunotherapy (NIR-PIT) treatment. Using ultrasound to track the microbubbles, they were able to identify areas where cancer therapy had not been fully applied.

Their findings suggest ways to improve NIR-PIT and make it a viable alternative treatment for various types of cancer. They published their study in eBioMedicine

NIR-PIT is an innovative cancer treatment that combines the use of antibodies and near-infrared light to selectively destroy cancer cells while protecting healthy tissues. The antibody targets and binds to cancer cell proteins, creating a light-absorbing substance called IR700. When exposed to near-infrared light, IR700 activates and releases energy that destroys cancer cells.

NIR-PIT is considered the fifth cancer treatment, along with surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and cancer immunotherapy. Improving treatment could have important implications for cancer patients.

To effectively treat a tumor, physicians must determine the optimal level of light intensity to destroy abnormal cell growth while avoiding causing damage to healthy cells. However, it is difficult to ensure uniform irradiation of target cells during surgery because the host tissue reflects and scatters light. Since insufficient light irradiation to the whole tumor risks under-treatment, physicians need an indicator to judge its effectiveness.

To determine the best way to do this, Dr. Kazuhide Sato of Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine and his collaborators looked at differences in tumor vessels compared to host cells.

Past studies have reported that tumor vessels have irregular shapes, gaps between cells, and poor drainage. During NIR-PIT treatment, this poor drainage helps therapeutic nanoparticles stay in the tumor. They then enter cancerous tissue, resulting in a therapeutic effect known as the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect.

In NIR-PIT treatment, rapid tumor cell death caused by the treatment increases permeability in the tumor vessels. This leads to a 'super EPR effect' (SUPR), an EPR effect that is 24-times higher than other therapies. If the SUPR effect occurs all over the tumor, it is likely that the treatment has been successful, whereas if it is isolated to certain regions, it is less likely that the treatment has been successful.

To assess this, they tested whether, using the increased permeability, larger fluorescent nanoparticles, such as Sonazoid microbubbles, could be retained. Microbubbles offer an easy way to measure the SUPR effect as they can be easily detected by reflecting harmonic signals off them.

"We investigated with larger-sized fluorescent particles of 2mm and 5mm sizes," said Sato. "We found that retention increased with both sizes." Using ultrasound imaging to track microbubbles, they created a novel biomarker that could measure the SUPR effect before and after treatment and evaluate the effectiveness of NIR-PIT. "In short, the higher the retention, the higher the anti-tumor effect of NIR-PIT," he explained.

Sato hopes that their discovery will improve the treatment of cancer patients. "Using this new concept, we could confirm and predict the effects of the treatment after NIR light irradiation," he said.

"This is especially important for patients who receive insufficient treatment. Additional irradiation could be performed flexibly. Since ultrasound imaging equipment has already been introduced in most hospitals and the microbubble contrast agent used in this study has already been approved, this technology is easy to translate to the clinic."

This research involved collaboration with several institutions at Nagoya University, including the Graduate School of Medicine, the Institute of Advanced Research, the Graduate School of Engineering, and the Institutes of Innovation for Future Society, as well as the Institute for Quantum Life Science and JST.

More information: Kohei Matsuoka et al, Contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging for monitoring the efficacy of near-infrared photoimmunotherapy, eBioMedicine (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2023.104737 Journal information: EBioMedicine
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Schematic representation of two approaches based on changes in absorbance and lateral flow methods, utilizing novel oligonucleotide probes targeted toward Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae, for the clinical determination of chlamydia and gonorrhea. The addition of genetic material (bacterial DNA from either Chlamydia trachomatis or Neisseria gonorrhoeae) will result in a distinct change in absorbance. In the lateral flow assay, the presence of the target DNA will be indicated by a prominent test (T) line along with a control (C) line. Credit: Advanced Science (2023). DOI: 10.1002/advs.202304009

More than half of the estimated 374 million new sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in 2020 were either chlamydia or gonorrhea, which are often asymptomatic and co-occurring, according to the World Health Organization. Despite the prevalence, neither disease currently has a clinically available rapid test, but that could change thanks to a Penn State-led research team.

The researchers recently reported the first rapid tests for gonorrhea and chlamydia, built on a platform that could be adjusted to detect a variety of infections. Led by Dipanjan Pan, the team published their results this week in Advanced Science. Pan is the Penn State Dorothy Foehr Huck & J. Lloyd Huck Chair Professor in Nanomedicine and a professor of nuclear engineering and of materials science and engineering and of biomedical engineering.

"This work is trying to address a very important public health issue," said Pan, who is also the director of graduate studies in the Ken and Mary Alice Department of Nuclear Engineering department, leads the Laboratory for Materials in Medicine at Penn Statewhich is located in the Huck Institutes of Life Sciencesand is affiliated with the Huck's Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics.

"Infections caused by sexually transmitted diseases pose a substantial economic and health care burden worldwide. Preemptive screening and testing are key to controlling this epidemic, so the development of accurate point-of-care test for rapid and simple detection of these STIs is crucial. It will enable timely treatment, prevent further spread, raise public awareness about risks, reduce health care costs and advance health care in resource-limited areas."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends women under the age of 25 and older women with risk factors test for chlamydia and gonorrhea annually, and that all sexually active people should discuss testing with their health care provider. If either disease goes undetectedand untreatedit may lead to irreversible reproductive damage. Gonorrhea, which has progressively developed antibiotic resistance, can also eventually spread to blood and joints and possibly cause death.

Tests meant to deliver results at the point of care have been developed, but Pan said they often underperform and are not suitable for population screening in a physician's office during routine family medicine visits and yearly checkups. Currently, molecular tests capable of detecting genetic material called nucleic acids from the bacteria are the standard of care, but they can be expensive and take several days to process, according to Pan.

"In spite of their excellent sensitivity and selectivity, these diagnostic approaches are expensive, time-consuming and cannot be used in a physician's office or emergency department, making it difficult for patients and the physicians to get results immediately," Pan said.

"The development of a point-of-care diagnostic method based on nucleic acid detection with high sensitivity, specificity and usability is urgently needed. Moreover, since co-infections occur frequentlyup to 50% of the timeand have similar symptoms, simultaneous identification and detection of both pathogens is more efficient and cost-effective. To combat the current epidemic of these STIs, it is vital to develop a rapid point-of-care diagnostic assay that can detect chlamydia and gonorrhea simultaneously."

In Pan's lab, co-authors Ketan Dighe, graduate research assistant in biomedical engineering, and Parikishit Moitra, assistant research professor of nuclear engineering, spearheaded the effort with other team members to develop a lateral flow biosensorthe same kind of paper-based biosensor used in at-home rapids tests for COVID-19capable of detecting nucleic acids present in chlamydia or gonorrhea from cervical and vaginal swab samples in two minutes.

As with a COVID test, the sample does not require pre-processing before it is placed in a liquid that allows the contents to flow laterally from a reservoir over a sensing strip. In this case, the strip contains single-stranded oligonucleotides (ssDNAs) or fragments of nucleic acids that the researchers designed with high specificity and affinity for various genetic targets conserved among different strains of chlamydia and gonorrhea that are also less prone to antibiotic resistance, Pan said. When the ssDNA probes bind to target nucleic acid fragments in the sample flow across the strip, the strip changes colors to signify a positive test result.

The researchers also validated their work with an absorbance-based assay, or a liquid that changes color when the genetic material of interest is added to it. They accomplished this by coupling each ssDNA probe with a gold nanoparticle, which are particles with unique optical properties. When a probe binds with the target fragment, the coupled nanoparticle changes its plasmonic resonanceit changes color. The gold nanoparticle also grows in diameter and aggregates with other probe/nanoparticle sensor complexes, which can strengthen the signal and deepen the color change.

The Penn State team collaborated with Carla Rafferty, a family medicine physician with Carle Health in Illinois, and Tor Jensen, director of the Biomedical Research Laboratory for the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's Cancer Center and affiliate of the Carle Foundation Hospital. When tested with 60 anonymized clinical samples collected at Rafferty's clinic, the tests accurately detected chlamydia and gonorrhea 100% of the time, meaning they did not produce any false negatives.

The tests did have slightly lower specificity, with a rate of more than 97%, Pan said, meaning that there were about three false positive results produced. According to the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force, these rates match or exceed sensitivity and specificity for current standard-of-care molecular tests: polymerase chain reaction or nucleic acid amplification tests.

"A critical function of these ssDNAs is to identify pathogens specifically and sensitively," Pan said. "Even if genetic concentrations are low, accurate identification is possible, minimizing the occurrence of false positives."

According to Pan, the test also can be customized by adjusting the synthetic DNA sequences used for the ssDNAs to detect different pathogens.

"Our approach is highly universal and with small changes, the platform can be used for detection of many other infectious diseases including other sexually transmitted diseases," Pan said. "We are currently exploring other areas in our lab."

More information: Ketan Dighe et al, HighlySpecific SingleStranded Oligonucleotides and Functional Nanoprobes for Clinical Determination of Chlamydia Trachomatis and Neisseria Gonorrhoeae Infections, Advanced Science (2023). DOI: 10.1002/advs.202304009 Journal information: Advanced Science
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Clinical profile of hamsters infected with SARS-CoV-2 original virus (Wuhan), the recombinant Wuhan/ORF7ab or the variants of concern (VoC) Gamma, Delta, and Omicron/BA.1. A, B Body weight variation over four days post-infection. C Lung weight measured at 4 dpi. D, E Clinical score over four days post-infection. The clinical score is based on a cumulative 04 scale: ruffled fur; slow movements; apathy; and absence of exploration activity. F Lung weight-to-body weight ratio measured at 4 dpi. AF Horizontal lines indicate median and the interquartile range (n = 8/group). B, C, E, F Kruskal-Wallis test followed by the Dunns multiple comparisons test (the adjusted p value is indicated when significant). G, H Olfactory performance measured at 3 days post-infection (dpi). The olfaction test is based on the hidden (buried) food finding test. Curves represent the olfactory performance of animals during the test (G) and bars represent the final results (H) (n = 8/group). Chi-square test for trend (the adjusted p value is indicated when significant). See Supplementary Figs. 1, 2. Credit: Nature Communications (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-40228-7

The emergence of different variants of SARS-CoV-2 has produced a wide range of clinical profiles and symptoms in patients. For the first time, researchers at the Institut Pasteur and Universite Paris Cite have demonstrated, in an animal model, a characteristic common to several SARS-CoV-2 variants: the ability to infect the central nervous system.

The study confirms that SARS-CoV-2 is capable of infecting human neurons in vitro and migrating into axons, the nerve cell projections that carry information. The results were published in the journal Nature Communications.

The neurological symptoms associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection have changed with the evolution of the virus and the emergence of new variants. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, anosmia was identified as one of the typical symptoms of infection, but it was less frequently associated with infections caused by the omicron/BA.1 variant. Does this variability in symptoms indicate a greater or lesser affinity of SARS-CoV-2 for the nervous system?

In this study, researchers from the Institut Pasteur and Universite Paris Cite have demonstrated, in an animal model, that a panel of SARS-CoV-2 variants of interest (the original strain of the virus first detected in Wuhan and the gamma, delta and omicron/BA.1 variants) can enter the central nervous system and remain there during the acute phase of the infection.

The researchers observed that all these variants spread to the central nervous system and infect the olfactory bulb, a structure located in the cranial cavity that processes olfactory information before transmitting it to the cortex.

"In this study, we demonstrated that infection of the olfactory bulb is common to all variants and not linked to any particular one, nor to any particular clinical manifestation such as anosmia," explains Guilherme Dias de Melo, first author of the study and researcher in the Institut Pasteur's Lyssavirus, Epidemiology and Neuropathology Unit.

Moreover, the researchers identified a genetic sequence linked to anosmia in the ancestral (Wuhan) virus. When this genetic sequence, which encodes the ORF7ab protein, is deleted or truncatedwhich is the case in certain variants less likely to produce anosmiathe incidence of olfactory loss in infected animals is lower even though the degree of neuronal infection via the olfactory bulbs remains unchanged.

"This suggests that anosmia and neuronal infection are two unrelated phenomena," says Guilherme Dias de Melo. "If we follow this line of reasoning, it is quite possible that even an asymptomaticand therefore clinically benigninfection is characterized by the spread of the virus in the nervous system."

The researchers then looked at how SARS-CoV-2 reached the olfactory bulb and observed that neurons appeared to be the ideal route. An in vitro microfluidic cell culture system enabled the researchers to observe human neurons organized in a particular way. The neurons are arranged so as to allow detailed observation of the transport of molecules within the axon.

Using this method, the researchers found that, once inside the neuron, the virus is able to move in both directions along the axon, either in an anterograde direction, i.e. from the cell body to the axon terminals, or in a retrograde direction, from the axons to the cell body.

"The virus seems to effectively exploit the physiological mechanisms of the neuron to move in both directions. The SARS-CoV-2 variants we studiedthe ancestral Wuhan variant, gamma, delta and omicron/BA.1infect neurons in vitro and are capable of moving along axons."

"Through this study, we have characterized the neurotropism of SARS-CoV-2. For all the variants studied, brain infection via the olfactory bulb seems to be a common feature of SARS-CoV-2," concludes Herve Bourhy, last author of the study and head of the Institut Pasteur's Lyssavirus, Epidemiology and Neuropathology Unit.

"The next step will be to understand, from the animal model, whether the virus is able to persist in the brain beyond the acute phase of infection, and whether the presence of the virus can induce persistent inflammation and the symptoms described in cases of long COVID, such as anxiety, depression and brain fog."

More information: Guilherme Dias de Melo et al, Neuroinvasion and anosmia are independent phenomena upon infection with SARS-CoV-2 and its variants, Nature Communications (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-40228-7 Journal information: Nature Communications
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:

Youngest children in class with ADHD as likely to keep diagnosis in adulthood as older pupils, find scientists. Credit: University of Southampton

Children who are the youngest in their class to be identified with ADHD are just as likely to keep the diagnosis as older pupils in their year group, scientists have found.

Experts from the University of Southampton and Paris Nanterre University, working with researchers worldwide, made the discovery after examining data from thousands of patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

In the past, scientists have questioned the validity of an ADHD diagnosis in younger pupilsarguing they receive it because they are less mature than those born towards the start of the school year.

But the study, published in The Lancet Psychiatry, has revealed that children who are the youngest in the class and are diagnosed with the condition are still as likely to retain it later on as their older peers.

Senior lead author Professor Samuele Cortese, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the University of Southampton, said, "We know the youngest children in their year group are more likely to be diagnosed with ADHDbut many believe this is because they lag behind their older classmates.

"However, no one has ever explored if these younger children who are diagnosed with ADHD retain the diagnosis later onuntil now. Our study shows for the first time that these youngsters are no more likely to lose the diagnosis over time than older children."

Around 360 million people worldwide have been diagnosed with ADHD, according to the World Health Organization, with around a third under the age of 18. Symptoms include impulsiveness, disorganization, poor time management skills, difficulty focusing and restlessness.

The study by Southampton and Paris Nanterre, undertaken with 161 scientists worldwide, was based on the largest data set ever created to explore the effect of month of birth on the persistence of ADHD. In total, it examined data from more than 6,500 patients globally who have been followed up for a period between the ages of four and 33 years old.

Dr. Corentin Gosling, an associate professor from the University Paris Nanterre in France and visiting researcher at Southampton, was the first author on the study. He said, "Our work shows the diagnosis of ADHD in children with a young relative age is not especially unstable.

"However, it could not assess whether it is an appropriate diagnosis or it is because once a child receives the ADHD label, parents and teachers consider the child as having ADHD and are influenced by the diagnosis. Future studies should solve this question."

More information: Corentin J Gosling et al, Association between relative age at school and persistence of ADHD in prospective studies: an individual participant data meta-analysis, The Lancet Psychiatry (2023). DOI: 10.1016/S2215-0366(23)00272-9 Journal information: The Lancet Psychiatry
The Burke County Health Department is getting money to help combat opioid overdoses.

The department asked for $10,000 from the countys opioid lawsuit settlement funds to buy more doses of naloxone, which is used to reverse an opioid overdose. The Burke County Board of Commissioners approved the request during a special meeting on Oct. 3.

The request came after the health department received notice from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services that the countys opioid overdoses significantly increased over the previous month and had increased 73% over a six-month period.

Burke overdoses

An email to Burke County health officials from NCDHHS said its overdose surveillance reports identified Burke County as having a significant increase in opioid-related overdoses in August and compared to the countys six-month average, it saw a 73% increase in Opioid Overdose Emergency Department visits.

That percentage equates to 11 overdose visits to the emergency department in July. In August, that number increased to 19, NCDHHS said.

The email from NCDHHS to Burke County officials went on to say there was an evident increase in the fentanyl diagnosis codes in August compared to previous months. It said patients were predominantly white men ages 25-64 years old and were mainly from the city of Morganton and were transported to the hospital by ambulance.

Katie Varnadoe, director of behavioral health for the health department, told commissioners that EMS averaged one overdose call a day in September with two fatal overdoses.

Commissioner Johnnie Carswell, who also is president of the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners, told Varnadoe that hes concerned that all of the sudden the county was getting a lot of urgency from NCDHHS about the 73% increase, and questioned why it did not contact the county much sooner about the overdoses.

The News Herald reached out to NCDHHS to ask those questions.

The department said the notices are not intended to be real-time notifications requiring immediate action from officials, but instead it is hoped the notices provide situational awareness surrounding the latest overdose trends in the county.

The department said the notices are based on a review of emergency department (ED) visits for overdose, utilizing medical billing codes applied to visits and any available notes that may give additional insights into trends. It can take several weeks for hospital staff to enter those codes into the system, the data to be shared with NCDHHS epidemiologists by NC Disease Event Tracking and Epidemiologic Collection Tool (NC DETECT), and for those epidemiologists to analyze and review counties with a suspected increase, it said. NCDHHS conducts the analysis every month on the data from the prior month and provides to counties as needed, the department said.

But it wasnt just August and September that Burke stands out for its opioid overdoses.

Burke was part of a cluster of counties in the western part of North Carolina that saw some of the highest number of opioid overdose emergency department visits in the state, based on population, between September 2022 and August 2023. In addition to Burke, McDowell, Caldwell, Rutherford, Cleveland and Gaston counties are in the cluster. The only other western county that saw a high number of opioid overdose ED visits based on its population was Swain County, according to an NCDHHS map of overdoses during the period.

During that period, Burke County saw 153 overdose ED visits, according to the map.

Carswell, whose NCACC presidential initiative is related to opioid overdoses, said he is concerned about the problem and wants to find out why the county saw such an increase over the six-month period.

Information from NCDHHS sent to The News Herald said during the September follow-up with Burke County, the team from NCDHHS learned of a new public safety policy that was implemented in Burke County in the previous months that may increase the likelihood that those who have experienced a non-fatal overdose are transported to the ED.

MDPS and overdoses

But there is no new policy that Morganton Department of Public Safety has implemented for responding to overdoses. There are, however, guidelines for it and how officers respond and treat a person overdosing. But those guidelines have been in place for several years, said Public Safety Chief Jason Whisnant.

In a May 2020, Whisnant was a captain with MDPS. He sent an email to supervisors reiterating the departments guidelines when it comes to overdoses.

These guidelines came out of an abundance of caution in an effort to preserve life and then, you know, what happens after everybody leaves, Whisnant said.

In the email, Whisnant reminded supervisors that officers can use involuntary emergency commitment in a situation where Narcan has been used to reverse a life-threatening overdose and the person was not breathing and officers have initiated CPR.

It didnt sit right with me and it didnt sit right with our officers just walking away from somebody, you know, that was no heartbeat and not breathing, Narcaning them, doing chest compressions, breathing for them and now they get to refuse medical transport, Whisnant said.

Whisnant said they dont force the person to be transported by EMS to the hospital. He said most go voluntarily.

We strongly encourage people to seek medical care if weve had to take life-saving measures to keep them alive, which would be Narcan, Whisnant said.

He said an involuntary emergency commitment is a tool they have in an effort to preserve life.

An involuntary emergency commitment is not common, however. Whisnant said his department only had one last year, and so far have had none this year.

He said they try to avoid doing an emergency commitment at all if there are any other possible avenues. For instance, if a person who has overdosed has a responsible, sober family member who can be with them to monitor and take care of them then that would be an alternative avenue, Whisnant said. He said the last thing they want to do is leave them alone.

What are we supposed to do?, Whisnant said. Do we get back in our cars and hope they dont die? Or do we make a strong referral or an emergency commitment to get them medically cleared to return back to their environment or into treatment?

In 2022, Morganton Department of Public Safety responded to 72 reported overdose cases. Of those cases, Narcan/Naloxone was used in 56 of the cases, according to stats from MDPS. One of the overdose calls was fatal but there were four total death investigation calls attributed to accidental overdose, according to the stats.

This year so far, MDPS has responded to 34 reported overdose cases, with Narcan/Naloxone used in 27 of those calls, according to its stats. The department has reported three total death investigation calls attributed to accidental overdose.

Whisnant said an opioid overdose is a life-threatening emergency so officers respond priority traffic. If its an obvious overdose, meaning an officer sees drug paraphernalia there, or another person says its an overdose, depending on whether its an opiate or fentanyl overdose, then they administer Narcan, Whisnant said. He said there are a few things they look for, such as how the person is breathing, pinpoint pupils and lack of oxygen. They will give a dose of Narcan/Naloxone, and depending on how they respond, they could receive another dose.

While the department has a standard protocol for responding to overdoses, it is ever-changing due to new drugs that come on the scene, Whisnant said.

Were dealing with xylazine now, Whisnant said.

Xylazine is a non-opioid sedative or tranquilizer that has not been approved for use in people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is being mixed with drugs such as fentanyl and heroin, Whisnant said. The CDC also confirms that fact.

But xylazine is not responsive to naloxone.

Stemming the tide

NCDHHS said after identifying an increase in opioid overdoses, an overdose prevention team works with the local health department and other partners who work in overdose prevention to discuss the data, learn more about the local context and provide support to local service providers through resources, education and training.

The NCDHHS prevention team works closely with programs across the state to support the development and implementation of evidence-based or high-impact overdose prevention strategies such as naloxone distribution, post-overdose response teams, and syringe services programs, or to support existing programs in the community by providing resources and guidance, the department said.

Varnadoe told commissioners the $10,000 approved from opioid lawsuit settlement money will purchase between 800 to 1,000 doses of naloxone. The doses will be distributed to volunteer fire departments, community agencies and other community partners to get it into the hands of families and individuals that may need it, she said.

The health department is working with EMS and community paramedicine so the community paramedic is able to respond to some overdose calls and link those individuals to resources and treatment, Varnadoe said.

She told commissioners another effort the health department will be working on is around its data management, saying it is looking at developing an Overdose Fatality Review Board that will get the overdose data in real time.

So what we want to do with the Overdose Fatality Review Board is compile all of the available data that we have, and get really a local real-time perspective on whats happening now instead of being reactive and waiting for someone else to notify us, Varnadoe said.

Burke County Manager Brian Epley told commissioners the county is working to extract 911 emergency services dispatch data, map out the data and see where overdose hotspots are in the county. That would allow the county, whether its law enforcement or public health, to deploy resources in a strategic way, he said.
RALEIGH  Democrats claim that North Carolinas newly redrawn electoral districts are gerrymandered to favor Republican candidates running for congressional or legislative seats.

Thats true, of course. GOP lawmakers admit as much. They argue that such partisan considerations are permitted by the federal and state constitutions.

Thats also true. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that no language in the federal constitution can reasonably be construed to prohibit partisan gerrymandering, and that federal judges shouldnt be in the business of discovering redistricting rules in the nebulous penumbras of free speech or free association.

Before 2022, the North Carolina Supreme Court had a Democratic majority. It did rule that the state constitution contained actionable prohibitions against partisan gerrymandering  a ruling that was, itself, a partisan act. There were, in fact, no such prohibitions. They were invented by Democratic plaintiffs and activist judges. When Republicans won majorities on the court in 2022, they properly retracted this ruling.

That does not mean state courts have no proper jurisdiction over the drawing of electoral maps. North Carolinas constitution does specifically require that legislative districts respect county lines as much as possible. Previously Democratic legislatures blithely ignored this rule, ruthlessly gerrymandering Republicans out of seats they might otherwise have won, because Democrats believed the state judiciary had no legitimate say over redistricting. They were wrong. Two decades ago, in the case of Stephenson v. Bartlett, the county line rule was reimposed  thanks to a Democratic trial judge and Republicans on the high court.

So, where does that leave us today?

Next year, candidates will run within the newly drawn congressional and legislative districts. Assuming the maps arent struck down by the federal courts  litigation is as inevitable as the change of seasons  Republicans will enjoy significant advantages.

According to my John Locke Foundation colleagues Andy Jackson and Jim Stirling, the congressional map features one safely Republican seat, eight likely Republican seats, and one leaning Republican seat. Of the remaining four seats, three are safely Democratic and one, the 1st District in the northeastern quadrant of the state, is a toss-up.

In the 50-member North Carolina Senate, there are 19 safely Republican, four likely Republican, and five leaning Republican seats. There are 16 safely Democratic seats and one likely Democratic. The remaining five seats are toss-ups.

In the 120-member North Carolina House, there are 39 safely Republican, 13 likely Republican, and 17 leaning Republican seats. There are 36 safely Democratic, six likely Democratic, and six leaning Democratic seats. The remaining three seats are toss-ups.

Speaking as a longtime advocate of competitive politics and redistricting reform, I dislike the new districts. The congressional maps split Mecklenburg, Wake, and Guilford counties among three different districts, which is unfair but, alas, not unconstitutional. The legislative maps do respect county lines but unnecessarily divide municipalities and in some cases meander within urban counties, placing partisan interest above compactness and competitiveness. Again, these are violations of best practice but they arent unconstitutional.

As I have long argued, North Carolinas constitution ought to contain such constraints. That would empower state courts to intervene against egregious gerrymandering, just as they did in the Stephenson case. But the only legitimate process for adding such constraints is for the legislature to propose, and the voters adopt, an amendment to the state constitution.

Obviously that isnt going to happen in the short run. To preserve or expand their representation, Democrats will have to recruit and fund strong candidates with a chance of winning toss-up seats, plus those that lean or are even likely Republican (dont discount their chances entirely  this is how Republicans won their legislative majorities in 2010). In the long run, however, a multipartisan coalition will have to convince lawmakers to submit a redistricting amendment to a statewide referendum. It will need to become effective in some future redistricting cycle, when neither party can be sure it will be in charge.

North Carolinians deserve more competitive elections. Thats the only way to make it happen.
CONNELLY SPRINGS  A man is behind bars again after an undercover sting earlier this week.

Jon Bradley Williams, 49, of Connelly Springs, was charged with two counts of felony possession of a schedule II controlled substance, one count for methamphetamine and the other for fentanyl, according to a Thursday afternoon press release from the Burke County Sheriffs Office.

These charges against Williams came after narcotics investigators conducted undercover operations Tuesday night in the Connelly Springs area after receiving multiple complaints from citizens about illegal activities in the area, the release said.

It was around 10 p.m. Tuesday when investigators saw Williams, who they knew had a revoked license, driving a car and initiated a traffic stop, the release said.

Deputies found probable cause to search the vehicle during the traffic stop, and ended up finding a container with a clear crystalline substance that field-tested positive for methamphetamine, the release said.

When deputies searched Williams person, they found a small, clear plastic bag with a white powdery substance that field-tested positive for fentanyl, the release said.

Williams was taken into custody and later appeared before a district court judge, who set his bond at $20,000 secured.

This is the fifth time Williams has been arrested since January, according to the sheriffs office.

He was charged Jan. 18 with two counts of possession of a firearm by a felon. About a month later on Feb. 21, Williams was charged with another count of possession of a firearm by a felon, possession of a schedule II controlled substance and maintaining a dwelling for a controlled substance.

In March, Williams was charged with felony possession of stolen goods, the release said, and on Sept. 15, Williams was charged with possession of a schedule II controlled substance, maintaining a dwelling for a controlled substance and a felony probation violation, the release said.

He has previous convictions of felony and misdemeanor larceny, driving while license revoked and driving while impaired, according to records from the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction.

In total, Williams currently has $270,000 in bonds.
LEWISTON, Maine  Maines governor says 18 people were killed and 13 were injured in shootings in Maine. Gov. Janet Mills made the remarks at a press conference Thursday.

A man shot and killed the victims at a bowling alley and restaurant in Lewiston and then fled into the night, sparking a massive search by hundreds of officers while frightened residents stayed locked in their homes Thursday under a shelter-in-place advisory.

Mills said the shooting suspect, Robert Card, is considered armed and dangerous, warns people not to approach him.

A police bulletin identified Card, 40, as a person of interest in the attack in Lewiston that sent panicked bowlers scrambling behind pins, into corners and a back room when shots rang out around 7 p.m. Wednesday. Card was described as a firearms instructor believed to be in the U.S. Army Reserve and assigned to a training facility in Saco, Maine.

The document, circulated to law enforcement officials, said Card had been committed to a mental health facility for two weeks in the summer of 2023. It did not provide details about his treatment or condition but said Card had reported hearing voices and threats to shoot up the military base. A telephone number listed for Card in public records was not in service.

Maine State Police spokesperson Shannon Moss said the bowling alley shooting happened first.

Earlier, Lewiston Police said that they were dealing with an active shooter incident at Schemengees Bar and Grille and at Sparetime Recreation, a bowling alley about 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) away. A number of parents and children were at Sparetime as part of a children's bowling league.

One bowler, who identified himself only as Brandon, said he heard about 10 shots, thinking the first was a balloon popping.

I had my back turned to the door. And as soon as I turned and saw it was not a balloon  he was holding a weapon  I just booked it, he told The Associated Press.

Brandon said he scrambled down the length of the alley, sliding into the pin area and climbing up to hide in the machinery.

I was putting on my bowling shoes when when it started. Ive been barefoot for five hours, he said.

The bowling alley is home to traditional tenpin bowling as well as candlepin, a variant of bowling found in New England. Its located about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) north of the Bates College campus, on the outskirts of downtown. The alley has a small bar and is popular for local bowling leagues and childrens parties.

Wednesday was industry night at Schemengees Bar and Grille, with 25% discounts offered to customers who work in the bar or restaurant industry.

In a split second your world gets turn upside down for no good reason, the business posted online, saying great people in this community were lost.

After the shooting, police, many armed with rifles, took up positions while the city descended into eerie quiet  punctuated by occasional sirens  as people hunkered down at home. Schools as far away as Kennebunk, more than 50 miles (80 kilometers) from Lewiston, closed out of caution on Thursday. And schools and public buildings were closed in Portland, the states largest city.

Bates and Bowdoin colleges canceled classes, as did the Gorham and Portland campuses of the University of Southern Maine.

Read more:

Photos: Mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine
Accord stolen

A person staying at the Super 8 woke up Thursday morning and found his 2022 blue Honda Accord had been stolen. The owner had left the car unlocked with the keys inside. There are no suspects at this time.

Subpar efforts

On Buttes first full snow day Wednesday, a resident in the 700 block of Dewey Boulevard and someone in the 800 block of Granite Street both called police to complain about their neighbors subpar efforts to remove snow.

Woman struck

Michael D. Moore, 71, of Butte and a woman were arguing in the 800 block of North Henry Street late Wednesday morning.

Neighbors reportedly saw Moore strike the woman and throw her to the ground. They stepped in, broke it up and called police. He was arrested for partner or family member assault.

Butte warrants

Joshua P. Lyons, 35, of Whitehall was arrested Tuesday in Beaverhead County on warrants out of Butte-Silver Bow County for assault with a weapon and partner or family member assault causing bodily injury.

B-SB officers picked up Lyons in Dillon and brought him to the Butte Detention Center.

Punched and shoved

A woman was allegedly punched and shoved to the ground Wednesday by an acquaintance at the Butte Rescue Mission. Police are looking for the suspect.
A new Highway 55 restaurant didnt open in September as hoped for but the company and local officials are not citing an inability to find workers as the reason.

When The Montana Standard published a story recently about a developers plans to bring a Planet Fitness and other national stores and restaurants to a new plaza in Butte, several people panned the news on social media.

They said Highway 55 Burgers, Shakes and Fries couldnt open on Harrison Avenue because it couldnt find employees to work there, so how would a plaza of new stores find workers?

The board that oversees a Harrison Avenue tax-increment district has steered nearly $250,000 in taxpayer money toward the project, and the restaurant looks like its ready to go.

But Highway 55 says its not there just yet.

We have surveyors there today in the snow for low voltage that will need to be run, Chester Wiggins, an officer manager at Highway 55, said in an email to the Standard on Wednesday. There's still some construction that's going on and some equipment that needs to be delivered and installed.

It's been a little difficult to give a firm opening date, but with that being said, as soon as the last of the equipment is installed, our manager there will start hiring employees, he wrote.

Tim Jittu, a Highway 55 franchisee, said initial plans were to open the Butte location by late September but we have encountered some unforeseen challenges that have impacted our timeline.

However, we are thrilled to announce that we have taken significant measures to ensure the successful launch of Hwy 55 in Butte, he said in an email to the Standard. A new manager is now at the helm, and we are actively preparing to kick-start the hiring process in the very near future.

As we enter the final stages of preparation, we are focused on perfecting the details, including health inspections, equipment deliveries, and installations, he said. Our primary objective remains to open our doors only when we can guarantee exceptional food quality and provide the kind of incredible service our valued customers deserve.

Karen Byrnes, Butte-Silver Bows community development director, said the Harrison Avenue Urban Renewal District was not concerned about its support of the project.

We know that work has been complete, investment made, she said. We are very excited to be a part of the project. I do know that there is additional work and inspections that still need to occur before they can open.

The district approved a $98,253 grant in August to help Highway 55 finance a second and final construction phase. The grant was to cover 20% of $491,266 in final costs.

The overall cost of the project exceeds $2 million, county officials say, and the board previously approved a $150,000 grant.
Through years of experience and plenty of passion, Cynthia CJ Cortez and her fiance Thomas Phillips have been able to peacefully raise and breed their snakes for the past year since moving to Muscatine.

While some of their neighbors have recently spoken out against them, the two breeders have said that not only are they not doing anything wrong, but they also have nothing to hide. Prior to their move to Muscatine, the couple had believed that it would be legal for them to keep and breed snakes in their home.

We were under the impression when we moved here that they were legal to have within city limits, Cortez explained. We did do our research and what came up for us was something from the Muscatine.gov website that said constrictors under six feet are allowed. We then came to find out that this was not the actual ordinance but the proposed one from 2012 that was never passed. Well admit fault on that.

The couple is trying to work with Muscatines City Council to finally pass the proposed ordinance, believing that doing this would not just be for their own benefit but for other breeders and snake enthusiasts as well  such as Cortezs niece, who Cortez said has gone from fearing snakes to wanting her own pet corn snake.

As someone who grew up catching snakes on a farm in Fruitland, Cortez said she wanted to give others the opportunity to develop their own love of the animals.

I want other kids who have that curiosity to be able to have the opportunity to have these animals Theres no reason why a child shouldnt be able to own a ball python or a corn snake," she said.

With dreams of eventually starting a pet shop in Muscatine, the two have already put their best foot forward with their set-up, with both their snake room and their rat room having sealed doors and secure units that an animal wouldnt be able to open themselves. Rooms are also kept clean and well ventilated with the animals being checked on and cared for daily.

We have way too much invested in this to risk anything getting out, Cortez said, with Phillips adding, Were more worried about them getting out than anyone else is, I can promise that.

Within the couples snake units, tubs are used in an artificial burrow set-up that has proven to be the most effective within the breeding industry, being kept at the perfect size so that their ball pythons  often called the pet rocks of the industry, Phillips joked  remain stress-free and keep their calm temperament.

When it came to other safety questions and concerns, Cortez said it would not possible to for the ball pythons she and Phillips breed to establish a population in the county if they were to somehow get outside.

If these snakes were in temperatures below 80 degrees for any length of time, she explained, they would get respiratory infections and die, being unable able to brumate, or hibernate, in Muscatines environment. These ball pythons also arent big enough to even eat a full-size rat, she added, much less attack or suffocate someone.

It takes so many pounds of pressure in order for a human to pass out, and a ball python cannot exert that much pressure, Cortez assured. Theyre not a risk, and in fact we have native species of snakes here in Iowa like the bull snakes, fox snakes, rat snakes that can all get much larger than our ball pythons  and those native snakes are already in our backyards.

Cortez then added that ball pythons are legal in Iowa and the United States, typically being offered at US pet shop as a good starter pet. These snakes also typically grow to only about four feet, well under the proposed ordinance. Only ball pythons from a specific lineage and from a specific African region called Volta would reach six feet, she explained. The ball pythons in their care are also non-venomous and as such have no fangs but instead have backward angled teeth.

As for the couples collection of Norway Rats that they used to feed their snakes, they are also given plenty of room within their units. These rats, Cortez noted, are given 24-hr access to clean water and are given fresh fruits, vegetables and hard-boiled eggs in addition to their normal feed, kept in very humane conditions until they are humanely euthanized and fed to the snakes.

With all the love that they have for these animals, both Cortez and Phillips have encouraged both the city council and the community as a whole to support the proposed ordinance in favor of keeping snakes.

Although some of the backlash they have received  which has included the spreading rumors  has been disheartening, the two are still hopeful that they can still gain the support they need.

Its more or less been a misunderstanding and a misconception about the way things are done that people want to get up in arms about with this, Phillips said.

Nobody whos actually on my street has said anything at the council meetings, its all people who live further away  and it was the people who live closest to us who weve been able to speak with, Cortez added. They have said youve definitely changed our minds on this, were okay with what youre doing and theyve told the council this, and I think that speaks volumes.

The couple has asked those who wish to support them or who believe the proposed ordinance should be approved to call or email city council and respectfully make their support known. Those who still have concerns or questions regarding the couples snake breeding set-up can also email them at blacktieroyals@gmail.com.
HAMMOND  A 14-year-old disabled girl allegedly abducted by a non-custodial parent in Iowa was safely recovered this week as a result of the quick actions of an Indiana State Police trooper.

Police said they received word around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday of an Amber Alert out of Iowa, which is a child abduction emergency alert.

Police learned that the individuals sought may be in the area of the Indiana Welcome Center near Interstate 80 and Kennedy Avenue.

Trooper Adrian Garcia, who was in the area, spotted the Chevrolet Cruz in question leaving a nearby Hampton Inn and initiated a traffic stop, ISP said.

The driver, Jessica Rae Williams, 36, from Des Moines, Iowa, was taken into custody without incident, police said.

"The 14-year-old juvenile was located safe in the vehicle," according to ISP.

Williams was taken to the Lake County Jail, where she is being held for the Des Moines Police Department and extradition back to Iowa.

"The juvenile was placed into the custody of Child Protective Services until she can be reunited with her custodial guardian," police said.

Des Moines police issued word Wednesday that the girl, who has special care needs, had been abducted by Williams.

"Evidence indicates that (the girl) is at risk while in the company of Jessica Williams," police said.
Anne Adhiambo, the woman accused of murdering Eric Maigo, the finance director of Nairobi Hospital, has entered a plea of guilty to the charge of murder.

The charges were read to her three times in Swahili as High Court Judge Kanyi Kimondo cautioned her about the potential consequences of a guilty plea.

During the hearing on Thursday, the suspect repeatedly admitted guilt, saying: Ni Ukweli.(Its true).

Furthermore, the judge advised her to seek guidance from her legal representatives.

Nakupa muda zaidi Ndio uweze kuongea na wakili wako ambaye Yuko mahakamani mzungumze wakuelezee vizuri kile unachoambia mahakama , the judge said.

(Im giving you more time so you can talk to your lawyer to explain clearly what you are telling the court).

Judge Kimondo directed her to appear before Judge Diana Mochache at the Kibera law courts on November 8, when she will be expected to take plea again.

Before then, Anne Adhiambo will be held at Langata Womens Prison.

The charge sheet states that she murdered Maigo on September 15 at Woodley Estate in Nairobi.

In court, her defense team claimed she was 17 years old while the prosecution argued that she was an adult.

Nevertheless, the prosecution presented an age assessment report and mental evaluation, which the court relied on to proceed with the case.

On October 12, 2023, the accused underwent an age assessment, revealing that she was not a minor.

She underwent both an age and mental assessment at Mathari Hospital and was determined to be of sound mind and fit to stand trial.
President William Ruto will deliver a State of the Nation address on November 9, presenting it from Parliament buildings in Nairobi.

The announcement was made on Thursday by National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula during a notification to members of a joint sitting.

I wish to inform the House that I have received a message from H.E the President conveying that he intends to deliver the 2023 State of the Nation address to Parliament, he said.

I wish to notify all members that a joint sitting of parliament that will take place in the main chamber at 2:30 pm, Wetangula added.

The address is in compliance with Article 132(1) of the Constitution.

According to the Constitution, the functions of the president include addressing the opening of each newly elected Parliament and a special sitting of Parliament once every year.

The president may also address Parliament at any other time. This upcoming address by Ruto will be his second.

President Ruto delivered his inaugural joint sitting address on September 29, 2022, outlining his legislative agenda to lawmakers. This session also served as the official opening of the 13th Parliament.
Local coffee farmers will start selling their produce directly to one of the worlds largest coffee firms, The Java Coffee Company, following an agreement signed on Thursday by the firm and Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua in Rotselaar, Belgium.

According to the Joint Commitment deal, the Java Coffee Company, pledged to purchase Kenyan coffee directly from the local farmers starting with 700 tonnes; a move that will soon help small-scale farmers increase their incomes.

The global company, renowned for its commitment to quality coffee, has also undertaken to procure a substantial volume of the coffee production, focusing primarily on supporting Kenyan women farmers and cooperatives.

Java Coffee Company, a distinguished entity in the global coffee trade commits to purchase Kenya. coffee directly from local farmers. This commitment entails acquisition of at least 10,000 bags of coffee, totalling 700 tonnes, of premium Kenyan coffee. Our primary focus rests on supporting Kenyan women farmers and cooperatives, recognizing their invaluable contributions to the global coffee landscape, indicates the deal that was midwifed by DP Gachagua as part of governments plan to revive and reform the coffee sub-sector.

The landmark deal was formalized at the companys premises in Rotselaar, Belgium, during Mr Gachaguas official tour of the country.

The joint commitment followed a pivotal bilateral meeting between Mr Gachagua and Ms Kathleen Claes, the Chief Executive Officer of Java, who was accompanied by Mr Wim Claes, President of the Belgium Coffee Roasters Association.

The agreement was solidified ahead of the Coffee Stakeholders Roundtable between Kenya and Belgium coffee roasters, hosted at the esteemed Java Coffee Company.

This significant step not only fosters international cooperation but also champions the prosperity of Kenyan coffee farmers, marking a momentous stride in the global coffee industry.

In his remarks, the Deputy President said Kenya has some of the worlds finest specialty coffees and the government is expanding the market and eliminating middlemen and brokers for the benefit of the small-scale cherry farmers.

This is as per the reforms we have been implementing in the coffee subsector, hence the importance of this visit. As we aim to raise production from the current 51,000 Metric Tonnes to 260,000 Metric Tonnes in five years, we are looking forward to bringing our produce closer to the market and the consumer. In the long term, we want a share in the value-added product, which will deliver more money to our farmer, besides strengthening our economy, he stated.

Since Belgium is one of the main points of entry and trade hubs for coffee in Europe, Mr Gachagua said there was also growing demand for certified coffees, triggered by a consumer trend towards sustainable, traceable and high-quality products.

The development comes at a time the government is trying to increase coffee production, which once accounted for up to 40 per cent of forex earnings in the country.

The specialty coffee market in Belgium is fast growing, alongside the countrys tradition for smaller coffee houses and cafes. I appreciate that Belgium is Europes third-largest importer of green coffee after Germany and Italy and the largest re-exporter of green coffee in Europe, added the Deputy President.

He noted that Belgium is also the second largest destination of Kenyan Coffee and the gateway to most of European markets through the Port of Antwerp. The port accounts for approximately 50 per cent of Europes coffee logistics business.

Production of coffee beans in Kenya is expected to increase due to government subsidies for fertilizers and improved rain conditions.

The Java Coffee Company is a public company established by the Claes family and has been roasting the best coffee for over four generations, since 1935.

Mr Wim Claes has been the company CEO from 1984 and handed over to the fourth generation in 2016. He is now serving as the Director President of the Royal Belgian Coffee Roasters Federation. The Company CEO is his daughter, Kathleen, who took over operations of the business in 2016.

By DPPS
There was pomp and colour in Gatundu South on Thursday as Gatundu Market traders gathered to celebrate retired President Uhuru Kenyattas 62nd birthday.

The residents and traders joyfully sang and danced while participating in the cutting of Uhurus three-tier birthday cake adorned with a theme inspired by the Kenyan flag.

The traders adorned red-themed aprons and hand scarves bearing the inscription Jubilee, Tuko Mbele Pamoja.

The market was also adorned with a variety of colored balloons, and posters featured Uhurus picture along with the message Happy Birthday.

God bless you for all your efforts in leading our great county towards better days, may he continue blessing you with good health and prosperity to this and many more years to come, some of the posters read.

Uhuru was however not present; the locals said they missed him and urged him to visit them.

In their jubilant song, sung in the Kikuyu dialect, the traders expressed their frustrations since Kenyatta left office, chanting, Kuma wathii nikwanyitanire, which loosely translates to Since you left, life has become extremely difficult.

The Gatundu South locals also expressed regret and offered apologies to Kenyatta, claiming that they were misled during the 2022 General Election.

Tulimkosea sababu tulienda na wave, lakini tunaomba msamaha, tunaomba akuje huku nyumbani tumsherehekee kama vile tumefanya leo. Akiwa kwa uongozi, alipatia watoto wetu kazi, na pia tulikuwa tunaweza kuwasomesha, sahii maisha imekuwa ngumu sana, na tuko na shida, expressed Nyambura Kimani, a trader.

Loosely translated: (We made a mistake because we followed the wave, but we ask for forgiveness. We plead for him to come back home so that we can celebrate him as we have done today. Under his leadership, he provided jobs for our children, and we could afford to educate them. Now, life has become very difficult, and we are facing challenges)

The residents expressed gratitude for the development projects the region experienced during Uhurus tenure, stating that they would always be indebted to Uhuru Kenyatta.

Kamau Migwi highlighted that the region witnessed the implementation of multi-billion development projects, including the construction of Gatundu Level Five Hospital, Gatundu Modern Market, and significant water projects.

Migwi also mentioned that Uhuru Kenyatta helped establish the first university in Gatundu South  Mama Ngina University in Mutomo village  a move he said revolutionized higher education and spurred growth in the area.

The locals described Uhuru as a humble and down-to-earth leader, expressing regret for not heeding his advice before last years general elections.

Similar birthday parties for Uhuru Kenyatta were witnessed in several other parts of Kiambu County and Central Kenya, including Deputy President Rigathi Gachaguas Mathira backyard in Nyeri County.
Public Service, Performance, and Delivery Management Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria has announced that Kenyans applying for positions in the Public Service will be required to have served in the National Youth Service (NYS).

Mr. Kuria made this declaration on Wednesday during the launch of the NYS Reengineering programme held at NYS Ruaraka Headquarters in Nairobi.

NYS will be the centre of gravity in this country. Employment in public service will require a NYS certificate, said Kuria.

Kuria said that NYS played an important role in producing disciplined and ethical citizens, which has resulted in producing responsible, competent, and accountable men and women fit to serve the country.

The CS said that government plans are underway to put in place a National Youth Service enterprise that will compete with other stakeholders in various endeavours, including building roads, agriculture, and mining.

He added that the government has plans to incorporate the NYS into various government agencies through the policy of government-to-government working.

Kuria also disclosed the governments commitment to incorporating NYS in the private sector with short-term contracts both locally and internationally.

According to the CS, NYS has been noted as a conducive environment to keep the youth busy while building discipline and skills, thereby reducing idleness and joblessness.

The government plans to recruit servicemen from the NYS with the oncoming recruitment of 3000 national police service positions and 1500 positions in the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) by January this year exclusively from the service. The government also plans to recruit 200,000 servicemen in the financial year 2023-2024, stated Kuria.

At the same time, State Department for Public Service Principal Secretary Amos Gathecha noted that he, as an alumnus of NYS, was the epitome of the importance of serving in NYS.

During the event, NYS input in tree planting and agriculture was also headlined, with the government pointing out that they would invest in NYS in their commitment to tree planting and mitigating climate change.
The Napa Valley Wine Trains parent company has unveiled plans for a 52-room luxury resort at Charles Krug Winery, with no connections to St. Helenas water or sewer systems.

Noble House Hotels & Resorts, which bought the Wine Train in 2017, revealed details about the so-called St. Helena Resort Oct. 25 during the first of two informational meetings at the St. Helena High School gym. The second meeting took place Oct. 26.

Noble House hasnt submitted an application to the city.

We wanted to have a couple of these meetings first and take the temperature, get some comments and feedback, Noble House CEO Jamie Colee said. Well digest that and then see what our next steps will be. Within the next year wed like to submit (an application).

The resort would occupy 8.5 acres of fallow ground at Krug, the same land PG&E used as a staging area after the 2020 Glass Fire.

The site would be accessible from Deer Park Road, from Krug (which has an entrance on Highway 29), and via the Wine Train. A traffic study is underway to estimate current and projected traffic volumes. Town-cars or shuttles could transport guests to and from downtown St. Helena and other nearby destinations.

The resort is not anticipated to connect to St. Helenas water or sewer systems. Noble House says the projects potable water would be supplied by existing on-site wells, and reduced water consumption by Charles Krug Winery would result in no net impact to the aquifer.

A wastewater treatment plant in a basement under the main resort building would produce tertiary-treated recycled water for non-potable uses like landscape irrigation, toilets, cooling and groundwater recharge.

Colee said the resort would produce a total of $2.05 million in tax revenue during its first year in business, including $1.48 million for the city of St. Helena in transient occupancy taxes (TOT). Unlike property and sales taxes which are divvied up among various government entities, the city gets to keep all of its TOT.

As hotel occupancy increases, Colee said tax revenue would climb to $3.46 million in the third year, including $2.37 million for the city in TOT.

The project would generate $65 million in TOT over 20 years, based on 3% growth annually, Colee said. That number doesn't include one-time development impact fees.

An average daily rate of approximately $1,500 per night would put the resort at the high end of Napa Valley lodging. On-site amenities for hotel guests and the public would include an organic farm and olive grove, meeting and event space, pools, spa and restaurant.

For price point and quality level, this would be similar to Auberge (du Soleil in Napa), Four Seasons (in Calistoga) and similar to a lot of the luxury product thats coming on the market, Colee said.

Twelve of the 52 guest rooms would be in the main two-story estate house. Another 38 rooms would be split among 17 one-story and two two-story buildings. Two rooms would be in refurbished train cars facing the Wine Train tracks.

Details about the project were posted Wednesday at sthelenaresort.com.

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The prison inmate who attacked Paul Flores, convicted killer of Kristin Smart, was serving a life term for murdering another notorious inmate in 2021, the serial killer known as the I-5 Strangler, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said.

The attack left Flores with a neck injury that sent him to the hospital for two days.

On Aug. 23 at around 10 a.m. in the Pleasant Valley State Prison yard, the agency said, staff saw Flores fall to the ground between the recreational yard and the medical clinic. Staff immediately ordered everyone to get down, and medical staff immediately responded.

At the time, Harold Mesick, Flores lawyer, told The Tribune that Flores had been stabbed in the side of the neck.

Jason Budrow, 43, was found nearby with a manufactured weapon, the corrections department said. He is suspected of the attempted murder of Flores.

Budrow is serving two life sentences without the possibility of parole for two separate murders, the first that sent him to prison 12 years ago and the second once he was already behind bars.

The first murder conviction was in 2011, and was his second strike under Californias Three Strikes law. He was convicted of strangling and murdering his girlfriend at the time in Riverside County.

About a decade later in March 2021, CDCR said, Budrow strangled and killed Roger Reece Kibbe, a fellow inmate at Mule Creek State Prison.

Kibbe was known as the serial rapist and killer who was dubbed the I-5 Strangler. He was serving six consecutive life-without-parole sentences for six counts of first-degree murder, on top of an earlier life-with-parole murder sentence.

Budrow was convicted and sentenced to his second life-without-parole sentence in April 2022, CDCR said.

In a letter sent to the San Jose Mercury News, Budrow admitted to killing Kibbe as punishment for the I-5 Stranglers murders.

CDCR did not disclose whether they believe Budrow had a motive for the alleged attack on Flores.

After the stabbing, Flores was transported to an outside hospital in serious condition. His condition improved to fair by the next day, and he returned to the Coalinga prison on Aug. 25.

Flores is expected to make a full recovery, his lawyer said.

Flores is currently serving a 25-years-to-life sentence for the murder of Smart, the Cal Poly student who went missing over Memorial Day weekend in 1996 and has never been found.

Flores is seeking to overturn his conviction but has yet to file his appellate brief with the court.

Who was the I-5 Strangler?

In 1991, Kibbe was convicted on his first count of murder for strangling 17-year-old Darcie Frankenpohl, a runaway from Seattle living in West Sacramento, in 1987, The Sacramento Bee reported. He left her naked body at Echo Summit.

He was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for the murder. Kibbe was serving a jail term in Sacramento County for assault and attempted kidnap of a prostitute at the time of his arrest.

It wouldnt be the first killing tied to the man who became known as the I-5 Strangler.

Detectives had long suspected Kibbe of murdering several other women. DNA and other crime scene evidence resubmitted in the early 2000s eventually linked Kibbe to six more murders dating back to the 1970s.

In 2008, a new San Joaquin County indictment accused him of the murders of Lou Ellen Burleigh in 1977 and the deaths of Barbara Ann Scott, Stephanie Brown, Charmaine Sabrah, Katherine Kelly Quinones and Lora Heedrick  all in 1986.

In 2009, Kibbe pleaded guilty to the new murder counts with special enhancements for rape and kidnapping.

In 2021, detectives told The Sacramento Bee they believe Kibbe may have killed several more victims in the gap between his first known murder in 1977 and his killing spree from 1986-1987.
Cal Fires Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit responded after a structure fire broke out at a residence on the 500 block of Sanitarium Rd., Deer Park Wednesday night.

The unit was on the scene at 7:50 p.m., and with the assistance of St. Helena Police Department and California Highway Patrol, they were able to contain the fire by 10 p.m.

Upon arrival, flames could be seen coming from the attic of the one-story home. Responders were able to contain the burn to the attic space through vertical ventilation operation through the roof, preventing it from spreading to surrounding vegetation.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, and no injuries were reported, according to spokesperson Tyree Zander.

The incident did cause delays due to fire hose lines laid across Sanitarium Road at Glass Mountain Road, blocking vehicle traffic as the crews worked to extinguish the burn.

The fire was declared officially contained at around 9 p.m., and Sanitarium Road was reopened at 10:30 p.m.

St. Helena Fire Department, California Highway Patrol and American Medical Response Napa County also responded to the incident.
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We see how the Western media literally sat on the representatives of Yerevan, extracting from them answers to provocative questions. Maria Zakharova, the official representative of the Russian foreign ministry, said this at Thursdays press briefing, answering the question about the latest statements by Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan regarding the CSTO.

"And we see that these questions are aimed at causing maximum damage to the multifaceted relations between Moscow and Yerevan. And unfortunately, such incitement works in the current Armenian realities," Zakharova added.

"We [Russia] are also often asked, and they often ask provocative questions. But we prefer to answer that we solve the existing problems in our relations, particularly with Armenia, through bilateral channels. We do not give grounds for that bacillus of provocations to grow. In the interview you are talking about, an attempt is made to belittle the importance of Armenia's relations with Russia, to belittle the role of our military and border guards in ensuring the security of the republic [of Armenia] and its citizens, they express disappointment with the effectiveness of the CSTO, Russian peacekeepers [in Nagorno-Karabakh], etc. Let's remember the facts; they exist.

The rapid growth of Armenia's economy in recent years, 12.6 percent in 2022, and the improvement of [Armenian] citizens' well-being are largely due to trade and economic cooperation with Russia, the implementation of large joint projects, and the country's membership in the EAEU. What is more, Armenia is the main beneficiary of participation in the Union. There are numbers again. In 2022, the volume of Armenia's exports to member countries increased by 1.6 billion [US] dollars, which is almost three times higher than the figure of 2021. Russia is the main investor in Armenia's economy, representing almost half of foreign injections. More than 4,500 companies with Russian capital operate in the republic [of Armenia], which are among the [countrys] largest taxpayers and employers. Since the [19]90s, the Russian military presence and the presence of our border guards have been required, taking into account the difficult situation created in the South Caucasus and the unsettled relations with Yerevan's neighbors. The 102nd Russian [military] base [in Armenia] regularly conducts training events to improve combat readiness and mutual understanding with Armenian partners. Our border guards oppose attempts to illegally cross the Armenian-Turkish border, stop smuggling on the Armenian-Iranian border, and since December 2020, they are overseeing also the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. All the undertaken measures are carried out jointly with the Armenian side, respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the republic [of Armenia].

As for the Russian peacekeepers in Karabakh, if it were not for them, the situation in the region could have developed in a much more dramatic scenario for Yerevan since the fall of 2020, especially after Armenias leadership announced the decision to recognize Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan.

Now about Yerevan's dissatisfactions with CSTO. The effectiveness of this organization was convincingly demonstrated during the events that took place in Kazakhstan in January 2022. If the leadership of Armenia had agreed to deploy a monitoring mission of the organization in the territory of the republic [of Armenia], many problems could also have been avoided. However, instead, Armenias leadership decided to invite the EU [monitoring] mission, which [actually] collects intelligence against Russia and Iran under the guise of monitoring and is accountable only to Brussels. Its effectiveness can be judged by the absence of specific positive results. The fallacy of Yerevan's reliance on Western mediation in the matter of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations and the attempt to delay the implementation of a number of tripartite agreements at the highest level, which were reached from 2020 to 2022, is becoming more and more obvious," said Maria Zakharova.
Human rights violations have again marked the last chapter of the long conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan in and around the Karabakh region. Full respect for human rights of all and strict adherence to relevant international standards should be now placed at the centre of the path towards reconciliation and durable peace between the two countries, said the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatovic, at the end of her visit to Armenia and Azerbaijan, including the Karabakh region, which took place from 16 to 23 October 2023. This is noted in a statement on Mijatovics aforesaid visit. The statement continues as follows, in particular:

The visit was prompted by the mass displacement of over 100'600 Karabakh Armenians who fled to Armenia in only a few days at the end of September. It followed Azerbaijans military action on 19 and 20 September, its subsequent full control over the region and the prolonged disruption in the movement of people and access to essential goods, services and energy supplies experienced by Karabakh Armenians as a result of a nine-month blocking of the road along the Lachin corridor by Azerbaijan. They found themselves abandoned, without any reliable security or protection guarantees by any party. For them, leaving home was the only option available, said the Commissioner.

(). The Commissioner also met with the Human Rights Defender of Armenia, Anahit Manasyan. She visited shelters for displaced persons in the cities of Aghavnadzor and Tsaghkadzor in the Kotayk province, where she spoke with Karabakh Armenians, including families, older persons, people with disabilities and other vulnerable persons. The Commissioner had also meetings with representatives of international organisations and civil society.

The Commissioner welcomed again the efforts made by the Armenian authorities to assist all those in need in the immediate term with the support of UNHCR, other UN agencies and civil society. She calls on Council of Europe member states to provide full support to ensure the sustainability of the necessary assistance to respond to the needs of the persons recently displaced to Armenia, especially in relation to their medium and long-term situation. Particular attention in this respect needs to be paid to the needs of vulnerable groups.

During the visit to Azerbaijan, (). The Azerbaijani authorities informed the Commissioner of the measures taken by the State for the reintegration of the Karabakh region and the people living there. The Commissioner stressed that Azerbaijan must guarantee the human rights of the ethnic Armenians remaining in the region and of those who have left for Armenia, including the right to return to their homes in safety and dignity.

The Commissioner also visited the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. This was the first time in decades that a human rights mission of this kind was able to visit the region, although its scope was limited due to security concerns linked to the presence of mines. The Commissioner travelled to Fuzuli, Shusha [(Shushi)], Malibayli village, Khankendi [(Stepanakert)], Khojaly and Aghdam. She was shocked to see that the city of Khankendi was almost completely empty following the departure of its population in September. She was informed that only a very few ethnic Armenians who lived in the region have remained. She spoke with some of the people present in Khankendi, including at the shelter opened to receive the most vulnerable among those who have stayed. In Fuzuli and Aghdam in particular, the Commissioner saw the destructed towns and villages which appeared to have remained for decades in ruins (...).

Throughout the visit to both countries, the Commissioner heard reports of serious human rights violations in relation to the long-standing conflict and could witness the deep suffering of the civilian populations affected by the different outbreaks of hostilities throughout the years. The Commissioner discussed with her official interlocutors the humanitarian and human rights consequences of the conflict in and around the Karabakh region, including as a result of the 2020 outbreak of hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan and the most recent events which followed the blocking of the Lachin corridor and Azerbaijans military operation. In particular, she stressed again the importance of ensuring the human rights of all displaced persons, including their right to return in dignity and safety; the right to be protected against the danger of mines and explosive remnants of war; the human rights of captives to receive protection; the right to know the fate and whereabout of missing persons; the need for independent and effective investigations into serious human rights violations reported in relation to the conflict; and the importance of providing adequate and effective reparation to the victims. She stressed that now more than ever, all parties should take resolute action to prevent and combat hate speech and support initiative that promote co-existence and reconciliation.

The Commissioners observations and recommendations are forthcoming.
Viola von Cramon-Taubadel, a German Member of the European Parliament, believes that sanctions are the only way to restrain Azerbaijans aggressive steps against Armenia.

The MEP stated that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev will not stop these actions as long as he is sure that there will be no sanctions.

In an interview with Armenpress in Brussels, the MEP spoke about possible assistance from Germany to Armenia, the opportunities for peace in South Caucasus, and her latest visit to Armenia. Below is an excerpt from the text of this interview.

Azerbaijan carried out ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh and it seems to be digested. The reaction and actions of the EU during the days of the attack and forced displacement did not go beyond deep concerns. To what extent do you see the EU's share of guilt in all of this, considering that financial support cannot alleviate the tragedy that happened?

Absolutely. Well, I think this has three layers. First of all, there's only one guilty. This is Aliyev. Second of all, there's only one betrayer of Armenians and that is Russia, the so-called peacekeeping forces have not existed for the last three years. And third of all, for the EU it's very difficult because what we would like to see is that we work together with Armenia on a sustainable peace, and I think the whole intention why the EU has not gone for hard sanctions at that very moment against Azerbaijan, against Aliyev and his regime has deserved or have deserved that. We do not want the brokering, the mediation part to go to Russia or Turkey because we are very much afraid if we are now too tough and too biased, we give too much leverage or too much reason for Aliyev not to have a Brussels format. We've seen it already in Granada. We have seen it at other moments. And I think the EU has shown that the solidarity is fully with Armenia, that we will pay, that we will give financial contribution, that we will work on an economic plan, that we will make offers to bring Armenia closer to the EU, that we have an interest, that you can emancipate from Russia... But what I understand, and I wish we would have seen a tougher stand and a tougher formulation of sanctions and also deterrence to prevent Aliyev to go further because we don't know what he might have in mind. But the reason for this is understandable, is that if we kick ourselves completely out, the peace, hopefully soon, will be brokered by Turkey and Russia, and this is not in our interest.

As you said we don't know whatever Aliyev thinks or wants, but one thing we know very clearly is his expansionist policy. Do you think that the EU has the measures to take care of the security of Armenia, of Armenians? Even if, as you say, Russian forces have failed, beside this, realistically, if today Azerbaijan attacks Armenian sovereign territory, what can the EU do?

No, absolutely. And that is exactly this dilemma. I think if Aliyev knows that the next military attack he would provoke, be it on the enclaves or be it on the Zangezur corridor, he will face immediate sanctions, freezing his assets in London and Cyprus and Geneva wherever his family would not have access to all his real estate he had stolen over the years. I think this would make a difference, but since nothing is on the table, as you said, there's no deterrence. In fact, has the EU formulated anything else? I don't know. I mean, for me, on one hand it's a rich country. They live from the revenues of gas and oil export. But on the other hand, he also wants to be a legitimate leader, being accepted by the West. And we could hopefully behind closed doors make crystal clear: if you dare to think about attacking Armenia on their genuine territory, this must mean no more gas delivering to Europe. This would mean no more official contact. This would mean this and that. I do hope that this has taken place. But I'm not sure.
In order to create a climate of trust between Armenia and Azerbaijan, it is necessary to respect the rights of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh and protect the rich Armenian cultural and religious heritage of the region. Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan stated this at his joint press conference in Yerevan Friday with Peter Szijjarto, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary.

The Armenian FM said that at the previous press conference, the parties had discussed matters related to the expansion of relations between Armenia and the EU. He noted that there is confidence that the cooperation built on the logic of economic development will be crowned with a positive result. In this context, the participation of Armenia in various regional programs was discussed, taking into account the statement of October 5 and the support of the EU in this regard, in particular, in the project of the Black Sea power cable. Also, Mirzoyan thanked Hungary for participating in the EU mission in Armenia.

Speaking about regional development, the Armenian FM emphasized that in order to achieve a stable and dignified peace in the region, the policy of non-use of force and the exclusion of the threat of its use and xenophobia is of existential importance, especially since we have already witnessed its manifestation, as has been said many times.

"Just a month ago, the [Azerbaijani] policy of ethnic cleansing basically ended in Nagorno-Karabakh. More than 100 thousand Armenians, saving their lives, left their historical homeland and found refuge in the Republic of Armenia as refugees. It is obvious that sustainable peace in the region requires effective steps by all the countries of the region and renunciation of maximalist aspirations; it is possible. Achieving stable peace and concluding an agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia is possible if the territorial integrity of the two countries is unequivocally recognized [by both countries] and the borders are delimited based on the Almaty Declaration and the maps of the [former] USSR; this was reflected on in the Granada statement [recently]," said Mirzoyan.

Peter Szijjarto, for his part, expressed hope that after decades of enmity, the people of this region will be able to live in peace.

"After decades of suffering, all residents of the region deserve that peace and tranquility reign," said the Hungarian FM.
Hungary stands ready to contribute to the protection of Christian heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh. This was stated by Peter Szijjarto, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary, at a joint press conference with Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan Friday in Yerevan, when asked how to stop Azerbaijani vandalism in Nagorno-Karabakh which has fallen under the control of Baku.

"We [Hungary] are a country that is proud of its Christian heritage. It is difficult to talk about this in Europe now, as the liberal mainstream rules in politics. We are a people who are proud of our Christian heritage. Now, if someone in Europe says that they are proud of their Christian identity, they look askance. But in the global context, we consider it important to promote Christian communities. In a number of countries, we have funded projects aimed at the direct protection of architectural objects and Christian churches. If there is such an opportunity and need, we are ready, based on our Christian obligation, to help with pleasure," Szijjarto said.

To note, Azerbaijan denies that the churches in Nagorno-Karabakh are Armenian, and claims that they are of "Caucasus Albanian" origin.
Peter Szijjarto, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary, has spoken positively about the possibility of Armenia joining the Black Sea electric cable project. Szijjarto expressed his respective view at the press conference held in Yerevan Friday.

"As for the cooperation between the EU and Armenia, we [Hungary] are a country that is interested in the enlargement of the EU, and the development of foreign relations has always been supported by us. Now that the EU's competitiveness is declining, we believe that external partnerships are even more important. The more countries the EU can help, the better, the greater the chance of stopping the tragic decline in EU competitiveness. Therefore, the [EU] Eastern Neighborhood Policy, in which both you [Armenia] and Azerbaijan are interested, we have contributed to it, we want the EU to invest as much as possible in this project, and we expect that the project will help your development and strengthen your ties with the EU.

"Regarding the energy program you mentioned, I told Mr. [Foreign] Minister [of Armenia] that partnership relations not only here in the Caucasus, but also in Central Europe are quite complicated, and we have not always had excellent relations with our neighbors. Then we chose the following strategy: we tried to achieve practical successbuild bridges, open checkpoints, investments, energy connections, power lines, [natural] gas pipelines. All this laid the foundation for the formation of trust, on the basis of which it became possible to discuss more complex issues. Therefore, I really hope that if a peace treaty is concluded between you and Azerbaijan as soon as possible, one of its results will be that in practical matters solutions can be found quite quickly and easily, and as a result, closer cooperation. Energy cooperation will be more successful with as many participants as possible. We consider this as well one of the guarantors of Europe's security," said the FM of Hungary.
At the press conference held in Yerevan Friday, Peter Szijjarto, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary, while answering the question of not accepting the EU's statement on Azerbaijan's military aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh, smoothly pointed the arrows at Josep Borrell, the European Union (EU) High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

When asked if the information that Hungary had vetoed the aforesaid joint statement of the EU countries was true, Szijjarto began to discuss the functions of the EU foreign policy chief.

"I can say the following: The EU has a High Representative, Mr. Borrell. He always makes uninhibited statements, we do not veto them. And since he has such an opportunity, we consider it unnecessary to agree on what he should say on behalf of everyone. He is the supreme representative, all responsibility and powers are in his hands. He can and does make statementsnot only on this, but also on other matters. We have said: he is the High Representative, this is his job, he should make statements. He holds this position and receives a salary for it; this is our general point of view," the Hungarian FM said.

To note, Hungary has friendly relations with Azerbaijan.
15:05





Tharoor had yesterday's rally referred to Hamas as a terrorist group and said that the ongoing air strikes in Gaza by Israel in response to the October 7 attack on it was "disproportionate," as a greater number of Palestinian people were killed in the past 19 days compared to those who lost their lives in the region since the year 2008.





Clarifying his stance, Tharoor said, "I am with the Palestinian people then and now. Nobody who heard my speech will feel it is a speech in favour of Israel. If out of a 32-minute speech, only one word is highlighted to attack me, then I have nothing more to say in this whole controversy."





After Tharoor's finished his speech at yesterday's Kozhikode beach rally, IUML leader MK Muneer in his address pointed out that the ongoing conflict in the Middle East was a fight for independence by Palestinians and Israel was committing ethnic genocide.





"We are with the resistance of the people of Palestine, and we should be able to identify between resistance and attack," Muneer said.





Later, on social media, political leaders including CPM's KT Jalil and M Swaraj criticised Tharoor's remarks at the rally. Jalil said that Tharoor's speech gave the impression of being pro-Israel, which he believed was deceptive to the Palestinian people.





Tharoor, in a post on X said, "Somewhat bemused to learn of the attacks on me by those who, out of a 32-minute speech, have chosen to dwell on the 25 seconds in which I denounced the terrorist attacks of October 7 that triggered the current cycle of violence and disproportionate retribution."





"If that's all it takes to negate my support for the human rights of the Palestinian people, then I have nothing more to say," he added. In his speech at Kozhikode yesterday, Tharoor said, "Since 19 days, the world is seeing the worst human-rights tragedies. We are seeing the worst tragedy. Terrorists attacked Israel, Hamas is a terror group. Israel stopped providing food, water and electricity to Gaza. We are condemning the bombing of Israel." Tharoor, who had previously served as a UN diplomat said the ongoing air strikes in Gaza by Israel in response to the Hamas attack was "disproportionate."





He also highlighted that the ongoing crisis is not a Muslim issue but a human rights issue and said "war knows no religion." "Israel calls their operation, 'Swords of Iron', but now those swords are dipped in the blood of children. The bombing has caused a lot of injuries and innocent people are suffering and they are dying. Many are living under suffocating occupation," Tharoor said. He said that over 6,000 Palestinians and 300 Israelis were killed in clashes in the area between 2008 and September this year and the number of those who died since October 7, however, was much more.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Friday reiterated his support for the human rights of Palestinian people after his speech at Indian United Muslim League (IUML)'s pro-Palestine rally in Kerala's Kozhikode drew flak.
Giovanni Molinari, a doctoral student in zoology, works in the laboratory of Karolina Kwasek, associate professor in the School of Biological Sciences at SIU. The lab is working on ways to use the invasive species Asian carp as food for aquaculture operations. It is one of many research projects funded by external grants. (Photo by Russell Bailey)

SIU external awards spike to $95.7M in 2022-23

by Tim Crosby

CARBONDALE, Ill.  Funding from outside sources skyrocketed at Southern Illinois University Carbondale during the last fiscal year, according to records from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research.

Faculty members received $95.7 million in research, training and service grants during fiscal year 2023  a more than 20% increase over the previous fiscal year, said Costas Tsatsoulis, vice chancellor for research and dean of the graduate school at SIU Carbondale.

Our faculty, staff and students continue to elevate SIU Carbondales research and to set new external funding records, Tsatsoulis said. As part of our Imagine 2030 strategic plan, our faculty have aggressively pursued external funding and have written large, increasingly successful proposals for such funding.

Research projects ranged from controlling invasive species and wildlife disease surveillance to human health, high-tech communications and environmental issues.

For FY 2023, which ended June 30, faculty on the Carbondale campus received $67.3 million, while faculty in the School of Medicine in Springfield received $28.4 million.

Federal grant funding totaled more than $28.7 million, with most of it coming from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Education.

Funding from the State of Illinois came in at more than $44.4 million. Most of that came from Illinois Department of Economic Opportunity, Illinois State Board of Education, Illinois Department of Human Services and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

Faculty throughout the SIU System also received almost $3.8 million from private industry grants.

Data from SIU Carbondales Office of Sponsored Projects Administration (OSPA), which submits grant proposals on behalf of the university, accept awards and ensures compliance, indicated external grant and contract expenditures for FY 2023 totaled almost $73.9 million, including more than $51.5 million in Carbondale and almost $22.4 million in Springfield. This pushed total expenditures up by 24% compared to FY 2022, which totaled almost $59.6 million ($42.4 million in Carbondale and almost $17.8 million in Springfield).

More detailed information regarding external proposals, awards and expenditures can be found under the reports heading on the OSPA website.

Research at SIU Carbondale is incredibly diverse and of the highest quality, Tsatsoulis said.

The vision and track record of our researchers has led to funding efforts that span all areas of SIU Carbondale, including among others education, engineering, the arts, the sciences, the humanities, medicine, law and business, he said.
SIU Carbondale Chancellor Austin Lane (left) and Howard Rouse, president of university partnerships at Academic Partnerships, celebrate the agreement between their organizations. (Photo by Russell Bailey)

SIU Carbondale to launch accelerated online graduate programs supported by Academic Partnerships

CARBONDALE, Ill.  Southern Illinois University Carbondale has signed a new partnership with Academic Partnerships (AP) to launch and support 12 online masters programs that can be completed in as little as one year.

By working together, SIU and AP will expand access to SIUs high-quality, high return on investment programs for working adults seeking more flexible online options. Launching in 2024, SIU Carbondale will offer the following programs in 8-week courses:

Master of Public Health

Master of Accountancy  general

Master of Accountancy  taxation concentration

Master of Accountancy  auditing/accounting information systems

Master of Public Administration

Master of Science  business analytics

Master of Business Administration

Master of Business Administration  marketing concentration

Master of Business Administration  finance concentration

Master of Business Administration  analytics for managers concentration

Master of Business Administration  accounting concentration

Master of Business Administration  management concentration

The partnership fits well with SIU Carbondales strategic plan, Imagine 2030, and its pillar of student success and engagement, said Sheryl Tucker, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs.

We are committed to expanding access and opportunities for students, including working adults who want to advance their careers in a timely fashion, Tucker said. This partnership with AP will help us further our mission.

Founded in 1869, SIU Carbondale is the flagship campus of the Southern Illinois University System. With a Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education classification as a high research institution, it serves more than 11,300 students and is home to world-class research. The university offers online programs at the bachelors, masters and doctoral levels, along with certificate and nondegree programs.

Helping to support this new affordable and quality delivery model is Academic Partnerships. AP is a partner to more than 55 universities across the country, primarily regional public universities, helping those institutions expand access to high-quality, affordable and workforce-relevant education.

Academic Partnerships is honored to partner with SIU Carbondale as they launch these accelerated graduate degree programs, said Fernando Bleichmar, CEO of Academic Partnerships. SIU Carbondale has a long history of serving diverse students from Illinois, throughout the country and around the world. With a shared mission of expanding access, we are excited to work side-by-side with SIU Carbondale as they expand their reach and impact.

About Southern Illinois University Carbondale

Southern Illinois University Carbondale is a doctoral research university, with several colleges, a School of Law and a School of Medicine. With a beautiful campus that includes a lake, a forest, university-owned farms and world-class facilities, the university offers unique opportunities such as undergraduate research often reserved for graduate students elsewhere. SIU Carbondales strategic plan, Imagine 2030, prioritizes five distinct and equally important pillars: student success and engagement; diversity, equity and inclusion; branding and partnerships; research and innovation; and sustainability.

About Academic Partnerships

Academic Partnerships helps regional public universities and small colleges launch and grow their accelerated online programs. Founded in 2007, APs mission is to expand access to high-quality, affordable, and workforce-relevant education, especially for working and adult students. AP brings single-minded dedication to student success, an integrated set of services, and data-driven performance to our collaboration with university partners. For more information on innovative online learning solutions, please visit www.academicpartnerships.com.
SRV Media New Delhi [India], October 27: Parul University recently hosted an exceptional Season 2 of Maadhyam, an event that has grown to become Gujarat's largest media festival, drawing the participation of eminent personalities from the world of journalism. The university's unwavering commitment to providing students with diverse and enriching exposure was prominently displayed through this event. Maadhyam Season 2 exemplified this dedication by offering a dynamic platform for aspiring media enthusiasts to unleash their creativity, delve into industry trends, and gain insights into the world of journalism from established experts and industry professionals. Organized by the Faculty of Liberal Arts, Maadhyam brought together prominent figures to discuss journalism, modern media, and its societal impact. This three-day festival witnessed enthusiastic participation from journalism students and those from other institutions, hosting over 10 events, workshops, and guest lectures. The event attracted more than 6,000 attendees, with over 1,000 registrations from beyond the campus. Eminent personalities such as Devendra Bhatnagar (State Editor, Divya Bhaskar, Gujarat), Sweta Singh (News Anchor and Executive Editor, Special Programming, Aaj Tak), Dixit Soni (Editor, Zee 24 Kalak), Siddharth Dholkia (Senior News Anchor & Producer, News18 Gujarati), and Neeru Zinzuwadia (News Anchor, TV9 Gujarati) engaged with students through expert sessions on topics related to journalism in the modern age, its social impact, and ethical considerations. Maadhyam Season 2 hosted dynamic competitions in film-making, photography, journalism, live reporting, and more, pushing participants to showcase their talents and innovation. Esteemed judges like RJ Abhi Shah (94.3 FM), RJ Dixi (Radio City 91.1), RJ Jai (Red FM 93.5), and Mr. Aseem Trivedi (Indian Political Cartoonist) presided over these events, fostering an environment for students to display their skills and creative ideas in journalism. The festival also facilitated enlightening discussions on the evolving media landscape, digital trends, and career prospects. Renowned journalist Sweta Singh emphasized the importance of reading and creating valuable content, while Devendra Bhatnagar stressed the need for preparedness and patience in journalism. Siddharth Dholkia discussed the transformative role of the digital age in audience engagement through the internet and social media. Notably, Maadhyam drew significant participation from other universities and institutions, including Maharaja Sayajirao University, Sigma University, ITM, and students from various art institutes and universities in cities like Surat and Bharuch. This event's success reflects its impact on students and the wider media community, showcasing Parul University's commitment to nurturing creativity, skills, and innovation. Dr. Devanshu Patel, President of Parul University, expressed his pride in the event's role in providing students with a unique platform to learn, interact, and gain invaluable exposure to the world of journalism and mass communication, embodying the university's emphasis on holistic development and practical exposure. To know more visit - Parul University (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)
NewsVoir Bangalore (Karnataka) [India], October 27: 2070 Health, India's first healthcare venture studio, hosted the 2nd edition of All Things Healthcare in Bengaluru last week. This was an exclusive meetup for aspiring healthcare entrepreneurs in the city offering insights into healthcare, how a venture studio works and a great evening of networking. The event opened with Dr. Pankaj Jethwani (CEO, 2070 Health) shedding light on the profound changes witnessed in India's healthcare sector, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the industry currently valued at a staggering $400 billion, and over 400 million users experiencing healthcare through technology, the potential for innovation and growth is unprecedented. Dr. Jethwani stressed that healthcare, more than other sectors, demands a long-term commitment, requiring both time and patience. It's a sector where the central focus remains on patient well-being, not just quick financial gains. The event also featured an engaging fireside conversation between Suryansh, Co-founder of Elevate Now, and Dr. Pankaj Jethwani. This engaging conversation provided a glimpse into the dynamic journey of Elevate Now and its pioneering approach to revolutionize weight loss in India. Suryansh candidly discussed his own personal journey with weight, and the challenges faced in healthcare entrepreneurship, particularly in creating the right ecosystem partnerships. He highlighted how the risks in healthcare outweigh any other sector, and thus put tremendous responsibility on founders. In his words, "In non-healthcare spaces, you can offer a coupon and ask for a second chance if you make a mistake. In healthcare, you don't have that luxury. You have to get it right the first time." The discussion also brought up the changing dynamics of healthcare startups, where the focus is shifting from raising just capital to demonstrating value creation for consumers. The dialogue with Suryansh and the other founders in the room brought out specific challenges while building in healthcare. Creation of the right partnerships, access to domain expertise and finding the right approach to PMF were some of the key themes that were discussed. A follow-up conversation with Namit Chugh, Head of Investments, 2070 Health & Nikhil Hegde, Head of New Ventures, 2070 Health detailed out how a venture studio can offer significant support to first time founders across identification of the right idea, finding the right talent and getting access to ready tech stacks, marketing, and distribution know-how. Moreover, venture studios like 2070 health come with deep industry knowledge and playbooks that help founders build cheaper, faster, better. The session culminated in a dynamic discussion, with founders reflecting on their unique journeys, motivations, and goals. A shared enthusiasm for healthcare innovation resonated throughout the room. As we move forward, industry-backed platforms like these will play a crucial role in guiding these founders towards transforming the future of healthcare in India. 2070 Health is India's first Venture Studio building patient-centric healthcare companies from scratch by bringing together futuristic ideas, exceptional founders, and a powerful innovation platform. For more information, please visit: 2070health.com (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)
SRV Media New Delhi [India], October 27: On the 23rd of October, 2023, "eedge", an innovative online education platform was launched officially. It was founded by two highly proficient educators, Sudeep Mehta (Physics Mentor) and Brijesh Mehta (Chemistry Mentor), who have over two decades of teaching experience. Drawing from their extensive experience, they recognized the potential of online learning to facilitate students' comprehensive growth. Driven by this vision, the co-founders embarked on the creation of a platform that would transform the educational landscape and reshape the student learning experience nationwide. To announce the official launch of 'eedge', a grand press event was organised on the 23rd of October at the prestigious 5-star Sayaji Hotel in Rajkot, Gujarat. Distinguished publications from Gujarat were present, to cover this pioneering initiative. Key speakers of the event included the Directors of 'eedge', who brought this innovative platform to life, and the dedicated IT team, who are the driving source behind 'eedge'. The press conference provided a platform for these experts to discuss eedge's goals and the potential impact it can have on the lives of students. The event marked the beginning of an exciting journey that promises to redefine the way students access and engage with education. Emphasising the need for online education, Sudeep Mehta, Co-Founder of eedge, said, "Maintaining focus in a traditional classroom setting can sometimes be difficult for students as there are chances that important concepts can go unnoticed because of extended school hours. 'eedge' aims to bridge these gaps by offering students a valuable second resource for learning. Additionally, 'eedge' is dedicated to extending its reach to underprivileged students who face financial and resource challenges, ensuring they have access to high-quality educational material at an affordable price." Sharing his thoughts on the brand's mission, another Co-Founder Brijesh Mehta said, "At 'eedge', our goal is to provide quality education to the students in grades 9th to 12th with the best educational platform available. We aspire to create an environment that not only encourages students to achieve academic excellence but also looks after their holistic development. Every student deserves quality education and no student should be deprived of it". Features of "eedge" - 1. Recorded Lectures: 'eedge' offers pre-recorded conceptual lectures delivered by some of the finest educators in India. With these recorded lectures, students can pace their learning to suit their individual needs and revisit complex topics until they grasp them fully. The best part of this platform is that every lecture is of around 20 minutes duration, which is developed keeping in mind the attention span of today's hyperactive generation. 2. Live Doubt Sessions: To enhance comprehension and facilitate student-teacher interaction, 'eedge' hosts live Zoom doubt sessions. During these live sessions, students can ask questions and clarify doubts in real-time, creating an engaging and dynamic learning experience. 3. Worksheet with Solutions: 'eedge' provides carefully curated worksheets that include selected questions and previous year questions from competitive exams like JEE Mains and NEET. These worksheets serve as invaluable practice tools, allowing students to assess their knowledge, identify areas that need improvement, and gain confidence in their abilities. Each worksheet is accompanied by comprehensive solutions, aiding students in their self-assessment and learning journey. 4. Chapter Wise Tests: Regular assessments are a key aspect of effective learning. 'eedge' offers chapter-wise tests that help students gauge their progress and grasp of individual topics. These tests are designed to provide immediate feedback on performance, allowing students to tailor their study plans and focus on areas that require attention. By incorporating this feature, 'eedge' empowers students to take charge of their academic journey and continually enhance their skills. With these features, 'eedge' stands out as a comprehensive online learning platform to help students identify their weaknesses and improve accordingly. Additionally, the app offers personalized learning plans for its students to prepare them in a well-structured manner. The combined expertise of Sudeep Mehta and Brijesh Mehta positions 'eedge' to provide students with exceptional educational content, empowering them to excel in life. Additionally, 'eedge' is currently providing an Introductory Offer only for the first 10,000 learners, who will get a FLAT 100 per cent off. For more details regarding the offer, please visit - https://www.eedge.in/ 'eedge' is all set to transform the educational landscape and bring a new era of learning and academic excellence. For additional information, please visit - https://www.eedge.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)
Fitch Ratings has affirmed India Green Power Holdings' (IGPH) USD 460 million senior secured notes due 2027 at 'BB-', with a stable outlook. According to Fitch's report, the rating on the notes reflects the 'bb' credit assessment of a restricted group of operating entities under ReNew Power Private Limited (BB-/Stable) - one of the largest renewable-energy independent power producers in India - notched down because of the orphan issuance structure. IGPH is a financing vehicle that is held by a trust, and its ownership is not linked to ReNew Power. IGPH used the proceeds of the notes largely to subscribe to non-convertible debentures (NCDs) issued by the entities in the restricted group. The entities subsequently used the proceeds to repay their debt. The credit profile of the restricted group is supported by the long and reasonable operating record of its renewable assets. All of the wind and solar projects have been operating for six to 11 years, with a capacity-weighted average record of more than eight years. The restricted group contracts 80 per cent of its total capacity with state distribution companies under long-term, fixed-price power purchase agreements (PPAs). There is a gap of about 20 per cent between the assets' P50 and one-year P90 energy yield forecasts. The assessment is constrained by IGPH's exposure to weak state-owned distribution companies such as those in Andhra Pradesh and its rating-case average debt-service coverage ratio (DSCR) of 1.46x. The technologies deployed in IGPH's wind and solar projects are considered proven. The wind turbines are procured from some of the world's largest manufacturers while the solar modules are sourced from internationally well-known suppliers - First Solar and Hareon Solar. Operation and maintenance (O&M) for most of the wind projects is carried out by the original equipment manufacturers under 10-20-year contracts. The O&M for the solar projects is carried out by an affiliate company, ReNew Services Private Limited, under five-year fixed-price contracts, with a 4 per cent to 5 per cent annual price escalation. The operation risk assessment is constrained to 'Midrange' as the operating cost forecast is not validated by an independent technical advisor and a maintenance reserve account is not present in the bond indenture. The energy yield forecast produced by third-party experts indicates a P50/one-year P90 spread of 20 per cent, leading to a 'Weaker' assessment for volume risk. The actual load factors recorded at the portfolio level increased in the financial year ended March 2021 (FY21) to FY23. The restricted group's long-term, fixed-price PPAs with state distribution companies protect the portfolio from merchant price volatility. These PPAs have a capacity-weighted residual life of about 13 years. PPAs with commercial and industrial customers have tenors ranging from five to 10 years. Tariffs for captive wind projects are determined at a discount to grid tariffs. Contract renewal and tariff renegotiation risk is mitigated by increasing grid tariffs and minority equity ownership of end-customers in individual projects. IGPH, which issued the six-year (door-to-door) partially amortising senior secured bond, does not have any equity interest in the operating entities. It is only a secured lender to the operating entities, which are owned by ReNew Power. The bondholders benefit from partial amortisation starting from the third year, which will result in a bullet maturity of about 90 per cent of the principal in rupee terms and about 80 per cent in US dollar terms. Management has hedged the principal payments using options, lowering the all-in cost but leaving exposure to rupee depreciation until the contracted strike price, resulting in the 'Weaker' debt structure assessment. We assume the currency will stay at around Rs 82 per US dollar until FYE27 to account for principal repayments starting the third year of the bond tenor. The redemption premium obligation on the rupee NCDs to cover any funding shortfall at IGPH will mitigate the risk of bondholders. However, rupee depreciation that is higher than our estimates will result in a weakening of the underlying credit profile. The hedging is for 5.5 years. The alignment of the hedging arrangement and the par call period eliminates the need for a mid-term rollover requirement. IGPH would be obligated to extend the hedges beyond 5.5 years in the remote scenario of the bonds continuing to be outstanding. The rupee-denominated NCDs benefit from the usual protective structural features, including a distribution lock-up at 1.15x the 12-month backward-looking DSCR. The restricted group does not maintain a debt service reserve account or a major maintenance reserve account. However, ReNew Power plans to support the cash flows by reversing USD15 million of inter-company loans that the restricted group extended to the parent over FY24-FY26. IGPH will also retain all the cash generated in the last year of the bond tenor within the restricted group. The parent has also provided an undertaking to provide cash interest at 8 per cent of the inter-company loans even beyond the bond tenor to maintain adequate liquidity in the restricted group. The refinancing risk is mitigated by the remaining tenor of the PPAs, which extends beyond the maturity of the bond, and the parent's guarantee. Fitch believes the orphan Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) issuer provides lower protection to the offshore US dollar noteholders in the case of a failure of a hedge counterparty and termination of hedge agreements before the notes mature. The sponsor is not legally obligated to replace hedge counterparties or allowed to cover all of the additional costs associated with these events, including the early termination amount payable to defaulting hedge counterparties. Fitch says clearer demarcation of these aspects in credit assessment through a notch of rating difference is warranted to reflect the lesser protection to US dollar noteholders on the account. (ANI)
In a move towards bolstering industrial cooperation, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and Safran Aircraft Engines have inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at advancing ring forging manufacturing for commercial engines. According to a press release, under this strategic agreement, HAL will undertake the production of engine forgings for the LEAP (Leading Edge Aviation Propulsion) engines, which power some of the world's most prominent aircraft, including the Airbus A320 Neo family and the Boeing 737 Max. This production is set to take place at HAL's state-of-the-art Foundry and Forge facility located in Bengaluru. The formal signing of the MoU occurred at a ceremony attended by high-ranking officials from both HAL and Safran Aircraft Engines. Mihir Kanti Mishra, CEO of Bangalore Complex, HAL, and Dominique Dupuy, Senior Vice President (Purchasing), Safran Aircraft Engines, played pivotal roles in sealing this crucial collaboration. CB Ananthakrishnan, Chairman and Managing Director (Additional Charge) of HAL, emphasized the historical collaboration between HAL and Safran, which extends to various projects, notably their joint development of the "Shakti" helicopter engine. He also highlighted their ongoing work on co-designing and co-producing the next-generation IMRH engine. In light of this strong partnership, Ananthakrishnan expressed his pride in elevating this collaboration to new heights and further developing expertise in critical technologies. Speaking on this expanded collaboration, Jean-Paul Alary, CEO of Safran Aircraft Engines, expressed his delight at broadening their alliance with HAL. He mentioned that HAL is already a part of the LEAP Supply Chain through their joint venture in Bengaluru, which is dedicated to the production of aero-engines pipes. This collaboration signifies a deeper connection between the two entities and underscores their commitment to enhancing aerospace technology and manufacturing. In addition to the MoU, an Industrial Cooperation Contract was also formally signed at the event. This contract is set to strengthen ties between the two companies and is indicative of the significant strides being made in the aerospace industry through such collaborative efforts. As HAL and Safran Aircraft Engines join forces in the realm of engine parts manufacturing, it signifies not only their commitment to excellence in aerospace technology but also a stronger foundation for India's expanding capabilities in the aviation sector. This partnership is poised to make considerable contributions to the growth of the aerospace and aviation industries on a global scale. The cooperation between HAL and Safran Aircraft Engines is a testament to the synergy of international expertise and cutting-edge technology, further advancing India's presence in the aviation sector. (ANI)
Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Information Technology today announced that the Tata group will start making iPhones from India for domestic and global markets. This after the Tata Group took over Wistron operations in India. The minister said this was a resounding testament to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's transformative vision for India's electronics manufacturing sector. Chandrasekhar applauded the efforts aimed at building globally recognized Indian electronics manufacturing companies. He said the visionary agenda of the government is designed to cater to both Indian and global brands, serving consumers on a national and international scale while propelling India's ascension as a trusted global electronics manufacturing powerhouse. Chandrasekhar posted on X, "PM Modi ji's vision is to build global standard Indian electronics manufacturing companies that can serve Indian and global brands, for Indian and global consumers and to further accelerate India's rise as a global trusted electronics manufacturing power. PM @narendramodi Ji's visionary PLI scheme has already propelled India into becoming a trusted & major hub for smartphone manufacturing and exports. Now within just two and a half years, @TataCompanies will start making iPhones from India for domestic and global markets from India. Congratulations to the Tata team for taking over Wistron operations. Thank you @Wistron for your contributions, and great going for Apple in building a global supply chain from India with Indian companies at its helm. @GoI_MeitY stands fully in support of the growth of Global Indian Electronics companies that will in turn support global Electronic brands that want to make India their trusted manufacturing & talent partner and to realize PMs goal of making India a global electronics power." https://twitter.com/Rajeev_GoI/status/1717852648064598105?t=alzH1fomrbKXyxtSLmNo3A&s=08 Chandrasekhar praised PM Modi's ground-breaking Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, which has already catapulted India into the echelons of trusted and major hubs for smartphone manufacturing and exports. These 'Made in India' iPhones will cater to both domestic and global markets, elevating India's reputation as a significant player in the world of electronics manufacturing. Chandrasekhar extended his congratulations to the Tata team for their monumental endeavour, which now includes taking over the operations of Wistron. In addition, he expressed his appreciation to Wistron for their valuable contributions. The successful partnership between Apple and these Indian companies marks a crucial step in establishing a global supply chain originating from India. Chandrasekhar emphasized the unwavering support of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) in the growth of global Indian electronics companies. These firms, in turn, play a pivotal role in supporting global electronic brands seeking to make India their trusted partner in manufacturing and talent. Their collaboration aligns with Prime Minister Modi's overarching vision of positioning India as a global electronics powerhouse. The synergy between government policies, corporate endeavours, and global collaborations is steering India toward becoming a dominant player in electronics manufacturing. (ANI)
The meeting, held under the chairmanship of RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, encompassed critical discussions on both global and domestic economic and financial landscapes, with particular attention to the challenges arising from evolving geopolitical conflicts.

The board meeting offered a platform for high-level deliberations, addressing key concerns and reviewing the functioning of various Sub-Committees within the Central Board, the RBI said in a release.

Additionally, the meeting encompassed discussions on the Ombudsman Scheme, designed to safeguard the rights and interests of consumers, as well as the activities of select Central Office Departments.

Deputy Governors who contributed their expertise included Dr Michael Debabrata Patra, M Rajeshwar Rao, T Rabi Sankar, and Swaminathan J, along with other distinguished Directors of the Central Board. Among these were Revathy Iyer, Professor Sachin Chaturvedi, Pankaj Ramanbhai Patel, and Dr Ravindra H Dholakia, each a noteworthy figure in their respective fields.

Furthermore, the presence of Ajay Seth, Secretary, of the Department of Economic Affairs, at the meeting added a governmental perspective to the discussions, enriching the depth of insights, the release said.

The gathering brought together a confluence of eminent minds and experts to assess and navigate the intricate financial and economic scenarios both globally and nationally.

As a result, the 604th Central Board meeting of the Reserve Bank of India played a significant role in fostering a deeper understanding of economic dynamics, challenges, and opportunities in these unprecedented times.

It serves as a testament to the commitment of the institution and its leadership to the nation's financial well-being. (ANI)
Actor Imran Khan penned down an emotional note about his experience of filming his last release 'Katti Batti,' which came out in 2015. Imran took to Instagram on Friday to post a string of pictures from the sets of 'Katti Batti.' "I've been dragging my feet as I got closer to posting Katti Batti. When we started shooting, I had no idea that it would be my last time facing the camera; I did know that it had been two years since my last outing, and the pressure to deliver a successful film was huge. https://www.instagram.com/p/Cy4-0_trFZA/?hl=en&img_index=3 Our first schedule took us to Flame University Pune, where the students and faculty welcomed us with open arms and allowed us to basically take over the campus for our shoot! It was a lot of fun, and really helped to establish the chemistry between the cast." "And what a great cast we had, there were so many talented people on set. Director @nikkhiladvani impressed me with his deft and seemingly effortless style of management. @kanganaranaut impressed everyone with her dedication to realism, diving deep into medical research for her character's illness. @mipalkarofficial was so endearing that I still instinctively think of her as my little sister! And my onscreen bestie @sahabime is now part of my offscreen family," he concluded. He added, "It's easy to dismiss Katti Batti, because the premise is kind of far-fetched; a dying girl, desperate to shield the guy she loves from being hurt, orchestrates a massive lie to cover up her illness. Realistic? Maybe not. But there was something about Madhav that spoke to me. I saw him as an old-fashioned romantic, a guy who knows his heart. Surrounded by people who are concealing the truth and trying to gaslight him, his love for Payal is unshakeable; even as the world around him starts to crumble, he holds his course, following his North Star. He wants every second of time he can have with the one he loves." He concluded, "I poured my heart into Maddy, hoping that his strength of conviction would resonate with viewers. And I think my heart broke a little bit when the film bombed immediately upon release." 'Katti Batti,' directed by Nikhil Advani, also starred him alongside Kangana Ranaut. Imran made his foray into acting with the hit film 'Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na' in 2008. After featuring in films like 'Kidnap, 'Luck', ' Delhi Belly', 'Mere Brother Ki Dulhan', 'Ekk Main Aur Ekk Tu', 'Break ke Baad', 'Once Upon A Time in Mumbai Dobaara', and 'I Hate Love Storys' among others, Imran disappeared from the public eye and quit acting. His last release was 'Katti Batti' in 2015. (ANI)
The grand Ram Temple in Ayodhya is all set to be inaugurated on January 22 next year. Several dignitaries including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat will attend the Ram Temple consecration ceremony in Ayodhya. On Friday, while speaking about the grand Ram Temple, actor Anupam Kher told ANI, "The historic day is awaited when Ram Lalla Mandir will be inaugurated on 22nd January 2024. Hindus have fought for this constitutionally, for years...This is about the expression of our thoughts. I would like to proudly say that I was the first person from the film industry who offered prayers there...Whether they invite me or not, I will definitely go there..." Champat Rai, General Secretary of Ram Janambhoomi Trust, said on Wednesday that the idol of Lord Ram will be installed at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya on January 22 next year. "Today, along with members of the Shri Ram Janambhoomi Trust, we met Prime Minister Narendra Modi. We have invited him (PM Modi) to come on January 22 to install the idol of Lord Ram in the Garbhagriha. He has accepted our request. He will be present on January 22. The date for 'Pran Pratishtha' on January 22 is confirmed," Champat Rai said. PM Modi also took to social media platform X, to share that he has been invited to the ceremony. "Today is a day full of emotions. Recently, the officials of Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust came to meet me at my residence. He has invited me to come to Ayodhya on the occasion of the consecration of Ram temple," PM Modi wrote on X (Formerly Twitter). Calling it a day full of "emotions", PM Modi said that he feels "blessed" and that it is his good fortune that he will be witnessing such a historic occasion. "I feel very blessed. It is my good fortune that, in my lifetime, I will witness this historic occasion," his post read. It is pertinent to note that the Supreme Court's verdict in 2019 on the Ayodhya dispute paved the way for the construction of a grand Ram temple. Following the apex court verdict, the centre set up the Shri Ram Janma Bhoomi Tirtha Kshetra' Trust to take all decisions regarding the construction of a magnificent Ram Temple in Ayodhya. The construction of the temple has been progressing at a steady pace under the supervision of the Trust. The idol of Ram Lalla will be in the sanctum sanctorum of the temple. The foundation stone for the construction of the Ram Temple was laid by PM Modi on August 5, 2020. (ANI)
Actor Shilpa Shetty visited Siddhivinayak Temple with her husband Raj Kundra to offer prayers and seek blessings on Friday. In the images, both can be seen twinning in white traditional dresses. Shilpa teamed up her white suit with a yellow shawl. Raj, on the other hand, donned a green shawl over his white kurta. The couple made the visit to the temple ahead of the release of his Raj's film 'UT69' Earlier Raj told ANI, "It is a true story from the time I entered the jail till I exited. It is all about my life there in 63 days. My troubles, safety issues, the relationships and friends I made there to food and drink. It is a slice of life and a serious topic told in a very light-hearted way."He added how Shilpa reacted after hearing about the entire concept of this film, "When I told my wife about this film, she told me, 'Raj you have been through so much in life, you really need this again. Again you will have to face trolls and reactions.' But when she heard the script, she said, 'You can do it." "So, it is not easy for us to deal with all this. When I came out of jail I wore a mask as I didn't want to face the media. I was hurt by the media trial so that is how the mask came on. A few months later I met Shahnawaz and he discussed the topic and said we have to make this film. I later decided that I would keep wearing this mask until I get clean chit or this movie is released. I knew people would keep trolling me but that troll made me stronger." In 2021, Raj Kundra was arrested by Mumbai Police for allegedly creating pornographic films and publishing them through some mobile applications. The case was registered with Crime Branch Mumbai in February 2021 about the creation of pornographic films and publishing them through some apps. Slated for theatrical release on November 3, 'UT69' starring Raj Kundra and directed by Shahnawaz Ali is all about Raj Kundra's life in prison. (ANI)
Actor Anupam Kher attended a Literature festival 'Abhivyakti-3' which was organised by the Army Wives Welfare Association in Pune and inaugurated by AWWA president Archana Pande. Sharing his thoughts on his role in 'Kashmir Files,' Anupam said, "My role in Kashmir Files was soulful as I did not have to depend on the acting. I did not have to fake my emotions. I try and bring truth in my emotions as some roles do not require honesty of that level because it requires craft." He said, "The role of Pushkar Nath in Kashmir Files was one such role where there was no craft involved as every single breath I took was absolutely from the heart." "When I said about National Awards, which I did not get for Kashmir Files, I did mean it as it was a great performance. That did not mean that people who got it did not deserve it. Of course, everyone who got the award fully deserved it. I applauded Allu Arjun, (who got the national award for best actor) when I saw Pushpa in the theatre. I had tweeted about it," he said. Meanwhile, on the work front, Kher was recently seen in the Extraction series, 'The Freelancer'. He was also in 'The Vaccine War', which was released on September 28. Kher is also all set to come with his 528th film, the Telugu drama, 'Tiger Nageswara Rao'.'Tiger Nageswara Rao' is a period film set in the 1970s based on real incidents around a notorious and courageous thief (Ravi Teja) and the people of Stuartpuram. Written and directed by Vamsee, the film is produced by Abhishek Agarwal under the Abhishek Agarwal Arts banner and presented by Tej Narayan Agarwal. Kher has also completed the shoot of his film 'Calorie' in Amritsar, Punjab. The film is directed by Canadian director Eisha Marjara. (ANI)
According to CNN, his high school sweetheart, Lindsey Aaron, stood in line with hundreds of others outside of the Norwalk Fareway to see the 'Aquaman' star.

Aaron sent KCCI images of her and Momoa while they were dating at Norwalk High School as at the ceremony, she also took a selfie with him.

Aaron is now a real estate agent, and she told the station that she's been getting calls from individuals who want to sell their Iowa houses to Momoa if he's in the market. Lindsey Aaron hadn't seen her high school boyfriend since 1998.

Momoa and his mother moved to Norwalk, Connecticut, when his parents separated when he was young. On social media, he posted images and videos of his visit, as per CNN.

"I missed you mahalo nui loa for always taking care of me," Momoa wrote in the caption. "Your home for me."

He included a sneak glimpse at the 'Momoa' breakfast at the Des Moines Waveland Cafe, which consists of hashbrowns topped with biscuits and gravy, two sunny-side-up eggs, and a side of bacon.

Momoa was in Iowa to market his Meili Vodka, which boasts a sustainable distilling technique that integrates all four elements: fire, water, earth, and air.

"To honour the Earth, we ensure that Meili is created, sourced, and produced as ethically, environmentally friendly, and humanely as possible," according to the website.

Momoa is a well-known environmentalist, and the site claimed that each bottle is constructed of 100 per cent recycled glass. (ANI)
After the Enforcement Directorate raided his residence in an alleged paper leak case, Rajasthan Congress President Govind Singh Dotasara has said that not a single rupee was seized from him, only 3 mobile phones and e-mail details have been taken by ED. Addressing the people in Sikar, Dotasara said "There is no point of tension. Not even 1 rupee was seized. Only 3 mobile phones and our email were seized. Neither any paper nor any jewellery was seized. If I have earned anything in life, I have earned the love of Congress workers. But I appeal to all of you to tell this to the people of the entire Rajasthan that the Congress worker is not weak or cowardly." Dotasara further said that no question on paper leak scam was asked by the ED and the BJP is creating an atmosphere for the same in the state. "In which case does ED occur? We don't care, ED people do their work. But we were not asked a single word about the paper leak. BJP people are forcibly creating an atmosphere in the state regarding paper leaks. This environment will be heavy on the BJP during the coming elections. In the documents they saw, there were schemes only for the people of Rajasthan, he said. "I will fight the election from Laxmangarh, I am saying it clearly," he added. Speaking on CM Ashok Gehlot's son, Vaibhav Gehlot summoned by ED, Dotasara said "No matter how much the central government misuses its central agency, Congress leaders are not afraid of it." Dotasara said that as much as the central agency will be misused, the people of Rajasthan will definitely teach a lesson to the BJP in the coming elections. He also added that we will make a strategy for the upcoming elections by holding a meeting of the State Congress Core Committee in Jaipur on Friday. There will also be a discussion in the meeting regarding the way the BJP and the Central Government are misusing the central agencies. "I challenge Leader of Opposition Rajendra Rathod to get the government to investigate his, Subhash Mahariya and my property. If anything comes out of it, I am ready to face punishment but Rajendra Rathod and Subhash Mahariya's property should be investigated too," Dotasara said. On Thursday, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) carried out searches at the properties of Rajasthan Congress President Govind Singh Dotasra and the party's candidate for the Mahua Assembly seat as part of a money laundering inquiry into an alleged examination paper leak case in the poll-bound state. The premises of Dotasara, a former Minister for School Education, in Sikar and Jaipur, apart from party candidate from Mahua seat in Dausa, Omprakash Hudla, and some others were searched. (ANI)
West Bengal Governor, CV Ananda Bose, on Thursday called on 89-year-old iconic Manipuri dancer Debjani Chaliha at her residence in Kolkata. The governor discussed various aspects of Manipuri dance with her and also informed her about 'Mission Kala Kranti' - an initiative aimed at promoting Bengali and Indian art forms, which has been launched recently at Raj Bhavan. Bose also interacted with some of the students from Debjani Chaliha's dance school, Meitei Jagoi. Earlier this month, Mission Kala Kranti was launched by the West Bengal Governor in order to promote the art and culture of West Bengal and India. The logo for the initiative was launched by Bose in the month of September, when Bose while addressing the public at the launch event, said that Kala Kranti is meant for the comprehensive and wholesome development of art and culture in the country. "Raj Bhawan is dedicating itself to the promotion of art and culture in Bengal...it is a wide realisation throughout the world that it is the soft power that matters and not the hard power (military or economic power)...soft power is represented by art, culture and heritage and India has the richest repository of culture and tradition," said Bose. He further said, "We did not come in even on 30th place in the world in displaying soft power. Kala Kranti is meant for the comprehensive and wholesome development of art and culture in the country and this will not remain confined to West Bengal, it will be extended to other states as well with their cooperation." (ANI)
The Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have engaged in a war of words over Assam Chief Minister and BJP leader, Himanta Biswa Sarma's 'Akbar' remark made during a public speech in poll-bound Chhattisgarh's Kawardha. The Congress on Thursday moved to the Election Commission (EC) against Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma, alleging a poll code violation by the latter during a speech made in poll-bound Chhattisgarh. Taking to 'X', Congress leader Jairam Ramesh wrote, "Yesterday, the Congress party brought to the attention of the Election Commission of India serious electoral malpractices by senior leaders of the party in power. The ECI has observed prima facie the violation of the Model Code of Conduct by the Assam CM for his obnoxious hate speech on the 18th of October in Chhattisgarh. He is actually a serial offender". "We hope that the ECI will follow through and take this case to its logical conclusion. Politicians, especially those holding Constitutional positions, cannot and should not be allowed to get away with such blatant violations of the Model Code of Conduct. It is the only way to stop the poisoning of our public discourse and protect the sanctity of our elections and democracy itself", he added. Following this, the EC issued a show-cause notice to Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma over his speech during the Chhattisgarh poll campaign. The Election Commission in the show-cause notice mentioned that certain parts of Himanta Biswa Sarma's speech on October 18 have been found to be "prima facia violative". The EC has asked Assam CM Himanata Biswa Sarma to be present before 5 p.m. on October 30, 2023. "You are hereby called upon to show cause by 17:00 hrs of 30th October 2023, (Monday) as to why appropriate action of violation on Model code of conduct should not be taken against you.", the notice read. The notice further mentioned that in case of the absence of the BJP leader, the Election Commission will take appropriate action or decision. Meanwhile, in response to the allegation by the Congress party, Assam CM took to 'X' and wrote, "Congress has withheld the material information from the Hon'ble Election Commission that Mohammed Akbar is their candidate from Kawardha Constituency. Therefore legitimate criticism of a candidate does not amount to communal politics". "Cong will have to face the legal consequence of not revealing this crucial fact in their representation. I have full faith in the collection wisdom of the Hon'ble Election Commission", he added. Himanta Biswa Sarma while campaigning in Kawardha, made a statement that stirred a row. "When one Akbar arrives in a particular location, he brings along a hundred Akbars. Therefore, it is crucial to remove him swiftly or else the sanctity of Mata Kaushalya's land will be compromised", he said addressing an election rally. This comes as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday released its fourth and final list of candidates for the upcoming Chhattisgarh Assembly elections, fielding party leader Rajesh Agarwal from Ambikapur constituency against state Deputy Chief Minister TS Singh Deo. The first phase of polling for 20 seats in Chhattisgarh will be held on November 7 and the remaining 70 seats in the state will go to polls on November 17. The counting of votes will be done on December 3. (ANI)